Steven Universe belongs to Rebecca Sugar.
Spoilers for "A Single Pale Rose"!
On a beautiful summer evening in Beach City, a passer-by might have seen what looked like a happy couple playing with an odd-looking purple puppy on the beach. In fact, this couple was Rose Quartz and Greg Universe, and the "puppy" was Amethyst. They were having some fun near the Temple, while Pearl sat near the Warp Pad and watched the lovely sunset.
Rose really did see a lot of herself in Amethyst: they had both been the youngest of their groups, and they had both come out of the ground smaller than they should have been. Rose wanted Amethyst to see how much she was cared for, and so she often indulged Amethyst's odd whims, as opposed to dismissing them.
Amethyst had seen some humans play fetch with their dogs, and she had seen humans play with odd colourful discs and balls and other funny-looking things. They threw them back and forth, or to the dogs. Rose marveled at how humans and dogs could take pleasure in such simple things.
Earlier, Amethyst had returned from Vidalia's house with a present Vidalia had given her: one of the flying discs. It used to be just a plain disc, but Vidalia had painted a silly face on it, like the one on her work uniform. She managed to talk Rose and Greg into playing with her, after the Gems returned from a mission and Greg got off work.
Rose would throw the disc to Greg, and he would throw it to Amethyst the Purple Puppy. Amethyst liked to catch the disc by jumping in the air and grabbing it with her mouth. She found it funny to grab objects with her mouth, which was a reason why Amethyst liked to play as a dog.
"Pearl," Rose called, "would you like to play with us?"
"No thank you," Pearl said primly.
Amethyst ran over to Pearl and jumped into her lap. When Amethyst tried to lick Pearl, Pearl scooted backward and put her arm between her face and Amethyst's tongue.
"Ugh, Amethyst, you know I don't like that!"
It was true. Pearl didn't like real dogs either. She thought they were too "forward", and too messy, and too loud. Of course, those were the same reasons Amethyst liked dogs. Amethyst had perfected the begging puppy look, and she used it on Pearl until Pearl sighed and agreed to join the game, just for a little while.
It would be an understatement to say that Pearl was an unenthusiastic player, even with Rose's gentle encouragement. Greg threw the disc to Amethyst, and Amethyst threw it to Pearl. Pearl cringed and took a step back, letting the disc drop to the ground. Amethyst let out an annoyed bark.
"You're supposed to catch it, Pearl," Greg said. He said it in a nice way, but Pearl still scowled at him.
"It's been in Amethyst's mouth. I don't want it."
"You could throw it to me," Rose said. She was careful to make this a suggestion and not an order.
"Why do you want it back?" Pearl asked. "You just threw it to Greg, and he discarded it as well. Now this disc is disgusting."
"It's part of the game," Rose said.
Pearl huffed, picked up the disc between her forefinger and thumb, then flung it to Rose.
"Nice fling you got there, Pearl," Greg said. "Are you sure you never played this before?"
Pearl didn't answer. She stared at the sunset, then at the sand.
"Heads up, Pearl!" Greg called.
Pearl looked up, and the disc hit her in the face. She narrowed her eyes at Greg.
"Why do you humans say 'heads up' when you ought to mean 'heads down?' "
Rose put her hand on Pearl's shoulder.
"Are you okay?"
Pearl scowled and rubbed her nose.
"I'm sorry, Rose, but I just don't see the point of this."
"That's alright," Rose said kindly. "You don't have to keep playing just because we are."
"Thank you," Pearl said with visible relief. She resumed her position near the temple and continued to stare at the sunset. Rose stared after her, then got an unpleasant surprise as the disc nearly hit the side of her head. Rose caught it just in time, and turned to see a sheepish-looking Greg and a less bouncy Amethyst.
"Are you okay, Rose?" Greg asked. At the sound of his voice, Pearl looked over with alarm and a bit of anger.
"It's okay," Rose said, to both Greg and Pearl. "It didn't hit me."
Greg still looked concerned.
"Do you want to stop playing?"
Amethyst whimpered and made big puppy eyes.
"Yes," Rose admitted after a pause. She, Greg, and Amethyst (who had a drooping tail) went to sit with Pearl. Rose sat between Greg and Pearl and placed her arms around both of them, while Amethyst put her head in Rose's lap.
Rose kept looking at Pearl, who now gripped Rose's hand rather tightly. She knew, deep down, that even though Pearl would proudly claim that she belonged to no-one, Pearl had never truly become free. Pearl was still bound by that dark secret she and Rose had kept for so long. Also, Rose could have ordered Pearl to keep playing with the disc, and Pearl would have had no choice but to obey.
Rose didn't like to think about her past, about her old self, and yet the memories kept coming back. They were sort of like that funny little flying disc: if you threw it away, it got thrown back. Or it was like that object called a boomerang. That was pretty much the same.
When Rose experienced these flashes of guilt, and recalled her painful memories, she liked to go off to her room. Tonight, she decided to wait until Greg went to sleep and Pearl and Amethyst went to their rooms.