Work Text:
It wasn't long before Lion was warping them, Steven holding on tight to Connie as they looked around. "Woah…"
“You can say that again,” Connie said quietly, looking around with wide eyes and a slowly growing smile. “This place is amazing! ”
Steven laughed, holding her even closer. "Yeah. Let's find somewhere for lunch?"
“Somewhere nice and quiet and without any magic,” Connie sighed, leaning into his arms and looking up at him with a soft smile. “Lunch sounds good, though.”
"Looks like there's a cute little cafe across the street," Steven pointed out to her, grabbing her and floating off of Lion.
Connie kissed his cheek once she was set down, twining their fingers together and looking at the cafe, “Right. I need something with at least three full scoops of sugar in it to handle what we just dealt with.”
"Man, I feel that. Why can't we just ever have a normal vacation?"
“Our curse in life,” Connie sighed, ‘collapsing’ against Steven.
“I think you mean my life,” he snorted.
When they got to the counter, Steven ordered for them, smiling and complimenting the barista on her earrings, too. It may have only been August, but they were cute little spooky bats! The barista was all too happy to chat with him and complement ‘his French’ once he mentioned they were from out of the country.
Connie seemed amused more than anything, shaking her head as they found a table and settled in, “I still can’t believe you can understand any language and only just realized.”
“I guess it was never anything I had to think about,” Steven told her with a grin and a shrug. “Makes things way easier for us, at least.”
“I wonder if it’s only verbal communication or if it’s written as well,” Connie thought, looking around before pointing out the window. “Do you see French or English?”
“I see the French, but, like… I look at it and know what it means the same as I would if it were in English.” He looked out the window at the shop across the street. “‘Lost and Found in Time: an antiques shop.’”
“An antique shop?” Connie perked up, looking at the shop with a grin. “We should maybe stop by there tomorrow… But, huh, I guess that makes sense you see it like that.”
He shrugged back at her. “Yeah, I don’t pretend to get it.” When his name was called, he stood and walked over to get their drinks before sitting back down, setting Connie’s in front of her. “We should find a place to stay.”
“And immediately get some rest,” Connie said at once. “I know it’s still somewhat early in the day, but that felt like a long day.”
“That felt like a really long day,” he added, sipping from his own drink.
Thankfully it didn’t take them long to find a place to get settled, night soon falling around them as they got settled for bed.
Steven couldn’t have been asleep for anything more than a few seconds when he felt Rose’s arms tight around him, “ Steven! ”
Steven jolted. “Woah! Uh, hey? Uh…”
“Are you alright?!” Rose was fretting over him at once, patting him down as if expecting him to be injured. “I knew you would be alright, but then you saw him. ”
“Oh. Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” he told her. “Promise.” His mom was all kinds of worried over him. It was… kinda nice?
“Are you sure?” Rose loosened her grip, pulling back to cup his cheeks and look him over. “You’re alright?”
Opening his mouth to reassure her, he remembered what his therapist had said. “I’m… I guess I’m kinda shaken up. But physically fine.”
Rose’s smile softened as she brought him into another hug, “At least there’s that much.” The hug tightened and Steven felt something like fear. “Now let’s talk about what you told Amethyst.”
As she drew away to fix him with a look, Steven grinned, looking away and oh look, they were in the beach house. “I mean… Do we have to?”
“Being cute won’t help you here, Steven.” Dammit. “Just what are you thinking - You can’t have your gem taken out of you like that!”
“I mean, apparently I can,” he pointed out to her. “It’s… We have to try.”
“Steven, no. It’s too dangerous — if we’re not careful something like this…” Rose shook her head, Steven feeling her fear as clearly as his own. “It could kill you.”
“Okay, uh, not to be rude or anything, but having to go to an alien planet I knew nothing about to finish something I had nothing to do with also could have killed me.”
“Which is why, as you can imagine, I’m a little reluctant to let you ever do anything like that ever again.”
“I think we proved that I can handle it just fine.”
Rose groaned, a loud, “ Steven. Why do you always have to be so much like your father!” Rose sighed, her head resting against his own. “You’re far too kind, some days.” Steven stood there for a minute because… Huh. He was that much like his dad? “If… If you really want to go through with this, we’ll have to be careful, Steven. Very careful.”
“Well, I mean, yeah, duh,” he told her, rolling his eyes. “No offense, but I kinda like my life right now.”
“Well you can’t blame me for worrying after I’ve seen the trouble you just stumble across,” Rose sighed heavily. “Are you really alright, though?”
“ Yes, I’m really alright, how many times do I have to say it?!”
“Oh, only a hundred or so more times, I think.” Ugh. Was this what having a mom was really like?
Steven couldn’t help the groan, even as she hugged him even tighter. “I’m fine. Just another day in the life.”
“That doesn’t reassure me,” Rose grumbled, finally letting him go. “You grew up far too quickly, didn’t you.”
"Well… I still have some growing to do. And it looks like I wasn't the only one."
“I’m not sure if that makes everything better or worse,” Rose admitted, cupping his cheek for a moment. “Humans always grew up far too quickly for my tastes.”
Okay. Steven was allowed to be a little mean. "You're also, like, a hundred thousand years old."
“Wha- Excuse you! I am not that old!”
He shrugged back at her, grinning. "I dunno. You kinda sound like it."
“Wha- Steven Quartz Universe! ” Ha! That wasn’t as scary as his full full name!
Steven only smirked back at her smugly. "Pink Diamond." There was a snorted laugh from one of his halves who were somewhere nearby, Rose crossing her arms and giving him a look that reminded him of an upset Pearl way too much. "C'mon, seriously, it's fine. Everything is gonna calm down, Connie and I are gonna enjoy the rest of our vacation, and it'll be great!"
Rose closed her eyes for a moment, a long, slow breath leaving her. “Steven, dear, I love you… I love you so much, but just from being a part of your life from inside here I know that you should never say something like that.”
"Jeez, you sound worse than Pearl. We're gonna be fine!"
The last thing he heard was a heavy sigh, Steven suddenly finding himself blinking up at the ceiling of the hotel room they were spending the night in. Looking around, the sun was filtering in through the window, shining down onto where Connie was asleep on his chest, drooling a little bit. She was so cute. But it was time to get up.
Connie’s face scrunched up before he could do much more than wiggle, her eyes slitting open to give him a sleepy stare and a mumbled, “No.”
" Yes, " he told her with a smile. "C'mon, it's morning."
“No,” Connie whined. “We’re on vacation. Sleep. ”
“We’re on vacation, let’s go check stuff out. We’re in Paris, Connie!”
“Paris can wait until I get more sleep.” It was too cute to watch Connie shuffle her way off his chest and under the blankets, just barely peeking out to pout — ‘glare’ — up at him.
Steven grinned back at her, tugging the blankets back an inch or two. “Are you sure? Who knows when we’ll be back.”
Connie whined, pout getting even worse. “We have Lion. We can come back whenever we want!” Lion, who was sleeping on the floor, gave a rumble of noise. “See? He agrees.”
“That was disagreeing. ” He rolled his eyes. “Fine. You stay, I’ll go get us some breakfast.” Connie yawned and mumbled and grumbled before disappearing under the blankets. It was way too cute, but hopefully some breakfast would actually wake her up.
☆
Standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, Steven beamed, looking up at it. "Connie! Get a panoramic of me with the tower!"
“And show it to absolutely everyone you can?” Connie laughed, the question sounding like she already knew the answer.
"Totally," he laughed, striking a posing. The second the picture was taken and sent to his phone, Steven was posting it on his line. ' City of Love with the love of my life! ' And three heart emojis, and two kissy face emojis and a heart eyes! "Alright, posted!"
“How bad is it?” Connie sighed, already pulling out her own phone and looking at it for a couple of moments before laughing brightly. “You’re such a sap. ”
Steven snickered. "Maybe just a little." Oh hey, he already had a comment from… Oh, from Peter! ' Jeez, you're seriously a sap for her. '
“I know that look,” Connie grinned, immediately looking at his phone. “Did someone agree with me?”
“Maybe just a little bit…” He huffed, nudging her. “So, where to first, travel expert?”
“First we’re going to get a few more pictures, and then there’s this restaurant that is going to be great to try!”
"Sounds great!" At least, it did until Steven felt something- Stars, he didn’t know how to describe it. It was like a wave of bitterness and anger and hatred, but it was so thick it was like he was suddenly trying to breathe through tar.
Connie carried out to him from where he'd stepped away to take her picture. "Steven? Woah, hey, are you okay?"
“I-” What was that? There was no way that someone could be feeling emotions that strongly that felt like that, right? It was- Stars, the last time he had felt emotions even close to what was in the air was when he had corrupted. Not really able to help it, he looked over at Connie. “Someone needs help.”
“Who needs help?” Connie tensed, hand trailing back towards her sword before she was looking around quickly. “What’s happening and who do we need to fight?”
“I dunno, I-” He looked around. “That way. Someone’s hurting. ” Steven was rushing off with Connie following after him, taking sharp turns around alleyways and rushing after the emotions where fear was buried underneath and just what was happening to cause something like that?! It was almost like- Like…
Connie almost ran into his back, just barely catching herself before Steven heard her mumble a soft, “Don’t see that everyday.”
“It’s like corruption, but… That’s a human.” The person turned towards them, and something was definitely wrong there, but he had no idea what was going on. All he knew was that they were holding… some kind of microphone? They held it up to their mouth- “Run.”
“ By the end of today, you’ll all be screaming my name! ” It was as if a wall of pure sound was blasting towards them, Steven and Connie quick to get out of the way and duck behind a building as soon as they could.
Connie was shaking her head, hissing under her breath, “A corrupted human? Is that even possible? ”
“I don’t know! That’s what it looks- Wait.” Steven looked up at where he saw bright red and nightsky black leaping through the air above them. “Are those… more superheroes?”
“What?” Connie followed his gaze, loud groan leaving her a second later. “Why does it never end? ”
Steven looked to her, taking off his jacket and wrapping it around her. “Stay here, I’ll help take care of this.”
“Just one place,” Connie sighed, putting her sword away and settling into the jacket. “I’ll see if Dipper or anyone else knows anything about this.”
Nodding at her, Steven floated up to the rooftop they looked to be chilling out on while they planned. “Hey! Need some help?”
The two jumped, the one who looked like a black cat blinking at him in confusion before looking to the other, “Well, that’s new. We don’t usually get akumas trying to help take down other akumas.”
“Uh…” Steven looked down at himself. “Akuma?” Now he wasn’t totally sure what that meant, but it sounded bad.
“I don’t think he’s an akuma,” the other one, dressed in red with black spots, shook her head. “You can help?”
“I can help! Steven Universe! Just tell me what to do!”
“Okay, we need to get her away from buildings and people as quickly as we can!”
Okay. Bait. He could be bait. Steven dropped down towards the Earth. “Hey! Lookit me! Here I am!”
The girl was looking over at him and oh, boy, she did not look happy, “They’re all going to know me. They’re all going to be there for me! ”
Oh. Okay. Okay. He could work with that! Steven summoned a shield, skating away from her. “Well I’m a big famous person and everyone in the galaxy knows me!”
“ Stop rubbing it in! ” Oh- Okay, yeah, that, wow- That was loud.
“Ow,” Steven murmured. Okay. Yeah. Wow. “Got her away from crowd!”
“Keep it that way!” One of them called. “We’re on our way!” Well, at least there was that much- Why was this girl so loud?!
Steven turned to see something flying at him like a whip and woah! Drawing his sword, it was easy enough to cut it — it was an electrical wire, like his dad and Sadie used — and keep it off him. It then sunk in that Steven drew a sword.
Looking from the bright crystal pink sword to where Connie was staring at him with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, Steven felt his heart soar because he did it. He had summoned a sword from his gem. Steven beamed, showing it off to her as he slid by. “ Connie, look I did it! ”
“That’s great! But pay attention!” Connie yelled at him, Steven looking back in time to dodge two more wires headed straight for him.
Steven yelped, slicing through them before looking back to his sword with wide eyes. “Mom, this is the coolest gem power ever.” There was a burst of happiness from inside him, Steven beaming because he had a sword! He had a sword and a shield! Getting blasted from a sonic wave, though, definitely threw him from his shield-board. Man, did that hurt.
Still, though, he had a sword and he could fight! The black cat superhero landed beside him, giving him a quick look over, “You alright? Because if yes, we should probably keep moving before she does that whole screaming thing again.”
"Yeah, I'm good. You got a plan besides running? Cause if so, I'm up for it!"
“You boys can leave that to me!” The spotted hero grinned, throwing her yo-yo up into the air, “ Lucky charm! ” Was Lucky Charm another superhero, or something? Looking around, he didn't see another super. Instead, something was coming from the yo-yo before dropping down into the hero’s arms, the girl looking around the streets around them and the corrupted human — akuma? — that was trying to attack. “Alright, Chat, ready to bring down the house?”
Black cat — Chat — looked around the street before grinning at her. “My Lady, I like the way you think!”
“Steven Universe, right? Keep an eye out for anyone who gets too close and make sure no one gets hurt. It’s about to get a lot messier here in a second.”
Nodding, Steven turned his back to the girl and the heroes, letting his weapons fade as he held his hands out. A large bubble shield started to spread out at once, Steven watching as the other two rushed forward and, alright. It at least seemed like they knew what they were doing- Were they destroying the buildings on either side of the street?
Steven turned his head towards them. “What are you doing?! ”
“Don’t worry! This is how it usually goes!” Chat shouted back at him before laughing wildly. “ Cataclysm! ”
He touched the building and the building just instantly rusted and started to come down round them?! “ Dude, what the fuck?! ”
“Don’t worry! We’ll fix it in a second!” How could they fix that?! Steven hated this. This was worse than the American supers! Feeling things collapsing against his shield, Steven put more power into it, scrunching his eyes shut tight. He could do this. He had the power to do this. He just had to stay calm and focused and, yeah, okay. The destroyed buildings seemed to be trapping the akuma or whatever, but seriously? He heard some kind of scream, but it sounded like it came from the girl.
“I’m delivering you from evil!” What? She was what? Steven watched as she released something that was a bright white from her yo-yo. “Bye bye, pretty butterfly.” Grabbing the Lucky Charm, Steven watched her throw it into the air. “ Miraculous Ladybug! ”
Steven dropped his shield as a swarm of ladybugs seemed to cover the area, fixing everything they came across back to when it was as good as new. It was- Well, it was definitely something. Connie seemed to agree, catching up to him with a breathless laugh, “Too bad you don’t have that power, huh?”
Dropping the shield, Steven looked around. “That would have been… really useful, ” he finally said, pushing a hand through his hair. “Man.” His attention was dragged over towards where he heard… beeping?
He saw the two heroes bump fists before they were rushing off, and, okay. Steven was now left alone in the street with Connie- At least, he was until a blond teenager was running over to them after coming out of an alleyway, grinning widely, “Hi! I can’t believe you’re really Steven Universe! Sorry, it took me a second to recognize you.”
“Oh, uh…” Huh. Was that… Chat? “Yeah, no, no worries there, dude. You alright after that? You seemed really used to it.”
“It happens almost every day,” he waved off, rolling his eyes. “I’m sort of surprised, though. I thought you were American?”
“Yep,” Steven told him with a nod as a girl finally came over to join ‘Chat’s’ side, her arms crossed as she looked at him with annoyance. “Born and raised.”
“Wow. Your French is pretty impressive, then!” Ah, right. They were speaking French. They were speaking French and Connie was doing her best to not look too annoyed.
“Oh. Yeah, my gem translates.” Steven looked over to Connie, grinning at her. “Sorry, sweetie.”
“Just let me know what I’m missing,” Connie sighed, looking back at the two. “So… Paris superheroes then. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising after everything else.
Steven looked back to the others. "Sorry, I never really got your guys' names."
“Adrien Agreste-”
“ Secret identities,” the girl hissed, glaring even more. It didn’t seem like she was all that angry, more fondly annoyed. “We’re supposed to have secret identities.”
"Oh, don't worry, I won't tell. You got my real name, you can look up whatever you want to know about me," he told them with a shrug.
“It’s fine, I promise,” Adrien was saying quickly, giving the other a reassuring smile. “He basically does what we do over in America, keeping people safe and protecting them from danger.”
Steven turned to Connie. "This is Adrien and someone else. They're the ones that were heroes a couple minutes ago. This Adrien guy at least knows me, but the girl is super tight-lipped about her secret identity." He glanced to them again. "This is Connie, my partner."
The two were giving him odd looks, the girl finally shaking her head, “You… You do know we could hear everything you just said, right? You said it in French.”
"N… No?" Steven looked back at Connie. "You get any of that?"
“Well, I’m understanding everything you’re saying,” Connie said, slowly grinning. “Are they understanding everything, too? Even when you’re talking to me?”
Steven looked from Connie, to the other two, back to Connie before finally holding his head. " These powers are so bad. " Connie was immediately bursting into giggles, Adrien biting his lip.
“So… Different languages or something, I’m guessing? Like a translation power?”
"Yeah I just find out like a month ago my gem can translate stuff, and it's really confusing, and I'm guessing you guys don't understand her, and she definitely can't understand you." He hated this. Now he really wanted to rip his own gem out.
“Oh, wow, that sounds complicated. Ah, Marinette, by the way. Sorry for being so ‘tight-lipped,’ but with our kind of lives…” Well, yeah, Steven supposed he could understand that.
Steven waved a hand. "No, yeah, totally. I get it. I know a couple other guys back home in the same kind of situation. No skin off my back." He looked around again. No sign that fight had even happened. Man.
“Are you two in Paris for a while, then?” Adrien asked, looking to Connie with a smile that turned apologetic, words coming out more hesitant, “Sorry for excluding you.”
Connie blinked, looking surprised for a minute before giving a nervous grin. "Thanks."
Steven shrugged. "Just got in yesterday. Vacationing a little before school starts, y’know?"
“Sounds like fun,” Adrien grinned. “Hopefully you haven’t been running too much into problems like ours, though.” To that, Steven could only groan in response. “Well, that’s definitely an answer, huh?”
"Dude. It's been insane. You're not the first superheroes I've met, either. There are a few over in New York City back home. Kinda nuts. One of them is about your guys' age."
“And this is why we should never visit America,” Marinette said seriously, lips twitching. “Thank you, though, for helping us out there.”
"Yeah, you know. It's what I do. You guys been doing this long?"
Adrien shrugged, giving a little hand waggle, “Not long long, but we know what we’re doing now, at least.”
Steven nodded. "Yeah, alright. What was that all about, anyway?"
“That you can thank Hawkmoth for,” Marinette muttered, expression dropping down into a glare. “He has powers like we do, but he uses them to corrupt people whenever they feel strong negative emotions.”
He stared in horror, looking between the both of them. “That’s terrible! ” That- To just go around corrupting people?!
“What?” Connie frowned, looking between them. “What’s terrible?”
“This- This Hawkmoth guy goes around corrupting anyone that feels bad!”
“Wha- Corrupting?! ” Yeah! That was- Stars, why would anyone do that?
He looked back at them. "Why would someone do that?"
“He wants our Miraculous,” Adrien explained quietly. “They’re what give us our powers and allow us to be Ladybug and Chat Noir.”
Steven held a hand to his gem. “Oh.” Yeah… Yeah, he understood that feeling.
“It’s not easy,” Marinette said softly. “But someone needs to do it. Paris deserves to be kept safe.”
“Yeah. Well, hey. If your other fights are anything like that last one, you guys are doing great, so far,” he told them with a grin.
“Thanks,” Adrien beamed. “Glad to hear that from someone who actually knows what’s going on, you know?”
"Yeah, well. You know. You seriously know me, though? I didn't know Ronaldo's blog was that big," he said with a nervous grin, pushing a hand through his hair.
Adrien laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck, “I don’t think you’re that big, I just happen to look into some pretty obscure things.”
“Oh, well, that makes me feel better,” Steven chuckled, tilting his head a bit at Marinette’s confusion. “I’m kinda the ‘town-saving superhero’ back home. One of the guys has a whole blog dedicated to the weird stuff that goes on around town.”
“It’s a lot like Alya’s Ladyblog,” Adrien said, looking at Marinette with a small grin. “Only Alya has way more followers.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. A ton of the places I went all over the country, there were people that knew about me, so,” he said with a shrug. “Main difference is I’ve never had a secret identity.”
“Really?” Marinette blinked, eyes widening. “But- Doesn’t that make everything much harder? And more dangerous?”
Steven shrugged again. “Not really. I took care of everything life threatening like two years ago.” Connie cleared her throat, nudging her with his- Oh, right. Bluebird. “Mostly everything.”
“Wow. That sounds nice to not have to deal with anything life threatening,” Marinette sighed, sounding as exhausted as Steven felt some days.
“It took a lot to get there in the end. Actually, while I have you guys here, what do you suggest for a couple of tourists?”
“Oh!” Adrien perked up. “I actually have a great list- Do you have your phone on you?”
“Yeah, totally,” Steven said, already grabbing his phone out as Adrien did the same.
If nothing else, Steven supposed he had at least found two more teenage superheroes for his rapidly expanding group chat. He wondered how many of the others he had met could speak French. Well, they were gonna have to learn!
“Cool. A couple of these places were on our list, but not many of them.”
“Oh, trust me, they’re all great places to visit,” Adrien grinned. “Oh, you should also stop by Marinette’s family’s bakery. They make the best cookies-”
"Adrien!" Marinette hissed at him, swatting his arm. It was obvious she was still uneasy about Steven and Connie knowing.
Steven gave a lazy grin, shrugging. "I doubt that. My friend, Lars? Best desserts in the galaxy, by far."
Marinette’s gaze snapped to his, eyes narrowing, “Please, nothing can beat my Papa’s baking.”
"Yeah, okay. I'll believe it when I see it," he brushed off.
“Then prepare to start believing.”
Connie pinched at Steven’s arm, giving him a look, “What did you do?”
Steven grinned as Marinette started to lead the way. "Got us invited over. Her dad's a baker. C'mon." Connie snorted and shook her head, but she didn’t protest, following along after them. Adrien wasn’t doing much to hide his grin at Marinette’s determination to ‘prove him wrong.’
Steven held Connie’s hand, kissing at her cheek. "Doing okay?" Connie gave a quiet, content little hum, leaning into him for a moment.
“A little out of my depth with the language barrier, but otherwise things seem pretty familiar.”
Yeah. He like familiar. Familiar was nice.
"Aw, this place is super cute!"
“Papa! I’m back!” Marinette called into the shop, waving them in with a small smile. “Come on. It’s usually pretty calm for an hour or so after an akuma attack like that.”
As they came in, Steven saw a couple other kids around their age waiting. "Yo, Marinette, Adrien, what took you so long?"
“We had a bit of an assist,” Adrien grinned, going to bump fists with one of the teens. “Nino, Alya, this is Steven and Connie.”
"Hi there," Steven said with a grin. "Nice to meet you."
"Hey, I'm Alya." She looked from Adrien, back to them. "An assist?"
“Steven Universe, ” Adrien grinned, and oh, boy.
Alya’s eyes instantly lit up, her excitement spiked through the roof, and Steven watched her clap her hands together. “No way. As in the Steven Universe?!”
“Uh…” Shoot. “Yes?”
“What are you doing all the way in Paris?! No- Better question, can I interview you? My followers would just die hearing from one of the original American heroes! It’s a pleasure to meet you, by the way.”
"Er…" Connie squeezed his hand, and he gave a shake of his head. "Wait. What do you mean 'original'?"
“Well of course! You’ve been using your powers to help save others, both human and alien, for years! You’ve been on the scene longer than most of the other American heroes, even if you’re less known than you deserve.”
"Oh, uh… Thanks, I guess. I mean…" She was at least less conspiracy than Ronaldo. "Yeah, I guess I could do something like that."
" After he admits that Papa has the best cookies."
There was a snort of laughter from Adrien, Alya looking to Marinette with raised eyebrows, “Girl, what are you on about now?”
"I said my friend Lars was a better baker so that she'd drag us over."
“It worked perfectly, in that case,” Alya snorted, shaking her head and throwing an arm around Marinette’s shoulder. “Come on. Why don’t we grab some treats to wow them with.”
Adrien nodded his head. "C'mon, we can hang out upstairs."
Hanging back to follow after them, Steven lowered his voice and spoke to Connie. "These are their friends Alya and Nino. Alya said I'm one of the original American heroes and wants an interview."
“Really?” Connie grinned, looking far too amused. “The places we end up… You should do the interview. Ronaldo would probably feel betrayed.”
Steven snickered, nudging her. " Connie! " She was so mean! But so right. He looked back at Adrien. "How long have you been… you know."
“Like I said earlier, not too long,” Adrien shrugged. “We’ve had our powers for… eight months? Under a year, for sure.”
"Wow. And you guys are already that good?"
“We have… mentors, I guess you could say,” Adrien grinned, obviously referencing some kind of in-joke.
Steven nodded. “Cool. What was that thing you did, that brought that building down?”
“Oh, that was one of my abilities, Cataclysm. It’s able to destroy anything I touch, basically, and then Ladybug’s ability, Miraculous Ladybug, can repair everything that was damaged during the fight.”
"I wish I had a power like that. We had to evacuate the town a couple times and just run when people's stuff got destroyed." They were in a cool little house and they were above the bakery! That was so cool!
“Yeah, I was kind of worried when we started out, but we seem to be doing pretty okay keeping Paris together,” Adrien laughed. “We can just sit at the table. Alya and Marinette will be back soon.”
"Yeah. Those fights happen often?"
“Way too often,” Nino snorted. “Like, almost every day often.”
Steven winced in sympathy at that. "Jeez. I remember that. That sucks, man."
“At least it usually happens in the day so we get some good sleep,” Adrien snorted, shaking his head. “And class always gets disrupted during an attack, so it’s not like we’re missing anything.”
"It's still exhausting, though. And painful." Hearing the door, Steven looked over to see Marinette and Alya coming in with snacks galore. That was great, he was starving.
“Papa agreed with me that I shouldn’t let you leave until you try at least one of everything,” Marinette smirked, dropping the snacks to pile out over the table.
"Awesome, I'm cool with that." Oo, those little cupcakes were adorable! He had to have a couple- Were those carrot cake cookies! Oo, triple fudge brownies!
“Huh.” Connie gave his jacket a sharp tug, staring at him with calculating eyes. “Did you eat any sort of breakfast this morning?”
Steven frowned, looking over at her with a cookie still in his hand. "Yeah? I had breakfast with you, remember?"
“Not really,” Connie said, frowning even more. “How hungry are you right now?”
Well, he was in the middle of eating, so… "I dunno, some? Like, she came in with everything and I was like ' oh my stars, I'm starving.'"
“Hm. Have you noticed that you’ve been eating more lately?” Connie paused, frowning before huffing out a breath. “And I don’t mean it like that, but you always said you never eat much where you’re half-organic, right? Now you’re eating twice what you usually do, some days.”
“Huh.” He looked at his own little plate, already two cupcake wrappers sitting there. “No, I… I haven’t, actually.”
“Is your appetite just increasing?”
He frowned at her, his hand lowering a bit. “I- I don’t know! I’m hungry!”
“Which is fine and perfectly healthy,” Connie said, leaning against him and leaning up to kiss his cheek. “I just want to make sure you’re eating enough calories. Maybe you’re going through another growth spurt?”
“Connie. I’m almost eighteen. I don’t think I’m getting anymore growth spurts.”
“Your growth rate is also different compared to other cases,” Connie shot back, stealing a cupcake from him. “Just let me know and keep an eye on it, alright? I don’t want you starving yourself even if it’s accidental.”
“I’m fine, Connie. I’m not starving myself.” Steven looked up at Marinette. “Okay, so, you were right, your dad has better cookies.”
“ Ha! ” Marinette radiated pride, looking absolutely gleeful while her friends buried their laughs as much as they could.
Steven rolled his eyes with a grin. “Okay, okay, all I said was cookies. Lars has him beat out in everything else.”
“ Excuse you! ” Beside him, Connie choked on a laugh.
“I don’t need to understand French to know how much she doesn’t agree with that, I think.”
It was all he could do to grin and shrug back at her. “I said what I said.” Connie gave another laugh while the others shook their head, or in Marinette’s case, rolled her eyes. It was nice to know that even if things refused to be different, they were at least familiar.