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Up at the roof of the water tower, Catra looked at the sunset, waiting for Adora to come back. Last time she saw her, she was having a walk with Shadow Weaver.
According to Adora, Shadow Weaver asked about her progress, gave her advice on training and challenged her with riddles about what to do in certain situations, like what she would do if she discovered a spy among cadets or how to survive with a broken leg.
Shadow Weaver never asked about Catra's training, except to scold her, neither gave her any kind of advice. But Catra knew better than to try to spy on them. She was not interested in Shadow Weaver's nonsense, anyway.
The cat girl breathed in. It was Thursday. Good things happened on Thursdays. Like having grey bars for dinner. Catra knew it was a stupid idea, but sometimes she thought 'Tomorrow is Thursday' and she felt a little better.
She heard the sound of laughter in the distance. Catra leaned out and saw younger cadets playing before dinner-time. They were whispering and then exploded in laugher again. She pricked out her ears.
Oh. She should have imagined, really. She had overheard hundreds of conversations like that when she was younger.
It awakened some memories.
They were six years old and it was Adora's idea, probably. It was around that age when they started to hear stories about soldiers and cadets kissing and touching. According to the rumors, apparently everyone did that kind of things even if they were forbidden. They even existed kissing challenges between cadets.
This happened before they started formal training, because Catra remembered Adora and her spent most of their time just the two of them and they didn't know Rogelio, Kyle and Lonnie yet. Maybe from afar, but around that time they still slept in a room next to Shadow Weaver's quarters.
"Where should we go? The water tower?", suggested Catra.
"No, we should look for a place where they don't see us, just in case", replied her best friend, thinking hard. Soldiers hid too, but they were caught and punished, so they had to be very careful.
They opted for one of the warehouses of old, broken weapons that the Horde saved in case they needed to recycle them. There was the risk of someone barging in, but if they hid behind some boxes, it could buy them some time to run away, or pretend they were just playing.
Not kissing.
They promised not to tell anyone, ever. Catra swore on her tail; Adora, on her hair. That convinced Catra her best friend was serious - weeks before she had a nightmare about going bald, and it terrified her.
They sat facing each other, like when they played to see who could keep their eyes open longer without blinking (Catra almost always won). This time, they had agreed to close them, like you were supposed to do when you kissed someone. The cat girl didn't remember why they knew that detail -they just did.
"At the count of ten?", said Adora.
"Ok".
Catra felt Adora's breath on her face and then they pressed their lips together for ten seconds or so. The cat girl remembered Adora's lips were dry, probably like her own, and twitched a little at the touch, but she kept kissing her.
"So... what do you think?", asked Catra after they separated their lips.
"Uh... I don't get it", answered Adora, cocking her head to the side.
So this was why every soldier risked to go to prison for some nights?
"Me neither. Wanna try again?", said the cat girl, unsure. "Maybe we didn't do it right?"
"Nah. Let's go to the kitchen", replied the other, getting up and taking Catra's hand.
"Oh, riiight. Today is Thursday".
"Exactly...Grey bar Thursday!"
And thus both ran down the hallway, laughing and whispering about their plan to eat some extra bars.
"Catraaaa..."
Catra opened her eyes - she had dozed off. Before her was Adora, who bopped Catra's nose. Was it night-time already?
She blinked, staring her best friend in silence. 'I bet now we both know more about kissing properly than back then', she thought.
"If you rather sleep here tonight...", Adora teased, smirking.
'Focus, Catra. That was ages ago. She probably doesn't remember and even if she did, it wouldn't matter'
"Nah, I'm starving. What did Shadow Weaver want?"
"You know, training stuff, the usual..."
They met with Lonnie, Rogelio and Kyle at the hallway to the dining hall, the smell of grey bars in the air. Thursdays made Catra a really happy cat lady.
"Hey, guess what", said Lonnie when they seated. She lowered her voice and kept an eye out to make sure no one else was listening. "Kissing challenges are still a thing - I just caught a group of younger cadets doing it. Remember those?"
Of course Adora said nothing! She was someone who kept her promises. She didn't tell anybody about that stupid kiss they shared once.
But Adora couldn't act to save face - she actually spit her drink and started to cough terribly. Then she babbled about the obstacle course she was preparing for the next simulation training. Catra groaned and felt her cheeks burn. Kyle and Rogelio exchanged looks.
Despite Adora's puppy eyes, Catra silently refused to sleep in her best friend's bunk that day.
Every time Catra saw that horrible smirk on Lonnie's face -or worse, a kissing face, Catra had to think really, really, really hard that next Thursday would come eventually.