Chapter One: Mundane Magic
Steven Universe is born into a world of magic.
The mobile that hangs above his cradle depicts a dragon, a phoenix, a broomstick and a magic carpet, all which fly in circles above his head. His family reads him picture books where the illustrations actually move- although not in the same way as the animated films he watches on the TV.
On dark, clear nights, he stares up at the star-filled sky above, and Garnet shows him the constellations, telling him about how the centaurs use them to read the future.
When he's bored, Amethyst will stick her tongue out of him- and it will be forked like a snake's. Then she'll turn her nose into a pig's, or her entire face into a cat's. Sometimes she pretends to be other people, and Steven falls to the floor, roaring with laughter at her impressions.
When he's coughing and sick and miserable, Pearl gives him a Pepper Up Potion, then sits by the side his bed, singing gentle lullabies to help him sleep.
He'll sit out on the deck with his Dad, listening to the waves roll in, the two of them playing their instruments in accompaniment. And that's magic, too.
oOoOoOo
Growing up, Steven doesn't realize how unusual his life is. Of course, how could he? He has nothing else to compare it to.
When he's six years old, however, he gets his first hint at how different he truly has it. When he's getting ready for sleep the night before he's to start first grade, his Dad take a seat on his bed. He says, "Hey, Stevo. There's something I want to talk to you about."
The boy blinks at him. "What?"
"It's... about school. And what you're supposed to talk about when you're there."
"Always say 'please' and 'thank you'," Steven says, promptly.
"No, no, not like that." The man sighs. "I mean more- what you're not supposed to talk about. When you're at school, I don't want you talking about magic."
The boy stares, aghast. "But- but- magic's like- like the coolest thing ever!"
"I know, kiddo. I know. But it's really not the kind of thing you should just be... talking about, outside this house."
The boy frowns, pure confusion on his face. "But- why?"
The man looks desperate. There's no easy answer to that; no answer that he could give his six-year-old son. So he just says, "Well. It's a secret, you see? A special secret just between you, and me. And Garnet, and Amethyst and Pearl, too."
"And MC Bear Bear?" Steven asks, clutching his teddy bear to his chest.
"MC Bear Bear, too," Greg laughs. "But just us. Otherwise, try to stay low about the magic stuff, okay? Promise?"
"Okay," Steven says, as his father tucks him in. "Promise."
oOoOoOoOo
This promise is easier to keep in theory than it is in practice.
Three days after starting first grade, Greg comes to pick Steven up after school. So far, the boy had been enjoying classes immensely, and had been in good spirits by the end of each school day- he loves people, and other kids, and the chance to learn and play games, even if he sometimes has trouble staying still and listening to the teacher's instructions. Today, though, his mood definitely seems down. In fact, judging by the small scowl the boy wears as he climbs into the van's back seat, he seems almost angry.
"What's wrong, Stewball?" Greg asks, after he's finished buckling the child into his car-seat.
The boy looks at him. "Dad," he says accusingly, "You said magic is a secret!"
"Well, yeah. It is."
"Then how Emma gets to wear a Frozen shirt? But I can't even talk about magic!"
To Steven's surprise, his Dad starts laughing- though the man quickly changes the laughter into strangled coughs when he notices the young boy's glare. "Oh. Oh, sorry, Steven. I didn't mean- that kind of magic. Not the kind that isn't rea-" he catches himself mid-sentence. Steven lovesFrozen, and adores playing with his dolls of Elsa and Anna. Telling him that they aren't real would probably be a bad move. "Not the kind fromFrozen, or any other story. Not the kind you watch on TV, or read in books. I mean the kind of magic that Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl do."
"Like with wands, and stuff?"
"Exactly." Greg slams the back-door shut, takes the driver's seat, buckles in his seat belt. He turns on the ignition and starts out of the school's parking lot.
Throughout it all, Steven puzzles his father's words over. There's a lot of magic that his friends do that he also sees in movies. He needs more information. "How about brooms? Can I talk about them?"
Amethyst has told him all about broomsticks and Quidditch, while Garnet even bought him a little practice broomstick that he sometimes flies around the living room. But then, he's also seen flying broomsticks in The Wizard of Oz, and every Halloween there's always all sorts of pictures of them around. Greg nods. "Yep, you shouldn't talk about flying broomsticks."
"How about potions?"
"No potions either."
"And shape-shifting?"
"Definitely no shape-shifting, son."
Steven frowns. "But I still don't see why not."
"I told you. It's a secret."
"Doesn't seem like a secret," Steven says, crossing his arms. "Seems like lots of people know about magic."
Greg sighs, and runs one hand through his greying hair. "Well, they sort of know about it. But they don't believe in it. Do you get what I mean?"
"... I guess so."
oOoOoOoOo
Steven doesn't really get it, not at all. But he listens to his Dad, because his Dad is smart, and knows about lots of stuff, like how to play the guitar and how to make the best burgers ever, so he probably knows about this, too. Plus, it's kind of fun, being in on a secret.
So Steven never purposely talks about the wands and the brooms and potions and the shape-shifting. Sometimes, though, it just- slips out.
When other kids are talking about how they had to get shots so that they don't get sick, Steven talks about how he also drinks these potions that make him feel better super fast, but make his ears smoke. They all look at him weird and one asks, "Do you mean, like, cough-syrup?"
One day, they're learning about animals and different pets. Other kids in the class have dogs, or cats, or parrots, or guinea pigs. One kid even has a lizard, which is super cool. When they go around the circle giving answers, and they come to Steven, he explains that he doesn't reallyhave a pet, but that sometimes owls drop off the newspaper for the adults to read. He gets told off by the teacher for lying.
Another time, a girl in his class, Hee Su, explains about how she can talk to her grandparents who are living in Korea using Skype. Steven isn't sure what it is, and asks, "Is that with the fireplace? 'Cause I use floo powder to talk to my friends when they're in Scotland," and she just stares at him before walking away. He's left blushing from shame and embarrassment when he realizes what he said wrong, and he still doesn't know what Skype is.
The funny thing, though, is that no matter how many times he let's something about magic slip, nobody really seems to notice. Or care. Not long after the 'floo powder incident', he's hanging out out in the playground after school, along with all the other kids who are waiting for parents to show up. He notices a woman talking to the teacher. It's Amethyst, he realizes after a belated moment; she's not wearing her usual robes, but clothes that are more like his Dad's, and she's made her skin black instead of purple. He trots over to them, curious.
"...so I'm picking him up today."
"I see," he hears Ms. Caufield, his teacher, reply as he gets closer. "And what's your relationship with Steven, if you don't mind me asking?"
Amethyst shifts uneasily. "His- aunt."
The teacher raises a somewhat sceptical eyebrow. The woman looks nothing like Steven. "You're Greg's sister, then?"
"No," Amethyst says flatly.
"Oh. Oh." The teacher's face flushes, and her voice goes up and funny, the way they usually get when people start talking about his Mum. "So you're- um. From the mother's side."
"Uh, yeah." There's something challenging in her expression.
"Amethyst!" Steven calls out then, running up to wrap her in a hug. She breaks into a wide grin, opens her arms wide, and scoops him up.
"What are you doing here?" he asks.
Still holding him up, she ruffles his hair with a free hand. "What, don't want to see me?"
"Of course I do!" says Steven, as she puts him back down. "Just wanna know where Dad is."
"Something came up at the car wash, so it'll just be you and Aunty Amethyst for a while. How's that sound?"
"Great!"
Ms. Caufield seems mollified by the clear affection and joy in the boy's face. "You know," she say to Amethyst. "I think Steven drew a picture of you the other day."
"Really?" Amethyst asks. She seems rather pleased by the idea, and Steven can't help but blush at the grin she gives him.
"Oh yes." The woman laughs. "But I hardly would have recognized you. He drew you with purple skin, you know! Such an imagination!"
Amethyst laughs too, but it's definitely forced. "Oh!" she says. "That's our Steven alright!"
They leave quickly after that. Amethyst leads the boy out of the playground, through the parking-lot, and onto the side-walk. After that, she takes him into a lot of trees by the side of the road,one which hides them from the view of the pedestrians. His 'aunt' grins playfully down at him, as purple washes back over her skin. "So, Steven," she asks. "How do you feel about apparating for the first time?"
oOoOoOo
Amethyst isn't the only one to pick Steven up from school and take care of him on the rare occasions where Greg really is just too busy. They're not as good as blending in as her, though. Amethyst is perfectly willing to change her skin colour, and to wear different clothes- the other two, not so much. Pearl has the basics down, but her outfits look a good twenty years out-of-date, and her pinkish-orange hair definitely stands out in a crowd. Garnet, meanwhile, literally towers all the other parents. She knows not to wear robes, but the clothes she chooses instead are a strange mishmash of fashions that somehow make her look even stranger than her usual red robes would. She keeps her interactions with the teacher and everyone else brief and to-the-point, as if she literally doesn't know what to say to them.
Garnet doesn't talk a lot even when they are alone, Steven reflects. But that's a different kind of quiet. She's just happy to let him talk and sing and play. And then sometimes she'll smile at him, or ruffle his hair, or,give him a hug.
Sometimes they talk too, of course. Sometimes Steven likes to see how much he can get out of her. She's usually so quiet and serious, it feels great if he manages to startle her into laughter.
And sometimes, he just genuinely has a question he wants answered.
This one has been building up for a while, and now that they have the house completely to themselves for a couple of hours, it's the perfect time to ask. He puts down the toy car he was playing with, and says; "Garnet? You know how nobody else knows about magic?"
At the coffee table, Garnet lowers the book she's been reading. "Other people do know about magic, Steven."
"What?" he asks. "But- I thought- Dad said- it's a secret?!"
"It is a secret," she tells him. "There are other people who know about magic, but nobody at your school. Or anybody else in Beach City. Magic is a secret from them."
"Oh," Steven says. He stares down at the red toy car, thinking. It makes sense, he supposes. It would be a little strange, if they were the only people in the entire world who knew about magic. And this new information doesn't really change his question, anyway. "Okay. But I was wondering... I mean I guess... Is the reason that magic is a secret from other people because they can't- do it?"
The woman looks at him for several long seconds before saying, "Yes."
"Okay," he says again. They're both quiet for a few seconds, before he continues, "Can Dad do magic?"
It had taken him a while to notice, to pick up on it. But most of the magic he's seen Garnet and Amethyst and Pearl do was with wands, and Dad doesn't even have one of those. And he never really does any of the other magic that doesn't involve wands, either. He drives everywhere in his van; he never fies or apparates. He never shape-shifs like Amethyst did, or sends messages by patronous. While he loves cooking, and is perfectly find giving Steven his daily vitamins or putting on bandages, he gets nervous about potions, and so always has Pearl handle them instead. In fact, looking back on it, Steven couldn't think of a single time where he'd seen his father cast a spell.
Garnet says, quite simply, "No. He can't."
"...Okay," Steven says. "But then why-?"
"-does he know about magic?" Garnet finishes. Steven nods; she explains.
Explains as well as she can, to someone Steven's age. Tells him that some people have magic, and some people do not. That many hundreds of years ago, it had been decided that it would be better if the magic was hidden, to keep people from getting hurt. People with magic have all sorts of abilities to keep themselves unnoticed by the muggles, as the non-magical people are called. They can turn things invisible, hide in tiny spaces, disguise items as other things, and even change peoples' memories.
Despite all of this, however, sometimes the lines between the two different worlds blur; children from magical families can be born without magic, and children from non-magical families can be born with it.
And of course, it's impossible to keep people completely separate. There were times that muggles and magical folk had to interact; there was no way around it. And sometimes bonds could form out of those interactions, and those bonds could grow very strong indeed.
"Your mother was a witch, like us," says Garnet. "And she cared very deeply for your father, so she was allowed to tell him about her magic."
The boy nods, then gazes up at the picture of his mother set above the fire-place. He was in no way surprised that she had been a witch, just like his 'aunts'. The Rose in the picture moves sometimes. Not a lot, but her hair will sometimes flutter in a non-existent breeze, and if there's interesting conversation going on, she'll lean in closer, as if to listen. Steven wonders if she'd bewitched the portrait herself, before she died.
But this all raises another question in his mind. He can't bear not to ask it. "Garnet," he says. "Do I have magic?"
The witch goes very still. She looks down at the boy. "We don't know, Steven," she tells him, truthfully. "Magic often takes a long time to develop. We won't know until you're older."
Steven's face twists into a strange expression. He's not exactly frowning, but neither does he look happy. Garnet hesitates for a moment, then gets off the chair, and squats down besides him. "What's wrong?" she asks, her voice tender.
It takes him a little while to answer. "...is it okay, if I don't have magic?"
"Oh, Steven," Garnet says. She opens her arms wide, lets the child come in for a hug. "Of course that will be okay."
oOoOoOo
Author's Note: Sending a big thank you to everyone who sent such good support for that first prologue. And an even bigger thank you tokurozu501 and Lady Raven Eye, for helping me sort out so many of the details for this fic.