Early in the morning, Steven was all alone, with just Cat Steven for company. She ate the cat food Steven poured into her dish, while he toasted waffles for himself. Bismuth had made a lot of progress on fixing the house in a short time; it was inhabitable again, though not fully finished.

After all of the drama on Homeworld, and the difficult task ahead of integrating the un-corrupted Gems into Earth life, Steven had planned to have a quiet day, and maybe visit with his dad later. Then, someone knocked on the door, and Steven answered it. He was very happy to see this particular visitor.

"Oh, hi, Lars!"

Lars no longer wore his captain's uniform; he was back in normal clothes, which consisted of his brown shirt with the red scorpion on it and black jeans with a hole in the right knee. He had MC Bear-Bear tucked under his arm.

"Hey, Steven. What happened to your house? It looks...different."

"Long story," Steven said mildly."

"I thought maybe you might want your bear back," Lars said. "I'm not embarrassed to have him or anything, but I wasn't sure if he was just a loaner or not."

He held out MC Bear-Bear, but Steven smiled and shook his head.

"It's okay; you can keep MC Bear-Bear if you really want to. How are the Off-Colors?"

Lars shrugged, while absently adjusting MC Bear-Bear's shades.

"They're okay. They met my parents, and-WHOA!" Lars's eyes bulged a little in surprise and pain.

Cat Steven had trotted outside, mewing cutely, and she had just tried to climb up Lars's leg. She dug her little paws into Lars's jeans, and from the way Lars yelped, she may have gotten through to his skin. Lars may have become immortal, or close enough to being immortal, but he could still feel pain.

Steven bent down to pick up the cat, gently prying her claws out of the black denim jeans.

"Sorry about that, Lars. Maybe Cat Steven thinks you're Lion. They're best friends, and he lets her climb all over him. She's almost like his baby."

Lars stopped looking so freaked out; he smirked and chuckled slightly.

"Cat Steven?"

Steven blushed and kept his eyes on his furry namesake, rubbing her head with the tips of two fingers.

"Yeah...I didn't name her; Garnet did. Cat Steven is Garnet's pet."

Lars suddenly felt guilty, and he rubbed the back of his head as he tried to figure out the nicest thing to say. He still wasn't great at that kind of thing.

"I wasn't trying to make fun of you, man. It's just...calico cats are usually girls, so I didn't think she would have a boy's name."

"It's okay," Steven said, and he made eye contact with Lars again. "I think it suits her. I didn't even know that most calicoes are girls; how'd you know?"

"My lola-my grandma-used to keep cats," Lars explained. "She told me a bunch of stuff about cats that I thought was boring, but I still remembered that stuff anyway."

Cat Steven wriggled slightly in Steven's arms, and she mewed again, keeping her good eye on Lars. He started to reach out to pet her, but then withdrew his hand.

"It's okay, Lars," Steven said with a smile of encouragement. "Cat Steven loves to make friends."

This gave Lars the small amount of courage he needed to gently pet Cat Steven's cute, furry head. He stroked one of Cat Steven's ears while Steven stroked the other ear, and the kitten purred. Lars took a long look at Cat Steven's scarred, permanently closed eye, which made him think of his own scarred eye.

It was then that Lion climbed up onto the porch, holding two magical lizards in his mouth. He spat them out, and Cat Steven jumped out of Steven's arms to eat one of the lizards.

Lion nudged the other lizard to Lars. Lars just looked at it, but Lion became more persistent until Lars finally accepted it.

The unusual expression on Lars's face as he picked up the lizard by the tail could best be described as a cross between a nervous smile and a disturbed grimace.

"Thanks, buddy. I'll save it for later."