A/N: Be sure to leave any comments or questiosn you might have. Reviews are my manna.

What's Sex?

Steven was confused.

Now, that wasn't a new feeling for him, but this time seemed...different somehow.

He had called Connie earlier that week to tell her about the entire box of books his dad gave him.

"Wow," Connie breathed. "An entire box? How big was it?"

"This big," he said, putting his phone on speaker and throwing his arms open.

Connie chuckled. "Steven," she said, affection dripping from her voice. "You know I can't see you."

"Oh yeah." In his excitement he had forgotten. "Well, how about I show you? I can come to your house in a few days!"

"That sounds great!"

After receiving permission from their respective guardians, Steven gathered the books that were strewn around his and put them back into the box. Two days later, he was being dropped off by his father in front of the Maheswaran residence.

"Thanks, dad," Steven called, getting out of the car.

"No problem, bud. Uh...you want some help with that box?"

Steven struggled to get a good grip on the large box. "No, I have to bring the books to Connie myself," he said emphatically.

Greg chuckled. "If you say so. Remember, I have stuff to do at the car wash today, so Pearl's picking you up in my van, okay? Well, unless some sort of Gem business comes up..."

"Don't worry," Steven said, slowly and cautiously walking towards the door, stopping every few steps to look over the box and make sure he was still on the right course. "I'll call if she doesn't show."

"Okay. Have fun."

Steven stopped in front of the door, plopping the heavy books on the porch. He turned around and waved. "Bye, dad! I love you!"

Greg smiled. "I love you too, bud." And with that he drove off.

Steven turned back to the door and rang the bell. In a matter of moments Dr. Maheswaran and Connie were standing at the door, greeting him at the same time. "Hello, Steven." "Hi, Steven!"

Steven smiled at them, raising a hand in hello. "Hey!"

"Whoooooaaaa, it's an entire box's worth," Connie exclaimed. "Bring it in!"

Steven brought the box into the house, refusing help from Dr. Maheswaran ("They're my books; it's my responsibility to bring them in."). Dr. Maheswaran gave them a quick inspection ("Just making sure there isn't anything...inappropriate.") before leaving them in the living room and going upstairs.

Connie and Steven spent nearly three hours looking through the books. They read the summary of each one, picking the ones that seemed the most interesting ("Although, you can't judge a book by its cover, even if there's a summary on it," Connie sagely told him.), read the first chapter of a few to each other, and then spent a while quietly reading to themselves.

"I can't believe your dad gave you so many books," Connie exclaimed as they were taking a snack break in the kitchen. "That was so cool of him. Where did he get them?"

"I don't know. I found them in his storage garage while we were cleaning it out. He said I could have them all." Steven remembered the one his dad said he couldn't have. "Well, almost all of them..."

Connie looked up from her sandwich in surprise. "He kept some?"

"Well, just one."

"Was he still reading it?"

Steven considered the question for a moment before saying, "No, I don't think so. He said I couldn't read it until I was 'older'."

"Oh...," Connie looked back down at her long ago was that?"

"Ummm...about a week ago."

"Well...," Connie looked at Steven with an expression dripping with mischievousness. "You're older now than you were about a week ago."

Steven's face lit up. "You're right. I've matured so much since then."

"And I'm older than you, so we both can read it."

"You're right!" Steven's enthusiasm deflated again. "But my dad has it..."

"That's easy," Connie said, getting up from her seat. "We can look online for it. I personally prefer to actually buy the book to support the artist, but desperate times call for desperate measures. We might even be able to find a movie!"

"Okay!"

Steven and Connie crept upstairs, instinctively knowing that Dr. Maheswaran needed to be avoided. They quietly snuck down the hallway, making it into the home office Connie's mom sometimes used. They both shared the big leather chair in front of the laptop.

"Alright," Connie said once the laptop had booted up. She opened the search engine. "What was it called?"

Steven took a moment to recall. "Passions of Xanxor. X-A-N-X-O-R."

Connie typed it in and scrolled down the page, considering their options before scrolling back to the top. "Okay, it looks like I was right; there's a movie."

"Play it!"

What had followed in the next ten minutes caused Connie to blush and Steven to raise an eyebrow. The warrior queen, Xanxor, and her don in distress, Jack, had just met after narrowly escaping a tough battle. Now they were in the motorhome that jack lived in...tending to their wounds? Was that why they were taking their clothes off? Did Xanxor and Jack have healing spit too? Was that why they were licking each other. Why was she reaching for Jack's-?

Connie quickly pressed the red X in the corner of the window, slamming the laptop closed and backing into the chair as if trying to get as far away from it as she could.

"What'd you do that for," Steven asked.

"Steven!" Connie exclaimed. "You wanted to keep watching that?!"

"Well, I didn't really get what was going on, but it didn't seem like anything really bad…"

"Steven that was," Connie lowered her voice to a whisper, as if merely saying the word were an unforgivable offense. "Porn."

Steven's head tilted. "Porn?"

"Yeah y'know, stuff about…" Her voice became even quieter, and Steven had to lean in to hear her. "Sex!"

"Oh…" Steven had no idea what this...sex...thing was. He wanted to ask Connie about it, but clearly it was making her uncomfortable. He decided to just drop the subject and continue with their fun day.

However, the fun seemed to be sucked out of their book adventure. Connie was awkward and embarrassed and Steven was distracted and confused.

What was sex?

Pearl rang the doorbell of the Maheswaran house about an hour later. She and Dr. Maheswaran shared a short but pleasant conversation while Steven put the books back into their box. Steven let Pearl carry them to the car, pausing on the porch to say goodbye to his friend.

"Bye, Connie," he said hesitantly, giving a short wave.

"Bye, Steven." Connie was staring at the ground, a slight blush painting her cheeks.

Steven turned around and got into the front seat of the van, turning to stare morosely out of the window.

"So, how was your little play date?"

"Fine."

Pearl glanced over at Steven. That's strange...usually he's bursting with news about Connie… Pearl cleared her throat. "Anything interesting happen?"

Pearl watched as Steven had a very visible inner battle with himself. Ater a couple minutes of silence, Pearl decided to let it go. She was worried about what upset him, but knowing Steven it was probably something simple that she could easily fix. He'll come to one of us in his own time.

They spent the entire fifteen minute drive in silence, Pearl occasionally glancing at Steven. It wasn't until they were just entering the house that Steven finally spoke.

"Pearl?"

Pearl walked towards Steven, happy to see that he was finaly ready to talk. "Yes, Steven?"

"What's sex?"

Pearl tripped over nothing but her own surprise. She landed face first on the ground, legs and arms spread akimbo. She simply laid there for a moment. Did...did he just ask…?

"Pearl!" Steven ran over and knelt by her. "Pearl are you alright?"

"Steven," Pearl said, face still on the ground. "What did you just ask me?"

"Um...what...what's sex?"

Pearl was sure that if she had a heart she would be going into cardiac arrest. Why was Steven asking about sex?! He was too young to be wondering about such things! He was only...eleven? Ten? Human ages sometimes escaped her, but the point was, Steven shouldn't be asking about these things.

But he is, Pearl thought. And he's asking me! Pearl didn't know what to do. All of the books she read on Earth child rearing mentioned normal sexual development as a very important thing. What if she messed it up? She briefly considered passing the job on to someone else. Garnet? No, he probably wouldn't feel comfortable with that. Greg? I'm not sure if I trust him with that responsibility. Amethyst?...never. But I really don't want too.

"Pearl?" Steven was worried. Pearl was still lying on the ground. "Is sex...bad?"

Pearl's head popped up. "No! No, Stevn, sex isn't bad. It's just...um...well..." That's when Pearl realized. I don't know anything about sex.

Of course she knew the basics. She had spent thousands of years with these creatures, she was bound to pick something. Sex was an action that happened when a man and a woman conceived a child that would continue the human race. What was that action, exactly? She wasn't sure. And she doubted such a indulgent race would only do it for a practical reason. And with the few times she had seen and heard it referenced, it seemed like there was a considerable amount of enjoyment in the act. Honestly, she was almost as clueless as Steven. What if he had questions beyond the purpose of procreation? She wouldn't be able to answer them!

Steven stared at Pearl as she silently freaked out, a growing blush overtaking her face. "Pearl?" Did he break her?

Just as Pearl was about to answer Steven, having decided to wing it, Garnet and Amethyst exited the Temple.

"We have a mission," Amethyst said.

"Great!" Pearl exclaimed, jumping onto her feet. "Uh, I mean. Okay. A mission. Yes." She stiffy as awkwardly walked towards the Warp Pad, throwing a, "We'll talk later, Steven." over her shoulder.

"Okay...," Steven replied, following her and the other Gems. With a flash of light they were gone.

Two hours later they returned, Steven nearly falling asleep on his feet.

"You should rest, Steven," Garnet advised.

"But," a yawn interrupted him. "Pearl...what about our talk."

Pearl blushed slightly. "That can wait until tomorrow." It can wait until forever.

Steven nodded. With a sleepy goodnight he slowly climbed the stairs to his bed.

Amethyst turned to Pearl. "What talk?"

Pearl blushed harder, flustered. "N-nothing! Don't worry about it. I have everything under control."

She had nothing under control. After bidding goodnight to the Gems, Pearl had gone into her room to ponder the talk she was going to have with Steven in roughly nine hours. What was she going to do?

"Think, Pearl."

She was pacing back and forth on her waterfall, trying very hard not to panic. Steven needed to learn about sex. She needed to teach Steven about sex. But she needed to learn about sex, too. Where was she going to do that?

She preferred not to use the internet. It was too complicated and there were too many people with too many opinions. She would much rather read a b-

The library!

That was it! Surely there would be a sufficient amount of literature on the subject of sexual relations. With that decision made, Pearl snuck out of the house and to the library. It was closed, so she had to break in ("I'll repair that," she had whispered to herself as she climbed through the window.), and she had to find the books related to sexual intercourse own her own ("This sorting system really is inefficient..."), but eventually she had a rather large stack of books from Sexuality and the Psychology of Love by Sigmund Freud to something called Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James. She was determined to be an expert in sex anatomy (Heh heh, sexpert, she punned in her mind.)by the time the sun rose in eight hours.

Steven yawned as he descended the stairs, trying to decide if he wanted to make a Crying Breakfast Friends frozen breakfast, or get some exercise and go down to the Big Donut and get a breakfast donut.

Meh, I'll add thirty minutes to my workout with G-. Steven froze.

Pearl turned away from the kitchen counter and faced Steven with a forced cheery expression. "Good morning, Steven. I'm ready for our, uh, talk."

Steven looked at what had once been their living room and kitchen. Now it was a home for all types of papers and illustrations. There was a heading above each group of papers from "THE BASICS" to "MASTURBATION" to "SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES/INFECTIONS". Steven wasn't completely sure why, but he had a feeling this wasn't going to be a pleasant conversation...

"So that, in a nutshell, is what sex is." Pearl felt like her blush was now covering her entire physical form. She really disliked this, but she had a responsibility to fulfill, no matter how...distasteful.

When conducting research last night, she had discovered many...interesting things. And some of it genuinely was. The books she read on sexuality and how it psychologically and emotionally affects humans were very educational, and she had plans to examine them in further detail once she was done with Steven. But the other ones...they were downright disturbing. Pain, humiliation, beastiality, golden showers! The idea of Steven enjoying any of those things were enough to make her consider retreating into her gem for a few millennia. She had only briefly covered fetishes- deciding he was surely too young to have developed those- saying that some people found specific things especially arousing. She really only spent a large amount of time on the mechanics of sex, what it meant to different people, and how to be safe. Everything else she had glossed over, only stopping when Steven seemed to be confused.

"So...," Steven said, looking at the ground with a furrowed brow. He pointed at the very detailed diagram of the male and female body that Pearl had drawn. "The boy puts his..."

"Penis," Pearl supplied. "Also known as a cock, dick, wang, and prick, among other things."

Steven shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Right. He puts his...that...into the girls-"

"Vaginal cavity. Also referred to as a pussy, cunt, and snatch, among others."

"Okay, um. So that's how it works?"

Pearl nodded. "In most cases. But remember, Steven, there are people who prefer to have intercourse with a person who is of the same sex. Then it wouldn't work that way."

"Alright..."

Pearl stood in front of Steven with her hands clasped in front of her stomach. "Do you have any questions?" Please say no. Please.

Steven actually did have a question. A very important question. He looked up to ask Pearl, opening his mouth. Before he could speak, he saw her extremely uncomfortable expression. She doesn't wanna talk about this. I don't wanna talk about this. It's too...weird. Steven looked back down again.

He looked up again when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Pearl had stopped down so she could look directly into his eyes. "Steven," she said. "I know that this is...uncomfortable, and you probably don't want to talk about it- and that's okay- but...you'll be glad that you did. The best way for you to be happy and safe is to talk. This is to help you." She smiled softly.

Steven took a moment to stare into her eyes, trying to ascertain the validity of her statement. Finally he nodded. "Do I...do I have to have sex soon?" He didn't want to do any of that stuff. At all.

"No, Steven, not at all," she assured him. "You don't have to have sex until you're ready. Some people never have sex. It's all about what you want."

"When will I know when I'm ready?"

Pearl stopped for a moment and thought. All of the books told her that most human males were physically ready to have sex by the time them were fifteen. They didn't mentioned anything about mental readiness. And this is Steven. He's special. Pearl sighed. "There is no right or wrong answer to that question, Steven. Only you can determine whether or not you're ready for sexual intercourse. If you feel like it should happen, then do it. If not, or if the person you are doing it with does not feel ready, then I would strongly suggest that you don't go through with it. It's a choice that you, alone, can make. A choice that doesn't need to be made for a long time. Do you understand?"

Steven nodded. "Thanks, Pearl. Can we...can we be done now?" All he wanted to do was go read a book and put this conversation into the back of his mind where it would stay until he needed it. Hopefully that would be awhile.

"Yes, Steven. We can be done."

"Okay." He jumped out of the chair quickly, picking up a book and making a beeline for the front door.

Pearl turned around and started to erase the board, glad to be finished with the dreadfully awkward conversation. I am never doing that again.

"Pearl?"

Pearl glanced back at her baby- he's still a baby-, "Yes?"

"Can you...," Steven stared at the ground, a blush on his face. "Not tell the other Gems? Or dad? Or, well...anyone?"

"Don't worry, Steven. I won't tell."

"Okay. If I have anymore questions...can I ask you?"

Pearl blanched. Another talk? Possibly multiple ones? She couldn't do it. She just couldn't. There was no w-.

"I don't think I can talk to anyone else about this."

A voice that sounded strangely like Rose Quartz sounded in her head. He needs you.

Pearl simply smiled. "Of course you can. I'm here for you."

Steven smiled back. "Thanks."