Consequences

20 - The Room Knows

Steven woke up as he heard the warp pad activate. He sat up, too see the drooping figures of Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl standing on the blue, glassy teleportation pad.

Seeing the gems' sullen faces, Steven quirked his head to the side.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Upon seeing Steven, the Crystal Gems all immediately attempted to perk up. If they put on an act, then maybe Steven would brush the subject aside.

"Oh, nothing Steven!" Pearl lied.

"Yeah, we just were... fighting some corrupted gems by the barn!" Amethyst added on, with a nervous glance from Pearl. Steven crossed his arms, not buying into his mentors' lies.

"I thought you said you were talking to Peridot and Lapis about something important?" Steven deadpanned.

"Oh... we were..." Pearl said, not making eye contact. "While we were there though... some corrupted gems showed up!" Amethyst nodded, and Garnet just watched the two gems nervously from behind her glasses. She seemed to be the only one who didn't think Steven would actually believe them.

"Yeah! There was a lot of them! I think they were the ones who escaped the kindergarten!" Amethyst elaborated. Pearl nodded along.

"Yes," Pearl agreed. Those two were horrible liars.

Steven thought for a moment, eyeing the gems skeptically. Should he confront them, or play along? Which one would have more benefits?

Steven uncrossed his arms and forced a small smile.

"Okay," he said, a convincing amount of sincerity in his words. "I trust you guys."

The gems were relieved to think that Steven bought on, but seeing the gems so ready to lie to his face only made him angry. He kept his face calm, but on the inside, he was hurt.

"Yes, well... we'll be in our temple rooms if you need us." Pearl said. Garnet and the rest of the gems entered into their separate rooms through the temple door, leaving Steven sitting on his couch, staring at the door they disappeared into.

As soon as the gems turned their backs, Steven narrowed his eyes. His trust in his mother figures was wavering dangerously low.

He was going to find out what Garnet, Pearl, and Amethyst had discussed with Peridot and Lapis. But how...?

Then, staring at the Temple door, Steven came up with a brilliant idea.

He'd wait, though. He didn't want the gems realizing what he was going to do.

Only a few hours later, it was night. Pearl had made Steven dinner, and the boy had pretended to be cheerful as he ate and ranted about random things, Pearl nodded her head, contented to hear about his day, despite how boring it was.

But Steven saw it. They way Pearl would glance at Steven then look away sadly. The way she stumbled over her words when she talked of how great everything was going to be since things were back to normal. The way she wouldn't really meet Steven's eyes.

Yup. Pearl was definitely upset about something. Steven pretended not to notice.

Pretending. That was something Steven had really gotten used to doing, wasn't it? Steven pushed away the feeling of sadness that thinking of how he was also deceiving the Crystal Gems. But it was for a purpose.

He needed answers.

That's what had started this whole thing, wasn't it? Needing answers. No one being direct with Steven or telling him the truth.