Work Text:
Catra’s warm.
She feels safe, comfortable, completely and fully relaxed for the first time in months, though in her haze she can’t quite remember why. Sleep still tries to keep its hold on her and she lets it, for a while. Dreaming about falling for a pretty girl on a bus seems nicer than whatever it is she’ll be waking up to.
“Catra?”
Catra feels her ear flick at the sound of a voice. It’s soft, somehow familiar, and Catra would be smiling if she weren’t still so tired. Instead, she hums a sleepy acknowledgement, which she can’t stop from turning into a purr, at least telling whoever’s watching her slowly return to the land of the living that she’s awake enough to hear them.
But now that her hearing has kicked in, Catra’s suddenly aware of her other senses too. For one, she’s realised that the cosiness she finds herself in is, in fact, probably the softest bed she’s ever slept in. Two, the scent that fills the room she’s in is grounding, familiar, like something she’s been around before but much more intense in the best possible way. Three…
Catra can feel a hand tracing the stripes on her arm that isn’t under the duvet. The movements are gentle, full of care, curiosity. Which… Catra hasn’t really experienced it before. Not like this. She’s a magicat, she was born with her stripes but she knows what they mean, or, what meaning they’ve been given. If they were alive hundreds of years ago, Catra would have been raised a warrior, taught to fight, survive, win . Her stripes would become a warning to her enemies and a sign of respect to her people but here and now, in the present, someone is just… touching them. It feels strangely intimate in a way Catra isn’t familiar with and it makes the fur along her spine stand on end as her purr ramps up in intensity.
There’s a small chuckle nearby, and then, “Good morning to you too.”
Catra opens her eyes and… oh. Of course.
Adora.
It wasn’t a dream. Catra really did fall in love with a blonde girl on a bus.
Briefly, Catra feels her love for Adora wash over as she takes in the other woman’s features. They’re facing each other in the bed, Adora’s eyes watching her hand as her fingers leave trails of fire along Catra’s arm. Catra takes the opportunity to study Adora’s face, really memorise it, all of her little imperfections that just make her even more perfect. Her eyebrows don’t quite match, one’s a little fuzzier just above the bridge of her nose. There’s a trail of moles down the left side of her face that, if Catra were to trace them, would vaguely form some kind of crescent moon. She has a few freckles dusting her cheeks and her nose, but nowhere near as many as Catra and, unless you were this close, staring at Adora’s face this intensely, you would probably never even notice them. And her eyes…
Catra melts a little once she realises Adora’s watching her and averts her gaze to quickly take in their surroundings instead. Adora’s room is… pretty empty, actually. It looks like the kind of room you’d see in a show home, not something actually being lived in. There’s a desk with a laptop, a bookshelf stacked with books, a dresser and drawers but… It just doesn’t feel like a home . She does notice the colour scheme, however, all the furniture wooden and unpainted, all the walls painted a deep forest sage. Catra wonders if Adora subconsciously misses her place of work, and accidentally mirrors it here when she’s away from the woodland. She thinks she’s done looking around until her eyes catch on a Samoyed dog plushie sitting on top of the bookcase, but Catra doesn’t get the chance to question it.
Instead, she’s pulled from her distraction, shivering a little when Adora’s hand slowly moves from her arm—the soothing warmth briefly lost—before it reappears again, gently cupping Catra’s cheek like she’s made of glass. Catra leans into it as much as she can, fighting to keep her eyes open so she can remain lost in the deep blue of Adora’s dual oceans for as long as she can.
Everything else is coming back to her now. She agreed to stay with Adora for the night after their, quite frankly, bizarre first day in Bright Moon. But where do they go from here? Adora’s looking at her like she hung the stars in the sky herself and the intensity of it is starting to have the opposite effect it was having just moments ago because…
Because Adora looks just as smitten as Catra feels, and that scares her.
This wasn’t the plan. The whole point was that Catra would start again somewhere new, on her own, fend for herself and find her own way. Catra’s realising, perhaps far too late, that meeting Adora has changed that. She doesn’t want to be alone anymore, not really. She’s somewhere completely new, a huge city populated by millions. No home. No job. No family. Except…
She does have friends. And she has Adora.
And Adora is…
‘Friend’ doesn’t feel right. It’s also not what Catra wants her to be. Another wave of fear washes over her as she realises just how attached to Adora she is.
Catra wants them to be more.
Catra wants .
But she doesn’t know if she can say it. What Adora would think. Catra slept here for the night, but if she stays longer will Adora think she’s just using her? She doesn’t have a job, so it’s not like she could contribute towards rent. Not for long, anyway, with what she’s got in her savings. She’ll have to leave, find her own place, but even then the rent will be more if she’s on her own so she’ll really need to find a job but then what if she can’t? What if she just slowly runs out of money? What would her moms think? She’s going to let them down. This was her decision, to get away from her old, horrible life and now she’s going to fuck it up because she didn’t think it through and it’s all her fault—
“Woah,” Adora breathes, and the sound of it snaps Catra from her spiral. She’s breathing hard, sweating, when did that—? “I didn’t realise but, yeah, I see what they mean.”
“Wha—?” Catra’s a little stunned, not quite following what Adora’s saying. But her head’s empty. No thoughts for once. So that’s nice.
“You were thinking really loud,” Adora whispers, “My friends say I do it all the time, but I never believe them. But if that’s what it looks like when I do then I guess they really can see it.”
“Sorry, I was– I just…” Catra takes a deep breath, and Adora’s hand moves to hold her shoulder. It’s nice. It gives Catra something else to focus on.
“Is something the matter?” Adora’s eyes are full of either worry or concern, maybe both, as she asks that particular question. “Can I help? You only have to tell me if you want to, but I’m here if you need me. I promise. Anything for you.”
Catra stares at Adora for a moment. She kind of expects her to take it back, to say that she was kidding, because no one has offered her anything like that before. But she doesn’t. Adora just keeps looking at Catra like she’s the most beautiful thing on the planet, and she flushes bright red under the intensity of it.
Adora notices, and her expression melts into one of fondness.
“Anything,” She whispers again.
Catra nods, tries to believe it, and admits, “I don’t know what to do.”
“We’ll figure it out together, if you want,” Adora says, and it sounds like a promise. Like something Adora’s already been thinking about, anticipating Catra saying. How long has Catra been passed out in Adora’s bed? What time is it?
“Are you sure?” Catra asks, because she needs to know she isn’t being a burden, “I’ll just be in your way until I find a job…”
“Is this you saying you want to stay?”
Catra blinks. Was that not– Did Adora just– She didn’t mean–
“Because if you do want to stay here, with me, that’s okay. I don’t mind. I’d be glad to have you. We can call Bow and Glimmer later and see if they know anyone that has an opening for you. You’d be surprised how many people the two of them know between them. I swear Glimmer’s family owns like half the city, even if she won’t admit it.”
Catra laughs at the absurdity of that statement, blinking away the tears that were threatening to fall just a moment ago, “Would that be okay?”
“Yeah, Catra, of course it’s okay. That’s what friends are for. We look out for each other.”
Friends.
“Friends,” Catra says the word out loud, weighing it in her mouth, seeing how it feels.
No, she doesn’t like it. Not with who she’s saying it about.
“Are we not– I mean if you don’t– I just thought we’d start somewhere safe maybe and—”
“Adora,” Catra interrupts, shifting to bring both her hands up to frame Adora’s face, squishing her cheeks together. “I can’t be friends with you.”
“Oh,” Adora’s face falls, if that’s possible in her current position, and Catra smiles wider. “I’m sorry for assuming, I just thought we—”
“No, dumbass,” Catra whispers, leaning forward, “I can’t be friends with you.”
Catra watches as realisation dawns on Adora’s face in the split second before their lips meet, and everything else soon melts away.
Deciding to uproot her life and set off on this crazy trip across Etheria is probably the craziest thing Catra’s ever done. But this? Laying here, with Adora? It makes it all worth it. Catra pours herself into the kiss, and melts when Adoda only matches her intensity. It feels like a promise, and Catra think’s she’s okay with that.
“Thank you,” Catra whispers, pulling away far enough that she can see into Adora’s eyes.
“For what?” Adora asks, her tone reverent of the girl across from her.
“Everything. Being you. I– I’m so happy I met you, Adora.”
Adora’s radiant smile makes Catra blush even more than she already is, and silently she vows to never be this embarrassing again (it’s a lie and she knows it).
“I’m happy I met you too.”
Catra sighs, dropping her hands from Adora’s face to nuzzle into the blonde’s pulse point. Adora wraps her arms around the magicat, squeezing gently, before kissing each of her ears.
There’s an emotion at play. A very specific one. Neither of them have said it out loud, not yet, but Catra can feel it. She feels it in the way Adora holds her, in the way they kiss, in the promises they’ve made.
Catra has a lot to figure out but, with Adora by her side, she’s sure they can conquer absolutely anything.