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"Your fluffs are growing back," Adora murmurs observantly.
She edges over to Catra's back and lovingly traces her fingers through her luxurious mane of hair.
"Hmm, you've noticed?" Catra teases with a smile.
She's finishing folding their clean laundry which she doesn't wash but loves to fold because that allows her to maybe roll around on top of it a bit first.
She's been letting her hair grow back, gathering it into a ponytail for the sake of practicality, and it's almost gotten to its old length when it's down. The fluffs under her ears which Adora is so endearingly swooning over now, those she kept cutting until recently however.
"I always liked them," Adora says, snuggling against her and burying her nose into the soft fluffiness, inhaling the scent that's so uniquely Catra. And sometimes their clean laundry.
"That's the reason I'm letting them grow back." Catra smiles.
She closes the cupboard and turns, giving Adora her full attention.
Adora gently strokes the short floofs, cupping Catra's furry cheek, her eyes full of love and adoration.
Catra leans into her touch, wanting to purr and scent mark her palm, but suddenly shivers and pulls back, breaking their contact and trying to hide her dismay.
"Hey... Is everything okay?" Adora reaches for her.
"Ugh, yeah... It's nothing."
"It didn't look like nothing. What's wrong?"
Adora looks at her with big blue worried eyes, always quick to feel responsible for anything bad that happens to everyone else.
Catra sighs and sits on the bed. "It's not you. Ugh, it's just stupid."
Adora sits next to her and rubs her shoulder comfortingly.
"It just... Last time someone did this, bad things happened afterwards. I thought I was ready to grow them back, but apparently not."
Adora realizes what she's talking about. Stroking Catra's fluffs - not many candidates for that, certainly not Scorpia with her pincers. So it has to be Shadow Weaver who must've done this to gain her trust, to manipulate her into letting her guard down before she escaped and left her. And the bad thing has to be the Portal.
Adora tries not to grit her teeth. All the mixed feelings that they still have for that woman even after everything she did, even in the end... Then something like this surfaces and it's just... URGH! She's certainly not feeling about this now the way Perfuma says she should be feeling, all that 'lets smell some flowers and meditate'...
She takes a deep steadying breath, and wraps Catra in her arms, feeling like she needs to hug her to bits and make sure nothing bad happens to her forever. Catra leans into her embrace, resting her chin on her shoulder, and gives her a reassuring purr.
"What if nothing bad will happen?" Adora perks up with an idea.
"Huh?" Catra pulls back to look at her.
"I mean, nothing bad will happen after this now, so it's going to be like making it into a good thing, not a thing after which something bad happened. Making it a new thing."
"Right..." Catra smiles fondly, and a little bittersweet. "So how are we going to make it feel like a good thing?"
Adora turns some gears over in her head. "What if something good happens right afterwards?"
"Like what?"
"Like this."
Adora cups her cheek gently, caresses her fluff tuff, and then leans in, planting a kiss on her lips.
Catra hums in a jolt of pleased surprise and melts against her. Her hands latch around Adora's back, pulling her close as their kiss deepens.
"How's this?" Adora murmurs.
Catra presses her forehead to hers. "Yeah, that does... make it feel like a good thing."
"I'm glad." Adora smiles.
She pulls away after a moment, looking like she's thinking about something and biting on her lower lip, unsure.
Catra gives her a questioning look.
"Can you do me too?" Adora says hesitantly and runs her fingers over a loose strand of hair on her own temple.
Catra remembers this. Shadow Weaver's bony fingers fixing a strand of lose hair behind Adora's ear, while she tells Adora to do a better job of keeping her under control. Herself being paralyzed with the woman's magic and her own fear, feeling her own worthlessness...
The fact that Adora feels this way about how Shadow Weaver treated her, that even after all these years it bothers her enough to remember it every time someone touches her hair that particular way... Catra feels a swell in her chest as her heart grows several times, same as always when she feels that Adora cares. Same as when Adora risked everything - not for Glimmer, not for Rebellion or any of her other friends, but only for her when she came to save her from Horde Prime.
She would do everything in her power to make this better for her.
"Okay," she says.
She locks her eyes with Adora's and softly runs her fingers over her hair strand, fixing it behind her ear gently. Then starts planting moist kisses on her brows, her nose, her lips.
"You're a good girl Adora, and you don't need to prove it to anyone. And I know how much you care about what happens to me and how much you love me."
She pulls Adora to herself and feels her shiver, her breathing hitch.
"Wow..." Adora murmurs, her voice sounding wet and shaky.
She edges back a little and looks at Catra, her eyes gleaming with emotion.
"You know... Maybe we should just keep going and try this with other things we might have, because I think we're onto something."
"Hmm... Are you sure?"
"Yeah... I mean if we're both up for it, we don't have to push."
Catra nods, mulling it over.
"Alright."
She pauses, thinking, then turns and pulls her hair to the side, exposing the back of her neck for her.
Adora gets it without words. She leans in and gently presses her lips to the small scar that was left after the chip. Catra tenses a little but allows herself to lean back against her, letting Adora's continuous soft kisses sooth her. Adora's hand surprises her when it slides up and cups her breast, but it's a pleasant surprise, and after a while she can no longer really think about why she got the scar, only about Adora's lips there and the warmth spreading through her body from the wicked things Adora's fingers are doing to her nipples. She purrs.
"What else have we got?" Adora murmurs against her cheek.
And that's how they've... eventually found themselves in the shower. With both of them naked and Adora embracing her from behind, gently guiding her towards the falling stream of water.
It's not so much the water itself - Catra had to resort to using it to maintain proper hygiene and grooming, even though that activity hasn't been particularly fun after the Horde Prime's ship. It's being submerged in it, even partially, that she could definitely live without. But they've set themselves on making things into better things, and they might just as well do this.
"Ready?" Adora asks against her cheek.
"Yeah. It's just... meh. But lets do this."
Adora nods and maneuvers them around, so she would step into the stream first.
"I'll be with you the whole time," she says and kisses the base of her ear, resting her hands on Catra's hips so she wouldn't feel trapped.
Catra nods.
Adora steps backwards, water flattening her hair, and starts caressing Catra's sides. She gathers enough water in her palms to wet the ends of Catra's hair, her shoulders. Then guides Catra until her back is against her.
Catra feels her fur bristle a little from the rivulets of water reaching her. She leans against Adora, concentrating on the pleasantness of the contact with her body and trying not to think about the green glowing fluid, about the pain of the current stripping off what made her her, about being drowned in it in more ways than one.
It's impossible not to. But now Adora is there too. The warmth of her body against hers, her gentle hands, her lips on her neck. The way Adora's damp, hot center is pressing against the root of her tail.
"Don't stop..." Catra coils her tail around Adora's thigh, bumping its base up against her wet curls.
Adora gasps, pushing herself against her involuntary. Her hands cup Catra's breasts, kneading, pulling. One slides down her stomach and finds its way between her legs, fingers roaming through her fur, testing, exploring, and finding just what Catra needs.
Her uneasiness mixes with pleasure as Adora caresses her, loves her, pulling her further into the stressing stream as she brings her higher, her fingers pulling on her nipples and sliding in and out of her, matching the wetness that engulfs her with the one between her legs, building her up towards a cathartic release.
Catra gasps and arches against her, surrendering to the stream of water consuming her and to the wave of pleasure exploding inside her. She shudders, mewling, holding onto Adora's hands, on Adora's legs with her tail, while Adora holds onto her, her fingers never stopping, until Catra starts to go limp, sinking into Adora's supportive embrace, the last of her shudders subsiding.
Adora gently maneuvers them to a drier spot to let her regain her footing, planting small kisses on her damp cheek.
Catra unsteadily turns in her arms and looks at her.
Adora is flushed, wet, wearing nothing but a hopeful but also slightly worried expression, an unspoken question in her eyes.
"It has improved," Catra says, shakily but pleased.
Adora snorts involuntary, knowing her well enough to tell when she's teasing.
"Did it now?"
Her concern evaporates into a grin which she replaces with an expression so smug that Catra totally would've been tempted to wipe off her face if she didn't love her so damn much. So she kisses it off her face instead. Thoroughly kisses it off.
"It was..." she murmurs more seriously when they break, "Not like all good, but also... really good? Does this make sense?"
She gives Adora another, slow and gentle kiss to convey how much she appreciates her doing this for her and Adora squeezes her in her arms, this is what she was hoping for and it does make sense for her.
When they finally break Catra gives her a pointedly calculating look.
"It's probably going to take a few more sessions though, to secure the results."
"Oh?" There's an almost visible light bulb lights up above Adora's head.
Catra smirks, showing a fang.
"Yeah. I think we should start one right now."
She rests her hands on Adora's hips and lowers to her knees in front of her, locking her differently colored eyes with hers. Adora brushes her damp hair from her face with shaking hands and Catra slowly pulls her towards herself.