Staring was rude, but Steven couldn't help it. Not only had Pearl served herself a plateful of omelettes, but she was actually eating them. Well, taking small nibbles, but still.

Pearl caught his gaze, and Steven blushed. "It's delicious, Steven," she said, taking another minuscule bite.

He puffed out his chest and grinned at her. "The secret ingredient is love."

Their conversation was abruptly cut off by the opening of the front door.

Amethyst shuffled inside, her shoulders drooping with exhaustion. "Ugh, I thought they'd never leave."

"They'll be back." Garnet adjusted her visor and grimaced. "Soon."

Dad was speaking with the other human who's name he still didn't know. Their voices were too low to make anything out for sure, but Steven got the distinct feeling they were talking about him. Every few seconds their gazes would dart over to him before snapping away just as quickly.

It was during one of these moments when Steven met the strangers gaze, and he instantly froze.

Something about her eyes, and the way she was looking at him—with barely concealed worry, was strangely familiar. Had they met before? No, that couldn't have been true. He knew everybody that lived in Beach City, and he had never seen her before.

A low and buzzing static slowly filled his head, drowning out the world around him until all he could focus on was the pair of piercing brown eyes staring at him. Where had he seen her before?

A memory danced at the edge of his mind, desperately trying to make itself known, but just outside of his reach. The harder he tried, the louder the static in his head seemed to grow. Stainless steel bended, his knuckles turning white as he squeezed the fork in a death-grip.

Then, Pearl stood, her chair scraping against the floor, and—like a spell being broken—the buzzing static stopped. Steven tore his gaze away from the girl and pretended to focus on his plate of half-eaten omelette, all the while his heart thudded violently against his chest.

What had that been? Some sort of new gem power he had yet to discover maybe? Except, none of his powers had ever felt quite like that before. He risked a glance in the direction of the small group, relaxing when the buzzing failed to return.

Dad's face was set in a deep frown, and the stranger scowled at the gems. Unfazed, Garnet uttered something that made the room go deathly silent.

The stranger sighed, sparing him one final glance, before storming out of the house, the door slamming shut behind her.

Steven picked at his food before timidly asking, "Who was that?"

Pearl had been rather tight lipped, so he wasn't expecting an answer, and he didn't receive one. Instead, Dad and the gems stared at him as if he sprouted another head. If he was unsure something was wrong before, all of his doubts disappeared with their strange reactions. What weren't they telling him?

A loud clap broke the silence. Hands clasped together, Pearl turned to address the others, her voice unnecessarily cheerful, "Steven made us omelettes! Isn't that wonderful?"

"Oh… omelettes," Amethyst repeated as if she'd never heard the word before. Her gaze never left his face, and Steven was starting to feel uncomfortable with how intensely everyone was looking at him.

He nervously shifted in his seat. "Is everything okay?"

His question seemed to snap everyone out of the daze they were in. Nervous grins replaced the confused frowns on their faces. Slowly, almost reluctantly, Dad and the gems shuffled over to the dining table, each of them taking a seat in one of the empty chairs.

Amethyst reached over, as if to give him a hug, but seemed to think better of it and swiped Pearl's plate of food instead. In one large bite the omelettes, along with the plate, were gone. She let out a long belch, patting her stomach in satisfaction, and gave him a thumbs up. "Tastes great, dude."

Pearl shot Amethyst a disapproving look, but otherwise remained silent. Weird, she almost looked amused by Amethyst's antics.

"So..." Dad began after a beat of silence. He drummed his fingers against the wooden table and looked like he was trying his hardest not to stare at him. "How are you feeling, Schtu-ball?"

Steven raised a brow at the seemingly random question. "Uh… fine, I guess. Are you guys alright? I heard a lot of shouting earlier and those huge gems—"

Amethyst slammed her fist against the table. She jabbed a finger in his direction. "Hey, is that a new shirt?"

He glanced down at his usual red shirt with a gold star and frowned. Why was everyone acting so weird? "I always wear this shirt."

"Well, you're looking good, Ste-man."

"Um, thanks… So about the huge gem—"

"Oh, that!" Pearl let out a nervous laugh. "It was nothing, really."

"But they knew my name and—"

"It's nothing we couldn't handle," Garnet insisted. "Don't worry about it."

Alright, this was getting ridiculous. Maybe he could overlook the random stranger who's eyes seemed to pierce into his very soul, and he could even accept the fact that the gems didn't want to tell him about the towering gems who apparently knew his name, but the way they were acting around him? The strange looks, their strained grins, the palpable aura of tension hanging amongst them—it was too much for him to simply ignore.

Crossing his arms, Steven put on the most serious face he could muster. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?"

Silence.

Pearl, Garnet, and Amethyst exchanged nervous glances, each of them stubbornly refusing to meet his gaze. The way they were able to ignore his presence and carry on as if he wasn't even there was frustrating, but not completely unexpected. He was always the last one to learn about these kinds of things. No matter how hard he tried to prove himself, it was clear that the gems would only ever see him as a kid.

Turning his head, Steven locked eyes with the only person in the room he could trust to be honest with him: Dad. Despite having almost no experience in dealing with situations involving gems, Dad always did his best to explain things to him (even when it was obvious he barely knew more than Steven) and Steven was counting on him to explain the strangeness of this situation.

He opened his mouth to demand an explanation, only to falter at the sight of Dad. He had been too distracted before, too enamored by the renovations to the beach house and too perplexed by the strangely familiar human to notice, but now it was almost impossible to miss. The short and graying hair, the visible wrinkles on his worried face—Dad looked old.

"Dad... you're old!"

Dad winced and let out an uncomfortable chuckle. "What can I say? It's been... an eventful day."

Steven frowned. Eventful day or not, no one aged that quickly. Something else was going on, something that the gems saw fit in keeping him in the dark about. Is that why they didn't want to talk about the gigantic gems? Did they have something to do with Dad's rapid aging? Worse, were they unable to undo it?

He swallowed, summoning all his courage to ask his next question,"Dad, are you... are you... dying?"

Dad barked out a small laugh, the tension in his shoulders easing somewhat. "I'm fine, kiddo."

Steven heaved out a relieved sigh. Good, he didn't know what he would've done if Dad was injured.

"Yo, Steve-O," Amethyst called. "Do you wanna play a board game with us?"

A board game? Did he hear that right? Amethyst wore a bright smile, but there was a nervousness in her eyes that gave him pause. Pearl and Garnet had similarly strained expressions as they waited for his response.

"That sounds fun," he told them even though he didn't really feel like playing. He wanted to keep questioning them about the trio of gems who had come searching for him, and maybe get some information about that human girl, or why Dad suddenly looked old and balding, but that didn't seem like the right thing to do. "Can we play Kitchen Calamity?"

"Of course, dude." Amethyst's voice was unusually tender. "We can play anything you want."

"I'll go get the game," Pearl happily said before bounding up the staircase.

He blinked at their enthusiasm. In the rare instances he had managed to convince them to play, Pearl spent the entire time complaining about how convoluted the rules were, while Amethyst slowed the game down by eating essential pieces, and Garnet—well, he suspected she let him win. If she were really trying, her future vision would make it nearly impossible for her to lose.

"Are you playing too, Dad?" he asked. "If you have to go back to wor—"

"I'm not going anywhere, Steven."

It was no secret that Dad and Pearl didn't get along. He always caught how Pearl's eyes would roll at the mention of Dad, and how she seemed to take every opportunity to criticize him. Similarly, he never missed how tense and awkward Dad was around Pearl as if he was afraid of setting her off. It was because of this that, despite Steven's many attempts at making them get along, the three of them never spent much time together.

"Are you sure? You don't have to. I know you're busy with the carwash, and I don't want to force you to—"

A gentle hand squeezing his shoulder made him fall silent. Dad spoke in the same way everybody seemed to be addressing him lately, in soft, kind tones. "Nothing is more important to me than spending time with you."

The love dripping off his words made Steven's heart bloom with warmth, and suddenly the strange towering gems didn't seem as important anymore. The gems would tell him when they were ready. When Pearl returned a second later, a colorful game box in hand, Steven was brimming with excitement.