A little bug I had stuck in my head for a while. Inspired by a fic on A03, False Prophet, False Diamond. Enjoy.

Steven's journey driving down the path of self-discovery was going along a lot better then he initially thought it would. In all honesty, Steven feared that would've been too similar to the little road trip he took with his dad earlier in the year, in the sense that it would've lead him no where mentally and frustrated emotionally. But truth be told, the open road all to himself, the fresh crisp air that was there in abundance, and the silence was oddly clearing.

One might think being alone was the last thing he should be doing, given that a large part of his problems was his inability to talk to others about his problems, but as his therapist and Dr. Mahaswarren pointed out to him, he had WAY to much baggage in Beach City. As grateful as he would always be to his hometown for providing so many great memories, it was also the source for a great deal of not-so-great-memories; nearly drowning, cat fingers, nearly drowning again, getting kidnapped, the tea cup incident, e.t.c.

Not that Steven had completely cut himself off from his family, he didn't think he'd ever had the heart to that, no matter how much strife he's been through. It started off as a video call every week that would last for about an hour, which over time, slowly evolved to a regular phone call that lasted about 10 minutes. Other than that, attachments to the life he left behind were pretty rare. On occasion, he was lucky enough to run into Sadie and Shep before their next gig, any trip to Lars was fairly easy to make at almost anytime, but the constant space chases and battles didn't exactly fit in with his more calmer lifestyle, even Lion was getting harder and harder to keep in contact with, though Steven mostly chalked that up to the Pink predator's naturally aloof nature.

Really, the only one he kept in constant contact with was Connie, and he was fine with that. Connie may have loved the magic and adventure he brought into her life, but Steven was grateful for her, because in many ways, she was his anchor to his humanity. Before he learned the truth about his identity, SHE was his human half, the half that just wanted to sit by the beach and read a book with the only worry being staying up past curfew.

Thinking back on it, he felt so foolish about the proposal. Connie and him had always been affectionate to each other, the little hugs they shared became longer, and the little pecks on the cheeks became more and more common, but expecting her to say yes in any situation was definitely hopeful wishing, or desperation, on his part. It made him realize just how unprepared for real relationships he really was. A while ago, some might've said he was an expert on this kind of stuff, but in truth, he was only as good as he was because the people he helped had even LESS experience then he had. Really, the first sign of this was his pushing of Lars and Sadie's relationship.

In the midst of his immense self reflection, Steven almost failed to notice where he was going on the road, and noticed he was on a collision course with a tiny brown being walking across the road. "Ahh!"

"Ahh!"

Slamming the brake on the Dondi, Steven head was thrust into his steering will, triggering a flash of pink across his skin, as well as forming a giant pink bubble encasing his car. Brief memories of various head injuries, most notably a head-butt from his first encounter with Jasper, danced around his head, resulting in several heavy breathes and cold sweat.

Instances of panic attacks happened hear and there occasion, except usually it happened when his dead or the Gems started to pry a little too much into how he was feeling, and it always left him feeling a tad guilty afterwards. His trip was suppose to make him feel BETTER, how could he ever talk to his family again if he couldn't handle a simple drive into a new town.

"Wait! The girl!" Forgetting his own self conscious for a moment, he dropped the bubble and dashed out of the car to check on the little stranger. Her skin was a light brown with short brunette hair. She was a simple blue and white hoodie with rolled up pants shorts and long black socks and clear white shoes. She was gasping incoherently, looking back and forth between the car and the glowing pink teen. "Are, are you alright?"

"T-tha-what, you.."

"What's wrong?" He asked, before noticing his still pink skin. "No wait! I can explain!" He waved frantically, taking deep breathes. "Come on!" He whispered, waiting a solid 20 seconds before the light finally disappeared. "I'm, I'm just a normal human being, just like you! No need to freak out!"

"Normal? T-that was definitely not normal.." the girl gasped, and Steven was prepared for the judgment. He's never been ashamed of his powers, nor has he ever felt the need to hide them from anyone before, but his travels on the road had shown him that the world around him wasn't like beach city. Most people didn't know what the gems were or who HE was for that matter, which was actually good considering his need for privacy, but he learned the hard way that his powers garnered more attention and stares from others than he was comfortable with. "THAT WAS AMAZING!"

"Huh?"

"You lit up all pink and flashy and created that giant bubble! That's so amazing! That was magical!" The girl paused, her eyes sparkling in an innocence that Steven hadn't seen in a long time, an innocence that some time ago, use to be on his own face. "Are you magic!?"

"Yes." Steven answered honestly, seeing no need to lie to the girl, especially since she seemed to forget the whole 'running you over' thing pretty quickly.

Her eyes lit up as she practically blow up from joy. "I knew it! Magic is real! Magic is real!" She then took part in a silly and celebratory dance. Once again, Steven was reminded of himself, and chuckled, both a bit relieved that the girl was so happy, and a bit embarrassed to, knowing he would've acted no differently if he were in her situation. "Ha! Take that Mom and guidance consular! Who's living in a fantasy now? I'll tell you who: Me! Because I know magic is real!" Steven was pondering if he should just back away when he became the center of attention once again. "Can you do that again!?"

"Hit you with my car?"

"No, the bubbles!"

"Oh, right, right! Heh." He complied, summoning a small bubble and placing it in her palms. "Careful. As strong as they are, they can be about as fragile as a normal bubble."

"Magic bubble." She oohed, gazing the shiny pink orb as it was the world's most sacred and prized jewel. "I'll treasure it as if it were my own child." She then placed it in the back of her hoodie as if it were a back pouch. "Than you so much for that!"

"Don't mention it." He waved off. "I've made dozens of those for a lifetime already. I'm just glad you're okay, and sorry for almost turning you into road kill."

"Pfft, hah! Don't worry about it. What's a vehicular manslaughter between a girl and her strange and awesome mystical companion?"

"..there's a term for that?"

"So what are you doing here?! Are you on some sort of epic quest?" The girl leaned in a little too closely for most people, though due to past experiences, he was more okay with it. "Are you explore some ancient ruins and collect artifacts that could destroy the world in the wrong hands? Or, or are you in the midst of fulfilling your destiny!? Are you traveling a strange new world different than your own, and you need the help of a plucky young sidekick/wingman to not only teach you the ways of man, but to finally defeat a thousand year old threat with the power of friendship!?"

Steven paused, not expecting such a detailed question. In a matter of seconds, this girl went from reminding him of himself to Connie, a more hyper, enthusiastic Connie, but nonetheless. "Not really. I dealt with the whole destiny thing about two years ago."

"Dang it."

"..But I am new around here, and I could use some help getting around town." He offered his hand. "My names Steven Universe by the way."

Like a child being offered sweets, she eagerly clasped onto his hand. "Luz Noceda." Her eyes widened again. "Wait, You're THE Steven Universe!?"

"Oh boy."

Ignoring/dodging the hodgepodge of question was a pretty big challenging moving forward, every time he tried to ask about the town, she would counter with 4-8 new questions about his own experiences that he wasn't quite ready to talk about yet, at least not at the current moment.

Not that he could get mad at Luz, she was a naturally curious girl, and he knew what it was like to ask questions but never get any answers, so the two were eventually able to come to an agreement: they would walk around the park and Luz would calmly ask Steven any question within reason. At the moment however, she was in the middle of what Connie would describe as 'fan girl mode'.

"..I mean, there's not a lot around that even confirm you exist!" Luz and Steven casually took a stroll through the more wooded areas of the park, where there were few people to witness either of them. "I've checked T.V, radio, even newspapers for all the good that did me. I mean, who uses newspapers nowadays?"

"Well, if newspapers were gone, how would we make paper Mache hats?"

"Touché."

"And you didn't check the internet?"

"I've tried, but the most I got was this one blog by some fry guy that was more about Lizard people than you."

"Ah, Ronaldo's blog. I think I was his only follower." As he got older, Ronaldo's presence was a bit more annoying to him than it was previously, mostly because despite literally living right next to an alien colony, he somehow turned it back around to mud people and water sprites, and how they were now secretly poisoning the plant's core with swamp venom. "I should tell him to stop one of these days."

"Oh, but I did enjoy your tubetube videos! You're cover of 'I'm a Star!' is one of my favorites!" Luz said brightly. "Though I haven't thought to much about them, since I got into the comments section and started an argument with this one troll that didn't believe all those people with the rainbow skin with you could be real, and I've been too afraid to go back and check on it for fear of being sucked back in."

"Trust me, I learned the hard way about the nasty side of the internet." He grimaced about the time he posted his opinion about the ending of Connie's favorite book series. He may have cried more tears over that than the time Lars died in front of him it was that bad. "But yeah, those people were Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl. They're my family. And my now girlfriend Connie."

"Magic powers, magic family, and a girlfriend? Wow, you really did complete your destiny! At such a young age too!"

"Yeah, completed." He winced at that. Truthfully, the idea of destiny was troubling to him now. He couldn't just believe he was just done with his reason for existing now. "I'm really just trying to find my place in the world now. Traveling the country, and eventually get my own place to live."

"And then what? Are you going to set up some sort of magic transmission that'll alert you to incoming threats across the globe!?"

"No, most, if not all, gems are uncorrupted and peaceful now. Anyone that hasn't changed are mostly just annoying at worst."

"Oh. Then are you going to build a school that trains more half-magical beings just lie you, or even better, trains non magical people like me to prepare the next generation for what might come next!?"

"No, I already built a school, which teaches new gems how to adjust to life on earth and even a few humans on how to handle relationships with alien life."

"Huh. It really sounds like you have all your bases covered." Luz pondered with a hint of disappointment. "So if you're not dealing with gem stuff, then what are you going to be doing."

"Well, I'm not sure. I had plans to take a few night classes, work my way to getting a GED. I still want to give gardening a shot, maybe open up my own shop I can run on the side, maybe sell a little produce and then plan from there."

"Really? That sounds, normal."

"Yeah. This trip has been the most normal I've ever felt in my life." Steven her vast confusion. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"Nonononono! I'm not saying what you're doing is bad, it just, just not how I'd pictured someone with magic." Luz sighed. "All my life I've craved for a mysterious letter to drop on my door and say I belong somewhere else, or for some bizarre accident to Isekai me to another land where I'd become the greatest sorcerer of all time despite the rules of said universe saying otherwise! If I had the kind of life, I'd never want to do anything normal!"

"Hey, don't put down you're own life so quickly." He quickly reassured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You get to go to school, hang out with other kids your own age, like, half the time, and anyone new you meet doesn't have the urge to kill you on sight. Probably."

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean I have a lot of friends. Most kids don't really get what I'm all about." Luz kept looking to the side. "I get bored whenever they bring up whatever teen drama fluff is trending, and they get weird out whenever I mention the word anime. I bring fake guts for a school play for authenticity, and everyone freaks out and runs away. I'm just the weird girl in a normal town."

"The best people I know are weird. Never be ashamed of it." Steven kneeled down to her level, managing to get a smile out of her. "Besides, there has to be some good things about living here. I mean, who wouldn't want to roam the park?"

"I know, right! This is where I found the spider's for my griffon project!" She sped down to the grown, lifting a rock, revealing an entire nest of the creepy arachnids. "And if my hunch is correct, that snake burrow should be right-AHA!" She squeaked with glee when she spotted a small, arm sized hole dug deep into the earth. "I know I'll wow them with my book report if I can get the right visual aide."

"Ah, Luz." Steven, rightfully worried, tried to reel her back. He felt more bad for snakes than most people did, but even her knew that one shouldn't just shove their hand in a reptilian predator's home. "I'm not going to act like I know how a book report is suppose to be done, but aren't snakes dangerous and known to bite people?"

"Pfft, I know what I'm doing Steven. I know how to be safe. Which is why I'm collecting garden snakes. They aren't poisonous and are only known to eat small rodents." She waved off the concern. "Now, if I can just get ahold of-OW!" She reeled her hand back at a stinging sensation surrounding her right index finger. "Of course, a single finger can look like a sausage from that perspective, heh."

"Luz, are you okay!?" Steven immediately got down an inspected her finger, instantly seeing the two small but deep fang marks on it. "I thought you knew what you were doing?"

"Of course I do! Bite marks like this happen all the time, it's nothing I'm not use to." She saw how uncomfortable that statement made him, and regretted it.

"Well, you shouldn't be use to putting yourself in danger like that! You shouldn't get use to being hurt!" Steven's skin flashed pink for a brief millisecond, before he calmly breathed again, speaking a little more patiently. "Sorry, I, just don't like seeing people get hurt. Let me get a look at that finger."

"No..It's alright, my mom's a nurse. I can check with her when I get home." Steven lips for a tiny moment brushed across her finger, making her blush. Before she could as why, a small sparkle danced on her hand, and showed off a fully healed finger, no marks, no scars, no trace of it ever being there to being with. "You have healing kisses?"

"Eh, sorta. At first it was just in my spit, then I reviv-healed someone with my tears. The Diamonds said my essence is all there's needed for healing to work, so I guess my whole body can heal, maybe?" He shrugged. "I haven't really thought to much about it since Spinel's bio-poison."

The two sat in an awkward silence, neither sure how the conversation should go after Steven's seemingly out of nowhere freak out. He was different than she imagined him. Not really in a bad way, but different enough to make her question a few things about herself. "So, can you heal yourself from injuries?"

"Yeah."

"Did you get hurt? A lot?"

"..Yeah. I did. In a lot of ways."

"..But you're fine now, right? You have magic. That makes everything better?"

"There are something's even healing powers can't heal right away, Luz." Steven rubbed his temples. "I don't want to end up venting to you or giving you the wrong idea, but my powers aren't all fun and games for me nowadays. They've always been run by my emotions, and if I can't process them in a healthy way, I.." Shame entered his mind at his corrupted monster form. "..I end up hurting myself and the people around me."

"Wow, that's pretty heavy." Luz didn't think magic was a cure all for problems and drama, in fact, half the fun of fantasy WAS reading the situations magic ended up causing, it created more tension and suspense that way. "And everything I heard about you said you'd just had to sing a song and BOOM! The villain is redeemed and you've saved the day."

"Is that what I'm known for?" Steven chuckled genuinely, easing Luz significantly. "To be fair, I've never thought I 'redeemed' anybody. It took months for Peridot to come around, and that required me to talk to her, spend time with her, letting her know that I valued her as her own person, as a friend. She was the one who chose to turn around. I just provided her with the common decency no one on homeworld had given her."

"But isn't it true that most people that were your enemies eventually become your friends?"

"That's a good point, but that's another subject altogether." It sounded way more messed up than it really was. "What I'm trying to say is, for all the powers I have, for how strong they have made me, I've been able to handle problems better when I could empathize and talk them out, just like any person, human or not, would."

"Human. You mean, normal, right?" Luz was a bit conflicted. Steven seemed to have the exact opposite view of what she wanted in life. Then again, maybe she was being unfair. He got sweaty and panicky a few times already, so maybe the anime-like setting she envisioned his life to be wasn't completely on point. "Guess that means I'm destined to just be human?"

"I never said that." Luz looked at him oddly. "I imagined that everything would be alright once I 'fulfilled' my 'destiny'. but I've come to realize, no matter who we are, where we come from, or whatever situations come our way, there's still more we can do with our lives. I've traveled the stars, and I'm only 17. I literally have a lifetime to chose what I want to do next." He patted her head. " But just because I want to live life a little more calmly doesn't mean you have to. I'm sure there's room for a little magic in your life one of these days. People have a way of achieving there dreams when they work hard at it."

"You know, my Mom get's worried I confuse fantasy with reality, and maybe, just maybe I over do it a little." She blushed, knowing full well she more than caused her fair share of trouble. "But if it's something I can work towards and earn, maybe I can show her fantasy and reality can be the same thing. Thanks Steven. For talking to me. And I hope the whole 'being human' thing works out for you."

"Thanks for being my friend." Steven reassured her. "Now come on. I can take you home."

"Wait, can't we stay here and catch at least one sna..." He gave her a look. "..The report's not due till the end of the school year. I'm sure I can put it off a little longer."