A few hours passed before anything else happened.

Steven ended up moving the clothes and basket to the other side of the room, and he and Aster stuck close to the window. His brother settled into a corner, seeming rather comfortable there for the most part, but he also looked troubled, sparing glances back and forth between the pile of things Chevron had left and the window. Steven understood; White Diamond had to be watching them somehow, but neither of them could figure out how. A part of him was almost scared to know; she seemed to know a lot more than she let on, after all. She'd sent them food and water. Said something about nourishment. Steven couldn't fathom why she would do something like that unless she genuinely understood his half-human needs. But even Blue Diamond had somewhat understood that, and she hadn't even thought about food or water. So why would…

"This is…" Aster curled his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around his legs tightly. He rocked back and forth for a moment, a disgruntled expression on his face as he looked at the window, then shook his head and buried his face into his arms for a moment. "I don't like this," he mumbled, and Steven furrowed his eyebrows, looking over at his brother with a frown. "I don't like her. I don't want Chevron to come back. I wanna get out of here… I don't like being…"

A cold feeling trickled down Steven's spine, instinctively sensing the meltdown incoming. The hybrid scooted a little closer, but not too close, and reached across the wall toward his brother. "Hey," he called out softly, and Aster's head twitched, raising slightly. "Just breathe… it's okay."

Aster shook his head a little, but he did take a deep breath, shifting to wrap his arms around himself. He sat like that for a moment, staring at his knees. "I don't like being trapped. It's…"

"Scary. I know." Steven ran his tongue over his lips, falling silent for a moment. He scooted a little closer, further encouraged when some of the tension in Aster's shoulders seemed to fizzle away, and shifted to sit beside his brother completely. "I'm scared, too. But we're not gonna be in here forever, yeah?" He tilted his head, leaning forward a little to meet Aster's gaze. His brother looked at him somewhat reluctantly at first, but seemed to soften a little when their eyes met. "We'll get out of here. And then we can get back to the gems and figure out how to fix this."

Aster looked away again, up at the window, then ducked his head back to his arms. He was silent for a while after that, pinprick pupils trailing across the little bit of light streaming into the otherwise dark room, before he took another deep breath and nodded. He rocked again, just for a few seconds, before he went still and let his legs drop to sit normally again. "Yeah. We will." He looked down, fidgeting with the front of his shirt for a moment. "... I'm sorry. I know that I…"

"Don't- you've got nothing to be sorry for," Steven chided, exhaling softly through his nose and letting his head fall back for a second. Aster frowned down at his hands for a moment, silent, then turned his head a little and looked over at the hybrid again. "Trust me, I know this sucks. This whole situation sucks. Both of us almost died, and now…" An oddly protective feeling engulfed him, staring at the gem beside him for a moment, before he narrowed his eyes and looked away again, shaking his head. "But you don't have to apologize. Believe me, I get it."

"I know…" Aster trailed off. "I don't know how you did this before on your own. I…"

Steven didn't respond for a moment, looking up toward the window. He wasn't technically on his own, even then, was he? Even if he didn't know it, they'd always been together. "I wasn't alone."

Aster furrowed his eyebrows, tilting his head, pupils shifting into question marks briefly. But it didn't take long for them to shift into exclamation points, and then back to pinpricks, as the realization set in, and a faint smile flitted across his features for a second as he gazed back at Steven. "Heh… yeah…" He trailed off, his smile widening a little as he looked away again, and the hybrid briefly tugged his lips into a grin as he leaned his head back and looked up at the ceiling. He fell silent for a while after that, thinking back to the fusion they made. It hadn't felt much different from how Steven felt now. At least, before Melanite had… his smile wavered as his thoughts trailed, remembering how disconnected he had felt, even when they were together.

The hybrid looked down, staring at the gem half embedded in his stomach, then trailed his gaze toward Aster again. The gem met his gaze briefly, then looked down at his own gem, then at Steven's. He lifted a hand, cupping it around his own gem half, and furrowed his eyebrows.

After a moment of silence, his brother mumbled, "what are we going to do?"

"About what?" Steven flicked his gaze around the room briefly, then looked back at Aster.

"About… us?" Aster asked tentatively, finally lifting his gaze from his gem to look back at him. Steven blinked, falling silent for a moment, while his brother's eyebrows furrowed together so close they were almost touching. "We can't… can we stay unfused? Your- my- our gem is…" He lifted his hand from his stomach and looked down at the half of the Diamond in his stomach.

"I feel fine," Steven admitted, somewhat dubious. "We're both okay like this. I mean, I don't…" He stared at the half of the gem for a moment, then looked down at his own. "Do you want to?"

Aster didn't respond immediately.

Steven ran his tongue over his lips, hesitating, then took a deep breath. "Because I don't… not right now, anyway. And not… permanently." His brother looked up at this, pupils shifting into exclamation points at once as the hybrid went on, "I kinda like getting to know you like this. If we do end up fusing again, we don't… have to stay like that. That wouldn't… it wouldn't be right. Not if we don't want to stay fused. And I would never force someone into something like that."

"Neither would I!" Aster perked up a little, lifting his head with a grin. "So we can stay like this?"

Despite himself, Steven found himself giggling. After the events that had transpired over the past week alone, it felt nice to laugh. "Of course we can. I… kind of prefer it like this anyway."

"Me too," Aster replied warmly, dropping his hands into his lap now. "I mean, I loved being… us. But I also love being me. And I love actually being able to be with you. When it was just us, I…" His smile wavered for a moment, gazing at Steven, and when it returned, there was an edge of sadness to the expression, a flicker of apprehension in his gaze. "I wasn't really… I was alone."

Steven softened a little, meeting his twin's gaze silently for a moment. He scooted closer, closing the distance between them completely, and reached out to wrap an arm around his brother's shoulders; Aster lit up at once, all hints of sorrow and hesitance gone as he moved closer and sank sideways into the hybrid, wrapping his arms around himself and letting his head fall back to rest it against Steven's shoulder, gazing across the room for a moment silently. The hybrid fell silent, resting his head against Aster's for a moment, and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly through his teeth. "You're not alone," he murmured, and Aster sank a little closer.

"I know." Steven's fingers curled loosely into the back of Aster's shirt, as his brother sighed. "Neither of us are."

Steven hummed quietly in agreement, managing a tired smile as Aster buried his face into his shoulder, and the hybrid quietly pressed half of his face into the pink gem's hair, falling silent. Aster let out a quiet hum, turning his head again, then suddenly chuckled.

"I guess I'll have to face…" He paused, silent for a moment, then continued quietly. Steven, for a moment, couldn't help but smile at the familiar melody despite himself. He shook his head a little, taking a deep breath, and fell silent to just listen to his brother as he continued to sing.

"That in this awful place
I shouldn't show a trace
Of doubt…"

Steven hummed along, silent for a moment.

"But, pulled against the grain," he joined in after a few seconds, closing his eyes.

"I feel a little pain
That I would rather do
Without…"

"I'd rather be…" Aster smiled suddenly, pinprick pupils shifting into diamonds, and pulled away from Steven. The hybrid let him, sinking back against the wall, and Aster settled beside him.

"Free-ee…
Free-ee…
Free…"

"I'd rather be," Steven murmured.

"Free-ee…
Free-ee…
Free…"

"Free-ee…" Aster leaned his head back, glancing over at him again.

Steven met his gaze for a moment, then looked up at the window. "Free-ee…"

"Free…"

(He remembered pacing the length of the Room, dancing and twirling and doing whatever he could to keep the shadows from getting him. He remembered flickering lights and high-pitched buzzing, he remembered hands creeping at him from the shadows like snakes, he remembered sometimes just wanting to lay down and let them engulf him completely. But he'd kept dancing, kept singing because it was the only thing he could do, to keep what little sanity he had left.)

"From here…"

Aster huffed out a giggle suddenly, a quiet, breathless sound, and collapsed backwards against the wall with a heavy sigh, shaking his head. "When we get out of here…" He trailed off, eyes focused on the window, then abruptly trailed his gaze to the ceiling. "I'm gonna shatter her."

Steven didn't know what to make of the fact that he didn't feel anything at that statement at all. Not relief, not fear. There was no desire to object. It wasn't that he didn't think Aster was capable of such a thing - he'd seen exactly how capable he was, after all, when he'd shattered Melanite, crushed her into dust with his bare hands… but the amount of apathy he felt at the mere thought of him doing such a thing to… who was he even talking about? Steven assumed it was White Diamond, since she'd locked them in here to begin with. But the thought of him shattering White Diamond didn't make him feel anything. Like he was just too tired to care. Actually, a part of him almost agreed with Aster. A part of him almost wanted him to do it.

The hybrid exhaled heavily through his nose and opened his mouth.

A bubble rose up in front of them, only a few feet away, and Steven snapped it shut again with a click. He rose to his feet, fists clenched, shoulders tense, and Aster stood up beside him at once, practically bristling as he pressed closer to the hybrid and fixed a cold, steady glare on the bubble in front of them. But both boys froze by the time it dropped, seeing who was standing there; definitely not who they were expecting, but once they got a better look at the gem in front of them, it didn't take either of them long to relax. Aster gasped, a soft, quiet, shocked sound, and Steven practically lit up, clenched fists falling slack at once as he rushed forward.

"Amethyst!"