Connie was blind.
Now, don't get me wrong, Connie was managing okay, but sometimes she got upset. She was always worried and anxious, worried that someone would find out, anxious that people would treat her like she was helpless or mock her or otherwise just think less of her for it. She had been taught that she needed to be the perfect daughter, always doing what her mother said, so that she could go to Harvard and become a doctor and lead a happy and successful life.
Well, how does a blind person become a doctor exactly? Connie wasn't sure. She didn't even know if it was possible. She just wanted to hide in a hole at the edge of the Earth because her mother hadn't even noticed. How could her own mother not notice that her daughter was blind? It didn't even make sense.
At first, Connie thought maybe it was temporary. She didn't tell her mother automatically, a residual effect from ten years of overprotective actions that resulted in her not having any friends; she'd lie to get by, knowing that the demands were too tight for her to comply to fully. None of them, apparently, were 'smart' enough or 'good' enough for Connie to be friends with. Or at least, that's what she felt her mother would say if she was being completely and utterly honest. She had instead simply deemed them 'inappropriate' and sent them away.
She walked down the stairs. She followed her muscle memory most of the time, but she knew for sure that there were fourteen steps. She counted them in her head - one, two, three - hearing her mother call her for breakfast right on cue - nine, ten, eleven - her father saying hello, waving back to him as she hopped down to the last step, trotting quickly into the kitchen and holding out a hand to steady herself against the table in the kitchen. She sniffed the air - today was toast with a side of blueberries - and sat down, brushing across the surface of the table until she found the knife and fork and holding them expectantly.
"Good morning, Connie," Priyanka greeted her calmly, the clink of the plate hitting the table sudden but expected. "Here's breakfast. Now, I've got to get going quickly, emergency call, but your father will tell you about your extracurriculars today. I'm heading out now, see you tonight." She didn't even hesitate to sigh to herself, knowing that when her mother said 'tonight', she really meant 'tomorrow morning, if you're lucky'. She felt her mother's lips brush her forehead, and then the thump-thump-thump of her rushing out the door marked the end of her communication with her doting parent.
She got up, not really up to eating more, and walked back into the family room. Her father was in there, almost certainly reading the newspaper from the ruffling sound of papers, and she cleared her throat.
"Father, what's happening today?" Connie inquired, making herself blatantly heard. He hummed a half-hearted response.
"Father?"
Silence.
"I'll be at the beach with my books if you end up caring." She stormed up to her room, grabbed the book she hadn't been able to read since she went blind, and felt the door, opening it slowly and closing it carefully behind her, feeling it to make sure she'd locked it right. She walked down the sidewalk, simply enjoying the breeze for a bit, before finally reaching the cliffs next to the shore.
She paused to feel the air against her face, playing with the hem of her summer dress. It would probably be rather picturesque, if she could see.
Ha, ha, ha. Very funny.
She kept walking, ignoring the noise around her. It was rather annoying really, all the cars and the chatting people on the street bothered her to no end. With them around, it was hard to focus on where she was going, and she always needed to know where she was.
Then she felt a bit of ground give below her. Looking down automatically, she forgot for a moment she was blind and groaned.
Why me?
She was about to take a step back when the ground shifted again. What was happening? Why-
She was cut off by an ominous rumble and yelped, feeling the ground below her give way entirely. She grappled at the cliff behind her, but in her heart she knew it was too late. Her ever-sarcastic mind laughed at the pure morbidity of the situation.
Oh look, I'm going to die before my parents notice me or I have any friends. How nice.
She squeezed her unseeing eyes shut and waited for death to greet her... and was instead welcomed by an ethereal pink glow.
There was an 'oof' below her, and then a young, masculine yelp as the pink flashed behind her this time. She was on something... warm? And the rocks weren't crushing her to death, although they were definitely falling and hitting something. With a wince she gripped whatever was protecting her and mentally kicked herself for not paying better attention. The pink glow was still there, though it was in multiple places, the first being below her in an uncomfortable rocky lump and the second being behind her in a vaguely circular shape.
Why two pink glows had suddenly appeared in her void she had no idea, but she wasn't about to let it go anytime soon.
The sounds stopped, and for a bit all she could hear was her own shallow, uneven breathing mixed with the calm in-and-out of whomever she was pressed against. With a quiet gasp she hopped back only to hit something behind her and fall to her knees on the ground... which felt oddly spherical.
"Where- what's happening?! Why am I... what is this?!" she gestured wildly to everything within close proximity.
"Oh," said a cheery, young voice, "That's my bubble. I stopped those rocks from falling on you with it... uh, here, let me try and make it go away." He made various shuffling sounds as he tried to push away the pink barrier, which was slowly becoming apparent, until he finally stopped and sighed. In the short time she'd observed him, she'd figured out the most concentrated glow was from his chest. He was definitely the source of all the pink light.
"I need to get out of here," she cried, getting to her feet. "Don't tell me we're trapped?!"
"Uh, only for now!" He quickly reassured her, although the fact didn't reassure her at all. "We, uh, we'll roll it over to my house! That way we can ask the Gems for help!" He said this as if it was an irrefutable suggestion and began pushing at the side of the sphere they were trapped in. Without much else she could do, Connie decided to help him, brushing up against him just a bit so that she knew where he was and where he wanted to go.
"Look, uh, I know this is probably the wrong time to mention this probably, but my house is on the other side of the beach... it might take some time at this pace. I'm sorry." He sighed. "I didn't mean for this to happen."
Connie took a deep, shaky breath and declined to comment on their situation. She was not going to let herself fall back into her anxiety attacks anytime soon.
After this, there was a brief period of blissful silence, the waves rolling and the glowing pink sphere being pushed along from the inside like a human-sized hamster ball. Oh, if her parents saw her now they would flip...
Actually, maybe she could take advantage of this...
"What is this bubble even made of?" She asked, punching it and shaking her hand off. "It's, like, industrial strength."
"Magic," the mystery pink-navel boy responded easily, continuing to push the bubble along. "I can't control it very well though... Garnet says I still have a long way to go if I want to go on missions."
Connie's head filled with questions. Garnet? Missions? WHO IS THIS GUY?
BANG.
She ignored the pain in her fist as she growled. "I'm tired of this," she hissed, punching the bubble again. "What's up with my life these days?! I must be the unluckiest person on the planet!"
She stopped when she felt a hand snap out and grab her wrist, though it quickly relaxed. "Hey, stop," he scolded, though his tone was friendly. "if you keep punching it, we'll roll into the sea."
She stopped punching things and instead replied sarcastically, "I wonder why I'm in this predicament."
The pink light around his chest suddenly dimmed, and the stabbing feeling in her chest prompted her to do something. She was not about to let go of her light. "I, ugh, I'm sorry! I'm just... so frustrated. At the end of my nerves, you know? It's not your fault."
"No, I was the one who ended up getting us trapped," he retorted. "It was me, and I'm going to get us out of here, too."
She stopped trying, instead wiping away tears she wasn't aware of and calming herself down. If she could trust him, they'd-
POP!
"Finally! It worked!" he glowed like the sun in the corner of her vision. She stomped the ground lightly, feeling the sand beneath her sandals.
With a short nod, she said, "Thank you, I guess. I'd be a goner if you didn't trap me in that bubble."
"No problem!" He chirped back. "Glad to... help..." his voice fell into silence, and she felt horribly lost. What was happening? Why was he going silent?
"Uh, listen," he said, an edge of panic in his voice. "Can I... borrow that bracelet? Just for a moment." She looked down at the glowstick bracelet on her wrist, one she'd gotten at least a year ago. She was fairly certain it was a glowstick bracelet, but she wasn't actually certain.
"As long as I get it back," she agreed, holding out her hand.
He took it and said, "I'll be right back!"
She didn't move. How could she? She had no idea where he was or where he was going-
WHHHOOOOH
She froze up, her body rooted to the spot as he ran off to her left and only a few seconds later a large green orb flew past her side, something scaly and unpleasant brushing past her shoulder. The Pink boy and the green orb danced in her darkness, until finally the green orb stopped moving around so violently. There was a deafening roar that caused her to cover her ears, an ominous crash, and the green orb shivered a bit before falling still.
The pink boy wrapped the green orb in a pink bubble, and poked it, making it disappear. She paused, watching as the pink light bobbed its way over back to her, grabbed her wrist, and put her bracelet back on it.
"What just happened?" She asked faintly, not even trying to make sense of it.
"That was a corrupted gem, it was following us for a while now," he explained. "It wanted your bracelet, I think. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, you seemed pretty upset already and I didn't want to make it worse..."
"Thank you," Connie replied, a bit bewildered but nonetheless thankful. "I don't know what you mean with all this 'gem' stuff but... thanks."
"No problem!" he chirped happily. "Hey, what's your name?"
She blinked. "Uh, I'm Connie. Connie Maheswaran."
He hummed. "Nice! I'm Steven, Steven Universe. Nice to meet you!"
Connie smiled. "Nice to meet you too..."
"Steven!"
Connie turned to the source of the voice, and was shocked to see that there were four glowing orbs. The one that spoke appeared to be either the red one or the blue one, and a beige orb and a purple orb followed soon after.
"Steven, are you okay?!" Cried an uneasy female voice, this one coming from the beige orb.
"Yeah, Steven, why's the dock all busted?" The stout purple one inquired, approaching him from the side.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he eased, pushing them away gently. "I was protecting Connie! She was going to be crushed by the rocks so I used my bubble, but then I couldn't get it to go away and then there was a corrupted gem and then I poofed it!" He grinned. "Does this mean I get to go on missions?"
"I don't know, Steven," the beige one said uncertainly.
"He really was great," Connie spoke up, gaining confidence. "it was amazing! He made sure I was okay and then when the corrupted gem came he did all this wicked cool stuff to make it go away!" She stopped when she was met with silence and shrank back into her shell.
"Steven?" either the blue or red one said, the red one touching his shoulder.
"Yeah, Garnet?" He chirped eagerly.
"You'll come with us next mission. Good job." She noticed Steven's pink aura get a little stronger, and smiled. He literally glowed with happiness.
She felt the two orbs grip either shoulder, and with a start she realized they were the same person. "Connie?" It - Garnet - inquired.
"Yes, Ms Garnet?" Connie replied nervously.
"It's just Garnet... and thank you, as well." She felt a gentle pulse of warmth. "I'm glad Steven has a friend now."
Connie was about to explain that they'd only just met, but she stopped herself.
No, she thought, nodding along as Steven glomped her, making her feel warm inside. Steven... is my friend. Only friends go to that much effort to protect each other.
I'll try my best to be a good friend too, Steven.
That night, Connie ran back into her home and hopped onto the sofa. She sat and listened to the TV for a bit, not expecting the door to creak loudly as her mother got in.
"Mom?" Connie inquired, shocked. "You're home!"
"I am?" Priyanka replied questioningly. "I said I would be, Connie." Connie paused for a moment, then felt her eyes heat up.
"You've never been home when you say you'll be..." she murmured, wiping away tears. "I... welcome home."
She felt her mother grip her shoulder. "Oh, Connie," she sighed. "I never want to be late home. I just have to be. I hope you understand that." She was wrapped in an awkward hug, that was far too short as her mother pulled away.
"Right, good night, dear. You've got to get back into the routine of sleeping regularly," she added with a twitchiness in her voice. Connie was fairly certain she murmured something along the lines of, "not that you should have gotten out of it in the first place..."
She smiled. It wasn't home - it probably never would be for her - but it was enough, at least for now.
A/N: Started with a short oneshot, and now it's a fic. At least there's an end in sight... I'll be writing this episode-by-episode. Enjoy the show everybody, and don't forget to Read and Review.