Work Text:
Despite how it often appeared to others, Catra was a very observant young girl. To her superiors, it seemed like Catra often didn’t care about training or her studies, but in actuality, Catra was already far ahead of her fellow cadets when it came to her training. In truth… she was bored already, knowing the Fright Zone was already a hellhole.
She often thought about leaving, about running away. To where? She had no clue, but she knew her future wasn’t here. Yet, there was one girl in all the universe who she couldn’t bear to leave, one girl who despite everything, had always been there for her, always been her friend.
But after twelve long years, Catra wasn’t sure if she could keep it up any longer, especially considering there was one woman in particular who seemed to have made it her mission to make her’s and Adora’s lives a living hell. Shadow Weaver was a cruel, heartless, abusive monster as far as Catra was concerned.
The woman knew neither mercy nor compassion and regularly reminded Catra of how she was second best, how the only reason she kept her around was because Adora was fond of her and nothing more. Even though Catra wasn’t a cowardly little girl anymore, she still felt fear whenever Shadow Weaver was in the room.
And today, the young felid had made one fatal mistake. Never to fail Shadow Weaver, a lesson Catra knew all too well. Today, Catra had been tasked by Shadow Weaver with retrieving a potion for her from her personal stash in the storage area of the Fright Zone, as part of some experiment.
But Catra had been in such a hurry to get the whole thing over with as quickly as possible… that when she returned to Shadow Weaver’s sanctum, she’d tripped up on a wire… and dropped the potion, watching the glass bottle smash as it hit the floor, its contents splashing out.
For a moment, time seemed to stop, as Catra looked up, seeing the angry white glare of Shadow Weaver’s masked face staring down at her, fury blazing through her eyes and magic coursing through her hands.
“You clumsy fool!” Shadow Weaver roared. “Can’t you do anything right?!”
“I-I’m s-sorry!” Catra apologised instinctively, skittering backwards towards the exit of the chamber, but at the witch’s command, the door slammed shut.
“I would have hoped your years under my tutelage would have made you better than this, Catra. Clearly, I was mistaken!”
“Please, I’ll get another potion!” Catra begged, tears forming in her eyes.
“You stupid brat, there isn’t another potion! It’ll take me weeks to brew another batch!” She raised her hand and blasted Catra with a bolt of magical energy from her hands, the blast hitting the preteen felid right in the arm. Catra screamed in pain as she was knocked down to the ground, clutching her arm.
“Get out of my sight!” Shadow Weaver roared, opening the door. “Before I skin you alive and mount your hide on my wall!”
Panting, Catra rushed out of the room, tears flowing down her cheeks as she clutched her arm. She didn’t dare look at the wound, knowing she’d probably throw up if she did. She sprinted down the halls to the cadet barracks, hoping no one would see her. She hated being so weak, so vulnerable.
One day, that witch was going to pay for all she’d done to her. But Catra wasn’t strong enough. All she could do was run and hide, like a coward. As she rushed into the barracks, she was relieved that no one was there. As she leapt onto her bunk, she pressed her face down into the pillow and screamed into it.
Tears flowed down her cheeks as Catra unleashed her emotions. A mix of pain, anger and self-hatred. She hated her life so much, for a moment wishing she’d been left to die wherever the Horde had found her. Death would honestly be preferable to living under Shadow Weaver’s torture.
And then, at that moment, Catra’s reason for living entered the room.
“Catra?”
Catra looked up, seeing Adora standing at the entrance to the cadet quarters. As the blonde girl walked inside, Catra looked away, feeling ashamed.
“Catra, are you okay?” Adora asked.
Her best friend didn’t respond.
“I heard you crying.”
“I’m… fine,” the young felid whimpered.
“Please, Catra, I wanna help.”
Sighing, Catra crawled down to the bottom bunk and sat down, Adora joining her. As Adora looked her in the eyes, Catra looked away. She felt unworthy of Adora’s kindness, knowing that Adora deserved better than her. The blonde then put a hand on her shoulder and Catra… sighed and started to relax.
“What’s wrong?”
“I… got hurt.”
Adora noticed Catra still clutching her arm, blood oozing between the young girl’s fingers from the wound. “How did you get hurt?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Let me take a look at it.”
“No!”
“Catra!”
“I said no!”
Adora tried to grab Catra’s arm, but the felid tried to pull it away, not wanting Adora to see the wound, the scar, the mark of her continued weakness in this sweltering, steel hellscape they called a home.
“Let me see it!” Adora whined as Catra kept pulling her arm away.
“No!” The little catgirl cried. “It’s fine! Just leave me be!”
“I just wanna see what’s wrong!” Adora insisted. “Please, Catra!”
The other girl just hissed back, jumping off the bed and hiding behind a crate in the corner of the room. Adora didn’t like to do this, but her best friend was giving her little choice. Taking a deep breath, Adora then crawled over to her and grabbed Catra’s arm back… and gasped at what she saw.
On Catra’s arm was a deep red scar, slightly glowing in places, blood oozing from the wound. It wasn’t the worst Adora had seen… but it had been a long time since she’d seen Catra hurt like this. Catra whimpered as Adora saw it, wishing she was stronger than this, not the pathetic creature that Shadow Weaver saw her as.
“What… What happened?” Adora asked.
“Shadow Weaver asked me to get something for her, but I screwed it up and… well… she did that…”
Adora pulled Catra close and hugged her tightly. Catra felt surprised for a moment, before she gave in and clung tightly to Adora, sobbing into her best friend’s chest. She felt Adora stroke her hair, her fingers ruffling through her long mane of hair and the tufts of fluff behind her ears, things that always helped Catra to feel better.
“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry,” Catra sobbed into Adora.
“Don’t be sorry, I just wanna help you,” Adora said kindly. “I look out for you, remember?”
“But what if you get in trouble?” Catra asked. “I don’t want Shadow Weaver to find you here. You know how she hates us being together and how I distract you and all that kind of stupid stuff she says.”
“I don’t care, you’re hurt,” Adora whispered, before she traced her finger along the wound on her friend’s arm. “Can… Can I kiss it better?”
“I’m… a bit too old for that, Adora.”
“Please,” Adora asked, her big blue eyes full of innocence. “I want to help you.”
Catra blushed a little, knowing she couldn’t resist that face of Adora’s. “I-If you want… I don’t think it’ll help though.”
Adora smiled and leaned in, gently pressing her lips to Catra’s scar. The little catgirl blushed as Adora gently kissed her wound. For some reason, it made the wound start to hurt a little less. She knew that kissing a wound or bruise better didn’t actually work… and yet, she could already feel the pain slowly fading away.
Was Adora… no, she couldn’t be magical. That would make her a princess and they both hated Princesses. They hated Princesses nearly as much as they both hated Shadow Weaver. And yet, Catra couldn’t deny the effect Adora was having on her, how much she was making her feel so much happier, how much warmth she was feeling in her heart.
Adora pulled away and smiled, looking at Catra’s wound, seeing it was surprisingly, looking slightly healed. Catra blinked in astonishment and looked at Adora, her cheeks filling red with blush.
“See, told you it’d feel better!” Adora chirped.
Catra was still blushing. “Y-Yeah... It feels a bit better.” She touched the scar again, smiling a little. What had once been yet another reminder of their mentor’s cruel abuse had been replaced by the feeling of kindness and warmth, a sensation greatly pleasing to the young girl.
She looked at Adora, whose smile shone brightly in the darkened barracks. She never wanted to leave this girl’s side, no matter what pain she had to endure. Adora was worth it. She… never wanted to be apart from her.
“Do you wanna go up to our spot on the roof? I think the transports are gonna be landing soon.”
“S-Sure,” Catra said, feeling Adora grab her by the arm and lead her out of the room, wanting nothing more than to feel this girl’s touch against her own for the rest of her nine lives.