I don't own Steven Universe in anyway, shape, or form.

Chapter 2

"This is food?" Lapis said inspecting the donut in her hand.

"It's a kind of food," Amethyst replied shoving a donut into her mouth, "Try it!"

"Yeah come on Lapis, try it!" Steven said excitedly as he pulled a donut out of the bag in his hand.

The three of them stood outside of the Big Donut. Steven wanted to take Lapis out to show her around Beach City and since it was Amethysts turn to watch her, she came along too.

Lapis continued to stare at the ring shaped pastry for a moment before she brought it up to her mouth and took a small bite. She chewed it slowly before swallowing.

"Hmm, interesting," she said, "This isn't at all what I expected food to be like."

"What were you expecting?" Steven asked, taking a bite of his own donut.

"I'm not really sure. Something more… I don't know, bland, I guess?"

"Not all foods like this," Amethyst said eating another donut in one bite, "Some of it is pretty terrible."

"Maybe I'll just stick to food like this then," Lapis said as she took another bite.

"You haven't even gotten to the best part yet!" Amethyst said with a huge grin on her face.

"What's that?"

Amethyst motioned for Lapis to come closer. The taller gem leaned forward and Amethyst began to whisper something into her ear. Steven watched them while eating his donut, unable to hear what Amethyst was saying. He was very confused when he saw Lapis's face contort in disgust. She looked over at Steven then whispered something to Amethyst who nodded, still grinning.

"You know what," Lapis said standing back up, "Maybe I'll just leave the food to the humans."

"Eh, your loss," Amethyst said taking the donut from her hand and quickly devouring it.

Lapis turned away and looked back at the Big Donut. Through the window, she could see Lars watching her. As soon as she looked at him, Lars quickly turned away. He shot a quick glance back over at her then went into the back of the store, disappearing from sight.

"So, where to next Steven?" she asked turning back to him.

"Next is Funland!" Steven exclaimed.

"What's Funland?" Lapis asked.

"It's the little amusement park over there on the boardwalk," Steven said pointing.

"I see. And what's an amusement park?"

"Well, an amusement park… It's like, um…"

"Dude, it'll be easier to just show her," Amethyst said patting him on the shoulder as she started walking towards Funland.

"Amethyst wait up!" Steven called as he chased after her, then turned around and called out, "Lapis come on!"

"Coming!" she said and followed.

Within a minute or so, the three of them arrived in front of a large archway covered in neon lights with the word "Funland" written on it in big, light up letters.

"Here we are Lapis!" Steven declared, turning to face her with his arms outstretched, "Welcome to Funland!"

"I see," Lapis said looking up at the sign, then past Steven to and into the amusement park itself, "So what exactly does one do at Funland?"

"You have fun!"

"Right, I figured that much. I meant, how does one have fun here?"

"Oh, well, you ride on rides and you play games, and, you know, stuff like that."

"Interesting. I'm very excited to see what exactly these rides and games are," Lapis said as she took a step towards the entrance.

"Wait! We can't go in yet!" Steven cried out, stopping her, "We have wait for someone else to get here first!"

"Wait for someone?" Lapis said confusedly and turned to Amethyst, "Do you know who we're waiting for?"

Amethyst shrugged and grunted in a way that conveyed a feeling of 'I dunno'.

Lapis stared at her for a second before sighing and turned back to Steven.

"So, who are we waiting for then?"

"It's a surprise! But they should be here pretty soon, so we won't have to wait to long."

As if on cue, they could hear the sound of someone running towards them, accompanied by a voice calling out, "I'm here!"

Lapis turned to see a young girl about Stevens age coming towards them. She stared at her confusedly as she approached. Lapis had no idea who this girl was, and yet she was incredibly familiar.

"Sorry I'm late," she panted as she stopped near Steven.

"Don't worry about it, you're right on time," Amethyst said putting a hand on her shoulder.

She let out a small sigh of relief as she caught her breath and stood up straight, looked to Lapis, and extended a hand towards her.

"Hello Lapis," she said with a big smile, "I'm Connie. It's nice to meet you."

"Connie…" Lapis said slowly, as is it were a particularly complicated riddle she was trying to solve, "You seem familiar. Did we meet last time I was Earth?"

"Oh, um, well, kind of, I guess," Connie replied a little nervously, lowering her hand, "I was there at that, um, water tower you were building back then."

"You were?"

"Yeah," Connie said with a nod, "I didn't really… do much…. But I was there."

"Hmm… If you say so. I think I've heard Steven and the Gems mention you before. You're Stevens friend, right?"

Connie nodded.

"Well, if you're Stevens friend, then I'm sure we'll get along just fine."

Connie smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm sure we will too."

The group spent a few hours going around Funland, doing as Steven had suggested. Lapis didn't much take to the games that they played aside from the one where you shoot a stream of water at a target in order to fill up a balloon that she excelled at. The others accused her of using her powers to cheat at it, but Lapis steadfastly denied their claims. The rides, on the other hand, Lapis adored. While she enjoyed all of the rides, she found herself drawn to the roller coaster and insisted on riding it again and again. By the end of the day, she estimated that she had ridden it at least fifteen times. She had lost count somewhere around there but was having too much fun to care.

As things wound down, Steven and Connie went to go ride on the carousel while Lapis and Amethyst decided not to join them. Lapis felt it was the least thrilling of all the rides and didn't feel it needed to ridden again and Amethyst just didn't feel like it. The Gems sat on a nearby bench and watched the two children ride in slow circles on the backs of fake horses.

"This has been a really fun day," Lapis said after a moment.

"Yep. Sure has," Amethyst replied.

"A lot more fun then you could have on Homeworld," Lapis said with a small chuckle.

Amethyst gave a non-committal grunt and a shrug in response. Lapis looked at her for a moment, then up at the sky.

"Do you ever miss Homeworld?" she asked.

"Nope."

"What? How can you not miss it?" Lapis asked incredulously, turning to the smaller Gem.

"It's kinda hard to miss a place you've never been to."

"Never been… Wait. Were you made here, in a Kindergarten?"

The small smile that had been on Amethysts face went away as she let out a sigh and looked down.

"Yeah," she replied quietly, "It's not something I really like talking about."

"Oh. I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"Nah, it's… It's okay. It's not like you knew"

"I… I guess so. Although I probably would've figured it out on my own."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Homeworld has a pretty strict policy about what to do when off colors are made up there."

"Off colors?"

"Yeah, it's a term for Gems that don't come out right. Gems that have problems or defects. Gems that are just, you know, off."

Amethysts whole body tensed at that, fists clenched tight in her lap, shaking slightly.

"I didn't come out right? I… How was I supposed to be?"

"Well, you're a Quartz. Quartzes are made to be soldiers. They're supposed to be tall, broad shouldered, and muscular, like Jasper."

Amethyst was quiet for a long moment, the shaking in her fists growing more intense and beginning to move to the rest of her.

"So, I'm just a mistake then?" she said angrily, her voice soft and trembling, "Just a defective Gem that no one wants?"

Lapis was taken aback and unsure how to respond.

"No, that's… That's not what I was… I didn't mean to…" she stammered, before turning away, "I'm… I'm sorry."

Amethyst continued to look down and said nothing.

When Steven and Connie got off the ride, they could tell something was wrong, and figured that they probably shouldn't say anything. Connie figured that given the circumstances, she should head home and after quick call to her parents, she said her goodbyes and headed off.

The walk back to the temple was a bit uncomfortable as both Amethyst and Lapis remained silent the whole way over. When they got to the house, they found Pearl sitting on the couch reading a book. She looked up as they came in and smiled warmly at them.

"Hello everyone. Did you all have fun today?" she said cheerfully.

Amethyst walked through the room, ignoring Pearl as she went straight to the temple door and entered her room. Pearl watched her, then turned back to the other with a look of concern.

"Did something happen?"

"I'm not really sure," Steven said, "Amethyst wouldn't say anything and Lapis doesn't seem to want to talk either."

Pearl looked the blue Gem, who turned away when she did. Pearl let out a small sigh and shook her head.

"I see. Well, whatever it was, I'm sure Amethyst will be okay. She probably just needs some time to herself right now."

Lapis sat on the beach, staring at the stars above her. She didn't react to the sound of footsteps in the sand as Garnet walked over and sat next to her.

A few minutes after they had gotten back home, Garnet appeared via the warp pad. Pearl headed over to temple door when she did, saying that she needed to go do something in her room, but Lapis suspected she probably going to go talk to Amethyst. Her suspicions were compounded when, as Pearl walked by Garnet she stopped for a moment and whispered something to her. Garnet nodded and came out into the main room as Pearl entered the temple.

Steven, Garnet, and Lapis spent the next couple of hours watching something that Steven had called a 'movie' on the device he had called a 'tv'. After it was over, Steven went to bed and Lapis and Garnet headed outside.

"I'm pretty used to being the only quiet one," Garnet said after a few minutes, "It's a bit… odd sitting here like this with someone else not talking."

Lapis sighed and bowed her head forward.

"If something's wrong, you can talk to me. I'm pretty good at keeping secrets and giving advice."

Lapis remained silent.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine too. I won't try to force you to do anything you don't want to."

"I'm…I'm afraid that if I talk… I'm afraid that I'll… I'll say something that will… upset you," Lapis finally said after a long moment, "I already did that with Pearl last night and then again today with Amethyst."

Lapis sighed and shook her head.

"I… I can't say anything to anyone without making them hate me. It's easier if I just don't talk."

"I figured that's what was wrong," Garnet said, nodding.

"Maybe I should just leave," Lapis said, "Just go back into the ocean. I can't make anyone hate me if I'm there."

"That won't accomplish anything. You'd just be running away from your problems and that won't solve them, it'll just make them worse. You have to face them to fix them."

"But the things I said to Pearl and Amethyst… I… I can't…"

"I talked to Pearl earlier. The things you said to her were certainly bad, but there was no malice behind them. You weren't trying to hurt Pearl when you said those things. You were curious. You wanted to know something, so you asked about it. You had no idea what those words would do and when you saw, you apologized. Pearl knows all that. It hurt her for a bit, but she got over it, because she knows you didn't mean to hurt her. I don't know what you said to Amethyst, but I'm sure she knows to. And if not, then I'm sure Pearl explained that to her."

Lapis sighed again and looked down.

"There just so much I don't know though. Anytime I talk, I'm running the risk of saying something that'll hurt one of you. I mean, sure it's teaching me what I should and shouldn't say to each of you, but this being the way I learn those things? That… That shouldn't be the way I learn. You guys…. You guys need to tell me these things. Otherwise I'm just going to keep bringing these things up. I'm going to keep hurting you all."

Garnet was silent for a long moment before sighing and nodding her head.

"You're right," she said, "We do need to tell you things. You can't learn if we don't teach. I'll talk to the others, figure out when and how we should do it."

She looked over at Lapis and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You don't need to worry. Everything's going to be okay."

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