Chapter Text
Stevonnie wakes up swinging.
No amount of attempted self restraint can quell their shriek of alarm. They thrash wildly under the cover of their blanket, kicking it off in mere seconds. Inside their chest, their heart hammers like Garnet’s gauntlets against stone. Th-the… whatever it is they just witnessed, they…
Those eyes… stars, the intensity of those eyes!
Pink rimmed, inky black diamond pupils…
“Have fun!” Spinel chimes with an unwitting smile stitched upon her face, watching that twisted matriarch of Homeworld walk away forever.
The fusion clamps their hands tight to their head, feeling close to drowning under the weight of these unwanted flashbacks.
“Steven, what was that!?” they cry out.
“Diamond dreams,” they breathe in response, sensing their components growing distinct within their psyche again, Steven and Connie’s dissonant thoughts jumbling around freely alongside their own. “I’m having diamond dreams again!”
They suddenly feel faint, overstrung, like a length of taffy being pulled into two. The gem at their navel faintly glows. Riding the wave of instability, they grit their teeth.
Please, not now, not this, I don’t want to come apart, I’m not ready, I’m not—
“Hey, are you falling into pieces over there?” a concerned voice calls from the other side of the broken pillar. “Don’t worry, your dear ol’ friend Spinel is here to hold you together!”
Accompanied by peels of youthful laughter, (probably the most laughter they’ve heard out of her yet), a pair of arms stretch up and over the ruins with the flexibility of a water hose, and wrap around their midsection three times in seconds flat. It’s enough of a startle to knock them out of their headspace and back into reality.
The choppy waters of memory recede. Slowly but surely they begin to regain their balance, feeling the dependable foundation blocks of their existence— Steven and Connie’s fathomless love and trust for one another— slot neatly back into place. Indomitable, they are. Even by nightmares. They heave a sigh of sheer relief. Or at least, as deep a sigh as they can muster while tied up in the embrace of their stretchy armed friend.
Still working to ease the tempo of their frantic breath, practically panting, they pat softly at Spinel’s arms. It’s a signal for her to let go, one that she surprisingly takes with grace. Who knows? Perhaps she can kinda sense the fraught mood.
Stevonnie follows her retracting arms around the edge of the garden ruins, returning to that central clearing where Spinel stands upright and erect, her feet imprisoned by the very wildlife she once adored with all her existence. The pink Gem’s eyes meet with theirs.
“Stevonnie?” she asks, desperately clinging to this chipper attitude even in the sight of their clear distress. “What’s wrong?”