Purple And Pink

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day. The key to the ignition that was morning. Steven treasured breakfast. He adored it. Valued it. Held it in the highest regard a human (and gem) could. Breakfast was sacred.

Or at least, it was, until Amethyst sauntered into the kitchen.

The purple gem partaking of breakfast was nothing new. Even when she didn't really need to eat, she loved doing so, just for the sake of doing it. It wasn't unusual to see her scouring the kitchen at any hour of the day in search of different ways to defy the rules of gems and food. There was a can of motor oil still in the fridge (did it even need to be, he pondered) that he was sure she'd go for.

Imagine his surprise when instead, she grabbed the milk, a bowl, a spoon, and a box of Cookie Cat Flakes, whipping together a quick, ordinary, perfectly normal bowl of cereal. Steven watched, stunned, forkful of pancake halfway to his slacked jaw, as Amethyst ate, quite possibly, the only normal meal he'd seen her eat in years.

Mentally, he congratulated her. Or he would've, had she not chosen that moment to rest her feet--her bare feet--on the table.

Steven wrinkled his nose at the sight and smell. Amethyst was never one for decorum, to Pearl's eternal chagrin. Feet on the table was the latest in her flouting of decency. He didn't understand why she did it, it's not like her feet needed to breathe (or so he figured). "Could you not do that?" pouted Steven.

Amethyst shifted her gaze to Steven as she chomped down another spoonful of cereal. "Do what?"

He wrinkled his nose again, gesturing to Amethyst's feet. "Feet on the table? It's kinda..."

'Gross.'

"...rude."

The purple gem rolled her eyes and scoffed. "Seriously, Steve-o? Has Pearl gotten to you or something? It's just feet. It's not like I'm stepping on your pancakes." The mental image of her big, sweaty foot stomping on his breakfast was almost enough to put him off his food.

Almost.

"'Sides, think of it this way." She smiled as she wriggled her toes, moving her feet a few inches towards Steven. "You get breakfast and a show!"

For the third time, Steven wrinkled his nose. "Ha, ha. Seriously, could you get them off the table? I'm trying to eat. And it's really hard."

Amethyst let out a snort of laughter and batted her eyelashes at Steven. "Oh, it's

really hard

, is it?"

It took a few seconds to click, and when it did, Steven, cheeks burning red, sputtered indignantly. "Th-That's! I mean, I didn't want it to...you know what I meant!"

"

Do

I?" teased Amethyst, batting her eyelashes and wiggling her toes again. "You're a growing boy, after all, and what is it that goes crazy at your age? Hormones, right? Going wild at the sight of my feet?"

"No, that...no! Are you crazy?"

Amethyst shrugged. "Hey, you're the one being all weird about my feet, dude. You could've moved to the couch or your room or something, but here you are, sticking around for them."

She moved her foot closer, prompting Steven to wrinkle his nose yet again. He wanted to shoot back a reply, but just as one formed, the smell of Amethyst's feet wafted over to him. Steven wasn't exactly what could be called a feet connoisseur. He'd never smelled any before, so had no frame of reference. But Amethyst's scent was definitely something that could be called 'unique.' A cheesy corn chip smell with a bit of vinegar and...grape soda?

"You're crazy."

"Crazy

awesome

." boasted Amethyst. "Tell you what, if you give 'em a sniff, I'll take my feet off the table."

This time, Steven openly showed his disgust. "What!? Gross! No way! I'm not gonna smell your stinky feet!"

Amethyst gasped, putting a hand to her chest in mock offense. "'Stinky!?' Oh, that huuurts, Steven! You never tell a girl that she smells bad, that's etiquette 101!"

"Even if it's true?" scoffed Steven. "And what do

you

know about etiquette, Miss Feet-On-The-Table?"

"Well, no one's perfect. But my feet sure are!" She moved one closer to Steven, close enough he could see the chipped black nail polish on her toes.

Steven was starting to lose both appetite and patience the more he was exposed to Amethyst's feet. Gathering up his fork, knife, and plate of pancakes, he huffed as he headed upstairs, ignoring Amethyst's teasing demands of "C'mon, Steven, just one little sniff!"

-/-/-/-/-

Pandora's Box had been opened, and the contents were purple, wide, and stinky, with chipped black nail polish. Ever since the 'Breakfast Incident', Amethyst had taken up a new hobby; using her feet to mess with Steven.

At first, he could handle it. It was just light teasing, prodding him with questions/offers about her feet. "You

suuuure

you don't wanna smell them?" or "C'mon, just one quick sniff, you won't regret it!" or "So what did they smell like to you?"

For a while, Steven was able to ignore it all, despite being continually annoyed by her antics. Amethyst being Amethyst, after all. Pearl would be too disgusted to intervene, and Garnet knew this was something the two would have to work out by themselves (and she was also curious to see how things would develop).

Then the teasing moved up from verbal. Steven would be at the dinner table, trying to enjoy a meal, when Amethyst would slide her foot up Steven's leg, making him jump. When he was on the couch trying to watch a movie, she'd sit right next to him and plop her feet on his lap, prompting him to move the second he caught that first whiff and earning a round of cackles from the purple gem. Not even his room could provide sanctuary, as when he tried to de-stress with some video games, Amethyst crawled onto the bed, letting her feet dangle on either side of Steven's face as she 'innocently' asked "Whatcha playin'?" It was quite jarring to suddenly go from clean air to the cloying scent of cheesy gem feet.

Needless to say, Steven was sleeping with one eye open for a while. Especially when he woke up in the middle of the night to see Amethyst resting her feet on his face. And for a while, things seemed to settle down.

Until the socks.

Truthfully, Steven didn't know how he missed the very noticeable change of Amethyst wearing socks. It could've been because he was doing all he could to avoid looking at her feet for fear of more of her teasing. And somehow, Amethyst had anticipated that, and was using his paranoia to further her own warped desire. Begrudgingly, he had to admit she played a good game of mental chess.

She'd taken to leaving a single black sock around the house, usually in places where Steven would be sure to find it so long as he went about his day. In the cupboard, on his bookshelf, by his game console, draped across his figurines like a shroud. Once he found one in the microwave, and after stowing it away, had to awkwardly explain to Pearl when she walked in what the smell was, and that no, he wasn't making nachos.

One day, Steven had woken up to an all-too-familiar, cheesy corn-chip smell. Angrily blinking himself awake, he was ready to give Amethyst the "Oh, come on!" of the century, only to realize she wasn't there.

But a single, worn, sweat-crusted sock was, falling from his face as he rose. It could've been a second, it could've been a minute, it could've been ten years, Steven wasn't sure, but there was a period of silence between seeing the sock and realizing where it came from.

"Amethyst!"

"You rang?" Steven turned to see Amethyst peering over the railing, a Cheshire grin on her face. Before Steven could say a word, she exclaimed. "Oh,

there's

my missing sock!"

She pulled herself over, scampering over to the irate Steven, who noticed that she was, indeed, absent a sock. "I've been looking all over for it! But why do you have it?" Her grin widened. "Were you doing something

bad

with it?"

"No! Why do you even--you don't even wear socks!"

"Yeah, I do!" She plopped onto Steven's bed, extending her socked foot directly into his face. "Seeeeeeeee?"

Steven's hand immediately flew to cover his nose as he tried to block out the smell. "Yeah, I see! WHY are you wearing socks!?"

Amethyst extended her other foot, wiggling her toes, showing off the little beads of sweat dribbling down. "Duh, my feet get sweaty! And I love these things, they're like napkins for your feet." She winked. "Want the other one?"

"I don't want

this

one!" snapped Steven as he tossed the garment back to Amethyst. "Stop leaving your socks around!"

"Fiiiiiiiiine, Mr. Grumpy."

And true to her word, Amethyst stopped 'leaving' her socks around.

The next day, Steven woke up to Amethyst's sweaty boot over his nose like a mask.

-/-/-/-/-

He'd had enough. Beyond enough. If enough were a height, it would be the Space Needle. For weeks now Steven had been on guard, squared up in preparation for whatever devious, foot-based prank Amethyst had lying in store. A sock in his cereal bowl was a step too far--pun intended.

Grabbing the offending piece of footwear, he stomped over to Amethyst, who was sitting in front of the TV, munching on a bowl of popcorn, like she didn't have a care in the world.

Steven stood directly in front of the TV, moving when she did so her view remained obstructed. "Hey, c'mon, Steve-o, I'm trying to watch!"

Glowering, Steven held up the sock. "In my cereal?

Really!?

"

To his fury, Amethyst grinned. "Hey, I thought cereal always came with a prize in the box."

Steven mentally counted to ten before he tossed the sock to the ground. "I've had enough!"

Amethyst grinned, folding her arms behind her head. "Oh? Should I start wearing pantyhose?"

"No! No pantyhose, no stockings, no thigh-highs, nothing on your feet, nothing to

do

with your feet! This ends now!"

The purple gem's grin widened, and she batted her eyelashes at Steven. "Or what?"

He blinked. "Wha?"

"You and I both know I can keep this up for a

looooong

time. I'm like, the queen of messing with people."

"...Yeah, that's true." He sighed in defeat, rubbing his temples. "What do I have to do to make you stop all this? Seriously, I'll do anything." A pause. "Except watch that housewives show with you again."

"

Anything

, huh?"

"Within. Reason." said the brunette firmly.

Looking like the cat that caught the canary, Amethyst shut off the TV, scooted down the couch, and patted the empty space next to her. Already feeling like this was going to be an absolute ordeal, Steven groaned and sat.

"You don't have to do much," Amethyst purred, swinging her legs up to rest her feet in Steven's lap. "Just whatever I want with my feet for an hour."

"

What!?

"

She shrugged. "It's this or the housewives show. Or I go back to my usual antics. I'm good any which way. Buuuuuuuuuut then you're basically admitting you like my whole Hide-and-Sock game." She giggled. "I just came up with that."

Steven didn't have to know the definition of 'Hobson's choice' to know he was in one. He let out a sigh, a long, weary one built up over the last few days of torment. "Fine. But after this, you stop being so weird." He paused. "At least with your feet."

"Sure, sure." Amethyst lifted her feet up in front of Steven's face, wiggling her toes. "Let's start with some sniffing."

"...I really, really,

really

don't wanna do this..." moaned Steven.

"Just close your eyes and pretend I'm Connie."

Steven frowned, but said nothing as he slowly pulled Amethyst's feet towards his nose. Almost immediately, he started to gag. The smell was overpowering, the kind that he was certain would be stuck in his nose for hours. But it would be over soon. Just an hour and he'd be able to be free of Amethyst and her lunacy.

"C'mon, sniff deeper than that!" chided the purple gem. "Really

inhale

, dude!"

'Think of Connie, think of Connie, think of Connie...'

Though, as much as Steven tried to replace Amethyst with Connie in his head, her pungent feet always brought him back down to earth.

'Ugh, her feet stink so much...'

Amethyst, meanwhile, was having the time of her life. She pinched Steven's nose with her toes, and when she released him, she pressed the underside of her toes right against his nose just as he tried to get in fresh air. She sighed in bliss at the feel of air being drawn between her toes as he inhaled, giggled at the light, ticklish feeling when he sniffed her sole. When she first started teasing Steven, it was just to get a rise out of him because she was bored. But as she went on and got more creative, she figured she could get something out of it all. And how she loved being right.

"Okay," Amethyst said, her smile three miles long. "Now I want you to lick them."

"Are you...no way am I doing that!" snapped the brunette.

"Say, where'd I leave the remote..."

"Uuuuuhh,

fine

! But after this, I am

done

!"

"Heel to toe, please."

Keeping a few choice words to himself, Steven stuck out his tongue, slowly, trying to buy himself as much time as he could. But Amethyst was too eager, all but slamming her foot on Steven's tongue.

He held back a gag as the salty, clammy taste instantly spread across his tongue. Surprisingly, her soles were softer than he expected, only a trace of roughness he expected from the feisty tomboy. It didn't make what he had to do any better, as the combined taste and smell of her feet was sending his mind into a spiral. He coughed a few times, prompting a series of light, yet firm, slaps from Amethyst's feet, before he was able to collect himself.

"Niiiiiiiice tongue work, Steven. C'mon, be honest, did you do this before? With

Connie

?"

Steven glared hard at the gem. "Even if I did, and I'm not saying I

did

, that's none of your business."

"It's cool, it's cool, I just don't want her to get

jeal~ous

." Given the situation and Connie's own hygiene routine, she doubted she would.

Steven kept licking, pausing every now and then to come up for air, as Amethyst looked on with the proudest, most self-assured grin she could muster. She felt every inch like a queen, and all because she rested her feet on the table for breakfast one morning while Steven was eating.

Amethyst sighed in bliss as Steven's tongue flicked between her toes, followed by a small bout of him coughing. Maybe she would tell him an hour passed five minutes ago soon...maybe.

After

she made him suck her toes.

[END]