The stared at each other for what seemed like hours, trying to figure out what the other was going to say.

Connie was the first to speak up, "I, u-u-um…"

"Yeah," Steven replied.

The silence was deafening. Steven decided to make the first move and gently pushed his card towards Connie. She blinked and took Steven's card, while she gave him the card she had.

Steven looked at his card, which was pink construction paper that said "Happy Valentine's Day Steven!" while on the back it was a drawing of the two of them holding hands surrounded by little hearts.

Connie's card was a folded one that said "Happy Valentine's Day Connie!" on the front and on the inside was a drawing of Steven with his ukulele and Connie with her violin and a heart between the two of them.

Their faces were both blushing madly and they both turned away from each other to hide that they were both blushing.

They had no idea what to do next. Connie decided to take the first move this time, "Thank you, Steven."

Steven turned to look at Connie and smiled while he said, "Thank you too, Connie."

Steven continued and said, "I accept!"

Connie looked confused for a moment so Steven said, "I will be your Valentine."

Connie stammered her reply, "Oh, um, I, I, I also accept," she took a deep breath and said much clearer, "I will be your Valentine."

Connie then held out her hand and Steven grabbed her hand without a second thought.

The two sat there holding hands while the water from the ocean slowly hit the beach in its unique rhythm.

"So, uh what do you want to do now?" Steven asked.

"We could walk around town," Connie suggested.

Steven nodded and the two stood up, still holding hands, leaving the full box of doughnuts on the beach.

The first place that the two stop by was the Big Donut. It was pretty late so Sadie was starting to close shop. Lars wasn't around so Sadie was mopping the floors. She looked up to say that the store was closing, until she saw Steven and Connie holding hands.

"Hi Sadie!" Steven said, who was speaking in a much cheerier tone than usual.

Sadie dropped her broom and held her hands close to her face with the biggest smile on her face. Connie suddenly let go of Steven's hand and exclaimed, "Oh no! We left the doughnuts on the beach! I'll go get them, be right back!"

Before Steven could say anything Connie ran out to get the doughnuts from the beach. Sadie walked next to Steven, who was still smiling.

"So, are you two hanging out for Valentine's Day?" Sadie questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Yep, she's my Valentine!" Steven said, to which Sadie tried her best, almost failing, to conceal a squeal of delight.

"Well you know what Steven, that's great to hear. You two are a really good match." Sadie said in a somewhat sagely manner.

"You think so?!" Steven questioned excitedly.

"Oh absolutely," Sadie replied.

The two stood awkwardly and there was still no sign of Connie. Steven was starting to get worried and asked Sadie, "Is it just me or has Connie been out for a while?"

Sadie noticed that as well, "I'm sure she's on her way. It is pretty dark out there."

"I'm gonna go look for her!" Steven said, getting ready to run outside, when Sadie grabbed his shoulder holding a flashlight. Steven nodded his head in understanding and took the flashlight and ran outside to look for Connie.

He went to the spot where they hung out and saw that the box of doughnuts was gone. Steven looked to find any signs of Connie and saw a set of footprints walking along the beach. He followed them and saw that they led to a grotto. Shining his light inside the grotto he saw Connie, unconscious with a giant spider looking creature eating the doughnuts.

Steven knew he had to act fast since he knew that a Big Donut Variety Pack had fourteen doughnuts. Since the monster looked like it had eaten most of the doughnuts, so he turned off the flashlight and walked as quietly as he could towards Connie.

She was still breathing, which had Steven breathe a sigh of relief. This sigh was heard by the monster who looked right at Steven and lunged at him.

Thinking quickly he summoned his shield, which held the monster back successfully. The noise that the impact made woke Connie up immediately. She looked and saw that Steven was doing his best at holding off the giant spider monster.

Steven noticed that Connie was awake, and while he was distracted the spider pushed him hard enough to send him flying. Connie ran to Steven, who was dazed, as fast as she could and looked for something to fight with. There was a decent sized piece of driftwood and Connie quickly grabbed it and started swinging at the monster.

The driftwood wasn't as balanced as Connie would have liked, but it had to do. The spider backed off, and while Steven was coming to he saw Connie fighting the monster. He knew that the driftwood couldn't hold it off forever and thought of a solution.

He called out, "LION HELP!"

As if on cue Lion came barreling towards Steven, and without a second order, Lion knelt in front of Steven and his mother's sword started to come out of Lion's mane.

Steven grabbed the sword, unsheathed it, and yelled, "CONNIE!"

She saw that Steven had a very familiar large sword with him and knew what to do. Steven ran towards Connie, holding the sword over his head with the blade pointed towards his front, and used the sword to pole vault towards the spider. He summoned his shield and hit the spider with it, holding it back while Connie dropped the driftwood and grabbed the sword.

He held the spider off long enough for Connie to get accustomed to the large sword. Steven looked at Connie and the two nodded to each other. Steven gave a strong push, knocking the spider back, but instead of letting his shield vanish he held it over his head.

Connie jumped onto his shield, and with a big push, Steven launched Connie into the air. Connie had the sword pointed down and before the spider could evade her attack she stabbed it in the head.

After a short shriek of pain, the spider poofed in a cloud of smoke, leaving behind a round black and red spotted gem. Steven ran to the gem, placed it into a bubble, and sent it to the temple.

The two were out of breath. They looked at each other and started to laugh.

Steven and Connie were walking out while Connie was explaining what had happened.

"I saw this thing crawling in the grotto. I followed it and it caught me by surprise. Lucky for me I had the doughnuts…" Connie said before Steven grabbed her in a tight embrace, tears streaming down his face.

"I shouldn't have let you go alone!" Steven said, crying.

"Steven…" Connie began.

Steven interrupted, "I don't know what I would have done if you were hurt or if you got…"

"Steven!" Connie said sternly, which caught Steven off guard.

"There's no way you could have known," Connie said, softer, "You came looking for me knowing something was wrong, and without you then I would have been…"

Connie stopped, Steven holding her even tighter. She continued "I owe you a lot Steven. You are my best friend and without you, I would have spent today in my room, alone, and reading a book."

Steven broke the embrace, still with tears in his eyes. Connie dug through her pockets and gave him a napkin from the Big Donut that she had. Steven wiped his face clean and Connie said, "It's getting late, I should go back home."

Steven nodded and called to Lion, who walked to the two and sat on his stomach to let the two get on, Steven at the front, who grabbed the scabbard, and Connie behind him, holding the sword in one hand and onto Steven with the other.

When Lion was sure that the two were on he sprinted out to the ocean and roared open a portal. On the other side was Connie's neighborhood, to which Lion perfectly skidded to a stop in front of her house.

The two got off of Lion and walked to the door. Connie held out the sword motioning for Steven to take it.

Steven reached for it, but stopped halfway. Connie asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Why don't you keep it?" Steven said.

Connie gasped, "But isn't it your mom's?!"

"Yeah, but I want you to have it," Steven replied.

Connie still wasn't sure if she should take it, so Steven pushed the sword towards her, smiling and nodding while he did it. Connie held the sword closer while Steven gave her the scabbard as well. Connie carefully placed the sword into the scabbard.

When the sword was securely inside the scabbard Connie said, "Well I have something to give you too."

Steven was confused, but was immediately surprised when Connie placed her lips onto his.

It was a shock, for both Steven and Connie, but the two held the kiss for a few seconds.

When the kiss was over and the two separated, both were blushing intensely. Connie was smiling at the look of surprise that Steven had, while all he could see were stars.

"Happy Valentine's Day Steven," Connie said as sweetly as she could.

"Happy Valentine's Day Connie!" Steven said louder, now smiling wider than before.

Connie held the sword close to her as Steven went on top of Lion, the two waving good-bye. Lion roared a portal and Steven was gone.

Connie stood in front of her house for a few moments, touching her lips, remembering the kiss. She smiled and said in a whisper, "Almost Connie, you almost said it…"

She walked inside and tried to think of a way she could explain why she had a giant pink sword with her.

…

While Lion was taking Steven home, all Steven could do is remember the kiss. He felt so happy that he wanted to jump up and down and proclaim to the world about everything that had happened.

When he got home he saw that the only one out was Garnet, sitting on the couch waiting patiently for Steven.

"Hi Garnet!" Steven said loudly.

"Hello Steven," Garnet said, much softer than Steven.

"You won't believe what happened today Garnet!" Steven said, still maintaining a high volume.

"Tell me," Garnet said, knowing already what happened, but letting Steven tell the story.

He went on about every minute detail with what happened during the day, until he came to the part about the monster. His tone became much sadder and was dripping with feelings of guilt.

"I should have gone with her Garnet…that way she wouldn't have almost…" Steven said. Garnet placed a hand on his head, stopping him and said, "But you helped her. You knew something was wrong and you were right."

"I know but…" Steven said, but was stopped by Garnet again.

"Listen Steven, I know you feel guilty for not being there, but there are some things that not everyone could have seen coming," Garnet said.

Steven looked down, but Garnet gently placed a finger under his chin and lifted it up so the two could make eye contact.

She continued, "Remember what I told you earlier?"

Steven said, "Be confident?"

Garnet nodded, "You were confident that something was wrong. Your confidence had you take action, find Connie and defeat the monster. The Steven from earlier today wouldn't have done that."

Steven thought about earlier and realized he probably wouldn't have done that.

Steven smiled, "Thanks for making me feel better Garnet."

"No problem, Steven," Garnet said with a warm smile. The temple door opened and both Pearl and Amethyst walked out.

"Hello Steven!" Pearl said in her usual cheery tone, "So how did your day with Connie go?"

"It went great!" Steven said, repeating his story, but he told it with much more confidence than when he told it to Garnet.

"…so when I took Connie home I gave her mom's sword and then she…" Steven stopped. He didn't know why but he felt that the kiss was meant to be a private moment between the two.

"She what?" Pearl questioned.

"S-s-she, uh, nothing! Nothing happened after I gave her the sword!" Steven said, badly lying.

Amethyst quickly picked up on this, "It doesn't sound like nothing happened. C'mon Steven spill it!" she faked gasped, "Did you kiss her?"

"N-n-not exactly…" Steven said, still trying to lie his way out of it.

"SOOOOO she kissed you then?" Amethyst said in a teasing tone.

Before Steven could say anything else Garnet stood up and said, "Steven has had a long day, he needs his rest."

Amethyst groaned, "Aw man Garnet, I was just starting to have some fun."

Amethyst walked to the temple door, with Pearl following her, who had a feeling on what had happened. Pearl made a mental note to ask Garnet to confirm or deny her theory.

Garnet made her way to the temple, stopping to look at Steven, who gave her a look of thanks. She smiled at Steven before entering the temple.

…

It was late at night and Steven was lying awake on his bed. He couldn't get the kiss out of his mind.

He looked outside his window out to nothing in particular.

Steven whispered, "Good night Connie."

…

Connie was lying awake on her bed, unable to fall asleep. She couldn't get the kiss out of her mind.

She looked outside her bedroom window to nothing in particular.

Connie whispered, "Good night Steven."

She thought for a moment and said, "Steven, I lov…"

The words were in her head, waiting to be said, but she wasn't ready to say them.

Not yet.

Soon.

…

And that is the end of this two shot. This turned out much more different than I expected. To be quite honest I wanted to end the story with Connie getting killed, but decided that I didn't want to break your hearts quite yet. The battle scene and the kiss took precedence over my sadism and so we have a much happier ending.

I will say that this story has given me the idea to continue out how things would play out. Not in this story, obviously, but in another one. Essentially making it a prologue for a longer story where we see Steven and Connie continue to develop their relationship as they grow older and face some of the challenges of life.

Is that something you guys want to see? If so leave a comment saying that you guys would want me to continue this story line. Until then…

Thank you for reading, leave a comment if you liked it!

Peace.