Connie stood at the door to the beach house, patiently waiting for Steven to come down from his room. She had called him in advance, telling him that she wanted to hang out.
He seemed overly excited about the offer, it likely had something to do with all the stress that had been building inside of him since stopping Aquamarine.

She had a lot of questions for him, but decided not to pry because she felt it would crush his temporary joy.

Steven opened the door with a wide grin, stepping outside and hugging her.

"Are you ready?" Connie asked, taking his hand in hers, he nodded gleefully.

"It's so great that you were free, otherwise I would have just played games all day." He replied, leading her down the stairs.

"With Spinel?" The mention of games always brought the gem to her thoughts. "How is she?"

Steven laughed off her question as he stepped onto the sands of the beach.

"She seems fine to me, I haven't asked her about Aquamarine or the corruption though, figured she'd want time to deal with it." He answered. Connie joined him on the beach, adjusting her backpack to fit more comfortably on her shoulders.

"That's fair." She agreed, now thinking about what she wanted to do with him.

"So, what do we have planned?" Steven questioned, stopping at the edge of the beach and letting the water of the waves hit his toes.

"I was thinking a nice hike in the ocean, and then some lunch on the boardwalk, followed by a late night movie?" Connie offered, it had been a while since they had spent time together, and since everything in space was off the table, she figured a trip to the free aquarium at their doorstep would be worthwhile.

Steven smiled at the suggestion and pushed himself closer to her, bubbling the two of them so they could freely move about in the water.

"Sounds like a good plan." He chuckled, pushing the walls of the bubble into the ocean. Waves crashed against them, but had little affect against his raw strength. It took a while before they could reach the reef but when they had, it glowed with life.

"It's as beautiful as the last time." Connie remarked, pointing at various sea creatures that drifted by in the waters. Steven seemed content, happy, and that's all she wanted for him.

His party may have been disguised as a welcome back party for Spinel, but she knew that it was, if anything, his attempt at releasing his stress over the Diamonds and the coup.
She had asked him about it last night, but he denied the accusation. He even refused to speak about the corruption scythe, and the save drive inside it.
All under the pretense that if Spinel overheard, she would get upset.
Connie knew better.
And she knew Steven, and she knew that he needed a break from things, desperately.
So, she decided to let it go for the time being, and let the boy settle back into some kind of normalcy.

"Connie," Steven's face dropped it's smile, looking far more weathered than need be. "I know what you're doing."

Connie turned her head, still making the fish face she had while staring at one if the ocean's inhabitants.

"What do you mean?" She asked, losing her puffed up cheeks.
Steven let out a sigh, not exactly wanting to intentionally spoil her plans.

"This," he gestured at the ocean, "and the boardwalk, and the movie, you're trying to make me feel better about things." He explained, sitting down, causing the bubble to stop drifting in the current.
Connie dropped her false smile and sat next to him, brushing her arm against his.

"So? That's okay, right?" She tried to insist, "you deserve a break, don't you think?"

Steven huffed to himself, nodding slightly, she was right, he needed a break, but he couldn't stop thinking about everything, how fast his whole world crashed down.

Connie nudged him, poking him with her elbow, making him laugh as the touch tickled him.

"It's just..." he sighed, trying to find his words. "Dealing with Aquamarine was hard, and what she did to Spinel- now I have to deal with the Diamonds..." he trailed off, not wanting to think of the last time he faced them as enemies.

Connie looked away from him, gazing up at the sun that rippled in the waves above them.

"You don't have to though, they haven't attacked Earth, and you stopped the only gem who wanted to attack earth. You don't need to stop them if you don't want to." She replied, glancing at him as he mulled over her words.

"That's what Spinel said, and I'm starting to think you are right. Earth is safe, if the Diamonds were to attack, they would have." He shook the thought from his head, imagining the end of so much time trying to fix homeworld, when he could just leave it all alone.

"I shouldn't feel obligated to fix them- not if everything I care about is here." He turned to Connie, a content smile on his face.
She was here, the gems were here, even Lars was back and safe. All he ever wanted and needed was right there with him, and trifling with the diamonds was sure to take all of that away.