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“Wakey, wakey, Blakey!” a sunny voice rang out, clear and bright from beyond the door of the room. Her eyes snapped open, and she was suddenly very aware that she was not in her own bed. To make sure, she slipped her hand underneath the cushiony pillow, the absence of her knife a very good indicator that this was not her room.
Adora sat up rod straight, looking around the room she found herself in, better to orient herself and figure out who she needed to apologize to, or whose ass to beat. It looked like no other room she’d ever been in - sleek furnishings made of some material that wasn’t wood or metal, pictures of people she didn’t recognize - definitely not someplace she’d ever been to on Eternia or otherwise.
There was sound coming from behind the door and Adora remembered she had heard another person, which was what had woken her up. She started to panic, eyes darting around the room for something to defend herself with if push came to shove while her mind raced. Where was she? When did she get here? What sort of people were beyond the door?
She didn’t have long to wonder about her last question, as the handle turned and the door to the bedroom was thrown open, bouncing a little off the wall.
“Happy Birthda-aaaaaahhhh!!” A tall blonde woman had strode across the threshold, a tray of what looked like breakfast balanced on a mechanical hand, or well, it was balanced on her hand until she spotted Adora on the bed and yelled, dropping the tray and pulling herself into a fighting stance.
Adora held up her own fists on instinct, ready to defend herself when another voice yelled from the room over.
“YANG! How many times do I have to tell you not to kick in the goddamned doors?”
“Weisss!” the blonde, presumably Yang, called back while never taking her red eyes off Adora, “I think we have a more pressing concern right now, if you could et-gay yrtenaster-may!”
“What?” A white-haired woman appeared in the doorway now, dressed in a pale blue nightgown and looking irritated. She didn’t even so much as glance at Adora as she continued berating Yang. “You know I don’t speak that swine language.”
“Pig Latin!” chimed yet another voice from out of view.
Weiss rolled her eyes at the peanut gallery, “And you ALSO know that if you are going to have guests over you’re supposed to clear it with the others!” She motioned to Adora, still glaring daggers at Yang who finally took her eyes off her to look incredulously at the smaller woman in the doorway.
“Wait, someone’s here?” the last voice sounded panicked, another door slammed from somewhere in the house, causing Weiss to throw her hands up in the air in exasperation
“Stop slamming doors!”
“Weiss! Intruder?” Yang motioned in the direction of Adora, “Maybe grab the WEAPONS?!”
Adora was reeling, she couldn’t keep track of the tone of this encounter, if she should be ready to defend or explain herself. Her thoughts flew back to her own room, where she was sure Catra would be concerned about her disappearance. Or maybe she was still sleeping, oblivious to the plight she was facing.
o======o
Blake snuggled further into the blankets, sighing contentedly. It was nice to have a birthday where the rest of her team wasn’t busting down the door and trying to get her to do something. It was fun spending time with them, but sometimes a little silence really was golden. Eyes still closed she could feel Yang next to her stretch and yawn- except, she was much smaller than usual, and sounded nothing like Yang.
Blake opened an eye cautiously, just as the person across from her did the same. Her golden eye narrowed, and her whole body tensed, feeling like a coiled spring ready to leap. A flick atop the woman’s head drew her gaze, and Blake realized that it was another cat faunus in bed with her. But that didn’t make any sense, she had gone to bed with Yang last night, and Yang knew the rules about clearing guests with the rest of the household.
The ear-flick reeked of annoyance almost like saying ‘I’m disappointed to find you here’.
Blake huffed in response, ‘Rude of a guest to say something like that.’ she narrowed her eyes again at the ‘guest’ who’s communication went a little less subvocal and started to sound more and more like a hissing growl.
‘You’re in MY territory’
Blake sat up suddenly, causing the other woman to leap up as well, hackles raised- wait, hackles? This faunus was furrier than most… but ears were her faunus trait, and.. Did Blake catch sight of a tail all poofed up in defense? This woman was not a faunus, she was quite literally a catgirl! “I’m not at home.” Blake said dumbly.
“No shit,” the woman finally spoke, “who are you, and where’s Adora?”
o======o
“So, let me get this straight,” Glimmer, who had been summoned by Catra- the one Blake had woken up next to this morning - sighed and squeezed the bridge of her nose between her thumb and index finger. “You went to sleep last night, with the complete Tales of Etheria, a book that doesn’t exist here, and you remember mumbling a phrase from it just before midnight of your birthday.”
“That’s right.” Blake nodded confidently, casting another glance at Catra who was leaned up against the door frame, tail twitching and mismatched eyes keeping her pinned to the edge of the bed where Blake sat, crossing her legs impatiently. “It must have been the book, there’s no other explanation that makes sense. How else could I have ended up in this.. This fantasy realm?”
The twitching of Catra’s tail became more agitated, ‘this isn’t a fantasy realm, you’re the one from some made up land!’
Blake’s ears flattened and she narrowed her eyes, ‘Get off my back, I’m trying to navigate this situation just like you are!’
Glimmer sighed with exasperation, “Please stop communicating sub-vocally, it’s… it’s WEIRD!”
“Sorry.” Catra and Blake said at the same time, Blake chuckling in surprise and Catra throwing her hands up with a groan.
“Listen, it doesn’t matter where you’re from,” Catra began, striding forward and leaning down to examine Blake, she seemed to be alarmed by her lack of a tail, or fur. “What matters is, you probably sent Adora there, and we need to swap you back!”
“Well, if that’s the case,” Blake scooted back from Catra’s gaze, more annoyed with the scrutiny than her rough demeanor, “there must be a book on Remnant here.”
o======o
“So, you said it’s your birthday today too?” Ruby asked, sitting across from Adora, knees drawn up to her chest and looking way too excited for someone who’s personal abode had been invaded by some unknown entity, possibly switching places with her teammate on their birthday of all days.
“What? Uh, yeah I guess it is,” Adora quirked a brow at the younger woman, “I don’t really think that matters right now though.”
“Well sure it does!” Ruby burst into rose petals, followed by a strong gust as she rematerialized right next to Adora who jumped with a yelp, “What if you and Blake are linked by some sort of.. Sort birthday magic?!”
“B-birthday magic?”
“Don’t be preposterous, there’s no such thing as birthday magic, Ruby.” Weiss rolled her eyes, setting a cup of coffee down before Adora and pulling Ruby by her ear back to the other couch, giving Adora some space to again. “Do try to relax,” Weiss addressed Adora directly now, sitting between the two sisters.
Yang tapped her foot, still looking suspiciously at Adora, while Ruby practically vibrated with excitement. “Kinda hard to relax like this.” Adora muttered, grabbing the coffee to at least have something else to do with her hands.
“Got somethin’ to say?” Yang asked, crossing her arms.
“I was just saying that it’s a little hard to relax when you’re-” Adora gestured at Yang with a sweeping motion of her free hand, her voice carrying a little edge to it.
Weiss coughed, interrupting what she was sure would have been another standoff, “Adora, where did you say you were from again?”
“Huh?” Adora shook her head to clear it, “I’m from Etheria? Isn’t that where we are right now?” A sudden squeal burst from Ruby and she zoomed out of the living room, a trail of quickly fading rose petals in her wake. “Does that, uh.. Does that mean yes?”
The blur of petals reappeared, next to Adora again and she jumped, spilling coffee to shouts from the others about ‘personal space, Rubes!’ and ‘You can’t keep startling her like that!’ The redhead took the cup from Adora’s hands, and replaced it with a thick book.
“I knew your name sounded familiar! You’re from this book!”
“I’m, what?”
o======o
“Look what you’ve done to her, Ruby, she’s catatonic!” Weiss accused, motioning to where Adora sat, reading the back cover of the book Tales of Etheria where it recounted some of her most heroic deeds, face pale and eyes wide.
“I didn’t mean to! I was just excited!” Ruby whined, covering her head as Weiss delivered a chop to it with the blade of her hand, “Do you even know who she is? That’s She-Ra!”
Hearing the name of her alter ego, seemed to shake her out of her stupor, and Adora blinked rapidly, trying to come to terms with being a fictional character who suddenly wasn’t fictional. But who was to say she wasn’t still fictional and this wasn’t just some elaborate media crossover designed to sow chaos on this, her very own birthday!
“This is the weirdest birthday…” was all she could muster.
“So if she’s here, Blake could be… in this Etheria place?” Yang took the book from Adora, flipping to the index to see if she could spot Blake’s name in any of the chapter titles. “Maybe there’s a clue, or a new chapter… Something like, Blake Is Transported To Etheria With Birthday Magic.”
Weiss threw her hands up, “There’s no such thing as--
o======o
“BIRTHDAY MAGIC!” Entrapta crowed excitedly, leading Catra, Glimmer, and Blake along the corridors down to her lab.
Blake chuckled, both at the absurdity of the thought of ‘Birthday Magic’ and at the familiarity of the scientist’s enthusiasm. “So because Adora and I share a birthday, and because I just so happened to read her birthday wish just before midnight on said birthday I… what, activated some sort of magical bond that swapped us out of our respective stories?” While it was odd to think of herself as a character in a book, The RWBY Chronicles sat heavy in her hand, it’s cover proudly proclaiming ‘All volumes in one!’, and her name did appear a few times in just the chapters she skimmed.
She didn’t want to read too far in the book, or at all really, it was odd to see even the bits of her own life recounted that she had skimmed, and Blake wasn’t sure she could really handle possibly reading a spoiler to her own story. That would be fucked up, she decided, focusing back on Entrapta’s excited babble about multiverses, birthdays, and then what may have been a string of formulas.
Finally they reached the lab, and Blake found the book being pulled out of her hands by one of the scientist’s ponytails, “So with the help of Queen Glimmer channeling the energy into my machine, and using the information of this book to calibrate it along with Catra’s intense desire to see Adora again-” Catra made a protesting sound, but Blake noticed the blush creep into her face as Entrapta continued on, “we can open a portal to Remnant and switch you back!”
o======o
“And that’s how we got here!”
Yang, Weiss, Ruby, and Adora stared in disbelief at the small group of people who had just stepped through a large purple portal, one of them was Blake, who waved almost shyly at her teammates.
Ruby was the first to react, leaping into the air and pumping a fist triumphantly, “Didn’t I say?! It was-”
“Alright, you don’t need to showboat about it, you were right!” Weiss snapped, folding her arms.
Yang surged forward, pulling Blake into a tight hug and exchanging some quiet words of reassurance and comfort with her partner. Catra sauntered over to Adora and punched her in the arm, “You dope, why did you have that book propping up the desk when you coulda just asked Sparkles for a new one that didn’t wobble?”
“What?” Adora rubbed her arm, laughing at the absurdity of everything, “How was I supposed to know I had a birthday twin in it?”
“Wait, we have a storybook in Etherian CANON?!” Ruby asked excitedly.
o======o
With everyone back in their respective universes, both Adora and Blake were able to have semi-normal birthday celebrations, the events of the first half already becoming something that both would think of as strange and fantastical. Adora would receive a new desk for her birthday, so she would no longer have to prop the leg of her old one up to keep it from wobbling, and The RWBY Chronicles could stay safely at Bow’s family library.
Blake gifted her copy of Tales of Etheria to Ruby, as it now was the only copy of it in existence with an extra few chapters about Team RWBY and the birthday mixup. It was a little too meta for Blake’s tastes, she insisted as their team leader accepted the gift and then immediately zoomed into her shared room with Weiss. With her faunus hearing, Blake could make out the former heiress chastising her for wanting to write self-insert fanfiction at this hour.
“So, what was Adora’s birthday wish?” Yang asked as they snuggled down for the night.
“Hm?” Blake lifted her head to look at the blonde, “Oh, the wish that made us swap places?”
“Yeah, I mean, what kind of wish could activate magic like that?”
Blake hummed in agreement, giving Yang a squeeze as though she would disappear. “She wished she could keep having fun adventures with the people she loves.”