Comfortable Silence
----
Lonnie
She sits down in the chair with a huff as Catra slams her door.
They both stare at the sleeping blonde as she sleeps on the couch curled up into a ball with a blanket draped over her.
Huntara breaks the deafening silence, “Is this how you expected to be spending Christmas Day?”
Despite everything that’s happened in the last hour or so, Lonnie laughs. It sounds more like a wet chuckle due to her recent crying.
Huntara and Lonnie don’t live with Catra in the apartment above the shop. Scorpia and Entrapta do, but they both left to go visit their families for Christmas, leaving Catra alone. Huntara and Lonnie, who also didn’t have anywhere to go for Christmas, decided to spend it with Catra. The brunette tried to act like she didn’t care about not having anyone to spend Christmas with, but Huntara could tell she was relieved when they offered.
Unlike Adora, Catra actually does have a family. She used to be really close with them when she was a kid but when she came out, they kicked her out of the house. They said it was ‘for her own good,’ and that Catra wasn’t welcome in their household anymore. Huntara found a seventeen-year-old Catra sleeping in an alley when she offered her a job as a janitor for the tattoo shop. The longer Catra worked there, the more she tapped into her creative side. She showed Huntara her designs once after a few years of working there and, after the correct training, she hired Catra as a tattoo artist.
In the present, Huntara can faintly hear crying coming out of Catra’s room. She sighs as she looks over to Lonnie.
“Catra didn’t know.”
Lonnie whips her head around to look at Huntara, “You’re taking her side?!”
Huntara crosses her arms, “There are no sides in this. If Catra knew about Adora, she wouldn’t have acted the way she did. You didn’t have to yell at her like that. So in an hour, I’m gonna call Catra out here so you can both apologize. In the meantime, you think about what just happened and make sure Adora is okay.”
She walks into the kitchen to start making a late lunch for everyone. It almost makes her chuckle that everyone in the apartment has cried at least once today, and it’s barely past noon.
Lonnie sits in her chair with a grumble but quickly falls asleep there. She didn't realize how tired she is.
----
Catra
She wakes up to the smell of pasta outside her door. Catra wasn’t aware that she fell asleep in the first place, but she must have just been tired from her early morning. Turns out, crying for half an hour straight because you realized you’re actually a terrible person is actually pretty exhausting.
She stands up and walks over to the door, peeking it open slightly to see what’s happening outside.
Both Lonnie and Adora are asleep on their separate couches. Huntara’s nowhere to be seen. ‘She must be making food,’ Catra guesses.
She silently opens her door fully and sneaks into the larger area of the apartment.
One peek into the kitchen proves that she was right about Huntara making food. The taller woman notices Catra standing there shyly and nudges her head in the direction of Lonnie and Adora. She goes back to cooking.
Catra sighs, knowing she’ll have to apologize. She prepares an apology as she sits down on a small stool in the living room. It’s uncomfortable, but it’s the only chair left in the room that isn’t occupied by a sleeping person.
She pulls a knee to her chest as she glances over to a sleeping Adora. Even with the blanket covering her, Catra can still see the dried blood smeared on her face. She doesn’t get time to think about it, though, because Adora begins to throw her hands around underneath the blanket weakly.
Her brows furrow as she watches the blonde fight in her sleep. She has absolutely no idea what to do, and she’s about to call Huntara before tears start coming out of Adora’s eyes. Tiny murmurs of nonsense can be heard as Adora continues sleep-fighting.
Catra glances over to Huntara. She’s still preparing lunch, and it’s obvious that she’s ignoring them on purpose. She wants Catra to fix this herself.
The brunette stands and slowly kneels down beside Adora. She has to keep dodging her sluggish punches.
She tries, “Adora…”
Nothing.
She tries again, “Wake up, Adora.”
Still nothing.
When words don’t work, Catra attempts to wake her up with a tap on her shoulder. This seems to be a mistake, though, when Adora jolts awake and sits up quickly with her fists in front of her. The blonde is visibly shaking, and her breathing is quickening.
Her breath keeps getting quicker, and it's obvious she's panicking.
Catra softly places her hands over Adora’s shaking fists, “Adora, it’s okay. You’re okay.”
The blonde seems confused to see Catra helping her, but puts her fists down, regardless. Her breathing is still too fast, though.
Catra places her hands on Adora's thighs, letting her nails lightly prick the skin there. She's not pushing hard enough to bleed or even hurt Adora, just enough to remind her of where she is. "You need to breathe, Adora."
Adora seems to slowly calm down, as her breathing slows to a mostly normal pace. She looks calm.
Then, her eyes widen in fear.
“Catra… I-I’m so sorry for punching you at Princess Prom. It was a mistake, and I regret it so much. You didn’t deserve that, and I overreacted.” Her voice is hoarse and weak, but Catra can still hear her.
Catra puts her hands down with a sigh, “It’s fine, Adora. I did kind of deserve it for ruining the whole party.” Catra spent the days following the party riddled with guilt about what she had done. It was almost entirely her fault, she knows that now. At first, she was angry at Adora for punching her, but now the only person Catra is mad at is herself for being so reckless. Adora's terrified face as she stood over Catra plagued her dreams for days.
Adora seems surprised at how easy that was, “R-really? You’re not… angry at me?”
Catra chuckles slightly, but it’s definitely not the right time for laughter, “I was, but now I know that what happened was my fault. Sure, you could’ve handled things a little better,” Adora blushes and smiles sheepishly, “but for the most part, I had that punch coming.”
Adora looks down at her arms. They fall into a comfortable silence, Adora sitting on the couch with crossed legs and Catra kneeling on the floor in front of her.
Catra feels proud of herself for handling this so well. If this had happened a few years ago, Catra would absolutely not be forgiving Adora right now. She would probably be planning her revenge. Or maybe a full-blown planetary war against her. Regardless, she can’t help but feel thankful for Huntara and Scorpia, who saw the good in her when nobody else did.
Suddenly, Adora gasps slightly at her arms. Her blush becomes more apparent as she desperately pulls the blanket up to cover her inner forearms up.
Catra frowns as she stops Adora’s frantic movements with her hands. Adora looks into Catra’s mismatched eyes with confusion.
“You-you don’t have to hide them…” Catra can feel her face burning up, partly at what she just said and party at how close Adora’s face is to hers. Adora’s face reddens, too.
“Really?” Adora looks down at them again with a look of disgust, “But they’re so… ugly.” That last word is a whisper, but Catra hears her. It makes her sad to think about how Adora views herself.
Catra tries to talk confidently, but it comes out stammered and nervous, “No, they’re not. I- Ugly, I mean. They’re not ugly, no.”
Adora giggles slightly at Catra’s embarrassment but abruptly stops when Catra slowly flips over her hands so they’re palm-up and places her hands on top of Adora’s.
Catra and Adora look up at the same time. Catra has a questioning look on her face, “...can I?” She doesn’t have to say anything else for Adora to know what she’s talking about.
Adora nods wordlessly.
----
Adora
Catra slowly slides her hands up until they’re on top of the scars covering Adora’s inner forearms. She strokes her thumbs across the raised skin as gently as humanly possible.
“You don’t have to be ashamed of these.” Catra’s whisper is so quiet that Adora barely hears it. But she does, and it makes her heart do backflips.
Adora smiles down at Catra being so incredibly gentle with her. Usually, it bothers her when people treat her like she could shatter at any second, but it feels different with Catra. And, when people are gentle with her, they always avoid touching her scars. Whenever they do it for Adora’s sake or theirs, it makes Adora feel like the marks on her body are something to hide from everyone.
Catra, though, she’s treating her scars so softly that Adora actually starts to feel like maybe one day she won’t have to hide these parts of herself anymore. At least, not from her.
Catra looks up at Adora, and all of the confidence that was building on her face vanishes as she blushes again and mumbles an apology while she takes off her hands. Adora misses the warmth of them as soon as they vanish.
Catra looks down at something on Adora’s face and frowns, “Do you want to go wash your face and arms?”
Adora looks down at her arms again. She notices the drops of dried blood scattered on her arms and remembers that there’s still blood on her face.
“Oh. Yes, thank you.”
Catra stands up and offers a hand to Adora, who takes it gratefully. Despite sleeping, she still felt a little shaky from what happened.
The brunette leads her to a washroom and then leaves. She quickly comes back with a small towel in her hands.
As they stand there, the silence that was once comfortable turns awkward. Catra stutters, “Uh... Ok, you- I’ll be in the living room if you need anything. Good-um luck?”
Adora smiles and nods as she closes the door. She waits for Catra’s retreating footsteps before turning to look at herself in the mirror, worried about how she’ll react.
Her eyes widen when she sees herself. Her eyes are puffy and red, and there are tear tracks still obvious along her cheeks. Most of the blood is still there, except for the areas that came in contact with her flowing tears earlier. She looks like a mess.
Adora turns on the tap and cups some water in her hands to splash on her face. She realizes that’s a mistake when the scratches on her face stung from the sudden water on them. She instead opts to gently rub her face with water-covered hands instead. It takes a lot longer, but at least it doesn’t hurt as much.
‘Maybe it deserves to hurt,’ a familiar voice in her head adds, ‘Maybe you deserve to feel the pain, for wasting everyone's time with your weakness.’
Adora shakes her head to rid herself of these thoughts. She knows better, knows not to listen to that voice ever again.
Eventually, she finishes cleaning her face and wipes it down with a towel. Adora looks back up into the mirror and sighs.
The marks that Shadow Weaver left are deeper than she thought they were, and now that they aren’t covered in blood, they’re a lot easier to see. Four short lines on her right cheek and one line on her left cheek. They would likely scar.
Adora can feel tears fill her eyes at the idea that Shadow Weaver left a permanent mark on her face that will stay there for years to come. It’s like a piece of her is always with Adora, taunting her. Forever.
Frustrated at herself for crying once again, Adora roughly wipes her tears away and begins cleaning her arms. She doesn’t hold back this time, cleaning aggressively since her arms didn’t get injured.
Once she’s done, she peeks into her reflection to see if she looks any better. Her eyes are still red and puffy, and it’s obvious she’s been crying. No amount of cleaning could get rid of that.
Adora sighs again. Before, she was a crying, bleeding mess. Now she’s just a crying mess. That’s not much of an upgrade, but she’ll take it. She makes sure to pull down her sweater sleeves after she dries her arms.
She grabs the towel and leaves the washroom, walking back to the living room.
----
Catra
After leading Adora to the washroom, Catra goes back to the living room and sits down in the middle of the couch Adora was just on. It’s still warm from her sleeping here. She glances over to the other couch to see that Lonnie is now awake and looking at Catra smugly.
Catra looks away towards the kitchen, but sees Huntara smirking at her from the kitchen, too. She’s standing confidently, with a hand on her hip. The brunette on the couch is confused as to why they’re both staring for a second until it clicks. It seems that Huntara has already told Lonnie what happened between Catra and Adora.
“Shut up,” she mutters loudly as she crosses her arms and huffs. There’s a light blush dusting her face.
Huntara laughs, “We didn’t say anything.”
“But you’re thinking something. So… stop it.”
The other brunette crosses her arms, mimicking Catra, “Looks like you and Adora are good friends now, huh?”
Catra’s blush goes from a light pink on her tan skin to a very bright red. Huntara and Lonnie both laugh this time at Catra’s embarrassment. Huntara turns and goes back to working on her dish. It looks to be almost done at this point.
Soon enough, Adora walks in from the hallway leading to the washroom with a clean face and a sheepish smile. She’s holding the towel Catra gave her in her hands, likely not knowing what to do with it.
Catra stands up and lightly takes the towel out of her hands, and tells her to go sit on the couch to wait for the food. Adora nods and replaces Catra’s spot on the couch.
Suddenly, she remembers something Catra said, “You’re making food?”
Huntara turns around in the kitchen, “Yeah, my world-famous spaghetti. It’s gonna be a real treat.” Lonnie chuckles at the over-exaggeration of her cooking-skills.
Adora fidgets with the hem of the blanket on the couch, “Oh uh... You- I think I’m gonna head home now. I’ve bothered you all enough, I’ll let you enjoy your food in peace. Thank you for everything, really.” She stands up and frantically starts grabbing her belongings.
She’s interrupted by Lonnie placing a hand on her shoulder. Adora stands up straight to look her in the eyes, the hand on her shoulder not leaving.
“Adora. You’re not bothering us now, and you weren’t bothering us before. We want to help you because we’re your friends. And besides, Huntara already made enough spaghetti to feed an entire army, so you’d be doing us a favour by staying.”
Adora chuckles a little at that. “Are you sure? I’m not even that hungry, anyway.”
As if on cue, her stomach begins rumbling loudly enough for both Lonnie and Huntara to hear. They both look at her incredulously.
Adora blushes, embarrassed. “Okay, maybe I’m a little hungry. Fine, I'll stay.”
They both cheer as Adora laughs at their excitement.
----
Catra
She walks into the washroom to throw the towel into the laundry basket. As she does this, she looks back up into the mirror with a sigh.
Catra just apologized to Adora, and now she has to eat an entire meal with her. Normally, when Catra apologizes, which is extremely rare, she likes to not see that person immediately after again. It makes her uncomfortable, and she needs alone time to go through her emotions. But it seems like that won’t be an option this time around.
She stares at herself with a warning glare. “Don’t fuck this up,” she whispers angrily to her reflection.
Catra turns off the washroom light and goes back to the living room. The smell of pasta is a lot stronger now. Huntara must be done.
When she walks into the larger area of the apartment, Adora and Lonnie are already sitting at the dinner table, across from each other.
Just as Catra is about to go sit beside Lonnie, Huntara comes in from the kitchen holding a large pot. She places it down then stands back up, looking back and forth between the two empty seats.
Catra watches anxiously from the side.
If Huntara sits beside Lonnie, Catra will be forced to sit beside Adora. Huntara glances towards Catra with a knowing smile as she sits beside Lonnie.
Catra sighs. Why did she expect anything different?
She goes around the table and sits down cautiously beside Adora. The room suddenly feels a lot hotter, but she blames it on the steaming pot in front of them.
Catra takes a peak in Adora’s direction. The blonde smiles brightly at her. Catra blushes and looks forward.
Huntara and Lonnie smile at her, but they decide to spare her this time.
The lid on the pot is opened and they all put some into their plates.
Catra, Lonnie and Huntara start eating. The pasta is actually really good, but Catra doesn’t say anything.
She glances over at Adora to see her anxiously looking down at her full plate. It’s obvious she wants to say something but is too scared. The brunette decides to help her.
“What’s wrong, Adora?”
Adora looks around at the three of them, “Are you sure you’re okay with me being here? And eating your food?”
Huntara answers this time, “We wouldn’t have invited you in if we weren’t okay with you being here and eating our food. It’s fine, really.”
Adora nods, looking a little more reassured as she picks up her fork and starts to eat with them.
The four of them start having conversations about random topics. Catra starts to actually enjoy the lunch, even starting to laugh and smile with the other three. She doesn’t remember the last time she actually sat down and had a nice meal with a group of people.
Once they finish, Catra glances over at the clock on the wall. Three-forty seven in the afternoon. There are still so many hours left in the day, and nothing to do.
As they clean up the table, Lonnie saves her from having to think of something to do.
“You guys know what time it is?” Her tone tells them that she’s not actually asking for the time.
Adora looks up from the sink, “What?”
Lonnie grins, “Christmas movie marathon time!”
Adora smiles brightly, “Can’t wait! What movies are we watching?”
Both Lonnie and Huntara list movies that they think are suitable for their movie marathon.
As they explain their list, the four of them set up the living room into a makeshift movie theatre. There are blankets covering practically every surface in the area, and the lights are off so that the only light source is the sunlight coming in through the closed blinds. It’s dark enough to watch movies but light enough that you can see where you’re going.
They settle in the room as they start the first movie.
Lonnie went into an entire speech about how the Die Hard movies are the best Christmas movies, so they start off with the first one. She insists that they’re going to watch all five of them. Adora doesn’t think it’s possible.
Adora sits on the smaller couch as Catra takes up all the space on the longer couch. Lonnie and Huntara sit on the floor in a cocoon on blankets and pillows.
On top of watching all six Die Hard movies, they also turn it into a drinking game. Every time there’s a dramatic fight scene, they all have to take a shot.
This is gonna be fun.
----
10 hours later…
Somehow, they actually managed to watch all five movies while also continuing their game.
Sure, they’re all completely wasted, but that was the idea when they started their game. They started the first movie at around 3 in the afternoon, and it’s now one in the morning.
All four of them are still in their original spots, but both Lonnie and Huntara are now asleep. They had a lot of fun, but they were totally exhausted by the middle of the fifth movie.
Both Catra and Adora are sprawled out on their separate couches, with Adora’s legs hanging off the edge of the small couch.
The two have been talking and giggling for the past hour or so about the dumbest things ever, ranging from childhood stories to ‘who’s stronger?’
At one point, Catra giggles loudly at a joke Adora makes. The blonde turns her head and looks at the brunette with a lazy smile, “I like your laugh, it’s -hic- cute.”
If Catra were sober right now, she would have blushed and maybe punched whoever said that, but right now, all she could do was laugh more, “Really?”
Adora nodded, “Yeaahh…”
They fall back into a comfortable silence for a few minutes.
Catra’s about to fall asleep when she hears something from Adora’s couch.
“I really like being your friend, Catra.” She doesn’t sound as happy as she did a few minutes ago, but she doesn’t sound sad either.
Catra looks sideways, “You do?”
They both gaze at each other, “Yeah. You’re… nice.”
Catra smiles, “Well, I like being your friend too, princess.”
Adora giggles at the nickname, then yawns loudly.
“Mkay G’night, Catra.”
“Goodnight ‘dora.”
----
The next morning
Catra can faintly hear the front door open and two very loud individuals come in. She groans loudly at the sleep interruption.
She very slowly opens her eyes, letting herself adjust to the now on lights.
Standing at the front door are Scorpia and Entrapta, both holding many bags in their hands.
Catra looks around the living room.
Adora’s still asleep on her couch, and Lonnie and Huntara are asleep on the floor.
Scorpia walks over to Catra, avoiding the sleeping people on the floor.
“Hey, wildcat. Looks like you had fun yesterday.” Catra’s very grateful for the fact that Scorpia’s whispering right now.
“Yes, I did.” She looks over to Adora.
Scorpia follows her line of vision towards the sleeping blonde. Her eyes widen when she realizes who it is.
“So, you and Adora worked it out?”
Catra nods, but it only makes her headache worse. Scorpia smiles and pulls Catra into a tight hug. “Oh, I’m so proud of you, Wildcat! That’s great!”
Catra wheezes slightly, “Scorpia, my ribs. I’m still hungover, remember?”
Scorpia lets go and throws her an apologetic smile. Catra grumbles and goes back to sleep.
----
Adora
She wakes up with a booming headache and a sore back. Turns out sleeping curled up in a ball on a couch isn’t very good for your spine.
Adora sits up slowly, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
She hears a sound to her side and turns towards the dining table.
Catra’s sitting there with a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee. She turns when she notices the now awake blonde with a grin, “Morning, princess. Sleep well?” She sips her coffee. This all feels so… domestic.
Adora looks around the area. Nobody else can be seen in the apartment besides Catra and Adora. “Yeah… Hey, where is everybody?”
Catra’s smile only falters slightly, “Huntara and Lonnie went back to their places, and Scorpia and Entrapta left to go test out some new robot-thing Entrapta got.”
Adora nods and slowly stands up.
She makes her way to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee, but can’t seem to find the mugs.
Adora looks towards Catra for help to find her already looking in her direction, “Top left cupboard.” She points.
Adora grabs a mug and makes her coffee the way she likes it. Black, with one sugar and one creamer.
She goes and sits opposite of Catra at the table.
Catra raises her mug for Adora to tap hers on, which the blonde does, “Cheers.”
Adora laughs as she sips her coffee. She already feels a little better.
Comfortable silence washes over the two.
After a few minutes, Catra speaks.
“I’m sorry.”
Adora doesn’t hear her the first time, “What?”
Catra tries again, more confidently, “I’m sorry. For being such an asshole to you. You… didn’t deserve that.”
Adora smiles at the apology, “ It’s okay, Catra. I forgive you.”
Catra looks up from the corner of the table she was burning a hole into with her stare, “You do?”
Adora nods, "I'm glad we can actually be friends."
The brunette breathes a sigh of relief, "Me too..." After a few minutes of silence, she starts to look uncomfortable.
Adora changes the subject for her.
“I’ll be going back to my apartment today.”
Catra doesn't look happy, like Adora expected her to be, “Are you sure? You’re more than welcome to stay, you know.”
Adora nods again, “Yeah. I don’t want to overstay my welcome. I really appreciate everything you guys have done, though.”
Catra doesn’t say anything, but Adora can see the disappointment written all over her face.
She doesn't understand why Catra would be disappointed, though.