A/N:Happy Steven Bomb!
"Ugh, he gave him ice cream." Pearl hissed, quietly stripping Steven's chocolate coated clothes and replacing them with clothes fresh out of the dryer. She had been diligently folding and washing while waiting for Steven to come back. "And the Cookie Cat too!"
"We give him ice cream all the time." Amethyst said, giving a few licks to Steven's discarded shirt whenever Pearl turned away.
"Yes, but I make sure to wipe his face after every fourth bite to ensure that when the chocolate dries – as it is doing right now – it won't be an impenetrable mask on his face." Pearl growled. "Like it is doing right now."
"Is kay Pearl." Steven mumbled, patting her shoulder comfortingly. A large yawn punctuated the end of his sentence – the warmth of his freshly laundered clothes lulled him closer and closer to sleep. "I know how to wash my face now."
Pearl chose not comment on the fact that he was particularly bad at washing his face and instead kissed the non-ice cream covered part of his cheeks. "Don't you worry about it now, you just take your nap and then we can color together later."
"Yeah man, look at all these new crayons you got. These glittery ones look tasty." Amethyst spied the bag hungrily.
"Amethyst! Those are Steven's crayons and he doesn't want them to be eaten. You saw how much he cried when you ate the last box." Pearl scolded, tucking Steven in and gently wiping his face of chocolate with her emergency baby wipes.
"Yeah but now he's got tons of boxes so he won't even notice if a few are gone." Amethyst whined, tracing a finger down one of the boxes longingly.
"Absolutely not. If you eat all the crayons, then they'll have to go out for more and I do not agree with how much ice cream Greg allows Steven to have when I'm not there." Pearl huffed, snatching the bag away before Amethyst could grab a box.
…
Steven's soft snores gave a stutter and then halted altogether as he was jostled awake. An automatic pout and whine threatened to split the quiet of his bedroom. He hadn't planned on waking up and was more than happy to announce this, but as he was pressed into a familiar warmth he paused. He was being untucked from bed and placed gently into Garnet's arms. He clung to her weakly, snuggling into her familiar solidness and content to sleep there now.
"Steven, don't go to sleep." Garnet gave his cheek a gentle squeeze. "You're going toilet."
Steven sat back up with a tired frown, but did his best to stay awake. He wasn't exactly sure how Garnet always knew when he needed to go potty, especially when he was asleep and the gems forgot his pull-up, but as long as he was a big boy and his bed was dry he didn't care.
After going potty, Steven had his milk, offering Garnet some who politely declined. After draining his sippy cup dry he was about to lean back into Garnet's tummy and get back to napping, when he spotted the vibrant boxes of crayons on the coffee table.
"Oh my gosh! Garnet we have to color!" Steven sprung from her lap, rushing clumsily to grab paper. He and Garnet effectively blanketed the floor in a swath of paper (Pearl didn't typically like a mess, but with Steven's clumsy coloring it was better for the floor or table that everything be covered in paper).
They were about to start, Steven handing Garnet the biggest box for her to open it, when Pearl and Amethyst entered from the temple – bickering about something or other.
"C'mon Pearl, it was just a joke." Amethyst groaned.
"I don't see how sticking that up my-." Pearl gasped as Steven barreled into her.
"No time for fighting, time for coloring." Steven yelled excitedly, dragging them both towards their giant canvas.
"Oh, that's right, you got all these new crayons." Pearl appraised their handiwork with a slight frown. After being handed the boxes of crayons, Garnet had just dumped them onto the floor. Pearl bent down and began organizing them while Steven danced around the paper, tripping over a lazing Amethyst.
"Dude, your dad went bananas with the crayons." Amethyst chuckled. "Glitter, neon, jumbo – dude you're like a crayon millionaire."
"He usually doesn't buy you so much." Pearl hummed.
It was true. Greg was incredibly doting – often spoiling Steven the most (even though he insisted that the gems were the true culprits), but he was incredibly frugal.
Steven was quiet, burrowed in Amethyst's hair, a little frown on his face.
His daddy didn't buy lots of new stuff, but he had been really upset about the lying. Steven knew lying was wrong and had promised his daddy he knew better, but daddy still hadn't liked it. Steven really didn't like it either but, he understood that the gems would be way too jealous if they found out about the new awesome place they had gone.
The gems had used to take him lots of places before, to weird parts of the world through the warp pad (which Stevens were not allowed to touch). They had visited a sparkly beach, a place with lots of snow, and a place full of Pearl's favorite trees. Even though Steven asked if they could go on missions too sometimes, Garnet had firmly told him no. He had been upset at first, but Pearl's 'educational experiences' were pretty fun too – probably just as fun as missions would one day be.
But they hadn't gone anywhere in a while. Two whole weeks to be exact. Steven knew it had been two weeks, because Garnet had started explaining time to him. Every morning, she would scoop him up and they'd cross out yesterday on the calendar and say good morning to today.
Steven had been very confused at the abrupt end to their fun. Steven loved going out. The world was so much bigger than he'd ever expected – full of awesome, fun interesting things. Why couldn't they just go have fun like before?
The gems hadn't really given him an answer. His father had given him a very stern one:
"It isn't safe anymore!"
The last time the gems had taken him out, some big huge monster had attacked them. Which had been just a little bit scarier than watching the gems beat up monsters from far away, since this monster had tried eating him. But the gems had beat it up and rescued him and everything had been alright.
Or so Steven had thought.
Whereas the gems had gotten over the affair, his Daddy had been scared and very upset for a long time. When Steven had happily told his father the events of that day – with each sentence, Steven watched as his daddy's ruddy skin had grown paler and paler.
Steven had never seen his Dad so upset – not even the time he'd stuffed a cookie cat into his Dad's favorite vintage guitar. Daddy had been beyond furious and since then the gems hadn't taken him anywhere since.
Which was probably why Daddy had taken him to the kindergarten, so Steven could go to new places since the gems couldn't take him anymore. Steven had thought it was really nice at first. He had been getting a little bored staying at home all by himself – the gems busy on missions and his father busy with work. But now all this trouble with lying was making his head spin.
"Steven, I've now organized the crayons," Pearl balanced on her toes, gave a satisfied smile. "Which one do you want? Red or yellow or pink?" Pearl asked, grabbing the shades she knew Steven was most partial too.
"I want Razzmatazz please." Steven waddled over to Pearl, pointing to it when Pearl didn't automatically hand it to him.
"Whoa, what the heck color is that?" Amethyst chuckled. "Sounds like a type of fruit juice or something."
"When did you learn about this color?" Pearl asked, handing it to him.
"From Mrs.-." Steven paused, remembering that Mrs. Sunny and the kindergarten were secrets. Unable to correct his mistake he just squatted down and began scribbling passionately.
"Steven?" Pearl poked his side. "That wasn't a proper sentence, from Mrs. Who?"
Steven scribbled harder, his toddler brain desperately trying to figure out how to make this better. He was coming up with squat. He only colored harder, beads of sweat appearing on his brow.
"Maybe he read it?" Garnet suggested, squatting over Steven with two crayons.
"He can't read, I haven't taught him yet." Pearl gasped. "But perhaps he's advanced! Like the parent magazines said!"
"Greg couldn't read until he was like seven." Amethyst mumbled. "Don't kids do the same thing as their parent?"
"Steven is Greg's and Rose's son." Pearl huffed.
"What are these colors?" Garnet asked, revealing the crayons in her hands. Steven looked up nervously and pointed.
"The red one's ruby and the blue's one sapphire." Steven mumbled, reaching out for the two and began scribbling with them. Pearl and Garnet were grinning widely (though Garnet looked especially happy for some reason).
"Nice one Garnet." Amethyst snorted. "Do they got an amethyst?"
"No and they don't have pearl either." Pearl huffed. "And this color? What color is this Steven?"
Steven could feel the sweat drip down his face. He knew what color it was, but it wasn't because he could read. He knew his alphabet, but he didn't get how the letters sounds became word sounds yet.
"Uh…uh dunno." Steven grabbed it anyway and scribbling.
"Oh, look at that face, he's lying." Amethyst roughed up his curls.
"No'm not!" Steven yelled, slamming into Garnet face when he stood up. "Ah! Oh, sorry Garnet."
"It's fine, Steven." Garnet shrugged. Despite her assurance, Steven still gave her one of his famous kiss-it-all-better kisses. Garnet chuckled and returned the favor with a kiss to his curls.
"Steven, now there isn't anything to be ashamed about being advanced." Pearl said, grinning widely as the word left her mouth. "But it isn't okay to lie. We talked about this."
Steven only shook his head. "Nnnmnh."
"Steven," Pearl poked at his cheek. "Look me in the eyes."
Steven dropped down and shoved his face even closer to the paper. He knew if Pearl looked in his eyes she would know. At first, it had only been Garnet who seemed to know when he was lying, but only a few weeks ago, Pearl had gained the superpower too!
"Steven."
Oh no, that was the 'you're-about-to-be-in-trouble' voice. Steven tried his best not to cry, but he could feel Pearl's glare only getting stronger. He whimpered squeakily before bursting into tears. He didn't want to be in trouble! He didn't like lying!
"I'm sorry!" He sobbed, launching himself at Pearl.
"Pearl, you made him cry!" Amethyst sat up, spitting out three crayons she had shoved in her mouth.
"I-I didn't mean to!" Pearl gasped, holding Steven closer as his sobs became wails. "He doesn't usually cry when I ask him if he's lying."
"Maybe he really hates being able to read." Amethyst shrugged, scratching her head with a sympathetic frown. "I mean, reading is kinda boring."
"He didn't cry when he learned his letters." Garnet pointed out.
"He was very happy when he could say the whole alphabet." Pearl mumbled guilty. "I thought he would be happy."
"What if it's happy tears? You do that all the time!" Amethyst asked.
"I do not!"
"You kinda do." Garnet said.
"Regardless, of how much I 'happy cry', Steven is still obviously upset about something!" Pearl hissed.
"Pearl, please don't be mad at Tven!" Steven blubbered, snot bubbling on his face.
"Oookay," Pearl held Steven away from her body, trying to dismiss her disgust. "Garnet take him while I go get the baby wipes." Garnet took Steven and patted his back when he began to cough. Amethyst nibbled on a jumbo crayon with a frown, crawling into Garnet's lap and letting Steven's feet rest against her middle.
"Steven, is everything alright?" Garnet asked, she wiped at his cheeks with her thumb, letting her gem rest against his cheek.
"Unnn...I-I-I…lie cus-cus kidgarden a-an I no m-mean lie." Steven sobbed, hiccupping through his sentences. "I dunno know how to rea'. Is too hard."
"You lied?" Pearl gasped, just exiting the bathroom armed to the teeth with wipes and tissues.
"Reading is pretty hard." Garnet shrugged sympathetically.
"Kindergarten?" Amethyst whispered, sitting up. "What do you mean kindergarten?"
After being cleaned up and being assured that he wasn't in trouble, he reluctantly told the gems of where he and his father had gone.
A/N: Guess who finally paid off their hard drive? (hint, it may or may not have been me. Just a guess though.)