WHAT: Another psychic cat shows up to imprint on Catra, and Melog is not happy WHERE: Outside Darla (and then inside) WHEN: Today WARNINGS: Nah STATUS: Complete
Catra didn’t have a clue how they got to this point.
The day started off normal. She was having a good morning - zero nausea - and even kept down a plate of scrambled eggs, had half a toasted bagel, and guzzled it down with a glass of orange juice. The weather was perfect too, making her want to get some fresh air and visit a nearby settlement and Melog made a point to sternly protest the use of her motorcycle because delicate condition. Catra chose to ride on their back instead. It was a relaxing stride over, the two of them having the chance to bond and chat about upcoming changes (which included Melog being unsure about accompanying Adora on patrol shifts, away from her side).
She buttered them up by buying them their favorite apples at a stall. Melog was content for now.
They also made sure to stop by the little bakery she found last time, snatching up a small box of those strawberries dipped in chocolate to look like unicorns (a secret they still hadn’t told Swift Wind, he might have strong opinions about that) for Adora since that been becoming a thing. Flowers next time though, for sure.
But on their trip back home, the vibe went from oh, this is a pleasant early afternoon to we’re being stalked. Melog felt it first. Their mane became jagged points, red in color, with a deep growl blooming from their throat. Catra felt something too. She weirdly wanted to say that perceiving whatever it was as an immediate threat was overreaching.
Except… when something unknown was following you, it should definitely be perceived as a threat. That’s what Catra of Old would say.
Once they reached Darla, it had all become a wild blur of sounds and colors. There were loud, throaty roars - two of them - and she could feel the protective rage rolling of Melog in waves but she could also feel something else ( someone else) tying into those feelings and matching that energy. She couldn’t even remember leaping off Melog. All she knew was that she had, and now she stood between two very irate, very large felines.
Her arms were stretched out so her palms could face each of them. On her left was Melog, their psychic link begging her to move. On her right was this… pink… lion?? Catra felt her too. It was another psychic link that tethered them together somehow and said, move, C’yra.
“Stay, stay,” Catra commanded in an attempt to keep the peace. She looked up at Darla and could see Spirit pawing at the dome window facing them. She could tell that he was whining and barking, and even though Darla was sound proof it didn’t stop her from trying to call out anyway. “Adoraaaaaa! ADORA! Come out, something weird’s happening!”
While Catra and Melog went off on their jaunt together, Adora had decided to take the time to go visit Swift Wind at Bright Moon. She didn’t see him as much these days – she and Catra had their own lives to live, and without being at war, Adora wasn’t too keen on riding her noble steed around on Defense shifts – but she still tried to make an effort. He was always a little crabby at first, feeling abandoned, but he’d lighten up with treats. And he did seem to genuinely be enjoying his independence. They spent some time chatting before she said her goodbyes to drop by the grocery store; Darla’s refrigerator was running low, and she wanted to fill it up today.
So, she wasn’t home when Catra got home, although she wasn’t far off. Without her wife tagging along, she made liberal use of the Waypoints. Teleportation didn’t make her sick, and it made travel so much quicker. Seeing as her hands were full with three full-to-the-brim reusable grocery bags, that was much easier.
The Waypoint nearest Darla was a bit of a walk but not too far. Once she got close enough to hear the commotion, she picked up her pace, dashing through the gate to their yard and hurriedly dropping the bags just inside the fence before she turned to take in what was going on. She could see Spirit up in the window, pawing at the pane and looking irate, but that was nothing compared to the scene on the front lawn. It took Adora an extra moment to process it all, actually.
Melog was losing their mind about a…pink lion?
That was new.
“Hey, hey!” she called out, shifting into her alter ego’s taller form to get between them, brushing Catra back behind her and taking her spot as middleman. “Enough! Catra, what’s going on?”
“I don’t–” Catra was cut short thanks to the insanely loud and unison roars they both let out. Her ears flattened against her head and she covered them with her hands. She was so over the pissing contest they decided to engage in, and the next time she opened her mouth it was to scream at the top of her goddamn lungs. “STOP! You’re stressing me out!”
It worked.
All she could guess is that they sensed it, too; her nerves, her stupid anxiety, her annoyance. She felt them both (shit, that was weird, feeling Melog was one thing but a second one??) yield, and while their postures remained defensive they sat in a mostly obedient way. Her hands dropped from her ears. They perked up cautiously, wary of another onslaught of noise.
Melog continued their low, deep growl.
“This - they followed us,” Catra breathed out with a little relief. The pink one made a noise. “Sorry, she.” Then, she blinked up at Adora (even in She-Ra form, she’d still call her by her actual name). “Can you understand them or is it just me again?”
Catra reacting with such stress had apparently been enough to set both of these cats (or cat-like creatures; to this day, she still wasn’t sure what Melog’s original form was and she doubted she wanted to know) at ease. Neither of them seemed thrilled, but they were sitting still instead of looking like they might tear each other’s throats out. That was something.
“No.” Adora shook her head, letting her arms lower and returning to her side to wrap her arms around her protectively. She wasn’t quite prepared to go back to her normal self, but if Catra was okay, she would relax the tiniest bit. “You can hear…her in your head, too? Like Melog? What’s her name?”
For a few seconds her eyes screwed shut, face scrunched up, and she pinched the bridge of her nose as if she was fighting off a goddamn headache. This was not on her daily bingo card but here they were. “Clawdeen,” she answered and blinked back up at Adora. “She even made sure to spell it out, c-l-a-w–”
Melog snorted.
“Can you,” Catra sighed again, reaching up to grab Adora’s biceps because - uh, look, they were there and bigger like this, okay, “stand by Melog and keep them calm while I sort this out? I think she’s confused and probably looking for someone else. She’s not going to hurt me.”
Clawdeen kept calling her a name that wasn’t hers and they needed to straighten it out.
Clawdeen. Huh. It was a little silly, but Adora didn’t find herself too worried about this pink lion clawing one of them to death. For some reason, she seemed attached to Catra, if she was picking fights with Melog but then listening to her wife, so her response to that request was a nod. She would be right here if something went wrong, but she didn’t have an inherently bad feeling.
So, she pulled away, stepping up to Melog to swing her arms around them instead, dropping to one knee so they were closer in height while she rubbed up and down their chest. “It’s gonna be fine,” she assured them. They might not have the link to her that they did to Catra, but they generally communicated well. She hoped her presence was enough to be soothing for now.
Adora was someone Melog never rejected advances from. They did well with her - the growl lessened into a vibration, too threatening to be a purr but better than it was before. Catra seemed satisfied with that. “It’s fine,” she added, giving them a tired little smile. “Really.”
Melog’s next snort sounded more like a whine.
“Okay, and you–” she turned, approaching Clawdeen with some caution in her step that may have been unwarranted. The lion began to purr, the sound so outrageously loud it was as if she was standing beside a motorboat. “My name’s Catra, and I don’t know who–”
Clawdeen smooshed her face into her hands, begging to be pet. Catra gave a few experimental ones, awkward at first - but the curly mane was so soft, and she could feel how relieved this creature was to see her. She didn’t get it. “Look, listen, you need to know I’m not–” Clawdeen then shoved her face into her stomach, nuzzling. Melog made a noise of protest from afar. “I’m not C’yra,” she finished, softer this time. “Sorry.”
Clearly that didn’t matter. Clawdeen seemed insistent, and even began pushing up with her head to hoist her right onto her back. Catra… cautiously let it happen.
Melog. Was. Fuming..
Adora was doing all she could to comfort Melog while they both watched what was happening with rapt eyes. While she was really just making sure Clawdeen didn’t mean any harm to Catra (something that seemed more and more adamantly not the case by the moment), she knew for Melog it was more personal than that. Their connection with Catra was so deeply intimate, and it definitely looked like it was being usurped.
She didn’t believe that for a second, though. She knew how important Melog was to Catra, and she knew even a second connection wouldn’t change that.
“It’s okay,” she tried to assure them again. Even she could feel their rage when Catra slid onto Clawdeen’s back, and it was not a fun feeling. “Catra,” she called out. “What’s going on?” It felt like she was repeating herself, but she was still fuzzy on what she was witnessing here.
“Clawdeen thinks I’m whoever C’yra is,” came Catra’s reply, loud enough for her to hear and with a sigh. The lion began to slowly trot over but still kept a distance as there was a growly mroooooowl vibrating up Melog’s throat. Catra winced in their direction apologetically. “That’s why she just - imprinted?” she glanced down at her, claws sifting through that bubble-gum mane. “Where are you even from?”
Clawdeen did a streeeetch, her own claws scratching at the dirt, before she wiggled and laid down. She looked up at Catra and made a noise.
“D’riluth… three?” she replied back as her hand went up to the chip scar. That was - she knew that name, like she had known about Krytis when Wrong Hordak spoke of it. Her brain had downloaded a crapton having been connected to Prime and the hive but it wasn’t like she could access those memories as if it were a library catalog. They came in broken flashes most of the time if a word triggered something, and it didn’t always make sense. “That’s a planet from back home. Did Prime take over?”
Melog’s mane cooled somewhat. That definitely made them cock their head to the side, curious. Clawdeen shrugged in response.
“Well, that’s not really helpful.”
Oh. Any concerns that Adora still clung to faded away. Maybe Clawdeen was a refugee, too. Maybe Catra wasn’t this C’yra she was looking for, but she was clearly familiar in some way – maybe D’riluth III was a magicat homeworld? It did sound familiar, but having to know any planets past Etheria was still new to them both.
“We can ask Darla about D’riluth III,” Adora offered. She loosened her grip on Melog just a bit when she realized their mane was closer to its usual color. She raised one hand to scratch at the back of their head soothingly. “Do you want… Should we let her come inside?”
“Melog?” Catra asked, searching their eyes to gauge a reaction. Clawdeen coming from a possible Horde-ravaged planet was enough to give them pause; they knew what that was like, especially since they were the literal last of their kind. But they were the only one that had a very visceral reaction to her popping up so she wanted to make sure they were okay.
It took a moment. Melog and Clawdeen locked eyes. Theirs were narrowed. Hers were unbothered, slowly blinking (possibly as a sign of trust, or submission). Melog gave a final snort before their mane went back to its soft blue and turned their head to give Adora’s cheek a lick.
Catra took a deep breath. “I think we should, then. I don’t… get threatening vibes,” she said carefully. “And she says she wants to–stay with me? I don’t know how this keeps happening. She says you can pet her too, if you want.”
With that lick to her cheek and Catra’s reply, Adora finally let herself fully relax and a quick glow later, she was back to her normal state. She kissed the top of Melog’s head and got to her feet fully, stepping up in front of Catra and Clawdeen to finally properly greet this new companion. She held out her hand to be sniffed – it seemed only polite – and when that was received well, she reached out to give that soft mane a stroke, too.
“You’ve got a way with cats, babe,” she teased her wife gently while she kept up petting Clawdeen. “We should head inside and introduce her to Spirit before he has a conniption.”
“Shut up,” Catra scoffed, rolling her eyes as she carefully dismounted the newest, uh, cat of their household. On their first date she did say she could imagine Adora living somewhere in the forest, surrounded by a zoo - and they were beginning to accumulate quite the zoo. Now that the tensions had (mostly) melted, Clawdeen was content enough to rumble out some purrs at Adora’s attention. “Melog wants to do the bulk of the introductions and lay down some boundaries, apparently, so–oh! I forgot!”
There was a small backpack she had on to carry shopping items and pulled the straps off her arms, bringing the bag to the forefront to unzip. “I got you those chocolate covered strawberries again and–shit, did you do groceries? Ugh, I’m tired already. Let’s just get everything and everyone inside. I’m too old for all this excitement.”
Yes, so old and ancient with just having turned twenty-two. Leave her alone.
Adora chuckled but didn’t really comment on that. They were really both young – Catra freshly twenty-two while Adora quickly approached twenty-three – but their lives felt long most of the time. Being born and raised in war was most likely the cause of that. Nothing about their lives had been normal up until Vallo, and while she hoped they would eventually get there back home, who knew how long that would take?
If that meant they acted more like a couple of old ladies than like girls in their twenties, she was okay with that. She was happy and comfortable, and settling down on the couch with Catra as the day segued into night was always her choice over going out drinking and partying.
“Yep, I got groceries!” she confirmed, returning to where she’d dropped said groceries to scoop the bags up again. By some stroke of luck, nothing had fallen over and spilled, that was a win. She led the way to the ramp, proceeding up to let the doors unlock the doors with a biometric scan. One elevator trip later and they were all spilling out into the observation deck turned living room.
They were met with a series of loud barks and her excitable dog bounding over to jump up on here. “Spirit, down!” Adora told him sternly, smiling when he obeyed. “I gotta put groceries up, buddy, I’ll be right back.”
“Try to be nice,” Catra told Melog, smoothing a hand over their snout once they were fully inside Darla. Clawdeen wasn’t keen on leaving her side but Melog was being a little pushy and if she were to stay here then she needed a tour, some background, ground rules (with them emphasizing their seniority around here). Gods, she hoped there wouldn’t be a literal catfight breaking out in ten minutes.
Clawdeen dutifully followed Melog with an aura of annoyance, and Catra was left to follow Adora into the kitchen whilst rubbing her temples. “Thank fuck this space ship’s big enough to accommodate three giant cats,” she mumbled, molding herself into Adora’s back and wrapping her arms around her waist. She could totally put away groceries while Catra clung to her like this, right? “Wait ‘til Cringer meets her. I think he’d submit immediately.”
Adora did, in fact, have no trouble following through with her routine while Catra was attached to her. It may make her a little clunkier with some movements, but she’d let her wife enjoy it while she could. Soon enough, she suspected clinging to her like this would be much more difficult as the pregnancy progressed. She didn’t mind, anyway; Catra was always a ball of furry warmth, and she enjoyed that.
“Oh, he will,” Adora agreed with a chuckle. She loved her brother’s companion – Cringer was a total sweetheart, if a little shy and overly afraid. She liked being able to actually carry on a conversation with one of their talking cats, too. She knew he communicated with Melog in whatever cat way Melog and Clawdeen were communicating now, but being able to talk to him herself was a very nice benefit.
“When you get a third one, we may have to upgrade to a bigger spaceship. Carol showed me pictures of a house that was built shaped like one. Wanna go check it out later?” All teasing with a big grin that she flashed Catra over her shoulder as she reached up to put a box of pancake mix away.
“Hell no on all of that.” Catra didn’t expect a third to show up but she also didn’t expect to have the first one she had, and definitely did not anticipate the arrival of a second one. Clawdeen seemed harmless - at least to her - but she was a little on edge at being caught off guard like this. Showing up from their universe, acting like they knew her but calling her a different name?
Stumbling across Melog had been weird. This was weirder.
She tried not to overthink it though. Instead she squeezed Adora’s midsection a little tighter, and hooked a chin over her shoulder and nuzzled into her ear with purrs. “What’cha gonna make me for lunch and dinner, Ms. ‘I Need To Learn How to Cook Now’?”
“Pancakes,” Adora joked. “All your meals are pancakes now, it’s the best I can do.” She was slowly working her way through dishes that weren’t too strenuous. There hadn’t been any fires yet, so big improvement there. But her collective was still small, and given she’d been trying to learn for less than thirty days, she thought that was probably acceptable.
“I was actually just thinking of sandwiches or some of those frozen wings for lunch,” she offered. “And Adam and I are supposed to make dinner together, but I don’t know what he had in mind. Do you have any requests?”
“No dinner requests,” Catra purred, rubbing her cheek into her shoulder for a little bit of scenting. “Might settle for a sandwich so I’m not consuming every single hot wing on this ship - though I humbly ask for a grilled cheese one.” It was an easy kitchen challenge she thought Adora could manage if she were up to it. Butter up the bread, add the sliced cheese, toss it on a frying pan and smoosh it with a spatula just a little. A low fire hazard.
Pressing a kiss to the back of her neck, she pulled back to grab the box of strawberries to open up for her like an engagement ring box. Voila. “Will you do me the honor of eating fruit that looks like Swift Wind’s brethren?”
Grilled cheese Adora could manage. Went along with the whole hadn’t been any fires yet part. She was not best friends with the stove quite yet, but they were making some good progress in their relationship. And even if they weren’t, of course she would try for Catra. She had decided she was going to make this happen, and she’d be damned if she didn’t.
She let out a quiet chuckle as Catra presented the unicorn chocolate strawberries to her as if she was presenting her with an engagement ring. “You better be glad he doesn’t live near enough to hear you anymore, or he would definitely be bursting in here all ‘did somebody say Swift Wind!’ right about now.”
But that didn’t mean she was going to turn down the strawberries; she reached out to scoop one up with two fingers. They were delicious, and she was going to eat them even if she was sure her companion would disapprove with a haughty upturn of his snout.
“Darla’s pretty soundproof, thankfully,” Catra grinned at her toothily, setting the box down. Her and Swift Wind were on better terms these days, and he could obviously witness they were happy and that this marriage was legitimate and not some villainous plot or anything. All was well. Didn’t stop him from getting on her nerves often. He was a lot, and no wonder he and Scorpia were close. “Buuuuut, before you make me lunch…”
Her hair had been in a ponytail this whole time, and she may have coiled some thick strands of hair around her finger in a very pouty but very coy fashion. “Feeling kind of neglected here, princess. Been away from you for most of the morning, you know.”
Was Catra hinting for a kiss?
Fuck yeah she was. They had diffused a psychic feline fight and brought groceries in and she hadn’t even been kissed yet? What the hell was up with that, Catra thought.
“Feeling neglected with an extra psychic cat attached to you?” Adora pulled a dramatic, disbelieving face, grinning and leaning in to rest her forehead against Catra’s. “Guess I’ll have to see what I can do to fix that, won’t I?”
She knew exactly what her wife was after, though, and she was quick to give it to her, snagging those lips in a tender, lingering kiss. They were definitely that over-the-top PDA couple who left and returned to almost every interaction with a kiss. This time, they’d been interrupted by the psychic cat face-off, so she owed her a good one to make up for the delay.
“Better?” she breathed when they eventually parted, hands sliding up Catra’s neck to cup her face. “So…who do you think C’yra is?” She didn’t mean to change the subject so abruptly, but she couldn’t deny she was curious about what this Clawdeen had told them and what it might all mean.
Catra was positively shameless when it came to physical affection, okay, at least in regards to Adora - so she was quite pleased with herself when her not-so-subtle hinting got her exactly what she wanted. Her arms looped around her neck, and she was humming pleasantly against her lips. Yeah. This was better.
“Mm, no clue,” she shrugged, licking her own lips as she thought about it. Her hands went to squeeze her wrists. “Never heard the name before. If she’s from a magicat planet - maybe I could look like whoever she is? Melog might get some more information out of her.”
“Maybe,” Adora agreed thoughtfully. She felt like that had to be where Clawdeen was from – a magicat planet. Why else would she connect so instantly to Catra? Even if it was a case of mistaken identity (which…maybe it wasn’t?), it would make sense that she’d bond with the nearest magicat in the vicinity. But the fact that Clawdeen had called Catra by that particular name kept her wondering.
“Do you…think there’s any chance that’s really your name?” She was hesitant as she asked, not sure how Catra was going to take this line of questioning, but she knew if she didn’t get it out, it would just keep swirling around in her brain as a possibility. They didn’t know her real name, if she’d ever had one, after all. Adora was the one who’d so creatively named her Catra, a fact her wife used to frequently tease her.
“Hah - what.” Catra blinked at her incredulously, and slightly pulled her head back as if her wife let out the most outrageous fart known to Vallo. “I’ve never seen Clawdeen in my life, Adora–and, look, my memory before you is total crap but I’d like to think I’d remember some pink lion? She’s not even from Etheria.”
Maybe Clawdeen showing up while Catra was doing some light research on magicats was a little, uh, on the nose but wasn’t some sort of sign from the universe - right?
Right.
Well, that was a point against the theory Adora was spinning here, admittedly. As far as either of them knew, Catra had been born on Etheria. But that was another maybe, really. She had been found by the Horde when she was a little thing, maybe three. That meant someone had to have been taking care of her until then, didn’t it? And maybe that someone – or those someones – were originally from another planet.
“I’m just saying it’s something to think about,” was her reply, mild and shrugged off. She had no proof one way or the other, neither of them did, but she didn’t think it was so silly to call it a possibility. For now, though, she leaned back in to steal another kiss. “But I’ll focus on making grilled cheese for you, and you make sure your psychic cats aren’t ripping each other to shreds.”
Ugh, why did she have to think about it. Catra had wondered about what her birth name had been, sure - that was a natural curiosity when you were a trash orphan, wasn’t it? But she was overall satisfied with the very blunt and uncreative name Adora Happysmile Rainbowfist bestowed her with the moment she pulled her from that cardboard box. C’yra was just…
Not her.
“Yeah,” she replied after the kiss, a teensy bit distracted but she’d shake it off. “Maybe make some grilled cheese for them too so they won’t be, I don’t know, hangry or whatever.” Well - Melog would like one. Did Clawdeen even know what those were? Did she hunt? There was a lot to learn from their new cat companion, shit.
Catra stood on her tip-toes, reaching up for a quick press of lips again. “Thanks, wifey.”
“Got it,” Adora murmured against Catra’s lips. She pulled back and smiled, one hand reaching out to stroke a lock of hair off her wife’s cheek. “Four grilled cheese coming up. No problem. Hangry cats are very bad.” She could totally do that without burning anything, she was sure of it.