“Hey, have you seen Catra?”

Glimmer yelped as Adora pulled her out of her passing conversation with a couple of Mystacor students. She looked irritated, like an ice cream cake she had ordered was showing up late on a hot summer day.

“Adora, you can’t just interrupt my conversation!”

“I’ve looked all over for her, and I’ve even asked Frosta, Sea Hawk, and Mermista if they’d maybe have seen her and they said they hadn’t and I had a run-in with Double Trouble and they were being all ‘ooh mystery mystery I know more than you do’ and urgh they get under my skin some times. Have you seen Catra?”

“No, I have not seen Catra. I’ve been waiting for my own date to show up at our agreed-upon time, for which he is three whole events too late.”

“What, Bow? I saw Entrapta grab a hold of him not too long ago. Where they went, I’m not sure.”

“Of course Entrapta’s involved! I swear, I trust him to not let tinkering get in the way of a good evening for both of us and he goes and blows that. Argh!” Glimmer turned around and slammed her fist into the pillar.

“Hey, maybe Entrapta needed Bow’s help for something important! You know he would never break a promise to you unless he has an incredibly good reason,” Adora said as she tried to calm her friend down. Glimmer’s lack of a response indicated that her words were getting through.

“How long have you been standing here?” Adora followed up.

“…since event 31,” Glimmer said after a short break.

“Oh no, really?” Adora laid her hand on her best friend’s shoulder. “That’s awful! He made you wait for 28–”

“Event 60 is currently commencing,” Lonnie’s familiar announcing voice was broadcast through some repurposed Horde technology.

“…29 events? And the first dance is up next as well…”

“I know! Why do you think I’m so upset about it?” Glimmer spun around again, her frustrated expression bordering on breaking out into tears. “And I was looking forward to it as well…”

“That’s awful,” Adora began as she placed her hands on her best friend’s shoulders. “It doesn’t matter why; he should’ve at least let you know! I might not be the best at dancing, but since Catra’s still missing I will gladly be your first dance partner if you’ll have me. Or, I know, we can go find Bow! For the honour of Graysku—”

“Nonono! No need for She-Ra,” Glimmer laughed as she tried to restrain Adora from the transformation. “The first dance will do fine. We can go find Bow and Catra afterwards.”

“The first dance is about to commence. Please make your way to the dance floor, where our hostesses have a surprise planned.” As if on cue, Lonnie’s voice echoed throughout the room once again. Glimmer’s face shot from her previous smile to sad back to a smile again as she locked her arm with Adora’s, and the two began to make their way to the dance floor.

Glimmer spoke up again as they arrived. “You’re lucky to have Catra, you know?”

Adora gave a little chuckle. “I know.”

“I don’t think you do though,” Glimmer said, shaking her head as the duo stood ready for the first steps of the dance event. As a soft, mournful jazz tune played throughout the hall, the two started dancing. “I know precisely one person who, throughout everything that happened over the past few years, always saw you as, well, Adora.”

The quizzical expression on Adora’s face indicated that she had not quite caught on to the point that Glimmer was trying to make.

“All right, I’ll put it this way. Remember that time that Catra ran away? Because She-Ra was helping everyone on Etheria? You know, the time that she was fighting everyone who dared badmouth your efforts, with you apologising for every minor mistake people pointed out to you?”

“Well, yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever been that scared in my life,” Adora replied as the two stepped and twirled around one another. “I was in a state, wasn’t I?”

“And did you ever stop to think about why she ran away in the first place?” Glimmer was about to continue her point, but at that moment Scorpia’s deep, melodic timbre marked the switching of partners. With a twirl, Adora spun around to her next partner. The moment her fingers ran across long, sharp nails and her hand fell into a gloved palm, she knew who she was dancing with.

“Where have you been?” Adora led Catra through an additional pirouette so that she could get a good look at her face; nervous anticipation, the stress when she was trying to fix a supposed mistake, and underneath it all a joy to be back with Adora.

Catra liked being at parties. She didn’t like partaking in them though.

“I’ve, uh… Been busy.” There were the nerves Adora noticed before.

“Oh really? So busy that you could leave me here alone on our special night? I was looking all over for you!”

“Yes. It’s, uh...” A momentary pause as she contemplated which part of what she wanted to say was to be left out. “…Important. All right?”

“So important that you’d miss out on the tuna filet, huh?”

“They have tuna?!” Catra’s eyes shot wide, her ears perked up, and her gaze moved towards the buffet. Adora felt a little bit of blood rush to her cheeks as she couldn’t help but let out a little giggle; Catra being cute like this always sparked joy. As Catra noticed the giggle, her cheeks started glowing as well.

“Yeah, I told you before! We can go get some when the dance is over, okay?” Adora spun through the next few paces as she transferred back over to Glimmer.

“You got yourself a deal, princess!” Catra laughed back at her. “I’ll come find you!”

“You always do!” A warm feeling blossomed from Adora’s chest and spread itself to a smile as she turned back to her first dance partner.

Glimmer chuckled. “Did you have a chance to think about my question earlier?”

“Nope,” Adora responded without a moment’s hesitation, smile still on her face. “All I know is that she makes my world, a—”

“Is that BOW?!” Glimmer’s yell drew the attention of the people around them as she spun Adora around, holding her shoulder as she pointed at a figure dashing on the balcony overlooking the ballroom. “It is! …And over there? Entrapta?”

Adora felt the grip on her shoulder tighten, and the grit work its way back into Glimmer’s voice as she spoke through clenched teeth. “He’d rather… spend this evening gadgeteering with Entrapta than spend it with me?”

“Hey, I’m sure he has a perfectly—”

Bamf

“—good reason for it!” Adora had expected the teleport but had figured it would’ve been closer than it ended up being.

“And where do you think you’ve been all night, mister?!”

“Sorry Glimmer, we’re almost done here!”

“Don’t you ignore me!”

“Is it finished?”

“Done! Ha haaa!” Entrapta’s enthralled laugh gave everyone present a chance to figure out the situation. The group found themselves tucked away in an alcove of the room, poring over a miniature tinkering table on which stood a simple, unassuming box. The other side of the alcove had a flight of stairs leading down to the main ball room, on which stood a nervous Catra, looking right at Adora.

“Oh, hey there Catra!” Entrapta perked up at the apparent windfall, having completely ignored Glimmer and Adora’s arrival. “We just finished your r—” The cry was lost as Bow shot his hands over her mouth to keep her quiet. As Bow and Entrapta exchanged glances, Entrapta’s hair grabbed the box and threw it to Catra, who slightly fumbled the catch and dashed back down the stairs.

“Good luck!” Bow yelled after her while keeping Entrapta’s mouth covered.

“Oooh… Kay? Can either of you explain to me what just happened?” Adora turned to Bow and Glimmer, who were having a conversation with just facial expressions. Glimmer’s expression went from frustration, to curiosity, to surprise and excitement over the course of a few seconds.

“G- g- g- go after her!” Glimmer blindly started reaching for Adora’s arm as she pointed down the stairs, barely able to keep her excitement in check. “Quickly!”

“Ah! Uh, okay!” Adora took off after her partner, as fast as the dress could allow her.

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Following Catra through the crowd was easy – follow the unkempt ponytail and white-with-gold jacket. Adora could have sworn she had seen Scorpia give Catra a thumbs up (at least, as close as Scorpia could get to a thumbs up), but she paid it little mind as she dashed after Catra into the maze-like hallways that once made up the Fright Zone.

It was here that she lost track of Catra.

It’s to be expected, Adora thought to herself as she sprinted down one of the many vaguely familiar hallways. Catra comes here to visit Scorpia from time to time, and I haven’t been back here since, well, the war with the Horde. The sudden sound of Catra’s laugh tickled over her spine and drew her attention to a hallway behind her, down which she saw a familiar silhouette dart away around a corner.

“Catra—” Adora began to call out, but as she did so her feet caught on the train.

Instinct kicked in as Adora began to tumble to the floor; years of Horde training, play-fighting with Catra, and battle as She-Ra flooded back as Adora tumbled and rolled out of the fall.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Hey, Catra! Enough of this, c’mon!” Gritting her teeth, Adora stood back up and checked whether the dress hadn’t been ruined. “Let’s cut this out and go back to the ball! We’ll dance, eat tuna and, y’know, have a good time together!”

The silence was the only reply she got. For the slightest of seconds, Adora considered transforming into She-Ra again. The magical energy began materializing the new Sword of Protection, but Adora caught herself and forced it to disappear.

“No, no She-Ra,” Adora ultimately decided. “It was going to be our night.”

As she confirmed that the dress was OK, her eyes fell once again on the train that she had just tripped over.

“Why did I think this train was a good idea…” Adora muttered under her breath. With as much delicacy as she could muster in her frustration, she removed the clasps that kept the train in its place and began folding it up.

With Catra apparently still not having realised that Adora had almost literally fallen behind, Adora found that she now had the time to realise where she was. As she looked around the hallway she found herself in, her eyes were drawn to a familiar long row of bunkbeds in one of the siderooms.

The cadet’s bunk room.

Adora wasn’t sure whether this was the bunk room that she had grown up in, but she found herself strolling between them. Quickly Adora’s mind wandered back to all the time that she had spent with the Horde as a child and all the years spent keeping the peace in the old squad of Catra, Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio under Shadow Weaver’s eye. She remembered the big fight between Catra and Lonnie when Lonnie was first adopted into the group; the two had never reconciled. The time she had talked Kyle into going to a training exercise he absolutely refused to go to, speaking of all the people that were counting on him, and that the team was stronger together. The dents in the bedpost Adora was running her fingers over by Rogelio as he lashed out during his puberty; Adora had tried her best, but in retrospect it had been Kyle who had listened patiently to Rogelio’s problems.

And of course, at the very end, was Adora and Catra’s bunk.

The mattress looked fresh (despite the layer of dust that lay on top of it), but the claw marks that covered the walls and the bed posts betrayed that this had, indeed, been their bunk. Catra must have been really upset to leave scratches like that. Wondering if the carving of the two of them was still on the roof of the bottom bunk, Adora leaned down to have a look at it. Sure enough, there it was – along with three clear swipes at it, crossing it out.

Ah, Adora thought to herself. This happened on that day. Back then, an entire lifetime together had ended abruptly. This bed held all the memories, all the pain.

A little magic wouldn’t hurt anybody, Adora figured. Channeling a bit of She-Ra’s power, she blew the mattress clean, and threw herself onto the bed. And lying there, Adora stared at the claw marks and remembered.

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Before long, Catra’s long feline ears poked around the corner.

“Adora? What’re you doing here?”

“Decided to come find me after all, huh?” A playful smile curled on Adora’s lips.

“Well yeah! Usually you ignore everything and run after me. I was wondering what was keeping you.”

“I was thinking,” Adora replied.

“Oh no, that’s not a good sign is it?” Catra chuckled as she crawled into the bunk along with Adora. “Normally, you either overthink things or just improvise…” Her voice trailed off as she noticed what Adora was looking at.

“It’s been years since I was last here, so I’ve just been… thinking back. To everything we’ve been through together.” As Adora said this, she raised her hand and began to write the Failsafe on the dusty ceiling.

“We sure came a long way from this bed, haven’t we?” Catra chuckled as she curled up to look at Adora.

Some time passed — a minute, maybe a few — before Adora spoke up again.

“Hey, Catra? Why did you stick with being a Force Captain?”

It took Catra a few seconds to put together her answer. “For as long as I can remember, we were—”

“—We?”

“OK, fine. You were working to be a Force Captain. I honestly never cared about the role. If I was with you, nothing else mattered. And then you found the Sword of Protection… Found the sword and abandoned me. I thought.”

“Aww, Catra…” Adora turned to her side, looking her partner in the eye. “You’re such an idiot.”

Catra gave a little chuckle, but Adora could see the tears welling up in her eyes. “I felt so alone, so… abandoned. And so, I did what I could to…” The tears that managed to creep through were rolling down her cheek at this point. Amidst the tears, Catra reached her hand out and caressed Adora’s cheek, a hand that Adora pressed her own against.

“…To get you to look at me. And I almost ruined everything to do so.”

At this point Adora was crying along with her.

“Oh, you sweet, stubborn idiot.” She gently wiped a tear away before pulling Catra in for a kiss. “I always was, always am, and always will be looking at you. I love you. I always have.”

Catra looked into Adora’s eyes with a soft, warm smile squeezing the corners of her eyes.

“I love you too.”

Adora leaned in to give Catra another kiss. As the two separated, Catra pulled herself upright, standing up from the bunk bed.

“C’mon. I’ve got something I’ve been wanting to show you.”

----------------------------------------

The two walked in a comfortable silence through the old metal halls of the Fright Zone, Catra leading the way and Adora following. Wherever Catra was taking Adora, it was in a very roundabout way; if Adora recalled the Fright Zone correctly, they had just narrowly passed the ongoing festivities a few times. Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her, as she snuck up and jumped on Catra.

Surprisingly, Catra stayed standing even as Adora (who was taller) did her best to latch on to her.

“What, do you want me to carry you there like the dainty little princess you are?” A smile had crept onto Catra’s face as she stood still.

“You’ll have to- If you don’t- tell me- where- you’re- taking me!” Adora managed to grunt her sentence out as she tried to hold on to Catra as well as her dress would let her.

Catra laughed as she tried to stay standing as well as she could. “Ad— Hey, that tickles! — Adora, just trust me on this. We’re almost there but if we don’t hurry, we’ll be too late!”

“Okay, fine,” Adora conceded as she put herself back on her own two feet. “But this better be as amazing as you’re making it out to be, or you’re never gonna hear the end of it.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Catra replied as she walked on.

Before too long, the duo left the metal interiors behind and stepped out onto wooden platforms on one of the massive, gnarling roots of the Thundertree itself. Catra beckoned Adora over and pointed to a lone metallic spire just a bit up the root. Adora recognised it immediately.

“Hey, isn’t that our old spot?”

“Sure is!” Catra replied with the same nervous enthusiasm back in her voice.

“Wow, I haven’t been there since all that collapsing-the-space-time-continuum stuff! Hoo, that brings me back.”

“I, uh, hadn’t thought of it that way,” Catra’s ears drooped considerably, but Adora had already taken a few steps up the root in the tower’s direction and seemingly didn’t notice.

“We should go have a look, see how it is post-Fright Zone!” Adora looked over her shoulder at Catra, who let out an audible sigh. Her ears had perked up considerably again.

“Bet you I’ll get there first,” Catra shot a sly grin at Adora as she dashed past her.

“Hey, that’s no fair! I’m wearing a dress…” Adora pulled the fabric of the dress up a little bit and, steeling her gaze, began tying it up for ease of movement. “Not like that’s ever stopped me before. Catra, wait up!”

----------------------------------------

It didn’t take long for Adora to lose track of Catra again, but Adora didn’t really mind at this point. The entire excursion into the old Fright Zone had her revisiting a bunch of old memories of a life that once was. The places she’s seen, the things that she had gained along the way, the things she’d had all along. The thought suddenly struck Adora that she was returning to the very beginning; the same spot…

…and of course, along with Catra.

“Hey, Adora,” Catra said as she poked her head over the ledge. “Need a hand?”

“No, I’m fine! Definitely fine,” Adora retorted as she tried to find another foothold to pull herself up. Catra rested her head on her hand and watched for a short while as Adora failed to find a way to climb up.

“Have I mentioned that you’re super adorable when you’re struggling like this?” Catra leaned a bit further closer, as if to get a better look.

“Oh please, you’re just enjoying watching these guns in action,” Adora retorted, using her head to beckon to her outstretched arm. “Now help me up, will you?”

Catra let out a playful mrow. “Oh no officer, you caught me! Guilty as charged.” She reached down, grabbed Adora’s arm, and pulled her up to the spot proper.

The view, if possible, was even more stunning than Adora remembered it to be. The unfettered magical essence that was released from the Heart of Etheria had sculpted a serene, colourful landscape; one that was only enhanced by the deep crimsons and purples in the sky from the setting sun. The spot itself had also been decorated: white and red flowers spread a pleasant scent from what had previously been safety railings, linked together by the same ebony roots that surrounded the artificial peak. The far ledge, where they would sit as children and teenagers, remained the same, save for an unevenly stitched blanket – probably Scorpia’s handiwork.

“Awww Catraaaa!” Adora wrapped her arms around Catra’s shoulders and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “It’s so pretty! I love it!”

“Thank you,” Catra said, a smile on her face. She led Adora to the blanket, where a small basket of specially made treats was waiting for them. “Sorry that I was gone for most of the evening so far. I, uh, was busy getting everything set up.”

“You did a great job at it,” Adora replied as she peered into the basket. Picking out treats that she felt Catra would appreciate, she offered her a small selection of delicacies of various sizes. For a while, the two sat like they once used to – nibbling on treats, legs dangling over the side, heads resting on shoulders.

After a couple of minutes, Catra broke the silence.

“This feels like how it used to.”

“How so?” Adora replied.

“I came back here a lot as a Force Captain. Still come back from time to time when I visit Scorpia. It’s nice to be here when I am, but it simply never feels the same without you here.” Catra let out an audible sigh. “It never feels the same without you around.”

Catra turned to Adora, looking her right in the eye. She looked as if she had something to say, but every time she opened her mouth to speak, the words failed to come out. Eventually, she managed to speak.

“I, uh… I couldn’t- I can’t imagine a day of my life passing without you anymore, and my darkest days were the days I thought I wouldn’t…” Catra petered out, unable to finish her sentence. Adora moved her hand up to comfort Catra, gazing deep into her eyes. “I know that people need you, and I know that there are going to be days that I don’t get to spend with you. You can’t say no to someone in trouble, it’s just… who you are. So, I just want to remind you that… That I love you. With all my heart. Wherever we are.”

Adora was so lost in Catra’s eyes that she didn’t notice the small box that she had placed in her lap – it took Catra beckoning to it with a slight nod for her to realise it was there. As she picked up the box and opened it, Catra spoke up again.

“Will you marry me?”

Inside the box sat a ring, a well-constructed band of old Horde tech with First Ones language running across the flat edges. Adorning the top was a well-cut red magical crystal, the First Ones rune of the Failsafe engraved in the middle of it. Heart. Love.

It looked beautiful. Only Adora had no clue what it was supposed to do.

“Catra, it’s beautiful… But, uh… What’s it for?”

A moment of stunned silence followed as Catra’s expression went blank – clearly, whatever the plan was, it did not account for Adora having no clue what she was supposed to be responding to. Adora felt incredibly guilty – if this was what Catra had spent all evening preparing for, she was probably counting on a response that was not ‘sorry but what’s this?’

Fortunately, Catra started laughing as a smile crawled back on her face. “You really don’t read, do you?” she managed to say amidst chuckles.

“I’m sorry, okay? I’ve been really busy and--”

“Shh, it’s okay,” Catra interrupted as she put her finger on Adora’s mouth. The slight scent of oil and rust tickled her nose along with Catra’s long nail.

Catra continued when Adora went completely silent.

“Marriage is a promise to the one you love. A promise to spend every day together, and if you can’t that you will think about one another. A promise to share in everything; the good, the bad, the ugly. A promise that, no matter how many days, months, years have passed, that you will continue to love each other.”

Catra averted her gaze for the briefest of moments, before looking back to Adora.

“Even when you had left, when I felt like I was alone, you were the light that kept me going. I’m all yours. I always have been.”

Adora suddenly realized that tears were rolling down her cheeks.

“Wow, that’s really poetic of you,” Adora said as she began wiping the tears away. “Are you sure you’re OK?”

“Hey, I’ve been reading a lot, OK? Mermista gave me copies of those books she’s always going on about and they’ve been hard to put down.”

A brief, silent moment followed, which was broken by the duo laughing. Adora leaned forward, touching Catra’s forehead with her own.

“Of course. I’m yours. You’re mine. I’m yours.”

Catra’s gentle smile widened as she grabbed the sides of Adora’s head. Adora found herself drawn into the smiling eyes of blue and yellow, the little freckles that dotted Catra’s face. She too leaned in, running her fingers over the back of Catra’s ear. Staring into one another’s eyes, Catra gradually pulled Adora in for a kiss.

As the two kissed, all that Adora could think about was that this was going to be the first of many special nights together.