The delicious smell of grease filled Steven's nose as he entered Beach Citywalk Fries. It was getting late in the evening and his friend Peedee waved at him from behind the counter.

"We're closing down in a few minutes," Peedee called. "You want anything?"

"Got any bits?"

Peedee rolled his eyes. "I mean besides that. I've already got a bag of those for you."

"A soda would be great, thanks."

The place was mostly empty when Steven got there and everyone cleared out within ten minutes. Despite Peedee being fifteen, his dad trusted him to close the joint on his own on slower nights, so Mr. Fryman had taken the night off. Peedee wiped down the counter and locked the doors before hurrying to Steven's table.

He dropped the bag of fry bits and slid the soda so Steven had to reach out to stop it from falling off the table.

"Thanks!"

"So did you read it?" Peedee asked, without any preamble. He flipped a chair around so he was straddling it, his hands excitedly gripping the back, his eyes wide.

"Yeah," Steven said, pulling a binder out of his cheeseburger backpack. "It's really good, Peedee."

A huge grin broke out on Peedee's face. "You think?"

Peedee had written a book-an action novel, specifically, and as Steven had more personal experience with action than anyone else Peedee knew, he'd passed the first draft to Steven for notes.

"Yeah! The stuff Patrick goes through is super exciting. Like that car crash, woow!"

A faint blush started on Peedee's face. "I did a lot of research for that part."

"I could tell, you described the-the crunching and"-Steven visibly shivered-"yeah, that part gave me chills."

"Thanks, Steven."

Steven passed Peedee the binder. "I made a lot of notes like you asked me too. I'm really impressed you're doing this-writing a book is so much work."

Peedee snorted. "You're telling me. It took me three months to write this, and I'll have to rewrite it a hundred times." He flipped open the binder and thumbed through the printed pages, glancing at Steven's additions in purple ink but not stopping to read any of them. "I can't wait to read all of this," he said, grinning up at Steven. "What big tips do you have? Like, plot points, what should I change?"

Steven shook his head. "I like them all! But I do think you should add some more characters. Patrick is great but he and his dad are the only people we meet. What if Patrick got a love interest?"

Peedee's blush came back quickly and he looked back at the binder, avoiding Steven's eyes. "I thought about that, but I don't know…"

Steven shrugged. "It doesn't have to be a big part. Just someone to shake things up, and it gives Patrick some extra motivation-he's got someone to make it home to."

Peedee sighed. "When I first started my outline, he had a girlfriend. I couldn't… I don't know, I'd try to write her and nothing felt right. Here." Peedee typed into his phone for a second before passing it to Steven. It was a picture of his original handwritten outline. Steven zoomed in and skimmed over it-the name Jessica appeared a few times.

"What was wrong with her?" Steven asked.

Peedee was quiet for a few seconds. Not wanting to push him, Steven looked over the outline and noted the differences from the draft he had read-it was like seeing Peedee's writing process.

The silence was tense and Steven opened his mouth to apologize for asking about Jessica when Peedee said, "I think I know what's wrong with her, but I can't fix it."

"What do you mean?"

"Her problem is...she's a girl. It doesn't feel right to write her as a love interest." Peedee finally met Steven's eyes again. "I'm gay."

Steven sighed, relieved. "That's an easy writing problem to fix! Give Patrick a boyfriend, instead."

Peedee's eyes widened. "W-what?" He shook his head and leaned forward, his arms on table. "Steven, you don't understand, I haven't told anyone else. No one else knows. And if I give Patrick a boyfriend, everyone would know-my dad, Ronaldo. Steven, you can't tell anyone, okay?"

Steven blinked, taken aback. "Of course I won't tell anyone." He put his hand on Peedee's arm. "I'm sorry, Peedee, I didn't mean to be..."

"No, it's-it's fine." Peedee took a deep breath. "I just wasn't planning on coming out tonight. I...I feel better, though." He laughed, lightly at first; then more giddily, more energetically. He stood up and stretched his arms over his head, a big smile on his face. "Steven?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm gay."

Steven laughed. "Yeah, I know. Does it feel good to say it?"

"Man, better than I thought it could. And it really doesn't bother you, does it?"

Steven snorted. "Of course not. Do you know anything about my family?"

Peedee laughed again, bouncing on his toes. "Let's go somewhere."

"The arcade?"

Peedee shook his head. "I wanna keep talking to you, but I'm hyper. Let's go to the park."

Dewey Park was just across the street from the fast food restaurant. The moon was bright and the sky was clear-a perfect night for a walk in the park. Peedee had a bounce in his step as they crunched across the dry grass around the statue of Mayor Dewey. The park, like the rest of Beach City, was quiet and still, bathed in moonlight.

"Steven, tell me about your family."

"What do you want to know?"

Steven explained his relationship with the Gems; his mother's passing; and the basics of what the Gems did for the planet. Peedee was a good listener. He asked questions and was genuinely interested in the stories-Steven wondered why they had never talked about this stuff before. By the time he was done, they had walked a lap around the park. They sat on a bench near the entrance, partially shaded by a tree.

"What about their relationships? Are any of the Gems, like, together?" Peedee asked.

"Garnet kinda is. She's really two Gems fused together, Ruby and Sapphire." He explained what fusing was and told him about some other fusions he'd met: Opal, Sardonyx, Alexandrite. "And then there's my fusion, Stevonnie."

"Wait, what? You can fuse?"

"Yeah, with Connie. I haven't been able to fuse with any of the Gems yet, though, so maybe I can't."

"But you can fuse with a human?"

"Right."

"Could you fuse with me?"

"I-I don't know." Steven chuckled nervously. "Do you want to fuse?"

Peedee shrugged and sat back-he had been slowly leaning forward the whole time Steven talked about fusion and only just seemed to realize it. "What's it like?" he asked.

"It's…" but he couldn't think of a way to properly describe it that didn't feel like it was infringing on Connie's privacy. "It's totally different than anything I've done before. It's being a new person, but still kinda being me at the same time."

Peedee nodded slowly. "That sounds nice," he muttered, but he seemed hesitant.

Steven stood up and held out his hand. "We can stop whenever you want, but we should be celebrating you coming out. Dance with me?"

Peedee hesitated but then took Steven's hand and let himself be pulled to his feet. It was eerily quiet but Steven wrapped his arm around Peedee's waist and they swayed together.

"So you just...dance?"

"Yeah, until we're in sync enough, I think. Then my gem starts to glow-that's the giveaway."

They didn't speed up or do anything other than sway. Peedee leaned into Steven, burying his face in his dark curly hair. They had hugged before but this was different. Peedee could feel Steven's gem against his stomach, could hear his breathing close to his ear.

"Thanks again for helping me," Peedee muttered, "with the book, I mean."

"Of course. I'm enjoying it."

"Do you really think Patrick could have a boyfriend?"

"Yeah. I think that's all his story's missing."

Peedee pulled back-his eyes quickly scanned Steven's face; then he kissed him. Peedee's lips were warm and the whole thing felt strange-it was Steven's first kiss-but not bad. He wrapped his arm more tightly around Peedee's waist and kissed him back.

It only lasted a few seconds before Peedee untangled his hand from Steven's hair and stepped back. Steven let him go and suddenly wasn't sure what to do with his arms.

"Was...was that okay?" Peedee asked, avoiding Steven's eyes.

Steven finally decided to shove his hands in his pockets instead of crossing his arms. "Yeah." He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, that was fine, it was...nice."

Peedee looked up, surprised. "Really?"

Steven nodded and Peedee kissed him again, a little harder this time. Steven's pulse was racing and he felt light-headed as he hugged Peedee close-

Peedee's phone started ringing in his pocket. He sighed heavily when he pulled away to look at it.

"It's midnight," he muttered. "That's my alarm. I have to get home."

"Okay," Steven breathed. "I should get home too. I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"

Peedee smiled. "Okay."