Connie carefully helped steven into the temple. She set him on his bed and lay next to him, wrapping her arms around him and snuggling his head. His crying had muffled because he'd pressed his face into her stomach. She held him close and whispered reassuring words of encouragement into his ear, things like "its all over now" and "everything's fine" Stevens crying seemed to be merciless and never ending. But Connie was okay with that, all she wanted was to be with Stevn.

"Its okay... i'm here..." she whispered, rubbing his back gently.

Steven sobbed into her shirt. Lion joined them, leaping onto the empty side of the bed.

"I feel like crap..." he croaked.

"Its okay to feel like that sometimes... those are normal emotions Steven..."

"I... i just..." Steven glowed pink and swelled up for a second, he panicked and hugged Connie tighter.

"Hey hey hey..." she whispered. His glowing dulled and his whole body felt at ease when she spoke, "talk to me..."

"I hate feeling this... i hate feeling so terrible. I did so much bad stuff and i- i got away with it!" He cried. His head tilting to look up at her.

"None of this is your fault..."

Steven never responded. She sat there and stroked his hair, then she sang, "take a moment to think of just... flexibility love and trust..."

Steven sniffled, he smiled, "i guess theres a lot i could learn from my younger self huh?"

" eheh... yeah. Sometimes you just need to face stuff like that. A life without hardships is no life."

Steven sighed and buried his face into her shirt. She held onto him.

"Do you need anything?.. maybe some water?" She began to get up, carefully letting go of him.

Steven began glowing again, he grabbed her with a terrified look on his face, "pl-please don't leave yet..."

Connie hesitated and slowly snuggled back into place, his glowing faded and she hugged his head, "I didn't wanna leave either"

Steven smiled.

"Anything on your mind?" Connie asks kindly.

"Ahh... just you..." he sighed.

"Thats... probably the cutest thing I've ever heard" she giggled and kissed his forehead.

The diamonds and spinel had already left, the two young adults could hear the gems outside examining the damage stevens monster form had caused. Bismuth was definitely out there, it sounded like peridot and lapis left. The warp pad could be heard activated, sounds like someone else just left. Connies thoughts were thrown off track when she heard steven.

"I... i really screwed up this time huh?" He began to cry.

"Everyone screws up steven"

"But not everyone screws up as bad as i did! I really- i just-" steven began to glow again, "every way you look at this its all my fault! I suppressed my emotions and that lead to revenge and then shattering and-"

Lion place a paw on steven, he turned his head. Then turned back to Connie.

He paused, "It's over right?.. why am i still glowing and swelling..."

"You're still upset, and thats okay..." she snuggled up closer to him and sighs softly into his neck, sending shivers down his spine, "we'll get through this together..." she reassured.

Steven hugged her tighter, and he could feel his exhaustion taking control. He closed his heavy eyelids and felt the world fading away. Sleep was an escape from reality, a time to destress and a time to recover. And all he could hear during his slumber was Connies soft humming