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“Why am I not surprised that your idea of a good time would involve climbing a mountain?”
Catra called up the wooded path ahead of her, seemingly to no one in particular. The path she followed was well-cut and shaded by an abundance of old aspen trees. But even so, the trail had followed a steady incline for nearly an hour now, leaving her out of breath and in dear need of a break. The pack full of camping supplies she carried wasn’t helping with the exhaustion, either.
After reaching the start of yet another switchback, Catra unceremoniously unbuckled her pack, letting it drop on to the closest piece of flat ground she could find. After unstrapping her canteen from her pack, she dropped herself to the ground in hopes of catching her breath. The air at that altitude was noticeably thinner, which Catra had not expected. After all, the air in the Kingdom of Snows, bitter at it was, didn’t feel this thin.
Meanwhile, on a sizable rock just behind her, Adora sat perched while she enjoyed a drink from her canteen. She was clearly handling the mountain air better because she was hardly breathing heavier than she would in combat. This wasn’t a huge surprise, though, because this wasn’t her first time hiking to the peak of Mount Junipero. Adora also knew how to pace herself on the trail, a skill which Catra was clearly attempting to learn on the fly.
After taking another quick drink, Adora called down to Catra, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m having a great time! Have you even seen the view we’re getting from up here?” Adora then started to slide down the boulder’s flat face on just the soles of her boots. If she was careful, she assumed that she could use her own momentum to carry her back to the switchback’s bend where Catra was laying.
But much to her own surprise, the weight of her pack made it hard to slow her momentum. All of a sudden, Adora was barreling down the trail and toward the edge of a sizable embankment. Looking around urgently for something to brake her speed, Adora spotted an ideal candidate and puts both of her arms out in a bear hug position. A second later, she ran directly into a sizable ponderosa tree and grabs on for dear life. Her ploy worked, allowing her to regain her footing just before the weight of her pack carried her over the precipice.
Catra, who had zoned out on the tree canopy above, heard Adora let out a cry of uncertainty just as she realized she couldn’t slow herself down. Almost instinctively, Catra shot up from the ground and reached out, shouting, “Adora, no!” But by the time both of her clawed hands were extended, Adora had already run into a nearby pine tree and effectively stopped her tumble.
The sudden thought of her partner plunging off a cliff had raised Catra’s heartbeat beyond anything she’d experienced on the hike so far. As she realized that Adora was safe (or as safe as one can be while bear hugging a tree on the side of a cliff), she swiftly stepped over to where Adora stood and frantically asked, “what happened? Are you okay?”
In response, Adora simply let out a metered sigh and raised her right hand in a “thumbs up” motion. After catching her breath for a moment, she added “yeah, I’m fine. I just…lost my footing there for a moment. Sorry to scare you.”
“You did scare me,” Catra shot back, almost without realizing how harsh her tone had become. “What if that tree hadn’t been there?”
Adora turned around to face Catra. She shrugged her shoulders and calmly replied, “I guess I got lucky this time.”
Catra looked down at the ground for a moment to discharge some of her misdirected anger. She then places a firm hand on Adora’s shoulder and pulls her further back from the edge.
“I don’t want you to be lucky,” Catra implores, “I want you to be safe.” She trails off a bit, and then adds, in a more calm and collected tone, “Please?”
Despite everything that had happened in the past minute, Adora couldn’t help but smile at Catra’s genuine protectiveness over her. That protective instinct had always been there, ever since Catra had begged her to “stay” in the Heart of Etheria. But now, Catra’s protective qualities had evolved and become even more endearing. To Adora, it was just one more reason why she loved Catra so much.
Parting her smile, Adora responds, “I’ll be more careful from now on. You can hold me to that.”
Turning back around and resting an arm on the tree she had just clung to, Adora looked out at the view over the ledge. Her eyes lit up in awe at how far she can see towards the horizon. “Catra, look!” she called while gesturing outward, “you can almost see Bright Moon off in the distance.”
Catra joined Adora by the cliff while making sure her own feet remained well away from the edge. After ducking under a branch, Catra followed Adora’s pointed gesture towards the distance. There, she saw what had caught her partner’s attention – the magnificent treetops of the Whispering Woods in the valley below. From here, their verdant green and purple hues all blended together, creating a plain of vibrant color that stretched on for miles. Catra even spotted an opening at the far end of the woods, where Bright Moon lay.
“Wow, you really can see a long way from up here,” Catra confirmed while craning her head slightly to see around a nearby rocky outcropping. She crouched down and squints a bit, adding, “I don’t think we ever got to actually stop and look at the views when the Horde trained us up in the mountains.”
“I don’t think they did, either” Adora agreed, “and if they did, I don’t think Octavia would have appreciated any positive comments about the Woods.”
Catra laughed a bit at the thought. While still taking in the view, Catra quipped, “You know what? I still don’t regret calling her a ‘dumb face.’ I was right about it then and it’s still pretty dumb now. Maybe she’s putting it to good use now by intimidating children professionally.”
That starts Adora laughing, too, as she thinks about how much the two of them used to antagonize their old Force Captain. All things considered, Adora thought, that was probably why Octavia had been so cold toward her during her brief tenure as a Horde officer.
The two continued to enjoy the view for a few minutes longer, during which time Adora noticed some cloud cover moving in from the east. She took note of the cloud’s shape and speed before telling Catra, “It looks like we might get some rain later on. We’d better get moving or else we’ll get caught out in it.”
Catra’s ears perked up in alarm at the thought of getting caught out in the rain. At this point, the threat of rain was exactly the motivation she needed to trek on. She turned to look at Adora with an alert look on her face and says, “Let’s not waste another minute then.” She then jogged back to her pack and swung it onto her back in a single, agile motion.
Before Adora can even react, Catra began pacing up the path with a new burst of speed. The blonde called after her partner, “Hey! Wait up!” Adora then took off at a brisk pace up the trail, her heavy pack feeling lighter all of a sudden. For a moment, the two of them felt like they were back in their cadet days, racing each other to see who could make it to the Forge first.
---
Over the next hour of hiking, the warm sun overhead begins to become obscured by the dark clouds Adora had spotted earlier. The clouds brought some much appreciated shade to Catra and Adora, who were both approaching their limit of uphill travel for a single day. Even so, the couple kept their spirits up by talking about more of their shared memories from before the war.
“And that’s was the first time I figured out that Kyle had a thing for Rogelio,” Catra pronounced after telling a winding story about their former fellow cadets. “Of course, I found out later that he had just told Scorpia about this point blank and she wasn’t even his Force Captain. None of them ever talked to me about stuff like that. Why is that?”
Adora giggled perhaps a bit too much for what might have actually been a serious question. “I mean, based on what you’ve told me, you were a bit demanding of all three of them once they put you in charge. I certainly wouldn’t have told Octavia about…” Adora cut herself off suddenly, which she immediately realizes sounded suspicious.
“You wouldn’t tell Octavia about what, Adora?” Catra questioned with a genuinely inquisitive tone.
“About…” Adora stuttered a bit and hesitates further. If her face weren’t already red and warm from exertion, she’s sure it was growing rosier at that moment.
Adora opened her mouth to finish her withheld conclusion but doesn’t manage to get it out when something suddenly lands in her open mouth. In reaction, Adora started coughing and trying to spit out the oral invader. Catra ignores this, thinking that Adora was just trying to delay saying something embarrassing. But as the coughing continued, Catra stopped on the trail, turned, and asked, “Are you alright?”
Adora puts up a hand to signal “just a moment” and coughs a bit more. After unbuckling her pack and grabbing a drink from her canteen, she managed to subdue the coughing and say, “I think that was a bug… or a rain drop.”
And just as she makes that second guess, a second droplet landed on her head. This was soon followed by a few more, causing Adora to look up the sky. Though she hadn’t really noticed, the cloud cover had grown much darker recently, making it all too apparent that a real storm was rolling in.
For a moment, Catra was bemused with Adora’s response to the rain drops. “What, are a few drops of water going to bother you that much?” But just as she had her quip out, she was struck by a raindrop right between the ears. Immediately, her fur stood on end and her whole became tense in reaction.
Adora responded in kind. “Oh, now who’s bothered by the rain?” But the two hardly had much time to mock each other’s reaction to the droplets because the sound of rain drops in the valley below signaled the oncoming deluge.
In a flash, Adora swung down her pack and pulled out their set of pack covers. She was able to cinch them onto their respective packs pretty quickly. But in doing so, she forgot to take out their rain jackets.
This turned out to be a critical mistake because, just as Adora finished tightening down Catra’s pack cover, the clouds opened up and a rumble of thunder echoed across the mountain side. Catra jumped again, her disinterest in getting stuck in the rain apparent on her tense face.
Jumping into action, Adora quickly asked, “didn’t we just past a mile marker sign?”
Catra initially gave her a “how should I know” look before responding, “I think so? There was a pile of stacked rocks back there that I was tempted to kick over.”
“Yeah! That’s the one,” Adora quickly responded. “It’s a cairn. The native Etherians used them to navigate in the wilderness when the snow made it hard to see the trail. I actually read about them before we left and…”
Catra cut Adora off suddenly by raising a hand and interjecting, “The history lesson is great and all but what does a rock pile have to do with us getting out of the rain?”
Adora was quick to answer. “Oh, right! I told you that I hiked this trail with Glimmer and Bow once, right? When we hiked this trail, we stopped for lunch at a little rock outcropping Glimmer called the Giant’s Tea Table. It should be just up ahead. We can duck in there until the rain lets up.”
“Sounds great,” Catra replied with just a hint of sarcasm.
“I just hope my memory of this trail is still good…” Adora noted before being cut off by a sudden downpour. She signaled for them to get moving and Catra did so willingly. In fact, with the rain now pouring down in earnest, Catra began to walk the trail at her fastest pace of the day. Even Adora had to work a bit harder to keep pace with her, especially as the rain runoff began to make the trail slick.
From there, Adora and Catra continue to scamper along the trail. Fortunately for them, their current switchback featured very little incline, making it easier to move quickly without growing tired. At this point, though, neither Catra nor Adora were interested in stopping for a break. They both wanted to make it to the Giant’s Tea Table before they were completely drenched through.
However, after about 10 minutes of dashing over tree roots and under branches along the trail, the duo found themselves suddenly being pelted by something heavier than rain. The downpour was such that Adora couldn’t hardly make out what the objects were. But as the objects began to come to rest on the ground around them, she called out, “Hail!”, hoping that Catra could hear her over a fresh roar of thunder.
Catra had heard, though. She turned her head back while still running ahead and yelled, “No kidding? Did you think I wouldn’t notice?” Her anger at the situation was obvious, but the emotion in her loud retort also showed just a fleck of sarcasm. Catra continued to yell back at Adora, “Where is this Tea Table thing anyway? I thought you said it was nearby!”
Adora shrugged her shoulders a bit and yelled back, “I thought it was closer! It felt closer the last time I was here. But it wasn’t raining then, either.”
Catra didn’t miss a beat in adding, “Or hailing, I bet.” Adora couldn’t help but laugh at that, despite the circumstances.
Either way, Adora had given up any chance of staying dry at this point. Her own white performance top had long since been drenched through, as was her red shorts. Based upon what she could see, Catra was similarly inundated, with her red flannel shirt wicking up every rain drop that landed on it. Even Catra’s mid-length hair, pulled pack in a small ponytail, was beginning to lay flat at this point.
In that state, Catra and Adora continued to climb along the mountain trail. At some point, the pea-sized hail ceased, though neither woman noticed over the growing discomfort of their soaked garments. Adora had the added discomfort of her water-logged boots to deal with, too.
All of this had started to sour Adora’s mood about the hike when she finally spotted their destination up ahead. She pointed it out to Catra, who made a bee-line for the rocky outcropping. Just as Adora had described it, the structure looked like some kind of furniture fit for a giant being. Its scale made it a perfect place to hide from the rain with relatively solid protection from any further precipitation.
Within a minute of spotting the landmark, both Adora and Catra scuttled beneath the rocky overhang. Much to Catra’s surprise, it was tall enough to allow them to stand without ducking. Better yet, the overhang continued back several yards into the adjoining rockface such that they wouldn’t be forced to cram themselves in.
For a moment, both Catra and Adora stood there, beneath the rocky outcropping, dripping wet but finally, finally out of the rain. Both women realized just how heavily they were breathing at that point, probably because they had continued their forest trail scramble for close to 20 minutes without stopping. Their run had been worth it now because they could now wait out this storm in some degree of comfort.
After squatting down and catching her own breath for a moment, Adora looked over at Catra and asked, “Are you alright?”
Catra was still catching her breath, her eyes wide open from the adrenaline of running through a thunderstorm. Her hair was completely matted down on her head now, with small rivulets of water still running down the sides. Even just based on appearance, Adora could also tell that her clothes were soaked all the way through, too.
But despite her inundated appearance, Catra managed to lean against the wall with one hand and raise the other in a “thumbs up.” After coughing slightly, she added, “yeah, I think so. I’m not hurt, anyway.” Just as she finishes saying that, though, she lets out one of her trademark “cute” sneezes. This causes a fresh volley of water to spray off of her head and onto Adora.
In response, Adora throws up a hand, perhaps in a futile attempt to prevent herself from being sprayed further. But after realizing how ineffective her gesture was, she quickly lowered it back down. Catra then sneezed again, but this time toward the wall so that Adora wouldn’t pelted with more rain runoff.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Adora pointed out just as Catra let out a third sneeze. Catra shook her head in response and shot back, “It’s fine. I’m fine. I’m just a bit…” she was cut off by the onset of a fourth sneeze, “cold, that’s all.”
“Now that we’ve stopped moving, I am, too,” Adora agreed. She looked around the rocky outcropping and realized how spacious it was. When she had stopped there with Glimmer and Bow, they had just sat near the entrance to get out of the sun. But with the rain still pouring down outside, she was glad to know that they could settle in for a bit without needing to deal with runoff from the trail.
Upon deciding that they’d stay put until the rain let up, Adora began to unbuckle her pack and set it towards the back of rocky enclosure. Then, she walked back towards the front of the cave-like space and pulled out her ponytail. The rain had flattened her hair down anyway, so she thought she might as well let it out to dry a bit.
After wringing out her hair a bit, Adora surveyed the width of the Table’s underside. Catra watched curiously while also trying to wring herself out. After determining that the walls were a bit over arm’s length apart toward the back, Adora pulled off her pack and began to root through one of its pockets.
After a moment, she withdrew her collapsible quarterstaff and extended it. In doing so, she wedged the two ends securely into the cave’s walls. Adora pressed down on the wedged staff a bit and nodded her head slightly after finding that it could bear a descent amount of weight.
Catra’s curiosity had been piqued at that point. After sneezing again, she asked, “what are you doing?” But her question trailed off at the end as her mouth remained open in surprise and confusion. Without warning, Adora had begun to pull off her soaking wet performance top, its white synthetic fabric clinging to her arms and neck as she fought to free herself. In doing so, she revealed her grey sports top, which had also clearly wicked up some rain.
Adora threw her performance shirt over the quarterstaff and spread it out evenly. While doing so, she replied nonchalantly, “Oh, I’m just making a clothesline. I think those soaked clothes are making you sick. Take them off.”
Sounding a bit scandalized, Catra shot back, “Adora, no. We can’t…”
Adora cut her off though and says, “It’s fine. No one’s going to waltz by in a storm like this. Besides, you’re only going to get colder if you keep all of that on.”
As if on cue, Catra sneezed again. She squinted her eyes at Adora, as if deciding whether shivering in her wet clothes was worth it to spite her partner. But after letting out a noticeable shiver, she decided that it was for the best. “Okay,” she relented, “but not because you asked.”
With that, Catra started to unbutton the top of her soaked red flannel shirt. It clung to her skin as well, with its heavy texture requiring extra effort to pull off of her fur. Meanwhile, Adora pulled off her red shorts and threw them over the clothing wrack. She was now wearing just her standard issue grey sports top and undershorts.
For a moment, Catra found herself distracted by Adora’s more sheer appearance. But as she finishes unbuttoning her own shirt, she realized something.
They’re matching.
More specifically, both of them were wearing the same grey sports top and undershorts. They were tailored to match the style they used to wear in the Horde, minus the Horde emblems. Catra knew that they both had a similar set, but she didn’t realize that they’d both worn them today. She felt her cheeks grow a bit warmer as she thought about the light intimacy of their matching undergarments.
But then she realized that Adora would surely notice their pairing as well. Catra had just begun to pull off her waterlogged black leggings when Adora turned back from the clothing line and said, “Wait, are you wearing…”
Adora’s observation was suddenly cut short by the appearance of a wet flannel shirt on her face. It hit her with a good bit of force, too, owing to its weight in water. She stumbled backwards a step and screamed a bit as she tried to pull what was then an unknown object off of her head. Once she pulled the damp wool garment off of herself, she was greeted by the sound of Catra laughing back toward the front of the cavern.
“Hey!” Adora objected loudly, “what was that for?”
“To see the look on your face!” Catra replied while continuing to laugh at her partner’s expense, “and it was worth it.”
Adora squinted back at Catra in fake anger as she turned to place the flannel shirt on the clothesline. While Catra continued to giggle to herself, Adora slowly crept back to her pack and covertly pulled out a crimson red blanket. Hiding it behind her back, she crept back towards Catra, who was now sitting on a seat-sized boulder near the cave wall.
Adora stared on at Catra with a mischievous look in her eyes, before announcing, “Oh, so you’re going to play like that?” Just as Catra notices her predator-like approach, Adora pounces and pulls out the concealed blanket. As Catra shrieked, Adora swooped up her partner and wrapped her in the blanket in a single motion. Without so much as exerting any extra effort, Adora managed to wrap Catra up like a burrito and toss her over her own shoulder.
“Put me down!” Catra howled while attempting to squirm free of her comforting cocoon. “Adora, I swear I will shred this blanket if you don’t let me out.”
“Please don’t,” Adora replied while still looking out at the rain as if she had just returned home with a prized catch. She could feel Catra slipping out of the blanket, though, and started to pull her forward to set her down. But Catra’s escape efforts ended up succeeding, causing her to slide out headfirst with a small scream.
Realizing what was happening, Adora attempted to swing around and break her partner’s fall. But Catra’s cat-like reflexes kicked in immediately, allowing her to spring forward into a roll. With that, she made her landing look almost rehearsed. Meanwhile, Adora’s rapid about-face had put her off-balance, causing her to fall backwards when she realized that Catra had already moved out of the way.
Looking on at Adora sprawled out on the cave’s floor, Catra began to laugh again, this time even harder than before. She gave Adora a sly look while crouching down and half-mocking, “You can’t contain me, Adora. I always find a way out of your traps.”
Adora smiled for a moment, but then saw another opening. Catra’s eyes were closed and tearing up from her laughter, allowing Adora to leap up again and close the short distance between them.
Before Catra even noticed what was happening, Adora knelt down before her and pulled back her own loose bangs. Softly, she whispers, “what about this?” before kissing her partner with enough gentle force to make her point. Catra’s eyes shoot open in response, but she doesn’t pull back in the slightest. Instead, she returns the amorous gesture in turn while pulling the blonde closer.
“If that’s supposed to be a trap, then consider me a wiling prisoner,” Catra jokes sarcastically as they pull apart. “In fact,” Catra bits her lip a bit as she continues, “I’d gladly spend an entire day trapped on a mountain in hail and a thunderstorm if it meant getting to have you all to myself.”
Catra pulls Adora in for another kiss and the two enjoy their moment together, even as another clap of thunder echoes outside their stony hideaway.
---
The afternoon turned into evening without the storm letting up. To Adora, it was becoming clear that it was in their best interest to stay where they were and wait until morning. After all, even if the rain let up now, they wouldn’t be able to scramble back down the mountain side to the village below until the early hours of the next day.
Catra wasn’t a huge fan of this plan. But at the same time, she wasn’t jumping for joy at the idea of running back out in the rain, either. So, she agreed that they might as well get comfortable for the night.
With their plan agreed upon, Adora immediately started prepping their rocky hovel for their layover. While Catra sat by the cave entrance and watched the lightning outside light up innumerable raindrops, Adora went about unpacking with a soldier-like efficiency that betrayed her upbringing as a Horde cadet. In a matter of minutes, she had two bed rolls, pillows, and a large blanket laid out perfectly.
Just as she reached into her pack to pull out another blanket to throw over the sleeping arrangement, Adora heard a sudden rumble from the front of the cavern. It wasn’t thunder, precisely…but it didn’t sound like a wildlife critter, either. In fact, it came from Catra’s direction. But her partner hadn’t moved from her vigil over the thunderstorm outside.
“Hey, did you say something?” Adora asked, trying to determine the baritone noise’s origin. Catra didn’t respond initially but turned around slowly with a rather expectant look on her face. Pouting slightly, she looked at Adora and asked, “you packed food, right? Because I just remembered that the food pouches that I snacked out of on the way up here might have said…dinner on them…”
“You already ate our dinner!” Adora shot back, perhaps with more of a harsh tone then she had intended. Catra just smiled in return, looking genuinely apologetic for her mistake.
That wasn’t a smile Adora could stay mad at for more than a few seconds. So, she just sighed and replied, “That’s okay. Actually, I had a backup meal in my pack just in case something happened to the original.”
“This is why I can always count on you” Catra said with a sarcastic grin, “you’re prepared enough to cover the both of us.”
Adora threw up a hand to deflect the back-handed compliment. “Yeah, yeah, flattery won’t get you out of this one.”
“But will it at least get me some of whatever food you have in your pack?” Catra questioned.
“It might,” Adora confessed sarcastically, “but it’s not because I like you or anything.”
Catra takes that last comment as a challenge, given that Adora had previously put her on blast for how much she had used the phrase back when they were technically enemies. As a way of replying, she stood up and slowly sauntered over to where Adora was standing, backpack contents still in hand.
Once she reaches Adora, she extends her right arm and places it on Adora’s shoulder with just a hint of affectionate pressure. In the same motion, Catra carefully passes mere millimeters behind her partner with an enticing appeal that Adora almost immediately recognizes.
With her hand still resting gently on Adora’s shoulder, Catra pulls the blonde in towards herself so that her chest is to Adora’s back and her mouth is right beside Adora’s ear. In a moment of silence between peels of thunder, Catra then whispers amorously, “Are you sure it’s not because you love me?”
Adora shivers reflexively to Catra’s tone and feels her face grow suddenly warm. She turns herself around and grabs Catra’s waist before pulling her in for a kiss. With their foreheads still touching, Adora whispers, “Of course it’s because I love you. And you know I always will.”
Just as the pair lean in for another kiss, another unknown rumble fills the cavern. But this time, it’s not Catra’s stomach grumbling – it’s Adora’s. Adora just smiles in slight embarrassment and adds, “ I also know that I’m getting very hungry.”
“You and me both,” Catra agreed before releasing Adora. “Let’s cook up whatever you have in there before I wither away,” she adds while gesturing to Adora’s pack dramatically.
After digging deep into one of her pack’s side pockets, Adora eventually emerged with two faint purple pouches that looked suspiciously like the unmarked food boxes that used to fill Darla’s galley. Catra gave her partner a questioning look, slightly worried at the actual contents of her “backup meal.”
But Adora immediately provided some reassurance. “Oh, don’t worry. This is a lot better then the ship’s food. In fact, the kitchen staff at Bright Moon made it just for us. All we have to do is warm it up thanks to the enchantment Glimmer put on these pouches.”
“Consider me interested, then” Catra admitted. But then, she realized that a key ingredient for hot food was missing. “But, how exactly are you planning on heating those up? Let me guess, you also have dry firewood in that pack, too.”
Adora looked puzzled for a moment, as if the idea of carrying dry firewood had not already crossed her mind. But she shook her head in response and instead began to rummage through her pack once more. “No, I actually have something better. Glimmer made us something else for this trip that I was saving as a surprise. But we need it now, so I might as well get it out.”
Finally, from her pack, Adora withdraws what looks like an empty glass jar. Her expression upon presenting the jar to Catra showed greater excitement than that of her partner, however.
Realizing what the jar looked like at that moment, Adora clarified, “Oh, right. Glimmer was testing out a new illusion spell that allows her to capture and contain fire at will. She’s only been able to do it on small fires so far, but I was super impressed the first time I saw it. So, I asked if she could capture a little campfire for us to carry up the mountain and she made this.”
Adora then proceeded to walk towards the entrance to their temporary dwelling and stop far enough from the opening that water droplets outside wouldn’t spray her. She then set down the jar and looked up to Catra, who had followed her curiously.
From there, she continues her explanation. “After she agreed, I made a little campfire out in the castle courtyard. Glimmer then sealed it in this jar with a special binding spell that won’t let the fire travel more than a few feet from this jar’s lid after it is opened. So, do you want to see if it works?”
Catra let out a little chuckle and replied, “Sure. I’m curious to see if Sparkles actually pulled this off.”
With that, Adora loosened the jar’s lid carefully and pulled it directly upward. As she did so, a magic flame suddenly ignited and began burning on an invisible surface an inch above Adora’s hand. She initially flinched, expecting herself to be burned by her proximity to the flames. But upon inverting the jar lid, she found that the flame spread out to the size of a campfire and emitted all of its heat upward.
And just like that, Adora and Catra had their own personal campfire, despite the rainy conditions outside. Adora gestured for Catra to bring over the food pouches, which Catra did eagerly. When she returned with the pouches, Catra quipped, “I’ve got to give it to her – Sparkles did a good job this time.”
“I’m glad she did or else it’d be cold stew for us,” Adora replied before slapping a hand over her mouth instinctively. Looking a bit dejected, she continued, “Well, I guess that ruins some of the surprise…but you still don’t know what kind of stew it is, I suppose.”
“At this point, if you made stew out of Horde nourishment bars, I’d eat it all and ask for seconds,” Catra iterated.
Adora placed the packages near to the fire so that they could begin to warm up. “I’d hope my recipe is better than the grey bars, at least.”
Catra pointed a finger in fake disgust at her partner’s assertion. “Hey, I know that all of those nutrient bars were the same flavor. But I won’t have a defector like you claiming that you can cook better than…whoever or whatever made those bars.”
The fake insult only made Adora laugh as she remembered the awful rations the Horde used to serve its cadets. “They never did tell us where those came from, did they…not even in Force Captain orientation.”
“Like I would know! They never even told me about the orientation!”
From there, Catra and Adora got comfortable by their new fire lay and reminisced about some of their memories from the Horde. All the while, the two women couldn’t help but feel pangs of remorse about the fact that some of their most fond memories were intertwined with the Horde’s ultimately evil goal.
But in the end, both of them knew that they would always be former Horde members – even if they had mutually saved the entire universe and foiled Horde Prime’s master plan in the long run. They didn’t have to run from that past anymore, especially now that the Horde on Etheria had been fully dispersed. What was left now was only the memories of its former members - two of whom might never have found their lifelong love without it.
The pair continued to retell old stories together until Adora finally decided to check their stew pouches. Much to her surprise, they were piping hot. Carefully, she pinched each pouch between two small stones nearby and lifted them away from the fire to cool. Meanwhile, Catra grabbed a pair of spoons from a pouch on the outside of her own backpack.
As she walked back, Catra clicked the spoons together and said, “I hope you have something to eat yours with because I’m going to need both of these.”
Adora responds with a curt “hah”, then grabbed one of the spoons out of Catra’s extended hand. Using the spoon’s flat end, she then unsealed the first pouch, which released a considerable amount of steam. In the steam, a heady aroma of a rich, creamy stew emitted into the cave’s enclosed space.
At that moment, Catra’s ears perked up as she was struck by a flash of intuition. Squinting slightly, she says, “I’ve smelled this stew9 before…but where? Is this something the kitchen has made before?”
Adora shook her head, and answered, “Nope. I gave them the recipe from memory.”
That hint allowed the puzzle pieces to click together in Catra’s mind. “Wait…is this that stew we used to make when the Horde had us go out on forest training missions?”
Nodding excitedly, Adora smiled and responded, “It is! It’s the one they used to ‘force’ us to make on away missions, but everyone agreed was way better than the mess hall’s meals.”
Without any further delay, Catra opened her own pouch and dug in. At first, she was surprised at how hot the soup was (as Adora pointed out, “You’d be pretty hot too after sitting that close to the fire for 30 minutes”). But the heat was just a small nuisance compared to her thorough enjoyment of the first bite. Immediately, the wholesome flavors of the stew’s meat and vegetables filled her soul and made her heart race with enjoyment.
All Catra managed to get out after that first spoonful was, “Adora…this is so good.” Even that compliment was interrupted as she took in another spoonful.
From there, Catra was off to the races with her usual appetite for a meal placed before her. Adora took that opportunity to try her own stew. After her own first spoonful, she spoke up in agreement at how well the kitchen staff had managed to replicate Adora’s memory of the ingredients. She was even surprised to see that they had managed to add juniper berries, which weren’t in season at that time of year.
The stew brought back more memories of their away missions as cadets, so the pair continued to reminisce as their fire crackled. The thunder and lightning outside had subsided, leaving only a heavy rain that filled the forest with a steady din. Only the laughs and shouts of the couple managed to break that persistent hum of rain well past the dinner hour.
---
Late into the evening, Catra and Adora sat by their magical fire and watched its illusionary tongues of flame illuminate their dwelling. They finished their dinner some time ago and had begun to finally wear down after of a day full of physical exertion. Even Adora, whose energy seemed limitless at times, yawned a couple times while leaned up against her partner.
Catra had actually just settled back in beside the blonde after grabbing their large blanket. Despite having dried out fairly well an hour or two back, Catra found herself growing cold as the night set in. So, as she returned with the blanket, she spread it and threw it haphazardly over Adora’s entire body. Before she was able to scramble out from underneath, Catra climbed under the plus-sized blanket and pulled it around herself so that they are both cloaked in warmth.
From there, Catra reestablished her spot by the fire lay. As she did so, Adora leaned over and pecked her with a light kiss on the head. Now that it had dried, Catra’s hair had poofed up a bit, causing it to tickle Adora’s face as she pulled away. “Thanks,” she said, “I was starting to get cold.”
“Call me a mind reader,” Catra replied with a light smirk. “But if I’m being honest, I’m getting cold, too – even with the warmth this magic fire is somehow producing.”
Adora looked back at the fire, which gave off a magical aura of its own. “Yeah, I’ll have to ask Glimmer how she got it to only stay on the jar lid. I don’t think I’ve even seen King Micah make anything like this.”
For a moment, Adora and Catra both fixed their gaze on the same ember at the heart of the fire. It was tiny at first, as if it had just latched onto a log that invisibly fueled the larger fire. But as they both watched, the ember danced about and grew, its white and orange radiance expanding until it blended in with other growing flames rising around it.
As that shared flame rose and turned into sparks, Catra glanced over fondly at her partner. Whether it was in the glow of a magical campfire, the first light of a new day, or even in ambience of a storm’s lightning, Catra still couldn’t believe that she got to see that perfect face every day now. It had been over a year since the couple had admitted their feelings for each other as the world was seemingly ending. But still, each moment like this was still so precious in her heart – especially now that she had the courage to admit as much to herself.
With those thoughts wandering happily around her mind, Catra scooted herself close enough to lean her head on Adora’s shoulder. In a silent reply, Adora placed her arm around her partner and pulled her even closer to her side. Both of them had grown to enjoy peaceful moments like this, with only the sounds of nature abounding. A childhood of military-style upbringing and adolescence at war had long since worn out their appetite for the madding crowd.
The couple sat together in silence for a minute or two longer until Catra felt compelled to gently break the silence. “Adora…right before it started raining earlier, you were saying something about telling Octavia…something.” Catra faltered for a moment, and then continued while looking into the fire, “what was it that you wouldn’t have told her?”
Adora immediately remembered their conversation from earlier in the day. At the same time, she remembered what she was about to say when the rain arrived and felt suddenly embarrassed. She knew she had no reason to be embarrassed, of course – it was the honest truth. But at the same time, it was revealing and Adora still wasn’t a pro at emotional honesty.
“Oh, that!” Adora perked up and exclaimed. She waived her hand about to push the question out of the air and added, “that wasn’t anything. I was just talking hypothetically.”
Catra could tell that she had struck some kind of chord. “Hypothetically about what?”
“Ummm…just about…stuff.” Adora was clearly becoming a bit flustered after being pressed for more information. She wasn’t particularly eloquent when she became embarrassed.
Catra wasn’t letting up, though. “Stuff…like what?”
“Stuff like…” Adora sighed deeply, suddenly feeling her face becoming warm from more than just the fire. “Stuff like how I was feeling back then.”
The fire crackled beside them for a moment to fill a gap of silence. Catra nodded in Adora’s direction, as if prompting her to continue. Adora clearly wasn’t excited about continuing her train of thought, but she was in too deep now. She started in earnest as Catra listened intently.
“When we were still cadets, I had this realization after one of our training missions away from base. It was the one near that gorge to the east of the Fright Zone that they usually forbade us from being near.”
Catra cut in, “I remember that one. That’s the one where I almost slipped on the edge of the gorge and you pulled me back up.” She laughed a bit at the thought of such a dangerous scenario. “Good times, good times.”
Adora let out another collected sigh and continued, “Actually, that’s what brought on this…realization. Right before you almost fell, I was back in our tent sleeping. I was having this awful nightmare where you had almost fallen off a floating rock and into some huge, bright void. I had grabbed your hand at the last second, but I couldn’t hold on tight enough and you…you fell.”
Adora paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. She still sounded a bit shaken upon recalling her dream. Catra recognized a look of residual worry in her partner’s eyes. Instinctively, she lifted Adora’s hand and began to gently stroke it.
Taking this as a sign to continue, Adora went on, “When you fell, the shock of losing you in the dream woke me up immediately. But then I woke up in a state of panic, especially after I didn’t see you in our tent. The dream had felt like a premonition or something, so I ran out to find you. You were right there outside, right at the moment you stepped on that undercut bit of rock and began to fall.”
At this point in the recollection, Catra had begun to remember the events of that night in greater detail. She had always assumed Adora had just been nearby and that she herself been lucky in the moment. Now she realized that she had been very lucky, perhaps impossibly lucky. If Adora’s dream had lasted even a second longer, then…who knows what might have happened.
“I still don’t know how I closed the distance between us and managed to grab onto your hand. It just felt like I had this energy all of sudden, mixed with this fear that my dream was actually coming true. Even after it was over and you were safe, I had this aching pit in my stomach from imaging what could have happened…what did happen, in my dream, anyway.”
“That’s why you wouldn’t stop hugging me for like, an hour afterwards, right?” Catra asked.
Adora nodded, with her eyes watering ever so slightly, “Yeah. I didn’t want to let go of you. I was too worried that the nightmare would start again. Holding onto you like that felt like the only way to keep you anchored beside me.”
“That’s kinda what my realization was, actually. I realized at that moment that the thought of losing you…of really losing you was unbearable. The thought scared me more than any story about Beast Island ever had. You had become a part of me over the years and that moment made it clear what that meant.”
After a short pause, Adora added, “Well, I didn’t really know what that meant yet, actually. It made more sense in retrospect, I guess.”
Catra now had a more somber look on her face as she internalized Adora’s dark memory. “That’s all pretty grim. I didn’t realize that whole had meant so much to you. You never told me that it had affected you like that.”
Adora’s gaze turned back to the magical fire beside them. “I didn’t really have the words to tell you yet. All I had was a jumble of feelings inside my head, feelings that I didn’t know how how to talk about yet. Even if I did, I didn’t really have anyone to talk to about them. I knew Octavia wasn’t going to be sympathetic at all and I wasn’t really friends with Lonnie yet. So, it was just me and my feelings for…several years after that point.”
For a moment, Catra felt a weird mix of guilt inside of herself. It wasn’t her fault that Adora had kept her feelings to herself for…years, it turned out. But she also wondered if her lack of emotional honesty had kept Adora at a distance for all of those years, until she had actually left.
“Looking back”, Adora continued, “I don’t think those feelings really subsided much when I left. I mean, I still would have done anything to protect you, even when were on opposite sides of the war.”
“You sure didn’t fight like you were trying to protect me,” Catra joked. She realized, though, that her tone might not have been welcome at that precise moment.
“I never wanted to hurt you,” Adora replied with a slight frown. It was clear that she had worried about hurting Catra on numerous occasions before and that it was still a sore subject. “Believe me, I always felt sick after we actually fought. I knew I had a duty to perform for the Rebellion, and as She-Ra, so it felt selfish to hold back for any reason. But I did and I don’t regret it, of course. Genuinely fighting you still stung, though, especially when I wanted just the opposite.”
After taking a sip from her nearby canteen, Adora went on, “Even through all of those battles, I just wanted you back at my side. I mean, I had friends, of course – Glimmer and Bow couldn’t have been more supportive of me. But you were still the one person I wanted most, the one person I couldn’t let go or trade away. That became really apparent when we were in that other dimension…”
Adora trailed off slowly, realizing that the whole “alternate dimension consuming reality” ordeal had continued to weigh heavily on her partner’s shoulders. But Catra’s facial expression appeared calm after the mention, so she continued.
“When I woke up there, it felt like maybe I had woken up from another nightmare. A long, complicated nightmare that had me fighting you again and again and again. I was almost convinced that that reality was worth staying in because it meant staying with you. I almost thought I had a grip on you, too, one that I would never loosen again…”
“But I let go. I let my anger push us apart again.” Catra felt a flash of that alternate reality in her mind’s eye, complete with the all-out combat she and Adora had engaged in as the dimension was falling apart. With that memory flash, she felt a new wave of guilt. After all, she knew that deep down, she could never change the fact that she put the person she loved through that kind of pain.
Catra’s eyes began to tear up, feeling the weight of the story suddenly upon her. She let out a soft, “I’m so sorry” before a tear or two managed to escape.
Adora pushed back a tear as well before admitting, “I watched you disappear. I thought I had lost you forever.”
For a few minutes thereafter, the couple sat in silence as their raw emotion hung in the cavern’s air.
Eventually, Catra broke the silence to ask the real question that had been on her mind all along. Her tone was as collected as she could muster, despite the tears.
“So, how did you know?”
Adora looked over and gave her partner an inquisitive look. “How did I know what?”
“How did you know that you loved me? You had every reason to hate me forever after all of that.”
Adora suddenly felt like she was drawn out of the moment as she tried to imagine an answer to partner’s genuine question. Catra looked like she really wanted an answer, too, so she couldn’t just shrug it off. But then she realized that the most honest answer she could imagine was already in mind.
“I knew I loved you when I realized that my heart still believed in you – the ‘real’ you - that was hiding beneath all of that ambition. I believed in you and wanted you to be free of all of that…pain. When we fought, it felt like you were in pain, even before we traded any blows. I was in pain, too. Like I said, I didn’t want to hurt you, despite everything.”
“But even when Horde Prime arrived, I knew I couldn’t give up on you. I had promised you that we’d always be together and watch out for each other. It just took me a long time to really learn what that meant – what my feelings had meant for all of those years.”
Catra tried to hide her obvious tears by pressing her face into Adora’s chest. The blonde wrapped her arms around her partner and continued. “But despite all of that, I was afraid that I had realized how I felt too late. When Bow told me that both you and Glimmer had been taken by Horde Prime, I really feared for the worst…for both of you.”
“But then you saved Glimmer. None of us could believe that you’d done it. But for me, it felt like that little ember of hope I’d held onto had been worth it. You did something so selfless in helping her, it made me really believe that the woman that I loved was still inside you.”
Catra looked up and sniffled slightly, “So that’s when you knew? Is that why you risked yourself to save me?”
Adora nodded and said, “Yeah. By then, I had the words for how I had felt. I really believed it and wanted to tell you, regardless of how you’d react. But by the time we had rescued you from Horde Prime, I was so focused on fulfilling my duty as She-Ra that I didn’t stop to think about what I needed to say to you.”
“You reminded me, though, just in the nick of time” Adora finished as she kissed the top of Catra’s head once more. She lingered in the kiss for a moment extra, to really appreciate how much her friend and partner for life meant to her.
“You know,” Catra started in, her face still buried in Adora’s chest, “I never expected you to say it back. I really thought that that was it and…I couldn’t stand the idea of not telling you the truth.”
“I’m glad you had the courage to say it,” Adora reassured her. “You saved me from falling over the edge when I didn’t have the strength to tell you how I felt. I’m glad we saved the universe and all but…you saved me, too, and I’ll never stop loving you for that.”
Catra choked back a few happy tears and wiped away the rest. “You’re such an idiot.”
With a fond smile, Adora pulled the love of her life in for a tight hug. “I’m your idiot and that’s all that matters. I’d do it all for you again in a heartbeat.”