A/N:
If any of you remember what I said with that Time fic, this was one of those submissions I wrote on tumblr for a Grasper challenge/art trade by kibbles-bits. I just always write my projects in Word first so I had it saved on my computer as well and decided to upload it here for the sake of filling the Grasper search ;P
So then, please enjoy this one. :)
It was a hot day in human terms. Waves could practically been seen emanating off of cars and asphalt. Residents were either indoors or enjoying the beach. Meanwhile, the Crystal Gems, and Steven and Connie by extension, were away from this dreaded place on some mission. But Steven's poor father, Greg, had nowhere to escape this dreaded heat wave. The air in his van had broken, and now the poor man was roasting alive at the car wash, putting a hose on the ground and letting it waste water as it sprayed up. The drops of liquid shimmering in the light as they fell down upon the human, resting in his beach chair.
The back of his van slammed open with a tall and once proud gem warrior emerging from within. Her amber eyes narrowed, focusing on the little human lying about helplessly. "Hey, human!" She boomed, marching over to poor, exhausted Greg. She picked the man up, shaking him and yelling in his face once again. "Why are you not serving your purpose?!"
Greg was dizzy and ready to get sick after being shaken about so roughly. It took several moments for him to recompose himself and answer the quartz warrior. "It's too hot…" He whined, looking up to the cloudless sky.
Jasper dropped the human, looking out to the city and noticing most normally busy areas pretty empty as well. She growled. "You humans let this stop you?"
"Oh boy…" Greg sighed, rubbing the back of his sweaty neck. He shut off water to the hose, and cautiously approached the tall gem, scared to look up at her. "You know, humans are a lot different than gems."
The quartz scoffed at the comment. "I've noticed."
"Yeah… well…" Greg remembered the time Peridot pushed him off the roof back at the barn, and that was a gem more easily persuaded to join them. Not like he could take Jasper there. Even still, she and Lapis were on very bad terms, and the last time Peridot visited the car wash, Jasper seemed ready to shatter her for the endless babbling about Camp Pining Hearts. He needed some medium to show this gem what earthlings were like. "We can't take extreme temperatures like you can. We need heat, but not too much of it or we can't function…" He tried to explain.
"Sounds complicated." The gem stated, walking back to the old van once again.
Greg sighed. Even Rose, who had lived on Earth for thousands of years, was quite clueless about humans when they first met. Moments like this, Greg would ask himself what his late-partner would do. He had an idea.
"Uh… What are you doing?" Jasper asked as the human rushed into his van, closing the back doors and climbing into the driver's seat.
Gosh, it was like an oven in this thing, even with all the windows rolled down. When he turned the key, the engine struggled to start, sputtering with each attempt. "C'mon…"
Jasper had climbed through the mess in the van up to the front seat. Waving a hand in front of the human as he was so focused on this vehicle. "What are you doing?" She repeated, almost caught off guard when the man cheered for his vehicle finally responding. The vehicle pulled back, sending the gem forward slightly with the change in momentum.
"We're getting ice cream!"
The gem had no idea what this man was going on about. "Ice cream?"
Greg found himself laughing. The Crystal Gems were the same way at one point. "It's food." He explained. "Well, not really something someone could live off of," Taking a jab about his own gut. "But it's frozen food."
Jasper stayed silent for a few moments as she processed this. "You organics certainly find… interesting ways to sustain yourselves." She remarked. So many times she had seen this man and other humans walking around with their organic fuel. So many different shapes, sizes, and textures, and all of this for them to keep up energy. It was so inefficient.
When they arrived in the town, Greg was disappointed to see the line which stretched from the building. Almost the entire boardwalk was filled with people eating or standing in line for this frozen snack. "Aw man, seems like we're gonna be here a while."
Jasper stood behind the man, with her arms crossed. So many people just for this thing Greg described? Surely they couldn't have all been from just Beach City.
"You know what I could go for? A big ole banana split." Greg mused, licking his lips. "A nice sundae, or ooh! A float. Yeah…"
"Human? Why are you salivating?"
"Wha-?" Greg wiped the liquid out of his beard. He couldn't help it! "I'm excited! This place has such good ice cream!"
The gem still had no idea why he was going on like this. The line went by slowly and it felt like Greg made a remark about that every minute. Eventually they had made their way up to the window.
"Welcome to Icy's, how may I help you?" The young worker greeted.
Greg hummed as he looked over the menu. He'd gone on and on about what he wanted earlier. Why couldn't he decide? "Oh my stars, would you just pick something?!"
The volume shook everyone around to their cores, but Greg was much more used to it than any of the other humans. "Okay, okay. Two vanilla cones with sprinkles." He said to the shocked clerk, who quickly went on her way to fill the order.
"Two?"
Greg chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck, as per habit. "Yeah, well, you're here."
Jasper furrowed her brows. The fact that this human thought to order her one of these ice creams was beyond her. He knew what gems were better than anyone. "You know I don't need your organic trash."
"And neither does Amethyst."
The gem crossed her arms with a loud harrumph. No need to bring up such a subject here. She was still trying to get over that whole ordeal between them. After all, Jasper had only been uncorrupted for a few months now.
"Here ya go." Greg said, offering her the cone after the order was completed.
Jasper stared between it, and that little man holding it with a smile on his face. Without any ado, she took the tiny object in one of her large hands. She looked over the strange thing. The waffle texture of its containment was so delicate, and she was afraid of crushing it. The white cream on top was covered in little rainbow pieces which must have been these "sprinkles", Greg talked about. The quartz looked down at the man, licking the frozen treat and smiling like an idiot. She decided to do the same.
"So?" Greg giggled expectantly as he awaited her response.
"It's… stupid." Truthfully, Jasper actually enjoyed this Earth snack. But that was something she was much too proud to admit.
"Then why are you still eating it?" The man laughed, giving her a playful jab with his elbow. The impact was much too little for her to notice as she was so absorbed in this new treat she had.
The two enjoyed their snacks, spending the rest of the evening out on the beach. On several occasions, Jasper made threats against Greg for telling Steven about what she just did. The human only laughed them off, but he would respect her wishes.
The light sea breeze blew through her beige hair and the human found himself speechless. What would everyone say? He was falling for a gem once again.
A/N:
Well, it's not sadness this time, but my request was still twisted due to the first submission. It's fine though. I hope you enjoyed, and remember to support that artist I talked about. They're probably swamped right now with requests from the challenge.
Anywho, I have some different projects to work on in the future now. Don't expect this to be the last of the ship you see from me. Imagine me as the admiral of some sort of shipping armada. There's just that many XD
This is your lovely squish wishing you all wonderful days :D