Work Text:
The night sky pressed down on Adora like a solid thing, deep and black and empty.
Well not really empty. The night moons were all out, thin crescents casting faint triple shadows across her and the trees ringing the clearing. It wasn’t like there was a gaping void of nothingness hanging over her or anything.
She shuddered. Etheria’s moons might keep the sky from being completely barren, but that just made the rest of the sky look even worse.
The real sky was long gone now. She didn’t know why she bothered to keep looking for it.
“Doing some sky watching, huh?”
The words came with soft steps on grass and the faint whisper of a cape. Glimmer slipped out of the trees, the sparks in the princess’s ruffled hair and pink irises contrasting the shadows under her bleary eyes. Very bleary eyes. She looked tired, like she always did when they made came somewhere with no walls to muffle Bow’s snoring. She looked tired and curious and her voice didn’t have any edge to it but Adora still felt a guilty knot form in her gut.
“Sorry.” She shuffled in place as her girlfriend walked over, yawning and stretching. “Everything’s fine I was just thinking about stuff- you didn’t have to get up.”
Glimmer gave her look, pink eyes losing their sleepiness.
“Is that your Horde training saying everything’s fine, or do you actually just want some alone time?”
Alone. The word made Adora pause.
In Bright Moon ‘alone’ only meant missing the sound of a whole squad snoring around her and could be fixed with another sleepover or by slipping over to Glimmer’s room and up into her spot in the strange hanging nest-bed. Out there though, with no walls or ceiling to block out the sky, ‘alone’ meant something completely different…
Different and stupid and not at all real. Definitely not a real reason for Glimmer to lose sleep for.
“I-”
“You know, I’m not gonna be getting much shut eye anyway.” Glimmer broke in casually. “Not with Bow shaking half the forest awake. So if it’s not a bother, some company would be nice.”
Adora was fairly sure that was a very stretched out version of the truth, but Glimmer’s overly light tone also told her the princess had seen right through the excuse she hadn’t even had time to say it.
It should have made Adora feel worse, not being able to manage a decent tiny fib even with the comfort of the girl she loved on the line. Instead she felt the knot in her gut ease and slowly unwind as it took some of her tension with it.
“… okay.” She agreed. “That’d be- Thanks.”
Snorting, Glimmer nudged her playfully in the ribs with an elbow. “Hey, that’s my line.”
Adora nudged back. “It really isn’t.”
“Is.”
“Not.”
They shared a grin in the dark. Glimmer’s eyes twinkled, matching her hair and her cape, the pale moonlight making her looking almost unreal. Like she was spun from moonlight. Like she could just as easily vanish into the darkness.
Adora quickly turned to the sky, trying to hide how her face had gone suddenly wooden.
Out of the corner she saw Glimmer tilt her head back too, also looking up. “You know.” Glimmer hummed. “I’ve always wondered what you’re looking for when you do this.”
Adora frowned. “’Always’?”
“Sometimes you’re awake too when Bow’s snoring gets me up, and when you are, you’re always staring at the sky.” Shrugging Glimmer tucked her hands behind her back, scanning the moons like a captain watching the sea. “So what are we watching out for?”
Now it was Adora’s turn to shrug, hers more awkward. “Nothing really. I’m just being silly, searching for the stars I already know aren’t there.”
“Stars?”
Glimmer’s eyes flicked between the moons, skipping over the rest of the sky.
“… Are they something from the Fright Zone?”
Adora jerked in shock. “What? No!”
She laughed at the thought. As if someone like Hordak or Shadow Weaver could ever think up something like stars, something harmless and shared with the whole world, as if they’d ever even want to.
The laughter faded out as she looked at Glimmer. Glimmer who hadn’t laughed, was clearly serious about the question, honestly had no idea, no clue what the word ‘star’ even meant. It wasn’t something Adora had talked about before, apparently. Not something that’d come up in She-Ra’ing workshops or war council meetings.
Was this what her and Bow always felt like whenever Adora asked about strange new things like aunts and bedtime stories? This weird mix of wanting to laugh, and also, feeling like she’d just sunk a few inches into the ground?
“Stars were from before the Horde.” She said quietly as Glimmer kept stubbornly scanning the sky. “From when the First Ones were still here, back before Mara did… whatever it was she did.”
Glimmer’s attention snapped from the sky back to her, suddenly alarmed.
“Wait. You have her memories?”
Adora felt her frown deepen, Glimmer’s unease fluttering in her chest. “I don’t… know?” She’d never put much thought into it actually, where all the stuff she knew came from or who it might be coming from. “Maybe?”
She tried to go over the snapshots in her head, the flashes from when she’d first found the sword, and remember what she was doing in them. Her one clear memory of the stars was of looking up through some kind of window. There was a planet, moons hovering beside it, craggy stone outcroppings framing it all. She was warm and safe. She was…
The ground lurched under her, air pressing around her like a vice. She rubbed at her forehead to hide a wince.
“Light Hope showed me some stuff. So did Madame Razz. The rest is just something I know.” She said finally, giving up. “It’s like reading the First Ones writing without knowing how to write in it. I can’t name any constellations- Uh, those are like shapes people see in the stars? Sort of loose patterns you put stories to?”
Glimmer stared at her blankly.
“Anyway.” Adora waved her hand upward. “I couldn’t draw you any or tell you about them off the top of my head, but if the stars were out right now I know I’d be able to find them. Like muscle memory, I’d just know where to look.”
Slowly Glimmer nodded. “So, no dead people hanging out in your head though, right? No forgetting Adora things each time you remember a Mara thing?”
“Uh- no.”
“Good.”
Alarm was washed away in a relieved sigh.
“I mean, not GOOD good, but- well- Yeah.” Glimmer scratched at the back of her neck, eyes gluing themselves to the apparently very interesting ground. “Wow. That has be a weird feeling. Remembering things you don’t really remember and then not even really being able to remember them.”
“Sometimes.” A lot of the times, actually. “I’ve forgotten most what I’ve forgotten too though, if that makes any sense. So it’s mostly just a little annoying now and then.”
“Like when you see the night sky?”
Reflexively Adora checked the on hungry darkness hanging over them. “Yes.” The moons were still there. The stars were still gone. “Kinda hard to ignore something that big, I guess.”
And that empty. And wrong. Even with gravity pressing down on her, when she looked up it was like the sky was a pit she was at the very edge of falling into. Or like being lost on the open ocean, no landmarks as far as the eye could see, nothing familiar to latch onto. Just fear and the feeling of drifting helpless off into nothingness. The feeling of really, actually, truly being alone.
Something warm was brushing her hand. Jolting back into herself Adora realized Glimmer was tapping at her clenched knuckles. Sheepishly she forced them to relax open again, nails leaving stinging crescent dents in her palm. Funny, she hadn’t even noticed the pain or having made a fist in the first place.
Glimmer must have noticed, though. Glimmer who slipped her hand easily around Adora’s and clasped tight, giving her something to hold on to.
“Tell me about them.”
Still a little misplaced Adora blinked and looked down at Glimmer, checking her bearings. “Them?”
“Those star thingies.” Bright eyes held hers for a second before going back to the sky. “What were they like?”
Adora stared. For a second she felt dizzy again.
How to describe the stars? She felt like she was looking at them right now- Not the ones Mara had seen or Razz had shown her but new ones, constellations she’d discovered on nights when she couldn’t sleep or mornings when she woke up and found she wasn’t alone- Her own version of Etheria's long lost sky, reflected right there in Glimmer’s eyes.
Numbly Adora forced herself to focus on the question, focus on breathing past her suddenly tight chest.
“Reassuring.” She felt the words out even as she said them. “As long they were there, you could figure out where you were, no matter how lost you’d gotten.”
“And they were more powerful than they looked.” She told the girl standing next to her, the girl who barely came up to Adora’s chin and yet had a grip on Adora’s hand that felt unbreakable. “From Etheria they seemed tiny and flickering, just these specks of light, but the smallest star was still a hundred times Etheria’s size and burned hotter than a thousand fires.”
The girl now leaning into Adora’ side was full of fire too. Enough to spark a Rebellion back to life from its own cold ashes. Enough to spark hope in someone who’d just watched as everything they’d ever known or believed in came crashing down.
“Stars filled the darkness.” Adora wasn’t even bothering to look at the sky now. “They were everywhere- they made it so even the blackest night was full of light, if you just looked for it long enough.”
Glimmer’s eyes flicked over to her. A faint crease pressed between them, puzzlement, the slow start of understanding this wasn’t really just about stars anymore.
A stutter caught in Adora’s throat. “Stars were like, they were-”
Hope and wonder and the promise that things could somehow be okay.
“Like you.” She heard herself whisper. “The stars... They were almost as bright as you are.”
And they had been here with Adora all along.
A flash washed through the clearing, sparking up from the little bits of light dancing through Glimmer’s hair, running down her arms and springing from her fingertips. Adora felt a few of them fizzle between their clasped hands.
She smiled at her glowing girlfriend. “And now I mean that literally.”
“Oh shut up.” The lights also did a good job showing off Glimmer’s blush. “You try not sparking when the person you love starts going all romance novel on you.”
Adora was grinning now. “Want know another way the stars were like you?”
“No. Yes.” Glimmer covered her face with her free hand. “Fine whatever go ahead.”
“Okay. They were beautiful too.”
That go an embarrassed groan. “I cannot believe…” And also earned Adora a gentle headbutt to the chin, which Glimmer somehow forgot to lean back out of.
“I came out here to make sure you were alright, not get killed by flattery.”
Adora closed her eyes, feeling her grin crinkling at their corners. With her eyes shut her head naturally drooped down to Glimmer’s, pressing her face against downy fluff and the few twigs that’d gotten caught there.
“What flattery?”
“Har har.”
“You asked to be told about stars.”
“Yeah but- You didn't have to try comparing me to long lost celestial bodies while staring at me like That.”
The familiar scent of Glimmer’s shampoo mixed with her warm weight against Adora's chest was making it hard for Adora not to doze off where she stood. Still though she had to ask- “Like what?” She murmured, already teetering on the edge of soft and fluffy dreams.
Glimmer’s answer was another flash of sparks, this time paired with the crunch of leaves and rattling snores as the teleport dropped them back into the woods, just a few feet from where Bow lay sprawled.
“C’mon.” An arm slipped around Adora’s waist, pulling her down. “I know you were probably up for an hour before I noticed, and you do need to get some sleep tonight.”
Adora tried to pry open her eyes even as the rest of her sank heavily into Glimmer and the bedroll that could just barely fit them both. “But, answer…”
Fingertips brushed over her lips, closing them with a touch. “Shhh. I’ll tell you later. Promise.”
It was instinct to wrap her arms around Glimmer. Instinct to snuggle close, breath deep, relax and let the world shrink down, just for a second, until it was just them. Instinct was also telling her to sleep. Through sheer force of will, Adora managed to crack one eye open a sliver.
Glimmer was watching her. Had scooted up to be on eye level and was laying on her side, one hand propping up her head and the other still draped over Adora.
Adora tried to glare with one eye. “You need sleep too.”
Her girlfriend snorted. “With someone sawing through an oak tree three feet away from me? Slim chance.”
Adora intensified her glare, even as she lost focus on Glimmer and she turned her into just a soft blur. “Babe.”
A quiet laugh ruffled Adora’s pulled back bangs.
“It’s so weird hearing you say that…”
“It’s an ‘endearment’.” Adora grunted. “Official. Found in dictionary.”
“I know I know.” Glimmer’s hand left Adora’s waist and lifted to run through her bangs, trailing down to scrap lightly at the fuzz of her undercut. “I didn’t mean weird in a bad way.”
Maybe not, but she’d still said it, which made Adora wonder. “Want me to try something else?”
Glimmer rolled her eyes, one part exasperated and two parts fond. “No. It works good, babe, I just haven’t gotten used to it yet. And how’s this, I’ll try sleeping once YOU stop making me blush. Fair enough?”
Adora actually kinda wanted to keep the silly late-night banter going, but her eye was falling shut despite her best efforts. “Mmmrrr.” She sighed. “‘kay.” This was fine too though, honestly. Defeat had never been so comfy.
Giving in she watched as Glimmer went from a blur to just a few pinpricks of fuzz light. The sight gave Adora an idea, a silly little idea, and an irresistible one.
“Good night…" She said, smiling as she finally drifted off. "....starlight.”
A touch on her cheek. The second hand heat of a burning blush.
Glimmer was pretty sure Adora was already asleep by the time she leaned back from the quick kiss. By now she knew what it looked like when Adora was really asleep, knew by heart the feeling of her going limp and soft and heavy in her arms. It was like the first time she'd managed to teleport without falling over. Ground firm and steady beneath her feet. It was like the first time she'd conjured up a spark all on her own- bubbly glee and disbelief all mixed together. It was Magic.
And like magic, it left Glimmer wide awake and ready to take on the world. Or at least pull it a bit closer as she snuggled down besides it.
“You say I’m like the stars.” She whispered, Adora’s breathing slow and even against the crook of her neck. “And when you look at me like that, like you really mean it, then-” A laugh escaped her, small, helpless, full of light.
“Then I guess, at least for you- Maybe I am.”