"Steven."

Greg, Steven and I craned our necks to see where the voice was emanating. It was coming from a tall woman with dark skin, boxy hair, a stoic expression, and a visor situated over her eyes in a manner in which you couldn't see them.

"Oh, hey Garnet!" Steven piped up. "What's up?"

"I just came to tell you that dinner is soon." Garnet said, the smallest of smiles curing her lips slightly. "We're having pizza."

"Really? Aw, yeah!" Steven exclaimed. Soon after, he gasped and looked in my direction. "You should have dinner with us!"

"I'm sorry, what?" I said.

"You should have dinner with us!" Steven repeated. "Families have dinner together, don't they?" He asked rhetorically.

"I guess they do." I said with a chuckle.

"What do you say, Garnet? Can he have dinner with us?" Steven turned to the tall woman.

Garnet then took several long strides towards me, stopping right as her face was in mine. Then she just… stared at me. Long and hard. At least I think she was staring at me, it was hard to tell with that visor.

I won't lie, she was rather intimidating.

After several moments, however, she backed away from me and said bluntly:

"Yeah. It's alright."

"Woohoo!" Steven shouted, running towards a house on the beach nearby. "See ya, Dad! I'll meet you at the house Sam, Garnet!"

And with that, he disappeared into the house. Afterwards, I turned to Greg and said:

"Say, you wouldn't mind if I kick off early, would you?"

"If it makes my son happy, not at all!" Greg said happily.

"Thanks. I'll show you the house when I'm done."

"Awesome! See ya later, Sam!"

"Adios." I said, beginning to walk away with Garnet.

Several steps into our walk, Garnet said:

"This is really kind of you to do."

"What, accepting a dinner invitation? Please, if anything, I should be thanking you for giving me a meal."

"I'm serious." Garnet said bluntly, turning to me and stopping in her tracks. "Steven is a very kind soul and he likes to share that kindness. However, most people in this town don't react to said kindness as well as you do, so it's always nice to see Steven make a new friend. And you seem like a good enough person to deserve to be his friend."

I looked at Garnet with an incredulous smile.

"And you got all of this from just standing close to me and staring. I'm impressed. Tell me what else did you gather about me in this short time of knowing each other?"

"I know that you have cancer."

…Silence. Dead silence.

"… H-how did you-"

"I have my ways of knowing things. Speaking of your cancer, we should hurry up. You're about to have an attack and you'll want something comfortable to lie on." Garnet said, as if it were just an everyday occurrence.

"E-e-excuse me? I'm feeling just fine, thank you-"

Then the heat.

Then the unbearable heat.

So unbearable that whilst taking off my hoodie to try and get rid of some of the heat (which worked to no avail), I had to drop on all fours to support myself. I was just that weak.

No, no, no! I can't be having an attack! I haven't had one for months now, I thought I had gotten over them.

But apparently not.

"What's going on over here!?" Greg said whilst rushing over to our side.

"He's having an attack."

"Attack? Of what?"

"Cancer." Garnet said as bluntly as ever.

"Cancer!? You have cancer and you didn't think to tell me about it?" Greg said worriedly.

I wanted to respond. I wanted to say something so badly, to at least make myself look somewhat in control.

However, my body had other plans.

*Cough, Hack, Wheeze*

My body was violently retching, or as much as it could do so while I was on all fours.

Oh god, not this. This is the worst part whenever an attack happens.

"S-Sam?" Greg asked nervously

*GAG*

Then there was red.

A pool of red swam in vision, the blood I expelled from my mouth a little gift to the pavement below.

Now, to go off on a small tangent, have you ever had that feeling where it feels like there's a bug buzzing around in your head? Very strange question, I know, but it does tie in my current condition.

Now imagine, if you will, that bug was a wasp.

Now imagine, once again, if said wasp decided to find a nice little place on your brain and sting down, the venom of its sting oozing throughout every neuron of your cerebrum and making it feel like wanting to shrivel out of existence due to the pain it was feeling.

That would be rather accurate representation of what it felt like my brain was going through.

"AAAAHHHH!" I screamed out, gripping the sides of my head with clawed hands.

"Jesus Christ, what do we do!?" Greg asked in a panic.

"Quickly, to the house!" Garnet said in desperation.

Garnet picked me up without what appeared to be any real effort on her part, my body limp in an awkward and tortuous mix of pain and weakness, and began striding towards the house Steven disappeared into.

With Garnet opening the door and rushing inside, I was in too much pain to notice a slender woman with what appeared to be a gem on her forehead say:

"Greetings, Sam. We're happy to have you… Goodness, what's wrong with him!?"

"He's in a lot of pain. Right now, he needs somewhere to lie down on." Garnet said, dripping with calmness.

Now, this may have been the pain making my brain delirious, but I could have sworn I saw a stubby purple woman come near me and say:

"Geez, Steven. This guy ain't looking as cool as you said he was."

Then, a young girl you appeared around Steven's age with dark skin (Yet another stranger I would have to profusely apologize to when this ordeal was over) inched her way over to Garnet's side, Steven at her hip with a deeply worried expression.

"Is this that Sam guy you were talking about?" The girl said looking at Steven. "He looks like he's about to die!"

"He's not going to die, Connie." Garnet said self-assuredly. "He just need's somewhere to rest."

"Um, ah, uh…" Steven said in a panic, looking around the room. "Oh! He can use my bed!"

That apparently was the only go-ahead Garnet needed, as right after Steven said that she (somehow, I don't know how. Maybe it was the fever making me delirious again.) Leaped up near the ceiling and dropped down on the landing that held Steven's bed.

Gently placing me down on Steven's bed, Garnet then began to (Presumably. Again, that visor made it difficult for me make out what she was doing with her eyes) Look my deeply in the eyes whilst… for some odd reason, stoking my hair.

"It's going to be okay. You're going to get through this." Garnet said in a maternal nature.

Yeah… Yeah, she was right. I could get through this, I've gotten through it a couple times before.

Steven must have climbed the ladder leading to his bed, as now his head was in my field of vison.

"Don't go…" He said, his eyes on the verge of tears. "… We were just starting to become a family."

A gave my best attempt at a laugh to soothe Steven. It more or less came out as a cough-riddled chuckle.

"Don't worry, Steven. I've dealt with worse. In a couple minutes I'll be…"

Weak. Too weak to finish my sentence.

Then my senses went to hell.

Touch numbed.

Sound blurred.

Scent frazzled.

And sight blackened.

Then, I closed my eyes, wanting sweet release…

Good Morrow, People of Fanfiction! Don't worry, (spoiler alert) Sam isn't dead. I didn't plan on making this fic THAT short. Anyways, I've been pondering this question for a bit so I'll ask you lovely lot:

Would you like to see a romance subplot with Sam and Garnet?

It's completely fine if you don't, that's why I'm asking you guys. Regardless of what your response, leave your reviews to tell me what you think/what I can improve/your answer to my question!