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Adora was craving some hot chocolate milk because fuck it, she deserved it! After successfully surviving her midterms it was finally time to relax until her grades came out.
She hummed through the tiny kitchen in her apartment dorm, grabbing the ingredients needed.
Now, she was searching for a mug. Adora opened the cupboard and was shocked to find out that…
There was only one mug.
And it wasn’t hers.
Because of all the stressing about midterms, her and her roommate had kind of neglected basic house chores, like washing the dishes.
Maybe she should take care of that.
But not now, she thought. She needed a break from constant worrying and doing things.
Catra probably wouldn’t mind if she used her mug, right? Even though Catra protected that thing better than most mothers would do with their babies. Despite always acting aloof, she cared a lot about the mug with cats imprinted on it that was gifted by Scorpia. Honestly, it was endearing.
Adora reached for the mug, but halted her hands. Shouldn’t she just wash a mug? It wasn’t too much trouble.
But no!
If she started with washing one mug, she could also just wash all the dishes. That was not something that Adora had the time or energy for.
Maybe Catra wouldn’t even notice it was gone. It could easily be somewhere in the sea of unwashed dishes.
She moved her hand towards the mug again and as soon as she touched it, she heard Catra’s voice.
‘What are you doing with my mug?’
Adora fumbled with her hands, almost dropping the prized possession. She saved it, and put the mug down on the counter whilst still holding it by the ear.
She’d been so far in her own thoughts…
‘Uh… nothing…’
‘Then why the fuck are you touching it?’
‘To drink out of it?’
She could hear Catra almost growling. ‘It’s my mug.’
‘…can I borrow it?’
They both knew it was too late for that. Catra could sometimes be possessive over her stuff. Adora had walked right into a war, and all she wanted was some chocolate milk.
Catra stepped towards Adora and put her hand on the mug.
‘No.’
She yanked it away, but Adora was holding on too strong to let go. Her arm only moved in the direction that Catra pulled it in.
‘Let go!’
‘Come on, Catra, why can’t I borrow your mug this one time?’
‘Just wash some dishes! Or drink out of the toilet! I don’t give a shit. Just don’t go touching my stuff!’
Adora scoffed. ‘That’s rich coming from you. You’re literally in my Brightmoon uni hoodie, even though you have your own!’
‘Yours comfier!’
‘You always borrow my stuff without asking, and this one time that I want to do that, I can’t!’
‘That’s because I’m not a pushover like you!’
If anything made Adora stubborn, it was definitely that sentence. Catra could kiss her cat mug goodbye. Adora huffed.
Instead of talking to Catra, she grabbed a pan. Catra put her hand over Adora’s to assert dominance. Now they were practically holding hands on the mug and Adora couldn’t believe it. She ignored the feeling of electricity that she got from this sensation. It was probably because she and Catra never really touch each other, or something. Probably. Her mind was too occupied anyway by the feeling of Catra’s hand on her own. Was Catra’s hand always this soft?
She put water in the pan and wanted to boil it, but Catra voiced her thoughts once again.
‘Oh, no way. Not in my house.’
Still pissed, Adora didn’t even say that they lived in an apartment and not in a house. Oh, and the fact that they lived together so that it was their apartment. She did, however, look at how Catra threw out the water that hadn’t even had the chance to boil. Did Catra really want to ruin her drink like this?
Before Adora could pick a fight, Catra, still one-handedly, grabbed milk from the fridge. She put it in the pan for it to boil.
‘Okay, so you were about to first steal my mug, ánd then desecrate it by drinking hot chocolate made with water?’ Catra couldn’t believe this woman.
‘Milk is just so much more difficult to boil, okay! It goes up and stuff! You know I’m not that skilled!’
Adora and Catra simultaneous made a face as they remembered all the meals that Adora had tried to cook for them. After almost burning the apartment down by cooking pasta (for the third time), they both agreed that Catra was the only one who could rule the kitchen.
Catra muttered something under her breath in Spanish. Adora had heard that word often when Catra talked about her, but she still didn’t know what it meant. Knowing her, it was probably an insult.
She added the chocolate powder and Adora was low-key jealous that Catra was a much better cook, even with only one hand. At least she was lucky that one of them could cook.
Finishing the hot chocolate, Catra poured it in the mug that they’d both put on the counter again. She had never thought that she would ever hold hands with Adora for this long. (Not that she didn’t want to.)
‘Okay Adora, you can let go now.’
‘What? No.’
‘Adora, this is my mug.’
‘Well, it was my idea to make this in the first place.’
Catra rolled her eyes. ‘Whoa, hot chocolate. In winter. How revolutionary. Ground-breaking. Entrepreneur. ’
‘Shush.’
‘Look, you could just drink out of the pan if I care!’ Adora looked at the pan and contemplated it. ‘Don’t really do it, you idiot. You’ll burn and I am not in the mood for another ER visit.’
Yeah, Adora really wasn’t a good cook. How she even was allowed in the kitchen was a mystery to her.
‘Point is, I’ve also had my mid-terms and I want to relax. I’d even kept my favourite mug clean for this special occasion, okay?’ It was Catra’s favourite because Scorpia got it for her, just out of the blue. Scorpia said that it reminded her of Catra.
When she first held it in her hands, she almost cried at what for thoughtful gift it was. Damnit Scorpia, ruining her reputation like that.
Adora’s expression softened. Catra just wanted the same thing as her, and she could respect that.
‘Fine.’
She tried to move her hand out from under the mug, and when it did Catra’s hand was still on hers. Catra squeezed it once and Adora felt all the blood rush to her head.
Why did this feel so intimate?
Adora let her hand go and went looking for a bowl, or something. She still wasn’t in the mood to wash dishes.
Sipping her chocolate milk, Catra watched this dumb blonde idiot look. If she were in her situation, she’d probably done the same; stealing her roommates mug.
The difference was that Catra could get away with it.
Adora didn’t find anything worthy enough to contain the chocolate milk and looked at Catra.
She looked the other way, but silently shoved her mug towards Adora.
Adora took it, and damn, if it wasn’t the best chocolate milk she ever had.
***
Not too long after that, Catra gave Adora a mug for secret santa. One with a unicorn printed on it.
Now Adora understood what it was like to have a favourite mug.