Work Text:
*DO-DO-DODODO-DO-DO-DODODO...*
Connie awoke to a familiar ringtone set for a special someone. She couldn't exactly remember who she set it for, literally waking up at 2:34 AM, according to her digital clock. She ignored it at first, assuming it was a spam call, or just someone not worth answering the phone to, pulling the blanket to her neck as she sighed in annoyance. Shes shifted back in a new position to begin to fall back asleep after the irritating ringtone abruptly stopped, before it rang just seconds after the peaceful silence.
*DO-DO-DODODO-DO-DO-DODODO...*
Connie groaned audibly, sitting herself up with her arm, looking over with blurry vision to the vibrating phone beside her on her nightstand. It suddenly clicked to her that the familiar ringtone was for Steven. Without a second to waste, she stumbled over to the nightstand towards the repeating tune, beginning to panic internally as she wondered what made him call so late--err...early in the morning. She picked up her phone, gazing at the screen reading: "Biscuit <3 (with a bread emoji right after)", and a picture of him probably when he was 14. She pressed the green answer button, putting her phone to her ear pushing her fluffy dark hair behind her ear. "Steven? Why-" She didn't even have time to finish her question, being interrupted by Steven, his voice raspy and panicked.
"C-CONNIE IT-IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN I-I C-CAN'T CONTROL IT--" He shouted, his voice sounding desperate and shaky, not being able to keep himself from tripping up his sentences.
"W-wait-Steven-What's happening?!"
"PLEASE, CONNIE!"
She understood, almost certain that it was the worst possible scenario.
"Okay, I'll be there in a minute!! Where are you!?" Connie asked, her anxiety spiking.
There was a grunt in the background, before Steven picked up the phone with a commotion, stuttering with pain in his voice, "T-THE GREEN-GREEN H-HOUSE..."
"Got it!" She replied swiftly, not quite registering what greenhouse Steven was talking about.
She ended the call, immediately calling Lion with a whistle. Within seconds, the familiar pink portal spawned outside her townhome, and the mighty pink lion leaped out of it. He slid on the asphalt before looking up to her bedroom window where Connie was waiting for him. Shimmying the window ajar as quietly as possible, she climbed out of her room, leg first. She slid down the slanted roof sideways before jumping to the ground and hopping onto lion. She petted him briefly on his mane and instructed him to get them to Steven's beach house, which Lion understood, since it was basically his home. And before she knew it, Connie took off on the sand, her slip-ons flooding with grains of sand as her feet sunk into the mounds of sand, the crashing waves merely a white noise to her own frantic breathing to get to Steven, the darkness engulfing the beach eerily.
As she got closer, she noticed the dome-shaped conservatory was faintly lit with a pink glow. Ah, that's the greenhouse. Connie picked up her pace, now breaking into a sprint as she made her way up the birch steps. Pushing the screen door open, past the pitch-black living room and kitchen, and up the steps, she caught her breath for a moment in his bedroom, surveying the messy state of it. Connie looked down, noticing the claw marks embedded in the wooden floorboards, leading to the glass sliding door, which was wide open, the breeze entering his bedroom. She continued on, racing up the last flight of steps as she opened the metal door to reveal the disheveled greenhouse. Pots and plants were on the floor, soil spilled throughout the cold floor, leading to a dark, inhuman figure slumped against the warp pad. Steven! She hurried over to him, stepping over the dirt and debris, causing Steven to look over his shoulder in a panic. His legs shuffled away from her, not gaining traction and just slipping in place. His appearance was sickly to the eye, purple splotched spread like a disease all over his skin, which was glowing so brightly it almost hurt to look at those parts of it, with the same number of horns protruding from different spots and limbs on his injured body. Connie looked up to Steven's face, which was just as awful. The purple reached up to his cheek and outlined his face, the rough patches interrupting his pink-enflamed skin. His eyes were red with tears; one eye partially darkened to a midnight black and a white glowing iris. His mouth was slightly agape due to the sharpened animalistic canines growing from the bottom set of teeth, the sides of his mouth being the most irritated. He gasped, hugging his stomach tightly, a faint light seeping through his hands from his gem.
"NO-NO, NO, DON'T GET CLOSE!" Steven yelped, his voice sounding worse in person. Connie stopped in her tracks, feet away from his slowly corrupting form. He inhaled sharply, stifling a shriek of agony as he doubled over, his purple spots only worsening with his glow brightening.
"STEVEN!" She cried, ignoring his warning and kneeling down to try and support him physically. Steven tensed up suddenly at her touch, spikes beginning to rip through his shirt on his back. Sweat covered his body, collapsing completely into a fetal position as he hugged one arm around his stomach still, the other gripping his hair, which also had two long horns coming from his scalp. Connie gasped, reeling her hands back to his sudden movement. Steven cried out, not being able to hold it in any longer, his teeth latching onto his lip and ripping the skin around it, causing it to bleed. He must've lost his healing abilities...
"SSSTOP! I'M- I-I'M DANGEROUS!!"Steven yelled, his raucous voice noticeably getting harder to make out from his transforming teeth.
"NO! I'm not leaving you, Steven!" Connie yelled back, the fear of him completely corrupting getting more real. This cannot happen, not again, never again. He bit down, hard, on his already bleeding lip, trying so hard not to cry, or scream, or do anything that makes the corruption process worse. He shut his eyes, not being able to bear her worried gaze, her simply caring about him always had him spiraling into a whirlpool of guilt. He curled further into himself, tugging at his hair avoiding the ugly horns sprouting from his scalp, growing longer by the second. He cried, his vocal cords ripped apart from his corruption and constant screaming of agony every so often, wearing out his voice. Connie brought Steven up gingerly as he shook from pain and his cries, his lip quivering. She began to tear up from his own visible pain, fearing for the worst. No, no, no. I've helped him before; I can do it again! She held his spiky shoulders, her fingers dodging the sharp objects as she stared into his teary eyes, noticing the other eye unaffected beginning to darken ever so slightly. He kept his eyes closed shut, letting his arms fall from her subtle support. He let out a sob, stifled from both his pain in his mouth and trying not to scream again. He kept his head low and tense, his hands reaching for his shoulders as he shakily held Connie's hand on top of his own shoulders, the loose clasp terrifying her.
Steven croaked, suddenly locking his gaze onto hers, "C-Connie..." His eyes were wild with horror and fear, his transformation stopping for a moment as he spoke. "I-I-I nnneed y-you..." His surroundings began to suffocate him; his vision only focused on Connie as everything else blurred into colors and shapes. His gem was giving off a blistering heat even she could feel the heat from inches away. She shuffled forward slightly, keeping eye contact with Steven.
"I-I'm here, Steven. I'm not going anywhere. I promise." She assured him, moving one hand to hold his cheek as he let the weight of his head lay onto her palm. His breath hitched, still ragged and uneven. He faintly nodded, his eyes closing in relief as he slumped into her lap, hugging her torso as if it would make everything stop. The tinted-pinkish purple scattered all around his body scared Connie, but she didn't care. Steven was her biscuit, her Jam bud. She can't leave him, especially now when he's as vulnerable as ever. Tears began to stain her loose shirt as Connie herself began to cry, a tear escaping her eye as she held him close, carefully wrapping around his back, the pinching from Steven not bothering her at all. His shaking lessened, and the corruption slowed to a stop after a couple minutes of hugging, a wave of hope colliding with them both. The dark room, still illuminated by Steven's neon pink glow, lessened in brightness from Steven's body beginning to weaken from the exhausting transformation that took every ounce of strength to try and prevent. He sinked deeper into her body, causing Connie to flinch in worry, observing his body and breathing to make sure he wasn't dying. It was slower than before, almost...calm and recovering. She ran her fingers through his curls, bumping into one of the horns, in which Steven yelped in the sudden mild pain. "Oh! Sorry!' Connie sputtered, her hand retracting from his hair as he settled back from the jumpy reaction. It took a minute for him to respond, simply murmuring some sort of reassurance, something along the lines of It's okay. She exhaled, looking around to continue surveying the trashed greenhouse around her. Plants were knocked over, the soil spilling over the table and onto the floor. footprints marked some of the soil, presumably Steven's. She looked behind her, noticing claw marks beside the sliding door she came from. part of the left door was dented with a full mark of a hand, most likely forced open as quickly as possible. The lights above them were shattered, maybe from his screams as he stumbled in the conservatory, its pieces placed all over the floor. As she continued inspected the room, Steven shifted a little, loosening his grip on her torso. She looked back to see the glow completely diminished, as he mumbled something under his breath. Connie couldn't make it out this time, so she asked in a soft, polite voice, "Did you say something?" She awaited a response again, eventually getting a nod from him.
"...I-I... It was just--" He stuttered, choosing his words carefully as he began to sit up slowly, his fragile body still trembling. "It was a um...a-a night terror..."He breathed out, looking like that was the hardest thing to confess to her ever. Connie listened, staring at him as he settled into a new position, which was a very unnatural one due to his spikes covering his humanoid body.
"Do you...Do you remember what it was about?" She asked, her hands grabbing onto his, holding his securely as he looked down, hesitant to answer. Finally, he whispered hoarsely "...It was...this...al-all over again...but--" Steven stopped himself, clamping his toothy mouth shut in anxiety.
"We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Connie stated, noticing his haunted expression.
"I want to." He asserted, his voice beginning to water again.
He breathed in and exhaled before resuming what he was trying to explain, "But...I couldn't...I couldn't stop myself from-from hhurting you guys...a-and I was conscious the whole time. I had to watch myself...hurt the gems, hurt you..." the last word had steven beginning to tear up again, just letting it happen as he sniffled. "A-and-and I woke up after I grabbed yyou and... I- saw... I saw the ffirst purple spot...so I ran into the-the greenhouse, so maybe I-I could warp somewhere where I couldn't hhhurt someone or damage the house again. But I couldn't, s-so I called you..." he stopped himself for sure there, beginning to weep, letting his grip loose from Connie's hands to cover his face. "I-I don't want you to see me like, like this... I don't want to see this again, I hhate it! I hhate this stupid gem aand-and my stupid emotions always making thingss worse! Why can't I-I just learn to control it? I-I did befffore..." He trailed off, guilt tracing his face more visibly now as he held himself now, trying to calm himself down. The hybrid continued on, "Why can't I j-jusst-jusst--" He cut himself off with a conflicted growl, grabbing onto his two horns and pulling violently. Connie initially kept her hands in her lap, before holding Steven's sides to get his attention, which it did.
"Steven, recovery isn't a straight line, it's okay to have a bad moment. Please don't put pressure on yourself to-to recuperate so quickly. You're allowed to break down, heck, you're supposed to break down sometimes." She told him. His eyes opened, yet he stared at his open hands, his claws closing and digging into his palms as he thought deeply, still trying to keep himself from completely crying again and further corrupting. Connie glanced down to where he, interlocking her smooth, fleshy fingers in between his scaly, inhuman claws. Steven breathed in sharply from her movement, still fearful of harming Connie from even the smallest of physical contact, yet not budging from her tender grasp, his shaking hands easing. "It's okay. You aren't going to hurt me." She reassured him, giving his palm a brief squeeze. Steven's throat clamped shut as if a stone were lodged in it, glaring at his claws as if it were a dangerous weapon. After a moment, Connie gradually let go, sliding her fingers down his wrist and to his forearm, caressing downward as his hand stayed frozen in place. “See?” She smiled as reassuringly as possible, keeping her hand on his shivering forearm. Steven just stared at Connie’s palm, terror visibly shown by his expression, his breathing still fast but not as labored as before.
He stammered, “I’m—I’m never going tto gget better…am I?” His hopeless tone startling Connie.
“No, that’s not true, Steven. I promise it will get better…” She sniffled quietly, letting her hand that touched Steven’s scaly arm drift back up to his hand again, her gaze locked onto his now black, teary eyes, eyes that once had so much energy and love…happiness. Connie frowned at her own thoughts, blinking rapidly to get rid of her tears threatening to fall. Steven’s stare weakened, his skin-ripped mouth trembling as he inhaled shakily. He suddenly broke down, hugging Connie desperately as he sniveled, wrapping his arms around her torso and sagged his head over her shoulder feebly. Connie kept her arms in place, before hugging Steven back, one arm around his coarse, spiky back: the other embraced around his dark, tangled curls.
She comforted with an unsteady break in her voice, "It's alright, just- just let it out." Steven shook his head swiftly, choking out unfinished phrases of "Don't...please..." A wrenching pain struck her in her chest, silent tears falling onto his shuddering shoulder. stillness filled the room, the only movement being Steven's trembling body and his cries and pleads. "Pleassse... d-don't let go...p-please...." he wept, his claws gripping Connie's back a little tighter in distress.
"I-I won't."
...
"I won't."