WHAT: An early moment of bliss among the chaos WHERE: Darla WHEN: A while after the First Stand, 2027 WARNINGS: Mentions of death & loss STATUS: Complete ART CREDIT:Found on Pinterest (original artist unknown)
It was Melog that stirred her awake in the middle of the night.
The pull she felt at the edges of her mind wasn’t insistent – so not an emergency – but it was enough to bring her back to the brink of consciousness, a fist coming up to rub the sleep from her eyes. They are restless and up, said Melog, and their tone was made up of mostly amusement. A small part of it was concern, and that was why they had reached out.
That was fine – Catra always encouraged it. Finn had their own cub but it was Melog who slept with them in their room most nights, always alerting her of any issues. The two of them weren’t psychically connected, although there was definitely this little link that existed; something mild and useful and every bit adorable. Having Melog stay in their room eased a lot of her and Adora’s worries. Lately, there was a lot to be worried about.
Taking a sleepy glimpse at her wife, she pressed a soft kiss against her brows (she wanted Adora to rest, work had been rough with everything happening) and began extracting herself from her arms. Catra had this part down to an artform, and before she left she made sure to position the pillow next to her just right in case Adora needed something to hold as she slept. She typically did, anyway - the two of them always slept as an entanglement of limbs, you’d think they’d be sick of it by now.
They weren’t.
After pulling on a pair of sweatpants (she’d been sleeping in just Adora’s shirt), she combed her fingers through her hair and stepped out of their bedroom. Catra found them in the living room – Melog and tiny four-year-old Finn, dressed in footsie-zipper pajamas that had dinosaurs – sitting around the coffee table, the lamp on the end table providing dim lighting.
“Hi baby,” she greeted softly, the usual raspiness of her voice amped from still being sleepy, but if Finn was up then she was up. “Can’t sleep?”
Finn shook their head quietly.
Their day-to-day life had taken a drastic change. She and Adora just had them enrolled in pre-school, only for that to have received a shakeup of violence and mass disappearances. Catra pretty sure she was going to talk to Adora about homeschooling them with all this shit happening. They had lost people, and there was something looming in the horizon–foreboding, dangerous.
It didn’t matter right now. Finn wanted to be up, and Catra would oblige. Watching a little television together on the couch segued into wanting to do some artsy things, and artsy things made them want to look at photo albums – all the ones that their moms had put together through the years, full of doodles (Finn liked those a lot!) and pictures (they liked those even more!). That was how they knew about their grandparents. About Glimmer and Bow. Scorpia and Perfuma.
About their moms’ wedding.
“I wish I could have been there,” Finn smiled, wide-awake and content. “I would have danced, too! And ated cake. Cake is my favorite.”
They were nestled into the couch now, surrounded by a nest of blankets and an album splayed across them. It was from their first year. “It was really good cake,” Catra chuckled, gently stroking their blonde hair. They were both purring softly, Melog sleeping on the floor. “It was the best day. Well – one of the best days. We’ve had a lot of those, like when you were born.”
They let out a hum and touched one of the pictures. “Mommyyyyyy.”
“Yessss?”
“How did you know that you loved Mama and wanted to marry her?”
Catra blinked at the question. Watching Finn grow – every milestone, every development, every change – had been one of her favorite things in life. Toddlers weren’t always easy, but they were transitioning from toddler more towards little kid and were learning how to hold all these different conversations. Sometimes they were silly. Other times, they were innocently deep and required some thought.
“When I wasn’t much older than you,” she began, trying to think of a way to explain the context of this without scarring this little love of her life, “I was very cheeky. There was someone older and bigger than me that wasn’t being nice, so I swatted at them–” A nice way of saying almost took their eye out, “–and when they kept being mean to me, your mama called them a dumb face.”
“A dumb face,” Finn echoed with giggly glee.
“A dumb face,” Catra smirked, brushing their bangs away from their eyes. “I didn’t know what it meant to marry someone at that age – but I knew that I wanted to stay with your mama forever.”
“How did you and Mama meet?”
That was a story they’ve been told before. The thing about little kids, though, is that they are cursed to ask the same questions over, and over, and over. It was exhausting, and sometimes exasperating, but she never let any of it show. Catra’s patience with Finn had been fairly solid throughout the years.
“Mama found me in a box when I was a little smaller than you,” she explained, dropping a kiss to their ear. It twitched under her lips. “I was scared. I even hissed at her, but she gave me a name. Made me feel safe.”
“And you guys keep me safe too!” they chimed in, grinning in that familiar way that was every bit Adora. Finn had taken after her in most things, but that smile? It was sunshine. It came from the first love of her life.
And with what they said – fuck, did she feel an ache in her chest. Love and fear, and this desperate sense of hope. “That’s right. We keep you safe,” Catra assured, pushing through the wobble of her voice as she adjusted them in her lap. “When we were little, Mama and I made a promise to each other that we look out for one another – and that way nothing bad could happen to us. We made that promise to you too. We stay together, and we stay safe.”
“I promise, Mommy.”
Adora woke up with a pillow tucked into her arms. She frowned, blinking slowly awake and lifting her head to scan her surroundings. She expected to see the bathroom light on under the door, an indicator that her wife had slipped in there, and would be returning, too, but no such luck. She lifted one hand from the pillow to feel the rumpled sheets – they were cool. Catra had been gone a while.
For the briefest of moments, her heart jumped nervously in her chest. They had been through a lot lately. Their first big battle against Interitus had gone badly, and things only seemed to be sliding more downhill. They were still working hard, trying their best to come up with an effective plan to get rid of him once and for all and stop him before it got any worse, but it had already gotten bad.
People were gone. Dead or blipped, either way – gone. Nothing could make up for that, but they’d be damned if they didn’t try everything they could.
So, yes, work was exhausting. And while Adora had naturally adapted to sleeping more soundly over the years, she had been sleeping especially deeply after such intense work days. It wasn’t that big of a surprise that Catra had gotten up without waking her, and it was far more likely she was simply in bed with Finn and Melog than had met some terrible fate.
So, up she got, pulling her hair back into a loose ponytail and tugging a hoodie over her head before leaving the Captain’s Quarters. She padded quietly past Teela and Adam’s room, opening the next door to check in on her wife and baby. Instead, she found Dare, sprawled out on his toddler bed with a cub (not-so-cublike anymore but forever a cub nonetheless) curled around him. Adora smiled at the sight of her nephew and let the door close quietly before starting down the stairs.
The living room was only illuminated by one lamp, but it was enough to make out the shapes of her wife and their little one curled up on the couch, and she smiled. Her steps faltered and she hung back, listening as Catra told the story of how she’d known she wanted to be with Adora forever, how they’d met. Her heart ached at Catra’s voice as she continued, shaking even through her reassurances to Finn that they would always keep them safe. It was true – they would, no matter what happened, whether this got better or worse – but it was easy to have shaken faith.
Adora certainly was shaken, but she still pushed through to believe. They still had avenues to set this right, and she was holding onto every bit of that hope she could grasp.
“Well, well,” she said, rounding the couch to smile down at the two most important people in her life. She dropped down to kiss Finn on top of their little blonde mane. “Are we having a slumber party down here without Mama? Am I not fun enough to get invited?”
“Mama!” Just like that – Catra was chopped liver, and the kitten rose to step on several of her organs by awkwardly standing on her lap and shoving their feet in all these different directions (very nostalgic to when she carried this precious little shit in her womb). Wrapping their arms around Adora’s neck right after she gave them that kiss, Finn squealed. “Hold me, Mama!”
There was a groan on the other end. “It’s fine,” she wheezed dramatically. “I don’t need the liver you're stepping on, and the appendix is – ugh, ow – a completely useless organ.”
“Mommy told me about dumb face, and how she wants to marry you!”
“Already married, kiddo – but please, have mercy on my organs.”
“I’d marry your mommy every day for the rest of our lives,” Adora said, wrapping Finn up in her arms and peppering their cheek with kisses. “She’s the best person I’ve ever known, and Octavia was totally a dumb face.”
She settled onto the couch next to Catra, stretching out one arm to wrap around her wife’s shoulders and gently draw her in closer. “Sorry about your organs, babe.” She kissed Catra’s temple and settled Finn back down, this time on her lap. “How long have you two been awake?” She looked at their four-year-old, slipping two fingers up and down their arm. “Did you have a bad dream, buddy?
It was a relief to have that weight lifted from her midsection area, thank you – Finn had a habit of getting excitable and flailing, and she couldn’t blame them for getting excited over Mama. Catra was pretty stoked to have her up too, and she gladly sunk into her side. Adora was solid warmth, the embodiment of safety and comfort. “A few hours is my guess,” she yawned, nuzzling into her shoulder. “Melog woke me up.”
“Night light came off,” Finn frowned, pouting at Adora as they clung. “Can’t sleep. And, and–I wanted cartoons, and to cuddle, and then Mommy and I colored flowers and then we looked at pictures! I want to go to your wedding, Mama. I know you had cake! I saw pictures!”
Catra chuckled tiredly, burying a smile into the side of her wife’s neck. “They’re going to try and con you into having cake for breakfast.”
Adora chuckled as well, tightening her arm around Finn and breathing them in. They still smelled a little bit baby underneath their special shampoo, and it kept her at ease in a way few other things could manage. It took away some of the stress that came with wondering if they had cake – or even the ingredients for cake. Relations with the city were still tense, and getting out there for supplies wasn’t an easy feat anymore.
“Maybe Mommy and I will have another wedding someday,” she said, stroking across her wife’s shoulder. “And if we do, we’ll get a special cake just for you, baby. We’ll get you all dressed up, too, whatever you wanna wear.”
She liked the idea of that, actually. Maybe when things started getting better, they could have a vow renewal, dress Finn up, have dinner with all their friends again. It was a nice thought – maybe a fantasy but a good one.
Finn lit up like the sun. “Ohhhh, yes yes yes! I want to do that.” They paused for a second, letting go of Adora so they could squish their own cheeks and give their moms the eyes, blown pupils and purrs. “Can we… do that now?”
“Takes a little more to plan that kind of stuff,” Catra replied gently, peeking at their little gremlin – they made that – while still smiling. It was impossible not to. The state of Vallo was up in the air but Finn’s happiness was contagious. It was pure, and unmarred by most of what was happening, and she wanted to do everything in her power to keep them that way. “But Mama’s right, some day.”
A little more adamant for attention, she grabbed her wife by the chin and guided their lips together for a sweet kiss. “Morning, princess,” she whispered, smirking now. “Marry me?”
“Always,” Adora grinned, leaning in to kiss Catra a little bit deeper. Finn wasn’t at the age where they shouted ‘gross!’ about displays of affection just yet, so she knew she could get away with it. They were young enough that even the darkness around them hadn’t quite bled through into that childlike glee that just existed in them. She hoped things got better soon, and they’d never have to worry about that happening.
The kids, at least, deserved that, if nothing else. They deserved a nice world to grow up in, the one they had been born into instead of this horror show.
“You wanna go up to bed and let me take care of our little prince here?” She ruffled Finn’s hair playfully, turning to grin at them. “I think it’s Mama’s shift now, huh?”
“Mm, coffee,” Catra mumbled out, giving the side of Adora’s face a final good nuzzle – she and Finn were both purring, and she wanted her to revel in that for a few seconds – before untangling a blanket from her limbs. “I’ll let the beasts outside and then figure out breakfast for anyone, ‘kay? Stay with them.”
Finn curled into Adora, little hands kneading into her shirt as the sound of their other mom’s feet faded through the spaceship. They’ve been up for a good bit, and there was an inevitable crash in the near future (probably after breakfast, they were hoping for pancakes!!) but they were stubbornly fighting the sleep from their eyes. “Yeah, Mama, stay with me!” they chirruped, resting their head on her chest. “I made more art for you with Mommy to put on the fridge, I hope you like them.”
The art was more like coloring book pages scribbled on sloppily with crayons. They knew how to color within the lines but they didn’t always want to, and Catra let their creative little chaos run free. Half the time it was how glitter glue ended up smeared all over the walls. That was a washable offense, though.
Adora didn’t need to be told twice. She hunkered down into the couch, shifting slightly to soak up the warmth her wife left behind, and wrapped Finn fully up in both arms, dropping a kiss on top of their head when they curled up into her chest. Feeling their warm weight pressed against hers was enough to take all her worries away. They helped her hold onto hope that the future would get better.
“I can’t wait to see it, sweetie,” she murmured, lifting a hand to rub slow circles into their back. She knew they were likely up through breakfast at this point, but a little cap nap between now and then wouldn’t hurt them. “I love yours and Mommy’s artwork. You’re gonna be an awesome artist, just like her.”
That touch to their back made them purr louder, like they were this little baby motorboat, happy to have their ear squished into their mom to hear her heartbeat. Some mayhem unfurled around them in spurts – the big cats were up, Catra leading them out so they could run outside and hunt for the morning. Spirit was whining for food (which he was given, hold your horses, pup) while Ivy appeared out of seemingly nowhere, using Adora’s forehead as a springboard to reach the other side of the couch.
Melog let out a mrrrp at all the noise, lifting up to rub their face into Adora’s feet as a hello before joining Catra to lend a paw.
“I don’t wanna be an artist,” Finn mumbled (even though that wasn’t what they said last week). “I want to be a sparkly rainbow ninja, with magic sword claws.”
Passing by the couch overhearing that, Catra chimed in with, “You can’t be a sneaky ninja if you’re sparkly and full of rainbows, honey.”
“Yes I can!”
“Fine, you can.”
“I’m full of rainbows and I do okay,” Adora backed Finn up, rubbing her forehead (thanks, cat) as she turned her head to catch her wife’s gaze and waggle her eyebrows.
Her powers had taken a hit, especially after the destruction of Grayskull, but She-Ra was still holding on right now. She had manifested her on Etheria all by herself, before she’d ever connected to her brother and sister-in-law’s stronghold of Power, so it hadn’t hit her as hard as it hit them. But she wasn’t planning on letting her alter ego go too easily if she could help it, anyway.
“You can be a sparkly rainbow ninja with magic sword claws, baby, Mama supports you,” she told Finn.
Catra gave the fondest roll of her eyes and circled the couch to literally just swipe her tail across Adora’s face (she was surrounded by felines and feline-adjacents, this is what she got). It made Finn giggle, and then their mom went off to the kitchen to finally get that coffee started.
(And to check inventory–see what needed to be cooked and eaten now before it went bad. A shortage was about to hit them, and despite the cute family moment, Catra was currently in planning meals mode.)
Finn’s kneading on Adora slowed. There was some flex of kitten claws here and there, the purring softening but present. “Hope Mommy makes pancakes,” they said around a yawn, eyes blinking slowly and sleepily. “I want a dinosaur-unicorn pancake. Can you put cartoons on? I wanna watch Bluey, pleaaaaaaaase, Mama. Bluey.”
They were definitely on the precipice of dozing. Catra’s ears gave a twitch – she heard them, and maybe she should hold off on breakfast until after the fact.
Adora was very well-acquainted with the signs that a feline or feline-adjacent was close to falling asleep. Finn’s tells were even more present, too little to really fight the sleepiness overcoming them. She kept the same movements up on their back, big and slow circles, gentle and soothing.
“Okay, Bluey it is,” she agreed softly, craning to reach for the remote. Soon enough, she’d pulled up the familiar cartoon – she swore she knew most of the dialogue by heart, and that song was the definition of an earworm – and kissed Finn’s little ear. “There you go.”
It didn’t take long after that. Finn was content, warmed up against their mom and breathing in her scent – they were very like Catra in certain ways, always wanting comforting smells and the sound of a heartbeat. The purrs quieted to barely-heard levels but the vibrations could definitely be felt, the rumble rolling through their little body in sync with their breathing.
Two episodes later, they were fast asleep on Adora.
“Made you tea,” Catra whispered when she came around again, setting a mug of piping hot beverage on the coffee table. Hers was in her hand – and while she vastly preferred the iced coffee variety, she knew those luxuries were on the precipice of being put to a stop. “Want me to tuck them into the other side of the couch?”
Or not – she couldn’t blame Adora for wanting a Finn-shaped blanket on them, and Catra would be content to stare at them all morning.
“I’ll keep them here,” Adora confirmed. “Come cuddle.” She smiled softly, freeing a hand to pat the spot beside her. She was content like this, feeling the rumbles of Finn’s purrs against her upper body, one ear plastered flat against her chest. They were cozy, and she was cozy, and she’d been clinging to these moments even harder than usual lately. She didn’t want to give it up unless she had to.
Her wife would be the cherry on top of a fantastic early-morning sundae.
“You could’ve woken me earlier,” she murmured. “I never expect you to stay up half the night with them alone.”
That’s a request Catra could never decline. Taking a sip of her coffee, she abandoned it beside Adora’s herbal tea and joined them, slipping in next to her. She drew the blankets over them more, fluffing them out to where they were somewhat cocooned before, finally, leaning her weight into her wife.
“I just wanted you to get some sleep,” she confessed, chin propped onto her shoulder. “I know you would have woken up and with everything being…” Total shit. Catra didn’t say it but she gestured. “I don’t know, you looked peaceful and I just… wanted to take care of both of you.”
Catra had really fallen into the ‘housewife’ thing the first year of Finn’s life and that had been the strangest change. But, fuck it, things were relatively peaceful and if she spent her days just taking care of her family and doing dumb mundane shit like laundry every other day while Adora did patrols to keep them safe when things got crazy – so be it. Her life had gotten domestic, and she was happy to do it.
Call her domesticated and that’s how you lose an eye, though.
“You always take care of us.” Adora dipped to place a kiss on Catra’s forehead. She missed the days when all Catra had to worry about was keeping up with their baby and Darla. She had missed her on Defense, too, but she was happy to come home and find her content and safe on Darla, tease her about what a domestic goddess (a nickname only she could get away with, and even that was dependent on mood) she’d become.
“You can still wake me, even with ‘everything being’,” she assured her, meeting those mismatched eyes seriously. “Maybe because of ‘everything being’, a little. We can still turn this around, but…” She scraped her bottom lip with her teeth. “I want to soak up all the time I can get with both of you.”
That wasn’t some admittance that she was giving up, but underneath the positive attitude, there was a layer of realism. The chance for things to go very bad was there. Interitus was a breath away from taking over Vallo City; this was the worst threat they’d faced yet. No one was giving up yet, but they’d taken some heavy hits, and recovery was slow-going.
Adora’s eyes were serious, and hers were just… soft. That slow blink, vulnerable kind of look. War wasn’t new to them; they were raised into it, and the story of what they’ve endured was written on their skin. Fighting didn’t scare her. Bring back the blood and flesh that caught itself underneath her claws, the racing hearts and sweat.
No, what was scary was that they had so much more to lose if things worsened. The first time, neither of them thought they could even have a life outside of war. They had almost died for it together. Then they had a future, and it had quickly become their present, and it was in danger. They had promised Finn would have it better than they did – but would they?
“Okay,” she relented, placing a hand over Finn’s back. She felt the rise and fall of their bodies as they breathed, the way the sleepy purrs quivered through their form. Gods, they were stupid cute. Their face was squished up against Adora, lips hilariously parted. They were out. “I want that, too. Once the others are up I might steal you later for an actual soak in the tub.”
Catra could… survive baths. There was an appeal to them if she could sit in her lap for most of it, and she wanted to snatch up any moment of intimacy she could - as short as they might be.
“I’m honored,” Adora replied playfully, shifting to lean her head on top of Catra’s and just enjoy being wrapped up with her two favorite people. Having Finn was easily one of the best things they’d done together, and as long as she had them both with her always, she had no doubt she would be fine. If she lost either of them, all bets were off, but they weren’t there yet.
Hopefully, they’d never be there.
“I know I made us drinks but…” Catra sighed heavily, contently (this was her family, she was going to just bask in that she still had them), and she nuzzled into Adora to scent her and more or less fuse with her. Her purring momentum mirrored Finn’s. Quiet, but with the present little buzzes with every breath. “I love you, and I’m thinking of trapping you here with your wife and child – you good with that, princess?”
Exhaustion was catching up on her too, and this position was literally perfect. Catra could handle breakfast later.
Adora hadn’t even had a sip of her tea, but she wasn’t bothered. She was cozy, too, and with Catra and Finn purring against her, it was very easy to start feeling sleepy again. The animals were all taken care of, Teela and Adam would no doubt be down with Dare in the next hour or so – their drinks could be reheated then. Right now, she was more than happy to just remain cocooned on the couch with the two loves of her life.
Three, actually, when Melog jumped onto the couch, draping themself over Catra’s lap. Adora smiled at the sight and the synchrony of purrs that followed.
“That sounds perfect,” she agreed, nuzzling her nose into Catra’s hair. She took a slow breath, inhaling her scent, too – another that never failed to be comforting. “I love you, too, babe. Sleep.”