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Adora is having a bad day.

It’s like anything bad that could’ve happened today happened. She’s had bad days before, everyone has, but today is just one thing after another.

Today, Catra and Adora are helping the kingdoms clean up after the effects of Horde Prime and the Horde. Catra’s helping in Salineas, and Adora’s helping in the Fright Zone.

Adora’s day begins by waking up an hour ahead of schedule from a rather intense nightmare. She’s been having nightmares every day since the war ended, and it causes her to rarely sleep anymore. This nightmare isn’t enough to warrant a panic attack, but still enough to ruin her positive attitude.

She and Catra had agreed that every time one of them had a nightmare, they would wake up the other, but Adora doesn’t want to bother Catra so early in the morning. It would just be a waste of time.

Adora feels so tired today but knows there isn’t really a point in going back to sleep now. She decides to get a headstart on her day. She slowly creeps out of bed, changes into some activewear, and heads out to go on her morning run. Nothing too strenuous, she would be working all day anyway.

Adora is about to turn a corner to continue her walk to the outdoor gardens when she overhears two guards talking. She is about to keep walking until she hears one of the guards mention her girlfriend.

“Isn’t it so weird that Queen Glimmer just allowed the Horde’s Second in Command to walk freely around the palace?” Adora is fuming but stays where she is.

“Don’t worry. She-Ra will have to come to her senses one of these days, and then Catra will get what she deserves.” They laugh as if exhiling Adora’s girlfriend is something to laugh about.

That is the comment that makes Adora storm off, to prevent herself from fighting those guards. As she angrily stomps outside, her anger begins to wear off and hopelessness begins to set in.

What will it take for everyone to accept Catra? She’s trying so hard, and nobody can see it! This is all my fault. if I had just stood up to Shadow Weaver in the Horde more, maybe she would’ve joined the Rebellion in the beginni-

Adora shakes her head to stop that train of thought as she arrives at the gardens and begins her exercise.

There weren't any setbacks during her run around the property, but she is able to see some of the small villages in the distance, and all the destruction there. Another thing that Adora could’ve stopped if only she were stronger.

After her run, she goes back to her and Catra’s room and showers before getting ready for the day. She is still a bit ahead of schedule, but that just means more time to help.

She takes a skiff to the Scorpion Kingdom and, upon arrival, she can really see all the damage that had happened after the Heart of Etheria. There are huge vines and trees growing all over the place, and huge burn holes that look like they came from a large laser all over the metal buildings. Adora begins to wonder how that happened, but before she can inspect any further, she is engulfed in one of Scorpia’s hugs.

“Adora! I’m so glad you’re here and early, too! We need all the help we can get.” Scorpia places her back down with a smile, which Adora reciprocates. “Great! Where can I start?”

----
Everyone working at the Scorpion Kingdom that day already knows what they’re doing and goes back to doing it.

Before they could begin, Adora stops Lonnie, Kyle and Rogelio to apologize. Adora had prepared an apology to say to them before coming. They accept her apology but explain that they still needed time. Adora understands, but can’t help but feel guilty that their friendship will never be the same again because of her.

They all work on their tasks for a while. Adora, who doesn’t really have a specific task to do, walks around the property helping whoever she can find. She turned into She-Ra before beginning to help. Mainly because she’s stronger but also because all of those missed hours of sleep are really catching up to her.

She continues to work despite her continuously growing fatigue. By the time she finishes doing everything she had to do, Adora feels like she could collapse at any moment. It is at that point that she realizes that the only thing left to do now is to clean out Shadow Weaver’s office, where the Black Garnet sits.

Nobody wants to do it, so Adora decides to get it over with as fast as possible. She has never cleaned so fast in her life. She is about to finish cleaning up when she finds a medium-sized box in a small corner of the room.

Upon opening the box, Adora realizes why the box is hidden in the corner. It is full of all the toys and photos that Shadow Weaver had taken from Adora and Catra when they were kids. Adora grabs the photos with a shaky hand, flipping through them. They looked so… innocent and happy, despite being child soldiers. Most of the pictures were taken a few years before Adora joined the Rebellion. Before Adora ruined everything.

Adora pockets the photos and throws away the toys.

She doesn’t really know if they could even be considered toys. They’re mostly pieces of old pipes or cardboard, but they had used their imaginations to make them seem like they were the best toys in Etheria.

Adora willed herself not to cry in the office, despite how much those pictures break her heart. She has to be strong, especially in a place like this. She won’t let anyone see her act this weak. As she looks around the tall room that had been a part of so many bad memories in her life, she can’t help but feel like Shadow Weaver is looking down on her with a disappointed glare. That thought makes her leave the now clean room to go help somewhere else, eyes still glistening with unshed tears that she forces not to come out.

Scorpia informs her that all they have to do now is some paperwork, so Adora won’t be needed anymore. Adora nods and begins to walk back to the skiff bay.

As she walks through the halls, a certain voice in her head that sounds a lot like a particular masked woman begins to speak.

‘Of course they don’t need you. Now that the war’s over, nobody needs you. Not even Catra. You’re too weak to help them now.’

Adora tries to argue with the words, but she knows in her heart that they were true. A single tear runs down her face as she keeps walking down the broken hallways.

Right before Adora could make it to the skiff bay, she decides to check one last thing in the barracks. She walks in and already knows which bunk to go to. She sits down on the hard mattress and peeks over at the wall beside the bed. There are two crude drawings of Catra and Adora, but there are large slash marks all over Adora’s face.

The voice continues, ‘You should have died at the Heart of Etheria. You’re useless now that there isn’t anyone to fight. Catra would be better off without you.' Adora’s vision blurred with tears as she lifted one hand to gently touch the scratched drawing of herself. Adora agreed with the voice. She sometimes wishes she would have died there, too.

While she is still touching the drawing, she hears shuffling behind her and turns to the door. Lonnie is standing there, holding a box of documents. “Oh, um, sorry.” She looks away. Adora tries to fake a smile. It doesn’t really work. “It’s okay. I was just leaving, anyway.”

Adora stands and wipes her tears. She looks over to Lonnie, to see her staring at her with a disgruntled look. “What? What is it?” Lonnie chuckles darkly, “You’re sad about leaving now? After leaving all your friends behind for the princesses? Really? C’mon Adora, I thought you were better than that.”

Adora looks down in shame. She knows Lonnie is right. “I didn’t have a choice. I had to join the Rebellion and defeat the Horde. For Etheria.” It’s almost muscle memory at this point, trying to explain why she left.

At that, Lonnie sneers, “Of course you did, Adora. You just had to leave your entire life behind for a shiny palace and fancy new friends.” Adora wants to say something back but knows there is no use. Lonnie watches Adora wordlessly leave the room, head down looking at the floor, with a smirk on her face.

Adora quickens her pace to the skiff bay. She is practically running there. Nobody can see her cry, that would just make this entire day so much worse. Adora jumps onto her skiff and flies back to the Palace as quickly as she can. The skiff flies into the Whispering Woods.

She uses the time alone as an opportunity to wipe her face clean of any residual tears, and sniffle a few times.

Adora parks her skiff at the edge of the Palace and quickly walks in. She feels like she is about to burst into tears at any second, and the last thing she wants is for someone to see She-Ra, the Princess of Power, crying because she ‘had a bad day.’ That would be absolutely pathetic.

She makes it to her room without crying, but her eyes are still glistening. Adora wipes them one last time before opening the door. She knows that Catra won’t be in there right now, since she’s still helping out in Salineas right now. She doesn’t want Catra to see how weak she’s being right now.

Adora’s vision clouds with tears again as she closes the door of her and Catra’s bedroom. She stands there, leaning on the closed door, trying to keep her walls up for a few more seconds. She suddenly hears shuffling nearby and begins to panic. Her vision clears, and she looks over at the bed.

There sits Catra, back against the headboard with a book in her hand and her legs stretched out straight in front of her. She smiles up at the blonde, “Hey, Adora.” It seems that Catra didn’t notice Adora’s state yet.

“C-Catra. I tho-thought that you were wo-working in in Salineas today.”

“Yeah, there was a small flood so we had to postpone our work for tomorrow…” Catra’s brow furrowed in concern as she really looked at Adora for the first time today. “Adora, are you okay? What happened?”

Her walls crumbled at those words, and she hung her head down in shame. Adora tries to speak, but all that comes out is a pathetic whimper as she shakes her head. She can feel her face burning, as hot tears make their way quickly down her face and her shoulders begin to shake.

Catra’s heart breaks at the sight of Adora trying her hardest to not show any emotions, and failing miserably. Everyone always expects Adora to be this unbreakable, unmoving force that can protect the entire universe alone. Even Catra was guilty of this mindset during the war. She knows better now, though. While Adora is the Princess of Power, she’s also a person with thoughts and emotions, just like everyone else on Etheria. Sometimes most people, even Adora, seem to forget this.

Adora’s destiny is to be the sole protector of the Universe, but who protects Adora?

Catra knows the answer to that question better than the back of her hand. While Adora protects all of the universe from harm, Catra will be there to protect Adora from harm, too.

Adora still doesn’t move from her spot, hands closed into fists at her side, trying not to crumble. Catra smiles at her, even if she can’t see it, “Adora, let someone take care of you for once. Let me take care of you for once, okay?” She knows how stubborn Adora can be when it comes to asking for help.

Catra pulls the blanket off of herself and pats the space beside her. Adora looks up, and Catra feels her heart break once again. Her face is blotchy red with shame and there are tears still pouring out of her eyes. She looks… defeated. Like she hasn’t got any fight left in her.

That’s fine, though. Catra will fight for the both of them.

Adora nods and slowly walks over to the bed, crawling in. Catra scoots down a little. Adora immediately places her head on Catra’s lap, arms hugging around her waist. She’s hugging so tight, it’s as if she’s scared Catra will disappear if she lets go. Adora’s legs tangle with the magicat’s under the blanket that Catra has pulled up to Adora’s still shaking shoulders.

“Bad day?” Catra looks down at the blonde. She can feel Adora’s tears stain her shorts. She nods and tries to talk, but it comes out as more of a raspy whisper, “I’m s-sorry.” Catra begins to rake her fingers through the blonde hair in her lap. “There’s no need to apologize, Adora. Just let it all out, okay?” She makes her voice as gentle as she can. It’s almost unrecognizable to what she sounded like while commanding the Horde.

More tears begin to leak out of Adora’s eyes, and her sobs get louder. Catra knows that Adora needs this, needs one place where she doesn’t have to be so strong all the time. One person she doesn't have to be a hero with. Catra continues to massage her clawed fingers into Adora’s scalp and whispers words of endearment.

Eventually, her sobs die down and Adora falls asleep, most of her body weight laying on top of Catra. The magicat gently places her hand on the blonde’s head while she sleeps, and continues to read. She also pulls the blanket up to almost completely cover Adora, similarly to how someone would cover up a sleeping baby. Catra almost laughs at how cute and small her usually strong and loud girlfriend looks curled up in Catra’s lap like a cat right now.

Oh, how the tables have turned today.

“Goodnight, Adora,” Catra whispers, knowing she’s way too exhausted to answer right now.

Catra knows that Adora has to go to a mandatory Princess meeting today, but also knows that Adora is in no shape to interact with anyone right now.

Glimmer knocks on the door and comes in looking only a little frustrated. Catra pulls the blanket higher and smirks up at the Queen, placing her book down beside her. “Where’s Adora? The meeting is starting in 5 minutes.” Adora is always 10 minutes early to meetings, so it’s understandable why Glimmer is confused.

Catra considers telling Glimmer about Adora but decides against it. While Glimmer and Adora are best friends, and Glimmer would definitely understand and would probably have a Best Friend Squad sleepover to help Adora, that’s exactly why she won’t tell Glimmer.

Adora doesn’t like for anyone to know when she’s upset, or sad, or any emotion that isn’t positive. Catra understands this better than anyone and knows that Adora would only feel worse if her friends knew that she’s upset today.

“I don’t know, Sparkles. I think she said something about helping a nearby village an hour ago. She’s busy, so just go do your Princess meeting without her.” Catra flicked her hand out towards the door to hint towards the Queen that she wants her to leave. Glimmer groans and walks out of the room, closing the door a little too hard.

Hard enough that Adora lifts her head up from Catra’s lap to look up at the door, before looking back at Catra with a tired smile. Catra smiles gently and uses her hand to push Adora down to go back to sleep, knowing how exhausted she is. Physically and mentally. “Thank you,” Adora says from her spot on Catra’s lap.

“For what?”

“For staying.”

“I’ll always be here to protect you, princess.”

Adora brings her head up to look Catra in the eyes, “You promise?”

Catra rests a clawed hand on her cheek. Adora leans into her hand with a smile.

“I promise.”

“I love you, Catra.”

“I love you, too, Adora.”

Catra pulls Adora’s head in, knowing Adora would be too weak to do so, and kisses her as gently as she can. It’s a short kiss, but it does make Adora smile. Mission accomplished.

“Now come on, Adora. Go to sleep.” Catra swipes her thumb across Adora’s face as she holds it.

Adora frowns and closes her eyes, but doesn’t put her head down just yet, “I’m so tired, Catra.”

Catra smiles sadly at the admission, knowing how hard it is for Adora to admit when she’s weak.

“I know you are. It’s okay, I’ll make sure nothing bad happens while you’re asleep, okay?”

Adora nods and brings her head back down to rest in her girlfriend’s lap and falls into a nightmare-free sleep with a smile on her face, knowing that Catra will always be there to protect her.