Note: Takes place the day after "Restaurant Wars"; four days after "Beach City Drift"

You could have cost your team their lives with such lack of focus! What were you even thinking?!

Easy, everybody! Someone mind telling us what happened?

What happened is that Amber prioritized her curiosity over the mission!

Maybe something spooked her? She was standing there looking out at the field, eyes all wide...

Oh ho, well that obviously narrows down the cause! We're in the middle of a war, Garnet!

You think I don't know that? We've been out there just as much as you! Not all of us are stone-cold Renegades!

Obviously! Both our rising and this planet will wound up a lost cause if we allow these sorts of mistakes!

Then let's figure out a solution to these mistakes so that doesn't happen! Otherwise we're no better than—

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Home?! Why would I wanna go home?"

The golden long-haired dog suppressed her wince at Ronaldo's volume. Schist, this kid knew how to screech.

At least here between the lighthouse and the fence, nobody could see the pair unless they had serious determination—and considering the 'situation' back in town, Amber had little time left before that case became reality.

"I, Ronaldo Fryman, have WAAAYYYY better things to do," the boy flew his arms to the side, offended, before balling his hands into fists "than waste my time and energy on people who can't appreciate the emotional investment demanded by paranormal investigations! After all that time you spent tutoring us, you should know that better than anyone, Sensei!"

Despite time running short, Amber's countenance defined 'reluctant' better than the definition itself. She enjoyed Ronaldo's company and appreciated the blogger's influence on Kurtis, so she had reservations about administering 'tough love', especially with the weariness she could sense behind the teen's outraged facade.

Fortunately, Ronaldo let his hackles droop once he realized the canine Gem would not answer. "Why are you even here? Kurt and Uma won't be back 'til tomorrow."

Reaching into the black backpack at her feet, Amber produced her cellphone and switched to a favorited page of KBCW—the one about crying at Brooding Hill.

Ronaldo's blush would have put Yellow Diamond's shine to shame. The drawbacks he got for publishing his emotional woes on the Internet. Childish whimpers echoed down the chubby teen's throat as he turned away from Amber, fighting back the urge to cry in front of her. He didn't need to see writing telling him to suck it up.

Something tingly dotted his right arm, the hairs there standing up enough to knock him out of his funk, just in time for him to brace for Amber, now in badger form and invisible, hoisting him onto her broad back.

The blogger only got as far as a confused "what" before the golden beast rendered him unseen as well then bounded down the hill at breakneck speed, giving Ronaldo barely enough time to grasp the large neck for dear life.

The Fryman heir barely contained the urge to scream, knowing well enough even in shock not to attract unneeded attention. Besides, he still had the cool image to maintain in front of Sensei, botched as it already was at this point. Instead, he stuck to restrained yelps from both the wind whistling in his ears and the bumps from his ride's powerful dash.

And forget looking. While Ronaldo usually enjoyed fast rides, certain events from yesterday had soiled his ability to enjoy, period. Besides, he trusted Amber enough not to fear she'd lead him someplace dangerous—or at least not leave him to fend for himself.

Eventually, the feel of high speed decreased to that of a slow trot. Once Ronaldo sensed that change, he reopened his eyes to discover him and Amber near an open field with sparse trees, a crystalline podium nearby and a barn further in the distance. And seated on the edge of the podium, attention drifting away from the tablet strapped to her arm was—

"YOU?!" Peridot spat in disbelief after nearly falling off her perch from shock, turning to Amber while gesturing an exasperated hand at the tubby theorist, "Of all the humans to bring here, why HIM?!"

The sunny giant tilted her head and blinked in a way that asked 'why not'.

Ronaldo hopped off and cleared his throat before a one-sided argument could spring up. That also meant both Gems' attention landed on him, sticking the boy under a rather uncomfortable spotlight as he could sense Amber meant to show him something not meant for human eyes.

Or 'Ronaldo eyes' as Kurtis might say. Man, I really wish you here right now, partner.

Adjusting his glasses, he slipped on an academic persona. "Peridot, correct? With all due respect, I don't entirely know Amber's intentions myself, though I can surmise enough to deduct she means to show me something of emotional comfort."

Peridot stared at Ron with a blank stare then Amber with a questioning one, unsure how to rebuke (or whether she should for that matter). Amber only responded with a long-suffering headshake full of 'it's a short yet sad story'. The technician rubbed her eyes with a sigh before standing up and gesturing the pair to get on already.

"Let's just get this over with."

Now Ronaldo, having learned enough from Amber about Gem culture plus being the sci-fi buff he was, expected a smorgasbord of weird sensations from traveling this 'Warp Pad'. The trip did not prove him wrong, though on the bright side other than a blinding light, the feeling of weightlessness, and having his body tugged through space, the experience turned out to be pretty cool.

Too bad it lasted far too soon for in seconds the pad landed the trio in a flowery meadow full of strawberries, large hills in the near distance and large 'platforms' of land floating far above, jagged underneath as though a giant ripped them straight out the ground.

Amber and Ronaldo stepped off, the former leading the way while the latter followed and marveled at the beautiful scenery. A minute in, the latter noticed Peridot tailing them and cocked an eyebrow at the green Gem.

The Kindergartener did not take long to notice. "As leader of the Crystal Gems, my duty entails looking after the organic inhabitants, which includes making sure Gem tech doesn't shorten their lifespans."

If Ronaldo had been a normal person, he might have gulped at that last part and noped out of there. Instead he blushed with a sideways glance opposite Peridot, both from hurt pride due to the subtle dig at his capabilities and thankfulness for Amber's supervision every time he and Kurtis would study those ship parts.

Still, hard to beat the prospect of exposure to more alien technology.

"Besides," Peridot, matching her rival nerd, perched her visors like glasses, "I'm hoping to glean some info from her once she's done with you."

Ronaldo's eyebrows arched, curiosity piqued. "What kind of info are we talking about?"

Peridot waved a dismissive hand at him. "The kind I doubt you'd make good use of."

"I beg to differ, my extraterrestrial rival," Ronaldo huffed, crossing his arms, chin in the air, "for Amber has made certain that Kurtis and I are well-versed in your technology."

So smug, he never noticed the emerald Gem freeze in her steps, wide-eyed and disbelieving. Then, without warning, a surprisingly strong grip on the right arm sent him spinning around to face a suspicious, narrow-eyed Peridot.

"What do you mean my technology?"

"Uh...," Ronaldo stammered, realizing his verbal slip too late, and tried to remedy his epic fail of a poker face with a nervous chuckle. "When I said 'your', I meant as in your people's technology in general, which, I might add, could be really awesome stuff for human scientists to—"

Peridot saw right through that plastered grin. "The others made certain to render all Gem machinery on Earth either inaccessible or unusable to humans, and, while we don't know each other well, I highly doubt Amber would let you anywhere near such complicated tech."

At this point, she let go and stepped back calm as Sapphire, an index finger pointed vertically, "In other words...", and then jabbed it right at the blogger, "YOU PILFERED A PIECE OF MY SHIP!"

Okay, hold on now! "I don't get why you're getting upset about this," Ronaldo proceeded to yell and point back in turn, shoulders hunched, "You used that stuff back when you were working for your Diamond overlords. I thought you're protecting the Earth now!"

One blink, two blinks. Peridot rubbed the visor in place of her eyes. "First off, I shudder to know how you came across knowledge of the Diamonds long before you met Amber. Your online depictions of them and Homeworld alone are terrifying," then added under her breath, "and still inaccurate."

Thank goodness other human viewers, per Peridot and Lapis' perusal of the comments section that one time, wrote off Ronaldo's demonstrations as 'roleplaying'.

"Second," she unobstructed her face to point at Ronaldo once again, "that piece of technology is from Homeworld. That fact alone makes it dangerous!"

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Her narrow face suddenly went pale, eyes wide and stricken. "Although," she squeaked, "I can think of a few counterexamples."

Ronaldo blinked in confusion at the abrupt change in demeanor—until he felt someone's warm breath billowing down his back and shoulders. Dread in his gut, he turned to discover Amber towering over them, unamused and one-hundred percent done.

The two intellectuals spent the rest of the trip on the badger-bear's back as punishment, the unsaid threat of being thrown off and falling hundreds of feet heavy on their heads once the trio reached a series of levitating steps leading up to one of the larger platforms. Much to the passengers' peace of mind, the pieces of land held up surprisingly well as Amber hopped up them.

Once they reached the top, Peridot remained atop her fellow stone ("I enjoy the boost in height") while Ronaldo dismounted and peered at what appeared to be nothing but flat grassy mound all around.

He crossed his arms in slight disappointment, pouting. Huh. I swear she brought me here to show me something.

As if in tandem with the boy's thoughts, Amber, who'd been poking around a certain spot in the middle of the grass, gestured a forepaw in an 'over here' manner, beckoning Ronaldo. Once the teen reached the two lithomorphs, the pseudo-mammal lit up her left paw gold and placed it upon the spot, electricity arcing right into the ground.

In an instant, pink circuitry lit up from underneath to form a perfect diamond, which then converted into blinding light for a second before digitally fading away to reveal a sizable passageway opening to a carnation escalator illuminated by neon red lights, the walls seeming to pulsate with the same colored circuitry from before as the mobile stairs began operating in response to the trio's presence.

Ronaldo's and Peridot's breaths hitched, eyes glittering and mind fast-forwarding with all the possibilities as to what lay down there.

"Whoa," both uttered in unison, unbeknownst to each other.

Amber lowered down so Peridot could get off then reverted back to molehog form. Taking Ronaldo's right hand, she gently tugged to urge him forward. Ronaldo snapped out of his awe and responded with a half-anxious, half-eager nod.

Together the three oddballs descended within.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"—cuz you're the only one who keeps tabs on both her and Ronaldo!"

No response. Kurtis simply continued reading through his copy of Carl Sagan's Cosmos as though there weren't a mob of angry/concerned teens in the lighthouse right now, hovering over him and the couch paying respect to his nonchalant butt.

Jenny, a low growl escaping her, snatched the book up to grab the burly male's attention. It worked (if you count a slight head tilt as 'working'). At least Kurtis appeared to be looking in the gang's general direction this time.

Sometimes Jenny hated those glasses.

"Look," she continued, other hand to her face, "We really jacked up Ronaldo's relationship, and we wanna make it up to him. 'Cept we haven't seen him all day! You and Sparky have been spending a ton of time with him since a while now, so you've gotta know where he's gone!"

Now she got Kurtis' full attention. The young man raised his head even more, eyebrows furrowed.

"The Restaurant Wars!" Steven suddenly blurted, hands in the air. "I ordered breaded mozzarella sticks with ketchup from Peedee and Mr. Pizza saw and thought Mr. Fryman was poaching on his business, so they both got all angry and started going all crazy, which then got us going all crazy, so we tried coming up with plans to make them drop the feud and—"

Kiki shot a hand to the boy's shoulder and gave a firm squeeze. "Steven! Breathe."

The Universe kid inhaled nice and deep, cheeks puffing as he held, and exhaled slow and easy. He patted Kiki's hand as a way of both assurance and thanks.

"I'm okay. I'm O-kay."

Peedee, on the other hand, looked ready to choke on the disbelief brought about by the confusion still on Kurtis' face. "How could you not know any of this? Where were you during the whole time?! Your dad and even Sparky were there!"

Kiki suddenly snapped her fingers, eyes lighting up. "Oh, right! You and your Grandma were at a powwow in Jersey for the last few days! You mentioned that on E-Chat last week."

So he didn't know about what happened between Mr. Pizza and Mr. Fryman or to Ronaldo, Steven realized. But Mr. Flores and Amber did.

He took another deep breath, slowing his speeding conclusions. There were other details he needed to confirm first. "Kurtis, when we were trying to get Mr. Pizza and Mr. Fryman to end their feud, we first tried making Ronaldo and Kiki look like they were dating."

"What?"

Without thinking, Kurtis whipped off his glasses, only for everyone to step back in wide-eyed shock. While the concern and lack of understanding etched in his frown came as no surprise, no one expected bloodshot bags under his dark eyes or for said eyes to be red as though...

Wait. Steven's brows creased worriedly, his frown matching. "Kurtis? Have you been...crying?"

A silent gasp escaped the older boy once he realized his mistake.

When Kurtis tried to put the glasses back on, Steven intercepted the hand holding them with a firm grip on the older boy's wrist, his dark eyes piercing Kurtis with stubborn sympathy and desire to understand. The eye-to-eye standoff lasted until three minutes later, when Kurtis finally cast his eyes downward with a relenting sigh.

Steven let go, allowing the man's hand and glasses to drop to the side and onto the cushions, thankful his own resolve won out. As everyone waited patiently for an explanation, Kurtis looked away, eyes heavy. After a moment of hesitant silence he muttered something.

"Um, Kurtis," Steven sat down beside him. "Could you repeat that?"

Once again, a low tone, albeit slightly less inaudible. "My gr...fa..."

"A little louder, please...?"

Kurtis tried hard not to bare his teeth. "My gran...fa..."

"Kurtis Flores," Kiki admonished with crossed arms, patience thinning, "you're mumbling."

"MY GRANDFATHER."

...

Okay. Steven scrunched his face in confusion after another lapse of quiet. Not sure where to go with that.

Though judging by how Kurtis griped that answer, he had a fair hunch. He would have had an even fairer hunch had he only looked forward because if he had, he would have also noticed the dawning realization and sinking dismay on the other teens' faces as well as the silent counseling stare they shared.

"Um Steven," Jenny murmured at last, arms crossed for reasons no longer tied to annoyance. She waited until the younger boy looked back at her. "It's probably best you hear this from Kurt. Alone."

"Huh? W-Why?"

Steven's worry only increased as the three restaurant kids filed out of the room, Peedee the last to leave. "It'll be easier on him if you're the only one listening." He offered a weak smile. "We'll send you a text if we see Ronaldo."

Then there were two. Steven and Kurtis spent the next minute staring at the closed door.

"She took my book," the older male stated, more deadpan than a tombstone.

Steven cleared his throat, getting comfortable for what he felt sure would be a long talk. "So your grandpa. It sounds like you guys don't get along, right?"

The narrowed eyes and curled upper lip spoke everything for Kurtis.

"He's that bad?" 'How' almost leapt off Steven's tongue, but the young Quartz held back that tidbit, feeling it sounded too nosy. "Is that why you don't look so good this morning?"

Kurt's eyes angled down. "He made Uma cry."

Something at the base of Steven's soul clenched at the thought of the elderly woman in tears. Not just because she was always so nice to him, but how her chill demeanor reminded him so much of Garnet. After a heartbroken gaze at Kurtis' sad scowl, he administered a gentle hug to his taller friend's arm.

"You spent the night making sure she got sleep, didn't you?"

Kurtis sighed, his body sagging against Steven. He bit his lip. "We agreed to leave early."

Steven couldn't help but smile as he pulled back. "And you and Amber came here waiting for Ronaldo the moment you got back, right?"

Kurtis failed to hide his blush. "Everyone else insisted."

Huh. That part sounded kind of vague. Steven grew puzzled. "Everyone as in...?"

"Uma, Dad, Amber, Pearl."

"Wait, Pearl? When did she talk to you?"

"She called this morning. Said you'd be here."

Steven tapped his chin, racking his brain for the memory in question. "She never told me anything like—," only to blush once he remembered, "...unless I ran faster than she could tell me after I called Jenny and the others about finding Ronaldo." He faced Kurtis with a bashful mien and chuckle, rubbing the back of his head. "Heh, heh. My bad."

Kurtis could only blink at first, wide-eyed and blank. Then for the first time in the last twenty-four hours, he felt a laugh echo against the walls of his throat. A faint one, but it lessened the storm cloud of his mind. A brotherly smile gracing him, he tousled Steven's afro, the weight in him lifting even more at the younger boy's giggle.

"She also said Amber's looking after Ron." His grin waned in confusion at the way Steven gripped his own face, cheeks smooshed between the hands and enamored smile nearly blinding.

Steven poked the other boy's left cheek. "You just shortened Ronaldo's name," he squeaked like a baby mouse that just uncovered the world's biggest hunk of cheese.

Kurtis could only roll his eyes, not even caring about the faint heat emanating from his face this time. Where was the point in hiding embarrassment anymore? Returning his glasses to their rightful place, he grabbed his jacket where it'd been draped over the right arm of the sofa.

"Where are you going?"

"We're going outside," Kurtis amended as he donned his jacket and stood up.

Steven, glimmering from hope, hopped off the couch in suit. "Are we gonna look for Ronaldo?"

"Close." Kurtis kneeled, hands on the floor, his back to Steven so the younger boy would get the hint. Steven happily accepted.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A familiar shot of blond hair ambled down the boardwalk, face solemn and in deep thought. Ronaldo, hands in his pockets, kept his eyes trained on the wooden planks as he pondered the fatigue and relief in his heart after the reunion back home.

His father unsurprisingly had been livid—yet also remorseful, an unexpected emotion considering the man's near-indifferent annoyance at his firstborn's distress yesterday.

Ronaldo had spent the last hour answering question after question, overwhelmed by the man's rampant apologies and assurances to try better as a parent. Thank goodness Peedee had been there to keep their dad's hysteria under control.

Still, the Fryman heir needed time to himself to let the previous conversation sink in.

He knew one fact for sure, though, one that worked a meek grin out of him as he pulled out a yellowed slip of paper and reread it. "Maybe Amber and Peridot were right, after all."

"Ronnie?"

Ronaldo felt his insides freeze at the soft-spoken words, uttered by an even softer yet achingly familiar voice from behind him. Breath bated, he hesitantly turned, hoping against hope he would not be met with a hallucination, some trick induced by canary overlord technology.

So his eyes sought the evidence. They did not disappoint.

"J-Jane...," his voice trembled at the slender brunette right before him, gazing at the young man through misty eyes. "I..."

He fully faced his ohime-sama, feeling as if (half-dreading) that he might wake up any moment. At last, the young man pocketed the paper slip and stepped forward tremulously. When his love remained where she stood, still solid and there, his words let loose.

"I...I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT I'M SORRY! EVERYTHING YOU SAW WAS JUST A RUSE TO HELP THE TOWN! I NEVER MEANT TO MAKE YOU THINK—"

The air in his throat halted at the feel of thin soft arms enveloping his neck, all apologies and assurances brought to a screeching halt by the demure voice in his ear.

"Steven and Kurtis told me everything. I'm so sorry for not listening."

There lay no more doubt. This was real.

Ronaldo embraced his princess, reunited once more, tears rampant and free.

Elsewhere, a pair of star-studded eyes gleaned the scene from the front window of Flores and Gardening.

Quick and silent, Steven dashed from the front window all the way to the living room, where Kurtis had been waiting ever since they returned from their talk with Jane back at the lighthouse minutes ago.

Upon entry, Steven had his mouth ready to cheer their success, only to pause at the sight of Kurtis collapsed against the sofa, still and asleep, Amber's dog form curled beside him, also in slumber. With a soft smile, Steven draped the blanket over Kurt and Amber, a pat on the shoulder and pet on the head (respectively of course) for good measure.

"We did good, amigos. We did good."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

That's why we've all agreed to arrange a surprise for you.

Easy, Sparky! You're not in trouble! Ya just been lookin' like you need someone to talk to.

We'd like to help you through this. Problem is we're not the best Gems for this job.

But, lucky for you, we know someone far more qualified!

Speaking of whom, HEY!

Yes, hello! We've brought her!

Just a moment! I'm almost done finishing up these flowers. There we go! Hi there! I'm Lilac Pearl, but please. Call me Lily.