Chapter Text
“Looks like you’re mine now, Adora.”
Catra lingered a look on Adora’s face, scrunched up in intense concentration even as she was entirely out of it, limp in Scorpia’s arms. Then she pulled the hilt of the sword back, letting Adora’s head flop down.
“Come on, get her inside,” she ordered, moving back to the base with Scorpia and Entrapta in tow. Snow crusted her fur, crunched audibly underfoot with every step and flew in her eyes when she neglected to squint, and all of it helped to remind her just how much she hated this place, and how much she hated it when Hordak got another asinine idea in his head.
Catra could understand why Entrapta had to be here, but why did Catra? She had battles to fight, a war to win, and instead she was off in the Northern Reach freezing her tail off all for the sake of some stupid tech, and her only chance staving off another session in Hordak’s fucked-up asphyxiation chamber was making this trip worthwhile.
She glanced behind her, where Scorpia carried Adora like a sandbag over her shoulder. All things considered, Entrapta bringing the corruptive disk with her and Adora’s subsequent appearance was probably the biggest stroke of luck Catra had in ages. And now Adora and She-Ra’s sword were in her clutches, the former as helpless as a newborn lamb; the latter the keys to the kingdom.
Oh yeah, things were finally coming up Catra.
Something shifted behind Scorpia. Catra paused, one ear swivelling back. She could see perfectly fine in the dark, but the weather still obscured anything farther than a few score yards away from her. Despite this, Catra swore she saw something move at the quarry’s edge.
Something big.
Scorpia frowned. “Everything okay, Catra?”
Catra stared for a moment longer, but all she could see were a handful of blinking lights. She shot Scorpia a look and trudged on her way. “Yeah, just—”
The ground shook.
“Whoa, what was that?!” Scorpia looked around worriedly, adjusting her grip on Adora. “Are our drilling bots back online?”
“They would need to be manually reset!” Entrapta shook her head. “This is something different, something—”
A towering shape rose over them, casting a shadow a mile long against the floodlights.
Wide, hooked mandibles, claws thrice as tall Scorpia, and eyes. Great, huge eyes glowing a hellish red that streaked in veiny lines down the rest of its segmented carapace.
“…oh god,” Scorpia whimpered.
“MOVE!” Catra yelled, diving to the side. Half a breath later, and the bug-like monstrosity slammed into the ground where the three of them had just been standing, casting up an avalanche that threw Catra through the air. Whether it was by sheer will or instinct, she didn’t know, but she managed to keep a hold of She-Ra’s corrupted sword as she landed in a rolling crouch.
The monster moved with a fluidity that belied its size, slithering down into the crater it had just created and vanishing with a serpentine wriggle of its tail. Catra ran over to where Scorpia and Entrapta were lying, thankfully unharmed. She checked up on Adora next, for whatever reason, and when she saw nary a scrape on her enemy’s face she felt relieved, for whatever reason.
“Scorpia, get her inside! Entrapta, run!”
“R-right behind you!”
With Adora back in Scorpia’s charge, they ran the rest of the way to the base. The ground was starting to shake with an increasing intensity, an ominous rumble building up and rolling beneath them like thunder in the sky. It culminated in an explosion near the Horde base that sent ice and snow a hundred feet high, a snow monster even taller and more grotesque in its twisted state than the previous one emerging. It reared itself up in similar fashion to the whales rising out of the sea they had seen on the trip here, teetered, roared a horrible noise that hurt Catra’s ears, and threw itself down.
The command structure didn’t stand a chance. Like a hot knife through a ration bar, the monster split the building in two under a crashing cacophony of splintering glass, metal and the delayed collapse of the walls and unsupported roof. The impact of the colossal monster against the ground sent another quake through the floor that had Catra staggering back against Scorpia with a grunt.
“Oh fuck,” she swore, watching a careless swipe of the monster’s tail flatten another section of the base.
“I don’t think they appreciated us drilling in the ice!” Entrapta squeaked.
Catra grabbed Scorpia’s sleeve, ready to direct them back to the ship and escape the carnage when a second explosion erupted beneath their feet. Catra caught a glimpse of two red eyes entering her field of vision before being flying a second time, flipping several times and landing in a dense packet of snow. Something hard hit her chin. Scorpia was shouting in the distance. A monster roared.
Catra groaned, pushing at whatever was lying across her face and finding it give way easy. Rising into a sitting position and leaning on her palms, she saw Adora lying upside down with her head half-buried in the snow, the sword nearby.
A fissure had opened up, separating Catra and Adora from the others. The first monster that had risen out of the ground was bearing down on Scorpia and Entrapta, who were running for cover in the ruins of the base. Now more monsters emerged, and Catra hunkered down instinctively when their red eyes swept over her.
She had to get out of there, and fast. Taking the sword, Catra started jogging towards the distant outline of a rocky outcropping.
And slowed. And stopped.
Catra looked over her shoulder, where Adora was still lying in the snow.
Sure, she had She-Ra’s sword and Entrapta’s disk, but you needed two to tango. Or three, in this case. Adora was a necessity to make the murder virus happen again, wasn’t she? There was nothing to control and no She-Ra to set on her friends if she left Adora to freeze to death then and there.
That’s what Catra told herself, anyway, as she slogged back and pulled Adora out of the snow. She reached for the belt on Adora’s waist, unclasping it using it to wrap the sword against her back. It bounced irritably against her side when she moved, but that was the lesser evil when there were still monsters raging around the Horde base just beyond the fissure. She sat on her haunches, using one hand to drape Adora’s arm over her shoulder and securing the other around her waist.
Catra rose back up, strained against the sudden entirety of Adora’s dead weight, managed a single step and lost her footing, flopping face-first into the snow with Adora on top of her.
“Ugh,” Catra groaned, clambering back to her feet. Another crashing noise and tremor emanating from the base renewed her desire to get the fuck out of here, so she made a more level-headed bid at getting Adora away from the fissure; lifting her up by her waist and slowly but surely heaving her over her shoulders in a fireman’s carry.
Adora’s weight over her shoulders gave Catra the idea she bit off a bit more than she could chew. Gone were the last vestiges of Adora’s childhood gangliness. After She-Ra’s form had fallen away, Catra could see her old friend’s face was fuller, with a healthy glow to her complexion that Catra didn’t realise Adora had been missing until now. She could guess the princesses must be eating well, up there in their pretty palaces. Well, fuck them and fuck their food. It only served to make this messed-up rescue operation a deal more challenging.
No, not a rescue operation. Abduction. Kidnapping. Capture. She was capturing Adora, not rescuing her.
Her pace was already starting to slow. The snow felt deeper than before, every step whittling away at her energy reserves. Looking around, Catra became aware of the fact that the blizzard had picked up. Their destination was barely visible for all the snow the wind was throwing in her face, and she couldn’t see what was left of the Horde base behind them anymore.
Nothing for it but to hunch up and keep walking, one step after the other.
To think Catra had been so delighted in defeating and capturing Adora. She certainly didn’t see the fun in it now, forced to carry around dead weight through a snowstorm like she had nothing better to do with her life. Hordak had better get off her back once she brought She-Ra back to the Fright Zone, and start giving Catra some due respect.
After what felt like hours, the ground gradually became uneven beneath her boots. Now she saw the rocky formation, framed by large outcroppings of ice crystals. Circling the formation, Catra quickly found what she was looking for and carried Adora the final few steps. The mouth of a cave, partially obscured by the piling snowfall and really more of a generous crevice when you thought about it. A hole, when it came down to it.
Nevertheless, Catra laid Adora down near the entrance, wincing when Adora bumped her head harshly against the rocks and hating herself for wincing. Catra slid through with ease, ever at home fitting through tight spaces, and saw to her relief that there was almost enough space to stand inside, the tiny cave stretching in for a good three to four yards until it abruptly ended in another crack, this one too narrow for Catra to slip through. She pulled Adora in next, coddling her head just to make sure she didn’t give her any more undue brain damage. Stars knew Adora needed those brain cells.
The last few tugs to get Adora properly situated inside burned at Catra’s arms, very much exhausted by carrying Adora all the way here in the first place. Catra knew she should probably see about tying her friend-turned-enemy up—there was no telling when she would wake up—but she didn’t want to sacrifice her belt for that just yet, and there weren’t many other options as far as restraints went.
Crawling on her elbows, Catra stuck her head out of the crevice, evaluating the blizzard. Nothing but snow, freezing winds blasting in her face and an icy darkness beyond. This cave wasn’t going to last them forever, but going back to base didn’t seem like a viable choice right this second.
A horrid screeching noise carried across the frozen wastes back to Catra, accompanied by disjointed voices.
“…all units return…”
Catra’s hackles rose. Definitely not an option.
Catra slid back into the cave, brushing snow off her coat and scratching it from between her fur. She was once again reminded of just how much she hated this place, and now she had gone from a shitty lab that didn’t even have so much as a space heater to a shitty hole in the ass end of nowhere.
“Let’s get you sorted,” she mumbled, pinning her force captain badge to her coat and untying her belt, turning…
…and coming face to face with Adora, staring back at her with a big goofy grin.
“Catraaa!” Adora squealed—squealed—throwing her arms out like she was about to bear hug Catra. Catra started back with a yelp, inadvertently knocking her head against the rocky interior and falling on her ass.
Adora gigglesnorted, stepping closer carelessly as if they weren’t sworn enemies, as if they hadn’t been trying to kill one another less than an hour ago, and flopped over Catra, ending up draped on Catra’s bunched-up knees. “What’re you… doing down there, Catra?”
Catra flinched away from Adora’s grabby hands, flailing clumsily at her face. She was at a complete loss for words, mouth hanging stupidly agape as she watched Adora slump over her knees like a ragdoll, shaking with giggles. Only when a gust of cold wind from the crevice behind her made her fur stand on end was she brought her back to her senses.
“What the fuck?” she managed.
“Language,” Adora said, breaking off into another peal of giddy laughter. She was pawing around with her hands again, and when she caught the end of Catra’s tail Catra decided she had had enough. She gave Adora a shove, quickly climbing to her feet.
“Owh,” Adora whined, sprawled on the stone floor. “You’re mean.”
“Like I give a fuck! What’s wrong with you?!”
Adora laughed again, throwing her arms up. “Nothin’! I’m just peachy.”
Catra stared down at Adora, trying to process what was happening. Adora stared back, eyes half-lidded and a dopey grin on her face.
“Mhmmmmm’cold,” Adora slurred eventually, dragging herself back up to her knees and reaching for Catra’s legs. Catra bristled, retracting her foot out of Adora’s reach and then firmly planting it down on her knuckles.
“Oooowh!” Adora cried, snatching her hand back and toppling over in the bargain. She pressed her lips to her knuckles like a fucking baby. “Hurts!”
“You don’t get to touch me,” Catra hissed down at her.
“But you’re warm! And… fuzzy.” And quick as you like, Adora was back to smiling stupidly at Catra, standing up. She made a motion to reach out to Catra and stopped short when she knocked her head against the low-hanging ceiling, clutching at her scalp. “Ooooooowh!”
Catra stepped forward on instinct, one hand extended to… do what? “For fuck’s sake, Adora, stop messing around!”
Adora looked at her, and that was all the warning Catra received before the other girl made another attempt at reaching out to her. Catra caught her wrists, arresting them mid-air. “I said, you don’t get to touch—”
Unexpectedly, Adora pulled, and before Catra knew it she was brought down to the floor, landing on the sword with a harsh bump that made her shoulder blades ache. Adora flopped on top of her, beaming a loopy grin.
“Agh! God damn it, get the fuck off me!” Catra pushed with her elbows, trying to bring her knees up and dislodge Adora, but she might as well have tried moving a slab of solid stone. Adora had her wrapped up in a tight hug. If Catra brought her claws out, she could probably—
“Waaaarm,” Adora insisted, burying her face in Catra’s neck.
Catra’s face flushed, cheeks glowing, the familiar scent of Adora now overwhelmingly strong and making her all sorts of pathetically nostalgic for the past. She could barely breathe, could hardly find the dignity to turn her head away.
“Get off me,” she hissed through gritted teeth, trying to wrest her arms free. Adora held on even tighter in response, humming in that way she used to as a kid, trying to imitate Catra’s purr and failing miserably. Catra clenched her eyes shut.
“Adora, I swear!”
Adora finally released one of her arms. Catra prepared to roll Adora off of her when Adora started scritching her behind her ear. Catra froze, the familiar soothing sensation of it such a slap in the face it pushed the air from her lungs.
“You’re warm…. n’ soft,” Adora drawled into the fur of her neck.
Catra tried to fight it. She tried to fight the warmth spreading through her stomach, the goosebumps rippling across her skin, the way her chest was twisting itself up into a painful, heavy knot. Because oh, had she missed this. She would never say it out loud, wouldn’t entertain that embarrassing thought for more than a second, but the weight of Adora on top of her, the smell of Adora thick on her senses, the serene comfort of Adora’s ear scritches—fuck, had she missed this.
And now she had it again, inexplicably and undeservedly. She had Adora. Adora, the one who had abandoned her for greener pastures and who she only ever saw immersed in the terrifying form of She-Ra. Adora, whom she shared a battlefield with, not a bed. She had Adora, cuddling her like she had never even left the Fright Zone.
Catra wasn’t about to fool herself into thinking this could last. The universe had a way of snatching everything away from her, so why should this be any different? This was a mistake, a brief spell of nonsense that gave Catra nothing but a glimpse of what she used to have. Something to taunt her with, to torture her with tonight and every sorry, lonely night that was to come.
And how fucking unfair was that?
“Catraaa?”
Catra’s eyes hurt as she blinked her tears away. How long had she been crying? Adora’s face hovered inches away from her, frowning.
“Catra, don’t cryyy,” Adora said petulantly. “You gonna make me cry!”
“S-shut up,” Catra choked out, though she couldn’t find it in herself to move just yet.
In response, Adora brought her other arm under Catra’s head, separating her from the cold stone floor, and drew her in for a secure embrace, still scratching her behind the ear with one hand. Catra’s face was pressed against Adora’s chest, and now the sobs came out in earnest, wet and shuddering.
Catra’s hands hung over Adora’s back, uncertain whether to bring her claws to bear or return the embrace. In the end, she dropped them down limply, surrendering herself to the warmth of it.
“Missed you,” Adora murmured into Catra’s hair.
Well, there was always gonna be a tipping point. Catra’s growl ripped out from deep inside her wound-up chest, shoving Adora away. “No you didn’t!”
“I diiiiid,” Adora whined, her back to the crevice. “I missed you sooooo much!”
“If you did, you would have come back!” Catra snarled. This was more like it. The arguments, the hostility, the familiarity of it all would ground her, settle her heart and put her mind back in the game.
“I missed you,” Adora insisted, pouting stupidly. “I did.”
Catra rolled her eyes. They were still swollen and wet from her tears, but it wasn’t like there was anyone else around to witness it. She turned away and pressed herself into the far corner of the cave. “Sucks to be you.”
Adora looked around the cave, and then at the entrance behind her. Before Catra could stop her, she was on her belly and worming her way outside.
“God damn it,” Catra cursed, scrambling after Adora and narrowly missing her foot when she made a grab for it. She lowered herself down to her elbows and crawled after her.
Adora was traipsing about like a lunatic, swatting at the falling snow and sticking her tongue out to catch the flakes. Catra pulled on the collar of her coat and jogged after her, catching her by the elbow.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going!?”
By way of explanation, Adora uttered a bunch of incomprehensible gibberish, not bothering to tuck her tongue back in.
“Ugh, it’s way too cold for this. Just—stay inside!”
Catra gave her a tug, and Adora proceeded to flop over her shoulders, breath hot against Catra’s ears. “Yayyyyy, girl’s night iiiin!”
“Yeah, whatever.” Catra scowled, bundling Adora back into the crevice and crawling in after her.
Back inside the cave, Catra briskly directed Adora to one wall with an angry “Stay put!” and settled down opposite of her, their feet nearly touching.
Of course, it took maybe three seconds for Adora to lose her focus on staying put. She pushed away from the walls, arms wrapped around herself.
“Coooold,” she whined.
“That’s what you get for playing around in the snow like a moron.” Catra reached for her belt, making to secure it back around her waist.
Adora doubled over, visibly shivering. “Reeeeally cold,” she moaned. “I wanna go back home.”
Catra grimaced. “Figures you would come to the Northern Reach and forget to actually bring a proper coat. Idiot.”
Adora pouted up at her. “Mean.”
Catra bared a fang in a half-growl, but she saw how badly Adora was trembling, and the wind wasn’t going to let up anytime soon.
With a long sigh, Catra pulled her coat off and walked on her knees over to Adora.
“Turn around.”
“You’re giving me your coat?” Adora drew in a huge breath, her eyes watering. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever done for me…”
So not true, but Catra wasn’t looking to start arguing about that. She semi-manhandled Adora around, pulling her arms through the sleeves and securing her belt around the waist to close the coat up.
Again, Adora was no good to her frozen to death. Catra was helping her out of necessity, nothing more.
Catra glanced up at Adora as she adjusted the coat. Adora stared back at her, still with that loopy grin.
“I like your eyes.”
Catra felt her ears flatten to her head. “Wh-what?”
Adora took Catra by the shoulders, and Catra froze up again. Adora was very close.
“Nobody has eyes like you. Nooobody.” Adora shook her head fervently. “They’re the prettiest eyes ever.”
Catra felt her cheeks heat up again. She pushed Adora’s arms off, sliding the prong of her belt through the strap. “And you’ve got the dumbest poof ever.”
But Adora was already preoccupied with something else. “Smells of you,” she slurred, stuffing her nose in the neck of Catra’s coat. It was too small for her, but it was better than nothing. Catra, on the other hand, was starting to feel the chill settling in.
Adora yawned, but that didn’t stop her from yammering on all the while. “Aren’t you… cold? Y’look cold.”
“No, I’ve got fur, remember? I can handle a little cold.”
“You are, I can tell!” Adora surged forward, and Catra barely managed to throw herself back before Adora drooped over her knees again, exactly like how they started. “Come onnnn, Catra, can we sleep together? I really missed us sleeping together…”
“There’s no chance in hell we’re—” Catra cut herself off.
Adora was snoring.
Adora was lying on her knees, fast asleep.
Catra stared for a long while. Only when the chill blowing in through the cave’s opening became too much and she was shaking like a leaf in the wind did she relent. She took Adora by her armpits and dragged her over to the wall, positioning her in a manner that looked at least relatively comfortable. After leaning the sword some distance away, Catra settled in beside Adora because, first off, Adora was sleeping and wouldn’t remember this. Secondly, they were alone—not to mention it was cold, and shared warmth was as good a way to survive as anything.
Catra tentatively pressed a little closer to Adora, curling into her and trying to ignore the coldness of their stony bed. Yep, shared warmth, that was entirely it.
Which is why she didn’t move or adjust herself when Adora turned over in her sleep, wrapping her arms around Catra’s head.
Adora was very close.
Catra had to admit she enjoyed it, secretly. She enjoyed Adora’s sleeping breaths, warm on her face. She enjoyed the strength of the arms around her, or the way one of her legs was intertwined with Adora’s.
She had relished it when Adora caressed her ear, nuzzling her neck in that animalistic manner Catra enjoyed back when they were cadets, and it was just the two of them against the bleakness of the Fright Zone. Relished it to the point of being reduced to tears.
And this version of Adora was a definite breath of fresh air. Sure, enmity was comfortable and reliable, but even Catra was starting to feel the wear and tear of a long year of Adora saying her name with increasing bitterness and their every interaction ending in blows. This Adora was carefree and happy, her dopiness turned up to eleven.
And in that carefree, unconditional happiness, lying there peacefully asleep, Catra thought Adora looked beautiful.
Beautiful in the way her lips were drawn up in a lazy smile, and how her eyes lit up just the slightest, near-imperceptible fraction whenever she spied Catra. Like Catra was a bright spot in her day, something to celebrate and cherish. Beautiful in her scattered laughter, unable to contain whatever spell of unbound joy the disk’s infection had imparted her with.
It made something stir in Catra’s gut, quickening the cinders of a flame she had long tried to smother. A flame of desire for the impossible, for something Shadow Weaver had told her over and over she could never possess—the simple fact was that it was pity with which Adora would return any declaration of love Catra might field, and all Catra would ever ultimately do is drag Adora down to her own despicable level.
So Catra snuffed the fire inside of her out, and consoled herself with the warmth that stemmed from Adora, holding her tighter so the cold wouldn’t get to her.
“This is not because I like you.”