Note: This is before the series takes place, three years to be exact. Enjoy!

A Nagging Question

By TheOneAndOnly1993

BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!

"Team meeting!" Steven cried out. BANG!BANG! "Team meeting in MY bedroom!" BANG!BANG!BANG!

Pearl was the first to stand from her place on the couch. Well, she really shot up. With her hands over her ears. "Okay, Steven, we're going! But can you please stop that?!"

The round little boy smiled up at her with those big shiny eyes of his, wooden spoon in one hand and a pan in the other. "Okay!" he said with an innocence only he could pull off. The nine-year-old turned heel and waddled off towards the stairs that led to his bedroom. Pearl turned back to her fellow Gems, both still seated at the couch.

With a bored expression, Amethyst shrugged her wide shoulders and hopped to her feet. Garnet was the last to follow, as silent and stoic as ever.

When the Gems entered Steven's bedroom, they found the boy sitting on his giant lumpy mass of a bed, crisscrossed and a bright little smile on his face like always. "Come on guys, kick your shoes off and get comfy!"

Pearl gave a bow of her head, always making the subconscious effort to show Steven how one should behave. "Why thank you, Ste-

"You don't need to tell me twice!" Amethyst was the first on the bed, her shoes kicked off in mid-jump. Her landing rocked the entire bed, much to Steven's delight and Pearl's annoyance, as she was just about to sit down herself. "Ah!" the purple Gem sighed. "I needed to let these girls air out at some point this month." With that, Amethyst stretched out her legs, intentionally shoving her big, reeking feet in Pearl's face. She scrunched her nose up, and threw her head to the side to gag silently. Garnet effortlessly picked Amethyst up with one hand, and plopped her unto the far side of the bed. The chubby girl folded her thick arms and huffed.

"So what is this meeting about, Steven?" asked Garnet, now crisscrossed like the boy.

"Alright guys," he began, brows furrowed, "serious talk: this is a serious question, and I want you guys to totally answer me totally honest and totally truthful. Totally. You got me?"

"Totes," said Amethyst. "So spill it!"

Steven sighed heavily, eyes shut for a moment, before he brought his eyes back up to meet with Pearl's first. "It's about my mom." Her eyes softened a little at the mention of Rose Quartz, and even Amethyst's jubilant smile faded a tad. A brief silence allowed Steven to collect his thoughts before speaking. "I've been thinking a lot lately," he said, his nine-year-old voice nearly sapped of its boundless energy; Pearl at least still heard the same happy little boy in there, but only a bit. He continued: "And long story short, I started thinking about my lack of powers - "

"Steven, we told you," Pearl cut in, "we told you, they'll come to you naturally, and in time. It isn't something you can rush."

"Let Steven finish," Garnet said. Her voice indicated no hostilities, though Pearl still felt a bit ashamed for interrupting Steven. She nodded for him to continue.

"So I thought about my powers...or lack of them...and I started remembering all of the stories Dad and you guys tell me about my mom, like, all the time!" Now Steven was smiling as he said, "Like, how she was always caring and compassionate to everything around her, how a goddess like her fell in love with a guy like my dad, how great of a fighter she was and all of her different powers, all that junk! And so I was wondering..." Steven's smile was gone again, and now his eyes were away from the Gems, looking off to the side of the room where a pile of clothes lay. "And so I was wondering...if the opportunity arose to bring my mom back in exchange for me, and be totally honest here, would you guys do it?"

Pearl put a hand over her mouth, Amethyst looked to Steven with wide eyes; even Garnet had her lips slightly parted, and that was saying something. No one spoke.

And no one spoke.

And no one spoke.

Before either of them could speak (not that they had anything to say at the moment) Steven quickly added with a wave of his hands, "Now I know what I'm about to hear: 'Oh Steven, we would never do that to you, you're one of a kind...blah bleeh blooh blah.' That's why I made you guys promise to be honest with me, so there's no way of getting out of this!"

Steven's childish logic, combined with the gravity of this question that's been egging him for who knows how long, it was too much for Pearl to deal with. "Steven," she began with a nervous titter, "these are...dark questions. T-Too dark for a boy your age to be thinking about."

"Yeah, little buddy," added Amethyst. "Why would you even think something like this?"

Steven only glared at the two of them, and Pearl swore she saw the faintest hint of tears beading in the corners of his eyes. "Well, what is it?" he asked. "It's a yes or no question! They're the easiest kind, so why don't you answer?!" The boy's face glowered bright red, and both Amethyst and Pearl shared a look of unease and hurt. Amethyst especially, as she wanted to be anywhere else but here right now, talking about this of all things.

"No."

All eyes turned to Garnet. There she still sat, face still, and postured. "No," she repeated. "You are right, Steven. We miss Rose Quartz, and we're willing to do anything to bring her back. Almost everything. But trading your life for hers is...unthinkable, to put it gently. I would never live with myself, and I believe our friends here share the same sentiment." Both Amethyst and Pearl nodded slow. "And if we were to ever do something like that, Rose would never forgive us." She smiled faintly at the boy. "No, Steven. If something like that were to ever arise, it would be your choice, and yours alone."

"Really? Because I would!" Steven smiled proudly to himself, yet he was the only one.

Normally, the Gems would write this off as Steven being his usual heroic self. But this time, with this conversation, there was obviously something more. "And why would you do that, Steven?" Pearl asked, knowing she'd hate herself for asking.

Steven stared at the slender Gem like she had grown a set of antennas. "Why wouldn't I?" he asked, actually smiling. "My mom's the best! You guys always say so! Everyone loved her and junk and I...I can't even draw my weapon." The boy's gaze fell again.

Pearl opened her mouth to speak, to console the boy, but like always Amethyst was the first to jump headfirst into the fires, for once taking her "older sister" role with Steven to more mature level. "Steven, are you kidding me?" she asked, smiling weakly. "You add, like, super good vibes to this team! We just wouldn't be the Crystal Gems without you, even if you turned out to just be a mushy kid with a cold stone in his gut." Close enough. Pearl turned and gave her a look.

But her words didn't seem to make Steven feel any better; when lowered his head to sigh a bit, Garnet took this opportunity to whap the purple Gem upside the head. "Ow! Hey!" she hissed.

"Thanks, Am," said little Steven. "But you guys would be even better if my mom was back! It wouldn't even be a fair trade; you guys would lose me, and then gain my mom in return! It's a complete win for all of you!" His sad little smile just broke the Gems' hearts to pieces, in ways they really couldn't even humanly express.

"Steven?" Amethyst snapped. "Steven! Look at me, Steven! Look at my face!"

Startled, the boy stared wide-eyed at his adoptive sister. "I am! I'm looking!" he cried.

"Steven, I swear if you keep talking like this..." Amethyst breathed hard, and rose a hand clenched into a trembling fist, "...I'm gonna force myself to cry man. You don't want to see Amethyst cry."

"You really don't," added Garnet, lowering her friend's fist down slow.

"Steven," said Pearl, swallowing hard and inching close to place a hand on his knee, "it wouldn't be a 'win' for any of us. Powers or no, you've become such a big part of our lives that I, at least, can't imagine it without you."

Steven looked to Pearl, and actually smiled a little, apparently finding comfort and wisdom in her words. The slender Gem smiled back, and pat the boy's knee. But then the little boy looked away in thought, and his smile was whisked away as quickly as it came. "Wait," he said, "so you guys don't want my mom back?"

"Ugh, Steven!" Amethyst groaned into her hands.

"That isn't what Pearl was trying to say," Garnet explained; Steven looked to her with a quizzical look on his soft little face. "It's a tragedy that your mother is gone, and we would do anything to see her again. But as I've said, we wouldn't even think of trading your life and well-being for something so selfish. That isn't what your mother stood for, and that is what we, Amethyst aside, strive towards every mission."

"Hey!"

"What Pearl, and all of us, are trying to say," Garnet continued, "is that we became something...new...after losing your mother. Not in a bad way no. When you came into the picture, a tiny little thing swaddled in red, with a quartz gem as big as your stomach, we knew from that day onward that life would never be the same. But at the same time, Rose Quartz never left us. Not truly."

"She didn't?!" cried Steven. "Then where is she? Is she in your hair?"

Amethyst and Pearl snickered a bit, the former obviously the loudest of the two, and even Garnet had the humor to smile a bit. "No," she said. "But she did give us you; your her essence, her gem, and with that, a part of her will always be with us."

The round little boy looked down at his two feet, and smiled a little. He looked back to the red Gem and said, "Thanks, Garnet. I think I get it now." She only smiled and nodded in return.

It was up to Pearl to give Steven the affection he needed. "And what Garnet said is more true than you realize," she added, moving closer across the bed to place a hand on his shoulder. "From the day you were born, we became more than a team; we became a family, a unit. For nine years the three of us have watched you grow into a sweet and sensitive little boy." She placed a finger underneath Steven's chin and lifted, only so that their gazes met. "And even if you never get any powers - "

"Which is complete bunk!" Amethyst chimed in.

" - even if you don't," Pearl resumed, slow and bitterly, then gently again, "the person you've become is more than enough to make us proud."

Steven blushed. "D'aaw, you big Cookie Cat!" The boy wrapped his arms around Pearls' tiny waist, catching the Gem off guard at first but she relaxed quickly and returned the embrace.

"Hold up," Amethyst said, striding over on her knees. "I need to get in on this." In no time the stockiest of the Gems had her arms around Steven and Pearl, much to the suffering of Pearls' back. "Come on G! Join the fun!"

Garnet viewed the display with her common stoicism, not an emotion to be read. But eventually she did get up, walk around the bed, and weakly wrap her arms around the mass of Gems, all without uttering a word.

After a couple of seconds like this, Amethyst said, "'Kay, can we stop this now? It stopped being sweet and now it's just getting awkward."

My first foray into 'Steven Universe' fanfiction. How'd I do?