Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Catra’s sleep is disturbed by water droplets falling like petals falling from a flower to the ground onto her face. She claws around in the darkness for her phone, discovering it’s only 4:27.

“Fucking leak,” She growls, her eyes narrowing as she glares at the source of the water. Catra lets out a groan as she forces herself to climb out of her bed to get ready for the day. She doesn’t have to be up for hours but she knows that she couldn’t sleep with that leak no matter how hard she tried.

She steps into the shower, running her hands through her short cedar locks humming softly to a melody she’s had in her head for days now. After finishing, she stepped out onto the cold tile floor, putting on her usual work outfit and attempting to comb her hair back only to have it fall back into her face. She checks the time again, it’s still only 5:07. She decides to try to do something with that melody in her head, getting out her guitar and notebook to pass the time.

By the time 8:30 rolls around all, she had come up with was a chord progression and strumming pattern, not being able to think of any good lyrics at all. It was time for her to go anyway so she grabbed her keys and left for work.

She walked into the parlor being filled with people waiting to get tattoos. The chatter of all the customers mixed with complaints about how long they’d been waiting made the noise level in the room almost unbearable to Catra’s ears.

“Ugh- first the leak and now this?” she growled, “Wonder. Fucking. Full.” She made her way to the backroom to clock in and mentally prepare herself for going out there to deal with the mess out there. She was about to leave when she heard a familiar voice.

“Hey Wildcat!” Scorpia pulled Catra into a bone-crushing hug. Usually, Catra would struggle out of it but she didn’t have the energy for that after getting 2 hours of sleep.

“Hey Scorps,” she deadpanned, “Yo why the hell are there so many people out there today?”

“Oh we decided to put a discount on our services today to celebrate our 5 year anniversary and I guess a lot of people wanted to take advantage of it,” She chuckled nervously, also being overwhelmed by the number of people she was able to bring in.

Catra nodded, feeling a sense of dread wash over her because of how exhausting work was gonna be today. She wanted to complain or scold her friend for doing so, but she knew it wouldn’t do either of them any good.

“Oh okay,” is all she said as she turned around and walked out to her station to prepare to start working.

It was only the two of them working that day since Lonnie decided to call off a couple of days ago. They took on person after person after person giving every single one of them at least one tattoo. By the time they were done with the majority of the crowd, they were both exhausted, especially Catra. Scorpia took note of that and decided to give her a bit of a break.

“Hey Wildcat, I just remembered I still haven’t picked up the weekly order of flowers for the shop and normally I’d get ‘em myself but I still have to take care of these customers. Could you maybe pick it up for me?” Catra had a look of relief on her face, finally being given the opportunity to catch her breath and get away from all these people.

“Yeah sure Scorps no problem,” She started cleaning her station so she’d have a clean place to work when she came back.

“Oh thanks so much, Wildcat! You’re a lifesaver!” Scorpia said as Catra walked out the door to head to the flower shop right next to them.

_____________________________________________________________________

Adora had just finished setting up a flower arrangement when she heard the door open.

“Welcome to Plumeria, how can I help you?” she asked, looking up at the girl who had just walked in. She felt like she was in a trance as she stared into the girl’s blue and gold eyes, and let out a gasp at how gorgeous she was with her tan skin and freckles on her face and her short brown hair that fell down into her face. The girl stares back at Adora with the same expression on her face in awe of her grey-blue eyes and her long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. They stood there, just staring at each other until the girl spoke up.

“U-um I’m here to pick up and order for Scorpia,” She stammered, internally facepalming because of what a fool she was making out of herself.

“Oh um yea just give me a second to find it,” She said, searching for the order. She glanced over at her and noticed how exhausted she looked and decided to make small talk off of that.

“Rough day?” She asked. The girl looked up nodding as she spoke,

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.” Adora looked up at the girl and noticed the logo on her black t-shirt.

“Oh, you work for that tattoo parlor? No wonder you look so tired that thing looked packed when I got here,” The girl laughed as she shook her head.

“Yeah, the two of us got worked to death,” Adora finally found the arrangement and placed it on the counter in front of the girl.

“Here you go! That’ll be $20,” The girl got out her wallet and handed Adora a 20 dollar bill.

“Thanks-Adora?” The girl spoke, reading Adora’s nametag.

“Sure. Come again soon Scorpia!”

“It’s actually Catra,” she called as she left the shop.

“Pretty name,” Adora mumbled to herself as soon as the shop door closed. Adora tried her best to stay focused on her shift but her thoughts eventually drifted off to how pretty Catra’s eyes were or how badass the dragon tattoo on her left arm was.

_____________________________________________________________________

Catra walked back in and saw that the crowd that was in the parlor was finally gone, there were only a couple of people waiting to get their tattoos still. She let out a sigh of relief, being thankful she didn’t have to deal with all those people anymore.

“Oh hey Wildcat! What took you so long?” Scorpia waved to Catra while cleaning off her station getting ready for the next customer. Catra debated what to say, not wanting to make a fool out of herself by admitting that she spent most of the time out staring into Adora’s eyes and making a fool out of herself.

“Oh the girl working there took forever trying to find your order,” It wasn’t a complete lie. Adora did look distracted while digging through the orders behind the counter so it did take her a little longer than she was probably supposed to. Not that Catra minded. She couldn’t help the urge to want to be around Adora as much as possible. She just had a certain energy to her that Catra just found so intoxicating.

“Oh, well now that you're back, why don’t you take that other dude waiting?” Scorpia said while drawing a weird magic circle-looking thing that looked like it came from a rip-off of Harry Potter.

“Yea sure Scorps,” Catra motioned for the guy to come up and sit down and began to draw some Celtic symbol on his left shoulder. She tried her best to try to make small talk with him for better service quality but she kept zoning out to think of Adora. Work slowed down after that with Catra only having to deal with a handful of customers the rest of the day. And try as she might, she couldn’t get Adora off her mind for the rest of the day.

“Yo Wildcat are you there?” Catra is snapped out of her thoughts by Scorpia’s hand being waved in front of her face.

“Huh? Oh yeah, what were you saying again?” Catra asked, mentally scolding herself for thinking about Adora so much. What the hell was wrong with her? She’s only known Adora for an hour and she was acting like a teenager fantasizing about their crush. Scorpia had a look of concern in her eyes as she spoke,

“Are you okay Wildcat? You’ve seemed really off today.” Carta let out a sigh, deciding whether or not to tell her about Adora, ultimately deciding against it.

“Yeah Scorps I’m fine don’t worry I just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night because that leak in my roof decided to get worse,” This once again wasn’t necessarily a lie but it wasn’t the complete truth and Scorpia knew that, but she wasn’t about to try and push Catra to tell her because she knew that wouldn’t end for either of them.

“Oh. Well, I can fix it for you if you want,” Scorpia offered. Catra just shook her head like she usually does when Scorpia offers to help with stuff like this. She’s already helped Catra out so much by letting her work at the parlor for field hours. The last thing Catra needed was to feel even more helpless by having someone else fix some stupid leak for her.

“No Scorps, I got it, it's not that hard to fix a leak,” She started gathering her things and clocked out for the day.

“Bye, see you tomorrow,” Catra waved as she walked out of the parlor and into her shitty old Honda Civic. She bought it because she wanted a stick shift and it was inexpensive. It worked okay at first but after a few months, she could barely get herself to work and back in the piece of junk she called a car. As she drove she was reminded that she was behind on her bills again this month, still had to study half of her material for midterms which were next week, and had to go visit Shadow Weaver and her dad. Her dad on his own would be great but with Shadow Weaver, she’s about to have a back to back to back marathon of stress. Just wonderful.

“Ugh I really need a drink,” She decided as she made her way into her apartment. She grabbed the bottle of tequila from one of the cabinets and started to pour it into a shot glass. She downed shot after shot, attempting to drown out her problems for the night. She decided to stick to her limit and go to sleep for the sole reason of having to work tomorrow. Otherwise, she would’ve been totally shit-faced by now. As she slept that night she dreamt about a certain blonde all night.

_____________________________________________________________________

Adora was drowning in an endless sea of assignments she didn’t understand. Studying never really came easy to her, and it’s not like she was particularly interested in business at all. She was honestly just following the advice of “Everything’s business” when she chose her major. It wasn’t actually a false statement. Every single possible career path she could’ve chosen has some sort of business aspect to it. It also didn’t help that her sister was always on her back about everything.

“Chill out Mara! The due date is a couple of weeks away, I have plenty of time to get this project done,” Adora argued. She just wanted to chill and watch Netflix tonight since she hadn’t taken a break from her work for a few weeks now. But Mara just shook her head and replied,
“No Adora, you can’t fail your classes. Not after we spent all that time scraping together the money you needed to help cover your college tuition. I’m only doing this because I’m concerned for your-”
“No! I don’t wanna hear the whole ‘concerned for your future’ thing anymore!” Adora shouted in a mocking voice, “No no no no no, you listen. I have been completely overwhelmed with assignment after assignment for weeks! And I don’t know if you know this, but five fucking weeks of non-stop constant stress really takes a toll on you. So why don't you just stop getting on my ass about every single little thing I do and let me have this one night to relax?!” Adora was about to turn around to go to her room when Mara spoke up.
“Oh, so you’re saying I don’t know anything about constant stress? Do you think supporting and raising you was all rainbows and unicorns for me? Do you not remember us just barely making ends meet on rent? Did you forget about the long nights and multiple jobs I used to work and still do in order to support you? Did I ever give up? No! So neither are you. You need to grow up, Adora!” Mara shouted back feeling outraged that Adora even thought about using the stress card on her in the first place.

“I am fucking grown up!” Adora stormed off into her room, locking the door so Mara couldn’t get in. Adora knew Mara was right about knowing about stress but she wasn’t about to admit it now. She was way too fucking angry at her right now to apologize.

Adora just sat there for a few minutes, sitting criss-crossed in the middle of her bed before she started to curl up into a ball and cry. She really didn’t mean to get so mad at Mara like that but she was just so wound up on the stress she’s had these last few weeks that she was bound to take it out on someone. And she hated herself so much for that. Maybe if she hadn't chosen to go to college, her and Mara wouldn’t be like this right now. What was she thinking? Going to college? Did she ever even consider how much stress and financial trouble that would put Mara through? Oh god, she was just selfish, such a horrible sister. Adora let out a small sob as it became harder to breathe. But before she could go further into her spiral, she heard Mara knocking at her door.

“Adora, please open up. I promise no more yelling, I just wanna talk,” Mara said in a soft and concerned voice. Adora slowly crawled out of her bed and walked to the door to unlock it. As soon as she opened up Mara spoke,

“Listen, I’m sorry I yelled at you so much out there. It’s just that I- I’ve been under a lot of stress lately too because my boss is majorly overworking me and I really don’t want what’s happening to me right now to happen to you. I’ll try not to yell at you so much, okay?” Instead of saying something back, Adora just cried harder hugging Mara tightly.

“Am I a burden to you?” Adora asked with a weary voice. Mara’s heart broke hearing her sister admit to thinking such things.

“I-I never meant to make you feel that way, Adora. No you’re not a burden, you’re the only family I have left in this world and I am more than happy to support you through whatever you decide to do,” Adora hugged Mara tighter as she continued to sob, letting out every single emotion she had bottled for the past few weeks. When she calmed down, Mara slowly let go and spoke,

“Why don’t we watch that new League of Legends show on Netflix? I heard it’s supposed to be really good!” Adora looked up at her, cheering up a little as she spoke,
“Yea that sounds great,” As they made their way down the hall into the living room they talked about their days.

“So how was work?” Mara asked. Adora blushed as she started to think about the girl she just met today.

“Oh uh, work was fine. What about you?” Adora spoke, her voice being half an octave higher than it usually is. Mara gave her a smirk as they sat down on their couch.
“What, no who’s got you all blushing and nervous?” She giggled as Adora's face grew redder.

“Pfft, what are you talking about? I’m not blushing,” Mara let out a chuckle, deciding not to press any farther for now. She grabbed the remote and put on Netflix. About 6 hours and 20 crying sessions later both of them were sitting on the couch crying and getting angry at the “cliffhanger” at the end. Adora got so frustrated with it, she started punching and kicking as if she was about to get into the fight with the TV.

“Aw come on! Dumbasses really have to leave us like that?” Adora growled as she continued to pretend to fight the TV. Mara just started laughing at how childish Adora looked right now.

“I know, but it was so amazing!” Mara started to geek out over the show with Adora.

“Yeah, but they should've made Vi and Caitlyn a couple! They’re just so gay for each other!” Mara nodded her head in agreement and replied,

“Yeah, but Vi though…”

“I mean…” Adora made that fuckboy face and they both laughed at how ridiculous she was being. After talking about the show and making their own film theories for hours, they both decided to head to bed.

As they got back to their rooms, Adora couldn’t help but think about Catra. She found it strange that she could become so infatuated with a complete stranger, like none of the girls she had dated had even made her feel anything close to the feelings she felt for this girl. She tried to figure out her feelings, but as she got more tired her thoughts became less and less coherent. So she decided to leave that for tomorrow when she had to time off from doing her assignments. As it turns out, she never really stopped thinking of Catra that night, as all her dreams were filled with her and Catra together.

Chapter Text

Adora woke up to the smell of smoke. She sits up, her brain not being able to comprehend the situation because of how tired she is. There’s a high-pitched sound, almost like a screech in the background too, which just furthers her confusion. That is until she realizes that sound is a smoke alarm and that the smoke is from a fire inside her house.

“Oh no,” she squeaked, fully taking in the situation. Her fucking house was on fire! She literally jumped out of bed screaming for her mom, dad, Mara, anyone. Her mom came rushing into her room and pulled her out into the hallway.

“Adora, honey I need you to follow me so we can get outside. Dad and Mara are waiting for us, okay?” All Adora could do was nod her head as she cried silently. Her mom grabbed her hand and started pulling her down the hall. They almost made it to the door when the house started looking like it was about to collapse. Her mom pushed her out the door and she booked it for where her dad and Mara were. Adora’s dad saw the house was about to collapse and his wife was stuck under a huge piece of wood.

“Helen!” He screamed as he sprinted towards their house. He started to help her out but it was too late. About a second later the house collapsed in on itself and her and Mara were left there, without their parents there to assure them that everything was going to be okay. She let out a loud sob as reality started to sink in. Her parents were dead because of her. If she had gotten out sooner instead of running around like a chicken with its head cut off, her parents would still be here.

_____________________________________________________________________

Adora jolted up, almost screaming. The only thing stopping her from doing so was the fact that she didn’t have the breath to scream. She had thought that maybe since last night, she dreamt of Catra last night, maybe she would do so again. But apparently, she was back to her regular old night terrors. Hot tears flooded Adora’s face as she gasped for air. She tried to calm her breathing down using the exercises Perfuma taught her but they wouldn’t work. She knew she wouldn't get out of this on her own so she tried going to Mara’s room. She went to stand but she felt the world begin to spin around her, making her hit the floor with a loud thud. As she lay on the floor, her vision started to blur and she felt like someone just put a whole semi-truck on her chest.

Mara rushed into Adora’s room being woken up by the loud crash she heard. As soon as she entered, her eyes landed on Adora, breathing heavily on the floor, shaking while curled up into a ball. She quickly crouched down next to Adora and held her hand.

“Hey, you’re safe here okay? You’re safe. I’m right here, it was only a dream I’m here,” Mara continued to do this until Adora had calmed down for the most part.

“I’m s-sorry Mara,” Adora still had tears running down her face. “I-If I would’ve gotten out sooner m-maybe mom and dad would still be here.” She hugged her sister tightly as she let out many loud sobs.

“Adora, none of that was your fault and it never will be. I know it’s hard without them, trust me. But they wouldn’t want you to blame yourself like this. Please you have to stop blaming yourself, okay?” There was a pause before Adora nodded her head, trying to calm her sobbing.

Mara gave Adora a soft smile before turning to the door and leaving. What a great fucking way to start off my day before work. She thought as she started to get ready for the day. It was only four in the morning and she really didn’t need to be up for a few hours, but she knew better than to go back to sleep because the nightmares only continue.

After showering and putting on a pair of jeans and a red t-shirt with Plumeria’s logo on it, she just laid there in bed, scrolling through social media. Though it’s not like there was a ton of interesting stuff, most of her social medias were just a bunch of celebrities she followed.

Around seven, Adora decided to leave and pick up some coffee before work. She was glad Mara wasn’t up yet because she really didn’t feel like speaking to people right now. Since she wasn’t looking for a whole lot of human interaction this morning, she decided to just pull up to Dunkin’ instead of going into her usual coffee shop she goes to. And oh man, was that a mistake. Her coffee wasn’t even good.

“Today’s just gonna be great,” She felt like slamming her head on the steering wheel in frustration.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Ugh,” Catra rubbed her head as she got up trying to find some Advil. She just had a hangover yesterday and now she had a fucking migraine. Just great.

“Gee thanks universe,” she groaned as she started getting ready for class. At least today was Friday, the last day she had anything to do at all. Then she could finally go do her open mic night thing. Then she’d probably have a drink and maybe hook up with a hot girl. Who knows? She just wanted today to be over already. _____________________________________________________________________

Catra was so glad she only had her color theory class today but geez, it felt like she was in that damn classroom forever. She found herself zoning out for half the class, thinking about Adora. Like her grey-blue eyes, absolutely stunning. And oh how soft her blonde hair looked and how cute that stupid hair poof on the top of her head looked. And her strong toned arms. Her thoughts began to wander to less innocent places as she dwelled on how ripped Adora was. However, before she could go too far down that rabbit hole, her teacher called on her.

“Huh? Oh uh, could you please repeat the question?” She mentally cursed him for dragging her out of her fantasy world and back into reality.

“What kind of formula of color harmony is this Miss Huerta Santos?” Her teacher let out a disappointed sigh as she glanced at the screen.
“Oh, um creating color harmony based on analogous colors,” The teacher gave her a nod, telling her she was correct. He went on teaching the class and she went back to daydreaming about Adora for the last part of the class. When the class was dismissed she booked it out of there and started heading for home.

She pulled into a parking space in front of her apartment complex, and as soon as she made it to her apartment and popped some more Advil in her mouth, she picked up her guitar and started trying to finish her song idea and hopefully get some practice in before she had to perform tomorrow. She finally decided what she would write about. The melody was very somber and beautiful so she decided to match the mood by writing about her breakup with her first girlfriend.

While she was extremely disappointed in herself for deciding it, after swearing never to write another song about her again because she made a whole 11 track fucking album about their breakup but it fit and it was easy.

She sat there writing and placing the chords where they needed to be for hours until she had a finished and polished song. She practiced it for a few more hours until the song was ingrained into her memory, and by the time she was done, it was around eleven. Catra made herself some packaged ramen noodles for dinner and got ready for bed. She got really nervous about performing tomorrow as she lay in bed, but her worries temporarily drifted away as she let sleep take over.

_____________________________________________________________________

Adora couldn’t catch a single moment of rest at work today. Everyone was stopping by to pick up some flowers for their fiances or for their significant others, or for some special occasion since they probably had plans this weekend. So by the time noon rolled around, she was already exhausted. She was sitting in the back texting Mara during break when Perfuma came up to her.

“Hi, Adora!” Perfuma beamed. She was always so cheerful and full of energy. Adora wished she could find the secret of successfully going through meditation like Perfuma did but she could never sit still or relax at all.

“Hey, Perfuma! What’s up?” Adora put on her best “I totally feel like talking to people today!” face as she spoke.

“Oh, I was wondering if you were busy tomorrow because I’m going to this bar downtown called re:bar to do an open mic night, and I was wondering if you would be interested in coming to see me perform,” Adora didn’t have anything to do tomorrow and she really needed a break from the stress so she accepted the deal without too much of a second thought.

“Yeah, I’d love to. What time?”

“Oh my gosh thank you! You have no idea how much that means to me. It starts around seven,” Perfuma was bouncing up and down with excitement.

“Yeah no problem, I mean why wouldn’t I go support my friend?” Actually, her only friend. Adora had a hard enough time socializing with others in University, and when she was in high school being the token orphan girl didn’t her out all that much. Perfuma was her only friend in high school, so being there for her was extremely important to her.

“Anyways, I should get back to work, I think I used up all my break already,” Perfuma nodded, going back into her office to work out some things for the shop. The rest of her day dragged by like the first half of the day but at least she had something to look forward to this weekend.

_____________________________________________________________________

When Adora got home Mara was sitting on the couch watching T.V.

“Hey Adora, how was work?” Mara greeted, pausing what she was watching to talk to Adora.

“Oh my gosh, work was so fucking busy today. Like Fridays are a close second to Mondays when it comes to my least favorite dates,” Adora hung up her bag as Mara let out a chuckle, hearing Adora rant. “Oh yeah, I’m going out to a bar to see Perfuma perform at an open mic night, do you wanna come with me?”

“Nah, I’m gonna pass. But thanks for the offer,” Mara gave her a warm smile as she motioned Adora to sit down beside her.

“Now come on, we have to keep rewatching Avatar for the thousandth time,” Adora playfully rolled her eyes and plopped down next to Mara as they watched the whole first book before Mara had to leave for work around nine. Adora stayed up for a couple more hours before going to bed.

While Adora was laying there trying to sleep, she kept hoping maybe she’d run into Catra while she was out. Geez, what was it with this girl that Adora had fallen for her so quickly? They literally only talked to each other once. Stop being such a weirdo Adora. She mentally scolded herself. She found herself getting lucky that night, not dreaming about anything at all.

_____________________________________________________________________

Catra woke up around noon and started practicing her song for a few hours. By the time she was sure she had it memorized she made herself something to eat and hopped in the shower to start getting ready for tonight.

Since she was only doing a casual performance she wore a black Queen t-shirt with jeans and a leather jacket. She finished getting ready, adding some eyeliner to her face before heading out the door with her guitar on her back.

Catra got to the bar a couple of hours early to grab some drinks early so she wouldn’t be so stressed out about performing. She’s done this a few times before, but her nerves still got to her really bad.

“Yo can I get a rum and coke?” the bartender nodded and went to fix her drink. She sat there for the next couple of hours drinking until it was time for people to start performing.

There were a lot of people with some good talent that went up. There was one woman named Perfuma who didn’t have that great of a voice who tried to cover “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles. She almost went deaf having to listen to her singing. Everyone gave soft applause as the woman bowed and stepped down from the stage. Catra decided that there was no way she could do any worse than that, so she decided to go up with her guitar.

“Uh hi, I’m Catra,” The crowd cheered as she spoke. “I wanted to play a song I wrote recently, and if you enjoy it I'd like to encourage you guys to check out my music on Spotify,” She looked out into the crowd as she spoke and her eyes grew wide as she locked eyes with Adora who looked equally as surprised as her. “Anyways, this is my song Dominoes,”

_____________________________________________________________________

Adora was surprised, to say the least, to see Catra performing. And when she started singing and plucking the strings on her guitar, her jaw dropped to the floor about how Angelic she sounded.

“It hurts and I don’t know why. Was it something I did? Along the ride in another life, was there something I missed? My generation’s up in smoke. We look like kids but feel like ghosts. Just try and try to feel alive.”

Catra looked as if she was pouring every single emotion she had into this song, and Adota watched in awe as she kept singing.

“Ooh-ooh, it’s a tale as old as time. Ooh-ooh, looking for something you just can’t hide. Cause long ago, one heart broke then broke a couple more. And before you know, it got too close and the heart that broke was yours. But that’s how it goes. Cause hearts break like dominoes, oh. Break like dominoes, oh. They break like dominoes.”

Adora started to tear up at how much she could relate to this and how pained Catra sounded.

“It’s hard to like myself when I don’t know how to do it. Been flying blind for all my life, try to stumble through it. There’s no instructions here on Earth, you gotta touch the stove to know it burns. But it’s only fire, it'll be alright.”

Catra repeated the Chorus, now building up to the bridge and easing into the intro.

“I fall you fall we all fall down. I fall you fall down. I fall you fall we all fall down. I fall you fall down. But that’s how it goes. Cause hearts break like dominoes, oh. Break like dominoes, oh. They break like dominoes.”

Catra finished the song and everyone in the bar started going wild, clapping and cheering for her. She took a bow, thanked the audience, and walked off stage to grab a drink.

She ordered a bottle of Heineken and sat down to drink it. That was probably the best part about going to open mic nights. She got free drinks because of how advily and how well she performed here. The owners said it was the least they could do with how entertained and happy she kept the crowd here. She sat there chatting with the bartender before she heard a familiar voice speak up beside her,

“Uh, hey Catra, I um- just wanted to say that your performance was pretty amazing, like I haven’t heard anyone sing that well for a long time, and your voice is just so…” Adora couldn’t express how beautiful Catra’s voice was with words so she just made weird gestures with her hands, but Catra got the message very well.

“Glad to know you enjoyed the show blondie, thanks,” Catra gave Adora a wink which made Adora’s go flush as she began to fidget with her hands.

“Uh it’s Adora actually,” She was brought back to reality, remembering that they had only met once so of course, Catra wouldn’t know her name.

“Oh I know, but blondie is a more fun name for you,” Catra had a smirk on her face as she saw Adora’s face get even redder upon hearing the nickname again. They had continued to talk about their days until Adora spoke up.

“So, you’re this good at music, and yet you’re going to school to become a tattoo artist? Why settle?” Catra stayed silent for a moment, making Adora fear she stepped too far.

“Well, y’know it’s hard to get into the industry these days with pure talent. Usually, all you need now is a rich family to pay the industry, and boom you’re artist of the year. And believe me, I’ve tried to pull off the poor kid with talent gig like Brendan Urie did but the studios just wouldn’t take me. They were probably too busy signing some rich brats who don't even know the first thing about music or songwriting instead. So I kinda gave up going to the studios and settled for my second passion which was art. And what better way to do a job in art than giving people badass tattoos y’know? But I still do open mics and post music on Spotify for fun, and to make myself believe my career will kick off someday,” Catra shrugged and chugged the rest of her drink, asking for another. Adora just gave her an understanding nod. She had read articles about how rigged the industry was these days for artists with genuine talent and no money. It kinda made her mad too. She would rather listen to someone who had actual talent than some rich snob whose parents coddle them all day.

“What about you Princess?” Adora looked like a tomato as she stuttered,

“Huh?” Catra playfully rolled her eyes as she clarified,

“What are you going to school for dummy?” Adora gave her an “Ohhhh” look before responding,

“Oh I'm a business major,” Catra looked at her with a raised brow. “What?” Adora asked.

“Oh, nothing it’s just that I didn’t see you as a person that was interested in that kind of stuff,” Adora shook her head in agreement.

“Yeah, I’m not really. I’m gonna switch majors next semester. I’m probably gonna get a degree to become a physical therapist or something,”

“Yea that one makes a lot more sense,” It just seemed so much like Adora. She just gave off such a kind and welcoming energy. It was so intoxicating to Catra.

As the night went on, Catra got more and more tired, so she eventually decided to leave around one.

“Mmm, Bye Princess, see ya later,” She shouted with a yawn.

“Bye Catra,” Adora shouted back.

“Ugh ‘princess’ really? Geez I know I’m dumb but really?” Catra scolded herself as she drove home that night.

_____________________________________________________________________

“Ugh, I was blushing so much! I think I made it too obvious I was into her and I don’t even know if she likes girls or not! I probably scared her away,” Adora vented to Perfuma as they sat at a table.

“Don’t worry Adora I saw you two over there and it looks like the Universe really likes you two together,” Adora laughed at how much hippie energy Perfuma had

“Thanks, Perfuma I really appreciate it,” Perfuma simply nodded as they continued to enjoy their drinks before going home for the night.

Chapter Text

“Mara?” Adora slurred, as she nudged her sleeping sister. “Mara, wake up,” Mara finally began to stir and looked at Adora, confused as hell.

“Adora?” Mara rubbed the sleep from her eyes as if to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. “What the hell is up with you it’s literally four in the-” Then she realized something. Adora was absolutely wasted. But Mara didn’t have a problem with that in particular. Adora was 21 and she knew that she was going to be at a bar, but Adora had taken the car with her, and she needed to know where it was so she could go get it tomorrow before she went to work. “Wait where’s the car?”

“Oh, the car? Don’t worry, it’s fine. It’s in the garage,” Mara felt her heart drop when she heard this.

“WHAT? Do you have any idea how dangerous it was for you to drive home?” Adora just waved at her comment replying with the same care-free tone,

“Woah, chill out Mara, I’ve known how to drive since I was twelve-” Mara was not about to take any of that bullshit, so she snapped.

“NO! You don’t get to tell me to chill out okay? You were driving drunk! Drunk, Adora! You could’ve killed someone! You could’ve killed yourself!  It doesn’t matter either way! I would’ve lost you. It’s just- I lost Mom and Dad already and I just can’t lose you too. You’re literally the only person I have left in this world!” She broke down halfway through and Adora seemed to finally understand how serious this was. 

Mara was right, the only people they really had in this world were each other and she just finished driving around drunk as fuck and if something bad would’ve happened to her neither she nor Mara would be able to forgive themselves.

“You’re right, I was being reckless, and I didn’t even consider the consequences that could’ve come with this. I’m sorry sis, please forgive me,” Adora had also started to cry at the fact that she had made her sister this worried. Mara pulled the younger girl in for a hug as she replied, 

“Hey, it’s okay, I’m just glad you’re alive. Just, please promise to never do that again with the car.”

“I won’t ever do it again, I swear,” Adora hugged Mara tighter as she sobbed harder. They both began to calm down a little bit later. After the both of them were totally calmed, Mara remembered that when Adora woke her up, she sounded like she wanted to talk to her about something.

“Hey, why’d you wake me up anyway?” But she was too late Adora was already in a battle with sleep and sleep was winning by a landslide. She could only get out,

“Mmm needed help with a-” Adora was out like a light within two seconds. Mara just looked down and smiled at her. She realized that she should probably be getting back to sleep too. 

“Eh, we’ll talk about it tomorrow,” She shrugged and began to doze off into peaceful sleep.

_____________________________________________________________________

Catra stood out behind a building with an unlit blunt in her hand, thinking about how amazing Adora looked tonight. It amazed her how Adora could look so gorgeous in jeans and a black t-shirt. It was unfair even. There was also the fact that Adora was so easy to want to be around all the time. Catra only really wanted to be around a total of three people, but even then, they never made her feel so intoxicated like Adora did. She was so deep in her thoughts, she forgot Double Trouble was there with her.

“Hello? Anyone home?” Catra snapped out of her thoughts as she saw her friend wave their hand in front of her face. Damn you Adora, who said you could live in my head rent-free? 

“What’d you say DT?” Catra asked as she lit the blunt, took a hit, and offered Double Trouble some. They just shook their head and spoke with a hint of concern,

“What’s gotten you so distracted Kitten?” Catra just shook her head as she continued to smoke.

“I can’t get this girl, Adora out of my damn head. Like who the hell gave her the right to be this unforgettable?” Double Trouble just shook their head and smirked as they listened to Catra rant. 

“Hmmm, interesting, a new love interest,” Catra started to cough on the smoke.

“Wha- no. I am not in love with her. I just can’t stop thinking about how much I wanna be with her Okay? That’s all,” She said, as she stomped her foot down on the pavement below her. Double Trouble looked at her with a knowing smirk. If Catra would’ve heard this from any other person, she would laugh at how undeniably stupid they were, yet here she was sounding like the biggest idiot in the history of idiots. 

“Sure Kitten. Now, spill let me hear more about Adora,” Catra rolled her eyes and started to explain Adora to the best of her abilities.

“She’s like super buff, not Scorpia buff but she’s still really strong. She looks like, no, is one of those dumb blondes you see on TV but instead of lookin’ like she just walked out of a Barbie dreamhouse, she’s a butch. She also has this stupid hair poof when her hair is tied up. She’s got a pretty chill personality too.” Double Trouble frowned, expecting Catra to expand on the last sentence, but she never did.

“Yes please keep going, what about her personality?”

“Ugh, c’mon DT, gimme a break. I have a hard time describing stuff like that,”  It’s not that Catra didn’t like Adora. She liked her plenty, but Catra never really was good with her words, especially when it came to emotions or personality. Honestly, Catra never really knows exactly why she likes certain people, she just does, and that’s good enough for her. But it really got her in trouble, though when she was asked to describe stuff like this. Luckily, they let her off the hook for now.

“Hmm, whatever you say, Darling,” Catra just rolled her eyes, taking a long hit this time. She didn’t really want any more attention on her “love life”, so she decided to switch focuses.

“Anyways, how’s that fashion business going?” Double Trouble’s eyes lit up as they heard mention of their own designer line.

“Oh it’s going, splendid Darling! I’ve already got some orders coming in, and I just got my production team working at a great pace. If all of this keeps up I’ll start making profits in no time!” Catra smiled as she looked at them. At least one of her friends was following their biggest passion. 

“That’s pretty cool! And I’m pretty sure you’ll be like a billionaire in no time. Like Jeff Bezos who?” The weed was starting to get to Catra, making her sentences more and more silly, but she truly did believe that Double Trouble was gonna make tons of money off of their own designer brand company.

“You’re too kind darling, really,” They continued talking back and forth, just catching up on life. They didn’t really see each other that often so when they do, they usually end up hanging out for hours. 

It was around five in the morning and Catra was as high as a kite. Double Trouble decided that they should both probably head home, so they said their goodbyes and headed their separate ways.

Catra walked down the street to her apartment complex, as she finished her last blunt. As soon as she got into her apartment, she immediately collapsed on the floor letting sleep take over her.

________________________________________________________________

Adora woke up to the blaring light of the sun shining through the window. She immediately grabbed her head that was throbbing in pain. 

“Ugh, why do I have to be such a lightweight?” She groaned as she began to take in her surroundings. She was in Mara’s room, which surprised her because she doesn’t remember going into Mara’s room last night. Well, in all honestly, she didn’t remember much after Catra left. 

She sat there a little longer before she spotted a bottle of Advil and some water on Mara’s nightstand. She dumped five of them into her hand and swallowed them down with the water. She just laid there in bed for a while, still trying to deal with her headache until she started feeling better.

She eventually got up and saw Mara doing some cleaning around the house. 

“Oh, hey Adora how are you feeling right now? Did you take the Advil on the side table?” Mara said as she swept the kitchen floor, which was a total mess the night before. The two of them weren’t the cleanest or most organized when it came to houses, so the floors got dirty and cluttered quite quickly.

“I have a bit of a headache still, but the Advil really helped. But how did I end up in your room?” 

“Oh, you don’t remember?” Adora just shook her head. “You came into my room to ask me for advice but you fell asleep before you could ask it,” Adora stood there muddled. What was she trying to ask Mara about? She didn’t stay fixed on that thought any longer though, as another thought popped into her head.

“Oh shit! I probably left the car in town. I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking about the extra shift you had to pick up,” Mara just shook her head, smiling.

“Adora, you drove the car home,” Adora’s eyes widened at this. The rest of the memories from last night started coming back to her finally. She remembered driving pretty badly home, almost getting into multiple accidents. She also remembered coming into Mara’s room and getting yelled at for being so reckless before she could ask for advice on Catra.

“Oh, yea sorry about that again,” She looked down at the floor in shame.

“It’s fine, you’re still alive. But if you die because you do that again, I’ll kill you,” Adora laughed at how little sense Mara made as she pulled her into a hug.

After a few seconds, they broke the hug. Mara went back to sweeping as Adora sat down on the couch, turning on the television.

“Hey, so I know you might not remember all of last night but what were you gonna ask me about before?” Adora’s face went a bit red, and she hoped Mara didn’t notice. She wasn’t sure if she should tell Mara now, but this conversation was going to come up sooner or later, so she figured she’d just get it over with now.

“Well, I saw this one girl when I was out with Perfuma, and she was one of the people performing yesterday. She’s really cute, and she seems pretty cool, and I see her at work sometimes, and I really want to ask her out...” Mara nodded as Adora rambled on, “But I don’t have any idea how to do that or if I should do it and I’m just so confused right now,” She let out a whine, at how much of a pickle she had gotten herself into. Mara gave Adora a soft smile as she spoke,

“Hey, I get it. This shit is super complicated, and I know you might not like my advice, but the best thing you can do is just stick around her to see whether or not you have feelings, or if you think they’re not going to hurt you.” Adora groaned in the annoyance at how right Mara was.

“No, it’s fine but thanks for the advice Sis!” Adora tried her best to hide her annoyance, but there were far too many cracks in her mask. Mara didn’t mind though. She understood how it felt to get advice that she didn’t think helped in the moment. But she slowly learned that sometimes that kind of advice was the best kind.

“Hey, it’s alright, you’ll figure it out eventually, I know you will. And if you need my help along the way I’m more than happy to give it,” Adora nodded, sending Mara an appreciative look. She knew she was just trying to help but in all honesty, she didn’t know what the hell to do and desperately wanted someone else to tell her what to do. 

“Thanks, I really appreciate it,” 

After Mara got done cleaning, she sat down next to Adora and they decided to rewatch Avatar for the 50th time for the rest of the day.

________________________________________________________________

Catra fucking hated Mondays. It was almost as if they completely fucking erased anything good that happened and replaced it with work and more stress. At least she had the possibility of seeing Adora today.

As she finished up her cigarette, she decided to go pick up Scorpia’s flowers for the shop. 

“Hey, Catra!” Adora waved to her as she finished up watering some flowers that were behind the counter. Catra couldn’t help but smile as she waved back. It was as if just Adora’s presence made her day a hundred times better. Her long blonde hair looked so pretty tied back in the ponytail she wore, and the t-shirt she had on really showed off her muscles.

Damn, imagine how fucking hot her abs look. Catra didn’t realize she was staring until she heard Adora speak, bringing her out of her trance.

“Catra? Are you okay?” Catra flinches and starts blushing, hoping Adora didn’t pick up on the fact that she was staring at her. 

“U-uh, yeah I was just spacing out, y’know how Mondays are,” Adora seemed to buy it so Catra began to relax a little more.

“Ugh, yeah Mondays are literally the worst ever. They’re always so sluggish feeling,” Adora went to grab the order Catra came to pick up. 

Oh my gosh, was she just staring at me?!! No, she doesn’t like me like that, there’s no way she’d like someone like me. Or would she? No. shut up Adora, focus. Adora couldn’t keep zoning out like this. It was really slowing down how efficiently she could do her job. If she kept this up Perfuma might fire her, which would set her back majorly on paying for university. She and Mara had a hard enough time making ends meet as it was, they didn’t need even more problems added on to the mountain of tem that they already had. 

“Soooo… do you have any plans this Friday?” Catra asked. She was hoping to ask Adora out on a date. Well, at least that’s how she would see it. She didn’t really know if Adora would see it that way. Based on the multiple times Catra had tried to flit with her with Adora being totally oblivious to it, she probably wouldn’t. 

“I don’t think so. Why?” Adora answered.

“I was just wondering if you wanted to grab some drinks with me, y’know, to hang out or whatever…” Adora’s heart both dropped and sped up. It dropped because just hanging out felt like getting slapped in the face by rejection. But it sped up at the thought of spending time with Catra. 

Adora couldn’t understand why Catra chose her out of all people to ask. Sure they were slowly becoming friends since they see each other once a week and get along just fine, but Catra chose her, despite only knowing her for only a couple of months. But then again, she wasn’t about to complain about Catra wanting to spend time with her.

“I’d love to go! What time? “

“Show up at the same bar at around seven,” Adora nodded and gave her a smile. She tried not to look too excited out of the fear of seeming really weird. 

“Sounds good, see you then!” Adora waved to Catra and she waved back as she walked out of the shop. 

As soon as Catra got to the backroom of the parlor she pumped her fist in the air and did a mini victory dance to celebrate.

“Yes, yes, yes,”

After a few minutes of celebrating, she decided to go back out and finish work. When she went made her way home, she got yet another melody stuck in her head. However, instead of being melancholy like the last one, it was happy almost and bursting with love. 

________________________________________________________________

Adora’s day was definitely so much easier after that interaction with Catra. She came home humming some random love song, daydreaming about her and Catra’s “date”. She knew that Catra didn’t feel that way, but it took away the pain Adora had when she thought about Catra only considering her as just a friend for the rest of her life. 

Mara walked through the door and looked to Adora who was still stuck daydreaming about Catra.

“Damn, I knew you liked her but geez I didn’t know you were practically in love with her,” Mara half-joked as she let out a laugh. Adora was snapped out of her trance as she started blushing profusely.

“Hey! I’m not in love with her! Where’d you get that from?” Mara just gave her a knowing smirk and said,

“Hey Sis, I’ve been on this Earth longer than you, meaning I can spot things like that way easier than you can. Hell, your love for Catra is probably stronger than you,” Mara just giggled as Adora rolled her eyes.

“Whatever you say Mar,” Adora just turned on Netflix and watched it until she was too tired to stay up longer, and went to her bed. She genuinely thought this week was going to be so long and boring, but the fact that she’s going to see Catra again on Friday made her week so much brighter. Maybe things were finally going to go uphill for her. Either way, she knew tomorrow was going to be so exciting because of Catra. Honestly, this was the very first Monday in her life that had actually been good to her.

Chapter Text

Adora woke up on Wednesday, relieved she didn’t have to be in class until noon. She picked up her phone and realized that it was already eleven.

“Oh shit!” She scrambled out of bed and threw on the first set of clothes she saw. She didn’t expect to sleep this long, since she only went to bed at about midnight. She knew her sleep schedule was messed up, but she didn’t think it was so messed up that her body would let her sleep eleven fucking hours. She kept zoning out too, which definitely didn’t help her in her rush.

As soon as she finished putting her hair back, it was 11:30, and she wouldn’t make it to class on time if she didn’t leave now. So she simply took her toothbrush and a travel-sized toothpaste tube and her backpack as she bolted out the door to her car.

After almost getting into one too many accidents because of speeding and possibly spitting toothpaste into someone’s windshield, she arrived on campus. She only had a few more minutes left, so she used every muscle in her legs to jet across the campus and up multiple flights of stairs until finally making it to class right before it was about to start.

She struggled hard to take notes because of the thought that she gets to go on an unofficial date with Catra. However, all focus flew out the window as she realized that she didn’t have anything to wear that night. 

Since Adora and Mara were super tight on money, they were only able to afford shitty t-shirts from Goodwill or the clearance aisle in Walmart, so she didn’t exactly have the best wardrobe to go out to the bar with Catra. 

So the rest of class she just sat there thinking about what the hell she was going to wear on Friday. It’s a good thing she always records her lessons on her phone or else there would be no way she’d be able to pass. 

She finally snapped out of her thoughts, seeing everyone packing up and starting to walk out. She began to pack up as well, thinking about where she was going to get a new outfit. She didn’t have a single outfit in her whole wardrobe she would consider even close to looking good enough for going out with Catra. 

As she got to her car she decided to ask Mara for advice since Mara probably had a little more experience with this kind of stuff than Adora did. 

Luckily, when she got home Mara was up and in the kitchen eating a bowl of bag cereal.

“Oh, hey Adora! How was class?” Mara continued to stuff her face with the off-brand cereal in her bowl.

“It was okay I guess,” Adora started to get out a bowl and cereal to pour herself some. She sat down next to Mara and began to speak as she ate,

“So you know that girl I’m supposed to meet up with on Friday?” Mara looked towards her and nodded enthusiastically. 

“Yeah, what about her?” 

“Well, I really wanna buy something a bit nice than what I usually wear for her, but I don’t think they’ll have anything cool at our usual places, and I don’t know where to go,” Mara smiled as she shook her head at what an absolute dork her sister was being, rambling on about what she was going to wear for her pretend date. 

“Don’t worry sis, I’ll take you to the mall to pick something out. And don’t worry about money as much as we usually do ‘cause I got a little extra money from the time I’ve picked up at work,” Adora smiled at her and said,

“Thank you so much Mar, you’re the best!” Adora started rocking back and forth on her heels in the excitement of going to get an outfit that didn’t look like it was some hand-me-down.

“No problem sis. Now let’s go,”

The girls pulled up to the mall and Mara dragged Adora straight into the first shop, which was a store for men’s apparel. Adora always liked having a more masculine style and often wore men’s clothing because she felt more right wearing it. 

“How about this one?” Mara gave Adora a short-sleeved button-up shirt with little white dots all over it. 

“Nah, it says, ‘Look at me I’m a huge geek’ too much. Ooo, what about this one?” She held up a red sweater and a white button-up to go underneath it.

“Really? Geez, Adora, you’re worried about giving off geek vibes and you chose that outfit?” She rolled her eyes at her sister’s ridiculousness, as Adora scoffed,

“It is not- you know what? Never mind, you actually have a point that looks geeky as fuck,” She let out a laugh as she began to look at the outfit she had to pick out. Mara joined in with her as they both continued to look for clothes.

After a couple of hours of looking through shirt after shirt, Adora found one that she really liked. 

“Hey, look at this one!” She waved Mara over to take a look at it. She had a black shirt with red palm leaves on it in her hand. 

Mara immediately nodded her head, knowing it would be perfect for Adora. Now all they needed to do was find a pair of pants to go with it, which would be so much easier for them.

By the time they were done finding Adora a nice pair of black jeans and paying, they were ready to get home as soon as possible.

“Thanks so much again Mar, it really means a lot to me,” Mara looked over at Adora in the passenger seat and let out a chuckle.

“As I said, it’s no problem. I’m just glad I can help my sister finally get a love life,” Adora’s face went red as she groaned in frustration,

“I already told you we’re just meeting up it’s not a date or anything.”

“You wish it was,” Mara snickered as Adora glared at her.

“Oh, shut up!” She laughed as she playfully nudged Mara in the shoulder.

With everything else out of the way, all she needed to worry about was how she was going to not stay up two nights in a row with all the excitement in her system.

________________________________________________________________

“Ugh, Scorps I swear I can’t stand that bitch anymore!” Catra ranted about her stepmother as she ordered another drink. 

“What’d she do this time?” Scorpia prepared herself to be listening to Catra for a while because when it was about Shadow Weaver, it always took forever. 

“Gods, what doesn’t she do? She thinks she can judge me on my decision to become a tattoo artist, and how fucking poor I am right now, and then she has the audacity to insult my religion and my fucking sexuality. Like who the fuck does she think she is?” She slammed her fist down on the table in frustration.

Scorpia just shook her head at how harsh Shadow Weaver always is on Catra for no good reason.

“And your dad didn’t say anything about it?” Catra just shook her head as she continued her rant.

“No, he’s always taking her fucking side these days. It’s like that bitch is fucking brainwashing him!” Scorpia chuckled in response.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t put it past her. She seems like an evil bitch,” 

“Oh, evil is a huge fucking understatement man. Like there’s no fucking way she’s human, I swear,” The two laughed as they continued to drink. Catra found it strange that they see each other almost every day for work, and yet they’re both here to catch up with each other.

After a few hours of drinking and catching up with each other, they decided to head their separate ways.

“Bye Wildcat. Love you.” Scopia pulled the shorter girl in for a bear hug that lasted for half a minute before she finally decided to let her go. 

“Love you too Scorps. Be careful,” Catra waved as she made her way to her car.

The whole ride home, Catra kept thinking about Adora and what she was gonna wear on Friday. She knew that they weren’t really going out on a date, but it still felt like it. She was poor enough as it was, working for Scopia for half salary. And it’s not like all the student debt she was drowning in helped. This meant that her wardrobe basically consisted of a few sets of clothes she was able to gather from her old house and a bunch of loungewear. 

She thanked her gods for the fact that she was able to pack some of the clothes she used to have because she didn’t have to go out and buy a new outfit. She picked out a pair of black ripped jeans, and a nice red crop top with a fishnet shirt to go over it. 

After she was done, she imagined what Adora might be wearing that night. It was actually quite fun imagining all the weird crazy outfits she could wear in her head. 

Apparently, her imagination decided to be an energy-draining leech because, after about 20 minutes, she was sleeping like a baby. 

________________________________________________________________

Adora was leaning up against the brick wall of the bar she was supposed to meet Catra at. She decided to come fifteen minutes early like the dork she was. Then again, it’s better for her to be terribly early than terribly late. 

She was tempted to look at her phone, but she knew how the streets were. She did spend a couple of years working some very… questionable jobs on the streets so she would know. Though she was probably more paranoid than anything, she still kept a sharp eye out for anyone that could possibly be a threat to her.

“Hey, Adora. Why such a serious face?” She heard someone call out in a teasing manner. She jumped and turned to see Catra standing right beside her with a smirk on her face. 

“Geez Catra, you almost scared me to death!” Catra let out a chuckle.

“Yeah, I’m pretty good at scaring people. Maybe I should work at a haunted house,” Adora just rolled her eyes as they walked in. 

“Yeah, the Factory of Terror would just love you,” Adora said with a bit of sarcasm. They took a seat next to each other at the bar ad started talking as they waited for the bartender. 

“Anyways, how was your day so far?” Adora was the first to speak. She wasn’t the best at talking to people so it was hard to start conversations. 

“Eh, it was okay. What about you?” Catra replied as she looked at her razor-sharp nails. Meanwhile, Adora was just now taking in how hot Catra looked in that outfit. Her crop top showed off her toned abs so well and her ripped skinny jeans outlined her figure so nicely. She would 100% let Catra step on her with those combat boots on too. Bad Adora! Her fucking eyes are up there! She quickly flicked her eyes back up to Catra’s eyes, hoping Catra didn’t notice her staring. 

Catra did notice but she didn’t say anything because she was also staring at Adora. Her black and red Hawaiian shirt outlined her toned muscular arms perfectly and her hair looked as beautiful as it always did up in a ponytail. Her pants also outlined her muscular legs so nicely. So now it was Catra’s turn to force her eyes up to Adora’s eyes.

“Mine was fine, I just sat around rewatching Arcane,” Catra let out a gasp of excitement. 

“You watch it too!?”

“Yeah, It’s pretty great isn’t it?” Adora was so excited that she knew someone other than Mara that watched Arcane.

“Great is a major understatement. It’s a fucking masterpiece!”

“Yeah! Like how everything is all connected, and Jinx’s character, oh, and Vi and Caitlyn. It’s so good I can’t even cover everything about how great the show is!” They continued to geek out about the show until the bartender finally got to them.

“Hey Catra, what’ll it be for today?” A woman with dreadlocks and skin that was just a little darker than Catra’s asked. 

“I’ll have a Modelo. Blondie what do you want?”

“Uh, I’ll just have a rum and coke,”

“Coming right up,” The lady turned around and started getting their drinks for them.

“Thanks, Lonnie,” Catra said as their drinks were given to them.

“So how’s that physical therapy stuff going?” Catra asked as she took a sip of her drink. Adora was surprised she even remembered something like that since the only time she mentioned was a couple of months ago.

“Oh, it’s going fine but I still can’t get my sister to get off my ass about doing my assignments even though I do them on time and pass them just fine,” Adora began to pout a little. 

“You live with your sister?” Catra never really got to know too much about Adora’s personal life, so this came as a bit of a surprise to her.

“Yeah, we’ve been living on our own since I was twelve,” Adora recalled their first apartment which was in the city. It only had one bed and the window was right next to a brick wall. 

“What happened?” 

“Our parents died in a fire and since we didn’t have any family willing to take us, she adopted me,” Adora replied nonchalantly.

“Oh, sorry I didn’t know-” Catra began to apologize for bringing up such horrific memories, but she was interrupted by Adora.

“No, it’s fine really. It doesn’t affect me as much anymore,” It very much did, but she didn’t want to make Catra feel like shit for asking about her past. She understood her curiosity very well because she was the same way so she really couldn’t be mad at her.

They sat in an uneasy silence for a few minutes until Catra spoke up.

“C’mon, c’mon… DAMN IT! He took too fucking long. Estúpido,” Adora looked over at her confused until she saw what Catra was looking at. She was watching the soccer game on the T.V. Adora really didn’t know too much about soccer but looking at the playback, she could see what Catra meant. The player had the ball and he had the perfect shot for a goal. But instead of taking a shot, he decided to try to dribble the ball over to somewhere else and got it stolen from him, allowing the other team to steal it and make a goal. A rather stupid decision if she was being quite honest. 

“Oof, that was a dumb move. Who’s playing though? I don’t recognize any of the abbreviations for the countries,” Adora had only really seen a few games here and there but all of them were for the World Cup. They were cool to watch but she never really went out of her way to dive into any other leagues of soccer.

“Oh, these teams don’t represent different countries. They represent different soccer clubs in Mexico. Right now América and Chivas are playing and my dude Reyes just fucked up majorly,” Adora nodded, taking in the information.

“But América is still winning right now, why are you so worried?” It was true the score was 3-1 and it was over halfway through the game already.

“You don’t get it Blondie, these two have been rivals ever since I can remember watching them, which is pretty long by the way. I’ve been watching this since I was born,” Adora just smiled as Catra got more and more into the game. It was really cute seeing her so excited over something. “Oh, uh, sorry I got a little too into that. I’m just really passionate about it,” Catra pulled herself out of the game and gave Adora a look of embarrassment.

“No, no you’re good really. I used to be that way when I played football back in high school,” Catra’s mind went flying out the window for a second when she heard Adora speak.

“Hot,” She felt the sudden urge to throw herself off the nearest roof as she realized what she had just said. “Uh, uh, I mean that’s awesome! I have a feeling you were good at it,” God damn it, what the fuck is wrong with you? Keep your damn brain in check! Catra mentally facepalmed herself at how fucking stupid she was being.

Adora didn’t seem to notice as she shrugged.

“Yeah, I was. I won us every season for four years. I got a lot of girls because of it too, not that any of them lasted that long they were mainly after my looks or status. It was still really fun though,” It just occurred to Catra, that she didn’t find out until now whether or not Adora was gay. She didn’t have her head screwed on right at all because she would’ve never taken a girl out on an unofficial date if she didn’t know whether or not they were straight. 

“Ohhh, so that’s where all my luck in high school went,” Catra wasn’t going to lie, she was a bit envious of high school Adora. Back then, Catra was lucky to have anyone talk to her in a civil nature let alone get a girlfriend. 

“Nah, there’s no way you were single,” Adora really couldn’t see how anyone with a working set of eyes couldn’t see how beautiful and amazing Catra is. There was no way.

“Eh, I was the only kid in my school who was out, so I got avoided for being the token gay kid,” She took a big sip this time and realized her drink was almost gone. 

“Yeah, I get how you feel. I got avoided like the plague for being the one kid who didn’t have parents in middle school,” They both laughed at how the kids in her school did a full 180 from middle school to high school. 

“Oh gods, those bitches really were fake as fuck,” Catra was literally wheezing right now. But she calmed down shortly after she realized she probably shouldn’t be because of how horrible the fact actually was. “Oh shit, I shouldn’t have laughed at that. My bad,” Adora just waved her apology off though.

“Nah, like I said, it’s fine. It was just some stupid high school drama. Hell, I laugh about it all the time,”  Catra really couldn’t believe how chill Adora was about bringing up some of the darker parts of her past. She did envy how easygoing she was. “Y’know, we’ve been talking about me for a while, but what about you?”

“Well, what d’you wanna know Princess?” Catra gave her a smirk as she took a sip from her drink.

“Um, favorite color?” Adora felt like she was in fucking kindergarten because she asked this question but she felt relieved when Catra gave her a genuine answer.

“Red,”

“Um, you got siblings?” Once again, this felt like one of those kindergarten questions but it wasn’t as bad as the last one.

“Eh, I have a step-sister, but we’re not really on speaking terms,” She grimaced as she thought about her.

“Why?” Adora was aware she might’ve been overstepping it a little, but she was just so curious that she couldn’t help but ask about it.

“She’s a real bitch to me all the time just like my stepmom. They treat me like a Cinderella. The only difference is that I never got a hot rich girl to come save me from those bitch ass hoes. But y’know, that’s just how family drama goes,” She shrugged and ordered another round for both of them. 

“That sucks man, I’m sorry I brought it up. I didn’t mean to bring up bitter memories,” She tried to apologize but Catra just shook her head.

“Hey, I mean you can’t change the past right?” Adora was going to speak up when her phone rang. 

“Uh, do you mind if I take this?” Catra just shook her head. Adora nodded and got up to answer the phone. 

“Hello?” Adora started pacing near her bar stool, a habit she picked up when she was little. “Yeah, yeah- Wait what?” Her voice faltered a bit and Catra could see her face begin to fall apart. “Holy shit! I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Adora hung up and turned to Catra who had a very concerned look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“My sister just went to the hospital. I have to go right now. Here I think this covers my drinks,” She gave Catra a couple of twenties and scrambled to get to her car.

“So much for things going right,” She muttered to herself as she started speeding towards the hospital.

Chapter Text

Adora was trying her hardest not to get into an accident as the tears in her eyes started to blur her vision. As soon as she pulled into the hospital she bolted for the entrance. 

“Please, where is she? I need to see her,” She started sobbing at the lady in the ER. 

“See who, miss?” The receptionist seemed a bit overwhelmed but she tried her best to remain calm. 

“Mara- Mara Hope where is she?” Adora managed to choke between sobs. 

“She’s in the ICU right now, miss. We’ll have someone take you to her as soon as she gets out,” The receptionist was about to take the next person but Adora wasn’t about to give up that easily.

“No no no… I need to see my sister right now !” She shouted at the lady. She knew that it wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t see her sister, she was just super stressed about this and was taking it out on her because she didn’t know what the hell she was supposed to do instead. 

“Miss, I’m sorry but there’s nothing I can do but you’re welcome to sit in the waiting area while we stabilize her.” Adora put her head down in shame at how she was taking her stress out on this woman when she had absolutely nothing to do with all of this. 

“Right, I’m sorry. I know you had nothing to do with any of this, I just was out of control. Thank you,” The receptionist just waved her off. She was used to this stuff by now. 

Adora sat wide awake just watching the seconds tick by. She was so tired and worn out but she couldn’t sleep. She wouldn’t even let herself if she wanted to. Every second that passed, she fell deeper and deeper into a spiral. 

What happened? It’s taking way too long. Is she dead? No no no she can’t be dead! I can’t lose her too. Is it because of the stress of raising me? Oh my gosh, this is my fault! I should’ve just died in the fire. She'd still be alright if I did.

Adora found it harder and harder to breathe and she felt the world start to cave in on her. Her eyes darted around the room looking for a light but her vision just got darker and darker.

She woke up again hours later on the floor. She started panicking when she saw a figure looming over her. Her vision was still extremely blurry so all she could make out was a huge blob heading towards her. She began scooting backward away from it in fear. It also didn’t help that she was hearing someone speaking that she couldn’t see. 

“Is, iss, miss, miss?” Her hearing and vision slowly started to come back and she was finally able to recognize the figure standing over her. It was the receptionist. 

“Ho-how the hell did I get on the floor?” Adora was still feeling a bit panicky but she was more confused than anything right now. 

“Miss, you passed out on the floor a few minutes ago,” The woman gave her a look full of concern. “Do you need medical attention?”

“Wha- no, no I’m fine I was just having a panic attack,” Adora tried playing it off casually, but it sounded better in her head than it did out loud. Luckily the receptionist decided not to say any more about the matter.

“Here, let me get you some water. Just stay in this chair until I come back,” She rushed off to the water dispenser as Adora waited. She went back to watching the seconds tick by one by one. She only stopped when she heard footsteps coming from behind her. 

“Here you go, miss,” The woman handed her a small paper cup with water in it. 

“Please stop being so formal, it’s kinda starting to weird me out. It’s just Adora,” She tried to sound as nice as possible when she said this because she didn’t want to offend the woman that was trying to help her.

“Oh, okay. Well, in that case, you can just call me Ash,” Adora gave her a soft smile and nodded.

“Thanks, Ash, I appreciate this,” Adora held up the cup as she took a sip of her water. She sighed at how good the cold liquid felt. It helped her calm down a bit.

“It’s no problem. I’m just glad to be able to help someone,” They both sat in a comfortable silence until Ash spoke.

“Oh, speaking of which, the doctors just told me your sister is stabilized. Do you wanna go see her?” Tears flooded Adora’s face as she nodded repeatedly.

Ash called for someone to take Adora to Mara’s room in the ICU and when Adora arrived, she immediately started crying again at the sight before her. There Mara was, hooked up to multiple machines as she slept. 

Adora stumbled over to the chair beside her bed and began to sob even more.

“I-is she gonna be alright?” She asked the nurse as she walked in. The nurse gave her a look of pity as she spoke.

“We performed an ultrasound on her heart and we found a tumor. We believe she has stage 4 heart cancer.” Adora just stood there in fear and disbelief.

“No. No, that can’t be right. I’m just asleep, yeah, just having a terrible nightmare. I’ll- I’ll wake up in the waiting room any minute now and it’ll all just be a dream,” She sounded like a maniac with how much she tried to reassure herself that her sister isn’t dying. The nurse looked at her and shook her head.

“Miss, I wish I could say that this was a dream or some sick joke, but it’s not,” Adora’s whole world began to crash again as she felt hot tears streaming down her face. 

The nurse left after making sure Mara’s vitals were stable, leaving Adora alone with her thoughts. She was so scared of losing Mara. She was the only thing she had left in this world. Sure she had Perfuma and Catra as her friends but there was never any guarantee they would stay. But she always knew Mara was there even when they fought because they were the only family each other had.

Adora sat there sobbing uncontrollably by her sister for hours. Her body’s exhaustion had finally caught up to her and she was starting to fall asleep. She tried to fight it as much as she could, knowing that her fears would follow her into her sleep allowing them to grow and fester in her mind. But all her attempts turned out to be futile.

________________________________

Adora woke up hours later sobbing. She might not have remembered dreaming but she was still overwhelmed with the fact that she might have to watch her sister as the cancer slowly sucked the life out of her. If she was being honest, she didn’t think she’d be able to handle it. 

“Adora?” She turned her head to see Mara looking at her with a look of concern. Adora sobbed even harder as she pulled Mara into the tightest hug she could. 

“Please don’t leave me,” Adora begged as she hugged Mara even tighter. Mara looked at her and gave her a soft smile. 

“Hey, I’m sorry for scaring you like that. But I’m still alive! Don’t worry, I’ll probably only need some heart medications or something. I know they’re expensive but we’ll manage!” Adora’s eyes widened. She just realized that Mara didn’t know. She didn’t know that there was a tumor in her heart, eating up all the life she had in her. 

“Adora? What's wrong? I already told you, there’s no need for you to be so scared,” Adora tried to tell her, but her loud uncontrollable sobs were keeping her from making any sense.

“Hey, hey, calm down. Just breathe,” Eventually, Mara was able to calm Adora down enough to the point that she could talk. They just sat there in silence for several minutes until Mara spoke again. “So, what are you so scared about? I already said-“

“Mara, the doctors- they said that you- you have heart cancer,” Mara’s eyes widened as she heard this. But she immediately narrowed them back down to their normal size. She couldn’t let herself make Adora feel more scared than she already was. Mara might have been scared out of her mind, but her little sister always came first.

“Hey, don’t worry. We’re gonna get through this together. I can go to treatments for it. It’s gonna be hard but we can make it through this okay?” Adora nodded. She wasn’t fully convinced but the confidence in Mara’s voice helped her calm down a bit. 

A nurse came in to check up on Mara and to fill her in on her condition. The nurse said that they weren’t able to surgically remove the tumor, but she could still get Chemotherapy treatments. For now, they have Mara some painkillers and orders to not smoke or drink. She was discharged that day and sent home.

________________________________

Adora came into work walking like a zombie. She also looked like one. Her hair was in a ponytail that looked like it was done by a five-year-old, and the bags under her eyes were so prominent that they almost looked like black eyes. 

She had stayed up all night last night watching over Mara. The only reason she even left her was that she knew that in order to help pay for Mara’s treatments she couldn’t miss a day of work.

“Oh my, are you okay Adora?” Perfuma asked with a look of concern on her face. 

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine I just- gah! just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night,” Adora was starting to doze off, fighting the sleep by blinking her eyes rapidly. She was going to clock in when her body just gave in to the exhaustion and crashed onto the floor with a loud thump.

“Adora! What happened?” Perfma’s voice cracked as she started to panic at the sight of her friend lying face down on the ground. 

“My body is betraying me,” Adora groaned as she tried to pick herself back up and fell back down immediately after. She tried, again and again, to get back up, but her body was too weak from the stress and running around from yesterday. 

“Did you even sleep at all last night, Adora?” Adora shook her head, knowing she couldn’t keep up the “I’m just a little tired” facade anymore.

“Why not? Have you been doing those cram sessions again? You know those aren’t good for you,” Perfuma took on a motherly tone.

“No that’s not it. I just- I was trying to take care of Mara last night because she- she has cancer,” Tears started rolling down Adora’s face as she finally let out all the feelings she had bottled up from yesterday because she was too busy taking care of Mara to let herself feel anything. 

“Oh, Adora I’m so sorry, do you need to take the day off or something?” Adora shook her head frantically as she spoke.

“No! No, I don’t need a day off. I have to pay for Mara’s treatments. And don’t try to take pity on me by paying me for a day off. I’m working here okay? I can handle it.” Adora began to wipe the tears from her face in an attempt to seem okay. Perfuma just looked at her for a while and let out a sigh.

“Fine, you can work today but you’re sleeping in the back for at least two hours. Got it?” 

“Fine, wake me up in a couple of hours,” Adora sighed begrudgingly as she let her face fall back onto the floor, drifting off to sleep. 

Perfuma just shook her head as she turned to walk out of the break room to go attend to the shop. 

________________________________

Catra woke up around nine today. She usually doesn’t wake up this early but for the past couple of days she’d been trying to catch Adora on one of her shifts to check in on her but she hasn’t had any luck so far. She wouldn’t admit it to anyone but she was starting to get worried about Adora.

“She’s fine, she just needed a break, yeah that’s it,” she tried reassuring herself as she started to take a comb to her hair. 

After she was done getting herself ready, she drove to the flower shop. Today was the last day she was going to try to check on her. If she wasn’t there today she’d just leave a note behind as a message for Adora when she came back to work. 

She pulled into the parking lot and walked into the flower shop. She expected to be met with another unfamiliar face when she rang the service bell, but then she saw Adora walkout. She looked like she’d been through absolute hell but it was still her nonetheless. 

Adora looked so done with her life but when she looked up and saw Catra, her face lit up just a little.

“Hey, Catra! Listen, I’m sorry for running out so fast-” Adora was going to apologize but Catra wasn’t having it.

“No, no stop. You don’t need to apologize for shit. I get it, okay? If Scorpia ended up in the hospital I would’ve done the exact same thing,” Adora smiled at her as she began to look for Scorpia’s order. 

“So how’s your sister doing?” Adora froze as she felt a lump grow in her throat. She swallowed it as she prepared to tell Catra. She didn’t want to tell her for fear of breaking down but she figured she might as well get used to it so she doesn’t have the same reaction she did with Perfuma. 

“She- she has heart cancer,” Tears threatened to spill from Adora’s eyes but she pushed them back. 

“Oh shit, that’s horrible. Are you holding up alright? Y’know, considering the situation,” Catra knew she wasn’t feeling alright but it couldn’t hurt to ask how well she’s handling the situation. Adora just shook her head as tears started to slip through the corner of her eyes. 

Adora really needed a hug and Catra could sense it. She climbed over the counter and wrapped her arms around her torso.

Adora’s eyes widened in shock, but she eventually melted into the shorter woman’s touch. Not even two seconds later, she started sobbing, shoving her head into Catra’s shoulder.

“That’s it, just let it all out. Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” Catra cooed as she stroked Adora’s hair. They both would’ve been freaking out about how intimate of a position they were in if Adora wasn’t having a breakdown. 

Adora sobbed for what felt like hours until she had finally calmed down. She was glad that today was usually a slow day or else she might’ve been seen by some random customer that walked in.

“I’m so sorry for doing that, I just can’t control myself today. I promise I won’t do it ag-” Catra just waved her hand dismissively before Adora could go any further.

“Hey, look at me,” Adora forced herself to look up from Catra’s shoulder even though it felt so much safer there. “Stop apologizing for stupid stuff, okay? You have every right to cry over this. Got it?” Adora nodded as a few more tears began to fall down her face. They sat there for a few minutes before Adora broke the hug, finally feeling strong enough to not have to hide in Catra’s arms.

“Thanks for that, you have no idea how much I appreciate it,” Catra nodded and gave her a soft smile.

“No problem, Princess. Oh, I almost forgot, I wrote down my number, y’know, in case you need someone to talk to or whatever…” She took a piece of notebook paper out of her pocket and handed it to her. Adora just smiled at her. She thought it was really cute how Catra tried to act like she didn’t care.

“Thank you, you have no idea how much I appreciate this,” She said as she held up the paper. Catra just shoved her hands in her pockets and shrugged.

“Eh, s’nothing,” She looked at her watch as she realized what time it was. “Anyways, I’ve got to class, but if you need anything, y’know, feel free to hit me up I guess,” She waved at Adora before turning away to leave.

“Thanks again for everything!” Adora called out as the door began to close. 

Adora still felt miserable throughout the rest of her shift, but it felt a lot better knowing that Catra actually cared about her. 

________________________________

Catra plopped down on her bed, exhausted from a full day of classes. 

“What kind of bitch puts all the fucking art classes back to back?” She complained to herself as she picked up her sketchbook to start her homework. 

She didn’t get very far though because just as she was about to finish the general outline of her picture, her phone went off.

She picked it up, confused at first as to why some random number was texting her until she remembered that she gave Adora her number. She opened the text and it read,

Unknown: Hey Catra it’s Adora. Thanks again for being here for me I appreciate it a lot. Anyways how was your day?

Catra smiled as she added Adora to her contacts list and began to type her response.

Catra: hey like I said np. My day was pretty exhausting cus of classes but y’know how that is. Wbu blondie? How was the rest of your shift?

Adora: it was exhausting and miserable. But money’s money ig

Catra: Yea I get that. How’s your sister holding up?

It took a little longer for Adora to respond this time.

Adora: She’s doing as well as she can be ig. But it really hurts seeing Mara like this. Like today she was having really bad chest pains and I wanted to cry because of how much it hurts seeing her in that much pain. But ik I can’t do that shit because what good am I if I can’t keep it together for her?

Adora: Sorry I went off on a rant like that I just don’t have anyone to talk to about this.

Catra was starting to get annoyed with all the apologizing she did. Especially since 90 percent of the time, the apologies she gave were because of stupid things that aren’t even her fault.

Catra: Yo chill blondie I’m here to be there for you go on all the rants you want and I’ll still be here.

Catra: But I feel you. I know what it’s like to see someone you love suffer and it sucks ass.

Adora: Yea it does. What’d you do to deal with that tho?

She wanted to tell her but she wasn’t ready to tell Adora about her past, or anyone at that. It was just too much for her to dive into.

Catra: Well I never really did figure out a healthy solution when it mattered but the best thing I can say is that you should probably tell her how you’re feeling rn. Just bc she needs you to take care of her doesn’t mean you don’t need taken care of now. You don’t have to tell her right away but you should probably tell her sometime soon.

Adora: I will tell her but idk when.

Catra: You’ll know when the time’s right it’s just kind of a gut feeling. 

Catra: Anyways I gotta go to work tomorrow so I’m gonna try and get sleep. If you need me tho just call me it’s no big deal.

Adora: Oh, ok gn Catra

Catra: Gn Blondie ttly

Catra set her phone down and slowly but surely drifted into unconsciousness. She felt a little lighter in her sleep, knowing she did something to help Adora that day.

Chapter Text

Adora put her phone in her pocket as she sat in the bathtub. She curled up into a ball as she cried. She wouldn’t let Mara see her like this. She was probably freaking out as it was and she didn’t need Adora to make her more worried. 

Mara was already asleep but she didn’t want her waking up and finding her like this. She continued crying for what felt like hours, feeling too tired to move from her spot. So, that night Adora slept in the cold hard bathtub as her brain began to torture her with horrific what-ifs throughout the night.

She woke up to the sound of the floorboards creaking. She checked the time to see that it was after seven. Mara must’ve been getting up for work. She was about to get up, but then she felt a sharp pain shoot up her neck. 

She held her neck as she sat up wincing in pain. Her head pounded and her spine felt like it was going to explode. 

“Geez, why did I even decide to sleep here?” She groaned to herself as she slowly got out of the tub. Her whole body hurt from sleeping on the cold hard tile floor of the tub last night. She limped out of the bathroom and into the hallway in an attempt to wake her legs but it didn’t do her any good. After a couple of steps, she fell to the ground with a loud thud. 

Mara came rushing out from her own room to see what happened.

“Oh my gosh, Adora, are you okay?” She came running over to pick her up but Adora just raised her hand to signal her to stop.

“Don’t worry Mara, I’m fine. My legs just fell asleep,” She gave Mara a smile as she got back up again, hanging on to the wall this time. Mara shook her head and headed back into her room to finish getting ready. Adora inches towards her bedroom to get ready for today's classes. She really didn’t want to leave Mara alone but she knew that if she couldn’t just drop out. It would just make things worse than they already were. 

As Adora finished getting ready, she thought about texting Catra because she could tell that today was going to be a rough day. She decided to do it later though. Catra was either busy sleeping or working right now. 

She went into Mara’s room to hug her goodbye before she left to get to class on time.

________________________________

Catra felt like throwing herself off the roof right now. Shadow Weaver just got done calling her to inform her that she’d be coming to visit her while her dad was away on a business trip.

“Gods, and she picked the worst fucking time to call. Fucking monster, who gets up at three in the fucking morning?” Catra groaned to herself as she tossed herself onto her side to go back to sleep. 

After hours upon hours of tossing and turning she finally decided to give up on falling back asleep and just got up. She decided to do something with the melody she recorded. She got out her guitar and started to play chords out to go with the melody. She decided to keep it simple with a one-five-six-four progression since the song itself was supposed to be rather simple.

By the time she got the rough version of it done and recorded it, it was already around eight. She decided to eat something before she listened to the playback of her song, pouring a bowl of cereal. 

After she finished eating, she headed back over to her computer and started to listen to it back. She made some minor changes to some cheesy or basic lyrics and some vocals that just kind of threw the whole vibe of the song off and recorded the final version of her song. It took her a few tries but she eventually got a good recording of it before listening back to it. By the end of the listening session, she could truly say that she had felt proud about this song. 

She couldn’t wait to show Adora it, but she didn’t know when the right time was, especially since her sister was sick. Adora was probably under a lot of stress right now and she didn’t want to possibly make it worse by dropping a “Hey, I really like you, wanna be my girlfriend?” on her head. She shrugged it off, figuring she’d find the right time as she began to get ready for class. 

Catra was in the middle of class when she got a text from Adora. She picked it up immediately, being excited that Adora had texted her again. 

Adora: Hey

Catra: whats up? 

Adora: Just got done with my first class

Adora: How’s your day?

Catra: class is suuupper boring

Adora: oh shit sorry I didn’t know you were in class rn

Catra smiled at how much of a dork Adora was.

Catra: dont worry dummie if I cared I wouldn’t be texting you rn

“Huerta Santos?” Her professor called to her, knowing very well that she had been distracted.

“Huh?” She looked up at him as he gave her a knowing look.

“Something more important than what I’m saying there?” Catra wanted so badly to give him a snarky comment but she was in no mood to have gotten lectured by him at the end of class.

“No, sorry,” She gave him a fake smile and he turned to keep teaching. She paid attention for a couple of minutes before going back to text Adora, being sneakier this time by hiding her phone.

Adora: I still feel kinda bad but whatever

Catra: whatever blondie, how’s mara?

Adora: Shes as good as she can be ig. Her first treatment should is this friday 

Catra: thats great i hope it goes well for her

Adora: Thanks Catra I really appreciate it

Catra: np blondie anytime

Adora: Oh shit I gotta get back to class bye Catra

Catra: bye blondie ttyl

Catra laid her phone down on the table as she actually tried to pay attention this time. Luckily, there were only ten minutes left in class, so she got out of there rather quickly. 

When she got home, she sat there for hours completing her homework for class in her sketchbook. Hyperrealism might have been Catra’s favorite form of art to look at and her ultimate goal for drawing, but it came with an unbearably long process and she really didn’t have the patience to put up with that today. So, after a few hours of working on getting the anatomy right, she closed her sketchbook and rolled onto her back. 

She picked up her phone and started to scroll through social media. She didn’t follow too many interesting people except for Girl in Red and Hayley Kiyoko though. Neither of them had posted anything new though, so she went back to being bored. That is until she heard her phone ring.

She groaned, expecting it to be one of those annoying ass bot calls but she paused as she saw the call was from Adora. She picked it up, being a bit worried. Usually, the only time people called was when something serious was happening.

“Hey, Adora, what’s up?” Catra greeted her with a hint of concern in her voice.

“Uh, hi, Catra. I guess I just wanted to talk to you for a bit like, catch up on how your day was,” Adora replied shyly on the other side of the line. Catra let out a sigh of relief as she replied. 

“Thank the gods, geez Adora you had me so worried,” Adora let out an angelic laugh. Catra would listen to that laugh forever if she could.

“Why were you so worried?” Adora asked, obviously confused.

“Oh, it’s just that usually when people I know call me, it’s usually because something bad happened or is about to happen,” Catra explained casually as she looked down at her nails. 

“Oh, sorry I didn’t know,” Adora replied with an apologetic tone.

“Nah it’s cool, no need to apologize. Anyways, how’s your day going?” 

“Eh, could’ve been better,” She answered dryly. “It kinda felt like time got really stretched out today, and I was pretty exhausted,”

“Didn’t get much sleep last night?” Catra knew Adora was up a little late, but she hoped she would’ve at least gotten five hours of sleep.

“Well, I think I got a decent amount of sleep but my whole body has been aching all over the whole day,” Adora said with a wave of uncertainty in her voice.

“What’d you do?” Catra asked this time, with more concern in her voice. 

“Oh, um I fell asleep in the bathtub and it wasn’t very kind to my body at all,” Adora let out a groan as she recalled last night.

“Why the hell did you sleep in the bathtub?” Catra wasn’t even all that worried anymore. She was just straight-up confused. Did Adora just sleep in the bathtub all the time? Did she drink too much last night? Who the hell sleeps in a bathtub?

“Uh, it’s complicated. Well, not really complicated but I don’t really feel like talking about it, sorry-” Adora rambled on for a few more seconds before Catra decided to cut her off.

“It’s fine Blondie, I get it,” Catra snapped with venom in her voice.

“Did- did I say something wrong?” Her voice came out tiny, not knowing what exactly she did to get this kind of response out of Catra.

“It’s just, you always fucking apologize for shit you shouldn’t be apologizing for in the first place and I don’t get it,” Catra let out a frustrated groan as she began to soften her tone. “Look, Adora, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you like that,” Catra winced as all of Shadow Weaver’s comments about her being stupid, a criminal, worthless, replayed in her head.

I’m not like that, stupid bitch! She kept repeating it over and over again in her head until the voices were mostly gone. 

“No, Catra, you’re right. It just slips out and I don’t even notice how often it does. I should probably work on that shouldn’t I?” Adora basically whispered. 

“Yeah, it would probably be best if you worked on not saying sorry to everything,” Catra replied with an even softer tone than before. They both sat there silent for a moment before Catra spoke.

“So, how’s Mara doing right now?” 

“Oh, uh, she’s doing okay I guess. She texted me not too long ago. She’s at work right now,” Catra nodded.

“That’s cool that she’s still working,” She really didn’t know what to say in this kind of situation. She never really knew how exactly to comfort people.

“Yeah, I hope it stays that way. She’s weaker now, but I’m sure she can handle it,” Adora lied about the last part. She really wasn’t sure if Mara could handle lifting all the heavy things she had to carry at the blade company she worked at. But Adora held onto the statement to give herself some sense of hope, even if it was false.

“Yeah. How are you holding up with all of it?” Catra knew Adora probably wasn't going to be doing any better than she was last night but it was best that she checked on her again anyways.

“I would like to say it’s easier but honestly, I just feel like it’s just getting harder to handle. I mean it scares me to death that she might fucking die,” Adora whimpered quietly. Catra’s heart broke at the sound of Adora letting out a loud sob. She found herself at a loss of words, not knowing what to say to the girl to comfort her.

“I know how you feel,” Catra finally muttered, eyes watering slightly as she recalled her mother. “And I know that one thing that doesn’t help is playing all those scenarios in your head. I’m not trying to say you don’t have the right to worry because you one hundred percent do, but I’ve learned that if you focus on all your worries and doubts, it’s only gonna drive you insane,” There seemed to be a never-ending moment of silence between the two until Adora finally spoke up.

“Thanks, Catra, I really needed that,” Adora whispered as she started to calm down, wiping the tears from her face. She needed a distraction from all of this soon or else she really was going to go crazy. “Hey, um, do you maybe wanna come over and hang out Saturday night? I just- It’d be nice to feel like things are part way normal, y’know?” Adora suggested as she fiddled with a loose strand of hair.

“Yeah, I’d love to Blondie, just let me know when and I’ll be there,” Catra replied softly. Catra immediately panicked, thinking she had just given her feelings for Adora away so easily. If it were literally anyone else, Catra’s cover would’ve been blown. However, since Adora is such a useless lesbian, it flew right over her head as a friendly gesture. 

“Awesome! You have no idea how much I appreciate it. Does seven work?” Catra’s mouth curved into a smile at how cute Adora sounded when she was excited about something. 

“Yeah, that’s perfect,” Catra internally scolded herself again at possibly revealing her feelings. Her eyes widened as she realized the time that was shown on her alarm clock. It was ten, which meant game time. She usually wouldn’t think twice about hanging up with Scorpia or DT for a game but she hesitated as she thought about leaving Adora.

“I should probably get some sleep now ‘cause tomorrow is like the second busiest day in the week. Damn customers,” Adora let out a disappointed sigh at having to end the call so early.

“Yeah, I should probably get some sleep too, Lonnie fucking called off sick again, so tomorrow will be absolutely exhausting,” Catra groaned as she silently cursed Lonnie.

“Okay, goodnight Catra. See you later,” Catra could practically hear Adora beaming through the phone. 

“Yep, Goodnight Blondie,” Catra hung up after saying goodbye before turning on the game. It was the qualifiers for the World Cup and Mexico was playing the US.

“Ha, dumbass Americans think they can beat us by shoving us in the cold,” She smirked as she thought about how easily Mexico would win this.

It was about halfway through the game when her phone rang for the second time in the night. She picked it up to look at it, thinking it might be Adora but immediately threw it back down on the bed once she saw who it was from.

She went back to watching the game after her phone stopped ringing. Just as Catra was finally getting back into the game, the phone rang again. She groaned as she put it on silent and tried to go back to the game.

But it didn’t matter. Her phone just kept vibrating over and over and over again. Catra almost screamed as she finally picked it up and answered.

“What the fuck is so important that you have to spam call me?!” Catra barked at the person.

“My, my is that any way to greet your stepmother Catra?”

Chapter Text

Hey, so I know that I said I'd be going on a temporary break on this one but I've totally lost motivation to work on this story and when I try to get the plot straight or do anything I just end up hating this work so much. It pains me so much to discontinue this but I just can't right now. I'm gonna still try to be active by writing a few oneshots and a new story in the future but that part will take a while. I still do like the general concept of this fic though, so there is a possibility of a rewrite in the future. Anyway, hope you all have a nice day thanks for reading.