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“Not as much fresh air as I remember out here…”
Miles below the two girls the Fright Zone breathed. Its mechanical lungs puffing out more smoke into the already smoggy sky. And Catra certainly wasn’t helping matters.
“Catra!” Adora whined, “Put that out!”
“Ugh, stop nagging. You sound like her,” Catra responded with a roll of her eyes.
“Shadow Weaver will do a lot worse to you than nag if she catches you with that cigarette and you know it,”
Catra shifted uncomfortably, the scenario already playing through in her head against her will.
If Adora’s with her when Shadow Weaver inevitably finds out about her unhealthy habits she’d get it even worse for exposing Adora to second hand smoke or some shit. She might even get pegged with trying to coerce her to join in.
If she’s alone then Adora probably wouldn’t even find out until Catra returns the next day (or even the next week if she’s in a bad mood or high off her ass from powering up the Black Garnet).
But what hurt the most about this outcome wasn’t the unbearable punishments of being found with contraband stimulants, but the shame of further proving Shadow Weaver right that she was nothing but a delinquent loser.
Yes. She did know it. Probably better than Adora knew…
She took on last puff and threw it off the edge of the roof, which made Adora gasp in surprise.
“Catra!”
“Babe, it’s most likely to end up on another rooftop or in a smog pipe than at the feet of someone with high clearance or who even cares enough to take it to be DNA tested for a sixteen-year-old cadet to get busted,” Catra’s eyes shifted to mean Adora’s and saw that she was blushing.
Catra stared at her tomato-tinged cheeks for a second before realizing what had happened. Then Adora wasn’t the only one blushing.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” she quickly retracted.
“You called me babe~” Adora sang with a tiny smirk.
“Oh my Horde, Adora!” she elbowed her lightly.
“You know what I think?”
“Yes,” she huffed, “And I don’t want you too,”
Adora ignored her and leaned close into the magicat’s ear with a giggle that felt like music to Catra.
“I think you like me~” she whispered and Catra suddenly found her heart racing. Her palms felt clammy and she swallowed thickly, her usual smooth demeanor far out of her reach. Her chest felt… warm. Her body felt-
“I-“ Catra stammered, her voice coming out squeaky, “I do not!”
“Yes, you do. You’re even doing that thing with your tail-”
Catra snatched the appendage that gave her away with both hands, blushing harder and wishing for someone to just kill her already.
“Shut up!” she shouted suddenly, burying her face in her hands.
Adora’s expression softened and she reached over slowly to peel Catra’s hands from her face and hold them with her own.
“You know, Catra… Even if you might not like me…” she looked into those colorful eyes with a concentrated look, like she was trying to decide on something, “I like you,”
Catra’s gut dropped to her knees as her heart struggled to escape her chest, wanting to be as close as possible to the girl staring into her now. She stayed silence, at a loss for words.
Why did she have to be so damn gay???
“Catra…” her voice was so soft that Catra was lucky she had such good hearing. Her hand, calloused from training but oh so familiar, gave up to gently caress her face. Despite how many times their mentor had used this particular touch, it felt completely different coming from Adora. Warm. Inviting. She could hear their tell-tale hearts almost in perfect sync.
Buh dum… buh dum…
“Y-yeah, Adora?”
Buh dum… Buh dum…
“Call me ‘babe’ again,”
This was it. This was the moment that Catra would finally drop dead. Not from Shadow Weaver, her reckless schemes, nor some drug-induced cancer, but from this fucking girl right here who she was utterly and entirely whipped for.
She looked the blonde right in the eyes, pulled her close, and said it.
“I… I like you too… babe,”
Before Catra knew it a pair of lips were slammed against her own and she was being pushed down onto her back.
After the initially meeting of the lips, Adora smirked and mumbled, “Your breath’s so gross,” with a small chuckle before joining them again.
Catra silently vowed not to smoke again for a long time.
Their hands trailed each other's arms, finding a place to hold one another closer. The sound of their lips moving muted by the clacking of machinery that was constantly on repeat.
Adora's hands slid up Catra's arms to cup her cheeks, tilting her head slightly to not bump noses in her attempt to feel more of Catra. Hands glided across Adora's back, Catra gripping onto the rough fabric of Adora's shirt.
She felt breathless and warm from the closeness. Warmer than she ever did with the smoke of a cigarette. She would have kept going, would have kept Adora close had her weight not been crushing her. Catra pulled away from the kiss, shoving Adora off of her with a snort.
"You're crushing me, Adora..." She murmured, glancing off to the side with her cheeks flustered.
“Sorry,” she murmured, readjusting their positions until they were sitting up right. Catra brushed a lock of hair that had fallen out of Adora’s tight ponytail out of her face and kissed her once more.
“Adora,” she breathed in between kisses, “Adora, baby, look-“
As much as they didn’t want to stop, really didn’t want to stop Adora let out a gasp as the planet’s lower-most moon began to glow quite brightly, then…
“Holy shit…”
Clouds of shining, shimmering silver dust exploded off of the rooms, coating the sky and swirling into masses resembling the strange galaxies Adora often saw in her dreams.
“It’s a-”
“Moon shower,” Adora finished.
The dust clumped together and became a milky river that floated endlessly across the sky. It was the most natural, most beautiful thing they’d seen in a while other than each other.
Adora felt a claw on her face catching a single tear that had started to make its way down her cheek. Catra made no cutting remarks about weakness that any other cadet (or superior) might have made.
Instead she reached out her hand, silently sliding it into hers. She held it with a rare sort of tenderness, reserved for the dark.
“What does this mean for us?” Adora asks.
“What do you want it to mean?”
“I don’t know,” she replied, almost guiltily.
They didn’t say another word for the rest of the night as they watched the river flow on, then fade once again into nothingness.