Steven Universe fic

Part 13 Chapter Two: Cruel Relations

Steven sat up in bed yawning in attempt to relieve his groggy mind and slowly stumbled onto the floor.
He wanted to speak to Spinel, maybe she would be awake at this hour, maybe she would listen to him.
He milled down to the bottom floor, and pulled his shirt up, opening the door to his mothers room he had inadvertently bequeathed to the pink gem.
The door sprung open revealing the pink cloudy domain to his sleepy releif.

He stepped inside, turning his head from side to side to search for the gem. She stood facing away from him, standing as though she was prepared to through a vicious right hook.

He took a hesitant step forward, raising his hand apologetically.

"Spinel, I know you're still mad at me-"

"You left me." She cut him off, her shoulders tensing as he came near. Steven paused, unsure if the gem that stood in front of him was real or a figment of the room's creation.

"Spinel, I-" he tried to explain, fearing that the gem might turn on him in her boiling rage.

"Just like me."

He spun around, brought face to face with Pink Diamond, she giggled softly, pressing her fingers together before opening her arms for a hug. Steven jumped backwards, astonished by the new apparition.

The diamond frowned, deciding that this form didn't please her child. She glowed, transforming herself into the far more familiar version.

"You're doing such a good job following in my footsteps, Steven." She smiled, stepping closer. Steven shook his head, unable to process his wild thoughts, the last time he had seen his mother here...

He gasped, taking another step back from her as she slowly approached.

"You're not real-" he started.

"I'm as real as you, Steven, I love being you- I love you being me." She sweetly remarked, no.
This wasn't happening.

"I'm proud of you, you really are so much like me." She continued, forcing Steven into Spinel who still stood turned away from him. The gem dropped to the ground, as vines erupted from the floor, wrapping around her body and immobilizing her.

Steven spun around, watching as the gem pleaded with the dead air.

"You said you wouldn't leave me-" the words were soft and quiet but riddled with the same dread and fear that they held when Spinel spoke them in the garden. The vines tightened around her body constricting until the gem poofed and her heart shaped stone hovered within the entanglement as water appeared from the air, wrapping around it followed by Steven's pink bubble.

The boy took a fearful step backwards, faced with his regrets as they crashed into him with the violence of a thunder clap.

"No- I did it to protect her."

"And I did it because I was tired of her."

Pink Diamond stepped passed him, popping the bubble and allowing the gem to reform, though now she reformed the way she looked six thousand years ago, still wrapped in the vines as they dug into her skin and grew through her limbs.

Pink Diamond turned to face her child, a soft smile on her face as she gently booped the smiling Spinel.

"It's all the same Steven, you still left her, you're still me, I still hurt the people that care about me the most."
She remarked, stepping closer to him once more and forcing him into an embrace. Steven fought with her hold, clawing against her as he struggled to escape.

"Stop! I'm not like you! I don't want to be like you!" He cried, dropping to his knees as his efforts failed him. Tears began to stream down his face as guilt overcame him, he looked past her shoulder at Spinel who stood smiling as she slowly decayed in the throws of the vines.

"I'm not like you." He sputtered through his tears, losing his effort to fight himself away from her, "I'm not, I'm not.."

"Steven?"

His eyes flew open, he sat crumpled to the floor of the bubble room, clawing at the air confusedly until reality regained its position in his mind. He turned his head, Spinel stood in the doorway holding one of her favorite stuffed animals, staring at him in his wild breakdown. Tears still bubbled in his eyes as he tried to wrap his mind around what had happened.

"Spinel." He sputtered, unable to finish his words. The gem stepped closer, hesitantly making her way toward him. She dropped to her knees in front of him and shoved her stuffed rabbit into his arms. Her face looked more confused than anything, but a gentle flicker of compassion grew as she wrapped her blanket around his shoulders.

"You were screaming and it woke me up." She stated, resting her hands between her thighs as she waited for his explanation.
Steven's eyes drifted to the floor, that's right, she couldn't get into Rose's room and was sleeping on the couch.
He was never in her room.

"I must have sleepwalked down here." He mumbled, pulling the strawberry scented rabbit to his cheek, it was soft and it was Spinel's.
He had given it to her to help her when she was alone. She must have kept it in her gem.
Spinel nodded and wrapped her arm around Steven, pulling him up as she stood. Seeing him so distraught made her uneasy, and even though she still couldn't name how she felt about him, she wouldn't let him stay in such a state.
And these few moments where she was able to provide comfort made her heart flutter and her gem warm.
It was dumb, of course.
She's supposed to be mad at him, and want nothing to do with him. But at the same time, she enjoyed holding him and comforting him, hugging him, being close.

If he knew he surely would have thought that all was well though, when it very surely wasn't. She couldn't let herself forgive him because his emotional distress pulled at her heartstrings.

Steven, however, cherished every second the gem had her arm around him, and held her rabbit close to him, not wanting to let it go as she walked him silently upstairs to his bed. She stopped at his doorway.

Steven turned, holding out the rabbit for her to take.

"You can hold onto it for tonight." She said quietly, looking down at the floor, "but I want it back in the morning."

Steven nodded, pulling the rabbit back to his chest as he pulled her blanket from his shoulders and placed it on her own.
Spinel turned to head down the stairs.

"I'll take care of him." He said softly, causing the gem to pause in the doorway, she nodded, not looking back before heading back downstairs to the couch.

Steven pulled his covers aside and got into bed, clutching the strawberry scented plush to his face as he nuzzled it, squeezing tightly. It wasn't Spinel, but it was hers, and that was better than nothing.

Though, his guilt still ate at him from behind the curtain of his momentary joy. And despite her comfort, she was still distant to him. Even if she had shared something precious to her with him, he knew that she was still upset.