#glimbow centric

—

Bow and Glimmer were rudely awoken by the sound of the door swooshing open and unpleasantly loud voices.

She still had her arms around him the same way she had when they’d fallen asleep, and she didn’t plan on letting go anytime soon.

“See? I told you so! That’s exactly why I didn’t want to go back in here.”

“Huh, and here I thought you were just looking for an excuse to share the mattress with me again.”

“What? Me? Nooo...”

They heard Adora laugh.

“Do... do you think we should let them sleep?”

“You should have thought about that before you barged in here,” Glimmer murmured groggily and threw a pillow roughly in the direction the voices had come from without opening her eyes.

She was way too tired for this nonsense.

‘Whoever said space is peaceful and quiet definitely never traveled with these guys.’

“Good morning...?“

Bow blinked, still half asleep when he sat up on the mattress. He kind of dragged Glimmer up with him accidentally because she was still unwilling to let go of him.

...not that he minded.

“What are you guys doing in here?” Glimmer wondered, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, yawning.

Her grip on boy tightened a bit when she saw Wrong Hordak. He seemed to be pretty okay, but he brought back a lot of bad memories, and she didn’t think she’d ever get used to that.

“Well, Adora and Catra just spent a weird amount of time commenting on your sleeping position, especially considering I found them in the same one,” Entrapta analyzed with her usual enthusiasm.

The two girls flushed scarlet.

Bow grinned.

“Awwww, you guys were spooning?”

“We. Were. Not. Spooning,” Catra growled, but then she dropped the demeanor, her face turning into a sheepish grin. “...and also, I might have burnt breakfast.”

That genuinely surprised Glimmer, but in a positive way.

“You tried to make breakfast?”

Catra grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of her neck.

“Well, yeah. Emphasis on tried. I mean, you cooked for us once, and Arrow Boy did it the rest of the week, and I just... thought I should try it? Argh, I... I don’t know. Maybe that was a stupid idea. Especially because I don’t know how to cook.”

Glimmer shrugged.

“No, that’s fine. It’s... really nice of you, actually. And I don’t think anyone here knows how to cook, except for Bow maybe.”

Adora chuckled.

“Yeah, she has a point.”

“I mean, it can’t be as bad as when Adora tried to make food. We ended up with half-cooked broccoli with chocolate sauce and sprinkles for dinner,” Bow pointed out, shrugging. “It looked kind of nice, but...”

He was trying to be polite, but really, there hadn’t been much in the meal his friend had made that one could be polite about. There was a difference between ‘you clearly haven’t cooked before and your cooking still needs a some work’ and ‘your cooking is literally weapons-grade’.

Glimmer’s face went green.

“Oh stars, don’t remind me. I still want to throw up just thinking about that.”

Catra’s eyes widened.

“Adora did what?!”

She had never tried either of these things, personally, but she roughly knew what they were, and even she could tell that there was no way these were supposed to go together.

The blonde scratched the back of her head.

“It wasn’t as bad as it sounds...” Glimmer gave her a death glare. “...you know what? Actually, it was.”

Adora blinked for a moment. Why had she tried to defend the terrible food she’d made? She was usually totally cool with the others joking about her really, really poor first attempt at cooking, especially because she herself knew that it had been awful and that she would never try that combination again.

And yet, today she felt a pang of... embarrassment?

Weird. Why would she...

‘It isn’t because Catra’s here, is it? She knows what I’m like, better than anyone, so I doubt this surprises her. And, I mean, there are other ways I could impress her than cooking!’

...wait, why would she want to impress Catra?

That made no sense.

Adora shook her head and abandoned these thoughts.

“And that’s the story why almighty She-Ra over here is banished from Bright Moon’s kitchen,” Glimmer concluded, giggling.

Catra chuckled. That did make her feel a little better about her own cooking skills.

And Adora getting a tad bit embarrassed was also a nice bonus. She looked really cute when she was embarrassed.

...damn, Catra had missed her best friend.

“Not to worry, you guys. No broccoli today. Would have been hard to make anyway, seeing as we have no broccoli on the ship,” the brunette promised. “You guys coming?”

Glimmer smiled.

“Sure, we’ll just get dressed real quick, and then we’ll be right there.”

—

“How are you?” Bow asked his best friend as soon as the door closed behind the others.

Glimmer gave him a small smile.

“Better, I think.” She nuzzled against the crook of his neck. “Just tired.“

He stroked her head.

“You’ll never be a morning person, huh?”

She laughed, visibly relaxing a bit. Being with Bow always made her feel so much better...

“I mean, technically, there are no mornings in space – but no, I’m definitely never going to be a morning person. At this rate, our kids are going to have to wake me one day instead of me waking them.”

Bow stared at her for a second.

Had she just...?

No. No way. Glimmer wouldn’t... she didn’t... they were close, obviously, but... he’d know if she had feelings for him, right?

“You think they’ll be close? ...our kids, I mean,” he added when he saw the confused look on her face. “You know, since you suggested they’d come wake you up together.”

“Yeah. Right. They’ll be best friends, just like us. I’m sure of that,” Glimmer replied, just kind of going with what he had said because oh stars she couldn’t believe she’d just suggested having kids like that without even telling him she was in love with him first.

Bow shook his head and smiled at her softly.

Of course that was what she’d meant.

The mental image of their kids also being best friends one day was adorable.

Despite that, for a moment, he couldn’t help but imagine a girl with his dark curls and Glimmer’s beautiful eyes and a little boy with his eyes and her cute little nose and smile climbing into bed to wake them, him and Glimmer still sleepily embracing each other the same way they had tonight.

‘Huh.’

He really had caught feelings for her, after all.

...or maybe he’d always felt that way about her and hadn’t realized what his feelings truly were until he’d almost lost her.

That thought had always terrified him, but this had been so much worse than anything he could ever have imagined.

This was already the second really close call since they’d met. He’d do everything in his power to make sure there would never be a third.

He hugged her. She snuggled against him. He felt his cheeks heat.

It was weird. As mad as he’d been at her, and as terrified as he’d been about possibly losing her, apparently this was what he’d needed to put some things about their relationship into perspective.

“Hey Bow?” She asked, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks again for earlier. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

He smiled at her.

“Of course. Anytime.”

He’d tell her eventually. Maybe.

But now was not the time.

After a while of comfortably sitting like that in silence, Bow spoke up again.

“Come on, we should actually get dressed now, before the others-”

Too late. Catra stuck her head in again.

“Hey, are you guys coming? If you keep making out in the cabin for another hour, the food will taste burnt and be cold by the time you join us!”

Glimmer blushed scarlet and let go of Bow, like that would change anything about what Catra just saw.

“We were not making out!” She protested – then realized how weird her reaction had just been.

She and Bow hugged all the time. Hugging was a normal thing that friends did. There was no need for her to be embarrassed about anyone catching them.

Glimmer shook her head.

‘Well that was subtle... I just made everything worse, didn’t I?’

Surprisingly, though, Catra didn’t bring it up again.

“Sure, whatever. Now get up and get dressed so you can join us for breakfast.”

—

“So... what do you think?”

Catra was super nervous what the others thought about the food she’d made because she was pretty sure it wasn’t terrible – she’d tried it beforehand, of course, she wasn’t trying to poison anyone, after all –, and she really wanted to do something nice for everyone after they’d saved her and been so nice and kind to her despite everything that had happened between them... that she’d done to them.

“This is actually pretty neat,” Glimmer concluded after a while of chewing.

Bow nodded in agreement, and Adora was already moved to tears because Catra had tried at all.

“This is the best thing I have ever eaten,” the blonde breathed, just loud enough for Catra to hear.

The brunette shook her head.

“That’s sweet, dummy, but we both know the food Bow and Glimmer made was way better.”

But Adora shook her head. She meant it. She really did.

The food made her feel warm inside, in a way it couldn’t when Bow or Glimmer cooked.

Wrong Hordak was just eating quietly.

Entrapta put her fork down and cocked her head to the side in curiosity.

“Is that something you do as friends? Lie to the other person to make them feel better about their inadequate skills? Fascinating...”

Catra flattened her ears.

‘Ouch.’

“We’re not lying, Entrapta. This is actually pretty good,” Glimmer chimed in. “Especially considering this is her first time cooking. You can’t let someone cook for the first time in their life and then except the kind of meal professional kitchen staff would make. Besides, Adora has been trying to learn how to cook for years, and let me tell you, it did not get much better after the broccoli with sprinkles-incident. Somehow, Adora is still worse after years of trying than Catra was at her first attempt.”

“Hey!”

There it was again. Adora was embarrassed for no reason. The fact that she couldn’t cook wasn’t a secret, and she usually didn’t even care about it. Other people joking about that was fine. And it wasn’t like that was a skill that really mattered at the moment.

What was going on?

Catra chuckled.

‘Wow. She has a really nice laugh.’

Adora shook her head.

She knew that. She’d always known that. Why was she thinking about that now?

“So that’s your biggest weakness huh? Who would’ve thought! Etheria’s almighty hero, defeated by a stove and a frying pan,” Catra teased her, grinning.

“...shut up.”

Adora tried to sound annoyed, but she was visibly beaming when she nudged the brunette. She was just happy that, after all this time, she could finally call Catra her friend again.

“Never,” Catra replied teasingly as she nudged Adora back. “That’s the only thing I’m going to be talking about for the rest of my life.” Her grin widened. “Hey, that means I can now officially put ‘cooks better than She-Ra’ on my resume, right? Oh, I know! I need a cup that says that! Or an apron!”

Adora giggled.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah, well, at least I’m an idiot that can cook,” Catra shot back, sticking her tongue out at the blonde.

They were all laughing now, except for Entrapta, who was speaking into her voice recorder.

“After a couple of days of observations, I think I can safely conclude that it is indeed still very much mutual.” She squealed. “Oh, that means I can update Scorpia when we get back home! How exciting!”

Catra winced a bit when hearing her former friend’s name. Scorpia had been nothing but kind to her from the start, and Catra had been the worst friend possibly imaginable. She felt awful. Scorpia deserved an apology – or twenty –, and then, maybe, she’d forgive her. Maybe they could actually be friends this time. Or maybe Scorpia wouldn’t want the person that hurt her back in her life, and that would be okay, too, despite the sting Catra felt when she thought about it. What mattered was that Scorpia was happy, no matter what she would choose – just like it had been with Adora.

Catra was done making everyone miserable – herself included.

“Update Scorpia on wha-” Glimmer started, then stopped in mid-sentence. “On second thought, I don’t think I even want to know.”

Entrapta blinked, then eyed Bow and Glimmer.

“Speaking of, you two are also interestingly close today. Amount of touching in comparison to the last couple of days increased by about twenty percent. That brings us pretty close to a hundred percent so far! I don’t think Glimmer has stopped holding onto your arm since you two entered the room... Should I write that down? I’m going to write that down.” She thought about the best way to word it for a moment. “There appears to be a chance that travelers will develop an increased need for physical contact while in space, as indicated by four different research subjects.”

There was a moment of very awkward silence as everyone but Wrong Hordak blushed scarlet and tried to avoid eye contact with the person they were sitting with... but Catra didn’t move from where she was sitting, and Glimmer still didn’t let go of Bow’s arm.

—

In the end, it was Adora that broke the silence as she cleared her throat and looked directly at Glimmer and Bow.

“Entrapta’s kind of right. You two do seem even more attached at the hip today than usual.“

They looked very cozy. It was pretty cute.

Glimmer had to bite back a comment about how Adora was really one to talk, with Catra sitting on her lap and all.

Over the course of the last few days, Catra had slowly moved closer and closer to Adora during meals – which had been blatantly obvious to anyone but Adora – until on the prior day, Catra had carefully touched her arm, and Adora had pulled her a little closer, which the brunette had taken as a signal that they maybe could go back to the way they used to be. Her initial shyness had melted away from her now, and she’d gone from sitting next to her friend to straight up planting herself in Adora’s lap today. The blonde hadn’t complained one bit.

“Did something happen?” Adora asked when neither of them replied.

Glimmer‘s semi-good mood disappeared instantly as she remembered the previous night. Her mouth went dry. Her voice was incredibly monotone as she spoke.

“Nothing, I just... had a nightmare,” she said.

“Right. One,” Bow murmured, glancing at his best friend worriedly.

She immediately elbowed him in the ribs for that.

Adora already had enough on her plate as it was, there was no need to worry her further, especially with something as silly as a couple of nightmares.

“But I’m all better now.”

Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes, but apparently it was convincing enough for Adora to not dig deeper.

Catra kept quiet, but gave the Queen a sympathetic, encouraging look that made Glimmer certain the brunette knew what it felt like.

All things considered, Catra had definitely had it way worse than Glimmer on Prime’s ship. Glimmer shuddered at the thought of being robbed of her free will, of being forced to fight the people she loved.

Didn’t that mean that Glimmer was just being a baby that was upset for no reason? If Catra could cope with that, why couldn’t Glimmer even calm herself long enough to let go of Bow’s arm?

She closed her eyes and tried to keep herself from shaking. It didn’t work very well.

Apparently guessing where Glimmer‘s mind went, Catra coughed a bit and spoke up.

“Sparkles, listen, I... I know we’re pretty different, but nightmares always suck, no matter how bad they are, and I don’t think they can be compared anyway because different people are afraid of different things. It’s good that you have someone there to comfort you.” She snuggled against the crook of Adora’s neck. “But I’m glad you’re feeling a bit better.”

“I... thank you.” Glimmer’s smile felt less fake now. Bow nodded at Catra appreciative as he put an arm around his best friend. Adora was thankfully way too distracted by the brunette purring against her chest to really listen to what they were talking about. It was better that way. “What about you guys? How did you sleep?”

“Good. Great actually.” Adora beamed. “I don’t think I’ve slept this good in years.”

Since she’d left the Horde, to be precise.

“Yeah, me too. I... really missed sleeping next to you,” Catra mumbled, blushing.

“What do you mean, ‘missed’?” Glimmer raised an eyebrow. “You’ve done this before?”

“Pretty much every day before I left.” Adora grinned smugly. “She couldn’t sleep without me.”

“Oh.”

...that actually explained a lot – especially the time Adora had climbed into Glimmer’s bed because she hadn’t been used to sleeping alone. She hadn’t just meant that referring to the fact that she’d been sharing her room with so many other cadets before. She also hadn’t been used to sleeping alone in her bed, because she’d shared it with Catra for so long before leaving the Horde.

Catra blushed even more, and her first instinct was to get defensive and deny it... but then she didn’t. She’d promised herself to be a little more open with her emotions, after all.

“It started back when we were kids, actually... and then we got so used to it that we never stopped. The other cadets always said we could give my bed to someone else because I never slept there anyway.” Catra shrugged and laughed. Adora looked at her in surprise... but then her expression melted into a soft smile. She couldn’t remember when she’d last been this happy. “I was losing my mind without you...”

“Being apart from you wasn’t easy for me either.”

Catra bit her lip.

“If I’d just come with you when you asked me to, none of this would have happened. I’m so sorry.”

Adora squeezed her hand and kept her voice down when she started speaking.

“Don’t get me wrong, everything that happened really, really sucked... but I think it kind of needed to happen. Even when we were so close back at the Horde, there was so much standing between us... so many things we didn’t talk about, so many things we never realized about the other, and we both had issues that we had to work through back then. ...that, and we started being an ‘us’ so early on that we needed some time away from each other to learn who we are separately.”

She’d been thinking about that a lot lately.

For a second, Catra was back on Adora’s bed at the Horde, sitting back to back with her best friend, telling her that she wouldn’t know who she’d be without her.

She knew, now.

That Catra kind of sucked... she’d hurt others, and she’d been hurt, until finally, she’d broken down and reflected on everything she’d done, and then she’d cried and drowned herself in regret and guilt. Now, she finally really knew who she was... and who she wanted to be. Now, she would learn from her mistakes, and she would be better.

“We needed to grow apart so we could grow back together,” she whispered when she understood, and it hurt and it sucked because it meant that even if they’d left together, everything still wouldn’t have been fine – but at least it also meant that everything that had happened in the past few years hadn’t happened completely in vain, even though she still wished things had been different. And maybe they could be fine again now. Or better, at the very least. “I’ve made so many mistakes and hurt so many people...”

Adora hugged her best friend from behind.

“These days are over. And now you’ve got all the time in the universe to be better.”

“And I will be. I promise.” Catra smiled softly and squeezed her hand as she snuggled against her.

Bow and Glimmer just gave each other a knowing look while Entrapta was rambling into her voice recorder again.

After a while, Catra looked up at the others and grinned.

“Now that we’ve unveiled my deepest, darkest secret... you guys have got to have some more silly Adora-stories, right?”

Glimmer laughed and cracked her knuckles.

Bow’s and Glimmer’s relationship with Catra was still strained for several reasons... but she was slowly starting to grow on them, now that they could see she was truly changing. She was almost fun to be around.

“Oh, you bet we do.”

Adora sighed.

There was a knock on the door that brought him back to reality, and Spinnerella walked into the room. “I brought soup,” she said, showing him the purple bowl. There was steam coming from it and it smelled amazing. It made Bow’s stomach churn. He wasn’t sick, but he wasn’t taking the best care of himself either. The thanked her and took the bowl from her. As Spinnerella left the room, Bow shook Glimmer’s shoulder softly, trying to pull her gently from her sleep. She opened her eyes and hummed brokenly.

“Hey there,” he said softly. She hummed again as an answer. She hadn’t been speaking much those past few days, so it didn’t surprise him that she didn’t have any words for him then. “I have soup.”

She mumbled something that could have been translated to “I don’t want soup.”

He couldn’t hold back his smile. “Spinnerella made it for you, it would be incredibly rude if you refused it.” That didn’t convince her, and it would have made his smile waver, but it wasn’t the first time this had happened. “You need to eat,” he told her, and, at her pout, he let out a soft chuckle. He brough his hand to her cheek and sighed.  “C’mon, Glim, you need to eat something, you can go to sleep again after, okay?”

She whined but sat up and took the bowl from Bow’s hands. It was a small victory that Bow celebrated silently; she hadn’t been able to hold stuff the day before, too weak for doing things by herself. If she could pick up her bowl and hold it herself, that had to mean that she was getting better. He still couldn’t see any real change in how she looked; she still looked tired, stuffy and feverish. He supposed recovery wasn’t going to happen from one day to the other, but these past few days had been the worst that Bow had ever seen Glimmer, and, honestly, he was scared.

She ate in silence and sighed loudly when she finished her food. The fact that she finished the whole bowl without any complaints gave Bow a little bit of hope that he really needed in that moment. He had been having to force her to eat, and he despised the feeling of her sad eyes on him. He hated it. It also meant that she was starting to be able to stomach her food better. She might not have been hungry, but she had at least been able to eat the whole thing.

“You want anything else?” he asked, once she had handed him the bowl.

“Yeah, for you to get some sleep.”

The self-satisfied smile that Glimmer was sporting meant she was proud of her rebuttal, which also showed how gone she was —if she thought that had been good, she must have been more on world of dreams than in reality. Bow supposed he must have really looked tired if she could tell that he needed sleep in the state she was in. And he was tired. He wanted to sleep, but he hadn’t really been able to do so since Glimmer had fallen ill. He also didn’t want to leave her alone, not even if she seemed to —maybe— be getting better.

“Make some room for me, then.”

Glimmer frowned and grumbled. She did not move. “You are gonna get sick if you sleep with me.”

“I don’t care,” he answered decisively. Sleeping with her was the one way that he could fall asleep and not feel the guilt of leaving her.

“I do. You’re grumpy when you’re sick.”

That startled an unexpected laugh out of Bow. “And you are one to talk,” he pointed out with raised eyebrows. If he was grumpy when he was sick, Glimmer was in a whole other league. She had been all whines and grumbles and, even though Bow could find it funny when he saw that Glimmer was better, it had been one of the things that had worried him the most. She had seemed so outside of the real world…

There was a knock on the door that got their attention. As Bow stood up to get it, Glimmer let herself fall back into a lying position, but she fought to keep her eyes opened. On the other side of the door was Catra, looking a little bit uncomfortable, shifty.

“Is something wrong?” Bow asked instantly, worry flashing through his body. It wouldn’t have surprised him if someone else —specially Adora, after all the time she had spent with Glimmer— had also gotten sick.

“Not really,” Catra answered, faking a nonchalant tone. Once they had started to spend more time together, Bow had gotten better at recognizing Catra’s tones, especially when she faked indifference. “I came to see how Sparkles was.”

“I’m fine,” came as a muffled answer from the bed.

Bow looked back to see Glimmer almost asleep and curled up in a ball. She did not look fine. Maybe it was the soup that made her sleepy, but she looked to be dying to get some more sleep.

Catra looked at Bow with a raised eyebrow and a smirk that let visible one of her fangs. “And you, Arrow Boy?”

He rolled his eyes at the name. “Also fine.”

And at that, Catra raised both of her eyebrows.

“He’s not!” Glimmer snitched from her bed. The words came louder than her other interjection, but they sounded just as slurred.

“I’m a little bit tired,” he ended up admitting.

His friend looked him up and down and then let herself into the room. She scrunched her nose but sat in the chair next to Glimmer’s bed. “Go to bed, Bow. I’ll keep guard over the princess here.”

“Queen,” Glimmer corrected.

Neither of them acknowledged her.

“I don’t—”

“If you don’t sleep, it’s you who’s gonna end up getting sick. You need to sleep. You don’t want Glimmer to be alone, and she’s not going to be, I’ll be here until you come back rested,” she made a point of emphasizing the word ‘rested’, which made sense, because Bow could have slept for a couple of hours and then gone back to the room to be with Glimmer. “We’ll be fine without your watchful eye, dude, really.”

“We’ll be fine!” almost-asleep Glimmer added. She had dropped the pretense of staying awake and she had let her eyes close. She would be out in a matter of seconds, Bow thought, and he felt the sort of jealousy that meant that he really was too tired to be there.

“Okay,” he ended up saying. “I’ll— Well. I’ll go to my old room. If anything happens, you’ll tell me, right?”

Catra nodded, more solemnly than what Bow would have ever expected from her. “I promise, Bow. Go to sleep.”

After a couple of seconds of hesitation, he nodded and left the room. He hadn’t even had the chance to take one step away when Catra opened the door and poked her head out in the corridor.

“Hey,” she said in a whisper. “I just wanted to say that Glimmer is going to be alright. She’s strong and she’ll get through this.”

“I know.”

And, really, logically speaking, he did know. But fear wasn’t always logical.

“Yeah, but it’s hard not to worry, isn’t it?” Catra sighed. She looked as uncomfortable as she always did when feelings were discussed. “It’s normal to worry about your loved ones. But you need to know that she’s going to be okay. The same way I know that you will get back every time you go to a diplomatic trip with Glimmer. The same way I know Adora is going to come back from the Whispering Woods in one piece every time she goes out on an adventure.”

Bow nodded, not knowing what to say. It had been the first time that Catra had outright said that she cared for Bow and Glimmer. She showed it, most of the time, with small actions, but she had never actually worded it. It made Bow want to jump to hug her, but he knew she would not react well to that. Instead, he grabbed her hand and squeezed.

“She’s gonna be alright.”

“Thank you, Cat.”

Catra’s soft expression quickly turned into her normal annoyed-at-the-world one. “You’re not making that a thing.” Her tone was decisive, but Bow could see the rise in the corner of her mouth.

“Sure thing.”

“Bow.”

“Cat.”

He left the corridor before she could find something to throw at him and went to his old room. It had been months since he had moved out from it to sleep with Glimmer, and he didn’t exactly miss it, but he was excited to be there again. That had been the first space he hadn’t had to share with anyone. Not his siblings. Not his dads. Not his dads’ weird stuff. The room had been his and it had been him who chose who could enter in it, something Glimmer had always respected.

“Hi,” she says smiling, opening up the door that now, sadly, needs to be opened.

She wishes that there was no need for a door to be opened. She wishes that her father hadn’t been taken from her. She wishes she knew how to be around him now, after everything that has happened. But she doesn’t know.

She’s talking softly, as if he were a frightened horse, because she really doesn’t know how to deal with this situation, but her best bet is to treat him with all the softness he has been deprived from for so many years. She realizes, once she’s seeing him, that she wants him there. After such a long time being apart, she wants him to be here, in the forest, laughing about the same stupid things all the other princesses are laughing at. She wants him to tell the horrible jokes that she remembers him liking so much. She wants to see him without the tension in his shoulders that he’s been carrying for oh so many years.

She wants him to know there’s a space for him, that, no matter how much time has passed, not matter what has happened, there’s still a place for him. She wants him to know that she still wants him with her.

He smiles hesitantly at her. He takes the opening that she’s given him with bright, sad eyes. “Hi.”

“I figured you would want him here,” Catra says, gruffly. They all turn to her. “What” she demands, defensively.

Glimmer smiles at her. “Thank you,” she tells her.

She wants to hug her tightly, but she thinks Catra might scratch her eye out this time, so she refrains from it. Catra likes to think that she’s bad and tough but, as Glimmer gets to know her better, she can see how much of that is just a front. She tries to protect herself from harm with stone barriers and frowns. Glimmer can see this as what it is: the acknowledge of family needing to stick together, the realization that, now, Catra is one of them. She feels her smile getting bigger, and if she doesn’t turn away, she might even start crying. She doesn’t think Catra would react very well to that either, considering her feeling constipation. She has hope that, with help from people that know how to deal with all the trauma, Catra will get better, than she’ll loosen enough to face… well, feelings.

She turns to her father, not wanting to overwhelm Catra in any way. “And thank you for coming,” she tells him. She motions to the free space between Sea-Hawk and Netossa, both of whom are smiling at King Micah. “Please, sit with us.”

She wants to specifically tell him that he’s wanted there, but she thinks that might be a little bit too much for now, a little bit too direct. She doesn’t want to overwhelm him, but she needs him to know that she wants him, she needs him to know that all this time hasn’t made it so she doesn’t want him in her life. She knows that, in his place, she would probably be having all those doubts. She knows that she would have all these doubts, and she doesn’t want him to question his place with her. She doesn’t want to lose him again because she didn’t stress her need for his companionship enough.

He smiles and nods. He sits with them and the air is a little bit tense until Bow cracks a bad joke that makes everyone groan and start telling good jokes. She squeezes his hand once, thankful for the effort of moving the attention away from them. He squeezes back.

She notices Micah, her dad, watching them. For a fraction of a second, she fears that he will say something, that he will have the thought that he can dictate her life just because she’s his daughter, and he is  back in her life. She… she really doesn’t know him. She doesn’t how he rules. She doesn’t know what to expect from him. She doesn’t know what power he thinks he has over her. She just doesn’t know. She has faith that the man Queen Angella loved so much couldn’t be a bad man who thought he had power over individual choices like love. But she doesn’t know, and she fears his reaction.

But he doesn’t say anything. He just smiles sadly. She thinks he might be thinking about her mother, and that thought makes her think of Queen Angella. If only she was there to see them win… But she wasn’t. And, ultimately, it was Glimmer’s fault.

She looks down at her and Bow’s hands. She doesn’t want to go down on that path, at least not when everyone is there. She doesn’t want to keep crying. She doesn’t want to seem so… affected in front of everyone. There have been enough tears from her, at least for today.

Fighting the tears is difficult, but to show everyone how affected she is, seems like it would be letting Horde Prime winning that battle, and the last thing she wants is to let that fascist win anything over her. So she fight the tears. She promises herself she will work on everything wrong with her and the way she’s thinking. She promises she won’t have the double standards of not blaming anyone in the Resistance for anything, but still blame herself for every single one of their loses.

She notices how Catra is looking at them too, and she makes a point of not looking at her. If she had expected anyone to bring her father, Catra had definitely not been it. She wonders how that had worked in the woman’s head. She doesn’t owe Glimmer anything, but, with everything that has happened, it makes sense that she thinks she has to do anything to gain the favor of the princesses. She already has Glimmer’s, and it is quite obvious that she does.

Maybe, and it’s just a slight possibility, Catra has seen that Glimmer and her father are trying and that, still, their relationship is very tense and maybe she had wanted to help.

Or maybe she had simply been on her way back and had crossed paths with him and he had followed her. She’s the less convinced of this last option, but it’s still a possibility.

She decides to not give any more thought. She stays in the moment and enjoys the feeling on fresh air around her, the feeling of her friend’s happiness surrounding her. If, once they are all going to bed, she seeks Catra and gives her a hug that leaves both of them teary-eyed, that’s nobody’s business.

-

Final A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this short series! It is... very introspective and there’s not much of a plot, but I actually really enjoy those types of glimmer-centric fics, so :) 

The new situation had also calmed her a little bit. She was still jumpy, she still had nightmares and she was no where near recovered from her time at Prime’s ship, but knowing Bow was still her friend, even if he hadn’t forgiven her entirely… She felt looser. She hadn’t realized how on edge she’d felt while on the ship, she’d felt so alone, like nobody was there to have her back. Logically, she knew that Adora and Bow would have helped her even if they weren’t friends, they would have kept her save. Entrapta too, she’d come to find.

The setting was very similar to what had happened a few days before. She was at her bed, trying to breathe deeply after a nightmare, when she heard someone knocking. It was, again, Bow.

“Hey,” he whispered. He stepped inside and closed the door. “Are you okay?”

She still had tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’m fine,” she said. It was clear that she wasn’t. It was clear that Bow didn’t believe her. How identical this situation was to how they’d been just a few days before was baffling to her.

This time, instead of leaving, Bow walked up to her bed and sat next to her. It reminded her of Bright Moon, of all those times she had been lying in bed, ranting about her mom, and Bow had just sat next to her and listened. A lot of time had passed since that, a lot of things had changed.

“Was in another nightmare?” he asked, gently. She let out a breath and nodded. “Do you have a lot of those?”

Glimmer wasn’t sure what to answer. The honest truth was that she had woken up drenched in sweat almost every day since they’d gotten her back from Prime’s ship. However, admitting that terrified her. She was a queen. The queen of Bright Moon, the leader on the Rebellion. To admit such a weakness… But this was Bow. It was Bow.

“Yes,” she ended up answering. “Ever since you guys got me out of… there.”

She didn’t like the look that Bow sent her way. It was obvious that her admission had just worried him even more than he already was. She didn’t want that. They had other things to worry about. Like getting Catra from the ship. That was important, not Glimmer’s bad dreams.

“Glimmer…”

“It’s okay,” she interrupted. She really didn’t want to know what he had to say. She didn’t want to hear how weak she was. And, in comparison to her companions… Bow, who was not only a great archer, but the technology master of The Rebellion… Adora, who was She-ra. They were her friends, yes, but they were also so much more than her on any day. Now that she was dealing with these nightmares, it was even worse. It was like the glitching all over again, the same feeling of inadequacy.

She also didn’t want to have Bow looking at her like that.

“It’s okay not to be okay.”

That sentence sent her back years ago. They had been young; they were good friends, but they hadn’t known each other for long. She was crying because her mom had her overprotective, as usual, and all she wanted to do was  to teleport to the Whispering Woods and do something, but her teleporting wasn’t good enough yet, so she was stuck in her room. Bow had walked in through the door, which meant that her mom knew he was there, and she had let him inside. He had sat next to her, not unlike they were sitting in the ship. He had tapped her arm in that awkward way that people try to console others when they don’t know them too well.

“It’s okay,” he had said.

“I’m fine. You can go to the forest and… practice. Or whatever.” She had been bitter about his freedom. She didn’t know where he came from, he never really talked about that, she now knew the truth, but, back then, she had imagined the worst. What she could tell was that he didn’t have parents around to tell him what to do and when to do it.

“You’re clearly not,” he had stated. His voice had been so deadpan that she had wanted to push him. If her bed had been at the floor, she probably would have. She didn’t like her emotions to be pointed at, even less if they were as negative as that.

“I’m fine.” Her tone had been hard. As hard as she could muster, at least, considering she was in the state she was in.

Bow had looked at her for a couple of seconds before he hugged her. Back then they hadn’t been as physical as they were when they had grown up and grown closer, so that had been a surprise. It had been awkward, but it had, honestly, made her feel better. “It’s okay not to be okay sometimes,” he’d said. “My family says that a lot, and it’s true! Being sad sometimes is okay.”

That memory breaks her heart a little. Things had been easier then. She looked at Bow, who was smiling at her as if he had also thought of that moment. She sighed.

“I know,” she finally said. “But…”

“You’re my friend, Glimmer. Above everything else.”

His hand touched hers, and she felt tears come back into her eyes.

“It was horrible.” As she said this, a sob broke from her throat. “I— I wasn’t sure I would see you ever again.” She remembered that feeling. Even with Catra there, she had felt alone. She had been sure that Adora and Bow would never be able to get her back. She though she’d spend her whole life in that ship. She thought she would see her friends die, not being able to do anything about it. That last thought broke her even more. “He showed me how you guys were doing. He showed me my dad. He showed me… You were losing.”

She closed her eyes and took her hand from Bow’s. She hugged herself tightly and burrowed her head in her legs.

“It was hard,” Bow admitted. “Dealing with Horde Prime is more difficult than dealing with Hordak. But we… we deal with it. We deal with everything, and we will win.” The determination in both his voice and his face sent a shiver through her back. It was not a good one.

Then, he hugged her for the first time since they had reunited.

She had missed this, but she hadn’t realized how much until it actually happened. The hard presence of Bow, the way he smelled – differently now that they were away from Brigh Moon’s soap, but still undeniably him – the way his warm arms surrounded her. She felt herself relax.

“I’m sorry,” he said suddenly. That startled her. Not his voice, it was soft and private, but his words.

“What are you sorry for?” Her tone was definitely different to his, it sounded shrill even to her own ears.

He laughed uncomfortably. “I acted like a jerk and you’re clearly… well, you know, not having a great time.”

“Bow. No.” Her tone was definite. She didn’t want him thinking like that. She had been wrong about everything she had done on those last few months and he should be angry. She told him so.

“I still acted very rudely.” His face showed that he wasn’t going to accept any other comment about the situation, no matter how wrong he was. “When I found you after that nightmare…” he sighed. “I left, Glimmer.” He looks at her and she can see tears welling up, threatening to fall. “I left. I’ve never done that.”

“You sent Adora.”

He looked surprised. “What?”

“I know it was not a coincidence that she just happened to walk into my room right after you left.” She smiled softly at him.

His cheeks were pink, and she couldn’t help but think that it’s adorable. “I didn’t think you’d want to be alone.” He shook his head. “But I still left you. I should have been with you, not send Adora… And I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, Bow, really.”

“I don’t want to make excuses for myself but… I didn’t realize it was this bad, Glimmer. You should have… Well, I guess we weren’t very receptive for you to come talk to us, right?” He laughed humorlessly.

She hugged him closely again. “I don’t need that apology,” she started, and squeezed him once. “However, I do accept it, if that makes you feel better.”

He hugged her back, tightly. “When we’re back in Etheria and this whole thing is better…” he sighed. “I think you should speak with someone. Outside of us. Someone that can help you.”

Glimmer bit her lip. “We’ll see what happens once this whole thing is better.”