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Adora was right
Adora is always right
Shadow Weaver left Catra for Adora
Adora left Catra
Catra never mattered
She needed to hurt Adora
Hurt Adora like she hurt Catra
Open the portal and watch the fear in her eyes as everything burns
—
Catra jolted upright from her sleep.
She was in the cadet barracks.
Something fidgeted beneath Catra. She turned back, to see her best friend thrashing in her sleep.
It was just a dream.
Catra let out a sigh of… relief? Probably.
None of that dream was real.
Catra tried to focus on the dream as it slowly faded from memory— there was… a sword or something? Adora had it for some reason. There was some destiny thing, and she threw everything away. Threw Catra away.
Beyond that, her memory was… vague, to say the least. Catra tried to move on, and it went okay until everything crashed. Great, now even her unconscious mind thought she was a failure. And there was a portal? It was bad. Adora said not to open it, Catra was going to out of spite.
…and that’s about all she could piece together.
The magicat slumped back into her curled position, trying to steady her heartbeat. Everything was fine. Adora was here Adora was with her Adora wasn’t going to leave-
“Hey, Psst! Catra!”
Catra jerked up at the sudden whisper that she’s pretty sure was loud enough that it defeated the purpose of whispering to begin with. She turned around to see her best friend gazing at her, bloodshot eyes filled with concern.
“Are you okay? You were fidgeting a lot and breathing really heavily.”
Catra looked away, quickly muttering. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
She felt her tail being stroke by the blonde. “Bad dream?”
Catra was too tired to fight back. Curse this woman for knowing her so well. “Yeah.”
“You wanna talk about it?”
Catra glanced at her. They had an examination next morning. Well, this morning- glancing at the clock revealed it was well past midnight. “You should probably go to sleep.”
Adora grimaced, “Can’t sleep. Plus, you matter more.”
A few long seconds passed before Catra whispered, “You promise?”
A warm hand landed on Catra’s shoulder. “I promise.”
Catra scooted over to Adora before speaking in a hushed tone, “You left.”
Adora tensed at that statement. “What? Why?”
Catra gave a noncommittal shrug. “Dunno. Destiny or something? And a sword?”
Adora’s again tensed. “A… sword?”
Catra glanced at the blonde’s face— her face was ghost white. The magicat’s brows furrowed in confusion, causing Adora to speak up.
“It’s just… I had one too. A bad dream.” At Catra’s raised eyebrow, she continued, “And there was a sword. And I left you and I missed you and I hated it and I’m sorry and-“
Catra placed a finger on the stammering blonde’s lips. “Adora, calm down. It was a dream.”
Suddenly Catra was jerked into a bone crushing bear hug by her best friend, muffled sobs threatening to echo through the room
Catra let out a purr to soothe the blonde… and herself. It was reassuring that Adora leaving the brunette behind scared her as much as Catra… and yet.
“Do you think it means anything?”
The magicat stared up at Adora’s odd question. When she didn’t respond, the blonde continued, “It’s just I’ve heard that dreams have meaning and if we had the same dream of me leaving and a sword-“
Catra grabbed the blonde by the head, resting her huge forehead on her own— technically her mask, whatever. That seemed to anchor the girl. “It’s okay, dummy. Now c’mon. We need to sleep for tomorrow.”
Adora looked at her, blue eyes quivering with sadness. “Can you hold me?”
Catra sighed. As much as she knew that it wouldn’t end well if Shadow Weaver found out… she needed this too.
“C’mon dummy,” she grunted, yanking the blonde over to the bed’s nearly flat pillow, slipped under the thin covers, and pulled the blonde into a tight, purring hug. Slowly, Catra felt herself drifting to sleep…
—
Catra woke up randomly. No dream this time, just kinda did. For a half-moment she was startled, before remembering the cuddle Adora had practically begged for.
Adora’s stare was new, though.
“Good morning,” the blonde whispered.
Catra sat up slightly, prompting a displeased whine from Adora, to look at the clock. Still an hour until lights on. She fell back to the “pillow” (calling it that was a huge stretch, which, incidentally, was exactly what her neck would need later), and back into Adora’s gaze.
Catra had never seen Adora stare at her with this much affection.
“Y’know, you’re really cute when you’re asleep,” the blonde teasingly whispered.
“I am not cute!” Catra whisper-yelled, hoping her puffed up mane would distract from the blush heating up her face.
Adora just giggled in that stupidly Adora way, bringing up her hand and gently stroking her fingers through Catra’s silky-soft ear tufts.
“Careful, dummy,” Catra joked. “You might make me think you like me.” Everyone around her joked about her liking Adora (which she would never admit was true), including Adora herself. About time she got to say it herself.
Catra felt the blonde’s muscles tense before relaxing, voice wavering as she said, “And so what if I do?”
Before Catra could respond with a witty remark like “who doesn’t,” Adora’s warm lips were on hers.
Catra jolted ramrod straight, eyes widening in shock. Adora noticed the response, and quickly pulled away, lips quivering.
“S-sorry. I just… read that wrong- if you wanna go you can-“
Before Adora could stammer her apology any further, Catra kissed her with a force of energy she wasn’t aware she had at 5 in the morning. Slowly the two’s anxiety melted away, and they relaxed into each other, breaths mixing in their deep kiss.
When the two eventually parted for air, Adora chuckled to herself. “I guess you do like me after all. That’s so embarrassing for you.”
Catra just rolled her eyes before tucking her head into Adora’s shoulder. A contented purr rumbled from her throat.
The nightmare didn’t matter.
For the first time in a long while, Catra felt like things were going to be okay.