When the van pulled onto the beach, Greg and Pearl sighed in relief. Going to Empire City was fun, but nothing would ever beat the comfort of the small town of Beach City. Steven had fallen asleep during the drive home since it was still night when they left, and the sun was only just rising when they entered the town. While Greg grabbed their bags, Pearl gently shook Steven awake. "Oh, Steven, we're home! Time to wake up!"
Steven mumbled softly before he slowly opened his eyes. "We're home?" He muttered with a yawn. At Pearl's hum of affirmation, he crawled out of the backseat, leaning heavily against the van as he struggled to rub the sleep from his eyes.
His dad laughed at him as he closed up the back of the van. "We sure are, Schtu-ball! You can go back to sleep once we're inside, okay?" His son tiredly nodded and followed the two adults as they led the way up the hill and to the stairs.
"I'm glad Twoie convinced me to join you two on this trip." Pearl chuckled as they climbed the stairs. "I was so worried about leaving him alone, but we really needed to have that heart-to-heart." She paused outside the front door. During the drive, Greg had confided in her about Twoie's feelings regarding her restrictive behavior. "And I promise that I won't be as smothering as I have been with Twoie. I had no idea that he felt that way."
Greg was about to respond when panicked yelling sounded from inside the house. Everyone was now alert, and they quickly ran into the house. No one expected the sight that greeted their return.
Amethyst was trying to calm a frantically pacing Ruby and a panicking Sapphire. "-erywhere! My future vision is absolutely useless, and the others will be arriving any second! Where did he go?" The tiny blue gem froze when she noticed Greg, Steven, and Pearl. "Oh, no. This is bad…"
"What's bad? What's going on? Where did who go?" Pearl gestured at Ruby and Sapphire with a look of horror on her face. "And why are you two unfused? I have so many concerns right now!"
While Pearl was yelling at the other gems, Steven looked around and noticed a mess of papers on his bed. He quickly ran up to the stairs, and everyone became silent as he read through them. "These are Twoie's lesson plans! He never leaves these out!" He looked back at the gems. "Where's Twoie? This isn't like him at all!"
Sapphire started crying at his question. Ruby quickly went to comfort her beloved, so Amethyst sighed and stepped forward. "It's my fault. Twoie noticed that I was upset after the incident with Bismuth and confronted me after you guys left. I was mad that I couldn't protect him, so when he kept pushing me to tell him how I felt, I… kinda got angry and yelled at him." Steven paled as she told her story.
Sapphire sobbed loudly. "No! It's my fault! He was rightfully upset that I never apologized for insulting him after he told us the truth about Pink Diamond. And for making assumptions based on my future vision. He's right, I do assume that I understand situations that I've observed with my powers. But my vision only tells me the most probable timeline, not what's actually happening!" She clutched Ruby's arm tightly to her chest as she sobbed. The small red gem gently shushed her, trying to calm her down.
Steven's face screwed up in annoyance. "You guys are avoiding the question! Where's Twoie?"
Ruby looked up at him. "We don't know! Twoie got really upset and packed a bunch of his stuff. We tried to stop him from leaving, but he used that new barrier power to prevent us from leaving the house. We searched everywhere we thought he would go. Sapphy and I even unfused so we could cover more ground, but we never found him." Ruby's eyes filled with frustrated tears. Greg and Steven were staring at her in horror, while Pearl covered her mouth with her hands.
"He… left?" Steven whispered as he sank to the ground. Greg ran up the stairs and gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It's okay, Steven. He probably just wanted to spend some time away from the gems. Why don't you try calling him?" Steven shakily nodded as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. The kid was trying to hold back tears as he clicked Twoie's name and waited for the call. On the second ring, the call disconnected. Steven lowered his phone into his lap and stared at it. Twoie had denied his call. Greg brushed his hand through his son's hair, hoping to bring him some form of comfort.
"That's not the worse thing." Greg and Pearl glared at Amethyst as she spoke. The purple gem was rubbing her arm in discomfort. "We found out that Twoie's form is changing because of his emotions. During his argument with Garnet, he got a couple more horns, and one of his eyes changed colors."
Pearl gasped in horror at the revelation. "So the reason he looks like that… is because he's angry and stressed?" Sapphire and Ruby nodded. Greg looked down at Steven when he heard his son's phone chime. Steven also perked up at the noise.
Twoie: Sorry, I can't answer the phone right now. I'm guessing you guys are home now. Please don't try to look for me. I'm fine. I just had to get away from the gems for a while. Love you, Steven.
Steven hurriedly texted him back.
Steven: I'm glad you're okay! Why can't you call? Can I at least come to see you? Are you nearby? Where did you go?
He didn't have to wait long for Twoie to reply back.
Twoie: I don't want you to see me like this. We can text, but I don't want to talk since it will give away where I am. I'm sorry.
The youngest Universe sent a quick text saying okay and love you too, before tucking his phone away. "He said he doesn't want me to see him…" It hurt to know that Twoie was so upset about his appearance. Steven clenched his fists in anger. If Twoie's appearance was because of his emotions, then Twoie was feeling bad because of everything the gems had put him through. He rounded on the gems. "This is all your fault!" They flinched at his accusation. Greg tried to hug his son to calm him, but Steven just pushed his hands away. "If you guys weren't so mean to Twoie, he wouldn't have left me! Twoie was the only one who kept me company, and you guys made him leave!" Greg pulled Steven into a hug. This time, Steven didn't fight him and sobbed as his dad hugged him tightly. The gems were quiet, stewing in the guilt of knowing that they were the reason that Twoie ran away.
Pearl climbed the steps and knelt beside the father and son. She gently brushed her hand through Steven's hair. "You're right. We tried to make changes, but it's clear to me now that we didn't do enough. We never tried to understand why he was upset by our actions." She turned back to the others in the living room. "Twoie pointed out a long time ago that we didn't understand how to raise Steven. And yet, we allowed Twoie to bear the brunt of the work of caring for him, instead of learning about it ourselves." Steven sniffled, finally looking at Pearl. She smiled sadly at him. "I hope you can forgive us one day for all of the problems we've caused you. We love you very much, Steven, even though we aren't the best at showing it." Pearl stood up and made her way downstairs. "Right now, we have to make a change. We should still look for Twoie, but we need to make a few rules for ourselves." Amethyst, Ruby, and Sapphire nodded determinedly. Pearl raised her hand into the air. "Number one! No more spending the majority of the day inside the temple. We spend too little time with Steven, and he's told us already that it makes him feel like we only spend time with him when we need him."
Sapphire shakily smiled and held up two fingers. "Number two. We apologize every time we say or do something that hurts someone else. We've only done so on occasion, but humans apologize every time to show that they care. We've made Steven and Twoie feel like we don't care because we didn't apologize for hurting them." Ruby linked hands with Sapphire, proud that she owned up to her mistakes and was willing to better herself. Sapphire smiled at Ruby, and the two lit up brightly, fusing back into Garnet.
Amethyst held up three fingers. "Number three! No more pushing Steven or Twoie to talk when they don't want to. I know I hate it, so I should've realized that trying to push him to tell us more about the future was a bad idea." The gems all smiled as they thought about their new rules. They loved Twoie, and they wanted him to know how much they cared.
"Can I add a rule?" The gems all turned to look at Steven. The kid was still crying lightly, but he looked calmer than earlier. "You guys need to stop making some of the problems that come up about yourselves." They blinked at him, so he continued. "In a lot of our arguments, you end up deciding that you know how we feel, or you turn around what we're saying so that it becomes about you guys. It's really frustrating." The gems nodded in agreement.
Garnet stepped forward, gaining everyone's attention. "I'm sorry that you had to come home to this, Greg, Steven. I'm glad you're here, though. We have tried looking for Twoie at the Strawberry Battlefield, the desert, Beach City, and the Barn. Peridot checked the Kindergarten, and Lapis checked the Galaxy Warp. None of us have been able to find Twoie so far. Do you have any ideas where he might have gone?"
Pearl hummed in thought. She turned to Steven. "Do you think he could've gone to the garden?"
Steven's eyes lit up with hope. "Maybe! We should check the garden, and if he's not there, I'll call Dr. Maheswaran! I haven't gotten any texts from Connie, although he may have asked them to keep it a secret. It could still check, just in case. And there's also the Moonbase!" Greg stood up and helped his son get to his feet. They made their way downstairs as well, so the group was standing together in the living room.
Garnet smiled as their group. "Then Pearl, Greg, and Steven can check the garden while Amethyst and I check the Moonbase. We aren't going to force Twoie to return home, we just want him to know that we are sorry and that he will be welcomed back whenever he wants to return." Everyone nodded and separated into their assigned groups. Steven's group headed off to the forest while Amethyst and Garnet called for Lion. They could only hope that they'd find Twoie at one of the two locations.
Heavy rain pounded outside as Twoie tucked his phone back into the pocket of his shorts. He sighed in relief that his phone had not been ruined in the downpour. Who knows how worried Steven would've been if Twoie didn't respond to his call? Even texting him had been hard, but there was no way Twoie was going back. Not right now, anyway. He paced back and forth outside the home of the person he hoped would be willing to help him. Twoie had wandered around for a while before mustering up the courage to come here. When it began to rain, Twoie was forced to stand at the door, as it provided his only form of shelter. He had been waiting there ever since.
The young man took another deep breath. It had already been a couple of hours, and the rain showed no signs of stopping. It was either wait here and freeze or go inside. He finally made his decision. No more waiting. Twoie knocked on the door. A moment later, the two halves of the stone door slid open, revealing the confused expression of his former friend. Twoie sheepishly grinned and waved at her in greeting.
"Hey, Bismuth."