Out of all the things Hari expected at her door, her cousin wearing a sheepish smile while holding a baby didn't even make the list.
"I need your help."
Hari raised an eyebrow at his words but moved aside so he could get through. Greg smiled gratefully and pushed through, cuddling Steven close as he did so. Hari closed the door and followed after him, their footsteps echoing softly throughout the house. Hari lead Greg to the living room and he plopped down on a couch with relieved sigh, relaxing into the plush cushions.
Greg looked around, admiring the sea-green walls of the living room and some of plants had scattered around, as well as a few of the pictures on the walls. He couldn't help his amusement when he noted a some of the odd knick-knacks sprawled on shelves and a few tables, a few being ships in bottles with varied types of weather.
It seems Hari had developed her own hoard.
"So Greg," Hari began, dragging Greg's attention away from what looked like a tiny, roaring dragon protecting its precious treasure from intruders inside a snowglobe. " What kind of trouble did you find yourself in that brought you all the way here?" Greg grimaced, awkwardly fiddling with Steven's blanket.
"It's more like I'm trying to make sure Steven doesn't get pulled into anything." Greg admitted.
Hari couldn't help but snort. "If that's the truth, then I'm afraid you've come to the wrong person."
" Maybe," He conceded. "But I seemed to remember you always managing to get yourself out trouble, no matter how bad it got."
Hari smiled wrly."Perhaps, but most of the time I got out of it why with help."Greg winced, regretting his choice of words.
"Uh, right. Sorry." Hari's expression softened, becoming gentle as she stared thoughtfully at him, or more specifically, at Steven snoozing away in his father's arms.
"I have a couple of guest rooms that you and Steven can take over," She suggested with a sigh smiling softly when Steven yawned cutely. "but I would like to hear the story of why you decided to return to the one place you vowed to never return to at some point."
Greg told her about the past events that lead to him coming to her for help, leaving nothing out exactly two days into living together. He admittedly had to fight the urge to flinch when he came to the part where Pearl almost pulled Steven's gem out of his body, the scene still fresh in his mind. Though he did flinch at Hari's expression when he told her about it, intimidated of the green ice chips Hari called eyes and the strange aura that flared up.
He couldn't help the small sigh of relief from escaping though when Steven woke up, his big, curious dark eyes examining Hari in fascination. The ice had cracked and melted away from her expression at Steven's curiosity, and now she sitting crossed legged on the floor and was using her wand to create bubbles of soft light to entertain him.
Greg himself couldn't help but laugh each time Steven popped a bubble with a gleeful squeal, his giggles bringing a grudging grin to Hari's face.
XxxxxX
Amethyst wasn't having fun anymore. Not at all.
Being captured and shoved in a cage kinda does that to someone. Lets not leave out that she couldn't shift while in here, it leaves an extra little punch that had Amethyst freaking out in fhe cage. Feathers puffing out and screeching type of distress.
Talking made it so much worse.
It had surprised her capturers, sure, but they had hardly broken stride over it and she had heard them mumble about having a price upped.
Screw. That.
She was no one's pet. A friend and a hilarious companion, yeah, definitely, but a pet?
No way.
She's gonna make them regret taking her. Dearly.
By the time they reached their destination, they practically sobbed in relief at finally being rid of the annoying and obnoxious bird. The shopkeeper had rolled his eyes at their over the top reaction before taking her cage, mumbling something about "how childish" and " ridiculous" they were being.
"I work with animals and creatures that can speak at volumes that would have their ears bleeding for days on end, and yet they whimper and piss themselves over a chatty owl? Absolutely ridiculous," He scoffed, setting her cage on a nearby stand.
Amethyst cackled uproariously in agreement, fluffing out her feathers and spreading her wings as much as she can while in the cage.
It would be like this for years, being stuck inside a cage and watching as all the other animals would be taken in by eager, bright eyed children and tired adults alike. Examining them as they examined her, waiting for her time to be chosen and let out of this cage at last. But it never seemed to be her time, they stopped being interested as soon as she opened her mouth and spoke up.
So she learned to stay quiet instead. Learned how to make only owl noises, to bark like a snowy, and to hoot and croon and chirp just like any other owl.
But. They. Still. Never. Chose. Her.
Why? Was it her purple coloring? Her gem? What was so special about the other, more boring animals that made them better then her?
But then, one memorable day, something amazing happened.
She was chosen.
The day had started out as any other, warm and children practically running in the store with eager, glowing faces and bright eyes taking in the many, strange animals showing off. Amethyst had just tooked her head on her wing and pretended to go to sleep, believing today would be another day of rejections.
And than that woman came in.
Bright, fiery green eyes and hair just a bit wilder a mane than her own had been in her foggy recollections of her base form, but pitch black in coloring, she had strolled in and made a beeline to the shopkeeper. They had spoke in hushed whispers for a while, the woman inquiring about some creature or another and the owner getting more and more excited with each second.
But then a switch was flipped and whatever the woman had next said had freaked out the man until he was screaming at her in angry, desperate tones, the animals raising hell all along with him.
Amethyst had long ago poked her head out from under her wing and was now watching them silently with wide eyes.
Finally the woman had seemed to have enough of him and pulled something out of her pocket and showed it to him. He didn't say anything after that.
The day passed by and many people in uniform coming and going to either take away animals or put them in medical attention for some. Amethyst watched everything, her feathers fluffed up and her frame huddled in itself as if to avoid their eyes.
But then fingers poked through the bars and into her line of vision, startling her into squawking and attempt to dodge backward. She crashed into the cage and almost sent it tumbling off the stand and onto the ground.
The woman darted forward, almost crashing over the stand herself to catch the cage. She set it back up, introducing herself and let out hurried apologies.
Amethyst thought Hari was pretty odd for introducing herself to an owl, but hey, she wasn't complaining. Especially if she's willing to poke her fingers through the bars again and allow Amethyst to nip at them to her heart's content in a petty revenge for startling the heck out of her, accident or not.
Eventually she left to speak to the others in low murmers for a while, but when she came back she was smiling at Amethyst.
"C'mon Lovely," she told her, unlocking the cage to Amethyst's great glee. "I have someone at home that's going to surprised to see you again."
Amethyst swiveled her head around and cocked it curiously at her words, but went to Hari's shoulder anyway.
Who the heck was Hari talking about?
XxxxX
It's Greg
It's. Freaking. Greg.
GREG. UNIVERSE.
The rockstar that had changed everything in her life just by deciding to walk into it and then walked out when the damage had been done and over with.
And when she saw his pale, nervous face for the first time in four years ( four years. It's been four years since she last seen Steven. Steven's four years old now.) And before she knew it, she was screaming.
She screamed at him at him for hours, screaming at him for taking Rose away, for taking Steven away, for leaving her behind, and for not taking her with them and deciding to instead leave her alone with Pearl and Garnet in the wreck he caused.
But then she saw Steven watching her, and her screams lodged themselves in her throat, choking her. What replaced them was questions.
When did he get so big?
How did he lose that tooth?
Why is he hugging her?
Crying? She wasn't crying!
Oh… she was crying...she was crying alot…
Amethyst sunk to knees, her hands on her face and bawling her eyes out. Three year old Steven clung on to her tightly, babbling soothing nonsense and patting her cheek gently with tiny, tiny hands. Trying to comfort her, she guessed. They were both picked up and settled on someone's lap, said person hugging them both tightly and whispering apologies in her ear. She looked up to see Greg, tears running down his face and guilt practically engraved in the lines of his expression.
Amethyst cried harder, and dimly she thought she heard Steven begin to sniffle. She looked up to check and was confused that despite him using a pretty impressive kicked puppy dog look on her, he wasn't the one crying.
But Hari's back was facing them and it looked she was wiping at her eyes hurriedly. Amusement flared up in Amethyst and she began snorting, hands moving to her mouth in an effort to stop her laughter.
"Dude, are you crying?"
"Wha-? N-No! Your crying! I'm doing fine!"
Amethyst just comtinued laughing in response.
