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“I...I don’t want to lose you again,” Catra admitted hoarsely.
“I’ll do anything in my power to make sure we never get separated like that ever again,” Adora said, trying her best to sound reassuring.
Adora locked her fingers with Catra’s and squeezed, and at exactly the same moment, Catra shut her eyes and finally let the tears escape.
Adora leaned over then to kiss her girlfriend’s dampened cheek. Catra smiled weakly and turned to face her. She was also smiling, but her eyebrows were knitted together in a worried expression and her eyes were also beginning to swell with tears.
Catra frowned as she noticed this, and quickly shifted forward to bury her head in the perfectly formed crevice under Adora’s chin.
“Let it out,” she whispered. “It’s ok, I promise. We’ll be ok. We have to be.”
Adora wrapped her arms around Catra’s back and dug her nails into the stiff fabric of her top, ignoring the dirt and dried blood that had built up there. She began to sob loudly, wracking and shaking as she desperately pulled the other girl into her, as if she wanted to absorb her into her own skin.
Catra laid silent, not fully expecting the sudden break in Adora’s demeanor. This didn’t happen often, or maybe not at all. But some part of her knew it would have to eventually. She couldn’t be strong all the time. No one can.
After a few minutes, the pale girl released her iron grip on the other’s back. Her trembling slowed, and her breath hitched less as the crying subsided. She sniffled once, twice. Then pulled away to look into Catra’s eyes. Amber and ocean blue, glossy and endless, but shaded over by the darkness of the room. Still as beautiful as ever. As before. She looked down for a second, the trance suddenly broken.
“I’m sorry.” She said bluntly, wiping her own eyes and trying not to start crying all over again.
Catra went to grab her hand then, and realized she was still holding it. So she squeezed gently, and reached her other hand to run through Adora’s hair. Adora giggled a bit at this, and sniffled again as a blush began to spread on her face.
“Don’t apologize for showing emotion, Adora. Don’t apologize for not being strong all the time. You’re— you’re the bravest person I know. It’s ok to break sometimes. You’ve been through so much. We both have.”
“But at least we can do it together from here.”