Chapter Text
“Catra, wait up!”
“Ugh…” Catra rolled her eyes and turned around. She crossed her arms while waiting for Adora to catch up with her, impatiently tapping her foot on the floor. “C’mon you slowpoke, if we’re not in bed by lights-out we’ll never hear the end of it!”
Adora and Catra had just wrapped up an entire day’s worth of training, and were now making their way to the barracks where all of the Horde cadets slept to get some well-earned rest. The two girls had already fallen behind their daily schedule by the time they had finished training and showered, and with Adora gorging herself on gray ration bars during supper they were facing the risk of seriously running late.
“Huff… Huff…” When she finally caught up to Catra, Adora leaned over with her hands on her knees while breathing heavily. After taking a second to catch her breath she glared at Catra and grumbled: “Y-you could’ve slowed down, y’know!”
“Hmph,” Catra scoffed, her tail swishing around restlessly. “I’m just trying to make sure we don’t get into trouble, it’s not my fault you walk at a snail’s pace.”
“Heh,” Adora couldn’t help but chuckle. She asked Catra in an amused voice: “S-since when have you cared about not getting into trouble? You’re always defying orders and talking back to our commanders!”
“Yeah, and I already got yelled at by Shadow Weaver once today,” Catra said. “And my ears are still ringing from that, so I’d really not wanna deal with that again!”
“O-oh. Okay.” Adora nodded with a sad, sympathetic look on her face. She gently smiled at Catra, straightened her back and said: “Well, let’s get going then!”
“Hmmm, hold on…” Catra raised her left hand. She walked up close to Adora and squinted her eyes while staring inquisitively at her.
“Uhhh, didn’t you just say you didn’t wanna get into trouble?” Adora snarked.
“Yeah yeah, it’s just,” Catra tapped her chin with her index finger, before pointing it towards Adora. “You’ve got something on your face.”
“Huh? I-I do?” Adora wondered. She pat her hands over her face a few times to make sure.
“Yeah,” Catra smirked mischievously. “Riiiight about… There!”
“Wha- Ah! H-hey!”
All of a sudden Catra had licked Adora’s left cheek, her tongue feeling like sandpaper being scraped across Adora’s skin. Adora hastily wiped her cheek with her hand, while Catra stepped backwards smacking her lips.
“Ewww, gross!” Adora whined.
“Blech, you’re right,” Catra stuck her tongue out. “You taste exactly how you look: Like a dumb stupid idiot!”
“Oh yeah?” Adora licked the palm of her own left hand and was now inching it towards Catra. “Well I’m gonna make sure you’ll get all my dumb stupid idiot cooties!”
“You’ll have to catch me first!” Catra challenged her.
The two girls dashed down the corridors of the Fright Zone giggling loudly the whole time, Adora chasing after Catra who intentionally slowed her pace down so that Adora would be right on her tail. When they eventually reached the barracks-
“Ahah!” Adora lunged at Catra and managed to tackle her on the floor right by their bunk bed. She flashed a playful grin as she rubbed her left hand all over Catra’s face: “Ha, take that! How you like a taste of your own medicine!”
“Heyyy, knock it off!” Catra tried to free herself from Adora’s hold. Eventually she resorted to biting Adora’s hand, just hard enough that Adora would let go of her yet gently enough that she wouldn’t draw blood.
“Owie!” Adora yelped. Catra seized the opportunity to shove Adora off of her while she was busy blowing on the bite mark on her hand, then backed away out of Adora’s reach. Adora and Catra glared at one another, before they both burst out laughing once again.
“Mmmhh, can you two pipe it down?” Adora and Catra heard a sleepy Lonnie from a few beds over grumbling at them. “Some of us are tryin’ to get some shuteye here…”
“Right, sorry Lonnie!” Adora whispered, while Catra just blew her a raspberry. Adora stood up, then offered her hand to Catra and helped her up on her feet as well, before they both turned to look at the bed in front of them. “Night, Catra! See you in the morning!”
“Night, Adora.” Catra murmured. She watched as Adora laid down on the lower bunk, then climbed the ladder to the top bunk which had been assigned to her due to her being more agile than Adora. “Okay, here goes…”
Catra crawled under the blanket of her bed, laid her head on the pillow and stared at the ceiling for a moment. She slowly closed her eyes, preparing herself to drift off to sleep, but…
“Mrrh…”
Catra found herself tossing and turning on the bed, unable to fall asleep. Just like the night before.
And the night before that.
And the night before that.
And the night before that.
Catra grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, trying her best to force herself to sleep but to no avail. Catra let out a defeated sigh, laying there on the bed while listening to the quiet sounds of the other cadets around the room breathing and snoring. It seemed that this was going to be another sleepless night for her.
But frankly, that had become the norm for Catra. Most days she considered herself lucky if she managed to get even three hours of sleep. It’s not that she wasn’t feeling tired, far from it; Catra had worked hard that day and really needed some rest.
But every time Catra climbed into that top bunk, every time she was away from Adora… Catra found herself feeling so alone.
“Huh?”
All of a sudden Catra’s ears managed to pick out a sound in the room, and she gasped. It almost sounded like someone was sniffling.
Catra waited for a moment, her ears perking up, seeing if she could hear the sound a second time or if she had just imagined in. Soon enough Catra heard the sniffling again, but this time she came to a realization that it was coming from directly below her bunk.
“Adora..?” Catra cautiously peeked over the side of the bed. Her suspicions were confirmed the moment she spotted the tears that had welled up in Adora’s eyes.
“O-oh,” Adora hastily wiped her eyes and said in a quivering voice: “H-hey, C-Catra.”
“Adora, what’s wrong?” Catra wondered.
“N-nothing, I just…” Adora sniffled again and swallowed nervously. “I-it’s so, d-dark in here, I… I-it’s scary.”
“Oh?” Catra’s pupils narrowed. She had known many things about Adora, but her being afraid of the dark was a completely new piece of knowledge to her.
“Y-yeah. But,” Adora did her best to muster up a smile. “I-it’ll be fine, j-just go back to s-sleep.”
Catra glanced aside, looking at her own pillow while thinking of her prior sleepless nights and her loneliness. Then she looked back at Adora, thinking of how afraid she was, and decided that maybe there was a way to solve both of their problems.
Making her choice, Catra silently climbed the bunk ladder back down, crawled into Adora’s bed and curled up in a ball right by Adora’s feet.
“H-huh?” Adora gasped. She lifted her head up and looked at Catra, her eyes wide out of bewilderment. “Catra?”
“Don’t get the wrong idea,” Catra said. “This is not because I like you.”
“Catra, w-what are you-”
“You idiot,” Catra smirked. “You think I’m gonna be able to get any sleep if you’re being a crybaby all night?”
“Catra…” Adora whispered. She shot Catra a warm, grateful smile, laid her head back on her pillow and closed her eyes. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” Catra replied. Being in Adora’s presence again filled Catra with such comfort and warmth that she began to purr as a result, which further soothed them both.
Just before the two of them finally drifted off to sleep, Adora mumbled: “Good night, Catra.”
“Good night, Adora.”