My last little idea for a oneshot. I guess I apologize for the language, but come on. They've been THIS close to cursing before, so why not? Anyway, this one's a little longer than Time was but it's significantly... sadder? Steven's just not having a good morning. Enjoy and, please, review! Also ignore any typos and errors, I just wrote this and didn't really care about any of the errors at the time. I currently still don't.
There was a clatter. Steven woke up with a jolt to the sounds of yelling and large objects being move around… thrown around? He couldn't tell which in his early morning haze. Reluctantly he rolled over and looked at his Cookie Cat alarm clock and groaned lightly at the time. It was still dark out, but he wanted to hope that it wasn't too horribly early. The glowing numbers read 5:45 am and the clattering and yelling grew more and more loudly from the living room. Steven shifted out of bed and sat up, his legs dangling over the sides since he was not yet tall enough to touch the ground. He reached over for a shirt laying on the end of his bed and slipped it on before stepping onto the cool floorboards. He stepped hard on something solid and hissed at the pain shooting through his foot. Steven rubbed his eyes and glanced down to see what looked like a snapped handle for some kind of weapon. As the haze was clearing up he could begin to make out the words of Pearl and Amethyst who were yelling at each other. Again.
"Amethyst, how could you lose it!? It's quite literally a weapon of mass destruction! In the wrong hands it could very well be the doom of us all!" Pearl was emphatically scolding the shorter gem and rustling through many of the cubby holes and shelves under the stairs. Amethyst, on the other hand, was holding the couch over her head and preparing to chuck it across the room. Both of them looked seething mad from Steven's vantage point. "What does the stupid thing even LOOK LIKE!?" She yelled as she sent the couch flying into the kitchen. It crashed into the refrigerator with a loud metallic bang. Pearl hissed, "Would you PLEASE CONTROL YOURSELF!?" She then paused and recounted the details. A blue hologram began to form from Pearl's gem and Amethyst groaned. "Now. It's an obsidian handle with three gems lodged onto the tip. The obsidian alone will look broken and worn, but to the trained eye it is a weapon unlike any other. Those gems at the tip will gather an endless amount of light, and it will release all of that light in a compact blast when it is activated. It hasn't seen use since before the war! In fact we barely were able to steal it from Homeworld's army before they used it to wipe out Earth altogeth-" Amethyst groaned louder, "UGH! Enough with the history lesson, Pearl! We need to go and find that stupid thing before someone kills everyo-" Steven coughed and they both looked up to see him holding the object he stepped on when he woke up. Through half lidded eyes he had gotten a good enough look at the object in Pearl's hologram to know that they were one and the same. "Is this it?" He said, almost completely devoid of emotion other than sleepiness.
Pearl clapped her hands together and Amethyst cheered, "Way to go Steven!" Pearl climbed the stairs and delicately grabbed the dark handle from the young gem. "Wherever did you find it, Steven?" She appraised him for doing what the two Crystal Gems struggled with. Steven rubbed his eyes and walked down the stairs with them. Once he was at the door he said, "I stepped on it." As he predicted, Pearl's eyes went wide and she began to hyperventilate slightly, lapsing into a full on stutter filled panic attack. Amethyst started laughing hysterically at the show and the temple door opened just as Steven closed the door to the beach. "WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING!?" He heard Garnet yelling from outside. "It was just one of those days." He thought. He could hear a loud thud from inside and decided to distance himself from the house for a while.
As he reached the edge of the beach where the waves barely kissed the sand a crash sounded from behind him, breaking him from his peace. He looked back fast enough in time to see a small and intensely bright beam of light shooting from the temple's room. He followed the beam up as it shot through the sky and into space. The beam seemed to disappear and the world was silent for a minute. Immediately after Steven thought that nothing would happen and they completely overreacted about the weapon an incredible explosion of light erupted from the sky, lighting up the early morning, as though it were a cloudless midsummer afternoon, instead of a slightly cloudy spring morning. When the light finally cleared up Steven sighed and thought again, "Just another one of those days." It was too early for all this noise and craziness. "I'll need at least…" Steven thought for a second. "3 doughnuts!" He figured.
Steven began the trek for the Big Donut before realizing he was still in his pajama pants. Reluctantly he walked back up the steps into the temple, ignoring the arguing from his gem guardians, put on a pair of jeans, grabbed a little money, and walked back out the front door with a yawn. He strode across the beach and up the boardwalk and into the Big Donut, happy to see that Lars and Sadie had an early shift. "Hey gu-" "Lars, please, just…" Sadie held a hand to her forehead, pressing her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "Why are you being so DIFFICULT!?" Anger seethed through each word, and Steven finally saw Lars sitting with his back turned to Sadie holding a cup of coffee. "I get it! You're tired! it's early! But guess what!? EVERYONE UP THIS EARLY IS TIRED! YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY PERSON WHO'S TIRED, LARS!" Steven shrank back against the door, his words catching in his throat. Lars stood up and silently looked Sadie in the eyes. For once he said nothing, simply glaring into the blonde's eyes. Now it was her time to shrink down. She coughed and continued, "Look, I'm sorry for yelling, but come on! We have to work these early shifts or else we'll get a pay dock or worse! You can't possibly be that upset about working an early shift!? We've had early shifts before, Lars!" Lars scoffed and sipped his coffee with disdain, "You didn't hear what that asshole said to me, Sadie! He may address you with the kindness of the whole world, but I may as well be the scum of the Earth! I can't deal with that man, Sadie! I'd be long gone from this place if I could! Fucking beach City is so small Lord knows I couldn't get a job anywhere else!" Sadie sighed and watched as lars turned his back again. She put her hand on his back and tried to console him, "Lars, come on. We just gotta get used to it and get through it." Lars took another swig and shrugged, his face still dark with hatred. "He just likes you cause you're easy. We can't all be doormats like you." Sadie's face scrunched in anger. "You know what, Lars? Fu-" SLAM! The door shut heavily and both Sadie and Lars looked at the door. "Was that just Steven?" Sadie said, almost in disbelief.
Steven ran from the Big Donut as fast as he could, and he kept running until he found himself on the docks, looking out as the sun rose up slowly over a new day. Steven's eyes were wide and tinged with red. He took his ever present phone out of his pocket as it vibrated and played the regular ringtone that he had set for Connie. He answered the call, "Hello? Connie? It's really early, but how are you?" He asked eagerly, needing some kind of positive turn to the start of his day. Connie coughed sharply on the other end, "Steven. I know we planned to hang out later today, but I can't come. I don't think I'll be able to make it for a good chunk of the week after the weekend either…" She sounded hoarse and sad and the sheer force that Steven could feel she needed just to speak broke him inside. He hated to hear someone in pain and he hated it even more when it was someone he really cared about. "Well, that's alright! I just want you to get better! Don't push yourself for me! just focus on getting back on your feet, Connie!" Steven made sure to amp up the cheer in his voice. She giggled a little which quickly segued into a fit of coughing. "Thank you for understanding Steven. I'll try to get better soon, but for now my mom is coming up with soup for me! I'll talk to you later! Bye" Click. Steven held the phone to his ear for an extra minute, waiting to hear Connie's voice chime in again and say she was just kidding or something to cheer him up. All he could hear, however, was the waves sighing as they moved back and forth and the sound of tires coming to a stop. He didn't even turn to see who drove up.
"Hey champ." A voice came from behind. "What're you doing out this early? Aren't you a little young to pull all nighters?" Steven turned to see his father, Greg Universe, standing above him. "What, no laugh? Not funny enough for ya, eh? I guess it needed a bit more work. I'll get something better for ya." Steven turned his face to look out at the rising sun again and Greg could almost feel the sadness resonating off of his son. "What's wrong there, sport? Your day not start how you want it to?" Steven sighed, "The gems woke me up earlier. They were looking for some kind of super destructive gem weapon and Pearl and Amethyst started to fight like they usually do when they have to work together. I found the thingy for them and I left before things started to go really bad and when I got to the beach I guess they accidently caused it to go off?" Greg scratched his beard in thought, "So that's what that bright light was…" Steven continued, "Then I went to the Big Donut after the gems started fighting. I just wanted a couple donuts, but Lars and Sadie were fighting too. They were yelling and using horrible language and I just... " He paused for a minute. Greg started to rub his back gently, "It's alright, Steven. Not everyone has great mornings. I'm sure the rest of the day will go well. I mean, you've still got Connie, right?" Steven groaned and slumped even deeper. "Oh no. What happened?" Steven looked up at his father, tears welling in his eyes. "Connie's really sick. She sounded awful! I don't know why today is so horrible but I already want this day to be over."
Greg kept rubbing Steven's back as they sat in silence and looked out at the sea. Then, with a grunt, Greg stood up. "Well son, let me tell you something. I'm sure you've heard it before, but I think you need it most today." Steven looked up at his father who smiled warmly down at him. "Not every day can be an amazing one from start to finish. It's you who makes it amazing! Remember, if every pork chop were perfect…" He paused, gesturing at Steven with two fingers. Steven sniffed and giggled lightly, cracking a slight smile, "We wouldn't have hot dogs…" He finished. Greg ruffled the young gem's hair, forcing him to break out into a fit of giggles. Already he was starting to return to his old steveny self. "That's right!" He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head, "And for what it's worth, you make my day every day, Steven. In this world of gems, there's no one like you." Steven stood up now, and rubbed his eyes. "Thanks, dad." He latched onto Greg tightly and Greg returned the embrace. "Any time, son."
"Should we say anything? He left rather quickly. We should make sure he's alright. Our fighting may have been too much for him. Oh, I knew I should have put that silly weapon somewhere safer! I should never had let you touch it, Amethyst! I hope Steven's fine." Pearl kept on yammering on as she paced back and forth from where they were standing. Garnet turned and began to walk back to the temple, followed quickly by Amethyst, who had duct tape wrapped around her head and covering her mouth. She looked at Pearl with mix of disinterest and frustration. "He'll be fine now Pearl. Today wasn't his best, but He'll be fine now. We need to keep a calmer house around him. He's a fragile one, like Rose. He hates to see us fight, and frankly we could stand to do less of it." Amethyst and Pearl looked up at Garnet unsure. Garnet's usually stoic face showed hints of being unsure as well. She sighed and rubbed her head, "We really have no idea what we're doing. I guess it's a good thing Greg's here. We can try to raise him to be a gem warrior all we want, but he's still human. We forget that sometimes." The tall gem laughed and Pearl and Amethyst exchanged worried glances. "There really is no gem like your little Steven, Rose. What have you done?" She began to walk to the temple again, as though she weren't just talking to herself. Pearl and Amethyst looked back at Steven and Greg sitting at the docks, both now laughing boisterously, and raced to catch up to Garnet.