Stuck

They stubble through Adoras front yard, from the look of it it’s still as neat and well kept as it always was. Adora fidgets trying to find her keys.

Catra hadn’t been here in so long, maybe she should make up an excuse and leave.

“Alright!” Adora finally gets the right key and opens the door. The house still has the faint smell of vanilla and citrus, it always used to have. They clearly haven’t stopped using the same candles in the last few years,

It was like nothing had changed, the furniture all looked the same as she remembered, the walls were still lined with photos of her and Adora, Adora and her mum. There were a few new ones of Adoras Brightmoon friends.

They continue down to Adoras bedroom.

“Alright, welcome. Mums away for the weekend on some business trip, which means…. we can play music as loud as we want! And stay up late watching movies!”

“So then what do you want to do?”

“Hmm well first I need to get changed out of this ripped dress. You can borrow a spare pair of pyjamas. Then let’s get a snack”

Catras stomach rumbled as if on cue. She was pretty hungry and Adoras home always had homemade treats. Adora throws her a pair of pyjamas.

“Oh uh where should I get changed?” They used to get changed together but a lot had changed now, including puberty.

“Okay you get changed here, I’ll run across and get changed in mums room” Adora leaves the room and Catra is left alone with her thoughts, which is normally a recipe for disaster.

Jeez, the pyjamas are definitely very Adora. It’s a small t-shirt with a dumb fruit pun on it and some old shorts.

Whilst getting changed, she notices how dirty and ruined her suit is. She’ll definitely be in trouble when she gets home.

A drawing she drew for Adora when they were younger is still hanging on Adoras wall. It’s a rainbow, since rainbows were adoras favourite colour. With the two of them badly drawn next to it.

Can’t believe Adora kept it, there’s actually quite a lot of pictures of the two of them scattered on the wall. She’d thrown out a lot of the pictures of the two of them.

There’s a picture of the two of them at their first concert, which she went to without shadow weavers permission, jeez was she in trouble afterwards.

There’s a picture of them receiving awards in elementary school. Adoras mum was always so good at taking photos of literally everything.

And a cringey photo from her very heavy emo phase and Adoras horses phase, how they ever were friends was beyond her.

As she continued looking Adora came in with coffee in hand.

“Alright! If we’re staying up all night we’ll need refreshments!”

Catras thanked her for the drink and followed her to the kitchen to pick out snacks.

“Alright what’ve we got, looks like crisps, cookies, brownies or chocolate peanut butter cups. What’d you feel like?”

“I don’t mind, whatever you want.”

“You’re right we should bring it all.” Adora struggles to pick up all the snacks, and they hobble to the living room. She sets down the snacks and starts going through the dvds.

“Let’s see what movies we’ve got….ah ha got it!” Adora pulls out the most cheesy looking rom-com to ever exist.

“What! No way, those movies suck, no way I’m watching a rom-com.”

“Aw come on please.” Adora tries and fails to bat her eyelashes “come on I’ll let you pick the next movie.”

“Fine but just so you know I’m picking out the scariest one I can find.”

“Boo! You suck.” Adora sticks out her tongue. She sets up the film and they both settle down on the couch with the snacks between them.

The movies is about some girl moving to the big city and finding love it’s really dumb and cheesy, but Adora seems to be enjoying it and she gets to eat Adoras mums delicious brownies so win-win.

Adora laughs at the cheesiest jokes, Catra finds Adoras overreactions much more entertaining than the movie, so she finds herself watching Adora for most of the movie.

These romance movies are the worst, but Adora has always loved them for some reason, Catra wonders if the girl from the party likes romance movies. Adoras other friends probably do.

The movie ends with the girl and the guy getting married and the credits roll.

“Ugh! Thank god that monstrosity is over.”

“Nooo it was sweet.”

“Of course you think that, do you still have those Pinterest boards for your future wedding? They were so lame,”

“They were not! It’s always good to plan ahead,”

“You were 10, I doubt you were getting married anytime soon! Anyways it's my turn to pick a movie.”

Catra flicks through all the dvds they’re almost all fluffy romance, musicals, workout dvds, or old cartoons. At the bottom she finds a dusty old one, wiping the dust of it uncovers, “attack of the bots” of course Adora only owns one horror movie and it’s the one Catra made her buy.

“Alright looks like it’s ‘attack of the bots’”

“I still have that? Come on Catra that movie sucked.”

“We watched it once years ago and you fell asleep, consider this take two. I’m telling you this film is great!”

“Fine, can we get some blankets though? It’s getting cold.”

“Bullshit you’re just scared. But fine, let's grab some.”

They go to the closet and pick out a big fluffy blanket with a rainbow unicorn on it.

“Hey Adora where’s the tiger print one?”

“Oh I think it got ripped a few years ago when Glimmer and I tried to make a fort. You can just share with mine, it’s plenty big.”

“Whatever, I don’t need a blanket.”

Back on the couch, Catra is pressed as far against the side of the couch as possible. Adora is wrapped up in the blanket and staring at the screen in fear, and the snacks are long gone.

As the movie goes on, Adora screams at every jump scare and they slowly subconsciously edge closer together. It’s almost 1am and Catra hates to admit it but she should have grabbed one of the bad blankets. Then she feels the softness of tha blanket around her shoulders.

“You looked cold.” Adora smiles at her.

“Oh thank you,” Catra smiles and looks down, fidgeting with her shirt.

The movie finishes and it wasn’t as good as Catra remembered but it was still fun. Adora is sitting so close if she moved they’d be touching shoulders. Adora looks like she’s just about to fall asleep. So Catra jerks the blanket a bit and gets up.

“Alright sleepy head, you need to go to bed.”

“Nooo, I’m fine, I can keep going, woo all night I tell you.”

“Uh huh, I’m guessing you don’t stay up much?”

“No one time a had a big exam coming up and I stayed up super late”

“Pff what a nerd, come on. You need sleep.”

Catra practically drags Adora down to her bedroom.

“Alright you lie down, do you have an inflatable mattress anywhere?”

“What no, come on I have a huge bed, I can’t be bothered finding it, god knows where it is. Like old times remember.”

Catra freezes up a little and feels her face blushing, thank god it's dark. “Don’t be ridiculous, you have a girlfriend, what would she say? I’ll just sleep on the floor”

“Haha what girlfriend, oh Huntara. She’s kinda cute but I don’t really want to date her and she certainly doesn’t want me. Come on, what’re you scared of? I don’t bite. Haha or do I?” Adoras giggles at her own stupid remark.

“Okay fine, just you stay over there, and I’ll stay over here. We can put some pillows between us.”

“But I like all my pillows!”

“Yeah well uh I like my space and privacy.”

“Fine.”

They stack the pillows between them and try to get to sleep. Adora falls asleep pretty quickly, it’s obviously too late for her. Catra lies there awake. How’d she get here?. Earlier today she would have rather ripped out her spleen than see Adora. She did miss Adora though. It was like all the positivity and warmth had been taken away when Adora left.

Maybe she should have tried to follow Adora to Brightmoon school. It had to be better than what she was left with. It’s too late now, Adora has graduated, Catra will graduate soon. Maybe college will be different, she doesn’t even know where Adora is going.

Adora is mumbling in her sleep about something or another. She doesn’t know when but she falls asleep at some point.

Catra wakes up feeling calm and relaxed. She's so warm and cosy. Shadow weaver will be in any minute to yell at her. She might as well wait for it. Then she feels her pillow move. She’s not at her home.

Catra is cuddled up to Adoras chest, the aforementioned pillows are scattered. One of Adoras arms is wrapped around her back and the other is on the back of her upper leg. Her own arms are around Adora and their legs are all tangled up.

Adora wakes up and they are staring into each other’s eyes for a good few seconds, panicked and not saying anything. Catra then tries to jump up and falls out of the bed with a loud thump.

“I’m so sorry Catra, I know you like space, I’m just used to hugging a pillow at night. Next time I’ll get you an inflatable bed.”

Next time? “No, I mean it's fine don’t worry about it. I’m used to being yelled at when I wake up, it’s nice to not be yelled at.”

The atmosphere is so awkward. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah whatever, I’ll go start making coffee do you want one?”

“Oh um yes please.”

20 minutes later they’re both sitting at opposite ends of the table eating cereal and coffee. Neither of them is saying much so Catra focuses on her cereal. This wasn’t like old times at all.