This is another suggestion by Mr. A F Moroon =) Thanks for all the wonderful feedback, everyone!
Keep the suggestions coming =) These ideas are great, and this is turning into a great drabble fic!
Garnet smiled, and nodded. "You can come, if you like."
Steven's eyes brightened into stars. "Really?!"
"Sure."
Waving his arms frantically, Steven hopped around the bigger gem in delight. "This is gonna be so awesome!" He paused, slowly turning toward Garnet, and gave the bigger gem a serious nod of acknowledgement.
"Thank you," Steven said calmly, "For allowing me to come."
"Your presence on this mission will be most beneficial," Garnet said back, showing no hints of a smile as she nodded back to Steven.
"So, you said we were headed to the plains' temple?" Steven asked, crossing his arms.
"Yes. A monster appears be attacking there. And I need your talents to get it back. Only we are going; Pearl and Amethyst are going to be watching the temple."
"Alright! Let's go!" Steven shouted, his eyes brightening into stars. He paused for a moment.
"Wait, are you sure that's a good idea?" he asked.
"They'll be fine," Garnet shrugged. "Let's get going."
Pearl looked up.
"Could you be a little quieter?" she asked, irritated. Amethyst was wailing on her drums, and cut off Pearl's statement with a long, full cymbal roll.
"I said, COULD YOU BE A LITTLE QUIETER?" Pearl shouted over the noise, looking uncertain.
"Yes, I think you could bear to be quieter!" Amethyst yelled back.
Pearl finally lost her temper, clutching the sides of her head and squeezing her eyes shut as she made her way up the hall to Amethyst. She pulled the drum sticks out of the other gems hands and threw them across the room, watching as each stick stabbing and sank about three inches into the wall.
"Hey, what was that for?" Amethyst demanded, still sitting on her stool and crossing her arms.
"I asked you to quiet down," Pearl said, regaining her composure, "And you wouldn't listen."
"Oh, speak up next time. You don't need to throw a temper tantrum," Amethyst argued back, rolling her eyes. "Can I have my sticks back now, Pearl?"
"Temper tantrum? I am not having a temper tantrum!" Pearl yelled back. "I just want things to go smoothly. Garnet and Steven should be back soon..."
"Oh, for the love of..." Amethyst began, before she and Pearl launched into a bickering battle.
Connie pulled her bike across the sand, gently laying it down on the grass just outside of the house part of the temple.
"Steven?" she called out, hopping up the wooden steps. She listened for a response, and only heard the beach waves smashing against the stone cliff. "Steven!"
At the top of the small porch, Connie gave the door a quick rap, and awaited a response.
Pearl dropped the drumsticks that she had been holding just out of Amethyst's reach.
"That sounds like Connie," she said, perking up slightly.
Amethyst dropped the armchair she had been ready to throw at Pearl.
"Steven's not even here," she stated curiously. "So why is she?"
They both paused for a moment, before hearing another knock on the door.
"Um, coming Connie!" Pearl called back. She turned to Amethyst. "Don't screw this up with that obnoxious...drumming," she said, determined to have the final word on the topic.
"Sheesh, I'd think that you would be more appreciative of music," Amethyst mutter back.
"I enjoy music. You were only making senseless noise."
Amethyst shrugged it off, opening the door to the house.
"Hey, Connie," she said, giving the girl a half-smile. "What brings you around?"
"I just wanted to see if Steven wanted to go to the arcade," Connie said with a smile. "Is he in?"
"Actually, he is out with Garnet at the moment," Pearl called from the upper floor of the house. She had chosen to go and organize some of Steven's things when Amethyst went to answer the door.
"Oh," Connie said, looking down at her feet. "Could you tell him that I came by?"
"Sure," Pearl called back, and smiled. "I'm sure he'll be happy to know."
Connie nodded back, and turned away to leave. Amethyst raised her eyebrows, and grinned mischievously.
"Hey, wait a second, Connie," Amethyst called to the girl. "Aren't you forgetting something?"
"Um, what?" Connie asked shyly, turning back around.
"Usually I notice that you enjoy watching us, especially when we fight," Amethyst said. "What's troubling you this time? Didn't you come with questions ready?"
Connie's eyes visibly brightened as she ran back up the stairs, and Amethyst stepped aside to allow her into the temple.
"A lot of questions!" she almost shouted. "For starters, how are you guys magic?"
Amethyst's gem started to glow as she drew her weapon. A moment after the weapon was in her hand, it disappeared into oblivion, and Amethyst proceeded to shapeshift. Connie flopped down onto the couch, watching as Amethyst fluidly shifted into different animals before finally returning to her normal form.
"It's all concentrated in the gem," Amethyst explained, watching and smiling at Connie's awestruck expression.
"What about Steven? Can he do all that?"
"As far as we know, it's possible," Pearl explained, walking down stairs to the ground level of the house. "He just needs practice."
"What kinds of missions do you guys go on?" Connie continued eagerly.
"Well, we go to retrieve various other gems..." Amethyst began, and Pearl clapped a hand over Amethyst's mouth.
"It's a bit difficult to explain," Pearl said, almost panicking, and Amethyst yanked her hand away.
"It's not bad if she knows now!" Amethyst yelled at Pearl. "I mean, if she really sticks around Steven for very long..."
"Amethyst! I already told you..." Pearl began, but one sidelong glance at Connie told her that she and Amethyst should stop arguing.
"Um," Connie said, breaking a long silence, "What do you guys like to do for fun? Do you like music?"
"I love music," Amethyst murmured with a big smile. She twirled a stray drumstick which she had picked up in one of her hands. "I really love music..."
"Steven has tried to introduce to those 'arcade' games, and also those theme park rides, but I never really understood the point of them," Pearl said with a shrug. She glanced up at the roof. "I mean, I really don't understand how humans do all those things for fun."
"Do you like swimming in the ocean?"
Pearl and Amethyst both paused, and glanced down at Connie.
"Um," Pearl stuttered.
"We don't really swim often. Not for fun, anyway," Amethyst said.
"Do you collect anything? Like postcards? Or bubblegum?"
"I have collected swords over the past few hundred years," Pearl volunteered.
"What's bubblegum?" Amethyst asked, sounding slightly disgusted by the compound word.
Connie crossed her arms, glancing the gems up and down.
"Do you ever see any other gems? Do you have friends besides each other, and Garnet and Steven?"
Pearl blinked back tears at the thought of what Connie had said, but Amethyst kept her gaze steady.
"We knew Steven's mom for a long time," Amethyst said, looking away. "But that's in the past."
Connie nodded, slowly and solemnly, and remained silent when she realized that she had crossed a line.
This time, Pearl was the first to speak up.
"Hey, Connie?" she asked, smiling gently.
"Yes, Pearl?" Connie answered, looking up at the small gem.
"Would you like some hot chocolate?"
Connie simply nodded. Pearl disappeared into the kitchen, while Amethyst sat down beside the girl.
"So," Amethyst said delicately, looking over at the abashed young girl, and swinging her feet back and forth. "You have asked us a few questions, so now its our turn. That way, it's a fair trade-off."
"I see," Connie said delicately, locking eyes with Amethyst. "What did you want to know?"
"Garnet! That was so cool!" Steven shouted.
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," Garnet said with a cool smile. She looked up toward the temple. "Amethyst isn't drumming. She was just setting up to practice when we left. I wonder what's happened." Unconcernedly, the bigger gem calmly walked up the steps to try and opened the door.
"So, what is this 'school,' that you speak of?" Amethyst asked, leaning forward to hear Connie's response.
Connie took a long sip of cocoa, and grinned back at Amethyst. "It's where humans go to learn things, like math, and reading, and science..."
"Fascinating," Pearl said from where she sat up at the top of the stairs. "Humans chose to learn things as a collective group rather than individually? That is quite a socially complex system...What type of environmental pressures are humans placed under in order to reach peak cognitive function?"
"I...have no idea what you mean," Connie said glumly, staring at Pearl.
"Cut the brainy talk," Amethyst said irritably. "It's obnoxious.
"We're back," Garnet announced, Steven hopped past her and landing on the couch beside Connie. "How are things?"
"Hey Connie!" Steven shouted eagerly. "Want to go down to the beach? Or to the boardwalk?"
"Sure!" Connie answered easily. She turned toward Pearl and Amethyst. "I must be going now," she said calmly, getting up and walking out the door with Steven. "Take care!"
Garnet watched the two children leave, and turned back toward her teammates.
"You didn't keep any secrets from her about Steven, did you?" she asked calmly.
"No," Amethyst answered plainly, and in fact truthfully. "But there wasn't much to be said just yet."
"Good," Garnet said. "What were you guys doing with her all this time?"
"Answering questions," Pearl said exasperatedly, tugging at her own hair. "Humans are so full of them..."
"Weird," Garnet agreed with a nod.
After seeing "Mirror Gem" and "Ocean Gem," my storyline for my upcoming fic on Garnet just about exploded, and I know I'm heading in the right direction with that =)
This is fantastic! An obvious and very special thanks to Rebecca Sugar for creating such a wonderful show. =D *nerd gasp* this is so cool...
I'm really excited now, and I also really need to pick up the pace on "Rose Pedals and Moss Mounds."
Thank you all so much!