A/N: So I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed in the Steven's Universe episode, Steven's Birthday, and the whole part where he clutches his gem while his dad and Connie high-five about being Humans, and the fact that he's agonizing the whole episode about not aging properly like a human; frick.

I'm such a sucker for Hybrids and how they don't belong to either of their species; my first ever OC with actual angst is half human (I was maybe 13 when I made her? Hot dang.) So, the fact that this issue came up in the show, and the word 'hybrid' wasn't even uttered until Peridot and Steven discussed it on the way to the Kindergarten, well, I feel the need to write a contemplative piece.

DISCLAIMER: Steven Universe is owned by Rebecca Sugar - or, the Sugarwoman and Crewniverse as I've heard them called.


Human . . . ?


It, never really occurred to him before, honestly.

Of course there had always been the stark contrast between him and the Gems; when he first began living with them he was noticeably weaker - he couldn't even summon his shield for the first few months! He was slower, and more vulnerable, and so, so, laughably untrained.

But he eventually picked it up; grew. He could fight, summon his shield and bubble - heck, he could even fuse with both a Gem and a Human!

He felt more like a Crystal Gem, these days.

But even then, if one really looked, they could see he was still a good fraction weaker than them. Enough that he was noticeably Human.

So when he was with the Gems, the words 'Half-Human' were easily brought to mind, and applied. Though that didn't bother him.

It . . . was pretty much the same among people, too.

He was rounded with curly hair and bright eyes, the only visible feature marking him as different was the gem, easily shielded by his shirt. But when his powers arose, it marked him as different. When he grew stronger, much stronger than a normal Human, and could float and heal, it showed how bizarrely and truly alien he was.

It wasn't hard to remember he was 'Half-Gem'.

And honestly, it didn't really . . . mean anything to him. He just . . . never thought about it.

Until he did.

He would shove and squash down Jasper's accusations and disbelief of him not being Rose Quartz, Pink Diamond's Shatterer, his mother. Because he knew he wasn't her, no matter what the Crystal Gems reminisced and subconsciously pushed for, or what the Big-Buff-Cheeto-Puff (as Ranaldo dubbed her) said.

He couldn't be her because he was Half-Human.

But that was just it; he thought of himself in alternating patterns of 'Half-this' 'Half-that', and not as a whole being who was part of both universes, and yet neither.

'So some sort of Hybrid?'

Peridot's words murmured in the back of his mind occasionally, the identity solidifying but not yet sticking.

But then:

'Humans?'

'Humans.'

Dad. Connie. He really was different from them, wasn't he? His hand clutched his shirt, subconsciously where his gem was.

He wasn't a Gem.

He knew this; had always known this. He was Half-Human.

And of course a form of the reverse occurred. Instead, though, it was that he was a Human with Gem powers; Half-Gem.

Which, he realized with a jolt, wasn't exactly true.

But what really hit him, really startled him, was that-

He wasn't human.