Work Text:
day 5 of catradora week july 2019 - promises/lies
...
Catra’s claws scratch She Ra’s cheek drawing blood. She Ra winces, but quickly regains herself, and lands a punch right in Catra’s stomach. Catra lets out a grunt.
“Not bad. For a princess ,” she says, her voice full of malice.
She Ra doesn’t answer her; instead, she proceeds to land another punch. This time, right across Catra’s jaw.
Catra stumbles backward. Her mouth tastes of iron, of blood. She spits it out on the ground between them and glares up at her.
“You’re gonna regret that.”
She pounces, and She Ra falls back under the weight of her body, but she takes Catra right with her.
Catra scratches at her arms, her face, anything she can reach, while She Ra tries to get her off of herself, and she succeeds, by kicking Catra in the stomach, right in the sore spot she punched her before, sending Catra flying across the room.
Catra hits the wall and lands on the ground with a thud. For a moment, She Ra thinks the worst, for a moment, she’s sure Catra’s –
Catra lets out a groan and pushes herself up. Her forehead is bleeding, but she dries it off and stands on wobbling feet, hands raised in front of her face, as she shoots She Ra a smug look.
“You’re not getting rid of me that easy,” she says and pounces on her again. This time, however, she jumps on She Ra’s back, and digs her claws into her shoulder blades, before she drags them down the white fabric, ripping it and the skin underneath it.
She Ra lets out a pained wail, and her hand grabs Catra by the arm, and throw her down on the ground in front of her. Catra grunts as she hits the ground. She meets She Ra’s eyes – they’re blue, just like Adora’s and yet – they’re too cyan to be Adora’s, too bright.
She swipes for She Ra’s feet, and the princess falls back.
Catra tries to pin She Ra down, but she’s too strong, and Catra ends up being the pinned one instead. She Ra straddles her and holds her wrists over her head, and Catra looks up at her with all the loathing she can muster.
She Ra’s golden hair is hanging in tangy strands between them, as her chest heaves, almost in sync with Catra’s. Catra tries to get free, wrangles her body under She Ra’s weight until it’s sore, but it’s no use. She scowls.
“Well, you got me. What now?”
She Ra’s quiet, as her eyes search Catra’s face for something. Catra hopes she only finds the loathing and the hate, not – not all the other things.
“I don’t know,” She Ra says, her voice oddly vacant.
“What do you mean you ‘don’t know’?” Catra fumes.
“I don’t know,” She Ra says again, this time, she sounds more exhausted than anything.
Catra wiggles her hips, trying to get free. “Then let me go!”
“I can’t,” She Ra says, again in that vacant voice. Catra meets her eyes.
The cyan has turned blue, a greyish blue, Adora’s blue.
“You captured me and yet you don’t know what to do with me,” Catra says. “God, even as a princess, you’re an idiot.”
“Am not!” She Ra says.
Catra’s mouth quivers, and for a moment, it almost looks like she’s about to smile.
“We made a promise once, remember?” She Ra says, seemingly out of the blue.
Catra nods, her eyes searching her face, a face that’s familiar and strange at the same time.
“What happened to that?” She Ra says, her voice clear as ever.
Catra clenches her jaw. “You broke it.”
“I guess I did, didn’t I?”
She crawls off Catra and gets up. She reaches out a hand for Catra to take. Catra eyes it suspiciously, but takes it against her better judgment, and hoists herself up.
“Go,” She Ra says. Catra looks at her, searching for any sign of lying, because why would she let her go just like that.
“And you won’t follow me?” she says.
She Ra shakes her head. “No.”
“You promise?” Catra meets her eyes, Adora’s eyes, and they’re somber.
“I promise.”
Catra turns on her heel and runs out of the room, as the words echo in her head.
…
It doesn’t matter what they do to us.
You look out for me, and I look out for you.
Nothing really bad can happen as long as we have each other.
You promise?
I promise.