Steven smiled as he woke up to the feeling of hair in his face. He wasn't a big fan of the experience itself, he always ended up with hair in his mouth which was gross, but it was an immediate reminder that Connie didn't have work that day. She typically was up and off to start her day before he woke up. He technically didn't have the day off, but it wasn't a day of paperwork and administrative duties, which he counted as a win.

He only got a few minutes of getting to bask in just holding his gorgeous wife when their alarm went off. She groaned in annoyance and slammed her hand into the snooze button. "Ughhhh, can't we sleep in a bit more?"

He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. "Should I remind you it was your idea to join me today?"

"No, you shouldn't."

He chuckled as they both got up and ready for the day. After getting dressed and eating breakfast she gave him a quick kiss and they went outside to prepare for the school's joint field trip with a few classes from the ocean town elementary school.

The main downside of having the school more isolated is that the hybrid kids tended to not really know any humans their own ages. Sure, there were plenty of human parents that had moved into the community and adopted hybrid children, but few brought human children with them. Today was all about resolving that issue, even if just a little bit.

They had rented out the aquarium in Empire City for the entire day so they would be the only ones there, since doing this in a crowded place was just asking for something to go wrong. There would be one hundred and twenty seven hybrid kids, ages 6-15. They had originally planned on just doing 6-11 since that's how old the human kids were, but it felt weird to exclude 12-15 since that was only sixteen extra kids and they should also have the chance to go to the aquarium.

They went out to the main entrance to the school, which was where the warp pad was set up and also had enough open space to gather the many kids and chaperones. They got a good amount of human chaperones this time, which was good because the whole point of this trip was to try and acclimate them to human interaction more. Well, that, plus just having the kids have fun and learn about fish, not everything had a deeper purpose.

Steven noticed one of the kids (well, technically it was two students in the form of a fusion) staring off into nothingness while standing perfectly still quite a bit away from the rest of their grade. He gave a small sad sigh and made his way over to them while Connie slowed down and kept a much wider range of distance. The two hybrids, ages eight and ten, had only joined Bridge two months prior and in all that time Connie was the only human they allowed close (but not if she was alone or approached them first).

"I'll get started with making sure the chaperones are ready, but wave me over if I can help."

"Of course, thanks."

He walked over and slowly sat down next to them. "Hey there, Seven. You seem like you have a lot on your mind, do you want to talk about it or do you just need quiet time?"

"Talk."

Seven was their only permafusion among the kids and was a six foot tall semi-transparent person that towered over the other kids. They had three arms, two on the right side and one on the left, and wavy brown hair that cascaded down their stocky form all the way down to their hips. They had piercing eyes, one a light gray and one brown.

The way Seven came to join them comparatively late in life was a truly heartbreaking story. Normally all hybrids were born at a hospital that worked closely with Bridge, but some scientists on the other side of the world had found some gems that were impatient to stop existing and didn't want to wait to be next on the waitlist. Then, as if to prove their point as to why it was illegal for unauthorized facilities to partake in creating hybrids, they did not document any part of this and experimented on the children.

They had also kidnapped two pure gems for similar twisted scientific purposes, but those two had been taken in by Little Homeschool and were getting help there. The scientists were part of a group known as Chisel that saw all gemkind as an invading force that had to be stopped by any means. Subject one had been a Nephrite and subject two had been a Milky Quartz. Which left the two kids only ever knowing themselves as subjects three and four, making their permafusion Seven. Steven had offered to help them find a new name that had nicer origins but was denied.

None of them had ever seen the two split apart, but their components were a moonstone and an imperial topaz, residing on their sternum and shoulder respectively. Because of their Moonstone powers it was very obvious when Seven was anxious since they would just become invisible except for their gems.

They didn't know a lot about what had happened in that lab, and he certainly wasn't going to force Seven to talk about it, but they did know that prior to becoming a permanent fusion 3 had his Moonstone gem removed and wasn't allowed to re-fuse with his body. While his human portion died the gem half was stabilized by fusing with 4. (It felt so wrong to refer to them as numbers but he also wanted to respect that they didn't want other names.)

"So, what are you thinking about? Are you nervous about the trip we're all taking?"

"Humans."

"Yes there will be humans there."

They just shook their head slightly.

"Ok, so the issue isn't the humans at the aquarium. Is it the humans here?"

A nod.

"Is it because the chaperones are human?"

Another nod. Alright, they were making progress.

"I know that humans are very scary for you, but not all humans are bad, remember? Plus, you have classes with Ms. Brown all the time."

There was no response, but that was pretty normal. Having one of their components missing the human half made expressing thoughts and feelings difficult, so Seven tended to listen more than talk. It was definitely made worse by the extensive trauma the two had been through, but it wasn't really an option to figure what was caused by trauma, by removing 3's human half, or just by how they are naturally.

He'd try one other strategy before trying something else. "Connie is a human and you get along with her, right?"

There was a miniscule nod but they still looked very unsure.

"Would it help if we moved you to my group? It'll be me, Connie, and the older kids."

"Yes, please." Success! And a verbal response too!

"Ok, then I'll make sure that happens. Do you still need a minute, or are you ready to join the group?"

They got a bit more translucent, which Steven took as his que. "Okay, I'll give you a couple minutes and then I'll come get you when it's time to warp over. Does that work?"

They nodded again, a little more sure this time.

"Alright, I'll be back over soon, but if you need anything I'll be within earshot."

He waited for a moment in case they had more to say but without any sign of more words coming he walked back over to the main group.

One of the teachers, Teresa Brown, gave a relieved smile when she saw him. She had been a teacher for almost two decades but had only been with them for about a year, so even if she frequently got a bit overwhelmed by the super-powered aspects she was a great resource for them.

"Oh, Principle Universe, I'm glad you were able to talk to Seven. They were more despondent than usual but I knew pushing it would only make things trickier."

"No worries, I'll be moving them over to my group. Please don't take it personally, they're just still having a hard time with humans, especially human adults."

"No offense taken, I know that little one has been through a lot and I can see how breaking routine would already be a bit stressful for them."

"Other than that, is everyone in their respective groups?"

She nodded and handed him her copy of the chart that showed which chaperones were with which kids. It was also an important tool for taking a headcount, with her copy having check marks next to the names of the students and chaperones that were there.

After a moment he handed it back. "Looks like everyone is here except for one family, I'll give them a call to make sure everything is alright."

Right as he'd pulled out his phone the family in question arrived.

A very frazzled looking Sadie and Shep appeared on the warp pad with their two adopted hybrids. Their youngest was a five year old girl named Isabella (but everyone called her Izzy). She had short black hair, tanned skin, and a larimar stone on her tongue. The little girl was basically vibrating with energy and jumping up and down in excitement for the day.

Her brother, Connor, was eight years old. He had short brown hair, matching brown eyes, and a moss agate on his chest. He was as rambunctious as you'd expect an eight year old to be, usually trying to climb Steven (or anyone else tall enough) like some sort of jungle gym.

Sadie walked over to him with a very tired smile. "Hey Steven. Sorry we're late."

"Hey, I was actually just about to call, everything okay?"

"Oh yeah, we're all fine. Just didn't get any sleep last night." She looked over her son that was clearly trying to interrupt and get Steven's attention. "Conner, why don't you show Principle Universe why none of us slept last night."

"Okay!" He scrunched his face in concentration as hard as he could, honestly looking like he was trying to poop. He got a slight green glow and nearly doubled in size. "Tada! I'm as tall as you now!"

He was in fact eye level with Steven, which was impressive since he was well over six feet tall. He only managed to hold it for a couple seconds though before shrinking down to his normal size.

"Wow, that was super cool Connor. Remember not to get bigger while we're at the aquarium though, you might scare the fish. Now, go join your class, we'll be leaving soon."

As the two kids ran off to join their friends he turned back to the tired parents. "Are you two good or do you need a pick-me-up before dealing with more children?"

Shep gave him a slightly awkward smile and rubbed the back of their head while chuckling. "That would be great actually, I was trying to figure out how to ask without being weird."

Steven just smiled at them. "No worries, it's not exactly difficult, besides, you two are already helping out by agreeing to watch the kids during the trip." He gave them both a quick kiss on the cheek and could visibly see the exhaustion leave them. It wasn't a long term solution, but it would make the day much more manageable.

After a few more minutes of corralling everyone they started warping in groups, each chaperone having a warp whistle. He made sure to get Seven and also reminded every group of kids to use their 'gentle hands' with the other school kids. The last thing they needed was a child getting badly injured or worse because one of the quartz kids tried to play rough.

Once that was settled he had warped over last with Connie and the older kids.

After arriving Steven spoke with the other school's principal. After a few minutes Seven walked over to him and tugged on his shirt as he worked out logistics and made sure everything was in order. "Fish?"

He gave them a soft smile. "Almost. We'll see the fish soon."

Each age group went off separately, hopefully leading to new friendships between the hybrid and human kids. After about a minute of organizing and making sure everything was in order he turned to his group. "Alright, now it's time for fish."

He found that while he'd been handling principal things or talking with Seven, Connie had been corralling their group and chatting with Emma in particular. It had been about six months since the Fusion Friday where Emma and Connie got to know each other and since then the two of them had grown fairly close.

They made their way over to a jellyfish exhibit to start out, Seven in particular was very excited about the jellyfish since they were translucent like they were.

Emma looked up at him and Connie with a shy smile. "Did you know jellyfish have been around longer than trees or even mushrooms?"

"Woah, that's super cool!" He was always honored when Emma told him cool facts since he'd learned over the last few months that her love language was giving little gifts of information. Whether it was obscure history, jellyfish, or something in her favorite fantasy series, it was a sign of affection when she would start rambling to you about random bits of knowledge.

"Yeah, they are over 600 million years old! And the jellyfish they have over there can live forever!" The way her eyes lit up in pure joy made both his and Connie's hearts melt.

He looked over and found Jonathan pulling one of the thirteen year olds, a boy named Liam with a limestone gem, away from the rest of the group. "Come on, if we go to the touch tank within the next five minutes there's a sixty percent chance you'll make a best friend friend, but every minute we wait makes that number drop."

Steven was about to remind Jonathan about asking permission when the boy sighed. "Yes, yes. Ask, don't just tell. So Liam, would you like your life to be objectively better or would you rather feel lonely and sad? Objectively better? Yeah that's what I thought, now let's go!"

Liam, having never actually gotten the chance to respond, just followed along as he was dragged towards the touch tank. Steven sighed and made sure to notify the group that was currently over there that the two boys would be temporarily joining them.

They continued making their way through the aquarium and he almost wept tears of joy when Seven, Ava, and a human girl all sat and watched sharks swim around for a while. Those two were so wary of humans, so it really was sweet to see them getting along, even if that just meant enjoying some sharks together.

Everyone was worn out by the time they got back, but overall it was a great day. They had said their goodbyes to their new human friends and took the warp pad back to Bridge. Once they got back Lucas walked over to him and tugged on his shirt.

"Hey Lucas, what's up?"

"I got you a present."

"Aw, that's so nice of you. What is it?"

He then proceeded to take a live starfish that had been in the touch tank out of his gem. "Here you go."

He took a deep breath to compose himself before rushing the poor animal back to its home, having absolutely no idea how long a starfish could live outside of water. All in a day's work for a principal in charge of magical children.