When they woke up, they were they.

Well, they were Stevonnie.

Steven and Connie had passed out immediately after what ended up being their third round, sticky and sweaty and satisfied to no end.

Stevonnie however, felt sticky and sweaty and gross, so they stretched the minor soreness out of their body and rubbed the back of their neck with a tiny smile. "Wow, we were... really pent up./ Really, really pent up./ Yeah."

"𝓨𝓸𝓾'𝓻𝓮 𝔀𝓮𝓵𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮."

Stevonnie started briefly, Steven was absolutely humiliated but then they grinned. "Thanks, Ruan."

They peeked out of the tent and winced at the scaldingly bright sunlight. The fire had fizzled out overnight, something Connie chastised them both for not putting out. Steven was just happy to be someone else he at least recognized.

The sunlight beat down on the ground, making all the colors in the trees and blades of grass and brightly colored birds oversaturated and beautiful. Stevonnie didn't have shoes, but Stevonnie didn't need shoes. Their feet were more calloused and used to rough terrain than the two teenagers separate, though both teens could easily walk along most areas with little complaint. Chickadees and Whippoorwills sang around them, occasionally joined by the rude caw of a Raven or Blue Jay as they fought for mates and terrain.

"Whoa. Look." Stevonnies eyes found a stream that Steven recognized. He urged them to follow it and sure enough after a few hundred feet it became wider and a bit deeper with no end in sight. They smiled and burst into a full sprint, shapeshifting the wildest, earthiest clothing they could imagine to keep everything in place. They were fast, but with concentration their gem activated to make them faster than they could keep up with. In a matter of milliseconds, they found themselves at the top of a dangerous looking waterfall, and looking further, a lake.

Stevonnie hesitated for the briefest of seconds before they charged over, flailing and whooping as gravity pulled them out of the air and into a free fall. Agility and grace and power had given them enough distance to avoid the rocks below and instead swan dive into the blue clear crystalline pool. Fizzing bubbles of the water being disturbed rushed past their face and down to their toes, tingling and exciting them even more. Fish stared blankly before swimming away, some even daring to get closer to the mysterious creature.

Air!

They swam to the top and gasped as much air as they could, startling a nearby family of deer. Had the wildlife really bounced back that easily after Jasper had destroyed so much of their habitat?

Stevonnie sighed and let themselves float in the cool water and face toward the hot sun. It felt like a physical representation of the two: Steven being the sun, hot and passionate and burning; and Connie being the water, cool and wild and intelligent. Where Steven's chaos burned too brightly, Connie was there to douse the flames or at least contain them. When Connie's stream became a furious downpour, Steven's sun was there to peek through the clouds and warm her into a lighter mist. They weren't perfect, but they worked perfectly.

Connie wondered subconsciously about Steven's alters, and Steven let her. She had every right to worry, a knight was a knight no matter what field. "You should be a psychologist. Something smarter even, like poly-sci." Stevonnie rolled their eyes. "Honestly, I just want to be happy, Steven. I just want us to be happy."

They floated for a stretch of time until the sun was no longer directly above them. Their feet touched the bottom of the pool and they began washing themselves as best they could for half a second, but then they got an idea. "Wanna test our powers a bit more?" An eager grin spread across their face as they clumsily made their way toward the shore. Once on it, they stretched the remaining soreness out of their legs and arms and crouched into a starting position. "You think this'll work? Probably not, but I've been wrong before."

They took a moment to hype themselves up before the cracking of a branch behind them sent them flying forward as fast as they could from still. The water came at them fast, but they didn't fall below it. In fact, as they looked back it seemed they'd left nothing but beautiful tiny splashes as ripples in their wake. It was so cool they shouted, "We can walk on water!"

All too quickly they were back at their camp to grab the nature friendly soaps and ran back again. They'd never bathed before as Stevonnie, but once Connie had mused about doing it in a lake it stuck in both of their minds. Being intersex and a perfect mix of their own, Stevonnies body was a well manicured and beautiful body. Even in the soapy reflection of the lake water they noticed the way Stevens chubbier cheeks framed Connie's eyes perfectly and the way his scruff made them neither feminine nor masculine.

They just were, and Steven allowed a bit of himself to feel whole. He allowed himself to be proud of his anatomy, and comfortable in his skin as much as Stevonnies. Connie must have felt his moment of clarity and pride, because Stevonnie grinned from ear to ear and wrapped their arms around themself. "We are beautiful. You're beautiful. So are you."

For a moment, life seemed perfect.

"O-ow!" They dropped the bar of soap to the sandy bottom and clutched at their head and stomach. Miraculously, they hadn't anticipated this. Fusion meant stability... right? Neither thought he would split or switch while fused. "C-Connie, it's happening! You have to..." Suddenly there was no union, only one Steven fighting to protect his Connie and Connie fighting to stay with her Steven. "Go!"

They split and Steven locked eyes with Connie in midair for a moment, a heterochromia of pink and brown eyes widened in surprise and pain.

No, it wasn't heterochromia... it was another Steven fazing out of the original. A slightly taller, assured, devilish version.

Everything went as still and quiet as a void, but Connie could still see what was happening.

Ruan. The mischievous, salacious, flirt extended his hand out to a dazed Steven. He took it without hesitation, she could've even swore he smiled the brightest she'd seen for a while. A bright flash of light truly blinded her this time, and her vision went black.