Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe!

Title: Pink Streak

Summary: Finding out your mom is Pink Diamond is even harder when you're mom is alive and has been by your side all fourteen years of your life.

Setting: AU where Rose didn't die and raised Steven alongside the Gems

…

Steven hadn't spoken to her in three days. In that time, his black roots have gotten thicker and longer as his dyed pink fades, as if he's destroying her relation to him one follicle at a time.

Rose can't say as she blames him.

She can't blame any of them, really. Sapphire, Pearl, Garnet- they had every right to be angry. They all did. Even if Ruby was more focused on getting past it, and Amethyst was more interested in helping Steven (stars bless her for it), it didn't change facts. Rose had been lying for a long, long time, and it's not surprising that, eventually, Pearl might've gotten sick of it. Sick of her.

After all she's done, it's more of a surprise Pearl had loved her as strongly as she once had.

Rose isn't entirely certain if it's for her benefit or the Gems as she quietly opts to leave the Temple, staying at Greg's van. It's self-serving to not tell him the details, but she just wants a few days of peace before even he leaves her. If that makes her horrible... well, Rose has been horrible for far longer and far worse reasons.

When Ruby comes, Rose hides in the back of the van. Greg and her talk for what feels like hours, and then Amethyst and Steven come, and there's hesitation in her son's voice, as if her actions are his to be blamed for. They leave for greener pastures; and Greg, who promised to go with, slowly opens the back of the van and sits down.

"So that's what this was about, huh?" he muses with a sad chuckle. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After twenty years, this is the first time you've stayed with me."

"Greg..." Rose murmurs. She's sprawled out across her stomach. It hurts to keep her stone pressed against the old carpet floor, but she can't imagine getting up. "I know I should've told you."

Greg shrugs. "There's a lot of stuff I never told you about myself."

That's true, but... "I don't think your past is quite as... hectic."

A laugh erupted from him, but it wasn't as deep or as sweet as it usually was. "Maybe not. Look, Rose. This... this hurts. I'm not gonna say it doesn't. But I didn't fall in love with Pink Diamond, and you didn't fall for Gregory Demayo. We both left bits of ourselves to make this work." Greg leaned back a little, raising his chin. She wondered what he saw in the stars. "We fell in love with the counterfeit facsimile of who we are."

Rose buried her face in her arms, ignoring the hot wetness under her eyelids. She would never understood what drove Greg to be half as nice as he was, but she was thankful for it every day.

"Have you talked to Steven?" he prompted.

"No."

"You should." Greg hopped off the back of the van. "When we get back."

"I will," Rose promises, and leaves it at that.

When Rose returns, they're planning a wedding. Suits are flying everywhere, along with flowers and invitations and Bismuth is back? Which is great, it really is. She loves Bismuth. She's missed Bismuth. (Stars, she's the one who did this to Bismuth).

They don't say anything about it, necessarily, but Rose got the distinct feeling she wasn't invited. She deems that fair and sits down on the couch, waiting for her son to approach. Steven's got his own kind of charm to him, and it's especially prevalent in cases like this; he rarely ever seems to touch the floor, darting to and fro with a big smile and big charisma and a big heart. He's a good lad. Much better than she'd been at his mental age.

Rose waited.

They ate dinner.

Rose waited.

The Gems went to their rooms.

Rose waited.

Steven sat down.

Rose realized she had nothing to say.

Where to begin? With Pink Diamond? Her old court? The Pebbles who cared for her? Blue and Yellow? The endless balls that only served to make everyone else even more miserable? Or would it better to cut out the beginning and head for the middle, when Pearl introduced her to the Earth and she ended up fighting tooth and nail for it? She's done so many things, and they've all ended with her sitting in this beach house in this day with nothing but excuses.

"I found the tape," Steven said, startling her out of her revere. He didn't look at her as he spoke. "The one from before I was born."

"Oh."

"I found it a long time ago, actually; I just didn't know how to bring it up." His fingers clenched on the fabric of the sofa. "Did you... really think you would die having me?"

"Yes." And then, because one wallop isn't enough, right? "I almost did."

Steven's frown dipped into scowl territory. He slumped in his seat. "Was there... is there anything you didn't lie about?"

"I love you," Rose replied immediately. "I never lied about that."

"And everyone else?"

"I love them too."

Steven pulls his knees to his chest, considering. A couple years ago, that answer would've sufficed. But he's older now, and Rose recognizes that he recognizes that love doesn't magically make hurt go away.

"You were my hero," he says.

That hit Rose right where a human's heart would be. She sighed and wiped her hand across her face. "I know. I'm sorry, Steven. This is-"

Steven cut her off. "Don't say that was how it had to be. The corrupted Gems don't have to be corrupted. We don't have to be at war with Homeworld. If this- if this whole thing was centered around Pink Diamond being shattered, then none of it would have come to pass if you didn't run away!"

"Steven, they never would've listened to me. They never did. And if war was the only way to change their minds, then I was willing to walk that path. So were Pearl and Garnet and everyone else."

"Everyone thought Pink Diamond was dead." His voice was muffled by his jeans. "You lied to them. Don't you realize how much they loved you? How much they were willing to die for you?"

Rose flinched, knowing all too well.

"How are we supposed to follow you if you pull stuff like this?"

She tapped her fingers on the soft fabric of her dress. A distant part of Rose wanted to put up a fuss about all of this- the heckling, the shunning- but throwing a temper tantrum had only gotten her into more trouble than it had less. And maybe that trouble had brought her to this wonderful existence on Earth, complicated as it was, but there was no telling what would happen now. She didn't want to reverse the thousands of years of freedom they'd had. "I suppose you aren't."

Steven finally looked at her. His eyes were bright and shiny and a bit wet from unshed tears. "What?" he asks, voice breaking.

"Garnet led in my place while I recovered from having you," Rose said. "In a way, she never really stepped down. She can be leader instead."

"Mom, you can't make that decision for her."

Rose opened her mouth to argue she wasn't, then closed it when it sank in that she was. "You're right. Still. I'm stepping down."

"Of course you are," he sighed.

His tone of voice had her sitting up straighter, eyebrows furrowing. "What would you have me do, Steven? Brute force you all into following me?"

"I want you to take responsibility for what you've done! And shoving someone else into your spot isn't doing that."

The Diamond- at the end of the day, that's all she was, wasn't she? Even after all these years and all the lies, it doesn't erase gemetics- leaned back in her seat. Steven stared stubbornly at his flip-flops.

"Maybe I shouldn't've healed," Rose said, though the mere suggestion makes her feel icky.

"Maybe," Steven agreed, quiet. "But it wouldn't change anything. Garnet and Amethyst and Pearl would still be picking up after you. Bismuth would probably still be in a bubble. I would... I would still be here, I guess." His shoulders fell with the weight of many burdens. "Still be disappointed in you."

Author's Note: I got tasked to write an AU where Steven gets to yell at his mom and it was like... I'm home. I've found my place and people. My niche, so to speak.

-Mandaree1