Work Text:
There was nothing in the world as perfect as a Friday night, as far as Catra was concerned.
Saturday and Sunday were fine, too. But having a full work week usually meant the errands filled those days. This week, Saturday was reserved for grocery shopping and trivia night. Sunday, for the ever-so-exciting laundry.
But Fridays, they were just for Adora and Catra. They had it down to a science. Catra got off work exactly one hour earlier, giving her the perfect amount of time to order two orange chicken plates with chow mein and a concerning amount of crab rangoons and have the food home right before Adora walked through the door. They’d get in the comfiest clothes they owned and wouldn’t leave the couch for hours. They talked about their weeks, the latest work gossip, and, unfortunately, sometimes, the bills on the kitchen counter.
Today had been another perfect Friday.
The only thing that could’ve made it even more perfect is if Catra was actually able to get some sleep. She and Adora had said goodnight about an hour ago as they cuddled together, but still, Catra had not drifted off.
She was about to open her eyes to see if Adora had managed to fall asleep yet when she felt an odd movement. The mattress slowly creaked as Adora ever so slightly shifted her weight, pulling her body away from Catra.
Weird, she thought.
Adora was not an easy person to sleep with by any means. She was an actual human furnace, snored, and sometimes even sleep-fought. She also got up multiple times during the night to go to the bathroom, but any time she got up it was not done at the speed she was moving with now.
No, this was something different entirely.
Curious, Catra opened her eyes slightly, just enough to see Adora’s upper body partially turned, seemingly reaching for something on the nightstand.
Once she appeared to grab the mysterious object from the nightstand, Adora began slowly turning her body back to its original position, forcing Catra to close her eyes once more.
A few seconds passed before Catra felt the warmth of Adora’s hand on hers. Currently, Catra was lying on her right side, with her left hand on the pillow just in front of her face. It was that left hand that Adora was touching for whatever reason.
No, not touching. Lifting.
Catra had never been more confused. She did her best to lay still with her eyes closed as she felt Adora slowly slide her hand under her palm and gently lift Catra’s hand off the pillow. Then, Catra’s confusion only grew as she felt something plastic being slid onto her ring finger and then ever so slightly tightened. Adora stopped moving for just a moment before the odd piece of plastic was slid off of Catra’s finger and the mattress creaked with Adora’s movement once more.
Judging by the movements Adora was making, Catra guessed she was putting that odd plastic thing back on the nightstand. But unlike before, Catra didn’t feel Adora turn her body back.
Instead, Adora had turned towards the nightstand and stopped. Catra opened her eyes when she heard the sound of Adora typing the password into her phone.
It was with great strategy, skill, and precision that Catra had her eyes open just wide enough to clearly see Adora’s phone screen, but not wide enough that it’d take too long to close them again if Adora suddenly glanced back.
She never did though. Catra watched as Adora opened the notes app on her phone and opened a brand new note. She proceeded to title the note and write one single entry before shutting her phone off.
Catra ring size
6
Catra closed her eyes again, thoughts racing. Whatever she expected to see Adora do on her phone… it was not that.
Ring size? Why would she need to know her ring size? Also why would she be so secret about it? They’d known each other since kindergarten, lived together in some capacity since college, and had been dating for five years. There was nothing they couldn’t or didn’t talk to each other about. Why didn’t Adora just ask?
And then it clicked.
Why else would Adora need to know Catra’s ring size? Why would she try so hard to discreetly (or not discreetly) find out? Why didn’t Adora just ask?
Because the question Adora was trying to ask wasn’t really just a question.
It was a proposal.
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When Catra awoke the next morning, it was to the smell of pancakes. She did her best to act normal.
Over the delicious breakfast Adora had made, they talked over the day’s plans, which included grocery shopping and trivia night with their friends at a local bar as most Saturdays did. Adora briefly mentioned some papers she forgot to bring home from work that she’d pick up sometime in between their plans. If Catra appeared to be acting a bit strange during breakfast, Adora didn’t seem to notice.
Catra had never in her entire life been more grateful for trivia night. Finally, she’d be able to tell someone about what transpired last night.
Later, as she and Adora browsed the aisles of Trader Joes, Catra debated who she’d tell. She’d been able to rule out Scorpia and Bow almost immediately. Way too emotional and terrible, awful, absolutely horrendous at lying and keeping secrets. Adora would be tipped off immediately that something was up. Entrapta would probably provide a statistic about how many marriages end in divorce, which is not something Catra wanted to hear right now.
That left Sparkles as Catra’s best option. The rest of Catra’s afternoon was spent putting away groceries and debating how to get Glimmer alone without looking too conspiratorial and suspicious. She decided on asking Glimmer to help her grab drinks for everyone while the others were distracted. If that didn’t work, there was always the bathroom.
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Plan A surprisingly worked. In between rounds of trivia, Adora had huddled the table together to discuss strategy. Catra seized the opportunity and offered to grab more drinks for everyone, asking Glimmer if she’d help.
“Can I talk to you about something?” Catra asked once they were far enough away from the table.
“Sure.” Glimmer sounded slightly confused, but ready to listen to Catra nonetheless.
After ordering another round of beers, Catra began her explanation.
“Last night, Adora must’ve thought I was asleep, but I wasn’t.” She started, fiddling with her left ring finger as she told Glimmer what had happened. “I felt her put something on my finger. My ring finger. It must’ve been some kind of ring sizer because I saw her type my ring size into her notes app.”
It was difficult to tell what the expression on Glimmer’s face was, especially given how clearly expressive she usually was. Her features finally settled into what looked to be slight confusion.
“Did you see or find anything else?” Glimmer asked.
“No,” Catra replied. She started to grab their drinks, thanking the bartender before continuing. “She also hasn’t been acting super weird or anything. A bit more nervous than usual, sure, but work has been stressing her out.”
Glimmer hummed, nodding as she processed what Catra was saying. She grabbed the rest of their drinks, but didn’t start walking back towards their table right away.
“How do you feel about it?” She asked.
Catra paused for a moment before answering. She hadn’t really taken the time to actually process her emotions, she realized. After she watched Adora make that note with her ring size, she fell asleep. The next morning, Adora was already up and they spent most of the day together, so it wasn’t like she really had much time alone to process it. Catra had heard of women finding a ring before they were proposed to, but they were usually alone when they found it and either panicked or jumped for joy right there and then. She hadn’t, however, heard of any woman finding out they were about to be proposed to by having their partner measure their ring size when they thought they were asleep.
Then, for whatever reason, it fully hit Catra.
She was about to be proposed to.
Catra had no idea when or how Adora planned to do it. It didn’t catch her completely off guard, the thought of a proposal. Adora and Catra had no shortage of conversations on the topic, and both agreed months ago they were ready. It was just whenever the time would be right.
Catra tried her best to think about when it would happen. They didn’t have any vacations, trips, or special dates set up anytime soon. Adora would probably need more time to buy a ring. As nothing was certainly imminent, it hadn’t really occurred to Catra to figure out how she felt about it. But it also wasn’t hard to figure out her feelings on the matter.
Catra loved Adora. She’s wanted to marry Adora since she learned what marriage was at six years old. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that this was the right decision. Catra even appreciated Adora’s stealthy, but failed attempt to find her ring size. Whenever they talked about marriage, Adora had always wanted to be the one to propose. Catra agreed, even once challenging Adora to really surprise her. Now, it was a bit nerve wracking to deal with the not knowing, but Catra was more excited than anything.
“Excited, a little anxious.” Catra finally answered. “We’ve talked about it a lot, obviously. I knew she would do the proposing. She’s been pretty normal lately so I guess I just wasn’t expecting it. But I did ask her to surprise me.”
“Awww,” Glimmer smiled, her eyes just slightly teary. She put down the drinks and discreetly wiped at her eyes before picking them back up again. “Now you’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Catra sighed, starting to walk back to their table.
“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Glimmer started, walking beside Catra. “Would you be able to give me a ride to the post office tomorrow? I need to return a package. Bow’s taking the car to have lunch with his dads and I’d ask Adora but she said she had a lot of work to get done.”
“Sure, no problem.” Catra replied, remembering the papers Adora had to grab earlier that day and the mentions of a big project her team had been working on. “You won’t tell Adora about our conversation, right?”
“Duh.”
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When Catra agreed to give Glimmer a ride to the post office, she didn’t think it would take two hours.
It shouldn’t have taken two hours. The post office wasn’t even open, as it was a Sunday. But it had a drop box for bigger packages that didn’t fit in a regular mailbox, and that was all Glimmer needed. She had a label printer at home. Knowing this, Catra thought it’d take maybe about thirty minutes to make the short drive to Glimmer and Bow’s apartment, then to the post office, drop off the package, and drop Glimmer back off.
But when Catra texted Glimmer “here” as she waited outside in her car, Glimmer had texted back saying if Catra could come inside.
Slightly disgruntled at the change in plans, Catra walked to the apartment to find Glimmer cursing profusely at her malfunctioning label printer. After about an hour of Glimmer investigating, taking apart, and banging on the machine while Catra read the instruction manual aloud, they figured out the issue.
It was out of paper.
The quick thirty-minute errand to the post office then snowballed into a trip to Target for more printing paper, a trip back to Glimmer’s apartment to print the label, a quick stop at some random café that Glimmer had to get a drink from, then finally to the post office, and back to Glimmer’s apartment.
When Catra had dropped her off, Glimmer had profusely apologized for taking so long. Catra had reassured her it was fine, even though most of the day had passed already and she still had to go home to start dinner and do the laundry.
But it was fine, really. Not ideal, but she’d get over it.
Catra had texted Adora after dropping Glimmer off, asking if she could preheat the oven. But when Catra checked her phone after parking outside of their apartment, Adora hadn’t even read the text.
Weird.
She huffed as she shut the car door, slightly frustrated and very hungry.
When Catra unlocked the door to her and Adora’s apartment, she expected Adora to be either asleep on the couch or working at the desk in the living room.
The sight that greeted Catra instead was something out of her wildest dreams.
The lights in the apartment were off, the only light emanating from the candles that lined the entryway. Catra hesitated for a moment, thinking she was somehow in the wrong apartment. But the red jacket on the coat hanger confirmed that she was indeed in the right place. As she walked through the entryway hallway, Catra felt something beneath her feet and further inspected the scene to find that the floor was covered in rose petals.
Catra usually entered her apartment on autopilot. In fifteen seconds or less, and without even really thinking about it, she’d hang her keys on the key holder, kick her shoes off and place them on the small shelf on the floor, and then shrug off her jacket before hanging it on the coat rack.
Today, however, Catra did none of that. She’d been too distracted by the decorated entryway. Maybe she would’ve thought to do it when she entered the living room, still holding her keys and wearing her jacket.
But Catra didn’t think to do anything when she entered the living room.
Because there, in the middle of the living room, practically glowing from the light of the dozens of candles placed on every surface, was Adora.
“Hey, Catra.”
Catra dropped her keys.
“Hey, Adora,” Catra felt her eyes water. No, she felt tears gather and start to stream down her face. She was crying. Slowly, she moved to join Adora in the center of the room.
“I hadn’t planned to do it like this.” Adora laughed, clearly nervous. Catra took her hands in hers. They were shaking ever so slightly. With a deep breath, Adora continued. “But when Glimmer told me you knew I took your ring size, I thought better now than later.”
“I told Sparkles not to tell you!” Catra almost yelled. The one time she confided in Glimmer…
“It’s okay, really.” Adora laughed. “Because it actually got me thinking. I had already planned to look at rings with Glimmer yesterday, and I ended up actually buying one. Then, Glimmer told me last night that you knew, and it just didn’t make sense to have a ring sitting in a drawer for months on end when I could just ask you to marry me today.”
They both laughed through the tears that were flowing profusely from both of their eyes now.
“So, are you going to ask me?” Catra teased, laughing and crying even more as Adora rolled her eyes and started to speak once more.
“Catra D’riluth, as long as I’ve known you, I’ve loved you.” Adora begins, holding Catra’s hands tighter and crying even harder. “Since I met you on the first day of kindergarten, your fearlessness, sense of humor, true beauty, inside and out, courage, and strength left me with no choice but to fall in love with you. I’d say that day was the best of my life because it brought me to you, but I truly live the best day of my life every day that I wake up next to you. I want to wake up next to you every day of my life. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I want the rest of my life to start as soon as possible.”
Adora releases Catra’s hands to grab a small, maroon velvet box from her pocket. She gets down on one knee.
“Catra D’riluth, will you marry me?” Adora asks. Catra’s sobbing now. They both are.
“Yes. Yes, of course I will.” Catra says. She doesn’t even need to think about the words before they leave her mouth. It’s the easiest question she’s ever had to answer.
Maybe it was because the emotions were running high, or maybe it was because Adora had only planned the proposal in less than twenty-four hours. But for some reason, Adora does not get up right away to slide the ring on Catra’s finger. Instead, she reaffirms Catra’s acceptance.
“Really?” Catra laughs at Adora’s reply. Because yes, really . She holds out her left hand, prompting Adora to slide the most beautiful ring she’s ever seen on her finger. It’s a silver band with a garnet-colored stone and it’s perfect. Everything is perfect.
When Adora stands up, Catra wraps her arms around her neck and kisses her. She can taste the salt from their tears, but has never cared less about anything ever. When they finally break apart, Catra realizes she answered Adora’s initial proposal, but not the second question.
Really? Adora had asked like she hadn’t believed Catra said yes. Of course, Catra had said yes. There was no universe where she would’ve said anything other than yes. Catra had accepted Adora’s proposal. They were engaged. They were getting married. Was there anything else to even say? Really?
“You’re such an idiot.”