Steven turns 15, but Lapis refused to attend his birthday party...
——
"Blow out your candles, Steven!!"
Steven took a deep breath before blowing out all the candles on his birthday cake. Everyone cheered when he blew them all out on the first try.
"Nice one, Stchuball," Greg said.
"I'm just so happy I can spend my birthday with everyone," Steven said. In the room with him were Greg, Connie, Peridot, The Diamonds, The Crystal Gems, Bismuth, and Citrine.
But not Lapis.
"It's a shame she didn't wanna come," Steven said to Peridot.
"Yea," Peridot said. "She was gonna find out the crystal gems were alive eventually. She wishes you a happy birthday though."
Amethyst cut herself a giant slice of cake, basically devouring it.
"I was thinking of bringing Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl to the barn. I want them and Lapis to talk it out," Steven said.
"Bring Bismuth too," Peridot said.
Bismuth turned to look at Steven and Peridot.
"What? Why? What did Bismuth do to her?" Steven asked.
"She's... she's the reason Lapis ended up in a mirror in the first place," Peridot said.
Steven's eyes went wide. He looked at Bismuth, who looked away in shame.
And that was when the birthday party ended.
===
"YOU'RE the one who put her in the mirror?!" Steven blurted at Bismuth.
"I didn't know who she was!! I thought she was a homeworld gem!!" Bismuth said in her defense as Steven interrogated her on the couch.
Steven sighed as he and Peridot stood in front of her.
"Well, you'll need to confront her about it," Peridot said. "You, Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl."
"Let's do it in my room. It's the safest place," Steven said.
===
Lapis didn't know why Peridot insisted she come to Steven's house, but it's not like she really had a choice.
Once she and Peridot warped there, Steven was standing at the temple door. "Lapis!!"
"Happy birthday, Steven," Lapis said. "I don't have a present for you. Sorry."
"That's ok!!" Steven smiled. "Just follow me, ok?"
Steven opened the temple door, and let Lapis and Peridot in. Lapis felt the color drain from her skin when she saw Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Bismuth standing there.
"You..." Lapis growled.
"Hey hey HEY!!" Steven ran over to her. "They only want to talk. They want to apologize."
Lapis raised an eyebrow, then looked back at the crystal gems.
"Make it fast," Lapis said.
"Lapis," Bismuth took a step forward. "If I had known who you were, I wouldn't have even thought of putting you in that mirror. I didn't even know you were conscious. None of us did!!"
Lapis took it all in for a moment before saying, "I don't accept your apology, but I won't try to kill you. Don't come for me." She then grabbed Peridot's hand and left the temple.
"That... could've gone a lot worse," Garnet said.
===
It was now night time. The Diamonds took Steven to homeworld so they could swim in Blue's bath. They all more or less sat on the edge while Steven did cannonballs into the water.
"Did you see that one?!" Steven asked as he popped out of the water.
"Yes, Steven. It was terrific," White said. "But we have a question for you."
"Yea?" Steven asked, swimming over to her.
"What were you and the crystal gems doing in your room?" White asked. "I'm not mad or anything, I'm just interested."
"Well... I had the crystal gems meet Lapis," Steven said.
"How did it go?" Yellow asked.
"Not great, but better than I thought it would," Steven said. "Bismuth put her in the mirror."
The Diamonds seemed a bit taken aback by that.
"Was Bismuth sorry?" Blue asked.
"Very," Steven said as he hopped out of the pool and sat on the edge. "I'm just happy Lapis didn't try to kill anyone."
"Y'know, Steven, I admire you," Blue said.
"Why's that?" Steven asked.
"Even on your birthday, your special day, you go out of your way to make sure everyone else is happy before you are," Blue said. "You're very selfless, something that... I wish I was more of. You're a wonderful person, Steven."
"Thank you, Blue," Steven said, smiling.