Dragontitan: Steven is sweet and considerate just like his canon counterpart. :)
Steven and the Gems stood at the top of a hill which overlooked a small field containing a large group of flower bushes. The flowers were a bright pink color, and the leaves of the bushes were a vibrant green, from what Steven could see from the distance they were standing from them. The mass of foliage spread out to slowly reach the base of the hill, where a picket sign reading "Please Stay Away" was planted in the ground.
"What is that?" Steven asked.
"It's a magical purslane that was grown by Rose Diamond," Pearl explained. "She would come here every spring to tend to it and make sure it's cared for and happy." Her gem projected a hologram of Rose Diamond watering the purslane as it slowly grew flowers like the ones growing on it now. "It started out as a bunch of scraggly weeds, but over time, hundreds of beautiful flowers bloomed from its buds. She saw the true beauty in all life on Earth, even when it was hard for others to see it. It was one of the few places she wanted humans to stay away from and now that she's... gone, it's becoming restless." The purslane started to crawl up the hill the Crystal Gems were standing on.
"Cool..." Steven reached out a hand to touch it, only for Pearl to pull him away.
"Steven, don't touch it!"
"Why?"
A small green hummingbird flew over to the purslane to drink some nectar from its flowers, only to get engulfed in its vine-like branches when the tip of its beak grazed one of the pink blossoms.
"That's why," Pearl answered. "The purslane will ensnare any organic life that comes into physical contact with it. Only Gems are able to touch it without being trapped by its vines. Therefore, we are the only ones who can safely tend to it." And with that, Pearl's stone glowed as she took out some gardening tools from it.
"But I'm half-Gem. I can help you guys take care of it."
"Steven, we all think it would be best if you just let us handle it," Sapphire said.
"Yeah," Amethyst said. "It's not like we're fighting a giant Rough Gem monster or anything like that. We're just taking care of a magic, sentient plant that could possibly choke all organic life to death. We'll be fine!"
"Why don't you play with one of your friends at the boardwalk or something?" Ruby suggested as he walked him back to the Warp Pad.
"But-"
But Ruby had warped them back to the beach house before he could get another word in.
Ruby put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't take it personally, kid. We just think you'd be better off taking it easy back home while we take care of Rose's purslane."
"Okay," Steven said as he got off the Warp Pad.
Ruby warped away as she said, "Keep outta trouble 'til we get back, okay?"
He walked over to Lion, who was lying on his side and enjoying the warm sunlight that shone from the window.
"Hey, Lion." Steven sat down on the floor and ran a hand through Lion's soft, light pink mane. The feline cast a glance at him.
"Yeah, I'm home early. The Gems didn't want me to help them with a magic plant that my mom grew. But since I'm here, we get to spend the day together. Why don't we go down to the boardwalk?"
Lion stood to his feet and stretched, his rear end sticking up in the air. Steven then opened the door, gesturing for Lion to walk through. "After you, my good sir." The big cat walked out the door and onto the sandy beach below. Steven followed him and climbed onto his back, and they took off to the boardwalk.
Steven rode Lion over to Beach Citywalk Fries, where Mr. Fryman was standing at the counter.
"Hey, Steven! What can I do you for?"
"Hey, Mr. Fryman. Just the bits as usual please."
"How come you always order the bits?" Mr. Fryman's younger son, Peedee, asked as he walked up to the counter. "Why don't you order regular fries for once?"
"Peedee, why don't you go help your older brother peel potatoes?" Mr. Fryman shooed him to the back of the stand, then gave Steven a paper bag full of fry bits fresh from the fryer. "Are you sure you just want the bits, Steven? I mean, there are plenty of on-menu options you could pick from."
Steven took the bits and put a five dollar bill on the counter. "I know, but the bits are the best part! Thank you!" And he walked off, eating the salty fry bits and licking the grease off his fingers.
Just then, he spotted Onion riding a blue and white moped around the boardwalk, throwing some ketchup packets onto the ground in front of him, and running them over so that they burst open and ketchup splattered all over the ground in a large puddle.
"Hey, Onion!" Steven ran over to him.
The blond boy turned his head to look at Steven.
"I didn't think you'd be hanging around the boardwalk today. So, how's your day been?"
In response, Onion lightly shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, my day's been going fine. Today I went to this hill with the Gems where they showed me this magic purslane, but they didn't want me to help take care of it since its vines tangle up anything organic that touches it. So I'm just here with Lion 'til the Gems get back."
Upon hearing his name, Lion walked over to his owner and sat down on his haunches.
"You remember Lion from the Gems' birthday party, don't you? Speaking of which, how did you like it? Did you have fun?"
Onion ignored Steven's question and held out his hand, his palm facing upwards.
"What?" Steven looked at his bag of fry bits. "Do you want my fry bits?"
Onion nodded his head yes.
"Well, here you go. I wasn't that hungry anyway." Steven handed the greasy bag over to him. And with that, Onion rode off in the other direction.
"Onion! Where are you going?" Steven ran after him, and Lion just lay down to take a nap.
Onion kept riding his moped until he reached the docks, jumping off and letting it fall into the ocean.
"Wait!" Steven stopped behind him. "Onion, what are you doing?"
Onion, facing the water, dug his hand in the bag, took out a handful of fry bits, and tossed them into the water.
Steven sighed as he watched Onion throw away all the fry bits in the bag. "So, it isn't just cake you like to throw into the ocean, huh, Onion?"
Just then, Steven saw a fishing boat approaching the dock they were standing on. A pale, thick-bearded man in a yellow rain slicker and hat came onto the dock. Onion ran over to the man and gave him a hug. The man picked him up and mumbled unintelligibly at him, with Onion mumbling back, apparently sharing a conversation with the older man. The man put him back down and got back on the boat, sailing off to the distant horizon. Onion waved him goodbye.
"Was that your dad?" Steven asked him, prompting Onion to nod yes in response.
"It seems like you don't get to see him very often, huh?"
Onion nodded again.
"Do you get bored waiting for him to come home?"
Onion nodded a third time.
"Well why don't we hang out and have some fun for a little while? Make today an Onion day?"
Onion nodded once more, this time more enthusiastically.
"Okay! Just lead me to whatever you think seems like fun, and we'll do it!"
Onion grabbed Steven by the hand and led him away from the docks.
After a few minutes of walking, they eventually made their way to Funland Arcade.
"Funland Arcade?" Steven rubbed the back of his head. "I kinda got banned from there after Ruby set the place on fire."
"Hey!" Steven jumped when he heard the voice of Mr. Smiley from behind him. He and Onion turned around to see him scowling down at them. "Steven, I thought I told you and your Crystal friends you were banned from Funland Arcade for the rest of the year! And you!" He pointed at Onion. "If you try to steal tickets from the arcade machines again, I'm gonna have to call the authorities."
"Sorry, Mr. Smiley. We'll just be over at the amusement park part of Funland." Steven and Onion began walking away before the older man grabbed Onion by the back of his shirt.
"Oh, no you don't!" Mr. Smiley turned to Steven as he pointed at Onion. "This li'l rascal here is banned from Beach City Funland after he dismantled the Teacup ride with a monkey wrench a few months back!"
Steven looked at Onion in surprise. "So that was you who caused the incident with the Teacups?"
Onion shrugged, as if to say "What can I say?"
Mr. Smiley put Onion back down on the ground. "Now you two kids better skedaddle before one of you inevitably causes more damage to my property."
Steven and Onion went down to the downtown area of Beach City.
"Sounds like you built something of a reputation, huh, Onion? Maybe we should find something to do that doesn't involve stealing or breaking stuff."
As they were walking around, Steven looked around for something that was fun, and didn't break the law. Window shopping? No, that didn't sound like something Onion would like. Besides, Steven probably couldn't afford anything from the fancy stores. Surfing? Steven didn't know how, and Onion probably didn't know how to surf either. Kite flying? It wasn't windy enough. Steven's train of thought was interrupted by a seagull flying down to peck at a discarded donut lying on the ground. That's when he got an idea.
"Hey, I know! Why don't we feed the seagulls?"
Onion just blinked at him.
"Come on, it'll be fun! Let's go to the Big Donut and get some food for them." Steven led Onion to the Big Donut.
Sadie put the half dozen box of plain donuts on the front counter, Steven giving her a 5 dollar bill in exchange which she put in the cash register.
"Are you sure you just want plain, Steven?"
Steven took the box off the counter. "I'm sure. Me and Onion here were just gonna feed the seagulls."
"You're hanging out with that little weirdo?" Lars asked as he was stocking some custard-filled donuts. "I thought you'd be hanging out with the Crystal Babes or something."
"Lars, lay off!"
"The Crystal Gems are busy taking care of a magic plant that my mom grew, and they don't want me to help because its vines will tangle up anything organic that touches it."
"Cool. Well, have a nice day!"
"You too!" Steven and Onion walked out the door.
They walked over to the nearest bench and sat down. Steven took out one of the donuts, tore a small piece off of it, and threw it on the ground for a seagull to fly over and eat.
"Isn't this fun?" Steven asked Onion, who was sitting and watching next to him. He handed him the box of donuts. "Here. You try."
Onion took out a donut and threw it at the bird, who gave a shrill cry as it flew away.
"Onion! Why would you do that? Here. Let me show you how it's done." He broke off another piece of his donut. "You break off a piece of the donut like this. And then you just throw it on the ground." Steven did just so to demonstrate. Another seagull flew down to eat it. "See? Now you do what I just did."
Onion took another donut, pulled a piece off of it, and threw the donut at the seagull, still holding the broken-off piece in his hand. He looked back at Steven, as if asking him how he did.
"Maybe feeding the seagulls isn't for you," Steven said.
Onion looked down at his feet.
"That's okay. We can just go do something else. We've got the whole day to spend together!"
Suddenly, they heard a scream coming from the boardwalk.
"Uh oh!" Steven took off near the source of the scream, Onion tailing close behind.
They arrived at Fish Stew Pizza, where they saw Kofi and his daughters standing there angrily as Lion was digging his nose into Fish Stew Pizza's garbage. "Is this your pet?" he asked as he gestured to the pink feline.
Steven ran over to pull Lion away. "Lion, no! Don't eat out of the garbage!" Steven turned to Kofi. "Sorry, Mr. Pizza. We'll be on our way." Onion climbed onto Lion's back as Steven led them away from the pizzeria.
Steven looked up to see Onion on Lion's back, patting on his flank in an attempt to make him go faster. "So, you wanna go for a ride, Onion?"
Onion nodded at him.
"Well, okay! We can do that! It's not likely anyone or anything will get hurt or destroyed." Steven climbed onto Lion's back behind Onion. "Hold on!" And with a couple of pats on his flank, Lion started running. The two boys rode Lion around Beach City, weaving through the various obstacles and pedestrians as Steven steered by lightly pulling a couple of handfuls of their mount's thick mane towards the direction he wanted him to go. The half-Gem boy hollered and laughed as he felt the invigorating breeze blowing past his face and through his curls. "Isn't this fun, Onion?" he asked the little blond boy sitting in front of him.
Onion watched what Steven was doing and tried to steer Lion himself, grabbing a couple of handfuls of his mane and pulling hard in random directions. The big cat ran faster and shook his head as he growled in discomfort, trying to get the little pest off of him. He kept bumping into things in the process, scaring some passersby who Steven was quick to apologise to.
"Onion, what are you doing?! Stop! You're hurting Lion!"
But Onion wasn't listening. He just kept steering haphazardly in all directions, the world around them having become a blur as they sped by. "Onion, please!" Steven grabbed Onion's hands and pulled them away. "That's enough!"
The next thing they knew, they were in a field near a small hill. Steven knew that Onion had inadvertently taken them to the hill where the Gems were tending to his mother's purslane. Lion plopped down on his stomach to take a nap, exhausted from the long run he had just been on. Onion then ran over to where the purslane was, with Steven giving chase.
"Onion, no! Don't touch that stuff!"
Pearl cut some of the purslane's overgrown vines with some hedge clippers. "There we are. You feel much better now after a trim, don't you?"
"I don't know what you're talking to it for," Amethyst said as she watered a section of the purslane, causing it to shrink a little. "It's not like it can hear you or anything."
"I'll have you know that Rose used to talk to the purslane all the time."
Amethyst then spotted something. "Hey, is that that Onion kid?"
Onion was running towards the plant, and grabbed hold of it when he was in close enough proximity. The purslane then wrapped itself around his wrist, wrapping tighter when he tried to pull himself out.
"Onion!" Steven grabbed Onion's other arm and tried to pull him out, but more vines began slithering against his body and winding themselves around his limbs. Steven pulled harder, but to no avail.
"Steven, what happened?" Pearl asked him as she and the rest of the Gems ran over. "Why are you and Onion here?"
"I was just trying to spend some time with Onion while his dad was away doing fisherman stuff." Steven was still struggling to pull Onion out of the purslane, only for some of its vines to wrap around him as well. "We rode Lion but then Onion tried to steer him and he took us here. I know you said Mom wanted humans to stay away from this place, but I swear it was an accident! I'm sorry, and I'm sure Onion's sorry too."
Ruby growled in anger as she brought both of her hands to her face. "This is just great! I told you to stay out of trouble, and what do you go and do? You do the exact opposite of what you were supposed to!"
"I know," Steven began to tear up as more vines began to engulf him. "It's my fault for letting Onion ride Lion in the first place, now we're probably both gonna die tangled up in these vines." The tear slid down Steven's cheek, causing the vine it landed on to shrink back. "Huh?"
Just then, the sky darkened as it started sprinkling. The raindrops fell all over the field, sprinkling the purslane and causing its vines to recoil, releasing Steven and Onion from their grasp as they shrunk back to their original state.
"So the purslane was just thirsty," Steven said.
"Are you two alright?" Pearl asked.
"Yeah."
"It just goes to show that you should be more careful next time you decide to let one of your friends ride on your lion, Steven."
"I know. I'll remember that next time."
Onion looked back at the purslane. Specifically, its flowers. He reached a hand out to pick one, only to reel it back in hesitation.
Steven walked over to him. "What's the matter, Onion?"
Onion looked up at him, then back at the purslane.
"Did you wanna pick some of the purslane's flowers for your dad?"
Onion nodded his head yes.
"Well, I don't know if the Gems will let you take any of them, but I'm sure there are plenty of flowers in this field you could pick." Steven spotted a lone daffodil growing nearby. He pointed over to it. "Like that one." Onion ran over to pluck it out of the ground. He then got on top of Lion.
Steven ran over and pushed him back a little, then sat in front of him. "You better let me steer this time." He turned his head towards the Gems and called out "Onion and I are heading back to Beach City!"
"Alright!" Pearl called out as she and the rest of the Gems stepped onto the Warp Pad. "We'll make sure to meet you after we warp back!" And the Gems warped back to the Temple.
Steven patted Lion on the head. "Hey, Lion. Do you wanna take us back to Beach City?" Lion stood up, and with a stretch and a yawn, the pink feline bounded his way back to Beach City, the two boys riding on his back.
