Chapter Text
It was not long before Nora Universe celebrated her first birthday, and it was made sure to be something memorable. By this time, Spinel had been able to accept and move on from what she's learned about Pink Diamond and put her energy into giving this child a happy life as she deserved. It had balloons, cake, streamers, and some repetitive but still enjoyable music, and everyone that Nora had gotten to know in her first year of life was there!
At that time, Peridot had worked up the courage to inform Lapis of the depth of her feelings for her and ask if she was alright with it. In response, she received a cute kiss on the lips and was informed Lapis already felt the same way for some time and just didn't know the best way to come out and say it. So, when they came to Nora's first birthday, they were both fitting pretty nicely into that 'fun aunt' category.
Off to the side, the Gems continued to do vigorous work on the Drill that could get them closer to this Cluster so they could do what they must to make sure it doesn't end up causing damage to the Earth. It was coming along quite nicely, although the thought that perhaps someone with Pink Diamond-esque powers was going to be essential for this did not slip the green Gem's mind.
However, Peridot wasn’t going to try and rush this just because it was an important matter. Even if they were going to grow up to be different people, she had a feeling Steven and Nora’s powers would still develop at the same rate, so it would be until around her fourteenth birthday to be able to make that kind of journey. Luckily, that gave them plenty of time to perfect things.
It was at half a year old that the first gem-glow incident occurred, although it wasn’t as big of an event as it may sound- she simply seemed to particularly enjoy her formula. Still, it did lay down the foundation for her to one day be a master with these crazy powers inside of her.
Soon, Nora Universe took her first steps and spoke her first word- that word being “Dad,” as accurately predicted by Garnet. Although, with reluctant approval from Greg, Peridot had been trying to teach her how to say the word “clod.” While the other Gems didn’t entirely approve, the father was fine with it, remarking that technically it wasn’t really a curse word.
It was at a year-and-a-half that Nora began to say the names of her other family members. First name Pearl, being the shortest of the names and thus the easiest to remember, although often she’d mispronounce it as “Pool” for humorous results; Garnet’s name came shortly after, followed by Spinel (who was given the affectionate nickname of Spinny which brought tears to her eyes); Lapis’s name would come next, with the addition of Lazuli being quite a hard feat; Bismuth would come next, and after that, Peridot finally heard her own name uttered, and she was able to forgive the short period of time she referred to her as simply Pea; finally, Amethyst’s name was spoken- the relatively young Gem didn’t get offended to be the last of the names, knowing her name had the most syllables and thus would be the toughest for her to master.
At two years old, she began to speak in actual sentences- they started out pretty simple, but eventually Nora was able to hold some coherent conversations. She was already showing interest in reading and learning, so it was lucky there were so many of them around at any given time to indulge her in those interests. Whenever they didn’t have a corrupted Gem to poof and bubble, they’d take some time to give the youngest Crystal Gem some entertainment and education.
By the time she got to four years of age, she was able to speak a lot more fluently, and because of the Gems’s encouragement, she began to show an interest in music. Her singing voice was pretty pleasant to hear, and she seemed to have a bit of interest in playing the piano. It wasn’t the instrument Peridot expected, but she had no complaints.
At age six, she was given permission from Greg to go around town with a supervisor, due to how eager she was to get to know everyone. Beach City had a pretty small population at this point, but there were still some folks to greet- mainly the offspring of the runners of Beach City’s fine-dining establishments. Soon, pretty much everybody knew of her friendly ways.
When Nora got to nine years, she began to show interest in the history of Gems- mainly because she heard someone casually remark about them being from outer space, and the questions wouldn’t stop from there. Of course, Greg was not ready for Nora to start engaging in any missions, but he did give allowance to take her to places of significance to Gem culture as long as they weren’t dangerous. Soon she became acquainted with Strawberry Battlefield (and given a short explanation of the Gem War without getting into the nitty-gritty), the Sky Arena (where she admired the expert fighting skills of her Gem Guardians), and with the approval of the others, the garden belonging to Pink Diamond, who soon was known as her mother.
Yes, they told her about the truth of her mother, not wanting to leave her in the dark like they were for so long. Of course, their own feelings of the situation were complicated, so they had to find a gentle way to explain it.
Nora Universe soon began to know her mom as a very complicated figure, making a lot of bad decisions for what she saw as right, and managing to make some good out of it. She learned that she was to blame and to thank for a lot of things in her life, including bringing her into existence, of course. Despite all these complicated parts, she still altogether wishes she could’ve met her mom. The concept of why she couldn’t exist with her did not fully click yet, and it was hard to find the right ways to explain it.
(Peridot had yet to learn where Rose kept that VHS tape containing her more personal explanation.)
By age ten, she was fully capable of getting around town on her own, and while previously she had been seen holding the hand of a Gem to make sure nobody tried to attack, she was trusted to know the right people to talk to and the right roads to walk down. The Big Donut became a regular destination for her, seeing Lars as a good friend and getting to see him far more often than she had in the previous years.
At the age of eleven, a parade had been thrown for whatever reason, and the Gems put a brief hold on their drill construction to create a float celebrating their own protection of the town. They offered Nora a place on the float, but she had already agreed to be apart of Greg’s car-wash float as a giant sponge. While there, she saw a cute girl, and while she didn’t get to talk to her (too shy and too preoccupied), she did manage to find her glow-bracelet.
Starting age twelve, a lot of events occurred that would turn things upside down for everyone. That'd be far, far too much to just skim through, though.