#persephx

“He’s so cute!” Adora said excitedly, running her hand softly through his back.

Melog was fucking purring.

“He is,” Catra said tersely.

One thing that she always prided herself with was that she had been the one person Melog had liked as soon as he’d met them. She hadn’t even intended on adopting him, he was just bringing Double Trouble some leftovers of the arroz con leche she had made that weekend. And then, she had heard the deep meowing coming from one of the cages.

“That one is a little bitch,” DT had said.

Catra had rolled her eyes. DT was… difficult, sometimes. Not that she had any room to talk, but still. She knew they loved the animals and the shelter, but she was also very aware of how much they liked to complain.

“If he slices your hand open and we have to take you to the hospital, you’re driving there yourself, Kitten,” they had said, sounding uninterested. She could feel their eyes on her, though, tracking every move.

She had looked at the black cat and he had looked back at her. He had turned his head to the side, like she would imagine a dog doing. The truth is that she had never had a pet before, and she hadn’t really been much around animals, so she hadn’t known how to act with him.

“Hello little guy.”

She had imagined that if he could, Melog would have rolled his eyes. She knows Double Trouble did.

“Let him sniff you,” her friend had said. Again, they’d sounded bored. “And be careful, don’t stick your finger in there.”

Catra had frowned and rolled her eyes. She’d pressed her finger to the bars of the cage and the cat had slowly approached her. He had sniffed her and then, slowly he had started rubbing his cheek against her. Just about two hours later, she had gotten into her car with the cat in a carrier DT had lent her. It had taken him less than two weeks to feel at home. She had always felt privileged in some way because she had gained his trust and his love so easily. And now Adora was getting it too?

Before she could get too jealous, Melog stood up, shook his body and jumped from the couch to walk slowly towards the kitchen. When he passed Catra, he rubbed against her leg.

She looked up and saw Adora smiling brightly at her, as if the cat leaving her hadn’t affected her at all. She smirked and walked towards her. “Hello there,” she mumbled, bringing her face closer to the blonde’s.

“Hello,” Adora answered in a whisper.

And so, they continued their nightly activities. When they were finished, they stayed in bed for a moment.

“That was good,” Adora said.

Catra huffed and secretly smiled at the dork that was lying next to her. “Sure,” she said. “I’m gonna get a glass of water. You want anything?”

“Water too, please.”

She nodded and picked a t-shirt from the floor. Adora’s. Nice. She put it on and turned to look at her companion. She was looking at her like in a trance, and Catra could only smile when she realized.

When she was back with the two glasses, she saw that Melog was sniffing around the foot of the bed.

“You’re gross,” she told him.

Adora, who had her phone out and was either taking pictures or a video, looked up. “Don’t talk to him like that, he’s cute!”

He meowed, like he also wanted to be a part of the conversation and Catra just rolled her eyes and handed Adora her water.

“You didn’t tell me you had a cat,” Adora said after taking a huge gulp of water.

“We didn’t really have a long, personal conversation, did we?”

Adora hummed. “I guess not.” There were a couple beats of silence before she broke it again. “If you had a picture with him on your profile you would get a lot more propositions,” she told her.

Catra barked a laugh.

“I can manage on my own,” she answered. It had been her who had matched with Adora, she hadn’t needed to use the cat, and she wasn’t going to start doing it now. She couldn’t imagine that either Melog or Double Trouble would be too happy if she did. DT was fairly supportive of her hocking up with women from Etheria’s most famous dating app, she said it polished her rough edges, which it didn’t, by the way. But it was a fun outlet.

Adora hummed again and this time it was her who was smirking. “You sure do,” she mustered as she came closer to Catra and grabbed her waist.

Catra didn’t bother saying anything before kissing her.

When it was time for Adora to go, she whispered a goodbye followed by a couple of pets to Melog and then faced Catra seemingly not knowing what to do. Putting on a mask of courage she didn’t really feel, Catra put her hand on Adora’s arm —and what an arm— and pulled her in for a kiss.

“Goodbye,” she said.

“Bye.”

With a satisfied smile, Adora turned and headed towards the door.

“Hey, Adora?” The woman turned inquisitively, “Keep my number around.”

She smiled brightly at her. “I will.”

Not even a week later, Catra was opening the door for Adora again. The blonde was smiling as brightly as she had been the other day, and this time she seemed even more awkward. She waved with her hand.

“What are you doing?” Catra snorted as she stepped aside and let the other woman walk into her home.

“I’m sorry I’m not good at this.” Red as a beat, Adora walked inside and looked around, probably searching for Melog.

“He’s sleeping on the bathtub,” Catra told her. When Adora looked at her with a question on her face, she just shrugged. Her cat was weird like that.

“You’ll have to make do with me,” Catra told her, raising her eyebrows a bit. It sounded as much of a challenge as she had intended it to sound.

Adora had smirked as an answer, and that had been that.

Afterwards, they had both been smiling contently, when Melog jumped into the bed, or, more specifically, on Catra’s stomach. She grunted in pain. “Dude,” she whispered as she pushed him off of her. If cats could smile, she knew he would be smiling so she stuck out her tongue. A snort brought her up from her stare fight with the cat. Adora was looking at her like she was dumb —but also like Adora did not mind it much.

“He squished my organs,” Catra mumbled.

“It was adorable,” the blonde said simply, and then she offered Melog a finger for him to sniff. “Hello, little guy, how’re you doing?” Melog stopped his sniffing and stared at her and Adora nodded. “Sure.”

Now it was Catra who was looking at Adora like she was dumb. She looked even dumber when she gave her a gummy smile as she started to pet Melog’s head.

“Are you going to try to steal my cat?” she asked seriously.

Adora snorted. “I don’t think he’d like that very much,” she answered, her eyes still of the fur ball.

Catra, knowing that Adora couldn’t see it, smiled. She run her hand through Melog’s back and he started purring, as if, even with his eyes closed, he could tell it was her petting him.

Melog was already sleeping between the two pillows when Adora left. Catra petted him softly on the cheek —so softly that she didn’t wake him up— and whispered, “so you like her, huh?” She had to admit, he wasn’t the only one.

The next day, she went to a café with Scorpia, and as she was telling her about Adora, she could see her friend practically vibrating.

“And you say Melog liked her?” Scorpia asked as soon as she was done. Catra nodded. “Woah, that’s good. That has to mean something. Cats are extremely good judges of character, you know?”

Catra rolled her eyes. “Does that mean you’re bad then?”

Scorpia pouted. “Well, Melog loves me now.”

“Because you always give him treats when you come by.”

Scorpia smiled, self-satisfied. “If I remember correctly, it was the same with you, Wildcat.”

And it had been. Catra hadn’t been able to stand Scorpia when they had first met, but the other woman had eventually charmed her. She had also shared so many baked goods to get on her good graces that Catra had gained ten pounds. Oh, but what good pounds they had been. In the end, it had been more Scorpia’s personality than her bakery that had won her over, and they both knew it, but it was too touchy-feely for Catra to admit, and Scorpia knew it, so she left it as that.

“Okay, sure.”

There was a squeal and then two huge arms were around Catra. As always, she faked she wanted to get away from Scorpia’s hug. She had hated them in the beginning —who hugs someone they haven’t met before?— but now, she found them comforting.

“I can’t believe my best friend is in love, this is so exciting!”

Every hair Catra had in her body stood up. “Woah, woah, woah. In love? No. No. Not in love.”

Scorpia was looking at her like she knew better, but Catra decided to ignore her. She might like Adora, but seeing her two times just was not enough to “be in love with her”, it just wasn’t.

It was a few weeks later, Adora and Catra were lying on her bed and Catra was almost falling asleep when Adora sat up so suddenly that she was startled. The blonde had her hand in the cat’s fur, and she was looking at him with a frown.

“What?” Catra asked, worry creeping in her tone.

Adora turned her frown to her. “I don’t even know his name.”

Catra couldn’t hold back the ugly snort. It was ridiculous that Adora had been in her apartment three times and that the cat liked her more than she had liked any other stranger he had met, and she didn’t even know his name.

“Melog,” she answered once she had sobered up.

Adora nodded. “Melog? That’s...”

“Weird. I know. He came with the name.” She shrugged. She would have never called a cat ‘Melog’, but it felt wrong to change it, so she had just rolled with it. And the cat apparently knew he was Melog, so it worked.

“What do you mean?”

“They told me at the shelter that he had come in with a collar that said his name was Melog. I went with it.”

Adora was looking at her with soft eyes, which made Catra feel a bit uncomfortable. Her mind went back to Scorpia and her stupid claim that she was falling in love. She shifted, uncomfortable.

“What?” She asked gruffly.

Melog, as if he could tell that they were talking about him, stuff up and shook himself. He looked at them and walked to the foot of the bed.

“You adopted him?” Her eyes were practically shining. Catra looked away, to the cat, and saw that he was making his way up to her lap.

“Yeah. So what?”

Melog turned around himself twice before plopping down and sitting on her. She started petting his head.

“That’s amazing.”

Catra frowned. “It’s nothing,” she answered with a shrug. It really wasn’t. She hadn’t even had the intentions to adopt him, it had just happened.

“It is! You gave this poor little thing a home. I’m sure he’s very grateful.”

She looked at Melog, who was purring fiercely in her lap. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“Awe, you two look adorable,” Adora said, her hands in her cheeks. Catra could feel her face heating up at the attention, so she focused on Melog.

The next time Adora was there she went directly to the sofa, where Melog was lying moodily. It was basically a routine by now, that the first thing she did when she came over was say hello to the cat. He didn’t seem to be mad about it, even coming to meet Adora if he was in another room when she arrived. Not even Catra got that treatment.

Before Adora could get close enough to pet him, she grabbed her wrist. “Don’t pet him, he’s in a bad mood because I took him to the vet.”

Adora’s face turned worried so fast that it almost gave Catra whiplash.

“Is he okay? Did something happen?” There was a bit of a frantic edge to her voice.

Catra’s heart did something weird then. It warmed. That was the only way she knew how to describe it. It just… The way Adora cared so visibly about Melog, the most important being in her life…

She swallowed the lump on her throat.

“He’s fine. It was just a check-up.”

Adora nodded, and then pouted. She let Melog sniff her finger and when she got the ok, she rubbed his head. The little beast even started purring, no matter he had made Catra bleed not even five minutes before that.

“Poor thing,” Adora said with a baby voice. “What a bad human you have, taking you to the vet without need.”

“Hey,” Catra complained. “Don’t put him against me, you’re not keeping him.”

At that, Adora flashed a big smile.

The blonde left almost four hours later, and once she had already left, Catra realized they hadn’t even made it to the bedroom.

It was another day, but the situation was pretty similar. They were lying on Catra’s bed, catching their breaths, and with Melog making a little space to sleep.

“Hey Catra?” Adora said, startling Catra out of the insides of her mind.

She looked at the blonde woman, softened by the flush on her cheeks. “Yes?”

“A friend of mine is doing a sculpture show this weekend. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me.” Adora was biting her lower lip and she looked nervous. Catra couldn’t help but think it was adorable.

She didn’t know what to say, though. They weren’t really seeing each other outside of Catra’s house, and only to fuck. They weren’t friends, and definitely not something more. Going to a friend of hers’ show… felt like a little too close to being that something more that they weren’t. And still, Catra didn’t want to say no.

“Sure,” she ended up saying. “Just text me the details and I’ll be there.”

And so, a few days after that, she was standing in front of a little art gallery in the city center. It was a small and cozy place. Catra could imagine there’d be girls with black turtlenecks and mom jeans and round, wire glasses and top knocks or tan beanies inside. She wondered if Adora would be one of those girls outside of their hookups. She wondered if she would recognize her when she was interacting with her friends. She wondered if she was going to meet her friends. She panicked for a moment. Was she going to meet Adora’s friends? If she had invited here there, then it only made sense that her friends were also going to be there, right? And if she did meet them… how was she going to be introduced? They hadn’t had any kind of conversation about what they were, really, and while Catra wasn’t feeling the aversion she usually felt in situations like that, but there was still a small edge of panic.

She was considering just turning around and leaving when she heard her name being called. She turned to see Adora walking towards her. When the blonde reached her, they hoovered over each other for a moment before Catra said ‘fuck it’ and then pulled Adora in for a hug. A kiss would have been better but, again, they hadn’t had any kind of conversation that would have made it okay. A hug seemed safer. For both of them.

“I’m glad you came,” Adora said softly.

Catra took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

Someone interrupted them by clearing their throat. A woman was standing there, behind Adora, and she looked exactly how Catra would have imagined someone who frequented galleries. She had pink hair, thick eyeliner and one teardrop-like earring, only one. She was wearing a mesh t-shirt with a bright purple bralette underneath and black skinny jeans. To top it off, she had the most purple combat boots she had even seen. She had a pearly pendant around her neck.

“Hi,” she said with a tone that made Adora groan. “I’m Glimmer,” she told her, holding her hand for her to shake.

Catra looked at Adora, who was blushing, and then at Glimmer, who looked like she was two seconds away from waggling her eyebrows.

“Catra. Hello,” she answered stiffly. She was feeling… unsure.

She wasn’t the greatest with people, and that showed even more when she was nervous, which she was then and there. She didn’t know what Adora had told her, but it was pretty obvious that she had told her at least something. Catra didn’t know how she felt about it; it was difficult to know when she wasn’t aware of how much Glimmer knew. She tried to act like she wasn’t bothered.

“I didn’t know you were bringing her, Adora,” Glimmer continued.

Catra could tell that she didn’t have any ill intentions. She could see that it was just teasing and that she thought she was just joking around. And still, her hand was balled up in a tight fist and she was trying to make herself stay put, try not to just leave. She thought of Melog, a little ball of black fur who would only judge silently and in specific moments.

Adora cleared her throat.

“Yeah.”

Catra could see the hot pink blush on her fair cheeks. It was recomforting to see that she wasn’t the only one feeling like this.

“We should go inside,” the blonde continued, pointing at the door.

Glimmer visibly brightened. “Yes!” She started walking towards the door and Adora and Catra shared a look. “You’re going to love this, Catra,” the purple girl told her, over her shoulder. “Bow worked super hard on this whole thing, and it really payed off. You haven’t seen all the pieces, have you, Adora?”

“Only a few.”

Glimmer hummed. “You’re in for a treat then.”

And so, they walked inside the small gallery. There were so many things that Catra felt a little overwhelmed, not knowing where to look first. In the center of the room, staring at what looked like a metal ball, there was a man.

“There’s Bow,” Glimmer said, pointing at him.

The man also looked like what Catra had expected, and at the same time, nothing at all. He was wearing a cropped sweatshirt with a big red heart in the middle and what looked like slacks. Catra frowned. What a horrid sense of style, she thought. She wasn’t sure why she had expected more. He was, too, wearing winged eyeliner. He wore a pendant with a little charm of a bow.

He smiled brightly at them

“Adora! Glimmer!” he exclaimed as they reached him. He pulled both girls into a hug. “I’m so glad you guys could come! And with company!”

“Yeah,” Adora blushed again. “This is my friend, Catra.”

Bow’s reaction was a lot less obvious than Glimmer, but the widening in his eyes was obvious for all four of them. Adora had also told him about her.

“Nice to meet you! thank you for coming!” And the man did something that surprised Catra so much she let out a gasp. He pulled her in for a hug too.

Scorpia had been bad enough with the hugs, she didn’t want another hugger in her life. She did notice Adora’s shy smile and she rolled her eyes at herself when she realized that she stopped minding the hug that much after seeing that.

Adora had introduced her as a friend. Catra wasn’t sure they were even friends. They didn’t spend that much time being… well, friendly. But she was starting to realize that it might be nice, being like this with Adora. As long as it didn’t make things weird.

In the end, she had a good time there. Bow and Glimmer were a bit too happy for her liking, but the had been nice. They hadn’t made any comments on how much Catra was looking at Adora, so at least that was something.

After that outing things were different. Not so different that it worried Catra. Not so different that they were different, really. But there were more feelings involved, and Catra couldn’t ignore them anymore. Not when she saw Adora’s shiny blue eyes. Not when she saw her with Melog. Not when she saw her asshole cat jumped Adora as soon as she walked in, no matter that he didn’t do that even with Catra.

So yes, feelings were starting to her involved, and no, she didn’t want feelings. And still, she kept seeing Adora.

She kept seeing Adora and it wasn’t lost on her how bad of an idea it was. It was a bad idea that she still stumbled to bed with her, but even worse was when she invited her to spend the night for the first time.

They had met in the middle of the afternoon and sure, they had jumped into bed as soon as Adora had walked in, but when they were finished, Catra felt something in her chest, and she realized that she didn’t want Adora to go.

She cleared her throat, uncomfortable with her own thoughts.

“You want to watch a movie?”

The look that Adora gave her was as if she had offered her to gift her a puppy. Catra rolled her eyes but she couldn’t hold back a small smile.

“Yeah.”

And so, they watched some film that Adora said she’d been wanting to watch for forever. Not that Catra payed that much attention to it. She seemed unable to when Adora was just… there. Chilling in her couch.

“You want to spend the night?”

And if before it had seemed like Catra had offered to gift her a puppy, then it looked like she had offered her firstborn. Adora didn’t take a lot of time before nodding enthusiastically.

It was night and Adora was shifting too much for Catra to be able to sleep. Not only was she physically bothering Catra, she was also fucking with her mind. If she was so uncomfortable why had she even stayed? Catra could take rejection. Catra dealt with rejection very well, mind you. If Adora didn’t want to be there, for whatever reason, she was not going to make her stay. Hell, she could leave then and there if she wanted to! Catra pretended that thought didn’t bother her.

She huffed.

“What are you doing?” She finally asked, irritated.

“Melog is biting my toes!”

Catra looked at her for a couple of seconds and then looked down to see Melog munching on Adora’s sheet-covered feet. She wasn’t able to stop the laugh that bubbled from her throat.

With each day they saw each other their relationship —not relationship, Catra hated using that word— had been growing more and more. They were slowly becoming closer, a little more than just fuckbuddies. Adora was starting to stay longer each time they hung out, they watched movies often enough that it had started to be an activity that they did together. Melog, of course, napped on Adora’s lap.

“You’re saying you’re getting feelings as if they were allergies,” Scorpia told her one day.

They were at a café near Scorpia’s apartment, just hanging out and updating each other on their lives— which meant Catra was whining about how she felt about Adora and Scorpia getting a kick out of it.

“It feels like allergies,” Catra answered grumpily.

Before Scorpia could answer with anything more than a snort, she heard someone calling her name from behind. “Catra? Catra!” When she turned, she saw Bow and Glimmer waving excitedly at her. At their side, Adora was sitting there with a hand covering her tomato-read face.

“Who’s that?” Scorpia asked her, waving back just as excitedly, even if she didn’t know them.

“Adora and her friends,” she grumbled, fighting her own blush.

It was not even ten minutes after when the blonde walked to their table. She handed Catra a brownie. “For the embarrassment,” she said. She was blushing, still, maybe even more than before.

A glance at her table told Catra that Bow and Glimmer had probably sent her.

“Thank you,” she muttered. Scorpia kicked her in the shin and she hissed. Then she rolled her eyes. “This is my friend, Scorpia. Scorps, this is Adora,” she introduced them.

“Nice to meet you!” Scorpia exclaimed. “Catra has told me a lot about you.”

Both Adora and Catra flushed darker. It was time for Catra to kick Scorpia now. Scorpia looked at her innocently and Catra had to grip her chair to refrain from jumping to her neck.

“Good things, I hope,” Adora answered awkwardly, and too late for it to sound like a casual answer. Catra was really going to kill Scorpia.

“Of course!”

Another silence.

“So… Yeah… I better go back…” she turned to Catra. “I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah, see you,” Catra muttered.

“Bye, Adora!”

When the blonde was in her table, Scorpia leaned towards Catra. “She’s pretty.”

Catra sighed. “Yeah.”

It was a few weeks after the café incident and Adora was over at her house. They were on the bed, almost cuddling while some Pixar movie was playing in the background. Well, it was playing and Adora was paying her full attention, or so it seemed, but Catra was too focused on her own thoughts to know what was happening on screen.

“We’ve never met at your place,” Catra said suddenly, finally voicing the thoughts buzzing in her mind. She had aimed for a conversational tone, but even she realized that she failed horribly. She fought back her shame.

Adora hummed and looked at her for a moment.

“You’re right.” She sat up and changed positions so she had her back against the headboard instead of being lying down. “I live with Glim and Bow, that’s why I never said anything.”

“Oh.” Catra felt stupid. She had known that Adora had roommates, that had been why they had met at her place that first time. She groaned out loud.

“No, but you’re right. You should come over some time.”

Catra shook her head. “No, it’s okay, it’s nothing,” it was not nothing,” I was just thinking, but I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Adora didn’t look like she believed her.

A few days later she received a text from Adora that said: ‘want to come over?’. She sighed and called her blond.

“Hey,” Adora answered, sounding doubtful and stretching the e a little too much to sound casual.

“You don’t have to invite me just because I brought it up.”

There was a silence that stretched out a little bit too much.

“I’m not inviting you because you said it,” Adora told her. Then she was quiet for a moment, apparently thinking it over. “Well. Maybe a little. I didn’t know you wanted to come over. And Bow and Glimmer are going to Glimmer’s aunt’s house, so I have the apartment for myself. And you pointed out that you hadn’t been here, which is true, but I just hadn’t noticed before. So now it’s the perfect time.” There was another silence. “I mean if you want to.”

“I want to,” Catra ended up saying, admitting more than she would have liked.

“Nice. Because I want you to come.” Catra snorted. “I… didn’t mean it like that.” She couldn’t see Adora, but she could tell that she was blushing just by her tone.

“Hopefully you do.”

Catra could almost feel Adora’s smile.

And so, she came over.

“I miss Melog,” Adora said after, when they were cuddling on her ridiculously small bed.

Another reason why she hadn’t been invited before, it seemed. The bed was so small that not cuddling was basically impossible if two people were on it. Catra was not complaining —well, she had complained multiple times, but now she had to admit that the excuse to cuddle was worth it. Not that she necessarily needed an excuse, judging by how content Adora seemed.

“I knew you only liked me for my cat.”

“Nah, I like you for your amazing personality.”

There was a moment of silence and then they looked at each other, both had their eyes opened wide as they seemed to realize what they had said.

“I…”

“I mean…”

Catra cleared her throat as she shifted to sit instead of lying on top of Adora. The blonde moved so that they weren’t touching at all. The atmosphere was tenser than it had ever been before between them.

“There has to be certain amount of liking for us to be… you know.” Adora was looking at her with worry on her eyes.

“Fucking.”

“Yeah.”

“Of course.”

There was a tense silence. Catra wanted to do something, but she didn’t know what exactly. Not until her mouth opened without her wanting it to.

“You like me?” When she realized what she had asked, she frowned to herself.

Before she could speak to get her dignity back, Adora squeaked back an answer “As friends!”

And that was okay. They weren’t much more. Not even proper friends, really. Catra had no business being sad about Adora saying they were just friends. She was content with what they had, really. She hadn’t been seeing anyone else, not because she wanted to give Adora exclusivity, just because she hadn’t felt like going through all the effort of finding someone else.

Adora was looking at her weirdly and Catra didn’t want that to continue so she stood up from the bed and started dressing without saying anything else.

“Do you… want me to like you as something more?” Adora asked.

Catra was not going to go through all that. She didn’t need Adora to mind her stupid feelings and she did not need to be let down easily. She knew her way to the door and she made it without a little sliver of shame. She didn’t say anything to Adora, who didn’t move from her position in the bed.

When she arrived home and saw Melog lying like a doughnut in the sofa, she had to blink back her stupid tears. It didn’t do much, and in a matter of seconds, she was crying.

“This is stupid,” she muttered, rubbing her face harshly. It was stupid, and still, her tears didn’t stop.

Melog meowed from his seat, looking at her questionably.

“This is your fault, you asshole, you should have hated her. Instead, you went all lovey-dovey and now here we are.”

The cat didn’t answer, of course, but he did trot towards her and he made her lap into his seat. She couldn’t do much except pet his soft fur. She felt a little bit better after a few minutes of this and she let out a sigh.

Eventually, she got up, showered, and went to bed even though it was only seven. She didn’t want to deal with the world that day, she’d have enough of that tomorrow. She knew texting Scorpia would probably make her feel better, but she didn’t want to retrieve her phone from her bad, sure that there would also be a text from Adora telling her that she didn’t want to hear from her ever again. She groaned and pushed her face to the pillow. At least it didn’t smell like Adora, she couldn’t imagine what she would have felt like in it had.

The next day, she was ready to fake that nothing had happened. She was fine, everything was fine and she didn’t know why you would imply otherwise. She still didn’t look at her phone.

As any other Sunday, she stayed in, with Melog curled up on her chest and watched sad Christmas movies, even though it was May. Maybe that last part was not like any other Sunday, but it made her feel better, so she wasn’t going to let anyone shame her for it. It wasn’t like anyone was going to know anyways. On Monday, everything would go back to normal, sans Adora, and only Scorpia would know that she was sad, but nothing more. Hell, she wasn’t even going to be sad on Monday, this whole thing was stupid and she was not going to let herself feel bad about it.

She was in the middle of her third Christmas movie, something overtly simplistic and incredibly heterosexual, when she was startled by her doorbell. Melog looked up, shook himself, and trotted up to the door.

Catra’s suspicions were proven to be true when she opened the door to find Adora there, with a small smile and her posture awkward as hell.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, frowning.

“You left very fast and you didn’t answer your phone,” Adora answered, her voice rough and hesitant.

“Didn’t you get the feeling that maybe I didn’t want to talk to you?” She asked, more rudely than she had even talked to Adora.

The blonde nodded and sighed. “Yeah, I suspected so, but I really wanted to talk to you.”

Catra turned and left to sit on the sofa, but she left the door open. Adora followed her inside, she closed the door after her and then sat next to her, leaven a space between them that weighed like an elephant.

“I…”

“Look, Adora. It’s fine. I don’t… Well, it’s fine. I don’t expect anything from you and I’m very aware of the nature of our relationship. Or not-relationship. Whatever. I understand.”

Adora frowned and sighed. Catra guessed that it must be the relief.

“I asked if you wanted me to like you because I was scared that you didn’t,” she finally said. “What we have… Feelings are not usually involved, I know, but you’re hard not to like.” Catra snorted, unbelievably. Adora shrugged. “It’s true. And not just for your cat. I…” She bit her lip.

“What?”

“I didn’t get the impression that you wanted anything from me that wasn’t what we had, that’s why I didn’t say anything, but I would be lying if I said that I didn’t have feelings for you. If you also do… maybe we can reconsider our relationship?”

Catra stayed silent for a moment, looking at Adora and not quite understanding. Adora was saying that she also liked Catra? As in like, relationship-like. The same way that Catra liked Adora.

“Are you sure?” she asked, still hesitant.

Adora smiled and took her hand in hers. “If you are.”

Her mom smiled in a way that told her she knew exactly what Glimmer had been thinking, and thankfully she found it funny. “What a day, huh?”

Glimmer nodded slowly.

Her mom sat in the sofa next to the window. Glimmer walked towards her and, hesitantly, sat there too. “It took courage to come here like that, don’t you think?”

“I suppose.”

Her mother hummed. “I like that boy,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll become good friends, you already seem to be on that path.”

Glimmer nodded slowly. “I like him too,” she said, still not convinced that this wasn’t going to be her mom trying to keep her away from Bow.

“I hope you treat him kindly.”

And Glimmer took offence at that. “I am always kind!”

Her mother laughed. It hit Glimmer that it had been a while since Queen Angella had laughed out loud like that. She could see how stressed her mom was, and it made sense, with the war going on and how much the Horde was advancing. Maybe Bow wouldn’t just do good to Glimmer, but also to Queen Angella. Glimmer could share her friend, she thought, her mother also needed someone nice in her life.

“Get some sleep, Glimmer.” Queen Angella grabbed her daughter’s hand and squeezed it lightly. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Goodnight, mom.”

- - -

Next, it was Helion. The guard spent a lot of time with Glimmer, as it was usually them who got stuck with babysitting duty. Once Bow appeared in their lives, Helion also spent more time with him, as Glimmer spent most of hers by his side.

“I brought you this flower,” Bow said the day that it happened. He had a small white flower in his hand and he was brandishing it at Glimmer with a sweet smile.

“Oh, it’s so pretty!” Glimmer had answered, instantly taking the flower offered to her and admiring it. It was small, but the petals were shaped in rhombus, and they had speckles of purple which reminded her of her own power. “Thank you, Bow!”

“It was no problem, look, I also have one,” he turned and showed her that he had the same flower behind his ear.”

“We should get you some more,” Glimmer said, frowning. Then she gasped. “Maybe we can do flower crowns if we find enough!”

Bow yelped. “We can mix more flowers and make it super colorful!” he exclaimed, before running away. Glimmer followed him without hesitating.

It took them almost all afternoon to recollect enough flowers and, once they finally had them, they rushed to look for the materials they were going to need. Helion, of course was following them closely.

“Oh!” Bow turned to them in a hallway, so suddenly that they almost tripped. “Don’t worry about yours, Helion, we have enough flowers to make you a crown too.”

And a few hours later, Helion had his own matching flower crown. They kept their face stern —which the kids seemed to find hilarious— but they were moved by the mindfulness of including them in their activity, even though there was no need.

Once Bow had retired to his bedroom and it was just Helion and Glimmer, the guard turned to the princess and bowed slightly. “Thank you for the flower crown,” they told her, giving her the one smile they kept just for the little princess.

She smiled back. “It was Bow’s idea,” she told them. “He wanted to thank you for keeping us safe, and when he said it I also wanted to. Thank you.” It funny to see Princess Glimmer of Bright Moon, a teenager, trying to be formal. Funny and endearing.

“I like that boy,” Helion said then, which resulted in a nod as a form of agreement from the princess.

- - -

The next time it had been with aunt Castaspella, the first time they visited Mystacor. Glimmer had been there so many times that it had stopped being exciting. It had become a boring family vacation. So that year she had asked aunt Castaspella if Bow could go with her. Her aunt, sure that she had been making up her first —and only— friend, had agreed instantly. Once they had actually gotten there, Glimmer kind of regretted her decision.

Bow was as nice as he always was. Castaspella was as smothering as she was. That meant that Glimmer had to deal with the same boring stuff she always had to deal with there. At least there were moment when Bow and her could scape for a mini adventure. Those were the really fun moments. One time, they had been caught red-handed. It had been a pretty bid deal, considering that they were in a forbidden rule, and her aunt had yelled so much that she had gone red-faced.

“I’m sorry auntie,” Glimmer had said. It wasn’t rare that she faked a trembling voice or a sad face to get out of trouble, but there wasn’t any faking then. She had been genuinely reprimanded at the anger and disappointment that her aunt was showing.

“Glimmer—”

Bow interrupted her. “It was my fault, Miss.”

His face showed he was ready to take any punishment that was inflicted. In fact, his face was stony and serious as Glimmer had ever seen it so far.

“I didn’t know this room was banned. But I told Glimmer that I wanted to see what was behind the door, that’s why she teleported us here. I’m sorry.”

Castaspella stared at the boy with hard eyes for a few seconds before she let out a sigh. “Don’t do it again,” she said, looking at both of them.

That night, as she was tucking Glimmer in —no matter how much her niece usually complained against it—, she was grabbed by the hand.

“It was me who suggested going into the room,” she said, softly. “Bow covered for me, but…”

“I figured as much.”

“Really?”

“Your friend doesn’t lie as well as he believes he does,” Castaspella answered with a knowing smile. “But it’s alright, Glimmer. I just need you to tell me that you won’t do that again.”

“I promise, auntie! Even if I wanted to, Bow wouldn’t agree after that scolding.”

At her niece pouting, Castaspella couldn’t help but laugh. “I like that boy.”

“Yep, everyone does.”

- - -

It had been after the war had ended, they were back in Bright Moon and they were working hard to make everything go back to normal. King Micah couldn’t be prouder of his daughter. His daughter and her funky group of friends. Where he and the First Alliance had failed, his daughter’s Second Princess Alliance had defeated the Horde.

“We should have a family dinner,” he told her one day. “You, me, and that boyfriend of yours.”

“Don’t try to act tough. It’s Bow, you know him well.” His daughter’s raised eyebrow had made him roll his eyes, which made her roll her eyes in response.

“I want to meet him officially. As your boyfriend.”

“Dad—”

“Glimmer. I want to do things normally for once.”

He had looked at him seriously for a couple of seconds before she had sighed and nodded. “Okay, Dad. Family dinner to meet the boyfriend.”

He had sent a big smile her way and she had thrown a few sparkles at his face.

He was ecstatic at the relationship that they had formed, even though it wasn’t perfect yet. After the battle against Prime, their relationship had been strained; the were nothing but strangers, really, but now, after much work, their relationship had evolved to something more casual. He was glad about that.

A few days later, at dinnertime, Bow was sweating in one of the chairs of the dinner table. He was looking nervously at them, and Micah couldn’t help but like that the boy was reacting like that.

“Dad,” his daughter said pointedly.

“Of course.” He smiled kindly at Bow. They had known each other for a long time, they had fought together, even. Micah would have trusted Bow with his life. However, it wasn’t his life what was at stake, it was his daughter’s happiness. “So. What are your intentions with my daughter?”

“DAD!” Glimmer’s outrage was instant.

“Sir—” Bow shifter uncomfortable.

“No,” Glimmer interrupted him. “You don’t have to answer that, Bow.” The boy didn’t say anything, he just turned his eyes to the food. “You are not doing this,” Glimmer told her father with the firm voice she had been curating. “Bow is my boyfriend. Either take it or leave it.”

“I don’t—”

“This is not about you,” Glimmer told Bow, interrupting him. “This is about me being twenty years old and being able to make my own decisions. Dad. Bow is my decision right now. I’m going to need you to respect it. I’m not four anymore.”

King Micah was surprised at her. Both at what she was saying and at how she was saying it. However, he nodded slowly. There was a little bit of silence and then she rolled her eyes and turned her eyes back to the food.

The silence was starting to get uncomfortable with each passing second. Bow cleared his throat. “Perfuma told me that it’s about to be time for the feast of the daisies,” he said in a conversational tone. Neither of the royals said anything, but that didn’t deter him from his task. “We should go. It sounds super fun. She also promised to give us flower crowns, which you know, Glimmer, I’m always in for. See, King Micah, Perfuma’s flower crowns are the best. She makes them with the best flowers of the kingdom. Of course, that makes sense, taking into account that is her power. You know.”

And Bow kept babbling until the silence was so far away that there was no uncomfortable feeling left in the room, and even Micah was laughing at his antics.

After the dinner, Micah and Glimmer stayed back in the dinning room, and it didn’t scape the King’s eyes that he brushed his hand against his daughter’s. He also noticed the smile they shared. It reminded her of Angella so much that his chest started hurting.

“I like that boy,” Micah told her.

There was something sad on Glimmer’s eyes when she nodded. “I don’t need your approval.”

Micah nodded. “I know, I’m sorry for… all of that. But you still have it, though.”

“What have you done?” Catra had demanded. Her voice hadn’t turned any softer in the time she had spent with them, and that was definitely the proof. Her tone was harsh and demanding, just because she couldn’t believe what was happening before her eyes.

Adora looked at her and had the right to smile. “Do you like it?”

The cut was choppy, there were some strands longer than others and it was, overall, shorter than Catra’s. If she was being honest, it didn’t look that great, at least not with the mess that it was in that moment. And of course Adora had to do that when they were in the middle of space, inside an spaceship that held just a few more of their friends, neither of which were hairdressers.

She looked down. “You made a mess,” she stated dryly.

Adora’s blue eyes looked away and she shrugged. Catra had known her for a long time, but even if she hadn’t, it would have been obvious that she was feeling self-conscious. It wasn’t a look that Catra saw a lot in Adora, always seeming so sure of herself. Since they had started… whatever this was, Adora had shown herself bare to Catra. In a metaphorical sense. She had shown herself more vulnerable. Catra, even if she didn’t want to admit it, had done the same. They were now closest than they had ever been.

She sighed. If she looked past the unevenness and the choppiness of the hair, it didn’t look bad. She was still prettier with long her, at least in her opinion, but it wasn’t ugly. Being honest, Catra couldn’t imagine a situation where Adora would be ugly. Even mid-battle she’d been the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. “You look good,” she finally mustered. It was new, saying those things to each other, and Catra wasn’t shy, no with physical contact or the new development of their relationship, but the emotional part had proven itself to be the most difficult part for her. “You look…” she cleared her throat, “it’s a mess. But we can try to fix it. I’m sure it’ll look fine then.”

“You are such a charmer,” Adora answered sarcastically, at which Catra rolled her eyes and mimicked her with a shrill voice.

She took the scissors and started trimming the strands in Adora’s forehead. The other girl stayed still, just looking at her. It was making Catra nervous, but she focused on her task. “Talk,” she ended up saying. The silence of the bathroom wasn’t doing any goods to her. In such a small space, the sounds of the hair being cut were even louder, more now that it was her who was doing it, and she felt like she couldn’t stand it. “Tell me why. Say something. Whatever.”

And it must have been the frantic tone, because Adora started talking. “I saw that you don’t seem to be that comfortable with the hair and I thought that…” she hesitated. “Well, it seems dumb, but I thought that if you weren’t the only one looking like that, you would be more comfortable.”

“It’s not that bad,” Catra felt the need to defend herself.

“It isn’t. It looks good on you, and I’m sure your head weighs a lot less,” Adora’s small smile banished after that. “But it was done without your consent and, as I’ve been learning lately, that’s important. Nobody has any right to your body, and that includes your self-image, as in your hair and other things like that.”

Catra actually had to stop cutting Adora’s hair at that. It had felt wrong when she’d woken up from the chip-reality and realized her hair had been chopped off, but she hadn’t given it too much thought, not wanting to deal with the thought of scissors so near her neck, cutting, and cutting, and cutting. The only thing that stops her from going back to the state she was when she had woken up is Adora’s hand in her forearm.

“It’s okay.” It had been said in a whisper, and only then did Catra realize that she was crying. A sob made its way past her mouth, and a few more followed it. “It’s okay.”

Catra tried to push Adora away, but her girlfriend only hugged her tightly. “I’m fine,” she ended up grumbling. She was fine, no matter how much her head hurt, no matter how wet her checks still were. She was fine.

Adora looked at her, assessingly. Whatever she saw made her grab Catra’s forearm tighter and pull her along as she walked back into the room. She made a noise as she was pushed to the bed. The full weight of Adora came after that. The blond girl was still hugging her, and she had her head in Catra’s chest.

They stayed like that for a while. Catra was no longer crying, the feel of Adora’s wright had grounded her enough to calm her.

“Do you think She-Ra is going to have short hair now?” she asked, needing the silence to get lighter.

Adora hummed. She looked up and Catra realized how sleepy her eyes seemed. She couldn’t help but smile. Adora was cute when she was half asleep, she had always been. Now that she could, Catra pulled her in for a kiss and, when they pulled away, rested her forehead against the other’s.

“I know a few people that would be mad at that,” she continued, her conversation totally apart the position they were in.

“We’ll have to see,” Adora mumbled.

“I can’t even begin to imagine how uncool She-Ra would look without her amazing, epic hair.”

Adora mustered a soft laugh. “She-Ra is always cool.”

“Sure, honey.”

She now got to call Adora honey, like she had yearned for so many years. Her chest warmed up and she let her hand burrow in Adora’s hair, now that it was short, that was infinitely easier. She wondered how she would style her hair now that she couldn’t pull it into a ponytail and hoped that the poof wouldn’t make a come-back. With those thoughts in her head, she also drifted off to sleep.

She had looked so happy that he hadn’t wanted to burst her bubble. Those smiles were so rare now and he just couldn’t be the cause to make her stop. So he just nodded and smiled at her.

“Thank you, mom.” He had taken her hand and had squeezed once. His mom squeezed back.

They stayed like that, in silence, for a while. Sokka knew he was getting himself in a difficult situation, but he really didn’t know what to do to get out of it without making her feel bad. He didn’t want her to think that he was isolating himself, even though he knew that he hadn’t been really attending game night consistently since she got hospitalized. He knew what he was doing, but she didn’t need to know. She didn’t need to feel bad for him.

“Are you happy?” she asked suddenly.

Sokka had very pointedly not dedicated that thought a lot of time. He didn’t either this time. He smiled with what he hoped was a smitten look and nodded. “Yeah,” he muttered, knowing his mom would need a vocalization. His voice was rough, maybe because he was lying to his dying mom or maybe because he couldn’t believe what was happening.

“That’s good,” she muttered, nodding to herself. “You need to bring him to meet us soon,” she had continued, tiredly.

“You have known Zuko for years.”

She hummed. “Yes, but not as your boyfriend.”

And then Katara had walked into the room. And that had been that.

__

He really wants today to be the day, but he’s wanted that before. He has tried to tell Glimmer thrice before today, and each time, he felt the tendril get tighter and tighter until he gave up and came with something else to say. The first time he had tried it, he hadn’t even known there was a name for what he felt. They had been kids and he had known, and he had wanted to share. He knew perfectly there was nothing wrong with him, he knew there was nothing wrong with liking boys, he had too dads, he knew. But he hadn’t known, back then, that liking both was also a thing, that it was okay. He wanted to share it with his friend, and then the thought had assaulted him: what if that wasn’t how it was supposed to go? So, instead of telling her his secret, he had ended up telling Glimmer about a weird animal from the Whispering Woods.

The second time had been after one of the royal events Glimmer was always dragging him to. They had been at Glimmer’s  bed, in their pj’s and eating their weigh’s worth on ice cream. It had been a few months before they had crossed paths with Adora, and their lives were definitely calmer then. There had been a boy at the event, from the Kingdom of Snows, that had caught his eyes. Not only had he been the prettiest guy Bow had seen ever, but he had also smirked at him. Like he knew. Boy had even choked on his food. In the end, he couldn’t do it then; it hadn’t mattered to the darkness in his throat that Glimmer was perfectly fine with Netossa and Spinnerella. So, instead, he had gushed about the food.

The third time, it had been little after they had made up after rescuing Glimmer from the Horde. He had decided that he had wanted to let everything out before it became a big deal, no matter that it was already a big deal, after not telling her for so long. He hadn’t done it. He had been so relieved over making up that he hadn’t wanted to ruin it, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was a possibility.

And so, Bow has a secret that he’s kept for ten years. He needs to tell his girlfriend. No. He wants to tell his girlfriend about it. And it’s not going to change anything, he repeats to himself in a firm tone. He has been doing that for hours, and it still hasn’t calmed him, although he still has hopes.

“Hey Glim,” he finally says.

They are alone in the Queen’s quarters. Glimmer’s. Glimmer, the Queen of Bright Moon and his girlfriend. That thought makes him need to clear his throat, but the knot there doesn’t lighten.

“Yeah?” she asks from where she’s practicing her magic.

She doesn’t make a habit of practicing in the bedroom, but Micah has been teaching him specific spells and she’s gotten better. And cockier. He can’t wait until she breaks a priceless vase, again, and gets a scolding from Helion, again. In any other situation, he would have teased her, but instead, he clears his throat again and tries to keep a steady voice when he talks.

“Can we speak for a moment?”

Glimmer drops her stance and focuses on him. She’s frowning. She can tell it’s important, and her eyes show her worry. She nods and walks to sit next to him in the window sit. He’s tense as a wooden plank, and he bets she can tell. She doesn’t comment on it. “Is something wrong?” she asks, instead.

“No.” Except it might be. He doesn’t know yet. Well, he knows, but he’s scared because ‘you never know’.

This time is different than the other ones, though. There’s something different when he looks at Glimmer, a certain… certitude that wasn’t there the other times. This is Glimmer. She’s shown him multiple times the type of person she is. There is no way in hell that she wouldn’t accept him.

He clears his throat yet again.

“I am bisexual.”

It comes out as a whisper, but he’s sure she’s heard it perfectly.

The room is silent for a moment. Then, Glimmer speaks. “Okay,” she says slowly. “I don’t… know what to say,” she tells him, and for a moment, his body goes cold. She’s going to say that he’s wrong. He tenses even more, and she must have felt it, because she puts her hand in his arm and makes him look at her. Her eyes are bright and the sparkles in her hair are as radiant as ever. She’s beautiful, and she’s going to reject him, he’s sure. “Thank you for telling me.”

He stops breathing for a moment.

Is that… all?

He frowns and nods.

“Are you…?” she stops herself and looks away for a moment, but it looks more like she’s thinking than that she doesn’t want to look at him. “Does this change anything?”

“No.” His answer is immediate, firm. She just nods. He thinks that he might have been too rough, too fast. “I don’t want this to change anything, if it doesn’t change anything for you.”

“It doesn’t,” she assures him. “So, you aren’t telling me this because you’ve… I don’t know, discovered that you like someone else, right?”

“No.” He turns to look at her fully and frowns. “I like you. I love you.”

“That’s good. It might have been awkward otherwise,” she chuckles. He’s too high-strung to laugh with her, but he appreciates the tone.

“I want to be with you.”

“Okay, Bow. I want to be with you, too.”

“I didn’t want to… hide it from you.”

“And I thank you for that. It really means a lot.” He believes her, with the tone she’s using it would be impossible for him not to. “I wasn’t ready for this talk, so I’m not sure what else should I say, but I just wanted to tell you that, thank you for telling me.”

“I wasn’t too obvious, then?” He’s trying to joke around, and even though he doesn’t quite get his tone to sound right, Glimmer understands what he’s doing.

She purses her lips and it looks like she might be holding back a laugh, which baffles Bow. “Sea Hawk.”

He blushes instantly.

“No.”

“It was… pretty obvious.” She’s outright laughing now.

“It was not.”

She rolls her eyes. “Sure sweetheart.”

They stay in silence for a moment, but then he grumbles “I did not like Sea Hawk.”

“You had a huge crush on him!”

“I did not!”

“Bow, you sang with him.”

“Singing doesn’t mean having a crush on someone!”

They look at each other for a moment and then they burst out laughing. The weight on Bow’s chest has disappeared along with the tendrils of darkness around his throat.

“I love you,” he tells her when they stop laughing.