Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

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It’s 2 AM at Déjà Brew.

This occasion is marked by Glimmer flipping the CLOSED sign the other way, a more cheerfully We’re open latte! 22 hours! message taking its place. The lights would flicker on over four tables and booths alike. It’s a small but spacious cafe with a little counter to serve as her post. The fastest method is sliding over the top to the other side, which Glimmer does. She smoothly follows this up by grabbing a paper cup and performing a classic baseball pitch to the garbage can. 

It misses and joins the other four on the floor. 

She has it down to a routine. Her space, her cubby as she calls it, is just big enough for two coffee makers and a small rack for chips and cookies. The problem with both coffee makers is one is called Mister Premium and the other is aptly named Magma Falls. The premium maker is the one she turns on, sets the filter and replaces the water for. She gives Magma Falls a wide berth. It’s bad luck to upset a volcano before its time. 

The back room (read: closet) has a chair, a microwave, an outlet and a sink full of bubbles that she’d been messing with four minutes ago. A makeshift outdoor table, the kind that’d be used for grilling, was placed in courtesy of Bow. She snatched her phone from it and returned to the cubby. 

No messages. 

Week two. Glimmer lazily scrolls through her contacts. Signs of life have diminished. I expect either my first customer in two hours or a firing line. 

No one was awake. That’s the problem. Bow had college and needed to sleep and- well. That was all she was looking forward to really. He comes in at 6 AM to grab a cup to go. None of her other friends want to spend a twenty minute detour just to get coffee. She doesn’t blame them. It was astounding how quickly working with coffee got her to detest it. That and Frosta can’t drive. 

The cafe doesn’t have a speaker system, so she makes due with turning her phone on max volume and letting it blast her playlist. The flashing lights of cars from the road will sometimes flare brightly into the cafe windows, but nothing exciting happens. The streetlights in the parking lot reveal nothing but her own car. Wary of anyone driving by seeing her, she sneaks under the cubby to retrieve a mop.

She’s never ice skated before, but she’d like to imagine she’s pretty good at it. Taking off her shoes and letting her socks take her across the tile floors, she uses the mop like a skateboard and tries to glide into a booth. It almost wipes her out, but she catches herself on a pillar. This entertains her for about eight minutes and then she stubs her toe and the funs over. 

She sits on the counter and plays games on her phone. Mermista had a higher score than her in Space Candy and it was unacceptable. She flipped between doing this and checking her friend activity which was excitingly empty. The last update had Perfuma mentioning how eager she was for her date tomorrow. Today? Today.

The cafe door opens and Glimmer nearly jumps out of her skin. 

The customer that walks in is- okay, backtrack. The weirdo that walks in looks like they got into a fight and the other guy won, is her first thought. The girl's blonde hair is a mess with twigs and dirt matting it down. Her clothes are rumpled, her flannel sleeves trailing threads when she walks. Glimmer twitches at the dirty footprints coming into the cafe. The girl pauses halfway to the counter and just stares at her. 

“Oh.” The girl blinks at her slowly like she’s waking up. “Oh sorry, I’ll come back when you guys are open.”

Ouch. Was that a dig? Glimmer gets off the cubby, “No we’re open. Sorry. You surprised me. What can I get for you?”

The blonde mutters something that sounded sarcastic. Glimmer didn’t catch it, but just in case it was about her she doesn’t smile. Completely neutral, she waits for the girl’s order. The menu above the cubby doesn’t have a large selection thankfully. The girl still looks like she’s struggling. 

“Just,” The blonde sounds a little desperate, “can I have a coffee?”

No this is an auto shop. She bites back the sass. “What kind?”

She gives Glimmer a despairing look, “Enough sugar and caffeine I go catatonic.”

Alright, okay, she can smile once. That was pretty funny. The blonde looked startled for a moment, staring at her with wide eyes. Glimmer lets her be to work on Mister Premium. She’s used to the cafe getting one or two people at a time. Being stared at wasn’t uncommon. She won’t admit she really wants to stare back. 

Only cause they’re weird. She presses a lid onto a cup and returns to the counter, “Two fifty is your total.”

The blonde is already riffling into her pockets. She pulls out a wallet that’s dripping water onto the floor. Glimmer is definitely staring now. An enigma was in Déjà Brew and she was half expecting some authority to come running in yelling that they wanted their swamp monster back. Upon closer inspection, there were a few bruises peeking up from above her shirt. The bags under her eyes- a pretty blue, soft- were a thousand times worse than Glimmer’s.

The blonde looks utterly heartbroken as she stares into her wallet, “...Sorry. Forget it. I lost my cash.”

Glimmer shifts on her feet. It’s hard to not feel sympathetic for a train wreck, “How’d you lose it?”

The girl morosely stuffs it back into her pocket, “I fell in a creek. Or maybe it was the ring. Could be on the track too, I guess.”

Okay. Glimmer tries to stamp down her curiosity. That was so vague and so thrilling at the same time. A creek maybe, but ring? The ring? The only ring she can think of is one that involves hobbits. Track?

“Sorry.” The blonde is moving away, a little stumble in her steps like her legs don’t like moving, “Have a good day. A good night.” A pause. “Good morning.”

“You gonna be okay?” Glimmer asks, amusement tugging her to respond. She wasn’t expecting a customer for a long time. Any entertainment would do and this was fun. “Did you drive here?”

The girl smiles impishly over her shoulder, “No.”

“Okay.” Glimmer huffs because now she was purposefully being vague, “Just making sure you're okay.”

The smile fades, but not entirely. There’s a ghost of it on the girl's lips. It’s gentle, with a smidge of surprise hidden in her eyes. Glimmer’s staring. Her chest is a little warm I’ve never seen anyone smile like that. The girl hesitates a moment like she doesn’t know what to say. 

“Thanks.” She gives a tiny wave over her shoulder. 

Glimmer returns it and watches the stranger walk out the door. 

Weirdo, she decides and goes back to playing Space Candy.

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It gets busy. 

Which is a laughable way of saying there's three people in the cafe. Two are together so they barely count as individuals when they order at the same time. The third took their cup and made to leave. The door opens before they get there. For a very brief moment the cafe has four people before her third is stepping around the newcomer and leaving.

What is with strange attractive girls today? Glimmer wonders. 

At least this one didn’t look like she’d just walked out of Fight Club. It’s 5 AM and she’s wearing shades, which means she’s going to be walking around the city for another hour when the sun comes up or she’s weird too. Her clothes, the vest and the jacket and her jeans, are spotless of mud. Her hair is tied back into a ponytail, catlike ears flicking towards where Mister Premium is bubbling. 

She doesn’t immediately approach the cubby, which is kinda awkward but not new. Glimmer makes herself look busy by picking at the counter. The girl looks at the menu, looks down at her phone in her hands, then back at the menu. There’s an impatient scowl starting to form. 

“Can I help you with anything?” Glimmer hedges. 

“If you have a spare brain for my roommate, I’ll buy it.” The girl remarks dryly. 

Glimmer gave a startled chuckle. She could appreciate good humor in front of awkward small talk. The girl sighs, craning her head back like approaching the cubby was the most strenuous thing ever. Glimmer was not staring at her neck. 

“Do you guys have like,” The girl makes a box with her hands, “a small? A small size.”

“We have only one size cup.” 

Now with a little more desperation, “Look if you got like, a cylinder or something to shove down her throat, I’ll take it.”

Glimmer cracks a helpless grin, “Um what?”

“I’m serious.” She’s even gripping the counter like she might die. “I’ve been to two other stops. Tiny cup. That’s all she’ll drink.”

Glimmer nods slowly, “Tiny.”

The girl nods back with an edge of hysteria, “Tiny.”

“...One moment.”

She shoots off a quick text to Bow that says how small is the shortest person in the world and hurries to the backroom. Under the sink are a bunch of cups for water, barely the size of her palm. She takes one out and returns to her post. 

“Here’s what I can do,” She starts off delicately, “I can make you a regular coffee and charge you for that and-”

“I don’t drink coffee.”

Glimmer frowns, “Are you just here to pick up for your roommate?”

The girl nods tiredly, “Room mates. ”

“Does the other one drink coffee?”

“If you want to suffer, sure.”

Vague and thrilling. These girls were going to be the death of her. “I was going to suggest you buy a normal cup, get this little thing for free, and bring both back. It’s not actually small, but if you’re holding both it looks small.”

The other girl's lips part in surprise, “That’s...crazy enough to work. She’ll fall for it. How much?”

“Two fifty.”

A five dollar bill is placed on the counter. Glimmer reaches for the registers when the girl says, “Keep the rest, sparkles.”

“Sp- Sparkles?” She almost bangs her knee on the cubby. The girl is looking smug as she takes her cups hand in hand. She tilts her head down just enough that the shades slide down her nose and- oh. Mismatched blue and yellow eyes gaze at her warmly.

“The hair.” The girl says when all Glimmer can do is flatline. “Pink.”

“Oh.” She idly reaches up for a few strands. She’d dyed it black a few months ago and pink was starting to bleed through it. “Thanks, it’s natural.”

(art by @ bonpop)

It wasn’t a joke but the girl smirked like it was. Oh well. Wouldn’t be the first time. 

Wait.

“I said you didn’t have to pay for two coffee’s.” She looked at the bill pointedly. 

The girl’s smirk takes on a devious edge. “Looks like you owe me one.” Glimmer gapes at her as she turns and retreats for the door, calling over her shoulder, “Catchya later.”

“Later?” Glimmer echoes, watching the door close in bewilderment. There’s heat crawling up her neck and a tingle of embarrassment settling in her chest. She quickly glances up and is relieved to find the cafe empty. She crumpled to her knees and threw her head onto the counter. What was that? At least no one could see how red her face was. 

“Woah Glimmer your face is really red.”

“Bow!” She shrieks, her knee meeting an unfortunate fate. She winces and grips it with one hand,  “When did you get here?”

He’s grinning at her from the door. He glances at it and back to her, his grin growing a little wider, “Who was that?”

“Customer.”

He’s staring at her, “You’re really red.”

“Bow.”

“Okay, okay.” He holds his hands up as he approaches. Glimmer’s eyes zero in on the take out bag. “And just when I was coming to deliver scrumptious goodness-”

“You got me junk food?” She tearfully held out her hands, “For me? Bow, you’re the best.”

He hands it to her daintily, “Extra fries.”

“I’m going to cry.”

“Twenty one inches.”

Glimmer blinks up from her bag, “Huh?”

“Your text?” He twirls a finger, “Smallest person in the world?”

“Oh.” Yeah she wasn’t gonna explain that to him. “I was just curious.”

“Bored?”

“Dying of it.”

“At least it’s not busy.” They share a knowing smirk. The joke never gets old. “When are you off?”

“Eleven. You?”

He gives a college sigh , “Four.”

That almost kills her mood, but she’s reaching for the inside of the bag and it’s a burger. Good mood returned and she’s more than happy to just sit on the cubby and eat her fast food in broad daylight. Dawn light? The sun was rising. 

“Oh shoot.” She looks at Mister Premium. “Need something to go?”

“Yeah.” He glances up at the menu and beams, “Ohhh. Cat mint flavour. I get it.”

She laughs and tries to throw out any thoughts of suave felines in shades, “Sure thing, Bow.”

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Her next shift starts off with her reintroducing skiing. 

A mop and a broom in hand, she balances on the backroom chair and rows herself across the cafe. Her phone cheerfully beeps at 3 AM and she ignores it because nothing mattered for the next two hours anyway. She boats herself around until she collides with the espresso lane sign. Cleaning up takes about four minutes and she’s back to brooding at her cubby. 

The door opens. 

Glimmer says “Oh my god” at the same time the girl that walks in says “I have cash”.

It’s the blonde girl. It’s the very same blonde girl only worse. Her hair was that frazzled mess again, like at one point it’d been in a ponytail but had fallen loose. She was wearing the same clothes, minus the flannel and instead a hoodie that had an incredibly obvious mud stain down one sleeve. None of that compared to the split lip.

(art by @ bonpop)

The girl blinks and says, “What?”

“Your face. What happened? ” She slides off the cubby, watching the girl approach warily. 

“Oh.” A weak smile. “Swift Wind got me. Do you guys have caramel?”

Stop being so weird.  Glimmer is not staring at her lips. “Yeah. Want anything else with it?”

“I can get more?” The girl looks surprised before falling into trepidation, “Doesn’t that cost more?”

“No?” 

The smile turns genuine and happy, “Extra caramel please.”

Oh my god. She robotically turns to Mister Premium. Oh my god? I can’t tell if she’s stupid or cute.

She can hear the girl humming behind her. It was practically cheerful compared to the mess she was the previous day. She uses this time to text Bow can wind knock out a fully grown adult. Glimmer caps the lid on the cup and turns around. The girl was counting out quarters. 

“Two fifty right?” The blonde asks, peering up at her. 

Glimmer nods. She’s beyond words. 

“Here you go.” The coins clatter as she nudges them forward. “Um, actually, would it be okay if I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.” 

“What’s a catmint?”

Glimmer almost trips into the cubby. She saves the coffee and sets it down cautiously. “A flower.”

“Ohh.” She rocks back on her heels, squinting at the menu. “That doesn’t sound very tasty.”

“It’s not- it’s a pun. Mint? Cat mint. No flowers.”

A very slow blink. A dawning realization. A wide grin, “That’s clever!”

Glimmer tries not to preen, “I came up with it myself.”

“Oh I see.” She smiles slyly. “My mistake. You’re very clever.”

Oh. No. Don’t blush, she’s not blushing, temperature isn’t real. “Thanks. What are you up to at 3 AM anyway?”

The blonde shrugs her shoulders, cradling her cup like it’s a precious treasure, “Fieldwork.”

Glimmer waits. The girl takes a generous chug of her coffee. The silence is so consuming Glimmer can feel her eyebrow twitch. 

“Um and that means…?”

“Oh.” Her strange blonde clears her throat. “I go out in the field to work.”

Glimmer waits. The girl sips her coffee. The eyebrow twitch is now starting to affect her eyesight. 

“You’re infuriating.”

“I’m sorry?’ The girl rubs the back of her neck awkwardly. “I don’t usually talk about stuff with strangers.”

Glimmer winces, “Okay fair.”

“But it’s not like, illegal. If that’s why you’re asking.” The blonde grins. “I work with horses.”

Oh. Oh. The puzzle was starting to take shape. Trails. Fieldwork. Her messy appearance wasn’t so far fetched anymore. Didn’t look so bad either. Glimmer put a foot down on those thoughts. 

“That’s cool.” 

“Yeah.” Another huge sip of coffee. “Thanks, by the way. I need this.”

Glimmer gave a wry smirk, “I can tell.”

A bashful smile and a quick retreat, “I’ll see you around then. Um, cute cafe, uh, yeah. Have a good morning?”

“Good morning.” 

Glimmer watches the blonde leave and daydreams. 

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It’s only later that she sits down and opens her phone. She types out are puns a good way to flirt and immediately deletes it. She instead writes how do I ask for a girls name back tracks and tries a girls number and deletes that too. 

I think I like catmint is what she texts Bow. 

He replies with I think she likes you too. 

Which one  she wants to ask but settles with screaming into her pillow. 

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Chapter Text

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The problem with regulars was the expectations. 

Glimmer recalls an old man who she knew from day one would come in at 3:30 AM sharp. He did this for an entire week without being late or early. It was just something she expected. Once she reached her second week on the shift she stopped seeing him. This led to a bunch of theories she tossed between herself and Bow that ranged from passed away to eaten by the dumpster behind the building

She started her shift expecting to see blonde hair, blue eyes, and a dorky smile. 

3 AM passed.

4 AM turned by without a peep. 

5 AM rewards her with new faces and none of which she recognizes. She’s glumly waiting on Bow to show up to brighten her day. She’d only seen the girl twice. A part of her had happily assumed that she’d always see her at gods hour. She was a little lonely. 

So she’s leaning on the counter in an empty cafe bored out of her mind while the Space Candy theme blasts out her phone and the door opens.

“Welcome to-” She stops.

The girl with the shades grins and props a hand on her hip, “Well well. It’s my miracle worker.” She strode over the counter. Glimmer scrambled, nearly dropping her phone in her haste to turn the stupid music off. “I really owe you one.”

Glimmer smiled in amusement, “I’m guessing it worked.”

“She ate it up.” The girl paused. “Well, drank it up. Can I order up another miracle or are you fresh out?”

She never used the cups under the sink anyways. “Just got a fresh batch.” She joked. 

The girl smirks, “Must be a lucky day.”

Glimmer was not blushing. She was just grabbing a water cup and not blushing. Did the girl have fangs? When she smiled? She feels a little dizzy when she returns to the counter. 

“Two fifty.” She chimes, turning to Mister Premium. 

“Already on it, sparkles.” The girl waves her hand distractedly, her other occupied with her wallet. 

“It’s Glimmer.”

The girl stops, “What?”

Was that weird? She wondered. Sharing my name like that? Feeling shy, she mumbled, “Glimmer is my name.”

“Oh.”  The girl’s mouth twitches downwards. It's not a frown but it’s something else. Glimmer really wants her to take off the shades. “I’d tell you mine but I don’t think you’d remember it.”

“That’s mean.” She chides, keeping her tone light and no desperation you are not desperate. “I’m sure I can remember.”

“Bet you won’t.” 

Glimmer huffed, putting the lid on her coffee, “Fine. Let’s make it a bet. If I forget your name when you come in next-”

The girl’s eyebrows rose above her shades, “Who said I was coming back?”

Glimmer did not react. She felt something crack in her chest and it was not her heart. “Sorry. I just assumed.”

“Relax.” Her ears flicked down a fraction, almost guilty. A moment later she was perking up. Her smirk is back, “Alright sparkles. A deal is a deal.”

Glimmer hands her the two coffee’s. The girl takes it leisurely. Glimmer waits. The girl stands there, completely at ease and not a care in the world. 

Oh no. Glimmer realizes with an irritated twitch. They’re both infuriating. 

“Are you gonna tell me it or not?” She grumbles. 

“I got a better idea.” She’s setting her coffee hoard on the counter. She’s reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small palm size notebook. The cover of it is leather, a small blue ribbon trailing on the end. Glimmer knows she’s staring. It’s a neat looking notebook. She wasn’t sure if it was expensive or well taken care of. 

“Here.” The girl rips out a sheet of paper. She’s withdrawing a pen from the spine and scribbling a few letters down. “I’ll let you figure it out.”

“I see.” Glimmer drawls, not very impressed. 

The girl smiles, presenting the paper to her between two fingers, “I thought you wanted to know my name, Glimmer? ”

That was doing things to her head. Things she was going to pin to her mental fridge and look at later. Later, she tells herself. She takes the paper, keeping her movements steady so she doesn’t end up snatching it like a gremlin. Even the paper feels smooth, like the type she’d imagine calligraphy would be practiced on. The handwriting was the complete opposite. Messy scrawl of barely legible letters dotted the top of the page. 

Catra

“You-” She looks up, to say something, but stops. 

The door is swinging closed.

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The whole day was bad. 

Bow showed up late with an apology. Her ten o’clock coworker didn’t come in so she had to actually call people to make sure Déjà Brew didn’t get put on a milk carton. Should she be happy she got overtime? Probably. Was she though? Was she though? 

She dragged her feet through Rider Jack’s Supermarket. Her phone chimed with another friend text which she wanted to look at, but it’d only remind her that the time was one in the afternoon. Sleep was calling to her. She wanted to crawl into bed for twelve hours. 

She needed sweets. Or something sweet. Lemonade, iced tea, she wasn’t feeling too picky. She stood in front of the peanut butter indecisively. The jello was calling to her. 

“I should pick up something for breakfast.” She paused and whispered, “Dinner? Breaker?”

She turned down the cereal aisle and almost tripped on a person.

“What the-?”

It was hysterical. She was just sitting there in the cereal aisle. Her mystery blonde, the blonde that she’d been thinking about all day, was just there. Sitting in a cereal aisle. Mournfully eating out of a Captain Blueberry box. 

“Uh.” This was awkward. “You alright there?”

The blonde nods distractedly. She had a glazed look in her eye. She wasn’t even looking at Glimmer. She was just staring dully ahead. Glimmer, after a moment of hesitation, crouched down beside her. It seemed entirely on instinct that the girl offered her the box.

“No thanks.” She couldn’t help her amused smile. “I’ll pass. I think you have to pay for that though.”

“I will.” The blonde blinks now, slowly. Something sparks. “Woah, you’re here.”

“Uh, yeah? It’s the middle of the supermarket and you’re eating cereal straight out of the box.”

The girl looks down at her box, “Huh. How long have I been here?”

“It’s one in the afternoon.”

“Oh.” The blonde cracks a helpless smile and goes back to eating cereal, “Okay.”

Vague and mysterious. Glimmer decided sleep could wait. She wanted to know more and a  large part of her was concerned over the mental well being of someone who reacts like that. She fired off a quick text to Bow about her location just to be safe. She didn’t want to end up on a milk carton either. 

“So I have some theories about you.” She started, once she’s seated on the floor of Rider Jack’s supermarket. It’s really cold on her butt and kinda hurts. “Wanna hear them?”

“What are you talking about?” Her blonde mumbles around a handful of cereal, “What theories?”

“I think you’re a fairy princess.”

The blonde choked. Glimmer guiltily offered a few pats to the other girls back. Once recovered, she shoots her a look.

“Fairy princess?”

“You’re kinda wild looking.” Glimmer muses, keeping down the embarrassment chasing up her neck, “My friends think you fight bears.”

The girl actually looks smug, “Do they?” And then paused. Something flickered across her expression and she’s turning her head to look Glimmer over, “You talked about me to your friends?”

Glimmer swallows. She’s on the floor, inches from a Valued Customer (it was a better c-word then what the blonde actually was), and she was highly aware of how blue those eyes were. The bags underneath them were more noticeable. 

“When was the last time you got sleep?” Glimmer asks, mostly to throw the whole conversation away. 

Her blonde blinks, “Uh. Monday.”

“That was a joke right?” Glimmer stared at her incredulously, “Monday was four days ago.”

The girl looks at Glimmer in horror, “It’s Friday?!”

Glimmer nods.

The girl almost drops her cereal while scrambling to stand up. It didn’t entirely escape without accident. Little blue loops of food dot the floor around them. Glimmer can’t quite work her jaw. She’s too baffled to speak. 

“I have to-” The girl groans in frustration, jumping from foot to foot. The antsy movement is accompanied by her fishing out a phone, “It’s one o’clock, I’m late, I’m so late. ”

Glimmer comes back to say, “Woah.”

“I have to go.” The girl pauses. “Like, two hours ago.”

“I get it.” Glimmer raises her hands, trying not to let her disappointment show. “Will I see you later?”

Oops. She did not let her wince show. That sounded way too wistful. Luckily, the blonde was too frazzled to catch it. 

“Sure thing, extra caramel, cat puns, yeah yeah.” A frantic, pleading look cast her way, “I really have to go.”

“Okay.” Glimmer waves her fingers in a meek wave. “Goodbye.”

The girl waves as she dashes away. Glimmer takes four seconds to marvel at the rear view of her cr- Customer, Valued Customer. She takes a page out of the sleep deprived book and grabs a Captain Blueberry off the shelf. I just want to try it, she thinks but feels how red she is all the way home.

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“You didn’t get her name?”

Glimmer sighed into her pillow, “No.”

Bow’s face on her phone was frowning, “Wait, then what was on the piece of paper?”

She ran a hand down through her bedhead. Just being reminded that she had two Valued Customers was starting to give her a headache, “Her name.”

“I’m confused.”

“Bow.” She looked at him despairingly. “There’s two.”

His mouth formed an ‘o’. 

She felt the need to defend herself. “Alright so, it’s this- Catra. Gosh Bow she’s, she’s just a whole lot.”

His smile is back, “You’ve told me. Suave, smart, cool looking, nice hips-”

“I can hang up.” She pauses and looks at the time. It was telling her nine o'clock. “Actually, shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“I usually lay in bed watching my show but this is much more interesting. Tell me more.”

She barks a laugh, “Alright. I’ll tell you about my mystery blonde.”

“Ohh, so this is the one you don’t have the name for.”

“You’ve seen Catra. You haven’t seen these biceps.”

He laughs, “Glimmer, c’mon, that’s not why you’re making heart eyes at her.”

She grimaces at heart eyes. She was not that obvious. Hopefully. “She’s dorky. And really sweet? And I’m stuck between theorizing she’s some airheaded fairy or a really good serial killer.”

“Uh.” He blinks. “Should I be worried?”

“No, I’m just rambling.” She rubs her chin thoughtfully. “I think she’s too dumb to be evil. Or too pure hearted to think about it. Or she’s just got that vibe because she hasn’t slept in like, days.”

“Woah.” Bow tilts his head, “She okay?”

“I think?” This is where the mystery came back full force, “She said she works with horses.”

“Not much to go on.”

“Don’t I know it. I’m at the bottom of the barrel here.”

“So back to Catra,” He said without missing a beat, “What are you going to do next?”

She opens her mouth. Closes it. And really takes a moment to realize she has no idea what she’s doing. Was she trying to seduce them? She wouldn’t take it that far. She just wanted to know them better and see where that goes. It could all be a waste. For all she knew they were already taken. Was she okay with making moon eyes from behind a counter? 

“No.” She said grimly.

“Huh?”

“Bow, I’m going to ask for her number even if it kills me.”

“Uh, which one?”

She takes a deep breath. She’d always been told she gets too ambitious sometimes and what was adding another to the pile? She wanted this. 

“Both.”

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It’s 2 AM at Déjà Brew.

Ordinarily she’d be flipping the CLOSED sign. By routine, she’d have Mister Premium bubbling away and be discovering new ways to almost break her head on the floor. She’d be bored and lonely and watching the windows wistfully. 

She wasn’t doing any of that. 

She was too busy gaping at the blonde sitting beside the door. 

She’s grinning at her sheepishly, knees tucked close to her chest and her phone lighting up her face and the wall around her. She was wearing her flannel again. The threads splayed over her very muddy boots. She had dirt on her cheek. 

“It’s 2 AM.” Glimmer said, apropos of nothing. 

The girl shyly stands up, wobbling as she does, “Sorry I can go if you-”

“No, no.” Glimmer calms her racing heart, tries to catch the breath that was knocked out of her. “You just surprised me.”

“Oh.” Her blonde was rubbing her arm. It was so endearing. “I wanted to apologize for totally ditching you earlier.”

“We weren’t saying much.” Glimmer soothed, moving to unlock the door, “Come on in. We can talk inside.”

Her blonde beamed. Glimmer ignored the things it did to her heart. Flicking on the lights, she made for the coffee makers. There was rustling as the blonde leaned against the counter, looking up at the menu like that was her intention the whole time.

“How long were you waiting?” Glimmer pauses while changing the filter, “ Why were you waiting?”

“Couldn’t sleep.” The girl responds, rocking back on her heels, “I just couldn’t stop thinking about earlier. That’s all.”

“Okay.” Glimmer whispered. That was definitely doing something to her heart. “Want anything?”

“Extra caramel. Please.”

“Alright.” She’d been practicing this with Bow. She cleared her throat, “One extra caramel latte coming right up for…?”

She turned her head. The blonde was looking at her hopefully, a smile splitting across her face. “Adora.” She said. “My name is Adora.”

“Adora.” Glimmer finished, “My name’s Glimmer.”

“It’s nice to meet you Glimmer.”

That pulled a smile from her, letting what her heart was aching to do show through, “You too.” 

Cup in hand, she quietly set it down. Her blonde, Adora, was looking at her. She couldn’t tell the emotion on the other girls face. She wondered if her’s was just as indescribable. 

“Two fifty.” She said.

“Right.” Adora blinked and fished out her wallet, “I have cash.”

Glimmer looked on in exasperated amusement, “Real cash?”

“Huh?” A wide eyed look, “What do you mean? Were those quarters fake?”

“Oh my god. Ignore me.”

“Alright?”

Glimmer watched the ten coins clatter the counter mournfully. She realized she’d have to get used to that sound. She’d have to get used to making extra caramel coffee and having a blonde haunting the shop at 2 AM. She found herself okay with this. 

“Gonna stick around?” Glimmer asked. 

Adora cradled her drink, “If that’s okay? Unless you have a no loitering rule.”

“Even if we did, I wouldn't kick you out.” Oh no, that could go badly. Change the subject. “I’m too small to even move you I think.”

“You’re not that small.” Adora protested, looking a little red in the face. “You’re like a head shorter than me.”

“Height has got nothing on your arms.”

The blonde looked like she was preening, “Thank you. I worked hard on them.”

Glimmer cracked a smile, “Oh really? What’d you do?”

“Lifting. Carrying.” Adora paused to sip her drink, “Wheelbarrows suck.”

“Wheelbarrows?” 

A nod. Another sip. Glimmer felt her brow twitch. 

“Why wheelbarrows?”

“Oh.” Adora waved a hand, “Cleaning out stalls, moving equipment.”

“You mentioned you work with horses?”

“Yeah.” Her expression twitched like it wanted to be sad. “Yeah, I work with horses.”

Glimmer backed off. She didn’t need to know, not right away. She settled with reaching for her phone. Her fingers brushed it and she got cold feet, her hand darting back to clutch the counter. 

“How’d you get here anyway?”

“I walked.”

“You live nearby?”

Adora frowned, “Kinda? It’s complicated.”

“Okay.” 

Her disappointment must have shown. Adora quickly tacked on, “I’m sorry. I’m being rude, aren’t I?”

“No, don’t worry about it. It’s not fair for you to share something about yourself when I haven’t really talked about myself that much.”

Adora perked up, relief shining across her face, “Tell me about yourself?”

Glimmer’s heart screamed, “What would you like to know?”

“How about,” Adora’s smile morphed into something sly, “those friends you were talking about?”

Uh oh. 

“Well there’s Bow…”

“Do they know about my bear fighting?”

Glimmer almost choked. She kept her cool by slowly pulling the quarters towards her. Adora’s smile kept getting wider. 

“They do, don’t they?”

Glimmer offers a meek glare, “Is that confirmation you do fight bears?”

Adora laughs. It’s a sound that rings in Glimmer’s ears even as twenty minutes passed. They talk about crazy friends, about sweets and her phone game and sit on the counter. There’s three feet between them. Glimmer is painfully aware of that up until Adora has to leave. 

“See you next time.” Her blonde smiles as she walks towards the door. “Glimmer.”

“See you.”

“And.” Adora pauses, looking shy again when she says, “Thank you.”

Oh god, Glimmer thinks faintly as the door closes and she tries not to fall to the floor, is this what swooning feels like?

.

.

It’s 4 AM at Déjà Brew. 

Glimmer knows she shouldn’t be watching the door. She shouldn’t get her hopes up. She absolutely should just watch videos on her phone or something. No one was in. It was just her. It might only be her for hours. 

The door opens. 

“Catra.” She says. 

She can’t tell the girl's face behind her shades. She’s wearing a leather jacket, her hair let down her back instead of in a ponytail. It’s wild and windswept and steals something from Glimmer. With her hands stuffed into her pockets, Catra stays by the door. For some reason this makes Glimmer antsy. 

“What’d you say?” Catra finally speaks, her voice carefully neutral. 

“Catra.” Glimmer repeats, trying not to be embarrassed, “I remembered your name like I said I would.”

“Congratulations.” The girl said blandly. “Want a prize?”

Glimmer was definitely red, “No. Forget it I just. Forget it.”

“...sorry.” Catra exhales, her shoulders slumping, “I had a rough day. I appreciate it, sparkles.”

Glimmer offers a tentative smile. The girl still wasn’t approaching the counter and it made Glimmer feel guilty, like she’d done something to upset her. 

“Here for another miracle?”

“Actually.” Catra tilted her head to the door, “I’m here to kidnap you.”

Glimmer sputtered, a laugh tugged between genuine worry, “Uhm?”

“It’s a joke, glitter.” The smirk was back. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but want to escape for an hour?”

“An hour?” Glimmer looked at her incredulously, “I’m on the clock.”

Catra gestures to the empty cafe. Glimmer deflates. She could definitely leave and come back and no one would know. A voice that sounded like her mother was telling her she didn’t know this girl, what if bad things happened? The one that sounded like the way her heart screamed was begging to take the girls hand. 

“Say I agree.” Glimmer hedged. “Where would we go?”

“Anywhere.” Catra said. “Anywhere you’d like.”

Oh yeah. Glimmer clenched her teeth to stop herself from biting her lip. I’m swooning. 

“...okay.” 

Catra’s ears perked up, “Okay?”

“Yeah.” Glimmer grinned, “Take me away.”

She took a moment to fetch her jacket and flip the sign to CLOSED. Catra led her around the building. Glimmer had a joke about alleyway murders on her tongue when she spotted Catra’s ride. It was a motorcycle but-

“Does it seriously say wildcat on the side?”

“Zip it.” Catra huffs, “My roommate bought it for me.”

“Can you give me your roommate's number?” It was a joke. She’d meant it as a joke but Catra paused to look at her. Glimmer really wanted to know why she was still wearing shades in complete darkness. She’d like to know what that expression was. 

“Alright.” Catra swung her leg over- Glimmer did not watch the movement raptly- and gestured for Glimmer to do the same, “There’s a helmet back there.”

“What about you? No helmet?” Glimmer shakily tried to copy Catra’s movement. She’d been sitting three feet from Adora and had nearly passed out. She was now pressed against Catra’s back. She wouldn’t be surprised if the girl could hear her heart hammering. 

“Ears.” Catra said shortly. “My roommate made some dumb looking helmet for me.”

“Aw, does it have kitty holes?”

“Shut up.”

Glimmer tried to laugh but Catra’s hair brushed her face and she might be having a heart attack. The beast started up with a cranky roar, the vibration rattling her teeth. Catra leaned forward, leaving Glimmer to scramble to wrap her arms around her only grip. Which happened to be Catra’s waist. 

Her arms were around Catra’s waist. 

Catra was speaking. She thinks. She really can’t tell. The motorcycle carries them out of the parking lot. Light and colors and noises blare around her. She breathes. She feels like she’s lost but in the best of ways. 

“You alright back there?” Catra yells. 

“Yeah.” Glimmer calls back, pushing her voice through the helmet, “Never better.”

She thinks she hears Catra laugh. Time passes. She clings to the warmth in her arms and watches the world pass by. Catra takes her around the city, passing neighborhoods and through construction and around highways and into parking lots. She does a few circles that have Glimmer yelling happily. 

“Best kidnapping ever.” She hollers. 

Catra tilts her head, her smile wide in the dark and flashing streetlights. Glimmer watches that smile and traces it into her memories. 

You’re beautiful, she wants to say. 

“I aim to please.” Catra’s smile showed a hint of fang, “Glimmer.”

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

These were not her pillows. 

Glimmer wakes up and it’s red. Red blankets, red sheets, red pillows, even the walls were a deep persian color. She doesn’t want to move. Everything inside her is screaming to just go back to sleep and maybe she’ll wake up in her bed because this was absolutely not her bed. 

She props herself up slowly, taking in the room with wide eyes. It wasn’t all red, now that she looked at it. It was shades of orange, stars of yellow painted into the walls, the dark carpet stained with smears of it. The window is cracked open and she can hear bird song, can barely see the unfamiliar apartment complex attached to this one. 

She breathes and doesn’t panic. 

Pulling back the covers is a small relief. She’s still in her clothes, her jacket, and even her shoes. Wiping her cheek comes back with a smidge of dirt. 

What happened? She stares wondrously at the bedroom door. Catra took me on a ride and…

And?

And?

Glimmer could feel her blush all the way down her neck. She forced any of those thoughts away. She was being crazy. This is Catra’s bedroom. Hopefully. Shut up. 

She tip toes across the room. There’s a small air freshener tied around the doorknob in the shape of a happy face that says anti bot. She bemusedly opens the door and almost runs head first into a giant. Glimmer barely catches herself from hitting her head on the doorframe.

“Oh jeez, I’m so sorry!” The giant is saying, “I should have knocked, oh I didn’t hurt you did I? I’m sorry, I was just worried.”

“What?” Glimmer blinks to orient herself, looking up and up and up- “Oh my god.”

The girl in front of her smiles sheepishly, her gigantic claw reaching up and rubbing the back of her head. She has to drop her head not to hit the top of the door. The scorpion claws would be more concerning if they weren’t totally overshadowed by the Hug Dealer sweater she was wearing. Glimmer knows she’s staring. 

The girl shyly takes a step back, “It’s the claws right? Sorry. I can be told they’re a little overwhelming.”

“Uh.” Glimmer rubs her eyes. “Who are you?”

“Oh!” A claw is extended to her nearly making her jump out of her skin, “I’m Scorpia! I’m Catra’s roommate.”

What’s the proper way to handshake a scorpion? She stares at the claw. She didn’t want her hands anywhere near those, but Scorpia looked so genuine. Goodbye fingers. 

She gripped it with one hand. It was surprisingly gentle. Scorpia looked over the moon, “Gosh I’ve been waiting all morning to meet you. Catra said you-”

“Wait.” Reality was coming back to her. “Morning? What time is it?”

“It’s seven.” 

Glimmer sucked her lip between her teeth to keep from screaming. She’d been gone from her shift for hours. What in the world had happened that she ended up in Catra’s apartment? Had she only slept for a few hours or was this the aftermath of a bizarre coma? 

Focus. She breathed. One thing at a time. 

“Is Catra,” She hesitantly glanced behind Scorpia, “around?”

“She went out to get some breakfast.” Scorpia steps back, “I could show you around while we wait!”

“Well, that’s really nice but-” Glimmer paused. Can scorpions master puppy dog eyes? Is this normal? Her resolve to leave immediately crumbled, “I guess I have to wait for Catra to drive me back anyway.”

“Oh yeah, she said she would.” Scorpia nodded, “And I have to say, it was really surprising to see her walk in with you in her arms! I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Glimmer was going to die. All she could picture in her head was being cradled, carried all the way from Catra’s motorcycle. Who even does that? She doesn’t know her. It made Glimmer's heart beat in new and hopeful ways. 

She distracted herself by taking in the apartment. It was spacious, which she imagined played a big part due to the giant standing beside her. The living room area was directly connected to the kitchen, a counter window offering her a view of the steel fridge and mahogany cupboards. Her gaze snaps back to the living room to the two couches surrounding a huge TV oh my god. 

“Are you guys rich?” She asks. 

Scorpia blinks down at her, “What makes you say that?”

“It’s just the vibe.” Glimmer keeps her eyes on the TV to make her point. It flies right over Scorpia’s head. 

“Well my mom’s were pretty well off.” Scorpia hums. “I got a lot of inheritance. I just don’t know what to do with it, so I like to treat my friends.”

The puzzle pieces were starting to form together, “Did you buy Catra’s bike?”

Scorpia beams happily, “I did!”

“And the TV?”

“Oh yeah. Christmas was wild last year, lemme tell ya.” 

Glimmer smiles. She lets herself imagine Catra in a sweater like Scorpia’s, sitting around a living room on Christmas while she unwraps a new TV. It’s an absurd image that has her giggling. 

“Entrapta must be in her room.” Scorpia taps her claws together thoughtfully, “I’d go introduce you to her, but she’s been in there for two days working on her newest project for class. The last time I tried to walk in there I nearly got my eyebrows fried off. It was, phew, a really weird Tuesday.”

Is everyone here just naturally mysterious? She stares at the hallway and decides she likes her eyebrows more than being a detective. 

“Do you guys just eat on the couches?”

“Yeah.” Scorpia peers over one cautiously, “We just got them replaced so it should be clean.”

“Uh.” Glimmer examines the couch too. It’s a fiery orange color. It’s soft underneath her hand. She couldn’t see any imperfections. “Why’d you replace the last one?”

Scorpia glances at her claws nervously, “No reason.”

The front door opens before she can even process the idea of Scorpia accidentally slicing couches in half. She turns her head, peeking over the back shyly. She knew who it was. Her heart was leaping into her throat. 

She could barely see Catra’s face over the amount of grocery bags in the way. She did hear her say, “I’m home.” 

“Welcome home!” Scorpia returned warmly, “Oh here, let me help-”

“Nah, it’s just these.” Catra turns to face them. She’d switched her clothes out from last night. The leather jacket was gone, replaced with a parka jacket that practically swallowed the girl. She nudged the hood off her head, water droplets dripping onto the floor with the movement. It’s raining, Glimmer acknowledges but can’t think, can’t look away from Catra literally dripping with good looks. 

The shades were gone. Blue and gold find her and almost knock her off the couch. She can hear Scorpia speaking. She can see Catra reply but she doesn’t look away from Glimmer. 

“Hi.” She finally manages. Her voice sounds worse than her garbage disposal. 

Catra cracks a smile, “Hey. You’re up.” 

“Yeah.” She clears her throat, “Sorry for falling asleep on you, I think.”

“You think?”

“I don’t remember much.”

Catra’s ear’s flick down. It’s a small movement before the girl is abruptly turning away and heading into the kitchen, “You gonna stick around for breakfast, glitter?”

Glimmer winces, “I missed a lot more than an hour of work.”

“Catra’s pancakes are the best.” Scorpia says. Glimmer turns her head to stare. The scorpion met her look innocently. What? “You should try them, oh, I’ll go get Entrapta.”

Glimmer watches her leave feeling like she just missed something. Tentatively, she moves away from the living room. She can see Catra moving around in the kitchen, ducking down for cabinets and reaching high on her tiptoes. She turns to face Glimmer when she’s close enough.

“What do you remember?” Catra fires off. 

Glimmer blinks, hovering outside the kitchen. That felt a bit too accusing. “You picked me up and took me for a drive. We went by downtown construction and you did donuts in a parking lot for a while…”

“The bridge?” Catra asks, turning back to her groceries. Her shoulders were stiff. 

“Uh…” Right, that had happened. A star filled sky over an empty road, a river on each side surrounding them in dark water. Catra’s smile imprinted in her memory. “I remember that.”

Catra relaxes, “Okay. That’s where you fell asleep.”

“Oh.” Why was she disappointed about that? She couldn’t have hoped for more. “Then, thank you. I didn’t mean to.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Catra glances at her slyly, “You’re surprisingly clingy.”

Oh. Glimmer turns purposefully to the groceries. It helps hide her blush. “Let me help. I owe you that, at least.”

“You don’t owe me anything.” The reply was so soft Glimmer almost didn’t hear it. She wondered if she should say anything, but found she didn’t know what to say. She quietly went about unbagging food, letting Catra direct her where to go. Every once in a while they’d bump hips, shoulders would brush, a small hand touch. It was starting to melt her brain. 

“I have to get back before ten.” She said. 

Catra huffs, “You could just call in.”

“While on the clock?”

“...alright.” Catra glances at the clock. “You’ve got some time. What would you like?”

Glimmer blinks, “Huh? I thought you were making pancakes.”

Her ears flick down again, almost embarrassed, “ Fine I’ll make pancakes.”

“Uh, okay.”

I missed something again. She steps back and lifts herself up onto the counter. She watches Catra work, the girl maneuvering around her kitchen with practiced ease. Glimmer decides to stop herself from staring for once and pulls up her phone. She winces at the few missed calls from Bow. He assumed she overslept. 

Yup. Slept in. She sends that to him. She’d tell him the truth later when she could actually comprehend it herself. 

“Blueberry or chocolate?”

“Huh?” She looks up. A part of her brain nearly turns off at the sight of Catra in an apron. “What?”

The girl is waving a spatula at her, “Flavor, sparkles. What do you want?”

You. “Blueberry.”

“Is that your favorite?” Catra asks, turning back to her work. 

Glimmer thinks of the Captain Blueberry box sitting at home and says, “Yes.”

Breakfast consists of her sitting on a couch in an apartment she woke up in with her crush sitting two feet away from her. She’s paying attention to this detail because, typically, people put as much distance as possible between others on couches, right? People love the arm rests. It’s a nice place to be. That’s where Glimmer sat. 

It’s not where Catra sat, who took her place on the center cushion right next to Glimmer. 

Heart be still. 

Scorpia sat on the opposite couch, holding the conversation up all on her own. Her voice falls into background noise as Glimmer eats her crushes pancakes on her crushes couch and tries not to think about the tail brushing her leg. 

.

.

“You were what?”

Glimmer clasps her hands in front of her face, “Bow, I don’t even know how-”

“So let me get this straight,” He’s leaning on the counter of Déjà Brew with his eyes up to his hairline, “you woke up in her bed.”

She nods meekly. 

“She made you breakfast. ”

She nods again. 

He stares at her uncomprehendingly, “And you still didn’t get her number? Glimmer!”

“Okay, well, you try and-” She backtracks, “I woke up and I was a little freaked out. Can you blame me for completely flubbing it?”

He frowns and leans back, crossing his arms as he says, “Alright. I’d be surprised too.” 

“It took everything I had not to just-” She stops herself and groans into her hands, “She made me blueberry pancakes.”

He whistles, “You were digging your grave.”

“ Bow.”

“Listen, I’m just worried.” He raises his hands, “You obviously feel a lot for her, for them. I don’t wanna see your heart broken, is all.”

She falters at that. She hadn’t even thought of dropping questions like that. Are you single seemed just about as tricky as can I have your number. She grimaced and Bow gave her a sympathetic look.

“Ask for her number Glimmer.” He says, reaching over to give her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “I really think you have a chance.”

“Thanks, Bow.” She smiles, “I’m sorry I couldn’t get your 5 AM pick me up.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He gives a teasing grin, “You haven’t stopped smiling.”

She hides her face behind her hand and gives him a playful shove.

“How’d you get away with ditching work?”

“It’s not like anyone has to know. ”

He laughs.

.

.

It’s midnight. 

It’s too early to head to her shift but late enough she’s restless. Her friends are asleep, except for Seahawk who’s been non stop texting about car batteries for some reason. She mindlessly scrolls through her feed as she walks through Thaymor park. It’s chilly even with her jacket. She’s wrapping her arms close to keep warm. She can see her breath mist in front of her sometimes. 

There were no distractions from social media. Other than Mermista complaining about something again and Perfuma gushing about her date again it left her with nothing to do but let her frozen fingers play Space Candy. 

And then a loud crash nearly sends her to the ground. 

She almost drops her phone, pulling it close to her chest as the shadows of the park become sinister. She drops back into the lantern's light, watching wide eyed for anything suspicious. Something big was moving through the bushes, rattling footsteps that shook the very ground. Glimmer pressed her back against the streetlight as a huge shadow stepped forward and-

-and dipped it’s head low to start eating the grass nearby. 

Glimmer stared at the horse. 

A horse. 

“That’s a horse.” She says, making sure she wasn’t hallucinating. 

“Yeah, he’s mine.”

Glimmer actually does drop her phone, her head almost colliding with the pole behind her. She whips her head to the new approaching footsteps. Adora is sheepishly rubbing her neck, a bunch of leather hanging from her other hand. Her entire outfit, from shirt to jeans, is covered in a layer of dirt and mud. 

Glimmer blurts out hysterically, “Do you live here?!”

“What?” Her blonde reels in surprise, “No. I was just passing through.”

“With a horse?!”

Adora winces, “He doesn’t listen very well.” And then, more sympathetically, “He didn’t scare you, did he?”

“No.” She quickly bends down to pick up her phone, “I was just. Startled.”

“Sorry.” She awkwardly moves to the horse’s side. “I didn’t expect anyone else to be here.”

“Neither did I.” Glimmer exhales to calm her heart. In the dim light, she can barely make Adora out as she starts looping the leather strips through the reins. “What are you doing?”

“He likes to chew through leather.” Adora replies distractedly, “...and styrofoam, and wood, car tires-”

“Okay.” Glimmer huffs, “You didn’t, like, steal him did you?”

Adora turns her head to give her a hurt look. Glimmer immediately regrets asking. “I didn’t steal him. I work with horses, remember?”

“Yeah, sorry.” Glimmer hesitantly approaches, “Is he nice?”

“He’s spoiled.” Adora rolls her eyes, “Don’t show him your hand or he’ll bite it. He’ll think it’s food.”

Glimmer smiled at that, “And who spoiled him?”

Adora looks away. 

Tentatively, Glimmer pats the horse’s flank. It’s different then what she imagined horse fur felt like. It’s coarse hair up until she glides her hand to his shoulder, where it goes soft. 

“What’s his name?”

“Swift Wind.” Adora steps back as the horse tries to lean on her, “No, stop that.”

Glimmer tilts her head, “He’s the one who broke your lip the other day?”

“Yeah.” She rubbed her jaw. “It was my fault for dozing off in the saddle.”

“Uh.”

“What are you doing out, anyway?” Adora looks at her. 

“Just, taking a walk.” She’s distracted by those blue eyes. “Fancy running into you here.”

Adora smiles at that, “I get around a lot.”

“Yeah.” Glimmer slyly adds, “Great cereal by the way.”

Adora almost trips into Swift Wind. The horse huffs and takes a step away from them. It makes Glimmer laugh, delighted by the way Adora sends him a mock glare. 

“I apologized for that.” Adora mutters. 

“I know.” Glimmer smiles. “I should actually thank you. I’ve become a big fan of blueberries lately.”

Her blonde turns her head to her sharply. It catches Glimmer off guard, makes her falter. It’s too dark to see Adora’s expression. It makes her want to drag the blonde back into the light, just to understand why she’s looking at her like that. 

“You’re welcome.” Adora’s reply is cautious. “I didn’t, uh, make a very good impression when…”

“No, no, it’s fine.” Glimmer waves her hand. “I get it.”

Adora rubs her arm, “I still feel bad. I don’t want to come off as rude.”

“Trust me, that’s not what you are at all.”

Adora looks at her. 

Glimmer swallows nervously, “We’re friends, right?”

“...yeah.” Adora relaxes, her eyes softening. “I’d like that.”

Space isn’t real. Glimmer realizes this as her hand brushes Adora’s and they’re both staring at each other in the middle of a park at midnight. She can barely breath, can’t hear anything over how loud her heart is. 

Is this romantic? Glimmer wonders, terrified and happy and confused. Is this weird or romantic I don’t know I can’t think. 

“Can I-” She starts.

“Do you-” Adora says at the same time.

They stop and smile awkwardly. Glimmer gestures for Adora to speak. Her blonde is awkwardly tilting her head towards Swift Wind. 

“Do you want a ride?” She asks. 

“Uh.” Glimmer gives a disbelieving laugh. “I don’t know how?”

“I can teach you.” Adora offers. “He can carry two people.”

Ah. Glimmer stares at the saddle. Memories of a motorcycle ride come back. “I have work in two hours.”

“Just a ride around the park.” Her blonde smiles, “Whenever you want we can stop.”

“...okay.”

There’s a difference between a horse and a motorcycle. There’s a huge difference between clinging to Catra’s waist and pressing her nose to her back...and Adora sitting right behind her, arms around her waist. Glimmer feels dizzy. The skin contact burned where they touched. 

Adora’s instructions are soft in her ear. The night is quiet besides Swift Wind’s hooves beneath them. City noises fall into the background. The entire world falls away. It’s her, a thousand stars, and Adora’s smile. 

She isn’t cold anymore. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Glimmer floated through her day. 

She spent her morning (read: 10 PM) dreamily staring at the ceiling while her eggs nearly burned a hole into her stove. Two accidents were nearly caused by her spacing out in the car. Her head almost met the door of Déjà Brew. Mister Premium didn’t get started until a whole sixteen minutes after she was on the clock. She spent the time afterwards wistfully staring out the windows into nothing. 

She’ll admit it. 

She had a crush. 

Oh and it wasn’t just the suave cat that strolled into her cafe. It was also a dorky mysterious blonde who had her heart on her sleeve. Glimmer couldn’t focus on one for too long without her thoughts straying to the other. Catra’s smirk and teasing remarks gently morphed to Adora’s shy smile and sly jokes. Glimmer’s heart beat a steady rhythm, happy to let herself daydream. 

Her phone sat heavily in her pocket. 

She could have more. She knew this with the same trepidation of someone who could lose it all. A part of her was content to sigh at them from a distance, let her heart beat its rhythm out and let it be. Another part of her was desperately trying to swim through a sea of anxiety, to find the confidence to ask can I have your number. 

  Not to be dramatic. She pouts. But I could really use a life raft. 

There was a knock at the window. 

It’s 3 AM at Déjà Brew and Glimmer has never entertained the idea it was haunted. It hadn’t crossed her mind. She didn’t even believe in ghosts. For a single split moment, she can imagine a demon in the shadows, watching her with a sharp grin. It’s just her at the coffee shop. And if it’s not a demon? If it’s a real person? That made it scarier. Someone was outside. 

Catra was waving. 

“Oh, you jerk. ” Glimmer hissed under her breath, sending the other girl a glare. There wasn’t any heat to it and Catra could tell by the way she was laughing. Glimmer raised her voice, “Get inside already!”

“Were you scared?” Catra asks, stepping in and reaching up to move her shades up. The action surprises Glimmer. The mismatched eyes gleam in the lights of Déjà Brew and bring another page to the book she’s addicted to. She stares for too long and Catra’s eyebrows are raising, “Were you?”

“No, I wasn’t.” She blurts too quickly, heat crawling over her skin. 

Catra’s smile softens, “Chill. I’ll knock anyone out who tries that on you.”

Don’t melt on the counter. Do Not melt on the counter. I need a medic, Glimmer thinks faintly. She clears her throat to bring herself back. 

“You’re here early.” She notes, “Well...earlier than usual.”

I was expecting Adora. She doesn’t say. This was a pleasant surprise. 

Her cat is grinning widely when she saunters up to the counter, “There’s a reason for that.”

“Oh?” Can she hear my heart from where she’s standing?

The smile shutters for a moment. There’s a brief hesitation before Catra’s says, “Thought you could use some company. That’s all.”

Glimmer’s heart trembles. 

“Oh.” She echoes. She doesn’t know what to say to that. Her head is too fuzzy to pick out words. Elation bubbles in her stomach and she’d like nothing more than to pivot on the spot and start singing. 

Catra shrugs stiffly, “I can go if you want me to.”

“No!” Glimmer starts forward too quickly and reels herself back in with a quick breath, “I mean, it’s fine. I appreciate it. It gets really boring when it’s just me for the next few hours.”

“I bet.” Catra relaxes, grabbing the counter and hoisting herself up. She makes herself comfortable leaning against the wall, “This okay?”

“I do that all the time.” She chokes out, moving onto the counter to do the same thing. She saves her heart from expiring by choosing the other wall to sit against. She doesn’t know if this is better. She can see Catra’s smile and Catra’s eyes and- she’s not gonna survive her shift at all. 

Catra is looking at her amusedly, “No one’s gonna walk in and yell at us, right?”

“It wouldn’t be anyone I know.”

Catra laughs, “I’m starting to like this place.”

“You didn’t before?”

“I hate the smell of coffee.” The cat tilts her head to where Mister Premium hums. “Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Glimmer smiles, “What do you drink then?”

“Who said I drink anything?” Catra crosses her arms and glares at her warningly, “Don’t say it. I know what you’re thinking don’t say-”

“Do you drink milk?”

Catra’s leg kicks hers playfully. Glimmer giggles, keeping herself distracted from the foot now resting across her legs. The other girl is lounging across her counter carelessly, eyes half lidded. 

“It is warm in here.” Catra notes around a yawn. “I’m surprised you don’t take naps.”

“I sleep a lot.” Glimmer admits sheepishly. “I get nine hours a night. Evening?”

Catra snorts, “I get that. I work the night shift too.”

That grabs her attention. Adora was a mystery, but she’d realized overtime that she didn’t know that much about Catra either. The tidbit of information was an opening she leapt at. 

“Where do you work?” She asks. 

Catra opens her mouth and pauses. Her brows furrow and she’s staring hard at Glimmer. She tries not to squirm. It goes on for long enough she’s tempted to ask if there’s something on her face. 

Catra smirks, “Where do you think I work?”

Uh oh. 

Glimmer manages a weak laugh, “What? How am I supposed to guess?”

“It’s written all over your face, glitter. You’re dying to know.”

“Well,” She huffs, “You know where I work. I only think it’s fair you share.”

Catra falters. After a moment she nods, “Alright. I’ll tell you, but you have to tell me your guess.”

“...you’re a singer?”

“What?” Catra sputters, “What makes you say that?”

Glimmer crosses her arms, “The shades? You’re really put together, you have rich friends, you- I don’t know, stop laughing!”

“I’m put together?” Catra wheezes, teetering sideways dangerously, “You need better eyes, sparkles.”

She glowers at the other girl. She can’t find herself to be mad at the teasing. She hasn’t heard Catra laugh like this, clutching her side and wiping tears from her eyes. It makes Glimmer’s heart do funny little leaps. 

“Well?” Her voice is a little hoarse. “Are you gonna tell me?”

“I’m a bartender.” Catra smirks, leaning back on her hands. “You flatter me though. A singer? Do you like my voice that much?”

Glimmer rolls her eyes and hopes her face isn’t going red, “Oh please.”

Catra snickers. 

“So,” Glimmer drawls, “When do I get to drop in on you bartending?”

Catra stops. 

The change is so quick Glimmer feels like she said something wrong. The smile is gone and Catra looks uncertain, ears flicking back. It’s the same expression she wore when Glimmer told her she remembered her name. 

“I wouldn’t recommend it.” Catra mutters. 

“Why not?” Glimmer tries to joke. It’s too tense. “Does it smell or something?”

Her cat snorts, “Yeah. You could say that.”

“Does it get busy?”

“Just drop it.” Catra shoots her a look. “It’s not a place I want to see you in, Glimmer.”

The words pull her up short. Her curiosity dies and she lets herself stare fondly at this girl. It’s not a nice bar, that much she can put together. There’s worry pricking her heart but it’s also tripping over itself in trying to keep up with Catra’s sincerity. 

“Okay.” Glimmer relents, voice soft. “You’re kinda worrying me though.”

Catra’s lips quirk up, “I can handle it. Scorpia works there too, if that helps.”

It does. She can imagine any trouble Catra gets in is rare with someone as giant as Scorpia at her side. She lets herself relax. 

“And.” Catra’s smirk returns. “I get great tips.” 

Glimmer smiles at that, “So you are rich.”

“Where else am I going to get the cash to take-” Catra stops and says, “I can buy lots of things.”

That was odd. “Were you going to say something or…?”

“No idea what you’re talking about.” The blaise dismissal was followed by her slipping off the counter. “Anyway. This girl needs sleep.”

Disappointment has her heart dropping to her knees. She didn’t move from the counter, fiddling with her fingers and feeling how heavy her phone was in her pocket. If there was ever an opportunity, now was the time. 

“Hey, Catra-”

The door opened. 

In her head, Glimmer had a lot of scenarios around her crushes. She wanted them to meet, of course. That was ideal. How it was going to happen and how it was going to go was entirely up to chance. She was still working on the phone number bit and had shelved those thoughts for later. 

It was apparently later. 

“Oh.” Adora blinks in surprise, kicking the door shut behind her. “Hi.”

Glimmer can’t see Catra’s expression with her back to her. Her voice is very small when she says, “Hey.”

Silence. 

Glimmer slides off the counter, masking her panic behind a smile, “Adora. Hey.”

“Hey.” Adora takes her eyes off Catra for a moment to look at Glimmer before they’re right back on the bartender. “I’m sorry, I can go…?”

Catra snorts, “This isn’t my cafe. Do what you want.”

Quick. Quick. Salvage. “Adora.” Glimmer starts, a little too loudly. “This is Catra. You two are my only 2 AM customers.” 

Crushes. She doesn’t say. You’re my 2 AM crushes. 

Adora smiles weakly, “Is there a discount for that?”

Catra barks a laugh. She looks less ready to bolt now, leaning back against the counter as she says, “The coffee isn’t that expensive.”

“No, it’s not.” Adora agrees hastily, like she felt it’d offend someone. “I just don’t have a lot of cash.”

Glimmer tacks on, “She forgets it a lot.”

“Only once. ” The blonde replies sharply. It makes Glimmer laugh and from the corner of her eye she can see Catra’s smile starting to return. Good. 

“I can buy you one.”

Glimmer stares at Catra. 

Adora is doing the same, “Huh?”

Her shoulders hike up defensively and she shoots them both a look, “What?”

“Nothing.” Glimmer stammers. “It was just-”

“Out of the blue.” Adora finished, expression turning from perplexed to soft, “I have cash. Thank you for the offer though.”

“Mm.” Catra stuffed her hands into her pockets. Her face was blank. Glimmer glanced from one girl to the other and despaired at the awkward tension. Any conversation starters died on her tongue. She didn’t know enough about either to get the ball rolling. 

“Actually.” Adora starts off with the air of someone with the inability to read the room. “I was hoping I could get your phone number?”

I was wrong. Glimmer stared in horror. This. This is real tension.

“Or not.” Adora quickly amended, her eyes meeting Glimmer’s like she’d just accidentally stepped on a precious heirloom. She glances at Catra and winces. “Is this a bad time?”

“No.” Catra’s voice is frosty. “It’s not. I was just leaving.”

“I can-”

“Move it, blondie.” 

Adora bristles. Glimmer drops her head into her hands. This was the worst scenario. Her crushes immediately breaking out into a fight. They’d never see eye to eye and she’d be stuck with knowing they disliked each other when her heart was split two ways and-

Catra made a noise of surprise. Warily, she looked up. She wasn’t expecting to see Adora on the floor, rubbing her shoulder. Catra stood beside her, eyes wide with disbelief.

“I only shoulder checked you. You look built like an ox that shouldn’t have-”

“Okay.” Adora snaps, glaring up at the cat. “I get it. Don’t throw it in my face.”

“I’m not.” Catra returned hotly, her brows furrowed, “I’m trying to be nice and give you space you-”

“A whole lot of space that was, you just-”

“Well, if you wanted to be alone then-”

“That’s definitely not-”

Glimmer groaned. She hadn’t meant for it to grab their attention. They both looked at her, tense and weary. Adora looked more confused then angry. Catra looked like something had been taken from her. She wondered what on earth she could say to fix this. 

I really think you have a chance. 

She breathes. Right. 

“Both of you.” She said. “Can I have your number?”

They blinked. 

The silence was uncomfortable. Glimmer shifted on her feet. Her chest felt like a drum set. Her hands felt clammy. This is it echoed in her head. She just got lucky or just became the biggest fool. 

“Both of us?” Catra asked, voice small. Her ears were pinned back and her hands were back in her pockets. 

Adora cautiously said, “Is that...okay?”

“I just,” Glimmer rambled, “You two are really cool to hang out with and I think we all could be very good friends and I think there’s some, just a little bit miscommunication but I think we should all know each other that’s just my opinion it’s-”

“Woah, woah, easy.” Catra raises her hands up. “Say what you mean, sparkles.”

“I mean, ” She gives the cat a glare, “That I want a group conversation with us. The three of us, to hang out?”

Adora rubbed the back of her neck, “I only just met Catra…”

“Not a good impression.” Catra added dryly. 

“Well, yeah.” Adora mumbled. “That happens when you bump someone to the ground.”

Catra grimaced. Her lips meshed together and her shoulders hunched guiltily. She stuck out her hand to Adora.  The blonde looked up at her in surprise. 

“C’mon, idiot.” She muttered. “I’m sorry, alright? I have a temper.”

A tentative smile was spreading across Adora’s face. She took the hand and said, “I think you’re just shy.”

“I’m going to drop you.”

Adora laughed. Catra’s ears perked up. Glimmer watched the exchange with hope burning a hole through her. Adora patted down her pants but otherwise seemed fine, a smile across her lips as she said something teasing. Catra had her arms crossed and was flatly talking back, but there was a grin in her words. 

“Seriously.” Catra needled. “Those muscles must be just for show.”

“What?” Adora fired back with raised eyebrows, “Why were you looking at my muscles?”

Catra sputtered, “I wasn’t. I can’t see anything around your ego.”

Adora smiled slyly, “Can you see this?”

And held out her phone. 

Oh. Glimmer felt herself gape beside Catra. That was smooth. 

It was reassuring to note Catra also looked flustered. She snatched the device grumpily, muttering unsavory things. With casual grace she passed it to Glimmer and suddenly it was a round robin of phones being traded to each girl. Glimmer watched hers travel from Adora’s hands to Catra’s with disbelief. 

This is happening. It actually worked. 

“I was leaving.” Catra announces. Her face is twitching between relaxed and stressed. “I need sleep.”

“Oh.” Adora steps back. “Sorry, yeah, it is late.”

“It’s early. ” 

“Yeah.” The blonde smiles sheepishly, “It was nice to meet you, Catra.”

Catra’s face softens, “...yeah. You too. Adora.”

“I’ll text you.” Glimmer calls but almost has a heart attack when Catra nearly runs into the door. The cat is looking over her shoulder at her with wide eyes. “I mean, all of us. The three of us. We should, um, go see a movie.”

“Okay.” Catra says, just as quickly. “Okay, cool, text me. Us. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight!” 

The door closes. 

Glimmer wants to be swallowed by the ground. 

Adora says, “She’s kinda cool.”

“Uh, yeah.” Glimmer speaks around the frog in her throat. “I like hee eeeer motorcycle. Her bike. That.”

She’s going to pass out. 

Adora is looking at the door thoughtfully. After a long moment she asks, “Do you think she likes horses?”

I think. Glimmer looks at her crush wistfully. I’m in over my head.

.

.

Chapter Text

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.

Adora: is there an atm at the hospital

Catra: It’s 5 am I’m going to kill you

Adora: ok

.

.

Catra: wait

Catra: adora???

Adora: Yes? 

Glimmer: why were you at the hospital?

Adora: I’m not?

Catra: you said

Catra: you asked if there was an atm

Adora: yeah

Glimmer: ??????

Catra: ARE YOU AT THE HOSPITAL OR NOT?

Adora: i don’t think there’s an atm there so no

Glimmer: ??????????

Catra: just go to the gas station like a NORMAL. PERSON. 

Adora: Swift Wind doesn’t like the smell

Catra: w hat????

Glimmer: omg

.

.

Glimmer: we should meet up sometime

Catra: sure

Catra: im free at 2 am

Glimmer: why 2 am?

Catra: it’s when i get off my shift

Catra: do you work?

Glimmer: yeah…

Adora: 2 works

Catra: glim has work dummy

Adora: yeah?

Adora: it’s her lonely hours

Glimmer: omg

Catra: …

Catra: yeah sure. meet you there. 

Glimmer: guys???

Adora: see you then glimmer!

Glimmer: I meant like a movie or something!

Catra: lol

Catra: i gotchu

Glimmer: ?????

.

.

Bow had congratulated her. 

“Good job on getting their numbers!” was the most sincere praise he’d given her about it. She’d been a blushing mess when they met up to discuss it. All she’d done was scream into her pillows but he could understand Embarrassed after years of her dealing with her mom. He was well versed in the language. He simply patted her on the back and told her to take it easy. 

She’d intended to. She had her love in her pocket. A message away and they’d be in her palm. She had fawned over the hearts she put in their contact info. Spent about an hour debating on what should be her first message. 

And then Adora started it off and then it spiraled from there. 

She was excited to have their numbers, but...

Adora: is peanut butter a movie snack

Catra: if you bring that I’m locking you out

Adora: i’d like to see you try

Catra: glim

Catra: glims

Catra: sparkles stop her

Adora: don’t be cute it won’t work

Catra: hellO???

Catra: so you think i’m cute

Adora: when did i say that?

Catra: literally right above

Adora: i dont see it

Catra: are you messing with me

Adora: no?

Glimmer: im gonna cry

Catra: get in LINE 

She was going to die an early death at this rate. 

Every ping, every noise, even the tiniest message vibration had her scrambling to look at her phone. It was stupid at times, worrying some others, but most of the time she wanted to squeal and roll around on her bed with pure elation. Adora was surprisingly witty, Catra expressed so much through a single message, and Glimmer was falling faster each hour that passed. 

It was starting to get serious. 

It being her crush. Infatuation. The childish term being like-like. She was afraid it was slowly morphing from that to love. The thought had her shivering. She didn’t know. She didn’t want to trust her erratic heart. Her emotions were on a tightrope hundreds of feet in the air and doing cartwheels. She blamed it on that and not the way Adora’s smile charmed her or the way Catra’s tenderness made her weak in the knees. 

She walked to work with heavy feet. All her excitement was being fried by her nerves. Whenever she worked she had hopes she’d see them. It was something she knew she had a chance of being disappointed about. Now she was aware they were coming and they were doing it for her. Not for coffee. For her. 

She purposefully dragged her feet to keep from skipping. Cloud nine never felt so good, yet so dangerous. 

Friends. She reminded herself. We’re just friends. 

The light from her phone guided her down the sidewalk. It was warm enough that she wasn’t shivering in her jacket. Warm enough she could take a long walk to clear her head and leave her car at home. Warm enough that she couldn’t tell if it was the temperature or the blush taking a constant presence on her skin. She put one foot in front of the other and focused on that simple action. 

The lights of Deja Brew’s parking lot felt far away. Glimmer huffed, willing time to slow or speed up. She wasn’t sure anymore. She was also pretty sure she was hallucinating.

There’s a horse in the handicap spot. 

“Swift Wind.” She mutters to herself. There couldn’t be any other horse. It was almost 2 AM. Low and behold, as she approached she recognized the figure sitting up against the side of the building. The blonde was fiddling with her phone, curled into her own hoodie like a personal blanket. She raises her head when Glimmer gets closer. 

Blue eyes soften, “Hey Glimmer.”

“Hey.” Glimmer offers a shy wave, “You surprised me. Were you really waiting for 2 AM?”

“Didn’t have anything else to do.” 

“Sleep?”

Adora grimaces. Glimmer doesn’t press the issue, but she does know it is an issue. With the overhead lights of the parking lot, the shadows on her face became grave. The bags under her eyes looked particularly severe tonight. 

Glimmer cautiously takes a seat besides her. Adora startles and says, “It’s dirty. You don’t have to.”

“Why are you then?” Glimmer asks, “Not to point out the obvious, but you’re not exactly the picture of cleanliness whenever I see you.”

Adora’s shoulders droop. Guilt twists in her stomach immediately, “I’m sorry I don’t know-”

“No, it’s okay.” Her blonde mumbles. She crosses her arms over her knees, leans her chin down on top of then. She’s staring out into the parking lot and Glimmer can’t take her eyes away. It’s a melancholy expression. It’s soft and pained and something Glimmer really wants to kiss away. “I live far from here.”

“Yeah?” Glimmer prompts. 

Adora makes a mmmh noise. “I don’t own a car or any real transportation. It’s further passed downtown, outside the city-”

“Wait.” Glimmer blinks. “You don’t live in Brightmoon?”

She shakes her head. “West, kinda. Out of town. I work, uh, around.”

Glimmer purses her lips. The distance from here till the edge of the city was almost forty miles. She didn’t know how far a horse could travel or how fast. It only made her curious how Adora’s daily life looked. She let her hand fall into her pocket to type a message to Bow asking for details. 

“I’m being rude again.” Adora whispered. “Sorry.”

Glimmer glanced at her, “It’s...okay. I’m just worried. What had you coming so far out for a cup of coffee?”

“It’s really cheap here.” 

“That’s all?”

Adora shrugs, “Not many people around here.”

“You don’t like crowds?”

“I guess.” Adora sighs and tilts her head down into her arms, her face disappearing into long sleeves. “I don’t want to be vague. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t want to,” Glimmer says slowly, “because you have to?”

Adora goes eh. It was as much of a yes as she was going to get. Glimmer settles with that. She didn’t like seeing Adora sinking under this mysterious crushing weight. She’d figure it out sometime, but not now. Glimmer gently nudged her with her elbow. 

“Hey.” She smiled when Adora looked up, her blonde looking weary and its doing something to her heart, “What snacks did you bring?”

Adora perks up at that, “I brought some. Here. Swift Wind has them.” 

She moves to stand. Her hoodie starts to ride up and Glimmer feels like her eyes are glued onto the small movement. There’s a flash of skin and enough more that Glimmer has to sharply look away. Adora has abs. How was she hiding them so well Adora has abs. 

( art by @ xormak)

Adora hums as she steps into the shadows, only her head visible from over Swift Wind’s flank. She’s rifling through something in the saddle. After a moment she sticks her tongue out in concentration. 

Glimmer is not staring. She’s breathless and longing but not staring . 

“Gotcha.” Adora smiles and looks up. She falters and says, “What?”

“What’s what?” Glimmer babbles. “What do you have?”

Adora hesitates, “I have soda.”

“Oh.” There’s a hearty moment where she tries to clear her throat and ends up in a coughing fit. Adora rejoins her, sitting down slowly like she thought Glimmer was the odd one. There’s a six pack of Fizzical Pop.  The cartoon muscled shark on the side had her laughing. 

Adora made an affronted noise, “What?”

“Did you seriously buy kid soda-”

“It’s not kids soda.” Her blonde protested, setting it down in her lap. “It’s just soda.”

“Okay.” Glimmer relented, opening her palm. “Let me try it.”

Adora huffs. With a twist and a pull of plastic, a can is tossed to her. Glimmer immediately hands it back.

“What?” Adora frowns. “You asked for it.”

“It’s warm. ”

“It’s been in a bag for a few hours. Isn’t there a cooler inside?”

“No.”

Adora’s eyebrows raise. She deliberately takes her time plucking the soda from Glimmer’s hands and cracking it open. Without breaking eye contact, she takes a long sip. Or she tries to because halfway through she chokes and starts coughing. 

Glimmer laughs, “Too warm?”

“Oh shut up.” Her blonde grumbles, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. There’s a dejected hunch in her shoulders. It has Glimmer scooting closer, feeling brave enough to have their shoulders brush. It’s sending her heart into spirals but she focuses on the soda, the soda not her lips.

She reaches over for it. For a brief shaking moment their fingers are brushing and she’s pausing, too caught up in the movement to retract her hand. Glimmer looks back to her blonde and she’s swept into a sea of blue. There’s no space. Shoulder to shoulder, there’s only inches between their breaths. 

Adora’s gaze flickers. Her face turns red and she mutters something. Even so close Glimmer’s brain is too numb to understand a single noise. 

She eloquently goes, “Huh?”

“You’re pretty.” Her blonde looks away. “It’s a compliment.”

And oh she’s falling. She’s falling so hard and so fast she wants to throw her arms around the blonde just to keep herself up. She wants and it pulls at her chest like strings. Enticing and teasing one more inch. One more inch. 

Glimmer exhales shakily, “I’d...I’d hope it was.”

Adora’s eyes are wide, “Yeah?”

Glimmer nods. It’s stillness. It’s hesitation. Adora’s gaze drops and breaks the eye contact, but she's biting her lip now and oh no it's hot .  Glimmer hit rock bottom so hard she almost starts forward, almost does what she wants to anyway. 

Her phone vibrates. 

“Uh.” Adora jumps, her shoulder nearly knocking into Glimmer’s chin. “Sorry, I’m sorry.”

Glimmer sits back, trying not to let her disappointment show, “It’s fine.”

Her phone told a different story. 

Catra: what movie

Catra: hey

Catra: hello?

Catra: im asking what movie

Catra: HELLO?

Glimmer: hey sorry adora brought warm soda and I had to bully her

Adora mutters, “Rude.”

She smiles, something in her chest shivering with delight. Knowing that Adora was close enough to read over her shoulder. The thought was addicting. 

Catra: hah

Catra: is it that ugly smurf stuff

Glimmer: yup

“It’s a shark.” 

Glimmer ignores her. 

Glimmer: for a movie

Glimmer: how about…

She pauses. Adora is reading over her shoulder. There’s quite a few friendly movies she could suggest. But Adora is reading over her shoulder. She takes a risk.

Glimmer: I’m thinking romance

Catra: oh?

Glimmer: yeah it’s been my favorite thing recently

Catra: im omw

There’s a sharp intake by her ear. She doesn’t dare look. Her heart thump thump thumps against her chest like a wild drum. There’s body heat brushing her shoulder, a trembling breath in her ear, and her own head is fuzzy with im omw im omw omw.

She swallows nervously. Is this a date? They were sitting quietly, waiting for their third piece. That had been a moment. There had definitely been something. Her palm felt sweaty underneath her phone. Anticipation was making her toes curl. It’s 2 AM at Déjà Brew and she’s losing her mind. 

Glimmer: hurry

.

.

(art by @ bonpop)

Chapter Text

.

.

Glimmer heard Catra before she saw her.

The quiet roar turned into a snarl that barreled its way into the parking lot. The beast’s headlights blinded her. She could see Adora move to her horse, her voice drowned out by the sputter and groan of a motorcycle parking itself next to them. Glimmer stood up. The lights cut out and the engine died to a purr. 

Catra was wearing a helmet. 

“Are those kitty ears?” Adora asks from somewhere. 

“Buzz off.” Catra snaps, her voice muffled as she starts undoing the straps. “Entrapta- my roommate gets upset when she catches me without it. That’s all.”

Glimmer can’t stop smiling, “You’re adorable.”

The cat looks at her. In the dark, her eyes glow against the streetlights. With a deft swing of her leg she’s moving off the bike, the movement so fluid and powerful Glimmer clenches her jaw. A backpack is held out to her. 

“You wanted to hang out.” Catra said. “I got the goods.”

“What?” Glimmer curiosity unzipped it, rifling through the blankets and chip snacks to find- “you brought a projector?”

Catra snorts, “If you wanna call it that. Entrapta made it. Portable little movie player. Just need a flat surface and we’re good.”

“What movie did you get?”

She stuffs her hands into her pockets, her gaze skittering away, “Romance. Like you said. I delivered.”

Glimmer nods and doesn’t comment. She’s afraid she’s going to say something stupid. I can’t wait to watch a romance movie with you two sounded so bizarre she wanted to hit her head on the wall. Adora moves away from Swift Wind to Catra’s motorcycle, sizing it up in a wide circle. 

“It’s not gonna spring to life and kill you.” Catra said, amusement in every word. 

Adora glanced up sourly, “I know that. I’ve just. Never been this close to one.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” She gestures to Swift Wind. 

Catra looks at the horse. Stares at it. “What the hell?”

“That’s Sw-”

“That’s a horse. ”

“His name is Swift Wind.” Adora continued. Her expression faltered and she asked, “You can, well only if you want to, do you want a ride?”

Catra’s eyes were wide, “On the horse? ”

“No, on Glimmer.” Adora said dryly. Glimmer nearly choking to death was ignored by both of them. “ Yes the horse.”

Catra’s face scrunched up. She eyed the horse warily, her ears flicking back. She made no move to approach the animal. 

"He won't bite me?"

Adora opens her mouth. Stops. Shrugs. 

Catra sputters, "Don't just shrug! I'm not going near that thing if it's gonna take my hand off!"

"He won't." Adora said. "Maybe."

"I can't tell if you're messing with me."

"Adora gave me a ride on him." Glimmer adds. She straightens when two pairs of eyes zero in on her. Their attention was doing a number on her. "It, it was okay. No biting."

She doesn't mention she was so distracted by Adora's arms she wouldn't have cared. A part of her wonders how Catra would handle it. It's the same part of her that watches them fondly when they bicker. 

Catra was frowning, "...I'll ride him later." Adora brightens like starlight. Catra is quickly adding, "On one condition."

"Sure." Adora smiles. "Name it."

Catra's smirk returns. She's stepping back to lean on her motorcycle and give it a beckoning pat. Everything about that, down from the sultry look to the come hither eyes makes Glimmer weak in the knees. Adora's smile is gone.

"Is it safe?" She asks. 

"About as safe as yours."

Adora bites her lip. After a moment she nods. Glimmer smiles, happy that this implies later and that, maybe, this wasn't a one time thing. Maybe they'd hang out again and again. Maybe 2 AM would be their hour. 

"Well sparkles." Catra lifts the backpack onto her shoulder. "Lead the way."

"Will Swift Wind be okay out here?" She asks Adora. 

Adora looks at her horse and says, "I'll find him later."

"Uh."

Adora gives her a small helpless smile, "It's okay. It happens."

"Can't you just hitch him to something?"

"What if he gets hungry?" Adora frowns. "It's okay. I'll find him. Or he'll find me. He's good at that."

That sounds dubious. She wondered how many hours of Adora's day was spent horse hunting. "If you say so…"

"Girls." Catra calls. She's hovering by the door. Glimmer's heart jumps excitedly. Girls. "C'mon already."

Adora jokingly says, "yes ma'am."

Catra looks at her in disgust. 

Glimmer laughs.

.

.

There's not a good spot in Déjà Brew. There's too much window and not enough wall. They'd jokingly hooked it up anyway to see the results. It's taken a whole twenty minutes to calm down from the stomach aching laughter caused by goofy faces stretched on a window. Catra had cooked up an idea to stack up tables and Adora had been ready to go along with it.

Glimmer suggested the break room. 

"What?" Catra stared at the room. "This is a closet."

"It's a small cafe." Glimmer said. She was used to the poor sight. 

"I work at a bar." Catra says in the same tone. "My break room is twice this size."

Adora peered at them from over the projector, "You're a bartender?"

Catra waved her hand. The blonde frowned at her. Glimmer pursed her lips. What happens when you put two secretive people in one room? Maybe they’d get along very well, or ricochet off each other at very fast speeds. 

"Sorry there's only one chair."

Catra grunted as she started the machine, "I brought a blanket."

"...okay."

There was more than one blanket. Glimmer held up one decorated with party scorpions in amusement. Adora was holding one with cute paw prints on it. They shared a look and glanced at Catra. 

Catra glared at them icily, "Not a word."

"I didn't say anything." Glimmer grinned. "Where'd you get these by the way?"

"Roommate."

Adora makes an oh noise, "Are you dating them?"

Glimmer freezes. A million thoughts swim through her head. She doesn’t look at Catra, sets her eyes on fixing the blanket onto the floor. Her hopes rise and fall anxiously. 

“No.” Catra says, releasing the tension from Glimmer like a dam. “She had a…well. That’s not really anyone’s business. We’re good though.”

Adora's expression was thoughtful, “You two must be really close.”

“What’s with you?” Catra grumbles. She turns from the projector to narrow her eyes at Adora. “Are you dating someone?”

“Oh. No.” Adora’s eyes flicker away bashfully. “I don’t get out often.”

Glimmer’s heart was in blissful tears. She covered that with a cough. Her crushes were single, her crushes were available, and gosh she wanted to skip around and sing like a lunatic. She settled back into the blanket, leaning against the wall and snatching one of the lukewarm soda’s. She almost choked on her drink when Adora sat next to her. 

“What movie did you bring?” Adora asks Catra, completely oblivious to Glimmer having a heart attack less than a foot from her. 

Catra smirks as she flicks off the lights, “The cringiest I could find. Get comfy. The second hand embarrassment will make you puke.”

“Oh no.” Glimmer laughed.

The only light was from the projector and the time on the microwave. It cheerfully told her it was 2:28 as Catra moved to her other side. The first five minutes of the movie were entirely lost on Glimmer. Two shoulders were brushing hers, enclosing her on each side. She couldn’t find her breath in between frantically trying to keep her hands in her lap. If she accidentally brushed their thighs she might pass out. 

Apparently one of the characters on screen was flirting. Adora said, “I think I could do better.”

Catra laughs, “Oh really? Go for it, blondie.”

Adora looks at Catra. Glimmer follows her gaze to see the way Catra’s expression shutters, the brief shy twitch of her ears. It’s terribly endearing. 

“Are you cold?” Adora asks abruptly.

Catra furrows her brow, “No. The blanket is fine.”

“That’s a shame.” She sounded genuinely upset. It lasted for a moment before her eyes shined mischievously and a sly smile tugged at her lips, “Because I’d like to catch you sometime.”

“Oh gross. ” Catra groans, covering her face with her hands. “That was so- ugh. I can’t handle you.”

Glimmer was laughing so hard she teetered to the side. Her face met Adora’s shoulder and she almost reared back. She was too close. But Adora was relaxed, chuckling at their reactions. There was no immediate flinch or withdrawal. Glimmer let herself stay there for a moment. A small, lovely moment where she rested her head on Adora’s arm and it felt wonderful. 

She reluctantly sat up before it got weird. Friends, she reminded herself, we’re just friends. 

The movie was terrible. It made Catra giggle snort and Adora gasp in horror whenever something corny happened. Glimmer smiled happily, content to be between them and listen to them talk. Adora pointed out weird inconsistencies, Catra amused by any theory brought up, Glimmer delightfully messing with the both of them. 

“The acting is awful.” Adora said for the eighth time. “Why are we watching this?”

“Because it’s fun.” Glimmer grinned, nudging her. “C’mon. It’s funny.”

Catra had switched from sitting to sprawling out next to them on her stomach, kicking her feet in the air. “Just wait till they try to kiss. It’s so bad.”

Adora mumbles, “Is it as bad as this guy trying to give her flowers? He sounds like he’s reading a script.”

“Oh god.” Glimmer sputters a laugh. “What if he’s reading it off his palm?”

“What a nerd.”

Glimmer is distracted by the way Catra’s tail is moving. It has a mind of its own, twitching in the air, then flicking from side to side. It curls by her hips and then sometimes just rests down on her leg. It brushes Glimmer’s leg a few times. She’s so focused on this she’s not ready for when Adora leans on her. The blonde abruptly backs off with a sharp nod.

“Woah.” Adora rubs her face. “Sorry.”

Glimmer mumbles ‘it’s okay’ but she’s watching the blonde now. Adora’s eyes have returned to the movie but every once in a while her head will bob and she’ll start to slouch. Glimmer feels soft and tender at the sight. She doesn’t know what to do or offer. It’s not like she could conjure a pillow. 

Adora’s head falls onto her shoulder. 

Or that. Glimmer stares at the screen with a scream rattling her brain. She could just do that. 

There’s wispy blonde hair brushing her chin. Adora’s hair was always long and wild. With all the leaves and twigs she’d seen in it she expected it to be rough. It was soft against her neck. Just hearing Adora breath in and out so undisturbed almost made Glimmer want to cry. 

This felt precious. It was something she wanted to keep and hold on to. 

“This part is weird.” Catra was saying, her gaze still on the movie. “She keeps doing that thing. Right there. She’s just dancing away from him.”

“Yeah?” Glimmer croaks.

“I don’t know.” Her crush hummed. “She loves him and he’s confessing to her. I just don’t get why she would do that.”

“Maybe she doesn’t know.”

“But he’s confessing. ” Catra stresses. “Seriously. Does he need to get a billboard?”

“Mmh.” 

Catra glanced at her. Her eyes widen at them, her expression vulnerable. There’s a lot of emotions flashing over her face. Glimmer can see none of them in the dim light of the break room. Instead of trying to figure it out, she holds her hand out invitingly. 

“What?” Catra asks, her tone defensive. 

“C’mon.” Glimmer wiggles her fingers. “It’s comfy up here.”

Catra hesitates. Glimmer nervously keeps her hand out. For a moment, Catra leans away. It wrenches at something in Glimmer’s chest before Catra’s palm is folding against hers. 

“Sure.” The girl mumbles, ears pinned back. “Comfy.”

She doesn’t sit beside Glimmer. She moves onto her side and hesitates again. Glimmer tries to pretend she’s not watching, that the movie is holding her attention. She desperately clings to this when she feels Catra’s head on her leg. 

“This okay?” Catra asks softly.

“Yeah.” Glimmer winces at how garbled her voice sounds. “Yeah, it’s okay.”

Catra relaxes. It’s a slow process that takes a few minutes of listening to the protagonist sing a cheesy love song. Glimmer’s fingers twitch, wanting so badly to touch. Catra’s hair is out of her ponytail again and she wanted to run her fingers through it. Maybe it was soft like Adora’s. 

The movie was close to ending when Catra got her phone out. It’s screen was bright and Glimmer had to blink the spots out of her eyes. Her shoulder was starting to ache but she couldn’t move. Moving Adora seemed like a crime. 

Catra didn’t say anything. She typed something out and waited. Glimmer’s phone buzzed. Eyebrows raised, she very carefully lifted her phone from her pocket with her free hand. She had a new message. A private text from Catra. 

Catra: hey

Glimmer: you’re literally in my lap why

Catra: i need to ask you something

Catra: that i’m not brave enough t

Catra: i’m, just

Catra: …

Glimmer: okay. i’m listening

Catra: are you single?

Glimmer stares at the back of Catra’s head. She wants to blurt out words and talk or something. Her heart is screaming. She can feel her face burn. With trembling fingers, she types out her response. 

Glimmer: the

And horribly fumbles it. 

Glimmer: yes

She almost wants to add more. Why sat at her fingertips. The send button was enticing. Anxiety was keeping her back. What if it was just a normal question? She’d asked Adora earlier. This was fine. 

Catra: ok

Glimmer stares. That’s it? ok? Nothing else? No, hey cool I want to date you. Hey, that’s pretty sweet can I make you not single. Glimmer waits for anything else but Catra is turning her phone off. The absence of the screen glow nearly makes Glimmer yell in frustration. 

The movie ends with a sputter and the hum of the projector dying. Glimmer doesn’t move. She doesn’t want to. Adora is breathing peace, her nose nuzzled into the crook of her neck and it’s so nice. Catra is lounging on her leg, tail flicking lazily. It feels like she's whole. A completed puzzle. She never wants it to end. 

Catra is the first to move. She sits up slowly, her eyes mismatched lanterns in the darkness. 

“You awake?” She asks quietly.

“Yeah.” Glimmer whispers. “I don’t want to wake Adora.”

Catra softens, “Don’t. I need to go home.”

“I’ll walk you out.”

“Don’t.” Catra repeats, a little more fiercely. “You’ll wake her up.”

She proves her wrong by gently shuffling out from underneath the blonde. Sleeping? Adora was out cold. She curled up on the blankets. Glimmer’s heart stuttered at how cute it was. 

Catra huffed, “A royal escort, how nice.”

“Only the best for my customers.”

Catra rolls her eyes. They walk out of the cafe. Mister Premium bubbles behind them as they leave. Nothing out of place. The absence of Swift Wind in the handicap spot had her huffing. Well that’s a problem. Catra must have thought so too by the way she was frowning. 

“I know you got your hands tied here.” Catra muttered. “But just make sure she sleeps. I don’t want her stumbling out into traffic.”

Glimmer smiles, “Awww. You do care.”

“Shut up, sparkles.”

Catra moves to her bike but pauses. She grabs her helmet, a trouble frown on her face. Glimmer is ready to tease her. Put on the cute kitty helmet is ready to fire away. Catra turns to her and holds it out.

“Put this on.” She demands, her voice gravelly. 

Glimmer raises an eyebrow, “Why?”

“Just do it.”

She reluctantly does. It’s an awkward fit. It was obviously designed for Catra in mind. There’s a bubbling glee when she reaches up and feels the ridiculous cat ears on the top. Imagining Ctara wearing it only made her more ecstatic. 

Her smile dies when Catra places her hands on either side of the helmet. She tilts it down so Glimmer only sees their shoes. Confusion is warring in her head. Something presses to the top of the helmet before Catra is drawing back. 

“Okay.” Catra sounds hoarse. “You can take it off.”

“What was that?” Glimmer asks. 

“Nothing.” 

Glimmer hands back the helmet, opening frowning at Catra. Her crush was acting weird, eyes downcast and lips pulled together tightly. She was running them together like she just had something bitter. 

“Catra?” Glimmer prods. “What’s wrong?”

Mismatched eyes glance up at her. The shadows chase away and leave something tender, “It’s nothing, Glim. I’m just happy.”

Glimmer tilts her head dubiously, “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Catra runs a finger over her lips. Glimmer watches the movement with her heart frozen in her chest. 

“Uh.” She sputters out. “Have, have a good night?”

“It’s morning.”

“You know what I mean.” Glimmer huffs, “What are you going to do anyway?”

Catra shrugs. It’s so infuriating Glimmer almost wants to shove her, but her mouth is opening and Catra’s next words feel like she’s getting brained by a baseball bat, “I dunno. Maybe I’ll buy a billboard.”

“...huh?”

Catra looks away, “Take care.”

Glimmer stares. She can’t form words. She’s flatlining everywhere. She watches Catra’s motorcycle tear it’s way out of the parking lot. Her heart unfreezes four minutes later. She spends the next minute crumpling to the ground in the parking lot of Déjà Brew and screaming into her knees. 

.

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Chapter Text

.

.

The soda was mocking her. 

Three cans of lukewarm Fizzical Pop sat on her desk. Her computer hummed to the beat of Higher Love. Her headphones lay forgotten beside her keyboard. A yellow sticky note was attached to the drinks. 

For later - Adora

Glimmer stared at her phone. There was a whole conversation of missed messages. She’d woken up and barely felt brave enough to breathe let alone look at that group chat. Her heart trembled at even the thought of it. Every moment felt like she was on the edge of laughing or crying. 

She robotically pushes call. 

Bow picks up in three seconds, “Hey I just got out of class. Perfect timing!”

It’s 4 PM on the dot. She does not mention she’d been waiting for it. She carefully does not mention she left work early on account of a fake stomach ache. Once she’d seen Adora off- and that was something else entirely her heart couldn't handle- she headed home as quick as she could. 

“...Glimmer?”

She’d spent an hour of her time on the internet, frantically searching anything to do with flirting. Just to be sure. The movie, something about the movie. Reviews called it trash. Billboard billboard billboard. 

“Hey, you there?”

What had Catra-? What had happened in that parking lot? Glimmer felt her head spin too fast to catch what she missed. She was too lopsided to properly wake up Adora. All she’d done was sit on their blanket and feel the smoke coming out of her ears. Eventually the blonde had woken up, bleary eyed and rising like the dead. Glimmer gave her a free cup of coffee on her way out. Adora forgot her soda and to say goodbye, merely saying thanks glim see you and-

And-

Catra forgot her projector, her blankets, her billboard-

“Glimmer, you okay?”

She comes back to reality as Higher Love starts again, “Yeah I’m having a crisis.”

Bow says oh quietly, “Is it about your catmints?”

It was their stupid nicknames for her crushes. She calls it stupid to save face because its currently burning in embarrassment.

“Yes.”

“What happened?” He asks. “Did the date go well?”

“It wasn’t a date.” At least that’s what she thought. “We just, we watched a movie.”

“Okay.” He drew the word out. 

“Adora fell asleep.”

“Right.”

“Catra, she uh, she put. She.”

“Yes?”

Glimmer stared at her computer in frustration. Words were hard. “She put her helmet on me.”

“Okay.”

“And told me she’d buy- wait, hold on.” She groans and drops her head onto her desk. “I”m flaking so hard.”

Bow is laughing at her, “I can tell. You must have had a really good time.”

And great, great, all those memories are suffocating her again. From Adora’s breath on her neck to Catra’s smooth tone as she says take care. Anxiety is twisting her up. She keeps herself calm by letting Higher Love repeat again. It doesn’t work. 

“I did.” She confirms softly. “It was too good.”

“What? What happened?”

She’d need a clear head to explain that. She would absolutely need a stretcher in the room for that conversation. Just thinking about it makes her dizzy, makes her heart soar and scream. Catra wanted a billboard. 

“Bow.”

“You’re really starting to worry me now.” He said. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

She takes a deep breath. Bow waits. She had to get it off her chest. Stretcher or not, she was going to melt inside if she kept it like this. A star filled night, an empty parking lot, seriously does he need a billboard or something.

I don’t, she wants to scream, but what the heck was that?!

“Bow.” She says tremulously. “I think I’m in love.”

.

.

Catra: hey dora

Adora: me?

Catra: yes did you find your horse

Adora: yeah i got him. why? 

Catra: i’ll take you up on that ride.

Adora: oh. oh cool sure! where do you want to meet?

Catra: the usual place

Adora: uh

Adora: and that is…

Catra: …

Catra: deja brew

Adora: oh alright 

Adora: i’ll be there

Catra: i won’t be there for an hour

Adora: noted

Adora: does glimmer wanna come too?

Catra: let her sleep 

Catra: she needs it

Catra: speaking of which

Catra: how’d you sleep?

Adora: can we do movie night again sometime?

Catra: uh sure?

Adora: thank you

.

.

It’s her day off which is fantastic and horrible all at once. 

After all that, after that wonderful but confusing night. She doesn’t go into work. It’s stupid that she wants to. That she wants to pick up her phone and call the shop just to ask if the barista on duty wants to get off early. She wants extra hours. She has nothing to do. She could go for some alone time.

Lies. She knows exactly why she wants to. 

Adora: thank you catra

Catra: dont mention it

Catra: ever

Adora: swift wind likes you

Catra: cool

Adora: and i liked your bike

Adora: it was amazing

Catra: flattery isnt gonna get me back on that animal

Adora:  :(

Catra: you wanted another movie night?

Adora: yeah that’d be great

Glimmer: it’s my day off

Catra: oh sick

Catra: dora you free?

Adora: yeah

Catra: parking lot. twenty minutes.

Glimmer: wait whats happening

Catra: fun things sparkles

Catra: be there

.

.

She arrives ten minutes early. 

Adora is already there. 

For a brief insane moment, Glimmer considers just driving by. The blonde hasn’t noticed her. She’s just leaning up against Déjà Brew like she normally does and probably freaking the barista inside out. Adora’s on her phone. Glimmer feels her own phone vibrate in her pocket. It sends her heart scattering all over the place. There’s a tether pulling her to that face and it has her parking the closest to her blonde.

Adora looks up and smiles when she gets out, “Hey Glim.”

“Hey.” Did her voice always sound like she was parched? She coughs. “Uh, were you waiting long?”

Adora shrugs. She stuffs her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. Glimmer catches a brief flash of white on her palm. 

“I walked.” The blonde says around a jaw cracking yawn. “I wanted to thank you actually.”

“What for?”

Adora shifts on her feet awkwardly, “I didn’t mean to fall asleep on you.”

Glimmer’s heart ached. “No, no it’s fine. You were cute.” Back. Back up. Back. “Uh, well, you looked like you needed it.”

Adora’s face was red, “Yeah.”

Glimmer stood beside her. She couldn’t be still. Her fingers kept twitching and her skin was crawling and a voice in her head kept screaming billboard billboard billboard. She was amazed she made this far without falling over. She glances at Adora. 

Blue eyes meet hers and sheepishly look away, “Did you sleep well?”

“Did you?” Glimmer counters, knowing her night was a mess of recounting everything to Bow. A lot of it involved her crying while electric swing blasted in the background. “You slept like the dead.”

Adora smiles, “It was kinda weird. I don’t think I’ve slept that well in ages. I feel great.”

She looked great. There was a noticeable difference in the blonde. A liveliness that hadn’t been there before. She was practically hoping on her feet. 

Glimmer softens, “Good. I worry about you.”

Adora doesn’t seem to know what to say to that. She purses her lips and shrugs. Glimmer isn’t satisfied but she’s barked up this tree before. She lets go after giving her a long look. They sit in companionable silence, dawn creeping up over buildings. The city was waking up. 

Should I ask her if she wants a billboard too? Glimmer rubs her forehead tiredly. Her brain was too scrambled over Catra to properly address Adora. One of her crushes had dropped a major hint. This one was still a mystery. 

She felt trepidation. Catra was coming, which meant seeing each other, which meant knowing. She couldn’t just pass that off. They needed to talk. Would that be rude with Adora around? Could Adora stay? Would Adora like that?

“Hey.” Adora’s voice steals her from her mind. The blonde is leaning forward to peer at her. “Are you okay?”

Yes she wants to say but blue eyes are drawing out different words, “I have a question.”

Adora’s brow furrows, “Okay?”

“Do you,” She flounders, “do you, uh, what do you think of Catra?”

“Of Catra?”

She nods. 

Adora hums and rocks on her heels. She smiles down at her toes, expression warm and thoughtful. 

“I like her.”

I do too. 

Adora continues, “I think she’s fun to be around.”

I want to be around her too.

“She makes me happy.”

Good. 

“What about you?” Adora tilts her head. “What do you think of her?”

Glimmer exhales. Oh the things she could say. She could pull up a playlist of songs that had her thoughts drifting to blue and gold. Glimmer could talk all about the sounds of motorcycles reminding her of suave smiles. There’s a scratch mark on her apartment door that brings claws to mind. She passes by a billboard and almost has a heart attack. 

“We’re just friends.” She says. Play it safe. 

Adora looks upset, “Oh.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I just. I thought you two were closer.”

Glimmer winces. Her heart is pounding and her palms feel clammy, “We are?”

Adora blinks, “You are?”

“I think so.” Billboard. 

“Oh.” A confused frown. “That’s good.”

“Yup.”

“Yeah.”

Glimmer wants to hit her head on the wall. That’s not how she felt. Why did Adora sound so disappointed? Nothing was making sense and playing the safe route only left her feeling guilty. The sound of a motorcycle growling nearby had any words dying in her throat. 

Oh no. 

“She’s here.” Adora’s smile returns like a rising sun. 

Glimmer watches Catra slide off her bike with her usual grace. The cat shucks off her helmet, shaking her hair out. A grin is already on her face, all teeth and happy. And then she looks at Glimmer and the smiles fizzles. 

“Hey.” Catra greets. 

Adora holds her fist out. Catra rolls her eyes and obligingly bumps her own hand to it. The interaction is so stupidly cute Glimmer melts. 

“You weren’t waiting long?”

“Not at all.”

Glimmer chimes in weakly, “Just got here.”

Catra glances at her but looks back at Adora, “You up for a bit of walking?”

“We’re going to the park?” Adora asks. “Is that the plan?”

“No.” Catra smirked, hands stuffed into her pockets as she sauntered by them, “Ever been into the Whispering Woods?”

Glimmer makes a face. It’s just outside the city, it’s old, and it’s way more outdoors then she’s familiar with. That and there were a couple of spooky stories about people going missing. “No.”

Adora says somberly, “Yes.”

Catra makes a noise, “Oh yeah? What for?”

Adora shrugs. For a single moment their shaky ground is broken and Glimmer finds herself sharing an exasperated look with Catra. The mystery of the blonde never ended and only became more exhausting. It was nice to find solidarity with another soul. 

Catra sighs, “Alright whatever. We’re going for a stroll.”

The Whispering Woods is strange. A weird place to hang out but Glimmer wasn’t complaining. Adora stuck to her side, her elbow brushing hers occasionally. She could ignore the spooky trees and the uneven path to let her heart sing about that. Tripping was only a minor hindrance in the face of love. 

Catra used Adora as her shield. 

Never once was she within reach of Glimmer. No matter what path they took she kept Adora between them. Glimmer didn’t notice it at first. Adora kept the conversation going all on her own, her chipper mood and enthusiasm a warm sight. Catra would respond and Glimmer would reply in kind. And Catra wouldn’t. 

What’s wrong? She wants to cry. What happened?

“Where’s your steed?” Catra’s voice carried from the other side of the path. “Lost him again?”

“No.” Adora shot her a look. “I walked.”

“You must know these woods pretty well.”

Adora huffs, “Yeah.”

Glimmer says, “Know any good spots?”

Adora brightens, “Yeah actually. Keep an eye to your right, there’s a cool tree that’s…”

And that’s how it goes. Adora leads the way by her voice and guidance, her radiance the only thing keeping it going. Glimmer can’t look at Catra. Catra won’t look at her. There’s a void where something was and it’s only growing larger. What happened?

“Hey.” Catra said suddenly, ears perked forward. “What happened to your hand?”

Glimmer almost hopefully thought she was being addressed. She followed the cats eyes to Adora’s palm. Stark white bandages were wrapped around the palm. 

“What happened?” Glimmer asked. 

Adora’s radiance dims, her excitement stumbling and disappearing, “I just tripped.”

“Really?” Catra raises her eyebrows disbelievingly, “Did you trip into a sword?”

“No.” Adora looked miffed. “I was tired and I tripped. That’s the truth.”

“Did you fall on something?”

Adora grumbles, “Your peskiness.”

Glimmer can’t help the amused laugh, “Adora c’mon. Just answer it.”

“...I tried to catch myself on a lamp.”

Catra chortles, “ Really?”

Adora hugs her hand close to her chest in an affronted manner, “Yeah really. I was tired.”

From the corner of her eye, Glimmer watches Catra soften. The girl starts forward, her hand reaching out and catching Adora’s. Adora blinks in surprise. She lets her hand go as Catra takes it, turning over the palm and looking over the injury. The moment suddenly feels private. Glimmer watches Catra touch a gentle claw to the gauze. 

“Did it hurt?” She asks.

Adora looks red, “No.”

“Good.” 

Catra steps forward. That should be that, Glimmer reasons. They were continuing their walk. And they were, with Catra leading the way and Adora…

They were still holding hands. 

Glimmer stared. Do they know? Her heart was shaking between glee and something that stung. Slivers of dawn peaked between trees and shadowed her girls in oranges and golds. It’s Catra not looking at them, refusing to acknowledge them. It’s Adora confusedly stumbling after her, eyes trained onto their locked hands with disbelief. It’s Glimmer, lagging behind because she cannot believe what’s happening. That this strange void between them was as simple as stupidity. 

We’re all idiots. She realizes with horror. Catra and her evasiveness, Adora’s obliviousness, and her own anxiety. We’re absolute morons. 

That cements it. It's the wierdest thing to cement I'm going to confess to them into her head. Catra won't, for some reason or other. She toes the line boldly but backs off too quickly. Adora can't even find the line. Glimmer is so painfully aware of it that she's getting a running start. The only hard part was the other two and how well they'd take to her flirting back for once. 

Now,  she thinks grimly, how do you confess to someone? Should I confess to both? At the same time?

"Keep up, sparkles." Catra calls.

Adora adds, "You don't want to get lost."

Glimmer mournfully whispers, "I'm already lost."

With a bitter sigh, she trudges after them. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

She wasn’t a good planner.

She was sort of good, but she didn’t use that skill often. She planned out her high school debate club, she was vice president of the art club despite never stepping in there once , and she’d successfully made the plan to work at Déjà Brew just to send a message to her mom that yes yes she can hold a job. She’s a big girl now. 

Confessing. Ha. 

Glimmer could count on her hand how many times she’s confessed to someone. Almost all of them were in an elementary school playground when she was five and couldn’t even recall their faces. This was big. Ground breaking. Nearly heart attack inducing. She was going to confess because she’s actually heart achingly in love with these girls. 

Her plan? Attack. 

Glimmer: hey when are you two free today?

Catra: cant

Adora: not today. sorry glimmer.

Glimmer: later on? 2 AM?

Catra: cant

Adora: maybe tomorrow?

Glimmer: Sure! What time?

Adora: idk 

Glimmer was going to find a wall just to beat her head against it. She settled with her pillow. 

Catra: cant im busy

Glimmer: ok. give me a heads up when you’re free and we can hang out :)

Adora: okay!

Catra: sure

These girls were going to be the death of her. An hour later she tried striking up casual conversation only to be hit with the classic Read at 1:17 PM. No response for a while before she got a simple one word message. It was enough to have her gripping her head in frustration. 

The projector on her desk caught her eye. She scowled at it. Catra hadn’t brought it up at all. Was it even hers? She could use it as an excuse to return it. But she wanted to confess to both of them. At the same time? Wait both both both-

“Oh hell.” Glimmer moaned into her hands, horror in every nerve. “Oh god I’m confessing to both of them.”

Focus. She rubbed her face and stared at the projector. One at a time. Catra first. How would I confess to her? 

The was a loaded question. Hadn’t Catra already confessed? And avoiding the subject like the plague. Glimmer started to pace, chewing her lip as she ran every conversation since The Billboard Incident through her head. It only made her depressed. 

“Do you regret it?” She whispered to her room. “Is that why you can’t even look at me?”

It’s just her in her room and the silence of her phone telling her Read at 1:17PM. She grits her teeth and sits at her computer. She tries a few restaurants, checks popular hang out spots, the local parks, even local bars. The empty box of Captain Blueberry that sits by her headphones is mocking her. 

Glimmer sighs and drops her head onto her keyboard. It’s not a place I want to see you in rumbles around in her head. It warms her, disperses some of that tension. It makes her soft about that girl. It makes her worry. 

Glimmer looks up. 

The projector sits innocently in front of her. Almost unbidden, a thought crosses her mind. I know where your owner lives. Glimmer blinks, mind running to catch up with that implication. I know where Catra lives. 

“Oh.” Glimmer breathes, “This is a bad idea.”

.

.

She puts her car in park and presses her head on the steering wheel.

“Glimmah.” She tells herself in her mom's voice, “What on earth are you doing?”

The apartment complex loomed above her. Her eyes had immediately searched for the motorcycle once she’d stopped, but found no trace of it. It was both a relief and a disappointment. This trip wasn’t worth it if Catra wasn’t here. 

“Well.” Glimmer grumbled, reaching into the seat for the projector. “Might as well drop it off.”

Lugging the hunk of metal up the flight of stairs is a small trial. Staring at the apartment door and wondering what the heck she should do is another. She barely manages two knocks before the door is opening to an unfamiliar face. A girl with long purple hair is- well, she’s sitting in a rolling chair, a metal welding mask tipped up on her head. The overalls she’s wearing were covered in oil and grime. It’s so bizarre Glimmer immediately decides going home is the best idea, projector be damned. 

Glimmer takes a step back, “Oh sorry, I must have gotten the wrong-”

“It’s you!” The girl exclaims, ripping off a glove to extend her a hand, “It’s great to finally meet you! My name’s Entrapta, I’m Catra’s roommate!”

Cautiously, Glimmer shakes it, “Uh. Hi. You already know me?”

The girl props her hand against the door and pushes back. The chair rolls and takes her into the apartment, “Oh yeah! Catra talks about you all the time. You’re Glimmer! Come on in. I’m making tiny pancakes.”

Glimmer hesitates at the doorway. It’s the same as can be remembered, from the couches around the huge TV to the open kitchen to her left. There’s a trail of metal gadgets on the floor leading to the hallway. One of them sparks in a concerning way. 

“Watch your step!” Entrapta calls from the kitchen, “I’m burning food right now so I can’t clean up. Hope you don’t mind the mess!”

“Uh.” Glimmer said. 

She floundered with the projector for a moment. She doubts setting it amongst the junk on the floor would be polite. Or would it be? The kitchen smells like it’s on fire. She lets the projector sit on the counter and peers in. 

Entrapta is still on her chair, humming away as she uses a spatula to flip tiny cookie sized pancakes. At least they were pancakes. She’s only flipping charcoal pieces at the moment. 

“Do you want any help?” Glimmer offers, staring fearfully at the smoke rising to the ceiling.

“Hmm?” Entrapta grins at her, “What's that?”

Glimmer looks pointedly at the smoke. Entrapta doesn’t even blink, “Yes?”

“How about,” Glimmer starts frantically, “I take over and make some pancakes, okay?”

“Really!?” 

The chair does a dramatic swing, Entrapta spinning wildly until she collides with the counter. She uses the momentum to lean dangerously close to Glimmer’s face. “You will? That'd be so great!”

“Uh, sure.” Glimmer sidestepped the enigma on wheels. “Leave it to me.”

The mix is already ready. All the supplies have been set out accordingly in some form of organized chaos. Glimmer flips the pan over and dryly notes the Scorpia’s Property scratched into the metal. Entrapta hums behind her.

“She didn’t mention you could cook.” She’s saying out loud. “Now that I think about it, she hasn’t mentioned much about you other than, you know, the usual.”

Glimmer doesn't turn around. She keeps her eyes firmly on the pancakes, “What’s the usual?”

“I usually have those with chocolate chips.”

Glimmer wants to hit her head on something. Unfortunately, the only things within reach are burnt breakfast and a hot metal pan, “No, I meant when she talked about me.”

“Ohhh.” Entrapta laughs. “Catra likes you.”

“...yeah?”

The chair rumbles across the floor. Entrapta face stops next to her shoulder, peering up at her in confusion, “You didn’t know? That’s strange. My logs from yesterday say she reported confessing. She wouldn’t lie.”

“No.” Glimmer hid her blush behind frustration. “She’s not lying, she’s just been...avoiding me.”

“I see.” Entrapta falters. “That’s weird.”

“Tell me about it.” It was nice to know she wasn’t the only one who thought so. The fact that even her roommate thought it was strange was cause for concern. She was stuck between being indignant about the whole situation and nail bitingly worried. 

The small pancakes were made with chocolate chips, syrup, and a heinous amount of butter. Entrapta offered her a small plate. It occurred to her this was the roommate that wanted tiny coffee. 

“I think I should be thanking you.” Glimmer says around a mouthful. 

Entrapta is spinning in her chair, a tornado of purple, “You’re the one who made these pancakes! I should be thanking you.”

“Not that. If you hadn’t asked Catra to get coffee...well, I never would have met her.”

The other girl stops her chair. She tilts her head back until she’s staring at Glimmer. She gives a drawn out hum. Glimmer feels like she’s being examined and frowns. 

“What?”

“You like her.”

“Yes.” Glimmer squirms. It’s one thing to know, it feels entirely different to say. It was out there, I like her. “I want to talk to her about it. Do you know where she is?”

“Oh, probably at The Portal.”

“...the what?”

Entrapta is spinning away to the fridge, where she idly reaches up and unsticks a magnet from. Glimmer has to step away as she spins back towards her, nearly knocking them both to the ground. She excitedly hands over the magnet. 

“It has the number and everything.” She explains. “Directions too. She gets off at midnight.” 

“Oh.” It’s written across a swirly blue magnet. The Portal, bar and spirits. It’s where Catra worked. The place she didn’t want her in. “I don’t know if I should go.”

(are by @ bonpop)

“Why?”

“Is it bad?” Glimmer asked. She started to feel foolish when all Entrapta did was blink. “Is it safe?”

“No idea!” Entrapta shoveled a pancake into her mouth. “I’ve never been there. I don’t like the smell of alcohol. Scorpia works the same shift as Catra, if you get lost she’s there! She’s very hard to miss.”

Glimmer hesitates. The magnet feels heavy in her palm, “...it is safe though, right?”

Entrapta gives a cheerful shrug. 

“...I’m keeping the magnet.”

.

.

This was a mistake. 

Was it? 

This is a mistake. She sits in the parking lot of Déjà Brew with her head on her steering wheel and a magnet in her hand. She’s gripping it tightly, tight enough a circle is imprinted in her palm. Her phone buzzes. She checks it and it’s a private message from Adora.

Adora: sorry I was busy. you needed something?

Glimmer: i know you’re busy today

Glimmer: but is there any way you can ditch

Adora: ditch?

Glimmer: leave, excuse yourself, idk

Adora: i dont think i can

Glimmer: please

Glimmer: i need your help

Adora: why?

Adora: whats wrong did something happen??

Adora: glim where r u

Glimmer: deja brew

Adora: omw 

This was a mistake. Her heart screamed at her. Giddy that Adora would set aside anything to come to her, dread that she was using that. It’s not bad. She closed her eyes tightly. I do need her. I can’t do this without her. 

She could have waited. She definitely did not need to do this when they could meet up, all three of them, sometime tomorrow. But Catra would go home tonight and Entrapta would tell her what happened and- and what? Go back to avoiding her? Block her entirely? She didn’t want that. She wanted more but she was walking the thin tightrope between two people where one was stubborn and the other was a mystery and-

-and she didn’t want to lose her. 

She spotted Adora’s flannel twenty minutes later. The blonde was sprinting into the parking lot, nearly colliding with a yield sign as she found Glimmer’s car. Blue eyes were wide and worried as she approached. Glimmer was already stepping out when a barrage of questions were fired at her. 

“What happened?” Adora asked breathlessly, “Did you get hurt?”

“No, no.” Glimmer shook her head. “Nothing like that.”

“Okay?” Adora’s hands are hovering in front of her, disbelief in her eyes, “Are you sure? Something’s wrong.”

Wordlessly, Glimmer nods. She feels too shy, too nervous. Adora’s everything earnest and loyal and it twists her sideways. She couldn’t lie. 

“Adora, I need to talk to you.” She hastily tacks on, “And Catra! I need to talk to you both. It’s important.”

Adora’s expression shutters, confusion shadowing her as she lets her arms fall to her sides, “...Catra? What’s going on?”

“I can’t say.” 

Adora reels back and Gimmer chases her, latching onto her wrist, “I can’t say yet. I’ll explain everything when-”

“Seriously?” Adora is glowering, “I just- I just had to-” She uses her free hand to run through her hair. Tension bleeds from her. “I just had to tell Light Hope that-”

“I’m sorry.” Glimmer desperately grips her hand. A part of her delights that she’s holding hands with Adora. She’s largely afraid of the way the blonde is looking at her, like she’d just stuck her with a knife. “I’m sorry, I promise I’ll explain everything. We need to find Catra.”

“Find her?” Adora echoes, “Why?”

“Because I need to talk to you both.” Glimmer feels like a broken record player. It’s not working, judging by the scowl on her blonde’s face, “Adora please.”

“What’s so important?” Adora presses, steel in every word. “Glim, you can’t just-”

“I know, I know. ” She begs. “Please. Trust me.”

Adora hisses and wrenches her hand free, both hands going up to cover her face. Glimmer feels hollow, her hand cold. She waits there and bites her tongue. She’d said what she could. She couldn’t ask anything more when she’d already ruined it.

The silence of the parking lot is a void. It’s her leaning against her car, her palm open and empty. Adora paces in front of her, muttering to herself angrily. Glimmer can’t recall ever making the other girl upset. Who’s Light Hope? She ignores that. It’s not important right now. Her heart was on the edge. She could feel it, the disappointment building with every step Adora took. She wasn’t familiar with heart break. She didn’t want that to be her. It hadn’t occurred to her that one might accept her confession and other would reject it. It was a horrible thought. 

Adora stops and sighs. Defeat falls from her, her hands dropping to her sides. Glimmer is reminded why she fell so hard, why red makes her smile or why blue makes her dream. Even while angry, even while tired, Adora looks at her like that. 

“Okay.” Adora said, eyes misty and voice a gentle murmur on the wind, “Okay.”

“Okay?” Glimmer allows the small hope to flicker in her heart. “I’m sorry, I’ll say that as many times as I need to. I shouldn’t have tricked you, I just needed-”

“ Stop. ” Adora cuts her off, tiredly rubbing her face. “I trust you, Glim.”

Glimmer’s chest flutters. She breathes in and out, carefully holding back tears, “I promise it’s worth it.”

Adora glances at her. There’s sadness swimming in those blues, hidden under steel and doubt. Tentatively, she reaches out and takes Glimmer’s empty hand. It means more than okay ever could. 

“Let’s go find Catra.” Adora said. 

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Glimmer should be sleeping. 

She knows she has work. She knows she should be doing a lot of things that don’t involve a 3 PM drive through the city. She keeps her eyes on the road. Her hands grip the steering wheel fiercely. Adora hasn’t said a word. 

“Are you mad?” She blurts, immediately feeling stupid. Is the sky blue?

“No.” Adora surprises her, her voice soft. Glimmer glances at her. She’s looking out the window, her chin in her palm. “I was mad. I’m kinda annoyed. It’s okay, I guess.”

Glimmer murmured, “I still upset you.”

“You have a reason.” And then quieter, “I hope.”

“It’s a good one.” Glimmer runs her words over in her head. I like you doesn’t seem so powerful anymore. A confession from the heart was going to have to be direct. She wasn’t just going to cross over it. She was taking a running leap. And wasn’t that terrifying? I love you meant something. It was more than asking for her missing puzzle pieces, her catmints. She was asking to be the same for them. Their missing puzzle piece. She tried to think of what she’d do if they said no. If they said yes? If they said it back? 

Glimmer didn’t know. She was lost and scared and hurdling into unknown territory. Getting Adora to come with her had felt right. She couldn’t do this alone. She didn’t want to. But, she thinks as a traffic light turns red, what if I break her heart instead by doing this? 

What if one says no and the other says yes?

It was too terrible to think about. 

Glimmer can feel Adora boring holes into her head. It makes her nervous. She doesn’t know what to say to ease the tension. Her fingers reach for the radio. She’s frantically turning it off the minute the first few notes of Higher Love start. 

“Bad song.” She says, embarrassment screaming across her cheeks. “What do you like to listen to?”

Adora hums, turning her gaze down to her lap. “...I don’t really have a favorite.”

“Me too.” Glimmer winces. “Well, sometimes I like a genre then like a new one. Is that weird?”

“No.” Adora said. She sounded wistful. “It’s okay to love more than one thing at once.”

“Two favorites.” Glimmer adds. “I like that.”

“Mmh.” 

Glimmer mutely nods. It felt like they were talking about more than just songs. The rest of the drive is silent. At some point Adora’s hand rests near the parking brake. It’s close enough their fingers touch. Glimmer wants nothing more than to inch her hand forward and take it. She’s not feeling very brave. Her hand stays at her side. 

The Portal isn’t as she imagined it. Where in her head she built up some run down, beat up shack with a bunch of gangsters hanging out in front of it, it felt like she was driving up to a dream. Neon lights glowed on the walls. Flashing signs advertised drinks, happy hour was at 8 PM, and a dance party at 11 PM. There’s a steady beat of music coming from the building. The door opens and a group of teenagers stumble out, laughing and singing to themselves. 

She gets out of her car. Adora appears beside her, brow furrowed. 

“I’ve never been in a bar before.” She remarks. 

Glimmer said, “Hopefully we won’t have to stay long. C’mon.”

The smell hit them first. Glimmer knew what alcohol tastes like, but had never been in an area where the air itself felt like she was having a sip. Adora coughed beside her. They stopped at the door, a burly woman muttering for some proof of age. Dutifully, Glimmer showed her license. Beside her, Adora looked pale. 

“I forgot my wallet.” 

“Can’t let you in.” The woman stood unflinchingly. “Either go get it or you wait outside.”

Glimmer floundered. She needed Adora. For an insane moment, she considered finding a window to sneak her crush in. But there were easier methods to sort this out. 

“I’ll go get her.” She told Adora. “I’ll bring her out. Wait for us.”

Her blonde slowly nods, caution written in every movement as she steps back. The bouncer is grinning, “We can have a nice chat.”

“Um.” Adora looked unsure. “About what?”

The bouncer doesn’t say anything, her shark toothed grin aimed at Adora. Glimmer hesitates at the door, watching the two warily. She wasn’t expecting trouble this early. Leaving Adora was absolutely something she didn’t want to do. 

Adora glanced at her, “...Go on. I’ll be fine.”

“But-”

“Just hurry.” Her blonde stuffs her hands into her pockets, expression sour as she regarded the bouncer. “It’s just a talk.”

“Yeah.” The bouncer drawled. “Just a chat.”

Glimmer gave the woman a scowl. The woman’s gaze snaps to hers, her grin dimming into a frown. The bouncer crossed her arms and offered Glimmer a withering look. 

“Cool it, pixie stick. I’m not gonna hurt your girlfriend.”

“I’m-” Glimmer starts hotly, mortification burning her inside and out. She can’t even finish her thought. She turns sharply into the building and marches in. She doesn’t dare look for Adora’s reaction. She doesn’t think her heart can handle it. 

The first thing she's aware of in The Portal is how little space there is. Bodies brush each other. People are reaching over her head to hand each other drinks. The lights from the DJ flash brightly, turning the crowd into this shapeless shadow that moves to each beat. She shoulders her way through. Finding the bar is easy. It's where most of the patrons are gathered, groups clustered around the stools in varying states of drunk. She bumps into someone and barely mutters an apology. They don't seem bothered by the disoriented rambling she hears. 

She manages to weasel her way between two groups. Her arms slide to rest on the counter, her wallet between her fingers. Her hand feels clammy. Glimmer nervously exhales and searches for her catmint. Up the bar is a bartender but it's not Catra. 

The disappointment is startling. It leaves her lost. All her plans go up in smoke. Catra isn't here. She's confused. Entrapta had said-

"Oh Glimmer! Hi!"

Glimmer jumps and almost knocks over the drunkard next to her. She turns her head to look behind her. The crowd is giving the woman a wide berth. Probably because of the claws. 

Scorpia is beaming, "You found The Portal! Gosh this is exciting. I can't serve you drinks because, well, I'm just the muscle, but it's sure good to see you!"

Glimmer allows herself to relax. She offers a small smile, "Hey. Yeah, this place isn't what I was expecting."

Scorpia takes her place beside her, easily making room for herself without even having to touch anyone. She waves cheerily to the bartender hi Lonnie and the girl is rolling her eyes and turning away. Glimmer laughs at this. Scorpia's optimism was endearing. 

"Let me guess." Scorpia said. "You thought it was some spooky scary bar, right? Am I right?"

Glimmer nods, "Yeah. Catra made it seem that way."

Scorpia's smile falls. She looks concerned, "Oh. Right."

"How have you been?"

"Good!" The answer was sharp and nervous. "Good, very good, having a good time say why are you here?" Scorpia chuckles but it's forced, "Not that, no, it's cool it's just I'm curious is all."

Glimmer stares at the bizarre behavior, "...I was actually here for Catra."

Scorpia looks queasy, "Ohh. You would. Right. Of course. Right! Right. Mhm. I see."

This was starting to get ridiculous. "Scorpia, are you-"

"Say Lonnie!" Scorpia yelled so suddenly Glimmer bumped her elbow on the counter. "Can I buy my friend here a drink?"

Lonnie walked by their spot without a glance, "No."

"Ha ha." Scorpia looked like she'd sucked on a lemon. "She's a real joker."

"I don't want a drink anyway." Glimmer frowned at Scorpia. "You've been acting strange ever since I brought up Catra. What gives?"

“Who, me? No, no.” Scorpia tapped her claws against the counter. Glimmer leaned closer, squinting at her. It set the other girl off, an explosion coming from her mouth in the form of rushed apologies, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Catra said not to tell and, uh, if you ever did show up which you obviously did was to, uh, turn you away.”

Glimmer made an incredulous noise, “She asked you to kick me out? ”

“Maybe.” Scorpia amended, not sounding very sure of herself. “I mean, I don’t know, it’s all very odd, but completely understandable!” 

“Nothing makes sense!” Glimmer hisses when someone bumps her shoulder. The offender scuttles away with wide eyes. “I thought this place was dangerous but Catra-”

“It is dangerous.”

Glimmer tripped over her words, “Bu- what?”

Scorpia winces, “Kinda? It’s fine, you know. Mostly.” 

“Mostly.” Glimmer channels all her dubiousness into the one word. The scorpion shrinks before her. After a moment her gaze resolves. She takes a deep breath.

“Look,” Scorpia starts firmly, “I know Catra hasn’t been the best or the most forthcoming or-”

“Scorpia.”

“-and I know and you know she means well.” Scorpia smiles. “She’ll tell you when the time is right, but I really think you should go.”

Glimmer wilts. Of all the things she could scratch off her bingo card of life, getting kicked out of a bar wasn’t high on it. What was she supposed to do now? Go outside and tell Adora she’d ruined everything for nothing? She wasn’t brave enough to confess to Adora alone. She’d crush her heart. She’d never find Catra.

Lonnie appears before them, eyebrows raised, “You mentioned Catra?”

Glimmer blinks, “Yeah?”

Without missing a beat, she jabs a finger over her shoulder to a door behind the bar. “She’s on break. Go knock if you want. Tell her to hurry up too while you’re at it.”

Scorpia made some flustered noises beside her. Glimmer is scrambling out of her seat, warnings forgotten. She’s hesitating at the bar, but Lonnie is lifting the board for her to walk through and she’s there, behind the bar, in front of a door. 

“Normal people knock before they enter.” Lonnie tells her as she goes back to tending. Glimmer almost hates her for it. 

She knocks. There's movement inside. It’s hard to hear over the bass in her ears. 

“Seriously,” Catra’s voice wisps through, “I have five more minutes you-”

The door opens. It’s her catmint, of course. She’s got a ripped T-Shirt on, a bomber jacket tied to her waist, and a takeout box of orange chicken in her hand. Her shades are perched on top of her head, wild hair combed back into her ponytail. Mismatched eyes blink at her and widen like moons.

“Hi.” Glimmer breathes. 

The takeout box hits the floor. 

She can barely get another word in before a hand is grabbing her shirt and yanking her in. There’s a sharp click from the door before she’s being pressed to the wall. The light here is bright and blinding compared to the bar. She blinks a few times, adjusting to the open space and the lack thereof as Catra leans into hers. There’s fury across her face. 

“What the hell are you doing?!” She hisses, “Did anyone see you? Glim, who-”

“What are you talking about?” Glimmer comes back to reality and realizes she’s angry. She was expecting Catra to be mad with her. She didn’t realize she’d reciprocate until she was firing off. “I came to talk to you.”

“You couldn’t have waited till I got home?!” 

“No.” Glimmer scowls. “You would have ignored me.”

“Oh please.” Catra leans ever closer. There’s a breath between their faces. Glimmer forces down the feelings that rise from that. She’s mad, she shouldn’t think about Catra pinning her to a wall. God. “I wouldn’t ignore you.”

“You have been. You did. ” Glimmer bit the words out past the lump in her throat, “You confessed and then did nothing. ”

Catra reared back like it stung, “Excuse me? You didn’t do anything either. Do I actually have to buy a billboard for you to get a hint?!”

“I read it loud and clear, otherwise I wouldn’t be here!”

Catra hisses, backing off and pulling at her ponytail. She started to pace, “And that’s another thing. You just had to come on my shift. I should’ve known- great they probably saw you walk in.”

“What are you talking about?” Glimmer was getting tired of asking the same question over and over again. She pushed away from the wall and blocked Catra’s path, nearly on her tiptoes to get into the other girls face. “Explain to me. Now.”

Catra sneered, “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Then help me understand.” Glimmer let the desperation leak into her voice. “I feel like I’m losing you.”

Catra flinched. 

The change had Glimmer softening. She’s reminded of their movie night, of a head in her lap and insecure words written in a text message. She holds out her hand, begging with her eyes. Catra is slow to take it, but her fingers wrap around hers and bring it up to her lips. The action alone has Glimmer’s heart jumping into her throat and a blush burning across her cheeks. 

“I won’t leave.” Catra whispers to her knuckles. “You mean too much for that.”

“Then what is with this secret? What’s going on?” Glimmer squeezes Catra’s hand, “Tell me. I’m so scared for you.”

Catra smiles wearily, “Don’t be. They’ve tried to get me but Huntara has that locked down.”

“Who is they?” 

“Crimson Waste punks.” Catra’s face scrunches up distastefully, “The asshole who owned this bar previously kept catering to them whenever they popped in. Well, the owner quit, and Huntara owns it now. Says I can do whatever I want with people I don’t like. So I told them to get lost.”

“And they don’t like you now.” Glimmer surmised.

“Not that.” Catra smiles in a way that’s painful, “They actually listened to me and I got...clingy. I followed them and almost ended up joining them-”

“You almost joined a gang.”

“ Almost.” Catra stressed. “Scorpia too, kinda. They aren’t so bad. They’re just punks. Delinquents who do some graffiti and hang around junkyards listening to old mixtapes. It was chill, but we started hanging out and they wanted back in the bar.”

Glimmer started to connect the dots, “You said no.”

“...yeah.”

“Why?” Glimmer frowned, “Didn’t you like them? They couldn’t have been all bad.”

“...I dunno. I was kinda an asshole myself, I guess.” Catra leans back on her heels, hands in her pockets. Her expression is vacant. “I thought they were using me to get back to their favorite bar. So I flipped out and banned them from the premises. Now they’ve got a vendetta against me.”

Glimmer’s worry skyrockets, “Vendetta? Revenge? Catra, have they hurt you-”

Catra’s smile returns, “No. Calm down. I haven’t even gotten scratched, sparkles. They’re punks, remember? They don’t do that kinda stuff. They like to do that harmless shit like key your car or break your phone.”

“Harmless.” Glimmer echoes dryly. “If it’s so harmless, why are you freaking out about it?”

Catra clams up. Her crush drops their hands. Glimmer is starkly reminded of Adora earlier. It leaves her cold and seeking warmth, where her hand grabs Catra’s again and doesn’t let go. Catra looked at her helplessly.

“Glim-”

“Tell me.”

Catra exhales shakily, “I told you Scorpia was part of it too.”

“Yes.”

“Glim, they’re good at doing harmless things. Good enough that sometimes those harmless things can actually hurt someone.” Catra shrinks, ears flat against her head. “They tazed her.”

Glimmer’s heart drops, “Catra-”

“They hurt her. ” Catra returns, hands grabbing Glimmer’s shoulders in a vice grip, “So you have to promise me you’ll stay away from here. I haven’t seen them in months but I don’t want to risk them lurking around and catching you with me. I don’t want to know what they’ll do to make your life hell.”

Glimmer hesitated. Catra was leaning closer, her forehead pressing against hers. The close proximity stole Glimmer’s air, robbed her of power and control. Mismatched eyes begged her, “Glim please. I promise we’ll talk.”

“...you promise?”

Catra nods, jostling them with the movement. “I promise.”

Glimmer feels that sour taste in her throat. She doesn’t know what to do with it, much less what to say. She doesn’t want to agree. The look Catra is giving her makes her want to agree more than anything in the world. She’s soaring and it’s taking her head into the clouds. 

Her lips are really close is a stray and useless thought that completely derails her. Glimmer presses her own mouth into a thin line. Catra’s eyes flicker down to the movement. It feels too hot. 

And all at once, she remembers. 

“Oh.” Glimmer blinks, feeling her heart sink to her toes, “Oh fuck. ”

Catra reels back in surprise, “Woah sparkles, what-”

“Adora.” Oh god oh god. “I left Adora outside.”

“Adora’s here?!” Catra almost shrieks. “Why didn’t you-”

“Because she left her wallet at home because we’re idiots, oh god we’re idiots. ” Glimmer is frantically turning towards the door. Catra is right beside her, her shoulder brushing hers as they throw it open. She doesn’t have time to acknowledge Scorpia sheepishly stepping away. 

“Sorry, I was just-”

“Scorpia.” Glimmer breathes, “Have you seen Adora?”

The scorpion blinks, “I don’t think I've met her yet. What does she look like?”

“Forget that!” A hand is wrapping tight around hers and dragging her around the bar. Glimmer clings to Catra like a lifeline, “Scorpia! You take over! Family emergency!”

“Uh.”

Lonnie yells, “Are you serious!?” But it’s lost in the crowd, lost behind the shrill song blaring from the party. Glimmer lets herself fall into the crowd. She trusts the hand tugging her along. Catra’s claws are gentle against her skin. They make it to the door in seconds. 

The bouncer is there, expression unimpressed as she sizes them up, “Aren’t you on the clock?”

“Family emergency.” Catra pants, “Huntara, you seen a blonde?”

The bouncer, the owner of the bar Huntara, blinks. 

Glimmer interjects breathlessly, “ My blonde, the one I came here with. The one you chatted with? That one?”

“Oh.” Huntara frowned, “She went around back. Looked pretty upset. I didn’t follow.”

Catra swore. Glimmer empathized. She briefly looked her car over and found nothing of note. Catra was already dragging her away, around the corner of the bar and towards a shady looking fence. On the other side was a dense gathering of trees. A small forest between here and the housing developments behind it. Of course, Glimmer wanted to cry, of course you’d like it there.

“She hopped the fence.” Catra realized, horror in every breath, “I’ll boost you up.”

Glimmer recoiled, “What? No-”

“Glim, c’mon, don’t be a baby.”

“I’m not letting you throw me over the damn fence!”

Catra was already crouched, her hands cupped in front of her. Her expression was grim, “I’ll be right behind you.”

“How?” Glimmer took a step back, “There’s no way.”

“I can scale it. I’m a good climber.”

“...okay.” Glimmer winced, taking another step back in preparation, “Please don’t let me fall.”

“I wouldn’t dare-”

“Guys?”

They froze. Glimmer watched over Catra’s shoulder as a head of blonde poked out of the trees. Adora was watching them from a tree branch. Even from here Glimmer could see her frown. 

“What’s going on?” She asked, “What are you guys doing?”

“Why are you there?” Catra fires back, her face red. “Get over here.”

Adora complies, swinging down from the tree branch. Her landing is less than graceful but she stumbles into the fence, gripping it with an irritated sigh. Catra gives a startled laugh. 

“No way. Were you sleeping in a tree?”

“We came out here for you.” Adora grumbles, ignoring the comment. “I didn’t bring my wallet.”

Catra smiles fondly, “You idiot.”

Glimmer approaches. They’re separated by a fence but she sees Catra’s hand closing over Adora’s, the chain links not stopping their fingers from twining together. Adora looks thoughtful. 

“You don’t look good.” Her blonde is saying, studying Catra. “Did something happen?”

“Yeah.” Catra’s expression is hardening, “You two shouldn’t be here.”

Adora scowls, “What are you-”

“Catra needs to explain first.” Glimmer hisses, making sure to pinch her crush’s shoulder. Catra offers her a withering glare. “She has a good reason, Adora.”

Her blonde doesn’t back down, glancing between them with shaky trust, “So that’s it? We go home? Nothing?”

“No.” Catra is gripping the fence tighter. “No, not that. We’re going to talk. All of us. We need to.”

Glimmer’s heart screams. All of us. Was Catra-?

“...okay.” Adora’s gaze switches between them. “What are we gonna talk about?”

“Us.” Catra stresses. “The three of us. Us, Adora.”

Realization strikes Adora and her face is igniting crimson. She shoots Glimmer a scandalized glance that Glimmer can only wince at. Catra squeezes their hands through the fence.

“I’ll explain it, okay?” Catra said. “I’m kinda on emergency leave right now. We’ll hop in her car and go talk.”

“Oh. Alright.” Adora relaxes, but confusion still colors her expression, “I’m still not sure about one other thing.”

“Yeah?”

Adora points behind them, “Who’s that?”

Glimmer turns and half expects to see Huntara. But her brain barely catches on to Adora already knows her why would she be asking that when something strikes her in the face. It’s so fast and abrupt she loses balance, arms pinwheeling to catch herself. She feels the fence against her back and lets it be her buffer. 

The weapon clatters to the floor, a rock dotted red with blood. 

Catra snarls, “You son of a-”

“Oh we’ve heard this before.” Someone is saying. Glimmer blinks the tears out of her eyes, focusing on the blurry shapes in front of them. There’s three. Four? Maybe five. They’re all dressed similarly, dark clothes. Spikes. Was one of them wearing a cloak? God her head hurt. They were talking, but words were hard to hear. “-you’ve gone and done it now.”

The fence was rattling. She heard footsteps rapidly retreating. Adora running? To get help? 

Catra was in front of her, claws sharper than talons. She couldn’t see her expression with her back to her. 

“You really have some nerve.” Catra’s voice sounded like a glacier. “Throwing rocks? Are you toddlers?”

“We don’t wanna hear that from you, tantrum catrum.”

Catra bristles, “This is my bar. Not yours. Back off. ”

One of the shadows is shrugging, “Keep your stupid bar. It doesn’t even have karaoke.”

“It’s lame.” Another agrees. 

One is jeering, all bravado and sharp teeth, “Hand us the keys to your bike, catrum.”

“In your dreams.”

One of them tosses up a rock threateningly and catches it again. The others are crouching to the ground to grab their own. The tension in the air startles Glimmer back to reality. Her head had been lolling onto the fence. What was she doing? She rubbed her forehead and winced at the sticky feeling. 

“Wait-” She garbled, voice thick. “ Wait-”

“One last chance.” The blur of the Crimson Waste punk held out their hand, “Keys, catrum. Now.”

Catra hesitates. There’s tension screaming in every muscle of her. Glimmer pushes her feet forward, awkwardly stumbling until she could grab Catra’s elbow. She feels her world sway but an arm is circling her waist, drawing her close. She blinks and all she sees is Catra’s shirt. She thinks it's supposed to smell like sweat and alcohol. It smells like cinnamon. 

“As if I’d agree to you dorks.” Glimmer can hear Catra’s smirk. “Give it your best shot.”

“You heard her.” There’s an awful laugh on the air but it feels far away. “ Aim for the head.”

Glimmer’s world turns sideways. She’s pressed to the ground, arms circling protectively over her head. She hears Catra make an agonized noise in her ear. Horror falls over her- Catra is shielding her they’re throwing rocks at Catra- and she struggles.

“No-” She begs, “No, no, get up-”

“Shh.” Catra whispers, eyes closed in pain. “How’s your- ouch shit- how’s your head?”

Glimmer wants to cry. She can feel tears pricking her eyes when she says, “It hurts. Get up Catra, we need to run.”

“No chance.” Catra smirks at her but it wavers, her eyes flickering with that agony. Glimmer can hear awful noises and struggles harder. They were throwing rocks, but Catra wasn’t moving. “Just sit tight.”

“Are you insane-”

The fence rattled. Glimmer peers over Catra’s shoulder, her vision swimming but watching on as Adora vaults cleanly over the fence. It strikes her that Adora wasn’t running away. She was getting a running start. Glimmer stares, feeling her jaw drop as the blonde lands on all fours and all but pounces on the thugs. The stumbling was gone. She thought Catra moved with feline grace. If that was the case, Adora was a tiger. 

With one punch, two went down with varying degrees of screams. Another punch knocked down the third. The fourth retaliated, a punch landing squarely onto Adora’s shoulder. Glimmer feels every scenario of her blonde crumpling from the hit in her head. Adora was sleep deprived and tired and- 

-and takes it, shrugging through the hit like it was a mere glancing blow. She bodily tackles the fourth into the fifth. All the thugs are groaning messes on the ground when Adora stands back up, wiping her mouth. It’s broad daylight and they’d just gotten jumped by gangsters and her blonde looks over at them like she hadn’t just thrown five fully grown adults to the ground like it was nothing. It's amazing. Glimmer doesn't know if it's her head doing wierd things or not, but Adora almost looks magical. 

(art by @ xormak)

“Holy shit.” Catra breathes next to her. Glimmer was glad she wasn’t the only one at a loss for words. 

Adora approaches, worry written across her face, “Are you guys okay? You’re bleeding.”

“My back hurts.” Catra complains, wincing when Adora helps her up. She stumbles, but Adora holds on to her. She goes to help Glimmer but Adora is already doing that with her free hand. Glimmer lets herself be dragged to her feet. The world sways so harshly she lets her head rest against Adora. Her blonde is running her hand through her hair and it feels wonderful.  She hums and clings to her flannel. 

“Glim?” Catra is asking, “You got hit really good. How are you feeling?”

“M’fine.” Glimmer sighs, “You got hit more.”

“Not the point, sparkles. I’m bruised as hell but they didn’t break anything.” A hand is brushing her bangs aside, worried mismatched eyes peering into hers, “Glim?”

“Hmm?” 

“Yeah, no driving.” The eyes disappear. Tragic really. She loves them so much. She reaches out for them and finds a hand in hers. It’s Adora’s and her blonde is smiling at her, loose hair and awkward grace.

“I’m going to carry you.” Her crush announces. Gosh, that was so nice to hear. It’s wonderful to know dreams do come true. She loops her arms around Adora’s neck, feels blonde hairs brush her face, and nearly loses her stomach when her feet lift out from under her. She’s weightless and lost in the comfort of being held. 

"What do we do about them?" Adora is asking, her voice a pleasant rumble in Glimmer's ear. 

"Leave 'em. Let Huntara play with them." Catra sniffs. "I almost pity them. Not really. Assholes."

A pause in the air. Glimmer feels herself moving along like a cloud in the wind. 

“You got her?”

“Yeah. What about you?”

“I’m fine.” A huff. “And you?”

Even in the haze, Glimmer can see Adora preening, “Not even a bruise.”

“Heh.” Catra likes that. Glimmer knows she does. “I’ll get Scorpia to drive us.”

“Where?”

“...my place. C’mon.”

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

It’s hard to think. 

It’s really hard to call Bow and tell him “yeah I’m fine” when she’s holding a wet rag to her forehead. She sends a text to her mom about tripping and falling just to make a cover cause even while half-concussed she was never going to tell her mom she was mugged. She’d never hear the end of it. She might end up in a bubble via overprotective parents. 

The backseat of Scorpia’s car was spacious. It gave Catra more than enough room to sprawl out, the girl miserably groaning about her back. Her legs were splayed over Adora’s lap. The blonde didn’t seem to mind, her worried gaze switching from one girl to the other as if she couldn’t decide who to fret over. Warm butterflies were fluttering in Glimmer’s stomach. 

As it stands, she was trying not to puke.

“You have motion sickness?” Adora asks her. 

“No.” She rests her cheek against the window. The cold glass feels good. “My head is dizzy.”

Adora looks upset. Her hand is gripping Glimmer’s shoulder. It was a comforting weight. Glimmer doesn’t think it helps at all with the sparks igniting up her nerves. She likes it too much to tell her to stop. 

“We're here,” Scorpia calls back quietly. Glimmer appreciates it. “Need help getting out?”

“I can carry her,” Adora whispered. “Catra?”

“Mm’fine.” The cat muttered, sitting up with a groan. “Need to take something for this though.”

“Put ice on it!” Scorpia suggests, glancing behind her worriedly. “Ask Entrapta for anything. She’ll help.”

Catra didn’t answer, instead pushing her whole weight on the door. She almost fell out of the car if Adora didn’t immediately grab her by the scruff. 

“Be careful.” She chided, the concern still heavy in her tone. “Don’t add more bruises.”

“...sorry.”

Glimmer could almost kiss the ground. She was so happy to be out of the car. She wobbled on her feet, leaning against the car door as her head tried to twist the world upside down. An arm was wrapped around her shoulders to steady her. 

“Hold on.” Adora whispered. 

Glimmer’s legs were taken out from under her and she was lifted up. Without a second thought, her arms were looping around Adora’s neck. The blonde made a tiny noise at this, but her expression settled back into that pinched worry. 

Glimmer felt guilty, “I’ll be fine, Adora. Thank you though.”

“Good.” Adora kicked the door behind her. She didn’t seem impressed with the reassurance. Glimmer didn’t know what to say to make it better. She was hesitant to lean her head on the blonde’s shoulder, but the spiraling in her skull got too much. She exhaled against Adora’s shirt. 

A whisper caressed the top of her head, “Glim?”

“Mm.” It was Adora’s arms. They were a trap. A wonderful nightmare where Glimmer would happily stay all day if she could. Her stomach didn’t like it, her head was screaming at even the slightest movement, but she was in Adora’s arms. She could blackout and not regret a thing. 

“C’mon.” Catra’s voice is close to her ear. “Bring her in. I want to look at her head.”

There’s a bustle of noise as the door closes behind them. Entrapta’s voice flits through the air but Glimmer barely holds on the words. She’s blinking heavily against the bathroom lights. When did she get here? She sat against the bathtub, her hand immediately flying to the rag on her head. Her fingers brushed Adora’s and she realized it wasn’t just there, Adora was holding it there. 

“It was falling.” Adora explained, catching her expression. “How are you feeling?”

“Dizzy.” Glimmer admitted. “I might be sick.”

“I got something for that.” Catra was rifling through the cabinet above the sink, her tail lashing in the air. Glimmer wished she was coherent enough to gush over Catra on her tiptoes. “Are you allergic to anything?”

“Rocks.”

“ Glimmer.” The look Catra shot her was a mix of anger and heartbreak. 

Glimmer deflated, “No. I’m good.”

Satisfied, Catra started lining up little pill bottles and ointments onto the counter. It’s a process that looks practiced. Wondering about it makes her head hurt and she has to look away.  She meets Adora’s eye. Adora hasn’t stopped looking at her. 

“I know you explained it.” Adora’s voice is low and gravely. “But tell me they’re not getting away with it.”

“Huntara has ‘em.” Catra waved her off. “If you’re going to stress about it, come help me with this.”

“...okay.”

Glimmer felt like a princess. In that bathroom, while halfway hanging into a bathtub, two girls crouched beside her and fretted over her health. It was some bizarre dream. It wasn’t so bad once an ice pack was pressed to her head. The dizziness faded and she had time to comprehend how awful things had gotten. 

Catra was frowning at the bathroom tiles. Glimmer felt a rush of guilt, “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” Catra blinked at her. “It’s not your-”

“I shouldn’t have come to the bar. You told me not to.”

Catra’s ears flatten. It’s Adora who answers, her gaze heavy on the ice pack, “I’m glad you did.”

“What?”

“Those guys who jumped you.” Adora continued. “Has this happened before?”

Catra huffs, “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“What kinda question is that?” Catra snaps, “Of course I’m sure, they’ve never gotten past Huntara.”

“So they caught you outside.”

Glimmer grimaces. By Catra’s stricken expression she hadn’t meant to say that. Adora only nodded to herself, as if she’d already drawn that conclusion beforehand. The blonde stands up to go to the sink. Catra rises too. 

“I could’ve handled that myself.” Catra muttered, eyeing Adora like she dared her to say otherwise. 

“Mhm.”

“ Hey.” Catra hisses. “Don’t just mhm me. I’m serious.”

Adora whirls on her with a snarl, “And did it ever cross your mind how I felt on the other side of a fence while you got stoned? ”

Catra goes quiet. 

Glimmer barely breathes. She can only manage a quiet, “Don’t fight.”

“We’re not fighting.” Adora turns back to the sink. Her expression was wounded in the mirror. “I get it, Catra. You can handle it yourself.”

“...not really.” Catra whispers, her face hidden by her bangs, “I mean. Yeah, I can. But. It felt nice. To know you were there. To have something to protect.”

“I know.” Adora looks at her, sincerity and something. “How’s your back?”

“Got another ice pack in there?”

Adora obediently opens the cabinet. It’s obvious how she doesn’t have to use her tiptoes. It makes Glimmer smile. 

“Catra is small.” She announces. It’s the silliest thing to say. Adora snorts and Catra glowers at her. It kills the tension at least. “Which means Adora has to carry us now.”

“I’m not a horse.” Her blonde complains, slapping the cabinet closed.

“Too bad.” Catra bitterly takes her spot next to Glimmer. Glimmer tries not to fall into the tub at their proximity. Their shoulders brushed and it was almost as dizzying as getting pelted by a rock. “We’re injured.”

Adora softens, wilting before them in such a painful way. Glimmer holds out her hand. She can’t stand that expression. Adora takes her hand and she pulls the blonde to them. Except she’s pulling too hard and too fast. She barely hears Catra yelp before all three are tumbling backward into the bathtub.

“Where did all that strength go?!” Glimmer yells in disbelief, “You didn’t even catch yourself!”

“I’m tired.” Adora protested into her shoulder, vainly trying to find purchase. Catra was hissing and grabbing at the rim to try and sit up. Glimmer heard the curtain catch and a sharp screech before darkness fell onto them. Someone's leg was jabbing into her stomach.

“Move.” She grumbled, trying to shove them. 

“This is my tub!” Catra’s voice was accompanied by the leg purposefully laying over her again. Glimmer was tempted to fight it, except an arm was being thrown over her face. She nearly screamed until Adora’s voice was sheepishly in her ear. 

“Sorry.” 

“No, uh-” She couldn’t even tell what position they were in. Embarrassment was hot on her face. “Can you get up?”

“I think,” Adora squirmed a bit before deflating on the spot, “I think I’m stuck.”

“Oh no to be trapped in a bathtub with two cute girls.” Catra drawls. “What a burden.”

Glimmer opens her mouth. Closes it. 

Adora whispers, “You think we’re cute?”

“ Uh-” Catra’s voice climbed three octaves, echoing around in the bathroom. “Listen. Is now really a good time to have that talk? Right now? ”

“You called us cute.” Glimmer accuses.

“You’re bleeding from your head. ” Catra fires back. 

“You’re both injured.” Adora firmly shuts them down. The heated debate feels ridiculous while they’re still trapped under a shower curtain. “Are we going to talk about it or not?”

Catra grumbles. Glimmer is too nervous to even move her fingers let alone speak up about her crush. The bravery that had her going to The Portal is all but gone. She can hear the TV turn on through the bathroom door, a jazzy tune coupled with Entrapta’s singing. It’s background noise to the drums in her chest. 

“Guess not.” Adora scoffed. 

She’s moving to leave. Her arm brushed Glimmer’s shoulder and she’s drawn to the blonde like a tether. Her hand latches onto her wrist. She doesn’t realize Catra has done the same until the other girl is saying, “no stop.”

“I have to go back-"

“Adora.” Catra begs. “ Stay. ”

Adora pauses. She’s leaning just so that Glimmer thinks she’s reaching for the curtain. Her grip on Adora’s wrist isn’t solid. She’s too shy to hold her back. Could she even? With the way she threw down those punks? Adora could easily shrug them off and be out of this bathroom. They couldn’t stop her.

Adora sighs. Slowly, she reclines back until they’re all shoulder to shoulder, her in the middle and a shower curtain thrown over their heads. 

“This is ridiculous.” She said. 

“It’s here or never.” Catra murmurs, “Sorry it’s in my bathtub.”

“Where did you want it to happen?” Glimmer asks. 

She imagines a shrug when Catra says, “ Not in my bathtub? I haven’t thought about it much.”

“But you thought about buying a billboard.”

Catra exhales heavily, a noise similar to a balloon deflating, “Yeah. Got a problem with that?” And Glimmer covers her face with her hands, trying to smother the flames eating her face alive. 

“Billboards are expensive.” Adora comments, her words shaky with confusion, “Is this the pain meds talking?”

“No.”

“Maybe.”

“Okay.” Adora said. “I guess I’ll just do it.”

Glimmer sucks in a breath. She can hear Catra go just as silent on her end. Adora doesn’t speak, but she sways her foot from side to side. It keeps tapping against Glimmer’s shoe. 

“I like you guys.” Adora croaks, like she’s halfway between crying and passing out. “A lot. Glim you…” Nevermind, Glimmer felt like she was about halfway to passing out. “...I like you. I like, your puns and, your laugh, gosh and...I really like your smile. You care so much and everytime I’m around you I’m-”

“Stop.” Glimmer begs. “I’m going to die.”

Adora tenses beside her, “I’ll stop, I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“Easy killer.” Catra’s voice is shaky. “She’s not rejecting you. You overwhelmed her. Breathe.”

“...oh.”

Glimmer curls up in mortification. She’s pretty sure her brain is ascending and crashing. She isn’t sure which one it’s doing at the moment. She can barely hear her heart let alone her own head screaming she likes me! me!! 

“I like Catra.” Adora continues after the silence starts to stretch. “You’re… you’re fun to hang out with. I love the way you tilt your head when, when uhm, you’re happy. I really like holding your hand. Is that okay?”

A long pause.

Quietly, Adora says, “oh.”

“Does that answer your question?” Catra’s voice is muffled by curtain, “Next time just ask to hold my hand.”

Glimmer makes an incredulous noise, “You’re holding hands in a bathtub?”

“Shut up, sparkles.” It isn’t said with any heat, but softens particularly on the nickname, “...I guess I owe you an apology.”

“What?” 

“I confessed. On movie night.” Catra said. Adora makes a startled noise. Catra forges on, “And nothing happened. We just…”

“Missed the billboard.” Glimmer finished. 

Adora sighs, “Is this an inside joke I’m missing?”

“Kinda.” 

“I’ll explain.” Amusement colors Catra's words. “I need to say this or I’m never going to.”

Glimmer clenches her fist. She jumps, remembering she’s got Adora’s wrist in her grip. The blonde is a step ahead of her. She moves her arm out of her fingers and threads them with Glimmer's. The handhold is loose, but the touch is a reassurance. 

“Glim, I’m in love with you.”

There’s a cracking noise that can only be the sound of her banging her head on the curtain pole. Adora yelps and tries to pull her close, but Glimmer is woozy and two steps away from puking all over her potential girlfriends. She grips the rim of the tub like a wet cat and nearly dies. 

Catra is fuming, “Did you hear me?!” 

“I heard you!” Glimmer snaps back, but it sounds hysterical,” I heard you, I heard you. ”

“Well?” Catra’s voice goes quiet as a breeze, “That’s what you wanted.”

“Is it what you want?”

“Of course.” Catra sounds wounded. “I’ve wanted it ever since you made me a tiny cup.”

I’m going to die. Glimmer closes her eyes tightly. The words float in and out of her head in a mantra. I love you I love you I love you. She’s going to die. It’s going to be the best death ever via confession. She has no idea how she can feel so warm and sick at the same time. 

“You’re fun.” Catra is muttering. “I want to be around you more. You make me want to keep coming back. I don’t want to leave you.”

“I’m…” Glimmer covered her mouth. Her eyes felt hot. “I’m also-”

“Let me finish.” The curtain is being tugged down. The bathroom is exposed again. Instead of a shelter, the curtain fits as more of a makeshift blanket. Glimmer was satisfied in knowing she wasn’t the only one inventing a new flavor of crimson. Adora was drilling holes into her knees, shyly hiding behind behind her hair. Catra curled up, tail looped over her shoes and ears flat against her head. 

“I’m in love with both of you.” Catra continues. “ Yes I like horse riding. No I’m not going to admit it again.”

“Noted.” Adora chokes out.

Catra gives a meek smile, “I get lonely. I think about you and I just want to see you again. I like hearing your voice. Seeing both of you together…”

“It’s a dream come true.” Glimmer finishes dazedly.

They’re both looking at her. 

To her mortification, before she can even utter the first word of her hard practiced confession, tears are spilling down her cheeks. The curtains turn into improvised tissues as she buries her face and sobs. Her head throbs painfully. Her heart is screaming. 

I’d like to order a catmint. 

“I love you.” She hiccups in between breaths, “I love you both so much I can’t believe I’m confessing in a freaking bathtub. It’s absurd, I can’t stand it, you two are killing me here. I’m falling for you everyday and all you have to do is say hello. ”

“Could be worse.” Catra pointed out. “We could still be at The Portal.”

“I’d rather be in a bathtub then there.” Adora said. 

Glimmer laughs. There are oceans shining in Adora’s eyes and her blonde is wiping them away with her sleeve. Catra looks two steps from joining the crying herself but takes a deep breath. Tentatively, she’s reaching out. Glimmer doesn’t move as she brushes away her tears. 

“I didn’t take you for a crybaby,” Catra mutters fondly. “But I’ll make do.”

“Oh shut up.” Glimmer sniffles. “You-”

Adora is tugging on their hands, “Guys. Focus. We’re…”

“Confessing.” Catra pauses. “Confessed. Post-Confessed.”

“Girlfriends.” Glimmer corrects and then immediately combusts. By the red on the other two’s faces, the word is affecting them just as badly. She wants to yell. She wants to go to bed and get a decent sleep before her shift in a few hours. But most of all...she really wants to…

She settles with grabbing Catra by the collar of her shirt and tugging her down.

Mismatched eyes widen, “Glim, you-”

“Congratulations on your billboard.” Glimmer says and kisses her crush in a bathtub with a concussion. Catra makes a noise against her lips, nervous and tender and Glimmer might pass out. She might be passing out. She’s kissing Catra. 

Adora sighs, “Inside jokes.”

Catra breaks away, eyes wild as she says, “Do you want me to explain it or do you want me to kiss you?”

Adora hesitates.

Catra bristles, “Are you serious- ”

Adora cuts her off with a hasty kiss that ends up being too much. They knock teeth and yelp, falling backward and nearly crushing Glimmer underneath. There’s a bunch of swearing and shoving. Glimmer can't stop grinning despite the headache crying at her nerves. Her girls, her catmints, are smiling too even as they bicker. 

“You call that a kiss-”

“I’m tired and nervous you-”

The door opens. 

Entrapta pokes her head in, blinking a few times at the odd scene, “Why are you guys in the bathtub?”

Glimmer is too happy to be mortified. Adora shrinks underneath the curtain. Catra is the one who looks embarrassed. 

“None of your business.” Catra’s voice is a squeak. “Why are you here?”

“Oh!” Entrapta grins and holds out a silver tray of charcoal. “I made tiny pies!”

A pause. 

“Also I don’t think I can budget a billboard into our rent.”

 Glimmer laughs.

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

Catra: i’m going to need a ride

Glimmer: what happened to your bike?

Catra: emily

Glimmer: ???

Catra: entrapta’s roomba has it out for me

Adora: what’s a roomba

Catra: wtf

Catra: can someone pick me up im going to freak out

Adora:???

Glimmer: im omw

Adora: did i say something bad

Adora: is a roomba bad??

Catra: literally shut up

Catra: im begging you to shut up

Adora: ok

.

.

Glimmer was having a good day.

Work sucked. That was a given when she made it on five hours of sleep. She’d stayed up well until after she’d gotten home and had texted her girlfriends ( girlfriends!! hers!!) until she was fighting her eyes awake. She was on time and her shift was completely uneventful. She could sigh and daydream and roll around on the floor to her heart's content. 

She was a little disappointed her girls hadn’t visited, but that was to be expected. Catra was still hurting and Adora, well. Glimmer tried not to dwell on that elephant in the room. She knew where Catra was now, but where was Adora? 

She didn’t let that get her down. She treated herself with a warm mocha to go. Bravery sang high in her head as she turned her favorite romance songs up. She pulled into Catra’s parking lot, already spotting her girlfriend by the doorway. Catra was wearing her bomber jacket, her phone in her hand and head tilted down towards it. Her ears perked up and mismatched eyes were catching hers. Glimmer gave a small wave over the steering wheel. Catra grinned in return and it sent butterflies screaming through her chest.

Glimmer parks the car and it takes three seconds for Catra to slide into the passenger seat and say, “Are you allergic to cats?”

Glimmer’s mocha makes a spectacular ornament on her windshield. Glimmer sputters, choking between laughter and horror at what she’d just done. Catra was gaping at her. 

“What the heck was that for?!”

Glimmer yells around a cough, “If I was allergic to you I wouldn’t have kissed you!”

Catra’s face is turning crimson, “You idiot, not me! I brought my cat with me!”

“Why are you taking your cat to work?!”

“No one’s at the apartment.” Catra huffed, reaching to unzip her jacket. A small fuzzy head poked up above her collar, blue kitty eyes looking at Glimmer. Glimmer held her leaking mocha cup in hand and desperately held back all notions of cooing over the little thing. It was adorable. “I didn’t want to leave Melog alone.”

“Melog?” Glimmer tested the name.

“Yeah, she doesn’t like being left alone.” Catra’s scritching behind the kitten’s ears. It mews and Glimmer almost drops her cup. “If Entrapta’s around I can count on her to watch out for Melog, but she’s at class.”

“So you just take your cat to work?” Glimmer repeated, reaching forward to wipe her sleeve on the windshield. She grimaced at the stain it left behind. This was her favorite sweater too. 

“Yeah. Melog stays in the break room and usually sleeps.” Catra presses a kiss to the top of the kitten’s head. “She’s well behaved.”

“I guess that’s fine.”

“What?” Catra frowned at her, “Is it that weird?”

Glimmer shifted in her seat self consciously, “Maybe? I don’t have any pets.”

“Never?”

“Never.”

Catra gave her a pitying look, “A crybaby and you’re lonely. How sad.”

In retaliation, Glimmer dumped the rest of her mocha down her leg. Catra shrieked and threw it back. They ended up getting her seats soaked in coffee and Catra having to step out to get fresh clothes. She left Melog behind and Glimmer absolutely did not gush over the cute little paws tiny little ears cute cute cute-

Catra returned to say, “We’re getting you a pet.”

“I don't know how to take care of one.” Glimmer admitted, letting Melog crawl back to Catra. Her girlfriend scooped up her kitten and leaned over, invading Glimmer’s space so quickly she could barely react to the lips against her ear. 

“I doubt that.”

Glimmer squeaked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Catra didn’t reply. She leaned back in her seat and looked very satisfied with herself. Embarrassed, Glimmer purposefully drove below the speed limit. Catra was late anyway, but she was ruled by spite. It had nothing to do with wanting to spend more time with her. 

She was so in love it was almost pathetic. 

.

.

Adora: Catra you need picked up from work?

Catra: on a horse

Catra: fr

Adora: no

Glimmer: wait

Glimmer: what else do you have??

Adora: a truck

Catra: WHAT

Glimmer: lol!! what!!

Glimmer: i thought you said you didn’t have a car??

Adora: its fine

Catra: is it???

Adora: yeah as long as we dont crash it i can return it

Glimmer: what

Glimmer: what does that mean

Adora: its not my truck

Catra: WHAT

Glimmer: WHAT

Adora: ill see you tonight

Catra: you cant just LEAVE

Catra: she left

Catra: istg she picks me up in a flatbed im getting a divorce

Glimmer: omg

.

.

Glimmer spent her evening alone. 

Not entirely. It’s weird to be the only one in her apartment and not feel like she’s alone. Her TV is on low, she’s snuggled in her pajamas, and her phone is happily chirping with her girlfriends voices. Apparently the truck was nice.

“-ot seat warmers, is that seriously a TV? You have a small TV built into your truck.” Catra’s voice was firing a mile a minute over the line. 

“I told you.” Adora’s tired one was tinged with amusement. “It’s not my truck.”

“Whose truck is it?” Glimmer asks, watching as the cartoon on her TV changed to commercial. Her popcorn was going cold, but she didn’t want to snack. Not when she could talk to them. 

Adora makes an indifferent noise.

Catra groans, “I already asked that. She gave me the same damn response.”

“I didn’t steal it.” Adora said flatly. “Well, kind of but they won’t notice.”

Glimmer covers her mouth around her laughter. Catra’s sputtering was pretty funny when the line kept crackling every time her voice pitched too high. There was some music coming in from across the line. It sounded astoundingly clear.

“Does it actually play tapes?”

“I don’t know.” Adora answers her. “I’m not in here too often.”

“I didn’t even know you had a license.” Catra grumbled. 

“I didn’t know you had a cat.”

There was a tiny mew. Glimmer snorts, pleased that Adora was affected just as badly as her by small cute Melog. Catra hadn’t failed to tell her how badly the blonde had fallen apart over the kitten. Glimmer could only imagine how red Adora’s face was. 

“It is comfy.” Catra admitted. “Why not use this thing instead of your horse?”

“His name is Swift Wind.”

Catra tsks, “Answer the question, dora.”

Glimmer smiles giddily at her phone. The comfortable way Catra bestowed nicknames would always send her over the moon.

Adora huffed, “He’s resting up.”

“Took him riding?”

“Tomorrow I will.” Adora’s voice goes quiet, “It’s kind of hard to see your face riding a horse anyway.”

“That’s a weird reason.”

Glimmer chimes in, “I think it’s cute.”

“Her eyes should be on the road. ”

“Occasionally.” Adora agrees. 

Catra makes a squeaky noise, “If you crash this thing-”

“I won’t.”

A long pause. There was a sudden thump and Adora shrieked. Catra’s cackling covered up their words. Glimmer pouted. 

“What happened?”

“She licked my arm.” Adora yells. “Catra, I’m driving-”

“Oh please, you liked it.”

“ Catra! ”

“Relax.” Catra snickered. “Glim, her face is so red.”

Glimmer could imagine it, but she shook her head in amusement. Her dorks, she thought fondly. Adora was still angrily sassing Catra, who was taking it all with an air of nonchalance. 

“I can still feel it on my arm.” Adora complains.

“Good morning to you too.” Catra snarks. 

Glimmer looks at the time and grimaces, “I have to get ready for work.”

“You’re leaving me with her?” Adora sounded so pitiful. It was said with a touch of playfulness. Glimmer grinned at her phone, the caller ID reflecting back Catra’s name in hearts. 

“Sorry.” Glimmer didn’t feel sorry at all. “I’m sure Melog will protect you.”

“She’s my cat.” Catra pointed out.

Adora mutters darkly, “And I can control the radio.”

A beat passes before Catra screams. Glimmer almost drops her phone surprise, at first worried, and then country music starts playing over the line. She’s so close to tears she has to muffle her laugh into the couch. 

“Turn it off, turn it off!” Catra is shrieking. 

Adora’s voice is grave, “I don’t know how.”

“Are you serious-! ”

“Okay girls, love you, bye!” Glimmer belts out as quickly as possible, barely hearing Catra’s cry of protest before she hung up. For a moment she’s beside herself with joy, giggling over their dumb antics. She doesn’t think about what she said until she’s getting up for her popcorn. 

Okay girls, love you, bye!

“Oh.” She breathes. “I said that.”

She could barely process that it’d been said. Her heart rattled with confusion, unsure if it should freak out or she should be overjoyed. Her phone buzzed before she could find out which. She glanced at the message. 

Catra: we love you too

Glimmer hides her face into her couch and screams so loud a dog starts barking outside.

.

.

“So? How do you like it?”

Catra hummed, leaning against the wall and sipping her cup thoughtfully. Glimmer tried to sit still, but sitting on the floor was never comfortable. Even with the blankets spread out on the breakroom, she could feel her butt hurting. Catra hmm ’d and lowered the cup. Glimmer could not describe the face she was making.

“Good or bad?” She prodded.

“I don't know.” Catra drawls, eyeing the inside of her cup like there was a secret message she didn’t find. “I’m not a huge fan of mint.”

“You’re just upset it’s a pun.”

“Yeah.” Her girlfriend ( hers!!) shoots her a wary look. “Are you going to make cat jokes about this?”

“No. I would never.”

“I can see you grinning.”

Glimmer giggles, “Believe it or not, I genuinely wanted to know.”

Catra makes an uh huh sound as she throws the cup away. She strides over and dramatically collapses onto the blankets, claiming Glimmer’s lap as her pillow. Glimmer manages to roll her eyes instead of squealing like a teenage girl. She wasn’t that far gone. Hopefully.

“How’s your back?” She asked.

“How’s your head?” Catra fired back. 

Glimmer winces. The bandaid was still unsightly, “Meds help.”

Catra nods against her leg, “Good.”

She waits. She nudges Catra. Catra groans.

“I’m fine, sparkles. It’s not me I’m worried about.”

“Then let me worry about you.”

“It’s not that.” Catra’s ears flick down, “Adora was acting strange.”

Glimmer nods, “This is normal.”

She gets an elbow to the stomach for that. She winces and is ready to start teasing, but Catra is turning her head to look up at her. The frustration painted across her face has her mouth closing on her words. 

“She looked tired, I guess, more than usual,” Catra mumbled. “I just thought she’d be happy to see me.”

“She was.” Glimmer immediately protested. “She loves you Catra.”

“I know gosh you two are sappy.” Catra huffs, “She just. She won’t tell me anything. I asked and she dances away from the subject and-”

“-and then changes the subject.” Glimmer finishes quietly. “I know.”

Catra’s voice is softer than wind, “I just want her to trust us.”

Glimmer feels that. She can feel every moment Adora looked pained, bit back her words, or looked away. Something was wrong, something Adora didn’t want them to know about. How long could they keep that up? 

“She mentioned someone called Light Hope.” Glimmer recounts. 

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Maybe the internet knows?”

Catra snorts, “Good luck. I owe you five if you find Adora through that.”

Glimmer pulls out her phone. She must look silly because Catra starts laughing, her breath tickling Glimmer’s legs. Glimmer can’t wipe the dumb grin off her face. Today is a good day.

She’s halfway through typing in the name when her phone buzzes with a message. Curiously, she thumbs over to her inbox. The text message isn’t from anyone. System Message it reads. She opens it. The contents freeze her blood quicker than ice. Maybe if they hadn't been discussing it beforehand, she would have laughed at the absurdity. 

Now, she felt the strongest urge to cry. 

[Adora has left the group chat]

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

“Catra, calm down.”

Glimmer couldn’t feel her own words. She didn’t feel much of anything as she watched Catra pace Déjà Brew like it was her own personal race track. The Espresso Lane sign was on the floor courtesy of a nasty kick. Mister Premium bubbled away happily in complete contrast to how Glimmer’s hand was shaking. The death grip on her phone was starting to ache. 

Catra made a hissing noise as she dragged her palm down her face, “I can’t believe this. She blocked us. Completely blocked us.”

Glimmer looks at the unknown caller screen that used to be Adora’s number. She doesn’t have words to defend the blonde. She only offers a soft, “We don’t know what happened.”

“I’ll tell you what happened.” Catra rounds on the counter, a shark in aggressive waters. Her eyes are slits of anger. “She left. ”

“You don’t know that.” 

Catra falters only a little, gritting her teeth, “Did she even love us?”

Glimmer frowns, “You know she does. We both know who confessed first.”

Catra winces and looks away. Glimmer slides off the counter and approaches. Her phone feels like a lead weight as she stuffs it into her pocket. She lets her head fall against her girlfriend's arm. The numb feeling in her chest is chased away a bit when Catra wraps her arms around her. It’s a fierce hug, gentle in nature but desperate in emotion. Glimmer wants to cry but can’t find the tears. 

“Why?” Catra’s voice breaks. “I don’t understand. Why would she…?”

Glimmer feels claws dig into her shirt. She can’t form words. She doesn’t know what to say. Her heart is numb and her brain can’t catch up with this turn of events. The waters are too high to see above and all she can do is cling to Catra to stay afloat. 

“What do we do?” Her girlfriend mumbles pitifully, ears flat against her head. She presses her face to the top of Glimmer’s head. “What can we do?”

“...I don’t know.” Glimmer mutters, “We don’t know-”

Light Hope. She startles and reaches for her phone. It’s painful to see the screen again, but she tabs back over to her search engine. The name is half-finished. With trembling fingers, she types it in. 

“Crystal Castle Stables.” Catra reads for her, eyes glued on the phone between them. “It’s a horse boarding facility. Professional horses for racing, dress, show, and eventing. The Equestrian Society recommends this place. Boarding is... shit that’s expensive.”

“It’s a horse.” Glimmer murmurs distractedly.

“Four hundred dollars to board a horse? Monthly ?” Catra repeats incredulously. “Remind me how Adora can get Swift Wind there.”

Glimmer shrugs. She doesn’t know enough about horses or stables to offer any idea. She knows less about Adora to even think of one. 

“They have a website?” Catra leans closer, her claw tapping on the screen. “Woah.”

Glimmer stares at the fancy script incredulously. Adora works here? The entire web page is organized thoroughly, separated into columns by events and showcases and jockeys-

Don’t get your hopes up. She presses her finger to the tab. Do not get your hopes up.

Catra makes a pained noise. There are a dozen names and at the top, because her name just has to be at the top, is Adora. Glimmer is hesitant to look. It’s on the internet. She shouldn’t feel guilty about finding it. But this was what Adora wanted to hide. This is what Adora didn’t want them to see. 

Catra glances at her, “Glimmer?”

“Is this a good idea?”

“Are you just going to let her go?”

Glimmer opens the folder. She’s not expecting a picture but she should have. It hit like a blow to the stomach to see Adora. She’s standing in a stable stall, a helmet over her head, and rake in the other. She’s looking at the camera with a half-smile like she isn’t sure if that’s what she should be doing or not. Swift Wind is beside her, the horse’s nose touching her shoulder. The picture is cute. 

It hurts. 

“Do you think she’s there?” Catra asks breathlessly, “Right now?”

“If something happened then maybe her coworkers know.” Glimmer scrolls down to Adora’s information. Her age is there along with Swift Wind’s biological information. Underneath is a small letter from the jockey. 

Hi! My name is Adora. I’ve always been a bit too tall to be a jockey, but I’ve loved horses since I was a kid. It’s tough work. Some days it’s hard to keep walking towards my goals. With Swift Wind at my side, I’ve never felt alone. We’re best friends. Please consider supporting us at our next event! 

“Next event?” Catra echoes, “Is there a schedule? Look it up.” 

“I am, I am.” 

The event schedule is long. It’s a list of different places across the world and Glimmer dizzily scrolls through them all. They’re all absent of Adora’s name, which brings her a small relief when she spots the Kingdom of Snows on the list. It’s so far away. 

“She’s not on the list.” Catra makes a frustrated noise, “Then where is she?”

Glimmer can’t wait. The need to see Adora now is staggering. “We have to go. Now.”

“Your car?”

“Yes.”

Catra nods, expression severe, “She’s got some explaining to do.”

Glimmer hesitates at the door to the cafe. She glances behind her. Mister Premium will automatically turn off in a bit and the lights are sensor activated. She flips the sign to CLOSED. It wouldn’t be the first time she shirked a shift for her girlfriends. 

It feels awful. This place has warm memories. She can almost picture her blonde standing in front of the counter with her shy smile. Her heart twists. 

“Let's go.” She said. 

.

.

It’s a long drive to the stables. Brightmoon disappears behind them as buildings fade into trees and countryside. Adora walks this distance. She clutches the steering wheel tightly. Adora walks this to see us. 

Catra looks queasy in the passenger seat, “She’s such an idiot.”

“Yeah." Glimmer agrees, “She’s our idiot.”

Catra turns her head to the side. Glimmer can only imagine the face she’s making. The hurt is bubbling in her chest and it's getting hard to breath. With a shaky breath, she catches sight of the Crystal Castle Stables sign. Next to it is a gate. A security gate. 

“Unbelievable.” Catra hisses, leaning forward to get a better look. “Are they hiding a monster in there?”

“No.” Glimmer glares down the gate. “Just our girlfriend.”

She doesn’t know what to do. It’s not a fenced gate, but it’s blocking her car. They could easily walk around it. With a sigh, she turns the car off. 

Catra huffs, “Looks like we’re walking.”

Glimmer opens her door grumpily, “Should have just driven right through it.”

“I’ll do it if you won’t.”

“My car, Catra.”

Her girlfriend simmers angrily as they walk past the gate. Glimmer admits that a part of her likes this forest. It’s crowded and quiet, the trees a canopy of blues and greens. They pass a little sign that has a car with a line crossing it out. Catra gives it a dry look. 

“This place gives me the creeps.” Her girlfriend grumbles, her shoulder brushing Glimmer’s. 

Glimmer leans closer as well, “Just look for any blonde hair.”

Catra stumbles and says, “Found her.”

“It might be hard to- what?”

Catra points. Ahead, through the trees, blonde hair bounces through the bushes. Glimmer doesn’t know what possesses her to unleash a war cry but Catra joins her and they’re barreling through the trees. She rams into someone and they scream with surprise as all three go tumbling to the ground.

“Adora! You-!” Glimmer sits up, ready to tear into her. 

It’s not Adora. 

The boy underneath her is pale as paper, his mouth hanging open in a horrified soundless scream. He’s glancing frantically from her to Catra. Her girlfriend makes a disgusted noise and scrambles away. 

“I don’t have money.” He belts out like he’s dying. “I’m broke, I’m terrible at my job, I’m a single loser, please don’t kill me.”

Glimmer gets off the boy, caught between anger and humiliation, “Uh, no, listen-”

The boy throws his wallet on the ground, “Okay I lied I have a coupon for Happy Jane's Ice Cream just please don’t kill me!” 

“Now hold on-”

“I won’t even call security! They wouldn’t believe me anyway!” He’s almost in tears, “I never saw you!” 

“Hey!” Catra snaps, “Listen to us, idiot! We’re not going to kill you.”

Glimmer adds, “But you didn’t see us. Keep that part.”

The boy whimpers and nods. Feeling a smidge guilty, Glimmer extends a hand to him. She isn’t expecting him to nearly pass out like she was about to attack him. Exasperated, she lets her hand fall to her side. 

“Do you work here?” Catra asks impatiently.

“Who me?” The boy looks wide-eyed, “Uh yeah. I’m a stablehand. Kinda.”

“How can you be kinda a stablehand?”

“I really suck at it.”

Glimmer runs a hand down her face, “Listen we’re looking for someone. Can you show us to the stables, um…?”

“Oh. I’m Kyle.” Kyle stands up and brushes himself off, looking uncomfortable with his own skin as he says, “ or loser, whatever works.”

“I’m not even going to start.” Catra’s voice is ice. “Get us to the stable, ice cream boy.”

Kyle whimpers and obligingly leads them through the woods. Glimmer glances at him suspiciously as they walk. He shrinks under her gaze.

“What?” He asks meekly. 

“Do you know Adora?”

He blinks, “Adora? Yeah, she works with Swift Wind.”

Catra is leaning into his space almost too eagerly, “Well? Where is she? Did she say where she was going?”

“Uh, well, uh-” He flails his hands as if he could just fly away from them, “She’s really busy? All the time, uh, she should be heading to her new stable-”

“New stable?” Glimmer echoes confusedly, “What do you mean?”

Kyle looks at Catra fearfully. Reluctantly, she backs off, arms crossed in annoyance. Shakily, Kyle lowers his arms. He explains, “Jockeys are cycled out in a rotation. There are other Beacons- er, well stables owned by Light Hope- and she’s been moved to the one in...uh…”

Glimmer can feel dread pooling in her chest. Catra’s tail is lashing, “What? Spit it out.”

“Uh, er,” Kyle looks away nervously, “I don’t remember? But, it's up on the board! At the stable! I’ll show you! C’mon!”

He’s practically running for his life. Glimmer shared a tired look with Catra before they walked after him. The stable finally comes into view and certainly lives up to its name. It’s blue-tiled roofs glisten in the sunlight, reflecting like shining stars. They pass underneath an archway that reads Eternia. 

“What’s Eternia?” Catra grumbles. 

Kyle pipes up, “It’s what this place was called, um, before the previous owner died. I don’t know the details. No one talks to me.”

“We get it, Kyle.” 

The inside of the stables is huge. Rows and rows of stalls neatly framed with blues and golds. It’s too pretty to be coupled with the smell of manure. Glimmer wrinkles her nose at the same time as Catra sneezes. 

“Oh gross.” 

Kyle leads them down the hall towards a pillar in the middle. A bunch of papers are pinned around it. Brochures and notices, a few colorful sticky notes with assorted handwriting. He reaches up and plucks a laminated piece of paper. 

“Here.” He hands it to them. “This contains all their schedules.”

Catra takes it, her frown more severe in the soft blue glow of the lights, “We saw this on the website. Adora isn’t on here.”

“Check the bottom. It has transfers.”

Glimmer watches as Catra’s face changes. It goes from confusion to shock, to terror. Glimmer feels her heart hammering rapidly at this. 

“What? What’s wrong? Catra,” She’s grabbing her shoulder, “Talk to me.”

“Fright Zone.” Catra mumbles like she’s dizzy, “She’s going to the Fright Zone.”

Kyle snaps his fingers in a ah ha! moment. “That’s the place! It’s a city really far away. I heard that place is spooky at night.”

“Is that a joke?” Glimmer stares, feeling more panicked at Catra’s lack of response. In shock? She was practically listless. “Catra, speak up, what is the Fright Zone?”

“It’s…” Her girlfriend grimaces, “It’s where I grew up.”

“Okay?” Glimmer paws at her shoulder, “You need to tell me more than that. It already sounds like a terrible place. Why would Adora go there?”

“I don’t…” Catra looked sick.

Glimmer looks at Kyle. The blonde shrinks meekly, “Uh. It’s pretty upper class. A lot of stuck up rich people. I’m not sure myself. Never been there. I just know one of our stables is near there.”

Great. Glimmer draws Catra in closer. She doesn’t like the tremble in her girlfriend’s shoulders. We’re back to square one. 

“If it makes you feel better,” Kyle speaks cautiously, “Swift Wind is just down the hall. That, uh, that means Adora hasn’t left yet.”

“He is?” Catra sounds so pitifully hopeful. “She hasn’t left?”

Kyle shakes his head, “Here. Follow me.”

They follow quietly. Glimmer leans forward, brushing aside Catra’s bangs. Her girl glances at her wearily, fear still swimming in mismatched eyes. Glimmer can feel the questions bubbling on her tongue. But now wasn’t the time. Not while someone else was around. This was a conversation that needed to happen in private. 

“Here he is.” Kyle extends a hand to the stall. As if on cue, Swift Wind pokes his head out, leaning forward to nibble at Kyle’s arm. The blonde laughs, “Sorry I don’t have any treats right now.”

“Aren’t you scared he’ll bite you?” Catra asks sourly. 

Kyle blinks, “What are you talking about? Swift Wind wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

Glimmer feels a new icy breeze pass through her. She takes a deep breath to calm her nerves, “He hurts Adora.”

Kyle looks offended on the horse’s behalf, stroking his snout, “What? No way. Swift Wind has never hurt Adora.”

Catra was catching on. Her lips were curled as she spat, “That’s what she said. The split lip, the bruises. Swift Wind.”

Kyle looked at them fearfully. He didn’t seem like he understood. Confusion colored his voice, “Adora grew up with Swift Wind. He’d never hurt her. He never has.”

“What?” Glimmer breathes. Something terrible twists in her stomach. She wants to throw up. She can see Catra shaking in her peripheral. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, uh,” He looks scared, “I’m saying he’d never hurt Adora.”

“Then who did? ” Catra asked. 

A silence so awful descends on them. Kyle doesn’t look like he has an answer. Catra’s face is changing so rapidly between grief and anger. Glimmer can feel her own emotions charged up, ready for a lethal blow. The tension is tight in the air. 

“Kyle.” Catra’s voice is so eerily detached. “Tell us everything about Light Hope. Right. Now.”

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

The forest was pretty and it sucked. 

After staring out into it for half an hour, Glimmer feels less and less until she can barely feel anything at all. The bench outside the stables hurts to sit on, but it’s better than the mud under her shoes. Catra’s tail brushes her thigh every once in a while. There’s a quiet over them that only the rustle of trees and birdsong can coexist with. 

In the distance, she can hear the horses. She can feel their hooves from the stable behind her. She can hear the snorting breaths. Glimmer hasn’t been outside the city like this in a long time. Mildew and farm smells are weird. She isn’t sure she likes them, not with Kyle’s words jumbled in her head. 

Catra draws out a long sigh, “...We should just go.”

Glimmer feels like she’s waking up from a dream. She blinks slowly at her girlfriend. The dots aren’t connecting. “What?”

“People who have been raised by bad people, well.” Catra looks ill, her gaze rooted to her shoes. “They don't go easily. She won’t come with us.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I do.” 

Glimmer felt herself bristle, “How can you say that? We knew nothing about Adora until coming here and now-”

“And now she’s left.” Catra leans her elbows on her knees, “What are you not getting here, sparkles? She left us.”

“Because Light Hope told her to.” Glimmer tried to keep her voice level, but it ended up a snarl around the woman’s name. “Adora loves us, Catra, she wouldn’t-”

“But she did! ”

Glimmer frowned, “Catra-”

“No.” Catra pushed off the bench, anger coiled in every stride. “She made her choice. Adora could have done anything. She could have run away and-”

“Is that what you did?” Glimmer snaps. 

The silence that thickens in the air stops Glimmer cold. The Fright Zone echoed in her head teasingly, another piece of Catra she didn’t know about. It was the piece that was showing itself across her girlfriend’s face, shattered and tragic. 

“You don’t know me.” Catra whispered, turning her head away. “I don’t need to explain anything to you.”

Glimmer flinches. She’s abruptly brought back to her counter at Déjà Brew and meeting a stranger for the first time, one so strange as to write her name down instead of giving it freely. She’s not trusted and it burns her. It leaves an awful taste in her mouth. 

Adora doesn’t trust her either. 

“Okay.” She lets the angry part of her decide. “Then let’s just go home.”

Catra falters, a single blue eye peering back at her. She looks like she wants to say something. Her eyes are drawn back to the stables. Catra’s face goes wooden with tension. Glimmer turns her head and almost falls off the bench. 

Adora leans against the door, arms crossed and expression melancholic. Her hair is up in a ponytail, something absurd and charming compared to her normal wild style. The jockey vest and pants looked bizarre on her. The blonde chewed on her lip, gazing between them solemnly. Glimmer was too surprised- too happy- to fully react. 

“You two argue loudly.” Adora greets them with. 

Catra reawakens with the strength of Magma Falls during rush hour. “You asshole. ”

Glimmer barely has time to stand up before Catra is flying at the blonde, rage thundering in every step before her claws are curling into Adora’s shirt. The blonde's expression doesn’t change, if anything it gets sadder and more pitiful to look at. 

“Why?” Catra snarls, her voice breaking, “Did you even think about-? We were worried sick and you- you don’t even care. You don’t love-”

“Catra.” Adora’s voice is softer than a whisper. “I really do love you.”

“As if I’d believe that after you-”

Adora gently reaches up and cups the hands curled into her shirt. Catra’s claws unwind, every movement trembling with fury. Glimmer approaches with shaky emotions. She isn’t expecting for Adora to hold a hand out for her, her gaze pleading. Glimmer stops short. 

“I love you,” Adora repeats, her eyes not leaving Glimmer’s. “I meant what I said.”

Catra scoffs, “You sure know how to show it.”

Adora’s gaze snaps back to Catra and she flinches, angry words caught in her mouth. It takes only a moment for Adora to decide, a few more for the blonde to gently pull Catra’s knuckles up until she’s pressing a light kiss to them. The sight renews something in Glimmer. She takes those last few steps until she’s joined them.

Catra’s voice is strained, “Don’t be cute when I’m mad at you.”

“You think I’m cute?” Adora’s voice is only half teasing, her eyes shadowed. 

“I think you’re pretty.” Catra corrects, “Pretty stupid. ”

“Glimmer?”

Glimmer purses her lips. She takes a step forward until she can let her head fall against Adora’s shoulder. The relief that crashed into her is so staggering she chokes on her next breath. A sob is stuck in her chest and it won’t free itself. Everything feels too tense. She feels Adora kiss the top of her head. 

“I was so worried.” Glimmer mumbles. “Do you- no you have to have known what you did. You  hurt us.”

“...I’m sorry.” Adora’s lips move down to her forehead. “I’m so sorry.” 

“Are you?” Catra’s fire is dying down. “If you were sorry you’d have left this place.”

“I can’t.” 

Catra pulls away sharply, her hands retreating to her sides. Her expression is thunderous. Glimmer doesn’t know if she should pull away too. She doesn’t want to let go and keep her head where it is, fisting one hand into Adora’s shirt. 

“You can’t.” Catra repeats scathingly. “Or you won’t?”

Desperation shines in Adora’s eyes. “It’s Swift Wind. He has nowhere to go and I can’t leave or, or he’ll be without care and I can't just leave. ”

“And this Light Hope said ‘block your girlfriends’.” Catra snarked. “That’s it, huh?”

Adora grimaces. “Light Hope is…”

“She hurt you.” Glimmer murmured. 

Andorra pulls away from her. Glimmer doesn't like that. She hates the way Adora frowns in pain, eyes almost closed as she looks to the ground. Her hand rubs her arm in a nervous gesture. 

“She hurt me.” The blonde confirms quietly. 

“It wasn’t Swift Wind.” Glimmer forges on, something stirring in her chest and wanting to scream. “It was Light Hope.”

Adora looks like she just ate something sour, “...Yes.”

Catra returns to them. She grasps Adora’s shoulders frantically, leaning forward until they’re almost touching noses. 

“Adora, leave with us! ” She begs. “We’ll take Swift Wind and find somewhere else for your horse. Will anyone notice a horse at Déjà Brew?”

Glimmer sputters, “Swift Wind won’t fit there.”

“Guys.” Adora is looking at them with that painful expression again. “I can’t. I’m in debt with this place now. I can’t. ”

“We’ll leave the city.” Catra pleads. “We’ll get away from here. Far away.”

“Catra…”

Glimmer shouldn’t open her mouth. She absolutely shouldn’t but her brain is kicking faster than her mouth when she says, “I’ll pay for it. I can cover everything-”

Adora is shaking her head, “No, Glim, you can’t-” 

She fumbles for her wallet. Catra makes a noise of surprise. Glimmer grasps for her mom's business card and shoves it against Adora’s hands. The blonde looks at the print in horror. Judging by Catra’s expression she’s seen it too. Glimmer tried not to let her anxiety show. 

“I’m well off.” She said. “We can get through this together Adora.”

Adora doesn’t take her eyes off the card, “...What?”

“Money isn’t an issue.” Glimmer presses. “We can find somewhere for Swift Wind. It’ll be hard but we can do this but I need you to trust us. ”

Catra is quiet. Adora herself is looking at them like they’d both taken turns swinging clubs at her head. She looks down at the business card once more, her resolve starting to chip. 

“I can’t accept this.” She’s saying breathlessly, “Glim, this is too much.”

“It's a family business.” Glimmer shyly looks away. “Well. Kind of. It’s how my parents met. You know. Business consultant. It’s not. It’s not really, um. It’s whatever.”

Adora nods slowly like she doesn’t understand at all, “Okay.”

“Okay?”

Adora almost nods again then stops. She’s frowning at the card. Catra reaches for Adora’s hand, curling her fingers over the card and holding it close to Adora’s palm. 

“Take it.” She said. “We’re offering you an ‘out’, Adora. Take it. ”

Glimmer waits. Adora’s face is conflicted and sad. Catra is impatiently tugging at her shirt like she could pull the answer out of her. Adora turns the business card over, her thumb brushing over the letters as if it was a precious treasure. 

“Glim, I want-” She starts. 

“Adora?”

Glimmer freezes. Catra draws away so sharply she can see the stable doors again, can see the woman now occupying that space. And she was tall. Adora beat them in height, but this lady was a tower. Glimmer felt her earlier anger flicker to life. From the way Catra’s ears pinned back, she felt it too. 

“Light Hope.” Adora confirmed Glimmer’s suspicions. She sounded tired. “These are...my girlfriends.”

The woman stares at them, her face void of emotion and completely neutral. Glimmer bristles. This is the face Adora talked to every day. This is the woman who hurt her. Catra is already taking a step forward, but Adora catches her elbow before she can go much further.

“Catra, wait-” Adora begs. 

“No way.” Catra snarls, “ No way. I’m punching her lights out.”

“Please don’t.”

Light Hope raises an eyebrow, the action so minuscule Glimmer wouldn’t have caught it if she wasn’t glaring holes into the woman’s head, “I believe I informed you to cut contact with these two. Were my orders not clear?”

Adora looks pale, “I did that. They showed up and-”

“We showed up?” Catra turns her ire on the blonde, “What are we to you?!”

“Catra, please-”

“Adora.” Light Hope’s voice cuts through the argument like a knife. “You will head inside while I call security to escort these two off the premises. Afterward, we’ll need to have a discussion of your failure to meet simple tasks.”

Glimmer doesn’t realize she’s marching for her until Adora’s gripping her arm too. Damn this strength. She wants to wiggle free, but every muscle in her arm is tight with anger. It’s hard to move. She wants to punch something but it won’t be Adora. She’d never forgive herself. 

“You can’t do that!” Catra snarled. “You can’t just keep us from her!”

“Light Hope, please listen.” Glimmer couldn’t see Adora’s face. The whimper on the edge of her words had red coloring her vision. “This is a huge misunderstanding-”

“I believe it is.” Light Hope coldly looked down on them. “I will not repeat myself. If you do not follow these simple requests then I will have no choice but to remove you as well.”

“Requests?” Glimmer bursts incredulously, “ No choice?! You have all the power here! You’re forcing Adora to do something she doesn’t want to, you’re hurting her! You don’t care about her at all you- ”

“Adora.” Light Hope wasn’t even looking at them anymore. “Make your choice.”

Glimmer turns her head to Adora. Her heart stutters in her chest at Adora’s broken expression. Misty blues look at Light Hope in betrayal. 

“After everything, you still… ” Adora chokes out. “Does that mean nothing to you?”

“Outside distractions are meaningless to me.” Light Hope sounded like a robot, Glimmer thought. “If you allow yourself to indulge in them, then I will remove you.”

Adora stands up straight, lightning between her teeth, “ Distractions? Glimmer and Catra are not distractions! I’ve never been happier than when I walked away and met them!” 

Light Hope turns on her, expression furrowing in distaste, “Adora-”

“No!” Glimmer’s heart soars at the venom in Adora’s voice, “You never listen to me! You don’t want to hear about how much better off I am with them than with this place. You’re upset that I’m happy!”

Catra is gaping at her. Glimmer feels awe and pride and happiness as Adora shoulders passed them. She vehemently points up at the taller woman. Even when dwarfed by the other woman’s height, Glimmer thinks she looks a lot like a warrior. 

“You wouldn’t have said this a year ago! You were different back then. You’re only like this because Mara died!”

Light Hope’s face blooms with surprise, reeling back as if Adora had punched her. Glimmer feels an absurd urge to cheer, to leap up and scream in joy. She holds it back. Adora is already turning her back to Light Hope. She doesn’t wait for a response as she marches back to them, grabbing both their hands curtly. 

“C’mon.” Her voice is strained. “Let’s get Swifty and go.”

“Adora.” Catra’s voice is tiny. “Who was-”

“Later.”

“Adora.” Light Hope calls, “You will not be able to return.”

Adora pauses at the doorway. Glimmer watches something flash in those blues. Adora glances at her. Glimmer knows what the look is asking and nods. Without a word, they walk into the stables. 

.

.

Catra is the first to speak.

It’s only after Glimmer’s car comes into view does she say, “You came back.”

Adora just looks exhausted, half leaning against Swift Wind and eyes glued to her feet, “...I never wanted to leave.”

“You won’t have to ever again.” Glimmer promised, bringing their joined hands up to press a kiss to Adora’s palm. “Don’t ever cut us out like that. Please.”

Adora's head drops. The bangs that'd come loose from her ponytail cast her face in shadow, “I never wanted to. I don’t expect forgiveness, but I’m so sorry.”

“Hey.” Catra pulls her off Swift Wind. “Look at me, okay? I’m so mad I could kick you, but I’m so happy right now.”

Adora wilts, “I’m so-”

“Shut up.” Catra snaps. “I’m not going to kick you. Do you know how badass you looked? I couldn’t take my eyes off you. Let me have this.”

And she’s kissing her, claws carefully cupping Adora’s jaw and the blonde melts, wrapping them both tightly into a hug. Glimmer laughs weakly at the awkward fit, letting herself be sandwiched by her two favorite people. She doesn’t have to wait long before she gets her kiss from Adora and soon they’re all leaning against each other, faces close and breathlessly smiling. It's a small relief. She feels better having Adora back and in her arms again. 

“I’m homeless,” Adora announces, apropos of nothing. 

Catra snorts, “Yeah that’s a problem.”

“You can stay at my place.” Glimmer offers around her blush, and then hesitantly tacks on, “I’m not sure about Swift Wind.”

“We’d need a shack or something.” Catra hummed. “Something temporary until we find something better.”

Adora murmured, “This is what I was afraid of.”

Glimmer pauses. An idea so incredibly strange pops into her head and it’s bad, a very bad idea, but it’s something. It’s more than what they have. 

“So,” She drawls, “Is anyone a fan of boats?”

.

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Chapter Text

.

.

“When you said seahorse,” Mermista drawls, “I didn’t think you were making a pun.”

Glimmer shrugs. The docks of Brightmoon were kind of muggy, but the beach smell was refreshing. The cry of seagulls outside could barely be heard over Seahawk revving the engine of his boat and Swift Wind having the time of his life chewing on the sails. Glimmer watched both of them from a safe distance while Mermista reclined in a lounge chair. Her friend was lifting her feet onto a nearby cooler with a sigh. 

“Whatever.” Mermista leans her chin on her fist. “I’m more interested in how you got two girlfriends anyway.”

Glimmer holds out her hand. Mermista makes a face but fetches a bottled tea from the cooler. Glimmer catches it with a smile. 

“You know that really awful night shift I got?”

“Eyegh, ew. ” Mermista grabbed her own drink from the cooler. She somehow made the action more strenuous than it actually was. “Yeah, thanks but, I’ll pass on dropping by to say hi anytime soon.”

“Anyway,” Glimmer wags a finger at her, “I’ll have you know I looked great. They both fell for me.”

“Oh sure.” Mermista raises an eyebrow. “Sleep deprivation sure looks good on you, glitter.”

Glimmer sticks her tongue out. Mermista tsks. “C’mon, Glimmer. I’m not gonna beg for details, just tell me how it happened.”

How it happened? Glimmer’s gaze wanders over to the door. It’s propped open, enough that she can see outside and watch the backs of her girlfriends as they sit side by side. Catra is leaning against Adora’s shoulder, huddling deep into her jacket. Adora is idly kicking her bare feet into the waves below. She can’t see their faces and she can’t hear them whispering. For a moment, she wants nothing more than to rush over and pepper them with kisses. 

“Oh stop please.” Mermista grouses. “Seriously. Put away the gooey eyes.”

“I’m not making gooey eyes.” Glimmer lied. 

“You’re so head over heels it’s kinda gross.”

“Buzz off, Mermista.” Glimmer says without heat, “And if you really have to know...well, it started with a pun-”

“Unbelievable.”

“Shut up and listen.” 

Seahawks singing gets lost in between Catra meeting her for the first time and Adora’s Fizzical Pop blunder and somewhere before the helmet kiss. Mermista is gripping her chair tightly which is as much excitement as she usually shows when things get interesting. Glimmer might have embellished the rocks a bit. 

It’s weird. It feels strange to recount these events like their memories when they only happened in recent days. Fondness follows each one. Each smile. Each gentle touch. Every story on her lips reminds her of Catra’s grin. She wants to find Adora’s arms. More than once Mermista has to snap her fingers to bring her back to the topic. Glimmer can barely talk about the bathtub without feeling her face flame red with embarrassment. 

Mermista is wheezing, “The shower curtain?”

“And it was cute and we kissed and we like each other shut up Mermista stop laughing-”

“Glimmer!” Adora called from outside. “C’mere!”

Mermista was smirking. Glimmer shot her a warning look. She made sure to shut the door behind her as she joined her girls. The change from the cool indoor boathouse to hot sunny beach air made her feel like her skin was roasting. Glimmer grimaced. 

“What’s up?” She tried for casual but ended up sounding grumpy.

Adora had her chin rested on top of Catra’s head. Glimmer faltered, realizing the cat was fast asleep nestled in the blonde’s arms. Her tail curled happily around them. It was so adorable Glimmer’s heart nearly burst from her chest. Adora was beckoning her forward, her voice soft. 

“Stay out here.” She wiggled her fingers in an invitation, “Not for long. I just want...you here. Both of you.”

Glimmer doesn’t melt from the sun. She melts from those earnest tired eyes and the subtle plead in the way the arm doesn’t shake no matter how long it stays up. Strength. Glimmer takes her girlfriend's hand. It feels so good. 

Adora pulls her close. Glimmer is careful around Catra and keeps her toes away from the tail. She scoots as close as she dares, her shoulder brushing Catra’s back as she crouches to join them. Adora’s face breaks into a crooked smile. Glimmer’s heart is doing funny things when her blonde leans forward to rest her cheek against Glimmer’s knee. 

“Hey.” Adora is looking up at her warmly. “I miss you.”

“I was like, ten feet away.” Glimmer tries to frown. It doesn’t work. 

“Too far.” Adora turns her head down to press her lips to Glimmer’s knee and yeah the sun roasting her was the least of her worries. Adora was bound and determined to melt her into the ground. 

Glimmer’s voice is hoarse when she says, “I love you.”

“Mmh.” Adora smiles at her like stealing her heart is just that easy. “I love you too.”

“Loud.”

Glimmer nearly knocks her knee into Adora’s face. Catra’s back is suddenly leaning heavily against her and she loses her balance, crashing to the dock with an omph. Her girlfriend is making sleepy noises into her lap. Glimmer gives her a dry look. 

“Sorry for waking you up.” She flicks an ear. Catra cracks one eye open to grin at her. Glimmer can feel how wet the dock is underneath her and nudges her girlfriend. Catra doesn’t budge. “Move, it’s cold.”

“Boo-hoo.” Catra taunts. “Just stay by me. I’ll keep you warm.”

Adora snorts, “You can’t use my line on her. That’s cheating.”

“You stole Adora’s pick up line?” 

Catra gives Glimmer a grumpy look, “It’s not stealing if we’re dating. It’s sharing. ”

“Mmhm.”

Adora’s moving her legs up out of the ocean and moving to face them. Catra hisses at the water droplets. Glimmer laughs, but the sound gets choked in her throat when Adora puts her legs on either side of them. Glimmer is practically in her lap now. The blonde is giving a cheeky smile. 

Catra says, “Nice thighs.”

“Thanks.” Adora deadpanned at the cat. “I raised them myself.”

Glimmer giggles. Catra’s mismatched eyes are moving back to her. Maybe it’s the sun catching them in its arms. Maybe it’s the ocean spray leaving little diamonds in her hair. It could be the cry of gulls or the creaking of the docks or even-

“I’m in love with you dorks.” Catra twirls the string of Adora’s hoodie. “I can’t stand you. You’re annoying. I really do love that.”

Adora’s expression is heartbroken, “But I-”

“Shush. It’s written all over your face.”

Glimmer makes a confused noise, “What’s going on?”

Catra doesn’t speak. She gives Adora a look. The blonde is wilting underneath it, “I know I apologized I just...I feel bad and, I feel I don’t deserve-”

No. A spark of anger is hurtling through her so fast she can’t catch it. Not happening.

Glimmer reaches across the distance between them and hooks Adora in by her collar, “You don’t get to do that.”

The blonde blinks widely, “Huh?”

“We love you.” Glimmer whispers. “We want you.”

“...I love you too.” Adora’s voice is just as soft, her lips ghosting across Glimmer's like a promise. “I want you too.”

They sit together like that. Glimmer isn’t sure where she ends and where they begin. The salt on the breeze tickles her nose. The oranges of the sky reminded her of the long day they’ve had. She’s relieved but also aware that they need to get home. Adora. In her apartment. Together. Alone. 

Stars above. She closes her eyes tightly. I’m going to die. 

“Can we-” Catra starts then stops. 

“Can we?” Adora leans her head down to Catra. “Can we what?”

“Can we have a sleepover?” Catra rushes out, her ears pinned against her head. “Ugh that sounded- no, Can I- can we-”

Glimmer blinks, “You...want to stay at my place tonight?”

Catra nods into her lap, her bangs hiding her eyes. Glimmer exhales. Love is overwhelming and she wants to take her girlfriend in her arms and never let go. She tries a gentler approach and brushes her hair out of her face. Catra looks up at her shyly. 

“Yes.” Glimmer said. “I’d love that.”

Catra smiles. 

There’s a rustling beside them and Glimmer watches Adora stand. Catra sits up too. They watch the blonde approach the edge of the dock. 

“Adora?” Catra tilts her head, “What's up?”

“I just.” Adora makes a grabbing motion in front of her, “I’ve spent so long listening to her I just-”

“I know.” Catra’s lips form a thin line, “...I know.”

Glimmer lets them stew in the quiet of fading light. She waits, letting her thumb rub circles on the back of Catra’s palm. 

“Who was Mara?”

Adora grumbles, “Who wasn’t Mara? She was...everything. She saved people, she founded a sanctuary for horses, she taught me everything I know, she was…” A pause. A seagull cries but it's far away and lost in ocean spray. “...she shouldn’t have died.”

“What happened?” Catra asked. 

“Car accident.” 

Glimmer winced, “I’m...sorry. You got stuck with Light Hope.”

Adora made a frustrated noise, “Yeah but I could have- all this time I should have known that she was just- just-!”

Catra makes a shushing noise, “Hey calm down. Come back here. We can talk about this.”

Adora doesn’t do that. Glimmer watches as her girlfriend takes a shaky breath and a step away from the edge. She’s reminded of her standing up to Light Hope, of her leaping a fence to save them. A tiger, a warrior. 

“For once,” Adora’s voice is quiet as the breeze, “I want to do what I want.”

And she takes a running leap off the dock. 

“We have to go back to my car! ” Glimmer shrieks. She can’t find it in herself to be that mad, not when Adora surfaces with the brightest laugh she's ever heard from the blonde. It's a noise so sweet it steals her breath away. Adora looks good and, yeah, she can understand the phrase dripping with good looks. Catra is laying on the docks, her arms draped over the edge to playfully swat at their girl. Adora splashes them back.

“Adora!” Catra snaps, bristling. Adora splashes her again. “Hey, quit it!”

“Kitty doesn’t like water?” The blonde taunts. 

Catra’s face is very red, “Don’t call me that!”

Glimmer feels devious as she reaches down for the ocean and tosses a handful Catra’s way. She’s rewarded with a swat. Glimmer’s too busy laughing to care. 

“You two are the worst.”

“What can I say,” Adora floats away from them, “I’ve found my porpoise in life.”

Catra made a disgusted noise. Glimmer felt nothing but delight. Adora was learning puns. This day couldn't get any better. She happily replied, “Long time no sea.”

Adora gave her a look like she wanted to scoop her up and spin her. It made Glimmer smile wider, even if Catra was groaning in pain beside them. She felt content. She wanted to keep teasing Catra and watch Adora smile over and over again. This day was awful but so wonderful. Her head felt cloudy in a good way. She loved this. She never wanted to let this go. 

"Come on in." Adora was goading Catra. "The waters fine."

"I think I like the view from here." Catra sniped, the words sharp but smooth. The flirtation was clear. Adora was grinning like a sunset. 

“Seriously.” Glimmer hears Mermista nearby, “if she makes a catfish pun I’m so leaving.”

Glimmer laughs.

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

The drive was somber. 

Glimmer kept glancing at her mirrors. Catra’s face reflected in her rearview mirror, leaning heavily against the back seat with a frown across her face. Her hair was still damp. A small towel was wrapped around her shoulders. Glimmer would comment she looked cute, if the silence didn’t have a reason. 

Adora sat in her passenger seat. In one hand she held her phone and the other the business card. Her voice was quiet as she went through phone call after phone call. She still had a debt to be paid. Glimmer didn’t like the silence. She hated the tired expression on Adora’s face more. A tiny part of her felt she should be paying more attention to these conversations. It was her family's business after all. She let herself be too distracted by the way Adora's hair looked while wet. 

Catra’s apartment was a welcome sight. It meant the silence could be broken and that Adora, finally, could take a break. The blonde pocketed her phone, water still shining in her eyelashes. Catra was leaning into the space between them before Glimmer could act, draping her towel over Adora’s head. 

“You can wait here if you want,” Catra mumbled. “But don’t get my carpet wet.”

Adora cracked a small smile. 

Catra’s apartment was the same as remembered. The TV was on, a low background hum as Catra left them in the living room to collect her things. After a moment a familiar cat made her appearance. 

“Melog.” Glimmer crouched for the kitten. It was funny how quickly Adora copied the action. Both of them had the cat walking between their hands, brushing her head against their knuckles and her tail dragging along their arms. It’s what Catra finds when she returns with a suitcase in hand.

“My cat stole my girlfriends.” She remarks dryly. 

“Melog takes care of us better.” Glimmer teases. 

Catra’s face twitches. Glimmer can barely keep a straight face when Catra grumpily scoops Melog up, eyeing the both of them in betrayal. Adora pouts at the loss of the cat in her arms. 

“I can’t tell if you’re jealous or funny.” Glimmer comments.

“Of my cat? Really?”

“I’m jealous,” Adora said. 

“No one asked you.” Catra poked Adora’s forehead. “ My cat. You’ve got a horse.”

That was the wrong thing to say. Glimmer winces as Adora’s expression deflates. The day's events start to catch up and she just feels tired. She can see it reflected in her girls faces. Catra opens her mouth, closes it, and leans forward to wrap one around the blonde. 

Adora starts, “Catra it’s okay-”

“Get rid of that mopey look on your face,” Catra mutters. “Seriously. We got you, Adora. Nothing bad will happen.”

Adora hesitates. Glimmer doesn’t let the moment go. She takes a step forward and uses both arms to drag her girlfriends into a hug. There’s a small complaint from Melog that’s barely heard over her girls giving her startled looks. She laughs quietly 

“You two are cute and I love you but,” Glimmer giving them a helpless smile, “We’re tired. Let’s go home.”

It’s adorable the varying degrees of embarrassment on both of their faces. Glimmer fights down her own blush, play it cool, and leads them back to her car.

“Got everything?”

“Yeah.” Catra snaps the trunk closed over her suitcase. “I want to sleep.”

Adora makes a pitiful noise of agreement. Catra playful shoves her and they both end up in a tussle in the back seat. 

“I’ll turn this car around.”

“Mom, stop by-” Catra is trying to say but Adora isn’t done and she ends up with an elbow in her mouth, “I’m going to kill you!” 

“Aww.” Adora coos, more lively than before. Glimmer doesn’t bring attention to it. She doesn’t want Adora back on the phone again. Not with that fractured expression across her face. “I’m being threatened. You’re so adorable.”

Catra hisses. 

The drive is chaotic. 

Glimmer laughs when Catra starts talking about her job. About the wacky teens who can really dance or the few couples who ended up embarrassing themselves. Adora tosses in a tidbit about the stables, little moments that were funny where someone slipped and fell. Glimmer talked about Bow.

“Oh, yeah, you’ve mentioned him.” Adora is perking up. “When can we meet him?”

Glimmer blinks, “You want to meet Bow? He’s really busy so it’d have to be...evenings. Or early, like, Déjà Brew early.”

Catra groans, sinking into her seat, “Why? I want to sleep.”

“Not tonight,” Adora says, but she looks disappointed. “He’s your best friend though, right? I want to meet him.”

Glimmer smiles, “Of course you can. He’s nuts about you two, he’s always asking about my day.”

Catra’s face is red when she says, “Fine. Evening though. I’m sleeping in.”

“Of course,” Adora smirks. “Grumpy kitty.”

“I’m going to scratch you.”

“Aw. Kitty fingers- ow.”

“...She did warn you.”

“...yeah.”

.

.

Glimmer kicks her door closed behind her. 

She barely has to look at the mess of her living room to remember she hadn’t planned on guests, one of which would now be permanent. There was a sleeping situation that needed to be fixed, she needed to check the pantry and, did she have rules? Normal people have apartment rules. Did she have those?

She stares blankly at her clothes scattered on the couch. 

Catra says, “Nice shirt.” and steals it. 

Glimmer feels her face catch on fire. She wishes she’d seen which shirt was captured because any clothes she has she’s picturing Catra in and, okay, okay, okay. She takes a deep breath. She could survive this night. 

“Where should we put our stuff?” Adora asks, looking around curiously.

“Oh. Uh. Here…”

She’s painfully aware of how tiny her apartment is. She has a living room, a bathroom, a kitchen, a closet, a small room for laundry that can also pass as a closet, and her room. There’s no guest room. It’s just that and her grimacing as she opens her bedroom door.

“Um-” She starts and falters. She doesn’t know what to say. 

Her room is messy as well, but it’s less chaotic than outside. Bow’s textbooks are scattered across her desk, her computer is open on a webpage about puns, and her bed has been made. One of the pillows is on the ground. It’s what Adora picks up, eyeing the bed skeptically. 

“Glimmer…” She trails off.

“There’s one bed.” Catra said. 

Glimmer knows what Mister Premium feels like. Burning hot and dying. She can’t hide her face and feels both of them staring at her. She couldn’t force Adora out onto the couch. This was a huge oversight and she was absolutely going to die. 

“I can take the couch.” Glimmer stammers. “It’s fine, just, don’t worry-”

Adora makes a wounded noise, “I’m not going to kick you out of your own bed, Glim.”

“I don’t mind the couch.” Catra is saying. Her ears are flat and she’s looking at the bed like it might steal something from her. “Yeah, I’m cool with that.”

“But-”

“It’s a big bed.” Adora points out. 

Silence. 

Glimmer’s heart is doing fast loops on a roller coaster labeled did I just hear that? She swallows down the urge to burst into tears and hysterically call someone, probably Bow for emotional advice. Past her was thinking girlfriends when she invited them over. Past her was not thinking sharing a bed. 

She’s going to die. 

“It…” Catra looks like she’s being held at gunpoint. “It is a big bed.”

Adora gives them a look of despair, “Want to...camp out in the living room? Is it okay if we leave our stuff here?”

“Yes!” Glimmer bursts out. She’s relieved someone found a solution. She fully ignores the disappointment that’s riding on the tail end of that. “Yes, that works. We can watch a movie.”

Catra relaxes, “...yeah. I’d like that.”

The next half an hour is quiet. It’s them taking turns changing in Glimmer’s room, taking a shower to get the sea smell off, and one by one finding their way to the living room. Her girlfriends had insisted she goes first, so Glimmer takes it upon herself to get movie snacks prepared. She drags a few blankets out and smiles when Catra reveals a familiar blanket she’d brought with her. 

“Snagged it.” She smiles, laying the stars across the floor. “Brings back memories, huh?”

“Should I put on the lame movie too?” Glimmer quips. “Maybe talk about billboards?”

Catra’s face blooms red, “Shut up.”

Catra was wearing sweats and, Glimmer realized, her shirt. The big oversized one that had a frowny face on the front. When Adora emerged from the shower, she had shorts and a tank top. She almost immediately went digging for a big sweater to throw herself into. Glimmer found the whole thing cute. 

“Popcorn?” Adora asks when she crawls onto the blankets beside them. 

Glimmer hands her the bowl. Catra, between them, snatches a handful. There are a few playful swipes between them that Glimmer ducks from just to be able to start the movie. Romance, she had decided, because she was smitten and nothing was better than watching her girls react. 

It’s Adora leaning her chin on her knees, watching the screen with soft eyes. It’s Catra, her arms twining around Glimmer’s waist as she tries to feign complete disinterest with the movie by burying her face into Glimmer’s shoulder. Glimmer could almost pretend she was asleep if the little ear flicks didn’t give her away. 

The movie wasn’t action-packed or dramatic. It was a simple story of two falling in love. One bought the other flowers. Glimmer swooned. 

“That’s cheesy,” Catra grumbled, completely giving herself away. 

Adora’s shoulder brushed hers, “I thought you were asleep.”

“Ugh. As if I can sleep with that on.”

Glimmer snorts, “You can’t get mad at someone for confessing with flowers when you-”

“Shut up.”

“When you confessed with-”

“Shut up. ”

Adora’s eyes were wide, “I understand the billboard joke.”

“Shut up!” Catra uses a pillow to smack Glimmer and she laughs, turning the weapon into her own blanket. Catra looks miffed about it. She curls up on top of the pillow, Glimmer’s lap becoming her new spot. Adora ends up resting her head against Catra’s hips. A purr rumbled in the air. It feels like a lullaby. 

The low hum of the TV and the distance voices make her eyes droop. Glimmer blinks heavily, leaning her head against the couch and sighing. Her ceiling looks down at her and she doesn’t know what to do. There’s a feeling of contentedness mixed in with a feeling of too many steps back up.

“Do you think we’re moving too fast?” She asks. 

Adora looks at her, blue eyes a glow in the darkness, “What do you mean?”

“Relationship.” 

Catra hums into her shirt, “I like it.”

“You do?”

A nod. Adora gazes down at Catra consideringly. After a moment's hesitation, she leans over and presses a kiss to the top of her head. Catra’s ears flick. 

“Why?” Glimmer asks curiously. 

Catra hums, “...cause we’d still be dancing around each other and using stupid metaphors.”

“I think it’s cute.” Adora protested. “The, uh, the metaphors.”

“Can we drop the billboard serious I’m going to-”

Glimmer laughs, “No one brought it up. Are you okay?”

Catra peers up at her, face red and grumpy, “Neither of you two pulled something like that. If we want to be counting this stuff, that means I’m in the lead.”

Adora looks bewildered, “In the lead?”

“How do we count this?” Glimmer asks.

Catra just turns her head away, “Dunno. Be romantic and gross, I guess.”

Glimmer opens her mouth and hesitates. She isn’t sure she wants to talk about it. But her heart is warm over an embarrassed Catra and she thinks, why not it’s cute. She clears her throat. 

“Do you know what a catmint is?”

.

.

Bravery is weird. 

It’s realizing the floor is uncomfortable and no matter how closely they cuddle together the ground is still flat. The blankets make it better but she can already feel her back forming a knot over the awkward position. An elbow or a leg bumps her as they all try to find comfortable positions. It’s long after the movie is over that they give each other exhausted looks. 

“...the bed is big.” Adora points out meekly. 

In the dark, Catra’s ears go flat again. Glimmer soothes her hand over her girlfriends back. She can’t think of anything to say. She just wants to sleep. She can barely keep her eyes open. Embarrassment is tickling her nerves but the heaviness pulling at her limbs has her yawning out a yeah. 

“Really?” Catra whispers. “We’re going to sleep together?”

Adora chokes, “No, just, just sleeping- ”

“That’s what I meant!” Catra snaps, her own voice rising shrilly. Glimmer winces at the volume. They sit in awkward silence, neither of them ready to speak. Adora is deflating in her spot and Glimmer is almost resigned to die on the floor. 

Catra grumbles, “Are you sure your bed is big enough?”

Glimmer hides her face against the couch lest she screams, “I hate that question. Yes. It’s...it’s just. Us.”

“Just us,” Adora confirms like she just did a sweep of the apartment herself. “We don’t, um, we don’t have to if you don’t want to-”

“No.” Catra sighs. “It’s whatever. It’s just you two. I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

A small mhm and they were awkwardly clambering to their feet. Glimmer sways and Catra’s arms around her shoulders, a tsk following the movement. Glimmer smiles despite herself and lets herself be led to bed. It’s embarrassing, to open her door and for them to hover there like it’s sacred ground. They giggle quietly to themselves and a few playful pokes end up with them collapsing onto her comforter in fits of laughter. Glimmer felt ridiculous. 

“We’re kind of dumb.” Adora points out. 

“Shut up and move over. I can’t stand you.” Catra makes a threatening motion. Adora waves her hand dismissively and gets a pillow to the head for that. Glimmer is laughing and they end up acting like silly teenagers huddled together in bed, shoulders touching and legs tangled as they share funny pictures on their phones. 

It’s where Glimmer starts to nod off, her head leaning against Catra’s chest. She feels her girlfriend shaking with laughter at a video Adora is showing her. There’s quiet, breathless giggles brushing the top of her head, Adora whispers something, and more giggling. 

My catmints, She thinks and falls asleep. 

.

.

She wakes up to three things. 

The first is her computer practically wailing. She accidentally left it on last night and it was humming so loudly she almost mistook it for her dryer. The second was Catra. Her girlfriend was cuddling her, her nose buried into pink hair, and breathing peace. Glimmer was entirely trapped on both sides, her own face pressed against Adora’s shoulder. The blonde looked like she was having the best sleep of her life. It made Glimmer swoon and press a lazy morning kiss to the bare skin in front of her. 

The last thing she noticed was her phone lit up against her cheek. She grimaced at the tiny bit of drool that’d happened, fishing her phone out and rubbing her sore cheek. The time told her it was early in the morning. She could go back to sleep if she wanted to. The sun was barely up. Except she couldn’t sleep. She doubts she would be able to after reading the notification on her phone. 

(1) missed call from Mom

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Chapter Text

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.

She has a roommate. 

Glimmer, while carefully ignoring anything related to her phone, fawns over this for a whole ten minutes. She's lying in bed ( her bed! ) with her girlfriends and both are asleep. Both are cutely tucked into her ( hers!! ) covers with the added bonus of being held in both their arms. Her heart is singing. She doesn't know if she wants to cry or scream. 

Adora yawns. It's a tiny thing coupled with a soft, quiet noise. She's blinking one eye open. It's the healthiest she's looked in weeks. 

Yeah, Glimmer watches her blonde fondly, I might cry. 

“Glim.” Adora murmurs, “Mornin’.”

“Morning.” Glimmer smiles. “Sleep well?”

Adora ducks her head, blonde hair tickling Glimmer’s nose as she finds herself tugged into a fierce hug. Glimmer squeaks, a laugh bubbling out her lips. 

“Adora-?”

“Thank you.”

Glimmer went silent. She can see the sunlight streaming through her curtains, can see the rays as they sliver along her bed. Her head is warm with sleep and her heart melts when Adora’s arms tighten around her. 

“I’m really-” Adora makes an aborted noise, something between a hiccup and a sob, “I’m really happy I met you.”

“Shhh.” Glimmer hushed, her fingers running through blonde strands of sunlight. Her brain still felt foggy with sleep. She couldn’t bring herself to feel sad or worried. She felt too happy. In love. “Shhh, we’re right here.”

“I know.”

“We love you.”

A small whimper. Glimmer feels the body behind her shift until messy brunette hair is brushing her neck. Catra’s sighing against the skin there and it sends tingles down Glimmer’s spine. 

“Who’s cryin’.” She mumbles.

“No one,” Adora said.

“Adora.” Glimmer snitches. 

“Mmph.” Catra’s arm lazily pulls them closer, snaking up to brush Adora’s jaw. “Stop that. We handled it.”

“...yeah.” Blue eyes close and lean against Catra’s palm, “...yeah. Thank you.”

“Love you too.”

Glimmer tilts her head until her forehead is resting against Adora’s, “We got you. Don’t worry about anything.”

Her brow was furrowing, “But rent-”

“Handled.”

“I need a new job-”

“You have time.”

Adora makes a frustrated noise, “I don’t want to do nothing.”

“Relax.” Catra is sitting up, a yawn revealing fangs. “You’ve got time. Besides, if you start freaking out now you’re just going to stress Glimmer out.”

Adora deflates. 

Glimmer smiles, “It may be tough, but we’ve got each other.”

“Okay, too sappy.” Catra’s kicking off the covers. “I’m making breakfast.”

Adora gets up and scrambles after her. Catra yells as they collide in the doorway and end up tussling to the floor, laughing in a breathless mess. Glimmer watches them fondly as her phone vibrates on her hip. 

(2) missed calls from Mom

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.

“Oatmeal.”

“You’re a disgusting monster.”

Adora pouted, “There’s nothing wrong with oatmeal.”

Catra was making a face into the pantry. Her tail flicked as a few bowls joined the counter in front of her. Glimmer’s feet took her to one of the stools, her head dropping onto the cool marble and sighing blissfully. Adora was sitting on the counter beside her, a yogurt cup held in her hand. She was trying to read the label. 

“Blueberry?”

“I thought you liked the flavor.” Glimmer muttered.

Catra makes a frustrated noise, “Glim do you seriously have piss cereal here.” and pulled out a Captain Blueberry box.

Adora choked. 

“I just-” Glimmer raised her head to defend herself, embarrassment hot on her cheeks, before giving up and letting her head fall back down, “Nevermind. Throw it out, it tasted awful anyway.”

“I’ll take it.” Adora offered.

Catra threw it away. 

“Or not.” 

Glimmer rubbed her face, “Bow is off class at four today. We have all morning if you guys want to just…”

Cuddle, she wants to say but holds her tongue. Catra is grudgingly making oatmeal and grumbling about it. Adora tilts her head to look at her, considers her, and then offers the yogurt. 

“Thanks.” Glimmer says meekly and buries her face in her arms. 

(3) missed calls from Mom

.

.

Adora was in the shower when Catra threw a movie into the TV. Glimmer had to explain the wonky disc and how it’ll spit it out like an ugly dollar if she didn’t put it in right. Catra took that as her cue to jam it in there and now it was stuck. The frilly princess movie that was definitely for kids was what they were stuck with. 

Annoyed, Catra claimed Glimmer’s lap as her pillow and turned her head away. 

“It’s not going to kill you to watch.” Glimmer commented. 

“They’re yelling princess attacks- is this anime?”

“No.” Glimmer pauses as the protagonist yells something dramatic, “Maybe.”

Catra snickers, the noises muffled against her thigh. Glimmer’s heart does little loops at the noise. Her hand is already reaching forward, carding through short hair and dancing around Catra’s ears. A delightful hum comes from her girlfriend. 

Adora appears, toweling her hair with a sigh. She says, “I really hate this.” and falls face-first onto the carpet. Glimmer feels like she should be worried, but the groaning noises coming from the blonde was something else.

“What is it now?’ Catra grumbles equally muffled into Glimmer’s legs. 

“I’m overthinking.” 

“Stop.” Glimmer chides. “Come over here. It’s comfy.”

Adora complies. She climbs up onto the couch with the will and strength of someone dying, curling up beside Catra with a heavy sigh. The dramatics were kind of adorable. Catra did not share her opinion.

“You're dripping on me.” She complained, pushing her foot against Adora’s leg. “Gross, go dry your hair.”

“I did dry it.”

Catra hisses, “Not with a towel you-”

“I have a hairdryer.” Glimmer volunteers. It’s hard to sound serious around her grin. “I mean. I don’t mind this look either.” She pauses. That was definitely a flirt. Adora’s expression looked a cross between wildly confused and embarrassed. She touched a strand of blonde hair hesitantly. 

“Wet hair is sexy?” She whispers like she’s talking to herself.

Catra sputters, leaning away from Glimmer to size Adora up. “What?”

Adora looks at Catra. She purses her lips and says, “Showers free.”

Glimmer snorts a laugh, covering her mouth. Catra’s lips are twitching like she doesn’t know whether to smile or frown. It was the vaguest flirt she’s ever heard, but it was charming in its own right. Adora preened. 

“Guess I’m going to be the superior one today.” She announced before saying, “Is that anime?”

“Oh my god, shut up. ” Catra groused, but she was leaning against Adora to hide her laughter. The blonde roped her in with on hand, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. The sight was too soft. Glimmer’s heart was melting. 

“My apartment.” She says, “I’m superior always.”

Her girlfriend's outraged expressions were too good. 

(4) missed calls from Mom

.

.

“It’s not Déjà Brew.”

Glimmer looks into her coffee cup. All coffee is coffee, at least to her. She’s been with Mister Premium for...three weeks now? Four weeks? She was getting close to a month on the job and the color and taste were still the same as any other place she goes to. She can’t tell the difference. 

Adora is making a face at her cup, “It’s not the same.”

“Grow up.” Catra nurses her orange juice unironically. “It’s not that bad, right?”

The last part is aimed at Glimmer. Glimmer shrugs, “It tastes the same.”

“See?”

Adora sighs, “But Glimmer didn’t make it.”

Glimmer is almost taking a sip. Her breath comes out too quickly and she ends up with coffee splattered on her lips. She wipes it off with her sleeve, giving her girlfriend an incredulous look. 

“I don't even make good coffee.” 

Catra is looking at the cup consideringly, “No. Adora might have a point, no matter how sappy it sounds.”

“Thanks.” Adora says, taking another sip and grimacing, “I don’t know. It just felt better, you know? Like when Catra made breakfast. It tasted good.”

Catra looks away, “It was just oatmeal.”

“It was kind of gross.” Glimmer admits cheekily. She gets swatted for it. 

They move out of the deli they stopped at, Catra falling behind to pick up a croissant for the road. They all climb into Glimmer’s car and lounge in varying states of tiredness and drinking coffee or in Catra’s case, messing with the radio. 

“Don’t let Adora touch it.” She says. 

“It was one time,” Adora grumbles. “Country isn’t bad.”

Glimmer almost chokes on her drink again, “Really?”

Catra leans against Adora’s seat, her tone a mix of fondness and exasperation, “I’m glad it wasn’t your truck. I totally left my lunch wrappers in there.”

Adora looks delighted, “You did?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh, good.” She’s beaming. “Good good.”

Catra stares, “What?”

“That was Light Hope’s truck.”

Glimmer laughs so hard she almost drops her cup in her lap. 

(5) missed calls from Mom

.

.

They meet Bow on campus. 

There’s a small cafe there. It’s closed after 11 AM, but the tables aren’t closed off from campus. The music from the cafe is calming and there's a faint smell of something warm in the air. It’s where they find Bow, some vending machine coffee on the table, and his textbooks right beside it. He’s grinning and waving. 

“Glimmer! Hey, Glimmer, over here!”

“I see you Bow!” She calls back, laughing a little at his antics. 

It's a table for four. Bow is clearing his books a little for her to sit. Adora sits on his other side with a sheepish hello. Catra is quiet across from them. 

"How was class?" 

Bow rubs the back of his head with a weary grin, "I actually couldn't focus. I was too excited to pay attention."

Adora is fidgeting, "I'm, then I'm guessing Glimmer told you about us…"

"Oh has she?" Bow is practically beaming, "She's always messaging me about you two and about-"

"Bow!" 

He laughs.

Catra is quiet. 

"What classes are you taking?" Adora asks kindly. 

"Oh right now it's…"

Glimmer keeps half an ear on the conversation. Catra's expression is guarded as she leans back in her cheer. She's adopted an air of boredom. It's too casual. Too quiet. 

At least Adora and Bow are hitting it off? Glimmer looks at the two. Adora is looking less uncomfortable and more at ease, a smile climbing higher on her face the more she talks to Bow. Bow is looking starry-eyed and happy.

"I can bring a plus one." He's saying with barely contained excitement. "Since I'm paying for a monthly subscription." 

"Is that okay?" Adora asks worriedly. 

"Of course!" He's fishing his phone out. "It's kind of lonely working out by myself. It'd be fun! Plus they're twenty-four hours." 

Adora is hesitantly offering her own phone, a shy smile forming on her face, "Okay."

“Catra?” He’s turning to her. Bow is perspective and his smile turns gentler like he’s coaxing out a scared animal, “I’d like your number too.”

Catra hesitates and cautiously fumbles with her own, “Sorry. I was spacing out.”

Bow brightens, “Don’t worry about it. I heard you guys had a crazy day yesterday.”

“Tell me about it.” Glimmer grumbles. 

They chat quietly for the next half an hour. Catra’s expression is pinched like she wants to enjoy it but can’t. Glimmer frets. It was going well and Bow didn’t seem bothered but-

Adora tilts her head and asks, “Catra? You okay?”

“I’m fine.” She grumbles. “Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize.” Bow eased. “It’s just nice to meet you!”

Catra’s face looks pained for a moment. She slowly nods. Glimmer wants to reach forward and grab her hand but isn’t sure how well she’d take that. Her girlfriend relaxes over time, Bow’s and Adora’s voices becoming a nice background hum. Glimmer takes a sip of her coffee. 

“Thanks for…” Catra falters, “...thanks for inviting us out, Bow.”

Bow blinks at her, a surprised smile appearing, “Anytime Catra!”

Glimmer texts Adora in her lap.

Glimmer: she’s cute when she’s shy

Adora: I know

Glimmer glances up. Adora is smiling. Across the table, so is Catra.

(6) missed calls from Mom

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.

Glimmer waits till they’re in the parking lot for Déjà Brew to bring it up. Catra’s motorcycle is still there since yesterday, thankfully unbothered. Adora is happily humming to the beat of the radio. Glimmer parks the car and turns it off. 

“Catra,” She starts off as cool as she can but ends up sounding unsure, “you okay?”

Catra sighs from the backseat, “I’m guessing I can’t tell you to drop it, huh?”

“Bow noticed.” She said.

Adora said, “I noticed.”

“Yeah, I bet the whole world noticed.” Catra snaps. She winces, “Ugh, sorry. I’m not good with people.”

Glimmer taps on the steering wheel, “...why’s that?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does to me.” Adora turns in her seat to look at Catra, brows furrowed in concern, “It does to us. Is this why you wear sunglasses all the time?”

Glimmer glances at Adora in surprise. 

Catra looks defeated, “Look. I just really don’t trust people I don’t know, but you know Bow and... he’s really nice so…”

“This is why you didn’t tell me your name.” Glimmer realized. “Catra, what happened?”

Her girlfriend looks away.

“Is it about the Fright Zone?”

Catra grimaces. Adora makes a curious noise, “I’ve heard of that city. What about it?”

Glimmer waits. Catra’s gaze is out the window, cold and distant and different then tentative shyness she’d shown earlier. Letting down walls and letting a new friend close to her. Glimmer is almost proud. She reminds herself to thank Bow for being patient. He’s always patient, but she didn’t have a clue that it was something serious. 

I need to look up the Fright Zone when I get home, she thinks and then adds softly, when we get home.

Adora. Roommate. Right.

“I’ll tell you later.” Catra whispers, “Promise.”

“...okay.” Adora agrees, equally as soft, “Take your time, okay? If it’s that hard to talk about it’s no rush.”

“Yeah.” Glimmer adds. “You know where to find both of us now.”

Catra cracks a small smile at that, “I like that.”

Glimmer smiles and accepts the kiss Catra gives her. She gives one to Adora before climbing out of the car, tossing a wave over her shoulder. Glimmer watches her go and swoons. Beside her, Adora is messing with the radio again.

“Glim, your phone has been blowing up all day.” She notes.

“Ignore it.” Glimmer turns on the car. “Not important.”

(7) missed calls from Mom

.

.

Glimmer: hey guys

Catra: adora lives with you knucklehead

Glimmer: okay

Glimmer: I’m at WORK

Adora: I’m not sleeping

Catra: I can feel how guilty that message is

Catra: did you take a nap

Adora: yes

Catra: good

Glimmer: guys

Catra: right

Adora: what is it?

Glimmer: How would you guys feel about meeting my mom?

.

.

Chapter Text

.

.

“Glimmer, you’re a disappointment.”

Glimmer made a face at Mister Premium, “Mom, just listen, okay? I promise you’ll love them.”

“Why should I? You haven’t answered any of my calls.”

Glimmer testily put the lid on a coffee cup, “I know Mom, I was nervous! I’ve never had such a good relationship before! Or, ever!”

“Glimmer, I want you to break up with them.”

Glimmer set the cup on the counter angrily, “Well too bad! I love them and I’m happy with them unlike how you were with dad!”

She paused. She ran her words over her head and meekly said, “Maybe I shouldn’t bring up my parent's divorce when talking about my girlfriends.”

Mister Premium offered no advice. 

With a heavy exhale, Glimmer took a sip of her coffee. Deja Brew was in its early hours. Her phone sat in front of her, happily informing her of another missed call and a wall of texts courtesy of panicked girlfriends.

Catra: so we're like, meeting her meeting her

Adora: what

Catra: glims mom!

Adora: yes. whenever glim gets off work 

Catra: ya but 

Catra: what does she like??

Glimmer: guys calm down. she's super chill

I hope she's chill. Glimmer eyes her phone nervously. She was an adult. She could handle her mother, angry or not. Please be chill. 

Catra: just keep us updated

Catra: Im making food

Glimmer: for my mom??

Catra: no for the moon landing 

Adora: what 

Catra: YES FOR GLIMS MOM

Adora: aw how cute

Glimmer closed the conversation. Her girls were fine. She had a more pressing matter. Her phone laid accusingly in front of her. With a deep breath, she grabbed it and dialed a number. 

It rang only once. 

"Glimmer?" 

Glimmer has a lot of words on her tongue. She prepared for this. Hey mom is followed by a few now I know you’re angry and I have a very good explanation please listen. All of it kind of fizzled at her mom's voice. When was the last time she’d heard her? 

Four weeks. Glimmer realized. When I got my new job. 

“Glimmer?” Her mom’s voice, anxious and hopeful, “Are you there?”

“H-Hey...mom….”

“Glimmer!” There’s a rush of static on the other line, “Are you alright?! I haven’t heard from you, are you safe? Did something happen?”

“No, no.” Glimmer stuttered, her heart beating a rhythm of guilt and newfound realizations. “I’m sorry I didn’t call, I just, I’ve been very busy with something that, uh, came up…”

She winced. That sounded weaker than what she intended. Her mom makes a confused noise, “Glimmer, what on earth could have stopped you from calling me if it wasn’t serious?” And then softer, “Were you...ignoring me?”

“Yes! No. No, I was, I wasn’t-” She drags a hand down her face. “I’m sorry, I was scared.”

Her mom sounds wounded, “Glimmer, you don’t ever have to be afraid to call me. I’m always here to listen to you.”

Glimmer inhales. It was now or never. She couldn’t bail out without letting her girlfriends know she was a coward. This was important. 

“Mom, I have a girlfriend.” She weakly gives Mister Premium a peace sign, “Two of them.”

If there were crickets, they would be having a field day with the silence on the line. 

Glimmer rushed to explain herself. 

“So you know how I run the graveyard shift so I met this girl, right? Early, like mega early, she was so sleep-deprived, I’m going to die? No, uh, and then waiting for Bow to come around another girl shows up and I’m like, she’s pretty. Pretty cool! Pretty. Uh and we started hanging out, the three of us, numbers and stuff, and we talked and held hands and now we’re dating.”

Silence. 

Glimmer was about ready to introduce her head to the counter when her mom tentatively spoke up, “Are these girls...nice?”

“Yes! Yes.” She could salvage this. “Their names are Adora and Catra. I really like them mom and they really want to meet you.”

“Oh.” She can imagine her mom blinking in surprise, “Oh, I’d love to meet them Glimmer. We could set a time up-”

“Uh, actually…” Glimmer winced, “I kind of promised them today?”

An exasperated sigh, “Of course. I have a meeting today, but I’m free this evening for dinner.”

“When’s the meeting?”

“Three o ‘clock.”

Glimmer fist-pumped, “We’ll show up around then! Promise, you’re going to love them.”

“Alright.” A smile in her voice, “Now you have to tell me what you’ve been up to. How is the new job? Is it fitting you better?”

Glimmer allowed herself to relax, giving Mister Premium a little pat, “It’s going great mom. Let me tell you about this one time…”

.

.

“I don’t know about this.”

“Catra.” Glimmer did not look behind her. The road was busy with rush hour traffic and if she even glanced in the rearview mirror she’d probably end up killing everyone in the car. “She said yes! She wants to meet you guys.”

Her girlfriend was shifting nervously. Over the air conditioner, the music from the radio, and Adora playing Space Candy she could hear Catra’s anxiety as loud as day. She tapped the steering wheel so her hand doesn’t end up trying to migrate to her girlfriends. 

Catra sighs, “Yes, sparkles, I know.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Isn’t it a bit soon?” She asked, “Not that I’m bursting with excitement, but we’ve barely been dating for a week.”

“A week and a half,” Adora said without looking up.

Glimmer catches a flash of a grumpy look in the mirror, “Since when have you kept track of time?”

Without missing a beat, Adora says, “Date night.”

Glimmer snorts. Catra is quiet for a bit before making a defeated noise into the seat cushion. 

“This is going to suck.”

“Stop being pessimistic.” Glimmer chided. “It’s my mom. Sure, I thought she was going to yell at me until I melted from her helicopter parenting, but she didn’t! She’s cool! It’s fine!”

She was not gripping the steering wheel tightly.

Catra muttered, “You think so too.”

A red light gave her the perfect opportunity to change her mirror. She didn’t need to see cars anyway. She tilted it down to see Catra’s scowl.

"I never grew up with parents." Her girlfriend ducked her head. Glimmer fought down the amusement of only seeing her ears in the mirror. "I don't know how mothers are supposed to be."

Adora tilted her to look back at her. Glimmer desperately wanted to do the same. 

"I had Mara." Adora admits after a long moment, "And I guess Razz."

"Razz?"

"Kinda like my grandma. She gets spooked when I show up. I guess she isn't used to how tall l am." 

Glimmer cleared her throat, "Catra? You don't need to be afraid of my mom." 

"I don't know how not to be afraid of moms," Catra muttered.

Glimmer didn't ask. She kept her lips sealed as they pulled off the road. The parking lot was difficult to move around in. The familiar building of her family business stood bright and proud and swamped with cars. She kept half her focus on the lookout for an open spot.

"Think of it like an...ology." 

"A what."

"A branch of knowledge." Glimmer tried to smile at her rearview mirror. "No one is fluent in momology. I'm probably more scared of my mom than you, but I trust her and love her with my whole being."

An ear flicked in the mirror. "Not really helping sparkles."

"I think what Glimmer is saying," Adora says, "is that it's okay to be scared, but you're going to be okay. Does that make sense?"

"Won't let anything bad happen to you." Glimmer vows. She felt kind of cheesy saying it out loud. She half expected Catra to snark at her. 

She wasn't expecting a breathy, "yeah." and complete silence. 

For the three minutes she looked for a parking spot, it was the loudest silence she's ever felt.