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The moons were setting, the wind blowing in a way that felt almost novelistic, and the sound of laughter most likely echoed throughout the area. If one were to be in the area, they would have probably been scared, or a bit terrified by the randomness of it. However, those worried would calm down once they’d seen that Adora was running up the hillside of a grass field, panting and laughing the whole way up as she watched Catra climb up ahead of her.
“All these years and you’re still the world’s slowest person?” Catra called teasingly, looking down at Adora with what could only be made out as a smug expression.
“Shut up!” Adora said as she continued to run up the hill.
Catra only chuckled, continuing to quickly walk up the hill without any problems. Of course, that was to be expected of her considering she’d always been fast, ever since the two had been only children. Still, Adora tried her best to be able to reach Catra just as quickly so that she wouldn’t have been considered as slow as she’d been made out to be. However, through the years that the two women had grown, despite how much Adora had managed to be able to catch up with Catra, there was still quite the long way to go. A bit literally as while Adora continued to walk up the hill, Catra had reached the top already.
“Come on, slow poke! We don’t have all day.” Catra called.
Adora ran faster up the hill, forcing her legs to use the strength she knew they held, until she’d finally reached Catra and collapsed onto the floor with a tired groan. Bits of grass sneaked into her mouth, dirt blowing into her face, some getting into her eyes.
If the dirt was asking for Adora’s attention, it failed, as Catra was the only thing that managed to occupy it, staring down at Adora. “You know, you could’ve just turned into She-Ra and made it easier for yourself.” Catra pointed.
“I didn’t think about that.” Adora responded, voice lost in awe. In the past she would have felt stupid about coming to that realization late, but now she rarely let such things bother her anymore.
“Whatever. Get up.” Catra said, reaching out a hand to Adora, pulling her back on her feet.
Once Adora had gotten back up, she looked around the area and took in the scenery. The hillside she and Catra had climbed up had been one that never left her memory, the cries and joys of celebration ringing in her ears as the stars hung over them with the same happiness of victory.
The victory that had been first celebrated almost five years ago. Five years had seemed so short a time, yet it also felt so distant. Adora could still picture the end of the battle as though it’d only been yesterday, but would recall the Horde itself as if it had been something from thousands of years ago.
If anything were to truly help her with knowing how much could happen in just a few years, it would have been the three years she and Catra had been apart. During that portion of her life, despite the joy she felt being with her friends, despite transforming into an eight-foot-tall version of herself, looking back at every day of that time felt as though it all happened in the blink of an eye. The battles, the days she said were long, the tense moments of the war. So much was happening and yet it passed by so quickly.
Meanwhile, the days she’d spent now, still with her friends, still transforming into an eight-foot-tall upgraded version of herself, with no war, with Catra had felt as though time would stop just for her, giving her all the time she could have ever wanted to stay in those moments.
Still, so much had happened over the course of those three years she and Catra had spent apart from each other. So much that had seemed as though it’d been some sort of nightmare-ish dream. So much that Adora could remember so clearly.
“A lot’s changed, huh?” Catra asked. “After everything that happened.”
Adora looked towards Catra, having been brought back out of her own head, then back towards the landscape. “Thinking about it just… Makes everything seem so distant.”
Catra studied the expression on Adora’s face for a moment, Adora meeting her eyes in a silent gesture that expressed she was alright. They’d gotten better at that, checking in with each other in small ways. It was something they always did, made their own silly languages for when they were kids but could never outright express what they were feeling. Maybe it was their own growing pains they needed to get past, maybe it was an outcome of the Horde’s teachings, Etheria knows a certain Weaver had something to do with it. Still, Adora liked that she and Catra were communicating, had been for the past five years.
It didn’t stop Adora from staring out at the one thing that reminded everyone of the war.
“Guess it’s good we kept those then.” Catra mused, half-jokingly.
Adora chuckled a bit. “Yeah, guess so.”
The old spires that Horde Prime had set on the planet. Many of them had been covered in plants and moss now, animals taking shelter within them, though its initial purposes could never be fully forgotten about.
In the aftermath of the war, the princess alliance had discussed the matter on what should have been done with the spires. Some insisted that the spires could have posed a danger to anyone who didn’t know how to access them, as the technology of them was still something many were learning to decipher. There had also been those that wanted to keep the spires for the purpose of keeping them for historical value, a reminder of what it took to save Etheria. It took a bit of time to finalize a decision on what to do with the spires, the final decision being the dismantling of many with the keeping of a few for both historic and technological value. A new mission was set into motion, led by Bow and Princess Entrapta with members of the Maker’s Guild studying the spires and sharing their research with everyone across the kingdom.
Many citizens of Etheria weren’t entirely pleased with the decision, less so those who had been personally affected by Horde Prime’s attacks. Adora wasn’t entirely excluded from that list.
“Five years.” Adora spoke, breaking the silence. “I can’t believe it’s been that long.”
“I know,” Catra agreed. “So much has happened since then.”
Adora looked back at Catra and took her hand, intertwining their fingers. “Like us.”
A loving smile formed on Catra’s face. “Yeah, like us,” Catra repeated, taking hold of Adora’s other hand. “Two girls who were able to save the world with the power of making out.”
Adora laughed. “Ok, ok, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just the making out part,” she corrected. “I mean, you wouldn’t have kissed me unless you didn’t like me. Or love me.” Adora teased, leaning in close to Catra to give her a big kiss, though was met with her face getting shoved her face away.
“Oh, get over yourself,” Catra said, shoving Adora away before swiftly pulling her back in with arms around Adora’s neck. “And learn how to start a kiss right.” she teased, pulling Adora in and kissing her slowly and sweetly, the way she always knew how, never not making Adora melt.
While the two would find a way to pass a kiss to each other here and there, the ones they would give when they’d been alone had been the best. After all, finding the time to be fully alone with each other had been hard to come by with each month that passed. Each day, maybe, if the stars had hated them so much.
When the two pulled away, Adora felt her face flush as a slight breeze brushed over her face. “We really need to find time like this again.” Adora spoke quietly, keeping her arms wrapped around Catra’s waist.
Catra brushed a hand behind Adora’s hair. “Missing it, huh?” she purred.
“A little.” Adora admitted, gently pressing her forehead against Catra’s, listening to the sounds of the low purs that Catra had been letting out.
Suddenly, Catra backed away from the embrace. A chill wascsent down Adora’s body, hands reaching out towards the feline, as if hoping she would be able to pull her back in. She looked up towards Catra, who turned her back from both the spire and Adora. “Then you want it to be easier to come by, right?” Catra asked with a shaky voice.
Adora stood confused, but chose not to question what it was exactly that Catra was doing, and instead answer the question. It was better to listen and then respond, rather than to listen and start spouting out things. Adora learned that the hard way. “That’d be nice,” Adora responded. “Really nice.”
Catra let out a shaky sigh, slowly digging into her pocket and clenching something in her hands. She held her hands behind her back as she turned around to face Adora. A small, nervous smile sat on her face. “Stay right there, ok?”
Adora nodded, smiling for any assurance that was needed.
Catra let out another sigh, and took a step closer to Adora. She was shaking, Adora noticed it immediately. There was something going on, something that was making Catra scared, and all Adora wanted to do was wrap her arms around her, plant kisses on her cheeks, hold her so she could stop shaking. She knew she couldn’t overwhelm her, but she didn’t want Catra feeling scared about whatever it was she was feeling scared about.
Adora reached a hand out. “Catra, are you-”
The next thing she knew, Catra was down on one knee.
Adora’s eyes widened. Her heart raced, and raced, and raced. She knew what this meant. Or at least she hoped she did. It had to be, didn’t it?
Catra held out a ring. A golden ring. Shaped like the tiara that Adora would wear as She-Ra, a blue oval stone sitting at the center. The color matched her eyes.
This had to be what Adora was thinking.
“You know what this is, right?” Catra asked, nervous smile still on her face but turning confident. Adora didn’t respond. She couldn’t, overwhelmed from a single action, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “I’m only going to say this once, so listen up.” Catra continued. “Adora, I’ve loved you for so long. I can’t remember a single moment where I didn’t.” Adora tried her best to keep in the tears. “You have been the one thing in my life that I know I will never be able to do without. You’re the one thing… The one person that I am sure of. The one person I don’t think I’ll be able to get enough of.” Catra’s words were so pure, so genuine, so full of love. Adora pulled a hand up to her mouth to hold in the sob that was threatening to come out upon hearing those words. “Adora, I love you,” Tears were forming in Catra’s eyes now, though she dried them out. “More than all the stars and planets we want to find.” Adora found herself laughing at that, though at the same time it sounded too much like a sob. “And I want to keep loving you until the very end.” The words came out of Catra’s mouth so passionately, so lovingly. And she hadn’t even gotten to the most important part. “So…” She took a pause, taking Adora’s free hand. “Adora, will you marry me?”
Adora was prepared to respond. So prepared that she’d been ready to hold Catra in her arms and kiss her more deeply than she’d ever had before. Her legs were getting ready to buckle down onto the ground in any second, and her heart was pounding louder than ever, and the tears in her eyes and the lump in her throat had nearly prevented her from being able to speak at all.
One more look at the ring, one more look in Catra’s eyes, and that was just about what she did.
“Yes!” She cried. Literally and figuratively. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you!” Adora called, letting her legs give out to let her fall in front of Catra and pull her in for a deep kiss, tears streaming down her face. It didn’t take long for Catra to kiss back, arms wrapped around Adora’s waist.
When the two pulled away, a few sobs were heard. But they hadn’t been the ones Adora was holding in earlier.
It was Catra.
“Thank you.” Catra said, tears streaming down her face and at the edge of her lips.
“What? Did you think I was going to say ‘no’?” Adora asked, wiping away both her and Catra’s tears.
Catra shook her head and wiped away a few of her tears. “No, I just… I didn’t know what to expect,” she confessed. “I mean, it’s not like we’ve talked about this or anything, even when we’ve seen other people do it, so I wasn’t sure if I was thinking too hard about it or if you actually wanted to.”
Adora laughed at Catra’s rambling, something she only did when overwhelmed. She placed a hand on Catra’s cheek, her fingertips catching the tears that had fallen from Catra’s eyelids. “Catra. I love you.” And she meant it. She always did, always would. “I’ve loved you for as long as I can remember, romance and all. And I want to stay with you whether it’s until the end of our lives, the end of the world, or the end of time.” Adora said, tears continuing to stream down her face.
Catra laughed, still looking into Adora’s blue eyes, the tears welling up making them sparkle in the moonlight. Another sob broke away from Adora, though it wasn’t the heavy kind that would pain her lungs. It was the kind that would make her heart pound, and butterflies grow in her stomach.
Catra took a hold of Adora’s hand, the one she’d held when she’d asked the question. Adora watched as Catra placed the ring on her finger, and felt another lump in her throat.
“It’s beautiful.” Adora said.
“It matches your eyes.” Catra explained.
Adora looked back up to Catra, and pulled her in for one more kiss. It was shorter than the one prior, though it still managed to make Adora’s heart soar. “I love you.” Adora breathed again, saying it because she wanted to. Because it was all she felt. Because it was true.
“I love you, too.” Catra said.
The two girls stayed that way for a moment, underneath the afternoon moonlight, holding each other close, heartbeats being the only thing they wanted to hear and feel.