Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A pretty loud scream came from the bathroom. That was definitely not good! What could possibly be in the bathroom that scared Connie so much? She wasn’t afraid of insects, their house had some pretty good security and small imperfections wouldn’t scare anyone that much, even someone like Connie. 

Steven rushed over to the bathroom ready for whatever could have been in there. Maybe those horrible gem experiments were still around and somehow found them? 

All he saw was her hunched over the sink, shaking just slightly. There wasn’t anything or anyone else in there with them. 

“What happened?” 

She looked up, not at him, though but at the mirror, “That!” She cried. 

Steven raised a brow as he walked up behind her, “The mirror?” He asked. 

“My reflection! My hair!” 

He tilted his head over to the side, trying to get a better picture, “Sure it’s a bit messy, but you just woke up that’s normal.” He shrugged, picking up the hairbrush they kept on a little counter besides the sink. 

“No!” She groaned, pointing at a specific part of the mirror, “It’s grey! I’m going grey! I’m old!” 

He couldn’t help but burst out laughing, seeing the icy glare in the mirror got him to stop pretty quickly, though, deciding to hide behind her and begin brushing her hair, “How old are you?” 

“Twenty-eight.” 

“And how old do people usually live up to?”

“Eighty…” 

“And you have an amazing, magical husband who can cure you from any diseases, so you’ll probably live a lot longer,” he looked back over to the mirror, seeing a small smile appear on her lips, “besides, grey hairs can mean other things.” 

“I guess…” she muttered, “work is kinda stressful.” 

“See? You're not old at all, you just have a very demanding job,” he smiled, deciding to style her hair as they kept talking, “what’s going on?” 

“I’m leading a team,” she let out a long breath before murmuring, “and my team is full of idiots.” 

“They can’t be that bad.” 

“It’s like they’ve never been taught anything political!” She cried, “I don’t think they even know who the President is and these people supposedly have been in the industry for years!” 

That was a bit of a stretch, but venting out her frustrations were always helpful! He let her rant about how awful that team was and how she had to explain every ‘basic’ fact about politics. Knowing it was best to just let her talk, Steven nodded along to show he was paying attention to what she was saying. He was, technically, but just because he was paying attention didn’t mean he understood. 

When she had ran out of things to say, she sucked in a few deep breaths before looking at herself again in the mirror. Steven had styled her hair in a similar way she used to as a kid; pulling two small parts of it back tied up with a little, squared turquoise clip at the back. He rested his chin on her shoulder before smiling, “Feeling better?” 

She stared at the thin, grey streak on her hair before looking over to smile back at him, “Much,” she pushed his head off of her gently before turning to face him, “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

She loosely placed her arms around his neck, “No matter how old I get?” She chuckled. 

“No matter how old you get.” He smiled, gently placing his hands onto her hips. 

She returned the smile, slowly leaning in before he quickly moved his head to the side, removing one of his hands to reach into a little jar and pull out the blue toothbrush there. 

“Oh, come on.” She tried to sound disappointed, but couldn’t help laughing, taking it as he handed it to her and pulled out the pink one a second later.

“It’s gross.” 

Chapter Text

Having to rely on a bad team to get the chance at a promotion wasn’t the best for one’s peace of mind. Connie stared up at the ceiling, trying her best to clear her mind so she could get a good amount of sleep. Not the full eight hours, that was out the window now. She’d just have to take a nap after work to make up for it later, that is, if she could. 

The other half of the bed moving slightly got her distracted from her ‘clear your mind’ moment. Still facing the ceiling, she subtly watched the other walk over to their small balcony if you could call it that. It was an incredibly small space the two of them could comfortably stand on with a railing around it, but not quite big enough to place seating onto. 

As quietly as she could, she followed him over. They both obviously couldn’t sleep, so might as well waste their night together. 

“Can’t sleep?” She asked, walking up next to him to stare down at the dimly lit city. 

“Something like that.” A soft chuckle escaped him as he tilted a small box towards her. 

Now, being the daughter of a doctor, Connie wasn’t one to encourage or take part in smoking too often. But, human concepts didn’t really apply to the two of them so, if they were stressed enough, they’d have a cigarette or two, quickly healing themselves straight after, no harm done. So, she took one, resting it between her fingers as the other lit it up for her, “Wanna talk about it?” She asked before placing it between her lips. 

The grey smoke escaping him was almost invisible in the pitch black sky. The worst thing about living in a big city was that there were no stars up there, nothing but darkness in the sky due to all the lights down below, “Oh, y’know, the usual diamond nightmares.” 

Well, that was definitely a lot worse than her reason for being up. She inhaled a little more than before, slowly letting it all out, the air, again, being invisible in the city sky, “Lovely,” she scoffed, taking another drag before smiling over to him, “at least you didn’t turn pink.” He never really wanted to talk about those dreams, so she left it alone, instead focusing on something positive. 

He looked over at his arm, sure enough, it wasn’t glowing pink, “Oh, hey, I didn’t!” He marvelled at the fact he wasn’t glowing for a while before looking over to her, “What about you? Why are you up?” 

“The dumbest team I’ve ever met,” she muttered, taking another puff of smoke before continuing, “I wasn’t gonna tell you this unless I actually got it, but if I lead this team well and we got everything done by the deadline, I’d get to, well, lead more teams and get more money but more importantly be recommended to the mayor for… whatever position directly under her she has open really! But I can’t really get any of that if my team doesn’t know any basic concepts!” She took yet another puff, this one a lot stronger, keeping it in for quite a while before letting it all go. With her inexperience with the activity, this obviously wasn’t the best idea, she kept it in a little too long, resulting in coughs with bits of grey air sporadically escaping. 

“Careful,” he gasped, gently patting her back as she continued to cough, when she finally stopped, he let out a sigh of relief, “I’m sure everything will be fine,” he looked back out into the city, “you’re amazing at…” he paused, “almost everything,” both of them let out a quiet laugh at that, “if your team doesn’t finish whatever they need to do, they’ll definitely give you another chance, look at you! They’re stupid if they waste your potential.” 

“I love you.” She smiled, squashing her cigarette onto the railing, that coughing fit definitely took away the little comfort it gave her. 

“I love you too.” He kept his gaze forward, only glancing over to her to give her a soft smile. 

She turned around, resting her elbows onto the railing for support, staring at their bedroom. Even after their quick venting session, she didn’t quite think she could go back yet. Instead, they stood in silence. The silences between them were always so nice, so comforting. With as many years as they had spent together, running out of things to talk about was expected, luckily for them, though, they enjoyed just being in each other’s presence without the need to talk. 

“I’m gonna try going back to sleep.” He suddenly broke the silence, pressing his cigarette onto the railing like she had done earlier.

“I’m gonna… stay a bit longer,” she looked up at the sky, maybe looking away from their bed was a good idea for now, “sweet dreams.” 

“Hopefully,” he softly chuckled, gently pushing back her fringe to give her a sweet forehead kiss; yes to heal whatever those few puffs managed to damage, but also as a small gesture of comfort, “don’t stay out too long, it’s cold.” 

“I won’t,” she intertwined their pinkies before handing over her now definitely safe to throw away cigarette, “well, I’ll try not to.” 

She watched him place the dead sticks into the bin before looking back up at the sky again, sucking in a deep breath of fresh air. She closed her eyes, trying her hardest to clear her mind of anything, negative or positive. 

Her attempt at a peaceful moment was short lived. Big city life was loud even this late at night. Car horns, people talking, faint music from a club down the street, some sort of fight going on with some neighbours. She could hear everything. It was horrendous! She missed her life in Beach City, she missed quiet nights listening to the ocean, she missed seeing her parents whenever she wanted, she missed the fact there were visible stars in the sky. Maybe it was her sleep-deprived brain, maybe it was nostalgia or maybe she genuinely wanted to, but a little voice inside her was telling her to pack their things and move back over to Beach City. They could find their own place there and they’d be close to family and friends. It was perfect! But they’d also spent the last five years building up their lives here, this was their home, they couldn’t just leave it for her to live out some nostalgic fantasy she had. It just wasn’t plausible. Not after this long. 

She looked back towards their bedroom, watching the bump under the covers subtly move up and down. He fell asleep pretty quickly, it was honestly the coolest power he had and he had supernatural ones. Wiping away the singular tear that fell, she walked back in, locking the door behind her as she did. Yet another thing that was better about Beach City; it was so small and quiet that you wouldn’t really have to worry about everything being locked. Well, unless Onion counted as a threat. 

She carefully got into the bed, shuffling a little closer to the guy besides her. She rested her head onto his chest, loosely throwing her arm across his torso. She had one thing left from Beach City and she wasn’t letting it go! Until morning, at least. 

Steven let out a low hum as she appeared next to him, moving his own arm around her. 

“Sorry, did I wake you up?” She whispered. 

“Not really.” He mumbled, eyes still closed. 

“Since you’re awake…” they weren’t making eye contact technically, but she looked down nonetheless, pondering if she should really say this or not. It was a compromise to what she wanted, she couldn’t really outright say she wanted to move back, she didn’t want the potential of a fight this late nor whilst they were this tired, “do you think we could go back to visit Beach City sometime soon?” 

“I’d love that.” 

“Great!” She beamed, “I have so many vacation days, we can spend at least a week there! I wonder if anything has changed since we were last there. And this time we can stay with my family so that we don’t have to kick Greg out of his room. We can also-”

“Hey, Connie,” he whispered, looking down at her, she looked up with a quiet hum, “you’re really cute when you get excited but can we talk about it in the morning?” 

“Oh, oh!” She gasped, “Sorry.” She whispered, resting her head against his chest again and closing her eyes. Maybe she’d be able to sleep, maybe she was too excited now, only time could tell, really. 

Chapter Text

A ring erupted their house, both their phones buzzing on the wooden table in front of them. Connie was the one to pick up her phone first, clicking on the ‘someone is at your front door’ notification on her phone, “Are you expecting something?” She asked as they waited for it to load.

“No.”

The live video on her phone finally appeared, causing a small gasp from both of them. There stood six people, well, three of them were people talking to each other. Well, there goes their day alone together. It’s not like they weren’t happy to see their families, but they didn’t really get as much alone time living together as they originally thought.

The door rang again, pulling the two of them away from the video. There was no sound on it, but they were definitely asking where they were. If they left them any longer, they’d get really worried.

“I’ll get it.” Connie finally spoke up, going out into the hallway towards the front door.

“Surprise!” Amethyst was the first one to speak.

Connie couldn’t help but laugh at the gem’s enthusiasm, it wasn’t really a surprise, the two of them had been staring at the group from her phone for a good few minutes, “Hey guys,” she smiled, “what brings you here?”

“We missed you!” Her mother suddenly burst in towards the front of the group, giving her a tight hug. Even if she was trying to give Connie a bit more space in her life, she still very much wanted to insert herself into it as much as she could without making her uncomfortable, of course! “You haven’t even called us in weeks!”

“Sorry,” she patted her mother’s back, “I’ve been really busy, it’s a lot of work taking care of a house…”

“Are you okay? Are you stressed? Do you need help?” She began to ask, standing up straight to fuss over her.

“Priyanka,” her dad butt in, placing a hand onto his wife’s shoulder, “look at this place, look at her, everything is obviously going well.”

“Where’s Steven!?” Amethyst popped up again.

“Living room.” She pointed over towards a door not too far away, the only one open in fact. The four people there to see him quickly came in, each of them making their own way towards the room: Amethyst turning into a ball and speeding off, Garnet giving Connie a firm hold on her shoulder with a somewhat smile before walking passed her, Pearl greeting her and thanking her for letting them into her home before walking away and Greg, amazing Greg, actually having a small conversation with her and handing over a gift, it was just a decently sized box of chocolates, but she was immensely grateful for it. The gems weren’t human and, therefore, didn’t know human social norms, but just walking past her like that felt kind of heartbreaking, sure Steven was like their son and they wanted to see him after months, but a ‘how are you’ never hurt anyone.

Her parents, of course, stayed at the front door with her, “And you’re sure everything’s okay?” Priyaka looked around the pretty much spotless house, “Nothing is stressing you out at all?”

“The only one stressed out is you right now,” she rolled her eyes, closing the door, “I swear, I’m not stressed, just busy.”

“If you say so…” she muttered, “what about taking care of the house? Is that stressful?”

“Figuring out how to pay my bills was stressful, but I’ve figured that out now,” both her and her dad chuckled, the frantic phone calls the first few months were much more funny when looking back at them, “and we’ve got a great system for chores, so everything’s great!”

“Well, yes, I can see that,” Priyaka smiled, looking around the almost sparkling hallways, “you’ve done such a good job!”

That voice was shaky, she quickly looked over, making quite intense eye contact, yep, tears. Her mother’s tears always made her tear up no matter how stupid she thought the reason was, “Don’t cry!” She wailed, pushing her mother gently as she closed her eyes, “Go! Go say hi to Steven I’ll put this away!” She kept shoving her with her eyes glued shut.

“Okay…” she heard her mother sniffle. She stood still for a few moments before opening one eye to peek out, sure enough, they were gone!

She let out a long sigh before walking into the kitchen with the living room door still open, her parents could definitely see her doing so, probably wondering why it took so long for her to go over to the room. She placed the box in her hands into a cabinet, keeping her hand onto the box for a little longer. She didn’t like them barging in like that, no warning! She had a day off and she wanted to use it to sit and relax with the love of her life! Was that too much to ask!? She adored their families, yes, but coming in unannounced still ticked her off, she’d have to talk to them about it… at some point. Not now. They took the time to come over and surprise them, they hadn’t come over since they first moved in so it was kind of an overdue visit. She still couldn’t find herself to leave this position though. It wasn’t fair, she wanted her day off with him! Not with all these extra people! A warning would have been nice, what if they had plans!?

She heard the door behind her shut before a pair of hands wrapped around her and a head was placed on her shoulder, “Hey.”

“Hi…” she mumbled, finally taking her hand off of the box to entangle her fingers into his hair.

“You’ve been here for, like, five minutes. What’s up?”

She hesitated, she couldn’t tell him she didn’t want to see his family. Well, that wasn’t true, she did want to see them but on literally any other day. Not when they’d planned to do nothing together! “Is it selfish to say I just wanted to spend time with you today…?” She eventually whispered.

“A little bit,” he shrugged, squeezing her even closer, “but it’s okay to be. They just kinda appeared, I get it.”

She sighed, playing with his hair a little longer, “I really wanted to do nothing,” she groaned, “now I have to make conversation…”

“You don’t have to,” he smiled, “I can tell them to-”

“I don’t want them to leave…” she muttered, “that’s rude. Plus, it is nice to see them.”

“Are you sure?”

She hummed, taking her hand away from him, “It’s rude to keep guests waiting.”