Steven had told her he'd be pink. That he'd be the exact same hue as Lion. She'd been prepared.
But seeing it in person was different than knowing.
And he had a scar. She wished Steven had warned her, but it had either slipped his mind or...that had been the killing blow.
"H-Hey Sadie. Long time no see, right?"
She gave him a small smile. Leave it to Lars to open a conversation so awkwardly.
"Hey Steven; could Lars and I have a moment alone?"
"OH! Uh yeah! Sure! I'll just go catch up with the Off-Colors. Let me know when you're ready to go!"
Sadie watched Steven run off. It was nice seeing him act like the kid he was again. He'd been running back and forth between the Crystal Gems, Homeworld, and her house so often that she'd been wondering if he'd been giving himself any time to destress.
She'd barely opened her mouth to say something when he spoke first. "C'mon, we should go somewhere a bit more...private. Gems have really good hearing. Fluorite in particular."
Lars led her to a smallish cave-like indention before sitting next to her.
"I'm sorry."
Sadie blinked. Out of everything Lars could have said, those were the last two words she'd thought she'd ever hear him say.
"For what?" She tried to say jokingly. Cuz that's what it had to be. A joke. A really lame and awful joke but a joke none the le-
"For a lot of things. I was a jerk. Took you-everything-for granted. I didn't even help you when you needed my help the most. If I was you, I would have been furious."
"Oh Lars..." she sighed."I wasn't mad at you for running away from Topaz. Disappointed yeah, but not...mad. It was a lot to ask."
"I still should have tried and not run away like a coward." he grumbled.
Sadie shot him a small smile as she gave him a shove. "It's okay. Honest. Truthfully, I was more upset that you stayed on the ship."
She waited for him to smirk back and apologize for that too, but to her surprise, he didn't.
"...Lars?"
"I regret a lot of things. There's a bunch of stuff I'd do over in a heartbeat. But staying on that ship? Coming to Homeworld? I'd do that all over again."
Lars groaned at her dumbstruck expression. "It's not like that whole experience didn't suck. It fucking did and easily up there on my 'worst-decisions-of-my-life' list but-" he sighed "Steven needed me."
Sadie didn't know what to say to that.
"...We actually managed to find a way in route to coming here. We probably could have made it, but Steven...wouldn't have come with." A hard bitter laugh escaped him. "It took me turning into some kind of weird wormhole-zombie-gem-thing for him to get off this planet."
Sadie really didn't know what to say to that.
God.
It was a lot to process.
"Sorry."
Sadie shot him a confused look.
"I shouldn't have...dumped all of...that on you."
"No, no, it's fine. Really. It's actually kinda...nice...that you're being so open about stuff?"
Lars snorted.
"No really it is! If this stuff is bothering you, you should talk about it!"
"I guess..." he sighed "This...isn't how I wanted this to go."
"How did you want this to go?"
"I dunno! Just, better? I guess? Small talk maybe?" Lars groaned and buried his face in his hands. "Not...y'know" he mumbled.
"Yeah. To be honest, I thought things we'd be a little different too."
"Oh yeah?"
Sadie gave him a small smile. "Yeah. I thought things would kinda still be like how they were before Topaz and Aquamarine grabbed us. I'd come here, try to talk you, you'd be a butt and avoid like, any actual conversation and I'd just go home mad again."
To her relief, he laughed a little at that. It wasn't bitter like earlier or the sort of mean, hard kind he used to do back home, but the sort of nice, light laugh he had when he was just enjoying himself. The sort of laugh that might as well be a unicorn with how often she heard it.
"That bad huh? God, how on Earth did you put up with me back home?"
"I dunno Lars. Maybe I'm just a big sucker for that ube roll you make."
He leaned back and laughed at that. "I've only made that for you like, once. Right before this whole mess started. I was a jerk long before then."
Sadie shrugged. "It was really good Lars. Like 'through the powers of space and time' good. One look at you, and I just knew, 'he makes a great ube roll. Stick with him for the ube roll'"
Lars snickered. "Can't argue with that I guess."
Somewhere during the conversation, the two had gravitated closer together and Sadie found herself leaning against his chest.
He was a bit colder than she remembered and his heart beat was god achingly slow but, it was nice. This was nice.
Being with him again. Talking. He was okay.
Different, but okay.
They'd have to work some stuff out. Talk more. Good god would there have to be more talks, she had a feeling the bit he'd said earlier was just the tip of the iceberg. But they'd get through it. Together.
For now though, they were just fine enjoying each other's company.