Where Do We Go From Here?
Kitatanya
Chapter 30
A/N: Thank you so much for your support! You're awesome!
Read on, loves!
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Catra stirred slightly and felt Adora stirring slightly beneath her. She was already smiling at the fact they'd woken at the exact same moment, as she lifted her head, blinking sleep from her eyes. She looked down to Adora to see her smiling too and that relaxed and loving, still sleepy, expression on her face made Catra purr a little trill in her happiness. Adora's lazy smile widened a fraction and her eyes were sparkling with gentle humor now to join the love as she lifted her head for a kiss. Catra was leaning into her already and that slow, relaxed and loving kiss was perfection.
As always when they kissed, a gentle hunger curled inside her for her mate, but it was much more reminiscent of the slow and steady blaze that had rippled between them in the meadow, than the devouring inferno of before they had slept. She knew they both knew they couldn't give in again right now. From the soft light Adora had been bathed in, she knew that dawn was coming. They needed to get cleaned up from their time of passion, dress themselves, and at least check in to see if any new information had been gathered while they rested. As much as they now both accepted this time between them as important now as their duty, there was time. There would always be time for this.
Even if they might not be able to give in always, last night had proven to her that there was always a way for them to find a little time for one another. Melog had granted them that amazing time of complete privacy that had let them experience so very, very much in each other and the time they'd just shared before they'd slept had shown another facet of that experience to them too. So, instead of feeling despairing when they slowed that perfect kiss, and the slow and caressing touches kindled between them in that gentle hunger she knew was curling through them both, she felt a sense of wonder.
How much more would they be allowed to discover in each other? How many secrets of passion awaited them in future? Was there ever going to be an end or would these feelings between them keep spiraling impossibly higher and higher each time? She was hoping with every fiber that that last thought would be forever true, even as a part of her was already certain that it was.
As she parted fully from that kiss, she blinked open her eyes to look down at her mate, simply wanting to look at her, happy and loving and smiling up at her. And everything she wanted to see and more was in those sparkling eyes and beaming in that smile Adora was gazing up at her with. Her heart felt like it would break from this sheer an utter happiness, even as it kept pounding on, forever fueled by the love of this gorgeous woman staring up at her.
She wanted her to feel it, all of it, and she wanted to feel all those loving flames burning in her mate beneath her more than anything in this moment. She reached for their soul-bond, taking hold of it with a tenacious and nearly possessive grip and a moment later felt that selfsame pulse as Adora clung to it too. And then, with a tug and a tumble of thought, they were drowning in everything the other was once more.
Love and devotion and a fierce and possessive pride. Adora was hers and she was Adora's. All of each other, good and bad and whole and broken, was all there for only the other. In the destruction and the fury of battle and in the ruthless dispatch of their enemies in the defense of each other and their people and the ones they loved. In the love and the companionship of their friends and the unending support and love of Melog. In their grief for their pasts and in their shining hope for their future, glittering somewhere far ahead of them after their duty was complete, like the stars in the sky; stars now hidden they knew by the growing light of day, but always, always there and burning forever. All of it and beyond was all encompassed in these white-hot flames of devotion and the promise seared irrevocably on their bonded souls between them. They were always this one and nothing would ever tear them apart.
And they were kissing again, exulting in each other and in the shared and familiar sensations of their lips moving together in this promise and these flames and that eternal hunger for one another smoldering beneath it all. The both of them were gasping, quaking as they pulled apart, gazing into the universe of love and wonder and awe spiraling in the other's eyes. They were smiling with it, laughter bubbling in a tide of giddy and soaring and exultant emotion that left them both almost helpless in its wake. But it was a helplessness that they exulted in just as much as the rest.
There was not a drop of despair in either of them as they tugged slowly along the bond to that place of close conversation between them. And even as Catra settled into her own mind, she was still soaring and felt Adora's thoughts soaring in that almost perfect mirror that their thoughts now so often were. A sudden and almost more awing realization struck her then. For all that she'd joked to herself about how sharing a mind with her mate had affected her brain, she realized that that was exactly what had happened. She hadn't realized it before now, but even as they still sometimes thought differently, it was nowhere near the difference that had been so confusing and a little tangled and messy at the very start of their bond.
Their connection was so much more fluid now and their thought processes had begun to flow with that fluidity until it was the way they were now. When they were in that tumbling space of thought, there was barely any difference in their minds. She was just as whole in Adora's thoughts as she was in her own and Adora was the same. Even as they liked the distance of this close conversation and even as they sometimes parted completely to do their duties, or to spare each other their echoed despair and sadness and negative emotions like they had done those few times now between them, they still almost always thought in unison.
Even without the bond, they truly could read each other's thoughts with only their eyes and expression, even more fully than they'd already been able to before. All it took was a glance or a brush of touch and they knew what the other needed and wanted to give it to them, no matter what it was. Even as even now, there were still little moments of disagreement between them- most nowhere near as great as the fracture of yesterday- there was always understanding and love to follow and their thoughts flowed again just as fluidly even as the ripples of that fracture were still coursing between them. In this very moment, Adora was feeling these thoughts in the strong surge echoing between them and was agreeing and supplementing them with her own side of them too and the richness of them was her own as much as it was her mate's.
Melog's words from that day their bond had sprung into being flowed between them then, about how they had told them that their soul-bond and their connection would grow more sure the longer it was there between them. Thoughts of existing forever as one mind or two that were whole even as they were separate with a brush of thought or a conversation at any time. They knew there were more distant places between them, that would cut off these strong emotions from echoing between them that were more like a true conversation. And also again, there was a place, barely there at the end between complete separation, that would connect them in that nebulous way that Adora was connected to Swift Wind. But even as they knew that those places might be something they needed to explore more fully in the future, when they were like this, they somehow felt the most complete.
They could quell their emotions and make this place a conversation like they often did, but anything stronger always came through, even as it was muted in a way because of the distance. They enjoyed it, enjoyed being able to read those emotions in each other's eyes and actions, even as the bond echoed them with only that slightly delayed burst when they felt strongly. The distance felt somehow more intimate than being complete and even as they were both smiling at the contradictory connotations of that truth between them, in light of the fact they always now wanted to be so physically close, again, it was their truth, like Melog had told them many times before.
And suddenly, the both of them wanted to spend time with Melog too, for they were not in the tent again and they knew Melog was somewhere, learning magic from the mages or working already as they rested. They wanted to talk to them and to bond with them and just be near them once more. Adora was suddenly wishing with everything she was she knew where Swift Wind was in this moment, because she wanted to bond again with him too.
She wanted him to know how proud of him she was and just wanted to have another quiet conversation between the four of them once more. Because Catra felt then, in Adora's mind that calling in both of their hearts, and she knew that Adora had only just then realized that Swift Wind would not be coming with them to stars, and she'd be leaving him behind, just like she'd be leaving all of their friends behind. She wanted time with all of them, just as much as she wanted this time alone here with her.
It tore a part of both of them to remember that part of their mission, even if they knew with everything they were it had to be done. They had to leave their people and their home that the both of them now loved deep in their hearts and all of their friends and loved ones behind when they went. They had to go and they knew there was no time to really be able to do what they wanted, just as they knew these little moments that were their right in one another, were not really all the time they wanted too. And the both of them knew that when they left, they might never be able to return. There was no way of truly knowing what their future held in store. All they knew for certain was that they would be together though it all, but even that promise in this moment, could not still their echoed grief at the loss they knew was hurtling their way after the fires of war were finally still here on their home.
Adora wanted to be near all of them in this moment, but especially Swift Wind, because there had been no real time to connect with him since she'd returned from space and she hadn't had a true chance to express to him how very important he was to her in light of everything she felt now that she hadn't really, truly felt before. The conversation between the four of them would be better this time, because Swift Wind now understood their soul-bond just as much as their other friends- the princesses and the ones they loved in that part of their lives, for they had not yet spoken of the truth of their soul-bond to Lonnie and Rogelio and Kyle, or even Ramel for all that they now loved him, out of consideration to their confusion in the truth of it without the time to fully explain it to them- and they knew that Swift Wind understood it now and he was just as happy for them as all of the rest. The longing for his presence was so acute, she knew her mate was already tearing, could smell the salt of them, even as she looked to her again to see them in their reality.
The sight of them made her want to cry herself and seeing and feeling that pain in her mate for Swift Wind, made her want Melog near her even more acutely in that moment, even as every other part of her wanted to take Adora's pain away. She held her mate close and touched their bond, sending every single feeling she felt for the alicorn towards her mate, trying to still that storm of grief taking her over.
Swift Wind was just as strong as each of them in his own way. He loved Etheria, wanted to care for it always. And even if that might mean that when they left among the stars, he would stay, Adora could take pride in knowing that so long as there was power and life in his heart, that their home was well off beneath his hooves. For all that the alicorn still truly annoyed her, just like their friends and even Adora herself still sometimes annoyed her, it had become just another part of her own love for him as was her love for her friends and her mate who was her everything, now and forever.
Just like each and every one of their friends, the princesses, that had been there to bring them back from their darkness-in spirit, even as they could not be there in actuality- so had Swift Wind. His murmured words of love and affection, had filled her heart then too right along with theirs. He'd risked himself to save them, just like their friends had. And just like their friends, even in his exhaustion after, had charged right into battle to defend his home and his people with everything he had.
She pulled that memory of him in that brief moment of comprehension of the battle of Chrytsalyis forward then, seeing him again standing strong and furious in defense of those helpless people. Even further than that, she pulled up the memories of how Swift Wind had stood beside Adora, to defy her in her own evil and twisted plans. Shining with the power of She-Ra, he stood strong and she knew that even if they were away, Swift Wind could still access a part of those fires of fury from She-Ra even without them now. Now he would forever glow with that kaleidoscopic mix between the four of them in that blinding power of one in She-Ra's spirit. They were forever bound as bond-mates, their steeds, for she now realized that for all she had already been bonded to Melog, now a part of that bond was Melog being her true steed in She-Ra's spirit like Swift Wind was for Adora. And even if Melog would always be with them physically, Swift Wind would always be a part of them toom in both of their hearts and in that power that bound them all.
As she let those thoughts and memories pour into Adora, that storm of grief was stilling in her and love and wonder and awe was taking its place in an even stronger wave now. And as Adora was finally able to reach for their bond too, holding it just as tightly as was she, everything between them was roaring all over again and it was wonder to still the storm like it now always was. Adora loved her so much that it hurt almost more than all of the pain from moments ago, and Catra felt that same loving pain right along with her. This storm, this grief, only made them stronger, just as Adora had thought to her the day before. Even as being connected was wonder, so too did these negative feelings still spiral just like the love. They could spare themselves of a part of it, if they let go the bond, but again, just like yesterday, neither of them could bear to do it right now.
There would be a time, probably very near to now when they would have to let it go, because they could not do their duty with these storms that raged between them. But now, right now, no matter what it meant, this was what they wanted. They wanted to be connected, mind and body and soul and they basked in the rightness of these thoughts, just as much as they basked in the kiss now rekindled between them.
And then Melog was there, purring their thunderous and loving purr, and they were happy, because they'd wanted Melog so much before. For all that Melog claimed that they no longer needed them, the both of them did and they knew they always would. Whenever they were unsure and could not be steady in one another in time, there was Melog to help them still the storm and stop the tide, protecting them from themselves even as much as they tried to protect them from everything else. Melog was not their parent, they knew. Just like for all that they loved Castaspella and Hordak in their different ways, and for all they respected Micah, and grieved for Shadow Weaver and Angela, they were not truly their parents either. But neither of them could deny that Melog now came the closest for both of them in every way that mattered and beyond.
They had a wondering thought then as they both sat up and turned to embrace Melog and Melog moved to hold them in their own special way, at how strange their lives and feelings might seem to anyone outside themselves. At how tangled things really were and all the intermingling bonds in their lives might seem nearly incomprehensible to anyone beyond themselves and Melog, for Melog could feel it all right along with them. It was nearly the same thought as they'd shared, when deciding to keep their soul-bond a secret from anyone outside their friends and loved ones who already knew it for what it was. It wasn't that they wanted to hide it from anyone, just as they no longer hid their love for each other except for those private emotions of hunger and need; outside of their new banter and teasing with their friends, of course. It was only that they felt that they should not have to justify it to anyone anymore. This was right for them, just as Melog always said. And now they saw that even if the tangled bonds between them might seem strange to anyone outside themselves, they did not have to justify them either. They were theirs, just like their soul-bond and every part of each other was too. They had a right to these feelings, just as they had a right to each other.
Melog spoke then, purring that gentle and kind timbre that they both held so very dear into their words. 'Yes. It is your right. Your feelings and your happiness are yours and yours alone, even as I share them with you through our bond. I am so happy for you, my precious ones, and so proud of you both. For all that I spoke the words to you in the time of yesterday, I did not dare hope you would be able to accept the truth of them as very quickly as you have. Much less expand upon them in this new and wise way beyond your short years.' They chuffed a sound then that was between a laugh and their special sob, and they held them tighter between them, but still their words and their thoughts so that Melog could speak the words they could sense they wanted so badly to say.
'When I think of how very angry I had to become with you in the past to force my truths into your silly heads, the strength and the tenacity to which you both cling to them now, makes me want to sing and to weep for you all at once. Sing for your happiness and to weep for the struggles inside you that have made you both so very, very strong.' They pulled away then, gentling a kiss over their cheeks and gazing at them with awe and love and no small amount of wonder and they knew it was Melog's own shining through theirs, but there was a pain there beneath it that rang deep and profound.
'In leaps and in bounds do you both continue to grow before my very eyes. A part of me wishes to still time and keep you a little longer as you were before so that I could gentle you again through these storms that you weather now in each other.' And then that pain in their eyes gave way to an even greater wonder and love and a hope that almost outshined them both as it sparkled.'But the rest of me cannot wait to see how you grow and to experience your lives in each other and with me by your side. This bond between us can never be broken, just as that bond you share with each other will never die. I love you, my Catra and my Adora, my, special precious ones. And I always, always will.'
They surged forward then, wrapping their paws around them in that exuberant embrace. In their wonder at the strength of it and those adoring words Melog had spoken, they only just realized yet another truth they'd been blinded to before. This was something Melog had done so often at the start of their lives together, but that they had checked more and more as they days went by. For all that Melog embraced them and supported them kissed them and held them, Melog had been holding themselves back in a way all of this time as they respected the growth in them, even as it had made it feel as if a part of their bond was slipping away. When the one of them had begun to play so openly with them, they had seen that fierce happiness in Melog's eyes and had all but exulted in it, but it was still not something they did often.
They saw a truth in it then, from Melog's words in these recent burst of confession and love, that Melog was still afraid sometimes to be too exuberant in their affections, even as they met each of their affections with such happiness. And, in a sudden burst of clarity, they realized why.
Feeling this parental feeling towards them was as new for Melog as it was for them. While they'd been growing in their trials together, so too had Melog. Melog was had been rebuilding themselves and becoming a new person right alongside them and had all but told them that more than once. They again felt like idiots in the face of Melog's truth for them. Melog had been holding back so much, but the strength of their love for them would not allow them to hold themselves back any longer. And neither of them wanted Melog to hold back anymore. They wanted Melog to show them all of themselves and not just as it mattered in the face of their own emotions and trials and experiences. They needed Melog, just as much as they needed each other. And even as they felt Melog trembling, all but sobbing, with what they were feeling, they wanted Melog to hear these words they both wanted to say.
With a tug, they were the one and they began to speak. "We love you, Melog. We're idiots and we're still just as silly as we were when you first came into our lives. We're foolish and we're simple and we're selfish. We know you want us to be one with one another before all else, but Melog, you're a part of that togetherness too. You're always there for us when we need you. You always drop everything to be by our side in every way we could ever need. While we were sleeping and lost in our darkness and our broken minds, we ignored your grief and would have lain there and let ourselves die. You felt it just like we did, how much we just wanted to die." They were sobbing now, just as hard as Melog was sobbing.
"But you didn't let us. You didn't let us go. You and our friends clung to us, as selfish as we were, and gave us the strength to bring each other back. And then when we woke, we were almost lost again, but there you were, guiding us out of that darkness, just like you'd done so many times before and after. Every time we stumble, even if we may be steadier in each other than we ever were before, a part of that steady comes from you and our love for you. We know you can feel it, how we feel when we wake and see you not here. How it scares us before we're proud of you for all that you do for us and for our friends and for our home." They held them tighter as their own tears began to still, even as Melog was still trembling, still sobbing, crying in that unique way that was only Melog, they now realized they'd been hiding this pain from them all this time.
"You say we don't need you, Melog, but you're wrong. So wrong. Neither of us can imagine a future without you in it, just like we can't imagine a future without each other. You felt how much we were hurting and how much we needed you just now. At how much it's going to hurt us to leave all of our loved ones and our people and our home behind. But we won't leave you, Melog and you won't leave us. You're a part of us. We know you said it before, that you aren't really our mother or our father, but in a way, that's exactly what you are for us now."
Finally, finally, Melog's tears began to still, but they held them even tighter in the absence of them wanting them to feel all of what they were feeling with every part of them as much as they could. "So keep calling us silly and strange. Keep being angry with us when we need to see a truth that we're too dumb to see. Keep loving us and keep guiding us, because we are always going to need you." Then, in a flicker of mischief that they loved in each other and that they knew Melog loved too, they spoke again. "Like it or not, you're stuck with us idiots, because without you, we'd probably get ourselves killed trying to be heroes."
And Melog laughed then, a booming rumble that was almost a low roar. They pulled away from them laughing and shaking their head in loving exasperation. 'I fear that is a greater truth than either of you quite realize.' They growled the words in a playful tone, lashing their tail with a glare that made the both of them think they were about to be sprung upon. They were laughing, recoiling playfully even as Melog did not actually move to spring at them. Melog chuffed another laugh and all but sprang to their feet.
The sudden and now familiar twinkle in their eyes, cut their laughter of with a little, tiny thrill of surprised trepidation at once. 'Come then, my silly, precious ones. If you wish to be chided, I have chastisements enough to meet your request and more. You do not care for yourselves enough and this shall be rectified. Gather your bathing materials and your clothes. You will be clean and dressed before the morning fully comes and then, you must eat, for you are always forgetting.' They snorted in a very matter of fact manner as they strode from the tent. 'Do not delay long for I shall drag you if I must.' The threat was another playful growl from outside.
They were frozen for all of a second, before they dissolved into giggling and snickers. Again, it was that feeling of being nothing but naughty little children all over again. A part of them loved it even as they knew it made them even more silly than they already felt. They were not quite certain though, whether or not a part of Melog's threat was real. Melog was more than powerful enough to render them all but helpless and they knew it. That fact did not scare them in the least, for instead it made them feel proud, but at the same time, the thought of being drug visibly through a town full of people was not in the least bit pleasant and Melog just might do it if they didn't hurry.
The thought made the both of them giggle a little more nervously and they reached for their bond almost at once to part again to that place of close conversation. As soon as Catra settled in her head, she reached for the pack of their belongings that their friends had retrieved for them when they'd set up their tent. She plopped it down before them and let Adora dig hers out first, for her mate had far more to gather than she did. Then, she realized they were being idiots all over again. Adora paused in her digging and shot her an incredulous look.
Catra grinned at the expression. "Let's just take the whole pack." She replied aloud. "Then we can pack our dirty clothes back up right away."
Adora sighed a laugh and rolled her eyes and Catra grinned wider as she felt her mate strongly chastising herself. "Once again, you're right. We're idiots." She muttered, shoving the articles she'd collected back into the pack.
Catra stood as she finished, taking the pack up herself before Adora could go to carry it like she almost always insisted she wanted to do. She felt that feeling in her mate as Adora opened her mouth to speak it and she shot her a sharp look to stop her words. As independent as her mate always felt she had to be, she could carry their things sometimes too and share the burden. Besides, it had been her suggestion this time so it was only right and she let her mate feel the thought unchecked. Adora was grumbling unintelligibly aloud and through the bond, but she acquiesced to her demand and let Catra pull her to her feet.
Catra did not try to check her satisfaction as she led her now grumpy mate from the tent and she was grinning because she felt Adora scowling as it echoed to her. Without responding to her in any way, knowing with a certainty it would rile her further, she grinned her mischief at Melog who was waiting for them. They were wearing a strange expression that gave her pause. They canted their eyes to the left and she noticed Ramel was nodding, all but asleep, exactly where they'd left him the previous evening and frowned. He looked utterly exhausted.
Adora's grumpy cloud faded into surprise as she noticed him too. "Ramel?" She called softly.
Instantly, he snapped fully awake, spine shooting straight as he looked their way. "Greetings, my saviors three." His voice was soft, even as it surged with respect and his new, strengthening affection for them. As he smiled his happy smile, his face smoothed of its tired lines and the both of them realized at once that he had been hiding this exhaustion from them until now.
She did not like that at all and was as concerned for him as Adora was as her mate led them closer to him. "What are you doing here, Ramel?" She chided softly. "You should be resting."
He blushed, tucking his chin to hide his sudden embarrassment. "I did not wish to leave my self-appointed duties unattended." He admitted sheepishly.
Curiosity joined the concern echoing between them. "You mentioned these duties yesterday." Adora spoke softly. "What exactly is that that you feel like you have to do?"
His blush deepened in an instant and he began to look more than a frightened as he hunched over himself, staring down at his now twiddling his thumbs in his lap. It was again, that difference that made him unique among the clones they knew showing in him now. He was the most expressive clone they'd ever met and he was growing more expressive almost each time they saw him. He was speaking more freely too, expressing his emotions even more fully, even as he still spoke in that selfsame mannerism to which they had long become accustomed to through Hordak. They knew between them it was because he'd been spending so much time with other people lately instead of reconnecting with any of his brethren. Regardless to how nice it was to see him so open, seeing that open fear in him made them ache for him in that new, almost mothing fondness between them. Without even exchanging a glance, because their minds were one in this moment like in so many others, Catra all but dropped the pack at their side as they sat before him.
Even as they were settling and Melog was coming to sit near them, Adora reached out her free hand to lay a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to be scared, Ramel. We won't be mad at you." She reassured him gently.
He glanced up at them, almost a tiny peek, before looking back down. "I have been very forward in my appointment of them, even as I feel it is right." His voice was very small and held a bittersweet mix of fear, hope, and just a hint of petulance at the punishment and chiding her no doubt expected to receive at the words.
She was grinning at hearing that little petulant hint there, even as she was still worried for him. "And you were also told that you didn't have to fear in asking for anything from us." She reminded him, being firm, but just as gentle as her mate. Her grin shifted into a loving smile as she felt Adora immediately have to stifle a sudden giddiness at her tone.
Hush, dummy. She chided playfully, letting her mate feel how silly and adorable she thought she was for her rocketing and uncontrollable giddiness each time she tried to be this new person she was becoming to others.
She loved that it no longer balked her and embarrassed it her like it had before and that now, instead, she could embrace it as a part of the woman she loved. But even as she embraced it, it made it impossible to focus on anything serious like they needed to right now. Ramel needed them and they loved him and she wanted to make him feel better as soon as possible so he could go get some much-needed rest. Adora was almost instantly contrite and stifled it, even as Catra could feel it trying to surge again at the loving tone of her concerned thoughts for their special clone.
That little pause from them seemed to have given him time to gather a little courage, because he looked up at them now, instead of trying to hide his face. "I wished to watch over you as you slept, as I looked over you before with my new and self-proclaimed friends." He admitted softly, his tone still small and afraid, but now no longer petulant at all. The both of them felt a rush of almost painfully acute affection for him then, but he kept speaking before they could reply. "I have heard talk of Brother Dak and his people in the crystal city and many soldiers have openly wondered at why I have not been sent to join him and his brothers. The way they make it seem is that that is where I should be, but it is not where I want to be in my heart! I do not wish to go!" He all but cried the denial and tears were gathering in his eyes with the strength of his sudden and surging emotions. They wanted instantly to respond, but they held themselves still, because Ramel had not finished what he felt he had to say and they did not want to check his words.
"I know that my new Queen, and you my Saviors Three-" The way he spoke the special term for the three of them sounded more like a title now than ever before. "-and the other great leaders of this liberating army have told me that I may express my wishes, but if I cannot be useful, then I fear you will send me away. So I thought that if I could guard you and keep a watch for your belongings that my new and self-proclaimed friends helped me to collect and to place here, that I could prevent that which I fear may happen. Please, do not send me away." He was pleading now, almost as fervently as he'd pled for his life when he'd thought they would kill him just for being a clone and his head fell down with a great sob.
They could stay silent and still no longer upon hearing that plea and were surging forward to hug him between them in an instant. "Oh, Ramel!" Her mate sounded like she was about to cry herself and Catra could feel her all but weeping through the bond. The feel of it and that sound in her voice, almost made her tear up herself, but she fought them away like Adora was fighting so hard to do. "We're not going to send you away!" She reassured him, voice breaking on her withheld tears.
He hugged them back tentatively, just like he'd done at first the day before. But when Melog wound around the three of them, purring that healing, loving, kind purring, Ramel was clinging to them all at once. "You truly will not send me away, even if I am not able to be useful?" His voice was trembling with tears and a painful hope that hurt them both to hear.
"We promise." She and her mate told him together, holding him even more tightly.
"You're a good person, Ramel, and the Alliance needs good people, just like you." Adora's words wavered, but they rang with the truth now spiraling between them. "Now almost more than ever, Etheria needs people like you. And we need you too, just like we told you yesterday. Your words helped us and helped our friends to see anew hope." She said it now more openly than they'd tried to before, because she and her mate now knew Ramel had not believed them and they wanted him to. Then, all of that pain and earnest worry in her mate suddenly stilled and Catra felt a tiny lick of white-hot flame through their bond, that stilled her every thought. "And if any soldier ever tells you that you don't belong here, you send them our way and we will tell them exactly how we feel about it." The deadly, possessive snarl in her mate's tone, stilled Catra's building tears in an instant.
It did not turn her thoughts to hunger, like it always had in the past. Instead, this time it filled her with awe, because she felt that furious fire that they now knew was a true mother's ruthlessness in the defense of her child, roaring like a wildfire in her mate. Feeling that fire and that possessive edge, gave her a glimpse of what her mate would be like in defense of their child. And just like every glimpse Adora had seemed to see in her interactions with Ramel, now too did she feel that surge of almost soaring and giddy love for her mate, to imagine her tearing some poor fool to pieces over that tiny life they wished to save in their future.
A tiny, little part of her thought that the gruesomeness of that giddy thought should have given her pause, but it felt so very right to feel it that the rest of her didn't question it. Just as she knew her mate would lay waste to anyone foolish enough to strike at her, as she would lay waste to anyone who moved against her mate in turn, so too now was this fire between them that gave them that same new edge to protect the ones they loved besides. Their child was going to be the safest little child in the universe once they took them in to love as their own.
In the instant Adora truly registered those thoughts in that giddy surge she could not quell, that wildfire in her mate was soaring ever higher shifting it into the righteous and devoted flames of the promise between them. Catra let it sear her again, pulling those flames to life in her own soul to rage between them in a spiraling and blinding inferno of love and devotion and promise.
They pulled away from Ramel then, smiling at him with all of thar fierce fire between them, because he was a part of that promise too. He was the one who had opened their eyes to this new part of the future they wanted and they wanted him to know that they would keep him as safe as this war would allow. That smile stilled the last of his lingering tears with surprise, but that gentle surprise lasted for only an instant. Then he was smiling that big, unabashed and wondering smile at them once more.
"I am sorry that I ever doubted your great benevolence, my saviors." The awe and the respect in his tone, humbled them and amazed them all over again.
She was shaking her head as Adora smiled at him and she felt her mate stifling a laugh. "We're not your saviors, Ramel." She told him softly. All of his wonder faded to confusion in an instant, and then Adora was no longer able to stifle her laugh as that confusion pulled one from her instead.
She grinned at her mate, before looking back to him. "We're just people, Ramel." She told him then, wanting him to understand that his gratitude was unnecessary like they tried to do a few times the previous evening. "We're Etherians just like you."
"Etherians who glow and kick butt with mushy princess power!" Lonnie's familiar and sarcastic voice cried from behind them.
Catra looked up to see her standing tall in front of their tent, as Rogelio gently led a still obviously half-asleep Kyle outside by the hand. Rogelio was gazing at him with so much adoring and open love and affection that it made her own heart lurch with affection. When Rogelio reached Lonnie he sent them a surprisingly cheeky wink, before leaning down to plant a kiss over her smirking cheek. Lonnie was instantly blushing with embarrassed pleasure. He rumbled a low laugh as she shot him a playful glare and tugged Kyle gently forward between them.
Lonnie's expression dissolved into a mirror of the one Rogelio had worn moments ago as she wrapped an arm over Kyle's shoulder and drew him against her side in an instant. He blinked away his lingering sleep enough to send her a tired, but no less adoring smile and he leaned up to kiss her cheek as Rogelio had done. Again, Rogelio rumbled another laugh at the embarrassed pleasure now renewed on her face and at Kyle's gentle tug to the hand he still held, he let go and wrapped his arms around the both of them, holding them. Lonnie's other arm drew around his waist, holding him back as tightly as she was able.
Kyle's arms wrapped around her, head drifting down onto her chest as he sagged between them with a happy sigh. Lonnie murmured a soft laugh as Rogelio squeezed them tighter at the sound and he leaned down, pressing their foreheads together with a rumbling sound that was almost a purr. She pressed up into him, eyes sliding shut as his did, any they just held each other, happy and content.
Catra had been all but frozen, watching this open and loving display of affection between her friends with no small amount of affectionate delight. They had been open in their affections even last night, but this was the biggest display they'd shown in their presence yet. It made her feel special that they trusted she and Adora enough to be so open in front of them. And now her heart was almost soaring right back into that giddy place all over again in her sheer happiness at the thought. Her mate did not even try to check her own giddiness and Catra had to turn to her, catching her as her mate all but swooned with the combined strength of their happiness and her love for Catra upon feeling her own and that thought all at once.
Catra had to bite back a laugh as she caught Ramel's concerned expression out of the corner of her eye. "She's fine." She reassured him gently. "She's just a dummy sometimes." She could not keep a loving purr from her tone as she said the words.
She felt a half-formed thought from her mate that she at least want to try to look offended, but it was gone before it could take root. Now it was Catra's turn to laugh and she drew her swooning mate closer to her and nuzzled into her blushing cheek. Adora was giggling in an instant as the tickling sensation pulled her from her daze. She laughed again as her mate nuzzled her right back and thought her heart would burst with love and happiness.
Melog chuffed a laugh. 'The morning will be gone before you have a chance to bathe, my silly ones.' They chided softly.
Catra grinned at them as she and Adora pulled away and then she looked to Ramel to see him smiling at them once more. The exhaustion she could now see in his eyes now that she knew to look for it, made her frown again in concern. "Go and get some rest, Ramel." She ordered softly.
He blinked, surprised, and then sighed, lowering his head in defeat. "I will do as you ask."
Adora reached out and grasped his shoulder in a firm grip, prompting him to look back up. As soon as his gaze met hers, she beamed a smile at him that made him blush. "Thank you." She murmured, letting the soft words ring with her fervent gratitude and relief.
Catra almost had to bite her cheek to stop a snicker as Ramel's eyes went just a tiny bit distant. She knew that dazed look, because she'd worn it herself and had seen it through Adora's eye in their memories more than once. Her mate's beauty was a force to be reckoned with when she smiled like that. She knew that for all that she had told her mate often how beautiful she found her and for all that Adora could feel it from her, she still didn't believe it and it only made Catra love her even more.
Even now, Adora was blushing as she looked to her again, surprised by the strength of those loving thoughts that Catra did not check in the least. She purred a soft laugh and stood, holding down a hand to her adorably oblivious mate as she again took up their pack. "Let's go before Melog makes bigger fools out of the both of us." She teased softly.
Adora laughed then and took her hand, letting her draw her to her feet. Ramel stood too, smiling at them. He nodded, not quite a bow, but not quite a casual goodbye, before he turned and started away through the tents. They watched him go for a moment, happiness and their love for him ringing freely between them as they tugged one another closer, simply wanting to be close in all those happy feelings. Then, Catra looked to their friends once more, wanting to say goodbye, and found the three of them still in their embrace, but watching them now with the same happiness as she and her mate had watched them with only moments ago.
Her heart skipped again a little beat in her chest in happy pleasure, seeing them as happy from she and Adora as they'd been for them. She was more glad now than ever that that she'd seen them in that battle and had moved in their defense without even thinking it through. It could have all gone so horribly wrong, after how awfully she'd treated them in the past. But all this tangled time they'd been apart had changed all of them and only for the better. And being able to experience all of this with Adora, echoing all of this happiness and love and wonder right back at her, was everything she never dreamed could possibly be waiting for her when she'd been so broken in the past. She turned to her then meeting that sparkling gaze once more and hoped that it would never cease to amaze her always, like it did right now.
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And there we go! Thank you so very much for reading! I hope you enjoyed and I hope to see you along as we head on towards the future!
Until next time, loves! Stay safe and read on! Ja!