A/N: Hey all, chapter 3 is coming your way! Hope you like it! But first, let me address some reviews.
Undernet-Broker: Keep in mind, Pearl can not say a word about Pink Diamond. Nothing about her, her past, or anyone she knew. As for Spinel? Well, you'll see.
Kodek: Fair enough. The bath scene was meant to be a bonding moment between the two. But to be fair, this is early season 1 Steven. He was chaos wrapped in pink, so to me, that was something he would totally do at this point in the show.
jakemon248: You will find out soon enough!
jimjon7: Yes indeed, keep that nightmare in mind though. Wink wink.
MICHEAL MY3RS: I'm not sure what you mean? What you said literally made no sense.
Hideki Sohma: Nah, the whole misunderstandings thing annoys me as well. Honestly, the only thing I will use that trope for is comedy.
Guest: You make a good point, fortunately I came up with a couple of explanations about the warp pad which I will bring up later. I'm just trying to decide on which explanation to go for.
UndyingCancer: Oh ho ho, that is where you are wrong! I have been working on this slowly. Also, I'm a girl. I work on it when I can. If I was gonna abandon it, I would let you know especially with how popular it has become. Plus, it hasn't even been a month, patience!
antonia2006 . elena: Later on, yes. But don't expect anything soon.
Anyway, on to the chapter!
Chapter 3: Start of the Day
Steven cracked his eyes open, wondering why something felt... off. He shifted around in his bed noticing that something, no, someone was missing. Sitting up slightly, he glanced at his Cookie Cat clock and groaned slightly at seeing the time: 6:30. He flopped back down and laid an arm over his eyes.
'It's too early. Why did I even wake up? And where's Spinel? Unless all of that was just a dream? It wouldn't surprise me, all of the good things that happen to me end up being a dream... Cookie Cats coming back, the gems letting me go on monster fighting missions, everyone in town wanting to hang out with me... I should have known better.'
Sighing sadly, he rolled over and cocooned himself deeper into his blanket with the intention of going back to sleep. He was hoping to just sleep off his disappointment.
A small giggle made him open his eyes again and he sat up again, looking around. Seeing nothing and chalking it up to his imagination, he shrugged and laid back down. Another giggle, louder this time, made him shoot straight up.
Okay, either he was losing his mind due to the early hour, or someone was definitely in his room. He rubbed his tired eyes and sighed. There was only one person who would mess with him like this.
"Okay Amethyst, you can stop hiding now, I know it's you," he said, and waited. What sounded like a stretching balloon startled him a bit before something pink and definitely not purple came springing up from under his bed.
"Surprise!" Spinel shouted and tackled him in a hug, giggling like crazy.
Steven shouted in surprise, his eyes wide in shock, before a huge smile broke out on his face as he hugged her back.
"Spinel! You weren't a dream after all!"
"Well of course not silly! Why would your best friend be a dream?" Steven's stomach flipped at the term. He really had a true friend now, didn't he? He always deluded himself into thinking he had friends in town, but he knew that was not the case.
Sure, he did not really know Spinel all that well yet, but he knew that would change over time. That was the best part of friendship, was it not? Learning about one another? At least Steven thought so, anyway. He never had a real friend before now to know that answer, but he was hoping he was correct.
A sudden thought occurred to Steven as he eyed the overly happy pink gem, of whom was still holding him in a hug.
"Uh, Spinel? Are you feeling okay?" He asked, feeling concerned.
"I feel fantastic! Why do you ask?" She replied, sitting back up a bit, looking down at him with a winning smile on her face. Steven blinked at her response, feeling a bit confused. He did not really want to bring it up, but...
"You... don't remember last night, do you?" Steven asked reluctantly. Spinel gave a thoughtful hum and curved her arm into a loop to scratch the top of her head in thought. She squinted and stuck her tongue out, and Steven had the strange urge to poke it, but he resisted.
Spinel thought hard at Steven's question. In truth, she only remembered waking up cozy and warm in its arms and feeling happy. Though, in the back of her mind, she did recall hearing something. It had sounded like... a song. She could not recall much about it other than the feelings it gave her; the feelings of love, hope, and safety. Huh, no wonder she woke up in such a good mood. 'Perhaps the song was just a dream, though.'
"Nope, not really. I think I remember hearing a song? But I could have just dreamed that," she said shrugging.
'How...?' How did she not remember having a nightmare? Steven would always remember his for at least a couple of days before forgetting them entirely, depending on the severity. Gee, he wished he had the ability to just forget he ever had them. Maybe it was a gem thing? Steven did not know, but he was a tad jealous.
"Oh, well, never mind then," he said. Suddenly, a very human urge hit him and he squirmed underneath Spinel, the pressure in his lower region slowly increasing.
"Um, Spinel? Not that I mind this, but could you move, please? I need to take care of something personal," he said as kindly as he could, sweating a bit as the pressure increased. Spinel simply cocked her head to the side and studied him.
"Personal?" Steven nearly groaned at her obliviousness.
"It's a human thing, and I need to take care of it right now." Still confused, she yielded to its request and stood up from the bed. She stood shocked as Steven quickly got up and practically flew down the stairs and into its bathroom, slamming the door behind it. 'Human?'
Still feeling baffled, she decided to stretch herself to stand outside the door and listened in, curious as to what Steven was in such a hurry about. She heard what sounded like water hitting... water? What was that all about? The sound stopped shortly thereafter with a relieved sigh from Steven and then an even weirder noise. It was a noise even Spinel could not describe. The sound was sort of like a gurgle; a rather loud gurgle.
Soon she heard the sound of running water, which was a much softer sound this time. 'Is this room all about water or something? So weird.' The running water stopped and the pink gem did not hear anything after that, worrying her.
"Um, Steven?" The sudden 'ack' from inside assured her Steven was alright.
"O-oh, Spinel, sorry. I'll explain later, but I'll be out in a few minutes, okay?" Assured for the time being, Spinel stood calmly outside the bathroom door as the sound of the extending nose-thing that sprayed water it used on her last night started.
Her calm lasted all of two minutes before anxiety and fear took over. She began trembling and her thoughts started going all over the place.
'St-Steven wouldn't leave me, right? It's right on the other side of the door, it hasn't gone anywhere and left me. But what if that room has a secret escape that it can use to leave me here? No, Spinel, you're being stupid! It was happy to see you this morning, it wouldn't leave you now, would it? Unless it was all a façade? No! Stop thinking like this, you're happy now! You're supposed to be happy now! ...Right? And it made that promise, Steven wouldn't suddenly take that back! ...I hope.'
Her thoughts continued to spiral around in this way, not even noticing as she fell to her knees and started pulling on her ponytails in her mental distress. The shock of two warm hands removing hers from her hair gently pulled her out of her whirlwind thoughts, and she looked up to see Steven staring at her with concern.
When Steven had finished showering and putting on a fresh set of clothes for the day, he was startled to see Spinel having another breakdown outside of his bathroom as he stepped outside of it. He really could not leave her alone for even ten minutes, it seemed. The whole thing concerned him greatly, to be honest. Being alone for however long she had been alone for in that garden had damaged her mentally. Well, hopefully he could help her overcome it in time. For now, he would try not to leave her alone for long periods of time, and by long time... he meant longer than five minutes. Ugh, he was too young to deal with all of this!
Sighing silently, he grabbed her hands and gently pulled them away from her hair and held on to them, catching her attention immediately.
"Spinel?" Steven asked softly. Her eyes widened as she snapped out of it, a wide smile stretching across her face.
"STEVEN!" She exclaimed and tackled him in a hug, sending them both to the floor in her exuberance. Steven let out a pained grunt as his back hit the ground, but he ignored the pain.
"I was only in there for ten minutes, you know," he tried to explain calmly. She let out a huff as she buried herself deeper into Steven's shoulder, soaking up as much comfort as she could.
"Ten minutes too long," she mumbled. Sure, a few minutes was nothing compared to thousands of years, but it felt just as long sometimes.
Steven sighed and smiled a bit, wrapping his arms around Spinel in return, enjoying the warmth of the hug. He never really noticed it before, but gems were really warm, warmer than humans. Or it could just be a Spinel thing. He would have to test it later when the others got back from their mission at some point.
After a couple of minutes, the floor started to get rather uncomfortable, so Steven sat up as best he could with Spinel still wrapped around him. In response, she wrapped her legs around his middle and clung to him tighter, causing him to lightly blush. She was clinging to him like a big, pink, baby koala bear.
Well, at least his legs were free now. Maneuvering himself, he managed to stand up and made his way over to the couch and flopped down, causing Spinel to giggle as they bounced up a bit. With a quiet sigh, Steven untangled her from his body and sat her next to him and looked her in the eye.
"Spinel, I need to talk to you about some things, okay?" Steven started, and smiled as she tilted her head to the side in curiosity. 'She's so cute!'
"Like what?" She asked.
"About... human things," he replied, feeling a bit uncomfortable. Her eyes widened at the word.
"Ooohhh, human! What's a human?" She asked scratching her head. She remembered it mentioned that earlier.
"I'm a human! Well, like I said before, half gem, so I'm half human too. A human is... one of the many lifeforms that live on Earth. But, unlike most, we have certain things that make us different! But we're also like other living things too, I guess?" Steven paused as he noticed Spinel's pupils go in opposite directions, a good indication that she was absolutely confused.
"Ugh, I'm not explaining this very well. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that we have customs, and one of those is the bathroom. Humans like their privacy, and we have to take care of some of our more personal needs in there alone." Seeing that she was still utterly lost at his explanation, he decided on a more direct approach.
"Steven needs alone time in the bathroom sometimes." Ah, that finally got through to her seems as her pupils re-aligned themselves.
"Bu-but..." She did not understand... alone time? How could anyone want to be alone? She knew what being alone meant, it was an endless void of loneliness and unhappiness, so how could anyone want to be by themselves for even a minute? If Steven wanted to be alone, that meant that she would be alone and she-
"Spinel!" Steven called loudly and grasped on to her shoulders as he noticed her going into another panic episode. He sighed as she focused back on to him, still breathing heavily. Yikes. Well, at least he now understood her trigger. Just the thought of being alone sent her into a panic attack. He had no choice in the matter anymore, it seemed.
"Spinel, if it bothers you that much, you can come into the bathroom with me when I go in there, but," he paused seeing her expression change to one of hope, "you have to stay turned around at all times, okay?" Steven was absolutely mortified at this, but if it kept his friend calm he would endure through it; for her sake.
"Okie dokie! But, why?" Steven bit the inside of his cheek and shifted his eyes to the side. By this point he was blushing so much he was afraid the red would permanently stain his face. This was so humiliating. 'Oh well, she would find out eventually anyway, better to just rip the band-aid off now.'
Steven proceeded to explain the nuances of what the bathroom was for, his face a deep red the entire time. He refused to look at Spinel as he stuttered through his explanation. She sat there with an interested look the entire time. When he finished, Steven let out a big sigh of relief.
It did not seem that Spinel was done, however. Her pigtails perked up in interest.
"Oh, so when you-" She started, but Steven immediately interrupted her.
"Nope! We're done talking about this!" He exclaimed waving his arms back and forth, a panicked look in his eyes. Her pigtails drooped back down, giving her a kicked puppy look as her face dropped. Steven felt bad, but there was only so much in a day he could take talking about embarrassing human things.
Suddenly his stomach let out a loud growl, startling Spinel as she let out a squeak.
"Wh-what was that?" She asked, looking around the house for the source of the strange noise. A laugh from Steven made her look back at it in astonishment. Why was it laughing? Something growled, should it not be worried?
"Spinel, that was just my stomach. I'm hungry is all," he said. She tilted her head to the side at the new words.
"Stomach? Hungry?" Steven slapped his forehead.
"Oh geez, you wouldn't know about that would you?" The only gem he saw that ate was Amethyst, and once in a while Garnet, but Pearl seemed absolutely repulsed by the idea any time it came up. Maybe Spinel would be interested in trying to eat? That would mean, though, that she would eventually end up having to... Well, he would cross that road when it happened. He had had enough with all of that talk for now, thank you very much.
His eyes lit up with stars as an idea crossed his mind.
"We should have a together breakfast," he suggested with an awed expression. 'Hopefully this one won't try and kill us.'
"A what now?" Spinel asked, utterly lost. The look on her face made Steven want to burst out laughing.
"Come on, I'll show you!" Grabbing her hand, he led her over to his kitchen and had her sit on one of the stools while he looked around for what he wanted to put together. He pulled out the waffles, found the whipped cream in the back of the fridge, and grabbed a strawberry from its plastic case, but he could not find the last ingredient that he needed.
"Aw, we're all out of popcorn. Guess I'll just have to use something else," Steven said, talking to himself as he looked through the cupboards for a substitute.
Spinel just blinked as she followed Steven's movements and actions, confused by everything it was doing. She kind of knew what eating was, as Pink had partaken in the act once in a while with the fruits that grew around their garden, but Spinel had never had any interest in it. She had preferred to just watch them bloom and grow in fascination. Perhaps, however, she would give eating a chance this time. Whatever Steven was making, it smelled so good.
A sudden 'ding' sound caused her to jump a bit, but she had no idea where it came from. Steven showing up in front of her distracted her from her thoughts as it placed a round, shiny thing in front of her and started stacking squishy, golden round things on top of the shiny one. Steven then shook up a cylinder of some sort as a creamy white substance came out of it with, what Spinel could only describe as, a slurping noise of sorts. It was spread over the golden round things until a huge mound of it covered them. Steven then pulled out a cylinder of little brown things and opened it.
"We didn't have anymore popcorn, so I had to find something else to use. I think peanuts should work just fine," he said and sprinkled some of the nuts over his work of art. "Now, we just need the strawberry!" Sticking out his tongue and narrowing his eyes, he concentrated hard as he tried to find the perfect spot for the fruit. Spinel's eyes followed his hand in wide-eyed wonder.
"There! Now it's done! Let's dig in!" Sitting down across from her after grabbing two forks, he handed one to Spinel, who took it reluctantly, staring at it as though it would attack her at any moment.
"What is this... pointy thing?" She asked, turning it this way and that as she studied it.
"It's a fork, you use it to eat, like this," Steven explained, and demonstrated how to use said fork by using it to cut into the waffles and taking a bite. He hummed in pleasure as he bit into it. He had never gotten a chance to eat the last together breakfast he had made for him and the gems, so Steven did not know what to expect, but it was delicious!
Still staring at the fork, she glanced at Steven and decided to copy its actions. Shifting the utensil into what she deemed an appropriate position in her hand, she cut into the soft golden things, making sure to get some of the white and brown stuff with it, and brought it up to her face. Looking over at Steven, of whom was giving her a thumbs up, and feeling reassured, she opened her mouth and bit down on the piece of food.
"Mmm mmpphhh...!" Her eyes widened comically as a rush of sweet and salty hit her tongue and her world exploded into a burst of color.
She sat there a moment not moving an inch, fork still in her mouth and eyes wide. Steven was a little concerned.
"Uh, Spinel? Are you alright?" He asked. Did she not like it or something? It would make sense since she probably had never eaten before. She eventually responded, however.
"That was the best thing ever," she whispered before diving back in and stuffing her face full of the food in front of her, her cheeks continuing to expand as she shoveled more in.
"Whoa, whoa! Slow down Spinel! You'll choke!" Steven exclaimed worried for his pink friend. He was glad she enjoyed the food, but not at the expense of her choking on it! "Chew and swallow what you already ate, please, then you can have more." Wow, now he was starting to sound like his dad. Or Pearl. Or maybe both.
Spinel followed its directions, and after a couple of minutes managed to swallow everything she had stuffed into her mouth. She had a sheepish look on her face as she looked at Steven and apologized.
"Sorry, it was just so good I couldn't resist," she said, rubbing her arm in embarrassment. Steven just chuckled as he took another bite of the breakfast.
"It's okay, just be careful." With that, they continued eating in blissful silence, until the last bite of the food was left on the plate; it was the strawberry. Staring at it, then staring at each other, Spinel gave a challenging smirk to Steven, whom returned it.
With forks raised, and still smirking at each other, they attacked the strawberry with vigor, each trying to pull it towards their own side. Neither side was giving in, and eventually the poor strawberry could take it no more and tore in half over the friendly struggle. They stared down at the now broken piece of fruit in shock before bursting out laughing and eating their respective pieces.
They sat there for a while, still giggling here and there, as they let their food digest a bit. After a few minutes, Steven stood up and took the plate and forks over to the sink; Spinel following him as she stood by his side and watched as he washed the dishes, whistling as he did so.
"There, all clean," he stated as he set them out to dry. He dried his hands off and looked over at the clock on the wall, his eyes lighting up in excitement. It was a little past eight in the morning, which meant most everything in town was open now.
"Come on, let's go have a fun day today!" Steven said excitedly, and grabbed Spinel's hand, pulling her along as he ran out of his house.
Spinel grinned quite happily and laughed as she was dragged from Steven's house. Fun? That was right up her alley! She was made for fun and games, after all. She could not wait for the fun to begin!
And all with her new best friend too.
End Chapter 3
A/N: Alright, so, originally this was going to be way longer, but I decided to just chop it in half (and also to give you guys some material to read, ha).