The Grave

Steven's grave stone included a chiseled replica of his/Rose's Gem, his name: Steven Universe, the dates of his birth and death and an inscription: "Father, Husband, Friend, Crystal Gem." The dirt on the surface of the grave had been recently disturbed by one of Peridot's retriveoids, but the dirt was starting to settle.

The children with their short attention spans were dueling with Nerf Swords among the older tombstones.

Connie stood at the foot of the grave, staring intently at it. "It still doesn't seem quite real, but then nothing about him did… except for when it became too real. I miss you so much."

Rose stood next to her, maintaining a respectful silence. "I'm sorry," Rose filled the silence, "I never thought that what Greg and I did would ever cause anyone this much pain."

"No!" Connie insisted. "Ever since I was a kid, Steven was the biggest source of joy, friendship, and happiness in my life! I can't imagine what I would have done, or become without him. He saw me, when no one else did, in a crowd of people he once saw me drop a bracelet. A year later he started talking to me, and I had no idea why he would, or why anyone would even care about me. That started our first magical adventure together, and it never stopped. The joys, the scares, the hurts and cuts and efforts, and monsters… it was all worth it. More than worth it, because in the end, he gave me them," she gestured to her children, "and with them, the magic and adventure will never end. And, I didn't mean that literally."

Rose enveloped the small woman in another hug. "Thanks, Rose."

"No, Connie. Thank you. Where is Greg?"

Connie pointed to a free section of grass to the right of Steven's grave, "That is where I'll go. Greg is on that side. Next to him is Steven's Uncle Andy. The entire family will be together."

"I used to wonder why humans set aside areas like this," Rose said. "I understand now."

Greg's ornately decorated stone read "Greg Universe, Beloved Father and Friend. Cherry Man. Rock Star. Lived like a Comet."

"Amethyst got Vidalia to make the stone… with input from Pearl."

"I'm glad they finally started getting along."

"It may just sit around, but Pearl still comes around to work on his van when she gets frustrated. Back then, Pearl's technical skills are the only thing that kept that old van running… the number of times it got flooded, crushed or cannibalized for other projects, it was amazing that Pearl was able to keep it running."

"Thank you for bringing me here. It's good to know where they are… I expect I will be visiting here often. I would have preferred it if they had been placed in my garden…"

"Where the fountain of you is?"

"Yes. I love it there…"

"Pearl mentioned it, but that is such a private place, hard for normal humans to get to. It also turned out that Greg's music was a lot more popular than he thought. MTV did a Behind the Music special on him, wondering where he had disappeared to for so many years. Turns out his Manager not only cheated him, but he was really bad a promotions."

"I knew his music was good. It had a universal appeal."

Connie laughed.

"Thank you for bringing me here," Rose said, fixing Connie with an earnest gaze before turning back to the graves. She started to sing. "If I could begin to be half of what you thought of me, I could do anything. I could even learn how to love… I always thought I might be bad, now I'm sure that it's true, 'cause you were so good, and I'm nothing like you… Now that your gone, I think its finally true that I have learned to love like you…"

[This chapter was unexpected. I was planning to jump directly to the next one, but this one popped up at the last minute and demanded to be written. I like it. It makes a nice connecting piece going from the funeral in the 'past' to the grave in the 'present'. I appreciate all reviews, my ego needs them.]