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catrasredemption-moved · 3 years

Note

Can you do a fic where catra gives birth without adora by her side and panics please

I feel like I can't do justice compared to the others that exist, but sure!

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Adora hadn't wanted to go.

Catra hadn't really wanted to let her go, either. She was coming up on her eighth month of pregnancy, and every single nerve screamed in imagined agony when she wasn't in Adora's arms. She hated it - she had gotten over clinging to Adora years ago. But everyone assured it was okay. She was pregnant. She was allowed to want Adora right by her side all the time.

But this was important. Two ally planets were threatening to go to war, and there was a risk of Etheria ending up in the middle of it. Which, unfortunately, made it very much their problem. Normally, Glimmer would have brought Catra (who was surprisingly good at being diplomatic and talking people down), but Adora had flat out said no to the idea of her very pregnant wife going anywhere near a warzone. Catra would have argued, but that was fair, really. She felt the same way.

So Glimmer had taken Adora and Bow, with the hopes that the three of them would manage to calm everyone down. Catra had resisted the urge to point out that they hadn't even know what a coherent plan was before she joined them.

It sucked, watching the three people she trusted most clear Etheria's atmosphere and disappear into the stars. But after ten years, Catra no longer felt completely alone in the castle. Netossa and Spinnerella had agreed to stay in Bright Moon while Glimmer was gone; they had declared themselves the baby's aunts the minute Catra announced she was pregnant. Entrapta, after nearly two year of work, had managed to replicate Prime's teleportation technology to create teleporting points in each kingdom, so Scorpia could visit her bestie whenever she wanted. Micah had decided the new baby was going to be his grandchild (with a pointed look at Glimmer, who had rolled her eyes and informed him they were adopting), and was happy to look in on Catra every single hour, if she'd let him. She did not let him.

And they were great. They were all great. Catra loved all of them. But Adora's absence was an aching hole in her chest. She wanted her wife. She wanted her when she woke up at three in the morning, back screaming in pain, and there was no one she could ask to give her a massage, or even just hold her until she managed to fall back to sleep. She wanted to see the adoration in Adora's expression every time the baby kicked. She wanted to hear Adora's excited babbling as she told literally anyone who would listen about how they had just finished decorating the nursery, and it was so cute. She wanted Adora.

She really wanted Adora now, as she whimpered into her pillow, tightly clutching her swollen belly. Melog nuzzled her cheek, meowing nervously.

"No, it's fine," she mumbled. "It's nothing. Fake contractions, remember?"

That got her a very unimpressed meow in return. The fake contractions were sporadic and mildly painful, but this? This was a steady pain, pressing down on her uterus, coming approximately every ten minutes, as Melog kept reminding her. She reached out, pushing their snout away.

"I'm still three and a half weeks from my due date. It's fine."

Lying down wasn't a viable option; there was no comfortable position. She pushed herself out of bed, shuffling unsteadily around the room to try and relieve the constant ache on her back. Melog helped support her when she had to stop and lean on the wall, breathing heavily.

It wasn't fine.

"Fuck," she breathed, sliding down the wall, tears burning in her eyes. This couldn't be happening now. No. No no no no. Adora wasn't here. She didn't even know where Adora was. Not within communication range - Catra had already tried to call her. Who knew when she would be back. Catra was alone.

Not alone, Melog reminded her, nudging her shoulder. There were people here who could help her. A healer from Mystacor had even transferred to Bright Moon to be on hand for any emergencies, and the eventual delivery.

"Okay," she whispered. Melog nodded and disappeared. And she was alone.

She was alone.

Adora wasn't there. Adora wouldn't make it back in time. Her entire support system had relied on her wife, because why wouldn't it? Adora would be there. Adora didn't break her promises. Adora would be there.

Another contraction seized her, closing up her already struggling lungs. Tears pricked at her eyes as she wheezed uselessly. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe.

A hand rested on her shoulder. "Easy," Micah said, squeezing. "It's okay. You're okay. Can you breathe with me?"

He exaggerated his own breaths, giving Catra a guide to follow along. It took a few minutes, but finally she managed to take a shaky breath, curling in on herself. "Okay. Good. What's wrong?"

"I - I think I'm in labor," she admitted unwillingly. "And Adora isn't here, and she supposed to be here, she was so excited, I can't take this away from her, I can't - I'm the worst wife-"

Micah squeezed her shoulder again, cutting her off. "You can't control when this happens," he reminded her gently. "That doesn't make you a bad wife. Or mother for that matter." Was he a mind reader? "If Adora doesn't make it back in time, it's okay. I know she'll be disappointed, but she'll be here for everything else. And I know this is hard, but you have to relax a little. The stress isn't good for you or the baby. Take another breath for me. Please?"

Catra nodded, sucking in a breath and letting it out slowly. The bedroom door burst open, Netossa and Melog hurrying in. "Spinny is getting Ivy. Is it really time?"

"Think so," Micah said, taking Catra's hands and helping her stand. "Keep trying to call Darla. Hopefully we can get in touch as soon as they're back in communication range."

Melog brushed against Catra's leg, purring loudly. She scratched the back of their ears, smile turning to a grimace when the dull pain of contraction started to grip her again.

It was going to be okay.

-----------------------------------

"Adora?"

"Yeah?"

"Catra is never allowed to be pregnant again. That was the worst."

It turned out talking and being diplomatic was a lot harder than just punching things. It had taken nearly four days to negotiate a deal that made both planets happy and stopped a war. Adora was fairly certain defeating Horde Prime had been easier.

She and Glimmer were sprawled out on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Bow was slumped in the captain's seat, sleeping. Entrapta was working energetically at the console. She had gotten to spend the last week on Darla, since they all knew letting her try to talk to people was a nightmare. Adora wanted her energy.

"I'm so tired," Adora groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. Glimmer reached out to shove her shoulder.

"Aren't you the one about to have a newborn? You better rest up now, you'll never sleep again."

Adora laughed, ignoring the uncomfortable swoop in her stomach. She missed Catra. She hated that she'd had to leave. She just wanted to be back.

"Entering Etheria's atmosphere!" Entrapta called, as if reading Adora's mind. "ETA - oh."

The console was beeping. There was a call coming in. Entrapta tapped a few buttons, bringing up a large screen. It flickered to life, showing Netossa, who was looking at something off screen.

"Yes I'm sure I'm calling the right - oh!" She jumped when she saw the call had connected. "Hey, finally!"

"Is something wrong?" Glimmer asked, immediately sitting up. Adora shot up as well, suddenly shaking. Netossa chuckled nervously.

"Okay, don't freak out. But um... Catra had the baby."

"What?!" Adora's voice cracked. She practically sprinted across the flight deck, grabbing the screen. "Is she okay? Is the baby okay? How?!"

"Are you asking how the baby was born?"

Normally, Adora liked Netossa's humor. This was not normally. "Netossa!"

"Okay, sorry. She's okay, the baby is okay, they're both sleeping now. It got a little rough, and Catra might need a little more time to recover, but she's okay."

Adora felt lightheaded. She took a step back, sitting hard on the ground. Catra had the baby. The baby was born while she was gone.

"Um... ETA five minutes," Entrapta said, quickly hitting a few buttons on the console and speeding Darla up. Glimmer and Bow moved to sit on either side of Adora, hugging her tight.

"I missed it," she whispered, tears filling her eyes. She had one job, to be there when Catra gave birth, and she missed it. "She probably hates me."

"There is no way Catra hates you," Bow said confidently. "Trust me."

"She never stops talking about how much she loves you and how you're going to be a great mother," Glimmer added. "I share an office with her, I hear about it every single day. 'Adora stayed up all night painting the nursery, Adora's been practicing how to swaddle with some stuffed animals, she's trying to set a record swaddling time, Adora woke me up at three a.m. because she had her head on my stomach and was letting the baby kick her ear' - seriously, it never stopped. I tried to send her on maternity leave two months ago so she'd stop."

"But I-"

"I know, you missed it," Glimmer said, hugging Adora. "But Catra isn't going to be mad. She probably just wants you there now. It's going to be okay."

Adora scrubbed her eyes, sniffling. "Yeah. It'll be okay."

They landed, and Adora darted off the ship. Bow and Glimmer smartly decided they could visit later, and let her go.

Netossa and Spinerella were sitting outside of Adora's and Catra's room, playing a game on their tracker pad. They both gave Adora a grin when they saw her approaching.

"Hey Mom. How's it going?"

Adora slowed to a walk, hands shoved in her pockets to keep from fidgeting. "Is... Is Catra mad?"

"Is Catra ever not mad?"

Spinnerella elbowed Netossa. "She's a little upset, but mostly at herself. I think she'll be happier you're here, though."

"How long has it been?"

"About twelve hours."

Adora had barely missed it. She did her best to put on a brave smile. "Thanks for being here."

"Honestly, thank Micah. He's the only one besides Ivy who knew what was going on."

"And he didn't almost pass out," Spinnerella added, smiling wickedly at her wife. Netossa gave her an offended look.

"I did not almost pass out."

"You absolutely would have if I didn't drag you out."

Adora left the wives to their argument, carefully peeking into the room. Catra was sleeping, bundled up in a nest of pillows and blankets. Adora just barely got a look at her before she was being tackled. Melog nuzzled up to her, purring and licking her cheek. She laughed.

"Hi, Melog."

This was good, right? Melog always did this when Catra was feeling particularly needy but didn't want to say anything. Adora couldn't have been in too much trouble.

She stood, feeling a bit more emboldened, and toed off her boots before making her way across the room.

And she finally got her first look at her baby.

They were so small. A small mop of blonde hair barely hid twitching ears, little claws kneading mindlessly against Catra's chest. Their fur was a mix of Adora's skin and Catra's fur - a beautiful dark blonde that was absolutely the most amazing thing Adora had ever seen. She wanted to pick them up, to hold them, to feel their weight in her arms. But she also didn't want to disrupt this moment of pure tranquility.

Catra made a small noise, nose twitching, and one eye fluttered open. "Hey 'Dora," she mumbled sleepily. "Really left me t'do all the hard, huh?"

Adora pressed a hand to her lips to keep from laughing. "Mind if I join you?"

"Left enough room for you, didn't I?"

She had, Adora realized. A perfectly sized space right next to her for Adora to slide into. She tossed her jacket off and carefully slid in next to Catra. Her wife shifted slightly to snuggled into her chest.

"How're you feeling?"

"Tired. Your child is so difficult."

"Oh, my child?"

"Yup. Stubborn, just like you."

Adora finally reached out to brush a finger against one of their tiny paws. "Cute, though."

"Got that from me."

George and Lance, it turned out, had a surprisingly extensive knowledge about Magicats, and had been more than happy to educate Catra after they'd met her. One of the big things they'd learned was that Magicats didn't name their children before they were a year old (some superstition) and all babies used neutral pronouns until they were old enough to understand what gender was and could choose their own. Two more things Shadow Weaver had taken away from Catra. Two things she was determined to give their baby.

"Do you think I can..."

Catra rolled her eyes, yawning. "No, Adora, you can't hold your own child. Come on, seriously?"

"I just don't want to bother them!"

Adora was reaching out even as she said that, carefully scooping up the little bundle. They wiggled a bit, making a few distressed noises, but stopped when they were close enough to burrow into Adora's shirt. And if the baby hadn't owned Adora's heart before that moment, they certainly did now.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, to their baby and to Catra. "I'm sorry I wasn't here."

"M'sorry they were so impatient," Catra murmured, snuggling a bit closer to Adora now that she was free. S'okay, though. You're here now."

Yes, she was. And she'd be damned if she ever left this planet again. Why would she? Everything she needed was already here.

#Sam Writes #askbox fic #pregnancy cw #vague descriptions of labor #Catradora

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princessofgayskull · 3 years

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Hi sunflower, what's your thoughts on T Swift's Betty being a catradora song???

Me, taking a break from spop to focus on my mental health and setting better boundaries:

Me, reading this ask:

This ask woke me up from like a deep, sleeping beauty type slumber, not joking. I don’t get asked to talk about Taylor Swift often, despite being a fan of hers since I was nine years old (I’m 22 now *wink*) and we are about to find out why. But I pride myself on taking any fiction piece of media I interact with and connecting it somehow to Taylor Swift. I can do so to varying degrees of success (usually depends on the ships and romance of the world) but there are so many songs of Taylor’s that have just fit Catradora so well for me, both in and out of canon.

Some of my favorite examples: out of the woods (AND IT KEPT ME UP AT NIGHT WHEN NOELLE SAID THIS WAS HER TAYLOR SWIFT SONG FOR CATRADORA LIKE GAH CASUAL TS LISTENERS WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND) bad blood, lwymd, don’t blame, dancing with our hands tied, the archer, breathe, you’re not sorry, the way I loved you, forever & always, should’ve said no, safe & sound- I could go on.

But I won’t because I wanna stay on topic and talk about betty. Now I have a number of songs from the folklore/evermore series that are for me catradora songs (we’ll get to that in a minute) but this one is… challenging. Because I could be like “yes, because [insert casual reason here]” or “no, because [insert casual reason here]” but I can’t because Taylor feeds her children well and there’s several aspects of this song I feel like should be considered.

This biggest one to be considered, for me, is the love triangle aspect. Folklore features at length the betty/james/Augustine love triangle, each of them having one main song on the album from their POV. Betty's is cardigan, augustine’s is august, and james’ is betty. (also I’m going to throw out the gender component for a second; I know taylor says that Betty is about a guy’s apology and I totally vibe with her reasons why she wanted to write a song about a boy apologizing BECAUSE HOW GREAT WOULD THAT BE?) The love triangle makes the application of Catradora iffy at best. Because it’s like, who would be who? I am going to go out on a limb and assume that you’re seeing Catra as James? I think that personality wise, Adora as Betty and Catra as James is not a stone’s throw away from fitting actually really well. Adora’s canon journey is one of coming to realize “I know what I want and I know that it’s okay to want it” and a big part of Catra’s arc is her being like “Well shit… there goes my plans. Kind of feeling like a dumbass rn” especially in s4/s5.

(That s4/s5 distinction is important; I’ll show why in a second)

But for me, there’s no augustine. Or one that’s obvious anyway. I never imagined that either Catra or Adora dated or even had any inclinations with anyone else during the five season run- that’s just my personal opinion, people are completely welcome to feel free to disagree. I don’t think Catra acted even out of distraction with Scorpia or DT, and I think Adora was so focused on being She Ra that when she wasn’t thinking about failing/abandoning Catra when she alloted time to do so, she was thinking about the crushing weight of her responsibilities. So you know, not that much time to get back out there. So I rule out what causes James to apologize in the first place- cheating.

Side note about James cheating- I’m pretty sure Taylor confirmed this, in the long pond studio sessions doc, when she’s telling Jack Antonoff (MY BOY JACK) and Aaron Dessner ( GRAMMY AWARD WINNING KING) that James “was a fool!” And James did sleep with Augustine as confirmed in august, but cardigan makes it seem like he was definitely dating Betty before the summer. Maybe Taylor took inspiration from friends and they “were on break.” I also believe that the kiss in the Heart is the first kiss, that Catra and Adora were never ‘together’ together before Adora found the sword and defected (again, that’s just an opinion, but Adora just looks so wonderfully gobsmacked), so…

We can rule out cheating, and I think we can accomplish this and still reserve the essential meaning of the song of “I did something wrong, I see that now, I apologize for doing it, and I still love you” by widening the lens of what the “did something wrong” was (or “did something bad” you know *wink*). In that wider lens really you could fit either Catra or Adora into the song, but I’m still going to assume Catra is the James in this scenario based on how much of her redemption arc is formed around her refusal to say sorry and then eventually doing so. Of course there is no standing your porchlight but rather standing while wrestling a bunch of murderous clones…. Hmm….

But there are some stupid friends! I wholeheartedly believe Catra is James because of the dissing of Betty’s friends. That’s what Catra does to Bow, Glimmer and the rebellion et al., for most of the show and by the end of s4 she has no friends for Adora to even mock (terrible and cruel of me, I know, but it’s true). Also I know people are like “he called her friends stupid and then expected betty to take him back?” but I scream sing the line “WILL YOU KISS ME ON THE PORCH IN FRONT OF ALL YOUR STUPID FRIENDS?” every time. It brings me serotonin.

Along those lines we can ask “Who’s Inez?” in this situation. When I think gossip no one from the show really comes to mind, well, expect for Double Trouble. But Double Trouble doesn’t ever speak to Adora about Catra. This happens vice-versa, and in Betty, James reveals that Inez told Betty he cheated on her.

I want to say something controversial… Glimmer comes to mind when I think “who’s the Inez?” And this is based off of two things: 1) Inez’s closeness to Betty, and 2) Inez drags James out to dry, rightfully so. And when I think of that I think of Glimmer screaming “Do one good thing in your life!” directly in Catra’s face. James gives Inez a bad wrap in Betty. Not cool James.

Of course there’s the pivotal, “would you tell me to go fuck myself?/ or lead me to the garden?” To me this a fun way of showing there’s vulnerability to what James is doing, so automatically I’m led to is the scene where Catra asks Adora to stay, or each time in s5 when Catra risks, basically an identity crisis to let Adora in how she really feels, but there’s always the potential that Adora could spurn her by not returning her feelings or rejecting her outright.

I think the best argument that can be made for “is betty a catradora song” can really be encapsulated by the lyric(s): “the worst thing that I ever did is what I did to you” and “the only thing I wanna do is make it up to you.” That is what about the song SCREAMS Catra to me. And yeah, it could be argued that Adora hurt Catra pretty brutally (Shadow Weaver makes that point EVEN THOUGH SHE HAD NO RIGHT TO) that she messed up by abandoning Catra- but Adora feels guilt for... literally breathing. Adora is the quintessential embodiment of “pick your battles, no that’s too many battles, put some back,” but Catra picked one battle first and foremost (yes, she had a few others but this was the one) and that was Adora. Everything that motivated her was surrounded around a narrative of surpassing Adora for a multitude of reasons, and because of that she pretty much hurts Adora every chance she gets after Promise. Adora is really Catra’s first casualty, it makes sense that she has to be her first apology. And I think that after being vibed checked back to back by DT and Glimmer and realizing “oh hey fuck, I’m still in love with her” and then almost dying just to not die because Adora saves her, I think much of Catra’s motivation shifts to “how to do I get Adora to want to stay?”

That’s my logic for how Betty could be a catradora song in canon. Now not all of my Taylor associations are with canon catradora, many of them do belong to uws catradora, because it’s a lot easier to apply the more modern details of Taylor’s songs to a modern au. The song Breathe is big that way. (it’s in Upper West Side, it’s the song Adora listens to and cries to after that first ride, I just never mentioned that it was taylor because my conditioned reaction to bringing up taylor is to have my head bit off with someone’s semi incorrect and slightly sexist opinion that I never, ever ask for) And this ask got me thinking about what it would look like if I applied not Catradora to Betty, but Betty to Catradora. What would it look like if Catra skateboarded and wore black lipstick, Adora wore a cardigan and they had homeroom together until Catra really messed up? What would it look like if they were seventeen when they admitted their feelings for each other instead of 21? What would it look like if they spent a summer fighting but dreaming of each other? What would their love story look like if Catra and Adora were in that town where Taylor envisioned this “same event that affected three people in different ways?”

I think it’d look something like this.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31141973/chapters/76952048

what do you guys think?

quick but INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT thank you to @gimme-tea-bitch for helping me with this, being my beta, and listening to me talk about folklore/evermore.

#I am literally SHAKING as I post this you guys have no idea #like vibrating through a wall shaking #i've been working on this for like the past two months #and I know everyone wants cruel summer but my goblin brain is like #AHHHHHHHH WRITE A FOLKLORIAN AU FOR CATRA AND ADORA YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO #IT'S 23K WORDS NO ONE WILL NOTICE #this was supposed to go up with two parts but tbh with you guys i have high key been feeling when jenny slate said #'i don't get the love until something beautiful goes out'#please be gentle with me

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harrowharkboygf · 4 years

Text

i want to see you, dressed all in white

a short catradora oneshot, set at the time of adora's future vision. requested by @nozomijoestar. read on ao3.

Catra could not believe she was wearing shoes for this. It was such a strange experience, hearing the click clack of heels coming from her feet as she walked, but alas! Such was the life of an ambassador of Brightmoon.

And, she thought privately, the life of the wife of She-Ra. Hopefully. If everything went well tonight. She subtly traced the outline of the ring in her pants pocket. The box itself would have been too big and clunky to fix in her pocket, so Glimmer had helped her out and given her a tiny leather pouch to hold it in.

“If she finds the pouch, just say it contains important ambassador information like…IDs!” Glimmer had suggested.

Catra had raised an eyebrow. “We need IDs for Princess Prom?”

“Well no, but…” It was Glimmer’s turn to raise her eyebrows. “You and Adora did miss half the planning meeting, so how would either of you know?”

Catra had smirked. “We were…busy.”

She gave her a decidedly unqueenly shove. “Of course you were, Horde Scum.” Then Glimmer pulled her into a hug. “I’m so happy for you both. Adora’s gonna say yes immediately.” Catra wasn’t worried about her saying no; she knew that Adora loved her more than anything, and they’d been talking about marriage for a while now. No, she was worried that somehow something would go wrong and it wouldn’t be perfect. Adora was as amazing as the moons and the stars—she deserved perfect.

“Catra? Catra!”

She snapped back to the present. Adora was waving her hand in front of her face, grinning. Even at age twenty-seven, she still hadn’t lost the adorable, dorky look on her face.

“Sorry, zoned out for a sec,” she said, taking Adora’s hand and jumping gracefully down from the skiff. She took a minute to admire how beautiful her girlfriend looked tonight—she looked like a queen in her own right, the tiara sparkling off her golden hair and the white dress making it all too easy for Catra to imagine her walking down a wedding aisle. Her stomach fluttered.

“Are you nervous for your second Princess Prom?” asked Adora; her tone was joking but her eyes softened in a way that made Catra feel instantly safe.

“Not with you by my side,” said Catra, pushing down her nerves and leaning forward to press their foreheads together. “Are you nervous?”

“Not with you by my side,” Adora mimicked, smiling against her lips.

If anyone was definitely nervous, it was Bow and Glimmer. This was the first formal event where they would be introduced as a married couple, and they had spent the whole skiff ride fiddling nervously with their clothes and asking to go over the schedule so often that Catra had asked Bow if he’d switched bodies with Adora.

“You two look amazing,” Adora told them for the seventh time this hour.

“Are you sure the capes don’t look stupid?” asked Glimmer. “I don’t wanna look childish.”

“What if I trip and fall on it?” Bow worried, toying with the edge of his cape.

“If you do, I will laugh and then kick all the asses of anyone else who laughed,” Catra assured him.

“And I’ll help!” said Adora gleefully, holding up her hand to be high-fived. Catra obliged her.

Glimmer and Bow both took a deep breath in sync. “Thanks, guys,” she said, a real smile spreading across her face.

Bow stuck out his hand. “Best Friend Squad!”

Everyone put their hands in the middle. “Best Friend Squad!” they cheered.

——

The former-Fright-Zone-now-renamed-the-Light-Zone looked absolutely stunning. Scorpia had really outdone herself. Unlike at Frosta’s prom, which had been decorated with gleaming ice sculptures, the ballroom was decorated with smooth, sleek black crystals reminiscent of the Black Garnet, giving the whole room a very sophisticated aura.

“Presenting Queen Glimmer and King Bow of Brightmoon!”

Bow and Glimmer did not, to their credit, trip over their capes or do anything else notably embarrassing. In fact, they were the textbook example of dignified, waving proudly to the crowd as they walked up to the dais, and then bowing low to Scorpia, who immediately jumped down from her throne to greet them.

And then it was their turn.

“Presenting Adora, Princess of Power, and Catra of Brightmoon!”

Catra offered her girlfriend her arm. It was partially an affectionate gesture and partially an effort to make sure she herself didn’t trip—she still wasn’t used to these shoes.

“Your Highness,” Catra said to Scorpia as she bowed.

“Oh, none of that ‘Highness’ crap!” Scorpia chortled, practically bouncing off her throne to envelop the two of them in a tight hug.

“All this stuff is so formal,” she whispered. “I’m so out of my depth.”

“You’re doing amazing,” Adora promised her.

The next hour or so was filled with so many boring conversations and introductions. It seemed like every diplomat and ambassador in Etheria wanted to talk to her and Adora. It was really cute when little kids came up asking for She-Ra autographs, but if Catra had to hear about the rising fish prices in Salineas one more time, she was going to be homicidal.

Despite coming as each other’s dates, Catra and Adora had to split up in order to divide and conquer all of their social obligations, a strategy that Bow and Glimmer had also adopted. That didn’t stop Catra from throwing as many longing looks at Adora from across the ballroom as physically possible.

She tried to seek shelter with Double Trouble, who would definitely not force her to ruminate on the state of “today’s youth”—a conversation that withered old advisers seemed to love—but their need to be the center of attention kept also drawing attention to Catra. This made it particularly hard to accomplish her goal of “only talking to people she wanted to talk to”. Glimmer, surrounded by a group of Mystacor sorcerers, gave her an arm squeeze in solidarity as she passed by.

Eventually she managed to escape yet another drab discussion of the pros and cons of a trade alliance between the Crimson Waste and the Kingdom of Snows under the premise of greeting Frosta. She was able to enjoy the beginning of a nice banter/advice session concerning Frosta’s love life before the princess was preoccupied with an adviser asking her opinion on intra-kingdom matters.

“I’m surprised you haven’t taken those off yet,” Adora said behind her, making her jump. She gestured down at the cursed shoes.

“I wish,” Catra grimaced, taking the cup of punch her girlfriend offered. “I was afraid someone would throw a fit.”

Adora wrapped an arm around her shoulders, which Catra leaned into gratefully. “Is it that advisor over there?” she whispered in her ear, subtly turning Catra’s head so she can see who she meant. “The one with an angry look on his face? Are you afraid of him?”

She snickered. “What, did you have to hear his monologue about decorum too?”

“He even made a comment about ‘last time’,” Adora told her, laughing under her breath. “A very pointed remark about breaking tradition.”

“Ooh, insulting She-Ra, is he? I’ll kick his ass.”

“My hero.”

Catra turned to face her fully, placing one hand on Adora’s hip. “You know it,” she murmured, leaning forward to press their lips together.

“Adora!”

Catra pulled back, groaning under her breath, as they both turned to see Perfuma waving at them. The flower princess held up her own cup and gestured at a group of stern-looking Plumerians. Adora pecked her cheek before hurrying off again.

At this point, Catra was beginning to get worried that she wouldn’t ever get the chance to be alone with Adora. She once again traced the outline of the ring pouch in her pocket, biting her lip.

Then, to her immense relief, music started playing. She grinned. It was time for the real party to start.

Adora easily found her on the dance floor. Catra leaned eagerly into her warm touch, let herself be rooted in her relaxed blue eyes. “Will you be my dance partner?” asked Adora teasingly.

Catra pretended to think it over. “Hmm, I don’t know. Are you any good at it?”

Adora winked. “Nope.”

Catra blew her a kiss, and then the dance started, everyone moving in sync. Adora kept her eyes fixed on her girlfriend, her steps steady and confident despite her previously stated lack of talent. “I love you,” she murmured.

“I love you too,” she murmured back. “Always have, always will.”

The movements of the dance pulled them closer, the tempo slowing down. Adora used this opportunity to cup her face and kiss her firmly—finally—before the pace of the music picked back up again and everyone switched partners.

The carefully-choreographed switch in the dance pushed her and Glimmer together, a move that made the both of them grin easily. Things really had changed since the last Princess Prom, Catra thought to herself.

“Do you have a specific plan?” asked Glimmer, nodding almost imperceptibly at her pocket.

Catra nodded. “I just need a way to get a moment alone with Adora.”

Glimmer winked at her. “I can do that.”

Then she was passed off to Mermista, who she hadn’t seen yet that evening. “Heard you knocked up,” said Catra in lieu of a greeting.

Mermista twirled her, a lazy smirk sliding across her face. “Yeah, just a little baby barnacle growing, nothing to see here.”

“Congrats,” Catra told her genuinely. Mermista would never be her best friend—that was reserved for Adora, and Glimmer and Bow—but she had the deepest respect for her, and they got along wonderfully.

A slight blush drifted over her cheeks. The queen had never been good at accepting compliments—one of the many things they had in common. “Bow told me,” she said, “so like, congrats to you too.”

Catra rolled her eyes, but there was no malice behind it. “What, does the entire Princess Alliance know?”

“Probably,” drawled Mermista, and then Catra spun her one last time before they parted ways.

“Catra!” Scorpia greeted her with just as much enthusiasm as before. “I heard the news! How can I help?”

As they began the waltz, Catra mulled it over. “Actually,” she said, her eyes lighting up, “I do have a request.”

——

“Greetings, Princess Prom guests!” Perfuma said in a trill, speaking into the microphone. “I hope you all enjoyed your first dance of the night! Now we will have a live performance by our beloved host, Princess Scorpia!”

The crowd cheered wildly. Scorpia stepped onto the stage, looking radiant and sure of herself under the spotlights. She tapped the microphone once to test it, before she began to hum the opening notes of a ballad.

Scorpia’s song wafted through the ballroom, filling the air. Perfuma sat behind her, strumming a huge string instrument made of wood and occasionally providing backup vocals.

Catra and Adora swayed together on the dance floor, saying nothing, just enjoying each other’s presence. Catra spun her around slowly as Scorpia crooned, occasionally pressing a light kiss to her skin as she drew her closer. Adora, in turn, just watched her, a soft look on her face.

After Scorpia finished her first song of the night, everyone cheered, clapping their hands and whistling in approval. The princess flushed a deep crimson, exchanging a delighted look with Perfuma over her shoulder. A shout of “Encore! Encore!” started up.

Catra took Adora’s hand. “Let’s sneak out for a bit,” she whispered. “Everyone’s entranced by Scorpia’s singing, so we won’t be missed.”

The gleam in Adora’s eyes was ever so familiar, a look that she hadn’t lost even as she grew older. “Lead the way,” she whispered back.

They snuck out through one of the many hallways branching out from the ballroom. The hallways were well lit and decorated similarly to the ballroom; it looked so different from the hallways they’d once scampered through as kids.

But they raced just the same, hand in hand, giggling as they chased each other. Catra mussed up Adora’s hair, cackling as her girlfriend playfully pulled her into a headlock. Their outfits were thoroughly disheveled by the time they reached the ladder, but Catra didn’t care.

“Do you recognize where we are?” she asked.

Adora touched the rail of the ladder. “Of course,” she said, returning Catra’s grin. “I’d recognize this place in my sleep, no matter how many times the walls are repainted.”

Catra kicked off her shoes, sighing with relief when the pads of her feet touched ground again. “Follow me, then.” She hoisted herself up onto the first rung of the ladder, and began to climb.

“Not fair!” shouted Adora below her. “I’m wearing a dress and you’re not!” But she heard her feet touch the ladder rungs anyway.

Catra offered Adora her hand on the top rung, which she took gratefully. The two of them stood together on the platform, in the exact spot where they’d spent so many hours as children. Catra inhaled, breathing in Adora’s sweet, familiar scent.

Adora stared out over the former Fright Zone, still wrapped around Catra. “The Light Zone is a good name,” she said finally.

Catra purred softly as she ran a hand through her hair. “It’s so much nicer now,” she marveled. “Scorpia did so well.”

Adora turned to look at her. “So did we,” she said, cupping her cheek. “We’ve rebuilt so much since the war ended seven years ago.”

Catra picked up on the double meaning of her words. “We have,” she said, pressing their foreheads together and smiling against her lips. Her heart pounded in her throat. This was the perfect moment.

Catra pulled back, just far enough to give her space to kneel. Quickly, she rehearsed her speech in her mind, She reached into her pocket and pulled the ring free from the leather pouch.

She began, “Hey, Adora—”

“Will you marry me?” blurted out Adora.

Catra’s jaw dropped. For a minute, she said nothing.

“I mean, you—you can say no,” Adora said hurriedly, clearly taking her silence as a bad sign. “I didn’t plan out an elaborate proposal or anything, I don’t even have a ring, but—”

“I have a ring!” said Catra, still shocked.

It was Adora’s turn to gape at her. “You—What?”

A grin split Catra ear to ear. “Yes, you idiot!” she exclaimed. “I was going to propose to you tonight—right now, actually! Glimmer and I have been planning this for months!”

Adora almost fell over laughing, clutching her stomach. “Wow,” she said, breathless, “we make quite a pair.”

“We do,” said Catra, throwing her arms around her neck and kissing her passionately.

“I love you,” Adora told her, her words slightly muffled against her lips.

Catra got down on one knee and held out the ring in her palm for real. “Adora,” she said, ignoring the happy tears that pricked the corner of her eyes, “will you marry me?”

Adora knelt down so they were level. “Yes,” she breathed out. “A million times, yes.”

#she ra #spop #catradora #catra #adora #glimmer #bow #perfuma #scorpia #mermista #she ra season 5 #she ra and the princesses of power #she ra fanfic #soph.txt

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pennamesmith · 3 years

Text

Skeletor Takes a Holiday

Catra thinks on the past. Adora gives out presents. Glimmer looks to the future. Entrapta drives a tank. Hordak and Bow do their best. A She-Ra Day Special.

More “Skeletor” stories here!

“Blast you, you miserable cat! Let me go!” Skeletor squawked.

“Reel it in, bonehead,” Catra replied coolly. She was leading Entrapta’s rebellious reprogrammed robot by what amounted to an ear, his arms full of stolen sugar plums.

“Please, let me explain!” Skeletor protested. “I must save the children!”

“Tell it to the queen,” Catra shrugged back. “If you really wanted to get away with it, you wouldn’t have let me catch you. And anyway, Wrong Hordak says we need more help at the snack tables.”

“You overgrown fur coat,” Skeletor grumbled. “How dare you embarrass me in front of everyone?”

They were walking down a hallway of Bright Moon palace, making their way toward one of the large common rooms. On most weeks, Wrong Hordak used the space to hold a support group for clones and other former members of the Horde, who met to talk about their lives and their feelings. Together, they healed, held on, and let go. And, with great bravery and reluctance, they tried new ways to be themselves.

Today, they were hosting a wellness afternoon.

Catra pushed open a pair of double doors and was greeted by the sight of a warm, bustling room. The therapy group regulars were there, but so were various palace staff and citizens of Bright Moon, as well as former Horde soldiers cautiously following the flyers distributed by an enthusiastic flock of clones. Mixed together, they mingled, tentatively.

Stations were set up in this and the adjoining rooms, each providing sample servings of various simple self-care options. In one area, Netossa and Spinnerella taught comics and cartooning to a circle of curious clones. In another, Swift Wind pranced at the head of an aerobics group. Glimmer had set up a portable kitchen by the window and was showing some palace guards how to make vegetable dumplings. Just about everyone looked like they were having a good time.

Catra waded through all of this and found Wrong Hordak teaching an improv comedy workshop — alongside the regular support group’s newest member, who was currently hanging off the cheerful clone’s shoulder like a feathered boa constrictor.

“Yes, and?” Double Trouble prompted the group, raising an emphatic hand. “Tell me what comes next! Show me passion! Show me imagination!”

“Start the performance! I demand to be amused!” interrupted Skeletor.

Everyone fell silent and turned to look at Catra. “I got Skeletor back,” she said simply, showing off her perturbed prisoner.

“Wonderful work!” Wrong Hordak exclaimed. He pulled a small instruction manual bearing the seal of Dryl out of his pocket and flipped through the handwritten pages. “Skeletor, please perform…” He squinted at the messy longhand. “...Relationship-building subroutine eighteen. Ah, I think I see what the problem was.”

Skeletor abruptly saluted, dropping most of his plums in the process. “I hate to leave this touching scene, but I see my plan has failed! I’ll be back another time, my friend,” he said, marching off to greet new arrivals and attend to the snack tables.

Catra turned to go, but found her way blocked when Double Trouble materialized in front of her.

“It’s good to see you back, kitten,” the lizard smirked. “We almost thought you’d abandoned us! And speaking of, look who I found while you were away.” They pointed. “Some old friends of yours!”

Following the gesture, Catra looked around and felt her insides do a flip-flop as she recognized Kyle, Lonnie, and Rogelio among the group. Double Trouble seemed about to say more, but was instantly distracted when Wrong Hordak winked and called them over for help with an armload of props and costumes.

...Which left Catra alone to face her three erstwhile friends. Who had already made eye contact and started walking towards her. The former force captain wished furiously for an alien abduction, or to be struck down by lightning, but she had no such luck.

“Hi Catra!” Kyle squeaked. Rogelio rumbled something in a friendly tone.

“Catra,” Lonnie greeted simply, wearing an unreadable expression.

“Oh wow,” Catra stammered. “It’s, uh, it’s been a while guys. Haven’t seen you since…”

“Since you went off the deep end and we deserted the Horde?” Lonnie finished for her.

Catra shrank a little. “Yeah. Since that. I’m… really sorry about all that, by the way. Have you all been okay?”

“We stick together. We have a good life. And we heard that you and Adora got married, so now I guess I owe Rogelio money.” Lonnie laughed. “No invitations for us, huh?”

“It was really small,” Catra muttered, feeling worse by the second. She touched her ring. “Just a few guests in the park. Nothing major.”

Lonnie held up her hands. “Hey, it’s cool, none taken. I just hope you treat her better now than you did when we were in the Horde.”

Catra felt her hackles rise and did everything she could to squash them back down again. “We’re fine,” she managed, eventually. “You haven’t seen her around anywhere, have you?”

“Yeah. Over by the board games with the science princess and, you know...” Lonnie mimed a tall, fanged figure with a squinting scowl. “Though I still don’t know how I feel about those two.”

Kyle and Rogelio looked at each other.

“Thanks,” Catra muttered, and slunk away.

Catra found herself stuck in her own thoughts as she wandered in the direction Lonnie had pointed, barely able to muster a friendly wave as she passed Scorpia in Perfuma’s yoga group or Bow at the jigsaw puzzle table. She kept replaying the conversation in her head, thinking about things she could or would or should have said.

In the pit of her chest, she could feel the faint fear of a voice that said she hadn’t changed at all. Unbidden, the image of her own hand on the portal lever came to her. Stupid, stupid, she thought at herself, until the self-loathing drove away the shame.

Catra sighed. She was working on it.

Fortunately, she didn’t have long to perseverate. Sure enough, Adora was in the board games area, seated around a table with Entrapta, Hordak, Emily, and Imp. All five of them were thoroughly engrossed in a heated round of Betrayal at Horror Hall.

“I’ve rolled a three,” Hordak declared as Catra approached. “Is that good?”

“No, it means you’re still trapped in the Dark Dimension,” Entrapta explained evenly. “My turn! I move into the throne room and attack the ghost!”

“Attack! Attack!” Imp echoed in her voice.

Emily beeped.

“Hey Adora,” Catra sighed with relief as she joined them. “How’s it going?”

“Emily betrayed us all, the Dark One has escaped, and I’m dead!” Adora wailed. “In the game, I mean,” she clarified, gesturing to her battle figurine, which was tipped on its side. Catra smiled and settled in, already feeling more assured of herself.

“Oh, and you have got to try Hordak’s new coffee,” Adora continued, proffering a steaming paper cup. “He called it a… peppered mint mo-cah?” She looked at Catra with immeasurable eyes and giggled. “I think I can hear space.”

Catra had a thought. She glanced at Entrapta.

“That reminds me,” Catra started cautiously. “You know that charity stunt or whatever you goons have planned for the night before Adora’s birthday?”

“You mean She-Ra Day Eve?” Adora asked, a huge grin plastered on her face.

“Yeah, that one. I changed my mind about staying home. I want in.”

“Oh, yay!” Adora nearly fell out of her seat leaning over to hug her wife. “We’re gonna have so much fun!”

“It will be a significant benefit to have extra helpers,” Hordak added with approval as he looked up from the game board. “Entrapta has engineered quite an undertaking for this event.”

“She has? Uh, how elaborate are we talking, exactly?” Catra asked, already beginning to regret her decision.

Entrapta leaned across the table. “Oh, it’s gonna be big,” she boasted, grinning. Then she sat back in her hair and laughed madly, swinging her feet with delight.

Catra gulped. Somewhere, she could hear a bell ring.

They were standing outside in the starry night.

It did not snow in Bright Moon, but the air was chilly, and everyone assembled was wearing heavy winter coats. Catra, sinking into hers like a turtle, leaned against Adora’s arm and groaned.

“I’m gonna be so bad at this,” she complained.

“You’re gonna do fine,” Adora cajoled. “You’ll get to throw stuff at people! You love doing that.”

“It wouldn’t be the same without the whole Best Friends Squad anyway!” Bow added, as Glimmer nodded beside him.

“It’s better with you here,” the queen said, smiling.

Catra felt her stomach twist and looked away. But that only faced her toward the group’s tallest member, looming lazily on her other side.

“You seem stressed, Catra.”

Catra glared back up at Hordak. “Easy for you to say! Your wife’s birthday isn’t a national holiday!”

Hordak huffed. “Perhaps not where you come from.”

“I can’t take much more of this,” moaned Skeletor.

Catra threw up her hands. “Okay, and why is Skeletor here?” she asked helplessly.

“Silence, you furry fool!” Skeletor retorted. “You ought to know me better than that by now!” He crossed his arms and sulked.

“We require a full crew for this endeavor,” Hordak explained, more calmly. “Entrapta insisted upon using one of the larger models.”

“Models of what?” Catra demanded.

As if on cue, a loud rumbling sound filled the air. The ground began to shake, and an enormous Horde tank rounded the corner, trundled down the road, and came to a juddering halt in front of the gathered friends. It was covered in tinsel and had been repainted with jolly, festive colors.

“Speak of the gremlin,” Catra mumbled, staring.

The tank’s front hatch popped open and Entrapta emerged astride Emily, hefting a huge burlap bag. Imp was sitting on her shoulder, wearing a new pair of booties with curled and pointed toes.

“Merry She-Ra, one and all!” Entrapta crowed. “Welcome aboard the Wrapper Tank!” As they filed past her up the ramp, she rummaged in her bag and passed out what appeared to be accessorized figurines resembling each member of the group.

Skeletor stared long and hard at his. “Only one is really me! Which one is it?” he mused.

Glimmer was delighted with hers and immediately set about making it hold hands with Bow’s. Catra held hers uncertainly while Adora toyed with the miniature She-Ra’s sword arm action.

“Look, it’s a tiny Hordak!” Entrapta squealed with glee as she presented her partner with his own likeness. “Isn’t he cute?”

Hordak smiled as he accepted the gift. “Your craftsmanship is remarkable, as always.”

Inside the tank was a command bridge the size of a throne room. Several more bags stuffed with small toy princesses rested in the center of the floor. On every surrounding wall there were blinking control panels and swiveling gunners’ chairs. Skeletor sat down in one and spun giddily.

“I made tiny versions of all the heroes of Etheria!” Entrapta exclaimed, sweeping her hands over everything. “Bow helped with the designs. And then I used my fabrication lab to mass-produce them!” She held her sides and cackled wildly.

“We’re going to give them out to all the homes in Bright Moon,” Adora added, settling into another chair. “Something for the kids, you know?” Catra, already brightening at the sight of weaponry, grinned and joined her.

Entrapta tossed herself back into the pilot’s seat. “If this experiment goes well, we’ll be able to expand the operation to other kingdoms next year! Maybe even the whole planet!”

“Okay, but how are we going to be able to deliver presents to every house if we only have one night?” Bow asked.

“That’s easy!” Entrapta bragged. “Behold, the power of the Wrapper Tank!”

With a flourish, she dropped one of the trinkets into a large funnel near the control panel. In seconds, automated arms had bound it in wrapping paper and a purple bow, and fired it out the front cannon at high velocity.

“This baby can do thirty of these things a minute!” Entrapta shouted proudly as she continued shoveling toys into the machine.

“Is everyone comfortable?” Skeletor asked. He didn’t wait for an answer before pushing as many buttons as his bony arms could reach.

With a roar, the engines came to life, and then they were rolling down the road, strafing the kingdom with presents that mostly landed where they were supposed to go. The inside of the tank became a bustle of activity as the crewmates passed gifts to one another and sent them shooting off into the night. Distantly, they could hear people cheering, as well as the occasional sound of something breaking.

“Is this what we’re doing all night?” Catra asked. She flipped a switch and raised her eyebrows as a Frosta doll hurtled through someone’s window. “You were right, it is kinda fun.”

“This is the main event, yeah,” Adora replied, launching a volley of Sea Hawks down the block. “We’ve got a few more personal stops to make on the way, though. The first one’s in the Whispering Woods!”

Catra froze for a moment, imagining the ghosts that were waiting for her in those dark and shifting trees. She shook her head and ignored the thought.

“What idiot started this whole thing anyway?” Skeletor griped.

The tank made its first stop at a tiny cottage, so small and low that it would have been easy to mistake for nothing at all.

“Madame Razz?” Adora called as she ducked through the doorway. The others followed behind her in a curious huddle.

“I brought you some cookies and sweets and stuff,” Adora said, setting the goodies on the table. Bow and Glimmer gazed with interest at the many mystical odds and ends decorating the walls. Entrapta struck up a conversation with the broom. Hordak, who was taller than the ceiling, crouched in as dignified a manner as he could manage.

“Who knows what evil lurks behind these doors?” Skeletor hissed in a hushed whisper.

At the far side of the cottage, Razz sat in a rocking chair and tipped slowly back and forth, staring at nothing. Catra felt her hair stand on end.

Adora looked worried. “Razz? You there?”

Madame Razz blinked and snapped out of her trance. “Yes, yes, deary! Come in! I remembered this was going to happen.” Leaping to her feet, she held out a stuffed doll with pointed ears, blue hair, and soulless eyes. “Look here! I have a gift for you also.”

Adora took it gingerly. “How… nice. What is it?” She turned the doll over in her hands. It wore a rainbow jumper and a plastic smirk.

“It’s a Loo-Kee on a Ledge!” Razz explained cheerfully. “You put it in your home. Move it every night. Tell the children it can see them. Makes the young ones more obedient!”

“Thanks, that’s terrifying.” Adora passed the doll to Catra, who seemed far more interested in its potential applications. “I bet it’ll make a nice game.”

“Game?” Razz turned and stared through her glasses in confusion. “We are not here for games, we are here for fruit cake!”

Before Adora could stop her, the old woman had rushed to her little cottage oven. She made a show of reaching inside with protective mitts and extracted a cold stone brick, which had been placed in a pan with some wild nuts sprinkled on top.

“You want a slice now?”

“Oh, absolutely!” Entrapta pushed her way to the front of the group, producing a small buzz saw and a sample jar. “I’ve been reading up on geological gastronomy!”

”Uh, hey, Entrapta!” Adora intervened. “Did I ever tell you that Madame Razz knew some of the First Ones? Like, personally?”

“What? Really?” Entrapta turned toward Adora in surprise, and then back to the old woman with renewed interest. She peered through a pair of multi-lensed goggles and raised her eyebrows. “Though that would explain all the tachyons in here. Quick, how many temporal causalities am I holding up?”

“Ah! You’re a sharp one, deary!” Razz laughed.

Entrapta shook her hands and pulled a recorder from her pocket. “Aah! You — you’re a walking quantum event! Tell me everything!”

And in her own way, Razz did. As they chattered back and forth, Adora looked between the old witch and the scientist and wondered why she hadn’t introduced the two of them sooner.

“That’s a handsome, strapping lad you’ve got there!” Razz whispered conspiratorially to Entrapta. “Does he have a brother?”

Entrapta smirked.

“You have a brain that could warm my heart,” Skeletor said. “If I had a heart!”

Much to Catra’s consternation, their next stop did not take them out of the Whispering Woods. While Entrapta and Skeletor tuned up the tank, George and Lance cheerfully embarrassed their youngest son in front of his friends.

“We’re delighted by your presents!” George punned as his husband passed out mugs of hot cocoa. Hordak took two and carefully decanted the extra into several tiny thermoses.

Bow handed his fathers a huge stack of neatly handwritten pages. “We brought these for you — Adora’s been helping me translate some of the First Ones records you found at the ruins!”

“It’s… not very exciting,” Adora admitted. “There’s a lot of complaining about this one guy who just sold really terrible etherium.”

Despite this, George and Lance seized upon the pages and flipped through them eagerly, talking over each other in excitement. While they sat and chatted energetically with Adora about what the writings contained, Glimmer dragged Catra away to show off her increasing knowledge of the expansive library.

This left Bow standing alone with Hordak for the first time in the night. The archer and the ex-lord looked at one another, the former desperately searching for something to say while the latter gently nursed his cocoa. They both seemed to sense that some sort of social interaction would be appropriate, but were entirely unsure of what that ought to be.

“Excuses, excuses! I’m tired of all your excuses!” Skeletor yelled from outside. “Fix the problem and go!”

Hordak cleared his throat. “Entrapta tells me you are the one who gave my brother his rather... derivative name,” he tried after a moment.

Bow made a noise.

“He thanks you for it,” Hordak said sincerely.

“I’m sorry! I mean, what?” Bow cautiously opened his eyes.

“He considers it an essential part of his journey to freedom from Prime’s grasp.” Hordak studied his claws with a careful expression. “Many have encouraged him to take on a more singular moniker. I am among them. Perhaps someday he will. But for now, it is as beloved to him as that theatrical lizard seems to be.”

“You’re… welcome?” Bow ventured.

“You are a highly competent engineer,” Hordak stated. “I once mistook your work for Entrapta’s. When we were still enemies, that is.” He hesitated. “I… am pleased that we are not enemies any longer.”

“Thank you?”

Hordak bowed.

Skeletor popped his head around the door.

“Get a move on, you slugs!” he called. “Hurry! Faster, faster!”

Eventually, the Wrapper Tank rolled to a stop at the front gates of Bright Moon palace, precisely where it had begun. There was only one visit left to make.

“Micah! It’s so good to see you!” Entrapta chirped. “How have things been since we both lived at the mercy of techno-organic island monstrosities?”

“Quieter,” Micah remarked. “And my food doesn’t get stolen nearly as often.” He smiled. “It’s good to see you, too.”

“I made you She-Ra Day crackers!” Entrapta exulted, holding out a pile of shiny paper cylinders. “They’re an old Dryl tradition, ever since last year. When you pull the ends, tiny snacks come out! And I’ve improved these ones with twenty percent more explosives!”

“It should be quite a blast!” Skeletor chuckled. “Enjoy the fireworks!”

Gingerly taking the armload of gifts and setting them down as carefully as she possibly could, Castaspella welcomed everyone into a warm and cozy den. She and Micah had lit a roaring fire in the fireplace and were decorating a fir tree with glowing light-charms. A small table held a large platter of cookies, which Adora immediately set about devouring.

Skeletor paused at the door. “Tell me a riddle!” he demanded.

Castaspella looked confused. “Excuse me?”

“He thinks it’s what sorceresses do,” Entrapta told her. “You gotta humor him!”

“Oh.” Castaspella tapped her chin. “Well, in that case, um… why did the twigget cross the road?”

Skeletor considered this for a great deal of time before surrendering. “Oh, I’m horrible at riddles,” he groused. “Who’s good at riddles here?”

However, everyone else had already settled in around the fire, tired from a long night of bauble bombardment.

“What do you think of our She-Ra Day decorations?” Castaspella asked proddingly. “Micah wanted a fake tree, but I set him straight on that. Honestly, I don’t know how my brother survived on Beast Island without me.”

“You certainly would have helped scare the monsters away,” said Micah.

“Y’know, I’ve always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling,” Adora thought out loud. “Could you imagine me with, like, a long-lost First Ones twin? We’d kick so much butt!”

Hordak, Bow, Micah, and Castaspella all shared a look that spoke to something universal.

“It’s a mixed bag. Casta used to trick me into stealing food for her,” Micah complained. “Pretended it was a game and I got more points if our parents didn’t see me sneak into the kitchen.”

“He hit me with a tree branch once, you know,” Castaspella responded.

“I did no such thing!” Micah argued. “All I did was lead your horse under a tree. It’s not my fault it had remarkably low hanging branches. Or that you didn’t duck in time.”

“Anyway,” Bow cut in, “I think what Micah and Castaspella are trying to say is that despite their differences they get along now and they’re glad to still have each other after all this time.” He glanced at Hordak. “...Even if they used to be enemies.”

Micah nodded sagely. “That is precisely what I meant,” he lied.

While they continued with their conversation, Glimmer noticed that Catra was standing alone at the far side of the room, her back to the others, staring at a small portrait of Angella hung above the door.

“Fascinating,” Skeletor said. “That little insect is feeling sorry for itself!”

Glimmer whispered something to her father and stood up to approach the fretting feline. “Hey, everything okay?” she asked. “You’ve seemed off a lot tonight. You didn’t even laugh when I showed you that book of dirty First Ones jokes in George and Lance’s library.”

“Huh?” Catra looked up, surprised to have company. “I guess so. Maybe. I don’t know. I mean… are you really sure I should be here?”

“Well, it’s all Adora has been talking about for the past week, so yeah, pretty sure.”

Catra shook her head. “No, I mean here at all. Being happy, instead of rotting in a dungeon somewhere.” She scowled. “I know we’ve talked about it, but I just… I did so much bad stuff, back in the Horde. I hurt people. I was awful to Adora. I’m even the reason your mom…”

Catra trailed off. A deep gulf of silence stretched between her and Glimmer. The queen appeared pensive.

“I’ve done some really bad things too,” Glimmer said eventually. “So I guess maybe I’m the wrong person to ask?” She gave a lopsided smile.

“But what do you do when people hate you? And you deserve it?”

Glimmer looked concerned. “I don’t think anyone here hates you. Not currently, anyway. Where’s all this coming from?”

“I’d hate me if I were you,” Catra quietly admitted.

“Maybe. But I’m not you, and you’re not me.” Glimmer turned away and hugged herself. “I’m always going to miss my mom. And it’s always going to hurt. But… I don’t think it’s much use to make that hurt worse by hating you.” She looked back up. “I think anyone can make up for a mistake, as long as they really know it was a mistake. I hope so, anyway.”

Catra scratched her head. “So, what, feeling bad means that I’m good?”

“Something like that,” Glimmer giggled. “Seriously though, there’s responsibility in this. We never stop working on it.”

“Was that a royal ‘we’?” Catra quipped.

“No, it goes for both of us. All of us. I mean it.” Glimmer gazed around the room. “Mistakes… never really get completely fixed, you know. It took me a long time to get that. But we can grow something better and stronger with the lessons we learn from them.”

The queen smiled again. “Besides, I’m happier being friends. Look at us all!”

Catra did.

Everyone, in one form or another, was relaxing around the glow of the fireplace. Entrapta and Imp knelt by the hearth, doing something with chestnuts and an acetylene torch. Hordak and Micah sat on the couch, swapping horror stories about Shadow Weaver. Bow watched closely as Castaspella instructed him in a new knitting pattern. And Adora appeared to be trading pleasantries with Skeletor as though they were age-old friends.

“Here, She-Ra! A gift!” Skeletor said. He held out a freshly-baked doomberry pie.

Catra laughed. Suddenly feeling lighter, she went to join them. Glimmer followed. And the great world spun on.

Entrapta clapped her hair. “Thanks for coming, Catra! This was loads of fun!”

It was early morning and they were all going their separate ways again. Glimmer had already dragged a dozing Bow back to the palace, while Catra and Adora disembarked in front of the small home they shared together.

“The mission was a great success,” Hordak agreed as Entrapta leaned into his side. “You showed exemplary courage in the field.”

“Thank you,” Catra said, and meant it.

Adora, gazing at the sky in contemplation next to her, suddenly realized that the stars weren’t the only things twinkling.

“Entrapta?” she asked. “You know the space tree?”

��The large plant growth that overtook Horde Prime’s flagship when She-Ra defeated him and which remains in low Etheria orbit as a constant reminder of the power of love and healing? Yes, I’m familiar with it.”

“Did you put lights on it?”

Entrapta beamed. “Yeah, little blinky ones! Or at least they look little from here. They actually have a diameter of about one Darla each. Alternating current, naturally. Aren’t they great?”

“You know,” Adora smiled, “I really think they are.” Catra concurred.

They turned and went home together, which left Entrapta and Hordak to return to the Wrapper Tank hand in hand, relaxing into each other’s arms as they sat and shared a tiny thermos of hot cocoa. Under Emily’s supervision, Skeletor and Imp drove the tank back to Entrapta’s Bright Moon lab, and only argued over the steering wheel once along the way.

As soon as they returned, Hordak sought out their bed and fell gratefully into the soft sheets. Entrapta made to follow him, but before she did so she pulled Skeletor aside with one ponytail, hands hiding something behind her back.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” Skeletor questioned.

“Skeletor, you’ve been a big help over the past year,” Entrapta said to the spindly robot. “And I wanted to say thank you. So, I made you another present. You deserve to have a helper too!”

She pulled her hands from behind her back and revealed a lop-eared robot puppy with wide and innocent eyes. It sat up in her arms and fixed Skeletor with a curious gaze.

“His name is Relay! What do you think?”

Skeletor gasped in surprise, reaching out to take the robotic canine. “Even Hordak doesn’t have anything like this!” he gushed in a joyous tone.

The puppy wagged its tail and let out a tiny synthesized bark. It licked Skeletor’s face.

Skeletor hummed happily. “This is perfect!”

Above them, the stars and the lights shone brightly. And even Skeletor, despite his better instincts, was merry. The world was at peace.

“A season of love? Caring? Joy? Ugh! Very clever, you muscle-bound moron,” Skeletor conceded. He patted Relay on the head. “Another time, She-Ra! Another time!”

#She-Ra #fan fiction #skeletor #catra #adora #entrapta #hordak #glimmer #bow #madame razz #bow's dads #micah #castaspella #entrapdak #catradora

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youngjusticeslut · 4 years

Text

Love is the Answer

Fandom: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Characters: Catra, Adora, Bow and Glimmer Ships: Catradora Rating: T AO3

Adora doesn’t let go of her once.

She can still feel Catra trembling in her arms, holding onto her with a desperate tightness that made every muscle in her body tense. It lasts this way for hours.

After Adora rescues Catra from Horde Prime's grasp, they start to reconnect.

Adora doesn’t let go of her once.

She can still feel Catra trembling in her arms, holding onto her with a desperate tightness that made every muscle in her body tense. It lasts this way for hours.

Bow and Glimmer leave them to get some rest. Even Entrapta gives them space, dragging Wrong Hordak with her and rambling on about how fascinating and technologically advanced he is. Adora remains on the floor, holding Catra tight to her chest.

Eventually, Catra succumbs to exhaustion and the shaking stops. Ice cold panic flashes through Adora’s nerves. She shoots upward, but Catra’s breathing is even. Not like before. Slowly, Adora lets herself relax, shifting so that Catra can rest more comfortably. In a moment, she’d get up, and put her somewhere more comfortable where she could properly recover. For now, though, she just sits on the floor and holds her.

Her mind is a mess. She’s physically drained, but every time she closes her eyes she watches Catra scream in pain before falling off the cliff. If it wasn’t for She-Ra, Catra would be dead. Later, she’ll ponder over She-Ra’s reappearance. She’ll join Entrapta and Bow and Glimmer in figuring out their next step and how to return to Etheria. That’ll all come later. At the moment, she doesn’t want to think about anything other than Catra’s breathing.

Catra twitches in her sleep, her face scrunching as she does so. “You’re okay,” Adora whispers, tightening her grip. She lets herself think that by doing so, she’s keeping the nightmares away. When they were kids, Catra would sleep at the foot of her bunk and demand that Adora scratch her head until she fell asleep. She’d said it kept the nightmares away.

The thought makes her eyes well up again. Her eyes are so sore, she doesn’t remember the last time she’s cried so much. It doesn’t matter. The hard part was over, now.

Taking a shaky breath, Adora brushes a strand of hair out of Catra’s face. It’s unnerving to see it cut so short. The jagged strands at the back of her head brush against Adora’s fingers; she smooths them down, hoping that even asleep, it’ll provide Catra with some comfort. Just like before.

Prime said that Catra had been afraid. That she’d suffered. Glimmer had told them about Prime’s twisted ways of torture, but she’d never mentioned anything painful. Despite being asleep, Catra’s face looks troubled. Her skin is paler than it should be, and she’s thinner than before. If Adora hadn’t arrived when she had, what would have become of her?

No. No, she can’t think about that. Catra’s right here, she’s here, and in her arms, and she’s okay. She’s okay.

When Adora’s legs fall asleep, she stands, shakily bringing Catra with her. Thanks to She-Ra’s healing, neither of them had physical wounds, but her muscles are still spent. She can’t imagine what kind of pain Catra will be in when she wakes up. Adora forces herself to move slowly as she picks her up, careful so as to not wake her. There’s only one bedroom left on the ship, and it’s hers, but Catra needs it more. She doesn’t need to sleep yet, she can wait.

Catra doesn’t stir when Adora sets her down. Adora covers her with the blanket and takes her hand, refusing to let go of her just yet. There were so many things they had to talk about. So many things that she wanted Catra to know, and so many answers that she needed to hear.

Instead, she holds Catra’s hand tighter and presses it to her cheek. “How could you think that you don’t matter?” she breathes. “You matter so much.”

—

A few hours later, Catra starts thrashing.

Her body burns with fever, and she doesn’t wake up no matter how hard Adora tries. Despite her shivers, the blanket and her clothes are soaked with her sweat. Catra claws at them mercilessly, managing to tear quite a bit until Adora takes them off her.

Catra doesn’t feel Adora beside her, her hand digging into her shoulder. Instead she relives the memories, playing on a loop and tearing her apart.

It starts with the portal, as it always does. Entrapta’s unconscious form haunts her, followed by Adora’s wrath over activating the portal. She runs, she always runs, clawing at the ground and trying to scramble to her feet. Unlike before, it doesn’t end.

You will be of use to me yet.

Catra’s mind jerks right into the throne room on the ship, and everything’s sharper. Horde Prime’s face is right in front of hers, his cold, metal fingers digging into her jaw. Her heart beats a mile a minute, but not from fear. No. From victory. Glimmer was safe, and thus, so was Adora. She saved Adora, whatever happens to her next doesn’t matter. So long as Adora is safe.

Two clones drag her away and deposit her inside Glimmer’s old cell. It’s almost comforting. Catra curls up in a ball on the floor, her tail wrapped around her. She isn’t quite certain what Prime will do to her, but she knows it won’t be pleasant. The image of Hordak, screaming in agony as he’s electrocuted in the green pool, flashes in her mind, and she resists the urge to whimper.

“It’s okay,” she remembers telling herself, arms around her knees protectively. “It doesn’t matter. You’ll be okay.” She always is, or, finds a way to be. Why should now be any different?

I’m always gonna be your friend.

Catra closes her eyes, playing back Adora’s voice from their quick conversation. She’d sounded so worried; why was that? They both knew that Catra had destroyed any chance at salvaging their relationship the moment she activated the portal. So why…?

I’m sorry. For everything.

She wishes she’d had more time. There were so many things she wanted to say to her. So much more than just four short words. She deserves so much more than an apology— they all did. Adora, Entrapta, Scorpia. She’d even apologize to Kyle if it meant getting to see Adora one last time.

On Mara’s ship, Catra whimpers, shaking violently as she relives the remainder of her short time in captivity in rapid succession.

They leave her in the room, for hours. No food. No special treatment, not like Glimmer. It feels like days have gone by when the clones finally drag her out. Catra attempts to fight, but her body is weak. Her brain is tired, and her heart hurts. Everything hurts.

She’s taken to a room, just as sterile and eerie as all the others. They rip her mask off her face and shear her hair. She keeps her teeth clenched and refuses to react, repeating to herself that it doesn’t matter. Every sensation is heightened, but the pain when they chip her is by far the worst. A hiss escapes her throat before she can stop it, and the clones quickly grab her arms to keep her from clawing at her neck.

The chip leeches into her neck, as they half-drag her to the purification room. She’s so focused on the slithering, tingling sensation in her neck, she doesn’t even realize where they are, until she’s standing at the ledge of the green pool.

Horde Prime stands at the center of the room, waiting for her. His mouth stretches into a grin, staring her up and down as if he’s pleased with his handiwork. Her thrashing grows more restless, clawing at the bed so urgently that Adora has to physically hold her down.

Catra’s neck burns with a white-hot rage, and she desperately wants the chip out. This isn’t right. She doesn’t want this. The pool bubbles, growling at her. Thoughts race through her mind, and that’s when she realizes that Prime is about to wipe her.

Every instinct yells at her to look for an escape route, any attempt to evade this. But her mind knows better than her instincts. It’s too late. Her punishment is inevitable— and frankly, deserved. She doesn’t get to escape. Not this time.

Horde Prime begins his speech, but Catra doesn’t hear it. The clones chant their malicious words, and her blood is pounding in her ears. Everything is spinning. Before she realizes what’s happening, she’s pushed into the pool, and immediately electrocuted.

Catra’s screams of agony shake Adora to her core.

The pain of the electrocution isn’t the worst part. Catra’s used to pain. Her vision fades and the chip takes over, letting her see black. Every thought at the front of her mind is pushed far behind, so far that Catra can barely make them out anymore.

She desperately tries to recall a memory, just one. It appears at first but fades with every second the chip gains control, and she has to fight to keep it for as long as it remains. She only needs one. Every attempt to grasp it is rewarded with a sharper, intense series of shocks, forcing her to let go. Catra doesn’t want to let it go, not this time.

Adora’s face, smiling and innocent, is the last thing she sees.

You promise?

It slips away. No matter how hard she tries to hold onto it, she can’t remember how it ends.

—

“Adora, you need to sleep,” Bow tells her, resting a hand on her shoulder. She hadn’t even heard him enter.

“It’s okay. I’m fine where I am,” Adora says, but she couldn’t make the words sound true. Her voice is hoarse with exhaustion, and though Catra had stopped thrashing a while ago, she still clutches her hand in a vice grip.

“Adora.” Bow squeezes her shoulder, and she finally lifts her eyes to meet his. “She’s going to be okay. Wearing yourself out isn’t going to help anything.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t leave her.” It felt odd to say those words. Days ago, Catra was her enemy. “If she starts having flashes again…” she trails off, checking the damp cloth on Catra’s forehead. She isn’t shaking as hard anymore, and the cloth was still cool. Her fever must have broken. “I need to be here when she wakes up.”

Bow sighs. He crouches down and takes her other hand. “I understand,” he begins, trying to pick his words carefully. “But we need you, too. Entrapta needs your help in repairing the ship. And we need to go over the plan for when we get back to Etheria.”

“I’ll do all that,” she insists.

“You can’t. Not without sleep.”

“Bow, I can’t leave her,” Adora insists, more broken than before.

Bow has seen Adora at her worst plenty of times before. But not like this. She is coming apart to pieces right in front of him, and the worst part is that he doesn’t know what to do to help bring her back together again.

“Is her fever gone?”

Adora nods, checks again to be sure, and then nods a second time.

“Okay.” Bow grabs Adora’s shoulders with the gentlest, most careful of touches. “If her fever has broken, that means that she’s recovering, and sleeping. If she’s sleeping, she probably isn’t having the flashes again.” He can feel when his words start to sink in, because Adora’s shoulders soften from being hard as rocks to something he can coax. “She needs to rest, uninterrupted.”

Adora lifts her head to look at him, but she’s listening. “What if she needs me?”

“Then I’ll come get you.” He reaches up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind Adora’s ear. “Go sleep next to Glimmer. Let me keep watch for a while.”

“No, that’s too far. I…” she trails off before she looks to the corner of the room. “I can stay there.”

Bow shakes his head and squeezes her shoulders a bit tighter. “I know you want to be there for her. But right now, Catra needs space.” They both turn as the feline whimpers in her sleep, and Bow has to hold Adora back from grabbing Catra again.

“Let me go,” she snarls.

He shakes his head no, gripping her tighter. “Adora, please, listen to me. Catra’s still chipped. She’s been through something none of us can understand, and we don’t even know if she’s still dangerous. She may…” Bow exhales, building up his nerves. “She may not want to see you.”

“Of course she’ll want to see me!” Adora insists, trying to pull away again. He doesn’t let her. “I saved her life, she’ll want to see me when she wakes up.”

“Imagine if it were you.” This makes Adora pause. “How would you feel, going through everything she did?”

As Adora mulls it over, her body slumps. She would feel guilty. Guilty for causing everyone so much trouble and having them risk their lives to rescue her. Catra grimaces in her sleep and despite every instinct telling Adora to go hold her, she hesitates. She knows Catra more than she’s known anyone, or at least, she used to. If Adora is there the moment she wakes up, Catra will immediately attack.

She nods, defeated. Bow is right.

“If you don’t want to sleep in my room, you can sleep right outside the door,” he tries again, pulling her into a hug. “I’ll set up the mat myself.”

This is an acceptable compromise. She allows Bow to help her up, glancing at Catra again as she does so. Bow keeps his hands on her shoulders and slowly guides her to the door. “She’s strong, Adora. We all know that. She’s going to be okay, but she just needs to rest. And so do you.”

Once she’s turned away from Catra, Bow sees Adora’s eyelids start to droop. Exhaustion is starting to catch up with her and she sways on her feet. He holds her steady all the while, leading her out of the room and setting her down right by the door. “Stay here. I’ll get you something to sleep on.”

He’s gone barely five minutes, but she’s dead to the world when he returns. Bow has only seen her out cold like this once, when she was having the visions of She-Ra. He doesn’t blame her, though. She needs the rest. Just like he promised, he sets up the mat and carefully moves her so that she’s atop of it and sleeping comfortably.

Glimmer’s already asleep back in their room, and at the moment, he’s pretty sure he’s the only one awake. He’s never too sure about Entrapta, but there are no sudden crashes or manic laughter, so he can at least assume. He glances back inside Catra’s room to make sure she’s still asleep, and then back at Adora to make sure that she’s okay.

Bow slides down on the wall opposite Adora, closing his eyes as well. He would keep watch over both her and Catra and make sure they made it through the night okay. They both deserved to rest, and he will ensure that they get it.

—

“You can stop pretending you’re asleep, it’s just me.”

Catra’s ears twitch at Glimmer’s familiarly shrill voice. She doesn’t move, or open her eyes, but the footsteps come closer anyway. Her face remains perfectly still, even as she hears Glimmer sigh, short and huffy.

“You’re not fooling anyone.”

She cracks her eyes open, just enough to see the pink-haired queen standing right in front of her. Back on the ship, she had made sure to keep her distance, even while Catra saved her. Guess all it took was her, well, dying, to grow comfortable. “Adora seemed to buy it,” Catra mutters, turning to the other side of the bed.

Glimmer scoffs, following her with her eyes narrowed and mouth set into a hard frown. “She’s worried sick about you. What do you have to gain by avoiding her?”

It wasn’t exactly something she was gaining, but rather preserving. In between the nightmares and the flashes, there are dreams. She dreams of Adora’s face, crying over her after she regained consciousness in her arms. She feels her arms around her, holding her as if she’d never left, as if the past three years hadn’t happened.

As much as she wants that to be the case, it isn’t. The moment Catra is better, the consequences will start to set in. Adora wouldn’t so much as look at her again, let alone touch her. She’d just said those things… rescued her, held her, out of pity. And that’s what made her stomach lurch and eyes shut tight when Adora came to check on her. She didn’t want to face that just yet; she needed to keep living in the dream, just for a little while longer.

“I don’t think it’s any of your business, Sparkles.” Catra fluffs up her pillow and sticks it under her head, trying not to feel alarmed when her cropped hair brushes against the palm of her hand. Right, that was new. It would take a lot of getting used to. “Just leave me alone.”

“Adora’s my friend, so it is my business.” When Catra doesn’t answer, Glimmer pinches the bridge of her nose and takes a deep breath. “I won’t tell her you’re awake. Whatever you two have to work through, you can do that on your own terms.”

Catra scoffs. “Thanks for your blessing.”

“That’s not what I was getting at. Look, I came in here to check on you. I…” She pauses, looking away and pulling at her fingers. “I wanted to say thank you. For saving me.”

“I already told you, I didn’t do it for you. I did it for—”

“Adora, I know,” Glimmer finishes for her. She hesitates and then sits on the edge of the bed. Catra watches her every move, her ears standing straight up and at the ready. “It doesn’t matter who you did it for. You saved me, Catra.”

For once, the feline is lost for words. Her tail tucks underneath her legs, and she finds herself unable to look at Glimmer directly. There was the truth, out in the open. She’d saved her. Now what was she supposed to do with it?

Glimmer glances over at her, noticing her apprehension. “You don’t… need to say anything. I don’t expect you to. I just wanted to say thank you, and to make sure you’re okay.” She cocks her head to the side, glancing at the chip embedded in Catra’s neck. “Are you? Okay, that is.”

She chokes out a guttural hiss from between her teeth. “What kind of dumb question is that?” she asks, holding her arms. Of course she isn’t okay. She has Prime’s damn chip in her neck, thus, he still has control over her. No sooner does she think about it does her body start to shake. She hates that Glimmer sees her like this. That everyone has seen her, so weak and defenseless and utterly vulnerable. It was a far cry from the Catra they once knew.

Instead of snapping back, Glimmer nods. “I know. What Prime did to us— to you, especially, is horrible.” She narrows her eyes in determination, staring right at Catra. “We’re going to make him pay.”

The words were meant to offer Catra some comfort, but instead they only make her stomach curdle. “Good luck with that,” she mutters, closing her eyes again. “I’m tired. Can you go now?”

Glimmer raises a brow. “That’s all you have to say? He hurt you!”

“I’m well aware of what he did to me,” Catra growls, careful to keep her voice low lest someone come to investigate. “Last time I checked, I’m the one who has his chip stuck to my neck. I’m the one who still has to hear him, and see him, and remember how he almost killed me.” Her voice wavers near the end of her sentence and she digs her nails into her skin to keep from shaking again.

Through her peripheral, Catra notices Glimmer trying to scoot closer, attempting to offer some comfort. Without thinking it through, she whirls upward and hisses, bringing her claws out to stop her from coming any closer. Her heart pounds with the confrontation, but it works, as Glimmer stays rooted in her spot.

The two glare at each other for a few moments, but Glimmer plays the bigger person and stands, heading for the door. Before she leaves, she rests her hand on the frame and glances back. “Sometimes, Catra, you make it really hard to like you.”

She leaves right after she says it. Catra ignores the familiar gnawing ache of guilt in her stomach and lies down again, closing her eyes. There are no good dreams, this time. Just the memories.

—

Even after the chip is removed from her neck, Catra can still feel it burning.

It’s gone, but she doesn’t feel different. The memories remain. Her vision is clear of flashes, but they remain crystal clear in her conscience. When she closes her eyes and tries to sleep, she hears his voice, smooth and leaching into her soul, echoing a cold darkness on everything it touches.

Those aren’t the only feelings. When it’s not Prime clouding her mind, it’s Adora. Adora’s blush when she asked her to stay. Her warm hands, holding hers tight and feeling just as comforting as Catra remembers them being. The kind smile she’d given her when Catra sat across from her at dinner.

She growls, flipping over to the side and trying to dismiss the thoughts from her head. Pleasant as they are, she doesn’t want to feel those feelings either. Not when she is still so consumed with guilt. Not when she doesn’t know how long this will last.

With a huff, Catra sits up and swings her legs off the bed. She can’t stay in this room anymore.

Her mind is too restless for sleep, which is understandable considering she’s been recovering for days. Truth be told, she’s still hungry. The taste of dumplings is still in her mouth, and as much as she hates to admit it, she wants more. Until she ate those, it hadn’t occurred to her how good food could taste. She wishes that she ate more during dinner, but she was too nervous to eat more than one around everyone else.

When she can no longer hear Entrapta running around, Catra ventures out of her room and wanders around looking for the kitchen. She doesn’t know if the ship even has a kitchen, but she figures that she’ll find her way to the main hull and work her way from there. Maybe there’s a leftover dumpling or two she can claim for her own.

For once, the ship is silent. Almost peaceful; everyone else must be asleep.

Catra approaches the door to the hull of the ship, but it opens before she can trigger the sensors. Adora stands before her, holding a plate. The blonde’s eyes widen in surprise, but she smiles. “I was just coming to check on you.”

“I’m fine,” Catra says quickly, running a hand over her hair. She’s so used to smoothing down her long mane, it’s unsettling that she no longer has it. “Just needed a walk.”

“Yeah, I figured.” Adora clears her throat. “I can join, if you want.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“No, I know. I want to.”

Her kindness grasps at Catra’s heart, squeezing so hard it hurts. She doesn’t deserve Adora’s kindness. Not after everything she’s done. Catra turns around, her quest for food suddenly deemed unimportant. “There’s no point. I was just going back to my room.”

“Oh.” Catra can’t see Adora’s expression, but she hears the disappointment in her voice. Her ears perk when she hears her take a step closer. “Can I… come sit with you for a bit? If you’re tired, you won’t even know I’m there.”

It’s on the tip of Catra’s tongue to ask if she promises, but she holds herself back. She knows she should say no. There’s no logical reason that would explain Adora’s desire to spend time with her. And yet… her mind wanders back to their embrace, their hands intertwined, the certainty in Adora’s voice as she told her that they would go home. Maybe just a little while wouldn’t hurt.

“Okay.” She pretends she doesn’t notice how her tail starts swishing and starts to walk back to her room without waiting for Adora.

As expected, the blonde keeps up.

“It’s good to see you up and walking,” she admits. Adora’s always been good with breaking the tension. It really shouldn’t surprise Catra that she’s so natural about it, even now. “You really had us worried.”

“Us?” Catra narrows her eyes. “Didn’t think I meant so much to Arrow-Boy and Sparkles.”

Adora doesn’t have an answer for that, so she remains quiet. The walk back to the room is short and tense, but Adora meant what she’d said. She was glad to see Catra moving again. After everything with Prime and all the time she’d been having flashes in bed, it almost felt like Catra, this Catra, would never come back.

The two enter the room and Catra immediately hops on the bed, pulling her knees to her chest. Adora sets the plate down by her feet, a peace offering. “I noticed you didn’t eat much with everyone,” she says, her voice hesitant. “I saved you some dumplings in case you got hungry again. They’re cold by now, but I bet they still taste good.”

Catra glances down at the plate, only now noticing the food she’d been offered. She thinks about refusing, but really, what’s the point? Adora knows her far too well, and she’d probably do a bit better with enough food in her stomach. Without hesitating, she picks up a dumpling and takes a careful bite. They definitely tasted better when they were hot, but she’s had worse.

After swallowing the first bite, she wordlessly holds the other dumpling out to Adora. It was something they’d always done, growing up. Smuggling out extra ration bars from the kitchen, always sharing their loot. It didn’t feel right to be eating without her.

Adora shakes her head, laughing a bit to herself. “I had like, four during dinner. Those are for you.”

“I’m okay with one. My appetite isn’t exactly normal.” As soon as she’d said it, Catra knew that she should have kept it to herself. Adora’s brow immediately furrows in concern, and she comes closer.

“Is it the chip? Do you still get the flashes?”

“Not really.” Catra sets the remainder of her dumpling back down on the plate, letting out a shaky breath. “But the memories are still there.”

“If you want to talk about it—”

“I don’t.” She pauses, her ears tilting downward. “Not about that.”

Adora picks up on the hint and she sits on the edge of the bed. “I’m here,” she affirms, her voice soft and unwavering.

“Why are you here, though?” Catra holds her mouth taught to keep her lip from trembling. “You shouldn’t want to spend time with me. Don’t you remember what I did?”

“Of course I do.” Adora inhales, deep and steady. “But I meant what I said before. You matter to me, Catra. And despite everything, that’s never changed.”

If it were anyone other than Adora, Catra would push them away and call them a liar. But Adora is a terrible liar, so Catra knows she’s telling her truth. “This isn’t right,” she insists, balling her hands so hard that her fingernails prick her palms. “So what, we sweep everything under the rug? Pretend that it never happened and just… move forward?”

“No. Of course not.”

“So what comes next? We go back to Etheria and everyone hates me. They’ll want to kill me for everything I’ve done.”

“We’re the good guys, we don’t kill people,” Adora scoffs. “At most they’ll just lock you up for life. No big deal.” It’s meant to be a joke, but Catra’s mentality is a little past handling jokes at the moment. She hops off the bed and starts to pace, shaking her head back and forth.

“I’m not being funny, Adora. I’ve hurt people. Caused irreparable damage to… to kingdoms, and communities, and…” She trails off, her tail curling around her body as she does so. “I don’t deserve anyone’s forgiveness.” Especially not hers.

Adora bites her lip. It’s hard to argue with Catra when most of the things she’s saying are true. “You’ve made bad decisions,” she says, looking away. “I’m not going to deny that. But you’re not a bad person. A bad person wouldn’t have saved Glimmer.”

“I did it for you.” Catra’s shoulders slump as she says it. She stops pacing, her back to Adora, and just takes a moment to breathe. It felt better unlocking her heart, even if it was just a little bit. “I didn’t want Prime to hurt you.”

“But he hurt you instead.” Adora stands and makes to grab her arm, but stops herself at the last minute, just like she had earlier. Her hand trembles as she pulls it away. “Do you know how worried I was? I thought I lost you.”

Catra bites her lip as she feels her eyes welling. “You would have gotten over it.”

“Never.”

Despite her efforts, Catra feels the tears escape. She wipes them away as quickly as she can even though she knows Adora probably sees them anyway. The blonde takes a step forward, and pushing her thoughts aside she wraps Catra up into her arms, holding her from behind. Neither of them move in the embrace, they just stay there, bonded together as if not a single day had passed from being cadets in the Horde. “Not ever,” Adora repeats, softer, more broken than before.

Catra sniffles and just nods, finally letting herself accept it.

—

Nobody says anything when they notice Adora and Catra start sharing the bedroom. Mostly out of fear. Bow and Glimmer aren’t exactly comfortable at Catra yet, at least not comfortable enough to poke fun at her sleeping arrangements. If she notices, Entrapta certainly doesn’t care; she’s too busy having her fun with Wrong Hordak.

Adora and Catra didn’t speak about their arrangements, it just kind of happened. Catra did not ask her to stay and Adora didn’t offer, but every night when Adora announced she was tired, Catra would trail after her into what was now their bedroom and they’d sleep side by side. For the most part, it worked out. Adora always woke before Catra and she was long gone before the feline opened her eyes.

She does her best not to let it bother her, but every time she wakes up and the spot beside her is empty, Catra feels another part of her crumble.

It’s hard for her not to withdraw. The group gathers during meals, but everyone has their own tasks as they chart a course towards Etheria. Entrapta spends her time repairing the ship with assistance from Wrong Hordak. If Bow isn’t supervising her, he’s with either Glimmer or Adora, working on their battle plans.

For the most part, Catra just lingers. The group doesn’t shut her out, but after being on her own for such a long time, just taking the steps to connect with the group is daunting. They’re all so close. At times, it’s actually sickening. Bow and Glimmer are always laughing, and joking around. Adora will join them, sneaking glances towards Catra to check if she’s laughing too, blushing all the while. That part isn’t so bad. She figures if she hangs around long enough, it’s bound to feel more natural at some point.

That’s what she hopes, at least.

“I’m going to make lunch,” Catra announces once Adora’s wrapped up the planning session.

The three exchange a look before Glimmer smiles, the first to offer the olive branch. “Lunch sounds good.”

“I’m starving,” Bow adds, rolling up the map they’d be using. “Did you find anything good in the kitchen?”

“It’s kind of hard to tell. All the food is labeled in First One’s writing.”

“I can go with you.” Catra looks at Adora, who just shrugs. “It’ll be faster if you know what you’re looking at.”

It’s on the tip of Catra’s tongue to say no, but Adora was right. If she didn’t take her help, she’d just be ripping bags open left and right and wasting food. “Okay.”

“You sure that’s a good idea?” Bow cocks his head to the side, glancing between them before turning to Glimmer. The queen raises a brow, so Bow sighs and continues. “They both grew up on ration bars.”

Adora scoffs, nudging Bow with her elbow. “I’ve had plenty of food since then.”

“Yeah, if you have a problem with it, you go make food, then,” Catra adds, picking at her nails.

Bow looks as if he’s about to do just that, but a clanging comes from the side of the ship, followed by Entrapta’s shrieks of delight. He groans and swipes a palm down his face. “I’ll go get her,” he sighs, bringing Glimmer along with him to inspect the damage.

“Looks like it’s just the two of us.” Catra’s tail begins to swish as she glances back at Adora, who rolls up her sleeves. “I bet we’ll make something great, Bow doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

“I don’t know, he kind of has a point.”

“He does not.”

Catra grins, walking past her and letting her tail brush against Adora’s leg as she does so. “Whatever. You coming?”

“Race you to the kitchen!” Before Catra can respond, Adora dashes ahead of her, laughing all the while. Catra quickly catches up, yanking on Adora’s ponytail to give her leverage and for a second, everything feels like it used to be. To anyone who didn’t know them, their roughhousing would probably be cause for alarm. But for them, it’s completely normal. Catra shoves Adora against the wall and in turn, Adora trips her so that they both come crashing to the floor, bursting with laughter.

“You’re a cheat,” Adora manages to say in between her laughs. “I forgot that you always play dirty.”

“Next time don’t forget.”

It takes a minute for the two to recover from the fighting and the giggles. With Catra sitting on top of her, it’s like nothing had changed. Adora reaches up to brush some hair out of Catra’s eyes, but pauses before she does. Their eyes meet as if Adora is asking for permission, something she never had to ask for. The mood dims, and they both shrink back from each other as they remember that everything has changed.

Catra picks herself up, her ears falling as she busies herself by grabbing every bag of food that she can. It’s hard for her not to get sucked in by these little moments. Every day it becomes easier and easier to lose herself to Adora and pretend like nothing ever happened. They make up for lost time, they hold each other and caress and look at one another. It was everything Catra ever wanted.

So why wasn’t she happy?

It would be so simple, so easy to just let go of her own cares and allow herself happiness with Adora. But was that what Adora wanted? Did Adora even have feelings for her, or was she just being nice to her, as a favor? It gave Catra a headache just thinking about it.

“Did I do something?” Adora asks, breaking the silence.

Catra hands her a few boxes of food to decipher, keeping her face blank. “What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know, it’s just… we were close, and you pulled away. You did the same thing earlier, when you were sitting in my lap.”

When Catra doesn’t answer, Adora puts down the food in a nearby basket and walks over to her friend, taking her hand. “I’m trying to understand, and not… let things be like they were before. If I’m doing something that’s bothering you, I want to know.”

“You’re not.”

“So then why are you pulling away every time we get close?”

“Why do you leave the bed before I wake up?” Catra shoots back. Her eyes widen when she realizes that she’d said it aloud. Adora’s grip on her hand loosens and Catra hates herself for even saying anything. She pulls away. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters. I wasn’t doing it to hurt you, I just thought you needed some space.”

“We’ve had nothing but space for three years.” Every instinct is telling her to get angry, to fight. But she’s tired. She’s been fighting for three years, and despite the ache in her chest, she just wants to feel happy. “Everything’s different, Adora. And I’m trying.” She lifts her head to look at the blonde. “But it’s not easy.”

Adora takes a step closer to her. “I see that you’re trying. With planning, and Bow, and Glimmer and… me. And I’m so proud of you,” she begins. “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings by leaving. You’re right, things are different, but weird. A good weird,” she emphasizes, starting to smile again. “I’m so happy that you’re here.”

“You are?”

“Of course I am. I missed you, Catra.” Adora holds her hand out, and Catra takes it without hesitation. “I want things to feel normal between us.”

Catra wants that too. She wants it so much that her heart is just about pounding out of her chest, and she prays that Adora can’t hear it. “I’ll work on it.”

“We both will.” Adora squeezes her hand. “Together.”

Entrapta enters the room, humming to herself as she searches for something. She doesn’t blink twice upon seeing Catra and Adora holding hands and just moves past them. “Have you seen my blowtorch?”

The two jump back, both letting go of each other's hands and blushing. “Blowtorch?”

Catra crosses her arms and wishes her face wasn’t so hot. “Why would your blowtorch be in the kitchen?”

“I always keep a spare blowtorch in the kitchen. How else do you make tiny s’mores?”

“Entrapta,” Adora sighs, her left eyebrow twitching. “I thought you were with Bow and Glimmer.”

“Oh, there was a little explosion… Bow started doing that weird laugh again, so I went looking for my blowtorch to fix things.” Entrapta trails off before she shrugs. “You wouldn’t happen to know where I can find it, would you?”

“No.”

“Maybe Wrong Hordak knows.” Entrapta takes one last glance around the kitchen before looking again at Adora and Catra. “Bow said you were making lunch.”

“We are.”

“Where is it?”

“We haven’t started yet,” Catra grits out.

Entrapta examines the both of them, her expression blank. “Oh. Will you start soon?”

“Yes. We will start right now.” Adora picks up the boxes of food from the basket and starts decoding what they are. She shakes a box at Catra. “Think we can make something good out of protein flakes?” She picks up another box and grimaces. “It’s either that or tinned mystery meat.”

Catra makes a face; she hadn’t had much food other than ration bars, but the two things Adora mentioned didn’t sound particularly appealing. “Maybe Bow had a point.”

—

The night before they’re set to land on Krytis, Catra’s nightmares return full swing.

She shoots up with a scream, gasping for air as she struggles to breathe. Adora wakes up when she does and follows her, touching her shoulder. “What happened?” she asks, alert with just a hint of disoriented sleep.

It takes a moment for Catra to collect herself and steady her breathing. She knows where she is. Not on Prime’s ship, but Adora’s, in their bedroom. She’s okay. Her body relaxes once it catches up with her mind and she shakes her head. “Just a nightmare.”

“Oh.” Adora reaches up and brushes some of Catra’s hair off her clammy forehead. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Go back to sleep.” She lies back down, turning away from Adora. The memories of Krytis had triggered the nightmares. Thinking back to Prime always triggered some type of reaction. Even now her hands were shaking.

Adora doesn’t go back to sleep. She scoots closer to Catra and wraps her arms around her small waist. By now she knows how her friend works. Catra will keep everything bottled inside until Adora coaxes it out of her. “Is it Prime?” she asks, nestling her head in the crook of her neck. It fits perfectly, snug and comfortable, so much that Adora could see herself falling asleep in this position.

“It’s always Prime.” With Adora holding her like this, she can’t be mad. Any irritation or unease had dissipated the moment her arms wrapped around her. Biting her lip, she slowly turns around to face Adora. “I’m okay,” she says, because when she’s lying next to her, she is. For the most part.

“Do you have nightmares a lot?”

Catra nods. “Even without the chip, I still remember everything.” She glances into Adora’s eyes, shrinking a bit at the intensity behind them. “They’re not new, though. I’ve been having them for a while.”

“A while?”

“Since the portal.”

As understanding sets in, Adora’s face starts to change. No longer soft and comforting, it hardens, as it always does whenever someone brings up the portal. Catra can’t blame her for it.

“Adora, I’m sorry.” Her throat grows tight but she forces herself to keep going. “I’m so sorry about the portal.” Her mind races with every guilty thought she’s ever had. Guilt has eaten at her for so long, but she hadn’t ever let herself feel sorry.

Catra’s body tenses, preparing for Adora to pull away and leave her there on the bed, alone. But she doesn’t. Instead, Adora scoots closer, putting her hands on Catra’s face and cupping her jaw in her palms. “Thank you.”

It couldn’t be that easy, could it? Catra keeps her head stiff in Adora’s palms, unwilling to accept her softness just yet. “You don’t have to forgive me.”

“I know, and… I don’t. Not yet.” Adora smiles, her thumbs lightly caressing Catra’s cheeks. “We’ve both hurt each other. But in time, we’ll make things work. Okay?”

Catra finally allows herself to relax in Adora’s palms. “Okay.” She closes her eyes again, and Adora lists one hand to the top of Catra’s head, scratching it affectionately until the feline is purring.

“You haven’t done that in a while.”

“I know. It feels kind of weird now.”

“Weird?” Catra opens her eyes and makes herself more comfortable. “How come?”

Adora bites her lip and shrugs, pausing to scratch so she can stroke Catra’s hair. “Your hair is so short. Why’d you cut it?”

The words weren’t meant to hurt her, and yet they do. Catra flashes back to Horde Prime’s ship, and the clones who had mercilessly hacked at her hair before they’d chipped her. When it happened she hadn’t let herself feel anything; she’d only been focused on saving Adora. But when she thinks about it, really thinks about it, it stings. Something that was so ingrained in her identity had been forcefully and painfully stripped away with no care or concern.

“I didn’t,” Catra mutters, lowering her eyes.

“What do you mean you didn’t do it?” It takes a moment for it to click. Adora’s eyes widen in shock, and she lifts Catra’s chin so she’s looking at her. “Prime did this?”

“Well, technically his clones did it.” She swallows thickly. “But yeah.”

Not a moment passes before Adora pulls her close, holding her as tight as she can. “I’m so sorry. I thought maybe you’d done it before…” she trails off and bites her lip, squeezing Catra even tighter. “If I’d known I wouldn’t have said anything.”

Catra doesn’t respond right away. She moves her head so it’s laying against Adora’s chest, listening to the sound of her heartbeat. She can’t exactly pinpoint her feelings on the matter. Honestly she tries not to think about it too much. If she does, she’ll think of Horde Prime, and the moment she does she gets this jerk reaction that makes her body freeze and go into a round of tremors.

Still, it’s weird to scratch her ears and be met with jagged tufts. When she passes by mirrors, she hardly recognizes herself. Maybe that’s a good thing, though; she’d grown to resent her reflection. “Do you hate it?” she finally asks, her head still buried in her chest.

“No, of course not. It’s just different.” Adora buries a hand in her hair, stroking it with a feather-light touch. “I’m sorry he did that.”

Her too. “It’ll grow back.”

“I think it looks kind of cute, actually.” Catra lifts up her head to find Adora grinning down at her. “It’s nice to see your face without that dumb mask.”

Catra scoffs, shoving herself off Adora. She’d always hated her mask. From the moment she’d made it in the Horde, Adora had expressed her distaste for it. “You’re such an idiot.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m right.”

The feline shakes her head, moving back to her position at the foot of the bed, turning away so that Adora can’t see her smile. “Just shut up and try not to kick me in your sleep this time.”

—

Catra usually likes to have Adora’s attention all to herself. But even she can’t deny that seeing her get excited and reunite with friends is nice. After formally introducing Catra to them all, Adora let herself get distracted and started catching up with everyone. Normally, this would make her jealous, but she’s working on it.

She stays to the side, petting Melog and sneaking glances to Adora every now and again. Melog mewls at her and Catra grins, scratching behind his ears. “I know. She’s such a dork.”

In Catra speak, that roughly translates to ‘she’s pretty damn cute’.

For once, she’s not bothered by being alone. Maybe it’s because Melog is with her, cuddled against her side. Or maybe it’s because the lingering, bitter feelings of loneliness and despair are no longer eating at her insides. Adora is just a few feet away from her, and all Catra has to do is close the distance and they’ll be together again.

“How are you doing?” Catra glances up as she hears Bow’s voice.

The archer grins and plops himself down beside her, crossing his legs. Melog quickly bristles and Catra has to remind herself that he’s no longer an enemy. Bow is her ally. A very annoying ally, but she could tolerate that. “I’m peachy.”

“You seem a little out of your element,” Bow notes, not unkindly. “It’s a lot to take in.”

“No kidding.” Melog calms and resumes his spot beside her. It’s a little weird, having all her emotions out on display via a magic alien cat, but no one else has seemed to catch on yet and that suits her just fine.

Boy nudges her foot with his own. “I wanted to apologize to you.”

“For what?”

“For poking fun at you when we were on Krytis.” He rubs the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly. “I may have gotten a little carried away.”

It’s the last thing Catra could ever expect an apology for, but she gives a good-natured smile and shrugs. “I pushed you off a cliff. So I guess we’re even.”

“Guess so.” Bow leans forward a bit and stretches out his back. “It’s good having you in the group. If it wasn’t for you, we never would have made it back to Etheria.”

A blush creeps up on Catra’s cheeks. It is weird to be appreciated, especially by Bow, no less. A good weird, though. “That’s old news, Arrow-Boy.”

“Still. You’re really smart. I don’t think you get enough credit for that.”

“What is this, compliment hour?” She doesn’t know what to make of this. Words of affirmation aren’t exactly a thing she’s used to. “Thanks, I guess.”

Bow chuckles. “Anytime.” The two sit in comfortable silence, just watching the group. Catra’s eyes automatically go to Adora again; she’s speaking animatedly with Frosta, but every now and then she’ll glance at Catra and offer her a smile. Bow watches the two of them before chuckling to himself.

“What?”

He smirks. “I think you like her.”

Catra jerks back, ears high on her head and her tail straight out as if someone had just doused her with water. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I? I know cats are colorblind, but I didn’t think you’re actually blind.”

“Shut up!” she hisses, immediately tackling Bow to the floor. “Don’t you have any dumb arrows to make?”

“Not at the moment, no.”

“Everything okay?” Their heads snap up, and they soon realize that everyone’s eyes are on them. Adora is right beside them, brow raised in confusion.

Catra growls, only growing more flustered as Bow laughs at her predicament. She leaps away from him, spewing out a hiss and storming out to the woods. Melog follows after her, quick on her tail.

Adora crosses her arms and shakes her head at Bow. “Were you messing with her again?”

“Something like that.”

He watches as Adora follows after Catra, humming to himself. It would seem that Adora liked her too.

—

With Catra gone, nothing makes sense anymore.

Adora lies in bed, radiating with a loss she cannot fully comprehend. Everyone else is fast asleep, but sleep is the farthest thing from her mind. The failsafe is hot in her chest, burning her to the point where she feels like she wants to scream.

It isn’t fair. Nothing is fair. One moment, Catra is here and they’re laughing and for once, everything is right in the world. And the next, she’s gone, and Adora’s head is swirling to the point where she can hardly see straight.

When do you get to choose? What do you want, Adora?

She knows what she wants. Adora wants it so much, it brings tears of frustration into her eyes just thinking about it. But she can’t admit it to herself. She cant, because it doesn’t matter what she wants; not when she’s She-Ra. Not when the weight of the entire planet is on her shoulders and hers alone.

The look of disappointment in Catra’s eyes is seared inside her mind. No matter how hard she tries to think of something, anything else, the image comes right back. It reminds her that yet again, she’s let Catra down.

When will she stop doing that? They had finally reached a point of understanding, where everything was getting better between them. Adora had been happy. Why can’t she allow herself to be happy?

Adora grits her teeth together, turning around on her mat so that she’s facing Catra’s. Just a couple of hours prior, she’d been there, sleeping next to her. How is she supposed to save Etheria without Catra by her side? She knows she has no choice, but she can’t fathom how she’s supposed to just continue as if the past few weeks hadn’t happened. Adora needs her.

No, you don’t. You never have.

The failsafe shoots a painful sensation that punctures Adora’s chest every time she remembers Catra’s words. She does need her. Being with her, spending time and laughing with her, it made everything make so much sense. With Catra by her side, life didn’t seem as dark.

And now she is gone.

“Adora?” A small hand, Glimmer’s, touches her shoulder. “What’s going on? You’re shaking.”

She rolls around to face her friend. “Catra’s gone,” she whispers, her voice hoarse.

“What?” Glimmer takes her hands, trying to offer her an encouraging smile. “I’m sure she just went for a walk or something. She’ll be back soon.”

“No, she’s…” Adora swallows thickly, her hands shaking as she remembers Catra vanishing along with Melog. “She’s gone, Glimmer. And she’s not coming back.” Tears roll down her cheeks and she doesn’t do a thing to stop them.

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” she sobs as Glimmer pulls her onto her lap. “I messed up everything.”

Glimmer shushes her, rubbing small circles into her back. “We’ll figure it out. You, and me and Bow. Just like we always have before.”

In the past, those words probably would have worked. But the heart continues to sear into her chest, and she can’t stop thinking about letting Catra, letting herself down. The three of them… It’s not enough.

She wants Catra there, too.

—

Etheria never looked so beautiful as it does after Adora had released the magic. Everything is green, and blooms with a promise of hope. She’d done that.

“Adora?”

And not alone.

She turns back to see Catra, calm as she’d ever seen her before, and holds out her hand. Adora holds out her hand and Catra takes it, uniting them for the first time since they’d saved Etheria. “It’s over,” Adora breathes, resting her forehead against Catra’s. “He’s gone.”

“Good riddance.”

They take a moment for themselves, just savoring the quiet in the brightness of it all. So much had happened in such a short time. So for now, the two just bask in each other’s company.

It doesn’t last long. Bow and Glimmer pounce on them and they all roll down a hill, laughing as they do. What was just so heavy now seems lighter, and the four of them soak it up as much as they can. When they recover, Bow sits up a bit and twists to face them all. “So, what are we gonna do now?”

“We can bring magic back to the universe.” Adora doesn’t even need to think before she says it. Etheria isn’t the only place where Horde Prime extended his ruin. The other planets need help too, and with Prime gone, she can’t think of a better way to spend her time.

Catra nuzzles against her chest, purring softly. Well, maybe she can. But there’s no reason she can’t do both. “What do you guys say to one more Best Friend Squad road trip?”

They all stand up, but Adora keeps her hand entwined with Catra’s, and she doesn’t intend to let it go for a long time.

“I’m in.”

“Obviously!”

“Well of course I’m going with you, Dummy.”

As the four of them embrace in a hug, Adora finally understands what Mara was saying back at the heart. She deserves love too. And despite being She-Ra, there’s no reason she can’t have both. “Then let’s do this. Together.”

The plans they make all blur together. At some point, Bow and Glimmer leave them and then it’s just her and Catra, alone on the grass. “Should we go to the others?” Catra asks, nodding to the dissipating crowd. “Knowing this crowd, there’s probably a celebration brewing. Better savor it before they all come to their senses and lock me up for life.”

Adora laughs, but she shakes her head no, taking both of Catra’s hands in hers. “Not just yet. I want to sit here with you.”

Catra’s cheeks turn pink, but she doesn’t say no. The two sit on the grass, staring out into the new world that they’d changed together. “I don’t know where to start,” she admits.

“Neither do I.” Adora squeezes her hands, feeling lighter than she has in a long time. “Thank you, for coming back. None of this would have been possible without you.”

“Yeah, well…” The blush grows deeper, to the point where Catra has to turn her eyes away. “Please don’t make this weird.”

“But weird is our trademark.” Adora bites her lip. “Can I ask you something?” She doesn’t wait for a response and inches herself closer, just slight enough so that Catra won’t be able to notice. “Did you mean what you said, back at the Heart?”

Catra laughs, a light, hiccupy sound that sends shivers down Adora’s spine. “Do you really think the failsafe would have worked if I didn’t?” She smiles, her eyes softening. “Of course I love you, stupid. I always have.”

It’s insane what those words do to Adora. Her heart pounds in her chest and her head is so light she feels like flying. Without giving it a second thought, she pulls Catra to her and kisses her swiftly, smiling at her quiet yelp of surprise. There’s just as much magic as the first time, even without the Heart or the fate of the world relying on them.

Adora pulls away first, breathing hard. “You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to do that.”

“You’re so annoying.”

“I mean, if you don’t want me to—”

“Shut up, of course I want you to.” This time Catra closes the gap, giving her a quick peck that leaves Adora wanting more. Much more. For so long she’s restrained herself from this idea of love, like it was something she couldn’t have. Something that was above what she was allowed. But now, with Catra, she doesn’t care. It just feels so good to have her, she can’t imagine another possibility.

Catra lightly knocks her head against her before she stands. “Come on. They’ll be wondering where we are.”

“Almost sounds like you care.”

“You know what, I kind of do.” Adora takes her hand, and Catra drags her to follow in the group’s direction. “I’m kind of hungry, and food sounds pretty good right now.” Melog waits for them by the battle site, mewling excitedly once they’ve caught up to him. He walks under their hands, and oddly enough, it feels like this is the way things are supposed to be.

Later, there will be plenty of time to talk, and play, and reconnect. But for now, just holding Catra’s hand, knowing that she loves her, is more than enough.

—

The morning of Princess Prom, Adora wakes up nauseous.

There’s something familiar about this day, like a memory she can’t exactly put her finger on. She sits up, reaching for Catra, but the feline is nowhere to be found. “Catra?” she calls out, her voice dripping with sleep. No answer. Melog isn’t around either. She flops back down in their bed, unable to shake the unease. As she does so, something crinkles under her hip. A note. Adora grabs it and reads through it, feeling at ease almost instantly.

Hey, Adora

Went to pick up clothes. Having breakfast with Netossa right after.

Took Melog with me. Be back in time for the ball.

— C

She smiles, setting the note down on the nightstand. Catra had mentioned something about picking up her clothes last night, but truth be told, Adora had been too exhausted to really listen. She’d been feeling a little off, lately. Glimmer had been sending her and Catra on diplomatic missions to check up on the progress of the other planets, in addition to the towns of Etheria. They were low-stakes missions, but exhausting nonetheless.

Princess Prom is supposed to be the start of their vacation. After the ball, she and Catra were going to do absolutely nothing— their version of nothing, at least. That meant helping out around Bright Moon, spending time with their friends. Just relaxing and enjoying each other’s company without any political distractions.

And maybe, just maybe, finally starting a family.

Before Glimmer had sent them off, they’d sat down with Micah and told him they were ready to start a family. Given that they couldn’t have children the natural way, they needed a little magical assistance. Catra and Adora had talked it over and agreed that Adora would take the first spell. Catra will never admit it, but she wanted a legitimate reason for Adora to relax and withhold from being She-Ra as much. Micah had performed the spell and given them instruction to wait a few weeks. If nothing took, they would try again.

The weeks passed. They’d gone from planet to planet, and nothing seemed to change. Neither of them had really talked about it, yet. Truthfully, they’d been too busy traveling to worry about whether the spell had worked or not.

Now that they have the chance to settle down and relax, Adora was looking forward to trying seriously. Glimmer and Bow already had two kids, always running around Bright Moon and causing some kind of trouble. Catra always watches them with a little twinkle in her eye and Adora can’t wait for it to be their turn.

She picks herself out of bed, cracking the muscles on her back. This year’s ball is being held in the Scorpion Queendom, by none other than Scorpia. When Glimmer and the Princess Alliance met to discuss the ball’s location that year, there was no debate to be had. Scorpia had been working hard on reclaiming her kingdom and transforming the Fright Zone into a welcoming place that anyone would be happy to call their home. Plus, the look on her face was just too good to pass up.

As a result, Scorpia keeps herself busy by planning every miniscule detail of the ball. She describes them all to Catra in her weekly letters, which she then shares with Adora. Catra pretends to be annoyed by the letters, but it’s just for show. Both she and Adora know that she treasures each one and keeps them in their own special box.

A knock comes at the door. It’s not Catra, it’s too early for it to be Catra. “Come in,” Adora calls out after she’s wrapped herself in a robe.

Glimmer enters, laughing a bit when she sees Adora still in her pajamas. “Hey Sleepyhead. You just woke up?”

“Yeah, I’ve been tired lately.”

“You look it.”

Adora lightly shoves her friend with a grin. “I wouldn’t be so tired if you stopped sending me on all these She-Ra diplomacy missions.”

“Oh come off it.” Glimmer picks up one of Catra’s shirts off a nearby chair and tosses it to the side so she can sit down. “You’ve gone on plenty of missions before and I’ve never seen you look this peaked. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine. Just been feeling… I don’t know, weird? I haven’t been eating much, and my sleeping schedule is—why are you smirking like that?”

The queen laughs before she stands and moves to take her friends hand. “Adora, how long has it been since my dad did the spell on you and Catra.”

“I’m not sure.” Adora quickly does the math in her head, trying to remember how many places they’d been to. Thaymor, Salineas, Elberon, a week just in the Crimson Waste… “Maybe about a month?” Her mouth opens slightly as it finally hits her to what Glimmer is implying. “You think it worked?”

“All I’m saying is that I was exhausted when I was pregnant with Angel.” She smirks, grabbing Adora’s arm. “Please let me tell Catra.”

“What? No. She’s my wife and the mother of our potential kid. I’m telling her.”

“Oh come on. If you were really my friend you’d let me freak her out.”

Adora laughs. “I am your friend, but no. If this is true, I want to tell her myself.” She looks at the clock on the wall, biting her lip. The ball started in a couple of hours, and Catra would be back any minute. “Maybe after the ball.”

“Fine. But just know that you’re absolutely no fun.”

“Well noted.”

Glimmer leans over and kisses her cheek. “We’ll head to the ball together?”

“Of course.” They’re interrupted by the crash of something heavy. Glimmer sighs, shaking her head. “I better go. Angel keeps getting her hand on Bow’s arrows and it hasn’t been pretty. The castle suddenly has way less vases than it used to.” Before Adora can bid her goodbye, Glimmer disappears in a flash of sparkles.

Once she’s alone, she takes a minute to let the news really sink in, resting a hand on her stomach. Maybe it really was true. Catra would be thrilled, and immediately start taking bets with the rest of the Princess Alliance on whether their baby would have ears and a tail. Adora sighs; she can already see it now, Frosta and Mermista would be placing heavy bets.

Still, Adora is happy. She’ll tell her tonight, after the ball, when they have a chance to be alone. This was something she wanted to savor without the rest of the world knowing just yet. Bow will know, because Glimmer will tell him the moment she isn’t distracted by their kids or her queenly duties. Hopefully they can keep it between the four of them.

She bathes and slips into the dress that’s been hanging in her closet for a week. The white gown is similar to her wedding dress, only with more elements of She-Ra. Everything about the dress is familiar, but she can’t quite seem to place it.

When her hair is combed and the tiara is in place, the door bursts open again and Catra and Glimmer run in.

“Just let me brush it!”

“No!” Catra runs and ducks behind Adora with Glimmer following after her. “Don’t let her touch me, she’s gonna torture me.”

Glimmer has a brush in hand, in complete Mom-mode as she chastises Catra. “Do you always have to be this dramatic?”

“Come on, guys.” The three of them turn towards the door, seeing Bow enter the room. He joins his wife, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “If we’re late to Scorpia’s first ball, she’s gonna kill us.”

“Fine.” Glimmer leans her head against Bow’s shoulder before shooting a look at Catra. “You’re off the hook. This time.”

Catra holds onto Adora and sticks her tongue out. There wouldn’t be a next time.

It’s all so familiar, it leaves Adora in a daze and barely able to react. Bow and Glimmer say something about them being ready to go, and while Catra answers, Adora can’t quite make out what she said. The two leave to give them a bit of space.

The feline flops onto a chair, scoffing at the door. “You need to tell her Highness to lay off. My hair’s fine.” She glances over at Adora, pausing when she sees her expression. “You okay?”

Adora takes a deep breath. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.” She looks over her wife, smiling when she sees her old rebellion pin on Catra’s shirt. “You look nice.”

“Just nice?” Catra plucks herself from the chair and does a little spin for Adora, making her laugh.

“Fishing for compliments?”

“You know, today I am. I look amazing.”

“You do.” Adora couldn’t deny it even if she wanted to. “Will you put the jacket on?”

Catra pouts. “But it looks so much better as a cape.”

“It does look pretty good.” Adora lifts her hands and places them on Catra’s shoulders, giving her a quick kiss. “I love you.”

“Feeling’s mutual. Now come on, we have to go. I kinda want to see this shindig that Scorpia’s worked so hard on.” Catra takes her hand and gives it a peck before letting it go. “You didn’t hear it from me, but a little birdie told me that tonight’s the night Scorpia will ask Perfuma to marry her.”

Adora hesitates. Seeing Catra from behind triggers a memory, something lodged so far back in her mind, it disappears the moment her wife turns around.

When Adora doesn’t follow her, Catra turns and holds out her hand. “You coming?”

The memory returns, distant and more faded. Adora remembers now. Back at the Heart, when Prime had control and everything was crumbling to pieces. Everything looks the same. She’d reached for Catra’s hand then, only for the scenario to glitch and dissipate into emptiness.

Adora smiles and takes her wife’s hand. Nothing fades away. Catra’s hand is warm and feels just like it had for her entire life.

“Let’s go.”

#She Ra #she ra and the princesses of power #she ra season 5 #spop #catradora #catra #adora #spop spoilers #she ra fiction #I can't believe this is 11k words #I spent over 2 weeks working on this #probably the best thing I've ever written #ariel's writing

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sailorglimmer · 4 years

Text

Angel Standing By

Frosta has a nightmare and looks for Glimmer, who is with the Best Friend Squad. They decide to go to sleep with her, and Glimmer sings her a lullaby Angella used to sing her to help her sleep.

The lullaby/song is Angel Standing By sang by Jewel

-----------------------

“She always saves people when she’s visiting a place. Is like, her thing” Catra made fun “That’s why I love her”

Bow and Glimmer let out a “aww” that made Catra realize she had said that outloud. Adora laughed.

“Prove that she does love She Ra too.”

They shared a laugh, but it became nothing when they felt the presence of someone else with them in the kitchen. They turned around, finding a sleepy Frosta with teary eyes looking around. Glimmer was the first to react, walking to her.

“Frosta, what’s wrong?” she asked, not having to do much to get on her eye level.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were here with everyone” she whispered “I...its nothing. I will just wake up Perfuma”

“Hey, no, it’s okay. You don’t have to go” Glimmer said, taking her hands.

Catra knew that look Frosta had in her eyes. She thought about staying silent, but when she saw the confusion in Bow's eyes and the worry in everyone else’s, she decided to talk. “Was it a bad dream? I have those all the time.”

Catra knew she wasn’t Frosta’s favorite person, but it did look like that was exactly what was happening. Glimmer gave the youngest a soft smile. Sometimes, she also has nightmares when she slept alone, or in another place that wasn’t her bed. Adora could also understand that after all that had happened with the Horde and Horde Prime.

“We all get those,” Glimmer Frosta’s hands “Want to talk about it? Or do you want me to help you back to sleep?”

Frosta thought about it for a moment. Her red cheeks let them know she was embarrassed. She then shrugged her shoulders “I...I just want to sleep.”

Adora looked at Bow, and he nodded to his friend. “Maybe you would like to sleep in another room?”

“We can go to my room” Glimmer said “If you want, we will stay with you. My mom...she used to sing to me when I had nightmares. I could try it if you want.”

Frosta was still ashamed, but she nodded in response. It had happened the first time when she slept at Perfuma’s home, and she and Scorpia had slept with her so it didn’t happen again.

The Best Friend Squad looked at each other, and then went to Glimmer, who teleported them to her room. Adora went to turn on one of the lights so they could see the stairs of Glimmer’s bed.

“Maybe we can go with the others” said Adora “Or sleep down here. Catra doesn’t enjoy how high your bed is.”

Glimmer laughed softly “Sure, whatever you want. Do you want to go to my bed, Frosta?”

“Um...won’t I fall? It looks...really high” the ice queen said, biting her lips with nervousness.

“Nonsense! Come, I will go with you” Bow said, taking Frosta’s hand to help her go up the stairs. This immediately made Catra look for Glimmer’s eyes and give her a funny smile. Glimmer just teleported to her bed; she really didn’t want to accidentally blurt out that they had kissed just like an hour before.

When she got to the bed, she looked down to Catra and Adora making themselves comfortable in her long bed-like chair where the two of them ironically fit perfectly. She threw a blanket for them, as they had enough pillows. She then looked at Frosta, who shyly sat at Glimmer’s bed. She smiled at her, palming besides her.

“You don’t have to be ashamed. We are practically sisters now.” she said, seeing her eyes open with excitement.

“Really?” she went closer to Glimmer “I just...I never sleep away from home. It makes me...have nightmares.”

“Well, you don’t have nothing to worry about here. We will stay with you all night.” Bow said, throwing himself just besides Glimmer.

Glimmer nodded, then using one of the blankets to cover Frosta, and then gave one to Bow with a silly smile on her face.

“I want you to cover me too!” he said, and not only did he laugh but everyone else did too. Glimmer rolled her eyes “Glimmer! That’s not fair. I am your best friend.” he said, teasing her.

Her cheeks became red as apples “Shut up” she said, rolling her eyes before covering him with the blanket too.

He smiled, hugging her and Frosta together. “Now let’s sleep, little ones”

“Bow, shut up” Catra said out loud, making him laugh.

Frosta snuggled closer to Glimmer, which made the latest feel...odd. In a good way. She really saw Frosta as a little sister, and even though she had turned thirteen, she was still a kid that lost her parents at a young age and got a whole kingdom too. She saw so much of herself in Frosta, and she wanted to protect her and care for her in every way she could.

Everything became silent for some minutes, but Frosta eventually opened her eyes to look at Glimmer.

“Glimmer, I can’t sleep” she whispered, believing everyone else was already asleep.

“Want me to sing for you? She whispered back. Frosta laughed softly but then she nodded

“I have never heard you sing.”

“I don’t do it often, but when I was little and I had bad dreams, my mom would sing to me.” she said, smiling just remembering that. “I just know that lullaby, so I’m sorry if it's a little...well I don’t know.”

“My dad used to sing for me too” Frosta said “I would like it”

Glimmer nodded. She took a deep breath, before humming to remember the rhythm of the lullaby. Frosta looked with attention to her, waiting.

“All through the night...I will be watching you…”she began in a soft voice, caressing Frosta’s hair just like Angella used to do to her. “And all through the night I will be standing over you…”

Catra and Adora looked at each other when hearing her. Neither of them had actually heard Glimmer sing before, and she didn’t sound bad. Adora smiled, pulling Catra closer to her.

And through the bad dreams

I’ll be right there baby…

Catra closed her eyes, just letting herself be held by Adora. The blonde girl smiled, because one day that had seemed like something she would never have again, and now she had Catra in her arms. She could protect her forever from every bad dream, from the world. She could love her everyday, forever.

Holding your hand

Telling you everything’s gonna be alright

When you cry

I’ll be there baby

Frosta began closing her eyes, getting close to Glimmer, who suddenly felt really nostalgic. Just by her side, Bow was looking at her with a smile on his face; he was so in love with her. And now he would never stop thinking about how she would sing to their kids one day, and he would be the happiest man alive. Maybe he was precipitating himself, but he really wanted that. He could see that kind of future, even when they literally had just kissed for the first time.

Telling you

You’re never nothing less than beautiful

Glimmer closed her eyes tightly, imagining her mother singing on the other side of the bed, when everything felt like it would be okay. Like when she didn’t know she had everything she would ever want. When she didn’t know how much things would change, and how much she would miss her.

Nonetheless, she would always be her angel. She would always be taking care of her, and now, she could do the same with someone else.

“So don’t you worry ...I’m your angel standing by” she finished, with a broken voice that Frosta didn’t notice as she fell asleep. Glimmer smiled softly, then leaning her head to look at Bow. “I can feel you looking at me”

“I think I love you a little too much” he whispered, wiping the tears on her face.

-----------------------------

Scene from Chapter 9 of my story Learning Love. Read More here:

https://sailorglimmer.tumblr.com/post/619309694789599232/learning-love-chapter-1-sailorglimmer-she-ra

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meg-noel-art · 4 years

Note

003 character - adora

DUDE, dude, yes.

A D O R A

I could talk about her forever lesgo:

1.) How I feel about this character:

I have never found Adora anything less than a fascinating and complex protagonist. She's got all the characteristics of a classic hero archetype: she's brave, kind hearted, strong, selfless.... But she's also unbearably human. She makes a lot of mistakes. She's afraid of her responsibilities and her 'destiny', she's stubborn and sometimes extremely narrow minded (her way or the high way kind of situation), she's insecure and has a guilt complex the size of the planet itself.

And what's great about that is that all of those flaws stem from her background as a child soldier. It's all surprisingly gritty and real for the protagonist of cartoon.

Her misguided motivations always make sense, they align with the character we've come to know and love for all of her complexities. She's a great role model in some ways, and in others, she's an example of behaviors to avoid. MORE CHARACTERS LIKE THIS PLEASE. More heroes with just as many flaws as the rest of us. Adora's easy to relate to in that sense because we all have issues too. And when the protagonist of your show, is as broken as your audience, it makes the entire world of Etheria seem that much more personal.

I love her.

2.) Any/all people I ship romantically with this character:

If you know me at all, you know I ship Adora pretty exclusively with Glimmer. But I also see merits to some of her other ships. I like the fact that Adora unabashedly crushes on giant burly lesbians. Like, amazing 10/10 writing. Same hat.

Anyway, I'm going to use this opportunity to go off on Glimmadora:

I love this ship. And sure, for all the normal reasons, it's cute, it's wholesome, it's soft. But I like it for a lot more than that. I sincerely think it's an excellent dynamic. The two start out as staunch enemies. But not personal ones. They've never wronged one another. They've never even met. They were simply born and bred to hate/fight one another. Glimmer is a princess, the very thing Adora has been trained from childhood to destroy. And Adora is a key cog in the Horde machine that took her father away from her, strained her relationship with her mother, and essentialy structured her ENTIRE life. She was born into a war, and has never known anything else. Neither has Adora.

And yet, within hours of meeting each other, when they are at first hostile, they are then forced to work together and quickly come to realize that there entire lives have been built on propoganda, essentially. Yes the Horde is evil. But this is just a girl who was drafted into an army, who has never seen the outside world until today, who doesn't know what her own birthday means. And this other girl is a Princess, sure... But she's not a monster. She's not burning villages or murdering Horde soldiers? Upon putting aside their differences, Glimmer and Adora accept one another for who they are as individuals and that only grows throughout the seasons. There's never a moment where Glimmer ever acts as anything but supportive towards Adora and her various insecurities for the first 3 seasons. And likewise, Adora depends on Glimmer's support and comfort and it bolsters her as both a person and in her role as She Ra.

More than that, they are both the person the other needs, in a sense. Adora needs a person who isn't afraid to challenge her own stubbornness and her sometimes single mindedness. She needs someone who gently supports her through the rough times, but who also pushes her to be better when she feels hopeless. Glimmer does all this for her and more, just by being herself. It's a wholesome, fluffy ship, sure. But it also makes sense and portrays what a sincerely healthy relationship looks like in media and that's SO GOOD. They have their drama, and their arguments, anyone in any kind of relationship does. But it all stems from a desire to protect and care for the other and I'm going on for far too long, moving on--

3.) My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character:

Scorpia!!! She and Adora are at odds from the get go because of their contrasting relationships with Catra. But they're really fairly similar and I think eventually they'll be good friends. They're both very kind hearted and brave and forgiving. I can imagine Adora really giving up on herself and Scorpia being there to tell her how great and strong she is like she always did for Catra. They'd also have 'strength-offs' or sparring sessions and it'd be super cute. Be friends pls ;-; season 5 pls...

4.) Unpopular opinion about this character:

Um.... I mean it's ship related, but I think Catradora is detrimental to Adora's character and development as a whole? It detracts from all of her growth as a character thus far as well as her escape from an abusive home environment. But that's a whole other post I could make, so I'll leave it there.

5.) One thing I wish would happen to this character in canon?

I think we all want this, but I want Adora to S N A P. I want her to break emotionally and let all that grief and rage and guilt fuel her for a bit. We've seen glimpes of it. But I want her to get a moment to FEEL everything she obviously stuffs down for the sake of being She Ra, everyone's hero and hope. I want her to just be Adora and to break down to her lowest point so that she can finally start to heal. I think season 5 has set it up perfectly and now it just needs to knock the pins down. And I can't wait to watch 👀

6.) Favorite friendship for this character?

BOW! Bow is a great friend in general, but he is EXCEPTIONALLY patient with Adora and really listens to her. I STILL remember the moment in Mystacor during season 1 when he listens when Adora says she used to punch things in the Horde instead of relaxing. When the hot springs don't work, his next suggestion is that they find her something to hit! He is a good boy ;-; and a gentle friend and I wish season 4 had given them more conversations. They had plenty of time together but they didn't actually interact or talk much, which is weird. Bow is the guy I can see Adora goes to when she has questions that embarass her about Etheria, or relationships, or big scary topics. Because he'd approach them calmly and wouldn't talk down to her.

I also really wish Adora and Mermista interacted more because their opposing attitudes contrast so hysterically.

7.) My crossover ship:

HMmMMmm interesting..... I'd probably go with Kara Danvers!! Supergirl. Both are essentially aliens to their planet, adopted by families that teach them how to BE a hero in both their personal and "professional" lives. They are both lovably dumb with hearts of gold that just want to do the right thing but fear they can't. They'd have a lot in common. Also both strong and blonde and blue eyed and I -- 👀👀

That's it!!! Thank you for letting me scream about Adora ❤❤🥺

#adora #asks #athetos #she ra #spop #she ra and the princesses of power

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jeserai · 5 years

Note

Angst no.8 + fluff no.9 for the sentence starters please? I'm in need of some angst/comfort stuff

8. “Is that blood?” “…No?”9. “Sleep over? Please?”

And though she’s not looking at Catra, she knows that Catra is going to be giving her that confused, annoyed look, so she recites, “‘for whither thou goest, I will go.’ I won’t let you do this—whatever it is—alone. If you want to fight, and bleed, and get hurt, I will be there with you.”

8. “Is that blood?” “…No?”

Adora silently jerks awake just past 3am, her hand already on the dagger kept under her bed. As she swings it out, a familiar hand catches it; Catra curses and then collapses on her bed, no doubt glaring at her. “What the fuck, Adora?”

“Oh.” Adora loosens her grip on the dagger and Catra takes it by the blade before tossing it onto the floor as Adora blinks the sleep from her eyes. “And don’t what the fuck me, what are you doing up so late and sneaking into my room?”

“Um, none of your business,” Catra sniffs. She stands with a groan, and Adora listens to her parabatai crack her back as she settles back into her pillow. And then she sniffs, and freezes.

“Catra.”

“Yeah, princess?”

“Is that blood?”

A long pause. “…No?”

With a heavy sigh that Adora sincerely hopes conveys all of her exasperation, she sits up and swings out of bed. “Come on, Catra.”

And surprisingly, Catra follows without even a bit of snark. She even reaches for Adora’s hand to let herself be tugged through the Institute and up to the training room, where Adora pushes her down to the floor and sits across from her, careful fingers easing up her shirt. Adora hisses as she sees the wound, deep and bleeding freely, and she reaches a hand out in a wordless demand as Catra reaches for her stele. She doesn’t flinch or wince when Adora begins to draw careful iratzes despite the way it must burn; all Catra does when Adora glances up at her is stare down at the floor, scowling.

“I really hope that wasn’t from a werewolf,” Adora tries, “I don’t want to have to fight a whole pack again.”

Usually, a remark like that would earn her a snarky remark or at least a roll of Catra’s eyes, but now she just huffs and shrugs. “It’s fine, princess.”

“Catra, I just—”

“It’s fine,” Catra snaps. As soon as Adora finishes, Catra bats her away, rolling down her shirt and grabbing her stele. “By the Angel, Adora, I’m not a kid! We’re Shadowhunters, this is what we do. We fight and we bleed and we get hurt and we die, this is our life.”

Adora forces her voice to remain calm despite the way she wants to shake some sense into Catra. “I know that, but I don’t want to just sit here and watch you do this to yourself; you’re my parabatai. We swore it, Catra, ‘where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.’”

For a moment, Adora is sure that Catra is going to concede and come to bed, but then she stands ramrod straight and shakes her head. “I’m going.”

And though she’s exhausted, and upset, and annoyed beyond belief at her hotheaded parabatai, Adora stands and grabs her sword from the weapons rack. “Let me get dressed then.” And though she’s not looking at Catra, she knows that Catra is going to be giving her that confused, annoyed look, so she recites, “‘for whither thou goest, I will go.’ I won’t let you do this—whatever it is—alone. If you want to fight, and bleed, and get hurt, I will be there with you.”

When Adora turns, she finds Catra touching her heart, her fingertips brushing against the tip of the rune that lies inked on both of their chests, the rune that binds them for life. She doesn’t smile when their gazes meet, but something in her face relaxes, and she nods. “Meet me outside in five minutes.” Thank you.

“I’ll be there in three.”

You’re welcome.

9. “Sleep over? Please?”

Catra decides that she is absolutely going to kill Adora’s new friends the first chance she gets. A little bit because they called her at 3am on a Tuesday night, and partially because they called her drunk out of their minds at 3am on a Tuesday night, and mostly because they had the nerve to tell her to come pick Adora up at 3am on a Tuesday night, as if everything between her and Adora is still okay.

She hadn’t even spoken to Adora, just to stupid fucking Shimmer, and in the background she could hear the sound of someone puking and a few voices yelling. Glitter said to hurry up in a very panicked voice, and then Catra hung up. For a moment, Catra lay in bed, phone tossed somewhere by her feet, and for a long, long few minutes, she contemplated staying in bed, going back to sleep, and having the quiet satisfaction in knowing that somewhere, Adora was puking her guts up after drinking too much.

And then those moments passed, and Catra swung herself out of bed, pulled on a jacket, and stomped outside.

And now here she is, waiting outside the Rebellion at 3:23 in the morning, waiting for stupid fucking Shimmer and stupid fucking Adora to come outside. They do, eventually; Bow is half-carrying, half-dragging Adora to Catra’s car, and he at least has the nerve to look apologetic. He struggles for a few minutes with the car door handle, and Catra only gets out to help him because she wants to get back to bed. Adora shoved inside the passenger seat, Catra turns to Bow and silently stares him down, sure her expression will convey how absolutely pissed she is.

“I am so sorry, it’s just—she’s really drunk, and—you—well,” quietly, head ducked in shame, Bow says, “none of us know where she lives.”

And oh, Catra is going to kill them. All she says though, is, “Give me gas money,” and turn on her heel when Bow digs out two wrinkled ten dollar bills. Catra waits for him to get back inside the bar and then turns to Adora, who sits quietly with her eyes closed and her head lolled back. For a moment, Catra wonders if she’s passed out, but then Adora’s eyes shoot open and she stares at Catra, dumbstruck.

“Catra! How’d you get here?” she questions. She leans forward and yelps as she loses control of her body, and she is so lucky Catra knows her well enough to have put out a hand to catch her.

Should’ve let her fall, Catra thinks, but she gently pushes Adora back and leans towards her to fasten her seatbelt. Only because she doesn’t want Adora to forget herself and fall over again while she’s driving, even if the image is pretty funny to imagine. When she finishes with the seatbelt and looks up, Catra finds Adora still staring at her, cheeks flushed and eyes dark. Her gaze is trained on Catras lips, and Catra can feel her body heat from how close they are, and for a moment, Catra is pulled back into Adora’s orbit, helpless as always to escape. But then she remembers herself, remembers how Adora so easily left her, and she tears herself away completely.

“Alright, princess,” she mutters, “let’s get you home.”

“Home!” Adora parrots happily, “we’re going home! Wait, where’s Glimmer? Where is everyone—Catra, we have to go back!”

“Why, did you leave them too? Funny, because I don’t remember you ever coming back for me.”

Adora stays quiet, and Catra glances at her out of the corner of her eye as she drives, startled to find a frown fixed on Adora’s face. Her voice is surprisingly steady when she whispers, “I never meant to leave you,” and Catra’s heart stutters, but then Adora’s head lolls to the side and she presses her hand against the window, humming off-key to herself.

Typical.

“Yeah, well. Just don’t puke in my car and we’re good.”

“I puked on Bow’s shoes,” Adora dutifully reports, “they were new, too.”

And honestly, that almost makes up for this shitty night.

“You’re still such a lightweight, Adora.”

Adora giggles in response and says something about kitty cats. Catra ignores this and fixes her eyes firmly on the road as she takes the achingly familiar path to Adora’s house. A year, she thinks, it’s been a year and she still hasn’t forgotten. Adora has carved her mark into Catra’s heart so deeply that she could find her way here blindfolded with no trouble after a whole year of avoiding her. And Adora’s new friends couldn’t even be bothered to figure out her address—

Catra takes a deep breath, and stiffens when she feels a warm, familiar hand high on her thigh. “Kitten,” Adora mumbles, “calm down.” It’s been a whole year, but Adora can still read her so easily, inebriated as she is. And it’s been a whole year, but Catra’s body still reacts to Adora’s touch, her shoulders relaxing and her heart unclenching as Adora rubs gentle circles against Catra’s thigh.

God, she’s pathetic.

“I’m fine, Adora. I don’t need you babying me, I never did.” Which is a lie, because Adora never babied her, only talked her down from countless anxiety attacks and fits of anger. But Catra doesn’t have Adora anymore, so she’s learned to take care of herself again. She doesn’t need Adora, never did.

But Adora’s hand stays there, warm even through Catra’s sweats, and Catra leaves it there.

When they pull up to Adora’s house, Adora whines and pouts and absolutely refuses to go in, even after Catra threatens to drag her by the hair. “You don’t even have a key,” she says triumphantly, and Catra just rolls her eyes, because Adora always keeps a spare taped underneath the mailbox, and besides.

She still has her key that Adora never took back, tucked safely (stupidly) away in the glove compartment.

“Come on, Adora. Jesus fuck, I’m exhausted, get up.”

And when Adora does not, Catra leans over her, unbuckles her seatbelt, and yanks her out of the car, ignoring Adora’s cry of surprise and pain when she is dragged out of the car and onto the ground. Catra’s never been as strong as Adora, but she’d hit the gym with Scorpia after the break up, and all those hours are clearly paying off, because it’s easier than Catra ever thought it would be to get Adora up and carry her up the walkway and to the front door. Adora whines when Catra finds the key and slides it home, and something in Catra’s heart stutters again when she makes her way inside again.

After a year, everything is still the same. There are pictures of them still up, and the couch is still where Catra loved and Adora hated, and—

Maybe, maybe, Adora still hurts too, the same way Catra does, deep inside where no one else knows. She just lets it show differently.

Catra shoves the thought away and kicks off her shoes, letting them fall messily onto the floor. Adora promptly slurs out a half-hearted protest, and it almost feels like it used to, when Catra would kick her shoes off because she was too lazy to keep them tidy, and Adora would protest, and Catra would shut her up with a gentle kiss. She’d always straighten her shoes after, just to see Adora’s sunny smile, but all she does now is drag Adora to her room and drop her none too gently against the bed. Adora groans and rolls over, and Catra watches in amusement as Adora fumbles for her pillow to smush her face into it.

“Gonna get you some water,” she says, mostly to herself. Adora groans again and Catra watches in the door for a moment to make sure she’s okay. Other than her shoes on the bed—Adora is going to freak out about that in the morning—she seems fine, so Catra leaves.

When she gets back, Adora has somehow managed to sit up, but her eyes are still closed and she startles when Catra knocks on the open door. She opens her eyes and smiles wide when she sees Catra, then she frowns. “Catra! Where’d you go?”

“I told you, I went to get you some water. You need to drink it, Adora.”

Adora’s petulant frown only deepens and she shakes her head. “Not thirsty.”

“I don’t care, drink it anyway.”

Eventually, Catra manages to make Adora take a few sips of the water before letting her lay down again. As Catra places the glass down on the side table, Adora catches her wrist and weakly tugs. “Are you leaving?”

“Yes, Adora, I’m leaving. I have work in the morning.”

Catra’s words only make Adora clutch at her tighter, and Catra makes the mistake of looking over at her and into her wide, sad eyes. “Sleep over? Please?” Adora asks, and her voice is quiet, all of her vulnerability laid bare for Catra to see.

And Catra could say no. It would be so easy to, to pull away and leave the house, but Catra has always been weak for Adora, and it’s always been so easy for Catra to fall back into Adora’s orbit.

So she stays. Just for tonight, she stays.

#she ra #shera #catradora #my writing #catradorians how we feelin #x.x i forgot to include the part with adora telling catra she got so drunk bc today wouldve been their 2 year anniversary ((catra forgot))#also we love shadowhunter aus if u read shadowhunters ur third eye is open just saying #NEITHER OF THESE WERE FLUFF I AM SO SORRYFSDJKHDGKJD #shadowhunter au #magic au

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catradoramma · 5 years

Note

Since im a prompt junkie i had a catradora one for you! How bout a not super angsty one. But like, Catra defects from the horde (taking scorpia and entrapta with her) they dont join the rebellion and adora hasnt seen or talked to catra for like..a few years. Que princess prom and catra/scorpia/entrapta showing up like the newly matured bosses they are. (Of course its gotta end with a catra/adora make up kiss xD)

Deca-Annual is Not Enough

A few years after the Horde had been defeated, Bright Moon hosts the deca-annual Princess Prom, and a few people Adora thought had died are decidedly not dead.

hi, this prompt is perfect and i love it. I pumped this bad boy out in a couple of hours today. It is kind of angsty, but like, not in a bad way, you know?? idk. i hope you like it :))))))

Adora felt something heavy and proud bubble up in her chest as she looked around the ballroom at Bright Moon. Hundreds of princesses, princes, and non-binary royals danced, and chatted, and laughed in the room below. It was the first Princess Prom since the Horde was defeated a few years ago, and even though this was only technically the second Princess Prom Adora had attended, she knew it felt a lot lighter, and freer, and happier than the last one did.

Despite the happy atmosphere, however, Adora couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. Or rather, someone was missing.

There had been a handful of deaths since the beginning of the war, and while Adora was hesitant to say they’d been lucky…they’d been pretty lucky. Even if it felt like her heart was being crushed by their absences, Adora knew their loss of life could have been much, much higher.

“Hey Adora!” Glimmer appeared, a wall of glitter dissipating into the air as she approached. Adora’s heart clenched at the phrasing.

“Hey Glimmer,” Adora smiled. “Enjoying the party?”

Glimmer groaned, “Yeah, sure, if you count being sucked up to by almost a thousand royals fun.”

Adora laughed, “No wonder Frosta hated us during the last one.”

Glimmer rolled her eyes, “No wonder.” Glimmer shook her head lightly, “I’m surprised we didn’t get kicked out earlier, because I swear, if one more person says they just absolutely love my hair and my castle and my dress I’m going to punch a wall.”

Adora laughed, “Glimmer, I absolutely love your hair—”

Glimmer screamed playfully and pushed Adora, “You suck! You’re the worst! I hate you!”

Adora laughed and playfully deflected a few of Glimmers attacks. “Mercy, mercy,” Adora finally said after Glimmer managed to hit a few too many of Adora’s ticklish spots.

“You’re lucky you’re my best friend,” Glimmer laughed as she back off, “Otherwise I would have no choice but to finish you.”

Adora rolled her eyes, “I’m quaking in my boots.” The two girls laughed together, leaning on the balcony railing as they did. Adora passed her eyes over the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of wild brown hair and an adorable tail before she could stop herself.

Even five years after Catra’s disappearance and presumed death, Adora still couldn’t stop herself from looking for her.

Glimmer placed a hand on Adora’s arm, a sad smile on her face. “You know there’s still a chance—”

Adora shook her head and cut her off, “She’d dead, Glimmer.” Adora sent Glimmer a shaky smile, “I just forget sometimes.”

Glimmer’s smile wilted a bit more, “Adora—”

“No, Glimmer,” Adora pulled out of Glimmer’s hold, but not meanly. “She’s gone. She’s been gone. I can’t keep letting myself hope only to get let down, time and time again.”

Glimmer sighed and opened her arms. Adora walked into them and allowed herself to just be hugged. “I know, Adora,” Glimmer sighed into Adora’s shoulder, “I’m sorry.”

Adora didn’t say anything, she just pulled Glimmer in tighter. After a few beats, Adora pulled away, holding Glimmer by her shoulders. “Now, what do you say we go find Bow and have a good old fashioned Best Friend Squad dance party?”

Glimmer beamed, “I love that! Meet you on the dance floor, I have to make the announcement anyway.” Adora nodded and then Glimmer was disappearing in a poof of glitter.

Adora smiled and turned back over the balcony to look for Bow.

Adora’s heart stopped in her chest when instead she locked eyes with Catra.

Catra who just walked into the Bright Moon castle.

Catra who had been presumed dead for the last five years.

Her hair had been cut short, hanging just under her chin. The Horde-issued headband she used to wear was gone, replaced instead with adorable bangs that framed her face perfectly. One of her ears had been pierced, her face was somehow more angular, and her eyes were sharper, but she was still the most beautiful thing Adora had ever seen in her life.

“Catra,” Adora breathed, because that’s all she could do. Adora refused to blink, terrified that if she did, Catra would disappear again—just a figment of Adora’s imagination. “Catra,” Adora said again, he voice louder this time as she watched her move across the ballroom next to Scorpia and—and Entrapta?

It was almost like it was in slow-motion. People recognized the trio as they moved through the crowd, parting for them like they were some sort of etherial beings. Adora wanted to look for Perfuma—who had been so devastated by Entrapta’s death—but couldn’t tear her eyes away from Catra.

Adora wanted nothing more than to run to Catra’s side, to gather her in her arms and kiss her until she couldn’t kiss anymore. Adora wanted to touch her, to make sure she was real, to run her fingers through Catra’s hair feel the way Catra’s tangles caught them.

Adora wanted to wrap Catra up and never let her go again.

But her feet were glued to the ground, and her muscles were locked, and Adora had never frozen like this before. Even in the face of every horror and monstrosity she faced while battling the Horde, she had never frozen like this.

It seemed, even years after they last saw each other, Catra was still the exception.

“Adora!” Bow called, shaking Adora out of her trance. “Adora!” Bow’s voice was frantic and Adora reluctantly looked away from Catra.

Adora must have had a shellshocked look on her face—hell, she felt shellshocked. She felt hollow, like all of her insides had been scooped out of her, like her feeble supports had been kicked out from under her. Bow gathered Adora into his arms, “You saw her then?”

“Yeah,” Adora breathed, her arms coming up numbly around Bow’s back. “She’s real?” Her voice shook, terrified that Bow was going to say no. “She’s here?”

“Yeah,” he muttered into her hair, and Adora thought she was going to collapse. She probably would have if it weren’t for Bow’s arms around her. “Yeah, she’s really here.”

Adora sobbed, “I need—“ she choked on her own rising emotions, her body finally rebooting. “I need to see her.”

She pulled out of Bow’s embrace and tripped her way down to the ground floor. Adora was grateful that she’d decided to go with sandals again this time around and not heels like she had at Glimmer’s coronation. Adora messily worked her way through the crowd, getting to the front just in time to see the trio bow (as is Princess Prom custom) to a stunned Glimmer at the front of the ballroom.

Adora stumbled out of the crowd and up the stairs of the dias. She was distantly reminded of the first Princess Prom, and how Adora had stumbled up next to Catra then too. This time however, she turned to Catra, breathless, and mumbled her name in reverence instead of disdain.

Adora brought her hand up to touch, but hesitated, unsure if that was something that was allowed after all the time and pain between them

Catra smiled crookedly and Adora thought she was going to die, “Hey Adora.”

And that was it.

That was all it took before Adora let out a sob and pulled Catra into a bruising hug.

— . —

“So, we laid low in Scorpia’s kingdom,” Catra explained as they walked down the hallways at Bright Moon. Adora found it hard to look away from the other girl. She had changed so much in the past five years: her hair was shorter, and he seemed more mellow, somehow, and her ear was pierced.

“We knew it would be too hard to join the Rebellion, and being part of the Horde was no longer an option. I still wanted to fight, and Entrapta wanted to keep building things, and we all wanted to help, so we started doing undercover missions independently,” Catra went on.

Adora pursed her lips, “Why did you stay away for so long? I thought you were dead.”

Catra sighed and scratched the back of her head. “At first it was to keep the Horde off of us,” she cut her eyes toward Adora, “And I was angry still so I didn’t really want to see you.” Catra sighed and kicked an imaginary rock, “But the anger eventually went away and the war ended and…” Catra shrugged. “I didn’t really know what to say.”

“I’m sorry,” Adora said, because she didn’t know what else to say.

Catra sent Adora a fond smile because of course Catra knew. “You don’t have to be sorry. I know you’re a dumbass.”

“I’m sorry?” Adora said again.

Catra laughed and it sounded like music, “It’s okay. It’s part of your charm.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Adora said. It was supposed to be grumbled, but Adora was just so glad to see Catra alive and well that she couldn’t bring herself to be grumpy. Catra bumped her shoulder into Adora’s and they walked in a surprisingly comfortable silence for a few beats.

“Have you figured out what to say?” Adora finally asked.

Catra let out a little chuckle, “Not really,” she admitted. “But Scorpia thought it would be a good idea if we came,” Catra paused and shoved her hands into the pockets of her suit. “Scorpia had a couple of friends from before that she wanted to see, and Entrapta wanted to see how different things would be at a celebration post-Horde.”

“And what about you?” Adora asked.

Catra pursed her lips, “I guess…” she glanced at Adora, “I guess I wanted to see you.”

Adora’s heart fluttered, “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Catra breathed, and it sounded like she’d been holding that in for a while. “I wanted to see you. I really wanted to see you.”

Adora stopped them from walking, turning Catra to face her. “Catra, I—” her voice cracked, “Catra, I missed you everyday. When news reached Bright Moon that you’d gone missing, I—” Adora swallowed. “It was the worst day of my life.”

Catra’s eyes finally met Adora’s and Adora hadn’t realized how much she needed that until just this second. Catra’s mis-matched eyes glittered under the shine of tears, the light from the crystal chandeliers bathing her in wonderful golden light.

“Adora,” Catra sighed, “I couldn’t—I didn’t—” her voice stuttered and she closed her eyes, a single tear falling. Adora wiped it away and Catra’s eyes fluttered open. “I was so angry, Adora. I didn’t want to say something I’d regret, and hiding from you was so much easier than facing you.”

Adora shook her head, “You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Catra.”

“I do,” Catra said, “I do. Scorpia says that I have to verbalize my feelings. I can’t just hold it in anymore.” Catra levelled Adora with a stare, “I need to tell you this.”

Adora nodded after a few beats. “Okay,” she nodded again, “Okay, I’m listening.”

Catra sighed and nodded again. “I missed you, Adora. I missed you every day, but when you left you broke my heart. And then we were literal enemies for years.” She looked away briefly. “When we were with the Horde, I always felt like I was never enough. Never enough for you, never enough for Shadow Weaver, never enough for the team. And when you leaved you proved me right.

“Well, no, you proved Shadow Weaver right, because she was the only one who thought I wasn’t enough. And I think that was the worst part. Because as long as you were there, I was enough for you.” Catra sighed. “That’s why I never joined you back then.”

“I—” Adora started, then stopped. “I never meant for you to feel like that.” Then Adora laughed, “But I was an idiot. I honestly never knew what the Horde was doing, and I never realized how back Shadow Weaver was to you. I never knew there was anything better beyond they Fright Zone.” Adora wiped a tear off of her own cheek. “And I’m so sorry I didn’t get you out of there sooner.”

“It’s—” Catra cut herself off, “I forgive you.”

Adora smiled and threaded her fingers through Catra’s.

“I have to say, your entrance was pretty dramatic,” Adora teased.

Catra rolled her eyes, “Did you expect anything less?”

“I shouldn’t have,” Adora laughed. They stared at each other for a few beats, Adora just drinking in the sight of Catra before her. “You look amazing. I love the piercing.”

Catra smirked and her ear twitched, “It was Scorpia’s idea.” She brought her other hand up to fiddle with the earring. “You look pretty nice, too. You’ve got the whole princess thing down pat by now, huh?”

Adora laughed a little, a little pang going through her at the mention of Scorpia. “Yeah, I guess I do,” Adora smoothed one of her hands down the front of her dress. Adora cleared her throat and licked her lips, “Are you and Scorpia together?”

Catra sent Adora an extremely confused look, “What?”

Adora ducked her head and looked away as she felt her face grow warm. “Are you two—” she cleared her throat, “You know, together? Like—dating.”

“What?” Catra said again, “Dating? No!” Catra blushed and rubbed her palms on her pants. “We’re—she’s like my sister, oh my god.”

Adora sighed, a feeling of relief rushing through her so intense Adora thought she might need to sit down. “Oh, cool, yeah, sorry.”

“Why would you even ask that?” The fur on Catra’s tail was standing up, and Adora really missed that.

Adora chuckled, “I just—you were talking a lot about her, and I just thought maybe you two were—”

“Well we’re not so stop talking about it, oh my god,” Catra sounded mortified and it was kind of funny. Adora hid her giggles behind her hand.

“Why are you laughing at me?” Catra hissed.

“You’re just—” Adora gestured at Catra, “I missed you. I missed this.”

Catra blushed more, her ears standing straight up. “Yeah, well—” Catra twitched her ears down, “I missed this, too.”

They stared at each other for a few beats before Adora said, “I love you.” The words slipped out, but they felt right. Adora would never take them back, even if Catra didn’t want them.

Catra’s shoulders relaxed, and a slow smile curled over her face. “I love you, too.”

And when they kissed, it felt like going home.

#karleecatradorafics #catra #catadora #spop catra #catra x adora #adora #She-Ra #She Ra #shera #spop #fic #fanfic #mine #answered #quietpersona

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ryuspike · 5 years

Text

Thoughts on She-ra

Just finished watching She-ra and the Princesses of Power today. My overall feelings are positive. I might consider doing a full blown review one day, but I have too much on my plate to do that. So a list of pros, cons, and thoughts will have to do. A clarification does need to be made before I write down the list:

I am pro-lgbt and believe in equality between men and women of all races. That said, I will have opinions that may challenge your viewpoints and that is okay. Great even. Having different opinions does not make anybody enemies. It is the refusal that there are opinions besides your own that animosity is born. Now, onto the list.

Pro

The main cast of characters are likable and each have their character arcs (will get into those later). Design-wise, their outfits look great and I can imagine plenty of great cosplay to come from it.

Writing is not perfect, but is not awful overall. There are no giant gaps of logic that make you go, “That doesn’t make sense.”

Main heroine, Adora, is a great character as she displays both weakness and strength that make sense of her character. There is still plenty to learn about her past as future seasons will likely dive into.

Bow is just a great support male lead. He is written to be somebody who is in touch of his emotional side, and also show competency when the need rises.

Glimmer was somebody I thought I would find annoying because she was sort of a brat. As the show went on, she slowly became one of my favorites as she eventually learns to be more mature.

The villains are great. Not only are they as evil as I would hope the villains should be, but they also have a lot of depth to them. Shadow Weaver is a great antagonist as she demonstrates an emotional obsession that is both dangerous to the heroes and the Horde. Hordak is also really great despite his lack of screen time. But the best villain has to be...

Catra. Catra is the best character hands down. She goes through a character arc that absolutely steals the show for me. Her design is great, her personality is perfect, and her relationship with Adora is filled with so much nuisance and depth that short summery isn’t enough to describe it. If there is one character to love, it has to be Catra.

Con

The animation, I feel, could use with some improving, Certain action scenes have less impact to them as several characters and objects don’t have as fluid a flow to them as they are meant to. I suspect budget or time restraints to be the cause of this, and any improvement will have to wait until the second season.

While the main characters are written well, the side characters (the princesses for example) are mostly bland or one note. They aren’t bad, but they mostly depend on personality quirks rather than something more complicated. Entrapta and Scorpia started off seemingly to follow this path, but later episodes actually gave them more depth. The Dragon Prince also suffered from having too many quirky characters being quirky during serious scenes. The balance of levity is hard to master as most creators try to please a large range of viewers without alienating any of them. Success is mixed, but later seasons always help that balance.

Glimmer’s mother, Queen Angella, is not a bad character, but she falls into an archetype that is sadly very predictable. The overprotective mother that wants to keep her daughter out of danger. While I sympathized with her more than Glimmer at first, her shtick kinda got old as she acted more motherly than queenly. Makes me glad that she and Glimmer upgraded their relationship as I hope a season 2 will allow her to “spread her wings” as far as characterization goes.

Princess Frosta’s eleventh hour moment felt... unearned. I feel like there should have been a scene of her talking with somebody that convinces her to aid the heroes and rejoin the alliance. Last time we saw her, she was telling off Adora for being a rude guest and cementing her neutrality within the war. After all that, why does she join them? It is a plot hole that needs to be addressed.

This is something I imagine would tick off some people as it is about the canon lesbian couple, Netossa and Spinnerella. Not because they are a same-sex couple. No, that is great. What isn’t great is that they are given the worst screen time out of all the princesses. They don’t even get any lines or characterization other than “And then there is those two.” until the final episode of the season with powers that would have great to have around during the Best Friend Squad’s previous adventures. Even their relationship wasn’t made clear until their proper introduction. I think they might’ve been mentioned during the Prom episode, but by that point, they were mostly forgotten already. Season 2 will need to do better to include them more often so it doesn’t feel like they are just background characters.

Related Thoughts

It is a pain but it would be ignorant to not point out the controversy that bloated to the point where it’ll make an inflation fetishist blush. So, yes, most of the female characters in this cartoon are super flat. For the many teen characters, this isn’t a big deal, but it becomes odd when all the adult women are depicted in the same way. Especially the motherly Queen Angella who people would expect to have breasts after childbirth and rearing. The fact that everybody is flat is not a problem for me. If it was, this would be in the Con section. No, the reason I am even mentioning this potential ball of toxic drama is because there are a few female characters in the show that do have breasts and they are not depicted in a sexual light. If the fear of sexualization was behind the decision to make every female character flat, then why are these characters exempt from the rule? Was it something that was looked over during character modelling process, or is it something that the show runners intentionally done? That is something to think about if you are trying to form an argument for either side.

There are people that feel like breasts are a sexual taboo and that giving breasts to girls under the age of 18 is an act of sexualizing minors. Others say that the removal of breasts is a form of body shaming towards those who were naturally endowed. Everybody has their reasons and chooses a side. Both seeking to set up a victim they swear to protect, but is more like an excuse to get their teeth and nails soaked in blood. It is just sad to think that it should happen over a cartoon that is suppose to introduce a younger generation to a show that my generation loved.

There were a lot of references towards She-ra’s connection to He-man in this show. It is actually an overarching plot point really. Eternia and Grayskull are name dropped, and I am getting a good feeling that the “First Ones” are them. Now what this could mean about this show’s version of He-man and the Masters of the Universe is hard to tell. They could have Eternia be from a different dimension or from another planet. Maybe Eternia is destroyed by this point? It is all a mystery. All I can imagine is that Adora’s family (Prince Adam and his parents) will become important within season 2 or 3. The circumstances behind why Shadow Weaver is so obsessed with keeping Adora so close to her should also be revealed then as well.

There is a Kowl plushie and it is pretty cute. They should introduce Kowl next season and make him as cute and lovable as 2011 Thundercats’ Snarf. Even that new Thundercats reboot, which people hate with a burning passion, based their Snarf off that one. Cute sells. It sells more than sex. This is the absolute truth.

Phew! This was more than I intended but I feel like I got my points across. Despite those cons you see, I feel like Netflix’s She-ra did a good job for its first season. As somebody not blinded by hate or rainbow-tinted lens, I feel like this is good enough to introduce my niece to. I can only hope that Catra will be her favorite. It will fill me with pride if she can recognize who the best character is.

#she-ra #shera #netflix #dreamworks #spoilers #adora #bow #catra #glimmer #shadow weaver #hordak #catra is bestra #bow is best boy

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vanilla107 · 5 years

Text

I thought we were best friends (Part 5)

She-ra Masterlist

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4,

Ao3

***************

It had been three months.

Three months since Catra had broken up with Adora. And she was still not over the blonde who had her heart. Catra had tried coming up with an apology for weeks but how was she supposed to apologize for the traumatic events she faced when Adora had gotten adopted?

Adora had left her.

If anything...Adora was the one who had to apologise, right? She wasn’t sorry for her emotions because they were valid.

Adora had made no contact with her whatsoever when she left the orphanage and it hurt her every single day but...saying that all she had felt was lust for Adora at Mystacor...that was incredibly harsh. It might’ve a little bit but she wasn’t lying about wanting to be with her.

Catra stared at the tv in the apartment, trying to focus on the movie she was watching but she never could.

All she could think about was Adora.

She was grateful for once that they did different majors. Adora majored in Sports Science whereas Catra majored in Politics. Catra eventually switched the tv off and decided to get a coffee from her favorite coffee shop. Maybe it would help her feel better.

“Scorpia, I’m going to the coffee shop! You want anything?” she yelled as she got her bag, wallet and keys.

“Yeah! A matcha latte would be great! I’ll meet you there!” Scorpia yelled back from the bathroom.

As she walked out the door she remembered the day that they had reconnected. When they had seen each other on the volleyball court that day of their match...it had been quite a moment for the two of them.

*******************

“Yo! Captain Catra, we are going to kill this season with you on our team!” one of Catra’s teammates said as they stretched their muscles in the changing room.

“We are going to beat those princesses today. They’ve had the trophy for too long!” Catra grinned and they huddled.

“Let’s go Horde!” they all shouted before walking to the sports hall.

The screams were loud as they stepped onto the court but they were deafening when the Princesses came on. Catra wasn’t surprised, it was the Princesses home game so naturally they had more supporters. Catra turned to face her opponents when she felt her breathing stop. The blonde hair, clear, determined blue eyes and the smile that could make flowers grow.

“Adora?” she asked and it felt like everything happened in slow motion.

Adora turned away from her teammate and her jaw dropped, “Catra?”

They seemed to stare at each other for hours but a sharp whistle broke through the air.

“Okay ladies! Let’s get this game going!” yelled one of the coaches and before either of them could say another word, the ball was in the air.

After an hour, the ball slammed down on the Princesses court and the Horde shrieked as they won their final point.

“Catra! Catra! Catra!” her team chanted as they picked her up and carried her back to the changing rooms.

Catra tried to get a good look of Adora but she was hugging her teammates and saying encouraging words to them. After a warm, refreshing shower, Catra walked out of Brightmoon High School and to the gravel parking lot with her team.

“We should totally get celebratory milkshakes guys!” said Kyle, their water boy, as they trekked across the car park.

“That sounds good-” Catra started but heard quick footsteps behind her and her reflexes kicked in, causing her to face her attacker but instead she saw the bluest eyes.

“Catra!”

She was hit with a heavy weight on her body and she stumbled before opening her eyes.

“Adora? It’s really you?” she whispered and Adora laughed.

Catra felt the overwhelming urge to push Adora off of her and scream.

Why are you so happy to see me when you never visited? Why are you acting like we’re still friends?

“Oh Catra, I’ve missed you so much!” she exclaimed hugging her harder and Catra felt her anger disappear.

“I...I missed you too,” she said softly and hugged her friend back.

Her ears twitched as she picked up a gasp from her teammates as well as Adora’s. The Princesses and The Horde were strict rivals in volleyball and it had been going on for years. Catra also wasn’t a hugger at all. So she could only imagine what her teammates were thinking when she accepted a hug not from any old person but from a Princess.

“Congratulations on your win! I’m looking forward to our next one but don’t be too cocky. We’ll definitely bring our A game!” Catra rolled her eyes but grinned.

“Get used to losing, Adora. It’s not going to be easy with me as Captain.”

Adora smiled but the competitive streak was gleaming in her eyes.

“Oh really? Well then, why don’t we meet up after school sometime? Maybe you can have some extra practice with me and get used to losing again,” she said with a wink.

Catra could feel the blush rising to her cheeks and she knew that she had to respond. Adora was teasing her and she damn well knew that she was doing it just to get a reaction out of Catra. She couldn’t look like a complete dork in front of her team, The Princesses and Adora.

So she did the next ballsy thing she could think of.

She took a step forward and kissed Adora lightly on the cheek. It was soft, lingering but Catra knew what she was doing. Adora smelt like her fresh pine scent, something that never changed. She could feel Adora freeze up and she was sure Kyle had fainted. She heard Adora gasp softly and she smirked as she leaned close to the shell of Adora's ear.

“Heh, nice try Adora but you’re going to have to try a lot harder to let my guard down. Anyway, I have some celebratory milkshakes to get with my team. Till next time,” she said smoothly.

Before she walked away, she felt Adora’s arm on her shoulder.

“Fine, if you want to play it like that,” Adora scoffed and turned Catra’s arm around so that her wrist was exposed.

Adora wrote her number down in a marker and she smiled as she finished. “When you’re done reaping your win, message me,” with that she winked and walked back to her teammates who began assaulting her with questions.

Catra knew she was going to get the same treatment so she mentally prepared herself as she turned around to face her team.

“Catra…? Are you going to explain-?” Lonnie asked as they turned away from the scene and began walking.

“She’s an old friend. Not a big deal but this will definitely make the matches a lot more interesting,” she smirked as the left the parking lot.

“But you- you kissed-?”

“Kyle, it was just a bit of friendly rivalry teasing.”

“That sounds ridiculous,” Lonnie annoyingly.

“Do you have a problem with how I run this team Lonnie? Or do you have something you want to say to all of us?” Catra glowered and that seemed to shut her up.

Afterwards the tension eventually lifted and they collapsed into friendly conversation and talking about the highlights of the game. Catra on the other hand, kept glancing at her arm to make sure Adora’s number was still there and not fading away.

She never wanted Adora to fade away from her life ever again.

****************************

Adora sat in her apartment drinking tea. It was a lot colder now and she made sure she bundled up. She looked out the window, the clouds grey but held no promise of rain.

Don’t worry Adora! You’ll get over Catra in no time!

Glimmer had said that exactly three months ago and she wished she could but nothing worked. She had tried clubbing, meeting new people, drinking so much that couldn’t remember what had happened the night before (Bow and Glimmer were there for her when she woke up and kept her from doing anything stupid at the club) as well as throwing herself into her studies. There was one thing she hadn’t tried but she knew it would end in disaster.

Dating.

Technically, Adora could date someone but she knew she wasn’t ready. She still cared deeply about Catra and she kept wondering back to the day that Catra had broken up with her.

“You left me, Adora. How was I supposed to ever believe you were going to be there for me, when you left when I needed you the most? I sent you letters! I snuck out and tried phoning you and you never visited. And you promised you would.”

Adora had tried to come up with ways to apologize but it all seemed futile.

How do you apologize for never contacting someone after four years?

She had faced her own set of problems when she had been adopted like getting used to her new family, going to Brightmoon High School and trying to fit in. Being an orphan all your life meant not really keeping up with the latest fashion and pop culture and Adora had made Adora an outcast for the first few days at school.

Eventually Perfuma came into her life and after helping Perfuma with saving her gardening club, they had become good friends. She then met Frosta and Mermista at the volleyball team tryouts and was ecstatic when they all made the team. Perfuma attended every volleyball game to support Adora. Adora then met Bow through archery club and they became friends quicky with Bow’s patience to teach Adora how to hit a bullseye. Spinnerella and Netossa where the Captains of the volleyball team and were the oldest. Adora saw them as mentors and they always treated the team after winning a game. Entrapta and Adora had briefly met but she transferred schools soon after. She began throwing herself into school and her new friends but she never forgot Catra. She did get her letters and she read them all but she would get side tracked with homework and volleyball practice.

That still wasn't a good excuse for never visiting.

Adora sighed and put her tea down on the coffee table in front of her and she pulled her legs to her body, making herself as small as possible. She felt tears in her eyes but she didn’t try to stop them.

“If only I had been a better friend. Why did I just abandon her like that?” Adora sniffed and buried her face into her knees, crying quietly.

“Adora! We’re home! We bought your favourite cookies-” Bow exclaimed, with Glimmer behind him, but then he stopped, seeing the state of his friend.

“Oh Adora,” Glimmer whispered and she took a seat next to her and hugged her. Bow took out the cookies from the shopping bag and sat down as well, trying to calm the crying girl.

“I’m sorry guys. I know it’s been months since the break up but I can’t just forget about Catra or our history. I want to talk to her so badly but everything I think of sounds pathetic!”

Glimmer looked down guiltily and Adora squeezed her friends hand.

“Stop, you know it’s not your fault that we broke up, right? If anything...it revealed a whole lot about Catra I didn’t know about. I...I don’t know if I ever would’ve known if you hadn’t punched Scorpia in the face...even if it wasn’t the best thing to do.”

“I know- it’s just...I feel like I made things ten times more difficult for you. Scorpia is...actually super nice.”

Adora and Bow looked at her in confusion.

“You...you met up with Scorpia?”

“Yeah, a few days ago actually...I wanted to apologize for punching her in the face. She was a little surprised that I wanted to meet up but we sorted it out. She’s...she really cares about Catra a lot…” Glimmer trailed off. “Turns out that I have really low alcohol tolerance and drank too much. I think running out into the cold after being at a hot club was what made me really sick and the hangover did not help. I was insecure about making friends and you were the first person I met here. I wanted to be a good friend after hearing about your break up...I wanted to protect you from Catra. She caused you so much hurt and I was angry that she didn’t seem to see it.”

“Scorpia...she didn’t poison you?”

“Oh goodness no! Scorpia would never do that!” Adora nodded and put her head on the back of the couch. “But...did you really have a crush on me?” Adora asked and Glimmer blushed.

“Yes...I did. And I was jealous of Catra and how well you two just clicked. But Bow helped me sort through my feelings. I knew you and Catra were inseparable and I never should’ve stuck my nose into your business.”

Adora nodded and laid her head on Glimmer’s shoulder. “I just wish I knew what to do. Or just to forget about it for a little while. Everything I try just makes me think of Catra.” she murmured and closed her eyes.

Glimmer and Bow shared a smile.

“Which is why we downloaded this app on your phone!”

Adora’s eyes snapped open and she stared her phone that Bow was dangling in front of her.

“You did what?”

“Adora, it’s not a dating app, we know you aren’t looking for anyone right now. It’s more of a meet up and talk app. Look we know you miss Catra but when was the last time you talked with Mermista after high school?” Bow smiled.

“Mermista is on the app?”

“Yeah! She wants to meet up with you for lunch today It’s already been arranged.”

“Guys…I’m not sure...” Adora mumbled.

“Adora, we understand you don’t want to necessarily talk to anyone right now but you’re going to evolve into a hermit crab if you spend another day in this apartment.” Adora looked at the app and scrolled through the messages that Mermista and Bow had exchanged. If anything, it just looked like a normal meetup. Nothing weird or trying to set her up with someone new.

“Okay fine. I’ll go but you two owe me for making a profile of me without my permission!”

************************************************

Adora shifted nervously in the both were she was meeting up with Mermista. Her iced tea was too sweet and she felt sweaty all over. She had arrived a few minutes early just to mentally prepare herself.

“Adora, long time no see,” Mermista’s velvety voice said as she slid into the opposite side of the booth. Mermista was a Marine Biologist major and went to the same university as Adora, it’s just that their campuses were quite a distance from each other and it was difficult to meet.

Mermista hadn’t changed much since high school, same chic style and ‘I don’t care’ attitude but she had gotten a nose ring, which Adora thought suited her personality.

“Hey Mermista! It’s been ages!” Adora said a little too loudly and Mermista blinked slowly.

“Yeah it has...what are you having it looks good.”

“Oh, iced tea! It’s really...sweet! Yeah....sweet!” Adora said and realized how awkward she was being trying to advertise her drink.

“Adora...are you okay?” the girl asked as she ordered her ice tea. The blonde was silent and she sighed heavily.

“I...I’m not. I’m sorry that you dragged yourself here to catch up-”

“Adora. It’s fine,” Mermista said with a rare look of concern.

“It...it is?”

“I know that you and Catra broke up and I...understand that you’re still healing. I...I know what you’re going through,” she said softly and realization clicked.

“Did...did you and Sea Hawk...?”

A waitress placed Mermista’s iced tea down and she took a long sip.

“Yeah. What’s funny is that he broke up with me. He said we needed space which is freaking weird since he was the one who couldn’t stop spending time around me when we started dating! I guess...I guess I became too possessive of him when we got to university. I understand his reasons for ending our relationship but…” Mermista trailed off and Adora saw tears in the dark girls eyes.

Sea Hawk and Mermista had been the power couple in high school. Everyone thought it was hilarious how he would try to do these huge acts of romance and Mermista would constantly reject him. Eventually, he saw no point in trying to be with her and stopped, making Mermista realize that she liked him and how he treated her (even if it was a bit much at sometimes). Mermista had asked all her friends to help her pull off a grand romantic gesture (which ended in disaster) but Sea Hawk had been brought to tears. They went out on their first date and had been together since then.

Hearing that they broke up...it pained Adora to see Mermista so sad even though she wasn’t one to show usually her emotions.

“I miss him. I think of him all the time,” she choked out.

Adora gently put her hand on top of Mermista’s and she gave the girl a small smile.

“Looks like we're in similar situations. How about we ditch this place and go for a walk on the beach? I know the sea helps you think.”

“No...not the beach...Sea Hawk took me there all the time. How about the park?”

“Uh...let’s not go there...Catra and I had most of our dates there.”

“Well shit, we can’t go anywhere without remembering our exes, huh?” Mermista laughed.

Adora felt her heart squeeze a little at the mention of the word ‘exes’ and she tried to not think too deeply about it.

“How about....mini golf? It’s not too expensive and it opened a few months back. We can go check it out!” Adora suggested hopefully.

“Hmmm, sounds tedious but...that’s what I need right now,” Mermista nodded, a small smile on her face.

The two of them walked out reminiscing of their high school days and laughing.

***************************************************

Catra turned around from the cashier to watch Adora and Mermista leave, two coffee cups in her hand. She hadn’t heard any of their conversation but they had just left together, laughing.

No...it can’t be. Mermista...Mermista was dating Sea Hawk right? That goofy guy who sang sea shanties all the time. Wait, maybe they’re just friends? She seriously couldn’t be dating-?

She was trembling slightly and rushed to the bathrooms. She locked herself in a stall and tried to control her breathing.

“Has...has Adora...moved on?” she said whispered and felt her throat close.

She gasped and phoned Scorpia.

“Hey! I’m at the coffee shop! Where are you sitting?” Scorpia answered and Catra let out a strangled gasp, trying to get air into her lungs.

“Catra? Is everything okay?”

“No...no it’s not,” Catra managed to say before she cried. Her tears hitting the wooden bathroom floor and staining the floor, almost like how Adora had stained her heart.

#she ra #she ra fanfiction #vanilla107 writes #vanilla107writes #catradora #glimmeradora #scorpia #catra #adora #spop #spop 2018

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