CHAPTER 4

"Steven. Steven. Steeeeeeven. Psst. Steven."

Steven's eyes felt as if they'd been glued shut. He half-wished he could say the same about his ears, but alas, those were working perfectly and there was no escape from Amethyst's persistent voice. With monumental effort, he forced his eyes open and blinked at the fuzzy purple blur. "Whuusst?" he groaned.

"What are you doing out here?" Amethyst immediately questioned. "I went looking for you in your room." She waved over towards the Temple door as she spoke. "I wanted to see what you'd done with the place, but you weren't there."

"Uuuugh." He briefly contemplated just ignoring her and going back to sleep, but he knew perfectly well that if he did that, she'd probably roll him outside and into the sea. "Gizz'minute. Long story. Just woke up."

"You OK?" she asked with mild interest. "You look like crap."

Steven groaned again and rubbed his eyes. "Didn't sleep all that well."

"Oh, OK. Wanna cup of coffee?"

"Yeah, sure." Resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to get any more sleep right then, he sat up and yawned. "I'll have a quick shower first, then I'll explain."

"No problem." Amethyst straightened up and headed for the stairs. "What kinda coffee do you want?"

Steven pictured the fancy coffee maker his father had brought for them last year. It could make about two hundred different types of coffee and he was far too sleepy to decide which one of them he wanted right now. "Surprise me."

As Amethyst began rummaging through the fancy coffee pods, looking for inspiration, Steven grabbed a change of clothes, dragged himself down the stairs and stepped into the bathroom, where he placed the clean clothes on top of the closed toilet seat, and tossed his pajamas and underpants into the laundry hamper. Then he crossed over to the tub and yanked the shower curtain aside.

Peridot, who'd been lying in the empty bath and obliviously watching Netflix, jumped in surprise and turned to see what had caused the disturbance. As soon as she saw Steven, she squeaked in embarrassment, dropped her tablet and clapped her hands over her eyes.

At the same time, Steven let out a much louder yelp of shock and tried to pull the curtain closed again, but in his flustered state, he only succeeded in pulling the entire thing down with a crash. Peridot flinched at the sound, but didn't dare open her eyes, especially when Steven followed up with a string of curse words.

There was a knock at the door. "You all right in there?" Amethyst called out.

"Yes! Everything's fine!" Steven called back quickly before she could decide to come in and see for herself. "I just… tripped."

"OK. Oh, hey, while you're in there, can you ask Peridot if she wants a cup of coffee too?"

Steven's jaw dropped in disbelief. "What!?"

"I said, can you ask Peridot if she wants a cup of coffee too. Please," Amethyst repeated slowly.

He stared at the door for a moment longer, and then slowly shook his head, carefully grabbed a towel from the rack and wrapped it around his waist before cautiously approaching the tub again. "Um… Peridot?"

"I didn't see anything!" she lied, her hands still covering her burning face. "Is… is it safe to look yet?"

He smiled wryly at that. "Yeah, it's safe. Why are you in here anyway?"

Peridot peeked carefully up at him from between her fingers and then sighed and dropped her hands. "I came in here last night to give you some privacy, remember?"

"Dude! Does she want coffee or not!?"

Amethyst's voice made them both jump. Steven looked inquisitively down at her, and she shook her head in response. "No, she doesn't want coffee," he called back over his shoulder. Turning back to her, he sighed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Sorry. I was tired and it completely slipped my mind."

Peridot gave him a small smile and picked her tablet off the bottom of the tub. "It's fine. Perhaps next time I should lock the door again."

"We'll work something out," Steven promised, holding out a hand to help her climb out.

Once she'd left, he took a long look around the room and finally decided to skip the shower until the curtain could be repaired, and just got dressed instead. When he stepped back out again, Peridot was staring at her tablet, and Amethyst was bouncing up and down in the kitchen. "Here," she said, sliding a cup of coffee towards him. "Banoffee flavor. It's pretty good, I had a couple of cups while I was waiting for you. What took you so long?"

Steven glanced back towards Peridot and then lowered his voice. "Why didn't you warn me she was in there?"

Amethyst looked blankly back at him. "Uh, I didn't think it was a problem? It's not like you haven't used the bathroom with her there before."

"That was different!" he whispered in protest.

She narrowed her eyes skeptically. "How was it different?"

"Well for a start, back then she didn't actually ever see me naked!" he retorted, feeling his face heat up at the memory. Despite what Peridot had claimed, he knew perfectly well she'd seen everything.

"Eh, whatever." Amethyst dismissed the issue with a wave of her hand. "It's not important. What I wanna know, is why weren't you sleeping on a bed of donuts in your room this morning?"

Steven quickly explained his worries about sleeping in a room that could quite literally make his dreams come true. "-So I decided to sleep in my own bed, just in case," he finished.

Amethyst whistled slowly. "Yeah, I see what you mean. So what are you gonna do then, share the house with Peridot? Or should we try the room ceremony thing again?"

Steven glanced over at Peridot, and caught her watching them. She blushed and whipped her gaze back to her tablet, pretending to be fascinated by whatever was on the screen. If it hadn't been for the fact that it was completely blank, it might almost have been convincing. "I guess we can try sharing," he said slowly. "Peridot? What do you think?"

Peridot gave up the pretense that she wasn't eavesdropping and put her tablet aside. "I'm happy to share the house with you if you have no objections," she said cautiously. "After all, it is your house, not mine."

"Nope! It's our house now!" And as he said the words aloud, he felt a small spark of excitement. "We'll be roomies! It'll be great! Although," he added thoughtfully, "you're right, maybe in future, you should lock the bathroom door when you're in there."

Peridot nodded seriously. "Your advice is duly noted. Speaking of which," she continued, jumping to her feet and picking up a bag of tools, "I'm going to go and repair the shower curtain." And with that, she turned and marched back into the bathroom.

Steven watched her go, then turned to find Amethyst staring suspiciously at him. "What?" he asked a little defensively.

"You sure about this?" she questioned. "I seem to recall you having roomies before and it kinda sucked."

"That was different," Steven said once again. "Dad was faking an injury to spend more time with me, and Ronaldo was… Ronaldo. But Peridot's a Crystal Gem, she should be living here. And she's been sharing the barn with Lapis for years, so she knows what it's like."

Amethyst opened her mouth to point out that Lapis and Peridot had their own rooms in the barn, but then stopped herself. "Fair point. I can't say I'm in a hurry to do that ceremony again anyway," she admitted. "I know you were blaming yourself when it didn't work, but I think some of it might have been my fault. Every time Garnet told us to concentrate, I just kept worrying that the Wonder-Nerds were gonna team up to complain about my room."

Steven stared at her incredulously for a moment, and then began to laugh, but before Amethyst could ask what was so funny, the Temple door opened and Garnet and Pearl stepped out. "Good morning, Steven," Garnet greeted him. "How was your night?"

"He thinks Rose's room might kill him in his sleep," Amethyst butted in before Steven could reply. "So he's gonna share the beach house with Peridot."

Pearl looked startled at this statement, but Garnet simply shrugged. "That's a reasonable concern."

"It is?" Pearl shot Steven a look of alarm. "What happened?"

"It was kind of reading my mind," Steven briefly explained. "Which isn't really a problem when I'm awake, but when I'm asleep…"

Pearl shuddered, remembering her own single experience of sleep. "I see."

Garnet tilted her head in the direction of Lapis and Peridot's scattered belongings. "We need to go back to the forest and carry on cleaning up the mess. While we're gone, why don't you and Peridot start tidying up here?"

"OK," Steven said agreeably. He watched the three Crystal Gems step onto the warp pad and vanish just as Peridot walked out of the bathroom.

"Where are they going?" she asked curiously.

"They're cleaning up after that buried gem. Don't worry, now you live here, we'll go on tons of missions together," he added as her face fell in disappointment. "But first, if we're going to live together, we need to deal with this." And he waved his hand at the assorted piles of stuff occupying most of the floor.

Peridot pulled a face, but she had to admit, he had a point. "Most of our furniture was destroyed," she commented, bending over to stir through her clothes. "I don't suppose there's enough space in your dresser for my shirts as well, is there?"

Steven looked around. Amethyst's estimate of six hundred shoes was a bit of an exaggeration, but even so, there were still a lot of clothes. He doubted they'd all fit in his dresser, even if he emptied it completely. "No, I don't think that's gonna work, you need furniture of your own." He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. "We should go and talk to my dad."

xxx

Greg was watching TV in the back of the van when Steven and Peridot poked their heads around the open doors. "Oh, hey you two," he greeted cheerfully. "What brings you here today?"

"Maybe I just came to spend some time with my dear old dad," Steven teased.

"Less of the 'old' there, buddy," Greg scolded. He muted the TV and scrambled out of the van. "Anyway, Garnet called me yesterday and told me about the barn. Sorry about that," he added to Peridot. "So I'm guessing you showing up here today isn't a coincidence."

"No, you're right," Steven admitted, and quickly outlined the situation. "So Peridot's going to be staying in the house, but we need some furniture for her stuff."

Greg's eyes lit up. After years of penny pinching and making do, he still found it difficult to justify spending money on himself, but spending money on other people was an entirely different matter. "All right, where do you want to go? Donny's Discount Warehouse? Pottery Barn?" His eyes widened in hope. "IKEA?"

Peridot shrugged a little self-consciously. She'd vaguely heard of those stores, but didn't know enough to make any sort of informed decision. "I don't really mind."

"IKEA it is then," Steven said at once.

An hour later, they entered the blue and yellow building and Peridot's jaw dropped. She didn't know exactly what she'd expected, but it hadn't been this. She turned in a slow circle, marveling at the bright and cheerful showroom, the displays that featured coordinated furniture and matching décor.

She wanted it all. She didn't care that she didn't have the money or space for any of it. All she knew was that she needed to redecorate the entire beach house right now with reasonably priced Swedish furniture whose names she couldn't pronounce.

Steven spotted the signs at once. "Shield your eyes!" he cried dramatically, and held his hands up to the sides of her face to act as blinkers. "Whatever you do, don't get distracted!" He stared seriously down at her. "That's how they get-"

"Steven, look!" Greg gleefully held up something that looked like a misshapen ice cube. "Tea light holders!"

"Dad, you don't need tea light holders," Steven said sternly.

"Oh, I know I don't, but you guys might," he said hopefully.

Peridot stepped back out of Steven's hands so that she could actually see, and nodded at once. "I don't know what those are, but we need ten of them."

"No!" Steven reached over and put the tea light holder back on the shelf. "We just need a dresser and a wardrobe and maybe a bookcase. That's it. No tea light holders. Nothing else."

Greg and Peridot both stared at him with wide, imploring eyes. "What if we just got five of them?" Peridot asked.

"They're only thirty-five cents each," Greg added.

Steven closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Two tea light holders," he finally compromised. "No more."

xxx

Several hours later, Steven hauled the last of the boxes of flatpack furniture out of the van and placed it on top of the other six, next to the two large blue bags of assorted stuff. "That it, the rest is all yours," he confirmed.

"Great." Greg slammed the doors shut on the remaining boxes and bags. "Do you need a hand putting any of that stuff together?"

Peridot smirked. "I built a giant robot, I think I can manage to assemble a few pieces of furniture," she bragged.

Greg laughed. "Good point. All right, I'll leave you both to it. Bye."

"Bye," they replied in unison. "And thank you for all the furniture," Peridot added. They watched the van drive off across the sand, and then began toting all their new purchases up the steps and into the beach house, which was when they first began to notice a fatal flaw in their plans. "Um, Steven?" Peridot slowly scanned the interior of the beach house. "Where exactly are we going to put this new furniture?"

"Uh…" He bit his lip. "Maybe over by- no, that's not gonna work. Next to…? No, that's no good either." He thought hard, and then glanced at the heaped piles of stuff. "Maybe we should just build the wardrobe and dresser, and put your clothes away for now. You know, clear the floor at least. Then when it's tidy, we can figure out where they should go."

Peridot nodded with approval. "A logical plan. I like it!"

Music was put on, boxes were opened and tools were gathered, and they chatted and joked to each other as they assembled the furniture, Steven holding the heavier pieces steady as Peridot fixed screws in place. And apart from one small incident where one of the wardrobe doors was put on back to front, all went well and soon they stood proudly in front of the dresser and wardrobe and high-fived. "A job done well, if I do say so," Steven said, a little smugly.

"Agreed." Peridot nodded. "We make a good team."

"We do," Steven agreed. He bent over to pick up some of the clothes on the floor. "Now all we have to do is- eep!"

Peridot couldn't help cackling with laughter as the bra he'd picked up sailed across the room and landed on the stairs. "Perhaps I should put away my clothes myself?" she suggested.

Steven's only response was a strangled squeak. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Um, yeah." He turned away, trying to hide his blush, and his eyes fell upon Lapis's pile of stuff. "Hey, I have an idea. Lapis isn't gonna be using her stuff for a while, why don't we pack it all away and put it in my room, out of the way? It would clear some more space."

"Sure, that's not a bad idea," Peridot said agreeably.

Inspired, Steven pulled his phone out of his pocket and began scrolling through his contacts. "I'll bet my dad still has all the boxes from when he moved house," he explained rapidly. "I'm just gonna- Dad! No, yeah, everything's fine, no problems. I was just wondering, do you still have those boxes from when you moved? You do? Great! Can we have them? Yeah. Yeah, OK, I'll be there soon." He disconnected the call and put the phone away again. "I won't be long, OK?"

"OK," Peridot said, a little distracted as she picked up a pair of pants and began folding them up. "I'll continue with this while you're gone."

For the next twenty minutes, she worked quickly and quietly, placing clothes on hangers and folding shirts and pants, placing aside anything damaged or dirty to be dealt with later, when the warp pad suddenly chimed and the elder three Crystal Gems appeared.

"-And then the seaweed strangled it to death!" Amethyst was saying.

Garnet and Pearl laughed uproariously. "Oh, remember that pirate captain back in, what was it, 1790? The one who had a necklace of gem shards? She used seaweed again then as well, didn't she?" Pearl gasped.

"I really though she was going to let him drown," Garnet said solemnly.

"She should've," Amethyst snorted. "The guy was a creep."

"Not as creepy as the one she caught trying to steal an Emerald from the Burning Room." Pearl shuddered at the memory. "Still, that didn't work out terribly well for him, did it?"

Amethyst cackled with laughter. "Remember how she kicked his butt all the way over to the highway?"

"It was pretty awesome," Garnet said with a grin. "But not as awesome as that time she defeated three corrupted Onyx gems at once."

They were talking about Rose Quartz, Peridot realized. She glanced up at the portrait hanging above the door, at the gem she'd never met. Would Rose have liked her? Would she have liked Rose?

"Peridot?"

Pearl's voice made her jump and she tore her gaze away from the portrait, a little guiltily. "Y-yes?" she stammered.

"Where's Steven? I thought he was helping you clean up this mess." Pearl screwed up her nose a little at the clothes still scattered around.

"He's just gone to collect some boxes from Greg," she replied. Then she took a step towards the door. "Actually, I was just about to go outside and see if he was on his way back yet." And with that, she fled before anyone could stop her, taking the steps to the sand two at a time. Then she ducked under the deck so that they wouldn't see her if they stepped outside to look for her.

"Peridot? What are you doing under there?"

Peridot flushed, embarrassed at being caught hiding. "The gems are talking about Rose Quartz," she admitted, stepping back out onto the sand again. "I thought I'd give them some privacy. It's not exactly a conversation I can contribute to."

"Oh, right." Steven nodded slowly. "You never met her either, did you?" He looked up at the beach house thoughtfully, and then sat down on the steps, placing the stack of boxes down on the sand. "I'll wait with you. I don't wanna interrupt them." He smiled a little sadly. "They don't tend to talk much about her when I'm around any more."

"They speak highly of her," Peridot murmured, sitting down next to him. "And it makes me a little uncomfortable because… because I don't think she would've liked me much."

"What!?" Steven sat up straighter and stared at her in surprise. "Why would you think that? She would've loved you! Really," he added when she scoffed in disbelief. "You love the Earth, just like she did."

Peridot wrinkled her nose. "Well yes, I do now." She gazed across the sand, debating whether or not to admit the truth. "I guess what I really meant was… I'm not sure if I would've liked her." She felt Steven start next to her and immediately wished she'd kept her mouth shut. "I-I mean, I don't know! Maybe I'm just biased because all I ever saw was what she left behind! I never met her! Maybe she really was as great as everybody says-"

"Hey, it's OK!" Steven quickly cut in, seeing that she was getting flustered. "Sometimes I don't know if I like my mom much either," he admitted.

Peridot blinked, stunned into silence. "Really?" she finally asked.

"I know, it's awful of me!" He groaned and pressed his hands against his face. "She's my mom! But for the longest time, I thought I needed to be as great as she was, and it was impossible because she just seemed so flawless. And then it turned out she actually had flaws after all. Big ones. And I started to think maybe she had me so she wouldn't have to deal with any of it." He felt Peridot's fingers gently wrap around his, and he squeezed her hand gratefully. He'd never really been able to tell the gems about his mixed-up feelings about his mother, and it was a relief to finally say it aloud. "Like, sometimes I know there's no way she could've known I'd let Lapis out of the mirror, or that you'd show up, and everything with Homeworld. But then I remember how she left me that tape in Lion's mane. She obviously meant for me to find it, which means she must've meant for me to find Bismuth's gem there too. And I hate that she made me a part of that."

"Well," Peridot said slowly, "you certainly have a logical reason to feel conflicted about your mother."

"What about you then?" Steven shook off his gloomy thoughts and looked down at her. "What did you mean, all you saw was what she left behind?"

"I mean…" She took a deep breath, trying to squash her apprehension. The first and only other time she'd criticized Rose Quartz hadn't ended well at all, and since then, she'd been careful to keep her thoughts to herself. But if Steven trusted her enough to admit his feelings to her, then surely she could do the same? "I know she saved the Earth, and freed Garnet and Pearl, and that's a good thing, but… that was it. Nothing changed for the gems on Homeworld. You saw for yourself," she added, staring up at him beseechingly, hoping desperately that he understood what she was trying to say. "The Pearls are still servants, fusions like Garnet still have to hide, and the Earth Amethysts are still mistreated. I know it's the Diamonds fault, not hers, but…" She trailed off miserably. "I'm sorry, I'm phrasing this poorly."

"No, I think I get it." Steven thought back to Lapis, sitting at the top of her tower of water all those years ago. Your friends, they don't really care about other gems. All they care about is the Earth. At the time, he hadn't understood what she meant, but now he thought maybe he did. "The rebellion saved the Earth, but it didn't really do anything to help gems. Not even the ones on our side." He thought about Bismuth and her weapon and her plan to destroy the Diamonds. Quite often, he found himself thinking that maybe she was right after all. Maybe that's why his mother had hidden her for him, because she couldn't admit it herself. "I guess Mom did her best, but she still made a lot of mistakes."

"Mmm." Peridot relaxed slightly and leaned against him. "She did get one thing right though. You."

Steven snorted and nudged her with his shoulder, hoping he didn't look as pleased as he felt. "Shameless flatterer."

Peridot laughed and nudged him back. "No, I mean it! You said you thought you had to be like her, but you've done so much on your own! You freed Lapis, you bubbled the Cluster, you made more progress curing corruption that she ever did-"

"I kept Bismuth bubbled though," he pointed out, feeling his mood drop instantly as he said it.

"Well, yes," Peridot admitted. "But the important thing is, Garnet and Pearl know what happened to her, and quite honestly, as her teammates, they're the ones who should be deciding how to deal with that, not you. Anyway, shut up. I wasn't done telling you how great you are."

He couldn't help laughing again. "All right, you can carry on."

"Good." She nodded firmly. "Let's see, where was I? Made progress curing corruption, gave Bismuth and her teammates some closure, brought your friend back to life…" She paused meaningfully. "Oh yes, and unbubbled me to find out why I was scared, and as a consequence, saved all life on Earth."

"Gotta admit, that last one was pretty awesome of me," he teased.

"Extremely awesome," Peridot agreed.

The fell into companionable silence, leaning against each other as they watched the sun sink below the horizon. They were still holding hands, Steven realized, but he made no move to pull away, and neither did she.

But they couldn't sit there forever, so when the last of the suns rays vanished, Steven reluctantly turned to face her. "We should probably go-"

"We should go in-" Peridot began, turning at the same time.

Steven froze upon finding himself face to face with her. She looked up at him with wide, green eyes. Their noses were almost touching, and those lips that had plagued his thoughts and dreams were inches away from his own, just begging to be kissed. He leaned forward-

BANG

"Ow! Who left this pile of junk in the middle of the floor!?"

They sprang apart as Amethyst's string of curses filled the air, completely ruining the mood. Without another word, Peridot leapt to her feet and ran up the stairs to make sure Amethyst hadn't put her foot through her brand new wardrobe or something, and after allowing himself a brief moment to pick up the boxes and swear under his breath, Steven followed her.