Gem Guardians (child reader x gems)

Like a brother (Steven)

Chapter Text

It was a calm cool night, there wasn't a cloud in the sky as the full moon cast it's light over Beach City. Steven had plans for you, so once Lapis and Peridot were distracted as they thought you were asleep, you quietly sneak out pulling on your brown trench coat. You run down the hill and towards the beach, finding Steven sitting on the sand, waiting for your arrival. He was humming softly to himself, propping his body up with his arms as he leaned back. He was wearing a dark pink hoodie with jeans and he had red sneakers on his feet. You snicker to yourself as you had an idea. You crouch down, making quiet steps across the sand as you creeped up from behind Steven. Steven stayed oblivious, being lost in his own world. You were trying not to laugh as you were just mere inches away from the boy. You bend your legs and jump on top of Steven, making him yell in surprise and fall over.

"Haha, (Y/n)!" He laughed, rolling over on his back and put his arm around your neck, his fist rubbing against your head. "You know better than to sneak up on me!" You were laughing, putting your hands to his sides to tickle him. Steven burst out laughing and rolled around. "Hahahaha! Stop that tickles!" Steven laughed in complete joy, pouncing you and rolling the two of you like barrels. After a bit of rolling around you two fall to the ground, laying next to each other and giggling happily. "Haha, heya Steven." You say as you stood back up on the sand. "Hey (y/n)." He stood up with you, brushing the sand off his hoodie.

"So what did you want to show me?" You ask looking at Steven. Steven's eyes lit up then he whistled in between his fingers. "Oh yes! Hold on. Hey Lion!" He called out and almost out of nowhere, you saw a massive lion show up beside him, it was the strangest lion you've ever seen. It had pink fur and a fluffy light pink mane, you stare at it in amazement. "You have a pet lion?!" You get stars in your eyes, glancing at Steven. Steven smiles climbing on top of the lion's back. "Well, he kinda does his own thing, but yeah he's my pet mostly. You want to pet him?" You glance at the lion, it was staring at you with a pair of soft black eyes. "D-does he bite?" You hesitantly reach your hand out to touch the lion on the nose. "Oh not at all, unless you try to hurt him." Steven smiled as the lion nuzzled against the palm of your hand, making you stroke the lion's nose along with his head and mane, it felt very soft, like cotton candy. The lion made a soft purr as it buried it's head into your neck, it's soft hair tickling your face. You smile hugging the lion. "Aw he likes you!" Steven said as Lion crouched down for you to climb on, and you did, Steven grabbing your hand to help pull you up. You held onto Steven soon as you made yourself comfortable.

"So where are we going?" Steven gave Lion a pat on the back as it started running. "I'm gonna show you some really cool places, where me and the gems found cool stuff and fought crazy monsters." You cling to Steven while Lion was on the move. He suddenly made a roar and a portal appeared as he jumped through it, making you hold tight onto Steven. The three of you end up in an open field that had strawberries growing everywhere. It was pretty, but what struck you as odd, was that all over the field, there was various weapons scattered as well as remains of old ruins. "What is this place?" You ask Steven as Lion carried the two of you along the field. "Pearl says this used to be a gem battlefield nearly 5'000 years ago. My mom lead this rebellion against homeworld, and a big war took place here. They won, of course." You look around in amazement, glancing over at Steven. "Wow, so cool." Steven sighed, his mood quickly changing. "Not really, (y/n)...gems were killed here, even the ones that got out alive, they became corrupted." You look at Steven in worry. "Corrupted? How does that happen?"

"You know those freaky monsters we fight?" You nod listening to Steven. "Well, they used to be gems just like Garnet and Pearl and all the other gems we know, but I guess something happened...made them forget who they were." He sighs, hugging his knees. You reach over and place your hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. "That's awful...have you tried to fix them?" Steven looks up at you and shakes his head. "No...not even my mom could fix them..." You get your hand off his shoulder, looking at him curiously. "Who is your mom?" Steven perked up, his sad expression seemed to have faded. "My mom was called Rose Quartz, the leader of the crystal gems." You get stars in your eyes hearing that. "Wow, amazing." In your conversation, Lion suddenly made a full stop, causing the two of you to topple over on top of each other.

"Lion! What are you doing?! Don't you know we have to-" Steven stopped talking as he saw that Lion was staring at something. "What's wrong?" You get up and look in the direction Lion was looking in. You felt a familiar feeling of fear crawl up your back as you saw the strange being. It looked very familiar, A massive black wolf-like being with crimson eyes, long spikes on it's back and a red gem on it's forehead. "Steven...." You cower behind him as you stare at it. "It's ok, Lion will protect us." Steven patted your head as Lion lowered his body as the two of you jumped off, Lion roared loudly and ran towards the beast, the two wrestling as Steven stood in front of you, summoning his shield. "S-Steven...Is that a..." Steven nodded. "Yup, a corrupted gem." You shake as you hid behind Steven, feeling safe behind his shield and with Lion.

As Lion fought the gem monster, he got thrown to the side, his body crashing into a tree and the gem monster turned to glare at you and Steven, you were shaking as Steven raised his shield. "(Y/n), stay behind me!" He shouted as you were hiding behind him, the monster approaching the pair with slow footsteps. "Stay back!" Steven shouted as Steven tossed his shield like a frisbee, whacking the monster in the jaw only angering it further, snarling at the two of you with sharp teeth. "(y/n), run!" Steven looked at you as you started to back away. "Wh-what about you?" You were scared of getting hurt, but you were more concerned about Steven. "I'll be fine, just go!" You nod and scurry away, hiding behind a tree. You were starting to have flashbacks about how that same monster attacked you not too long ago, and how Jasper came in to save you, just as how Steven is protecting you now.

Steven came running over, grabbing your shoulder making you jump. "St-steven?" You ask looking up at him, his clothes were torn, some parts of his skin were broken, bleeding from his wounds. "Oh, Steven! What happened?!" You stood up, examining his wounds as he just smiled in response. "We had a pretty nasty fight, but don't worry, I won." He held the red gem in his hand and he placed it in a pink bubble, tapping it with his hand to make it vanish. "Where did it...?" You seemed a little confused about what just happened. "It's in the temple now. Now I gotta get these wounds off me or the gems or gonna have my head." He chuckles and you chuckle back as he whistled for Lion, Lion showed up beside Steven and crouched down for the two of you to climb on. "Take us to the fountain." Steven commanded as Lion roared another portal.

The next location was in a massive garden, roses blooming all around the bushes and trees. You look around in amazement, finding all of it so pretty. "What is this place?" You glance at Steven, who patted Lion on the back of the head, gesturing him to walk deeper into the garden. "This was my mom's garden, there's a magical fountain in here that can heal wounds." Your eyes brighten up, looking around until you ended up in front of a huge flowing fountain, at the top of the fountain was a statue of a woman who seemed to be crying out the magical water. "Is that your mom?" You ask as you stare at the beauty of the fountain and Steven slowly climbed off Lion. "Yeah, that's her." You glance at the statue when Steven suddenly jumped into the water. "Steven!" You ran over to catch him but as quickly as he jumped in, his head popped out of the water and he climbed out, not a single scratch on him, like the previous fight never even happened. "H-how did...?" You stammer, completely confused. "Oh, this fountain is made from my mom's healing tears. Your jaw drops in amazement, you pull up your sleeve to show a bruise on your left arm from the other day with an incident with you and peridot wrestling. You dip your arm in the magical water, swirling your hand around for a few seconds before pulling it out, the bruise vanishing before your eyes. "Wow...your mom sounds so cool."

"Yeah, far as I know, she was cool." Steven sighed and sat in the lap of a statue of the same woman. You smile and sit down beside him, relaxing in the lap of the statue. "So where is your mom?" Steven sighed, leaning over on his back, lifting his shirt to show a little pink gem that should be his belly button. "My mom gave up her physical form to have me, so I have her gem. Still, it would have been nice to know her." Steven sighs leaning back into the statue. You look at Steven, you knew just how he felt. Living in this world without a mother was hard, especially since the day you lost yours. "I know just how you feel..." You look up to the stars as Steven glanced up with you. "Steven?" You ask and Steven glanced in your direction. "Yes?" "Thanks for protecting me back there. You're like a brother to me, you know that right?" A blush came across your face and Steven's face lit up, pouncing you into a hug. "You're like a brother/sister to me too!" You smile and hug him back, Lion came up from behind you and nuzzled your hair, purring softly. You reach up to give Lion a pat on the snout. You had a family in the gems, and you had a brother in Steven.