Dear Perfuma,

I love you, truly, and am very sorry for what I am about to do. Someday I will write you and Scorpia a lovely wedding to make up for it. But, in the meantime, this is a Glimbow fic and, well, I had to do what I had to do.

Sorry,
Tippen

How are Adora and Glimmer getting to the Kingdom of Snows? Bow wondered as he zoned out of the small talk Perfuma was making with the family on the bench across from them. When Perfuma asked him, he'd kind of assumed they'd all just take the same transport up together. All together like a big ole group of friends! But instead Glimmer had gotten all weird, and now it was just him and Perfuma.

Which was fine! Perfuma was really nice. And friendly! Whenever he and Glimmer had to take one of the transports, she got annoyed whenever he tried to talk to the other passengers but Perfuma seemed determine to make friends everyone that came into their compartment. So, that was good, right?

Nice and friendly. That's two things in common!

Perfuma caught his eye and smiled. He smiled back. She seemed to like the necklace he'd gotten her, which was a relief since he'd had no idea what to give her. You couldn't exactly get a flower princess a corsage! It looked good on her. She looked good too. He'd told her that when he'd arrived in Plumeria to pick her up.

That's a pretty dress! Wow, your hair is so much longer than I thought! …then he'd pretty much run out of things to say. At least she smelled awesome, like being in the middle of the Bright Moon garden in springtime, but he wasn't sure if it was some kind of faux pas to point out that the flower princess smelled like flowers.

Glimmer would know. He turned instinctively to ask her only to realize that, of course, she wasn't there. It's fine, he knew how the conversation would go anyway. They never ran out of stuff to talk about.

"Glimmer, is it weird to tell the flower princess she smells like flowers?"

"Yes, Bow! Would you tell me I smell like the moon?"

He grinned. He could picture exactly the face she would make. Then he sighed and watched the snowy landscape go by through his own faded reflection. The last time he'd worn this suit was when he'd gone with Glimmer to the Etherian Ecological Preservation Society ball last year. He'd had to roll up the sleeves a little to hide the stain from where she'd managed to get lipstick on his cuff. She always tried to lead, even when she didn't know the steps and they ended up colliding more times than not. Maybe they'd still get a chance to goof around like that tonight.

Or maybe she'd be doing that with Adora.

Obviously, he wasn't jealous or anything. Adora was his friend too! And she was great. He loved Adora. Though apparently not like Glimmer did since she'd been drooling over She-Ra since day one. Which was fine, She-Ra was very impressive, it just seemed a little weird to have a crush on an ancient warrior lady who shared your friend's face. He couldn't explain how Glimmer going with Adora was weird and Glimmer going with him was fine and normal, but it just WAS. How was he supposed to know she wasn't planning on asking Adora after all that?

Fine, maybe he was a little jealous. But only because it used to be just the two of them and now Glimmer and Adora had the whole princess thing going on and he was just… over here. For all he'd known, he wouldn't have been able to go at all if Perfuma hadn't asked.

He leaned his forehead against the cold glass of the window. Damn it, Glimmer, why didn't you just ask me earlier? The whole Best Friend Squad would be sitting here right now laughing and trying to figure out what the moon even smells like instead of everything being awkward and confusing.

"You've been quiet." Perfuma rested her hand on his knee. He turned to look at her and noticed the family she was talking to must have gotten off at the last stop. They were alone for the first time all trip.

"Just watching the scenery. I've never been up this far before."

"Ah, I understand. There is nothing like watching the world pass peacefully by to inspire some tranquil meditation and introspection."

"Uh, yeah." He forced a smile. He needed to just forget about the whole Glimmer thing. However it had happened, he was going with Perfuma and she was nice and friendly and smelled awesome. It was a good idea. Making new friends, strengthening alliances, keeping your options open so when one friend ditched you, you at least had other options instead of being left behind. Or, OK, when your friend doesn't really ditch you but you still end up left out because she didn't even think to ask you until the day before because she just took for granted that you would—

"What do you think?"

His eyes focused on Perfuma and he realized she'd been talking to him and he hadn't been listening at all. "About the..." Shoot, what had she even been talking about? "Meditation?" With Perfuma, that was always a safe guess.

"Mmhmm. I was asking if you would like to tap into the harmonious energies of the natural wonders of this magnificent icy landscape by doing a little guided meditation with me."

"Uh, no. That's okay. I'm good." He'd already done the meditation thing with her before they left Plumaria and he didn't want to hurt her feelings, but it wasn't really for him. "I'd rather just kind of watch the scenery go by while I can. It'll be too dark to see anything on the way back."

"Oh, there's no need to worry about that! I reserved us a room for the evening so we can begin our journey back tomorrow morning. I always find it so thrilling to greet an old friend like the sun in unfamiliar lands, don't you?"

"Um, yeah, sure."

Wait. A room. So, like, one room? With, like, one bed? That was... Well, he shared a room with Adora and Glimmer all the time and that was fine. He'd even shared a bed with Glimmer a bunch of times so it was obviously just a very normal thing that friends did together it's just that... Perfuma was a couple of years older than he was and even though he was thinking of this as a friend date, what if she was thinking of this as like a date date?

The thought filled him with a non-zero amount of panic.

They'd reached another stop. An elderly couple entered their compartment. Perfuma turned to greet them and her hand slid until it wasn't so much on his knee as on his thigh. Really more like inner thigh. And, uh, he was not entirely sure he was comfortable with it being there.

OK. She's busy talking to the couple, she probably doesn't even realize it's there. I'll probably just embarrass her if I point it out. He flushed and debated internally for several minutes before deciding that the easiest way out of this situation was to remove her hand under the pretense of holding it. He was certain that was a friends thing. He and Glimmer did it all the time! He took her hand in his and Perfuma looked over, her face coloring.

"How nice! I know not everyone is comfortable connecting with others as physically as I am but I'm glad you agree that there is no better way to get to know someone that by intimate knowledge of their physical being." She leaned in and gave him a look that gave him a weird feeling in his stomach. Not really a good feeling. "I am so looking forward to getting to know you better this evening."

Uh, was that just hippie talk or did that mean what he thought it meant? He swallowed. He was staring to think maybe he was a little in over his head when the transport slowed and he realized they'd arrived at the Kingdom of Snows.