Chapter Text
Every now and then, she had nightmares about that day two years ago, about Zackary Prime pulling that single-shot nine millimeter pistol and aiming squarely at Catra’s unprotected body; about not getting there fast enough and watching her world crumple on the floor as chaos erupts in that courtroom around them. When she wakes up to Catra holding her sweaty body, unharmed and sleeping undisturbed, like a log, she calms down. They were safe now. She was safe now.
It took some months for things to settle down after the success of the trial, and another few just to get used to the quietness of the aftermath. Catra took time off work—which, thankfully, she could afford to do—to figure out what her next pursuit would be. Adora would never get tired of how her mind worked, how she always sought to create something, to infuse things with the same flair of her personality. The project she set her heart on was no exception.
When the jewelry Stace left to Catra was finally released from police custody as evidence in the case, Stace’s husband, Trevor, tried to reclaim all of her assets. They were able to get a good personal lawyer who made a strong case in Catra’s favor. All of the contents of that safety deposit box was given to her. Trevor was so angered that he followed them into the parking lot, berating them. Just as Adora was about to turn and knock his lights out, Catra dealt several blows that laid him low herself. He seemed genuinely afraid as she gave him what Adora thought must have been a speech she rehearsed a million times. They never heard from him again.
Catra used the money from selling most of the jewelry to buy an old abandoned convenience store from the county in one of the oldest parts of town near where she’d grown up. They spent fourteen grueling months completely gutting the building, renovating, and re-designing it. Before, it was a sad and dilapidated shoe-box of a place, with chipped paint that had been graffitied over too many times and dark, boarded windows. Now it possessed life. The outside featured mural work from some well-liked street artists Catra was able to track down; it was full of vibrant colors, young faces representing different backgrounds, and a cityscape view. People often took photos in front of it.
Walking in from the street was the bar, stocked with any and all manner of hard liquor. On the walls hung photos of dancers and classic Hollywood stars, performers—beautiful people. Towards the back there was a stage where they would host burlesque shows every Wednesday, open mic nights on Thursday, local DJ’s on Fridays, comedians on Saturdays, and jazz on Sunday. Through double doors was the dance studio, walled with ceiling-to-floor mirrors. During the day Catra held classes or private dance lessons, and at 11:00pm, it doubled as a dance floor for the bar. Outside hung a neon sign that said “Stace’s Place” from noon to two in the morning.
It was a raging success—one of the first buildings to be praised for ‘bringing young people back’ to this part of the city, and for renewing nightlife. It was the most popular club in a 10 mile radius, and it brought Catra more joy than anything Adora could have imagined. The classes she taught were so full that some people had to practice just outside the doors on summer days. So many of them were kids, ten to sixteen year-olds from neighborhoods where Catra grew up. You could see in their eyes, the way they lit up, how confidently they moved, that this gave them freedom in a way that nothing else could, the same way it did for her all those years ago.
It brought Adora to tears sometimes to see them with her, the way they looked up to her, the way she counselled them, touched their lives. It felt like some of them were almost close enough to be their own children; sometimes they would come and stay with Adora and Catra when they needed to get out of their house. Or sometimes Catra would pack them lunches to take to school if she felt they didn’t have any. Adora occasionally acted as a ‘tutor’ for some of them with homework. This was their home.
Even though Adora still had next to no rhythm—something ALL of Catra’s students now knew—she still very much enjoyed being at the studio, watching. This day was only different because of her nerves. She was quieter and did less cheering, just admiring off to the side imagining the rest of the night over, and over again. She found herself distracted easily, worrying about small things like a stray dust bunny in the corner to avoid the unthinkable question: ‘what if she says no?’. She won’t. Adora knows she won’t, partially because Catra’s been dropping hints for months, which apparently weren’t so much hints as they were outright conversations involving any and all words other than “I’m” and “ready”.
The weight of the ring in her pocket was light —far, far too light—considering how expensive it was. She’d thought about how to do this exactly 215 times, and now she just had to ask the question. It took months to feel like the ring was right, even though it had a simple enough design—Catra liked the finer things to be simple. So the band was plain white gold, topped with a row of marquise and round-cut moissanite stones. She knew Catra didn’t much care for diamonds on principle, even though she admired the sparkle. When the jeweler had first given it to Adora after it was finished, she took it back to her car and stared for what must have been a whole half hour. God, it was so sparkly.
Then the anxiety kicked in. What if she dropped it? What if it falls out when she’s moving around and she loses it? What if she gives it away too soon? She had a plan, and she had every intention of sticking to it, but all of the articles and blogs she read made it clear to ‘go with the flow’ —something she inherently had issues with. She needed this to be perfect for Catra, the woman of her dreams who sometimes still didn’t feel real, who managed to save Adora from herself more times than she could count, who could have the world at her feet with a single playful smile.
They should have a proposal that was fitting for them as a couple, so tonight Adora was going to give Catra a dose of her own medicine. She would goad her into asking for what she really wanted. She would FINALLY have to say, out loud, that she wanted to get married.
The blonde watched as her girlfriend paced back and forth in front of the room, practically yelling over the music and the hollers. Her shirt was darkened with sweat, clinging to a lithe, fit body underneath. With everyone dancing, spread out about the studio, it looked a bit like chaos —some of the younger kids off-beat and less confident. Catra always did well in chaos. She moved through it like water, naturally. “Again! This is the last time for today, we’re gonna do it all together, yeah? Take a minute before we go back to the top.”
Their eyes meet and Catra smiles and mouths ‘almost done’. Adora has to resist the urge to grip the ring in her pocket again. Almost time.
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Catra was ready to ring her neck by dessert, which was absolutely lovely, but still. Here she was, in a dress that could wake the dead, sitting across the table from the love of her life, just WAITING for Adora to pop the question —which she’d been doing for actual MONTHS. She’d dropped so many hints and they’d had so many conversations about it, about having kids and finding ‘their dream home’. It had to be tonight, all the cues were there!
Adora said it was going to be a ‘special night’, and they got reservations at this boujee-ass steakhouse, their own private table on the balcony with a decent view of the city. Adora ordered the food for Catra, which she’s never done in their whole entire lives together, and gets her this oddly specific Shiraz-Grenache blend that she seemed weirdly excited about. Since when did Adora give a shit about wines? And she was being uncomfortably cryptic with the waiter, which was weird. So Catra’s thinking the ring’s in the wine, right? Like at the bottom of the glass. Catra has said, verbatim, that she wouldn’t hate a proposal like that.
So she was all excited, heart pounding outside of her chest for twenty minutes while Adora watched her eat like a hawk. But no. She was so careful as she got down to the bottom of her glass, only to find that it was ringless. Then Adora took her hand and started getting all mushy, talking about how much she loved her, all the feelings, and then she got down on one knee... TO TIE HER SHOE. To tie her fucking shoe. The brunette couldn’t help but laugh, despite the inner let-down. Only Adora, with her big, loving, innocent eyes, could be so clueless and confused in that moment as to what was going through Catra’s mind. Her eyebrow furrowed with concern and Catra had to just smile and say ‘I’ll tell you later’.
They sat and talked and laughed in the romantic candlelit ambiance for almost a full hour after finishing their meal. Between work, spending more time with a couple kids from the studio, and running the bar, she’d been feeling like they hadn’t had enough quality alone time lately. Regardless of what happened tonight, just being out with Adora like this and being able to give each other full attention was really, really nice. She looked forward to the end of summer when things would quiet down just a little bit. Plus they were hiring a manager to officially run Stace’s, and that would take a huge load off Catra's plate. Then maybe they could have more nights like this one.
When they got back to the car, they drove in silence with the windows down. The air was crisp and the sky was clear tonight. Catra caught herself almost humming contentedly along to the sound of the engine as they went. When Adora missed their usual turn, she asked “Where are we going?”
Adora’s fingers gently squeezed her thigh through the dress. “You’ll see.”
As Catra looked out the window, she watched the trees along the road swallow the dark sky the further they got. With each winding turn of the pavement, she became more certain of where they were headed. The trees became thinner towards the top of the hill and the cityscape skyline came into view, all different colors of lights reflecting off high-rise windows. Catra smiled as they pulled off the road at their lookout spot. They hadn’t been back here in almost a year. The blackberry bushes seemed overgrown, but that also meant more privacy—something they would have given anything for as teenagers.
Catra glanced over at the blonde as she turned the car off and knew without a doubt that Adora was, in fact, going to propose tonight. Adora’s smiling face was utterly transparent, but surely she knew that because she wasn’t trying to mask it either, which was refreshing. Catra smiled back, ordering the emotion she read reflecting back at her.
1. ‘I love you so much’
2. Content
3. Excited
4. Nervous
Adora gave a slight nod. “Let’s get out.”
Catra got herself unbuckled and checked that the top of the dress still looked good before opening the door to find Adora standing there holding a blanket for them to sit on, looking quite eager. “A blanket? Careful Adora. A girl might think you’re just looking for a hookup.” Even now, after years of teasing, such a comment still brought a light dusting of pink to those perfect cheeks.
“That dress is beautiful, I don’t want it to get dirty.” Always the gentleman. Some things never change.
Catra smiled. “You’ve only said that ten times tonight.” She takes Adora’s hand and walks —carefully, in her heels—to the clearing. “If you think you like the dress, you should see what’s underneath.”
“Oh, I plan to.”
They stepped over a particularly muddy spot on the ground and Catra inhaled the familiar scent of wet earth after a good rain. Of course Adora would bring a blanket. “Wow, so confident.” Now they stood in front of the most beautiful view of the city, their view, and all Catra could look at was Adora.
“You know you can’t resist me.” The blonde wiggled her eyebrows. Doofus.
Catra brought her hands to either side of Adora’s face and smiled up at her, giving a fake, long sigh. “You’re right. For whatever reason I can’t say no. And I’d say at least take me to dinner first, but you already did that...so…” She swam in Adora’s eyes for a moment, coming back only to breathe again. “I’m all yours, Adora.” There’s no harm in a little set-up if Adora was nervous about the proposal.
Catra let her hands fall to Adora’s neck to pull herself in, who seemed just as eager for the kiss. It never got old. She got to do this every day and she would never grow tired of kissing this woman, feeling those hands roam around her waist and hold her close. But Adora was the one to break away this time, somewhat awkwardly clearing her throat, looking even more nervous somehow.“Uh, blanket.” The word was halfway between a statement and a question. Catra’s heart began to beat a little bit quicker again, so sure that this was it. She was so ready. SO ready for this. Adora could give her a twig, or a wet blade of grass and she’d be overjoyed. Hell, she was overjoyed just thinking about saying the word “yes”.
Feeling giddy and wanting nothing more than to crawl into Adora’s lap and kiss her again, she lowered herself onto the blanket. “Catra…” Adora sounded unsteady. “I have a question, and I really want you to think about it before you answer.” Ba-dup. Catra held her breath and she bit her tongue to stop from yelling the word that’s been bouncing around in her head all night. Adora took a deep, slow breath in, and she couldn’t fight the smile from spreading across her face. This is it.
“When we paint the bathroom, what color do you want the accent wall to be?”
Several moments went by where they just stared at each other before Catra determined that she’d heard correctly. Her heart dropped, but she laughed.
“THAT is your big important question that you had to ask right now?”
Adora seemed confused.“Yeah?”
“You brought me out here to talk about the house renovations?”
She shrugged defensively. “No, but I was thinking about it and I needed to know. I’m worried you won’t like the same color as me.’
“Hmm. “As she turned to look out at the city, Catra’s feelings were somewhere between frustration and bemusement, but she couldn’t tell which was winning out. Frustration, for sure. Or, rather, worry. What if she read all of this wrong? What if Adora wasn’t actually ready yet? She’s been sounding ready.
“Why, what did you think I was going to ask you?”
“HA! C’mon Adora, even you’re not THAT oblivious..”
She gave a small shrug, her face looking apologetic. “Well, maybe I am. So spell it out for me.”
Catra sighs, feeling a tiny bit guilty, like she’s ruining what might otherwise be a completely normal conversation. Catra feels bad for misinterpreting what has apparently just been Adora’s totally innocent date-night intentions, full of more unconditional love thank Catra deserves, spoiling her in the way that she lives for. “We get all dressed up to go out for a really nice dinner where you were being kind of weird. And you’re all lovey with me and we talk about having babies and then we come out here, somewhere that’s really sentimental to us both and our relationship, and it’s beautiful out and you brought a blanket...and then you tell me you have ‘an important question’.”
“Okay?…” Adora really doesn’t get it…Catra raises her eyebrows.
“Adora, look at this!” She gestures to the view. “Look at us!”
“Catra, I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve BEEN looking at you. All night.” God, Catra wants to shake her and ride her stupid, beautiful face. So hot. So, so hot, but so dumb. And all hers.
“EXACTLY!”
“So? I’ve been looking at you practically every day since I was ten. And I intend to continue that trend for the rest of our lives.”
UGH! “That! Right there. See? How does that NOT scream, ‘Marry me’?”
Adora rocks back. “OHhhhhh. You thought I was going to ask you to marry me?” Catra covers her face with her hands for just a moment.
“How could I not?”
“Do you want me to ask you to marry me?” She looks up to find Adora’s attempt to stifle herself —the corner of her mouth just barely curled, which almost immediately spreads into an infectious smile.
“Of COURSE I do.” As soon as she says the words, she recognizes the mischievous smugness in that lovable face. Catra understood —Adora had planned all of this. She continued on anyways, eyes stinging a bit, heart back up in her chest again, beating wildly. “What I want most in this world is for you to ask me to marry you, to be your wife.”
Adora shrugs. “Okay.” And smiles like she’s won the lottery.
Catra pounces on her lap, not caring if she ruins her dress, a single tear already spilling out. “You’re such an idiot.”
“Yes but I’m your idiot, and I’m glad we’re officially on the same page...” The blonde shifts underneath her as she reaches to pull a small black box out of her pocket. “Because you know how I am with gifts.” It was true. Adora was a compulsory gift giver. She couldn’t hold onto a present to save her life. One year, Catra received six Christmas presents between August and November. “So keeping this from you has killed me every day for the last two mo-”
Catra kissed her to stop her wonderful rambling, and to prevent a happy sob from tearing from her own throat. Arms around her neck, she kissed her, and laughed, and whispered a choked ‘yes’ against Adora’s lips. Well, her teeth really —she was smiling too hard for there to be much lip involved. “Catra—” She tried to talk between the kisses and shared tears of joy. “Catra, wait —at least, let me— ask.”
“Yes—” She couldn’t stop. If she stopped kissing Adora she was just going to cry.
“Catraaaa.”
Breathlessly, she pulled away to rest their heads together. They both sniffled and after a moment Catra opened her eyes to find Adora’s sparkling back at her, pleadingly. She checked herself—she did just make a big stink about Adora not properly asking. “Sorry. I’m sorry.” Adora gave a nod and cleared her throat. “Go ahead.” Catra pulled herself a respectable distance away to just straddle Adora’s lap so she could see her face, now wet but so, so happy.
“Catra,” The brunette heard her try to swallow the lump in her throat. “I love you more than anything in the world,” She drew in a heavy breath. “...through the good days and the hard days. And, I say hard because the only bad days are the ones I’ve had to spend without you.” Catra bites her lip again to keep from exploding. “And I always want you by my side. You make me a better person and I want to spend every day showing that to you.” GOD, Adora please just ask me!
“So...I’m asking you now to officially take your rightful place in our family as my partner. Will you marry me, Catra?”
She pounces again, drawing an ‘oof’ and a gust of air from Adora. “YES. Yes! Yes, I will.”
“Catra! You didn’t even look at the ring!”
She pulls back, shaking her head. The tears keep coming just as fast as she wipes them. God she’s bad at this. “Sorry! I know. I’m just—” She sees it. “Oh my god.”
The unsuspecting little black box is holding a ring sparkling an abnormal amount considering it’s lit only by the light of the moon and the city. She looks back at Adora, who now appears unsure, just waiting for a response. She looks back and forth between her fucking FIANCE and the one ring to rule them all. “Adora, oh my god —it’s beautiful!” The design was simple, but bold and unique.
Adora cracked another huge smile. “Do you wanna try it on, or—”
“Yes! Of course I do.”
She manages to force herself to sit back again —admittedly a bit less comfortably than the first time—as Adora all too carefully pulls the ring from its box and slips it over her finger. It’s a perfect fit.
This time when she tackles Adora, she lets herself be taken down to the blanket and Catra finally gets to just enjoy kissing her. “I love you.”
“I love you so much.”
Catra squeezes her fingers together over the ring to test how it feels. It’s significantly more comfortable than she would have guessed. She’s so full of raw emotion she could burst. Despite the cold air on her back, she feels like she’s melting into Adora beneath her. As lips move toward the hollow below her jaw, she wonders how fast Adora can get her out of this dress. Then, suddenly, the hands around her waist seize and the blonde stiffens.
“Bwah—wait! The photographer!”
Catra pulls back. “The what?”
Adora’s eyes are huge and she looks scandalized. “I may or may not have hired a photographer to capture, uh, ‘the moment’”
Catra cocks and eyebrow and moves her hips in a circle. “What, you don’t wanna give them a show?”
Adora flushes in the moonlight and she’s easily the most beautiful thing Catra’s ever seen—still. Always. “Catraaa. We want family friendly engagement photos that we can show to people!”
She rolls her eyes. “Okay, okay. Fine. But the second we get home, the clothes are coming OFF.”
“Deal. They should be coming over here soon to take some more photos, so we should probably...you know...get up.”
As they stand, an explosion makes both of them jump back. No, not one, many —almost simultaneous pops and cracks and sizzles light up the sky in front of them. “ He told me he couldn’t get the permit for the fireworks!”
Catra held onto Adora as she laughed. “You got Seahawk to light fireworks for us?”
She didn’t need Adora to answer. She could tell by the way they looked utterly uncontrolled that the answer was yes. They were beautiful anyways. So they held each other and kissed under the stars and the wild patterns of colors flashing in the sky that almost matched the ones Catra felt.
And the photos turned out perfect, and everyone loved them.