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#and also it was adora’s birthday this week or something
n7punk · 1 year
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"As Many Lives As It Takes (To Be With You)" Fic Notes #2: Timeline
As always, this is the timeline I wrote for myself when working on AMLAIT. I used it for plotting things out and it might be confusing, not to mention weirdly formatted when copied to Tumblr. It's a writing tool I'm sharing, not something that's part of the reading experience of the fic. A lot of these things are also given a day or week but could be anywhere vaguely around that time.
Week 1: Nov week 1 Saturday: Trauma Saturdays CH3
Week 2: nov 2 Sunday (immediately after trauma saturday): invite to party CH2 Midweek: drowning dream, Melog visit Saturday night: BBQ CH2 & 3
Week 3: Nov week 3 Sunday: Phone calls CH4 Tuesday: Adora visit CH5 Friday: Adora visit 2, pets
Skip all of week four right to the end of it/start of week five, for a skip of 1 week 2 days.
Week 4/Week 5: Nov transitions into Dec Sunday (at the end of the week 4): nightmare/panic attack CH6 Next weekend (end of week 5): Figuring out cuddling
Week 6: december 1.5 Monday: studying for permit, phone call & agreeing to visit CH7 (Friday: take test) Saturday: PT with Netossa & Entrapta
Week 7: december 2.5 Sunday: Video call, noticing less pain with Adora Thursday: Adora call at work, Melog
Week 8: Dec 3.5. (Leave on trip.) Tuesday: Arrive, decorate, bed arguement. CH8
Week 9: Dec 4.5. Rest of trip. Week of Winterfest and end of dec. Sunday: nightmare, log. CH9 Tuesday: night market day 2
Week 11: Jan week 2. Planning birthday CH10
Week 12: Jan week 3. Midweek: adoras birthday party
week 13: jan week 4 Midweek: Nightmare/Entrapta talk CH11 Late week: Melog/work
week 14: Feb week 1 Midweek: catra finally tells her the truth. adora’s unsure but also accepting
Week 15: feb week 2 Belief/stress ball CH12
Week 16: feb week 3 touches/kneading
Week 17: feb week 4 PT exercises
Week 18: March week 1 Early week: drives Adora home
Week 20: March week 3 Scorpia move out convo CH13
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Wherever u r isn't a bad song, it's just nothing special. It's pretty, yet very basic. The lyrics are meh, but since they're unoffensive and make sense, that's good enough for me (looking at you, Jungkook). Umi's voice is pretty yet also basic, and she has that cursive style of singing (even the title is in lowercase and abbreviated) I don't exactly love. V's voice fits the song, but his accent is awful. He doesn't always sound bad in English - eg., the English trilogy - but when he sings in cursive with an English accent, it sounds like he has marbles in his mouth, as a Redditor once put it. It's very distracting. V could sing way better in English if he changed the way he sings. His accent isn't great, but I don't understand at least 70% of what Jungkook sings in his Golden b-sides and enjoy the songs regardless. Even with flawed pronunciation, songs can be enjoyable. The issue is how V chooses to sing in English. If he sang clearly like in Korean, it would be much easier to ignore his poor accent. Given how many people like to say Jungkook was only chosen for Seven because he's somehow's Hybe's favorite, I once again ask those fans if they can imagine V singing Seven and it becoming a hit song - no offense to V. He can sound amazing, but his English singing takes a lot of getting used to. My favorite V song is Sweet Night, which I adore - I love his voice in the song, how it combines with Adora's, and how romantic and full of yearning he sounds - but it took me some to get used to his English.
But it's sweet that he dropped the song on his birthday. Happy birthday, baby! I hope he gets some sort of special treatment or reward on his birthday - like a better meal, more phone time, leaving "work" earlier, or something like that.
Side tangent, I get that this song was released on V's birthday, and Jimin's song came out during Christmas, but aren't 2 songs in a week too much? Golden came out not too long ago, we're still processing Vminkook and Namjoon's enlistment, we have regular BANGTANTV episodes, BTS Monuments is airing, and it's the holidays so people are generally "busy"... Did we really need two songs? Couldn't Jimin's song have been released for Festa, or Valentine's Day or something? Since V's song's a collab and came out on his birthday, it would've made more sense to postpone Jimin's release instead. Are they really going to maintain this level of activity until June 2025? I know Jin comes back next June, and Hobi a few months later, but just how much stuff do they have prepared for us? I'm so behind already, I wish Hybe slowed down.
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wanderingghostz · 1 year
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I just realised I forgot to make a post or art or something for Adoras birthday, which is a crime. I am blaming this on the fact that the nineteenth of January is also my brothers birthday.
Also I am writing this out at 1 AM, so I may and up deleting this if I wake up and realise it makes no sense. But anyways, I looked for Adora art, and all I could find, was screenshot redraws, which I can aware I posted last week, but it was all I could find that was good enough to let loose to the public for everyone to see.
On that note, have Adora, and Season 3 best friend squad (I want a friendship like theirs so bad!!)
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sidenote -I may try and post actual drawing tomorrow if I have time to/can be bothered.
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thatsgay-writes · 3 years
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Catra x twin!sister reader where reader travels in alot of planets to find her sister and when she landed on etheria she explored the whispering woods and found melog, with their help she found glimmer and she led her to her castle and she finally met her sister. Catra wasn't pleased about it thinking that her family abounded her she just pushes reader away and goes to her room. Reader stays and went to deal with catra. They talked (mostly arguing) and in the end catra and reader hugs and they became very dear friends.
(I'm basically making you a nicer version of Catra with super girl powers (which you don't use in the story) and Lena Luthor as your wife because why not. I am also putting everyone in their early to late 20s... I also forgot to add Melog :( sorry.)
"Space log, day... 2000?" You mumble as you speak into the recorder on your ship. "It's been... 4 years since my son was born. 8 years since my people finally fully integrated with the civilization of our sister planet. 10 years since I renounced my royal title. 12 years since I met the love of my life. 16 years since my home world was destroyed by the Horde and my parents were killed. And... 24 years since I have last seen my baby sister." You breath out, having lost hope after so many years of things going wrong. "Lena and Madden have stayed on the planet Oa while I explore this last planet. It appeared almost 2 years ago and was the last place the Horde had ever been. Who or whatever is on the planet must be powerful." "This... This will be the final planet I explore. I have no hope of seeing my sister again." God you were so tired of the disappointment you felt every time you couldn't find your sister. "Happy 26th birthday." You mumble out as you get closer to the new planet. "End log."
---
"This is spaceship Kr 97. Requesting permission to land. I repeat requesting permission to land." You spoke into your radio, hoping to hear anything back. Maybe this planet didn't have the technology yet for radios? "If anyone can hear me. My name is Y/n and I come in peace. I will be landing my ship on your planet and will wait 2 days before exploring on my own." You say into your radio before putting it back where it had been hanging and controlling your ship into the planets atmosphere. It was a little bit of a bumpy landing but you landed your ship just fine on the outskirts of what seemed to be a forest. You set a 48 hour alarm on your phone. You weren't sure how the people or creatures of the planet told time, so you just stuck with what you knew. It had kept you alive so far anyways.
"Alrighty." You say to yourself as you step off of your ship. You take a deep breath as you feel the yellow sun power you up. "48 hours, let's get to work."
---
You spent the next two days cleaning up in and around your spaceship, setting up a camp, and watching how the forest worked so you knew what you could eat and what you couldn't. You had been sitting on the ground relaxing when you hear your timer go off. You click the loud noise off and stand up, grabbing the bag you had prepared. While learning the forest, you had seen some villages that seemingly lead towards somewhere and you had decided that the best course of action was to hop from village to village to see if their was a kingdom or something of that nature that you could get into contact with. You just hoped everyone was nice and that this wouldn't be a hard planet to navigate.
---
The first town you enter seems to be a farming village. You can tell because you had to walk through fields and saw, what you assume, were the livestock on the planet. You stood behind some trees for a while as you assessed how the villagers acted. You watched as kids ran around playing with their friends, shopkeepers and homeowners leaving their windows open in the nice weather, clearly not scared of being robbed. You decide that it's safe enough to enter and you have your powers to back you up incase things go wrong. It was weird because the planet had 3 moons and only 1 sun, usually planets had the suns out number moons but it was enough. You fix your cloak over your ears and tuck them back so they wouldn't be noticeable or a defining characteristic if things went sideways.
You walk slowly through the village, having expected to get some attention from your large black robe. And you do get some curious looks but it's mainly all friendly smiles. You are almost halfway through the village, aiming to enter one of the shops and ask around, when a something hits your leg. You look down and see a ball a few inches in front of your foot. You pick it up, making sure to retract your claws, and hold it out to the toddler who was staring at you and his ball. "Here you go." You say to him as you hold the ball out and shake it a little so his attention goes to it. He waddles up to you and takes the ball from you. He stares at it for a few seconds before making motions with his hands, wanting you to hold him.
Without hesitating, you pick him up and hold him close to your chest. "Where is your mother, kitten?" You ask him as he reaches up to play with your ear that were still under your hood. "Kitty!" He squeals as he knocks the hood off your head and you hear an audible gasp from behind you. "Oh my gosh, Catra I am so sorry! We didn't think you were visiting till next week. We would have prepared a feast for you and the rest of the princesses." You turn around and see an elderly looking man, who's eyes widen at the sight of you. "Have you gotten taller and cut your hair again?" He asks confused. You give him a small smile, "I'm sorry but I'm not this Catra you speak of. Are you saying there is someone similar looking to me on your planet?" You ask and the man gives you a weird look when you call it his planet but slowly nods his head. You feel hope for the first time in years and eagerly ask the man if you could stay near the town till she came next week. He gave you a bit of a weird look, not sure who you were now and unsure of your intentions, even though your reaction was positive. "Sure."
---
After returning the toddler to his mother, you basically sprinted back to your ship in excitement. "Lena! Lena!" You shout happily into the radio on your ship. Time is a little different on the planet as the sun was just starting to set but it would already be completely dark on Oa. But by your clock it was only 9, so Lena and Madden should still be awake. "Y/n?" You hear your name crackle through the radio and a smile appears on your face. "Lena you'll never believe it! There is someone on this planet that supposedly looks just like me and vice versa!" You say into the radio, feeling like a kid on Nova day. "I think it's her... I hope its her." You say as you image seeing your sister again for the first time in 24 years. "I'm so happy for you y/n! We will start making preparations to join you soon." You bite your lip in thought. "Maybe you should wait... I just wouldn't want to overwhelm her, you know?" You can almost hear Lena nodding on the other end of the phone. "That makes sense, we'll plan to leave by the end of the week if everything goes well."
"Geez I love you so much." You mumble with a wide grin. "And Madden too. Is he still up?" "No he fell asleep a few minutes before you radioed, he spent all day playing." "Oh well, tell him I love him and I'll radio back in the morning." "Okay, bye." "Bye."
---
"We need to be very careful about this." Glimmer says as she and the best friend squad enter the village who sent a letter the day before about someone who looked like Catra in their village. "We already knew that there were other people out there but as we already know not all of them are friendly." Catra walks next to Adora, numbly nodding along. Could this be it? Could she finally learn where she came from? Everyone else in the Horde had been born into it and Adora had come through a portal but no one really knew where Catra was from. "Are you okay?" Adora asked as she squeezed Catra's hand, nervous at how silent her girlfriend was. Catra just mutely nods back.
---
"This planet is simply marvelous!" The group hears you laugh out after being greeted by the village leader. "They look almost just like you Catra." Bow comments as they watch your tall figure move around as you play with the kids of the village and let them climb all over you. "Y/n!" You hear someone call your name and turn to see the village leader standing with a group of people and... Catra. They watch as you freeze and let your mouth fall open in shock. You set the kids down and encourage them to go play together. You walk towards the group with a smile. You go down the line of friends shaking their hands and introducing yourself, ignoring their looks of surprise, before finally reaching Catra. "Wow..." You breathe out in absolute awe. You can feel your eyes get misty the longer you stare at her. "You look so much like mom." You say with a watery laugh that completely sets Catra off.
"Who are you?" She asks as she pushes her finger into your chest making you take a step back. "What? Catra, I'm your sibling. I thought the similarities would make that clear." She glares at you and you can feel the whole village watching the interaction. "Just because we look similar doesn't mean anything." You move quickly and grab her right hand and hold it up next to your left one, both birthmarks showing.
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You watch as Catra freezes. Her face and body come to a complete stop as her eyes flicker between the identical birthmarks and your face. "I know you must have questions and I do too. But I have spent the last 8 years going all across the galaxy looking for you and right now all I want is a hug... Please?" You get out as you let go of Catra's hand only for her to push you away one last time and storm into a temporary tent that had been set up for the best friend squad.
You take a second to take a breath before following after her. "I wouldn't follow after her, she needs time to cool down." A blonde, Adora, said to you as she placed a hand on your should to stop you. "I've dealt with people with anger issues before." You say as you brush her hand off. "I know how to handle this." You say and walk towards the tent again, not giving anyone a chance to stop you.
---
"You can't hide away in here sister." You say as you enter the tent, dodging a pillow that was thrown at your head. "Don't call me that." She mumbled angrily. "And why not, you are my sister are you not? I mean everyone saw the birth mark." Catra stands up angrily. "If you were my sister, you would have spent longer than 8 years looking for me! And how can you even compare me to this "mom" that I know absolutely nothing about!? Where are they anyways, huh? Where's great old mom and dad that I have spent the last 25 years not knowing about!" She unloads onto you and your feel your heartbreak at how disheveled she looked. You shouldn't have assumed everything would be smiles and laughs when the two of you first met.
"26." "Huh?" "You're... We're 26. Our birthday was 2 days ago." "So I don't even know my own birthday!" Catra explodes. "Get out." She says suddenly and quietly. "What?" "I said get out." She repeats and you shake your head at her. "I'm not leaving." You watch as Catra's hair stand up. "I am giving you one last warning, get out now or I will do something I might not regret." You cross your arms and stare her down. "I have spent the last 8 years planet hopping with my family looking for you. I. Am. Not. Leaving."
Catra jumps at you suddenly, attempting to scratch, hit, kick, do anything to make you leave the tent. Instead of doing what she wanted, you just wrapped her in a tight hug and sat on the ground. You stay like that for a while, her trying to hold back sobs and angry tears before finally letting go and you just rubbing circles on her back to try and calm her down. "Why?" Is all she says after almost an hour of being in that position. "Why what?" "Why now?" You let out a sad sigh at her question. "Mom and Dad are dead, killed by the Horde Prime and his followers when I was 10." You can feel Catra flinch at how blunt you were and the fact that she had worked for the Horde only a few years ago. "You had already been missing for 8 years at that point, multiple search teams being sent out but none could find you." You squeeze Catra tighter as you feel yourself relive all the grief that you carried for the past 16 years.
"I managed to get most of our people off the planet and to our sister planet before the Horde completely destroyed everything. Got everyone situated on that planet, met the love of my life, renounced my claim to any throne, and finally I started looking for you." It's silent for a few minutes as Catra absorbed everything you said. "So..." You asked as you wiped your tears off your face. "What about you?"
You and Catra spent the rest of the night and next day sharing stories about your childhood and how differently but similar the two of you had grown up. You even got to tease her about Adora and the fact that you were, technically, her older sister by 2 minutes. You were also very excited when you got to show Catra around the ship you had taken to get to Etheria.
---
"So I am guessing everything went well?" Lena asked over the radio after you finally called her about coming to Etheria. "It was a little rocky at the beginning but we smoothed things over... She's great Lena, you guys are gonna love each other." You say with a giant smile on your face as you look at Catra who was relaxing in the copilot seat next to you.
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midasinc · 3 years
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do u have any eposette hcs?
modern era eposette hcs:
- the timeline of their relationship is agonizing for ep. she likes cosette pre-marius, then during the marius timeline she gets super jealous and she figures that it's because she likes marius. that isn't really the case and she comes to realize this and after cosette breaks up with marius because she's realizes she's a lesbian, eponine is so psyched because this is her opening! it's her! it's always been h-
-cosette dates a lot of other girls because figuring out that eponine likes her. she doesn't say anything about it but after a few weeks, she can picture herself dating eponine. they have good chemistry and eponine is a lot shorter than her and is funnier than she gives herself credit for and cosette decides to ask her out (eponine almost faints because it comes out of nowhere)
-they're a very active couple. they like going out to do stuff, neither of them can sit still and quiet during movies. they like walks in the park and bike rides through the city or in the countryside. cosette is a professional ballerina but she loves all forms of dance and takes eponine out to dance all the time. sometimes it's in a club, but they literally go to salsa classes together because it makes them both giggle and it's really fucking fun once they get a rhythm together
-cosette intakes coffee like a garbage disposal. she drinks so much fucking coffee. eponine sometimes wonder what her budget for it is, but she doesn't mind because cosette's clothes always smell like coffee and she'll make a mug for eponine every morning without being asked first
-they're both bracelet people. eponine wears so many bracelets. she loves the beaded kind and the braided kind and little rubber band bracelets you get from your dentist. she's made so many bracelets for cosette oh my god. eponine has spent so many hours braiding her pretty bracelets and finding the right beads to spell out "cosette". cosette loves ALL of them. gifts mean a lot to her because sometimes she still isnt sure if she deserves these presents and she is so incredibly thankful for them. when she isn't dancing at work, cosette wears just as many bracelets as eponine
-eponine also goes to all of cosette's performances. this is weird at first because valjean does the same thing and the tickets cosette gets for them are next to each other for obvious reasons. it's a weird dynamic at first. eponine is kind of like "uhhhhhhhhhhhh" because she doesn't know if he knows when they first start dating. and trust me he does. cosette tells valjean everything and she told him about eponine the second they started going out. after the performance, valjean tells cosette that eponine seems like a very nice young woman
-eponine is incredibly anxious when it comes to money. it really worries her. she dropped out of college because she couldn't afford it anymore without going into debt and the idea of winding up like her father horrified her, so she works two jobs and is also a dog-walker. even when she's in a green zone with her income, she has trouble feeling like she can buy the stuff she wants. a lot of her clothes are thrifted and hand-me-downs from friends and even after she moves in with cosette and they have breathing room money-wise, eponine is still incredibly anxious
-cosette doesn't want her to feel worried about their money but has trouble convincing her that it's okay. she talks to valjean for advice and decides to invest in a financial advisor for the both of them. having someone professional to talk to about their finances really helps settle eponine- she's learning to be conscious of their money but not paranoid
-cosette is really big on bday celebrations because valjean celebrated her own birthday like it was a national holiday, and eponine gets the same treatment. every year, cosette will be like "GUESS WHOSE BIRTHDAY IT ALMOST IS!!!!!" the entire week leading up to eponine's birthday. she always home-bakes a cake as well and eponine begs her not to buy a lot of gifts, so cosette compromises by taking her out to do something really really really nice and then getting her one small gift that is always very personal and meaningful to eponine
-eponine is a night owl and cosette is an early bird. cosette wakes up super early for work every day and presses a kiss to eponine's forehead and eponine smiles when she finally goes to bed and cosette is sprawled across the bed absolutely conked out
-eponine is big shirt small pants combo and cosette is tiny shirt big pants combo
-cosette is really good at braiding hair. whenever eponine walks into a meeting with very pretty very intricate hairstyles, everyone knows she didn't do it herself
-ballet has given cosette very very strong thighs... whenever she wears shorts... oh my god... eponine is put out of commission. it's too much for her
-they dress up like catra and adora from she-ra every year for halloween
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wagner-fell · 3 years
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“So then Catra writes on this note ‘hey Adora’ and Adora is like ‘grrrr’ and so they do this whole passive aggressive dance where you could have cut the sexual tension with a knife. Oh, and then-”
“I. Hate. History. Class.” Mari slammed their plastic lunch tray onto the table.
“Oh thank god,” said Kevin. Listening to Mari rant was much preferable to hearing about the Princess Prom episode from Astrid. Again.
Blessica hit Kevin and gave him a pointed look.
“I mean it’s bad enough I have to write essays about fucking colonizers. But now I have to sit next to this white-ass American boy? No thanks.”
“You know,” began Astrid, “if you wanted, I could kill this new guy for you with, oh I don’t know, werewolf po-”
“No!” they all shouted in unison. Astrid was mundane with the gift of the slight but she didn’t think of it like a gift. What was the point of being able to see this fantastical reality if she couldn’t be a part of it? What was the point of having three werewolves as your best friends if they refused to turn you into one?
Blessica tried to tell her that, as a downworlder, she would face a lot of discrimination. But what kinda excuse was that? Astrid was a Korean lesbian who, for most of the time, lived with her single mother. At least this branch of marginalization gave her freakin’ superpowers. The only superpower Astrid currently had at her disposal was not having to date men.
Astrid angrily took a bite of her cinnamon roll and Mari followed suit. Blessica tried to pat her arm but Astrid swatted her away.
“American?” Kevin asked. “I don’t remember any Americans. Is he new?”
Mari nodded through a mouthful of baked goods. She tucked her tie into her black-and-white uniform sweater vest so they didn’t stain it. Normally she wouldn’t have bothered but laundry had been a living nightmare lately. They promptly realized that her sweater vest was also going to get food on it. In removing it, their stomach flashed briefly. She stuffed it in her bag and set an alarm on her phone so they wouldn’t forget to put it back on before the lunch bell rang. Like that time Miss Yang made them jelly doughnuts and she got detention for a week. Mari really hated this school sometimes.
When she looked up to see half the surrounding area staring at them, they looked down at her collared shirt to see if she had gotten fresh cinnamon bun gooeyness on it already.
Astrid laughed. “It’s because you exposed your six-pack.” She moved her fork around in circles, making sure the ranch covered each piece of lettuce in her salad. Astrid loved ranch. She kept a gigantic bottle of it in her bag at all times. “You know, one time this guy asked me if you got them tattooed on. Cause girls can’t have abs and all that bull.”
“And what did you tell him?” asked Mari, amused.
“No.”
“Thank go-”
“I told him the truth. That the only tattoo you have is of Consul Lightwood’s face on your ass.”
“Oh, fuck off.”
“The world deserves to know.”
“You're a hazard to society.”
“Awwwww. Mari! I love you too.”
Astrid smiled and shoved a mouthful of salad into her mouth as Mari rolled their eyes.
“Holy shit,” said Blessica, staring at something over Mari’s shoulder. “That is the second hottest man I have ever seen.”
Kevin glanced in the direction she was looking at then back to her. “What? Who?” he asked at the same time Mari drawled, “second hottest, who’s the first?” with a single eyebrow raised.
Blessica blushed as Kevin continued his search. “M-magnus Bane. Obviously.”
“Riiiiiiiight,” said Astrid, looking between her and Kevin.
Blessica blushed deeper. “Shut up.”
“Wow,” said Kevin. “That him?” He pointed and this time Mari turned around…to face Kit fucking Herondale.
Blessica, still red in the face, nodded.
“Wow indeed,” agreed Astrid.
“Aren’t you a lesbian?” questioned Blessica.
“Blessie, darling, I may rather suck on a cactus than suck on a dick but hotties can admire their fellow hotties. Gender is irrelevant in this scenario.”
Mari slammed their hands down onto the table. “Ladies! We are better than simping, even just hottie wise, over an American, white boy! We have standards! And Kevin! I know that” disgust dripped from her voice, “is your type, but resist!”
He rolled his eyes. “Jesus. You hook up with two blonde nephilim and suddenly it’s your type.”
“Yes,” said Astrid slowly, as if explaining something to a very dim child, “that’s how it works.”
Mari felt like they were missing something. Her three friends began discussing where they wanted to go tomorrow for Blessica’s birthday but they were stuck on Kevin’s statement. Something about it wasn’t quite right. It took her longer than she was proud of to figure it out.
“Wait, hold up, did you say nephilim? Kit is a Shadowhunter?!”
They all exchanged a look. “Uh, yeah. Didn’t you see the Mark on his hand?”
Mari turned back to him again. He was sitting by himself at a few tables, scrolling away. And on the hand holding his water bottle… was a voyance rune, clear as day. How did they miss that? “What is a Shadowhunter doing here anyway?”
Kevin shrugged. “Perhaps he’s here to check out London’s up-coming werewolf. I hear she’s a hazard to society.”
Astrid’s head shot up. “Really?!”
“No, sorry sweetie,” interjected Blessica. Astrid finished her cinnamon bun with an annoyed ‘hmph’.
They chatted more about Blessica’s upcoming sixteenth birthday before Kevin came up with the dumbest idea ever. Which was an extremely difficult title to earn amongst the 11th years at St. Lucy’s Academy.
“We should invite the Shadowhunter.”
Mari scoffed. “The whole pack’s gonna be there! Like hell they would let a Shadowhunter crash it.”
“Oh please. Once they lay their eyes on McDreamy, they’ll all forget about his angel blood.”
Astrid gasped. “Is that a Grey’s Anatomy reference? Are you finally watching it?” They all ignored her.
“I think it might be fun,” said Blessica. “And it’s my party so…” She stood up and walked over to Kit’s table, Kevin right behind her.
Astrid picked up her salad with one hand and her second cinnamon bun with the other. “Come in,” she said. “What’s the worst that can happen. You fall in love?”
“Haha,” said Mari, slinging her bag over their shoulder and joining the others.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @adoravel-fenomeno @im-not-ruined-im-ruination@thechangeling @thomas-gaypanic-lightwood @sofiatheskeleton @cncnbr @its-taff @ithurielkeepsgettingkidnapped @noah-herondale-lightwood @maxboythedog @arangiajoan @shelvesofgold @illusions-give-reasons-to-live @book-dragon-not-worm @the-blackdale @the-wckd-powers Lmk if you want to b adde/removed from the tag list!
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malachi-walker · 3 years
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Happy birthday, Mal! I love your fics, they evoke so much emotion in me and have made me cry many a time. I don't often reread fics, but i've reread multiple chapters of Rhythm and Blues because they're stuck with me so much. You capture the emotional pain of their trauma and the catharsis that comes with their growth so beautifully. You also write some brilliant meta and just consistently post some fantastic thoughts. Also your love for swords is very appreciated. <3 have a lovely day!
First of all, my apologies for not replying sooner. I was making my mind up about something that would definitely require the use of a read more and thus necessitate dragging myself to desktop (which I hate because my laptop predates the dinosaurs.)
But seriously. Thank you so much. This is honestly one of the sweetest comments I've ever gotten and definitely made my already pretty sweet bday even better.
So about that read more. In honor of you, @metalesbo, my friends @n7punk and @jem-jarrett and everyone else who sent me well wishes or just really loves my work... Here's the opening section of the next chapter of R&B. Enjoy. It's a long one.
Adora Eternia is about two months shy of her fourteenth birthday when she first realizes she's in love with her best friend.
Though--if asked--she would hasten to explain that it wasn't when she fell in love. But trying to pinpoint the exact moment is an exercise in catching mist: the more she tries to grasp it in her hands the more it spreads out and covers everything. It just is: pure and simple and very, very complicated.
It's the beginning of December and the whole town is covered in a thick blanket of snow. Winterfest will be here in a few weeks, so to help out the kids who want to get gifts for their friends the Right Zone administration has shuffled around the groups that usually take their monthly trips on the third and fourth Sundays of the month to double up with the other two. As part of group three, she and Catra got the first week (the other three members of their crew are week two folks anyway and thus outside the reorganization.)
It's still kinda weird to think that: their crew. For so long, it was just Catra and Adora. Adora and Catra. One unit bound together, just them against the world. But there's also something nice about being part of a small cluster, their "scrappy little lone wolf pack" as Catra had once put it with a wry grin before Lonnie shoved her over with an, "Excuse you, I'm a great people person when I'm not busy making sure you idiots haven't set yourselves on fire!"
They all got a good laugh out of that one.
But regardless, the holidays are coming up and this is the first year that any of their group has felt like actually doing anything for it, aside from wrangling together a sleepover and seeing if they can convince the kitchen staff to slip them some leftover eggnog.
They made each other promise not to go too extravagant and keep each person's gift to ten dollars or lower. Even though their quarterly stipend has increased from three hundred to four hundred to match with inflation over the past eight years, it still isn't a whole lot for three month's worth of expenses, especially when they also have to budget regularly for clothes to keep up with the seemingly endless growth spurts.
There's also the usual budgetary concern of keeping her and Catra's first aid kit well supplied...
Adora shakes her head to dislodge the intrusive thought and continues marching onward through the snow. This trip is a good thing. She won't let all the awful realities of their life taint it.
With so many kids running around and wanting to shop on their own to surprise their giftees, Right Zone had to negotiate with both the local police and whatever other civic authorities they could get ahold of to come out en masse and keep an eye on them all. The kids had still come with their usual teachers, of course, but doubling the load and also splitting up was a logistical nightmare. Which is just a convoluted way to say the town is positively crawling with uniformed officers, off duty members of the fire brigade, emergency personnel, and other such authority figures quietly keeping watch and making sure no one tries anything.
Adora knows that somewhere in the press of bodies, Grizzlor's busy wrangling two new "brats" (seven and nine, respectively, and definitely not friends.) Somewhere, a certain Magicat is probably grumbling over the indignity of being forced to wear shoes and kicking every snowpile she can, like she can send a direct message to whatever cosmic force is responsible for her current frustration.
On an ordinary month she and Catra--being old enough to be allowed a bit more freedom to do what they want--would buddy up to watch each other's backs while they did their shopping. But this isn't an ordinary month, so once they'd each gotten gifts for the other three they'd split up on opposite ends of Main Street with an agreement to move clockwise to avoid running into each other. Afterwards, the entire group would rendezvous at the small clock tower in the park a block over before heading back to Right Zone.
Ten dollars wasn't a lot to work with, but Adora had done her best: a new stress ball for Kyle, some moisturizing oil for Rogelio since the early winter shed had wiped out his supply and he'd been too busy to pick up some more, a twelve pound kettle weight for Lonnie now that their shared exercise routine was getting a bit too easy for her... Utilitarian choices, to be sure, but she's been paying attention and that has to count for something.
Catra's the difficult one, of course. Partly because Adora doesn't want to just get her something practical, but also because they share nearly everything between them already. About the only thing that is definitively off limits is Catra's guitar, and she's told Adora enough about her time with Tao over the years that Adora wouldn't even ask. Beyond that... Well, there's a reason why most of Adora's day off hoodies have small strands of orange fur stuck to them.
Still. I want to get her something that's hers. Something she'll like. Something she doesn't have to share with anyone, not even me.
In the end, she nearly walks past it. In one of the artisanal shops that dot small towns like liver spots, she finds a display of hand stamped necklace pendants, with a design sheet beside it. There are a lot of the usual nature designs and such, but the one that catches her eye is a treble clef with the five staff lines bleeding out from it. They ring the edge of the pendant in a half circle, and scattered haphazardly along the lines are the other music notes.
The lack of proper order would drive Adora insane. She understands that it's just meant to look pretty, not be an accurate representation of musical notation, but still... She knows her own (broken) brain well enough to know that.
It suits Catra, though.
"Hey," Mismatched eyes looked down at Adora as her head draped backwards over the back of their desk chair, the throbbing behind her left eye threatening to escalate into a migraine. "Guess I don't have to ask how the composing's going."
"It sucks," Adora groused back, sitting up and gesturing Catra over. She jabbed at two particular spots with the half chewed off eraser end of her pencil, two hard jabs each, like she was filing a complaint. "Most of it is just what I'm going for, but these two places here... They aren't sounding right. I've been going back and forth over structure all afternoon, but nothing I do helps."
"Hmmm..." Catra stroked her chin and nudged Adora over so she could sit on the arm of the chair (they'd never gotten around to requesting a second, mostly because Adora didn't want to risk Shadow Weaver suspecting they were getting too chummy.) "Got any scratch paper?"
Adora pointed to the pile of half crumpled notebook paper she used when making adjustments and Catra snorted. "Ok, dumb question. Just let me see here..."
Grabbing a pen, she quickly inked a fresh set of staff lines and copied the notes Adora had already put down, making sure to leave space to work. Glancing between the two, she drummed her fingers on the desk, playing along in her head.
"Hmm..." Catra murmured, worrying at her lower lip with a fang in a manner that was... Oddly distracting. "Ok, how 'bout this?"
Adora jolted, tearing her gaze from Catra's face to look at the sequence of notes scribbled onto the scratch paper. She paused, brow furrowing as she played them over in her mind's eye. It was a little unorthodox, veering away from the path she had carefully laid out... But also blending well with the next part. Almost like the notes took a quick detour and then lead the listener back to where she wanted them.
"Yeah..." Adora replied thoughtfully, the tension all over her body starting to smooth out. "Yeah, that could work."
"Awesome. Let's take a look at the next part."
They ultimately ended up spending several hours going over the entire piece, sussing out every place where Adora was having even the slightest niggle of unease. She didn't accept all of Catra's changes and Catra didn't push the matter, but the ones she did...
They felt right. More right than they had ever felt when it was just Adora running circles around herself.
When they finally finished up she looked over at Catra, tail waving sedately in that way it got when she was simultaneously engaged but relaxed, and asked, "Umm... Do you want to learn with me? I like doing this."
'I like making music with you.'
Catra paused, looking over at Adora searchingly, almost like she couldn't believe the question had come up. No matter how many years had passed between them, that look never really went away, and every time she saw it Adora's chest ached in a way that was hard for her to process.
"I'd like that."
Catra's composing style is very different from Adora's. More wild, more willing to bend and break the rules if it means maintaining audience engagement, but there's always an underlying order to the chaos. To her surprise and pleasure, Adora found herself learning just as much from Catra as Catra was learning from her. Their styles brought out the best in each other.
The jingle of a bell kicks her out of the memory. Mind made up even though it's nearly double her budget, Adora scans the stand of necklaces for the one with the treble clef pattern.
It isn't there. Adora swallows down the disappointment, though she can't help the sigh. Of course. The town was well aware of the large population of music students a short drive away and catered to them accordingly. But there are also dozens of kids out on the street tonight. It isn't that big of a surprise that the design sold out.
Not surprising, but disheartening nonetheless.
She's just begun to turn away when a voice calls from the back. "Hang on a sec there, little miss."
Adora jumps, but remains where she is as a large Taurian man with a massive snow white beard trundles out from a door behind the counter, wiping his hands on his apron. "Was there a particular design you were interested in?"
Adora points at the treble clef, hope rising. "This one. But it looks like it's already sold out."
"Hmm..." The man scratchs at his chin. "Well with Winterfest coming up, I'm out of blank pendants-"
Adora's shoulders slump.
"-But," The man continues with a smile. "I can double stamp it onto the back of another. Ordinarily I'd charge extra for that, but it's my fault for not ordering enough blanks. Rookie move. Besides, it's the holidays. Now would that be all right by you?"
Nodding frantically in case he changes his mind, Adora scans the other designs, quickly alighting on one in particular. "That one!"
"The claw marks? Bit of an odd combination, but the customer is always right," The old man winked as he reached out to take the necklace from her. "My jig and press is in the corner over here if you wanna watch."
Adora was glad he specified, because as nice as the man seemed there was no way in hell she was going into a back room with a stranger. But she stood next to the window beside a display of miscellaneous knick knacks and puzzles, watching him carefully place the pendant in a cushioned stand to avoid damaging the already printed side and tighten it into place before moving beside the machine.
"You're gonna want to cover your ears," He tells her, patting the machine with one massive hand. "Had to switch to a steam press when the arthritis caught up to me. Used to do it all by hammer. This boy's okay, but he gets loud."
Adora nods, glad for the warning when he bellows "Clear!" and the machine's hammer comes down once, twice, three times with a sound like the ringing of an enormous bell. Once the machine is stopped and carefully turned off, the old man removes the pendant from the press and hands it over to Adora for inspection. "What do you think? Does it pass muster?"
Adora runs her fingertips over the impressions in the metal, memorizing the feel of it, the leftover warmth of the impact. "Perfect."
"Good. Now let's get you rung up."
Counting the five dollars she attempted to surreptitiously slip into the tip jar (the old man winked as he turned back around, so stealth fail) Adora went very over budget, but the others would have to put a gun to her head for her to admit it.
Besides, it's Catra. They already know she's the sole exception to all of Adora's carefully maintained rules.
With everything finished, she continues trudging through the snow toward the park, breathing a sign of relief as she moves away from the shopping district and the people thin out; no one wanting to go to the park in the middle of such bleak weather. Angling around a clustered group of bare trees, she spots the small clock tower in the distance, as well as the figure already standing beside it. Grinning, Adora picks up the pace a bit until she can see Catra clearly and--
Her breath catches.
Since her only experience with this kind of thing has been through books, Adora always expected this moment would be more dramatic. Like back to back in the middle of a fight, or eyes locking from up on stage. Something spectacular, like fireworks, lime explosions, like the feeling of playing a song without a single mistake for the first time. It's always seemed like such a big deal in the stories, and in a way, it is.
Because there's Catra, lost in her own world as she gazes up at the streetlight that's just come on, her left hand extended to let the snowflakes fall into her palm and the light catches the orange of her fur just right to make a blaze of color against the black of her coat. She looks so small, standing in that space all alone on a cold winter's night, but Adora knows deep down that she could never be that small, not when she's Catra, not when she means so much...
Pretty much everything about the past hour--about her entire life since they met if she's being honest--snaps into crystal clear focus.
Oh. I get it now. I'm in love with you.
It's a bad idea. Adora knows that. Shadow Weaver is enough of a menace while believing Catra is simply her roommate, her sometime tool--and Catra had ended up being all too right about the torture not stopping, even after years of Adora trying to direct Weaver's attentions away from her. If the evil old bitch figures out Adora's feelings run deeper, so much deeper...
Her heart beats double time. This whole thing is an unmitigated disaster.
But it's still the best worst thing that's ever happened to her.
She must make a noise, because Catra's ear twitches in her direction, snapping her out of that distant contemplation. She turns her head and looks at Adora, lips curling in a lopsided grin. "Hey, Adora. Wow, you look like you've seen a ghost."
Adora blinks, coming back to herself and mumbling the first excuse that springs to mind. "... Just cold."
"Well no shit. C'mere."
When she closes the distance Catra glances around warily, making sure they're the only ones around, before reaching up and retying the scarf around Adora's neck, patting it once when she's done. "There. I know I make it look good, but you don't have the advantage of fur like me."
Adora looks down at the thin AC/DC t-shirt that Catra's wearing beneath her half open coat, the line of her collarbones and neck, and makes a snap decision. "Is it okay if I give you your present now?"
Catra blinks, a little thrown by the non sequitur. "I mean... Sure? Do you want me to give you yours?"
"I'm good with either," Adora shrugs, trying to ignore how fast her heart is beating, how much she wants to do this before this moment slips away. "I just want to."
There's a long moment of silence as they each examine the other, equally searching. What Catra's looking for, Adora doesn't know. She isn't sure she wants to know.
"Okay."
Breathing deep, Adora reaches into her pocket and pulls out the necklace on its leather cord. Careful to keep the pendant hidden in her hand, she passes it over, fingertips sparking as it's taken. Catra brings it close to her face, running her fingers over the four parallel slashes on the side facing her.
"Why the claw marks?"
Adora laughs, nervous butterflies positively rioting in her stomach. "Because you're a badass. Duh."
"True," Catra smirks, flipping it over and squinting at the other side. "And this?"
"Badass, loves music with all your heart. Not mutually exclusive concepts," Adora says, trying not to give away how much she thinks about this, how much she wants to take that hand in hers. She settles for a playful shoulder bump instead. "Plus we all know you're secretly a big softie."
"Excuse you, I am all sharp edges," Catra giggles, lightly elbowing her before transitioning into a soft little smile. "... Just not with everyone."
Oh God oh God oh God. That smile will absolutely be the death of her.
Swallowing past her horrible awareness of that softness, Adora asks, "So you like it?"
"I love it. Good luck ever getting me to take it off," Catra laughs, then frowns, flexing her fingers. "Hands have gone a little numb, though. Help me put it on?"
Adora.exe promptly crashes to desktop. But she still somehow manages to move, helping Catra hold back her mane so she can slip the leather cord over her head and tuck it beneath her hair. If she hesitates a moment too long in letting go, at least Catra only shoots her an amused glance. "How's it look?"
"Great," Adora manages to croak out, trying to swallow past the sudden dryness in her throat. "You look great. Umm... Happy early Winterfest, I guess?"
"Well, I'm gonna hold onto yours a little longer," Catra laughs, playfully sticking out her tongue before reaching out. "C'mere, you big dork."
Adora shuffles closer, mind and heart both screaming as Catra draws her into a hug, nuzzling her head against the side of her neck. A little whisper. "Thank you."
Adora swallows again, even harder. "You're welcome."
Between them, the necklace rests, the music side pressed right up against Catra's heart.
----------
Fun fact: the shopkeep is based off a cool old dude selling machine pressed necklaces I ran into at a Scottish festival when I was 13, and he made such an impression I never forgot him. Anyway, happy Valentine's! Have a Big Gay Realization!
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ilikemesometaetaes · 3 years
Text
Don’t Hold Your Breath ~ jjk
Chapter Five (M)
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•••> Author: @ilikemesometaetaes​
•••> Summary: As the CEO of an international government security company, you have the world at your fingertips. Living life lavishly and extravagantly has become the norm. Behind closed doors, however, you host a past that renders you lonely and, quite frankly, miserable. It’s only a matter of time before your past comes back to bite you right in the ass.
•••> Pairing(s): Jungkook/Reader, Taehyung/Reader (slight)
•••> Inspo: This fic is inspired by the song “SAVAGE ANTHEM” by PARTYNEXTDOOR. Thank you to @dariangarcia​, @btssmutgalore​, and @junghoseokit​ for supporting my work. To my mamas, Kaitlin, Adora, Lauren, Lanie, Lu, and Sher.
•••> Word Count: 6.54k
•••> Rating: 18+
•••> Tags: angst | smut | ceo!au | rockstar!au | CEO!Reader | Rockstar!Jungkook | AU!BTS | Exes to Lovers
•••> Warnings: angst, infidelity, oral (m receiving), heartbreak, cursing, pining, depression, breakup, mention(s) of therapy/counseling, arguing, drug use, alcohol use | Warnings are written specifically to chapter.
Copyright © 2020 ilikemesometaetaes. All Rights Reserved.
Taglist: @dariangarcia​​ @apurpledheart​​ @itsgottabeyoo-ngs​​ @hytibm​ @namjinsbaby​ @ggukkieland​
If you’d like to be added to the taglist, say so in a comment to this chapter or the DHYB Main Page, or send me an ask!
NAVIGATION: Chapter Four (M) <- | -> Chapter Six (M) -> Mini-Masterlist -> Series Masterlist
•••> Official Playlist
~#~
“Is it something we discussed now? The truth got you in disgust now, ‘cause I’d rather we just fuck now.”
THEN.
Sitting at your desk at work never felt so somber as you remembered how it all changed. The chain of events that led up to your fight with him the previous night were too hard to ignore anymore.
You remember fighting for him- for the both of you.
The tears flooded your eyes and, thankfully, blurred your vision from the scene before you.
Jungkook sat on a couch placed in the corner of the club, completely inebriated and high out of his mind. But that’s not what hurt you.
What completely ripped your heart from your chest was the woman draped across his exposed lap with her hair held in one hand while she used the other to wrap around the part of his dick that she couldn’t reach whilst she closed her lips over it.
Blinking your tears from your eyes on instinct allowed you to see that another set of eyes was looking at you. And they weren’t Jungkook’s.
Taehyung’s scowl, paired with furrowed eyebrows and sad eyes, was another image from that night you couldn’t get out of your head. There was no shock nor surprise on his face- he was expecting you. Taehyung knew that you would see. He didn’t try to deter you from coming to the club and he didn’t send any warning texts. He was the one who invited you in the first place.
The scene was an unforgettable one.
You should have taken Taehyung’s word for it from the start. He had given you hints that you simply couldn’t bother yourself to pay attention to.
While you possessed the knowledge and evidence that Jungkook cheated on you that night, you couldn’t bring yourself to properly address it. Each time you got around to speaking with him about it, you ended up brushing it off for another time.
Finding an excuse for yourself to defend him was easy.
The drugs and alcohol were the problem. You saw it yourself that night. He was in a completely different world when you saw him doing the deed. His eyes were glazed out with beautiful lips agape in complete, drug-induced ecstasy, unknowing of what he was doing. There was no way he was aware of what was actually happening or even what day it was.
But then came the day that it got so bad that you asked him to go get help. You were willing to forgive his negligence if he was willing to get it fixed.
It was the cause of your final fight.
“I’m not going to fucking rehab, Y/N.” He laughed spitefully. “There is nothing wrong with me. I’m a fucking rockstar. This is what rockstars do.”
“They also cheat on their girlfriends?” You sarcastically asked.
Jungkook chuckled darkly while looking at the floor. After a moment, he met your eyes in a cold gaze before he opened his mouth.
“Rockstars don’t have girlfriends.”
The weight of the statement pressured heavily on you in realization of what he was implying, pushing all of the air from your lungs. You were struck silent with an invisible smack offered by his words. No sound could escape your mouth as you stared back at him in a silent question: did it mean what you thought it meant?
“Yeah.” Was all he said in the deafening silence to answer your unspoken query, looking at the ground awkwardly. He was quick to add another few words to finally hit the nail on the coffin. “But if you still want to fuck, I’m down.”
“But- but I…” Your voice trembled weakly, feeling your eyes ache with incoming tears, but you fought them with every ounce of will that you had as your abhorrence was built up by his last words. The ground was swallowing you up and you were trying to claw your way free. “I waited for you to get better. You told me things would get better once you took off.”
“Don’t hold your breath, Y/N.” He laughed heartily.
Your heart was no longer beating. Not in your mind, anyway.
You felt as the life was torn from your lungs with the most simple and practical words; your world taken from you and all air seeming too thick to inhale. 
Awfully, you couldn’t seem to listen to his words this time. You didn’t want to. Breathing seemed much too difficult as you felt him snatch the light from your life with one swipe.
There was no chance that you would let him watch you cry- no way he was going to watch the pain he delivered onto you take physical effect. You were disappointed and neglected- a pawn in the game he played. You were sick of playing now.
Instead, you turned around, grabbed your purse off of the kitchen table-
And left.
Sitting at your desk with all of the sadness that Jeon Jungkook brought into your life, you decided that it was finally time to leave. You needed to leave Korea. You needed to move on to bigger and better things.
Your hand was reaching for your phone before you could stop yourself from doubling back. It’s about time.
Googling for a moving company- any moving company- only took you a few seconds and you pressed the call button with a new sense of conviction.
“Good afternoon! Thank you for calling Team Wang’s Moving Company! What can I assist you with today?”
Making sure your voice was level and controlled, you spoke, “I’d like to schedule a move of items from a storage unit here in Korea to another country. Am I able to do that?”
“Of course, ma’am! We can get started on preparations for that right away! What was the location that you were referencing? We are limited on the countries we can ship to due to certain regulations.”
Without any further hesitation or pondering over the past, you settled on it.
“Italy.”
Jungkook
He sat in his room for a while with an empty lyric journal, letting the high slowly fade from his body as regret began pumping through his veins. Jungkook had put up the act for Taehyung, but after he saw his brother angrily storm out the door and he was left alone to the ever familiar havoc in his mind, the fight to maintain his mask was easily lost.
What the fuck did he do?
Seeing you cry was common for him; Jungkook had made you cry too many times to count, but that didn’t take away from the way it ripped apart the sinew in his chest every time he saw that look in your eyes as tears streamed down your cheeks.
He managed to convince himself of the belief that it was impossible for you to care that much anymore. You just couldn’t. Not when he had fucked up the first time. He had broken your trust and he didn’t trust himself enough to try and earn yours back, fearing that he would just fuck you up past recovery- like himself.
Jungkook was beyond rejuvenation and beyond any form of succor. Nothing could help him silence his demons except the cold and dark embrace of death. Even now, sitting in silence in his bedroom to let the remorse for you distract him from the torment of the empty organ beating in his chest, he felt them begin to criticize him.
Jungkook’s parents and brother died young, victims of a drunken asshole who decided that it was a good idea to get behind the wheel to try and get home to his girlfriend. What a fucking prick.
For some reason, Jungkook decided that it would be a good idea to stay home and worry about the girl that he liked at school, making little sketches to slip into her lunchbox once lunch came around. 
Of all days he could have stayed home, it just had to be that one. He should have gone to the grocery store with them. He should have been in that car with them.
The voices in his head began three weeks after the funeral- when Jungkook reached the ripe age of twelve. Constantly battering him down, twisting his heart, and suffocating his head, he recognized that it was his own voice and his own psyche attacking the sanctity of his soul after he watched the three coffins sink into the cold ground. 
It just had to rain that day, water filling the nice dress shoes his father bought for him a few months prior as mud covered the black leather.
He reached adulthood much too fast. Even under the care of his parents’ friends, he was forced by his own will to become independent. They tried to shower him with the same love and support that his family had, but it was no use- Jungkook was alone. No one could fill that gap in his heart once it was made empty.
He’ll admit, he was a bit more dramatic back then.
He was approaching his seventeenth birthday when he smoked for the first time, turning it into a habit by the time he graduated high school. He had been dragged out to an end-of-the-year school gathering by Taehyung, a senior who was much too silent like himself- who understood that Jungkook preferred the quiet due to the mayhem in his mind. They had formed a tranquil and mostly unspoken bond over the months that they studied together.
“Is it safe?” Jungkook muttered while looking at his older companion of the silence curiously.
“I’ve done it a few times and I was fine. Just take it slow at first. Try two hits and then wait like twenty or thirty minutes.” Taehyung’s contralto voice was somehow comforting to Jungkook, a beacon in the chaos that was the kickback they were currently separating themselves from. “If you don’t want to, that’s cool. You don’t have to.”
“Nah,” Jungkook’s desire to break out of his shell was a little spurred by Taehyung who seemed to aid him in the most odd yet unobtrusive way. “I’ll try it. Might be cool.”
The only two at the campfire while the rest of their year mates drank and danced to music in the house, Jungkook and Taehyung shared their first high together.
Then, the voices stopped.
Jungkook was shaken to his core, gripping the arms of the camping chair he sat in until his fingers ached and his knuckles turned white. For the first time in six years, his head was blanketed in silence.
Slightly panicked at the new sensation, he turned to Taehyung for help, only to find that his friend was sitting back with his head craned up, gazing intently at the stars. Jungkook followed his stare and struggled to see them past the glow of the flames in front of him, only to grow enraptured by the gorgeous twinkling of each small dot in the midnight sky once his eyes adjusted. Strangely, he was hit by a sudden burst of inspiration.
“I could write a song right now.” Jungkook told the sky confidently.
“You write?” He saw Taehyung turn to look at him out of the corner of his eye. Meeting his friend’s observance, he let a smile lazily grace his face for once as he replied.
“I do occasionally. I always wanted to be a singer when I was younger.”
“Me too.” Taehyung chuckled with a sense of wistfulness, fixing his stare on the small inferno in the fire pit. “Well, I wanted to be a bassist really bad. Maybe sing a little.”
Overcome with the emotions of maybe not being totally alone, Jungkook’s inner sageness spewed from his mouth without falter, wholly due to the graceful and relaxed feeling that he received from the high.
“We’re still young.” He reasoned. “We can still do it.”
“I’ll be studying music in university after my military service is over. My most realistic dream now is to become a studio bassist for some record company.” Taehyung laid his head back again, closing his eyes.
“Hey,” Jungkook called for his friends attention and the older boy looked at him with slightly bloodshot eyes. “We can do something with this if we really want to. I’ll follow you to university. Never really had a solid plan for where I wanted to go to anyway.” Jungkook stuck his hand out in a silent offer, hoping that his proposition wouldn’t be crushed.
Taehyung smiled mellowly, taking his younger friend’s hand with his in a handshake. “Sounds like a plan, my friend.”
After Taehyung graduated and enlisted, Jungkook completed his senior year with a new hobby- well, two new hobbies: writing and smoking.
With the impending date of his enlistment, he knew that he had to give it up as he was going to get drug tested. For two years, he kept up with himself without the help of the self-administered psychoactive drug therapy.
Service was a good distraction from the voices. Having things to do to keep him busy and writing in any free time he had, he was kept delightfully aloof from the dark corners of his mind. It also helped that he enlisted into the same garrison that Taehyung was assigned to.
Taehyung welcomed Jungkook into university with open arms. Now, at the age of twenty, Jungkook was a seasoned and trained man. The voices still loomed over him, but they were pushed to the back of his mind as he learned to deal with the emptiness.
He had highs to suppress his demons, he had his songs to communicate himself to others, and he had Taehyung.
Although it wasn’t nearly enough to fill his empty glass, it was empty no longer.
Jungkook lay in his bed as he watched the violet sky turn midnight blue, the already-set sun pulling the rest of its light away from his side of the earth. 
Naked and vulnerable under the scrutiny of the world, he lay in the sheets with his head turned toward the window, presenting the sorrow brimming in his eyes right back to the invisible gaze of the universe. With no form of judgement in response to him, he was left to ponder over the things he had done.
Because even now, with a slight high from the drugs, he realized that he could still hear them- the whispers, murmurs, and dronings of impugnment continued to poison his mind. He found it funny that he was always pressing the voices away, yet whenever confronted by the menace that was his emotions, they were his safety blanket. 
Pulling the sheets to his body while he curled into himself, Jungkook realized that he felt completely bare and exposed without the voices.
He’d keep them back to the point of a whisper so that he could call on them to protect him with a roaring intensity during bad times. There was never a time that he wasn’t manually suppressing them if he wasn’t high anymore.
With a shaken mind, he realized the only true way they were silent without true effort now. The drugs had stopped suppressing them a long time ago. There was no way he was able to have silence unless he was actually enforcing the lack of sound onto himself.
Not unless he was with you.
You provided light and hope and everything good to him, You gave him the things that were snatched away from him all those years ago- the things that he forced himself to live without. Unlike Taehyung, who gave him the sense of having a brother again, you gave him the love of everyone he lost. You acted like a sibling, gave him the comfort like a mother, and gave him the stern challenge and teachings of a father- if that made any sense.
Without you, he felt like his family; Jungkook felt lost and alone. Even as an up-and-coming rockstar with thousands of fans scrambling to get to know him, he felt like he was the last man on the planet who kept himself back while everyone else moved on to a better world.
The night at the club still haunted him, the truth of what happened chilling him to the bone- even if he didn’t exactly remember any of it.
Shit. Maybe he needed help after all.
NOW.
Sitting with his back to the door, staring at the night of New York City, Jungkook did not hear Namjoon enter the room with both of his bodyguards in tow.
“We’re staying another few days.” His older brother informed him, breaking him from his trance-like gaze.
“Goody.” Jungkook sighed, setting his empty glass down on the table in front of him. With a huff, he stood and stretched. Namjoon uttered a quick ‘give us a second’ to his men before the shuffling of feet and the door closing behind him signaled the beginning of a serious conversation.
“You know she’s still here, right? It’s not too late to go and talk to her.” Jungkook could feel the man’s eyes on his back, pity dousing the information that Jungkook was already aware of.
But Jungkook didn’t need Namjoon’s pity. It was enough that Namjoon saw his feelings on paper. Nothing more needed to be shared.
Still, he respected his brother’s wisdom and he remembered the words of his counselor. ‘Accept the silence. Then, do the talking from the inside. The only one truly speaking, inside and out loud, is you.’
“I know. I already spoke to her. Some things…” Jungkook’s volume died down for a moment, unsure of how to put it, as he turned his head to look at his brother in a silent plea for assistance. “…happened the other night. She came and saw me again today,”
“-I didn’t know what to do and I acted like a dickhead.” He looked back down and chuckled spitefully to himself, wisps of a shadow materializing back into the depths of his mind once he stopped speaking.
Namjoon exhaled after not realizing that he was holding his breath following his own comment. Carefully, he approached Jungkook so as to not trigger him into closing himself off. Despite having received professional assistance and counseling for two years, Jungkook was still as fragile as fine china.
The older man placed a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder before slightly forcing Jungkook to face him.
“Tell me, Jungkook,” Namjoon looked into his eyes, prying into the windows of his soul, to capture a glimpse of the storm clouds brewing in his brother’s brown orbs. “Do you still love her?”
Jungkook didn’t know how to answer at first.
The voices began permeating Jungkook’s mind ever so slowly as an automatic reaction to being emotionally jabbed. He didn’t like addressing his feelings; the voices were all he could fall back on when he felt threatened, deafening volume drowning out the possibility for anything to reach into him too deep. They gave him the things- the bad things- he needed to say in order to protect himself.
As he sifted through the past two years, however, looking back on the help he had received and the exercises he went through that allowed him to no longer fear the natural silence- to embrace it without the drugs- he knew that no one was threatening him and no one was going to hurt him. Jungkook was asked if he still loved you and he couldn’t have the negativity surrounding him if he was going to answer that question, so he moved his trepidation out of the way to see what was left for you.
Behind it all- the fear, meaningless women, music, loss- lay a withering yet ever-present being, its wings tattered and flayed at the edges. With its first glances of light, with no smog to block it, it beat its tiny appendages with potential and came to life upon Jungkook’s realization of what it was.
His arrant and perennial love for you.
Jungkook briefly remembered the meadow- your meadow- and all of the tiny butterflies that were living out their lives in the beauty of the world that day. A butterfly adorned with blue and black splotches of color on its wings had managed to land on your head for a split second when he adjusted your hair. The particular memory and the events that followed on that day relocated as the tiny butterfly inside his mind fluttered upwards.
Jungkook’s heart soared with newfound beginnings- a second chance.
“I do, hyung. I do.” He whispered, voice wavering under the force of the emotions that came bubbling up from his chest. Tears filled his eyes, prompting his older brother to pull him into an embrace.
Jungkook’s body racked with cries at the feeling of comfort and warmth, unable to stop himself from feeling the raw emotions he had delayed for too long. Instead of needing to push the darkness out of the way, it came pouring out of him in radiating waves much too intense for him to handle alone.
“Hyung! I love her! I love her!” He chanted into his brother’s shoulder. “I hurt her! She was all mine and I tossed her away!”
Namjoon, although shocked by the psychological state and emotional outburst of his usually stoic bandmate, held him with care and waited until his brother’s breathing calmed before suggesting his next move. “Then go and get her, Kook.”
“She’s-” Jungkook had to swallow to wet his dry throat. “She’s with Taehyung right now.”
“Then wait until morning. From what Jin-hyung said, she’ll be here until the end of the week.”
So, wait is what Jungkook did.
He woke up at eight the next morning and called your personal assistant, finding his number easily on your company’s preliminary email to everyone in his organization for the whole UN ordeal. After two rings, the man answered.
“Halo! This is Brian Morena, representative and PA to Ms. Y/N Y/L/N. Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”
“Jeon Jungkook.” Jungkook stated his name lowly and unsurely, cautious as to how to approach asking him about your schedule.
“Ah, Mr. Jeon! It is a pleasure to speak with you! I’ll just verify your phone number really quick. It will only take a moment.” The line went silent for a few seconds and Jungkook waited on the edge of his bed with a bouncing knee and a fingernail between his teeth. After a few more seconds, the man was back on the phone. “You’re good! What can I do for you today?”
“I was just wondering if I could possibly get my hands on Ms. Y/N’s schedule for the day.” Jungkook heard how weird the request sounded the moment it flew from his lips. Quickly, he came up with a lie to soothe the request with reasoning. “She left her jacket in the elevator and I wish to return it to her- personally.”
Jungkook added the last part, knowing that the man would just tell him to give it to an employee of your own building, and Jungkook couldn’t have that. He wanted- no, needed- to see you.
“I see.” Brian responded thoughtfully. “Well, in that case, I’m unable to disclose her whereabouts due to security reasons.” Jungkook’s heart dropped a little at the notion of being unable to speak with you while his heart was still flying open. Then, Brian spoke again.
“But if she is in her hotel during her free time, she will be in her penthouse and I will assign you a temporary elevator key so that you can get to her door. It won’t unlock the door, but it will get you in front of it. Does that sound alright, Mr. Jeon?”
Jungkook smiled triumphantly. “Yes, that sounds lovely. Thank you, Brian.”
“It’s no problem, sir! Though, I do suggest you move quickly because she only has the next two and a half hours before she has her first scheduled event of the day. Your key will be ready for you in the next ten minutes. Have to wait until your status change goes through properly.” Brian was busy clacking away at his keyboard while he spoke, but Jungkook couldn’t be more overjoyed that he had succeeded in his plan thus far.
Things will work out. I’ll get her back. However much and however long it takes.
He dressed casually and indiscriminately with a mask over his face so as to not draw attention. After searching for it on google and exiting the hotel onto the street, he hailed a cab to take him to the first flower shop he could find to order you a bouquet of white tulips- obviously, he had to google that too. Jungkook had no idea what the best flower for apologies and hopes of new beginnings was. He was no botanical genius and that was a fact.
Once he had the flowers in his hand after a grueling wait, he stopped by the closest coffee shop to buy your favorite coffee- with two creams and three sugars if he remembered correctly. Despite the amount of time the florist had wasted, he made his way back to the hotel on foot so that he could properly practice what he was going to say to you. If he was going to make it right, he needed all the practice he could get.
Take off the mask. Don’t be a dick. Take off the mask. Don’t be a dick.
Jungkook let the incantations fill his head so that the haze of negativity didn’t have a chance to snap back into place over his single, delicate emotion. He was vulnerable and fighting the mental pressure with everything he had so that he could bare himself long enough to at least get back on good terms with you.
By the time he was back in front of your hotel building, it was a quarter to ten and he was left cursing the florist for taking so long. He stood awkwardly on the pavement, allowing himself a few breaths before he decided to enter the glass doors. Jungkook knew that he would be attracting attention by standing in front for so long, yet he couldn’t help but need a moment to send a prayer to whichever god was watching over him.
Closing his eyes, he craned his head up and took one last inhale whilst sending a silent plea for things to work out. To see you smiling and happy again. To hold you in his arms and hear you silence every one of his demons once and for all.
What he didn’t expect was one of his prayers to be promptly answered.
As he opened his eyes to look at the late morning sky, he caught sight of you immediately, sitting on the restaurant balcony- laughing and smiling. But you weren’t laughing and smiling to yourself.
You were giving your joy and happiness to Taehyung whose hand was covering yours above the table, grinning endearingly and adoringly back at you.
Jungkook’s hands grew numb, warranting the flowers and coffee to slip from his grasp onto the sidewalk, as he drowned in smog once again.
NOW.
You
“He never wanted you to leave.”
You sat, dumbfounded for a moment, as Taehyung said the words. You didn’t let the shock last for long, knowing that what he said must have been a lie.
“There’s no way.” You chuckled scornfully. “He told me himself, Taehyung. He didn’t want me anymore.”
“Y/N, take it from me. I loved you. I wanted to see you happy.” He grimaced briefly, most likely from the personal statement, while turning his eyes down to place his gaze on his empty plate in front of him. “But I knew that he made you happy even though he made you sad. He made you happy in a way that I never could. And he wanted to see you that way- happy.”
“I’m sorry, Tae. I- I should’ve-” Your heart ached for a moment as you tried to find the words to say, wishing for the first time that you had been in love with him instead.
“Don’t apologize, Y/N. You can’t force feelings like that and I sure as hell was not going to force you into anything that you didn’t want.”
A question burned behind your eyes, tugging your heart to remember the past.
“Then why did you let me see?” Your eyes turned cold. The drop in your tone nor the change of your mood were directed at him, but they were caused by him nonetheless.
“Because I was young and thought you had a chance to find that happiness elsewhere.” He sighed, taking the opportunity to place his hand over yours on the table while his words distracted you. “And for that, I’m sincerely sorry. I know that friends are supposed to help each other out, but that was a situation that was out of my hands and not mine to handle or get involved in.”
“I’m not blaming you for my relationship issues. I never did and I never will. So don’t apologize.” You looked down at the way his hand covered yours. “I just wanted to know.”
Taehyung pat your hand in an attempt for you to look at him again. When you did, he continued his sentiment.
“Jungkook didn’t want you to leave at all. He has this… thing. It’s not really my place to say anything, but I’ve been friends with him for years and he’s had it a bit rough. I know that he’s a dick- believe me, I know-“ You quirked an eyebrow at his expression. “But he’s got something he keeps hidden behind that thick skull of his that you should probably know about.”
“Why can’t you just tell me?” You asked, curious as to what he could be alluding to.
“Because you guys still need to talk. He was never good at talking to you about things.”
“I’m never fucking talking to him ever again.” You deadpanned.
“Please do it for me, Y/N.” His eyes begged with his plea, pulling you in.
“Oh? And why should I do it for you, hm?” You joked with him to steer the conversation away from the heavy subject, a small smile playing upon your lips. “I think you were the one apologizing to me.”
“Well, all I can say is that I’m sorry. I was supposed to be there for you- when you needed a shoulder to cry on and when you needed someone to binge watch TV shows with.” He smiled with his attempted joke that you couldn’t help but laugh at.
“You’re the best TV show buddy.” You giggled and looked down at your joined hands again, rotating your own so that you could hold his. To be friends with him after all this time… is it possible?
“Oh, I know I am!” He laughed loudly again, prompting you to quickly look around the restaurant area and the street below you, mild panic setting in once more. You tilted your head in confusion and pity at the sight of a few white flowers lying on the pavement next to a splattered drink.
“Poor flowers.” You muttered to yourself. “They’re so pretty.”
You watched Taehyung turn to look where you were staring from the corner of your eye. “Oh yeah. Would you look at that? Such a waste.”
Instead of taking any more time, you stood and straightened your blazer to remove the wrinkles. “We should probably get out of here. I have a security meeting in a little while.”
“How long is a little while?” Taehyung asked as he stood and pressed his hands to his own coat. You made eye contact with Jay who was already stood and ready to go, nodding to him as you answered Taehyung’s question.
“About an hour and a half. Why?”
“Damn. That’s not enough time. Maybe tonight then?” He tapped his chin thoughtfully, lips forming into a thin line.
“Enough time for what? What’s happening?” You grabbed his elbow when he began walking away without answering your question.
“What time are you going to be done for the day?” He asked.
“Taehyung,” You warned lowly. “What’s going on? I won’t tell you unless you give me something to work with here.”
“Oh, nothing.” He smiled and removed your grasp from his arm. “I’ll just ask Brian again. I’m sure he’ll be upset if you dodge your schedule.”
“Brian?” You watched as he walked away through the tables while hooking his mask back onto his ears. You wanted to get to the bottom of the situation fast- so you quickly followed him. “You’ve been speaking with him?”
“Of course I have! Isn’t that right, Jay?” Taehyung turned to the man in question.
“Of course, Mr. Kim. You’ve been very in touch with the staff.” Your bodyguard, once he joined you and Taehyung walking together, let a small, smug grin pull at the corners of his mouth. What a traitor. A slight sense of mock-betrayal filled you.
“What?” You asked. “Why?”
“For research purposes.” Taehyung deadpanned, grabbing your hand in the process. “Now come on. Let’s get out of here.”
“I have to go back to my room and get ready for my meetings.” You said quickly. Taehyung only chuckled lowly.
“Alright. Then let’s go!” He tugged you towards the exit. “I’ll take you to your door.”
You had no option but to stumble behind him while you stressfully surveyed the area, careful of onlookers.
~∞~
“YOU ALMOST LOST IT?” Kate’s voice was shrill and slightly distorted as it burst through the speakers of your phone at an ear-splitting volume.
“I’m sorry!” You briskly apologized. “It wasn’t my fault, I swear!”
“I spent weeks- weeks!- planning and making that jacket for you! I-” She bleated weakly before her tone leveled to nonchalance. “Wow. So this is what being chopped liver feels like.”
“Kate! You are not chopped liver, I swear.” You rushed the statement as you sat back in your office chair, glad to have a conversation that wasn’t work-related after a long and grueling day.
Your friend only grumbled in response. “It sure feels like it.”
“Well, you aren’t. I swear on my job.” You said.
“Oh wow. Holy shit. Okay, yeah that means a lot.” She stuttered playfully. “But something tells me you didn’t call me just to tell me you almost lost one of my most prized works of art- which, by the way, is my best seller. So, what is it?”
“I- uh…” You didn’t know how to word it. You had spent the entire work day using security updates and board meetings as a distraction from the open debate in your head, so now that your day was over and you had nothing left to do, the thoughts came back. It’s why you called Kate; you needed a third opinion.
If what Taehyung said about Jungkook was actually true, then maybe you should talk to him so that you could hear his side of the story. The bad bitch part of you told you to fuck off and forget about him, but you couldn’t help the softer and more curious side of yourself that begged to hear him out.
Realizing you had gone silent for a moment too long, you blurted out something random. “I’d like for you to design a hat for me.” A hat? Really? That was the best you could come up with? At least ask for some pants or something.
“Bullshit,” She chuckled in response. “But I’ll take that until you’re ready to tell me what’s actually going on.”
You heard her rustling some paper in preparation to take down design ideas, triggering panic to rise within you. You didn’t want her to put in work for an imaginary hat that you really had no desire of having.
“Hypothetically!” You shouted before she could get into it.
“Okay…” You heard the hesitation in her voice, clearly weirded out by your outburst. “Hypothetically what?”
“Let’s say, hypothetically, that you had an old flame who broke your heart and acted like a dick years ago, but you just recently learned that there were, maybe- I don’t know- some other things going on that made him act that way. Would you want to talk to him about it?”
“Hell no.” Kate laughed. “Just because you’re going through some stuff doesn’t mean you can act like a dick to other people. There’s no excuse for being a shitty person.”
“That’s what I thought.” You replied strongly. In your head, however, the war within you was brewing, weakening your composure.
“You’re not one to usually think about things like this.” Kate added. “What’s going on with you?”
“Just dealing with some stuff from the past. Nothing huge.” You didn’t want to overshare and Kate understood, knowing that she could never ask you to tell her about your past. She would wait until you were the one sharing it with her.
“Just let me know if you want me to come over there. I could definitely use some quality time with a quiet person for once. These idiots are so loud.”
You laughed in response. “I will. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you. We can watch movies or something and eat pizza and drink wine.”
“Oh my. That sounds like the perfect date!” She squealed. Her giddiness was infectious, spreading a soft smile across your lips.
“Won’t Brian get jealous?” You jab at her playfully.
“Not at all. He’ll probably end up attached to his video games anyway.” Kate snorted. “Shit! Speaking of! I need to call him! I’ll talk to you later?”
“Of course. Talk to you later.” You sat up in your chair.
“Bye!” She chirped.
As you sat alone in your office, building lights dark and the lights from the city the only form of illumination in the room through the window, you let your friends’ words rifle through your head.
On one hand, Kate catered to your stone-cold side, encouraging you to forget all about Jungkook and move on. Despite not knowing the situation and understanding all of its facets, her opinion was unbiased.
Taehyung, on the other hand, encouraged you to speak with Jungkook. He was aware of both sides of the story and understood what you and Jungkook- whatever the hell it was- were going through. He supported the side of you that was eager to understand and desperate to love again.
The decision was, ultimately, yours to make. What were you going to do?
The thoughts in your mind weighed heavy on your heart while you prepared to leave. You stood, packed your brief case, and made your way out of your office and onto the sidewalk to hail your driver so that you could go back to your hotel.
You couldn’t worry about it for long, though, because your phone vibrated three separate times as three notifications lit up your screen on your way back. Taehyung texted you.
Kim Taehyung (BTS)
Wear thick socks.
And a coat.
With gloves.
You stared at your phone in confusion, trying to figure out what he was getting at. Just what in the world was this boy planning?
~#~
Sorry this took so long, everyone! Please remember to like/reblog and comment if you want. I’d like to know what you guys think!
Don’t forget to check out the Series Masterlist if you want to read the oneshots that I have published.
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glitradora · 3 years
Note
AU where Glimmer and Adora are forced into marriage but neither like each other and Adora's in a secret relationship with Catra, so Glimmer tries to help them.
(would love if we could get date stamps on asks cause i’m probably over 1.5 years late - i’m sorry)
for send me an AU and i’ll tell you my headcanons for it (no more i have so many)
( tw character death )
first things first, every arranged marriage story should follow the “this is my idea” song from the animated movie The Swan Princess. I could write a dissertation on why this scene is the most iconic thing ever animated.
“if i get lucky i’ll get chickpox” amazing brilliant never been done before uniqu-
anyways
i do think that for an arranged marriage plot to work you’d have to significantly change the world building in she-ra
mostly cause Adora isn’t a princess by birth and even if we count her becoming She-ra as gaining her title - Adora doesn’t answer to anyone after it lmao
I also can’t easily see the Horde trying to play nice and go for peace over.. fully destroying the planet and it’s cultures in a plot to control Etheria.
So maybe a world where the first ones are still around and Adora is their heir? Maybe with Light Hope as her guardian/regent. Or maybe Light Hope has the regent and Shadow Weaver has her guardian/teacher if you want to keep her character arc closer to the show.
Catra/Adora childhood bffs
Catra maybe as the heir of a kingdom the First Ones defeated in war who’s being raised there as a means of controlling the kingdom later on? (something the Romans did a lot - they controlled certain parts of the empire by “romanizing” the future leader so they would be loyal to Rome.)
So Catra grows up with a complete sense of not belonging
Glimmer and Brightmoon don’t really have to change maybe Micah’s always there tho?
Or maybe he’s dead/on beast island anyways cause Brightmoon has been fighting the First One’s if you want that initial dislike between Glimmer/Adora.
Maybe same reason Adora is the heir - some battle/war killed the main line of succession of the First Ones and Adora is who they fell back on but there was no reason the believe she would ever be close to the throne at birth.
(it’s why she’s allowed to befriend Catra has a kid.)
So Adora becomes the only heir at age like 8-9 after a big Brightmoon win (that may or may not have cost them Micah)
Brightmoon has the upper hand in the negotiations that’s why Adora spends the summers there
(unfortunately i don’t think either Light Hope or Angella would be much the singing type rip)
Shadow Weaver is NOT happy about it cause she’s banking on having control of Adora by the time she takes the throne and having her away for 3 months every year kinda ruins it.
Catra is pretty sad too obviously.
Adora and Glimmer spend every summer lowkey trying to kill each other
Glimmer is winning their unofficial game of pissing the other off the most due to her teleporting until they turn 13 where Adora hits her growth spurt.
(also Adora is not allowed to take the sword with her since the accident when they were 11 and zapped all over the castle with a real sharp blade being waved around by an over powered tween)
Bow becomes a common sight at some point in their tweens and while both of them are very good friends with Bow separately a room with the 3 of them in it is bound to be a dangerous place.
Bow is extremely aware that these two are friends - they just don’t know it. They are both very clear on where the line is at all times and that doesn’t always mean they don’t sometimes cross it, either on a moment of distraction or one of anger. But they know where the hard limits lie and they know when they’re the on in the wrong.
in the mean time Catra becomes friends with Scorpia - who is in a similar situation to her has a “unofficial prisoner/ward” of the First Ones.
Adora knows Scorpia too btw but Scorpia doesn’t trust her
Catra goes to Brightmoon for the first time when they’re all 16. Not for the full stay but has a one week guest for Bow’s birthday by Adora’s request and Bow’s invitation.
It’s really awkward for all parts involved.
Catradora not only are not together at this time but like the show Adora is completely unaware of her feelings
Catra knows but also has no hopes of it ever being a) returned b) allowed.
Glimmer can tell in .2 seconds of meeting Catra and starts mocking Adora endlessly and it’s probably their first real actual fight in years.
( it doesn’t help the awkward for the rest of the week)
The next year they don’t talk about it
Adora is expected to be crowned on her 21th birthday and so starts taking on more direct responsibilities after 18
The summers turn shorter and Glimmer visits more often for public appearances instead.
They get into a fight a little before Glimmer’s 19th birthday because Adora tells her she should stop playing with Bow’s feelings and Glimmer shots back that she won’t take advice for someone hiding her own
( They have long decided they marriage would be purely political. Yet Glimmer doesn’t want to bind Bow to a life of secret)
They’re friends at this point denying it is impossible. They fight like sisters but have know each other longer and better than any other soul on the planet.
The fact that Glimmer ascends to the throne first is a surprise.
Queen Angella was young and strong and the illness that took her sudden and cruel.
As queen Glimmer answers to no one and while Adora is ready to deal with the consequences of it on her the second Glimmer proposes it they wait
Adora get’s her own crown before long and they honer they agreement - the two kingdoms shall never again be at war
The pack doesn’t involve wedding, they know the other to well to ever need such things to bind it. They will fight in the future like they did has children and decide things between themselves.
It’s not immediate for either of them
Glimmer chokes a couple of times on trying to tell Bow and Adora avoids Catra for a full week after she decides to tell her before Catra grabs her and shakes it out of her.
I don’t have ... a more complete ending? sorry i really tired to get more into how glimmer helped like your ask said but this was the best i could come up with
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mcatra · 4 years
Text
AU where Catra works at burger king
Catra works minimum wage at burger king, Adora comes in every day as the world’s worst customer.
AO3 
‘I am being HARASSED.’ Catra groans, sprawling on her side of the register. ‘I’m begging you, just kill me.’ 
It was another slow afternoon at Burger King, or as she likes to call it the absolute shithole she only got minimum wage for. Catra could be out there living her life as a youthful teenager, instead she was serving chicken nuggets to her worst enemy- Adora. It didn’t help that said blonde was currently sitting in the corner, laughing obnoxiously with her friends she had replaced her with. 
‘Aw I’m sure Adora isn’t here to harass you, she probably just likes our food! I do cook these to perfection you know.’ Scorpia says conversationally from her spot in the kitchen as she flame broils another patty.
Catra scoffs, her eyes trained on her most hated customer. 
‘There has to be some sort of law against coming to one’s workplace every day! No one likes Burger King that much! NOBODY!’ 
Suddenly she sees Adora sit up from her chair, that makes a horrific screeching noise on their unmopped floor. 
‘Oh god she’s coming.’ Catra whispers, trying to duck into the kitchen. ‘Scorpia! Hide me!’ 
Her friend shoves her back to the counter, as Adora approaches. ‘You’re the only one on this shift who is allowed to use the register-’
‘Do not make me serve her I swear to god-’
‘Hi Catra.’ Adora smiles, and Catra’s eyes narrow. 
‘Whatchu want, princess?’ She sneers, avoiding her piercing blue eyes that reminded her of still lakes. Or swirling oceans. Or the fluffy white cloud bath bombs from Lush. Wait, no.
‘Mmm, can I get a strawberry sundae?’ Adora chirps, looking above her at the menu. 
‘Can’t.’ Catra drawls, looking at her black painted nails. ‘The machine’s broken.’
Adora’s face falls in disappointment, and Catra cheers inwardly at her small victory until Scorpia’s voice cuts through their conversation.
‘That’s not true, the soft serve machine is fine.’ Her traitor friend says, pulling down on the lever and swirling a perfect sundae into the cup. She adds the syrup before handing it to Adora.
‘That’ll be $1.50.’
‘Thanks Scorpia.’ Adora smiles, rummaging through her purse to collect her coins.
Catra rolls her eyes. 
‘What a cheap ass. Little rich girl can only afford a dollar-fifty ice cream? No wonder we’re running out of business.’ 
Adora frowns at this. ‘Did you want a tip or something?’ 
‘What? FUCK no. I don’t take charity.’ Catra scoffs, snatching the coins from her old childhood-friend-to-enemies palm. She swiftly jabs in the total and throws the coins into the drawer. They’re forced into silence as the receipt slowly prints, and she tries to ignore the way Adora is staring at her. 
Suddenly Adora leans in close, and she can hear her murmur close to her ear.
‘I’ll see you at student council.’
Catra flushes at the proximity, every hair standing on end. Before she can stutter out an insult, Adora rips the receipt from the machine and is sauntering back to Bow and Glimmer. 
The brown haired girl deflates, her nails scratching on the old countertop. All that mental damage, for $1.50? Life was not fair. 
Adora always had the perfect grades, the perfect family and friends, the most cushy and royal upbringing. After their falling out involving a scholarship to a private school, they hadn’t spoken until the merger. 
It filled Catra with sick pleasure that the private school had lost their prestige to embezzled money, and now had to be government funded. However in consequence of this, they had decided to merge the public and private school so they could sell off the land to build skyrises or something. 
This meant Catra lost her position of School Captain to Adora after a fierce election, and had been demoted to Vice Captain. Not to mention no matter how hard Catra tried, she could never beat her in the school rankings. She couldn’t work to support herself and study 6 hours a day, like rich privileged Adora. 
So now here she was, forced to interact with the one person she could’ve gone her whole life without seeing on a daily basis. 
Ever since Adora had discovered Catra had been working at Burger King during a late night drive-thru run, her ex best friend had made it her life’s mission to make her life hell. 
Of course she had done her best to make the experience awful to drive her away. Catra knew Adora hated pickles, so she would threaten Kyle to slice up an entire pickle’s worth in the blonde’s Whopper before giving it to her with a sweet smile. She is filled with glee watching Adora picking them out one by one in disgust. 
This doesn’t stop Adora from coming though. Not even when they had made it into some sort of competition to see how many pickles could physically be crammed into a bun. Or even when she had put every single condiment including the salt and pepper into an unholy liquid concoction and served it in a cola cup. Not even when she gave Adora food poisoning when they got too carried away trying to stack as many patties as they could to recreate Sky Burger. 
No matter what she did, the girl never went away. Even though she had so easily disappeared from her life when she had needed her the most. But she didn’t need Adora, she had gotten this job herself, she had gotten a roof over her head with her own power. She had worked so hard to become independent from Shadow Weaver, and no matter what, Adora will not jeopardize it. 
--
‘I’m doing, what exactly?’ 
Catra stares dumbly at her manager, a sinking feeling dawning on her.  
‘Adora ordered a birthday party at Burger King.’ Lonnie drawls, ignoring the look of complete horror on Catra’s face.
‘No, you can’t do this to me! Roster me for any other day. I cannot psychologically take this.’ She begs. 
‘Sorry dude, the deposit has already been paid for. We’re short staffed, and it seems like Kyle has gotten fryer oil burns from your last burger experiment with Adora.’ Lonnie whaps Catra with the birthday catering pamphlet. 
‘Stupid Kyle.’ Catra hisses, clenching it in her fist. Curse this damn place that can only afford to hire teenagers. 
‘Anyway, just set up the tables and decorations after school on Thursday. Should be a good day for business, with Adora and her posse being rich kids and all.’
‘Can I at least get time and a half?’ 
‘Are you gonna be paying Kyle’s medical bill?’
Catra pouts. ‘Not my fault you guys don’t provide gloves. This place is an OSHA violation haven.’ 
WE do the PLANNING, YOU have the FUN! The bold font emblazoned over the small child’s smiling face mocks her from the pamphlet. Catra clenches it in her fist. 
‘Also why the fuck did she book a kid’s birthday party package when she is like 17, and not 6 years old?!’ 
Lonnie rolls her eyes. ‘Do you still want a job or not? Just read the rest of the form, counting on you to organize it.’ 
Catra squints at the crumpled paper in her hand. 
GOLD PARTY PACKAGE
-Themed birthday cards!
-Party bags!
-Birthday gift for the celebrant!
-Jumbo birthday cake!
-Pinata!
-Special birthday songs!
-Dedicated hostess!
Catra can feel her soul physically leave her body. This was gonna be a long week.
-
It was terrible.
Adora had handed these obnoxious Burger King birthday invitations to all her friends, so now she had all these RSVP’s to the worst birthday of all of human history. In between working shifts until midnight, dealing with Adora at student council and not eating, Catra was on edge. 
‘No, you can not write ‘Die Adora Die’ on her cake.’ Scorpia chides, slapping Catra’s hands away to pipe the icing. 
‘It’s what she deserves.’ Catra seethes. If she couldn’t eat it, she could at least ruin it, right? 
‘They’ll be here soon, so try to take that dying grimace off your face.’ Scorpia replies, and Catra rolls her eyes before adding the finishing touches to the cake. 
Suddenly the door opens, interrupting her decorating. The once quiet establishment was now full of loud chatter as their classmates piled in one by one. All of Adora’s old private school friends were here, all unironically celebrating their school captain’s children’s birthday party at the worst fast food restaurant in their state. 
She plasters her fakest customer service smile she can muster. Dignity at the door. 
‘Hi, you must be here for the Birthday Girl’s party.’ Catra says, approaching the group. Just treat it like you don’t know them.
‘Aw you don’t have to be so formal with us, Vice Captain.’ Glimmer teases, and Catra almost snaps from her facade. Almost.
‘Let me show you to your table.’ Catra grits out. 
She had chosen the ugliest poop brown balloons she could find, and had deliberately made the HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner lopsided on the wall.
‘Thanks Catra!’ Adora grins, bouncing past her to admire the decorations. 
Catra imagines Adora’s face on the pinata and smashing it into a million pieces. She forces herself to take a deep breath. It was just the one shift, and she really needed this job. Plus after the party was over, she could probably nab some leftovers for her trouble. 
All of the girls (plus Bow and Seahawk) sit around the table, and Catra marches over with the laminated menus. 
‘Ooh, we all get hats!’ Perfuma says, placing her Burger King cardboard crown on top of her head.
Frosta squints at the menu. ‘I’ve never eaten fast food before. Looks disgusting.’
‘I think it’s fine! Adora wanted to eat here.’ Glimmer says in a sugarly sweet tone that just came off as passive aggressive. ‘Even though I had suggested my penthouse by the ocean and we go here nearly every day.’
‘I much rather would be at the ocean beach house thank you very much.’ Mermista retorts, swatting Sea Hawk off her shoulder.
Yeah me too, Catra thinks bitterly. She stomps off with their orders, cursing them inwardly the entire way to the kitchen.
Adora’s friends start playing with the so-called ‘entertainment’ they had haphazardly set up. 
It was ridiculous, seeing grown teenagers lining up to try to smack the shit out of a glittery pinata. They squabble over who gets to hit it first, Catra feeling very much like a glorified babysitter to her most hated enemies. 
After a while, she sees Scorpia emerge from the kitchen. ‘Happy Birthday to you,’ Scorpia sings with Adora’s birthday cake in her arms. ‘Happy Birthday to you~’ 
The others join in on the song, Catra only mouthing the words in silent rebellion. The cake is emblazoned with a crude doodle of Adora’s face with HAPPY BIRTHDAY written on her enormous forehead. 
‘Oh my gosh, I love it!’ Adora’s sky blue eyes light up, and she’s practically sparkling. Catra huffs, she wasn’t supposed to like it. Didn’t she see the drawing was supposed to make fun of her five-head? 
Adora catches Catra’s eye, beaming. ‘Did you draw this for me?’ 
‘She did!’ Scorpia tattles, and her enemy’s smile increased tenfold. Catra can feel her cheeks grow warm. Dammit. 
‘Whatever.’ Catra bites out, unable to meet her gaze.  
Luckily no one else seemed to be paying attention to the weird atmosphere between them, as they were split between eyeing the cake and pinata wrestling. 
‘Get over here Sea Hawk, we can do the pinata later!’ Mermista chastises, watching Bow spin her blindfolded boyfriend. 
‘Let me just get one good hit in, and I’ll join you!’ He crows, swinging the bat in random directions as Bow ducks the blows, laughing. 
Just for anything to do, Catra takes it upon herself as hostess to snatch up the knife and start cutting. She cuts into the cake to start portioning out the slices, but as the knife touches the bottom Glimmer lets out a shriek. 
‘What?’ Catra deadpans.
‘If you cut to the bottom of the cake, you have to kiss the person closest to you!’ Glimmer says, a demonic look in her eye. Adora elbows her, embarrassed. 
‘Excuse me?’ Catra’s never heard of this tradition. Though to be fair, she had not been to many parties in her lifetime. 
‘Oh, that’s right!’ Perfuma claps her hands together. ‘Adora’s closest right? Go ahead Catra!’
To her horror, Glimmer starts pushing Catra towards the blonde. She digs her heels into the linoleum, only to find that she was sliding from the newly mopped floors. 
‘Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!’ The girls start chanting, like they were her friends and that she wasn’t their damn server.
‘What the hell- fuck no, let go of me!’ Catra finally snaps, wrenching herself from Glimmer’s grip. 
The momentum sends her stumbling into Sea Hawk, who was still attempting to hit the pinata. 
‘Ack!’ He squawks. 
The bat goes flying straight out his hand and into their double doors. There’s a huge crash, and everybody winces at the noise. 
The glass pane shatters, and so does Catra’s sanity. She was so fired. 
Sea Hawk lifts the blindfold. 
‘Did I get it?’ 
---
It was nearly closing time, and Catra was still sweeping up bits of glass from the floor. This had been one of the worst days of her life, and she had been beaten and homeless before. To make it worse, Adora was still grovelling when she should’ve gone hours ago like the rest of them. 
‘I am so sorry Catra, I’ll pay for everything, I’ll take full responsibility so you don’t get fired-’ 
‘Stop it.’ She was too tired to even argue with Adora like she usually did, wishing Adora would just go away already so she could grovel over the phone to her regional manager without an audience. Catra always pretended to hate her job, but she couldn’t afford to lose it. She could barely make rent with her Burger King wage. 
‘Please, let me help clean. It was my fault anyway.’
There was hardly any money left over to feed herself most days, that’s why she was skinny as a rake as opposed to the toned, buff, well fed Adora. She had only been functioning on a few nuggets that Scorpia snuck her yesterday. Did Catra still have those food coupons? How long until the bank charged overdraft fees? 
‘Catra are you listening-’ 
‘I said stop it!’ Catra snaps. 
Adora has the audacity to look stunned. 
‘Why do you insist on harassing me at work everyday? Is it fun? Forcing me to play servant to you rich girls, to sing and dance for you? You already beat me in everything at school, you’re already School Captain, you have all the money and a loving family you need, so can you stop rubbing your privilege in my face just for one second so I can THINK?’ 
‘I...I just…I’m sorry.’ Adora starts and aborts a few sentences. Catra can’t even stand to look at her face. 
‘This party at your work. It was the only way to get you to celebrate my birthday with me.’ 
‘.....’
‘Um, I-’
‘Whatever.’ Catra retorts, trying and failing to pick up the last shards with her too long fingernails. She hisses when the glass nicks her finger, cutting into skin. Drops of blood fall to the floor.
‘Are you okay?!’ Adora gasps, rushing to her side. Catra slaps her hand away, she needed to go find the cleaning supplies. Blood was a biohazard, there was some protocol for it but she was having trouble remembering. 
She goes to stand up, but the fatigue rushes to her head and her legs give in underneath her. Instead of smacking her head against the floor, she feels herself land on something soft instead. 
Adora hooks her around the waist, gently placing her into the booth. She grabs a napkin from the dispenser and wraps it around Catra’s hand. She can feel Adora’s warm hand squeezing her own. 
‘I’m just applying pressure to the cut.’ Adora says quietly. 
Catra just closes her eyes. It’s well past midnight and she should be locking up the store, but she can’t bring herself to move. 
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princessofgayskull · 3 years
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somehow I’ll still love you more headcanons
Some wonderful people have requested headcanons about my catradora fankid! So I’ve come to deliver! @needtotakeablake @dudebrocatra
Spoilers for the last chapter of somehow I’ll still love you more so I’m putting these under the cut!
I think I mentioned this in the author’s note at the end of chapter 7, but the Surge that was Aurora- or Rory’s- birthday was the longest but final Surge. There is never another one.
Perfuma is able to heal the Heart Blossom, but wherever there is new growth there is a faint line that shows where the tree broke; this line comes to be called “Aurora’s Mark”
Kittens are not able to retract their claws at birth (I got to do research on kittens for this fic and that was some of the most fun I’ve had researching a fic) and so for the first couple of years of her life, Rory can’t either. She accidentally claws at her face when she’s sleeping during her first few months so Adora and Catra have to put little gloves on her when she outgrows being swaddled. Sometime they’ll let her fall asleep holding their hand and once she’s asleep put a toy or blanket in her grasp so she doesn’t hurt herself. 
No, Wrong Hordak is never allowed to babysit. He basically becomes Ren’s nanny given that Ren’s moms are princesses of two different kingdoms, so sometimes he watches both Ren and Rory- but only when Rory gets older.
I almost included a little bit about Catra having the urge to lick Rory’s head and clean her, but it didn’t fit the tone I was going for in the last scene, so I scrapped it. I still hold onto it as a headcanon, tho.
Rory is not as much cat as Catra is; this is of course, because her other mother is human. Her eyesight isn’t as sharp and neither is her hearing, and her hair is more human than it is mane. 
Rory is an only child and stays one. I can’t see Catra and Adora trying for another child without worrying about tempting fate or causing favoritism. Besides, Rory basically has siblings in Kai, Ren, and Bow and Glimmer’s kids (twins, a girl and a boy about a year and half younger than Rory). She also has grandparents in George and Lance, and Micah and Angella. 
Rory is almost never not with her moms in the first few years of her life. In my mind, Etheria had a less segmented culture that allowed children to be seen and heard and it’s commonplace for parents to have their children in close range when they’re working. Rory starts coming to the Embassy when she’s about four months old; either Catra or Adora will carry her in a swing. She basically spends most of her childhood there, but Catra and Adora aren’t the only parents so she always has friends around her age. She’s much more friendly and outgoing than her moms were as little kids, but that’s less because of personality and more of a difference in socialization. She makes up just as many imaginary friends as she has real friends.
As an infant, she takes intense fascination with pulling Catra’s tail. Whenever she gets upset and can’t be soothed, Adora will transform into She Ra because the light and glow are very entertaining to her daughter. Catra doesn’t object because she figures Rory should be introduced to She Ra as early as possible. When Rory’s about three, she and Adora invent a game where when she’s getting restless, Adora will transform and Rory will practice climbing up her.
She’s very much a wild child. She’s hyper and has a lot of energy and if not entertained or stimulated she can run off in hopes of finding something that will keep her focus. She’s bright and a quick learner; she loves hanging out in different kingdoms and talking to people about their lives, but she scares Catra and Adora when she does so cause their daughter has basically run off to talk to a complete stranger.  
Ren is about eleven months older than Rory. They grow up basically cousins and definitely best friends being the daughter of princesses and diplomats. (They have a lot of time to hang out together since their mothers are almost working). In my mind Ren and Rory represent something that was never possible during the war, that is children who come from both rebellion and Horde backgrounds and for some reason this makes me very emotional.
Kai often gets stuck watching the two of them. No one can figure if Kai’s just a bad influence or Rory’s just a naturally wild child (she is, 100%) and the two bring out the wildest in Ren.
During a party held in Plumeria, Kai (11), Ren (7) and Rory (6) run off and discover Aurora’s mark and so Rory, being Rory and being 6, claws her name where the mark halves the tree. 
Rory has a deathly fear of fire after Kai took playing his father too seriously in a game they were playing and set a little patch of grass on fire that burned her foot. 
Catra and Adora take care of educating Rory until she’s about eleven years old. Rory has a soft spot for reading (yes it's because her moms read to her all the time when she was little) and as adept at picking up languages as Adora is. Very early can Rory read First Ones writing. (isn’t it weird to think that Rory is half first one?)
At eleven, she starts showing signs of magical ability. She attempts to keep it hidden knowing her mothers’ history with magic, but this makes the problem worse. Catra is the first to figure out something is wrong and breaks down Rory’s walls pretty fast, but she’s the opposite of angry or set off upon learning Rory’s little secrets. Catra and Adora theorize this magic ability might’ve come from the moment that Adora used She Ra’s magic to alleviate the pain Catra was in during labor. They encourage Rory to go study at Mystacore where Glimmer and Bow’s children are studying. Rory goes during the weeks, where Micah and Castaspella are her primary teachers and comes home during the weekends. 
Rory does not want to become a full fledged sorceress; after she graduates she wants to join the Etherian Peace Corps and help keep the tranquility she was born from. Her combat fighting style is a mix of Adora and Catra’s, as both taught her how to fight. 
I hope that satisfies! Thank you for showing Rory some love. It means SO MUCH!
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adora contemplating that it’s okay to have wants as well as thinking about how much she loves catra, culminating in an extremely unorthodox proposal (but nonetheless one very fitting for the two of them)
~*~
Adora knew she had problems with… accepting things, as it were. On her first birthday - or what they’d decided was her birthday - as a part of the Rebellion, Glimmer and Bow had refurbished her entire wardrobe. With the help of Angella. She’d be so overwhelmed that not only was it still a struggle for her to wear most of those outfits but she’d also tried to make gifts for each one of them in return. They’d informed her, gently, that birthdays did not operate as exchanges. Their presents to her were tokens of appreciation for her existence, no strings attached and nothing required in response. 
She hadn’t believed them at the time. Or at least hadn’t understood them. How could someone appreciate her solely because she existed? In the Horde, a person had to work to prove their worth. They had to constantly show that they’d earned their positions. They had to justify that they deserved to live, because no one inherently deserved anything when there was no guarantee they’d all make it to see the next day. Then, as She-Ra, every day Adora felt like she had to prove her loyalties to the Rebellion as well as demonstrate her capabilities as a leader. She couldn’t let them down, no matter what the cost. As they learned to trust her, She-Ra’s responsibility shifted to being the savior. There was no one else in the universe who could do what She-Ra could, who held the power that She-Ra held, which meant She-Ra - Adora - had to be ready to do anything for the sake of those who could do nothing.
It was a mantra. A lifestyle drilled into Adora’s mind. Don’t ask, don’t want, and there will be nothing to lose. She should only take what she needed because anything more was unnecessary and would only be a sign of weakness. In the Horde, Shadow Weaver made sure Adora was never weak. In turn, as part of the Rebellion, Adora did the same for She-Ra. She clung to those basics, forcing herself to be content with working towards a greater purpose. Once, to be Force Captain. Then, or perhaps even now, to be She-Ra, and to do whatever it took to save all of Etheria.
You deserve love, too. Mara’s words often echoed in her mind, as if she’d only heard them yesterday and not months ago. Adora had struggled to take that advice to heart. ‘Deserve’ was too fickle of a term - maybe she did deserve love, but the rest of Etheria deserved to live and didn’t that outweigh her own selfish wants?
But she was gradually starting to understand that such concepts did not have to be mutually exclusive. She’d saved Etheria while the love of her life had saved her at the same time. She didn’t have to choose. Or maybe she had chosen, and she’d chosen both.
Adora, much like her girlfriend, had taken to meeting with Perfuma. To help her process… well, everything. She kept this fact private - not because she was embarrassed or anything of the like, but because she simply didn’t want any of her friends to worry. Glimmer was having to iron out the details of co-ruling with King Micah, Bow was helping his dads rebuild and restore their library, and Catra was working harder than anyone just to become accustomed to Bright Moon and to improve her relations with the people she’d hurt during her time at the Horde.
Perfuma’s response to these concerns had been that her problems were not lesser just because she’d convinced herself they were of smaller magnitude, because a person drowning in five feet of water and a person drowning in twenty feet of water were still both drowning, regardless of the difference in depth. They both needed to be saved, and both would need treatment afterwards to survive. In other words, it was okay if her friends worried on her behalf because her problems were as important as anyone else’s. Concern and empathy, Perfuma believed, were the core components of a strong bond between individuals.
Perfuma was undoubtedly right, but Adora kept her talks with the princess to herself all the same.
Another common topic at her sessions was her supposed ‘self-sacrificial’ tendencies. Those tendencies were connected to her difficulty in accepting her inner wants and desires, Perfuma had explained, and her obsessive need to be someone for everyone at any time. If she kept that up, she would eventually stretch herself too thin, hurting herself and perhaps even those around her.
So, with Perfuma’s help, Adora had created a new mantra to live by. She did not have to be everything for everyone. It was okay to want, to be selfish, to love and be loved. Perfuma was delighted to note her progress over the past several months, and Adora couldn’t help but feel pleased with herself, too. Which was also okay. There was no shame in pride and self-love.
In other words… Adora wouldn’t have traded the world she was in for a million new universes to explore.
“So how do you tell the difference between a star and a planet?” Catra asked, frowning up at the sky. “They all look like bright circles to me.���
Adora chuckled at her girlfriend’s blunt question. “I think stars twinkle and planets shine is how most people do it. But I can just… feel it. The difference.”
They were lying on one of the flatter rooftops of Bright Moon’s palace, resting side by side and staring up at the stars together. Catra liked being up high to get away from people, and Adora was more than happy to accompany her in being alone. They tried to climb up and stargaze every week, and while they were not always successful, it made the times they did manage to get away together even more special.
“I guess that’s She-Ra’s influence,” Catra mused. “Feeling the difference without knowing anything about stars.”
Adora laughed. “Probably so. I’ve never studied astronomy in my life, so…”
Catra snorted. “Except for the one time you fell asleep when George was trying to explain constellations to you. So yeah, definitely She-Ra.”
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” The conversation had actually been incredibly interesting - she’d just been exhausted from helping Glimmer with Bright Moon business all day.
George had recently provided them with a copy of a book about stars, as most of Etheria had been ecstatic about their reappearance in the sky. Adora and Catra had spent the past few nights spotting constellations amongst the stars, something Adora - or She-Ra, perhaps - apparently had a knack for. Catra preferred to make up her own, each story she invented for them more ridiculous than the next.
“Hey, is that a constellation?” Catra asked, pointing upwards and to her right at a cluster of stars that formed a vaguely humanoid shape. “Or is it coincidentally a weird pattern that looks like a person?”
Adora had to physically tear her gaze from her girlfriend, turning her head to look up at the sky. Not that the stars weren’t beautiful, but their light didn’t hold a candle to Catra, who in her opinion was a thousand times more stunning. Although she was probably biased on that front. “Yes,” she said after examining the stars Catra had pointed out to her. She actually remembered this particular constellation from George’s book, admittedly only because it was exactly on page 100. “It’s the Huntress constellation. The daughter of a Titan - the Titans were a race of people after the First Ones - sacrificed her life at her father’s hand to save her friends travelling with her. Her father intended to kill them all, and she was willing to do anything to stop him. She was able to trick her father into returning to his prison where he held up the sky, as the First Ones had condemned his fate to be, but in doing so he managed to strike a final blow across her body that ended up being fatal.”
“Parents hurting their children, huh?” Catra murmured. “I guess that’s not something new.”
Adora had been so excited that she’d remembered the story behind a constellation of her own accord that she’d forgotten how tragic this one happened to be. “The girl was actually one of She-Ra’s most loyal lieutenants.” Her own voice had dropped almost to a whisper. “When she died to save everyone, She-Ra immortalized her sacrifice in the stars.” She reached up, tracing the outstretched arm of the girl. “She’s drawing her bow - fighting to protect her friends even in death.”
Adora heard Catra’s claws scrape against the rooftop. “Why are so many of these stories so depressing?” she grumbled. “Someone is always dying to save other people. Why - why can’t a person do good things and just… die of old age or something? Can’t they still be remembered for their achievements without the sacrifice play?”
Adora knew she should have been listening more tentatively to her girlfriend’s words, as there was undoubtedly a lesson there she herself needed to take to heart, but Catra’s profile in the light of the moon was simply too mesmerizing. She couldn’t focus on anything else.
“Stop looking at me like that.” Even in the low silver light of the moon, the deep blush on Catra’s face was clear.
Adora had to bite back her laughter. “Like what?”
“Like… I’m everything.”
But she was everything. “You’re telling me I’m not allowed to admire my beautiful girlfriend?” Adora teased, rolling onto her side to better face Catra. “That’s not fair.”
“Shut up,” Catra muttered, but there was no acidity in her voice.
Adora leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Catra’s forehead. “I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true.”
“Yeah, you have this terrible tendency of always telling the truth. The only person worse than you at lying is Scorpia,” Catra grumbled. But she didn’t seem to mind the kiss. “And if you’re going to kiss me, don’t you dare miss my lips on purpose.”
Mm. So Catra definitely didn’t mind the kiss. And Adora was more than happy to oblige with her girlfriend’s requests, though maybe ‘demands’ was a more accurate term. She lifted herself onto her elbows for a better vantage point before leaning down to capture Catra’s lips with her own, humming in satisfaction as her girlfriend began to purr. Maybe it was a silly conclusion to come to but kissing Catra, no, being with Catra was everything Adora wanted and more. She’d give up a thousand lifetimes just for the moment she was living.
No. No. She didn’t need to give anything up. She had what she wanted, there and now. No sacrifice needed to be made because Catra was with her, and no one could take that away from them.
Least of all herself.
“Hey,” Catra said, brow furrowing in concern. She carefully moved the both of them up into sitting positions. “Are you okay? What’s wrong? Wait, are you crying?!” Her voice got more frantic with each question, and she took one of Adora’s hands in her own. “Talk to me.”
Adora reached up with her free hand to touch her face, surprised to find it streaked with tears. She didn’t remember starting to cry. “‘Talk to me’,” she found herself repeating, warmth blossoming in her chest. “You and Perfuma have been working on healthy communication strategies, haven’t you?”
Catra flushed. “I - yeah, maybe” She shook her head. “Dammit, Adora, stop deflecting! I asked about you.”
“I…” Adora hesitated, her free hand dropping to rest on the rooftop. She sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Oh, come on,” Catra scoffed. “You think I’m buying that?”
“I don’t know,” Adora insisted, pushing the hair that had fallen free from her ponytail behind her ear. “I’m just” - she silently cursed as she felt herself getting choked up - “so happy, because I love you and I want you to always be with me and now - now there’s no war that can take us away from each other. I’m… I’m allowed to want you, and to want to be with you. Although that probably makes no sense.” She swallowed the lump in her throat, wiping her tears away with her sleeve. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to kill the mood.”
Catra’s pupils had gone wide, and after a long pause she responded by pressing a fiery kiss to her lips, an unexpected reaction but certainly not an unpleasant one. Adora wasn’t complaining. “Say that again,” Catra mumbled against Adora’s lips. “Say that you want me.”
Adora almost had to fight to break away from the kiss, panting slightly from the intensity. “I want you,” she whispered, pushing her girlfriend’s bangs out of her face. The sincerity in her voice would have normally been terrifying but with Catra she wanted nothing more than to be completely honest. “I want you to be with me for the rest of my life. I want to be selfish. I want to be the only one who gets to call you mine.” She pressed a kiss to Catra’s face between each wish, moving from her nose to her cheek to back to her lips.
Catra’s confidence had long since been replaced by a crimson blush, which Adora did not mind, as flustered was a look she always loved to see on her girlfriend. “You know,” she muttered, leaning in to press their foreheads together, “I didn’t mean for you to start reciting wedding vows to me.”
Adora couldn’t help but laugh. “You know what a wedding is?”
“Mostly. Spinnerella explained it to me.”
“I bet that was an entertaining conversation.”
“Ugh. Netossa seemed to think so.”
Adora absentmindedly stroked Catra’s hair. She’d be lying if she hadn’t thought about marriage. Not much, obviously, because she’d been fighting a war her entire life, but the idea had crossed her mind once or twice. In some ways, a ceremony felt superficial, but being able to share such a blissful moment with friends and the immortalization of a relationship that came with it…
“We should get married,” she decided.
Catra sat bolt upright, pupils wide in surprise and face red in shock. “We should what?”
“Get married,” she repeated. “I want to be with you, you want to be with me. It would be a nice way to make things official, wouldn’t it?”
“Adora, we’re like - we’re not even 20,” Catra sputtered, her ears going flat to her head as her blush deepened. “I mean, I love you more than anything, but aren’t we - aren’t we kind of young?”
Adora could feel her own face turning pink in response as her brain finally caught up with the words that had been leaving her lips. “I - I didn’t mean now!” she stammered, desperately trying to figure out how to rephrase her thoughts. “I just meant, like, eventually, when we’re way older and after we’ve travelled around the entire universe restoring magic and… stuff…” She trailed off, and for a moment they just stared at each other, both too embarrassed to speak.
Catra was the first to break, losing herself in a fit of giggles as she leaned forward to press their foreheads together again. “Of course I’ll marry you one day, dummy. Then no one will ever doubt how much you want me.”
Adora flushed, but she couldn’t stop a happy smile from dancing on her lips. “Sorry that was such a weird proposal.”
“Everything you do is weird. I’m used to it.”
Adora laughed, pressing a light kiss to the top of her girlfriend’s nose. “Good.” Then an idea occurred. A brilliant idea, if she said so herself. Which she did. “So, until then…” She unpinned the golden wing from her belt before carefully attaching it to the left side of Catra’s shirt. “Just so everyone knows how much I love you.”
“More like how possessive you are,” Catra scoffed, though she was smiling as her hand brushed over the pin. “But I guess I’m in no place to say anything about that.”
Adora pressed a chaste kiss to her girlfriend’s lips. “You definitely are not.” She kissed her again, this time catching only the corner of her mouth. “But I love you anyways. I want you. And I’ll make sure you never forget it.”
Catra began purring happily, the deep vibration only intensifying as Adora continued to pepper her face with kisses. “If this is your way of reminding me, I don’t see how I ever could.”
Adora started to laugh, but was soon cut off by Catra’s lips crashing against her own, her girlfriend pushing her down against the rooftop.
You deserve love, too.
Adora knew she would continue to struggle with Mara’s words. She knew she would continue to have difficulty grasping how love was freely given and required no sacrifice in return. But she also knew she was getting there. One day at a time.
And the best part?
Catra would always be at her side. Every step of the way.
~*~
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thatcatangelwriter · 3 years
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Our queen's music haunts these Halls : Part I
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Summary : Instruments let alone music, had never been a thing in the horde so Adora was intrigued when she heard soft sounds in the empty halls during a small walk at night.
OR
Angella teaches Adora how to play piano and it quickly becomes a big part of her.
[Next] Ao3
Adora felt weak every single part of her body ached and burned. She slowly got on her feet slowly taking in her surroundings. Everything was pitch black. Where in She-Ra's name was she ? How did she even get here in the first place ? 
Her train of thoughts however, was interrupted as she heard someone walking towards her direction "Who's there ?" she demanded in a very firm voice her infamous sword in hand the only response she got was a very familiar chuckle "Hey Adora" Adora gritted her teeth "Catra..what on earth do you want ? Where are we ? What even is this place ?" the magicat once again chuckled which only aggravated Adora "I'm surprised you're even still alive and are still here. I mean just look around you. You lost but yet again you were always stubborn" Adora was completely confused by her words "Look around ? Look around where ? There is only darkness.." the blonde haired girl couldn't manage to find the words needed to finish her sentence as she registered in her surroundings.
The surroundings in question had changed considerably, the once black environnement was now filled with smoke and bright flames. 
All the buildings that were close by were either burned down or just completely destroyed. The blue eyed warrior could also see some horde tanks and soldiers in the distance. However, she didn't really pay attention to them. She was much more focused and most importantly absolutely horrified at all the dead bodies below their feet. She stood there frozen in place not sure what to think or even how to react. As the blonde haired girl stood in place, sword still in hand, something caught her eye. That something was in the far middle of all the dead bodies. It was also pink and purple and seemed rather bloody. Adora's eyes shot wide open in fear as her heart started beating faster and faster. She prayed to the first ones that it wasn't who she thought it was. 
She swallowed her fear before moving closer to it. She then stopped walking and she once again stood in place as glistening tears formed in her eyes. Before her was Glimmer's body which was extremely bloody and heavily bruised. It was obvious when taking a single look at the Brightmoon princess's body that she was dead. A bit farther away was… Bow ? The hero fell to her knees, her hand on her mouth due to extreme shock she felt. She also noticed the bodies of the other princesses that were even further away. Their bodies just like Glimmer and Bow were also bloody and heavily bruised.
She couldn't understand what stood before her eyes "What…" Catra looked at her before saying "What do you mean "What" Isn't it obvious by now ? You failed. Just like i said you would" Adora gritted her teeth before starting to break down as she started hearing voices that kept saying and repeating over and over again that she failed. She put both of her hands on her head screaming "No….No...NO! NO!!!" and then everything went black.
Adora shot up awake, her body dripping in sweat. She took in her environnement. She was in Brightmoon castle or more accurately in Glimmer's room which made her relax. She knew she was safe here. Wait...if she was in Glimmer's room, then that would mean...she took a glance at her left and sure enough Glimmer was asleep on the other side of the floating bed.
Adora reached for the short pink and purple haired girl's shoulder before pulling away. The princess already had so much on her plate. Adora wasn't going to wake her up for a silly nightmare. She knew the short girl needed as much rest as possible. Despite all of this, Adora was still rather shaken up by the horrible nightmare she just had. 
She then chose to go to the gym to loosen her mind a bit. I mean, making it focus on something else wasn't that bad of an idea, right ? Ok yeah, the current host of She-Ra had no idea what good coping mechanisms were or even bad ones. To be honest, she didn't care about it that much, it was just some silly nightmare after all. She got up and very carefully went down the gold stairs, not wanting to wake Glimmer up and make her worry before quietly leaving the room. She slowly closed the door to the short princess's rather large room.
As the princess of power walked in the hollow halls of the castle in direction of the gym, a sound caught her attention. The sound was soft and soothing, it seemed to be coming from one of the rooms at the end of the hall. She headed in there curious of what was the source of that soothing melody. When she got there she noticed a bright dim light coming from one of the rooms. She took a little peek inside. She wasn't sure what she expected to see but it definitely wasn't this. What she saw was Queen Angella sitting on a bench with a rather large object in front of her. 
The queen was pressing something on it. While Adora wasn't really sure what the large object in front of the queen was, it was obvious it was the source of the sounds she heard.
 She then fully entered the room walking closer to the immortal woman but she somehow tripped "Woah!" thankfully she caught herself before planting herself on the ground. This caused the queen to turn around confused before her expression morphed into one of shock. "Adora ? What are you doing up at this hour ? You should be asleep !" exclaimed the queen shocked to see the blonde haired warrior up at this hour "Hum.." Adora was hesitant to answer as she did not want to burden the older woman with her problems.
 Angella raised an eyebrow at the girl seeing the hesitant look on her face "Adora, are you alright ?" "Huh ? Yeah i'm fine just..hum.." the queen took Adora's hands in hers before saying "Adora what is bothering you ? You can tell me." 
The seventeen year old gulped before muttering "Well...i had a nightmare, a pretty bad one actually" the queen nodded in understanding before saying "That's why you are up at such an hour isn't it " Adora slowly nodded. There was a bit of silence between the two before Adora chose to break the ice by asking the queen "So what are you doing ?" the queen took a quick look at the large object behind her before answering "Oh,i was just playing the piano before you barged in" Adora raised an eyebrow at the queen's words "A piano ?" she had never heard that word before.
The queen simply smiled at her "Yes a piano, remember when we showed you music and instruments a while ago ?" Oh ! How could Adora forget ? Queen Angella, Glimmer and Bow had introduced her to the concept a couple of weeks prior. They made her listen quite a number of songs and showed a lot of instruments and while the whole situation was pretty chaotic she did enjoy learning about it . It would seem the piano was one of these objects that were rather intriguing and new to her. Bow did tell her they were a lot more then the numerous ones they showed her such as different types of flutes,guitars,violin and xylophones.
" Of course i remember it sure was something after all. I would guess this 'piano' was one of these famous instruments right ?" asked the girl curious to see if her assumption was correct. The queen smiled "Yes it is" she then asked "Would you like to try it ? You could use more non-violent hobbies" Adora was pretty shocked and did not except such a request from the queen but she couldn't find a reason to refuse her offer "Sure" the queen had put her hand on the space that was left on the other side of the large bench.
Adora seated herself on that spot taking a closer look at the instrument in front of her. It was a beautiful deep shade of purple and blue and had a silky smooth surface. It also had weird little black and white things which were probably the keys of the instrument. She pressed them curious to hear what other sounds it could make.
Angella couldn't help but smile lightly at the girl's reaction as she behind her once again taking the warrior's hand's into hers "Here let me show you" the queen placed the girl's hands on certain keys which made the blonde haired girl's fingers curved. She found the position a bit awkward and uncomfortable but she would probably get used to it as time passes. The queen then started explaining the names of the numerous black and white keys. Afterwards she started teaching her basics tunes and songs which Adora found out would take a lot of patience to play correctly. No matter how many times she tried and failed Angella never seemed angry at her which took her by surprise if this was the horde she probably would have been screamed at multiple times. The queen however, only encouraged her to keep trying.
After some time, Adora started to get the hang of it. It was still pretty obvious there was quite some room for improvement but it was a start. After some more practicing, Angella convinced Adora to head back to bed making sure to tell her that they could practice some more the next day.
It then quickly became routine for the blue eyed warrior to learn more about the soft sounding instrument with the immortal queen. She eventually became quite skilled at playing it. Sometimes her and the queen would even do duets together which was always fun to do especially with the songs Adora found most challenging.
Speaking of songs, the immortal queen made sure to teach the current host of She-Ra all the traditional ones such as the one for princess prom, weddings, birthday for the princesses and finally a proposal song. The last one had understandably caught Adora off guard since the queen had specified that this was a Brightmoon only tradition and reserved to nobles. Adora was baffled. She had to admit it was pretty sweet. The person proposing could play this on any instrument or they could play the song and add their own lyrics and sing it to the noble. This then led her to learning how to sing and writing basic songs which went better than expected. She still didn't understand why the queen taught it to her. Why would Angella the queen of brightmoon teach her a proposal song reserved for nobles ? When she asked her this the queen chuckled saying these words.
"One day this knowledge will come of use for you"
Adora kept those words in mind that was for sure. Despite how often they did, they never mentioned it to the others which the girl always found strange. The only people who could know where the guards.If somebody asked her why she never said anything she wouldn't have an answer. In the case of Angella, she had no idea the queen probably had her reasons but she wasn't too keen to find out what they were.
Despite all of this, playing the piano or rather music in general grew on her a whole lot. Adora knew that for sure her and the queen would share this mutual love of music for a very long time.
Or so she thought….
Adora enters the room that was once filled with light and radiated life. It was now dark and soulless had taken it all with her. The piano looked about the same, the only difference being the dust that was starting to form on it. It felt like she hadn't come in the room in years while it had only been two weeks or so.
After queen Angella's...passing she couldn't even bring herself to even take a quick glance at this place. She just couldn't because it made her remember all the memories she shared with the queen and it hurt to know that they were just memories now. It just didn't feel the same without the queen happy to spend some time with her in here.
Adora had thought the queen would always be there with them and so did everybody else. But now ? She was gone and nothing could bring her back. She stood there for a moment as a certain person came to her mind. Catra…
It was because of her that Angella was gone. It was because of her Glimmer didn't have her mother anymore and dear lord was she angry about it. It made her heart ache every time Glimmer had a sad look or when she would break down and cry in her arms every night. No matter how much she,Bow and everyone tried comforting her she was still sad and distant. Adora felt powerless. The last thing the queen had asked her was to take care of Glimmer and she couldn't even do that right.
Every single time she saw the horrible mental state Glimmer was in her anger towards Catra only grew more and more.
For once she knew how she felt about the wild cat.
For a very long time, she wasn't sure how she exactly felt about her ex-best friend. All she knew was just hearing her name or talking about her would make her heart ache like crazy. They both loved each other in the most toxic ways. Well she knew she had loved Catra at some point. But Catra ? She seemed much more into having her all for herself and controlling her. Which was a bit hard considering she wasn't the only one who wanted her all for herself. Adora had always been rather charming to the people around her and the blonde girl did know that the wild cat hated the way she looked at Glimmer.
She had always known this didn't she ? She just started accepting it now. She always dismissed the idea that Catra hated her, that she was bad but it only took one look at the large marks on her back to know that she was.
Never once in her life did she thought simply hearing the hybrid cat's name or just thinking about her would leave such a bitter taste in her mouth.
She shook her head. She didn't want to think about her now she had something to do. The reason she was back in this room in this first was because she needed to practice the song for Glimmer's coronation and Queen Angella's...funeral.
Apparently, the original pianist had a change of plans for some reason. Adora had no idea what came over but when she overheard about this issue she blurted out that she could replace them. The staff were extremely grateful for that.
So here she was practicing the songs that were to be played at the two events. She started playing Queen Angella's favorite song and the one Adora found the most challenging yet fun to play. She played it all alone in the dark.
Glimmer was lying in bed with Bow who had decided to stay with her ,sleeping well more like she was trying too but she just couldn't manage too. But maybe..? She turned around expecting to see Adora fast asleep on the other side of her bed but she was shocked to find she wasn't her eyes shot wide. She turned to see Bow asleep before waking him up "What..?" "Bow ! Adora is not here !" he shot up "What !?" before they had time to even start looking for her a sound caught their attention. It sounded rather familiar as both of their eyes widened as they recognized the melody  Bow looked at her "Isn't that …?"
"The blood moon song ? Yeah…" it was her mother's favorite song to play on the piano and just favorite song all around. From what she could recall her mother was the only one who knew how to play this song on the piano. So who on Etheria is the one playing right now ? In the middle of the night nonetheless.
They stepped outside but froze seeing what was in front of them. Pretty much everyone who was in the castle had also stepped outside into the halls to listen to the music. A lot of them were holding hands swaying their bodies along with the melody. Bow and Glimmer then did the same. No one said a word, but then someone whispered
"Our queen's music lives on"
When the song came to an end, everybody retreated back to their rooms including Bow and Glimmer.
When they heard the melody at night during the days that followed Glimmer couldn't help but wonder who was the one playing.
A few weeks later, Adora had found herself seated next to Glimmer and Bow in the middle front row. They had been here for quite some time. They were the first present in the room,in fact which made sense. Both her and Bow would look at Glimmer every once in a while making sure she was alright. The now soon to be queen had leaned her head on Adora's shoulder and a sad look on her face with red puffy eyes. Her two friends shot worried looks at each other. Not only was Adora concerned about the emotional state of her friend she was also preoccupied or rather stressed about her upcoming performance on the piano that was coming up very soon.
There was also another problem, she kinda..forgot to mention it to Bow and Glimmer so she should probably do that. It was a bit last minute but better late than never.
She sighed before whispering as she would have to go on stage soon "Hum, guys i'm gonna have to get up soon" Bow shot up "What !? Why !?" Glimmer tightened her hold on the blonde haired girl which made her frown "Well i'm actually going to play piano since the original pianist couldn't come so i took over."
The shock on their faces was priceless as something dawned on them "Wait...so the person playing piano at night..was you !?" exclaimed Bow as Glimmer's mouth was left wide open. Adora was pretty shocked at his words "Wait you guys heard me playing !?" "Yeah everyone did " spoke Glimmer. 
Adora wasn't really sure how to feel about that. Should she be angry at herself for letting everybody hear her playing the instrument ? Or embarrassed ? She wasn't really sure.
She left her personal crisis aside as Bow asked "Wait where did you even learn how to play the piano to begin with and Angella's favorite song nonetheless " Adora was hesitant to respond so she mumbled her answer "Queen Angella taught me" Bow and Glimmer's eyes once again widen at her words as Adora nervously rubbed her neck.
"Wait what ? Adora you're going to play the piano !? Guys this is crazy !" The best friend squad turned around at the sound of the voice turns out it was Frosta who had a huge grin on her face.
She was seated on the bench next to them with Mermista, Sea Hawk, Perfuma, Netossa, Spinnerella and Castaspella. They all had their attention focused on Adora shock written all over their faces "Wait then that means  you're the one playing at night ! Since you could even play ? " asked Sea Hawk aghast. Adora couldn't blame them for their reactions. She had never told them about her piano lessons with the queen.
She didn't know why she never said anything at first but with the fact that she was..gone. Simply mentioning her name could make everyone emotional herself included even if she wouldn't dare show it. She couldn't answer all their questions as the ceremony was starting.
As the ceremony went on, many people came up on stage and gave speeches that were all quite emotional. Glimmer's speech had definitely stolen the show. It left everyone present in tears, even her ! Thankfully her friends didn't notice probably because they were too busy crying themselves. When Glimmer finished her speech, the priest talked for a couple more minutes before saying "Now Adora,current host of She Ra, Princess of Power, will now be doing a tribute to Queen Angella on the piano a skill that she learned from the late queen herself according to the guards so i would like her to come up on stage" Adora's blood pressure shot to the roof at those words.
She took some deep breaths standing up as people cheered and clapped their hands. She heard the kind words of encouragement from her friends
 "Yeah!! Adora !!!" 
" You'll do great !!"
 "Good luck !!" 
"I can't wait to hear you play !!"
"You'll do amazingly just like everything else you do and are "
Adora froze at the last words she turned around it was Glimmer who had said that. The princess's eyes were still red and puffy but she was smiling. Adora blushed before bending down taking the soon to be queen's hand and giving it a light kiss. Netossa and a few of their friends whistled while Bow and Castaspella's eyes widened including Glimmer as a blush coated her face. Adora then went up on stage.
The priest gave her the microphone which made her quite nervous. She looked at her friends that were at the front seats. They all had supportive looks on their faces, especially Glimmer. Adora started to feel much more confident looking at her. She spoke up "Hello everyone ! I hope you are all doing ok despite the reason why we are all here.
She took a deep breath before speaking up again "I might have not known Queen Angella for as long as other people in this room have or known that much about her but, I do know this, she was an amazing person and an amazing mother at that. She was a bit overbearing at times but that overbearingness came from a place of love and not greed. I don't think any adults in my life loved me the way she did. She trusted and taught so much" she paused holding her tears and sadness in.
"Such as the piano and her favorite song which i will be demonstrating" These words had gotten the crowd quite excited as she sat on the bench.
She once again took a deep breath before placing her fingers above the black and white notes and started playing as a deep silence overcame the room. Her friend's jaws dropped. She was amazing ! It was clear she had perfected the song. It must have taken days and days of practice. How come she had never mentioned this talent of hers ? 
It was obvious she and the late queen had been doing this for some time. Glimmer knew her mother could play piano; she would even play for her sometimes. Why would she not tell her she was teaching Adora ? The group would ask her their burning questions later. 
The song was chilling and fast paced. Something about the way Adora played it was different than the way Angella did but Glimmer loved it all the same.
Adora had found herself reciting all the notes on her mind like the back of her hand.
Bow leaned close to Glimmer's ear whispering " She is really good at this, isn't she ? " Glimmer had an admiring smile on her face as she spoke "Yeah she is" 
The song came to an end. Adora stood up and bowed as the audience clapped and cheered. She got off the stage being greeted by the smiles of her friends who were still clapping their hands. 
She retook her seat next to Glimmer and Bow. They got closer to her "You were great !" spoke Bow Glimmer then added "You really were" Adora smiled at their comments before responding "Thanks guys, i'm glad you liked it "
 They then turned their attention to the priest "She-Ra, i must thank you for that outstanding performance ! Truly you have a lot of talent ! Now i must thank you all for attending this celebration of Queen Angella's life !!" the people then started leaving the rebellion however, stayed they had no reason to but they did anyways.
Adora felt like she could finally breathe. She had been anxious the whole time. She was thankful the audience had enjoyed her performance. There was a bit of silence but Bow decided to break it "So were you ever going to mention the fact that Angella taught you how to play piano or…?" everyone looked at her they wanted to ask her the same thing
 Adora shifted a bit awkwardly "Hum...well the reason i didn't say anything was hum we were still grieving and talking about Angella did not seem like a good idea to me and i wasn't even able to look at the piano room for a while so saying something about it just...i couldn't do it." 
Everyone in the group frowned at her words; they all had been grieving; they still were; Adora had spent so much time helping them but she dealt with her own pain alone.  
Frosta wanted to lift the mood a little so she asked " So do you know any other songs ?" "Yeah a couple few" "When do you even practice ?" chimed Mermista curious. 
Adora was about to answer but Bow beat her to it "Well actually she was the one who played at night so she probably practices then" she relented "What he said"
Glimmer raised an eyebrow at her " About that, don't tell me you have missed hours of sleep because you're occupied playing the piano" Adora wasn't expecting her to say that "Hum...i'm not ?" she cringed at her words; it sounded more like a question than an actual answer. Glimmer was unconvinced by her claim.
While it was true that she spent some time practicing she didn't take too long. It was only about two hours these days had been a bit of an exception due to the songs of the funeral and Glimmer's upcoming coronation that she had to learn.
They asked a couple more questions before leaving the room. It was starting to get dark. The group went to their rooms,except Glimmer and Adora. The latter was planning to practice the songs for Glimmer's coronation that was coming up soon. As she was about to go to the room where the piano was located Glimmer grabbed her arm, she turned her head at her " What's wrong ?" 
Glimmer bit her lip "Nothing i'm fine. It's just.." she trailed off a bit hesitant to answer "Come on, you can tell me" encouraged her friend. Glimmer glanced at her "Could you..could you play the piano for me ? Adora blinked Glimmer's request had took her off guard; she then smiled at her "Of course !" 
Funny enough Glimmer didn't expect her to accept her request "Really !?" Adora laughed lightly " Yeah, i was planning to go practice for your coronation anyways, so why not ?" Glimmer practically tackled her "Thank you !" and off they went to the piano room.
The two very close friends were now seated on the bench, the gorgeous crystal clear blue and purple piano in front of them. Just like at the funeral that had taken place not too long ago, Glimmer's head was resting on Adora's shoulder. The soon to be queen had a nostalgic smile on her face with tears in her eyes. Here thoughts were filled with memories of her mother playing the piano for her. More tears spilled from her eyes as Adora started playing her favorite song. It was the song that Glimmer asked her mother to play everytime. She recalled how much it amused her mother.
A little eight year old Glimmer entered the room with her mother Angella. The young girl was pretty excited since her mother had promised her that she would spend some time with her today.
The queen always had a quite large amount of duties to attend to but, she always made sure to have some time for her young daughter. These days however, her workload was just building up. It only got bigger and bigger with each passing day.
Unfortunately,because of this, the queen wasn't able to spend as much time with Glimmer as usual or rather that she would have liked. The little girl ran to the purple and blue instrument before sitting on the bench. Her mother joined her not too long after.
Glimmer had a big grin plastered all over her face. Angella chuckled saying "Let me guess, you want me to play' the princess's lullaby' for you ?" her daughter smiled nodding as the queen let out a little laugh at the young girl's enthusiasm.
Glimmer's grin got even bigger when her mother started playing. When the queen was done with the song she turned her attention to her young daughter "So did you like it ?" "Yes ! Thank you so much !" they then smiled at each other leaving the room content and ready to spend some more time together.
Glimmer smiled as she was slowly starting to bring herself back into the present time. She softly hummed along the song as Adora played it. Her friend took a quick glance at her, a smile appeared on her face as she saw Glimmer's calm and happy smile on her face.
It was without a doubt a welcomed sight. It felt like she hadn't seen her friend actually happy. Adora played the final note, letting it camly echo throughout the room. Glimmer looked at her, eyes filled with admiration murmuring "Thank you…" the warrior smiled at her before saying "Your welcome"
They didn't think it would be the last time they would be happy with each other for a long time.
Adora storms out the room, tears in her eyes as Bow screams her name. All of her friends and Micah stood shocked. She felt angry,sad,heartbroken and just frustrated. It was just too much for her, all of these emotions taking over her. 
She ran to the piano room,harshly slamming the door and locking it shut. She placed her hands on her knees trying desperately to calm down after acting up like that. She walked slowly to the piano, still emotional after what happened just a bit earlier or rather what happened these past few weeks.
First of all, her relationship with Glimmer was a big mess right now. A lot of her relationships had turned into a big mess this year. Last thing she wanted was to add another one to the list. Especially since this one hurted so much, too much in fact.
And yet, she had felt like this before. Glimmer wasn't the only one she fell in love with and then broke her heart. Catra did as well. It's kinda funny they kinda act the same now that she thought about it. She never expected the woman she fell in love with would almost destroy the world all while as she said break her heart. Let alone that it would happen twice.
It would seem hearts of gold are the ones who get broken the worst. How oddly poetic. She laughed as tears fell from her eyes. Looks like falling in love as She-Ra is a nightmare dressed like the most gorgeous daydream.
She recalled the events from earlier.
The rebellion and her were all seated at the table. Micah at what once was Angella's seat. The sorcerer sighed putting his hand on his forehead "Look, i have been thinking about what we were going to do now with these drones that have been terrorizing the entire population or safest bet is to leave the castle and set up bases in multiple areas'' 
This plan was gonna take some time to execute and while logical there were some big risks to it.
Bow spoke up "What about Glimmer ? What do we do ?" Adora looked at the king; this was what she really wanted to know. It was what kept her up at night.
Micah looked away; he knew they wouldn't like his answer. He sighed saying "For now ? Nothing. We can't get her right now" 
Adora shot up at those words shouting "What !!?" The king flinched "Look i understand this might be hard"  She went up to him blood boiling "Hard !? You damn right it is !" she waved her arms in frustration "If we don't do anything we might lose another Queen of Brightmoon !"
Bow walked up to her " Adora i know this a lot for you." Micah then joined in "I'm sure Glimmer was one of your dearest friends but…" 
Tears spilled from Adora's eyes as she clenched her fist " She's more than a friend" Everyone gasped their eyes getting wide. Adora snapped her head at the king sorcerer "You lost your queen and it's not going to happen again. Not while I'm around. We can't lose another queen of Brightmoon ...i can't. Especially when this one is mine." 
She stopped dead in her tracks. She saw the shocked expression on her friends faces. Shit. Why did she say that ? Her emotions had gotten the better off her. Bow tried to get close to her "Adora…" she bolted out of the room.
Adora covered her face with her hands groaning. Why did she have to make such a scene ? She recomposed herself taking a look at the instrument behind her. Due to Micha's new plan, she wouldn't be able to play for a while and she might as well make it count.
Positioning her fingers above the delicate keys she started playing but then she found herself singing.
I've been here before
But always hit the floor
I've spent a lifetime running
And I always get away
Adora didn't stay. She always ran to what others told her too. What her destiny led to. To what she thought was right.
But with you I'm feeling something
That makes me want to stay
Looking back she never truly wanted to stay in the horde now did she ? While they were some people that she once deeply cared about, that place was bad. And now the people she cared about probably didn't care about her either now.
And then came the rebellion, after coming from such an awful and terrible environnement to this new one that was pretty much the complete opposite of everything she knew and learned for years. It was..a bit of a 'culture' shock per say. 
However as time went on, it started to feel more like..well a home. She finally felt like she had a place that she could always go back too. Her new friends weren't like the one she had back in the horde. And Glimmer…
No one made her feel the way she did. No one and nobody seemed to care for her the way her queen did. She stayed for her and she always will.
I'm prepared for this
I never shoot to miss
But I feel like a storm is coming
If I'm gonna make it through the day
Then there's no more use in running
This is something I gotta face
Adora wouldn't let herself fail. She wouldn't give up. She wouldn't let other people break her down anymore.
If I risk it all
Could you break my fall?
Adora gave and she risked a lot. She never wanted a lot. She gave and gave but she never took. Losing herself for others what something she did and would do again.
How do I live? How do I breathe?
When you're not here I'm suffocating
I want to feel love, run through my blood
Tell me is this where I give it all up?
For you I have to risk it all
'Cause the writing's on the wall
Adora only ever wanted to prove that she was worthy of something, of love. It was what she wanted. For others to love her as much she did them. But they never understood that which was strange. She gave everything but it never felt like it was enough.
A million shards of glass
That haunt me from my past
As the stars begin to gather
And the light begins to fade
When all hope begins to shatter
Know that I won't be afraid
She had a vague memory of seeing stars and now ? It could be the last time she ever sees them. It was the only thing she had from where she came from,before the portal. It was a bit sentimental but this wasn't about her. This was about the fate of the world. She was the only hope it had left.
She kept on singing the melody not realising that she had gotten herself an audience close to the door. They didn't say a word as she went on and on.
For you I have to risk it all
Cause the writing's on the wall
They had done it.They had ended the war. 
It hadn't been easy, far from it but it had been worth it in the end. As she and Glimmer cuddled in bed together she thought that while maybe hearts of gold are the ones that get hurt the worst they all get mended in the end. This was their happy ending and Adora wouldn't change it for the world.
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thatsgay-writes · 3 years
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Spop x Reader
Summary: Catching up with your friends at a Glimmer and Bow’s son’s birthday party.
Warnings: Light cursing? (I put that in everyone cause I can’t remember if I swore or not)
A/N: I wasn’t even supposed to post today lol, but I haven’t posted in 2 weeks on my Wattpad plus it’s my birthday (11/17) sooo...😂 here we are.
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You smiled as you walked into the dining room, seeing the waiters and other workers rushing around to get the decorating done. It had been a while since the war with the Horde was over, years in fact. You had returned to the castle a few times in those years. A few times for a wedding and then some birthdays and child births. Adora and Catra had gotten married first, then Glimmer and Bow, and finally Perfuma and Scorpia. Sea Hawk and Mermista had finally gotten engaged and were planning on having their wedding next year. The last time you all came together was to celebrate Frosta's 18th birthday. Today, however, you were there to celebrate Glimmer and Bow's son's 3rd birthday. "Y/n!" You hear someone yell before getting practically tackled to the floor.
When you open your eyes after getting hit, you see a poof of blonde hair and Catra standing over you holding Finn. You immediately push Adora off of you and stand up. "Finn!" You say with excitement, causing them to gurgle out a response before reaching their hands out to you. You happily take Finn from Catra and start bouncing in your spot while holding them close. You hear Adora clear her throat and look to see her looking jealous and Catra laughing. You raise your eyebrow at Adora before focusing back on Finn. "Looks like someone stole your best friend spot Adora." Catra says with a laugh causing Adora to glare at her before walking away.
You spent most of the party walking around with Finn and greeting the other princess. You made sure to catch up with all your friends since you hadn't been back in the kingdom for a while. You had been in the Fright Zone, now known as just The Zone, helping it become a kingdom again. It was hard work and still in progress after 7 years but it was almost over now. All your friends thought you would be returning to Bright Moon after it was all over but you weren't and had to break the news to them tonight.
"Food!" You hear Glimmer yell and watch as everyone runs over to find their spot at the table. Sometimes the princesses still act like kids. You find your seat in-between Adora and Perfuma before handing Finn over to Adora. As much as you love that kid, if there is spit up you don't want to be on the other end of it. You spend the whole evening talking, joking, laughing, and just having fun with your friends. You were so happy to see your friends and how happy they were. You all weren't teens anymore, except for Frosta but she was way more mature than her age. Your smile grew as you sat watching everyone interact with their loved ones and children.
*Time Skip*
Now that the kids were in bed, it was time for the after party. Meaning y'all would play truth or dare with alcohol. You did allow Frosta to join you even though she can't drink, usually Catra or Perfuma refrained from drinking too to make sure Frosta didn't feel left out. While deciding on who wasn't gonna drink tonight, Mermista spoke up. "I won't drink tonight." Everyone gets silent and looks at Mermista in confusion, she never turns down a chance to drink. "Are you sick or something?" You ask causing some of your friends to laugh. "Umm... Actually I'm pregnant... Surprise?" You all froze in shock before cheering and giving your congratulations. Mermista didn't really like all that attention on her and quickly moved on, "Alright, let's just play now."
You had been playing a few rounds and now it was Glimmer's turn to ask. "Alright, y/n. Truth or dare?" Now, you had been choosing dare all night but Glimmer's dares were always crazy and you don't feel like drinking anymore tonight. "Truth." Glimmer nods her head in thought and thinks for a moment about her question. "Okay, why are you still single? I mean all of use are either married or engaged, except for Frosta because she's not allowed to date until she's 30." Frosta makes a noise of distaste cause everyone to chuckle. You scratch your neck nervously, "Actually I've been meaning to talk to you all about that." Everyone can detect your nervousness and seem to sober up some. You clear your throat before speaking.
"Well as you know I've been working in The Zone for a while now, helping rebuild and things like that. And we all also know that since Scorpia decided to drop the title of Princess that The Zone has been looking for a new one." Everyone nods their head in understanding. "Well during my time there I met this baker and we became friends. Well recently we had a vote with everyone living or moving to The Zone to choose a new princess. Well the baker I had became friends with won the vote and will be made into a princess once we're fully done with rebuilding." Everyone nods again, completely engrossed in your story. "Well one night, I was walking by my friends new room in the castle and I heard crying and knocked on her door. She let me and it turns out she had been crying and that she was scared about what was to come. I ended up comforting her that night and I don't know what it was or when feelings changed but holding her and looking at her, even with her eyes slightly swollen with tears stains down her face, she was and is the most beautiful women I had ever seen. I ended up spending the night and kissing her the next morning. We've been dating ever since." You look at your friends trying to gauge their reaction. Of course, Bow had stars in his eyes like the first time he saw Catra's space suit ears.
"THATS SO CUTE!"
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theonlinemuse · 4 years
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And now it’s Yolanda’s turn to have a headcanon post! @freckledpianoman and me wanted to contribute more Yolanda Montez content to the tags now that the season finale has aired: 
Yolanda’s family follows Mexican naming conventions so her full name is Yolanda Pilar Montez Zurita. Montez is her father’s last name while Zurita is her mother’s maiden name. And yes, Zurita is for Juan Zurita
Nicknames are also a tradition in the Montez family. Yolanda’s parents called her mija and nena before their estrangement while her maternal grandmother and her little brother call her by her diminutive name, Yoyi 
Courtney’s absolutely delighted when she first hears Yolanda’s abuelita call her Yoyi. She thinks it’s adorable. Yolanda just fondly rolls her eyes when Court whisper yells Yoyi at her all starry eyed 
She’s third generation Mexican American. Her maternal grandparents, the Zuritas were originally from Puebla and they came to Blue Valley in the 1970s where their daughters, Maria and Mimi (Yolanda’s mom and aunt) were born and raised. Yolanda grew up speaking Spanish, but she’s not fluent like her parents. She sometimes blanks out trying to remember certain words 
“Man, I don’t even know how to begin explaining this in Spanish.”
Yolanda admits that she’s not much of a cook, but she grew up helping her abuelita make traditional dishes and as a result the only two dishes that Yolanda’s capable of making are mole poblano and chiles en nogada 
She shares these recipes with Beth and they eventually start cooking together in Beth’s kitchen while Chuck blares music requests in the background 
Yolanda usually wears her hair in double braids because her abuelito used to braid her hair in the morning before school. He always claimed that braids were the one style he could confidently do out of all the hairstyles that Yolanda’s abuelita taught him 
She does start branching out after Courtney and Beth start helping her experiment with different hairstyles. Yolanda does styles like half up or regular space buns, topknots, braided low ponytails, and she rarely wears her hair down 
Courtney once accidentally dyed Yolanda’s hair red when she was trying to give her highlights. Artemis helped fixed it (thanks to the time she accidentally went blonde for a month) but Yolanda ended up with ombre hair for a few weeks 
For her quinceañera, Yolanda took inspiration from old photos of her abuelita and silver screen bombshells from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema 
Yolanda started learned how to box from her abuelito when she was nine. He was a former lightweight boxing champion in Puebla and he taught boxing classes at a school that he founded with a fellow boxer (who Yolanda later discovers to be Henry Grant, the first Wildcat’s father) after he retired. It became their bonding time
He died when she was fourteen and she joined the Blue Valley High boxing team as a way to honour his memory. She even adopted his boxing nickname, The Mauler 
Boxing wasn’t the only sport that she did growing up. Yolanda’s mom signed her up for ballet classes when she was in kindergarten and she was good enough to attend summer classes at the American Ballet Academy during middle school, starring in a few small productions like Coppélia and The Taming of the Shrew 
She was forced to quit ballet after the fallout with Cindy leaking her pics and she was closed off for weeks because she missed dancing. After joining the JSA, Beth invited her to sit in on her ballroom dance lesson because “I know it’s not ballet exactly, but you get antsy if you don’t dance, I totally get that” 
Yolanda only intended to go to the one lesson, but after partnering up with Beth for a not-so-serious tango and laughing harder than she has for months, she went back to the next lesson. And the next one and by the time the fourth lesson rolls around, Yolanda decides to sign up for the same classes as Beth 
Yolanda can eat spicy food as long as there’s just ground spices in it, but she cannot handle chilies, much to her dismay. Every time she accidentally eats one, her eyes water and you can literally see her trying to hold in her reaction going, “nope, I’m not gonna do this, I’m not going to have my ancestors laugh their collective asses off just because I can’t handle a damn pepper” 
She eventually caves when Courtney and Beth offer her their chocolate milk 
Because she was raised Catholic, Yolanda has a habit of eating fish and shellfish instead of meat on Fridays. Fridays are when the JSA go out to eat instead of staying in the cafeteria and it’s Yolanda’s day to indulge in seafood. Courtney is still surprised how Yolanda can put away two giant king crabs like it’s no big deal, their bodies alone are bigger than Rick’s face 
Yolanda’s favourites are coconut curry steamed clams, grilled shrimp, and the crab boil, all washed down with a raspberry lemon agua fresca 
Her love for seafood has earned her an annoying, yet affectionate nickname from her cousins, “fish head”
“Mauler Montez, huh? You should’ve gone with El Mero, it’s much more on the nose.” 
Courtney and Beth are the only people that Yolanda will share her seafood feast with because a) she gets to feed Beth for once and b) she knows how much Courtney loves shrimp 
Rick can starve and Artemis keeps getting her hand smacked away every time she tries to sneak food 
“It was one freaking scallop!” “Aren’t you allergic? Do you want to break out into hives again?” 
When Beth first brought Artemis to sit at the loser’s table, Yolanda was a little wary of her because she’s known for tackling football players twice her height and she’s pretty sure her parents are Sportsmaster and Tigress. Now Yolanda and Artemis are snarky, overly competitive friends who arm wrestle and and have each others’ backs on the football team 
Artemis managed to convince Yolanda to join as an alternate member since football season is right after boxing season and the team could use more girls
Artemis is still trying to convince Beth and Courtney to join as well 
“You guys need something other than the JSA, you can get all your frustrations out in football.” 
Courtney and Beth drag Rick to games to cheer them on 
They both have huge sweet tooths and Artemis is constantly trying to steal the tres leches cake and chocolate flan that Yolanda brings to school. And it’s often a race to get the last one of whatever baked good Beth has brought with her that day 
And as huge tomboys as they are, Yolanda and Artemis are arguably the best at doing makeup out of all the girls. Artemis likes experimenting with eyeliner and smokey eyeshadows while Yolanda knows a lot about lip products thanks to her abuelita, who rocks red lipstick and berry flavoured lip gloss well into her seventies 
Yolanda means “violet” and she was named as such because her landscape architect mother was working on a Phillipine violet garden during her pregnancy and there was a pot of Persian violets in the OBGYN’s office the day the Montezes found out they were having a girl 
Even the earrings that her grandparents gave Yolanda for her first communion were a pair of violet shaped stud earrings 
Her abuelita even gave her a pressed violet pendant choker for her fifteenth birthday 
Yolanda is a huge horror movie fan. It was a tradition that she shared with her dad since no one else in the family can stand them. Now she keeps trying to get Beth to watch horror movies with her despite the “Halloween only tradition” because Beth’s the only other person who would survive a horror movie 
Beth spends half the time clinging to Yolanda when they’re not booing at horror cliches and trying to predict which character is dying next while berating fictional life choices 
Courtney and Rick are in the other room pouting, trying and failing to catch up on homework
On the flip side, Beth makes Yolanda watch cartoons with her after horror movies because between school and the JSA, they need other ways to relax and unwind. Yolanda ends up loving The Owl House 
“I started watching it because Luz looks like me. I kept watching because it’s so good.” “Yolanda! You did get hooked, you big nerd!” 
Beth also finds out that Yolanda is also really into She-Ra, which may or may not have to do with how Catra and Adora look like Yolanda and Courtney. Beth doesn’t stop grinning and nudging her for the rest of the night when she sees Yolanda blushing over Catra and Adora 
“You guys could dress up as them for Halloween!” 
Despite their different tastes, they both enjoy true crime and history shows. They’re both fans of Drunk History and the Drunk Mystery Halloween episodes 
And Beth is surprised to learn that Yolanda has a soft spot for period dramas as well. The both love Hidden Figures and The Personal History of David Copperfield 
Yolanda is what Artemis likes to refer to as a distinguished bi. She knew that she was bi since she was fourteen when her abuelito pointed out that the way she acted around the very pretty ballerina in her dance class was the exact same as the way she acted around the very charming baseball player 
“Abuelito, oh my god! Did anyone else notice?” “It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, mija. You just have very good taste in people, just like your Tia Mimi.” “Tia Mimi likes girls too?” 
And thus, her abuelito technically became the first person she came out to 
She’s out to only two other people in her family, her little brother and her abuelita. It’s not like her parents would be disappointed in her for being bisexual (the congregation that the Montezes go to is fairly open) but Yolanda wasn’t able to talk with them about it because of her estrangement with them 
Whenever she gets a crush on someone, she does this little honking laugh that makes Rick look at her in a mix of horror and confusion
“What the hell, is that your laugh? Stop flirting and help me find Hootie before Beth finds out he’s missing.”
It’s what clues him in to Yolanda’s crush on Courtney 
Due to her estrangement from her parents, Yolanda didn’t think about having a quinceañera, but the JSA decides to throw her one with help from Yolanda’s abuelita, Socorro “Coco” Zurita, who’s played by Adriana Barraza. Aside from Tia Mimi who’s played by Marisa Ramirez and Yolanda’s cousins Josefa and Charo, played by Lee Rodriguez and Herizen Guardiola, Abuelita Coco is pretty much the only other family member besides Alex who still talks with her and she will make sure that her granddaughter has a wonderful quinces 
Yolanda was never really a big fan of big, poofy dresses because they remind her of the itchy netted dresses that she had to wear for her first communion and other big church events she had to go to as a kid. So Beth and abuelita Coco decide to surprise her by making a skirted jumpsuit instead 
And while she doesn't wear heels that often, joining Beth at her dance classes helps ensure that she rocks the Wildcat blue shoes that Courtney picks out for her 
Beth, Courtney, and Artemis all pitch in to get a cat eye necklace for Yolanda to wear at her quinces. Yolanda denies crying when they give it to her
“Are you crying?” “It’s my allergies acting up, no big deal.”
And instead of the father-daughter dance, the JSA just converges on Yolanda for one big slow group dance One Day at a Time style 
Yolanda and Courtney have more than a few slow dances together 
She has nicknames for everyone in the JSA. Courtney is Shooting Star, Beth is Sunshine, Artemis is Hawkeye, and Rick is John Bender 
“Seriously, Yolanda? You couldn’t have been more creative.” “Would you rather I call you One Minute Man?” “Ugh, just don’t say it in front of Beth.” 
Yolanda knows so many Selena songs by heart because abuelita Coco is a huge fan. She grew up singing along to Bidi Bidi Bom Bom and Como La Flor and it’s almost a Pavlovian response to sing along to a Selena song whenever she hears one on the radio during JSA car trips 
Courtney and Beth totally sing along with her while Artemis heckles them and Rick just groans and tells the girls to keep it down when he’s trying to drive 
Yolanda is the only JSA member that Beth’s goggles will work for, but she still can’t make the staff glow. However, she’s the only person (other than Courtney and Pat) who’s able to order it around 
“Wait, why is she able to order it around?” “Maybe because it knows Yolanda is a boss.” 
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madefate-a · 4 years
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you don’t build a life in grand gestures and final battles; you build a life in every moment you collect until you have a seawall. / moments, in a lifetime. 
o1. you are tiny, and your moms are large and warm, and you’re all sitting in the backyard looking up at the stars. the moons are bright and full tonight, and mama points out the way the lights in the sky make patterns with names while mom runs a brush methodically through your hair. you -- all three of you -- will frequent the overstuffed chairs outside your home, with blankets and brushes and stars many times. ( you will remember the last time, before you are set to leave for those stars. you will play it over and over again when you know that your days are numbered and this will all end in your death or theirs. ) 
( now, though, you are small, and mom is brushing your hair. ) 
constance, mama teaches you, tracing a cluster of stars. justice, another one. heartstone. 
the sky is big and endless and for a moment you are part of it, safe and warm and surrounded. 
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o2. you’ve never thought to ask why research training involves sparring sessions like this -- captain agathe has explained planetary readiness and you never thought to question what that meant. --- though, for just a moment in your defense, there is quite a lot to take in. star charts ! flight technology ! the delicate tools that measure and catalogue the strange and distant magic of strange and distant planets ! 
the fact that you, you, have been chosen at all. 
in your moment of dreamy awe, you are tipped backwards, the world spinning wildly away from you until you are on your back, looking up at ren’s face. 
wow, mara, she says, leaning casually against her practice staff. you’re so planetary ready. 
neatly and with little fanfare, you brace on your elbow and sweep ren’s legs from under her until you two are tangled together on the floor, breathing heavy. then you grin. 
i like to think so. 
captain agathe gives you two a look when she finds you, a tangle of limbs, laughing and trying to ruffle each other’s hair. 
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o3. grayskull ? ren asks, wrinkling her nose. mara has to stifle a laugh -- captain agathe could come back at any minute, and it’s one thing to be caught messing around during training. but this, now ? when they’re about to land planetside in the wilds of an undiscovered world? 
but ren is sticking her tongue out now, doing her best imitation of someone long dead, and it’s a touch battle. 
it’s historical, you whisper to her. important. 
it’s morbid, she tells you. 
maybe it is, but it’s yours. all of yours -- squadron grayskull. 
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o4. no one knows what to do when suddenly, your first day out, you fall to your knees in the thick, dark woods near the landing sight. 
the world -- planet -- etheria -- is wild and free and inhabited by the most beautiful, most fantastic creatures any of you have ever seen. large quadrupeds with golden eyes, beasts that fly that outsize a bird ten times over and shriek or sing in turns. serene little lizard-like fellows that look at them curiously as they set up their first observation station. calls and noise that echo warningly in the thick tangle of the woods’ heart. ren had immediately gone after one of the little, perched, birdlike creatures, trying to whistle and imitation of its song. 
you had tried to join her, and you had ended up drowning in sunlight. 
that’s what it feels like; it feels like something golden and burning has poured itself like liquid fire down your throat, spilling out of your eyes, tangling in your hands, grabbing your hand -- tearing you apart. spinning you like a child with a toy, terrible in its joy, destructive in its ecstasy. you realize that you feel it like a living thing -- feel a wonder, a happiness, that will burn through everything you are. you will perish in its brilliance, the last thing you see with your frozen eyes ren -- just out of reach. watching you, not understanding what she is seeing. 
and then you are floating. this is a world without pain; this is a world with only power blooming at your fingertips. you are bigger -- you are stronger. you know, instantly, that you can do anything with the thought alone -- that you are like these creatures: beautiful, strange, strong, free. 
magic, you think desperately. this is magic. 
this is she-ra, the sunlight tells you in an ancient voice. 
then you are you again, and you promptly pass out. 
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o5. captain agathe gives you a sword. they have been making it for weeks, since ren ran and got her when you had been overwhelmed by a magical force calling itself she-ra. not that you left it at that; the moment you opened your eyes, you had gone to captain agathe -- to the members of squadron grayskull, to the records on the ship. they are incomplete; you have only just arrived, after all. 
but you find out when the information starts compiling, taken from the written and spoken records of the etherians: the legend of etheria’s champion. a warrior of magic and heart, who has always served to protect etheria when etheria needs her. manifesting in etheria’s greatest time of need: she-ra, the princess of power. 
she-ra, the sunlight had told her in its ancient voice. 
we need to understand this magic, captain agathe had said, but we also must respect it. mara, we will help you wield this power. 
so, for her seventeenth birthday, mara is given a sword. 
this will unlock the mystery and power of she-ra, captain agathe says, handing you a great, golden-hilted marvel of tech. i trust you will learn to use it well. this is an honor you have been bestowed, junior officer. 
ren isn’t far away; she’s watching at you with large, wonderstruck eyes. when you hesitate, she flashes you a furtive, familiar thumbs-up. 
you take it -- for the respect of etheria. for the honor of her squadron, who stand silent and waiting and ready for you to do something that you are not sure you’re capable of. 
( every time you use it, you remind yourself: it is for them. always, forever. for ren and the others. for the honor of team grayskull. ) 
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o6. you must let go of your attachments, light hope tells you. 
you laugh. 
light hope, you tell her, fixing one of the hanging plants in the crystal castle. you’ve been saying that for a year, now. look ! watch this. 
mara, this is -- 
-- highly irregular. but nothing about this is regular anyway! just -- watch and observe. record if it makes you happy, okay ? 
light hope pauses as you step back and lift up the sword -- only to reflect some of the castle’s light to a focal point, aiming to the wall just behind the hanging plant. it’s a beautiful thing: lush, thick-leaved, deeply green. some of its leaves are stubby little buds, but some have unfurled to form broader spades. and when you aim the light, the leaves slowly, surely, stubbornly follow it. 
oh, my -- light hope says haltingly. you grin. 
see ? you go to elbow her, the way you might with ren, but you stop, remembering that you will pass through her. afraid to harm her programming. light hope turns to watch you, and you swear you see curiosity in her gaze. 
you soften. 
it is -- fascinating, she says, like a concession. 
i won’t stop training, you tell her, also like a concession. warm and giving. but sometimes it helps us mere mortals to remember what we’re fighting for. can you trust me on that, at least ? 
i -- 
you don’t know then, what is hidden deep in the heart of her coding. how she is fighting to rewrite it. you only wait, bouncing expectantly on your toes until she finishes her sentence: 
i will try. 
( you don’t know that you are both remaking yourselves, circuit and moment and memory at a time. ) 
( you just laugh in joy and say thanks hope ! and light hope blushes. ) 
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o7. when madame razz kisses you in a flurry on the cheek, holding you by the chin as if you two are old friends, you are reminded of your mothers more viscerally than you have been in -- in years, now, right ? three, since you touched down on etheria. it catches you by surprise, how you’ve never realized how large and empty and cavernous the hole is where you are separated by lightyears of planetary distance from them. 
but you don’t have much time to dwell in it; razz is bustling around the crystal castle like she owns the place, like she knows precisely where you keep everything -- from transmission crystals to sugar, even if she keeps calling you adora. you watch her in something like wonder, something a little like amusement, something almost like guilt when you remember pointing the end of your sword at her throat, ready to strike for the protection of -- for the protection of -- 
-- of the crystal castle. but that’s not -- that’s not what she-ra was meant to be, right? she exists... what was it captain agathe said years ago -- no, not her. the stories. it was in the data you’d collected; a warrior summoned by the force of etheria’s need. 
this is not the last time you’ll realize you’ve forgotten something important; it’s the first. 
razz calms both you and the quadruped the same way, weeks later -- nonsensical shushing, a calm confidence, it’s alright, nothing will hurt you. you hesitantly place your hand against its fur and, as you let go of she-ra’s form, a flicker of memory comes back: golden sunshine filling you up, pure and unfiltered. go, you say, overcome with the words. be at peace. 
but you have not brought peace; you have torn up what captain agathe calls the darkwoods and razz calls the whispering woods. guilt burns up all the way through you, wrapping around your ribs clawing at your throat. i’m sorry, you tell her, because you are, even though it’s not enough. even though you have destroyed something beautiful and innocent, leaving deep scars in its soft ground. 
she’d wanted to -- to protect razz. and that was supposed to be good, right? 
you don’t have the sword; you can’t use magic to heal what you have hurt without it. except: 
razz takes you by the hand and you feel it again, this time in force: sunlight, twining around your arm like vines growing joyously, seeking the light. it’s not like when you were younger and the sheer magnitude of it overwhelmed your body. this time the magic comes in its little, sparkling puffs -- greets you with gentle kisses on your wrist, your cheek, dancing around your hair like an old friend. 
she-ra is not a sword, razz tells you. she-ra is you. 
and you know this is true, because you can feel the heartbeat of etheria like a twin of your own. 
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o8. your people have sent their strongest troops to quell the rebellion. 
your forces -- your grayskull teammates, your etherian allies, your friends, are being run ragged. if you only had to fight to win, maybe you would have stood a chance; she-ra’s strength isn’t something to be taken lightly, and ren and the rest have been training their whole lives for planetary readiness. you’ve been on etheria for ten years -- you have fought the forces of horde prime, you have protected the etherians, and they have given you their friendship, their trust. 
but it’s not only the fight. it’s the research -- gathering every bit of classified information about how the heart of etheria works, following the whispers of a failsafe that always turn out to be insubstantial, inaccessible. you are all learning and investigating and fighting and you wonder how much more they will have to suffer: if you will all fight until the end, losing life and love and hope, only for this and every world to be razed by the corrupted, constrained magic at the planet’s core. 
that your people have corrupted and constrained. 
one night, when the sun has just sunk below the hills and there is a moment of peace, ren sits besides you. you are both silent. your ribs ache every time you breathe, and you cannot look at ren’s arm without wincing in sympathy. but for a moment, you exist beside each and breathe and feel each other’s warmth. 
the stars are spread out across the vast canvas of the night sky. they are not the same stars from your childhood, but you’ve learned their names, their formations, too. 
slowly, ren covers your hand with her own. 
ren, you say, voice rough around the edges but quiet. serenia. her name is heavy in your mouth. 
mara, she says. worried. because she knows you. you turn to her and smile and cut her off. 
i’m glad we can have nights like this, you tell her. you don’t know if you have convinced her -- that you’re alright. that this is alright. that you’re not going to do something reckless. 
but maybe she knows that your choices are dwindling and that the honor of grayskull comes with a responsibility that feels like a terrible price. 
you will hurt her, probably. 
yeah, she says, looking at you, then at the stars. me too. 
just, not tonight. 
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o9. you’re out of time. 
you can barely get the words out to razz -- she looks so startled and confused; she looks like she’s hurting. but you know that you will hurt everyone if it means that you can save their lives. there’s nothing left; you couldn’t reach the fabled failsafe. the last princess must have connected with her runestone, and you feel the sensation of something coming to life stirring in your veins. 
tomorrow, you tell razz, knowing that it’s a lie but a small one: if you can do this and do it successfully, razz will have a tomorrow. we’ll bake a pie tomorrow. 
i’m sorry, you want to say, even though it cannot make up for all the scars you will leave. 
this is not like the first time with a sunlight. yes, etheria’s magic would have torn you apart -- with joy. with freedom. with great and beautiful power that had found a home for the protection of those it loved. 
now, your jaw opens as wide as it will go but the scream is lost in your throat. you are paralyzed; you have your hand on the hilt of the sword and are driving it into the surface of etheria, wounding it with the sharpness of the blade and the code that it bleeds. and the magic -- changed, corrupted -- is like burning ice in your veins. it has a mission; it is searching for something in you, and you try to do anything to excise it ( scream, cry, vomit ) but your palms ache and your body is frozen as the code writes itself to life on your flesh. if you could break the sword, maybe -- except it’s all you can do to wrench your hands away, delaying the activation by only a minute or two. 
when you reach your ship, light hope’s voice is not light hope’s, and you know immediately that it’s not because you wrecked her code. she wants the sword. that is what they all wanted -- that is what her life has culminated in. a hand to hold a sword, and with it, rend the magic from etheria and use it to lay waste to this and every world. 
it is your destiny, light hope tells you. 
maybe it was. but you will protect etheria, and you will protect she-ra too -- from the hands that would use her, point her to enemies as a weapon. 
you will be a hero, light hope tells you. you are she-ra. 
something inside of you that has been fracturing through this whole rebellion shatters. 
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1o. you never wanted to be a hero. you won’t be remembered as one. 
you don’t think of the way agathe and your superiors turned on you -- the way they looked at you as if you were some unknowable thing the moment that you realized that they must be your enemy. 
instead, you think of razz kissing your face and ren holding your hand, and hope telling you that despite what she has been programmed to do, she’ll try to change. you think of squadron grayskull: of the nights spend laughing under the stars, cataloguing the new birdcalls, training with the sword, growing plants with magic without it. you think of your mothers, lightyears away, who will be safe, now, because you will make sure that the only heart of etheria is the love that it bears and not the weapon in its core. 
for their protection, love, and honor, you can finish this. 
so, you steal the stars. 
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