Steven sighed deeply as he stared down at his phone, his mind a complete blank as he tried for what was likely the millionth time to think of a way of explaining to Connie the earth shattering sequence of events that had occurred last night. It was early morning, as Steven sat alone on in the middle of the beach, which was still littered with the wreckage of Black Onyx's spaceship which had crashed the previous night. After Onyx and Pearl escaped, Steven and the Crystal Gems decided to return home, accompanied by Garnet who had nowhere else to go now that she had betrayed Homeworld.
They had a brief discussion on what to do next. The obvious thing that needed to be done was to start cleaning up all the damages from battle, but first thing the Crystal Gems insisted that Steven should do was to go straight to bed and get some sleep first, so that they could start fresh the next day. Although he was admittedly pretty exhausted, Steven barely managed to get any proper rest due to how much was on his mind and the fact that there were only a few hours left before sunrise anyway.
Now that it was bright again, Steven had spent the better part of the morning trying to think of a response to Connie who had been texting and ringing him nonstop since last night, trying to inquire as to what was happening. The problem was that Steven had no idea what to tell her. He had already spoken to father, Greg, about the recent event, giving him a brief description of what happened. Much to Steven's surprise and concern, Greg did not handle the news very well, having retreated to his sanctuary of his van to find the most comforting music to calm himself.
That particular exchange did give Steven any boots of confidence. If his father, the most laid-back Steven knew, would react like that, he could only imagine what Connie would say. She'd be terrified once she learned what had happened. And that wasn't even the worst of it. Onyx and Pearl were still out there. What if they came back? Or worse, what if more Homeworld Gems showed up? What was Steven going to do then? What if Connie got hurt? Steven shuddered, as he couldn't even begin to imagine that.
It was then, the phone started to vibrate again, Connie's name flashing across the screen. Panicking Steven, set the phone down to the sand and plugged his fingers into his ears, refusing to listen to the ringing until it had stopped. Pulling his fingers out from his ears, Steven groaned wearily as he lay back on the sand, staring up the clouds, knowing that he could not avoid talking to Connie forever.
"What am I supposed to do?"
Just then, Steven heard a voice nearby. At first, he assumed it was one of the Gems coming to check up on him, but he soon realized that the voice was male, and it was not one that he recognized.
Curious, Steven rose up and turning his head around until he spotted to see a young boy, looking not much bigger than Steven, come walking out from around a large piece of the ship. The boy was wearing a small grey jacket with a satchel bag and strap hung over his shoulder. His skin tone was a slightly darker complexion than Steven's own, like someone who was tanned, yet it appeared to be a natural color. His hair was a light brown and was short cut very short, particularly along the sides
In his hands, he was holding a video camera, which was aimed down at a small blue crab scuttling across the along the sand, either oblivious or indifferent to the fact the young boy was filming it. While filming, the boy was also providing narration to the crab as it moved in front of him.
"The stalwart crab treks through the unforgiving wasteland of sand. Always he moves sideways. Perhaps a natural way of evading predators? Or perhaps he is simply too afraid to move forward? He neither runs from the past nor blindly charges toward the future. There is only the present, going from side to side. "
The boy spoke with an almost orator-eques voice, though it came as a rather high-pitched as though he was unpractised. The crab then came to abrupt halt, forcing the young boy to do the same, his camera still focused on the tiny crustacean at all times, unaware that Steven was watching as well.
"Suddenly the crab stops. Has he reached the evitable crossroads of his arduous journey? He tethers, he hesitates, as he ponders his next move. All paths are open for him, but only one may lead to his ultimate destiny"
From behind a nearby rock, a second blue crab appeared. It turned to face the first crab, before waving its large pincer in some kind of greeting. The first seemed to hesitate before it retuned the gesture with a wave of its own. The two crabs scuttled closer together, until they were standing opposite each other.
"A second crab appears. What now? Will these two crustacean titans clash for dominion over this land? Will they unite to build a better beach than the one they have found? Or will they simply pass one another by, never knowing what might have been if they had simply chosen to –"
The boy was so caught up his privately constructed narrative that he failed to notice that Steven was now standing just a few feet in front of him and leaving him unprepared when he raised his camera upward, seeing him for the very first time. The boy yelped at this sudden surprise, startled as he stumbled backwards, his camera now bouncing between his hands as he clumsily tried to gain hold of it, until he tripped over his own feet and fell back to the ground, the camera flying through the air, landing right into Steven's hands.
"Um, hi" Steven greeted, waving down at the boy, while holding his camera.
"Hello" the boy replied back, managing a small smile, although he appeared far more flushed. "How, um…. how long were you listening?"
"Pretty much all of it" Steven said, handing the boy back his camera.
The boy sighed, a slight blush appearing across his cheeks as he glanced down to the ground, avoiding Steven's eye. "Yeah, that's usually my luck. I must have sounded really stupid" he said, quietly, taking the camera back from Steven.
"What? No, I thought it sounded pretty cool." Steven said with sincere earnest. He offered the boy his hand, and after a brief moment of hesitation, the boy accepted, allowing Steven to help him back to his feet. "Were you making a documentary?"
"Um, no, I just…like to film stuff, sometimes…when I'm alone". The boy sighed again, rubbing the back of his head, now looking quite embarrassed. "I'm sorry if I was disturbing you, I thought this beach was empty"
"Oh no, that's ok" Steven said quickly, not wanting to give the wrong impression. "The beach is for everyone, but I didn't think anyone was back in town yet". Steven gave a boy another quick once over, now doubly sure that he had never met this person before. "I haven't seen you around here before. Are you a tourist?"
"I'm new in this area actually" the boy replied, the colour in his cheeks now fading. "My Mom and I just moved near here today. We were supposed to move in yesterday, but we were told that everybody had to evacuate because of a tidal wave. Or because aliens were invading? No one seems to keep the story straight"
"Oh, well then, welcome to Beach City!" Steven said, opening out his arms, knowing at once he had to make a good impression for a new arrival. "I'm Steven. Steven Universe."
Steven extended his hand out for the boy to shake. Just as before, the boy seemed to hesitate for a moment, before he returned the handshake.
"I'm Abel" he said.
"Abel for what?" Steven asked.
The boy sighed and rolled his eyes, with an amused yet slightly exasperated look on his face. "Ok, we gotta get that joke out of the way. My name is Abel. Abel Xenakis. But people just call me Abe for short"
"Well, nice to meet you, Abe Xenakis. How do you like Beach City so far?"
"It's pretty nice" Abe said. "The travel brochure said it's got the best beaches in all of Delmarva. But it does seem a little, um…cluttered?" he said after a short pause, likely having tried hard to come up with the politest term that he could think of to describe the current state of the town.
Steven gave an apologetic smile, realizing that the town was certainly not up to its usual standards due to the recent Gem activity. "Sorry. Beach City isn't normally like this. There was just a… commotion yesterday" Steven said, choosing the least exciting term that he could think of to describe what happened.
Abe glanced around the beach, as if only now taking notice of the enormous mountains of broken metal and alien machinery that surrounded them.
"Soooooo….what's all this about?" he asked, trying to sound casual as he made a encompassing gesture with his hand. "It looks like something pretty crazy must have happened here"
"Yeah….pretty crazy alright" Steven muttered awkwardly under his breath, while unconsciously moving his hand up to his right eye. This action didn't go unnoticed by Abe who was now looking more closely at Steven's eye.
"That looks like a pretty bad black eye" he said, curious, though not unsympathetic. "Were you in a fight or something?"
"Well….I…"
At that moment, Steven's phone, which he was still holding in his left hand, suddenly started to ring. Reacting as though he had just been bitten by a snake, Steven yelled loudly and tossed the phone in the air, where it was swiftly caught by Abe. No sooner had the phone left his hand, Steven threw up a large pink bubble around his body, shielding him from any form of attack.
Abe showed no signs of surprise at what had just occurred, other than to give a somewhat bemused glance between the still ringing phone and the pink bubble encasing the terrified looking Steven. Once the phone stopped ringing, Steven slowly lowered the bubble, yet he appeared no less tense than before.
"I'm…. guessing you don't want to take this call?" Abe said awkwardly, handing Steven back the phone.
Steven sighed, feeling embarrassed with himself for reacting like that in front of Abe. "Sorry, it's just, it's my friend Connie. She keeps trying to call me"
"Is she mad at you?" Abe asked, clearly confused.
Steven shook his head. "No, she's calling because…well…" Steven groaned and rubbed his hand through his hair, feeling sore in his head and sick in his stomach. "She wants to talk to me, and I'm trying to work how to tell her about all this really crazy, bad stuff that happened to me. But I don't know what to say to her without making her worry. I told my Dad about it earlier and he completely freaked out"
"Maybe your Dad was just overreacting?" Abe suggested, a little feebly. "It couldn't have been that bad"
"It was pretty bad" Steven said, with a painful expression.
Abe slowly glanced around at the beach once again, and then back to Steven. "Bad as in getting a black eye, or bad as in….all of this kind of bad?" he said, gesturing to the debris again.
"All of this" Steven confirmed quietly, nodding his head.
"Yikes" Abe grimaced slightly. "Is that why you were alone?"
Steven nodded again, before sinking down to the sand, hugging his knees around his chest, looking both alone and scared. Abe stared at Steven for a short while, before he sat down beside him, resting his satchel and camera on his lap, now looking more solemn.
"Yeah, I like to be alone when stuff bothers me too" he said.
"You do?" Steven said, looking up at Abe with some surprise.
Abe nodded, absently holding his camera, his attention seemingly divided. "Sometimes when things really get to me, I find the best thing to do is to take some time for myself. I try to sort out my feelings on my own without getting people involved."
"Does that…help?" Steven asked.
Abe shrugged slightly as he continued to fiddle with his camera, without looking at Steven. "A little. It feels a little easier when you aren't making your problems other people's problems. Then it's twice as hard. Sometimes you just have to work things out on your own."
"You mean, you shut other people out?" Steven said, with a grim realization. "You stop being friends with them?"
"Huh?" Abe looked up at Steven, now giving him his full attention. "No, no, you should definitely still stay friends. What I mean, ah…" Abe seemed to struggle with his words for a moment before he continued, obviously not wanting the meaning of his words to be mistaken. "Sometimes, you just have to avoid bringing up anything bad when you talk to people. If I have to talk people about any negative stuff, I just say what I need to say to let them know that I'm fine and they shouldn't be worried"
"How do you that?" Steven asked.
"What do you mean?" Abe looked at Steven with some surprise, as though he wasn't expecting Steven to ask him such a question.
"How do you tell someone what's wrong without them getting worried about you?"
"Oh, I…well I….just, um you know what, forget I said anything" Abe said, quickly, looking down at the sand once again. "It's probably not helpful
"No, really I want to hear" Steven said, shifting his position so that he was now sitting on his heels, his hands resting on his knees as he looked directly at Abe.
"W-why are you asking?" Abe said.
"Because I want to know what you do"
"But…why are you asking me what to do?" Abe asked, confused. "We only just met"
"Why would that matter?" Steven replied, matching Abe's confusion.
Abe now began to fidget nervously, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, I don't know…I mean, wouldn't you rather get advice from one of your friends instead?"
Steven paused for a moment as he considered Abe's statement, before asking his next question without any hint of hesitation.
"Would you like to be friends with me?"
Abe blinked once, looking as though Steven had just asked to cut off one of his arms. "Friends? Y-you want to be friends with me? Just like that?
"Yeah" Steven smiled and nodded
"D-don't you need to know more about me first?" Abe said, now sounding like he had just been offered a highly important job that he was vastly unqualified for. "Or don't we have to do something really memorable together to cement the occasion?"
Steven chuckled a little. "Making friends is actually a lot less complicated than you'd think" he said, as he couldn't help but think fondly back to the time when he and Connie first met. "You really just need to start talking to them. You said that you liked be alone when things bother you, so maybe we can be there for each?"
"So….you really want to be friends?" Abe asked, quietly, sounding as though he really couldn't believe it.
Steven simply smiled back and nodded in confirmation. "As long as it's ok with you. Nobody is forcing you to-"
"Yes!" Abe exclaimed his answer so loud and so quickly that Steven nearly jumped from the sand in surprise. Abe calmed himself and spoke again with the same passive and quiet tone as before. "I mean, yeah, I would like to be friends with you"
Steven smiled again. Seeing the ecstatic expression that Abe was trying to hide gave Steven a very good feeling inside, a feeling he made been missing for the last while. But now back to the matter at hand. "So, now that we're friends, do you want to tell me what you think?"
Abe quickly adopted a more serious expression, seeing that he was now being put to the test. "Oh, right. Let's see. So, you don't want to ignore your friend and you don't want to tell her anything, so she won't be worried. So, my advice would be to talk to her, but avoid talking about anything you think might upset her"
"Does that work?" Steven asked, trying to come off as too sceptical.
"Yeah, it works" Abe replied simply. "It's easy. When she asks you something, just give a vague or non-committal answer. Something simple, like, 'I'm fine' or 'it was no big deal'"
"That kinda sounds like… lying?" Steven said, slowly.
"Don't think of it was lying, you're just not giving away that much detail" Abe said, unconcerned. "Just leave out all the bad parts and say that everything is ok now"
"But everything's… not ok" Steven said quietly.
Abe sighed, flashing a brief expression of frustration across his face. "Look sometimes bad things happen and people always want to kick up a fuss, and they start worrying about you every second of the day." Abe's voice gradually rose with more energy as he spoke, before lowering itself, his tone becoming passive once again. "Whatever it was, its best just to forget about the whole thing and tell everyone that you're fine now, so there's no need to prod further. I mean, it's easier than just bringing up all those unpleasant thoughts"
Steven went quiet for a moment, considering what he had just heard. At first, what Abe was proposing sounded a little dishonest to Steven, but the more he thought about it, the more the idea seemed to appeal to him. He couldn't change what had happened, but it was all in the past now, no matter how unpleasant the whole experience was. In fact, if it was such a bad experience, then that would be even more reason not to bring it up in conversation.
"You're right" Steven said, quietly, before his face broke into wide smile and threw his hands up. "You're right! I should just forget the whole thing! It's all over now and I made it through….more or less. I don't need to be bothering Connie with all that bad stuff."
Steven happy expression then dropped again. "But she'll still want to know what happened. What should I say if she asks me something?"
"Remember, you just have to give as little detail as possible while keeping her feeling assured. Let's try to practice for a second. For example, how did you get that black eye?"
Steven touched the skin underneath his eye, vividly recalling how it happened. "Well, there was this big fight with this Gem named Black Onyx and…"
"No, no, no" Abe said at once, shaking his head. "That's already too much detail. You have it kept simple. Repeat after me. I hurt my eye….
"I….hurt my eye…" Steven said slowly.
"By doing"
"By doing…?"
"Stuff" Abe finished.
"What stuff?" Steven asked.
"You know, all the stuff that you do all the time" Abe said, waving his hand in a disinterested fashion sounding as though talking about the subject any further would be tedious. Steven stared hard at Abe, trying to piece together the method.
"See, you just have to keep your responses vague and non-committal" Abe said. "So, let's try again. How did you hurt your eye, Steven?"
Steven paused, trying hard to think of how to formulate his response, remembering what Abe said. Vague and non-committal.
"I hurt my eye by doing… stuff" Steven said. He paused. "You know, the stuff that I normally do. I mean, I barely even noticed it until you pointed it out" Steven added with a nonchalant shrug, which was enough to impress Abe
"There you go" he said, sounding pleased. "You're already picking it up at an uncanny, yet believable pace"
Steven was about to ask if they could do another bit of practice, when his phone began to ring once again. Without even checking, he knew that it had to be Connie calling. At first, he considered muting the call again, but then Abe spoke again.
"Don't worry, you got this" he said. "Remember, as little detail as possible"
Still feeling uncertain, Steven took a deep breath and answered the phone.
"Hi…Connie" he said, hesitantly.
"Steven! There you are". Steven winced. Connie already sounded worried. "You haven't been answering your phone. What's going on?"
Steven glanced at Abe, who gave him an encouraging thumbs up.
"Oh, not much" Steven replied, keeping his voice steady and flat. "You know, the usual"
"You said in your message that there was a giant sword in the sky and that we all might die? What happened?"
"Ah, you know, it was nothing really. Just Gem stuff. But it's all over now, so it's no big deal"
"Steven, are you alright? You sound…strange"
"Yeah, I'm fine" Steven replied. He then spoke in a very rapid manner, taking the chance to escape. "So, I gotta go now, Connie, nice talking to you, bye"
"But-!"
Steven quickly hung up the phone. For a moment, he held his breath and closed his eyes, wondering if the phone might just explode into a million pieces in his hand, but soon relaxed again once it was clear nothing bad was about to happen.
"It worked" he whispered. "It worked! I spoke to Connie without mentioning all the bad parts!"
"See, there you go!" Abe complimented.
"Steven!"
Steven turned his head up in the direction of Beach House and could make out the familiar triangle shape figure of Peridot standing at the rafter in the distance, calling down to him. "Steven, come back inside please!"
Knowing this must be something important, Steven rose to his feet and headed toward the Beach House, waving goodbye to Abe as he left. "I gotta go. Thanks so much for the help, Abe!"
"You're welcome" Abe called back. "Hey, um, Steven?"
Steven stopped in the middle of his run and turned around to Abe, who seemed to struggle with his next words.
"Now that we're friends, does that mean we…um, can hang out later?" he asked tentatively, sounding as though the very prospect of him and Steven seeing each again was in doubt. "If that's ok?"
"Sure" Steven replied, earnestly. He then frowned in confusion. "Why wouldn't it be ok?"
"Oh, um, just checking" Abe replied, chuckling nervously. "I like to…double check things"
Accepting that answer with further questions, Steven waved goodbye once more to Abe, before he turned around and made his way toward the Beach House.
Steven entered into the Beach House, where he found Crystal Gems were waiting for him in the living room. Peridot and Lapis where standing next to the window, observing the wreckage of the beach, although Peridot was forced to crane her neck up and stand on her toes in order to get a better view. Steven still hadn't fully acclimated to the idea of Peridot now being just as short as he was.
Jasper was standing in the kitchen, looking more surly than usual, her arms crossed as she leaned back against the counter, staring off to the wall, seemingly detached from the rest activity in the house.
And there was also Garnet, who for lack of anywhere else to be, had joined the Steven and the Crystal Gems in their home. She was sitting on the couch, examining a spork in between her hands as though it was the most fascinating object she had ever seen.
"Steven, good, you're here" Peridot greeted happily.
"We were just talking about how we start cleaning up the debris from the battle" Lapis said.
"We'll have to collect and dispose of any Gem technology before any humans find it" Peridot said. "Speaking from personal experience, they would be liable to hurt themselves playing with such advanced technology"
Though he said nothing, Steven agreed with that sentiment, recalling any number of times when they were put in danger due to some Gem technology or magical artefact.
"It'll be tough, but we'll get it done" Lapis said, sounding a more optimistic and confident. "Right, Jasper?"
Jasper made only a small grunt of acknowledgement, her eyes still focused on the wall, showing no real interest in the discussion.
"Cleaning up the beach will be our first task, but there still many problems that still lie ahead of us" Peridot said. She then paused and cleared her throat in a rather loud fashion. "Which reminds me, what are we going to do about her?"
Everyone, save for Jasper, turned to the elephant, or rather fusion, in the room that had yet to be addressed. Garnet looked up from her spork, her visor covering her eyes, and her overall expression completely blank as she appeared to scan the room.
"Garnet did risk her life to help us against Onyx and Pearl" Lapis said. "And that means she can't go back to Homeworld now"
"Well, I guess there is only one solution" Peridot said, folding her hands behind her back. She approached Garnet, throwing her hands up in the air. "Welcome, new roomie! See, that's a phrase for people sharing living quarters"
Behind Peridot, Lapis expression became uneasy, her earlier self-confidence beginning to falter at this sudden development. "Um, Peridot are you sure that Garnet staying here with us is the best idea?"
"Well, if she can't go back to Homeworld that basically makes her the same as us" Peridot replied with a simple shrug. "What better place is there for her to go?"
"That's true". Lapis sighed, still looking troubled and unsure. "But it might be a little awkward for…her. I mean, we were her enemies"
"Oh, that's all in the past" Peridot said, with a wave of her hand. "We've all grown since then, with special praise going to me in particular. What do you think, Jasper?"
Jasper finally pulled her eyes away from the section wall she had been staring at and she was now glaring darkly at Garnet. The atmosphere in the room turned incredible tense as long moments passed, with Garnet holding Jasper's unwavering stare. For a moment, Steven felt a very strong urge to step out of the room as quickly as possible.
"This isn't going to work" Jasper said, both blunt and cold, turning back to look at the wall again.
"I agree" Peridot said, nodding at once. "We will need to make some ground rules first. For starters, no unnecessary loud gatherings after 10 PM. Secondly, you must label everything in the refrigerator, edible or otherwise. Third, we will need to precure an extra cup for any toothbrushes you may to use…"
"Toothbrushes are not the problem" Jasper growled quietly, with a rising note of impatience in her voice.
Finally seeming to get the message, Peridot cleared her throat and shuffled closer to Jasper, her eyes darting occasionally onto Steven, as though checking if he was still paying attention.
"Steven might want Garnet to stay with us" Peridot muttered through her teeth, lifting her hand to one side of her mouth, in an attempt to be inconspicuous. Steven was not fooled, but he didn't want Peridot to feel discouraged.
Before Peridot or Jasper could say anything else, Garnet rose up from the couch, setting down the spork, speaking for the very first time since Steven had entered.
"No, it's alright" she said calmly. She looked around the room, briefly pausing at each of them as she spoke. "Thank you all for offering to open your home to me, but I don't plan on staying here. Please don't take as an insult either. I do appreciate that you are willing to make this effort to make me feel comfortable. But there are still a lot of things about myself that I need to figure out and I can't do that while I'm here. I'll be needed a lot of me time."
Steven couldn't help but feel a little saddened by Garnet's answer. Despite whatever else had happened, he cared deeply for her and wanted her to be safe and well. But he couldn't disagree with the reasons she had given. She needed the time to work out her own identity without other people getting involved. Steven was reminded of the conversation he had with Abe and felt even more validated in his belief that one should distance their problems from others.
"Well, if that's how you feel" Peridot said, accepting the compromised without grievance. "But you're moderately welcome to visit anytime. Steven will obviously want to keep in touch and-"
"You heard her, she said she needed some me time" Steven said abruptly. Peridot turned to look at Steven in surprise, clearly not expecting such a reaction.
"She doesn't want to make her problems other people's problems, so we should just let her be". Suddenly, Steven's phone began to ring once again, although he seemed to take no notice of it
"Steven, why is your communication device doing that?!" Peridot asked, raising her voice loudly over the noise of the phone.
"Oh, it's nothing. It's just Connie" Steven shouted back.
"Aren't you going to reply to her?" Lapis asked.
Steven shook his head, still appearing as indifferent as ever, just as the phone stopped ringing. "No"
"That's odd" Peridot said curiously. "You never miss an opportunity to engage in conversation with Connie. Has something happened?"
"No, everything's fine. Nothing else to say on that". Adopting a blank expression, Steven then crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall, opposite where Jasper was standing, his posture and demeanour eerily mirroring her own as they both stared off into the same direction. Peridot and Lapis shared an apprehensive look with one another, appearing somewhat concerned for the current wellbeing of their leader and their youthful charge.
After almost another minute of silence, Garnet cleated her throat and walked toward the door, turning back toward Steven just as she gripped the door handle.
"Thank you for understanding and supporting my decision, Steven" she said. "But please remember, what I want to hear from you isn't always what you should say"
Not taking her eyes off Steven, Garnet turned the doorknob with uncanny accuracy and swung the door wide open, revealing none other than Connie standing on other the side of the door, her hand already raised in mid knock.
The moment he laid eyes on Connie, Steven froze up, and for a moment he was quite certain that the floor must have disappeared from under his feet.
Momentarily caught off guard by the surprise opening of the door, Connie quickly recovered herself and rushed past Garnet into house, running right up to Steven.
"Steven! There you are! I was so worried about you and-" Connie suddenly gasped, clasping her hands over her mouth, once she got close to get a good look at Steven's face. "Oh my gosh! What happened to your eye?"
Steven felt a bead of sweat roll down his forehead, but quickly composed himself, resuming the same laid-back expression as before.
"Oh, this? Nothing really" Steven said, sounding nonchalant and distant, absently slipping his hands into his pockets. "Hardly even noticed it was there"
"Nothing?!" Connie said, sounding incredulous. "Steven, what happened to you?
Steven cleared his throat slightly and then made a brief wave of his hand. "Oh, you know, the usual stuff. No big deal really"
Connie gaped at Steven with increasing confusion. "Why do you keep saying? What's gotten into you?"
"Uh…n-nothing?" Steven said, very feebly.
"Steven!" Connie snapped angrily; whatever patience she had left was now completely lost as she glared so fiercely at Steven, filling him with so much terror he almost wished he was facing Black Onyx instead. "Stop playing games and tell me what's going on right now!"
Unable to contain himself any longer, Steven let out a terrified cry and ran straight out the door at full speed, right past Garnet who had yet to move an inch, her hand still on the doorknob
"Steven! Steven, get back here!" Connie yelled, giving chase to him out the door, while Garnet and the Crystal Gems continued to watch impassively as these events unfolded before them. Even Jasper came out of her reprieve to observe what was happening.
"I still don't understand these human relationships" Peridot said, shaking her head solemnly.
"Well, I think Steven did something wrong and now Connie is mad at him for it" Lapis said flatly.
"Oh, now it makes sense" Peridot replied, pleased that she had a better grasp of the situation.
"They'll work it out." Garnet said, adjusting her visor.
"Huh, I kinda like that human" Jasper said, sounding close to impressed with Connie's display of authority. "She's doesn't back down"
Steven panted loudly as he sprinted across the beach, running as fast he could, refusing to look back, although judging by the sound of her voice calling after him, he knew that Connie was not far behind him. Steven made his way into the wreckage still sprawled across the beach, hoping that maybe he could lose Connie in the maze of alien debris.
Hoping over a small metal pipe, Steven made a quick turn, squeezing through a narrow gap between two large metal. Coming out on the other side of the gap, Steven was now standing in a wide enclosure, surrounded on all sides by twisting shards of metal, mechanical components and broken, hollowed out compartments.
Up ahead of him, Steven spotted Abe sitting next to a diamond shaped piece metal sticking out of the ground; his satchel was lying next to him, alongside a small rectangular metal frame, inside of which was a transparent sheet of red glass, partially cracked, with several Gem coded symbols displaying on the surface. Upon Abe's lap was a small laptop computer, opened as he was typing away, while occasionally pausing to take a brief, intuitive glance at the rectangular frame next to him.
Steven ran toward Abe, driven more by instinct than anything else since he was the most familiar looking sight in front of Steven. Abe pulled his eyes up from his computer to see Steven running straight toward him
"Hi Steven!" Abe greeted with a smile, setting his laptop to the side as he stood up. "Did you want to hang out-?"
"It didn't work!" Steven cried desperately, cutting Abe in mid-sentence, leaving him looking both surprised and afraid at Steven's terrified wailing. "It didn't work!"
"Steven!"
Glancing over his shoulder, Steven saw Connie pushing herself through the gap in between the walls of metal, coming straight for him. Steven looked around widely for somewhere to run or hide, but in his blind panic, he opted for the first short-sighted thing he could think and ducked in behind Abe, who stood where he was, neither objecting nor questioning as to what Steven was trying to do.
Keeping his head low, Steven remained behind Abe just as Connie finally reached them, stopping directly in front of Abe.
"Um, hello" Abe said, nervously.
"Hi?" Connie said, sounding both cautious and surprised at the sight of this unexpected stranger.
"You, uh, must be Connie. I'm Abe. I'm Steven's friend.
"Okay" Connie said slowly. "Nice to meet you Abe, but I need to talk to Steven, so…"
Connie made a quick dash to try and circle around Abe to so that she could face Steven properly, but Steven quickly shuffled sideways, while keeping a firm grip on the back of Abe's jacket, pulling him in tandem so that he was still facing Connie whenever she tried to flank around him. Connie soon ran a full circle around Abe, while Steven continued to use Abe as a human shield, keeping him in a fixed position between him and Connie.
"I don't think Steven wants to talk" Abe said, once they finally stopped moving, sounding as if he was fighting the urge to be nauseous from the relentless spinning.
"Well, I do!" Connie said, with as much assertion and concern as ever. "I want to know what's going on? Why won't he face me? What happened to his eye?"
Steven felt a lump form inside his throat fighting so hard against the urge to try and say something that he was practically shaking.
"Um, I think you're upsetting him" Abe said. Steven couldn't see Abe's face, but from the sound of his voice, he soon got the impression that Abe was quickly losing his nerve under Connie's fierce demeanour
"I don't understand, I just wanted to know what's wrong" Connie said, now pleading. Steven shut his eyes tightly as he buried his head into Abe's back, knowing he would break down any second if he saw Connie's face.
"Well, maybe, Steven doesn't want to talk?" Abe suggested. "If you're his friend, maybe you should give him a bit of space?"
"That doesn't make any sense!" Connie snapped, now sounding very angry again. Steven could feel Abe flinch and backed up several feet as Connie moved in closer to him. "What kind of friends don't talk to each other? Steven and I talk all the time, but when we were talking on the phone this morning, he just wouldn't tell me anything. It felt he was trying to shut me out. Like he didn't want to talk to me anymore. I was…"
Connie paused and Steven heard the unmistakable sound of her sniffling; to his horror, he realized that she was on the verge of tears. "I was really upset, because I love talking to him, but now he doesn't want to talk to me. Did I do something? Did I say the wrong thing?"
Steven opened his eyes and lifted his head up over Abe's shoulder and he took in the full view of Connie's tear-stricken face.
"Do you not want to be friends anymore?" she asked. Her lower lip was now quivering. "Was…I a bad friend?"
"No, no!" Steven said, finally stepping out from around Abe, facing her properly. He couldn't allow Connie to think that she of all people had done anything wrong. "I do want to be friends. You didn't do anything wrong"
"Then why wouldn't you talk to me on the phone?" Connie asked, wiping away her tears, now sounding angry once again. "I tried asking you what happened, but you just kept dodging what I said. Why would you do that?"
Steven struggled to find the right words to explain himself. "Connie, I.."
"It was me. "
Steven and Connie both turned to Abe, who was now hanging his head, looking shamefaced, shuffling his feet in sand. He turned his head up and looking directly at Connie. "I'm the one who talked Steven into saying that stuff to you. He said that he was worried about talking to you, so I told him that he shouldn't say anything to worry you."
Connie made a quick look at Steven, before back to Abe again. Neither of them had say anything yet, but Abe appeared as though he was being scolded.
"I thought I was giving good advice. I didn't mean….". Abe closed his eyes tightly, looking almost as though he was in pain as he spoke. "I didn't mean to start a fight"
Steven groaned wearily and buried his face in his hands. How could he have let things get so badly out of hand? First, he had ignored Connie and now he had ended up making Abe feel terrible as well after he had tried to help him. He had to clear things up before they got any worse.
"No, I'm the one who should be sorry" Steven said. He then turned to Connie. "I didn't know what to say to you without making you worry"
"I've been worried this whole time because I don't know what happened." Connie replied. She gave him another stern look. "Steven, I want to hear what you've been through. And unless you tell straight me to my face that we aren't friends anymore, then I am not leaving without a full explanation"
Seeing that familiar, determined look in Connie's eyes, Steven sighed, resigning to the fact that there was no avoiding this any longer. Telling Connie the truth may likely have been better than allowing any further miscommunication to make things worse.
"Ok. I'll tell you everything, but I don't think you're gonna like it" Steven said, grimly.
"Let me decide that, ok?" Connie said, giving him a kind smile.
Steven and Connie stared at one another for a short while. They finally broken eye contact when they saw Abe placing his laptop computer, along with the metal frame he had been examining, into his satchel, hanging over his shoulder.
"Hey, wait. Abe, where are you going?" Steven asked.
Abe flinched and slowly turned around to face Steven and Connie. "Um, I thought maybe I should leave?"
"You don't have to go" Steven protested at once.
Abe gripped the strap of his satchel, looking increasingly uncomfortable, "I-I don't want to get in the way of you two…I mean this seems kinda personal. And I already made a mess of things"
Connie stepped closer to Abe, who immediately tensed up at her presence, looking as though he was expecting her to start yelling at him again.
"You said that you were Steven's friend, right?" Connie's expression softened before she took Abe by his hand. "I'd also like to hear about how you two met"
Abe blushed slightly as Connie gripped his hand tightly but accepted the invitation without resistance, allowing Connie to lead him back to Steven before all three them sat down on the beach. Steven took a deep breath, finally ready to talk.
"And that's the whole story" Steven finished. It had taken more than an hour, but he finally managed to tell Connie and Abe the full details of everything had happened to him over the last two days. Occasionally he paused and had to explain some extra details to Abe who was still largely unfamiliar with every aspect of Steven's extraordinary lifestyle.
There was a prolonged silence among the three of them. Connie was staring out over the ocean with an intense gaze, taking her time as she processed everything, while Abe was hugging his legs to his chest, staring down at his feet with a detached and solemn expression. Steven waited patiently for one of them to respond. Though he was still concerned over their reactions, he couldn't help but feel relieved once he got everything off his chest.
"So, Black Onyx and Pearl are still out there somewhere?" Connie said, finally.
Steven nodded, looking out over the ocean. "And so is Amethyst. They could be anywhere by now." Steven hesitantly turned to Connie. "Are you ok?"
"Are you ok?" Connie asked, sounding as though her own wellbeing was the furthest thing from her mind. "You're the one whose been through everything. The least I could do is just listen"
"No"
Steven and Connie both turned to Abe, who was resting his chin on his knees, looking very melancholy. "The least that you did was ask. Steven went through all that terrible stuff and I didn't even ask him about it. I'm such a jerk". His voice was soft, yet it carried an unmistakable note of self-resentment.
"What?" Steven said, startled by Abe's change in tone. "Abe, you're not a jerk. It's my fault, I'm the one who didn't want to talk about it"
"Yeah, and then I said you shouldn't talk about it to Connie either and that just started a big fight" Abe replied, not sounding the least bit uplifted by Steven's words, hugging his legs tighter to his chest. "I'm the one who shouldn't have said anything"
Connie shuffled closer and put a consoling hand on Abe's shoulder. "Hey, don't say that. You just said what you thought would be the most helpful". Connie then grimaced slightly. "I mean, ok, maybe it wasn't very helpful advice, but at least you tried"
Abe groaned and placed his hands on either side of his head. "Why do I always mess things up just by talking?"
"Abe, I wouldn't have done what you said unless I agreed with it in the first place" Steven said firmly. "I honestly felt relieved when you said the same thing that I was feeling. That's why I felt so sure it was right thing to do". Steven sighed, now finally understanding the full scope of his own mistake.
"What I want to hear from you isn't always what you should say"
"Friends shouldn't just say what you want to hear from them" Steven said. "That's not fair to anyone"
Abe lowered his hands from down his head, although he still didn't look entirely too relieved as he sighed heavily. "Guess I have a lot to learn about a friend"
"Don't worry" Connie said, giving Abe an encouraging smile. "I've had a lot of practice being Steven's friend. But it'll twice as easy for you, since you get to be friends with both of us"
Abe lifted his head up, gaping at Connie in disbelief. "Wait you…you want to be friends with me too?"
"Of course, I do" she replied kindly. "Besides, Steven's gonna need all the friends he can right now"
Now it was Steven's turn to gape at Connie in disbelief. Although he was happy to see her become friends with Abe, he wasn't expecting her to remain friends with him. "But, after everything I said, you still…"
"Yeah I do" Connie answered firmly. "I want to be a part of your universe".
"A-a-nd I just made two friends in my first day in this town" Abe piped up nervously. "No way I am giving that up."
At first Steven thought he should try and say something to dissuade them but seeing the determined expression on Connie's face and the anxious expression on Abe's, he soon came to accept that there was nothing he could say to make them cut ties with him. And Connie was right. Steven needed all the friends he could get right now
"Thank you. Both of you" he said, feeling immensely grateful at having not one, but two good human friends in his life.
Suddenly, Steven heard then honking of a familiar horn nearby. The three kids all turned around to see none other than Greg pulling alongside them on the beach. And Greg was now alone. Garnet, for one reason or another, was riding on top of the van, sitting in a crossed legged pose as though she was in middle of a mediation, clearly unperturbed by the fact she was resting herself on a moving vehicle.
"Kiddo! There you are!" Greg said, taking off his seatbelt and stepping out of the van. "Oh hey Connie, do you need a ride home?"
"Oh, Dad, are you doing okay?" Steven asked hesitantly, recalling their last conversation.
"I got it out of my system." Greg replied, as calm and easy going as ever, which was enough to convince Steven that he was indeed feeling better since they had last spoke. "I'm back to being your cool Dad. Also, I got some really good advice from your friend Garnet there". Greg pointed his thumb over his shoulder to Garnet, who was still sitting on top of the van.
"Hi Steven" Garnet greeted casually, waving down to them.
Steven waved back at Garnet, before turning to Greg with surprise. "Wait, is Garnet living with you now, Dad?"
"I offered to help her find a place in town, but she says she's pretty comfortable staying up on top of my van for now." Greg explained. "It'll be kinda like having a bunk mate, I guess. And maybe later the two of us could listen to some my favourite soundtracks"
"That won't happen" Garnet replied flatly. "Ever"
Greg merely shrugged and chuckled a little at the blunt dismissal. It was then that he took notice of Abe, who was standing close behind Connie, staring at back Greg with a wide-eyed expression.
"Hey, who's your new friend?" Greg asked.
"This is Abe" Steven said. "He's my new friend. And Connie's as well"
"Well next to meet you, Abe". Greg approached the young boy and his shook hand, while giving him a warm and friendly smile. "You new in town?"
"Uh, yeah" Abe replied. "Just moved here"
"Well, you're in good company" Greg said, releasing his hand. "You need a ride home too?"
"Oh, thank you, but I don't want to be any trouble" Abe said, now looking quite shy at such an offer.
"Hey, if I didn't want trouble, I wouldn't have become a parent." Greg said, with an unconcerned and confident smirk. "I'm sure I can handle anything you can throw at me"
Greg smiled again and gave Abe a playful ruffle of his hair, while Abe continued to stare dumbly at Greg as he now walked with Connie to his van.
"So, Connie, how's things been with you?" he asked.
"Eh, you know, same old" Connie replied perfectly casual as she began to converse with Greg as though he was a lifelong friend.
Steven smiled, watching Connie and his father walk toward the van. Deep down, he still felt worried about the future and what would happen to him next. But for now, Steven was glad that he had finally cleared the air and he was even more pleased now that he had a made a new friend in Abe. Steven glanced toward Abe and it was then he finally noticed the way his new friend was looking at Greg, with something that may have been akin to a mixture of wonder and disbelief.
"Is something wrong, Abe?" Steven asked.
"Huh? Oh, it's nothing" Abe said absently, shaking his head after taking one last look at Greg again as he opened the backseat door for Connie. "Your Dad just kinda reminds me a little of my Dad"
"Really?" Steven said, surprised at such an unexpected detail. "Is that a problem?""
Abe shook his head and muttered under his breath. "No, not so long as he isn't married to my Mom"