Chapter 5
Catra is focused on her phone, mindlessly rolling a sucker between her teeth. Some email or another.
Adora can see then the Catra from her dreams and the stark differences between Real Catra and Dream Catra. She has to wonder what must be wrong with her head to imagine a Catra so...
Her hair is pulled back, her ears exposed. There's three hoops across her earlobe. Catra's had them since they'd met, but suddenly they seem...
Adora's fingers gently tweak the cuff of Catra's ear before she can think to stop herself.
Catra blinks, looks over as she pulls the sucker out of her mouth, laughs when Adora quickly pulls her hand back.
"Can I help you?" She asks.
"Ah- no-" Adora looks away, embarrassed by her own thoughts and lack of impulse control. But…
She glances back to Catra, who had returned to her phone with just a bemused shake of her head.
Dream Catra's ears were just...
The pale shell of Real Catra's ear called to her again though and Adora finds her fingers ghosting over it, a whisper hopping out over the touch,
"They're just so different…"
She feels Catra tense, teeth clamping down on her candy roughly before she looks over and-
Fear.
Adora blinks, and Catra's expression has changed so fast she thinks maybe she imagined the panicked wideness of her eyes, the catch of breath.
"What the hell are you talking about?" She says it affectionately as she pushes Adora's shoulder, stands up from the table. "Dummy."
Catra talks to the cashier but Adora is too far away to hear and attention too focused to care what she's ordering.
She glances over at Adora and suddenly they're not in their favorite used book store. Theyre in a room, luxurious and open. It's bright and the walls are a pleasant pastel. Catra is in red. Dark slacks with gold trim. Those ears. A tail.
And then it's gone and she can hear the fuzzy radio playing and feel the worn table under her hands again. Catra is walking back over with a small plate holding a pastry.