By Your Side: Steven Universe x Reader

A/n: Here's a bit of clarification for those who need it!

(G/c)= gem color
(G/n)= gem name
(H/c)= hair color
(H/l)= hair length
(E/c)= eye color
(F/c)= favorite color
(F/t)= favorite taste

Enjoy the chapter!!

-(Y/n)'s POV-

My mind was a poorly articulated mess.

Steven's glowing sessions were a growing concern on my mental checklist of "Things (Y/n) Worries Will Hurt Steven". It's a working title. In the short time that I've been his bodyguard, the list grew to the point where I needed to start categorizing the points by how naughty or nice they were and check it twice. Maybe I should give a present to the worries that ultimately turned out okay while I'm at it.

I shook my head, wishing to dislodge my chaotic thoughts. The nightmares must be getting to me, I thought. They wouldn't have bothered me as much if they didn't rob me of the sleep I yearned for. I couldn't return to a life of constant consciousness after tasting the peaceful nostalgia of slumber.

Since I didn't know much about Steven's glowing–with it being so inconsistent and all– it hadn't been my top priority. Now it was, and I didn't know any more than I did before.

I watched Steven through the camera lens as he filmed his commercial for Little Home School. Moving away from the viewfinder, I could see him walking toward the group of gems who'd volunteered to help us while addressing the camera. The Steven on the small screen was the familiar, smiling idol I had to share with millions of other gems. Complicated feelings swirled in my gut as I took in the real-life Steven. Unfamiliar, emotionally reserved, and the most wonderful thing to enter my life. His public image wasn't a lie. That was Steven. But there were moments when he couldn't be the smiling figure everyone adored– and that's Steven, too.

A Steven I adored.

"And cut!" Steven announced and ran toward me and the camera. "Thanks for helping update our commercial, guys."

"Of course," I said, trying not to barf all my feelings on him.

"I'm an actor," Little Larimar said matter-of-factly.

"Well, soon you'll be hearing the cheers of your beloved fans," I said with a smile.

Little Larimar grinned back. "I can't wait to hear the human screams!"

Oh boy. Maybe I shouldn't feed into his love for human screams... I thought.

Steven saved me from having to respond. "I'll get this home and do some editing." He picked up the tripod and was about to stuff it into his orange duffel bag with the camera still fixed on top.

"Wait a sec, Steven," I said and carefully detached the camera from the tripod. "Don't want this to get damaged." I unzipped the camera case resting against my hip from its crossbody strap and secured it there.

Steven raised his eyebrows. "Where did that come from?" he asked.

"I took it with. Just in case," I said simply.

Because who knows when another incident will happen, I added in my head. It's finally an era of peace, but every day there's some sort of rough-housing that wasn't camera-friendly. Like extra-extreme volleyball or chasing down gems who didn't fully understand Earth lingo. The other day, Steven, Garnet, and I had to stop a couple of Lapis Lazuli from flooding the boardwalk because they didn't know how else to help the kid whose pants were supposedly on fire... They couldn't see any fire but wanted to be safe rather than sorry.