Entry tags:
- character: she-ra: adora,
- character: she-ra: angella,
- character: she-ra: bow,
- character: she-ra: castaspella,
- character: she-ra: catra,
- character: she-ra: glimmer,
- character: she-ra: micah,
- character: she-ra: perfuma,
- fandom: she-ra and the princesses of pow,
- rating: k/g,
- story: she-ra: an exchange of tokens,
- work type: fanfiction,
- writing
An Exchange of Tokens
Title: An Exchange of Tokens
Rating: K/G
Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Characters: Glimmer, Bow, Adora, Catra, Angella, Micah, Perfuma, Castaspella
Summary: Almost six years after the defeat of Horde Prime, Glimmer and Bow are finally getting married, as are Catra and Adora.
Written for the She-Ra Fluff Bang hosted on Tumblr. Many thanks to izzy from the Fluff Bang Discord for betaing this fic.
I headcanon that Angella was rescued within a year or two after Horde Prime’s defeat, so she shows up in this fic. If you want to know how I think her rescue went, my story To Recover a Queen is as close as I’m ever likely to write, given that it holds up well enough in light of Season Five that I don’t feel like rewriting it.
I ship Glimbow and Glitradora in a both-and polyamorous situation and this is reflected in the fic.
Glimmer was nervous. She’d been planning this for months and the night had gone well so far, so she didn’t want to screw things up now.
She’d gotten the cooks to make several of Bow’s favorite dishes—it helped that she’d picked ones that she liked as well. Then she’d had the servants set up things for a romantic candlelight dinner on the balcony of the room she’d moved into after they got back from their trip to restore magic to the universe. Bow had arrived right on time, looking amazing in the fancier outfit Catra and Adora had helped her pick out for him. The lighter blues of it beautifully complemented the darker blues of the dress she’d worn and she’d actually been briefly speechless when she saw him in it. They’d both enjoyed the food and were now lingering over dessert.
Taking a deep breath, she reached into the slit pocket in the side of the dress and pulled out a small, carefully carved box of scented wood. Leaving it in her lap for the moment, she reached out and touched Bow’s hand. At her touch, Bow put down his fork and looked right at her.
Gaining confidence from his unwavering gaze, Glimmer said, “Bow, I love you. It’s been slightly more than five years since we started dating and we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs together in that time. We’ve supported each other through thick and thin and what was nearly the end of the universe and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather spend the rest of my life with.” At this, she brought out the box and put it on the table in front of him, then opened the lid so he could see the pair of amethyst stud earrings inside. “Will you marry me?”
Bow looked down at the box and then looked back up at her. Were those tears in the corners of his eyes? She hadn’t meant to make him cry. “Of course I’ll marry you,” he said, his voice thick with unshed tears. She hoped they were happy tears. Then he reached down below the table and when his hand came back up, it was holding another small wooden box. “I’ve been holding onto this for nearly a year,” he said, “and I’m not sure why I thought to bring it tonight, but I’m glad I did.” He set the box down in front of her.
Glimmer reached out and opened the box. It contained an arrowhead—blunt from the look of it—suspended between the upper and lower curves of a crescent moon. When she lifted it out of the box, she discovered there was a pin attached to the back of the arrowhead. “Is this your personal token for me?” she asked. He nodded. “Bow, this is beautiful. Did you make it?”
“I had a little bit of help, but yes,” Bow said. Then a serious expression came onto his face. “Glimmer,” he said, “what about Adora and Catra? Are you going to ask them, too?”
Glimmer had to hold back a giggle. That was so like Bow, to be thinking of others’ feelings right after getting engaged. “I asked them if they were interested, back when I first started planning this. Neither of them feels comfortable making our relationship so official.”
“Well, good,” Bow said. “I’m glad they’re not going to feel left out.”
:-:-:-:-:
When Bow walked into the private dining room where the Best Friends Squad had breakfast together the next morning, Glimmer at his side, Adora and Catra were already present. A large covered platter sat in the middle of the table and there was a butter crock and a small pitcher beside it. A pair of large pitchers—one white and one blue—sat on the other side of the platter.
“How’d it go last night, Sparkles?” Catra asked as Bow and Glimmer took their seats across from her and Adora.
“It went perfectly!” Glimmer said, pointing to where she had pinned his token to her shirt.
“I’m so glad,” Adora said, removing the cover from the platter to reveal a steaming heap of pancakes.
At the same time, Catra asked, “Is that Bow’s token?”
“It is,” Glimmer said, pouring herself some juice from the blue pitcher. “He made it himself.”
“It looks nice,” Adora said, reaching to serve herself some of the pancakes.
As she did this, Bow noticed that she was wearing a worn pair of fingerless gloves that looked a great deal like the ones that Catra always wore. A quick glance at Catra showed that Adora’s wing pin was now pinned to her shirt, confirming his suspicions. “Aww, you guys, you got engaged, too!” he cried. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Took you long enough to notice,” Catra said, but there was a grin on her face that took the sting out of the words. “So what’d Glimmer give you as her token?”
Bow took the box out of the pocket he had placed it in when he got dressed and opened it to show them. “My ears aren’t pierced, so I can’t wear them yet,” he explained, “but I’m planning on visiting the healers to fix that right after breakfast.”
“And after that, we should go and tell Mom and Dad,” Glimmer said, serving three pancakes onto her plate. “Then I’ll let them handle telling Aunt Casta, because she’s going to immediately want to start planning the wedding.”
“Speaking of planning the wedding,” Adora said, “Catra and I were thinking that maybe, as a way of showing that the two of us are okay with the two of you getting married, we could have the weddings at the same time.”
“A double wedding?” Glimmer said. “I love that idea. It does mean that you’re going to have to put up with Aunt Casta planning your wedding as well, though.”
“As long as we actually get to say no to the things we don’t want, I’m fine with that,” Catra said.
“Same here,” Adora said.
“Mom and Dad will make sure of it,” Glimmer said. Then all four of them settled down to eat.
:-:-:-:-:
After their stop in the infirmary to get one of the healers to pierce his ears—it had been relatively painless and the aftercare instructions the healer had given him were clear and easy to follow—Bow and Glimmer headed for Angella and Micah’s room. As they walked, Bow found himself having to continually keep from reaching up to fiddle with the earrings because they felt odd. It wasn’t a bad sensation exactly, but it was one he wasn’t used to and he kept wanting to poke at it. Finally, he ended up clasping hands with Glimmer to occupy one and slipped the other one into his pocket.
When they reached the room, Glimmer’s knock on the door was quickly followed by a “Come in” from the other side of it. Bow followed Glimmer into the room, being careful to close the door behind him. When he turned around from doing so, he saw that Angella and Micah were clearly taking a leisurely morning, as not only were they still eating breakfast, over in the sitting area of their room, but both of them were still wearing dressing robes over their night clothes.
“What is it, Glimmer?” Angella asked.
Glimmer shuffled her feet nervously until Bow came over and placed a calming hand on her shoulder. Then she set her feet solidly, cleared her throat once and announced, all in a rush, “Bow and I got engaged last night.”
“Congratulations!” Micah said.
He was closely followed by Angella’s comment of “I’m so glad it’s Bow. I’ve long suspected this was where the two of you would end up.”
“Come let us take a look at your tokens?” Micah asked.
“Of course,” Bow said. He and Glimmer walked over to the sitting area and then split, Glimmer taking a seat at Angella’s side and Bow taking one at Micah’s.
“May I?” Micah asked, reaching out to indicate he would like to touch the earrings.
“Be gentle about it,” Bow said. “I just had the piercing done.”
Micah was indeed gentle, brushing a finger first over the surface of the jewel, then around the side of the setting. “These earrings bring back memories,” he said when he was finished. “Glimmer made an interesting choice in using them as her token.”
“How so?” “Glimmer said. “I know they used to be yours. Mom gave them to me as a keepsake after you disappeared.”
“Unless I’m mistaken,” Micah said, “this is the same pair that Angie gave to me as her token when she proposed.”
“You’re not mistaken,” Angella said. “That was the pair that I gave to Glimmer as a keepsake.”
“Oh,” Bow said, “that is interesting, having them be used as a personal token two generations in a row.”
:-:-:-:-:
Even with Castaspella and Glimmer’s parents handling most of it, planning a wedding—especially a double wedding—was hard work, Adora found.
In some respects, it being a double wedding with Bow and Glimmer’s was beneficial, because there were traditions about certain things for the wedding of a member of Bright Moon’s royal family, so those decisions were already made. But there were so many other decisions to make and she found that she had no idea what she wanted for most of them. And Catra felt the same way about most of those decisions, so she couldn’t even defer to her choice.
The one thing that she and Catra had been adamant about from the beginning was reflecting that it was Adora who was getting married, not She-Ra. And so she found herself falling back on that whenever she found herself struggling with making a decision.
When responses to the invitations started coming in, she told Glimmer and Bow, “You know, one of the nice things about us doing a double wedding is that I can tell myself that all these people are coming because it’s your wedding, not because it’s mine.”
Glimmer laughed and said, “Just keep telling yourself that,” while Bow just hugged her.
Eventually, things started coming together and then, all too soon, the guests started arriving.
:-:-:-:-:
Frosta was the first member of their Horde-fighting Princess Alliance to arrive, a full week before the wedding. (After the defeat of Horde Prime, the Princess Alliance had been expanded and repurposed as a planetary governing body to ease interactions with other planets.) With her had come a young man named Tarn, who she reluctantly admitted was her boyfriend of a few months.
Mermista and Sea Hawk were the next to arrive, two days after Frosta. Scorpia and Perfuma arrived just two days before the wedding, and Entrapta, Hordak in tow, was the last of them to arrive, doing so the day before the wedding.
That evening, they held a private party, just for the soon-to-be-married couples and their friends. Hordak was invited, on the basis of the friendship he had developed with Catra and, odd as she sometimes still found it, Adora herself, after the war, but declined. Tarn was also invited, because, as Bow had told him, “If you’re serious about Frosta, we all want to get to know you,” and accepted the invitation.
:-:-:-:-:
The next morning, Adora woke with butterflies in her stomach. She was getting married today. She was just trying to decide if she should get out of bed and go for a run to try and work off the nerves when Catra opened her eyes. “Nervous?” her fiancée (soon-to-be-wife!) asked, a lazy smile on her face.
“I- Yes,” Adora replied. “How could you tell?”
“I know you,” Catra said. “If you weren’t, I’d be wondering who managed to give you a calming potion while you were asleep. Besides, I can hear your heartbeat from here. It’s a good bit faster than normal right now.”
“Oh,” Adora said.
“I also know how you like to deal with nerves,” Catra said. “Go ahead and go train or whatever it is you were just thinking about. Just don’t forget to eat breakfast and make sure to be done in time to have lunch with me and Glimmer and Bow.”
That was right, Adora remembered. The four of them had planned to have lunch together before they had to split up to get ready for the wedding. “Thanks for the reminder,” she said. Then she got up, changed into some light workout clothes, and left the room.
She swung by the kitchens to grab some sausage rolls before leaving the castle and then she headed off on a long run.
A good hard run through the Whispering Woods on a familiar route left her feeling much calmer when she returned to the castle with just enough time for a good shower before she had to meet the others for lunch.
At lunch, somehow the subject of her nerves came up and Glimmer said, “Mom told me this morning that it’s absolutely normal to be nervous before your wedding. It happens to everyone, she said.”
“She was nervous before her wedding?” Adora asked incredulously. It was hard to believe that, given how perfectly calm and poised Angella always seemed to be.
“Her and Dad both,” Glimmer said. “Mom thinks it comes from loving the person you’re marrying so much that you want everything to be perfect for them.”
“That makes sense,” Catra said. “However, I at least feel that it doesn’t matter if things are perfect so long as we’re actually married once the ceremony is over.”
The conversation turned to other topics then, but what Catra had said stuck with her, even as lunch ended and she went with Glimmer to change into their dresses.
When the two of them arrived at the room their dresses had been placed in, Adora had to take a moment to just stare at them. She’d known, in general, what they would look like, but she’d not yet had a chance to really take them in.
Glimmer’s dress was backless, the front being gathered into a band at the neck, and a full skirt spilled out from the high waistline. Its color was a purple gradient, going from the palest shade at the neck band to a deep royal purple at the hem.
Her own dress was a light red, with a fitted bodice that she’d heard the seamstress refer to as “princess-seamed”, a lace-up back, a straight skirt, and sleeves of white and gold lace, the only concession to her status as She-Ra that she’d been willing to make in the design.
“Come on,” Glimmer said, “we need to get started.”
Adora shook herself out of her reverie, noticing as she did so that Perfuma, Mermista, Frosta, and Angella had arrived while she was lost in thought, and moved over to the seat beside her dress to start the process of changing.
As Perfuma and Mermista helped her get into the dress, she asked, “Why are you four here? Not that I’m objecting, of course, the help is actually really useful, I’m just curious.”
From where she and Frosta were helping Glimmer into her own dress, Angella said, “It’s very common, to the point of being almost traditional, for close friends and family of the people getting married to help them with the immediate preparations for the wedding like changing and doing hair and makeup.”
“Oh,” Adora said. “Who’s helping Bow and Catra, then?”
“Scorpia and Entrapta are with Catra and I believe that Sea Hawk and Micah are with Bow,” Perfuma said.
“They are,” Mermista said. Her tone somehow managed to suggest that she wasn’t so sure that Sea Hawk would actually be helpful.
“I think his dads are with him, too,” Glimmer added.
“And, done,” Perfuma said. “Your dress is all laced up.”
Adora stretched carefully, mindful to not tear anything, and took a deep breath. “Thanks, Perfuma,” she said. “That feels just right.” Then she sat down and put on the sandals she had chosen to go with the dress. The only difference from the pair that she usually wore when she needed to dress up was that the leather had been dyed a deep red.
Once she had fastened the laces on the sandals, Perfuma and Mermista guided her over to one of the vanities set up against the wall and had her take a seat. “I know you don’t like makeup,” Perfuma said, “but how do you want to do your hair today?”
“I was actually thinking of leaving it down,” Adora said. “Catra likes it like that.” Then she blushed as she thought of when Catra usually said that.
“Down it is, then,” Perfuma said. “Is there any particular way you want it pinned back from your face or should I just experiment and see what you like?”
“I don’t usually wear it down, so you’re going to have to experiment,” Adora said.
Perfuma set about it, but after roughly ten minutes, Adora was starting to regret her decision. None of the various styles that Perfuma had tried looked right. That was when Angella came over, a large-ish, mostly flat, somewhat circular package in her hand.
“Do you think this might solve your styling difficulties?” she asked, offering the package to Adora. “It’s the gift Micah and I commissioned for you, but I brought it along now on the off chance that it might be used.”
Adora carefully unwrapped the package to reveal a beautifully crafted tiara. It was similar to Glimmer’s in that it was a single stone supported by a band of metal on each side that curved out to the sides to form the arms that would hold it on her head, but where the stone in Glimmer’s tiara was a teardrop of the palest pink, the stone in this one was a red oval, making it faintly reminiscent of She-Ra’s original tiara.
“It’s beautiful,” Adora murmured. She didn’t really want to include any more reminders that she was She-Ra in her outfit than she already had, but given the trouble she was having, it was worth trying. So she had Perfuma brush all of her hair back and then she slipped on the tiara.
It fit perfectly, the arms resting snuggly against the sides of her head and the stone settling just below her hairline. She took a moment to study herself in the mirror and came to the conclusion that, as much as she disliked the reminder of She-Ra today, it was exactly what she had been looking for.
“Thank you,” she said, turning to face Angella. “It’s perfect.”
“I’m glad,” Angella said, gently placing a hand on Adora’s shoulder.
“If that’s settled, then it’s time to go get in place,” Perfuma said.
With those words, she turned and left the room, followed by Mermista, Frosta, and Glimmer. Adora moved to follow Glimmer, but Angella’s hand on her shoulder stopped her.
“I already had this moment with Glimmer,” Angella said, “but I haven’t had a chance to speak with you privately yet today.” Angella moved to stand in front of her, placing both hands on her shoulders and looking her squarely in the face. “You’ve come a long, long way from the Horde soldier I first saw kneeling to pledge herself to the Rebellion and fight against everything she had ever known until then and I could not be prouder of you than I am today, when both of my daughters are getting married.”
Adora had known how Angella felt about her since the former queen was rescued, but to hear it so explicitly stated, on today of all days… She felt tears rolling down her cheeks as she threw her arms around Angella in a hug that was quickly returned.
Angella let her just cry for a little, safe in her embrace, before pulling back and plucking a soft cloth off the vanity that the former queen used to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Time to go now,” Angella said. “You don’t want to keep Catra waiting, do you?”
“No,” Adora said, taking the cloth from Angella and using it to blow her nose before she wiped one last tear from the corner of her eye. Then she turned and left the room.
She followed the halls of the castle until she reached the room just before the entrance to the gardens where the four of them were to wait for their cue to enter. When she entered the room, she saw that the other three were already there.
Bow was in a suit of sky blue, with a midriff-baring shirt of light blue under the jacket. A pin in the shape of an upside-down crescent moon over a heart was pinned to his shirt just below the neck and he had on shoes of a deep royal blue.
Catra was wearing a dusty red shirt with an open neckline and elbow-length sleeves and black pants with a gold stripe down the outside seam. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, she had on her usual black fingerless gloves, and the wing pin Adora had given her as a personal token was pinned just below the bottom of the V formed by the neckline of the shirt.
“What kept you?” Catra asked, a teasing note in her voice.
“Angella wanted a private word,” Adora replied.
“Ah, she was giving you the ‘So proud of you’ speech,” Glimmer said.
“Yes,” Adora said.
“I got one of those from Micah this morning,” Catra said. Her tone was faintly annoyed, but the soft smile on her face showed it for the affectation it was.
“Where’d the tiara come from?” Bow asked. “It looks good.”
“Angella gave it to me,” Adora replied. “She said it’s the gift she and Micah had made for me.”
Silence fell over the room then, and it wasn’t long before the strains of music coming in from the garden let them know it was time to go out.
Adora and Catra stepped through the door into the gardens hand-in-hand and walked down the aisle left by the guests. When they reached the dais that had been set up at the other end, they stepped up onto it and moved to the right. Castaspella, who had been waiting on the dais already, standing between a pair of cushioned stools, gave them a smile as Bow and Glimmer finished making their way down the aisle and stepped up onto the left side of the dais.
Once Bow and Glimmer had settled into their places on the dais, Castaspella raised her hands. The soft murmuring of the crowd stopped and then Castaspella started to speak.
“Fellow Etherians,” she said, “we are gathered here today to see these two couples joined in marriage.” She lowered her hands and turned to Catra and Adora. “Catra and Adora, step forward.” Adora and Catra did as she asked, moving to the space right in front of her. “Adora, She-Ra of Etheria, is it your desire to be joined to Catra, Royal Advisor of Bright Moon, in marriage?”
“It is,” Adora said, suppressing her wince at the reference to She-Ra.
“Catra, Royal Advisor of Bright Moon, is it your desire to be joined to Adora, She-Ra of Etheria, in marriage?”
“It is.”
Castaspella unwound a pale blue ribbon from around her left wrist and stepped towards Catra and Adora. “With this ribbon, I bind your hands,” she said, suiting actions to words and wrapping the ribbon around their intertwined hands, “and in doing so, bind your hearts as well. I now declare you married.”
Adora smiled at Catra and then they leaned towards each other and kissed. After a moment, Adora heard Castaspella clear her throat and the two of them broke the kiss and turned back towards her. Castaspella unwrapped the ribbon from around their hands and said, “Now let the two of you exchange your marriage tokens.”
Adora reached over to the stool on Castaspella’s left and picked up one of the matching sword pendants resting there. She unclasped the chain and then fastened the necklace around Catra’s neck. Once she was done, Catra picked up the other pendant and did the same for her. After that, the two of them stepped back to their original position on the dais and Castaspella called Bow and Glimmer forward.
Castaspella repeated the ceremony for Bow and Glimmer, and then, after they had exchanged marriage tokens—Bow and Glimmer had chosen to split a pair of earrings, Bow wearing his in his right ear and Glimmer wearing hers in her left—she stepped back.
Glimmer stepped forward into the space Castaspella had just vacated and turned to face Bow. “Bow, Master Archer and Tech Master, please kneel,” she said.
Bow got down on one knee and Glimmer picked up a pale blue cloth from the stool that had held their marriage tokens, then shook it out to reveal it was a short cape. “With the power vested in me as Queen of Bright Moon and by virtue of our marriage, I declare you to be Bow, King Consort of Bright Moon.” Glimmer draped the cape over Bow’s shoulders, then pulled him up for another kiss.
:-:-:-:-:
Late that evening, after the celebration had wound down and most people had headed off to bed. Glimmer was snuggling with Bow in the window seat of their room—officially theirs, now, and not just hers—when Bow shifted, sat up straight, and then stood up. “Bow?” she asked, confused. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” he said, turning to face her, “nothing’s wrong.” He held a hand out to her. “Come out to the gardens with me?”
Glimmer reached out and took his hand. “Of course.” She wasn’t sure why he wanted to go out to the gardens right now, but she wouldn’t turn down a romantic nighttime stroll.
The walk from their room to the gardens was uneventful and they encountered only a few patrolling guards on their way there. Once they entered the gardens, Bow started leading her on a meandering route, but eventually Glimmer realized that they seemed to be heading for her favorite spot in the gardens. It was a secluded bower set off in one of the far corners that she had discovered as a small child.
They continued on the wandering path for a little while longer before Glimmer recognized the gap in the hedge that served as an entrance to her favorite spot. Her instincts had been right! Bow paused right before the entrance, then gave her a kiss on the cheek and said quietly, “Go on in, they’re waiting for you.”
Wondering who he was talking about, Glimmer stepped into the bower and saw that Adora and Catra were sitting on the bench that was beside the small pond in the center of the enclosed space. She didn’t know who she had been expecting, but it definitely hadn’t been them. “Adora? Catra?” she said quietly.
They looked up at the sound of her voice, then got up and came over to her. “Thanks for coming,” Adora said.
“What’s going on?” Glimmer asked. “Bow didn’t actually tell me anything, he just led me here and told me to come in.”
“To be fair,” Catra said, “we didn’t tell him much either, just that we wanted to meet with you here tonight.” Then she reached out and took one of her hands and Adora took the other before they guided her around the pond to sit on the bench between them.
“As we said when you asked if we were interested in marrying you,” Adora said, “we still want to continue the romantic relationship with you even though we’re not comfortable making it that official. So we thought that it would be nice to recommit to that relationship, just the three of us, now that you’re married to Bow and we’re married to each other.”
Oh. Oh. That was such a romantic idea. “So what do you want me to do?” Glimmer asked.
“Just repeat after us,” Catra said. “I, Catra, do here and now commit to my relationship with you, Glimmer.”
“I, Adora, do here and now commit to my relationship with you, Glimmer.”
“And I, Glimmer, do here and now commit to my relationship with you, Catra, and you, Adora.” Glimmer paused, blinked, then said, “Is that it?”
“Not quite,” Adora said, reaching into the pocket of her jacket. “We commissioned this for you as a representation of our commitment to you.” She pulled her hand out of the pocket and held it out in front of Glimmer.
Nestled in her hand was a circular pin a bit smaller than her palm. Against an enameled background of Bright Moon purple was a silver triangle knot and in the loops that formed the points of the knot were gems. One loop held a red gem, one held paired blue and yellow gems, and one held a light pink gem. Adora, Catra, and Glimmer herself.
“It’s beautiful,” Glimmer said, blinking back tears at the thoughtfulness of the pin. “Thank you.” She reached out and took the pin, then pinned it to her shirt, right over her heart.
“You’re welcome,” Adora said. Then she and Catra both leaned in and kissed Glimmer, one on each cheek.
As Catra pulled away from the kiss, she turned towards the entrance to the bower and said, “You can come out now, Bow.”
Bow stepped into the bower and wiped a hand across his eyes. “That was so sweet,” he said, ending with a faint sniffle.
“Come here, you dork,” Catra said. “We love you too, even if it’s not the same way we love Glimmer.”
Bow came over to stand next to the bench and Catra and Adora got up and hugged him. Glimmer waited a moment, then got up and joined the group hug.
In my headcanon timeline for things, I go with the idea implied in the fic Don’t Go by Annacharlier on AO3 (which has been generally agreed by the fandom to be Noelle’s fic) that Glimmer and Bow got together as a couple right after “Save the Cat”. I also headcanon that the entire rescue mission in Season Five took a month, each way, at a minimum. So when Glimmer says that it’s been slightly more than five years since she and Bow started dating, there’s still a few weeks until the fifth anniversary of Horde Prime’s defeat. The wedding takes place about eight months later.
I headcanon the entire show as taking place over about three years, with the end of Season One to the end of Season Five being roughly two of those years, so Frosta is nineteen when the wedding takes place.
In keeping with the theme naming She-Ra has, Tarn is named after a glacial tarn, a mountain lake that forms in a valley excavated by a glacier.
I couldn’t manage to work it into the fic, but just like Adora, Bow, and Catra all have something from the vision in “Heart, Part 2” as part of their wedding outfit, so does Glimmer. She has the gold arm cuffs that she’s wearing in the vision.
I chose to use a form of handfasting for the marriage rites, since Etheria doesn’t have any version of Christianity.
The triangle knot on the pin that Adora and Catra give to Glimmer is the type of Celtic knot known as a trinity knot. I figured that on a world that doesn’t seem to have any religious trinities, it would be known by another name.
I had planned to actually write out the friends-only party held the night before the wedding, but the scene just didn’t cooperate, so here’s some of the things that I was going to include:
Mermista and Sea Hawk are expecting their first child. (They got married a month or so after the fourth anniversary of Horde Prime’s defeat.) This gets revealed when someone notices that Mermista isn’t drinking any alcohol and comments on the fact, since it’s unusual for her.
Scorpia and Perfuma are newly engaged.
Tarn is a tech geek like Bow and Entrapta and ends up in utter heaven when he gets roped into a conversation with them about their latest work.
Rating: K/G
Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Characters: Glimmer, Bow, Adora, Catra, Angella, Micah, Perfuma, Castaspella
Summary: Almost six years after the defeat of Horde Prime, Glimmer and Bow are finally getting married, as are Catra and Adora.
Written for the She-Ra Fluff Bang hosted on Tumblr. Many thanks to izzy from the Fluff Bang Discord for betaing this fic.
I headcanon that Angella was rescued within a year or two after Horde Prime’s defeat, so she shows up in this fic. If you want to know how I think her rescue went, my story To Recover a Queen is as close as I’m ever likely to write, given that it holds up well enough in light of Season Five that I don’t feel like rewriting it.
I ship Glimbow and Glitradora in a both-and polyamorous situation and this is reflected in the fic.
Glimmer was nervous. She’d been planning this for months and the night had gone well so far, so she didn’t want to screw things up now.
She’d gotten the cooks to make several of Bow’s favorite dishes—it helped that she’d picked ones that she liked as well. Then she’d had the servants set up things for a romantic candlelight dinner on the balcony of the room she’d moved into after they got back from their trip to restore magic to the universe. Bow had arrived right on time, looking amazing in the fancier outfit Catra and Adora had helped her pick out for him. The lighter blues of it beautifully complemented the darker blues of the dress she’d worn and she’d actually been briefly speechless when she saw him in it. They’d both enjoyed the food and were now lingering over dessert.
Taking a deep breath, she reached into the slit pocket in the side of the dress and pulled out a small, carefully carved box of scented wood. Leaving it in her lap for the moment, she reached out and touched Bow’s hand. At her touch, Bow put down his fork and looked right at her.
Gaining confidence from his unwavering gaze, Glimmer said, “Bow, I love you. It’s been slightly more than five years since we started dating and we’ve been through a lot of ups and downs together in that time. We’ve supported each other through thick and thin and what was nearly the end of the universe and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather spend the rest of my life with.” At this, she brought out the box and put it on the table in front of him, then opened the lid so he could see the pair of amethyst stud earrings inside. “Will you marry me?”
Bow looked down at the box and then looked back up at her. Were those tears in the corners of his eyes? She hadn’t meant to make him cry. “Of course I’ll marry you,” he said, his voice thick with unshed tears. She hoped they were happy tears. Then he reached down below the table and when his hand came back up, it was holding another small wooden box. “I’ve been holding onto this for nearly a year,” he said, “and I’m not sure why I thought to bring it tonight, but I’m glad I did.” He set the box down in front of her.
Glimmer reached out and opened the box. It contained an arrowhead—blunt from the look of it—suspended between the upper and lower curves of a crescent moon. When she lifted it out of the box, she discovered there was a pin attached to the back of the arrowhead. “Is this your personal token for me?” she asked. He nodded. “Bow, this is beautiful. Did you make it?”
“I had a little bit of help, but yes,” Bow said. Then a serious expression came onto his face. “Glimmer,” he said, “what about Adora and Catra? Are you going to ask them, too?”
Glimmer had to hold back a giggle. That was so like Bow, to be thinking of others’ feelings right after getting engaged. “I asked them if they were interested, back when I first started planning this. Neither of them feels comfortable making our relationship so official.”
“Well, good,” Bow said. “I’m glad they’re not going to feel left out.”
When Bow walked into the private dining room where the Best Friends Squad had breakfast together the next morning, Glimmer at his side, Adora and Catra were already present. A large covered platter sat in the middle of the table and there was a butter crock and a small pitcher beside it. A pair of large pitchers—one white and one blue—sat on the other side of the platter.
“How’d it go last night, Sparkles?” Catra asked as Bow and Glimmer took their seats across from her and Adora.
“It went perfectly!” Glimmer said, pointing to where she had pinned his token to her shirt.
“I’m so glad,” Adora said, removing the cover from the platter to reveal a steaming heap of pancakes.
At the same time, Catra asked, “Is that Bow’s token?”
“It is,” Glimmer said, pouring herself some juice from the blue pitcher. “He made it himself.”
“It looks nice,” Adora said, reaching to serve herself some of the pancakes.
As she did this, Bow noticed that she was wearing a worn pair of fingerless gloves that looked a great deal like the ones that Catra always wore. A quick glance at Catra showed that Adora’s wing pin was now pinned to her shirt, confirming his suspicions. “Aww, you guys, you got engaged, too!” he cried. “I’m so happy for you.”
“Took you long enough to notice,” Catra said, but there was a grin on her face that took the sting out of the words. “So what’d Glimmer give you as her token?”
Bow took the box out of the pocket he had placed it in when he got dressed and opened it to show them. “My ears aren’t pierced, so I can’t wear them yet,” he explained, “but I’m planning on visiting the healers to fix that right after breakfast.”
“And after that, we should go and tell Mom and Dad,” Glimmer said, serving three pancakes onto her plate. “Then I’ll let them handle telling Aunt Casta, because she’s going to immediately want to start planning the wedding.”
“Speaking of planning the wedding,” Adora said, “Catra and I were thinking that maybe, as a way of showing that the two of us are okay with the two of you getting married, we could have the weddings at the same time.”
“A double wedding?” Glimmer said. “I love that idea. It does mean that you’re going to have to put up with Aunt Casta planning your wedding as well, though.”
“As long as we actually get to say no to the things we don’t want, I’m fine with that,” Catra said.
“Same here,” Adora said.
“Mom and Dad will make sure of it,” Glimmer said. Then all four of them settled down to eat.
After their stop in the infirmary to get one of the healers to pierce his ears—it had been relatively painless and the aftercare instructions the healer had given him were clear and easy to follow—Bow and Glimmer headed for Angella and Micah’s room. As they walked, Bow found himself having to continually keep from reaching up to fiddle with the earrings because they felt odd. It wasn’t a bad sensation exactly, but it was one he wasn’t used to and he kept wanting to poke at it. Finally, he ended up clasping hands with Glimmer to occupy one and slipped the other one into his pocket.
When they reached the room, Glimmer’s knock on the door was quickly followed by a “Come in” from the other side of it. Bow followed Glimmer into the room, being careful to close the door behind him. When he turned around from doing so, he saw that Angella and Micah were clearly taking a leisurely morning, as not only were they still eating breakfast, over in the sitting area of their room, but both of them were still wearing dressing robes over their night clothes.
“What is it, Glimmer?” Angella asked.
Glimmer shuffled her feet nervously until Bow came over and placed a calming hand on her shoulder. Then she set her feet solidly, cleared her throat once and announced, all in a rush, “Bow and I got engaged last night.”
“Congratulations!” Micah said.
He was closely followed by Angella’s comment of “I’m so glad it’s Bow. I’ve long suspected this was where the two of you would end up.”
“Come let us take a look at your tokens?” Micah asked.
“Of course,” Bow said. He and Glimmer walked over to the sitting area and then split, Glimmer taking a seat at Angella’s side and Bow taking one at Micah’s.
“May I?” Micah asked, reaching out to indicate he would like to touch the earrings.
“Be gentle about it,” Bow said. “I just had the piercing done.”
Micah was indeed gentle, brushing a finger first over the surface of the jewel, then around the side of the setting. “These earrings bring back memories,” he said when he was finished. “Glimmer made an interesting choice in using them as her token.”
“How so?” “Glimmer said. “I know they used to be yours. Mom gave them to me as a keepsake after you disappeared.”
“Unless I’m mistaken,” Micah said, “this is the same pair that Angie gave to me as her token when she proposed.”
“You’re not mistaken,” Angella said. “That was the pair that I gave to Glimmer as a keepsake.”
“Oh,” Bow said, “that is interesting, having them be used as a personal token two generations in a row.”
Even with Castaspella and Glimmer’s parents handling most of it, planning a wedding—especially a double wedding—was hard work, Adora found.
In some respects, it being a double wedding with Bow and Glimmer’s was beneficial, because there were traditions about certain things for the wedding of a member of Bright Moon’s royal family, so those decisions were already made. But there were so many other decisions to make and she found that she had no idea what she wanted for most of them. And Catra felt the same way about most of those decisions, so she couldn’t even defer to her choice.
The one thing that she and Catra had been adamant about from the beginning was reflecting that it was Adora who was getting married, not She-Ra. And so she found herself falling back on that whenever she found herself struggling with making a decision.
When responses to the invitations started coming in, she told Glimmer and Bow, “You know, one of the nice things about us doing a double wedding is that I can tell myself that all these people are coming because it’s your wedding, not because it’s mine.”
Glimmer laughed and said, “Just keep telling yourself that,” while Bow just hugged her.
Eventually, things started coming together and then, all too soon, the guests started arriving.
Frosta was the first member of their Horde-fighting Princess Alliance to arrive, a full week before the wedding. (After the defeat of Horde Prime, the Princess Alliance had been expanded and repurposed as a planetary governing body to ease interactions with other planets.) With her had come a young man named Tarn, who she reluctantly admitted was her boyfriend of a few months.
Mermista and Sea Hawk were the next to arrive, two days after Frosta. Scorpia and Perfuma arrived just two days before the wedding, and Entrapta, Hordak in tow, was the last of them to arrive, doing so the day before the wedding.
That evening, they held a private party, just for the soon-to-be-married couples and their friends. Hordak was invited, on the basis of the friendship he had developed with Catra and, odd as she sometimes still found it, Adora herself, after the war, but declined. Tarn was also invited, because, as Bow had told him, “If you’re serious about Frosta, we all want to get to know you,” and accepted the invitation.
The next morning, Adora woke with butterflies in her stomach. She was getting married today. She was just trying to decide if she should get out of bed and go for a run to try and work off the nerves when Catra opened her eyes. “Nervous?” her fiancée (soon-to-be-wife!) asked, a lazy smile on her face.
“I- Yes,” Adora replied. “How could you tell?”
“I know you,” Catra said. “If you weren’t, I’d be wondering who managed to give you a calming potion while you were asleep. Besides, I can hear your heartbeat from here. It’s a good bit faster than normal right now.”
“Oh,” Adora said.
“I also know how you like to deal with nerves,” Catra said. “Go ahead and go train or whatever it is you were just thinking about. Just don’t forget to eat breakfast and make sure to be done in time to have lunch with me and Glimmer and Bow.”
That was right, Adora remembered. The four of them had planned to have lunch together before they had to split up to get ready for the wedding. “Thanks for the reminder,” she said. Then she got up, changed into some light workout clothes, and left the room.
She swung by the kitchens to grab some sausage rolls before leaving the castle and then she headed off on a long run.
A good hard run through the Whispering Woods on a familiar route left her feeling much calmer when she returned to the castle with just enough time for a good shower before she had to meet the others for lunch.
At lunch, somehow the subject of her nerves came up and Glimmer said, “Mom told me this morning that it’s absolutely normal to be nervous before your wedding. It happens to everyone, she said.”
“She was nervous before her wedding?” Adora asked incredulously. It was hard to believe that, given how perfectly calm and poised Angella always seemed to be.
“Her and Dad both,” Glimmer said. “Mom thinks it comes from loving the person you’re marrying so much that you want everything to be perfect for them.”
“That makes sense,” Catra said. “However, I at least feel that it doesn’t matter if things are perfect so long as we’re actually married once the ceremony is over.”
The conversation turned to other topics then, but what Catra had said stuck with her, even as lunch ended and she went with Glimmer to change into their dresses.
When the two of them arrived at the room their dresses had been placed in, Adora had to take a moment to just stare at them. She’d known, in general, what they would look like, but she’d not yet had a chance to really take them in.
Glimmer’s dress was backless, the front being gathered into a band at the neck, and a full skirt spilled out from the high waistline. Its color was a purple gradient, going from the palest shade at the neck band to a deep royal purple at the hem.
Her own dress was a light red, with a fitted bodice that she’d heard the seamstress refer to as “princess-seamed”, a lace-up back, a straight skirt, and sleeves of white and gold lace, the only concession to her status as She-Ra that she’d been willing to make in the design.
“Come on,” Glimmer said, “we need to get started.”
Adora shook herself out of her reverie, noticing as she did so that Perfuma, Mermista, Frosta, and Angella had arrived while she was lost in thought, and moved over to the seat beside her dress to start the process of changing.
As Perfuma and Mermista helped her get into the dress, she asked, “Why are you four here? Not that I’m objecting, of course, the help is actually really useful, I’m just curious.”
From where she and Frosta were helping Glimmer into her own dress, Angella said, “It’s very common, to the point of being almost traditional, for close friends and family of the people getting married to help them with the immediate preparations for the wedding like changing and doing hair and makeup.”
“Oh,” Adora said. “Who’s helping Bow and Catra, then?”
“Scorpia and Entrapta are with Catra and I believe that Sea Hawk and Micah are with Bow,” Perfuma said.
“They are,” Mermista said. Her tone somehow managed to suggest that she wasn’t so sure that Sea Hawk would actually be helpful.
“I think his dads are with him, too,” Glimmer added.
“And, done,” Perfuma said. “Your dress is all laced up.”
Adora stretched carefully, mindful to not tear anything, and took a deep breath. “Thanks, Perfuma,” she said. “That feels just right.” Then she sat down and put on the sandals she had chosen to go with the dress. The only difference from the pair that she usually wore when she needed to dress up was that the leather had been dyed a deep red.
Once she had fastened the laces on the sandals, Perfuma and Mermista guided her over to one of the vanities set up against the wall and had her take a seat. “I know you don’t like makeup,” Perfuma said, “but how do you want to do your hair today?”
“I was actually thinking of leaving it down,” Adora said. “Catra likes it like that.” Then she blushed as she thought of when Catra usually said that.
“Down it is, then,” Perfuma said. “Is there any particular way you want it pinned back from your face or should I just experiment and see what you like?”
“I don’t usually wear it down, so you’re going to have to experiment,” Adora said.
Perfuma set about it, but after roughly ten minutes, Adora was starting to regret her decision. None of the various styles that Perfuma had tried looked right. That was when Angella came over, a large-ish, mostly flat, somewhat circular package in her hand.
“Do you think this might solve your styling difficulties?” she asked, offering the package to Adora. “It’s the gift Micah and I commissioned for you, but I brought it along now on the off chance that it might be used.”
Adora carefully unwrapped the package to reveal a beautifully crafted tiara. It was similar to Glimmer’s in that it was a single stone supported by a band of metal on each side that curved out to the sides to form the arms that would hold it on her head, but where the stone in Glimmer’s tiara was a teardrop of the palest pink, the stone in this one was a red oval, making it faintly reminiscent of She-Ra’s original tiara.
“It’s beautiful,” Adora murmured. She didn’t really want to include any more reminders that she was She-Ra in her outfit than she already had, but given the trouble she was having, it was worth trying. So she had Perfuma brush all of her hair back and then she slipped on the tiara.
It fit perfectly, the arms resting snuggly against the sides of her head and the stone settling just below her hairline. She took a moment to study herself in the mirror and came to the conclusion that, as much as she disliked the reminder of She-Ra today, it was exactly what she had been looking for.
“Thank you,” she said, turning to face Angella. “It’s perfect.”
“I’m glad,” Angella said, gently placing a hand on Adora’s shoulder.
“If that’s settled, then it’s time to go get in place,” Perfuma said.
With those words, she turned and left the room, followed by Mermista, Frosta, and Glimmer. Adora moved to follow Glimmer, but Angella’s hand on her shoulder stopped her.
“I already had this moment with Glimmer,” Angella said, “but I haven’t had a chance to speak with you privately yet today.” Angella moved to stand in front of her, placing both hands on her shoulders and looking her squarely in the face. “You’ve come a long, long way from the Horde soldier I first saw kneeling to pledge herself to the Rebellion and fight against everything she had ever known until then and I could not be prouder of you than I am today, when both of my daughters are getting married.”
Adora had known how Angella felt about her since the former queen was rescued, but to hear it so explicitly stated, on today of all days… She felt tears rolling down her cheeks as she threw her arms around Angella in a hug that was quickly returned.
Angella let her just cry for a little, safe in her embrace, before pulling back and plucking a soft cloth off the vanity that the former queen used to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Time to go now,” Angella said. “You don’t want to keep Catra waiting, do you?”
“No,” Adora said, taking the cloth from Angella and using it to blow her nose before she wiped one last tear from the corner of her eye. Then she turned and left the room.
She followed the halls of the castle until she reached the room just before the entrance to the gardens where the four of them were to wait for their cue to enter. When she entered the room, she saw that the other three were already there.
Bow was in a suit of sky blue, with a midriff-baring shirt of light blue under the jacket. A pin in the shape of an upside-down crescent moon over a heart was pinned to his shirt just below the neck and he had on shoes of a deep royal blue.
Catra was wearing a dusty red shirt with an open neckline and elbow-length sleeves and black pants with a gold stripe down the outside seam. Her hair was up in a high ponytail, she had on her usual black fingerless gloves, and the wing pin Adora had given her as a personal token was pinned just below the bottom of the V formed by the neckline of the shirt.
“What kept you?” Catra asked, a teasing note in her voice.
“Angella wanted a private word,” Adora replied.
“Ah, she was giving you the ‘So proud of you’ speech,” Glimmer said.
“Yes,” Adora said.
“I got one of those from Micah this morning,” Catra said. Her tone was faintly annoyed, but the soft smile on her face showed it for the affectation it was.
“Where’d the tiara come from?” Bow asked. “It looks good.”
“Angella gave it to me,” Adora replied. “She said it’s the gift she and Micah had made for me.”
Silence fell over the room then, and it wasn’t long before the strains of music coming in from the garden let them know it was time to go out.
Adora and Catra stepped through the door into the gardens hand-in-hand and walked down the aisle left by the guests. When they reached the dais that had been set up at the other end, they stepped up onto it and moved to the right. Castaspella, who had been waiting on the dais already, standing between a pair of cushioned stools, gave them a smile as Bow and Glimmer finished making their way down the aisle and stepped up onto the left side of the dais.
Once Bow and Glimmer had settled into their places on the dais, Castaspella raised her hands. The soft murmuring of the crowd stopped and then Castaspella started to speak.
“Fellow Etherians,” she said, “we are gathered here today to see these two couples joined in marriage.” She lowered her hands and turned to Catra and Adora. “Catra and Adora, step forward.” Adora and Catra did as she asked, moving to the space right in front of her. “Adora, She-Ra of Etheria, is it your desire to be joined to Catra, Royal Advisor of Bright Moon, in marriage?”
“It is,” Adora said, suppressing her wince at the reference to She-Ra.
“Catra, Royal Advisor of Bright Moon, is it your desire to be joined to Adora, She-Ra of Etheria, in marriage?”
“It is.”
Castaspella unwound a pale blue ribbon from around her left wrist and stepped towards Catra and Adora. “With this ribbon, I bind your hands,” she said, suiting actions to words and wrapping the ribbon around their intertwined hands, “and in doing so, bind your hearts as well. I now declare you married.”
Adora smiled at Catra and then they leaned towards each other and kissed. After a moment, Adora heard Castaspella clear her throat and the two of them broke the kiss and turned back towards her. Castaspella unwrapped the ribbon from around their hands and said, “Now let the two of you exchange your marriage tokens.”
Adora reached over to the stool on Castaspella’s left and picked up one of the matching sword pendants resting there. She unclasped the chain and then fastened the necklace around Catra’s neck. Once she was done, Catra picked up the other pendant and did the same for her. After that, the two of them stepped back to their original position on the dais and Castaspella called Bow and Glimmer forward.
Castaspella repeated the ceremony for Bow and Glimmer, and then, after they had exchanged marriage tokens—Bow and Glimmer had chosen to split a pair of earrings, Bow wearing his in his right ear and Glimmer wearing hers in her left—she stepped back.
Glimmer stepped forward into the space Castaspella had just vacated and turned to face Bow. “Bow, Master Archer and Tech Master, please kneel,” she said.
Bow got down on one knee and Glimmer picked up a pale blue cloth from the stool that had held their marriage tokens, then shook it out to reveal it was a short cape. “With the power vested in me as Queen of Bright Moon and by virtue of our marriage, I declare you to be Bow, King Consort of Bright Moon.” Glimmer draped the cape over Bow’s shoulders, then pulled him up for another kiss.
Late that evening, after the celebration had wound down and most people had headed off to bed. Glimmer was snuggling with Bow in the window seat of their room—officially theirs, now, and not just hers—when Bow shifted, sat up straight, and then stood up. “Bow?” she asked, confused. “Is something wrong?”
“No,” he said, turning to face her, “nothing’s wrong.” He held a hand out to her. “Come out to the gardens with me?”
Glimmer reached out and took his hand. “Of course.” She wasn’t sure why he wanted to go out to the gardens right now, but she wouldn’t turn down a romantic nighttime stroll.
The walk from their room to the gardens was uneventful and they encountered only a few patrolling guards on their way there. Once they entered the gardens, Bow started leading her on a meandering route, but eventually Glimmer realized that they seemed to be heading for her favorite spot in the gardens. It was a secluded bower set off in one of the far corners that she had discovered as a small child.
They continued on the wandering path for a little while longer before Glimmer recognized the gap in the hedge that served as an entrance to her favorite spot. Her instincts had been right! Bow paused right before the entrance, then gave her a kiss on the cheek and said quietly, “Go on in, they’re waiting for you.”
Wondering who he was talking about, Glimmer stepped into the bower and saw that Adora and Catra were sitting on the bench that was beside the small pond in the center of the enclosed space. She didn’t know who she had been expecting, but it definitely hadn’t been them. “Adora? Catra?” she said quietly.
They looked up at the sound of her voice, then got up and came over to her. “Thanks for coming,” Adora said.
“What’s going on?” Glimmer asked. “Bow didn’t actually tell me anything, he just led me here and told me to come in.”
“To be fair,” Catra said, “we didn’t tell him much either, just that we wanted to meet with you here tonight.” Then she reached out and took one of her hands and Adora took the other before they guided her around the pond to sit on the bench between them.
“As we said when you asked if we were interested in marrying you,” Adora said, “we still want to continue the romantic relationship with you even though we’re not comfortable making it that official. So we thought that it would be nice to recommit to that relationship, just the three of us, now that you’re married to Bow and we’re married to each other.”
Oh. Oh. That was such a romantic idea. “So what do you want me to do?” Glimmer asked.
“Just repeat after us,” Catra said. “I, Catra, do here and now commit to my relationship with you, Glimmer.”
“I, Adora, do here and now commit to my relationship with you, Glimmer.”
“And I, Glimmer, do here and now commit to my relationship with you, Catra, and you, Adora.” Glimmer paused, blinked, then said, “Is that it?”
“Not quite,” Adora said, reaching into the pocket of her jacket. “We commissioned this for you as a representation of our commitment to you.” She pulled her hand out of the pocket and held it out in front of Glimmer.
Nestled in her hand was a circular pin a bit smaller than her palm. Against an enameled background of Bright Moon purple was a silver triangle knot and in the loops that formed the points of the knot were gems. One loop held a red gem, one held paired blue and yellow gems, and one held a light pink gem. Adora, Catra, and Glimmer herself.
“It’s beautiful,” Glimmer said, blinking back tears at the thoughtfulness of the pin. “Thank you.” She reached out and took the pin, then pinned it to her shirt, right over her heart.
“You’re welcome,” Adora said. Then she and Catra both leaned in and kissed Glimmer, one on each cheek.
As Catra pulled away from the kiss, she turned towards the entrance to the bower and said, “You can come out now, Bow.”
Bow stepped into the bower and wiped a hand across his eyes. “That was so sweet,” he said, ending with a faint sniffle.
“Come here, you dork,” Catra said. “We love you too, even if it’s not the same way we love Glimmer.”
Bow came over to stand next to the bench and Catra and Adora got up and hugged him. Glimmer waited a moment, then got up and joined the group hug.
In my headcanon timeline for things, I go with the idea implied in the fic Don’t Go by Annacharlier on AO3 (which has been generally agreed by the fandom to be Noelle’s fic) that Glimmer and Bow got together as a couple right after “Save the Cat”. I also headcanon that the entire rescue mission in Season Five took a month, each way, at a minimum. So when Glimmer says that it’s been slightly more than five years since she and Bow started dating, there’s still a few weeks until the fifth anniversary of Horde Prime’s defeat. The wedding takes place about eight months later.
I headcanon the entire show as taking place over about three years, with the end of Season One to the end of Season Five being roughly two of those years, so Frosta is nineteen when the wedding takes place.
In keeping with the theme naming She-Ra has, Tarn is named after a glacial tarn, a mountain lake that forms in a valley excavated by a glacier.
I couldn’t manage to work it into the fic, but just like Adora, Bow, and Catra all have something from the vision in “Heart, Part 2” as part of their wedding outfit, so does Glimmer. She has the gold arm cuffs that she’s wearing in the vision.
I chose to use a form of handfasting for the marriage rites, since Etheria doesn’t have any version of Christianity.
The triangle knot on the pin that Adora and Catra give to Glimmer is the type of Celtic knot known as a trinity knot. I figured that on a world that doesn’t seem to have any religious trinities, it would be known by another name.
I had planned to actually write out the friends-only party held the night before the wedding, but the scene just didn’t cooperate, so here’s some of the things that I was going to include:
Mermista and Sea Hawk are expecting their first child. (They got married a month or so after the fourth anniversary of Horde Prime’s defeat.) This gets revealed when someone notices that Mermista isn’t drinking any alcohol and comments on the fact, since it’s unusual for her.
Scorpia and Perfuma are newly engaged.
Tarn is a tech geek like Bow and Entrapta and ends up in utter heaven when he gets roped into a conversation with them about their latest work.