AN:sorry this took all day I haven't been around the computer, been out being all social and junk. Anyway I don't own any of Steven Universe and I hope you enjoy. if you see any spelling mistakes or feel like telling me how bad I am at life, feel free to let me know, happy to hear it ^^

Chapter 4-Strawberry fields forever.

Garnet sighed, looking out at the strawberry fields. The sun rising over the rolling hills of the past battle ground. She had tucked Steven in hours ago and come back here to think. She knew it was unhealthy to dwell on the past of what had happened with emerald, but she couldn't help the thoughts that had flown to the surface of her mind.

The light from the warp pad warned Garnet that someone was coming to visit her. She looked up to see Pearl walking towards her. Pearl smiled at her as she sat in the grass beside her

"Its beautiful right now" Pearl said softly looking slightly afraid to speak with Garnet. Garnet glanced at her and gave a small smile.

"I like how peaceful it is at this time of day." She informed her smaller companion. Pearl nodded and leaned on her. There was a long silence between the both of them while they watched the sun rise. Pearl finally sighed and looked up at Garnet.

"I'm sorry that I opened that box. It would be so much easier if I had just taken the picture from Steven, and taken the box back into the temple." Pearl sighed and shook her head. Garnet glanced at her again but didn't respond. "It would be so much easier for everyone, now all I have done is dredge up old memories and long dead pains for something we can't even fix" Pearl whispered and sniffled as she looked at a particular berry bush rather than her conversational partner. Garnet finally looked down at Pearl and shook her head.

"I'm not upset that you found the pictures, we shouldn't bury her like some piece of trash, or some secret that needs to stay hidden. She was a Crystal Gem and she helped lead us to our victory. She was my friend, I cared deeply for her, and I let her memory fade." Garnet said and let her visor vanish so she could run her hands over her face. "When rose died, we had a painting made to remember her, so we could see her every day. But when we lost Emerald, We hid everything that would ever remind us of her. Why did we do that?" Garnet asked, looking truly at loss for any answers. Pearl bit her lip and shook her head, looking at her hands.

"Rose was different" She whispered, "We couldn't exactly hide Steven away in the temple, or decide we wanted nothing to do with him, so we did what we could to cope. Emerald could be hidden away to avoid any pain. Besides, when we lost Emerald, it was sudden and we didn't have warning or time to cope. With Rose we had nine months to get used to the idea of being without her. So of course it was easier to forg-store away any memories of Emerald. It was far less painful that way." Pearl explained trying to console Garnet whose face was a mix of hurt and anger. She stood and shook her head. Pearl stayed seated and watched Garnet walk towards the opposite direction of the field away from the warp pad, she didn't stop her, knowing better than to try. Pearl knew how important Emerald had been to garnet. She felt a twinge of anger herself and shook her head, Emerald had been important to all of them. Pearl remembered training in this field with emerald.

"Nice kick Emerald, but try to keep both of your sides guarded." Pearl instructed the green gem who nodded and pulled hair from her face, she insisted on keeping it long, but would always get upset if it got in her way. Pearl sighed and stood in a waiting stance for Emerald to be ready to fight again. They had been training for months, and she was getting better, but she still wasn't excellent at sword fighting. She preferred to work with projectiles or daggers over swords, and she was much better with those types of weapons, but Rose had insisted that she train with a sword too.

Pearl looked to the setting sun and smiled. They had been training since the same sun rose. Garnet had long since either gotten bored or needed to do something elsewhere and left. Amethyst, who had taking a shining to Pearl, lay in one of the bushes dozing on and off, and Rose of course was picking fruit-something about offering them to the new locals of the beach.

"Lets go ahead and be done for the night, Maybe we can help Rose pick some of these berries, I'm sure she would appreciate the help, and Amethyst would probably like some pre-picked berries." Pearl said with a soft smile, Emerald's face lit up and she nodded.

"I think that would be fun, better than getting my ass kicked by you anyway" She joked with a small giggle before forming a long dress with multiple skirts. She tied the apron so it made a makeshift bag and turned it so it hung off of her hip. "Ready" She said waiting on Pearl, who simply summoned a basket from her gem. She smiled as Emerald took off to begin picking the large strawberries, and began to pick her own berries. Soon things would always be this peaceful, there were rumors of the war being close to an end, she hoped that it would work in their favor.

"Pearl look at this one!" Emerald called holding one up that was about the size of her palm. Pearl smiled and went back to her own thoughts.

Pearl blinked a small smile on her face remembering the peaceful memory and sighing. Garnet was a little ways away, but didn't seem to be going any further. She stood and walked the distance to the waiting Garnet and linked arms with her.

"I miss her too, but maybe we should pull a few of her pictures out of storage so she can be remembered properly" Pearl suggested, Garnet nodded and looked down a Pearl a thoughtful look on her face.

"I would like that. I would like to find some of her old journals too, maybe later we can find the boxes of her things and sit down to look through them." She offered, Pearl nodded and looked back to the warp pad behind them.

"Steven will be up soon." Pearl stated and looked to Garnet to see what she wanted to do.

"Lets go make him breakfast." She said and turned to walk back to the warp pad, Pearl following arm still linked with hers.

When they warped back, Peridot's old escape pod was hooked up to the warp pad and she was murmuring while she worked on it.

"Uhh what are you doing?" Pearl asked in confusion. Peridot glanced up then accepted a wrench that Lapis handed her.

"Just messing with some of my tech" She explained shrugging. "I think I can make Stevens Video games into holograms for him, I was thinking of doing it as a birthmas present" She said Glancing up at Lapis when she gave a short snort at her. "What?" Peri demanded indignantly.

"Birthday not birthmas" She corrected, Peridot nodded and went back to work on her pod seeming to ignore her mix up of words. Pearl rolled her eyes and she followed Garnet to the kitchen to start on breakfast, taking comfort in the sounds of Peri and Lapis talking while Steven snored quietly in his bedroom. Garnet allowed her mind to wonder while she pulled out the ingredients for waffles. Allowing her thoughts to be consumed by the measurements and steps to cooking. Peridots technical talk for hologram games, and Lapis's occasional commentary being a nice backdrop for the current mood of the house.

For now she would live in the present, she would remember the past later, when she was allowed to sit in silence, when she had a moment to look through pictures and journals of Emerald. When she would remember the days that they had together, then she would relive the past. Until that time she would keep the past in the past.

AN: That chapter was harder to end than I thought. Sorry if it seemed a little rushed. I'm trying to post two chapters in one night. Anyway feel free to leave any critiques, this is the fist flashback based fic that I have really done. Anyway sorry if it isnt that good, and if you have stuck by this long, stay tuned if you would like, I'm probably going to have another chapter up in about an hour or so, anyway im off to write some more. Stay awesome, and stay safe

~Fangy