Sequel to Living Arrangements and I Think We're Alone Now. I seriously do recommend you read those first.

This is an older!Steven x Peridot story. If older!Steven x Peridot stories are not your thing, I suggest you turn back now, because I will not be all that happy if every single comment I get is a complaint that it's an older!Steven x Peridot story. You have been warned.

XXX

THREE'S A CROWD

After three months of non-stop stalking and harassment, Hannah finally had her tormentor wounded and cornered. With trembling hands, she gripped the gun tighter and pointed it at the masked figure again. "WHY!?" she wailed. "Why are you doing this!? What did I ever do to you!? I don't even know you!"

The figure laughed softly and staggered forward, holding their injured arm. "Are you sure you don't know me?" They reached up and in one swift movement, pulled off the mask that hid their face. "Because when I look at you, I feel as though I've known you my whole life." Hannah gasped and dropped the gun. The face was as familiar to her as her own reflection. Because the face that looked back at her was her own.

It was clearly supposed to be a 'wham' moment, a twist that would send the audience running to social media in shock and awe. Unfortunately for the show's creators, their audience at that moment weren't paying the slightest bit of attention and had, in fact, only put the TV on to drown out any noise they might make while making out. Even the sudden high-pitched alarm from Peridot's computer went unnoticed for several seconds before she finally realized what it meant and disentangled herself from Steven's arms. "My decryption program! It finally worked!"

Steven forgot his disappointment in an instant and stood up to join her at the computer. Two weeks earlier, Peridot had transferred all the data from the computer in the Kindergarten control room over to her own computer and had then spent several nights writing a program to decrypt the files. Since then, the program had been running constantly, but with no success. Until now. "What is it?" he asked, leaning over her shoulder. "Anything about corruption?"

Peridot's eyes quickly skimmed over the text document. "It looks like a report about some-"

She was interrupted by a knock at the door, and she crossed the room and opened it to reveal Pearl standing on the other side. "Why is your door locked?" the elder gem asked.

She sounded almost offended at being denied access to part of the house, and Peridot frowned. "I can't just go walking into your room, why do you think you should be able to come into mine?"

Pearl pursed her lips and looked past Peridot. "Well then, why is Steven locked in your room too?"

Steven blushed self-consciously, but Peridot was unmoved. "Because I'm allowed in Steven's room. What do you want?" she asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Oh, I thought I heard the alarm from your computer." She straightened up and looked eagerly down at Peridot. "You said it would sound if your program was able to decrypt any of the files and I just wondered…" She trailed off and looked hopeful.

Peridot relented and stepped aside to let the other gem in. "You heard correctly. My program has successfully decrypted a file," she boasted.

"Just the one?" Pearl asked.

"Well… yes," Peridot admitted, deflating slightly. "But now we know it works," she added a little more brightly. "So I anticipate greater success in the coming days!" She walked back over to the computer and scrolled back up to the beginning of the file as Pearl leaned over her shoulder to read. "This appears to be a report detailing some of the earliest fusion experiments." The enthusiasm she'd felt upon successfully decrypting the file began to fade as she read the gory details written in the report. "Um… I'll let you inform Garnet."

Pearl quickly skimmed the first few lines and shivered. The shards of two Ruby soldiers (and she had her suspicions about which two they might have been) had been taken to the laboratory for the initial experiments. The report then went on to suggest that a Sapphire should be obtained as soon as possible so that experiments into different-gem fusions could begin. It was most definitely not something she wanted to bring up with Garnet any time soon. "Oh no, it's your program that's produced results," she said instead. "You should be the one to inform Garnet."

"Inform Garnet about what?" came the unmistakeable voice of their leader from the doorway.

"Garnet!" Pearl spun around, looking flustered. "We ah, we were- we were um, just about to come and find you!"

As Pearl twittered beside her, Peridot sighed internally and stepped forward. "My program has decoded one of the files from the Kindergarten. But it doesn't contain any useful information, so you needn't trouble yourself…" She trailed off as Garnet walked forward, making straight for the computer. "Or you could just ignore me, that works too," she muttered under her breath.

Garnet did exactly that, leaning forward and rapidly scanned through the document. Pearl, Peridot and even Steven all watched her warily, but all that happened was that she finished reading and stepped back again. "Good work. Let me know as soon as you decrypt anything else," she said, and turned and walked out before anybody could actually respond.

"Well… that went better than I expected," Pearl said after a moment of silence.

Peridot picked up her computer mouse and pulled a face. It had been crushed into a small ball. "I suppose it could've been worse," she conceded unhappily.

"We can buy another one while we're out," Steven reassured her.

Pearl's ears pricked up at this. "You're going somewhere?"

"Yeah, there's a computer museum in Empire City," Steven explained. "I was telling Peri about it and she thought it sounded fun."

"I believe 'funny' was the word I used," Peridot corrected with a smirk.

"And they've got a retro gaming section too," he added happily. "I'm going to play the original Lonely Blade game, it'll be great!" He pulled his phone out of his pocket, glanced at the screen and frowned. "Actually, we'd better hurry up now or we're gonna miss the bus."

"Well, how about I come along too and drive you there?" Pearl suggested at once. "I'm sure Greg wouldn't mind if we borrowed the car, and I must agree with Peridot." She laughed lightly. "A human computer museum! How quaint!"

Steven and Peridot exchanged glances as they both wracked their brains to think of a polite way to put her off because of course, the small detail they'd left out was that their trip was actually a date. "Um, we were kinda planning on having dinner there too," Steven said slowly. "I know you don't enjoy that sort of thing and we wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable, so we're fine catching the bus."

"But thank you for your generous offer," Peridot added, inching towards the door.

"It's fine, I insist," Pearl said firmly. "I'll simply browse some of the shops while you two eat. We need some groceries anyway."

And so, because they couldn't think of any other reason to deny her, they gave up and a few short minutes later, the three of them were all piled into Greg's car, heading down the highway towards Empire City. Steven, in an attempt to pretend he couldn't feel the waves of annoyance radiating off of Peridot in the back seat, fiddled with the radio until he found a station playing classic rock, but before he could lose himself in the music, Pearl reached over and turned the volume down. "Sorry," she apologized. "But I need to concentrate on the road."

"Oh, right, sorry," Steven apologized as well. An awkward silence fell over the little group. He glanced up at the rear view mirror and then quickly tore his eyes away as he caught sight of Peridot glaring back at him. In desperation, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and opened up the news app, which he immediately realized was a terrible idea because everything was awful. Murder, murder, rape, celebrity death, more murder… "Oh! The first episode of that Harry Potter TV show has been leaked online," he exclaimed. "Wow. It hasn't even been announced yet."

"Would you like me to download it when we return to the house?" Peridot asked.

"What? No! That's illegal!" Steven glanced up and met her eyes in the mirror again. "…Can you do it without being caught?"

"I managed it with every episode of Camp Pining Hearts," she pointed out.

Pearl frowned, remembering her own brush with the law a few years previously. "I would prefer it if you didn't do anything illegal in the house," she began.

"The house that's a base for the rebel gems that fought a war against Homeworld?" Peridot raised an eyebrow at this, but decided not to pursue the issue. "It's fine, I'll just download it onto the computer in the Kindergarten."

"And they're making a live-action film of The Lion King," Steven continued reading. "Wait, what? How's that gonna work? Are they gonna use actual animals?" he mumbled to himself, tapping on the headline to read the rest of the story. But before the page could load, the phone suddenly chimed and vibrated in his hands, making him jump. "Ooh, text from Connie!"

"How is Connie?" Pearl asked brightly, glancing over at him for a moment. "And… what was it, college? And her creative writing course?"

"She's fine. And college is fine." Steven skimmed the text and smiled. "Actually, she's just finished. She's coming home tonight."

"So it's all done then?" Pearl checked. "She doesn't have to go back again?"

"Uh… no, she's still got three years to go," Steven explained with a smile.

Pearl tutted as she turned her attention back to the road. "It seems rather a waste of time, if you ask me," she muttered half to herself. "It's not as if she's learning anything useful, like history or politics. Still, it will be nice to see her again. And Stevonnie."

"St-Stevonnie?" Steven stuttered in surprise. Behind him, he felt Peridot start at well and once more, his gaze flickered to meet hers in the mirror.

Pearl smiled serenely, seemingly unaware of the tension caused by her words. "Yes, I know you two had a spot of difficulty last time, but that was a long time ago. Perhaps all you needed was a little time apart."

A spot of difficulty. That was a slight understatement, Steven thought to himself. After several months of intensive fusion training, they'd suddenly had trouble forming Stevonnie and keeping the fusion stable, until Connie put her foot down and flatly refused to even try any more. "You know, she just wants to train as herself," he said warily, but Pearl waved away his concerns at once.

"Connie's a good warrior, but she's still only human. The two of you are a much more efficient fighting team when you're fused and now she's had time to calm down and think about it, I'm sure she'll understand how important Stevonnie is." Pearl beamed at him. "You two are such a good couple. You make a wonderful fusion, you should be proud of that."

Steven didn't dare look up at the mirror any more.

xxx

A few hours later, the small group came to a halt outside a restaurant, and Pearl wrinkled her nose as she looked inside at all the people eating. "Are you quite sure you don't want to come shopping with me instead?" she asked Peridot doubtfully. "Digesting is just so…" She stopped and shuddered.

"Quite sure," Peridot said firmly. "I rather enjoy partaking in these Earth feeding rituals." She opened her mouth to add that the whole point wasn't so much the eating, but spending time with Steven while he shared his knowledge of food, but then she snapped it shut again. Knowing her luck, if she said that, Pearl would decide to stay with them. "Enjoy your shopping," she said instead.

"We'll call you when we're done," Steven added.

Pearl gave the diners one last look. "Very well. Enjoy your meal, I'll see you later."

As soon as she was out of sight, Steven's shoulders slumped as he finally relaxed and took hold of Peridot's hand for the first time. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't think of any way to stop her!"

Peridot brushed away his apology at once. "It's fine, it's not your fault. At least we're alone now."

"Yeah, that's true." Steven smiled down at her. "And Pearl doesn't like even watching other people eat, so we should be safe for a while." He gave her a gentle nudge with his shoulder as they walked inside the restaurant. "We could have a date tonight if you like? To make up for this one?"

"Mmm. Perhaps." Peridot wrinkled up her nose slightly. Her enthusiasm for 'dream dates' had quickly worn off when she discovered that they were causing Steven to suffer from extreme fatigue. And although they were fun, she couldn't be as affectionate towards him as she really wanted, because he tended to lose control of the dream. Plus as they were just dreams, she could never quite remember exactly what had happened afterwards. "We did one just a couple of days ago," she said by way of an excuse. "You slept until two the next day."

"True," Steven admitted. He fell silent as the hostess appeared to show them to their table, but once they were seated, he spoke up again. "I just… I wanted us to have a nice date today, that's all. It seems like half the time we try and have a date, someone ends up crashing it, y'know?"

"I know." Peridot hesitated for a moment, and then said, "maybe we should tell them. About us."

Steven grimaced. It wasn't the first time she'd suggested telling the others, and so far he'd managed to put her off. "We don't have to tell them just yet," he began once again. "We've only been dating two weeks-"

"And how much longer are we going to be dating for?" she cut in. "I mean, do you see this as a long-term relationship? Or-" She swallowed hard and tried to keep the wobble out of her voice as she continued. "Or is this just…"

Before she could finish, Steven grabbed her hands, appalled. "What!? No! I love you! I wanna be with you and live with you and grow old with you, however the heck that works with us."

Peridot blinked back sudden tears and gave him a watery smile. "Wow, thanks." She took a deep breath and regained her composure. "I guess I sort of knew that, really. But you keep asking me to keep us a secret and I don't understand why. If our relationship is serious, they'll find out eventually, won't they?"

"Well, yes," Steven admitted. "But-"

At that moment, the waitress appeared to ask if they were ready to order. Steven asked if they could have a few more minutes, seeing as neither of them had even opened their menus yet, and took advantage of the brief interruption to try and work out how to explain himself. "It's complicated," he began as soon as they were alone again. "The gems, they all think Connie and I are dating."

"I gathered that," Peridot said a little bitterly, recalling the conversation she'd overheard in the car.

"We're not though," he hastily added. "And we never have. We're just friends. But…" He paused for a moment. He didn't like to admit to his girlfriend that he'd once had a crush on somebody else, even though it had long since fizzled out. But explaining the way people had treated him and Connie was the only way he could really explain his reservations now, so he carried on. "I… kinda had a crush on Connie back when we first met. It didn't last, it disappeared when I got to know her as a real person and not the fantasy person I'd spent a year making up in my head, but the gems always remembered how I acted when I first met her. And then, um, she kinda started developing a crush on me instead."

He blushed and ducked his head, trying to avoid Peridot's piercing gaze. "I just ignored it and hoped it would go away like mine did, because I liked being friends with her. But it didn't, not for a long time. People started assuming we were girlfriend and boyfriend and I didn't wanna correct them and hurt her feelings, but when I didn't deny it, they figured it was true. And they wouldn't stop bringing it up. If I asked for some money to go to the movies with Connie, Dad would be like, 'oooooh, going on a date then!' And when we did fusion training, Garnet would always suggest that we stay fused a little longer afterwards, just for fun. Amethyst would joke about me making food if she came over, saying I'd be a great househusband, Pearl…" He thought back to Connie's initial swordfighting training and grimaced. "Anyway," he continued, "when Lars died and came back different, it was like a switch had been flicked. Connie suddenly realized just how dangerous all this gem stuff was and that she could really get seriously hurt and I might not always be able to save her and she didn't want that. She was just a kid, it shouldn't have ever been her responsibility to save the Earth. And her parents figured it out too and put their foot-"

He frowned. That wasn't right. "Feet?" That didn't sound right either, and he could see that Peridot was getting confused too. "They figured out they'd gone too far," he said instead. "They'd been so worried about being too controlling, they went too far the other way and let her have too much freedom. So they stopped letting her come on missions and stuff."

He'd started getting sidetracked, he realized, so he tried to get back to the point. "So yeah, we figured out we just wanted to be friends then. But by that point, everyone was convinced we were childhood sweethearts, and we couldn't seem to find a way to stop them. In the end, it just seemed easier to let them think whatever they wanted."

"So…" Peridot mulled over that for a moment. "You don't want to tell the gems because they think you're already dating Connie. And what, they might be upset that you're not?"

"Well… yeah. But also because… I'm worried they'll sort of, kinda… spoil it." He reached over and clasped her hands. "I know it's selfish, but I just want you all to myself for a little longer without anybody making weird comments or assuming stuff about us and making it all uncomfortable, y'know? But you're right, they're gonna find out sooner or later." He let out a small laugh. "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if Garnet already knows." His expression turned serious again. "We'll tell them, I promise. Just let me clear up this misunderstanding about me and Connie first, OK?"

"OK," Peridot agreed.