An Unlikely Musician

Greg was in his own universe. Whenever he took the stage, he always lived what he sang, never once doubting that he was truly among the galaxies in the cosmos. His latest single, "Comet", had been a hit with his rather limited fanbase, and thus he would play it to close all of his shows. Today, it was a remote town on the State of Delmarva, the one and only Beach City, with one and only one attendant. He did not let this stop him though, and thus with the warm summer breeze behind him, lustrous skies above and the pure sands on the ground, he rocked on till he had finished his selection. He finally had a chance to take an actual look at his unitary audience, all the way back in the last row of seats he had hastily placed. A tall yet small, pale figure was clapping slowly at him, almost forcedly so. Regardless, he took to the mic one last time despite the sweat coming from the awkward situation:

"Thanks for coming everybody, I'm Mr. Universe. If you like what you just heard check out our merch table! My manager Marty can hook you up with CDs, and T-shirts- oh wait, he's not there. I guess I'm going over there now." Fat chance of her coming here though, he muttered as he went to said table, before noticing that the figure he saw was indeed coming. Her face looked confused but also stern, but most noticeable was the… pearl protruding from her forehead. Never in his tours, nor in his crazy youth years, and much less any musicians he met had he seen such a head decoration. It seems like it was embedded into her head, as if it were a part of her. Despite that, she was easy on the eyes since the rest of her just seemed to complement said pearl, with a soft peach short hair, light blue eyes, and a thin yet firm and balanced figure, though she could really do without the leg warmers and the frowning face. She then picked one of the CDs on their first small conversation:

"Space Train to the Cosmos?" she interrogated, with a slight smirk on her face.

"Yeah" Greg replied before singing its jingle "One-way ticket and I'm ready to ri~ide!".

"Well that's just silly" the Pearl Lady derided at him, placing a hand on her hip, "Humans have no way to return from space."

"Return?"

"Return… to Earth I mean."

It always leads to this, Greg thought to himself, and leaned back in his chair,

"I'm never coming back."

"But isn't this your home? How will you survive in the midst of outer space, or in another planetoid unfitting for biologic life?"

But never to this, Greg thought, confused by the logical yet misguided response from the Pearl Lady. He noticed that she took a closer look towards the CD she held, so in an attempt to recover the conversation, he took the initiative:

"Uhhh… you want that? You can have it."

"Huh?" She looked at him confused once again, but this time with some curiosity.

"Oh, and it comes with a free T-Shirt!" He added, proud of himself for rescuing a seemingly lost cause. He then pulled out a shirt about 2 sizes too large for her. He really should have expected a wider range today. "You'll probably need a smaller one… I've got an extra small in my van! Stay right there!"

Greg sprinted towards his van, and he was greeted with an… interesting scene. Marty was inside the van with a girl he had never seen before. Most notably, her hair was shaped like an onion, though he could not bother to recall which kind. She was dressed up in the usual rebel clothes of the time, spiky, black jacket and torn jeans. Barely a moment had passed when Marty started talking:

"Starchild! Meet Vidalia".

Oh, that kind of onion.

"Nice van. Really living the high life." She followed up dryly.

"So, how was the show?" Marty inquired.

"It was great!" Greg replied, not sure if he was giving the honest answer. "One person showed up… Oh! I've to give her this free t-… shirt."

Wait, where did the Mystery Lady go? She was here just a minute ago…

Greg had no time to attend to his thoughts as Marty raised his voice:

"Greg! You can't give stuff away for free! What about my 75 percent? 75 percent of nothing is nothing. Are YOU worth nothing?"

"No…"

"That's right. I'm gonna make us both rich, and as far as the saltwater saps know, we already are. So let's live it up before we hit the road, alright? Next stop, Empire City!"

No sooner had those words left his mouth, Marty went off to places unknown with Vidalia. Greg knew Marty well enough to know where he was going, and from past experience, hanging out with Marty at this hour was not really his favorite scenario.

"Y'know, I'll catch up with you later…"

Besides, she was still stuck on her mind. He promised a free t-shirt, and he was not a man of empty promises. Thus he began his search for the small pale lady.

Pearl bolted out of the show after realizing what was going on at that concert. This was her first extended interaction alone with a human in many years, and one of very few in well over 5,000 years. Despite living on Earth and protecting them for such a long time, Pearl never quite understood humans and she tried to limit any unnecessary interaction with them. Her natural curiosity prevented her from fully doing so though, remembering when she drew a map for an explorer a couple of centuries ago, or her involvement in the foundation of the nation they now stood on.

The same thing happened tonight with "Mr. Universe", though it was also some amount of pity towards the null audience he had attracted. Despite her connoisseurship of music, she found the songs to be actually somewhat tasteful, and her actual interaction with the man was peculiar… but nice. She could say the same about Mr. Universe himself.

Though why would she run away due to the prompt of a t-shirt was beyond even her.

Pearl had eventually made her way back to the temple, not risking any interaction with any human that could make her feel strange. As she was about to enter her room, a purple owl appeared. Amethyst has been playing around with shapeshifting once more it seems. She always cheery, but today her wide eyes, the fast movement of her wings and her raised eyebrows seemed to indicate something had happened. She latched onto her arm and began her report:

"Pearl! This long haired human was talking to me over by the fence!"

How had Mr. Universe followed her all the way back to the temple, she did not know. Had he traced her steps? Did he catch her running towards the temple?

"He spoke to you?"

"Well, he was a dude, yeah. How did you know anyways? Wait, that would explain why he was talking about someone very much like you!" She then turned her head completely, and noted "Look, there he is!"

She turned her sights towards the entrance of the grotto, noticing the familiar human who was appreciating their home before noticing their sights turned towards him.

"Yo."

Amethyst flew towards Universe, bumping her wings with Pearl's face in the act. Pearl was unnerved once she realized Amethyst was shapeshifting into her real form, startling the human. She proceeded to crawl around him while inspecting him, "It's YOU! I've never seen this one around here… Aww… I really like your hair!" She said as she nested under his unkempt hair before pulling up his shirt. Feeling some pity for the human once again, she snatched Amethyst before she could continue her intrusion, "Amethyst! Leave him be! Oh, I'm very sorry about this, ummm… Universe." Suddenly, the cave became illuminated by a light behind her. Garnet came through the Warp Pad, with two bubbled gems above her hands. Greg could not hold his awe.

"Woaah"

"Pearl, Amethyst, you're with a human". She was surprised by this turn of events, and judging by her stern voice it was not in a good way.

"He followed me over the fence!" Amethyst explained, apparently oblivious to Garnet's tone.

"What should we do?" Pearl wondered aloud.

"State your purpose." Garnet said. Her eyes were covered by her visor, but Pearl could feel the daggers towards the human from her stare. She was not prepared for what was to come though.

"Uhhh… I was kinda looking for… her." He stuttered looking at Pearl.

Wait what?

She could not comprehend why he would come looking for her, but her thoughts were interrupted by Amethyst's biggest, most idiotic grin she had delivered since they met her.

Oh my stars not now.

"Woah-oh-oahh, Pearl. What were you doing with a hu~man?" she teased without a sign of restraint on her voice. The blue on her cheeks now extended to most of her face as she started a battle she could NOT win, "I was… walking on the beach and then I saw him playing music on a stage and well…" Amethyst's grin was even more teasing, and Greg's follow-up did not exactly help:

"No one can ignore the Universe", he said as he slipped his hair and striked some sort of pose. Before her hole could possibly grow deeper, she attempted to switch plans:

"Garnet! Shouldn't humans stay at the other side of the fence as indicated?!"

Alas, Garnet could only smirk in anticipation. What a team.

"Why did you come looking for me, Mr. Universe?" Pearl tried to firmly inquire, doing her best to revert the cyan on her face.

"Oh, just call me Greg. I brought you this. It's the free t-shirt that came with the free CD!"

Oh… Right, she thought to herself as she received the gift. "Thank you," she said to him, quiet and somewhat nervous. Confused, her face blushed a light blue. The silence continued until a young voice broke the ice:

"Hey, play something music man!" she requested.

"Better make it good" Garnet followed as she summoned her gauntlets.

"Ah man, I'm working on this awesome new set, it's gonna kill at my next show! Next show… …Aw jeez, what time is it?

"Night… time?" Pearl guessed.

"Yeah, Marty's probably looking for me. We're supposed to hit the road… Big show in a big city… and I did not dropout of community college for nothing!"

…

"What?"

"Okay! I'll see you later!" Greg said as he began to run off. He stopped for a moment just turn around and add "Uh, I hope the stars will align for us to meet again!".

"But the location of the stars has no bearing of what may happen in the future!" Pearl retorted. Greg just giggled to himself, after which Amethyst waved "Bye, music man!" With that, Greg waved one last time and bolted away from the temple. Once he was out of sight, Amethyst could not keep her amazement at this turn of events quiet.

"Pearl, heh heh. I'd never believe what I just saw if I wasn't here. Music man really liked you!"

"Oh hush, Amethyst," Pearl huffed "don't say such absurd things".

Amethyst was still chuckling when she went back to the temple, while Garnet was laughing to herself while proceeding to hers. Well I'm glad that's over with, Pearl thought to herself before turning around and going to her room, when suddenly she heard a soft voice.

"It seems we are all surprised."

Recognizing the voice behind her as that of Rose Quartz, her liege, she turned around to the vision of her beauty... with an added teasing expression.

Here we go again.

"Rose! You heard all of that?! Why did you not come to help?"

"I'm sorry, but watching you interact and talk with a human without my help is something I haven't seen in decades, and I couldn't miss the chance."

Pearl sighed, as she understood that Rose would indeed prefer to not interfere in an admittedly rare occurrence.

"I'm genuinely impressed though, you actually sought out a human event."

"I was just being polite; he was playing to nobody."

"Oh, first time for everything it seems."

Speechless, Pearl blushed again. Noticing this, Rose continued:

"I believe it's wonderful, and he really seemed to like you. Hopefully the stars shall align for you two someday, I know I'll be looking forward to it."

"Th-That's not how it works…"

"True, but that shirt would look cute on you." Rose teased before going to her room, leaving Pearl alone to reflect on what just happened while having the deepest shade of blue on her face yet.

"Man, Greg, you really missed out. Vidalia's friends were wild and crazy. Glad this town wasn't a total waste."

Back at the road, Greg could not stop thinking about the Gems. He could not put his finger on it, but he knew this could be part of something far bigger than he ever imagined himself in, yet fame was right ahead of him. He decided to humor Marty by talking about them.

"I met some wild ladies too. They changed shape and appeared out of beams of light."

The conversation continued until the Marty decided to play something on the radio. He pressed the button to no response. He tried again till he got exasperated, and took it out on Greg:

"Hey, what's jammed in your tape deck? You been putting pennies in here, you weirdo? Play something for me, Star Child."

Seeing this as an opportunity to rehearse a bit his new song, Greg obediently strummed the guitar as he sang. Not two lines had he chanted when Marty interrupted:

"Snooore! You're gonna put people to sleep with that. Where's the schlock coming from?"

"I just can't stop thinking about the woman on the show."

Marty teased Greg, though unlike the gems his taunt seemed almost malicious.

"Oh here we go, how big was she?"

"Actually, she was not very big. Tall yes, but pretty small, with beautiful cyan eyes…"

"See? You're finally making sense! You could have multiple smaller women instead of just a Big one.

He missed the point as always, though interestingly she was indeed the first woman Greg had been impressed by that was not at least a foot taller than him.

"Ugh, Marty, women are people."

"Just follow my lead. I'm gonna get you everything you want"

For a moment, Greg thought about the gems. The small shapeshifter, energetic and very fun to be around, even if she could be overbearing. The tall lady of the beam of light, stoic but genuine, she looked funny when she grinned. And most importantly, the Pearl lady. Even when she was nervous or annoyed, she carried an air of grace and elegance around her. Probably even blunter than the… Garnet, they called her, she had a charm all of her own in her logic. He could not stop thinking about her cyan eyes, clear as a starlit sea… and the cutest blush he ever saw, pure and blue as the summer sky.

He had a chance of spending his time with these ladies. Probably many could have a chance at making it rich and famous, he was hardly the first one just this year. However, has anyone ever been friends with people he could only describe as magic? Has anyone had a close relationship with people who blushed blue? Has anyone in this world even had this new chance? To be with such a special woman and love her even for a minute?

"What if I want to go back?"

"WHAT?"

"What if I want to go back and be with her?"

Marty was probably not amused by this turn of events, seeing that he left the steering wheel to rant at Greg.

"No one cares about your feelings Greg! They're making you lose sight of what's really important!"

Of course, there is nothing quite as important as self-preservation, which Marty clearly lost sight of as the lights of a truck flashed before them.

"WATCH THE ROAD!"

Marty turned around and saw a giant trailer a few meters in front of them. Both of them could probably see their life flash before them as Marty swerved away from the road and almost into a nearby billboard. Greg was hugging his guitar tightly, recovering from what could have been his last moments, when he spoke up again:

"Why do you always decide what's important?"

"Because I'm your manager and you're just some spaced out kid. I'm taking you to the city, and you're gonna play, and you're gonna like it. Maybe you'll even make me some money for once."

Well, the gems it is then, Greg thought as a fuse long forgotten finally blew off.

"Get out of my van."

"Sit down, Greg"

"I said GET OUTTA MY VAN!"

He proceeded to force Marty out the door in a fit of anger. Marty tried to sway him into reconsidering, but it was too late. Greg was driving back towards Beach city.

"For a new life." he whispered to himself.

Pearl had been tending to the fountains in her room, still thinking about Rose's words and today's events. This was one of the most confusing days in her long existence, having interacted with human culture and attracting a human to her. He already knew how attraction worked, considering she had seen Rose's lovers throughout the eras. Never once had any human shown something remotely similar to that towards her.

She also knew from Rose's lovers that it was a pointless endeavor. Humans live such short lives after all, and desperately have a need to form part of something bigger. Rose would play with them, sometimes even develop some amount of affection, but eventually all relationships ended either with Rose getting tired or the human leaving due to one reason or another.

She concluded she shouldn't really bother with such trivialities, when suddenly there was a loud, repeated knock at the door. Pearl was very much surprised by this: they hadn't anyone knocking at that door since the fence was placed around the temple, and even before then it was mostly knocked for cases of an emergency. The gems simply enter their rooms, and so she was baffled as to what could be making that noise… until she heard his voice.

"Hey, are you in there? I can play for you now! I even revamped my awesome set!"

What is he doing here?! She had no idea what to do as Greg, despite being a human following her, did not annoy her. Maybe he led to a few awkward situations, but he was a very decent person. However, he was just a human and she was already sworn to Rose, even if she had made her preference clear. He had dreams on his short life, he had almost no time to accomplish them, and he was stuck taking interest on her.

"This one's for you, Mystery Woman!" She heard, interrupting her train of thought. At least I should humor him, she said to herself as he heard the strum of the guitar.

Do you believe in destiny? / Close your eyes and leave the rest to me.

The melody was good. The lyrics were pretty nice too.

Do you believe in fantasy? / I have to when it's right in front of me.

This was Pearl's fifth blush in one evening.

Oh, what are you doing here, / in the real world?

Pearl would have probably said something about defending the Earth, but she was almost enchanted by now.

What are you doing here? / So close I could touch you.

Her mind came back to the real world as she realized what was going on. She could not let this continue.

What are you doing here? / And what are you doing to me?

She opened the door and revealed herself to Greg, who was kneeling on the floor.

"Ah! You're wearing the… shirt." Rose's words had convinced her of trying it on. It fell all the way to her short leggings, but if Rose said it might look cute on her then she was not going to doubt it, and at the very least it was very comfortable. Her expression on the other hand, was not as comfortable. She had eyes closed halfway, and a firm frown. She cut directly to the chase:

"Could you just go away?"

"I'm sorry, did I-?" Greg staggered a bit.

"You're a good musician, and you're not bad for a human, but your life is short and insignificant, which you should waste on something else. Don't you have dreams you want to follow?"

"Well that's gonna be a problem." Greg bowed his head, his face invisible due to the shadow of his hair.

"… Why?"

And his eyes shined with unending determination; "You're my dream to follow!"

Pearl could only stare, awestruck at Greg. At that moment she could not find any words for what just happened, and she could not bring herself to try sending him away again.

So she just laughed with Greg, nervous but somewhat happy about what would the future would bring with him.

Author here, thanks for reading the first chapter of my first fanfiction! All constructive feedback is welcome, and I hope you enjoyed reading this adaptation of "Story for Steven". Most of the chapters of this fanfic will be original stories (or as original as you can make a shipfic AU nowadays), with adaptations of "We Need to Talk" and "Greg the Babysitter" in between. I hope you enjoy this wild ride with me!

Again, thanks for reading! Reviews highly appreciated.

-InazumaFrost

AN: Woah, I did not expect almost 100 visitors within less than 24 hours of posting this story. I don't know if this is normal or even below average for standards, but thanks!

Anyways, I guess I should make something clear: I will continue this story, I already have most of the stories I plan to tell with this AU set in semi-solid stone. However, it might take a while due to a variety of factors:

1. As many other authors, I have a pretty busy life outside this site, even if it is currently mostly dedicated to studying.

2. This specific chapter might have had this decent level of polish, but remember: most of the framework for it was established by the actual show writers since this is an adaptation of "Story for Steven". While I did have to get creative with it at some points, such as Greg's and Pearl's thoughts and reactions as well as some of the narration, the next chapters will have me, a novice fanfic writer, trying to create original stories that make sense, are in character, have a decent plot progression and have some character development. They will also need some believable dialogue, and I cannot just leave Rose, Garnet and Amethyst on the sidelines: they all play important roles at some points in the story.

Because of this, I will really need your feedback in the chapters to come: note any OoC (out of character) moments, awkward writing, or other problems in the story if you notice them. They will be really appreciated, and considered for future revisions and chapters. I really appreciate the comments that want more of the story, that really enjoyed this first chapter, but I will also need some feedback in future chapters to make sure this does not become a train-wreck with some shining chapters.

If you read all the way here, then thanks for taking your time, and I hope you will follow my story as it evolves in the future.

-InazumaFrost, StarBird Trash.