Michael: I realize that some of my choices might be a bit controversial, but in this AU, Gems actually aren't able to fuse. If they could, Ruby and Sapphire would likely still be fused like in Canon.

Dragontitan: Thank you for the nice words. And I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little sad about the show ending, but everything needs to end someday.

Guest: I might take a couple of your ideas into consideration, and I'm glad you're enjoying my story so far.

The Crystal Gems were currently on a mission in the desert. Steven was lagging behind the Gems, suffering in the scorching heat. "So hot..." He took a water bottle out of his backpack and poured it on himself before falling over face-down into the burning sand.

Pearl ran over to pick him up. "You know, you could have just stayed home while we went to retrieve the broken Desert Glass."

"But I didn't wanna miss out on anything cool," Steven breathed out.

"It's a broken piece of Gem tech that was supposed to help with building stuff outta sand," Amethyst replied. "What's so cool about that?"

"Everything! Gem stuff is always cool!"

Suddenly, the ground started shaking as the group was lifted into the sky by a giant pillar made of sand, which then collapsed into a large, soft pile on the desert ground.

"The Desert Glass is close by," Sapphire said. "The rest of you go and find it while I stay with Steven and keep him cool."

"Right." And Ruby, Amethyst and Pearl ran off to find the Desert Glass.

Sapphire pulled Steven close to her and ran an icy hand across his sweat-drenched forehead. "Does that feel better?"

"Yeah," Steven sighed, welcoming the sorely needed wave of coolness that washed over him. "Thanks, Sapphire."

Then a collosal, winding staircase rose from the sand as it lifted Steven at least 70 feet into the air. The sudden force caused Steven to tumble backwards off the edge before he grabbed onto it. He hung on for dear life, trying not to look down. The staircase rumbled as it began to collapse, and Steven was forced to let go. He fell about 20 feet before he was caught by something midair, and they landed safely on the ground below.

Steven looked at his savior: a large, pink lion with a lighter pink mane that was in a vague star shape. The lion gave him a lick on the cheek, causing him to giggle.

"Thanks for saving me," he said, standing to his feet. "You must be from around these parts, aren't you?"

The lion just sat and blinked at him, licking at his paw before brushing it over his face.

"Can you understand what I'm saying?" Steven began to speak slowly as he gestured to himself. "My name is Steven. Ste-ven." He then gestured to Sapphire, who had been silently watching the ordeal. "And this is Sapphire. Understand?"

The lion pushed Steven to the ground with his muzzle, prompting another giggle from him. "You know, for a lion, you really aren't that scary at all. Especially not with your pink fur." He pet the lion's soft mane. "You look like the cotton candy of the jungle."

The rest of the Gems ran over to greet Steven and Sapphire. Amethyst was holding a small, red pillow with a round, greenish-yellow stone embedded in its middle, which had a small crack in it.

"We found it!" Pearl said.

"You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find and retrieve it!" Ruby vented to Sapphire. "It kept throwing us off by making all these random structures; huge, nearly impenetrable walls, stairs that led to nowhere, argh! It was a mess out there."

Sapphire gave her lover a cooling hug. "I can imagine it was pretty stressful. How would you like me to give you a massage when we get home?"

Ruby sighed while returning the hug. "I'd love that."

"So anyway, I'm keeping this in my room," Amethyst announced, holding the pillow over her head. "Finders keepers."

The lion sneezed, drawing the Gems' attention. They summoned their weapons in case they had to fight the pink feline.

"Steven, get away from that thing!" Pearl said. "It could be dangerous!"

"No, it's okay! He's friendly!" Steven walked up to the lion and gave him a hug, the lion barely reacting. "See?"

"The lion saved Steven's life after he was thrown into the air by one of the Desert Glass's staircases," Sapphire told them.

"Can we keep him?" Steven asked.

"Steven, it's a wild animal," Pearl said. "You can't just keep it as a pet. We don't even know where it came from, let alone where it's been."

"I know where he's been. He's been in the desert! And he's probably spent most of his life all alone with nobody to look after him."

"It's a lion, kid," Ruby said. "I'm sure he can fend himself just fine in the wild. Now let's just head home. I wanna have a massage to wind down after today's mission."

"Okay." Steven let go of the lion and waved him goodbye. "Goodbye, lion. Thanks again for saving me." And with that, Steven and the Gems walked back to the Warp Pad and warped home.


-Some time later-

Steven and Amethyst were arm wrestling on the hardwood floor of Steven's beach house while Pearl was sitting on the couch, reading a book. Amethyst won, prompting a frustrated groan from Steven. "C'mon, Amethyst. Best two out of three?"

"Sorry, dude." Amethyst sat up and smugly crossed her arms across her chest. "I won, and that's that."

Ruby emerged from her and Sapphire's room in the Temple, stretching her arms over her head and giving a contented sigh. "That massage was just what I needed. Thanks a lot, Sapphire."

"I'm glad I could be of service," Sapphire said as she gave Ruby a kiss on the cheek.

Suddenly, everyone heard a large beast scratching at the door of the beach house. Ruby, Amethyst and Pearl summoned their weapons, ready to fight whatever may be on the other side. The door opened to reveal the pink lion from earlier.

"It's you!" Steven exclaimed as he ran over to the big cat. "Did you come all the way here to see me again?"

As if in response to Steven's question, the lion pushed Steven to the floor with his muzzle and lay down on top of him before he could get up.

Steven gave a light chuckle as he patted the lion's side. "I'll take that as a yes." He got out from underneath the feline and stood to his feet. "You know, if you want, you can live here with us. Our casa es su casa."

"Absolutely not!" Pearl gently poked at the lion's nose repeatedly with the butt of her spear. "Go! Get! No wild animals in the house!"

"C'mon, Pearl, don't be mean to him. He's a good lion." Steven hugged the pink cat and stroked his mane. "Aren't you?"

"Steven, you know how I feel about-"

"C'mon, pleeease?" Steven begged, mustering up his best puppy dog eyes. "I promise I'll feed him and bathe him and everything!"

"Well..." Pearl looked away from Steven, she and Steven both knowing full well that she could never say no to him when he pulled that expression. "I suppose we could let the lion stay, as long as you're willing to handle the responsibility of taking care of it."

"Yay! You hear that, lion?" Steven moved the sides of the lion's mouth to make it look like he was talking, while talking for him in a goofy voice. "Thanks, Pearl. I love you."

Pearl smiled as she rolled her eyes, mildly amused by Steven's little joke.

"You're gonna have to come up with a name for him," Ruby pointed out.

"How about 'Lionel Cotton Candy Snugglemane Universe?'" Steven suggested. "Or 'Lion' for short?"

"A-plus naming there, Steve-o," Amethyst remarked as Pearl and Ruby brought their hands to their faces.

Steven climbed onto his new pet's back. "Come on, boy. Let's go show you around." He patted Lion's side, and the lion got up and walked out the door.

They walked down the Temple's sloping pathway to the sandy beach below. "You're gonna like it here in Beach City," Steven told Lion as they made their way to town. "Everyone's really friendly, and there's lots of good food and places to hang out and have fun. Speaking of which, what do you like to do for fun? Lions are just big cats, right? So, I imagine you like to do all the same stuff that cats like to do." Steven began counting on his fingers. "Y'know, like sleeping, scratching stuff, sleeping, chasing small animals, sleeping... Cats really do sleep a lot, don't they? Anyway, let's go grab lunch."

Steven rode his new lion friend to the boardwalk. They walked up to Fish Stew Pizza, Beach City's local pizza parlor. "This is Fish Stew Pizza. Lots of people come here to eat and hang out," he explained. "I know cats love fish, and everyone loves pizza, so I know you'll love this." He was about to open the door before he read the sign. "No Pets Allowed. Guess you're just gonna have to wait out here while I go in and order." He opened the door to go inside before Lion pulled on the back of his shirt with his teeth.

"Aww, I won't be long, boy." Steven pet Lion's head. "You just wait right here and I'll be back out before you know it." And with that, Steven went in, leaving the pink lion on his own once more. Then a seagull flew down near one of the trash cans, prompting him to chase after it as it took flight again.


"Hello, Fish Stew Pizza!" Steven walked up to the front counter.

"Hey, Steven," Kiki, the parlor's cashier and one of Kofi Pizza's teenage daughters, greeted. "What'll you have?"

"One large seafood pizza please. Extra toppings."

"A large? You must be pretty hungry today, huh?"

"It's not just for me, Kiki. I've got a new friend who really likes fish."

"That's cool. Could you tell me about them?"

"Well, he's a big pink lion who saved me from falling to my death while me and the Gems were all on a mission in the desert."

"What?!" The source of the shout was none other than Ronaldo Fryman, local conspiracy theorist and eldest son of the owner of Beach Citywalk Fries. He ran over to Steven and grabbed him by the shoulders. "No way! You have to tell me more about it! Does it have any magical powers? Is it any way connected to the alien Armada? Where is it now?"

"Um, not that I know of, I don't think so, and he's right outside."

"You're not lion, are you?" Kiki's twin sister Jenny happened to have overheard the conversation and skated over when she got done serving some customers their drinks.

Steven laughed in response to Jenny's pun. "That's funny, Jenny. But it's true. Come on, I'll show you."

The Pizza twins and Ronaldo followed Steven outside the restaurant to see a large, pink lion harassing the seagulls.

Steven ran over to try and put an end to it. "Lionel Cotton Candy Snugglemane Universe!" The lion sat down on his haunches when he heard the boy's voice. Steven proceeded to scold him like a disobedient child. "What do you think you're doing? Bad lion! Bad, bad, naughty lion! I leave you alone for a few minutes and this is what I see? That's it. When we get home, you're in time out."

"So, this is your new friend you were talking about, huh?" Kiki said as she walked over to pet the feline. "He's pretty cute."

"Guess you really weren't lion after all." Jenny said, prompting a stink-eye from her sister. "Sorry for using the same pun twice."

"A pink lion here in Beach City!" Ronaldo exclaimed as he took his phone out of his pocket to take pictures of Lion. "I've gotta get this for my blog!"

"What blog?" Kiki asked.

"My conspiracy blog for all the weird stuff that goes on in Beach City: Keep! Beach! City! Weird!"

Jenny snickered. "You're weird, Ronaldo."

Suddenly, a large, strange-looking bird with royal blue and white coloration dove down at the group of acquaintances before Lion roared at it, firing a shockwave from his mouth and breaking it into pieces which fell onto the sidewalk. It was another Rough Gem. Before Steven could make another move, Lion grabbed him by the shirt collar and ran off with him back to the Temple. The Pizza twins just stared after them in shock as Ronaldo took a picture of the Rough Gem's broken remains for his blog.


When Steven and Lion arrived at the Temple, they saw the Crystal Gems fighting an entire flock of the bird Gems, at least twenty of them, from what Steven could count. They seemed to be having some trouble.

"What's going on here?" Steven asked.

"All of these Rough Sodalites flew over here and we don't know where they came from!" Pearl exclaimed as she tried to use her spear to fight off a small group of four of them. "I don't know if we'll be able to fight them off!" She sliced one of the Sodalites in half.

A group of seven of them were attacking Amethyst, who was screaming and wildly flailing her whip around, trying to land a hit on one of them. "Aaaargh! Get 'em off me!"

Ruby then ran over to her and punched a Rough Sodalite in the back, breaking it into pieces, which caused the rest of them to attack her instead. She roared in rage as she became a ball of fire, scaring the Sodalites into scattering in all directions. "I'm already tired of fighting these damn things," she growled to herself.

"Don't worry! I can help!" Steven lifted his shirt to expose his gemstone and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate on summoning his shield. "Come on, shield. We need you."

"Steven, you should just go inside," Sapphire calmly told him as she froze a Rough Sodalite with one of her ice blasts. "We have the situation under control. We don't want you getting hurt."

Then, Lion ran over and batted one of the Sodalites out of the air with his paw, the bird-like Rough Gem slamming against the stone cliff and shattering into pieces upon impact.

"Lion?"

Lion tensed his muscles, his hackles bristling on his back. Suddenly, he threw his head back and unleashed a mighty ROAR!

Everyone ducked for cover as the resulting shockwave caused all of the Rough Sodalites to crumble into pieces and fall to the sand below. Lion then yawned and stretched like the cat he is, and plopped down on his belly for a nice nap on the beach, exhausted from helping the Gems in battle.

When they were sure the coast was clear, Steven and the Gems stood to their feet and dusted themselves off. "Lion, you did it!" Steven ran over to the pink feline and gave him a hug, rubbing his face against his mane.

The rest of the Crystal Gems walked over to pet their furry hero, who was purring contentedly like a happy housecat.

"Aw, who's a good boy?" Amethyst asked playfully while ruffling his mane as if he were a big dog.

Pearl put a somewhat hesitant hand to Lion's forehead. "I suppose you're not that bad to have around."

The group all turned their heads to see Greg pulling his van up to the Temple. "Is everything okay?" he asked as he got out and ran over to them. "I thought I heard an explosion!" He did a double take when he saw the giant pink lion that his son and the magical alien ladies who he lived with were cuddling. "Is that a lion?!"

"Hey, Dad!" Steven greeted. "This is my friend, Lion. Short for Lionel Cotton Candy Snugglemane Universe." Steven looked at his new pet and gestured to his father. "Lion, my dad." Lion got up and walked over to the nervous man to sniff at him.

"Uh... Is he friendly?" Greg asked.

"Of course he is!" Steven answered as he ran up and pet Lion's side. "He saved my life while I was on a desert mission with the Gems. They said he could stay as long as I take care of him."

"Are you guys seriously letting him keep a full-grown lion?" Greg asked the Gems as he hesitantly stroked the top of Lion's head.

"Well, we did decide to keep Amethyst," Ruby replied, prompting a laugh from everyone aside from the purple Gem in question, who just let out an annoyed "Har har," as she crossed her arms.