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The disheveled team burst into the locker room, their voices bouncing off of the metal.
“That kicked my ass,” Lonnie said, pulling her hair down around her shoulders. Rogelio grunted in assent, then fell face down onto a bench with a groan. The cadets began to remove their protective chest gear and change out of their sweaty uniforms.
Catra, still a little pink in the cheeks, stretched her arms back to unfasten her black vest. Adora sat down on a bench, guzzling water from a bottle with no sign of stopping.
“That was fun,” she finally breathed. Catra snorted.
“Of course you think it’s fun, you made that course look like nothing,” she replied.
“It was really tough!” Adora protested. “But now I have some new ideas about what I need to work on. Maybe a little more tricep strength, you need that when you’re pushing yourself up from crawling so much.” She stretched her arm upward and held it on the back of her head, the corner of her mouth screwing up in thought. Catra glanced away from her mirror in time to catch the tail end of this motion, then looked up and away quickly.
“Mhm, wouldn’t want to have any hours left in the day for sleep instead of training.”
“Hey! I sleep,” Adora pouted. Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio gathered up their dirty clothes and headed towards the door.
“God, you’re so slow! We’re gonna be done by the time you get to the mess,” Lonnie said as she passed Catra and Adora.
“We’ll be out in a minute!” Adora promised, trying and failing to reach the clasps on the back of her vest. Lonnie rolled her eyes as they left, but Adora was concentrating too hard to notice.
“Can you help me with this? This is the worst vest, I always get it,” Adora complained as she continued to run her hands along her back, her fingertips just missing the areas where the vest came together.
“Mm, fine,” Catra agreed. She walked up behind where Adora was sitting and began to gently pull the velcro apart at the top of the vest. The sound ripped through the quiet of the locker room as it came undone.
“Thank youuu,” Adora sang as she slipped the vest down over her arms. Catra rolled her eyes, smiling. She hesitated where she stood. On an impulse, her hands came back up and rested on Adora’s shoulders. Adora tensed a little in surprise, but she didn’t move from her seat. Catra’s hands, claws carefully retracted, began to run lightly from the top of Adora’s arms up to her neck. Adora’s eyes flitted upward nervously, and she felt warmth spreading across her body from where Catra’s hands moved.
“I’m surprised Shadow Weaver hasn’t set you up with a personal trainer to stretch you out after workouts… Anything for her star cadet,” Catra mused.
Adora let out a harsh breath through her nose, smiling. “Yeah, right.” She leaned back a little into Catra’s touch.
“Move, I’m tired,” Catra said abruptly, pushing Adora forward where she straddled the bench to make room to sit behind her. Adora raised her eyebrows and let out a little laugh but complied. Catra sat behind her but didn’t rest, instead bringing her hands back up to Adora’s shoulders.
Catra’s hands inched forward and down over Adora’s collarbones, pushing down against the muscle there lightly. Adora’s eyes closed and she leaned back a little bit, brushing up against Catra’s chest. Her heartbeats felt particularly loud and quick, although she realized too much time had passed for her to be able to attribute it to the workout. Catra made small circles with her fingers, then moved slowly upward and along the sides of Adora’s neck.
“Do you want me to take this out,” she murmured, lifting one hand to the band holding Adora’s ponytail.
“Yeah,” Adora said, a small smile blooming on her face, unseen. She loved moments like this when they were alone, when Catra could be sweet and gentle, so unlike herself around others. She wished everyone could see this side of her best friend, but Catra always had her walls up around anyone else.
Catra wrapped her fingers around the hair tie and tugged it in small moves, careful not to catch on any hairs along the way. When it was out she wrapped it absentmindedly around her wrist and put her fingers through Adora’s hair, loosely teasing it from its position, still stuck together with sweat.
“Maybe your brain can get a little air for a few minutes,” Catra said. Adora could tell she was smiling.
“So thoughtful,” Adora replied quietly. Catra’s hands fell back to Adora’s shoulders and resumed their movements along her tired muscles. Her eyes passed over the defined contours of the back muscles peeking out above the neck of Adora’s white shirt. She tried not to think about the sweet and familiar smell of her friend, which seemed to wrap Catra’s head in a faint haze. Of course even her sweat smells good, she thought.
Catra leaned forward more so that Adora’s back pressed against her. Her hands slowed and one moved to Adora’s neck. The sound of her own breathing filled her ears - why was it so loud?
She lifted her thumb and it hovered in the air for a second, and then hesitatingly ran tenderly across Adora’s skin, then repeated the motion. Adora made a small sound, and Catra’s stomach flipped. She thought Adora might have pulled away by now, might have stood up abruptly or started talking to fill the silence. Did she like it?
Catra’s face inched forward, until Adora could feel the air from Catra’s nose tickling her skin in little puffs. Adora held her breath. Catra eyed the smooth skin on Adora’s neck, heart pounding in her chest. Two inches and she could close the gap with her lips, softly place her adoration there for Adora to feel. Feeling like an idiot and a voice in her mind screaming at her to stop, Catra leaned down and brushed her lips across Adora’s skin. Adora’s breath hitched and she made that same little noise - Catra would kill to hear it again, let it fill her ears up and drown out everything else.
It was too much to handle - Catra’s hands trembled where they rested on Adora’s neck, and her heart was tearing its way painfully through her chest. She pulled back suddenly and began pushing up from the bench. Adora’s head whipped to the side and Catra eyes darted to her profile, panicked.
“I - we should - they’re going to come looking for us soon,” Catra stuttered.
Adora’s chest lifted up and down heavily with each breath, and her cheeks were flushed. She turned a little more to the side and met Catra’s eyes, which peeked up at her and then down to the ground.
“Okay,” was her only reply. Catra moved to her locker and began to busy herself with her clothes, avoiding Adora’s eyes. Adora looked at her own hands sitting limply in her lap and chewed on the inside of her lip. She stood up to leave, then turned to where Catra stood with her back to her at the lockers and stepped closer to her.
Adora lifted a hand shakily, then placed it, barely enough to feel, on the small of Catra’s back. Catra stiffened and took in a breath.
“Thank you,” Adora said, barely audible, then turned and walked towards the door.