One-Shots | Steven Universe: Past

Zoomans' Return

"This is what you wear, Stevann?"

        Y-6 gazed intently at his leather-clad arm, wiggling his fingers experimentally.

        "Yeah! Well— not me, personally," Steven explained. "That's the sort of stuff cool guys wear. It's called a jacket."

        "Jaacket," Y-6 repeated carefully, and his face lit up. "Jaacket! Yes! I like it! But what is a 'cool guys'?"

        "Can I wear what you have, Gareg?"

        Steven turned and found J-10 standing tall in a pink dress. Connie looked helpless beside her.

        Greg visibly coloured. "Oh, this? This is— this is old man stuff!"

        "Dad!" Steven cried stubbornly. "You're not old!"

        "Please, Gareg?" J-10 pushed innocently. "I like your calothes!"

        She enunciated the "th" strangely, like a surprised toddler.

        Greg took a step back. "Well, not these but— I'm sure we can find you your own!"

        "Yes!" J-10 looked pleased.

        Across the store, U-12 was spinning in her new sundress. She stumbled and sent a potted fern crashing to the floor.

        "Ah— I'll get it!" Connie cried, and she dashed over to help the dark girl up.

        When Steven turned back around, he noticed L-5 (a slender, chestnut-haired youth) by the dressing rooms. Kiki was helping him fit a pair of heeled thigh-length boots on. As she zipped them up for him, he looked incredibly pleased — and then he wobbled and promptly fell on top of her.

        After the healing of the corrupted Gems, Steven had approached Yellow and Blue and requested the return of the captive humans. Though Blue was hesitant, Yellow readily agreed, and a few days later, Steven awoke to find the entire Zoo hovering over the town.

        Of course, as quickly as he could manage, he hid the Zoo in the Strawberry Battlefields and since then had tasked himself with helping the Zoomans adjust to the new developed Earth. The concealing of such an addition to the town could not be kept a secret, and so he had first told a select few citizens about the situation and, inevitably, enlisted some much-needed help.

        And it was working, for the most part.

        The first thing on the agenda had been to dress the Zoomans appropriately, and so far Kiki, Jenny, Buck, Sour Cream, Sadie, Peedee and Ronaldo had turned up at the store to assist them. According to Sadie, Lars wouldn't be coming, as he wanted some time to spend with his family since his return.

       Steven felt a hand on his arm and turned to see Connie.

        "The store's in shambles," she sighed, wincing at another clatter that echoed from behind. "We'll have to come back later and help clean up."

        "And replace some things, too, by the looks of it," Greg put in, rubbing his neck.

        At that moment, J-10 burst out from behind a changing curtain, followed by an exhausted-looking Jenny. "Gareg, look! I am wearing your calothes!"

        Greg flushed and hurriedly averted his gaze. The poor girl had haphazardly thrown on a much-too-big singlet (whose collar dipped dangerously low), and a pair of shorts that barely clung to her hips. Jenny sighed. "I dunno, I think you'd look way better in a dress, JJ."