Chapter One
Catra had expected to wake up that first morning back in Bright Moon and feel depressed Adora wasn't there with her in their shared bed.
Six months had passed since Horde Prime's defeat, and Catra and Adora had spent those six months glued at the hip, traveling space together, visiting worlds, bringing back magic to a galaxy with a sudden and glaring power vacuum. Bow and Glimmer had been there too, but that was beside the point.
The point was, when Glimmer had announced she was staying behind after their next pit stop home to take care of her queenly duties that had piled on in the interim, Catra had also elected to stay, citing her newly appointed position as Glimmer's "chief advisor" as well as a desire to decompress from a long stint in space and on alien worlds. Adora chose to continue traveling with Bow (and Melog and Micah), and Catra had expected to feel loss at their separation, like some great piece of her was suddenly missing.
She didn't feel lost, and she didn't feel like any part of her was missing. At least, not so far. She didn't quite trust herself, yet.
Catra waited until her morning routine was complete for her emotions to settle. She peeled herself out of bed, bathed with Bright Moon's special foaming bath bombs she refused to admit to anyone she liked, brushed her teeth and her hair, and only when she had gotten through that and had started down the hall and toward the kitchens did she finally admit to herself: she missed Adora, yes, but it was a healthy sort of longing. She wasn't suddenly an incomplete version of herself now that Adora was gone—a feeling she had wrestled with during their entire adolescence and especially during their schism after Adora had defected.
Maybe Perfuma was right in saying Catra was growing into a more stable and well-adjusted person than she gave herself credit for.
Deep in thought as she was, it took Catra a moment to realize the castle hallways were empty, and eerily so. It wasn't until she pushed through the doors into the kitchens that she saw another person: a single cook, white apron complimenting their tall chef's hat. They were stirring a waist-height pot of soup sitting atop a burner set into the floor tiling.
"Hey, has Glimmer come through already?" Catra asked, threading around the large center kitchen island and its single-slabbed marble surface toward them.
"Haven't run into the queen yet," the cook said, shaking their head. "You're the first person I've seen since starting my shift. The night crew prepped breakfast for the guards, so I've had very little to do." They stopped stirring and placed the giant wooden spoon they were using flat across the top of the pot. "Want me to fix you anything?"
Half an hour later and Catra sat at the head of the massive long table in the castle's dining sanctum, chewing absentmindedly on breakfast sausage and sipping decaffeinated coffee. One of the two guards stationed at the dining room entrance, fully armored and holding pikes, coughed, and the sound echoed. Rays of light beamed through the tall windows, illuminating the specks of dust as they floating about. When Catra sat back in the chair, it creaked, and she winced at how loud that sounded against the silence.
Geeze, she thought, her tail thumping an irate rhythm against the side of the chair. Sparkles mentioned now would be a good time for her to stay behind too because of how slow everything got in the kingdom around this time, but I didn't think it'd be like this.
Without Adora or Bow, the castle just felt so damn empty.
Catra had specifically chosen the spot at the head of the table to get a rise out of Glimmer when she inevitably walked in. That seat was reserved for the queen, and although Catra knew Glimmer wouldn't really be upset at her for stealing her chair, she also knew it would push all of her territorial buttons and be supremely entertaining. But for Catra to get even that small amount of entertainment out of the morning, Glimmer would have to show up first, and she was running more than just a little late so far.
"How the hell is she supposed to get to all her little duties that have piled up if she doesn't even wake up at a decent time to eat breakfast?" Catra said, under her breath and more to herself than anything.
After breakfast (and after fighting off the cook, who balked at her desire to wash up her own dish instead of letting him do it), Catra went to personally hunt down the queen. She was her official chief advisor, after all, and it wasn't just an informal title bestowed because of their friendship. At least, Catra hoped it wasn't. Glimmer had given her the position about a month after Prime's defeat, and the memory of that moment was something she cherished deeply.
"Sparkles, are you still asleep?" she asked, pounding on the high double doors of Glimmer's room hard enough it made the metal hinges rattle. "I'm giving you five seconds to tell me not to come in before I do, and I swear you better fucking warn me in those five seconds if you aren't decent. I still have nightmares about the last time I walked in on you and Bow, and even though he's not here I really don't need to see any more of you than I'm already used to."
Two more guards were at the door with her, and one of them tried and failed to stifle a laugh. The other shot them a stern look in response and shook their head. Catra smirked and winked at them both. She counted to three instead of five, then kicked open the doors open with so much force they slammed into the inside walls of the bedroom.
Glimmer screamed and shot upright in bed, the blankets pooling around her hips, her hair sticking out in too many directions. Thankfully, she was wearing a shirt—one of Bow's oversized crew necks if the archery graphic and "I can make you quiver" text was anything to go by—so Catra didn't get an eyeful.
"Catra, what the hell are you doing?"
"The entire trip home, you wouldn't shut up about all the stuff you had to catch up on this week," Catra said, pushing further into the room to stand at Glimmer's bedside. She put her hands on her hips and stared down at her friend. "It's the whole reason you stayed behind to begin with. I figured I'd better come wake you up since you haven't done shit and its already almost noon."
Glimmer's eyes blew wide and she squawked, twisting against the sheets to look at the clock on her nightstand. It read just past nine in the morning and Glimmer, after breathing a sigh of relief, turned back to fix Catra with a murderous glare.
Catra folded her arms. "Well, you're still late anyways. And it would have been almost noon eventually if I hadn't come and woken you up, so, you're welcome."
Glimmer rolled her eyes. "Well, since someone was so kind as to make sure I'm wide awake now, I might as well get to it."
She threw her covers off and moved to get out of bed, but something just seemed off. Catra watched her through narrowed eyes and stopped her when her bare feet touched the carpet.
Glimmer startled. "What are you—"
Catra pressed the back of her hand to Glimmer's forehead and then pulled away like she had touched a hot stove, a curse and a hiss escaping her.
"You have a fever," she said, her fangs peeking out a moment when the ghost of a snarl accompanied her words. "You're sick."
Glimmer shook her head, but the sheepish look on her face betrayed her. "No, I'm fine I promise. Sometimes I wake up hot is all."
"Bullshit. You're always on time for breakfast. You take your duties as queen more seriously than any of the other princesses except Frosta, even when we're off world." Catra leaned down into Glimmer's space and scrutinized her. "Tell me you weren't sleeping in to try and feel better before you started on everything."
"I wasn't, I swear. I was just—"
"You got any chills? Any sore muscles? Sore throat? Cough?"
Growing up in the Horde, Catra was used to steamrolling sick people and forcing them to rest. Firstly, because Adora in particular was as bullheaded as they came and would always try to push through it, and secondly because it would pull everyone else on the team's score down during their training exercises for the day. And that often meant Shadow Weaver would come down on them, hardest of all on Catra even though she was the one that almost never got sick herself.
"I'm fine," Glimmer said, shooting her a scowl that looked more like a pained expression of suffering than anything threatening. "No chills, nothing sore, no cough. I'm good."
As if fate decided to be cruel to someone other than Catra for once, Glimmer shivered and shuddered from a chill the moment she finished speaking, descended into a fit of terrible, whooping coughs, then clutched at her head and moaned in pain once it was all done.
She was dead sick.
"Okay, you're not leaving this bed until you're fully rested up," Catra said. She squatted down and lifted both Glimmer's feet off the floor, shoving them back onto the bed and working the blankets back over her until she was firmly tucked in again. "Is there like, some sort of nanny team or whatever that comes in and takes care of royalty when they're bedridden or something?" She snapped her fingers and pointed a finger gun at Glimmer. "Hospice, right?"
Glimmer snorted with laughter then immediately gasped in pain. Catra would have made fun of the dumb expression on her face if she weren't so intent on mothering her friend.
"Hospice is for dyingpeople, Catra," Glimmer said. "Where the heck did you get the idea that's what they were called?"
Catra shrugged. "Dunno, just heard it somewhere. No one took care of us in the Horde so I didn't even know a job caring for sick people was a thing, let alone having a word for it."
"Nurse is the word you're looking for. And we do have nurses. They'd take care of me if it was really serious, but it's not." Glimmer moved to get out of the bed again, but Catra shot her a death glare and she stilled. "Seriously, I do have things I need to take care of and I'm not really that sick. I'll be fine, just let me—"
Yet another coughing spell overcame her, and Glimmer grabbed at her head again when it subsided. Catra reasoned she had a terrible headache that got worse every time that happened.
"Yeah, no," Catra said, already turning and stalking back to the guards still by the door. "I'll call your nurses or whatever and they can make the final say on whether or not you're good. And when they say there's no way in hell you're getting out of bed, we'll talk about how to take care of all your chores that have piled up too."
The verdict came even faster than Catra had anticipated: Glimmer wasn't getting out of that bed, and she looked like she wanted to strangle the head nurse for having made the decision. Catra tried not to feel too smug about it.
"Give me twenty minutes with her or something," Catra said to the nurse. "We've gotta figure out what to do with the agenda she had for the next few days since she won't be able to get to it. Then she's all yours."
The nurse gave Catra a 'sisters in arms' look of comradery and a nod. Glimmer was notoriously hard-headed, and Catra had a feeling the nurse understood she had a long, uphill battle coming trying to force Glimmer to rest.
Still, she ushered her team out the bedroom to give them privacy. When the door shut behind them with a click, Glimmer turned her icy glare on Catra.
"I hate you," she said. "You know that, right?"
"Is that why you always fight with Melog for the sleep spot next to me when we camp on alien worlds?" Catra smirked at Glimmer, with teeth. "That's because you hate me, right?"
Glimmer groused, tingeing pink. "You are like a furnace, and Bow is like an ice cube. There's no way I'm fighting Adora for her spot, so it has to be Melog. And I hate camping." She pressed her head further back into her pillow with a groan. "I actually have stuff to do this week though! I'm seriously not even that bad. I would have been able to suffer through it if you hadn't dragged the nurse in here. Now all the stuff I specifically stayed behind for is going to just get pushed back even further."
Catra shrugged. "Why don't I take care of it for you?"
"Hah, funny joke. You want to run the kingdom until I get better?"
"I mean, not particularly. But you're sick and this stuff is important. I don't mind helping out." Catra fought hard to keep her tail from thrashing or her ears from pinning. Truth be told, she did want to do this for Glimmer, but didn't want to seem like she cared so damn much. It was a thin line to walk.
"I don't think you understand what you're offering," Glimmer said. "There are rules and decorum. Paperwork. Meetings with tons of people you have to talk to. People who make you want to leap over a table to strangle them because they keep saying 'uhm' every third word and you just can't take it anymore, but you have to play nice with them or else they'll pull funding for a major water pipeline and everyone will hate you forever because of it."
"Sounds like a pain in the ass, yep," Catra said nodding, before furrowing her brow. "And that last one seems suspiciously specific."
"Not if it happens so regularly. I could probably track the changes of the seasons counting how many weeks have passed since I last spoke with that particular person in question."
"Right," Catra said, drawing out the vowel. "So where exactly do I start?"
Now it was Glimmer's turn to scrutinize Catra. "You're serious about this? You aren't joking about wanting to take over my duties while I'm recuperating?"
Catra tried her best not to shy away or stutter. "Yeah, I'm serious. I'm your official chief advisor, right? Unless you gave me that title for literally no reason?"
"No, I didn't just—" Glimmer shook her head. "Of course you're my advisor Catra. I just thought we'd, you know, take baby steps. Have you shadow me on things like I did with my mom, and eventually tag team some of my duties before handing them off. I didn't think you'd whole-hog it and dive right into the deep end the second I couldn't perform."
Catra rolled her eyes and scoffed to mask just how relievedshe felt to hear Glimmer say she really was her advisor because, truthfully, she halfway was expecting her to say the title was just a formality.
"Okay, maybe you and I haven't been properly introduced," Catra said, leaning into the teasing in her voice. "I'm Catra. I dive head-first into everything and anything, including trying to conquer your kingdom before we became friends. If you have any complaints, please lodge them with the current She Ra of Etheria, because I'm certain she's the one that rubbed that particular trait off on mewhen we were kids."
"I'll be sure to take it up with her as soon as she comes back," Glimmer said, between grit teeth. When she turned her attention off to the side, Catra followed her gaze and saw a massive calendar pasted to the far wall of the bedroom.
"They really packed you tight, didn't they?" Catra asked, looking over how much of the current week was highlighted in bright pink, and a flowery, cursive, bolded script on top of it read 'Glimmer is back!' Every other week on the calendar was empty because they had been off-planet, dealing with some other magic-related issue in the galaxy.
"My staff misses me when I'm gone," Glimmer said, fondness seeping into her tone. "So yeah, they've taken to updating my calendar and packing as many things as they can for me while I'm around." She frowned. "Except that just means I can't actually tell what I'm supposed to do when I do see the itinerary, because they've crammed the boxes so full of sticky notes you can't actually read what the tasks are."
It was true. Underneath the highlighted portion for the week were a monstrous number of sticky notes pasted all across, each note likely containing whatever task or appointment was booked for that day and time. That strip of calendar looked almost like a feathered creature with how the notes piled on top of one another and jutted out at odd angles, fighting to stay affixed. The last day of the week had a bright yellow star drawn around it in marker with the words 'Master Bow, Princess Adora, and King Emeritus Micah come home!' Catra chuckled at the 'Princess' title next to Adora's name.
Speaking of Micah, Catra had forgotten he'd decided to travel to space this time, since Glimmer was staying behind. He hadn't gotten the chance to explore yet, and everyone had encouraged him to go with Adora, Bow, and Melog on their next adventure.
"Just out of curiosity," Catra said, pulling Glimmer's attention back. "Why doesn't your dad help out with some of this stuff while you're gone? You might not have such a hugely clusterfucked pile of duties to attend to when you come back if he did some of them."
Glimmer laughed. "He does, Catra. He takes care of most of the important things still, actually, on top of traveling to the other kingdoms and advising the other princesses. Everything you see there is stuff he either didn't get to yet, or things he specifically left for me because they really should be done by the current queen and not the retired king."
Catra's eyes bugged out of her head and she took another look at the calendar. That was what was left behind after Micah did everything else?
"Alright," she said after swallowing. "Well, I'm still serious about helping. Just point me to a good place to start and I'll take it from there?"
Glimmer studied her a moment longer before nodding and pointing past Catra. "Can you bring me that thing sitting on the dresser behind you?"
A tablet computer was sitting upright in its charging dock on the dresser, decorated with rhinestones on the back and an obnoxious pink color-scheme throughout. Catra grabbed it and made a face as she handed it over, making Glimmer giggle.
"I asked my people to start using the tools Entrapta made for all of us to help run the kingdoms a little more efficiently," she said. "I'm hoping they at least figured out how to use the calendaring app. Let me just—" Glimmer swiped and tapped at the screen, brow knit in concentration as she bit at her lip. "Yessss they put it in for me, thank god."
When she handed the device back, Catra saw the same calendar on the wall now displayed on the screen, but each of the dozens of appointments were now clearly visible, and many of them had been grayed out.
"I deselected the ones that aren't super pressing," Glimmer said as Catra perused. "Everything that still pops out at you are the things that would really, really suck if we had to push back."
"First thing is a four-hour long paperwork block starting ten minutes ago," Catra said, looking at the first item. "Nothing in the afternoon or evening. You cleared it all out?"
"You'll need to get fitted to hold court tomorrow morning, so that time needs to be free."
"Fitted?" Catra looked up from the device at Glimmer and felt her hair start to stand on end when she saw the look of devilish glee on Glimmer's face.
"Yes, fitted," she said. "There's not a chance in hell Sasha is going to let you sit on the throne without getting his hands on you first, royal proxy or no. As soon as I send word out that you'll be taking over, I know he's going to take up everything after lunch. That's why I cleared it out."
Catra raised a brow at her. She hadn't expected needing a new wardrobe, but dressing up for Princess Prom was sort of fun. She didn't know why Glimmer was getting so giddy about it, though, and she'd likely not find out before the day was up. Catra resolved to stay alert for any funny business or pranks.
"Then after that's done," Catra said, "I hold court tomorrow morning until lunch, then after lunch is prepping to host some sort of special dinner?"
Glimmer's expression turned serious. "That's the important one I was freaking out about missing," she said. "It's not really a huge deal—a minor noble family from the surrounding area, is coming. We've rescheduled with them twice already while I was out, so having to do it again would have been…painful."
"Won't they be pissed it's me that will be with them instead of you, still?"
"Yeah," Glimmer said, nodding. "But having it with you is better than not having it at all or having to reschedule. They might not be getting the queen of Bright Moon, but they'll be getting her closest advisor, not to mention She Ra's girlfriend." Glimmer winked at her. "I think they'll be satisfied with that. They provide a good portion of our meat and animal product import, so we need to keep a good relationship with them."
Catra nodded and pressed her lips into a thin line. Glimmer's compliment had flustered her and she needed to take a moment. Entertaining guests was never her forte, either, but she'd do her best.
"Day after that is a speech and, after lunch"—she squinted at the last box—"an afternoon for…miscellaneous?"
"There's usually a lot of really, really minor things that stack up too. They take, like, a minute or two individually to address, but they pile up. My staff usually just cram as much of it as they can into one afternoon block and I knock it all out in one go. It'll be more mind numbing than challenging, I think, and they'll appreciate you for taking care of it."
Catra nodded. "Let's rewind to the speech, though. I'm supposed to talk at a ceremony at Bright Moon's guard academy?"
"That one I'm kind of jealous you'll get to do in my stead, actually. It's a graduation speech for the cohort that finished there this semester. I'm sure you'll think of something inspiring to tell them."
Catra lowered the tablet again and peered at Glimmer with a skeptical look. "Do they know I almost conquered your kingdom not too long ago?"
Glimmer shrugged. "Probably. But even if they do, I know they'll want to hear what you have to say. You're a member of my court now, remember? It's yourkingdom too. Plus it will be good for your image, since it will be a chance for them to see and hear from you first-hand."
Catra sighed and nodded, looking away. The people of Bright Moon were still wary of her, that much was common knowledge. Even if she was in Glimmer's inner circle and technically a member of the royal court, everyone seemed to remember she was ex-Horde who nearly overran their home wholesale. Glimmer was giving her a chance to help defray some of those hurt feelings little by little, and she was grateful for it.
That didn't stop her from still feeling terrified about it, though.
"And if that all crashes and burns and goes to shit," Catra said, forcing levity into her voice, "then at least Adora and Bow both come back that evening." She looked to the physical calendar again and the yellow star drawn there, marking their friends' return.
Glimmer shot her a grin. "That's the spirit."
"Okay." Catra swallowed and nodded. "Okay, sure, this is fine. I'll start with the paperwork, then. Can you uh…tell me where to go for that? And I can piggyback off of whoever is there to help get me to the next thing."
The look of unadulterated appreciation that bloomed on Glimmer's face made Catra flush and sent her tail flicking erratically, low to the ground.
"You'll want the study next to the dining room," she said. "And the fact no one has come to break my door down for being late tells me the nurse gave them a heads up." Glimmer gestured back to her nightstand. "You'll need one more thing before you go though. Check the drawer for my signet ring."
Catra shuffled over to the nightstand, pulled open the drawer, and nearly shut it with force when she saw what was inside.
"What is it?" Glimmer asked, confusion flitting across her features. "Is the ring not in there?"
Catra opened the drawer again and pulled out a bought-in-bulk package of contraceptives from inside, quirking an eyebrow at Glimmer when she angled the box toward her.
Glimmer's face when scarlet, same as Catra's. "Uhm, well, you know it's been months since we've been back," she said. "I haven't checked inside that drawer since then. It's not like we…I mean, we just use it for…well…uh…"
Catra shook her head and put the box back in the drawer as quick as she could. "Yep, all good. You don't need to explain it to me, I got it." Heaven forbid Glimmer ever stumble upon her and Adora's private things. If Catra was this flustered herself over something admittedly not even that risqué, she couldn't bear to imagine how she'd respond if their situations were reversed.
She saw the signet ring and fished it out, shutting the drawer again quickly with a bump of her hip. "This is it, right?" she asked, showing Glimmer.
Glimmer nodded, still red in the face, and cleared her throat. "That ring officially vests you with the authority to do stuff on my behalf. The staff will know what you're there for when they see it on you."
Catra slid it on her index finger and shuffled around the bed, positioning herself for a quick exit. She was starting to get emotional over this, and it wasn't just that awkward moment from earlier that had tilted her off balance.
"I'll get to it then. You just focus on resting up, yeah?"
"Catra."
She stopped in her tracks halfway to the exit, rooted to the spot by how suddenly sincere Glimmer's tone of voice was. She looked back over her shoulder.
"Are you sure about doing this?" Glimmer asked. "You're certain you want to take this on while I just stay in bed?"
Catra nodded. "Yes, I'm sure. Thank you for, y'know…trusting me enough to hand over this much, I guess. I'll try and visit you when I have a free moment or two, maybe during lunch. It will probably get insanely lonely being cooped up in this room all day."
"Won't you get sick too if you spend too much time around me?"
Now that was a question Catra could latch onto and deflect all her other emotions with. She smiled wide and gave a cocky shrug. "Nah. My physiology is different from yours, remember? Besides, I'm pretty sure I can count with one hand how many times I've been sick and still have at least one finger in particular left over I can use to flip you off when you annoy me."
That got an outright laugh from Glimmer and Catra smiled wider in response. "Thank you," she said. "Really."
Catra nodded. "Don't mention it."
With that, Catra left out the door, letting the team of nurses still waiting on the other side file in after her to pamper and fuss over the queen. She set her shoulders, took a deep, confidence-boosting breath, and headed down the hall to the study. There was likely a mountain of Glimmer's paperwork waiting for her to sift through, and although paperwork was the last thing she'd ever want to do with her free time, Glimmer trusted her enough to hand it off entirely when she couldn't get to it.
Catra wouldn't let her down.