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Winter is in full swing. Temperatures rarely get anywhere near the freezing point, staying well below it. Snow and ice covers any nook and cranny it can. Trees stand barren and asleep, awaiting the first taste of spring to reawaken them. Any animals that appear in the white world quickly act on their business before seeking warmth once more. At least one perk of this time of year is as the snow packs on more layers, the busy and noisy world becomes still and silent. It is a time where you can think and reflect on things you keep inside of you, waiting to come out.
For four friends, they take the opportunity to go a way for the week. They won’t have much time to do this again. Between work and one returning to finish her final year at college when the winter break ends, time together is fleeting and rare. Time to make the most of a week away and where better to go when snow is everywhere than a ski resort?
Adora, Glimmer, Catra, and Bow head back in the resort after spending some time in the cold. Best not get hypothermia or frostbite or both. They can warm up for a while before going out again or doing anything else. The quad has only been here for a couple days. Still plenty of time to have some fun out in the snow. The group of friends head up some flights and each enter their own little rooms. Once they have changed, they all plan on meeting back down at the lobby. Adora enters, closes and locks her door. Inside the safety and solitude of her room for the week, she lets out a breath she has been holding.
When she agreed to go out and chill for the week, she was under the impression it would just be her and her long time friend, Catra. She should have known her childhood friend had something up her sleeve. When does she not ? Only a couple days before they left did she offhandedly mentioned that Bow and Glimmer would be coming along. There is nothing wrong with that per say. The more the merrier. And Bow and Glimmer are some of Adora’s closest friends. But the problem lies with Glimmer. Just…everything about her.
Adora sighs and walks over to the small, twin size bed and flops down face first on it. Adora has slowly come to the realization that she is in love with the smaller, pink and purple haired girl. They meet a few years ago when Adora moved out of her less than stellar home. Glimmer helped her out and ever since then, their friendship has only grown and grown. Maybe about a year ago did Adora start to feel different. Even now her heart still skips a beat when she sees her. Her stomach becomes all knotted at the thought of Glimmer. And most of all, she feels warm and safe when with her friend. All her worries go away being with her.
Just being around Glimmer eases her anxiety. A number of times, Adora has been close to having an attack over something but Glimmer just takes her hand and tells her it’s alright. Might not fully calm her down but it does speed up getting over it. Not to mention, she can never get over just how firey Glimmer is. How she is ready to throw down with almost anything but at the same time, is passionate about the things she loves. How can anyone not love that type of spirit?
And Catra knows this all too well. Somehow, she hasn’t blabbed it to Glimmer yet (Catra has at least on one occasion done that on a crush of Adora’s. Back when they were kids. Adora ended up not talking to Catra for a week after). Instead, she just teases the ever loving hell out of her. From asking her when she wakes up in the morning if she dreamed of Glimmer, to mimicking her reactions to seeing Glimmer in a bit annoying way, and asking every other day when the two are getting hitched. But to her credit, when Adora is down on her luck about her feelings about her friend, being unable to tell her about it out of fear, Catra cuts the crap and sits down to be a shoulder to rest on. But according to her gut, Catra must have finally decided it's time to stop pining.
Whatever the case, she is going to enjoy this week away from work. Even if Catra’s maybe plan doesn’t work and Adora still is single, at least she will have fun with everyone. She pushes herself off of her bed and walks to the dresser, finally changing out of her damp, cold clothes and into some warmer ones. Adora puts on her favorite yellow jacket before heading down to the lobby.
Meanwhile, in one of the nearby rooms, Glimmer finds herself in the same predicament. She too keeps feelings for her friend hidden deep in her heart. How can she not love someone as smart, kind, and amazing as Adora? Even today, while going down some easy slopes, Glimmer couldn’t help but fall a bit more in love when Adora wiped out and nearly gave herself a bloody nose when smacking face first into a patch of ice but got up and just laughed it all off. All Adora wants is to have a good time and make sure everyone around her feels the same.
She has always been like that. Even when they first met and Glimmer was trying to piece together where this girl came from, Adora refused to crack as to not burden Glimmer. But finally, she did, and all Glimmer wants to do is make sure Adora knows how much she is loved and cared for. She deserves the world after the harsh childhood she had.
Glimmer isn’t dumb. She knows Bow set her up with this vacation. The fall semester might be over but with the spring one around the corner, her last one, even during break she is stressed. Sure it could be to relax like he said but she knows Bow knows she likes Adora and that’s why he only told her last minute that Adora and her roommate Catra were tagging along. She has to get back at him somehow. Maybe hide all his crop tops.
No more moping around, Glim. Get dressed and go down to the lobby. Just enjoy the rest of the week. It’s all you got until school starts up again.
She rolls off her bed and changes. A nice, soft, lilac sweatshirt should do the trick. As soon as she is dressed, she heads down to the lobby. She finds everyone else is already there, waiting to head to the dining hall to eat. Catra is sitting off to the side, playing some game on her phone. Bow is chatting with someone, already making new friends. Adora, meanwhile, sits near Catra, rubbing her still red nose.
“Should I start calling you Rudolph?” Glimmer jokes as she walks up to her friends.
Adora snorts and chuckles. Glimmer’s heart jumps in her chest. She loves the little snorts that come out of Adora. Glimmer remembers the first time Adora ever did it, she was embarrassed but now they come out more frequently.
“Only if you want to. I’m just happy I didn’t break it,” Adora replies.
“Y’all can call each other whatever stupid name you want, I’m hungry!” Catra states. Adora gives her friend a look, which only gets a shrug back. “Just hurry up before all the good stuff is gone.”
The four head off to eat. The room is not crowded at all. But even so, when they get to the table to sit down, Bow and Catra sit down together. This raises both Adora and Glimmer’s eyebrows, why would those two sit side by side? Both look at each other and the same thought comes to their minds. A blush comes across both their faces. They hesitant before taking their seats, trying to stay too close to each other. Glimmer catches Bow trying to hide a snicker which earns him a kick to the leg.
They chit chat away for a while. Talking mostly about what they will do for the rest of the week.There is an upcoming storm coming. It is uncertain how bad it will be. It all depends on the timing with other weather systems. It can either be a simple and easy snowfall or become a monstrous blizzard. Everyone is hoping for the former but just in case, many are preparing for the worse. Thankfully, there are things to keep the group of friends busy if they get snowed in. Bow brought some board games, Catra and Glimmer have some old handheld games and extra batteries for them, and Adora brought along some of her favorite books to read.
As the next couple of days pass, the four try their best to get more activities in. It seems that the storm will be something to remember so who knows how long they will be trapped inside the resort. They go skiing a little more, somehow Adora manages not to face plant again, hit the ice skating rink a couple times (this time, however, the second Adora stepped on the ice she ended up sliding half away across the rink on her side), and see what other activities are around.
Soon, the day before the snowstorm arrives. Adora sits in her room with Catra, listening to the news and she reads one of her books. The weatherman comes on nearly every five minutes saying to stay indoors and not go outside. Temperatures will be the lowest yet this year and risk of frostbite is mentioned. But what catches her attention and makes her pull her book down enough to look at the television, is the mention of thundersnow. A shiver runs down Adora’s spine.
“You going to be alright, Dora?” Catra asks.
“I’ll be just fine. I’m not a kid anymore,” Adora replies. She turns her attention back to her book.
“You sure aren’t going to need to come into my bed?”
“Says the girl who would do the same thing even when there was no thunder.”
Catra ignores her. “This beds are pretty small. We barely fit on it sitting together. Although, Sparkles is smaller than me. Maybe you can do go in with her.”
“I swear to god, Catra, I will throw my book at you.”
“What? I am being honest! Though to be fair, I do hope the storm doesn’t last too long. Would suck if we were trapped in here for god knows how long. I think I’d go stir crazy.”
Adora agrees. The last time she got stuck at home for a long period of time was when she broke her leg. With Catra busy most of the time with work, she nearly ended up bashing her head against a wall. She only didn’t because Glimmer came home from college during one weekend and drove her around and brought her out. She still owes Glimmer one for that.
Hopefully whatever happens isn’t too bad. The news station has been wrong many times before. And if not, hopefully everything can be cleared relatively fast. At least she will be stuck here with Catra, Bow, and Glimmer. That’s not too bad and there i s stuff to do here. That is a relief.
“So, do you remember what room is Glimmer’s if it does come to that?”
THWACK!
Catra starts rubbing her head, laughing. Adora reaches over for her book, hoping she does not have to search for her page she was on. She dusts it off before looking at her friend. “How about we watch a movie or something? I don’t know what the other two are doing but might as well until we since we are both here.”
“Whatever floats your boat, dude.”
Elsewhere in the resort, Glimmer and Bow play around at a small game room they have. There isn’t much, a couple arcade games, an air hockey and pool table, and some couches and chairs to sit on to play other games on the table in the center. The pair stand on line for one of the arcade games, waiting for two people in front of them to finish their battle. Glimmer rocks on her feet as she waits to kick Bow’s butt in the game. It’s nice to have some time to relax after being outside all day.
She looks around the room, seeing what other games there are to play and wondering how packed it will be tomorrow when Bow taps her shoulder. She stops her movement and looks at her friend. “Yes?”
“Got any plans for tomorrow yet?” he asks.
“Not really, no. I think I am just going to see what happens, ya know?”
“That is true. But I was thinking...Maybe you could...I don’t know...do some stuff with Adora...alone…”
“For the love of! No!”
“Why not! C’mon, Glim. You two already hang out enough by yourself. Is it really that hard?”
Glimmer groans and runs a hand through her hair. Why his he suggesting this now. She takes a breath. “You know why and I know at least you are trying to get us together. But it’s not going to work.”
“You never know if you don’t try,” Bow tells her, giving her a small nudge. “The worse she can do is say ‘no’. It wouldn’t be like that would end your friendship, right?”
“I guess so.”
“So will you ask her or not?”
“If I say ‘I will sleep on it’ will you lay off?”
Night soon comes. The wind slowly picks up until it becomes a high pitched howl. Trying to use any light to see out into the pitch dark world is met with a blinding whiteness. Any cracks there are in buildings, cold seeps through. The snow hits hard against the glass. No one dares to attempt to go outside for any reason. As the storm rages on, thunder starts to rumble. Flashes of light begins to join it’s partner in crime. Eventually, it causes the power to cut out.
The thunder was already a bother but the power going out makes everything worse. Adora buries herself into blankets. That still does not keep the cold away. In the flashes of light that fills her room, Adora swears she can see her breath crystallizing in front of her. Her body starts to shiver as it tries to keep her warm. It also shakes from her fright of the storm. For whatever reason, as far back as she can remember, Adora is scared of thunderstorms. Anything else loud like fireworks, she is fine with. Thunderstorms? She is attempting to block out the noise from her ears in any way shape or form.
She doesn’t want to crawl into Catra’s room and admit her defeat. That is something else that she will tease her about. But as the storm rages on and her room becomes colder, maybe it is a good idea to go into her bed. At least then she won’t be freezing to death. Adora debates this for a couple of minutes. But when white light fills the room, blinding her, and the largest clap of thunder yet, sounding like a cannon right by her window, her mind is made up.
Adora wraps a blanket around her body and exits her room. In the dark, she struggles to find which door leads to Catra’s room. She squints, trying to figure out which it is. Why do all the doors have to look the same? Finally, she believes she finds it. Hoping it is unlocked, Adora twists the doorknob. Thankfully, the door opens. Guess she knew I was going to come in.
She enters the room and slowly closes the door. It shuts with a soft click . Adora places a hand on the wall to guide herself around the room. “Catra?” she says in a loud whisper. “Cat, are you awake? You better not laugh at me for coming in.”
Silence…
“Catra?”
“A-Adora?”
Adora freezes in her tracks. That is not Catra’s voice. This is not Catra’s room.
“Crap! I’m sorry Glimmer! I didn’t know this was your room!”
The sound of someone shifting in a bed fills the room. “No, no! It’s okay! I guess I forgot to close the door and mine is right next to Catra’s. I’m just glad that you aren’t some axe murder.”
“Again. Sorry! I’ll leave.”
Adora starts to back up but as if she teleported, Glimmer grabs her arm, stopping her friend.
“No, stay...I mean…” Glimmer lets go. “What are you doing up anyway? Are you cold?”
Adora opens her mouth to answer her. She is cut off, however, when another clap of thunder is heard. Adora instinctively jerks at the noise, throwing her hands to her ears. She feels her heart speeding up and a whimper is stuck in her throat.
“Are you afraid?” Glimmer asks. There is a softness in her voice. Adora makes an affirmative noise. “Do you want to stay here? I mean, you already are so why not? I can sleep on the ground if you want, it’s chill.”
“No, don’t. It’s freezing! I don’t want you to catch a cold! Not for me.”
“Do...Do you want to share the bed? It would be a bit of an awkward squeeze but we can stay warm and stuff.”
Adora thinks for a moment. It is late and she is already here. Would it be worth it to be in the cold longer and wake Catra up? Who knows if she is awake anyway. Adora finally agrees and the two head back towards Glimmer’s bed. The two figure out how to fit into the twin size bed without pushing the other off. On each sides, Adora facing Glimmer while her friend faces away. So close together, Adora can smell the flowery scented soap Glimmer has used. It relaxes her. Despite not looking at her, Glimmer can smell Adora’s sandalwood scent, and wishes to bury her face into Adora’s shoulder to take it in more. Both refuse to move, not wanting to make it awkward.
Both stay awake as the outside world refuses to calm down. Neither knows how long they stay like that when Glimmer finally speaks. “You feeling better?”
“Yeah, I am. Thank you. Sorry that I woke you before.”
“Nah, you’re good. I was awake anyway.”
“You were?”
“There was no reason really. I just couldn’t sleep...Hey so. You wanna do something tomorrow? By the looks of it we won’t have much to do and Bow suggested we...do something. Just us.”
“Really? Why would he suggest that?”
“I don’t know…”
Adora thinks for a moment. Maybe because it is so late or maybe because she is now so close to Glimmer or maybe her heart finally has had enough. Words start to form her her mouth, waiting to come out. Thinking about it, Catra and Bow seem to have been together more often this week. Could they be in cahoots? Whatever the case, it is now or never, right?
Words don’t come out when she goes to speak. Rather, a nervous laugh. This causes Glimmer to flip over and look at her. Even in the dark, Adora can see the puzzled look on her face.
“I’m sorry, Glim. I just...you saying that made me realize that Bow and Catra I think have been trying to get us together. I mean, you saw they sat together at the dining hall when usually don’t. That seems a little odd, doesn’t it?”
“Now that you mention it yeah...Wait...So does that mean you...like me? I mean. If Catra has been trying to push you also it seems. But it’s okay if you aren’t! I mean, I don’t want to push anything on you,” Glimmer starts to ramble. Adora know exactly how she feels. She places a finger on Glimmer’s lips.
“Shh. Shh. I get it. I...yes. I might sort of kind of like you. Do you like me?” she removes her finger so Glimmer can speak.
“Y-yeah. I kind of do. For a little while now actually...What about you?”
“Same. I don’t really know for how long, like a year I think really. I just didn’t know what to say or if you would like me back. Never really been in a relationship before so I don’t know what it is like.”
“The feeling is mutual.”
A sudden, loud bang of thunder spooks Adora. She startles and buries herself into Glimmer. The smaller girl wraps her arms around the blonde, holding her tight. Adora groans as the thunder dies down. “God, I hate thunder and lightning.”
“It’s alright, Adora. I got you if that makes you feel any better.”
“It does. So...what do we do now? Are we, like, officially dating now?”
“I think we can figure that out in the morning. Right now, I think we should just sleep.”
“I like the sound of that.”
The two shut their eyes, nestled together in each other’s arms and warmth. Adora does not stir as the storm continues on, feeling safe being with Glimmer. Glimmer falls asleep happy knowing she is able to comfort Adora somehow and make her feel safe. By the time the sun rises in the morning, the storm is mostly gone. Snow only gently falls down onto the bright, white world below.
Like always, Adora wakes with the sunrise. Her first thoughts are about coming into Glimmer’s room, confessing her feelings, and falling asleep with her. She thinks it is all a dream but when she feels something around her body and opens her eyes to see a sleeping Glimmer by her, she remembers it was not. Adora smiles. Part of her wants to kiss Glimmer. That is what a lot of couples do, right? But it might be too early for that. Instead, she nuzzles herself further into Glimmer. This, however, wakes her.
“Adora?” Glimmer sleepily asks.
“Morning. Sorry if I woke you,” Adora replies.
“It’s okay.” Glimmer yawns and stretches out as best she can. “How are you feeling?”
“Better now that I am with you. So, what do we do from here?”
“I know I said we should figure out in the morning but it’s way too early to think for me. Ask me again in like two hours.”
“Alright. When do you think we should head down tho--”
She is cut off when the door opens up. Both quickly realize that neither locked the door last night. Catra’s voice enters the room. “Yo, Adora, you in here? I thought you would have come into my room last night and I didn’t find you in yours. Did you final--”
Catra stops in her tracks when she sees Adora and Glimmer nestled together in each other’s arms. A large, imp like grin appears on her face. “It’s about time!”
“Catra, I am going to kill you if you don’t leave,” Adora says.
“Gotta catch me first to do that,” Catra laughs, quickly leaving the room. “Bow owes me twenty bucks!”
“I’m seriously going to kill her,” Adora repeats.
“So much for figuring stuff out. Bow probably will have a field day also. Guess we should go down and not draw this out. Right?”
“Yeah...Great…”
“Before we go, however,” Glimmer suddenly places a soft kiss on the tip of Adora’s nose. Adora feels her body become extremely warm. Yet, it feels good .
“It’s alright to do that?” Adora asks.
“Yeah. I think so yeah. We are dating right?”
“Well if that’s okay,” Adora returns the favor and places a kiss on Glimmer’s forehead. Glimmer turns a bright red. Guess both of them are going to be awkward for a bit.
“I love you, Adora,” Glimmer says after a moment of silence, grinning.
“I love you too, Glimmer.”