(A/N: coffeeshop AU. Adora's in Uni, Catra's a college dropout. Everyone looks how they do in the show. Catra's a magicat, Scorpia's got pincers etc. CW for swearing.)
Goddamn it.
Despite the god-awful weather, the thundering rain battering on the windows, the rush of people forcing their way in through the poor automatic doors as the storm hit, Catra found herself frozen to the spot once again staring at the most radiant smile she's ever seen. That blonde was standing across the counter, once again ordering the same black coffee she's been ordering for the past month, and once again making Catra weak at the knees by doing nothing but smiling at her. It's a normal thing to do. Innocent, even. It's not her fault that every time she smiles Catra's heart does a summersault and tries to run off, taking all common sense with it.
It's completely normal that Catra knows she comes in every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. It's also normal to know that she always comes in just after 1pm, avoiding the initial 12pm rush to get out of work, grab lunch, and get back as soon as possible. The whole mad rush around lunch perplexes Catra, all these people desperate to get a coffee and a little sandwich or cake seemingly before their bosses realise they've gone.
But for the past month, almost as a reward for putting up with it three times a week, Catra breathes a sigh of relief whenever she sees the familiar swaying of a blond ponytail passing by the floor-to-ceiling windows in front of the café. Sometimes the blonde hugs the wall a bit too close, managing not to pass under the sensor for the door to open, and has to step back and wave up at it for the doors to let her in. Sometimes she manages to catch the doors just as they're about to close and almost walks into them. Every time, Catra suppresses a laugh, covering her mouth with a closed fist as she coughs into it. Every time, she watches with keen interest while pretending to focus on the drink some other customer had ordered.
'Excuse me?'
Crap! Catra quickly ran her hand down the length of her tail, flattening it down after the shock of being broken from her trance.
'S- Sorry!' Shitshitshit. She'd been staring too long. What was the order again? Probably the same as usual. Black coffee. Gross. Every time she ordered that, Catra would slip in something else, something to make it decidedly less gross. Almost as if presenting a fine artist with a blank canvas as declaring to have at it and paint whatever they like on it. Although in this case, it was more like she was ordering a canvas painted completely black, but Catra still painted something else on it anyway. Something subtle. Maybe a colour underneath the black, so it's not quite pure black. Or maybe a little doodle in the corner. Recently, she's been getting more brave, painting swirling patterns across the black canvas in steadily brighter colours just to see if she could get a reaction out of her unwilling test-dummy.
Losing her job had never occurred to her. Catra really shouldn't be messing with customer's drinks, but when the manager is your best friend you can get away with a lot more. Even though sometimes customers would just order "whatever" and it would be up to her to decide by judging them on the spot and making a complete guess as to what they might like. That was part of the Bright Moon Coffee Co. menu, it wasn't made up. Luck of the draw kind of thing. Almost like gambling, in a way. The main rule is that the customer isn't allowed to complain afterwards, because they knew full-well what they were signing up for.
This isn't like that though. The blonde purposefully orders her coffee black every time and Catra messes with it anyway. Doing anything to it to make it seem even a degree more interesting, more deserving of being drunk by the absolute radiance of the girl that orders it.
Radiance is something the rain doesn't help, Catra decided as she picked a cup off the stack and prepared to fill it with a black coffee base while considering what else to put into it. Her usually bright blond hair had been dulled by the rain and plastered to her forehead. While Catra turned away to see to the order, she started ringing out her ponytail like a soaked towel, dripping water all over the floor. Whatever - the floor was ruined by now anyway. Tons of people had forced their way in once the impromptu storm started, dragging in mud and water and making Catra's mopping skills from the night before completely redundant. The storm, it would later turn out, was not random. The Met Office had been saying for weeks that storm Kyle would be hitting shores soon, but no one really ever pays attention to the Met Office and proceeds to complain about the weather anyway.
Catra had only looked the blonde in the eyes once, the first time she came in and ordered a black coffee. It had taken far too long for Catra to tear her eyes away that time, so Catra resigned herself to not looking, only glancing around her face (not that that seemed to work considering she had been staring just now). The deep, sparkling blue had pinned Catra to the spot, holding her hostage and threatening cold-blooded murder should she turn away. No, that's too harsh. Those eyes were far too kind for that. It was Catra who would murder if she should be forced to look away from those eyes a second time.
Having a "customer-face" was something most workers had, be it in retail or service. A blank smile with no meaning behind it waiting to accept anything that came from a customer's mouth as the gospel truth. The only person who was allowed to refute that gospel truth was the manager, but Scorpia would never hurt a fly, not really, despite her pincers and literally person-paralysing venom in her tail.
Speaking of remaining blank and having unique features, Catra's tail and ears often betrayed her, the traitors. Her tail was especially guilty, thrashing excitedly far more than would be deemed appropriate in a work setting every time that ponytail came within eyeline. Catra could feel those dreamy eyes watching her back as she prepared the coffee, now no longer just black like she had ordered. Picking up a pen, Catra wrote "ponytail" on the side of the cup, and placed it on the counter in front of the waiting blonde.
'I have a name, you know.' She beamed that infectious smile once again. Catra froze. This was the first time she had said something other than her order and a thank you as she smiled and left. It took a moment, but there was no one else waiting to order right now anyway, so Catra steeled herself and prepared to ask, her heart hammering in her chest.
'Oh yeah, what is it?' For a whole month Catra had been meaning to ask. Usually you would once the customer had ordered, standard practice. But ever since that first time she came in, when Catra had been too distracted to speak, she had just been writing "blonde" or "ponytail" on the cup. Catra assumed she didn't mind, as she never opposed it, just seeming amused by the observations Catra was making on her cup.
'Adora.'
Of course it fucking is. It just has to be a beautiful name doesn't it. A name that sounds amazing to hear and must taste like goddamn honey to actually say out loud. Christ, she's got it bad. If just hearing the blonde's name is enough to make her face feel warm, god knows what Catra is going to do if she actually goes forward with any of the fantasies that have plagued her mind since week two of watching this blonde order shitty coffee.
It wasn't as if Adora was her gay awakening. Catra had crushes growing up, as most folk do, but they had never amounted to anything and had never been as intense as this.
Ah, crap. Catra's gaze was lost in those oceans of blue again. She couldn't help it, not after hearing her name and finding out that name was just the most amazing word she's ever heard. The second time Catra's ever made eye-contact, and over her goddamn name. Adora seemed to realise too, bursting into an infectious smile when she met Catra's eyes and looked into them like she was trying to see something hiding behind them.
'I've got to run, thanks for the coffee.' Catra watched as Adora paid for the coffee before practically bouncing on the spot. Then the blonde turned, ponytail swaying, and gently squeezed her way past the crowd hiding from the rain that was gathered just inside the door, apologising as she went.
That's when Catra realised it was Thursday and she wouldn't see Adora again until Monday. She groaned inwardly before plastering her fake smile back to her face and serving one of the rain-crowd that had been dislodged by Adora's exit.
Not long after that, Catra took her lunch break.
She never had to bring her own food. Scorpia usually managed to crush something while stacking shelves that they could no longer sell, so Catra just ate the victims of those accidents. She groaned, much more audibly this time, flopping back on the sofa in the break room and sprawling across it. Scorpia was in there too, sorting through some files - or trying to - that she had been meaning to sort through for a while. Catra would usually help, but Scorpia knew she was usually grumpy on a Thursday afternoon so she usually wouldn't ask but these files really needed to be sorted and her claws would just not cut her some slack.
'Oh. Uhm - Hey there, Wildcat. Rough morning?' Scorpia always sounded chipper. Sometimes it was welcome and actually helped to improve Catra's mood, but not today. Wildcat was a long-standing nickname from college. Scorpia had been in one of the upper classes on Catra's course but they ended up being friends anyway. She had often gushed to Catra about her long-term plans of opening her own coffee shop somewhere in the city, but apparently a good stepping stone to that was becoming the manager of a chain-café that already existed. If you were to ask, she would say she's happy to be learning so much about running a café at all, despite some of the work being handled by the powers that be. Scorpia always tried to put her own twists on any promotional material that came through, but she couldn't get away with a lot. Everything had to be by the book, and any obvious deviations wouldn't make it past the inspection. That's just how these companies are. Catra blew out a long breath into the room, closing her eyes and just trying to focus on not listing to the hammering rain that was filling her senses.
'Yeah, whatever. I don't like how loud the rain is.' Catra lied. Well, it wasn't a complete lie. The rain was loud, but that's not why she was sulking.
'You want to talk about it later? I can give you a call again, if you want to - obviously you don't have to talk if you don't want -'
'Okay, fine. I'll tell you about it tonight.' Catra turned to face the back of the sofa, hiding her no doubt furiously flushed face from Scorpia. Scorpia was a long-time friend, despite also being her manager. She was the reason Catra even had a job here at all. Catra hadn't quite made it through college, getting expelled after only her second year for almost clawing out some bully's eye. They definitely deserved it, but the police had gotten involved and Catra had to be punished for seriously injuring someone. Her caregiver, Ms. Weaver, soon had her out on the street too. Apparently, getting kicked out of college was the last straw for her and finally gave the drow the excuse she needed to kick Catra out for good. It's not as if Catra wasn't planning on running away as soon as she turned 18 anyway.
Catra had then ended up on Scorpia's doorstep with her one bag of belongings, having nowhere else to go, and Scorpia greeted her with open arms. She also recommended Catra for the spare part-time position as barista at the little BMCC chain café, until a year later Scorpia was made manager and swiftly promoted Catra to have a permanent contract with slightly better pay. Once Catra had enough pay-checks saved up, she moved out of Scorpia's place and got herself an apartment of her own somewhere nearby, content with just existing and living out each day. That was until a month ago when a certain stupid-hot-ponytail-wearing-blonde had to start taking up all the free space in her thoughts.
**
'I think I'm in love.' Catra admitted down the phone later that night to a worried Scorpia, who promptly stopped being worried and squealed excitedly down the phone as Catra quickly jerked it away from her ear. Catra had been dreading this call because she knew Scorpia would react like this.
'Wow! That's amazing, Wildcat. I'm super happy for you that's just - wow. Awesome.'
'It's not like we're together, Scorpia. It's just a crush. I can't stop thinking about her.' Catra always found it easier to talk about this kind of thing over the phone, feelings were not something she could talk about with someone else in the room. Having heightened senses means that she can get a good read on people, often being able to pick up on the slight changes that a normal person wouldn't even dream of noticing.
'Tell me about it! I want to hear everything - this is a big deal, Catra, you've never told me about a crush before.'
This was true only because no one had stood out to her since meeting Scorpia in college. Catra - it turned out - was incredibly picky. She seemed to have a thing for blondes, specifically ones that played sports. Catra had oddly specific memories of blonde girls running relays or kicking footballs around the school fields. She drew in a long breath and tried to gather her thoughts into some semblance of order.
'Okay. If I'm going to do this, you need to shut it and just - let me talk. Alright? I've not exactly done this before.' Catra waited for a moment longer for Scorpia's assurance. 'Scorpia?'
'Oh! Sorry I - I thought you meant immediately. Yeah, no problem, Wildcat. I won't say a peep.'
Catra felt a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. Scorpia had always been quite straightforward, but she was nice. Kind. A good friend. Catra rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling and weaving her tail between the fingers on her free hand.
'Okay. So - for the last month she's been coming into the café and just ordering black coffee. But... don't give me an ear full for this - she's gorgeous, okay? I can't let her drink that shit. So I've been adding little extras to it so it's not just straight black coffee. But when I first served her I couldn't... I forgot to ask her name. So I've just been writing whatever on her cup but today - today she told me her name.' There was a moment of silence. 'Go ahead, Scorpia.'
'Wildcat! How have you kept this quiet! This is amazing. I can tell you like her. So she's a customer? What does she look like? What's her name?'
Catra let herself smile wide at her friend's excitement. Scorpia was a lot on the best of days, but Catra would often let herself be influenced by her near-constant positive and peppy outlook on life. 'One question at a time, Scorpia.'
'Sorry, go ahead.'
'Yes, she's a customer. She's blonde, built well - I guess. Her name... Her name is Adora.'
**
It turns out, according to Scorpia, there was someone called Adora who had been something of a local legend when it came to playing sports at their college. She had been in the same year as Catra, but only really started making the front page of the college News Club's zines sometime after Catra was expelled. After completing her course, she started attending the nearest University and continued to study something or other sports related.
On Monday, when Catra handed over the cup of not-black coffee, Adora had looked down and smiled at her own name scrawled on the side.
'That was her, then?' Scorpia asked during the lunchbreak, leaning back against the counter and waiting for the sink to fill up so she could attempt to wash up the plates and mugs that had been left out on the side for almost a week. Normally, she would use the dishwasher, but the plumber still hadn't been round to take a look at it and Catra was silently seething about it.
'Yeah, that was her.' Catra had felt extremely nervous about writing something other than "ponytail" on the side of her cup. Somehow, it felt like some huge step towards getting closer to her, but Catra knew that was just her hopeless lesbian brain feeding her fantasies that Adora actually gives a shit.
'It was definitely the same Adora, oh yeah. I recognise her from the college newsletter things they used to hand out. I never really wanted them but I just couldn't refuse them when they handed them out to me, you know?' Scorpia laughed, trying to hide her apparent secret shame of being too nice to say no to accepting a flyer from some over-eager wannabe journalist. 'Did she say anything? Anything new? You did write her name on the cup this time, didn't you?'
'Yes, Scorpia, I wrote her name on the dumb cup. And no, she didn't say anything else, just looked hot and smiled as usual. I just...' Catra stuttered over her next words. The truth was, she had been so nervous about just writing Adora's name on the stupid cup that she hadn't thought about next steps. At all.
'Maybe you should write your number on the next cup.'
Catra flushed an unhealthy red, and looked wide-eyed over at Scorpia where she grinned innocently at Catra where she was sprawled on the sofa. A splashing suddenly caught Catra's attention as her ears twitched towards the sound. 'Scorpia! The sink!'
'Oh - shoot!'
**
No numbers were written on any cups during Adora's next three visits. Scorpia insisted she should but that felt an overstep, for a barista to just write their phone number on someone's cup. Plus, what if some weirdo found the cup if Adora just threw it away and called instead? What if Adora saw the number and felt disgusted by Catra coming on to her and never visited ever again? What if-
Catra sneezed, interrupting her own spiralling thoughts. She had caught the flu going round from a particularly gross customer who full-on sneezed on Catra the day before. Now her muscled ached, she had an awesome headache and her nose hadn't stopped running once. Getting ill was not something that happened often with Catra, but when she did it hit her hard. Something to with magicats having different reactions to this kind of thing. Not only that, but Catra was doubly grumpy because she's missing her Wednesday shift. It's the first shift she's missed since Adora started coming into the café.
Scorpia had also been calling Catra all day, checking up on her continuously to ask if she's okay or if she needs anything, also asking even more questions about her crush on Adora for some reason. Apparently she turns into some kind of overprotective mum when one of her friends is ill, and it took Catra actually getting ill to feel the full brunt of it. Scorpia had even come over to bring her lunch from the café. It was now approaching closing time, 5:30pm, so Catra was expecting a call from Scorpia any minute. She may have decided to indulge in her friend's kindness and asked her to bring over something for dinner and to hang out, even if she had started to feel slightly better.
There it was, the familiar buzz of Catra's phone, steadily vibrating itself toward the edge of the chest of drawers next to the bed where it's been on charge all day. Catra picked it up and answered immediately, she had made the mistake of not turning off the ring tone earlier in the day and her heightened hearing while ill was, decidedly, not fun.
'Hey Scorpia. Before you say anything, yes I'm still home, yes I'm started to feel better, and no, I won't tell you anything else about my crush on Adora.'
Silence.
'Uh, Scorpia? Have you butt-dialed me again?'
'... Hey.'
Catra froze. That wasn't Scorpia's phone voice, or even close to her normal voice.
'Who is this? How'd you get my number?'
'It was... written on my cup. Is this Catra? Your manager gave me something to bring you, she said you're ill but she's too busy to come over.'
Catra would have responded, but her brain had crashed after the word "cup."
'I'm going to kill her.'
'Um... please don't?'