The lights, quite bright compared to the dusky sky out beyond clear glass windows, pooled against the counters, covered in various candies marketed specifically to catch young eyes, and display cases filled with confections. She gazes at the different treats, carefully considering which she would purchase. All the while, the child in her arms babbles excitedly in her ear, pointing with animated gestures at a blueberry frosted donut.

Thin lips pull into a worried little frown. She heaves the boy a little higher in her grip.

"You know that's not good for you, Steven," She informs the toddler with a faint tut, cradling his body as if protecting him from the sinister evils of sugar.

He whines, as if he can understand what she's saying.

Normally, she wouldn't let him have something so lacking in nutrients or value of any kind, but she knew he was hungry after so long on the Boardwalk, returning home to cook was not an option, and he looked so excited she could not bear to tell him no.

A small exception would not hurt, she decides. Only a tiny piece.

She gives a faint, tired smile. The boy squirms slightly in her hold. She places a hand in soft, curly locks to calm him.

"One blueberry donut please"

The donut is immediately plucked from the display case, and wrapped in a powder blue napkin sporting the Big Donut logo.

Pearl delicately takes it from the employee with a polite thank you. As she's walking toward one of the tables, something stops her dead in her tracks,

"You have a lovely son, ma' am," An innocent statement; a compliment, though the implications have Pearl nearly blinking back tears.

The color drains from her face, as her body becomes ridgid. She wasn't his mother… He had a mother, and it wasn't Pearl. She could never replace Rose. She would never try to.

She whips back around, almost frantic to clear things up for the elderly woman.

"No, you see, I'm not his mother…"

The woman smiles, eyes soft, "Nonsense. Of course you are," Then she totters over to the counter, leaving a stunned Pearl clutching onto a young Steven.

Pearl sits across from her boy, now 16 years old. His hair is longer, and he's begun to grow the faintest bit of stubble on his cheeks, but he still smiles so brightly he could rival the sun, and his eyes had not changed in the slightest.

Her delicate fingers wrap around a plastic cup, cool with condensation from the raspberry smoothie sloshing within it. Steven has his own beverage, a caramel coffee, clutched in large hands that now easily eclipsed his caretaker's.

She remembers still, when he used to be small, and she'd read to him and cook for him and tuck him in at night.

She gazes up at him with blue eyes shining with mirth as he recalls his fifth birthday; and how determined the gems had been to give him a normal one.

They didn't understand the customs, Pearl least of all, but they tried anyway.

Pearl giggles faintly,

"Yes, well, Amethyst just had to swallow the cake".

"And Garnet nearly fried the clown" He chuckled.

Both burst into laughter, the gut splitting, tear jerking sort.

"Fun times," He shakes his head, tearing off a piece of blueberry donut; his tone considerably less light hearted, "I know you guys wanted to try to make things normal, for me. But it didn't really matter that it wasn't," He scratches the back of his head, a little abashed, but every word that came from his mouth was clearly genuine and honest and heart felt.

Pearl's eyes widen a little, and she pauses, attentive. She straightens, serious when she sees that kidding was over.

"Steven, you don't have to…" But he stops her mid sentence, with a little shake of his head.

"But I do," He smiles encouragingly, "I appreciate what you've done for me, Pearl. For always being there for me, and caring for me, and worrying about me even when I wished you wouldn't," He laughs faintly, looking at her with soft brown eyes that held the same kindness they always had.

She remembers, watching him as he slept to be certain he was still breathing, holding him close after a particularly bad nightmare, and kissing it all better after he had scraped his knee.

She realizes she's always been his mother (not by birth, but by choice). He's always been her son. Her sweet little boy.

"Of course," She says, because there was no question, "I love you"

That's what mothers do.