Being Catra – and being pregnant on top of that – had been a mixed bag for Adora.
It was actually kind of interesting to experience her wife from a different perspective? She was so little, much shorter than Adora (who was tall on her own but not She-Ra tall), but at well-past the nine month mark of pregnancy, she was big, too. It was an odd thing, having her center of gravity feel so off, especially while navigating from a height she wasn’t familiar with at the same time.
The actual products of the pregnancy were the toughest part. Feeling their baby move in a way she never had before? That was so cool. She was surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly) entranced with the feeling of Finn wiggling around inside her, but the side effects of carrying them were kind of the worst. She’d never thought Catra was exaggerating, exactly, but she hadn’t realized until she was literally in her wife’s body that the pain wasn’t so easy to push aside.
Her back especially – gods. She didn’t want to stand, nevermind get up and walk. She knew intellectually that it was good to do, that it would only help the process along, especially so close to the due date, but maybe that was part of her hesitation.
Being pregnant for a few days was fine, overall. Uncomfortable in some ways, but she could bear it while they figured out the whole magical-body-switching-bracelet stuff. What she couldn’t handle – couldn’t fathom handling – was actually giving birth. Maybe Catra’s body was prepared for it, but Adora’s brain absolutely was not. She was trying as hard as she could to avoid the thought all together and have confidence that Catra and Teela would solve the problem.
And thank the gods, they had.
She hadn’t gotten a lot of details in the text from Catra, other than they’d found what they needed, but the relief that flooded through her felt cool under her skin. This was almost over. Just a little while longer, and they would be able to set themselves right again.
She would have been pacing if she could be bothered to get up, but that wasn’t happening. Instead, she was curled up in the nest of pillows and blankets on the couch that were the only place she felt even remotely comfortable. She poked nervously at a game on her phone, trying to keep her mind occupied until she heard footsteps and raised her head to see–
Well, herself. It would never not be weird.
“You found it?” she questioned. “What happened? What do we have to do? Is it a curse?”
And just like that, Catra found herself immediately on the couch next to her – waiting to answer the questions, of course, until she leaned down to kiss her couch-bound wife that was in her body. Wearing her own face. Was this some form of masturbation? She didn’t know, tried not to think too hard about it, and did her best to keep a relatively normal rhythm to avoid triggering, like, child labor or something.
So far, so good.
“Hi,” she greeted, smoothing a hand over her stomach. “Tracked the vendor down, then tracked the person who bought it–guess who.” Catra smirked (in that annoying cocky way, with a dash of wicked mischief that was signature to her own personality), not even daring to give Adora the opportunity to actually guess. “Porn Elf.”
The bracelet was pulled from the safety of her pocket and she swung it before Adora like a pendulum, blue stones and gold band – an almost twin to the one that started this whole thing.
“We also need to Venmo Teela, uhhh.” Catra did the math in her head with a grimace. “Two hundred bucks, around that. For buying the bracelet off them.” Then, adding on with a whisper, “and for some damages. Your forehead broke something.”
Adora instantly made a face, eyes narrowing and jaw tensing at the very mention of Porn Elf. She knew her anger and jealousy toward them was totally irrational, but it was completely automatic. She had never had a fun encounter with Porn Elf, and she didn’t expect she ever would. They played their suggestions off as teasing, and maybe that’s all it was, but she did not like anyone thinking of her wife that way.
“Fine,” she grumbled. She’d known Teela had come armed with cash for any situation, and she was glad it was taken care of, even if it involved Porn Elf. She would pay their debts when – when – she got back to herself. “What did you break? And how?”
She could guess, and she had a fairly good idea. Catra had been transforming into She-Ra a lot. It was funny and very sweet how easily she shifted back and forth when they were together. The lack of control brought back memories.
“It was just one of those hanging signs,” Catra mumbled, lips pursed into a pout. “And, you know, I was just walking like normal - as one does - and I was in my thoughts, and.” Sighing, she made a dumb gesture with her hands that was a vague impression of getting taller. “She-Ra happened. The next thing I know I hit the sign and splintered it into pieces. God, no wonder you literally go headfirst into things sometimes. I didn’t even feel it.”
So that was a fun experience. Mildly embarrassing that she could accidentally break things from thinking about how much she loved her partner, but.
“Anyway,” she continued, grabbing Adora by the hand to help her sit up more. “You okay? It sucks being away from you when you’re all… me and pregnant. Water didn’t break yet, did it?”
Catra was joking but please let the answer to that be no.
Adora grinned at that explanation, entirely understanding of how that could come to pass. Whacking her head as herself, she felt it, and it left her dazed. But She-Ra had superhuman durability, and even smacking into what she presumed was a pretty sturdy wooden sign could go unfelt. She didn’t really understand the mechanics of it, but she’d learned to be grateful that it saved Catra from making her concerned face sometimes.
The grin twisted into a pout quickly, though. “Gods, don’t even joke,” she huffed, wrapping her hands around the back of her wife’s neck and leaning in to kiss her again. It was still weird, but she’d chosen to close her eyes and just pretend everything was normal so it didn’t weird her out too much. “I’d definitely be having a panic attack if that had happened while you were gone, just so you know.”
Not prepared really didn’t even begin to cover it. If she was put in a situation where she had to go through the birth, she was almost sure her own anxiety would screw her and cause problems throughout. She didn’t want that for Finn.
“Are you totally terrified of giving birth?” she asked. “Because that’s the only emotion I can feel about it, to be honest.”
Kissing her own lips was–yeah, no, she also made sure her eyes were closed for that experience. Not that much would keep her from locking lips with Adora anyway, but still. The bracelet remained wrapped around her fingers as she pulled her in, because despite all Catra’s complaints about feeling big and awkward, from the outside, she really… wasn’t?
Wild. No wonder Adora looked at her like she was stupid when she whined about it. Still, though, feeling like you were this wrecking ball that was waddling around also just plain sucked.
“I’ve always been pretty good with pain,” Catra shrugged, pressing her lips against her forehead for a kiss there too. “Granted, it’s been awhile since I’ve been beaten up and tortured for a long period of time, so–” There was a small snort of amusement there because, yeah, she was allowed to get a little funny about her trauma, sue her. “It might take some getting used to when it happens but I think I’ll be fine.”
They had talked about pain management, and it was the kind that made your legs numb and kept you stuck in bed that Catra distinctly did not want – she wanted to be in control, she wanted to be able to move if she wanted to. “Besides,” her lips dropped to press a kiss against her nose now and, oh geez, freckles, “I’ll have you with me.”
“Yeah.” Adora smiled, leaning into those lips against her skin. It still felt backwards, but she’d take it. She always soaked up as much love as her wife was willing to give her (which, lucky for her, was a whole lot at almost all times) without protest. They had been this way their whole lives, save for that gap where they were on opposite sides of the war, and it would have felt unnatural to lean away just because of a magical glitch.
“Hopefully,” she went on, “back in my own body. Although I’m going to miss feeling Finn a little bit.” She ran her hand over the bump – although, really, it was far beyond a bump these days – and looked up at Catra with overwhelming fondness. “Have I thanked you lately for all that you’ve done for us? This – They... It’s such a big responsibility, and I don’t think I totally realized that ‘til now.”
She’d done her best to be cognizant and sensitive of what a journey Catra was going through for them, but she’d definitely underestimated how much of herself went into this pregnancy – the pain, the hormones, the fears – even after doing her most diligent research. It had given her even more appreciation for how unbelievably strong her wife truly was, even now with the war far behind them.
“You always do, dummy,” Catra scoffed, nose crinkled in amusement. That was something Adora was always good at – showering her with affection in every way, and there may have been times where she may have wanted to hide her face when the affection came in a shower of words, but she’d gotten better. Now, she soaked them up and believed them more easily. “You’ve been the best partner through this whole thing. You know that, right? This whole thing is… yeah, you definitely won’t know what it’s like unless you’re experiencing it for yourself, but…”
Hell, she was gonna give it a go. It was her turn to draw Adora into her lap, and they’ve made it work with the extra weight as the months went by. She knew how to position her carefully. “It’s not like you’ve ever been thoughtless or anything. Everything you’ve done is to take care of me, and them. From the prenatal smoothies with the weird aftertaste to pushing me to stay active even if a nap is a lot more enticing. I mean, it’s nice that you get to feel why all of that might make me grouchy now? But you’re really involved, you always have been, and I don’t think I could do any of this without you.”
She didn’t want to tempt Vallo by voicing those other fears, like how fucked and terrified she’d be if Adora was suddenly gone and she had to endure this by herself. The scenario crossed her mind a lot, and she usually did okay with shoving it aside to focus on the now. They had put too much work into making a life of their own for her to be swept away in the what if? of things.
“And that’s why I’m gonna marry you, like,” Catra smirked and kissed right below her ear, damn was she soft and fuzzy, “forty thousand times even if the math is flawed.”
Adora couldn’t help tearing up when Catra started saying all those nice things about her. She hadn’t been looking for compliments, but it was always a nice feeling. She did sometimes worry she was either going too hard with support or not going hard enough. Hearing that she was enough, that her involvement and efforts had helped her wife get through this, tugged at her heartstrings.
The fluffy ear being nuzzled twitched at her wife’s kiss, a feeling she still hadn’t gotten all that accustomed to. Her fleshy human ears didn’t move the way Catra’s ears did. The only sensation she ever truly felt in them was heat – and only on the occasion she blushed hard enough that her ears colored, too. She curled into the warmth against her, arms wrapping around a strong neck again as the tears slipped down her cheeks.
“Forty thousand, no negotiations,” she whispered, nuzzling into soft skin, pointedly avoiding that it was her own. She had every intention of holding Catra to their older selves’ promise, whether they got back to their own bodies or not. She pressed a kiss to a pointed nose and took a breath before opening her eyes again.
“Okay.” She cleared her throat, then tried to straighten her back before realizing that was a bad idea and settling back down. “What’s the plan? Did Teela say how we undo it or do we just go in and hope for the best?”
Awww, was she crying? Hormones, probably, but still. Catra thought it was kinda neat that she got to hold her through it like this, squeezing gently with those arms that always brought her a lot of comfort. They were solid, and safe, and Adora got to feel how that always helped her all the times she was upset.
This magic mishap might be a total fucking inconvenience but, honestly, she couldn’t bring herself to be mad about it. It was definitely an interesting experience.
“I guess I can put it on,” Catra thought out loud, stroking a hand up and down her spine – and adding some mild pressure on her lower back, since she knew that spot was a common culprit of pain. She didn’t miss that. “And we can try what we did when this first happened? Wish ourselves back to normal. Teela says this one’s got enough juice to do the swap but we’ve only got one shot to get this right.”
With care, she grabbed Adora by the hips to set her back gently into the couch. It gave her space to clasp the bracelet around her wrist. “Then I guess we’ll just have two bracelets with no magic. One for me, one for you. But before we do this – hey, kid.” Her hands gravitated towards her belly, one on each side, and by now she knew how to summon up a little magic to make Finn squirm. “Kick your mama around one last time while she’s still got you.”
The relief when Catra’s hand pressed a little more firmly against her lower back was palpable. Adora let out a surprised breath that turned into a quiet hum. That spot had been particularly irksome while she’d been like this, and Catra knew that. It gave her a moment of consideration, whether it was fair to Catra to go through this. But she couldn’t very well stay in her wife’s body out of some sort of sense of selflessness.
Well, she could. But she wouldn’t. Catra knew how to handle this, and they were nearing the home stretch. Hopefully the worst of the aches and pains would start to ease up after Finn finally made their grand appearance.
Even the lift and relocation was smooth and relatively painless, though she stared at Catra with confused, furrowed eyebrows until she realized what her wife was up to. Her mouth automatically opened in a wide smile when she felt Finn start up with the glow of her magic seeping in to wake them. It was a wild ride, little hands and feet pushing out to make themselves visible from inside. She couldn’t even describe how it felt – but if there was only one plus to that situation, getting to feel Finn moving like this was definitely it.
Reaching out, she grabbed hold of Catra’s chin (with her wife’s claws very carefully sheathed) and angled her down so their eyes met. “I love you.”
Catra felt the shifts underneath her palms, and it was also–weird not to experience it all from the inside, too. Finn had been with her from the beginning. Sometimes she felt them headbutt her bladder and make everything miserable but she didn’t care much because it was them. She missed them.
At least they’d get to meet them soon. Like, real soon.
“Love you too, princess,” she smirked, and boy was it weird to call her that in that body (though Catra’s been called that too, sometimes, when Adora got cheeky in bed) but it was a forever pet name of endearment no matter what. “Okay, so. Not having to pee all the time and being able to walk without getting out of breath was fun, but let’s just finally…”
Bringing her wrist up to examine the bracelet on her, Catra made a face at it. “I wish I could have my body back so I can pop this kid out already,” she huffed. “And I miss being the little spoon, you stupid thing, so put my woman back in her hot body and–”
Turns out, the bracelet didn’t care to let Catra continue to mouth off at it rudely. It happened again–that rush, that explosion of light erupting from the band, that weird out-of-body experience that felt like their souls were displaced into the air for one split second before being sucked back into their happy vessels of meat-and-bones.
And that disorientation.
The next time Catra blinked her eyes, it wasn’t her body that was in her line of vision. It was Adora’s.
Adora truly didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. In their attempts to figure out what had happened, they’d decided it must have been that they’d both made a wish in the presence of this magical bracelet, and it had decided to give them what they wanted. This time, Catra hadn’t even finished speaking before there was that strange jolt again, a moment where it was almost like she could see the switch, and then–
Deep breath.
She could breathe again, unweighted by their child inside her, and her gaze was focused on sharp, mismatched eyes. She flexed her fingers – clawless – and began grinning widely again. She lifted those hands to loose, familiar locks of blonde hair before she moved them again to gently grasp her wife’s face and surge forward to kiss her properly.
Her eyes were open, which was weird and not typical. But she was going to savor the look on Catra’s face now that she wasn’t in her body, weird or not.
Adora didn’t waste any time, and neither did Catra. Not that any of the kisses felt wrong while they were swapped, that wasn’t it – this now just felt normal with everything being right where it belonged. She purred into the kiss, and smiled into the kiss because Adora looking at her like this (her eyes were open too, obviously) was ridiculous and even cute, and while she couldn’t pull her wife’s weight on top of her completely, she pulled her in as close as she could.
“Congrats,” she mumbled into her mouth before kissing her again, and again, and a few more times. Catra couldn’t get enough. She missed the way Adora felt. She preferred her lips on her, and her hands and arms. “You dodged the childbirth bullet.”
That had been the stressful part, working against the ticking bomb that was the womb. But they did it!
And still owed Teela money.
This finally felt right again. Adora’s fingers stroked across the expanses of freckles across her wife’s cheeks, pulling away just far enough to take a few breaths. “Glad for that,” she chuckled, tipping her forehead down to rest against Catra’s. “I really don’t think I could have done it. I kept thinking about it and getting shaky.”
It probably would have been different if she’d been pregnant all along, but being thrust into the shoes of someone already nine months pregnant was unsettling. She had experienced some cool things, but overall, yeah, it was a little terrifying. It gave her that wish, though – now she really understood Catra’s struggle in a way she hadn’t.
She shifted forward, wrapping her body around Catra’s as best as she could among the nest of pillows and blankets. “I’m going to cling to you for the rest of the day, okay?” Her grip shifted to wrap around Catra’s back and she leaned in to smack a messy kiss against her cheek. “I missed you being you.”
“I missed you being you too,” Catra had to fucking giggle at that sloppy kiss, eyes closing for a few seconds. She didn’t quite miss the, uh, heaviness she was feeling right now. Adora’s body had energy! Hers did not, but at least she was positioned comfortably in her spot. She highly doubted Adora was going to make her move much today after all of that. “And I missed being held.”
Not that she ever had a problem with holding Adora – she was a very dedicated jetpack when the roles were reversed – but holding her own body was strange. “I also missed them,” she added quietly, placing a hand at the bottom of her stomach. “I got used to having them around with me all the time, you know? Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to be delighted to have my body back but–y’know.”
Her shoulders shrugged a little. Adora probably understood what she meant when Catra failed with words.
“I do,” Adora agreed. She hummed and kissed Catra’s cheek again, a little softer, then pressed another to the line of her jaw.
Putting things into words wasn’t always something Catra was great at – and same for Adora herself, honestly, but that was why they worked so well. They got each other. Even without the words, she knew what Catra was saying. She knew how strong of a bond her wife had formed with their baby, and how could she not?
Finn was literally growing inside her. Having that taken from you suddenly and unexpectedly – and not via the expected method – had to have been strange, even if a few days’ reprieve was nice, too.
“It was really cool, feeling them like that,” she said. “The side effects sort of suck, and I swear, I’ll never push you on walking again. But feeling them with me like that? Yeah, it was definitely awesome. But I’m really good with feeling them just from my end, too.”
“Mmm, maybe lay off on the walking thing for a bit,” she mused, looking at Adora with a content slow blink and smile. The purrs eased into something quieter, but the vibrations could be felt with how close they were. “I don’t mind the nudge to do it though? You’re trying to take care of us, I can’t be mad about that. You’re just so…”
Catra hiked a leg over her hip, the smile morphing into a wider grin. “Bossy. Save it for the bedroom, princess.”
“Alright, alright,” Adora relented with a chuckle, raising her hand to slide through Catra’s hair while she settled in more comfortably. She closed her eyes and slowly breathed Catra in, letting her hand slide across the curve of her belly and trace slow circles while her wife purred. “I can do that.”
She let the moment drag for a little while, enjoying having Catra wrapped up in her arms again. She’d enjoyed snuggling up with her while they were switched, but there had always been a niggling feeling of abnormality that now, finally, was gone. Everything was right with them again, and if they never swapped bodies again, it would be too soon in her opinion. Looking at herself and knowing it was her wife was just A Lot for her brain, even at its best.
“Hey, so I didn’t get the full story with Porn Elf,” she said, nose wrinkling disdainfully just at the mention. But she didn’t want to miss out on the story – it had been bad enough being stuck on the couch. “How’d you find out they had the other bracelet?”
The hype of being swapped was finally dwindling, and the day had been busy and Catra was just very happy to lay here and exist like she normally would with Adora – she even had her nose tucked into her throat, eyes closed, taking in her scent (which she missed, human noses were lame).
Then Adora broke the silence.
“Uhhhmmm,” Catra began, pulling her face back and oh my fuck, she was grinning while also trying not to grin. She rolled her lips until they were flat to keep back a bubbling laugh. Her shoulders began to shake with it. She wanted to swallow down the sound so she could properly speak to explain it, but–
Nope, she failed. Catra laughed. Catra laughed so fucking hard, and hid her face back into Adora’s neck, and fucking laughed. “Hold on, just,” she snorted through a giggle, her tail lashing excitedly “Give me–hahahaha, shit, give me a minute! Hold on, okay.”
Breaaaathe. Through the nose, out the mouth. Phew. She had laughed so hard that her eyes watered and she had to wipe the edges of them dry. “Oh man. You’re going to hate this.”
Adora let out a playful groan as she took in Catra’s reaction. She had expected this would be a ridiculous story because Porn Elf, from what she had seen of them, was a dramatic person. But those giggles, the thwapping tail, the fact that she couldn’t contain her amusement for even a full minute – none of those were signs of anything she would be happy about.
Which, at least, Catra recognized.
Adora sighed dramatically, smiling at Catra in spite of what she was sure would be inevitable annoyance. She loved seeing Catra happy, whether it was going to be fun for her or not, and she knew the story would be entertaining.Her wife had a flair for that.
“C’mon, Chuckles,” she whined, stroking through the ends of her wife’s hair. “Tell meeeee!”
Chuckles, huh? Alright, that might be cute. Catra would let her have it. There was a slight shift in her position to prop her head up with her elbow, giving Adora such a grin. “Welllllll,” she drawled, that tail tickling up her leg. “Like I said - we tracked the vendor down, the vendor told us it was a matching set so we put two and two together, and she was nice enough to keep customer records when it came to purchases. Which, I don’t know, it’s probably illegal that she gave us personal information that quickly but Teela and I played a little ‘good cop, bad cop.’”
Adora could surmise who was who, and maybe Catra was taking advantage to flex.
“Theeeeeen,” she went on, cozying up a little closer to her wife, “we went to the address, and I knock on the door, and guess who opened up? But I called them Porn Elf the moment I saw them so they decided to, uh.” Catra cleared her throat to keep down another fit of laughter, but the grin just kept growing. “To tell me their name.”
Catra leaned forward to whisper, all for the flair of dramatics.
“Adorellen.”
Adora’s mouth promptly dropped open.
“You’re kidding.” She was torn between feeling offended – how dare Porn Elf have even part of her name! – and laughing, partly out of disbelief and partly because it felt like a weird name. It was like two names shoved together. She had named Catra at five years old, and she felt much more confident that was a good name than this.
A laugh quickly burst out, though, as the rest of the story settled into her brain. “I can’t believe you actually called them Porn Elf to their face!” She would probably end up still calling them Porn Elf because the name truly seemed no better, but she’d never have the gall to call them that to their face.
“How much did Teela have to pay them? The bracelet was only twenty bucks, right? Did She-Ra do that much damage?”
“I was so weirded out about the situation that it slipped, I couldn’t help it,” Catra snickered. “But, uh, they hiked up the price with some bullshit inconvenience fee because we interrupted their spa day or whatever. They tried to ask Teela out on a date too and made a comment about all the Outlanders being hot and taken, which - yeah, that’s pretty true. That whole thing made me realize why you wanna deck them though. I almost did.”
But the retrieval of the bracelet was pretty easy, all things considered.
“So the difference was…” she winced. “The damages for that sign. I killed it with your forehead, fueled by my undying love for you – it’s romantic.”
“Very romantic,” Adora smirked back. She didn’t really mind. They still had a decent amount of disposable income before Finn came, and she knew Teela probably hadn’t pressed them on paying back so much as Catra had decided they must. She’d text her and get it figured out later.
She reached out to stroke the silver bracelet still on Catra’s wrist. It really was pretty, and she hoped the magic was sapped out of it at this point. She wanted Catra to be able to keep it, especially after all the trouble it and its mate, now wrapped around her wrist, had caused.
“I’ll punch them next time I see them if you want,” she offered, a little eagerly. “They’ll probably do something to deserve it. Like tell me to share you again.”
Yes, that had invoked rage, and yes, she was still thinking about it, thank you. She actually admired Catra for not punching them. She didn’t think she could have made the same promise if she tried.
Catra’s grin went from shit-eating to smitten. Blown pupils, the purrs kicking up a notch in volume. “I find it stupid hot when you get violent on my behalf,” she whispered huskily, twirling some of Adora’s hair around her fingers. She didn’t mind the possessive streak – not when she spent most of her life thinking Adora didn’t want her. “But you don’t have to worry, I never want to be shared.”
A pause.
“Unless it’s with a future version of you,” she pointed out. “Or She-Ra gets split from you for some reason. Those are my threesome guidelines.”
Adora’s brows shot up nearly to her hairline. The heat and redness she’d been thinking about earlier settled up her skin, starting from her neck and spreading to her ears. She was not modest about sex in Catra’s presence these days – she had a few limits and hesitations, like the spanking, but she knew there was nothing they couldn’t share.
Threesomes had never been a consideration before, though.
And, oddly, she liked the set of guidelines more than she’d expected to.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she murmured, angling forward to steal another lingering kiss from Catra’s lips.
It was a joke. Mostly. Kind of. Catra didn’t do the sharing thing, no, but if she did? It’d be with versions of her wife. She was that greedy for Adora, fuck off. “Don’t overthink it, princess,” she snickered again, the sound somewhat smothered into the next kiss. “But I’m tired and hungry, and it’s been a weekend, and can we please order in so I can take a nap on you? I have needs.”
“I guess I’d better be a good wife and fulfill your needs then,” Adora replied with a pleased hum. She gave Catra another soft squeeze and kissed her again. ”I’ll order your favorites.”