Steven stood in front of the temple door and stared at the amber dot. Jasper was settled in on the living room floor with one of her books. He had done his part as leader for the night. He had led her about ten feet from the deck and into the living room. He supposed that wasn't going to be good enough for all of gemkind.

His eyes moved away from the color of amber and instead traced their way over to circles of red and blue. The burning room. The first room he had ever seen past the temple door. He had tried to get into it once when he was five. He had trailed behind Garnet with MC Bear Bear squeezed to his chest in both arms. Those blue and red dots lit up like magic then. Their twinkling glow is all he could make out around Garnet's towering form. The door was quick. It would close almost as soon as she stepped through. He had hesitated. The room beyond wasn't as magical as the dots that lit up to let people in. It was dark except for a light in the center of the room that seemed to breathe. It inhaled, and the room went dark for a moment and when it exhaled it grew brighter again. It's breath sounded like bubbling and he could almost hear a low growl like a monster lived in there. A monster that Garnet was keeping chained up and maybe she only went in there to feed it and make sure it didn't get out. He waited too long, hovering just in front of the threshold, and the temple door slammed to a close. He was relieved. The choice had been made for him. Then, something grabbed his arm. His mind flashed horrible yellow and red.

MONSTER! IT GOT OUT!

He was one half the connection of a lightning bolt. There was one Steven that had already made it to the front door. Then, there was the unfortunate Steven, the one he was, on the other side of that bolt, the one standing paralyzed in front of the temple door. The only thing that separated them was energy. Energy that wasn't in his feet like it was supposed to be, but it was now rushing up his throat instead. And when that hand wheeled him around, he let out a shriek that tore through the air loud enough to make both him and Pearl lift off the ground

"Goodness," Pearl let out a breath and laughed. But she frowned when she noticed that he was shivering in place, "What's wrong?" She asked.

Steven threw a glance back at the door and squeezed the stuffing out of MC Bear Bear. Pearl knelt in front of him.

"That's no place for you, Steven."

"Is she feeding a monster in there?"

Pearl cocked her head and looked over at the temple door, "I hope not."

His eyes only got bigger.

"Oh," She gave him a reassuring smile and rubbed his arm, "No, silly. There are no monsters in there. Garnet goes in there to watch. Watch for things that might be bad so that she can stop them before they even happen to you."

Steven released his chokehold on the teddy bear and raised his eyes to her, "Can she see everything? What if something sneaks by?"

Pearl's smile only grew bigger. She caught his nose between two of her knuckles and gave it a shake as if she might steal it, "Like you were going to sneak by?"

He giggled and hid his nose down into the back of MC Bear Bear's head.

She brushed a curl from his forehead, "That's why I'm here. To get the things that sneak by." She narrowed her eyes at him slyly, "Now I've got you!" Pearl reached out for a tickle attack.

"NO!" He ran with a screamy laugh, and she was right behind him.

Now, he was eye level with the circles on the door, but his visits to the burning room were still rare. Steven pressed his hand against the temple door, and the diamond in his stomach glowed faintly underneath his sweater. The red and blue dots twinkled at his command. The door opened. He wavered a moment and then, stepped into the burning room.

Inside, the lava well breathed as it always had with that low growl deep inside its throat. Countless bubbles, their shells shiny with the glow of the lava beneath them, hung suspended in the air. Steven spotted 8LG's gem floating near the bottom. He didn't like that her gem was so close to the oblivion that she had wanted. He didn't want any of these gems in bubbles, but he hoped that 8LG, in some way, was enjoying the peace that she had asked for. Garnet sat cross-legged in front of the well. She was watching. Above the soft roar and bubbling of the lava, he heard a voice somewhere in one of the black corners of the room.

You guys are like the family I never knew. The Famethyst.

The voice was Garnet's. He could feel her presence, and it seemed to fill the entire room as if the body of the fusion in front of him wouldn't be enough to hold how large her mind had become. She had opened herself up like a funnel allowing whatever would come to come. It made him think of White Sapphire. Her face painted stoically in the mural as she received her vision. All those experiences would filter through them. How could you let all that come to you and still be the person you were? And to some extent, he guessed that you couldn't. Garnet was loving. She was brave, and she was wise. She would spend time with him and play. But there was always a piece of her that was missing. It was a void. A blank spot. It's where the experiences of others that she saw would be written. A hole inside herself to make room for the others that would always come and go.

So when he heard Garnet's voice drift up from above his head again, somewhere behind a Jasper gem, he understood. She was lending her voice too so that the others could speak, and she could listen to them.

You only love me because you've been ordered to love me!

It was hard not to feel like that little boy again as he edged his way toward Garnet being careful not to shuffle or slide his feet against the stone floor. He needed to know what she saw.

I came to see the one I've mourned for thousands of years. When I thought I could hurt no more, when I thought I could reach no further depths, I find you alive and well. I find you fighting against everything I've ever worked for. I find that you hate me. That you never loved me as I loved you. My Pink was shattered on Earth. You. I won't mourn you.

All at once, Garnet's consciousness shrunk from the room snapping back to the spot on the floor where she sat. Steven froze halfway to her. The eyes that watched had slowly turned to fall on him. He hadn't snuck past this time either.

She remained facing away from him, "Can't sleep?" Garnet asked.

"No," He let out the breath he was holding.

Without turning, she patted a spot next to her for him to take.

He sat down next to her. The well in front of them bubbled, and small waves of orange rolled and dipped on top of one another in an eternal stirring. Whether or not the well was magic or if it was the room that controlled the temperature, just as his and Peridot's room did, he felt no heat from the lava. It was right in front of him. He could reach out and dip a hand in, but the well felt miles away as if what it was and what it did was disconnected from them entirely. This room had always seemed to fit Garnet. She sat quietly, waiting patiently for whatever he would do next, knowing what it was before he did.

"Are you okay?" He asked, "I mean about Mom? About her being Pink?"

"I am now..." She said. Then, she sighed, "At first, it was hard. I couldn't understand what Pink was trying to do by being Rose before Pearl explained it to me. I thought she had been playing a game with us all. Something to amuse a bored Diamond." Garnet put her hands together in her lap pressing the two gems into her palms together. "It was almost enough to pull me apart."

"You? Defuse?" He looked over at her.

"But I couldn't. I knew that you needed us. After I learned why Pink became Rose, it became easier to understand. Just as I feel more comfortable being Garnet, Pink felt more comfortable being Rose."

He nodded, trying to shake the brief idea of there being no Garnet from his mind, "Yeah."

"But something else is bothering you, isn't it?"

Steven's eyes raised to the bubbles above their heads. Every one of them a reminder of his Mom's failure to free the other gems. He looked to Centi's gem and then to 8LG's. And now his failures were starting to appear right along with hers. How much more could this room hold? How much more until Garnet couldn't see the future because there was too much of the past right in front of her?

"Everyone's going to be looking to me to lead, He said, "Jasper's already looking to me. But I don't know how to be the leader that everyone needs me to be. I don't know how to free the other gems. To bring Earth to them."

"You won't be doing it alone."

"I know. I know." He said, his voice taking a dismissive tone, "I have you guys with me but—"

"No. I meant you would have Peridot. This doesn't all fall to you."

"It feels like it does." He admitted. He hated how that sounded. He didn't mean that she wasn't capable. "I mean, she's just learning herself. It's not fair to put something like this on her." And there it was. His need to comfort her, to shield her. It was an instinct that shot up as fast as his arm did to summon his shield against danger. It had been him that ran from 8LG's whirling blades of death. It had been him that had thrown up that yellow bubble around Tourmaline and demanded a better plan from Peridot. One that wouldn't get her hurt like he had felt her hurt when those same blades had sunk into her — their back. Well, it had been both of their backs, but it had been her cry of pain. That's all that had mattered. Wasn't that all that mattered when he stood up inside his own bubble and let the reactor go? Just as long as it didn't take her.

"So, you're going to put it all on yourself instead?" Garnet asked.

"That's…" He ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah. I guess, that's kinda what I'm doing."

"She's stronger than you think. It's easy to see only her vulnerabilities when you spend so much time together in that state. She tries to protect you just as hard as you try to protect her. But Tourmaline wouldn't be who she is without Peridot. You can't do this without asking something from her." Garnet put her hand on his shoulder, "It's okay to ask her."

Steven looked to her, and it was Sapphire who smiled back at him through Garnet. She had been talking to him as if he was Ruby. And wasn't he? The Ruby in Tourmaline. Always the one trying to haul everything on his own shoulders. He did see the soft parts behind Peridot's shell. Those blue eyes behind the hard visor. All he wanted was to protect her, but to be the Final Diamond would risk them both just as Pearl had warned. He couldn't keep shielding her.

"It's okay to ask?" He asked carefully.

Garnet nodded, "She'll be relieved that you did. She'll feel included."

"It's so much. I know you're right, I can't do it all by myself, but..." His features grew hard, like the thought of asking her for help meant somehow...he had failed her. That he wasn't strong enough. "...But I wish I could," He said.

Garnet turned her head to look at him now. She was frowning, "No, you don't. You think that's what you want, but when you start to do it alone, you find out just how much you need them. I thought I wanted to handle knowing Rose was Pink alone, but I found that I couldn't." Garnet unclenched her fists holding her palms face up in her lap. The two gems embedded in her hands glowed in the ragged breath of the lava well. "Neither of us could."

Steven thought of the first time he and Peridot had gone down to the Prime kindergarten's computer so she could show him what the cluster was. One of the terminals had been too tall for her to reach. A little tall for even him too. He had lifted her, not thinking much of it, her blushing the whole time sputtering that she had it. He told her that it was okay to ask for help sometimes. After he put her down, she just stood there, the exhaustion of being held a prisoner in the bathroom, that terrified caged animal look, both began to fade. She seemed to brighten up like her skin had turned a lighter shade of green. Her eyes focused on him, as if seeing him truly for the first time. Her hand was a little shaky when it went back to his. She took it and answered him faintly, "Okay." She had smiled at him. Her first sincere smile. It was a bit awkward like she was discovering she liked something strange, something that she never knew existed. She didn't know whether it was okay to like it either. But her smile. It had said she did like it.

Now he wasn't following his own advice. Like Peridot, he was asking Garnet if it was okay. But wasn't this something different? Reaching the controls on a terminal versus fighting a whole empire? The same part of him that had delivered the advice said that it was no different. But that part of him went silent when people could get hurt for the things he could ask. It hadn't bothered to speak up when he had bubbled the reactor.

Steven sighed. He leaned over to Garnet and hugged her side, "I'll talk to her."

Sapphire's smile returned, peeking from below her shades. She squeezed him back.

"I should get some sleep," He said, "It's late."

Garnet only nodded solemnly. The smile slipped away as if hearing a call to return to her watch. It beckoned her from the well. Return to your station, it said, you are the watcher on the wall. Guard them against anything that might come from beyond it. Steven knew she would, just as he believed she would as a child. But he was beginning to learn how to take care of himself now and to try to trust in another to help him. When he stood up, he felt lighter. Garnet turned back to face the well and the bubbles that floated above her in the darkness.

Steven was halfway to the door when Garnet stopped him with a question, "How did Amethyst get into wrestling?"

"What?" He turned around not sure he had heard that right. She was still sitting quietly. He rubbed at his cheek with his palm, "Uh. I don't know. I think she just got into it? I mean maybe she saw it on tv or heard Lars talking about it when he used to go see the matches."

"How did Pearl start going to the improv club events?"

Again, she waited expectantly for his answer. He remembered that one clearly. "She saw them acting out a scene one time, and she sat down and started watching."

"So, you never had to tell them to do any of that or show them? They found it themselves when they were given a chance to?"

"Well yeah… " Steven trailed off.

"We were never following Rose. She was following us," Garnet said, "To be a good leader, you have to do the same, Steven. Give the other gems that chance. Follow them. And you will see that they will find their own way in time. They don't need more orders from yet another Diamond. But they do, whether they know it or not, feel like they need your permission."

He took a step toward her crossing his arms, "My permission? To do what?"

"To be themselves."

He looked over at 8LG's gem. It was floating peacefully with the rest. What are we without the Diamonds? I'll tell you.

And he thought of Peridot's sobbing as she fell to the sand, a sunset of pink and violet behind her. I'm not like her. I want you to know. I'm not like her, I promise.

8LG's tear stained cheeks closed in behind her helmet. The reactor throwing violent shades of red and pink against her suit.

Without the Diamonds? I'll tell you.

Peridot on that beach, her blue eyes begging something from him. How would you find her? We all look the same.

8LG's answer came. What I am. Nothing.

Steven looked down at Garnet as she peered deeply down into the burning well, "I think I understand," He said.

"Good."

He made it to the door and placed his hand to it so that the red and blue orbs lit up. He moved his hand to the doorway stopping it from closing and looked back at Garnet.

"What do you see in Tourmaline's future?"

Even in the dim light and from across the room, he could see her stiffen. For a long time, she didn't answer. He began to think she wouldn't at all until she finally said, "It's going to be tough, Steven."

He glanced back at the living room over his shoulder. Then he looked back to her with a sad smile, "You'll keep watching over me?"

She was facing away from him, but he could tell she wasn't smiling when she answered, "Always."

In an evening gloom, the sun could not pierce the clouds and fog that hung together in this evergreen forest. Instead, what remained was a grey veil that lurked beyond twenty feet in any direction. To Steven, anything past that distance was a grey blur broken up by pillars of muddy brown that he supposed were trees. Douglas firs. That's what Ray had called them back at the tree farm. But these were not on a farm. They were here on their home soil, and they were massive, towering above him where the grey mist gathered near their tops. His snow boots had left a heavy indent in the snow underneath. He wondered how long he had been standing here, how long he had been staring up at them.

Steven shoved his hands into the pockets of his black wool coat. He buried them deep and pushed so that the coat pulled closer to his body. It made his shoulders hunch a little, and he tried to hide his neck as far it would go down into the collar. He started on his way. There was a path under his feet that he was following, but it was hidden under snow — how did he know that there was a path? But he did know it. He knew it so well, the feeling of having walked this path a thousand times; he didn't need to see it to know that it was there and where it would lead him.

The Douglas firs around him were huddled together loosely as if gathered here in secret for a cult meeting in the woods. Their cloaks of snow were gathered around them as tightly as his coat was to him. Their heads, some bent forward with the weight of the snow, wished to conceal their identities. But he did feel their eyes watching him as he moved through their crowd, their faces hidden under grey hoods of fog and mist.

A voice, one that they were all here to listen to, spoke softly and sweetly. It was coming from the end of where this path would take him. The forest seemed to lean forward, its ears prickling at the words, but Steven knew that the voice was speaking to no one but him.

"You are the Diamond of life," A woman said.

Steven started to trudge faster through the snow. The trees began to thin and open into a grove. This place. This grove, and the woman that was there, were what the trees had all gathered around to watch and to listen to. It was as if this clearing was the space they had made for her. The woman was Pink Diamond, and behind her was a pond, calm and blue. In the dull backdrop of grey that tinted everything, the richness of that blue seemed almost surreal as if the pond was the only genuine source of color in these woods.

Pink smiled with delight when she saw him as if he was their honored guest. She stood at the water's edge. It should have been frozen over, he thought, but it wasn't. Steven walked up to her slowly peering around. As soon as he was in arms reach, Pink reached out and wrapped him in a hug. She pressed her cheek against his, and it was pleasantly warm. He gave her an unsteady hug back.

"Mom, what is this place?"

She still wore her smile as she answered him, her eyes beaming, "Pearl and I called it the grove. It always reminded me of my home on homeworld. And like my home, a kindergarten was never placed here. The war began before they were given a chance to build here. It's where I came to think and to meditate. There's something special about this place."

"Why did you bring me here?" He asked.

Pink placed a hand against the side of his face, "There is so much that you must learn if you are to be successful in challenging the other Diamonds. There is something unique about us."

Steven's gaze dropped to the pink diamond in her stomach that they both shared.

"Yellow has a special connection with energy, one that Peridot brings out in you. Blue has a deep understanding of a diamond's aura. But no other Diamond has the connection to life that we do. You must master it. Pearl will try to train you in what she knows to face the others, but even she doesn't know how to train you in this."

He turned his face up to her, "Then how can I learn?"

Her smile grew, expecting that question, "I will teach you."

He had struggled with his powers all his life, bumbling his way through their mastery. New ones came all the time while he still barely knew how to control the ones he already had. The idea of having someone to teach him? Guide him? And that person being his own mom? It was...well it was too good to be true. The excitement wilted out of his eyes and his smile faded. Pink watched him with concern as if she had expected this to be a gift.

"How?" He asked, "How can you teach me. You're…" Dead. Well...she wasn't really dead but...

She leaned closer, "I have been trying to find a way to talk to you again. You must come here. You must find this place. It has a special connection with me."

But his mind was already busy trying to tear all this apart. What even was this place? How did he get here? A part of him was trying to fight back. But against what? Not his mom. Not her trying to reach him, to help him. There was something else in these woods. They weren't alone. And somehow, subconsciously he was trying to fight whatever it was before it got here. And it was on its way. He didn't know how he knew, just like the path. It was a secret knowledge, but he knew. It was coming.

There was only the dense fog, and the silhouettes of the trees gathered beyond. Even now he sensed something moving through their numbers just as he had done.

"Steven…" Pink said.

He looked back to her, but she didn't say anything. Then a thought of something she had said got stuck in his mind. Yet another thing in this place that wasn't the whole story.

"What about White Diamond?"

The tiny features of Pink's face squeezed together. She suddenly looked like a small child that had been caught doing something bad, "What?"

"You told me about Yellow and Blue, but you didn't say what White Diamond was good at. What is it?"

Pink went quiet. That childlike terror was still in her eyes like she was afraid that if she opened her mouth, it would be slapped. He had never imagined he could see such fear in her. The clothes that marked her royalty now looked like a girl's costume for playing in. Her skirt now seemed more like a tutu, this meeting between them, a silly tea party.

STARLIGHT!

He winced and shrunk down as if about to be struck. It was an instinct against that cruel exacting voice in his head that seemed to echo down a long hall. But there were no halls here. He was straightening up, not knowing why he had done that at all, when he realized that his mom had copied the gesture. They had done it together.

There was a rustle that came from the bushes on the edge of the grove, a cracking of frozen twigs. The two of them stared at each other for a moment before Pink turned her eyes very slowly to the left, and then her face followed. Steven turned his head with her. The first thing his eyes caught was a blue dress. The bottom of the dress fluttered above the snow in torn and ragged strips. Underneath he could see no legs. But he could see claws, that were supposed to be hands, gripping one of the trees. Its broken, jagged nails were embedded into the bark. Above the claws were scaly blue arms mottled with sickly green. Eyes, oval and silver, like two smoky mirrors, leered at them underneath slick tendrils of dirty blue hair. It looked like some horrible doll that Pink had not invited to their tea party. A doll that was left out in the yard, to get rained on, and become muddy. It was grinning at them, but it wasn't because it was happy. It was because just like a toy, the expression was painted on, forever forcing her lips to be locked in a contradictory prison. She was angry. Angry that Pink had abandoned her in the rain. Not invited her to their party.

Steven snapped his head back to look at his mom.

STEVEN RUN

But she was gone. It wasn't grinning at them. It was grinning at him. He spun around to face it. It was right in front of him now, inches from his face. He froze, begging his legs to at least take one step back. The nightmare Lapis was still grinning, but now he could see her teeth, blue, and green, and rotting just like her skin. It looked as if she had been gargling with swamp water and it reeked. He hadn't even noticed her hands around his neck until he felt the sharp sting of her uneven nails digging into his skin and the pressure on his throat.

She opened her mouth again, and beyond the stench wafting out of it, her voice came out in waves like her lungs were filled with seawater, "Where there is life. There is death and..." She squeezed tighter. He pulled at her hands, but her fingers didn't budge. Like the mist, the corners of his vision were beginning to become dull and fuzzy.

"...There is corruption."

The corrupted Lapis choked out a bubbling laugh spraying his face with something dank and slimy.

"What are your orders?!" She screamed at him throwing her mouth open wide so that her jaw hinged at an unnatural angle. He could see her grey tongue squirming around in her head like a swollen worm.

His throat throbbed with pain as it threatened to collapse underneath the crushing weight. Warm blood slid down in lines underneath her nails as they bit into his clammy skin. Her grin grew larger. In her eyes, he was staring back at a reflection of a terrified and murky version of himself.

"You don't have any orders, do you, my Starlight?" She cooed, almost singing the words. It was as if she was mocking a baby that was lying in a crib. Singing it a murderous lullaby right before she —

Squeezed her hands harder around his neck now. He was beating at her arms with closed fists, but the harder he fought, the harder she crushed until she was shaking him with the pressure. His head flopped forward and backward uselessly like a balloon close to popping. Everything but her toothy grin was fading into darkness. He wanted to scream. To shout for help. To call for his mom to come back. To tell this corrupted monster that he did have an order for it.

"I ORDER YOU TO GET OFF OF ME! GET OFF! GET OFF! GET OFF!"

Steven realized he was actually screaming it. It was coming out of his mouth. The grin in the darkness was gone, but he could hardly see. It was still black. He was gripping at a pair of arms and the hands — the hands weren't around his throat. They were on his cheeks. They were soft and warm. Not cold and wet. When the words came, they weren't waterlogged. They were loving and gentle.

"Steven? Steven? What's wrong? What's wrong? Breathe." Then more worried, pleading, "Please breath."

Finally, he could. He sucked in a hard breath filling his aching oxygen starved lungs. Then, in the next moment, he hacked up a thick cough expecting his throat to be sandpaper, but nothing was wrong with it. He was drawing in nothing but clean, fresh air.

A peridot shaped gem pressed into his forehead. The moment he felt its corners and smooth surface press into his skin his whole body went limp. It was as if he had been a red-hot iron dropped into a pail of cold water. Peridot wrapped her arms around him, her small breasts pressed gently against his bare chest, her chin resting on the side of his jaw as she held her face against his.

The monotone voice of the room spoke from somewhere near the ceiling above them, "Scan complete. No unauthorized life forms detected."

He tilted his head up toward the voice, and Peridot's head moved with him.

"You were shouting about something that was on you. I thought maybe…"

He shook his head, "No it was a nightmare...at least I think it was."

She kissed under his eye, his cheek and then against his jaw as if he was a precious china dish that had hit the floor but hadn't broken, "What's that? I don't like it whatever it is."

Steven chuckled softly. He cupped her face in his hands feeling how delicate and soft it was. He ran his thumbs against her cheeks before kissing her on the lips. Reveling in the fact that he was here, safe with Peridot and not with that creature, he took a breath and let it out slowly before answering her.

"During sleep, your mind can sometimes take things you think about or know and jumble them together into a story that you tell yourself. If it's good, then it's a dream. If it's bad, then it's a nightmare. But this one...it didn't seem like a normal nightmare."

"What did you see?" She asked. He could see her now that his eyes had adjusted to the darkness. The covers were pooled around her hips and over her legs. Her arms were still around him. She was afraid to let him go as if the moment she did, something that the scan hadn't picked up would grab him and drag him underneath the bed.

He told her everything. Even about White Diamond and Pink's fear. And at the end of it, she said, "It sounds to me like we need track down what facet this grove is in."

During the retelling they had laid back down and held each other, Peridot's arms looped around his neck and his around her waist. She kept her leg hooked around his so that if he were abducted she would go right along with him. But the corrupted Lapis hadn't shown back up.

"You really think so?" He said, "I don't know. Maybe it was just a nightmare. I've been a little worried is all," But he knew the moment he said it that he didn't mean it. That secret knowledge that he had possessed in the forest belonged to his mom, and she had been trying to reach him again. But if the grove was real. Then the rest could be real. That thing could be real. He swallowed, and half expected his throat to feel sore.

"We can't rule out any opportunities especially when learning how to fight the Diamonds. Besides, there is a lot of strange things that happen around you that turn out to have merit. Their validity always surprises me."

"Thanks…?" He gave her a wry smile.

Her head tilted to the side against the pillow, "What kinds of things are you worried about, Steven?"

Nothing could escape her. That special Peridot scanner in her head double checked everything. He could lie and give her the obvious worries. Oh, you know I'm just worried about getting squished by a Diamond. Nothing big. But that wasn't what had kept him up. That's not what had brought him to the burning room. That's not what had scared him in his nightmares.

You don't have any orders, do you, my Starlight?

Steven sighed, and Peridot waited patiently as she always did twirling a curl around one of her fingers.

"I'm worried about leading." He didn't meet her eyes as he said it. He looked over her shoulder at the pale light pouring in from the windows, "I have to — I mean...we have to lead everyone. We have to free them, but aren't we responsible for what happens to them after we free them? I don't know how to guide people like Garnet. Maybe I can inspire them, but I'm not sure where to take them."

Peridot sat up, propping herself up with an elbow, "I'm scared about that too, Steven. You're a Diamond. You were born to lead. It's in your cut. You move, and gems are supposed to follow. I'm...I'm only going to hold you back. How can anyone listen to a peridot? No one ever would. When they see our fusion... they're just going to...think less of you. They'd be less likely to follow you because they would wonder if it's the peridot giving them the order."

Steven drew her in close, "I don't want them to wonder. I want them to know. It won't just be my voice talking to them. I want them to hear you. I need your help."

Peridot put her hands on his shoulders, her legs moving up to his waist, "You do?" She cuddled up and nestled her nose into the crook of his neck.

Steven leaned his head against hers, "Everyone thinks I'm Tourmaline's heart. But I think it's you."

Peridot smiled, her face buried down against him.

He squeezed her, "Help me find the words?"

Her warm lips pressed against the side of his neck delivering the faintest smack, "I will. Even if I have to search for them algorithmically."

They laid there in silence. His eyes were getting heavier. Peridot could always find the perfect way to put him to sleep, and this position was it. He shut his eyes feeling the ideal amount of weight pressed against his chest. As long as he felt the outline of that peridot gem pushed into the side of his neck, nevermind the imprint it would leave on his skin in the morning, he knew he was safe.

In the fuzzy darkness that was steadily growing in his mind, he heard a soft voice drift through it, "I don't want to disappoint you."

Steven found her silky blonde hair that hung down her back. With one lazy hand, he ran his fingers through it slowly and whispered back, "You'd never disappoint me."

He let the outline of the peridot gem, the weight on his chest, and the soft breath pushing against his neck lull him back to sleep.