Disclaimer: I don't own Steven Universe!

Title: It's All That Puma's Fault

Summary: (Human AU) Amethyst is nine when she falls into the Puma Pit at her local zoo. She's fifteen when she runs away from home. She's eighteen when she meets Rose Quartz. She's twenty five when Rose dies and leaves them Steven. It's been six months since Garnet and Pearl have seen her.

Pairings: Polygems-ish?

Warnings: The odd bit of cursing.

...

Amethyst is nine when it happens. Maybe ten.

She's running, past the zookeepers, past the elephants and crocodiles and other animals, away from her parents, when she rams a little too hard into someone's thigh and stumbles. The ground disappears from under her, then slams against her again with painful force.

She'd fallen into an exhibit.

Her leg was broken.

Amethyst is aware of a comforting presence by her side sometime after, a tongue idly cleaning her face. She shifts closer and discovers fur.

She doesn't know how long she's there, how much she does or doesn't scream and cry. Amethyst disconnects from herself for a bit, until finally there's a man in a stupid safari hat crouching down a few yards away, face shining with nervous sweat.

"It's okay, girl. She's safe with me. Just-"

A rumble shakes her. Amethyst cries out. The zookeeper's hand snatches back.

"Okay, okay. I won't take her from you. Miss, can you hear me? I'm going to have to ask you to keep calm. She's well-fed and shouldn't feel the need to attack, but struggling might be seen as a sign of a challenge..."

Amethyst can barely understand him. The form next to her is purring. She cracks open her eyes.

Looming above her is the grand visage of a puma, it's clear eyes fixed on the retreating zookeeper. There's something about the creature, as there is with all felines, that seems almost unnecessarily royal, important and calm, like the world belonged to them and they had been told as much. This cat was no different than any other she'd met in that regard, albeit much, much bigger.

Amethyst let out a wail. The puma made a rather disgruntled sound, and she fell silent.

At least, she did, until the paramedics arrived, her parents in tow. A momentary, morbid thought entered her mind. If it eats me, I won't have to go home with those people.

"Can you get it to let her go?" The paramedic asks the zookeeper. It sounds like the butt of a bad joke.

"We're afraid to use tranquilizers." He admitted. "We might hit the girl."

"Somehow, I doubt that." He snorted. "It's not like she's going anywhere."

Amethyst whimpered into the puma's pelt. She growled in a half-chiding, half-disappointed manner. Her side felt a chill as the cat got to her paws, head lowered.

Amethyst blacks out a bit from the pain as she falls back. When she comes to, she's being carried away by the other paramedic. His other arm is mangled and bleeding. There's a buzz in the crowd. Other children are crying.

They shot the puma.

Amethyst isn't delusional. She knows that puma didn't love her, or anything stupid like that.

She was a play toy. Something that smelled weird and squirmed and made noises. When the paramedics took her, they took away her property, and she snapped.

Still, that hadn't stopped her from getting puma tattoos. Full sleeves of them. Puma print, puma claws, cartoons puma, cats with speech bubbles meowing, "I'm a puma!" Amethyst has them all. She also kinda-sorta used her folk's money to get them.

Yes, she is living away from home. Thanks for noticing.

Amethyst realized early on that she wouldn't last very long in that house. That she'd be better off living amongst the trash bins on the streets. After all, it would only take her a few weeks to find herself an alley to haunt somewhere warmer than where she lived, and she could scrape a meager existence henceforth without the fear of freezing to death once the snow came.

She's eighteen. It's been three years. Amethyst is still sticking to that train of thought.

If there's any good to be had from The Zoo Incident, it's that cats love her. Amethyst hasn't had a feline spurn her in years. They bring her tidbits of food, in return for a warm body to sleep against at night. Little things, bits of garbage and wrappers, but she finds it hard to deny them.

Maybe she still feels guilty for the puma.

Amethyst has been approached before, of course, but never by someone who no shoes. And never have they bent down to talk to her like a person; her pretty white dress touched the muddy, wet spring streets without pause.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." She says. "But my friend was asking about you."

She's a scary person, as far as scary people are concerned. She's not muscular, per say, but she's big, with plenty of defined potential. She could probably drop-kick her. Should the need arise, Amethyst may find herself being lifted and bench pressed by a woman of such caliber.

She tries not to feel too intimidated. If every tall person terrified her, she'd never go more than two seconds before she was shaking in her boots. If anything, Amethyst could probably dart between her knees and make a run for it.

"Well, she can keep right on asking, 'cause it's not like that." She boldly said. There's a gay nightclub two doors down. She's living in an alleyway. Amethyst can do math.

She tilted her head to the side. "Like what?"

"Like... I dunno," shrugging, "like I'm the kinda girl who could make it in the sex biz. I've got too wimpy a spine for that shit."

She laughs once. It sounds like a bark. "I can assure you, it's nothing like that. She's ace."

"That don't mean anything." Amethyst eyed her warily. "She can still like sex if she's ace. If she's into that sorta thing."

"Ha!" She clapped her hands together. "Up on all that, are you? I was worried you'd have no idea. Garnet isn't against sex, per say, but she wouldn't go looking for a stranger's company, either. No need to be worried. I'm Rose."

"Hey!" The cat in her arms jerks out of her grip with a sniff, trailing over to rub against Rose's leg. Amethyst blinked at the sight owlishly. "Jasper hates strangers."

"Her name is Jasper? I like it." She picked the bulky orange cat up, squinting at the name on it's collar. "It says here her name is Pebbles."

"Jasper isn't mine. She comes and goes. 'Mere, kitty."

The kitty leapt out of her arms with a self-satisfied air, bumping her head against the woman's palm. "I'm Amethyst."

Rose giggles as the cat, obviously living a pampered life of leisure outside of her visits, fur clean and well-groomed, all but crawls into her dirty arms. "She likes you."

"Cats like me." She shrugged.

"Why Jasper?"

"I dunno. It seems stupid now. My parents... they told me her name was Jasper. I never got to meet her."

"Mother?"

"Sister. Older. Way older. They always said she was a bitch, and Pebbles here," she gently nuzzled the feline, chuckling when she meowed a complaint, "it just fit."

"Well, Amethyst, do you have a place to stay?" Rose gently bent down to keep on eye level. "My friend I mentioned earlier- Garnet? She plays in a band. She noticed you the other day. She worries about that kind of thing."

Jasper-Pebbles watched them with big, curious eyes.

"I don't need pity." She stated finally.

"This isn't pity." Rose said in reply. "This is common decency."

Amethyst knows you aren't supposed to go anywhere with a stranger, but it wasn't like Rose couldn't get away with murdering her in an alleyway any less than in her own home, so she goes.

Garnet is a big black woman with hips wide enough to use as a pillow each. Her partner and roommate, Pearl, is a scrawny woman of Native American descent. She wears headdresses- not from any sort of tradition thing, she was quick to say, as though she might have thought otherwise; she makes them for a living- with pearls all over them. She likes to clean places and people.

Amethyst, short and pudgy and distinctly of Haitian stock, feels like a dirty smudge as Pearl all but dunks her into a tub. That's probably because she hasn't had a bath in a couple of months. The tub looks like it's gonna keel over when she leaves it, the splotches of lighter skin on her chest and stomach (Vitiligo runs in her family line) glowing in the light.

They give her a bath, a meal, and a bed. If this were a cartoon, Amethyst is certain she'd owe them a life debt by now.

It all starts to go sour when Amethyst wakes up to a lump in her bed. No, not one of her's.

This wasn't the first occurrence, of course, but it'd be just her luck that one of them was allergic.

"Alright, buddy, whoever you are." Amethyst whips the covers back. Bright blue eyes blink and stare up at her, disgruntled. "S'time to go."

A quick peek at it's collar informs Amethyst it's name is Snowball, and a quick peek at it's fluffy white belly tells her it's a he.

"Listen, Snowball. Real talk. We gonna have to play this real cool, m'kay? No talking 'till I get you outside."

Snowball voiced a complaint at being picked up. Amethyst pressed a finger to his muzzle.

"Sssh, dude."

Snowball made another noise, this time much quieter. His eyes were stretched wide.

"Better."

Amethyst's plan is to drop the cat outside and wait until Pearl and Garnet wake up to warn them of any possible allergens, then get out of dodge. She can be a bit brash at times, but Amethyst isn't a monster; she won't leave them if there's even the slightest chance they might fall ill by her doing.

Snowball is limp in her arms, trusting in her completely, as they trek through the small apartment. He might have even attempted to groom her, had the situation been different. Amethyst is far from against kitty love.

Thankfully, or perhaps not so thankfully, Garnet is waiting for her in the kitchen, coffee mug in hand. Amethyst freezes, as one would, but she seems curious, not panicked, so she deems it as safe as it can be in a stranger's house with a stranger sitting a few feet away.

"I swear, this wasn't my idea." She blurts out. Snowball mewls. "I woke up with him next to me."

"Rose did say cats seemed to be attracted to you." She hummed nonchalantly. "I didn't think you'd bring the neighbors' into our home, however."

A second voice echoes through the modern dining room, and a smaller-built striped kitten skitters into the room, fur fluffed. Amethyst, from years of experience, deduces it wants to play.

"This is Whiskers." She said blandly.

Amethyst blanched. "Oh no."

"Is this such a normal occurrence for you that your only response is "oh no"?"

"Not in these numbers, no." She shrugged. Amethyst wonders how weird her tattoos must seem now with this revelation- that cats followed her every step. "Sorry 'bout this."

"S'okay. None of us are allergic." Garnet stood and sauntered over to the cupboards. "Let's get these two fed before we send 'em on home."

From that, one night became two, than three, than a year, and so on.

Author's Note: Where's the fun in life if I can't populate a fandom with more Human AUs? It's not like I'm finished with my OTHER human AU. But, still. Why not add more?

-Mandaree1