I'm back and ready to type! Sorry for the absence, as I mentioned last chapter, I was on vacation. Oh yeah, if you happened to read the 2nd chapter in the first 12 hours of its existence, you would have found a jumbly mess of source code. Oops. Thanks to Soleana for pointing that out! Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 3: Surprise Visit

"Lapis?" Steven asked. It was rather obvious once he got closer. The figure had radiant blue skin, followed by the even darker shade of blue for hair. Obviously there was only one person Steven knew that fit this description.

"Oh, Steven, hi, I was just… Yeah, I have some explaining to do." Lapis responded. She quickly turned around, as Steven walked back to turn on the light. After a quick flick of the wrist, the light switched on. Sure enough, it was Lapis Lazuli.

"So… what are you doing here?" Steven asked. "I got a note saying the gems should be here… and you aren't them…"

"Well, it was pretty simple really. I went to the Big Donut before it opened, knew that you would be there, forged a note from Pearl, and sealed it temporarily to the door with water powers. Once Sadie got there, she pulled off the note and waited for you to come into the store. And then… here we are."

"Well, ok. But the real question is… why do you need to see me? You clearly put a lot of thought in this scheme."

Lapis blushed. "Well, I don't know. I thought we could maybe… hang out… or something." She began to talk quickly, as her blush deepened. "That's what friends do, right? Wait, are we friends? We are, right? I mean, if we weren't then this would be-"

"Lapis, of course we're friends! And even if we weren't, if somebody did all this, just to hang out, I think I probably would be friends with them anyway!"

Lapis looked relieved. "Oh, thank you Steven! I'm sorry for surprising you like this, I just thought… I don't know. Maybe we should spend time as friends if we are friends."

"Of course. Connie and I did spend a lot of time together when we really met for the first time. And now we are really good friends!" Steven responded.

"Oh yeah, I saw could really see that you and Connie got along."

A short pause entered the room.

"So… what do you want to do?" Lapis asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Want me to show you around?" Steven asked.

"Oh, I kind of did that already on my own…" Lapis muttered, blushing. "I just find this place so… fascinating. Especially, uh…" She paused. "your room." she finished quietly.

Awkward silence.

"Uh… ok." Steven spoke slowly, as awkwardly as the silence. "So, uh, do you want to go somewhere on the warp pad?"

"Oh yeah, sure!" she replied, rather excitedly. "Where are we going to go?"

"Well, there are a lot of different places we could go. But I think I have one in mind." Steven said.

"Wherever we go, I don't care. As long as I'm with you." she said softly.

As Steven and Lapis Lazuli stepped on the warp pad, they both realized that they both saw each other as more than just friends.

A few moments after Steven and Lapis warped off, the gems arrived back at the temple. The lights were on, but nobody was there. Steven was not there to greet them, and they doubted that he would be out this late. He didn't exactly have a curfew set, but they figured he wouldn't be gone this late.

"Steven!" Pearl called.

"Yo, Steven, where are you?" Amethyst yelled.

No response was received.

"Hmm, it is rather odd that he is gone. Maybe he is out and about around Beach City." Garnet wondered.

"Let's split up! Look around town for places that Steven normally is!" Pearl said.

And so they went. When they returned, they all found nothing-except for pearl. When they asked around there were no traces of Steven, except for Pearl, who got news from Sadie about the note left on the door. When she replied that she didn't leave the note, Sadie simply shrugged it off as odd, and Pearl left.

"This is… very bad. Steven has been abducted!"

Oh snap! Guess Lapis didn't plan that! Where did Steven go with Lapis? Will the gems find Steven? Find out next chapter! -theuniversewillfall