An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
made my next glitra fic for the Happy birthday glimmer event! just barely finished it before the day ended lol, but i had to get one out on my girls bday. I hope y'all enjoy this one!
“there’s snot all over your shirt. it’s quite gross, actually.” glitra
modern au party thing
ty for sending!
/ / /
“Oh shit, my bad–” Catra begins to apologize and shut the door to the occupied bathroom that she was about to walk into, until she notices who’s in there. “... Sparkles? Um, you ok?”
The answer to that is obvious. Glimmer is sitting on the closed toilet seat, her eyes puffy and red, her glittery makeup smudged, her cheeks drenched. At the moment her eyes are wide with surprise, then she turns away in embarrassment. Clearly she forgot to lock the door. She tries to say something, but her voice cracks a bit. Instead, she shakes her head and buries her face into her hands, her body quivering with each sob that she tries to repress.
Catra considers her options as she stands in the doorway. This girl is a complete mess. Maybe it would be a good idea to go find Adora, or Bow, or anyone who would be better at handling this situation. This is already uncomfortable enough for her to want to find an escape route. She’s never been good at this kind of thing.
Still, something about seeing Glimmer like this for the first time causes her chest to weirdly twinge. So she steps into the bathroom and closes the door behind her, making sure to lock it this time.
She doesn’t really know what to say. After a few long moments of silence, she tries, “C’mon. Crying in the bathroom at a party? Isn’t that some kind of dumb cliche?”
Glimmer glares at her for that one, whoops. “Fuck off, Catra.” She tries to sound mean when she says it, but she ends the curse with a sniffle, so it comes out sounding kind of pathetic, honestly. But at least she’s talking now.
“Yeah, yeah,” Catra brushes it off, completely unaffected by the response. It’s on par with their daily banter. She takes a seat on the edge of the bathtub and leans forward to rest her elbows on her knees. “So what happened?”
Glimmer looks at the floor and murmurs, “I don’t know. It’s probably nothing. Maybe I drank too much or something.”
Her confidant shrugs. “Tell me anyways. If it’s stupid, I’ll tell you so, and then you know that it’s not worth crying over.”
Glimmer rolls her eyes, but she considers this. It’s not often she opens up about these things, much less to Catra. Their conversations typically evolved into trivial arguments. But she’s here, and she’s listening, and Glimmer is aware of how much of a wreck she is right now.
She sniffles again and takes a deep breath before starting. “... I overheard someone talking about me. They basically said I was an annoying, spoiled brat. And I know I shouldn't care about what others think about me, it's just… There's that, and also I feel like Bow likes hanging out with Perfuma more than me and maybe him and Adora both secretly think I'm annoying and are too nice to tell me so, and maybe they-- mmph!"
She lets out a muffled yelp as Catra clasps a hand over her mouth, furrowing her eyebrows at her.
"Yeah, I'm stopping you there," Catra says. "You're right; it is stupid. How much did you have to drink again?"
Glimmer looks back down. Tears start gathering in the corner of her eyes again, overflowing onto her cheek. With her hand still over Glimmer's mouth, Catra lifts her thumb to wipe some or them away. She feels her own chest tighten.
She tries again. "Ugh, ok, listen to me. Everything you said was bullshit. I've know Adora for years. I can tell when she's annoyed. And you've known Bow just as long, right? So you should be able to tell when he is, too."
Glimmer nods slowly as she blinks back the tears.
"Got it? Good." Catra removes her hand, letting it slide down. Her finger catches slightly on Glimmer's bottom lip. It tugs down gently on the plump, soft skin as it passes by. Catra swallows.
Glimmer wipes away the excess tears with her hand. She isn't all there, but she seems better. "... What about you?" she asks.
"Do I think you're annoying?" Catra asks to confirm, and she nods. "You annoy the fuck out of me."
At that, Glimmer actually cracks a grin. "You're kind of into it though, right?" she teases her, which catches Catra a little off guard and has her fumbling to reply. "Anyways… Thanks for listening, Catra. I really appreciate it."
She adds on a soft smile, and Catra feels her chest tightening again. Fuck.
She then moves in for a hug, but Catra grabs her shoulder to keep her at a distance. “You know, as long as I, uh, love hugs, there’s snot all over your shirt. It’s really gross, actually."
Glimmer let out a snort-laugh as she leans back. "Fair enough."
Catra stands up and takes a step over to the sink, where she opens the drawers. After a bit of searching, she pulls out a packet of makeup wipes. "I don't know about the outfit, but we can at least try to make you look like less of a mess."
"Gee, thanks."
Catra kneels on the ground in front of her. Neither of them mention that it's something Glimmer could easily do herself. She pulls a wipe out and carefully drags it underneath Glimmer's lower eyelid, trying to clean off the bits of makeup there.
For a moment, her eyes wander to Glimmer's lips, remembering their softness. They stay there for a moment too long, and when Catra glances back up to meet Glimmer's gaze, she panics internally. She definitely, definitely noticed that.
Neither of them say anything. They don't break their gaze, either. At some point, they might have started moving closer to each other, but neither of them can really tell. Glimmer closes her eyes, Catra parts her lips and--
"HEY! HURRY UP IN THERE!" someone outside screams, followed by a series of bangs on the door.
They both snap out of it and quickly stand up.
"Er, sorry! Just a minute!" Glimmer calls back to them.
Catra murmurs something about needing to be somewhere and promptly leaves.
Glimmer immediately shuts the door before the next person can open it again, then she leans against it and slides to the ground. She lays a hand over her chest to feel her heartbeat.
A 3-Day Fanworks Event celebrating our favorite sparkly queen of Bright Moon!
November 30th to December 2nd, 2021
(Glimmer's canon birthday is December 1st)
Fanart, fanfic, drabbles, edits, AMVs, memes, headcanons, playlists, cosplay, TikToks or whatever else you want to make to celebrate her majesty are welcome.
Every year our girl's birthday ends up forgotten because it's sandwiched between the big autumn and winter holidays. This year, let's make sure we give Glimmer a little extra love with a mini-three day fanworks event! The idea is just to add a more Glimmer-centric content to the world so all ships and secondary characters are welcome!
Who is this event for? Are ships included?
Anyone and everyone is welcome to participate! Fanworks can include any ships or secondary characters you wish, so long as Glimmer is the main focus.
How do I participate?
Make something about Glimmer! Anything! We've provided some prompts above as a starting point that you can interpret any way you wish but feel free to ignore them and just do whatever! (And it doesn't have to be anything big, even something as small as a 100 word drabble or a silly meme would be welcome!) Canon-compliant, modern setting, alternate universe... whatever you feel like making, we'd love to see it!
When you post your content on Tumblr, such as fanart or links to fics hosted externally, just include the tag Happy Birthday Glimmer along with your other fandom or ship tags so people can find it. For Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, etc, use #HappyBirthdayGlimmer all as one word.
What are the prompts?
Nov 30 - Fist to Face Sparkles
Dec 1 - The Queen Card
Dec 2 - Crippling Self-Doubt / Overwhelming Hubris
Interpret these any way you want! Or ignore them entirely and do your own thing, we're just providing them as a starting point! Do one of the days or all three, it's completely up to you!
Are there any content limits?
Nope! Though, as a courtesy, please tag Explicit and Violent content appropriately and put adult content under the jump or linked externally whenever possible so people can choose to interact with your content as desired.
How can I see what people have made for this event?
Once the event begins, search the tag Happy Birthday Glimmer on Tumblr or #HappyBirthdayGlimmer on other social networks to see what's been posted so far.
Sounds fun! Can I help spread the word about this event?
Yes! Please do! Feel free to reblog or repost the image above as needed on your blog or other social media sites to help get the word out.
Questions? Feel free to DM me or send me an ask! I'll get back to you as soon as I can!
Glimmer gazed into Catra's eyes for what felt like an eternity. Although neither of them spoke, the steady silence standing between them created a sense of mutual understanding; two people from completely different worlds, simultaneously enemies and companions. For the first time since she'd been on the ship, Glimmer looked at Catra and saw something different within her. Not a monster, not the ruthless Horde Commander-
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