Cold Comfort

[Timeline: After Sworn to the Sword but before the end of summer.]

Garnet led the way through the waist deep snow. Their destination peak was fairly far from the nearest warp pad, so she was crossing diagonally across a featureless slope of packed white powder. She led because she was the strongest, and could know the best path. Pearl was next, arms wrapped around her narrow torso and hunched over in the windbreak her friend made against the cutting winds. At first Pearl didn't want the black grease Garnet asked her friends wear under their eyes to ward against the glare, but she was grateful for it now. Amethyst was next, the top of her head and Connie's barely showing above the snow corridors through which the smaller individuals trudged.

Steven couldn't see over the white walls even up on his toes. He bounced along behind Amethyst in his puffy winter coat and toting the cheeseburger backpack that Garnet told him to pack for the mission. She had even provided a list of things that had to be included, just in case, as well as what was not, namely his ukulele.

[sepia flashback] He had pleaded and quivered his lip but she had been firm, "You only want to bring it because I said you couldn't. There are many missions where you don't bring it along, and you've never cared," Garnet adjusted her shades, "but this time it stays home. Period." Steven drew in a deep breath before she put a finger on his lips and sighed. "Because in every future where you bring it along bad things happen, including it being busted. I know you really like it, so let's be safe, and leave it here, a'ight?" Steven nodded reluctantly. [/sepia flashback]

Last in line was Connie, holding her own long fuzzy coat around her tightly, and making sure the moisture proof covering for her sword hilt stayed firmly in place, despite the tugging winds. It had been a near thing as to whether she could go with them or not. Pearl advocated for her inclusion, praising her skills with the sword, but Steven wasn't so sure it was a good idea. Garnet was the tiebreaker, saying, "It's not a dangerous mission, but we're going to a place that is very cold, so you must bring a winter coat or you can't go with us."

Connie had to sneak up to the attic where the Maheswaran's winter clothes were packed away during the sweltering summer. Retrieving her winter wear and getting out of her house with it unnoticed had been like a mission all on its own. The summer was almost over and very soon, she would have to go back to school and have a lot less time to spend with her best buddy, and "liege". She giggled softly to herself, and smiled brightly when Steven spun around to grin soppily at her.

"What do you think so far?" he asked her, "Besides it being really cold, that is."

"It's exciting!" she said. There wasn't really enough room for them to walk side by side in the narrow snow path, but she closed most of the distance between them and held onto a side loop of his colorful backpack as his easy stride helped pull her along.

At the front of the line Garnet slowed, and Pearl saw her turn a tense profile upslope as her mouth set in a grim line. "Garnet? What's wrong?"

"Quiet. Did you hear that?" the fusion said softly.

"Hear what, Garnet?" Pearl whispered back, her head swiveling as she looked around at the dazzling bright vistas. Amethyst plowed into Pearl's back, as she'd been looking down at her own feet, not noticing that Pearl stopped. "Amethyst! Watch where you're going," Pearl hissed.

"Why don't you watch where yo... uff..!" Amethyst's sharp toned words stopped abruptly as Garnet put her hands over the mouths of both her fellow Gems, still listening intently for something higher up the mountain.

For a moment, they all strained their ears to hear over the winds whistling through the pine trees. Faintly another sound began to pick up and gradually get louder, a rumbling only heard at first, but soon was felt under their feet. "Kids!" Garnet shouted, "Hold on!" She moved her hands down to clasp the other Gem's hands and tugged Pearl and Amethyst closer to her.

Pearl was the first to see it, a cloudy blur sweeping down from higher elevations almost faster than thought, mounting higher and higher into a veritable tidal wave of loose, tumbling snow, dragging uprooted trees and boulders along with ease. "Avalanche!"

Connie stepped closer to Steven and linked her arm with him. Amethyst turned towards the children, who stared at her with wide-eyed fear on their faces. She stretched her body across the short gap between herself and the kids, desperately reaching her free hand out for Steven's.

Steven reached back, flailing for her hand as the loosely packed snow under his and Connie's feet loosened and began to slide away from the Gems, gradually picking up speed. Connie looked at the upslope roar, "Steven!" She tried to untangle their arms, but Steven turned away from Amethyst and grabbed his friend in a tight hold, following her gaze. Just before the roiling maelstrom of ice and debris reached them, he bubbled them both; the big pink sphere quickly lost in the crash of surging snow.

Inside the bubble, they shouted wordlessly as the world danced and spun around them in random, chaotic movements. Steven clung to Connie like a leech, his chunky arms and legs wrapped around her slender limbs in a concerted attempt to take on the worst of the impacts himself. She resisted his grip at first, but after she nearly got whiplash when the bubble careened in an unpredictable direction, she went limp in his grasp as Pearl had taught her in how to deal with falls. She ducked her head down near his shoulder and intertwined with him as they thundered down the slope, screaming as they went.

They could see nothing outside the sphere that contained them, just a blurry haze; sometimes bright and sometimes dim. Connie quickly lost track of both rational thought and sense of time or direction as the commotion around her kept her in a perpetual state of 'now'. As the bubble skipped and lurched down the inclines it briefly stopped at times, arrested by a cluster of trees or a gulley in the terrain. For an instant the tumult would stop, allowing them to hear each other's harsh, panicky breathing, before something heavy dislodged them, and off they'd go again...

Finally, they dropped into a gulch deep enough that the majority of the still moving materials skidded over the top of the bubble, packing into the gaps around it, then slowly building up above them. The light coming in grew ever dimmer as they were buried under deeper and deeper layers of snow and debris. Their breathing slowed little by little, and Connie suddenly realized her teeth were chattering in fear, and that she was hardly aware of where she ended and Steven began. "It... it's g' getting da... dark," she finally managed to say, hoarsely.

"Y... yeah," he said. "I can fix that!" He moved his head and she felt his breath on her face just before their noses bumped, and his warm moist mouth encountered hers briefly, causing her to gasp. "Oh! Sorry! I'm sorry!" he pulled his head back, and started to lean away from her.

"Steven... hush," she said quietly, not letting him go, "I'm not mad. You can't see any better than I can. Just..." She burrowed her head against his neck, feeling him giggle and squirm from her breath. "Just... give me a minute to calm down."

"Okay," he said, patting her on the back, and humming softly.

"Some knight I am," she grumbled, starting to peel away from him, and gasped again, this time in pain. She ached from the back of her left shoulder, down to her right hip... right where the sheath of her sword hung down her back. The times the two of them tumbled with her on the bottom of the pile seemed to have left their marks on her.

"Connie, are you hurt?" his voice shook in concern, as a pink glow grew from between them. His Gem lit up, revealing his worried face. "Oh, your eye..." his finger poked a tender spot under her left eye. He wiggled back and started digging into his cheeseburger backpack as the Gem glow faded. "I got a bunch of 'em," he muttered, "just gotta feel for one... Gotcha!"

"Ow," she said, probing the puffy bruise on her cheek. "My back is sore... I must have landed on my sword a couple a times." She heard a dull snap, a rattle, and a blue glow-stick lit up, as Steven clipped it to the backpack. He looked happier now they could see each other.

"Let me do something about that eye," he said, sticking out his tongue and depositing a generous amount of spit on his palm before reaching for her.

She frowned as she leaned far away, "Seriously? You're not smearing that all over my face."

He looked down at his glistening hand, "Too much?" Connie nodded, and he used a finger of his other hand to collect some of the moisture and looked for her reaction. She closed her eyes in acquiescence, and he drew the damp finger over her eyelid, and gingerly on the darkening mouse under her eye.

She made faces and fought to hold still as a tingling warmth followed his touch. "That feels... weird." She rubbed her eyes, then blinked until they focused again. "Okay, that's better." She looked up at the top of the bubble, where the snow packed around them dully reflected the blue light of the glow-stick. "Oh, that doesn't look good... how far under the surface do you think we are?" He gave a clueless shrug. "Well, here we are again in a bubble. The Gems are going to be looking for us, but how are they going to find us?"

"They'll find a way," he said with a smile, "They always do."

"I know," she said, "but it might be a while before they find us." She stood and turned around in the limited space, then turned again, wishing she could pace. She threw her hands up in the air in frustration, "It could be hours before we're found! What are we going to do?"

She turned back to Steven, only to see him staring raptly at the fleeting shadows her moving hands cast against the packed snow outside the pink bubble. "Ooo, I know!" he said. "Shadow puppets!" He folded his hands together into a bird shape and put it near the glow-stick. "Kreee!" he said, badly imitating a falcon scream. "Look, it's Archimicarus!"

Connie looked closely at her friend, and noticed the tightness of his expression even while he was trying to project good cheer. She sighed, and sank down next to him, taking off her sheathed sword and laying it across her knees. "Yeah, I know, it won't help to get upset about it... I just wish I didn't feel so useless."

His face sobered, as he put a hand over the sword. "Can't fight snow with a sword, Connie." Then he tilted his head to the side. "How did you know what I was really thinking?"

"We've been friends for a long time; we've even been in the same body," she said. "And, besides, you're pretty easy to read, Steven." She ruffled his hair, smiling fondly.

"I'm a book?" He giggled. "Am I a good book?"

"You're the best," she leaned over and kissed his forehead, making them both break out in blushes barely visible in the blue tinted light of the glow-stick. "We... can do riddles, this one is really old; 'What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs in the evening?'"

"Ummm, Amethyst?" Steven said, completely serious.

This time she was the one who broke out in laughter. "No, Steven. The answer is not a Gem, Crystal or otherwise."

Steven screwed up his face and thought hard, laying a finger against his cheek, and humming a lot. Finally, he said, "I don't know."

"I guess this is one of those times when living the life you do is a disadvantage," Connie said. "You think anything is possible, so you can't rule out any answer, even the most unlikely. Those of us who lived in the boring, ordinary world, usually try to figure things out by the simplest answer. In this case, it's a man. In the morning of his life he crawls on all fours. In the afternoon of his life he walks on two feet, and in the evening of his life, he's old and bent so he walks with a cane."

He smiled, stars in his eyes, "That is so cool!" He looked off with a little frown, "I coulda used a cane when I got old."

"Wait, what?" Connie said. "What do you mean you got old?"

Steven made a crooked shrug. "Gems don't age, and they're as old or as big as they think they are. My last birthday, I got out my birthday stuff... the crown, a cloak, you know; the usual stuff," he said, completely missing the confused look she gave him. "The Gems thought I was too old for all that, and the games, and balloons... and when I started think that way too, I got older, fast. Like, poof! I was a teenager, then bam! I was a grown up. Then it got worse, and I was really old, even older than dad, and I... think I was dying. But Garnet shook me out of it."

"Oh! How did she do that?" Connie said, spellbound by his stories of magic, like usual.

Steven stifled a chuckle, and bit his lower lip mischievously, grabbing her by the upper arms. "Like this," he said, and shook her bodily, as the tall Gem had done to him. "They told me to stop feeling old... and, I got young again." He shrugged and rubbed his hands up and down her arms where he'd shaken her. "Do you know other riddles?" he asked her.

"Not... right now," she said. "My mind is getting fuzzy... You've never been to school, right?" He shook his head. "Then I bet you've never heard this... 'On top of Spaghetti, all covered in cheese,'" she sang. "'I lost my poor meatball, when somebody sneezed. It rolled off the table, and on to the floor. And then my poor meatball, rolled out the door...' and, I can't remember anymore..." Connie rubbed her head, frowning.

"Amethyst would still eat it," Steven said. "You should've seen her eat that icky burrito." He chuckled strangely, falling over.

Connie yawned hard, and thought, Something... something was wrong... "Oxygen!" Connie said. "We need air!"

"You think so?" Steven mumbled. "We didn't run out last time."

"We didn't yell or breathe so hard then, and who knows how long we were rolling before we got stuck." She put her hands on his shoulders and looked in his face. "We could die here."

He straightened up and squared his shoulders, his face taking a determined look. "What do we do?"

"You have to pop the bubble. Some of the snow will probably fall down on us, but..." she tried hard to think... "Use your shield, use it to pack the snow around us into a snow cave... hopefully what's above us is packed loosely enough we can get more air." She stood up and put her back to the wall of the bubble. "This space is strongest at the sides, get against the other side, and let it go."

"Nuh unh," he shook his head, and pulled some bungee cords out of his backpack, connecting one to his belt and one to hers, then hooking them together. Connie nodded, agreeing with his idea, and then he backed up as she'd told him, staring at her. "Ready?" She nodded. *Pop!* the bubble burst, and the roof fell in.

She helped him pack the walls and the new floor, adding her strength to his. The space above them was roughly twice as tall as it had been, but a huge tree trunk crossed through the space overhead, twisted fir branches supporting the much of the weight of the snow over them. The air was fresher, and flickers of light by the higher end of the tree suggested it broke through the surface, allowing some air circulation. But even standing on Steven's shoulders she couldn't reach the lowest broken branches. "We're just going to have to wait," she said, her teeth chattering again. "But it's so much colder, now. We could freeze, especially me, 'cuz I'm thinner."

"I could bubble us again," he said. "It seemed to block out the cold."

"Running out of air is more dangerous than the cold," she said. "What else do you have in the cheeseburger backpack?"

"Lots of stuff! Garnet had me put in a whole list..." He knelt down and started pulling out stuff, more glow-sticks, a couple of oversize sweatshirts, packages of sweet pastries, a silver emergency blanket, a box of hot cocoa mix, scarves, and two water bottles. They looked over the items, and came up with a plan...

Under the lowest part of the tree cutting diagonally above them, they put the emergency blanket half on the floor and half covering part of the wall. They took off their coats and hurriedly put on the sweatshirts and scarves, then traded coats. His pale puffy coat easily enveloped her torso, while her fuzzy coat wouldn't quite close around him but hung down to his calves. Steven sat on the silver blanket, and the long tail of the coat, and Connie sat across his lap. "What was that about you freezing faster?" he asked.

She leaned against his chest, putting her hands around him to keep them warm. "You ever make ice cubes in your freezer?" He nodded. "Did you notice how they take longer to freeze when there's more water in the tray?"

"Oh," he said. "You're smart. I wouldn't have thought about it like that.

Connie pushed up the flopping sleeve of the coat Steven wore to bare his arm, and tried to put her hand around his wrist, to no avail. His hand easily encircled her forearm when he tried. She shivered and slid her hands under the fuzzy coat again. "Science class," she said, putting her head on his shoulder. "The bigger the volume, the longer something takes to change states, by freezing or boiling."

He shook his head. "I've learned so much from you, and your books. I never used to think about a lot of stuff that's really important," he put his arms around her and squeezed.

She huffed back at him with a smile. "I've learned tons since I met you. About the Gems, and magic, and your Lion. And sword fighting! That's so amazing! The only time regular people use swords are those dinky fencing ones, or like in Ren Faires, but those aren't sharp."

"What's the use of a sword that isn't sharp?" he asked.

"Ren Faires are kinda like Rose's room, just dress-up and make believe. Folks go to them to kinda feel like they were in the olden days, but really it's just a way to get the visitors to spend money."

Steven shrugged. "Sounds like the boardwalk. Visitors want a good time, and they get one."

"Yeah, I guess," she said and smiled again, "But now I know how to use a real sword!"

"You've changed more than that," he said. "You used to be so quiet and shy, and you were afraid to dance in front of anyone. But now you're brave, and confident, and outspoken... at least when your parents aren't around. And we danced in that rave in front of everyone when we stopped being Stevonnie!"

She giggled. "You've gotten more confident, too. You can summon your shield and bubble any time you like, and the Gems let you fight and do missions with them."

He sighed, "It's still mostly them. They don't let me help that much."

"They will someday," she rocked closer to give him a big hug then rocked back again, frowning as she noticed something different about his lap. "Steven, is that..."

And, at the same time, he spoke as well. "Um, please don't... wiggle... like that," his eyes implored, as he flushed.

"Oh," she said flushing in turn. "So that's your...uh..."

He shrugged, pointedly not looking at her. "Yeah, it just kinda does what it wants sometimes. Garnet had me talk to Dad when I mentioned it, and he said that it's normal even for boys my age. All the other... puberty stuff doesn't happen 'til later."

"Probably not for me, either," she said. "Mom said it's something to do with how thin I am. I didn't ask her to explain." Her eyes fixed on the box of cocoa, so she picked it up. "Why did Garnet have you bring this stuff?" She squinted at the instructions in the dim blue light, then gasped, not sure if her mind or eyes were playing tricks on her. "Light more glow-sticks! I need to be able read this." He snapped a few more glow-sticks, and watched as she closely read the packaging, muttering to herself. "Campfyre™ Cocoa... calcium oxide... 8 ounce drinks... 3 minutes!" She shook her head a little. "Remind me hug Garnet when they find us..."

"For what?" he said, "What's it say?"

"This cocoa is self-heating in three minutes with a chemical reaction," she said. He looked confused. "They work like the glowsticks, sorta. You break the tube and mix chemical A and chemical B, and you get light. But in this case, you mix the calcium oxide with the water in the bottom of the pouch, and it makes heat. Three minutes later, Hot cocoa to drink!" She picked up two packs and activated them, holding them between their torsos, so they could enjoy the radiated warmth.

"Great! So we can have cocoa, and..." he picked up a pastry pack. "...Marshmallow ChocoStars®." He pulled one out of its package, revealing two star-shaped chocolate cookies sandwiching a gooey white filling. He turned it and held it up aligned with the star under his sweatshirt briefly before stuffing it in his mouth. "So good!"

"I can feel the transfats in that from here," Connie said, "but I don't care! We need the energy." Minutes later, they enjoyed their snacks, almost burning their tongues from the hot drinks. The subsequent sugar rush led to the inevitable sugar crash, making them both sleepy. She curled closer to him, nearly dozing as his head started nodding as his eyelids drooped. Her eyes defocused, blankly staring at the bright points of the glow-sticks around them. "I wish he'd kiss me again," she mumbled half under her breath.

"Connie?" he pushed her back a little so he could meet her eyes.

"I didn't..! Uh, did I... say that out loud?" she said, cringing from his suddenly intense look, feeling her cheeks get hot.

"Yeah, mostly," he said. "Did you mean that?"

"Well... earlier, I know it was an accident, but it was so quick and unexpected, I couldn't help but wonder what it'd be like if we... really kissed." She turned away from his dark eyes. "Probably sounds stupid to you."

"No. I've been thinking about it too," he said. "It shouldn't have happened without your say so, is all."

She smiled, "It's okay, you apologized. But, do you think we should?"

"If you're curious, because, I am too." He smiled, and touched her chin, looking at her mouth.

She raised her eyebrows, "You want to see what it's like, too?"

He leaned in slowly, looking at her eyes until their noses got close. "Yeah, you?"

She bridged the short distance between them, sealing their mouths together. His lips were soft against hers. She tilted her head, and so did he... the wrong way, mashing their noses together again. They leaned back, laughing. "Steven, you taste like chocolate," she said.

"So do you," he said. "That was fun." He broke out in a yawn, and pulled her close against him again.

She yawned, too," and found a comfortable place for her head on his shoulder, as they drifted off to sleep.

*"Rawr!"* The sound rang out in the bell shaped chamber hollowed under the packed snow.

"Umph!" Connie woke when Steven jerked awake, saying, "I heard Lion, I think." They listened intently, until the sound echoed down to them again. He gathered himself, and stood up, pulling her upright with him. "Lion! We're here! Come on, Lion!" he shouted.

"Connie! Steven!" they could hear Garnet's shouts interspersed with Lion's roars.

"Garnet!" he called out. "We're under a buried tree!"

"I heard them!" they heard Pearl say, "By this tree."

"C'mon big kitty," this time they heard Amethyst, "Dig up the mousies!"

"Rarr," grumbled the big beast, as they heard him scrabbling at the snow above them.

Connie grabbed his arm. "Duck under the tree trunk with me, we could get more snow falling on us." They both grabbed glow-sticks and empty wrappers, along with the silver blanket, and wadded them into the backpack.

The first of their friends the kids saw was Amethyst as the Purple Puma, hurriedly shoveling snow out of the way. Then big pink paws joined in, as the top of the snow cave was breached, letting in the pale light of early dawn. The Gems and Lion looked down in the shadowed snow pit. "Kids?" Pearl said, nervously.

Connie and Steven leaned out from under the tree, waving glow-sticks. "We're here!" she said.

"Just staying out of the way of falling snow," Steven chimed in.

Garnet gave them a big smile, and with a little more effort, the Gems were able to get down to the children, and there were tears and hugs all around, including a big pink Lion frantically rubbing against them and knocking them over into the snow. Garnet picked up the overgrown cat by his scruff, and moved the now limp Lion away from them. Steven pulled Connie up out of the drift she'd been flattened into, and followed Garnet. "Garnet?"

She got down on one knee, facing them. "Yes Steven?"

"You knew this was going to happen," said the half gem, making it a statement and not asking a question.

Garnet nodded, "I knew it could happen. It was really a small chance, but I thought it was better to bring things that weren't needed than to have bad things happen."

"And the ukulele?" he said.

"If the avalanche happened, and if you had brought it, you might not have been able to stay close enough to Connie to protect her. You would have been buried separately, and that would have been very bad, for both of you."

He threw his arms around the big Gem, and pulled Connie in, as well. "Thanks for the cocoa," Connie said shyly. "We really needed it."

"You're welcome." Garnet pulled down her visor to reveal her upper eye, which winked at them, "And your friendship has gotten a little better, yes?"

They both blushed and looked away from her, accidentally catching each other's gaze, and averting their eyes again.

"I get the feeling we missed something that happened with them," Amethyst said, raising an eyebrow.

Pearl got a suspicious look on her face, agreeing, "Did something happen between you two?" she asked.

Connie looked at her friend, and smiled. "We just had to stay real close, or freeze."

"And we fell asleep until we heard Lion," he added.

"It's not important, now," said Garnet. "I'm scrubbing the mission. Let's get back to the Temple." She waved Lion over who crouched to let the children climb on his back.

The sun cleared the horizon as they began the long walk back to the warp pad. Connie laid her head on Steven's back, once more wistfully thinking of the time she'd miss spending with him because of school. Well, she had a lot more interesting memories from the last day's adventures. That would just have to get her through until she could be with him again.

-fin.