Disclaimer: I don't own She Ra!

Title: Down by the Pond

Summary: Being enemies doesn't stop Adora and Catra from having a date.

…

There's a solid half-dozen places where the Horde meets the rebellion territory line that are decent places to go- and that's only off the top of her mind; Adora's sure there's plenty more she's simply unaware of- but Catra always wants to go to the same little pond surrounded by trees. Adora doesn't mind it, but she also knows that Catra hates water. Even when they were little, she'd go days without taking showers, hiding in the vents when Shadow Weaver would come calling.

Maybe she picked that spot to make sure she wouldn't get too comfortable.

But Adora can't just ask (she might agree, and then things would get awkward. Awkward-er?), so she brings up different places, and Catra shoots them down, and honestly they don't exactly have a lot of time to set these things up between stabbing and trying to rip throats out so Adora just concedes and packs herself a simple lunch. Then she sat, her back to the border, and waited.

Adora doesn't hear Catra coming. One second she's alone- the next, there's a firm, warm back touching hers. Adora leans back a little, acknowledging her presence, then goes about eating. She can hear Catra doing the same.

It's a quiet meal, but that's to be expected. One of the few rules for all of this was that the war not be mentioned- and for them, without the war, what can they say? It's all they've ever known. But when they talk about war, they ultimately talk about picking sides, and one thing leads to another and they're trying to kill each other all over again.

It's happened twice before now. Adora's not shooting for a third.

"I heard you got a promotion," she says instead, as if said promotion wasn't a very big risk for her and the people she's siding with. As if said promotion hadn't come from almost killing the rebellion.

Catra stops eating, ears falling sideways. It's a very neutral expression. "Yeah."

Adora nods. "Congrats."

"What about you?"

"What about me?" she asks, then realizes what she means and shakes her head. "It doesn't work like that in Bright Moon. Not for me."

Catra's shoulders hunch. The tip of her tail flicks back and forth, brushing her leg. "That's dumb."

The whole war is dumb, she thinks, but it wouldn't do any good to say it. It didn't really matter what she thought about it, did it? The war had been going on long before she was born- and, likewise, her path was chosen the moment the first She-Ra pulled the sword from the scabbard. All complaining ever got with Shadow Weaver was a swift beating. "They don't want a Horde soldier leading them."

"You gotta change that."

"Do you want me to be a promotion?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "That was the plan, wasn't it? We both get promoted and do our thing."

"I think the plan has gone a bit sideways, don't you?"

"I dunno, Adora, you tell me. We're only having lunch in the middle in the woods," she snorted. "But you don't get to worm out of it that easy."

"Fair enough," Adora says, and goes back to eating.

This is the first time since they've parted ways that Catra grabs her lapels and whips her around, pressing their lips together, but it's not their first kiss overall. In those 'storybooks' Glimmer has read to her, this would be the moment where they pulled back and fall in love and want to stay and everything will be okay. But it's not.

"You don't get to die by anyone's hand but mine," she growled, nose pressed against hers. It makes Adora a bit cross-eyed. "The war doesn't get to ruin this. We get to ruin this."

Author's Note: idk I just rlly like the thought of Adora and Catra having secret rendezvous even though everything around them is going to hell.

-Mandaree1