Steven wasn't having a bad day necessarily, he was just stressed. He'd spent the day on Homeworld the size of a Diamond and it hadn't taxed him. All day he waited for the inevitable buzz of his gem to let him know he was exhausting himself. But the bags under his eyes never showed, he didn't yawn or fall asleep. He didn't even feel discomfort. The hardest part was being afraid he'd get a boner from the cute group photo his polycule and wife had sent him saying they missed him.

And when he finally switched back and stepped on the portal, the consequence was laid before him: he was corrupted because he was still afraid of how comfortable he was being that massive.

It wasn't horrible, but then again, he was desensitized to it for his own mental stability. He had to convince himself he didn't care, but so very few times had his polycule seen him corrupt and calm when there weren't other more important things to focus on. If he was caught, they'd just... stare at him.

He was so afraid of being disgusting it nearly crippled him on the porch as he caught a glimpse of his reflection.

Crystalline pink horns curved slightly up around three inches from his hair that he'd let down. His skin was thicker, smooth and then rough with pink and purple blotches of scales and color in some places. His eyes were black, but the pink Diamonds were still prevalent. His canines were much sharper than usual, and a side effect of being corrupted meant they were already abnormally sharp to begin with.

He sighed and pushed in staring at the floor, praying like a saint no one would see him like this.

But of course, there was one of the last people he wanted to see right now. Hazel turned and tipped his head in concern. "Welcome home, Puppy. I missed you."

Steven's eyes welled with tears and he gritted his teeth. "I'm not a puppy, I'm a monster." He surged toward his house but Hazel got in his way with a wooden spoon. "Please," He sniffled, turning away in humiliation. "I-I don't want— I don't want you to see me like this. I'll get over it."

Hazel was wearing an apron. It took him off guard as the next thing he noticed but it was really cute: bright yellow with ruffles and scrawled over the top in bright pink letters was "Trophy Wife". It suited him when he was in fact the wife between him, Anna and Adam. Just like Steven was more Connie's wife than her husband, they even both preferred to be called that secretly and had shared it with each other. "Steven, are you listening to me?" Hazel asked loudly.

He snapped out of it and stared harder at the floor. "I'm not sure I want to. I know what you're thinking and I'll be back to normal soon, I promise."

Hazel smacked his thigh with the spoon coated in cookie dough. "I said that the cookies are in the oven, and I wanna snuggle."

Steven dared to raise his eyes to Hazel and recoiled. "Are... you blushing?" He asked incredulously. "Or terrified?" That option was almost better, it made sense.

Hazel cupped his cheek and kissed his nose. "Blushing. You're just always so pretty. You're art."

It hurt Steven's feelings. "Ow." He grunted and broke out in a sweat. "N-no, don't do that. Don't lie to me."

Hazel grabbed him this time, roughly, more rough than he ever had and forced him onto his knees. The fire in his eyes was unusual for him. "Do you love me, Steven?" He started to answer but Hazel interrupted. "I mean like, really, really love me? Like you'd take a bullet and if poly marriage was legal we'd be getting married right now."

Steven nodded, red faced when he felt his body's urge to grow a tail so he could wag to expel extra excitement. He just loved when Hazel talked to him, even if he felt he was about to get a talking to. "Yes. All of those things and more. If it wouldn't kill me I'd let you get me pregnant."

"Then... why don't you let me love you?" He blurted in upset. "I care just like Connie does, there's nothing you could ever do or be to turn me off or make me hate you. I love you. And you have to know the story of beauty and the beast, and the fanbase of that whole shit."

Steven shook his head slowly. "I never heard that story."

Hazel crouched and rubbed his thumbs over his cheeks. "Well, a woman lived in a boring little town and her father goes on a trip. He ends up making a cursed beast angry and he imprisons him there, but she trades herself for her father and they fall in love."

He shuffled anxiously as he imagined the story, then gave Hazel a weirded out look. "What kind of beast are we talking?"

"Hair everywhere, bad table manners, probably not potty trained, grumpy, mean and all around a shitty person," Hazel chuckled to him with a kiss to his forehead. "But the more kindness she shows him, the more he changes. And... at the end of the story, he becomes human again." He grinned like he had already told the punchline and glanced behind Steven briefly. "She straight up looked disappointed. And the entire fanbase agrees the beast was the way to go. Your human is kind and handsome as all hell, your Diamond is hot too even if he's a little bit of a prick, but he honestly reminds me of my Adam. And this, I know it hurts and it sucks and you hate it, but I think it's so fucking cool." He brightened at Steven like a sun in August. "Every part of you is fascinating and most of them are wonderful. I love you even when you're angry, even when you're tired of being nice and even when you hate who you are. Sometimes I feel like that about being black when yet another person zips their purse or crosses to the other side of the street. I freak people out just because of how I look but you know what?"

Steven was crying glowing tears and slumped into him, but he was invested. "What?"

"There are people who exclusively want to date black people. There are people who fetishize the fuck out of us, which isn't cool but it proves that one man's monster is another man's biggest turn on." He blew out a breath and pulled away a little, an embarrassed glow overtaking him. "And look, I glow just like you do now when I'm embarrassed. We all do, and trust me, it freaks other humans out when I glow in the grocery store line because I forgot my wallet." He shrugged it off, Steven could almost see it rolling off his shoulders. "This is part of who you are, and I kind of hate that they call it corrupted. From what you and Connie and the gems told us, it sounds like the only time you were actually corrupted you still had enough self control to not want to hurt people. The other ones didn't. And so... I guess I see this as the tamed version, and maybe you need more love like this so you can grow more comfortable with it. Sometimes being accepted by others helps you move on from hating your body. You should talk to Adam and Anna about that, they get it and we've talked about exactly this before."

Steven chuffed softly, enamored with this emotionally intelligent man who used to knock people out for entertainment purposes. "I'm in love with you... and I trust you." He let out a shuttering breath and stood to pull him to the couch, then glanced behind him too. "Huh. I was thinking about how badly I wanted to fly away and now..." He shook the thought from his head and shapeshifted them away.

Hazel laid down and patted his chest. "Just two wives on a couch. No biggie, it's not lesbian I promise."

Steven snuggled up to him carefully, wary of the sharp to the touch scales and horns. "I'm so scared of hurting you." He choked on a sob and went rigid, he was so afraid to move wrong. "I hate this."

Hazel brushed his fingers through his hair and over his horns in a fluid motion that made Steven gasp. "I'm just exploring, you can tell me to stop whenever you want," He encouraged lightly. "I think your horns are so pretty."

Steven moaned, it was involuntary when he touched more surely. "S-sorry, that feels good."

He could hear Hazel smile. "Better than puppy ears?" He ran his nails over them lightly and pulled away fast to pull up Steven's face. "Steven?!"

He was trembling violently and deeply red. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry—,"

"Stop apologizing for the way your body works, I hate that shit," Hazel scolded. "Adam's always apologizing for being horny and flirtatious, Anna's always apologizing for crying a lot over things she thinks is small... It's your body and I love it."

Steven whimpered and went limp. "Is this body dysphoria?"

"Actually yeah, it is, Steven." Hazel was more hesitant now, his fingertips let the scales slide under them, they were smooth but sharp from an angle kind of like a fishes scales. He tapped against one and he could feel how hard they were, how difficult it would be to crack or even scratch one, let alone break through. They were iridescent, when Steven shivered they reflected the light with a rainbow sheen over the deep purple and pinks.

He leaned up to kiss Steven's horns and he growled at him. Not a human growl either, this was the kind he'd heard from Lion when attempting to move his lizard stuffie. A grin broke out and he continued on, curious to see what would happen.

Well, what happened was Steven purred and bit him. It wasn't too hard but his teeth were sharp enough to make Hazel gasp. He didn't seem to care, he stayed like that and then kissed it better. This time the healing didn't tingle, it buzzed like static. "You bottom! You just bit me!" He laughed.

"I had to," He protested shallowly. "It's making me excited and aggressive when you do it. I love how much you love me. I love you too."

"I didn't say I loved you yet," He replied cheerfully. "I was gonna give you another speech afterwards and then maybe cuddle fuck you."

Steven giggled dreamily and wrapped his arms around him carefully. "When you touch my horns, it feels like I Love You... Please don't stop. I need it."

Hazel hadn't planned to.

After a while Adam snuck out towards the fridge and Hazel glanced up briefly to tsk him. "Shame on you, you're gonna have another tummy ache."

Adam stopped short and pointed silently at Steven. He put a hand over his throat and shrugged, a barely there monotone voice sending worry through them both. Sometimes he just lost the ability to speak normally or at all, but they watched him try until his cheeks went pink. A full 12 seconds later and he finally got something out. "How's the baby?"

Hazel shushed him delicately and pointed to the star hair band holding up his dreads. "He's good. Just sign it."

Adam looked unsure but signed, "Can you understand me?"

Hazel pressed his lips to a horn and basked in Steven's sweet mewl. "Yeah. I'm trying to get Steven to realize we still love him even if he's like this."

Adam crossed over to sit a respectful distance away, and he so he wouldn't overstimulate himself. He'd never gotten observe Steven like this, he always made it seem like they'd turn to stone if they really looked. But he needed to observe everything to feel comfortable with it, including Stevens new forms and fusions. "Does he know he looks rad as fuck?" He signed humorously. "Cause I'd kill to have a form like this, no questions asked."

Hazel scratched behind his horns rapidly and Steven laughed through his moan. "Ugh, that's a-amazing~." His eyes turned to Adam. "Hi."

The goth scooted closer and kissed him outright. His tongue scaled Steven's and he smiled big. "Ethereal Fuckers wish they were us. He's so handsome."

Steven snorted. "It's Monster Fucker."

"Ever since corruption becoming a thing on earth, they decided that was an "offensive word"," Adam signed back with a roll of his eyes. "It is, but they don't know why."

Steven wrinkled his nose. Humans were so freaking weird with their outlandish kinks that scaled to whatever strange eldridge entity they could imagine doing unholy things to them. Not that he blamed them, but he could still think it was fucking weird for his partners to want to fuck him like this. "I'm so concerned for humans, why did Rose even bother with you f-f-," He grabbed Hazels wrists hard and squeaked. "Slow... Slow down o-or I might lose it again. Your hands are so warm."

"Sorry," Hazel giggled. "I got excited! You're just so cute!" He kissed a horn and dragged his lips down it until he could feel Steven getting hard and annoyed. "Christmas morning joy," He mumbled against it.

Adam raised an eyebrow. "So you understand sign language?" It was verbal!

Hazel cheered under his breath. Adam's voice getting so void of life freaked him out like nothing else, but it was just him rebooting or sapped of energy. He'd usually snuggle into his neck and kiss over his throat again and again, willing his soul to seep back into his body and voice. "Welcome back, Hubby."

Adam smiled at him like he loved them. That was all he needed to do. He was uncomfortable with the tone of his voice when he wasn't nonverbal too; it was robotic in his mind to the point of actual physical distress. It scared him and made him feel broken, a lot like how Steven felt about his body.

"Ever since the Diamonds became a matriarchy, I've been learning the languages but I have Peridots earrings in like, all the time now that I know you get stuck in languages sometimes." Steven smiled lazily at Adam and reached out a hand. Clearly nervous, he muttered, "You can touch. I-if you want."

Adam delicately grabbed his hand and brushed the hair from his eyes. He kissed over the scales and brought them to his cheek. "I've never seen a side of you that I didn't think was beautiful," He murmured blankly, but with the slightest inflection that said there was real emotion behind it. "I love you."

Steven smiled through his tears. "I'm trying to learn to love me too."