Chapter Text
"So, what now?" asked Lars.
"We can't go anywhere," said Steven. "Az would be mad at us for 'messing with the timeline.'"
"Are there any games around here?" Sadie asked. "This is your house, after all."
"I can check the closet?" asked Steven. "We shove stuff in and take stuff out all the time though, so I doubt it's going to be the same stuff that was there yesterday."
"It's worth a shot," said Lars. "Even playing a stupid card game is better than just sitting here waiting for something to happen."
Steven walked over to his closet. Despite the renovations to the house, the closet was still there. Or was it a new closet in the same place? Steven supposed it didn't really matter. He slid open the doors and winced, preparing for stuff to come tumbling out, but instead he found four well-organized shelves. The top one had books, the second, DVDs, the third, video games, and CDs on the fourth. "There's nothing here!" he called. "I mean unless you wanna play Knight Quest Five?"
"I'm not playing your stupid nerdy game." said Lars. "That sounds like a snooze-fest."
"I know we have to have at least a deck of cards somewhere..." Steven said. "I mean even Pearl likes them, so even if I don't anymore, we wouldn't have gotten rid of all of them."
"Do you know of anywhere else the games could be?" Sadie asked.
"Oh!" Steven raced to the couch. By now, Sadie and Lars had gotten off the warp pad and were standing near the couch. Steven flung a cushion off the couch and hit Sadie square in the face.
She laughed. "Are you challenging me to a pillow fight?" She grabbed a pillow and whacked Steven over the head with it. Steven giggled and hit her back. She stumbled onto Lars, who pushed her away from him.
"The gems are going to literally kill us if we break their fancy stuff," said Lars. "Besides, pillow fights are lame."
"You're lame," mumbled Steven, dejectedly putting down the pillow.
"Oh yeah? Well at least I didn't send us tumbling through time on a whim!"
"Lars," Sadie said chidingly.
"What? Am I not allowed to be mad about this whole thing? We wouldn't be in this stupid situation if it wasn't for him!" Lars pointed accusingly at Steven.
"We can fix this!" said Steven. "The gems will be back any minute- and- and- and they'll fix this! They have to... because.... because they're strong, and they can do anything and-" Steven shut his eyes tight, trying to stop the tears from flowing. "They'll save the day. They always do," he said quietly.
"Aw, Steven, we know you didn't want this to happen," Sadie said, kneeling down to give him a hug.
Steven pushed her away. "That doesn't make it not my fault! You're stuck here because of me! Az has to deal with us, Connie is losing time studying for 'finals,' everyone is scrambling to get us home and it's all my fault! I know! I just- I just wanna go home. I don't deserve your comfort. You wouldn't be stuck here if it wasn't for me."
Lars scoffed. "You can say that again." Sadie glared at him. "-I mean- you shouldn't blame yourself, you couldn't help it, it's- okay?"
"It's not ok!" Steven said. "What are the gems going to say when they can't find me? What are your parents going to think? There won't be anyone to work at the Big Donut tomorrow!"
"Steven," said Sadie. "The gems will fix it. Everything will be okay, we'll be back in a moment and no one will even know we were gone."
"I'm going to sit on the beach," Steven said. "You guys shouldn't be stuck with me."