Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe!
Title: It's All That Puma's Fault
Summary: (Human AU) Amethyst is nine when she falls into the Puma Pit at her local zoo. She's fifteen when she runs away from home. She's eighteen when she meets Rose Quartz. She's twenty five when Rose dies and leaves them Steven. It's been six months since Garnet and Pearl have seen her.
Author's Note: The odd bit of cursing.
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Lady of the Sky- Thanks!
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Amethyst isn't one to admit to this sort of thing, but her eyes are red and puffy as she examines the track phone in her hands. Fuzzball nudges her knee, and she whimpers, reaching with shaking hands to pet her.
Cat fur is comforting, as always. Amethyst swallows and dials the home phone she'd memorized ages ago. Someone had dropped the hunk of plastic a few days ago, and she's holding on to it for him until he returns.
The phone picks up in two rings, when really she'd hoped it'd just go to voicemail. Amethyst curses quietly to herself in German. She took some lessons from a neighbor as a child, so she had a wide variety of words with which to choose from.
"Hello?"
She braces herself for the worst. "Uh, hey."
"Amethyst?" Pearl's voice quickly rises to a wail. "Amethyst, where-"
"Listen, okay? I'm fine. No biggie." She shrugs in spite of herself. "How is he?"
There's a pause. "Steven is... decent. I just put him down for a nap, actually. He's so much like her already."
"He's still a baby, P. Don't get ahead of yourself."
Pearl sucks in a fortifying breath. "Please tell me you're coming home."
"Sorry, not quite." Not really. "Whup, looks like Biggs wants to meet you. I'm giving it over to 'em for a second. Loud meower, am I right?"
"Amethyst."
"Sorry, sorry. I'm a bit delirious." She shifts with a wince. "I'm nursing a bad leg."
"What happened?"
"I fell." She leaves out the more delicate parts. Like dragging herself away from the scene of the crime to find a place to hide. "Same leg as I once broke before- remember that puma I told you about? Man, I miss her- and it's gettin' infected. Gonna have to get my ass over to the hospital."
"Where are you?"
Amethyst thinks she can hear car keys. "It's too far for all that, amiga. Besides; I'm calling because I don't want you to come, but you're my emergency contact and they're gonna call you, and all that crap. I kinda deserve it at this point. Running off."
"It's not healthy, no." She agreed. "That's how you deal with these sorts of things, however, and we knew you'd come back."
"I'm not coming back." She chided. "If anything, I'm probably going to the slammer. No cash, and all that."
"We'll find you."
"No, don't. Listen. You and G? You're perfect for each other. And, yeah, it was nice while it lasted, but I'd overstayed my welcome a million times over. Let Steven have my room."
"Amethyst?"
"Yeah?"
"You've got to really be crazy to think we'll just let you rot."
"I was worried you'd say that."
"Don't move." She advises her seriously.
"Hell, I ain't goin' anywhere."
Amethyst has only been privy to a life without cats during that first little while after Rose had died. They seemed to almost sense her anguish, and it had taken them almost two weeks to return, letting her mourn as a cat mourns; alone. It was the longest two weeks of her life, not counting her stay at the hospital as a child.
There's four cats with her when Garnet and Pearl arrive. Considering it's the middle of the night and all of them seem to be housecats, that says a lot. One of them, Bismuth, has been loyally plastered to her side, unwilling to move or eat until she got help. Biggs and Snowflake have each taken an arm, and Crazy Lace is firmly laying on her belly. Amethyst really needs to pee.
She swallows. "You found me fast."
"I called my mother." Garnet supplies, crouching down to peer under the platform of wooden crates she's been living under. Hey, it's shelter, sort of. "What kind of bad leg we talkin' about?"
"'Tis but a scratch."
"Amethyst."
"'Tis flat-out busted."
"Not really better, but at least it's more honest."
Pearl lets out a distressed cry and tries to grab her arm to give comfort. In a surprisingly fast action, Bismuth leaps off her to scratch at her hand, hissing.
"Ow! Amethyst, controls your felines."
She struggles to prop herself up on a rolled-up jacket. Cats roll off with disgruntled meows. "'Mere, Bizzy. Come'on. Atta girl."
"A broken leg and a possessive cat." Garnet muses, like this is an everyday occurrence, or an extremely interesting riddle.
"Bite me."
"I might, but your cat would probably bite back."
Long story short, Amethyst is put in physical and mental therapy after she gets out of the cast. They drop the mental when she confesses that she's just not ready to disclose herself to a stranger, even one that's willing and able to help.
Her leg is permanently shot. When you fall and break the same bone twice, then let the second time fester in a dirty alley somewhere, things happen. Amethyst comes along decently enough, but she has to rely on a cane to get around now, which is fine, probably counts as karma, whatever. They get her a really cool one, with a dragon design for the head. Amethyst finds herself yearning for a dragon tattoo, along the scar on her busted leg, but she's not sure that's possible. Especially as she gets keloid scarring. Bad.
After all of that, she half-expects them to dump her off at a motel somewhere with a twenty dollar bill, but Pearl and Garnet drive her straight home. They've planted a flower garden since she left, and erected a low rock fence. Vidalia hints at them getting drunk and crying over their losses as she hands Steven over, but not enough so to rouse suspicions. Garnet has good taste in babysitters.
"I'm on pain medication." Amethyst slurs.
"Ah. Maybe next time, then." Vidalia gives her shoulder a squeeze and disappears.
Amethyst has never met Steven before, but he looks healthy enough, as far as babies are concerned. Plump cheeks and all that crap. He's well loved, too; he's not afraid to curl closer to Pearl's chest or make cute little baby noises. Very open and loving. She understands the like-his-mom comment a bit better now.
"Would you like to hold him?" She asks hesitantly.
Amethyst shakes her head, lips pursed. "Kinda hobblin' over here, P. Don't wanna shake him."
Pearl scowls, but it's not in a mean way. She seems pleasantly sated with Rose's son in her arms.
Amethyst hikes it to her room and takes a nap. Showering can wait.
Author's Note: They would've adopted all the cats, but they wore collars. Amethyst is gonna save up for a sword cane.
-Mandaree1
