Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe

(A/N: Okay, so I noticed that no one particularly liked the last chapter. That's okay, it wasn't really important. Like I said that was the beginning of a filler bomb. A part of the show where there is a pause in action and the focus is shifted to character development or drama to keep things interesting. This is going to be sort of experimental, and I don't really know what I want to do with this beyond a few ideas so I will be taking requests in PM form to prevent spoilers. I am obligated to credit Storywriter2003 with the advice to slow things down, so that the story isn't just blind fighting.)

Chapter 23: A Ballad for Ebony

A pale skinned boy, no older than ten sat on the edge of a dock, kicking his feet as he typed furiously on the old-school laptop on his lap. He would come to this spot on the docks often. He came when the weather was nice, he came when he got a bad grade on a test, he came when he needed to forget that his dad ran out on him, and he came when the kids at school had given him a hard time. That was the worst. It's not as if he was any different from them on the inside, he wasn't annoying, he wasn't a show off in fact he was usually very quiet, but he was albino. It wasn't even like he was one of the deformed albinos, or that he had red eyes like some of the others do, but what other reason do kids need to make another person's life a hell. One only needs a deformity, a deficiency, brown or yellow skin, or even just red hair in some cases. So long as humans existed there would be hatred, and the boy knew this as a fact, sadly.

"Bring the base a little lower," Sour said to himself, shaking off his sadness as he worked on his newest song. It was a remix of the original RVB theme song; he like tinkering with songs like this; most of the work was already done for him, so he could just play around with them.

"Violets are blue, roses are red, living like this we're already dead," he liked that line, it clicked with him. The song played on a little longer before being expertly mixed with Walk this way by Run DMC. It sounded half decent.

"Hey, that sounds pretty good," A feminine voice chimed from behind him. Sour was slightly startled, almost dropping the portable computer into the water, before steadying himself once again. Sour looked to the side to see an African American girl about his age sit down, leaning against one of the wood posts at the end of the dock. He was surprised by this; not only had someone complimented him on his music, but it was someone his age who had to have gone to his school.

"…Uh thanks!" Sour said awkwardly, completely unused to this situation. The girl smiled widely as she stuck out her hand.

"Hey, the name's Jenny, nice to meet you," She chimed as if she could feel no sorrow. Sour sat his laptop on the wood next to him before sticking his hand out as well; just in case this was a trick, and she would try to yank him into the water. Sour reached out, but it was reluctant, as if he was arguing with himself every thirty seconds. Smirking and rolling her eyes, Jenny must have decided that she done waiting and reached out to Sour's hand, who tensed up for a moment before relaxing. Jenny pumped her hand in his, shooting him the brightest smile.

"My name's Sour, it's nice to meet you too," He greeted timidly, finding himself smiling as well.

The lanky seventeen year old boy woke up slowly, taking a little while to find the will power to open his eyes. He let out a content sigh as he felt a familiar weight shift against his side.

'That was a nice dream,' he thought silently as he gently brushed a stray lock of hair away from his girlfriend's sleeping face. 'Who would've thought that that one random encounter would end up like this?' he continued with is thought as he ever so gently ran a thumb across her cheek. The two teenagers had become more frequent bed buddies, since after Kiki died, she needed the comfort. Usually the boy sneaking into the girl's room, but in this case the roles were switched, seeing as how if Sour's mom caught them she honestly wouldn't mind that much, where as if Jenny's dad caught them Sour would have his teeth forcefully ripped from his jaw, and plunged into his eyes. Still smiling, Sour slid out of bed without waking the ebony goddess sharing his covers. He had something special in mind, this was their three month anniversary, and Sour had been working on a special gift just for her. Grabbing his much more advanced laptop he started to play a track that he had put together from scratch. He played the music loud enough to stir Jenny, but not loud enough that the sound would bleed through the thick walls. Jenny woke up just as the lyrics kicked in. (I can't write songs, I'm so sorry, but I can't do it!) Sour's perfectly auto tuned voice sang of how much he loved the girl in his bed, how much she meant to him, how much he needed her, it almost drew tears to her eyes. Throwing the covers off of her, she strode over to her music man, and wrapped her arms around him.

"Happy anniversary, babe," he whispered into Jenny's ear, knowing that his deep voice carried rather far.

"I can't believe you got this together so quickly," Jenny cooed sweetly, as they started to sway to the music.

"Will I had some incentive," The albino whispered once more before planting a soft kiss on the side of Jenny's neck, making her shudder with an involuntary pleasure.

"Knock that off will you," She stifled a giggle. A devilish grin tugged at Sour's lips.

"What are you going to do about it?" Jenny let out a groan at these words, as she tackled her boyfriend onto his bed. Sour laughed as he stared deeply into the pair of beautiful brown eyes above him. At that moment he was taken back to the moment when he had first realized just how much he enjoyed looking into those eyes.

"Sour? Sour? Sour!" The fourteen year old boy was shaken out of his day dream by his best friend's call.

"Huh, what?" Sour asked, startled by the sudden change in volume.

"Dude, you were just staring into my eyes for like three minutes, it's creeping me out," Jenny explained with the half smile that was her straight face.

"Sorry, I just spaced out in your direction," The aspiring DJ explained abashedly as he rubbed the back of his head. Jenny bought this, having done the same thing herself on multiple occasions. The two were hanging around outside after school. They both still had their backpacks, as neither of them really wanted to go home yet. They enjoyed each other's company; it gave them a break from the constant harassment that they face in school.

"Well, what have we got here?" an unpleasantly familiar voice called out from behind the two teenagers. Sour and Jenny turned around to face their bully, Roger Keaton accompanied by his lackey, Sam Lee. "Looks like we found the ghost, and the girls who never frowns in one place," Roger mocked.

"Two birds with one stone," Sam agreed. Sour quickly shot out in front of Jenny; not that she had begun to shrink away or anything. At times this girl appeared to be dauntless.

"Hey, now we don't want any trouble," Sour stated, steadfast in his determination to not let either of these boys pass him.

"There won't be any trouble so long as you give us all the money you got. Roger was dressed in rags; a white undershirt too stained to be deemed white anymore, a jean jacket two sizes too big, and sweatpants made up an atrocious outfit. Sam wasn't much better; he wore a tattered black sweatshirt, and jeans with sleeves that bunched at his ankles because they were so long. It was obvious that theses bullies were a result of poverty, but that wasn't reason enough for Sour and Jenny to let them walk all over them.

"We don't have any money on us," Sour retorted for Jenny, knowing from past experience that she was broke.

"Well then, we got a problem," Sam put blatantly as he and Roger started to approach the freshmen.

"Now hold on a seco-!" Sour urged before he was slugged in the face, and onto the ground. Seeing that Sam was heading for Jenny Sour quickly kicked him in the side of the knee, evoking a grunt of pain before Sam stumbled onto his knees. From there Jenny imitated a move she had seen while watching MMA with her father, and jumped up, slamming her knee into the hooligan's face. That was it for Sam, but Roger was still fully able, and angry. The larger boy practically threw Jenny to the side as he turned to face Sour. What Roger wasn't expecting was that Sour would be ready, and received a right hook to the face as a reward. Roger was staggered, but not enough for his reflexes to be put off as a right jab was involuntarily thrown in between Sour's eyes causing him to stagger as well. Before the taller boy could recover he was forced against a brick wall and pounded mercilessly.

"You think you're tough?!" A rights hook into the kidneys. "You ain't' tough!" A left into the gut. "You ain't' nothing!" A right to the face. "But a dirty, sickly, fucking Albin-!" Roger's assault was cut short by the sound of splintering wood, and Roger falling over. Buck stood in a batter's position holding what remained of the wooden plank he had struck the young thug over the head with.

"I see you started the party without me," Buck quipped, not that you would know it if you had just met him.

"Thanks for the save, Buck," Sour exclaimed as he ran over to help Jenny, spitting out a gob of blood along the way. The ebony girl shook her dizziness off as Sour extended his hand.

"You okay?" He asked with genuine worry in his eyes. Jenny smiled as she took his hand.

"Yeah I'm fine," She answered as she was pulled to her feet. "You don't look too good though," Jenny said, now deeming it her turn to worry; Sour just spat out another gob of blood as he smiled down at her, looking warmly into her eyes.

"I think I'll live," Sour aid with a single catch in his voice. Sour would not know it, but that look had given Jenny the warmest feeling. She didn't know how to describe it; she had never felt anything like it before. She was pulled out of her thoughts by Sour who had given her a pat on her shoulder as he walked by. "Come on, we should get out of here," Sour implored without a care, as if he hadn't just gotten the metaphorical shit beaten out of him. Jenny nodded, before jogging to catch up with the long strides of her best friends.

Sour Grinned boundlessly at the girl above him.

"You know something?" He asked softly.

"What?" His love replied.

"I've always loved," He admitted, after eight years of waiting. Jenny wasn't at all surprised; she just smiled fondly and leaned closer, letting their lips brush against one another.

"Me too," She cooed before practically forcing her mouth to Sour's in a passionate, loving kiss. Love can happen fast, and love may last forever, but what love is best at is waiting for just the right moment.

(A/N: I am so unsure about this chapter. I've been writing it for 16 days, and I've read four times. I don't know what it is, but something's just off. Anyway I've decided to put up a cap on this story. My last chapter got 22 views and stayed there for a very long time, I want to see who all is reading so I'll need at least five reviews to continue. No problem right? See you next time!)