First Times For Everything (ch6)

EARLY RELEASE FOR MY $10+ PATRONS!

This is a bit of a different concept, but one I got the idea for somehow and I decided to roll with it!

Disclaimer: I do not own She-Ra.

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												Chapter 6. A Hard Hit

When Adora woke up that morning, she could instantly tell something was off with Catra.

For starters, her partner was usually up and active – sometimes annoyingly so – long before Adora was.

But today, as Adora sits up and stretches her arms up above her head, Catra remains curled at the foot of the bed. Her twitching tail indicates she's awake, but for whatever reason she hasn't sat up or spoken to her yet. Adora clears her throat and treads carefully.

"Catra? Is something wrong?"

She knows something is wrong. It's just a matter of if Catra will tell her or not. And judging by how stubborn she can be sometimes-

"No."

Adora isn't surprised by her answer.

She sighs. She should've known Catra was going to play a hard game.

"Then why haven't you gotten up yet? Are you feeling sick?" She crawls down to where Catra is balled up, hiding her face in her arms. Adora nudges her and rolls her over a little so she can press a hand onto her forehead. But Catra swipes her away immediately.

"I'm not sick! Only weaklings get sick!"

"Everyone gets sick, Catra. We're all a little weak from time to time. It's okay."

"I told you I'm not sick."

"Then what's the matter?"

Catra hisses softly as she pushes herself up, eyes narrowed, ears flat, and tail lashing. She looks into Adora's eyes briefly, but quickly looks away.

"It hurts..."

"Huh?" Adora goes into panic mode right away. "What does? What hurts?"

"...My mouth."

"...Your mouth...?" Adora parrots. "Why does your mouth hurt?"

"If I knew that, don't you think I'd be doing something about it?"

"Right. Sorry."

At the very least, a bit of Adora's tension fades away. There were plenty of other things that could've been hurting Catra that would have been a lot more worrisome. But of course even this much pain is too much, and she wants to help her however she can.

She reaches out slowly, asking permission with her eyes. Catra shrugs and looks away. Adora cradles both hands gently on either side of Catra's jaw, rubbing her fingers softly.

"Does this hurt?"

But on the contrary, Catra lets out a tiny purr before she can get control of herself.

"No. It's up here..." She raises her chin to indicate her upper teeth.

Adora can't see much from her angle, but she can't see any blood or anything else out of place. But it does looks as if one of Catra's fangs is slightly crooked.

As Adora gathers information for her assessment, Catra has started to become flustered. Her face heats up and she can't stop the purr from forming. The soft pressure of Adora's hands on her face feels nice, but she doesn't want to let her know that.

Unfortunately for Catra, the purr comes without her consent sometimes, and she can't exactly stop it now.

But luckily for her, Adora is finished with her diagnosis. With a smile, she leans forward to rest her forehead against Catra's.

"I think you're gonna be fine. It's probably just a loose tooth."

"What?" Catra's purr gets tangled in her throat and she coughs. "I lost all my teeth already! We both have, remember? We kept track."

"But you never lost your fangs."

"I don't think I can," Catra grumbles.

"Why not? They're teeth too."

Catra pulls herself away.

"Well, yeah, but..." She hunches her shoulders and looks down into her lap. Adora slides up next to her and lightly bumps shoulders with her.

"Let's just take it easy today. It'll work itself out eventually."

Catra heaves a sigh, but relents.

So the two of them get dressed and ready for the day as the other cadets begin waking.

While they're brushing their teeth in the bathroom, Adora notes Catra is going very slowly and stiffly. When they go to breakfast, they're served gruel with bread and fruit. Catra can only manage the soupy liquid and a few small berries. She doesn't say much either, which leads Adora to believe her mouth is bothering her a lot more than she's letting on.

She just has to hope that whatever training they're doing today with their commander won't be too intense. Hopefully they'd be studying up on the rebellion princesses, or honing their tracking skills.

But of course, once they've made their way to the barracks, the first two words out of their commander's mouth other than the obligatory, "Good morning, cadets" is "Combat practice!"

Adora flinches, and when she looks to Catra she can tell her partner isn't thrilled about the training for the first time in her life. Adora keeps her voice low so no one else can hear.

"Y'know, if you tell him you're hurt, he won't make you do it."

"I'm not hurt. I'm fine. I don't need to sit out and skip practice like some pansy just because my tooth is sore."

"I mean, you might wanna consider it if just walking makes you flinch."

Catra flattens her ears, taking offense.

"I told you, I'm not some weakling!"

"I never said-"

"All right!" their commander bellows. "Get to it, cadets! Pair off and we'll start the matches."

Catra flashes her a glare, but turns away from Adora.

"You'd just go easy on me."

And with that she crosses the room to talk to Lohnie, who seems eager to accept Catra as her partner.

Adora sighs more at herself than at Catra. She should've known she'd get defensive about it.

/I should've been a bit more subtle.../

She just has to hope things will go smoothly.

Everyone puts on their chest pieces, which double as both armor and buzzers for the simulation. Head shots were prohibited, so the only way to knock out your opponent was a solid blow to the center of the chest until the light flashed red.

With Kyle paired with Rogelio, Adora is out of teammates to match with, so she's partnered with a conceited boy who's known to be a decent fighter. But when their match commences and they draw their bo staffs, Adora has him on the floor within seconds. It was almost too easy.

She walks back to the sidelines to observe the next match, humbly accepting all the praise her commander is giving. It makes her realize it's been a long time since she'd versed anyone but Catra.

Of course it was good to switch things up from time to time so you wouldn't get used to only one person's tendencies and mannerisms. But no one else was quite as skilled a fighter as Catra, in her opinion.

Though Lohnie was a fair match for sure.

The two of them are called up next, drawing their bos to face one another. Adora isn't sure if it's on purpose or not, but Catra catches her eye. Adora smiles. Catra just scoffs and quickly looks away.

Their commander calls out the regular phrases.

"Fighters ready? Begin!"

Instantly, Catra leaps forward for a strike, but Lohnie blocks at the last second and shoves her back. Adora doesn't miss it when Catra winces, but probably no one else notices.

Though she would rather have been the one to face Catra today, Adora has to admit it's important for her to simply watch her partner from another angle from time to time. She takes note of everything Catra does, and how she does it. How she crouches low and jumps high, how she lunges forward and springs back, how she uses her tail for balance and sometimes as a distraction to get her opponent looking elsewhere for a split second.

She tries that tactic now and it works. Lohnie's eyes are naturally drawn to the purposeful flash of Catra's tail, something few fighters have to use to their advantage. As she looks away, lured by the movement, Catra jumps in for a strike.

On reflex, Lohnie lifts her staff at an awkward angle and just barely manages to deflect the brunt of the hit. But her staff ends up swinging, and Catra had been so focused on her supposed victory she doesn't have enough time to react.

Adora can see it happening even before it happens, but there's nothing she can do. She just closes her eyes and whimpers.

"Oh no-"

Lohnie's staff slams hard against Catra's cheek, knocking her to the floor and sending her rolling. Even before the whistle blows to stop the match, Adora is already racing forward.

"Catra!"

The staff had been knocked from her hands and lies several feet away, but that isn't the only thing Adora sees. Dozens of droplets of crimson are smeared in a trail that leads straight to her partner.

Adora reaches her in seconds and drops down beside her, trying to help her up.

"Catra? Catra?" She pulls Catra into her lap and turns her over to find her covered in blood. Sure enough, the crooked fang is missing now, and in its place the blood is flowing freely, staining Catra's lips and teeth, dribbling down her chin and neck onto her clothes.

She coughs and sputters for breath, winded by the hard hit, her eyes barely open and ridden with pain. Adora quickly removes the armor piece from her chest to relieve some pressure and helps her sit up.

"Take it easy! Just breathe!"

Catra spits up more blood and puts a hand to her mouth.

"Ah-Adora-"

"I know. It hurts, doesn't it? I'm sorry." Adora holds her gently, rubbing Catra's chest and back for her in soothing circles. She can feel her hiccuping as tears start to fall. Adora's heart aches. "Try not to swallow the blood. You'll make yourself sick."

Catra sputters again, lifting her face just a little to look up at her fearfully.

"How... How bad is it...?"

"It's uh... well it could be worse...?" Adora smiles helplessly. Catra moans and buries her face in her hands.

By now someone has fetched a bag of ice and brought it to them, and Adora holds it lightly to her partner's mouth. Their commander keeps everyone else at bay and goes to the two girls, but Adora reassures him.

"It's okay. I've got her, sir."

He nods, then begins to order a cleanup.

Adora staggers to her feet with Catra and begins limping toward the bathrooms with her step by step. Once they get to the sink, Catra yelps at the sight of her bloodied face in the mirror. Adora helps clean her off a bit, having her rinse and spit out the blood until it's stopped flowing.

Eventually, Catra calms down enough, and the tears come to a halt. She wipes her face on a rag as Adora rubs her back softly.

"You okay now?"

Catra sniffles one last time and lifts her face.

"Yeah..."

When she speaks, Adora can see the difference in her mouth. The space where her fang had once been is very noticeably vacant. She brushes her fingers beneath Catra's chin and has her raise her head a little.

"Here, lemme see."

Catra stubbornly clamps her mouth shut. Adora sighs.

"Catra..."

Reluctantly, Catra opens her mouth.

There's still a bit of redness here and there, especially around the sore spot. But rather than a totally empty space where her fang should've been, Adora can already see a new one poking through. She grins.

"You're gonna be fine, Catra. There's a new one coming in, and it's gonna be even sharper and stronger than the last one!"

Catra closes her mouth.

"Really...?"

"Yeah!" Adora hugs her in relief. "I'm glad you're okay, Catra. Sorry for making you upset."

Catra grumbles guiltily under her breath.

"You don't have to apologize. It's my fault I-"

"Hey! Lovebirds!" As Lohnie's voice suddenly interrupts, Catra screeches and shoves Adora away from her, blushing red.

"We're not lovebirds!"

Adora bites back a laugh before turning around to face her other teammate.

"Hi, Lohnie. You okay?"

"Yeah. I ain't the one who got nailed in the face and bled all over the floor. Just came in to say sorry. It wasn't on purpose."

Catra pouts and looks away.

"I know it wasn't..."

Lohnie and Adora share a smile.

"Also," Lohnie continues. "Thought I should give this back." She tosses over a crumpled-up tissue. Adora catches it and slowly unwraps it to reveal Catra's baby fang. Lohnie turns and waves on her way out. "Add it to your dumb little lovebird collection."

Adora turns back to Catra, who just shrugs and looks away. Adora giggles, then gets to washing off the old tooth until it's clean.

When they're ready, they head back to the dormitory briefly so Catra can change into a clean shirt. Adora heads to their bed and crouches underneath it to pull out a little box. Inside are all of the baby teeth she and Catra had lost over the years, cleaned and wrapped in little baggies. Adora adds the newest piece, closes the box, and puts it away again.

By now, Catra is dressed and ready to go back out, though Adora can't help but chuckle at the sight of her with one fang missing. Catra pouts again.

"Hey, you looked just as dumb when you lost yours!"

"I don't think you look dumb. You look cute, Catra!"

Catra's face turns bright red.

"Shut up! I do not!"

"You do, too!"

"Adora!"

"And just wait. You've still got one more fang to go, right?"

Catra grimaces at the thought.

"As long as it isn't as painful as that..."

Adora steps close to her and hugs her.

"I'm glad you're okay. I was really scared. That was a lot of blood for one tooth."

Catra hugs her back, but says nothing. A moment passes quietly. Adora eases back a little and looks into her eyes.

"Does it still hurt?"

"...Just a little."

"Then I know just the thing to help!"

Adora dips down and presses a tiny kiss to Catra's mouth.

It leaves Catra utterly stunned and unable to speak. Her fur bristles as her cheeks turn pinker, and her heart starts to do backflips.

This isn't the first time Adora's kissed her to make an injury better. It's just that, up until now it's been scrapes on her knees or hands or arms. This was the first time it had been her mouth.

It makes Catra's chest tingle in a way none of the other kisses ever had.

Adora smiles and brushes their noses together.

"Better?"

Catra won't ever let her know it's the best she's ever felt in her entire life.

"I guess..."

Adora giggles and takes her hand.

"C'mon. Let's go!"

She leads her back out, and Catra follows at her side. She has to wonder if Adora's heart is beating as quickly as hers is. But she can't get an answer just yet.

Catra lets out a soft rumbling purr as she squeezes her hand, and walks beside Adora like always.

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A/N: So this was first (mouth) kiss!

I'm not too sure how to go about describing the inside of the Fright Zone camp and the commanders and other guards and cadets and whatnot. I'm just making stuff up that sounds like it could be feasible.