Chapter Text
Adora is stuck in a loop. Yesterday she woke Catra up again from a nap and it made her feline girlfriend jump and hiss, and look at her briefly as if Adora was out to hurt her, again. It shouldn’t be that dreadful, after all the things that they lived through, yet the princess’ feelings can’t settle down. Catra’s reaction isn’t exactly surprising but the most recent and violent of those awakenings took place aboard Darla, shortly after taking her back from Prime. Not the kindest of memories and the simple thought of them makes Adora shudder.
And now she has another unexpected problem; she never thought about it before, but when her feline girlfriend acts like a cat, the princess can’t keep the idea out of her head that Catra behaves this way because Shadow Weaver forced her to in order to make her feel like a pet, inferior and worthless, and this is something that the blonde girl can’t accept.
Long ago, when Catra and she were kids, Adora had only one way to approach this kind of things. She always pushed and pushed, until they fought; that was one of their ways to communicate, she thought. But after being really separated and reunited, making Catra leave and got her back once more, Adora doesn’t want to be too insistent either, because she knows that her pushiness played its part in their mismatched feelings. And now thinking about the past really emphasises the blonde girl’s naturally high anxiety.
Yesterday at the sight of Catra’s distress, Adora could instantly feel it surging, which made Catra’s face ignite from anger just as quickly in turn, because the feline girl simply hates when Adora looks like the world is ending, even more so now that they managed to prevent it. The princess thought she could bear with it this time but unfortunately, Catra rejecting her concern was too much to handle. It all just felt unavoidable and there was no Glimmer to calm things down between them this time.
Therefore to not repeat the disaster of the previous day, Adora fled the room as fast as she could and both girls awkwardly avoided each other until well after dinner, and only managed to speak again when it was time to say goodnight. Sure they didn’t yell at each other in the meantime, which was better, somehow… maybe... or maybe not; the result wasn’t any more pleasant and they didn’t solve anything.
This evening Adora doesn’t want a replay of either of those last two days, but she still has no idea how to do that. She is pacing back and forth in front of her room’s door, trying to put her thoughts in order, but it’s an exercise in which she is really not as efficient as she hoped. Planning is her thing, usually, but procrastinating is it just as much, and it’s been well over half an hour and she hasn’t made any progress.
The loop seems inevitable. She wakes up Catra, who panics, making Adora worry which turns into something a lot darker since the princess is already feeling bad for her acting all pet-like, and this angers Catra way too much for Adora to ignore, because she means well and the feline girl should know it...
When the princess got back, she glimpsed inside the room to check that Catra was indeed there and asleep, once again in that weird ball cat posture at the foot of the bed, and that simply made her freeze in place. It took her a whole minute to finally move and breathe again, and she chose to step back outside to gain some time to think about this.
On one hand, Catra’s cat side is very attractive. Adora isn’t sure if the feline girl is actually related to cats because Entrapta has yet to successfully obtain a sample of Catra’s blood to verify that theory. Anyway, the result probably wouldn’t do anything against Adora’s uneasiness about comparing Catra to… pets. That’s the other hand.
For so long she had kept a blind eye at Shadow Weaver treating Catra like one, and Adora knows that in some good measure she acted not so differently when she was young. Catra was soft, plushy, warm, the perfect little thing to hug and cuddle, and the blonde girl usually didn’t care much about Catra’s opinion on that matter. Shadow Weaver taught Adora that Catra was hers and that she was responsible for her, and despite Adora simply thinking of her as a friend, she still acted the part because she didn’t care.
But Catra cared and she resented Adora for not understanding, and now the princess knows that her oblivious behaviour played an important part in dividing the two of them. She wants to avoid making Catra feel inferior with all her might, and that very cat-like position in which Catra naps doesn’t help at all because Adora won’t forgive herself if she allows herself to find it cute, and discovers later that it’s a sign that Catra had a bad day and feels terrible, and that really irritates Adora, and worries her, and saddens her, and-
“Adora? What are you doing?”
The sudden voice makes the blonde girl jump up and she lets escape a squeak way too high pitched for her usual cool standards. “Catra?! Why are you awake?”
The feline girl frowns deeply at Adora’s inappropriate phrasing at first. But the princess isn’t known for her wording skills, except for a few motivational speeches maybe, and Catra knows this well enough to calm down, let it slide, and her expression shifts to a faint smirk at Adora’s clumsiness. The blonde girl blushes and looks away awkwardly, which definitely makes Catra want to tease her instead of scolding her, and the feline girl starts to laugh when two guards arrive running, alerted by Adora’s weird shout earlier, and throwing the princess into an embarrassed soft panic.
“Shall we go get dinner?” asks Catra once the blonde girl has convinced the soldiers that everything is fine.
Adora nods and Catra quickly passes before her. Although the princess guesses that the feline girl’s easy mood switch has something to do with avoiding the previous days’ situation just as much as Adora wants to, and both of them try to act as if nothing is wrong. But it’s not an issue she can simply forget about; or is Adora destined to never wake up Catra again?
Dinner is spent without many words, then the night comes, then another day of hard work, and the loop starts again. For the fourth evening in a row Adora stands in front of her door, wondering how to escape it.
“What are you doing?”
Adora is startled today again, but at least manages to not yell this time around, partly because it’s not Catra’s voice. “Entrapta?! Hey, hi, how are you doing? Haven’t seen you in a while!”
“Heya! I’m good! I’ve been so busy with the new network! I’m working with Bow right now and...”
Adora half listens to the other princess’ enthusiastic explanation of her plans for one or another tech that Prime left behind. Usually these science discoveries and tech progresses are good opportunities to get her mind out of anything heavy that she’s wrapped in, but it doesn’t work tonight. Catra is not a subject she can put aside and on the contrary it makes her feel even more frustrated to not be able to solve anything in comparison. Entrapta’s sudden change of tone manages to fully get her attention again.
“… Adora, are you okay?”
The direct question surprises the blonde girl who has no time to formulate anything else than a hesitant “Yes?”.
The answer doesn’t convince Entrapta in the slightest, which is not surprising since Adora looks even more concerned than her voice sounded. Despite Entrapta’s trouble with people she is very observant, and as true as she has no idea what to say, she can’t ignore the issue either. She simply stays there, staring at Adora and waits for the blonde girl to correct herself on her own.
It doesn’t take long for Adora to start talking, because Entrapta being Entrapta helps. She gives off that warm impression that she’s listening closely, yet not too closely, and Adora feels like she can just stop whenever she wants and get away with a simple ‘never mind’, if the situation becomes too awkward. It doesn’t, and the blonde princess proceeds to summarise her present situation.
“… and that’s where I am now. Any idea?”
“I’m not too sure about the cat thing, but… can’t you just hide your face when you wake her up?” Entrapta instantly replies.
“It’s not that simple!”
“It isn’t? Anyway, I have to go, there is soooooo much to do with all that new tech! See ya!”
Adora waves and the geek princess disappears as quickly as she appeared. The blonde girl sighs deeply. No progress today either but at least she is a little more relaxed now, after talking with someone else… ‘or maybe saying talking to someone else would be more accurate?’ she asks herself and chuckles. ‘Hiding my face...’
-----
One...
Two...
Three...
A few seconds. That’s what Catra needs, every time that she wakes up, to remember where she is.
And more importantly where she isn’t.
A few breathes, way too many heartbeats, to fully understand that she is safe.
When she wakes up naturally, all this happens while she is still between dream and reality, and only her body really gives signs of her distress once her mind is fully conscious, like the remnants of a hazy nightmare. Bushy fur, ears flatten, and sometimes her claws are all out too which is now her main concern. She has gotten used to this since her rescue from Prime and most of the time there is a sleeping Adora not far which tremendously helps her calm down quickly. Catra aligns her breathing with the blonde girl’s, tries to get her heartbeats to match those of her princess, and just like that the lingering dread of the moment is gone and all that’s left needed is a bit of grooming.
But when she is awoken in the middle of a deep sleep, it’s a different story. And the fact that it’s quite new doesn’t help; she isn’t used to sleep so soundly. There was always something that kept her sleep light before; all sorts of dangers and unwanted surprises, anxiety, pain, also an unconscious wish to keep an eye on Adora maybe? Angst, fear… Whenever she would slip from her own bed to sleep at the foot of Adora’s, she would wake up at the slightest movement or the faintest sound, to be able to escape before getting caught.
Yet now in the comfort and peace of their room in Bright Moon, with the Horde gone, her body easily forgets all those years of training and simply slumbers deeply at the slightest occasion, as if to catch up with all those times it couldn’t. Adora’s arms help too, or her smell that the bed retains in her absence, and also the absurdly high amount of work that the queen asks of Catra these days, that leaves her utterly exhausted.
Sparkles isn’t shy from efforts herself but while she compensates with long nights, Catra is used to short ones and often needs a nap before evening. And that’s without taking into account that Adora and her have already spent a few nights talking instead of sleeping… or doing other things. And a sleepover three nights ago. And they ended a war just recently. And...
And all this would be perfectly fine and irrelevant if Adora wasn’t always overreacting! But that’s the main issue now for Catra. She doesn’t mind the fatigue; she rather likes naps. Although waking up thinking that she’s still Prime’s captive is terrifying, it passes quickly. She is now strong enough to not let this drown her, and on the scale of all the things that she has to deal with, it’s only mildly annoying, far less so than seeing that anguished look that Adora has sadly become so proficient at!
‘Yes, I have a bad time being woken up, and? When it’s done, it’s done, and Adora should be done looking like it’s the end of the world too!’ sighs Catra.
But unfortunately the princess stays stuck into her worries until she can take action against their source. Yet here’s the problem: Catra doesn’t need anything but Adora herself. And what irritates Catra the most is that this is a part of Adora that changed along the years, even more so the last few they were separated.
When they were young, the blonde girl knew so well how to sooth Catra; running after her when needed and simply sticking with her as long as necessary. Nothing else was required of her to help the feline girl, not even a contact, not a word, just her presence. Back then, Adora stayed entire nights with Catra doing mostly nothing. Playing stupid games, humming songs maybe, but nothing more; certainly not digging into her problems. And that’s exactly what Catra needed and still needs. But Adora doesn’t seem to be able to not do anything significant anymore and always tries to act or talk or…
It always ends with her agonizing over what she should do to help Catra. Then this pain shows on the princess’ face and Catra hates this more than anything. Of course the issue isn’t Adora’s beautiful face in itself, it’s what its expression means deep inside the princess’ mind.
Sparkles is at fault too since she taught Adora to talk about her problems. Every. single. problem. And it’s not really wrong but in this instance it’s backfiring because Adora is Adora; always rushing in, never relaxing, taking every weights on her own shoulders, therefore she wants to talk about Catra’s problems without considering that maybe there’s nothing to talk about. The feline girl might be somewhat at fault too for not giving the blonde girl any hint either but what is she supposed to say, ‘Take me in your arms and shut up? Like that would end well!!’ It didn’t, the last time that she tried to silence Adora.
Just like this, Catra is awoken from her nap today too. For those brief seconds before opening her eyes she can see tanks full of a green liquid behind her eyelids. A dreadful chant echoes in her head and her ears flatten in an attempt to mute it. She is in Bright Moon, she knows it, yet has trouble believing it. She feels a clawed hand trying to push her under the surface of a pool of that same green fluid. Adora is here beside her; Catra can smell her, recognises her heartbeat, yet it still seems like an illusion.
Everything happens in an instant, she can’t help but hiss, growl and take a defensive posture as soon as she is awake enough to move. The hand touching her shoulder is surely Adora’s, yet it takes some effort to not claw at it. Catra doesn’t want to open her eyes. She knows what will happen then and she waits an extra second or two to calm down somewhat. She imagines Adora smiling, but it will make her feel even worse when she sees the princess’ real face so she stops. She wonders if she should just keep her eyes closed but Adora will probably worry even more, making the situation worse too...
Catra slowly opens her eyes and readies herself to discover what kind of pained expression the blonde girl has for her today. But she can’t see Adora’s face and she has to blink twice to register that she’s face to face with a pillow.
“What are you doing?” Catra asks simply, too stunned to say anything else for now.
“Nothing, nothing!” Adora can’t help but scoff at her own behaviour. There is a short awkward silence before she resigns herself to speak again, still hidden behind her pillow. “How was your day?”
“It was fine until I got woken up by a talking pillow?” Catra scoffs hesitantly.
Adora lowers said pillow and hugs it tightly against her chest. Catra flinches. Adora’s face looks exactly like what she expected a moment ago and her grin falls. It’s even more irritating since Adora’s behaviour indicates that the princess is conscious of it and Catra needs to bite her lips to not let escape a few less-than-flattering comments. But that only makes Adora look even more sour.
“Catra, are you o-”
“Stop it! … please?” Catra’s last word feels so forced that it has trouble leaving her mouth and it doesn’t seem to appease Adora’s growing concern.
“Can we talk-”
Catra flinches once more. talk. There’s that word again, reminding her how much Adora has changed, and she doesn’t want to acknowledge it as something positive, and certainly doesn’t want to deal with it when she is already in a bad mood. “No.” She sits up on the side of the bed besides Adora and takes a deep breath. It should have been a matter of seconds, but because of Adora’s behaviour, the dread of her sleep being roughly interrupted persists. She still needs the blonde girl close and her tail loops around the princess’ waist.
It’s Adora’s turn to flinch, unsure of what to make of the gap between Catra’s words and action. She opens her mouth to speak, stops, closes it, tries to think, in vain, her lips part again. Usually Catra is more unilaterally pushing or pulling, and Adora is bad with those ambiguous signs. She shuts her mouth once more and waits what seems to be an hour, but is five minutes in reality, during which Catra does nothing aside from glancing at her from time to time. The blonde girl has no idea how to read those eyes, so wanting, yet so calm despite this dicey situation.
The silence is really awkward and Adora doesn’t move a muscle either. She fears that the slightest shift will make Catra pull her tail away and leave, or get even more angry. They haven’t shared a word either and she dreads the moment when one of them will say something and all that tension built up will explode and ruin everything. When she can’t bear it anymore, Adora jumps up and goes for the door to prevent this to happen.
“What are you doing?” Catra asks in an irritated voice.
Adora feels like this is a question that she has been asked repetitively during the last few days, in all kind of forms, and she wonders about that herself. She needs to connect with Catra but the feline girl doesn’t let her. She wants to answer that it’s all Catra’s fault for pushing her away yet she can’t resolve herself to blame Catra for anything. She wishes sometimes that she could simply shout ‘I have no idea what I’m doing!’ but She-Ra isn’t allowed to do that. She needs a plan, she needs to think through all this before making a mistake. Right now she has to reply anything and get out of here as fast as possible. “I’ll better leave you alone-”
“Why?!”
Adora didn’t expect such a strong reaction from Catra and she tries to justify herself in a hurry. “You don’t want to talk to me… Don’t you want some space?”
“No?”
Adora freezes in place. Her brain is trying in vain to make sense of the situation, but she needs to, she can’t act carelessly around Catra without a clear strategy to prevent either of them to get angry. She hears Catra calling her name from behind and she doesn’t know how to answer. She wonders what may happen if she still reaches for the door as intended. She thought that it was a safe way to gain more time to work the problem but Catra clearly disagrees. She thought that anything was beating sitting so awkwardly on the bed, yet again Catra is not on the same page at all. The feline girl calls her name once more and there’s concern in her voice. Adora flinches once again. She is the one worrying about Catra, not the other way around, and weighing if she would rather have the feline girl angry or concerned only adds to her anxiety.
“If you are gonna keep making that face, then I’m the one leaving!” says Catra as she stands up and walks past Adora.
But before she can reach the door’s handle, it slams open and a big growling alien cat enters followed by a winged unicorn. Melog looks at Catra as if she is a kitten that did something bad, and since they harbour their full size threateningly, they are topping the feline girl and looking down at her. Swift Wind stares at Adora in the same way, then gently but firmly headbutts her, and both girls don’t have time to react before their two magical friends push them back one step, and another, and one more, and soon Adora and Catra stumble against the bed and fall back to sit on it side by side as before.
Melog lies in front of Catra and rests their head on her laps to keep her in place. They don’t speak nor send images and ideas like they usually do to communicate, only grunt when Catra tries to move or speak. Beside them, Adora’s protest is met by the same treatment from the unicorn and soon the room is completely silent, for a brief moment.
“Sooooo… what-” Swift Wind begins to ask but is promptly interrupted by Melog.
‘No word.’
“Me too?!”
Melog simply nods.
Swift Wind neighs shortly to express his doubts, but nonetheless follows Melog’s lead. He lies down on the floor in front of Adora and rests his head on the princess’ knees to mirror the other pair, and the room is immersed in silence again.
A lot of thoughts pass through Catra’s mind. The firsts being ‘what am I doing here?’ and ‘Why am I obeying?’ but it just feels wrong to go against her friend without hearing them out. If they want to speak, that is, because right now there’s only silence as she wanted. And then there are all the questions about the two magical animals presence. She can sense a little of it through her bond with Melog when they are this close, and she guesses the rest. Both of them simply felt like there was trouble between Adora and her, and decided to rush here from whatever adventure they were off to.
There is a little bit of guilt looming over Catra briefly, to have Melog and Swift Wind interrupt whatever they were doing to come here and help, but whenever she focuses on it, Melog turns their eyes at her and meows happily to communicate that they are perfectly fine with it. It’s strange, and as it goes on for a few minutes, the situation feels more and more like that kids game in which you are allowed to move only when you aren’t looked at. Except it’s not movements but thoughts, any negative ones are forbidden, and Melog is clearly winning and simply waiting for her to give up.
Catra glances sideways at Adora who doesn’t seem comfortable with the situation any more than before, yet the princess is looking far less anxious now. The feline girl wonders if she should be angry or jealous about it but she mostly feels relief. As expected, Catra finds it far less irritating when Adora looks uncomfortable rather than worried. She looks at Swift Wind and the unicorn only nods slowly as to confirm that the present silence is for her, intended as she wished. He has a lot more work than Melog to keep Adora quiet and in place though.
With almost no sound in the room, a long time passes. Catra is thinking too much about everything to really enjoy it but it’s peaceful, and she can see that Adora is thinking just as much but is slowly, very slowly, relaxing and accepting the silence as something not so frightening. In the last five minutes, Swift Wind only had to remind her twice to keep her mouth shut. ‘It’s progress!’ Catra sarcastically chuckles and she’s scolded by Melog in turn.
That’s right, they have friends now. As much as Catra wants to think that she isn’t at fault for the current issue, it’s still an issue, and instead of stubbornly hoping for Adora to change her attitude, she could have asked. Melog? Sparkles? Maybe even Bow or Netossa, with whom she unexpectedly seems to get along well.
Catra looks at Adora who is almost smiling now. There is still some uneasiness on her face, and lots of questions, but nothing awful like before. Catra starts to think about the past again, about all those nights that they spent quietly alone. Actually, Adora was rarely completely silent; she just didn’t talk about anything heavy and that was the important part. They don’t have to be alone anymore though, but Catra would like to get that feeling back, and maybe she can; everything seems possible in this peaceful moment and she can feel herself smiling.
‘Good.’ Melog tells Catra directly as they stand up. They nuzzle her head for a little time, then gives Adora a lick on her face, and walks to the balcony. Swift Wind follows their lead, hugging the two girls in his wings shortly before getting out.
“Now what?” Catra asks hesitantly as she jumps after Melog.
‘Now you two talk.’
The feline girl growls and frowns. “Talk?”
‘Yes. You compromise. She needs it.’ Melog adds as they glance at Adora.
Catra grunts and the alien cat bumps their head gently against her chest in a comforting manner. Melog purrs and produces a soothing happy meow before walking away again. While Swift Wind flies down to the garden, they jump from balconies to window stills until they get on the ground too. Both of them turn around once more to shout “good night” to the two girls who wave at them from the balcony, and off they go through the night.
Catra leans on the stone railing and looks into the distance, where their friends just disappeared into the darkness. After exhaling deeply in surrender, she glances at Adora. “You wanna talk?”
“If you want to.” Adora answers politely but they both know that she really wants to.
“Fine. You get one topic.”
“Is it comfortable? The way you nap.” says Adora without hesitation. She’s almost surprised herself how the words came out while she believed she was still pondering what to ask first.
“I’m not sure how to answer that? It’s a habit? Instinct maybe?”
“You don’t feel forced or that you have to act like a pet or… something? … stars it feels dumb when I say it aloud!”
“It just feels… normal I guess? What’s bothering you?”
“You don’t have to act like a cat anymore, okay?”
“But… I am like this? I didn’t choose?” Catra takes a deep breath. Thankfully Adora has said a few times that she loves her, all of her, and the feline girl believes it. “If you have a problem with a way I behave in particular, you better tell me straight because it’s beginning to be insulting of you to ask me to not act like me!”
“No! No, I mean, you don’t have to- Let me try again…” Adora breathes slowly twice. “Shadow Weaver treated you like a pet. I know I did too, even if I didn’t think that I did, even if I didn’t mean to… So if you are doing that because she forced it into you-”
“Adora. She made me a lot of things, but obedient isn’t one of them! I won’t act like a pet even if she was still here to order me to! It’s okay to see parts of me as cat-like, I guess. It’s just how I am. Why does this bother you so much?”
“I’m… not treating you like her anymore, right? I’m not making you feel like you are inferior, or just a wild animal?”
“Humans are animals, princess. And you are definitely in the wild category with me, with your reckless She-Ra!” Catra pauses for an instant and looks insistently at Adora. “You really think that if you didn’t respect me I wouldn’t let you know?”
“After all that happened?! That’s… You’re the one often telling that you don’t deserve all this! If there’s no problem why are you panicking every time I wake you up from that cat-like posture?”
Catra sighs. “Just… Prime’s stuff. Don’t worry about it.”
“Prime’s- How am I supposed to not worry about it?!”
“Because I ask you not to?”
“Catra, we can work this out. Talk to me! Help me help you-”
“There’s nothing to do, now please, enough talk about this!” Catra puts a finger on Adora’s lips to prevent her to answer any further. It doesn’t work that easily; Adora struggles out of it as if the finger does actually stop her from speaking, and Catra has to pin her down on the bed to keep her hand on the princess’ mouth. “You are enough! I don’t need more.”
“Why are you shutting me out like this?!” The princess shouts through Catra’s hand and she averts her eyes in despair.
“I’m not shutting you out, I’m shutting you up! I said we don’t need to talk about it! Why can’t you just accept it and… stay with me… act like when we were kids…” Catra’s last words are muffled since she didn’t mean to say them, and Adora isn’t sure she heard them right therefore doesn’t answer immediately.
As often these days, their evening is interrupted by a few knocks on the door. Although like earlier, the door flies open and Glimmer enters as if she owns the place before they can answer. Catra’s fur briefly stands on end at the queen’s impudence. ‘Well, technically, she does own the place.’ reasons Catra to stay calm. She doesn’t bother to get down from Adora and she still has her hand silencing the blonde girl under her, who isn’t sure how to react either.
Glimmer sighs and shrugs. “I won’t ask… But you are missing dinner.”
A few memories of a long gone past strike Adora like lightning and connect with Catra’s last statement. ‘missing dinner’, she had done that often with Catra as kids, when the feline girl had run away because she was hurt or sad. Adora never let her be alone, of course, for the better or worse. And being now older, it’s easier to see the bad side of her persistence, but also the good one that kept Catra going all that time.
However, back then, the blonde girl wasn’t acting or talking in a special way or anything, she was just there. She might have been annoyingly stubborn with it, but she never forced Catra to explain anything. The feline girl never asked for more, and Adora thought that it was because kitten Catra didn’t dare, but she realises in her present situation that maybe, maybe the feline girl simply didn’t need more. In those moment Catra had Adora all to herself and that was plenty.
“It’s okay, Glimmer. Not now. We’ve got… things to work out first.” Adora answers Glimmer but she keeps her eyes on Catra.
“Fine. I’m leaving you to... whatever you are doing. But you know the rules, don’t come beg for dinner later.”
Adora confirms with a strong “I know.” and the queen leaves after giving the two girls a last insistent look that Catra returns with a frown.
The blonde girl grabs the opportunity that her girlfriend is distracted to straighten up and sits beside her instead of lying under. She takes Catra’s hand in hers and leans so their shoulders touch. The feline girl is taken by surprise by Adora’s suddenly soft and sweet behaviour and when Catra glances at her face, there’s no trace left of her previous concern.
“I’m sorry I forgot… It feels like last time was so long ago. Not talking took us on the wrong path, but you are right, maybe not everything needs to be talked about.”
“Okay… shut up.” Catra’s words are sweet despite their meaning and her tail loops around Adora’s waist to pull the blonde girl closer.
For a little time the room is kept silent once more. Catra finally feels calm and at ease, but Adora now looks jittery; there’s definitely at least one question that the princess really wants to ask. She can’t stop her free hand from moving on her knees, sometimes in a fist, then suddenly opening it, awkwardly looking at it as if she is afraid that she’s sweating, grabbing the bed cover to have something to hold… Finally, Adora resolves herself to ask.
“Can I hug you?”
“If it helps you relax.” The feline girl sighs.
Adora spins on herself to embrace Catra lightly from the side and holds the feline girl’s head against her chest. The room returns to its silence for another short time, until the sound of a soft purr can be heard. Adora tenses up. There is so much she wants to speak about, so many gaps to fill from those last three years, and at least as many from their life before. If the princess understands correctly, it’s not talking that bothers Catra but her choice of topic, and that lovely purr pushes Adora to want to conclude the previous one.
“Is it really okay? To pay attention to your cat-like traits, I mean.”
“Yeah? Just think of it as paying attention to me?”
“And you don’t mind being compared to a cat?”
“I spent some time with Netossa’s. It’s okay, they’re fun, strong, and cute- Don’t tell Bow I said that! Better yet, keep him away from me when he’s all aahh, sooo cute! or whatever.”
Adora giggles briefly and gives the feline girl’s ear a little rub. “Sooo… I can hug you and feel your fur whenever I want?”
“Mostly.” tempers Catra at Adora’s sudden burst of enthusiasm.
“Fluff your ears and tail?”
“When we are alone...”
“Tease you when you act all cutie-cat?” Adora begins to smirk mischievously.
“Please don’t.”
“Call you my little kitten when-”
“Definitely not!”
“Can I-”
Adora is interrupted by a loud growl from her stomach. She chuckles awkwardly after another instant of silence, and Catra wholeheartedly starts to laugh.
“We did miss dinner…” The princess justifies herself.
“Yeah, let’s go find some!” says Catra as she jumps up and holds out a hand to pull the blonde girl on her feet too.
“The kitchen is closed though.”
“Not like the supplies’ rooms are locked or anything… See? That’s when I need you to worry and act for my sake, princess!”
“Just so you know, I’ve... not…” Adora looks away in shame.
“What?”
“I... never…” She hesitates again.
“Adora?” Catra sighs again and some concern creeps up into her mind. She cups Adora’s face with both hands and softly pulls it back her way to look tenderly into the blonde girl’s eyes. “Please tell me?”
“I’ve never cooked for someone else... Have you?”
Catra’s worries disappear and she grins again; Adora will have to pay for that waste of her concern with food. “No way I’m getting my fur anywhere close to a stove! Do your best, princess! I’m counting on you!”
“Fine, I’ll do it! Can’t be that terrible if I like it myself! Right...
Catra… ehrm… Can I count.. cutting raw vegetables in a salad as cooking?”
“That I can do myself, so no.”
“… just for tonight?
… Please?”