Chapter Text
She woke up with the rays of the sun shining in through the window of the hotel room. Her head is absolutely pounding, groaning and throwing an arm over her eyes. It isn’t until there’s a shift in the bed next to her that she realizes she's not alone. Her eyes shoot open, sitting up way too quickly, and looking beside her.
There’s a halo of golden blonde hair splayed around the pillow. She’s laying half on her side, half on her back, hips and knees angled in towards her own body. Her hand resting over her hip, the thin sheet pulled up and resting just below her bare chest, heaving with her every breath. The tiniest most adorable snore leaves the blonde’s mouth. The woman next to her was beautiful, she racks her brain trying to remember how she got to this room that clearly isn’t hers.
The last thing she clearly remembers is Scorpia giving her a thumbs up from the bar with Perfuma gazing at her from behind. She’d taken a chance and bought the blonde a drink. They danced for who knows how long, laughing and drinking. Everything is fuzzy somewhere around the fourth shot of tequila she’d done with the girl. God she can't even remember her name. Flashes of the blonde’s white and gold party dress, a man in a horrendous Elvis get up, flowers, and rings run across Catra’s memory. At this revelation her eyes shoot down to her left hand.
Sure enough, there on her ring finger is a black metal ring, a foreign weight on her hand. Looking around she searches for traces of the evening before. She sees the blonde’s dress discarded by the desk, with Catra’s clutch, a bouquet, and some papers. Standing up to investigate further, she heads towards the desk.
Among what must be the blonde’s work are two identical photos. She picks one up. In it the blonde has her hand resting over Catra’s chest, angled facing more towards Catra than the camera. She’s laughing, and smiling at Catra. Catra has her arm wrapped around the blonde’s waist, she’s bent slightly at the waist and smiling so wide. She looks so happy. She finds herself smiling at the photo even though she can’t remember what they were smiling and laughing at, or even the presence of a camera.
Turning back towards the bed, she finds her phone on the nightstand. She’s got two missed calls from Scorpia, and a bunch of texts. Noticing the time, FUCK Shes going to be late for their flight. She can’t just leave the blonde though. She finds the hotel stationary on the desk, and writes her apparent wife a note for when she wakes up. Digging in her own clutch she finds one of her business cards, lays it on top of the note, and places it by the photo on the desk. Stashing the other photo in her own clutch. She grabs her clothes, hastily putting them on and slipping quietly out the door. Scorpia is going to Kill her.
***
Adora wakes up with her head pounding in her ears. Groggily she sits up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and tries to will the raging headache away. It doesn’t work. As soon as she has some clarity back, she immediately notices the weight on her finger. Throwing her hand away from her face she sees the silver ring on her left hand. Eyes wide she glances around. The bed is empty next to her, but it still has warmth to it. She must have left recently. Stumbling out of the bed she goes to her suitcase and pulls out some shorts and a t-shirt, putting them on before trying to find more answers.
The only thing she remembers from the night before is dancing, and laughing with a gorgeous woman with wild curls, a wicked smile and blue and amber eyes. She doesn’t remember her name, but she knows she was happy with her. She wouldn’t have let her in if she wasn’t feeling happy.
On the desk she notices a bouquet, a photo, and a note she certainly didn’t write. Picking up the photo first. She sees the brunette with beautiful eyes, wrapped around her own waist. Both of them were smiling and obviously enjoying their time. Her thoughts go back to the ring on her finger. She gets a flash of the bouquet, she’s holding it, while staring into those incredible eyes of her wife ?
“ I do” She’s told, while holding the brunette's hands in her own.
Adora picks up the note and reads it to herself.
My golden girl,
I hope you don’t have as much of a hangover as I do. Did you know you snore? It's a cute snore, not like an obnoxious one. I’m really sorry I don’t remember your name, but I know you’re beautiful, you have the most beautiful golden hair, and an adorable little snore.
I’m also sorry for leaving before finding out your name, again. I have a thing back home I can’t be late for. For now you’ll be my golden girl.
I’m sure by now you’ve figured out our little situation, if you can call it that. I’ve had enough therapy to know that even in my least sober moments I don’t let anyone I’m uncomfortable with around me. You must have really done a number on me last night, golden girl. I honestly couldn’t ask for a more beautiful partner in this life. I only hope you can think the same of me when you rise.
I’ll be back on the east coast, I hope to get to know you one day. If you want. I’ll let you dictate the timeline on that. I hope you have a safe trip home, wherever home may be.
your wife
Catra
Reading the signature line over and over again. Wife, wife… Wife. That one word swirling around her mind. Over and over.
“Adora! Open this door right now!” She’s brought out of her reverie by Glimmer yelling from the hallway.
After stashing the note, photo and newfound business card in the depths of her suitcase she rushes over to the door pulling it open before Glimmer could bang her fist against it one more time.
“Well, would you look at that! it lives!” Glimmer’s voice dripped with sarcasm and throwing her arms in the air in exasperation.
“Sorry I had a late night” Adora replies, slinking back to the bed.
“I’d say, you insisted we leave you at the bar with that brunette girl after your fifth shot of tequila Adora” Bow says, crossing his arms and raising his eyebrow at her.
“Was she at least as good a lay as she looked?” Glimmer asks with a touch of snark in her voice.
“I- I’m not sure.. I don’t remember much of last night.” Adora tells her rubbing her left hand on the back of her neck, while looking anywhere but at her friends.
“Glimm, leave her alone” Bow says “We have a flight to catch in an hour Adora we gotta go like half an hour ago.”
“Fuck I really slept in..” Adora replies, standing and rushing to her suitcase. Gathering her belongings along the way. After stuffing her bag full of her clothes, she goes to gather her work on the desk, straightening the papers into a bit more order and tucking them along with her laptop into her backpack. She brushes the bouquet to the side, a very wrong move to make under Glimmer’s watchful stare.
“Adora-” Glimmer starts while walking closer to the desk. “What the fuck is that?”
“I- uhhh. I think I got married? Last night?” She says curling into herself.
Glimmer steps forward again, grabbing her left hand. “Adora what the fuck?”
“I don’t remember, okay!” Adora snaps, more forcefully than she intended. “Lets just go home okay? I’m ready to go home” She continued afterwards.
Their flight lands and the three roommates get an Uber back to their downtown apartment. The whole trip home is tense and silent, Adora can almost see the gears working in Glimmer‘s brain about the bomb she dropped in the hotel room.
As soon as the front door shuts and locks behind Adora she turns around to see her best friends with their arms crossed in the living room. An apparent gesture of “we’re talking about this right now” she groans and makes her way to the couch and flops down in the middle, pulling a pillow to her chest to hug.
“What the HELL were you thinking Adora?! She could be a serial killer for all we know! What the fuck are hope and Mara going to say when they find out?” Glimmer starts, angrily. Bow puts his hand on her shoulder to try to calm his tiny girlfriend a bit, and shoots Adora a slightly disappointed look.
“I don’t know Glimmer! I don’t even remember leaving the bar!” Adora says exasperated at how aggressive glimmer is right out the gate. She sighs and buries her face in the pillow and continues, “I know I wouldn’t have let her take me home if I didn’t like her. You guys know me! I’m an anxious fucker, so she must have done SOMETHING right!”
She looks up from her pillow at the end of her semi rant, to see Bow giving her an understanding expression with a small smile on his face. “You’re not wrong, it took you forever to come around to us. Maybe your wife just has a magic energy that calls to you.” He says, and Glimmer absolutely groans. She doesn’t understand, how could she? Adora doesn’t even understand it all that well.
The only thing she knows is that Catra is the same way as her, she said so I’m her note. So why did they feel so comfortable, so right , together? From the moment they laid eyes on each other, there was something familiar there, like they’ve met before, Adora would know that face had she seen it before. Something exciting and fun, right there in front of her. An immediate pull and attraction between the two. Her eyes, oh fuck they’re incredible, one a deep ocean blue and the other a captivating amber. Fucking beautiful, her cute little nose, her freckles across the bridge of her nose. And her wild mane of brown curls, with strands of honey intertwined. Catra is beautiful, if nothing else her wife is beautiful.
“Adora? Where’d you go?” Glimmer asks. apparently Adora spaced out, a goofy grin on her face, and a definite far off look in her eyes. She blinks, brought back to reality.
“She just seemed so familiar, like I knew her Glim. I don’t know what it is but it just felt right with her at the bar.” Adora gets soft again and gives glimmer a pleading look. Asking her best friend to just try to understand, and not judge her for two minutes. “She’s beautiful, that’s obviously a good starter, but from what I remember at the bar it was just so easy to be with her. To listen to her, and to talk with her. Like we’ve known each other since we were kids.” She goes on “I still don’t know how we went from taking shots at the bar, to walking down the aisle, but SOMETHING must have happened, Glim. You know I don’t do one night stands.”
Glimmer sighs and uncrosses her arms, a look of understanding finally coming across her face.
She dreams of blue and amber eyes that night, they seem to be younger, more troubled than the ones she’s focused on remembering so clearly since last night.
***
It's not until three days after their return to Bright Moon that Adora digs out the photo, note, and business card from her suitcase. Examining the business card more than the once over she did when Glimmer was pounding on her hotel door. There's an intricate design at the top that vaguely resembles what must be her initials, and hastily written on the back is her phone number.
Catra D’riluth
International Art Courier
Museum of Modern Art
Half Moon City
It takes another two weeks of searching her thoughts and racking her brain to remember Catra’s laugh. At least she thinks it's her laugh. Beautiful, high pitched and just a little squeaky. She can remember Catra throwing her head back and letting it out at one of Adora’s terrible terrible puns.
Adora gets to work at 7, just before the gym opens on a Thursday morning. After getting through her stack of paperwork from the week, Adora does a quick Google search of Catra’s name. She comes across several social media profiles, and a blog that looks like an archive of work. Clicking her way through she finds the Instagram, and Twitter profiles are private.
Opening the link for her blog he sees the most recent post is a poem, with a picture of a painting. Companion pieces, titled Muse . Her jaw drops looking over her findings. It was posted last night, at 11:03 pm, the poem is beautiful, and she KNOWS it's about her. Even without seeing the accompanying painting (to be honest though It looks more like a photograph, the only distinction that it’s not, is the label “oil on canvas” adorning the bottom of the image). White sheets, a fluffy pillow with blonde hair billowed around her head. Her face is relaxed, mouth slightly agape, her few sun freckles speckled across her cheeks. Her shoulders are bare, the sheet pulled close to her collar bone, and her hand rests over her hip on top of the sheet, she looks serene, and peaceful.
It's peaceful here
in the dead of night,
two heartbeats meet for the first time.
On a crisp spring evening,
Comfiest in a hoodie and leggings,
breath visible in the night air
and cool fingers laced within my own,
thumbs timidly tracing the backs of palms,
leaving a trail of warmth in their wake.
eager anticipation
slow footsteps through the trail —
a lion tracking its prey;
heated looks and exchanges.
Excitement tangible in the air,
never wanting tonight to end.
I can't help but wonder
how many lifetimes did our souls spend apart?
“Holy Shit” Adora mutters after taking in the post. She knew Catra did something with art (what even is an art courier, a thought she’s had a lot since seeing Catra’s card) but she didn’t know she’s an actual artist! And she’s good! Like really good! That painting had to be from memory, as far as Adora knows Catra doesn’t have a picture of her. Although she vaguely remembers someone asking if they want two copies of the photo they have together. So she guesses that Catra has the other copy. But that is nothing like this, that photo barely even shows Adora’s face.
***
Adora attempts to call four times over the next month. hanging up after the first couple rings, anxiety washing through her. What if she doesn’t remember?
Adora is home alone, she’s pacing her living room, breathing heavily and picking at her hands. This is how Mara finds her on a surprise visit to her daughter’s apartment. Adora’s moms only live about 10 minutes away and pop in every so often to make sure Adora is actually taking care of herself. Bow and Glimmer do a pretty good job of that too but, Mara must have some kind of weird spidey senses because she almost always stops by when Adora is on the verge or in the midst of a panic attack.
Adora doesn’t notice her mom until Mara is almost in front of her, looking up at her, eyes wide and tears finally spilling over her cheeks. Mara pulls her in for a tight hug as Adora’s sobs take over. She doesn’t need to question her yet, just walk her through her attack and help calm her down.
"Breath with me Adora, ready? 1, 2, 3, in, hold it. Good, now let it out? Good, One more time Adora."
She knows Adora needs to feel grounded; their breathing exercise is one of the quickest ways to help calm her daughter. It takes Adora about 15 minutes to calm her breathing and get to a point where she can talk with Mara.
“I fucked up mom.” Adora says ashamed and staring at the floor. At this Mara leads her over to the couch to sit them both down. She sits next to Adora and holds her hand on her thigh, rubbing soothing circles on the back of her palm.
“What do you mean Dor? What happened?” Mara asks in a soft voice, brows furrowed in confusion.
“Remember how Bow, Glimmer and I went to Vegas?” Adora starts, now looking up at her mom. Mara nods. “Bow was competing in a weight lifting contest out there, we decided to make a week of it right? Well on the last night we were there we were celebrating Bow at the bar.” Adora stops, and sighs. Dropping her gaze again she takes her hand from Mara’s and starts picking at her cuticles again.
She gets up, not able to talk anymore. The knot in her throat is almost debilitating. She heads to her bedroom, picks up the photo, note and business card. When she walks back into the living room, Mara has stood up and was on her way after Adora.
She crosses to Mara, sighs, and holds out the papers. Not able to meet her gaze yet again. Mara takes them, even more confused now. She follows Adora back to the couch where Adora curls up on herself, similar to when she was interrogated by Glimmer a few weeks earlier. Mara sits, looks at her daughter in concern and then down to the contents Adora handed to her.
While she reads, Adora lets her tears fall again. She’s so scared about how Mara is going to react. After a few minutes Mara scoots closer to Adora, bringing her hand to her chin, guiding her gaze back to Mara. She sees a soft, almost knowing, smile across Mara’s face.
“Well she’s sure a looker, Dor.” Mara chuckles. Adora cracks a small smile. “I’m not mad, and I don’t think you fucked up Dor. Have you called her yet?”
“Thats kinda what my panic attack was about.” Adora replies ashamed. “I’ve started to call her like six times, and just hang up after the first ring. What if she doesn’t remember? It’s been almost a month now mom.”
“You’ll never know until you try Adora.” Mara tells her, looking right into her eyes, her smile never wavering.
***
Another month and she finally has the courage to dial Catra’s number AND stay on the line. She sweats while it rings. She looks at the time, it's only 9 pm, given they’re in the same time zone it's not all that late.
“Hello?” a croaky voice says through the phone.
Adora freezes, she remembered her laugh, but her voice? And a sleepy voice? How could it be even more beautiful than the laugh?
“I can hear you breathing idiot” Catra says next, a lilt of annoyance in her voice, mad that she’s awake.
“I- I” Adora tries to say but can’t get anything else out. She hears shuffling on the line.
“Wait, Golden girl? Is- is that you? My golden girl?” Catra says, tone changing from annoyed of being woken up to hopeful.
Adora, growing more confident knowing Catra at least remembers that much says “Adora, my name is Adora”
“Well fuck me I thought you were just adorable in your sleep but you’re telling me your name is literally the first three syllables of that word?” Catra laughs through her response. Making Adora blush.
“Well now you’ve made me blush. I'm sure it's not the first time; though I truthfully don’t remember much of our evening together.” Adora tells Catra sheepishly. “What would you have done if it wasn’t me? Have you answered all your calls like that recently?” Adora teases her wife over the phone,a heavy smirk adorning her face.
“I know the feeling. I only really remember dancing at the bar.” Catra replies. “I do remember waking up next to this hot muscular blonde though, you wouldn’t happen to know her would ya?” She continues, her tone dropped from playful to sultry. Like the drop of a hat. And oh man. That does something for Adora.
“When the fuck did we even ditch the bar for the chapel?” Adora questions with a bit of a chuckle. Earning a real laugh from Catra at this comment.
“I remember that though.” Adora says with a smirk on her face.
“What's that?” Catra wonders
“Your laugh. It's beautiful.”
“Sap.” Catra replies with her own blush apparent in her voice.
“Hey, you married the sap.” Adora reminds her wife.
“Ya know, I sure did.” Catra says “I really can’t say that I’m upset about that fact either”
Adora blushes yet again, and continues pacing her room. She’s starting to realize the hold this woman has over her, and just how they ended up at an altar in Vegas.
***
After that first phone call, they text constantly. Anytime Catra isn’t traveling for work, and Adora’s not with a client. They’d be glued at the hip if there weren't 1,000 miles between them. They make a point to facetime at least once a week too. Finding comfort in each other's voices.
Adora smiles stupidly at her phone anytime Catra’s name pops up. Like she's a teenager again with a school girl crush. No, she’s a full grown adult, flirting with her wife who she doesn’t even remember marrying.
Adora learns quickly how to make Catra laugh at all of her stupid jokes. She learns that Catra is terrified of mice, and she hates to be awake in the morning. Even though her job requires LOTS of early mornings. She writes a “mornings suck” text to Adora on the days she has to be up stupid early. Adora is usually awake already though, doing her morning yoga in the living room.
Catra learns that Adora is a gym rat, literally she’s a personal trainer at Bow’s gym, she’s at the gym every damn day. She also learns about the Best Friend Squad, their movie nights and living room sleepovers. She learns that Adora hates kale, but will eat a plain ass naked avocado like it's an apple given the chance. They learn more about each other every day, and their confidence in the drunken union grows.
One of the most infuriating things that Adora learns is that Catra is a tease. Such a goddamn tease. Replaying a conversation they’d had a few days ago in her head.
“Hey you’re the one that married a tease” Catra says matter of factly, after she can just tell Adora is getting frustrated with her, even over the phone she just knows.
“What's that supposed to mean Cat?” Adora admonishes.
“It means princess, that when I get my hands on you again, you better be ready for me to sink my teeth into you.” Catra says in a downright sinnful tone.
Adora’s breath hitches as Catra’s words send a shock between her legs.
At Adora’s pause and obvious (even through the phone) arousal, Catra lets out another laugh.
“As much as I love this discourse we’ve got going on, I need to get back to sleep, Golden Girl. I have to be at the airport for an early morning flight in a few hours.” Catra tells Adora. “Good night, princess.” She finishes without waiting for Adora’s response and she hangs up.
Adora pulls her phone away from her ear, she just talked to her wife. Her beautiful, kinda snarky, and teasing wife. She’s not even bothered by Catra hanging up on her, she is however bothered in a different way. How in the hell did this woman manage to fluster her so completely with just a few sentences? Is it because she hasn’t been laid in months? Well, she has been, she just doesn’t remember her evening with her wife. Getting an absolutely evil idea she heads to her bed to lay down for the night.
She takes off her tank top, already not wearing a bra, its bedtime sue her, she sets the self timer on her phone, and waits for the picture to snap. Of course she has to retake it ten times to get it looking just right. Settling on one of the last photos she took, she opens a new message, finds Catra’s thread of messages and attaches the photo.
Adora :
10:08 pm
*photo attachment*
two can play that game, Cat 😈
The next day Adora wakes to a barrage of texts from Catra. Who is seemingly enjoying her early morning for once, despite her 5 am flight to Elberon.