"OK, one second, you little nightmare beast, I'm getting it!" Glimmer nudged Catra away from the pantry door with her foot and the angry little floof hissed at her and took a swipe at her ankles. Luckily, she had a lot of practice living with the world's most evil cat and dodged before her claws connected. "I know dinner is late! I'm sorry I got caught on that call, but it was with a very important client."

"Which flavor rations would you like tonight, your majesty? The gray kind?" She opened the pantry which was mostly empty aside from cat food and litter and grabbed a can of tuna. She dumped the contents into Catra's dish. Catra was on up on the counter, gobbling it up a minute later.

"You're welcome!" Glimmer said, reaching over to scratch Catra's head. Catra ducked out of her reach and hissed before going back to her dinner.

Glimmer sighed. "You're lucky I love you, you little brat."

Now, what was the fastest way to feed her own body with the least amount of effort? She'd gotten all caught up in this project and forgotten to eat again until now it was stupid late and her stomach was pissed at her. Unfortunately, she'd also put off getting groceries for too long and she couldn't do takeout again unless she wanted to ask her parents for money which she absolutely refused to do, not after they'd been so smug about her inability to survive out here on her own.

Which, honestly, they were probably right about. She might be surviving but she wasn't exactly thriving. Sometimes she wanted to admit defeat and go back to the ample comforts of her parent's house. She was barely making enough to afford this tiny apartment and her work hours were too erratic for her to have much of a social life. How are you supposed to meet anyone if you work from home anyway?

At this point, her entire social circle consisted of Catra who would probably eat her if the chance presented itself and not even wait until she was dead. Evil kitty. You would think you'd be a little more grateful to someone who rescued you from a cardboard applesauce box in the alley but apparently not.

She had just decided on another exciting dinner of pretzel sticks dipped in tuna fish when she heard a voice outside that made her heart do a flip. She forgot about her belated dinner and peeked through the blinds at the driveway next to hers. Her incredibly cute neighbor, the tall guy who was all biceps and abs, opened the door to his apartment to the enthusiastic greetings of his goofy golden retriever. She could hear him laughing through the screen as the dog jumped all over him, licking his face.

She sighed. Why couldn't she jump all over him and lick his face?

She shook her head. This is what it's come to, Glimmer. You're so lonely you're jealous of a dog.

One of these days, she was going to have her act together enough to get dressed up all cute and go over and introduce herself. Not today, of course, when her hair was two-toned chaos because it had half-grown out and she hadn't gotten around to dying it again. And she did not need abs over there to know that she'd been in her Hello Kitty pajama pants all day with the bottoms shredded to hell thanks to Catra and her faded Paramour shirt which was stained but so soft she couldn't give it up. And she definitely was not letting him in here with a week's worth of dishes in the sink and cat hair tumbleweeds in every corner.

No, if she was going to even have a shot with a guy that hot, she was going to need to bring her A-game.

Oh, hi! I'm Glimmer! From next door? (Sexy hair flip.) You're just getting in now? Well, I was just going to make myself dinner, would you like to join me? (In this fantasy she actually knew how to cook well enough to impress him which was not even close to the truth but it was her fantasy, damn it!) And then they'd talk all night and realize they were soul-mates in a past life or something and live happily ever after.

She winched as Catra jumped up to join her, digging her claws into her shoulder. "You know, if you were a dog instead of an irredeemable villain, you could help me stage a meet-cute with that guy. This could be your redemption arc, you know. I could take you out for a walk, just happen to run into him and we could talk about dog owner stuff and you could do that thing from the romcoms, where you and the other dog tangle us up in your leashes and— whoa, hey, what are you doing? What's gotten into you? CATRA APPLESAUCE MEOWMEOW, come back here!"

In a fit of hissing and spitting, Catra had launched herself at the window, popping the screen right out of it and landing in a screeching mess of angry fur in the bushes in front of the building. Before Glimmer could even wonder if her kitty was OK, Catra launched herself out of the bushes and directly at Handsome, who'd been kneeling to clip on his dog's leash. With a leap, Catra was on the guy's shoulder and he let out a startled cry and stood upright, the leash forgotten.

Glimmer burst out of her apartment without even bothering to put on shoes. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Let me get her!"

The guy was winching in pain and Glimmer grabbed at Catra but he moved out of her reach. "Please, don't do that. She is ATTACHED to me!"

"Ugh! How are you such a nightmare?" Glimmer screamed at Catra but her cat wasn't looking at her. Her eyes were trained on the golden retriever who was growling menacingly at this new threat to her owner. Before either human knew what was happening, Catra launched herself at the dog, landed a scratch on the dog's back, and then took off in the direction of the woods behind the complex, the dog tearing after her. "Goddamn it, Catra!"

"Adora! Get back here!" Handsome called but his dog didn't listen any better than her cat did. The two of them exchanged a look and took off in the direction their pets had just headed.

"I'm so so so sorry!" She looked over at Handsome whose red windbreaker had several Catra shaped holes in the shoulder. There was no sign of either pet at the edge of the woods and they both exchanged a look and headed beyond the tree line. The sun was starting to set and it was getting hard to see. "Catra was feral when I found her and its been months but she still scratches me all the time and she LIKES me, or at least I think she likes me, it's really hard to tell because she's just this little angry floof but I still love her and if anything happens to her—" She sniffed and wiped her eyes.

"Hey, it's OK," Handsome said in this really sweet soft tone that was super hot and, goddamn it, not only was he going to think she was a disaster who didn't own real clothes and had a psycho cat that attacked him and his dog, now she was starting to cry and he was going to think she was some kind of emotional loser whose only friend was a cat and the worst part was that he'd be RIGHT. "Adora's just a big lovable doofus. She's not going to hurt your cat, I promise. I'm Bow by the way."

"Glimmer." She was actually much more worried about Catra hurting Adora than the other way around but it was still sweet that he'd thought to reassure her.

"You live next door, right? You always seem to be having a dance party when I get home from work."

Oh god. She could die right now. Of course, Handsome Bow from next door had seen her dancing around in her kitchen with her cat. Could she have possibly blown her chances with this guy any worse or what?

"You've seen that?" She was grateful it was so dark because she was pretty sure she was bright red right now. "It's just that I work weird hours and I don't want to drink coffee this late because it keeps me up so I need a way to wake myself up and I swear I am not just some loser who has nothing better to do than dance around with my cat!"

He laughed. "It's OK. You're a good dancer. I work weird hours too. Most of the time it's just me and my furry bestie. Maybe we should all have a dance party together sometime."

"Uh, yeah. Maybe we should." Was that flirting? Did he just flirt with her? No, she must have misunderstood. It was probably just pity flirting. At least she had her shame to keep her warm because it was getting a lot colder now that the sun was down. It was chilly in just this thin old t-shirt. She shivered. "This is hopeless. I can't see anything. I'm just so worried about her. I know Catra is used to being on her own but it's just so cold tonight."

"You want my jacket?"

Before she could say anything he'd whipped it off and was holding it out to her. She probably shouldn't take it, right? She'd literally just met this guy five minutes ago and the shirt he had on underneath didn't even cover his midriff so he probably needed it more than she did. But she was really cold and if she had his jacket on he wouldn't see her gross old t-shirt… "Thank you."

Mmm, his jacket was so warm and smelled really good. Like Boy. God, with how long she'd been single, this felt like first base. Considering this was as far as she was going to get with him, she might as well savor it.

"Maybe we should head back and see if they've come home on their own." He rubbed at the back of his neck and, goddamn, this guy must live at the gym. The moonlight was just like, take a good look at all this muscle you will never get to touch. The universe was just taunting her now. "If they're not there, we'll grab some flashlights and some treats, see if we can get their attention that way."

She couldn't stop thinking about Catra getting hit by a car or eaten by a coyote or, God, knowing how much trouble Catra could get into, opening a portal to an alternate dimension or something. But she knew he was right. It was getting hard to see and the last thing they needed was to get lost out here. The two of them trudged back to the lights of the parking lot and Glimmer allowed herself a small bit of hope that maybe Catra would be waiting for her on her doorstep. But when her apartment door came into sight, there was no sign of her.

"Jeez, we took off so fast, I left my door- Ha! Glimmer, come here!"

She pulled her eyes away from her empty step to where Bow was standing the light from his front door. He gestured her over with a big grin on his face. She understood why as soon she stepped through the doorway.

There, cuddled up together in the middle of the floor, was Adora and Catra. Adora had her paw over Catra's middle like she was hugging her and Catra's tail was twitching happily. Glimmer laughed and Catra flicked an ear in her sleep but didn't move. Bow leaned down and pet Adora's ear and she opened her eye long enough to thump her tail on the ground once before snuggling right back down with Catra.

"Is she... purring?" Glimmer couldn't believe her ears. Never in the six months of having Catra, had she EVER heard her purr. But the little motor sound was unmistakable.

"Aw, she's so cute!" Bow said and now that they were in the light she noticed that Catra had drawn blood on his shoulder. Damn, if this guy could still call that nightmare beast cute after she'd tried to kill him and his best friend, he was absolutely a keeper. "Look at her little ears!"

"Well, I'm just glad they're both OK. Sorry again for all the trouble!"

She shifted her muddy bunny slippers against his welcome mat. She should be leaving. Picking up her angry cat and leaving and going back to her dinner of shame with what was left of her pride. Definitely not trying to check out the rest of this guy's apartment from where they stood in the entryway like she still had a shot here. It was a testament to the complete disaster her own life was right now that she was unreasonably turned on by how neat and ordered his apartment was.

"So, it seems like it would be a shame to disturb them since they look so happy." Bow was fiddling with his keys, his eyes on the floor. "Did you eat dinner yet? Because I was going to make something for myself and it might be nice to have some company. If you're not doing anything, I mean."

Glimmer was suddenly warm enough she didn't need his jacket anymore. Not that she was in any hurry to take it off. "Are you asking me to stay for dinner?"

"Yeah?" He looked over at her and, oh my god, was he nervous? Because it was incredibly adorable. "I promise, I'm a pretty good cook. Or if you've got stuff to do tonight, it could be another night. Or, like, a regular thing?" He exhaled and looked over at her with a sheepish smile. "I've actually been meaning to ask you out for weeks but I was just completely intimidated."

"I'm sorry, wait. YOU were nervous about asking ME out? Me who looks like I climbed out of a dumpster when you're so good looking you look photoshopped?" Oh, shit, she'd just said that out loud, hadn't she? Whatever, at this point, if she hadn't scared him off with the whole rest of this disaster, she might as well go for it. She stood a little taller in her torn pajama pants. "You know what? Yes. I'd love to stay for dinner. And go out with you. Or… stay in." She flushed. "I meant, you know, since these two are apparently inseparable now."

"Well, great!" He smiled at her. God, he really was cute. "I'd like that. We could be a whole little squad, have all sorts of adventures!" He started for the kitchen and then paused and flushed. "And, just for the record, I think you look great."

He disappeared through the kitchen doorway and Glimmer stood there in shock that somehow what had started out as the world's most pathetic evening had ended like this. "You little evil kitty, did you somehow just arrange me a meet-cute after all?"

Glimmer could have sworn she saw the little demon smile.