Sunlight was streaming in through the windows above his bed by the time Steven began to awaken the next morning, which he knew to mean it was already well past noon. The events of the night hung heavily in his head as he scanned the room with his eyes. Amethyst was laid out across the top of his bookcase, head resting on a curled arm. She smiled down at him and lazily rolled forward, only to flip in the air and land on her feet.

"Jeez took you long enough, it's not as fun watching you sleep when you aren't putting on a show." She tapped his gem as he stood which drew a weary chuckle through a half-stifled yawn from him.

"Sorry to disappoint." He shrugged and leaned over the edge of his loft eyes moving from the warp pad to the temple door.

"Don't worry." Amethyst said hopping down past him and onto the couch below. "Garnet and Rose went on a mission a little while ago, something about the heaven and earth beetles? So we got the place to ourselves." Steven sighed and moved down the stairs to make his way to the bathroom. Once he was out of the shower he dressed and sat himself beside Amethyst.

"What are we gonna do?" He asked, finally letting himself feel the worry that had been creeping in about the night before. "Rose is doing. . .something, and she has some kind of power over me, and she was gonna poof Lapis with that sword. There's something going on with her." Amethyst waited for him to finish before brushing the hair from both her eyes to look at him.

"Look, Pearl said that Rose kept secrets, even from us, and that most of the time she had a good reason. I'm not saying what she did to you wasn't seriously messed up, but there might be a reason she's doing whatever the heck it is she's doing, I mean she's never given us a reason to doubt her has she?" Steven shook his head, though something about the memory he'd replayed last night itched at the back of his mind, but he did his best to brush it to the side.

"If that's what you think is best." He nodded a bit more firmly and smiled at her. She wore a surprised look as if he'd said something unusual, but she returned a gratified smile. "Amethyst?" Steven began, blushing a little, letting his long hair fall in front of one of his eyes. "Do you think you could train me?" The look of surprise came back ten times before she gave an awkward snort of a laugh.

"Pfft yeah sure." Her form glowed for a moment and she was suddenly wearing the uniform of a military commander. "First thing is you drop and give me fifty maggot." Her voice taking on a thick southern drawl. Then another flash of light and she was sitting cross legged with a long white beard and heavy beads around her neck. "Then we shall unlock the secrets of your inner Chi." This she said in a mockingly somber tone. Steven laughed as she retook her usual form, but when he recovered said.

"See that's what I want training in, you're so good at shapeshifting, and I've seen you take out those Gem monsters, we could like spar in secret and you can be my shapeshifting master." He stood, hands clasped together and bowed his own voice going somber to a ridiculous degree. "If you will take this humble student sensei." Amethyst snorted again, and when Steven stood back to his full height she smirked.

"You mean it don't you?" Steven nodded. "Alright, it's a deal I'll teach you. Steven punched the air triumphantly, at which Amethyst rolled her eyes.

"First lesson is, after you go through some crazy stuff like you have the last few. . .well dang, the last few weeks, is you gotta have some fun, relax and unwind." She shifted again, now a tall purple mustachioed man with a microphone. "Steven universe, you just freed a trapped gem and found out one of your guardians is harboring dark secrets, what are you gonna do next?!" Steven stood there, confused and lifting one eyebrow. Another shift and she was the mirror image of him, and in a silly impression of his voice exclaimed. "I'm gonna go to fun land!"

Smash cut to the two of them standing at the entrance to funland, Amethyst back in her normal form, Steven wearing an incredulous expression.

"Not to question my Sensei but, isn't this kind of. . ." He groped for a word before finally settling on "Frivolous." That pulled Amethyst's attention, a little tear welling up in one of her eyes incongrous with the smile on her face.

"Man I miss your mom." She shook her head and wiped the tear away. "Uh yeah it's frivolous, that's the whole point. You've gone through a lot of junk and you need to get your mind off of it, or it's just gonna eat at you." He was about to argue, then the smell of fried food and popcorn wafted into his nose and his stomach rumbled.

"It has been a long time since I had a deep-fried pickle." Amethyst punched his arm

"That's the spirit, lead the way." He did just that, rushing in to buy a bag of fried vegetables from one of the stands. For the rest of the afternoon the two of them rode the rides, ate food that was too greasy, and played games they had little chance of winning for cheaply made prizes. All in all it was a perfect day at the amusement park. One of their last stops was the house of mirrors, by then the sun was setting and the few locals who had been enjoying the park in the off season were making their way home, so the two of them had the place to themselves.

"You were right Amethyst, I really needed this." He said as he tugged one of his eyelids down and stuck his tongue out at one of the oddly curved mirrors. Amethyst laughed and shifted herself to that the massively elongated legs that had been in the mirror seemed to compress as her own took on their shape.

"Pfft tell me something I don't know." She rolled her eyes. "Why don't you give this a try?" She pointed towards her image in the mirror. "It should be pretty easy this way, you're looking right at what you're trying to turn into, and what's going to end up being there is what you usually look like." Steven nodded and stared into the glass, focusing on the image and concentrated, he wanted to squeeze his eyes shut but didn't dare take them off the mirror. "Dude, what have I been telling you all day? Relax, just shake it out and let yourself do what comes natural, gems shapeshift, and you're a gem. . .kinda." Steven laughed and as he did he felt his legs tingle, and a glow surrounded them, a moment later the warped mirror image looked as he usually did.

"Woah!" He stared down at his modified lower half, he made the mistake of fixating on it for too long and he slammed himself back down to his normal height. Sweat formed on his brow and he tried to get the new shape back but there was only a flicker of light before it faded completely and exhaustion washed over him. "Why is this so hard?!" He ground his teeth, and flung a clenched fist toward the glass, but stopped himself and took a deep breath, letting the frustration pass. "The other stuff doesn't come easy, but I could feel myself getting good at it." He sighed, bowing his head, and letting his hair hang completely in front of his face. "This isn't the first time I've tried shapeshifting, this was better than all the times I tried on my own, but even with your help it feels like something is holding me back when I try." Amethyst returned to her normal form and moved over to him, to brush the hair from out of his eyes.

"I don't think I ever saw Pearl shapeshifting, maybe it's just like. . .your gem is rusty? I wouldn't sweat it really you did super good for your first time!" He turned to her looking hopeful and sniffling.

"Did you have trouble the first time you tried?" She snorted and shook her head.

"Oh no way, I could copy anything I saw the minute I popped out of the ground." He knew something about how gems were born so that didn't surprise him, though his face fell when he heard how easy it had been for her. She quickly held her hands up, waving them dismissively.

"But that's like it really, you gotta believe me. It took me like a hundred years to pull my weapon after Pearl showed me how, even longer before I could fuse with anybody, you're doing real good." He nodded, smiling a little and wiping at his eyes.

"Thanks Amethyst, for everything today, I'm sure I'll get better if you're helping me." Amethyst blushed and punched him in the arm.

For the most part things went back to normal over the next few weeks. Amethyst took him to the kindergarten where she had emerged, and told him all about her time before the other gems had taken her in. They sparred there and practiced their shapeshifting, though Steven continued to find it the most difficult aspect of his training, though one benefit of his human physiology was that he could change the color of his transformations unlike other gems. With his new found skills Garnet and Rose agreed he should be allowed on more missions, which in turn lead him to feel more confident. He ventured out into the town more often, made friends with some of the other teens in town, and of course visited Connie.

Steven did his best to listen to what Amethyst had said, trusting that Rose had her reasons for keeping secrets, but every time he caught her looking worried out of the corner of his he wondered what she was going to do, every time she vanished through the warp on one of her mysterious adventures he wondered if she was going to that odd armory he'd followed her to. There was a divide between them now and he knew she felt it too. He wondered if things would ever be normal with them again.