"Steven? STEVEN?"

Steven opened his eyes slowly, finding himself naked and dazed. What had happened? "Whoa, whoa I'm okay, Connie." Suddenly he remembered what had occurred. How he had seen Ruan offering his hand in alliance.

Connie wrapped her arms around him, naked as well, and he tried to focus on why he felt so different. "I'm so glad you're okay. I-I saw him. I saw Ruan and then there was this blinding light and..." She squeezed harder, surprising him with her strength. "How do you feel?"

He answered by nuzzling into her neck and smelling the soap on her. She smelled like nature. He enjoyed nature. The more he dwelt on that fact the more he realized he didn't want to answer at all verbally. He just pulled her all the way on him and sighed contentedly. His hands ran up and down her back as he stared up at the fluffy clouds, bright in some areas and dark with shadow in others.

After a long moment he finally spoke. "I feel... slightly less discombobulated."

"𝓓𝓸𝓷𝓽 𝓰𝓮𝓽 𝓽𝓸𝓸 𝓮𝔁𝓬𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭, 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓭𝓲𝓭𝓷𝓽 𝓰𝓮𝓽 𝓻𝓲𝓭 𝓸𝓯 𝓶𝓮." His voice rang much clearer now. It was louder, like he was sitting right next to him but also dead silent.

Steven chuckled. "Yeah, don't worry. That wasn't my train of thought. Too easy."

Connie lifted her head and smiled warily. "Who are you talking to?"

A faint blush rose on his cheeks as he realized he'd spoken aloud. "I'm just being a crazy person and talking to Ruan. How are you feeling?" He raised an eyebrow and brushed a hand over her neck, spotting where he'd bitten her. "W- I didn't hurt you, did I?" His eyes didn't want to leave her beautiful skin, but he looked up into her eyes anyways, startled by the intense blush.

"I'm okay. Good. Really, really good." She scrubbed at her cheek and grinned. "I'm blushing really hard, aren't I?"

Steven nodded. "Oh yeah, big time."

"You just seem a little..." She tipped her head and wrapped her arms around his neck to pepper little kisses on his cheeks. "Less stressed."

"Pʀᴏʙᴀʙʟʏ ʙᴇᴄᴀᴜsᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴜʏs ʙᴀɴɢᴇᴅ ᴀʟʟ ɴɪɢʜᴛ."

"ᔕTᗩᖇᔕ, ᑕᗩᑎT YOᑌ ᒍᑌᔕT ᗷᗴ ᕼᗩᑭᑭY ᖴᑭᖇ Tᕼᗴᗰ?"

"Wᴇ ᴊᴜsᴛ ʙʀᴏᴋᴇ ᴀ ʜᴜɴᴅʀᴇᴅ ʀᴜʟᴇs. Lᴇᴛs sᴇᴇ ʜᴏᴡ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴡᴇ ꜰᴇᴇʟ ᴡʜᴇɴ ᴡᴇ ɢᴇᴛ ʜᴏᴍᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴇᴍs ʙᴜsᴛ ᴀ ᴄᴀᴘ ɪɴ ʙᴏᴛʜ ᴏᴜʀ ᴀssᴇs."

"ᕼOᗯ ᗪIᗪ YOᑌ ᗴᐯᗴᑎ ᕼᗴᗩᖇ TᕼᗩT ᑭᕼᖇᗩᔕᗴ?!"

Steven rolled his eyes and looked around their campsite. It was nice, but he suddenly felt the strange urge to nest. It was an antsy, excitable feeling that made him pull her back so he could see her face. "I'm so glad you're here."

Connie lit up like the sun. "Me too." She studied him for a moment. "You've got your thinking face on."

"I wanna nest." Already he was thinking about exploring and gathering supplies from nature, and unpacking a bit of his backpack so they could go over everything.

She jumped up and he bit his lip as her breasts bounced. She was so damn effortlessly pretty. "Let's do it. You uh..." She followed his gaze to her breasts. "You wouldn't have happened to bring clothes would you?"

"𝓜𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓯𝓾𝓷 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓪𝓴𝓮 𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓶 𝓸𝓯𝓯 𝓵𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓻," Ruan singsonged.

She smiled and followed his gaze. "You brought clothes. We should get dressed in case someone comes by, or something happens."

As he handed her a shirt, underwear ("𝓛𝓪𝓬𝓮? 𝓦𝓱𝓪𝓽 𝓪 𝓼𝓽𝔂𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓱 𝔀𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓷.") and a pair of shorts, she chuckled to herself.

He glanced her way and nudged her, tugging on a pair of briefs. "What's so funny, Ni?"

She threw a coy look his way. "Which do you think would be worse: dying out here or people showing up?"

"People. People all the way." There was no way in hell he'd be happy to see anyone else out here but them. "Speaking of ruining good things, adjacent to that is ruining good people. We should check our phones."

They pulled them out, both pleased that their scheduled messages had gone through. But where Steven sighed in relief, Connie sighed heavily. "Dammit. I think Mom is catching on."

"Do you want to go back?"

She seemed nervous but shook her head. "No. I'm just going to tell her I'm camping with you."

"She thinks you're at CRAM school retreat," He reminded her. "I didn't tell her that, she just told me to text you to have fun there."

Connie frowned and dropped her phone onto the ground, watching as a bit of dust rose into the air. "I don't even think she really cares. She didn't even say CRAM, she's on about extra credit for next year."

Steven was at her side in an instant, pulling her into his chest. "Hey. I'm sorry." There was nothing else he could say.

"They overreact about everything, especially my mom. But it always seems like a fucking front. Like they're just doing it to look like good parents while they pay less attention than they ever did before while also smothering me like an egg. It's exhausting. I'm exhausted." She simpered and leaned into him a bit harder, listening to the beat of his heart. "She was doing so good."

"𝓘 𝓴𝓷𝓸𝔀, 𝓓𝓸𝓵𝓵."

"I know, Doll."

She burst out giggling out of nowhere and she shoved at his chest playfully. "Stop that. I thought I told you not to call me that!"

He rose to the challenge and pressed his lips to the crook of her neck, blowing a raspberry and making her shriek. "Why not, Doll?"

She tried to catch her breath but he nipped at her chin and trailed kisses down. It seemed the urge to nest had passed. "A-ah! Because! It's a stupid nickname! I'm n-not a doll!"

Noticing her shirt was riding up a little, he sunk and blew there too. "But you're so precious." His mind took a couple of more seconds to catch up. "I always call you Ms. Knight, I don't think I've ever called you that before."

She looked startled as if she'd just realized it too. "Your hair."

A hand followed her gaze and he brushed a hand over the top of his head. "I've got horns."

"𝓒𝓸𝓶𝓹𝓵𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓼 𝓽𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓯."

"I think your system is acknowledging you. I-I think there's a term for it." Her eyes stayed on the horns like she was thinking of something, then she looked into his eyes. "You're definitely not Ruan."

"Huh..." His heart seized in his chest. Could this get easier? Or at the least not cripplingly inconvenient? The way she said Ruan made him suspicious, what exactly had happened between them?

She pulled out her phone and held up a finger. "It's called indoctrination. You're being indoctrinated!" She hugged tackled him and Steven giggled lightly. "Come on, Starboy. We're going on an adventure."