The Black Gem

30. Steven's Dream

Steven slowly wakes up and finds himself in the middle of a lush grassy field, facing a group of flowers.

Greg can be heard faintly calling Steven's name. "Steven? Steven? Steven."

Steven wakes up in reality, with tears pouring down his face. He touches his tears and is shocked to find himself crying. He looks up inside the back of Greg's van to see a TV, playing a movie of a UFO abducting a cow.

"You okay, bud? You fell asleep during the movie. I was gonna let you sleep, you looked so cute. But, then you started crying, and that was less cute." Greg says.

Steven sits up and wipes away the tears from his face.

"Haha, no, I'm fine. I dunno why I was crying. M-my dream wasn't really sad." Steven yawns and Greg checks his watch.

"Oh gee, look at the time, and my classy new watch. Let's get you home, bud." Greg says.

Greg beings Steven back home, and they walk toward the stairs to the house.

"Eh, you didn't miss much. Turns out they were abducting cows 'cause they needed milk for their cereal planet." Greg tells Steven.

Steven climbs up the stairs, abruptly stopping halfway up before turning around.

"Dad, before you go, can I ask you something?" Steven asks.

"Yeah, of course!" Greg replies.

"Did Mom ever talk to you about... Pink Diamond?"

 "There were some things your mom didn't like to talk about. I never pressed her for details." Greg sighs.

"Why not?" Steven asks.

Greg approaches Steven and sits down next to him on the stairs. "Rose and I talked about tons of important stuff. Music, comic books, getting sand between your toes, y'know, feelings. We both made a lot of mistakes when we were young. I thought disco was coming back, she started a war, I think she felt like she needed to confess everything to me, but I told her, "The past is the past. All that matters to me is who you are now." And who she was, was an incredible, loving being." Greg says.

Steven hugs his dad. "Night, Dad."

Greg hugs Steven back. "Night, Steven."

Steven gets dressed into his pajamas, climbs into bed, "It was just a dream..." He says and falls asleep, sighing. 

Steven wakes up inside his dream again, in the middle of the lush field with flowers from earlier. 

 "I'm here again... huh?" Steven looks around and sees a familiar Black figure to the side of him. "Y/n?" Steven asks.

"Hello Steven." Y/n says but his eyes are looking all around.

"What's going on where are we?" Steven asks. 

"I don't know Steven but I'm here with you. Our minds must still be connected from back when the Cluster happened." Y/n says.

"I guess we can look around. What is this place? What's... what is... woah..." Steven stops as he spots the dilapidated overgrown remains of a Palanquin on his left.

"What on Earth..." Y/n says.

Steven suddenly sits up in his bed.

""Huh?" Steven wipes his hand across his face, finding himself crying again, to his confusion.