Lesson Five: Don't Be Afraid To Ask For Help

Garnet's impromptu speech had been necessary. It had prevented the rag-tag group from giving up then and there; given them all enough motivation to make their way back to, and out of, Rose's room. It had even compelled the teenagers to try another round of training and meditation, to see if they'd could manage to summon their weapons. They all knew that such a feat would be necessary, if they had any hope of bringing the ferret-creature down.

But not a single one of their gems had shown even the faintest glimmer of light, no matter what the teenagers tried. Somehow, everybody could sense that they probably weren't going to- not that night, at least. It had been a long day, and everyone was too exhausted.

Mentally, that was. But physically too, Steven thought. It was officially night time, and while his earlier nap meant that Steven wasn't particularly tired, he knew sleep a thing that was going to happen eventually. Not just for him, but for everyone with a human body. Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl sure looked like they needed it. They wore deep bags under their eyes, and there was a distinct sluggishness to their movements that he'd never seen before.

He wasn't the only one to notice the time. Jenny, who'd begun chilling on the kitchen counter, glanced at the microwave clock and exclaimed, "Crap, it's past 10!"

"No swearing in front of Steven!" hissed Pearl from the couch. The child blushed.

"Sorry, sorry." Jenny waved the complaint off impatiently. "But it's late. My family's gonna flip if I don't tell them where I am."

From the couch, Sour Cream frowned. "Isn't your Dad out of town? Visiting your aunt or whatever?"

"Oh, yeah." Jenny slumped with relief. "Okay, Kiki and Nanefua probably won't flip, but they'll still want to know what's up."

"...should we tell our families?" asked Sour Cream.

"No way," said Buck. "No way I'm telling my Dad. He gets all weird about you guys. Especially you," he said, pointing at Pearl.

"Oh, are you another Dewey?" Pearl asked, as she mentally sorted Buck into the proper lineage. "Yes, I had noticed."

"But you don't know how long you're going to be...like this," said Steven, deeply uncomfortable. "Shouldn't you...let them know?"

"Not until I have to," said Buck, looking away.

Sour Cream just shrugged. "I don't know. My step-dad's out on a fishing trip. My Mom would probably be cool with it, I guess."

Amethyst grinned wide. "Heck ya, she will!"

Jenny just groaned, and dragged her hand across her face. "Ugh. I don't want to think about this right now."

"You brought it up," pointed out Buck.

"Yeah, I know," Jenny sighed. "But can we just call our families and tell them we're staying at each others' places for the night? We can deal with the rest in the morning."

There were exchanged glances all around, shrugs, and then an eventual murmured agreement. Then the teens directed the Crystal Gems to fish out phones from various pockets. If this was to work, the ancient warrior aliens would have to act the part of normal human teenagers, and make it convincing enough to fool those teenagers' families.

When she was told this, Garnet stared down at the iPhone in her hand. She was, by and large, a proud Gem. She was also, however, generally a realistic one. She clearly recalled what had happened the last time she'd had to play a role over the phone; it had not gone well. She did not anticipate that it going any better this time. Garnet did not currently have Future Vision, but she scarcely needed it to predict what would happen if any of her friends tried it, either. So she said, "I don't think that would be the best idea."

So they used text messages instead. With the teenagers dictating (and then giving up when they saw how slowly the Crystal Gems texted, and instead using the phones themselves), the messages came out perfectly realistic. Just a bunch of teenagers who'd made last minute sleep-over decision. Not all the various human families seemed particularly pleased about being informed of their "kids'" plans via text, but they were also used to that kind of behaviour, and the lies went undetected.

"So, what now?" Sour Cream asked, after the last parental response had been received. (It was a quick, informal text from his mother, saying "have fun! [winking cat emojii]").

Buck shrugged. "Guess we're crashing here tonight," he said, giving a somewhat questioning look in Steven's direction.

"Yeah, sure," Steven said. He was hardly going to turn them away. "No problem! Make yourself at home! Um- I only have one bed, but there are couches, and I can get out spare blankets- though I guess you don't really need to sleep, now, anyway…"

"Wait, what?" asked Jenny. "No sleep? Is that a thing?"

"Yes," said Garnet.

"Our projected Gem bodies are highly efficient and produce their own energy, and don't require the same rest as organic ones do," explained Pearl.

"Huh," said Buck. "Convenient."

"But sleeping's fun," said Amethyst, sprawled out on the couch. "So I do it anyway."

Jenny looked relieved. "Thank God," she said. "I would hate it if I couldn't actually sleep. After today, all I want to do is collapse for like, eight hours. Actually, no. Food first, then collapsing."

"I like the way you think," said Amethyst, with a finger snap in Jenny's direction. "Food. Yeah. I'm hungry. Like- actually hungry." She looked down at her stomach. "Feels different than usual. Almost like it hurts."

Garnet frowned, and looked down at her own stomach. "Oh," she said. "So that's what that grumbling is."

"Yeah, sorry," said Buck. "Last thing I had was a half a sandwich at lunch."

"So, food for everyone?" asked Jenny.

"Yes!" Amethyst cheered, rolling off the couch, quickly jumping to her feet and rushing towards the kitchen area. It seemed that she'd finally gotten fully confident with the muscles of her new body- or perhaps the promise of food had finally given her the last bit of encouragement she needed. Sour Cream, Buck and Garnet came trailing after her.

Steven came over to. He was hungry, he suddenly noticed. Really hungry. Had even gotten to have lunch that day, or had the ferret creature's appearance interrupted him?

He spearheaded the Dinner Cooking brigade, getting hot dogs out of the freezer and setting Amethyst on the duty of putting them in the microwave to thaw. Garnet was put on cutlery organisation, while Sour Cream grabbed condiments and Jenny began chopping vegetables with the expertise of someone who'd grown up in a pizza restaurant. Buck stood in the corner, with nothing to do but to provide moral support.

"Yo, P," Amethyst called out, after she'd finished messing around with the microwave settings. "You getting in on this?"

Pearl was still sitting on the couch, legs crossed, back perfectly straight. "No thank you," she said, primly. "You know I don't enjoy eating."

"Yeah, but this is different," Amethyst insisted. "You actually have to eat now. Or you'll, like, starve."

"I will not," Pearl said, but she didn't meet Amethyst's eyes.

"Will to!"

"Hardly! Humans can go a full three weeks without physical nourishment! I've seen it myself."

"Uh…yeah, but," Sour Cream said, looking horribly uncomfortable at the prospect of his body starving. "Don't our ribs, like, start showing?"

"Yeah, Pearl!" said Amethyst, leaning heavily on the counter. "Do you want that to happen to his body? Huh?!"

"Of course not-"

"Then stop acting so high and mighty, and just come over here and have like, a single bite!"

"No. I am not being 'high and mighty'. I just dislike eating. So I am staying right here, thank you very much."

"Uhhh," Steven said, putting his newly retrieved frying pan from the stove-top. "Hot dogs aren't going to be done for a while…"

"Then she can have a bun," Amethyst said, pointing at the bread Buck had just gotten out of the fridge. "Or some veggies- or-" She broke off-mid sentence, her eyes widening with sudden understanding. A slow grin spread even wider across her human face. "Oh. I see what the real problem is here. You need to go to the toilet."

"What?" said Pearl, blushing. "No I don't!"

"Then why are you sitting like that? You're just afraid that if you get up you'll," she snorted, "wet your pants!"

"I will not!"

Amethyst threw her head back in laughter. "Oh, this is brilliant!"

"Pearl?" said Steven, slowly. "Do you…actually need the toilet? Because if you do, that's fine. It's perfectly natural."

Pearl sat even more stiffly than usual. For a long moment, she looked prepared to deny everything; but everyone was staring at her, and most of them looked sympathetic. Steven, especially. "Okay…yes," she eventually admitted, her brush turning an even brighter red. "I'm afraid that I do…need to- use the facilities.

"But it's so uncomfortable," she continued. "I cannot believe that humans tolerate it."

"It's just gonna get more uncomfortable, dude," Buck pointed out.

"Besides, pooping is fun!" said Amethyst. Besides a couple odd looks in her direction, everyone ignored her.

Pearl bit her lip, and wrapped her arms around her torso. "It's just- been so long. I've avoided ingesting things for centuries for this very reason. I'm not sure that I- even know how."

Throughout the entire exchange, Sour Cream had been standing in the middle of the kitchen, growing almost as nervous and uncomfortable as the Gem currently using his body. Now, he looked downright panicked. He squeezed the ketchup bottle he was holding reflexively; it collapsed under his super strong grip. The lid popped off like a rocket-ship, and tomato sauce splattered everywhere.

"Sorry!" he said, stammering a little. He went reaching around for something to help clean up with.

"It's okay," Steven said, offering him some paper towel.

"Yeah, man," agreed Buck, exchanging an odd look with Jenny. He took the sheet of paper towel before Sour Cream could grab it. "How 'bout I do that? You can go… talk to Pearl. Sort her out. You know."

"Uh. Yeah. Good idea," Sour Cream said, voice shaking a little. He took a deep, unnecessary breath, then started off to where Pearl was sitting. He arrived at the couch rubbing his neck awkwardly, not meeting her eyes. "So. Uh. We should…get this over with."

Pearl sighed. "Yes, I suppose we must." She stood up, keeping her legs pressed closely together. "This way."

She went off towards the washroom tucked around the corner behind the fireplace. She carrier the dignified air of a martyr being lead to the executioner's dock- or, she would have, were she not waddling like a penguin. Sour Cream followed her, looking thoroughly miserable.

"It's gonna be fine!" Jenny called, and it wasn't clear which one she was talking too.

The pair turned the corner; there was the sound of a door opening, then clicking shut. The remaining group were left standing in silence.

"I guess I'll just… clean up," said Buck, remembering the paper towel in his hands and ketchup splattered all around.

"Yeah," said Steven. "And then could you…turn on the stove? And Amethyst, or Garnet, you could get out some butter or oil, so we can start cooking the hot dogs. I'm gonna go grab extra blankets and stuff, and get things all laid out. "

After he was sure that things appeared to be mostly-in-order in the kitchen- no explosions, no arguments, no emergency lessons on human bodily functions- Steven escaped up the stairs into his room. Once there, he immediately flopped down onto his bed, and took a deep breath.

He hadn't lied. He really did mean to get extra blankets and pillows ready for their impromptu slumber party. But he needed a chance to- to breath. He could still remember, with painful clarity, how badly their last 'slumber party' had gone. This one, hopefully, wouldn't be nearly as bad- but even if he wasn't haunted by psychic dreams of Lapis, he would still be dealing with the issue of trapped friends.

And they were trapped. Free to walk around, but trapped nonetheless. He could only imagine how uncomfortable it must be, being flung into a body that wasn't your own. It would have to be hugely disorienting- kinda like fusing for the first time, but without any of the choice involved. Just being near his friends, he could feel their stress. Everybody was clearly on edge, and Steven had the sinking suspicion that it was only a matter of time until someone lost their balance and fell off.

Steven groaned, and got back to his feet. He would look out for his friends, and do whatever he could to make sure that didn't happen.

He buzzed around the room, getting out the spare duvets, blankets and pillows that were kept up in his loft, though there would be more tucked away down stairs. There were probably also a couple hung up to dry; he'd have to Warp over to the Washing Hand and grab them, first chance he got. For now, Steven just put everything he already had in a neat pile near the top of the stairs. He glanced down briefly to make sure no fights had broken out in the kitchen (none had, but Sour Cream and Pearl still weren't back from the washroom), then surveyed his own room, to see if there was anything else he should grab.

"Plushies!" he announced, after a moment's thought. He knew that his fellow Crystal Gems might turn them down, but maybe the Cool Kids would like some. When he needed calming down, there were few things that helped him as much as a cuddly toy. Maybe the others were too old for them, but he suspected that his friends were going to need all the help that they could get.

He headed over to the window sill, where he still kept his remaining toys. He was in the process of picking out the cuddliest of the plushies, when another object caught his attention- his phone.

From below, he heard a minor argument break out about whether or not vinegar was an appropriate hot-dog condiment. Since it did only sound like a minor one, he was in no particular rush to get back to it.

'Well, it wouldn't be responsible if I didn't check my messages,' Steven reasoned, ignoring the simple fact that he hadn't had any messages to check in nearly a week. (Steven had a fairly large number of contacts in his phone; it was just that the majority of them were always just a five-minute walk away, so nobody ever bothered calling). Nonetheless, he picked up his phone, swiped a finger across the screen, and opened his in-box.

To his mild surprise, it turned out that delay tactic or not, there actually were some un-read messages on his phone. From Connie.

Just seeing that helped perk him up. At least, until he actually read the text message from her, asking if it was still okay for her to come over tomorrow.

Steven's heart sank. He'd completely forgotten that they'd made plans for Connie to come and hang out. With all the weird Gem stuff going on, it had just gotten pushed out of his mind. And now Connie was going to wake up the next day, so excited to come and hang out with her friend, only to find that he'd cancelled.

Because he would have to cancel, right? Steven was going to be too busy to hang out with her. He was going to need to help the Cool Kids learn how to activate 'their' Gems, and be watching make sure nobody got hurt, and do his best to keep the harmony. Plus, who knew what else could go wrong? And honestly, it was a little overwhelming, because the Gems knew so little about humans, and humans knew even less about Gems, and it felt like he was the only one who knew either well enough to help-

-Steven froze.

He gave his situation a little thought. Glanced back down at his phone. Stared at Connie's name, blinking up at him.

She did know an awful lot about Gems, after all.

'Are we still on for tomorrow?' the text asked.

Steven peeked over the edge of his bedroom, and peered down at the chaos unfolding in kitchen below him. He considered his options. He could try to handle all of this on his own. Or…

'YES,' he eventually texted, in all caps. 'PLEASE'.

Then, he hit send.

oOoOoOo

In ideal weather and traffic, the drive from Connie's house to Beach City took approximately forty five minutes. It often felt far longer- and this was one of those times where the forty five minutes seemed to stretch into infinity.

"So," Mr. Maheswaran said, in that too-casual voice parents sometimes used. "What are you planning to do at Steven's today?"

"Uhhh," Connie began. She tightened her grip on the gym bag in her lap. "I don't know. Probably just hang out. Steven got this old book from his Dad that he thinks I might like; maybe we'll start reading that."

Her Dad smiled. "You know, I'm really proud of you two kids," he said. "So many people your age- they don't think about anything other than TV, and video-games, and the internet. It's so nice that you and your friend still enjoy reading books on the beach."

"I enjoy that other stuff too, Dad," she pointed out.

"Aww, I know," he said, as he signalled to change lanes. "But it's the moderation that counts. It's being sensible about these things. And we Maheswaran's are-"

"-all about sensible," Connie finished, biting off a sigh. She wondered how sensible- or safe- her Dad would think her, if he knew that she was carrying a sword in her lap at that very moment.

Connie hadn't actually been lying to him, when she'd told him that she and Steven might just end up hanging out and reading a book. They did do that a lot. And Steven had been telling her about this new book his Dad had given him, so they very well may just end up sprawled out on the sand, taking turns reading it to each other. It was just that they might also end up doing something a little more- adventurous.

If she pressed the duffle bag her her chest, Connie could feel the shape of the sword inside, and had to fight the urge to pull it out and hold in her hands. She wondered if she was going to get to use it today- properly use it, that was. Not just against Holo-Pearls, not just in a practice spar, but in an actual, real-life battle.

All yesterday she'd been practically shivering with anticipation at her upcoming trip to Beach City. She hadn't been able to see Steven much lately- she'd been busy with school, and on his side, there had been… stuff going on. She hadn't really pried; she'd gotten the sense that it was private stuff. But by the sound of it, whatever issue there had had been was now resolved, and she was finally off-school for a week, and the two of them couldn't wait to get back into the swing of things.

So she'd sent off a text, just to confirm. An hour, then two, then three had passed, and Steven hadn't replied. Connie had taken it that in stride. They'd talked about this kind of thing. Sometimes Steven was busy with missions and Gem stuff, and he couldn't respond immediately. She couldn't just freak out, not like she had after the giant green space-hand. She understood, and respected that. But as the afternoon had worn on, and he still hadn't called, or texted, she'd began to get worried. Not just about whether or not she could still come over to his place- but about whether or not her friend (friends) were in trouble.

Connie had kept her cell phone in her pocket all day, anxiously waiting for it to ring. During violin practice, during homework, throughout dinner, it had been there. When she showered, she'd even put it above the sink, in easy arm's reach. Eventually, it had grown late, and Mother had ordered her to bed. Connie had huddled beneath the covers with her flashlight, too distracted to focus on her book, waiting to see if Steven would finally respond. Eventually, the exhaustion of the long day had caught up with her, and she'd been forced to turn off the flashlight and go to sleep, praying that there would be a message for her when she woke up in the morning.

And thankfully, there was.

'YES, PLEASE,' Steven had wrote. That first message had made her heart soar; not only was Steven safe, he still wanted her to come over. But there were other messages- and they simply served to confuse and intrigue her

'Something weirds happened,' Steven had written. Checking the time-mark, it had been nearly 11pm when he's sent it, which was kind of weird. Steven's schedule was way more erratic than her own, but the Gems did at least try to enforce a regular bedtime.

'Better to explain in person,' he'd continued. 'But would like some help.'

'Of course,' Connie had texted back, as soon as she had read the messages. She rushed herself out of bed, wolfed down a quick (but hearty) breakfast, pulled on clothes that were fit for a fight, and grabbed her sword-training duffel-bag. By then, it wasn't even eight o'clock. Steven still hadn't respond.

'What's the problem, anyway?' she had texted him. 'I would like a heads up before I get there.'

She'd waited five minutes to see if he'd text her back. He hadn't. Then, she'd gone to try and beg her Dad for a drive to Beach City. He hadn't exactly been happy to be pulled away from his newspaper and hot mug of coffee, but she gave the biggest, most pleading eyes she could muster, and he'd had no choice but to relent. They'd been out of the house by 8:30.

It was 9:10 now. Connie glanced out the window as they passed billboard with a cheery sea-gull happily proclaiming, 'WELCOME TO BEACH CITY'. She checked her phone again. Steven still hadn't replied to her text.

"Where do you want me to drop you off?" Dad asked. Connie started. She'd almost forgotten he was there.

"Uh…by the Big Donut, please."

Dad nodded, but gave her a look as he turned the corner. "Not buying anything there, are you?"

"No, Dad," she told him. "I had a breakfast at home, remember? Toast, scrambled eggs and an apple."

"Right, good, good," he said. "Because your Mom doesn't want you eating junk food, remember."

"Trans fats. I know," Connie said, as the giant donut sign came into sight. They tried not to strain in her seat. They sat in silence for the remainder of the drive.

The car slowed, and pulled to the curb. Connie hurried to flick the lock, popped off her seat-belt, and flung the door open.

"Have fun, monkey!" her Dad shouted at her, before she could slam the door shut. Connie paused.

"Thanks, Dad," she replied. She waved at him, pushing a smile on her face as she (gently) closed the car door. She kept waving as the car pulled away, and only stopped watching once it had driven around the corner, safely out of sight.

What do Steven and the Gems need me for? she wondered as she pulled her sword out of the bag which hid it, sliding the weapon out of it's sheath. The blade glinted in the early morning sunlight as she slug it proudly over her shoulder. She steadied herself, and set off at a trot towards the beach. As she rounded the corner and came into sight of the Temple, she told herself it didn't really matter.

Whatever danger or threat they were up against, she was prepared for it.

oOoOoOo

Author's Note: Yeeeesssh, finally some Connie! 3

On a more relevant note... it's probably going to be a while until my next update. I'm going on a family vacation in about a week's time, and I'm going to be without computer and internet access for an extended period. I'll still be writing, using the lost and ancient technology know as 'pens', but I won't be posting.

So hang in tight; story's not being abandoned by any means. And if it's any consolation, you'll all get to see the new SU episodes long before I do.