Team Catradora

30 -Woods

Adora grabbed a fistful of snow, and chucked it at Catra. 

It whacked her stomach. "Ah!" She bent over and clutched her abdomen. 

Adora put her hands on her hips. "Seriously?"

"I'm not faking."

"Sure." She threw another snowball, and Catra ducked, running. Her hadns were off her stomach, her fist in the air. 

"Fine! You got me!" She waved, and quickly ducked behind a tree. Iciles smacked the floor, chiming as they shattered against the ground. Adora was about to throw another one when Catra ducked, running off. 

"Coward!" Adora sighed before following. Before she started running, she could feel the two large wet stains on her pants, from earlier today. But now, they were about as noticable as background music during a game of laser tag. 

Vaguely, in the distance, there was running. Or maybe it was the sound of her own footsteps. It was hard to tell. Catra was nowhere to be seen, but she wouldn't dare stray off the path, right? That was a surefire way to get lost. 

Unless that was part of her game strategy...

Adora tripped, knees knocking into wood. "Ugh!" What did she just trip over?

Ohhh.

A ginormous tree lay in the middle of the road. Roots extended outward, disconnected from the ground. It sunk into the snow, like a moving boat would in the water. A large break was in the centre of the trunk, a shoe shaped hole from where Adora had falled. 

She was off the path now, since it veered to move away from the tree. Adora was about to head back, when she noticed a trail of footprints up ahead. 

There was only one way to find out if that was Catra's. 

As Adora followed, she was careful not to lose the path-she'd never find her way back without it. That meant slowing down, her long strides reduced to a jog.

She veered off to a cluster of trees. There was so many, and their branches whacked her in the face. Right now, their black, sinewy branches were dark and meacing, especialy with all that ice. She hated to admit it. Maybe Catra was right; this wasn't the place for a princess-

Adora tripped (again!), landing on her knees. In her attempt to land on her hands, she grasped a fistful of snow and dirt, and it was beginning to soak through her gloves. Adrenaline wore off, and suddenly, she was very aware of how tired she was. She panted, and her head was lighter. She closed her eyes. What the hell was she thinking?

This was so stupid. She should have called Catra when she saw the footsteps. But instead, she had to go follow her so she'd have a better chance at winning. Now, she was not only tired, but also lost and alone.

She had to stop thinking so competitively, and just find Catra and go home. She rubbed her temples. Everything was fine-she was just out of breath. In a minute, she could continue her search. And she could always call Catra if something bad happened.

There was something shiny in the snow.

She strode over, kicking it. It was a sword.

A plastic sword. But still. A sword! It was perfect, small and compact enough to fit in a backpack or bag, and light enough so she wouldn't have extra weight while swinging around. That was surprising, considering how broad the blade was. It was as wide as the palm of her hand, with a few dents in it-probably from being abandoned here, in the snow. The handle, too, was plastic, but she could fit her whole hand through it. Just holding it made her feel like a warrior. 

She swung it a few times, just to get a feel. It made a whooshing sound-she laughed at that, and raised it over her head. She closed her eyes, and could almost feel like a princess. If she were a kid, she'd probably spend hours here, practicing her battle moves as She-Ra. And then go "ride" her imaginary dragon.

It fit in her hands perfectly, and sliced at the air fast and stiff. No wonder Bow always played with his archery tools like they were real-in this moment, she could understand. 

"Woosh! Woosh!" She swung at imaginary fire balls. "On guard! For the honour of grayskull, I will defend Brightmoon-"

Thunk.

Snow exploded on her stomach, and Adora landed, knees against the snow. She waved her sword angrily at her. "Hey!"

Catra gestured to the sword. "What have you got there?"

Adora raised her sword over her head, and Catra laughed. She grabbed a snowball, flinging it at her, and Adora batted it away. Catra threw them about five times before she quit, pointing towards the sword. "I don't even know how we got to this point. This is so childish."

"But fun. Now you need a matching one so we can spar."

"Uh." She raised an eyebrow. "Not that I'm complaining, but I'm pretty sure that sword isn't real."

"Yeah," Adora said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "What else would we use? Metal swords?"

"Yeah..." She shook her head. "Oh, whatever. Come on, let's go before it gets dark. I'm freezing out here."

After about half an hour of searching for a way out, Catra drove her home, parking the vehicle across the street, instead of right against the sidewalk. She turned off the ignition, shoving the keys into her pocket. 

Adora startled. She had been staring at her sword, so it wasn't until they parked that she realized they were in a different spot than usual. "What are you-"

"I talked to her that day Glimmer ditched." Catra shrugged, looking at the house with big eyes. She blinked, fist tightening around her clanging keys. "I think I'm ready to meet her."

Wait, really? Adora waited for Catra to make a joke about it, or to back out and say she wasn't ready. This was too good to be true. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah..." there was an edge to her voice. "Unless you don't want to-you know what? This was stupid. I'll get my keys and-"

"No, don't." Adora grasped the keys, free hand landing on hers. She gave a squeeze. "She's gonna love you!"

Catra snorted, but hey, she opened the door. Cool air breezed past them, right onto Adora's wet pants. She really needed to trade clothes.

Catra was slower to walk to the door-it was almost disorienting how she kept her head planted at the ground. She shrugged off Adora's attempt at hand holding, but stayed close to her. Her hand was on her stomach. They were on the front lawn when Adora raised her arm, blocking Catra's path. "You seem nervous. I don't want to push you-"

"If I don't do this now, I never will." She gulped and glanced at the house again, fiddling with her hair. "I want to do this. She was nice enough on the phone." After a pause, she added, "and I need to borrow dry clothes, anyway."

Her heart warmed. "Aw..." Adora rested her hand on her chest. "You're trying."

Catra looked away, and Adora could swear she saw her cheeks pinken. It was so cute! 

They made it to the door. Adora waited for her nod before opening it. 

Catra was meeting her mom!