Steven Universe Fanfic: So Close Yet So Far (Rubapphire Oneshot)

Trading Places

Ruby's face kissed the wooden floor of Steven's wooden cabin-like house while Sapphire gracefully floats down.
"Can you give me a warning next time before we unfuse?" Ruby asked. Sapphire gave her a light giggle in response.
"I'll take that as a no." Ruby groaned.
"Ah, well, at least I get to see your beautiful face," Ruby sighed. Sapphire smiled.
"So, uh, what do we do now on our fuse-day-off?" Ruby asked. Sapphire grinned mischievously.
"What're you thinking...?" Ruby asked skeptically.
"You'll see," Sapphire teased. Sapphire grabbed Ruby's hand and ran out the door in an instant. Of course, at this speed, Ruby couldn't catch up. So rather than running alongside her, she was levitating 5 centimeters off the ground from the immense pace.
"AHHH!!! SLOW DOWN!" Ruby shouted. Sapphire stopped near the boardwalk, letting go of Ruby's hand on accident, causing her to fly to the other side.
"WAAHHH!!!!!!" Ruby shouted, yet again having her face hit a wood platform.

As Sapphire covered her eye after seeing Ruby fall, she felt a large hand grip her arm. Sapphire gasped. She looked to Ruby for help, but Ruby was still a daze from the harsh landing. Sapphire struggled as much as she could to get away, but it was too late. The figure controlling the unnaturally large hand was none other than a Giant Cheeto Puff (Okay, it was Jasper... wait, isn't that the same thing? XD). Ruby, half conscious as she was, desperately tried to reach Sapphire. Due to being half knocked out from the fall, she kept banging into a lot of buildings and poles.
"Sap-Siphre..." Ruby slurred, falling onto the floor, unconscious.

A few hours later, Ruby woke up to the sound of familiar voices shouting her name.
"Hngh... wha?" She asked, sitting up.
"What happened?" Ruby asked, rubbing the back of her head.
"Oh, jeez. I- uh, Sapphire! How long have I been out?" Ruby shouted, jumping up off the couch in desperate need for an answer.
"We don't know... maybe... 2...3 hours?" Pearl guessed.
"Is Sapphire here with you?" Ruby asked.
"N-no..." Steven answered.
"We gotta find Sapphire!" Ruby shouted.
"B-" Steven was cut off.
"She's all alone, we need to find her!" She shouted.
"Calm down, Ruby. Where was the last place you saw her?" Pearl asked.
"I-uh... I don't know!" Ruby cried. There was a slight pause.
"Uh, Amethyst, can you stop crunching that bag of chips?" Ruby asked politely.
"They're not just chips, okay dude? These are deluxe nacho-cheese flavored Chaaps." Amethyst replied.
"Okay, sorry. Can you please stop chomping so hard on those Cheeto-Chaap things... wait a second!" Ruby exclaimed.
"What?! Do you remember something?" Steven asked excitedly.
"Jasper! She has Sapphire!" Ruby exclaimed again.
"But we don't know where Jasper would even be." Pearl pointed out. Everyone thought for a moment.
"What about... I got it!" Amethyst shouted.
"What?!" Ruby eagerly replied.
"Follow me!" Amethyst said, rushing out the door. Everyone followed right behind and ran as fast as they could. Amethyst led them to an alley.
"Shh... I remember walking down here to grab some grub and I thought I saw a weird cave."
"Why didn't you go and investigate it then?" Pearl asked.
"Two words. Na-chos," Amethyst replied.
"Amethyst, that's one word," Steven corrected.
"I said nachoS. Two nachos," Amethyst replied.
"That's not how you-... nevermind," Steven sighed, noticing that Amethyst didn't care.
The crystal gems inched their way cautiously to the unfamiliar cavern.
"Sapphire!" Ruby shouted, seeing her cotton-candy-haired lover in what felt like forever. Sapphire looked up, hearing her lover's voice.
"Ruby!" Sapphire exclaimed. She tried to run towards her, but the shackles kept her from moving. Almost immediately, large thumping sounds came towards them.
"Ruby, run," Sapphire warned.
"No, I'm not leaving you," Ruby said, determined to kick Jasper's rump (No swearing here... even though I so desperately want to.)
"I'm gonna beat the puff out of your Cheeto," Ruby threatened. Jasper was confused by that terminology but laughed at the gesture.
"You, beat me? Please! You can get knocked out from a small fall!" Jasper cackled.
"That's right. One on one," Ruby sneered. Jasper grabbed her by her neck.
"You listen here, runt. You can't beat me, and never will. Now let's just skip the chit chat and just get to the shattering, shall we?" Jasper grimaced. Jasper punched Ruby right in the face, oh-so-close to poofing her. As the others were about to go after her, Ruby stopped them.
"Guys, I-I can handle this. This is about me and her," Ruby growled.
As Jasper was about to punch her again, Ruby pleaded, "Wait!" Jasper stopped for a second.
"What? You want your last words?" Jasper cackled. Ruby gathered all the remaining energy she had. She glanced back at Sapphire who was sobbing on the floor for her.
"B-before you poof me... let her go. I-I'll take her place. You can torture me or do whatever you want with me. Just don't hurt her," Ruby pleaded. Jasper thought about that.
"You may be a filthy, cheating, runt, but you have really big balls to ask me that. Which is why I'll do that trade-off." Jasper paused.
"This'll be fun," Jasper cackled, ripping the chains out of the the stone walls that held Sapphire. She kicked Sapphire towards the others.
"Get out while I play with my new toy," Jasper barked.
"Before I make you 4 toys as well!" Jasper threatened. Amethyst and Pearl held Sapphire back as they started to leave, knowing they don't have the strength to beat her without Garnet. As they were exiting the cave, hearing cries of pain behind them, there was a rumbling sound. The gems turned back towards the cave, seeing it crumble. The force that Jasper had towards the chain was enough to make the cave collapse in on itself.
"Ruby!" Sapphire shouted, sprinting as fast as she could. Everyone ran towards the pile of boulders, trying to lift them off, desperately searching for their red friend. (I'm not racist XD). Groaning was heard under one rock. Hoping that it was Ruby, they immediately dug out the rocks. Jasper was barely un-poofed. Jasper held Ruby's gem before the cave crumbled and she was still in Jasper's palm. The Crystal Gems took Ruby out of the hands of Jasper and poofed and bubbled Jasper before more harm could be done.