Bow trudged back into his room and glitched before he even made it through the doorway, which about summed it up. He'd almost fallen asleep right on the exam table while his mother and the healers from Mystacor poked and prodded him a million magical ways only to basically shrug and say they didn't know how to fix him.

Then he'd insisted they let him go recharge, because that usually fixed everything. Instead, it only made things worse, the glitches coming on stronger and more frequently. It was getting harder and harder to tell himself it was all going to be OK.

A shower helped. Finally, getting the stink of sweat and the Fright Zone off his body and some clean clothes gave him some illusion of control over the situation. At least until his mother burst through his bedroom door without even knocking.

"Ah, there you are! Has there been any improvement?" Her wings were fluttering slightly behind her like stress vibrations.

Bow sighed as he finished tugging on his pajama shirt. Between his mother and Glimmer, privacy was just never going to be a thing around here, was it? "No, mom. It's barely been half an hour since I left the healers. I thought we agreed I'd try to rest and see if that helps?"

"Yes. Rest. A nap and then you'll be good as new!"

Well, maybe not good as new, but at this point, it certainly couldn't hurt. He slumped down onto the window seat, his muscles relaxing for the first time in days. Turns out, a day and a half of torture gave him a renewed appreciation for how wonderfully soft these pillows were.

Wow, yeah, there was nothing in the universe that could make him move from this spot right now.

There was a soft knock, and he bolted back upright, expecting Glimmer, but when his mother pulled open the door there was only Adora on the other side.

"Oh, hey, your majesty, uh… sir. Ma'am. I just came to see how Bow— Hey, Bow!"

"Hi, Adora." He desperately wanted to lie back down, but it felt rude to do it when he had a visitor that wasn't his mom. He propped himself up against the cushions at the edge of the window, too tired to even hold his head up himself.

"Very well, Adora may visit for a few minutes, but then straight to bed with—" His mother turned and gasped. "Goodness! Of all the days for your stairs to be out for cleaning! Very well. Come here. I shall just have to fly you up and—"

"No!" Like he really wanted the utter indignity of being tucked into bed by his mother with his friend Adora right there? He exhaled and tried again in a less aggressive tone. "It's OK, mom. The window seat is fine!"

"I don't like leaving you in this condition." His mother's lips formed a tight line, but she thankfully didn't press the bed issue. He barely had enough energy to keep his eyes open right now, let alone argue. Adora had perched herself awkwardly on the opposite side of the window seat, her hands balled into fists as she stared at the floor.

"I'm just going to go to sleep anyway." Please, please go away. She was just worried about him and he understood that, but being babied and fussed over was driving him crazy.

"Very well. But can I at least get you something before I go? A glass of water, extra blanket? It gets awfully cold by the window seat, especially in— Oh! I could have the kitchen send up something to eat! And maybe some tea? I always find—"

"Mom! I'm fine! Can you just leave us alone, please?"

"Alright, I'm going. But, Adora, please keep this visit short so my son can let this run its course."

"Yes, ma'am... uh, your majesty." Adora saluted and then tried to bow while seated and almost fell off the bench.

Angella nodded, apparently satisfied, and started for the door. "Bow, if there's any change…"

"Yes, mom. I will." Bow tried to keep his complete lack of patience with his mom right now out of his voice, but he wasn't sure he succeeded. When she left, he leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes, finally able to breathe.

Adora exhaled. "How are you doing?"

"I've been better." He opened one eye and looked over at Adora. "You?"

Adora finally opened her fists and leaned against her knees. She laughed, but there was no amusement in it. "I led that mission, Bow! Entrapta's gone, your powers are all fucked up, the Princess Alliance, that I was supposed to unite, fell apart."

"Adora, none of that was your fault." It was his, but his friend was upset and he didn't want to make this about him. "Yeah, a lot of that was… not great, but we'll talk to the others. And, hey, you got us out of there and we've got the sword back now, so that's something."

"Yeah. I guess." Adora pulled the sword off her back and studied it. She wore that thing everywhere, almost as bad as Glimmer with her bow and arrows. He never understood why they both walked around heavily armed all the time, even in the castle. "The thing is… I didn't even get the sword back myself. Catra gave it to me."

"Huh. You think she's finally ready to join you on this side?"

"No. It's… complicated, I guess." His friend leaned the sword against the wall and hugged her knee to her chest. She never really talked about her life in the Horde, at least not to him, but it was obvious she still cared about Catra, far more than any one else she'd left behind. "I know it's crazy to even say this, especially after everything she just did to you both, but… I still care about her."

"Well, you've known each other a long time."

"I know but… what happened in Salineas and then at Snows… she kidnapped and tortured my best friends, Entrapta's gone, your powers aren't working and it's all because of Catra and I keep asking myself, where is that line, you know?"

Bow hummed noncommittally. Did Adora know about what happened between Glimmer and Catra back in the Fright Zone? How close her former best friend had come to killing her current one? She'd already excused Catra of so much. Would that even matter to her?

Adora looked over at him. "What would it take for you to stop caring about Glimmer?"

Him and Glimmer? Well, that wasn't even remotely the same thing, was it? Glimmer was a good person! She got carried away a little sometimes, sure, but… she wouldn't have really killed Catra, even if he hadn't said something, he was sure of it! And if she had… well, she'd probably have a really good reason for doing it, obviously, so it would be different.

Still. He tried to picture it. Glimmer betraying him so badly he'd stop caring about her and he couldn't do it. It just didn't compute.

Adora was watching him, expecting an answer, and he felt he owed her one. But before he could speak, he glitched again.

"Whoa! Bow?" Adora asked, jumping to her feet, holding her hands out like the glitch was going to attack. He waved her off, gritting his teeth, trying to count down the seconds until it was over and he could breathe again. Finally, it subsided, and he lay back against the wall, his entire body exhausted. "Are you OK? Shit, that was way worse than it was on the skiff! Is there anything I can do?"

"Not unless think She-Ra can heal me."

"I don't know, Bow. Glimmer doesn't think that's such a great idea."

"Oh." Glimmer. That was a complicated mess of emotions he wasn't ready to deal with. "You spoke to her?"

"Yeah, we talked a little while they patched her up and then she went to go clean up." Adora pushed to her feet. "She's probably done changing now. Want me to go grab her?"

"No, that's OK."

"You sure? She's right down the hall, I could—"

"It's fine. So she's OK?" Bow felt a sudden need to remove every crumb of lint from his pajama pants. "Did she maybe say anything about me?"

"Not really. Why? Did something happen?"

"No. Well… We sort of had a fight. And, she was being all… but I said some stuff that was… I don't know…" He exhaled. "What if she never talks to me again? Can you even have a fight with a best friend and still be best friends? What if she hates me now?"

"You two…" Adora snorted and rose from the window seat. By the time he realized what she was doing, she'd already pulled open the door and called down the hallway in a mocking sing-song, "Hey, Glimmer! Bow's asking for you!"

"What are you doing? Don't tell her that!" Bow hissed, but Adora only smirked as Glimmer appeared in the doorway in what couldn't have been more than 3 seconds flat.

Adora strolled casually back to her seat and whispered, "Oh, yeah, she totally hates your guts."

"I am going to kill you," he mouthed back.

"Hi." Glimmer stood awkwardly, her arm hugged to her side. She met his eyes for a second and then glanced away as if the eye contact burned.

"Uh, hey." He started reorganizing the pillows on the side of the window seat so she wouldn't notice that his face was on fire.

"Is everything OK?" Glimmer's voice sounded small and tentative, like she needed a… but no! He was still mad at her and he didn't care if she needed a hug. He sat on his hands so he wouldn't even be tempted.

"It's a good thing you're here, Glimmer." Adora was apparently enjoying herself immensely. "Bow was just asking about how you were and I told him you were doing really well, you know… considering."

"Considering what?" Bow asked at the same time that Glimmer said, "Adora, I told you, I'm fine!"

"Oh, Bow, didn't you hear? Even after they did the healing runes, Glimmer still needed a bunch of stitches on her head…" Adora's acting was terrible and she was laying it on super thick but Bow noticed they'd shaved the side of Glimmer's hair, the skin covered in tiny bandages.

"Stitches? I knew you were hurt!"

Glimmer reached up and touched the shaved side self-consciously. "Don't listen to her, it was only like… a few."

"Oh, it was a lot. Like… a quazillion." Adora leaned over conspiratorially. "And they said that cut on her arm is so deep she's going to have a scar there FOREVER!"

"Oh my gosh, Glimmer!"

"Bow, I'm fine! It's not my first scar. It certainly won't be the last." She had her arms crossed against her chest and was blushing pink, avoiding looking at him. "What about you? Did the glitching stop?"

"Well, it…"

"Oh, Glimmer, it's terrible!" Adora actually put her hand to her forehead dramatically and Bow tried to kick her, but she slid quickly out of range. "The healers couldn't do anything to fix Bow and now he's glitching worse than ever and he says it hurts so much—"

"Worse?" Glimmer's hands flew to her mouth.

"No, it's not really… Adora, I didn't—Agh!" Because the universe hated him, he glitched right then and for several moments, it was only light and pain.

"It IS worse." The glitch had passed and suddenly Glimmer was next to him on the bench, RIGHT next to him, close enough that he could smell her candy scented shampoo. "No no no, they were supposed to fix you!"

"Well, I was thinking maybe some rest—" Her eyes were wide and worried and how could he think with them sucking him in like that?

"OK. OK, yeah. Rest. That makes sense, I guess." She jumped back to her feet again. "Fuck! And of course the stairs are out for cleaning! Come up my shoulders, maybe I can—"

"The window seat is fine."

"Alright, but are you sure you're going to be comfortable there? Here, let me…" She grabbed the cushions from the other side of the window seat and arranged them with the others. "There, how's that?"

He lay down tentatively on the small mountain of pillows, feeling very… something about the way she was hovering over him right now. "It's nice."

She nodded, but her satisfaction was short-lived. "It's fucking freezing when you're up against the glass like that though. Let me get you a blanket."

Before he could protest, she was rummaging through his closet, returning a moment later with his favorite, the super soft blanket they used to share on sleepovers before she got weird about them. She pulled the blanket up to his chin, tucking it around him. She'd intently focused on what she was doing, but her face was really close and he was glad she couldn't see that he was definitely blushing.

"Um, thanks." He was feeling warm enough right now that he was pretty sure the blanket wasn't necessary, but there was no way he was taking it off.

"Can I get you anything anything else?" She placed the back of her hand lightly on his forehead, like she was checking for a fever. "Maybe a glass of water? When I'm sick, liquids usually... Wait! When did you last eat? Not since the ball, right? Are you hungry?"

"I guess I'm kind of hungry. Yeah." He was starving, now that she mentioned it. His stomach made an embarrassing complaint that the last thing he'd eaten was some hors d'oeuvres what was at least a day and a half ago. Thankfully, Glimmer didn't seem to notice. She was too busy fluttering around him, fretting and pacing and adjusting his pillows.

"I should make soup! Let me run down to the kitchen." Glimmer nodded and headed for the door. "Can I get you tea, too? It boosts the immune system, maybe that will help."

"Uh, yeah. Tea would be great."

"OK, don't move! I'll be right back!" In a flurry of nervous energy, Glimmer disappeared out the bedroom door.

He stared at the spot where she'd stood a moment, having some… feelings about Glimmer fussing over him when he caught Adora smirking.

"You know," she leaned over, way too smug, "your mom JUST offered…"

"Shut up." He'd actually managed to take his mind off the glitching and the alliance and Entrapta for five minutes and Adora had to be obnoxious and ruin it. "Quick, just… turn into She-Ra and heal me before she gets back."