(no subject)

[destinybound]

"Catra! Stop it, it's for your own good! Ow!"

At the end of a long day of training, Adora is tired, sore, and wants little more than to take a shower and throw herself onto her bed. Wrangling a furious Catra into the showers with her was not on the agenda tonight, until a bot that hadn't been fixed quite right (thanks, Kyle) sprung a leak and sprayed them both with motor oil.

Now, the issue with Catra is that she's willing to shower exactly twice weekly, and both opportunities have passed. But Adora is not going to let her walk around reeking of motor oil until Monday. She's got her arms full of Catra and she's not letting go, no matter how Catra squirms, scratches, bites. In the ten minutes since she's initiated this endeavor, Adora has barely made it two steps into the showers, but her dedication to the cause and can-do attitude have always been cited as two of her strongest points as a cadet.

As they struggle and yell, Lonnie steps around the two of them on her way to the sleeping quarters, and offers Adora a sympathetic nod: "Good luck."

Adora grits her teeth.

"Look! In the time you've spent throwing your tantrum, Lonnie's already finished showering! We could've been done here!"

Comments

[morethanadistraction]

"Then go shower with Lonnie!"

The wretched stink of oil clogged in her nostrils may be making Catra want to both simultaneously puke and pass out, but that doesn't stop the high pitch of her yowling as she makes life incredibly, impossibly hard for Adora. Catra doesn't have the brute strength necessary to break Adora's bear hug, which isn't fair. It isn't fair that Adora's gotten taller than her, or that she's been able to pack on more muscle than Catra. Slipping out of her grip used to be easy; used to be just a matter of going limp and sliding out of her arms and scampering away. Scrabbling for her freedom should not be this hard.

"I haven't even gotten undressed!" Because Adora knows she'll make a break for it if she's allowed to. Catra doesn't care how ratty and matted her hair gets, she doesn't care if she's stuck covered in motor oil for the rest of her stupid life. She has already suffered her two showers this week, and she won't be forced into another. "You can't just throw me in there!!"

Catra's always kept her feet on the ground when wrestling Adora, but that was back when they were the same size. Now -- she has to improvise, and both of her legs wind around Adora's, locking tight around her knees. Brute strength doesn't count for much if you can't move, and if they both fall over because of this -- Catra's willing to take that hit.

[morethanadistraction]

Catra is just a little bit grumpy the next day. Mostly because she hadn't slept all that much. By the time Adora had fallen asleep, there were only a few hours left until morning call; and of course, Catra couldn't have fallen asleep before Adora did, because then they absolutely would have been caught cuddling. And that would have been a reprimand.

So she kinda gets it, why Adora's been avoiding her. She's crabby when she's tired. But as promised, she guards Adora during their squad simulation training; sticking close to her and protecting the leg Catra had injured. Lonnie comments on it suspiciously, Rogelio makes noises that Catra doesn't care to understand, and Kyle thinks it's nice of her. Their supervisor is just glad to see her working with the team, comments on how she should be doing it every session.

(That just makes her want to do it even less.)

But then lunch comes around, and Adora's so weird and tense that Catra's tired brain can't even comprehend what's gotten her so worked up. And then she remembers, oh yeah, she's probably realizing that almost everyone around them is either talking about what they're getting up to in their bunks at night or talking about things that could be easily misconstrued as such, and Adora's finally cluing into it all for the first time. Even Catra, when her ear pricks to listen in on a nearby conversation, doesn't actually know if the soldier talking about spending extra time oiling his 'stunning baton' (his words exactly) is speaking in euphemisms or being legitimate.

By the time they reach lights out, Catra's yawning wide and shameless, every sharp tooth in her mouth glinting in the artificial light of the bathroom. She brushes her teeth only because they all have to, changes clothes only because everyone else is doing it, and is the first one in the dorm when she trudges to Adora's bunk and slumps gratefully onto it on her knees, folding down to bury her face in Adora's pillow. She'll die here now, thanks.