Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Glimmer didn’t want to be angry with Adora, but the ‘I told you so’ was already forming on the tip of her tongue. Though, angry was probably too harsh a word for what was really the concerned frustration she felt as her eyes kept darting between her dear friend and the papers clenched tight in her grip.

Adora was blissfully ignorant but mostly because she was mere moments from collapse and without the mental wherewithal to really register any of the looks she was being given — Glimmer’s barely restrained glare, the princesses’ amused smirks, Catra’s exasperated if not fond worry.

Sitting in her chair, shoulders slumped, eyes half-lidded and oblivious as all hell, Adora hadn’t a clue that she’d even done anything wrong in the first place.

“Adora,” Glimmer started, voice as level as she could keep it.

“Hm?” The confused trill escaped her lips, the effort to drag her eyes over to the Queen more trouble than the inconsequential act should’ve warranted.

“What is this?” Glimmer held up the papers.

“What d’you mean?” Adora frowned. Granted, the answer to Glimmer’s question should have been obvious. Surely everyone remembered that Adora had volunteered to take notes on the meeting. They’d only argued about it for the first ten minutes (which Adora had dutifully noted in her report that was right there in Glimmer's hands).

The others had wanted her to get some rest but Adora had insisted this was the last thing she had to do for the day. There would be absolutely no rescheduling on her part, not when the other princesses were just as rundown and traveled all this way!

Besides, she’d volunteered to take notes because that’s how she always stayed awake when she was struggling to make it through a long lecture or a meeting. Detailing every meticulous proceeding of the meeting was truly the only thing that had allowed her to focus at all.

So, Adora was more than confused about why Glimmer’s face was so red and why she was asking such silly questions.

Glimmer, upon the realization that Adora truly was clueless, let out a long sigh before sliding the papers back to Adora. Catra, who was sitting at the girl’s side, struggled to contain a laugh, especially when Adora just stared blankly at them.

“I don’t get it,” Adora mumbled, taking the papers gingerly in her own hands. She looked through them one by one, brain working at maximum capacity to decipher what this all meant, but she simply didn’t see what the issue was.

“Adora!” Glimmer repeated, eyes wide with disbelief. “How are we supposed to read any of that?!”

Adora stared dumbly at Glimmer as the wheels turned in her head before her gaze lowered back down to the papers. And then, now that she knew what she was looking for, she saw it.

“Oh.” First Ones writing. The whole thing was undeniably written in messy, shorthand…First Ones writing. All rapid lines and slews of circles, all over the place.

The dam burst as the other princesses lost it. It had been a tiring week and an even more tiring meeting, so this was just the icing on the cake. Adora set the papers down, face growing horribly red as she hid behind her hands.

“Sorry,” Adora’s voice was muffled from her hidden sanctuary, “I didn’t even realize. I can translate it.”

“Who knew that was your default?” Catra cackled. Though she’d never miss an opportunity to tease, she kept a reassuring hand on Adora’s shoulder the whole time, rubbing circles into the embarrassed girl’s back.

“Oh, that definitely checks,” Mermista said. “Remember when she’d draw up those battle plans none of us could read?”

“Oh yeah!” Frosta lit up. “I always thought it was in code or something!”

“I just thought you had really bad handwriting,” Bow admitted sheepishly. “Or I was just really bad at battle planning. One of the two.”

“Wait, really?” Adora set her hands down to look at them all in disbelief. “Why didn’t you all mention that my plans read as nonsense.”

“Even in legible handwriting,” Catra said, “They were probably nonsense anyway.”

Adora shoved her. “Asshole.” Turning back to Glimmer, she regretfully shook her head. “I can translate these and get it back to you by tomorrow morning. Or, well, I think I can translate it. It’s…it’s kind of messy but-“

“Adora,” Glimmer chastised for the third and hopefully final time. “I don’t care about the notes. Entrapta was probably recording it all anyway.” The tech princess confirmed this with a nod, not even looking up from her tablet. Glimmer continued, “What I want is for you to go to your room and get some rest. Please?”

Under Catra’s hand, Adora stiffened. It made Catra’s teasing grin waver as she saw the carefully hidden disappointment in Adora’s eyes, unnoticeable to anyone else.

With a weak chuckle, Adora nodded. “Alright. Yeah.”

Glimmer officially called the meeting to a close and Adora walked hand in hand with Catra back to their room. Adora was silent the whole way. Out of the watchful eyes of the others, Adora’s schooled expression gave way to furrowed brows and the pout on her lips.

Once they reached the room, Adora allowed Catra to lead her to the bed. The two flopped down and Adora easily wrapped Catra in her warm embrace, Catra reciprocating with a deep rumbly purr.

Catra waited, hoping Adora would say what was troubling her. After all, Catra suspected Adora wouldn’t bother sleeping until she’d worked out this problem anyway.

There were a lot of ways Catra thought the conversation would go. Adora would be disappointed that she had messed up, no matter how small the error. Or maybe she would be annoyed that she’d let her tiredness get the better of her (overlooking the fact that Adora was working nearly twice as hard as she had during the literal war).

These were the things Catra knew Adora struggled with. So, maybe that’s what was so shocking about what Adora actually did say, because Catra had never known Adora had thought about this at all.

“Does it ever bother you that we’ve never seen another magicat?”

Catra leaned back, still in Adora’s arms but now looking at the distressed look on her girlfriend’s face. Her tail twitched nervously as she thought the question over.

“I guess,” Catra admitted. It was certainly something she’d really struggled with growing up. She wasn’t sure where she came from before the Horde but she did know one thing: in all twenty years of her life, she’d never met anyone who looked like her.

She’d asked, of course. When she’d met Bow’s dads, they’d been amazed to see her. Apparently, her species was thought to have ‘disappeared’ as they put it. Catra had later snuck into their archives and done her reading though. What they really meant to say was that the magicats were supposed to be extinct — the neighboring kingdom of the Scorpionis, Halfmoon, wiped out by the Horde.

Catra had been so upset when she’d read that. Just one more thing the Horde took from her, right? That night, she’d gone straight to Adora and she just cried. Adora, dear and lovely Adora, held her the entire time and let her grieve.

Now, a similar grief was painted across Adora’s face but Catra couldn’t quite pinpoint why yet. She reached a hand up to cup Adora’s cheek, claws massaging the side of her skull soothingly.

“Does it bother you?” Catra asked, trying to figure out what this has to do with anything.

“It’s just…” Adora whispered, not out of a need to be quiet but because she couldn’t bring herself to confess this any louder, “I know it shouldn’t bother me. The meeting, I mean. The whole thing was so stupid and I know nobody was trying to be mean but I just, I-“

Her breathing picked up as a sharp choking sound clogged her words in her throat. Tears threatened to spill over as her chest heaved against Catra’s. Shocked and a little scared at this sudden shift, Catra pulled her closer, cradling the blonde’s head and trying to be a source of calm.

It was similar, all too similar, to that night when loss took such an unsuspecting hold on Catra. The loss of an entire people, a species she hadn’t even known. Adora had comforted her the whole night. She had reassured her that ‘No, it wasn’t fair’ and ‘No, you aren’t alone. Even if you’re the last of your kind, even if you’re the only magicat left, you aren’t alone.’

It hit Catra hard as she realized exactly what this all meant, what had reduced Adora to this sobbing mess so quickly.

Tentatively, once Adora had calmed enough to answer, Catra asked, “Is this about the First Ones?”

Adora pulled back cautiously, red-rimmed eyes meeting Catra’s. She gave a shameful nod. “I wish it didn’t bother me.”

“Why?” Catra gently prompted.

“I mean,” Adora sniffed, wiping at her face, “it's not like I ever knew the first ones. And they kind of did some bad things.”

Both girl’s eyes flickered down to Adora’s chest. Though she had her shirt on, they both knew the faint outline of the Heart was still scarred against her skin.

“I just forget sometimes,” Adora continued with a helpless shrug, her voice getting smaller with every word. “That I’m not from here.” Here being the literal planet. “And maybe it’s not even me, maybe it’s She-Ra, but sometimes I just feel so wrong. I can pass as normal on the outside but then I see things differently or I-I read in extinct languages and I feel like I’m in the wrong skin. Like I’m some- some mistake, a clerical error that the universe made and can’t take back.”

Catra felt her chest twist up in pain to hear Adora talk about herself like that. As if she shouldn’t have been sent here. As if she belonged anywhere other than right there in their shared bed, in Brightmoon, on Etheria of all the different worlds out there.

“There are things about me that I can’t explain,” Adora’s rant continued, and the deep frustration shook her already trembling voice. “There’s no one around to answer my questions. Light Hope is gone. I never even met Mara. Prime wiped out my entire race and I didn’t even know the first thing about them! Their history, th-their culture — all of it is just fragments that I might never be able to piece together. I mean, why me? Why me?”

It was a fair question. Catra would be lying if she pretended she couldn’t relate. But at least the history of Halfmoon wasn’t lost. It wasn’t shrouded in untranslatable words and ethically-debatable technology. There were older people alive even now who remembered the magicats; the First Ones were nothing but myths.

“Neither of us should probably be here,” Catra admitted finally.

It was no welcome thought. By all means though, she wasn’t wrong. Catra should have perished with her people, never to become a child soldier. And Adora…who knows what would have become of Adora had she never reached Etheria. Who knows where she had even come from, how she’d wound up in a portal, who her parents were. Had they sent her through that portal? Had they wanted to let her go? Did they think she’d be okay on the other side? Did they know that she’d grow up with a weapon in her hand as soon as she could clench a fist, her life spent fighting, her own sense of self-preservation a weak display of gratitude to the people who so desperately tried to keep her out of harm's way?

“We shouldn’t be here,” Adora echoed somberly. It was such an odd thing to have in common.

“But…” Catra added softly, brushing her thumb against Adora’s lips, down her jaw, to her neck, finally resting her open palm over Adora’s heart. Feeling the intense beat. “I’m glad we’re here. Even if it’s a statistical improbability, and there were probably millions that could have taken our place…I’m glad it was us.”

Adora’s eyes shone with a deep admiration. Then, lightly she whispered, “Statistical improbability huh? Been hanging out with Entrapta lately?”

Catra growled at her for ruining the moment. “Only because you’ve been spending all your time carrying houses all over the place!”

They dissolved into laughter as Adora insisted she never carried an actual whole house, which Catra should know seeing as she’s been caught staring on more than one occasion. Catra was highly displeased with this turn in topics and decided to shift it back on track immediately.

“The point is-“ Catra resisted the urge to smile at Adora’s lopsided, if not a little exhausted, grin, “-just because you were born on some other planet and you write weird and turn into a glowing psychopath with a sword, it doesn’t mean you don’t belong here.” Softer, she added, “And just because you’re the only First One around, that doesn’t mean you have to figure everything out on your own. If you could put up with me as a kid, when I didn’t even know how to retract my claws yet, then I think I can put up with your weird magical puberty or whatever.”

Adora stared at her for a long moment. “I’m going to ignore the fact that you just said magical puberty and called me a glowing psychopath, because the rest of that was really sweet.”

“I meant every word,” Catra said very seriously. She leaned forward and left a trail of kisses down Adora’s jaw, punctuating them with, “Every. Single. Word.”

‘Why do I like you again?’ was going to be Adora’s next remark but Catra’s kisses were especially distracting and she couldn’t quite help pulling her girlfriend closer to her instead.

Catra paused, lips against Adora’s skin still as she asked, “Do you want me to tell the others to lay off about the writing?”

“No,” Adora answered honestly. “It’s fine, they didn’t mean anything by it and I feel a lot better now. Not to mention it’ll probably happen again.”

“Mm,” Catra hummed, the little vibration on Adora’s neck working wonders for her. But, to Adora’s slight impatience, Catra did nothing else, didn’t move aside from the curious flick of her tail as she seemed to be deep in thought.

“Cat?” Adora raised a hand to pet behind her ear, knowing she’d definitely get a response one way or another. “What scheme did you come up with this time?”

“Teach me.”

“What?”

“You said this’ll probably happen again,” Catra clarified. She leaned deeper into the scratches Adora was giving her while looking excited all the same. “So, teach me how to read your notes.”

“You…want to learn how to read First Ones writing?”

“Why not?” Her tail was thumping enthusiastically against Adora’s leg. “That stuffs all over this planet. If anything, having only one reliable translator is a total oversight on the rebellion's part. Oh! And we can totally write each other stuff during meetings and Sparkles won’t be able to tell when I’m making fun of her!”

Adora listened to Catra with a growing smile, a warm feeling fluttering in her chest. Despite the scheming, Adora knew that Catra knew how much this meant to her. That by teaching the language, even a small part of Adora’s history could survive.

“You’d really do that for me?”

“Duh,” Catra pressed a few more kisses to Adora’s neck. “We can start that later though. You should have been asleep an hour ago.”

“More like weeks ago.”

“Months, really.”

“Years-“

“Just go to sleep, dummy.”

Chapter Text

Not a single soul was willing to admit it, but they were lost. Adora insisted she was just taking them on an experimental route on the map. Catra claimed her keen instincts were leading them in the right direction. Perfuma spouted some nonsense about the journey being more important than the destination. And Scorpia didn’t even really know where they were going in the first place — she was just happy to be invited.

But, yes. They were most assuredly lost, in the depths of the Whispering Woods no less.

Though, even that wasn’t being taken as seriously as it could have been. Ever since Adora restored Etheria’s magic, the woods had become more active than ever. An abundance of wildlife filled the forest, for better or worse, and the foliage was thrumming with renewed energy. If the woods had been dangerous before, it stood to reason that things would only get more extreme with the new power-ups in play.l

Perfuma, for her part, was ecstatic about it all. The group was supposed to be visiting a village near Plumeria whose people were working on studying the new plants that had popped up, but, needless to say, Plumeria’s maps weren’t all that useful when the forest tended to shift at will.

They were already hours late. To make matters worse, the hot glare of the day moon directly overhead was reaching an all time high in the afternoon heat.

“How are you even wearing that stupid jacket right now?”

“Its not stupid,” Adora mindlessly said back, more focused on the much stupider map in front of her face.

“It's padded,” Catra complained, if only to have something to do. “Seriously, you should have overheated ages ago. I should be dragging your collapsed body behind me, assuming you don’t just spontaneously burst into flames.”

“Not that hot,” Adora grumbled. She really didn’t have the time for this and she swore she just saw that rock to her left a few minutes ago-

“Gee, I sure don’t know how you do it,” Scorpia wiped her brow somewhat inefficiently with her claw. “This is worse than the forges. Though, I guess if you’re used to the forges, which you might be considering our shared dubious upbringings, then-”

“Dear, is there any water left?” Perfuma strode next to Scorpia, a gentle hand on her girlfriend’s bicep. Subtle. Also totally subtle was her complete exasperation with all present parties that she hid carefully behind an easy-going smile.

Catra watched with interest as Scorpia unclipped the jug on her belt and shook it but her ears could pick up the pitiful slosh inside. Whatever was left in there, half of it spilt out as Scorpia handled the jug.

“Whoops,” Scorpia winced. “Almost out. But we can find a river or a lake or something, right?”

We can’t even find the village, Adora thought bitterly to herself. Really, it was the map's fault! If someone more competent had drawn this, or someone with even the slightest understanding of magic, then Adora could have gotten them to their destination a long time ago.

“Maybe we should take a moment to rest.” Perfuma gave Catra a knowing look who nodded that the message was received. With practiced ease, Catra wrapped her arms around Adora’s waist from behind (ignoring the flaming red leather against her fur for a moment) and stilling them in their tracks.

“Hear that, princess?” Catra asked quietly. “Break time.” As Adora opened her mouth to protest, she quickly cut in, “Nope. Sit down. Give your eyes a second to relax before they burst out of your skull.”

Grumbling, Adora said, “You’re being very violently dramatic today,” but did as she was told. She folded the map into her belt and they walked off the path just enough to find some shade to sit in.

“I’m sorry this has been so troublesome,” Perfuma sighed. “I was hoping this would have been a more productive and fun day for us once we reached town.”

“Hey, there’s still time. The day’s still young enough!” Scorpia assured her. She was struggling to slip off her backpack but when she finally did, she produced two boxes, one for each couple. “And now we have the perfect time to eat our lunches.”

Adora’s stomach rumbled at the mention of food. She’d eaten a light breakfast that morning and all this hiking had left her starving. She wasted no time opening the metal tin that Scorpia handed her, hoping it was something worthwhile, when she saw…

“What is this supposed to be?” Catra deadpanned, leaning in Adora’s space to stare at the meager meal.

“Um, sandwiches, fries, pastries-”

“No,” Catra clarified, trying not to sound too condescending. “I mean, why is it all so small?”

“Oh! Entrapta packed these.”

“Why would you-” Catra cut herself off, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Right, fine. It's…better than nothing.”

Adora was willing to debate that as she took a bite — her only bite — of her sandwich. Shockingly, it tasted great but it only made her more upset that the rest of it was probably still sitting in Brightmoon’s kitchens (or worse, Entrapta’s lab because who knows if she would consider leaving that place to cook of all things).

An idea came to Adora and she froze, carefully glancing around at the group. Slowly…slowly, her fingertips brushed just barely against the corners of the map-

“Adora-“ Catra gave her a low warning growl, “-if you don’t sit down and eat your fry, I will-“

“I just thought I could go looking for resources!” Adora defended herself, map fully out once more as she smoothed the paper down on her lap. “We need water, right? And food, if we can find it. So, if I actually do manage to find a river-“

“That’s a big if,” Catra snatched the map away. She tried to toss it to Scorpia but miscalculated that the flat paper wouldn’t exactly travel far,causing it to just float uselessly near her feet.

But Adora was already standing. “I don’t need the map and I’ve taken more than enough survival courses. And I’ve been in the Whispering Woods plenty of times before! It…likes me.”

“The forest likes you? Really? That’s what you’re going with?”

“Actually,” Perfuma cleared her throat, “I think that would be a very accurate assessment. The trees seem to liven up whenever Adora’s around and the flowers are almost always on their best behavior.”

Adora crossed her arms with a satisfied grin. “See! I’ll find us something and be back in no time.”

Catra debated it for a moment, tail thrashing in annoyance as she did before giving in with a huff. Adora was right — she probably wouldn’t be killed by anything ridiculous. And that lunch had really been pathetic. Sure, she’d survived on worse back in the Horde but that wasn’t exactly a hard standard to beat. At least ration bars had nutritional value.

“Fine. But if you aren’t back in fifteen minutes, we’re hunting you down.”

“Deal.” And then Adora was off.

(She came back no less than two minutes later to grab the water jug she’d forgotten, but after that, she was really ready to go!)

Catra watched the idiot disappear (for a second time) with a look that might have been a bit too fond, if Perfuma and Scorpia’s giggling had anything to say about it, but Catra didn’t mind. In fact, it filled her with a bit of pride to know that she could do just that — look with such untamed affection at her girlfriend. Girlfriend! Her girlfriend who’s idea of a double date was stupidly leading them around in circles for hours, but it was a date no less!

The same could be said for Scorpia, who was just as romantically inept as all Horde soldiers tend to be. Catra would never willingly admit it but it made her happy to see her friend have ‘That Special Someone’ as Sparkles would call it, even if that person was a princess, ugh (Nevermind that Catra was also dating a princess).

True to her word, Adora was back before Catra could rally a search party, though she cut it awfully close. She greeted them through a mouthful of berries, because clearly her time spent with the rebellion had zero effect on her table manners, the barbarian.

“Guys, look!” Adora victoriously held up the full canteen and a handful of bright purple berries with veiny blue and red stems. “We actually weren’t that far off! And I think I might have saw a path to the village-”

Adora was cut off as Perfuma leapt to her feet, smacking the berries out of Adora’s hands. The poor girl barely had a moment to process what was happening before Perfuma had both hands on her cheeks, forcing her to make eye contact with the frantic flower princess.

“How many of those did you eat?!” Perfuma more so demanded an answer than asked a question. She moved Adora’s face around as if checking for something, first the eyes, then the skin, then- “How long ago did you eat the first one? Do you feel flush? Light-headed?”

“Well, if you’d give me a second to answer-” Adora frowned as she lightly pushed Perfuma away from her, “-I could tell you that I’m fine. I think?”

Catra and Scorpia had also stood to see what all the commotion was about, both confused as to why they should be concerned but neither doubting Perfuma.

“How many and when?” Perfuma demanded once more.

“Uh,” Adora scratched the back of her neck, “I don’t know. A few minutes ago? I was just eating them by the handful and…and I have big hands. I mean, not huge hands but bigger than average-”

“We need to get you medical attention immediately,” Perfuma insisted, already grabbing for a tracker-pad.

“What's going on?” Catra asked, growing increasingly frustrated. Though she addressed Perfuma, her eyes never left Adora.

“Those weren’t regular berries,” Perfuma explained, a look of relief crossing her face as Glimmer picked up on the other end. “Glimmer, emergency! We need you here as soon as possible! Adora needs medical atte-”

The sound of sparkly bells filled Catra’s ears for a solid few seconds as she felt her body leave this plane of being. Normally, she’d curse Glimmer for once again not giving any warnings but this time the situation seemed to warrant it.

“Guys, seriously, I’m okay-” Adora was insisting but it was of no use. The group was already in one of Mystacor’s healing rooms and Glimmer had teleported away to go find her aunt. Meanwhile, Perfuma was once again examining her.

“No dilated pupils,” Perfuma muttered. “That’s a good sign.”

Catra could see the confusion turning to outright irritation on Adora’s face. Already at Adora’s side, she quickly wrapped an arm around her waist, letting her tail flick against her girlfriend’s tight fist, coaxing her to relax.

“Uh, ‘Fuma?” Scorpia asked nervously, “Yeah, hi, could you maybe clarify what you meant by ‘those aren’t regular berries’?”

“I would appreciate that too,” Castaspella said as she rushed onto the scene, Glimmer in tow.

“Makes three of us,” Adora grumbled. She quite clearly was not happy to be passed from Perfuma to Castaspella who if anything was even more flustered.

“The berries you were eating were anulax berries,” Perfuma said as if Adora should have known this already. Castaspella gasped, seeming to know what that meant, and urged Adora to sit down. Catra tried not to be annoyed that she had to separate from Adora, mostly because she reckoned she wasn’t allowed to be more annoyed than her girlfriend currently was.

“Okay?” Adora grunted as Castaspella started drawing out some sigil in the air. “And?”

“Anulax berries are fatally poisonous!” Perfuma explained. “They’re extremely rare here, or at least they were before She-Ra revived all of the plant life on Etheria. Most people who eat them only have minutes before their temperature begins to rise-”

“Perfuma-”

“-and they start to become extremely disoriented, risking passing out-”

“Perfuma, I-” Large sheets of ice formed at Castaspella’s fingertips and she tried to drape it over an increasingly fidgety Adora, “Hold on, Casta will you just-”

“-until your blood starts to quite literally boil, at which point you only have seconds to-”

“Will both of you just stop!” Adora burst out, face red — from anger, not a deadly fever. “I. Am. Fine. And you’d see that if you stopped fussing for five seconds, assuming I’m about to drop dead!”

“You… aren’t going to drop dead, right?” Catra asked carefully. After all, Adora’s track record? Not the greatest.

“No,” Adora groaned, running a hand down her face. “Look, I appreciate the concern but it's not necessary.” She stood, as if to prove she could, putting space between herself and the others. Then, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the offending fruit. “You must have these berries confused with something else. I’ve eaten these before. I tried them last time I went berry-picking with Madame Razz and nothing bad ever happened. See?”

And then, to the horror of everyone else, she popped the berry into her mouth.

“Adora!” Castaspella’s eyes were wider than Brightmoon’s runestone. “Could you please refrain from eating more of what is most certainly a highly deadly poison?!”

“Absolutely I can,” Adora threw in another handful, “Because these aren’t poisonous and apparently nobody else wants any. A shame, since they’re delicious, if anyone was wondering.”

Catra knew when it was time to step in. With an unamused look, she growled, “Adora, put the damn berries away.”

Adora’s eyes snapped over to Catra. Only then did she finally have the audacity to look sheepish. Still, she didn’t reach for another bite. A playful smirk on Catra’s lips, she waltzed over to Adora and leaned in, whispering, “Good girl.”

“Ugh,” Glimmer groaned. “WIll you two get a room?”

“Nobody will be getting a room until we figure out what exactly is happening here,” Castaspella said, using her exasperated ‘I’m surrounded by children’ tone. “Adora, could you please hand me one of the berries?”

Narrowing her eyes, feeling as though she was being set up (because she was), Adora handed over three.

Wordlessly, Castaspella looked to Perfuma who got the message loud and clear. Perfuma summoned a flower, as large as the palm of one's hand, with soft and delicate pink petals blooming out from its bright yellow center. Handing over the flower, Castaspella crushed the berry in hand and let a single drop of juice fall onto the center.

At first nothing happened. Then, a sharp sizzling sound filled the room — right before the flower burst into flames.

Adora watched silently as the charred remains disintegrated between Castaspella’s fingers. She especially ignored the aggravated looks she was receiving from everyone else in the room.

“So…” Adora finally said, “We have confirmed the berries are poisonous to flowers. That’s…that’s very interesting.”

“That is what should have happened to you.” Castapella wiped away the berry’s remains with a cloth. “Mind you, I’m grateful it didn’t, but I still don’t understand how you managed to avoid it.”

“I don’t…” Adora shook her head, at a loss for words. At the very least, she could admit to herself that maybe the berries weren’t as innocent as they previously seemed. That didn’t change the fact that she truly did feel normal — healthwise that is. Normal was probably the farthest word to describe what she was feeling right then.

“We’ll have to run some tests,” Castaspella said. “Some basic scans, nothing to worry about. And perhaps a blood test.” At Adora’s cautious look, she added, “Also nothing worth worrying over.”

“Good luck with that,” Glimmer said what everyone else was already thinking. Adora was notoriously difficult when it came to medical attention, both in and outside of the Horde.

Whatever daze Adora had been in, it immediately wore off as she started assessing her exits. Catra, clueing in immediately, began contemplating just how exactly she planned to pin Adora down once the needles came out when something even more alarming happened.

With a couple loud thuds and the sudden crash of the door flying open, in strode Swift Wind with an odd circular orb in his mouth. “ITH OMEUM ‘AY ESKS?”

“I-“ Castaspella stared at the hooves now imprinted into her door, eyes wide. “What?”

Rolling his eyes, as if they were the crazy ones, Swift Wind dropped the orb and repeated, “Did someone say tests?!”

“For the last time,” Catra started, “No one said Sw-“ And then she stopped, realization hitting her. “Oh. Um, yeah actually?”

“Perfect!” A voice came from the orb. An enthusiastic (manic) familiar voice. “I’ve been wanting to run tests on Adora ever since I met her, but I’ve been told repeatedly from multiple sources that it isn't allowed. Thrilled to see that’s changed. Now-“ The orb sprouted legs like a damn spider and rapidly crawled towards Adora. “I have a few preliminary items to-“

“Entrapta!” Glimmer shouted. “What are you doing here? How did you- why is Swift Wind-“

“I was in the neighborhood,” Swift Wind said. “And Entrapta asked me ages ago – she made me promise her – that if she ever needed to investigate something quickly and wasn’t close enough to Glimmer to teleport her there, then I, the most noblest and fastest steed in all of Etheria, would deliver a delegate in her place.”

“It’s me!” The orb, what everyone now recognized to be a tiny bot, waved. Scorpio cooed at how cute it was. “I’m the delegate!” As soon as it had stopped, it now sped towards Adora again, attempting to crawl up her leg.

“Right,” Perfuma watched with mild concern. “And you knew about us running tests…because you were-“

“Because I was listening the whole time,” Entrapta’s chirpy voice was muffled as Adora tried to wrangle the bot into her jacket. “I have my equipment flagged for certain key words-“

“Glimmer,” Castaspella turned to her niece, “Will you please tell your friends not to bug Mystacor?”

“This hardly seems productive,” Entrapta complained as Adora looked for somewhere to put her writhing jacket-jail. In a garbage can? Out the window?

With a sigh, Catra walked over to Adora and gently put her hands on her shoulders. The unhinged look in Adora’s eyes faded for a moment when she saw the amused smile on Catra’s lips.

“You’re loving this, aren’t you?” Adora pouted.

“Wasn’t thrilled about the you-almost-dying part,” Catra said. “But, yeah, this is pretty great. Now, do you want to stop being a brat and get your tests done?” Leaning in mischievously, she whispered just so Adora could hear, “Or do you need me to tie you down?”

“Incredible!” Entrapta shouted. “I don’t know what just happened, but Adora’s pulse just spiked signifi-“

Adora threw the jacket out of the window like it was a hand grenade.

Chapter Text

In the end, there were seven tests taken over the span of three days. Adora had been so physically and mentally exhausted by Entrapta’s torture methods (tests, Adora) that by test five she’d already lost all her resolve to even fight it anymore.

(“You’re such a baby,” Catra rolled her eyes at her girlfriend who was lying curled up in their bed. Even so, she set down the bowl of soup on the bedside table, knowing the smell of warm broth would likely rouse Adora to her senses sooner than later.

“She took fifteen blood samples, Catra. Fifteen!”

“She only took thirteen,” Catra gently reminded her. “You were poked fifteen times because you were squirming so much. You realize you’re not allowed to do that during the x-rays, right?”

“They use magic for that,” Adora pouted, pushing herself into a sitting position. “I’m fine with magic. I’m not fine with stabbing.”)

Blood work. Needles. Full body x-rays. Physicals. Toxicology testing (no one except Entrapta seemed to be very thrilled about that one).

Test after test and Adora seemed to have all the wrong answers. With each pending result, Adora felt like she knew less and less about herself.

It had been easier before she was made aware of it. Most of her anomalous behaviors she could write off as She-Ra or simply growing up different in the Horde. But with each lab report that showed up on her desk, Adora felt an ever-growing sense of disconnect between herself and her body.

Not to mention, she really didn’t have the mental stamina to really understand the science behind all of those reports. Entrapta usually sent her a watered down version, but she couldn’t help skimming the official findings. Words like “abnormality” and “alien” often stood out.

One night, Catra tried her hardest to get Adora to come to bed. Just a few more pages until I’m done with this one, Adora had said, squeezing Catra’s hand before turning back to the report she was annotating. It wasn’t until Catra woke up the next morning to see Adora still staring hazily at those papers, eyes bloodshot and hands trembling from lack of sleep, that she decided there needed to be an intervention.

“Perfuma said that it's important to re-channel our negative outlets into a positive form or something,” Catra had said as she dragged Adora through the woods. “So, we are done obsessing over Entrapta’s data.”

“But-”

“Just trust me, okay?” Catra said. “I’m not saying to drop the whole thing. I’m just trying to get you to explore all this junk in a healthier setting.”

“The…middle of the woods?”

Catra grumbled something oddly reminiscent of the word ‘patience’ and Adora was about to tell her how hypocritical she was being as she dragged her through the woods, but they soon entered a familiar area. If Adora hadn’t been fighting it so much, she probably would have realized where they were going much sooner.

Adora stared up at the library that also doubled as Bow’s childhood home. Recent were the memories of the many nights she’d spent with Catra there. This place was already full of some of their happiest moments post-war (if not largely due to George and Lance’s excellent hospitality). Even though they’d been researching the disappearance of the magicats, a…difficult subject matter, Adora had come to miss the late nights huddled by the fireplace, cozied up next to each other in comfortable silence as they read from their respective books or files.

“I think I get why we’re here,” Adora said, more willingly following Catra inside. The other woman had knocked but didn’t wait for a reply as she entered.

“Glad you’re up to speed,” Catra quipped. “This place is full of first ones junk. If we’re going to find out anything about you, it's not going to be from some lab report.” Distractedly, Catra added, “Not that Entrapta doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but you don’t know what she’s talking about, so until we get some actual answers that we do something with-”

“This is great, Cat,” Adora smiled warmly at her girlfriend. Despite their surroundings and the actual purpose of their visit, Adora’s mind was finally away from herself for the first time since that hike, and was intently focused on Catra.

“Girls!” Lance lit up as soon as he saw them in the entrance hall. “George, the girls are here! Quick, get the kettle going!”

With some warm tea in her stomach (and a few cookies, because Lance always had them on hand), Adora felt more put together. Catra helped her pick out which archives they wanted to look at first and watched languidly as Adora lost herself in her research. Catra’s head in her lap, old maps in hand, Adora had to admit this was much better than breaking her brain over Entrapta’s charts.

“Hey, I think this one is of the Northern Reach.” Like most others in the pile, it wasn’t a normal map in the picture-and-diagram way. Instead, it was made of words, intricate overlapping circles and branching lines making the parchment look more like a starry night sky than any notable landmarks.

Catra let out a little curious noise as Adora angled the scroll in her hand so that Catra could see it better. For the most part, Catra didn’t understand what she was looking at in the slightest. But, she remembered some of what Adora had taught her.

(“Break it down into small, manageable pieces. First Ones writing is all about motion. Travel from one small piece to the next, following the movement of the words.”

Doubtfully, Catra stared down at Adora’s scribblings — what was supposed to be a list of goods to get from the market. Asking her to read First Ones writing was one thing. Asking her to decipher Adora’s illegible mess? Good luck.)

“That means ice?” Catra pointed to the bottom right corner of the scroll.

“Yeah,” Adora confirmed. “Specifically, it's a warning that the sleet gets slippery in that area. It could be dangerous.”

“Everything is dangerous in the Northern Reach. It’s a snowy death trap.”

Adora was sure she’d agree if she remembered what actually happened when she was there.

That…had been an interesting day. When Catra had used that disk on her, she had felt so betrayed. Now? She could hardly imagine Catra, the woman currently purring in her lap, doing anything like that anymore. It seemed ridiculous when she put in perspective how much they had changed in such a short amount of time.

“Hey, Catra?” Adora asked tentatively. Catra flicked her tail across Adora’s nose to show she was listening. “I’ve been thinking.”

“Trying new things I see.”

“Asshole,” Adora laughed, poking Catra between the eyes. The other woman let out a weak hiss. “I was just…just thinking…you seem a lot happier.”

Catra stopped being a brat for a moment as she realized what Adora said. Growing red, she mumbled, “Well, yeah. Duh.”

“I mean it,” Adora set the map aside, giving her full attention to her girlfriend. “You’re happier than I’ve ever seen you, even back in the Horde. You have that confidence that’s always been so you and…and even the whole adjusting thing, to life outside a war, I mean…” Adora chuckled nervously, hand rubbing at the back of her neck. “You’ve been handling it a lot better than I have.”

Catra stared up at her in contemplation. It was no secret between them that Adora was struggling. A lifetime of fighting (and channeling all your self-worth into said fighting) does wonders for a person. All of this alien nonsense was just another stressor to add to Adora’s ever-growing list.

“This has been great,” Adora referenced the current impromptu vacation from the chaos. “But…” She shifted uncomfortably, feeling Catra’s gaze bore into hers, quiet and supportive but still intimidating in that way that Adora just knew Catra could see right into her soul. “I think I need help. Real help. Like…like…”

Adora fumbled for her words and Catra knew it was her time to step in. “Like the therapy sessions?”

Hating to admit it, not really knowing why admitting it was even so bad in the first place, Adora nodded quietly. Even though she knew it’d never come, she still prepared for the backlash, some part of her expecting Catra to make fun of her or call her weak.

(Which, you know, was exactly why she needed that therapy.)

“It’s helped me a lot,” Catra said instead. “Talking with Perfuma. You don’t even have to go to her. I know Mystacor has their people, though you know how I feel about that place.” Sorcerers? Magic? Yeah, she’ll pass for now. “It’s nice though. Even when it’s not nice. Does that make sense?”

Adora still looked a little lost.

“It’s like, even though I don’t want to talk about certain things, in the end I’m better for it. And Perfuma knows what she’s doing and how to guide the conversation so I don’t implode or anything.” Catra reached up, placing a hand on Adora’s cheek, smiling when the girl nuzzled into the touch. “What matters is that, when we talk about our problems, they become less of these big and chaotic monsters in our heads and more of a manageable…thing. A thing that we might not know how to deal with yet, a thing that might get out of control here and there, but it’s just a thing. It’s not us. We aren’t defined by it or- or consumed by it. We can get some control back.”

“Control?” Adora lightly joked, “Pretty sure I haven’t had control of my life ever since I was chucked into a portal and sent to this mess of a planet.”

Catra snorted at the accuracy. “You have got to be the most unfortunate space traveler I’ve ever met. Of all the luck, right?”

“I don’t know,” Adora shrugged, the light back in her eyes as she quietly said, “An endless expanse of space and I still managed to find you? Sounds pretty lucky to me.”

The hand that had been caressing Adora’s cheek suddenly turned to smothering the girl as Catra tried to push her absolute nerd of a girlfriend away from her.

“You’re ridiculous!”

Adora fought back, sweeping Catra into her arms. The girl shrieked and flailed aimlessly as Adora buried her face in Catra’s neck, planting short chaste kisses all along her skin.

“A menace!” Catra shouted between her peals of laughter. “An absolute, cheesy, lovesick idiot!”

“I’m your idiot though,” Adora reminded her. Her lips were flush with Catra’s underside of her jaw when she mumbled against her. “And you’re mine.”

“Sh-shut up,” Catra tried to keep it together but feeling the vibration of Adora’s voice against her skin? That was something else.

She certainly didn’t pull away.

The next morning — they’d stayed the night — Catra and Adora sat down for breakfast with Bow’s dads. The tension between the two was thick as George served them up their plates of pancakes. Somehow, out of willing ignorance or sheer poor observational skills, the men didn’t seem to notice the odd energy. Even Adora, the textbook morning person out of the couple, was suspiciously quiet as she busied herself with chugging her orange juice.

“So,” George started, aiming to make conversation. “Bow told us a little about the recent experiments you’ve been conducting, Adora. Fascinating stuff, really. First One biology must be fascinating.”

“Hopefully our materials helped,” Lance piped up. “You two spent quite some time in the First One section of the library.” Turning to Catra, since Adora was still hiding her face behind her glass, Lance asked, “So, tell me, did you discover anything interesting about Adora’s body?”

Adora damn near choked, orange juice spraying everywhere.

As they had discussed, Adora reached out to Perfuma. The sessions were slow going at first. Adora was never that skilled at talking about her issues and even with Perfuma’s guiding questions, she rarely ever knew how to put her feelings into words.

Adora was all about action. She was used to talking out her negative feelings with her fists. Perfuma’s meditation exercises didn’t help either, because as soon as Adora opened up the dam to her thoughts, it became overwhelming. Her mind couldn’t ever just pick a topic and stick with it, it seemed.

It wasn’t until Adora casually mentioned to Perfuma the maps she had seen at the library that the flower princess came to a (admittedly obvious) realization — even if this very act was part of what got Adora spiraling with this alien mess in the first place.

“Adora,” Perfuma asked at the end of another less-than-productive session, “What do you think about doing these talks somewhere else?”

Reflexively, Adora glanced around them. Normally they did these in the Brightmoon gardens, same as Catra would. Did Perfuma get tired of the commute or something?

“I was thinking we could bring our sessions on the move. Would you be up for a short hike the next time we meet?”

“Oh,” Adora’s eyes widened in understanding. “Yeah, I don’t see why not.”

“Excellent.”

As Perfuma had guessed, Adora worked well with the physical stimulus. She could use her excess energy to keep her body in motion, while at the same time she used her mental energy to organize her thoughts. Not only did it help Adora get her nervous energy out, but it also gave Adora an excuse to not squirm in the silence. Instead of rambling to fill the awkward holes in conversation, Adora could just chalk it up to enjoying the scenery.

It was less pressure. Not to mention, Adora got to explore the woods more intimately than ever before. It didn’t take long for Adora to start associating those well-worn pathways with release and healing.

After one particularly exhausting day, the two took a break by a small pond. Slumping against a nearby tree, Adora sat on its roots, pulling her backpack into her lap. While Perfuma sat down to do some mid-hike stretches, Adora took out a scroll she’d brought with her. It was blank.

Every single session she had, Adora brought with her something to write with. It was an old habit. She was used to taking notes, though she had never once written anything down during one of these. She couldn’t bring herself to put her deepest vulnerabilities in writing, even though she knew journaling had helped out Catra immensely.

Rolling the quill between her fingers, Adora stared at the blank parchment, then the water. Not thinking much of it, she started to sketch out something, hand moving freely as she got lost in the process.

If Perfuma was curious as to what she was doing, she held herself back from asking until Adora set the quill down again several minutes later. Never mind that Perfuma had finished stretching ages ago.

“What did you make?”

Adora looked down at the scroll. That was a good question. She turned the parchment around so Perfuma could see — not quite a drawing, but not quite writing either.

“It’s a map,” Adora said, voice small, like she didn’t quite believe it yet.

Perfuma did her best to reign in her excitement but not even she could contain a grin at what she sensed would be a major breakthrough. “Like the ones who were studying at the library?”

Adora nodded. “Bow’s dads said it was like calligraphy meets geography. “

“That would make sense.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Adora frowned a little, “Because I don’t actually know what calligraphy is and I didn’t want to ask.”

Perfuma laughed, earning her a smile in return from Adora.

It became a hobby. On Adora’s off days, she would go to whatever corner of Etheria interested her the most that month and spend hours wandering, cataloging, mapping. Sometimes she’d take company, other times she’d enjoy the quiet on her own.

More often than not, the end results were useless. Nobody could really read the maps except Adora, and compared to the older ones in the library, her’s were by no means perfect.

But, as Adora was coming to accept, not everything had to be perfect.

Once finished with smaller projects, Catra would spend hours trying to translate them. She was getting much better, especially now that they had a real excuse to sit down together and discuss the language. Seeing Catra so invested never failed to make Adora giddy for the rest of the day, especially when she’d see how Catra would genuinely light up once she’d ‘completed’ a map.

The more complicated ones were often done over multiple days and even Catra, with all her pride, didn’t dare to touch those yet. One day, she swore she would but…she also valued her sanity.

Adora did too. That’s why she tried to limit bigger projects like that. Still, having something to get completely lost in was amazing. When she drew her maps, all of her focus went to that and her brain cleared for a moment, growing quiet as it chugged along like a little machine.

That’s why she started planning trips. A few months ago, if someone had asked her to take a break from the rebuilding and the rehabilitating efforts, Adora would have looked at them as though they’d lost their mind (and she’d probably turn into She-Ra, ready to lead a search party to help find it). The only time she ever left Brightmoon was to help in Salineas, or the Fright Zone, or the Whispering Woods, or-

(You get the point.)

Now, though, Adora had a purpose to leave Brightmoon that went beyond her general duties as She-Ra.

Part of it was about reclamation. Using this skill, refining it, recognizing the art form as a way to connect with her people…acknowledging that not every part they played in the universe’s fate led to destruction.

The First Ones had cartographers. They had people who doodled in the margins of atlases. Their maps were coffee stained and torn and well-used and annotated because, for all their shortcomings, they were travelers before they were ever colonizers.

Though Adora didn’t have a colonizing bone in her body, she was built to tackle all kinds of worlds. Before the First Ones (Eternians, as they called themselves) ever lost their way in war and magic, they were a nomadic people — the book-keepers of the stars.

At least, that’s what Adora had discovered through her own historical kind of research and Entrapta’s scientific version.

The tests suggested plenty of curious oddities about Adora and, for the most part, she was more than willing to test Entrapta’s theories.

For example, just recently she had finished a week-long solo expedition through the Crimson Waste.

It wasn’t much of a waste anymore. After the war, the once desolate sands blossomed with new foliage and life. Someone had to make sense of the maze-like jungle.

(If you’re paying attention, you’ll see that Adora was able to combine both her need to help with the rehabilitation and her love for her new hobby into one. She was nothing if not resourceful.)

The Crimson Waste venture had taught her quite a few things about herself: One, she still enjoyed a good fight, if the perils of the Waste had taught her anything. Two, in conjunction with one, she had not forgotten how to use a sword in her brief hiatus from fighting. Three, as fun as drinking was, it was a very, very bad idea to drink in the Waste, considering the drinks were strong and she was stronger (R.I.P. to the bar owner who now needed a new ceiling).

Four. Even with the Waste’s new look, the climate still reflected that of a desert, especially in the more remote areas — Adora hardly felt the effect.

It took her a while to realize anything was happening. It wasn’t until Bow and Glimmer popped in for a quick check-in when it all became glaringly obvious.

They had sent a message ahead of time that they were coming to visit. Adora had made sure to start cooking dinner early (yeah, that’s right! Maybe she couldn’t handle a full kitchen, but she knew how to build a fire and hunt just fine, even if it was a little bland). Her humble campsite wasn’t much, just a portable tent, a sleeping bag, and her cartography supplies, but she knew they weren’t expecting much else.

She didn’t realize they’d expected blankets. Or jackets, in general.

“It’s a desert, Bow,” Glimmer whispered to her fiancé. Well, she thought she was whispering, at least. “I thought it was supposed to be hot!”

“You’re telling me?” Bow's teeth chattered as he held his arms around his exposed stomach.

“You two alright?” Adora looked up from the fire.

“Oh, yeah!” Bow plastered on a smile. “All good.”

Glimmer rolled her eyes, not bothering with the politeness. “It’s cold as shit, Adora.”

Adora raised an eyebrow. It…really wasn’t that bad. Maybe she was just better acclimated? And she was sitting by the fire.

“Here,” She thoughtlessly shrugged off her jacket, tossing it over to them.

“Are you sure?” Bow looked at Adora like she was crazy.

“She’s sure,” Glimmer answered for her, already tugging the jacket around them. Her eyes widened as she felt the inside, “Gosh, you are like a personal heater! How is that even possible?”

“I guess I just run hot,” Adora shrugged. She turned her attention to the fire again, not wanting to overcook the meat.

“I’m surprised you can stand the Waste in the day then.”

“Well, I mean…it’s not that hot either. I usually don’t even take my jacket off, honestly.”

“I remember you did the same when we were here before,” Bow said, looking like he was thinking hard about something. “You know, now that I think about it, you really wear this jacket everywhere, huh?”

Adora smiled a little. “Well, yeah. It, uh…it has some personal meaning to it.” Adora liked to think of it as her lucky charm, almost. (Nevermind all the horrible trauma she experienced wearing it, but, you know).

“Yeah,” Bow nodded. His mind was in the Crimson Waste. The Northern Reach. The Kingdom of Snows…she was in a fully sleeveless dress and yet…

“Adora, what’s the coldest you’ve ever been?”

That seemed like a stupid question. Like Bow, her mind immediately went to Frosta’s palace or the Northern Reach. He’d been there with her both of those times. He had to have known.

When she said that though, he wasn’t satisfied. Instead, he pressed, “Yeah, those places are cold, objectively. But…have you ever been cold?”

Adora blinked at him a couple times. Again, it seemed like such a ridiculous question. Of course she’d been cold before.

But…but now that she thought about it…had she?

“Oh, I know what you’re doing!” Glimmer jumped in, seeing where Bow was going with his line of questioning. “What about hot? Have you ever overheated or something?”

The Fright Zone was hot. It was full of machinery. Adora’s old barracks were sweltering in the summer — she knew because Catra would always claim that Adora’s cool skin was the only reason they’d sleep in the same bunk together, or why Catra insisted she sit shoulder-to-shoulder with her (though, in retrospect, Adora had her doubts there weren’t any ulterior motives).

But Adora never fully understood what Catra was talking about. Sure, it was hot. Objectively, that was just true. That was never a reason to complain though, or even a reason to take off her jacket, even when her old squad would tease her for it.

And in the winter? When field exercises would go for days outside and the biting cold would burn people’s noses…Adora never stopped to think about it. She just hadn’t cared, it wasn’t part of the mission, and complaining wouldn’t make it warmer. And, well, did it really need to be warmer? Because Adora had felt exactly the same.

In all the highs and lows, Adora had felt exactly the same.

“Huh,” Was Adora’s brilliant remark after all that reflection.

As she sat, the white undershirt the only thing standing between her and the bone-chilling air of the night, she didn’t even have a single goosebump prickling against her skin. There was no chattering of the teeth or shivers.

Long after Bow and Glimmer returned to Brightmoon, soon after she came back from the Waste, Adora set up a day with Entrapta to experiment with this new revelation.

As it turned out, given that Adora was built for exploration in the first place, her body knew how to adapt to different climates. Depending on the temperature, her body could regulate its own internal heat, meaning she truly could stay at a consistent equilibrium.

So, Catra really hadn’t been lying when she said Adora could be a human-sized ice pack in the summers, and Adora truly could be a personal heater in the complete opposite environment.

“It’s kind of cool,” Adora said to Catra after she finished explaining it all.

“I don’t really care about the science behind it,” Catra snuggled in closer to Adora, having non-stop cuddled the woman ever since she’d gotten back. “I’m just glad I can now fully take advantage of your new power.”

“It’s not new, and you certainly have used this to your advantage before.”

“Yeah, but now I can do it on purpose. There’s a difference.”

“What do I get in return for my trouble?” Adora teased, as if lying in her room with Catra wasn’t one of her all-time favorite activities.

“You get me,” Catra said in her ‘well duh’ tone. “You’re welcome.”

Adora laughed before she kissed the top of Catra’s head. “I certainly can’t complain about that.” Catra let out a low purr, so Adora kissed her again. Whispering, she said, “I missed you. It was fun but I’m glad to be back.”

“Missed you too, I guess,” Catra mumbled. Adora knew that was a slight understatement but she’d let it slide.

“I love you.”

Catra tilted her head up to meet Adora’s dopey smile. She then turned her head, bunting the underside of Adora’s chin, scent-marking her purposefully (they learned that word in an old Magicat book and Catra was very embarrassed to discover there was a name for that).

“I love you too,” Catra said, though her actions already said enough.

As they laid there, Adora started to drift off. It had been a long few weeks and she wanted nothing more than to sleep for the next couple days. Before she could though, Catra squeezed her hand.

“Show me your map stuff tomorrow?”

Adora smiled deeper, happy to feel so supported in her hobby — because it wasn’t just a hobby. It was this thing she was allowed to do, this thing that helped her understand herself better, this thing that was for her (how beautiful and selfish was that?). It was this silly little thing that made her happy, just for the sake of being happy.

Catra knew that and was encouraging about it every step of the way. It meant everything to Adora to be able to share it all with her.

“Tomorrow,” Adora agreed.

Chapter Text

It was nearly three years in the making, but finally — finally — they were ready.

Construction was done. The Scorpioni Kingdom was up and running. Brightmoon was thriving, same as Salineas. Etheria had finally reached a point of stability. The planet didn’t need its overseers to clean up the mess that Prime and the Eternians had made anymore.

Now, it was time for something bigger.

Entrapta had been working tirelessly at the Best Friend Squad’s request. She’d made so many upgrades to Darla that it was hardly the same ship. According to her calculations, they could last months off planet and travel in almost any terrain, which would be necessary given their objective:

An Interplanetary Peace Force. A group meant to help spread the word that Prime truly was gone. If done right, they could help people from different galaxies get back on their feet. After all, just because Prime was defeated, it didn’t mean his influence didn’t still span star systems, nor did it mean the news of his defeat would be well-received in every realm. From what they’d learnt from their allies, the Star Siblings, there were some planets home to clones entirely. The universe needed help and, with everything settled in Etheria, they finally had the means to provide it.

It only proved that their job was never really done. Adora, for her part, was okay with this — happy, even, to get back into the swing of things. She’d enjoyed the change of pace with rebuilding, but she was ready to jump back into the thick of it.

After all, she was gifted the powers of a magical warrior goddess for a reason. What was the use of that if there was never a good fight waiting out there for her?

Adora, Catra, Glimmer, Bow, and Entrapta would be the main team traveling amongst the stars for the initial trip. There was no timeline in which Adora wouldn’t have jumped at the opportunity to conduct a space exploration, and Catra obviously was willing to follow Adora to the edge of the earth (or, really, past the edge and into the atmosphere). Glimmer had arranged for her father to take charge while she was gone and Bow was really just excited to meet new people and species (and if Bow was excited, imagine how thrilled Entrapta was at the prospect of so many new discoveries!).

Even better, with Entrapta’s new additions to Darla, they could now utilize magic on the ship which meant Glimmer could come and go as she pleased, give or take a couple guests. If they ever wanted to take some time off, they could always weekend in Brightmoon. Or, if any other princesses wanted some entertainment, they could have Glimmer pick them up to travel for a few days.

Despite the direct connection to home, Adora still managed to overpack. For someone who only wore a maximum of three different outfits, she sure could fill a backpack. Whereas Catra had only brought the bare essentials (clothes, her toothbrush, no less than seven fuzzy blankets, and the first three books in the Mer-Mystery series), Adora had packed nearly an entire six month’s worth of supplies. This meant food, water, first aid kits, books, board games, blankets (yes, more), and her cartography kit, naturally.

Of all the above items, the cartography kit was probably the most essential. The fun of exploring the unknown would become considerably less fun if they had no way of returning home. Adora gladly took the job, filling notebook after notebook with charts and notes, all written in Eternian.

Bow, on the other hand, had taken up photography. Between him and Adora, they were cataloging menaces and usually would spend far too many late nights comparing notes. While they enjoyed the work, it was still work and their respective partners tended to nag on them for overdoing it at times. This led to a few irritable quips, but usually nothing more than that.

Consequently, with the nerds preoccupied, this led to Catra and Glimmer spending more time together (which was a problem in itself, considering that once those two united forces, they were essentially unstoppable). It was always a gamble on whether the night would end in a heated argument between the two or in devious (sometimes drunken) schemes that would soon become an issue for everyone. Adora admittedly was not a particular fan of having to drag her intoxicated girlfriend back to their room.

“Y’ur one t’talk, y’know,” Catra slurred, barely standing up if it weren’t for Adora’s arms holding her sturdily upright. “I remember the after party, after th’war.” Catra chuckled to herself, a high chirping noise bubbling up in her chest. “And the party after that…‘n that…and-”

“Just a few more steps,” Adora grumbled. The door was in sight at the end of the hallway. Already, Adora was running on very little sleep. If Catra’s drunk zoomies were anything to go by, then that problem would not be resolved anytime soon.

“Hey, what was the- the one place we went to, with all the stuff?”

“You mean the bar?” Adora deadpanned, somehow still knowing exactly what Catra meant despite the vague description.

“Yeah!” Catra shrieked at a volume even Glimmer would be proud of. “That place. We should go there!” She tried to wriggle out of Adora’s grasp, presumably to walk to the bar. In Seaworthy. On Etheria.

“We can go tomorrow,” Adora fibbed, desperately trying to keep Catra moving forward to their bed. “You don’t need anything more to drink tonight.”

“S’not my fault,” Catra whined. “Sparkles made me.”

“That I can believe,” Adora muttered under her breath. “I’ll be dealing with her tomorrow when she’s sober enough to actually hear my lecturing.”

“You’re so boring,” Catra grabbed at Adora’s face, squeezing Adora’s cheeks between her palms, kneading them like a loaf of bread. Adora rolled her eyes before changing her grip — so that she could throw Catra over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes.

“Adora!”

“Still think I’m boring?” Adora asked with a barely restrained smirk. She nudged the door open with her foot before unceremoniously tumbling backwards onto the bed, pinning a squirming Catra beneath her as a pillow.

“Get off’a me!” Catra growled with little bite behind it. “You’re so mean.” When Catra finally did escape from Adora’s clutches, she soon found her efforts proved futile as Adora sprang up to wrap her arms around Catra’s waist, pulling her back onto her lap. She flopped down again, hoping Catra would get the hint and stay down.

“Adora?”

“Hm?”

“You’re mean,” Catra mumbled. She rubbed her face against Adora’s neck, skin ridiculously hot. Adora was an ice pack against her. “You’re a big…dumb meanie.”

“You’re the one insulting me,” Adora sighed, eyes closed, consciousness already dimming as she finally got to lay down. Her aching limbs and burning eyes were screaming in relief.

“‘Adora?” Catra asked, a little more urgently. “‘Dora, hey.” She poked her groggy girlfriend in the stomach for good measure. “Adoooora?”

“What?”

“Don’t…don’t feel so good.”

“What do you-” Adora’s eyes shot open just in time for Catra to hurl all over her favorite jacket.

It was the next day after that incident when Adora nearly killed the entire crew.

Tensions were running just a little high. Adora wasn’t cold — she didn’t get cold — but her jacket was now unwearable until they got a chance to wash it back in Brightmoon. No matter how many times (a very embarrassed) Catra apologized, Adora couldn’t help but be a little miffed. That jacket had survived the Forges. It survived an interplanetary dictator and the literal Heart of Etheria.

And, yet, it didn’t survive girl’s night?

“Adora hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” Bow tried to reassure Catra at the breakfast table. The woman in question was currently the last to arrive (which was completely out of the norm considering Adora was the earliest riser of them all).

“Except she does,” Catra whined into her folded arms, head down on the table. Nevermind the hangover, this was torture enough.

Glimmer rolled her eyes at her antics, only wincing a little at her own headache. “Will you relax? You’ve done a lot worse and Adora’s still head over heels for you. I don’t think she’s even physically capable of hating you at this point.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Catra shot back. Even without lifting her head, Glimmer knew she was on the receiving end of Catra’s glare. “You have zero stakes in this.”

“Adora is my friend, idiot.”

“She’s my girlfriend. That’s considerably worse.”

At that time, Entrapta decided to make her presence known from the vents. No one saw her (in fact, no one had seen her for multiple days at this point) but no one was really all that surprised to hear her disembodied, echoing voice.

“Adora has been exhibiting signs of high stress. Higher than average, I should say, but I don’t have any reason to believe this has anything to do with Catra’s involuntary emesis. Sleep deprivation, however, does seem to be a key contributing factor.”

“Trapta,” Catra’s nails dug into the table. “Please tell me you aren’t watching Adora and me sleep.”

“I’m merely stating a few observations,” Entrapta sounded annoyed (if not a little defensive). Sheepishly, she asked, “For clarification, if Adora isn’t actually sleeping, does that count?”

Catra let out a long suffering groan. This nonsense, combined with a miserable hangover, was not how she wanted to spend their first day on Ultraxia.

The ship had been circling the planet for a few days now. From what their readings suggested, it was a quiet planet, if not completely empty. There were readings on some interesting energy signals though coming from somewhere under the planet’s crust. Entrapta had convinced them to land so she could collect a few samples.

They were scheduled to land within the next hour. Adora, who was usually in the kitchen by now buzzing around with excitement, was still nowhere to be seen. Catra saw this as only further confirmation that she was completely screwed, Adora hated her, and she would likely never be able to look at red the same way again without having flashbacks to all that she had lost, how one extra shot of Plumerian tequila had condemned her to-

“Hey guys,” Adora greeted through a yawn as she walked in, easily pulling up a chair right next to Catra. The latter froze in her seat. With a tired smile, Adora leaned close to Catra’s ear. “Morning, Catra.”

“Hey Adora,” Catra mumbled, still refusing to look up.

Adora frowned, looking to Glimmer and Bow for answers. Bow just gave her a nervous smile while Glimmer just shook her head disapprovingly. Turning back to Catra, Adora whispered again, “Are you still moping?”

“Depends…are you still mad?”

“I was never mad,” Adora said, planting a kiss behind Catra’s ear. “A little annoyed that I can’t visit Ultraxia in style, but not mad.”

Catra peeked one eye out to stare at Adora warily, taking the bait. “You have never had style in your entire life.”

“What?! That’s not true!”

“I change my mind,” Catra shot up in her seat, mood completely changed as she scoffed at Adora. “You should be thanking me for the favor I did you. That jacket needed to go. The others should be thanking me for saving them the secondhand embarrassment.”

Both of them were full of it. Just like everyone else at the table, Adora was wearing her space suit (unless she somehow wanted to wear her jacket over the outfit like some maniac). As far as they knew, Ultraxia wasn’t safe yet to travel on without the suits.

Darla’s voice soon interrupted all of them. “Destination: T-minus forty-five minutes until contact with Ultraxia. Manual piloting advised.”

Without much thought, Adora started to get up out of her chair but Catra moved to push her back down.

“What?” Adora gave Catra an inquisitive look.

“How long did you sleep last night?”

Immediately Adora averted eye contact. “I don’t know, plenty?” When she risked a glance around the table to see three unamused faces, she amended her answer. “Enough sleep to fly the ship, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Manual piloting is advised, not required.” Catra didn’t relent with her grip on Adora.

With all eyes studying her, it became increasingly obvious just how run-ragged Adora had gotten: dark bags under her eyes, slow and sluggish movements, that guarded set posture of her shoulders that she diverted to whenever she needed to look more alert than she was.

“Catra,” Adora said patiently but firmly all the same. “I’m fine. I can handle steering Darla for the next handful of minutes, okay? Once we’re situated on the planet, I promise I’ll go right back to my room and get some actual rest.”

Catra stared at her, trying to see if there were any lies to catch. Surprise, surprise, Adora was being as candid as she ever was. “Fine,” Catra released Adora, expression softening. “I appreciate that you’re willing to compromise.”

Adora grinned at the line. Perfuma had mentioned to her in a couple private sessions that ‘words of affirmation’ would help build trust and better communication between the two of them. It was nice to see Catra was receiving similar advice, considering how useless they both could still be at all that vulnerability mess.

“I appreciate that you’re looking out for me,” Adora responded easily, meaning it. Somewhere along the way, Adora had come to accept that there would simply be times when other people would want to take care of her — and that she should let them. Leaning down to plant one more goodbye kiss on Catra’s lips, Adora thought she could get used to vulnerability.

Too bad they both forgot they had company. Glimmer and Bow’s cooing faded into the background as a now-grumbly Adora left to man the control center.

“She hates you, huh?”

“Shut up, Sparkles.”

They landed on Ultraxia exactly as scheduled. Adora and Entrapta did most of the heavy lifting, while the others waited for the all-clear.

Because Adora was already suited up (and because there was no way in any galaxy that Adora would miss checking out a new planet), the two girlfriends agreed she could spend the first few minutes exploring before her mandated nap time.

Ultraxia, for what it’s worth, was a beautiful planet. They had landed in one of the planet’s many canyons, sheer rocky cliffs all around them, stretching up mesmerizingly high into the purple sky. The ground beneath them was covered in damp red dirt, the occasional river cutting through the land with its dark black water that shimmered in the moonlight. There was nearly no foliage that anyone could see but according to Entrapta’s readings (and Catra’s shovel) there were a massive amount of roots below ground.

“I think this is where those energy readings are coming from!” Entrapta carefully extracted some pieces of root to bring back to the ship. “They all seem to connect to each other, perhaps to one common source. Isn’t that exciting?!”

“Thrilling,” Catra drawled. Her eyes were locked on the river, as well as the dummy leaning over the water. “Finding anything good there, Dor?”

“Huh?” Adora looked up at Catra, processing the question. Then, with a small laugh, she said, “Oh, no, it’s just…” She beckoned Catra forward, who made a whole show of reluctantly crouching down next to her.

“See that?” Adora pointed at the slightly darker sand where the water and the riverbank met. Catra flicked her tail across Adora’s knuckles to show she was listening. “I think it means this river tends to flood or something?” It came out like a question. “See, the different colors means the waterline is usually higher which means…um, well, I’m not really sure what that means yet.”

Catra knew what Adora was getting at. Her girlfriend was still learning a lot about the tools of the trade. What she could discover from the clues nature laid out for her could range anywhere from a slap in the face to a cold case. On a planet like this especially, one without any inhabitants to tell the world’s story, Adora tried her hardest to fill in the gaps.

“Maybe the seasons?” Adora rambled on. “It could rain here, but I’m not sure what the weather would be like. I guess I could ask Entrapta. But, you know, this could also be a fluke development, so maybe something happened to divert-“

Truthfully, Catra couldn't care less about why the river was or was not a couple inches higher than usual. But, she didn’t interrupt because she knew this stuff — for whatever ungodly reason — was important to Adora. Besides, she could listen to that endearing rambling all day, could revel in the cute little scrunched facial expressions Adora made until the damn river finally did flood again with the coming seasons.

“Hey, did you see that?” Bow was talking to Glimmer from a few meters away but Catra could hear him, ear flicking distractedly in his direction. “It looked like something might’ve moved in the water.”

“What?” Glimmer looked at him disbelievingly. “No way. It’s just the light.”

“No, I swear!” Bow insisted. He and Glimmer both kneeled down at one of the streams behind Adora, where Catra could see them quietly arguing.

“There literally weren’t any life readings on this planet. How could something move?”

“Well, maybe we aren’t scanning for the right things. If we’ve learned anything from Adora, it’s that-“

Adora, hearing her name, stopped mid-rant to turn and look at the couple behind her. Unfortunately, from a mixture of her exhaustion, general clumsiness, and squatting position, Adora’s balance wobbled when she twisted around and before she could stop herself she was falling over — right into the black waters.

“Adora!” Catra screeched, the water splashing and getting all over her fur. Even more pressing than that, though, was the sound of Adora’s quick inhale, followed by coughing.

Catra grabbed for a flailing limb and pulled, spotting the problem as soon as Adora‘s head resurfaced: namely that Adora’s head was no longer in her helmet.

“Guys!” Catra shouted, though she hardly needed to. The others were already at her side, Bow searching for the helmet while Glimmer frantically looked around for Entrapta who had disappeared in the short time span that no one had been watching her.

“S’okay-“ Adora wheezed, coughing up the black sludge, holding her stomach as she doubled over in Catra’s arms. “Okay, I’m- I’m okay.”

“Got it!” Bow held up the helmet finally, though it didn’t seem to matter.

As confirmation, Adora shook her head. “Don’t worry. I can bre-“ A coughing fit took her over once more before she spit out, “Breathe. Mostly. Air’s fine. Just the- the water.”

At that time, Glimmer and Entrapta teleported into sight.

“Are you alright?” Glimmer asked.

Adora nodded. Despite the occasional wheeze, she’d gotten most of the water out of her lungs. “I’m good. Just swallowed some water by mistake.” Addressing Entrapta, she added. “I think the helmet came off when my head hit. We should probably check the locking-thingy to make sure that doesn’t happen on a dangerous planet.”

“Absolutely,” Entrapta was already whispering something into her recorder when she stopped and pointed the thing at Adora. “Erm- what would you describe as a ‘dangerous planet’ exactly?”

“You know,” Adora took the helmet from Bow and shook it meaningfully. “Bad atmosphere. Can’t breathe. This one's fine at least. You guys can take yours off if you want. I wouldn’t recommend going for a swim though.”

With a shrug, the others were about to remove their helmets too when Entrapta let out a loud “WAIT! I would highly suggest no one remove anything of the sort!”

Everyone froze. Adora felt her gut twist. Oh no. She knew this feeling (and that half-excited, half-manic look Entrapta was giving her). Honestly, what was it this time?

“I've been analyzing the atmosphere ever since we landed. If my readings are correct, the air here on Ultraxia is extraordinarily toxic. It would be like breathing in heavy ash! It would clog up our airways completely within two minutes at the most!”

Our airways? Adora thought as she breathed in another easy breath. Your airways.

“Well…” Bow slowly removed his hand from where he’d been about to unlatch his helmet, a mildly panicked smile on his face. “Isn’t that cool?”

“Cool,” Glimmer nodded rapidly, trying not to think how close they were to an imminent demise, “Very cool.”

“I always wondered if breathing in space was uniquely a She-Ra thing or an Adora thing,” Entrapta spoke into her log recorder, instead of to the group. “It would seem I’ve witnessed compelling evidence that Adora’s lungs are adaptive to the atmosphere. Fascinating!”

“You hear that?” Catra turned to Adora with a teasing smirk. “Fascinating.”

Still sitting in the stream, Adora groaned into her hands. She was tired, drenched, and an attempted murderer.

With all that taken into consideration, she’d very much like that nap now.

Chapter Text

“Psst…”

…

“Psst…Catra?”

…

…

“Cat-”

“What?” The young child growled from the top of her bunk. Adora’s big blue eyes stared up at the high structure, trying to make out her friend’s silhouette in the darkness. She let out a small sigh of relief when she heard the mattress shifting and Catra’s head poked over the edge, her two eyes glowing back at her in the otherwise pitch black barracks.

“I can’t sleep.”

“And why is that my problem?” Catra grumbled, even though she was already crawling out of her bunk and onto Adora’s. Without hesitating, Adora climbed back on top of her bed, sitting across from Catra.

“You were awake too,” Adora mumbled sheepishly. She reached over to turn on the wall light, a dim green strip, so that she could actually see. “I heard you moving around too much. And I know you don’t move as much as me when you’re sleeping.”

Catra laughed quietly at the mental image of Adora’s goofy sleep-fighting. Whenever she moved her head, her ears flopped lazily to the side. Adora loved Catra’s ears, even though Catra complained that they were too big for her head. With way too much unearned confidence, Adora had asserted that Catra would grow into them eventually (though, Adora wouldn’t be opposed to petting those big ol’ ears forever, even if Catra rarely let her have the luxury).

“I guess you’re right. Not all of us train in our sleep,” Catra shoved Adora’s shoulder meaningfully. “I’ve never seen you sleep still once!”

“That’s not my fault!” Adora whisper-yelled. In her young age especially, she sometimes struggled with controlling her volume, so she got a few odd groans from the rest of the sleeping kids. In a still-not-super-quiet voice, she whispered, “Oops…sorry.”

Catra descended into laughter again, her giggles far more controlled than Adora’s outburst. Her chest heaved silently at Adora’s antics, unapologetic. Adora couldn’t help but smile through her embarrassment, if only because Catra’s grin was so contagious. She hoped she could always make Catra smile like that.

As Catra’s laughter died out, the two settled into a peaceful silence, gaze lingering on the other. They both knew that they should probably try to sleep because they had training early in the morning. (They still were getting used to their new schedules, having only started their cadet lessons a month ago, and they were quickly finding themselves exhausted after every day, whether it was back-to-back lectures, weapons familiarization, or sparring matches.)

But, even though their eyelids drooped and their muscles ached, neither girl was ready to go to sleep yet. They’d been so busy lately with training that they’d hardly had time to hang out like they used to. Moments like these, quiet and free, were all they could grasp on to.

“What do you want to do?” Catra broke the silence, tail thumping slowly on the mattress.

“I don’t know,” Adora shrugged. “What do you wanna do?”

“Hm,” Catra thought before brightening up. “I know! One second.”

She scrambled off the bed and over to the storage lockers. Adora tried to see what she was grabbing but couldn’t really make sense of it until Catra came scampering back, two markers clamped in her hands. Dutifully, she handed Adora the blue one.

“We don’t have anything to draw on,” Adora pointed out. Usually when they wanted to draw, they had to steal paper from the trash cans outside the force captain quarters. They only had the markers because Catra had found them in one of the many storage closets she used as a hiding place, and, even then, they had to hide the contraband in Catra’s folded up shirts.

“We have plenty of stuff to draw on,” Catra insisted, uncapping her marker. “Like Kyle’s face!”

“Catra, that’s mean,” Adora frowned.

“Duh, that’s the point.” When Adora didn’t budge, Catra groaned. “Fine…but we still don’t need paper.”

Before Adora could ask her what she meant by that, Catra started drawing directly on Adora’s wall. Adora nearly had a heart attack, whispering frantically for Catra to stop but the damage was already done.

“Aaaand, there,” Catra sat back, admiring her work. With a wide grin, she turned to Adora. “Pretty good, right?”

Adora did not think it was pretty good (well, she did, but she was too offended to admit that). Catra had drawn a crude picture of Adora’s face, an annoyed little frown on her face.

“I don’t look like that!” (She totally did.)

“Think you can do better?” Catra goaded.

Adora looked torn. She didn’t want to back down but…Shadow Weaver was gonna be really mad if she vandalized the wall. When Adora saw Catra’s confidence wavering though, ears slowly turning down the longer Adora stayed silent, she knew she couldn’t decline.

Sticking her tongue out in concentration, Adora started drawing Catra, trying to copy Catra’s style. When she finished, she sat back to join Catra with their shoulders pressed together, but Adora soon deflated when she actually got a good look at her masterpiece.

“Mine sucks,” Adora pouted.

Catra bit her lip, eyes darting between the drawing and Adora’s comically dismayed expression. Voice pitched higher than usual, she shook her head. “It’s…it’s not that bad,”

“No,” Adora wallowed. “It's bad.” The lines were all squiggly and unconfident. Catra’s likeness was more ears and hair than actual face. Adora was pretty sure she would have done a better job with the light back off.

“Yeah, okay. It’s pretty bad. But…I like it,” Catra admitted quietly. Adora glanced over at Catra to see her looking down at her lap shyly. For some reason, Adora felt her face heat up at that.

“Thanks,” Adora whispered back. Awkwardly, Adora continued to stare at Catra a little longer before turning back to the drawings. “I like yours too. You’re really good at drawing.”

Having grown up in the Horde, the two had no concept of what an artist was, nor could they imagine doing anything beyond the hidden odd sketch on thrown-away papers. But, for a moment, Catra could feel a swell of pride at the compliment.

With a content purr, Catra leaned her head on Adora’s shoulder. Adora leaned into it, nuzzling her own head against Catra’s. As she did, she stifled a yawn.

“Think you can sleep yet?” Catra asked. She didn’t want the answer to be yes. She wanted to stay right there, like they were.

“Nah,” Adora answered, thinking the same, even as her eyelids drooped more violently than before.

The next morning, the doodles would be found by Shadow Weaver and the two girls would be forced to erase them and hand over the markers. Catra had been pretty upset but Adora did the best she could to comfort her, promising that they’d redo them another time, making sure to hide them better.

And they did. It became an on-going cycle for them, to find different ways to create the doodles, each depiction changing as they grew throughout the years. Eventually, Shadow Weaver gave up on trying to stop them but they still updated them when they thought Adora’s wall needed a new look.

The last doodle they ever made on that wall was of two grinning faces, one forever marred by deep claw marks as it lay buried and forgotten in the rumble of a fallen empire.

After four years of cartography, Adora’s art had gotten better, as long as no one judged it by traditional standards. Without a doubt, Catra was still the better artist between the two of them, having already filled out a whole shelf with half-finished sketchbooks, but Adora was happy to become a close second.

Adora didn’t even really consider what she did to be art until she came across something called calligraphy on another planet. After figuring out what that word even meant, Adora had been amazed to learn that words could be considered art when drawn out in the right way.

“There is no right way,” Catra lightly reminded Adora. She was a firm believer that art didn’t need to be good to justify its existence. Having worked through a lot of her own issues through drawing, Catra was never against Adora finding more creative outlets for herself.

Catra liked this new interest especially, because not even Adora could turn this hobby into work. There was no need for calligraphy. Nothing on Etheria really utilized it, nor needed it. But Adora, like her maps, enjoyed the puzzle of fitting words and letters into the right place — except, instead of writing about landmarks and water lines and topography, Adora could write about…anything.

The sheer expanse of possibilities had overwhelmed her at first. Perfuma suggested Adora try just writing out a simple word for her first attempt. A name, for instance.

Catra had a hard time getting annoyed at Adora for doodling throughout one of their entire Alliance debriefs when Adora was doodling ‘Catra’ over and over again in new and beautiful ways.

Eternian writing was essentially made for calligraphy, so Adora didn’t stop with just doodles. When she needed to unwind, she’d soon find herself writing, starting up a shelf of her own to dedicate to just her art. Because she usually gave all her maps to the Brightmoon archives or Bow’s dads, she usually never got to keep her finished products, so she was surprised at how happy it made her to see her own leather-bound journal underneath Catra’s dozens.

It wasn’t until Adora had a shelf to rival Catra’s collection that she finally approached Glimmer with an idea.

“A mural?” Glimmer asked, a little surprised. “I mean, yeah. I don’t see why not. Did you already have something in mind for it?”

Adora nodded eagerly. She’d drawn up a rough draft already and she would’ve shown it to Glimmer if she thought the queen could actually read it. The only one who stood a chance was her girlfriend who was absolutely not allowed to see anything until she was done — a difficult restriction, considering Adora wanted to paint the hallway outside of their shared room.

“You aren’t going to write anything weird are you?” Glimmer asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Like, you aren’t gonna say ‘Glimmer is the worst’ or anything, right?”

Adora rolled her eyes. “Do you really think I’d do that?”

“No. But I do think Catra could bully you into doing it.”

That…was fair. “I won’t write ‘Glimmer is the worst.’ I promise.”

Glimmer visibly relaxed. As Adora walked away, she grinned deviously, calling over her shoulder, “I’ll write ‘Glimmer and Bow are the worst.’”

“Adora!”

“I can’t believe she still does that,” Catra laughed, whispering quietly to Bow. “When we were kids, she would stick her tongue out just like that.”

Sure enough, Adora was lost in her own world, mixing paint colors on the floor. The sketch she’d drawn onto the wall was covered by a large tarp, so she wasn’t worried about Catra seeing anything.

That’s not why Catra was whispering, though. She was whispering because she was afraid that, if she mentioned the cute habit, Adora would stop doing it.

“Still don’t have any guesses?” Bow asked. He, along with everyone else, was dying to know what Adora was spending so much time on.

At the recent Alliance meeting, Adora had announced she’d be taking time off from space travel for some time being. When Catra asked how long she was taking a break, Adora had just shrugged and mysteriously answered that it depended on how everything with the mural went.

This project was different from some of her other hyperfixations though. While Adora still had a sense of urgency about finishing it, she wasn’t overworking herself. If anything, she was finding even more excuses than usual to pull Catra away from her work or to plan vacation days for the Best Friend Squad. There was even one weekend when she had gotten all of the Alliance members to go out for a karaoke night.

Catra and Glimmer were drunkenly singing some dramatic ballad while Adora watched contently from the booth, sipping on her drink much slower than everyone else and taking all the energy in.

“You know, Adora,” Perfuma commented, one of the only other (mostly) sober people at the bar, “You really do seem happy.”

“Yeah?” Adora asked. Maybe a long time ago the comment would have embarrassed her, but she didn’t feel any shame in admitting that anymore. She could take pride in the fact that she’d reached this point in her life, even if it had taken quite the fight to get there.

“Yeah,” Perfuma nodded. “You’re glowing.”

Adora looked down at herself quickly. “Shit, again?”

Perfuma laughed, “Not literally. But, I just mean, you seem to be in a good place. And I’ve noticed a bit more of an enthusiastic aura surrounding you lately. Could this have anything to do with your mysterious secret project?”

Adora blushed deeply. That was a yes. Sheepishly, she mumbled behind her drink, “I’m not going to tell you what it says. At least, not until Catra sees it first.”

“We’ve started a betting pool,” Mermista joined the conversation, setting a new tray of drinks down in front of them. “You are talking about your calla-gaffing thing, right?”

“Calligraphy,” Adora corrected, downing the last of her drink so she could grab a new one. “What’s in this?”

Frosta swiped an identical drink from the tray. “You don’t get to know until you tell us what your thing says!”

“You don’t make the rules,” Adora rolled her eyes. “And- give me that. You’re too young to be drinking.”

“I’m literally turning twenty in a few months,” Frosta whined. Very mature indeed.

“Okay, cool,” Adora scoffed, “And you’re still literally too young.”

“Hey!” Glimmer shouted from the stage. Apparently they’d finished their song since Catra was nowhere to be seen. That, or Catra passed out already and Glimmer didn’t see the need to finish. Either way, Sea Hawk was already asking the band to play some weird request. “Stop bullyin’ her!”

“Yeah!” Catra hiccuped, popping up from under the table and scaring the daylights out of the others. “Stop being a’ ass! Let the kid drink!”

“I’m not a kid,” Frosta groaned. “You’re all just old.”

“I’m twenty-five,” Adora helpfully pointed out.

“That’s ancient by Horde standards,” Catra unhelpfully pointed out.

“So,” Mermista cracked an evil grin, “Still feeling high on life, Adora? Still glowing?”

Adora glared at Mermista. “Very funny.”

“I-I’ll give ya something to glow about when we get home.”

“Catra-”

“Ahem! If I might have everyone’s attention please, this shanty is dedicated to my dearly beloved-”

The night followed in a similar fashion, with plenty of chaos and laughter to go around. Despite how dysfunctional Adora’s little family was, Mermista’s sarcastic jabs had held some truth:

Adora really was happy.

She’d be even happier once she got to show Catra her mural.

“Keep your eyes closed.”

“They’re closed, ‘Dor.”

“Well, I don’t know, close them tighter then,” Adora joked. The walk to their room had never taken longer. The hands covering Catra’s eyes were shaky with barely-contained excitement and Adora’s face hurt because she hadn’t stopped smiling since she went to bed the night before and whispered those three words to Catra: ‘I finished it.’

For what it was worth, Catra was excited too. She had seen a few of Adora’s other, smaller pieces, but she still had no idea what to expect after all this secrecy and fanfare.

“Okay,” Adora breathed, stopping them in front of the wall. “Okay. You can open your eyes now.”

Catra’s eyes snapped open to see…

“Oh, shit,” Adora jumped up to grab the tarp, whipping it away from the wall with a hasty flourish. “Sorry. Okay, now look.”

At first, it just looked like an intricate (if not breathtakingly beautiful) design of random shapes and colors. With the right eye, though, and enough studying, one could start to make out where the art met the language. Swirling circles and bold lines danced together unlike any normal writing ever could.

Adora fought back the urge to ramble nervously and ask Catra what she thought right from the get-go. She wanted Catra to have the proper time to digest it all.

“This is…” Catra took in every detail that she could, amazed. “Adora, this is insane. You are never allowed to say you’re a bad artist ever again after this!”

“I definitely can,” Adora teased. “And will. But…thank you.” It meant a lot to hear Catra compliment her work. She felt like a little kid again, desperately trying to show how much she cared about Catra in those silly little portraits and always just missing the mark. Now, finally, she could express it all in a way that actually made sense to her.

“Can you, um…” Adora shifted nervously. “Can you still read it?”

Just as Adora’s art had gotten better over time, Catra’s reading and writing in Eternian had only improved too. She was fairly proficient in it by now, though she had to admit that this whole calligraphy thing was throwing her for a loop. She was used to everything being written the standard way. Not to mention, all of Adora’s other calligraphy pieces were usually just one word or a simple phrase — this seemed to be a full sentence.

“Give me a moment, I can read it,” Catra promised earnestly. She focused hard on the little details and then swapped tactics, trying to take in the bigger picture all at once. Switching back and forth between strategies, she started thinking out loud.

“Okay, well,” Catra pointed towards the end, “That circle pattern indicates a question.” She glanced at Adora for confirmation with each observation to double-check. “Alright. And…those are pronouns, there and over there. So…it's…you…me…”

Catra tilted her head again, trying from every angle. Sometimes when she thought she was catching onto one set of lines to make a letter, she realized she was missing something or combining the wrong things. Admittedly, this would have probably been easier in a native language.

“That dot means it's a future tense. Those lines there, which makes a can? Wait, no, will. And…what the heck is that?”

“Sound it out,” Adora said. At this point, Catra was too focused on the mural to look at her, but she could just register the smile in her words.

“Fine,” Catra said. “Its…will…will you…”

Catra stopped suddenly, expression shifting from intense focus to complete and utter surprise. She snapped her gaze over to Adora only to see her girlfriend wasn’t standing next to her anymore — she was kneeling.

“Go on,” Adora laughed nervously, the golden pin she always had pinned to her belt now held carefully between her fingertips. “What does it say?”

Blushing madly, Catra breathed out, “Will you marry me?”

Adora had to bite the inside of her cheek from laughing, or crying, or both. “I thought you’d never ask.”

One moment Adora was kneeling down and the next she was tackled to the ground by Catra who was holding her like she’d never let go again. Adora couldn’t help but laugh as Catra peppered her with kisses, all along her jaw and nose and neck, nuzzling her cheeks against her, scent-marking her with the now very real claim that they belonged to each other.

“So?” Adora said between her own giggles. She really didn’t want Catra to stop but she was about ready to implode if she didn’t hear the answer within the next few seconds. “Will you?”

“You idiot,” Catra’s voice was shaky, because even after all these years her emotions were always quick to the surface. “Of course I’ll marry you! I’ve only been dreaming about it since I learned the word.”

“Wow. That’s extremely embarrassing for you,” Adora teased.

When Catra opened her mouth to quip back, Adora lunged forward to cover her lips with a kiss instead. Catra didn’t fight it, instead wordlessly cupping Adora’s jaw to tilt her head up and deepen the kiss further. Adora moaned lightly at the movement. She was extremely aware of their bodies flush against each other, as well as the cold tile beneath them which only reminded her that they were laying splayed out in a very public hallway.

“Hey, wait a second,” Adora leaned back but not by much, keeping Catra intentionally in her orbit. “You gotta take the pin first.”

“The pin?” Catra asked, eyes flicking down to the little pendant Adora was still holding.

“Yeah,” Adora explained, “It’s like a symbolic thing. You know how Glimmer and Bow share those earrings now? Well, when you’re married, you give your partner a token. Usually something meaningful.”

She handed Catra the small metal wing, who in turn examined it carefully. Ever since Adora defected, Catra had seen her wearing it but she never really asked where it came from.

“When I first got to Brightmoon, they asked me to pick out some new clothes. I just asked for some replicas of the stuff I was used to-“ Obviously, “-but Glimmer and Bow insisted I pick out at least one thing for myself. And, so, I…well, I just grabbed the first thing I saw, which happened to be this. I didn’t really think much of it at the time but, looking back, it’s one of the first real choices I made for myself.”

Adora placed her hands over Catra’s, sending her a look that asked for permission. Catra nodded and Adora took the pin back only to help pin it on Catra’s shirt.

“Of all the choices I’ve made in my life, choosing you will always be my favorite,” Adora said quietly, the words much too private to give away to the rest of the empty hallway. “It’s always been you.”

Catra sniffled a bit, tears reforming in her eyes only slightly. But then her eyes widened a bit in panic. “I…I don’t think I really have anything to give you. Nothing like this.”

“That’s okay,” Adora assured her. “I didn’t really expect you to. But I thought- I mean, if you want…we could find something together? We could take some time away. Travel, just the two of us. We could go for however long we like.”

“You, me, and all of space? What could possibly go wrong?”

“We could get attacked by space pirates,” Adora immediately offered.

“Or gigantic space worms.”

“Maybe another sentient meteor storm.”

“Or all of the above,” Catra smiled widely, that mischievous gleam in her eyes. “Sounds like a perfect honeymoon.” She kissed Adora again, her fiancé, because why not?

“You know,” Adora mumbled against Catra’s lips, “We should probably go to our room.” Even so, she didn’t make any moves to get up — if anything she was pulling Catra closer to her again.

“What?” Catra teased, tilting her head to whisper into Adora’s ear, “Do you have some more ideas on how to celebrate?”

Adora shuddered under Catra’s breath, dark eyes meeting Catra’s mismatched gaze. Her eyes flickered down, lingering on the golden pin on Catra’s shirt and she felt another giddy rush overtake her again when she remembered what it meant.

Catra rolled her eyes as Adora continued to stare dazedly at her. “Come on dummy.” She pushed herself to her feet, trying not to laugh at the kicked-puppy look on Adora’s face as she stayed lying on the floor. “As much as I’d love to stare at this mural for the next couple months…I’m pretty eager to see what else those hands can do.”

Adora’s eyes widened and she scrambled to her feet, quickly following her fiancé into their room, slamming the door closed on her way in.

It was a couple months into their travels when Catra was sure she’d found it.

Though it was traditional to exchange tokens during the actual wedding, Catra and Adora had never been traditional and they’d held a small ceremony on Brightmoon before they’d taken off to space, tokens be damned. Catra wore her winged-pin proudly and, as promised, was always on the lookout for something worthwhile to give Adora in return.

What finally did it was a hike through the caves of a geode-like planet that looked dark brown and rocky on its surface, but hid within its crust an entire labyrinth of caverns lined with crystals and gemstones along every surface.

Adora and Catra had spent hours climbing up and down the walls, fitting themselves into odd crevasses, some spaces so thin they had to hold their breath and others so low they had to crawl on their stomachs to reach the other side. In the more open areas, they raced each other or bet on who could cascade down the walls fastest.

It was hard work but it paid off when they reached their destination: the center of the planet. The spherical cavern, like the rest of the planet, was lined with colorful gemstones. At the center, suspended in the air, was a bright ball of fire, reminiscent of a star, minus the unbearable heat and radioactive exposure. Its light made the whole place shine like nothing either woman had ever seen.

“Wow,” Adora breathed. She sat down on one of the ledges jutting out from the wall, a long red crystal that blazed with dark orange and yellow speckles.

“Huh,” Catra said, sitting next to her. “I thought it’d be bigger.”

“Stop being a brat,” Adora chastised lightly, a fond smile on her face.

“Fine. I’ll admit, this is pretty cool.”

“The self-suspended star at an alien planet’s core isn’t good enough for you, huh?” Adora threw an arm around Catra’s shoulders, tugging her closer to her side.

“Oh, keep doing that,” Catra pressed even closer to her wife. The hiking, combined with being right above a raging inferno, had her hot and sweaty, her fur sticking somewhat uncomfortably to her skin. Adora, on the other hand, was nice and cold, the muscle-shirt she was wearing leaving her skin exposed for maximum Catra-Cooling.

They stayed like that for a while, watching the way the light reflected along the walls, shifting around as if it were alive and breathing. Their own breaths soon fell into the same rhythm, the two just listening to the lick of the core’s flames.

It reminded Catra of the forges, of when she and Adora were just little kids sneaking into places they shouldn’t have been, hiding in the rafters and watching the melting metal. That felt like an entire lifetime ago. So much had changed since then, for the better. Who would have thought?

“I love you,” Catra said, the first to break the long silence.

“I love you too.” The response was easy and instinctual, but not mindless. Adora meant it wholeheartedly, every time she said it.

“Are you ready to head back?”

“Yeah,” Adora said, standing up and holding a hand out to help Catra up. “Ready?”

Catra looked up to see a sight far more breathtaking than any star at the center of the universe. Adora stood facing the core, painted all over in every imaginable hue as the light danced across her face. Her eyes glowed faintly in the light, a stark blue breaking through the kaleidoscope colors.

And…just behind Adora…Catra saw what she’d been looking for.

It was her token.

Why it hit Catra so assuredly was beyond her, but she felt an intense draw to it, like it could never be anything else.

There was a loose piece of gemstone in the wall, similar in color to the kind they’d been sitting on. As soon as she was on her feet, Catra grabbed it, using her claws to cut away what little was still connected to the wall. What came away was a stone about the size of one of Bow’s playing dice.

“What’s that?” Adora asked, a little distracted as she started mentally mapping out their return path back to the ship.

“I’m not really sure yet,” Catra admitted, pocketing the stone. “But I think I have a new project once we get home.”

It was a sunstone. Or, at least, that’s what Entrapta told her.

“They’re fairly rare,” Entrapta explained. “In fact, they can only be found in one place on Etheria, though most of the sunstone mines in Halfmoon are-“

“Halfmoon?” Catra asked, looking down at the red stone with even more wonder than before.

“Yes, Halfmoon. You see, the sunstone can withstand remarkable amounts of heat while still maintaining its form.” Entrapta wheeled around her lab in a large swivel chair (because clearly walking wouldn’t be good enough), looking for a lost tool while Catra sat on one of her workbenches. “I’m surprised you didn’t know about it.”

“Just because I’m a magicat doesn’t mean I know everything about Halfmoon.”

“I’m aware of that. I just assumed you would have come across the term during your time in the Fright Zone. The Horde had a special interest in sunstone because it could be melted down and used to strengthen the metal in their weapons. The heat-resistant quality of the gemstone kept your issued blasters from overheating.”

Catra wondered if her draw to this stone was all just some big coincidence, but being with Adora had taught her a long time ago that things rarely happened at random.

“I’m confident the technique was stolen from magicat metallurgy. I assume they got the idea from the metal in your old mask. It was likely to have sunstone in it, seeing as it was an old magicat relic.”

“My mask?” Catra nearly dropped the sunstone in her hand. She hadn’t thought about that old thing in a long time. Sure, she’d figured out it came from Halfmoon a few years ago, but…

“I ran a couple tests a long time ago. Most of them were inconclusive, however-“ Entrapta swiveled around in her chair to find Catra had already run out the door. The younger girl yelled out a quick apology as she left, claiming she had an idea and would tell her about it later.

Shaking her head like a proud parent, Entrapta sighed. “Update, log number 387: Catra has fled my lab in pursuit of discovery. I am one step closer to indoctrinating her into the wonders of science and may have a new lab partner after all. Or a test subject. Hm…or both.”

“Don’t laugh.”

Adora looked up from the book she was reading, the face she’d been making at it still frozen on her face, her eyebrows furrowed together and her eyes flickered non-committedly over at her wife as she switched her attention over.

“Uh…whatcha got there?” Adora’s befuddled expression relaxed slightly as she asked the question, a small but still confused smile tugging at her lips.

Catra stood in front of her, arms behind her back to hide what had taken her weeks to finish. Under Adora’s gaze, she felt vulnerable — a little nervous — but not uncomfortably so. Catra knew she could probably hand over a dead mouse right now and still receive Adora’s love and gratitude but…this was important.

“Just, hear me out. It's…kind of cheesy, so you aren’t allowed to laugh.”

“Okay…” Adora stood so she could fully face Catra, still amused by this rare display of shyness. “I promise. No laughing. Now, do I get to know what it is?”

Catra took a deep breath, biting her lip and causing a little fang to poke out, forcing Adora to resist the urge to melt on the spot. “You remember how we agreed to find a token for you during our travels?”

Adora’s eyes widened, realizing where this might be headed. Subconsciously, she looked down at the pin on Catra’s shirt and felt that warm feeling she always did at the sight bloom throughout her whole chest. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, of course I do.”

“Great. Because I found something.” Blunt and to the point — that was the only way Catra would get through this.

“Oh?” Adora’s voice cracked a little bit and now Catra couldn’t stop grinning.

Slowly, Catra revealed what she’d been holding and offered it to Adora. She was silent as Adora examined it gingerly, with shaking hands.

The first thing to catch Adora’s eye was the sunstone that gleamed beautifully in the afternoon sun streaming through their windows. Holding the stone in place was a delicate gold crown, thin and elegantly simple.

“If you don’t like it, we can come up with something else,” Catra started quickly, tail twitching in the silence. “Or if it doesn’t fit your big head, I can resize it or whatever, but I just thought the mask is kind of my thing- or was my thing and I don’t have that anymore, but I found the sunstone and…” Catra trailed off as she saw Adora reach up to wipe her eyes. “Are…are you crying?”

Catra wasn’t expecting that at all. Is it that bad?

“N-No,” Adora insisted, wiping her eyes again, a watery smile on her face. “I mean, yeah, I’m crying but not- not because I don’t like it.”

“So…” Catra stepped forward unsurely, “You do like it?”

“Catra, I-“ Adora’s voice cut off as she got too choked up, so she spoke with her actions instead. She pulled Catra into a crushing hug, pulling herself together just enough so she could croak out, “I love it so much.”

Adora didn’t go on to explain why she was crying, at least not completely. She wasn’t sure how to tell Catra that she’d seen this crown before, just once — in a vision of the future.

“Come on guys. If we are late to Scorpia's first ball, she is going to kill us.”

“Fine! You're off the hook. This time.”

Catra stuck out her tongue, laughing as she turned to face Adora. She held out her hand. “You coming?”

Adora shuddered at the memory, the movement not going unnoticed in Catra’s warm embrace. It only prompted Catra to hold her tighter and Adora nearly sobbed.

Prime had shown her that vision to taunt her, to convince her that she’d never have a future like that. But now…this crown in her hand, the same one she wore in her reflection of that day that was supposed to come decades into her life…it was a promise.

It was a promise that she’d have a future after all, with the woman she loved right there at her side the entire way.

“‘M sorry,” Adora laughed weakly, pulling away to look at Catra. Her red-rimmed eyes didn’t match the unfaltering smile on her face. “Just emotional.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment,” Catra shrugged and Adora relaxed, knowing she hadn’t offended her with her blubbering.

“So,” Adora held up the crown expectantly, “Should I do the honors, or should you?”

“Wait! Before that, there’s one more thing.”

Something else? Oh, Adora’s poor heart wasn’t going to be able to take it.

“Look at the inside,” Catra instructed softly, that shyness creeping back in just slightly.

On the inner circle of the crown was an engraving. It was just one word, a little amateurishly scratched into the metal, but beautiful all the same to Adora.

“I really hope it’s spelled right,” Catra said, flexing her claws to answer Adora’s unasked question. “I used some of Lance and George’s old books for reference but…the Eternians didn’t like making things easy, did they?”

Adora laughed wholeheartedly at that. “No, they certainly didn’t.”

“George told me all about the whole lunch tattoo incident. I really didn’t want a repeat of that, but apparently-“ She tilted Adora’s chin up and away from where she was looking down at the crown so that she had easy access to her lips, “-there’s, like, a hundred different words for ‘Love’ in the Eternian’s language.” Catra gave Adora a quick peck on the lips. “Kind of overkill if you ask me.”

“What can I say?” Adora wiggled her eyebrows. “I was born a natural romantic.” She leaned down, chasing another kiss but Catra held up a finger, stopping her.

“Come on, you know I’m not the patient type. Is it the right word or not?”

Adora smiled like she was the only one in on a joke. “Yeah, it’s right. It, uh…I mean, phonetically it sounds like ‘Finn’ out loud. Literally translated, it means…” Her face grew red as she whispered lowly, “It means familial love.”

“Oh…” Catra’s cheeks turned pink. “Family, huh?”

“Finn,” Adora repeated, voice a little awestruck. The word felt good, rolling off her tongue like it had always belonged there. “I love it. And I especially love you.”

“You love me?” Catra teased, prompting Adora to lean in for another kiss, this one slow and full of intention. As much as Catra could have stayed in that moment for the rest of her life, she forced herself to pull away after a minute or two, knowing there was only one thing that could make this even better.

“So, Princess?” She purred, flicking her tail across Adora’s nose. “Are you gonna wear your tiara or not?”

Adora’s face, that had been scrunched up as a result of Catra’s tickling, suddenly fell slackjaw, realization hitting her. “Did you…did you specifically make me a tiara just so you could make more fun of me?”

Catra sidestepped the question with another kiss. “I’m your wife, ‘Dor.” She gently took the crown, placing it on Adora’s head, straightening it out with a sly grin. “I don’t need an excuse to make fun of you.”

Chapter Text

"Log number six-hundred and thirty-two: The subject is doing well considering the remarkable amount of stress they're under."

"Entrapta, do you really need to be doing that right now?" Adora asked, hardly looking up at the little robot perched on the bedside table as she paced a hole into the floor. She was biting her nails, an old habit she thought she kicked as far back as the Horde — proof that she was frazzled to say the least.

"Oh, my bad." Entrapta's voice came from the bot. Its camera lens kept bouncing back and forth, following Adora's movements. "I assumed you were curious about the data. You've always shown a keen interest before."

Adora sighed, knowing this was a losing battle. There were more pressing concerns than Entrapta's outer-monologuing. "Yeah, fine. Just...talk quietly, please?" She nodded over to the sleeping figure on the cot next to her.

"Can do." Entrapta then proceeded to talk like she was whispering, but still at the same volume. "As stated before, the subject is doing well. Even being in a new environment, their vitals are stable despite the unsavory appearance and loud outbursts."

There was a tense, overwhelming part of Adora that was trying to tune Entrapta out, but truthfully she didn't want the scientist to stop talking. After all, Entrapta was right. She did want (desperately, optimistically, miserably — she really couldn't tell which it was) to know the data, more than she had ever wanted to know anything else before.

It wasn't Entrapta's fault that Adora's mind was tugging itself in a million different directions, exhaustion turning into frustration with each passing second. The whole world was too overwhelming. She wanted quiet. She wanted anything but.

Maybe it'd be different if Catra wasn't currently passed out in the infirmary or if Adora herself hadn't just spent the last eleven hours at Catra's side, promising her wife that everything would be okay, even if Catra's screams of pain had left her terrified.

"Any abnormalities are within projected ranges. There's nothing of significant concern that I can find within Castapella's initial reports, though I suppose we won't know more until she returns."

And how long will that be? Adora thought impatiently, spinning on her heel as she turned back around aimlessly in her movement. Down one side of the room, then back down the other. She had to have done this hundreds of times by now. How many of these rotations could she do in a minute? If she could guess how many times she'd gone back and forth then maybe-

Adora shook her head. It was a ridiculous train of thought with little reward at the end of the tunnel if she pursued it. Castaspella would be back soon, and in her arms would be the only thing in the young couple's lives that mattered at the moment.

Pacing wouldn't bring Finn back to them any faster.

It had probably only been a few minutes anyway.

Unexpected hadn't meant unwelcomed, not by any means. It had just been...a lot to wrap their heads around when they first found out.

"You're sure?" Catra asked, eyes unseeing, staring just past Castapella's shoulder. Her tail was flicking around wildly, batting Adora's side. Adora didn't even notice, jaw agape, a stupefied expression on her face.

"I am," Castaspella said in a carefully neutral tone. She handed over the charts to Catra who vaguely leafed through them, unable to process much other than those two words Castaspella had just said.

(No, not those very last two. The ones right before: "You're pregnant.")

"But... how?" Adora asked. "That's... she's... what?"

"I'm not entirely certain how," Castaspella admitted. "Truthfully, we know very little about magicat biology and even less about eternians. Once we throw She-Ra into the mix-"

"So you think it was magic?" Adora asked, plenty of theories forming in her head. Her brow scrunched up as she searched for something vaguely resembling a coherent thought.

Catra's tail batted Adora's face, this time on purpose, right between her brows. "Seemed pretty magical to me at the time."

Adora's head snapped over to see Catra's leering grin. Adora whispered, as if Castaspella wasn't already pretending she hadn't heard that, "Really?" Her tone was admonishing, but a smile was slowly and steadily growing on her face.

"Really," Catra said, voice rumbling with a purr that made Adora's face turn bright red. Her cheeks refused to return to their normal color, just as Catra's purr refused to stop, even if she was done teasing her wife. On both their faces, their joking smiles were changing into something much softer.

"Well," Castaspella cleared her throat, avoiding eye contact still, "Regardless of how this happened, I suggest you two have a serious conversation-" Were they not being serious enough before? Probably not  "-about what comes next. I printed some resources for you both to reference if you'd like to talk to any professionals, which I highly suggest."

Catra was already handing the papers over to Adora before she even had to ask to see them. "Is there anything we need to do right now?"

"Not necessarily, but I think it would be wise to keep track of your health from now on, Catra. Like I said, we don't know much about this. If there are any complications-"

"Complications?" Adora asked nervously, head snapping up, lists forgotten momentarily. "What kind of complications?"

This was the part where Catra would usually (futilely) tell Adora to relax. Oddly enough, unlike every other time, she couldn't bear to be a hypocrite just then.

"If you want my honest answer? Potential complications could range from minor inconveniences to significant risks for both Catra and the child." Castaspella wrung her hands, knowing this wasn't the news they'd likely want to hear. "We know so little about both your species. Until Catra is farther along, we won't be able to run tests on the child to determine if the fetus is even viable."

Adora's hand wrapped around Catra's, a firm and reassuring grip. I'll be here no matter what, it seemed to say.

"I want to be direct with you both. This may not be easy. It may not even be possible. Or, for all we know, things can go perfectly fine. There is no way to know and no guarantees. I assure you, though, I will do everything in my power to help you with whatever you decide."

The two women nodded, letting it all sink in. Despite the grim warnings, both of them couldn't shake the bubbling excitement that seemed to clash so strangely with their worries.

"We'll talk about it some more privately," Catra said, "and let you know when we've come to a decision."

"Thank you, Casta," Adora nodded her agreement. When they had approached the woman with their concerns when Catra started feeling odd, they had thought they were both crazy. Castaspella had been nothing but compassionate to them all morning (a real wonder, considering anyone else likely would have lost it between Catra's snappiness and Adora's fretting).

"Of course. And, don't worry, nothing we discussed will leave this room."

That was a relief to both of them, but especially Catra. She wasn't sure she'd be able to handle anyone else knowing just yet. She still hadn't completely wrapped her head around it — she didn't need the usual fools to make a big deal out of anything.

Adora nudged Catra lightly, bumping their shoulders together. "Are you ready to go home?"

Home. That sounded delightful at the moment. Even though she knew she probably wouldn't get the chance to knock out in their bed once they got back like she was previously counting on, Catra could at least go through this crisis while wrapped up in Adora's arms- er, blankets.

Nice, comfy blankets.

Glimmer and Bow sat close on the couch, both quiet and focused on the double doors in front of them. Catra was only a few months into her pregnancy and had been doing perfectly fine until last night, when Adora had come barging into their room in a panic.

Catra was sick. Not the normal kind of sick, either.

Glimmer hadn't wasted a single second. They didn't want to teleport Catra, so the Queen brought Mystacor's healers to Brightmoon where they could treat her in the castle infirmary.

The daymoons were rising just barely, their light shining through the window behind the young king and queen, and Adora hadn't come out of the private room yet.

Every hour or so, they'd send one of them in to check on the situation. While they still hadn't gotten any direct answers on what was happening or why Catra's health had taken such a dive so quickly, they did know (at least by the second or third hour) that both Catra and the baby were going to be okay.

Adora, on the other hand? It was hard to say.

Everytime they checked on her, she seemed to get more worried, not less. She was constantly fussing and fretting over her bedridden wife, with so much tension wracking her nervous system that her friends were surprised her body hadn't seized up completely.

Neither Bow nor Glimmer could blame her, though. It was no secret, once the news got out that they were expecting, that Catra's pregnancy was a unique one. Apparently, weekly tests and doctors appointments could only do so much.

"She's going to blame herself, you know," Glimmer mumbled the obvious into the quiet morning air. "She'll be mad she didn't notice something sooner."

"That's why we're here," Bow said, face buried into Glimmer's hair, eyes drooping. "We aren't going to let Adora walk out of here thinking she's a bad wife."

Glimmer scoffed at the very idea. Still, as the minutes pressed on, she mentally prepared herself for whatever level of self-deprecation was likely to come out of those doors.

Sometimes, Glimmer just wanted to be wrong.

Sure enough, Adora did finally stumble out of the infirmary, if only because she needed to grab some breakfast for Catra while the magicat slept.

"Let me." Bow smoothly blocked the exit when he stood, confusing Adora whose only focus had been making a beeline for the kitchens. "I can grab us all something to eat. You should take a moment to sit."

Adora frowned. "Bow, I'd really rather-"

"Please," Glimmer stood too, gently coaxing Adora to the couch. "You've been helping Aunt Casta all night. Relax for a couple seconds."

Adora genuinely looked like she was going to hold Glimmer to 'a couple seconds,' but at least she sat down. The effect was immediate as she sunk into the cool leather, muscles unclenching for the first time all night.

"I'll be back," Bow promised, shooting Glimmer a meaningful look that Adora wouldn't catch: Time to enact The Plan.

"So," Glimmer started with what she and Bow agreed was the first priority. There was a slight edge of fear in her tone as she asked, "Do they know what's wrong?"

Adora blinked a few times, before slowly nodding. Part of her didn't want to rehash all of this, not when she'd spent all night trying to keep herself too busy to even think about it, but Glimmer deserved an answer.

"Bacteria. Apparently..." She swallowed down a pained noise. "Apparently babies need a bunch of bacteria to help them grow. And the bacteria's different for different...um, different species."

Oh, Glimmer thought, heart dropping.

"Finn's half magicat and Catra was producing all the things they needed just fine but..." Adora's voice wavered. She was far too tired to hold back her emotions, her heart bleeding and raw as the fear of the night caught up with her.

Crumpling in on herself, Adora's upper body shook with silent sobs, the ones she'd been fighting down all night for Catra's sake. Glimmer pulled her friend into her lap, letting Adora cry as she rubbed soothing circles along her back.

"It's my fault," Adora whispered.

"No, Dor. It's not."

"No, it really is. I-It's Finn's immune system. It's like mine. You know how weird I am. My stupid immune system can fight off a lot of diseases and it's- it's really strong. Finn was fighting off the bacteria they needed to survive."

"Hey," Glimmer whispered softly, reaching up a hand to pull Adora's hair out of her face, wanting to make eye contact with the woman. "That's still not your fault. That's random chance. And..." Stars, Glimmer hoped the answer was yes, "Finn's okay now, right?"

Adora rapidly nodded. "Yeah. Aunt Casta, she...she's really smart. She figured out what was happening and gave Catra some different things that should balance it out. There's one that'll produce more of the good bacteria, since Catra was running out. That's why she got so sick, because her body was working overtime. The other stuff..." Another flash of fear crossed Adora's features, "Well, it's supposed to weaken Finn's immune system."

"Are you worried about that?" Glimmer asked, not because she didn't know the answer, but because she wanted Adora to keep talking.

"Of course," Adora sniffled. She still wasn't ready yet to get up, so she just kept looking up at Glimmer from her lap. "Who knows if there'll be more issues for Finn just from that. And lowering their immune system, it's connected to Catra's, so it's putting her at risk too." Adora's hands clenched into fists, the tears threatening to return. Bitterly and unrestrained, she added, "It's not fair. They're both going through so much, and I'm not."

Debatable, if Adora's current state was anything to go by.

"They shouldn't have to constantly be in danger while I just...watch." Adora squeezed her eyes shut, but Glimmer never looked away. "I don't know what I'm doing, Glim."

"Nobody ever does," Glimmer reassured. "It's a part of life, not a lack of effort on your part."

"It's my stupid alien DNA that's hurting Finn," Adora whispered, crying openly again, this wave of despair coming from somewhere far deeper, scratching at a wound that had been inside Adora for a long time. "My child isn't even born yet, and I'm already hurting them."

So that's what this was about, Glimmer realized — not being a bad wife, but a bad mother. It made Glimmer's gut twist to know Adora would ever doubt herself.

In reality, it was Adora's worst fear and, on bad days like this, it felt like an inevitability. Adora never had parents, had never grown up with loving and supporting figures in her life. The closest thing she had to a mother was a manipulative, abusive narcissist who wasn't even alive anymore to give her crummy advice.

(The only other person she'd consider a mother figure was, of course, Angella, but seven years of therapy after the war still hadn't helped her sort through that loss fully. Speaking of-)

"Adora, you aren't hurting Finn right now," Glimmer explained patiently. "And when Finn is born, I know you'll never try to hurt them. That doesn't mean they won't get hurt, or that sometimes you won't be the reason for it. I mean, look at my mom and me. We weren't perfect, but we loved each other."

With Glimmer's gentle hand wiping away Adora's tears, the latter opened her eyes to look at Glimmer as she spoke. She seemed unsure, but willing to listen.

"Finn is going to love you," Glimmer promised. "And you already love them, right?"

"So much."

"Good," Glimmer said. "Because that means you're going to figure it out. Eventually. You, Catra, and Finn are going to be just fine."

There was a knock at the door and then Bow was walking in with a platter of fresh fruit and pastries in hand. He didn't say much when he saw the state Adora was in. Without needing to be asked, he simply poured his friend a glass of water.

"Thank you," Adora said once she'd finally set down the glass. "Both of you. I...don't know what I'd do without you two."

"Well, you'll never have to know," Glimmer assured.

"Yeah, there isn't a force in this universe that's gonna keep that kid from meeting their Uncle Bow!"

"Oh!" Glimmer cooed. "Does that make me Aunty Glimmer? Catra is so not allowed to hijack that kid and make them call me something ridiculous."

The conversation soon dissolved into much pleasanter topics, like how Bow already had a to-do list on how he planned to spoil his new best friend, or establishing guidelines on what spells Glimmer was allowed to show Finn and which were strictly off limits.

Adora mostly just listened to the sound of their voices, not taking much in, but appreciating the presence of her friends more than she could ever articulate into words.

"Cat! I felt them this time!" Adora's grin was contagious. Luckily, Catra couldn't see Adora's face when she had her ear pressed to Catra's stomach (not that Catra herself could ever stop smiling).

Everything was heavy. Her limbs. Her eyelids. Even the weird infirmary gown thing she was wearing was heavy — even if it was made of the most ridiculously thin material and had gone to shreds under the wrath of her claws.

Her brain was heavy. Her thoughts were heavy. And heaviest of them all was that solid stone of worry, a boulder that was crammed into her skull and taking up all her free space.

A growl grew at the back of her throat. Something was missing.

"Hey," A soothing voice came as a response, and then Catra became dimly aware of a hand brushing some stray wild hairs out of her face. "You're up."

"Wh're's Finn?" Catra mumbled, eyes squinting open. Gratefully, Adora's head was blocking some of the overhead lights, saving her an increased migraine.

"It'll just be another moment," Adora promised her. At the sound of Catra's growl growing, Adora leaned down to kiss Catra's forehead, whispering an easy, "They'll be here soon. Just hang in there."

She sounded calm, so Catra would have to give Adora some credit once she got her bearings back. It was good to have a voice of reason around, because Catra was only growing more upset by the minute.

"Wanna see 'em," she whined.

"I know. Me too."

"Where?"

"They had to make sure everything was okay. We knew they'd have to take Finn for a minute, remember?"

Catra might remember. She definitely didn't care. Attempting to sit up, she was surprised that Adora immediately helped, propping her up with pillows at the ready. All the while, Adora was gently coaxing Catra to stay calm, to be patient — as if Catra hadn't waited long enough after months of being a walking, talking, two-seater Horde tank.

A knock at the door got both their attention. "Come in," Adora called eagerly, half-sitting by Catra's side and half-standing, like she hadn't decided if she should rush over yet or not.

Castaspella didn't give her enough time to decide as the door swung open, Entrapta and Glimmer in tow. And, right there in Glimmer's arms...

"Oh, wow," Adora's eyes widened, attention so fixated on the bundle of blankets that she didn't bother trying to keep Catra from leaping after them. Thankfully, Catra was still pretty out of it and before she could even attempt to roll out of bed, Glimmer was at the bedside.

"Sorry it took so long," Glimmer said, eyes tired but smiling brighter than ever.

Adora didn't push for more, not yet at least. Details could be a later problem, after she was done enjoying her own immense relief at seeing Finn's little nose scrunching up as they sniffed the air in their sleep.

When Catra had unexpectedly gone into labor weeks sooner than she was supposed to, they knew that there were going to be...issues. They'd been so careful about monitoring Catra and Finn, but there were still so many unknown variables and they couldn't prepare for everything.

Catra, thankfully, was strong. The birth took a toll on her but it was nothing unrecoverable. Finn, though? With so much up in the air, it was a miracle the two mothers had made it this far.

As it turned out, Finn was strong too. They'd pulled through, despite the immense odds against them (a quality they most assuredly inherited from their moms).

Without another second to waste, Glimmer handed the baby over to Catra, whose impatient growl turned into the loudest purr they'd ever heard from her. Quietly, the group excused themselves, though Castaspella assured Adora they'd be just a room away in case they needed anything. Glimmer might have had to drag Entrapta away by force, but Adora wasn't minding them anymore.

They look so much like Catra, Adora thought, feeling a little breathless as she took in every little detail. Right there, in her wife's arms was their kid, Finn, wrapped up in a soft purple blanket, fuzzy blonde face nuzzled into the fabric, big ears (Magicat ears!) folded tight against their head.

Catra kept Finn on her chest, leaning her head down a little awkwardly to scent-mark the kid, rubbing her cheeks all over Finn and the blanket. For a long moment, Adora just watched, too mesmerized by the scene to move, until Catra's tail flicked lazily along Adora's hips.

"C'mere," Catra all but ordered, and Adora was happy to oblige. Sure, she had to help nudge Catra over, but soon Adora was settled in what had to be the softest place in the world (Magicat fur, plus Mystacor's fabric softener? It was over for Adora the moment she laid down).

"I didn't think this was possible," Adora admitted, raising a hand to rub along their child's back, smoothing down the fur that had gotten ruffled from the blanket.

"What?"

"Being this happy."

For the rest of the night, before they all fell asleep anyway, Catra didn't discriminate between scent-marking her wife and her new, healthy, ridiculously adorable child.

A week later, Finn opened their eyes for the first time, and by the stars were they blue.

Melog was very upset about being excluded from the initial cuddle pile, so, for the next year, they made it their mission to make up for it every possible moment since.

It was honestly a nightmare for Adora. Juggling a toddler and a perpetually territorial feline was one thing. Adding Melog into the mix was another. At least they were helpful sometimes, like when they would momentarily babysit Finn while Adora and her wife desperately tried to pull their life together for one evening.

"Catra?" Adora called from the bathroom, "Have you seen my hair ties?"

"Pretty sure Finn ate the last of your hair ties," Catra answered, voice strained. They were already running late and Catra had a long meeting with advisors the night before, but she didn't want to seem tired at this thing, like she couldn't handle-

"Hey," Adora's voice came much quieter, from behind Catra. Her warm hands wrapped around Catra's waist as she spun her wife around to face her. "I know you're overthinking."

"I know. It's gross. I've been spending too much time around you, clearly."

Adora rolled her eyes fondly, accepting the teasing if it meant Catra would focus her tirade on someone other than herself. "Well, clear that head of yours." She kissed Catra's forehead to emphasize the point. "You need to help me tactically acquire a hair tie."

"Or-" Catra ran her fingers through Adora's hair, eyes lingering on the tiara on her head, the sunstone a dreamy red in the moonlight. Adora's hair had gotten much longer over the years, reaching down to the woman's shoulder blades. "-you could give that poor forehead a break and just wear it down."

"Yeah?"

"Mhm," Catra hummed, "It'll look nice, trust me. Plus, you're legally bound to listen to my opinion since you asked for it. Now come on, help me zip up this thing."

Adora argued against that statement as she zipped up the sleeveless maroon dress Catra was wearing. It looked stunning on her and paired nicely with Adora and Finn's matching suits (yes, you heard that right, Catra had built herself a family of the biggest dorks alive).

"Don't forget the pocket squares," Catra reminded Adora as she walked over to the corner where Melog and Finn were napping. Finn grumbled as they were picked up, but was still too tired to make much of a fuss as Catra moved them to the bed to get dressed. "Alright, buddy, you know the drill. Up and at 'em. We have ten minutes to make it to the dining hall and Sparkles is gonna execute your momma if we're late to Angel's baby shower."

Finn laughed at that, waving their arms around as they tested the limits of the red jacket Catra was buttoning them into.

"Catra, will you please stop giving our child misconceptions about Brightmoon's judicial system?"

The near-identical looks Catra, Finn, and Melog shot her simultaneously were absolutely worth it.

"One pocket square for mom," Adora mumbled aloud as she walked over to Finn, "And one for little Finny." Then, slyly, she glanced over to Melog. "And...I happen to remember buying an extra red bow tie for someone."

Melog's ears perked up in alarm at the statement. Soon enough, he was bounding around the room with Adora in hot pursuit, red cloth in hand.

(Seriously, Catra thought as Adora hurdled over the bed with ease, no one should look that hot running in a suit.)

Adora should have figured this out already, but Melog was a dirty cheat and not above using Finn as a shield. They nuzzled themselves in between Finn's back and the mattress.

'Little one, defend me!'

Catra scoffed, hearing Melog through their connection. 'Cut it out Melog, you're gonna get your fur on them.'

'The little one is a warrior,' Melog huffed, eyes watching Adora with amusement as the woman tried to decide the best angle of attack. 'They can handle fur.'

"Fur!"

All eyes turned to Finn.

"Did...Finn just say fur?" Catra asked, needing to make sure, ears twitching excitedly.

"Yeah, I think they did." Adora looked more than a little confused. Finn had said 'ma' and 'mama' before, and Catra mentioned wanting their third word to be 'Gim-Gim' so that Glimmer could get stuck with the name, but... "Wait, where did they get fur from?"

Melog let out a happy trill, before carefully pulling away from Finn so they could sprint through Adora and Catra's legs. Mostly, Catra wasn't fazed as she was more focused on Finn who kept repeating the word.

"Hey, wait, Melog!" Adora dodged the creature, only becoming more confused as Catra's grin grew. "Cat? What is it? What happened?!" As Melog almost tripped Adora over completely, she let out an exasperated, "And why are you laughing-"

They were eight minutes late to the baby shower, not that anyone even noticed. Apparently Adora's moping over being the only one who couldn't speak alien-cat was not a good enough excuse to stay in for the night.

The first time Finn wrote their name, it was in Eternian. Besides the squiggliness of the lines and the fact that it was written in crayon, the word nearly matched the engraving in Adora's headpiece perfectly.

No, Catra did not cry, contrary to what key witnesses (Adora) might report.

"I can't believe we were ever worried about Hordak!" Glimmer was panting as she teleported over to the table where Catra and Adora were sunbathing. "That kid is way more terrifying than all the dictators we've faced combined."

Catra couldn't help but laugh. "That's because they're my kid. Put some respect on the family business."

"I don't remember being a part of that," Adora lightly shoved Catra, who in turn made a whole show of dramatically falling off her lounge chair into one of the flowerbeds.

Glimmer would have yelled at her for destroying Brightmoon's finest lavender bushes if she weren't already exhausted. It was nearing hour two of playing hide-and-seek with her friends' budding menace. When she first agreed to play, she'd been unaware that: one, the rules were subject to change at any and all times on the whim of the game master (Finn) and, two, the first rule was Glimmer is objectively horrible at hiding.

("The kid can smell the glitter," Catra had wrinkled her own nose in explanation.)

"I don't think Bow made it," Glimmer admitted. "Last I saw him, he was running in circles with Finn and-"

"There she is!"

Glimmer paled as she heard the soft sound of what could only rightly be described as a natural predator running through grass to hunt their prey. "Gotta run!"

If by run, she meant teleport, then she did run, but only a few feet away so Finn could chase her in hot pursuit, followed diligently by none other than-

"Wait for me!" A high pitched voice squealed, the person it belonged to toddling along as fast as they could behind Finn.

"Angel!" Finn groaned, barely looking back, "Hurry up! She's gon' get away!"

"Hey," Bow yelled from far away, from where it could be assumed he was lying on the grass somewhere in the distance to catch his breath, "Angel has tiny legs, give her some credit!"

Adora and Catra watched the chaos fondly. Catra had crawled out of the lavender bushes and decided she'd be sitting in Adora's lounge chair now, thank you very much. Not that the other woman minded in the slightest, more than happy to stroke her fingers through Catra's fur.

"Sparkles is right you know."

Adora gave her a teasing frown. "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?"

Catra rolled her eyes. "I'm talking about Finn. That kid is going to be running this palace before long."

"Please, by the time they're our age? They'll be ruling all of Brightmoon."

"C'mon Angel, I'll show you how to hide in the trees! It's really easy, but don't let Uncle Bow see you or he'll get mad."

Catra chuckled at that, being one of the few adults who could hear Finn's whispering from far away. After checking that Glimmer did, in fact, have a watchful eye on them, she mischievously turned back to Adora.

"Speaking of future monarchs, have you noticed the way those two act around each other?"

"Huh?" Adora was now actually confused. "What do you mean?"

Catra leaned in conspiratorially, like they were still kids themselves, sharing secrets in the locker room in between drills. "They're acting just like we did when we were younger. Y'know, attached at the hip, always getting into trouble."

"...And?"

With more theatrics than needed, Catra let out a loud groan, only to pause when she noticed Finn twitch their ear her way. She waited them out, pleased to know they inherited Adora's attention span, before saying, "Seriously? How can you still be this oblivious?"

There was a moment while Adora connected the dots, but then her eyebrows nearly raised to her hairline.

"What?!" Once again, it was too loud and the two had to wait longer for Finn to get distracted again, but as soon as they did, Adora whispered, "You don't think they...like each other, do you?"

"They're still too young for that," Catra scoffed, then thought back to her own weird childhood crush and reconsidered slightly. "I mean, probably. I don't think Angel even knows her parents are together yet honestly."

Adora had a strange look on her face, like she'd bitten into a sour dessert but didn't want to offend the baker. "But... Angel? Are you sure?"

"Easy soldier," Catra laughed. She pointedly squished Adora's face to get rid of her wife's frown. "Angel's a good kid."

"She's our best friends' kid!"

"Exactly."

"She's Glimmer's kid."

"And Bow's. Now stop being weird about it. We don't have to worry about that for a long time, anyway."

Adora smoothed down the fur on Catra's back, hands moving a little haltingly because she was distracted thinking it over. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

There was a quiet period of silence before Adora asked, more light-heartedly than before, "They're going to get crushes eventually though. Right?"

"Maybe," Catra shrugged. "Maybe not. I mean, Entrapta's fine on her own. Not everyone needs someone like that."

"Finn! Try an'catch me!" Angel ran as fast as her stubby legs could take her, darting past the lounge chairs and towards the steps.

"Careful!" Bow yelled, at the same time as the faint twinkling sound of teleportation could be heard nearby.

"Angel!" Finn grabbed the girl by her hand, a toothy grin on their face, "Let's run!"

Catra leaned into the crook of Adora's neck, taking a moment to scent mark the area. "They're growing up, huh?"

"Yeah," Adora nuzzled her own chin in Catra's hair, not quite scent-marking, but she'd taken up the habit with Catra and Finn doing it so much. "They're doing a lot better job at it than we ever did."

"Mm, well, we aren't half bad at this parenting thing. That helps."

"It still feels surreal, doesn't it?" Adora asked. "That we...made it. And we get to do this?"

Catra murmured her agreement. "It always felt impossible."

It was unclear why, maybe she was just feeling sentimental, but Adora couldn't help recalling a conversation from a good many years ago —- from when they were younger and the war had only just ended.

"Neither of us should probably be here," Catra admitted.

Catra should have perished with her people, never to become a child soldier. And Adora...who knows what would have become of Adora had she never reached Etheria.

"We shouldn't be here," Adora echoed somberly. It was such an odd thing to have in common.

"But..." Catra added softly, brushing her thumb against Adora's lips, down her jaw, to her neck, finally resting her open palm over Adora's heart. Feeling the intense beat. "I'm glad we're here...I'm glad it was us."

"You know, I just realized something," Adora said, addressing Catra, but eyes following Finn who was still running through the grass, their squeaky laughter filling the air.

"Hm, what?"

"You and me...we're sort of the last of our kind. And nobody had ever seen a hybrid like Finn before, right? So...maybe...that makes Finn the first."

"The first of their kind?"

"Yeah," Adora said softly, looking back down at Catra as she leaned down to press a kiss onto her head. "The first."

It was shocking that it took them so long to restart the tradition, and yet wholly fitting that it was Finn who started it up again completely by accident when they'd doodled their moms faces on their bedroom wall. It was never clear which parent doodled Finn and Melog's faces underneath them to make four portraits.

Still, one could guess based on the artistic skills alone.

(Or, really, the lack of any.)