Chapter Text
It was the last weekend before the start of senior year, and Catra was perched on the arm of a big plush purple couch in Glimmer’s living room, her feet nestled in Adora’s lap, with the rest of their friendship group fanned out around the room on assorted chairs, bean bags and couches, all matching the purple colour palette of the room.
As the daughter of the queen and king of Etheria, Glimmer boasted the largest house in Brightmoon, perfect for accommodating the whole gang on movie nights such as these. A thriller that Perfuma had been raving about for days played on the holographic scene beaming up through the floor. All the lights had been extinguished for the authentic aura according to Perfuma, and the 3 glowing moons in the Etherian sky filtered a dull, silver light through the sheer pink curtains, patterning the floor in waves.
Catra’s eyes drifted across her eclectic group of friends; Glimmer perched on the floor, her back resting between Bow’s knees, who in turn was sat next to Adora, sharing the popcorn that rested in her lap, secured between Catra’s ankles. Scorpia, who sat next to Entrapta, was nervously peeking out from behind her claws when the dramatic music from the movie subsided for a moment. Entrapta had a small length of her tendron-like hair stroking the scorpion girl’s back in an attempt to soothe her nerves, as Perfuma clapped excitedly in front of her, perched on her stomach, her feet swinging in the air, with her face mere feet away from the screen, hanging on the edge of each scene as it played out, and barely blinking at the jump scares. Mermista was sitting in one of the large, sinking chairs to the side, bickering with Sea Hawk in hushed whispers as he kept trying to nonchalantly slide from his position on the arm of her chair into her lap.
“Stop - urgh, please, you’re blocking my view,” she groaned, pushing him off for a fifth time.
“Blocking the view?! Darling, I am the view!”
Frosta, the freshman that Perfuma had befriended and adopted into the group from one of her extracurriculars - what was it? Art therapy? - was sat in the biggest, squashiest bean bag, with the biggest bucket of popcorn in her little grubby hands, her demeanor far more accustomed to the violence happening on screen than Scorpia, who was still cowering on her corner of the couch.
Catra’s eyes flicked back to the blonde beneath her, whose blue eyes stared unwavering at the screen, her hand idly reaching down for popcorn every now and then. The cat girl curled over the cushion behind her head and dragged her claws through her soft, blonde ponytail. In response, Adora placed her popcorn dusted hand on Catra’s knee, squeezing gently, causing Catra’s stomach to flip. Catra thanked the stars that it was dark in the room, because the blush rising in her cheeks was humiliating. Adora was completely oblivious to the effect she had on Catra, and the longer she had her hand on Catra’s knee, the longer the feline felt her breath shorten, but she couldn’t tear herself away, rooted to the spot under those soft fingers. Every atom in her body seemed to be responding to that touch.
Catra lost count of how long she’d been friends with Adora. Ever since preschool, they had been thick as thieves, and Catra would follow Adora anywhere, both being each other’s only friend right up until they had started at Brightmoon High. When Adora had joined the co-ed magic soccer team, she had met Bow and clicked immediately. Shortly thereafter, Adora (and by extension, Catra) had fallen in with Bow, Glimmer, and their friend group, many of whom were Glimmer’s princess friends. Catra had never truly felt like Glimmer’s friends were really her friends, but as long as she always had Adora by her side, it never really bothered her. As long as she was glued to the blonde’s hip, nothing could ever go wrong.
That sentiment was, of course, only held until last year, where Catra had met Scorpia in her advanced placement literature class, where Scorpia thrusted a very sudden friendship onto Catra, not that she minded. Through Scorpia, Catra also met Entrapta, the girl with magical purple hair, who seemed to adore physics and mechanics more than anything else in the world, as that was all she talked about. Catra found herself becoming quite fond of the two, though, and when she introduced them to Adora and the rest of their friends, the two girls seemed to fit in straight away. Ever since then, Catra had felt more at home with their large, strange mix of friends. Despite this, out of habit, Catra was always drawn to Adora, and often only found herself gravitating towards her in any group context. She was just glad that Adora seemed to return those same feelings.
A sudden, particularly loud jump scare brought Catra out of her thoughts, and her eyes flickered back to her knee, now cold as Adora had removed her hand in order to secure the popcorn that had threatened to explode over all three of them because Bow had scrambled to wrap around Glimmer’s head out of fear. A bubble of laughter erupted from Adora’s throat, and Catra shifted her gaze to see that Scorpia had practically launched herself behind the couch, cowering and whimpering behind a gasped, “Is it over yet?”
⚔
After earning a free therapy session from Perfuma, Scorpia managed to calm down, and they all pushed the furniture to the sides of the room and settled down into the huge pile of pillows and blankets that Glimmer teleported in from upstairs, appearing in a flash of sparkles, half her body masked behind a stack of bedding.
As Catra nestled into a particularly fluffy blanket, her hands kneading into the fabric slightly as she spruced up a pillow for her head, Adora flopped down beside her, grinning as her blue eyes met Catra’s mismatched blue and yellow eyes.
“Baking a particularly fluffy loaf of bread there, huh, Cat,” she mused.
Catra scowled (as per her nature), flattening her ear left ear as she pressed her cheek into the pillow. A beat of silence hung in the air between them, neither averting their eyes as they gazed at each other under the shallow light of the moons.
It was only broken when Bow stamped between them, a blanket trailing behind him as he blocked Catra’s view, and when he was gone, Adora was laying on her back, staring up at the arched ceiling above.
“Goodnight, everybody!” Glimmer hollered, and everyone murmured similar sentiments in reply, each nodding off slowly as the moons inched further across the sky.
Catra squeezed her eyes closed, attempting to coax herself to sleep, but her mind kept wandering to eyes of blue, blonde hair streaking through the wind. She sighed and opened her eyes at last, glancing at the girl before her, who lay sleeping beside her, slow breaths escaping her lips as her hand clenched where it rested on her chest. Catra could easily guess that she was dreaming about her first game of the season, the homecoming game. She smiled softly and inched closer, close enough to feel the warmth radiating off the other girl’s body but not close enough to sear her skin against hers. Under the lullaby of Adora’s soft snores, Catra finally drifted off to sleep.