Steven woke up with a loud, gooey sneeze.

"Goodness, bless you Steven." Pearl called from downstairs, pausing with two giant bags of off brand 'Crying Breakfast Friends' cereal in her hands. "Please remember that big boys don't wipe their noses on their clean pajamas."

Steven paused with his arm halfway to his drippy nose. He sniffled loudly before awkwardly making his way downstairs and quickly into the bathroom. He grabbed a thick handful of tissues and blew until his ear popped.

He felt absolutely awful. His head ached, his sinuses pounded painfully, his nose stuffed up but still somehow managing to run and his tummy didn't feel so good – twisty and icky like he ate too many cookie cats.

"Steven?" Pearl gently knocked on the door. "Is everything alright, are you having 'tummy issues' again?"

"N-no." Steven snuffled, trying to rub the growing blush from his cheeks and the violet bruises under her eyes. He swung open the door with a harried smile. "I-I'm alright."

"Well…okay breakfast is ready." Pearl hummed, watching Steven as he hurried out the bathroom and to the island.

"You went grocery shopping?" Steven asked, climbing onto the tall seat without anyone's help (something he was extremely proud of because this truly was the mark of a big boy). "Already in the morning?"

"I went an hour ago." Pearl said, setting down a Steven-sized bowl of cereal in front of him. "Funnily enough it was only ten when I left. It's about twelve in the afternoon right now."

"Wha-?" Steven choked. "H-how long was I asleep?"

"Well you got into bed around 8:10 pm. But you often take ten to twenty five minutes to fall asleep. You woke up four minutes ago and it's now 12:03 pm. You slept for approximately 16 hours."

"T-that's almost like a whole day? Why didn't you guys wake me up?" Steven whined, squinting closer at the clock on the microwave door. It really was lunchtime not breakfast.

"Well I was going to wake you when I determined you had reached your necessary eleven hours, but Garnet insisted that we wait until you woke up by yourself - she was mumbling something about how you really needed the rest - bless you!"

Steven nearly face planted into his bowl with another sneeze. Pearl grabbed Steven's arm before he could bring it up to his nose and quickly summoned a lacy handkerchief from her gem. She wiped his nose and frowned, pressing her hands against his cheeks.

"Hmm…you feel a little warm."

"Wha-what? No I don't." Steven flinched away from her touch, rubbing his cheeks and creating a deeper red flush across his skin. "I-it's probably just cause I woke up."

"Humans do fluctuate in temperature throughout the day and it is considered normal for the body's internal temperature to be a few degrees above average when human's first wake…" Pearl hummed, still seeming unsure.

Sensing that Pearl was about to lean in and check again, he jumped off the stool with a quiet burp and ran upstairs before she could even move.

"I'm gonna go play with Dad." He yelled, rushing into clothes before Pearl could stop him.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" Pearl called, peering with a frown into Steven's nearly full bowl of cereal. "You can watch TV while I clean and just take it easy."

"No, I wanna see Dad." Steven insisted, tucking his big shirt into his pants just like Dad taught him and stomping down the stairs. "Bye Pearl!"

"Bye Ste-." The door slammed and Steven was gone in a flash. Pearl listened to his tiny footsteps fade into the distance with a frown.

She wanted to pursue him, to keep a silent eye on him to make sure that he was really alright, but she needed to put the groceries up and scrub the strange burns from the side of the refrigerator.

She was going to have a talk with Amethyst about how exactly these stains got here.

…

Steven was a big boy now. Seven years old was a very impressive age (in Steven's book at least).

He could cross the street by himself, get dressed without help, and had memorized the way to go to his Dad's carwash. He knew a lot of things now, more so than when he had been a five year old (practically a baby.) He knew how to buy doughnuts with money and how to change a tire on the van.

So when he couldn't hold back three more itchy sneezes on the way to the carwash, he knew he was probably catching a cold - maybe? He didn't really remember ever getting sick before – maybe when he had been an itty bitty baby? He had seen plenty of people get sick on TV though and he'd seen his Dad catch a cold or two in his seven years.

On TV when you got sick: your nose was runny, you sneezed a whole bunch, got a fever and then someone had to take you to the doctor then you got lay around in bed all day. Steven didn't mind the lay around in bed thing – he wouldn't mind being spoiled by Pearl. But it was the doctor thing that made his tummy do flips.

He was pretty sure he had never, ever met a doctor before. He couldn't remember ever going to a hospital or doctor's office or clinic. Pearl said that it was probably his Mom's gem helping keep him healthy when others around him caught all sorts of stuff. Last year Peedee had caught something called 'nuhmoneea'? It made him cough all day and all night, and eventually Steven had watched his friend get taken away by the ambulance.

Peedee thankfully had been fine, but when they had gone to play at the boardwalk, Peedee had fretfully admitted that being sick was no good.

'The hospital is super scary and dark. I never wanna go there again.' Peedee had whispered as they rode their respective kiddie rides. 'Plus it's expensive - that means my dad got no more money cause of it.'

Steven didn't worry too much about money because his Dad worked hard to make sure everything was alright. The gems sometimes contributed by collecting the 'useless' gold they found around the world, but it was mostly his Dad who provided. Steven didn't want his Dad to not have money.

As Steven was coming to learn – it seemed like everything cost something, even the free stuff sometimes. Without money then he and Dad wouldn't be able to eat or watch TV together anymore. If there was no money then his Dad would have to work all day at the carwash and there wouldn't be any time to play.

Steven wouldn't have it. He was not getting sick! Even if his nose was still itchy and his head felt stuffy, he was not sick and he would absolutely not being going to the doctor.

"Hi Da-Chooo!" Steven sneezed as he opened the door to the carwash, making his Dad jump.

"Whoa there buddy." Greg chuckled, groaning as he stretched. He had been hunched over his desk for the past hour or so. "Bless, where did that come from? You been playing in flowers again?"

"Nope, whatcha doing?" Steven asked, rubbing his nose before it could make him sneeze again.

"Boring old paperwork." Greg scratched his head with a sigh. "But I'm mostly done, so we can have a hose fight if you want?"

"Yeah! Hose fight!" Steven yelled, flinging the door back open with a whoop and a tiny sneeze.

A/N: Hi guys, sorry for the slow updates the past few days. Holidays are crazy. Gonna try my best to update more now that things are settling down a bit. Working on one of the 300 special stories about holidays with the gems - hopeful that it'll be done by the 25th. Thanks as always for your favorites, follows and wonderful reviews.

A/N: Crystal Gem Academy will be updated before the end of the month - two chapters this month!