"Hey, Steve-o, there's a gas station up ahead. Pull over."

"Why? We're almost full. I filled it yesterday, remember?"

"That's not why I wanna pull over. I wanna go in the store."

"Why?"

"We're out of snacks."

"Seriously? Can't we do that later?"

"Come on, there's literally nothing to eat in here."

"Are you hungry, Ben? We can pull over at a real diner if you're hungry."

"But you gotta have a trunkful of snacks. That's like road trip 101. If the car doesn't look like someone gave an 8-year-old a hundred bucks and told him to go crazy, you're not road-tripping it right. C'mon, what the heck are we supposed to do the whole way? Aw, dude, no, you're missing the gas station!"

"We should just stop at a café or diner or something. I'm getting hungry too."

"Well, that's just great."

Ding-ding, the bell hanging against the door chimed.

"Hey, boys, happy New Year's, what can I getcha?" – the diner's server lady impatiently asked. She was taller than both of them, and chewing a large wad of gum with so much energy that you'd wander how was her jaw still hanging on.

"That's right, New Year's Eve is tonight!" – Steven remembered.

"Good luck finding a free room for us today, then." – Ben remarked.

"Eh. I guess we'll just stay in the car."

"What? Who are you and what have you done with Steven?" – Ben teased him. Steven looked at him weird, not getting what was Ben making a joke about. "The Steven I know would never say that!" - Ben told him.

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you make a whole fuss about it on the first night of the trip? Back in Empire? You were totally freaked out." – Ben reminded him.

"Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, it wasn't really about finding a place to stay. Well, it was, but at the same time, I was just stressed because things weren't going according to plan. And that meant I'd be a real failure. But that just seems silly now, doesn't it?"

"Yeah that's real nice, now boys, are you gonna order somethin' or should I come back in a couple hours maybe?" – the server lady reminded them.

"Oh, sorry. Poached eggs for me." – Steven politely asked. "Ben?"

"Mmmmmrh." – Ben groaned. "I told you, I wasn't hungry."

"You can have your snacks after you've eaten. You know it's not good for you to pump yourself full of sugar on an empty stomach."

"Fine, fine." – Ben moaned stubbornly. "Do you serve fries?" – he asked the server.

"Sure."

"Chili fries?" – he brightened up.

"This ain't the Burger Shack." – she rolled her eyes and made a huge bubble with her gum, which popped with a click.

"Okay, it was worth a shot. Just the fries then." – Ben told her.

"Coffee?"

"Nah." "No, thank you." – the boys told her. And with that, she left.

"So, we don't have anything planned for tonight. It's New Year's Eve. Where do you wanna go?" – Ben asked Steven.

"Hmmm…"

"We could do karaoke like you wanted to." – Ben suggested.

"Probably not tonight. Everywhere's gonna be full at this time, you know, it being New Year's and all…"

"What about… kart racing?"

"I'm not sure if they'll be open, either." – Steven shook his head.

"Okay, I'm out of ideas. You pick it, then."

"Hmm…" – Steven got lost in his thoughts. "I don't think I want to, like, do a thing tonight. I just want to go somewhere where it's gonna snow."

"Snow?" – Ben found it amusing. "Why snow?"

"It's just something that I'm used to. You know, every year on New Year's Eve, me and my dad, and sometimes even the Gems would always stay out till midnight and meet the new year by clacking pots and pans, watching the festive fireworks. It's a Beach City tradition, you know, the whole town would gather outside, near the beach, and it would always snow every year, but the snow would never set… not at the beach, anyway. And I would watch the snow falling and ask the others if every snowflake really was unique… Dad told me that there was a snowflake for every single person in the whole wide world, but Pearl corrected him and explained that there's an unquantifiable multitude of snowflakes over the number of people… I don't think she really got what dad was trying to say." – Steven reminisced.

"Wow. And I used to think Gwen was a dweeb when we were kids..." – Ben thought to himself, but didn't utter it. "Alright, your baby talk convinced me. We've got 12 hours to find a town where it's gonna snow." – he told Steven and started going through his phone. "We can basically go halfway across the country if we wanted to. Aha!" – he Ben yelled. "Alright, according to the World Weather News website, there's gonna be tons of snow in a town called Darrison near here. It's a 6 hour drive, and that's with holiday traffic in mind."

"You call that near here?"

"Listen, do you want to see the snow or not?"

"Yeah, I guess." – Steven agreed. "It's not like we had anything else planned today."

"Here's your food, boys." – the lady came back with their food. Ben started scarfing the fries down by the bunch.

"And someone was saying they weren't hungry…" – Steven told him with a smug smirk.

"Oh, shut up. What kinda vegetarian are you supposed to be, anyway? You're eating eggs!" – Ben pointed out.

"I don't eat meat. Eggs don't count in that."

"But you wouldn't eat chicken when we were at Wing Kingdom with Rex?" – Ben reminded him.

"Well, chicken's a living animal. But the eggs haven't been fertilized, so they're not really alive, are they? I don't think it counts. And it's an important part of a balanced breakfast." – Steven said as he put another piece in his mouth. "Anyway, if you're trying to have a gotcha moment on me, you can use the time I lived in the woods. The only thing I could eat then was the fish I caught."

"Why were you living in the woods?" – Ben asked him.

"I was with Jasper."

"Why were you living in the woods with Jasper?" – Ben asked him with even more surprise.

"Haha…" – Steven chuckled awkwardly. "Boy, that's a long story…"

"Okay, then…" – Ben said, realizing Steven would rather not talk about it.

"Anyway, I haven't figured it out myself, but I think I'm a pescatarian." – Steven supposed.

"I thought you were Jewish." – Ben told him, and got an unamused glare in return.

"Well, here we are…" – Ben told Steven as the Boogle Maps app indicated that they had arrived in the town, though there was no need, as they could clearly see the buildings outside them. Since it was winter, it had gotten dark ages ago, and the boys were pretty much used to spending a third of their day at nighttime.

"It's past 9. No way we're finding any room for tonight, huh?" – Ben asked.

"Yeah. Well, you know what that means."

"We crank the heat up in the car to the max and pray the battery doesn't give?" – Ben asked him.

"No. Well, yeah, but I was talking about how it means we don't have anywhere to hurry to, or anything to worry about. For tonight, we aren't attached to absolutely anything." – Steven told him. It actually felt kind of liberating.

"I don't think having a hotel reservation is really that big of an attachment." – Ben shrugged.

"Of course it's not a big deal for you, I'm the one that always has to worry about it." – Steven commented. "But tonight, it's just us and the Dondai. And hopefully, the snow."

"Yeah, the snow." – Ben repeated as he looked up through the car's windshield. "Any moment now…"

"We are in the right town, right?" – Steven asked him to make sure.

"Yeah, yeah, I double-checked it." – Ben answered. Despite that, it didn't seem like there was a single cloud in the sky, and the hopes of a snowy New Year's Eve were waning. Ben checked the phone again.

"Oh." – he said. Steven turned his head. That "oh" couldn't have been good. "They updated the forecast. Apparently, the chance of it snowing has plummeted down... to zero." – Ben told him.

"Oh." – Steven repeated. "Oh" was right. He really had been looking forward to watching it snow.

"I can find another town." – Ben said as he started typing in the search bar, but Steven stopped him.

"Don't bother. We probably won't make it in time this late." – he said disappointedly.

Ben looked at him for a moment, then shook his head. "You know what, screw it." – he said as he activated the Omnitrix.

"What are you doing?" – Steven asked him.

"You want snow? We'll get you snow." – he confidently said as he slammed down the dial and turned into a blue mothman-like alien.

"Big Chill? What are you gonna-" – Steven was about to ask, but Ben had already phased through the car and flown into the air. After a couple minutes, he returned and got back into his seat, in human form.

"What did you do?" – Steven asked him.

"I had Big Chill draw up a big snowy cloud." – Ben explained. "It's not exactly a really useful power for fighting since it's gonna take maybe an hour or two to start, but, well, the change in weather should be enough to grant you your New Year's wish." – Ben assured him.

"Wow. You'd do this for me?" – Steven asked him. "Thanks."

"Course I would. Why wouldn't I?" – Ben casually asked. "Oh, we should probably check out the town. It looked pretty from up above. Maybe we should take a walk around."

"Alright." – Steven agreed as they both got out of the parked car.

They looked around. The town was small, but cozy. It seemed like the tallest building around could only boast five floors. Not exactly Bellwood. And not too small like Beach City, either. You could call it a best of both worlds. It also seemed like the town was practically deserted – even though the streets were glowing with golden light coming from the lampposts, try as they might to warm the view on this particularly cold night, the outdoors seemed to be deserted.

"Guess everyone's enjoying the new year inside. With their families." – Steven commented.

"Everyone, but the two of us. Could be worse." – Ben noted.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, you could be somewhere in space or something, traversing the ruins at a desolate moon… or even in the Null Void… or in the middle of a firefight at Space No Man's Land. Hey, does that make it No Man's Space?" – Ben rambled on.

"Yeah, true. It could be worse. And it could be better. But it is what it is." – Steven agreed.

"Well?" – Ben asked him.

"Well, what?"

"Are you happy with how things are?"

"Sure, why not. Spending the New Year with a good friend. What else could you ask for?"

"No, I mean, in general. Like, your road trip. You wanted to go on and discover yourself, right?" – Ben clarified. "It's been a week. How is this "yourself" feeling right now?"

"Hey, well, as you said. Things could be worse." – Steven told him.

"But they could be better." – Ben commented.

"True, true. I mean, this is certainly not how I imagined it." – Steven told him.

"Oh yeah? And how was that?"

"Well, I don't know, going around the States alone, on my own, sank deep in my troubled thoughts with nothing but maybe a good stranger on the road to talk to, besides the occasional phone call. And I'd wallow in my loneliness until it forced me to reach some sort of breakthrough on what life was, or something. Or maybe I'd pick up a hitchhiker that would end up having this incredible story to tell with whom I'd have a life-changing soul-to-soul conversation with, only to never see them again…" – Steven went on and on in his fantasy. Ben laughed.

"Life-changing soul-to-soul conversation, huh?" – he said and chuckled again. "Well, you can consider me your prolonged hitchhiker. With tenure." – he said with a grin.

"Hopefully without the never to see them again part." – Steven commented.

"So what is this loneliness that you're bothered by?" – Ben asked him. "I mean, you're always surrounded by your friends, aren't you?"

"True, but…" – Steven hesitated. "There's being surrounded by people… and then there's being understood by them. You know, none of the other Gems had to go through what I went through… I mean, Garnet and Amethyst felt betrayed by Rose, just like I did, but unlike them, Rose is kinda, well, literally a part of who I am, and the whole thing shook the entirety of my being. Being lied to by a friend is one thing, but being lied to by what you considered yourself? That's… a whole other story entirely. And on top of that, I have this responsibility to fix Rose's, Pink's, whatever she would have wanted to call herself, wrongs. Not just on the Earth, but, like, everywhere in the galaxy. There's over a hundred gem colonies with sentient life. I went on the Extranet and counted them all. One hundred and four. We've been to one, and you saw what it was like there."

"You don't have to remind me." – Ben commented as he remembered his Hardlight transformation.

"And all of them fall on me." – Steven sighed.

"But you know you don't have to be the one to do that, right?" – Ben tried to cheer him up. "I mean, you've said it yourself that your therapist told you, and you agree about it."

"I know I shouldn't, but just thinking about all those planets, how could I not?" – Steven told him.

"Heh. Pathological messiah's complex." – Ben smirked.

"Oh, really?" – Steven asked him. "It's your turn, now. You know, Ben, you never told me. Why do you do the things that you do? I mean, you never inherited anything to finish, any wrongs that need to be righted. So you have to have the messiah's complex too, right?"

"Well, yeah, I guess." – Ben sheepishly answered. "You're right that I don't have the whole sins of the father thing going for me that you do – well, sins of the mother in your case – but that doesn't make me want to go out there and save people any less."

"And why is that?" – Steven asked him, already expecting what his answer would be.

"Well, you know why. It's just the right thing to do. Are you telling me that if your mom hadn't been a war criminal or whatever, you'd just be like "Eh, I don't really have to save anyone, I'll just play videogames all day instead", would you?" – Ben hypothesized.

"I suppose I wouldn't." – Steven answered.

"Well, there you have it. Some people do these things simply because it's the right thing to do. Not to save themselves, or to have a cheap thrill, or out of a guilty conscience… Although, I do feel guilty about taking the Omnitrix for all those years. I mean, with me not around, so much happened across the Earth… I could have done something during the Nanite Event, or, or, when the ocean disappeared… lucky you were on the scene that time. But I don't think it's guilt that drives us to be heroes." – Ben concluded. "It's something else entirely." – he added. "Brrrrgh. It's gotten a bit chilly."

"Yeah, it's gotten Big Chilly." – Steven told him with a playful smirk.

"Oh, don't you start with that. But, yeah, it is cold. Wish I had brought something warmer." – Ben said as he put the hood of his signature jacket on.

"At least yours has a hood." – Steven noted.

"I thought you packed your clothes? The entire backseat is packed with your junk. Didn't you bring a winter coat?" – Ben asked him.

"Well, I did, I just didn't want to put it on me with you freezing here."

"Why not?"

"Solidarity. If we're gonna suffer, we suffer together."

The two of them laughed as they wandered on along the town's street.

"Should we get back to the car?" – Ben suggested.

"Nah, we can keep going. It's gonna start snowing any minute now. And I don't wanna be in the car to miss it."

They chose to sit down on a bench. They sat there for a while, observing the neighborhood in silence. The only person out on the streets besides them was a mother walking a baby carriage. They wondered why might someone be out this late on New Year's Eve instead of spending time with the family. But besides that, the place might as well have been abandoned. Though, that wasn't really the case, as almost every building had the lights lit, and you could even hear people having fun in each other's company. The apartment complex in front of them, for instance, was decked out with Christmas lights – except, almost none of them were matching. One balcony had a frame of red and green around it, another had horizontal stripes with white light hanging over, with every other bulb glowing in alteration, the one next to them had a series of red, green and blue ones… and the ones that did match, and supposedly have coordination between them, didn't even glow in sync. Rather, they were changing colors discordantly from each other. This optical cacophony might have induced headaches, or epilepsy in some, but here, now, it felt like a celebration of everyone's holiday spirit, capturing a nostalgia that they never knew they had missed.

"So… how long are you planning on going on this trip, exactly?" – Ben finally said something.

"I never really made plans for that. Could be a few months…"

"Yeah, but, are you seriously telling me that there's a possibility you're still gonna be out on the road by next New Year's Eve?"

"I suppose not. But for now, I have a lot to think about. And the road becomes my guide."

"You're so melodramatic sometimes." – Ben laughed.

"Am not."

"Come on. Like, what is it that you have to think about so much? Oh, apathy is me, for I am, Steven the unforgiven…" – Ben jested.

"Well, this attention the media has been giving me, for one." – Steven told him.

"I told you not to worry about that. They'll move on soon enough."

"No, it's not that. It's just… every time they talk about me, they call me the newest breakout superhero, or whatever… and I just, don't even know. What does that even mean? The term. "Superhero". What do you think it means when you call yourself that?"

"I mean, that's pretty broad. A superhero is someone that fights bad guys and saves people, I guess. They can have a sidekick, or a team, and a cool lair… and cool catchphrases like "It's Hero Time!"…" – Ben rambled on.

"Yeah, you lost me there." – Steven commented. "Let's just keep it to the first two, like you said, fights bad guys and saves people. I mean, I guess I do that, but I don't do that because I'm a superhero, I do that because I'm Steven, you know? So I just… don't really feel comfortable with the label, is all."

"Yeah, I've had experience with bad labels." – Ben mentioned.

"So have I. People called me Rose Quartz for so long that I started believing them, and at one point even thought it would be for the best if I went to Homeworld to be tried for her crimes… sounds really stupid in retrospect, though. But these things just get to you!"

"Well, what does it matter, anyway, what people like Will Harangue say? If I cared about that, I would have quit a long time ago. You really shouldn't care so much what other people say about you."

"You really are a glass half-full guy, aren't you?" – Steven looked at Ben.

"And you're a "the glass is about to break" kinda guy." – Ben jokingly retorted, but it was not as if the statement didn't hold any merit.

At that point, the two of them heard a yell, and they saw the baby carriage they had seen earlier rolling downhill, with the mother running after it, but it was rolling faster than the woman could catch up. In the blink of an eye, both Ben and Steven stood up and ran towards the carriage, but before Ben could even slam down on the Omnitrix, a flash of pink light blinded him and before he knew it, Steven had already caught the carriage, safe and sound. The mother ran up to him.

"I… I don't know what to say, you're a lifesaver! I mean, I didn't expect it to get so slippery so soon, and I fell and I just… Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you! You're a hero!" – the woman thanked Steven while shaking his hand relentlessly. All Steven could do was shyly mutter that it wasn't that big of a deal.

Ben caught up with them, though, he chose not to point out Steven's brief flash of pink.

"Is everything okay?" – he asked while he ran up.

"Yes, it is now, thank you again. I really wish there was a way for me to express my gratitude properly, but…" – the woman looked down, having nothing to offer. Steven looked at her and noticed her meager, worn-out clothes, and it was suddenly clear to him why wasn't she was out here all on her own, and not, say, with the baby's father.

"You don't do have anything for us." – Steven assured her. "But please, if there's anything else that we can do for you, don't be afraid to ask. We're up for anything." – he empathetically told her.

"I… you boys are really sweet, and you saved my baby's life. He's everything I got, so what else could I possibly ask from you?" – the woman declined.

"Please, if nothing else, at least you can take this gift from me." – Steven told her and handed her a hundred dollar bill. The woman shook her head frantically, tears in her eyes, but Steven pushed it into her hands and backed off. "Have a happy New Year's Eve!" – he told her. Ben looked at the single mother, and not being able to think of anything appropriate to say, just gave her an encouraging nod, then followed Steven.

"Well?" – Ben asked him.

"Well, what?"

"You didn't mind her calling you a hero."

"There's "hero" and then there's "superhero". There's sort of a… stigma with the latter word, as far as I noticed."

"Well, whichever you are, you did good." – Ben said as he put his hand on Steven's shoulder. Then he looked up. "Holy sh- Steven! Look!" – Ben yelled as he pointed at the sky.

"Huh?"

"Dude, it's snowing! It's been snowing all this time!" – Ben yelled.

"OH!" – Steven yelled in shock. It had, in fact, been snowing ever since Ben and Steven were talking on the bench, the duo was just too caught up in the conversation to notice.

"So that's why she said she slipped and lost the carriage!" – Steven realized. "Oh. You know, that means it would have been our fault. We're the ones that made it snow." – he sheepishly said.

"If you're gonna cause and effect the whole thing, you might as well blame everything that's ever happened to you on yourself. And I'm been told that you've been there done that already. So, you should really stop." – Ben tried to reassure him.

"I hope nothing else bad happens because of our wish… gee, it was kinda selfish…" – Steven muttered.

Ben shook his head. There was no getting through to this guy. He did the only thing he could think of to distract him – bent down and rolled a snowball, then tossed it at Steven's face.

"Hey!" – Steven protested.

Without a word, Ben tossed another one.

"Oh, so that's how it is, huh?" – Steven challengingly asked as he threw one himself. Ben rolled to the side to dodge. Back, forth, back, forth. The snowball fight got so heated that at one point Steven accidentally triggered his shield to protect him.

"Oh, so we're using powers, now?" – Ben dissatisfiedly yelled. "You should have said so from the beginning!" – he added as he slammed down the Omnitrix. The snowy night brightened up in a flash of green light, which got faintly reflected in all the snow around them, and out came… Rath?

"LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, STEVEN QUARTZ "CUTIE PIE" DEMAYO DIAMOND UNIVERSE!" – Rath roared in rage. "DO YOU WISH TO DIE? BECAUSE YOU ARE. PICKING A SNOWBALL FIGHT WITH RATH IS LIKE CHALLENGING THE DEVIL HIMSE-" – before Rath was able to finish, Steven landed a bold throw straight into his open, spit-spewing mouth. This caused Rath to get knocked back a few steps in surprise, and in fact, slide down the slope they were standing on before Rath managed to even his footing. Steven looked at the ground, which was at this point, covered in snow, and hatched a plan. He formed a bubble around him and started rolling it towards Rath.

"LISTEN HERE, YOU-" – Rath started again, but got hit by Steven's bubble, which at this point had snowballed into a massive snow sphere. The two of them rolled all the way down to the floor until they hit a tree, and Steven popped his bubble, also getting covered by the snow.

"Ungh… you're gonna have to fake your death if you want to escape Rath…" – Rath dizzily mumbled as he stuck his head out from beneath the snow, but a big lump of snow that had been on the tree's leaves fell on top of his head, covering it again. After that, both Steven and Ben (already detransformed) stood up, shrugging the snow off and laughing about it, though freezing to death.

"I think I realize what the heck Ultimate Big Chill's "ice so cold it burns" meant." – Ben noted to himself. "I probably went overkill with it. It's not like I get to practice that ability…"

"R-ready to head back to the c-car?" – Steven asked him while shivering, his teeth clacking so hard that it would make any jackhammer jealous.

"Hold on…" – Ben said as he slammed down the Omnitrix dial again. "Yeah." – Heatblast answered him.

And so, Steven and Heatblast walked back to Steven's car, each of Ben's steps melting the snow in a wide area around his footsteps, and with Steven holding his hands out towards Heatblast to try and thaw them out.

"Hey, Ben?"

"Yeah?" – Heatblast responded.

"Thanks for the snow."

"It wasn't a problem."

As the duo got back into the car, Steven frantically lit the engine and activated the heater to the max. Though, it would take a bit of time for the heater to warm up, and even more for Ben and Steven's practically frozen skin to thaw out.

"You know, it might warm up faster if we drive." – Ben suggested.

"Okay. Where do you wanna drive to? And if you say shop for snacks again, Ben, I swear to god…"

"No, I'm way past that. I saw a hill overlooking the town when I was Big Chill. Might make for a nice view."

"Sure. Lead the way."

Ben's assumption was right. They hadn't even arrived at the hill yet and they were already warmer. And so, as they arrived to the lookout point, there was no big reason to keep the car running.

"You were right. The view is pretty nice."

They overlooked the small town from high up above, its lights glistening in what was at this point turning into a snowstorm.

"So, what do you think the year's got in store for us?" – Ben made small talk.

"Honestly? I don't know. I mean, for a while, I thought that dismantling the Diamond Authority was all that I needed to do, and everything would be good and everyone would be living in a happily ever after… but, well, that's obviously not the case. There's an entire universe of people out there that are hurting, with or without the Diamonds. I see now that there are no happily ever afters." – Steven contemplated.

"Yeah." – Ben sighed. "I know what you mean. You take care of one threat, and another one pops up. I mean, how many times did I catch Animo this year alone, and now suddenly he's built himself a ship and started conquering other planets? How am I supposed to keep up with that? And it's not just the small fries like Animo, either. There's always some big impending doom threatening peace, you know? Like, yeah, you stopped the Diamonds, but since Cluster was pacified and the Diamonds dismantled their armies, the Highbreed used that as an opportunity to start their own secret operations on Earth… Sometimes I feel like they're cockroaches, you know? Just keep coming back… and I find myself wondering, is it even worth it?" – Ben looked at Steven for advice.

"Hey, you like helping people. I like helping people. This is our chance to do it." – Steven reassured him. "I mean, there's nothing worth more than love and peace in the universe, but even if we only manage to do it a little bit, it'll still be worth it."

"Yeah. You know what, you're right." – Ben nodded.

You know, for a while I was even worried that everything was fine forever and there was nothing to fix anymore, that was even a part of my breakdown that time… but I see how stupid I was when I thought that. There's always something to fix in this universe."

"A superhero's… or a Steven's job is never done." – Ben nodded. "Still. We can hope that things will be better than they were before."

And they sat there in silence, watching the snowflakes fly around in a frenzy, eventually gathering up on the Dondai's windshield.

Without saying anything else, Steven reached for the glove compartment in front of Ben and took out the Kerry Moonbeam CD that he was keeping in there. He had been… avoiding this emotional baggage brick that he had been keeping there, but it felt like a good time to listen to it. He put it in the CD slot right above the cassette tape slot and it started playing.

"Looking for your place in the universe…

Don't you know the universe is looking too…

…looking for its place in you…"

"Let's hope that this is the year where the Earth suffers no alien invasions. I mean, this world is a pretty amazing place." – Ben told Steven as the song played on. "Maybe it will finally find its place in the universe."

"And maybe the universe will find its place in the Earth." – Steven continued, calling back to the song.

"Oh!" – Ben yelled.

"Oh?" – Steven questioned.

"All this music, and I totally forgot." – Ben facepalmed his forehead. "I got you a gift!"

"You did?" – Steven was surprised. His first thought was that he was being a burden and Ben didn't have to get him a gift, but he brushed it off immediately.

"Yeah, a New Year's Gift. Hold on." – Ben told him as he got out of the car and opened the trunk. Steven looked back from his front seat to see what Ben was doing. Ben took something out and ran back into the car, shuddering.

"I forgot how cold it is out there. But here, this is what I got you." – he said as he handed Steven a large, guitar-shaped object. It was, in fact, a guitar case with an actual acoustic guitar in it. It looked brand new. Probably the newest Steven had ever seen a guitar, as all of Greg's instruments were worn out for decades.

"I, uh… wow!" – Steven said in shock. "When did you even manage to get this?!"

"You know how I complained until you stopped the car at a gas station and let me shop for snacks earlier this morning? Well, when I went to the bathroom, I sneaked off as XLR8 and ran into the last town we had been to because I saw a music shop in there. I did notice how you didn't bring any instruments at all with you, which is weird, because you love music, and I know you had one of those Hawaiian mini-guitars…"

"An ukulele." – Steven corrected him.

"Yeah, an ukulele. But, well, since you didn't bring it to you, I figured you'd need something like it to keep your creative flow going, you know?" – Ben told him.

"Whoa. That's awesome, man."

"Yeah, that's my New Year's gift for you."

"Well, it makes me feel bad I didn't get you anything…" – Steven admitted in guilt.

"Don't worry. You did plan an amazing birthday party with all my friends just a few days ago, even if we did end up missing it…" – Ben reassured him.

And then the fireworks started flying.

"Happy New Year's, Steven."

"Happy New Year's, Ben."

"Oh, come on!"

"You gotta do it."

"But I don't wanna!"

"Well, I'm not gonna stop until you do."

"I should have known what I signed up for when I got you that guitar. Okay, fine. But I'm not a singer, I can't just make up songs on the fly like you do constantly!"

"It's okay. You can just follow along. Come on!

We're on the road, leaving our homes and towns to go explore the world…

We're on the road, this is an adventure where we'll never be bored…

We're on the road, and any bad guys should just get right out of sight…

We're on the road, cause Ben and Steven are guys you don't wanna fight… It's easy! Now you try singing! Go on, I'll sing the "we're on the road part" for you.

We're on the road…"

"The whole entire universe out there for us to see…"

"We're on the road…"

"All corners of the world awaiting you and me…"

"We're on the road…"

"And there's nothing that me and you can't fix…"

"We're on the road…"

"And those who try to stop us are just a bag of… Um… Yeah, I probably shouldn't finish that. That ended up being the only lyric I could think of."

"Hahahahahahahaha!" – they both laughed as the Dondai trailed across the countryside.

Well, I promised the chapter by new year's, but, uh, here it is... January 30th...

I'll explain. I wanted a chapter for Ben's birthday that would release the same day as Ben's actual birthday, December 27th. And then I wanted a New Year's Eve chapter for New Year's Eve, which ended up being 4 days apart... So I figured that the Hardlight chapter would be the official chapter of the month and the holiday one would be a special addition, like a Christmas special. Or a comic book annual... And it's not that I couldn't write a chapter in 4 days, I've done it in shorter times, but it's just that I took a long look at the whole thing and decided that whenever I write chapters in such short amounts of time I end up rushing things and the product is not as good as it could be. And that's why I decided to stick with my once-a-month schedule and just decided to have this be the January chapter. So, sorry for promising and not delivering. At least it's a bit longer than the usual chapter to make up for it, though.

And the chapter itself, well, I really wanted to do one where Ben and Steven have an open talk about... lots of things, not really overshadowed by a villain or team-up of the month, you know? Just get into the holiday spirit of things. And I guess me describing the holiday scenery was an attempt on my part to recapture the nostalgia I used to feel about it... kinda like Steven with the snow.

I also wanted to incorporate Steven's songs into the story, but, well, I'm not a songwriter or a musician and even if I was, it's not exactly easy to write a song in a written medium, so I reused Steven and Amethyst's "On the Run" from the show and changed it to "On the Road." At least you'll know what the tune and melody is supposed to be. And there's also a small reference to "Peace and Love" in and around the chapter, another song where Steven encouraged someone to sing along.

I might go back and edit/update old chapters. Nothing too drastic, just change up dialogue or prose or whatever in places where I feel it's lacking.