≈~Heart Of The Crystal Gems Arc~≈ [STEVEN UNIVERSE] [ON HIATUS]

What's Your Problem? [ PART 3 ]

Still can't find good art... ;-;

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Steven peered through the glassy windows of his dad's car wash service.
"Doesn't look like she's here," he confirmed to Amethyst.
"Dead end, huh?" she answered.
"We've just gotta keep looking," Steven said determinedly, pounding his fist lightly into his other palm.

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS RUBY?

That was the flyer that Steven was tossing around to practically everyone in Beach City. After constructing a solid art design at Onion's house, Steven had walked around asking almost everyone near him if they had seen Ruby. Amethyst, as nice as the company was, wasn't helping. She had distractedly wasted his time by: buying bits, playing ring toss and riding the tea-cup ride at Funland. In the meantime, he had stuck the flyers to walls, conducted public speeches, had thrown them around and scanned for any sign of Ruby using the telescope at the lighthouse.

"She's not in here either," Steven sighed as he peered into Fish Stew Pizza. "This is where I'd go if I'm feeling down." Directing his eyes away from the widow, he crossed his arms and leaned against the store. "Pizza always cheers me up."
"So why don't we get some?" Amethyst suggested. Steven was tempted, but remembering Sapphire's sobbing face and the burden he now had to carry overrid everything else.
"But," Steven whined, voicing his thoughts, "we haven't found Ruby yet."
"Steven," Amethyst interrupted, concerned. 'It's cool how you wanna help Ruby, but-" she sighed, "what about you?"
Steven undecidedly scratched the back of his head.
"Come on," Amethyst urged. "Let's forget about Ruby for a moment and get some pizza!"
"I-I'm not hungry," Steven protested. With comical timing, his stomach gave into an impeccable growl. Steven gave up.
"Maybe I'm a little hungry?"

Steven stared disbelievingly at the pizza Kiki had placed in front of him.
"Here's your pizza, with literally all the toppings." Amethyst's eyes sparkled.
"Yeeesssss...." she whispered.
"Oh, and here," Kiki added, remembering something. She produced a pair of spoons and set them down on the tablecloth. "You're gonna need these."
"Thanks," Steven smiled.
"Yeah, thanks man," Amethyst repeated.
"You're welcome," Kiki said politely, but walked off staring. A phone rung in the distance.

Amethyst hefted the soggy pizza into her palm.
"So..." Amethyst began. She squeezed the pizza mess into a convincing taco. "Pink Diamond, huh?" Steven stared distractedly at the pizza.
"Yep," he said nonchalantly. Amethyst took and loud and squelchy bite of her food.
"Rose Quartz, eh?" she said, raising her eyebrow.
Steven took a reluctant bite of pizza using the spoon, giving nothing away. "M-hm."
Amethyst pressed the pizza lump to her lips thoughtfully. "So... all this time... we thought Rose was this rebel leader, but she just just..." Amethyst raised her eyebrows. "...rebelling against herself?"
"Apparently." Steven allowed a small knowing smile. Amethyst crossed her arms and leaned backwards on her seat.
"And the diamond that Rose supposedly shattered," Amethyst went on, "I mean, ugh, you've got it." She gestured to Steven's gem. "It's right there under your shirt." Steven lifted his shirt and sighed a heavy, conflicted sigh.
"Yeah."
"So, how you feelin'?"

There was a long pause. Steven rested his head on one of his palm, twiddled the spoon in the other.
"I feel... confused." He sighed again. "I-I thought I-I'd really finally got it, then mom didn't have everything figured out, though everyone put her way up on this pedestal." He looked up and stopped playing with his spoon. "But, now I guess she's royalty too?" Amethyst simply nodded, Steven didn't know whether she was paying attention.
"I'm relieved that she didn't shatter anyone," he continued, hefting out a chunk of pizza. "But... she lied to everyone." He stared at the lump in his hand as though it was too heavy to hold too.
"I mean, I'm not surprised," he went on wearily, "I knew she was a liar, this is just.." he shut his eyes, exhausted. The toppings decorating his food slid off onto the table. He felt tears well up in his eyes and he pushed them away angrily. "...so much."
"But like, aren't you mad?" Amethyst asked.
"Kind of?" Steven shrugged. He picked up a stray napkin. "I don't know..." He pushed the sodden toppings on top of the napkin and wrapped it up into a bundle.
"I can see how she was good, a-and bad, and bad and good, but I..." He faltered, lay his head in his hands. "I guess what really matters is right now is how hard Garnet took it-"
"-but what about you?!"

Amethyst slammed his palms onto the table with a thud.
"She's your mom." She slunk down a little. "You were always under all this pressure to be like her, but was she even like her?!" Steven blinked in a rapid succession of surprise. Amethyst stabbed the fork into the pizza. Amethyst scoffed.
"Was anyone even like her?!" she shouted. "She was supposed to be great, she was supposed to know everything..." She stuttered rapidly before she could go on. "She was supposed to make everything better!" She slid down in her chair. "It's not fair, we shouldn't have to deal with any of this." Steven stared.
"-we shouldn't have to fix any of this, we weren't around for her stupid war." She sighed. "This is everyone else's problem." Amethyst pressed her palm into her face.

"This doesn't have anything to do with me."

** end of pt. 3 **

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Edit: I've updated one or two photos on the previous sectors, please check them out!
I'm on a roll today! I liked how this was put together, I hope you like it, rubies! Imma post more junk down here...

I found this rlly sad ;-;

And lol.
Not much to say rn, expect cya next time!!!