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"Adora, are you okay?"
"Psh yeah of course!" she responded with a smile.
Bow, Glimmer, and Adora were walking home after fighting another round of bots.
"Those scratches look pretty bad," Glimmer said, looking at Adora’s back.
"I'll be fine! I’ve had worse!” Adora said, putting the Sword of Protection on her back, to better hide her injuries.
"If you say so..." Glimmer said, unconvinced by Adora’s flippant replies. Her and Bow exchanged glances behind Adora, both worried.
**
Adora sat on the edge of her cot straining to reach the cuts she couldn’t see on her back.
"Ugh!" She threw down the cloth in frustration and put her head in her hands.
"I can't, I can't, I can't. They don't need to worry about this. It's small. I can deal with this on my own." Adora told herself, tears falling onto her boots.
**
"Adora! My mom wants us to have dinner with her."
Outside Adora’s room, Glimmer waited for a reply. When she got none, she knocked again. "Adora? Are you there?" she asked. Maybe she was out with Swift Wind.
"Uh yeah!” A pause “I'll be there uh…soon!"
Glimmer narrowed her eyes at Adora's weak excuse. Something was off. "Is everything okay? Do you need anything?”
"No, I’m totally fine!"
Glimmer could tell Adora was lying. She was terrible at it after all, but if she needed something she would ask, Glimmer assured herself.
**
Adora didn't show up for dinner. Her chair and plate sat empty beside Bow.
"Glimmer, where is Adora?" Angella asked, looking at her daughter.
"I don't know. I talked to her and she said she was coming, but I didn't want to push her if she was too tired. Bow and I"—Glimmer looked to Bow for confirmation—"will go check on her after dinner," Glimmer replied, pushing her food around. Her mind was on Adora and her terrible lying.
"See to it. Let her know that her presence was missed tonight."
**
Glimmer and Bow stood outside Adora's room. He knocked.
"Adora? It's Bow." A pause as he waited for response. "You missed dinner. Glimmer's mom was worried about you."
"Queen Angella doesn't need to worry about me."
Glimmer’s jaw dropped at the despair in Adora’s voice. “She does when you don’t show up for dinner!”
No response.
"Adora, what's going on?” Glimmer tried the handle, a bit panicked, but it was locked. “We’re coming in. If you don't say ‘no,’ I'm teleporting Bow and I inside." Glimmer said and counted to ten before grabbing Bow.
Adora was sitting, with her forehead on her knees, in a corner of her room. A bloody cloth lay beside her. She didn't react when they appeared. Bow and Glimmer sprinted towards her, fearing the worst.
Glimmer reached for Adora’s shoulder as she squatted down and asked, "Are you okay?”
"I'm...I'm not okay." Adora admitted grudgingly, still not looking up. "I...I can't reach the scratches I got earlier and then I didn't want to cause a scene by going to dinner with bloody clothes but..."
"You can ask us for help with this kind of thing, Adora. You don't have to deal with this by yourself. Scooch," Glimmer said. Adora moved forward reluctantly. Glimmer looked at the scratches; this was not something her friend could have possibly done on her own.
“I’ll be right back,” Glimmer announced. She teleported away and returned with fresh cloths, a basin, and gauze. Bow went off to fill the basin with water from Adora’s bathroom as Glimmer inspected Adora’s back again. The wounds weren’t that deep, but the fabric was dried to Adora’s skin with blood. When Bow came back, Glimmer dampened a clean cloth with water and dabbed at Adora’s back, softening the blood until the fabric came loose enough to roll up.
While Glimmer dealt with her back, Bow managed to coax Adora to look up. Her face was a blotchy red mess full of tear tracks. He wiped them away with a cool dampened cloth. Bow could tell she liked the feeling of it on her hot face and continued even after she stopped crying.
“You’re gonna be okay, Adora. We’re here.” Adora looked away.
They fell into a pattern of Glimmer wiping down Adora’s back and Bow cooling off her face. Adora never winced even when Glimmer cleaned out the scratches. At this stage, Glimmer would be squeezing Bow’s hand in pain.
“Does this not hurt you?” Glimmer asked Adora. She shook her head. Glimmer’s eyes widened as she made eye contact with an equally horrified Bow.
Eventually, Glimmer wrapped Adora’s lower back and, when Bow turned around, helped her into a fresh shirt.
“Why didn’t you ask us for help?” Bow asked Adora. They were in Glimmer’s room now, the three of them squished together on her couch in front of the window. Glimmer had insisted they move since Adora’s bed wasn’t big enough for all three of them.
So quietly, that Bow almost didn’t hear, Adora whispered, "I just didn't want you to worry about me."
At that, Bow's heart hurt. He kneeled down in front of Adora and grasped her hands. Looking her straight in her eyes, he said, "Adora, as best friends, that's what we do. Do you worry about us when we're hurt?"
"Yeah, of course," she replied, averting her eyes to look at the ground instead of Bow.
"Then it's only fair for us to worry about you, too."
Bow moved to be beside Adora again, still squeezing her hands.
"I'm not supposed to be weak. Shadow Weaver would punish us when we couldn't be strong enough or we didn’t do things right,” Adora said.
On Adora’s left, Glimmer made a face at the mention of Shadow Weaver.
"Shadow Weaver is a terrible person. Adora, a lot of what you learned in the Fright Zone is wrong. At Bright Moon, no one will punish you for being weak. Nobody is strong all the time, especially when you’re a part of the Rebellion,” Glimmer told her.
“Oh.”
Glimmer moved closer to Adora and hugged her. “You’re safe here. Things are gonna be better now that you’re here instead of in the Fright Zone. Bow and I will help you.”
**
“Hey Mom.”
Glimmer leaned on the door of her mother’s room. Adora had fallen asleep on Bow and Glimmer had taken the chance to update her mom.
Angella looked up from her desk at the sound of Glimmer’s voice. Glimmer continued, “Adora’s okay. She just um, didn’t want anyone to know she needed help. When we fought the bots this morning she was hurt, as Adora, but couldn’t reach the scratches.”
“Is she alright now?’
Glimmer flopped onto her mother’s bed and stared at the ceiling. “Kind of. She’s worried that you’ll punish her for “being weak,” as she puts it.” Glimmer made air quotes towards her mom.
“Why would she think that? I would never punish her for being injured,” Angella asked, surprised and saddened that Adora would expect that of her.
“Well, in the Fright Zone, Adora was raised by Shadow Weaver who was super abusive to her. When they were sick or weak, they would have to deal with it on their own and be punished for it because they weren’t strong. Adora’s not really used to people caring about her.”
Angella moved to sit next to her daughter and Glimmer sat up. “I can’t imagine being raised like that,” Glimmer said, before hugging her mom. As soon as Angella went to return it, Glimmer teleported away.
**
When Glimmer returned, neither Bow nor Adora had moved. Adora was still asleep, tucked into Bow’s side, their hands interlocked. Glimmer sat on Adora’s other side, trying to get comfortable against the wall.
“I told my mom. She understands and obviously isn’t gonna punish Adora,” Glimmer gently undid Adora’s ponytail, slowly working her way through the day’s tangles. When she was finished, she got up and started pacing. She said, “It’s not fair, Bow. Why did Adora have such a terrible life and I grew up in a palace?”
“I don’t know,” Bow said, looking down at Adora, feeling guilty for the same reason. His dads wouldn’t agree with him joining the Rebellion, but they were nothing like Shadow Weaver.
“I wish I had done more to Shadow Weaver when I was there. Adora doesn’t deserve to be treated so unfairly that when we help her, she feels bad.” Glimmer paused in her pacing as Adora sniffed in her sleep. “I want to teleport to the Fright Zone and just…” Glimmer’s hands began to glow pink as she trailed off.
“Glimmer…” Bow warned. Glimmer’s hands returned to normal. She eased herself up beside Adora.
The two of them were silent. After a while, Glimmer teleported to retrieve her blanket and tossed one end to Bow. She took Adora’s other hand in her own, before settling in for the night.
**
Adora woke up, and immediately felt guilty about the night before when she realized Bow and Glimmer were snuggled on either side of her. Glimmer was leaning on Adora who was leaning on Bow and both of her hands were being held. They hadn’t left her all night and Adora wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Catra was always punished when Shadow Weaver caught her sleeping in Adora’s bed.
Bow was already awake.
“Morning, Adora,” he whispered. “Do you feel better?”
“I…don’t know,” She whispered back.
“That’s okay,” Bow said, as he squeezed her hand. He pressed his head against hers. “It’s still early, if you want to get some more sleep.”
Bright Moon felt like paradise to her, a paradise that she was afraid wouldn’t last forever. Bow and Glimmer were too nice to her. Queen Angella was too accepting of her being a Horde soldier. It was all too good to be true. But right now, she let herself be okay with it all, if only because it would make Bow and Glimmer happy.
**
“Your Majesty, my apologies for missing dinner last night.”
Queen Angella stood up from the dining table and beckoned Adora over. “Glimmer told me what happened and I’m glad her and Bow helped you,” she said.
“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again,” Adora promised, anticipating the Queen’s anger.
But instead, Queen Angella hugged her and Adora melted into the embrace without realizing it. Tears welled up and she blinked them away.
Shadow Weaver never hugged her. This felt…nice? Safe?
“Adora, I’m not upset with you for missing dinner. I want you to know that we care deeply about you. There is no need to apologize. None of it was your fault,” Angella said, holding her tight. “I’m sorry that you feel the need to hide from us when you are injured.”
“Um, thanks?” Adora said, confused. The Queen didn’t need to apologize for something that she couldn’t control, but it did feel good. Maybe the Fright Zone really was bad, like Glimmer said, just maybe Shadow Weaver wasn't the best person. But she had given Adora a home and that still counted for something...right?