One shot #1
Steven wasn't sure when he realized that the gem known as Rose quartz wasn't his mother. He loved her and called her 'mom' because she was the woman who had raised him for the most part, the woman whom his father had married and of course, she was the one who had planned to have him. No one had told Steven about Pearl, at least not in detail, until he was twelve. His mother would cringe or have to choke the words out when he asked, and Garnet didn't like to talk about her much when Rose was around.
It was when he was twelve that he realized how different he was from his mom. She loved to eat. Dad would take her out to fancy restaurants in Empire city when he had the money, and though he had been invited along once or twice, Steven had a hard time choking down the food. He had grown accustomed to liquids, so juices and water were fine, but solids made him feel sick. After nearly ten years of trying to get him to eat, they had given up and gave him calorie pills and vitamins instead.
Another thing that separated Rose and him was their fighting style. Amethyst wasn't supposed to tell him, but she had told Steven that his natural weapon was a spear or sword, and that Rose had a shield. If Steven were her child and her child only, they would have the same weapon. Besides that, no matter how many times she tried to teach him short distance battle techniques, he couldn't pick them up. He did his best at long distance.
There were other small things too. Sometimes Rose would love him so much, he could almost smell it in the air. Other times it was like she could barely look at him. Those were the times when he pretended that she was directing that hate at something else.
It was when he turned fourteen that he decided to force them to talk about her. He brought her up everytime he had a chance. He asked Garnet about her more and more. Steven could see the tension between Garnet and his mom, knew that he was part of it, but what could he do? To stop asking about Pearl was to get them nowhere; they both needed to talk about her, because even though she was long gone, she was still there and everyone refused to acknowledge her presence.
Then there was that day, the day when they fought. It had started innocently. He had honestly just wanted to get the picture right. With that one question, Rose had exploded. That fight had lasted less than ten minutes, and even though he had only seen half of it, it still haunted him. He had started it. He was the reason why Garnet was regenerating.
There were still plenty of questions. Why didn't she use her future vision? Why did Rose take it that far? But at least he now knew more about his two mothers, and though Garnet was still mad, he knew that their family would be fine with time to mend it.
One shot #2
Amethyst knew something was very wrong when Rose and Pearl came home that day. Pearl was different. Rose was different. Before she knew it, everything had changed.
Pearl had come home with Rose's baby bump. It had looked fitting on Rose's large frame, but on Pearl, it appeared like a parasite that was leeching away her light. It was like P was barely even there. Sure, she was visible, but she was strangely see through and she felt too soft to be alive.
Rose was healthy looking, almost as if she could go to battle that very day. But she carried a strange smell to her now. One that was achingly similar to guilt.
Garnet tried to explain it to her, how Pearl wasn't going to be alive after she made the baby. Amethyst really didn't get it. Gems didn't die unless they were shattered, and Pearl's gem wasn't going to be shattered. Rose had explained it to her too, many times, but she didn't like to be around her as much as she used to. She had that same sad feel as Pearl did, but without the same smile.
Steven's birth was a quick affair, one that Amethyst wasn't there to see. Pearl had asked for something simple before it was over: one of the swords left in the strawberry fields. It was one that even Amethyst remembered. It was her favorite sword, one lost in the throes of war and left to age in the deserted battleground. The only reason they had not retrieved it sooner was because they didn't have time, and Pearl never wanted to go against Rose's wishes.
So Amethyst got it for her. Even when flying at top speed, it still took her nearly six hours to get it and come back. When she returned, the taste of metal still in her mouth and the feel of air still on her wings, she found a wailing baby, a crying Rose, and Garnet, shivering and trying to hold herself together. She dropped the sword.
Amethyst couldn't do this. She wasn't good with emotions or people with emotions. So she did what she did best: she ran. The warp pad was closer, but she ignored it and took off towards the sea. She wasn't sure how long she flew or which direction she was going in; she only knew where she landed. The kindergarten was as empty as the day she crawled out of it. It was silent and echo-y and felt like home. She crawled into her hole and made herself as small as possible.
She wasn't sure when she woke up. She only knew that it was sometime in the dark hours.
Amethyst crawled out of her hole and looked up at the sky. Where was Pearl now? Was she still in hs gem, waiting for his death so that she could return? Or was she simply gone? Amethyst shook away the thoughts and shapeshifted into a bird. The flight was long and uneventful, leaving her with plenty of time to think about it.
If Steven died, would that bring Pearl back? How long would he live anyways? Amethyst guessed no longer than 200 years, which wasn't that long on the gem calendar, but still...it was far too long.
So Amethyst kept flying and stopped thinking, and for a moment, she became a real bird. And then she returned to temple, as cold and empty as the kindergarten and the illusion that everything was alright shattered.
Okay mates. I dropped all of my other stories to finish this one, so while I'd love to rewrite and flesh this out, it's unlikely to happen for at least another year. A few other one shots may occur, but for now, I've got to focus on Stereotypes, Project insemination and The thrill, not to mention NaNoWriMo. Thanks for sticking with me, and please bear with my mistakes. :)