Work Text:
'They think it’s the Horde’ echoes in her mind long after she hung up the phone. She sees the words written in everything as she tries to make dinner, from misreading the recipe to seeing the words form in the noodles of her pasta. Adora just can’t shake the pit of dread snared in her gut.
Ok, so she might be going a little insane knowing that someone did something intentionally that very likely could have killed Catra. But who wouldn’t be! Sure, with the modern day fire suppression techniques built into buildings, there’s not too much risk of fire spreading beyond a single structure. A skilled arsonist, however, could completely negate those if they wanted. Never mind the fact that after a bit of Google Streetview, Zillow, ApartmentRatings, and county records sleuthing, Adora had found out just how decrepit and unsafe Catra’s building had been. It probably should have been condemned ages ago. And it’s a miracle that it hadn’t burned down earlier from a faulty wire!
She huffs, scrubbing even harder at the spotless sauté pan she’s been mindlessly washing for the last five minutes. Working her arm tirelessly to ease her anxieties. But her mind can’t stop straying into unpleasant territory. What if Catra was the target? It might sound delusional the first time the thought crosses her mind, but by the third time, it starts sounding more than plausible.
Catra should know.
She still hasn’t received a text back from Catra after their exchanging of numbers at the end of their not-date. She tries not to let it mean anything, the not-date went well, she reminds herself. Catra will text her when she’s ready.
Adora
Hey Catra! It’s Adora again :)
I just got a call from the chief about your fire and she said they think it was started on purpose by some group called the Horde, idk sounds dangerous
I can’t believe someone would just light a building with people in it on fire! But anyways, I hope you had a nice dinner, and that Melog doesn’t miss me too much :P
She sets her phone back down to finish cleaning up. And by the time she’s done, she’s calmed significantly. Catra still hasn’t gotten back to her as she’s settling down on the couch — it stings, but only a little. She had gotten so used to their daily DMing routine that any slight deviance sets her on edge. Spending the rest of the evening watching a movie and trading memes with Glimmer keeps her occupied. Time flows like normal, and before long, Adora finds herself drifting off to sleep, a nagging worry tugging at her consciousness as she does.
Adora is late to work for the first time today. She got distracted thinking about how Catra still hadn’t texted her back on her morning walk with Swiftie, and the time got away from her. She knows Catra sleeps late, and wouldn’t be awake when Adora does her running anyways — she’s lucky if Catra answers her before noon. As if being late wasn’t enough of weight on her, she has to be late and manage the fear that Catra is ghosting her.
She’s on edge, to say the least.
So when the first thing she sees after coming out of the locker room is Mara in the hallway, clearly waiting for her to show up, she’s powerless to stop her anxiety from spiking. And Mara is blocking the exit, so there’s nowhere for Adora to go except to face her probable termination. Obviously Mara found out she’s been talking to Catra, something she knew from the beginning she wasn’t supposed to do. And now her past mistakes are paying dividends.
“Hey, kid! I can see you standing there, you know?” Mara calls out, but without any of the heat Adora was expecting.
“Hey Mara!” Adora yells back, a little too cheery and a little too loud for someone only 20 feet away. Adora feels like she’s wearing her own skin as a suit as she walks the over to Mara. Her movements feel robotic and unfamiliar, making each step feel monumental. The air conditioning is too cold, and since when has it been this loud?
“Are you ok, Adora? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Mara asks with a frown and worried eyes.
“I’m ok— great, actually,” Adora fronts, despite knowing Mara can see right through her flimsy facade.
“Ok, well,” Mara stops to give Adora a worried look over. “I was actually waiting for you. Come with me to my office?”
“Yeah— yeah sure. I’d love to,” she stumbles over her words. She quickly follows after Mara into her small but cozy office. Mara has been the fire chief at this station since Adora was in diapers, and that long history is proudly on display in this room. Trophies from interdepartmental competitions, decades of team photos, and dozens of framed newspaper articles about her or the station’s heroics.
Adora stands between the two chairs across from Mara sitting behind the desk. If she’s going to be fired, then she’ll at least do it standing.
Mara looks up with her in confusion, quirking an eyebrow. “You can sit, Adora,” she says.
“I’d prefer to stand,” Adora replies, with her head held high, voice steady and confident.
“Adora, sit down, goddess above,” Mara laughs back at her. “This isn’t anything awful,” she stops, taking a breath and shifting her tone to a gentler one. “Just more of a check-in, ok?”
“Ok,” Adora breathes in a shaky reply, sitting down, but only on the edge of the chair on her left.
“Last month was your first big fire, and you were pretty shaken up by it for a while after. Aaaand having it turn out to be arson can complicate those feelings. So, I’m here asking: how are you feeling?”
“Oh,” is all Adora can say.
“Is that a bad ‘oh’?” Mara asks.
“No. No! I’m fine,” she scrambles to say. “Mostly fine,” she adds.
“Mostly fine?”
“It’s a bit of a silly thing to worry about, I’ve got to admit,” she tries to add some levity with a laugh. But Mara’s face shows nothing except concern. “I’m just worried about—”
“The woman you rescued?” Mara supplies.
Adora feels her cheeks heat up. “Yeah. Her. What if she was the target?”
“The target?”
“Yeah, you know? The reason why they targeted that building. To…kill her?”
Mara is silent for a moment, blankly staring back at Adora, before she erupts into peels of laughter.
“Adora, oh goddess,” she laughs out. “Ok, ok. I’m ok,” she says, covering her grin with a hand to regain her composure with a minor amount of grace.
Adora feels more confused than when she was asked by her straight friends in high school if she was team Edward or team Jacob.
“Adora. There are plenty of easier ways to kill someone that aren’t arson, first of all. And secondly, The Horde is just what we call Hordak and Sons around the station.”
Adora blinks back at Mara. The name rings no bells to her.
“Hordak and Sons are a local real estate developer. A shady one at that. It’s been a long time since we’ve had reason to suspect they were behind a fire. And since you’re still a rookie, you’ve probably not heard about those cases before,” Mara explains as she pulls open a desk draw and pulls out a file. She lays it on the desk in front of Adora. It’s labeled ‘Hordak and Sons’ and has hundreds of pieces of papers about half a dozen or so fires over the past 10 years.
“Wow,” Adora says, thumbing through the folder. None of these were high case fires, no deaths, only property damage. And all in The Freight Zone.
“This is all research I’ve done myself. Up until now, the police have brushed me off when I present all this to them. The bastards,” Mara says with scorn. “But because this one had multiple injuries, they took it more serious.”
Adora has noticed a pattern in the documents. All in the Freight Zone. All then bought by Hordak and Sons for pennies on the dollar. All then redeveloped and sold to the same property management company: Prime Realty.
“Mara this is…”
“Some bullshit. I know.”
“I was going to say really good detective work. But yeah, that too. I can’t believe no one has looked into this but you,” Adora says, handing the folder back to Mara.
“You flatter me, kid. It was just a thread I started following a few years ago, and this folder is where it has lead me.”
“Do you think it will go anywhere now that they’re looking into it?” Adora asks.
“Truth be told. I don’t know. I’d like to think so. But I’m not getting my hopes up,” Mara sighs and stands up. And Adora follows suit. She stops at the door, her hand on the handle. “Just don’t tell her anything ok? I’ve heard you two have been chatting,” Mara smirks at her. “It’s under official investigation finally, and the last thing we need is for any of the victims to take matters into their own hands.”
Adora nervously chuckles, “Right! I’ll not tell her! Definitely.”
Mara stares back at her, disbelief painted on her face clear as day. “Adora… Please tell me you didn’t.”
“I— yes. I did last night after I called you,” Adora averts Mara’s eyes, looking down to her shoes in shame.
Mara sighs a heavy sigh. “Ok, well, please tell her to let the police deal with things. As incompetent as they may be.”
“Will do, Chief,” Adora nods in understanding.
“That’ll be all then, Deputy Firefighter Gray,” Mara says, opening the door for Adora.
“See you,” Adora smiles brightly at Mara, feeling much lighter leaving her office than she did arriving to work. Her worries about Catra being the target have been eased slightly. She walks out into the common room and spots Bow and Glimmer sitting around a table, eating pastries and having coffee. Adora joins them, taking a croissant and a copy of the Etherian Times. She reads article after article in the paper, downs two cups of coffee, and chit chats with her friends. A lot of her time in the firehouse is spent like this: just hanging out until a call comes in. But today, there aren’t any calls. Everything goes smoothly and without incident.
Smoothly, and without any texts back from Catra.