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Steven Universe: Poofed

Chapter Two: Daily Routine

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"Wow Steven... How come you never told me about this song before?" Connie questioned. Steven rest the ukulele down on the bed, and he grabbed the phone from the floor.

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that I care about you... A lot. I've felt this way ever since we first met, and it's why you're one of my closest friends," Steven said with confidence. He let out a sigh of relief. It felt good to finally get those emotions off of his chest.

"So... What you said earlier..?" Connie trailed off hoping he would complete the thought. Steven just chuckled a little. "You should be heading back to class."

"No! Steven, this is important! You have to tell me!" Connie exclaimed loud enough to make the speakers on Steven's phone peak. A muffled yell could be heard from Connie's end. "I'm sorry sir!" He heard Connie yell back. A quick sigh came from her side. "Please Steven... I need to know."

"Call me back tonight and I'll give you a definite answer, okay?" Steven replied in a warm tone. "Okay!" Connie exclaimed loudly again. "I'll call you at nine tonight, okay?"

"Sounds good to me." Steven looked up at his digital Cookie Cat clock which read '9:44 AM'. "Wait, nine my time or your time?"

"My time, that'll probably be three o' clock for you... I think... It might be four..." A few moments of silence before a small giggle came from Connie. "You couldn't tell but I just shrugged."

"I'll picture it in my head... And done!" He chuckled slightly. "Go back to class now, I'm sure your professor is about to start searching for you."

"Oh, I wasn't gone that long... Wait, fifteen minutes!? Oh gosh, okay, I'll call you later Steven! Bye!" She frantically said.

"Talk to you later Connie," Steven said as he hung up the phone call. He quickly flopped onto his bed and grinned to himself. Before, talking to Connie would always put him in a good mood. However, these days it would rarely happen, so it was a welcome change in emotion. Steven got up from the bed and headed to the kitchen, where he began to lift the baskets containing Pearl's gem, and both of Garnet's, placing them back in front of his television. "Hm, what do you guys wanna watch… Let's see…" Steven flipped through several channels until he found one playing a marathon of Lonely Blade movies. "Here, you guys watch this as I go make breakfast!"

The gemstones didn't say anything in response.

Steven quickly hopped back down to the kitchen, where the basket containing Amethyst's gem still sat, and opened up a few cupboards, pulling some boxes of ingredients out. Pancake batter, maple syrup, a bag of popcorn kernels, a can of whipped cream, and a single strawberry.

"It's been a while since we've had one of these, right?" Steven asked the purple gem. As expected, there was no response. He began pouring the pancake batter into a waffle maker where they made a satisfying sizzling noise. Popping open the microwave, he set a bag of popcorn kernels to pop for two minutes, and watched the bag inside spin, mentally counting how many pops he heard. Once it finished, he quickly opened the bag, allowing the popcorn to cool off. Soon the entire house smelled of freshly made waffles, and Steven placed a stack of four of them onto a plate. The next step was to drown them in maple syrup, which is exactly what he did. He took the bag of popcorn, and sprinkled most of it on top of the waffles. "Time for the final touches," He said to himself as he pulled out the can of whipped cream. It took a few shakes for the cream to finally emerge from the can, but once it did, he sprayed it on the top stack. Finally, Steven bent down lower to be on the same level as the whipped cream. Very delicately, he placed the strawberry in the dead center of the fluffy white cream. "Perfect." He smiled at the completed meal, and set it down in on the countertop, right next to Amethyst's basket. "I know this is supposed to be a meal for all of us, but considering you're the only one who actually likes food, I figured I'd share with you," Steven told the gem. He reminisced over some thoughts. "I remember when I first tried making this with you and the others, you went absolutely crazy for it! Then I was traveling through all of your guy's rooms… Fun times…" Steven stabbed one of the waffles, plopping it into his mouth, and his face lit up with warmth. He quickly shoveled some more into his mouth, even eating the strawberry. "This is so good… I forgot why I stopped making these as often as I did…" He continued to eat until about a quarter of the waffles were left, and he pushed the plate closer to Amethyst's basket. "Feel free to dig in anytime you like... It's supposed to be eaten t-together…" Steven's voice cracked, and he stopped talking. "I'll… I'll clean this up…" He took the plate, had a few more bites, then dumped the rest of the food into the garbage can. Once dumped, Steven climbed up to his room again to retrieve Garnet and Pearl's gems, setting Garnet by the window, and Pearl next to the sink. He turned the on the faucet, and-

WOOSHHH

"Woah!"

The water came out like a jet, and to boot, had shot towards a spoon, successfully drenching half the kitchen. Steven quickly turned the faucet down and sighed. "You always were the one who cleaned the dishes…" He softly told Pearl's gem. Grabbing the waffle maker and plate, he began scrubbing off waffle bits with a soapy sponge. When he was satisfied with the cleanliness, he dried them off, and gently placed them in the cupboards. He picked up Pearl's basket and began walking towards the warp pad in the back of the house. "I'll be back later guys, it's time for me to do some training with Pearl!"

Silence.

Steven warped himself to the arena where most of their training had been done, only now stood three training dummies, made of sandbags and broken pieces of armor, each dummy varying in size. Steven picked up his sword which he had left on the bleachers the day before, and set Pearl's basket down on the ground. Steven walked up to the largest training dummy (roughly the same size as Jasper), and bowed. "Just like you taught me…" He said as he glanced back towards the basket. Changing his stance, Steven quickly lunged towards the dummy, striking it on the torso with a swift sword strike. Quickly he rolled to the left, striking the dummy's right leg as he did so, and thrusted the sword forward into its side. After another graceful roll, Steven found himself behind the dummy, where he summoned his shield.

"Take this!" He shouted as he threw the pink shield upwards.

CLANK!

The helmet previously located where a head should be fell to the ground, and rolled away towards the bleachers. Steven walked up to the helmet and pulled out a stone which had been painted an orange color. "And… Bubbled." However, he didn't actually bubble the stone, but instead placed it back inside the helmet. Walking up to the medium sized dummy, he bowed once more, and adjusted his stance.

"Hah!"

Steven slashed at it three times, before puncturing the sandbag, causing sand to spill out. He patiently waited there, until finally a purple painted rock fell out of the sandbag as well. "You're also bubbled," he told the rock.

With the absence of Pearl and Connie, Steven took it upon himself to train in sword fighting, should there be a situation that called for it. He continued to train for the next hour before finally taking a break and sitting on the bleachers.

"Whew!" Steven wiped sweat off of his forehead. "My skills aren't comparable to you or Connie, but I'd say I'm pretty decent having taught myself." He stared up into the sky as he spoke, thinking of the times he watched Connie train. "I guess it's not all me though. My form would probably be all wrong if it hadn't been for your song… Stance wide, body lowered. Balance is the key…"

Steven didn't say anything else, but instead picked up the basket and walked towards the edge of the arena ruins. He stared out into the vast sky before setting the basket down next to him as he took a seat, letting his feet dangle over the edge. His mind began to race once more, filling itself with negative thoughts.

"Just relax Steven…" He thought to himself. "Clear your mind… Clear your mind…" He closed his eyes, and one by one, each thought in Steven's mind vanished, allowing him to think clearly.

…

"So how long will it take her to regenerate? Five minutes? Ten minutes?" A much younger Steven asked both Garnet and Amethyst. He held Pearl's gem in his hands, and looked up at the two with a brightened expression. They both frowned, and Garnet placed a hand on Steven's shoulders.

"We can never be certain how long it will take a gem to regenerate. It can take up to a few hours to even weeks. Pearl especially likes to take her time," Garnet firmly stated to Steven. His expression quickly turned sad again.

"W-Weeks!? I can't wait that long! Who's gonna cook for me!? I'm gonna staaaarve!" Small tears started to form in Steven's eyes, but Amethyst quickly stepped in.

"Hey, hey! I can cook for you! Besides, now we won't have to deal with Pearl's constant bossiness for a while! We're gonna have so much fun!" She playfully punched Steven on the arm, causing him to chuckle a little.

"Ha… You're a terrible cook Amethyst…" He wiped away the small tear droplet at his eye, and looked down at Pearl's gem. "So… What do we do with her gem?"

"Just find somewhere safe for now. She'll need a good spot to regenerate," Garnet added.

"Oh, oh! I know what we can do!" Steven quickly hopped from foot to foot as he got an idea. Amethyst gave him a puzzled look, meanwhile Garnet's expression didn't change.

The three warped back to the house, and Steven quickly ran up to the closet below the stairs, rummaging through its contents. "It's around here somewhere… Ah, found it!" He ran out of the closet holding a straw basket and some purple cloth, setting the two down on the kitchen countertop.

"Uh, what's that for?" Amethyst asked, plopping herself down onto the couch.

"It's so that we can keep Pearl's gem safe!" Steven exclaimed as he neatly placed the purple cloth inside the basket. Once it was finished, he gently set down the gem onto the cloth. "There! Oh, there's just one more thing!" He sprinted up the stairs and unplugged the lamp that sat on his bedside table, and placed it next to the basket, shining the light directly on it. A snort could be heard from Amethyst.

"A lamp? She's not a bird Steven, hahaha!" Amethyst laughed.

"That's debatable." Garnet adjusted her visor.

"I'm just trying to keep her warm, gimme a break!" Steven threw his hands into the air, before his attention diverted back to the warp pad. "Uh… Guys? What's that doing here?"

"DO YOU WISH TO ENGAGE IN COMBAT?" A Holo-Pearl asked from the warp pad.

"I guess it followed us here."

"That thing is like, really creepy. I don't want it hanging around the house!" Amethyst exclaimed, sitting up from the couch.

"I have a solution." Garnet walked over to the closet, pulled out a tablecloth, and threw it over Holo-Pearl. "Out of sight, out of mind."

"DO YOU WISH TO ENGAGE IN COMBAT?" Holo-Pearl said, very muffled.

"Well, almost…" Garnet added.

…

Steven opened his eyes, and when he did, he noticed he was clutching Pearl's gem close to his body. Once he realized this, he quickly set the gem back down inside, and sighed. Picking up the basket, he walked towards the warp pad, and warped back to the house.

"I'm back!" Steven called into the house. He grabbed Amethyst's basket, placing it on the couch, along with Pearl. "I'll give you two something to read. Let's see…" He examined various books on the table before finding one that caught his interest. "Oh, how about this one? It's a newest issue of Voyager Jupiter! It's about these regular students who get the power to turn into Voyagers, and they save Earth from evil forces! Here, I'll set it down here for you." He placed the book in between both baskets, and looked over at Garnet's basket. "I know exactly what we're gonna do today…" Steven grabbed a bag of quarters from the table and picked up the basket. "I know it's been a while since we went into town, but I suppose we could change things up a little. Marathoning movies gets old after a while, don't ya think?" There was no response, but he chuckled to himself anyway.

Steven ran down the porch stairs, and ran along the beach. The air was cool and felt refreshing, as opposed to the semi-muggy environment of the house. The end of the beach drew near, and the path slowly started turning into road.

"Steven? Is that you?" A female voice called. Steven quickly turned on his heel to see who called him, and saw the face of Sadie. "Steven! It's been such a long time since I've seen you in town!" She quickly started walking towards him.

"Oh, h-hi! Hi Sadie! Hi!" Steven stammered nervously. "How- How have you been…"

Sadie looked a little confused by the way Steven was acting, but smiled anyway. "I've been pretty good! Things have been going pretty well at my new job, and now I can actually afford food that isn't ramen."

"Oh… I didn't know you got a new…" Steven trailed off as he began thinking to himself. "How long have I actually been away from town?" He wondered.

"Oh, yeah, I work at an actual business now! I mean, I only do filing but hey! It's something!" Sadie said happily. "How have you been Steven?"

"I've been pretty… Pretty good. I'm heading to the arcade right now with Garnet." He gripped the basket he was holding a little bit tighter. Sadie glanced down at the basket and the contents it held, and her smile faded into an expression of concern. "Are you doing okay Steven?"

"I'm doing fine Sadie," Steven said, sounding almost annoyed. "Anyway, I should be going now. Maybe I'll see you later."

Sadie was a bit surprised before giving Steven a disheartening look. "O-Oh… Well okay then. You should stop by my house some time… We could maybe watch a movie some time?"

The guilt was already eating Steven up from the inside. "I'll think about that offer. I'll see ya later." Steven turned around and began making his way to the boardwalk, leaving Sadie behind. She watched as Steven walked off, before resuming with her business.

Steven finally reached the section of the boardwalk which Funland Arcade was located. He walked into the dark building which housed many arcade machines, and felt a sense of nostalgia. Almost nothing in the arcade changed in the years it had been open, aside from the machines that needed to be replaced after being destroyed by Steven in one way or another. Nine lifetime bans and counting. Steven walked up to one of the two-player arcade machines, set the basket down on a seat, and pulled out his bag of quarters. He looked up to examine the machine he was stationed at, and read 'Soundtrack Attack' at the top of the cabinet. On each side of the machine were two plastic guitars with multi colored buttons at the ends.

"PLAYER ONE, READY!" The machine boomed as Steven inserted two quarters, and he prepared to insert two more. "PLAYER TWO, READY!"

Steven picked up two of the plastic guitars on each side, setting one down in front of the basket, as well as grabbing one for himself. He pushed a button on the cabinet, and on the screen ran the names of a few songs before selecting one at random.

"It's been a while since I've played this, hopefully I'm not too rusty…" Steven told the basket.

"READY… START!" The machine began playing music, and multiple notes began coming down from the top of the screen. Steven pressed each button on the plastic guitar accordingly to the multicolored notes which came up on screen. With every note successfully hit, the words 'Great!' and 'Amazing!' would appear on the left half of the split screen. On the right half however, no notes were being hit at all, and the words 'Bad!' and 'Miss!' appearing on screen. Steven seemed all to focused on hitting the notes to notice however. Once the music started to fade away and the scores began to display onscreen, Steven let out a sigh of relief and placed the plastic guitar back on its stand. "Okay! Let's see how we did…" He examined the scores carefully. "…Okay! I got three hundred seventy-six out of the three hundred ninety-two notes, and Garnet you got… Zero." Steven's face didn't seem very surprised, but he tried to make his tone sound sincere. "Maybe you'll do better on the next round!" He was about to insert more quarters into the machine until he felt a large hand on his shoulder.

"Steven! Been a while since I've seen you here!" An energetic voice boomed. Steven turned around to see the large figure of Mr. Smiley.

"M-Mr. Smiley!" Steven exclaimed in a surprised tone. "I'm not still banned am I?"

"Oh, no! Forget about all those bans! Heck, forget about paying! You did kind of have a hand in saving our world, ain't that right?" He slapped Steven on the back and gave his usual booming laugh.

"Yeah, I g-guess I did…" Steven sheepishly replied. "I really should be paying for these games though Mr. Smiley." He was about to insert more quarters into the machine, but Mr. Smiley covered the slot with his hand. "A hero like you shouldn't be stuck behind a paywall to play his favorite games!"

"I don't feel like a hero…" Steven softly muttered. Mr. Smiley's smile dimmed a little bit. "Of course you are! If it weren't for you-"

"No!" Steven snapped, which caught Mr. Smiley off guard. "I'm not a hero! I couldn't even protect the ones that mattered most in my life!" His voice cracked as he screamed.

"Steven…"

"And I don't need your pity! I don't want everybody feeling so sorry for me! Most of you didn't even like me until some evil gems kicked down the door, and I was the one to drive them away!" Some tears began to stream down Steven's face as he continued to scream. All the anger building up inside of him was being let loose. Mr. Smiley was at a loss for words, never had he actually ever seen Steven get anything as much as a little frustrated at a game, let alone as mad as he was. Before he could come up with any response, Steven had already grabbed his basket and stormed out of the arcade. Now running with tears blurring his vision, he made his way off the boardwalk and back onto the beach, where he eventually collapsed to his knees. He placed the basket in front of him, and tears began streaming at a very rapid rate.

"Why won't you come back to me!?" Steven wailed. His tone was a mixture of anger and sadness. "I miss you guys so much…" He picked up Ruby's gem, which felt cool on his hands.

Steven hated it.

Ruby's gem was always usually too hot for him to hold for extended periods of time. He kissed the gem before placing it back in the basket. Steven was about to pick up Sapphire's gem, expecting it to be about the same temperature. Her gem was always cold, almost as if he was holding an ice cube. When he did pick it up however, it was cold. This caught Steven by surprise, and he noticed a small layer of frost forming around the gem.

"S-Sapphire..?" Steven leaned in close and kissed the gem. The second his lips met its surface-

"St-v-n! -w –av- -u b-?"

"-ow, th—k-!"

"-ap-!"

Several images rapidly cycled through Steven's head, but he couldn't make out any of it. "Something… Something red? There's a green thing…" Steven tried to process the images as they played through his head. "Something tall… Focus Steven!" He tried concentrating hard enough to focus on at least one of the images. It seemed hopeless until his mind froze on a clear picture.

"The silo at the barn!"

The images abruptly stopped, and Steven looked down in amazement at Sapphire's gem. It began rising back up in temperature, losing its cold feel. "No, no! Sapphire!" Steven kissed her gem again, hoping to trigger the images again. He repeatedly did so but nothing happened. Her gem finally reached the same temperature Ruby's was. Steven took a moment to process what had just happened, before smiling.

"Future vision…"

There was a sign of hope.

Steven began laughing to himself, before quickly grabbing the basket and darting towards the direction of the barn. For once in a long time, Steven felt extremely happy. He jumped up into the air, floating about thirty feet up into the air.

"My floating powers! I forgot all about these!" The skipped from foot to foot, gaining higher altitude every time he jumped. He continued to laugh as he made his way to the barn, but more tears began falling down his face. This time however, they were tears of happiness.

…