Okay, I promise I'm going to work on Displacement next, but I had this idea stuck in my head for so long that I just had to get it put to paper. Here's the first chapter of Steven's Huntress. I don't own RWBY, or work at RT, and SU is not mine, as much as I might wish it was. I do not profess to try to make money from this thing, it's just fun to do.
I woke up cold.
No, not like in a cold sweat, or like I felt mentally cold, as if I'd done something horrible (though I had done that, don't you mind), but literally cold. My skin was long past erupting into gooseflesh and I could swear that my blood had turned to something resembling pebbles of ice in my veins. Numbly, I felt my body curl in on itself into a ball in pure instinctive reflex, feeling myself shiver as my muscles spasmed in a futile attempt to warm my body up. I could barely breathe, and from what I could tell, I was also floating in the air somehow.
With a grunt, I tried to force my eyes open in order to see what was going on. It took me a couple of tries, but eventually I forced my eyelids through a layer of frost that had apparently built up there from the cold.
I saw darkness. All around me, there was naught but a sea of blackness, only permeated with little pinpricks of light that I might've guessed were stars, had I assumed I was in space. However, that was impossible, as man hadn't made it outside Remnant's atmosphere anyway.
Right?
I could feel my mind start to shut down as a haze of inky dark spread out over my mental faculties. I was probably sure that I was hallucinating at that point. Maybe it was the cold. Maybe it was the lack of oxygen. Maybe my Aura was gone and I was just too tired to go on at that point, but taking a nice, long nap seemed like a pretty good idea. Maybe dying of hypothermia wasn't as bad as people made it out to be?
I closed my eyes and shuddered one last time before slowly consciousness faded and a dreamless sleep took hold of my brain like a sheet of metal in a vice.
"Ah-CHOO!"
The youngest Crystal Gem, a 13-year-old boy named Steven Quartz Universe, found himself propelled up through the Warp Stream from the force of his sneeze. In the microgravity environment of the Warp, it was enough to push him along and out of the Warp Stream that he and the other Gems had been using as transportation. His head poked through the magical energies of the stream and he started panicking for but a second.
"Waah! Wha?" the half-Gem hybrid exclaimed, only to stop as he saw the beauty of the Warp beyond the stream. "Whoa."
From here the young Gem saw numerous roiling black thunderclouds caressing the extradimensional void filled with strange lights of mysterious origin. He could even see and faintly hear lightning and thunder erupting from one of the clouds in the distance.
However, for as much as it was an awesome sight, the young Crystal Gem took notice of something else: a dark, vaguely humanoid shape floating just outside the stream, covered in little icicles and frost and a white piece of cloth that somewhat resembled a jacket.
Before he could take a closer look, however, he felt himself being yanked back by a force behind him. He looked behind him to find the resident worrywart of the team: Pearl. The much older Gem looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack, and appeared to be trying to calm herself by inspecting every inch of Steven's form for damage.
"Careful! It's dangerous to stick your head out of the stream!" she admonished, coming down from her panicked state.
"There's not much air, and it's very cold," added Garnet, the stoic de-facto leader of the Crystal Gems. She reached over as she was saying this and flicked some snot off of Steven's rather cold nostrils.
"Wait! Wait, you guys! I saw something out there!" Steven cut in, clearly excited by whatever he had found in the expanse.
"What?" Pearl asked incredulously.
"Something just... floating out there! It looked kind of like a person with a white coat!"
"Steven, that's not possible. Is your vision blurry from the pollen?"
"I can see perfectly," he squinted, "Pearl. I know I saw something out there!"
"There's nothing out there, Steven," answered Garnet, "There hasn't been anything out there for a long, long time."
"But what if there is?!" Steven was almost shouting at this point, "What if there's really someone out there; someone who needs our help out there because they're lost and alone and it's too cold, and-!" The young Gem was cut off by Garnet, who had gently placed her hand over his mouth.
"If it helps, we can check, just to be sure. After all, what protectors of the innocent would we be if we left someone at the mercy of something as dangerous as the Warp?" Steven nodded along, stars in his eyes as he mentally rejoiced at the large Gem's approval of his suggestion.
The Crystal Gems' heads, sans Steven's, emerged from the light-coloured Warp Stream, warping the light streaming around their heads and necks. Garnet's, Amethyst's, and Pearl's gazes all swept through the void, attempting to locate the figure that Steven had described. Some of them searched more halfheartedly than others, until they eventually found it.
Pearl let out a little surprised gasp when she caught sight of it, and the other two, with heads on a swivel, locked their gazes onto an unmoving form, moving weightlessly through the empty space of the Warp. Pearl let the milky-coloured gem on her forehead shine as a makeshift lamp, illuminating the dark form before them.
It appeared to be a late-teenage human girl, with long, flowing jet-black hair and a black bow atop her head, wearing a long white coat, curled up into a fetal position, presumably in an attempt to keep warm. A large gray duffel bag hung from her shoulder. Pearl's arm emerged from the warp and came to rest over her mouth, in order to stifle a shocked gasp that she dared not utter. The three feared for the worst, but slowly relaxed when they noticed little puffs of vapor emerging from her mouth. She was still breathing. That was a good sign, right?
"Garnet," Pearl said, voice barely above a whisper. Garnet, with her perfect poker face, said nothing, instead nodding at her comrade.
Garnet's arms emerged from the Warp Stream and started to glow. Then they stretched and contorted as a result of her shapeshifting ability, and reached out to the girl. Her limbs pulled the unconscious young woman into the safety and warmth of the Warp Stream, and she seemed to relax a bit once her body had started to warm itself up.
Steven Universe went wide-eyed at the new arrival and he felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Is she...?"
"No. She was breathing. She just needs to get warm, 's all," answered Garnet. Steven let out the breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding.
"Well it's a good thing you let us know that you saw something, little man," Amethyst remarked, "Who knows what could've happened to a human being out in the Warp?"
"Well, it won't do anyone any good to just stay here prattling on about it. We need to make certain that she'll be alright before anything else, for the time being. It is our job to be the guardians of humanity, after all." Pearl gave the girl, still curled up in Garnet's arms, one last glance as the Warp Stream fell away around them and once again the Gems found themselves inside Steven's Beach House once more.
None of the Crystal Gems noticed another Warp Stream in Warp Space appear, dragging along a small, dark, spherical shape.
Well dying sucked.
At least I think it sucked. I kinda passed out during that part. I guess I wouldn't really know what dying feels like, huh? I mean, I expect dying to be a painful affair, able to be described with phrases such as "like dozens of tiny knives piercing every inch of my flesh" and "an oncoming train of freezing chill permeated my being as blood leaked out of a gaping hole in my stomach" and the like. What I didn't expect was feeling like shit afterwards.
My whole body ached and my limbs were numb. My thoughts raced back to my last memories before my world turned black, and I realized that the numbness probably came from the cold that I'd felt in that weird void. The funny thing was, I didn't feel cold anymore. In fact, I was warm, and I was lying down, sandwiched between something very soft and something even softer.
I also heard voices.
"How is she doing? Do you think she'll be alright?"
"We can't really do anymore for her right now, Steven."
"Garnet's right. The best we can hope for is that she won't slip into a coma."
"Eh, she'll probably be fine, we just gotta give her time."
The voices- one high-pitched male, young, and three distinct female ones- I heard clearly and distinctly now. They sounded concerned. I think they were talking about me. Especially that Steven one, maybe followed by that higher-pitched one after him. I didn't recognize them at all.
I figured that now was a good time to start becoming fully cognizant. With a small groan, my eyelids fluttered open and shut and I started making the motions to rise from off my back.
I heard Steven's voice again.
"Hey guys! She's waking up!"
I groaned again as I felt a few joints pop in response to my body rising into a sitting position. With effort, I slowly forced my eyelids open and blinked away the bluriness from my sight. When my sight cleared, I found myself less than half a foot away from a very pale, very smooth, and admittedly somewhat chubby boy with dark hair. It was definitely a face I didn't recognize.
"Hey there! Are you okay?" he innocently asked.
I wasn't very proud of when, just then my instincts, both as those of a fighter, and as a feline faunus, took over. I let out a startled yelp, yanked the soft pink quilt from my body, and threw it at the young face before me. He fell down in a tumbling mess, attempting to untangle himself from the bedspread as I jumped back and away from the sofa someone had laid me down on. I felt my bare feet hit a wooden floor, and I tracked my eyes around the room. My eyes went over a thin, storklike woman wearing an outfit that wouldn't look out of place in a ballerina studio, a short, somewhat plump woman- who was purple? I actually did a double take just to make sure I wasn't seeing things- with a mane of whitish hair, and a woman even taller than the first, with a considerably darker complexion, a square afro, and shades. The first two seemed to be moving into action in response to my reaction, and the third seemed to be doing little other than tensing her stance a little. I mostly ignored them for now, aside from their positions relative to me and their movements, combat-wise. I searched for something else.
I found my duffel full of Dust, some of my meager possessions, and my missing boots and stockings lying, side-by-side, with my weapon's carrying strap, on a wooden coffee table right next to the sofa I'd regained consciousness on, but that wasn't what I was looking for.
My eyes finally settled on my prize. A black cleaver-like sword hung from the circular knob of a cabinet, from a black ribbon, in what appeared to be the kitchen of what seemed to be a large wooden beach house.
My weapon: Gambol Shroud.
I pelted off towards it. The tall one raised some sort of pale spear in my way, but I just rolled under it. The purple one then tried to use some sort of whip to ensnare my leg, but the moment I felt it close around on my ankle, I tugged on my Semblance and left behind one of my signature shadow clones to take the fall. In just a couple of quick strides, I'd reached Gambol Shroud. With a quick tug, I pulled it free from its perch and I unsheathed it in one smooth motion, holding the sheath in my off hand and Gambol Shroud's katana form in my right. I shifted it into its pistol form and trained it upon the other occupants of the room.
The two women that attempted to restrain me were holding their weapons- yeah, that was definitely a spear and a whip- in defensive positions, while the one who stayed her hand was in the same position as before, just with large red gauntlets adorned with a single golden star each on her hands. They each had looks of shock plastered on their faces, but that was slowly being banished by an expression of determination.
The bundle of cloth and young boy managed to finally sort itself out.
"Wait guys! Everyone calm down!" he shouted at us.
"Who the hell are you people?!" I shouted back. "How did I get here?!"
"Look," said the purple one, "We know you're probably very confused right now, but we need you to stop pointing that at us." She glanced pointedly at my weapon, and I gave her a look. She nodded, almost imperceptibly, at me. The others mirrored her action, to a degree, when I glanced at them, and very slowly, I shifted the weapon back into its katana form, noting that the three strange women had done away with their weapons. Where had they gone? I returned Gambol Shroud to its sheath with a Click! of metal-on-metal, and held it at my side, where hopefully it would look harder to draw.
At least, it would look that way. If my time in the White Fang had told me anything, it was that one should always have a backup plan, preferably without the other party knowing about it.
Then again, these people had saved me from whatever hellish place I'd gotten myself in that time, warmed me up, and taken me into their home.
That was good. Sometimes people didn't like helping each other if they had animal parts, like yours truly.
"So," I finally said, "Who are you? Where am I?"
It was the young kid who answered me. "You're in my house! We're the Crystal Gems! We protect humanity from monsters and things that go bump in the night! If you're evil and you're on the rise, you can count on the four of us taking you down!" he responded, almost singing the last sentence.
I couldn't help it. I giggled. The kid gave me a sheepish grin, and said, "Yeah, kinda selling it a bit much, huh?" I shrugged. He shrugged back, then introduced me to the three strange women in the room. The tall one was Garnet, the skinny one was Pearl, and the purple one was Amethyst. Normal enough names, especially if you're like me, and you're used to names like Neptune and Ruby running around in your life.
"And my name's Steven Universe!" he finished, approaching me and extending a hand, "What's yours?"
I noticed Pearl and Amethyst visibly tense up when Steven approached me, so I gave them all my best "I totally didn't just point a gun at you less than a few minutes ago" smile and shook his outstretched hand. "Blake. Blake Belladonna."
"So where, exactly, am I?" I repeated.
"You're in Beach City! It's a nice, sleepy town right on the coast of Delmarva, in the good ol' US of A!" Steven was certainly... enthusiastic about his home, that was for sure.
"Geography isn't exactly my strong suit, but may I ask what Kingdom the 'US of A' is in?" I tried for politeness, but only got confusion in return.
"Kingdom?" Steven asked.
"Atlas?" I tried, "Vacuo? Mistral? Vale? No?"
Steven shook his head. He turned to Pearl. "Pearl?" he inquired.
It was Pearl's turn to be confused. She shook her head, too. "I've never heard of any human civilizations like that."
"Remnant?"
Steven shrugged. Pearl shook her head.
My jaw kind of dropped at that. "What? Wait-waitwaitwaitwaitwait. What?!"
Suddenly, a very audible growling sound rumbled through Steven's quaint little beach home. Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst gripped their weapons tightly in clenched fists (or on clenched fists) and scanned the area for threats. I felt heat creep into my face though, as I knew exactly where that sound came from.
I clutched my stomach as a very tiny sliver of pain shot through it. I grimaced, and I saw Steven wince in sympathy.
"Sorry," I said sheepishly. I'd been kind of on the run since escaping my former allies, and food wasn't exactly easy to come by when you were already being offered scant amounts of Dust for insane prices. I hadn't eaten much but scraps for the past couple of days, at least. My Aura was keeping me from dying, but eventually, I would need to put something in me to keep my body from cannibalizing itself for nutrients.
Steven gave Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst a sort of "I told you so" look.
"Why don't we go down to the boardwalk? There's some restaurants there, and you might want to talk over food, right?" I opened my mouth to wholeheartedly agree-
"Steven! What are you thinking?!"
-but then Pearl interrupted me. Both Amethyst and I sighed at her.
"Look, chill out, P. He'll be fine-"
"Miss Belladonna threatened us with a weapon no less than five minutes ago!"
"-Because I'm going with them to keep an eye out, okay? Sheesh, Pearl..."
Pearl looked like she was going to say something more, but she stopped when Garnet placed a hand on the skinny woman's shoulder. "They'll be fine," she calmly said.
Pearl released a sigh, dripping of weariness and exasperation, before finally agreeing. "Okay."
"WOOO! Let's go, Amethyst! Blake!"
"You know it, Ste-man!"
There really wasn't much I could do to refuse them, especially when they were offering my starving ass food, so I just strapped Gambol Shroud to my back and shouldered my duffel and slipped on my stockings and boots as I followed Steven and Amethyst out the door. My extra ears twitched as they caught something that Pearl muttered under her breath that she probably didn't want me (or Steven) to hear, given the amount of expletives she used, and I caught a glare in my periphery as I walked out the door.
We made small talk as we made our way to the town. You know, the usual comments about the weather, complaining about how hungry we were, making inane bets based on random happenings around us; the normal things that people who had just met each other would talk about. However, the walk was agonizingly slow. I could feel my gut threatening mutiny with how badly it needed sustenance, and it was about to make my liver walk the plank.
Arrr. Now I just needed a cutlass and a flintlock pistol to complete that analogy.
We passed a doughnut shop called The Big Donut along the way, but I didn't really find it much interesting, though Steven seemed to like it when he suggested it to me.
No, instead, I eyed a store with a sign that had a little graphic of a pizza in the shape of a plump fish, fins, tail, and all. It wasn't hard for me, with my enhanced faunus sense of smell, to detect the aroma of pizza and fish inside the restaurant.
Now, I'd like to say that I considered all my options and gave the other restaurant, a place called Beach Citywalk Fries, a healthy amount of thought, but I'll be honest. I just pointed at the fishy pizzeria and said, "That one." I promise, it was just the hunger talking, I swear.
Steven nodded and replied. "Fish Stew Pizza? Good choice. Nothin' betta than a little chedda for curin' an ol' case of the munchies, eh? Well let's go get us some pizza!"
Fish Stew Pizza was a small restaurant, even by small restaurant standards. It had maybe enough seating for nine or so people, and the chairs were all the cheap, stackable kind, and its walls were laden with various pictures and paintings from various "exotic" locales. I'd guessed that Beach City was more akin to Beach Town just by walking along the beach, but this pizzeria really cemented that notion in my mind.
The establishment's only other occupant, besides the staff, was a pale young man sitting at one of the tables with a computer of some kind and headphones. There was a young, dark-skinned woman wearing a scarf in her hair and a white apron, with a slice of pizza drawn on it, running the register at the counter.
"Hey Steven, Amethyst," she greeted, "Who's your new friend?" I noticed she eyed Gambol Shroud with no small amount of suspicion, but chose to stay quiet.
"Oh, we don't really know quite yet! Me and the Gems just met her!"
"Hello," I greeted in return with a wave, "I'm Blake."
"Kiki. Well, a friend of Steven's is a friend of mine, just so long as you don't abuse the All You Can Eat menu." She fixed Amethyst with a steady stare. The purple woman just chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. "What can I get for you, today?"
The others ordered their usuals while I carefully eyed the menu hanging over the counter until I caught sight of one particular entrée. "I'll have the Fish Lover's Special."
I swear, I'm not doing this on purpose.
Kiki nodded, and relayed the order to the kitchen. I hung my coat on a coatrack, followed Steven and Amethyst to one of the tables, and sat down, unslinging Gambol Shroud as I did; the chairs were surprisingly comfy, despite their obviously cheap construction. To my surprise, the pizza was ready not a scant few minutes after we sat down.
As Kiki laid three large, flat pizza boxes on the table, I asked her why the pizzas came so fast. With a wink, she replied, "My dad takes pride in how quickly he can whip up a pie, but sometimes we need Gunga around to keep him from goin' a little too fast, if you know what I'm talkin' about." I raised an eyebrow, but she smirked and returned to her post at the counter.
The next few seconds were a blur. In one moment, I was opening the box that had the letters FLS on it, and the next thing I knew, I had a slice in each hand, both nearly eaten to their crusts.
Steven and Amethyst were gawking at me, and the guy at the back was even glancing at me with a brow raised, but he returned to his computer shortly.
"She's faster than you, Amethyst," Steven finally said. Amethyst just gave an awestruck nod in reply. "That hungry, huh?"
I gave a small nod, finished off the slices in my hands at a slightly more sedate pace, and started work on my third. The pizza wasn't really all that exceptional, but hell, I was starving. After my fourth slice was halfway done, I noticed that my companions weren't eating their pies. I raised a brow at them, and Amethyst pushed over her box to me.
"You look like you need this more than me," she said. I thanked her in between bites. Hey, faunus can have manners, too. Just shows those racists what's what.
"So you mentioned those kingdoms of yours," Amethyst said after a minute of me just filling my devastatingly empty belly, "could you tell us anything about where you're from?"
I swallowed down some pizza and dabbed at my lips with a napkin. The request was obviously an attempt at information gathering, but I didn't see any harm in withholding that information from them. "How's about this; You ask a question, I ask a question. We have to answer honestly, but we can withhold information that we so desire. Deal?" They nodded. "Since you've never heard of Remnant," I continued, "I'm pretty sure I'm very far from home. Remnant's what we call my world, by the way. Humanity is separated into four individual kingdoms- Atlas, Mistral, Vacuo, and Vale. They're more like democracies with elected officials, and the 'Kingdom' nomenclature is just a holdover from an older time. My turn. How did you find me?"
"Steven found you floating in this place we call the Warp. We Crystal Gems use it to get from place to place quickly nearly anywhere on earth." I nodded. Okay, so this place is called Earth, then. Good to know.
"Oh! Oh! My turn! How did you do that cool shadow thing earlier?"
Should I tell Steven about that? Eh, screw it. Why not?
"That's my Semblance. Think of it as a personalized superpower."
"That's so cool!" he very nearly shouted. "Is that like magic?"
"One question at a time, Steven," I replied. "Besides, magic doesn't exist. Closest thing we have is Dust."
Amethyst scoffed. "Magic does too exist." I noticed her hand and a large purple gemstone poking out from under her tank top glow bright white for a moment. I shielded my eyes, and when I looked back, her hand was replaced with the head of a striped purple cat. "Isn't that right, Mr. Fluffles?" she cooed to it. It yawned adorably in response.
What?
I choked on my next bite of fish-topped pizza, coughing furiously. Amethyst's cat hand turned back into her regular purple hand, and she doubled over into a laughing fit. Steven rushed to my side and helped me clear my airway.
When I could speak again, I could only say, "What the hell was that?!"
Amethyst stopped laughing, shrugged, and simply replied, "Magic."
I let out one more cough. "Fair enough. So, what's the current state of Dust prices?"
And so the conversation went. They talked about Beach City and I talked about Remnant. We bounced questions back and forth as Steven and I (but mostly me) ate, and through those questions, I learned that this place, earth, lived without the benefit of Dust and that no one possessed an active Aura. Two major factors of Remnant's society just... gone.
Earth also had a population of around six billion people.
WHAT? Vale was about as large as the other Kingdoms, but it struggled to maintain a comparatively mere eight million citizens or so. To think that there were nearly a thousand times more people here was just... wow.
I also learned that Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet weren't humans at all. Instead, they were immortal, magic-slinging amazon warriors whose true form was a small gemstone at the core of their being.
I just wasn't going to get a break today, was I?
Steven and Amethyst also learned some general things about Remnant. Namely, they learned about facets of my world's culture, like the CCT and what life was like in the Kingdoms. I carefully danced around the Faunus Civil Rights movement, since it seemed that for all of the earth's weirdness, faunus didn't seem to have partaken in it. As weird as it sounded, I don't think they even had them, given how the Gems never talked about it or subtly mentioned it.
Steven and I were running out of pizza, and my hunger was finally starting to reluctantly wander back into whatever cave it had reared its head from. It looked like it was their turn to ask, and it looked like it was going to be the last question for a while.
Amethyst got right to the meat of the conversation. "Back in the house, you were able to keep me and Pearl on our toes. We're defenders of the earth, and you're pretty competent yourself. Why do you need to know how to go toe-to-toe with some serious foes?" Wait, was that assonance intentional?
Amethyst held up a hand, and Steven slapped it energetically. So it was, then.
I thought about my reply for a minute. "I told you about how Remnant only has about 30 million people on the whole face of the planet, right?" They nodded; I continued, "Well, that's the number, but not for lack of trying. At every twist and turn, humanity is threatened by the Creatures of Grimm: soulless monsters of pure darkness whose only purpose is to deal death and destroy." While I talked, I pulled my scroll from a hidden pocket, and showed them an artist's rendition of an Ursa Major to give them a better idea.
Steven turned pale, and Amethyst just whistled.
"Yeah, these guys, coupled with the usual injustices of society, don't make survival all that easy on Remnant. After the last Great War, about 80 years ago, special schools were established to teach Remnant's youth how to fight the Grimm. There's one major school in each Kingdom, and typically, you'd have to attend a combat school beforehand. These schools are called Huntsman Academies, and I am a Huntress-in-training of Beacon Academy in the Kingdom of Vale."
Steven's eyes practically sparkled, his grin stretched from ear to ear, and he exclaimed, "So you're like a fairy tale hero!" Well, that sounded awfully familiar. I didn't really feel like crushing dreams right now though, so instead of offering a rebuke about how the world's not like a fairy tale, I nodded.
Steven ended up saving half of his pizza by the time we left Fish Stew Pizza. I'd just finished draping my coat over my slim frame when Amethyst told us she was going back to the Beach House and left us alone for the day. Evidently, she decided I was trustworthy enough that I could be left alone with Steven, or that he could take me in a fight.
To be honest, I didn't know which of those possibilities made me more uncomfortable. These people were a little too trusting, which did little than make me wonder why.
We still had at least a few hours until sundown, so Steven suggested that I be given the grand tour of Beach City. I saw no reason to object, and soon enough, we'd wasted a couple of hours at the Funland Arcade playing headache-inducing video games, powered through a few carnival games at the Funland Amusement Park, and picked up a brochure at the Beach City Visitor Center for the rest of the stuff that I would miss.
"Wow, Blake!" exclaimed Steven as we walked down Waterman Street following me utterly crushing the ring toss game at the amusement park, "You trounced that thing back there! I thought that game was rigged!"
I smirked, holding the giant stuffed black-and-white cat that I'd earned at the booth under one arm. "Evidently, it was supposed to be. I mean, did you see Smiley's face when I won? Priceless."
"So how did you win, then? I didn't notice you cheating or anything!"
"When your fighting style partly revolves around throwing your weapon as accurately as possible, you get a feel for anything of the sort. Tossing is trivial to me."
Steven once again had stars in his eyes. "Wow! Think you could show me how you fight one day?"
I flashed him a warm grin. "Sure."
"Anyway, this is the last stop before we gotta head back. My dad works there, and I really want you to meet him!" He was right. The sun was just inching its way down to the horizon, and soon it would be dark.
We'd stopped at a car wash. It was a fairly modern building, if a little small, and there was a multicolored van covered in stencils parked in front of it. There was little rust or tarnish or any sort of rot on the walls or doors of the establishment, and, with my modest faunus night vision, I could see that the interior was clean and well cared-for, almost like it was lived in. The wash's fluorescent lights were off for the evening, but the neon lights above the entrance cheerfully displayed an elephant washing itself, with the name of the car wash superimposed on top of the animal.
Wait, was this for real?
Once again, I felt myself doing something that I just couldn't help today. I burst out into rolling belly laughter.
"What's so funny?" Steven asked. That only made me double over in a fit of chuckles, compounded onto my previous gut-busting.
"I-It's a Wash!" I managed to squeeze out. Steven raised an inquisitive brow at me. My sides. Ow.
Steven gave up, shook his head, walked over to the van, and gave it a few raps on the side. Laughing all the way (ho ho ho), I followed him to the automobile. There was a crashing sound that rang out from inside the van, accompanied by a grunt and a wet slap on metal. Eventually, the van's back doors were thrown open, and out popped an aging man. He was a near-sickly shade of pale where he harbored a clear farmer's tan, and a ruddy pink wherever else. His face, though drowsy from being recently awoken, was kind and relaxed. He had a beard and he displayed a mane of hair topped with a very prominent bald spot. He wore a white tank top and grey cut down jean shorts.
The man yawned, saw Steven, and smile from ear to ear. "Steven!" he said, pure joy coloring his voice.
"Dad!" Father and son embraced in a warm hug. It was just barely heartwarming enough to get me to snap out of my giggling reverie.
"Dad, this is my new friend, Blake!" The older man gave me a polite wave. I smiled back. "Blake," Steven continued, "this is my dad, Greg!" Greg extended a hand, which I firmly shook.
"Nice to meet'cha, Blake! A friend of Shtoo-ball's a friend of mine!" Greg grimaced and rubbed his hand. "Quite the grip you've got there, kiddo."
"It's a gift," I replied, "Yang's got a better one, though."
"Well I hope I never have to meet her, then!" he chuckled good-naturedly, while I inwardly grimaced. Yang. Ruby. Weiss. Would I ever see them again, or would I be stuck here, on earth, unable to do anything about the White Fang and the Grimm on Remnant?
I shook my head to clear it. Enough moping about. Cross that damn bridge when you get there, Blake.
We talked for a bit. Mostly it was easy- small talk and "how did your day go?"s that were simple to talk about. I could tell that Greg was a really easygoing guy, and he really didn't seem bothered by the fact that Steven's mom wasn't around. I asked him about that, but he avoided the question. I didn't pry. That probably-depressing conversation would come and rear its head in time, if August Murphy's Law was correct.
Eventually, the sky grew darker in degrees, and we said goodnight to Greg. We made our way back to the Beach House, and I got a good view of the old Gem Temple. Built straight into the cliff face, there loomed a huge statue of a multi-armed, multi-faced woman with long, curly locks and a flowing dress top. The stone it was hewn from was cracked and overgrown with vines in parts, and some of the arms were broken off at places, but it was more than impressive nonetheless. I let out an appreciative whistle.
Pearl, Amethyst, and Garnet were waiting for us in the house, and Pearl nearly threw herself at the boy, hastily checking for cuts, bruises, or the like. After all was said and done, the Gems went into the somewhat literal bowels of the Temple and left us to sleep off our exhaustion from the events of the day. I mean sure, I fight monsters and terrorists and criminals for extra credit, but fun can wear down on you harder than a lot of things, if you let it.
Steven ascended the stairs right next to the door and I heard him falling heavily onto a fluffy mattress. He started snoring not a minute later.
I crashed on the couch, curling up underneath the heavy woolen quilt. For a minute, I stayed up, thinking.
I needed to get back home, back to Remnant. I had friends back there who still needed me, and people I needed back. Yet, there wasn't much I could do about it. From the discussions I had with the Gems, they didn't even know how to get me back, and I had even blurrier of a picture of how to go home than them. Sighing, I resigned myself to staying here, on earth, for the time being. I might as well make the best of the situation, and enjoy myself until I found a way back.
Sure, the Gems sounded like they had a problem with monsters and defending the people of earth, but judging by their reactions to the Grimm, they didn't have it nearly as bad as we did. Maybe I could kick back and have some fun while I could, until it was time to become a stalwart defender of humankind and faunus on Remnant once more.
Yeah, sure.
AN: So here's another thing to hold you guys over until I figure out what to do with the rest of my fics. Sorry if the title sucks, but I wanted a SU/cat-based pun, and my brain just didn't want to give one to me.
I hope you guys like it, and if you're confused, this takes place during Warp Tour, and the next chapter is going to be about the second half of the episode. After that's Alone Together. I'm sorry I couldn't fit Lion in, but when we get to Alone Together, he's sure as hell gonna be in there.
So woooo. I managed to finally cobble this together, and I'm going to go take a nice long week of sleep after this. I'll finish my works eventually, but school's gonna start up in a little more than a week, so my ass is screwed.
Also, if you think Blake is OOC, well she probably is. I just have this headcanon that Blake is super snarky and sarcastic on the inside, but it's just that she keeps all that bottled sass to herself for the most part. I like being able to show the inner thoughts of a character without it being awkward, and Blake was a great way to show it. Plus, it's like my first time writing a snarky character, so there's some bonus points for practice. :)
Dammit. Enjoy!
-AnonymousInsomnia