Work Text:
As she sat on a plane, waiting to depart, Catra's thoughts wandered to her past. For most of her extensive life, it had been just Adora and her. Now she sat, alone, begging any and every deity that she could think of for a chance, just one chance, to redeem herself. She slumped in her seat with watery eyes, reminiscing about her former best friend and their life together.
-
Adora and Catra were both orphaned young and left with no one but themselves to rely on. Even as young as they were, street urchins were shouted out of gathering places in their home town, rocks thrown at them until they could skitter to safety. It was one such instance that they found each other. Adora was hunched over a piece of molded bread in a dark alley when Catra came skidding around the corner, tears streaking down her face and mixing with the blood seeping from her forehead.
They both froze and stared at the other, eyes wide. Hesitantly, Adora had reached out, offering what was left of her bread. Catra eyed her suspiciously, one hand coming up to viciously wipe at her tearstained cheeks. When she shuffled forward and swiped the bread from her outstretched hand, Adora beamed, revealing the childish gap in her teeth. The simple expression of joy had made Catra's heart stutter, even then.
Thus began their friendship.
They clung to one another in a world that did not want them. Humans and magicats alike looked down their noses at them, distaste clear on their features at the mere sight of their dirty faces.
One day, a witch draped in a long black cloak took notice of them. They were curled together, sharing a rat they'd hunted- well, a rat Catra had hunted. The sun was blocked out as she floated closer to them, her face covered in a mask that pulsed faintly with magic. She knelt before them, her eyes never straying from Adora, even as Catra hissed and moved to stand protectively in front of the blonde.
"Would you like some food?"
Catra's hiss had died off and Adora shuffled closer, one hand coming up to rest between the magicat's shoulder blades.
"What do you want in exchange?"
They were no strangers to work or thievery. They knew only others shunned by society would approach them. Slavers and thieves and all manner of evil folk had approached them in the past, some looking to sell them and some looking to use their knowledge of the area and its inhabitants.
The witch, however, simply shook her head. Her eyes seemed to smile beneath the mask, sparkling with a cruel sort of glee as Adora pulled Catra back and placed herself in front of the woman with a fearless set to her shoulders.
The witch would visit them for months, always with food, sometimes staying to observe them, focusing silently on Adora for long stretches of time while they tried to sell fruit they'd picked from the nearby woods. The woman unnerved the girls but eventually they came to see her as mostly harmless. She had an odd fixation on the blonde and seemed to wrinkle her nose if Catra got too close, but she brought them food and that was enough to make the girls look forward to her visits.
One day, the girls were chased from town by a band of lizardfolk. They dodged between buildings and fled into the woods to escape the stones hurled at them, eventually taking shelter under a large tree. Both bleeding and scared, they huddled together, afraid to venture too far into the woods and afraid to try to circle back into town where the lizardfolk were no doubt still looking for them.
A snap of a branch nearby had Catra's hackles raising and Adora spun on her heel with fists raised defensively as Catra crouched beside her. From the shadows emerged a familiar figure, her mask sparkling in the little light that filtered through the leaves above them. Both girls relaxed slightly as they realized who it was, but Catra sat back on her haunches and eyed the woman suspiciously as she approached.
"Why are you out here? How did you find us?"
"Why, magic, of course," the witch replied, eyes barely flickering to meet Catra's for a moment before settling on Adora. The magicat wasn't offended, she was used to the witch's behavior. "I heard a commotion and what was I to discover but my favorite street children fleeing an angry mob? Truly horrendous. I came to check on you girls and offer safe lodging for the night."
Adora glanced over to her friend, unsure. Catra seemed no more confident in how to proceed and shrugged slightly.
The blonde cleared her throat, "um, well, my lady, we do greatly appreciate the offer. But we wouldn't dare burden you by intruding in such a way on your home. We are well accustomed to sleeping under the stars, it will be no hardship for us to also enjoy the soft padding of the grass."
The witch waved a hand dismissively, "oh, nonsense, darling. I would be burdened knowing you were left alone out here in the woods, easy pickings for the feral creatures that lurk within. Please, I must insist. I have extra bedrooms already prepared, and plenty of food to share."
The girls hesitated only a moment more before giving in and following the witch back to her home on the outskirts of town. Her cottage was small but well-built, in a different style than the other houses nearby. Catra had looked around, trying to take in all the details of the exterior, but found that looking at the building directly quickly had a headache forming in her temples. The stone that made up the walls was an interesting shade and sparkled under the fading sunlight as they approached, seeming to blur at the edges of their vision.
"We, um, we truly appreciate your gracious offer, my lady-" Adora had started nervously, wringing her hands as she stepped into the home and carefully looked around.
The woman's smile was clear even through the mask as the door shut soundly behind them and snuffed out what little sunlight remained.
"Call me Shadow Weaver, my dear."
-
Catra blinked away from the memory of the witch that had once captured and imprisoned them. A hardship they had faced together, coming out changed but their bond unbroken. The witch's experiments had left them immortal, unbound from time, stronger but more cynical than they had been as children.
That shared affliction both brought them closer together and threatened to tear them apart.
Catra remembered the way that Adora had hated their need to feed on the living, her refusal to hurt even those that had always shunned and detested them. Catra had no such qualms. She became a thing of nightmares, a beast no different than what that witch had always accused her of being. Adora had still stood by her, trying to sway her away from her path of violence. Adora took to feeding from animals, slipping into stables or pastures and leaving the creatures slumbering there, anemic but alive. Their differences had left Catra tense, afraid of Adora realizing what a monster she was and abandoning her.
It was then that Adora made friends with a living girl. Catra remembered her long brown hair and her kind grey eyes that seemed so like Adora's that it made her blood boil with rage. It was centuries past now, but still the cold weight of guilt settled in her gut at just the thought of Mara. Adora had taken a liking to her and in a fit of rage, Catra had ripped her throat out, leaving the body for Adora to find.
Adora knew immediately what Catra had done. Where Catra had expected anger and retribution, she received only sadness and isolation. Adora had drawn away from her, with only a sad look of disappointment before she fled into the woods. It was weeks before Adora could bear to look at Catra again. By then, Catra's guilt had festered, stoking her anger and resentment and self hatred to previously unseen heights.
The rift between them grew as Catra spiraled, killing not only for food but for sport as Adora watched helplessly.
The final straw was the arrival of Glimmer and Bow. Two more living friends, centuries after the first, but that jealousy flared just the same as the first time. She descended on them in the dead of night, but hadn't anticipated Glimmer's magic. A witch, of course, Catra had thought at the time, sneering with hatred as she was forced to retreat and leave the two bleeding out in an alley. Adora found them just in time to turn them, making them the same as Catra and cementing in the magicat's mind the fear that Adora sought to replace her.
-
Catra gazed out her window at the dense cloud cover, unable to see more than the occasional splash of green of the ground below. She wished, now more than ever, that she had let Adora help her so long ago. It had taken decades of slashing her way across the world, leaving a trail of destruction in her wake, for her to finally tire herself out. She contemplated taking her own life, but had realized with no small amount of humor that she didn't know how. Catra had been hurt many times in her life, several of her injuries fatal, but had always healed given time.
It was then that she set out to be better. Separated from Adora, she felt little incentive to mingle with the living, but she forced herself to give these people that Adora was so fond of a chance. It was then that she found Scorpia. The woman was dying when Catra found her, both her mothers already taken by the illness now afflicting her, and yet she had smiled when Catra hovered over her with claws unsheathed. She had closed her eyes and awaited the clutches of death, only to find that Catra had changed her mind and released her of its shackles forever.
Through Scorpia, Catra began to see the world as more than just a place filled with pain. People were no longer just enemies and food. Later they met Entrapta, a recently immortalized inventor that Adora had saved from a rather gruesome end by her own creation, and formed an uneasy trio. Both women were tolerant to a fault, but their endless patience for Catra's more destructive tendencies eventually bore fruit and true friendship blossomed.
Now, Catra could only smile at the thought of her friends. Entrapta's connection with Adora and her ever-growing band of do-gooder immortals had at first been a point of strife between them, but in recent centuries had offered Catra the opportunity to keep tabs on her former best friend. She had never asked anything specifically, only allowed Entrapta to ramble on and greedily drank in any information offered to her.
Catra couldn't help but wish she had had the courage to ask sooner. If she had known how close Adora was...maybe she wouldn't have needed a letter to spur her into reaching out.
-
Catra was perusing through the military history section of her favorite museum when she saw familiar handwriting in a case set aside for wartime correspondence. At first, her lips quirked in a smirk, her heart long used to the painful twinge that came with remembering her best friend. It had been so long since they'd last seen one another, locking eyes for one fleeting moment as Adora and her company passed Catra on a busy street that no longer existed.
The magicat drew closer, mindful of her tail as a stranger passed close behind her. Her eyes widened when she saw her own name written in that familiar scrawl. The ink had faded, hard to read in places but mostly legible, in a long dead dialect. A rough attempt at translation by a historian was placed beside it, but Catra's eyes were trained on the familiar curls and slashes of Adora's messy handwriting. It was from the summer of their falling out. That summer, Catra remembered bitterly, was the one that her jealousy had raged within her and driven her to lash out at the only person who had ever cared for her.
She saw mention of that fight, in Adora's words a 'misunderstanding of incredible proportions.' Catra's brows knit as she realized she didn't remember this letter. She would have remembered correspondence taking place after that night, the night she'd thrown a chair and hissed at Adora from behind a hateful mask, telling her that she never wished to see her face again.
No, they'd never spoken again after that. Those last words had echoed in Catra's mind endlessly over the years, accompanied by the painful twist of Adora's features and the tears that had filled her eyes as she turned and walked out of Catra's life forever.
But in this letter, that scene had clearly already taken place, just a few days before. Adora mentioned giving Catra time to calm down and Catra could almost hear the teasing lilt of her voice in the curves of her writing.
Catra's smile froze as she read and reread the last few lines of this lost letter.
"I have been unsure for too long and my hesitance and cowardice has hurt you. For that, I will never forgive myself. I understand if the words you shouted in anger are more than just those said in the heat of the moment, and if they are true, I will never venture to stand before you again. I must, however, lay bare my feelings for you in the plainest terms I know how before I can force myself to let you go. I love you, Catra. I have always loved you. As a dear friend and as the only one that could ever hold my heart. I will be waiting at our spot at sunset in a fortnight's time and I hope more than anything to see you there. Whether you return my feelings or wish to remain friends, I only hope that you will allow me to remain by your side for eternity, as I have always dreamt. Yours always, Adora."
It was only when she felt moisture on the back of her hand that she realized she was crying, covering her mouth with both hands as if to physically hold in her grief. All this time, Catra had yearned for Adora, in any form she would allow, only to remain apart, afraid to face her dear friend and find hatred in those blue eyes. All of this time, they could have been together.
Catra's heart broke and mended itself in that moment, her veins pulsing with renewed life, coloring her cheeks for the first time in centuries.
The magicat twisted and dropped to all fours, ignoring the startled exclamations her sudden departure elicited from the museum's other patrons. She burst out into the blinding sunlight and dug her phone from her pocket as she frantically hailed a cab. The phone rang only twice before a chipper voice rang out but Catra cut it off with a frantic cry.
"Wildcat," Scorpia tried to soothe over the line, "what's going on? Are you alright? Tell me where you are, I'll come get you."
"No," Catra gasped, swallowing down her tears and fighting past the lump in her throat as she threw herself into the first available taxi and barked for the driver to get her to the airport. "Scorpia, where is Adora?"
The silence on the other side was deafening for several seconds before Scorpia hesitantly spoke, "Wildcat, what's this about? You said-"
"I know what I said but I have to see her. Please, I know you know where she is. Tell me."
Scorpia sighed and Catra could envision her worried frown perfectly. The thought sent a pang through her chest. She could picture the way that Adora's brow used to knit with worry over her, the way her lips would twitch when she tried to fight a smile when Catra caused trouble.
"She's in DC. She works for a nonprofit with Glimmer and Bow. Entrapta knows the address, I'll text it to you."
"Thank you," Catra breathed, her chest constricting at the thought of finally seeing Adora again. She was so close. Just an hour plane ride away, after all this time.
-
The sun was beginning to set when Catra finally arrived in DC. She pulled out her phone and made her way to the address Scorpia had sent. It was an office building not far from the capitol, filled with people in business clothes coming and going. Catra stuck out like a sore thumb in her tights and hoodie, but she barely spared a glance at any of the people sending her judging glances.
It was easy to find the office where Adora worked, the large map beside the elevators marking the entire fourth floor as the offices of Greyskull Alliance and the various charitable organizations that resided within its purview. In the elevator, Catra found herself pacing, flexing her hands with claws out as she tried to bury her anxiety.
Adora had loved her once. Had loved her even after the terrible things she had said and done. Maybe she could love her again. At the very least, they could be friends.
As much as Catra loved Scorpia and Entrapta, her life felt empty without Adora. They had always been partners in crime, surviving and leaning on one another long before anyone else deemed either of them worthy of care.
When the doors opened, the magicat stood, staring wide eyed out into the office space. It had cubicles set up to one side, tables and whiteboards set up on the other side. There were perhaps a dozen people roaming around, fulfilling tasks and finishing their work for the day, but Catra's eyes were drawn to only one.
Adora was leaning over a table, pointing at a paper and explaining something to the willowy blonde sitting beside her. Catra saw a woman with blue hair take notice of her, but brushed off her greeting as she stepped out of the elevator and toward the love of her life. The woman rolled her eyes and turned to resume her work, letting Catra pass by and march across the floor.
Adora stiffened as Catra approached, her back straightening and shoulders drawing up as her fists clenched. Catra couldn't see her face from this angle, but she could tell even from behind that Adora had sensed her presence.
The blonde at the table looked behind Adora with a frown, looking confused as her eyes landed on Catra. Before she could open her mouth, Catra stopped just feet away and tried to speak in a somewhat even voice.
"Hey, Adora."
Adora turned slowly, hopeful blue eyes finally meeting blue and gold. "Catra," she breathed, sounding wrecked at just the sight of her.
"I saw your letter."
Blonde brows furrowed and Adora frowned, clearly not understanding. Catra cleared her throat, "at a museum. There was a display of letters from the war."
At that, Adora's eyes widened and her breath hitched. Catra stepped closer, ploughing on, "I never got it. I- I would have- I would have gone, if I had known. But I never got it. I saw it today and realized how much time I wasted trying to hate you. I- I'm so sorry, Adora. I wish I- I wish." She couldn't finish, her eyes overflowing and shoulders shaking as she fought to keep her legs from giving out. So long she had dreamt of seeing Adora, so long she had hoped that Adora might have felt even a fraction of the love that she had felt. Now she could only hope the other woman would let her down easy.
Adora surged forward and wrapped Catra in her arms, pulling her tight to her chest and murmuring soft words of comfort in their mother tongue. "I'm here, kitten. I'm here. I have you. I'll take care of you."
That was what finally broke Catra. Hearing those words in Adora's voice, in a language long dead, a promise just for the two of them, made Catra's heart burst with love. Her voice cracked as she answered, pressing her face into the crook of Adora's neck and whispering against the soft skin there, "I love you. I've always loved you."
Adora pulled away and nearly blinded Catra with her smile. "You...love me?"
With a chuckle, Catra rolled her eyes fondly, "you're an idiot."
"I love you too."
Her eyes widened, then slowly fell closed as Adora bent to press their lips together.
It felt like coming home.
Finally, she felt like she was where she was supposed to be.