Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Bow! Wake Up! It’s an emergency!”

“Adora, what’s wrong?”

“It’s Glimmer’s birthday and I don’t know what to get her!”

Bow sat bolt upright. “What?” he shrieked.

“Yeah, so we gotta get going! Let’s go!” Adora tugged him out of bed and accidentally threw him. “Sorry!” she winced as he hit the floor.

Even at dawn, the marketplace was alive with activity as merchants peddled their goods and buyers milled from stall to stall looking for things to bargain for. It was as they arrived at the market that Adora and Bow realized they had no idea what their plan was. But the hot brown morning potion that a particularly enthusiastic vendor had sold them was waking them up slightly.

“So… now what?” Bow asked, “Do you have any ideas for what you wanna get her?”

“Uh, not really, no.” Adora admitted.”But it’s her first birthday since we got married and I want it to be as perfect as I can make it!”

Bow clutched his chest and teared up. “That’s the most beautiful thing I've ever heard,” he sniffled.

“Really?”

“Now let’s go find that present! We’re team Adora and Bow, no wait, Team Adorabow.”

Sometime later when the hot brown morning potion had worn off, team Adorabow still hadn’t found a gift. That and the fact that it was almost noon made the mood especially panicked. No piece of jewellery or hooded cloak, or fancy flowers seemed right, and Glimmer would notice they were gone soon enough.

Adora groaned as she kicked a stray pebble, “Nothing fits!”

“Hey,” Bow soothed, “It’s okay if it’s not perfect. What matters is that you chose it, I’m sure Glimmer will love anything you picked out for her.”

Suddenly Adora’s eyes went wide, “I’ve got it! Let’s go!”

“But the rest of the market’s in the other direction.”

“Pfft, who said we were going back to the market?”

Adora and Bow hadn’t been seen all day. Glimmer tried to think of where they could have gone. Mermista and Perfuma had confirmed they weren’t in Salineas or Plumeria, Netossa and Spinnerella hadn’t seen them. Even Lance and George didn’t know where they were. It was… weird to say the least.

“Hey, Glimmer!”

Glimmer jumped and whirled around to see where the shout had come from. “Frosta,” she groaned, “what are you doing up this early?”

“I was sneaking around and punching stuff!” Frosta grinned, “Oh, and I know where Bow and Adora are.”

“Where are they?”

“Right behind you.”

Sure enough, there they were. Adora had a large package and Bow winced when she spotted them. Glimmer ran forward to embrace them both.

“Where have you guys been?” she demanded.

“First the palace, then the market, then the whispering woods, then back to the market because we left Swift Wind behind, then back to the palace again.” Bow rambled.

“Why?”

“We were trying to find you a birthday gift!” Adora blurted.

“My birthday? But that’s not for another two weeks.” Glimmer said

“Wh-what?” Adora stammered. Frosta snorted.

“Did you guys get any sleep?” Glimmer asked.

“Uh,” Bow began right as Adora said “No.”

Glimmer couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of her. “I’m sorry,” she wheezed “You got up super early, travelled to the market, and tried to sneak back in for my birthday?”

“Yes,” they said in unison.

“I love you guys so much!”

“I love you too, Glimmer,” Adora said softly.

“Ugh, you guys are gross,” Frosta complained.

“We were having a MOMENT Frosta!”

Chapter Text

Just once Glimmer wanted a night to herself that wasn’t sabotaged by the Horde. Just one measly night.

In all the chaos, Adora had gotten hit by a rogue blade and been knocked unconscious. Now they were waiting for her to wake up, hopefully without any lasting damage.

A healer came into the room, they didn’t look too sombre, which Glimmer hoped was a good thing.

“She’s awake but very dazed. She doesn’t seem to remember very much, so be gentle,” they cautioned.

Glimmer and Bow rushed into the room where Adora was. She looked dazed alright.

“Oh hey guys,” Adora said woozily “Who are you?”

“She’s got amnesia?” Glimmer hissed to Bow, “What are we supposed to do?”

“Introduce ourselves? I’ll go first,”

Bow took a seat in a chair next to Adora. “Hi Adora, I’m Bow, your friend, you got hit on the head but your memories should be coming back soon.”

“Hey Bow,” Adora’s eyes began to focus and landed on Glimmer behind them. “Yo Bow, who’s the sparkly girl?”

“That’s Glimmer, she was with you when you got hit.”

“Is she my girlfriend? She’s pretty,”

Glimmer blushed and vanished in a puff of sparkles.

“Aww, my girlfriend’s gone,” Adora whined.

“Adora, Glimmer’s not your girlfriend,”

“Oh,” Adora tried to think, she wasn’t Glimmer’s girlfriend then she must be…

“Oh I get it now, she’s my wife!”

There was another puff of sparkles as Glimmer vanished again.

“Uh, no, Glimmer’s your friend, like me,” Bow said gently.

“Well that’s dumb, I want Glimmer to be my girlfriend.”

“That makes three of us,” Bow muttered.

“Did you say something?”

“Nope, hey Adora, when you’re feeling better and Glimmer’s not screaming into her pillow somewhere, why don’t you ask her out?”

“Yeah! I’m gonna ask Glimmer out!”

“She said I was her wife, Mermista! What do I do?”

“Stop being a coward and put a ring on it,”

“What does Perfuma see in you again?”

“Well, sometimes I can-”

“Just forget I asked. Please.”

“I still can’t believe I said that,” Adora groaned.

“Well it worked, you’ve got a wife now,” Glimmer kissed her cheek and Adora grinned.

“Yeah, that’s pretty cool, but now Mermista and Bow are all smug about it.”

“I presume this means we cause trouble by telling them we broke up on our honeymoon?”

“Have you been hanging out with Catra?”

“Well?”

Adora’s smile took on a mischievous edge, “Hell yeah,”

Chapter Text

“And then, the headless soldier vanished, leaving only the screaming echoes of his victims behind!”

Bow flinched, Frosta shrieked, Perfuma smiled gently. Adora still thought that letting Mermista tell the story was a bad idea, but everyone had said they could handle it.

Next to her, Glimmer winced at the latest tale. Seriously, Adora thought, how does Mermista know all these ghost stories?

“Ooh!” Perfuma clapped her hands gleefully, “Tell us another Mermista!”

“Oh, I don’t know…” Mermista grinned wickedly, “I don’t think these guys can handle it.”

“Can so!” Frosta and Glimmer said in unison.

“Well then.. Have you ever heard the story of the Dryl Mountain Monster?”

“Anyone who hears the cry of this monster is doomed to transform into a hideous beast with leathery skin and a thirst for blood,”

Glimmer was wrong, she could not handle this, no thank you, no siree. Bow’s sleepover idea had sounded fun in theory, but the ghost stories were too much. Adding the very badly-timed rainstorm just made things worse.

“But the worst part is…”

Nope, she was out. She buried her face in Adora’s arm.

Okay, Adora. Creepy rainstorms and Mermista’s collection of ghost stories that would have Shadow Weaver running for the lights? No biggie. Glimmer getting scared enough to cling to you? Extremely big, don’t screw it up.

Adora’s internal monologue was running wild, every time Glimmer clung closer to her another babble of panic. Just don’t screw up, the voice in her head that sounded like Catra reminded her.

She couldn’t move or else Glimmer would notice. So she froze.

“Okay,” Perfuma yawned and stretched, “Those were very interesting stories, Mermista, but I think we should head to bed now.”

Frosta and Bow stared at her incredulously “How are you tired after that?” Bow demanded. Perfuma didn’t respond, just smiled sleepily.

“Well even if we wanted to sleep, we can’t, because those two passed out on the sleeping bags,” Mermista said.

Sure enough, Glimmer and Adora were fast asleep, tangled up together and sprawled accross the piles of blankets and bedding that everyone was supposed to sleep on.

Finally Mermista spoke up; “I’m gonna dump water on them,”

“No wait!” Perfuma said, “That will get your things wet as well, perhaps try a loud noise to wake them up?”

“I think I just fell even more in love with you.”

Chapter Text

Winter:

“Catra I need your help!”

“What did Entrapta goad you into testing this time?”

“No not that, worse than that,”

“So what did you do?”

“I was trying to prank you with a snowball but I hit Glimmer by accident instead, I think she cried!”

“So let me get this straight: you wanted to hit me with a snowball, but you hit your crush instead,”

“...Yes?”

“And now you want me to do something even more stupid so she’ll forget and won’t be upset with you?”

“And now I need you to do something stupid so she won’t hate me, so will you? ”

“Eh, why not, you and sparkles won’t stop pining so I might as well do something fun instead of watching you make heart-eyes at your phone.”

“I don’t do that!”

“Yes you do, now I need to find Scorpia, rope, bacon grease, goose feathers, and a roll of duct tape,”

“What are you using all that for?”

“I’m gonna get you a date with sparkles, and in return, you’re gonna make me a giant mug of hot chocolate,”

Spring:

“She wants me to plant flowers with her!”

“Then go?”

“I’m allergic to flowers!”

“So don’t go.”

“No, I have to!”

“...Then take allergy medicine.”

“Yeah, I’ll take allergy medicine.”

𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘

“Wait crap was that drowsy allergy medicine Adora took?”

𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘𐩘

“Hi, Catra!”

“Hey, sparkles.”

“Adora fell asleep while we were out, so I brought her home,”

Summer:

“You look super sunburned, what happened?”

“I was at the beach with Glimmer and Bow, and Glimmer fell asleep on me so I didn’t move and got a sunburn.”

“Well, that explains the person-shaped tanline, but why didn’t you use an umbrella?”

“I… forgot,”

“You forgot to put up an umbrella?”

“Yeah,”

“Adora you’re the most useless lesbian I’ve ever met,”

“You’re more useless! You didn’t know Scorpia liked you until your fifth date!”

“You leave Scorpia out of this,”

Fall:

“I did it! I made it through a date!”

“And you didn’t mess anything up?”

“Nope!”

“You didn’t underestimate your own strength and rip a door off its hinges?”

“Nope! And that only happened once!”

“You didn’t hit her with any projectiles, call her by the wrong name, or propose marriage on the first date?”

“No, no and no, it went awesome!”

“So, tell me what happened,”

“We went on a walk to look at the leaves, saw the lake and went out for coffee! And she said she wants to see me again!”

“I hope so seeing as you’ve been friends for two years, so what did you get when you went out for coffee?”

“I got a mocha and she got a pumpkin spice latte,”

“She got pumpkin spice?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Adora, I know this is the only date you’ve made it through with your crush, but I think you need to break up with her,”

"What! Why?"

"She likes pumpkin spice, she can't be trusted,"

Chapter Text

Adora could totally do this, she was not gonna chicken out no matter what Catra said. It was just a matter of making it through a whole day with Glimmer knowing what she planned to do, remembering Angella’s shovel talk, and acting casual enough that no one would be clued into her plans.

“Aunt Casta, it’s good to see you!” Glimmer cried as she ran to embrace the sorceress standing at the enterance to Mysticor.

“It’s good to see you too, Glimmer. Still no sweater though. Ah! And I see you’ve brought Adora and Bow with you!”

“Lady Catra. I mean! Castaspella,” Adora bowed stiffly, Bow gave her a puzzled look.

“I like these two,” Castaspella babbled as she lead them to their rooms. Adora felt someone grab her arm and drag her off to the side. It was Bow.

“Okay, what’s going on? You’ve been acting weird all day. You jumped when Glimmer said ‘good morning’ you nearly flipped a gaurd over your shoulder, and you messed up three people’s names today,”

Dammit, so her act casual act wasn’t working.

“Acting weird? I’m not acting weird at all. Maybe you’re acting weird, maybe you’re hiding something and you’re the one trying to distract me, hmm?”

“I never said anything about hiding stuff, that was all you,”

Oh no.

“Okay, can you keep a secret?”

“Have I given you a reason to think I can’t?”

“I mean, there was that time where you found out that Mermista liked Perfuma and you couldn’t be around them without crying.”

“Aside from then!”

“No, okay, so I kinda sorta… wanna propose?”

Bow didn’t say anything, just stared at her. A watery smile began creeping across his face and next thing Adora knew he’d pulled her into a bone-crushing hug.

“Ow,” she muttered.

“Sorry, just. This is big! When did you know you wanted to propose? Will it be all big and fancy or more low-key? Is there anything I can do to help?” he gushed

“Just make sure that Glimmer doesn’t know what’s going on. This is gonna be the best proposal ever”

“She’s coming, act natural!”

“Oh there you are!” Glimmer said as she rounded the corner they’d been hiding in. “Uh, what are you doing?”

Adora had one leg in the air, Bow was scrutinizing a pillar. Akwardly they both said: “Nothing.”

“Well alright then, come on! We’re supposed to be relaxing!” Glimmer seemed a little distracted, probably thinking about the hot springs again.

“Hey Glimmer, can I ask you something?”

“Sure,”

“Will you marry me?”

“Uh, yeah, just after we’re out of the hot springs,”

“Oh, okay,”

Bow was gasping for air. Had either of them realized what they’d just said?

“Well come on, lets go!” Glimmer headed down the hallway. Adora and Bow trailed behind her.

It was a good while later once Glimmer had finally gotten into the hot springs that she realized what exactly Adora had asked her out in the halls.

“Wait!” she shrieked.

Chapter Text

“Hey Catra, look at this!”

Adora reached out to lightly tap the mouse lying dead in a trap. Suddenly it began twitching and flailing, trying to get free.

“Whoah! How’d you do that?” Catra demanded.

“I dunno, but if I touch it again,”

She tapped the mouse again. It stopped moving and went still in the trap.

“That’s gross!”

The bell jingled pleasantly as Adora walked in for yet another day at work, from her spot at the cash register, Perfuma shot her a grin.

“Adora!” she called, “How was your night?”

“Tiring,” Adora replied, “Catra had me working till three in the morning,”

“Oh my, are you sure you should be working today?”

“Nah, I’ll be fine,”

The phone rang. Perfuma jumped and picked it up. “This is The Pie Hole, how can we help you?”

There was a pause as whoever was on the other end spoke, “You need Adora’s help now? No, I suppose that’s alright if it’s an emergency, goodbye Catra.”

She looked at Adora, “Catra says to meet her at the Waterfront Funeral Home. All she said was that it’s a ‘Code Sparkles Emergency’”

Adora gasped, Code Sparkles was a relic from when they were little and she couldn’t stop pining for Glimmer next door. Why would Catra bring it up now? After 15 years during which neither of them had seen Glimmer at all.

“You look a little worried,” Perfuma said, “Go, I’ll hold down the fort until you get back,”

The waterfront was crowded with tourists and mourners alike, just what the hell is going on? Adora wondered as she pushed her way through the herd to where Catra was waiting for her.

“Catra! What’s with the Code Sparkles?” she demanded.

“You’ll see in a moment,” Catra said as she lead her into the parlour of a swanky-looking funeral home. “We got the call at about 6:00 this morning.”

inside, people milled about awkwardly. Catra elbowed her way forward to where a closed coffin was resting. Nearby, Scorpia comforted a crying woman slumped in a plush chair.

Wait, that was Glimmer’s aunt; the emergency, Castaspella, “Code Sparkles”, it all made sense now.

Sure enough, one look at the body confirmed it, the hair was pink now and she was a little taller, but  Glimmer was dead.

Scorpia put an awkward arm around Castaspella’s shoulder, “Pardon me, uh, ma’am, but we should leave while my colleagues work.”

Castaspella wailed louder but allowed herself to be lead from the room. Shakily, Adora reached out to tap Glimmer lightly on the shoulder. She gasped and shot up. Catra clicked her timer.

“Geez it feels like someone just tried to strangle me with a plastic bag,” Glimmer complained. “Wait Catra? Adora? I haven’t seen you two in ages,”

“Glimmer, there’s no easy way to tell you but-”

“You were strangled by a plastic bag.” Catra interrupted.

“Okay, that’s not the way I would have phrased it, but Catra’s right. You died on a cruise ship,”

“If I’m dead, then how am I talking to you? Is this the afterlife or something?”

“Nope, Adora brought you back. Now we need to know who killed you because we’ve got three minutes left.”

“There was a creepy woman who always seemed to be watching me when I left my room, and a pair of earrings I was supposed to take to Rome in exchange for the cruise.”

“Okay, that’s a start. Did the creepy woman have a name?”

“Not that I know of, hey, can I see my aunt now? She gotta to be worried about me,”

“Your aunt can’t know you’re alive Glimmer, no one besides me and Catra can,”

“That’s dumb,”

“Nice to see you haven’t changed in twenty years, Sparkles,”

The timer went off, Catra left the room to check on the situation outside. Adora took an unsteady breath and reached forward to kill Glimmer again. But she hesitated.

“Well, it was nice to see you, even if it was under such weird circumstances. You got-” Glimmer looked her up and down before blushing and casting her eyes away “-buff,”

“I’m sorry about your dad Glimmer,”

The rain flooding the cemetery trickled into Adora’s eyes. The umbrella she was holding out to Glimmer trembled in her hand. Glimmer looked up at her, tears streaming down her face and eyes red and puffy.

“Well, it’s not like you killed him, so I don’t know what you’re sorry for.” Glimmer laughed weakly, Adora didn’t say anything.

“And now you’re going off to school and I’ll never see you again,”

“That’s not true! I’ll meet up with you again. I promise,”

“You do? That’s dumb,”

“Is not!”

Glimmer sniffed and laughed shakily, it was the sweetest sound Adora had ever heard. From the base of the hill, Glimmer’s aunt called up to her. Adora extended a hand and helped her to her feet. Then pulled her in for a final embrace.

“Don’t you have to kill me now?”

Adora snapped out of her hesitation, re-killing a person she knew? She’d never done that before. And of all people it was Glimmer . “Code Sparkles” Glimmer, banana cream pie disaster Glimmer, cup phones connecting their two bedrooms Glimmer, first kiss Glimmer. How the hell was she supposed to do that?

“Uh, Adora?”

“I don’t have to kill you!” she blurted.

“What? How exactly do these kooky powers of yours work?”

“I can bring back any dead thing I touch for five minutes at a time before I have to kill them for good by touching it again. If I don’t then something or someone else will die in its place,”

“You’re sure that this isn’t some elaborate practical joke?”

Just then, there was a crash from outside, followed by screaming. Catra poked her head into the room.

“Oh, I see. Tick-tock Adora,”

She vanished back outside. A quick look into the funeral parlour revealed that the owner -a mr. Hordak- was dead.

“Okay, so maybe you are telling the truth,”

“So, will you come with me?”

“To where?”

“My home. You can come to the pie shop with me, the docks, anywhere you want. I’ll make it happen!”

“Aren’t I supposed to be dead?”

“We’ll figure that part out later, so what do you say?”

“It’s not the weirdest thing I’ve ever done, why the hell not?”

The social worker would be coming to pick her up any minute now. Slowly, Glimmer was making her way down the hill to where her aunt was waiting. It felt a little… lonely.

Suddenly, there was a blur of motion and she was thrown backwards onto the ground. Glimmer had her arms around her waist and her face buried in her shoulder.

“Don’t forget to meet up with me again or I’ll come back as a zombie to curse you,” she said, her voice muffled against Adora’s shoulder.

“I won’t, I swear,” Adora giggled. “Goodbye Glimmer,”

There was a pause, then Glimmer leaned in briefly to press their lips together before getting to her feet and dashing down the hill.

“Bye Adora!” she called as she vanished into the car waiting at the bottom of the hill.

Adora couldn’t react, she just sat there, idly touching her lips. Later, she’d giddily realize:

Glimmer was my first kiss! and laugh loudly enough to wake up Catra from the top bunk