When Connie woke up, she felt as though she'd been sleeping for days. Steven's room seemed to be lit up as if it were a bright and sunny morning, even if the sun couldn't technically shine inside. She stretched, expecting to feel him beside her, but he was gone. When she was able to coax her body to move out of the comfort of the warm, soft sheets, she changed back into now dry clothes that had been neatly folded onto the couch. Begrudgingly, she turned on her phone to check the time.
Wincing at the amount of unread notifications, she sighed at the fact that some weren't only from Adam, but her parents had blown up her phone as well. It was almost noon.
"That's gonna be a mess to go home to..." She thought as she scanned the room for any sign of Steven.
The pink doorway faded into existence on an empty wall and he walked in with two mugs of coffee. "Hey, you're up!"
She had no control over the smile that spread across her face. "Yeah... I can't believe I slept late. I don't think I've slept in like that in years." She took one of the mugs and took a long sip, thanking him. "My parents are probably flipping out."
He gave a sheepish laugh. "Yeah... sorry about that."
"Not that I want to leave so quick, but... I should probably go." She took one last glance at the phone, wishing it were empty. "Twenty-three and they still assume the worst when I stay out all night."
"They just care about you," he said. "They're also probably just happy to have you home instead of so far away."
She smiled at the way he found the positives in any situation. She'd missed it. The two of them took their time, enjoying the radiant feeling between them before she left to go home. She kissed him goodbye when she left and sighed in disappointment on the way home at the fire she would have to put out with her parents. What loomed even larger over her head was the fact that she'd have to deal with Adam at some point.
Not that he deserves it, she thought.
After assuring her parents that she was fine, and that she spent the night at Steven's house instead of driving through the rainstorm - which caused an entirely new set of questions from them, mainly her mother - she finally escaped to her room to clean herself up and catch up on some reading. Before she could actually sit down and read, though, her stomach kept twisting thinking about the messages on her phone. She scrolled through them, disturbed at the things Adam sent.
-You think you can just blow me off?-
-If you think I'll forget about this, you're wrong.-
-Call me back. NOW.-
-I'm going to get through to you, either now or later. Call me back.-
-Why would you do this to us? I was good to you, and all you do is stab me in the fucking back.-
-You're a fucking bitch and I hope you're happy. Of course you'd do this to me. I gave you everything you wanted and you decided to hurt me like this instead. We'll see how things work out when you get back and you'll wish you'd never done this.-
They were only text messages, but they made her hands shake. She tried to picture what would happen when she got back - even toying with the idea of going back to how things were over the last three school years sounded like torture. She'd go back, they would fight, get back together, do the majority of the work for their team, cater to his demands, go out to get drunk and forget, and then hate herself for it and hate him. It was a cycle she was finally out of, even if only temporarily, and she felt like she could finally breathe. She tried to understand how it even got to this point - how the brave girl she was turned out to be such a coward.
Her thoughts turned to Steven and the night before. It was so wonderful and she didn't feel any of the things that made her hate herself when she was around him. For the first time in a long time, the morning after was bright instead of dull and grey. Her world felt like it was full of color again and she didn't want to give that up anymore.
She scrolled to Adam's name and counted to three before pressing the call button.
"Finally," he said smugly.
"Adam, I'm ending this. I'll be making arrangements to switch groups when I get back." Her voice quivered with anxiety, but she remained calm.
"You'll come crawling back. You always do. You'll see," he said.
"No, not this time. I'm done, Adam. I'm not doing this anymore."
"You think you can just leave me? Sure. Go ahead and try. I'm a lot harder to get rid of than you think," he spat.
She pulled the phone away and hung up, then went into his contact information and hit the red "block contact" button. She took a couple of steadying breaths.
What could he even do? He's a dumb rich kid who only wants to get his way. I don't need this.
She had a sudden urge to take it back, unblock him, and smooth out the waves she just made. She hovered over the button that now read "unblock contact." Before she could press it, a new text came through.
-Hey, Connie, just making sure you got home safe! Hope your parents weren't too upset.-
She held her phone and smiled as her anxiety melted away.
Over the next few weeks, Connie nearly forgot about Adam since finally telling him how she felt. His threats no longer made her nervous - they made her angry and unsure as to how she even got to the point of letting someone so awful into her life.
Now, spending time with Steven made her feel like she was coming back to a part of herself she thought was gone forever. For example, she forgot how much fun it was to walk up and down the pier with him buying every type of food they saw, even if they couldn't finish it. Or how they would sit cross-legged in his living room while she read and he played a video game, then fell asleep together. Or how he would drive her back to her house in his jeep and she would secretly film him until he noticed and tried to grab her phone away form her. Or how Steven made her crack up by making stupid puns while taking long walks or hiking with him, joking the entire time. She felt as happy as she did when they were children, spending every day together and doing whatever they felt like.
When the air grew too cold, they used the warp pad to get away from the frigid air of the fall to somewhere warm. They had just finished a four mile hike up the lower half of a small mountain and up a natural winding trail. Before them was a large hot spring, surrounded by colorful wildflowers that looked like they could come to life and eat something if they chose to. They found a spot under a tree to sit at, Steven picking absentmindedly at his ukulele and Connie flipped slowly through a textbook.
Reading the same paragraph over three times, she felt the creeping feeling that she needed to tell Steven about what had happened - to tell him the truth about Adam finally and how it was over. She closed the book and sat it down, and Steven stopped picking.
"Done already?" he asked.
"You know, I probably should have brought something more entertaining than things I need to read for school. The farther away I am from that place, the more I hate to think about it," she said.
"You never finished telling me why you said you regret going away to school. Any time you talk about it, you sound like you don't ever want to go back." He set the instrument down and sat up.
"I guess I don't regret going to achieve what I wanted to, I just regret... I mean, I regret leaving home. It's not like here at all."
"What else?"
"I..." Just say it! "Well, some of the people there aren't exactly... great to be around."
"What do you mean?"
She picked a small flower, twirling it between her fingers. "They're different. And not as nice as people from here. And sometimes I feel like I'm the one doing all the work out of my team, and I have a feeling it won't be any different when I go back."
"You know you don't have to, right? I mean, you're really close to finishing, but you don't have to do anything you don't want to do," he said. "I feel like sometimes, with everything you've told me so far, you forget that you can do what you need to."
She dropped the flower, letting it float into the grass. "It would be stupid not to finish. It's not even the work that bothers me, it's just..." You'll hate me. I can't do it. I don't want to screw this up again.
"Just what?"
She took a deep breath. "There's-"
The ground suddenly shook, cutting her off. They both jumped to their feet, and a giant roar echoed through the air. "Is that what I think it is? Are there still corrupted gems? After all this time?" she asked, eyes wide.
He nodded. "It's impossible to know how many. We've still been chasing after them... even since you left."
She grabbed his hand, her heart racing. "Let's... let's go get it! Together."
"You mean you want to?"
"Yes. If you do."
He grinned and took her hand, twirling her around before grabbing her waist and leaning her into a dip. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laughed as they transformed into one. Their beautiful form took off, their long, slender legs running in the direction of the roar.
It had been years since they fused, but becoming Stevonnie for the first time in forever felt as good as the first time they accidentally fused as children. They were just as agile as they ran through the shallow hot spring and into a dense patch of forestry. It was almost effortless subduing the giant black corrupted beast, even without the aid of a weapon. Much like remembering how to ride a bike, it came naturally to them.
As the gem fell to the ground in its small form, Steven and Connie fell separated to the ground together, laughing. Connie sat up, happy tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. "I forgot how amazing that felt," she said.
Steven sat up too, beaming as he held out a hand to help her up. She took it, but pulled him back down and kissed him as he fell forward. They rolled over, laughing still, in the grass and laid there, side by side.
I can tell him later.
A/N: It's a short chapter. Sorry! I got into the next part and it's too long to make one chapter, I think, so the next one should be out sooner rather than later. Also, if anyone thinks I'm doing anything dumb, let me know. I'm trying to get back into writing and it's been a super long time. I'm also trying not to stray too far from canon things, so I apologize if anything's off. Anyways, thanks for reading so far!