Okay, so since I couldn't upload this story with the full summary in the main description, here it is; hopefully this one is a little less cringe-inducing.
Summary
High School AU. Ruby is a musician struggling with her depression after the loss of her parents, and due to certain circumstances, she has to practice her music after school in the band room, in secret. Sapphire just moved to Beach City, and is starting her senior year at Ruby's school. She keeps to herself because she has social anxiety along with some secrets she feels like she has to hide. She loves to sing and uses it to cope with her anxiety, so she decides to ask the music teacher about chorus class after school. She walks into the band room and finds Ruby alone, playing one of her newest compositions. Things happen and Ruby realizes Sapphire is there. A confrontation occurs, and the series of events that happen next is something neither ever expected. I'm bad at writing summaries and my writing probably sucks, but this is something I've been working on for months and I decided to finally post it after much debate. I hope you guys like it though!
A/N: Hey guys! It's Liz, and if this isn't your first time reading my work, well let me just say, I'm back finally, lol. If you haven't read 'Well, This is Awkward', my other story, then skip the first half of this authors note, go to the ~ below (unless you're curious about my life, then go for it fam) so, I know it's been over a year since you've seen anything new from me, and sorry to disappoint but this obviously isn't an update for WTIA. Don't fret, I haven't given up on our lovely doccubus, but I've been having a lot of hard shit happen to me over the past year and a half. My grandmother died, I sank into a dark spiral of drug use and depression, I was hospitalized for over a month to get help, and I turned my life around, got a job, graduated high school, and was attending college. But back in June I got into a severe car accident, which almost claimed my life. I was seriously injured, and I'm still recovering; I won't be able to walk again until around January of next year. So yeah a lot of heavy shit has happened, but I'm finally in a good spot mentally again. Needless to say, with all that going on I haven't found time or inspiration to write the second half of chapter five for WTIA. I'm gonna try to work on it though, soon, I promise. It's just that ~ this story idea has been stuck in my head since I started watching Steven Universe, and subsequently got obsessed with the two small, adorable, gay space rocks, Ruby and Sapphire. This story is an AU, more specifically a cross between a high school AU and a non-cannon gem AU. They are gems still, but I decided to make them more human-like, just to mix things up. There are no actual humans in this story (although there is mention of humans existing at one point), for this reason alone. This is a slow burn romance, so they don't get together until like chapter 10. But don't worry, they realize they have feelings for each other a lot sooner than that lol. But be warned, this story is not going to be all fluffy and cute (though there will be a lot of that). I plan on having a lot of emotional things happen, and it gets pretty heart wrenching at times, in my opinion anyway. Anyways, enough of me wasting your time, here's the first chapter, which isn't actually the first chapter but instead an introductory chapter, lmao don't hate me pls. Hope you enjoy, and as always, let me know what you guys think! :)
~Liz~
Preface
Ruby Hadyn is a musical prodigy who feels utterly alone in life after her parents were shattered in a tragic car accident, right before the start of her junior year. She hasn't had the easiest life, always being made fun of for various reasons beyond her control, and was outright shunned once she came out. No matter how hard things got, however, her parents were always there, to help her, support her, and love her. For the past year, she's had to adapt to life without her parents, adapt to her new self.
She's always been ill-tempered and brash, but since her parents' demise, she's had to deal with a fragile psyche, unstable emotional outbursts, crippling depression, and the cruelty of her fellow classmates. Fights inevitably ensued, eventually she got carried away, and ended up cracking another student's gem. She was put on probation with the school; one more fight and she would be kicked out. She's long since closed herself off, built walls to hide behind, but more for the safety of others than her actual well-being.
She focused on her studies, her training, and her music only, never interacting with the other gems. She was dangerous now, but deep down, the old Ruby was still there. She was still passionate, kind, caring. But it was overshadowed by her seemingly never ending rage. Her only escape in in life was her music. She lost herself completely in it. She could release her emotions without risking someone getting hurt, or something getting destroyed; but one day, after an unexpectedly difficult first day of her senior year, Ruby lost it and trashed her room in a furious haze, realizing, too late, what she'd done.
Her guitar and piano were unsalvageable, and with this discovery came another one, far worse than the first. Without her musical outlet, it was only a matter of time before she snapped, and got herself kicked out of school for fighting. Her only option was to practice her music in the school's band room, after school. She knew they had both a piano and several guitars, but that wasn't the problem. She's purposefully kept her musical gift a secret, to protect the one good thing she has left; and now she had to risk it all.
Regardless, she starts carrying her songbooks with her, staying after school on her free days to work on her music. Everything was working out surprisingly well, that is, until someone walks in on her one day. She fears the worst, which isn't pessimistic of her, considering almost everyone at the school hated her, and she had no friends, not anymore anyway. She thought she knew what would happen next. Unbeknownst to Ruby, however, there's a new girl at school, and her story is nearly as tragic her own, and it's also the exact reason why things are most certainly not going to go the way she's expecting them to.
Sapphire Isanne was a new transfer to Beach City High, coming from Empire City Academy, a private school in the next city over. She wasn't there by choice, however. Ever since she was a little girl, Sapphire knew she was different from the other gems, and not in a 'everyone is unique and special' kind of way. She was what you would call a 'defective' gem. For starters, she could only create one eye for her physical form, no matter how hard she tried.
Secondly, she wasn't shaped like regular sapphires. She was small and slender, elegant looking with her blue ball gown, complete with elbow length white gloves, and her long, flowing hair, bangs covering her eye. If she was any other gem, surely her appearance would be coveted, eye excluded, but no, when you're made from corundum, you're expected to look, well, fierce. Corundum variants, sapphires especially, were created to guard the best of the best.
Armed with superb reflexes, deadly aim, immense strength; all backed by a towering physique, sapphires were the perfect bodyguard, or they were supposed to be anyway. She had none of this, aside from the reflexes. She had no depth perception, she was very small, and instead of strength she possessed speed. She in no way resembled any other sapphire. Sapphires had been made to protect the Diamonds and their court, since they balanced on that edge of elegant and fierce. Of course, they were no longer needed for that, since the Diamond Authority had long since been destroyed; along with Homeworld.
Obviously though, that didn't stop people from judging her flaws. For most of her life, Sapphire had been told she was less than, worthless, a mistake; and not by the students at school. Sure, they had their fun picking on her, calling her a cyclops, puny, a runt, defective, pathetic, ex cetera; sure, they'd probably agree with the previous statements above, but they never said it to her at least. No, that cruelty was dealt out by the two people Sapphire loved the most; her parents.
Her parents hated her, despite her constant effort to be nothing but exceptional in every aspect of her life. She wished she could hate them back; hell, it'd make things a little easier for her at least, but something in Sapphire wouldn't let her. No, for all their flaws, there had been a time when her parents adored her. She longed for the return of those times, it's all she wanted. To be loved, accepted, by the two people who brought her into the world.
So she tried to bring it back. She tried to make herself as beautiful as possible, dressing herself in floor length ball gowns, making her hair wavy and making it so it went well past the middle of her back, she even covered her eye with bangs. Her parents didn't care, so she tried to show them how intelligent she was. She took all advanced classes, she learned three different languages, she had straight As. Still, her parents took no notice, choosing to point out all the things she wasn't doing; wasn't being.
Eventually, they got tired of living with someone they claimed was the bane of their existence, so they bought an apartment in the next town over, sending Sapphire to live there, with only her possessions and a promise of a monthly check, to purchase necessities with. Now she was starting her senior year completely alone, surrounded by completely new faces, unfamiliar and strange. The first week wasn't even over yet and she had already had three panic attacks, one of which she had to miss class for.
She had already been made fun of by the schools apparent popular group, for her visible flaws. At least no one knew about her eye; or her powers. Keeping those hidden was both essential and tremendously stressful. Hence her anxiety attacks. She was constantly worried someone would find out her secrets, and then her chances of being accepted would diminish to nothing. But her chances of actually being able to talk to someone were already slim to none.
Every time she even thought about introducing herself to someone her social anxiety would rear its ugly head and she'd spiral into a pit of self-doubt and irrational fears about unlikely scenarios. So she kept to herself, which oddly enough did nothing to ease her fears about revealing herself; seriously, how exactly would she be able to do that if she refused to talk to a single soul? Nevertheless, her fears remained ever present and so she continued to suffer in silence.
She had finally mustered up the courage to ask the music teacher about joining the chorus class though, desperately needing to sing her anxiety away, her one and only coping mechanism that worked, and made a plan to speak to them after school one day. Things could never go smoothly for sapphire, however, so of course it was just her luck to wander into the music room after school and accidentally encroach on a student who was performing a seemingly sorrowful and private song; and of course she couldn't just turn around and leave, no, she had to let herself get enraptured by the music, and slowly creep forward until she stepped on the creaky floorboard, which of course alerted the other student to her presence.
The next sequence of events will never be forgotten by either student, for it leads to the most wonderful story of young love, a beautiful tale of overcoming your issues and flaws to be with the one person you know you were made for. It leads to the song that saved them both.
A/N: And so that is the introduction to my lovely little story. I know I wrote more about Sapphire than I did about Ruby, and there's a reason for that. Let me know what you think about it, even if you think it sucks lmao. The next chapter is the actual first chapter, and it's told from Ruby's POV. I'm putting the finishing touches on that one still, so I'll probably update this relatively soon, barring no complications lol. So for now here is the intro, and I also posted an interesting prologue as well, it's my version of the gem war, and contributes some trivial background information for this story, as well as explains a few interesting things that occur in my AU world. As always, I hope you enjoyed this, and reviews are always welcomed and appreciated. This is my first story for the Steven Universe fandom, so go easy on me! Until next time,
~Liz~
