Steven Universe Oneshots

Sick

"Sick?" Steven asked again, holding the phone all too tightly, his hand starting to go numb and his knuckles going white. He could hear Connie's slightly muffled 'mhmm' on the other side.

"Don't worry Steven. It's just a cold. I'll be back to normal after a few days." Connie said. Her voice was raspy, and much deeper than usual. She sounded tired.

"Yeah, okay. I'll see you then, okay?"

"Yeah."

He hung up. He had never sick before, whether it was because he was half gem or if it was because he had a good immune system, Steven didn't know. But being sick sounded terrible, with coughing and sneezing and being able to go outside. Sick sounded horrible.

But Connie was human, and she was sick. She had told Steven not to visit, just in case she got him sick. She had told him to 'Go on a cool gem mission and take lots of pictures for me, if I miss one.' Steven was worried nonetheless.

And even though she said that she would be better in a few days, and that she had been sick before, Steven was still worried. But he tried to ignore it.

The next day, Steven trained with Pearl, passing the time.

The day after, he played with Amethyst.

And the day after that, he watched season five and six of Camp Pineheart with Peridot and Lapis, who seemed to be fine living on their own in the barn.

And the day after that, he went to visit Connie, who hadn't called at all, or even tried to talk to him. Was she really that sick? Or was she just trying to heal as fast as she can?

Before he even knocked, he noticed that the door was open. They never left their door open. And as he pushed the door open, he saw that the place looked as if it had been abandoned very, very quickly. A book was on the floor, opened to a random page, the kitchen lights were still on, and there was a thin layer of dust on everything.

"Connie?"

"Connie?"

"Connie? Steven said, over and over as he walked around the empty apartment, looking.

He rushed back home, explaining to Pearl and Garnet was had happened. The empty house, how it was messy, and that it was never messy, and that everything had just been dropped and evacuated.

They took Lion to the hospital.

Connie was sick. Very sick. She had only a slight fever on the day that she had called Steven, but it had progressively gotten worse, and the doctors couldn't do much for her now. It had been caused by her lack of sleep studying and stress in general, although they couldn't imagine a thing in the world that could cause an eleven year old girl that much stress that would make her violently ill.

It was your fault.

If you would've just helped her study.

If you would've helped her train better.

If you would've just let her have more days off from training.

If you would've just told her relax a little.

It's your fault.

She's hurt.

She's sick.

She's dying.

Pearl had left the room, crying. Connie had been her star student, the one that she trusted. They shared a lot in common, their knowledge, their skills with the sword, gem missions. And now Pearl had just been told that Connie was dying under the stress that Pearl had put on her.

Garnet watched over Steven, the confusion in his eyes, the look that maybe if he just pretended that this was a dream that it wouldn't hurt so much, and that humans recovered from things like this all the time. The look that he could've done something better to help her, or to prevent her from getting so sick.

But in reality, you can't go in the past and fix your mistakes.

And humans don't recover from things like that all the time.