A/N:

Why won't they believe that Steven is a part-alien? It's not that weird...

ssskjkdhd I'm glad people are enjoying this! Chapters should be around 2-4k depending on how I'm feeling, I don't want to write long chapters like I did for my other fic. If I post a chapter longer than 4k you have my permission to slap me.

Chapter 2: guys i SWEAR i'm half-alien, look i got a funky belly-gem to prove it

Steven was doing his best to remain positive. That meant he needed to distract himself from any negative thoughts, which he could go over in a healthy way once he was alone.

Thankfully, this universe provided a lot of material to distract himself with.

"So, Aizawa-san! Or Aizawa-sensei? Do I use -sensei even if I'm not your student?" Steven mused.

"Just use Aizawa, kid," the man said, and Steven would bet that he was rolling his eyes.

"Right! So, Aizawa, are you a hero? Because Nedzu said this was a high school that trained heroes, and—"

"Yes."

"Whoa. What's your superpower? Wait, no," he corrected himself, "they're called quirks. What's your quirk?"

Aizawa turned to glare at him, but answered nonetheless. "I can cancel quirks in my line of sight."

"So cool," Steven gushed. They were heading to whatever 'Heights Alliance' was, though the path they were taking looked awfully familiar.

"Do you have some sort of hero name? Or do heroes even have their own fancy names? Maybe you're known as Aizawa, the quirk-cancelling ninja of justice!"

Aizawa groaned audibly, and Steven made a note to turn down the enthusiasm. There really wasn't a point in becoming a nuisance, not if he'd be staying with these people for the foreseeable future.

"The name's Eraserhead," he reluctantly conceded. Before Steven could comment on that, he abruptly stopped. "We're here."

Steven looked up at the building they were standing under, and he connected the dots. "Wait, isn't this—"

"Unfortunately, yes," Aizawa confirmed. "You'll be in the same dorms as my class. I'll show you to your room and the bathrooms, and you can clean up while I… clear up the situation with my students."

"Right."

On second thought, maybe it wasn't the best idea to just go in where everyone would see him, considering they still thought he was some 'villain'.

However, it was too late to voice this thought, as Aizawa was already pushing him through the door.

At first, nobody noticed his appearance, and he hoped it would remain that way until Aizawa explained the situation. He followed his hero escort to a stairway on the far side of the room, and they were about halfway to their destination before his luck turned sour.

"Sensei! Wha— hey, isn't that the villain from earlier?" a girl with pink skin and horns yelled.

Aizawa grumbled. "There's been a misunderstanding." Turning to Steven, he said, "Fourth floor, last room on the left. There's a small personal bathroom with a toilet and a sink, the baths are on the first floor. The closet should already have a small wardrobe. I'd recommend getting down here as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir," he agreed, running off and leaving the rest of them behind. The commotion in the common room was audible until he made it to the third floor landing, and from there he proceeded to walk up the rest of the stairs.

When he entered the fourth floor hallway, he was surprised to find that there were only four rooms total. To have such a small amount of rooms, the class couldn't be very big. Assuming there were four rooms on each side of the floor, with four residential floors, there had to be only thirty-two students max, and clearly less than that if there were free rooms like the one he was about to occupy.

Steven quietly walked to the end of the corridor, carefully opening the last door. Inside, the first things to grab his eye were a mini-fridge, bed, desk, and a closet. A door to his right led to what he assumed was the bathroom, and a set of curtains covered the windows and the balcony entrance.

With an exhausted sigh, he clicked the door shut behind him. He opened the closet to find that it contained a few t-shirts, shorts, pants, and slippers. He decided to change after he had a chance to take a shower, though he did take off his varsity jacket and slipped into the slippers.

After splashing some water onto his face, he leaned on the sink and stared at himself in the mirror. There weren't any bags under his eyes, but if he didn't get some sleep he'd probably be getting them soon.

Steven went over what he knew. He was trapped, perhaps indefinitely, in a universe that he didn't belong to. His best bet was to find this universe's counterpart for the artifact that brought him here, and even then that wasn't a sure thing. Nedzu had mentioned the possibility of there being someone with a quirk that would let him go back, but that was purely speculation. If neither of those panned out, he would be stuck.

Permanently.

He gulped, pushing down the tears that threatened to bubble up. He could worry about what the future held later. Right now, he needed to introduce himself to the members of class 1-A, and explain to them why he'd suddenly appeared in their dorm building.

Taking one last deep breath to steady himself, he exited the room and returned to the staircase. He descended slowly, not in any particular hurry to become the center of attention yet again.

Before he came into view of the common room, he hid behind a wall and listened to what Aizawa was saying.

"...advise you to not antagonize our guest. He will be staying with you for as long as necessary. If I hear any complaints, the consequences will be swift."

That seemed to be a good enough time to enter, so Steven stepped around the corner with a small wave and a friendly smile plastered on his face. Thankfully, it didn't need to be faked, not entirely. He really was looking forward to meeting a class of students who were training to become real superheroes!

"Universe," Aizawa inclined his head in his direction. "Feel free to introduce yourself. I've avoided telling them anything about your situation, in case you wish to leave anything out."

Steven felt oddly touched. Here he was, an unwilling visitor in a new world, and a stranger was showing him this much courtesy when he had every reason to be annoyed. The smile that spread on his face then was completely genuine, and he turned to the students watching him from the couches.

"Hi, everybody! My name is Steven Universe, but you can just call me Steven," he said. A sea of faces stared expectantly at him, and he was privately gushing at how young they looked. They were, what, fifteen years old? Sixteen? They were only about two to three years younger than him, but they looked so small! Well, most of them, at any rate.

"I, um, I'm not sure what Aizawa-san told you all," he continued, "but I'm going to be staying with you all for a while! I'm technically from another universe! Or dimension? Eh, the word doesn't matter. I got sent here by accident, and your principal is going to help me find a way back to my home."

Hands popped up in the air, and Steven was unnerved for a moment, before he remembered that these were children (teenagers, but what's the difference?), and they probably had a lot of questions. Settling back into the teacher-like role he sometimes played in Little Homeschool, he called on a student with shaggy, bright yellow hair.

"Wait, so you aren't a villain?"

That question got the student in question a smack on the arm and some harsh whispered words from a girl with headphone jacks for earlobes. He could just make out her saying, "You don't just ask people if they're villains, Kaminari!"

Steven chuckled, and answered to put the teen's mind at ease. "No, I'm not. I'm just a regular guy."

"If you come from a different universe, kero, how different is it?" asked one girl with long green hair, sitting attentively in a cocoon of blankets.

"Ooh! What's your quirk?" the pink-skinned girl who called him out a few minutes ago leaned forward, almost falling over in her enthusiasm.

"Well, I'd say it's pretty different," Steven shrugged. "The principal showed me a map of the world, and even that is pretty different from what I'm used to! And to answer your question," he added, "we don't actually have quirks where I'm from. Apparently, when I came to this universe I also time-traveled, because I was in the year 2020 just this morning."

That announcement was met with wide eyes and an eruption of whispers, as they were clearly struggling to conceptualize the fact that Steven had come from both a different time and reality.

To be fair, Steven was too. It really hadn't sunken in yet, and this whole thing kinda felt like a dream.

"That doesn't make much sense," a girl with long, dark hair and a book in her hand frowned. "Everyone who was here during your appearance saw you create a protective, pink orb around you. I don't quite see how that would be possible without a quirk."

"I mean," he rubbed the back of his head bashfully, formulating a response he was reasonably certain would cause the least amount of confusion. "I'm actually half-alien."

Steven was met with stunned silence, until a boy (the one who wrapped him in tape earlier) coughed and said, "When you say alien, do you mean something different, or…"

"Nope!" Steven smiled. "My mom was an alien known as a Gem!" He lifted the bottom of his shirt, demonstrating the pink diamond on his belly. "I can do a whole bunch of stuff with light and emotions, like the bubbles you saw earlier."

Most of the students were just confused at this explanation, though some were nodding like it made a great deal of sense. Ultimately, most of them didn't look like they believed him, which was perfectly understandable if you asked him. He would have a tough time convincing most people in his own world that there was a world where humans had real-life superpowers, so he didn't really expect most people to just outright believe that he was telling the truth about the Gems.

Aizawa inserted himself into the relative silence. "I'll remind you, yet again, to not overwhelm Universe with your questions. If there are any problems," the man addressed him, "do not hesitate to let me know." Turning back towards the class, he said, "Try not to stay up too late. I have important announcements to make in class."

He turned to leave, but stopped to quietly say something to Steven. "I'll be here to collect you early tomorrow morning. I'd recommend getting to bed earlier rather than later."

"Got it." The man nodded, sauntering off to wherever he stayed. Probably some sort of teachers' dorms, if he had to guess.

Steven turned back to the students, most of whom were either having hushed conversations or staring at him. It was starting to be a bit awkward, so he did his best to defuse the situation.

"So, yeah!" He clapped his hands together. "I'll just… be here. For a while. Don't mind me!" He slowly backed away, whipping himself around and running up the stairs when he reached them. He gathered up what looked to be pajamas along with soap and a towel, then ran back down to the baths on the first floor. He steadfastly ignored the way some of the conversations in the common room died out as their participants chose to observe him instead.

A bit more time was spent in the baths than was strictly necessary to clean himself up, but the was doing wonders for him. He could feel the tension melting away from his muscles, and if he took some time to cry, well, nobody would know.

Steven stepped out feeling much more optimistic about his situation. Sooner or later, he'd find a way to return home, and it wasn't like he couldn't try to make the best of the situation while he was here. Besides, in a way, he was traveling the world. It just wasn't his own.

He poked around until he found a room where he could put his clothes in the wash. Once he started that, he was immediately shaken from his thoughts by the rumbling of his stomach.

It had slipped his mind until that moment that he hadn't eaten since early that morning, before he was transported here. Now, his body was demanding some sustenance.

Steven snorted, imagining his stomach actually demanding food and threatening to revolt. That's what it felt like, at least.

Making note of the time, he set off to the kitchen area he noticed in the far corner of the common room. Standing at one of the stoves was another student, this time one he didn't recognize from earlier.

He cleared his throat to get the boy's attention. "Quick question— am I allowed to just take whatever I need from the fridge, or…"

The boy snapped his head up, looking awfully irked at being talked to. "The fuck are you?"

"Oh! I'm Steven Universe," he introduced himself yet again. "Were you not here when Aizawa-san explained?"

The boy scoffed. "If I was, I wouldn't be asking."

"Mm." Steven had definitely heard worse, but it still wasn't very polite. "There's been an accident, and I'll be staying here for a while until Nedzu and I can fix it," he answered as succinctly as possible. He wasn't interested in answering too many more questions today.

The boy shuffled around, throwing a few ingredients into the pot he was watching, before he said quietly, "Don't take shit that's got a name on it. Everything else is free game."

Steven brightened. Maybe he was vulgar, but there was some element of politeness, which was nice to see. "Thanks, uh… what's your name?"

The boy sneered at the question. "Bakugou. Now shut the fuck up and stop bothering me."

Or maybe not. Well, that was fine with Steven. At least now he knew that he could make some food for himself. The refrigerator was absolutely massive, and the inside was packed with shelves full of all sorts of food. It was honestly a little overwhelming, so he just went for the simplest option and grabbed some vegetables for a stir fry. He found a pack of noodles in a cabinet, and got to work whipping himself up some dinner. He was yawning throughout, but he managed to finish up without falling asleep over the stove.

He sat down at the bar, lazily eating his finished product. Bakugou had left about ten minutes before, after eating some of his cooking and packaging up the rest. They didn't exchange any words after Steven's initial question, which he didn't mind. It was nice to be in close proximity with someone and not have an obligation to keep up a conversation.

After the fifth yawn in a minute, he decided to just hurry up and get to bed. Scarfing down his food, he scrubbed the used dishes with haste and hurried back up to his room. He could get the laundry in the morning, at any rate.

Steven collapsed into his bed, consciousness immediately giving way to slumber.

(In another universe, a girl and a lion search a forest for him.

The trail ends, and the only clue she has is a pendant.

Even in despair, she refuses to give up. He would be found.

Right?)

End Notes:

Okay I'm sorry that nothing really happened but BUT next chapter !

NEXT chapTER! oh boy!

Also:

Ochako and Steven will be floating buddies
Shouto and Steven will be parent-issues buddies
Class 1-A and Steven will be trauma buddies
And other stuff ig idk if you expected me to have a plan you were wrong

Comments are adored and will almost always be replied to!