Chapter Text
“Adora, when can you travel to Salineas to help the mer–committee review the nightlife reconstruction plan?”
"Er… How urgent is it?"
" Extremely urgent."
“Oh, yeah, of course! No problem! Let me take a look at my schedule…”
Catra scoffs. Nightlife reconstruction plan? What does that even mean? She doubts that Salineas's dive bars are top priority when it comes to repairing the city. Not that she can say any of this to them, since the damage done to Salineas is at least partially her fault. She doesn't remember why she's invited to these dumb princess meetings.
Adora pulls out her tracker pad and mulls over a detailed color coded calendar. She glances back up at the Salinean envoy after a few seconds of careful deliberation.
“I think I can make some room to head to Salineas in between the bridge project in Mystacor and the housing repair in Thaymor.”
Catra speaks up and says drly, "Oh fuck I thought we were going on a candlelit dinner cruise date in between the bridge project in Mystacor and the housing repair in Thaymor.”
"Huh…?" Adora looks at her, confused. In fact, everyone in the room turns to look at her, confused. "I don't remember us planning a date… Oh shoot, did I forget to put it in my calendar?!"
"... I think it's a joke, Adora," Glimmer sighs.
"Oh, haha… good one?" For a second she feels relieved to know she didn’t miss a spot on her calendar, until she glances over and sees Catra’s crossed arms and narrowed eyebrows. Adora gets a feeling that the joke wasn’t meant to be funny.
Ever since Horde Prime was defeated, citizens all over Etheria have been requesting She-ra’s help in repairing all of the damage. Catra has made more than a few sarcastic comments about people constantly begging for She-ra to come fix everything. And truthfully, Adora would much rather be on a “candlelit dinner cruise” with her girlfriend, but what does Catra want her to do? Not pitch in on helping to rebuild Etheria?
"So can you come or not?" the envoy asks again, unamused with the passive aggressive joking going on.
"Yes, I can," Adora answers confidently. Catra rolls her eyes.
The envoy nods, and Adora taps away at her tracker pad, adding a blue note labeled "Trip to Salineas" into her calendar.
Glimmer stands up, a signal that the meeting is about to end. "Well, if that's everything… Meeting adjourned! Thank you all for coming."
Catra's the first to leave. She doesn't even glance at Adora on the way out. By the time Adora looks for her down the hallway, she's nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, Adora?" Glimmer calls from back inside of the meeting room. "Do you have a moment before you go? There's actually a couple of things I wanted to show you regarding the bridge construction…"
Adora lets out a sigh, but turns around nevertheless. "Sure thing, what's up?"
—
The "couple of things" that Glimmer wanted to chat about actually ended up being an exhaustingly long list of things, and before she knew it, hours had passed. As they walked out of the meeting room together, Glimmer turns to Adora.
“So are you going to check on her?” she asks.
"Yeah… I guess I need to find out how to book a candlelit dinner cruise…"
Glimmer laughs softly, though it wasn't supposed to be a joke this time. They wave goodbye, and Adora goes off to find Catra.
Adora is used to the way Catra would run away after getting upset, hidden away wherever she thought no one would find her, on rooftops or under stairwells. But this time, Adora just finds Catra in her room.
Melog purrs at the foot of Catra’s bed as she absentmindedly runs her hand over his fur. Outside of the scattered meetings and projects she gets obligatory invitations to, she’s spent a lot of her time in Bright Moon holed up in her room, wondering whether or not she even belongs here. Today she’s been thinking a lot about whether or not she actually should have bought property in Erelandia. At least it would be easier to make up excuses for why Adora never comes to see her.
She’s pulled out of her thoughts of tall stone buildings and mushroom heads when she hears a knock at her door. Melog’s ears perk up.
“Catra it’s me, sorry I got caught up for a while.” For a second she thinks about staying quiet and pretending she’s not there, but Melog gets up and excitedly runs to the door.
She lets out a sigh as she gets out of her bed and walks to the door.
"Hey!" Adora greets her as she walks into her room.
Catra stares at her without saying anything, as if she's waiting for something, though Adora isn't sure what.
"Sooo did you actually want to go on a date? I would like that!" Adora suggests.
"Ughhh." Catra puts a hand to her forehead, exasperated. "It's not about that."
"Then what is it about?"
"It's…" She trails off, like she isn't sure how to explain it.
Adora frowns. "It's what?"
"I shouldn't have to tell you that you need to make time for us to go on a date!" Catra nearly yells back at her.
She gawks at her. "How am I supposed to know that if you don't tell me?!"
“Why do I need to tell you for you to know? Why don’t you ever want to spend time with me?”
"What? Do you really think I don't want to spend time with you…?" Adora asks her. She looks hurt.
"You never have! You only hang around me when you're forced to. Just admit it."
"You know that's not true! Of course I like spending time with you."
Adora reaches out her hand to Catra, who takes a step back.
"If you do, you don't show it," she sneers.
"Catra, you're being ridiculous."
"How am I being ridiculous?! It's just like when we were in the Horde. If something that you deemed more important came up, you always dropped me to go do that instead. You never choose me." Catra's voice breaks at the last word, but she composes herself.
“What do you mean I never choose you? I just asked if you wanted to go on a date!” Adora says, throwing her hands up in the air.
"If I hadn't brought up going on a date, you never would have mentioned it yourself."
"That's not fair! You don't know whether or not I would have."
Catra's lip quivers as she yells back. "Yes, I do! Because you've always been like this! You haven't changed at all!"
Adora takes in a deep breath. “Well neither have you I guess, you’re just as stubborn as you’ve always been. Sorry I came here and tried to make you feel better.”
With that, Adora turns around and storms out of the room.
Catra slams the door behind her, making sure the thud is as loud as possible, then she crashes back into her bed and screams into her pillow.
Beside her, Melog whimpers softly.