Author's Note

FYI, this is the last one-shot I will be uploading to FFnet. I will still continue to update my existing multi-chapter fics on here for as long as the site lasts but the writing is on the wall and it looks like FFnet will soon be no more. But never fear, all my fics that I have posted on here (as well as a few more than I never posted here) as well as everything new I have coming up will all be on AO3 so I hope you'll all join me over there (same username).

And now, for my last fic for Glimbow Week Spring 2021!

No offense to Bow's dads, but the library was creepy at night. It was always a little disorientating to telelport into darkness, but Glimmer was so used to seeing this place filled with light and people that it felt weird for it to be this quiet. She walked slowly between the displays, the only sound her boots on the wood floor. The artifacts made everything smell old and stale and the only light was the pale moonlight filtering in through the stained glass windows, making strange shadows across the floor.

"Bow?" Her voice was swallowed up by all the books. She didn't believe in ghosts, not exactly, but there was something about all the history in this place that made it feel haunted by the past.

Where was the boyfriend of hers? And why hadn't he turned on a freaking light? She teleported to the few spots she thought she'd find him—the kitchen, his old room, the basement where his dads worked on larger artifacts— without success. But he had to be here somewhere! He'd promised he'd library-sit while his dads were visiting his sister, and it wasn't like him to go back on a promise.

"Bow! It's me!" She appeared back downstairs, among the stacks. "Where are you? The first meeting ran sooo late so I don't have a lot of time before the next one but I had to at least try to stop by and see you."

What if something happened? She started moving more cautiously, her heart galloping as she summoned her powers, just in case. She'd thought George and Lance were being paranoid when they'd insisted they watch the place while they were gone. The war was over! Who would try to break into a library almost nobody knew existed in the first place? But if she was wrong, if someone had hurt him…

"Bow?"

There was a small sound, and she spun toward it. There, off in a corner! A light! She teleported towards it, giddy with relief when she saw Bow sitting at a desk in the corner of the room, perfectly fine.

"There you are! Why are you sitting around in the dark, you goof?" She released the power collecting in her palms and jumped up so she was sitting on an empty corner of the desk. The small desk lamp reflected off Bow's reading glasses, turning his eyes into tiny half moons. "Oh, your sexy glasses! You KNOW how I feel about those. I have DREAMED about those glasses. For ages, I thought they were just some invention of the portal but then I found out they were real and… well…"

She leaned backwards, sprawling herself across the old books spread out on the desk. She put a hand to her forehead, laying it on thick.

"Oh, no, Mr. Very Sexy Librarian! I'm afraid my books are all overdue! I know, I'm in sooo much trouble. You'll have to hit me with a VERY stiff fine!" She batted her eyes at him, expecting him to laugh or kiss her or SOMETHING, but he just sat there. "Um, you're going to have to help me or play along or something because I don't actually know enough about libraries to come up with…"

He sniffed and shook his head slightly. She knew instantly something was wrong.

"Oh, stars, you're upset! You're actually upset and I'm over here being all…" Her mind was racing with all the things that could have gone wrong. Bow took off his glasses, burying his face in his hands. "What is it? Are you hurt? Did someone die? What can I do?"

"It's not…" Bow's voice sounded muffled and broken from within his hands. "Nothing happened. Everything's fine."

"Everything is clearly not fine! Bow?"

He shook his head and his upper body rose and fell with a heavy sob that broke her heart. She teleported behind the chair, wrapping her arms around him from behind. She pressed her cheek against his, and he leaned back into her, resting the back of his head on her shoulder.

"It's OK," she whispered, squeezing him tighter. Useless words, but they were what her mom always said when she was upset and saying them made her feel less helpless. He reached for her, desperation in the way he was digging his fingers into her arm as his tears wet her cheek. "Shh. I'm here."

This didn't happen often, but it had happened enough times that she knew what it was. How Bow would let things collect, pushing everything back behind a wall of relentless positivity until finally something, usually something small, sent him over the edge and he fell apart. Often in anger and frustration, which was easy enough to manage with the right combination of space and distractions. Sometimes in melancholy, treated with snuggles and extra attention. Sometimes this… though she hadn't seen it this bad since they were little.

"Do you want to talk about it?" It didn't surprise her when he shook his head. He usually didn't. Mr. Talk It Out was a hypocrite with his own feelings, almost like he considered them a personal failing. There were breakdowns from when they were younger that she still didn't know what they'd been about, even all these years later. She assumed, in retrospect, most of them were about his dads.

She'd bet anything that was what it was this time, too.

"I'm sorry." His voice was a tiny croak. "I'm just an… emotional disaster right now."

"Don't you dare apologize for that."

Somewhere behind them a clock chimed, slow and haunting. Bow whimpered and clutched her arm tighter before letting out a ragged breath. "Your meeting."

"Fuck my meeting."

"Glimmer, it's…" He shook his head. "It's important."

"Not as important as you." That made him cry harder, shuddering sobs that shook his large frame. She moved around to the side of his chair, grabbing a scrap of paper and a pen. In half a second, she'd written a note and drawn a rune, sending the paper off to Bright Moon in a flash of purple fire. "There. Meeting canceled. The queen has more important things to do."

"But…"

"Shush." She leaned down and kissed the top of his head. Her poor Bow. His eyes looked so terribly sad. She nuzzled her face into his hair. He wrapped his arms around her middle and buried his face into her jumper. They stayed like that for a while, her rubbing his back, his tears soaking her shirt, until her legs got stiff from standing in such an awkward position. "Come on. Let me at least get you a tissue."

She pulled away, ready to teleport to the guest bathroom, where she was fairly sure there was a tissue box by the vanity. But Bow lunged for her arm, his grip like a vice.

"Please don't go."

"I'll be back right back! It won't take more than a second!"

He couldn't look at her, his voice barely more than a breath. His grip on her arm tightened, like he thought she was trying to run away. "I don't want to be alone."

"Oh. OK. Well, then I'll just… Uh…" She hesitated, thinking, and then drew a small rune, opening a tiny portal into the guest bathroom just large enough for her to reach in and grab the tissue box. It was a slightly ridiculous use of magic, but this was an unusual situation. She offered the box and gave Bow a moment to clean up.

It was torture not to ask him again. The need to know what was wrong so she could FIX IT ate at her. Just point her at whatever is making the man she loves sad and she will blast it into next the next dimension. But it wasn't as simple as that, and she knew it. He'd tell her when he was ready or not at all and, in the meantime, she just needed to be there for him.

Glimmer tugged his hand, pulling him over to the couch. "Come here. Let me hold you."

She grabbed a cushion, propping herself up against the arm of the couch, stretching her legs out across the length. Bow sunk down on top of her, his arms tucked around her middle, his head against her stomach. She wrapped her arms around him and tugged the blanket from the back of the couch over them both, making it feel warm and cozy despite the cold silence that surrounded them.

That was the thing about this place. It was Bow's childhood home, filled with hundreds of happy memories with his family that he loved. But it was also a place where he'd been miserable, misunderstood, and hiding who he really was. As sweet and supportive as his dads were now, she knew there was still a lot of scarring there.

He was crying again, his back shaking, his arms pulling her tighter like he was afraid she'd disappear if he let go. She trailed her fingers along the back of his neck, through his hair.

She wasn't sure how much longer it was when the worst of it passed. At least seven tissues worth. The tears slowed. His breathing evened out, and he loosened his grip on her middle. Finally, he shifted so she could see his face.

She gave him a small smile. "I love you."

It seemed like the safest thing to say.

His lip quivered and a fresh wave of tears slid out, but at least he didn't hide this time, only wiped the tears away with the back of his hand. "I love you too. I'm so sorry."

"Will you PLEASE stop apologizing? Like I haven't been a sobbing mess a billion times since we've known each other, especially the last few years?"

"But it's different. You have… real things worth being upset about and I'm…" He made a frustrated sound and disappeared into another tissue.

"Right. Because you weren't also in a traumatizing war your entire life with everyone you love in constant danger and standing right there while an evil alien dictator almost ripped apart the planet." He lowered the tissue to glare at her with red-rimmed eyes, and she laughed. "And even if you weren't, feelings aren't a luxury only other people get, you know."

Bow snorted, tossing the spent tissue into the growing collection on the coffee table, and shifted so he could press a kiss against her cheek. He lay back down, nestled into the crook of her neck with a sigh. He laced his fingers through hers, bringing them close to his chest.

It was so perfectly comfy that she was almost asleep when he spoke in a small, soft voice.

"I was at the desk, trying to decipher those partial symbols we found when I must have fallen asleep. And when I woke up, it was dark, and I was disoriented and…" He exhaled, ragged. "It's stupid."

It's not. Please go on. That's what she wanted to say. But she'd known Bow for her entire life and knew that sometimes his secrets were like a wild animal. You'd never catch them by chasing, only by waiting, still and quiet, and hoping they came to you. She traced a heart against his back so he knew she was listening and simply waited.

After what felt like an eternity, during which she'd become convinced he would never tell her, he finally spoke again, his voice shaking.

"For a minute, I thought… none of it was real. This, you and I… I thought I'd dreamed it all and really… I'd still ended up here. Alone." He choked on the last word, releasing her hand to wipe away fresh tears.

Of course. Glimmer cursed herself and wrapped her arms a little more tightly around him. She should have realized, should have never left him here by himself all day. His worst fear. The future he was supposed to have. Hiding who he was forever to fulfill his duty to his fathers and their work. Brilliant, friendly, outgoing Bow, all by himself, hidden away in the library, miserable and lonely for the rest of his life.

She could cry just thinking about it.

"That would never have happened, you know," she said when he didn't continue and it seemed like she'd lost him to despair again. "Even if you hadn't told your dads. I wouldn't have let it."

He looked at her, his eyes shining in the light from the desk lamp. "Glimmer—"

"I'm serious. You really think, what? You would have left one day without a word and I would have just accepted that? If my best friend, the most important person in my entire life, up and disappeared… I would have ripped the entire fucking planet apart until I found you."

He let out a single short exhale, somewhere between a blub and a laugh. "And then what?"

"Then I would have teleported in here and been like, 'This is stupid. You're not happy here. Come home right now!'" Ugh. Now SHE was crying, which wasn't helpful in the least. Bow offered her a tissue, and she took it, scrubbing at her face. "And if you were annoying about it, I would have just grabbed you and kissed you and told you I loved you."

"I thought you'd only admit that if it was the end of the world." His tone was teasing, but his eyes were soft.

"Yeah, well… You not being with me would be the end of the world, as far as I'm concerned." She blew her nose, adding her tissue to the pile. Bow shimmied higher, cupped her face in his palm, and kissed her. Gently at first and then deeper. She would have liked to keep kissing him, but all that crying had stuffed up her nose and she needed to pull away for a breath.

"Thank you." He ran his fingers through her hair, and she leaned into his touch. "That helps a lot. To think that even if I had ended up here… maybe it still would have worked out fine."

"Of course it would have! I would always come and find you." She refused to believe it could have turned out any other way. She shook the bad thoughts off, composing herself. "And then I'd be like… 'Wow, look at those sexy reading glasses!'"

He laughed outright then, and it was a wonderful sound. "You really like them, huh?"

"I'm just saying! It's a good look!" She giggled as he gave her another quick kiss and got up, crossing the room to flip on the main light. Suddenly the library looked like itself again, warm and friendly. He disappeared out of her field of vision and returned a moment later, glasses back on. Damn, he looked so good in those. "There's my sexy tech master."

"Hmm, no I think it's librarian right now." He climbed back on top of her. "And those books you returned, miss, were all QUITE overdue."

"Oh, no!" She put a hand on her forehead dramatically. "Not the very stiff fine!"

He glanced downward and then back up to her, and she couldn't help but laugh. "It may come to that, yeah."

"Well, if that's the only way!" She linked her arm around his neck, pulling him down to her lips.

"I love you so much." He mumbled against her mouth. "Thank you. For taking care of me. And for… being my better future."

"You got it." She sighed, relieved and happy, surrendering to his lips. When they pulled apart, she held his face, searching his eyes. "So… are you ok?"

"Yes. I am now." He smiled at her and then bit his lip, a mischievous look on his face. "Buuut, I can think of a way I'd be even better."

Well, he didn't need to tell her twice! She slid her hand down his abs to the waistband of his jeans. He reached up to take off his glasses, but she stopped his hand.

"Oh, no." She grabbed his shirt, tugging him back down to her. "The glasses stay ON."