The sun felt hot on her face and Adora opened her eyes to a bright blue sky above her. She was laying in her backyard on the grass and she felt someone beside her and looked over. Catra was laying with her eyes closed, smiling contently up at the sky. Their hands were lazily held together and she was laying her head in Catra's hair. Adora watched her friend glisten under the rays of the sun. She looked happy despite the hollowness of her cheeks from not eating. Why wasn't she eating? Oh. Adora realized she was too young for this to be the present. Her hair was shorter but still stuck in a ponytail as usual. Catra still hadn't learned how to control her frizz. They must have been around 14.

Catra turned to her, as she knew she would. "Please don't leave me this weekend."

"I'm just spending the weekend at Bow's. I'll be 10 minutes away from you," Adora laughed.

"Who even is this "Bow"," Catra asked, putting air quotes around his name like Adora had made him up, "He sounds weird."

"You're weird but I like you."

Catra rolled over so she was leaning on her elbows, staring at Adora. "He probably likes you and he's going to take you away from me and then what?! I'll be alone. FOREVER."

Adora rolled her eyes, "Fine, why don't I call him and see if you can come?"

I did make that call. She did come. Adora remembered and furrowed her brows, "We already did this."

"Yeah," 14 year old Catra said, "And we did go and it turned out I liked Bow."

"And then…"

"And then I told you no matter how much you like someone it better not be as much as me," Catra giggled.

"Because you're the most important person in my life," Adora finished. Catra smiled at her in the way she only did for Adora. Then she pulled her hand away, the smile turning from kind to sinister. Adora felt the familiar shift and tried to stop it before it happened.

"What? No way. You?" Catra cackled wickedly, "You left me."

"Not yet," Adora argued. She wanted to stop. She wanted to stay in this moment with her friend but already the sky was turning dark, and the clouds were rolling in at an alarming rate. Rain started to pour down on the two of them. Adora jumped up and tried to reach for Catra.

Catra was standing now too but they weren't in her backyard, they were in front of Adora's family house, both of them soaked to the bone. It was late and dark out and Catra was shivering and holding herself. Her tears were mixing with the heavy rain. They were 18. Adora was leaving tomorrow.

"Please don't leave me," Catra reached out for her. Adora shook her head.

"I have to. Why are you doing this now?" Adora was crying too.

"When else was I supposed to do this?!" Catra's face was red and puffy.

"I don't know!" Adora yelled back. Catra reached for her again and this time they embraced, holding on to each other for dear life. "I'm sorry Catra."

"No, you're not. I don't expect you to understand. I don't even know why I came here," Catra looked broken, defeated as she pulled away, "I should just go."

"No, Catra please, this isn't how I want to leave things," Adora begged.

"It's fine, Adora. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything." Catra's face faded away.

Adora opened her eyes. Her face was wet and she was breathing heavy. She sat up and made eye contact with herself in the mirror. She looked awful. It wasn't the first time she had dreams like that and she was sure it wouldn't be her last. She noted that both dreams were better than most involving her dad. She groaned and rubbed at her eyes. It was 7:30am on a Sunday. She was supposed to meet up with Bow today. Adora rubbed her temples and tried to refocus her energy on not cancelling. What she really needed was a good night sleep but that was hard to come by these days.

She got up and made herself a cup of coffee in Angella's kitchen. She leaned against the counter, watching the light shine through the windows and beam across the wooden kitchen table. There was a decorative plant in the center that looked very similar to the plants in the shop. She noticed, really, that the entire kitchen looked like the shop. She hated when Catra was right.

It was a cute kitchen though, a cute house in general with a picket fence around it and a front and back porch. The inside was small but comfortable with bookshelves packed into the walls and plants hanging every which way around the windows. There were pink chairs and a green sofa and a light wood coffee table on top of an artistic black and white rug. It was homey. Angella homey. No, Adora corrected herself, Angella and Micah homey. Adora smiled at the thought of her dad. A sense of bittersweet happiness filled her.

She decided it was nice enough to be outside and made her way to the back porch. She looked out to the grass where her and Catra had played and talked all those years ago before sitting on the swing in the early morning sunshine.

The sky was filled with a hazy orange-yellow glow and the sunlight starting to rise was hitting the dew drops on the grass, reflecting like mirrors. It took her breath away. Adora felt overwhelmed and left her mug of coffee on the swing as she ran inside to grab her acrylics and some canvas paper. Inspired, Adora started her painting. She worked quickly, completely forgetting about her coffee until it was ice cold. She still chugged it though, for the caffeine rush alone.

By the time her phone buzzed, the sun had made its unmistakable approach into the sky and Adora looked down, surprised, to see hours had passed. She took a step back to look at the painting and grabbed her cell to send a photo to Bow. She captioned it "My ambition is unmatched. What have you accomplished today?"

Bow responded immediately with a picture of him and Glimmer sitting on his porch sipping tea. Glimmer was sticking her tongue out and wearing a pair of, what Adora assumed to be, Bow's boxers. His caption read, "you need to get laid." She laughed.

An hour later, after 2 calls and a few angry texts about not cancelling, Adora found herself at Bow's door. She was wearing biker shorts and a baggy tee and her hair was up in a casual ponytail. She wondered if Glimmer would be here and was happily surprised to see her answer the door.

"Hey Adora! Sorry, I know you two have a day planned. I was just leaving," Glimmer said. She was flushed and her hair a mess. She looked slightly embarrassed but Adora just smiled and gave her a hug.

"Friend! Stay," Adora said, pulling her back inside and stomping across the threshold to wave to Bow. Glimmer giggled, accepting her fate to the pair.

Adora forgot how eccentric Bow could be, and him and Glimmer together were a wild pair. They all got brunch, bottomless mimosas to be exact, and by noon Bow was singing to the restaurant music, drumming his hands loudly on the table, and asking Glimmer to pour more champagne in his mouth. Glimmer was only so happy to oblige, watching him in awe as she poured herself another drink. Adora chewed on a pile of French toast, nodding her head in time to Bow's rhythm and trying to keep up with Glimmer's drink count.

"Stop making a fool out of me," Bow sang, "Why don't you come on over, Valerie?" He continued humming, taking a large chug. "I gotta talk to Catra about branching out our cover songs."

"If it's not a hate song about me, Catra will decline," Adora said, slurring her words and stuffing more French toast into her mouth.

"Bow and Glimmer gasped loudly. "You KNOW about that?!" They both said, shock in their drunk voices.

Adora laughed. "I'm not an idiot!... Wait how does Glimmer know about that?"

Bow's cheeks went red, and Glimmer tried not to look guilty. "Um, well first of all a lot of their songs sound like hate songs but they're really catchy and I sang them all night when I went to watch Bow," Glimmer said, "I just took a guess that it was about you."

Adora rolled her eyes at Bow, wondering what Bow said to make Glimmer think that. Bow just shrugged.

"And then I asked him about it and Bow showed me their new song last night… after… the show" At the last part, Bow sighed and shook his head at Glimmer.

"New song? Show. Me," Adora forgot all about her food, dropping her utensils and placing her palms menacingly on the table, slowing reaching for Bow. He looked between the two girls and made a sound of anxiety.

"I can't show you. Catra will hang me and then eat my body."

"Graphic," Adora added.

"Yeah. That girl is terrifying," Bow chuckled, "Come to the show on Thursday, we're playing it then."

"Are all the songs about me?"

"Don't be so self absorbed," Bow said, "Only the really successful ones."

Adora opened her mouth in fake surprise, flipping her hair back and dramatically covering her face in her hands. "Oh stop, I don't deserve such fame."

"Oh, but you do my dear," Bow responded in a ridiculously over the top British accent, "You are… A star." He grasped Adora by the shoulders and pretended to turn her towards the screen, gesturing with his other hand to the open world.

"I would like to thank the Academy," Adora continued.

"Can I be the Academy," Glimmer whispered. Adora and Bow deliberated behind whispering hands and decided yes, she could.

"Then as the Academy," Glimmer said, adding her own fake indistinguishable accent, "You two are both banned from fame for being too drunk and loud in a public restaurant." Adora and Bow hid again behind their hands.

"You're fired from the Academy," They said together. All three of them laughed.

By the time they got back to Bow's place, Glimmer was tetter tottering on her feet and finally collapsed on the sofa with a bottle of water. Adora and Bow sat with her, and Glimmer rested her head in Adora's lap, attempting and failing to not fall asleep. She snored quietly.

Bow and Adora giggled at her and Bow threw a blanket over her, while Adora remained her pillow, petting Glimmer's hair and trying not to fall asleep herself. Bow smiled at her from his seat, sipping his own water.

"Ya know, this is the first time I've been able to get you alone," Adora said quietly, feeling herself blush with nerves but knowing she may not get the chance again today. He looked up at her, giving her a soft smile.

"We don't have to do this."

"We do actually. I'm really sorry. I overreacted when you were trying to help me and I ruined our friendship over it."

"Adora, our friendship isn't over unless you want it to be. It's okay. Look, I was never upset about the milkshake. Well maybe for a minute but I'm over it. I'm glad to have you here."

"I'm sorry," Adora said. Bow nodded understandingly.

"Apology accepted."

Adora wanted to hug him but didn't want to move so they just grinned at each other, enjoying the company.

"I'm sorry, too," Bow added, swallowing hard. Adora hadn't been expecting that but she was grateful.

"Apology accepted," Adora imitated, "I tried to apologize to Catra and she wouldn't let me. She wouldn't let me talk about anything."

Bow shrugged. "Give her a bit to adjust. She had a rough time when you left and she finally just got everything back to "normal". She's just scared but she'll come around. I mean it's Adora and Catra," Bow shook his head like it was the most obvious thing in the world and Adora laughed, hoping he was right.

"So catch me up. Tell me everything."

Bow did catch her up. His dad's had finally accepted him and they were rebuilding their relationship, The Fright Zone really had taken off, even though all of them still had to work normal jobs which meant bartending for him and Catra at Etheria. And although Bow had dated a few people over the years, he maintained that Glimmer really was something else. He looked at her fondly on Adora's lap. Adora felt so much joy for him.

"You're turn. Tell me about New York."

Adora hesitated. "New York was good," She said, shrugging casually. Bow stared at her, waiting for more. She stayed quiet.

"That bad, huh?" Bow asked. Adora sighed and took a chug of water before speaking.

"Well, it was really terrible at first because I felt like a failure," Adora said, and you and Catra were in my head, She didn't say. "But I really got to express myself and come out of my shell. I dated someone but she was really big into talking about her feelings so..," Adora trailed off. Bow nodded in an agreement only an ex could understand, which made Adora laugh. "I've really improved, though. I mean listen to me!"

"Yes! So proud." Bow smiled genuinely at her.

"Anyways, I put all my energy into my art and at the end, I got a diploma and a kick in the butt into the real world. It turns out, being an artist is tough for paying New York rent so," Adora gestured around her, "So here I am." She felt pathetic. Like she was coming up for excuses for why she couldn't do what she really wanted to do. She added, "I love the shop. I really do."

"I know you do." Bow reached over and placed his hand on top of hers. She looked up at him affectionately. She remembered why she fell for him. The way he validated her feelings and made her feel like she was the only person that mattered. His eyes were so kind despite his "drummer of a rock band" look. She loved him, she decided, just not like that.

After plenty of rest and water, Adora felt too drained to carry on and headed home shortly after Glimmer rose from the dead. She caught a glimpse of herself in her mirror when she finally made it to her bed and laughed at how similarly she looked to morning Adora. She laid on her stomach and rested her head on the pillow, just wanting to lay there and never move again. Her phone buzzed and she thought about ignoring it but decided she had just made amends with her friends, she should probably answer her phone.

It was from Catra, which made her smile. "Mr. Darcy is a piece of work." The text read.

"Just like you 3" Adora replied

Catra sent a gif of someone reaching for their chest in exaggerated shock. Adora laughed.

"Just keep reading." Adora smiled, thinking of many worse people to be compared to then . And then, at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon, Adora finally fell into a deep and soundful sleep.

Hi everyone, thank you for reading my fanfic. I look forward to seeing your comments! I have a lot left in store for this one but fair warning: this may get turned to Mature. Happy Ready