First Times For Everything (ch8)

EARLY RELEASE FOR MY HIGHER-PLEDGING PATRONS!!

This is the last chapter of the second timeskip, taking place directly after the previous chapter's events.

Disclaimer: I do not own She-Ra.

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													Chapter 8. A Day In Bed

The second Adora wakes up the next morning, she knows something isn't right.

First of all, she's aware that Catra is still curled up with her beneath the blankets, snoozing with little choppy purrs between each exhale.

Adora has to wonder why she's woken up before Catra for once, until last night's little adventure rushes to the forefront of her mind. That also explains why the sheets are a little chilled from their damp hair.

But she can't figure out why she's so cold.

A shudder cuts through her, and she clings more tightly to Catra, trying to stop her teeth from chattering. It's hard to keep her eyes open, and her head feels heavy.

She closes her eyes and buries her face into Catra's shoulder, wondering if a few more minutes of rest will help anything.

Catra unconsciously begins to purr a little bit more at her closeness, and even in spite of her ailments, Adora smiles.

At least I have her...

She opts to wait until the guards sound the usual morning alarm to rouse all the cadets. At that point, Adora opens her eyes again, glimpsing the little scribbles of herself and Catra they'd doodled on the bed a while back. She smiles again as she feels Catra begin to stir.

Catra moans and sighs and stretches beneath the blankets, grumbling under her breath about wanting five more minutes. Adora tries to act normal and ignore the shivering. She pats Catra's back and ruffles her hair a little.

"Rise and shine, Catra."

The only response is a defiant groan.

"Mmmmnn..."

Adora chuckles.

"It's not like you to sleep in. Though I guess I can't blame you, after last night."

Catra's ears perk, and she looks up at her.

"So it wasn't a dream. That really happened, huh?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure."

Catra starts to purr again.

They both sit up slowly, but as soon as she does, Adora feels a bit dizzy. Catra is in the middle of stretching her arms out in front of her when Adora suddenly grabs onto her for support. Catra bristles and straightens up.

"Hey, whoa! What's the matter with you? You sick or something? Couldn't handle a little rain, huh?" she goads.

"Sorry. It's nothing. Still just tired, I guess."

Catra inches a little closer and lowers her voice.

"Hey, I am too. But we can't let it show, or else people are gonna start asking questions. Come on, let's get ready." Catra offers her hand and helps Adora out of bed.

Standing makes her twice as dizzy as sitting up had, though, and Adora can't even manage to make the bed. So Catra throws it together hastily, shoves a few clean clothes at her, then grabs her hand to lead her to the bathrooms.

Adora is sluggish in everything she does, from changing clothes to brushing her teeth. Catra is usually finished before her, but not by this much.

Even though Adora tries to make it seem like nothing is wrong, Catra easily sees through her. When she gets to rinsing out her mouth, she starts to cough. Catra's eyes narrow.

"Hey." She pulls Adora aside out of earshot of the others. "Are you okay? You're moving slower than Kyle in a relay race."

Adora swallows back a few more coughs and tries out a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Maybe some breakfast will help wake me up a bit."

But before she can move away, Catra's got her by the wrist. She tugs Adora forward and presses the back of her hand to her forehead. Catra's eyes go wide.

"Hey, you've got a fever!"

"What?"

"No wonder you've been acting so weird! I knew something was wrong. Come on, we're going to see the healer."

"Catra, wait-"

"No!" Catra shouts the word almost vehemently, and Adora freezes. She can sense there's something weighing on her friend's mind. Before she can even ask, Catra continues, but she never looks back to show her face. "I've seen enough people get sick... They don't always get better... I'm not gonna let that happen to you, too."

Her words silence any menial protests Adora might have had waiting at the tip of her tongue. She can't argue with her – not after that.

"Sorry..." she murmurs. "I don't think it's anything serious, but you're right. It's best to get it checked out so it doesn't get any worse."

Catra says nothing, but her tail lashes, and her grip on Adora's hand tightens. Adora can't help but smile. She steps up beside her partner and bumps shoulders with her lightly.

"Hey. Thanks for worrying about me."

And immediately, Catra goes on the defensive.

"Pssh, what? I'm not worried about you. It'd just be a major pain if you ended up getting bedridden when we're supposed to be getting ready to test for junior cadets soon."

"Right. Of course that's it. Even though our exam isn't for another two months."

"Shut up!"

Adora giggles and follows alongside her. Catra wraps her tail around Adora's waist for a bit of extra support.

They visit the healer, a stout woman with short brown hair and thick-rimmed glasses. As Adora sits and gets assessed, she notices Catra pacing worriedly by the doorway and smiles again.

In the end, she's diagnosed with a minor head cold. Her orders are to skip training for the day, stay in bed, and to eat some hot soup, and she'd be better by tomorrow.

Adora thanks the healer and then makes her way back to Catra, who's all but paced her feet sore by now. The second she sees her, Catra hurries to grab her hand.

"Well? What did she say?"

Adora smiles.

"Calm down, Catra. I'm fine! It's just a minor cold, that's all."

For a moment, Catra looks so relieved she might cry. Adora pulls her in for a small hug.

"Don't worry, okay? I'll be fine. Promise."

"Pff..." she sniffles. "As if I'd worry about you..."

They're quiet for a moment. Adora relishes her warmth and closeness until she feels Catra sigh.

"Sorry..."

"Huh? For what?"

Catra flicks her tail guiltily, and her ears droop.

"For laughing at you before... I didn't think you were actually sick... And it's my fault it happened in the first place..."

"Hey..." Adora eases back, reaching up to cup both hands on either side of Catra's face. "It was my idea to sneak out, remember? And you never asked me for my jacket. That was all on me. I earned this cold fair and square." She runs a hand up through Catra's messy bangs. "Besides, I'm glad it was me and not you. I can't imagine how much you'd be moaning and groaning if you were the one who caught a cold."

"H-Hey!"

"You're so funny, Catra~"

Catra wriggles away, but as they start walking back, their hands stay together.

"So I guess this means you're taking the day off, huh?"

"Yeah. After breakfast I'm supposed to just go back to bed all day... Ugh, that sounds so boring..."

"Training is gonna be even more boring without you there..."

"Yeah. But it's just for today! We can both tough it out!"

They make their way to the mess hall to get some food, and all the while Catra sticks closer to Adora than usual. Adora gets soup as ordered, and they sit down with the rest of their teammates, who'd been wondering where they were. Catra handles the conversation from there.

"Oh, Adora got sick overnight! Caught a cold for no apparent reason and now she gets to stay in bed all day to sleep it off. Can't show any weakness to the higher-ups after all, so she's gotta go hide in bed."

The things she projects sound rather harsh, as is expected from Catra. But Adora just smiles to herself as she sips at her soup; she'd seen just how worried and scared Catra had been for her. Only now that she knows the cold is nothing serious is she able to put up the act and mess around.

Once they've finished eating, Catra and Adora prepare to part ways for the first day they'll be spending without each other since they'd met. Catra doesn't look her in the eyes directly as she mumbles her support.

"You'd better be all right by the time I get back. What kinda Force Captain-in-training can't knock out a head cold in less than a day?"

"Right. I'll make sure to do that," Adora agrees. "And don't worry about me. Just kick butt like you always do."

"What? Worry about you sleeping all cozy in bed all day? I don't think so."

They share a smile, then a brief hug. Adora pats her back before letting her go.

"Go get 'em, partner."

"Yeah. Get better."

But as if on cue, just as they'd been about to part ways with smiles on their faces, a familiar voice interrupts.

"What's this about getting better?" Shadow-Weaver seems to appear out of thin air as always. She glides past Catra without a second glance and instead pauses in front of her prized possession. "Adora, my dear. Why are you not attending your training lessons today?"

"Shadow-Weaver." Adora dips her head in greeting. "I... seem to have caught a cold overnight. The healer says it would be best if I took a day off to recuperate."

"Is that so? And how exactly did you fall ill?" As she always does, she rounds on Catra for her accusations. Catra growls.

In the past, Adora knows her friend had always been too scared of Shadow-Weaver to confront her, even if Catra had done nothing wrong. Over time, however, she had gotten bold enough to at least make an effort at defending herself.

But since she truly does blame herself for Adora's sickness, she can't find anything to say. So Adora quickly jumps in with an answer.

"I forgot to dry my hair after my bath last night," she explains. "It was wet all night. That's what got me sick. It was my mistake."

Shadow-Weaver glares at Catra a few seconds longer before turning back to Adora to caress her face. She seems satisfied with the answer.

"I see. You worked so very hard yesterday that you fell asleep right away. You deserve the day of rest today."

Adora just smiles through the lies, for both her own sake and Catra's too. Shadow-Weaver gently pats her head, then withdraws.

"Do feel better soon, Adora. There are no capable cadets without you present."

"Well, actually, Catra is-"

But before Adora can finish, Shadow-Weaver has turned away and vanished.

Adora sighs, and Catra visibly relaxes. Adora knows that even though her friend has become a bit stronger over the years, she's still scared of the sorceress. Adora looks Catra over to find her tail fur slightly fluffed up, but now it's beginning to lie flat.

"You okay?"

Catra shrugs.

"Trust me, I like this new trend where she pretends not to notice me a lot more. But what do you mean, am I okay? You're the sick one, dummy. Go to bed."

"Right," Adora laughs. "I'm on it." She wraps one arm around Catra's shoulders for a brief hug. "Kick some butt for me today."

"You got it."

They part for real this time, Catra heading for the barracks as Adora retreats to the dormitory. It feels weird traveling back this way so early in the day. The room is entirely empty when she arrives.

"I mean... I guess this could be nice."

Muttering to herself, she retreats back to her own bed to remove her boots. At the very least, the unused bunk bed overhead provides a bit of shade so it'll be easier to fall asleep during the day.

Adora lies down beneath the blankets and closes her eyes right away. Immediately, she feels a little better in being still, and she doesn't feel dizzy anymore.

But falling asleep isn't an easy feat. It isn't the sickness or the odd hour that prevents her from doing so, but rather, it's a lack of companionship.

It's the first time in years she's slept without being able to feel Catra's weight somewhere on the bed with her.

Adora shudders, feeling colder than ever without her. She clings to the blankets and curls up with them, imagining she's holding onto her dear friend. The bed feels so empty and cold without Catra, and it bothers Adora to no end. She can't fall asleep for her life.

Every once in a while, a bout of coughing interrupts her melancholy, and only rouses her further. She groans and sighs and tosses and turns for hours to no avail.

In the end, the only thing that pulls her under is the sickness itself, which makes her body too exhausted to fret anymore.

Adora sleeps through the lunchtime hour, but when she does wake a short while after, her stomach is growling. She moans and pushes herself up, mentally steeling herself for a trip to the cafeteria when she notices something on the floor. A tray with a bowl of soup covered in foil had been left for her, along with a small note.

Adora looks around the room, but whomever had left it is gone.

She leans over to pull the tray up into her lap, removing the foil to find the soup still warm. With a smile, she unravels the paper, which is inked with rough scribbles that can only belong to one person. And as if the sharp handwriting isn't proof enough, the message confirms the sender.

It reads: You're drooling.

Adora quickly wipes a hand over her mouth to find it slightly wet indeed. She ends up laughing alone to herself as she begins on her lunch.

The soup is a perfect temperature to sooth the itching in her throat. It quells the last of the annoying coughs and warms her from the inside out. When she finishes, she puts the tray back onto the floor and lies back down with a smile on her face.

Adora falls asleep almost instantly this time and rests throughout the afternoon.

What eventually wakes her is a feeling rather than a sound. She can finally sense the warmth she'd been missing all day.

Slowly, she blinks her eyes open to glimpse a familiar figure at the foot of her bed. Catra is sitting crossed-legged and filing her nails quietly, so focused on her task she doesn't even realize Adora has woken yet. No one else is in the room, which makes Adora assume it's not yet time for cadets to be back here.

She yawns and shifts about a little bit to let Catra know she's awake. Catra drops the nail file and quickly turns to face her.

"Adora! You're awake!" Her tail swishes, and Adora imagines she's on the verge of a purr. She smiles and sits herself up to stretch out her arms a bit.

"Yeah. But more importantly, what are you doing back so soon?"

"I just wanted to check on you."

Adora hadn't expected her to be so upfront and honest with her answer. She's touched.

Until Catra keeps going.

"Plus, training today was suuuper boring. I just wanted to get the heck outta there."

"That sounds more like it," Adora chuckles. "So you snuck away early?"

"Well, I guess you could say that. But it wasn't blatant sneaking. I had a plan."

"A plan?" Adora tilts her head. "Like what?"

"Like letting Kyle deck me in the face so I'd have an excuse to leave and go see the healer."

Adora frowns.

"You what?!"

"Yeah, but like I said, it was Kyle. It didn't hurt that much. But there was enough blood to make it convincing. He seemed really proud of himself for a second before he passed out."

"Catra!"

"What? It's not my fault he can't handle seeing a little blood."

"Not that! Well, kinda that, but you let yourself get hit? Just so you could have an excuse to end training early?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Adora is in disbelief, and yet she feels she shouldn't be surprised. This is Catra, after all.

The shirt her partner is wearing has a red horizontal stripe across the top, so Adora hadn't noticed the dried blood stains originally, but she can see them now. She shakes her head.

"I can't believe it. You really let yourself get hurt just so you could come back and see me."

"Don't get all sappy on me. I just wanted to make sure you weren't dead."

Adora grabs Catra's wrist and pulls her up closer, brushing a few fingers gently over her nose.

"That's really sweet of you, but don't do it again."

"Then don't get sick again, dummy."

Adora pulls her into a long hug.

"Thanks, Catra."

"Yeah, whatever. Hey, let's go hit the mess hall early!"

Catra ushers Adora out of bed, and together they enjoy an early supper. Adora feels her cold is just about gone now. By the time they make it back to the room for bed, she feels re-energized.

"I feel like I could go do all the training I missed right now!"

"Yeah, well don't," Catra grunts. "Some of us did that training today and we're beat."

"Right. Sorry. We can spar tomorrow."

"Whatever."

Adora pats the space next to her, and Catra abandons the foot of the bed to join her beneath the blankets. She knows Adora loves it when she purrs, so Catra musters up a rumble and lets it out.

Adora giggles and squeezes her around her torso, burying her face into Catra's chest. She can hear and feel her purring, and even the faint beat of her heart. Adora sighs and closes her eyes.

"Thanks, Catra. Night."

A huff.

"Night. Now shut up and go to sleep."

They both rest all through the night, and wake refreshed and ready for whatever the next day brings.

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A/N: I enjoy writing this pre-teen Catra because it's like half of her shy, aloof younger self and half of her stubborn, feisty future self. And I love writing Adora through her years because she doesn't change much, and she's just so fun to write in general!

Next chapter will begin the final time-skip to their current canon ages as of season 1!