Chapter Text
“We are going on a field trip!” Kaze-kumo-sensei announced with a great deal of satisfaction in her voice. The class waited with baited breath. This could go anywhere. They could go anywhere.
“We,” the teacher intones, smiling like someone spotting free poki, “are going to the theater. English theater.”
The class stared at her. The silence was deafening, their expressions confused. She waved her hands irritably.
“More enthusiasm please, class! I managed to get tickets to a performance by the Young Globes, who are guests in the National Theater,”
There was some more silence. Eventually Noa raised a hand.
“Kaze-Kumo-sensi, what does that mean?”
The teacher sighed. They were good kids but sometimes their horizon was a touch narrow.
“Make yourselves presentable. Something nice. No uniforms, no mini-skirts. Give these forms to your parents or guardians and return them by the end of the week. The trip is next week monday,”
There was a barely contained squawk from Aki. Her head jerked around to Adora.
“Adora-san, do you have fancy clothes?”
Adora blinked at her.
“... no?” There was a pit growing in her stomach. She had a sudden premonition about her immediate future.
“I KNEW it! Adora-san, we are going to go SHOPPING!” She reached out and tried to grab Adora’s arm. There was a growl.
“Aki-san, please don’t assault my girlfriend or I’ll rip your designer bag,”
Aki’s purple eyes rounded on Catra.
“Do you have any fancy clothes, Catra-san?”
The catgirl smiled, or at least showed her fangs.
“Wouldn’t you like to know,”
“I would, actually!”
“Well, you can go on wondering, because-”
“I’d like to know,” whispered Adora. Catra froze. A familiar heat reached her ears. She mumbled something under her breath, avoiding Adora’s eyes.
There was a sharp rap of knuckles on the blackboard.
“Would any of you three like to share it with the class or can we continue?”
Sensei’s voice refocused their attention. Briefly.
**
“Absolutely not!”
Aki made a face like a kicked puppy. She had been going on about it all through recess.
“But it will be FUN!”
“I will NOT go to Shibuya to buy a dress with you just for this one occasion!”
Catra held up a hand. She extended the index finger.
“First, it’s too far. I’m not gonna spend time on a train that I could be spending doing something more pleasant,”
She raised another finger, flipping Aki off in the british style.
“Second, it’s too expensive. You and Adora may have enough money, but I certainly don’t and I’ve got better plans with my savings!”
Catra raised her ring finger, the digit struggling against the tendon it shared with the pinkie.
“Third, I bet they don’t have anything fitting for hybrids in that trendy corner of Tokyo and I DEFINITELY will not spend more money on something I can’t afford anyway!”
Her claws extended for a moment and she took down her arm.
Aki stared at her for several seconds, blinking a few times. Then, without skipping a beat she turned to Adora.
“So, you’ll go with me, Adora-san?”
Adora looked pained. Catra could feel how the prospect of large crowds and an endless succession of gaudy clothes thrown at her by the princess of pastel and glitter made her anxious. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. Catra watched her face carefully, wondering if she should intervene.
A nervous twitch of a smile flickered.
“Okay,”
“Look, Adora-chan, you don’t have to, just because Sparkle-san-”
Aki whipped around to her again.
“ You stay out of it, Nyā-san! You had your chance to join us!”
A surge of anger overcame Catra. In a heartbeat she stood over Aki, fur bristling along her spine and tail lashing.
“Look, she clearly doesn’t want to go, so YOU back off, Aki-san, or-”
Adora’s hand on her back made her go still. The touch was very light and circled a finger’s width over Catra’s tail.
“It’s ok.” she said, voice so quiet in comparison to the other girls. “I’ll go with Aki-san,”
Catra turned around and lightly gripped Adora’s shoulders.
“‘Dora-can, you don’t have to,”
Her girlfriend looked straight up at her, blue eyes focused. She swallowed. Adora didn’t even look her in the eyes that often.
“I’ll go with Aki-san,” she repeated, quiet enough that only Catra could hear.
With a deep breath she forced her hackles to settle down again.
Throwing caution into the wind, she bowed down and nuzzled into Adora’s hair.
“Okay,” she whispered back.
She ignored Aki and her smug look the rest of the day.
**
“So anyway, I have a great plan,” said Aki and took a sip from her bubble tea. To get Adora into the mood and not overwhelm her immediately, she had steered them into a coffee shop first. Her drink was an unnatural shade of red, as if someone had dropped glitter into blood. Adora also had once mentioned that caffeine calmed her down. Which was very odd but also Adora.
“You do?” Adora had never been to this mall. She hadn’t been that much to malls, period, except the local one with Mara whenever she needed something and never when they had lived in Germany.
“Yes, absolutely. We’ll get the shoes there, the suit over there , and I think.. Yes you don’t really need to get accessories, we’ll dig something up from my collection! And then there’s this amazing ramen place to round it off,”
This was moving too fast for Adora.
“What about you?” she ventured, trying to get her head around what was becoming very obvious.
“Me? Oh, I don’t need anything, Adora-san, I’ve been going to formal events with my mother since before I could walk.”
“Why?” she couldn’t help herself ask.
“Heiress,” Aki waved a hand irritably.
“But-” she tried.
“No buts. We’ll get your butt into a suit that will make your catgirl faint , don’t you worry,”
“I don’t want her to faint,” Adora mumbled, blushing.
“Metaphor, Adora-san. Come on, drink up and let’s goooooo!”
Adora sighed and finished the milky coffee. There must be a thousand people already in this mall and Aki was looking at it like it was a playground.
“Wait, Aki-san, did you say suit?”
**
I have to help Aki-san hide a body before this day is over. Adora thought. The sales assistant hadn’t quite managed to bring what she had asked for again and the shade of pink on Aki’s face was vying for supremacy with her hair. A small mountain of shoeboxes was being built around them. Adora had long since abandoned the attempt to follow what Aki was doing. She seemed to have a plan and it so far had involved so many almost identical shoes.
She regretted not reading more on the subject, but since Aki’s plan apparently involved a suit, it wouldn’t have done her any good either.
“Finally, thank you. Yes, this one is the right one, yes.”
Something was apparently happening. Adora glanced up, just in time to see the harried looking sales assistant retreat with a bow.
“Try this on, Adora-san.” Aki sounded happy. Adora looked at the proffered offerings, trying to decide how they different from the last dozen.
“Can you walk?” her friend asked after she had slipped them on. She could, but that wasn’t really the question. She did the little choreography Aki wanted her to do. Tippy toes, short and long strides, a twirl that was a lot more graceful than people would have expected from a kendoka.
“Yes.” she confirmed.
“Good.” Aki picked up the relevant box. “Let’s go.”
Adora’s eyes fell on the cardboard box as if for the first time. The little price-tag came into focus.
“Aki-san.. That’s too expensive.”
The small girl raised her eyebrows.
“Huh?”
“The shoes. I can’t afford them.”
Aki studied the price tag.
“You can’t? Catra-san said you-”
“Aki-san, my parents have money. I think. I’m sure, in fact. But I don’t.”
Aki’s face slipped into confusion.
“What does that mean?”
Adora swallowed and looked past her friend.
“It means they don’t want me to waste money on distractions, just to buy essentials.”
An arm swept into the general direction of the rejected shoes.
“That’s not essential?”
“Aki-san, I can’t think of anything more unessential than an outfit that you wear to exactly one event.”
“Nonsense, Adora-san, a suit isn’t just for one evening, a suit is for life!”
Adora blinked.
“Who’s life?”
“The suit’s life, Adora-san, good grief.”
The blonde shook herself. A headache was forming behind her left eye.
“Whatever, I can’t afford it.”
Aki was suddenly very close to her.
“Then I’ll pay for it and we figure something out .” Adora’s eyes went wide and Aki retreated to a more respectful distance. “Sorry. But I’ll get you into the suit I’ve been imagining for three days and we make your catgirl swoon- NOT faint - if it kills me.”
“I think a swoon is the same as a faint.” Adora murmured. The headache was getting stronger. The noise all around her didn’t help.
Aki put a hand on her arm.
“Come on, Adora-san, let’s pay for the shoes and go next door. It will be epic.”
Head buzzing and the corners of her vision blurry, Adora pulled on her old sneakers and followed her friend, hair bouncing and skirt waving. She had her doubts.
***
“This is epic.” Adora breathed.
“Told you” Aki said, a touch breathless.
Adora looked sharp. They had taken her western side and ran with it.
“You look like the heiress, Adora-san. You could, like, be the daughter of the boss of Siemens.”
Adora frowned.
“Why Siemens?”
“Because that’s the only one I know. I see the name on the trains.”
“Oh. Huh. They build trains?”
Aki shrugged. “I guess? They’re huge, I know that.” She brightened again. “Whatever, you look amazing. Let’s pay for this and go. I need some ramen after this hard work!”
Getting the suit had been a lot easier than finding shoes. The young man had taken measurements in a very respectful manner and dug up two suit jackets and after that everything fell into place. Literally, for Adora. She had been too preoccupied with buttoning the dress shirt over her sports bra (“This won’t do at all!” Aki had said but Adora’d would be damned if she went underwear shopping with the pink menace too) to pay attention to the ensemble until she put the jacket on. Nothing had prepared her for that visual. The sharp masculine looking lines of the garment balanced by the hints of what curves she had and the splash of her bright hair falling over the dark fabric was captivating. She wasn’t used to liking her mirror image this much. It was almost dizzying. Or perhaps it was the hunger.
As they picked up the bags Adora knew one thing for sure: Catra would lose her mind.
**
“Mama, I’m in trouble!” Catra yelled from her room when she heard the front door opening. Her mother didn’t rush, she didn’t take her time, but calmly walked over to her room after depositing jacket and bag.
Kira found her daughter curled up on her bed hugging her Kuromi plush. She only brought out the devil-jester cat when she was upset. Her brow furrowed. She hadn’t picked up on any trouble her kid might be having, especially not with Adora. They appeared to be very much in love.
“What’s wrong, kitten?” she asked and sat down on the bed. Catra curled into her leg and she wove her hands into her daughter’s hair. “Something happened at school?” She also gave the plushie a pet. “Hello Kuromi, good to see you’re still here for her.”
This is really stupid, Catra thought. Why am I freaking out about it?
“Oh, come here, kitten.” her mother said, seating herself with her back to the wall. Catra blushed, realizing she was mewling.
Snuggled closely into her mothers fur, Catra thought about where to start. Kira didn’t ask any questions, she just held her and petted her back.
After a while Catra tried to speak.
“Mom, do we have any fancy clothes?”
Kira’s nose twitched.
“Why do you ask that, kitten?”
Her daughter turned her face away and mumbled into her fur.
“We’re going to see a play from some guesting foreign actors with our English class and sensei said we should dress properly .”
A whole lot of things were unsaid in this.
“You never liked wearing your hifu as a kitten.” It was a fact, After Catra’s tenth birthday she had stopped asking if she wanted to wear it for the spring festival.
“No… but now I have… I have friends? And it’s… I don’t know, I don’t want to..”
She stopped. She didn’t know why she was embarrassed at not having anything to wear, but she was. She’d spend her young teen years defying social expectations and had been rewarded with loneliness and scars. Now she had Adora, though… Oh, what would Adora wear? Will sparkles force her into a pink dress?
“You don’t like the idea of fancy dress just because someone ordered it, but you want to look good for your girl, is that the gist of it?”
“I guess.” mumbled Catra, nuzzling her mom.
Kira was impressed. They had always been close, but this kind of vulnerability had become scarce as Catra slid further along puberty.
“Thanks for telling your old mom.” She whispered back, hugging Catra close. “We’ll find a way.”
“Really?” The tiny voice of a kitten long since grown.
“Really.”
**
When Catra saw Adora walking towards her under the bright streetlights Catra felt like she might faint. This was horribly unfair. A cheating move, an evil ploy to make her lose her cool in front of her girlfriend and turn her into a drooling lesbian mess. Aki had found Adora a suit. Catra watched, no, stared from her hiding place for a good long minute. When Adora started to glance around nervously she took pity on her and stepped into view.
“Hey, Adora-chan!” she purred, putting all the velvet into her voice.
Adora whipped around, sending her carefully orchestrated hair flying. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly and her face started to lit up as she focused on her girlfriend. Then her eyes went wide and she blinked several times.
“I, uh, Catra-chan, wow?” she stammered.
Same, Adora, same, Catra thought.
The old woman had spent hours working on this. They had found a cobalt blue dress that was vaguely her size and had trimmed it down so it accommodated her. The color stood up well next to her copper fur and the stripes on her arms were a delicate accent. She had worked her hair up so her dark ears stood out.
But all gods above did Adora look fantastic, even better up close.
She could be the heiress to some perfume fortune, or a wine making empire, or something. And she is my girlfriend. The thought made her bounce and propelled her ever closer. She trilled and Adora immediately closed the distance between them.
“You like it?” her girlfriend asked. Catra trilled again as acknowledgement.
“You look stunning, Adora-chan!” she took both of her hands and squeezed them briefly, leaning into her for a moment. She felt Adora’s breath on her hair before she withdrew. One day they’d hold hands in public, she vowed.
Adora ran a hand lovingly over one of Catra’s arms. She had noticed how much Adora liked to trace her stripes.
“I really love the color!” she Adora said, still smiling.
“We found it in a thrift shop and only got it finished today, if you can believe it!”
“Really? That’s incredible!” Adora released her and stepped back to get another look. Catra did a little twirl and beamed, happy to the tips of her ears.
“Yeah! I need to figure out how to thank my old neighbor, Mrs. Fuyutsuki!”
Adora looked positively giddy.
“I’ll help. I… I never thought I’d see you in a dress, Catra-chan!”
“I never thought I’d wear one either,” she admitted. Especially not one that was plain, but fancy. One shoulder was free, sowing just a tiny bit of fur under her cleft clavicle. It hugged her figure down to her waist where it became pleated and slightly billowed out all the way down to her ankles, leaving her feet free to move.
“Why did-” Adora started to ask, when her brain caught up with her mouth. They looked at one another. Adora felt a surge of affection for her feline girlfriend, who had gone to such lengths for her . They closed the distance for a brief kiss.
“I really want to kiss you properly, Catra-chan.” Her look of adoration split into a grin, “we should go to a ball dressed like this, with a wooden floor and live musicians, and we should dance! Though, hah, I can’t actually dance, I just smack people with swords, but with you, I would-”
But time was pressing. Catra gently pressed a finger to Adora’s lips.
“All in good time, Adora,” she said, though her raised tail gave away that she liked the idea, “Let’s catch the train and meet the others, okay?”
Drawing a few glances, the unusual pair walked up towards the elevated railway.
**
“Why do we have to go in via the stage?” Aki had to shout, the music was so loud.
“How should I know? Sensei just said it’s this way!”
And it clearly was, there were signs pointing at it.
The theater had been quite normal up until the point where the class had been led around the main entrance and over what was clearly a stage door. Loud dance music was booming through it, a weird club vibe to the somber theater surroundings. The twenty odd teenagers in their various approximations of fine dress looked even more out of place now.
Catra looked unhappy about the noise and Adora didn’t seem any more thrilled. However, she had come prepared. She fished a small black case out of her inner pocket and extracted what looked like headphones.
“Noise reduction plugs,” she explained.
“Smart.”
Catra hadn’t brought hers. Normal ones didn’t fit her hybrid ears. She’d just have to take it.
“Let’s go?” she asked, when Adora had finished putting her ear protection in. “Someone’s gotta be brave and start.”
“Let’s go, flower cat!” Adora winked at her and tugged at the floral motif sleeve. Catra sighed and let herself be dragged forward.
They hadn’t expected the music. They hadn’t expected the light show. They most definitely hadn’t expected someone covered entirely in green body paint wearing only a speedo and a wig dancing on a pole. As they stared with incoherent thoughts along the lines of strange semi-naked man buzzing through their heads, another actor appeared next to them. She, probably, wore a very revealing bodice but also had tall bunny ears stuck to her head. She thrust some obviously fake money into their hands.
How this was connected to A Midsummer Night's Dream they couldn’t guess.
“ Show your appreciation, girls!” she said in a thick british accent.
The green dyed man hooked both legs to the pole and stretched his torso towards them. He mouthed some words that were luckily lost in the noise.
“ You know where to put it!” the indecent bunny woman added. Catra and Adora shared a glance, spun around and thrust the money into AKi’s hands who was coming up behind them. Then they ran across the stage, down some stairs and towards their seats. The actors, more were coming up, fell on the other people instead, giving the stage the odd look of a burlesque rave through which a stream of bewildered well dressed students and adults passed.
When everyone was seated the music stopped and the stage fell dark, except for the pole dancer, who continued moving, now without music, in the only cone of light remaining.
Adora felt Catra reaching for her hand in the dark and she laced their fingers together.
“ I guess this wasn’t enough for you?” the pole dancer said to the audience, sounding offended. “ Okay then, here’s what’s been happening! ”
He disappeared into the black. More lights appeared. The stage was set up as two tiers of two rows of doors like you’d find in an apartment building. At the back center of the stage was placed a sofa. Two men were sitting there, both seemingly naked. Adora flinched. Catra squeezed her hand. One of the men wore a full stag mask on his head, the antlers at least half a meter long. The second man was an elk hybrid. They didn’t move, they just sat on opposite sides of the sofa. They’d continue to sit there, staring ahead, unmoving, through the rest of the unfolding mess of the performance.
A door banged open and someone poked their head through, yelling about the upcoming marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. Another door opened and an actor who looked for all the world as if sitting on a toilet behind the door, yelled back that this was way less interesting than the actual plot about Hermia and Demetrius; which lead to yet other doors opening and someone screaming that Hermia should have just eloped with Helena and not this silly man and then someone screamed for everyone to shut up because the fairies were coming. The doors all closed in a panic.
Adora and Catra shared a glance. This was a lot. Catra’s fur was clearly ruffled.
The next bit was clearer. Oberon and Titania had their arguments, the plan was hatched and Puck was sent on his way. Why at some point a lone figure on stage spun around a water balloon attached to their crotch with them exploded all over the stage really didn’t matter anymore. The two elk men still sat there, unmoving.
They continued to sit as the students,eyes wide open or fiercely shut, watched as chaos unfolded on stage.
Hybrids wore human masks and humans wore animal masks and Puck, who it turned out was the pole dancer from the beginning, ran through everything in his tight little speedo orchestrating like a ringmaster, until he was brought to heel. The world was then set right again, which apparently involved every single actor dancing on stage to a disco beat.
Catra covered her ears and fled.
It took Adora a minute between the loud noise and the lack of light to notice, but she set off after her immediately. She found Catra in a side corridor. It was nothing a few scratches behind her ears couldn’t fix.
**
Much later, with everyone nursing a beverage Kaze-Kumo-Sensei had thoughtfully donated, the class was divided. Some thought it had been the worst thing they’d ever seen. Others agreed and loved it all the more.
“It was too loud.” Catra said and Noa wholeheartedly agreed. Their ears were still buzzing slightly from the enormous volume of the celebration music as, probably, all three couples were (re)-married.
“ That was your problem?” Aki snorted. “Not the jizz balloon?”
“Miss Nokoribi, language,” admonished their teacher.
“Sorry, sensei,” Aki muttered, but went on “seriously, that was… that was…” she turned to Kaze-Kumo-Sensei. “ Why?”
“I kinda liked it.” Adora ventured. Everybody turned to her, eyebrows raised, mouths open, expressions bewildered.
“Really?” Sensei asked, sounding delighted.
“I mean, I didn’t need to see so many skin tight undies, or nudity, but it was fun? I mean, the basics of the play were still there, I think? The young lovers ran away, general chaos, upset, climax, happy ending, everybody dance now?”
She felt herself blushing under the attention and shrank slightly in her seat.
“The balloon was a climax all over the stage.” Aki grumbled, not letting this go at all.
The discussion went on, with some students leaning towards Adora and others being utterly horrified by the performance. Sensei smiled and listened, clearly satisfied with having caused this much talk between their students, who had turned out to be delightfully overdressed.
**
Catra had insisted on walking Adora home, arguing that she could go home alone afterwards because she had claws. It was almost midnight. The streets were entirely deserted and it was growing cold. They stopped under a streetlight, not far from the building entrance. They looked at one another, Catra smiling openly, Adora blinking to hold eye contact.
“Wow, that was a lot.” Catra said quietly.
Adora hummed in agreement. She inched closer.
“Do you know what we should do before I go?” Catra asked.
“Kiss,” Adora answered without hesitation. Her girlfriend grinned her cutest grin. Busted. Her tail flicked nervously. Damnit, she would not feel embarrassed about wanting to kiss Adora, Catra told herself.
“Yes, Adora-chan. But first,” she slowly set her hands into the right positions, “we are all dressed up. We should dance.”
Adora’s eyes widened and she looked away. Catra could feel her scent changing to fear. She nuzzled her.
“I.. I can’t…” Adora stammered.
Catra pressed a kiss to her neck and straightened up. She took out her phone without letting go of Adora. Just loud enough for them to hear, music filled the streets. One, two,three - one, two three. One, two, three. Catra’s tail began to sway in sync with the music.
“Don’t worry, my love,” the words set Adora’s face on fire and woke up a swarm of butterflies inside her. “I’ll lead!”
And she did.
Under the streetlights in front of a tokyo high rise, they danced into the new day.