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The metal door opened with a long creak, the sharp smell of the chlorine hitting Catra’s nose as the harsh fluorescent lights flickered on over the pool inside, the air heavy and still in the silence.
Adora poked her head in the doorway, and then glanced down the hall behind them, making sure no one was around. It wasn’t explicitly against the rules for them to be there but they didn’t want to risk getting caught in any case.
“C’mon,” She whispered, pulling Catra inside by the wrist.
It had been Adoras idea for the two of them to return to the pool that evening. The Horde was nothing if not practical and survival skills were something all cadets were taught - including swimming. Being able to swim in an emergency was a must when planning to someday conquer kingdoms with oceans.
So, for the past month instead of their regular morning simulation exercises the instructors had brought the fifteen year old cadets to the seldom-used and poorly maintained pool deep underneath the Fright Zone and led them through swim lessons.
The rest of Catras squadron had caught on relatively fast - even Kyle, who could usually be counted on to fail miserably at anything new - leaving Catra the only one struggling as she spent the lessons flailing, coughing up water, and clinging to the edge of the pool every chance she got.
She had hardly improved since the first lesson, and with their end of unit exam tomorrow she had one night left to get better.
The pit pat of her and Adoras bare feet on the tile echoed in the empty room as they approached the pool. Catra hovered anxiously behind Adora, arms wrapped around her bare stomach against the chill in the air compared to the summer heat throughout the rest of the Fright Zone, feeling more exposed in the Horde issued swimsuit then she ever had fully nude in the communal showers.
Adora dumped her towel on the floor, revealing her own gray swimsuit that left her arms bare for Catra to discreetly admire the muscles of while she reached up to undo her ponytail.
Blonde hair fell over her shoulders and Catra smirked at the sight of the choppy, self-cut bangs Adora had attempted to give herself a few weeks before and had since been hiding in a poof atop her head. Almost as if sensing her amusement Adora turned to glare at her, and with that wasted no more time jumping in.
Catra flinched at the drops that hit her and the boom the splash made when Adora hit the water. She came up seconds later with her loose hair stuck to her face before she swept it out of the way and looked to Catra encouragingly.
Catra grimaced but slipped into the water, holding onto the lip of the pool like a lifeline as she lowered herself in, cringing at the prickling feeling of the water ruffling her fur, pulling her tail in close to her legs.
“I think you have to let go to swim,” Adora teased lightly from behind her. “Come on, we can practice breathing!”
Catra grumbled incoherently but stiffly paddled to her. Stopping in front of her she tried to tread water like Adora was but quickly found herself sinking. Panic seized her, her ears pinning back as she started kicking frantically, splashing water up around them.
Then Adora reached out and took her hands, lifting her up and helping her stay afloat - the effect of the touch almost immediate as Catra calmed. “Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Adora assured. “Slow kicks, remember?”
Catra took a shaky breath. “Yeah yeah, I got it,” She lied, looking down at the blurry forms of her and Adora’s legs intermingling as they cut through the water underneath them.
Slowly she fell into an easy rhythm and let go of Adoras hands, sweeping her arms out in wide arcs at her sides.
Adora smiled hugely at her like she had really accomplished something. “You got it!” She praised.
Catras felt her stomach do a flip completely unrelated to the anxious knot in it from before, and she flushed - quickly hiding it by sending a splash of water into Adoras face.
“Hey!” Adora cried, laughing as she spluttered.
Catra sent another wave at her and kicked away before Adora could retaliate, and any idea of practice for their exam was forgotten as they devolved into playfully wrestling in the water, splashing each other and pushing each other under, laughing and squealing the entire time.
And without the other cadets snickering at her, or the instructors silently marking down her failure, just her and Adora, Catra found herself swimming a lot easier, and that she didn’t feel quite as uncomfortable as before.
“Show off!” She accused after watching Adora climb out of the pool and stand at the edge before executing a perfect dive like they had been shown, smoothly slicing through the water crossed-hands first.
Adora, floating on her back after coming up, stuck her tongue out at her, and Catra wasn’t about to let that go. She got out of the water, backing up a few feet from the edge, and took a running leap, cannonballing right next to Adora, sending a hail of water over her and around the room.
Adoras laugh was the first thing she heard when she broke the surface, before she could open her eyes against the sting of the chlorine. It made the water now lodged in her ears worth it, the hours it would take for her fur to completely dry seem like nothing. The way the sound bounced around the empty room matched how it always seemed to fill her chest, making her heartbeat quicken and her own lips turn up in a smile no matter what.
Opening her eyes Catra found Adora inches in front of her, nose just above the waterline, staring at her. The color of her eyes nearly matched the pale blue of the pool and they crinkled with a smile when Catra met her gaze.
And then she popped up and shot a stream of water at Catra from her lips. Catra squealed and pushed her away.
She didn’t think about it again until later that night but Catra no longer had any doubt she could pass the swim exam the next day.
As long as she was there, Adora just had a way of making everything awful seem more bearable.
The halls of the Fright Zone were eerily quiet, dark and empty but for the occasional surveillance bot or guard on night patrol.
Or, at least, they were, until Catra and Adora tore through with heavy footfalls and barely contained laughter.
“Go go go!” Adora hustled as the bot they had narrowly avoided running into rolled away.
With their brief window of opportunity the pair darted around the corner and into the barracks proper, yelping when Adora slipped on the metal floor and bumped off the wall, Catra grabbing her to keep her from falling.
Adora doubled over, resting her forehead against Catras collarbone and covering her mouth to muffle her laughter. “We’re so dead!”
“There’s no we!” Catra hissed, shoving her off, which only caused Adora to laugh harder as she stumbled. “Miss ‘we won’t miss curfew!’ If we get caught I’m telling them I was taken against my will.”
“Like it wasn’t your idea to climb the armory tower,” Adora whispered as they continued down the hall towards their dorm, checking around each corner to make sure the coast was clear for them to cross.
“Well I didn’t think your slow ass would take a thousand years to get up there when I suggested it,” Catra rolled her eyes.
Then her ears pricked, twitching towards the sound of distinct footsteps coming from around the corner at the other end of the long hallway.
“Shit,” She hissed. Adora looked at her with alarm. “Mantenna!”
Adoras eyes widened with panic, and with no other place to hide in the empty hall they began booking it towards the dormitory doors.
They made it inside just as Catra heard Force Captain Mantenna rounding the corner, likely still in time to see the doors sliding shut - they weren’t in the clear yet. They dove into Adoras bunk, Adora quickly pulling the thin blue blanket up to her shoulders and Catra curling up at her feet like she did most nights. She closed her eyes, trying to even out her labored breathing.
Catra heard the doors hiss open again. She swore she felt eyes on her and it took every bit of willpower she had not to tense up, to keep her tail from flicking in agitation.
The silence drew on for an agonizingly long time that was probably really only a few seconds, and then she heard the footsteps continue down the aisle of bunks, and finally, the door at the other end of the room opened and closed.
Catra let out a breath, opening her eyes. She looked up to find Adora doing the same, and when their eyes met her face broke into a toothy grin.
Catra lightly smacked Adoras leg. “Don’t look so happy, next time I’m leaving you to climb down on your own,” She threatened in a whisper.
Adora kicked her in the side in return. “You would never,” She said smugly.
“You wanna bet?” Catra insisted, rolling over onto her hands and knees, prepared to tackle Adora.
“Would you two go to sleep?” Lonnie's exasperated voice came from the bunk next to and above theirs.
Catra and Adora both startled at the unexpected interruption. They bit their lips, and with another look at each other any hope of holding back their laughter was lost as Catra collapsed onto Adoras stomach and the two started snickering.
The sound of Lonnie's groan of frustration only made it more funny to them.
The water fountain wasn’t working. Catras natural reaction? Kick the old piece of junk that the Horde apparently couldn’t be bothered to replace despite making a dozen new robots a day while Adora rolled her eyes and suggested they go to the one in the next hall over.
“Ooh, looks like you need to get that kitty on a leash.”
Catra whipped around towards the source of the taunt, an older soldier just barely out of the cadets, walking past with an arrogant smirk.
“What did you say?” Catra snarled at him, her voice low with warning. Her tail swished angrily behind her as she stepped towards him.
“Just let it go, Catra,” Adora urged behind her as the guy laughed.
Catra felt a hand on her arm and reluctantly let Adora gently pull her back.
She started to turn away to follow Adora, when she heard the guy coo, “That’s right, run along little kitty!”
She pulled out of the grip on her arm and rushed at the soldier, claws already extended, hearing Adoras quiet sigh of, “Okay, we’re doing this.”
Twenty minutes later they were in the barracks bathroom, Catra sitting on the counter while Adora dabbed at her bleeding split lip with a wet paper cloth, her own cheekbone beginning to darken with a bruise and hair falling out of its ponytail.
“That guys- ow-” Catra cringed. “Face when he took off,” She snickered.
“I don’t think he expected you to actually have claws,” Adora agreed with equal mirth, tossing the bloody paper in the trash under the counter.
Catra threw her head back with a laugh, ignoring the way her lip twinged. “Fuck with a ‘kitty’ and you’re gonna get scratched. Nice punch, by the way.”
Adora gave a crooked grinned. “It’s good to know all that practice on the punching bag is working,” She laughed, hopping up on the counter next to her, their shoulders bumping as she sat close.
Now beside her, Catra got a better look at the blotchy blue and purple mark starting to form under Adoras eye and winced. “Does it hurt?” She asked quietly, feeling a pang of guilt for Adora getting injured on her behalf.
Adora raised a hand to lightly touch her cheek as if she had forgotten about the hit she took until Catra reminded her. She hissed slightly when she pressed on it. “Not too bad.”
“You know, I could’ve taken him on my own, you didn’t have to jump in,” Catra mumbled, looking away with her arms folded over her chest, indignant at being underestimated again, and worse, by Adora, who always seemed to think she couldn’t handle herself. Sure, she might have gotten more beat up on her own but she was confident she still would have won...
“I know,” Adora said, elbowing her in the side lightly. “But he deserved to really get his ass kicked and we could do it better together, right?”
In Adoras casual excuse she heard, as she often did in different words and actions, said between them in a million different ways since the first, an echo of ‘you look out for me, and I look out for you.’
That thought, along with the image forever imprinted in her mind of Adora decking a guy twice her size in the face in Catras defense, chased away any remaining bitterness, leaving only a giddy kind of exhilaration in its wake.
The annual heat wave that hit the Fright Zone every summer had arrived, amplified by all the metal and concrete and machinery, covering the industrial city in an oppressive, smoggy haze and turning the inside of every building into a nearly-unbearable furnace.
Despite that, life didn’t stop in the Horde because it was hot.
After their final simulation of the day and with free time until dinner ahead, the cadets dragged themselves to the training building courtyard and collapsed in the dirt in the shade of the tower with hopes of finding at least a little relief after all day inside.
Catra groaned, lifting her hair off the back of her neck to let the air cool the hot skin underneath.
Across the circle from her Kyle peeled his sweat-drenched shirt off his chest.
“Put your shirt back on, Kyle,” Lonnie said from where she was sprawled starfish on the ground nearby. “No one wants to see your scrawny ass.”
Rogelio roared something that could have been protest or agreement.
As the three of them started to argue Catra picked up a long piece of scrap metal discarded on the ground by her feet and began scribbling in the dirt with it.
“Hey, Adora,” She said, nudging Adora who had been leaning back beside her. “It’s you,” She indicated to her crudely drawn stick figure with an oversized hair poof for identification purposes.
Adora frowned. “Give me that,” She insisted, reaching for the stick in Catras hand.
Catra leaned away, holding the piece of metal out of her reach and pushing Adora back with a hand on her damp cheek. “You can’t improve perfection,” Catra laughed as they wrestled.
A small flash of blue on the ground out of the corner of her eye caught Catras attention. “Adora look!” She said, giving up on their roughhousing to lean in for a better view of the insect crawling along the ground. It was long, with dozens of legs, covered in fuzzy teal fur with purple stripes across it.
“Whoa, cool,” Adora gasped. Living creatures were rare in the Fright Zone. Catra had never even seen one like that.
She gently slid her metal stick under it and lifted it up, holding it out in the air between them.
“Guys!” Adora called excitedly to the others.
“Ew, what is that?” Still-shirtless Kyle asked, eying the bug curiously while shrinking away like it might lunge at him.
“Don’t know,” Catra said, getting a wicked glint in her eyes. “Want it?” She thrust the stick with the insect towards Kyle, causing him to squeal and scoot backwards. The other three burst into laughter.
“N-no! I don’t!” He cried, backing as far away from the offending creature as he could get without leaving the circle.
“Aww, I think it likes you though,” Catra said sweetly, waving the stick in front of him. “It wants to be your friend.”
“I bet Rogelio would love it,” Lonnie piped up through gwaffs. “It’s your favorite color and everything, right Ro?”
Adora howled behind Catra as she turned the stick on Rogelio who roared his disagreement, vigorously shaking his head.
The insect was soon placed back on the ground and forgotten while the bickering and laughter continued among the teenagers. Catra was still sweating, but she didn’t mind anyway when Adora leaned into her for support as she clutched at her stomach, her hot skin pressed against Catras. It probably would have been gross if it was anyone else, but somehow it wasn’t if it was Adora.
It hadn’t been long after lights out that Catra swung from the top bunk into Adoras cot below, Adora automatically scooting over to make room for her so they could lay shoulder to shoulder while they whispered and laughed in the dark until way past when they should have been asleep.
Fatigue caught up to Adora first, though Catra could tell she tried to fight it to prolong their fun, forcing her eyes open as they kept closing, her responses becoming slow and nonsensical.
She curled closer to Catra then she normally would have in full wakefulness, her chest pressed against Catras arm, one leg tangling with Catras. Her fingers found their way into Catras hair where it draped across their shared pillow and began to braid a small portion, watching the repetitive motion with heavy-lidded, distant eyes.
Adoras eyes drooped shut again, and didn’t reopen, and her fingers stopped braiding in favor of simply running through the locks.
“What are you doing?” Catra asked, her voice coming out shaky from the fluttering feeling in her chest that seemed to be working its way up into her throat and making breathing hard.
Adora didn’t seem to notice. “I like touching your hair,” She slurred sleepily, her lips twitching up in a serene smile. “This parts kinda… rough, but this part,” She reached up without looking, easily finding and caressing the tuft of lighter hair under Cat's ear. “Is soft. ‘S nice.”
Catra didn’t know how to respond, didn’t know if she could have even if she did, her mouth suddenly dry and her heart hammering in her ears and all her focus on the feeling of the gentle pull of Adoras fingers through her hair, the warmth of her body next to hers.
Luckily, Adora wasn’t waiting for a reply, and soon after her fingers stilled beside Catras head, her breath coming evenly and her face relaxed with unconsciousness.
Catra didn’t know how long she stayed awake after that, it could have been minutes or hours, laying as still as possible so as not to disturb the girl nestled into her, her eyes tracing her features despite knowing them better then she knew her own, watching her chest rise and fall with the breaths she could feel ghosting over her cheek with Adoras face so close.
Adora nuzzled her head into the pillow a little more, causing a piece of hair to fall from her ponytail and into her face, billowing with each exhale. Catras fingers itched to brush it away, to possibly linger at Adoras jaw, roam over the curve of her cheekbones, feel the soft give of her skin.
She kept her hand at her side.
Catra couldn’t believe she had agreed to this.
Standing at the edge of a lake on the Brightmoon grounds in the middle of the night, in nothing but underwear and an oversized t-shirt because she didn’t have an actual swimsuit, she watched Adora wade into the black water up to her waist before looking over her shoulder.
“Are you coming?” She asked with a teasing smirk.
“Uh, you know what, I think I’m good here,” Catra said, eying the ripples of water reflecting the moonlight inches from her toes. “You don’t know what's in that lake, there’s probably- I don’t know, snakes and bugs and shit.”
Adora turned fully, putting a hand on her hip and - why did she have to look so good in the red swimsuit that she apparently owned that showed off her broad shoulders and abs and the dip of her lower back.
“Glimmer and Bow and I have swam in this lake plenty of times,” Adora placated with a roll of her eyes. “It’s safe.”
She sunk into the water, her arms lazily swaying at her sides to keep her afloat. “And it’s nice and cool,” She sighed blissfully, closing her eyes for a second then opening them to look at Catra hopefully.
Catra held out under that look for a moment longer before she groaned in resignation and stepped into the water, gasping a little at the cold at first but quickly finding it refreshing from the summer heat that had gradually settled over Brightmoon like a too-warm blanket.
She walked to Adoras side, still easily able to touch the sandy bottom. Her fur prickled uncomfortably, and the t-shirt she was wearing puffed up, and the sensation of water rising around her momentarily brought a less than happy memory of her time on Horde Primes ship to mind, but Adora beamed at her like the simple act of Catra joining her in the lake had made her entire night, and it was worth it.
She reached for Catras hand, lacing their fingers together. “Is this so bad?”
Catra pouted. “No,” She grumbled.
Somehow Adoras smile got bigger.
“But I hope you’re right about this lake being safe because it would be a shame if something pulled you -under!” And with the last word she pushed Adora down by the shoulders, laughing as she came back up spluttering with her hair plastered to her face, and proceeded to launch herself at Catra, the both of them falling back with a splash.
They tussled in the water for a while, their laughter and lighthearted threats bouncing off the trees and the clifface nearby, splashing and pushing each other around and getting soaked in the process.
Then Adora rose from a dunk and threw her arms over Catras shoulder, gasping for breath through giggles that Catra could feel shaking through her chest to chest as they were.
Catra pressed their foreheads together, and the laughter subsided into a quiet broken only by the light wind that carried the smell of the gardens nearby rustling the leaves of the Whispering Woods and the hum of insects in the heavy air.
Looking at Adora through her eyelashes, her wet skin appearing to almost glow in the light from the moons and stars overhead, and her eyes closed as she simply enjoyed holding Catra, she was once again struck with amazement that she could be so happy.
Catra had thought, after Adora left the Horde, that she would never again laugh until her sides hurt, or stay up late talking about everything and nothing, or spend a summer with nothing more important to do then try to stay cool. She had thought those were things left behind in her teen years that seemed to truly end with Adoras departure, something she could never recapture or feel again.
She hadn’t anticipated that she wouldn’t just be that happy again, but happier. That she would get all those things along with more friends to share them with, ice cream and cold drinks enjoyed in the shade of a massive tree, freedom like no one in the Horde ever truly had, and Adora back in a way she could never have imagined having her as a teen.
Catra pressed a kiss to the tip of Adoras nose, and then her lips, pulling her closer with her fingers tangling in her wet hair. Adora hummed contentedly, kissing Catra right back.
Definitely better than anything she had when she was younger.