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Sometime after Adora's resolution to bring back magic to the universe, not just Etheria, the two of them end up in the grass again. Though she's barely inches from Adora, Catra laces their fingers together and basks in the adoring smile she receives in response — storing it in a place so deep inside her ribs it's as if she's already saving and rationing Adora's affection. Catra closes her eyes for a moment as if to remind herself.
She doesn't need to, anymore.
They have time. Catra doesn't know how long they lay there, letting the sound of their friends celebrating down below and the planet stir alive with magic surrounds them until her eyes flutter open. Even though her muscles protest at the thought of moving and Adora's hand in her own is reassurance enough, she can't seem to believe it and turns her head to look at the girl beside her.
It's been three years. Although Adora has changed — they both have — she looks the same as Catra remembers, laying beside her. She studies her profile.
Adora's eyes are closed and for a split second Catra panics — an instinct rooted so deeply in her that even when she tore through her own chest to rid herself of the caring it stayed. Now it's been amplified, laid bare in the sunrise of the new day; one without Horde Prime, and Catra finds she can breathe easier when she sees the slow rise and fall of Adora's chest.
Her eyes travel over Adora's peaceful form. She looks at ease, at home in the grass, and Catra blinks away the memory of Adora screaming in her arms as the Heart of Etheria glowed and she fell, sickly tendrils of green working their way up Adora's face to her eyes, Catra screaming her name, the terror of the moment her chest stopped moving, head falling into Catra's neck with a final-sounding exhale as Catra sobbed Adora, please! You have to wake up—
A hand brushed across her cheek startles her. Adora's turned on her side, palm cradling the curve of her cheek and clear worry in her eyes. "Catra?"
Instead of answering, Catra does the one thing she's always wanted to and can do now. Adora's lips are warm and chapped, busted and tasting of blood in one spot but Catra doesn't care — the small languid sigh Adora makes against her mouth fills her up from the inside out until she feels as abuzz with magic as Etheria itself.
Their foreheads find each other when they pull apart, greedy mouths filling with air. Adora's eyes search hers — no less worried but a little less pulled with concern. A small smile tugs at her lips, the same one she gave Catra moments before Catra pulled her closer in her arms and kissed her like she was the sun in her universe, the same one Adora has always been able to pull from her. The same one Catra's always loved about her.
Neither one of them says anything. Whether it's from fear that words will shatter this small corner of heaven they're carved out for themselves with their own bloody hands and hearts or they're simply too tired, Catra doesn't care.
She scoots closer, pillowing her head into her own hand and letting her tail wrap around Adora's ankle all the while watching Adora as Adora watches her. Somewhere down below the faint singing is joined by music which is probably from Bow's guitar yet Adora's eyes never stray from hers.
The rumbling in Catra's chest expands, warms.
Adora thumbs across her cheekbone, up to her ear and brushing the shorn hair above it. Unchecked, a purr rumbles through Catra which only makes the smile on Adora's face widen. Inching closer, Catra gently knocks their foreheads together.
"I'm okay," she murmurs, so quietly she wonders for a moment if Adora heard her over the grass rustling in the breeze. "I'm okay, Adora. You did it."
"We did it," Adora corrects, and her breath ghosts across Catra's upper lip with every word. "I couldn't have done it without you. You saved me, Catra."
That makes her open her eyes. "What?"
Adora hums.
"At the Heart. When I was...fading, I saw you. Well— I heard you and saw you. I was alone but then there you were above me, holding out your hand and screaming at me to take it. I was so tired, but you said I had never given up at anything in my life and to not start now. You said you had always loved me, and when I reached up for your hand...I was back. I opened my eyes and there you were." Adora looks up at her through long lashes. "You saved me."
Though they're pressed together as it is, Catra pushes closer. "We saved each other," she whispers, brushing back a strand of Adora's hair from her cheek and tucking it behind her ear. Adora leans into the touch, eyes sliding shut with contentment and that same buzz in Catra's chest lurches softly. "Isn't that what we do, you and I? Save each other?"
Silence falls between them as if the space isn't large enough for anything else to be said and Adora breath mixes with Catra's. The hand not on Catra's cheek finds Catra's between them and holds it fast, tight, so strongly Catra knows she's considering never letting it go again.
"Promise?" Adora murmurs, without even opening her eyes and Catra lets her own slide shut. She has time, now, time to fully learn every inch of Adora again until her body becomes more familiar to Catra than her own even though she never forgot. But they've both changed, haven't they?
She has time.
Her nose nudges at Adora's before she's stretching up to kiss between her eyebrows in the space between her nose, pressing their foreheads together afterward and cupping Adora's cheek like a pledge, a vow, an oath. And it is.
"I promise."