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Adora never expected to save the world and live to wake up the morning after.
It comes over her slowly, at first, a pleasant change of pace from her body’s usual habit of snapping awake at five on the dot. Her memories of the previous day are… fuzzy, to say the least. She figured out how to transform again, obviously, that much is clear from her current not-dead ness, but she doesn’t remember how . She remembers the party afterwards, dancing and singing and speeches.
It’s the in-between that escapes her, lost amongst the soreness that lingers deep in her bones even after a full night of the best sleep Adora has had in years . Even so, she feels light , like she has everything she could possibly need and nothing can ever stop her again. She just wishes she knew why.
Her answer comes when she shifts her hand, feeling warmth under her palm and soft fur passing through her fingers.
Oh .
The rest comes flooding back to Adora faster than she can process. Catra pleading with her to stay. Catra kissing her. Catra falling asleep in her arms after a long night of celebration. More than she could have ever even thought to dream of, and it’s all real , the evidence right there in the rolling purr nestled at the hollow of her throat.
Adora tries to stay still, she really does, afraid that the slightest disturbance might break the spell. But she can’t help the tears pooling in her eyes, nor the small noise that slips loose from her throat.
“Hey, Adora” Catra’s voice is thick with sleep but steady, her hand slipping up and out of the blankets to cradle the side of Adora’s face, “Hey. I’ve got you.”
Through her blurry eyes, Adora watches the tips of Catra’s ears emerge from the blanket, followed closely by her head joining Adora’s on the pillow, a soft smile overtaking her mouth as she pushes Adora’s hair out of her face. The next thing Adora knows, she’s being pulled inwards, her tears dampening the fur of Catra’s upper chest as Catra works her fingers through Adora’s hair, claws tracing lightly across her scalp in a way that makes Adora lean into it instinctually.
Adora’s arms pull tight too, pulling Catra almost impossibly close as she starts to rock slowly on her side, getting faster and faster as the excess of joy flows through her body. Catra laughs as she moves with Adora, the sound coming just as high and sharp and sweet as she remembers, only stoking the fire even more.
By the time she comes to a stop, she’s grinning so hard that the sides of her face feel like they might split open, and Catra is looking down at her with a softness in her eyes that Adora still can’t believe she gets to see for the rest of her life. They linger like that for a moment (it can’t be more than a few seconds, really, but it feels like hours) before Catra finally makes a move, taking advantage of the angle of Adora’s head to press their lips together in a soft, slow kiss.
Adora wants to savor everything about it— the feeling of Catra smiling against her lips; Catra’s hand cradling the back of her head and tugging just slightly at her hair; the way the rest of the world vanishes as the tension drains from her body, the soreness in her muscles nothing but a distant memory now.
“Good morning,” Adora says, still completely awestruck after they come up for air.
“Good morning to you too, dummy,” Catra smirks as she slips a finger under Adora’s chin to press her mouth shut. “That good, huh?”
It’s all Adora can manage to nod weakly as she settles her head back on the pillow, lacing her fingers together with Catra’s. Neither of them can go back to sleep at this point, but they let the comfortable silence settle like a blanket over their little corner of the camp, no sound save for Melog snoring where they’ve curled across Adora’s legs, the same way that Catra used to.
Adora really, really hates to disturb the calm. But she has to, lest the anxiety that she can already feel gnawing at the back of her brain grow into something larger.
“We should probably, like, actually talk about it, huh?” Adora says, tightening her grip in anticipation of Catra’s flinch a half-second before it comes.
And it does come— Adora watches as Catra’s shoulders lurch forward, her ears pinning back as her eyes dip from Adora’s gaze. But then Adora watches as she catches herself, pride welling in her chest as Catra squeezes her hand tighter, taking a breath and straightening herself out. Adora has to remind herself that the nervous energy in Catra’s eyes when she looks up is a sign of progress . It’s not new, but she finally feels safe enough to let it show.
“Yeah,” Catra says, swallowing around the lump in her throat. “Yeah, we should. Can I—” Catra shifts, turning herself over to press her back to Adora’s front, her head coming to a rest against Adora’s throat. Adora pulls her arms tight around Catra’s waist, running her fingers softly through her fur as she feels rapid breathing and a pounding heartbeat steady out to something more secure.
“I meant it,” Catra says quietly, “when I said that I love you—”
“Wow, really?” Adora interjects, voice laced with affectionate teasing, “Damn, here I was assuming that the whole saving the universe thing was a complete fluke.” It gets exactly the reaction she was hoping for. She doesn’t need to see Catra’s face to feel her rolling her eyes as she playfully shoves an elbow back into Adora’s side, but she can feel Catra slack out almost imperceptibly in her arms.
“—But I’m scared , Adora. I didn’t think about any of this before I told you, I just… I thought it was my last chance and I just wanted you to know ,” Catra shudders a bit in Adora’s arms, the beginnings of tears dampening the blanket under her face as Adora grips her tighter. She doesn’t think she’s ever heard Catra actually admit to being scared before. “But now its this whole huge thing, and I’m still such a mess and I have so much work to do, and I’m so, so scared that I’m gonna fuck it up and lose you again.”
Adora lets Catra’s words hang in the air for a moment as she constructs her response. She doesn’t even realize, at first, the way that she’s hooked her middle and ring fingers around Catra’s where their hands are interlaced, leaving her thumb extended. Catra notices, though, inhaling sharply as she returns the gesture. It’s the first of their whole language of hand signals that they had developed after basic yes and no s, an ancient, almost instinctual call and response echoing forward from darkened corners and bunkrooms: I’ll protect you / I trust you (if Adora strains, she thinks it evolved from the sign for covering fire that they learned in training, but the idea of it meaning anything else is so distant at this point that it almost doesn’t matter).
“Okay,” Adora finally says, only freeing her hand from Catra’s to wipe the tears from her face, “I’m scared too, Catra. I spent my whole life thinking I’d die yesterday, and then I just… didn’t. I have no idea what I’m gonna do with myself.”
“Fair,” Catra lets out a soft laugh through her tears, “we’re both pretty fucked up, huh?”
(Adora makes a mental note to ask Glimmer about that ‘therapy’ thing she keeps muttering about, once they’re all out of bed)
“Yeah, we really are,” Adora turns Catra around to look her in the eyes again, “and it’s fine if we don’t know exactly what we are yet, okay? This is already so much more than I ever thought I’d have, and it doesn’t matter what we call it, or even if we don’t want to call it anything yet. You asked me to stay, right? I’m not going anywhere , Catra.”
“ Fuck , I love you so much,” Catra’s voice is shaky as she whispers, her eyes soft as she tips forward to press their foreheads together.
They’ll figure it out. They have each other, and all the time in the world. That’s all they need.
There is one question that Adora needs an answer to, though, which is slightly more time sensitive.
“Can I, um,” Adora’s face flushes bright red as she struggles to get the words out, Catra’s raised eyebrow only making it even worse somehow, “Can I still kiss you? Or do you want to wait until we, y’know—”
“ Adora ,” Catra laughs, so much love built into the way she says her name that Adora feels like her heart might burst right then and there. “If I wanted to hold off on kissing you, I wouldn’t have done it a further five times in the last twelve hours,” (she has a point there, Adora has to admit), “come here, you idiot.”