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The second Adora lays eyes on the enormous stuffed cat, she decides she is going to win it for Catra.
The booth is run by a bored-looking Erelandian girl who sucks on a lollipop as she stares at her phone. Behind her is a table on which stand hundreds of tiny cups, most of them white with a handful of blue and red and green ones scattered amongst them. Above her hang five enormous stuffed animals: a cat, a bear, a dog, a mouse, and a lizard, each of them ridiculously adorable and soft-looking with stupidly cute enormous and definitely anatomically-incorrect eyes.
Adora throws the cotton candy unceremoniously at Glimmer and runs to the booth. She shoves a few coins at the girl and points at the stuffed cat. “How do I get that one?” she demands.
The girl looks up from her phone and groans at Adora’s eager presence but reluctantly takes the coins and hands Adora a few ping-pong balls. “Get one of these in a blue cup,” she says, before popping the lollipop back into her mouth and returning her attention to RuneFlix.
Glimmer, Bow, and Catra appear behind her a moment later. “What are you doing?” Catra asks.
“I’m gonna win you something!” Adora replies cheerfully. “It’s nearly dark and we still haven’t gotten you a souvenir from your first fair!”
She focuses on the nearest blue cup, tries to calculate the distance between her hand and the cup, the proper arc the ball should take, the precise areas around the cup she has to avoid to ensure the ball won’t bounce off into another cup—
“Just throw it already!” yells Glimmer, and Adora jolts at the noise. The pink-haired girl is suddenly leaning over the counter, just inches away from Adora.
“I’m trying to concentrate here,” Adora huffs.
“Then concentrate, Adora!” retorts Glimmer.
“Yeah, Adora, concentrate!” adds Catra, looping a very distracting tail around Adora’s leg.
“You can do it, Adora!” says Bow.
Adora sets her eyes on the cup again and throws the ball. It lands directly in a white cup, not even close to her target.
“Okay, never mind, this is stupid,” Catra remarks from behind her.
“Aw, come on, Catra!” Adora exclaims. “It’s so cute,” she pouts, pointing at the precious stuffed cat toy above them. “And I’m gonna get it for you!”
She concentrates on a different blue cup now, this one farther from where she stands at the counter but closer to where her first ball landed. She makes a mental mark of the cup’s location, practices the motion of her arm’s arc a few times, and then tosses the ball… only for it to miss again.
“UGHHHH,” groans Glimmer, as the ball bounces off the table and onto the ground.
“Be encouraging, Glimmer!” says Bow. “I’m sure it’s harder than it looks.”
“Yeah,” Adora agrees, defensive, “it is!” She frowns, brows furrowed as she picks up her last ball, and focuses once more on a blue cup. She crouches to eye level with the table, brings the ball so it’s right next to her eye, and wills the ball to please, please, please go in this time before she throws it.
It doesn’t. The ball bounces off the white cup just next to the blue one she’d been aiming for and then falls to the floor with the previous one.
“Oh well,” says Catra all too loudly, “looks like we’ll just have to move on to something ACTUALLY FUN, like, I don’t know, throwing pies at people’s faces!”
“No way!” shouts Glimmer. “My turn!” She’s beaming as she throws the cotton candy at Catra, gracelessly shoves Adora out of the way, and places several coins on the counter. The girl running the booth rolls her eyes and gives Glimmer three more ping-pong balls. “Don’t you think that giant cat would be a great addition to your stuffed kitten collection, Bow?” Glimmer asks as she begins to aim at a blue cup.
Bow’s cheeks instantly redden, his face contorted with panic. “Huh? What stuffed kitten collection!?” he exclaims, voice cracking. “I, uh, I have no idea what you’re talking about! You must be thinking of someone else!”
Adora snorts with laughter. “You have a stuffed kitten collection?”
Glimmer nods, not even looking away from the booth as she tosses the ball and misses. “It’s so cute! You have to come to his room and see it. Bow, don’t you think that giant cat would be a perfect mom for the little baby kittens at home?”
Bow is making frantic panicked noises. “I’m sure you’re getting mixed up, Glimmer!” he squeaks. “What kittens? What room? Who’s Bow? How do you know I haven’t been kidnapped and replaced by my evil doppelganger who collects VERY CUTE cat stuffed animals?!”
Catra chokes on a piece of cotton candy. “What’s so evil about collecting cat stuffed animals?” she says.
Bow’s voice jumps another octave, if that’s even possible. “Nothing! Nothing at all! There’s nothing evil or weird or strange about collecting stuffed cats! It’s just definitely something I do not do!”
Adora and Catra exchange glances and shrug. Bow lets out a dramatic sigh and moves to stand closer to Glimmer, who is aiming another ball at the cups. She misses again.
Catra frowns. “Can’t you, like, teleport the ball in?” she suggests.
“That’s not how it works!” huffs Glimmer. She throws the last ball and misses again.
“My turn!” Adora shouts, shoving Glimmer away to push more coins at the girl running the booth.
Glimmer has enough patience to watch Adora miss two more times before she grabs the last ball and says, “I need to win that cat for Bow!”
“No she doesn’t!” Bow shouts.
“Yeah! I need to win it for Catra!” Adora replies, trying to grab the ball away from Glimmer, who just teleports away, reappearing next to Catra.
“Guys! No one needs to win anything for anyone!” Bow exclaims. He grabs Adora as she attempts to lunge at Glimmer.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” says Catra. She swipes the ball from Glimmer and tosses it toward the booth. It lands in the highly-coveted blue cup.
Glimmer and Adora stop fighting and stare at her, slack-jawed. “How the hell did you do that?!” Glimmer demands.
Catra shrugs as she accepts the enormous stuffed cat from the Erelandian girl. “Night vision,” she replies with a smirk as she turns back to them. She hands the toy to Adora, who is still gaping.
“That was so hot,” Adora whispers, eyes wide, as she clutches the stuffed animal. “Also, I fucking love you.”
Catra reddens despite herself. “Yeah, okay, whatever, iloveyoutoo,” she mutters, scratching the back of her neck. Glimmer is imitating retching noises, while Bow seems to have literal hearts in his eyes as he watches the exchange.
Catra groans. “Now can we go throw some pies?”
“YES!” screams Glimmer, and grabs the other three and teleports them to the nearest pie-throwing booth.
“Also, just for the record,” she adds as soon as they arrive, “you’re also really hot, Bow, and I fucking love you, too.”
“Aww, thanks, Glimmer!” Bow cries. He seems to be tearing up. Glimmer stands on her toes and plants an easy kiss on his lips. Catra, still reeling from being teleported without warning again, on top of having to deal with whatever this is, moans. Adora gives her a sympathetic look and pulls her close.
Bow finally breaks away from Glimmer and seems to just notice Catra and Adora. “I love you guys, too!” he adds quickly, pulling all three of them into a hug that Catra pretends to resist.
“I just want to throw a pie at someone,” she mutters. When Bow finally releases the three of them, she turns around and sees the workers deconstructing the booth for throwing pies.
“Sorry, we’re closing up for the night,” one of them tells her. Catra whirls back around and stares accusingly at Glimmer and Adora.
“Sorry!” says Adora sheepishly. “If I let you throw a pie at me when we get back to Bright Moon, will that make up for it?”
Catra smirks. “Maybe. Or you could do something else to make up for it,” she suggests.
Glimmer lets out a loud groan of frustration. “You two are so gross!” she exclaims.
Catra just laughs.