"I should have gone in with her."
 
Steven Quartz Demayo, a  burly young man, groaned as he waited by their hovercar, hands in his pocket. He couldn't help but worry when it came to his job. 
 
Well, their job now. 
 
He could hear the carnage going on inside the enemy's hideout, a lovely looking gothic manor four stories tall, a fine jewel in this time and age. Way too good for a ragtag band of drug dealers and traffickers. 
 
To make it even worse, he let a beast with a childlike giggle cause all kinds of discord and chaos among what seemed to be a hail of bullets and blood-curdling screams. He felt terrible for their opponents. 
 
"Opponents, more like prey. I hope Connie doesn't go overboard...I like the look of this place, would make a good away house."
 
He saw one of the second-floor stained glass windows shatter as a body plummeted to the ground with a sickening crack, a ruby.
 
 The body poof, but the gem was already broken due to the fall on the marble path; its organic essence splattered.
 
"Hey partner, enjoying the show?" The feminine voice called out through the car monitor. On the said monitor were the actions happening within the mansion. 
 
Humans, Gems, and Hybrids, each fighting desperately with both melee and projectile weaponry, only to be taken down one by one by the dual shotel blades of an invisible enemy...At least from the camera point of view, last time he looked.
 
"I haven't been watching...You know I can't stomach watching you in action."
 
"What!? Come on, why'd you think I let you place these thrice-damned lenses in my bedroom blacks. You're supposed to have my back...You know, see what I might have missed."
 
"We know you don't miss a damn thing when you are in work mode."
 
"True...You could still watch, though, since you were so kind to let me go solo."
 
"Ugh! I figured it'd be easier...I mean, I enjoy this work immensely, but 26 extermination jobs in one week...I may be part gem, but I am also part human. I get tired, A night off...is it too much to ask?"
 
"Hey, you're the one who jumped on it when you saw the place." 
 
"Thought it'd be a nice getaway home. The kid might like the outskirts of the city, get some greenery and beach air. After repairs, of course...You could be a little more delicate, you know."
 
"Oh, I'm sorry, is the way I fight a problem for you? "
 
"Just saying you don't have to thrash all through the place. it's torture to see such profit destroyed."
 
"I dive into my work, can't help the collateral damage sometimes, especially when the enemy likes to shoot from afar. You should try to enjoy it more."
 
"We both know I enjoy being in battle, just that I'm more surgical than you."
 
"Ok, we both know that's a lie. You have your collateral damage record yourself, big guy, especially when you're in the meat of it. Speaking of which."
 
What followed was a scream, the ripping of flesh, and a body dropping. 
 
"Ok. continue, Big guy."
 
"All I'm saying is, I like avoiding unnecessary collateral damage. So many things could have been flipped for a profit. Statues, tables, hell even this hideout could make a hefty profit."
 
"Ha! like you'd flip this building, you like it way too much...Probably plan on forging a deed for this place."
 
"It's a nice place, but you. You little berserker, you're probably wrecking each and every room you walked in. The best thing to do would be to keep it since you drop market values as fast as you drop bodies. It's torture to the eyes."
 
"I dropped jaws quicker."
 
Steven sighed with a smirk on his face as the memory of their reunion from two months ago came to him.
 
He couldn't deny that his jaw certainly hit the floor when he saw Connie Maheswaran sitting on the chair of his office...wrapped in one of his more miniature towels wet from just using his shower, that hugged her curves but showed off the entire length of her very long, toned legs and a precocious little seven-year-old kid sitting in the lazy boy in the room, reading that day news holo, who eyes lit up as she saw him for the first time. 
 
They introduced themselves as Stevonnie Converse Maheswaran.
 
Their kid.
 
Crazy first meetings and reintroductions are crazy. 

It's been ten weeks since the gem/ human hybrid of an odd jobber, the meta-human assassin, and her… Their kid Stevonnie, who is a unique biological mixture of both of them but heavy on the sass and maturity, started cohabiting with each other. 
 
A hail of bullets bursting out of the fourth-floor window woke him from his musing, and just as he was about to groan in annoyance, a pained one beat him. 
 
It resounded in his ear, making his heart stop and blood boil...

"Gah! shit, that's smart..."
 
"What the hell happened?!"
 
His answer came in the form of pained, haggard breathing.
 
"Hell, I screwed up."
 
"What do you mean, ' you screwed up ,' Connie?"
 
"Plugged..by bullets." She breathed, " was caught off guard.
 
"Where?"
 
"Steven?..."
 
"Where are you, Connie!?" His voice sounded desperate, so different than his usually calm voice.
 
"Fourth floor...Thinking…. the bathroom?." 
 
"I'm on my way."
 
"Don't...It's all right. Just a flesh wound, pressure." She groaned.
 
"Don't move an inch; I'm on my way."
 
Steven kissed his teeth before rushing towards the building and entering through the broken window, landing as quietly as possible as he scanned the corridor. 
 
'Would like to know where she is .' Steven thought, his eyes catching some dark-red blood on the floor. 'Bingo .'
 
He moved quickly, following the minuscule droplets to the room at the hallway's end.
 
And felt his blood boil at the sight.
 
Connie sat against the wall; pained, closed eyes look on her face. Palm at her bleeding side, bullet holes in the wall behind her that looked like wings, the moonlight was shining on her, giving her a beautiful astral glow.
 
Steven felt his cheeks get red; memories of a different time were resurfacing.
 
'Not the time, Steven .' He reprimanded himself as he crouched in front of her, "Connie?"
 
"Hey, Big guy." Connie opened her jet and gold eyes, a sign of her being a meta, and smiled through the pain, "something is in those bullets; healing is at a snail's pace." She chuckled out a groan.
 
"See, you can still laugh, Little berserker." He caressed her cheek, evoking a sigh from his partner, "anything I should know?"
 
"A Jasper with a Gatling gun. The only guy left..." She told him." Kind of a coward but...Gatling gun."
 
"They won't last long." Steven's eyes narrowed, "do you need a hand up?"
 
"No, I'll be fine." Connie pushed herself up, wincing in pain, before straightening herself, "healing's slow, but not inactive...and" she winced as she stuck her hands inside her bullet wound, feeling for it and pulling it out. "Ooh, that much better."
 
"It seems you have done this before."
 
"Have you forgotten I was trained and raised to lead an assassin clan?" Connie smirked, 'Before murdering said clan heads .' She mused
 
 "I'm gonna rest here for the moment; you can have the big boss." 
 
"You got shot, now you're being lazy?" Steven teased, getting a laugh from his partner and mother of his child.
 
"Yeah..cause I cleared out everyone else." She chuckles, "now hurry and get the boss so we can leave, report to the bounty authority and get our money for this."
 
As Steven left, Connie tried to soothe her wound, it was healing slowly, but it was healing. She rested her head against the wall, breathing slowly.
 
'Weird that I got shot while I was trying to keep a low profile ...' She sighed, 'I must be sleepy.'
 
Her eyes closed, and she rested a while before Steven came back, leading the jasper hybrid  to her, who was battered and beaten, a sign of Steven's work.
 
"You had fun there, big guy?" Connie asked, amused.
 
"Had a good time wrecking this place." Steven joked as he helped her up. " and this guy."
 
"You have a lot of nerve to talk like that after giving me hell for my destruction... Being a big, bad boss of the building, you busted up." Connie teased him playfully.
 
Steven smiled, "who said I won't fix this place up myself?"
 
" Oh, so you gonna keep it?" Connie nodded; that was just like Steven.
 
" Oh no, I'm flipping this property," Steven stated, hoisting the jasper on his shoulder.
 
"What about the whole getaway from the city for Stevonnie and such."
 
"This ain't the only one I have..." He smirked, "Besides..." his mind flashed to the form of Connie slumped as he looked at the bullet holes in the wall," this place lost its appeal."
 
"Heh, I'd worry if you said it had too much." She joked, her eyes looking at the bullet holes and back to Steven, a gentle appreciative look.
 
"Connie?"
 
"Yes, Big Guy?"
 
"All healed up?"
 
Connie smirked and lifted her top, revealing her toned chestnut stomach with only the slightest tan marred mark on her left side. Another addition to her tapestry of life.
 
"All healed, big-guy. Gotta love that Meta-human biology."
 
Steven smirked, "I can see that...even after giving birth to Stevonnie, living as an assassin, and our current lifestyle, your body is still a marvel to me." he caressed the mark gingerly.
 
"Aww, that sweet but, I don't recall saying you can take a touch," Connie told him with a mischievous grin.
 
Steven's heart did a flip, and his cheeks burned, "hey, I was just checking to see that you were all healed up."
 
" And you had to touch to see that?"
 
"I like to touch." Steven admitted without thinking, wait..."
 
"Never said you couldn't." Connie purred, kissing Steven's cheek and walking," Let's go home, Sure our darling daughter is waiting for us, poppa ." She giggled as she strolled out the window with her ass flexing. Her skirt long at it gave a peek of hip underneath as she left and climbed into their car.
 
Steven smiled, throwing a devilish look at the jasper  he carried, who groaned in pain, "let get you back to the city and into a nice holding cell."
 
"Fucking...Dollar dogs." The jasper groaned, getting a knock-out blow from Steven. 
 
"Be glad I don't poof ya." Steven barked before following Connie, who was sitting ever so pretty in the passenger seat of the hovercar, her grin bright and full of pride.
 
A clear sign she was talking to Stevonnie over video phone.
 
Steven smirked, feeling a bubble of love for Connie and Stevonnie, The mother and daughter pair who brighten his life.  
 
Putting the jasper in the back and bubbling him before sitting in the driver's seat.
 
"Are you guys on your way back!" Stevonnie hoped.
 
"Yes, my little love, we're done here." Connie smiled, " I will tell you all about it tomorrow."
 
"Yes, you will!" Stevonnie grinned.
 
"We'll be there asap; we'll see you in a bit, Stevie." Steven smiled, seeing his Kid beam at her nickname.
 
"We love you, Stevonnie," Connie told her little girl, who giggled, "be good for Garnet and Kevin."
 
"Love you too, mommy and daddy." She giggled. " See you in a bit." She closed the call with a smile.
 
Steven and Connie smiled at each other before Steven started the hovercar, and they drove off to their home within Neo-Empire with Connie leaning back into her seat and putting her ankles on the dashboard, showing a good amount of thigh.
 
"Good job tonight; wanna get something to eat on the way to drop off?" Steven asked as he drove.
 
"Nah, I'm good." Connie smiled, "just wanna go home, see Stevonnie, and sleep."
 
"You need a nap? Did the berserker tucker herself out?" Steven teases her.
 
"Shut up." She chuckled, "But you are right. I do need sleep. Been training like hell to get back to top shape. Being a dollar dog more demanding than an assassin...Definitely after 26 jobs straight."
 
"Told you...still, you make it look good." Steven said, "Well, you always look good in my eyes."
 
Connie gave him a smirk, "Flattery will get you everywhere." Her eyes twinkled, "And you look fine yourself."
 
"Why, thank you." He replied, "for now, get some sleep; I'll wake you when we get home."
 
"Sounds like a plan." Connie yawned softly and leaned against the side of the car.
 
Steven smirked and drove. Connie, meanwhile, closed her eyes and felt the wind pass by her face, her mind wondering about the future and her daughter's growth and development.
 
'It's been seven years and I still can't believe how much my life has changed.  I brought a whole new life into this world was something I never thought I would do ...' Connie told herself, 'being a single mother and running from my assassin clan; I thought it was a risk I would never take...but I did. I'm glad I did; if I hadn't, Stevonnie wouldn't be as free as she is...Wouldn't have met her father...We wouldn't be here with Steven .'
 
Connie looked over at her partner and smiled. Steven turned around and smiled back, getting butterflies in her stomach.
 
'It took eight years, but I'm happy I'm here with you, Steven. I love you. Never stopped .' She thought
 
A few moments later, she dozed off, looking at her ex-assassin turned bounty hunting mate—a soft smile on her face.
 
"Whoever thought ten weeks ago, I'd be here with you?" Steven adored the sleeping woman beside him. "Or that I would have a sweet seven-year-old angel...Thank you both."
 
Steven's chest felt tight, and he smiled at her, 'I love you two. Both of you. I really do .' He thought, and he felt tears in his eyes. "Come on, not now an ex- Mafioso should act." He chuckled, ruffling her hair.
 
"Mmhm..." she murmured, shifting in her seat, "I love you." She said softly, not knowing if she was talking to Steven or Stevonnie.
 
Steven smiled as he kept on their way. Thought of their reunion from ten weeks ago in his mind.
 ---------------
 A/N: And this is the beginning of my Dollar dogs au. The au is a brainchild of things like SpyxFamily, Bungou stray dogs, and things like that. So expect some super-powered fights, romantic Connverse, family moments between Steven, Connie, and Stevonnie, slice of life elements, over-the-top characters, and some dark past.

The next chapter will be starting a flashback about Steven, Connie, and Stevonnie's reunion. I will also show some things about the world of dollar dogs.

Thanks for reading!

I hope you all enjoy this.

See you next time! hope you enjoyed
 
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Juanita Universe
Violet_skies1125
stevonnie_verse07
-heavenly-astra