Chapter 21: Sanctuary

Catra stood in the middle of a lavish hallway, thirty floors up and deep in one of the Atrium's hotel complexes, for what felt like hours before she gathered the courage to knock on the door. Then, she thunked her head forward against the doorframe in total defeat and waited. An intercom installed nearby chimed at her.

"Who is it?" Glimmer asked through the device. "Whoever you are, you'll need to take your head off my door so I can see your face. I'm not opening up for strangers at three in the morning."

Catra pulled away from the door and looked at the small camera on top of the intercom. Her head felt heavy, like someone had tied a cinderblock to her face.

"Catra? Is that you?"

"Hey Sparkles," she said, her voice coming through as a despondent rasp. The door opened and Glimmer, wearing wrinkled, half-tucked-in pajamas, appeared.

"My god you look terrible," she said, stifling a yawn and rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"Speak for yourself," Catra said, staring at the dark circles under her eyes and the unkempt tuft of hair on her head.

"Believe me, I know. I've refused to look at myself in a mirror since I got here." She glanced down at the letter Catra held crimped in her hand and, without another word, pulled the door open wider in a clear invitation for her to come in.

"They always put you up in nice spots," Catra said, glancing around the room as she entered. Glimmer hadn't turned any lights on, but Catra's night vision let her see once again just how extravagant living in the Atrium was. It was like this every other time she visited Glimmer as well, she had to stop being so surprised by it.

"Only the best for their esteemed Battlemages is what I'm always told," Glimmer said with a strong hint of sarcastic irony. She shut the door behind her and locked it. "Although I keep telling them all this this is just unnecessary. I can't tell you how many times I've asked for something smaller, maybe in the lower wards. I'm starting to think they don't even have connections to accommodations anywhere but up here."

Catra snorted. "I don't think you'd like it in the lower wards," she said, pulling out a stool at the bar separating the living room from the kitchen and jumping up to sit on it.

"Why not? I prefer cozy over spacious, believe it or not. It was cool the first time they put me up here, but now it just feels…I don't know, artificial and cold? Not lived in?"

"Lower wards are the farthest thing from 'cozy' you can get right now," she said, watching Glimmer feel around the kitchen for a light switch. She shielded her eyes when she finally found one and flipped it on. "Place outside my flat feels more "backside of a dumpster in an alleyway" nowadays than it does "lived in." Besides, with all the refugees I don't think there'd even be a cardboard slate and a street corner you could find to lay on right now."

Catra placed the letter, crumpled from squeezing it so hard on the way over, on the bar top face down, then slid it far enough away she couldn't inadvertently see it out of the corner of her eye. When she looked back up, Glimmer was standing on her toes on a step stool, reaching for an amber bottle sitting on a top shelf of an overhead cupboard. Catra knew Glimmer had an imposing reputation among her circle in the Enclave, and watching the 5'2" ex-murder-queen reach for all her worth for a bottle of alcohol was almost too amusing not to laugh at.

Almost.

"Don't bring that out," Catra said instead, not even a smile coming out of her. "That's supposed to be for celebrating."

"We are celebrating," Glimmer said, tottering off the stepstool cradling the bottle like an infant.

Catra sighed. Leave it to Glimmer to be stubborn. "Dax asked about you by the way," she said, raising an eyebrow when Glimmer shot her a confused look. "You know, my Statsec captain? He apparently was under the impression that this"—she gestured between them—"was a thing, and then asked if I could introduce you two when I told him we weren't."

Glimmer snorted and turned back to the lower cabinets to fish out two glasses. "What'd you tell him? Is he cute?"

"Okay, first of all, I'm the last person that should be commenting on his looks—"

"Because of what's between his legs?"

"Because he's my boss," Catra said. "And second of all, I told him a certain someone back home had your attention so he was shit out of luck." Glimmer was off the stool and halfway back to the bar when she froze and Catra caught the play of emotions that flickered across her face.

"I'm not…I mean, that's not really—" Glimmer cut her sentence off and bit her lip. Averted her eyes.

"I mean, I can make the introduction if you want." Catra shrugged and hoped it was convincing enough to mask how cautious she was really being with the whole conversation. "He's at least a solid eight. That's if, you know, I close my eyes and pretend I like dudes."

She had hoped the joke would lighten the mood, but Glimmer only worried harder at her bottom lip. "I think I'm okay," she said at last, shaking her head. "Thanks, but no thanks."

"You sure?" Catra suppressed a frustrated growl. She really thought she had gotten her this time. "Bow's spent the last three years like his only goal with the two of you is to keep you at arm's length. 'Hello' and a coffee with someone new isn't gonna kill you."

"Catra can we please not do this now?"

"Do what? I'm just sayin'..."

Glimmer groaned and hammered the bottle and glasses onto the bar-top. "Look. We're about to get plastered on some expensive swill. Can we just focus on that?" She turned the bottle so Catra could see the label. She ignored it.

"I still don't know why we're celebrating in the first place," she said. "I'm not exactly jumping up and down with excitement here, in case you haven't noticed."

"Exactly." Glimmer uncorked the bottle with a pop that echoed around the room. "You're obviously upset about whatever's on that letter you death-gripped on your way over here, and I'm supposed to be your emotional support while we both get shitfaced. If we don't drop it now, then we're both going to be drunk and sad. See the problem?"

Catra sighed again and felt the urge to fight fade from her. Maybe it was a good idea to not push the 'Bow' issue right then and there. "They rejected me," she said. "The Enclave turned me down from the Sentinel program."

Glimmer studied her a moment, then gestured toward the letter with a tilt of her head. "Can I?"

Catra shrugged and Glimmer reached for it. She smoothed out the paper and held it up with one hand, her eyes darting back and forth across the page as she read.

"You don't care what happens to this, do you?" she asked when she finished.

"Not particularly, no. Why do you—hey!"

Glimmer ripped the page in half, then folded the halves and ripped those in two. She continued for several repetitions, purposefully ignoring Catra and her gaping jaw, until nothing more than shreds of the letter remained. Then she ambled out of the kitchen and threw the scraps into a waste bin sitting near the stools.

"Why the hell did you do that?" Catra asked, unsure whether she felt more shocked or angry at how Glimmer reacted.

"It's done, Catra," she said, turning to face her. "You gave it your best shot, they took your application seriously, and decided against moving forward. Now you can move on to better things."

"You're happy I didn't get in, aren't you?" Catra asked, emotion making her voice start to come out wet.

"What makes you say that?"

When Glimmer raised both eyebrows, Catra already knew she had uncovered a mine. It was too late to back out now. "I know how Taline's Sentinels affected you," she said.

"Catra, I'm the one who dug for information on how to apply in the first place since there's literally no public knowledge about it. I wrote your letter of recommendation too!"

"I know that," Catra said, trying to keep her voice level. "But Narre and Miri are part of your nightmares for crying out loud. It's close to the anniversary…I know they're flaring up for you too."

"I'm not relieved about it," she said, still on the offensive.

"You sure as hell don't sound all that upset."

"What do you want me to do, go curl up in a corner and sob because they didn't take you? Will that make you feel better?"

Catra stopped short of saying the first response that came to mind. Despite how good it might have felt in the moment, she wouldn't let the conversation devolve into a shouting match. The last thing she wanted was to fight with Glimmer on top of everything else. "Maybe you weren't consciously thinking it, but I want to hear you at least admit that part of you is relieved I was turned down," she said.

Glimmer looked away, conflict warring on her face. She sighed, visibly calmed, and sat on the stool next to Catra's.

"I'm not relieved," she said, turning and looking Catra in the eyes. "If you got in, Taline would likely have taken you directly under her wing. And with a Sentinel at her back again, she'd be able to finally come out of retirement. She's a dang war hero and the emperor has just kept her chained behind a desk for the past three years. It would let her get back to the front lines with you in tow, and god knows we need all the help we can get out there."

Catra stared at her with a placid face and Glimmer sighed. She leaned against one elbow propped up on the bar table and rubbed at her temple.

"I'll admit that I was worried," she said. "Even though I'm just part of the evacuation crew, what little I've seen first-hand is not pretty and I did worry about you being out there in that. But I'm not relieved they decided to pass on you. I know how hard you worked for this and how much you wanted it. I'm not relieved at all."

Tears welled in Catra's eyes and she blinked them down. "Sorry," she said, looking away. Glimmer reached out, cupping both Catra's cheeks and turning her so they faced one another again.

"It's okay," she said. "I get it. I just need you to know that I fully supported you in this. There isn't any part of me that's secretly happy it didn't work out. Okay?"

Catra nodded dumbly and Glimmer let her face go.

"Good," she said. "You're amazing Catra, and I know that you don't believe that, but it doesn't change the fact that you are. You worked so damn hard, and I know they took you seriously, especially after they dug into your service history."

"You think so?"

"I know so. Why else would they put you through the ringer for six whole months evaluating everything they could get their hands on? The Enclave doesn't fuck around. If they knew from the start they couldn't take you they would have said so. The fact you made it through all the way to the end is worth celebrating in and of itself. That's why I brought the bottle out."

Catra finally glanced at it sitting on the countertop and remembered when they had first bought it. It had sat on one of the merchandiser shelves in an Atrium artisan boutique long ago. She had reeled from sticker shock after seeing the price, the two of them having taken the day to explore the station, nearly six months into her cadet training and Glimmer's Battlemage tutelage respectively. Glimmer had merely grabbed it off the shelf and paid for it without a second thought, talking about keeping it 'for a special celebration' while Catra gawked at her.

"So?" Glimmer asked, prompting her with the look in her eyes. "What do you say?"

"On second thought, I like the way you think, Sparkles. This whole 'find the silver lining' thing sounds like a good idea."

"Oh thank god," she said, visibly relaxing. "I was running out of inspiring things I could say to convince you."

"We could keep going if you want to practice," Catra said, teasing.

"Nope. No, that's totally okay with me," Glimmer leaned forward and reached for the bottle along with the two tumbler glasses. She froze mid-reach when Catra's stomach gave a sudden and completely unprovoked rumble, ratcheting her head around to give her a shit eating grin. "Someone's hungry."

"Maybe we should eat something first before we tackle that bottle," Catra said, covering her stomach with her arms. She really should have taken the time to at least eat the leftovers now sitting forgotten in her fridge before coming over.

Glimmer laughed and Catra felt her face go hot. Then she pushed Glimmer off the stool to get even with her for being so smug.


An hour later and the both of them sat in the dining room, the circular table in front of them stacked with boxes upon boxes of take out and a half-empty bottle of expensive drink.

"Oh my god," Catra said, leaning back into the chair and undoing the button on her pants. "I can't believe you actually ordered all of this."

"I can't believe you ate so much of it," Glimmer said, a hiccup breaking up the laugh that escaped her as she reached across the table to pour more alcohol into Catra's glass.

"Hey, it was good, okay? Don't judge me for indulging if you order a bunch of food and place it in front of me." She gestured to the remaining boxes. Despite both of them having eaten so much, more than half the haul still remained. "What are we going to do with all of this?"

"We'll keep them in the fridge," Glimmer said, shot-gunning her fourth glass (holy shit) and slamming it back down on the table. Alcohol made Glimmer quicker to express emotions other than excitability or aggression, and thus she tended to lean in whenever given the chance to indulge in it. "Plenty to snack on through the night if either of us wake up hungry, and whatever we don't finish, you can take home and keep as leftovers."

"Wait, are you for real?" Catra asked, sitting forward and appraising the piles with fresh enthusiasm.

Glimmer nodded. "I don't ever want to see your fridge as empty as it was the last time I went over to your place. I was so sad for you."

Catra grunted and decided not to argue, remembering the day Glimmer caught a glimpse of the inside of her fridge, only to promptly drag her to the nearest supermarket to stock her up. "So, what's new with you?" she asked instead, watching in mild disbelief as Glimmer filled up her glass again. "Three deployments back-to-back and the Enclave finally said you can take some time off. How'd it feel being thrown around from planet to planet for eight months?"

"Do you see how many drinks I'm pouring myself here?" Glimmer asked, turning the bottle and shaking it to gauge how much was left. "It's hard, exhausting work, both physically, mentally, and especially emotionally. I thought Taline's training was grueling, but she was just preparing me for what it'd be like out there on the front lines."

"I remember how much you'd complain about those training sessions," Catra said, sipping her glass. After a moment, she shrugged and downed the rest of it in one go, indicating to Glimmer to fill her up again. Normally she'd be a little more reserved, but Glimmer was here again for the first time in a long while, the alcohol gave her a nice burn, it felt good, and she didn't have work the next day. Hence, plenty of excuse to indulge.

"I think they're going to try and push me into a command role soon," Glimmer said, staring off into the distance.

"That's good!" Catra said. "Promotions are good."

Glimmer shook her head. "No, they aren't. Not when I can't even think about leading people without having a full-blown panic attack about it."

"It's different when you're in the thick of things." Catra paused and considered if she really wanted to dive into this conversation or not. She knew what Glimmer saw in her nightmares, just as Glimmer knew of hers, but they hadn't actually talked about their wider implications. She eventually decided it was now or never.

"Look, I know you keep seeing what happened on the citadel, and I know a lot of things trigger those memories for you. I'm not going to sit here and pretend I have some sort of answer to solve all of it, but I do know that when you're out there in a life-or-death situation, you don't have time to start thinking about what happened and you don't have time to panic. You fall back on your training and just act. You already know this. You're training is second to none. Just look at what happened on Rinne."

Glimmer's glare turned to acid at the mention of that name and Catra, flinched, berating herself in her head for being so careless. She likely just derailed one touchy conversation and got them onto something worse.

Thankfully, Glimmer just rolled her eyes and scoffed, downing her glass in three, four, five consecutive swallows. "You're probably the fifth person I've heard that from. Even Taline's tried talking me through it, but I just don't see it. How can I justify accepting command over other soldiers, people whose lives depend on me being functional, when I can't even fathom doing so without hyperventilating?"

"Maybe a leap of faith?"

Glimmer furrowed her brow. "Leap of what?"

"A leap of faith," Catra repeated. "You aren't going to figure out if you can handle an 'official' command of your own by sitting back and thinking about it. You're fucking awesome, Glimmer. You're the famous Angel of Archanas!"

Glimmer buried her head in her hands. "Nope. No, no, no we're not talking about that story."

Catra snickered, satisfied at having dodged one minefield by purposefully sending Glimmer down a spiral she knew was safe. Rinne might be a nuclear topic, but quoting the nickname she got from that nightmare campaign never sent her into dark, depressive moods so much as it just comically irritated the hell out of her.

"Fine, I'll spare you this time," Catra said. "But—"

"I haven't even been to Archanas! Why couldn't they just call me something else? Sure, Taline did some crazy shit there that helped end the war, but what does that have to do with me?"

Catra fought to keep her snicker from escalating into a full-blown belly laugh. They'd had this conversation about her now-famous moniker she inherited from Taline countless times in the past, but never with this much alcohol in their systems. Glimmer usually just scoffed and changed topics, so seeing her get legitimately pissed off about it was a refreshing change.

"Because you were her student," Catra said, leaning in to emphasize her point. "And at the end of the day it doesn't matter what you did to originally grab their attention. What does matter is that you reminded everyone that they can act decisively, even in the face of overwhelming odds. It reminded them of that 'crazy shit' Taline did, herself. You and I both know it wasn't her fielding the fleet over that planet that earned her that 'Seraph' title, but that didn't stop every living person in the galaxy from thinking that's where it came from. If Taline isn't exempt from that sort of thing, I don't think you should feel too bad when it happens to you either."

There. Rinne was off limits, but that was about the closest Catra could get to speaking tangentially about it without everything blowing up in her face.

"I think it just means everyone is dense," Glimmer said. "I hate it."

Catra barked out a laugh and decided to concede the point.

"But seriously, you made Battlemage in what?" she asked. "A year? You're top rookie on the front lines six months after? There's a reason they're stretching you thin on so many assignments, dude. It's because you're doing an awesome job and impressing all the right people. And you're forgetting that you've already led people in the 'official' way back on Etheria. You damn near singlehandedly kicked my ass overtaking my hidden base. I say just take baby steps."

Glimmer laughed. "Tell me, what would 'baby steps' mean in this situation, then?"

"Accept the promotion and the command when they offer it, start with a small team on minor forward advances, maybe a few covering assignments to get people back to the evac stations. Stuff like that. You'll find out pretty quickly if you start choking under pressure or not."

"You're telling me to accept a promotion when you've turned yours down how many times now?"

Catra stiffened, suddenly feeling an animosity emanating from Glimmer she hadn't noticed before. Glimmer wasn't actually mad, just defensive, and the alcohol exaggerated it. Still, even though Catra knew that, it was jarring to hear her tone of voice shift so suddenly.

"It makes sense," Catra said, becoming acutely aware of how the room tilted, how fuzzy her head seemed, and how thick her tongue felt. She hoped she hadn't slurred any of her words when she was trying to convey a serious thought.

"How is it you tell them four freaking times that you don't want to get promoted and its fine, but everyone and their mother seems hell bent on getting me to command a squad? This is just like that time Adora got angry at me after I told her I was leaving and said I needed to stop running away from my problems."

Catra's ears drooped despite trying her hardest to not let it happen—they had a mind of their own. With horror, she finally realized the effect the alcohol was having on her. It was more than she anticipated, and she probably hadn't caught on sooner because she was sitting stationary in a chair rather than trying to balance on two feet. But that was beside the point.

Normally she'd bite back with a scathing remark, throw her walls up, and metaphorically scratch and kick and verbally spar with Glimmer until, spent and thoroughly vented, they made amends (usually by crying-hugging it out). Now all she did was sulk. Alcohol tended to have that effect on her, depressing her moods. It was the reason she out of the two of them was the one who tended to nurse only one or two drinks the whole night.

Glimmer looked like she suddenly realized what she had said and her eyes misted over. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry Catra. I didn't mean for it to come out like that."

Catra shook her head. "It's okay," she said, pushing the emotions deeper down and swallowing the lump that had been forming in her throat. "I know you didn't. It's okay."

"I just…I can't risk taking responsibility over peoples' lives like that. Not when even the chance of me fucking up means they'll die. I already choked aboard Horde Prime's citadel, Catra. He had Narre in his grip and was distracted. I had the knife, I could have just—" she gestured vaguely to finish her point. "But I didn't do anything. I sat there frozen in fear, and he died because I couldn't help. And Rinne? Well…we won't even talk about that." She sighed. "I can't chance that happening again with other people. I won't chance it. No matter what."

Catra nodded, swallowing again. "Hey, I get it, trust me. We both have our things we're struggling with. I shouldn't have made those suggestions so casually. I know it's not that easy."

Glimmer quickly poured another glass for herself and, when hovering the bottle over Catra's glass, she nodded and let her pour one for her as well. It would have been better had they both stopped, but Catra wanted to give some sort of indication she had accepted the apology.

"How is Adora?" Catra asked quietly, putting a false casualness into her tone as she picked up her glass and pretended to absentmindedly study its contents.

"You're asking me about Adora?" Glimmer sounded like she couldn't believe her ears.

Catra shrugged. "I guess I am."

"She's…well, stressing. She still hasn't been able to get back in touch with her powers. It's causing a bit of a crisis for her, I'm pretty sure."

Catra gave a snort of laughter that sounded more forced and derisive than she intended it to be. "Yeah, that absolutely would throw her for a loop. Adora can't stand letting people down, and that probably goes double if she's somehow gone sterile."

"I suppose it's out of the question for me to suggest you reach out to her, is it?"

Catra arched a brow. "Why would that even be a question in the first place?"

"Well, I mean…she's struggling, and… come on. We both know how much you struggled too at some point."

"Still struggling," Catra said, correcting her with a ruthless deadpan. "Just struggling in space instead of on Etheria, thank you. Remember my fridge?"

Glimmer rolled her eyes. "Fine, but you've got experience actually learning to open up to people and ask for help when you need it. I mean, you came and knocked on my door at three in the morning rather than wait. That's light years of improvement compared to old Catra."

Catra stared at her drink and tried to figure out if Glimmer was complimenting her or not.

"Adora used to know how to go to people too," Glimmer said. "But I've been hearing from my parents and the other princesses for a while now how worried they all are about her. It sounds like she's just kind of…retreated into herself? Does that make sense? She asked me to look into the Daiamid and I swear she was going to crumble into dust from sheer disappointment when I couldn't find anything for her."

"And you think I should reach out to her and help her realize the power of friendship blah blah blah all over again?" Catra asked.

"I wouldn't put it quite like that," Glimmer said, pouting. "But yeah. A lot has changed since we left. Neither of you are the same person from when you last spoke. I think she could use your help."

Catra considered that. Since leaving Etheria, Adora had never been far from her mind. The first few months were the worst, with her repeatedly catching herself ruminating on their last conversation, over and over and over again. More recently, however, she'd manage to go even longer without thinking of her once. It was only when something like this happened—her getting brought up unexpectedly—that everything would come rushing back in a storm of dull pain and anguish from old wounds reopening.

She downed the entire contents of her glass in one go and gestured for a refill. "I don't think that's a good idea, Glimmer," she said, seeing the reaction on her friend's face when she addressed her by her actual name. "Maybe Adora would be open to hearing from me again, but she's the one that said she wanted to focus on saving the world. She's the one who asked me not to speak to her again."

"I was there when she said that," Glimmer said, tipping the bottle. "I caught the tail end of that conversation. I don't think the two of you were on the same page about what that meant."

"Yeah, but we all heard the same thing, didn't we?" Catra said, leaning forward as she pushed authority into her voice. "It's not my responsibility to overanalyze what Adora was trying to say, all I can speak for is what she did say, what I heard, and what I think that means. The ball is in her court, she can reach out if she wants. I plan on honoring her last request, even if it means I never see her again. I've made my peace with that." It was a lie, but one she had managed to convince herself of on most occasions. She tipped her glass back and downed its contents again in one go.

Glimmer sighed and Catra could see the moment she decided to let the argument go. "Fair enough," she said. "But I think you should go talk to Taline about your Sentinel application at least."

Catra blinked. "What? Sparkles, that's even more out of the question than talking to Adora again. Why in the world would you think that was a good idea?"

"I can't put my finger on it, but I think something was weird with the application."

"You just got done telling me they were seriously considering me because I made it through the whole process. Now you're telling me the application might have been wrong?"

"I don't know whether it was wrong or not, Catra, but that's exactly why I'm saying you should talk to her about it. People had this sort of…weird look they gave me when I researched more into how the whole process worked. And when I actually showed up to give my recommendation and submit all your paperwork, all the people at the intake office kind of looked at each other and spoke with a weird tone. It was like they weren't quite sure what to do with everything."

"And you think that's a good reason for why I should go confess to Taline that I tried to do this and also ended up failing miserably at it?"

"You didn't fail miserably, Catra, don't be dramatic."

"Look, there was a reason I didn't want her to know, okay? There was a reason I made you swear not to ask her about how any of it worked, even if it meant you wouldn't find anything. That reason hasn't changed. In fact, now that they rejected me, I especially don't want her to know."

"Yeah, but you have no idea why they didn't take you, do you? They didn't say so in the letter, and unless there's another document you got that I didn't see, then you have no idea what made them decide to ultimately pass."

"Oh, that's an easy one," Catra said, falling back on her tried-and-true defenses. "I'm a failure and useless, just like Shadow Weaver always said. No surprises there. They rejected me since everyone else does too."

Glimmer rolled her eyes, clearly growing impatient. "Catra, I mean it. Stop talking like that, you're only hurting yourself."

Catra took a deep breath and centered herself. Glimmer was right, and she was letting her emotions run out of control. A lifetime of abuse meant a lifetime of learning to be kind to oneself, and it'd be irresponsible of her to take the lazy way out and bring herself down all on her own. "Sorry," she said.

"It's fine, it happens. I know you came close, and I know the very last thing Taline would do is make you feel worse about it. I get it's a touchy subject so I won't pry about why you don't want to tell her, but I really think, if anyone is going to have any answers for you at this point, it's her. So just…think about it, okay?"

Catra nodded. "I'll think about it."

Satisfied, Glimmer leaned forward and reached for the bottle again. She looked and saw how it was practically almost gone, and then shrugged.

"Enough talk about work and depressing things," she said, pouring Catra another glass before she could protest and then moving on to empty the rest of the bottle into her own glass. "I have two weeks of shore leave and I'm so excited to spend it doing nothing but stuffing my face and hanging out. Oh! And I have messages for you from Entrapta and Scorpia as well. They're always super good about making sure their transmissions get included in my monthly download. Hand me your PDA and I'll transfer the files."

Catra laughed. She downed her glass before unstrapping the device from her arm and handing it over to a woozy Glimmer.

For several more hours they passed the time, just enjoying each other's company and exchanging stories. It wasn't until the light of the artificial sun on the station blared through the open window that Catra cracked an eye open. Sometime during the night, she and Glimmer ended up snuggled tight against each other on top of the pull-out couch in the center of the living room.

She had meant what she had said to Dax: she and Glimmer had a solid friendship, but nothing beyond that. In fact, that was plenty already. She hadn't imagined ever being comfortable enough around another person to seek comfort in sleep next to them, especially after what had happened with Adora.

Maybe Glimmer was right. Maybe she had truly improved her life leaps and bounds beyond where she had been back on Etheria. And it wasn't just her friendship with Glimmer either. It was Dax and her colleagues, Trayn and Keren as well. And of course, Taline too, although there was more to unpack there than she felt comfortable thinking about, even after three years.

She turned and studied Glimmer's face. She looked so peaceful, like she was finally getting the deep sleep she had been missing out on for so long. Catra realized then that she hadn't woken up in a cold sweat either, and the nightmares she had grown to anticipate during this time of the year hadn't chased her to wakefulness. In fact, she was reasonably certain she hadn't had any nightmare at all this time.

With a content sigh, she snuggled in closer, eliciting a half-awake groan from Glimmer as they adjusted and better molded their bodies against each other. Catra slowly drifted back to sleep, feeling Glimmer's heart beat thump against her ear as she melted into her warmth.

Her last conscious thought was that maybe, just maybe, it might be a good idea to go and talk to Taline after all. If vulnerability with Glimmer felt this encouraging, what would it be like with her?