Chapter Text
When Adora came into the barracks that night, she noticed something strange in her bed. Something—or was it someone?—was curled up in a little lump in the far corner under the dull army-green blanket, someone as small as Adora herself. The lump was making soft, whimpery sounds, and it was trembling. The lump seemed scared.
Tentatively, the little blonde girl approached the bed, sitting down next to the small, shaking person under the blanket. “Hello?” she said softly, giving the lump a gentle poke.
“Aughh!” A messy head of dark hair popped out of the blanket, with long cat ears sticking out on either side, tears streaming from her mismatched blue and yellow eyes. She was just a kid—just like Adora.
“Hey, it’s okay! I’m not gonna hurt you,” Adora said gently, sitting back on her knees to give the newcomer a little more space. Her little heart swelled at the sight of another kid, right here in front of her, in her own bed. Like a present. She’d never seen another kid her own age before; everyone else in the Horde was older than her. Even the Junior Recruits were twelve. “What’s your name?”
“C-catra,” the new kid whispered, wiping her eyes and nose clumsily on the back of her hand. “I thought…you were the mean shadow lady coming back.”
“You mean Shadow Weaver?” Catra nodded tremulously, her different colored eyes filling up immediately with tears again. “She’s not as scary as she looks,” Adora shook her head; then frowned, considering. “Well, most of the time. She takes care of me. Is she gonna take care of you now, too?” Catra just shrugged. When she didn’t elaborate, Adora asked, “Where did you come from?”
“I…I dunno,” Catra shook her head, bunching up the blanket nervously in her hands. “I can’t remember.”
“What part can’t you remember?” little Adora frowned.
“Anything,” Catra whispered, staring at her hands as more tears dripped down her freckled face. “I can’t remember anything…I don’t know why I’m here, or…where I’m ‘spozed to be.”
“Well maybe you’re supposed to be right here…with me.” Finally, Catra looked up, properly taking in the little blonde girl sitting in front of her, beaming at her with a gap-toothed grin. “I’m Adora.”
“Hi, Adora,” Catra said softly.
“Hi, Catra,” the blonde girl grinned back. “I like your ears.”
“Thanks,” the little cat-eared girl finally cracked a small smile, wiping away the last of the tears with a hearty sniff. “I like your eyes. They’re bluer than the sky.” Adora grinned back shyly. “Do…do you remember where you came from?”
“Oh, I’ve always lived here,” Adora shrugged, looking around the barracks and trying to imagine seeing it for the first time. It was kind of dark and dank. “Since I was a baby, anyway. Shadow Weaver took me in, just like she did for you, I guess.”
“So…we’ll see each other every day now?” Catra asked tentatively, pulling her knees up to her chin under the blankets.
“Of course!” Adora grinned. “And every night, too. Do you have any pajamas to wear?” Catra just shrugged again. “That’s okay. You can borrow some of mine.” Adora stood and went to her cubby to fetch two matching sets of faded grey nightclothes, and Catra finally ventured out from under the safety of the blankets to follow her. Adora frowned thoughtfully when she saw Catra’s long tail. “Hold on, I’ll be right back.” The little blonde girl scampered off to get her pocket knife, and cut a small, clumsy slit in the back seam of a pair of her pajama bottoms. “Here, that’s better, right?”
“Thanks,” Catra beamed. “How come you’re being so nice to me?”
“I just like you,” Adora shrugged, wiggling out of her junior training suit and pulling on her own pajamas unselfconsciously, while Catra did the same beside her. “I never had another kid to be friends with before.”
“And…you wanna be friends with me?” Catra asked slowly, as if she couldn’t quite dare to believe it.
“Of course,” Adora giggled. “See, there’s nobody in the bunk above mine. It’s always been empty. Now we can be bunk-buddies!” Her grin faded when she saw Catra’s expression, frowning up at the top bunk with her ears flattened back. “Unless…you don’t want to be my bunk-buddy?” Suddenly Adora felt like an enormous rock had just been dropped into her stomach.
“No! I mean—yes—I mean—could I…would it be okay if we…” Catra trailed off, her tail swishing nervously as she looked back at the bottom bunk.
“Do you want to sleep in my bed?” Adora asked. Catra nodded shyly.
“It…smells safe. Like you.” Adora had never thought of anything smelling safe before, but as soon as Catra said it, the heavy rock disappeared from her stomach.
“Okay. It can be our bed, then,” the little blonde girl smiled. Then her eyes lit up, and she ran back to her cubby. “Here!” she held out two fat crayons. “I’ll draw you, and you draw me. So everybody knows this bed is ours.”
“Okay,” little Catra smiled, taking the crayon from Adora’s outstretched hand. “Hmm…” she squinted at her new friend seriously and stuck her tongue between her teeth, cocking her head to the side with her nose all wrinkled up. Adora giggled.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to decide how to draw you, duh.” Catra smirked, her shoulders relaxing as she knelt down next to Adora’s pillow with her crayon poised to make its first mark. Adora sat beside her, and they drew in silence for a few minutes, both of them focused on their own work. When Adora was done, she looked over at Catra’s drawing of her; she was smiling, but somehow at the same time, she looked like a little monster. If the drawing could talk, it would say keep out! Catra grinned when she saw that Adora had drawn her with more or less the same expression.
“Is that what I look like?” The blonde girl gave a little snort of laughter.
“Is that what I look like?” The cat-eared girl challenged back. With Catra’s eyes on her, Adora made an exaggerated, goofy monster face.
“Grrr!” she tried to growl; but her growl was just so un-scary that Catra started giggling, and then Adora pushed her shoulder, and Catra pushed back, and soon they were wrestling in the blankets and howling with laughter.
“What’s going on in here?!” A sharp, booming voice cut through their haze of laughter, and Adora felt Catra’s body go stiff beside her as a tall, masked figure floated into the bunk.
“We were just playing,” Adora explained innocently, sitting up under the blankets while Catra shrank back behind her, hiding her face against Adora’s hip.
“Now, now, Adora, you know that lights out was fifteen minutes ago,” Shadow Weaver tutted silkily, patting the top of Adora’s blonde head. “You must get a good night’s rest so you can do your very best in training tomorrow, and make Lord Hordak proud.”
“Yes, Shadow Weaver,” Adora nodded promptly. She could feel her new friend trembling under the blanket beside her, and she snaked her hand under the covers to hold Catra’s.
“Catra!” Shadow Weaver barked, her entire demeanor shifting in an instant as the tone of her voice became vicious. “Come out of there at once and get in your own bunk! You are keeping Adora from her rest!”
“I’m s-sorry,” Catra stuttered, her small eyes huge and scared as she emerged from under the covers, scrambling as fast as she could up the ladder to the top bunk and diving under those covers instead.
“It wasn’t her fault, Shadow Weaver! I wanted her to play with me!” Adora exclaimed, jumping to her feet.
“You are not to blame, Adora,” the floating sorceress crooned, patting her head again. “If you are fond of her, I suppose she may stay here…for now. But you must keep her under control, do you understand? I won’t have some common street rat interfering with your training.”
“Yes, Shadow Weaver,” Adora nodded vigorously, her heart hammering hard in her chest. She had never heard her masked guardian speak this way before, the way she was speaking to Catra now. She had to suppress the urge to shield her new friend with her body, as if that would do any good. They were both so small. “I promise, we’ll behave.”
“Very well. I’ll expect you both to report for morning chores bright and early.” And without so much as a nod goodnight, the tall, dark sorceress floated out again. As soon as she was gone, Adora scrambled up to the top bunk.
“Catra! It’s okay. You can come back down now.”
“But the shadow lady said I can’t,” Catra sniffed, her voice muffled as she was hiding in the blankets again.
“She doesn’t have to know,” Adora grinned, pulling the blankets off Catra and hugging her. “Come on. It’s our bed now. We made a sign.” Little Catra smiled through her tears, and followed her new best friend back down to their bunk.