Hey, Glimmer. It's Bow? From next door? (She's going to remember who you are, dumbass, you only met yesterday!) Anyway, I had a lot of fun hanging out with you last night and I was wondering (Maybe he'd lean on the door-frame all casual, that was a sexy person thing, right?) if you wanted to, uh, make out? (Ugh, no, he couldn't just say that!) I mean, I really wanted to kiss you when I walked you back to your door last night but you were so funny and cute and amazing and I'm… just so so bad at this. And now I'm afraid you're going to think I'm not interested when I definitely am, I just have absolutely no game. Is that even a thing people say anymore? Do we still call it game? See, I don't even know, that's how bad—Oof!

Bow would have kept jogging right past his apartment complex if Adora hadn't yanked the leash in the correct direction. At least someone was paying attention. This was almost as bad as the start of their run when he'd run into that telephone pole.

Almost.

"Sorry, girl. I spaced out big time." They'd been doing this same run every morning, rain or shine, for a year, and he'd never gotten lost going back to his own apartment before. God, he was a mess today.

They slowed to a walk as they reached the parking lot, and he leaned down and scratched behind Adora's ear. She flopped her head backwards to look at him, her tongue hanging off to the side. It made her look like she had a big goofy grin. His best buddy was a complete doofus, but he loved her.

There was nobody else up at this hour. The only sounds were the jingling of Adora's collar and the early morning bird gossip. His eyes automatically went to Glimmer's window. It was kind of crazy to finally have a name for her after so many weeks of thinking of her as "the pretty girl who lived next door." She'd told him last night she wasn't a morning person, but he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed when he didn't see her.

But there was someone in the window. Glimmer had put her screen back up with sparkly pink duct tape, and Catra was glaring at them from behind it. Sheesh, if a cat could give someone the finger…

Adora whimpered and tugged at her leash.

"I know you're in love with that angry cat, buddy, and I'm happy for you but your enemies to lovers epic romance will have to save the universe another day."

He was afraid he wouldn't be able to drag her away, but then an Amazon truck pulled up and Adora remembered her true calling as the savior of the neighborhood. She starting barking like mad at the delivery guy and trying to rip Bow's arm off to get at him.

"Can you recalibrate this hero complex of yours to understand that sometimes people get packages delivered, and it is not some conspiracy from an evil alien overlord you need to save us all from?" He waved awkwardly to the delivery guy and tugged Adora through their front door. She growled the whole way at the package on their neighbor's doorstep like the Prime logo was a personal affront. It was a relief when he finally got the door shut behind them.

While Adora bolted for her water dish and second breakfast. Bow kicked his sneakers off into the closet. His windbreaker, the one he'd lent to Glimmer last night, was hanging right in front of him. Would it be weird to see if it still smelled like her? He rubbed his face and opted to exercise self-control.

"Adora, I am a mess." He lay down on the carpet in the living room. Adora came bounding over to jump on him like she always did when he got on her level. He pet her head absentmindedly as he stared at the ceiling. "It was one thing before when it was like, 'Hey, the girl next door is cute!' But now that I've actually gotten to hang out with her and talk to her and stuff and she's, of course, amazing and funny and smart and even way prettier up close… Damn. I think I might be in love with her."

Adora got up and walked away from him.

"OK, OK! You're right. So maybe it's too soon to say that but, God, I really really like her and I know I barely know her but it was like... I've known her for years somehow? And I've never met anyone ever that I felt like that about."

He covered his face with his hands, replaying last night for the zillionth time. After the chaos with their rouge pets, he'd made them dinner, which she'd seemed to like. Then they'd talked for hours at his little kitchen table about everything and nothing. And it was… perfect?

"Can I tell you something? But you can't laugh at me!" He turned towards the sound of Adora's collar jingly back into the room.

Adora plopped back down next to his head, her chewy sword between her teeth. She trapped the toy between her paws and looked over as if to say, I'm listening.

"Last night, Glimmer was helping me with the dishes and we were laughing at you two chasing each other around the kitchen. It was this really mundane moment, but it hit me that, holy crap, this is exactly what it would be like! And as soon as I realized how badly I wanted it, I was completely paralyzed because I didn't want to screw it up. And when we walked her and Catra back to their apartment there was that weird moment by the door and now I can't stop thinking… was that my chance? Did I blow it?"

Adora maintained eye contact with him and started chomping down on her toy, squeaking it judgmentally.

"Ugh! I should have kissed her, right?"

The judgmental squeaking only intensified.

"Don't give me that! It's easy for you! You're a dog! I can't just jump on her and lick her face." Although… No! Self-control! "Come on, you should be helping me with this! If Glimmer and I get together, you'll get to see your cat girlfriend all the time. We could be a whole little team of best friends, hang out together all the time, and the strength of our friendship would bring magic back to the universe or something! Oh, who am I kidding? She probably doesn't even like me."

Adora stood up and he didn't know where she went until she dropped her toy directly on his face.

"Bleagh!" It was wet and disgusting, but she had a point. He was wallowing. Nothing like dog breath scented rubber smacking into his face to remind him he still had to shower and send out the minutes from the Maker's Club meeting. Even if it was his day off, it didn't mean he could just lie around on the floor all day and contemplate his romantic ineptitude.

"Fine. I'll stop spiraling! But you better come up with some ideas of how we're going to win this girl over because if it's up to me to make the first move, both our love lives are doomed!"

Typing up the meeting minutes took longer than he expected because it had been Entrapta's turn to run it and, boy, can that girl go ON. By the time he'd finished it was pretty much lunch time.

He was halfway through his sandwich when heard a weird noise from the other room. It was probably just Adora sleeping fighting again, but he went to check anyway. Adora was napping on her dog bed, as expected… but she wasn't alone. Curled up at the bottom of her bed was… Catra? They both looked up when he walked in.

"Well, hello! You don't live here?" Bow tried to pick Catra up, but she went boneless and he couldn't hold on to her. She bit his arm on the way down and disappeared into the living room. Ow! Adora glared at him as if he really should have known better and trotted after Catra.

How did she even get in here? He followed the sounds of hissing back out into the living room and noticed the edge of the window screen was bent up away from the edge. Damn, that cat was much stronger than she looked.

Adora came over as he was assessing the damage, tail wagging. She gave him a look as if to say, That's hot, right?

In the time it took him to clean and bandage his Catra bite and go grab something to bang the screen back into place, Adora and Catra were tearing around the living room, play fighting. At least Adora was play fighting, her tail wagging a mile a minute. Catra, on the other hand, had her claws out. Adora lunged for her and Bow moved between them.

"Do you want to get hit with her claws?" Bow tried to move Catra back with his foot, but Catra leaped over him and took a swipe at Adora. Luckily, she missed, but only because Adora got distracted by the poof of hair on her own tail. Man, he really did not want to spend today at the vet. "Am I the only one who cares about claw safety around here?"

Adora pinned Catra down with her paw and tried to nuzzle into her belly. Catra yowled and closed her paws around Adora's muzzle like a bear trap.

"Claw safety!" Bow yelled, but Catra must have retracted her claws because Adora wasn't yelping in pain. Now Adora was rolling around on her back and Catra was climbing all over her. He sighed. Maybe this was just some weird we try to kill each other because "we're in love and we don't know how to properly express our feelings" thing he didn't understand and he should just go finish his lunch.

He glanced out the kitchen window. Glimmer's car wasn't outside, so he couldn't return Catra yet. That was kind of relief since he still had no idea what he was going to say to her. But he should at least tell her what was going on.

He pulled up the text she'd sent him last night, so he'd have her number. Now that he thought about it, she'd given him her number before he'd even gotten up the nerve to ask. That was encouraging, at least!

Bow: I have your cat.

Hmm, that made it sound like he'd kidnapped Catra and was asking for ransom or something. He deleted it.

Bow: Hey, it's Bow. From next door? We met last night? Anyway, Catra got out again but, don't worry! She's over here and I'll make sure to take good care of her until—

He deleted that one too. He sighed. Maybe he should just send her some emojis, like he was too cool for actual words. God, this would be so much easier if he even knew if she liked him!

Why can't they just skip ahead to the part where he could be the doting boyfriend who treated her like a Queen? Like romance and kisses and stuff? He was great at that part!

Adora appeared beside him, making heart eyes at his sandwich.

"I was wondering when you'd come in here, you bottomless pit." He pulled out some turkey and tossed it to her. Catra jumped up on his shoulder. He winced, having the distinct feeling she'd dug her claws into the exact same places as last night on purpose. "Hello, Catra. Would you like some too?"

He ripped off some turkey for her and passed it up. The three of them split the rest of the sandwich that way. When there was nothing left, Catra wrapped her tail around the back of his neck.

"Oh, are we friends now? We share one meal and all is forgiven? Little rushed, if you ask me. Hey, hold on. I've got it." He pulled his phone back out and went into selfie mode. He looked over at Catra on his shoulder and snapped the picture. The result was pretty funny. The ridiculous kitty had her fangs out and it looked like a sneaky little smirk. He sent it to Glimmer.

Bow: Look who came by to visit!

She replied almost instantly.

Glimmer: OMG, I'm so sorry! Bad kitty!

Glimmer: I'm out running errands, but I'll come get her in a bit

Bow: No rush! I think we're besties now.

Glimmer: I see that! ? You two are adorable!

Bow: You're adorable.

He deleted that last one without sending it because he was a chicken, but the heart sparkly heart emoji was probably a good sign, right? He stared at it for a while and felt warm and happy.

OK, that's it! He needed to figure out how to make this happen. He smacked the table hard enough that Catra leaped off his shoulder.

"Bestie Squad meeting!" The name needed a little refining, but they could do that later. He grabbed the nearest scrap of paper, which was the back of some car renewal thing he'd already done online, and a pen. "OK, team! Clearly, there are forces at work here beyond our imagination and the universe is trying to tell us that the four of us belong together. We just need a plan."

He needed to approach this like it was one of his tinkering projects. At the top of the paper, he wrote:

Main Goal:

Marry Glimmer and live happily ever after

Adora lay her head on his lap and gave him a side-eyed look.

"Maybe that's more of a stretch goal. Probably the main goal should be like… become Glimmer's boyfriend? But we're being aspirational here. We're… manifesting or… visualizing… vision board? I don't know what any of that means. Anyway, secondary goals."

Secondary Goals:

Meet Glimmer

"See, we've already done that one so I can cross it off!"

Find out if Glimmer likes you

Kiss Glimmer

Sleepovers

Catra jumped up on the table and sat directly on the list, fixing him with her mismatched glare.

"What?" he asked. She adjusted her haunches and flicked her tail with a look that said he knew exactly what. He flushed. "I didn't mean sleepovers like that I meant… ok, fine, maybe I meant it like that but it doesn't have to be on the first date or anything just, you know, eventually, if she… ugh, fine. We'll put a question mark after it, OK?"

This seemed to satisfy Catra who launched back up onto his shoulder. It still hurt when she dug her claws in, but at least this time he was expecting it. She looked down at his list for a minute and then back up at him with a face that said, You call that a plan?

"We're still brainstorming! Let's see, to achieve these goals I could… be sexy? Or, uh, say something all suave and charming… if I knew how to do that, I guess."

While he thought, he doodled a little Bow face and a little Glimmer face and surrounded them with hearts. Then he drew a little Adora and Catra right next to them. By the time he was drawing the four of them all snuggled up together, he realized it was hopeless and he was definitely going to die alone.

He sighed and crumpled up the paper. He tried to toss it into the garbage can but missed entirely because he couldn't even do that right. Catra leaped after the paper and started happily batting it across the kitchen floor. He lay his head down on the table and Adora gave him a sympathetic lick on the elbow.

Then the pets needed a bathroom break, which meant walking Adora on her leash and trusting that Catra wouldn't wander too far from her girlfriend, a plan that worked out surprisingly well. He let them romp around together in the grass behind the building while he tried to figure out how you're supposed to start dating someone you hadn't already known your whole life.

He'd just brought everyone back in and was wiping off Adora's muddy paws when Glimmer appeared in his doorway.

"Hey!" She was leaning casually against the door-frame and, uh, it was definitely a sexy person thing. His heart did a somersault. How was she somehow even cuter than he'd remembered? "Sorry about Catra. She's my problematic fav."

"Oh, she was not a fine. I mean, it was fine, she was not a trouble. Problem?" He stood upright, his face on fire.

He was supposed to have had a plan for the next time he saw her, some kind of plan that did not involve him making a complete fool of himself. But now here she was, and he was even less coherent than he'd been last night. She was wearing a black leather jacket that matched her boots over a short sparkly purple skirt and he'd meant it last night when he'd said she'd looked great in her pajamas, but this was… wow.

"You look really good."

"Thanks! I'm actually wearing real clothes today. And I finally got out to get my hair fixed." She did a sexy hair flip and her glittery lip gloss glinted. Whoa. He was definitely staring and should probably close his mouth, but he had completely forgotten how. She grinned and gestured behind him. "Uh, Adora just escaped, FYI."

"Damn it, Adora! Come back here!" He chased the trail of muddy paw prints, secretly grateful for the excuse to get himself together. She emerged from the bedroom triumphantly holding her plush horsey.

"Ugh, buddy, no one said Swift Wind!" He finally caught her in the kitchen and got the last of the mud off. Then he tossed the towel to the ground and used his foot to get up the paw prints all over the floor.

Adora didn't even look repentant about the mess she'd made as she bounded over to Glimmer. She dropped Swift Wind at her feet, tail wagging so hard it shook her entire body. Then she tried to bow, offer Glimmer her paw and jump up on her all at the same time and just ended up falling over.

"You are a lovable goof, aren't you?" Glimmer laughed as she leaned down to pet Adora. Bow tried to pretend he was really involved with cleaning the floor and not watching the two of them with his heart ready to burst out of his chest. "Anyway, sorry I wasn't here sooner. I also went grocery shopping, finally."

"Wow. You were busy today."

"Yeah, well, there's this cute guy I'm crushing on pretty hard and I'm trying to impress him by at least giving off the illusion of having my life together. Hey, there's my little nightmare beast!" Catra streaked by and Glimmer disappeared from view.

Wait. So she was already interested in somebody else? Goddamn it. He could throw up right now. What an idiot. It was his own fault for getting his hopes up. It's not like he really knew her that well or had any claim to her or anything, but he'd thought they'd had this, I don't know, connection? But he was just deluding himself.

She was talking to him from the other room and he should go join her, but he'd kind of short-circuited and couldn't do anything but stand in the middle of the kitchen feeling heartbroken.

"Anyway, I was thinking," she was saying, "after I get a chance to clean my apartment, I could return the favor and have you over for dinner! Though I'm warning you, I literally only know how to make one thing that's any—Hey, what do you have there? Catra, no, don't eat… Ugh, give me that!" Glimmer reappeared in the kitchen doorway, a crumbled paper in her hand. "Hey, Bow? I'm sorry. Catra had this. It looks like it might be something important. It's from the DMV and on the back there's… um…"

He didn't want to look at her, especially not now when his feelings were written all over his face, but he glanced over and realized with horror exactly what the crumpled paper she was holding was. Oh, no! The longer she looked at it, the more her brows seemed to scrunch together and the more Bow felt like maybe he should just crawl under the table and die.

"What is this?" She looked up at him and flipped the paper around. His own ridiculous list and doodles stared back at him. He exhaled.

"That is, uh… See, Adora, Catra and I felt like maybe the four of us were meant to… Actually, Adora was the one who had this vision of a perfect future where… like in an alternate universe we were all…" Yeah, there was no way that didn't sound completely crazy. He rubbed at the back of his neck and hoped his face didn't look nearly as red as it felt. "Sorry. I didn't know you were interested in someone else and I thought…"

Glimmer started walking across the kitchen to him and he swallowed because how was he supposed to read that expression on her face? Like she was easily a foot shorter than him, but was also kind of terrifying? His heart was pounding out of his chest as she grabbed the pen off the table and came over to where he was standing like he'd frozen solid. She smoothed the paper out on the counter in front of him. She clicked the pen tip out and looked over at him. Once she was sure he was watching and then drew a line through...

Find out if Glimmer likes you

"So… you are the person I have a crush on. Got it?" She stared at him for a minute with that unreadable expression, and then the side of her mouth tilted up into a smirk.

"Oh? Oh!" It took a full minute for the words to sink in. Once it did he was sort of terrified to breathe in case he somehow messed this up. "Well… that's good."

Glimmer crooked a finger at him and gestured towards the list again. He leaned down to look at what she was pointing at. She very deliberately drew a line through...

Kiss Glimmer

Wait. So should he… He debated for a panicked second whether that meant he was supposed to kiss her before she snaked her arm around the back of his neck and pulled his face down to hers. Then rational thought was completely impossible because there was nothing on his brain but how perfectly right it felt to have her lips against his. He wrapped his arms around her back and leaned down into the kiss. Her lip gloss was so sweet she sort of tasted like sparkles.

He was just thinking how this was way too good to only be a first kiss but before he could fully form the thought, she'd pulled away. He made a little sound of complaint, but she grinned at him and put a finger on his lips. She turned to the list again and completely scribbled out the question mark after "Sleepovers."

Oh! OK, then. Wow, yeah, that look she was giving him made him suspect that might happen sooner rather than later. Hey, no complaints here! This had all worked itself out way easier than he'd thought it was going to! He exhaled into a laugh, so completely relieved that he didn't have to be the one making the first move on any of this that he was downright giddy.

But now that they were both on the same page… He grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up onto the kitchen counter. She squeaked and then grabbed at his shirt, pulling him into another, deeper kiss. He ran his fingers through her hair and felt her sigh against his mouth as his tongue found hers.

This part, he was great at.


Glimmer fell asleep fifteen minutes into the movie, but Bow loved the way she was cuddled up against his side, so he didn't mind. They'd only put it on for Adora, anyway. She was the only one still watching the screen with rapt attention. Every now and then she'd look over at Catra cuddled up next to her as if to say, A dog that plays basketball, can you imagine?

Either Catra could imagine or didn't care because she was asleep, purring softly. She had mellowed a lot over the last few months, though she still liked to give him hell at every opportunity. He ran his fingers absentmindedly over Glimmer's back and realized she was wearing his shirt, the one with the holes in the shoulder from that first day they'd met.

He smiled. And look at them now! Forces beyond our imagination indeed.

All their stuff—Glimmer and Catra had moved in with them as soon as her lease was up—was in boxes stacked around the room. Tomorrow they'd head out on one more Best Friend Squad adventure, though Catra and Adora wouldn't enjoy the long ride in the moving van. But he was pretty sure they'd forgive them once they saw how much room they'd have at the new house with a whole proper backyard. They could all romp around in the green grass and it would be like a whole new world.

The movie was over and Adora lost interest now that there were no golden hero dogs to watch. She jumped down off the couch, waking Glimmer and Catra. Glimmer stretched and smiled up at him. He leaned down to kiss her forehead.

"You excited about tomorrow?" Her voice sounded all cute and groggy. God, he loved her so much.

"Obviously!" He was probably a little too enthusiastic for this hour of night, but he was really excited for them to start this next chapter of their lives together. She linked her fingers through his, her engagement ring brushing against his knuckle.

Adora threw a look back at Catra as she started for her dog bed and Catra launched off the couch after her as if to say, Of course I'm going with you, dummy.

Glimmer sat up and yawned. "We should probably go to bed too. Tomorrow's going to be kind of crazy. Maybe we'll be lucky and it will all go smoothly."

"Nah, we don't need luck. We're the Best Friend Squad." He held out his fist, and she bumped it. "Lets do this. Together."