[WARNING]
First, this is a completely separate story from the original Steven Universe. The main character here is entirely different from anything presented in the original story.
Second, this story will have more direct themes, including 'complicated' and not-so-subtle topics.
Third: This whole thing draws heavily from Steven AUniverse: Ask WhitePearl and Steven by Chekhov in Tapas. If this somehow reaches them and they don't like it, I will take the story down.
With that said: Enjoy (or probably hate) it!
In a small city of the state of Nevaska. It's a cold and silent night where no living soul is seen on the streets… except for a short, blonde girl with glasses and a baggy hoodie.
She walks nervously through the night holding some books, worried about going back to her dorm safely.
As she walks, a group of thugs come from an alley and stop in front of her, blocking her path. The leader of them looks her up and down whistling. "Hey, pretty. What would a pretty girl like you be doing in here?"
She takes a step back intimidated by the sudden approach: "I-I was just heading back to my dorm. I went to the library to get some books and—"
The leader chuckles and shakes his head: "Well, that's interesting, but don't you think it's dangerous to a cutie like you to stay out at night?"
She freezes and steps back again. "I-"
"Don't worry ma'am, nothing bad will happen." The leader approaches her with a smirk. "We're just going to have some fun together."
She widens at the man's words, the fear and shock washing over her being. "I-I'm not interested, thank you."
As she tries to leave the group pulls her into the alley, making her drop her books.
The leader chuckles: "Lemme break it down for ya," He approaches her with a pocketknife. "Just give in or it'll be worse for ya."
Horror fills her completely. She starts to panic, but the group prevents her from calling for help.
They smirk among themselves, ready to 'have their fun'. Before they proceed their action, they hear a rough, heavy voice.
"Oi."
They look toward the source of the voice and see a tall figure staring at them, a figure which only the dark, diamond-shaped eyes visible, glowing with a white outline.
"... Well, I can see you guys are kinda busy… Look, I'm not in the mood to talk today. Just let the girl go."
The group looked between themselves as if it was a joke. The leader shouts at the figure. "This isn't your business, punk."
The figure only rolled its eyes and passed its hand over its face. "... Ugh… I got a goddamn hangover today, so let's make this quick."
In a blink of eyes, the figure rushed to the leader and punched his face. The leader falls on ground knocked out.
The rest of the group look at the figure with surprise and fear. They draw knives and prepare to attack.
The figure looks at them with annoyance. It suddenly pulls two large axes from its forehead. "Bring it on."
Seeing the figure pulling axes from its forehead makes the thugs afraid. They take a second to realize what happened and begin running away.
The figure looks at the running thugs for a moment. It is evidently disappointing. "Huh… Cowards..." It let go of the axes and they disappear in thin air.
The tall figure walks towards the girl, but she crawls back in fear. The figure stops and sighs. "Look, I won't hurt you…" It slowly crouches to get on her eye level, its eyes glancing into hers. The dim light made the girl unable to see its real appearance, but she could say it was a man.
The figure asks in a neutral yet soft tone. "... Are you okay?"
She looks at him, pondering if it is a threat or not. "Y-Yeah… thank you…"
He nods, a hint of relief on his voice: "Cool…"
Silence falls between them for a few moments until the girl asks: "... who… who are you?"
He looks at her for a second and shrugs. "Call me Steven… you are?"
The girl looks at him in slight amusement. "... I'm Fionna..." She slowly gets up and picks her books from ground, unsure of what to say. "... Thank you… Thank you so much."
Steven nods at Fionna. "You're welcome, I guess..."
They look at each other for a moment in an uncomfortable silence.
Steven shakes his head and stretches. "Eh… I guess that's it… Bye."
Fionna widens her eyes, he really was just going to leave after saving her? "Wait…" She steps towards him. "Where are you going?"
Steven looks back at her for a moment before shrugging. "Dunno. Maybe a bar or something."
He proceeds to walk away. Before he went out of Fionna's sight, they hear a quick police siren and a car door closing.
A police officer enters the alley, analyzing the situation. Without waiting for them to say a word, the cop points his gun at Steven. "Freeze! You're under arrest for individual assault! You're coming with me!"
Steven stares at the officer in silence, pondering what to do. He just shrugs and raises his hands. He's not patient enough to deal with this tonight.
Fionna takes a few seconds to process what just happened, but when she does she steps forward with a confused tone. "W-What?! S-Sir, he didn't mean any harm. This man just saved me from a group."
"Girl, don't try to help this criminal! If what you're telling is true, then he's not only going to be arrested for individual assault, but also for vigilantism!"
The officer's words make Fionna even more in shock. On the other hand, Steven just allows himself to be handcuffed by the cop.
Steven follows the officer to the police car to go to jail. The car starts and it disappears into the horizon.
Fionna stands in the alley in shock. Her mind is still trying to comprehend the whole series of events that just happened.
When Fionna is already back inside her dorm room in her college, she takes a moment to breathe.
Her mind is a mess of thoughts. She can't believe that she was saved by someone and that someone was sent to jail for saving her, all of this in the same night.
She slowly lies down on her bed. She knows this wasn't her fault, but she can't help but feel both guilty for doing nothing against his arrest and sad for being the reason for his arrest.
Her mind keeps thinking on what to do. She quickly comes up with an idea: Go to the jail as a visit and try to convince the guards to release Steven… This was the best plan she had for now.
[THE NEXT DAY]
A guard is guiding Fionna through the cells. He looks at her with a raised brow. "I don't get it. Why would you want to see a criminal?"
She quickly speaks up: "He… He's not a bad person. He saved me and was arrested for it. This is the least I could do for him."
The guard shrugs: "Suit yourself then…"
As they approach the cell, they feel a strong weird scent. They get in front of the cell and find the shocking scene: Steven lying on the cell bed, smoking a joint, drinking beer, and reading a magazine.
The guard widens his eyes and quickly bangs the bars of the cell with the baton: "Wimbleton! Where did you get all of that?!"
Steven laughs: "Like I was going to tell you."
The guard grits his teeth. "Oh this fucker…" He goes to enter the cell to hit him, but Fionna intervenes.
She gulps and steps closer to the bars: "... Hi… D-do you remember me?"
He stops and looks at her. "Oh… it's you… the girl from yesternight. Fionna…?"
Fionna nods. "Yes… that's me… I came here because I want to get you out."
He glances at her in silence and simply raises an eyebrow. "... why?"
She takes a deep breath and approaches, nervously gripping the bars: "... Because you saved me. This is the least I can do… You… you were my hero, my savior, and I think that I should make it up for you… do something that shows how grateful I am for your generosity…"
At the end of her speech, the silence settles down between them… before Steven bursts in laughing.
He slowly stops laughing and shakes his head. "Damn… I've never heard such a load of bullshit before…" He gets out of the bed and approaches the bars. As he approaches the bars, the lights of the jail reveal his appearance.
He's a tall, muscular guy with dark skin and messy black hair that covers his forehead. His eyes with dark-gray, diamond-shaped irises have dark circles under them. His teeth are sharp, almost shark-like. He wears a black T-shirt with a white pentagram symbol, a black leather jacket with white details, gray ripped jeans, and black sneakers.
He glances at her with a smirk while gripping the bars: "Do I look like a hero to you?"
She steps back, intimidated by the real appearance of her 'savior'. "... it doesn't matter your look, you saved me, and that's that. You're a good person."
Steven laughs at her face: "Sure, 'A good person'. I'd say more… an asshole. Yeah, that's more like me."
Fionna looks at her with disappointment, but still looks determined to help.
Steven smirked at Fionna through the bars, his sharp teeth visible as he continued to mock her. "So what's the plan, doll? You gonna break me out? Or maybe talk to the big boys and convince them I'm a misunderstood saint?"
Fionna was unsure of how to respond to his sarcasm. Seeing him up close, hearing the way he dismissed her gratitude like it was a joke, she started to wonder if she had made a mistake coming there.
But she couldn't give up now. Not after what happened the night before.
"I don't know what you've been through, but you didn't have to save me, and yet you did... Maybe you don't see yourself as a hero, but that's what you were to me last night. You stopped them when no one else would. I don't care how you act or what you call yourself, I know there's something good in you."
Steven's smirk faltered for a second, but he quickly masked it with a shrug. "You're wasting your time."
"I don't think so. I asked the guards about you. You've been arrested before, lots of times, actually, but you always end up escaping and not being found..."
Steven raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. "Heh. You did your homework. Cute."
"I know there is more to this, and I need to know the reason. Why you saved me, why you keep getting caught up in this stuff." Fionna's gaze softened, a genuine plea in her eyes. "Let me help you."
Steven's expression darkened. This time, the smirk faded entirely. He leaned closer. "Girl, I don't think you get it. This isn't some superhero movie where you swoop in, get the misunderstood bad guy to 'open up' and everything ends well. So just stop this bullshit and get lost."
Fionna felt a chill run down her spine at his words, but she didn't back away. "Maybe… but I'm not scared. I can handle it."
He stared at her for a long moment before huffing. He takes a step back and warns. "Alright. You want me to get out, huh? Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you." He grips on the bars. With a deep breath, he starts forcing the bars in order to break free.
Fionna gasped as she watched Steven grip the metal bars of his cell with both hands. His muscles flexed, and for a moment, she thought it was a joke. But then the metal started to groan, and to her shock, the bars bent outward under the pressure of his hands.
The guard, who had been standing nearby, whipped around at the sound. "Hey! Stop that!" He raised his baton, ready to strike Steven again.
Before the guard could swing, Steven punched him in the face knocking him out.
Steven let out a low chuckle stretches, passing through the bard.
Fionna stood there incredulous. She definitely hadn't expected this. "You… you just broke out of jail..."
Steven shrugs, as if it was just a regular part of his day. "Yeah, I did." He looks around thinking about what to do. "... Well... Now I get to go to a bar to drink something... And you, doll, go live your life."
Fionna blinked, still processing what had just happened. "You're just… leaving? After all of this?"
Steven shrugged, walking toward the exit like nothing had happened. "Yup. I'm not sticking around here. Wanna be helpful? Stay outta my life."
Fionna stood frozen for a moment, her mind racing. She knew she was being reckless, but something inside her refused to let this go.
"Wait!" She called, taking a few hurried steps after him. "I'm coming with you."
Steven stops in his tracks and turns to face her. "Coming with me? You wanna tag along with a guy who just broke out of jail only with his hands?"
Fionna nodded, swallowing her nerves. "I told you, I want to help you. And… I want answers. You didn't save me for no reason. I want to know why."
Steven stared at her for a long moment. Then, with a deep sigh, he rubbed the back of his neck. "You really don't know when to quit, do you?" He sighs and takes a drag of his joint before flicking it away. "Fine, if you wanna follow me, don't say I didn't warn you."
Fionna's heart raced. She knew this was dangerous, everything about him screamed trouble, but this could be her only shot to understand who he really was.
As Steven proceeded to walk Fionna quickly caught up with him.
"Where are we going?" Fionna asked nervously, trying to keep up with his long strides.
"There's a bar a few blocks down," Steven said casually. "I need a drink."
Fionna wasn't sure if she should feel relieved or nervous. She had no idea what she was getting herself into, but there was no turning back now. As they stepped out into the cold night she glanced at Steven, trying to figure out what made him so different. His strength, his eyes, the way he carried himself, it all felt unnatural...
And as much as she was afraid of what she might uncover, Fionna couldn't shake the feeling that she was about to learn something far bigger than she ever imagined.
[TO BE CONTINUED...?]