Chapter Text
Catra and Adora found themselves in the gym toilets not long after the game ended. They were getting changed into their outfits for the after party. She'd heard Adora leave her stall just a few minutes ago, and was probably -definitely- checking herself out in the mirror one last time.
The fact that she was actually invited to a social event like this was an unfamiliar feeling. It felt as though she was living someone else's life. Or perhaps it was just a perfect dream, in which she had conjured up the best girlfriend in the world and there were more than two people who tolerated her; it wouldn't come as a shock if she were to wake up right now and it would be the first day of term again, once again with the feeling of dread of returning-
"Hey, Catra, are you almost done getting changed?"
Adora's voice brought her back into the present moment.
"Yeah, just give me a second!"
The clothes they had bought were still sitting in a pile at her feet. It seemed as though they were taunting her, reinforcing the insecurities about the way her life was unfolding. She shook her head and sighed. It was like a reset. She slipped the shirt on over her head. It still fit just as perfectly as it did when they tried it on together in the changing room, and - to her relief - putting it on hadn't been as bad as she feared, and soon enough she was almost ready to go - but the nerves were still there.
Catra figured that in this situation she had two options: She could try to mask her fear and end up lashing out, or she could tell Adora now about her concern and potentially spoil the mood. It wasn't like either of the options were particularly appealing, but she had to do something before Adora became even more worried about the time it was taking for her to get changed.
"Do we have to do this?" She murmured, half hoping Adora wouldn't hear, but she did.
"Yeah, I mean- well, unless it'll make you uncomfortable, we can just-"
"No, No, I don't want that" She tripped over her words trying to think of how to say what she meant, "I guess I'm just… Nervous? I haven't been to a party like this in a while. Actually, scratch that. I don't think I have, ever."
Adora's voice grew louder as she walked over to the stall. "Hey, I'm sure you'll do great. You've met everyone there before, and you'll be there with me the whole time. Did- Do you want to come out, or for me to come in?"
For a moment there was silence, then a subtle "Come in… Please."
Catra sat down on the toilet and curled her legs to her chest. She hated how small she felt, but trusted Adora enough to know she would never do anything to take advantage of it.
Adora stood there for a second, before crouching down onto the floor.
"Hey, look at me." She whispered, and Catra obliged. It took everything she had not to cry right then. "I love you-" Catra pressed her palms into her eyes - of course she loves you.
She held Catra's hands in her own, and made soothing motions with her thumbs. "You won't do anything wrong today, and I'm not going to leave your side the whole time. That is unless you want me-"
Catra laughed. "No, please stay."
"Okay. I'll stay, and that's a promise."
They kiss again, and it's almost like magic, but it's only quick.
"Are you ready to go?"
Catra looks at Adora for a second, then reaches to pull the hair tie out of her hair, and slides it on her wrist.
" Now we're ready."
For a second, Adora looks puzzled, but soon returns to a sickeningly sweet smile, and Catra's chest aches with warmth.
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Walking into the school hall with the head of the football team was something Catra never would have expected to happen this school year. The hall was in its usual bare state, except with the addition of tables with party snacks on them. Everyone looked somewhat familiar, it was all football people plus their friends. That was fine, it's just she didn't know any of them very well; clearly Adora was the only jock she'd ever gotten to know more than just the name of.
There was a consistent beat from the music in the background, and laughter and people holding cups of various drinks. The scene was quite out of her depth. Her heart was noticeably thumping, but she tried to ignore it. If there was one thing Catra wasn't going to do today, it would be spiralling into a pit of anxious thoughts in front of Adora's teammates. Somehow Adora noticed, and responded with a simple squeeze of the hand, and objectively it isn't much, but to Catra, it's all she needed.
They trekked through the hall, greeted with congratulations and other praises, while Catra stood by Adora's side, listening to it all. She learned that Adora was just as dorky as always, even after everything, humbly taking the compliments while laughing sheepishly. Cute .
After a while, Adora finally spotted her friends: Glimmer, who'd she'd met previously at practice, and Bow, who from the looks of things, was her boyfriend. They fistbump when they see each other, which she finds hilarious, and the four of them settle down in a corner of the hall. Catra shuffles closer to Adora than she would admit is actually necessary - Glimmer and Bow mirror them.
In some selfish way, Catra much preferred it when it was just the two of them, sharing whispers and jokes that no one else could hear, nor understand. She had to at least try, though, it wasn't like Adora's friends were all that bad. It was quite easy to sit back and listen to their overenthusiastic conversations without being bugged too much.
"Congrats Adora!" Bow almost yelled, "We knew you could do it!" Catra could already see her smiling.
"Thanks! Also, Bow, this is Catra, Catra, Bow."
She was secretly thankful Adora did the job of introducing her. "Hi!"
Her voice came out a little high-pitched than she intended. She wished that talking would be easy, something comfortable and natural, but it wasn't. Upon second glance, it didn't seem like anyone had noticed, she let out a small sigh of relief.
"It's great to finally meet you, Catra!"
"Yeah, I'm sure you already know lots about me from my sappy girlfriend over here," She playfully nudged Adora's arm.
"Ok! I'm guilty! You know I only do it because I love you." She could see Glimmer fake gagging out the corner of her eye.
"So, Sparkles, are we too sappy for you? What about you and Bow?"
This obviously caught them off guard, Bow choked on his drink and Glimmer's face became noticeably more pink.
"Ah! Anyways! What I was going" she punctuated the word with a glare in Catra's direction, "to say was, as Adora's friends, I think we are obligated to embarrass her in front of you at least one time." Adora tensed for a second, but she knew it was only fair. "Whenever Adora would text you, she always had this huge dorky smile on her face! Bow and I gave you two a ship name before Adora even admitted to us that she liked you."
"Scorpia told me about the ship name," Catra smirked to herself. "Catradora. I've gotta give it to you here, it has a nice ring to it, but I was totally convinced Adora hated me because of it."
"Are you kidding?" Bow whisper-shouted, "Adora could absolutely never hate you, especially after what she said when-"
Adora cleared her throat. "Okay guys! Yes, I had a massive crush on Catra from the moment we met. You don't need to expose me anymore."
It seemed as though it was too late, however, as Bow and Glimmer were already doubled over in laughter at how flustered they had made her. Adora faceplanted her head into the junction between Catra's neck and shoulder and mumbled something that sounded like "Just dig my grave already."
Catra lazily ran her fingers through Adora's hair and sighed, "I know the feeling."
Then it was surprisingly calm, the buzz of the party faded into background noise, and it was just the four of them, together in the corner of the room.
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The rest of the afternoon went down smoothly, questions thrown around easily and mindlessly, and answered the same. She found herself memorising little things about Adora's friends, like how Bow practiced archery and how Glimmer had been friends with him since they were kids. She figured they probably weren't just Adora's anymore either, but hers too.
An upbeat song started from one of the speakers, and simultaneously their heads perked up.
"YES! It's our song!" Bow shouted excitedly, "Come on, we have to dance!"
Catra was caught off guard by the sudden outburst, "What do you mean, your song?"
"Adora will tell you!" Glimmer shouted from a distance. Bow had already dragged her into the crowd of people who were already dancing.
"You guys can embarrass yourselves, I'll watch."
"No way, you're not being left out." Adora reassures her. She looks away, but lets Adora help her up with no resistance. They lock eyes for a second, and Adora smiles.
"Dance with me?" She asks, and there's no way Catra would ever be able to say no.
"This was the song we were listening to when I came out to them for the first time." Adora began, "They both came out to me afterwards too, I guess it's just kinda special because of that- It's um - not really that deep."
"But it's meaningful to you, and that's what matters." Catra reassured.
When Adora was with her friends, she seemed to not have a care in the world. Catra held her hands as she danced, shyly joining in. It was so bright and comfortable that she hardly felt like herself anymore. The sound of their laughter bubbled out their chests, and she made a mental note in her head to never forget this moment.
Adora pulled Catra in close, holding her like she never wanted to let go. Catra rested her head there on her shoulder, catching her breath, and they swayed a little, slowing as the song faded out and into the next. Adora's hand trailed through Catra's hair in a repetitive motion, and if they weren't standing, she was sure that she could fall asleep standing in this position. They pulled away for a second, then pressed their lips together, savouring the kiss, when the sound of a person jumping beside them shocked them out of their relaxed state.
"Adora! Your strength is quite unmatched!" They said. Seahawk's voice was hard to miss, "You beat the horde just like I did, when I challenged them to a fight with my BARE FI-"
"Seahawk, you didn't win that fight remember? I had to carry you back to my car!" Mermista interrupted, "What he's trying to say is, you did good out there, or whatever. We all did."
"Thank you," Adora bashfully agreed.
"We didn't doubt you guys for a second!"
Scorpia .
"I didn't know you would be here, Scorpia. It's good to see you." Catra responded.
"Aww, Wildcat! I missed you too!" With incredible ease, she picked Catra up into a hug, and to her own surprise she didn't resist, until it lasted longer than was absolutely necessary. Adora was watching her with her stupid dork smile. "OK, you can put me down now!"
"I came because Perfuma wanted us to go together! It's a big day, after all, and Adora! Hello! I hope you're looking after my Wildcat." This was a Scorpia attempt to be threatening.
"I don't know, you did almost suffocate me in a hug earlier," Catra smirked. Adora playfully shoved her.
"It was a hug!
"Betrayal! I could have died!"
"You still love me."
Mermista made fake gagging noises as she wandered over to the table of snacks.
"I'm going to get some food or whatever. Are you coming, Seahawk?"
He obliged with his own Seahawk flair, shooting finger guns at them from across the room.
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Another hour had passed, and the energy of the party had begun to die down. They had just finished yet another conversation with some teacher Catra had never met.
Catra nudged Adora's shoulder, "Hey, 'dora, you know you don't have to stay the whole evening if you don't have the energy," No one else seemed to have noticed Adora's enthusiasm depleting more and more after every conversation, and if Catra didn't say anything, she was pretty certain that she would end up staying all evening to avoid the awkwardness of asking to leave early.
"Yeah, I know, but-"
"No buts, Princess" she interjected, "Hey, if you're tired you could always uh," Catra hesitated, overcome with the sudden urge to backtrack.
"You ok?" Her face creased into its regular soft smile, and she took Catra's hand in the same soft way.
"Yeah." she sighed. "You could always come back to my place and… Stay the night?" She didn't mean for it to come out like a question, but it was better than nothing.
"Like a sleepover?" Catra immediately scanned her face for any signs of rejection, and thankfully, couldn't see any.
"That sounds great, I didn't bring any other clothes though, you know bringing three outfit changes would probably be a bit overzealous-"
"Hey-" She interjected, "That's no big deal. you've borrowed my hoodie before, and forgot to return it for like, a whole week, so what's one night compared to that?"
"Yeah, I'd like that. Your hoodie was nice, and it smelled like you."
"Oh?" She resisted the urge to tease Adora for being so sappy all the time. "That's cute."
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The party was over and it was just Adora and Catra, like it always had been since they met for the first time. They braced against the cold for the walk home. Catra with Adora's hand in hers, she couldn't help but treasure it. Really treasure it. Adora looked at her and smiled. When Adora looked at her like that, she felt special, special in a way no one else had ever made her feel. The spark lit up in her chest, beat under skin, all the way to the tips of her fingers - and in a way, it makes her feel connected to Adora. They were together, and happy, and nothing would ever be able to change that.
"So, what'd you think of the party?" Adora began.
"It… was good," She didn't quite know how to articulate how all the small could mean something so special to her, more special than anything she could spell out in words. What was once strange had now somehow become familiar. "I'm glad you and your friends were there. They were actually kind of… nice?"
" Our friends," She corrected. Again. It was such a small correction, but it was more meaningful than any gesture she'd ever known.
"Yeah, our friends." That sounded nice .
The two made their way inside Catra's house at last, sleepy, but happy. Just like the first time she came over, Catra gave Adora her hoodie to wear, but this time it felt different. A good sort of different.
Then Catra took Adora's hand, caressing it, and led her towards the bed. She leapt in, and opened her arms as an invitation for Adora to cuddle. Immediately obliging, Adora snuggled in, resting her head on her chest.
The room grew darker as they lay silently. Catra was comforted by the consistent sound of Adora's breathing, the weight of her arm around her shoulder and the knowledge that she would still be there when she woke up in the morning. She liked the party; but the aftermath was a different kind of feeling, quieter, more intimate and more comforting. Adora's head moved slightly to face Catra's and she mumbled something almost incoherent, but almost certainly an "I love you."
They were together, and everything was good.