kind of a freak accident

It wasn’t until Adora collapsed into the backseat of the cab and went to pull out the address that she realized.
This was not her freaking phone.
a swapped-phone texting au

Notes:

for simplicity's sake, adora and catra's texts are named for the person talking and not for whose phone the message is coming from
rated T for: swearing, depictions of anxiety, and the implications of sw being a terrible mother figure (as usual)

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: i hate accidents (except when we went from friends to this)

Chapter Text

Catra was late.

Fuck, Catra was late. The speakers overhead echoed with the second boarding call for boarding group D, and her ticket was a B.

It was stupid, had started with a spilled coffee from the bodega by her apartment, had transitioned into the mundane shit luck of traffic in the cab, then the real grand finale was a typo in her last name when she went to pick up her ticket at the front kiosk of the airport.

So now, she was late. And Catra hadn’t really planned on being early in the first place. Her plan of being on time was usually a ball-park range of aiming for fifteen minutes behind schedule but still safe.

This was no longer safe.

Not to mention, she never got the damn coffee either, and it’s way too early in the morning to be anxiously rushing through the Friday-morning airport crowd as she frantically searched for her gate.

So, you see, Catra was late. And she wasn’t exactly happy about it.

And the sharp, bulky shoulder that came ramming into her jaw with enough force to send her stumbling over her feet, reeling with dizzy stars as both her and the offending idiot went down to the linoleum floors — yeah, Catra wasn’t all too happy about this either.

“Mother fucker,” Catra gasped, barely registering the clatter of her things spilling from her satchel as it slid across the floor. She cradled her jaw, stretching it out with a momentary panic that it was dislodged.

“Shit, shit, shit,” the other person mumbled, their own belongings scattered between them intermixed with Catra’s things. Catra blinked disorientedly, watching the woman’s mouth move around stammering apologies and curses as she scrambled to grab everything.

Vaguely, Catra thought she was pretty.

Just for a second.

“Are you fucking kidding me,” Catra interrupted her rambling, shaking her head. She was still dizzy as she came onto her knees and began swiping up her own things.

“Really, so sorry, I’m just— I’m late, and—”

“Yeah, everyone here’s got places to be, maybe watch where you’re going next time.” Catra’s jaw throbbed as she spoke, and her vision still wobbled as she picked up her things and stuffed them haphazardly into her bag.

“Okay, excuse me.” The girl gave an affronted, sour laugh. “I wasn’t the one sprinting through a crowded airport.”

“And I wasn’t the one with my face buried in my phone speed-walking through a crowded airport.”

“Okay, look, I’m sorry, accept that or not, but— hey, that’s mine.”

The girl snatched a tube of Chapstick Catra had been about to stuff into her bag, and she was pretty sure it was hers, but.

“This is the final boarding call for flight 372A to Bright Moon Valley. Again, this is the final boarding call for flight 372A to Bright Moon Valley.”

Catra was so late.

“Whatever,” Catra grumbled. Nothing in this bag mattered, nothing worth more than the cost of replacing her flight if she missed this one. This chick was territorial about some lip balm, fine, Catra had places to be.

She left the girl on the floor and, without a look back, clambered to her feet and ran off to catch her flight.

It wasn’t until Catra collapsed back into seat 28C, all the way at the back of coach, luxuriously in front of the rancid-smelling bathrooms, fishing her headphones from her bag and plugging them into her phone — it wasn’t until then that Catra realized.

This was not her fucking phone.

It wasn’t until Adora collapsed into the backseat of a cab and pulled out her phone, out of breath and irritated, ready to pull up the address for Shadow Weaver Technologies Inc. to relay to the driver — it wasn’t until then that Adora realized.

This was not her freaking phone.

“Shit,” she muttered, tapping at the screen to see if it was password-protected so she could at least Google the address, but to no avail.

“Miss? Where am I going?”

Another stir of irritation flared in Adora, because that girl had been so rude and accusatory, and now Adora was stuck with her stupid phone.

“I’m so sorry, um — do you happen to know where Shadow Weaver Tech is? It’s uptown, I think? In the commercial district?”

The driver rolled his eyes, but the car shifted into drive, and Adora could only assume as they pulled away from the curb that he knew where they were going.

Adora made it to her interview on time — barely. Her hair was frizzy and askew, cheeks red both from anxiety and rushing across the lobby and up eight flights of stairs when the elevator was too slow, but she made it.

Dr. Weaver was an intimidating, cryptic, and impossible-to-read woman, but Adora had expected as much. Part of her reason for flying all the way out here was because she suspected that her article on Dr. Weaver would require more than a phone call or two. This would be an endeavor, would require at least two weeks of interviews and tours of the facilities to get everything she needed. Being given the chance to write this story at all was a gift on a golden platter for Adora, and she wasn’t about to mess it up.

After the interview ended, thoroughly rattled but impressed by the woman, Adora stepped onto the elevator and pulled out her phone out of instinct, only to be reminded that this wasn’t her phone at all.

She sagged back against the elevator walls, shutting her eyes. She could barely afford her flight, much less replacing a phone she’d neglected to buy insurance on. She’d have to get ahold of another phone, a payphone or something, and call her own number in hopes that the impolite woman did have Adora’s phone, but—

The phone buzzed in her hands.

A notification for a new text slid across the lock screen, quickly followed by two more, and Adora could only read the previews of what was sent, from a number she knew all too well.

[310 - 555 - 1188]: 14s ago

U have to be fucking kidding me, u really took....

[310 - 555 - 1188]: 7s ago

What kind of person doesn’t put a password on their…

[310 - 555 - 1188]: 2s ago

My password is 9963. Open it to answer me but I stg…

It wasn’t rocket science to work out from there.

Today, 12:45 PM

catra

U have to be fucking kidding me, u really took my phone as if nearly making me miss my goddamn flight wasn’t enough of an inconvenience?

What kind of person doesn’t put a password on their phone anyway? Are u asking to have ur identity stolen?

My password is 9963. Open it to answer me but I stg if u go snooping through my shit I’m suing u

adora

you’re not seriously blaming this on me?

what on earth would i have to gain from losing my phone?

catra

Clearly to ruin my life

I need it back like now

I have contacts on there I need

Jesus are u a fucking celebrity?

This thing won’t stop blowing up

adora

i still don’t understand why you think i had incentive for this

i need mine too

who are they from?

catra

No I’m not gonna play a fucking messenger for u

I want my phone back

adora

okay fine. where are you?

catra

I just landed in Bright Moon Valley

Gonna be here a few weeks at least

Where did u go?

adora

oh shoot i just came from there

i came to fright city for work

catra

Fucking peachy

adora

i don’t know why you feel the need to swear every other word

catra

I’ll fucking swear as much as I fucking goddamn please

adora

wonderful

so how are we doing this?

if you mail me my phone i’ll send yours as soon as i get mine

catra

What fuck u I can’t be without a phone

And I’m not abt to buy a new one

I’m here on work and there’s ppl I need to stay in touch w

Send me mine and I’ll send urs when I get it

adora

this might astonish you but you’re not the only person with obligations

i can’t be without a phone either

the woman i’m working with has odd hours and is very last minute in setting up our meetings

catra

From the bottom of my heart

I truly couldn't care less

adora

why does that not surprise me

catra

I’m blocking ur friends

They’re really annoying

adora

can you just please tell me what they’re saying?

i told them i’d text as soon as i land, and they’re probably worried sick

catra

What are u, twelve?

Need round the clock babysitting?

adora

you are literally so rude it’s kind of impressive

catra

Thanks

adora

okay look i’m sorry, this is a really bad situation for the both of us and it sucks

i also cannot afford a new phone right now

i’ll be back in bright moon in a couple weeks

how about i send you whatever you need from your phone, and you send me what i need from mine, and we can swap when i get back

does that work?

catra

None of this works for me

adora

if you have anything better to propose

then i am all ears

catra

Ur serious?

U won’t send me my phone?

adora

not unless you send me mine first

catra

Wow I really don’t like u

adora

normally i’m not one to jump to conclusions but

as far as first impressions go, the feeling is mutual

catra

Fine

adora

fine?

catra

Fine whatever I agree to ur stupid plan

But I’m not coming back to fc for another month so

Whatever

adora

thank you

i really appreciate your cooperation

catra

I hate the way u talk

adora

you are so sweet, has anyone ever told you that?

Catra was so not happy about any of this.

The fact that apparently public transportation in Bright Moon Valley was just nonexistent wasn’t soothing over matters much. After taking a shuttle out of the major airport into the public streets outside of it, Catra was left with a forty-minute walk to the nearest bus-stop, lugging a suitcase behind her.

Because over her dead body was Catra spending forty bucks on a Lyft, not after a two-hundred dollar flight, and not when she was about to check into a motel that cost two paychecks alone.

Which, okay, it wouldn’t even be that bad if these streets were normal. Catra was from Fright City, for Christ’s sake, she practically walked for a living, uptown to downtown in an hour, east to west in half the time. If the weather was fine, and if it was too hot to be descending down into a sticky, suffocating subway system, Catra walked. It was fine.

But no, this was a valley, and apparently this was a rat’s playground of pipes and slides, because most of this walk was, of course, spent trudging up-hill.

Catra didn’t do hills.

But she made it, eventually. Tiny little rickety glass stand at the bend of a sloping road, one empty, narrow bench within it. Catra dropped onto it exhaustedly, wiping off a slick sheet of sweat from her forehead, and pulled out the phone to double-check when the next bus was coming.

And she was sincerely regretting not following through in blocking every single of this Adora chick’s friends.

💖⭐️🔥🌈 best friend squad 💞🌟💥🎈

Today, 2:13 PM

Glimmer 🔮

adora wya

airline’s website says ur flight landed but i don’t buy it

Bow 🏹

and you say you don’t have trust issues

Glimmer 🔮

i do when it comes to adora

and the government

i’ve also never met a human being worse at communicating

i mean is it really that hard to text ur friends u landed?

is it that much of an inconvenience to let ur very concerned, caring, compassionate friends know that you’re not dead?

i have a heart condition

Bow 🏹

you had a heart murmur when you were 4

Glimmer 🔮

listen it could come back any day now

Bow 🏹

mhm

Glimmer 🔮

and thanks to adora?

today is gonna be that day

Bow 🏹

i’m not all that worried tbh

Catra scrolled through nine more screens worth of texts, her mouth twisting into a grimace.

Today, 3:41 PM

Bow 🏹

ok now I’m a little worried

Glimmer 🔮

i swear to god she better be fucking dead bc if she’s not dead then i’m going to drive us to fright city myself with the sole intent of wringing her neck in my bare hands

Bow 🏹

adora sweetie we just want to know you’re ok

Glimmer 🔮

no the worry has expired

i am out for blood

Bow 🏹

can you not

The only thing holding Catra back from actually deleting the existence of these idiots from this phone was the fact that Adora had leverage. No way was she going to send Catra everything she needed without some assurance that Catra planned to do the same, and Catra didn’t imagine that failing to come up with her “best friends’” phone numbers wasn’t gonna cut it.

So.

catra

Adora’s not here rn

Glimmer 🔮

babe im sorry do u think ur being cute ??

WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN U FUCKING SHIT STICK I WAS HAVING PALPITATIONS

Huh. And Adora said that Catra swore too much.

catra

I’m srs this isn’t adora

She stole my phone

Bow 🏹

pls don’t mess with her right now I’m scared

but p.s. happy you’re safe ❤️

Glimmer 🔮

she won’t be when i’m fucking through w her

catra

Anyway..

Adora has my phone and I have hers so

She’s gonna text u guys from mine

Bye

Bow 🏹

what

When the phone vibrated in her hands and the screen was overtaken by a girl with pink hair pulling a ridiculous face, Catra honestly was disappointed in herself for not anticipating this.

She considered ignoring it, but it was just a fleeting thought, mostly because this might be the only way to shut this girl up. She’d also calmed down some since the initial overwhelming fit of anger and irritation at this entire debacle.

Cautiously, Catra answered.

“—some fucking gall to act like you can start making jokes when you were supposed to text us five hours ago.”

Catra scratched her nose. “Yeah, hi, this—”

“I mean, seriously? I know you’ve always been a little oblivious, Adora, but this is just a new shitty level of insensitive.”

“Well, if you’d let me—”

“And maybe this is all just a joke and funny little game to you, but it’s not to me, and I was driving up the walls worried sick that you—”

Catra hit her breaking point. “I’m not Adora! Listen to my voice, do I sound like some prissy ass blonde to you?”

There was a moment of silence, nothing, almost static. And then:

Another tone of ringing sounded in her ear, and Catra pulled the phone away to look at the screen again. Glimmer was requesting to FaceTime. Jesus christ, Catra was lucky she didn’t have a migraine yet.

She answered, and once connected, the top of a pink head of hair appeared in the bottom corner of the frame, and two eyes stared accusingly back at Catra, the rest of her face entirely hidden off-camera, a white ceiling behind her.

“Who is this?”

“Not Adora.”

“Where’s Adora?”

“Not here.”

“Give the phone to her.”

“I told you, she’s not here. She’s back in Fright City.”

“Who the fuck are you?”

Catra’s head thudded back against the glass of the bus stop panel. This was so out of her paygrade. “Catra. I’m from the FC. Your friend decked me in the airport and took my phone, and I got stuck with hers.”

“You’re lying. Who are you?”

A second set of eyes poked into the top of the screen, upside-down, hair dark and short. “That does kind of sound like something Adora would do.”

“Bow, stop it, go away.”

“What? She’s built like a truck, and you know she’s always glued to her phone. I’m just saying, she—”

“For someone’s who’s so fucking glued to her phone, you’d think she’d be able to send one text back.”

“Yeah, still here, and again, Adora doesn’t have her phone.”

“Oh, don’t you defend her.”

“Please, that is is the last thing I care about doing.” Catra sighed, and then frowned. “Wait, are you two blowing up this phone texting when you’re both in the same room?”

“Of course not.”

“Maybe.”

Catra counted to three in her head. “Great. I’m muting your chat now. Adora’ll hit you up in a bit.”

“I don’t know why we should believe you. For all we knew, you have Adora held in some mildewy basement somewhere.”

“Really doesn’t make a difference to me what you believe.”

The pink-haired one squinted as she pressed closer to the screen, scrutinizing. “Considering I know where you are, and you’re sure as hell going to be there a while, I think you should care a little more.”

“What are you talking about?”

The dude was the one to answer her this time. “The metro silver line doesn’t run on Fridays.”

Catra glanced behind her to see that— yes, behind her was the sign advertising this as the stop for the silver line, the bus that Catra walked forty minutes to reach and had already been waiting nearly twenty minutes for. Dandy.

Her head fell back against the glass again.

“So, I suggest you start talking, or I’ll have the authorities on you faster than you can apply that annoyingly perfect smokey cat-eye.”

“Glimmer, I don’t think that’s an insu—”

Catra hung up.

Adora was tangled up in something similar. Sort of.

loser squad 🖤

Today, 3:53 PM

scorpion

oh that’s pretty cool!

dr weaver is real private, so kudos to you for scoring an opportunity like that

you must be some kind of genius

adora

aw thank you

i’ve been running marathons in my head with nerves over this

entropy

How much did you have to pay her?

adora

haha nothing

entropy

Fascinating.

So who’s paying her then?

adora

sorry?

entropy

For what?

scorpion

i think what Entrapta is trying to say is that dr weaver is not usually known for her generosity

especially when it comes to publicity

we used to work for her

adora

you both did?

scorpion

and Catra, yes

Right, Catra. The rude, short blur of a woman who had more to say about her feelings for Adora than any grade-school bully ever could have fit in three years. The sour-attitude girl who was extremely neurotic about whatever files and contacts she kept on her phone that she’d gone so far as to accuse Adora of actively trying to steal them.

The crass, offensive, high-and-mighty girl who might just have had the sweetest friends in the world.

Not that Adora could say she’d been in this situation before, but she can’t imagine most strangers react so jovially to a stranger hijacking their friend’s phone and sending out a mass hi so sorry i’m not who you think i am.

They were nicer to talk to than Catra, that was for sure.

adora

oh gotcha

well she did only accept the project on the condition that i’m the one who does the interviews

so her involvement wasn’t acquired easily

scorpion

seriously? you definitely must be some hot shot then 👀

adora

lol thank you but i’m really not

entropy

I can confirm this.

adora

what?

scorpion

she’s just googling you, don’t worry about it

adora

oh okay

entropy

Oh Dr. Weaver knew your mom. That makes more sense.

adora

foster mom

and i’m pretty sure none of that is on google…

scorpion

cool! 😁 so awesome talking to you

could you tell catra to shoot us a call please when you get the chance?

It took Adora twenty-seven minutes to talk Glimmer down from setting out a hit on her. Or Catra. Twenty of those minutes were spent explaining why Adora doesn’t just have her and Bow’s numbers memorized by heart.

(The explanation simply being, “I didn’t realize I needed an explanation for this one.”

The finishing argument that Bow provided in Adora’s defense was to ask Glimmer if she knew Adora’s number by heart.

Spoiler: she didn’t.)

Catra, finally having made it back to her motel after waiting until the rush-hour prices had passed and ordering a shared Lyft, she tipped face-first onto the springy mattress, the hinges wheezing under her weight. She was almost too tired for a shower, but the dried sweat caked her body like a second slimy skin, the filth of an unfamiliar city clinging to her.

A lazy compromise was for Catra to roll over and reach for her bag, rummaging for her laptop. At least she didn’t have to move.

Her interview with Creative Circle tomorrow wasn’t until noon, but if Catra had learned anything so far about this city, it was that commuting wasn’t a friend of hers. To be on the safe side, she should be out the door by ten at the latest.

She just wanted to double-check her portfolio, make sure it was all easy access and ready to be shared on-site, organized logically, ready.

But so, the thing was.

Catra couldn’t find her laptop.

Two searches, three, five, seven, upturning her entire suitcase and ripping all of her belongings around the small room, there was only one cold, hard truth for her to face.

She forgot it.

She fucking forgot it.

This was literally like a surgeon forgetting their scalpel; an artist forgetting their paintings; any kind of professional forgetting the one fucking thing they were supposed to bring.

Catra was laying on the floor, heart thudding in her chest as she stared up at the ceiling fan and contemplated the cruel meaninglessness of the universe, when her pocket vibrated.

Catra buried a tired, dry-sob of a laugh into the thick heat of the room before checking it. Upon seeing who it was from and reading the message, she had half a mind to just ignore it, but her life was essentially over anyways, its prospects outlined solely by misery and failures, so nothing really mattered anymore anyway.

Today, 8:09 PM

adora

thank you for sending them my number

or i guess like

your number, from my number

anyway

i really appreciate it

catra

It’s fine

adora

what stuff did you need me to send over?

i can do that now if you want

catra

It doesn’t matter

I’ll probably be back tomorrow anyway

adora

i thought you were staying for a few weeks?

catra

Plans change princess

adora

so you don’t need me to send you anything?

catra

Dude just forget it

I left shit behind that I needed so this entire trip is useless

And clearly all this stupid phone shit w you is just a sign from the universe that this was all a shit idea in the first place

So no

I don’t need shit from u and I’ll meet up w u tomorrow afternoon to get my phone

adora

well what did you forget?

catra

It doesn’t matter

adora

i mean it’s not anything you can just get from bright moon?

there’s lots of stores around where you are

catra

I’m not abt to go drop half a grand on a brand new laptop

Thanks

adora

you need a computer? that’s it?

catra

I don’t know what kind of money u grew up with for u to consider a computer “that’s it” but yeah

sure, that’s it

adora

you’re very annoying

that’s not what i meant

i was just going to say i have an extra one you can borrow

catra

Ur kidding right

adora

no lol

i’m pretty sure glimmer has it but i can text her to give it to you

catra

...dude are u insane

U don’t know the first thing about me and ur suggesting I go ask ur friend

Who I also have never met

To just let me steal ur computer

adora

well i’ll want it back eventually but yeah, pretty much

she and i live together

with bow

i’m just going out on a limb here and assuming someone who has an album exclusively for cat memes is relatively harmless

catra

Did I or did I not

Tell u not fucking go through my stuff

adora

oh stop it

i sc'ed some subway directions and just noticed the folder when i went to access them

you’re so dramatic

There was a long pause of Catra just staring at the ceiling, struggling to name the familiar weight of guilt squatting on her ribs, this intimate exhaustion with who she had always been.

Was it terrible to just… want to be someone new? Like actually new. To be someone she once swore wouldn’t ever become overcast by a past self, a harmless memory, a forgotten childhood.

It was possible, not just a pipe-dream. Wasn't it?

Maybe it didn't happen over night. Maybe it happened in hiccup moments like this, in a no-stakes interaction with a stranger.

catra

Ur right

I’m sorry

adora

for what?

catra

Just, everything

Being a dick

I just have a lot riding on this trip, and I’m not really the best under pressure

So I’m sorry for taking that out on u

adora

i appreciate you saying that. and i get it, this is a very inconvenient situation for the both of us

i just want to make this as easy for you as i can

catra

Why

adora

i figure you’d do the same, given the opportunity

maybe lol

It was weird. Catra knew that.

But she didn’t have a whole lot of other options. So.

She picked up the laptop.

The paranoia that had kept her safe the last five years by encrypting every file she so much as breathed on was now a slap in the face. Catra hated the cloud, Google Drive, DropBox, whatever. It was a neon sign just asking for everything to be torn up again.

Forunately and unfortunately, her one saving grace was her phone. Adora sent over her crowded folder of backed-up files so that Catra could transfer them to Adora’s laptop. Because it wasn’t like Catra could just show up to a job interview at a highly-acclaimed company with her entire portfolio on the tiny screen of a phone that wasn't even hers. Catra would rather fly back to Fright City than embarrass herself like that. Especially so, considering that the series of interviews she had set up in the coming weeks had required her to reach deep into the pockets of what little networking she’d done over the years.

Plus, not to mention, the only reason Catra could afford to be out here for so long was because she made sure to move all her current work to projects she could do remotely. It wasn’t often that the local businesses of Fright City she worked for needed her onsite anyway, but without a computer, she could hardly get everything she needed to done.

So. Yeah. Adora’s laptop it was.

Even if it meant waking up nearly at the crack of dawn so she could make it to the apartment complex with enough time to download all the files. Meeting Adora’s friends wasn’t something Catra ever wanted, but to be fair, neither was meeting Adora. If you can even call the wreck of what happened between them as meeting.

Glimmer checked her driver’s license to ensure she was who she claimed to be, and after a short interrogation of some rather personal questions that Catra stepped around, she left with the laptop.

(“Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Felony or misdemeanor.” Convicted? No.)

(“Who did you vote for in the primaries?” We’re not doing this.)

(“What do your parents do for work?” I don’t have any. “What do you— Oh. Shit. Sorry, uh.”)

(“I think that’s good enough,” Bow intervened, handing the computer over. “It was nice to meet you.”)

Which is how, hours later, Catra called Adora after walking out of her interview that went more than well to say thank you. Okay, she could have texted her, but Catra had a thirty minute walk to the nearest bus stop, and she was conscientious about the dangers of walking and texting, alright? And, okay, maybe this whole turning-over-a-new-leaf thing could do with more than just a half-assed white flag.

Adora answered almost immediately after the first ring. “It’s really disorienting seeing my own number calling me, in case you were wondering.”

Catra chuckled, adjusting the strap of her bag over her shoulder as she took off up the steep sidewalk.

“You’ll get over it.”

“I don’t know if I will. Are you ready to pay for the psychological damages?”

“No. You sound like you probably needed therapy before I ever came into the picture. I’m not gonna let you weasel a penny out of me.”

“You’re so sweet to me.”

The smiling, sarcastic lilt under Adora’s tone rested strangely warm in Catra’s ears. Their banter felt rehearsed, normal, familiar. Catra only vaguely thought that it shouldn’t have been this easy to talk to a stranger. “Yeah, I’m a real Hemmingway.”

“How’d your thing go?”

The way Adora said it, the sardonic emphasis, made Catra roll her eyes. She wasn’t hiding anything, but Adora had been overly nosey about what the files she’d sent over had contained and what she needed them so urgently for, and, well.

Okay, yeah, Catra was a private person. So yes, she was gonna cling to whatever semblance of privacy she could when said stranger had access to her entire unlocked phone. No one had had that much access in five years.

“Good, actually. That’s why I’m calling.”

“Is that so?”

“I won’t thank you if you’re gonna sound so smug about it.”

“Think you’ve already said it anyway. I was hoping to hear it again, but oh well. Small victories.”

It was weird, hearing her voice. Not because Catra had spent much time thinking about it while they were texting, she hadn't. It was weird because it wasn’t until now, finding herself actually relaxed by the wry, fruity drawl of Adora’s voice, that Catra found herself trying to remember what Adora looked like.

Messy blonde hair, pretty. Catra remembered her hands most vividly: firm wrists, long fingers scrambling for scattered belongings, dry knuckles. Everything else was a blur.

“Catra?”

She shook her head. “Yeah, thanks, whatever. You know, all that.”

“You’re welcome. Was that so hard?”

“Yeah, actually. But um… is it okay if I keep using it for a bit? The laptop.” She had at least eleven more interviews scheduled over the next two weeks, with hopes for scoring more in the following two after that. Her next best bet — short of going home and giving up on ever becoming someone she could be proud of looking at in the mirror — she could probably hit up one of Entrapta’s connections over here and work something out, but she just needed to know if she should get on setting that up now while she had a few hours before her next interview.

“No, you can only have it for five hours. I really need it to sit in my closet and gather dust for the rest of the month.”

“When’d you become such a bitch?”

“When I realized you might actually kinda like me.”

That tore a laugh from Catra as she crossed the street. “Good one. Who knew you had a sense of humor.”

“Hey, I have a lot more going for me than that.”

Catra wasn’t about to thank her again, but. A smile touched her lips. “We’ll just have to see about that, then.”

Adora didn’t mean for it to become a regular thing — talking to Catra. It just sort of happened. Adora found that with Dr. Weaver being about one of the busiest women in this city, this left her with more free time than she wanted. She spent more time answering calls from her boss at the Etheria Tribune to keep her in the loop on how things were progressing than actually interviewing Dr. Weaver herself.

There was just only so much research and outlining she could do. She was bored.

And, apparently, with whatever the hell Catra was doing over there, she was in a similar boat.

Not to say that Adora only texted her because she was bored, of course Catra was interesting to talk to, it was just—

Each new message that came through from Catra, especially the unprompted ones, caught Adora off guard. The only thing stranger than Adora wanting to talk to Catra was coming to terms with how Catra seemed to actually want to talk to Adora, too.

It was four days into her trip when she woke up to five unread messages. She blinked blearily, face-down on the hotel bed clad only in a scratchy terrycloth robe, one bare leg hanging off the edge. Cheek still pressed to the pillow, Adora held her phone close to her face.

The first was a blurry picture of someone on the sidewalk picking up spilled items on the ground.

Today, 6:01 AM

catra

[IMG_014]

Should I swap phones with them so we can make this a trio?

Today, 9:29 AM

catra

I’m bored

Ur city is so boring

Why tf is there a group of people dressed like mushrooms protesting in the park

Adora rolled onto her back with a smile on her face.

Today, 10:48 AM

adora

they’re from the erelandia district!! super nice. go sign their petitions, they’re trying to save the local farmer’s market

also i feel like adding another person to this mix would be more of an inconvenience for you than anything

but go for it

p.s. please tell me you didn’t just take a picture and leave this poor soul like that

catra

What? I’m a busy woman

adora

🙄 you’re terrible

catra

Ok fine I did feel bad and went back

adora

ha pushover

catra

Fuck off

adora

what were you doing up so early anyway?

catra

None of ur beeswax

adora

so there’s this thing, i’m not sure if you’ve heard about it, but it’s called being “friends” with someone

and then you do this other thing called “sharing” with each other

catra

Sounds terrible

adora

fine entertain yourself then

catra

I just had a thing

It went well

adora

baby steps

catra

Hbu

How’s things going w the darkest shadow on the east coast

adora

drama queen

it’s good i guess

catra

Yknow u say I’m mean but ur the one always calling me names

U guess?

adora

aw you do care

catra

I’ll block u

adora

there’s a fun layer of irony in there

catra

Soooo fun

adora

dr. weaver can just be hard to read sometimes

i met with her yesterday and she could very easily have been thrilled to see me or

just like counting down the minutes until i left

catra

Lmao yeah she’s like that

adora

she’s lovely otherwise! i just feel like a nuisance most of the time

and i’ll probably never figure her out but it’s fine haha

catra

Lovely?

Ur fucking delusional

Call me

Adora frowned down at her phone, mid-brushing her teeth. She quickly finished up and spit into the sink before exiting the bathroom, and she tapped the camera symbol beside Catra’s name.

“I said call, not FaceTime,” Catra grumbled as her face took over the screen. The connection was a bit skippy, unsteadily capturing Catra from a low angle and the moving sky above her.

Adora shrugged as she padded back into the suite. “Impulse decision. What’s up?”

She could hear the sound of traffic in the background, and she watched as Catra looked back and forth before tucking some hair behind her ear, distracted. Adora wasn’t sure why this made her smile.

“Whatever. Grab something to write with.”

Adora frowned, but she looked around her anyway. “I have some chopsticks I used for dinner last night.”

“What? Dude, I said write.”

Adora looked around once more before finding a hotel pen and pad of paper in one of the drawers. She tucked into the desk, adjusting her robe over her legs. “Okay, got it. Are we playing hangman?”

“I can’t tell anymore if you’re actually this dumb or just trying to annoy me.”

“Your answer’s somewhere in the middle.”

“Alright, so listen up, grasshopper. Weaver’s a freak on her best day, but she’s consistent. If she holds her hands behind her back, then she’s trying to hide that she’s impressed. And if she doesn’t blink for a really long time and holds intense eye contact, then she knows she’s wrong about something but too stubborn to admit it. Are you writing this down?”

Adora was a journalist, of course she was. She hummed in confirmation.

“Her nostrils flare a lot when you’ve gotten under her skin, so you can do with that whatever you want. I usually liked to charge on with the same thread personally, but you seem like someone who would wanna change course at that point. Uh, she starts touching her face a lot when she’s nervous. No idea why. Think she thinks it makes her look pensive or something. Let me think… if she paces the room, it’s literally just to intimidate people. Oh, and if she smiles? She’s lying through her teeth, Hundred percent.”

The phone propped against the lamp in front of her, Adora glanced up as her hand continued to scribble across the paper blindly of its own accord. “How do you know all of this?”

“I worked for her.”

“I know, your friends told me, but you just seem to know a lot more than they do.”

“I just do, okay?”

Catra was teaching her about Dr. Weaver’s tells, but Adora was only getting better at reading Catra. She knew when not to push, could hear the hard clip of her words. “Okay.”

Catra glanced down at her camera, the first time since the call started. It was too pixelated for Adora to see all that much, but she still looked different from the airport. More put-together, her hair neatly brushed into a halfway updo, the collar of a dark blazer framing her neck. She looked professional, clean-cut, exclusive. Adora liked her style, in all the ways it was so unlike her own, in all the ways Catra made class look so casual and effortless.

“I’ve just been around her a lot. Known her a long time," she said finally

Adora figured that was the most she was gonna get. She clicked the pen closed, setting it aside, and leaned forward onto her elbows.

“Thank you. For the tips, I mean. You didn’t have to.”

Catra looked away from the camera again, shrugged. “It’s whatever. Least I can do.”

It was about just as much as Adora had already gathered from her two interviews already, if not more.

Adora smiled.

Today, 2:43 PM

catra

Btw can I turn ur auto-cap off

adora

nope

catra

Y not

It looks dumb

adora

because i won’t remember how to turn it back on

catra

🙄 I’ll show u

adora

catra

I’ll let u turn mine on

adora

catra

I’m doing it

adora

you touch my settings and i’ll send a self-destruct email to my laptop

catra

That’s not even a thing

adora

go ahead and test me then

catra

So u don’t know how to turn auto-cap back on

But

U can figure out how to send an email that will destroy the recipient’s computer

Sounds legit

adora

yes. i know people

catra

Ur so fucking weird

adora

and yet you’re the one who keeps texting me

catra

Fine I’ll stop

adora

wait come back

catra

Can I change it?

adora

but you can keep texting me :)

catra

I’ll stop texting u if u don’t let me change it

adora

i don’t think you will

catra

Wanna bet?

adora

you like me too much

catra

Not at this rate

adora

prove it then

Yeah, they didn’t talk for two days.

Well, about thirty-six hours. Apparently they were both too stubborn.

And Catra had been in Bright Moon Valley for a total of six days now. Six interviews down, with an invite back for a second by only one company. She was lounging on the dark carpeted floor of her motel room when the phone’s screen lit up. Catra answered and immediately put it on speaker, setting it down beside her as she continued to type away on Adora’s laptop, Java code spilling across the screen

“Hey, Adora. You starting to miss me already? Thought you’d hold out for a little longer.”

She got no response, and enough time passed to catch even Catra’s half-distracted attention. She looked down at the phone to make sure she’d actually answered, found the ticking 00:09.

“Adora?”

Harsh breathing came through the line, quick and uneven.

“Adora,” Catra repeated, harder.

“Hi,” Adora’s voice finally squeaked back, high-pitched and wrought with anxiety. “Sorry. Is um — is this a bad time?”

Catra glanced at her laptop again. She wanted to have this code finished by her interview tomorrow — it was at a fancy digital art studio, one she was surprised to have gotten a meeting with in the first place. And, while they were more interested in her art pipelines than her scripts, they were still her pride and joy she’d poured blood and sweat into over the last few years, so. She wanted to showcase it all.

But Catra had also never heard Adora sound like this.

It wasn’t that Catra cared, or whatever. Not really, just… well, Adora had done a lot for her, and she sounded upset, and so it was only natural—

“No.” Catra shut the laptop and took the phone back off speaker, pressing it to her ear. “No, it’s chill. What’s wrong?”

“Can you just… stay on the phone with me for a second?”

“Yeah, sure. Are you okay?” When Adora didn’t answer, Catra had to prompt her again. “Adora?”

A shrill scream came through the line, so loud that it had Catra ripping the phone away from her ear. “Adora. What the fuck is going on?”

“Sorry, I’m so sorry.” Her voice wavered, and a cold dread pulled in Catra’s chest. “Everything’s fine, I’m sorry, this is really stupid. I just think Bow and Glimmer already went to bed, they weren’t answering, and I thought… but no, I shouldn’t have bothered you, I can just—”

“Adora. What. Is. Wrong?”

“I-I—” Adora let out another yelp, and her next words came out in a rush. “There’s-a-cockroach-in-my-room.”

Catra blinked. It took her a second. “Are you serious?”

“Yes, and it keeps running in and out from under my bed, and I don’t know what to do and it— oh my fucking god, it is fucking massive. What the fuck do I do?”

Catra didn’t know whether to burst into laughter or to take Adora’s trembling meltdown seriously.

“You called me… because of a cockroach?”

“Catra, holy fucking shit, it has wings, it has goddamn wings. Oh god, I’m going to fucking die.”

“Oh jesus, relax. Where is it now?”

“I threw my slipper at it, and it flew into the bathroom.”

Catra smirked. “You brought slippers on a business trip?”

“Shut up. My feet get cold at night, fucking sue me.” Before Catra could respond to that, Adora sighed. “I’m sorry. That was rude of me. I am in a lot of distress right now.”

“It’s cool. I like hearing you swear, it’s kind of hot.”

“Oh my god, this is so not the time for that.”

“So, there is a time for it?”

“I think I’m gonna have a panic attack. Catra, I can’t sleep like this. Fuck, what if it crawls into my mouth while I’m sleeping? Or my ear while I’m sleeping? Oh god, what if there’s more?”

“Okay, okay just breathe. It’s in the bathroom, you said? Go close the door and stuff a towel or something underneath the door.”

“Are you kidding me? I’m not going anywhere near that thing.”

“Your other option is to climb out the window.”

“There’s no fire escape, and you know what? I would still rather take that four-storey jump.”

Catra couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped her. “I really don’t know what to tell you.”

"I’m sorry, I know it’s late, and I shouldn’t have bothered you anyway. You can—”

“I’m glad you did. Call me, I mean.”

A silence fell. Catra was almost surprised with herself.

“You are?”

It hadn’t even been two days, but. Hearing Adora’s voice now made Catra realize how she’d strangely missed their stupid banter.

She wasn’t ready to dwell on it. “Have you tried calling the front desk?”

Adora scoffed. “Of course I did.”

“And?”

“They said ‘it happens’ and they ‘apologize for the inconvenience.’ They said they can’t get an exterminator to gas the room until the weekend.”

“Are you staying in a hostel, or something? Where the hell are you?”

“Sanctum Hotel? It’s downtown by Prime Park.”

“Seriously?”

“What?”

Catra made a snap decision. “What are you doing tomorrow?”

“Um.” Catra was pretty sure she heard a quiet sniffle, could picture Adora rubbing her nose on her sleeve. It was as hilarious as it was endearing. “Just working on my article, I guess. Unless Weaver calls for something else. Why?”

“Cool. I’m texting you my address now. I’ll get Scorpia to let you in.”

“What? For what? Do you need me to send you something?”

“You’ve got a thick skull, princess. No, I’m telling you to go crash at my place. I’ve got a spare key in my desk you can hang on to.”

“Catra, no offense, I’m not really in the mood for your jokes right now.”

“Good thing it isn’t one. No dude, I mean it. You’re gonna be in FC for longer than I’m gonna be out here, so it’s not like anyone’s using my room for anything.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You know, for a journalist, your deductive reasoning skills are shit. Grab whatever you need now, go head over to my place, and you can come back and check-out of the hotel in the morning.”

“But—”

“Don’t but me. I have never, in the five years that I’ve lived there, seen a single bug worse than a fly enter that apartment. Not even a mosquito.”

“You really don’t have to do this. I don’t want to impose. I mean, honestly, I was just over—”

“You said it yourself, you’re not gonna sleep like this. Scorpia’s cool with new people, and Entrapta does her own thing. To be honest, you’re probably a better roommate than I ever was, and they won’t want me to come back.”

Well. Sort of. They wanted her to stay here, but that was complicated, and—

“This is really nice of you and everything, but… why? You said it yourself, I’m just some stranger. You know nothing about me, and you’re suggesting I go just take over your room? That doesn’t worry you?”

“I’m gonna want it back eventually.” Catra found herself smiling, even if underneath was an itch to tell Adora she wasn’t just some stranger. Not anymore.

“Catra.”

“Adora. You’re in a real shit neighborhood, too. I doubt that cockroach is the only thing crawling around in those walls.”

“You are terrible for giving me that mental image.” Adora was quiet for a moment. A pause. And then, “Explains why the rates were so cheap.”

“Exactly. So just, take the offer and don’t make a big deal about it.”

“I know I’m kind of overreacting about all of this, and you did give me a lot of grief already for it, but… thanks for not laughing at me. Well, as much as you could have, anyway.”

Catra didn’t know what to say to that. “This isn’t because I like you, or anything.”

Adora laughed for the first time this call. Though still strained, it was airy, gentle. “You can be nice, you know. It won’t kill you to not ruin it every time we’re having a moment.”

“Yeah, I think it might.”

“Guess that’s something we’ll have to work on.”

Catra didn’t want to think about what that implied, what Adora meant, what she probably didn’t.

Catra continued to sit on the floor leaned back against the bed, exchanging quiet, meaningless words with Adora as she packed up her things. Adora didn’t ask, but Catra figured she needed the distraction as she grabbed whatever she needed for the night, as she snuck out of the hotel room with another shout of terror like her life depended on it.

While Adora rambled on about some article she’d read that morning, Catra put Adora on speaker while she texted her roommates.

losers 2.0

Today, 11:46 PM

catra

Yo are u guys up rn

Scorpia

whats up wildcat

Entrapta

I have not taken any uppers, but the night is still young.

catra

Can Adora crash at our place for a week or so?

Scorpia

of course! 😊

Entrapta

Who’s Adora?

catra

The chick who’s phone i’m texting u from

Entrapta

Why do you have her phone?

catra

Did we not already go over this

Scorpia

i think she’s messing with you

she’s doing that scary giggle thing thru a mouthful of mini m&ms

Entrapta

I have never made a mess a day in my life.

catra

Is the TV still broken?

Entrapta

Before this week, I had never made a mess a day in my life.

catra

Good talk

Is it cool if she swings by tonight?

/can one of u let her in when she gets there

Sorry I know it’s late

Scorpia

sure thing! i don’t have to be at work until three tomorrow

Entrapta

You mean IF she gets here.

catra

Entrapta

Do me a favor

Entrapta

What?

catra

Never change

Once Adora was out into the night and riding the bus across town to where Catra lived (per Catra’s navigational instructions), Adora did most of the talking. She talked about her article on Weaver, some of the new tech she’d managed to get teasers about.

Even if the name still sent shivers down her back, Catra tried to listen, but she had little more to say about Weaver than anything she’d already told Adora. She could barely stand hearing about what she was up to these days as it was.

More to deter the conversation from her than anything, asked a bit about some of the tech, and Adora teased her for her interest. Like, okay, she might hate Weaver, but it had been years since she had any insider details about Weaver’s projects, and she figured Entrapta and Scorpia might be interested. Catra just threatened to tease her about the ridiculous ordeal of this entire night, and Adora dropped it.

It all drifted to somewhere rather empty and idle until they weren’t talking about anything at all anymore. Just, whatever. Listening to the sound of each others’ voices.

Adora hung up on her after having gotten a few stink-eyes from the other late night passengers on the bus for talking on the phone, and they moved over to texting.

Today, 12:22 AM

catra

How noble of u

adora

well it’d bother me if i’d just had a long day and someone was talking obnoxiously loud on their phone

catra

Not to propose anything too radical for you but

You could try...

Not talking so damn loud………

adora

i can’t help it

i get excited

catra

So cute that I bring out this side of u

adora

i’m like this talking to anyone on the phone but keep trying

are you really sure this is okay? i don’t want to make your friends uncomfortable

also its really late

catra

They said it’s cool

And entrapta never sleeps anyway

So just say thank u and take it

Please

adora

omg

you said please

catra

I only say please bc I don’t want another midnight call about some dumb bug

adora

and now you’re concerned about my well-being 🥰

catra

I never said that

Are u trying to get me to retract my offer

adora

is it working?

catra

adora

does that mean i can probably get away with saying you’re being extraordinarily sweet right now?

catra

Ur on thin ice

adora

who would’ve thought

the adorable angry little person that swore me out a week ago and accused me of stealing

is now insisting i sleep in her bed

catra

Fuck u I’m not little

U can take the couch for all I care

adora

such a gentlewoman

but truly

thank you

catra

It’s nothing

adora

it’s not nothing to me

catra

U did me a real solid with the laptop

Figured I’d return the favor

adora

and here i thought that your dummy guide to the intricacies of dr. weaver covered that already

catra

Taking thirty seconds to explain what a freak she is is hardly the same as lending me a 1k laptop

adora

you know i'm kidding right?

that’s not something you actually need to repay me for

catra

I just want to

You’ve been way nicer to me than I deserve so

If I can do this tiny thing for u bc u have a wild fear of cockroaches then just

Yeah whatever

adora

i imagine you deserve a lot more than you think

Catra stared at the text for too long, just listening to her own steadily rising tic of her heart.

catra

Idiot

Go to bed

adora

yes ma’am 💖

Adora trailed into Catra’s room slowly, her backpack hanging low off her shoulder.

It wasn’t small, but it was modest; a long rectangular room with a window at the far end, off-white walls, one with exposed brick. The window faced the east, and so the early morning light spilled into the room warmly. It was far neater than Adora had expected. Catra didn’t strike her as a messy person, but she didn’t seem like this either. A bed was pressed against the wall beneath the window, better made than Adora ever left her own. With the duvet tucked beneath the mattress with razor-precision all along the edges and the pillows perfectly centered, it resembled someone who never completely grew out of a disciplined upbringing. Everything was ordered in a particular place, clothes put away, nothing left on the floors or abandoned on the desk chair.

The main thing that caught her eye was the wall with random cut-outs and pictures plastered to it, nothing bigger than a regular sheet of paper, along with assorted sticky-notes tacked over them. Adora trailed up to the center cluster of photographs, crooked and overlapping. They were mostly of the two girls Adora had just met outside. One was of Scorpia racing down the city sidewalk, her mouth slung open in a laugh, Catra riding on her back and clinging to her shoulders with a face stricken with fear. Adora found herself running her finger along its edges, around the shape of Catra’s messy hair flailing in the wind. The sticky note on this one just had a few messily-drawn hearts.

Adora had kept her promise and hadn’t gone snooping. For the most part, at least. Scrolling through Catra’s Instagram didn’t count because that was essentially public record. It wasn’t like there had been many pictures of Catra herself in there anyway. Mostly pictures of said friends, shots of the city. There would be an occasional shot of an outfit, but it always cut off at just below Catra’s face, just showing the same cool slacked pose, hands tucked loosely in pockets, slender wrists, a leather bracelet slightly too big and dangling.

These photos on the walls were the ones the internet didn’t get to see.

Still. Catra told her to come here, so she wasn’t violating anything by just looking at the walls, right?

Another was of Entrapta and Catra huddled together at an old computer. Entrapta was in front of the keyboard, her giggling smile lit up by the blue glow of the screen, and Catra was reaching around her for the mouse. Her knitted, pensive frown had her mouth parted open like she’d been in the middle of saying something. The sticky-note, in a messy scrawl: at least we can be ugly together.

Another photo of Entrapta posing outside a Zagat Miniature Café pop-up. Caption: a pink doodle of what looked to be Entrapta holding up a peace sign.

One of Scorpia holding up two hands of fried food at a fair. Caption: best and worst day ever.

They were all cute, adorable, sweet, but Adora would be lying if she said she wasn’t drawn towards the ones of Catra.

Catra, with a wide-eyed look of surprise as she leant over a pool table, a beer spilled across the green felt. Caption: a neat and cursive, we may have been kicked out but you still won!!!

Catra, wearing a maroon suit with an undone bow-tie, glowering in a diner booth next to Scorpia in a matching red gown, one milkshake with two straws between them. Caption, in uniform capital letters: where was I for this? And below that, messier: u took the pic doofus.

Catra, looking at the camera, a soft and genuine smile on her lips, sunken into a bean bag chair with her hands in her lap, a crooked tiara on her head, party streamers spilled over her shoulders. The neat-handwriting caption this one’s my fave, and below the messier: fuck you.

Before Adora could forget — or think better of it — she pulled a sticky note of her own off Catra’s desk and left a note below the photo on the wall.

After writing the note, she wandered the rest of the room, dropping her bag onto a plastic desk chair. She poked through the books on the desk. Various computer programming, some on fine and modern art, another assortment on human development and anatomy. Scattered pages torn from notebooks with sketches, some of people and real-life scenes, others just blueprints for technical stuff Adora didn’t recognize. Floor plans, maybe.

Whoever Catra was, she certainly had a variety of interests.

Adora dropped back onto the mattress, bouncing on the cool foam. It was comfier than it looked, and she found herself sinking back into the pillows. The popcorn ceiling above her was yellow, the paint cracked and discolored in parts.

When she shut her eyes and inhaled deeply, she smelled something else that was woody and floral, not quite vanilla, but a similar note of sweetness to it. Adora wondered if it was a cologne or a shampoo, wondered if it would be weird to look around further to find out.

She didn’t mean to fall asleep.

But immediately after contemplating the source of the smell, she was suddenly waking up curled around a pillow clutched tight to her chest, and the sunlight was no longer on a direct path through the window, the room darker now.

Rubbing her eyes to drag herself out of the delirious aftermath of a midday nap, Adora fumbled around for her phone. She had a handful of messages from her new group-chat with Bow and Glimmer, a text from Scorpia, some general news and email notifications for Catra, and three messages from Catra herself.

Waking up to messages from Catra was becoming one of the easiest things about Adora’s new routine, and she smiled before she even opened them.

Today, 10:09 AM

catra

U make it in okay?

Today, 11:20 AM

catra

I haven’t had a chance to put my ac in yet but if u get too hot it’s in my closet

I can ask Scorpia to put it in for you

Adora made no attempt to dampen the smile that stretched wide across her face.

Today, 11:45 AM

adora

catra

Sup

adora

your bed is really comfy

catra

Oh yeah?

Eighty bucks on Amazon

adora

i like all the pictures too

very cute

Adora had you’re cute typed out before she paused. She backspaced.

adora

i think i just really like your room

catra

Ur an idiot

adora

thank you

don’t worry about the ac though, this is nice

catra

Yeah u mentioned that

But I’m glad

Lmk if u need anything

I’ll make Scorpia do it

adora

i will :)

Adora thumbed over to the other texts.

Today, 10:32 AM

scorpion

there’s coffee leftover in the pot, feel free to help yourself!

and also anything in the fridge

do you like waffles?

catra likes the chocolate eggo ones and normally she gets really territorial about them but she told me to make sure you feel at home so i think that means i can tell you to help yourself to those too

also i’m going to the store after work, so if there’s anything you’d like me to pick up, just shoot me a text!

😊

Today, 11:51 AM

adora

you’re so sweet thank you!

haha i’ll be sure to steal a couple waffles then

if only because they’re catra’s

scorpion

i like the way you think kid

temporary best friend squad gc ✌️

Today, 11:02 AM

glimmer

good morning everyone

this is a terrible day for us all

one for the books

bow

did you put salt in your coffee again?

glimmer

stop that was one time 😩

i meant this is the day adora officially crosses over to the dark side

bow

i thought she started working with Dr. Weaver like a week ago

glimmer

no bow this is a far more srs matter than that

bow

are you talking about adora crashing at catra’s place

glimmer

don’t say our enemy’s name

it’s cursed

but yes!!! this is why ur my favorite

bow

why is she the enemy again

glimmer

she hung up on us

twice

bow

idk i think she seems p cool

she’s been sweet to adora so far

glimmer

how would u know?

for all we know someone put a hit out on adora and she was hired to take her out so she gave adora her room so she can set up booby traps and get the job done

bow

okay I knew watching Wanted with you last week was a bad idea

idk adora said catra was just nice to talk to and stuff

glimmer

when did she say that?

bow

yesterday

glimmer

wdym yesterday

bow

in the afternoon

glimmer

wdym afternoon

bow

Adora and I fted

glimmer

…

without me?

bow

Adora come back pls

Today, 11:53 AM

adora

hiiii what’s the situation

glimmer

u fucking traitor

adora

are we talking about the catra thing or the facetime thing

bow

i think both

she also might’ve put salt in her coffee so caution ahead

adora

oh shit okay. noted

glimmer

fuck both of you

adora

love you

catra’s place is actually really nice

glimmer

uh-huh bet it is

bow

hey glimmer

glimmer

bow

what you so salty for?

adora

we can all facetime tonight okay?

i just called bow to ask about some grammar stuff for my article

glimmer

oh and i suppose i’m not good enough to be helpful?

adora

i called to talk to his dads

who are professors

of english,,

but stand your ground glimmer ❤️

i love your energy

bow

oh I get it now

adora

get what?

bow

i spent the night at my dads house

adora

i believe we just covered that

bow

i think somebody is perhaps missing us 😊😊😊

glimmer

bow stop it

adora

omg

you might be onto something

glimmer

ok is it a fucking crime to miss my best friends 😭

u know this place makes creepy noises at night

adora

we miss you too you big goof

bow

i’ll be back this afternoon babe

glimmer

i never want to see either of ur faces ever again

Today, 1:13 AM

adora

are you awake?

catra

Booty calls don’t work when ur across the country

adora

you wish

catra

Up for debate

U ok?

adora

yeah i just can’t sleep

bored

catra

Oh cmon

My bed is a cloud

adora

yes the bed is wonderful shush

catra

So what’s the beef

adora

just feeling a little wired

catra

U try counting sheep yet

adora

yes proved more stressful actually

catra

Why are u stressed

adora

just

life

same as everyone i guess

catra

Yeah

Feeling a lil bit of that too

adora

what are you up to?

catra

Some work stuff

Kinda

adora

is there a point in asking about it or should i save my breath?

catra

I’m pretty much giving up on it for the night so

Keep ur lungs safe

adora

do you have to get up early again tomorrow?

catra

Yes 🙄

adora

can i ask you something?

catra

Aren't u already doing that

adora

do you think we would’ve met? in other circumstances

catra

Maybe?

adora

because the fact that we actually both have come to each other’s cities is enough of a coincidence

but for us both to be away at the same time

it’s as if we were the opposite of being destined to meet each other

like it was fate to keep us apart

catra

Are u on drugs rn

Did u find my stash

adora

your what

catra

Nvm

What made u think abt this

adora

i don’t know

it’s just

this is all so weird

isn’t it?

catra

I’ve been trying to tell u this from day 1

adora

you’re a complete ass

catra

Loving this theory so far tho

What else u got

adora

i just feel like

i don’t know

it feels kinda special?

i think so at least

feels like we’re involved in some cool cosmic happy accident

maybe i’m being dumb

i’m also maybe on my second glass of wine

catra

U are dumb

And a lightweight

Another couple glasses and you'll def sleep just fine

adora

catra

But maybe I also think a cool cosmic happy accident would be a little special too

adora

snapchatra added you as a friend!

It’d been two days since Adora started staying at Catra’s apartment. They’d been talking nonstop since.

Catra rolled her eyes as she walked out of a studio, loosening the tie around her neck for relief in the sticky city heat.

Once she added herself back on Adora’s snapchat (Adora was right, it was definitely weird seeing her own username), she had three pictures from the other girl.

The first was a mirror selfie in a Shadow Weaver Tech bathroom, the phone mostly obscuring her face. She wore a fitted blouse with short, angled sleeves, her navy pencil-skirt high-waisted and snug around her middle. Catra could just barely see a glimpse of pale thighs before the sink cut them off.

The caption read, dr weaver said i smell like dandelions

Catra tapped through to the second picture. This one had the camera flipped around, close to Adora’s face, only the upper half of her face visible.

i said thanks and she said the german word for dandelions means “piss carnations”

Catra snorted.

The third was another selfie from a low angle, this time only the left-side of Adora’s face off the screen, and Catra could only see half of a barely-suppressed smile, her eyes crunched.

p.s. your snapchat name is really cute

If Catra snapped a picture of the street in front of her that curved up a steep hill, rather than taking one of her face, it had nothing to do with the blush creeping up her neck. Was she smiling?

Adora was at a desk now, her chin in the palm of her hand and her lips turned down into a pout. no :( hands very much in front of her too

Before Catra could respond, another came in of Adora squinting down at her screen, brow furrowed cutely. where even are you?

Catra sent a blurry picture of her heeled boots. Near mystacor park I think. Trying to find the yellow line

She only got a brief picture of a frowning Adora even closer to the screen before an incoming call took over the screen.

“Hey Adora. Don’t you have a job, or something?” Catra answered, but even she couldn’t keep the satisfied content out of her tone. It was always annoying how much Catra liked the sound of Adora’s voice.

“Yeah, well, you’re a better informant than she is anyway.” A pause. “Okay, she’s in a meeting right now, so I have ten minutes before we go back to the interview.”

“There it is.”

“Shush. What’re you doing?”

“Sorry, I’ve hit my limit for dishing out insider secrets.” Catra crossed the street, already dreading the steep hill. “I just finished my last thing for the day, headed back to my room. Why?”

“Oh your thing, yes. You and all of the things you do.”

“If you’re gonna do this every time you call, then I’m just gonna stop answering.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.”

“Can we not do this again?”

“Right, I forgot. Not even two days and you were missing me already.”

“You’re a jerk, and you’re lucky I’ll let this one slide. I meant why are you looking for the yellow line?”

“I wanted to update your Instagram story with a shot of it.” Catra rolled her eyes. “To ride it back to my place, what else?”

“Bright Moon public transit is a death trap.”

“Yeah, so I’ve noticed.”

“You haven’t actually been riding it, have you? They never keep up with maintenance regulations, and they’re like, always late, and— Oh my god, is that why you’re always up so early?”

“You talk too much.”

“Catra. Tell me you’re not taking those buses every day.”

“Not everyone’s got a cushion trust-fund to fall back on and pay for some stranger to chauffeur them around all day, princess.”

“First of all, I don’t have a trust fund. Second, if you’re done being such a smart-ass, I was going to say you can just use my car. You can drive standard, right?”

Catra barked a laugh. “Oh no, hold up, we’re not doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“This dumb back-and-forth thing. I use your laptop, you crash at my place, I use your car — what’s next? You wanna apply for a mortgage together?”

“Did you know the roots for the word mortgage literally mean death pledge?”

“Now you sound like Weaver.”

“You have your license, right?”

“I’m not playing this game with you.”

“Sure you are. I have a parking permit in there too that you can use for discounted parking in most districts, since I know you bounce around the city a lot.”

Catra stopped in her tracks. She kept her voice steady. "How do you know that?"

"Um, because every time I talk to you you're somewhere new?"

Catra let out a slow breath and resumed her pace. She needed to stop overthinking every little thing. That wasn't her anymore, she could be normal for once.

“I’m not using your car.”

“Can we skip to the part where you realize you’re being difficult for no reason and that it’s okay to accept help?”

“No. Arguing is more fun.”

“Can we argue about something else then?”

“Sure. Let’s drop this altogether.”

“Catra, come on. It’s in my best interest too.”

She bit her lip, begging herself not to take the bait. “...How’s that?”

(Catra was quickly finding that not taking the bait where Adora was concerned was a moot point.)

“I have to pay extra for storing my car in one place overnight for so long. So really, you’d be doing me a favor taking it off my hands.”

“A favor.”

“Mhmm. Pretty please?”

That was just mean. That, combined with the trickle of sweat dripping down the back of her neck and her breath coming a little more ragged as she trudged up the hill — Mean. Catra was toast.

“And what about when you get back? You’re only there for another week. You want to give me a taste of freedom and air-conditioned transportation only to rip it away in seven days?”

“Your dramatics used to annoy me, but now I think it’s my favorite thing about you.”

Catra was immensely grateful this wasn’t a FaceTime call.

“And I mean, I’ll just… you know.”

“You'll what?”

“I can still drive you around if you want. Or you can borrow it whenever. I don’t usually use it that much during the day when I’m at work.”

Of course Catra knew that this whole charade was soon coming to an end. Adora would come back, take her phone back. Adora wouldn’t have to send Catra random files over from her backup storage on her phone every time Catra remembered an old project she wanted to bring to her next interview. Catra wouldn’t have to text Adora every time Dr. Weaver left a voicemail or sent a text, because Adora was too afraid of trying to explain she temporarily changed her number. Not to mention Weaver would pop a vessel if she got a text from Catra’s number saying it was Adora.

Catra knew this wasn’t supposed to last. That was why this stupid… crush didn’t matter beyond harmless throwaway flirting and pink cheeks. Of course this was going to end.

She just hadn’t thought all that much about what came after that.

Catra, here, and Adora, coming back. Adora saying she would still see her. Saying she could. Like it wasn’t that big of a deal. Like it was simple to imagine. Like Catra wouldn’t go back to Fright City shortly after, and like they wouldn’t inevitably lose touch when Adora realized there wasn’t all that much keeping them together.

If Catra didn’t decide to stay, if she didn't get any job offers, if she didn't move out here like her friends were begging her to.

“I’m just going to bug you about this until you say yes anyway, so you might as well—”

“Fine.” Catra stopped on the sidewalk, rubbing her face. “Fine. I’ll use your stupid car. But I swear to God, if it’s a Tesla, I’m throwing your phone and the keys in a dumpster.”

“No, it’s a Saab 9-5. It is an aero though, which — okay, I admit that is a little douchey, but the turbo was too good to pass up.”

“I have no idea what you’re saying. Oh god, are you one of those car snobs?”

“You can nerd out asking me about the neuromorphic chips Dr. Weaver is working on, but I can’t be proud of Swift Wind?”

“Proud of what?”

“His name is Swift Wind. You know, ‘cause of the turbo. You’ll have to call him that if you’re going to drive him.”

“I didn’t want to drive him — it — in the first place.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I didn’t say thank you.”

“You will.”

Catra huffed as she finally made it to the top of the hill, hand propped against her hip. She really should work out more.

When did it so suddenly become second-hand to talk with her like they’ve known each other for so much longer than a handful of days? How did their conversations blend together so seamlessly?

Was it when Catra pulled the stick out of her ass and, for once in her life, stopped lashing out? Was it when Adora called her on the verge of a breakdown over a damn cockroach? Was it when Adora FaceTimed her from Catra’s bed, her hair splayed out on the same pale green pillows Catra’s slept on for years, smiling like she’d been there dozens of times before? Was it when Adora went so far as to call this stupid thing between them special? Was it when Catra let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding if only because it was such a relief to hear this feeling wasn’t all in her head?

How did the song of her stupid voice through the static of a phone that didn’t even belong to Catra, how did that sound so everlasting?

More importantly, how did Catra already dread its end?

Did it all change when Catra realized there was a chance it didn’t have to?

“Adora?”

“Yes, I’m ready for your gratitude. Hit me when you’re ready.”

Something warm and calm washed over her, overwhelming in its serenity. “I’m really glad I met you,” she said softly.

Adora was quiet. Catra could only hear the distant rush of the ocean behind her and she turned to face it, the sparkling sunlight over the water’s horizon so blinding it was white.

The blare of muffled traffic was all that came through the phone.

“Sorry.” Catra put the blossom-yellow sky behind her again and pinched her nose. “I don’t know why I said that.”

“You don’t?”

Right, now she was quick to answer. Catra resisted the urge to kick something.

“Just, you know. There’s some shit you should keep to yourself.”

This time Adora laughed, and it sounded like how chardonnay tastes — crisp, buttery and satisfying on a hot afternoon.

“I’m glad you told me. Can I say that?”

It wasn’t really what Catra wanted her to say, but she wanted even less for Adora to agree with the sentiment, so. “You can do whatever you want. But I uh, I should get going. Gotta catch that death-trap and everything.”

“Are you done for the day with — whatever it is you do? You can take the yellow to Salineas Street , and then transfer over to the red line and get off at Thaymor. The garage is just a few blocks away from my apartment, so you should recognize the area. I’ll text you the exact address. Key’s with an attendant, I’ll call ahead to make sure they give it to you.”

“You know, I could just not take the car and tell you I did. You’d never know.”

“True, but now I’ll definitely be asking for daily pictures of him. Thanks for reminding me.”

Catra bit her lip, dropped her voice. “I do mean it though. You really don’t have to do this.”

“I know. I want to. Plus it gives me the chance to show off how cool he is.”

Catra meant to ask her what else she wanted, but the words caught in her throat like something forbidden.

Adora was sitting in the waiting room smiling at her phone when Dr. Weaver finally stepped out. It was a selfie of Catra scowling with Swift Wind’s sleek black shine in the background, a ridiculous pair of yellow aviators sunk low in her nose. The caption read, your car sux for parallel parking.

Dr. Weaver beckoned Adora inside, and she quickly stuffed Catra’s phone into her pocket, rising to her feet and following her inside. When she sat down and Dr. Weaver made her way around the desk, her smile was thin-lipped, her eyes void of any readable emotion.

“I received your final draft,” Dr. Weaver started in that slow, dangerous drawl of hers that was equal parts soothing and terrifying. “Your foster mother insisted that you were an exceptional writer.”

Adora bit her tongue.

“You somehow managed to not disappoint such a lofty expectation.”

She blinked, tried not to read too much into the faint smile on Dr. Weaver’s face or think about Catra’s advice. “You… You liked it?”

“You’re surprised.”

Adora wiped her sweaty palms against the thighs of her skirt. “I mean, I'll admit I was a little worried.”

“What for?”

“I tried my best to be objective about the company. I wasn’t sure if you’d agree with everything I had to say.”

Dr. Weaver’s laugh echoed like shadows. “Oh Adora, I hardly agreed with half of the opinion you reported. That doesn’t mean I can deny innate talent when I see it.”

Adora froze, a hiccup of a laugh caught in her chest. “Well, thank you. That’s good to hear. I already sent it to my editor, so it should be—”

“How would you like a position a little more... substantial?”

“I’m sorry?”

“I have a significant amount of shares in Fright City Daily, and from my understanding they are a bit short-staffed at the moment.” Dr. Weaver raised her eyebrows like she was playing a strong hand of cards, one that would make Adora stumble if she weren't sitting down. “You’re wasting your potential in Bright Moon. I had to demand you for this article. If your supervisor had it their way, you would never have left your desk.”

Adora swallowed, but the lump in her throat remained strong.

“I can ensure you a position on the FCD’s highest-ranking journalism team as early as tomorrow morning.” Dr. Weaver smiled, a chilling, genuine thing across her tight face. “What do you say?”

losers 2.0

Today, 11:48 PM

Scorpia

so… adora’s pretty cute

catra

She’s alright yeah

Entrapta

Taking her height, build, facial symmetry, hair color, and eye color etc. into consideration, and comparing this to other women you’ve dated in the past along with the ratings you gave them, Adora is about an 8.7/10 by your standards.

catra

Idk why u’ve kept track of that stuff but

Thanks for the summary

Entrapta

You’re welcome :)

Scorpia

we just noticed that you guys just talk a lot

she definitely talks a lot about you

catra

She does?

Entrapta

Yes.

It’s a little annoying.

catra

All u talk about is computer stuff

Entrapta

All you talk about is computer stuff and Adora.

catra

That is so not true

Entrapta

[IMG_018]

[IMG_019]

[IMG_020]

[IMG_021]

Shall I continue?

catra

Ok ok we get it

Entrapta

Who’s we?

catra

Me and scorpia

Entrapta

Oh yes.

She was the first to point this all out actually.

catra

Fuck both of u

Scorpia

omg ok i did NOT say it was annoying

i would never

just that it is a lil bit curious

catra

What is

Entrapta

Ohhh very interesting.

catra

???

Entrapta

You always say I’m the oblivious one.

Scorpia

lol

all we are trying to say is that you two seem to have a lot in common!!

catra

Name two things

Entrapta

She also only talks about is you
She now sleeps in your bed

Scorpia

ooh those are good

catra

Those are both bs

And I mean

What else would she talk abt with u guys

I’m the common denominator

That doesn’t mean anything

Scorpia

if you ask me

this is all just a rather convenient accident

and i think we should take it as a sign

There was that word again. Accident. Catra’s skin crawled, and her stomach twisted like vines with nowhere to grow.

catra

Good thing nobody asked u

Entrapta

I’m asking.

Please explain.

I love convenient accidents.

Entropy 💜

Scorpia

like this might be some more incentive for you to make your stay in bright moon a little more permanent

catra

I’m literally here for interviews so idk what more u two want from me

Also it’s too late for nagging

Past my bedtime

Entrapta

Very intriguing it is.

Permission to include Adora in Operation Bring Catra to Bright Moon?

catra

Permission denied

Scorpia

granted!

Entrapta

I don’t understand what the point is of making me request permission for everything I do if you are just going to deny me every time.

catra

Bc u ask to do stupid shit

Sorry not stupid

I just mean ridiculous stuff I would have told u not to do if u had asked me beforehand

Entrapta

Thank you for your feedback :)

Catra closed out of the texts and dropped the phone onto the mattress beside her. She rubbed her face tiredly, sighing. So what if Adora talked about her? And so what if Catra talked about Adora? It wasn’t exciting per se, but this dumb mix-up of phones was the most unexpected part of this trip. Adora was the most unexpected part. And they talked to each other a lot, so it only made sense that they’d talk about each other.

And like, what else would Adora talk about with Scorpia and Entrapta? Adora was personable, and didn’t really strike as the kind of person to talk about herself a whole lot, so yeah, it made sense.

As if on cue, or maybe just another cosmic joke, the phone started vibrating beside her on the cheap duvet. She had every intention of ignoring it, even knowing full well it was Adora. But as Catra went to reject the call, she caught sight of the contact photo on the screen. It was some dumb snapchat she’d screenshotted from Adora. A lollipop much too big for her mouth was tucked into one cheek, the biggest smile on her face, her lips wet and red. The caption read, how can you be so mean to someone so sweet?

Catra had had three interviews today, two of which had been second rounds and consequently gone on for hours. Tired was an understatement.

But Catra was finding that Adora didn’t take up as much of Catra’s energy as she used to.

“Hey,” she answered, laying back into the pillows.

“Hi. Is this a bad time?”

“I’ve got an appointment to clip my toenails in a few, but sure I can squeeze you in.”

“You’re so gross.”

Catra smiled. “Guess you just bring it out in me. What’s up?”

“Well um, an interesting thing happened today.”

“Oh yeah?” Now that she thought about it, today had been one of the first days in a while that she’d barely heard from Adora, not since the snapchat of her car early in the afternoon.

“Yeah.” Adora laughed. “I think Dr. Weaver sort of offered me a job?”

Catra’s chest shrunk like a vacuum, stole the breath from her lungs. “Oh.”

“Yeah. In Fright City.”

“That’s… cool. I didn’t realize you were looking for a job there.”

“I mean, I’m not.”

“You’re not taking it?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

“So you are taking it?”

“I don’t know,” Adora repeated exasperatedly. “It’s a really great offer. She’s offering a position that would take me another two years to reach if I stayed with the Bright Moon Tribune.”

“Where? At Shadow Weaver Tech? Doing what?”

“No, no, she has some connections with the local paper.”

Catra’s breath came heavier. “But she showed you the offer from them at least? Some kind of schematic for the contract you’d be signing onto?”

“Well, no. It was a brief conversation, and that’s a lot of work to draw up for just some preliminary—”

“Don’t make excuses for her,” Catra snapped before she could stop herself. The creeping sense of dread set her on edge, sent a shiver down her back, and combined with the exhaustion from the day, she was left with a filthy sort of anxiety.

“...I wasn’t.” Adora said slowly.

Catra bit her tongue.

Of course. Of course Weaver would promise some shit like this without any basis to back it up.

Catra had seen her do it enough times — corner new hires with flashy, glittering offers. She’d get them to put in their two weeks at their current job before showing the fine print on whatever position she’d pitched to be waiting for them, reveal the ugly truth of her twisted half-lies.

And Catra was intimately familiar with the arrangement Weaver had with FCD. She was familiar with how Weaver had a goddamn monopoly on what kind of news circulated through the major metropolitan area, always ensuring every headline was tokened in just the right way to never incriminate Shadow Weaver Tech. Catra was aware of the lengths Weaver went to twist naive reporters around her fingers.

She just hadn’t thought it would be Adora. She thought Adora was safe, working for someone else.

It wasn’t anything Weaver had done in years, anyway, not since Catra was still living in one of the apartment buildings that Weaver owned. Weaver used to spend hours guiding Catra through the process, calling it strategic hiring and a clever method of preemptive damage control, pitched herself as a marketing prodigy, and groomed Catra to one day take over in her place.

The year that she began to question what exactly kind of damage she was controlling for was the same year that Catra moved out. Five years ago. Catra had been naive to think maybe Weaver was just making faulty equipment, streamlining unsafe technology prints to production, that she was doing something wrong on the books. Catra had been naive to think it might be something she could hold against the woman, something that she could burn for. But when everything she did was perfectly legal, and the most powerful media empire on the coast was ridden with her people, there wasn’t all that much to be done. No one for Catra to tell, no one who gave a shit. Weaver was a manipulative, lying snake, and the only thing worse than living under her roof for twenty years was to work under it. Either way, Catra had been Weaver’s property, just another object with the Weaver name stamped on it.

There was nothing Catra did that Weaver didn’t know about, no corner of her computer or photo in her phone that wouldn’t come back to haunt her if it was anything Weaver would remotely disapprove of. Nothing she owned was actually her own, nothing Weaver wouldn't waltz in and dig through like fishing in the garbage. Growing up, there had never been anything to ask permission for because the answer would always be no, and everything to apologize for when Weaver inevitably found out.

There hadn’t been one inch of Catra’s life that wasn’t under Weaver’s shadow. Her texts, emails, bank transactions, the GPS in her phone.

Catra wanted to say this was when she left. That this was when she’d decided she had enough of Weaver’s games. That she was strong enough to be the one to leave of her own accord.

But the truth was that there wasn’t any grand, empowering moment where Catra stepped up and stood for something.

There was only an anticlimactic finale when Weaver finally decided that she didn’t want Catra standing beside her at all anymore.

What was worse? The all-encompassing, white-hot hatred Catra felt towards her foster mother, or the fact that Catra still fell to her knees and begged her to stay?

Because is there even a difference between being left behind and being told to go?

It wasn’t too long after Catra was fired and kicked out of her apartment before Entrapta and Scorpia left too. And so, with less than just a few grand in savings and not even a suitcase's worth of belongings, that was how Catra began a life that belonged to no one but herself. The sticky paranoia for privacy didn't make up even half the scars Weaver had left her with.

And now. And fucking now, Entrapta and Scorpia wanted to leave this city. Leave Catra. They both had offers out in Bright Moon and were preparing to move out there once their lease ended.

Catra could stay, find a couple new roommates, ones who she wouldn’t care if they left her too. She could find a smaller place and live by herself. She worked for a network of local businesses and galleries anyway, it didn’t matter where in the city she was because she was constantly changing locations.

Or. Or.

Catra could now be fishing for any and all interviews she could find in Bright Moon, because maybe their leaving didn’t have to mean Catra staying behind. Maybe it wasn’t about the back-and-forth terror of being abandoned that she’d been raised under like a whip every time Weaver threatened to send Catra back into the system she’d found her in (every time that she did and every time that she came back).

Maybe Catra didn’t need to beg someone to stay in order to not be alone.

So, okay, yeah, she was trying. She was considering it. Humoring Entrapta and Scorpia by taking interviews out here, if only to show them that nobody wanted her, if only to say that she tried. Because she couldn’t just come out here with nothing. Maybe the only thing worse than being left in an empty three-bedroom apartment with an unsigned lease was following them out with nothing of her own to find, nothing but loneliness and half-assed online gigs to her name.

No, she needed something established out here if she was going to come.

She had to.

Catra remembered the day she found out Adora was interviewing Weaver, was in Fright City because of her. How it had sent an arctic chill through her veins, made her ears feel like they were stuffed with cotton, left Catra with a stomach twisted and twitching around a mess of thorns.

“Are you still there?”

Catra sucked in a steady inhale. Deep breath. “You can’t take it.”

“What?”

“You can’t take the job. You can’t stay in Fright City.”

“I… jeez, tell me what you really think.”

“What did you want me to say? You're saying you'd move across the country and leave your entire life behind because some bitch you barely know said she can squeeze you in somewhere? Don’t tell me you’ve come to like her.”

Adora paused. “I didn’t say I was going to take it.”

“Good, because you shouldn’t.”

“Okay, no, I probably wouldn’t take the job because I like my life the way it is, but… did I maybe entertain the idea it could be fun if we lived in the same city? That you might be excited at the idea?” Adora gave a light scoff, but Catra could hear the bitterness underlying it. “Obviously I’m happy in Bright Moon. I wasn’t planning on… I just, I thought it might be something to consider. Fantasize about it for a second.”

She knew Adora was mostly being sarcastic, but it bit at Catra’s lungs all the same. The idea of living in the same city as Adora. Little did she know that this was already a likely possibility, should Catra land a job in Bright Moon.

She wanted to tell Adora, tell her that she’d be back, that Catra wasn’t leaving.

But they had barely known each other for two weeks, and Catra hated how much she didn’t want to say goodbye to Adora almost as much as she didn’t want to stay in Fright City at all.

“Please trust me on this,” Catra said quietly. “Weaver’s not someone you want to work for.”

“I wouldn’t be working with her, I’d be—”

“Working at FCT, I know. But I promise you that is basically the same thing.”

Adora was quiet for a long time.

This wasn’t like their usual calls. Sure, Adora got frustrated with Catra from time to time, and Catra had a way with a smart mouth. They bickered, but it was always light-hearted. There was no weight to the things they said to each other, as if they didn’t exist outside of this phone line, these text messages. Catra was still coming to terms with how Adora was a real person on the other side of this screen, and the mention of this job offer from Weaver of all people only solidified the newfound tension between them.

“I’ll think about it. I should um, I’ll let you get some sleep.”

It was as much of a dismissal as anything. Catra had learned that Adora was too polite to tell Catra off herself, instead pitched it like she was doing them a favor.

Which, maybe she was.

“Sure. Night, Adora.”

Adora didn’t mean to.

Like, okay, it wasn’t an accident exactly, but it started as one.

Kind of. Not really.

Catra had just been so weird about everything she was up to, always calling it a thing, and not to mention always so cryptic about her history with Dr. Weaver — all of that topped with Catra’s reaction to the job offer, it had Adora hesitating. Rethinking everything.

Adora understood privacy, of course. She wouldn’t be too keen on someone going through her things either. She tried to imagine how she’d feel if Catra was staying at her apartment and had decided to rummage through Adora’s drawers to find out personal details of Adora’s life without consulting first, much like she was doing right now.

Details that Adora wouldn’t want to share with her.

Details that Adora wouldn’t voluntarily let Catra know.

Okay, so yes, Adora knew that snooping was wrong. But they were something like friends, weren’t they? And Adora had Catra’s phone, was staying in her room — there wasn’t anything she was breaking into. It was all at her fingertips. Adora's saving-face defense was that she had a personal stake in the matter by letting Catra use her car and computer, and so. Some kind of fishy business could be easily pinned on Adora. Because, the truth was, she didn’t know Catra that well, and she had been rather antagonistic when Adora met her. Catra could be anything. And if Dr. Weaver was somehow involved in something equally shady, well. Adora had a right to know.

Even as she relayed these excuses back to herself, Adora knew it was all bull, and Bow would probably be telling her to stop watching so many movies.

It didn’t stop her from thumbing through some of the files on Catra’s phone that she'd had Adora send over.

At first there was just computer stuff. Coding nonsense. Multiple documents of it, and nothing readable to Adora. If anything, that only set her more on edge and determined to dig further.

The end-point she landed on was not the contacts and transports of some massive drug ring or other illegal trade that she expected, but it still knocked the breath from her lungs.

One of the folders was filled with files that didn’t open as coding text pages, but rather as private sites and images.

One of them was some sort of dynamic cloud of information, a fancy website. It had a 3-D shape to it, one that Adora could brush and tap through like a physical space of constellations. Each one that Adora clicked on led to a new page. It was all... well, art . Adora didn’t know how else to describe it. They were technical schematics for electronics, architectural designs for what looked to be art galleries. It was just some kind of portfolio for various projects, all dabbling in different endeavors but linked with the same creative vision. A manifestation of all the sketches on Catra's desk. An endless assortment of compositions and graphic designs. Aesthetic styles for advertisements, simple icons and logos for small start-ups, personalized business cards.

So, it was a portfolio? Or something.

And Catra was in Bright Moon, always dressing nice, travelling around the city to different places, various times of day.

As the pieces began to click together, realizing there was nothing else Catra could be in Bright Moon for other than job-hunting — because why else would she be doing interviews if she wasn’t searching for something permanent in Bright Moon — the excitement was short-lived.

Because after another few taps around, on one of the sites Catra must have designed, Adora found the notice of artistic credits given to a Catra Weaver on their about page.

Catra Weaver.

Adora’s stomach sunk to the floor like asphalt.

It had seemed harmless up to this point, discovering this mesmerizing talent. Realizing that Catra was exceptional with a computer and had a unique, artistic eye. Adora was just admiring her work up until this point, nothing private, nothing different from files that she was undoubtedly showing to others, if Catra’s request for Adora to send them over meant anything.

It had seemed harmless up to this point.

It would've been harmless if Adora didn’t already know that Catra:

Made it clear multiple times that she didn't want Adora going through her things
Knew Dr. Weaver personally
Worked with her long enough to be able to describe her tics and mannerisms and all the secrets behind them
Was reluctant about explaining how exactly she knew these things when her friends didn’t
Had begged Adora to trust her when she said Adora shouldn’t take the job

If Adora didn’t already know all of this, she wouldn’t think twice about it.

But she was thinking twice. More than twice, like, at least six times over again.

It was— that was a big deal, right? Was Catra her daughter? Niece? Was that more or less likely than it just being some kind of freak coincidence?

Adora had no idea what to do with any of this information.

More specifically, she had no idea what Catra would do when she found out.

Chapter 2: it's a dangerous world, and each accident brings us closer

Notes:

this was longer than i anticipated but i've been informed that's not the worst thing to have happened
thanks for all ur comments so far!! i read them all and you're all so sweet

Chapter Text

Today, 9:18AM

catra

3:30 right?

adora

yeah

catra

Cool

adora

but you really don’t have to

catra

I know

adora

okay

catra

adora

i’m about to take off

catra

Cool

adora

they’re telling me to turn my phone off

catra

U should prob do that

adora

okay

catra

adora

see you soon i guess?

catra

That is the plan yes

adora

yup

catra

Fly safe

adora

i’ll do my best

catra

Cool

adora

bye

catra

Bye

Adora’s flight came in today.

It was only fair that Catra picked her up from the airport. When Adora had said her friends were busy at work and she was fine taking a cab, Catra didn’t really even think twice about it. Arguing with Adora to overpower her polite guilt was like second-nature for them by this point. A rehearsed game Catra was much more eager to play than to think about what seeing Adora in person would be like. What it might change.

They hadn’t talked all that much since Adora mentioned the job offer. Catra knew she’d been snappier than usual, and she’d thought half a dozen times over about texting some kind of apology to Adora, but her fingers froze every time. She had already apologized, sort of. And it wasn’t like she said anything all that bad either. She just had been a little short with her. Catra obviously had Adora’s best interests in mind, and surely Adora understood that.

So, Catra tried not to read too much into their sparse conversations in Adora’s last couple days in Fright City. She was probably just getting all her shit in order, finishing up whatever journalist nonsense she had to take care of, packing, tidying up Catra’s room or something.

Catra still arrived far earlier than necessary out of nervous anticipation, and so she looped around at least four times through Bright Moon’s airport until a call finally came through that Adora had landed.

After having pulled into Terminal C, Catra spent a good seven minutes debating whether to stay in the car or wait outside of it. What if Adora had a lot of luggage and needed help dropping it in the trunk? Would it be weird for Adora to just find her leaning back against the passenger-side of the car facing the airport exit, waiting? Did that look too try-hard? Would Catra look like an impatient dick just sitting in the driver’s seat drumming her fingers against the steering wheel like she owned it?

In the end, she did settle for standing outside of the car, but she remained standing on the driver’s side, arms draped on top of the car and chin resting against her forearms, waiting.

She’d seen pictures of Adora on various social media platforms, had FaceTimed with her enough — hell, she’d met Adora in person before, the very moment that started this whole stupid charade.

But.

Seeing Adora come through the automatic sliding doors, a Jansport backpack slung over one shoulder and a suitcase rolling behind her, Catra’s breath caught in her throat, hot and thick like sweat.

Adora had her hair tied up high in a messy ponytail, loose strands dangling around her well-defined cheekbones. Her baggy shorts hung just a line above her pale knees, and even in a faded, worn hoodie, Catra found the entire sight much more stupidly attractive than she should. Not to mention Adora’s face was clean of any makeup and she had bags under her eyes, probably from waking up far earlier than she was used to for this flight.

And still, she was breathtaking.

Catra stood up straighter, and a stupid grin stretched across Adora’s face as she caught sight of her. Adora gave a goofy, wide-arced wave, and Catra returned it gingerly.

“Hey stranger. You treat my baby okay?”

Right, they were jumping right into it. Maybe everything between them was fine.

Catra swallowed a nervous laugh. “It hasn’t killed me yet, so I figure I’m doing something right. But the day’s still young.”

Adora gave her a droll look. “Swift Wind is a noble steed. He’d never hurt a fly.”

“What, and I would?”

Catra already had the trunk popped open, and so Adora lugged her one suitcase into it, but once she rounded back to the passenger door, she hovered awkwardly before stepping inside.

“Hi,” Adora said softly, like a round two, like she was only just now realizing how weird this all was. Catra’s skin was definitely thrumming with nerves, like her muscles were all pulled taut and twitching.

“Hey, Adora.”

“It’s nice to meet you. Again, I guess.”

“Yeah. Uh, same.”

They stared at each other for another moment longer before Catra dipped back into the car. Even as she cranked the engine to life, she shot Adora an uncertain look.

“You can drive if you want. I dunno if you’ve missed it — him, whatever.”

Adora smiled. “It’s okay. It’s kinda fun to sit on this side of him for once. Unless you’re tired of driving?”

“No,” Catra said quickly. “I mean, it’s cool. I don’t mind.”

“Awesome.” Adora kicked off her sneakers and propped her feet up on the dashboard. She stretched out her feet and let out a contented sigh.

“So… how was the flight? Get your fill of first-class caesar salads and bloody mary’s?”

Adora laughed. “If by first-class you mean stale pretzels and a root beer, then yeah, real fancy. I still don’t know where you got it in your head that I’m rich.”

“Dude, you own a car. In the city.”

“Everyone has a car out here. And you saw the transit system, so don’t even start with me.”

They went back and forth with the lighthearted small talk, and Catra was thankful for it. The tension in Catra’s shoulders began to ease the more she realized Adora was as much of a dork in real life, still easy to talk to and carefree. Adora laughed at the stupid shit Catra said like they’d been friends for years, her eyes scrunching cutely, occasionally slapping Catra’s elbow across the console.

Catra hated how she loved it, if only because she knew how easy it was to let her guard down for such a sweet voice.

“Oh, wait.” Adora tapped her fingers against the back of Catra’s knuckle that rested on the gear-shift. Just a brief touch, but it left a hot sensation in its wake. “Can we stop here? I’m starving.”

It wasn’t until they were stopped behind a couple cars in a drive-thru that she caught Adora looking at her.

Catra couldn’t get a read on her. “What?”

“You’re different than I expected.”

That made the back of Catra’s neck prickle. She didn’t want to be different. Adora was the same, Adora wasn’t different, Adora was cool and collected and—

“I don’t mean to put you on the spot or anything. You’re a lot quieter in person, is all.”

“Oh. Uh, sorry. I don’t mean to be.”

“No, God, please don’t be sorry. I’m not trying to psychoanalyze you. I meant, um…”

“I’m just nervous,” Catra blurted before she could think better of it, and already she could feel her cheeks burn. “I don’t really do this a lot.”

“Meet the stranger from the airport who you accidentally swapped phones with after she tackled you to the floor?”

“So you finally admit it was your fault, then?”

Adora rolled her eyes, but her smile revealed a faint press of dimples. “Jerk. Please go on.”

“I just mean like, I don’t really do this whole people thing much in general. I literally only have two friends, and we’re only friends because they wouldn’t stop bugging me for two years.”

“I liked your friends, by the way. They’re pretty cool.”

“Yeah, cool for a pair of losers.”

“In that case, you have nothing to be nervous about.” The look Adora gave her was suddenly tender. “Because I’m just the same loser who’s been bugging you for two weeks. ”

The line moved and Catra inched the car forward, grateful for the excuse to look ahead. “Yeah. So I’ve noticed.”

“You know, you should be a lot nicer to me.”

“And why’s that?”

“Otherwise I might start really milking the fact I make you nervous.”

“You’re a jackass.”

“Wrong direction, try again.”

“You make me nervous because I’m worried about being seen with you.”

“Oh is that so?” Adora laughed. “Worried I’ll taint your reputation?”

“Yeah, duh. You’re terrible for my image, I can’t have that association.”

“Right, because prospective employers are so very concerned with who your friends are,” Adora laughed, shaking her head. She tucked her feet back to the floor and leaned forward, squinting to get a look at the drive-thru menu. “Hm. Any chance you wanna split a shake?”

But Catra was still staring at Adora, a quick and sharp throb in her chest.

It took Adora a second to realize Catra wasn’t answering her. Adora tilted her head and gave her a quizzical look, and Catra could see the gears turning as she played back their words.

Catra hadn’t told Adora she was here for job interviews. That she was considering moving here. That the files Adora sent over was each and every project she’d ever worked on because she’d rather overkill her resumé than undershoot it.

Maybe Scorpia said something.

Maybe Adora just assumed.

Maybe Catra left something out on her desk.

“Is that a no to the shake?”

“Prospective employers?” Catra echoed carefully.

Adora just laughed, but her brow was furrowed with uncertainty. “Yeah? Unless you have some mass fanbase I don’t know about. Sorry, is there another kind of reputation I should try and ruin for you?”

Catra could feel the hairs on the back of her neck still and fall down as her anxiety dispersed. She was overreacting. Which was — stupid, Jesus she probably looked like such an idiot right now. It was a dumb joke, Adora didn’t— she wouldn’t—

A car honked behind them, and Catra fumbled to pull up to the mic to order.

Adora leaned across the console and relayed the order herself, calling out the window, but this meant her dangling over Catra’s space. Her face this close, Catra could make out the faint flecks of hazel in her eyes, the encompassing cyan blue. Catra was entranced by the way her mouth moved as she ordered, how she bit her bottom lip in thought, how Catra could see the wet trace of her tongue as she talked. How she smelled like home.

Okay, not like that.

She just still had the lingering husk of Fright City on her, and her hair smelled distinctively of Catra’s shampoo.

Adora cleared her throat, and Catra had been caught staring.

Adora just raised her eyebrows. “No shake? Yes shake?”

Christ, the air of Adora’s words was warm against Catra’s face, and Catra could still get that faint tinge of root beer still on her breath.

“Just get the stupid shake,” Catra said stiffly, tensed all over and trying not to move.

Adora added it to the order, and even once the crackled, “pull up to the first window,” had been said, she still didn’t pull away.

Catra struggled to put the car back into gear as Adora studied her face like a piece of complex code.

“Dude, personal space.” Catra avoided meeting Adora’s gaze head-on, because it was still literally inches fucking away, and Catra was probably blushing too much to figure out whether this was actually as weird as she thought it was or if she was just being too gay about it.

“Your eyes.” Adora lifted a hand to Catra’s opposite cheek to turn Catra’s face towards her. “They’re different colors. I never noticed.”

“Can you get off me, weirdo?” Catra slapped her hand away as the worker handed her back her credit card. “Yeah, heterochromia is a thing.”

Adora immediately retracted at that, dropping back into her seat. Her lips were pressed together tightly, and if Catra wasn’t focused on the road in front of them as she pulled up to the next window, she would’ve noticed how Adora was looking anywhere else but at her.

“Sorry, I wasn’t like coming onto you or something.”

Oh god, Catra wanted to be anywhere else but here. “Dude, what?”

“I mean, I wasn’t gonna just assume — I mean, even if I did think you liked girls or something, I wouldn’t like — not in a drive-thru of all places, just, I thought like, it looked cool.”

No, scratch that. Catra wanted to straight up die. Catra’s head thudded back against the headrest.

“Adora. Heterochromia is the word for someone’s eyes being different colors.”

“...Oh.”

She risked a glance over, and Adora looked like a fish caught out of water, but still significantly less sheepish.

“Obviously I’m not str—” Catra sighed. No, she so wasn’t doing this right now. “Whatever.”

She was saved from having to come up with a change of topic on her own when the drive-thru window opened and a woman leaned out with Adora’s food. Catra was almost too busy thanking her to notice Adora was sputtering beside her.

“Wait, did you already pay?”

Catra stuffed the paper bag into Adora’s lap and dropped the shake into a cupholder before pulling out back onto the main road. “No, she’s giving it to us out of the goodness of her heart.”

“You didn’t get anything! Shoot, I’m sorry, I’ll venmo you now and—” Adora frowned down at the phone in her hands. “This is yours. Wait, where’s my phone?”

Catra was starting to think Adora was just a ticking time bomb to a meltdown. “Backseat. Jacket pocket.”

She wasn’t about to think about whatever implications came from having forgotten that this phone-swap was the entire reason for why they were here together.

Adora unclipped her seatbelt and twisted around to reach behind the seats. She bumped Catra more than once with her elbow and hips, to which Catra just elbowed her right back because she was driving and that apparently meant nothing to her.

“Why did you put it so far?”

“Just to spite you, princess. You can venmo me later.”

“No hold on, I can do this.”

“You can’t.”

“Just a little—”

“Fucking hell, sit your ass down.” Catra yanked her by the hem of her hoodie, and Adora collapsed back into her seat with a yelp.

“Okay, gosh, fine. You’re even bossier in person.”

“Yeah, poor you.”

“Yes, poor me, and— Wait, where are you going?”

Catra glanced over. “Can you— Adora, put your damn seat belt back on.”

Adora took her sweet time complying. “Where are you going? I live near Thaymor.”

She had made a right turn to head south down the boulevard, back to her motel. “I thought we were dropping me off first so you could take your car back?”

Adora just stared at her.

“Stop doing that.” Catra reached over blindly to push Adora’s face away.

Adora shrugged her off easily. “Well I mean um, I just, we don’t have to.”

“Have to what?”

Catra didn’t think it was possible, but Adora became even fidgitier. “Well, we don’t have to do that right away. Right now. We can… um… you know.”

And Catra thought she was awkward. “Are you trying to ask me to hang out with you?”

“Maybe. Yes.”

The notion was equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking, and she figured Adora saw something indicative to that on her face, because she quickly went on.

“But if you have something else going on today, it’s like, totally fine. You’re probably really busy with stuff, because you always are. Because that’s what you’ve told me already, obviously, not like I actually know what you do all day.” Adora laughed nervously. “You could be a drug dealer for all I know, and I’d never be the wiser.”

They were at a red light. Catra looked at her with a frown. “Are you okay?”

“Do you want to come over?”

It was Saturday, so it wasn’t like Catra had any more interviews for the day. And while tomorrow was the deadline for writing a plug-in for a gallery in Fright City, Catra had finished that days ago. Anything more would just be mindless fiddling with code that was probably better off being left alone at this point.

“Yeah,” Catra sighed, even with everything warring in her to say no. “Sure, Adora.”

Catra had already briefly seen Adora’s apartment, back when she picked up the computer from Glimmer. She hadn’t given it much of her attention at the time, more annoyed from enduring Glimmer’s interrogation.

She didn’t get much chance to look around this time either.

As soon as Adora, lugging one suitcase at her side, opened the door to her apartment, she was immediately tackled by a shorter pink blur that nearly stumbled her back into Catra.

“Whoa, oh my god, hi,” Adora laughed, patting Glimmer on the back. “I thought you were at work.”

“Don’t you ever leave me again,” Glimmer huffed into Adora’s shoulder. “I took the afternoon off to make sure I’d be here when you got back.”

Before Adora had the chance to reply, Glimmer pulled back, and her eyes met Catra’s over the blonde’s shoulder.

“Oh.” Her tone was notably deflated. “She’s here.”

“I told you Catra was picking me up.”

“Mm. Did you.”

Catra really wasn’t in the mood to deal with this right now. Or ever. And so she refrained from pointing out that they were talking about her in the third person like she wasn’t even here. “Look, uh, I can just go. You guys probably have a lot of catching up to do.”

Catra was already backing away — she could find some bus to take back in the direction of the hotel, she’d already spent a week navigating that monster of a public transit system anyway — but Adora was quick in turning around and snatching her wrist.

“No,” Adora said quickly. “Don’t go.”

Catra’s heart slammed against her chest.

How many times had Catra said those words? How many times, for just once, did she wish someone would say them to her?

Catra had always, to a fault, been one to put more weight on menial things than they warranted.

But she clung to the warm feeling of Adora’s fingers around her skin like a vice that maybe didn’t have to ruin her.

One hand on her luggage and the other around Catra’s hand, Adora led them both into the apartment once Glimmer stepped aside.

Once Adora threw away the garbage from her food, she and Glimmer quickly fell into back-and-forth chatter too fast for Catra to keep up with. Catra was dragged into Adora’s room, with Glimmer close behind, and the two caught up over and around Catra like she wasn’t even there.

Surprisingly, it didn’t bother Catra. She didn’t feel ignored really. Glimmer would say something with a certain weight of melodramatic exasperation, and Adora would glance at Catra with a smirk and an eye-roll that Glimmer wouldn’t catch, like a private inside-joke. Catra didn’t really get it, but moments like that were somehow private for only them, and Catra found herself looking forward to them still.

Adora sat Catra firmly on the edge of her bed as she unpacked her suitcase and chatted away with Glimmer, giving Catra plenty of time to scan over Adora’s room.

It was a fucking mess.

Clothes from before Adora even left were strewn about every surface, disorganized files and papers likely from work all over the shelves and spilled onto the floor. The decor had no consistent theme to it — crooked posters of abstract paintings with corners dangling off the wall, a string of fairy-lights asymmetrically pinned over the bed, not even turned on, and tacked with a hectic variety of polaroid photos. Four shelves of varying heights and contents, no matching color scheme, a bean-bag chair squished into a corner between the bed and the vanity with hilariously little room for anyone to actually fit into it.

Catra looked back to Adora, noticing how the blonde was already staring. Even as Catra caught her, Adora didn’t look away. The soft smile on her face was unlike any that Catra had seen her wear yet.

“So,” Glimmer said in a long, extended drawl that broke off their gaze. “Bow’s finishing up at Etheria in a couple hours. Bunch of us were gonna go out for drinks at The Horde later if you want to come?” Glimmer’s eye flickered briefly to Catra’s. “Both of you, I guess.”

Adora’s chaos was difficult enough for Catra to manage, she couldn’t imagine what ‘a bunch of us’ would entail when it came to her friends. She was already calculating seven and a half excuses to leave, ranking and triaging them in her head for highest believability and least risk for failure when—

“You guys can go ahead,” Adora said coolly. “I’m pretty tired from the flight, so I might just hang out here tonight.”

“Uh-huh.” Glimmer glanced at Catra again. “Right.”

Catra wanted to jump out the window.

But Glimmer left the room soon after that, and Catra’s tense shoulders finally began to deflate once the door drifted shut. Adora was just stuffing the last of her clothes into a dresser — with the most half-assed attempt of folding that Catra had ever seen — before she turned back to Catra. She plopped down beside her, the bed bouncing beneath them, a goofy smile on her face.

“Hi. What’s up.”

“You know. Chilling.”

“Mhm.” Adora waved vaguely to the room. “What do you think?”

“I think this hot mess is about exactly what I expected from you.”

“Screw you,” Adora laughed, shoving Catra’s shoulder back. “I like my room.”

The loose glee of her grin and the casual way she swore, so unlike herself, left Catra returning the same smile.

“I never said you didn’t.”

“You’re such a jerk.”

“Oh my god, I didn’t say it was bad.”

“It’s all in the eyes.”

“Right, ‘cause you’re so obsessed with my eyes now, are you?”

“Yeah.” Adora’s tone turned soft, and Catra only now realized how close Adora was sitting next to her. This time there was no steering wheel or gear shift to occupy Catra’s attention, to distract her. There was just Adora’s long, pale eyelashes and a dust of freckles so faint Catra wasn’t sure they were there at all.

“I think they’re pretty,” Adora went on. “Is that a crime?”

“Yes,” Catra answered without hesitation.

Adora laughed. “Okay, so I should just keep that to myself, then? How I think you’re pretty?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what’s unclear about that.”

“Who am I supposed to talk about it with, then?”

“Go get a therapist like I’ve been telling you to.”

Maybe this wasn’t all in her head, but most definitely Catra was playing dumb. Even with how her pulse was racing beneath her skin, maybe for once it wasn’t a terrible feeling.

But she didn’t know what to do with the affectionate way Adora was looking at her now, and Catra was dizzy with trying to remember when things had changed. Trying to figure out if anything had at all, or if this was just completely normal for two friends. Adora could be that kind of girl, terrible with personal space and always telling people how pretty they are. Scorpia was like that.

But there had been that comment in the car, the embarrassed ‘even if I did think you like girls.’

Catra wasn’t stupid. She just had years of self-deprecating denial under her sleeve.

“Like, you know.” Adora rolled her eyes. “Okay. Never mind. Did you want to go out tonight?”

“Go out?” If Catra’s voice came out as a squeak, it was nobody’s business.

“Yeah, with my friends. I’m kind of assuming you don’t, but we can if you do.”

Catra’s skin itched. “Don’t bail on them on my account. You can go. I don’t really know what I’m doing here anyway.”

“What we’re doing is this thing called ‘hanging out.’ You’ve probably heard of it.”

“Okay.”

“Is this what you want to be doing?”

“I don’t care.”

“Well don’t let me keep you hostage then.” Adora said it like a joke, but her gaze lowered ever so slightly and the edges of her smile wavered.

When Adora laid back onto her bed, Catra sighed. Why was she so fucking bad at this?

Taking a deep breath, Catra slowly laid back down beside her. “You’re not,” she said quietly. “I want to hang out with you. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

Catra could feel the bed shift as Adora turned to look at her, but Catra stayed fixated on the ceiling.

“Is there a but coming?”

“But.” Catra wasn’t sure why this was so hard to spit out. “I mean. If you want to go out with them, you should.”

“My friends are always here. And you, I mean I don’t know if you’re…” Adora trailed off. Catra still refused to look at her. Her heart was beating too fast to think too much about the if in that statement. “Can you please just give me a straight answer?”

“I’d rather just be with you,” Catra said in a rush before she lost her nerve, the awkward wording bringing with it a rush of heat to her face. “But I don’t mind if you don’t.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. So.”

Catra finally turned to look at her, and immediately knew it was a mistake. Adora’s cheek pressed against the duvet of her bed, looking at Adora with such round, blue eyes, nothing like the last two weeks of late nights on FaceTime and stupid snapchats, the warm breath coming from her mouth in faint wisps and tickling Catra’s face like petals.

“I’m really not good at this,” Catra said, referencing their conversation from earlier, begging Adora to understand.

The blonde’s eyes softened even further. “You don’t have to be.”

She could do it. It wouldn’t be hard. Just inch forward, close the nearly nonexistent gap, take the gamble of trusting her gut for once in her life.

She wanted to.

But.

There was always a but.

Catra sat up abruptly and cleared her throat. “Maybe I don’t, but you could definitely be better. What kind of hostess are you? I can’t believe you haven’t offered me something to drink yet.”

Adora was going to lose her mind.

Was it lying? To not tell someone that you did the thing you sort of said you wouldn’t do and to have found out information that they didn’t want you to know?

It wasn’t lying so long as she didn’t do anything with that information, right?

Yeah. Don’t worry. Adora wasn’t even fooling herself at this point.

But she couldn’t just un-see what she saw, so all she could do now was wait for an opening to just tell Catra directly. Like a band-aid, quick and honest.

Catra, who was currently lounging on Adora’s couch with pink cheeks and her feet tucked beneath her, laughing at the television.

So maybe that time wasn’t right this second.

A few carelessly mixed rum-and-cokes, one deep-dish pie from a local pizzeria, and several hours later, they’d been through two rom-coms already and were nearly finished with their third before Catra stretched out across the couch.

Adora tried not to make a big deal about it. Catra was constantly complaining that Adora was always doing that, and even though it was a huge deal in Adora’s book that Catra was sprawling her legs out far enough that her feet brushed against Adora’s thigh and she was sinking back into the cushions like she was actually letting her guard down — even though all of that was happening, Adora decided she could play it cool.

Adora already knew Catra was pretty. More than pretty, she was—

Her grin was menacing, not in a way that made Adora afraid, but sharp and intriguing, like a cleverly worded first line to an article.

The steady weight of her eyes, so secure and analytical, never missing a thing, always meeting Adora’s like there was nothing else she could possibly look at.

Her laugh, always an afterthought, like a sweet accident, so natural and subdued at the same time.

Catra lolled her head along the back of the couch and listened to Adora ramble on about stupid observations of whatever movie they were watching, listened to the tangents Adora went on that had nothing to do with the movie at all, listened better than Adora even listened to herself.

Two weeks of texts, video chats, phone calls. Barely six hours of this terrifying and familiar coexistence.

Adora wanted to bring it up. She wanted to tell Catra she knew about Weaver, about the interviews. She wanted to ask if it was a definite thing, if she was serious about finding a job in Bright Moon, about when things turned so sour with Weaver, about why.

Adora wanted to ask if she should just avoid getting her hopes up at all.

Catra turned and caught Adora staring, her face lit a faint blue from the glow of the TV in the dark living room. She raised her eyebrows. “Are you even watching?”

Adora sat up straighter. “Of course I am.”

“Yeah? What did Kat just say?”

Adora glanced at the TV. The couple was kissing onscreen, the camera panning back in a curve, end-credit music starting to fade in. She looked back to Catra, who had a smirk and raised eyebrows painted across her face like a perfect punchline.

“Okay, I have no idea. Go away.”

“Your wish is my command.” Catra laughed, but for God only knows what reason, she took Adora too literally, because she retracted her legs and carefully came to her feet. Her back arched as she stretched her arms up over her head, the loose black shirt riding slightly above her the waist of her jeans

“What?” Adora sat up. “I was kidding. Sit back down.”

“The movie’s over.”

“So pick another. You can even choose this time.”

Catra just chuckled again, and the way she ran a hand so casually back through her thick hair was mesmerizing. “It’s probably time to call it anyway. Sorry boozy.”

Adora pouted. “It’s ten.”

“Yeah, it’s late. I should get going.”

“Go how?”

“I’ll just call an uber.”

Adora didn’t buy it, and she knew for a fact the gray line didn’t stop running until eleven, so Catra had just enough time to still catch it. “To where?”

“Where I’m staying.”

“Which is where?”

At this point, even Adora could see how Catra shifted uncomfortably, and Adora struggled to reign in her overzealous brain.

“Motel 6,” Catra answered eventually. “Across the river.”

Adora took a more delicate approach now, trying to reel back the intensity of her tone. “How much longer are you staying there for?”

“Couple weeks. Twelve days, I think.”

“Did you pay upfront?”

“Why?”

Everything in Adora’s chest was begging her to shut up. “Did you?” she pressed still.

Catra stuck her tongue against the inside of her cheek, meeting Adora’s eye with an indecipherable pause. “I’ve been paying by the week.”

“Did you pay for next week already?”

Adora knew she was on thin ice with this line of questioning by the flat line of Catra’s mouth, the slightly narrowed eyes. “No. I’m supposed to pay tomorrow. What’re you being so nosy for? You’re worse than Sparkles.”

“I was just thinking… well, you could stay here. Um. If you wanted to.”

Oh God, Adora really was losing her mind.

The corners of Catra’s mouth turned down into an adorable frown, almost a pout. “Why?”

“What do you mean, why? You let me stay at your place.”

“Yeah, ‘cause you were wigging out about a stupid bug.”

“Well, what if there’s bugs where you’re staying?”

“Doesn’t bother me.”

“Oh my God, so there are some then? Catra, no, I have to get you out of there. You’re not going back.”

There was a fifteen-percent chance she’d manage to keep Catra from leaving, and Adora was more than willing to take on those odds.

“Dude,” Catra groaned. “There aren’t any bugs in my room.”

“Will you please just stay?” Adora blurted finally, ignoring the rush of heat to her face.

Catra stared at her with a blank expression. Her blinks slow, gaze firm, entirely still. And then, “You’re drunk.”

“Okay. You’re just blurry because I took my contacts out.”

“Yeah. And then you put your glasses on.”

Adora reached up and touched her face to find that— yeah, she had her glasses on. Dammit.

“Well, still. I had the idea of asking you to stay here when I was sober anyway, so me asking you while being slightly tipsy doesn’t mean anything other than this being a convenient time to ask.”

“You did? When?”

Adora was pretty sure she should’ve shut up like, three drinks ago.

“In the car. Before we got back. Why are we still arguing? Can you just say yes already? We can go and pick up your stuff tomorrow.”

“We’re not arguing.”

“You’re being argumentative.”

“Big word, look at you.”

“Yes.” Adora slid across the couch, catching Catra’s hand. “Look at me, using complicated and hard-to-pronounce words. I’m adorable and not at all drunk.”

Catra didn’t push Adora’s hand away, but she did give her a skeptical look.

“Okay.” Adora held up her opposite hand and pinched her fingers close together. “I’m a little drunk.”

But like, just the kind of drunk where she wanted to tell Catra how cute her nose was, and how much Adora liked the sound of her laugh, how she wanted to ask if Catra could just keep talking for the next six hours straight so Adora could fall asleep to the sound of her voice.

Yeah maybe she was pretty drunk.

Catra smiled, soft and so very unlike her usual scathing, double-edged grin. She ducked her chin and didn’t meet Adora’s eye. “You really don’t have to, you know. I don’t want to cramp your guys’ space.”

“You wouldn’t be,” Adora quickly assured. “Bow and Glimmer have people over all the time. And I don’t. I mean like, I don’t invite people to spend the night a lot. Not because I have a reason not to, or I don’t want anyone to, there’s just never anyone I would want to ask to spend the night anyway, because all my friends live nearby, and I guess where you’re staying is kind of nearby, but still that’s different because—”

“Dude.”

Adora sucked in a deep breath. “You should stay. Besides. While I can’t say it’s as nice as yours, my bed is like, super comfy.”

Catra barked a laugh. “I’m not sleeping in your bed.”

“Why not? I can take the couch.”

“No way I’m staying unless you let me take the couch.”

“Perfect!” Adora grinned, bouncing up to her knees on the couch. “Deal. No take-backs.”

Catra narrowed her eyes again. “Did you do that on purpose?”

Of course she did. “Of course not.”

By the time Bow and Glimmer came home, Adora and Catra had given up on the movies entirely.

It seemed that once Catra had relented to staying, and was no longer planning on making the first bolt out of here back to the motel as she could, she leaned a little heavier on her drink. She actually finished the first Adora had made for her hours before, tepid and watered down by the melted ice. She was even looser than before, her frame small in Adora’s clothes.

Adora’s clothes.

Catra was wearing Adora’s clothes.

It was just an old soccer jersey from college, worn and old, the neck dangling low to show her sharp collarbones. That, combined with a pair of Adora’s bike shorts that hung loose on her hips, Catra looked like someone else entirely.

Adora had liked every facet and side of Catra she’d met so far, but this laid-back, languid side of her that let her hair down, that had her elbow propped up on the back of the couch and a hand tucked under her chin as they talked, hair spilling messily over her shoulder — this was by far her favorite.

“What are you smiling at?”

Adora blinked away the rosy-pink haze to find Catra giving her a skeptical look.

“Um. I just remembered something.”

“Oh yeah?” Catra’s own smile widened, her mouth red and wet from the drinks. She seemed bolder like this, no longer the same girl tongue-tied in the car, nervous to choose her words. “What’d you remember?”

Nervous like Adora was now. “Well, um. That… that the weight of all the ants on the planet adds up to about the same weight as all the people.”

“Really. You just remembered that.”

“Yep. Cool, isn’t it?”

“Didn’t look like you were smiling about ants.”

Adora’s heart began to race. “And what did it look like I was smiling about?”

“Like maybe you wanted to—”

The door flung open with tumbling laughter, and Bow and Glimmer spilled inside.

With the exception of the early afternoon with Glimmer, Adora hadn’t seen her best friends in two weeks, and she still found a selfish corner of her mind wishing they could’ve gone just a few minutes longer.

Everything to do with Adora always seemed to make Catra question the most harmless of things.

She wavered between feeling like such a stranger in her own skin that she second-guessed every word out of her mouth, to letting her guard down so low that she thought it was okay to start talking shit.

Stupid, provacative shit. Bold shit. Shit she shouldn’t be suggesting. Shit like flirting. And not in the half-assed, easy kind of way over a screen, not in the defense mechanism Catra had been so careful to construct, but with a genuine suggestion and a swoop so sharp and low in her stomach.

Staring up sightlessly at the ceiling, Catra blinked into the darkness. There was a distinct scent surrounding her that smelled strangely like Adora’s car, and it didn’t take long before she realized it was coming from the blanket, and it must just be Adora herself.

Lavender, or something. Some kind of soothing herbal thing that should be lulling Catra to sleep, but instead blanketed her like a livewire, her skin humming and thoughts racing.

Her phone buzzed on the coffee table. Her phone this time, no longer Adora’s phone with the dumb neon-sign aesthetic wallpaper and the forty-notifications per hour. Catra’s phone, one that she barely recognized in her hands anymore.

She smiled at the screen.

Today, 12:48AM

adora

Are you awake?

catra

see now this is how u do a booty call

not from across state lines

much more realistic

adora

Nvm

catra

don’t be shy on me now

adora

Shy like you’ve been all day?

catra

idk what ur talking bout

adora

You’re such a dork

catra

no i’m not

that’s u

adora

I like how you act all tough and mean over text

And pretend like you didn’t very much admit you were nervous around me

catra

well what’s ur excuse then

adora

Don’t need one

I don’t pretend I’m not nervous :)

catra

how very noble of u

adora

Why are you being grumpy

Do you not like sleeping alone

catra

i’m not grumpy ur just like a mosquito that won’t die

adora

Considering you spent your entire afternoon with me I don’t believe you

I don’t like sleeping alone either

Never have honestly

catra

sounds like a u problem

adora

This is easier right?

catra

what is?

adora

Talking like this

catra

idk

doesn’t make a difference to me

adora

It’s easier for me anyway

Catra stared at the dim light of the screen, nothing else in the night visible except for the grey text bubbles of Adora’s words. Adora’s typing indicator came on and off twice more before settling away again.

If she was going to stay anyway, did it matter whether Adora asked her to at all?

Catra pressed the phone to her ear, and Adora picked up on the first ring.

“Well well, been a long time since I heard from you.”

Catra rolled her eyes. “Don’t make me hang up on you already.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

“You never really struck me as fun in the first place.”

“Rude.”

Catra softened, if only by the lull of a familiar voice over an ever-familiar static line. This was their routine, how Catra was used to handling their dynamic. This let her eyes drift shut as her heart began to settle.

“Couldn’t sleep?” she asked quietly, changing the course of their tone.

“Yeah, sorta. Mostly trying to stop myself from being annoyingly overbearing and coming out to make sure you’re comfortable enough.”

“Mm. There’s really only so many times you can offer me another pillow.”

“...Is the blanket warm enough?”

“Yes. Any more and I’ll sweat my ass off.”

“Better safe than sorry.”

“Not sure that applies here.”

“Sue me for wanting to make sure you’re comfortable.”

“I’m never comfortable.”

Adora paused. “I’m sorry if you feel like… I pressured you too much to stay.”

Something throbbed in Catra’s chest, like leaning too far back in a chair, like falling. “I mean, you did. But I wanted to.”

“To stay?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad you did.”

Catra wanted to keep up any sense of normalcy. “What’re you up to tomorrow?”

“Um, nothing, I guess. I don’t have to go into Etheria until Monday. Why?”

She had no idea why she was asking. No idea that was unrelated to how Catra didn’t know how to say goodbye, despite how Adora had assured her that their end was yet to come.

“Just wondering.”

“Catra.”

“What?”

“Do you want to get breakfast with me tomorrow?”

“No.”

“Okay, I’ll wake you up at nine.”

It was at a local diner the next day when Adora said it. Over a half-finished plate of cruller waffles and a near-empty glass of a strawberry milkshake, Adora was grinning and Catra had a swipe of confectioner’s sugar still on her chin.

A laugh like wine, Catra was a photographic capture of bliss that Adora didn’t want to forget.

“Come on,” Adora pressed. “I just want to know what you were like in high school. Were you the emo skater type? A theater kid? Oh, you were totally a theater kid, weren’t you?”

“So we’re at this part already, are we?”

Adora laughed, the feeling in her chest sweeter than the milkshake lingering on her lips. “Wanting to get to know more about you aside from how you’re too stubborn to admit you like me? Yeah, I want to be at that part. I’ve slept in your bed, it’s about time.”

The cute blush that touched Catra’s cheeks did nothing to dampen her returning smile. “Just because you’re being a brat, I’m making you go first. You tell me all your childhood woes, then.”

“Well sorry to disappoint, I don’t have anything that juicy for you. I moved around a lot until high school, so by that time I didn’t know anyone, and I kind of just wandered between all the different circles without settling in just one.”

“Were you an army brat or something?”

“Less cool. Foster kid. I bounced around a lot until I was fourteen, but stayed with the same woman from there. One of the lucky ones, I guess.”

“Not necessarily.” Catra’s eyes were soft and understanding. “I just mean like, it depends who you get stuck with. There were definitely a few times I wished I could’ve gone somewhere new. Start over again.”

Adora blinked. “You were a foster kid too?”

Catra nodded, but she didn’t elaborate. “What was she like? The woman you ended up with.”

“Oh um, Ms. Hope was… interesting, to say the least.” Adora bit her lip, glancing down to her food. “She wasn’t terrible or anything, and she took good care of me. Stable environment, even put me through my undergrad. There was just… always this fine-print clause with her, like I’d always have to repay her for everything she did. Not financially, but she made sure I’d never forget how I would always be in her debt.”

Catra snorted. “Sounds like Weaver.”

Adora chuckled half-heartedly in response. “Yeah, really can’t imagine what growing up with her was like.”

She could feel the atmosphere change between them like a crack of thunder.

Catra stared at her with an impassive expression, entirely unreadable, and in the exact moment that Adora tried to figure out what had suddenly changed, she realized her mistake.

“I never told you I grew up with Weaver,” Catra said slowly, a dangerous edge to her voice that Adora had never heard her use.

Adora’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. A million excuses flew to mind — it was a guess, it was easy enough to infer from Catra’s comment, Dr. Weaver had mentioned it in passing, Adora had come across a picture of Catra’s license and saw her last name, anything.

But the only thing worse than the dread that sunk low in her stomach now was the idea of lying straight to her face.

“I got… curious,” Adora said carefully, her tongue heavy and dry in her mouth. “I’m— I’m sorry, it was just— after the other night, when you were so quick to tell me not to take the job from Dr. Weaver, you sounded so upset, and I didn’t— I just, I wanted to know more about you, and I…”

“You what?”

Adora swallowed, terrified of the cold ice in Catra’s eyes, how quickly such an unrecognizable mask had fallen across her face. “I… may have looked a little through your phone a little bit.”

She’d barely finished the words before Catra was standing up and fishing around in the back-pocket of her jeans, and this just made Adora rush on faster.

“Catra listen, I’m really sorry, I know you asked me not to, and honestly, I really didn’t look at anything super personal. It was just some of the stuff you’d had me send over, your resumé stuff and some of the websites you designed, and you’re actually really talented, and— wait, where are you going? Are you leaving?”

Catra dropped a twenty-dollar bill on the plastic diner table and zipped up her hoodie, not meeting Adora’s eye.

Adora’s heart slammed harder in her chest like an anvil, because how and when did this all turn sour so fast?

“Catra wait, don’t—” Adora followed her to her feet and reached for Catra’s hand, but Catra just wrenched it out of Adora’s grip, her eyes flaring.

“Don’t you fucking touch me.”

Adora recoiled like she’d been slapped. “I’m sorry, but please don’t go — Catra, please just let me explain.”

That was it. Like a curtain falling over a stage, like credits rolling down a screen, it all went dark.

Not another look back, not another word, Catra stalked out of the diner, and Adora was alone.

Catra was shaking.

Even so much as looking down at her phone (the same phone that Adora had skimmed through and dug into and exposed) made her nauseous, and she was half-tempted to chuck it into the first garbage can she saw.

She refrained. Barely.

Instead, as she stormed down the sidewalk, she just dug her nails into her palms and forced herself to breathe. That was all she could do. Walk. Breathe. Walk. Breathe.

Logically, she knew it had been a long trek since the diner, but it still caught her off guard when the motel came into view. It had to have been at least four miles.

She was supposed to check-out today, pack her suitcase and head back over to Adora’s. She was supposed to tell Adora she was staying in Bright Moon, to tell her that even when she went back to Fright City, it was only to pack up an apartment and leave behind an old life.

She had another twelve days left in this city, and Catra had never itched to be rid of a place so badly.

Not since living under Weaver’s roof, that is.

Even thinking of the name in this context sent a fresh wave of nausea through her, and she almost stumbled on the sidewalk.

Weaver was gone. Catra repeated these words over and over again like a mantra. She was out of Catra’s life, and Catra was out of hers. That chapter was over. This wasn’t about her, not really, not like that, this was different.

Catra was just bursting through the door of her room when her phone started vibrating. Expecting it to be Adora, Catra nearly rejected the call entirely, but when she caught the name entropy and the screen was overtaken by a picture of Entrapta with two fistfulls of cotton candy, a pang thrummed in her chest.

After a much-needed deep breath, she answered. “Hi.”

“Hello. Are you okay?”

“Fine.”

“Would you like me to have someone deliver you some mini M&Ms? That always makes me feel better.”

Catra sighed. “Did Adora call you?”

“She sent a very long text message.”

“Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing for something someone else did? Actually, you never apologize. Hm. Either way, it doesn’t seem like you have anything to be sorry for in this context, as far as I can tell. Unless there’s something I’m missing.”

Catra sat at the foot of the bed and rubbed her forehead. “Look, I appreciate you calling and everything, but if you’re about to tell me I should chill and hear her out, I’m really not in the mood for it.”

“I am, in fact, not calling to defend your girlfriend.” Catra winced at the word, but she was too wrung out to start a dispute over labels with Entrapta.

“Then what? Did Scorpia lock you out again?”

“Is it unexpected of me to just make a wellness call? Huh. Should I do this more often?”

“No,” Catra said tiredly. “You’re fine. It’s fine.”

“This is about Dr. Weaver, right?”

“No, it’s—” Catra rubbed a hand down her face exasperatedly. “I mean, it’s complicated.”

“Complicated like, Adora violated your privacy and this brings up difficult memories of your childhood with Dr. Weaver and routinely being stripped of your autonomy?”

Catra’s chest throbbed again, and she clenched her eyes shut to sway off the burn behind them. “Yeah. That kind of complicated.”

“Is it one of those times?”

Catra knew what she was really asking. She nodded even though Entrapta couldn’t see her, and just barely managed to breathe out a strangled, “Yes.”

“Would you like reassurance or a distraction?”

“I don’t know. Surprise me.”

“Well. As far as reassurance goes, Adora seems more to just have poor judgement than any malintent towards you. Not to mention Dr. Weaver hasn’t been in your life for two years and eleven months. Despite the coincidence of their temporary business arrangement, it seems to be just that. A coincidence. I haven’t seen any indication that they share similar motivations, unless there’s new information you’d like to share.”

Of course Weaver was out of her life. Of course it had been years since Catra heard her own name fall from Weaver’s sharp, cold mouth. Of course Adora wasn’t digging into the private depths of Catra’s life to gain some sort of upper hand on Catra or to find a loophole she could exploit.

Of course Adora wasn’t Weaver.

But that didn’t change the shape of the panic boiling under Catra’s skin.

“Is it time for a distraction?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

Without further ado, Entrapta dipped into a recital of her day, of her week. She rambled on about the details of everything she’d been up to since the last time they had texted, everything down to what flavored syrup she’d chosen for her latté on Thursday morning, to the name of the song she’d listened to the night before while drinking her second red bull and fixing the toaster oven (that Catra hadn’t known was broken). She talked about her current project of turning their coffee table into a mini portable ping pong table. She talked about Scorpia and the bouquet of flowers she’d chosen to decorate the living room with. She went deeper into topics they’d already talked about in the last two weeks, elaborating on what she’d said before and providing extra context that hadn’t been necessary the first time around.

Entrapta just talked. More than she usually did, about things she never really cared to talk about in the first place.

And soon, Catra slowed her anxious breath down enough to just listen.

“I have her shirt,” Adora repeated for the third time, pacing back and forth the length of the living room. “That’s a valid reason to call her, isn’t it? What if it’s her favorite shirt? I’m the one that made this all such an inconvenience for her, so maybe I should just go bring it to her myself. I can drop it off with the front desk or something, right? Maybe I shouldn’t say anything at all. But, what if—”

Bow halted Adora in her tracks before Glimmer could pop a vessel.

“Stop. Slow down. Just take a deep breath.”

When he began to demonstrate a long inhale, she sucked in a deep breath with him. In and out.

“There. Better?”

Adora, still breathing heavily, shook her head. “Can I go return her shirt now?"

Glimmer interjected for this one and swapped placed with Bow. “I don’t think showing up unannounced after she just ditched you is the best idea.”

“She didn’t ditch me.”

“She ditched you.”

“Fine, but she had every right to. I messed up and went too far.”

Glimmer shrugged. “Yeah okay, so you looked through some pictures on her phone, what’s the big deal? You really believe she didn’t do the same to you?”

“The point is she explicitly told me not to. I already knew she was an extremely private person. I knew she didn’t want me to do it, and I looked anyway. And now she probably hates me and never wants to see me again.”

“Hey.” Glimmer bumped her shoulder. “Grand melodramatic statements are my thing.”

Adora’s eyes dropped to the floor. Guilt and worry stirred together into a sour concoction in her gut. “You don’t get it. There’s… there’s something I’m missing. This wasn’t just me betraying her trust or looking at a few pictures I shouldn’t have. It’s— It’s more than that.”

“Okay, yeah, maybe you crossed a line, but she’ll get over it. It’s really not that big of a deal.”

“Just because it isn’t a big deal to you or to me doesn’t mean it’s not to her.”

Glimmer stared at her, lost, before looking back to Bow. They swapped again, and Bow rubbed a hand placatingly down Adora’s back.

“Adora, all you can really do is apologize. You shouldn’t ambush her, and you can’t force her to come around. You just have to wait. And if she doesn’t… I mean. It’s not like you knew her all that well anyway, right?” he asked tentatively. “Maybe this wasn’t supposed to… you know. Maybe it’s for the best.”

Adora’s stomach lurched.

No. She didn’t know Catra all that well, and that was her problem. She’d tried for too much too fast.

But between this sticky guilt and the notion of worrying her friends, there was only one thing Adora could solve now. So she gave them a cool, marble smile, and hoped it was enough.

Yesterday, 11:44AM

(2) Missed Calls: adora

(1) New Voicemail

[0:14] “Hi, um. I know you’re really mad. I just want to talk and… say I’m sorry. Again. And to explain. So um… yeah. Give me a call when you get the chance.”

Yesterday, 1:02PM

(7) Missed Calls: adora

Yesterday, 4:55PM

(1) Missed Call: adora

(1) New Voicemail

[0:19] “Look, it’s okay if you need space. I totally get it if you do, just say the word. But like, call me or— or text me, or whatever, so I at least know you made it back to your place okay?”

Yesterday, 6:01PM

adora

Please say something

I’m sorry

Yesterday, 7:15PM

(2) Missed Calls: adora

(1) New Voicemail

[0:38] “Catra, please pick up. I don’t… I made a mistake, okay? And I swear I was going to tell you. I wasn’t trying to go behind your back or something. We were just having such a good time, and I didn’t want it to come out wrong, and then… I… please call me back. Please. You have no idea how sorry I am.”

Yesterday, 9:04PM

(1) Missed Call: adora

(1) New Voicemail

[0:24] “I know you probably hate me right now, and that’s totally okay. You can totally hate me, and I’m fine with that! Really. Hate me all you want. Just… please call me back first? Hate me after?”

Yesterday, 11:44PM

(2) Missed Calls: adora

adora

Can you just please tell me you’re okay so I stop worrying?

I’d really like to know if I should call the police and tell them you’re lying in a ditch somewhere

That was a joke

Sort of

I’m really sorry

Please call me

(1) Missed Call: adora

Today, 12:14AM

(5) Missed Calls: adora

catra

stop

adora

Hi thank god are you okay?

Are you still there

Catra?

Today, 1:31AM

adora

Okay

Just like

I’m here?

I’ll be here waiting whenever you like

I mean just like IF you

You know.

Sorry

I’m really bad at this

I’ll stop

I’m sorry Catra

Three days later, Adora found her laptop in a cardboard package left outside her apartment door.

It left a lump in her throat that water couldn’t wash down, and Adora was too embarrassed to mention it to Bow or Glimmer.

Today, 2:33PM

(1) Missed Call: adora

(1) New Voicemail

[01:02] “Hey, hope you’re doing okay. I had some waffles this morning with Glimmer and it made me think of you… I mean, that’s not why I called. I just, I wanted to mention it. Um… I know you’re leaving soon, I think? Pretty sure you said twelve days. There’s like… uh… six, five, four— yeah, four days left now I think. You’re probably still mad at me, which is like, totally fine, but… if you wanted to do something before you left or… maybe go out for a drink or something? Just… yeah. Sorry. Bye.”

Adora picked at a loose thread of cotton at the hem of her skirt, only halfway paying attention to the words coming out of her mouth as well as the ones into her ear.

“Right, yes.” Adora shook her head to clear her foggy thoughts. “I’m sorry for not returning your call sooner.”

“It’s quite alright, Adora. Have you come to a decision?”

While Dr. Weaver always sounded infinitely kinder over the phone, the saccharine drawl still felt threatening, like the unsettling chill that always came with her smile.

“Yes, I have. Um, I really appreciate the offer, and all the effort you put in to get me assigned to you, but I’m afraid I have to pass. I’m just…”

Adora paused, glancing up at the clutter of her desk, at the picture frame of her, Bow, and Glimmer at their college graduation, caps crooked and smiles radiant. Adora thought distantly about all the pictures on Catra’s wall.

“I appreciate the opportunity, but it’s just not what I’m looking for right now,” Adora finished more firmly.

“Ah,” Dr. Weaver hummed. “That’s disappointing.”

Gone was the pleasantries from her voice, now cold and robotic, like this was a sentiment she was well-rehearsed in expressing. Adora could only think of Catra, of what her childhood had been like, of what caused such a rift between them.

“I do hope you’ll reconsider. And when you do, for your sake, I hope it’s not too late.”

Adora hung up soon after with a sticky feeling in her stomach. Jeez. That woman was more ominous than Glimmer even on her worst salt-in-her-coffee morning.

Today, 11:10AM

(1) Missed Call: adora

(1) New Voicemail

[0:36] “Hey, hope you’re doing okay. Um… just calling to check in. You… you go back today, right? Or maybe you just meant today’s your last day, and that you’d be leaving tomorrow. Well, if you are, and you have any time tonight then… Yeah. Um… fly safe? Text me when you land? … Okay. Bye, Catra.”

Today, 4:06PM

adora

Hey, you make it back okay?

Today, 7:09PM

(1) Missed Call: adora

(1) New Voice Mail

[0:28] “Hi, just calling to see if you made it into Fright City. Unless you changed up your schedule and moved things around, in which case you maybe left days ago, and I’m probably just being annoying at this point. But I was probably already annoying you, wasn’t I? Aren’t I, I mean. Okay. Um. Yeah. Call me back when you have the chance. Bye.”

losers 2.0

Today, 10:54PM

adora

I know you guys probably don’t want to talk to me and I’m probably just making this all worse but

Entrapta

No.

Scorpia

hey kid

what’s up?

adora

Could I ask just one small favor?

Scorpia

listen you’re a sweetheart and you know i think you’re great

and i do hope you and catra work things out

but i think it’s prob for the best if this stays between the two of you

yknow for your own sake

adora

I know you’re right

I don’t want to put you two in an awkward position

I just

Wanted to ask if she’s okay?

Not like in a personal way or anything I just mean like

Did she make it back?

To FC?

Scorpia

yeah she’s here

adora

Okay

Thank you

I’m sorry for bothering you

Entrapta

Catra your girlfriend texted us.

Scorpia

babe wrong chat 😐

Today, 8:02AM

adora

I had to go into work early for a meeting and

Being up this early reminded me of you

And the sunrise pics you’d send lol

Adora typed out I miss you.

She deleted the words as quickly as she’d written them.

adora

I just always knew I was going to have a good day when you would send one

Today, 3:27AM

adora

Wanna hear a joke?

It’s me

I’m the joke

Today, 9:41AM

adora

Sorry that was weird

Everything always gets weird at 3am

Today, 9:44PM

(1) Missed Call: adora

(1) New Voicemail

[0:11] “I know you probably want me to stop calling but I… I don’t know. I don’t know what else to do.”

“I don’t get why you’re still trying.”

Adora jumped, spinning around to find Glimmer watching her from her bedroom doorway. Adora sagged, tucking her phone into the back pocket of her jeans.

Bow appeared behind Glimmer, because — of course, Adora was about due for an intervention. Second or third, she’d lost count at this point.

“I think what Glimmer means,” Bow starts tentatively. “Is that you really gotta stop torturing yourself like this.”

Glimmer waved a finger at him in agreement. “Yeah. That. And also like, not to be that person, but you really only knew this girl for a couple weeks anyway. Wasn’t she a complete jerk at first too? Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise it burnt out. Had a good run, wasn’t meant to go any—”

“I know,” Adora interrupted firmly, her voice thick. She shut her eyes and sighed. “I know I barely know her. I know she seems stand-offish and bitter. I know I probably should have given up on this forever ago. I know I’m probably making an idiot of myself trying so hard to keep something I barely had in the first place.”

Her friends waited for a but.

Adora was waiting for a but.

It didn’t seem she had one.

Glimmer sat down gingerly beside her at the foot of her bed. She stroked Adora’s hair, suddenly tender. “If it’s meant to be, she’ll come around. She probably just needs some more time. And if she doesn’t… I mean, maybe meeting her was just an accident, and that’s it.”

Those words probably weren’t as assuring as Glimmer expected them to be.

Bow came to stand in front of her, holding out a hand. She felt like a pouty child looking up at him, his patient smile and warm eyes.

“Come on, I think you could use a Best Friend Squad night out. What do you say? We can go back to that glow-paint club again, with those test tube shots you love.”

“You mean the one Glimmer complained about for days after because she couldn’t get the paint out of her hair?”

Glimmer slung an arm around Adora’s neck, dropping her chin to the blonde’s shoulder. “Oh yeah, one and the same. And if you say yes, I’ll put a 24-hour cap on my whining.”

At both their excited expressions, the eager smiles they were sporting just for her, not even Adora in her deepest moping could turn them down.

“Yeah, okay,” she laughed dryly. “Why not.”

The why not should have been immediately clear, like a glaring, dark-skied omen.

Adora was an emotional drunk.

Even in a club with splatters of neon paint all across her body, and with the safety-net of four slices of pepperoni pizza in her stomach, there was only so much that could protect her from the nine test-tube shots she’d swallowed. Even if they were about fifty-percent syrup, Adora was defenseless.

And apparently, even while drunk, Adora was smart enough to break away from her friends first before pulling out her phone. Even inebriated, she knew this was something Sober Adora wouldn’t do, and thus be something Bow and Glimmer would stop her from.

There was a smaller bathroom on the upper level of the club, one that was less used, and Adora crammed herself into a corner in there, the deafening noise of the club muffling slightly behind the closed door.

Her thumb hovered unsteadily over Catra’s contact name, ready to dial, when she paused.

She’d been leaving voicemails for ages now, texts, missed calls — and nothing. With a firm nod and a quiet hum to herself, she decided. Time to change tactics.

Adora pulled up her Snapchat. Maybe Catra just needed to see her face, or something.

She turned it on herself and pressed record.

“Okay, hey, what’s up. It’s me. Adora. The one you met at the airport, and uh, also the one you’re really mad at. I’d rather just be the first one, but it’s my fault I’m both of those things, so. Gotta present all the facts.”

Adora huffed to herself. She was getting side-tracked. Also Catra could see her face, so she knew who Adora was. Probably. Unless she forgot. Or blocked her. Both very possible.

She brushed away the messy tufts of paint-stained hair that had fallen into her face and leaned back against the grimy bathroom tile.

“Like, the fact that I wish you were here,” she sighed, staring blankly at the mirror across from her, just barely remembering to keep the phone aloft and pointed at herself. “The fact that, if you were, I’d be trying to get you to dance with me, and you’d make fun of me for being a lightweight, and we’d start arguing until you finally caved. You’d probably just end up being a better dancer than me anyway.”

She swallowed, the lump in her throat suddenly more prominent than ever.

“The fact that I… miss talking to you, and I miss how you’d screenshot the Snapchats I’d send you from your phone just because you wanted me to see how dumb I looked when I got my phone back. I miss calling you when I was supposed to be working, and you’d tell me I was next in line for Worst Employee of the Month. I miss sleeping in your bed and falling asleep FaceTiming you. I miss how the shirt you left here used to smell like your bed, like you, but then Bow washed it and… you know how that goes.”

Adora let out a wet laugh. “My friends think I’m insane. They keep telling me I should just give up already. I mean, at this point, you’ve been ignoring me for longer than the amount of time we were actually talking to each other. I keep forgetting that we literally just had twenty-four hours together before I went and messed it all up. In person, I mean. So, why haven’t I given up, they keep asking. Why haven’t I…”

Her eyes were starting to burn, and being reckless and drunk wasn’t fun anymore.

“I miss you,” she finished quietly.

After lifting her finger off the record button, Adora rubbed her damp eyes.

Her thumb hovered over the send button. It was set to go, she had Catra’s name selected. Just one brief tap and it would be in Catra’s notifications in seconds.

She sighed. Who was she kidding. She either wasn’t drunk enough for this, or no level of inebriation would actually justify her to be so manipulative like this. It was a low blow. No, she couldn’t send the video.

Catra had made it perfectly clear. She didn’t want Adora to call anymore, and Adora was just too cruel and stubborn to listen.

Just as she was about to tap back to delete the video, the bathroom door slammed open and she dropped her phone with a shout.

“There you are, you fucking weasel,” Glimmer exclaimed. “I was literally about to make the DJ stop the music so I could find you. I thought you were hiding somewhere trying to call her. What— What are you doing, actually?”

Adora had dropped to the floor, scrambling to check her phone, swearing under her breath.

No, please tell me it didn’t send, please please please, tell me it didn’t—

The filled-in, purple arrow beside Catra’s name made Adora momentarily regret the four slices of pizza from earlier.

“I think I did something much worse than call her,” Adora said, her stomach twisting nauseously with dread.

Glimmer peered down at her screen just as Adora buried her face in her hands. “What? Did you send her nudes or something?”

“No.”

“...Would sending her nudes fix whatever you just did?”

“Don’t think so.”

“Hmm.” Glimmer pressed her mouth into a flat line, deep in thought for a total of three seconds before she shrugged and grabbed Adora by the neck of her muscle-shirt, tugging her to the door. “Oh well. Sounds like the only thing to do now is order another round of shots.”

Adora was so going to hate herself tomorrow. On multiple counts.

Today, 10:04AM

(1) Missed Call: adora

(1) New Voicemail

[1:36] “Hi, it’s me. Um, listen, I wanted to say I’m sorry for calling you so much. And texting you. And about… the video last night. This is the last time I’ll call, don’t worry. You clearly don’t want to talk to me, and I need to respect that. I should’ve respected you more. Before, I mean. I’m still really glad I met you, though, even if it was short-lived. I’m just… I’m happy I got to be a part of some cool cosmic happy accident at all. With you. Mostly I’m happy it was with you. When you’re… if you’re ever back in Bright Moon and you want to… well. You know where I am. So… I guess this is goodbye, then?… Yeah. Take care, Catra.”

Catra listened to the voicemail three times.

She usually just deleted them right away. Sometimes she entertained Adora’s scrambled apologies for a few seconds, but she never made it past the ten second mark. It wasn’t that they made her skin crawl anymore, not the same hiccup of panic in her chest. It was usually just… too much to think about. Catra had enough on her plate already.

But then Adora sent that stupid video last night. With her red eyes, slurred words, and looking like Picasso just threw up on her, so Catra had wavered.

She must have made some kind of sound of discontent, because Scorpia glanced at her from the driver’s seat. “Everything okay?”

Catra stared down at her phone in her hands, the dark screen. This stupid thing that started it all.

“Yeah. Just thinking.”

“About Bright Moon? Oh I know, me too, but I think you’re gonna love it. I can’t wait for you to see the new place, it’s so much bigger than our old one. And okay, I know you’re gonna fight me on the curtains and say they’re too bright, but I really think the robin-blue matches the walls, ‘cause they’re sort of this pale turquoise gray, and I thought white curtains would make everything seem too monochrome.”

“She’s thinking about the girlfriend,” Entrapta supplied unhelpfully from Catra’s other side, not looking up from her Switch. “Oh, sorry. I meant Adora.”

Catra groaned and thudded her head back against the metal interior.

The three of them were crammed into the front bench of a U-Haul truck, with six hours of highway behind them and another eight ahead of them.

It couldn’t be over soon enough.

“So she’s still bugging you, huh?”

Catra didn’t talk about it much with them. Or with anyone really. There wasn’t that much to say anymore.

It’s not that she was still mad, no. All the anger faded.

Left in its wake was just…

Catra didn’t know what to call it.

As the next two weeks passed, Adora fantasized.

Just a little bit. She let herself have that much.

She imagined opening the front door on her way out only to find Catra standing on the other side of it.

Sometimes she’d be walking out of Etheria after a long day of work, and Catra would be leaning against the lamp post on the sidewalk outside, arms crossed and cool with a smirk on her mouth.

Sometimes it was just that familiar echo of, “Hey Adora.”

But the more time went on, the less vividly Adora could remember what it sounded like in the first place.

In these fantasies, Catra was always wearing Adora’s shirt, the one she had slept in before it all went wrong. Before everything went sour, before Catra looked at Adora with such apathetic steel in her eyes that Adora had found herself preferring Catra blowing up and yelling at her.

Anything was better than that cold, blank stare.

It had been almost two months since Catra left Adora in that diner, and in none of these fantasies did Adora expect to accidentally run into Catra again.

No like, literally.

Adora hit her with her car.

She maybe forgot that she’d bumped her side-view mirror against the garbage cans outside her apartment that morning, effectively bending it flat against the car, and by the time she noticed it, she was already pulling out backwards from a parking spot with a sizable chuck of her vision now obscured.

Okay in her defense, she really didn’t hit her that hard.

And listen, it had been that kind of day — long, sullen, cloudy — and so Adora had stopped at a Trader Joes on her way home to pick up a tub of Neapolitan ice cream, ready to spend the rest of the afternoon in bed with a spoon and her laptop.

So, sue her.

(Well, technically Catra could probably actually sue her now.)

One second she was backing out, the next there was a blur of maroon through the back window, and before Adora could register any of it, a loud thud quickly followed with a shout.

Adora slammed on the brakes and threw the car in park. “Oh my god, shit.” She struggled to squirm out of her seatbelt. “Shit, shit, shit, I am so sorry, are you oka—”

“Mother fucker,” Catra growled, down on the pavement and rubbing her side.

Adora could only stare, heart pounding in her chest. She wasn’t sure what was more overwhelming — the fact that Catra was here, in Bright Moon, right in front of her, or the fact Adora just hit her with her freaking car.

When she said nothing more, Catra finally looked up, and her eyes widened.

She expected yelling, a billow of rage, for Catra to quite possibly tackle her and maybe kill her. Or maybe that same chilling apathy, she’d ignore Adora and walk away like nothing had happened.

What she didn’t expect was for Catra to burst out laughing.

“Oh, you have to be fucking kidding me.”

“Um.” Adora looked around the parking lot. They were attracting some stares, but no one was coming up to them. “Are you—? Should I—?”

“Again, Adora? Really?” Catra asked in disbelief, still laughing. “Once wasn’t enough?”

Adora was genuinely worried she might pass out. The ground was spinning like a ship deck on water.

Catra huffed and brushed herself off. Though she was wincing slightly as she came to her feet, she seemed… fine. For the most part. Some dirt on her elbows, but not dying or murderously out for Adora’s head.

She seemed to finally take in that Adora was having an internal meltdown, because her brow furrowed and she gave Adora a weary look.

“Are you okay?”

“I… um, I uh… I don’t, I’m not sure.”

Catra softened, the corners of her mouth lifting in a faint smile. It made Adora’s mouth dry.

“You’re um, you’re here,” Adora said dumbly, blinking rapidly. “In Bright Moon.”

Catra nodded, looking about as calm and cool as Adora remembered her. “Yeah. I moved a couple weeks ago.”

“Oh… that’s…”

“I got a job,” Catra went on when Adora trailed off, rubbing the back of her neck now. “As a technical art director at Melog Studios. It’s nothing super fancy, but it’s pretty cool. I have my own office. Even has a balcony.”

Adora continued to just blink dumbfoundedly. She might be short-circuiting. Catra was giving her more information in a single breath than she had in the two weeks they’d known each other like it was nothing, like they were old friends.

She shook her head abruptly. Get it together, Adora. “That’s great. That’s — that’s amazing, I’m so happy for you. You deserve it.”

“Thanks.”

They stared at each other. Or maybe Adora was the one staring, and Catra was waiting for her to stop.

“A-Are you okay?” Adora changed the subject back. “I’m so sorry, I should’ve been paying more attention. Do you like, need to go to the hospital, or something?”

“No, it’s fine,” Catra chuckled. “I’ll probably wake up a little sore tomorrow, but this is nothing compared to the shiner when you decked me.”

Adora’s mouth sunk into a frown. “I didn’t hit you that hard.”

The other woman raised her eyebrows. “Which time?”

The laugh that bubbled out from Adora’s chest caught her off guard. It felt just like it used to, so foreign and familiar at the same time. And then reality quickly descended back down, and Adora remembered.

The snooping, the pretending, that stupidly awful snapchat.

“Sorry, um, I don’t mean to keep you if— if you have somewhere to be.”

“Oh.” Catra glanced down at her watch. It was new, one Adora didn’t recognize; silver-plated metal, thick face, it replaced the leather bracelet she used to wear. “I… don’t, actually.”

Adora’s heart picked back up again (which honestly seemed impossible, because Adora wasn’t sure it had settled down at all in the last three minutes).

Was this an olive branch? Should she ask if…? Unless that was too soon. Yes, that was probably a bad call, and if she suggested something like that after literally almost just killing her, that might chase Catra away again. On the other hand, what if the longer she said nothing, that was what would blow it, and Catra would change her mind about—

“What are you up to right now?” Catra asked, as if it was the most natural thing.

Adora thought about the ice cream in her car. “Just um, you know. About to hit the gym.”

“Oh.”

“But I can totally blow it off!” Adora winced at the shrill of her voice. “I don’t have to. I mean, I wasn’t that attached to going. I wasn't even sure if I would at all, you know, and I was gonna have to go home first to change.” She punctuated her rambling with a nervous laugh.

“Adora?”

Her face felt so hot she might die. “Yep?”

“Being that I’m sort of new to town… you want to show me what there is to do around here?”

It was all Adora could do to stop the gasp of relief that threatened to spill. The wide, beaming smile made the cut, though.

It took a couple weeks, but Catra figured out what that feeling was. It was more an absence of something than anything.

It wasn’t until that crevice was filled again that she realized.

Longing.

She expected worse things if she ever saw Adora again. Bitter resentment. Nostalgic anxiety. Irritable indifference.

It was none of that.

Seeing Adora again, standing in the parking lot, her hip fucking throbbing because — jesus christ Adora, how fucking fast do you pull out of a parking spot — there was just wonder.

It wasn’t that Catra felt like she’d made a mistake in walking away. She didn’t regret taking off.

She knew it was kind of pathetic. She knew she had a tendency to blow things out of proportion, and she knew that she made it difficult for people to get close. Catra understood that, and she set her expectations accordingly. So, beyond work deals and expecting Scorpia and Entrapta to not disappear without warning in the middle of the night, Catra didn’t project a whole lot outside of herself.

And then, Adora.

It wasn’t that Catra expected something from her. Not anything particular.

It was just the flicker of hope that pulsed in and out like strobe lights under her ribs. It was the thrill of not knowing what to expect at all. It was the uncertainty of what the hell Adora was ever thinking. It was fresh and terrifying and new and exotic.

It was Adora, a complete stranger, and it was the excitement of what that strangeness would bring.

It was a dive into unknown expectations. Catra had been waiting for something — for anything — without worrying too much about what it could be.

And then, you know. It all went south for a hot sec.

Which was still like, not great in the grand scheme of things.

But it happened.

Catra was really good at holding a grudge. It didn’t take much, really. Didn’t even really need to remember what happened. There’d usually just be an everlasting sour taste at the back of her throat, and that was it. As easy as it was to keep away from getting close to people, it was just as simple to hold them back once it inevitably blew up in her face.

Looking at Adora now, Catra couldn’t recall exactly how long ago it was that the sour taste had faded.

Looking at Adora now, Catra could recall exactly the plummet of dread that had nearly bottomed out her stomach when Adora told her the truth. She remembered exactly how her face had flushed, how her hands had shook, how her mind had felt like it was tugging back out of her skull and twisting out farther away, unable to stay grounded.

She remembered how stupid she felt, for so many reasons. For having a reaction at all. For thinking that it was possible that this strange, new, exciting thing could actually happen for her. For thinking it would without consequences. For thinking she could just have this one good thing at all.

For how, of course, it had to be Adora.

For how, even when it all happened, she could objectively understand and acknowledge that this was nothing and not a big deal and Adora just made a mistake because she’s just Adora.

For how that hadn’t dampened the panic in the slightest.

Looking at Adora now, her hair frazzled from it’s ponytail, cheeks ruby-red, mouth sputtering around words that couldn’t make it out of the surface, Catra remembered it all.

And, someway, somehow — Catra couldn’t find that grudge anymore. That feeling, the resentment, that old friend of a sour taste.

It was refreshing.

So, now, she stood across a mini-golf hole, watching how Adora bounced her leg and kept stealing weighted stares with a fervent kind of intensity that she must still be expecting Catra to bolt.

Catra was a little tired of always running.

It was cute. Adora was still cute. Something about seeing Adora so nervous was inexplicably charming, and it was enough for Catra to feel as relaxed as dozing off on a quiet spring afternoon.

“So.” Catra cleared her throat, trying not to let her amusement come out in her tone as Adora hit her ball and missed. Again. They stopped keeping track of their scores around the third hole of the course when it became clear Adora was never going to make a shot in under five hits. “What have you been up to lately?”

“Um, you know. Little bit of this, that.” Adora went to line up her club again.

“Yep, totally. I know exactly what that means.”

Adora huffed at herself sheepishly. “Sorry, Just like, nothing all that new. I guess stuff at work has picked up a bit. After my piece on… um… Dr. Weaver—” She hesitated, if only barely, as she shot another nervous look. “—my boss finally started giving me a little more responsibility. More assignments, and ones that aren’t just reporting on like, a neighbor’s missing hamster.”

“I dunno, sounds like the hamster could really use your help. What ever happened to helping the little guy?”

Either Adora was too distracted by her seventh attempt, or just too flustered in general, but she missed the joke. “Right, no, of course I still care about that kind of stuff. And I’ll make sure at least someone is writing about the… the pets.”

“Uh-huh. What kind of assignments have you been getting lately?”

“There was this thing about this local horse stable that the county is trying to raise money so they can reopen, which was pretty fun. I used to go there when I was a kid.” Adora smiled slightly to herself, a chuckle under her breath, and she started to ramble off on a tangent about the stable. Her voice picked back up that same quick pace it did when she was excited and babbling, getting just almost on the verge of too loud like she used to when they talked, and—

It was nice.

Catra smiled as she watched Adora go on; the wide gestures, the squinty-eyed grin, the goofy laugh. She almost forgot to actually listen, she was so mesmerized.

It was nice for a change, to hear Adora this way. Made Catra realize that the last two months, she hadn’t let herself remember Adora like this. All she’d had to go on was Adora’s awkward apologies and the thick, drunken voice of a girl who just wanted a second chance.

Maybe that was now. Maybe it could be.

Adora finally made the hole, and she pumped a fist in the air, letting out a laugh of glee. “Ha, stick that in your juicebox and suck it. Told you I’d get it on that one.”

Their eyes met, and Catra wondered how long she’d been denying that she didn’t miss her, colossal idiot and all.

They caught up some more throughout the game, lazy updates and half-hearted banter. Catra scored three hole-in-ones over the course of it, each time making Adora’s pout sink further and further, much to Catra’s delight.

“You’re just lucky I’m off my game today,” Adora said huffily when they turned their clubs back in.

“Oh, is that so. What gave it away? Running me over with your car, or losing seven balls in the river?”

“Oh my god, I didn’t run you over.” Adora pushed her shoulder playfully as they walked back to her car. “You’re still such a drama queen.”

“Dude, ow.” Catra winced, clutching at her side.

“No, shit, fuck, wait I’m so sorry.” Adora immediately stopped in her tracks and grabbed Catra by her biceps, steadying her. “Are you okay? Fuck me, I’m so sorry, are you sure I shouldn’t take you any—?”

Catra couldn’t keep it up anymore — Adora swearing had always been impossible to listen to with a straight face — and she snorted into her chest. “Wow, you should’ve totally seen your face just now.”

Adora fumbled over her words again, blue eyes wobbling like she still couldn’t make up her mind.

Then her sight dropped down, lower than Catra’s eyes, and she realized how close they were standing. How Adora’s hands felt on the bare skin just above her elbows, how her fingers wrapped around her, how her breath smelled suspiciously like Juicy Fruit gum and, how Adora wasn’t looking away.

That same sweet blush from before came up Adora’s cheeks again, and she jerked away awkwardly.

“You are such a jerk,” Adora grumbled, even still as her cheeks grew darker.

Under other circumstances, Catra would probably be feeling a similar tier of flustered-teenager-nerves and indignant avoidance. Before, Catra would’ve. But it seemed like Adora was taking care of that enough for the both of them, and Catra’s chest was warm as she watched Adora stalk back to the car.

As much as it felt like nothing had changed, like how they used to be, Catra couldn’t deny the new shift between them. Like an understanding of some kind. Maybe Catra just understood herself better, maybe (most definitely) Adora was more conscientious of boundaries.

Either way. The notion of change and novelty wasn’t quite so terrifying anymore.

Adora hadn’t struggled to sit still this much since the third grade when she’d been scolded for making too much noise twisting and fumbling around in her seat at school, at home during dinner, anywhere.

While Adora had been anxiously running through any exciting idea she could come up with for them to do (because she needed the perfect activity to keep Catra entertained, because if she didn’t then Catra wouldn’t want to be around her anymore, because—), Catra interrupted her thoughts to ask if she was hungry.

So. They were back here.

It wasn’t like it was the same diner they went to before, and it wasn’t even a restaurant, just some food-cart parked by the mall that Adora would sometimes visit on her lunch breaks, but the familiar setting still set her on edge again. Any progress she’d made in relaxing around Catra at the golf course was long gone . There were probably a dozen different places Adora could’ve taken her to impress her, but Adora panicked and every restaurant she’d ever been to in Bright Moon was completely wiped from her mind.

And apparently a run-down picnic table next to a noisy intersection was the best she could come up with. At least it was by the high school’s football field, which provided a brief calming escape of (albeit fake) green underneath the swirling pink and orange skies as the sun started to descend.

They were eating together. At a picnic table. At sunset. A scene typically described as romantic. What was the big deal?

Catra seemed fine enough. More than fine. Slouched over the table on her elbows, curious wandering eyes to the area around them, absent-mindedly sucking on the straw of her soda, she just looked so normal. Half her hair was pinned up in a messy bun, a clean slice of eyeliner perfectly shaped around her eyes, a loose blouse hanging open over a dark tank top. The dip of her collarbones and her tragically sharp jawline was far too distracting for Adora to come up with something to say. Like, anything. Literally anything at all.

She imagined that to anyone watching them, they just looked like any pair of friends out for an afternoon bite.

But Adora really couldn’t sit still.

“You gonna finish those?” Even as she asked, Catra was already reaching across the table to steal a fry from Adora’s paper plate.

Adora could only stare at her. The lazy way she chewed, the soft ease she met Adora’s eyes with, all effortless nonchalance. It was overwhelming. It was soothing. It was infuriating. It was everything.

And now Catra was looking at her phone. Shit, Adora was terrible at this. For all she knew, Catra was texting Scorpia to ask if she can call with a fake emergency and save her from this horribly awkward dinner and a horribly awkward Adora and—

Her phone vibrated against her thigh.

If only to distract herself while Catra had her head bent towards her own phone, Adora reluctantly pulled it out. Literally, she would take anything right now to save her from being this mortifyingly boring.

And then she saw who the text was from, her brow furrowed. When she looked up, Catra was already looking at her, a smirk on her lips, and she jutted her chin to gesture at Adora’s hands.

She unlocked it.

Today, 7:42PM

catra

u doing okay over there

adora

I’m great!!! How’re you?

“Adora.”

She looked back up.

Catra stole another fry, slowly dragged it through the lump of ketchup. She raised her eyebrows at her, in a look that was very clearly saying, come on, stop being dumb.

Adora took a deep breath.

adora

Okay

I’m nervous

catra

yeah i can tell

it’s ok

don’t be

adora

No offense but

Are you kidding

catra

👀

no lol

should i be kidding

adora

Don’t you like

Hate me?

catra

i mean i lowkey wanted to

tried for a bit

adora

Very reassuring

catra

idk what to tell u

apparently ur just too difficult to hate

adora

Thank you?

catra

and also like

i cooled down

and i know u didn’t really mean to

ok yea going through my shit was a low blow but

i can understand how that prob didn’t seem like a big deal to u so

just an oversight ig

adora

That still doesn’t excuse it

I really am sorry

catra

i know u are

never had a girl cry in a club over me before tbh

adora

Oh my god

catra

that was the real big clue u were so hung up on me

adora

Are you seriously doing this right now

catra

oh should i come back later?

we can do this another day

For the added effect of apparently being the same infuriating brat she’s always, Catra stood from the table with a faux-polite smile, and Adora immediately grabbed her forearm to stop her. Any indignant words caught in her throat, and they both stilled.

This time, Catra didn’t shake her off. This time, her face wasn’t cold and hard. This time, Adora wasn’t begging.

Catra sat back down.

As Adora went to pull her hand back, embarrassed and annoyed with herself for touching Catra again without her permission, Catra was twisting her wrist around and she caught Adora’s fingers, stopping her.

Adora’s knee stopped bouncing under the table.

No, Catra wasn’t cold and hard anymore. The soft upturn of her mouth, the gentle touch of her fingers ever so slowly running over Adora’s knuckles and being just shy of lacing them together, the way she didn’t let go — it was warm.

Adora nearly swallowed her tongue. “I, um. I can’t type with my left hand.”

Eyebrows raising again in amusement, Catra pursed her lips as she pulled her hand away, and Adora could just about have screamed at herself for opening her stupid mouth.

catra

my bad

won’t happen again

adora

Can you stop

catra

stop what

adora

Just

What you’re doing

catra

being myself?

adora

Yes that

catra

ouch princess

tell me how you really feel

adora

This coming from you?

Funny

catra

oh ok

i won’t ask about ur feelings ever then either

anything else i should avoid?

adora

Can you stop!!

Being!!!

So annoying!!!!!!!!

catra

bro why are u yelling

“Because I missed you!” Adora exclaimed. Her blood was racing under her skin, and the tangle of worry that this could all end at any moment combined with being so utterly enamored by Catra’s laid-back charm, like all that happened between them was just a small mishap over the weekend — Adora was just surprised she was still sitting.

“Because— Because I messed up with you. And it doesn’t matter that I was an idiot and didn’t realize what I was doing. The point is I let you down, and I didn’t think I was ever going to see you again, and now you’re here, just making jokes and teasing me and looking really unnecessarily attractive for someone who supposedly just spent the entire day at work, and you’re acting like nothing happened. So, if this is all just going to be some kind of polite way of putting everything to rest and finding your closure, then that’s fine. That’s okay, but I need you to tell me now because I’m trying really hard to not get my hopes up about this, and I’m still not entirely sure I’m not just dreaming this all up, and you’re looking at me like maybe you’re not trying to find a way of letting me down easy so just — here you go. I’m making it easy for you. You can just tell me, and we can move on with our lives, and there’s no bad blood over anything that happened or hard feelings over the fact you ignored my calls for two months.”

Catra was quiet. Pensive. Didn’t say anything while Adora heaved for her lost breath.

And then, “You think I’m hot?”

“I—” Adora clamped her mouth shut. “That’s not what I said.”

“Sorry, unnecessarily attractive? Was that it?”

She couldn’t really remember now. “Is that really the only part you want to focus on?”

“Well, not the only thing, but definitely the first. So? That’s what you think of me?”

“I think you’re incredibly annoying.”

“But… annoying and hot, right?”

“I would literally rather be stuck in a room with a cockroach again than do this with you right now.”

“Wow.” Catra sighed, puffing out her cheeks dramatically. “It’s really flattering I have that much of an effect on you.”

“Is this your form of revenge?”

“Why? Too much for you to handle?”

“No, I just want to know what I’m signing up for.”

Catra met her gaze evenly, the lines of humor around her eyes leveling out. She said nothing.

“Because I… I want to know if there’s something to sign up for,” Adora finished dumbly.

Catra’s mouth, lips wet from the soda and soaked crimson in the light of the sunset, twisted into a wry smirk. “What? You want to fill an application out, or something?”

“Yeah,” Adora answered automatically. “Sure. If that’s what it takes.”

“If that’s what what takes?”

“To know that you’ll stay.”

Catra had enough of a rough time wrapping her head around her abandonment issues, about coming to terms with how people will inevitably leave her and there was only so much she can do.

The part where someone asks her to stay?

Still new.

Catra was half-tempted to actually make Adora fill out some literal application, especially when she woke up the next day with her hip stiff as steel, if only as collateral for the damage. And to get a rise out of her, obviously.

She’d forgiven Adora, sure, but the girl had also hit her with her damn car, so. Catra could milk it a bit.

She only got so far as googling friend application templates for inspiration before her hands paused over her keyboard.

Friend?

Friend.

Catra didn’t make the application, and Adora didn’t ask about it.

Adora saw Catra’s new apartment a week later.

It was more spacious than the one in Fright City, the living room spilled with a great deal more natural light. Catra’s bedroom wasn’t all that different, still with the same bed and sheets that Adora remembered and sparse decorations, but all her books were neatly tucked onto the shelves now, the desk entirely bare.

“You’re such a neat-freak,” Adora said with a smile.

“Least I’m not a slob,” Catra grumbled, fishing through a dresser drawer. “Lemme just change real quick and we can get going.”

“Sure, take your time.”

While Catra ducked into the bathroom with a fistful of clothes, Adora found that Catra had re-pinned up her cluster of photographs. She smiled at the new ones that had been put up, one of which was Catra sunken butt-first into a large cardboard box, packing peanuts spilling all around her, her mouth blurrily slung open like she’d been yelling when the photo was taken. The sticky note pressed to it read, you’re both dicks for not helping me out of this, and beneath it, we did help, just after we took the pic

But what really caught Adora’s attention was a photo she’d already seen before. The one of her smiling at some kind of party with a tiara on her head, with the note attached saying it was Scorpia’s favorite and Catra’s fuck you.

No, what Adora really noticed was the second note attached, the one in her own loopy writing with a smiley face beside it, the one she’d almost completely forgotten about writing at all.

this one’s really cute and also my favorite

“Okay, I’m ready. Let’s dip.”

Adora shot her an amused smile over her shoulder. “You kept this?”

“Kept what?” Catra padded up beside her to see what Adora was pointing at, and then immediately scowled. “Oh fuck off, let’s just go.”

Adora could probably go on with four more stages of teasing in that regard, but she held back. Not quite out of pity, and not because she thought Catra would blow a fuse.

But Adora was busy turning the thought over and over again, slow and careful, like rolling around a particularly flavorful piece of candy on her tongue.

Catra made a gagging sound. “I would give up a kidney if it meant never having to come to one of these things again.”

Adora smirked around the lip of her champagne glass. “What? A gallery opening you spent a month planning?”

“Just, this. All the high noses and ass-kissers.”

“You mean the guests that showed up to support you and all the artists you work with?”

“I don’t like your tone.”

Adora laughed, dropping a hand to Catra’s elbow. “I’m just trying to make sure I understand you. Anything you hear in my tone is just you projecting.”

Catra rolled her eyes, pointedly still looking out to the sea of guests browsing the walls of artwork.

It gave Adora an opportunity to appreciate her side-profile for a moment. With the crisp cut of her button-down collar poking out from her maroon suit jacket, the firm set of her jaw, and the lazily undone bowtie hanging around her neck, Adora would be beyond intimidated if she didn’t know her. It’d been four weeks since they started seeing each other again, and even still, Catra struck such a sharp image of poise and control, Adora almost missed her next words.

“I went to a lot of parties like this growing up,” Catra explained stiffly, still not looking at her. “Mostly business parties, stuff like that.”

“With Dr. Weaver?” As soon as she asked, Adora grimaced and mentally kicked herself. “Sorry, that was stupid. You don’t have to answer that, forget I asked.” She laughed nervously, burying her nose back into her champagne, and mumbled, ”Think I would’ve learned my lesson by now, huh.”

She felt Catra’s stare weigh on her like cinders.

“Yeah,” she said eventually, her voice considerably lower but still firm. “With Weaver. I started working for the company officially when I was sixteen, and word got out that she was fostering me pretty fast. She liked to make a show of flaunting me around, show how charitable and genuine she was.” Catra scoffed and cocked her jaw. “It was mostly just annoying. She’d pretend to love me when someone with a checkbook was watching, but soon as we got home it went back to the same old shit.”

There were a hundred things on Adora’s tongue, but she fought with herself on every one.

Catra glanced at her, and her mouth splayed into a sweet smile. “It’s okay. You can ask if you want to.”

Adora bit her lip. “I don’t want to overstep.”

There was an unspoken again that Catra seemed to hear.

“You won’t. And even if you do…” She sighed. “The reason I was so mad at you wasn’t as much about you as it was about, well, her. Yeah, I was annoyed, but…”

Catra’s brow furrowed together, her mouth pressed into a flat line as she was now the one to struggle over her words.

Adora brushed their hands together. “How about we talk about this later? Maybe when we’re not at one of your work functions and I’m not stuck in a ridiculous dress.”

At that, Catra chuckled, the tension in her shoulders loosening. She nodded, and then her eyes trailed over said dress with an appreciative glint that made Adora shift her feet. It was just an old thing she’d found buried in her closet, a simple red gown she hadn’t worn in years.

“I dunno.” Catra shrugged, the corner of her mouth curving into a smirk. “I like the dress. You can keep it on.”

Adora ended up changing out of the dress, but they did talk about it.

It wasn’t quite the disaster either of them were expecting.

💖⭐️🔥🌈 best friend squad 💞🌟💥🎈

Today, 7:04PM

Glimmer 🔮

so let me get this straight

Bow 🏹

we are not

Glimmer 🔮

adora

What? He’s right

Glimmer 🔮

no i mean

ugh

why are u both like this

Bow 🏹

love you

adora

What are we straightening

Glimmer 🔮

u and catra

Bow 🏹

oh now there is definitely nothing straight about that

adora

lol

Glimmer 🔮

as. i. was. saying.

i saw she spent the night again

everything is just back to normal btwn you two?

adora

Yeah pretty much

Glimmer 🔮

so what

you two kiss and make up

and that’s it?

Bow 🏹

omg whatttttt

there was a kiss??

adora

I wish 😶

Glimmer 🔮

jfc figure of speech

u get what i’m asking

adora

Yes

Glimmer 🔮

and?

adora

That’s my answer

Yes

Bow 🏹

okay but just to clarify

this is still a *gay* thing

right?

adora

Define gay

Bow 🏹

has the definition changed recently

adora

Gotta go Catra’s here byeeee

Glimmer 🔮

we r so not done here

Bow 🏹

i think we might be 😔

“Hey.” Adora beamed as she swung open the front door, Catra standing on the other side like she’d imagined so many times, arms crossed and leaned back against the wall. The cropped leather jacket and dark fitted jeans were a dizzyingly delicious addition.

“Hi.” Catra pushed herself off from the wall, her smile small and pressed like she was trying to not let it grow. “You ready?”

“Am I ready? You’re the one that’s late.”

“You said eight.”

“It’s ten past.”

Catra rolled her eyes as Adora took her hand and rushed them down the hall. “We’re still gonna be early. The concert doors don’t even open until nine.”

“There might be traffic.”

“We’re not even twenty minutes away.”

“Okay, considering you’re late to like everything, I really don’t think you’re in any position to give advice on how I should manage my time,” Adora huffed as she led them out into the dark evening air. Swift Wind was parked right in the lot outside, and she hopped down the building’s front steps to head towards him.

“You know what, first of all, I’m almost never late. And second, we never would’ve met if I hadn’t been running late that day, so. I don’t see what you’re complaining about.”

Adora paused only slightly, but she refused to let Catra see the endeared smile that she was surely breaking into right now.

“Whatever,” she said flippantly instead, dropping Catra’s hand and walking up to her door.

“Oh wait, hold up.”

Adora turned back, her keys jingling in her hands. “What’s up? Did you forget something?”

“Yeah, actually.” Catra’s boots clicked across the concrete as she approached, face suddenly devoid of expression. Adora stepped back when Catra came just in front of her, only a breath away, and she nearly stumbled when her back thudded against the door of the car.

“Um.” The tips of her ears were already hot. “Did you want to drive?”

“No. I’m gonna kiss you now.”

Adora had nothing in her mouth and she still felt like she was about to choke like a fish out of water. “Y-You’re, you’re going to what?”

“Kiss you,” Catra said seriously, but finally breaking with a wry smile. “Is that okay?”

Adora was already nodding her head vehemently, but Catra just raised her eyebrows.

“Can you say it?”

“Yes,” Adora said, though it came out more like a squeak. “Yes, you can… do that.”

This up close, the dance of freckles over Catra’s nose and cheekbones made Adora’s breath come shorter. Catra’s teeth glowed under the tangerine street lights lining the parking lot when she grinned, an equally dangerous and alluring thing across her face. But there was nothing but tenderness in the hand that twisted up between them to hook a finger under the neck of Adora’s t-shirt, in the gentle pull she took to bring Adora down to her height, in the unbearably adorable way she leaned up on her toes to meet Adora halfway.

Catra kissed like how the sun broke over the horizon.

Languid and patient, with the warmth of that first morning coffee, all velvet care and yearning desire.

Adora exhaled into Catra’s mouth like she’d been holding it in since they first met, melting into Catra’s delicate touch and sinking her hands around Catra’s narrow hips.

She could feel Catra’s smile slowly form in the kiss. Just when Adora thought she was going to pull away, Catra wound her hands instead around Adora’s neck, her blunt fingernails dragging lightly just at the base of her hairline.

So, this was definitely still a gay thing. Good to know.

Catra did end up breaking the kiss much too soon. Adora leaned forward after her, unconsciously chasing her mouth, but Catra swerved her.

“Okay, cool.” She pressed a chaste kiss to Adora’s cheek instead. “That was all. Been waiting a while to do that. We can go now.”

It took at least forty seconds for Adora to remember where she was before she finally fumbled her way back into the car.

They didn’t say anything as Adora pulled out of the parking lot, but once she was merged onto the main road, Catra reached for the gearshift Adora had her hand on. Her fingers twisted under Adora’s wrist and she laced their fingers together. The angle wasn’t great because Adora still had to keep a grip on the shifter and change gears every so often, but Catra adjusted around the movements and continued to trail lazy circles over her knuckles.

Catra was right, and the drive only took nineteen minutes.

Adora didn’t stop smiling the entire way.

“I should probably go home tonight,” Catra murmured, despite having already changed into one of Adora’s shirts, stripped off her pants, and now laid in bed beside her. Her finger traced over Adora’s nose mindlessly, grazed across her face.

Adora pouted under Catra’s thumb. “No.”

“I have that meeting in the morning.”

“So set an alarm.”

“You’ll just turn it off and make me late again.”

“That was one time.”

“Yeah, and every time you make it difficult to leave.”

Adora grinned, winding an arm under Catra’s shirt and over her hip. “I told you I don’t like sleeping alone.”

“So I’m just a placeholder then, am I? A high-end stuffed animal.”

“Yes, but stuffed animals don’t usually talk this much.”

“Oh damn, my bad. Should I go find you one then? I can leave.”

When Catra started to roll away, Adora tightened her grip. “Don’t you dare.”

Today, 11:02AM

adora

Can I ask you something?

catra

can u come out of the bathroom

why are u still in there

adora

Bc I have something important to ask

catra

i’m literally on the other side of the wall

u could be kissing me rn

and yet

u aren’t

what do u have to say for urself

adora

We can do that later

This is sentimental

Doing it like this I mean

catra

not if i’m dead by the time u actually come out of there

adora

Are you done yet

catra

yeah

doing what like this

what do u want

what r we doing

adora

Okay so

Like I said

I want to ask you something

catra

ya i got that part

why are u such a slow typer

adora

Because this is important

catra

wow i might actually die of old age out here

adora

Will you go out with me?

Like, in a serious way I mean

Officially

catra

lol

please say sike

adora

What

catra

are u joking

adora

No?

catra

dude

wtf have we been doing for the last three months

adora

Idk

Hanging out

catra

wow

i can’t even tell u i’m breaking up with u

bc apparently we weren’t even together in the first place

adora

I don’t understand

Is that a yes or a no

Someone started pounding on the door, and Adora jumped from where she was sitting on the closed toilet.

“Adora, open the fucking door,” Catra demanded, voice loud and shrill even when muffled by the barrier between them.

Adora was half-tempted to just sneak out the window. As soon as she opened the door, she was met with a pillow in her face.

“Whoa, okay, sorry for asking.” Adora ducked as Catra made another go at her. “Will you quit it? Why are you hitting me?”

“You’re — a — fucking — asshole,” Catra snapped, clumsily whacking any part of Adora she could reach on each word. “What is the fucking matter with you?”

“What? God, I’m sorry for wanting to make things official between us, excuse me for caring—” Catra lifted the pillow again and Adora quickly snatched it away. “Don’t you dare. What are you hitting me for?”

“Because I told you I’m in love with you two weeks ago and you said nothing and now you’re asking me to go out with you?”

Adora froze. “You… what? No you didn’t.”

“Yes I did.”

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did, you fucking dick. At the drive-in?”

One of them was very seriously mistaken here, and Adora was growing less and less certain that it wasn’t her. “What are you talking about? I mean— okay, the drive-in I remember, but I think I would remember you confessing your— your whatever.”

Catra really looked like she might kill her. “You went to get the snacks, and I waited in the car. When you came back, you had grabbed the mini M&Ms instead of the regular ones, and I said, ‘ I knew I fell in love with you for a reason.’”

Adora blinked slowly. “You didn’t say that.”

“Yeah, I did, and you didn’t say shit back.”

“No, okay listen, I remember this now. I gave you the M&Ms and you said, ‘ this is why I love you.’”

“That’s not…” Catra was now the one to falter, but she quickly shook her head. “Okay, forget the semantics, it’s basically—”

“That’s technically not what semantics means.”

“It’s basically the same thing,” Catra pushed on in a low bite, daring Adora to keep testing her.

Adora never really had any problems in that regard. “No it’s not.”

“How is that not the same thing? I said I love you.”

“Because if you had said, ‘ I fell in love with you,’ I would’ve understood that for what it was.”

“So me telling you that I love you wasn’t good enough? That’s what you’re saying?”

“How was I supposed to know that’s what you meant!” Adora could practically see from her peripheral vision how her face was flushing again, because there was only so many times she could hear Catra say those words so nonchalantly. “For all I knew, you just meant it as like, a friend thing.”

“We had sex three times that night.”

“Just because we’re having sex doesn’t mean we can’t be friendly.”

“I can’t believe I’ve been tearing myself up over this for the last two weeks trying to figure out why you didn’t say it back, when it’s literally just because you’re an idiot. Wow. How much of an idiot am I for being in love with you?” Catra pulled herself from her tangent to fix Adora with a pointed, impatient glare. “Is that clear enough for you? Do I have to get that engraved in a goddamn ring for you? Should I paint across the fucking sky? Or are you going to think that it was meant for someone else?”

“You… you love me?”

Catra pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath before reaching back out for Adora’s hands. Now more composed and clearly scrounging for whatever bit of patience she had left in her, her touch was gentle.

“Yeah, you big dummy. I do.”

Adora’s smile couldn’t spread wide enough to convey the blossom of warmth spidering from deep in her chest. “I love you, too.”

Catra’s shoulders sagged with relief, her smile appeased. Until she leaned up to slot Adora's lips between hers, and Adora proceeded to snort in her mouth.

“Sorry,” she giggled when Catra pulled back with a groan, struggling to stifle herself. “Just— I mean, wow.”

“Please don’t ruin this. You’ve done that enough already.”

Catra had never been one to think much about fate or any of that meant-to-be crap, but she was starting to think Adora had it wrong.

She told her as much.

“Remember when you said the universe didn’t want us to meet?”

“Hm?” Adora was tapping away at her laptop, her glasses drifting down her nose. Catra had her head in her lap, and Adora made room to push the laptop further down her knees to accommodate. As soon as Catra spoke, Adora paused in her typing, one hand reaching down to brush back Catra’s hair, though her eyes remained fixated on her screen.

“You said something like, the odds of us ever meeting were slim to none, and because it was such an accident that it happened the way it did, it seemed like we were the opposite of being destined to meet.”

Adora blinked and finally looked down at her. “Um, yeah. Yeah, I remember. Why?”

Now it was Catra’s turn to reach up for her. She traced a finger over Adora’s chin, across the swell of her bottom lip.

“I think… yeah, maybe the odds were against us, but considering we met at all? I dunno. It really was kind of a freak accident that we met at all. Both times, actually. That sort of feels deliberate. Doesn’t it?"

Adora’s smile slowly spilled across her face, glittering like liquid sunlight.

“Yeah,” Adora said quietly, squeezing the back of her neck. “I think it does.”

Notes:

comments are my main source of protein thank u

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InErosion on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 03:49AM UTC

I am here to give you your daily portion of protein and to tell you that this was amazing and I cannot wait for part 2.

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:10AM UTC
  
  thank u for feeding me like this, my mother appreciates you 🙏
  
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nbc22 on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:04AM UTC

Ok this is like really really good i need that second half!!!!! You did such a good job taking a corny set-up and making it something I am now incredibly invested in

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:11AM UTC
  
  omg thank you! started out as mostly a fun side-project and then it morphed into this, so im glad it was fun to read haha
  
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Jetstream on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:32AM UTC

*gets to the end*
...
You're a monster.

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:11AM UTC
  
  i'm so sry lmao
  
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2. 1. Jetstream on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 01:22PM UTC
    
    I don’t believe you.
    
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  2. 1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:42PM UTC
      
      lollll it'll be resolved in a few days i promise
      
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    2. 1. Jetstream on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:48PM UTC
        
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apples (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:59AM UTC

Oh wow! This is definitely one of my favourite fanfics so far, your writing is so fluid. Can’t wait for part 2

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:11AM UTC
  
  thank you!
  
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Quark (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:59AM UTC

Wow...so good. I was riveted all the way through, can’t wait for the rest!!!

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:11AM UTC
  
  thank you! :)
  
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mannythebadger on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 05:08AM UTC

I'm HOOKED. This AU is brilliant and the premise is very unique and cool. I can't wait for the second half. I really hope they smooch

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:12AM UTC
  
  omg thank you
  not to spoil but,,,,, i promise there's a smooch
  
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2. 1. bumblebea on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:32PM UTC
    
    SMOOCH SMOOCH SMOOCH
    
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kittensnakes on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 05:47AM UTC

This is so good- please update soon im in love💓💕💖💘

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:13AM UTC
  
  dw i will :) thank you!
  
  Last Edited Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:13AM UTC
  
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vertigos on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:07AM UTC

I laughed so hard with this fic, amazing! The characters voices are really on point I fucken love Scorpia and Entrapta and u made them even better! Like don't rush on the second part make it as good as this one but also...I really wanna read it soon mfnsjsjaj

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:18PM UTC
  
  haha i dont think ive ever gotten a comment telling me not to rush so thank you lmao, i love that. thanks for commenting!!
  
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queenmillicentofbystander on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:14AM UTC

Excellent. And bless you for it being 33k. Love is a long fic.

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Account Deleted on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:17AM UTC

Holy schist this was so friggan awesome!!!!!
Sometimes the strangest prompts are the ones that are the best to read.

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:21PM UTC
  
  so real haha i really wasn't expecting much to come from the prompt for this one
  
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2. 1. Account Deleted on Chapter 1 Sun 19 Jul 2020 03:03AM UTC
    
    I'm glad that it did!! this story is absolutely amazing!!!!
    
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yeeet9999causeyeah (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:18AM UTC

dang, this is great, can't wait for part 2

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sweetieflowers on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:34AM UTC

i love this!! i was smiling like an idiot the whole way through lol

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ChibiSensei on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:40AM UTC

I love this . I'll patiently wait for the next one
Thank you very much 😂

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eggsarewhite on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:54AM UTC

this is so cute omg :0 and i wonder what catra would react to if she finds out that adora knows that catra's foster mother was shadow weaver

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yasmin (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 06:58AM UTC

I LOVE IT I LOVE YOU i should be asleep but i couldn’t stop reading this thank you so much for giving me this great fanfic to keep me company in such a boring sad and lonely night!!!! i’m definitely waiting for part 2!!! <3

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:32PM UTC
  
  providing company on sad lonely nights is an essential duty and smb's gotta do it
  thanks for reading!!
  
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Fenrir18 on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:06AM UTC

Omg, this fic is so great, they feel so in character, now I really want to draw something about this. Nice job, I can't wait for the next part!!

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:34PM UTC
  
  omg if you draw something PLEASE hmu with it, i would die
  
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2. 1. Fenrir18 on Chapter 1 Mon 20 Jul 2020 12:49AM UTC
    
    I just have a question, what is catra hairstyle? is it the long hair version?. sorry english is not my first language and maybe you discribed it but I didn´t get it.
    
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  2. 1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Mon 20 Jul 2020 05:52AM UTC
      
      im not sure i did describe it actually, or if i did it was definitely ambiguous. she has long hair in this! i mention it’s in the next chapter :)
      
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    2. 1. Fenrir18 on Chapter 1 Wed 22 Jul 2020 05:33PM UTC
        
        Well I wasn't expecting an update, so I included it in my drawing, I will tag you in my twitter post so you can check it. :)
        
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cw12 (Guest) on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:17AM UTC

This is really really good

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Katms15 on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:20AM UTC

This is SO GOOD! when I got to the end of this chapter and realized the second chapter wasn't up yet I audibly went "no!". Super excited to see where this goes and how it ends!

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:46PM UTC
  
  haha don't worry it'll be up in just a few days <3 thank you!
  
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toucanoe on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:20AM UTC

Never really thought I'd go for a phone texting au, but you make the texts realistic and true to each character! I'm looking forward to the next chapter!

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1. lunchables on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 04:47PM UTC
  
  i thought writing dialogue was hard, and then texting lingo was a whole other beast. thank u so much!!
  
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swinterswonderland on Chapter 1 Sat 18 Jul 2020 07:25AM UTC

adora you little shit
THIS IS SO GOOD!! Adora and Catra’s texts with each other are so cute. cant wait for part two :D

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