Work Text:
Ever since she was little, Adora had been excited to meet her soulmate. She’d grown up hearing the stories - how humans used to have four legs and four arms before Zeus chopped them in half, leaving them only a small hint on their forearm as to who their other half was.
Humans found their soulmates more often than not, but you would still hear sad stories about people who died without finding their soulmate. Adora knew that she was still young, being in her senior year of high school, but she had always imagined meeting her soulmate when she was young, the perfect story of highschool sweethearts that found each other and then spent their entire lives with each other. The closer she got to the end of the year, the more she began to realize how unlikely this fantasy-ending was, and she became disheartened, beginning to lose hope of finding her soulmate.
She had dated other people, sure, but they had never lasted long - people didn’t often like to commit to long-term relationships with people other than their soulmate, to spare each other the pain in case they found their soulmate while in a relationship. Adora was always envious of those who found their other half though because she wanted that same happiness, the feeling of your soul being complete.
The end of the school year was fast approaching, which meant that Adora was much too busy to contemplate her lack of a soulmate often. She had final exams to prepare for, a prom date and dress to find, as well as the final track and field competition of her high school career. Her days were filled with practice, classes and studying, which meant her schedule was hectic, and the only respite she found was admiring the quarterback of the football team whenever she saw her in the corridor or on her way to track practice.
She had never even spoken to the girl, but she was smitten. She had daydreamed for hours about the girl coming up to her, saying her words: “Hey, Adora. Whatcha doing out here all alone?” Bow and Glimmer often complained about how she would talk about the brunette for hours on end, but Adora couldn’t help it. The girl was the human embodiment of tall, dark and handsome - she drew Adora in like a moth to a flame, and the blonde couldn’t even find it in herself to care.
Adora only knew her name from talk around school whenever the football team won a game that Catra had played spectacularly in. They were in none of the same classes, but they had the same lunch period, so Adora would spend her time staring at the girl from across the lunch hall until Mermista (her only friend who had lunch with her) got sick of it and drew her into a conversation. Despite Mermista’s efforts though, she still found herself getting distracted more often than not daydreaming about the girl she was still too shy to approach.
---
Catra had it bad, she already knew that. She was helpless to stop the way her eyes were drawn to the cute blonde girl she saw in the halls on her way between classes, and she knew it was pathetic that she had yet to muster up the courage to talk to her. Catra knew that she could have pretty much whoever she wanted - she was pretty, smart and popular, and on top of that, she was the star football player. She wasn’t unaware of the whispers that went around about her, nor was she in the dark about the fact that a good proportion of the student body had a crush on her.
She knew all this, and yet this girl was different, somehow. Catra had had more girlfriends and boyfriends than she could count on her hands, and she was smooth and her flirting skills were impeccable, thank you - but she still couldn’t make herself talk to this girl.
Adora - she knew her name only thanks to their mutual friend Entrapta - was, for lack of a better word, adorable. She had her hair up in the same ponytail every day, and she always wore the same tattered red jacket to school. She knew that Adora liked her - the blush that overcame her face and the way she would hastily avert her gaze whenever Catra saw her was a dead giveaway, and Catra thought that nothing could ever be cuter than that.
Catra wished that she had the courage to just go up to her and talk to her, flirt with her, just grab her and kiss her - she didn’t care what it was she would do, she just wished she could do it. But Adora was different. Catra didn’t want to be as naive as to think it, but she hoped, deep down, that that was because she was her soulmate. That Adora would say those words that were etched upon the skin of her forearm: “Um. Hi, hello, hi. Uh, I was, um, running.”
She had thought about the concept a lot, in the few quiet, private moments in which she allowed herself to dream. Perhaps that was why she was so afraid to just go and talk to the girl - the second they said anything to each other, whether they were or weren’t soulmates would be revealed, and Catra didn’t think she could handle it if they weren’t.
---
Panting heavily, Adora finished her final lap of the track and immediately jogged over to the benches, where her towel and water lay ready for her. As much as she liked track practice with the other runners, she found training in solitude to be quite a calming experience - she didn’t have to worry about anyone judging her, she could just focus on the track in front of her and keeping her breathing steady.
The intense summer sun beat down on the blonde as she grabbed her water bottle and poured half the contents over her head and the other half down her throat. She flopped to the ground for a brief few seconds before getting back up and beginning to stretch her legs off, lest she feels the pain tomorrow.
She’s still in a world of her own, mind far away from the present, when someone else makes themself known. Adora jumps when Catra places her hand on her arm, having been very unaware of her surroundings, lost in the peace that running brings her. The brunette clears her throat, and it occurs to Adora, in the back of her mind, that these will be the first words she has ever said to her before.
Unknown to Adora, Catra was feeling the same fear and anticipation, but she pushed through it. “Hey, Adora. Whatcha doing out here all alone?”
The blonde’s breath hitched noticeably, and hope flared through Catra’s veins at the implication that Adora recognised the words.
“Um. Hi, hello, hi. Uh, I was, um, running.” The blonde stuttered, clearly in shock still, but Catra’s heart soared as she heard the words she had known since before she even knew what they meant.
Both girls stood there in silence for a few minutes, processing the information now available to them. Adora’s mind was swirling, thoughts flying everywhere, but the most prominent one was that oh my gosh, Catra is my soulmate... Catra is my soulmate! She was excited, relieved and incredibly nervous all at once - this had been everything she had wanted for years, and the fact that it was the girl who had captured her attention for longer than she would willingly admit made it a thousand times better, but also a thousand times scarier - she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she managed to mess this up.
Before she could get too bogged down in those thoughts, she found herself being pulled into a warm embrace, Catra’s nimble fingers winding their way into her sweaty hair, but the other girl didn’t seem to care about that, nor about the fact that she most definitely smelled of nothing but sweat and dirt. The shorter girl, sighed, leaning into the hug and tucking her head under the brunette’s chin, nuzzling slightly at her neck. How many times had she dreamed of this, of being held close by her soulmate, her Catra?
It seemed that Catra’s thoughts were similar because she soon pulled away - only a short distance, but enough that Adora missed the warmth of Catra’s body - to whisper “I can’t believe that it’s you - I never allowed myself to imagine, but it’s you.” Her voice sounded reverent, and it sent tremors running through Adora’s limbs, warming her in a way nothing else could.
“I… I had always hoped, always dreamed that it’d be you, but this feels… surreal, in a way. Is this real? Are you real?” Adora said, praying to any deity out there that this wasn’t some dream or hallucination, that Catra was here, with her, standing on the edge of the athletics track as a soft summer breeze ran through their hair.
“I’m here, Adora, I assure you this is real. I can prove it to you, if you’d like?” Her voice trailed off towards the end, nerves catching her in a way they never had before. She was normally smooth and suave, making girls and guys alike swoon - she had never felt the need to hesitate with her flirtation, but something about Adora made her want to approach things differently.
Catra was pulled from her thoughts by Adora’s small whisper of “ Yes .” She was filled with newfound confidence then, and she dragged Adora impossibly closer as her lips descended upon the soft pair she had only before experienced in her dreams. Adora moaned, quiet and soft, and that small sound was enough for Catra to lose control, the kiss turning from gentle and caring to passionate in an instant as a wave of possessiveness washed over the taller girl.
The pair broke the kiss only when they desperately needed air, but they stayed pressed close, chests heaving as their lungs tried to regain the oxygen they had been denied. The space between them, small though it was, seemed too much and not enough, both girls wanting to resume their frantic kisses but also wanting to talk about this too.
In the end, the second option won, and Adora found herself pulling away further, but still not leaving Catra’s arms. “Why did you come out here? I didn’t think the team had practice today.” The question had been floating around her subconscious, and now that she was slightly more clear-headed, she voiced it.
“I, uh, I asked your friends where you’d be, and they said you’d most likely be here.” It could’ve been her imagination, but to Adora, Catra sounded almost… sheepish. It was so un-Catra that it almost threw her off, but it didn’t stop her next question.
“You were looking for me? Why?” She could honestly not think of a single reason for the other girl to have been looking for her after school.
“I wanted to…” she trailed off, glancing nervously to the ground before making eye-contact with Adora again. “I wanted to ask you out. On a date. With me. Um, yeah.” To see the usually so confident Catra turned into the nervous, hesitant girl who stood before her was honestly quite endearing.
“Well, Catra, you still can.” Woah, it was like they had done a complete personality swap, Adora thought. She had never been that forward before, always being the blushing girl who shyly waited for others to start anything.
“Adora, my soulmate, my other half, would you go on a date with me and be my girlfriend?” Catra asked.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Adora grinned, leaning into Catra’s space again to capture her lips in another searing kiss, feeling the other girl smiling happily into the kiss as well.