Some people would say that six hours of training drills was too much for ten-year-olds. They would watch, aghast, as these children held weapons in their hand, working together to fight a common enemy that they'd never seen in person. These very same, judgemental people probably thought that children would make better use of their time playing outside, or learning.
These people didn't live in the Fright Zone.
"Kyle, behind you!" Adora shouted, ducking from a laser that soared where her head had just been. Despite the warning, Kyle did not dodge, and was instead hit by the lazer square in the chest. The boy crashed to the floor with a whimper, his other team members shaking their heads in disdain.
Octavia sighed and called off the drill. "Pathetic," she sneered. "You'll be the only team today without a passing score."
"It's Kyle's fault," Lonnie muttered, but was silenced after a quick jab from Rogelio.
"You are a team. One person's failure is everyone's failure."
Adora could have groaned. The number of times their team had failed at Kyle's hands was immeasurable. More often than not, Catra's tail would start thrashing and if Adora wasn't holding her back, she was likely to pounce right on him. This would help nothing, as Kyle would start crying and all of them would be punished. Fortunately, Catra wasn't currently present; she'd been mysteriously absent for most of the day.
"We're sorry," Adora said, speaking for her group. If she didn't, they'd never be dismissed. "I'll make sure it won't happen again."
Octavia snorted, looking between Adora and Kyle and shaking her head. Kyle, for his part, looked particularly guilty. "That'll be the day. Tomorrow we'll add an hour of combat training, just to be sure," she simpered, watching carefully for any sign of resistance in the young trainees. Long ago, the extra training would have elicited a groan, maybe even some argument or protest.
They knew better, now. Except perhaps Catra, but she did it on purpose.
Octavia's eyes fell on Adora last, a hint of a smirk on her lips as she watched the leader of the group. Being Shadow Weaver's favorite put quite the amount of pressure on the young girl, and both officers and captains held her to a higher standard. Used to the behavior, Adora kept straight, her determined gaze never wavering from Octavia.
"I see Catra never showed."
Adora swallowed, rummaging quick through the mental list of excuses she already had prepared. "The burn on her tail got infected," she said, and it was partially the truth. It had been bothering Catra. The other night, Adora had sat with her whimpering friend and rebandaged the burn. "She's in the infirmary."
"Hmm." Octavia looked like she had more to say, but everyone knew of the stupid stunt their team had pulled a couple weeks back. It had started out as a simple challenge, trying to see which of them could get closest to the incinerator. Catra had held back at first, hesitant but curious to watch the others. Then Lonnie called her chicken. With something to prove, Catra didn't make a single noise, not until her tail caught fire.
Injury and illness in the Horde weren't unheard of, but they were frowned upon. Visits to the infirmary were only for serious conditions, and even then, people wouldn't look at you the same. Kyle had been just like everyone else until he caught pneumonia. None of his team had been allowed to visit him in the infirmary; when he returned, he was like a stranger to everyone. It was no wonder that Catra had chosen to suffer in silence rather than admit her burn was bothering her.
Without a reason to linger any longer, Octavia sighed. "See to it that she's on time tomorrow, Adora. Dismissed."
Kyle all but burst into tears the moment they were in the locker room. Not actual tears, for those would be severely punished. But his pathetic blubbering echoed throughout the room until Rogelio awkwardly pat his shoulder. Lonnie narrowed her eyes, only slightly softened by the display. "Don't mess up again," she said, but her voice lacked any real malice.
Adora brushed past them, embarking on her search for Catra. With training over, they had about an hour until dinner rations were handed out. An hour would be plenty of time to track her down. Sometimes, when they were particularly bored, they would make a game of it. Catra would hide and time Adora on how long it would take her to find her. Her record was thirteen minutes and forty nine seconds.
Usually Catra had about six different hiding spots, all in different areas of the Fright Zone. At first they'd been painfully obvious, and her and Adora had been found out hiding away more than once. Shadow Weaver would always take it out on Catra, though, so the kitten had no choice but to get more clever.
Adora spent thirty five minutes looking for her, but to no avail. Each of her hiding spots were empty. Even though she knew better, Adora was starting to worry. If Shadow Weaver caught whiff of Catra's absence, she would get angry. Angry wasn't even the right word to describe it; no word could describe the terrifying manner in which she doled out punishments. The last time she'd gotten angry at Catra, she'd thrown her in a cell for the better part of a day without any meals. When she'd finally been let out, her nails were clawed down, and furious scratch markings covered the door. To this day, they still hadn't fully grown back.
With no time left to look for her, Adora made her way to the mess hall.
Catra didn't make an appearance at dinner, so Adora snuck an extra ration bar on her way out; the green ones were Catra's favorite. When her friend didn't return to the dormitory in preparation for lights-out, Adora went looking again. If Catra really didn't want to be found, she would go upwards.
With nothing more to lose, Adora began to head for the water tower. More than once, Catra had expressed a grand desire to explore it. Most people wouldn't have even thought to go up there; it was too dangerous for most of the Horde to even try. Lucky for Catra, Adora was a pretty good climber. She couldn't fathom what her friend found so interesting about a water tower, but she would bet anything that it was where she was lurking at the moment.
And she was right.
No sooner had Adora reached the top did she finally find her, curled up against the base of the rusty tower. She sighed in relief, an easy smile stretching on her lips. "Have you been hiding here all day? I've been looking all over for you!"
Catra's ears perked as Adora spoke, but she didn't turn. "Go away, Adora. You shouldn't be here," she said, shifting uncomfortably.
"No, you shouldn't be here. You missed training, and dinner, and it's almost lights out. Do you want Shadow Weaver to kill you?"
Fighting back a groan, Catra shook her head. "She's already going to kill me."
Adora raised a brow, taking a seat beside her. Below them, they green lights of various aircrafts and buildings illuminated their view. It would have been pretty if it wasn't the Fright Zone. "What's going on?"
Catra shook her head, her tail thrashing about as she made another uncomfortable sound. "Don't sit next to me. You'll catch it."
"You're not making any sense. Catch what?"
Tears rose to Catra's eyes, shakily pointing at the small pile by her feet. Adora followed her finger, looking closer until she made a face. "Are those…?"
The younger girl nodded, angrily swiping the tears away with her hands. "I don't know how I got them. They itch like crazy," she whimpered, scratching her head in aggravation.
Adora frowned, but didn't get up. She gently rested her hand on Catra's knee. "You need to go to the infirmary."
"No!" Catra hissed, jerking away from Adora's touch. "If Shadow Weaver finds out…"
"What would she do?" Adora couldn't help but chuckle. It wasn't like it was Catra's fault. Bugs weren't a rare occurrence in the Horde. Every so often, a case of lice or bed bugs would break out in one of the bunks. The day after, all of the inhabitants with hair or fur would be sporting buzzcuts. "She can't blame you for this."
"Oh yeah?" Catra scratched her head again, unable to look at Adora. "She blames me for everything. Doesn't matter if I did it or not."
She was right, of course. Not that Adora could see it; somehow, she always managed to escape unscathed and Catra was the one who took the brunt of the punishments. Most of the time, Catra would say she didn't mind, that she could take it. She'd certainly gotten better at taking it, over the years. Still, nothing could quite conceal the pain, the debilitating fear she felt when she was frozen in one of Shadow Weaver's spells.
After a period of silence, Catra's eyes lowered further. "She calls me mangy, like I'm just… a dirty animal. She always said it was only a matter of time before I got fleas," she whispered, more to herself than to Adora.
"So you hid up here?" Adora asked, just as soft.
Catra nodded. "I thought I could take them out myself. It hurts, but anything's better than facing her. And I can't… give everyone fleas because of me. I don't want people to look at me like I'm dirty," she admitted, balling her fist. "Can you imagine what Lonnie would do with that? Or Octavia? I'd never live it down. I'd be known as 'flea bag' for the rest of my life."
As much as Adora wanted to deny it, she knew Catra was right. "I can help you," she offered. "We'll pick them out together. Otherwise you'll never come down. You'd probably die out here," she said, matter-of-factly.
"What if you catch them?"
"Stay still and I won't," Adora said, sticking her tongue out. "Besides, it's me or the infirmary."
Catra rolled her eyes but finally acquiesced, scooting closer to Adora. To her credit, she did her best to stay still, despite the rampant critters that buried themselves in her fur. Adora's work was cut out for her, and she tried to be as gentle as possible.
"You smell disgusting," she grimaced, noticing the abundance of red bumps under Catra's fur. They had to have itched something fierce.
"I stole this spray from the infirmary," Catra said, nodding to a bottle that had rolled off to the side. "It killed most of them. Smells gross, though."
Adora nodded, continuing to pick out the dead fleas from her fur. "Are you in pain?"
"Nothing I can't handle," she snapped, her back stiffening. When she was younger, newer to the fright zone, she'd cry at every little thing. Adora was the only one who was there for her, always ready with a smile and a comforting squeeze. As she grew older, she realized that she didn't want to be the whimpering little kitten anymore. Even if it hurt.
The two sat in silence for a little while, just Adora helping clear Catra's fur. The damage was bad, but not impossible. They may even be able to keep it under wraps if Catra could suffer out the itching in silence. "You know, maybe I'll leave one or two in there," Adora said, trying to break the tension. "Kyle might rock a buzzcut."
Catra scoffed. "That's not even funny. Whoever heard of a cat without its fur?"
"You could start a trend."
"The hairless cat trend? Pass."
Adora giggled; it was an odd thought, indeed. "Yeah, you're right. I like your fur," she said, lifting up some of her hair and pawing through it. "We'll have to clean your bed out, too. Make sure there aren't any creepy crawlers."
Catra didn't respond. Instead she tugged a loose thread from the cuff of her pants, enjoying the feeling of Adora's hands in her hair. It didn't last long, though, for her mind started to wander. She could already see it now, a bug getting loose in the dormitory, the blame falling to her. Her eyes darkened, clenching her fist.
"Do you need to scratch?" Adora asked, noticing how tense she was growing.
"I'm not dirty."
The blonde blinked, taken aback by the suddenness of Catra's words. "Of course you're not," she responded, without even having to think about it. "The fleas could have come from anyone."
Catra lifted her head a bit. "You promise?"
Adora nodded hard, so much that it made her neck ache. She came around to the front, shooting Catra a grin. "Don't listen to them. And besides, you're all clean now. We'll change your sheets and no one will ever know."
As much as Catra wanted to believe her, she couldn't. Everything always turned out to bite her in the rear, no matter how hard she tried. Still, she had to face the music sooner or latter, and she'd starve if she stayed up there any longer. "Okay," she said quietly, fluffing out her hair to her desired volume. "Is the smell too noticeable?"
"Nah," Adora brushed off, quickly getting to her feet. "You'll be fine until wake up early so you're first in line for the showers."
Catra grinned, lacing her arm with Adora's. "You know I won't. And besides, no one can beat Lonnie." The girl was cleaner than a bar of soap; no matter how hard any cadet had tried, she was always first in line for the showers. "Did you save me a ration bar?" she asked hopefully, her ears perked up. Despite telling herself that she'd make it without dinner, her stomach disagreed with the sentiment.
A green block was handed to her with a wink. "They really need to work on their security," Adora said with a mischievous smirk.
It was a wonder how Catra didn't wake up the entire dormitory that night.
The top bunk kept squeaking with every movement she made, and Adora heard every bit of it. If she wasn't so tired, she would have felt sorry for her. By the time they'd returned that evening, everyone had been asleep. They'd quickly changed Catra's bedding and bid each other goodnight, but neither of them actually made it to sleep.
Adora hated that she couldn't go and distract her. She was sure that Catra must have been in agony the entire night, scratching herself in an attempt to quell the itching. Not that she'd admit it if she was in pain. She didn't do that anymore.
When the alarms began to sound at five in the morning, Adora pushed herself up from the mattress, groggy and disoriented. Still, the first thing she did was pull herself up to Catra's bunk, finding her looking just as tired as she felt.
"Any better?"
Catra nodded, rubbing her eyes. "I'm okay. Rogelio snored all night and I couldn't sleep," she lied, yawning soon after. Adora didn't press the lie, knowing it was better to let it slide.
"C'mon, let's hit the showers before all the water is gone."
Before either of them could climb down, they were stopped when an officer walked into their dormitory. He lifted a whistle to his mouth, and within moments a high-pitched shriek filled the room. Every child grew startled, as it was a sound that didn't belong so early in the morning.
"Listen up," Marcus barked, dropping the whistle and holding his hands by his hips. "Dormitory inspections are scheduled for three o'clock, sharp. Block seven came down with a case of fairy-pox this week, a result of untidy quarters. Anyone found not to be adhering to the cleaning code will be reported to Shadow Weaver. Anyone who is feeling unwell should report to the infirmary, immediately."
Catra raised a brow. "Fairy pox?"
"It's nasty. Trust me, you do not want to get it," Adora whispered back. Luckily, she'd never been a victim of it. But she'd seen people who had. Most of them hadn't been the same, after.
As Marcus left, Catra rubbed her head before looking down to her pillow and paling. Judging by the black specs on the blue sheet, Adora had missed a few fleas. Adora watched as Catra's face twisted into worry, then fear. Before she could say anything, Adora squeezed her shoulder.
"Don't worry. Nobody will know."
"They're doing inspections!" Catra hissed, grasping her hair in her hands. "What if they find the bugs?"
Adora quickly shushed her, glancing around to make sure nobody had heard. "They won't find out. Just keep calm, okay?"
Catra smacked her hand away, pouncing on her and pinning her to the bed. "How can I keep calm? Everyone's going to know. I knew I shouldn't have come down," she rattled.
"Nobody will know. Do you trust me?" When Adora didn't receive a reply, she sighed and gently pushed Catra off of her. She could feel the fear radiating off Catra in waves, and it was starting to make her worried. But she had a plan; she'd come up with it at some point during the night.
"What are you going to do?" Catra asked, watching as Adora picked up the dead fleas.
"Don't worry about it. Just trust me, okay?"
"Fine."
"And please, take a shower. I can't smell that spray anymore," Adora teased, tugging her friend's hair before hopping off the bunk.
Despite what Adora had said, Catra didn't trust her.
How could she? It was painfully obvious that when inspections rolled around, they'd find out about her fleas. Even if they were dead, she'd probably be quarantined; the whole dormitory would be quarantined. The entire day, Catra felt like every look she got meant that someone knew. She could only imagine how much worse it would be once they knew.
Adora remained eerily calm about the whole ordeal. She kept insisting that she had a plan, but Catra didn't dare put faith in it. Nearly every plan they ever came up with ended up in some kind of disaster, why shouldn't this one be the same? At two thirty, their morning lessons had concluded and they were dismissed to receive their lunch rations. Adora winked at Catra before disappearing, leaving her to fend for herself.
Though her stomach was in knots, she went to the mess hall anyway. If only for Adora's sake, knowing that she would be upset if she didn't eat. Just her luck, today's lunch rations were her least favorite. It was as if the world was working against her, that day.
On her way back to the dormitory, she tried to think of what Adora's plan could be. A fire drill? No, they'd tried that once to get out of a test, and both of them had been made to run around the base for an hour. Adora wasn't dumb enough to try that one again. Maybe she'd pinned it on Kyle? Catra glanced at Kyle, who was in a good mood for a change. His eyes lit up as he went on and on about something to Rogelio. Probably something stupid, like a book, or a beetle he'd found during one of their survival lessons. Yeah, Catra could see Adora pinning it on Kyle. Everyone would believe that.
Still, she was worried. The closer it got to three, the sicker she felt. All the cadets stood in position by their bunks, waiting for inspection to begin. Catra had to force herself to do the same, despite wanting to find a quiet corner and curl up to hide.
At three on the dot, two officers came in the dormitory and began their inspection, clipboards in hand. Catra held her breath, standing straight and looking ahead the entire time, praying that for once, something would go right in her life. As Marcus and Octavia reached her bunk, she thought she was going to be sick.
"Something wrong, Cadet?" Octavia simpered.
Catra swallowed. "No."
"Let's see what treasures we can find in Catra's bunk this time," Marcus said boredly, starting to poke around her things. Catra bristled, but did her best to keep her face neutral. "Hiding any rats again?"
"No."
Octavia scoffed, but didn't press as she began looting through Adora's bunk. After a few minutes both she and Marcus noted something down on their clipboard before moving on to the next bunk. Catra's heart thumped loudly against her small chest, wondering what they'd marked. More than anything, she was confused. Where was Adora? She should have been here.
When they finished the last bunk, Marcus and Octavia exchanged a few hushed words before Octavia cleared her throat. "Stand down. Inspection passed, Cadets. Nice work."
"Everyone?" Kyle asked, looking as relieved as Catra felt.
"Your hospital corners need more work," Marcus said gruffly. "But yes, everyone. At ease, Cadets." With that said, the two left the room.
Catra sank to Adora's bed, covering her face and trying to quell the blood pumping in her ears. She was full of adrenaline now, wanting to punch something. But with training not for another thirty minutes, she was left with nothing to do but think. Whatever Adora had done, it worked.
"Hey, Catra."
Catra's ears immediately perked as she heard Adora's voice. She sat up, ready to pounce on her friend and grill her on what had happened. But when she took in her appearance, she paused, jaw dropping.
Adora's blonde ponytail was gone.
She grinned, watching Catra's reaction. "That bad, huh?"
"What did you do? I don't get it, your hair…"
Adora shrugged, sitting by Catra on the bed. "I took the blame for the bugs. Told them I snuck out this morning and went dumpster diving," she said with a wicked grin, rubbing her head for a moment.
"And they bought it?" Catra asked, her tail swishing in curiousity as she took in her friend's new appearance. It didn't look bad on her, really. Her ears stuck out a bit, but it was cute.
"Hook line, and sinker. I have toilet duty for the next two weeks, but whatever." She shrugged before laughing a bit. "At least then I know they'll be clean."
Catra nudged her ribs, rolling her eyes. "Hey, that was one time!"
"Whatever you say, Catra."
She couldn't stop staring at Adora's hair. Part of her wanted to reach out and touch it, but she hesitated. "Hey, Adora?"
"Yeah?"
"You didn't have to take the blame for me."
"Yes, I did. I decided that I really didn't want the image of you without fur seared into my brain. And my hair will grow back, so…" Adora trailed off.
Catra smiled. "Yeah, wouldn't have been a pretty picture, that's for sure."
"Besides…" Adora mused, getting off her bed and holding out her hand to Catra. "This will make me much faster in combat training today. I'll beat you with my eyes closed."
Catra took her hand but yanked her down to the bed, cackling as she got up on her own. "Fat chance. I'd like to see you try."