3Amethyst scowled as she picked up a music box that was buried in one of her piles of junk. It looked fairly new, and the spinning figure inside was of a sleeping cat. She looked it over before placing it in a newly forming pile behind her. Pearl watched as the purple gem spotted something in another pile and rushed over to pick it up. "What are you doing again? I've been watching you move through your junk piles for hours."
Amethyst dropped a radio into the pile. "I'm looking through all of my stuff for an apology gift. I told you already that I feel like shit for what we did." Pearl glared at her. "Language, Amethyst." The gem scoffed as she turned to another pile. The pale gem sighed, "I understand what you mean, though. We did make a pretty rash assumption."
Pearl felt a tin can smack her in the head. "Rash assumption? We went overboard!" Amethyst snarled as she ran her hands through her hair. "I don't know if it's gotten through you're pretty little head yet, but we attacked Steven! Twoie is Steven from the future, right? So we went out there, with a half-baked theory, and cracked our family member for no legitimate reason."
She stomped past Pearl. The taller gem trailed along. "You're right." Amethyst paused and looked back. Pearl was standing with her hands crossed over her chest. "We did overreact to the situation and hurt Twoie because of it. And poor Steven, he had to watch us do that! I just don't know what to do, Amethyst! If Twoie decides he wants nothing to do with us after this, we'd deserve it." She started pacing back and forth, with her hands gripping the end of her ribbon.
"But can you imagine what that would do to Steven as well? He's always been so emotionally hurt when we fought with each other, but now that it looks like it's Twoie or us? He might feel like we don't care about him because Twoie is him. I'm scared, Amethyst…"
Pearl covered her mouth with one hand. "I'm scared that they'll hate us." Amethyst put a hand on her arm. "That's why we have to make things right, P. I'm gonna head to Garnet's room. I wanna see if she checked on him already." The other gem nodded, and Amethyst led the way to the puddle she knew would take them to the boiling room. "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier." Amethyst waited for her to continue. "I was walking around my room after this awful fiasco, and you were right. I found several waterfalls leading to your room that were pretty close to the places where I store my items. I'm sorry I assumed you took it, and I'm sorry that I didn't believe you."
Amethyst smirked and lightly punched her arm. "Finally, P! Took you long enough." Pearl rolled her eyes fondly and followed Amethyst as she jumped into a puddle. They landed in Garnet's room, off to the side of the lava pit. "Yo, Garnet! Did you check on Steven yet?" Garnet was sitting in the middle of the room, with her feet dipped in the lava. She turned her head as she nodded.
"He was under the house with Twoie for awhile. I predict that Twoie's making them dinner right now. Once they're done, we can go out and apologize to Twoie for fighting him." Pearl raised a brow and pursed her lip. "You actually went outside and checked on him, right?"
Garnet adjusted her shades. "Steven doesn't want to see us right now, so I checked on him with my future vision." "Seriously, Garnet?" Amethyst huffed as she turned to head towards the exit. "I swear you rely too much on your future vision." Pearl hummed in agreement and followed the other gem out of the temple. They were greeted with a dark, quiet living room. Amethyst figured Steven and Twoie were probably still outside, so she didn't look around the room as she strode out the front door. She hopped down to the bottom of the stairs.
"Yo, Steven? Twoie? We're really sorry about everything. I just wanna check on you guys to make sure you're okay!" She called out as she shoved branches out of the way. She didn't see them under the house, though. There was an indent in the bushes, looked like someone was there for a while, but she didn't see any other sign of the brothers.
Where could they be? The purple gem started her picking her way out of the brushes. "AMETHYST!" The shout made her jump, but she recovered quickly, running up the stairs as fast as she could. "What?! Pearl, what is it?" She burst through the front door. Pearl was covering her mouth with both of her hands. The gem was sobbing loudly as she stared at a little yellow sticky note on the fridge. Amethyst grabbed the note.
I'm sorry. I can't stay here anymore, and Steven has decided that he doesn't want to stay here without me. We are going to be staying at the barn until the hourglass is fixed. I'll do my best to stay out of your way. I'm sorry I caused you all so much trouble.
Twoie
She clenched the note in her fist. "GARNET!"
"I told you to check on him!" Amethyst growled as she paced the living room floor. Sapphire was crying in Ruby's hold. "I thought it'd be best if we left him alone to cool off! You saw how upset he was!" Ruby defended their decision. "We thought it would be best to use future vision, so we didn't make him angrier." Pearl was still sobbing with one of Steven's shirts clutched tightly to her chest. Sapphire shook her head. "I thought it would be best. I saw that Steven would be upset if we followed him and that he didn't want us bothering him, so I figured I'd wait until I was sure he was calm. It's my fault."
Ruby shushed her and held her hands. "I'm the one who told you to wait. I know whenever I get upset, I like being by myself for a while. I figured Steven would appreciate it as well." Amethyst slammed a fist down on the coffee table. "I don't care who's fault it was! This just proves that you rely too much on your future vision. Now, Twoie and Steven are gone, and we still have to find a way to fix everything!"
She banged her head against the table. Pearl sniffled as she stood up. She set the shirt down on the couch and sent Sapphire and Ruby a determined look. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm not waiting a minute longer. I'm fixing this now. Amethyst!" The purple gem looked up from the table. "Take me to the pile of items in your room. Let's grab our peace offerings." Ruby and Sapphire shared a look and tagged along as the temple door opened up to Amethyst's room. The Crystal Gems made their way back to the pile of items that Amethyst had already pulled out of her piles.
Pearl looked through her pile for an item she remembered spotting a while ago. There! She pulled out a small worn blanket. It had a little pink lion embroidered into the right corner of the soft baby blue fabric. Now she knew why Rose had asked for the addition when she bought it. She remembered how much Steven cherished the blanket when he was little. It was his greatest comfort when it stormed before he outgrew his fear of thunder.
She also pulled out the music box from earlier. She hadn't recognized the song at first when Amethyst had turned the dial, but she now she recalled it as the melody of the special lullaby Greg used to sing to Steven at night. On several occasions, Greg had worked late into the night with the gems on building the beach house. Those nights, the older man would sing the lullaby while playing the guitar until Steven fell asleep. Once he was sure his son was sleeping, he'd rejoin the gems.
Amethyst grabbed the radio she had found earlier. It was fairly new, with a place to play CDs, and could also act as a speaker. Twoie liked to play music out loud while he was cleaning in the house or making dinner. Steven would sometimes join him, and they'd have a sort of karaoke party while they worked. Their last radio/speaker broke when Peridot was still living in the house. The brothers had kept forgetting to pick up a new one when they were in town. She hoped they would like it.
Ruby and Sapphire worked together to find something for the brothers. They combed through the pile and dug out a complete set of Cookie Cat comic books. They were published when Steven had been a baby, and she remembered how sad Steven was when he found out about the comics a couple of years after the series had been completed. He had a hard time finding scans of it online. They smiled and re-fused, happy with the gift they'd picked.
Each gem made sure the gift they picked was something that Steven and Twoie could enjoy together. They wanted to make sure each gift showed that they cared. Now, it was time for the hardest part. They had to prove to Twoie and Steven that they were truly sorry and had learned from their mistake.
It was late as the gems trekked to the barn. "Do you think they're asleep?" Pearl asked the others as they got close. They knew Lapis and Peridot were probably awake, but they didn't want to wake the brothers just to apologize. "I don't think so. My future vision shows them marathoning Camp Pining Hearts with Lapis and Peridot, but if they are asleep, we'll wait till morning." The other two nodded in agreement, and the group made their way to the barn entrance.
The gems could see the bright flashing of the TV reflecting on the outside of the barn. Lapis, Peridot, and the brothers were sitting in the back of the truck. It must've been something pretty sad because Lapis was hugging a crying Peridot to her chest while trying not to cry herself. Twoie looked amused as a teary Steven hugged the older boy's arm.
"I thought you hated Percy and Paulette as a couple, Peridot?" Twoie chuckled as Peridot whipped around to face him. "Excuse me?! Although I still believe Pierre and Percy are the superior couple, look how sweet it is that he dove into the lake to get Paulette's friendship bracelet? It's such a beautiful expression of his misguided sentiment for Paulette. Pierre even praises him for his actions!"
The rest of the group chuckled at her explanation. Lapis moved to hit the play button again when the Crystal Gems walked into her line of sight. Her happy mood immediately shifted into rage as she stood and wrapped the whole truck in a shield of water from their smaller than average lake.
"What. Are you doing here?" Her voice was icy. Peridot scrambled to her feet and stood in front of Twoie, with Steven doing the same. Garnet stepped forward to speak for the group. "We want to apologize. We realized how wrong we were, and if Twoie and Steven are willing to give us the opportunity, we would like to have a discussion with them about our grievous mistake." She noticed the young man flinch when she started speaking, as well as the look of fear in his eyes. "If neither of you two are comfortable, we will leave and wait another day. We do not want to make things worse than we already have." Pearl and Amethyst nodded in agreement. The purple quartz added, "Yeah, dude. If you'd rather we turn around and leave right now, say the word, and we will. I just didn't want you to go through the night thinking we didn't care enough to want to make things better."
Twoie watched them, as though trying to find any indication that they were lying. After Amethyst spoke, though, he gently placed a hand on both of his defenders' shoulders and stood up. "I'm willing to hear you out. Do you want to talk inside the barn?" Steven grabbed Twoie's hand. "I'm not leaving you alone with them. If you want to talk to them, then I'm coming with you." Lapis and Peridot exchanged a look before Lapis retracted her water back into its hole. "We'll be right out here if they start anything," Peridot assured them as they floated down to meet the gems. The group walked into the barn, with Twoie flicking the light switch as they walked inside.
Steven folded his arms in front of him and watched the gems' every move with a withering glare. Twoie was awkwardly rubbing his arm as he waited for the gems to start talking. Amethyst stepped forward first. She held out the radio to Twoie and Steven. "I'm sorry, man. I didn't judge you for a long time until we had that kidnapping incident with Peridot. I was surprised when you allowed Steven to get kidnapped, and when you didn't prevent Peridot from contacting Yellow Diamond when she stole the communicator from the moon base. I should've asked you about why you did that though instead of thinking the worst of you."
She gestured to the radio as Twoie took it from her. "I got you this as an apology gift. I know the old one broke and you and Steven really like being able to play music in the house. I figured regardless of whether you forgive me for my part in this whole mess, it'd make you happy to be able to listen to music while you're here. It's kinda for both of you because I want to apologize to you too, Steven." The youngest's glare lessened in force. "For what?"
"For fighting Twoie in front of you. Like, we all knew how much you care about him, and we still hurt him badly with you around. That had to suck majorly." His glare hardened again. "What about for not checking on me? Do you know how long I sat there under the house waiting for Twoie to wake up? It was horrible!"
Amethyst winced. "You're right, man. I asked Garnet to check on you, maybe a couple of hours after you had left, and I thought she had done so in person. But she used her future vision, and I didn't know until after you had already left. I should've checked on you myself instead of putting the responsibility on her. I'm sorry for that as well."
Steven sighed as he looked at her sadly. "Well, at least you cared enough to think about me. That's better than what I thought had happened." "Dude… I'm sorry for making you think that. I love you, Ste-man. Maybe I don't show it well enough, but I really do care about you. About you both." Steven looked away as he contemplated her words.
Twoie was staring at the radio in his hands. He looked conflicted as he set it down behind him and turned to face the group again. When he still didn't say anything, Amethyst tried to hide the sad look in her eyes and backed away so one of the others could talk.
Pearl stepped forward next, clutching the folded blue blanket and the music box. "Do you two remember, back when we were building the beach house, that time when the heater in the van went out? Greg was trying to fix it before it got dark, but it was already cold out since it had just turned Spring. I wrapped you in your favorite blanket and we just chatted until you were tired." She held it out to them. Steven took the blanket in confusion and gasped when he recognized Lion on the corner, he showed it to Twoie with stars in his eyes. Pearl held out the music box to the oldest brother.
"Greg managed to get the heater back on, and you were already falling asleep in my arms. He pulled out his guitar, and he sang you your special lullaby. This music box plays the same melody as your special lullaby when you turn the mechanism." Twoie took the box almost reverently as he remembered her story. Steven stared at it with wide eyes as his older brother turned the crank and a familiar melody played from the box. "Whether you forgive me or not, I want you to know that I care. Twoie, I never once attacked you thinking you were actually Steven. I thought you were a Homeworld spy using his features to trick us into trusting you. I never would have attacked you had I actually known."
Pearl willed herself not to start sobbing. She didn't want to guilt Twoie into forgiving her. "I'm so sorry for everything. I'm sorry for not trusting you. I'm sorry for attacking you, and I'm sorry to you too, Steven, for attacking him in front of you and not checking on you after. You needed us, and we weren't there for you." She took a deep breath as she tightly clutched the end of her ribbon in both hands.
"If you two decide you want to stay here, then I will support your decision. It's the least I can do after everything I've put you through. I just want you both to be happy. I definitely haven't told you enough but I love you so much, Steven. And I hope I get the chance to know you better, Twoie. You're both my family." Steven felt the sincerity in her voice and was struggling to keep back his tears. He felt Twoie pull him close and comb his hand through his hair. When he looked up at his brother, he could see him struggling as well.
Pearl delicately stepped back so Garnet could come forward. Twoie flinched at her movement, holding his breath as he waited to see what she would do. "I don't expect either of you to forgive me for what I've done. While the others contributed to the attack against you, I was the one who dealt the blow that cracked you." She paused as Twoie gripped his shirt where his gem was. Steven hugged his arm to comfort him.
"If you never forgive me for this transgression. I will understand completely. I am sorry for hurting you. I never should've been so aggressive, and I've caused you trauma that you never should've dealt with. I once told you that I see so many things that could hurt you. I told that I never should've let one of them be me. And yet, I have hurt you once again because of my actions." She dematerialized her glasses out of respect.
"Steven, Twoie, I apologize to both of you. I have been told that I rely too much on my future vision. I should've checked on you properly instead of relying on my vision to see that you were safe under the house and had found Twoie. My vision allows me to see many different possible futures, and I shouldn't have relied on the most probable future to understand the present. I made it seem as though I did not care enough about you two to check on you when, in reality, I was trying not to upset you further."
She held out the comic books to them. "I know you never got the chance to read the whole series, Steven. Twoie, I don't know if you were able to in the future, but I know you still have a love for Cookie Cat." Twoie reached out and took the books from her. "If you decide to continue living here, I hope these can provide some happiness to you both. I love you, Steven. I want you to feel comfortable, and if you are more comfortable here than at home, I understand. Twoie, I should've been reasonable and talked with you about my concerns. You're also family and I'm sorry that I've made you feel like you weren't."
The fusion stepped back to be with the rest of the Crystal Gems. "None of us want you to feel like you have to accept our apology. We have said what we wanted you two to hear. If you have any need of us, we'll be at the temple. Have a good night, Twoie, Steven." Garnet manifested her glasses and led the group out of the barn.
"Hey." The gems turned around. Twoie had walked up to the entrance of the barn, Steven loyally beside him, with his arms crossed. The young man breathed in deeply, before holding his arms out. "I forgive you." Their eyes widened. "Really?" Amethyst breathed out in surprise. He nodded, which was all she needed to throw herself at him. They hugged each other tightly. Pearl rushed over, no longer able to keep her sobs in, and picked the two up in a bear hug. "Thank you, Twoie!"
Garnet wrapped her arms around the group and lifted them up as well in a tight hug. "We'll still do our best to make you feel comfortable around us. I know this isn't enough to fix the damage we've done, but I'm glad that you're willing to let us work towards making things right." Steven watched them with a smile. He was happy the gems really did care. He was also glad they took his feelings into consideration. Garnet noticed him watching and quickly scooped him into the hug as well.
"Guys!" he laughed as Amethyst, Pearl, and Twoie also did their best to wrap their arms around him. They stayed that way for a couple of minutes, just soaking in the love and affection from each other. When they finally broke the hug, Lapis and Peridot joined them. "You know, it's pretty late. You can stay the night if you want? We're gonna finish the 2nd season of Camp Pining Hearts before Twoie and Steven go to bed. You can all go back to the beach house tomorrow." Lapis smirked as they smiled at her offer.
"Sounds lovely," Pearl remarked. Twoie gestured to Steven for them go back inside the barn. While the brothers went inside, the gems went to help Lapis and Peridot make extra space for them at the truck. Twoie and Steven set all of the gifts together by the door, so they wouldn't forget them when they left the next day.
"I'm kinda surprised you forgave them so quickly." Twoie sighed as he turned to Steven. "I'm still kind of terrified of them, but they put so much thought into these gifts, and what they said, I know that we can be okay again." He ruffled Steven's hair as he climbed up the ladder to the Barn's loft. He pulled his pajamas out from his bag, sat on the couch, and started changing.
Steven's eyes widened from the ladder as he got a glimpse of Twoie's stomach. It seemed like the weird scars lines had healed a bit. There weren't nearly as many marks, and they seemed fainter than they were earlier that day. He'd have to ask the gems about that later. Steven quickly changed into his PJs as well. Twoie was waiting for him at the bottom of the ladder. "Steven?" The younger paused at the top of the ladder. "Thank you for everything. You're the best little brother in the galaxy." Steven chuckled as he climbed down. Before they made their way back to the others, Steven motioned for Twoie to kneel in front of him. The youngest booped him on the nose once he was close enough. "And you're the best big brother in the galaxy."
They laughed as they made their way back outside. Maybe he wouldn't be completely fine tonight or tomorrow. Maybe he'd still flinch when the gems touched him a week from now. But he had a family that would help him get through this. And that meant more to him than anything.
