CHAPTER SIX

Steven had fallen asleep to the pleasant mental image of his girlfriend reaching orgasm, had another weird dream in which he was Pink Diamond throwing a tantrum, and woken up with a sensible idea that was completely unrelated to either of those things. There didn't seem to be anyone else around the house, but when he came out of the bathroom, Peridot was rummaging through the fridge.

"Ah, Steven!" she exclaimed, emerging with a carton of eggs. "What would you like for breakfast?"

"You're gonna cook?" he asked, intrigued. Then he narrowed his eyes. "...Can you cook?"

"I helped prepare that meal for your uncle, didn't I?" she pointed out. "And I've watched every episode of Hell's Kitchen and The British Baking Show," she finished smugly.

Somehow he suspected that might not be as helpful as she anticipated unless she was planning to serve him Beef Wellington and a dozen millie-feuille, but he tried to think of something she could feasibly make. "Umm... how about pancakes?" he finally suggested.

"Pancakes it is," she declared, and turned back to the fridge to get the milk.

To his relief, Steven noted that the correct ingredients seemed to be making their way into the mixing bowl, and the batter didn't look anything out of the ordinary, and he quietly decided that even if the pancakes came out of the frying pan undercooked or burned, he'd eat them. After all, he'd put worse things in his mouth. Amethyst's mayonnaise donuts, for example- "Y'know, I just realized, we never got to eat those donuts Pearl made for us," he suddenly said. "I wonder what happened to them?"

"Don't worry, they didn't go to waste."

They turned in unison to see Amethyst approaching. She stopped beside Peridot and peered hopefully into her mixing bowl. "Oooh, making pancakes?"

"They're for Steven," Peridot said sternly, angling her body slightly to shield the bowl in case Amethyst tried to snatch it out of her hands and drink the raw batter.

"Ahh, bless," Amethyst said, pinching her cheek. "You'll make someone a lovely little wifey one day." She grinned. "Maybe even Steven, if he's lucky."

"Shut up," Peridot grumbled, although she couldn't completely hide the smile on her face.

"So," Amethyst began, poking her finger into the batter and licking it before Peridot could stop her. "Mmm. Very nice. You joining us in the Kindergarten today, Steve-o?"

"Well, I was planning on going to the battlefield again today to practice moving bubbles," he said. "But then I realized I don't know for sure where I'm going to send the Cluster, we never got a chance to properly talk about it."

"Oh, that's right!" Amethyst snapped her fingers. "You were in your weird corruption-coma."

"Steven suggested Mask Island," Peridot piped up as she began pouring batter into the frying pan, a spatula clenched firmly in her hands in case Amethyst came back for more.

"Yeah. We thought maybe one of the Kindergartens at first, but there's always a chance someone might find it and pop the bubble. Even with Peridot's security drones, it's a risk. Sorry, sweetie," he added apologetically.

"No, you're right," Peridot admitted. "The drones are adequate for protecting the drill, but the bubbled Cluster is far more fragile. A single hit from a ranged weapon would be enough to unleash it."

"Yeah, it'd be just our luck if some doofus with a rifle shot it for fun and got themselves crushed to death," Amethyst agreed.

"But Mask Island is, obviously, an island," Steven continued. "So it's a lot harder to get to, even for us. And I'm sure the Watermelon Stevens would protect it."

Amethyst nodded slowly. "I guess that sounds reasonable. Want me to get Pearl and Garnet and tell 'em?"

"No need." The temple door split open and Garnet and Pearl stepped into the house. "Mask Island sounds like an ideal location for the Cluster," Garnet said as she crossed the room to join them.

"Yes, it's an excellent idea, Steven," Pearl agreed, peering over Peridot's shoulder to examine the pancakes. "Turn the heat down a little, you don't want to overcook them."

"OK, Mask Island it is," Steven said. "In that case then, I was thinking I should go to Mask Island today and talk to the Watermelon Stevens about it."

"If they're anything like Rose's plants, they should just obey you," Pearl said, still peering over Peridot's shoulder, oblivious to the smaller gem's irritation.

"I'd still like to talk to them first," Steven said firmly. "I need to warn them anyway, I don't want any of them popping the bubble either."

"How're you gonna talk to them? Are you gonna possess one again?" Amethyst asked.

Steven shuddered. "Ick. No. I was just gonna take Lion."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Pearl asked a little doubtfully. "Lion can be a little unreliable. What if you get stranded there again?"

"Well, I like to think that if that happened, you guys would notice my absence a little quicker this time," he said pointedly.

"I'd notice," Peridot said smugly, and handed him a plate of pancakes. They were slightly overdone, but otherwise perfect, and Steven gave her a thumbs up.

Amethyst rolled her eyes and opened her mouth but before she could say something crude, Garnet quickly butted in. "Why don't you take the gem sloop instead?"

"Mmph-" Steven swallowed and tried again. "I don't know the way."

"Oooh, I do!" Amethyst waved enthusiastically. "I'll come with you! I'm not really much help with the drill anyway. Sardonyx can take over the heavy lifting for a day, right?"

"Sure," Garnet said, ignoring Pearl as she gasped and knocked over Peridot's mixing bowl. "Sounds like a plan-"

"Wait," Peridot suddenly cut in. "If it's this much trouble to access the island, what are we going to do if there's an emergency and we need to get there in a hurry?"

A silence fell over the group as they all considered this. "Could we replace the warp pad?" Steven said slowly.

"With what?" Amethyst asked.

Pearl looked at the wall, in the direction of the temple statue's arms. "There's the one on the statue's hand... it would make doing the laundry a little inconvenient though."

"Ah!" Garnet snapped her fingers together. "We can take the one from the barn! After all, the barn's not there any more and your uncle sold the land."

"All right!" Amethyst jumped to her feet and ran over to the warp pad. "Come on, last one there's a burnt pancake!"

"Actually, is it all right if you guys handle that?" Steven glanced quickly over at his girlfriend, who was now cleaning the mess she'd made in the kitchen. "Peridot and I wanna go for a walk. Plus I haven't actually finished my breakfast- hey!"

Amethyst grinned and smacked her lips. "Breakfast's finished!" she yelled, and ran back to the warp pad, vanishing just as the spatula flew through the air where she'd been standing and bounced off of the wall.

"Oh dear," Pearl sighed. "We'd better join her before she starts terrorizing the building crew." And in a flash of light, she and Garnet vanished as well.

"Bother Amethyst." Steven looked glumly down at his empty plate. "I was enjoying that."

"And I can't even cook you any more because Pearl spilled the rest of the batter." Peridot stomped across the room to retrieve the spatula and threw it into the sink so hard it bounced straight back out again. She growled and snatched it up again.

"Whoa, hey, it's OK." He stood up and embraced her from behind until he felt some of the tension leave her body. "At least I got to eat most of it. And they were very yummy, thank you."

"Really?" She twisted around to look up at him. "You're not just saying that?"

"Cross my heart," he promised.

She narrowed her eyes. "You don't think they were overdone?"

"Well... a little," he admitted. "But I wouldn't have noticed if Pearl hadn't said anything, honest. Here, let me give you a hand and then we'll go," he said hastily, and grabbed a cloth and began wiping down the counter. The work went faster with two pairs of hands, and a few moments later, those hands were clasped together as the couple stepped onto the beach.

"So..." Steven gave her a sidelong look. "You OK?"

"...Yeah." Peridot sighed and curled her toes into the sand. "I'll make you more pancakes tomorrow. Better ones. One's that aren't overcooked!" she vowed, already getting fired up at the thought. "And I will bring home one of the security drones from the Kindergarten today and program it to guard the kitchen area!"

Steven laughed. "That won't be necessary- well, I guess maybe it might be, but I don't think it would help all that much. Amethyst would just take it as a challenge. I'll talk to her and tell her to leave my breakfast alone next time."

"Mmm," Peridot said vaguely. Personally she thought they'd have more success if they just threw a donut out of the window to distract the other gem, but she couldn't be bothered arguing about it. If Amethyst tried to steal Steven's breakfast again tomorrow, she'd just use her metal powers to poof her with the kitchen knives and maybe that would get the message across. "So," she said, changing the subject. "I assume the purpose of this walk is to discuss our plans for the room again?"

He laughed sheepishly. "Am I that obvious?"

She laughed as well and leaned her head on his arm. "No, not really. I was just hoping."

"Well... yeah, you're right," he admitted. "I just wanted to check you were OK with, y'know..." He blushed. "Yesterday."

Immediately, a blissful smile appeared on Peridot's face. "I enjoyed every minute of it," she said dreamily.

"Yeah? Even at the end when I..." His blush deepened. "Y'know." If you couldn't bring yourself to say it, you probably weren't ready to do it, a little voice in his head reminded him. He politely told it to fuck off and leave him alone.

Peridot's smile morphed into an impish smirk. "You mean when you masturbated in front of me? That was my favorite bit."

"Really?" he said skeptically.

"Really," she assured him. "I enjoyed watching you. Which was your favorite bit?" she countered, seeing that he still didn't look convinced.

"Well... watching you." He laughed and shook his head. "OK, I see your point. I guess I was just a little worried because we didn't talk about it outside first. I mean, I told the room it wasn't to force you to do anything you didn't want to, not under any circumstances whatsoever, but still... I just needed to know for sure, I suppose."

"Steven." She stopped and stood in front of him, tilting her head up to look into his eyes. "I can assure you, I didn't do anything I didn't want to, and I'm genuinely looking forward to spending more time in the room with you. But only if you want to as well."

"I want to," he said at once. "Definitely."

"Good." She grinned and leaned up on tiptoe to give him a quick kiss. "I'm glad we cleared that up. So... what do you want to do next time we're in there?"

This time he didn't hesitate. "Everything you described me doing to you."

Her grin widened. "I'd like that too."

"I just hope I can live up to imaginary Steven," he joked.

She laughed loudly and gave him another kiss. "You'll be infinitely better than him," she promised. "But what about you? I want to do something for you. Is there anything you'd particularly like?"

"Um, I hadn't really thought about it," he lied. He cleared his throat a little self-consciously and tried to clear his mind as well. Any passing telepath would've been scandalized by his thoughts right then, so it really was a good thing he was the only person he knew with psychic powers. "Uh... blowjob?" he suggested lamely.

"Hmm." She pretended to consider it. "I can do that. I think. I mean, I've never done that, but how hard can it be- don't laugh!" she scolded as he did exactly that. "I didn't mean to say it like that!"

"Sorry." They started walking across the sand again. "Soooo... when? Later today? When we're done with stuff?" he asked hopefully.

"Later today sounds good to me," she agreed.

"We should probably spend a little time with the gems first," he mused aloud, remembering the brief look of disappointment on Pearl's face the day before. "Like watch a movie or something, just to keep them sweet. Then we can sneak off together."

Peridot wrinkled up her nose; she wouldn't get to see Steven for hours once they started work and she didn't particularly relish the idea of sharing him once they reunited. Still, she could see the wisdom in his suggestion. "I suppose so, if we must," she said with a heavy sigh. Then a thought occurred to her. "You aren't intending to style the room to look like mine, are you?" she asked suspiciously. "Much as I like my room, it seems a little redundant to have two of them."

"I'm sure we can come up with something a little different. After all, the room can make anything," he bragged.

"Like... Camp Pining Hearts?" Peridot suggested hopefully.

"After all, the room can make almost anything," Steven said at once. "No, I'm kidding. Well, sort of. I mean, yes, could make Camp Pining Hearts, but there are limitations."

"What sort of limitations?" Peridot asked, immediately distracted by the opportunity to know more about the room.

"It can't make anything I don't actually know," he began. "Remember I told you about when I tried to get the room to make you so I could ask you what you were worried about? And it just froze mid-sentence because I had no clue what was bothering you. Oh, and when I asked it to make my Mom? I realized afterwards that pretty much everything she'd been saying was ripped from the videotape she left me, because that was all I'd ever heard her say."

"I see." Peridot nodded her head. "So that's why there were artworks in the Louvre that shouldn't have been there?"

"There were?" he said blankly.

"Yes, Truth and David... never mind, it's not important." She waved a hand dismissively. "What's important is that you know what Camp Pining Hearts looks like, so the room can make it."

"I'm not asking the room to make Camp Pining Hearts," Steven said firmly. "Not for this, anyway."

Peridot pouted, but graciously let the matter drop. "What about Hogwarts? Could it make Hogwarts? And Hogsmeade? Ooh, and could it make Diagon Alley as well? And Gringotts?" she asked with growing enthusiasm, already picturing them withdrawing bags of gold and exploring all the shops.

"Whoa, slow down!" Steven held up his hands and laughed. "That might be a bit much for the room! It had enough trouble just making Beach City!"

"But..." Peridot frowned. "It made Paris?"

"It made a couple of hallways in the Louvre and a hotel room," Steven corrected.

"Oh, I see!" Comprehension dawned upon her. "So it's like one of those computer game simulations where things pictured aren't always necessarily functional?"

"Yes! Why didn't I think of that!?" Steven exclaimed. "That's perfect! Like, Paris was just a background and there were a couple of NPCs, and Beach City was an open world and too many character files!"

"So all of Hogwarts would be too much for it to render," Peridot finished.

"Also they have shared dormitories and I don't really want Nearly-Headless Nick popping up to critique my technique," Steven pointed out.

"Eugh." Peridot shuddered. "Very well, not Hogwarts. What do you suggest then?"

"Um..." Steven tried to think, but before he could come up with something, there was a shout from the direction of the temple, and they turned to see Garnet and Amethyst stood on the deck, holding a warp pad between them.

"Hey, come on, you two!" Amethyst's voice floated down to them. "Enough with the romantic beach walk, we've got work to do!"

"Guess that's our cue." Steven pulled a face, making his girlfriend giggle. "I'll try and think of something during the trip, OK?"

"OK." Peridot leaned and kissed him, ignoring the catcalls from behind them. "I'll attempt to come up with something as well, but I think this is more your area of expertise," she admitted, and then turned and jogged back across the sand. Steven followed at a slightly slower pace and arrived at the bottom of the steps just as Pearl stepped out of the house as well.

"Ah, hello Steven," she greeted warmly. "I'm just about to fetch the sloop, why don't you go and get ready?"

"Oooh, pack a power bank," Amethyst advised at once. "It'd be nice to listen to some music on the way."

"Got it," he nodded.

"Oh, and snacks," she added as he passed. "There's another bag of Chaaps at the back of the cupboard. And drinks! It's gonna be a couple of hours and salt water's gross-"

"Amethyst!" The warp pad slipped out of her hands and Garnet only just managed to catch it before it rolled down the stairs. "Pay attention!"

"Me?" Amethyst looked wounded. "You have future vision, how did you not see that coming?"

"Power bank, snacks and drinks," Steven said quickly, holding his backpack aloft. "And I packed magazines and my GameDude in case we get bored."

"Ayyy!" She moved to punch his arm, but this time he saw it coming and took a hasty step backwards. "All right, let's get this show on the road! Ocean! Whatever!"

And ten minutes later, they were sailing across the water, Beach City fading in the distance behind them. Steven opened up the music app on his phone and then put it in a safe place while he handled the sails. Amethyst sat at the tiller, uncharacteristically serious for a change, making small adjustments to their course to compensate for the drag caused by the heavy warp pad.

"Good weather," Steven commented, looking up at the fluffy cloud-filled sky. "How long do you think it'll take us to get there?"

"Hmm..." Amethyst glanced up at the sun. "About... six hours? Give or take an hour."

"That long?" he said in surprise. "It didn't take that long for you guys to get back last time, did it?"

"Nah, that was only what, four hours?" She waved her hand at the warp pad. "But we weren't dragging a warp pad with us, were we?" She lapsed into silence for a moment. "Be nice to see the Watermelon Stevens again, I haven't seen them since we fought Malachite."

"Yeah." He glanced down at the rippling water and a thought occurred to him. "Oh, did I tell you I saw her yesterday? Lapis that is, not Malachite," he corrected when he spotted the startled look on Amethyst's face.

"Glad you cleared that up," she said dryly. "A corrupted Malachite isn't something I really wanna think about. So how is Lapis? Good? Waterboarded anyone else on her journey of butts?"

"She's fine," Steven said, ignoring the latter part of her question. "Not very happy about us planning to cure Jasper-"

"Gee, I wonder why," Amethyst muttered under her breath.

"-But she's happy me and Peridot aren't corrupted any more."

"How magnanimous of her." Amethyst paused, recalling the conversation she'd had with Garnet a few weeks earlier. "But she's got a point, I guess. Cure or no cure, Jasper's not gonna be happy to see us again." She gave him a sidelong look. "She's not gonna be the only one either, y'know, her and Centi probably aren't the only Homeworld gems who got corrupted, and some of them are still gonna be on the other side."

"I know." He sighed and stared across the water. "But I just... I wanna give them a chance, y'know? I know some of them are always going to be loyal to Homeworld, no matter what, but maybe some of them will be more like Centi and realize the Diamonds were the ones responsible for what happened to them. Maybe we could even show them the Cluster. And then even if they don't join us, they might not be in such a hurry to fight us."

"Mmm." For a moment, Amethyst almost told him about the prisoners of war, the ones bubbled before the corruption wave who would have no idea about the Diamonds final weapon, but then she stopped herself. That was most definitely Garnet's job, not hers. "Eh, whatever. Come on, tighten that rope, your sail's sagging," she said, changing the subject. "Hey, last time we saw them, your melons made their own society with houses and religion and stuff, how far do you think they've come in the last four years?"

Steven shrugged. "No idea." He glanced down at his phone and grinned wryly. "Kinda hoping they've figured out electricity and cell towers though, the signal on that island is terrible."

xxx

A/N: Happy Holidays! I will be taking a week off because family are visiting, so I will see you all in 2019!