Steven was still typing on the computer when Connie had turned in for the night. She loved watching his curls move as he worked. And how those thick long lashes made him so so pretty. And those broad shoulders lifting with every breath...

"I love you, Steven."

She fell asleep smiling when he stopped whatever he was so focused on in his files to turn to her. "I love you too, Connie. I love you so much. I'll be to bed soon."

As it turned out, he would not be to bed soon.

Steven clicked on a very large file taking up a lot of space and frowned his lack of recognition. "Poison?" He mumbled, turning the volume down all the way. He didn't recognize the first few seconds either. It broke his heart that he'd completely forgotten one of his songs and even if it was with Allison (which it didn't look like it was), he'd need to hear it with sound. Guiltily, Steven grabbed his laptop and tip toed out.

Connie had woken up a few minutes prior and watched as Steven grew visibly distraught. She almost called out to him but he snuck out quick enough she didn't gather the courage in time. "Never a dull day in the De Mayo-Maheswaren marriage."

She threw on a robe and texted the rest of the gang past their DND.

'Be dead silent, fast, and help me find Steven.'

Ten minutes later the last few shuffled out in confusion.

"Connie, what's going on?" Adam rubbed at his eyes. "It's 2 in the morning."

"Steven's gone. I already checked our house and the commons and I didn't see any light from the stairwell."

Jacob glanced that way. "Let's go double check. Was he acting weird–?"

Connie nodded. "Well, not weird. I called cause he seems upset at a video he found."

They needed no further encouragement to sneak down quietly and loudly shush each other for every crack of a bone or creak of a stair.

"I can't believe Jasmin woke me up for this," Alex whisper yelled. "This better be something big."

Hazel shot out a hand to point under the theater room door. "Found him. He likes to hide in there sometimes."

Anna, being a master sneaker, opened the door slowly and enough that they could clearly see Steven finishing hooking up his computer to the main screen and grabbing the remote. A bit of the projection covered him in blue before it settled on the first image.

"I feel guilty for peeking in." Connie chewed on her lip anxiously. "If this is important–,"

Jasmin took a sharp breath. "Uh oh–," and sneezed the loudest, most high pitched sneeze ever recorded.

Steven spun around lightning quick and his shield summoned out of pure instinct. "Oh... it's you guys."

Jasmin sensed his tone even as the shield disappeared. "Hey, Steven, we can go–,"

Steven turned away to stare up at his much younger likeness in a red flannel. "Stay." His head tipped back further than he was used to, but there was something about this video that was making him incredibly uneasy. "You just might see something you don't want to see."

Connie tightened her robe around herself. "Steven, I can take it. I'm your wife."

"Something tells me you're in over your head."

Anna grabbed Connie's shoulder before she could stomp up to him and give him an earful. "He's brooding."

Steven had already lost interest and was staring up at the screen. "Why don't I remember this happening?" He sounded terrified, and sure enough he started glowing as he hit the play button.

The first few seconds it was very clear something was off by just looking into his eyes. They flickered between pink and brown at a ridiculous pace, and his gem was ebbing and waxing with an uncontrolled glow as he was bouncing on his tip toes.

"Go ahead, Steven. Sing for me like you love me."

That voice was slimy, sexy, charming. That voice belonged to a person far worse her description.

"I thought I was already doing that?" Steven timidly rubbed at his neck until something off camera made his arm snap back down. "Of course. Anything for you, Allison."

There was a sound in the background that made Connie's blood run ice cold. A two syllable click that made the Steven in front of them turn a blinding pink and curl into himself for a second, arms covering his head. His defenses had been raised but now he was unable to control his reaction.

The result on the younger Steven was terrifying. His face burned red and his eyes started glowing. "Let's wrap this up then, Ally."

"Steven," Allison giggled salaciously. "Behave!"

The younger Steven rolled his eyes and smirked. "Oh, alright."

Opening notes of a song they were sure they hadn't heard of started playing and the Steven on the screen grinned so closely to present Steven that it hurt them. "I'm not above love to cash in
Another lover underneath those flashin' lights
Another one of those ruthless nights,"

Connie was provided with the memory of Steven mentioning he used to be tossed around for fun as the live feed faded into a music video with him as the star. He was covered in women and clearly high out of his mind as he laughed and Carter walked by to pat his head. Steven had always been a rather touchy person, it was his favorite way to love. And that showed greatly in a pretty vivid example of why Steven was so prone to polyamory, he simply struggled to keep his hands to himself sometimes. Not that he was trying to.

"I shoulda guessed that this would happen
I shoulda known it when I looked in your ice-blue eyes
Spewin' all your red-hot lies."

Of course, the woman always had to look too glamorous for life, so there was an "all eyes on her moment" as Allison motioned for him to wrap it up with a prim smile.

"She was pimping him out. Look at her purse, it's swollen with loose money," Adam murmured to Hazel. "Makes sense this didn't come out."

"Murder. It's always on the table," Hazel whispered, dead serious.

"What's the worst part of this hell?
I can only blame myself."

The screen switched back to Steven singing the recording as Allison circling around the back of him. "'Cause I know you're poison, you're feedin' me poison," Even with her trying to stay out of his line of sight, TV Steven was intent on keeping her there. He looked at her like he loved her, his starving grin said it all. "Addicted to this feelin', I can't help but swallow up your poison
I made my choice, and every night, I'm livin' like there's no tomorrow," Allison leaned up on her tippy toes to whisper in his ear and he wrapped a hand around her waist.
"Any way you want me, baby, that's the way you got me,
I'll be yours," He pumped his free hand into the air and gave it his all, enough that his magic burst out of him.
"My story's gonna end with me dead from your poison," She smiled at him and stroked a finger across his cheek as it faded to another scene that made Steven verbally gasp.

Steven, once again surrounded by women and men was clearly having the time of his life, and it looked far later than the one before it. Everyone who went for a kiss got one in between him floating, dancing on the tables, and generally being the life of the party. He flirted with everyone, blowing kisses and grabbing whatever he could.

Dozens of lines of cocaine appeared on the table with music video magic and the amount of drugs that were being done was borderline insane. Steven was straight up taking down lines of cocaine like they were nothing.

The present one up front just stared, frozen to the spot. Horrified. Disgusted. Nauseous.

They had no idea if the Steven singing could see anything they were. They couldn't tell, but he sang when the time came again, though he looked a little surprised as Allison nuzzled into his neck. "I got so good at bein' untrue
I got so good at tellin' you what you wanna hear," He looked right at her and brushed a lock of hair from her face.
"I disassociate, disappear–,"

To everyone's dismay, she pressed her lips to his as long as the pause would allow, his tongue skimming over her bottom one and he burned even brighter as he swallowed. It was like she was actively feeding him straight sugar and...

"He's still on cocaine," Connie whispered, just as horrified but more distraught than anything. It had to have been on her lips the way he latched on for a moment of desperation as he tasted her. He was just a kid, really. 19 or 20 or whatever was barely dipping their toes into adulthood and Steven left young anyhow. He wasn't oblivious, Steven knew what drugs were and that they were bad. Within her heart of hearts she believed that boy wouldn't have done anything without encouragement and coercion.

Anna rubbed her arm, eyes glued to the screen and so wide the reflection was playing in them almost as clearly as on the screen. "Breathe." Was she encouraging Connie, or herself? She hoped the former, but if she were any more stunned she'd have to have been attacked by a legion of jellyfish and scorpions.

Young Steven, love drunk and clearly lost in Allison, sang achingly, "So far beyond difficult to resist another gulp,"

Steven up front backed into a chair to sit, tossed his hair up and watched intently as the longer Allison was in his arms, the more times he heard that clicker how he literally lit up for her. Sitting there, he yearned for nothing but to forget the feeling. He hated being able to say he could relate, even if the feelings were less messy now.

Multiple scenes, as many as Ash could probably fit that he'd taken of Steven filled the screen at the same time. In the very top left corner, Steven stumbled out of the bathroom red faced and rubbing at his cheeks to push the blood away. He looked confused, even on the precipice of wanting out, but Allison stroked her thumbs over his cheeks as she greeted him and hit the clicker. He looked confused, but allowed it. Steven remembered that moment: the exact moment he'd first gotten his face fucked.

The top right showed the same thing, but there was a change in his walk. It was a bit more steady, though he still seemed shy. No, not steady, it wasn't a saunter like he'd thought. Upon looking closely he recognized that walk as one the boys had put him in time and time again: with a limp. His cheeks were glowing with a blush he couldn't control, but once Allison hit that clicker it spread slowly.

Jacob was focused on the bottom left, where Steven heard the click and went aglow immediately in his eyes, searching for the source and grabbing her like she weighed nothing. His hands, lips and powers locked her in against the nearest wall and she grabbed a drink as it passed it pour into his mouth. After, she dropped it and forced him to look at her while she told him something that made him nod desperately.

But Hazels eyes were locked on the one right in the middle, one could easily guess what was going on at the bottom left. Something heartbreaking and so unlike their Steven.

No, in the middle Steven seemed to be regressing from training, the clicker had no effect past his fear. It gave him hope until the very last thing he'd expected to happen, happened. Allison, 5'5, grabbed Stevens hair and kicked against the back of his knees. Unintentionally Hazel gasped as Steven crashed to his knees looking up at Allison like a kid whose mother just hit him, and he didn't know why. He hulked out like any sane person would do, but Allison smiled in delight. This time the clicker worked and he looked up at her with a new expression, something between lust and loathing.

"My story's gonna end with me dead from your poison." Allison pulled him into a kiss and he instantly forgot the camera. Steven had to turn away, he couldn't watch himself get carried away with Allison. He already felt like he was going to need a boiling shower in bleach while he dry heaved on his hands and knees for six hours.

The video glitched out to what was possibly the next day. The flickering in Stevens eyes  was gone and he looked completely gutted, lying in a bathtub recording on his phone with a glitchy camera.
"Poison, I'm drownin' in poison," He tugged at his hair as he cried and the video froze again.
"I'm fillin' up my glass, but it's always hollow," He wiped his nose and noticed the blood that came back and his voice broke further.
"Full of poison, I'm sick of the poison," His skin flickered to a glow but ultimately died out, he was separated from his powers. Apparently, cocaine had that effect.
"Wish I had somethin' to live for tomorrow." He crawled and passed out on the floor, flipping the phone over toward the ceiling with the faint sound of him sniffling in his sleep.

It ended, and for a very long time no one said anything. The silence was pregnant and Stevens glow was so bright there was no darkness to hide behind. Connie was sobbing into her hand, she hated that woman so much. It clawed at her, the abuse was so frequent and obvious to probably everyone but Steven. He didn't know any better, but hadn't the people around him? Why had no one tried to save him? Why had they broken up in the first place? Guilt rose until she was nauseous. She couldn't tell Steven that and make him feel worse. She'd have to keep it to herself.

However impossible they felt it was to process Steven doing hard drugs, or Steven being so heartbroken and aching inside, they couldn't begin to imagine Steven having to watch it like it was the first time it happened all over again.

A mix of grief and anger beginning to boil to the surface brought Jacob to stand abruptly and sit next to Steven. He didn't say anything either, he didn't know what to say.

When Steven didn't react at all, the rest came and sat with him, staring up at the blue flickering of the screen.

"You make beautiful music, Steven," Anna murmured sweetly.

Connie came and sat at his feet, still crying but silently. Feeling his thick fingers play with her hair gave her the tiniest bit of comfort. "You're beautiful."

His hands pulled away and he took a shaky breath. "Sometimes I feel too dirty to even touch people. Allison made me feel so dirty."

Steven broke down for what felt like the thousandth time in front of his friends out of nowhere. He rested his forehead on Connie's head and thanked his lucky stars when his friends loved him like they always did.

Adam perched on the back of Steven's seat and rubbed his back. "You are so fucking loved. Regardless of your trauma."

"That's all I ever wanted."