AN: Sorry for the error last time I uploaded this. Also sorry for not replacing it sooner.
Without Her: Chapter 2
The first few days after the Crystal Gems' tragedy, Steven isolated himself from others. He spent a lot of time in his room, sometimes even skipping a meal.
No one really knew what he was doing in there. They hadn't gone upstairs to find out; they'd decided to give him space and time.
Besides, they all were grieving, too.
Steven lay in his bed, late one morning, thinking about the message Pearl had left for him, and him specifically, in that letter. He had left her note on his bedside table, where he would see it often. He turned towards said table now and reached for the folded sheet of paper to reread that message for the seventieth time. He had nearly memorized it at this point. He could almost hear Pearl's soft voice in his head, murmuring these words into his ear.
But tears came to his eyes as they had every time before, upon the realization that he would never hear that gentle voice again in his waking life.
Only in his imagination and dreams could he ever again hear her laugh, hear her sing, see her dance.
He didn't want to have to live with that. He wanted Pearl back. It wasn't like the time she got poofed. Then, they had all known she would return in time. A long time, sure, but she would come back.
This time, she wouldn't—no, she couldn't come back. Steven had carefully bubbled her shards and placed the bubble next to one of his mother's, within Lion's mane. (He had seen that other bubble before, but had never known whose gem it contained.)
Once, he remembered being able to get to Pearl's room in the temple from other rooms, such as Amethyst's. He tried it again the way he had that one time and found himself in Pearl's room again, silent and empty. Once he did that, he found himself going there a lot.
He just couldn't get used to the fact that Pearl, who had essentially acted as his mother figure, was gone now, never to return.
He wondered where she was now. Her shards, or course, were in his bubble. But where was she? Where did Gems go when they died? Was his mom there? Would he go there, too, someday? He hoped he would. Maybe not soon, but when the time came, he hoped that he might be reunited with Pearl.
He opened a drawer and found a notebook that seemed to never have been touched. When did I buy that?
He didn't know, but he knew what he wanted to do with it. He grabbed a pencil and went to sit at the table, flipping the notebook open to the first page and writing across the middle in large handwriting:
LETTERS TO PEARL
(from Steven)
On the second page, he wrote the date and began his first entry.
Dear Pearl,
It's only been six days. I can't let myself believe it that you're not coming back. I miss you. We all miss you, too much more than we can handle.
That was all he could bring himself to write before he broke into tears again.
AN: little bit short but yeah basically the next couple chapters will be the reactions of other people: Amethyst, Garnet, Peridot, and Connie. And that will probably be it, actually.
KEEP SENDING ME REVIEWS AND FOLLOWS AND FAVORITES! THAT KEEPS ME GOING :D! ^-^