Who even is that? Glimmer exhaled as she looked at her reflection. The contrast between the polished person in the mirror and the utter disaster of her room behind her didn't help the feeling of being completely out of place.
It's not like she'd never worn a dress before. Her closet back at The Library in the Whispering Woods was full of hand-me-downs from her sisters she'd wore for this family thing or that, but none of them were even a fraction as fancy as this gown. The material was so rich it was intimidating.
She looked longingly over at her normal white shirt and jeans lying in a pile on the floor next to her bow and arrows. None of it was coming tonight, and it felt so weird not to have the comforting weight of her gear on her back.
She almost jumped when there was a knock on the door.
"Glimmer?"
Bow.
"Hey! Uh, give me a second." Why had she said that? She was ready and had been for a while. Well, she was dressed, anyway. She wasn't sure she was ever going to be ready for tonight. But she felt weirdly calmer having Bow here. It was a reminder that this was just an evening out with her friends. A really really fancy intimidating evening completely out of her league.
Oh well, here goes nothing.
She ducked behind her dressing screen.
"I don't know why you even bother knocking. If I could teleport, I would just appear wherever I wanted and people could deal." She took a last look at herself. If you could overlook the fact that they'd dressed up a common soldier like a princess, she looked good. "OK, you can come in!"
She heard the familiar sound of Bow teleporting into her room.
"Where are you?" Bow asked from the other side of the screen.
"Back here. If you're going to force me to wear this ridiculous getup, I at least get to do a dramatic reveal." She pushed aside the screen with a flourish, her arm raised dramatically. "Tah dah!"
"I'm not forcing—Whoa." He stared at her, his mouth open and closing wordlessly a few times until he finally grinned. "You look great!"
She wasn't sure why it delighted her so much that he'd been at least a little awestruck. It was her buddy Bow! The walking ray of sunshine! It wasn't like he would ever be anything but supportive. But still. She did a twirl, the pearly sheen of the gown sending a small rainbow cascading down the pale purple fabric where it caught the light. She'd done that for herself in the mirror at least half a dozen times since she'd put it on.
OK, maybe this dressing up stuff was a little fun.
"I clean up pretty well, don't I?" She preened playfully.
"Well, you don't look bad dirty either. I mean... Normally? Not to say that you're normally dirty, it's just..." Bow blushed and laughed. "I'm not making any sense. You just look... great. Now. And... always. That's all I was trying to say."
He grinned at her like she was the most delightful person he'd ever met and she couldn't help but smile back.
The thing about Bow? He sparkled. OK, yes, there was some literal sparkling thing going on when his hair caught the light and there was sometimes a kind of twinkle in his eye when he was excited that was definitely more magic than metaphor. But it was also his entire personality. Her best friend was a wrecking ball of cheerful positivity and the only light that got her out of her darker moods.
Gods, she adored this dork.
"Thank you, your highness." She curtsied like they'd all three been practicing since the invite came for the All Prince and Princess Ball a few weeks ago.
"Can you never ever bow to me again, please? It's... weird." Bow looked thoroughly uncomfortable. "I feel awkward enough."
"You know, when we're running around the woods after the Horde, it's a lot easier to forget that you're Elemental Prince Bow, sole heir to the Kingdom of Bright Moon. Now, not so much." She gave his title a pompous voice, and he tugged at his cuff self-consciously.
His suit looked like they made it of the same rich stuff as her dress. It was pale purple, with light blue cording along the front in the shape of a diamond. There was a cape too, translucent blue and very sparkly. His midriff was bare, because it always was, but no judgment there. If she had abs that good, she'd be showing them off all the time too.
The whole look wasn't that much fancier than she'd seen him wear for court events, apart from the silver circlet he wore nestled around the dark purple curls of his hair. There was a small blue stone in the center, like a miniature Moonstone.
The literal crown she'd never seen him wear before? That really made the whole royalty thing impossible to forget.
He looked… handsome? Which was a word she'd never thought of using for Bow before. This suit may not leave his biceps exposed like his daily wardrobe did, but this look was still doing him a lot of favors. She was, of course, only noticing this in a strictly platonic, best buds kind of way.
Except now she'd been staring at him for way too long and he gave her a smug look so, prince or not, she had to bring him back down a few pegs.
"Nice headgear." She went over and flicked his circlet. Which was probably, like, high treason or something, but Bow just grinned. And he did that all the time, but this time it gave her a weird feeling in her stomach. Not bad, just... different. She started babbling to cover over... whatever the heck that just was. "Incidentally, trying on dresses with your mom? Easily one of the top three most awkward moments of my entire life."
"Sorry! I offered to help you with it myself." He was right. He had offered, and it probably would have been a lot of fun. She and Adora had had a ton of laughs as Bow tried to teach them all the dances and customs they had to know for this ball. But she'd wanted to surprise him and prove she could look like a princess, even if she wasn't even remotely one at all. And that meant gritting her teeth and letting Queen Angella help her pick out a dress. "But my mom appreciated getting a chance to get to know you and Adora better. She said she liked you."
"Of course, she liked Adora. Everyone loves She-Ra! But I doubt she'd even know my name if you and I weren't friends. Everybody else around here has powers or some ancient birthright or something. I'm, like, the only one that's not magic."
She sighed. That definitely came out more bitter than she'd intended. It was just so frustrating that Adora and Bow had all these powers and she was just the regular gal, getting her non-magic ass kicked daily. She'd been busting her butt for the rebellion for years, and Queen Angella never made half the fuss she did the second She-Ra walked in. It sucked.
Bow put his hands on her arms. "Glimmer, she meant you. Do you really think my mom could forget how you just showed up all those years ago ready to take on the entire Horde yourself? You're the youngest commander the rebellion's ever had, a master archer, a technology expert—"
Glimmer flushed. She moved away and pretended she was fixing her shoes. "Now you're stretching it. Compared to Entrapta, I'm barely a tinkerer. And you know The Queen and I don't exactly get along."
"Hey, even I don't always get along with my mom."
That was true. And Bow got along with everybody! But, after all this time, she knew Bow, and knew he'd rather hide his feelings than fight with his mom. And she got it, the whole dead dad thing was fraught, but if he wouldn't call his mother out, then someone had to or she'd keep getting scared and dragging the rebellion backwards whenever it seemed like they were finally getting somewhere.
When Queen Angella had insisted on coming to her and Adora's fitting with the Bright Moon tailors, Glimmer had nearly bailed on the whole thing. But while her majesty's taste definitely trended towards much poofier dresses than hers, it hadn't really been that bad. Maybe she should take her up on that offer of tea sometime, just the two of them.
Or not. Ugh. What was with her today? After all this time, why did she suddenly care what Bow's mom thought about her?
She'd run out of things to pretend to do with her shoe. "Anyway, at least now we match. Just like you wanted."
They really did. The shoulders of her dress were the same glittery material as his cape, and the blue braiding at the top of his suit matched the threading spread out in intrinsic curls from the heart cutout over her chest.
"We do!" His eyes twinkled. He'd been trying to drag her with him to royal functions in matching outfits for years. It had taken a once a decade party for the planet for her to finally give in. And she still wasn't sure this was a good idea. "I like your hair."
"Now I sparkle too!" She didn't have a lot of hair—she kept it short so it didn't impede visibility during a fight—but she'd pinned dozens of tiny pink gems into what she had. She shook her head, knowing the light would send twinkles dancing across her jet black hair. "And if anyone tries to mess with us at this thing, I can use these to jab their eyes out!"
Bow narrowed his eyes. "Glimmer…"
"Calm down. I'm joking!" Mostly. She gave him her most innocent smile.
"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" He sighed, but he was smiling. There was that strange feeling again. This whole ball thing was making her so nervous, and she hated it.
She went over and pretended to straighten his collar even though it was fine. There was no one else here but the two of them, but she kept her voice barely above a whisper. "Hey, so, I know I suck at this fancy stuff but… thanks for asking me to be your plus one."
Bow was looking everywhere but at her, which was impressive since she was standing right in front of him. "No problem. You wouldn't have been able to go otherwise, right? And the Best Friend Squad sticks together."
"Right." She decided that sudden weird twisting pain in her gut was just nerves. "I'll try not to embarrass you too much."
"You won't. It's impossible." He was looking at her now intently, and she was suddenly very aware of how close his face was. She realized she was clutching the lapels of his suit kind of tightly and released them, smoothing them back down gently. Was that her heart going so crazy right now she could feel it in her hands?
"So, should we go see if Adora is ready?" She said, mostly to break whatever awkward moment they were having. She moved towards the door, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her back.
"In a minute. You look… amazing, but… I'll be right back." He disappeared in a poof of pink sparkles and came back again half a minute later.
"What's this?" She tentatively reached for the box Bow was holding out. He shrugged and looked away. She flipped the lid and inside was a blue gemstone. One she immediately recognized as the one he always wore just above his heart. "This is yours."
"Yeah. And I thought maybe... you'd like to wear it tonight?" Bow was looking at her like he was half a second from passing out or throwing up. Or maybe both at the same time. "You don't have to, I—"
"No. I will. Thank you." She didn't own a lot of jewelry herself, so why not? She took the gemstone out of the box and Bow exhaled, so visibly relieved she almost laughed. What a goof. It's just a necklace! The gem was as tall as her thumb and heavy, but the light caught it and it reflected a million tiny stars. Everything glittered with these people. "Do you think you could—"
"Oh, uh, yeah. Sure. Let me..." He reached around her neck and she felt his fingers brush against the back of her neck as he did the clasp. She had never been so aware of him. They'd been right up against each other a million times on missions, but everything felt charged and different tonight. "There."
He came around to the front to check his handiwork, the tip of his tongue sticking out like it did when he concentrated. The necklace chain was so thin it was nearly invisible, so it was like the gemstone was hovering just above her chest exactly in the center of the heart cutout of her dress. Neat. Except that now they were both staring at her cleavage, which was super awkward. Bow seemed to realize the same thing and backed up immediately. She caught his eye, and they laughed.
It was a good thing they were such good friends or this might be starting to feel like it was a real date.
"So." He said, holding out his arm for her. "Princess Prom?"
She grinned and took his arm. "Let's do it!"