A/N: Oh my god, I know it's only been 2 years since I worked on this story, but my love for this show died after Future aired (and that's a whole bag of crap that I want to fix at some point, because wow that season is a mess). Got back into it now and want to continue this story, so here's to hoping I can remember where I wanted to take this thing. I do remember some scenes I wanted to write, and the general direction of it, so that's a plus.

This is the chapter you've all been waiting for, so hopefully you enjoy it.

As a side note, I've gotten a little more tolerant of Connverse, but I still can't stand that out-of-nowhere kiss on screen, ugh. I actually would have continued to like the ship past season 1 had they not ruined Connie's character and had built up their forming relationship more. They don't even talk about being more than friends to each other at any point. Yes, I know it just happens sometimes, but like, they didn't even do that correctly in any sense. But I digress, on to the Stevinel stuff which is what you came here for. (I don't recall what I was going to originally name this chapter, so oh well, here it is.)

Chapter 5: Meet and Greet

The sudden shout startled Spinel, causing her to accidentally lose her grip on Steven. She and the gems that had just showed up watched, frozen in fear as he went flying through the air across the ocean at a high velocity. It was Steven's scream for help that quickly broke them out of their stupor.

"STEVEN!"

"Hang on Steven!"

"We're coming for you, dude!"

Spinel whipped her head back and forth between the new arrivals who were coming closer to her and her best friend, who was quickly becoming smaller and smaller in the distance. The pink gem knew these were probably the Crystal Gems Steven had spoken of, but there was no time for that now; she had to save him and fix her mistake pronto.

Even if she was feeling frightened by their terrifying presence.

Swallowing her fear, she swiftly shifted her arms into a slingshot of sorts and flung herself as hard as she could towards her half-human and half-gem friend.

"What the heck is that gem doing?!"

"She's going to catch him."

"She's the one who flung him in the first place, how can we trust her?!"

Spinel did not hear what they were saying as she was soaring through the air towards her target. Soon enough, much to her relief, she caught up to him just as Steven was starting to descend from the air. Spinel stretched her arms out and wrapped them around the young hybrid and snapped the rest of herself towards him, instantly clinging to him.

"Gotcha!"

"Thanks for catching me, but we're still gonna fall into the water," Steven exclaimed, gripping on to Spinel's arms as they, indeed, started descending into the ocean below them at a high speed.

They both screamed aloud as the wind whistled in their ears, the depths of the ocean growing ever closer. Spinel's eyes lit up and she mentally slapped her forehead before untangling most of herself from around Steven, causing him to panic.

"Spinel, what are you doing?!"

"This." Steven looked up as his pink gem friend suddenly flattened her body out, causing the wind to catch her as she became a gem-parachute.

"Spinel, you're a genius!" Spinel giggled in embarrassment at Steven's comment.

"Aw, gee willikers, I'm no genius," Spinel responded with a blush, concentrating on getting the both of the safely into the water below. He decided not to argue against that at the moment.

"Well, at least this won't hurt now," Steven mumbled to himself, recalling the time he had jumped from a high point on the cliff that hid the temple from the rest of the town into the waters below out of curiosity. Boy, the gems and his dad had not been happy with him that day and he certainly learned just how painful that actually was. Steven had been fine shortly after, but the initial pain kept him from doing it again on purpose.

Soon enough, they gently floated down into the water and Spinel returned her body to normal as the two friends sighed in relief as they stayed afloat among the waves.

"I'm sorry, Steven," Spinel said suddenly, her pigtails drooping down in sadness. Steven just blinked at her in confusion.

"What for? You didn't do anything wrong."

"Of course I did! I got us into this by letting you go. I ruined our game," she whimpered and sunk down into the water a bit more, feeling glum. She squeaked a little when Steven suddenly pulled her up a bit and hugged her from the side.

"Hey, it's not your fault, Pearl startled you. Besides, everything will be fine, I promise. You'll see," Steven said as he leaned back a bit and smiled at her. Spinel gave a small smile in return as the both of them heard Steven's name being called, causing them to turn their heads in the direction of the voice.

"Steven!"

"See, told you. That's Garnet, she'll save us. GARNET OVER HERE!" Steven shouted, startling Spinel at the sudden loud noise. She swam to hide behind Steven as best she could to get out of sight from the unknown gem that had come running up to them on the water.

"Whoa Garnet, I didn't know you could run on water, that's so cool!" Steven exclaimed in excitement. The Garnet, as Steven called her, just gave a small chuckle and adjusted her visor.

"Are you alright Steven?" she asked, a bit of concern lacing her voice.

"Yeah we're fine, Spinel turned herself into a parachute and we landed safely into the water," he explained. At the mention of Spinel, Garnet turned her gaze to the pink gem peeking out from behind Steven, letting out a soft hum that caused said gem to squeak and hide again.

"We'll be talking about this when we get back," Garnet stated and Steven pouted at the comment. The tall gem easily picked the both of them up, one under each arm, and ran across the top of the ocean back towards the beach.

Steven noticed that Spinel had frozen in fear after Garnet picked her up without warning and reached out to grab her hand, lacing their fingers together. That seemed to snap her out of it and she stared at him, fear as clear as day across her face. He gave a comforting a smile and gently squeezed her hand, which calmed her down significantly.

None of this went unnoticed by Garnet, who gained a small, hidden smile at the interaction.

All too soon for Spinel's taste, they landed upon the beach with Garnet doing a dramatic jump to land in front of the other two gems waiting along the shore. As soon as Garnet set both Steven and Spinel down, the pink gem dived behind her friend to hide, though it was useless as Pearl had picked Steven up and began tightly hugging him.

"Oh Steven, I was so worried, I thought you had gotten hurt! Or worse!"

"Pearl, I'm fine, honest, it's not like I was attacked by a monster or anything," Steven said, though it was muffled as he was being squished against Pearl's chest. Thankfully, she let him go as her and Amethyst's attention turned to Spinel, who had tried to hide behind Garnet instead, though the taller gem had jumped out of the way leaving Spinel exposed.

Spinel yelled in fear as a spear was pointed at her and a whip was at the ready to strike. She covered her head and gem in her arms in an effort to protect herself.

"You! I don't know who you think you a-" Pearl started until she got a good look at the gem she was threatening. Her eyes went wide as a small, almost silent, gasp escaped her. Her spear disappeared as she covered her mouth with both hands, simply staring at the new gem before her.

By that time, Steven had ran back over to Spinel to stand in front of her with arms spread out in a protective stance. He glared, softly, at Pearl and Amethyst.

"Don't hurt her! She's my friend!"

"Steven, move away from her!" Amethyst said, not backing down. Neither of them noticed Pearl's reaction.

"No!" Steven shouted as Spinel clung to him like a koala for protection, which he was used to at this point.

"Dude, what's gotten into you?" Amethyst readied her whip, prepared to move Steven out of the way with it to get the strange gem he was protecting.

"Amethyst, back down," Garnet commanded suddenly as she stepped up to the group.

"But Garnet!"

"Now."

"Aw geez, fi~ne," Amethyst whined but put away her whip nonetheless and crossed her arms with a pout.

"Let's go inside and talk about this calmly," Garnet ordered, gently grabbing Pearl, who was still silent from shock, by her arm and leading her along with her as she headed towards the beach house. Amethyst, after letting out a sigh, fell in step with the two.

Steven, after convincing Spinel it was safe now once the other three were a bit ahead of them, followed his parental figures with the pink gem still clinging to him for safety despite his reassurances.

Amethyst looked up at Garnet as they walked with a bit of an irritated expression.

"Why did you stop me from attacking that gem? We don't even know her let alone trust her!" Amethyst complained in a quiet voice. "She threw Steven for crying out loud!"

"If I had let you attack that Spinel, Steven would have never forgiven you, Amethyst," Garnet explained, equally as quiet.

"Oh... Wait, Spinel? I've never heard of a gem like that," Amethyst said with confusion.

"That's because they are incredibly rare," Pearl finally said with a low voice, causing the other two to look at her as Garnet released her gentle grip on her upper arm. She had her head down with a contemplative facial expression. "There's only been one Spinel that I knew of, and she belonged to... well, erm... Anyway, they are made to be playmates for other gems, so as you can imagine..." Pearl explained with a hand gesture towards the end, making sure to keep her voice as quiet as possible.

"So... that means what, exactly?" Amethyst asked with a bored expression, not catching Pearl's slip-up.

"She's completely harmless," Garnet stated as a matter of fact as they reached the top of the steps to Steven's house.

"Eh, whatever you say," Amethyst said nonchalantly with a shrug, putting her hands behind her head as they entered the house, Garnet glancing behind to make sure the young hybrid and his new friend were following.

Behind them, Steven and Spinel walked slowly towards the steps up to the beach house, the pink gem wearing a worried, and slightly fearful, expression as she clung tightly to her half-gem friend.

"Steven..." Spinel whispered with a whimper.

"Don't worry Spinel, I don't think they're going to hurt you now. Besides, Garnet seems to like you, I think," Steven said reassuringly, though was still unsure about his statement about the stoic gem. She was incredibly hard to read sometimes. "I'm sure Pearl and Amethyst will come around in no time."

"If you say so," Spinel responded with a bit of doubt, but she would trust Steven's word. She tilted her head up to look at the three gems and narrowed her eyes a bit as she got a better look at the Pearl who had initially shoved a spear in her face.

'That's not Pink's pearl, is it? Nah, couldn't be, Pink never went anywhere without her,' Spinel thought bitterly. 'They do look so much alike, but maybe that's just a coincidence.' She shook her thoughts from her head as the two of them entered the house behind the three Crystal Gems.

The five of them sat around the living room, the tension thick as Spinel shifted her eyes to glance at the other gems who were staring at her. Though the Amethyst was just leaning back against the couch relaxing, completely unbothered by her presence at this point.

"So... Steven, can you uh, tell us where you met Spinel?" Pearl asked, finally breaking the awkward silence that hung in the air. The humor in the statement was not lost on Amethyst who gave a snicker, though one stern glance from Garnet silenced her.

Steven looked Spinel in the eyes and the pink gem gave a minute nod in return.

"I found her all alone in a garden somewhere. I was accidentally warped there when I tried to use the warp pad," Steven admitted sheepishly with a toothy grin. "But I couldn't leave her there! I just couldn't! So I brought her back home with me." His arm, which had been around Spinel, tightened protectively at the thought of leaving her there knowing what he did now.

"Whoa, you used the warp pad?" Amethyst asked, slightly interested now. "Awesome job, Ste-man!"

"Awesome?! Steven, you know you shouldn't be using the warp pad without us, you could have been warped somewhere dangerous!" Pearl exclaimed loudly in a mild panic.

"Pearl, calm down," Garnet said while laying a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

"I am not going to calm down! We've told you multiple times not to even get on the warp pad without us! That was completely irresponsible of you, young man!" Seeing Steven look forlorn from being reprimanded, Spinel finally spoke up, sick of her best friend being yelled at. Even if that meant this Pearl's anger would be directed at her.

"Hey! Quit yelling at him would ya? So what if he used the warp pad, huh? I'm glad that he did!" Spinel said in Steven's defense, glaring at Pearl.

"Spinel, it's okay, you don't have to defend me" Steven whispered, trying to prevent a verbal fight, which sadly did not work.

"You stay out of this, this doesn't concern you whatsoever you clingy, little-!"

"I'd say it does concern me when you're yelling at my best friend!" Spinel retaliated, shaking an enlarged fist in Pearl's direction.

"I have half a mind to poof-" Pearl started before being interrupted by Garnet.

"Enough! Both of you be quiet!" The normally calm gem shouted out, causing Pearl to flinch back and Spinel to hide her face in Steven's shoulder. None of them noticed that Amethyst had a bowl of popcorn in her hands, nor did they care.

"Pearl, what Steven did was wrong, but he's fine, so let it go for now. Steven, you are not to use the warp pad without our express permission from now on, am I clear?" Steven nodded slowly in response to the sternness in her voice. "Spinel, you have a lot to learn, but I just want to say..." Here she paused, causing Spinel to look up at the commanding gem. She let out a squeak as a hand gently rested upon her head.

"Welcome to Earth," Garnet stated with a welcoming smile. Spinel gave a small one back in return.

"So... are we done here?" Amethyst asked as she picked her nose, having tossed the now empty bowl of popcorn to the side. "I got like, stuff I wanna do."

"Yes," Garnet said simply, her arms crossed.

"Sweet. See ya later dudes." With that, the short, purple gem gave a wave as she entered her room in the temple. Pearl just gave a huff at Amethyst's nonchalant attitude.

Seeing that the argument/talk was finally over, Spinel decided to get down to business.

"Hey Steven," she started, causing the young hybrid to look at her.

"Yeah?" He was completely unprepared for one of Spinel's pink fingers to boop his nose. He blinked rapidly at the odd sensation.

"Tag! You're it!" Spinel jumped off the couch and ran out the front door giggling like mad.

"Hey! That's not fair!" Steven responded, though he, too, was laughing as he gave chase after his friend.

Pearl walked over to one of the front windows and simply watched the two chase each other playfully around the beach, her eyebrows knitted in thought.

"Pearl..." Garnet said, stepping up beside her to watch the game of tag going on.

"Did you see this happening, Garnet?" Pearl suddenly asked. Garnet adjusted her visor as she thought for a second.

"Yes, but it was one of the more improbable futures. I only saw one path for this possible timeline, so I didn't even give it a second thought."

"What does this mean for Steven? For us? For her?" Pearl asked, grabbing on to Garnet's upper right arm.

"Only time will tell."

END

A/N: Yeah, so I was going to continue it after this, but eh, I think this was a good place to end it honestly. Not too much happened here, but from here on out, the chapters will start going with the episodes with some of my own stuff thrown in. Some episodes will be completely changed. Others will remain similar, but will have changes obviously.