Work Text:
Catra sighed as she sat back in the driver's seat of her car. It idled quietly as the florescent light of the restaurant dimly lit her face. She was early due to nervousness and subconsciously wanted to stall this long enough to talk herself out of this. All day she tried to think of excuses to not go but in the end the pressure from her roommate won.
Her roommate, and maybe soon to be former friend, Scorpia had set her up with a friend of a friend as a blind date. She had been depressed around the house for a while now, and it showed both in her general lack of cleanliness and even more than usual reduced work ethic. Scorpia had thought it Catra was just in one of her slumps she occasionally got herself into, but a recent event made her realize the issue. It happened when Scorpia had her girlfriend, Perfuma over for lunch when Catra came home early from work seeing them in the middle of a make-out session Scorpia winced as she saw Catra essentially sprint to her room with a look of anger and depression in her eyes. Through bribes of good coffee and pastries the next morning, she got her Wildcat to open up a bit to her about what was going on.
It had been only 3 months since the breakup. Yet, due to the shame and utter devastation she felt because of it, Scorpia only found out about it that morning. Apparently, every time her relationship had been brought up she would either quickly change the subject or flat out lie that it was still good. Lonnie had been Catra’s true love. Or so she thought. She honestly thought they were weeks away from engagement when she came home to find her in bed with a scrawny little blond twink and a larger man who Catra still swears to this day is secretly a lizard man. This scene before her broke Catra to her core. Lonnie was supposed to be it. She was supposed to always be there for her when she needed it, as she would be for her. Lonnie had been Catra's rock since high school when she finally escaped her wicked stepmother. Sure, she wasn’t Catra's first crush or love, but most elementary school crushes end in a whimper and wither out to nothing anyway.
The noise of another car pulling up next to hers shook her out of her memories. She glanced over through her deeply tinted windows and saw the outline of a woman in the other car getting ready to exit it. Was this her blind date? Was this the woman she would have to put up with for the next hour or so before making a stupid excuse to escape to home to indulge in ice cream and a bad horror movie?
Scorpia had cornered her one day after the kiss incident and, using Perfuma’s homemade ‘special’ ice cream as essentially a bribe, convinced her to go on at least one date with this mystery woman who was a friend of a friend of Perfuma. She really didn't want to do this. In fact the idea of dating again almost made her sick to her stomach. However, if this would get her annoying roommate off her back about this for a while, it would be worth it. The night of calm and unaware bliss the ice cream would provide was just an added bonus.
The door on the other car shut as Catra casually glanced over to the woman now standing next to it. She stood there wearing a simple red dress, long blond hair pulled back in a ponytail with this ridiculous looking poof of hair above her forehead. Catra couldn't help but snicker at the way it sort of bounced a bit whenever the woman moved her head. She shook her head and was about to turn her attention away from the blonde before noticing her face, as the other woman turned to look at the restaurant's tacky lit up name on the side of it.
The first thing she noticed would have been how pretty this woman was, but as the dim lights illuminated her face, she was immediately drawn in by the look of dread on her face. If this was her date, it looks like she might be in the same boat as her and was currently trying to think of reasons to leave.
The other woman sighed and began to walk in front of her car towards the entrance, yet paused just as she stepped in front of Catra's car. Catra sunk down into her seat for a moment, wondering if the woman had seen her looking over, but remembered with how dark it was, combined with the tint in her windows, all the other woman could see was just her own reflection.
Catra debated honking her horn to mess with the nervous woman still standing glancing down at the ground with eyes closed, but decided not to be that cruel to this poor woman. She might not even be here for her.
The other woman shot up with a brief moment of panic and rushed over to the space between their cars and swung open her passenger side door. Catra couldn't help but steal a glance at the woman, bent over searching for something in her car, for a moment before catching herself imagining what was under the dress and quickly averted her gaze.
Whatever the woman was searching for she seemed to find with a relieved breath, and then shoved it in her purse. A moment passed as the woman just stood there, when Catra started to hear mumbling. She leaned over, with her head almost resting on her window, and could make out some of what the woman was saying.
"Come on. You can do this... Yes, it has been over a decade, but this is okay," she heard the other woman tell herself as if trying to plead with someone.
Decade? Catra thought, this woman must be here to meet an old flame or something. Which she thought was a bit odd because this blonde appeared to be only as old as she was, and if it was a decade, she would have been like a kid then.
The other woman then turned towards Catra's car and leaned against her own, still looking down, and sighed. She then looked straight at driver side window of Catra's car and took a deep breath.
"Hey Catra…" the woman said casually.
Catra froze and her eyes went wide. Her face went white as she realized not only was this woman apparently here for her, but also knew she was still in the car.
"No, no…that's way too informal...how about 'Hello Ms. Weaver'?”
Catra's state of mind went from that of deep embarrassment to that of confusion. How did this random woman not only know her name, but also her last name, which she never liked to share due to it being linked to her stepmother.
"Oh God no, what am I thinking? That would remind her of her stepmother, which would great way to start this."
Catra had to stop herself from verbally cursing at what was going on. Was this woman a stalker? How the hell did she know so much about her? It was also at this point she realized that the blonde in fact, could not see her, but was just talking to her own reflection in the car window.
"Oh, come on Adora, it's Catra. Why am I so nervous?" The blonde sighed to herself in defeat.
Catra's mind seemed to short circuit and her eye twitched a bit. Adora? Like Adora Rainbow from back when she was a kid? The girl who was not only her best friend in the world, but was her first crush? The one she had never lost feeling for, and had not seen in over what seemed a decade? The same Adora who was now seemingly about to have a mini panic attack outside her car in front of the fanciest resultant this small town has? Who, even in this low light, make Catra's heart skip a beat with how beautiful of a woman she grew to be?
"Yeah... this should be easy right?" Adora told herself as she started to count reasons on her fingers, "Reunite with the woman you have been in love with since childhood, pray she doesn't despise you for leaving her, hope she would be willing to talk, then sacrifice like a misogynist to the god of womanhood or something that she would have the same type of feelings towards me."
Catra felt something inside her break. The dam she had put up around her heart since Lonnie broke it suddenly felt ready to let something in again as Adora’s words sunk in.
Adora had always been there for Catra. She helped hide her from the wrath of her stepmother, she helped her escape the bullies that sought her. She was there to stargaze on the roof, always against their parents’ wishes. She was the one that made her realize she loved women. But then... then she left. Adora's parents had taken her away, to be in a charter school to pursue her dreams of playing professional soccer, just before middle school. It broke Catra so hard when she left. Honestly, as much as she did love her, Lonnie only helped her partially recover from it all, and it still took years for her to let anyone else into her heart.
And yet, none of that answered how they got to where they are now. Adora loved her. Apparently, she always had. Catra's wall that dammed her heart from the world continued to melt as she took deep breaths to calm herself. And she was not the only one trying to calm themselves as she watched Adora play out her introduction multiple times. Trying to find the perfect one, seeming to gain some confidence with each try. After a moment, Adora leaned forward and looked closer in the window, allowing Catra to see her face more clearly than before, and she desperately wanted to reach out and touch it as Adora sighed something in disgust.
"Oh great, and now my hair has come loose,” Adora complained to herself as she removed the band that held it up, and then pulled it back once more a bit tighter than before. She then leant forward to use her reflection in the window to make sure it looked okay. Catra could only watch as Adora started making odd faces and realized she was checking to make sure nothing else was out of place; looked up to make sure her nostrils were clean, stared closely at each eye to examine her mascara, and made odd lip movements to check the evenness of her lips.
Catra's rollercoaster of emotion seemed to hit another sharp curve as she couldn't help but smile at how goofy it made Adora look. She was always this goofy. No matter how bad Catra thought it had gotten, Adora had always been there to cheer her up with a dumb joke or just by being her endearing self. It's because she loved you, she thought, that big silly dummy loved you.
Though, her smile turned into a blush as she noticed Adora adjusting her, err, self as well and making sure everything was in place in that dress of hers. It was just then when Adora pulled out a small tub of lip gloss that Catra's phone buzzed and rang with Scorpia's stupid custom ringtone. Her ride of thoughts derailed immediately as she was snapped back to reality and quickly reached over to silence the still ringing phone. However, in her desperate attempt to silence the phone, she hit her steering wheel, making it produce a loud honking sound. Catra's eyes went wide as she saw Adora also jump in shock and drop her gloss before she was finally able to silence the phone.
An odd silence fell as for a moment, neither of them moved or said anything. I could just drive away, Catra thought, or I could do nothing and make Adora think it was just a security thing that made the car honk. No, she decided, eyes still shut, she had to do this. With a deep exhale of the breath she held, Catra rolled down her window slightly. Every inch the window lowered she could see Adora's face fill more and more with a look of dread and embarrassment. It wasn't until her window was all the way down and Catra slowly raised her head to meet the blonde's shocked eyes that Adora gasped as she realized who was actually in the car she thought was empty. Who heard all of what she had said and saw her do everything.
"Hey Adora…"