#Finn Rainbowfist Meowmeow

[toweringclam]

Favorite post-canon trope: two (presumably cis) characters of the same gender in a scifi/fantasy setting have a biological child together.

Of course they can do that. Why wouldn't they be able to do that? Why would we even need to explain why they can do that?

Happens both in fanworks and unofficial stuff by the original creators, and I eat it up every time.

[darkmasterofcupcakes]

Makes for Good Practice

Summary:  Glimmer and Bow babysit Finn for Catra and Adora....And start to wonder if maybe the kid is more closely related to Catra than any of them originally expected. Originally done for the 2020 Glimbow Week Countdown Prompt “Babysitting”.

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“I still can’t believe those two had a kid before us,” Bow marveled aloud to Glimmer as they watched the scruffy-looking magicat child gather up their toys for the game they’d been developing.

Finn had only been at Bright Moon for a few months, but it seemed like they’d already more than made themselves comfortable. It was quite the stark contrast from when Catra and Adora had first brought the child in from the forest. The couple could hardly believe there was a time when Finn had insisted on hiding under the furniture, only being coaxed out by the promise of food; now they seemed to all but demand attention unless they had their mind on something else.

Glimmer smirked a little at her husband’s words. “Yeah, well,” she began, leaning back slightly in the cushioned chair she was sitting in. “They did kinda cheat, so I don’t know if we should really count it.”

Considering how competitive their friends could be, Glimmer almost had to wonder if it really was a coincidence that the two of them had found Finn mere weeks after learning that she and Bow were expecting their first child. But, she decided not to think much of it, mostly because the kid was pretty cute – not surprising considering they were basically just a giant kitten, acting even more like one than Catra tended to.

Bow couldn’t help but grin at Glimmer’s comment, and was about to open his mouth to respond, but instead the only thing that came out of his mouth was a yelp of surprise as he ducked his head to avoid being smacked by one of the toys their charge was haphazardly tossing about.

“Finn!” Glimmer scolded as the six-year-old darted over to grab the toy they’d accidentally launched at Bow’s head.

One of Finn’s ears twitched before the turned to face the Queen, their expression so innocent that literally anyone who had any common sense would be able to tell it was absolutely fake. And if the expression didn’t give it away, their tone of voice when they spoke definitely did.

“Yes, Auntie Glimmer?” Finn asked, practically purring as they spoke, tilting their head to the side as though to try and make themselves seem all the more childlike and innocent. Glimmer wasn’t going to call for it.

“Finn, you can’t just throw stuff around like that. You could really hurt someone,” she told the child, trying to find the rest amount of firmness for her tone of voice.

The blank look on the child’s face made her seriously wonder if maybe she hadn’t been firm enough. In her defense, it wasn’t as though she’d had much practice in this area; she hadn’t even been expecting to have to do anything like this for at least a couple of years.

Finn’s blank expression quickly morphed into one of indignation, their light blue eyes narrowing into slits and their tail flicking back and forth in clear signs of anger, most likely an anger that stemmed from being scolded.

“S’not like I threw it at him on purpose, Aunt Glimmer,” Finn practically growled. “And he didn’t get hit anyway, so doesn’t matter even if I did.”

Glimmer was genuinely torn between being frustrated at the response…and being just as amused by it. Of course her friends would take in a kid like this, one who seemed to dislike authority almost as much as they despised being forced to take an actual bath instead of simply liking themselves clean. It probably didn’t help that – most definitely the result of wanting to avoiding being anything like the woman who had raised them – neither Adora nor especially Catra had actually done much in the way of the disciplinary part of childrearing in the months since Finn had come to stay with them.

And Glimmer understood why they were worried about going too far, she really did. But, times like this made her wish that maybe she’d understood that being put in a time out was probably not gonna make their kid think they were horrible people and hate them forever?

She couldn’t help but let out a frustrated groan – which came out sounding a bit more like a growl than she’d want to admit, considering who she was dealing with. The groan soon gave way to a small gasp as she quickly covered her mouth with her hand. Whoever called this morning sickness should be questioned what they thought ‘morning’ meant…as should whoever wrote in all those books that it should start to fade once she was out of the first trimester.

“Are you okay?” Bow asked, momentarily distracting her from both the talk she’d been trying to have with Finn, as well as the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied once she felt confident enough that she could speak without gagging. “I’m fine.”

The nausea had sapped away what little energy she had for arguing with Finn, so she just gave her charge a warning look and told them to be more careful with their toys….or else she’d ground them herself; she had the guards to help her enforce it, if it came to that.

Finn grumbled under their breath but gave a begrudging nod, tail still flicking back and forth in anger as they stomped off to continue their game. Once they were left alone again, Glimmer flopped down next to her husband, leaning her body against his as she asked, “Why did we agree to watch them again?”

The feeling of Bow’s fingers running through her hair got her to feel considerably better, even though she was still fairly tired; though at this point, she wasn’t entirely sure if the exhaustion was the result of the kid the young couple was watching over…or the one that she had currently developing inside her belly.

“Because we’re good friends who wanted to do a favor for Adora and Catra,” Bow replied, still stroking her hair with one hand, while the other arm wrapped around her, his hand resting on her stomach, which was just beginning to grow. Glimmer rolled her eyes.

“Oh, right,” she said, leaning back into him a little more. “Kinda forgot that being a good friend can sort of suck a bit.”

A small chuckle escaped from Bow’s lips and Glimmer was suddenly hit by a strong sense of realization. Considering their past, if there was anyone who knew exactly what she was talking about with friendship sometimes being a pain, it was him.

She muttered an apology, worried that perhaps she’d brought back some painful memories with what she’d said, but Bow simply wrapped his arm a little tighter around her; she figured that meant he wasn’t too upset by it.

There was a sudden crashing sound coming from nearby, and without even thinking, Glimmer immediately teleported over to the origin – completely forgetting that Bow was still holding onto her, meaning that she ended up dragging him along for the ride. She also forgot that teleporting tended to make her nauseous, and found herself doubling over, struggling to keep the crackers she’d eaten earlier down, while Bow held onto her to help her stay on her feet. Glimmer was still trying to focus on settling her stomach her attention was pulled away by the sound of her husband’s voice.

“Finn?” Bow asked, the tone of his voice making it very apparent he was struggling not to raise his voice too much. “What are you doing with that? Actually, never mind why you have it – just put it down, right now.”

Now somewhat confused and more or less recovered from the nausea, Glimmer looked up to see exactly what Bow was so worked up about. What she saw upon lifting up her head made her almost start choking on nothing, just out of pure shock; there, perched on the kitchen counter, was Finn, holding a knife that was almost as long as their whole forearm in one of their hands.

How they’d gotten their hands on the knife was a question that briefly passed through her mind, but it was gone just as quickly. How they got it wasn’t the main issue – getting it away from them was. After all, she still felt like she was unprepared for parenthood, but even she knew they a kid that young shouldn’t be anywhere near a knife that big, much less actually be wielding it like Finn was currently doing.

Unfortunately – but probably not surprisingly – it didn’t seem like the young one was listening to the demands of their “uncle”. Rather than handing over the knife, Finn simply plopped down so that their bottom was resting on the counter, their legs dangling over the edge. As they swung their feet back and forth, they looked at the two adults with an undoubtedly defiant expression clear as day on their face.

“Why should I?” they asked, and the tone in their voice made Glimmer realize just why her mom had always gotten on her case about the tone she used when they had argued during her younger years.

If she had made her mom feel like how Finn was making her feel right now…Well, she didn’t have time to think about that at the moment; the more important issue was getting the knife away from Finn before they managed to find a way to chop their own tail off.

The kid may have been getting on her nerves, but the last thing Glimmer wanted was for them to get hurt, especially that badly.

“Finn…” she began with a sigh, despite trying not to make it too clear just how tired she already was. “What do you even want with a knife? If you just think it’s cool, I’ll give you something else to play with that’s just as good – probably better, actually, since it won’t make you have to worry about cutting yourself by playing with it.”

That seemed to get the kitten’s attention. They didn’t let go of the knife just yet, but they did look intrigued as they looked at the Queen; the fact that they hopped off the counter with a gleam in their eyes was an even better sign.

“Really?” Finn was practically purring as they started to step closer to Glimmer, tail flicking back and forth in what they’d learned from the years with Catra was a sign of excitement. “What is it?”

The next sound out of the child’s mouth was an outraged yowl, let out in response to Glimmer simply reaching out and snatching the knife out of their hand.

Before they could say anything else, Glimmer teleported away, reappearing a moment later without the knife and with a noticeably flushed face, mumbling something under her breath.

Without even looking, she knew Bow would be looking concerned, but that wasn’t where her attention was focused at the moment. Instead, the first thing she did was look at a positively fuming Finn.

The child was clearly hoping that their angry look would be enough to make Glimmer feel sorry for what she had done, or maybe even afraid of what they might do in response to having “their” knife taken away. Unfortunately for Finn, Glimmer was well past the point of caring that they were upset, if she ever had reached that point at all.

Instead, she simply walked over to where they were standing, looking them straight in the eye with an expression that probably would have given her mother a case of déjà vu had she been around to witness it.

“Listen,” she began, her tone making it clear that she wasn’t going to let the kid argue with her. “I get that you want to find something to play with, and I can even get wanting to check out some kind of weapon…But, if you think we’re just going to let you wave a knife around, you better thing again.”

Finn opened their mouth to say something, but ultimately seemed to decide against it. Instead, they just grumbled something under their breath, and walked over to Bow, barely even giving Glimmer a glance as they walked past her. Once the cat-child was standing in front of the King, they tiled their head up to look him in the eyes, tail flicking slightly back and forth as they said, “I want a snack.”

The brief glance they’d given Glimmer as they approached Bow had already felt a little bit like a challenge, and their tone as they made their request just proved it in her eyes. There was a part of her that wanted to speak up, to call the kid out on how much of a brat they were being right now, but she didn’t say anything.

Glimmer had plenty of faith in Bow to know how to respond to what Finn was really asking for; they may have said they wanted a snack, but she could tell what they were really looking for – proof that they could get at least one of the adults to give into their demands, whatever they were and whether or not they were deserved.

There was a moment of tense silence in which both the child and the Queen awaited an answer from the archer-turned-King, who briefly glanced at his wife before turning his eyes back to their charge.

“Sorry, Finn, but it’s almost time for dinner – if we let you have a snack now, you’re not going to eat any of it,” he explained, sounding like he was somewhat apologetic…but also that he wasn’t going to step down. Which Glimmer had to admit she was thankful for – she really didn’t need to have Bow turned against her right now.

Finn’s cheeks puffed out in anger, making the sitters briefly wonder if they were trying to hold their breath in an attempt to break at least one of them. Once they seemed to realize that it wasn’t going to work, they released the breath in a combination of a huff and a hiss.

“Fine, but I’m not gonna like whatever we gotta eat,” the young cat-person proclaimed, their ears twitching slightly as they made their way out of the kitchen, heading back to the direction of the living area.

As they left, Bow and Glimmer both let out a small sigh of relief before sharing a look that clearly said, “I think we can live with that.”

Still, they did follow after Finn, if only to keep an eye on them. Despite the earlier issues, it didn’t take long before the child seemed to have forgiven their sitters, and was practically demanding Glimmer and Bow take part in whatever game of pretend they had come up with in the past fifteen minutes. Which was a pretty good way to describe the game, since the whole time they were playing, Finn would periodically change or add something new to the rules or the storyline, seemingly completely out of the blue; though they always seemed to think the sudden changes made perfect sense.

The game went on for a while, until the chefs came to announce that dinner was served, at which point the three of them went to eat, though not without a bit of complaint from Finn, who had tried to insist on finishing the game beforehand.

Until they learned that the main course was roasted waterfowl, at which point they immediately tossed away their toys and darted towards the dining room, not even glancing back when Bow told them to slow down a bit. And despite their earlier insistence that they wouldn’t like the meal, Finn not only devoured every bit of food on the plate, but they also asked for seconds.

They almost asked for thirds as well; it was only the reminder that dessert was still on the table that prevented them from doing so. Still, between the two servings of the main course and quite a bit of dessert, the child ended up being quite drowsy from a full stomach by the time they finally decided they were done.

In fact, Finn had already started to nod off when Glimmer had finished her last piece of the mixed-fruit pie the kitchen staff had prepared for the night’s dessert; and seemed to be fully asleep by the time the table had been cleared off and the staff had been dismissed for the night.

“You know, when they’re asleep like this, it’s almost easy to forget the whole knife-stealing thing,” Glimmer commented with a slight smirk, looking down at Finn, curled into a ball against Bow’s side; the Queen herself was snuggled tightly against the other.

Bow let out a small chuckle at the comment.

“At least now we know that we’ll be able to handle this little one,” he replied, moving slightly – and carefully, so as not to disturb the sleeping child – to place his hand gently on Glimmer’s belly.

Glimmer couldn’t help but laugh a little at the comment, though she did mumble an agreement to the statement, even as she found herself starting to get a little sleepy as well. Not that anyone could blame her – taking care of Finn for the past few hours had been kind of exhausting, not to mention she was typically falling asleep earlier lately even without that being a factor. The fact that she felt so comfortable snuggling up with her husband on the sofa really wasn’t helping matters, either.

“Wake me up when Adora and Catra get back, okay?” she requested through a yawn, allowing her head to rest upon Bow’s shoulder.

She was already starting to fall asleep when he responded, but figured he was most likely agreeing to do just that. So, after letting out another yawn, Glimmer snuggled up closer to Bow, feeling secure and content as she felt herself drift off to sleep after the eventful day they’d had.

[darkmasterofcupcakes]

I’m still not sure if I’m gonna incorporate Finn into my more canon-compliant future AU (since the stuff with my older She-Ra Kids is from an AU that basically treats everything from Season 2 onward as, like, I pick and choose what happened), but if I do decide to bring them in, I do have to say that I am not going to be using the backstory that most people seem to accept for them. Which is mostly that they were conceived via magic to be biologically related to Adora and Catra, and Catra is the one who carried them.

Honestly, I gotta be real and say that I just personally cannot see that happening? It’s always hard for me to imagine Adora and Catra as actual parents to a child that’s under the age of like, five at least, and even harder to imagine either of them actually being pregnant. It’s literally impossible for me to imagine Catra pregnant, actually. 

So, basically, I have two (and a half) alternative versions of how I imagine Catradora got Finn.

The first, and most likely explanation, at least to me, is that they adopted Finn at some point when they were a child. Either they were actively looking to adopt at the time and chose Finn from an orphanage or something, or they just found the kid at some point and took them in, it doesn’t really matter. Either way, they end up adopting the kid. 

This feels the most right to me for a couple of major reasons, and one small. One being the point I mentioned before, that I can’t see either of them pregnant or raising an infant or very young child, so them adopting Finn when they’re young but old enough to not be as dependent on them (namely, they can feed themselves as long as they’re given food and don’t need to wear diapers anymore) just seems the most in-character for them in my eyes. The minor point is that “Finn” doesn’t seem like a name they’d give a kid, so if they’re calling them that from the start, I’d figure it was just the name Finn already had when they took them in. 

The other main point being the fact that, if I’m honest, Finn doesn’t really look like either Catra or Adora, and definitely doesn’t look like a combination of the two of them. The only way they really look like Catra is that they both have cat features, and that just means they’re the same species, not that they’re biologically related. And from Adora, the only thing they seem to get from her is the blonde hair, and even then, Finn’s hair is much lighter than Adora’s; it looks more like She-Ra’s light blonde than Adora’s darker, almost dirty blonde color. And before anyone asks, I know Noelle said that Finn probably dyes their hair and they’re naturally a brunette like Catra...but basically nobody remembers that, and everyone draws Finn as blonde from infancy, so I’m going with how most of the fandom thinks of their design. But, they have a lot of traits that don’t seem to come from either Adora or Catra - most notably the shape of their eye brows, the tufts of fur inside of their ears, and the shape of their tail. 

Which is why, if I do have to concede that Finn is a biological Catradora baby to any extent...I am going to say that they’re only actually 100% related to one of them, and were conceived via use of a donor...and carried by a surrogate. Who the biological mother is doesn’t really matter, though considering most of the traits that Finn has that seem to be unique to them are traits that would seem to be exclusively magicat traits (the tail and ear fur), I would say it’s most likely that their biological father/the donor is also a magicat. As for who the surrogate would be...also not really important, but Glimmer might be an option they’d consider, whether it actually worked out or not.

But, personally, I do just feel like the most likely way they get Finn is just by adopting them.