She was so beautiful. Not that Glimmer doesn't always look nice, or that she looked any nicer all dressed up like this than she did normally but this whole beautiful thing… it felt new. Or maybe Bow was only noticing now because everyone on the dance floor was dressed to impress, and yet she was the only one he couldn't stop looking at. Which was weird because she was just Glimmer and he'd seen her basically every day of his life since he was six years old.
She and Adora's arms were linked behind them, trying to promenade with the other couples, but Adora did the turn too early and Bow nearly spit out his punch watching his best friends try to untangle themselves. When they finally caught up with the rest of the dancers, Adora threw Glimmer into the spin too quickly and had to jerk her back before she crashed into Netossa. And there was absolutely nothing you could call graceful about the giggling disaster that was the two of them trying to muddle through the complicated steps, but he was mesmerized by watching the way Glimmer's dress clung to her curves as she moved across the floor. When they were dancing together, her hip had felt so soft and warm under his hand and the way she'd pressed so close against him that—
Whoa. Where had that come from? What the heck, brain? That's Glimmer. GLIMMER. Your best friend? He'd been chilly enough a minute ago that he'd considered teleporting home to get his cummerbund, but now… He cleared his throat and tried to focus back on the story Sea Hawk was telling him, hoping his old friend couldn't tell how flustered he was.
"…and, of course, plenty of other fish in the sea, as they say—and I would be uniquely qualified to know—but I still feel bad for the guy! It is hard enough being taken seriously as an Etherian Prince without having your dearest dump you in front of half the planet." Sea Hawk was leaning with his back against the buffet table, smoothing his mustache with his thumb and index finger and watching the rest of their friends on the dance floor. Well, he seemed to be mostly watching Mermista who'd insisted she did not dance for the first hour until she realized dancing with Adora was an option. Now she was blushing like mad and trying very hard not to look like she was having fun as Perfuma dipped her and then passed her back to Adora to lift into another twirl.
"So Sweet Bee really ended things?" Bow wasn't particularly invested in it either way, but he knew Sea Hawk and Sweet Bee were friendly. He watched as Glimmer tried to lift Mermista like Adora had just done and sent both of them crashing to the floor in a laughing heap. Bow shoveled another hors d'oeuvre into his mouth. This was the first chance he'd gotten all night to eat, but he wanted to be back out there. He wouldn't have any problem lifting Glimmer.
"Did she ever! They're still cleaning up honey in the lobby! Poor Peekablue, after that scene, I wouldn't be surprised if he went into hiding for the next three years!" Sea Hawk flicked his finger and punch jumped into his cup, refilling it so he could take a sip without ever taking his eyes off the dance floor. "Still. Gift of far-sight. You'd think he would have seen it coming!"
Bow laughed and Sea Hawk gave him a look out of the corner of his eye, the edge of his mouth turned up in a grin. The prince of Salineas was looking good tonight. At least now he could acknowledge that with no annoying butterflies. He'd nursed a hopeless, unrequited crush on Sea Hawk for years but, the longer they'd known each other, the more he realized that while the prince might be nice to look at, he wasn't really boyfriend material. At least not for him.
"So, Mermista's your just ride, huh?" Bow got rid of his plate and refilled his cup the normal way, washing down the last of his rushed dinner. The traditional music had changed to something more modern and Perfuma was trying to teach the others some new dance that was all hips. Just… all hips, bodies swaying, the light creating rainbows that caressed the purple material of Glimmer's dress, sliding down—
Damn it! He rubbed his face. WHAT was with him tonight?
"My dearest Captain and I… We play our little games. What can I say? I like the ADVENTURE of it! I was hoping she would agree to make things a bit more official this evening—" He tapped his gold ear cuff. "—but I didn't have quite the success you did there." Mermista had already gotten the hang of the steps and was making it her own, the blue of her dress moving like liquid as she swayed. She looked their way and smirked at Sea Hawk. He raised his glass to her and then poured it out into the open air, a purple liquid heart hovering in front of him. She rolled her eyes at him but then crooked a finger, beckoning him to join her. "Hmmm. If you will excuse me."
Sea Hawk caught the juice back in the cup, placed it on the table behind him in one movement and then stalked towards his plus one. Bow had to hand it to him. The guy was pretty smooth. Though it's probably easier when you're actually got a useful power. Lot harder to impress somebody when all you can do is sparkle at them.
But what had Sea Hawk meant about making it official? There wasn't much time to consider it before Adora twisted around, nearly dropping Perfuma. The flower princess was still trying to get her footing when Adora was gone, tearing across the dance floor and disappearing into the crowd like she was chasing something. It took Glimmer a moment to notice their friend was gone, and then she took off after her.
That didn't seem good. Bow drained the rest of his punch and set off in the direction his friends had gone. It was impossible to track anyone in this crowd, especially not someone as short as Glimmer. He could find them faster if he teleported ahead, but he only had about six solo jumps left in him if he wanted to leave enough to get the three of them home and he wanted to save his magic just in case. Especially now that Adora had run off looking like she'd just seen a ghost.
Luckily, Glimmer proved easy enough to find. She was standing off to the side of the ballroom, nodding along to whatever Entrapta was animatedly going on about. He excused his way through the press of dancers, waving off friends and acquaintances that tried to waylay him. By the time he made it across the room to where they were, Entrapta had scurried up one of the large ice columns like a purple spider and Glimmer had started off toward the main entrance, looking troubled and touching the gemstone on her chest.
"Glimmer!"
She spun around, visibly relieved when she caught sight of him coming towards her. "Bow! Have you seen Adora?"
"Not since she left the dance floor."
Glimmer shook her head. "She just took off without a word. And then Entrapta was telling me something happened with Frosta. Some big etiquette breach with another guest bad enough she almost threw Adora out."
"About what?"
"I have no idea. You know how Entrapta is. She was more interesting in telling me about her…" She hesitated, her hand going to the gemstone again before she seemed to catch herself and put it back by her side. "…social observations."
"It's probably nothing. Maybe Adora shoved another guest on her way to grab an interesting-looking hors d'oeuvres. Or maybe she interrupted someone else's greeting, trying to talk Frosta into joining the rebellion again. You saw how well that went the first time."
"Yeah. I guess that makes sense." Glimmer scrunched her brows, scanning the room. "I just wish I knew where she went. I checked the bathroom, the buffet—"
"Give her some space. She's probably embarrassed about the whole thing and needs a minute alone." Bow reached for Glimmer's hand. No offense to Adora, but a little time alone didn't sound so bad right now. "Come on. I want to dance with you again."
Glimmer grinned and let him tug her back towards the dancers. "Who are we making jealous this time?"
"Everyone." He could see the rest of their friends still dancing in the center of the room, but he wasn't in the mood to share right now. He led them toward the edge where there were fewer couples. "Every single person in this room who doesn't have a gorgeous little powder keg here with them tonight."
"Are you… flirting with me? It never even occurred to me you even knew how to do that." Glimmer laughed, her face lighting up. "Though you should probably have laid it on a little thicker. If I didn't know better, I might not have realized you were joking."
Bow opened his mouth and closed it again. Was he joking? He suddenly wasn't so sure. They'd reached an empty spot near the balcony doors and he turned to start dancing, but Glimmer hesitated.
"Actually. About that…" Glimmer hugged an arm against herself and wouldn't meet his eyes. "While Adora's not here, can we… can you and I talk about something for a second?"
"Uh, yeah. Of course. Anything."
She looked around them and then gestured towards the outside doors, pulling him along after her. The stillness of the balcony was in stark contrast to the ballroom. The doors closed behind them, muffling the sounds of the ball, the music only a soft suggestion. The balcony itself was all ice, glass clear. Now that the sun had set, the only colors were the subtle blues and whites of the snowy landscape beyond the castle. It was an impressive sight and he should probably look at it since who knew when he'd next get the chance to visit the Kingdom of Snows but for some reason he couldn't seem to look at anything but the girl he'd brought with him.
"Everything OK?" He asked, as Glimmer scanned the balcony. There were a few others out here, a couple admiring the ice sculptures, a small group of friends posing for pictures by the railing, a young man in a blue coat sobbing in the far corner he had a bad feeling was probably Peekablue but none of them were close enough to be in earshot.
"Yeah. It's fine, I just… wanted to talk. But I know how you royals are about gossip and I didn't—" She shivered and hugged her arms to herself. "Shit, it is FREEZING out here."
"Here." Bow unhooked his cape and draped it over her bare shoulders. She started to protest, but he shook his head. "I'm fine, I promise. Maybe it's a magic thing."
"Mmm. It's still warm." Glimmer hugged it around her. The cape was so long on her it almost reached her ankles, cocooning her in pale blue sparkles. "And it smells like you."
Why did her saying that make him so irrationally happy? He wasn't lying about being fine out here, but he was pretty sure it had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with her. And she looked ridiculous wrapped up in his cape like that, but there was something about the fact that it was his cape and she was wearing it…
"I want to dance with you," he blurted without thinking. It was an idiotic thing to say, but suddenly he couldn't stand that he wasn't touching her. And, if they were dancing, he couldn't just touch her, he could hold her close, and it wasn't weird. When you were dancing, it was totally allowed. A loophole.
Glimmer scrunched her brows at him, her little perplexed face even more adorable than her normal face, and he was consumed with an overwhelming desire to cup her face in his hands and what was WITH him tonight? It was like someone had cracked open a window to let in a breeze, but the entire wall had fallen down instead and outside was in and there was no way to put it all right again. And the longer he stood here and looked into those perfect brown eyes, the more he wasn't sure he wanted it back the other way.
"We can go back in in a minute. I just wanted to ask you something. Remember?" Glimmer was looking at him like she thought he'd lost his mind, which, honestly, he might have. He laughed, not even knowing why, and Glimmer looked slightly concerned.
"OK. Fine. We compromise." He couldn't stand not touching her anymore, so he wrapped his arms around her back, hugging her towards him. Her hands were still bundled into the cape but he swayed them slightly to the music so it still counted as dancing. "Now what did you want to ask me?"
Glimmer still looked slightly bewildered, but she exhaled, her eyes focusing somewhere on his chest. "When I was in the bathroom before, Perfuma cornered me by the sinks to apologize. Saying she never would have asked you if she knew about 'us.' And the way she said it, it was like… I don't know. And then Entrapta, she said people were talking about it… or talking about us, I guess like… I don't know, as a couple? And it's not a big deal, I explained we were just friends but, the thing is, everyone is being really weird about me wearing your gemstone."
Why would anyone be weird about—Oh! Oh, gods, he was an absolute idiot. Suddenly all the strange comments he'd gotten tonight made a lot more sense.
Glimmer looked up at him, her eyes big and kind of sad. "And things with us have been… well, not bad, obviously, it's been great but… different? Argh! I don't know! It's confusing, and I just wanted to clarify if… I mean, obviously, you and I aren't… so it's only a misunderstanding but there were a few times tonight when I felt… when it seemed like maybe…" She growled in frustration and buried her face in his chest like she was hiding there. When she spoke again, the fabric muffled her voice. "When you asked me to come with you, it was as a friend, right?"
"As a friend. Yes." Bow stopped swaying, not sure what he should do. He felt like he was teetering between something that could be amazing or an absolute disaster. "And the gemstone it… I'm sorry. I really am. I made everything so awkward for you tonight. I just didn't think about how it would look. I mean, I knew it would look good on you, but I didn't think how it would look to… other people."
Like he'd given her his personal token to wear to the biggest royal event of the decade. Like they were engaged to be married. Now that the rumor mill had a hold of that it didn't matter what clarifications or explanations they gave, half the planet would think they were betrothed.
Though that wasn't bothering him nearly as much as it probably should be.
"OK, yeah. That's… that's what I thought." She nodded against his jacket. Someone else came outside, but neither of them bothered to look up. The sounds of the ball came and went again as the door open and closed. Bow watched the tiny pins in Glimmer's hair sparkle as they caught the moonlight and tried to figure out the fluttering mess of emotions in his gut. Finally, Glimmer exhaled and lifted her head to look at him again. "That was all I needed to ask. We can go back inside now."
She lifted herself off his chest and started for the doors.
"Wait." His arms were cold where she'd just been and he lunged forward, grabbing her arm before she'd gotten more than a step away. He pulled her back towards him, taking her hands from under the cape, needing to touch her and not caring about whether it counted as dancing. She bit her lower lip and he looked into that familiar face and everything came into perfect focus. He exhaled, absolutely terrified, but certain he couldn't wait another moment to say this.
"When I asked you, it was a friends. But…" He reached up and ran his fingers through the bottom edge of her hair. She leaned into his touch, her cheek soft and cool against his palm. "Is it alright if maybe I've… changed my mind?"
Her eyes widened and for a moment he was afraid he'd completely messed everything up. But then she smiled at him, soft and shy, an expression he couldn't remember ever seeing on her face before. "Uh, yeah. It's alright."
Elation bubbled up inside him and he leaned down, feeling the warmth of her breath against his face. She was stretching up towards him, her eyes closed, and he was just about to close the distance between them when there was a sudden sharp stab in his back.
Suddenly everything went fuzzy and he must have cried out because Glimmer was calling his name. He was falling, unable to hold himself up. Then Glimmer screamed, a terrible sound of pain, and he tried to fight the leaden feeling. He succeeded only in opening his eyes for a moment, just enough to see Glimmer hit the ground next to him, her eyes rolled back in her head. He tried to reach for her but the venom was too much and his grip on her loosened, his hand falling uselessly to his side.
The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was the Horde's scorpion woman looming over them.