Chapter Text
“Garnet!” A voice, a bit too shrill, “Don’t run so fast! You might exacerbate his crack!”
Crack? The sudden loud voice shakes Steven out from what feels like an awful night of sleep, and he awakens to himself being carried bridal style by Garnet. He can barely make out her expression through the inky blackness in the corner of his eyes, but he can feel his shirt getting wetter as she runs.
Suddenly, a jolt of pain reverberates through his body, causing him to give out a small yelp in response. It felt as if he was being pulled apart and put together within seconds.
Garnet notices the small cry and slows down, “We’re almost there, Steven. Just take a rest.” Her voice, warm and reassuring, makes Steven relax and his eyelids flutter shut once again.
---
He awakes suddenly once again; this time being awoken by water in his face. He opens his eyes and sees Pearl, Garnet and Amethyst staring down at him, tears in their eyes. Talk about déjà vu. Particularly, they were staring at his naval, where his gem is. His head pounds a little as he rasps something out, “Guys…?”
The three gems’ heads jerk up at the sound of his voice and upon realising that he had woken up, they tearfully pull him into an embrace. Their relief crashes into Steven like a tsunami, and he silently leans deeper into their arms.
When they finally let go, is when Steven dares to ask anything. “What happened to me?” He asks, finding his voice a little too quiet.
The three gems exchange glances. “You don’t remember?” Pearl is the first to pipe up, “We found you, unconscious and …,” She winces, “…Cracked out in the strawberry fields.”
A faint scent of the ocean and rotten strawberries, a faint memory of being left out to die, ebbs and flows in his mind. His eyes shoot to his gem. His shirt is torn, leaving his stomach exposed. A faint line across one of the pink facets greets him and bile suddenly gathers in his throat. His fingers hover hesitantly over the gem.
“Di-Did Mom’s fountain not work?” Steven looks pointedly at the gems, voice cracking with worry.
As Garnet turns to face the fountain on their left, she recalls stoically, “Your Mother’s fountain did heal the crack that was in your gem.” She turns back to Steven, sunglasses dematerializing, “But a faint line remained.”
Steven glances down and absent-mindedly touches his gem, finding what Garnet said to be true; he couldn’t feel any cracks on the pink gemstone. If it weren’t for the faint line on his gem, one could barely tell it had been cracked before.
“Forget the line for now, dude. Do you feel fine?” Amethyst breaks him out of his reverie, “Any weird gem problems? Any glitchy feelings?”
His form has been fine for the past 10 minutes, so one other thing to check… Steven extends an arm in front of him and a shield – smooth and perfect – manifests with ease.
They all heave a sigh of relief. “You really had us worried, Steven!” Pearl frantically sputters out, “When you left on that diplomatic mission and didn’t return the day after, we tried not to immediately assume the worst, but when the Diamonds told us you never even reached Pluto’s atmosphere, we had to find you.”
“-And then we found you, in that field, dazed and cracked,” Amethyst continues, with her own level of panic, “You couldn’t even heal yourself dude.” She blinks away tears.
“So, we brought you to the one place that could,” Garnet finishes the story, visor materialising over her glossy eyes.
Steven puts a hand to his head, trying to corroborate what the gems said. But his mind feels as if it had replaced with cotton and his memories of the event barely comes up in his mind. Something else pops up instead.
“The diplomatic mission!”, Steven yells out, “I-I still haven’t talked to those Agates on Pluto’s colony!” His eyebrows furrow as he tries to think of the fastest route to the planet, “Maybe I could get Lars to-“
Noticing his eye bags under his eyes, Garnet firmly interrupts, “Maybe you should get some rest. We’ll let the Diamonds know you are out of commission.”
Steven knows deep down he cannot object, and the soreness from the strawberry field event comes back in waves to warn him as well. “I guess some rest would be nice,” Steven smiles, but his brows are still knitted under a mop of curly hair.
As they head towards the warp, Steven glances at his gem once more, the line on its facet etching into his mind. Nothing to worry about. He steels himself and warps them effortlessly.
—-
Upon returning to the house, the rest of the gems and Connie quickly rush him to bed and promptly start a health check up on him. The anxiousness and worry in the room made guilt bubble within Steven, a feeling he thought he had gotten rid of many moons ago.
“Nothing seems to be out of order here,” Peridot mumbles as she circles Steven on her trash can lid, occasionally writing words on a clipboard, “I mean- nothing other than that faint line or scratch on your gem, which is unprecedented.” She points a pen at Steven’s naval prompting the surrounding gems to glance at each other nervously.
“Maybe it’s a scar!” Connie offers worriedly, “You know how when humans get injured, they get a scar sometimes?”
Peridot retorts before Pearl can, “Yeah, but Gems don’t get scars. Ideally, we shouldn’t be getting our gems cracked in the first place, but when they get healed, they should return to their original, immaculate form.”
“Especially a Diamond…,” Pearl muses, a twinge of nostalgia in her voice.
“Then, perhaps, it’s a human thing,” Eyes fall on Steven as his still raspy voice pipes up. The sudden attention makes him slightly nervous but he continues, “... So nothing to worry about?” He removes some of the nodes from his arms (much to Peridot’s annoyance) as he slowly tries to get off the bed, “Besides, I’ve gotta go to the Pluto colony as planned…”
Garnet steps silently in front of Steven, arms folded, “You’re not going until you tell us what happened.” Garnet’s voice is stern yet warm.
Steven winces and he notices everyone looking to him with the same questioning eyes. He knows he’s not getting out of here until he says something, anything. “I really don’t remember,” He starts quietly, shaking his head, “The last thing I remember is warping and the next thing is being carried by Garnet.”
“Aw dude, you must have been roughed up really bad,” Amethyst grimaces, “They even ruined your organic shirt.” She states and points at Steven’s shredded black shirt.
“Wait… I recognise those shreds.” Lapis suddenly speaks up, walks over and grasps the shreds in her hands, “This is the work of a Lapis Lazuli.”
Pearl clasps her hands over her mouth, “You don’t mean…”
“The Lapis Lazulis that were with Jasper.” Garnet finishes through gritted teeth. “I knew we should have finished them off when we had the chance.” She heads towards the door, “Gems, let’s go and look for them. We can’t let them stay out there unchecked.” With sounds of affirmation and determination, all the gems leave the room, leaving Connie and Steven behind.
Connie sees Steven still sitting on the side of the bed, eyes fixated on the door. She silently sits next to him on the bed, and wordlessly holds his hand.
“So… The gems say your gem was really cracked,” Connie starts softly, “How are you feeling now?”
She feels his grip on her hand tighten a little and watches as he flops onto the bed, “Other than my head feeling like white noise? Fine, actually.” He sighs a little and lets go of Connie’s hand.
Connie glances over at her best friend as he laid on the bed; his hair and shirt are disheveled and the faint line on his qu- diamond gem is hard to ignore. She notices his face tense up and then watches as he places balled up hands to his face.
“Ugh! If Lapis is right, and those Lapis Lazulis really did catch me off-guard, it means I’m still not prepared in helping the world!” He yells, voice muffled underneath his tense fists.
“Don’t say that!” Connie retorts, hand slightly slamming onto the bed, “You’ve done so much these past few years, don’t let this one mistake bring you down.” She takes one of his fists and laces their fingers together. Her face forms something between a pout and angry determination.
Steven can’t help his face from flushing red and he squeezes her hand in return, a small smile on his lips, “You always know the best words to say.”
Connie’s heart swells, and she leans over to give him a peck on the cheek. With the kiss, the pair dissolve into flustered giggles, which then turn into warm laughter on Steven’s bed.
Before they realise, Stevonnie is left laughing by themself on his bed.
“Oh! We’re,” Stevonnie sits up on the bed, a smile still on their face, “I’m me.”
They stand up and stretch their arms over their back, “It’s been a while! With Steven being so busy and all, we barely had any time to form Stevonnie for fun!” With that, they take a step forward - only to be plunged into what seems to be a blue and endless void.
The mindscape.
They glance around the area, taken aback, “I-I thought we got over this, why are we back here aga-” Their words are cut short as they lock eyes with a figure glowing bright pink. “Oh.” They breath out the word like the wind had been knocked out of them. The same view that they had seen that day, years ago, on homeworld; Pink Steven.
Unconsciously, Stevonnie makes their way towards the looming figure, seemingly mesmerized by him. Pink Steven does the same, eyes unfeeling as he marches towards the fusion. The silence pounds in their ears with every step they take.
When they meet, Stevonnie raises a hand, and Pink Steven does the same. They are much taller than what Steven was years ago, and the pink entity has to lift his hand above his head to reach theirs. Before both of their fingers make contact, Steven and Connie both fall apart onto the wooden floor in Steven’s house.
“Steven…” Connie’s voice is barely a whisper, “I thought we agreed you were gonna tell the gems.”
Steven is sitting, back facing her, arms around his legs as he shrugs, “I guess I forgot?”
“You’re telling me, Steven, who remembers everyone’s favourite pizza topping, forgot to tell the gems this important detail?” Connie presses, doubt spilling out of her voice.
Steven tightens his grip on his jeans for a few minutes before swirling around and facing Connie, tears in his eyes, “I can’t tell them! We’ve made so much progress with White and the other diamonds…”
His voice cracks as he continues, “I-If I tell them what White Diamond did to me back then, we might lose all of it!” He swings an arm out, seeming to gesture at the house and Little Homeworld in the distance.
“But Steven,” Connie scoots closer to him, her hands balled into fists on the wooden floor, “This - bottling up what you feel - it isn’t healthy.”
Steven lingers on her last statement, and he considers pushing it into the recesses of his mind. He doesn’t do it this time. “It isn’t,” He admits, remembering their lessons with Garnet, “I’ll tell the gems as soon as this Lapis situation blows over. I don’t want this to add to their worries.”
“Promise me you’ll tell them,” Connie’s knuckles whiten as she tightens them further.
This time, Steven is the one who takes her hands and looks into her eyes, “Promise.” With that, Connie pulls him into a hug, in which he reciprocates in relief. As they embrace, Steven’s heart stops for a second as his eyes follow a white butterfly fluttering across the room.