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His eyes moved under the eyelids like he was having a bad dream, but in all reality he was trying to open them up. His head was throbbing as he tried to remember where he was at without looking at the room surrounding him. He had to be back in his bedroom, that's the last thing he remembered before he had fallen asleep the other night. Why did his body hurt so much if that was the case? He tried to move a finger, but he was barely able to feel his hand or any body part at that.
When he was finally able to open his eyes, he wasn't able to tell where he was. The light above him was dim, but it still hurt his eyes. Closing them once again to try to get rid of the stinging pain behind his eyes, he opened them again trying to get used to the light. Once that happened, he realized he wasn't in his room like he thought. Instead he was in a hospital room with a tube down his throat, trying to stay calm and not freak out he concentrated on trying to move his hands. When he managed to do that, he had touched something next to him. Whatever he touched grabbed his hand in return, it was much larger, rough to the touch, but warm and friendly.
He didn't know how to feel about the warmth and friendliness of the touch, it almost repulsed him, but at the same time, he rather enjoyed it. "Steven, are you awake?" The voice was deep and rough, but full of so many different emotions. He wasn't able to tell who the voice belonged to, "My son, can you hear me?" the man's voice was urgent, but he couldn't move his head to see who it was. He didn't know anyone other than Pearl and Rose to call him 'my son,' so it just confused him more.
His eyes followed the figure until he stood in front of him. It was Greg, he was plump middle-aged man with a dark-beige beard that had specks of grey in it, he was wearing a white tank top with cut off shorts. It was weird to him, when did Greg change his appearance all of sudden? And where was his hair? Greg had walked around the bed and pushed the button for a nurse to come in, he stood there and grabbed ahold of his other hand when the door squeaked opened. A beautiful nurse came in with caramel skin, and her short hair was black. She was friendly as she asked Greg to move over so she was able to take his vitals.
It was weird for him to be treated like this, everyone treated him like he was different, like they needed to be careful or they would make the wrong move. It had hurt when the nurse took the breathing tube out of his throat and it made him sore and itchy. "There you go, kiddo. How about we get you some ice cream for your sore throat?" He gave the nurse a thumbs up as he wasn't able to talk or move his head as it hurt to much. "How about chocolate?" He felt like gagging, chocolate anything was disgusting to him. He gave her a thumbs down, "Vanilla?" His eyes lit up and gave her a thumbs up. He loved Vanilla ice cream, it was his favourite flavor.
Greg was in front of his bed again staring at him with the tears falling down his face and onto the hospital floor. He wasn't sure why they had let him in then the others, especially mama would have never let Greg visit him in the hospital. "Where ... is ... my ... moms?" His words were barely a whisper and he was pretty sure Greg didn't hear him as he went in for a hug. Greg didn't smell like cigarettes and alcohol, he actually smelled of after shave. He whimpered as Greg tightened the hug and let go quickly afterwards.
"Does it still hurt? I'll be more gentle next time. You scared me there, son. I thought I was going to lose you, like I lost Rose. You're my only family." He wiped away his tears the same moment the door opened up in his room. Steven thought it was the nurse with his ice cream, but instead it was his Mama Pearl. He was half expecting for her to kick out Greg, but she just stood there staring at him. Her peach hair wasn't pointed like normal, instead it was messy like she hasn't been caring about her appearance. She slowly walked over to him and grabbed his hand.
"Steven ... I thought I had failed your mother. I thought I had broken the promise I made to her fifteen years earlier. I thought I had failed to protect you. Her only son. You have no idea how happy I am to see you awake." He didn't understand what she had met, fifteen years ago? Where was his mom? She put a cold hand on his cheek and moved his hair back out of his eyes. Another red flag for Steven, something wasn't right here.
He motioned her to come closer to her, she put her ear close to his mouth as he choked on his words. "Mama ..." He took a deep breath then started to speak more. "Where ... where is ... mom?" Pearl stood back from him with an almost shock look on her face, which turned quickly into confusion. It was almost like she didn't understand what he was asking her. He didn't get a chance to ask again when the nurse came back with his vanilla ice cream. The nurse handed it to Pearl before helping him get into a sitting position, when she was done she gave him a soft smile and walked out of the hospital room.
The ice cream was soothing on his throat, once he was done it made him feel much better and he was able to talk more loudly than he was able to. "Mama, is mom home or out running errands? Will she be back soon?" he asked Pearl, and looked into her eyes. She looked confused, "Did I say something that I wasn't supposed to? I'm sorry …" He quickly apologized, then was taken back. Why was he apologizing for something like that?
"Did the doctors tell you anything about a brain injury, Greg?" Pearl whispered towards Greg who shook his head, "I should go ask the doctors about this. He is talking nonsense." When she was about to leave Greg put a hand on her arm and shook his head.
"No, I'll go see. I should go get some sleep anyway. I haven't had a good night sleep in a week. Watch over him okay, Pearl?" Pearl nodded and Greg walked out of the room. Steven was confused as all hell, why was everyone acting strange around him. Did he accidentally over drink last night? Or was it even last night? How long was he out? Pearl looked at him as she scooted the chair closer to the bed and sat down. She took his hand as more tears went down her face. She lifted his hand to her face and kissed the inside of his palm, before setting it against her face. He could feel the tears roll down her face and onto his hand.
"You have been out for weeks … t-the doctors said they had no idea how long you would be out for." His eyes widened, what had happened to him? What day was it? What month? He had opened his mouth to talk when Pearl started to talk some more, so he closed his lips. "I thought I had failed Rose … I-we thought we lost you, Steven. It's my fault for bringing you along that mission, I should have been watching you better." Her voice was barely a whisper and he had to strain to hear what she was saying. He didn't remember getting hurt to the point of where he needed to be hospitalized. He didn't remember the mission she was talking about either.
"Mama ... where is mom? Why am I here? Why is everyone looking like I'm crazy when I mention this? You look like you have no idea what I am talking about." Her eyes looked like she was trying to process what he just said, her grip on his hand loosened only a bit.
"Steven …" He had never heard her say his name so many times until today, she had always called him something else. "I'm not your mom…" Steven never thought it would hurt this much to hear those words. Was this how she felt when he used to tell her that? "Are you okay? Are you talking about Rose? Maybe you should get some rest. Your memory would probably come back." Yeah that seemed like a good idea to him, he closed his eyes and just laid there. Pearl never let go of his hand until she was for sure that he was resting. It wasn't until a couple of days later that they were able to release him, and they had released him to Greg which confused him even more.
Steven had noticed the change in his body when he was still in the hospital. He was much chubbier, and his hair was short and curly, not curly and long like usual. He had no stubble on his face and his voice sounded a bit childish, almost like puberty hasn't hit him. He was also really short compared to Pearl and the others. Steven didn't like it one bit.
In all honesty, if he had a choice he would have walked home then ride in the front seat of Greg's car. Yeah you could say they were somewhat close from where he was from, but he didn't like riding in the car with him. He stayed closer to the door then to Greg, and he was for sure he had noticed. "Are you okay, Son? Do you want to listen to some music?" He turned on the radio, and what came on horrified Steven to know ends. I know I'm not that tall. I know I'm not that smart. But let me drive my van into your heart. His ears felt like they were bleeding to the point where he reached over and shut the radio off.
"I'm sorry, but just no. I have no idea what that piece of shit music was, but no. My ears were starting to bleed from that crap." He was flung forward thankfully he had his seat belt on or he would have flown through the window. The seat belt did dig into his scar and his hissed out of pain, opening his eyes they were at the temple, but he could feel Greg's eyes on him.
"Steven Quartz Universe, you're fifteen years old, you do not ever say that word again. Do you understand me?" Steven looked at Greg confused. How high was he right now? His last name wasn't Universe, and sure hell he wasn't fifteen years old. He just rolled his eyes and got out of the van, leaving Greg behind and walking up the steps to the house. He walked through the front door hoping he would see the big pink lady standing there holding Pearl in her arms, happy to see that her baby boy was back home. But she wasn't there, he stood there in front of the door staring at Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. But where were the others? Sapphire, Ruby, Matthias, and Jasper? Where was Lapis and Peridot? Where was Rose?
"Peridot and Lapis wanted to be here for your return, but they had things to do at the barn. So, they weren't able to make it …" Steven walked in more when Pearl told him the news, but it didn't make sense. Where were the others?
"No, where is mother? Sapphire, Ruby? Where's Jasper and Matthias?" Pearl and Amethyst stared at each other while Garnet stood there her face expressionless as much as he was able to tell. "Why is it only you three? Why haven't I seen any of the others? What type of game are you playing with me? Are they out on a mission?" Greg finally walked into the house, he was waiting for Amethyst to jump in his arms, but she didn't move. She was staying rather close to Pearl instead.
Greg walked over to him and tried to put a hand on his shoulder which he slapped away. He walked over to the couch and sat down. This wasn't his home, these weren't his gems, and that wasn't Greg. "Steven, are you okay? Greg, did the doctors give him something before he left?" Pearl asked Greg, Steven watched them both wondering why Pearl was even talking to him in the first place. The last time he had knew it, she hated his guts. Amethyst joined him on the couch followed by Garnet. They all sat there in silence as Greg and Pearl talked about him like he wasn't even there.
"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on? Because the damn mood that I am in, I am not taking no for a goddamn answer."
Amethyst looked shocked at the language he had used and he rolled his eyes. He had heard her say so much worse than the word damn. "Look, Steven, I don't know how hard you hit your head, but you need to quit with the attitude, lil'man. Before you get a smack in your mouth and I know for sure, neither Garnet or Pearl would care if I took the matters in my own hands." He stared at her dead in the eyes as his narrowed. Did she really threaten him?
"Once I find mom, I'm going to tell her you threatened me. She is going to lock you up in your room again. I hope you realized this." He told her, and Amethyst's face fell that got her for sure. Maybe this was his world after all and they are all just playing a sick joke on him. Oh how he was wrong.
"Steven ... are you talking about Rose?" her voice sounded like she was about to cry. She looked at Garnet than at Pearl. "Dude, this isn't funny. Cut it out, alright?" Cut what out? He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in to let his anger subside. This family was pissing him off more and more. He opened his eyes back up and popped his chubby fingers.
"Cut what out? What am I freaking doing? All I want to know where is my mom, and the others. Just tell me, is Matthias at a fight? You can tell me. You can tell me that Jasper is out taking pictures for her career. You can tell me mom, Sapphire and Ruby are on a mission. Why won't you tell me anything?"
"Because there is nothing to tell, Steven ..." Garnet finally spoken up. "Rose ... is gone ... you know this. She has been gone for fifteen years. Jasper is bubbled up." Garnet paused for a second and gave Pearl a look who just shook her head, "And definitely do not know who this Matthias is. As well as I am here." His heart dropped into his stomach. What are they trying to tell him ... what was going on here? He heard a sob coming to his left, he saw his mama crying and it broke him. He didn't know why it broke him as he never really felt like this in awhile. But he got up anyway and walked over to Pearl and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his head on her stomach. He didn't know what to think about all of this. He didn't know if he should believe them or not.
He didn't want to believe that he wasn't back of safely in his world. He didn't want to believe that his mom was gone, and he didn't believe that Pearl wasn't his mama either. Pearl slowly wrapped her arms around him as well and he stayed in her arms as long as he was able to. He hasn't felt this much affection from her in a while. He had forgotten how much he had missed her love, missed being touch, miss just having affection. He didn't know why, but he felt like crying. He was scared, he didn't know where he was. Everything looked the same, but everything wasn't the same. He pulled away from Pearl, and folded his hands, "I want to apologize for being such a dick to you all, but you have to realize that I'm just scared … I have only been here for a little while, but I want you all to know, that I do not think this is my world."
"I know." Garnet was the first to speak, he looked over at her as she got up off the couch and took off her visors. "I didn't want to say anything, just in case I was wrong. I knew the moment you walked into that front door that you were not our Steven. You walked in here like you were a little badass." His cheeks turned slightly red, did he really walk like that. He turned his head to the side again to see Amethyst laughing way harder than she should be.
"I noticed that, I thought maybe he was a little stiff from the hospital, but as I think of it. It's kind of funny to be honest." Once she stopped laughing her face instantly got serious. "Except if he isn't our Steven, then what happened to ours? How could this even have happened when he was only struck from a gem shard from the corrupted gem?" Amethyst walked over to him and they were the same height, he hated it. Back home, he could easily tower over her. Greg has been quiet throughout the whole thing, Steven had almost forgotten that he was even there in the first place.
When Steven finally looked over at him, he made a noise like he wanted to talk. "Wait ... are you trying to tell me this isn't my son?" He asked, and Steven narrowed his eyes. He hated to hear those words come out of his mouth, that he was "his son." He gathered as much that in this universe he was his son, but it didn't make things better for him. From what he experienced, Greg wasn't a guy who did drugs in this universe, and he loved his son. But he still hated him even if he was a good guy. "Where the hell is my son, if this isn't him? He looks like Steven, oh god, I am not liking this. Gems, where is my son?" Greg started to freak out.
"Well, you see ... that might have been my fault ..." He whispered a little shamefully. "See ... what had happened was that when I was in a ring ... um long story short, I work for Greg in my universe as a street fighter ..." There was silence and he felt extremely uncomfortable, he looked down at his hands. "Yeah, um, my moms don't like it either, anyway, I had won the fight, after I was pretty bruised up, the prize though was five hundred dollars, and some guy had bet a necklace in there as well. The necklace had an apatite gem inside of it, like a little shit I was," Pearl kicked his leg and he bit his lip from kicking back. "I'm sorry like the curious person I was, removed the gem from the necklace, she was able to "grant" me a wish." He didn't want to tell them that some guy had also offered him drugs which he did take. "I wished I was somewhere far from my home ..."
Part of him knew that somehow it wasn't only the gem who did this to him, he thinks it might have been part of the drugs fault too. He didn't know how, but the feeling in his gut told him so. He watched as Pearl and Garnet exchanged looks, Garnet then put back on her visors before looking at Amethyst and she nodded towards them. They knew something, but didn't want to tell him. "Why did you want to leave your home, Steven?" It was Greg who asked, "And why was I even putting you through street fighting? I said like a terrible dad."
"Well, you see, you were a meth user ... and I ... um ... got involved with that and the rush of the fighting made me forget how much pain I was in from my daily life. It's not easy over there ... yeah sure, I had a family, people who loved me ... but I never really got to see any one over there. I mean, I got to see Ruby and Sapphire all the time, along with Pearl a lot. Except, Rose was always out because she was busy all the time, and Jasper was out taking pictures. I had Matthias, he's my best friend, does a lot of street fighting with me. He's a tourmaline you know." Even if Garnet had told him that they didn't know who Matthias was, the look on their faces every time he had mention him, told him that they were lying. Even Greg seemed to know who Matthias was. "Also … you are not my dad where I come from … you're just a sperm donor."
Garnet motioned him to continue his story, Amethyst had sat down on the coffee table while Pearl and Greg sat down on the couch. It was only him and Garnet who remained standing. "Though, Matthias usually hangs out with Peridot and Lapis at the barn. Peridot, he's always busy, and he doesn't like me that much ..." He was soon cut off by Amethyst, he sighed.
"Wait ... wait ... did you call Peridot a male?!"
He nodded, "Yeah, Peridot is a male in my universe, is he not in this one?" The gems shook their heads. "Well, that's going to take some time getting used to. Anyway, like I was saying, and then things started to go downhill more ... when ... when ..." He took a big gulp of air, when tears started to fill his eyes as he thought about Connie. He wished he had done her better and was there for her when she needed him the most. He hated how he wasn't mature enough to stop what he was doing, if he had just thought about other people, she would still be with him to this day. The door suddenly sung open, there stood Connie Maheswaran, with his moms sword strapped to her back.
His heart started to sped up, her smile was bright and so beautiful. She looked like she did when she was younger back in his universe. Tears fell down his face as he watched her beautiful face stare at him. She ran over to him and gave him the tightest hug, there was a massive pain that shot through his body, but he bit his lip and held it in. He just stood there frozen, smelling her strawberry shampoo. He want to hug her back so bad, but his body wouldn't move. She was alive in this universe. Of course she was. When she finally pulled away her smiling face, drew into a frown. "Why are you crying?" She reached up and wiped the tears from his face.
"U-Um, erm ..." He was lost for words as he looked her up and down, trying to comprehend the fact that she was really here with him that this wasn't his imagination. "I-it just good to see you is all." He finally managed to say.
"Steven, finish your story." Amethyst said a little impatience in her voice, "It's also very good to see you, Connie. Steven, here was telling us why he wasn't our Steven." Connie looked at him shocked before looking over at Amethyst, "Long story short, this Steven is from a different world who had wished to get away, so they accidentally changed places."
Connie looked at him up and down, walking over to the gems sitting down next to Pearl and Greg after taking off his moms sword leaving it down at her feet. "So cool! So, where did you leave off?" He didn't think he should continue where he left off, it was now uncomfortable when Connie was there, but the gems wanted to know and he didn't feel like lying to them.
"Everything went down here, when Connie had killed herself." Gasps went everywhere and he regretted that ever coming out of his mouth. Maybe he shouldn't have put it that bluntly when Connie was sitting right there and barely knew the whole story. Way to go Steven, another fucking mistake you made. You're a stupid ass.
The house was silent as everyone took in what was just said. He was more worried with what was Connie thinking after he said that. "What did I walk into?" Connie asked complete horror was masked on her face, he felt terrible he didn't want her to hear that at least not that bluntly. "So, are you trying to tell us … one of my alternative selves … c-committed suicide?" Steven nodded, twiddling his thumbs as a comfort thing. "Why ...?"
"I rather not discuss that with you ..." He mumbled. "How about we change the subject ..." Connie was going to protest more when mama put a hand on her shoulder shaking her head, she slumped down with her arms crossed over her chest. "In my world, mom and god this is going to sound weird, Pearl, I'm so used to calling my Pearl mama. Mom and Pearl are together, they are married, it was such a gorgeous wedding. Greg, at that universe was just the sperm donor, like I said before, but he was in love with mom. That's why I kept calling … Pearl … mama."
"Wait, slow down here, hand me the phone." Pearl's cheeks were dark blue, "You are all over the place slow down, Steven. Let me get this straight, Rose and I in your universe are your mothers? We are legally married by earth standards? And Greg over there was a donor for us, but is in love with Rose?" He nodded slowly, "And Rose in that universe, didn't have to give up her physical form to give birth to you?" He shook his head.
"That's right, I still have a rose quartz gem embedded in me though, we never truly understood how that was possible, but it happened. And I have all the gem powers, I think I just inherited from mom." He shrugged and yawned. "That's about it, except that Jasper joined the Crystal Gems and is currently fucking my best friend."
"STEVEN!" Pearl and Greg both said in unison. Amethyst started laughing, Connie covered her ears, and Garnet was staring right at him, he couldn't tell what she was thinking. Maybe she was furious he had cursed too. Pearl and Greg looked at each other their cheeks different colors before they started to laugh as well. He thinks he was going to like it here, he wonder how the other Steven was doing with his problems over there. He hopes he was taking everything well, he felt bad that he did this without thinking more upon it. It was a bit weird after explaining everything to them, especially after Greg had left, and the gems had a "mission", but in reality he thought they just wanted to discuss everything by themselves. They had left him and Connie alone together at the temple, there was a blanket of awkward silence.
"Hey, do you want to go to the barn with me?" Connie bit her lip and shook her head. "Ah, come on it would be fun." He grabbed her hand and pulled her up off the couch. "Break a couple of rules, Connie. Don't be such a tight ass." She bit her lip, the look on her face told him she wanted to tell him to watch his mouth, that it wasn't okay to use that word. However, she had held back from doing that.
"The Gems ... they would be pretty upset if we just left with no warning ..." She had bit her lip harder, and it was kind of cute to him. His Connie would always bite her lip as well, but it was for a somewhat different reason. "I mean ... like what if something happened at the barn, and ..." He pulled her close to his body, his mouth close to her ear.
"Stop, being a tight ass, just bring mom's sword with you if you are so afraid." He pulled away once he felt a slight shudder down her spine. He couldn't tell if she was creeped out or liked it. "'Let's go! Connie ... let's have some fun for once, do you even know what the feeling is? The feeling to be free and not go by any rules? The feeling of disobeying someone and having fun?" He smirked as she looked him dead in the eyes, hers were full of different emotions flickering through. Determination, guilt, uneasiness, so many more that I couldn't catch them all.
Connie looked over at the temple door, biting her lip again, this time drawing blood. She looked back over at him, before looking back at the door. Just hurry and choose already. He thought getting impatient, she then grabbed his hand and squeezed, an uneasy smile was plastered on her face. "Yeah ... sure, Steven, lets go to the barn. I would love to visit Lapis anyway. See if she has any new meep morps."