Chapter Text
The sound of Catra and Adora’s laughing fills the dark halls of the cadet dormitories. They’re currently both sprawled out on Adora’s cot, a common routine for both of them. Catra seldom sleeps in her own bed. The cat-girl is lying on her back trying to catch her breath at the stupidity of the joke Adora just said, and Adora looks over at her with a fond smile. “Hey,” Adora murmurs when Catra finally catches her breath. She rolls to face Adora, wiping tears away from her heterochromatic eyes, and smiles. “Do you think we’ll be together forever?” Adora’s voice is soft and questioning as it tumbles out, an honest question to her best friend. Catra responds with a chuckle, and rolls her eyes a little at Adora’s question.
“What kind of question is that? Of course we’re gonna be together forever Adora.” The blonde haired girl looks away with a blush, clearly embarrassed. Of course Adora knows that her and Catra are going to be together forever, but sometimes she can’t help but get doubts. She sees the way Shadow Weaver treats her, like a prodigy, like the golden child, like someone who can do no wrong, and then she sees how Shadow Weaver treats Catra. It’s no secret that in Shadow Weaver’s eyes, while Adora is perfect, Catra is constantly blamed for every wrong doing, every failure. It pains Adora to see her best friend treated like that, but try as she may to stand up for Catra, Shadow Weaver never seems to budge on her disdain for the other girl. She can’t help but wonder about the possibility that someday the two of them will be driven apart. Catra stills, watching Adora’s pained expression as the blonde is lost in thought. Uncharacteristically tender, Catra places her hand softly on Adora’s shoulder, startling the other girl from her thoughts. “Hey, Adora, look at me,” she murmurs and Adora rolls to face her. Acting on impulse, Catra dares to bring her hand to Adora’s cheek, ignoring the heat that rushes to her cheeks as she hears Adora’s breath hitch in her throat. Now it’s Catra’s turn to look away as she struggles to come up with words to calm Adora down. She’s never been all that great at comforting people, usually that was Adora’s thing, but clearly her friend needs her help. “Look, I- I’m not going anywhere okay.” Adora looks at her eyes wide, and then slowly her facial expression shifts into a soft smile.
Catra lets out an audible gasp as Adora gently takes her hands in hers, and intertwines their fingers. She squeezes softly, a silent gesture of thank you, and then pulls away leaving the cat-girl speechless. Adora rolls to stare at the ceiling, trying to ignore the blush burning her face. She doesn’t notice Catra staring at her, wide-eyed and blushing, trying to grasp what just happened. Adora can’t explain why her heart feels like it’s going to burst from her chest, or why her face feels so warm, but it isn’t an unpleasant feeling. Her brain feels fuzzy and warm, but for once it’s a good feeling to just not be worried about anything. “Hey Catra, someday when we’re older, let’s get married.” The stupidly honest statement falls from Adora’s lips before she can even catch it. Catra begins to laugh again, gently punching Adora in the shoulder, and the blonde suddenly feels like she wants to curl up in a ball and die from embarrassment, quite certain that her face is bright red.
“Adora, why would we do that? Marriage is a stupid princess concept- only meant to form alliances and strengthen kingdoms.” Her tone is incredulous, obviously missing the sentiment in Adora’s statement. While Adora doesn’t know much about marriage other than what the Horde taught her, she does know that it is, in a way, a promise of forever, even if it is for alliance purposes. Catra notices Adora’s embarrassment, and then dares to interlace her fingers with Adora’s again in an attempt to calm the other girl down. The gentle action only serves to deepen Adora’s blush. “Adora, we’re gonna rule this place together someday, you know that. Shadow Weaver won’t be able to boss us around anymore, the princesses will tremble in the wake of our army, we’ll have it all. We don’t need something as silly as marriage to solidify that.” Catra lets out a heavy sigh, wanting so desperately to believe that the future she wants with Adora could come true. The real reason she laughs off Adora’s sincere question is out of fear. The cat-girl knows deep down that Adora would be perfectly successful without her, and with the way Shadow Weaver treats Adora, it’s apparent that she will quickly outrank any of the other cadets in their class, especially Catra. It’s an unsettling reality, that Adora and her could be so easily driven apart, and Catra just wants to foolishly hang on to the notion that they could have a forever. “Promise me, Adora,” her voice trembles as she lets out a plea barely above a whisper. “You said nothing bad can happen if we’re together, so please, promise me you’ll stay.” Her words are raw and emotional, but as painful as they are, she needs to get them out. She needs the reassurance now more than ever.
Adora rolls to face Catra and gently runs her thumb across the other girl’s cheek, a calming gesture. She can feel the warmth radiate of Catra’s face as her wide eyes stare at her. The blonde takes Catra’s hands in hers again, full of warmth, and murmurs “Of course I’ll stay Catra. I’m not leaving you.” Catra visibly relaxes and Adora pulls the other girl towards her, wrapping her in a big embrace. Adora tries to ignore the way her heart flutters as Catra nuzzles her face into the blonde’s chest, letting out a long, low purr. She smiles, pulling the blanket over the two of them and they drift off together, intertwined in a tender embrace.
Adora steadies her breath as she stands outside the door to Catra’s room on the ship (or Darla, as Entrapta had called it). It’s a lot for her take in, having Catra back after all they’ve been through. Adora knows in reality, she shouldn’t have let Catra back into her life so easily. Judging by Catra’s earlier outburst, the girl was definitely as stubborn as ever and not ready to reconcile herself, but the thought what could’ve happened if they had left her on Horde Prime’s ship sends an awful twinge through Adora’s chest. She gazes down at her shaky hands, and tries to fight back tears as the image of Catra possessed and falling to what Adora thought would be her death flashes in her mind. The blonde inhales deeply once more, trying to keep herself from falling apart. Catra is here, she is real and you saved her. She’s going to be alright. She needed to talk with Catra, and while she didn’t want to deal with another one of Catra’s outbursts, if they didn’t get the chip off of the cat-girl’s neck, they could all be in danger. Adora steels her nerves, and then gently pushes the door open, pale light from the hallway streaming into the darkened room. Catra is curled up rather pitifully on the bed, and stirs slightly at the sound of Adora entering the room.
“Hey, Catra. I came to check on you. Are you alright?” Adora’s voice cracks despite her best intentions to hide her emotions, but Catra doesn’t respond. The blonde huffs and shuts the door behind her, daring to inch closer to the supposedly sleeping cat-girl. She gets about a half step away from the bed when a low growl emerges from Catra, stopping Adora in her tracks.
“I told you to leave me alone Adora,” Catra growls, no warmth in her tone. Adora recoils a bit in shock, not expecting to be met with such cold ferocity. She wants to reach out and comfort Catra, but the notion is quickly dismissed from her head. Adora is filled with both sadness and rage, as the words Catra said when she was possessed echo in her mind. “You broke my heart, but he has made it whole again. Don’t you see? This is for the best.” Balling her hands up into fists, Adora ignores Catra’s words and gets a tight grip on her arm, causing the other girl to thrash against her and let out an indignant cry. “I meant it Adora! Leave. Me. Alone.” Catra grits her sharp teeth, looking up Adora with pain and anger in her eyes, but the girl’s grip on her won’t budge. Curse Adora and how strong she is. Adora takes her free hand and grips Catra’s chin, forcing her to look up at her. Catra flails against her once more, sinking sharp claws into the arm holding her down, but Adora doesn’t seem phased by it.
“Why are you acting like this?” Adora growls, feeling Catra’s claws sink deeper into her skin. “Just please, Catra. Tell me what’s wrong, please,” she pleads, letting go of Catra’s face as she continues to writhe in the blonde’s grasp, squeezing her eyes shut, refusing to look at the girl above her. The cat-girl eventually gives up and lets out a low, hollow, self-pitying laugh.
“You’re always so focused on playing the hero huh?” Her voice is full of both exhaustion and venom. Catra can’t stand how dense Adora is sometimes. She also can’t stand how reckless she is, constantly throwing herself in the face of danger, often times without a plan, because the blonde would sacrifice everything for her friends even if it ends in her getting hurt. Another low laugh rises in Catra’s throat as she tries to speak. “Don’t you get it Adora? All I do is hurt people. All I’ve ever done is hurt you and your friends! So why? Why won’t you just leave me alone?” Catra is shouting now, tears bubbling at the corner of her eyes, threatening to spill over. Adora loosens her grasp on Catra’s arm in shock.
“If you want to stop hurting people maybe you could just listen to me for five seconds instead of trying to push me away!” Adora is yelling now, fed up with Catra’s attitude. Catra lets out a huff, rolls her eyes and looks up at Adora. The blonde gives her an icy glare. “Horde Prime is tracking us right now because of the chip in your neck. So do us all a favor calm down and let Entrapta take the chip out or we’re all going to die.” Catra’s eyes widen in fear and she crawls backwards away from Adora, clearly terrified at the blonde’s suggestion.
“Adora, you can’t let her operate on me! She’ll kill me! She clearly still hates me like the rest of you do and I- I,” she cuts off hyperventilating out of her own terror, tugging on her short hair. Tears are now fully streaming down Catra’s face as she struggles to breathe. Adora spares her no remorse, pulling the other girl roughly towards her by her shoulders, leaning so that their faces are millimeters away from one another.
“We are doing this Catra. And afterwards if you think that hiding is still the best way to make you feel better, we can just drop you off on a planet and you’ll never have to deal with us- or me- ever again.” Adora is exhausted at Catra’s outbursts, and constant protests. She did really want to see her get better, but there was only so much she could take. She stands up, crossing her arms, looking down at Catra’s trembling form. “So what’s it going to be?” Catra says nothing as the tears continue to flow and makes no motion to move until Adora turns to walk out the door. She scrambles to grab Adora’s hand as she walks away, and manages to catch her by the wrist.
“Wait Adora,” Catra’s small, broken plea breaks the tension in the room, even if Adora refuses to look at her. “Please… Stay. You made me a promise Adora I-” before she can finish Adora has her wrapped in an embrace. Catra buries her head in the blonde’s shoulder and lets the tears fall while Adora gently strokes her hair.
“I promise you Catra, we’re going home. But we gotta get that chip off first okay? I’ll be right by your side while it happens.” Catra just nods weakly into Adora’s shoulder, and finally realizes that she’s going to be safe.