"Are you busy?"
Steven stared at the text from Connie. She hadn't contacted him since their fight the day before and he was, actually, busy. He and the Gems were going on routine checks like they did once a week or so, to see if anything had changed suspiciously, but Garnet noticed when Steven stopped on the way to the warp pad.
"Is everything alright?" she asked stoically. Pearl and Amethyst stopped too.
"I think Connie wants to talk to me," he said, "but I don't want to miss-"
"It's okay, Steven! We can handle this one on our own," Amethyst said, glancing sideways at Garnet. Steven hasn't talked to Amethyst or Pearl about what was going on but they clearly knew something was up.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, man, we'll hit you up later!"
After they were gone, he texted Connie back, letting her know he was available. He paced a few laps around the living room before she showed up at his door about ten minutes later.
"That was fast," he said as he let her in. She looked like she wasn't mad anymore but he didn't want to push her so he kept a few feet of space between them.
"Yeah, I was just in the park," she said, sitting on the couch. "I was actually talking to Peedee."
Steven blinked. "Really?"
"I had some questions for him."
"L-like what?" Steven asked hesitantly.
Connie shifted in her seat and took a deep breath. "Steven, I'm sorry I blew up at you yesterday. What you said really took me by surprise and I was-really upset for a while."
"I'm sorry, too," Steven said sadly. "I should really know more about humans. I learn about Gems all the time, but…" He still wasn't really sure what he wanted to say to her. He was scared that being honest about liking Peedee might make her leave again but Garnet's words about relationships and lies kept ringing in his head.
"I wanted to know what Peedee wanted," Connie continued. "Now I want to know what you want. I promise not to get upset," she added.
"What I want?"
"Yeah, like...do you want to go out with Peedee?"
Steven sat on the couch and turned in the seat to face her, but didn't meet her eyes. He still had time to lie, to give her no reason to leave. He could say kissing was a mistake, Peedee was a mistake, Steven could do monogamy.
Steven took a deep breath. "Yeah… Yeah, I want to go out with Peedee. But I don't want to lose you!" he added desperately.
Connie held up her hand. "It's okay, Steven. I-I did some research yesterday about people-humans-who date more than one person at the same time. And I talked to Peedee about it a little, and, well, if you wanted…" She took a deep breath. "I really like you and honestly I'm not-I think I was right to want to wait before we start dating. I love our relationship right now, and I want it to evolve into something more, but right now I want to focus on being your friend and helping you and the Gems whenever I can. I just...I don't want us to be thrown off-track."
"Can you-can you explain what the track is, that we're on?" Steven asked slowly.
"It's called the relationship escalator," she said. "It's what most people expect their relationships to do over time, like…first we met, then we got to be friends, then we were best friends. Eventually, we would start dating, and fall in love, and move in together, and get married, and have kids. I mean, well, that's what-that's what the escalator looks like for most people."
She averted her eyes but he nodded for her to continue.
"With monogamy, you dating Peedee would basically kick me out and put him on the escalator with you. With polyamory, you can be on two different escalators-or, maybe, even get rid of the escalators entirely," but she didn't sound so sure about that last part. She shook her head, as if to clear it. "I don't understand that so much, but I did just learn about all this yesterday-"
"You're so smart and-dedicated to learning," Steven said earnestly. "I never thought about looking for answers like that."
Connie shrugged but couldn't stop herself grinning a little. "I feel safer if I can know as much about the problem as I can. Not that you liking Peedee is really a problem anymore."
"So... polyamory?"
"It means 'many loves.' Dating, falling in love with more than one person. I realized I can't ask you to pick between me and Peedee-if you can be friends with us both, there's no reason you can't date us both, y'know...at least, I'm willing to give it a try. And so is Peedee. He wants to talk to you about it too, though."
Steven took a deep breath and then chuckled, shaking his head. Connie grinned and scooted closer on the couch. She took his hand. They leaned into each other.
They sat like that for a minute, listening to each other breathe, before Steven muttered, "I love you, Connie."
She sat up and looked at him, eyes wide, her hand clenching on his. A faint blush spread over her face.
"You're my best friend," he continued, his heart suddenly racing, "and I was so scared after everything yesterday, that I'd messed everything up-but here you are, and you...fixed it all. You impress me every day. I love you, and...thanks for being here, for thinking I'm worth all the effort you spend on me."
She shook her head and blinked back tears, but she was smiling. "Of course you're worth it, dummie. You-you know what you mean to me." She brushed her hair back from her face and met his eyes. "I love you too."
She left not long after that, saying she was getting too far behind on homework-thanks to researching queer identities and polyamory all night instead of reading about the solar system.
Steven fell back on the couch and closed his eyes. Polyamory. It felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders-Connie wasn't mad, Peedee wasn't mad, and they were both interested in him.
He texted Peedee: "I just talked to Connie. And I miss you."
His reply didn't take long: It was a picture of the bench where they'd talked, danced, and kissed just two nights before. The sun was just starting to sink behind the trees, casting long shadows on the ground. Steven smiled and slipped into his flipflops.
Peedee was sitting on the bench when Steven got to the park ten minutes later. He was writing in a notebook, with Steven's cheeseburger backpack at his feet.
A few people were at the park this time, including the Cool Kids who seemed to be having a pizza picnic. Steven could just hear the indie music from the speakers they'd set up around their blanket but they were too far away to hear voices. Jenny waved at him as he walked up, and he waved back.
He slipped onto the bench next to Peedee. "What are you working on?" he asked.
Peedee looked up and grinned. "Actually, I'm making a character sheet for Shawn. Patrick's boyfriend," he said when Steven tilted his head. "I'm taking your advice and writing him a love interest. I-I can't promise I'll include him in the version I give my dad, but it can't hurt to write it."
"That's great! I can't wait to read about them. Patrick and Shawn." Steven leaned back and took Peedee's hand, keeping it low enough no one could see. Peedee blushed.
"I know we should talk about stuff, but just so you know...I want to kiss you," Peedee muttered, lowering his voice even though no one was near.
Steven bit his lip. "I-I know what you mean." He took a deep breath. "So can we talk about-everything?"
"Yeah. Connie had some good points when I talked to her earlier. What do you think?" Peedee asked.
"I think...I really like you. I don't want to stop what this is, y'know? I've never felt like this before. I can't get you out of my head, not for a second."
"I miss you as soon as I leave, until I see you again," Peedee said, laughing. "It's wild, isn't it? How fast these feelings have just appeared-"
"-but they feel so normal, at the same time."
Peedee squeezed his hand on the bench between them. Still smiling, he said, "And what about Connie?"
Steven looked at the Cool Kids, all lying on their blanket, staring up at the steadily dimming sky. Their music was still pulsing away, floating faintly to him on the breeze.
"I love Connie," Steven said simply after a moment. Honesty had gotten him this far, so he decided to keep it up. "We've been through so much together-literally life and death stuff. I love her, and she loves me, but she's not ready to be a girlfriend to anyone yet. So we're just going to be best friends for now, and...if things start to change later, we can decide what we want then." He met Peedee's eyes again. "I don't know for sure what we'll do, and that's okay with me."
Peedee nodded. He looked around quickly, scanning the area for anyone who might be looking at them. After a second, apparently satisfied, he turned back around and kissed Steven, just for a second. Steven's heart raced.
"I like that idea," Peedee said quietly. "Deciding what to do at the time, instead of planning it out."
"Relationships should be flexible," Steven said, thinking back to Garnet's advice. "We get to shape them however we want, you know. As long as we talk to each other, and we're honest, we can write our own scripts."
They talked well past sunset, mostly about Patrick and Shawn, and how a boyfriend would affect Peedee's book. They kissed a little longer before they parted ways, because they were the last ones in the park. Steven got his cheeseburger backpack back and nearly skipped on the way home-he felt buoyant, happier than he had in a long time.
When he got home, he unzipped the pack and pulled out one of the books he'd left in there-a piece of paper fluttered out to the ground. He picked it up.
It was a pencil drawing of two boys, their faces close together but not kissing. At first, Steven thought it might be a stylized drawing of him and Peedee, but a note at the bottom indicated it was Patrick and Shawn. They both had curly hair, which made Steven smile. It was a good drawing, and the boys looked happy.
He put the drawing up next to the picture of Connie at the head of his bed. He spent a few minutes looking at them both before running off to join the Gems. He couldn't wait to update Garnet.
