To The Stars and Back

Episode 2

The night was thick with the uninterrupted silence of the city, broken only by the incessant snoring that bellowed from the apartment next door. Adora was the source, sprawled haphazardly across her mattress like a starfish cast onto shore. Each loud snore echoed through the thin walls, a testament to her deep slumber. On her face, a blindfold clung to her eyes. Her blanket, unable to contain her restless movements throughout the night, had been discarded to one side of the bed, lying crumpled and forgotten.

In the neighboring apartment, Catra lay wide-eyed in the darkness, the tranquility of her night shattered. She lay on her back, gripping a pillow to her ears in a futile attempt to drown out the cacophony. With every snore that pierced through the walls, her frustration grew. "You've gotta be kidding me," she thought despairingly, as she shifted uncomfortably on her mattress.

The clock on her bedside table ticked quietly, its sound utterly overwhelmed by Adora's snores. It was as if time itself was mocking her sleeplessness. "Is she seriously gonna do this all night?" Catra wondered, irritation mounting with each passing minute.

Finally, reaching her limit, Catra thought, "I can't take it anymore!" Her eyes caught sight of a baseball lying neglected on the floor beside her bed. In a moment of exasperation, she snatched it up. Her arm reared back and then snapped forward, sending the ball hurtling towards the wall they shared. The impact was tremendous; the baseball smashed through the plaster, leaving a ragged hole in its wake.

The abrupt noise and the invasion of her space jolted Adora awake. The snoring ceased immediately as she sat up abruptly, confusion written all over her face. She lifted the blindfold to her forehead, her eyes wide and searching. Her gaze landed on the new architectural feature in her room — a hole in the wall, courtesy of her neighbor. Curiosity piqued, she bent down and peered through the hole. Her lips curled into a smile at the absurdity of the situation.

"Oh he—"

But before she could finish, Catra, realizing the potential for an awkward confrontation, had quickly shoved a box in front of the hole. The box, adorned with a simple cat sticker, now stood as a makeshift barrier between them, a silent sentinel guarding their privacy.

With the silence now restored, save for the soft ticking of the clock that could finally be heard, Catra returned to her bed. The exhaustion of the night's events finally catching up to her, she lay her head down, a sense of relief washing over her as the absence of snores allowed her to drift towards sleep.

Adora, still perched on her bed with legs crossed, stared momentarily at the sticker-adorned box. The interruption had wiped away her sleep, leaving her with a mix of confusion and curiosity about what just happened. Eventually, she lay back down, her mind abuzz with questions, but the fatigue from the sudden awakening slowly pulled her back into the arms of sleep.