💫

You awoke to the sound of Steven's alarm sounding at the horrid hour of 5am. You groaned when Steven took his arms from around you to silence his phone.

"No..." you whined, your morning voice raspy. "Don't leave. Bed good. Cuddles."

"That was very well articulated," Steven laughed lightly, stretching his arms over his head. "Huh," he stopped.

"What?" you sat up sleepily.

"Looks like you might get what you wished for."

You followed Steven's gaze to the slider door off of his bedroom- through the glass you could see nothing but pure white. It had snowed.

Correction, it had snow stormed.

"Oh, I get it," Steven groaned.

"Get what?" you asked, still half asleep.

Without saying anything, Steven found Garnet's gift from the night before and held it up; a pair of snow pants.

Before you could say "snow day," you and Steven were out the door- decked in jackets, hats, scarves, gloves, and yes, snow pants galore.

You were bent over, starting to create the base of a snowman, when you felt a cold impact on the back of your head. Small chunks of snow rained from your hair onto your shoulders and down your back. You turned to Steven, a crazed look in your eye, and began packing a snowball. The snow melting against the skin of your back was driving you insane, and you craved vengeance.

Steven's pale pink face split into a grin as you drew your arm back, snowball in hand.

"Hit me with your best shot!" he laughed, summoning his shield.

You paused and lowered your weapon... AKA your snowball. "No magic! it's not fair."

"It's not my fault you aren't magic!" Steven argued, hurling a snowball at your shoulder.

You dodged it and retaliated; "and it's not my fault that you are!"

The two of you fought back and forth from opposite sides of the beach- using littered pieces of temple rubble to hide behind. You crouched behind a giant hand and replenished your ammo. (You sat in the snow and scraped together a couple of snowballs). Just as you got yourself together and began to stand, you felt a familiar and chilling shock against your back.

"Cheater!" you shivered angrily, turning around to face the culprit.

"Sorry, not sorry!" Steven started off, leaving you in the dust- or rather, snow. But you wouldn't let this slide. With no plan in mind, you ran after him, taking full advantage of the fact that he was the only one out of he two of you wearing snow pants. Any snowball fighter worth their salt would know never to wear snow pants in battle- they only slow you down.

You watched as the distance between you and Steven shrunk with every pace you took. Before long, you were in touching distance. You reached out your arm to grab his shoulder, or hand, or scarf, or something... But Steven caught on to your plan and abruptly stopped in his tracks. Unfortunately for you, your running was faster than your reflexes, and you ran straight into Steven's back. You fell back and laid on yours in defeat.

Why was this game so god damn intense?

"Did I win?" Steven gloated, standing over you.

You closed your eyes, exhausted. "Never," you groaned, your lungs burning from the cold.

Steven dropped down to the ground and laid over your chest, slapping the snow beside your face. "1... 2... 3... Steven wins!" he laughed, the steam of his breath floating between your faces.

"This isn't a wresting match, you dork," you rolled your eyes and tried to get up, but Steven had you pinned.

Steven smiled, "yeah, cause if it was, I'd win."

"Probably," you tried to get up once more and failed. Steven looked at you, one eyebrow raised. "Definitely," you corrected yourself.

Steven smiled and examined your face... your nose and cheeks a bright shade of pink from the biting cold, and snowflakes caught in your eyelashes.

"What?" you smiled.

"Nothing," Steven said, but he still stared.

"You sure?" you asked skeptically. "Because you're still on top of me."

"That is true," Steven glanced at your lips, as if the past few lines of dialogue didn't make things obvious enough.

In any case, you tilted your face up to meet his, with the back of your head still planted firmly in the snow. He closed the gap, and suddenly, your faces weren't so cold anymore.

💫

Back inside, you carefully laid out yours and Steven's wet snow clothes by the furnace to dry. Steven, meanwhile, was cooking up two mugs of hot chocolate- with extra marshmallows. You sat on the floor in front of the fire and wrung your hair in your hands, the ends damp from the snow.

Steven appeared behind you, holding two mugs full of hot chocolate; "Cocoa for your thoughts?"

You turned and looked up at him, "what thoughts?"

"You're looking at that fire like it's gonna start talking," he replied, gesturing toward the furnace even with a mug in his hand.

"You never know," you shrugged.

Steven turned to the furnace, pretending to be surprised. "Calcifer? Buddy? You in there?"

Steven chuckled quietly at his own joke- to save the two of you from silence. You smiled tightly and took your hot cocoa from Steven.

"I want you to be happy, Steven. I want you to know that," you turned back to the fire and placed your mug on the ground between you and it. "But... selfishly... I also don't want you to leave me."

Steven nodded, sitting down next to you. "I know," he said. "I... don't want to leave either."

"Then why don't you stay?"

Steven waited for a long moment before speaking. It was his turn to stare into the fire for answers. "I... think I have to leave."

He stopped talking, but you knew he wasn't finished. You took his hand in yours and gave it a squeeze before he continued;

"I've never taken the time to... figure out who I am, you know? My whole life was just me trying to figure out if I was my mom, or Rose, or Pink- whatever. Now that I know I'm Steven, I need to know who that is. And I don't think I have... ever known who that is."

"Steven..."

"I love you. So much. But I have to go."

"I know."

You shared a slow, passionate kiss- the kind you could savor for months. And you knew that was exactly what you had to do. When you finally pulled apart, you rested your forehead against Steven's and looked at him meaningfully. Steven met your eyes, and not a moment later, they were closed again when your lips touched.

You let everything in the world fade away as you held each other. For just one night, no one was leaving. Nothing was wrong in the world, and you understood why people always said "ignorance is bliss." With Steven, everything was right. You felt right. And on your last night with him, you felt right together. Your bodies danced together like flames in the warm, dim light of the fireplace. Because you and Steven were twin flames.

💫