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“Mermista hates me!” Catra insists, pirouetting to avoid Adora’s sixth or seventh attempt to catch her. Adora’s got a shirt or something in her hands and Catra’s generally not in the business of letting Adora put clothes on her.
“She—does—not!” Adora tries the same obvious feint she’s been using since they were literally children, and this isn’t one of the times Catra’s going to let her get away with it. “Mermista invited you! Catra, by the 12 fucking moons will you stand still for a minute—”
“Yeah, exactly!” Catra bounds across the bed in a single leap, forcing Adora to run around the long way. “A party on a boat, Adora. A boat on water. Case closed, she hates me, go without me, you’ll have Sparkles and Arrows to keep you company and I’m gonna watch RuneFlix with Melog in your underwear. Have a nice night.”
“Ca-tra-aaa!” Catra skids to a stop on their bedroom carpet. Speaking of dirty tricks Adora’s been using forever, that plaintive I’m trying to have fun with you and this is starting to hurt my feelings in her voice is a direct line to Catra’s heart, a line that Adora just yanked.
Catra wheels around to intercept her girlfriend before Adora can drape or attach or ensnare her in anything. “Okay, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Please. Fine. I’ll—we can talk about the party, okay? My ‘no’ is now a ‘let’s talk about it.’ Just please don’t say my name like that again, it makes my teeth itch.”
Adora lets out a smug little huff and comes up to kiss Catra on the lips, hard enough that Catra rocks back on her heels a little.
“It’s Sea Hawk’s birthday, of course it’s on a boat. And Glimmer and Bow are going to be there. And I’m going to be there. And I want you to be there, and they do too. And Mermista—I’m gonna say it again—mentioned you personally in the invitation. We—I mean, everyone knows… she could have just not done that. And she didn’t. Not do that. I mean she did it, she invited you, so… come on, Catra… please?” Adora’s eyes are the colour of a stormy sky and for a second Catra’s not entirely sure gravity’s still a thing in her life.
“What, uh…” She swallows and tries to untie her tongue. “What’s in it for me, hmm?” It comes out more petulant than flirtatious, so she wiggles her eyebrows for good measure. Adora rolls her eyes, but in the good way.
“What, besides a fun night out with your girlfriends and your friends? Besides the open bar? Besides the, like, 50/50 chance that it’s going to end with the boat on fire? Come on Catra, you love fire.”
“I do love fire,” Catra sighs reluctantly.
Adora kisses her again, on the cheek this time. “I know you do.”
Catra refuses to give up her last bit of ground. “So what’s with the shirt,” she scowls.
Adora blushes so hard at the question that Catra looks down to make sure it’s actually a shirt, and not—honestly, she has no idea what would make Adora react like that. But it’s just a collared shirt, with short sleeves and a button front, in a criss-crossing pattern of red over black. The fabric looks soft. It’s not not her taste, though having it imposed on her still rankles… but there’s something more to it, apparently.
“I, uh, I mean,” Adora begins. “I thought… this shirt… would look nice on you, tonight.” She’s speaking slowly and deliberately, like she rehearsed this part. Why would she practice offering Catra a shirt? She could have just said she’d bought it for herself; that would have basically guaranteed Catra would steal it sooner or later. Adora holds the shirt up in front of herself, like she wants to help Catra put it on, but she doesn’t move to actually do it. “P-please? Can I?” Her eyes are actually shiny. What the hell is up with this shirt, Catra thinks, but this is obviously important to Adora, and she’s not cruel like she used to be.
So she sighs and holds out her arm, letting Adora push it through the sleeve, then she hikes the shirt over her own shoulder, gets her other arm through, and looks at herself in the mirror. She has to admit, it works over the black tank top she was already wearing. She’ll probably need pants to complete the outfit, though.
She knows she looks good, so she turns back to Adora. “How do I…” But she trails off when she sees the way Adora’s looking at her now—madly in love, and scared half to death.
Adora’s still reaching out, even though Catra took the shirt from her. There’s—she’s holding something else, Catra sees as she steps a little closer, something small that gleams in the light.
“Do you know what this is?” Adora asks. Her voice is unexpectedly tiny and terrified.
It’s the little golden wing pin Adora likes to wear. It’s probably her most-worn accessory that’s not a ponytail tie, Catra’s thought before. She shrugs and nods.
“It’s… I got it… after I came to Bright Moon,” Adora says. “It was… the first thing, the first special thing, that was mine, after…” After you left me, Catra thinks. The thought isn’t bitter and acidic like it used to be—it’s just what happened, something they’re beyond now.
But what Adora actually says is, “after I escaped the Horde,” and that’s… huh, Catra thinks. “Escaped.” She’s never used that word for what Adora did, but thinking about it now—if that’s how Adora’s been thinking about it all along…
Adora looks down at the pin in her hands, then back up to Catra. Her lower lip is trembling. Something starts to tickle the back of Catra’s recollection. Something to do with Netossa, of all people.
“I waited for you,” Adora says, and her voice cracks on nearly every word. Catra doesn’t know where this is going, so she just waits quietly, and takes deep breaths of her own, and lets Adora pull herself together.
“I waited for you,” Adora says again, softer but much more evenly, “for so long, Catra. And now you’re here.
”And I think… this pin would look good on that shirt. On you. If you want… if you want to wear it. And keep it—k-keep wearing it."
If Catra wants to wear Adora’s… pin? Why is Adora this emotional about her pin? And why does Catra keep thinking about… about Netossa…
…and her bright pink necklace, right at the top of her blue and chrome armour. The same bright pink as Spinnerella’s outfit—except, of course, for the blue and chrome collar she always wears. Micah putting his earrings back in after helping Catra in the garden, the matching pair always dangling from Angella’s ears.
“Adora…” she says. It’s as loud as she can say it, and it’s barely a whisper. Adora’s standing two feet away from her and she might not even have heard, but she definitely saw Catra’s lips move, and she blinks rapidly, smiling so, so wide.
“Will you? W-wear it?” she asks.
Catra wants to say yes. Failing that, she wants to nod, or set off fireworks, or do something so Adora knows that this is what Catra wants, too, but…
“I don’t—” Catra looks around helplessly. “I don’t have anything for you, though, isn’t the—isn’t this whole thing like, you give each other…”
Catra’s seen this expression before. You love me? Adora had asked her, like an idiot. But she’s pretty sure Adora’s not the idiot this time. Her girlfriend’s eyes are enormous, her mouth is open a little, and she’s shaking her head back and forth slowly like she’s in a dream. “Catra…” she says, almost as softly as Catra had spoken before, “you already… you gave me…”
And then she steps back, lowers her head, and brings a glowing hand up to the bridge of her nose. When she looks up at Catra, she’s wearing the shimmering spectral image of She-Ra for a moment—the True She-Ra, not the pale imitation that had been manipulated by the First Ones. The one with the golden crown framing her… framing her face…
How had Catra not recognized that before?
All she can think of to say as the magic dissipates is, “That… doesn’t count. No, no, that doesn’t count. I’ll—I’m gonna—I’m going to give you something for real, okay, something I can give you, like with my hands, for you to wear too, okay? Even when you’re not She-Ra.”
Adora still has that awestruck look in her eyes. “Catra, that’s abso—w-wait. Wait. So you’re—you’ll, you’ll wear…” She looks down at the pin again and Catra sees a tear fall onto it.
“Of course I will, dummy. I can’t believe you thought you had to ask. I’ll even wear the stupid shirt—” And then it’s not just a dizzy feeling: her feet are literally off the ground as Adora sweeps her into the air and spins her around a couple of times. When they finally come to rest, they look into each other’s eyes for a moment, then Catra tilts her head downward.
“You gonna put that thing on me, or what?”
Adora does, right over Catra’s heart, and then she kisses her, and then Adora dips her and kisses her some more. Maybe, Catra thinks, she’s just going to feel a little bit dizzy for the rest of her life. Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. Adora even twirls her after she pulls them both up, like they’re actually dancing.
Then a thought seems to occur to Adora, and she stops. “Hold on. Did—did you say you were going to watch RuneFlix in my underwear?”
“Did I huh? What? What’s a RuneFlix?”
“Are you wearing my underwear?! Catra!”
“What! We’re—I’m wearing your pin! I can’t wear your underwear?”
“That is different and you know that is different and oh my gods, Catra, you have your own underwear. You have so many of your own clothes now. You don’t have to keep stealing mine.”
Catra shrugs. “Yeah. But I like yours.”
“Adora! Did you talk her into Sea Hawk’s birthday yet?” Catra snaps her head around to see Glimmer’s head, then the rest of Glimmer, then all of Bow come into the room, and she realizes that she and Adora just had that entire conversation with their door ajar.
But she can’t think about that when Adora’s lighting up the whole room with her smile. “I did, but… I had to pull out the big guns.” Glimmer and Bow look confused, so Catra rotates herself and leans towards them so the pin is blatantly obvious.
Glimmer clamps down on a little scream, and seems to channel that energy into a burst of sparkling magic from her ecstatically waving hands, like indoor fireworks. Bow collapses across her shoulders, streaming joyful tears. “You guyy-yys!” is all he can say, and he pulls all three of them into a massive hug.
“Okay, okay, okay,” says Catra, bonking her head gently against his, “calm down, we’re only halfway there, I still have to give her a thing.”
Glimmer and Bow draw back a little and both cock their heads, looking identically puzzled. Catra will never tell them how cute it is when they do that. “Didn’t you…?” sniffles Bow, and Glimmer draws the vague outline of She-Ra’s crown on her own face.
“That doesn’t count!” Catra sputters. “I—I’m not—I should also get to—She-Ra is not my girlfriend, okay, Adora is.” Pouting is beneath her, so no matter what Catra may look like right now, she’s not pouting.
“That’s even cuter!” Bow squeaks, rocking all four of them back and forth.
“I love you,” says Glimmer. “Both of you. Both of us—we love you.” She punches Adora lightly in the arm. “Nice work.” Adora blushes.
Bow lets them go, runs his hands down his face and takes a deep breath. “Okay, so. Super happy for you guys, but I notice that Catra’s not wearing any pants, so we’re gonna let you finish getting ready for the party and we’ll swing by to grab you in like half an hour, okay?”
Glimmer looks down at Catra’s bare legs and giggles. “Wait, did you—Adora, did you give her—Catra, were you just not wearing pants for that conversation?”
Catra shrugs, but Adora holds her palms up. “Don’t even get me started on Catra’s wardrobe choices right now. Half an hour! Party! Let’s go!”