Work Text:
Adora was here the first time this happened.
The thought came uninvited, but was not unwelcome.
Usually Catra pushed away thoughts of her former best friend, but today hiding in a small forgotten storage closet, barely clothed, yet still far too warm, she was too weak.
She idly wondered if knowing what was happening was worse, or if Adora had always made things less scary.
The latter, she assumed. Though now there was almost a detachment from what her body was experiencing.
She wondered if that happened after this became a regular occurrence; hiding in the coldest area of the fright zone, hidden away so no one would see her weakness, except for Adora.
Adora would never scold her for weakness; instead she always comforted her in any way she could.
Catra shifted slightly moving her face to a cooler patch of floor. It felt nice.
It was getting harder, and harder to think; the unfortunately familiar fuzziness overtaking her brain.
She lost any hope she’d been holding of remaining conscious when the bright spots appeared in the centre of her vision, slowly expanding over her vision leaving black in their wake.
She wondered if this was the end, before she was sucked into unconscious.
———
She opened her eyes slowly, doing her best not to move much; she’d learned better than to try to move immediately the first few times.
Once her breathing was a bit better, she managed to prop herself against a wall.
She sat there, panting from the exertion, far longer than she would have any other day (not that she would have at all).
The metal wall was cool under her skin. She appreciated it.
——-
Time ticked on as it tended to do, and eventually Catra’s temperature returned to normal.
She grabbed the blankets she’d snuck here, pulling one over to sit on and another to wrap around herself.
Sure enough the expected cold soon enveloped her, though the shivering was worse than usual.
Adora had always worried about the shivering, and always suggested moving somewhere less cold, but Catra had told her the cold was the only thing that made the fever like heat bearable.
While true it didn’t make the experience pleasant after the fever like heat had stopped.
Eventually, the shivering stopped. It was a small mercy from her exhausted body.
She would never understand how this would completely exhaust her in a way no other activity could.
She unfolded the blanket she’d been using like a cushion, pulled her damp (and now chilly) coat on, and curled up in her makeshift bed, to sleep.