The Red Swan // Catradora

chapter 11: love, simon

"Hello Ms Hope," Glimmer greeted as she opened the door of Adora's dorm to meet the face of their buildings receptionist who had two plastic bags grasped in her pale hands, visible blue veins elevated indicating the weight of the food containers. 

"Enjoy your evening students." She simply replied in monotone, passing the contents to the hungry girl. 

"Thank you!" She called down the hall as the older lady began to walk back to the lifts. Closing the door behind her with her right leg, she announced the arrival of dinner even though the group had watched the interaction. "Who's hungry?" 

Adora eagerly stood up from the bed, hers and Catra's conversation cut short when the doorbell rang, and slid to the floor, beginning to form their usual feasting circle. Catra remained sat on the bed, unsure where she could fit in as she observed Bow and Glimmer position themselves opposite Adora. Swind edgd his way to Adora's left side in a little brotherly manner. Immediately picking up her friend sitting still, Adora turned to face the shy girl and nudged her head in a direction to indicate, 'come over here.' 

After invitation, she obliged, placing herself next to Adora, yet not as close as she initially wanted to. 

"Alright here's the prawn dumplings, the char siu buns, these veggie things..." Glimmer began to list out as she removed each item from the bags they were stacked in and spreading them across the floor. Additionally, taking out the disposable cutlery stashed inside, she passed the sets around, each person resulting in having a pair of wooden chopsticks each and a plastic spoon. 

"Do you know how to use chopsticks?" Bow politely asked Catra once the eating objects reached her. 

She scoffed in response and looked at Adora knowingly, "I grew up eating this stuff for years, I'm a pro." 

Ignoring the snark in her voice, the positive guy smiled and then out a short laugh, "Maybe you can teach Adora then," he joked, "She sometimes just resorts to stabbing the things," he adds on, cupping a hand around the side of his mouth as if sharing a secret. 

"No way." Catra gapes, facing the girl with a shocked expression. "You're 18 and still don't know how to use chopsticks." 

Adora rolled her eyes in response with a grin on her face, "Hey! I'm getting there. Just very slowly," she replied, applying pressure to the bottom of the packet to slide the sticks out of their confinement before snapping them apart. 

"Okay here let me show you," Catra suggested, indicating to her to hold the chopsticks the way she normally would. Adora fumbled the grip a bit but was eventually able to create a basic hold, yet simply holding it and using it are very different motions. 

"Alright now try pick something up. Here, try pick this up," Catra instructed, placing a napkin infront of her that Swind just pulled out of the bag. Almost as soon as she tried to lift the upper chopstick, it slipped out of her grasp and was adjusted into an odd crab pincer formation, one stick held longer than the other.

"Okay this is just humiliating," Adora mumbled, slight annoyance in her voice at her inability to quickly learn but overall enjoying the joke. 

"Let me help," Catra jumped in. She reached a hand out to the other and gently moved her pointer finger to rest above the first stick, pushing it back so the lengths were equal. Adora at first paid attention to the adjustments but found herself flicking her gaze back and forth between the girl and their contact, her dark brown hair tickling her jawline. The rest of the group continued to set up the meal, opening lids and trashing them, setting out the reusable plates, bowls, and tetris-ing the boxes so they were equally accessible to everyone, yet throwing a few glances to the two girls occasionally.