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When Catra hears footsteps in the middle of the night, she’s certain it’s her mind playing yet another cruel trick on her, that maybe she’s going stir crazy from being up all night trying to perfect this spell.
Needless to say, Catra doesn’t trust her instincts very much right now, but once the sounds get louder, she grabs the most dangerous thing she can find near her (a very heavy spell book) and goes to investigate, hoping the intruder hasn’t trashed or stolen any jewellery from the shop downstairs— replacing everything would certainly be hell for her.
Walking out of her practice room, she goes into her living room...nothing. Puzzled, she calls out, “Hello?”
Maybe not the best thing to do with a possible murderer in her apartment.
Catra supposes she has the upper hand though, with her, like five good spells that she can confidently flaunt.
Unless this person is also a mage. Then...she’s screwed. She hears something again, this time, something hitting the ground, and she’s sure it’s coming from her room.
“Okay, breathe Catra,” she whispers, heavy book still in hand, side stepping to the door.
As she opens the door, ready to be face to face with her tormentor, a squeal comes out, which definitely not from her, then—
“Hey...Catra!”
Jumping back, the book slips out of her hand, and Catra saves it just in the nick of time with a quick levitating spell, before letting it softly hit the ground, and keeping the peace from being disturbed. However, peace is the last thing on her mind now. Sitting in the middle of her bed, in a tight red dress, heels thrown off, is Adora– at nearly 1am.
“Adora? What the fuck are you doing here? H-How the fuck did you get up here? I thought you were a burglar, or, or another mage sent to kill me or something!”
“Why would anyone want to kill you? You’re, like, harmless.” She giggles, as if this is all a joke to her, which it kind of is, with Catra carrying a big book ready to threaten someone with it being the butt of the joke.
“A mage is anything but,” Catra scoffs, going to sit next to Adora, keeping a little distance between them. There’s only one small lamp on, weak enough that the light barely reaches the far corners of her room. It does illuminate Adora’s features though; her large, ocean blue eyes; the light shade of lipstick she has on; the way a slither of hair has fallen out of her usual ponytail to frame her face. Catra bites her lip.
“Why are you here Adora?” She sighs, exasperated at practically everything at this time of the night.
“You know...just thought...I’d come and– Catra you look, like, different somehow, like, like– why is that?”
Oh.
“You’re drunk,” Catra states, feeling foolish for not realising earlier.
“Huh? Nah...no, I only had, like, a couple,” she mumbles, scooting up clumsily to sit against the headboard.
Catra gets up, shaking her head while doing so. “You are. Stay here while I get you some water, ‘kay?”
Adora pouts, but nods anyway.
Rolling her eyes, she goes to her kitchen, pouring her a glass from the tap. She can’t help but sigh and question why she does anything for that girl sometimes.
I think you know full well why, her thoughts intrude. She shakes it off, and goes back to see Adora dozing off. Tapping her face a couple of times, she shoots up again, and Catra hands her the glass.
“Drink.”
Adora stares up at her for a second, and it makes Catra feel like she’s under scrutiny, even if it is just from her, but it all washes away once she starts gulping down the water as if she’d been stuck in a desert, completely dehydrated.
Once Adora finishes, she hands the glass back and Catra puts it to the side. Catra goes over to her dresser to get some clothes for her. Little words are spoken between the two– it’s slightly unnerving, though it’s not like Adora is exactly a good conversationalist at the moment. She finds a pair of grey sweatpants, and a large sweatshirt. Adora wears it so often when she’s here (and sometimes takes it with her) that it’s practically hers at this point.
“Here princess,” she says, placing the clothes in her lap.
For whatever reason, (because she’s drunk) Adora grabs onto her wrist, and whispers, “can you...sit for a sec?”
Catra wishes she has it in her to say no, to tell her to go get changed and sleep, but of course, with only a small noise of complaint, she sinks down next to her. “Yes Adora?”
“You know, like, spells and stuff, right?” Adora asks, hold a little looser on her wrist.
“Uh...yeah?” Catra replies, baffled.
Where is this going?
“Well, I have work tomorrow and, um, I was wondering...do you know any spells to get rid of this thing?” Adora points at her neck, and it takes Catra nearly a solid minute to figure out what the fuck she’s talking before realising she’s referring to the the bruise that’s there. It’s so obvious now, especially against Adora’s pale skin that she wonders how she didn’t notice sooner. But with the realisation of what it is, another glaring thought persists in her mind. Did she hook up with someone?
“Is that...what I think it is Adora?” Catra says, slowly.
Hesitantly, Adora bites her lip and nods, then adds on, “I just got a little carried away, and honestly, I didn’t even realise what was going on, and then she bought us drinks, so I guess it was only—”
“Woah, woah, slow down. Just so I’m clear...regardless of whatever happened, it was all consensual though, right?” Catra asks, because despite the ache to find out more, despite her messy mix of feelings, despite everything, the one thing she needs to know is if Adora is alright.
Adora nods, “it was, of course it was! Though...”
Brows creased, Catra looks her in the eye, “What is it? You can tell me Adora.”
“No, it’s...it’s nothing.”
Sighing for what feels like the tenth time in minutes, Catra decides not to push– Adora will tell her eventually. A wave of silence hits them, stilling the conversation and seemingly everything around them, but Catra tries to cut through the tension, saying, “why don’t you just use concealer or something like a normal person Adora?”
“I have sensitive skin, you know that!” Adora whines, and Catra chuckles at how agitated she sounds.
“Okay okay, but what makes you think a spell is any better?”
Adora shrugs, “I don’t know...sounded like a good idea in my head.”
“Hate to break it to you princess, but a novice like me definitely doesn’t know how to do that, so sorry,” she says with a smirk on her face that juxtaposes the apology completely. Groaning in defeat, Adora slumps back even further, and for a moment Catra thinks she is just going to fall asleep like that. “Come on, we gotta get you outta this dress.” Catra nudges her gently, and Adora complies, following her off the bed.
Once they’re in the bathroom, Adora silently lifts her arms over her head, and Catra silently gets her out of the dress. She does her best not to stare, choosing to focus on Adora’s face. Of course, Adora notices, so she stares back with even more intensity than Catra has bargained for. (After all, she was supposed to be drunk, not oddly intimidating.) Unable to do much else but blink, Catra steps back to say, “spare toothbrush is on the right side of the cabinet,” and leaves Adora to finish getting changed.
Catra lays down on her bed, and looks up at the ceiling, thinking how this night has definitely taken an unexpected turn for her. A couple of minutes later, Adora comes back in, and she scoots to the left side (since Adora refuses to sleep otherwise).
“Hey,” Adora says, laying down next to her, turning on her side.
“Hey. Comfy now?” Catra asks, mirroring her.
Smiling, Adora whispers, “always.”
Catra looks over at her clock— it’s nearly 2am now.
“You said you had work tomorrow?”
Adora exhales so loudly, that Catra can almost feel her breath on her face. “Unfortunately.”
“Hmm, we should probably get some rest then.”
“Can’t we talk for a little more?” Adora pleads.
“Always so needy Adora,” she laughs, then says, “Sure, though.”
After a beat of unnerving stares, getting seemingly closer to each other, and knees barely brushing, Adora clears her throat, dispelling the trance.
"How's, uh...your mage course going?”
"It’s alright– boring at times, but, yeah...good." Catra says, voice straining.
Adora looks at her incredulously, still able to see right through her, even though she’s barely sober.
"Fine!" Catra gives in. "It's hard. And I don't fit in, not like you and the other 'princesses'. Sometimes, all I want to do is give up and forget it. But…" she pauses, "Professor Micah believes in me, so much that he's giving me a place to stay. And—" her voice drops to a whisper, " you believe in me."
Adora shuffles even closer, to the point that their knees are brushing now, and Catra's breath is caught in her throat when she says, "I believe in you more than anything."
Feeling her face heat up, Catra wants more than anything to cower away, or worse, lean in, and see what happens. In the end, she goes for a compromise, one that won’t hurt Adora or cause her to combust.
“Working at the shop is fun though, but Scorpia is much better with customers, unsurprisingly.” Catra jokes, changing the subject, and to her surprise, Adora’s face flashes with somewhat disappointment for a split second, before she replies with one of her usual grins.
“Of course she is, you literally wouldn’t talk to anyone but me when we were younger– and you just hate people.”
“Hey! Don’t trash my social skills, they’ve much improved since then,” Catra glares, and Adora giggles in retort.
“Whatever you say kitty-kat,” Adora says with smirks as Catra grumbles at the nickname. “Anyway, you’re lucky your work is so laidback, Saturday’s and night shifts with Miss Hope’s uptight rules make for no fun.”
“Well, I could always come over and make it?” Catra raises an eyebrow suggestively, and her heart squeezes at the blissful laugh Adora lets out in response.
Things are oddly quiet again. Catra’s gaze was still stuck on Adora however: her face wiped clean of the makeup she had once been wearing; hair tied up into a messy bun; in Catra’s clothes, looking as radiant as ever.
“How was your day?” Adora asks, not commenting on the prolonged silence or stares.
“Boring. Long. I was practising spells until you came along and interrupted,” Catra yawns, and it’s clear her fatigue is peeking through.
“At 1am? I’m glad I came to put a stop to it then.”
Catra scoffs, “I doubt showing up drunk as fuck to your dorms would have been wise– doesn’t seem like you had much of a choice.” She thinks about the mark on Adora’s neck. “How was it anyway?”
“Huh?”
Rolling her eyes, she clarifies, “The party.”
“Oh.” There’s a hesitant look on her face, and for a second, Catra regrets asking, until, “honestly it was fun for about five seconds, then...I just felt out of place.”
Catra nods, humming thoughtfully, because she knows that feeling far too well.
Adora continues, “I guess I thought it would be good to try something new, Glimmer and Bow insisted– but it was all so overwhelming, so I thought a drink or two would help me to loosen up. In a way it did, but it also made me more reckless, like I didn’t have control over my actions...Which was scary.”
“Oh, Adora…” Catra says under her breath.
“Then that girl came along, and she kinda made everything better for a second– but only for a second, and then it just felt...wrong. But I went along with it anyway. Now I have that stupid mark that you can’t just magic away.” Sighing, Catra can see from the way Adora relaxes into the mattress that she had desperately wanted to get all her thoughts out, in hopes of feeling better about it. Catra hopes it’s worked.
“Hey, we all make dumb mistakes Adora, you can’t be perfect or in control all the time—”
“But—”
“No buts,” Catra interjects, “What you need is a good couple hours rest before work. And in the morning, we’ll think of a way to magic your hickey away, Okay?”
Exasperated, Adora mutters out, “Fine, but it better not just be a scarf because that is so obvious.”
“Lucky for you, I was actually thinking of my turtleneck, princess,” She says, trying to contain her smirk.
Mumbling profanities at Catra under her breath, all Catra does is chuckle in reply, leaning over Adora to switch the lamp off.
As she lays down once more, Adora is already turning away from Catra, and she does her best to ignore the ache in her chest. Proceeding to do the same, rather than be tormented by the view of her friends back, Catra near gasps when a hand catches her wrist. Adora’s neck cranes awkwardly so she can look at Catra, eyes half lidded from exhaustion, and, if Catra’s being delusional, something else too.
“Yes?” She barely gets out.
“Can we…” Adora whispers, clearly trying to imply something, but it flies completely over Catra’s head.
Biting her lips to think, with Adora’s hand still distractedly wrapped around her wrist, Catra finally puts two and two together, and feels like and absolute moron for not catching on instantly.
“Oh,” are the only words that fall from her lips, and she swears she sees Adora smile back at her in response, but it’s dark, and entirely possible she’s already dreaming.
Hesitantly closing the space between them, their bodies easily slot together. Catra is more at ease than she has been in months, whilst also wanting to implode internally at how flustered she is. She’s never been happier (or blushed so much) in the dark as Adora’s hand settles on Catra’s which rests on her stomach; as her head is safely tucked into the curve of Adora’s neck; as there’s not one inch of space between them.
Adora sighs softly, as if now she can rest easy, now that she’s safe in Catra’s arm.
She senses Adora is starting to doze off, and while she wants to do the same, she can’t help but feel like this is a moment to savour.
Then, Adora utters, “Spare keys…” and it takes Catra a moment to comprehend what she’s talking about.
“I got in...with the spare–”
“Sleep, Princess,” Catra whispers, grip on Adora not loosening one bit.
“Hmm...goodnight kitty-cat,” She says, finally succumbing to sleep.
As Catra goes to sleep with a smile on her face, she forgets about the mark on Adora’s neck, the mark she wishes to magic away— because this, holding onto Adora, and Adora clinging back, is so much better.