NOW BACK TO ANGST.
"No... no... no... UGH NO!" Steven groaned, pushing himself away from the small table with his laptop, "There just isn't one job that sounds even remotely interesting! What am I gonna do? ... ... Why am I even doing this? I'm not even eighteen yet I'm trying to act-"
When he began to glow pink again, he moaned a bit in misery as his teeth turned sharp, his nails sharpened into claws, and a headache started to settle in. He clutched his head, only to feel... a hard, smooth protrusion. Gasping in alarm, he run to find a mirror, and in the bathroom, he grabbed on both sides of the sink as he stared at his reflection.
Pale pink horns. Two of them. Barely peeking out of his curled hair.
Steven continued to stare at the horrid sight before his hand felt itchy. He went to scratch at it, but whimpered in fright when a splotch of deep purple spread on his fingers. In fact, more of the splotches grew around his other hand, and more appeared around his body like awful rashes. One splotch even covered over his left eye. Unlike the rest of his skin, the few purple spots around his body felt rougher and itched terribly.
Leaning on his side, he heaved for breath, trying to stay calm. Steven lifted up his teal pajamas to check if there's anything wrong with his gemstone. Except there was none, no corruption spots, no crack, nothing. It looked exactly as its always been his entire life.
"I... I've got to get the Gems..." Steven rasped, slowly stepping out to the living room and collapsed on the couch. He took out his phone and tried calling Spinel first, but paused when he remembered that Pearl and Spinel were out on their honeymoon while the other Gems were on a field trip in Homeworld.
All that was left was his father, Greg. However, when Steven did call him, Greg was busy with managing Sadie's tour and his father hung up when he went through a tunnel.
Steven fell back on his couch, only to yelp in pain and clutch his head as his horns grew a little, making themselves known. When they stopped growing, Steven could finally release a held-in breath. He panted as he stared at his hands, his normal skin glowing pink, but his fingers were still covered with the purplish, rough splotches.
"W-What... What's happening to me?" Steven mumbled to no one, "I-I gotta get help... now..." He tried to search for anyone who could help him other than the Gems or Greg.
And one came.
He immediately typed in the phone number and waited for a few tense moments while he waited for a response. Finally, came the answer.
"C-CONNIE!" Steven nearly screamed as his girlfriend's face show up on the phone, "I-I NEED HELP!"
"S-Steven?!" Connie gasped at the sight of him, except it wasn't out of disgust, "W-What happened?! Is that a new power?"
Steven shook his head, "N-No, it just came on its own! I don't know what happened or why this is happening, but you've got to help me!"
Connie nodded, "Of course, Steven. I'll talk to my mom about it."
Steven felt relief overwhelm him and he relaxed, even the horns retreated slightly along with some of the spots.
The next day, at The Hospital...
Mrs. Maheswaran stood by the two teenagers, "You're lucky I had a cancellation today, normally I'm booked up weeks in advance."
"Do you think you'll be able to help him?" Connie asked her mother, holding Steven's hand, "Even if what he's going through is more of a Gem issue?"
"Gem issue or not, you have a human body, which means we can run tests," The doctor told them, "At the very least we can determine if you're suffering from a non-Gem condition."
Startled, Steven quickly wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, "Don't leave..." he murmured.
But Connie pulled away, "You'll be alright, Steven. Kiss for hope?"
When he nodded, he felt a quick surge of calmness when the swordfighter kissed him on the cheek and left the room, but not without saying, "You're in the right hands, Steven." And she closed the door and walked away, talking on the phone.
Steven almost kept reaching out for her, not wanting to be alone again.
"Let's start with your symptoms," said Mrs. Maheswaran, lifted up a thermometer. When he yanked away, she reassured him that this was a normal procedure and she checked his ear, "Hm, mild fever."
His skin began to glow pink once more, along with his other features. Mrs. Maheswaran was at first startled by the changes, but she continued to inspect him, "Glowing pink color to skin, along with a purple rash."
Steven went to scratch at the skin, but she held his hand away, "Hold it. Scratching the skin may damage it more."
He sighed, but lifted up his shirt as the doctor pressed the stethoscope to his chest, hearing for his heartbeat. She moved it to his gemstone, only hearing a strange, aura-like sound. Becoming increasingly perplexed, she went to grab a blood pressure monitor and wrapped it around Steven's right arm. She applied pressure to it, causing his right arm to become fully covered in rough, purple skin and without Steven's control, it shot up to grab the thing and rip it off.
The shock of it caused Mrs. Maheswaran to fall to the ground and Steven grabbed his arm with his left arm to hold it down. For a brief moment, his right arm scratched at the examination table, leaving 5 long clawmarks until most of the purple skin faded away and he regained control of his arm.
"S-Sorry..." Steven fearfully said.
The doctor only wrote on her clipboard, taking notes, "Blood pressure unknown. Sudden reaction from right arm, similar to alien hand syndrome."
"A-Alien hand syndrome?" Steven asked, his pink aura and features disappearing.
"It's a rare condition," Mrs. Maheswaran explained, "Sometimes, the person with said syndrome will experience their limbs acting on their own. Picking up items, flipping a lightswitch, and well, what your arm just did. Has that happened before?"
Steven shook his head, "No, ma'am."
She nodded in understanding, "If you don't mind me asking, who's your GP?"
"... GP? What's that?"
"You know, your general practitioner? Your regular doctor?"
"U-Uh..." Steven become tense again, "I... I-I haven't been taken to one before..."
The doctor's eyes widened, "You're seventeen years old and you've never seen the doctor?!"
Steven suddenly glowed pink and his features returned, he groaned loudly in pain as she tried to calm him down, "I-It's okay! It's okay!" She sighed when Steven calmed down, "I'll have a talk to your father later. We'll just need to run some more tests. Get undressed, and lets get you into a hospital gown." She tossed him a blue gown.
"D-Do normal people have to wear these?" Steven asked, taking the gown and unfolding it, feeling uncomfortable with being partially naked.
"Yes," She replied, putting on a white rubber glove, "Now let's get started."
After about an hour of testing, Steven was finally finished and sat down on a chair while Mrs. Maheswaran stood by a screen, showing an x-ray of a human skeleton as she explained, "So this is a typical human skeleton. Now, a couple of months ago, Garnet, Amethyst, Spinel, and Pearl allowed me to x-ray them for research purposes. Their charts look like this."
She clicked on a small remote, flipping through the x-rays of the Gems. Except, as he already knew, their bodies were made of light and were simply a 'hologram, but with mass', so the screens only showed their gemstones.
"Only their gems appear on the radiograph," She continued, clearing her throat at Amethyst's x-ray but finally flipped to Steven's skeleton, which not only had his gemstone shown, but a few cracks on his skull and on his arms, "And this is your chart. Definitely a human skeleton. There's a clear history of numerous fractures like here on the skull. Everything is perfectly aligned. It almost looks like as if the bones healed themselves the instant the injuries occurred."
"Is... that good?" Steven asked nervously.
Mrs. Maheswaran sighed slightly, "Well, you seem to have made a series of miraculous recoveries, but that doesn't change the fact that you experienced trauma. You've recovered physically, but have you recovered mentally?"
Steven began to panic, blushing pink, "N-No, is there something wrong with me?!"
"Not wrong!" Mrs. Maheswaran told him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "It's that adverse childhood experiences, or childhood trauma, can have a lasting impact on how your body responses to stress. This can affect your social, emotional, and physical development. When humans are in crisis, the brain releases the hormone 'cortisol'. Your heart races, your muscles tense. I wonder if your body is reacting to a gem equivalent of cortisol. Steven, do you remember anything bad in your childhood that particularly stuck with you?"
Steven gulped, "W-Well, there was this one time Spinel got hit by a car to save my life, and then we got attacked by a corrupted monster, and I got trapped in a bubble underwater with no way to escape, I tried to shape-shift but ended up as a cat monster, I almost turned myself old and nearly died, Amethyst almost died, Pearl got stabbed, Spinel got hit in the head for trying to protect me, then I woke up with a black eye and inside a ship prison-"
"Steven!" The nurse exclaimed from shock, "This is serious!"
The hybrid only clasped his head as he recalled the horrific times of his life.
Watching the ship Pearl made falling apart.
Kidnapped by Ronaldo and Spinel breaking his arm for it.
Pearl and Amethyst fighting.
Lapis pulling Jasper into the ocean water.
Spinel almost punching him into space, mistaking him for Peridot.
Watching the Cluster form into a hand made up of hands and feet in front him, Garnet, and Spinel.
Peridot trying to kill him and the Crystal Gems.
Connie, Mrs. Maheswaran, and him getting attacked by the Cluster Gems.
Getting kidnapped by Peridot.
Communicating with the Cluster and hallucinating.
Watching Jasper and Spinel fight for Ocean.
Stabbing Bismuth in the stomach.
Jasper almost killing Spinel.
Almost getting sucked out into space by the Rubies.
The orange hallucinations in the Fusion Realm.
Confronting the fake Rose and angrily exclaiming she's not his mother.
Seeing his best friends trapped in Topaz's fused body.
Spinel admitting the truth about Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond being the same person to save his life.
Yellow Diamond threatening to shatter Spinel at the trial.
Lars dying in front of him.
Watching all of the Crystal Gems getting destabilized by Yellow Diamond.
Encountering White Diamond for the first time.
Forced to face Homeworld alone without his loved ones.
The nightmare about his family turning white and White Diamond pulling out his gem in a gory image.
Blue Diamond using her powers on him.
The two Diamonds fighting.
The Diamond Mech flying towards them during their escape and his reunion with his family.
The Crystal Gems being controlled by White Diamond and him weakened to the point of being unable to move and slowly dying.
Apache manipulating Spinel into thinking he was her enemy, and tried choking him to death with her weapon.
Mrs. Maheswaran continued, "I think all these experiences have been subjecting your body to a harmful amount of stress, and that's affecting your ability to respond to new forms of stress in a healthy way. You've been dealing with genuine on threats from such a young age, your body is now responding to minor threats as if your life were in danger!"
"B-But..." Steven tried to speak, feeling an urge to run and hide, "But I'm not in danger anymore! Why am I thinking about all this now?!"
"Stress is less harmful when we have people we trust to help us through with it," The doctor explained, trying to calm him down, "It could be you're losing your supportive relationships or suffered a recent experience that was practically off..."
Suddenly, Steven remembered back when he used his own powers against his mother, Spinel. Not only injuring her, but also breaking the rocking chair, the very thing that brought them closer together...
His pink aura and features returned and he fell over in agony, trying to stand up while hugging his sides. Mrs. Maheswaran stepped back as Steven slammed back against the small table, breaking the screen of his x-ray. He continued to writhe on the ground, hunching over on the floor as if something was trying to grow out of his back.
Hearing the crash, Connie ran into the room, gasping to see her shocked mother and her crying boyfriend on the floor. She almost gagged as several protrusions poked out from his spine, appearing under his hospital gown, but they retracted. Connie ran over to her mother, helping her up.
"W-What happened?!" She asked frantically, "What's happening to him?!"
"I-I don't know!" Mrs. Maheswaran replied, holding her daughter close, "I just asked if he had any stressful experiences lately!"
Steven let out a final scream as the protrusions turned out to be more pale pink spikes that grew along his spine, tearing off his hospital gown, revealing even more purple splotches on his skin.
Connie, now on the brink of tears, let go of her mother and stepped carefully towards Steven, who had grown silent. "... S-Steven? ... Are you alright? Speak to me."
"... Get out..."
"H-Huh?" Connie stepped closer, not noticing both of Steven's arms had turned fully purple.
"I said... ... GET OUT!" Steven let out a scream, lifting up his head to reveal that his eyes had turned black with pink pupils, and before Connie could react, he slashed her arm with his claws.
Connie fell back, crying out in sheer pain as the four clawmarks on her right arm bled all over her shirt. Mrs. Maheswaran quickly ran over to her daughter, pulling her away. Steven slowly stood up on all fours, his spine cracked and legs shifted, forcing him down on a quadruped stance. He glowered at them, snarling.
"... Steven..." Connie whispered meekly, her tears freely spilling.
"I DON'T NEED ANYONE! I DON'T NEED ANYONE!"
For a second, Connie could've sworn that Steven's scream had briefly evolved into a roar.
"Come on!" The doctor yelled, holding onto Connie as she ran to the door, "We need to get out!"
However, two newcomers opened the door, revealing it to be a worried Greg and Spinel.
"STEVEN!" They both cried out. Their horror only grew as they saw their son, stumbling around the room, tearing and gnawing at his gown and only stuck wearing his white boxers. But other than that, he was barely recognizable.
Spinel had her hands cupped over her mouth in sheer terror as Greg looked over to Mrs. Maheswaran, "W-What's going on?!"
Connie tried to explain through the pain, "S-Steven called me to help him, and my mom did a check up on him- AH!... A-And I-I think he's really stressed out about something!"
Greg and Spinel looked over to Steven, who was clawing at the cold floor, glaring at them and growling. It was almost inhuman.
"O-Oh my... poor... sweet baby," Spinel spoke under her breath, slowly taking a step forwards towards him.
Greg's hand touched her shoulder, "W-Wait, Spinel. Let me handle this."
"No, Greg. This might be a Gem problem. I'll let you know when it's safe. I can't risk both you or Steven getting hurt."
The man, still hesitant, took a step back as Spinel slowly walked towards the snarling hybrid.
"S-Steven... honey..." Spinel said, her tone calm and reassuring, "I-It's okay, Mom's here. You can relax... I'm here. Just... Just let us help you, love."
But he continued to glare at her, taking a few steps back until he was against the wall. Spinel stared into his eyes, searching for her loving, sweet son in them. Some relief came to her when he froze.
"Steven? ... Can you hear me?" She asked gently, "I know you don't want to hurt me, or anyone. I know it."
After a moment, Steven actually stopped growling, his anger faded. Spinel looked over her shoulder to Greg, and nodded to him. Understanding, Greg took a few cautious steps forward.
"H-Hey stchu-ball," He tried to speak, not trying to make any sudden movements or loud noises, "A-Are you alright?"
Hearing his father's voice, Steven relaxed, sitting back down. His eye turned back to normal, although his pink skin and features stayed. Steadily, Greg and Spinel walked over to their son, while Connie and Mrs. Maheswaran watched on.
"... M-Mom? Dad?" Steven whimpered, "I-I..."
Spinel gently shushed him, "H-Hey hey, it's okay. You don't need to apologize. Just... tell us what happened."
But when Steven tried to, he felt his throat burn and he choked as he began to cry. He was so scared, so terrified, he couldn't even speak another word. Instead, he embraced his parents, which they gladly returned.
"Alright, son," Greg said, "You can tell us later when you're ready."
Spinel nodded in agreement, "Let's take you home."
Steven gasped, "W-Wait! Let me... help Connie first..." He tried to stand up, and for a moment he couldn't. Thankfully, his spine cracked to let him stand up on a two legs again. Almost awkwardly, he wobbled over to Connie. Without any words, Connie held out her arm to him. Careful with his clawed hands, he gently held her wounded arm and kissed it.
Connie grit her teeth from the short stinging pain, but it faded away as the clawmarks disappeared. Smiling gratefully, she looked at him, "T-Thank you, Steven."
"Y-You're welcome... A-And... thank you too. For helping me."
"Gladly..."
Back home, Steven laid in bed in his pajamas, appearing tired and still shaken up from what happened. Thankfully, his pink aura and features were gone.
"So..." Greg awkwardly began, "You've been looking for jobs?"
Steven didn't look up, "Yeah... I haven't found one yet."
Spinel then appeared, holding a cup of warm chamomile tea. She gave it to him, and he gently took it, taking a sip from it. He sighed, feeling calmer from his favorite tea.
But his smile faded, "Sorry I made you leave your honeymoon with Pearl, Mom."
"It's fine, love," Spinel told him, rubbing his back soothingly, "Pearl understood everything. We have all the time in the world for another date."
The three people in the room laughed at the joke, and after kissing him goodnight, Steven laid in his bed, hoping everything was going to be fine after this.
Huh. My Steven actually DIDN'T propose to Connie and ASKED for help?