Steven and Connie were watching T.V., grateful Steven had been ungrounded no matter how fun books were. Connie didn't understand '"Crying" Breakfast Friends' like the gems did, but there were other things for them to watch. Steven was folding and putting away laundry while the T.V. played another show that neither of them were too invested in yet. The chore wheel had been abandoned for the old standby of Pearl and Steven doing the housework and he was doing his best to hold up his end. Connie, being polite, generally ignored the laundry basket's contents and only looked up when she saw him putting everything away in the closet.
"Is that a dress?" It stood out starkly from the many sets of pink and starred t-shirts even though it was a pink similar to the shirt she had gotten him for his birthday. Belatedly she wondered if she shouldn't have said anything.
"Uh huh. I don't usually wear it though. Pearl doesn't think it's a good idea for missions and it's hard to predict those. At least for me anyway. So I just have it for special occasions." He continued to put away laundry, shrugging his shoulders.
"Wow. So, do you like it?" She felt a little in awe at his nonchalant answer to a question she wasn't sure she should have asked in the first place. She'd never seen a boy in a dress before and wasn't exactly sure of the reason, other than it just wasn't done.
"Yeah, it feels nice." He answered simply, sort of looking over at it with some fondness.
Steven didn't seem to think it was a big deal so Connie would agree except, "would you put it on? I've only ever seen you wear that, plus boots and a jacket when it's snowing." She liked Steven's outfit, it fit him very well, but the outing with her parents had only warranted the addition of a bow-tie. Connie wasn't sure if she'd get to see special occasion wear, so she took a chance to ask.
"You want me to wear it?" He sounded surprised, but not negatively.
"Just for a minute or two." She couldn't identify any reason in particular other than a simple want.
"Okay, but one of us should probably leave the room... Umm, I'll take these down to the bathroom and be back in a minute." Steven grabbed the dress off the hanger and quickly threw it over something else from the closet before going downstairs where she heard a door open and click closed. She felt slightly nervous knowing he was changing into a dress for her. It was just so different, but the type of thing Steven could do. He really didn't care about what people thought of him the way she did. Connie hoped she wasn't making Steven nervous, she never wanted him to feel bad about being himself or liking the things that he did, even if she couldn't always understand them. They'd always have Dogcopter and sword-practice and marshmallows, whatever else they were interested in.
As her thoughts spiraled more and more towards worry the door downstairs clicked again and she waited patiently from the bed, holding herself back from peering over the edge of the loft. The first thing she saw was the straw hat on his head adorned with a simple pink ribbon around the middle and trailing off the back of the brim. The dress itself was matching pink and simple, thick, unadorned straps crested the top, with slight and wide scallops at the bottom, making it look uneven, but gently so. His skin looked smooth and he seemed to almost shine. After the reverse-aging at his Birthday party, the gems had explained that a year ago Steven had aged himself near to death worrying about his age and that his outward appearance was a product of his character and not necessarily the number of human years he'd been alive. The facial hair he'd been excited about was gone with no follow up, but it didn't bother him or anyone else anymore. The most important thing was that he was okay with himself.
Right now he looked slightly bashful under Connie's examining stare. She couldn't help the admiration. He looked adorable. He didn't look like a girl, he still looked like Steven, just, in a dress. And it suited him so well it was nearly funny. "Can I take a picture?" She started looking for her phone, before remembering that her parents only allowed her an older, basic model that didn't have that capability. "Hmm..."
"You want to take a picture?" He looked a little more embarrassed, clutching the ends of the dress, but continuing to move forward into the room so that they were their normal distance apart when talking.
"Yeah, but I don't have a camera. It looks perfect on you Steven. It's so cute. I promise I wouldn't show it to anyone else."
"You really think so? If you really want to you can use my phone and send the picture to yourself..." He was just so cute. She probably shouldn't be so excited about him wearing a dress, in truth she felt a little funny, but a good kind of funny so she pressed on.
"Adorable, it looks perfect on you." She picked his phone up from the bed and found the app the way she'd seen him do many times before bringing it up to her face and looking back at Steven. He smiled the same as ever, but it still made her feel different than any other time he'd smiled at her. Connie clicked the button for the shutter, "could you spin around for me?" Steven did a little twirl that Connie caught perfectly at the end, the dress was raised slightly from inertia, his arms out a little from his body and eyes partly closed. "Perfect. Though now I wish I'd gotten you a dress for your birthday instead of a shirt. It's too bad you can't wear it more often. Didn't your mom wear a dress? And Lapis Lazuli does."
"Yeah, but it doesn't really count because it's part of their body." He explained, one hand holding the side of his dress up a little.
"Oh. Well, that's too bad. It looks really nice." Connie held the phone in her lap and continued to stare appreciatively, a bit disappointed that this might be the only time she saw this, but glad she'd had the chance to.
"You really like it?" He twirled once more, puzzled by Connie's very positive reaction, but enjoying it nonetheless.
She loved it. There was some strange understanding all of a sudden. From the outside, someone might think it was weird for her to feel this way, that she wasn't making fun of him or anything. But it felt so right. This must be how Steven felt. "I love it."
Later that night, after she'd managed to print out the pictures on some photo paper that they had at home she sat on her bed just looking at them for a while. Connie felt something rising in her chest as she looked over them and thought about how special Steven was to her. She still couldn't believe that he was older than she was and he'd likely always look younger. Even if he looked the same for years, seeing him today still felt special. Boys at school didn't wear dresses and girls at school probably wouldn't find it as cute as she did, but that was okay.
It was true that she'd been excited about the school dance, but afraid to go. When she first danced with Steven, even if it did end in fusion, she had thought about what the school dance would be like if she took him. Now, even though she knew it would never happen, she spent some time thinking about what it might be like to take Steven to the dance in a dress.