Universe Falls (Gravity Falls x Steven Universe)

Summary:

When Amethyst's gem is cracked, Steven takes it upon himself to uncover the secrets behind his mother's healing tears. Meanwhile, Dipper and Mabel accompany Garnet and Pearl on a mission to Rose's magical healing fountain.

There were few other spots in Gravity Falls that offered a view as spectacular as the top of the temple hill. That's exactly why the kids had picked it as the place for a scenic picnic. By the time Lion had hauled the four of them to peak, he was utterly exhausted, flopping down into the grass as the kids went about setting up their lunch. 

Or at least, most of them did. 

"Hurry up, Steven!" Connie called. Steven, however, stayed, languidly draped across Lion's back, not moving a muscle. 

"Yeah!" Mabel added as she pulled a handful of treats from the picnic basket. "You don't wanna miss out on the special cupcakes I made! Check it out; they even have all our faces on them!"

"Uh, Mabel?" Dipper spoke up. "I don't want to burst your bubble or anything, but the idea of eating something with any of our faces on it is… kind of creepy."

"I think you mean creepily adorable ," Mabel corrected, happily helping herself to one of the cupcakes. 

Meanwhile, Steven finally responded with a gloomy groan as he let himself slip off of Lion and onto the ground. Instead of partaking in the picnic, he lay where he was, making no effort to hide just how despondent he really was. 

"Oh no," Dipper said, concerned. "Not this again…"

"What's wrong with him?" Connie asked, taking a step closer to Steven.

"He's a… little upset because of what happened yester-" Dipper began to explain before Steven quickly cut him off.

"I'm fine!" He scrambled to his feet, forcing a wide, fake smile onto his face. 

"Really?" Mabel asked. "Because just earlier, you were talking about how you felt-"

"I-I feel great!" Steven tried to laugh as he took a seat alongside the others. "Really, I do. Just… great…"

None of the others were fooled as they shared a short, skeptical glance. "Are you sure you're ok?" Connie asked, already knowing the answer. Still, she handed him a sandwich, hoping that having something good to eat may help cheer him up, at least a little. 

"Yeah…" Steven muttered as he began nibbling on his sandwich. Whatever he was upset about, it was clear he had no interest in talking about. Which was why Connie hesitantly decided to change the subject. 

"So… um… Is this fence new?" she glanced over at the freshly-painted white fence surrounding the edge of the nearby cliff. 

"Uh, Connie?" Dipper whispered. "You might wanna avoid mentioning the fence. It's sort of a… sore subject."

"What? Why?"

"Ha! Yeah, the fence is new!" Mabel rushed in with an awkwardly loud laugh. "Now why don't we forget it's here and talk about something completely different? Like, we could talk about how… about… Oh! About how cute Lion is! Look at him over there, sleeping like a precious pink little baby!"

Despite this obvious attempt at lightening his mood, Steven wasn't so easily swayed. "It's new…" he let out a heavy sigh. "And how it got here is, uh, a long story."

"Steven, you don't have to tell it if you don't want to," Dipper said, shaking his head.

"Aw, but I wanted to tell Connie our side of what happened!" Mabel pouted as she crossed her arms.

"Wait, wait, wait," Connie cut in, confused. "What exactly happened? Is it a magical story?!"

"You bet it is!" Mabel exclaimed enthusiastically. "And it's an amazing one! Packed full of drama, action, and suspense!"

"Mabel!" Dipper scolded as he nodded over at Steven. 

"What? I'm just stating the facts."

"It's… sort of a magic story…" Steven hesitated, not fond of the idea of having to recount it.

By this point, however, Connie was beyond intrigued. "Will you guys tell it to me? Please?" 

"Sure!" Mabel readily agreed.

" Only if Steven's ok with it," Dipper said, finally slipping on a small smile. "Because to be honest, it is kind of an awesome story."

"Steven?" Connie asked, practically pleaded . And under so much scrutiny, especially from her, Steven was utterly helpless to the point that he couldn't help but give in. 

"Ok, ok," he heaved another relenting sigh. "It's not a happy story, but… here goes. It all started the other day when the three of us were hanging around up here with Amethyst…"

"Amethyst, be careful!" Steven anxiously warned. He had every reason to be worried too as Amethyst cheerfully skipped dangerously close to the cliff's edge, heedless of the deep drop below it. Whether she was simply fooling around or trying to impress the trio of kids who had come up to watch her, none of them knew. 

"Steven, why are you getting so worked up?" Amethyst chuckled. "Aw… Do you care about me or something?"

"Yes!" Steven whimpered, distressed.

"Oh, Steven, I didn't mean to make you—Whoa!" Amethyst gasped as she pretended to teeter backward, only to catch her balance just as quickly. "Ha! Made you guys look!"

"Um, Amethyst? Have you thought that maybe balancing on the edge of an incredibly high cliff isn't the… smartest idea?" Dipper apprehensively asked.

"Pfft," Amethyst scoffed. "You know who you sound like, Dipper? Like Pearl. And you know what Pearl does?" Her smirk widened as she shapeshifted into Pearl, perching atop her tiptoes on the cliff edge. "Well, you see, kids, I simply love to… nag, nag, nag, nag!" 

Since Dipper was far from amused with such teasing and Steven was still too wrapped up in his fear to let out a single chuckle, Mabel did that for the both of them. "Ha! You and Pearl do nag a lot, bro-bro!" she elbowed her annoyed brother. "You should try loosening up. And if you need some help, I'll show you how! Hey, Amethyst, make some room!"

"Sure thing," Amethyst shrugged, smirking "Join the party!"

While Mabel was more than ready to rush over to the cliff's edge, Dipper quickly stopped her before she could take even a single step. "Yeah, no. You're not doing this."

Mabel let out a loud, aggravated groan. "See? There you go again, being a big ol' nag!"

"I'm not nagging," Dipper protested. "I'm trying to keep you from going over the edge of a hundred-foot high cliff!" 

"Dipper's right!" Steven worriedly, adamantly agreed. "It's too dangerous for anyone, including you, Amethyst! If you keep it up, you're going to fall, and get hurt, and-"

"Steven, please," Amethyst cut him off from her spot on the very edge of the cliff. "I'm a Gem warrior, I'm not gonna fall-"

And then, she fell. 

The thin patch of dirt she was standing on crumbled out from underneath her, sending her plummeting down the cliff face. The kids' terrified screams echoed after her, but all Amethyst could do as she continued her descent was facepalm. "Ugh, this is so embarrassing!" 

From atop the cliff, the kids could only watch as Amethyst finally landed hard against a rock at the base of the temple. She didn't stop there either; after bouncing off the rock, she rolled down the hill toward the Mystery Shack, slamming into several trees and shrubs along the way. She only came to a stop when she hit the side of the shack, shouting a rough "I'm ok!" back up to the kids on the hill. 

Despite that, they still hurried down as fast as they could, just to make sure. When they finally, breathlessly arrived, they found Amethyst, surprisingly not much worse for wear aside from the twigs and leaves strewn through her messy hair. "Took you guys long enough," she said, casually leaning against the side of the shack. 

"Ok, how are you not seriously hurt from that?" Dipper asked, bewildered. "You fell off a cliff! I know guys are super-durable or whatever, but you can't be that durable."

"Uh, yeah we are," Amethyst grinned, brushing a bit of dirt off her shoulder. "We're like ROCKS."

"Literally!" Mabel chimed in.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Steven anxiously asked.

"Yes, Steven, I'm fine," Amethyst huffed, annoyed. "Well… except for this !" She pushed her hair aside to reveal her eye, much larger and more lazy than usual. As alarming as that was, the kids didn't get much of a chance to be shocked by it before Garnet and Pearl rushed onto the scene. 

"Amethyst!" Pearl winced at the sight of Amethyst's swollen eye. "Quick! Show me your gem!"

"Fresh!" Amethyst slapped her hand away. She wasn't able to stop Garnet, however, from pulling her top down a bit to fully show the gemstone on her chest. As well as the small, yet deep crack torn across its purple surface. 

Pearl let out a horrified gasp and even Garnet reeled her hand back in sudden alarm. "Amethyst! Your gem is cracked!"

"Rude!" Amethyst covered her gem up, flustered. She paused, however, catching her cool upon noticing the worried looks the kids were sending her way. "I-it's not a big deal! Plus, now I have this cool googly eye!"

Garnet and Pearl both knew exactly what Amethyst was doing. And given just how severe something like a cracked gem was, neither of them approved of it. But before they could accost her again, they were suddenly, sullenly interrupted. 

"Hey!" Stan snapped as he emerged from the shack and stormed over. "What's all the racket out here?! I'm trying to give a tour and all this yelling is distracting my paying customers!"

"Grunkle Stan, Amethyst cracked her gem!" Mabel reported. "I don't really know what that means, but it sounds super serious!"

"Amethyst cracked… wait, what now?" Stan asked, not following.

"Like I said, I'm fine," Amethyst insisted, crossing her arms. "It's just a little scratch."

"A little scratch?" Pearl repeated, appalled. "Amethyst, you should know how serious this is! How did this even happen?"

"She fell off the cliff," Steven said bluntly.

"And then she rolled down the hill, hitting every tree along the way," Dipper added.

"Did not!" Amethyst protested, pouting.

"The cliff… of course!" Pearl frowned up at the towering hill. "How could I have been so blind!? We need to put a fence up there, so this will never happen again!"

"I'm surprised you haven't already done that," Stan remarked dryly "That cliff is a lawsuit waiting to happen. You know… if you wanted a nice fence up there, I'd be more than willing to hire Soos out to build one for you… At the low cost of one hundred dollars an hour, of course."

Though Pearl was prepared to reject this idea, in the end, Garnet beat her to it as she stoically shook Stan's hand in agreement. "Deal."

"And that's how the fence got here," Steven hastily concluded, desperately hoping that Connie wouldn't press him for more details. "The end!"

"Wha—but… that's not how the story ended!" Mabel exclaimed. "There's so much more to it than that!"

"Yeah, what happened to Amethyst?" Connie asked.

Instead of giving anything in the way of an answer, Steven simply let out a long groan as he forced himself to look away from his friends. 

"You know you can't just leave it there, Steven," Dipper pointed out.

"C'mon! Tell me the rest!" Connie urged.

"Or at least let me and Dipper do it! Pretty please?" Mabel suggested, smiling. 

"Mmm, I don't wanna…" Steven muttered. Even still, it was clear to tell his resistance was on thin ice. Ice that only seemed to splinter even more when Connie continued to take a crack at it. 

"Steven?" she started, frowning when he still refused to meet her gaze. 

"Steven…" she tried again, this time with a pleading grin. 

"Steven!" she snapped impatiently. And in the end, that's finally what caused Steven to cave. 

"Okay, fine," he sighed, glancing over at the twins. "But only if you guys tell the sad parts for me."

"Steven, we weren't there for most of the sad parts," Dipper said. Mabel, on the other hand, was quick to jump in and agree.

"You got it! And we'll be sure to tell the high-stakes, adventurery parts too!"

"And one more thing," Steven turned back to Connie. "Let me try on your glasses?"

"Only if you give me the rest of your juice," Connie bartered.

"Okay, but it's mostly backwash."

"Good enough."

"Ew," Dipper cringed as the pair swapped items. At the same time, Mabel bounced up and down in her seat, beside herself with excitement over finishing their "epic' tale.

"How do I look?" Steven grinned as he tried the pink-tinted glasses on.

"…I have no idea," Connie squinted at the vague, colored blobs around her.

"Steven, you look great!" Mabel quickly assured. "Let's fi nally get back to the story already! So, all of us were really worried about Amethyst…"

"So what's the problem?" Steven asked after Stan and Garnet sealed their deal on the fence. "Amethyst falls off stuff all the time."

"It'd be fine if it was just her body, but her gem is damaged," Pearl explained.

"And that's… bad?" Dipper assumed.

"Yes," Garnet nodded, crossing her arms. "Very bad."

"Please," Stan scoffed, eyeing Amethyst's gemstone. "That little cut? Just pour some rubbing alcohol over it, slap some duct tape on it, and she'll be fine."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Amethyst shrugged, grinning. 

"Are you both insane ?!" Pearl hotly exclaimed. "This isn't just some little scrape on the knee! Amethyst's gem is cracked ! The very core of her being! You can't just use something like tape, of all things, to fix it!"

"So… how do we fix it?" Steven piped up.

Pearl quickly softened at this question, sighing sadly as she stole a glance back up toward the temple. "Well, before… we had Rose."

"Steven," Garnet knelt down to his level, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Your mother had healing tears that flowed from her gem. She felt real love for those around her, and she felt real sorrow when they were hurt. You have her gem now. I know that power is in you too."

"Whoa…" Mabel gasped as she looked at Steven, astonished. "Steven, if you really do have magical healing powers, that would be the coolest thing ever !"

"Yeah, it would!" Steven agreed, more than excited to try. "Amethyst, show me your Gem!"

"Yeah, alright," Amethyst pulled her top down to reveal the cracked stone.

"Oh boy, this oughta be good," Stan commented, smirking. 

Steven took in a deep breath, posing dramatically as he closed his eyes and tried to summon tears. "The power… to heal!" he whispered, desperately hoping that he bore the same magical tears that his mother had.

Except… 

Though he tried as hard as he could, his initial attempt didn't accomplish much of anything. Between his straining and his disappointingly dry eyes, the only thing Steven managed to work up was a sweat instead of any actual tears. "It's not working…" he heaved a tired, discouraged sigh. "I guess I'm just too tough to cry."

"Just yesterday you were crying about snakes," Pearl pointed out.

"They don't have any arms!" Steven whimpered fretfully.

"And weren't you crying just a while ago about the view from the top of the hill?" Dipper asked just as dryly.

"Maybe…" Steven hesitantly admitted. "I can't help it! Gravity Falls is just so beautiful!"

"Well, look on the bright side, kid," Stan placed a hand on his shoulder. "Considering how much of a sap you are, I'm sure you'll have tears pouring all over Amethyst's gem in no time. Wait… that came out wrong…"

"Amethyst might not have that much time to wait," Garnet shook her head. "We have no choice. We'll have to get some water from Rose's healing fountain."

"Healing fountain?" Dipper echoes, intrigued.

"Oh yes!" Pearl exclaimed. "Why didn't I think of that? The water from Rose's fountain can heal just as well as her tears could! We should go there right away!"

"Guys, I'm fine!" Amethyst waved her hand. "I'm not gonna get any wo-r-r-r-r-" The others watched on as her face suddenly twisted up, another result of her gem's damaged condition. When her face finally returned to normal, she continued speaking, only this time, her words were oddly backward. "Esrow. Ees? I dlot uoy! Ho, tiaw..."

"Yikes…" Stan cringed. None of the others, not even Amethyst, noticed the hint of genuine worry slipping across his face. 

"Neat!" Mabel chuckled. "I wanna learn how to talk backward too!"

"Oh no! This is getting more serious by the second!" Pearl exclaimed. "That's it! Amethyst, you have to stay here so you won't exacerbate your crack!"

"Wa, tahw? Tub I annaw emoc!" Amethyst protested, her speech still scrambled.

"No," Garnet insisted, somehow understanding her. "Amethyst, you need to stay."

"Oh, I could stay too and take care of her!" Steven suggested. "And who knows? Maybe I could finally get myself to cry and just heal her with my tears!"

"I'd say that's worth a try," Garnet offered him a small, encouraging smile.

"But it's such a long hike up to the temple…" Steven frowned as he looked up the path. "And Amethyst, you're in no condition to walk that far…"

"I dluoc od ti fi I detnaw ot," Amethyst crossly turned her nose up.

"You know, you're totally right, Steven!" Mabel said, catching onto where he was going with this. "If only there was someone who would selflessly open up his home to his injured friend while Garnet and Pearl go to get some fountain water for her…"

Stan had already noticed the puppy-dog eyes both Mabel and Steven were giving him, but even despite them teaming up on him, he wasn't so easily swayed. "Nope. No way. In case you kids didn't notice, this is a tourist trap, not a hospital. I have a business to run and chumps to swindle. I don't have time for any magical Gem nonsense today."

"Wow, Nats. Ecin ot wonk uoy erac tuoba em oot," Amethyst deadpanned, not even caring that he couldn't understand a word she was saying.

"Seriously, Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asked, eyeing him critically. "Would it really kill you to just let Steven and Amethyst hang out here for a few hours? What harm could it possibly cause?"

"I don't even think I have the energy to answer that question, kid," Stan pinched the bridge of his nose as he turned back to the Gems. "Besides, past experiences have taught me not to get too involved with you guys. It causes me too many migraines."

"Please, Mr. Pines!" Steven begged, grabbing onto the hem of his suit jacket. "We need you! Amethyst needs you! You gotta help her out, just this once! So, will you…? Please?"

Stan scowled down at Steven, stubbornly set in his decision. That is, until he happened to glance over at Amethyst. Despite wearing a glare just as sour as his own, there was just enough panic hidden in her eyes to start to break his resolve. It was only when those eyes met his, when her unbothered facade finally began to break into newfound fear that Stan realized he'd lost this battle before it even began. 

"Ok, fine!" he groaned, ignoring Steven's relieved cheer. "But only 'cause it's Amethyst. Don't think I ever do this for either of you two." He shot a disparaging glance at Garnet and Pearl.

"We wouldn't expect you to," Garnet deadpanned.

"And I'm tacking on another fifty bucks to that fence," Stan quickly added. "Consider that the… hospitality fee."

"Ugh, fine," Pearl rolled her eyes, annoyed. "Let's just go, Garnet. We don't have any time to waste!"

Before the pair could head out on their mission, they were suddenly stopped, this time by Dipper. "Um, hey, you guys? Well, I was just thinking…" anxiously trailed off. In truth, what he was about to present them with was an idea he'd been dwelling on for quite awhile now. And though he knew they'd almost definitely say no, he couldn't help but work up the nerve to ask all the same, hoping there was still some small chance they might agree to it. "M-maybe me and Mabel could go with you guys to the fountain. I mean, y-you guys probably don't need any help, but just in case you did-"

"We'd be more than up for it!" Mabel eagerly leapt in. "Please let us come, you guys! I've always wanted to go on a magical, action-packed Gem mission! It'll be so much fun !"

"Mabel…" Dipper groaned, embarrassed. He hadn't factored Mabel's often overwhelming enthusiasm into his plan; if there was anything that could turn the Gems off of the idea of bringing them along, it would be the notion that neither of them were serious about it. And if Mabel's behavior was any indication, then clearly they weren't.

"Oh, I don't know if that's such a good idea, kids…" Pearl put on something of a forced smile. "It's true that Rose's fountain isn't… explicitly dangerous… per say…"

"Then what's the problem?" Dipper asked. 

"Yeah, you guys should totally let Dipper and Mabel go with you!" Steven agreed, smiling at the twins. "Seriously, going on a Gem mission will change your lives! All of the action, magic… everything else, it's incredible!"

After hearing this, the pair exchanged a hopeful smile, though those hopes were nearly dashed by Pearl a moment later. "Dipper, Mabel, listen…" she began, treading as carefully as she could. "I… I really don't know how to say this, but… a Gem mission… Well, it might be a little too much for you…"

"What?" Mabel asked, mirroring Dipper's dismay perfectly. "No way!"

"Yeah, we can handle it!" Dipper added. "We found the light canons, didn't we? And we helped stop those light monsters!"

"Yes, but that was right here in Gravity Falls," Pearl pointed out. "Rose's fountain is far away, completely unfamiliar territory to the two of you. There's no telling what could happen. And… well, you're both only… human. Most Gem locales are dangerous enough for us, much less you. We just don't want to see either of you get hurt, right Garnet?"

"They can come."

"See? That's what I was—wait, w-what?!" Pearl stiffened, ignoring the twins' mutually awestruck gasp. 

"You said so yourself, Pearl: this isn't going to be a dangerous mission," Garnet reassured. "We're just going to Rose's fountain, taking a bit of water, and coming back. It's easy. Like they said, they can handle it."

"A-are you sure?" Pearl asked, frowning. Still, Garnet simply nodded, her stance as firm as it usually was.

"You really mean it, Garnet?" Mabel looked up at her with a huge smile. 

"I do," she nodded once more. "But only if your uncle is ok with it."

"Eh, what do I care?" Stan shrugged. "Go ahead and babysit the little knuckleheads for me for a few hours. I have a feeling I'll be doing plenty of babysitting of my own with these two," he pointed a thumb over at Steven and Amethyst. 

At the same time, Dipper and Mabel looked at each other, beaming with excitement over the adventure ahead of them. Garnet and Pearl gave them little time to celebrate, however, as they already began making their way back up to the temple." "Shake a leg, you two!" Pearl called. Garnet, on the other hand, slowed her pace a little to allow the kids to bid each other farewell.

"I'm so excited for you guys!" Steven threw his arms around the twins' shoulders. "You're gonna have such a great time! I wish I could go with you, but me and my potentially healing tears are needed here."

"Speaking of which…" Dipper paused, watching as Stan and Amethyst headed inside the shack. As soon as he was sure they were gone and Pearl and Garnet weren't watching, he pulled the journal out of his vest. "Here, Steven," he said, handing the book over to him. "When the Gems were talking about your mom's healing powers, I remembered reading about something that sounded just like that in the journal. So maybe you could use it to help you figure out how to get them working. You know, if crying doesn't work out."

"Whoa…" Steven said, stars in his eyes as he carefully held the mysterious tome. "Thanks, Dipper! With the journal's help, I'll be a magical healer in no time!"

"Yeah, well just don't try running off with it this time, ok?" Dipper said with a half-serious smile. "And… don't let Stan or Amethyst see it."

"Huh?" Steven raised an eyebrow. "I get Amethyst; you said you were still trying to figure out how to tell the Gems about it. But… why can't Mr. Pines see it?"

"'Cause Dipper's paranoid," Mabel piped up. 

"No, I'm not!" Dipper argued. "It's just… if Stan got ahold of that thing, who knows what he'd do with it? For all we know, he'd probably try to sell it to some random tourist in the gift shop for like, ten bucks or something."

"Eh, I think it'd go for at least 11," Mabel said thoughtfully. 

Dipper sighed, rolling his eyes before turning back to Steven. "Just… don't go showing it off, please? The less people know about it, the less I have to worry about losing it."

"Well… I don't want you to worry…" Steven ran his hand over the one on the journal's cover. Despite his misgivings about the book and its mysterious contents, if there was anyone he wanted to do right by, it was Dipper. Especially since he'd finally decided to trust him again after how he'd betrayed that trust by taking the journal before. "So… ok. I'll keep the journal safe–and secret. I promise."

"Thanks, Steven," Dipper offered him a warm, relieved smile. 

"Kid! You better get in here!" Stan called for Steven as he poked his head out of the shack. The second he did, Steven rushed to hide the journal out of sight behind his back. "Amethyst's shouting about how she wants you, I guess. It's kinda hard to tell since everything she says is backward now."

"I'll be there in just a second!" Steven shouted before turning back to the twins with a small, hopeful smile. "Well, I guess this is it. I hope you guys have a great time with Garnet and Pearl. And good luck finding the fountain!"

"Good luck to you too, Steven!" Mabel waved back to him as she and Dipper began hurrying off after the Gems. "I hope you can get yourself to cry! Oh, I mean—I hope your tears work! Er, um… I meant to say-"

"Ok, Mabel," Dipper cut her off, pulling her after him. After all, the last thing he wanted to do was keep the Gems waiting after so narrowly managing to convince them to let them come along. "I think he gets it."

"So the Gems really let you guys go with them on their mission?" Connie asked the twins, amazed.

"Yeah they did and it was awesome !" Mabel nodded, grinning from ear to ear.

"Well, it was awesome whenever we weren't fighting for our lives," Dipper added. 

"Oh come on, bro-bro, those were the best parts!" Mabel nudged her brother teasingly.

"It sure sounds a lot better than what happened at the shack…" Steven muttered mostly to himself.

"Wait, but I thought Pearl and Garnet said going to the fountain wasn't going to be dangerous," Connie frowned.

"That's what they thought," Dipper said as he continued the tale. "What the Gems didn't know, and what me and Mabel didn't know, was that this mission was going to be a lot more dangerous than we could have imagined…"

"Wait, so we actually get to use the warp pad?" Dipper asked, awestruck. Garnet and Pearl had already stepped up onto pad, neither of them understanding exactly what was so novel about it.

"Yes…" Pearl raised a confused eyebrow.

"Like, the warp pad?" Dipper pressed again.

Both Gems nodded, even as Mabel let out an elated squeal. "Oh my gosh! Is the fountain in another dimension?! Is that dimension full of all sorts of magical Gem stuff?! Can we take pictures?"

"The fountain isn't in another dimension," Pearl explained. "It's here on Earth, just like all of the places we warp too. It's just too far away for us to simply walk there."

"Ok, but how does it work?" Dipper eyed the pad curiously. "Is it like, magic or teleportation or-"

"Step up here and find out," Garnet said with a small, amused smile. Mabel was the first to run towards the pad, grabbing Dipper's arm and pulling him after her.

"Is everybody ready?" Pearl asked. Even she couldn't help but smile when she noticed just how adorably dazzled the twins truly were. She usually wasn't much on must humans, but… perhaps she could make an exception for the two of them. Just this once. 

With that thought in mind, Pearl clapped her hands, allowing herself to share just a bit of their excitement. "Then keep your arms and legs inside the warp stream and… here we go!"

Dipper and Mabel gasped in equal wonder as the world lit up around them and the Gems. Without warning, the ground vanished from under their feet, the temple doing the same as a sparkling blue glow surrounded them on all sides. While Garnet and Pearl hovered gracefully, the twins floated much more clumsily, or at least Dipper did. Mabel laughed as she let herself float a little bit higher, performing a free flip in midair for fun.

"Mabel, please be careful!" Pearl quickly pulled the girl back down to their level. "If you keep fooling around like that, you could easily fall out of the stream!"

"What's out there anyway?" Dipper asked, straining to see what little he could from beyond the pillar of light. 

"A whole lot of nothing," Garnet said simply, adjusting her shades. 

No more than a few seconds later, the group arrived at their intended destination, landing squarely on another warp pad as the light cleared to reveal their surroundings. "And here we are!" Pearl announced. "Rose's personal garden!"

"Whoa…" the twins muttered in awed unison as they surveyed the area. Despite its name, the place looked like anything but a garden. Instead of being lush and thriving, the local vegetation was choked with thistles and brambles, which congregated to a massive cluster of plants not too far away from the warp pad. Overall, the garden had a forlorn, lonely atmosphere to it, as though it had been abandoned and untouched for years on end. Which, considering Rose's absence, it probably had.

Pearl hardly seemed to notice this at first as she and Garnet stepped off the warp pad, with the twins following not too far behind. "Oh, I remember how much Rose used to love this place…" she said with a nostalgic smile. "And of course, at the center of the garden is Rose's fountain, overflowing with her healing, lacrimal essence!"

"I don't see it," Garnet pointed out as she glanced around.

"Wha-" Pearl started, alarmed, as she noticed the collection of tightly-knit brambles claiming most of the garden. "H-how did this happen?!"

"So is the fountain in the middle of all those giant thorns?" Mabel asked.

"Probably," Garnet said. Despite her relative calm, Pearl didn't come anywhere close to sharing it as she quickly collapsed into rising panic. 

"N-now, now!" she exclaimed, clinging tightly onto Garnet's arm. "Let's keep it together! Our memories of Rose can't be tainted by some overgrown brambles! Look at them," she scowled down at the imposing vines. "They're a mess without her guidance! Directionless, pathetic, clinging things. It's going to be ok, Garnet!"

Garnet simply shrugged, clearly not as concerned about their predicament as Pearl was. "Sure."

"Y-you really think so?" Pearl asked, her anxiety getting the better of her. "Well, then, let's find a path! It's what Rose would have wanted us to do, after all!"

"Is Pearl… ok?" Dipper asked Garnet, concerned. 

"Pearl gets a little… emotional about anything concerning Rose Quartz…" Garnet watched as Pearl tore her spear through a handful of vines in a violent, almost unhinged sort of rage. "But she'll be fine."

"Healing tears… go!" Steven stood over Amethyst as he tried his best to force tears to come. She let out a bored sigh as she lay sprawled on the shack's couch, still not too worried about her current condition as she watched Steven's earnest efforts. 

"Nod't ecrof ti, nam! Uoy'll teg a pmarc ro gnihtemos," Amethyst commented with an amused smirk.

"I don't know what you said, but don't worry," Steven assured. "All I need to do is tear up a little, and your gem will be as good as new. Then, Garnet and Pearl will come back and see that I saved the day! It'll be awesome!"

"Revetahw uoy yas, Rm. Cigam-Relaeh," Amethyst rolled her eyes.

"Yo, dude, how's it going?" Soos asked as he entered the den alongside Stan and Wendy. "Are your magical fairy tears working yet?"

"No… not yet…" Steven frowned. "And they're not fairy tears. Just Gem tears."

"Oh, well that's what Mr. Pines called them," Soos shrugged.

"That's 'cause they're something out of a fairytale," Stan crossed his arms. "You're wasting your time, kid. There's no such thing as 'healing tears', or whatever it is."

 "Yes, there is!" Steven protested devoutly. "My mom had them!"

"Listen, kid," Stan began, leaning against the couch. "Back when she was around, me and your mom were never on good terms, but I've known her and the Gems for years, and for all that time, I never heard anything about healing tears."

"But Mr. Pines, don't you usually just argue with the Gems all the time?" Soos pointed out.

"That's not the point," Stan shook his head as he looked back to Steven. "The point is it's all a huge sham that Garnet and Pearl told you just to make you feel better. Like how I ate all the cookies Mabel made the other day and I told her I would buy her the stuff to make more even though I'm not gonna. Or when I told Dipper that he won't have such a bad time during puberty when he'll probably hate every awkward second of it."

"Pfft, don't listen to Stan," Wendy scoffed, hands on her hips. "He's just salty because he had to close the shack early since you guys are here."

"That's not why I closed it!" Stan argued, suddenly flustered. "Business was slow today anyway and, uh… I wanted to clean the register tills out! Yeah…"

Wendy rolled her eyes before turning back to Steven with a genuinely encouraging smile. "Well, even if he doesn't think so, I think you can do this, Steven."

"Me too, dude!" Soos wholeheartedly agreed.

"Og Maet Nevets! Ma I thgir?" Amethyst cheered jokingly.

"Thanks, you guys," Steven said with a bashful blush. "Now if I could just make myself cry…"

"Now that you mention it, that's such a weird way to heal someone," Stan noted. "I mean, who actually cries when someone else gets hurt? If Rose had been smart, she would have just bottled up her pansy tears and sold them to gullible saps like some sort of miracle elixir." He paused immediately after he said this, his eyes growing wide in sudden realization. "You know what? I'll be right back. I'm gonna go get some bottles in case this actually works out…"

As Stan took his leave, Soos and Wendy joined Steven near the couch so they could get a better look at Amethyst's damaged gemstone for themselves. 

"Yikes…" Wendy frowned at the sight of the sizable crack. "That does not look good. Does it hurt or anything?" 

"He, ton yllaer. Ti tsuj selgnit a elttil. Sselnu I evom a elohw tol, neht ti... adnik struh. A elttil," Amethyst explained in her scrambled language.

"Uh… I'll take that as a no?" Wendy shrugged, confused. 

"So like, is there a time limit on how long it takes until the whole thing breaks or…?" Soos trailed off awkwardly, not sure how to finish the question.

"I don't think so…" Steven said. "But Garnet and Pearl made it seem like it would be a big deal if it got any worse…"

"Ho, tahw od yeht wonk?" Amethyst sneered. No more than a second later, she let out a sudden squeal as she grabbed onto Steven's sleeve, tugging on it excitedly. "Nevets! Nevets!" 

"Um… are you trying to say my name?"

Amethyst nodded vigorously as she delved into her plan with as much clarity as she could. Which really wasn't much clarity at all thanks to her backward speech. "Fi ruoy ydob nac't yrc no sti nwo, uoy'ev attog ekam ti!" she exclaimed, only to get blank stares from the group gathered around her. So instead, Amethyst resorted to a different method of communication. Bizarrely, she slapped her own face, ignoring the pain as she dragged her finger down her cheek to pretend she was crying.

"Oh, is this charades?" Soos asked, grinning. "Hm… ok… first word. Uh… funeral?"

"That's… probably not what she was aiming for, Soos," Wendy shook her head. "At least, I hope it wasn't…"

"Wait!" Steven gasped in realization. "I get it! Pain! Pain can make one cry."

Amethyst nodded once more, a proud grin on her face. At the same time, Steven glanced around the den, his brow knitted in tight focus. "Let's see… where is pain…?"

"Whoa, dude, you're not actually going to force yourself to cry by hurting yourself, are you?" Wendy asked, concerned.

"I'll be worth it if it can help save Amethyst," Steven said as he hurried to the kitchen. "And I'm not going to do anything too bad. Just enough to bring the tears on. Hey, Soos, do you mind reaching up on this shelf and grabbing a plate for me so I can break it and step on the glass?"

"Sure thing, dude," Soos quickly agreed.Wendy, on the other hand, was quick to step in. 

"Ooookay there," she rushed to the kitchen to stand between Steven and the plate cabinet. "Maybe we should come up with another idea. Preferably one that involves less glass."

"What was that?" Soos asked as he handed Steven another plate that had been sitting on the table instead. "We're doing something else?"

"You, guys, wait-" Wendy tried to stop them, but she was ultimately too late as Steven happily slammed the plate onto the floor. Amidst the shower of broken glass, he stumbled back on a knee-jerk reaction, accidentally bumping into the dish cabinet behind him. Amethyst darted straight up from her spot on the couch, letting out a gasp as she noticed the plates begin to wobble, ready to come crashing down right on top of Steven. Completely forgetting about her damaged gem, she leapt off the couch, ramming into him and knocking him out of the way just as several plates fell off the shelf and shattered on the floor.

Despite the mess now strewn across the kitchen, Wendy breathed a sigh of relief. "That was too close…" 

"Are you dudes ok?" Soos asked Steven and Amethyst. 

"I'm fine!" Steven replied as Amethyst slowly slid off him to lie on the floor. "And Amethyst is-" He gasped in shock as he noticed that, in the chaos of her rescue, her gem's crack had worsened, cleaving into its damaged surface even further. "Oh man! You fell right on your gem!"

"N-nod't yrrow ro gnihtyna… M'i-i doog," Amethyst groaned with a weak smile and a small cough. That smile quickly slipped when her entire body suddenly glitched out–literally. To the shock of everyone watching, her head and her right foot swapped places in a flash. As bewildering as that was, Amethyst simply let out a frustrated growl when her attempts to shapeshift herself back to normal proved futile thanks to her cracked gem. 

"Dude, that would be freaky awesome if it wasn't so sad," Soos said with a sympathetic frown.

"What is going on in here?!" Stan stepped into the kitchen with a scowl. His aggravation swiftly switched into anger when he noticed the mess of broken glass scattered all over the floor. "And what happened to my plates?!"

"Uh… we were trying to get me to cry by making me feel pain and, well—it's a long story…" Steven frowned as he gently helped Amethyst sit upright. 

"Somehow I knew something like this would happen," Stan sighed, rubbing his temples. He flinched, however, when he noticed the dire condition Amethyst appeared to be in. "Sheesh, Amethyst, you're looking worse than usual."

"On esrow naht uoy, Nats," Amethyst deadpanned tiredly. 

"Quick, everyone! Help me get her back onto the couch!" Steven urged. Soos, Wendy, and even Stan joined in on hoisting Amethyst back over to the safety of the couch, where she languidly lay, not wanting to injure herself any further than she already had. "Now don't move, Amethyst," Steven ordered. He bit the inside of his cheek, knowing that he was running out of options. Fortunately, he still had something on his side that might just be able to offer him some help against his diminishing hope. "Can you guys watch her for a minute?" he asked the others.

"Why? Where are you going?" Wendy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I… I-uh…" Steven hesitated, remembering the promise he had made to Dipper. A promise he had no intentions of breaking, even despite the severe circumstances. "I'm just gonna run to the bathroom and see if splashing hot water in my eyes will make me cry!" he lied, already running up the steps. "Be back in a second!"

Stan shook his head, incredulous, as he watched Steven leave. "I'll never understand that kid."

Dipper and Mabel made sure to follow Garnet and Pearl closely–but not too closely–as they tried cutting a path through the bramble-filled garden. It wasn't unusual for Pearl to slip into bouts of dramatic despair or frustration over the state of the garden, fiercely swinging her spear at any unwanted plant in their path. Meanwhile, Garnet charged ahead, as calm and mindful of their mission as ever. Her steadfast attitude was what Dipper was trying his best to emulate, to show just how responsible and dependable he could be. 

Unfortunately, his sister didn't seem so keen on doing the same. 

Instead, Mabel had taken to wandering around, collecting stray flowers while blithely, cheerfully humming to herself all the while. As distracted as they were with finding the fountain, Garnet and Pearl hadn't noticed yet, but Dipper certainly had. And for the sake of making sure their first mission with the Gems wouldn't be their last, he knew it was up to him to put a stop to it. 

"Mabel," he whispered harshly, grabbing her arm before she could reach for another flower. "What are you doing?"

"Picking a few flowers to bring back as a souvenir of our very first super cool Gem mission, duh!" Mabel grinned as she tucked one of her flowers behind her brother's ear. Dipper wasted no time pulling it out and tossing it away. 

"Can you please try to focus instead?" he pressed, aggravated. "We're lucky to even be on this mission at all. Which is why we need to prove to Garnet and Pearl that we can actually help and that we're not just tagging along like this is some sort of field trip."

"I get what you're sayin', bro-bro," Mabel winked. "We gotta kick it into overdrive !"

"Um, maybe let's not do that," Dipper shook his head.

"What? But you just said-"

"I know what I said. But if we ever want the Gems to take either of us seriously, then we have to take this seriously. And… well, uh…" Dipper glanced away, rubbing the back of his neck. "You can sometimes get kind of… over excited, Mabel…"

Mabel let out an appalled, scandalized gasp. "Dipper! I can't believe you'd even accuse me of something like that! Who do you know that's more serious than I am?"

"Literally everyone," Dipper bluntly retorted.

"Well, I take offense to that!" Mabel turned her nose up at him. "I mean, come on, if I wasn't serious, then would I have brought this along?" She reached into her sweater, proudly brandishing the grappling hook Stan had given her. 

" Why in the world did you bring that?" Dipper groaned, facepalming. 

"'Cause it's super handy for high-stakes magical action, obviously."

"You don't even know how to use it."

"Do too!" 

"Do not–" Dipper stopped short before the argument could go on any further. He stole a glance around the clearing of vines only to realize they were the only ones in it. "Uh… Where are Garnet and Pearl?"

"Ha! Now look who's not taking things seriously!" Mabel stuck her tongue out at him "While you were fussing at me, you got us separated from the Gems! Nice going, 'Mr. Serious'."

"B-but they were just in front of us a second ago!" Dipper said as worry began to set in. "Did they already find a path inside or something?"

"Guess there's only one way to find out!" Mabel boldly proclaimed, grappling hook still in hand. "We'll just have to find our own way through ourselves!"

"Mabel, wait-" Dipper warned as Mabel took aim. In the end though, he could do nothing to stop her from firing her grappling hook at the overgrown vines ahead of them. Instead of latching onto them to pull them away, however, the vines latched onto it instead. And they didn't stop there either. 

The twins shared an alarm gasp as the vines suddenly lashed out, coiling around Mabel's outstretched arms with frightening speed. She let out a sharp cry as the brambles tore through the sleeve of her sweater, cutting into her arm and painfully tightening at each attempt she made at trying to wiggle free from them.

"Mabel!" Dipper yelled, rushing to her aid. Despite his best efforts at pulling his sister out of the vines' strong hold, it wasn't long before they started to converge on him too, wrapping tightly around his torso. From there, the twins could do little else but scream as even more vines lashed out and latched themselves around them, pulling them ever closer toward the dark thicket ahead. 

"How do we get out of this stuff?" Mabel winced away from the thorns inching dangerously close to her face. 

"I-I don't–wait," Dipper gasped when he caught sight of the grappling hook Mabel was still clinging onto for dear life. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but use the grappling hook!"

"Again?" Mabel asked, surprised. "But that's how all this started! Why would you-"

"Just shoot it, straight ahead!" Dipper insisted, straining to find a gap in the thicket. "It's gotta latch onto something on the other side. Just trust me!" He shouted as one of the vines sharply constricted against his leg, its thorns cutting in deep. "A-and hurry!"

Mabel did as he said, barely managing to pull the hook back in before she took aim as best she could. She found the same opening Dipper already had and fired, watching with wide eyes as the hook tore through the wall of thorns to miraculously find purchase onto an unknown object beyond it. As soon as it did, Mabel released the tension on the hook, sending both her and Dipper lurching forward. The most they could do was cover their faces against the brambles as they blazed through them, desperate for the sharp onslaught to end before the treacherous vines could reclaim them again and–

"Ah! Headache!" Steven's sudden cry of pain cut straight through the action of the story.

"Then give me back my glasses!" Connie exclaimed in impatient frustration. 

Steven nodded, quickly taking the glasses off as he handed them back to Connie. "So what happened next?" she asked the twins. "Did you guys catch up with the Gems? And Steven, what happened back at the shack?"

"Yeah, Steven, why don't you take over for a while?" Dipper suggested.

"Tell her what you told us about the journal!" Mabel exclaimed before rushing a whisper to Connie. "Spoiler alert: it will make you cry."

"Mm…" Steven sighed, but ultimately folded under everyone's anticipating gazes. "Ok, I guess… So I was up in the attic, looking in the journal to see if I could find anything about my mom's healing tears…"

"Ok, let's see…" Steven muttered as he began leafing through the journal in search of answers. "Where would the part about healing tears be…? In the ghost section? Nah… Invisible wizard? Cool, but no… Oh, I know! It'd be in the part about the Gems!"

Steven wasted no time flipping through countless pages before he finally stopped on the section detailing the Crystal Gems. As much as he would have liked to read every word the unknown author had written about them, he knew there was no time for that now. Still, as he brushed past most of their pages, Steven couldn't help but think about how wary Dipper still was about the possibility of the Gems discovering the journal. Certainly, he figured, they must already know about it if they had been written about it in such careful detail. Right?

Shaking such distracting thoughts out of his mind, Steven continued on through the journal, only stopping when he spotted the page about Rose Quartz. For a moment, he paused as he stared at the drawing of his mother on the crinkled brown page in front of him. She was presented just as beautifully as she always was, with perfect curls, a graceful gown, closed eyes, and a soft, kind smile. 

The longer Steven stared at that drawing, the more inadequate he started to feel. Everything he'd ever heard about Rose Quartz had given him the impression that she was perfect; more than perfect really. She was incredible, intelligent, brave, compassionate, strong, magical, legendary, and everything in between. Everything that Steven knew he wasn't.

But that didn't stop Steven from wanting to be like her, perhaps more than he ever wanted anything else. He wanted to live up to her greatness instead of simply living in her shadow. The Gems expected it of him and he expected it of himself. And he knew that if his mother was still around, she would certainly expect it of him too. The only problem was, he wasn't sure if he could even begin to try.

Steven didn't even notice the warmth building behind his eyes until he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. And as soon as he did, he gasped as he jumped to his feet, bouncing up and down in newfound excitement. "Oh, oh! I'm getting all emotional!" he exclaimed, hoping that he wouldn't lose it. "I think it's happening! I can feel it!"

Once more, Steven began straining, desperately trying to force his emotions to pour forth in the form of tears. But in the end, he was still left with little aside from exhaustion and disappointment. "Aw, come on! I had it!" he flopped down onto the floor beside the journal. "There's gotta be something in here that can tell me how to do this! Anything!"

Steven skimmed over Rose's page, disregarding any information that didn't concern healing. When he did finally get to a small passage subtitled "healing tears", he held his breath in anticipation before reading it aloud, throwing his voice to sound academic for added effect.

"After an accidental and particularly nasty run in with a hornet's nest, I learned of another one of Rose's unique abilities, perhaps her most miraculous one yet. As it turns out, she has healing powers! Her tears are capable of treating both minor and major physical injuries, from broken bones, to heavy wounds, to even the bothersome sinus headaches I get during allergy season. Interestingly enough, Rose's tears work not only on humans, but on Gems too. At least that's what Amethyst says, and considering how reckless she often is, I'm inclined to believe her."

"Yeah, yeah, I already know all this stuff!" Steven huffed impatiently. "Tell me how they work!"

"How Rose's healing tears work:"

"Yes!" he cheered, only for his smile to steadily fall as he began to read it. 

"It would seem as though Rose's healing tears manifest from her Gem, though of course, they pour from her eyes (as tears should do). While I'm not completely sure if I understand it, her explanation of them implies that they are fueled by intense emotions, such as grief or compassion. Physical pain rarely ever brings them about, but then again, Rose hardly ever experiences physical pain considering how strong and durable she is. I suppose I'll need to do further research in the future to learn the exact science behind this phenomenon. But for now, I have to admit I'm very grateful for Rose's aid. If not for her, I'd be suffering from painful hornet stings for weeks!"

"Aw, what?!" Steven pulled back from the journal, disgruntled. "That didn't help at all! The author didn't understand how they worked, just like I don't! I don't understand anything !"

Discouraged, he shoved the journal away from him, fiercely glancing away from it as he stood up and fumed. "This should be easy! Why is it so hard?!" he groaned, unable to keep his rising distress contained any longer. "Why…. Why can't I cry!?"

His angry shout bounced off the attic ceiling, leaving only an empty, bitter silence in its place. Even so, his frustration soon ebbed away into sad resignation as he slowly reclaimed the journal, lying down on the ground beside it. Once again, he looked at Rose's image in the old book, letting out a long sigh as he reached over and gingerly put his hand over it.

"It's just… I mean…" he began hesitantly. It was silly, he knew it was, but he still spoke to the image as if it could somehow hear him. As if it was a way for him to talk to the mother he'd never been able to reach, the mother he'd never been able to know. "I don't know how to feel about you, but everyone else does. And they're always talking about how great you were and how much they miss you… I… I wish I could have met you… Then I could be sad and cry healing tears… like you…"

Connie's sudden sniffle caught Steven off guard. As he glanced up, he was surprised to see all three of his friends on the verge of tears. Honestly, he should have figured as much given just how sad he'd felt himself at that moment. If only his tears had been able to come as easily as theirs. 

"Are… are you guys ok?" he asked them, concerned. 

Connie was the first to nod, taking a sip from her juice box, even despite her pressing tears. "Keep going."

"Uh… maybe you guys should pick it up for now…" Steven said to Dipper and Mabel, hoping they could lighten things up.

"Huh?" Dipper quickly wiped his eyes. "Oh, um… sure, Steven. Uh, where were we…?"

Mabel sniffled, drying her damp cheeks as picked things up with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. Which, given what Steven had just told them, wasn't anywhere near as much as she usually had. "We… we had just gotten out of the vines and we were all cut up from them, sorta like Grunkle Stan's face whenever he tries shaving…"

For a moment or two, all the twins could do was lay on the ground as they recovered from the vines' vicious attack. They didn't even bother to get up and see if the bristles were still after them, but after a moment of much-needed stillness, they realized that the onslaught was over. For now.

"Are you ok?" Dipper finally asked. He noticed his vest had been ripped right off of him during their escape, but fortunately, his hat still remained.

"Yeah… I think so…" Mabel sat up, cringing at the lightly-bleeding cuts covering her legs and the holes torn across her sweater. 

"Good," Dipper said, though his relief soon turned to frustration. "Mabel, what were you thinking?! Those vines could have killed us!"

"Hey, how was I supposed to know they were alive?" Mabel retorted defensively as she rose to stand. "And you gotta admit; my grappling hook totally saved the day. Bet you're glad I brought it along now, huh?" 

"Ugh, whatever," Dipper rolled his eyes as he also stood, brushing himself off. "Where are we anyway?"

The twins paused to take a glance around, noticing walls upon walls of brambles still surrounded them everywhere they looked. They created something of a dome, shielding the sky from sight save for only a single opening, allowing sunlight to leak in from above. But what that light was falling upon was much more interesting by far. 

"Wait…" Dipper took a step closer to the impressive structure ahead of them. "Is that-"

"It is! It has to be!" Mabel beamed, already running toward it. "We found the fountain!"

Rose's fountain was undeniably hers. At its peak stood a massive statue of the Gem who had built it, accompanied by four smaller statues sitting at each of the fountain's four corners. It was quite a sight, but despite how beautiful it may have been, there was one disconcerting thing the twins quickly noticed about this fountain: 

Nothing was flowing from it. 

Before either of them could speak to it, however, Dipper and Mabel jolted in fear at the sound of a sudden boom behind them. They spun around to find a large boulder crashing into the clearing, seemingly out of nowhere. Its source soon became clear, however, as Pearl's anxious voice echoed from the hole the rock had created. "We probably could have gotten in without hurdling a giant rock into Rose's most precious sanctuary," she said with a nervous chuckle. She clung close to Garnet, who still had her gauntlets summoned after punching the boulder to create a path. "But if you're ok with it, I'm fine too!"

"Garnet! Pearl!" the twins exclaimed in relieved unison. They wasted no time rushing over to the Gems, only to stop short when Pearl met them halfway and wrapped them both into a tight, secure hug. 

"Dipper! Mabel!" Pearl exclaimed, fretting over their minor injuries. "We've been searching all over for you two! Just look at you! What on earth happened?"

"The vines came alive and attacked us," Mabel said as though it was the plainest thing to ever happen.

" But… " Dipper quickly cut in before Pearl could even begin to worry. "We escaped. All by ourselves. And we even found the fountain!"

"You sure did. Good job, both of you," Garnet rested her hands on both of their heads, smiling. That smile quickly faded, however, as she stole a glance over at the fountain. "This isn't right…"

Everyone followed her as she approached the fountain, giving them a better view over its walled side and into its deep, empty bowl. "The fountain isn't running," Garnet reported, adjusting her shades.

"W-what?!" Pearl gasped, alarmed. "What's wrong with it?!"

"I'm not sure…" Garnet shook her head.

"Maybe the power's out?" Mabel asked jokingly.

"Or maybe it's just clogged somewhere," Dipper suggested much more rationally.

"We'll go find out," Garnet turned back to the wall of brambles. "You two stay here."

"Garnet, a-are you sure that's such a good idea?" Pearl asked, frowning back toward the twins. "Last time we left them alone, they got hurt. We wouldn't want that to happen again."

"But Pearl, we're fine," Dipper countered. 

"Yeah! These little cuts hardly hurt at all! See?" Mabel proved her point by giving her brother a light smack on the arm.

"Ow!" Dipper glared at her, annoyed. "Mabel, that would have hurt even without any of these cuts, you know."

"Point is, maybe we could find a way to fix the fountain from here in case you guys don't find one," Mabel suggested with a pleading smile.

"I'm still not sure this is such a good idea…" Pearl said, though Garnet was quick to ease her nerves.

"They'll be fine," she assured, placing a hand on her teammate's shoulder. "Now, let's go."

Though Pearl wanted to protest further, she ultimately sighed as she followed Garnet's lead. "Be careful, you two!" she called to the twins as they disappeared into the cluster of vines once more. "And stay away from the brambles this time!"

"You don't have to tell us twice!" Dipper shouted back.

"Garnet, are you really sure about this?" Pearl asked as soon as they were out of the twins' earshot.

Garnet nodded. "They wanted to come so they could prove themselves to us. We might as well give them that chance."

"But… but they're human…" 

"Pearl, you've been on this planet for hundreds of years. You should know not to underestimate humans by now."

Pearl couldn't really argue with that. So instead, the pair continued forging on ahead in search of answers. Back at the fountain, Dipper and Mabel were already doing the same as they split up to examine the structure from all angles. Indeed, it appeared to be as dry as a bone, and it likely had been for a very long time. Still, there had to be some way to get it working again, and if they could figure it out, then the Gems would see, without a doubt, that they were a little stronger, a little smarter, and a little braver than they seemed. 

"Have you found anything yet?" Dipper called to Mabel from the other side of the fountain.

"Not yet!" she poked her head up behind the fountain wall. 

"You'd think there'd be like a switch or a lever or something…" Dipper pondered, eyeing the fountain carefully in case he'd missed anything.

"Maybe the tiny statues of Rose have something to do with it," Mabel pointed a thumb at one of the statues in question. 

"Oh my gosh, Mabel! That's actually a great idea!" Dipper exclaimed, quickly following this newfound lead. 

"Like I keep telling you, bro-bro, you're not the only one who comes up with good plans," Mabel smirked as she followed her brother to the nearest statue. While much smaller than the one in the center, the sculpture of Rose was still roughly life-sized, dwarfing both of the twins by comparison. The statue's expression was peaceful and gentle, and its hands were folded and covered with thick moss, dotted by small pink flowers. 

"Hm…" Dipper perched a hand against his chin as he took this setup in.

"Whatcha thinkin', Dippin-Dots?" Mabel asked as she came to stand alongside him.

"I'm thinking that maybe the moss on her hands might be covering up some way to activate the fountain…"

"Oh, sort of like a haunted house sort of deal… Well let's get up there and brush that stuff off then!"

Dipper agreed, joining Mabel as she climbed onto the edge of the fountain beside the statue. The moss was surprisingly thick, but between both of them, they eventually managed to clear it off, only to find that the statue's hands were disappointingly empty. 

"Well, I guess that was a waste of time," Dipper deadpanned, frowning. 

"Eh, it's no biggie," Mabel shrugged. "We still have three more statues to try. And if all else fails, then maybe the big one will get it started."

"It's worth a try at least," Dipper sighed, knowing this could take a while. While he was starting to climb down, however, he stopped short when he caught onto the sudden sound of an odd, low rumbling. "Do you hear that?"

Before Mabel could respond, a crash rattled the entire fountain, nearly knocking both twins off of the statue. They quickly spotted its source in the bowl of the fountain, from which masses of brambles were quickly starting to dart towards them.

"Not again!" Mabel yelped, frightened. 

"Quick! Get off the statue!" Dipper warned, more than ready to jump the small distance to the ground. However, they were both a moment too slow as the vines caught up with them, latching onto their wrists and ankles before ripping them off the statue and dragging them down the side of the steep bowl. Miraculously, they only sustained a few more minor cuts and bruises on the way down, but they knew they wouldn't be that lucky for much longer. Not when the vines looked like they were ready to finish the job. 

Neither twin had much time to orient themselves after they landed at the bottom of the fountain. While the vines loosened enough to allow them to rip them off, that was hardly any consolation now that the writhing mass of brambles was only a few feet away from them. 

"What are we gonna do!?" Mabel asked, worriedly watching as the vines continued creeping in.

"I… I, uh…" Dipper glanced around, desperately searching for any sort of solution. But with no clear way out and no real way to fight back or defend themselves, their options were few and thinning fast. "I don't know!"

"What do you mean you don't know?!" Mabel asked, her eyes wide. "You always have a plan or something to get us out of stuff like this! So come up with one!"

"It's not that easy, Mabel! It's not like we can just climb out of here before the vines get to us!"

"Then we need the Gems' help!"

"Well, duh , but who knows where they are!?"

"So… what you're saying is…?" Mabel trailed off at the sight of her brother's defeated expression.

"I… I don't have a plan this time…" Dipper sighed, ashamed for reasons far beyond just that. "I'm sorry, Mabel. This is all my fault. I just wanted the Gems to think we're more than a bunch of dumb kids, but none of that even matters now. Turns out Pearl was right before; this really is too much for us…"

"Aw, Dipper…" Mabel frowned. Even despite the dire circumstances, she did what she could to comfort him as she rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Not that it really helped. 

"I mean, let's face it; who are we kidding?" Dipper let out a joyless, downright bitter laugh. "We're not cut out for anything like this; every time we've been in trouble so far this summer, the Gems have always had to bail us out. Why did I think this time would be any different?"

"Bail us out…" Mabel echoed before drawing in a sharp gasp. "Wait, that's it!" In an instant, she pulled her grappling hook back out. "Looks like you came up with a plan to save our butts after all, bro-bro!"

"What plan?" Dipper asked, not following. "That thing only barely helped us get away from the vines before. It won't be able to help us hold them off forever."

"It doesn't need to," Mabel gave her brother a sly wink as she aimed upwards. "It just needs to get us out of here."

Just as the vines lurched towards them, Mabel grabbed Dipper and fired without a second thought. The hook sped straight up toward the main statue of Rose, latching tightly onto one of her hands. As soon as it did, the twins were yanked upward, and while it should have taken them out of the vines' range, it didn't. Instead, the brambles gave chase, practically defying gravity as they tried to wrangle the twins and drag them back down into the fountain below. They gasped, dismayed when they came to a grinding halt at the base of the hand, hanging only by thread above the raging sea of vines below. 

And of course, just when it seemed like things couldn't get any worse, that's exactly when they did. 

A sickening crack rang through the air, sending a chill down both of their spines. Dipper and Mabel glanced up, horrified to see the very hand they were hanging from beginning to splinter against the weight they were putting upon it. In fact, the entire fountain felt like it was rumbling–from what, the twins had no idea. All they really knew was that they were out of time, out of ideas, and most of all, out of luck. 

And yet, right as the hand snapped off of the statue and they were sent hurtling back towards the vines, it became clear. Their luck hadn't run out quite yet. 

Out of nowhere, a massive surge of water burst from the statue's eyes, raining down upon not only the twins, but the vines below as well. The moment the sparkling water flooded over them, the brambles were washed away, as if they were never even there at all. It took only seconds for the bowl to fill up, giving Dipper and Mabel a fortunately soft landing as they splashed into its warm, refreshing depths. 

With the fountain reactivated, it was as though the entire garden sprung back to life. As healing waters poured down from the statue's eyes like tears, the walls of brambles bloomed away into an abundance of gentle pink flowers. The blossoms rained down upon the fountain, which seemed to glisten in the open sunlight now hanging high above it.

It took both Dipper and Mabel a moment to regather their bearings after such a harrowing plunge. As soon as they shook off their initial shock, they quickly swam up to the surface to get some much-needed air. And once they did, they were met with quite a stunning sight: the garden, in all of its natural beauty and a fountain now freely flowing with the very water they'd come all this way to obtain. 

"AHHHH! Dipper! We did it!" Mabel squealed, giving her brother a joyous hug. "We got the fountain to work again!"

"Huh?" Dipper lightly pushed her away just so her excitement wouldn't end up waterlogging him. "Mabel, what are you talking about?"

"We broke the hand!" she pointed up at the statue's broken arm, beaming. "That must have unclogged the fountain!"

"Wait… really?" Dipper asked. True, it was a bit hard to believe, and yet the evidence seemed to be clear. Against all odds, the fountain was indeed working again. "I… I guess we did! And look!" He lifted his arm up so Mabel could see that it was clear of all of the countless cuts and scratches he'd gotten during their battle against the vines. She gasped, awestruck as she checked her own arms, only to see that her wounds were likewise completely gone. 

"Wow! I guess this stuff really is magical healing water after all!" Mabel said, thoroughly impressed. 

"Oh thank goodness!" Pearl's relieved cry caught the twins' attention. Sure enough, the Gems had returned, standing over the fountain with their arms interlocked.

"Did you guys see what we did?" Mabel asked as she and Dipper swam to meet them at the fountain's edge. "We figured out what was wrong, fixed it, and brought the fountain back to life!"

"And it was all thanks to Mabel's grappling hook," Dipper gave his sister a grateful smile.

"Don't forget about that big brain of yours, bro-bro," Mabel playfully elbowed him. 

Despite their enthusiasm, Garnet and Pearl exchanged a confused glance at this claim. "I'm pretty sure me and Garnet unplugging a clogged chamber was what brought the fountain back to life," Pearl informed with an awkward grin.

"You don't think us breaking the statue's hand had a little to do with that?" Dipper asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You broke the statue's hand?!" Pearl gasped, scandalized. At least until Garnet stepped in to calm her down. 

"You two may not have activated the fountain," she said with a soft, proud smile. "But you still did a good job on the mission overall."

"I don't think we really did anything…" Mabel noted.

"You did what you were setting out to do all along," Garnet reached her hands out to help them out of the water. "You showed us that you both can hold your own on a mission."

"So…" Dipper began leadingly, hopefully. "The chances that you guys will bring us along on missions in the future are…?" 

"Likely," Garnet nodded, her smile widening just the smallest bit.

"Are you kids sure that you would want to go on a mission again?" Pearl asked almost coyly. "It seems like you had a bit of an… ordeal on this one…"

"Are you kidding? Of course we wanna come on more missions!" Mabel readily exclaimed.

"Yeah! This was amazing!" Dipper nodded in eager agreement. "You know, aside from the whole nearly-dying on more than one occasion thing. N-not that we can't handle that–because we can! Obviously."

Garnet snorted out a small laugh and even Pearl couldn't help but chuckle. Despite everything this mission had put them through, the twins had managed to prove their mettle in all the ways that mattered most. Whatever doubts they may have had at the start of the summer didn't seem to mean that much anymore. Now, it was more than clear: Dipper and Mabel were quite unlike almost any other humans they'd ever met before, and yet… 

In some strange, distant way, they still felt almost familiar just the same.

They shook the thought from their heads as Garnet bottled up some of the fountain's precious water. "We have what we came here for." With no reason to linger any longer, she turned to lead the way back to the warp pad, bringing the twins' inaugural mission to its successful end. "Let's head back. Amethyst is counting on us."

Steven jumped, startled at the sound of a sudden, shrill scream coming from downstairs. The leapt to his feet, tucking the journal away somewhere safe as he ran back down to the den as fast as he possibly could

"What's going on?!" Steven cried, only to stop in his tracks at the alarming sight unfolding before him. 

"We, uh, kind of have a situation here, dude…" Soos nodded to the mess of purple limbs, thinly stretched out and strewn all over the den. Steven's eyes widened as he tracked the disjointed limbs back to Amethyst. Though she was literally all over the place, she still somehow had her head, which Stan loosely held onto to keep it from getting lost in the tangled limbs below. 

"H-yeh, Nevets..." Amethyst spoke up, her voice weak to match her tired expression. "S-detrats gniyrc tey? Esuac I dluoc esu a elttil pleh…"

"What happened to her?" Steven asked as he carefully stepped over her scattered limbs. 

"Why don't you ask Stan?" Wendy shot her boss a withering look. 

"First of all," Stan huffed defensively. "I wanna say that this wasn't my fault, I was just trying to fix Amethyst up using a little homemade remedy I picked up during my jewel smuggling days. Turns out using hot wax and a butter knife only ended up making things worse."

"Oh man…" Steven frantically glanced around. "Amethyst, where's your gem?"

She weakly nodded to the couch, where the base of her body still rested, including her gem. Steven hurried over to it, noticing that the crack in it had grown again thanks to Stan's less-than-helpful intervention. With just how badly damaged it was already, Steven wasn't sure how much longer it–or Amethyst for that matter–could possibly last. 

"Oh… oh no…" he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "What am I going to do? I… I don't think I can fix this…"

"Aw, c'mon, dude, don't give up so easily," Soos rested a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Nobody can cry magic healing tears like you can. And I'm not just saying that either–though it'd be totally rad if I could. Just sayin'."

"Y-you're right," Steven steadied himself the best he could. "I can't give up! I gotta do this! For Amethyst…"

As Steven continued to try and force his tears to fall, Stan stole an apprehensive glance down at Amethyst's head still resting in his hands. As bizarre as that was on its own, it honestly didn't bother him as much as the reality of what might happen if Steven and his supposedly "magic" tears failed to come through. "You know, you can't give up either," he said to Amethyst, making sure none of the others could hear him. "F-for the kid's sake, of course. 'Cause if anything happens to you, then he really will be crying."

"Ti's ton ekil I nac yllaer od hcum tuoba gnikcarc, Nats..." Amethyst sighed, glancing down. "Tub ti's ecin ot wonk uoy yllautca od erac, neve fi uoy nod't tca ekil ti."

"Uh… well…" Stan cleared his throat. From the bittersweet grin she was sending his way, he was able to get just enough. And that's exactly what he decided to give her in return: just enough. "It'd be pretty boring of you to… ya know… kick the bucket over something as dumb as this. Especially considering all of the crazy messes we used to get ourselves into back in the day."

 "Heh, haey esoht erew eht syad..." Amethyst let out a small, bitter laugh. "Sseug won si sa doog a emit sa yna ot llet uoy... woh hcum I hsiw sgniht dluoc eb ekil taht niaga..."

"You know I can't understand a word you're saying, right?" Stan said with a small, rueful smile.

"Haey… I wonk."

They stopped short when they heard Steven's loud, frustrated shout on the far side of the room. "Ugh! I can't do it!" he flopped down onto the couch beside Amethyst's body. "I can't do anything right!"

Soos and Wendy exchanged a sympathetic glance at this. Even so, neither of them were equipped to do much to help him, and neither was Stan. In fact, the most he could do was carefully carry Amethyst's head over to Steven, gently setting it down in his lap. While Steven knew they wanted to comfort him, it did the exact opposite instead. Because as he stared up at the frail, sad smile Amethyst was sending him, all Steven could think about was just how powerless, how useless he really was. 

All he could think about was how he was failing someone so important to him when certainly his mother never would have. 

"Amethyst, I'm so sorry…" he choked, barely even noticing the tears finally, finally building up behind his eyes. "I tried! I really did! But… I guess it wasn't good enough… And now, I'm going to lose you, and it's all my fault…"

Amethyst could even respond, her form glitched out again, weakening her even more. She let out a rough, coughing laugh as she grinned wanly up at Steven. "Hah, uoy c-care… about me…" she said, her words slow and slurred, yet somehow understandable.

Steven let out a small, tearless sob as he pulled as much of Amethyst as he could into a tight, desperate hug. The others all watched on in melancholy silence, though they suppressed a gasp as they noticed Steven at last begin to tear up.

"Please let me be a magic healer…" he whispered with every ounce of hope he had left. And with that, he closed his eyes and let his tears fall.

The first tear struck Amethyst's gem squarely, landing right on the imposing crack. Steven gasped as he opened his eyes, a brief smile crossing his face as he waited for the stone to seal itself up again. And yet…

A second passed, and then another, and then another. And nothing changed at all. The gem was still as cracked as ever.

"Oh, come on!" Steven shouted, frustrated. Likewise, Stan, Soos, and Wendy shared a round of disappointed groans. Because if Steven's tears couldn't heal Amethyst at this point… then what could ?

No more than a second later, the front door of the shack burst open. The twins rushed in with Garnet and Pearl not too far behind, shattering the emerging grief filling the den. "We're back!" Dipper announced with a satisfied grin.

"And we got healing tears!" Mabel proudly waved the bottle of fountain water Garnet had given her.

"At least somebody has them…" Steven bitterly muttered under his breath.

"Yeesh, you two look like you've been through the ringer," Stan frowned as he looked over Dipper and Mabel, noticing the tatters and tears the vines had torn across their clothes. "What happened?"

"It's a long story…" Dipper let out an exhausted sigh.

"My goodness! Look at how much bigger the crack got!" Pearl exclaimed as she hovered over Amethyst. "What were you doing all this time?!"

"I d-ndid't od n-gnihton..." Amethyst scowled, her voice still weak and wavering.

"Well, Amethyst, I hope you're ready for some healing magic, 'cause we're about to bring it!" Mabel grinned, holding the bottle of healing water high over the cracked gem.

"Mabel, wait!" Dipper stopped her before she could haphazardly pour the precious water. "Be careful with that stuff!"

"Are you kidding? I'm being super careful!" Mabel scoffed as she shook the bottle up for good measure.

"Just let me do it," Dipper said, reaching for it.

"No way! I wanna do it!" Mabel pulled the bottle out of his range. The twins continued to grapple for it, until it inevitably slipped out of their hands. For a breathless beat, the water fell toward the ground, though fortunately, Garnet managed to catch it just in the nick of time. 

"Careful," she advised before handing the bottle off to Steven instead. He frowned as he examined the pale pink liquid inside, noticing how it shimmered thanks to the magic contained within it. Magic that had once been his mother's. Magic that would never be his. 

His heart ached at the thought, but he forced himself to focus on Amethyst instead, for now. He slowly, carefully poured the water directly onto her gem, and sure enough, it began to work upon contact. The water and the gemstone alike took on a radiant glow, and the gathered group watched in marveled awe as the crack slowly but surely began to seal itself up and smooth over. Within seconds, every last trace of damage was gone, to Amethyst's gem and her body alike as she finally managed to pull herself back together. 

With her gem repaired and her strength renewed, Amethyst leapt off the couch with a triumphant cheer, pulling Steven into a celebratory hug. "Alright! Look at this guy, saving my life and junk!"

"Come on, Amethyst," Steven gently pushed away from her. "You know it wasn't really me."

"Hey, did you guys bring back any more of that healing water?" Stan asked Garnet and Pearl. "Cause I think we could capitalize big time on something like this. And by we, I of course mean me ."

"Aw, don't be so down, Steven," Wendy said with an encouraging smile. "At least you finally managed to get yourself to cry. That's gotta count for something, right?"

"Yeah, but they weren't healing tears…" Steven sighed, dejected.

"Oh, Steven…" Pearl placed a hand on his shoulder, as if to soften the brutal blow of what she had to tell him next. "Of course you don't have healing tears! You'll never have any real magic powers, and we don't want anything else to do with you!"

"She didn't really say that, did she?" Connie asked in disbelief.

"No, she didn't," Dipper corrected. "Pearl and Garnet were actually super supportive. Weren't they, Steven?"

"Yeah, but that's what it felt like…" Steven heaved a heavy sigh.

"Is that why you've been feeling so low?" Connie frowned, concerned.

Steven simply shrugged, somehow feeling even worse now that the story was done. "Aw, cheer up, Steven!" Mabel encouraged. "So what if you don't have healing tears? That's not the worst thing in the world, is it?"

"I guess not…" 

Connie bit her lip, unsure of what to say, what to do to help. The most she could manage was handing his mostly empty juice box back over to him, for whatever little that might've meant. "Um… you can have your juice back."

"Nah, it's ok," Steven waved the box away. "It's just… Everyone expects me to be like my mom… What if I never get those powers?"

"Then you'll be like us," Connie reassured as Dipper and Mabel nodded their sincere agreement. "That's not so bad."

"Yeah, and you still have the shield thing, don't you?" Dipper added with a smile. "That's pretty cool."

"And even if you didn't, we'd still hang out with you, Steven," Mabel said warmly. "You're the best!"

"B-but… if I don't have powers, then I can't hang out with Amethyst or Garnet or Pearl!" Steven gripped his pants tightly as tears began to well up in his eyes. "And I-I can't go on missions, and… and…"

Steven trailed off when he realized that Connie had placed her hand over his. Dipper and Mabel joined her, until all of their hands were piled firmly, supportively on top of his. 

"You don't need any powers to be here with us," Connie said, leaning just a bit closer to him. Steven stared between his trio of friends, almost unaware of the rush of sudden warmth flooding his face. That warmth only seemed to intensify as Connie continued drawing toward him, a warm summer breeze tussling her hair. Something was about to happen here, though Steven wasn't sure what. 

And in the end, he never got to find out either. 

Suddenly, Connie pulled back, pressing a hand to her temple as she let out a sharp groan. "Ow!" she winced against her newfound migraine.

"What's wrong?" Steven asked, worried. 

"I think-" she cut herself off, squinting. "There's just—something's wrong with my glasses…" With the hopes of getting rid of her headache, Connie removed her glasses, only to gasp when she realized just how startlingly clear the world around her was. Clear in a way it never was without her glasses. "My… my eyes! I-I can see!"

"What?!" Steven, Dipper, and Mabel all exclaimed, shocked.

"I can see without my glasses!" Connie confirmed, just as dumbfounded as they were. 

"Whoa! Are you secretly wearing contacts, Connie?" Mabel asked.

"No!" Connie shook her head, still reeling. "I've never even worn contacts before! I don't understand-"

"Wait!" Steven gasped as the realization struck him. It couldn't be true… could it? Except… what else could it be? "What if… D-did... Did I just heal your eyes?!"

"But how would that even happen?" Dipper asked, completely confused. "You weren't even crying and even if you had been, your tears didn't work on Amethyst! What could have…?"

He trailed off as everyone slowly turned their gaze towards the empty juice box Connie was still holding. The water, or backwash, still clinging to its straw, sparkled in the sunlight, giving the kids a pretty good answer as to how her eyes had been so miraculously healed.

"The juice box!" Steven balked as Connie swiftly dropped the box. "I don't have healing tears! I have healing spit !"

"Gross…" Dipper cringed, disgusted.

"Cool!" Mabel grinned, delighted.

"What am I going to tell my parents?!" Connie asked. "What am I going to tell my optometrist?!"

"I don't even know!" Steven laughed as he joyously jumped to his feet. "Oh, thank you, Connie!" Unable to contain his excitement, he warmly embraced her, not even noticing just how stunned she truly was.

"Um… y-you're welcome?" she replied, unsure of if she should be happy or terrified.

"Steven, we have to go tell the Gems!" Mabel excitedly pulled Dipper to his feet along with her. "They'll flip out over this!"

"And if they don't at least they'll be as confused as we are," Dipper said, still a touch more baffled than elated.

"Yeah!" Steven agreed, already running over to Lion. "They're never gonna believe this! Aren't you coming, Connie?"

"Uh… I'll catch up with you guys…" Connie said, glancing down at her glasses.

"Ok! See you later!" Steven cheerfully bid her farewell as he and the twins boarded Lion and began the trek down the hill.

Connie stood as she watched them go, taking in a deep breath as she tried to take it all in. She had known from the moment she met Steven that he was special, but this was something on a whole other level. For a moment, she had to stop and simply ponder over how their friendship had changed seemingly everything for her. Before, she had always been quiet, sheltered, reserved. Yet Steven had somehow helped her open up, guiding her out of the shell she had seemed to live her entire life in. His confidence, his cheerfulness, his spirit always seemed to inspire her, to invigorate her, to remind her that the world was filled with adventure, excitement, even magic.

And now, his spit had healed her eyes, through what she could only describe as an indirect kiss. She wasn't sure if she really understood it, or if she really wanted to. But what she did understand was that something was different now. She was different now. She couldn't explain it, but deep down she knew.

So she stayed silent as she stood alone on the hill, the wind in her hair, her head full of thoughts, her heart charged with emotions. After a moment, she took her glasses and popped the pink lenses out of them before putting them back on her face.

Because after all, for as much as things tend to change, they really do stay the same.