Work Text:
Steven can hear names.
=<>=
He's ten years old, walking into the Big Donut for a quick morning order to surprise his dad with.
He's never seen this girl before, who says "Welcome to the Big Donut!" with a friendly smile.
"Do you work here?"
"Hah, yeah." She points to her Big Donut shirt. It's the same as the manager's was. "I'm new, so if you're picking up any usuals, I won't know them."
"Tell the kid what your name is!" Mr. Fryman barks. "It's a real riot, I'll show you. Come here, Steven."
And of course Steven sidles over, because Mr. Fryman is big and nice and good like Dad and lets him have the fry bits even though they aren't on the menu, and when people are nice to you, you should be nice back.
"Observe." Mr. Fryman clears his throat, like he's about to bestow a cool and mysterious secret. "My name is Peter Fryman."
I am stone-support-foundation-the-patron-of-the-fisherman-one-who-is-the-freeborn.
"How is a rock free?" Steven asks. "Did you come out of a rock like a magic person?"
"Hell if I know!" Mr. Fryman laughs his barking laugh and tossles Steven's head. "That's a good one kid, you made my day. Now you try it, donut girl."
"Uh, okay! My name is..." she stumbles slightly, "...Sadie Miller?"
My name is princess-noble-lady-grinder-of-grain.
"Wow! I've never met a princess before." He tilts his head up at her. "Are you a donut princess?"
"Oh gosh." She giggles with a bit of a blush behind her smile. "I guess I am."
=<>=
Steven can hear names.
Of course he can. Can't everyone?
Except they can't, Pearl explained. They knew their names, and their language new their meaning, somewhat, but to most humans, a name was only a name, a word that meant nothing except the person who wore it.
=<>=
His name is Lars Barriga. His name is crown-of-laurels-for-bellies. Steven asks him what he won. Lars just kind of squints at him, like he just told a joke that didn't land.
He can bake like nobody's business, and suddenly the name makes a lot more sense.
Laramie Barriga's name is tears-of-love. Steven looks at a wiry body, a scarred eye suspended in time, and sometimes he wishes a name was only a name.
=<>=
He is five years old, his father's name is watchful-shepherd-of-the-universe, and all is right with the world.
He is sixteen years old, a car wreck on the side of a highway, and his father's name feels like a broken promise.
He is eighteen years old and his father's name is everything because he's breaking apart on an old couch like he's five years old all over again, and his father's arms around him are nothing more or less than the entire world.
=<>=
A girl on the beach that he remembers from a different time, she is story-truth-legend-fable-of-constant-steadfast-devotion-and-lord-of-the-universe.
He finds, in time, that Connie Maheswaran is as beautiful as her name.
She is fable and legend and she carves her place in his life with an unbreakable sword. She is destiny, she is warrior, she is knight. She fights for the world to remember his story- she looks back and realizes that along the way, she has carved her own.
She is his constant. In grief she is there. In joy she is there. When he is death's door, a pair of impossible ghosts staring at eachother in cold, bright space, she is there.
In anger, she is gone, and her absence burns. The specter of her hard-earned betrayal hangs over him, in every space she no longer fills.
(They have branded eachother's hearts. They have become their devotion. They have become their constant.)
Her name is lord-of-the-universe, and he believes it. All the worlds speak his name, and they are afraid, but it is her they should fear instead.
After all, he is only the universe. She is the one who moves it.
=<>=
What an insult it must have been, to hear his name. To hear from the mouth of Rose Quartz, the warlord, the antigem, the diamond breaker, such a title.
Insult. Dare. Pride. Hubris. Terror.
In the 3rd era, they speak whispers of his name, but not to him. Only his closest friends and family would dare to call for him by his chosen name.
Gemkind sings his works like joyful heralds, and the wider world receives it in fear.
His name is Steven Universe. They speak his name and it rings with song- it sings I am martyr, I am honor, I am crown. I am victory, and I shall encircle the universe.