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When Catra gets her hands on Water Eagle, because she knows this is his fault, she's going to strangle him- slowly.
Because Mermaid's fucking pyromaniac-(boyfriend? Not-boyfriend? Catra can't find it within herself to give a flying fuck)-can't go fucking five hours without setting a fire, she was now standing outside in a tank top and booty shorts with the words "WILDCAT" printed across her ass cheeks.
Wonder-fucking-ful.
She doesn't even know why the firemen are still wasting their time searching the building, the fire's only on the first floor, she can see it clearly from her place outside. The fire wasn’t even past the third window on the first floor, it’s actually kinda sad to see all these dramatics over what could be considered a trash fire. Catra bids her time stressing about two upcoming exams she was planning for studying for, but oh well guess she's gonna fail.
Even if she did study Toussaint was just gonna fail her anyway for something stupid and nit-picky, like the way she dotted her i's or if she accidentally spelled color without u, or the way she was wearing her hair that day was too gay for Toussaint's homophobic ass. Ah yes, to be nineteen, certainly-going-to-fail, and alive in the twenty-first century.
Catra started to pace back and forth in the dewy grass, muttering curses so profane that even the most potty-mouthed sailor would be blushing and secretly planning all the ways for her to get away with the murder of a certain pyromaniac when she stepped in a particularly slippery part of the apartment's front area and started on the one way trip to falling flat on her ass.
Welp, guess I'll fall then. Were her last thoughts before her descent.
Until
"Are you okay?"
That.
Her 'savior' came in the form of a tall blonde whose eyes-Catra decided-quickly her new favorite shade blue, (and possibly the only shade Catra would ever like), the stranger's ponytail was partially draped over her neck and currently tickling Catra's shoulder, on Blondie's face was a smirk, which was so close you could see the lines of her slightly chapped lips.
Forcing herself to look into Blondie's face, Catra found that it was oh-so-easy to get lost in her eyes because bless her little gay heart, they were so blue. Cheesy? Very. But she's lesbian; it comes with the package, get over it.
"Umm..." Was her intelligent reply. Blondie raised an eyebrow, her smirk turning from playful to smug. It was kind of hot. She was still holding Catra's waist, though Catra couldn't tell if she minded or not.
The girl seemed to notice their close proximity and promptly let go of Catra, who was no missing a warmth she didn't even was there before. The girl was fiddling with her fingers, and Catra had taken to shifting back and forth on her feet. Wow, you could feel the awkward energy from space.
The girl decided to break the silence. "So, um, where do you live?"
Okay, whew, she could work with this.
Slipping into her 'cool and collected' persona, Catra put a hand on her hip. "Isn't it a little too early in our relationship to be asking for my address? I mean-" she put a hand over her heart and feigned offense. "You haven't even asked for my name yet!"
Blondie's eyes widened in what she thought was panic before caching on, she bowed a little and grabbed Catra's hand, kissing it softly. "My apologies, Miss. Perhaps you could make a stranger's day and tell me?"
Catra had spaced out a little after the kiss. Goddammit! When did she get so soft and gushy on this inside? She absolutely refused to believe that some cute girl's kiss made her stomach do several backflips.
Planning to up the game, Catra brought out her British accent she had been working due to... reasons.
(Double Trouble still owed her money, not that she was ever going to get it. A girl could dream though).
"I'm afraid not madam, for my name is a treasure only reserved for those I find worthy enough." She allowed herself to look down to catch the girl's smirk grow even wider.
"Is there anything I could do to prove myself worthy of your secret?" Catra had to give her points for the accent, though it wasn't as polished as hers was.
She pretended to think, "Hmm, maybe not, maybe so..."
"How about I-"
"MERMISTAAAAA!"
There he was, in all his sad wannabe pirate glory, Sea Hawk, the fucking reason Catra was standing outside in the wet grass with a (hot) stranger. She was going to-
"Pfft-"
Stop her murderous planning immediately and look up to find the source of the sound? She met the blonde's eyes to find her holding a hand up to her face, attempting (read: failing) to hide her laugh.
“I- ha!- I’m sorry, it’s just- pfft-“ she took a moment to finally compose herself while Catra just stood there, staring because... those muscles could snap me in half.
Finally done laughing her ass off, Blondie gave Catra a small smile. “I’m sorry, it’s just, your face became all scrunched up and red and—“
And now she was laughing again. Whatever. So what if her face became the human equivalent of a tomato when she was pissed? It’s not a big deal.
”-it’s kind of cute.”
Catra whirled around to face the blonde fully. “I am not cute!”
“Mmm...I beg to differ.”
“You know I could kick your ass if I wanted to.”
Blondie wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “ Kinky~ ”
”Oh my god, shut up!” Catra shoved the girl, stumbling slightly when she didn’t even budge. What a surprise, the girl built like a female Thor was also impossible to move. It reminded the Latina of Scorpia, who unfortunately for Catra, loved to give hugs that have had Catra’s ribs screaming in pain.
“Aw, you’re even cuter when you get flustered!”
“I swear I’m gonna choke you if you don’t stop calling me cute.”
The blonde looked up at Catra from her spot in the grass where she had sat down a few minutes ago. Even with Catra being the taller one now she could feel her cheeks flush from the other girl’s intense gaze. She had never been more grateful for her darker complexion than at this moment. It was amazing what a girl who she had only met twenty minutes could do to her by just staring
Blondie raised a playful eyebrow. “Pretty sure you’re too small to do any actual damage.”
Catra cocked a hip. “I can do anything I set my mind to.”
”That’s kinda hot.”
Well damn. If Catra hadn’t already died from the amount of gay she was feeling towards this girl, she definitely was now. Honestly, it was a miracle she was even still standing. Could her heart stop beating ninety miles per hour so she could get out one— just one— sentence without having to take a breather from all the feelings she was feeling now?
( Because apparently there’s one person in the world who makes her feel something else then annoyance and anger on the first interaction
Miracles am I right)?
A sort of forced cough pulled—no, yanked — Catra from her gay ass spiral. The blonde seemed to be looking everywhere and everything, but Catra. Blondie for her part seemed to be sweating and she was fiddling with her fingers, she appeared to be... nervous?
“ I-I’m sorry if that was a little too forward, it’s just— whew— ok, you’re like really pretty. Like everything about you is pretty, your eyes, hair, laugh even though I’ve only heard that twice, it’s already one of my favorite sounds, and, and—you live on the third floor right?” Catra is only able to nod her head slightly, “Oh, ok good because I live right next to you and I’ve kinda had a crush on you for about, well—actually, since you moved here if you couldn’t already tell.” The blonde is now actually seriously sweating. Di-did Catra cause that?
She didn’t even think she could cause someone to get all flustered and red, and not out of anger or annoyance. Maybe somewhere along the way Catra forgot she was capable of bringing giddy, positive emotions from people.
(Cut her some slack, ok? Healing is a long process and therapy can only speed it along so much.)
Catra bit back a groan and glanced back toward the building which was still burning, ( for fucking Jesus Christ! What did Sea Shit use as the fuel? Never mind. Catra doesn’t have the brain capacity to even think about that).
Then she stole another look towards Blondie, who was idly picking at the dewy grass and rubbing between her fingers, Catra held back a smile at how adorably frustrated the look on her face was and realized with the elegance of a toddler attempting to walk that she could let herself enjoy these good and positive feelings for once. All her life she had hissed, bite, and kicked people who tried to get close to her, break down her dams of emotions for their own shallow rivers of selfish desire. So focused on just surviving.
Now, this girl had just spilled her guts out to her in the span of two minutes. It would so easy to just scoff and leave, just because they were next-door neighbors didn't mean it wouldn't be easy to avoid this girl. Hell, she wasn't even aware of the blonde's existence up until-she checked her phone-30 minutes ago!
But that's the thing though, Catra was so good at taking the easy way out, she had hurt and pushed people away just because she thought she was undeserving of love, so distrusting, always second-guessing people's intentions of her. It got old, quickly, she moved to Bright Moon to get away from her shitty family and "friends", so they couldn't poison her life anymore. And now look what she was doing, allowing people she thought she left behind to almost ruin another chance at happiness.
Almost.
" Fuck."
The blonde looked up from her hands, a look of confusion laid across her features in the form of scrunched up eyebrows and a slight pout. It looked so cute, Catra couldn't help but give a small smile.
"Excuse me?" The other girl questioned. Catra gave a shaky sigh and sat next to the blonde, grimacing when she felt the moisture transfer from the grass to her shorts. If this took too long it would be on her skin too, gross.
"You don't have to apologize, I just-I was just a little overwhelmed by the whole," She made an awkward circle motion with her hands, "'confession." The blonde opened her mouth to most likely apologize for speaking but she was cut off before she could even get one word out.
"I said, you don't have to apologize. It's not your fault I don't know how to properly deal with...positive emotions." Catra could feel her soul threatening to leave her body. Who knew being more emotionally open was so exhausting? She had half a mind to storm into her therapist's office and demand where the paper that listed all the side effects for healing was when she needed it.
Blondie gently nodded. "Yeah, um, I get it too. The whole 'emotionally awkward' thing."
Catra nudged her shoulder playfully. "Guess we can be emotionally awkward together."
The look the blonde was giving her at the sound of her last sentence was so warm and filled with unexplored emotions. Catra could sit and stare back, feeling herself drowning in the bluest eyes she's ever seen.
"A hem."
A girl-Mermista- stood over them with a look of annoyance, whether it was directed towards them or something else had ticked her off Catra didn't know.
Blondie scrambled away from Catra and quickly stood up as if she had been caught making out with Catra in a closet. (Which wasn't a bad thought, the more dwelled on it). Catra would have been offended and a little hurt if the blonde hadn't offered her hand and pulled her up with such ease Catra could feel herself swooning.
Mermista raised an eyebrow. "Okay, not going to get into whatever that," she made a circle with her finger at the space between Catra and the blonde, "Is. But Adora I need you to hold down Sea Hawk while I talk down the firemen before he goes in for round two."
Catra was sure if she had a mirror in front of her, it would be showing her pupils shrink into pinpricks. Unable to move around too much because Blon- Adora was still holding her hand.
Catra pulled her hand away and jumped back a few paces, choosing to pull out her phone and pretend she had gotten a notification instead. She felt a little shame at the small amount of frustration building up in the back of her head. The moment was over and now Adora had to go and take care of some pyromaniac crackhead.
She decided to punish herself a little, looking up expecting to see Adora retreating form, but instead was greeted with the sight of Adora coming closer and closer to the spot where she stood 'till she stood directly in front of Catra with her hand stretched out, offering her phone.
"I never got your name, know. But If you're not too busy this Thursday, maybe I could show you one of my favorite spots?" Adora offered a weak smile.
Catra stared at the phone, feeling a little dumbfounded. So it wasn't all just a blissful daydream? Adora actually wanted to hang out and get to know her? She quickly checked her own phone for anything that was happening on Thursday so she could cancel it. She was not taking any chances this time.
Adora started to falter slightly, "Un-unless you don't want to! In that case, I can just leave and you can forget I ever existed!"
Catra felt a small giggle come out of her mouth, (since when did she giggle?), she took the phone out of Adora's hand gently and entered her phone number under the contact name "Catra". All in one swift motion, she gave her phone to Adora for her to do the same.
Adora handed Catra her phone back, their fingers touching a moment longer than normal, until Adora took Catra's smaller hand into her own fully, squeezing it gently.
"I'll pick you up at 3?"
Catra smirked. "Yeah Princess, that works for me."
Mermista groaned loudly, breaking whatever trance the two girls were in. "Like, this is cute and all, but Sea Hawk is literally about to go set another fire if you don't tackle him right now Adora."
Adora quickly released Catra's hand and rubbed the back of her neck, which was now flushing a bright pink color. "Oh yeah. I forgot about that..."
Mermista just gave Adora an unimpressed stare. "Whatever. Just hurry up because I'm not waiting here anymore, it's getting really boring, really quickly." The teal haired girl started to walk away.
Adora shot Catra an apologetic smile and started jogging after Mermista's retreating figure, facing her for a moment. "Bye Catra!" then took off in a full sprint to the other side of the extensive grass front.
Catra could only give a small wave towards Adora's back, her mind already categorizing her closets outfits into either, "Maybe it will work" or "No way in Hell."