Home

If the world was ending

Catra starred at the keys on the table.

After lunch she had called DT to tell them she would have slept somewhere else. Cleaned the kitchen, she went out to the grocery store, to buy proper food and replace Adora's nachos in a breef wave of guilt...the blonde had to be aware of the importance of hiding them to play it fairly.
And, most importantly, she bought wine.
Obviously the blonde had no alcol: she was the worst lightweight, but Catra was the very opposite.

That's how the Latina ended there, set at the table, with an empty bottle and one almost finished, questioning her whole life in front of some shitty keys.

How did she get them so easily?
She did know nothing about this, she was practically a homeless who slept on her friend's couch and whose stability depended on her football scholarship.
She was a leftover who had run all her life to get something, to make it.
She really believed that nobody gives you anything for free...yet in about 24 hours she was given the keys of an apartment, without them even checking her documents or back account.
She had just walked in and was offered a bed, a safe place and maybe even an old friend.
It was suddenly too good to be true.
She felt trapped.
Things like this don't happen.
Maybe it was a prank.
Maybe Adora would have changed her mind.
Maybe they would have seen each other and yelled at each other.
Maybe she wouldn't have been able to forgive her.
Maybe Adora would have seen her and realised she had really moved on.

How was it possibile that those keys were waiting for her? The bed was waiting? The desk was empty for her?

Nothing is free.

Karma is the worst of the bitches, something terrible would have happened for sure.
Life is a fucking 0-sum game...and Catra usually is the one who loses.

The brunette put some radio channel on the tv, crushing on the sofa and watching the ceiling while contemplating what tragedy would have hit her.
What was the cost?
Maybe Adora would have shadowed her again, somehow.

A thud from the entrance interrupted Catra's mind flow, then a fast click and the door swong open.
"Catra!" Shouted a cracked voice.
The girl set up instantly, frozen, with her face still stained by her cry, watching a tall, fit blondie almost tripping in her own steps as she appeared in the living room.
"C-Catra..." Adora called again, staring at her in disbelief.
The brunette snapped out her paranoiac paralysis and used her sleeve to brush away the weakness from her face, getting her shit together.
She didn't want them to meet again and her being a mess, confused and miserable.
"W-what are you doing here?" The blonde asked, still shocked.
"Ehm, Angella let me." She responded, standing up from the sofa.
"I-I thought...y-you..." Adora stuttered, while her blue eyes turned watery again.
Catra would have wanted to talk, but really hadn't any words.
"...yo-you never answered." Finished the blonde, broken and leaning on the wall, feeling her knees betray her.
"Adora I-I never got it...I never received your letter." The Latina said and saw how her words took the blonde aback.
She moved her eyes toward the pavement for some seconds, metabolising Catra's response.
Soon after, the blonde bolted towards her and tackled the old friend, making the two of them fall on the sofa.
Adora hugged her so tightly that the brunette could hardly breathe.
"I did it, Catra! I got us a home!" Said the girl, crying and snuggling in her neck and scented hair.
The other didn't hug back, pushing her a little away to lock their eyes.
"Weren't we supposed to do it together?" She asked confused and concerned, still hurt remembering the feeling of abandonment.
Yet, she was holding on her.
Probably it was because of the wine.
"I know, but things went down the hill...but I did it! I managed to! I haven't failed you, right? We have plenty of time to save for the next..." said Adora, starting to stroke the hazelnut mane and carefully placing some strands behind her ear.
"I don't understand." Admitted Catra, with her heterocromatic eyes shining for the threat of her tears.

Why was she there? How was she appeared out of nowhere, in the middle of the night?
She was wearing sweatpants and a hoodie of the military academy; even her ponytail was a mess.
All those emotions were so overwhelming for the brunette, so used to push it down till the next explosion.

"Listen Catra...I'm sorry I didn't turn down the adoption...it just felt like such an opportunity: having a family, a solid base, a bigger support system...but I swear that I never stopped working for everything we have talked about! All our plans are still there! I get paid for studying in the military, that's how I can afford this place. You are so smart, I bet you are choosing what university to get in! You will be an amazing lawyer and then we will see where the military will send me: with this job we will get to travel a lot! And with time we could even afford to go outside the country for vacations!" Rambled Adora, making the brunette's head spin.
"W-what do you want from me?" Catra questioned in what came out almost as a whisper.
"You are my real family, Catra..."admitted the blonde, distancing from her to look at her heterocromatic eyes, but still holding her hand.
The latina took a moment to replay her words in her head, over and over again, tightening the grip.
"Stay with me, please." Begged Adora with the most inaudible voice.
"W-Will you? No lies." Questioned the brunette.
The girl's face contracted in an expression of pure determination and said: "I promise."

She promised before too.

Adora kept caressing Catra, while she just let her and looked at anything but her mesmerised eyes.
"I have to go soon, they wake us up at 6" the blonde said suddenly.
"Did you sneak out?" Asked the other surprised.
"Angella called and told me you were here, I couldn't wait tomorrow." The girl admitted.
Catra just nodded.

She felt like everything was going too fast and it was wrong and confusing and if it was, so many things were unsaid.

"Have you already visited the house?" Adora dared to question.
"I did...I stole your nachos, but bought new grocery." The brunette told, making the girl start laughing.
"I'll think of a better spot to hide them." She said, heartwarmed.
Catra giggled along.
"So...are you drunk already?" The blonde asked, pointing the wine bottles in the table.
"Yeah, they helped processing the day." She answered.
"Wanna go to bed?" The other questioned.
"I'm still very upset, honestly." The brunette said, although she was apparently calm and her lips formed a small smile.
"Can I do something to help you?" Adora hoped, starting to caress her again.
Catra just shook a no.
She wasn't welcoming, neither rejecting.
The Latina hugged her knees, bringing them close to her chest and hid the lower part of her face in them, like she used to do when she was a child.
That finally suggested an idea to the blonde, who ran to their room and came back with a knitted blanket to cover the girl.
Catra just let Adora envelop her in it, then the the blonde kissed her forehead and walked in the kitchen, starting to clean it up.

The blonde kept telling herself that she just had to hold on: she knew Catra, she saw how the girl couldn't trust her...but she had earned her trust once and she could do it again, she just had to shower her with love and care, then wait patiently for the brunette to come to her, like the first time.