remember when these were going to be fun space adventures.

[morethanadistraction]

Comments

[destinybound]

Adora can't believe this is happening.

This was supposed to be your standard space mission: Glimmer and Bow go looking for fuel, Adora and Catra go looking for magic to rehabilitate from First Ones tech. It's a small planet, barely populated -- and while sure, the group of them are known to dawdle, taking in the new sights and foreign cultures wherever they go, it was supposed to be pretty straightforward. Pop in, free some magic, pop back out.

Adora wasn't prepared to come upon one of the last surviving First One colonies in all the galaxy.

Least of all was Adora prepared to find her own family.

As soon as she laid eyes on Adam, somehow, she just knew. The same way she had when she picked up the sword for the first time. But she didn't let herself charge forward on a hunch alone-- instead she cautiously poked and prodded, posing questions about his family life that were probably not as subtle as she'd intended, but, well--

Once he mentioned having a sister who got sucked into an interdimensional portal as a baby, that kind of cleared the last of her doubt.

It's all a whirlwind from there. She found out very quickly that Adam gives really powerful hugs. Then he was rushing them home, bellowing "Mom! Dad! You'll never guess who's here," and then there was a whole mess of crying and hugging and crying some more, because they never thought they'd see each other again, and Adora couldn't believe and has a mom and a dad.

"Oh-- oh, we've got to celebrate this," her mother declared, and though their village is small and their home humble, her family managed to whip up a whole feast in record time. They wouldn't even let Adora help chop the vegetables.

And here they are now-- the six of them, crammed around the dinner table. Catra, Adora, her brother, her parents -- plus Melog, curled up in the corner with a little bowl of its own. The sword of protection lies dormant around her arm in the form of a brace, as unintrusive as Adora knows how to make it. She doesn't know how much they know about She-ra, and besides, there's so many other things they can talk about first.

"Adora, sweetheart, please," her father beckons, the whole family's eyes locked on her. "Tell us everything. Where did you grow up? Who found you?"

"I-- I-- well," she stammers, already overwhelmed before opening her mouth. "I landed on the planet Etheria, where I got picked up by... the Horde, actually," she begins, earning her a chorus of terrified gasps-- "but it was fine! They raised me, and um, it was pretty much what you'd expect from the Horde, yeah, but I had Catra with me." She reaches for her hand under the table, then lifts it up, joining their fingers together. "So I was okay."

She doesn't let go of her hand, even as she keeps talking. "Then when I got older, um, I ended up leaving, and joining the Bright Moon rebellion against the Horde." She still doesn't want to mention the sword, the whole She-ra thing. That can wait, right? Even if she's not sure how to disentangle it from the last couple years of her life. It kind of was her life.

"And uh, a lot of stuff happened! I met Glimmer and Bow, who are two of my best friends, and-- they're actually here too, but they went the other way looking for crystals for fuel, and with all this I haven't had the chance to contact them-- oh man, I really should!" She grapples for the navigator on her belt for a moment, holds it up, hesitates, then puts it back down. "Wait, I don't wanna be rude, I'll just-- I'll do it in a bit."

She heaves out a sigh. "Where was I-- oh, so yeah, I made friends with Glimmer and Bow, and also a horse, his name is Swift Wind and he can fly, and also all the princesses of Etheria, and they reformed the Princess Alliance, which was a thing a whole bunch of years ago but fell apart, so they brought it back together, and-- Oh my god, I'm talking so much."

A realization that was brought on by the desperate need for breath. Adora sucks in a mouthful of air, then drains her glass of water completely of its contents. Her hand, despite steadily growing clammy, insistently squeezes Catra's over the table. "I'm sorry, I'm just so excited."