Happy Anniversary, Growing Up With Steven is one year old
Amethyst doesn't leave until it's so late at night that she knows without a doubt Steven will be fast asleep. She silently slipped out of her room, hesitating in the shadows of the cave. One quick glance at the loft and she determines that thankfully neither Garnet nor Pearl are there.
They had been in her room earlier, wandering around the wide expanse of her cavernous space, calling for her. They had been unsuccessful in their search and Amethyst had been able to avoid a rather awkward meeting with them. She hadn't wanted to talk to them or see Steven.
She slipped past Steven, watching him in his crib. He was knocked out cold she could just barely hear his soft snores.
Content. Now that Pearl and Garnet were here. Not whenever she was around. Amethyst snuck out of the door and launched herself onto the edge of the beach.
Amethyst had always liked the beach. It was so radically different from her first home - bright, soft and open wider than the kindergarten walls could ever hope to stretch. The water was a constant lullaby, different from the horrible whistles of the wind scouring the familiar crumbling cliffs. The sand was the softest blanket compared to the gravely, dry dust that had been her first companion.
Amethyst stood on the edge of the shore, watching the tide ebb and flow. The salty mist blew back her hair, unfurling the tangles and ridding it of its debris it had gathered in her pile. She dipped her hands into the water, splashing her face and combing her fingers through her hair.
She shouldn't have yelled. She'd always been quickest to anger - not as fast as Ruby of course. She had just been…so frustrated.
It was always her fault. 'Why didn't you do this?' or 'Why weren't you paying attention' and 'Why can't you act like a gem and not a child?'
She had never really had an answer before. Accidents happened, it hadn't been her fault that tons of them just happened to happen around her. Now, she wondered if maybe it was really all her fault? Maybe there could've been something she could've done to calm him down. Some secret baby technique or other? Something Amethyst just clearly wasn't capable of doing or ever accomplishing.
Amethyst let herself fall face first into the sopping sand, groaning as loudly as she pleased. She always had to restrain herself in front of Steven. Not too loud, not too fast, and not too much magic stuff. It was for the best, because Steven was way too impressionable and too little and way too weak.
But it also meant that Amethyst had to censor nearly everything about herself if Pearl and Garnet were around. When was she going to be able to really be herself around her favorite little man? Would he even want to know the real her? What if one day he woke up, thought she was gross and immature, and didn't want anything to do with her anymore?
The thought of that made her chest hurt, as if someone pressing their weight into the very center of her gem.
"Amethyst?" Pearl's voice is so quiet, that she can barely hear it over the rush of the tide. She can hear two distinct sets of footsteps though, settling next to her. Definitely not leaving anytime soon – oh great.
"Amethyst, we need to talk." Garnet's voice is strong and distinctive, and washes away the sound of the ocean easily.
There really isn't anything to talk about. Amethyst already knows what's coming – she's gotten herself in too much trouble to not know. The lecture, the disappointment, and then she won't be allowed to watch Steven alone anymore for a while. Steven won't even care probably, he'll just want Pearl or Garnet – not dumb ol' her.
Garnet's hands are firm when she lifts Amethyst up. One moment she's sucking sand and the next she's nestled into Garnet's lap. Pearl is lightly dusting off the thick facial mask of sand and salt. Amethyst tried to wiggle her way out of Garnet's arms, but Garnet wasn't having it.
"Amethyst, we need to talk." Garnet said, the timbre of her voice vibrating through Amethyst's chest.
"Why? I already know what you're going to say! Can't a gem just sit facefirst in the ocean for a little while? I'll ask Greg if he can watch him with me and I'll stay out of the way if you want!"
"Amethyst, we would nev-." Pearl began.
"Because I get it! I shouldn't have yelled and I'm sorry he hit his head." Amethyst yelled, wriggling harder and harder. "I'm not good at this stuff anyway. Maybe it'll be better if I just go away for a while!"
"Ameth-."
"I can just hang out somewhere else! I'm totally cool with i-."
"AMETHYST! NOBODY WANTS YOU TO GO!" Pearl shouted, her voice shaking.
"Wha-?" Amethyst stops, her chest huffing heavily as her train of words halted rather violently. She sat up slightly, Garnet's arms moving with her. Amethyst looks between them both, slightly confused.
"We came out here to discuss what you said earlier." Garnet said.
"What did I say this time?" Amethyst growled, drawing her shoulders up and crossing her arms, glaring at her feet. "I'm sorry, I won't say it again."
"More than what you said, but rather the subtext really." Garnet mumbled calmly.
"W-well, Garnet and I felt as though perhaps we were being too hard on you. Steven can be a handful now-a-days." Pearl stuttered. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."
"Not really hard for you two." Amethyst grumbled under her breath.
"Wha-?"
"Steven can be a handful for us too." Garnet said. "I know sometimes it doesn't seem like it, but it's true. We're both sorry that we often inflict the most rules and regulation upon you, but we know you understand that it comes from a place of caring."
"It's hard, because you catch on so quick to everything." Pearl chuckled nervously. "You managed to summon your weapon the very first lesson and you created a functioning digestive system your very first time. You did amazing things that took me centuries to accomplish. Perhaps…I've been expecting you to pick this up just as quickly."
Amethyst grimaced as a blush started on her cheeks. "Whatever."
"It's okay if this is difficult. None of us are going to be perfect, we all mess up and that's okay." Garnet said, combing through Amethyst's hairs with her fingers, causing the little gem to squirm.
"He gets hurt with me though. He doesn't cry when he's with you guys. If you guys had been here earlier, he would've been fine." Amethyst grumbled.
"It took us almost an hour to get him back down for his nap." Pearl muttered, shaking her head tiredly. "He has bad days and he pushes us all to our limit."
"His attitude wasn't your fault." Garnet assured her. "Sometimes, these things aren't simple and they take more time. You handled yourself pretty well."
Amethyst stared stubbornly at her feet, arms still crushed against her sides. "Really? Y-you guys aren't mad?"
"No." Pearl and Garnet insisted.
"Even though he hit his head?" Amethyst whispered.
"Though it could have been prevented," Pearl carefully chose her words, doing her best to really express what she meant. "I know that it was an accident and that you would never purposely allow Steven to hurt himself."
Amethyst hated that the blush on her cheeks, which had been dying away, revived itself until she felt like her entire face was glowing.
"You know…Steven was asking for you." Garnet grinned.
"Now you're just trying to make me feel better." Amethyst rolled her eyes, settling into Garnet's tight embrace with a teeny smile (practically still a grimace if you asked her).
"No! We tried looking for you because after he stopped crying, he kept asking for you to give him a goodnight kiss." Pearl chuckled quietly. "He almost started crying again."
Amethyst kept her arms crossed, but her little smile grimace might have grown just a little bit into a grin. "Yeah, yeah whatever."
"So," Garnet gently drags Pearl into an embrace, wrapping her long arms about both their middles. "Do you want to stay faceplanted in the sand, or would you rather join us inside."
Amethyst huffed, turning away from them, grinning as subtly as she could. "I dunno, I guess…I mean-yeah I guess." She peaked back, shyly pulling back the curtain of her hair. "If you guys want me to."
"Well of course, we want you to!" Pearl pulled Amethyst closer. "Don't we Garnet?"
"Absolutely." Garnet sat up abruptly, pulling them both up. She let them dangle, a small grin on her plump lips. "Let's go then."
Amethyst whooped as they were all launched into the air, enjoying the wind whipping through her thick hair. Pearl was squawking, stuttering about her undignified position – which in Amethyst's opinion was positively hilarious – butt first, with her head dangling as they flew. Garnet was quiet as always, but the gem on her hand felt nice and warm against Amethyst's belly.
Okay…maybe she could enjoy this just as much as lying face first in sand.
A/N: One more part to this arc. My very first story for Growing Up With Steven was about Amethyst and Steven, felt it would be right to have them start off the anniversary.
Before I begin, I would like to say that this has been perhaps one of the most fun things I've done this past year. I wrote this at the end of my senior year in high school and now I'm taking it with me to my second year of college. In that time all of my stories have amassed to about 757 pages (if only I could write a book of this length). I have never been very confident in my writing and you all, review or not, gave me confidence in my work that I lacked throughout my entire writing career.
So I would like to thank you all. To those of you who found this day one, to those of you might have found this a few hours ago - thank you so much. This is story is in the top ten stories here and in 365 days has amassed +175,000 views. 454 of you favorited this story, 473 have followed it and 556 wonderful reviews have been made. None of this would've been possible without you - when I lost motivation or ran out of prompts, you guys were there. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
I'm going to post some more today, I'd like to mention the names of all of you who favorited again (gonna take a little longer than last time). Update when I wake up.