Steven went to bed wondering what suprise he'd wake up to tomorrow, his main hope was that blue and Greg where able to work out their issues over rose and it seemed so judging by Pearl's words. Steven woke up with both of his parents standing over him and smiling, they scared him at first, it was the happiest he'd seen blue in a while.
"Hey! Schtu-ball!", Greg loudly greeted his son, "guess where we're going!", he pulled a card of of his pocket, "We're going to empire city!", he exclaimed, showing Steven the card, it showed the many large bright buildings of the city, unlike the small town of beach city, empire city was a gigantic place, filled with movie stars, expensive hotels and shops and the biggest buildings in the country. "Pearl already packed everything for us too!",blue said, dropping all the bags onto Steven's bed filled with his and Greg's things, "we will be going later today I hope you're ready!".
Greg left the room suddenly as he got a call from his record label leaving steven and blue alone. "Did you speak to him about rose? You do seem much better now", Steven said, this changed blue's tone and she looked at her feet and a sadness came over her face, "no I have not", she confessed. "That's not good", Steven said, getting out of bed and preparing to get dressed, "pearl told me you do this a lot, you hold in all your emotions and thoughts until you can't hold them in anymore", Steven put on a dark blue hoodie and black pants, "you're scared of speaking to people about how you feel about them, is that true?", blue nodded, Steven hugged his mother, "you don't need to do that around us", he told her.
Greg booked the most expensive hotel he could find, in the most expensive corner of the city, Steven and blue both looked out the van windows amazed, blue remembered driving past this on her bike, it still reminded her of homeworld. They stopped outside the hotel and carried their bags in, "this place is so cool dad! Isn't this where you used to perform for celebrities", Steven asked his father as they walked in, "during my most popular years I was always in empire city, I'm suprised we didn't move here", greg reminisced, seeing a massive advertisement of him play on a nearby skyscraper.
The workers at the hotel all exclaimed, "it's Mr greg!", as he walked in, they all looked the same and it scared blue. Greg gave each of them large stacks of money and they quickly picked the three of them up and took them to the most expensive room that greg had booked for them, It had a fountain, a pool, a buffet and a balcony looking out on the whole city. Steven, blue and Greg where then all fitted into tuxedos, "we look so posh!", Steven joked, "I think Connie's parents will like this look!", blue replied, putting her top hat on, "I like your look blue-blue, your hips are looking good", greg said, giving blue the finger guns but she just ignored him and went and explored more of the room with steven.
Greg had to follow after them as Steven and blue rushed to the chocolate fountain, "what a work of art!", blue said, looking at the chocolate fountain in wonder, "I'd say this is the best invention humans have ever made!", Steven joked, "maybe surpassing some diamond technology". "There you two are!", Greg yelled, creeping up behind them and scaring blue, "don't just leave me! We've got so much to check out!", "well right now me and mum are looking at this chocolate fountain", Steven said, taking out a marshmallow and putting it under the chocolate, greg huffed, "that fountain probably costs more than our home, Steven".
The employees of the hotel all followed after greg and started to sing praises of him, greg started to join in and dance, Steven also tried joining in but blue stayed in the corner and was too shy to join in, it felt embarrassing. "Come on blue-blue! Dance with me!", Greg called to her, blue tried to act like she couldn't hear him but then greg ran up to her and tried to spin her around, "NO!", she yelled, pulling greg away from her, "DON'T TOUCH ME!", Greg looked back at her in confusion and all the workers left, cursing at blue and complaining she ruined everything. "Oh- I'm sorry it's just I don't like when you-", blue studdered, bowing her head to Greg and blushing from embarrassment, Greg just rolled his eyes and walked away, "whatever", he huffed as he walked off.
"Mum I can tell you're not OK because of this! You need to tell him that you know about rose!", Steven told her, he reached out his hand to her but she just walked off, "go spend time with your father", blue guietly said, going outside to the balcony to smoke. Steven sighed and went to see where his father had went off. He was paying more of those creepy hotel workers to sing to him while he drank beer, the whole thing looked to fake it felt unsettling to steven. Steven made his way to his father who was at the bar, "Hey Steven? If you want you can pay these guys to sing what ever you want", Steven didn't say anything, he just sat next to his father and ordered a glass of coke. "Schtu-ball? You're awfully quiet? Is it because of your mother?", greg asked him, "yeah...", Steven confessed, drinking the overly expensive coke.
"Don't worry schtu-ball, she gets like this, I should've known not to do that", greg said, ordering another big glass of beer, there where already a couple empty glasses around him, Steven didn't make eye contact with his father, he had barely been able to since he found out about him and rose. "Blue gets overwhelmed easily, I remember she couldn't even handle me and pearl speaking to her at the same time once! Oh that was so long ago, it was one of the first times we met, I think it was the fifth time", Steven barely listened to his rambles he could hear his father was drunk, he could smell it too.
"Well Steven, I'm gonna go to bed", greg said, stumbling off the chair and drunkenly making his way to his room, it made Steven feel sick, he awkwardly followed after him. Greg fell onto the bed and was fast alseep immediately, both blue and steven looked down at him then made eyecontact with eachother. "I've never seen him like this", blue whispered, "same, it doesn't even feel like him, it feels like some sort of rich, greedy version of him instead", Steven replied, going back to the chocolate fountain to each some more marshmallows before he himself went to sleep, this time, blue didn't join him, she just watched him from the corner.
Steven slept next to his father and blue watched them both, she felt tears form in her eyes and quickly wiped them away and rushed out the room, she undid her blazer and revealed a blue snake that had curled its body around her chest, the snake slithered off her chest and onto the floor, shape-shifting into his original form, her pearl. "I'm suprised no one noticed me here", pearl said, thankful she was finally back in her normal form. "yeah! You're a stealthy pearl!", blue said, hugging her for a second, this shocked pearl but she didn't have any time to even properly acknowledge it. "I'm so glad I was able to bring you here", blue said, sitting on the couch and lighting another cigarette, pearl followed after her and stood near her, "I'll follow all your plans My diamond don't worry ill never leave you", "I did let you leave your snake form for once reason", blue said, standing up and approaching the balcony nearl the bedroom, "can you play a song for me?", pearl bowed and immediately took a vinyl and blue's favourite albums out of her gem and placed it down, "what music do you want my diamond?", "please put on pretty when you cry by lana del rey, I gotta scream the lyrics", pearl reluctantly followed her diamond's commands, preparing her ears for the hell that Is about to come down on them.
At first blue's singing started off OK, she wondered around the balcony, looking out on the city while quietly singing to herself, but in less than half a minute it quickly devolved into blue screaming and changing the lyrics to be about herself,greg and rose , it woke Steven up and he and pearl watched In horror and embarrassment as blue basically screeched while ugly crying, she of course ended up waking up greg, she only knew this because when she was done they made eyecontact and he stormed off after.
Greg went back to the bar and sadly ate cherries and drank some more beer, Steven took blue by the hand and forced them to finally speak to eachother. "What do you want Steven", greg huffed, looking at him holding the very awkward blue diamond by the hand, "you both need to speak to eachother!", Steven yelled at them ,blue took her top hat off and held it in front of her, Greg got off his seat and went to confront them both, "blue you need to tell him that you know!", "know what?", greg asked, blue looked away and became flustered, "n-nothing, its just-", Steven knew he had to do this himself, "SHE KNOWS ABOUT YOU AND ROSE!", he yelled, making blue start to cry and Greg's eyes widen.
They both just looked at eachother in awkward silence, Steven was so frustrated, nothing was working, "dad," he turned to face Greg, "why where you hanging out with rose, I saw you! I saw everything!", blue didn't speak anymore, she was trying not to move because she know she'd just cry more and more. Steven saw one of the workers was playing the piano, so he sneaked them some money to have it to himself, he thought maybe if he played some music it could change, he didnt have any lyrics so only played a random sad tune.
"Oh jeez.. I was going to tell you", Greg said, scratching his head, "it turned out rose was the only person who came to my first beach city concert, she really motivated me to become the Mr universe I am today, when I met her again I was so shocked to find she was the same rose you told me about." Blue looked at him, she was grasping her top hat tightly and shaking, "I learned so much about her and I was planning to tell you all of it, I guess Steven caught me before I could tell you, I was trying to be a spy I guess", Steven stopped playing the piano for a second and listened in, he didn't believe one word coming out his mouth, but blue did, she immediately saw it as the truth and forgave him, it made Steven sick, he kept playing but felt disgusted, he saw his mother be completely manipulated and forgive him in an instant.
Greg payed another worker to take over the piano from Steven and play a romantic tune for him and blue to dance to. Steven went and stood by pearl in the corner, they both felt defeated. "everything you said about my dad was right", Steven said to her, "well at least mum is happy but I'll never trust him again I think". Pearl watched blue and Greg dance before she spoke to steven, her diamond seemed so happy but it hurt pearl so much to watch, "blue won't be happy for long, I feel like soon his lies will all crumble, and the outcome will be terrible".