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When Catra came to Glimmer saying 'if you laugh or tell anyone about this, I'm going to murder you in your sleep' she knew she was in for a fun afternoon. Before Catra could reveal anything, she'd directed her to a little nook in the newly revamped greenhouse, popped to the kitchens for a hot second, and reappeared again with a tray full of afternoon tea. Catra made a show of being vastly unimpressed by this, but was soon tucking into the eclairs and purposefully getting crumbs all over the ferns.
The conversation hadn't apparently survived the relocation, so eventually Glimmer dove in. "Go on then," she probed, smirking at her from over the rim of her teacup. "What can't I laugh at or talk about under threat of death?"
Interestingly, Catra flushed, and grumpily grabbed a second eclair. "It's dumb. But I don't want to ask Adora, so I'm asking you, because I'm an idiot, I guess. Swear you won't tell first!"
"I swear. I may laugh though."
Catra scowled, but that was apparently good enough. With a suspicious glance around - Glimmer was just about going to die of suspense, and wished more of her conversations had this air of an undercover operation - Catra leant forward and grumbled, "it's- look, we didn't exactly have relationships or romance or whatever the fuck in the Horde. And I know Adora's patient and happy and she's new to it too but…" Suddenly, Catra looked deflated, and this was the one thing that stopped the onslaught of teasing Glimmer had silently been preparing. "But she's been here for a while. I know she wants the Alliance kind of relationship, and I do too, but I don't know anything. I want us to be able to talk about it on more even footing, or I don't know, surprise her with stuff. I don't wanna have to ask her about everything and feel clueless when it comes to this. She had to tell me what a girlfriend is. Which I've gathered is pretty basic knowledge."
Catra trailed off and glared at Glimmer, as though daring her to say anything. But, to her credit, the young Queen just considered what she'd said - she'd been getting a lot of practise at considering people's problems recently - and said, "So you want - what - like a ‘relationships outside of a repressive regime 101’?"
Catra gave a grunt of confirmation.
"Yeah, sure, I can help with that, Horde scum. I’ve had to help Adora with a lot of Rebellion stuff over the years." Her smile twitched into a smirk. "But you owe me at least three embarrassing Adora growing up stories."
This seemed to break the layer of tension between them. Catra let out an explosive snigger and grinned over at her. "Oh, I can do that. I'll throw in a puberty one for free."
They laughed, and to Catra's great surprise, she felt a little lighter already. The last weeks being with Adora had been something out of a dream, sweet and beautiful and right . But the more lovingly Adora smiled at her, the more shame she felt for the lingering uncertainties and insecurities that flickered in the corners of her vision. She couldn’t ruin this. She had to make sure she didn't do what she always did and ruin this. Surely learning more would help. She would just do an Adora and arm herself with homework. Plus, Catra would never admit it, but just talking to Glimmer like this was… enjoyable. Comfortable even. Sparkles didn't need to know it took a week of coaching from Melog to gather the courage to broach this topic.
"Alright," Glimmer poured them both some more sweet smelling tea, then nudged the milk over for Catra to go to town. "Just so I know what I'm dealing with here. What do relationships look like in the Horde? Presumably it still happens ?"
Catra busied herself with an excessive amount of milk and shrugged. As if from afar, she noticed herself switching to the flat, matter-of-fact tone she had started adopting whenever she spoke about Horde culture. So self-perceptive. Melog must be rubbing off on her.
"I mean, it was technically banned. You were supposed to be loyal to your squad and the Horde, and that's it. So they did their best to discourage partners or anything like that. They didn’t really go into why, but I got an earful several times for getting too cozy with the golden child. And acting soft was just asking to get beaten up, unless you had some fucking massive pincers to back you up. There was an unspoken understanding that some stuff still happened though. So relationships were basically gossiping about who was doing who in a closet.”
Glimmer let out a disbelieving snort and Catra allowed herself a lopsided smile before continuing, relaxing an increment more. "Obviously, that didn't fully cover what I wanted with Adora, but that was my only reference. So I didn't really know what to do about the rest of what I wanted."
Glimmer connected some dots annoyingly quickly and smirked. "What, did you think you two invented love?"
" No ," Catra retorted hotly, like a liar.
The queen sniggered, considered things for a second longer, then asked, “Do you think you would have told her eventually?”
“What?”
“Like if Adora hadn’t left, do you think you would have told her you were head over fuzzy heels?”
"The fuck does that even-"
" That you were in love with her. "
"Oh."
Catra flushed, curling in on herself slightly, and Glimmer felt a flicker of panic. Had she pushed too far? Accidentally referenced something too painful for their new friendship? But before she could backtrack, Catra pulled her knees up on the cushions beside her and finally stopped inspecting the tiled floor to glance upwards.
“Nah,” she muttered, sounding almost disappointed in herself. “Like I said, I only had the vaguest idea of what people in love did and, well, there was a load of other shit going on. Adora going sour on me would have been terrible for a lot of reasons.”
Unexpectedly, Catra suddenly let out a sharp laugh. Glimmer jumped and almost spilt her tea.
“Actually, you know what?” Catra continued, staring off to some point in the past and baring her incisors in amusement. “I probably would have. A couple months before everything happened, she beat this big record and I impulsively kissed her cheek. I stayed up all night thinking about it. Maybe I would have tried convincing her to go into a closet with me or something.”
Glimmer laughed with her, amused by the mental picture of teenage Catra trying to convince an even more oblivious and even more awkward Adora into a closet. Perhaps by throwing some work in there or something. She settled back in the plush loveseat, enjoying the peaceful warmth of the greenhouse, and grinned over at her enemy-turned-gossip-pal. One year ago, she never would have even comprehended enjoying Catra’s attentive and snipey company so much.
“You should tell Adora about that,” she said.
“What, the closet?” Catra grinned widely, giving a dirty snigger. “Hey, good idea, Sparkles.”
“Uh, firstly, please don’t,” Glimmer sighed. “And no, I meant about the kiss. It’s cute. And I bet you my desserts for a week that Adora spent half that night thinking about it too.”
“Huh.” Catra seemed pleased by this thought, slowly swirling her tea around. “Yeah, maybe.”
Something seemed to occur to Catra, but she had barely opened her mouth to ask when it was snapped shut again, a renewed blush dusting her cheeks and frustration wrinkling her nose. (Glimmer felt, rather smugly, that she was getting better at reading her body language, even without Melog around, who was currently on Adora duty.) Immediately, Glimmer was refocused on the whole point Catra had wanted to talk to her; to learn about the basics of being in a relationship in the Alliance, so she could woo Adora or whatever. It’d be cute if Glimmer didn’t find every new fact she learnt about their childhood home heartbreaking and endlessly enraging.
Channel your inner Bow , she thought determinedly to herself, taking a large gulp of lukewarm tea.
She put the teacup down and Catra looked over with the air of one unsure about every single life choice.
“Okay, so, the Horde was a heartless hellscape, so we need basic basics.” Catra looked vaguely irritated at this description, but Glimmer ploughed on anyway. "Obviously, it's going to be different for everyone, so just like, put your Adora filters on. Going from the basics, couples tend to go on dates together, which is just like dedicated time to spend with each other. Dinner, travelling, game night, whatever you weirdos want to do. Lots of couples have weekly date nights."
Catra grumbled something under her breath about already doing that, just not knowing it had a name , but Glimmer kept up the momentum: "People like being romantic, doing things the other person would like to make them feel loved and special. Like giving them flowers, or making their favourite food, or leaving a nice message for them to find. Oh, and there are holidays! Specific days just for celebrating romance and being in love, so people tend to go on special dates then." Catra was staring in disbelief now. "They're different per kingdom, but Bright Moon has a day called Valentine's where we cover the castle in pink-"
" Every kingdom does this?"
"Well, like I said, it's different per kingdom. Plumeria has an entire week."
Catra considered this, and snorted. Honestly, the amount of ridiculously extra stuff they did here, the fact they plain had the time to uphold this sort of thing during a decades long war boggled her mind. The difference between living in a warzone compared to living next to a warzone she supposed.
"Okay, specific romantic days. Adora's definitely going to care about specific days. Anything… anything else I should know?'
"Well…" Glimmer assumed she'd have a lot to go through, but she felt like she was burning through things pretty fast. Should she give more examples? It was so individual though, and she really didn't need to tell Catra that Adora would probably like any date involving food. Food and punching. "Do you know about marriage?"
"A bit, I guess. Princesses do it to secure kingdoms."
"That's the worst description I've ever heard," Glimmer couldn't resist sniggering, earning herself an irritated prod in the side with a clawed toe. Rude. "Maybe it used to be more like that, but the main reason is love. Like Spinerella and Netossa are married, so they’re wives. When you’ve been with someone for a while, some people decide to make a formal promise to be together forever in a ceremony called a wedding, and then you have a big party with everyone you care about. How it goes exactly is again, different per kingdom. Some people just skip the whole thing, sign some forms, and elope. And,” she added slyly, “you don’t need to be a princess.”
Catra flushed immediately, hoping it wasn’t too obvious that her train of thought hadn’t currently stopped at ‘ Can we still make this promise if only one of us is the princess?’ Promises were kind of their thing.
Glimmer smiled triumphantly. Then, with a shrug, "I guess… those are all of the customs you should probably know. It’s an individual thing. Every couple kind of does whatever’s comfortable for them, at their own pace. Like Bow and I are taking it slow, just getting used to things. Not living in the same room immediately, for example.”
She gave her a teasing look, but Catra had already mentally checked out of the conversation.
For the last few months, and definitely since meeting Melog, she had been making the effort to observe her own emotions. To notice when she was angry, when she was anxious, and what worked at calming her down. On the whole, this had definitely been a net positive in her life. It was still a work in progress, but she was getting better at removing herself from situations before devolving into lashing out, at communicating how she felt, at just allowing Adora to care for her when the nights were bad.
But sometimes it didn’t work.
Catra tried to step away and observe her own reactions to her newfound knowledge, but that dark ball of anxiety, churning uneasily in the pit of her stomach, was still there. She could feel it, churning back to life when she thought of being Adora's girlfriend. It had taken such a build up of courage to reach out to Glimmer about something so personal, so vulnerable, and it hadn’t even helped .
Her heart rate rocketed, her thoughts spiraling at such a rate it left her reeling, staring away from Glimmer to furiously hide the building panic. What was she going to do? She’d reached out - like everyone said to do - tried to learn about how things worked, and it hadn’t taken it away. Deep down, in her heart of hearts, Catra still knew that she was going to ruin everything.
That was the core of it, feeding the panic that pumped thickly through her veins, the anxiety that peaked whenever Adora had referenced something she hadn’t known.
She’d wanted this her entire life and she was going to ruin it .
Fuck. Fuck .
She felt dizzy. She wished Melog were there.
"You alright?" Glimmer asked, sounding startled. And, Catra reasoned, why shouldn't she be? This sharp turn wasn't normal. Her efforts to be more open was apparently throwing a lifetime of careful control over these emotions out of the window. Her thoughts felt fuzzy. Her heartbeat rattled against her ear drums.
"Hey." It was Glimmer again. "Hey, breathe, breathe. Should… should I get Adora?"
This cut through.
"No," Catra snapped quickly, her lips feeling too big for her mouth. She tried to focus on a spot on the floor, but her vision swayed uncertainly, as if her attention couldn't find anything to latch on to. She felt open and raw, a bundle of exposed, sparking wiring. "I just need a- a second. I don't want her to know." She'll realise sooner. Leave me sooner.
Glimmer suddenly snorted, loudly and obnoxiously, and it was the strangeness of this response that got through, jerking Catra's spiraling attention back to her companion. At some point, Glimmer had shuffled closer, and was now looking at her with a mix of concern and dry exasperation.
" Leave you?" She said, and Catra started. She hadn't realised she said that out loud. "How'd you work that out?"
“It- you don’t get it,” she spluttered back, feeling heated but somehow more grounded as her tail lashed. But there were those lifelong defence mechanisms again, and some distant part of her was disappointed as she repeated in an antagonistic snarl, “ Someone like you wouldn’t get it .”
“Explain it to me then,” Glimmer retorted, apparently nonplussed at this aggression. She reached a hand out, and though Catra watched it warily for the entire trajectory, she still jumped when it tentatively landed on her shoulder. She wasn’t sure if she was grateful or wanted to scratch her face. “Look, if I’ve learnt anything from Bow, it’s that talking through these things always helps. And this way, I can tell you if you’re being a dumbass. You know I will.”
Catra let out a hysterical bark of laughter. She still felt slightly surreal, floating somewhere above her head, but the world had stopped spinning so harshly, her frazzled mind bungeeing back to somewhere more grounded. Part of her still wanted to shove the Princess’ hand away from her and stalk off, but… this was why she had reached out. She hadn’t prepared for getting so close to the bone, but if it would help, surely it was worth a try. Perfuma had said being open was a strength, not a sign of weakness, and that was how Catra wanted to feel too.
So she started slowly, unsure of how to articulate her thoughts even as words tumbled out of her mouth.
“It’s just… I don’t... “ A deep breath. “I told you, relationships weren’t a thing in the Horde. You looked soft, you got beaten down. Or sent away. I’ve always been- especially after she left, I’ve been terrified that someone would find out how I felt about Adora. I tried to believe I didn’t feel that way anymore, because if someone found out- ” Another breath. “Well. What happened with Prime would happen. I think him calling me out for caring about Adora was the scariest fucking moment of my life.”
Glimmer nodded darkly, and there was some small comfort in the fact her face always mirrored Catra's own when Prime was mentioned, no matter how many times people said he’s gone and he can’t hurt you anymore . Catra didn’t mention how it felt for Prime to later flip through her most private memories of softness and yearning, to mock her and use her for this most hidden secret. She didn’t know when she’d be ready to talk about that, but not yet.
“It’s just-” Catra felt a little more aware of her body, clutching her fingers together to stop them from trembling. “It’s hard to go from that, to being soft in public and everyone knowing and- and I want it to be fine, and some days it is fine, but… but some days it all comes back and it’s overwhelming and I want to hold her hand but I can’t - I love her so much and I’m going to ruin it because I can’t just get over it ...”
She trailed off, blinking hard to disperse any tears, feeling both pathetic and liberated, held together by a breath. Glimmer kept her hand firmly on her shoulder, rubbing comfortingly with her thumb, and gave her a few seconds to collect herself before speaking.
“You probably know what I’m going to say,” she ventured softly. “But you really need to talk to Adora about this.”
Catra curled in on herself miserably. “I know.”
“But I will say… you don’t need to put a timeline on ‘getting over it’. It’s going to take a lot of time, and that’s okay. You know…” Glimmer paused for dramatic effect. “Near when Adora first arrived here, she punched Bow in the face.”
Catra blinked, actually startled out of her own dark thoughts. “She did what ?”
Glimmer gave her a tentative smile. “Yeah, she wasn’t used to the whole ‘showing affection’ thing either. Once Bow tried to surprise her by jumping out and giving her a hug… and she just turned around and decked him. This was before she learnt how to heal as well, so poor Bow had this big bruise for a week. Adora felt terrible, I think she still apologizes to him about it."
Despite herself, Catra found herself sniggering, still a little high pitched, as Glimmer gave a dramatic sigh at the memory. "She seems totally comfortable with that sort of stuff now, obviously, but it took a while before she stopped at least tensing up if you even touched her arm. And she wasn't jumping straight into a relationship either. Of course it's going to take time."
"I… guess," Catra mumbled, frowning. She unfurled and finally looked over at Glimmer properly, who gave her a soft smile.
"And not to get soppy on you here, Horde Scum," she continued, with the quiet triumph of one playing their ace in the hole. "But Adora's mad about you. She doesn't want an Alliance relationship, she wants a relationship with you . She’s so happy and just more with you here. I feel like we’ve been getting Adora lite this whole time. Bow was saying that the other day she was asking about whether he had thought about the future, and what she wanted to do. She’s never done that before.”
Catra was silent for a few moments as she processed this. Sometimes it still seemed unbelievable, something out of a wildest dream, that Adora could feel the same way she did, but the evidence was stacking up. Unbidden, she remembered how they had slept curled around each other last night, and how Adora had nuzzled into her neck and breathed sleepy sweet nothings. The low sun bathing their tea spot suddenly felt very warm.
"Plus, did you notice She-ra's new headpiece?"
Catra flushed, a pleased grin spreading across her face despite herself. "Yeah, I did. Obsessed with me, much."
"Bow told me about that too."
"You're just showing Bow off at this point."
"Maybe," Glimmer conceded with a happy sigh, settling back into the pillows but keeping a comforting closeness. “But my point still stands. Adora’s not expecting anything that isn’t just you, as you are. Dumbass.”
And amazingly, Catra found, as she idly flipped Glimmer the finger, she did feel a bit better. Lighter. The anxiety was still there, but it didn’t feel like it was sealing her fate anymore. It felt like maybe, maybe, she could manage it. A strange feeling suddenly came over her, a psychic tugging at her consciousness that had started growing in the last couple of months, and Catra knew without question that not only had Melog and Adora’s walk taken them to their part of the grounds, but Adora was specifically heading their way. Also, Melog wanted an eclair.
Jumping up and giving her face a quick rub, she announced, “Adora’s coming.”
“Wait, what?”
“Melog.”
“Ah.” Glimmer squinted at her, considering. “You know, your bond is getting weirder. We should look into it at some point. Anyway, why don’t you go. I’ve got to call Entrapta anyway.” She sighed dramatically, the put-upon Queen. “I swear, if she doesn’t sort out her trade routes soon, I’m going to send someone to do it for her.”
“Uh… you sure?” Catra felt weirdly sheepish after unexpectedly baring her soul, fidgeting as she watched her friend grab the ornate tea tray, leaving their plush loveseat cushioned in the soft green alcove of ferns.
Glimmer brushed at her purple leggings, then caught Catra’s eye as she straightened up. “Oh, don’t get used to this,” she snorted, “ You’re putting this away next time, Horde scum. And I’m going to complain about trade routes for an hour so yeah, look forward to that.”
The prospect of next time hung in the air between them, then settled warmly in Catra’s chest. Outside of Adora, it was a new feeling, having a friendship where she could seek out company and have her company seeked out in return, after years of fearfully pushing it away with Scorpia and Entrapta. It was… nice. (She resolved to see if Scorpia fancied a hang out when she saw her tomorrow.)
Catra swiped the final eclair from Glimmer’s arms, then hesitated, an unwelcome blush warming her cheeks. She glared at a blooming pink chrysanthemum and muttered, "I'm about to say something embarrassing."
"Go for it."
"Thank you, Glimmer."
"Wow, I'm embarrassed for you." She grinned. "And you're welcome, Catra. Same time next week? These teenage Adora stories better be good."
Catra tossed the Queen a smirk, and then turned on her heel and half-jogged to the entrance, the pop of magic behind her still managing to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand up on end. She felt mentally exhausted and wrung out, but also strangely energised. She wanted to find Adora and kiss her breathless, but she also wanted to lie in her arms, with Melog beside them, and not move for about five hours. Perhaps both.
The late afternoon sun outside dazzled her for a moment; she hadn't realised how much it had been tinted by the greenhouse glass inside. But with a few rapid blinks, her vision cleared and she spotted Adora and Melog a little ways off, the blonde happily chattering away. Melog caught sight of her first, of course, and with a meowl that Catra felt rather than heard, bounded over at top speed.
"Hey, bud," she grinned, the wind getting slightly knocked out of her as Melog threw their great head into her stomach for an enthusiastic nuzzle. With her eclair-free hand, she gave them a good scritch behind the ear. A purr rumbled into life beneath magical purple fur, and Catra felt those contented feelings echoed softly back to her. "Thanks for sticking with Adora for a while."
You are welcome, dear Catra , they responded, in that words without words way of theirs. Are you alright? You were upset.
"Yeah, I'm okay. We talked about it. I feel a little better."
Melog's response was a distinct wave of I told you so , and Catra gave a dramatic roll of the eyes. In her peripherals, she caught Adora jogging up to meet them.
"Yeah, yeah, smartass. Take your cake." She tossed the pastry to them and they happily caught it mid-air. Melog didn't exactly need to eat, but they enjoyed the experience, and their unique blend of biology and magic allowed them to burn it for a burst of energy anyway. (Entrapta had been dying to test this out.)
Catra turned back in time for Adora to reach them, beaming goofily, cheeks adorably pink and arms outstretched as though they had been apart for months. It was the sweetest sight Catra thought she had ever seen. She noticed Adora hesitate just slightly, just enough for Catra to reach for her in turn, and then she was swept up, up, spinning round in her arms, and Catra was laughing at the ridiculousness of it, and Adora was giggling like a dork, and everything felt sweet and perfect and right .
"Hey, Adora," she greeted in a raspy whisper as she was lowered back down, nuzzling close to her girlfriend's ear. Adora's strong arms around her hadn't loosened at all.
"Hey," she answered breathlessly, words tickling the hairs on her neck. "I missed you."
Catra snorted, as though that didn't send her nerve endings fizzing with pleasure, a rough purr building in her throat. "You saw me like three hours ago, dummy."
Adora hummed into her hair in response. With the hand that had curled round to rest on Catra's hip, she rubbed small circles with her thumb. Catra didn't understand how such an innocent movement could send tingles up her spine, as if her touch hit deeper than skin, but it did. "I still missed you."
For a little while, they stayed like that, Catra’s arms thrown around Adora’s neck, one ear flattened against Adora's jaw as she got as close as possible, while Adora’s arms were wrapped tightly around Catra’s back, soft and secure. Adora had tentatively wanted to try some new things out appearance-wise, and so her hair was currently half scooped up in a messy bun and half down, tumbling around her shoulders. Catra had been very enthusiastic about this initiative, and buried her face in her hair now, enjoying how it softly tickled her cheeks and smelt of sage and home. With the warm sun upon them and purrs cocooning them, the moment felt perfect. There was nowhere else Catra would rather be.
But after the initial drunken daze of Adora's presence had started to settle, Catra found herself becoming uncomfortable with the low murmur her magicat ears could pick up from the garden's other guests. She didn't know how it used to be, but now the Royal family were encouraging all to see the castle as a safe refuge, and the expansive gardens, with their spring green lawns and scattered beds of wildflowers, had a constant low trickle of visitors. On principle, Catra agreed with this, but she found it hard to remember why as she stepped back and put a sliver of distance between them, instead peering up at her girlfriend's face. Adora gave her one last squeeze before letting go, smiling at her softly.
"I thought you'd still be going through those resource requests. You done already?" Catra asked.
Adora huffed and dramatically stuck out her lip, instantly reminding Catra of the many nights spent preparing for the written portions of Force Captain training. Adora would stress about focusing, then stress about stressing about focusing, then end up having to run the combat sim just to cool her brain off. They'd come up with a good system at one point, where Catra would read to her and test her knowledge on outposts and Horde history while she kicked the shit out of a training dummy.
"Ughhh, almost," she whined. "There's just so many! From places I've never even heard of! Where even is Sky Dancer village, and why do they take ten pages to explain things?!"
Catra sniggered. She missed Adora's arms around her already. "Sucks to be you, oh almighty She-ra."
"If only she had an almighty attention span," Adora mourned, tragically. "Have you been having a better afternoon?"
Despite herself, Catra felt her cheeks warm as she mumbled, "I was uh, having tea with Sparkles. Was just chatting about uh, stuff."
"Oh!" Adora looked both delighted and a little bit smug, which just made Catra's blush even more stubborn. "Awh, check you out, hanging out with princesses. What d'you chat about?"
After a pause, Catra gave her a slow, lopsided smile, feeling a flush of both nerves and determination.
“I’ll tell you later," she said, and meant it. "C'mon, let's finish your walk before you go back to report hell."
Adora beamed. Absolute dork. "Sure!"
Her hand reached out, and for the first time, Catra really noticed how slowly and deliberately she moved it, pausing as though to give Catra time to move away if she wanted, without an obvious rejection taking place. And Catra suddenly realised that maybe Adora couldn’t just relate to how she was feeling, but maybe she had also noticed what Catra had been struggling with, and had been trying to quietly help, giving her outs, not overwhelming her with affection if she didn’t know whether she was in the right mindset.
Her mind shuddered at this revelation, chest clenching hotly with emotion. She found herself not only reaching out to grasp at Adora’s hand herself, but lifting it reverently to her lips. She softly pressed kisses along her knuckles, the skin there rough from use. When she reopened her eyes, she found Adora staring at her, lips softly open in surprise, a pretty pink blush across her face and spreading down her neck like seeping watercolour. Catra leant her cheek against Adora’s hand for a second, gazing at her lovingly with slow, deliberate blinks.
Adora. My Adora. So beautiful.
Adora seemed so dumbstruck by this sudden display of soft affection that Catra’s smile widened into a smirk. She stuck her tongue out teasingly before tugging Adora forward.
“C’mon, Princess,” she purred, hoping she could embed that image of Adora in her mind forever. “Let’s go.”
They continued their walk hand-in-hand, Melog happily walking alongside and occasionally chasing butterflies for their amusement. Though they kept themselves busy most of the time, working to stabilize Etheria before their upcoming space road trip, they were learning to adjust to and cherish peaceful afternoons like this. Adora in particular had difficulty, but right now she seemed blissfully content in their peaceful bubble.
After a while, she gave Catra’s hand a squeeze and said, “Hey, I was thinking, do you fancy going a little early to Plumeria tomorrow? We could walk and have a picnic on the way if - uh - that sounds good to you.”
Catra answered Adora’s hopeful grin with a wide smile. She felt so warm. That was new, that warmth that radiated from deep in her chest and spread, slowly, lazily, contentedly. She never knew you could feel like this, for this long. Suddenly, her worries seemed very distant.
“Yeah, that sounds good, dummy.” Catra leant over and quickly dropped a kiss on her girlfriend's shoulder, just because she could. Giving her a sly smile and deciding to drop some new found Alliance knowledge, she added, "It's a date."
Adora returned the smile, looking both happy and confused.
"What's a date?"