Templeschool

36. The Truth Hurts

AN: Alright, a little fluff with Steven and Twoie, and Twoie finally talks about some of his issues.

The world became deafening to Twoie. As he stared into the angry yet worried eyes of his little brother, all he could hear was the thunderous sound of his pulse in his ears. Anxiety clawed at his throat, choking him. He could barely breathe. Pink Diamond. PiNk dIAmONd. PINK DIAMOND.

"Twoie!" Twoie jumped at Steven's shout. "See? This is exactly what I'm talking about! You keep having these moments where you panic about something that I don't understand!" Steven took a deep breath. "I know you don't want to talk about your problems. I know you don't want to tell me. But you're getting worse every time something new happens! I know you've been talking to Dr. Maheswaran, but you need more help than she can give you. Please. Just talk to me." Steven knew it was a dirty trick, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He flashed Twoie the most heart-wrenching puppy dog eyes he could muster.

Twoie saw the look and averted his gaze. But the sad look on his dad's face made him look back to Steven. "Son. Is everything okay? You can talk to me. I didn't realize you were hurting so badly." It was starting to feel like too much. He kept looking back between his brother and his dad. Both of them felt like they were too close. Like they were pressuring him to talk. He glared at both of them.

"Why can't you guys just leave me alone? I don't want to talk about it, and I'm sick of being interrogated! You're just like the gems, turning on me when I'm not doing what you want." Twoie stood up and walked away from the others. Steven glared and walked up behind him.

"I'm not turning on you! And I know you hate feeling like you're being interrogated because the gems did it to you a lot. But you leave me with no other choice! Do you think I want to be standing on the side of the road, yelling at my older brother because he bottles all of his emotions inside himself? Because I don't!" Greg, seeing that both of his sons were yelling at each other, quickly stood up and tried to calm everyone down.

He stood beside them with one hand on Twoie's shoulder and the other on Steven's head. "Alright. I think you two need a deep breath before we continue. We can have a discussion without yelling." He turned to Twoie. "You need to stop yelling at him. He's worried about you and just trying to help." Then, he turned to Steven. "I know you're frustrated. You've been trying to help him for what sounds like a while now, but you can't push people to talk. Forcing him to talk about his problems will only make things worse."

Twoie glowered at the ground. Everything was so frustrating right now. They saved the cluster, helped Lapis and Peridot become friends, got rid of the Rubies, but he felt awful. He felt tired and achy. And the one thing he thought would help, made everything worse. This whole family road trip turned out to be anything but normal. He had more family! Family that wasn't dictators who almost killed him on multiple occasions before they decided to be good. Family that was human. And his dad just couldn't understand why he was so upset that he hid that from them. Twoie really wanted to just go home and sleep.

Steven stared at the stars. Everything was so frustrating right now. Their family road trip was supposed to be fun, but it turned into a bad trip for everyone. His dad was upset to go home, Twoie was upset that dad had hidden even more family from them, and Steven found himself in two different fights. He was tired and worried and wanted to be there for Twoie like Twoie was there for him. But Dad was right. He shouldn't be trying to force Twoie to talk. Steven really just wanted his older brother to be happy.

Steven took a deep breath and hugged his older brother from behind. "I'm sorry, Starbright."

"Starbright?" Twoie broke the hug so he could face his younger brother.