Ever since Lapis had left and taken the barn with her, Peridot has been feeling a little nostalgic for Camp Pining Hearts. She always loved that show, and now, the show was essentially gone. Along with that, Lapis was one of her closest friends, and obviously she was gone too, which made it a bit harder. She needed something to help her move on, which Steven was fully aware of, but he definitely didn't anticipate that she'd decide she needs to make Steven her boyfriend based off of scenes from Camp Pining Hearts. The day he found out, he had no idea she was so serious about it...
Her idea was first revealed when he and Peridot were rewatching the series, this time on better quality, as they finally put it On Demand. He knew how much she liked the show, and figured she'd feel better if she watched it again. He didn't mind that much that she wanted to rewatch the entire series, as he enjoyed it enough to not suffer through watching it a second time. At one point in the later episodes, she paused it and turned to him.
"Hey Peri, do you need to tell me something?" He asked, knowing she wouldn't stop watching her favorite show unless it was something she needed to say.
She sighed, having trouble expressing it, but spat it out: "Well, watching Camp Pining Hearts makes me think I need to have a special someone to spend time with, and now that Lapis is gone, I think I might have an idea of who it should be."
Not understanding yet, Steven just smiled and replied, "Oh, that's great! Who is that?"
"Well, they're someone who have cared for me even when I acted like a real jerk, and always tried to make me feel better, even if I didn't always appreciate it, and they did their best to help me adjust to things on Earth," She began to explain, hoping it'd be clear.
Soon, Steven began to realize what she meant and started blushing. "S-so, you want me to be your special someone? What does that mean exactly?"
"Heheh, oh, you know what it means," she remarked, and they both started giggling before Peridot added, "I want to be your girlfriend!"
He was so surprised to hear her outright say it that he stopped giggling and blushed quite a bit.
"Are you serious Peri? We have a bit of an... age difference," He reminded her, feeling awkward explaining it.
She understood what he meant and assured him, "It won't be anything serious- I just want to do cute things and spend lots of time with you, it won't be anything near Ruby and Sapphire's level."
"Heh, good, I wouldn't be able to handle that kind of relationship with anyone- so what do you imagine we'd do?" He then asked
"Oh, well, anything on Camp Pining Hearts I find cute, I'll probably want to do with you," she replied, blushing but smiling a little at him.
Steven grew a bit concerned about this, and was thankful that Camp Pining Hearts was only rated PG. When she told him that, he didn't find it to be a big deal, as he thought she just meant things like kissing and hugging. He didn't realize she meant everything she found cute on Camp Pining Hearts.
The next day was when Peridot first began demonstrating how well she could recreate those romantic moments, to an embarassing degree. Him and Amethyst were chilling on the couch, just watching a TV show, when Peridot came up from behind him, grabbed him and pulled him into a kiss.
"Umm, I don't know what this is, but it's honestly kind of cute," Amethyst commented, giggling.
To Steven, it wasn't as cute, because when she pulled him in for the kiss, she accidentally sent her knee right into his crotch. All he could do to express his pain was shake a bit before she stopped.
"Hehe, how was our first kiss Steven?" Peridot asked him with a teasing look.
"Uhh, well... I guess it wasn't what I expected my first kiss to be, but it was fine," he replied, hiding his embarassment.
"Steven, are you two gonna be a thing or something?" Amethyst curiously asked, snickering a little.
He was about to answer, but Peridot put an arm around his shoulder and answered for him: "Yep, Camp Pining Hearts inspired us to become an item! Nothing too serious, so don't worry~"
Steven was now completely red, now that Amethyst had been falsely informed that he had been just as excited for this plan as she was.
"Well, don't expect me to keep it to myself!" she teased before zooming out with her Spin Dash, leaving Steven to fear how many people in the town would soon know.
Later, he was heading down to get a bite from Peedee's, when Peridot popped up behind him, as she followed him the whole way.
"Peridot, what are you doing here?!" He asked, beyond startled.
"Oh, well, if we're officially dating, I figure we should get a romantic dinner together!" She replied, sounding like she just wanted to get everyone aware of their technically unofficial status.
"O-okay, that's fine," he replied- though he never planned to take their relationship to dating level, he didn't mind eating with a friend. "So, how about Fish Stew Pizza?"
"Sounds great!" she replied immediately, grabbing his hand and taking him to sit at a table inside.
He nervously looked at the menu as Peridot looked at hers a bit more eagerly, and she had an idea of what she wanted.
"Hmm, you know that scene of the two dogs sharing spaghetti?" She asked Steven with a wink.
He blushed and just commented, "Okay, spaghetti for you then... I think I'll take some steak."
"Do you think this place has drinks? I'm feeling quite thirsty," She admitted, trying to sound suggestive despite it not making sense.
Jenny had been standing there for a bit and piped up, "Yep, we sure do!"
Steven jumped in suprrise, getting used to girls sneaking up on him strangely, and replied, "A-ah good!"
"Heheh, we have sodas, shakes, malts, smoothies, pretty much any kind of drink. what do you two want?" Jenny asked with a smile, not questioning why Steven was having lunch with short green triangle-haired person.
Although Steven wanted to take time to decide, Peridot had other ideas and asked, "Could we get one red cream soda, for us to share?"
"Ohoho, sure- are you two on a date or something?" She then asked, only now making the connection.
"Uhhhh, you could say that," Steven replied as Peridot was nodding excitedly.
Jenny teased him a bit by commenting, "That's just so cute! Don't worry, I heard what you wanted to eat, since I was spying on you. Be right back!"
As she headed to give their order to the person making their food, Steven saw Peridot take out her tablet.
"What are you using that for?" He asked curiously.
Without speaking, she answered by turning around and taking a surprise selfie, with the photo showing Peridot beaming and Steven shielding his eyes from the flash.
"S-so, you plan on letting everyone know about this, huh?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.
"Yep, pretty much," she replied as she tweeted the photo out with the description "First date xxx!"
"Didn't you say this wasn't going to be anything serious?" He asked exasperatedly.
Peridot chuckled a bit and responded, "This isn't nearly that serious- I'm not kissing you and trying to fuse with you, am I?"
Steven had to agree that that wasn't the case, and if it was, they'd have a real problem on their hands. Soon he took his mind off of that stuff, as their food and shared drink arrived.
Both of them began to enjoy eating their food, which almost made him forget he was on a date... until he finished eating and needed to share the red cream soda with her. Sure, he loved the soda, but it felt awkward to have her smiling at him as they drank. Of course, that was the whole intention, to force him to look right at her as he drank.
When they finished, Kiki came and took their dishes, and Peridot dragged Steven to enjoy some recreational activities. As in, she did what she saw in an episode of the show, and took a canoe out into a lake with Steven.
"Uhh, Peridot, do you really know how to ride a canoe?" He asked her.
"Of course I do!" she confidently replied, smiling.
Steven looked at her with a frustrated expression and asked, "Where are the paddles, then?"
She paused for a moment before replying, "We don't need paddles, we can push in the direction we want to go!"
Before he could question that, she suddenly pushed him right off the canoe, and as he started sinking, he saw her doing what he could only guess was an act of panic about him 'falling.' He was about to swim his way out, before Peridot dived in after him to rescue him.
Peridot didn't really know how heavy he was, so she began struggling to swim with him to the top, so she was thankful that he was nice enough to help save his life by swimming with her.
Once she got him onto the canoe (or the other way around), Steven asked, "How about we go back to the safe ground now?"
She would've disagreed if she wasn't completely wet and cold, so she started pushing the canoe toward the other end of the lake, with Steven sighing and using his hands to help paddle.
Fifteen minutes later, they were back on land, with Steven feeling a bit of pressure in his bladder.
"Hey Peri, can we head back home? I need to do something important," He told her, blushing.
All of a sudden, she pushed him into his back, nearly startling the pee out of him.
"W-what are you doing now, Peridot?!" He asked, almost sounding scared of what she was thinking of.
Peridot replied as if it made perfect sense, "I need to perform CPR on you- you nearly drowned, so you probably need it."
"Umm, I don't think I- MMMMPHHH!" He suddenly exclaimed, as while he was beginning to say that reply, she leaned in and began performing it.
By the time she was done, his face was a dark red. What happened next made it even redder- Peridot turned and greeted Connie, who had been searching for Steven for a bit.
"C-connie, let me explain-" Steven quickly tried to say, getting himself up.
Surprisingly, Connie wasn't upset- she simply chuckled while blushing and told Steven, "I saw her tweets, Steven, I think I know what's goin' on."
From her tone, he could tell she really did, but Peridot interpreted it in a different way.
"Oh, so you know about me and Steven's relationship? I hope you're not jealous or anything, you and Steven are still good friends," She assured Connie as she put an arm around Steven.
"Don't worry, Peri, I'm definitely not jealous," she snickered, and she then added with a wink to Steven before heading back home, "Enjoy your honeymoon~"
Despite Connie knowing full well what was going on between him and Peridot, this did nothing to make him any less embarrassed. He was going to try and explain to Peridot now that he still needed to pee, but she soon took his hand and began leading him somewhere. When she stopped, they were at a log that she made him sit down on.
"U-um, Peridot," He began telling her, noticing that she was putting an arm around him and pulling on him tight, "I kind of have something I need to do."
"Shhh, nothing is more important than this," she told him before delicately resting her head on his shoulder as she looked off into the distance.
Steven grew confused and asked, "What are we doing?"
"Watching the sunset, silly," she replied, pointing to the setting sun.
Although he did think that the sunet was quite beautiful, and it would make him weep on any other occasion, he still had more pressing matters.
"T-that's nice, but I kind of need to go," He told her, his legs pressing together to hint at what he meant.
She didn't really care enough to figure out what he meant, or she knew and didn't realize the importance, and replied, "The only place we need to go is to our happy place, together."
Steven whined a little, realizing he didn't have much of a choice in this decision, and hoped she would fall asleep soon. This would not be the last time Peridot's flirting actions would cause him some trouble, but for now at least, we'll leave it at that.