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As the feed was cut, Steven let out a sigh. While he was happy to help the Gem empire move forward, he had been on Homeworld longer than he intended. Gems were beginning to form their own identities with a few choosing to go to Earth to start new lives alongside the former corrupted gems.
White Diamond applauded Steven on another message well done with Blue and Yellow praising him for how far he’s come. And while Steven had been teaching the Diamonds how to be nicer to other life forms, they had been mentoring him on his progress with his powers. Specifically that of shapeshifting.
“While you may not be able to reach our heights, you should expect to at least be up to Pink’s,” Yellow said.
“Not that there would be anything wrong if you didn’t grow,” Blue said. “You’d still be adorable no matter your height.”
“Yes! Because your deformed shortness is what makes us love you so much among your other flaws!” White said in a tone that showed she was trying too hard.
Steven merely gave her an exasperated look, though his face was flushed red.
“Should I not have said shortness?” White asked.
“Okay, so, I want you guys to focus on avoiding using words that would hurt you when you describe others.”
“You’re leaving again?” Blue asked with a pleading look.
“I kind of have to. Besides, it might be better for me to focus my training back home,” Steven said.
“But we can give you an arena to use,” Yellow said.
“I promise I’ll be back soon,” Steven waved as he hopped onto the warp pad. “See ya!”
And with that he transported back home.
His new room had been nearly complete. The stairway to the room had been fixed up two months ago and he had moved his bed and a few shelves up to the room. With Steven getting older and the house needing repairs, Garnet, Pearl, Amethyst and Greg thought Steven would like a little privacy now at his age. While Steven politely tried to reject the offer, he was silently elated over the news.
He didn’t keep secrets like his mother, but he did want to be trusted to have his own space and having a room that was separated from view compared to the rest of the house was a good first step to that. Well, if you don’t count the room in the temple that is.
Perusing through one of the completed shelves that held books and manga was Connie. She looked over her shoulder and smiled as she ran up to greet Steven.
“Steven!” she hugged him as he returned the embrace. “How’s everything been going for you?”
“It’s been good,” Steven said. “The Diamonds are getting better at approaching others, but they could still use a little work.”
“You were gone a little longer this time around,” Connie pointed out as she pulled out from the embrace. “Has it been exhausting for you?”
Steven shook his head. “Nah. Oh, but I have been training and there’s something I want to show you.”
“Oh, how exciting!”
“But not here!” Steven said. “I’m gonna need a little room to show you.”
Connie chuckled. “Okay. Lead the way.”
The Crystal Gems had currently been on Little Homeworld to oversee the progress being made, leaving the beach to Steven and Connie. Steven had been more accepting of himself since the big confrontation with White. There were things he could love about himself and even with his flaws he knew he could always improve. But one thing that was still a sore spot for him was his height. He hadn’t grown much if at all the past year and he had just turned fifteen to boot.
He knew to be careful this time around with his shapeshifting, but the Diamonds were actually helpful in teaching him how to stay in one form for a longer period of time (and have his clothes shapeshift with his body). Not only that, but Steven found that he can do much more than just grow a foot or two.
Steven began to grow beyond his average height. He stopped by the time he reached Garnet’s height.
“Wow!” Connie looked at him amazed. “You can make yourself taller than before!”
“Oh, I can grow more,” Steven said as he grew an additional five feet. “Ta-Da!”
Connie clapped.
“And your clothes aren’t even ripping apart! Is that the highest height you can reach?”
Steven feigned a hum as he grew even taller than that. Connie had her mouth agape watching Steven grow further and further. The height he stopped at was about the size of the cliff next to the temple and house.
“Wow! That’s amazing!” Connie raised her arms in excitement and laughed.
Steven smiled and put his hand down in front of her. She hopped on and he held her up to his eye level. He adjusted himself so he could sit with his legs crossed on the sand.
“I didn’t know you could get this big!”
Steven chuckled. “Neither did I, but I really do learn something new everyday.”
Connie looked down, a warm sensation filling her as she was atop Steven’s palm.
“Hey, Steven, since you’re so big, are there things you can’t feel the same way compared to your average height?”
“Things like?” Steven asked in confusion.
“Hm...bring me closer.”
Steven did just that and Connie put her hands on his cheek and planted a kiss on him. Steven blushed as he moved her away to see her blushing back.
“Something like that?” She put a finger over her mouth in both embarrassment and in a flirtatious way.
Steven smiled at her. “Yeah. I can feel that.” He brought her close to his chest and while he could barely feel her hugging him, he felt it nonetheless and it was one of the best feelings in the universe.
He moved his legs so he could set her on his knee and they talked more about his time on Homeworld and Connie’s time between her lessons and helping with the development of Little Homeworld. They always kept each updated on the events occuring on Earth and Homeworld and more importantly, they made sure the other was doing well mentally.
Some time had passed and Connie was worried that Steven had stayed a giant for this long.
“Hey, Steven,” she said, grabbing a hold of his finger when it was within her reach. “Shouldn’t you be going back to your normal height now? What if you blow out like you did last time?”
“Oh right!” Steven said, picking Connie up from his knee and setting her down on the sand. “Guess I lost track of time. Okay, here we go.”
He closed his eyes to imagine himself back to his previous height. Except when he opened them, he could still see Connie below him and much tinier than him.
“Uh…,” he began to sweat. “Heh. Just kidding. I’m gonna shrink for reals this time.” He concentrated on becoming smaller to no avail. “Okay, now!” Still no luck. “Now!”
Connie looked at him with worry in her eyes and a frown.
“Do you want me to get the Gems?” She called up to him.
“No, I got it!” Steven didn’t understand. He had grown before and was able to revert back. Was it because he had stayed big for too long? He didn’t understand. Normally he’d have trouble if it was his first time using his powers, but on Homeworld he had practiced countless times.
Steven groaned in frustration. He put a hand behind his back, the ocean washing over it.
“I don’t get it! I should be at my normal size!”
“Steven, breathe,” Connie advised, taking slow steps towards him. “Remember. Just take a deep breath and relax.”
Steven nodded and breathed in through his nose and then out from his mouth.
“Okay. Let me think. The last time I did this, I was at Homeworld. Yellow, Blue, and White Diamond were there and watched my every step. Let’s see. To go back, I have to...I have to…,” Steven pondered. He looked at his hand that had been touched by the ocean. There were little specks of sand stuck to his palm, giving him the image of being small.
With another deep breath, Steven concentrated on turning small. His gem glowed, Connie looking at it in awe. Steven looked up at the sky, wanting to feel smaller.
“Woah!”
“Steven!”
Steven was shrinking down at a rapid rate. His worldview got bigger with every second as he felt himself pummeling down in height. When he stopped, his back hit the sand.
“Steven!” Connie’s voice called out to him.
“Connie!” Steven shouted back. He stood up and wiped the sand off his pants as he looked over and noticed the sand dunes were a lot bigger than he recalled. When he looked in the direction of the ocean, he saw larger waves as opposed to the small waves that would hit the beach. He realized, then, that he had become much too small.
“Oh bother,” he sighed before calling out to Connie again.
Connie finally heard his voice and saw that he was now small enough to fit in her hands.
“Steven!” She knelt down before him. From Steven’s view, Connie had become the size of a Diamond. She picked him up and held him close. “What happened? Why are you so small?”
“I don’t know,” Steven scratched the back of his head as he stood on Connie’s hands. “I just thought about wanting to feel small, but I guess I must have imagined myself too small.”
“Oh Steven,” Connie got up. “It’s okay. I know you can go back to your old size.”
Steven sighed slumping down on her hold.
“What’s wrong?” she looked at him in confusion.
“I don’t know if I’m doing this right,” Steven admitted. “I want to help, I do! But lately, I feel like I haven’t had time to really be me. The Diamonds are starting to be fair to others, gems are able to move forward with their lives, and no one’s tried to kill anybody for a whole year now! I know that’s a good thing, but what if I start to lose who I am.” Steven held his knees close to his chest. “And what if it starts with me not being able to go back to my height. I’ll either be too big or too small for the rest of my life.”
Connie hummed. “Well, then, if you’re too big, the Diamonds can tell you how their palace was built and we can go from there! And if you’re too small, then we can build you your own house inside your room! We’ll need the right materials, though. And I can learn how to make tiny food for you if you’re hungry and meals are too much for you to finish.”
Steven looked up at her.
“You mean it?”
“Of course I do.”
“But what if I keep going back and forth?”
“Then we can find you a new home that’s close by. We’ll install a warp pad if you’re too far away. And I’ll visit to keep you company!”
Steven smiled at her.
“No matter what happens, I’ll be here to support you,” she said.
Steven wrapped his arms around her thumb. She brought him close to her chest, showing him as much care as she could. She held him in front of her like he did with her earlier.
“If I get too big again, maybe I could be the one to give you a lift to where you need to go,” Steven offered. “Give Lion a break whenever I’m here.”
“I’d like that,” Connie responded. “But first, we should ask the Gems what they think. Is that okay?”
Steven nodded in acknowledgement.
“Yeah. It’ll be worth a try.”
Connie walked away from the beach and whistled for Lion. As they waited, Steven pondered to himself.
“If I’m this size now, maybe I could visit Heaven and Earth Beetle and give them a proper tea party.”
Connie smiled down at him. “Oh, you could become their personal interior designer. And I bet they’d be willing to help you with your miniature home!”
“Yeah!”
Steven sat on the edge of Connie’s hand, kicking his legs.
“Oh, I could sneak you into the movie theater with me,” Connie proposed. “That way, we don’t have to pay for two tickets!”
“Sounds like a plan. You might have to sit in the back, though, if the movie ends up being too loud for me.”
“That’s okay. The back is usually the best view anyway. Hey, mind if I sit down while I wait for Lion?”
“Not at all!”
Connie sat down on the sand and set Steven down. She gathered some of the sand and started building a sandcastle. Steven picked up the broken pieces of shells that laid along the beach and a strand of seaweed that had found its way to them. Connie placed the shells on the top of the sand castle that looked more like a mountain while Steven focused on the lower parts. His eyes landed on a stick and he pointed it out to Connie. Connie picked it up and set it atop the head of the castle.
Steven ran a distance away from the castle to get a better view and his eyes lit up.
“I never realized how amazing sand castles really were until now!” He beamed. “Hey, you know what’s something else I realized?”
“What’s that?” Connie asked, laying on her stomach and looking at Steven.
“What if the tea party wasn’t just with the Heaven and Earth Beetles? What if we could have the Pebbles come over?”
Connie gasped.
“Steven, that’s a great idea! I bet they could even lend you some of their little clothes!”
“As long as I don’t rip them apart when I grow!”
The two of them laughed when they heard something in the distance.
Lion jumped out from wherever he came from and stood in front of the pair. As Connie was about to put Steven in her shirt pocket and get on Lion’s back, Steven tugged at the fabric of her shirt.
“Hey, wait a second.”
“What’s wrong?” Connie looked down at him.
“Let me try going back to normal one more time,” he said.
“Oh, sure. I guess you didn’t try when you shrunk, huh?”
Connie knelt down again and moved some of the sand that was a good distance away from their castle to give him a flatter surface to stand on. She set him down, allowing him to hug her finger one more time, and stood up and back enough that she could still see him.
Steven closed his eyes, wrapping his hands around his torso as he remembered his old height. The size he was meant to be.
As he grew, he grew at an even pace. He didn’t grow too fast, allowing his body time to return to normal. He levitated slightly above the ground, his sandals in place in his feet. He twirled around until he was back to normal, his feet touching the ground. He looked to Connie before looking down.
“I did it!” He said. “I’m back to normal!”
“Hooray!” Connie jumped.
Greg’s van pulled up to the house.
“Steven!” Greg called out as he got out of his van. “Why didn’t you tell your old man you were back already?”
“Hi, Dad,” Steven said. “I was gonna call you. I-”
“Steven!” The front door opened to reveal Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. Pearl lept over the porch area and in front of Steven, Garnet and Amethyst rushing down through the stairs.
“Garnet said you were back, but that you came back as a giant!” Pearl put her hands on his shoulders.
“Yeah! And then she said you were as tiny as a crab,” Amethyst nearly pinched her thumb and forefinger to demonstrate.
“But I knew whatever height you were in, you’d be back to your usual self,” Garnet adjusted her frames.
Pearl removed her hands from Steven and Amethyst looked up at him and chuckled.
“Looks like you didn’t go back to normal like you thought,” she said. “C’mon, little man. You don’t need to impress no one.”
“She’s right, Steven,” Pearl said. “You’re not with the Diamonds right now.”
“What are you talking about?” Steven said. “I feel like my normal height.” He didn’t realize what they were talking about until he realized he wasn’t looking up at Amethyst. He was looking down at her. “Huh?” He pulled at his shirt and saw that it exposed a bit of skin and his pants were above his ankles as opposed to covering them.
“Steven,” Greg said. “Looks like you really did some growing while you were away at Homeworld.”
“I...I did?”
“Wow. I didn’t even notice,” Connie said in astonishment.
“I told you Steven would need to do some shopping,” Garnet said with a smirk.
“Aww. And I thought you, me and Peridot were supposed to be the tiny trio!” Amethyst complained, but it was clear by her tone that she was playing around.
“I think I might have some stuff that’ll fit you,” Greg ruffled Steven’s hair to his son’s laughter.
“Sure, Dad!” Steven looked over to Connie. “Thanks, by the way.”
“Oh, I didn’t do anything,” Connie said, putting a hand over her elbow.
“But you did.” He grabbed her hands. “You know just what to say and do and I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t look to you for guidance.”
Connie blushed, squeezing Steven’s hands back.
“That means a lot coming from you.”
Amethyst raised an eyebrow before she loudly whispered, “Did we miss something?”
“Nothing at all,” Garnet replied, ushering her and Pearl away to let Greg interrupt them so he could show Steven the clothes he has that would fit his new size.