An average day in Beach City was generally as remarkable as it gets depending on whom you asked. It was full of all sorts of people, restaurant owners, conspiracy theorists, and even aliens. Steven was generally unphased by all of the abnormalities around him, for the very simple reason that he and the Crystal Gems were usually at the center of it.
He'd spent a lot of his afternoon wandering around the town, just taking in the sights and smells and storing them in his mind as the sights and smells he'd collected that day. He was sat outside the Big Donut, his pink shirt with a yellow star on it rolled up under his chin as he wiped his pinkish gemstone with a damp napkin; Sadie, an employee of the Big Donut, stepped out of the darkened store with her coat on, pulling out a key and locking the door behind her.
"Steven," she called over "you might as well go home now. We're closed for the night. He looked at her and called back "Okay".
As he stood up to brush his jeans down, a gust of wind built up around the car park and a large piece of folded paper which extruded from his back pocket got lifted from it's place and flapped in the air, landing dead to rights at Sadie's feet as she was walking off. "What's this?" Sadie picked up the piece of paper and unfolded it. Another smaller piece of paper fell from within the folds. The large sheet had a bunch of adjectives written on it in a mind map with the name 'Connie' written in the center of it. The other piece of paper, which she swiftly swiped from the ground was a small drawing in crayon.
It was an incredibly good drawing for Steven, and Sadie could instantly see what it was; it was a girl, about Steven's age, strewn in a large white wedding dress and eye patch. Before she could examine it further, Steven leapt from her peripherals and snatched the pieces of paper back. He felt all the blood in his body and convene in his cheeks, a feeling that Sadie could read all of over his face.
"Did you draw this picture of your friend?" she asked, soothingly. Her tone of voice didn't register in Steven; he just stuffed the paper back in his pockets and took off, only turning back to shout, "See you later" with his blushing cheeks. Sadie gave him a warm smile from the distance, "Go get her, Steven."
The following morning, Steven was hanging upside down off the end of the couch thinking of what he should call Connie and tell her. He'd been recalling some of the things that they'd been through together in all the time they'd known each other. The bubble, Lapis, his mother's room, his birthday, Stevonnie, all of it. He was lost in thought when a sudden "Hello, Steven" emanated from behind him and he almost jumped through the ceiling, which, with his floating abilities, he may have even done.
The familiar voice was Garnet's, who was staring at him with her third eye poking out from over the top of her visor. She stuck the visor back onto her face and continued to talk.
"You appear to be in some kind of distress."
"No, no, I'm not distressed, I'm fine, nothing's wrong, everything's good, is everything good with you?"
Garnet seized on this response to get to the root of Steven's problems. Behind her visor, her eyes were picking up every clue they could gather until Garnet had the final picture in her mind's eye.
"Connie"
"Huh?! W-w-what about her?"
"She hasn't been around here for a while. Though I can see that you are desperate to see her again. You are favoring your left side, meaning that there is something you are hoping to conceal by sitting on it. And the fact that you are heavily blushing means that it is something of great emotional relevance to you." Quickly, Steven relented with a massive sigh. He drew the crumpled paper from out of his pocket, unfurled it and handed it to Garnet. She examined the drawing and then the words he's put on the paper. Pearl piped up from behind her; "You've really taken your time with these, haven't you Steven?"
Steven quickly became flustered, "W-where did you come from?" "I was standing here the whole time; you were dreaming about Connie?" With a deep sigh, he admitted, "Yeah, I suppose I was." He took the picture and mind map back from Garnet and held them close to his chest. "I don't know what to do"
Pearl walked over to the kitchen, pulled a strawberry from the fridge and a biscuit from the cupboard and placed them both inside a bubble. The connection between Steven and Connie still wasn't quite clear to her, particularly the symbolism of these two items but she understood enough to realise that doing this represented something near and dear to the lovestruck boy. Returning to him, she stuck the bubble down on the table; "She cares about you, Steven. And you clearly love her. There's no denying it, so the only course of action really is to be brave and say it." Steven's eyes drooped, "I'm too frightened to even say it in the mirror. What makes you think I could say it to her now?"
Garnet's voice broke in, "I think she should come here. Make her feel as secure and safe as she makes you feel, and then instead of telling her, you show her. Let the love inside you show her." She placed her forefinger on Steven's gemstone and saw the temple door reflected on one of it's faces. "I understand", he said determinately, tears welling up in his starry eyes. He lifted Pearl's bubble from the table and gently pressed on the top as it vanished into thin air, to a place that only Steven knew where.
Later that day as evening was starting to brew, a portal opened up outside the house and Lion leapt through with Steven and Connie on his back. Steven was unchanged and Connie was wearing a charming white dress, but no shoes; she'd decided it was warm enough that she didn't need them. Racing inside, giggling, they spent the evening playing. Every moment Steven laid his eyes on her, he stoically held back crying because he knew what he had to do. She was his Connie and he wanted her to know, and he'd spent the day coming up with everything he'd planned to do. Eventually, the sun had vanished behind the horizon line and the beams of light had dissipated like a cape in the wind.
Connie stepped outside with Steven in tow and made her way down the steps towards Lion, who was having another of his naps at the time. "That was so much fun!" she announced loudly, "I'll see you later, Steven". It was at that point that Steven spoke and everything he had planned to do when this moment came immediately blew away. "Bye, Connie. I love you".
Connie stopped dead on the stair and the gentle wind lifted her bobbed hair to the same motion as the hem of the dress she'd worn. She turn slowly the face Steven, who'd gone completely white, save for the red that burned in his face like a tail light. "Steven…" Connie uttered, raising her hand to her heart. Before any more responses came, Steven fled back inside the house and his gemstone shone brighter than it had ever done before.
The door to the temple lit up with the same intensity and his mother's room revealed itself in the glowing archway. Garnet's words from earlier echoed through him and with a newly found stoic resolve raced inside. Connie burst inside after he'd vanished into the room. "Steven, wait!" she called out, but he wasn't around to hear, having vanished into the cloudy pink void. Taking a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, Connie raced over the warp pad and into the room after Steven.
The door sealed shut behind her and she found herself alone in the eternally cloudy room. "Steven" she shouted out to him, but the only response she got was the same name echoed in her own voice. A misty light glowed from behind her; furling her eyebrows into a confident stance, Connie charged into the light and was suddenly on the seabed. Spinning around in circles, she caught sight of Steven with her, sat in a pink bubble, with Steven on his knees holding out a red glow bracelet to her. It was the day they first became friends. The words they were saying were distorted in Connie's ears, but what she saw said enough.
Moving forward a few paces, the seabed disappeared and she found herself in broad daylight by Beach City's lighthouse. Turning around on the spot, there they were again, Steven and Connie sat on a blanket with a picnic basket beside them.
"You don't need any powers to be here with me"
The heartbeat of the cloud Steven matched Connie's own as she was suddenly flung to another place. The ocean tower made by Lapis Lazuli, she watched Steven's water avatar launch a ball of water at him when he summoned his shield before both Connies' eyes. The ringing that ran out threw her backwards and she arrived by the barn. Peering around the one corner, she saw the stretched-out Steven walk away to 'freshen up' leaving her past self stood on her own. Racing to the opposing corning, she peered around and watch Steven converse with Greg and Amethyst about his body. The words they were speaking got clearer as they went on.
"Why are you doing this? It really isn't like you."
"Because, dad, I can't stay a kid forever. When Connie grows up and becomes president, what's that gonna make me? First boy?!"
Those words brought the biggest tears and biggest blushes to Connie's touched face, "Steven. He wants to marry me?" The barn disappeared and in a cloud of smoke she was finally at the most important moment of her life. Stood beside Steven and herself, she watched as the boy dug his phone into the sand and the song it played resonated through her.
"So, what I was trying to say was 'Come dance we me'?"
Before they knew it to two kids where dancing like there was no tomorrow, laughing and cheering and spinning around and the moment came where one was holding the other before both became engulfed in a vast eruption of light. And in the place of those two kids was a tall, beautiful fusion. To most, they were known as Stevonnie, but Garnet had previously said that they were "Perfect. A spontaneous fusion of love, as impossible as it was inevitable."
The beach and fusion vanished into a pink cloud, just as everything in this place did and Connie was once again standing in the center of Rose Quartz' room. Letting her fluttering heart calm, she was alerted by the faint sound of a sniffling cry. Running over to wherever the noise became clearer, Connie rounded a mass of cloud to see Steven sitting on the very edge of the room, his feet hanging over the edge, with tears of sheer embarrassment consuming his face.
Connie gingerly approached him, kneeling down beside him on the ground's edge, not feeling the ground beneath her knees. Steven, still trembling, tried to resist looking at her but nevertheless did so, not having the faintest idea what to expect. Looking her in the eye, she was moved to tears, her irises forming the same stars that Steven's did and her hands placed on her heart.
"This is what you were scared to tell me?"
"I never know what to say about how I feel. So when I told Garnet about my problems, she said to show you instead.
An illusionary version of Garnet appeared standing above them, relating the same sentiment she had imparted to Steven the morning before, "Make her feel as secure and safe as she makes you feel, and then instead of telling her, you show her. Let the love inside you show her"; the cloud Garnet then appropriately vanished. When Steven turned back, Connie had risen to her feet, holding both her hands open for Steven to take, which he promptly did.
Both risen, Steven was the first to speak
"I love you. I've never understood how to tell you, but I adore you. My loving, brave, smart, beautiful, perfect Connie."
Connie was on the verge of breaking into tears at his honesty and chose to speak her mind too.
"Oh, Steven. Steven Universe, you are the sweetest, most selfless and best friend I could ever have asked for. I had no friends before you and now you mean everything to me. You needn't have been afraid to tell me this because I love you too."
The two pulled each other in to a loving, crying embrace, neither wishing to break it. Keeping their arms wrapped around each other, Steven's gemstone started to glow, brighter and brighter; Steven gave Connie one last look in her eyes, before pulling her into a sensual kiss and his gemstone erupted with light. Standing in the dissipating light was Stevonnie, who glanced up at the sky, or what one would call sky in this place and keep their arms wrapped around themselves.
"I'm here"
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I'm hoping that you guys enjoyed this; I have no fear in saying these two are straight up adorable and the idea of them together warms my heart, much as I always need. To the one reviewer that's already left a question, I'll get around to writing another perspective piece from Connie's POV from before and after the main bit of this first part, but I won't expand on it after that. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'mma gonna get me-self a jam sandwich.
- James