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The room in Bright Moon is hushed, filled with tiny night noises from the thrown open window that are dampened even further by the plush carpet. It’s a safe room, a familiar one, and in a perfect world, nothing here could ever seem dangerous. Nothing ever should .
Into the press of quiet, murmuring to the stutter beat of her heart, Adora says,
“We can’t keep doing this.”
Catra doesn’t pull back, but her hands still from where they’ve been stroking up and down Adora’s back, claws pricking the fabric. Then she chuckles, the sound gravelly and more than a little bitter.
“What? Meeting in your room so you can push me up against a wall and cuddle? Seriously Adora you act like I’m gonna disappear the moment you let me go.”
You will. Adora wants to say it, but keeps the words bit tight behind her teeth.
The war between the Horde and the Rebellion has only gotten bloodier in the years since She-ra joined the fray. People get lost more often than they should - as if losing anyone should ever be something that happens - and those in the thick of it are in the worst danger of anyone.
But sacrifice in war is necessary. Adora knows this.
She knows Catra has to leave. Knows that the information she provides the rebellion with through her double-agency is too valuable to give up. Not now. Not when they’ve pushed the Horde so far back. Not when so many people have been, and still need to be, saved.
But in these moments Adora wants to be selfish. She would never really stop Catra from sneaking away to Bright Moon and Catra knows it, just as Adora knows Catra would never have stopped her had their positions been reversed. They needed each other. That's the way it's always been. Her protests are more of a recitation - a voicing of a worry that can’t truly be worded, because no matter how many times she says it there won’t be a difference.
In the dark, she buries her face in tangled, wiry hair and tries to forget that this moment is technically stolen.
“It’s too dangerous for you.” Adora continues her half-hearted attempt at persuasion while simultaneously tightening her hold on Catra’s waist to pull her closer. The contradiction draws a real laugh out of the other woman this time.
“You say that to all the girls.” Catra’s hands start up their massaging again and her voice rolls into a deep rumble, almost a purr.
The sound sends a thrill of warmth across Adora’s shoulders and down her back. When she pulls back, slow, Catra meets her eyes with a real smile - albeit a small one - and Adora knows she’s forgiven.
They can’t speak of the future, not now, but the present-
Adora slides her hands up to cup Catra’s face in her hands and kisses her, revelling the way they melt into each other as Catra presses back. Years of longing and then years more of knowing - everything in between making them a perfect fit.
Adora knows she’s the only one Catra lets see her like this. The way Catra can let the tension she always holds drain away from her until she’s as soft and as malleable as anyone else. There’s no war when it’s just the two of them. No She-ra. No Horde.
Time for them to just be, to exist without consequence. And for the restrictions to fall away to reassurance.
When Adora finally pulls away Catra is truly purring, a rumble of pleasure deep in her chest, and Adora feels safe to rest her forehead against Catra’s. To break a little.
“Stay tonight?”
It’s a risk, but everything with Catra always is. When Catra opens her mismatched eyes after a moment, Adora meets them without apology.
There’s a beat, then the side of Catra’s mouth twitches up into almost another grin.
“Yeah. Alright.”
Later, Catra will have to go. Later, Adora will watch her leave: not knowing when they’ll get to meet again, not knowing when Catra will next be safe, if they’ll ever be safe.
But that’s the future. Now, in the present, Catra is as real and soft as anything and Adora plans to take full advantage.