Teela had been a little antsy since the whole doppelganger incident. While she’d put on a strong, mostly unbothered front, even doing her best to empathize with the woman who seemed to have made an ill-advised choice out of grief, it had left her feeling unsettled. To be mimicked so completely that even those closest to her, those she considered family, had been tricked wasn’t a feeling she liked.
And if it had happened once, it meant it could happen again. The DOA may have rounded up this batch of impersonators, but were they really gone? Was there any way to know? What if they had infiltrated people’s lives so thoroughly that the takeover had gone unnoticed? It filled her with paranoia that she hated feeling, so she did what she best: brushed it aside. Compartmentalized. If she didn’t think about it, then it wasn’t a problem.
Catra and Adora seemed to have moved on from what had happened. They weren’t doling out babysitting duties quite so easily, but she and Adam had taken Finn when they’d gone out on their double-Barbie-date with Leon and Revy. Now that Marlena had returned, it brought this sense of comfort and ease to all of them, too. Teela’s carefully curated, false sense of calm had settled into something a little more genuine with an adult – well, an older, more experienced adult – present in their lives.
Everything felt as normal as could be for Vallo today. Marlena and Adora were out for some mother-daughter bonding, Adam was off with Kate, and Teela was on Darla with Catra and Finn. The sun was shining through the deck windows, and Teela had the infant in her hands, grinning and making zooming sounds as she coasted them gently through the air over her head.
“You’re awfully cute,” she chuckled at her little nibling. They gave her the most adorable baby smile and let out this loud, joyful noise, drool immediately spilling out of their mouth and down the front of the firetruck bib clipped around their neck. “Oh! Well, that’s gross but still pretty cute.” She lowered them back to her lap, lifting the bib to mop up the mess as best as she could.
“Ugh, sorry,” came Catra’s apology as she entered the room, adjusting her shirt straps as she balanced little plastic pouches of milk and a pump that required cleaning – she was tossing that into the sink to disinfect. “That took longer than I expected.” The pumping thing, she meant, which she tried to do often so they’d have something to put in bottles and that way she wasn’t the only one that was capable of feeding Finn.
But the food source still came from her, and it was tedious and exhausting to keep up with sometimes. Having Teela around meant she could do it privately while Finn was entertained, and it gave her the chance for some mindless phone scrolling to rest her brain.
The bags were stuffed into the freezer for later (they had some already thawed out for the day), and now she was able to join Teela, feeling more like a person and less than a cow with cat ears. “What’s pretty cute now?”
Teela flashed Catra an understanding smile, finally coming up with a burp cloth tossed over the arm of the couch and using it to properly wipe down Finn’s mouth. She didn’t mind waiting while Catra pumped. It looked like an arduous process, and it wasn’t something she felt any need to witness. Getting to entertain Finn was a good use of her time, anyway; she liked being Aunt Teela and getting a little one-on-one time. They even seemed to recognize her face now.
“Your child’s pretty cute,” she clarified, turning a freshly wiped-down Finn to face their mommy with a grin. “They got a little excited and drooled all over themself but still. Cute.”
“They are, aren’t they,” Catra mused, softening at the sight of her gremlin. They were a little squirmy, making funny grunts, and their mouth was twitching into smiles more often than not. There was one now as they spotted her – so of course she had to lean over to take them from Teela. Sorry, auntie. “Wondering if that’s just baby or teething. Magicats teeth a little earlier than humans, I think.”
There was something about it when she read up about development and whatnot. Finn was probably just being a drooly baby; they were already out of all their newborn outfits and time needed to stop.
“Thanks for hanging out with us though,” she murmured, peppering kisses into Finn’s ear. “I know it can get kind of boring.”
“It’s not boring,” Teela countered. She didn’t think that for a second. She didn’t lead the life of adventure and battle she had back on Eternia, but she was more than okay with that. She stepped in where she was needed, helped as much as she could, and outside of that, she got to do other things. Read books, watch movies, go to the farmer’s market, make friends with locals, spend time with her family. None of that was boring to her.
“I’m just glad you still want me around,” she admitted. “For a little while, I wondered if you’d ever let me near Finn again after what happened with the shapeshifter.”
Catra blinked owlishly at her. “What? No, that wasn’t your fault. I mean, that whole thing didn’t want us letting Finn be with anyone that wasn’t us for about a week – but that wasn’t specific to you.” She and Adora had been in Vallo for a long time, and that meant they’ve seen some shit. Pocket worlds stuffed in snowglobes, time displacements, waves and waves of monsters. Doppelgangers? That was new.
People’s experience with them varied, and those experiences had been overall unpleasant but theirs added a dash of trauma into the mix. She didn’t care what that woman’s intentions were. And if they crossed paths again, Catra couldn’t promise she wouldn’t let her go unscathed without a wound that would leave a scar.
“The paranoia’s gone, mostly,” she added, lowering herself down onto the floor with all the blankets. There was a water-filled tummy time mat they had gotten recently and she set Finn down on it belly down. “You’re allowed to be around Finn as much as you want, Red. I’m serious.”
Teela hadn’t intended to let that feeling out, but if there was one thing she’d been trying to be better with lately, it was communicating. She didn’t want to let this simmer under the surface, always worrying, always wondering, when she could bring it up and get an answer. In this case, that had worked out well – the reassurance that everything was okay was nice to hear.
“Good. Thank you.” She smiled, relief clear as she tucked a lock of hair back behind her ear. “I know that was scary for you guys, and–” She shrugged. “I’ve been worried. Kidnapping wasn’t supposed to become a trend in this family.”
Granted, this was a much more minor incident than the loss of Adora back when she and Adam were infants, but losing a child? She couldn’t imagine. Just hearing Finn had been sent off with someone who looked just like her had struck a little more fear in her heart than she’d expected.
“We’re hoping by Christmas we can crack a joke or two about it,” Catra snorted, grabbing the scrunchie around her wrist to start tying all that wild hair up. Lately she’d just been doing the bun thing - it kept most of her hair away from projectile baby spit up (or pee), and she let some shorter tufts from the front free to frame her face. “I might want to still track down the lady and kill her by then, so. We’ll see. But Adora and I know that Finn’s safe with you, the real you. Always.”
Like she had told Kara, raising a kid took a whole damn village. Her and Adora had the best one. Between family and close friends that felt like family, they knew that if they needed to, they could leave Finn in someone’s care and they’d be taken care of and protected.
“Finn’s the luckiest baby.” Her hand stroked down their small, narrow back and gently smoothed out their short tail. The little fish cutouts swishing around in the water mat caught their attention and so far made tummy time tolerable. “Hoping it stays that way.”
It was hard as an adult to see people come and go in Vallo. Catra worried about how it’d impact Finn as they grew up, but she tried not to stress about the what ifs. There was a version of her child that somehow remained well-adjusted during a fucking apocalypse – they were tough enough to deal with this place’s natural rhythms.
“I hope so, too,” Teela agreed, sliding off the couch to sit cross-legged on the floor beside Catra and Finn. “I’m planning to stick it out here as long as I can, and Vallo seems to be onboard this time.”
Being gone nearly a full year and turning back up there thinking it was just the next morning was still a bit of cognitive dissonance that screwed with her head, if she was honest. But she’d already stuck around a few months longer than her last go, and she and Adam were making good progress. Slow progress – separate rooms, not a lot of heavy intimacy – but it was something. Slotting right back into the family like she’d never been gone had helped, too.
“How’ve they been doing with lifting up? Big progress?” she asked, turning back to the matter at hand. She knew Finn was so far not a big fan of tummy time, but they seemed to be handling it fine with this new mat.
“Literal ups and downs of their heads,” Catra answered, grinning down at them. Her response was accurate – their head would kind of bob, working on staying up and then laying down. They had a fist in their mouth to drool on. Finn was content, for now. “Hoping Vallo’s onboard with it when it comes to Marlena too, though.”
She liked her mother-in-law. Catra wouldn’t say loved, not yet – she was slow going with that kind of thing and it’s not like Marlena was her long lost mother or anything – but she was easy to be around. She respected boundaries. Catra knew she loved Adora and Adam, and she’d been a good part of Teela’s life. Having her around made Adora happy and they loved the idea of Finn knowing at least one grandparent growing up.
“Vallo’s taken her away two fucking times and has left Adora in a sad-puppy mess,” she groused. “I need this place to keep her here permanently or at least more long-term for her sake.”
“I want that,” Teela agreed, “but I feel a little selfish for wanting it, you know? Her husband is still back home. Can you imagine being without Adora?”
That wasn’t at all saying she was unhappy to have Marlena here. She had always felt close to the queen (and to the king, but it was different with Marlena). She had always looked up to her as a little bit of a mother figure, too, since she didn’t have one. She’d had no idea Teela-Na – the Sorceress, as she’d always known her – was her mother, and Marlena had been the closest female influence she could find.
Happy as she was for Adam and Adora that their mother was here, it felt almost cruel to take her from her husband when they were still trying to work on their relationship after everything that had happened. Back home, she knew it wouldn’t matter; Randor would never know she was gone. Here? Marlena was tough and independent, and Teela had always admired those things about her, but it still had to be hard to be without her person.
Catra shot her a look, burning and agitated, but it lasted for three whole seconds before it all deflated with a sigh.
Yes, she could imagine being without Adora. She had imagined it enough before her pregnancy, too much during her pregnancy, and even moreso now with Finn in the picture – and the amount of times she hurt her own goddamn feelings over a mess of hypotheticals was, honestly, a whole fucking lot. She was thinking about it right now and there was a pang in her chest she hated.
She flopped back onto the floor, head aligned with the little mat Finn was on, and they watched her with a funny attempt of a smile.
“Then Vallo can stop being a dick and bring him in again too,” she said, grumpy but quiet. Her tail slapped the blankets. “I know what you mean. I get it. I just don’t want her heart to break a third time over it.”
Teela hadn’t meant to get Catra in her feelings, and she grimaced a bit in apology. She was sure Catra had imagined that incessantly, especially with the way people came and went around here. A lot of the people Adora and Catra had been close to before Adam and Teela had even come into the picture were gone now. Loss wasn’t a new feeling for her.
“I understand,” she said sincerely. “I don’t want it to either. She deserves to have her mom around. And given what a big baby Adam was when the pollution sickness hit, he might need Marlena around, too.”
Adora deserved to have all of them around, but Catra may also be incredibly biased in regards to a lot of things when it came to her wife. It was what it was. Marlena was a great thing – best to savor the time while they had it.
But speaking of Adam.
“That dude,” she chortled, propping herself up on her elbows to look at Teela, “is the biggest mama’s boy.”
“Oh, he always has been,” Teela confirmed with a smile. “She spoiled him rotten his whole life.” She understood a little more why now that they were older and the truth about the twins had been revealed. And with the Sorceress’ memories, she knew exactly why; she knew how Marlena and Randor had grieved, she knew the desperation with which they’d searched, trying to bring Adora home. It broke her heart to see them hurting so much.
“She’s exactly why he is who he is, though,” she went on. “His compassion is all hers. And that ridiculous penchant for puns.”
Catra’s head tipped back for a scratchy laugh. “Listen, I’m not totally knocking on it–I think it’s cute,” she grinned, a fang poking out. “I hope Finn loves us that much when they’re his age. But I see the resemblance in personalities, and she did good with him. Adora reminds me more of her dad with the discipline thing. She might be all over her mom with her being around more but if it were Randor? She’d be a cliche daddy’s girl, hands down.”
“I believe it,” Teela chuckled. Randor had always come down on Adam for being lazy, and he could be. Adora, though, was anything but lazy, and Teela could easily see her becoming the king’s constant companion. “I trained with him a bit growing up. He’s a good teacher, but the discipline thing is a big part of it. You should see him and my dad spar.”
“The two of them sparring wasn’t much of a priority when he was here,” Catra remembered, thinking about it. Adora had with Randor – a bonding thing, and her wife had raw talent when it came to the blade that Randor commented about proudly. “But it sounds like I’d be witnessing a complex in the making. I can see where he wouldn’t have gone easy on Adam.”
There was a ping in her pocket, and she pulled her phone out to investigate the message that came through. Don’t mind the little scrunch of her face; it was a light, brief pout. “Mother and daughter are gonna be back late,” she mumbled. “Something about a surprise. God, I swear, if it’s another set of matching buttflap pajamas, I will…”
Catra paused. Tried to come up with a threat.
Ultimately failed.
“Do absolutely nothing,” she sighed, defeated. “I’m whipped.”
“Good effort,” Teela teased, shaking her head fondly. “Looks like that just means you’re stuck with me. That sucks.” Her nose scrunched this time and she playfully nudged at Catra’s leg with her foot. “How do you feel about me floating with your child?”
Oof. Good question. Catra had to ponder that for a moment, the grimace she had expressing that she wasn’t totally enthused and she was already conjuring up about, say – fifty different scenarios of how it could go wrong. Her brain got uncomfortably creative.
“Try a few inches off the ground to start with,” Catra decided. “And I’ll hold my hands out to catch them just in case.”
It would be fine. Totally fine. She trusted Teela, yes, definitely – but being extra careful didn’t hurt anyone.