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Adora strained her hand, her eyes squinted closed as if trying to force She-Ra to come out. Adora didn’t realize that She-Ra doesn’t come from force- it came from her emotions. But as of now, she wasn’t feeling powerful, or even an ounce of some thing synonymous, she just felt dumb. Her arm was beginning to feel sore and her head began to pound. Adora huffs out, “What time is it, Darla?”
Surprisingly- Darla, the ship, responds- “It is currently 12:00 in the morning”
With that- Adora groans, throwing her head into her hands. Tears of frustration pricks at the edge of her eyes, ‘How am I supposed to help my friends if I can’t become She-Ra? I can’t do anything as Adora, I’m just…’
Adora doesn’t have time to finish her thoughts as she hears the swoosh of doors slide open, Adora keeps still as she hears the sound of small foot patters on the ground. Adora slinks down into the chair so that she isn’t noticed, trying to keep quiet. Invisible behind the chair, Adora hears Catra talking quietly to herself, most of what Catra says is mumbled so Adora can’t make out most of it other than-
”Can’t breathe..”
”Prime..”
”Where is…?”
”Huh?”
And suddenly, Catra is in front of her- no longer mumbling when she realizes Adora’s present.
”Adora!”, Catra says, her ears go down in embarrassment. Adora, amused, raises an eyebrow, “Were you talking to yourself?”
Catra’s demeanor changes rather quickly, crossing her arms, “No! I was just…thinking”
Adora props herself back onto the chair, brushing her hair back with the palm of her hand. “Happy to be back on Etheria?”
Catra shrugs, “Eh…it’s- I mean it’s great and all but I don’t think anyone’s really…you know- waiting for me or anything..”
The thought makes Adora frown, it was true. Everyone back at home didn’t know that Catra had switched sides. No one knows that Catra- no- noone knew that she was with Prime. And no one was looking for her either. When Adora was on Etheria, she hoped that Catra had made it out when she heard that the Fright Zone had blown up.
Catra continues, breaking Adora out of her thoughts, “-But, so long as I’m away from…him, I’ll be fine”
Adora tries to reassure Catra, “Hey- it’s okay. Pri-“
As soon as Adora began his name, Catra flinches. Adora curses at herself in her head as she corrects herself, “He can’t see you anymore. I’ll make sure of that, he’ll pay for what he’s done, I promise.”
Catra’s ear flicks in response,
Expectingly unexpected, Catra jumps onto Adora’s lap making herself comfortable,
”So, what are you doing up this late?”, Catra finishes. Adora tilts her head to emphasize her words, “I’m just training to bring She-Ra out, she’s here- I know she is, but I just…can’t. I don’t know.”
Adora, absentmindedly, holds Catra in place as she rambles, “Well, you should probably go to bed. You don’t wanna hear all that.”
Catra’s face contorts to one of worry
”What you need to do is relax, you stress too much, Adora. No wonder She-Ra hides from you.”, Catra states.
Adora pouts, “Hey!”
That earns a giggle from Catra which makes Adora smile.
Adora takes a deep breath before attempting again, holding out her arm. The weight of the air weighs down on her. Adora won’t admit it to Catra, but having her there made it bearable.
But even with the comfortable weight of Catra’s body leaning on her torso, She-Ra was still…she doesn’t know. Maybe She-Ra coming out when she saved Catra was just a one time thing.
A bead of sweat runs down Adora’s forehead, not unnoticed by Catra. Adora flexes her hand, tightening her hand also around Catra.
As Adora focuses more, her grip continues to tighten, causing Catra to hiss at Adora’s sudden roughness.
”Ow, Adora- you’re holding too tight…”
Adora’s eyes shoot open, quickly relaxing her grip. She sends a sheepish smile, Catra’s way- “Sorry…I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Not waiting for a response, Adora begins again. She closes her eyes, breathing deeply.
Catra watches with a curious expression and suddenly the idea hits her. Glimmer, earlier, had kissed her cheek. She won’t admit it but it felt…nice. As if she were appreciated for her work for once.
Maybe…
Without giving it much thought, Catra put a hand on the side of Adora’s face. Adora’s eyes open immediately, turning to look at Catra. Catra reaches up and softly presses her lips to Adora’s cheek in a pucker.
Adora flushes slightly, when Catra pulls away, Catra’s eyes widen as if she even shocked herself by the sudden action.
No words were exchanged but Adora’s hand began to glow, and suddenly she grew in size. Leaving She-Ra in Adora’s wake.
“What was that for?”, Adora softly touches her cheek, smirking at Catra.
Catra scoffs at Adora, “I don’t know! Sparkles did it to me earlier, so I thought…”
Adora smiles, her expression softening. “Hey, it’s okay. I mean- I think you kissing my cheek worked! Look at me, I thought she’d never appear.”
Catra’s ears go up, as she fakes disinterest, “Ugh, don’t tell me I’ll have to do that every time you want to transform”
Adora blushes softly at that remark, “No, don’t worry. But it was nice…thank you.”
Catra’s ears go down as she sits up and looks around to make sure no one was looking, Adora catches on.
In the Horde, weakness was frowned upon. It was no surprise that Catra still had that mindset.
“You know no one’s going to hurt you anymore, right? We’re not in the Horde anymore.”
Catra frowns, “I know. Old habits die hard…”
Adora tries to think of a way to make Catra feel better. She settles for hugging her, “They do, but you’ve changed a lot. You should be proud of yourself.”
The blush that dusted across Catra’s face caught Adora’s attention. Catra smiled, “Dork.”
No response on Adora’s tongue, Catra stands and extends a hand to Adora. “Now that you got it, can we sleep now?”
it was funny because it was entirely Catra’s choice to stay up with Adora but Adora didn’t complain. She took Catra’s hand, enveloping it in her own and went to bed.