Pandy: A Pearly White Christmas.

       It was a cold, winter night in the small but not-so-quiet town of Beach City as sparkling-snow coated the ground along with the rooftops of various homes and businesses. Greg hummed Christmas classics to himself as he hung up stockings, above the fireplace of the Crystal Gems’ Temple.

       “Thanks for coming over, dad!” Steven grinned as he assisted Pearl in baking the Christmas cookies. Pearl may not have enjoyed the activity of eating but the former, servant Gem was known to enjoy the process of preparing food.

       “Are you kidding?! I wouldn’t miss one of your Christmas parties for the world! Thanks for having me, you guys.” Greg excitedly thanked as Garnet halted her process of putting up the Christmas tree to flash Greg a thumbs-up, in response to his gratitude.

       “Amethyst! Stop eating all the cookies!” Pearl scolded as Amethyst swallowed yet another complete tray of Christmas cookies.

       “Lighten up, P; it’s the Holidays!” Amethyst smirked as Pearl angrily began to gather the supplies to bake yet another batch of cookies. The gang’s activities were interrupted, however by the doorbell ringing.

       “That must be Lapis and Peridot!” Steven exclaimed, excitedly as he hopped over the counter, slid across the counter-top then proceeded to run over to the front-door to answer it. Soon after Steven had answered the door, Pumpkin excitedly bounded inside and began to run, in circles, around Steven, barking, in excitement all the while.

       “Pumpkin!” Steven happily cheered as Lapis and Peridot both entered the Temple, each carrying a crudely, wrapped gift that sported their individual colors.

       “Merry Christmas, Steven!” Lapis greeted, happily.

       “We brought you gifts but you’ll soon find that I have brought you the superior-one out of all of the gifts.” Peridot stated with a confident-smirk, earning an unamused-glare from Lapis.

       “That’s great! Just put them under the tree!” Steven grinned as he pointed to the Christmas tree that was behind him with his thumb. It was then that Steven noticed that a very, important member of his family was missing as he looked past Lapis and Peridot to see if anyone else had accompanied them.

       “Hey, where’s Uncle Andy?” Steven questioned as he knew that Lapis and Peridot had let his newfound-uncle move into their barn with them.

       “Oh, he’s back at the barn, moping…” Lapis replied, flatly.

       “He’s bein’ a huge CLOD!” Peridot added.

       “Why? Is something wrong with him?” Steven questioned out of concern for his uncle.

       “Yeah! He’s a huge, stone-cold, dead-set CLOD!” Peridot repeated, still quite angered over the insults that her newest roommate had yelled at her and Lapis.

       “Yeah, I’m real sorry about that…I wouldn’t exactly expect Andy to be in the best of moods around this time of year…especially after what happened…” Greg apologized for his cousin’s bad mood with a sigh of defeat.

       “What happened to him?” Steven asked with a worried expression.

       “H-His mom died on Thanksgiving and this his dad died on Christmas…When his dad died, he just…I guess he couldn’t take the pain so he left, for a really, long time and I never heard from him again until just recently…” Greg solemnly explained to his son.

       “Well…I think we should go cheer him up…” Steven proposed.

       “I dunno, shnewball; Andy can get a little hostile when he’s all emotional like this…” Greg nervously warned.

       “Well then, I have to at least try to get him to come to the party; nobody should be alone on Christmas, especially not family!” Steven explained to his father as he approached the Temple’s Warp-pad.

       “I’m going with you, Steven…” Pearl insisted as she stepped up, onto the Warp-pad with the young, kindhearted boy. Once they had arrived at the Warp-pad, nearest to the barn; it only took a short while of walking before Steven and Pearl had finally reached the barn.

       “What’s that sound?” pearl questioned upon noticing the subtle, slamming-noise that was currently emitting from within the barn.

       “I don’t know…” Steven replied before cautiously pushing one of the barn’s doors open only to reveal that Andy was currently slamming what appeared to be a sack of potatoes against the back wall of the barn with a deranged look on his face.

       “U-Uncle Andy? W-What are you doing?” Steven timidly questioned his uncle. Andy quickly halted his act of rage at the sound of his nephew’s voice and hid the sack of potatoes behind his back.

       “W-Well, ya see? I was just uh…smashin’ up these here potatoes so I could bring ya some mashed-potatoes for your party…” The older man lied with a small blush of embarrassment plastered across his still-scowling countenance.

       “Uncle Andy…Are you okay?” Steven questioned his uncle out of concern.

       “Whata ya talkin’ about?! Of course I’m okay! Hey, it’s pretty cold out here; whata ya doin’ all the way over here anyway? I thoughtcha had some kinda huge party to host or somethin’…” Andy lied before quickly changing the subject.

       “Well, little Steven just wanted to check up on you and wish you a Happy Holidays.” Pearl nervously answered for Steven, who was still concerned for his uncle.

       “IT’S CHRISTMAS! WHAT’S WRONG WITH SAYIN’, ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’?! YA SAY, ‘MERRY CHRISTMAS’, NOT, ‘HAPPY HOLIDAYS’ LIKE SOME KINDA…!” Andy began to rant as he leaned against the back wall but his rant was cut short when he had accidentally fallen through a secret, back door that Peridot had recently installed. Andy let out a high-pitched scream of surprise as he was sent tumbling, outside, into the snow, behind the barn.

       “Uncle Andy!” Steven gasped.

       “Oh my stars!” Pearl gasped as she used her superhuman, Gem speed to rush to Andy’s aid. She leapt from the top of the steps that were meant to lead to Peridot’s secret, back door from the outside and landed on top of Andy, provoking a grunt from the older man.

       “Are you okay?!” Pearl shouted into his ear, causing him to cringe as Steven finally caught up to them.

       “I was until ya broke my stinkin’-ribs and busted my eardrum! Now get offa me!” Andy growled as Pearl nervously climbed off of the angry human.

       “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Here, let me help you up.” Pearl nervously offered only to have her hand smacked away by Andy.

       “GET AWAY FROM ME! YA PUSHED ME! Agh! There’s snow in my mouth! What’d they put that door there for?!” Andy complained as he picked himself up from the cold, icy ground and brushed the snow from his jacket.

       “No, we didn’t! We didn’t push you!” Pearl nervously defended as she once again reached over to help the older man.

       “DON’T TOUCH ME! I-I’ll call the law if ya touch me…” Andy threatened, backing away a bit. After Peridot and Lapis had attacked him, he was understandably hesitant to trust any of the other Gems just yet.

       “Uncle Andy, calm down!” Steven cried, finally calming his uncle’s rage.

       “We just wanted to make sure you weren’t alone on Christmas…” Pearl added. Andy merely frowned, appearing to regret his previous outburst as Steven ran down the back steps and made his way over to Andy to hug his leg.

       “Please come spend Christmas with us, Uncle Andy…” Steven begged as he looked up at his uncle with saddened, pleading eyes.

       “Fine…” Andy sighed in defeat, giving in to his nephew’s guilt-trip.

       “Yay!” Steven cheered before he, Pearl and his uncle all made their way over to the nearest Warp-pad. Meanwhile, back at the Temple, Greg and the remaining Gems had finally finished putting up the last of the Christmas decorations.

       “I hope Steven got through to Andy okay…” Greg sighed when the Warp-pad suddenly activated, transferring Steven, Pearl and Andy to the Temple.

       “MERCY OF KILLER! GET ME OFFA THIS THING! HOLY COW! I’M GONNA WET MY PANTS!” Andy shrieked, still clinging to Steven.

       “Uncle Andy, you’re fine!” Steven reassured.

       “NO, I’M NOT!” Andy cried.

       “I guess he’s not used to the Warp-pad yet…” Pearl giggled with a nervous shrug.

       “Here, Uncle Andy; why don’t you help us make another batch of Christmas cookies since Amethyst ate all the other ones?” Steven offered with a warm smile as he helped his uncle down from the Warp-pad.

       “Gee, I dunno, kid; I ain’t really used to bakin’ things…” Andy nervously replied.

       “Aw, they don’t have to be perfect just as long as I get to bond with you!” Steven grinned, provoking a small, warm smile from Andy as well.

       “Hey, Andy! Heads up!” Amethyst warned before tossing an egg in Andy’s general direction. Andy shrieked in surprise and caught the egg then flashed Amethyst and unamused-glare once he realized that it had only been a hard, boiled egg she had tossed at him. Amethyst then began to point and laugh at the annoyed, older man.

       So Steven, Andy and Pearl all began to bake the next batch of cookies. While Andy and Steven chatted with each other to catch up on each other’s lives, Pearl merely focused on her baking. That was until she and Andy both reached for the same cookie-cutter, accidentally embracing each other’s hands. The two made eye-contact with each other upon feeling the unexpected-sensation as a blush slowly began to rise over the bridges of both of their noses, in unison. Pearl had never noticed this before, up until now but she realized that Andy was actually fairly attractive.

       He had certainly aged better than Greg did and maybe it was because he actually did grow up instead of attempting to keep his younger appearance. Andy himself, took notice to how beautiful Pearl really was despite being an alien.

       “I-I’m sorry…” Pearl apologized once she realized how long their hands had been touching as she shyly pulled hers away, not wanting to get shouted at by the easily, angered human again.

       “Nah, it’s alright; don’t worry about it…” Andy reassured as he straitened out the lapel of his jacket. His train of thought was interrupted however, when he suddenly felt the sensation of hot air blowing up, underneath his shirt, followed by a cold, wet nose pressing against his bare skin.

       “What the heck?!” Andy exclaimed out of surprise as he quickly whipped around to see that Lion was curiously sniffing him. Andy of course screamed at the sight of a lion in his nephew's house as he clung to Pearl, provoking a small smirk from the former, servant Gem.

       “Uncle Andy, it’s okay! Lion’s harmless!” Steven reassured.

       “WHY THE HECK IS IT PINK?!” Andy demanded, immediately glaring at Greg.

       “W-We really don’t know; he used to be my mom’s…” Steven nervously replied.

       “Oh! Oh! I see what this is…” Andy scowled in disapproval, getting the wrong idea.

       “Andy, can I talk to you for a minute?!” Greg growled between gritted teeth as he firmly took ahold of his cousin’s arm. Greg could tell that Andy was about to say something offensive to his son so he was quick to pull him aside, into the other room to have a talk with him about his behavior. For an entire hour, Steven and the Gems were forced to listen to the two, human cousins arguing from the other room. Pearl soon began to cringe, in discomfort as a majority of the argument was mostly Greg yelling harsh insults at Andy. Since she had gone through a similar situation with Garnet for wanting nothing more than to fuse with her, the former, servant Gem could not help but sympathize with the human.

       “Well, if that’s the way ya feel, then maybe I should just leave!” Andy shouted as he stormed out of the room. As he stormed past Pearl to make his way over to the Temple’s front-door, Pearl could clearly make out tears welling up within the human’s hazel eyes and threatening to gush out at any, given moment.

       “Andy, wait! I didn’t mean it! Come back! You’ll catch your death out there!” Greg called out to his cousin, quickly regretting what he had said to him as Andy angrily swung open the front-door.

       “That’s a good idea! Maybe I’ll just go out there and die so none of yous guys has to put up with me anymore!” Andy shouted before storming out of the Temple and slamming the front-door, behind him. Pearl shot a disapproving-glare toward Greg then toward Garnet before heading out into the cold to search for Andy. A blizzard seemed to be picking up as sharp, cold snowflakes pelted the Gem’s face, obscuring her vision.

       “Andy?! Andy, come back, please! I know what it’s like to be alone on the Holidays! I too have lost someone close to me, somebody I cared about enough to leave everything else behind for and I’ve also been yelled at by someone I care for, the exact same way Greg yelled at you! Please come back, Andy! You don’t have to be alone!

       I don’t want to be alone either! Just come back inside and we can spend the Holidays together!” Pearl called out to Andy, over the roaring winds. Just then, the blizzard seemed to have calmed down as if on cue and Pearl could now clearly see Andy, who was standing a few feet away from her with his back turned to her.

       “Ya know? My mom died of a heart-attack on Thanksgivin’ then my dad crashed his plane and died on impact Christmas mornin’…Me and Greg got in that huge fight…” Andy explained as his voice began to crack.

       “I-It’s gotten to a point where I start waitin’ for bad stuff to happen around this time of year, ya know? Stuff just like this…” Andy sniffled as he turned back around to face Pearl, revealing the tears that were now cascading down his cheeks.

       “I’ll never let anything bad happen to you ever again…I promise…” Pearl reassured as she reached up to wipe a few tears from the older man’s face. Just then, Andy pulled the former, servant Gem into a tight embrace and delivered a passionate-kiss to her lips, tears still flowing freely from his tightly, closed eyes as he did so. Pearl’s eyes widened in surprise at the sudden-kiss but then her eyes slowly fluttered shut as she just as passionately returned the kiss, wrapping her arms around her new lover. The new couple’s passionate-moment was interrupted by a small squeal of excitement, however as the two pulled away from each other with a small gasp of surprise only to see Steven standing there, staring at them with stars in his eyes and his hands on his cheeks.

                                                                                         THE END…