"… So."

Glimmer glanced over at Adora as she spoke, absently weighing the risks and rewards of what she wanted to do. In the end she decided to go for it—they'd just had a successful date (reasonably successful date!), and they'd already kissed a few times before anyway. She was pretty sure compared to that this was a small thing, and so there was only some hesitation as she reached out and took Adora's hand.

"So?" she urged, smiling slightly to herself when the taller blonde laced their fingers together tightly without any hesitation. That was a good sign! Definitely a good one! "I thought that went pretty well for a first date, all things considered."

"Pretty well?" It was a laugh, and Adora finally looked at her, eyes gleaming with amusement. "From what I read, I didn't think things caught on fire when you went on a date."

"Clearly you weren't reading the right books."

"True. At least we weren't attacked while we were visiting the park, though… still. Fire."

"It was part of the entertainment, Adora. Not everything that catches on fire is because of a fight, you know."

Glimmer decided to not mention that particular display lighting up had probably not been planned during the park show; it had still made for an entertaining few minutes, and it was worth seeing the way the tall girl scrunched her nose up in thought as she reviewed the show in her mind's eye.

"Well," she said at last. "Sea Hawk would have liked the show, at least. He's always had a thing about fire. A… bit of a weird thing."

"He's lit things on fire outside of battle before," Glimmer reminded her lightly, her smile becoming bigger now.

"I don't think that was supposed to be entertainment. That said… it was pretty entertaining when it happened."

"Yeah, okay, I'm just saying it now." The princess gave her girlfriend's hand a squeeze, and the thought of calling Adora that—even if it was still only in her head, they hadn't actually confirmed anything yet, but after all of this it had to be pretty close—gave her a thrill all the way down to her toes. "Watching Sea Hawk isn't going to be one of our dates, sweetheart."

Adora pouted. "And here I thought I had our second date all set."

"Nice try, but no." The pink-haired girl grinned at her, now. "Should I take it as a good sign that you're already thinking about our second date, though?"

The blonde flushed, now; something light and pink, and very cute, as she rubbed the back of her neck and smiled nervously. "I-I mean, I had a lot of fun today. A-And you're still holding my hand, so I think you had fun today too? Maybe? Did I assume too much? I'm sorry if I did. You're still holding my hand."

She was rambling and stammering. If Glimmer had felt like being mean, she would have let this keep going until Adora ran out of breath, but the day had already gone so well that she didn't want to let her believe otherwise. And besides, the idea of a second date was very appealing. The fact that Adora was considering their future was very, very appealing.

It was only a second date at this point, but still! That was some future thinking! That was a promising sign!

So she gave Adora a light tug to stop her, blinked in front of her, and leaned up to kiss her to stop that rambling. They were dating now, kind of. She was allowed to do these things. And the taller girl definitely liked it, because she sighed and relaxed into the kiss, leaned down into it.

Oh. Oh, okay, Adora was definitely getting better at this kissing thing. She'd either read more romance novels, or she was a fast learner. Either way, it was… really nice. It took a moment longer than she'd planned, but Glimmer did eventually remember that she had to pull away for this conversation to continue.

She might have also remembered that breathing was a thing that they both needed to do. A little bit of both, really.

The tall blonde smiled shyly when the princess pulled away. "And you just kissed me," she murmured. "I'm going to guess that you had a lot of fun today?"

Glimmer chuckled and brought Adora's fingers to her lips, giving them a light kiss. "Yes," she said. "I had a lot of fun today, Adora. And I'm already very excited for a second date."

"And now I have to plan a second date," the blonde said, a stupidly happy smile breaking out across her face and making Glimmer smile in return. "Are you sure you don't want to watch Sea Hawk? He can be pretty fun."

"Do I really have to say no again?"

Adora kissed her, now, and this time it was a short, chaste thing; something that Glimmer definitely understood, and of course, any time she was kissing the other girl was a good thing, but she grieved the briefness of it all the same when they parted. "You don't," she assured her, giving her hand a squeeze as they started walking again. "Now I just have to think of something else to do for our next date."

Glimmer looked at her. "I can plan it, if you want."

"No, no." Adora waved her free hand, and the princess could see she had already made up her mind about this. "You already got our first date, I want to handle our second. I'll think of something."

They were silent for a time as they continued to walk, both of them lost in thought and just enjoying each other's company. Finally, though, Glimmer couldn't contain herself any longer. This was all a very good sign—an excellent sign, certainly—but despite everything, they still hadn't really… made it official. Past the first date. And a part of her really wanted to ask about that, now that they were past that first date hurdle and on their way.

Planning a second date, of course, meant that it was assumed that they were dating. It meant that it was assumed this was a relationship, one that would last. It meant that there was a future for them, and they needed to talk about that now at least a little. Probably. Maybe.

Glimmer wasn't actually sure, was the thing. This was her first serious relationship! She was figuring it out!

… Maybe it was time to swallow her pride a little and talk to Angella. She'd been married before, after all; she still loved her father a lot. She might actually have a lot of advice about this kind of thing, and love was… love was a big word to be using this early, Glimmer knew that, but she also knew that she liked Adora a lot already. She could easily see herself loving her.

But that was further off, yet, something she'd keep to herself—or something she'd try to, at least. No need to overwhelm the taller girl with all of that already when this was just getting started. The pink-haired girl might not have always been the most patient person in the world (as both Bow and her mother could cheerfully attest to. Several times. Over the course of many years), but she could at least try to be when it counted.

And Adora? She counted. She really counted.

Yeah, okay, I need to talk to Mom about this sometime when we get back.

But first things first! She needed to say something. Something to make this official. Maybe she could even be brave and ask what Adora was imagining for them beyond a second date? Yes, she liked that thought very much. It would be nice to figure out if they were on the same page, at least. And they were alone, with no one else in the area. Now was the best time! Having some idea of the future, of what came next, certainly never hurt.

And yet, the warmth of Adora's hand in hers stopped her. At some point during their walk the other girl had laced their fingers together for an even better grip, and she was humming softly under her breath. Glimmer sneaked a glance at her out of the corner of her eye, and she saw something then that was still tragically rare but always precious: the former Horde soldier was completely relaxed, completely at ease. There was no tension in her whatsoever. At this moment, she was enjoying herself without any reservation.

And just like that, any thought of asking about the future, of what came next, died before the words even left Glimmer's lips—something that happened to her rarely (she could admit it!), and that just made it feel even more important. She gave Adora's hand a squeeze instead, and smiled to herself when she heard the taller girl's breath hitch at the small show of affection.

They would need to talk about the future, eventually. They would need to talk about what came next, when people began to ask what kind of name their relationship had. She knew that day would come. But today wasn't that day.

"Hey, Glimmer?"

Today, it was enough to know that they had a future together, with each other.

"Yeah, Adora?"

"I think I have an idea for our second date. A real one, I mean."

"Great. I look forward to it."

And for now, knowing they had that future together was enough.

And that's that! Hope you all enjoyed reading, I enjoyed writing. And finished before season 3, too! Not my original goal but hey, it works.