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And They Were Roommates

Chapter 16: Picnic

Notes:

Full disclosure I did cry while writing this.

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

Catra awoke to an empty bed and the faint sounds of Adora rustling around the kitchen. This was a fairly normal occurrence; Adora had to be up at ungodly hours for morning practices so she often cooked breakfast for both of them after she came back. Catra almost let the rustle of pans and the opening of closing of cabinets lull her back to sleep, as she had so many times before.

Just as Catra was closing her eyes, her phone’s alarm went off. Which was odd, because Adora usually woke Catra up after she was done cooking breakfast, so Catra had no need for alarms. Catra frantically grabbed her phone to see what the fuss was about.

[Alarm: Get the fuck up its your anniversary!]

Now that she read it, Catra vaguely remembered setting that alarm last night, knowing that Adora would get up and make some extravagant breakfast while Catra slept through her girlfriend’s efforts. And while past Catra’s intentions were good, she was inclined to wait until Adora was done cooking before getting up today, too. She knew one of the main ways Adora expressed affection was by doing things for other people, so helping her would defeat the whole point. Also, she was pretty sure Adora secretly liked dragging Catra out of bed in the mornings.

Assured in her decision to sleep for another half an hour or so, Catra hit the cancel button on her phone and rolled over. Only to be assaulted by another alarm.

[Alarm: I’m serious, don’t make Adora make breakfast on her own today]

Goddamn it, past Catra knew her too well. And she had a point; it was really shitty to force her girlfriend to do all the work on their anniversary. Catra checked her phone to make sure that was the last alarm (it was) before making her way out of bed and to the kitchen.

There was Adora, standing with her back to her and cooking something on the stove. She hadn’t noticed Catra yet, so Catra did her best to make her way over to the other girl as silently as possible. Once within striking distance, Catra wrapped her arms around her girlfriend’s midsection and stood on her tiptoes to look over her shoulder.

“Oh my God, Catra, you scared me!” Adora laughed. Judging by the way she immediately relaxed into Catra’s embrace, she wasn’t all that scared.

“Gotta keep you on your toes, princess,” Catra said before kissing Adora on the cheek. Adora turned her head so Catra could kiss her again on the lips.

“Happy anniversary, Adora,” Catra said when they separated.

“Happy anniversary, Catra,” Adora smiled back at Catra for a few moments before turning back to the pan, where she was cooking chocolate chip pancakes. Catra’s favorite.

“I can’t believe it’s already been two years,” Catra reminisced with a sigh. It felt like just yesterday she was a sophomore stressing about organic chemistry labs and internship opportunities. Now, she was a senior who had already been accepted to medical school and basically just needed to not fail her last classes before graduation.

“I can,” Adora argued, “Sophomore year I wouldn’t have been able to cook this. You’re looking at two years of progress right here.”

Catra rolled her eyes, “They’re pancakes, Adora. How much practice do you really need?”

“Hey! They’re from scratch!” Adora protested good naturedly. They both knew that Adora had made great strides in her culinary expertise since sophomore year, mostly thanks to their habit of making cooking dinner the punishment for losing a competition. Catra was good at picking competitions she knew she would win, so Adora was usually the one cooking.

“Well they smell delicious,” Catra agreed, “Remember that time you tried to cook pancakes and you ended up burning them and setting off the smoke alarm?”

“Yeah, because someone was distracting me,” Adora reminded her.

“I wasn’t distracting you, I was just walking around our shared apartment like a normal person,” Catra laughed.

“Yeah, because normal people walk around their apartments in lingerie,” Adora said as she flipped one of the pancakes on the pan.

“Fine. But you wouldn’t have burned them if you had just kept your eyes to yourself,” Catra pointed out.

“Well then, next time you wear lingerie I’ll make sure to keep my eyes to myself.” Catra could hear the smirk in Adora’s voice.

Catra pulled herself closer to Adora and tightened her embrace, “Your life’s about to get very boring then.”

Adora hummed in agreement before turning her attention to one of their cabinets on the other side of the kitchen, “I need to get us plates.”

“Do you have to?” Catra protested as she buried her face in Adora’s shoulder, feeling too comfortable pressed up against Adora’s back to move.

“Would you rather eat pancakes out of the pan?” Adora turned to Catra and raised an eyebrow.

Catra groaned dramatically before detangling herself from Adora and grabbing two plates. She handed the plates to her girlfriend before returning to her original position of hugging her from behind.

Adora laughed at her girlfriend’s theatrics before plating their pancakes and turning off the stove. Catra let her arms fall from their position around Adora so the other girl could put the plates on the island in front of their barstools.

“Can you grab the syrup and butter before you sit down?” Adora asked as she grabbed them forks and knives.

Catra did before sitting down next to Adora. She buttered her pancakes and took a bite. As per usual, it was absolutely amazing.

“Goddamn, Adora, this is the best pancake I’ve ever had,” Catra said enthusiastically.

“Really? It’s a new recipe so I wasn’t sure if it would turn out okay,” Adora admitted.

“It turned out much more than okay,” Catra insisted, “Seriously, take a bite.”

Adora did and made a pleasantly surprised noise, “Yeah, this is pretty good.”

“Pretty good?” Catra gasped in mock offense, “Adora, if I don’t have this for breakfast every day from now on I think I’ll die.”

“If you have this for breakfast every day I think you will die,” Adora pointed out.

“Well it would be a full and happy death,” Catra decided. Adora laughed, a sound that somehow got more beautiful every time Catra heard it.

“So what are you wearing to the picnic today?” Adora asked after a moment of silence. Due to the shared anniversary incident, the Best Friends Squad had decided to merge their anniversary celebrations into one large picnic. It was a big event last year, and as half of the celebrating group Catra and Adora did actually have to look presentable.

That being said, Catra had been procrastinating picking out her outfit because the weather was going to be that awkward not too cold but not really hot limbo that was impossible to dress for. “I don’t know, but I’m tempted to be totally obnoxious and match each other like Bow and Glimmer did last year.”

“Do we even have anything that matches?” Adora asked.

“We do,” Catra nodded, “Actually two things. Remember that red dress I have? Your suit and shirt combo goes with it. Although that’s more coordinating and not matching, now that I think about it.”

“You want me to wear my white suit to a picnic?” Adora demanded, obviously not thrilled with the idea.

“Okay, then, option two. Remember Netossa’s bachelorette party?”

“No, we are not wearing those shirts,” Adora shook her head.

“Why not? They match and they say ‘Catradora’ on the back. That’s literally the most obnoxious we can get.”

Yours says Catradora on the back, mine says Catadora because I apparently can’t spell when drunk,” Adora pointed out.

Catra laughed at the memory of drunk Adora struggling with the puffy paint and pouting when Catra refused to spell out ‘Catradora’ for her, “Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Well now we have to wear them, because that’s hilarious.”

“Remind me why I’m dating you?” Adora pouted.

“Because you think I’m hot,” Catra said with a wink, “Now finish your pancakes so we can dig those shirts up from the back of your closet.”

---

The shirts were worse than Catra had remembered. They were bright pink, for one thing, and said “Spinnerella Netossa: Wives for Life” on the front with a bunch of tiny hearts. On the back, both Catra and Adora had written “Catradora 4 Eva” in purple puffy paint. Well, Catra had that, Adora’s unfortunately did say “Catadora” instead. 

But they were going to wear them if it was the last thing they did. Last year Bow and Glimmer had worn matching shirts with a picture of them on it, and Catra and Adora had sworn to each other to never let their friends live it down.

So they put on the shirts and made their way to the picnic, where they were first greeted by Scorpia and Perfuma, who had volunteered to bring the bulk of the food. Perfuma’s apartment had a rooftop garden, and the couple was very passionate about making the most out of every square inch. It was cute, although Catra didn’t really care about hydroponic gardening.

“Wildcat! We were starting to worry that you two had ditched,” Scorpia greeted before pulling Catra into a hug. Catra had learned long ago that struggling did nothing to stop Scorpia, so she settled for hugging her friend back.

“It’s a celebration in our honor, Scorpia, there’s no way we would miss that,” Catra smirked as they separated.

“I’m mainly here for the food,” Adora offered from Catra’s side, “Perfuma told me she was going to make that fruit salad again.”

Perfuma visibly brightened, “And I did! It’s over there by the watermelon Mermista brought.”

Adora opened her mouth to respond, but before she could she was smashed into a group hug by two very loud, very annoying bundles of energy.

“Adora! It’s our anniversary!” Glimmer sang as she pulled Adora even closer in her side hug. On the other side, Bow was smiling and wrapping his arms around the two women beside them.

“Happy anniversary,” Adora wheezed, the impact from her friends having obviously knocked the wind out of her, “Can you go bug Catra now?”

“Yeah, Catra, get in here!” Bow smiled before extending an arm in invitation.

“I hate all of you.” Catra rolled her eyes to put on a show of reluctance before joining her friends. The truth was, she actually enjoyed best friend squad group hugs; it made her feel like she belonged somewhere. But she would never admit that out loud. She had a reputation to uphold, after all.

“Well unfortunately for you, you’re not getting rid of us,” Glimmer said.

“Awe, look at you four! You’re so cute,” Scorpia gushed from the sidelines.

“I’m not cute,” Catra insisted as the four of them broke their embrace. Adora raised an eyebrow with the perfect mix of smugness. Catra glared at her, “I’m not . You’re just too stupid to be scared of me anymore.”

“I never said you were cute,” Adora shrugged with false innocence.

“Yeah, but you were thinking it,” Catra insisted.

“Well sue me for thinking my girlfriend is cute,” Adora crossed her arms defiantly.

Bow rolled his eyes, “I swear you two bicker like an old married couple. Let’s just enjoy the picnic! I heard that Spinnerella and Netossa are bringing a soccer ball so we can play some soccer.”

“Oh, speaking of Spinny and Netossa, nice shirts you two,” Glimmer snorted.

“Thanks! We were inspired by a certain couple’s fashion last year,” Catra smirked, “I mean, is it really love if you don’t have customized matching shirts?”

“No, it really isn’t,” Adora shook her head solemnly next to Catra.

“Seriously, you too, Adora? Catra’s been a bad influence on you,” Glimmer pointed an accusatory finger at Adora, “But I’ll let it slide, seeing as it’s your anniversary.”

“How kind,” Catra deadpanned.

“Oh, there’s Netossa! Let’s go play some soccer babe,” Scorpia pointed to a figure in the distance.

“Sounds fun. Do you guys want to join us?” Perfuma turned to the rest of their group.

“Nah, Adora and I need to get our blanket all set up,” Catra motioned to their unpacked bags.

“We’ll join you,” Bow said, “See you two later.”

They waved the other two couples goodbye before finding a good spot to lay their blanket down. It was a balancing act. They had to find a space that was close enough to their friends that they could still be in the action, but far enough away from Sea Hawk’s blanket so Catra didn’t have to listen to his singing for the entire day. They finally settled on a spot and set their stuff down.

After setting up, they made their way over to where all of the food was set up. They had frosted some cookies the night before to add to the potluck, but from the looks of it their addition wasn’t really needed. There was a large spread of food, from lunch foods to snack foods to a multitude of desserts. Catra smiled as she saw Entrapda’s signature tiny cupcakes.

Catra grabbed some food halfheartedly. She usually just stole from Adora’s plate--or in this case, it was looking like it would be plates--during stuff like this, but she liked to keep the appearance of getting her own food.

Satisfied with the amount of food gathered, they made their way back to the blanket and started eating. Adora put her plates in between the two of them automatically, and Catra noticed that some of the things she grabbed were foods only Catra liked. Even after all this time, the small action made Catra feel warm.

“So are we doing presents here or at home?” Catra asked as they ate. They had done presents at the picnic last year, but they hadn’t talked about it this year. Catra had brought her presents just in case.

“Let’s do it here. I’ll go first,” Adora offered before pulling a large present from her tote bag and handing it to Catra. It was a little heavier than Catra had expected it to be. She looked at it for a few moments, unsure what it could possibly be.

“Well, are you going to open it?” Adora prompted.

Catra nodded before ripping off the wrapping paper. In her hands was what looked like a photo album. It was dark red with gold accents. Catra opened the cover and saw a page with the word “memories” written in neat cursive. Underneath it was a grainy picture of her and Adora as kids, standing in front of a brand-new swingset in Adora’s backyard and smiling like it was the most exciting day of their lives.

Catra turned the page and realized that this wasn’t a photo album, it was a scrapbook. There was a page for each year they had known each other, starting with the first day of preschool. This one was the most forced, as Catra had just moved in and still didn’t know Adora all that well. But there were also pictures of them playing on the monkey bars and making play dough together and smiling like the carefree kids they were.

Then there were the pictures from elementary school. Adora’s parents had taken their picture in front of the school’s sign each year on the first day of school. Those pictures were accompanied by snapshots of them in sparkly leotards at their gymnastics classes and some pictures of them sitting next to each other in class. There were even the doodles Catra had drawn for Adora throughout the years on the pages. The subjects began as varied, from mythical creatures to Adora’s dog to flowers. But by the end of fifth grade, they were all of Adora.

Catra turned the page again and saw them in middle school. She watched as Adora gradually grew taller and more muscular than her. The gymnastics pictures were replaced with pictures of them at birthday parties and dances. Different knickknacks joined Catra’s doodles: a movie ticket for the first movie their parents had let them see together on their own, some of the notes they had passed each other during class, and the ribbon from Catra’s first gymnastics competition.

High school saw the end of Catra’s doodles and the beginning of selfies at games, meets, and other school events. It included those three weeks Catra tried being a cheerleader junior year--she quit when she found out the cheer team only cheered at men’s games--and some really artsy candids Lonnie had taken of them for her photo class. It also had the ticket stubs for the gymnastics regional Catra went to and the state championship Adora won.

The next section, marked by a giant page with just the word “college” on it, wasn't in a chronological order. Instead, it was arranged by categories: pictures of them doing outdoorsy things like that ski trip they went on last week, pictures of them with their friends--including a multitude of laser tag pictures--, pictures of them getting milkshakes in various different restaurants around the city, and pictures of their friends pretending to be overly disgusted as they made out in the background.

The last page didn't seem to have any obvious category. It had a selfie of her and Adora on a picnic table with Catra’s head buried in Adora’s shoulder lazily. It had that picture Bow took of them from the figure skating rink. And next to it was them, a year later, at the same rink, with Adora kissing Catra’s cheek as Catra smiled. There was a row of pictures of them on Etheria with different, increasingly ridiculous, poses (the shitty, picture-of-the-screen pictures, which somehow just made it better). Below that was the pictures of them at winter formal sophomore year. It was a self timer at a fast food restaurant because they had forgotten to take pictures beforehand and Glimmer had texted them angrily reminding them to take pictures. 

There was a series of pictures of Catra taking the first bite out of Adora’s cooking, where you could see her smile go from forced to genuine. Above that was the picture of Adora at championships last year, championship trophy in one hand and the other supporting Catra who had leapt into her arms in excitement. There were some of Catra and Adora painting their new apartment, and some of Catra watching Adora paint. In the middle was the photo strip from the beginning of sophomore year, with Catra smiling at Adora like she was the sun.

“What’s the category here?” Catra asked, “All the others had a theme.”

Adora laughed, “These are the moments I look back on and say, ‘I know Catra loves me.’”

Catra couldn’t help it; she burst into tears. To think how much time and effort Adora put into this, all for her! The way she had photos from each year, the way she had obviously contacted not only all of their friends in college, but Catra’s parents and some random teammates from high school, the way she had kept all of Catra’s doodles for all that time was too much. The fact that Adora had mental categories for her memories and the fact that one of her categories is “reasons I know Catra loves me” made her feel giddy. 

“Catra, are you okay?” Adora asked, clearly alarmed at Catra’s sudden outburst.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Catra sniffed, “This is just one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. I love it so much. I love you so much.”

“Awe, babe, I love you so much,” Adora smiled back at her before grabbing Catra and pulling her into a hug. 

Catra recovered after a few short moments and pulled back.

“Sorry, I just can’t believe what a big sap you are. Your levels of sappiness moved me to tears,” Catra joked as she wiped her face with her sleeve.

“If you say so,” Adora said with a smirk.

“Okay, so I feel kind of stupid going after that,” Catra took a deep breath before giving Adora the first of two wrapped presents, “But here you go.”

Adora accepted her package with a smile and started unwrapping it. A smile which quickly morphed into confusion when she revealed the present.

“It’s… A plastic bug?” Adora looked at Catra for clarification.

Catra shook her head, “It’s not just any bug, it’s a cockroach!”

“A plastic cockroach,” Adora mumbled to herself, “Can I ask why?”

“Well, seeing as it's our anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate to memorialize those whose hard work resulted in us getting together. Namely, that cockroach you absolutely eviscerated the night we got together,” Catra explained. 

“Oh my God,” Adora blushed, “I still can’t believe I did that.”

“And I still can’t believe how hot it was,” Catra said with a laugh and a wink.

“You think everything I do is hot so that’s not even that impressive,” Adora laughed with her.

“Yeah, well that was especially hot,” Catra argued, “Peak Adora.”

Adora smiled before inspecting the plastic bug in her hands. It was pretty cheap, because Catra wasn’t about to spend more than $20 on a joke gift. 

“So, I guess now I have a plastic bug,” The other girl said after a silence, valiantly hiding her disappointment.

“Don’t get too excited about it or I might decide that you don’t need your second present,” Catra joked before pulling out the second box.

Adora instantly lit up, “Oh, there’s more? What’s this a model of?”

“No, stupid, it’s not a plastic model. Just open it!”

Adora tore through the paper to reveal another box, which opened to reveal a ring. It was a simple golden band--Catra knew Adora would never wear something bulky--with an intricate swirling pattern stamped into the material. Adora gaped at it, clearly at a loss for words.

“Okay, so before you say anything, I know we talked about how getting married isn’t super important to us and if we ever got married we would wait until after grad school. But--,” Catra started.

“--Oh my God, Catra, yes!” Adora cut in before pulling Catra into a crushing hug.

“I didn’t even ask you anything yet, dummy,” Catra shifted her body closer to Adora, “What I was saying is: I didn’t want to do a huge proposal thing and make a big deal out of it, but you’re the most important person in my life and that’s never going to change, so I thought you deserved a ring.”

“Because you want to marry me,” Adora sang, “That’s so embarrassing for you.”

“Yeah, I’m so embarrassed,” Catra said sarcastically, “And honestly I just want to keep people from hitting on you. Do you know how many men I need to glare at when we go to the gym? An unacceptable amount.”

Adora shifted before guiding Catra to straddle her. Once Catra was comfortable in Adora’s lap, Adora cupped her cheek, “So you want me to believe that your solution to men checking me out is full-out proposing?”

“Yes, that’s the only reason I proposed,” Catra did her best to deadpan, “I have no ulterior motives.”

“Say that at the altar, then I’ll believe it,” Adora smirked.

“Don’t tempt me. I’ll fucking do it,” Catra warned.

Adora nodded seriously, “So by that logic, we should invite everyone who goes to our gym to the wedding. You know, so they can see for sure that I’m taken.”

“Naturally,” Catra nodded, “It’s just going to be you, me, someone ordained, and a room full of sweaty men.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Adora agreed before leaning in to kiss Catra.

“Wait,” Catra stopped Adora with a hand, “I have to put the ring on you first.”

Adora dutifully held out her hand as Catra picked up the ring. It slid on Adora’s ring finger easily, just as Catra knew it would.

“It fits!” Adora said, sounding surprised.

“Yeah, of course it does. Why do you think I asked you for your ring size last week?”

“Honestly? I thought you were collecting data for one of your classes.”

Catra couldn’t help but pull Adora into a kiss. She could feel Adora smiling against her lips before pulling back.

“How are you still this oblivious?” Catra asked.

“I don’t know, but you like it,” Adora shrugged before kissing Catra again. Catra threw her arms around Adora’s shoulders as they deepened the kiss. It was sweet and slow and so full of love Catra felt like she would burst.

“Ew! Public indecency!” Glimmer’s voice came from one of the nearby blankets.

“Oh, fuck off Sparkles,” Catra turned to glare at Glimmer, who was currently reffing the soccer game. Beneath her, Adora laughed and rested her head on Catra’s shoulder. Catra turned back to Adora and let her cheek rest on the top of her fiance’s head fondly.

“Catra, you make me so happy,” Adora mumbled into Catra’s shoulder.

Catra let her hands run through Adora’s hair gently, “You make me even happier, Adora.”

Catra looked out over their friends, who were getting really into the game of soccer on the grass field in front of them. She watched lazily as Scorpia and Perfuma teamed up against Spinerella and Netossa to score a goal. She had no intentions of joining the game, of course. Not when Adora was holding onto her happily and she was still riding the high of their gift giving.

She wasn’t sure how much time passed as they sat there, watching the game and idly making comments. And she didn’t really care; it’s not like they were in a rush. They could just exist in this moment, basking in the other’s presence. They had all the time in the world because Catra loved Adora, Adora loved Catra, and neither of them was going anywhere without the other.

Notes:

Wow, I can't believe it's over! I had so much fun writing this fic, and I hope you guys had just as much fun reading it.

In terms of future projects, I am currently writing another Catradora slow burn (I have a problem). I haven't decided if I'm going to publish it yet or it's just going to be for me, but keep your eyes open! If you're ever curious about what I'm up to, feel free to send me a message on tumblr :)

I try not to take myself too seriously (I wrote a fic about a kids show with the premise of a reddit post and the title of a vine after all), but there are two main things I hope you guys take away from this fic. The first is that sexuality is a spectrum, and wherever you fall on that spectrum is normal. You're not alone, even if right now it feels like it.

The second is the idea of finding love and romance in the mundane parts of your life. I hope you all find beauty in the night hikes, squashed bugs, and movie nights of your life! It doesn't have to be fancy or extravagant to be significant.

I know that's really sappy but this is kind of a sappy chapter so... Anyways, thank you all for reading and (maybe) see you soon!

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