A/N

Just a forewarning, I do not condone, nor advise, self-harm as a solution to mental health issues. I didn't go into any serious details, but it is mentioned. Thanks for reading!

Catra walks down that hall that leads to the maintenance bay for vehicles. Someone told her to go down there to check on the status of her group's skiff. If this damn thing isn't operating, then we could all scratch ourselves out of the big mission coming up to Thaymore. Why do I always have to be the responsible one? She nears the large open metal doors to go in and hears someone tinkering inside. The metal clanks as a few of the mechanics are looking over a variety of their machinery.

She looks around for hers when she catches a familiar scent.

She's caught completely off guard.

It makes her stop in her tracks. Her eyes widen and her breath hitches.

She closes her eyes to take in a long drag of the delicious smell. It was faint, but for Catra it was clear as day. She can sense it through the harsh smell of metal and oil that normally makes her sensitive nose twinge.

She starts to let her feet move in the direction it leads her to. Her eyes open barely a sliver to keep her from bumping into things. She walks towards the southern wall just past an M88 tank when the scent disappears.

Catra's eyes shoot open and she feels like something has been ripped away from her. How did I lose it?! She looks around frantically and then notices a door to her left. She runs towards it and it creaks open automatically with her presence. She goes out into the new hallway and it hits her again. It's even more pungent now than before and she runs after it. She leaps and continues on all fours – scraping her nails along the floor for traction on a turn. Marks be damned, she thinks. She makes another left turn and she runs into the origin of the scent.

Her body collides with another and they both collapse to the floor from the force. Mismatched eyes meet blue as Catra lays on top of Adora with her hands on each side of her head. They lay there longer than either of them intended "Catra?" Adora says it and it's like no one has ever said her name that way.

Tears – she doesn't realize are there – begin to form and prick at the edges of her mismatched eyes. Adora? She then looks down at their compromised position and Catra feels her face become hot.

As if Adora could hear her thoughts, she pulls herself out from under Catra. They both rise facing each other. "Catra, where did you come from?"

"Me? Where the helldid you come from? I-I – Shadow Weaver took you away, Adora!" Her head pounding with anger towards their supposed caretaker – more like lifedestroyer, Catra rolls her eyes.

She hears Catra, but Adora just smiles after fully realizing that they're both here. She stands there taking in Catra, like she's made some monumental change since the last time she's seen her. There's something different. She catches the smell of her scent and it feels like something is nagging at her mind. She reaches out pulling in Catra's warm body, gripping tightly to her.

Catra can hardly believe this is real, and the unexpected physical contact is new. She almost lets out a snarky response like geeze, someone missed me in the most sarcastic tone she could muster; but it remained in her head, and on the tip of her tongue. Instead, something else catches her attention. She rotates her head leaving the top of Adora's shoulder and takes a deep breath as she nuzzles into Adora's neck. She finds the source of the lovely smell that makes her feel so completely at home. The movement had happened so simply that it's almost a reflex of something she's done so many times before, but she hasn't. It just felt so natural, and she just starts taking in the essence of Adora.

Her scent triggers something in Catra and she finally returns Adora's embrace. She wraps her arms around the firm body in front of her and she squeezes. She squeezes her hard, digging her nails into the heavy fabric of her jacket. She puts to memory every sensation she feels. Her nose gently glides up the sensitive skin of the blonde's neck as she inches closer to her ear. After a low hum, Catra rasps out, "hey, Adora," right into the other girl's ear.

The show of affection does not fall on dead ears as Adora's body is covered in chill bumps all the way down her legs. Adora grips tightly at the shirt of the other as she pulls her painfully against her. The need for closeness growing in the blonde's body. She's found her again and doesn't want to let go.

"Shit, Adora," Catra hisses from the blonde's brute strength, but she doesn't push her away.

It also doesn't deter Adora at all. If anything, it turns her on. Adora isn't expecting the sensation of desire that surges down into her core after hearing those words and feeling this familiar warm body. Adora groans, and she begins to sense the beginnings of a lustful haze. She raises her head next to Catra's neck and begins pressing her face against it – breathing in her own share of Catra's essence – and letting it fog her brain even more.

They begin to grip and writhe in each other's arms as they try to satiate this deep need to be close to one another. Catra succumbs to the need she has for Adora. It's one she's never experienced before, but she can't help but surrender to it. When she realizes they started getting carried away is when she starts to feel something growing and pressing against the top of her thigh. She remembers learning in her class about when female alphas get aroused – such a dumb word for horny – their clit swells to a much larger size making it able to penetrate. Fuck, Catra thinks, penetrate sounds amazing.

Adora's grip on her back and waist gets tighter as she begins to feel a familiar sensation. This time is different than before, though. Before, had been an innocent moment after a heated dream, but this has more fervor to it – more desperation. How long had it been? A few days? A month? They can't remember, or care. All Adora can think about is Catra's body on hers and how amazing it feels to her newly formed body part rubbing against her.

A groan comes from Catra's mouth, "Nnnngh, fuck" she says it forcefully, like she's been building up this pressure in her lungs and the only release was to groan in Adora's ear.

It catches Adora's immediate attention and she pulls back slightly to look into those blue and yellow eyes, before she loses herself.

Catra's eyes open to see where Adora's head had moved to and makes direct eye contact with her. They just stare at each other breathlessly as the blonde looks down at the heated full lips of a cat-girl.

Adora leans in to kiss her –

Catra sits straight up in her bed gasping at air she could've sworn Adora stole from her.

She turns her head left and right as she remembers where she is. It's still so dark out, she must've woken in the middle of the night.

She pulls in her legs as she thinks about what had just happened. She thinks about the moment of closeness that had just been painfully ripped away from her in a matter of moments. I thought I had her, she thinks. It was just a stupid dream! The painful rip in her chest and the need to find Adora and protect her rages through her small body. She lays back and clutches at her shirt, pulling it away to keep it from suffocating her where she lay. Tears stream down her face again, but this time they don't have permission. She gets angry and furiously rubs them away, biting down on her tongue to keep it from continuing. She distracts herself with the actual physical pain of her incisors digging into her flesh. She focuses all she can on it and throws Adora's pillow off into the corner - 10 feet away. She grunts as she rolls onto her elbows and knees. Her head is planted on the ground and her hands are balled into fists gripping in her hair as she shuts her eyes tightly. She painfully holds her breath and squeezes her eyes shut as she waits for the moment to pass.

All the physical pain caused slowly drowns out the pain in her chest and she finally takes in air. She slowly controls her breathing as to not make too much noise to alert anyone else. The last thing I need is some nosey ass poking into my business, she thinks. Her eyes that are still tightly pinched shut start to ease into just simply being closed. Her body stops betraying her as it calms. She still vaguely can smell the scent of the alpha that haunts her, and she'll never admit that she likes how she can still feel the presence of her body against her own. Although painful, she relishes in how good that dream was – how it made her feel close to her best friend once more. She'd work out the overly touchy moment later, when she wasn't fighting the need to be next to her. She opens her eyes fully and spots the discarded pillow in the corner of the bay. She huffs out a heavy sigh and gets up to retrieve it. She grabs it and brings it back to her bunk and clutches it to her chest with her arms and legs wrapped around it. Shit, I'm in trouble.

Catra wakes up when the alarm bell rings throughout the bay.

No more dreams, thank God. She rolls over and immediately gets out of the warmth from her mat and shoves the heel of her hand in her eye. She rubs away the sleep – and lack of sleep due to some seriously intense dream – and makes her way over to the locker room to clean up.

She sees Lonnie and gives her a curt nod in her direction as she makes her way to the bathroom. She relieves herself and, after a long torturous night, finds herself wet and sticky as she cleans herself up. What the fuck?

"Let's go Catra! We need to hit up breakfast and make it to the con-op briefing before the mission!" Lonnie's voice booms in loudly shaking Catra out of her thoughts and reminding her that today was Thaymore.

"Yeah, yeah," Catra responds. "Don't get your boxers in a twist, Lonnie. I'll be out in a second." She huffs and cleans herself as best as she can and exits the stall. She rushes to her locker and pulls on her clothes, ready to leave. She looks up at Lonnie as they both make eye contact. "What?" Her question comes out harsh.

"Something seems different about you." Lonnie says it in an accusatory way that puts Catra in a defensive position.

"Nothing is different. Now get your head out of your ass and let's go." She huffs and shoves her shoulder past the other girl and starts making her way to the chow hall.

They run into Kyle and Rogelio and start talking about what they're going to do on the mission. Kyle's voice rings annoyingly in Catra's ears, "I don't know if they'll let me do a lot, but hopefully I don't mess up."

"Oh, shut up Kyle," Lonnie says. "You'll be fine! Just don't do what you did in that simulation when you shot Rogelio." Lonnie scolds him and Rogelio begins to grunt out his response remembering the frustration from that day.

Catra tunes them out as they're in line to get their ration bars. She thinks about Adora in the dream and how it seemed like they were starving for each other's touch. A flash of Adora's furrowed brow and glazed over eyes as their bodies connected runs through her mind. She can't stop focusing on how real it all felt.

She's snapped out of her thoughts when Lonnie shoves Kyle into Catra and she immediately turns – feeling exposed after her very intimate thoughts – and shoves Kyle back into Rogelio. "C'mon guys! Act right for once. If we want to be taken seriously, then we need to get our heads in the game." Her voice is harsh as she berates them. "Besides, I'm gonna be driving a tank if it kills me and you losers better not mess this up for me!" She shows the whites of her fangs.

"Geeze, Catra" Lonnie says. "Someone's excited." She looks at the cat-girl in question and pins her with a look of knowing. "Yano, I heard there was going to be a small insurgent team of alphas coming with us." She directs her words facetiously towards the other guys as she taunts Catra. "I wonder if Adora will be there." Her hand is on her chin as she teases.

"Oh!" Kyle interjecting like always. Catra rolls her eyes. "I bet she will be! That's a great point. I mean she knows how to work with our unit and she'd be a great asset to bring." His voice is so naïve and cheery it almost makes Catra want to puke.

Catra turns back facing forward completely ignoring the jab Lonnie just sent her way. She's been on my case all morning. What the hell is wrong with her? She grabs her tray and starts walking to one of the open tables they frequent. She drops it down almost splattering her food, but just looking at it and the feeling fluttering around in her stomach is making her nauseous. What the hell is wrong with me!?

Lonnie drops her tray and the others follow suit. They all sit down talking about how they plan to conquer the town and take out at least three princesses. Rogelio grunts in approval at the number and they all laugh.

"Catra," Lonnie questions. "What makes you think their gonna let you drive a tank anyways? You're probably gonna roll us off a cliff or something." Kyle loses it as his water comes shooting out of his nose and Lonnie busts out laughing. Each person is laughing at her, now.

"Hardy-har-har. You're hilarious." Her expression is completely blank as she stares back at them. "No. I won't. If anything, I'll be able to take out three princesses without any of your guys' help in that damn thing. So shove it." She gets up without even touching the food on her tray, leaving the others there to snicker behind her back.

"Catra, don't forget the con-op is in 20." Kyle shouts out to the woman just to make sure she remembers.

She raises her hand and waves him off, "yeah-yeah. I'll be there."

She walks towards the maintenance bay and heads insides to check on their skiff for todays mission. She also notices one of the tanks over in the corner that she has her eyes on. She grins mischievously at it. I'll be seeing you later.

She makes it past the center of the room that starts to bring back a sense of déjà vu. Her heart starts thumping a little faster as she nears the same spot as before. She inhales lightly before taking a deep breath.

Nothing.

She can't smell the intoxicating aroma of a familiar alpha. It brings a sense of disappointment. She can't seem to let go of what she had been tormented with from last nights dream. It was so real-

"Alright! Everybody form up!"

Her thoughts are cut short as a loud voice booms from the doors to the outside. She slinks her way over to the group and finds her usual gang off to the left side of this shit circle. The voice that rang out came from a Force Captain that Catra doesn't recognize.

They continue speaking, "Alright, soldiers. The mission to Thaymore is vital in the retaliation against the Rebellion. The convoy will depart in 20 minutes. Everyone do a comms check and set the frequency of your radios to 2563. Make sure you have all equipment assigned to your vehicles on board and –"

Catra zones out from this lame briefing. She casually looks around the group of soldiers. As she's scanning – pffft, not for anyone in particular – she notices a very tall muscley woman off to the side.

"– alphas that are coming with us on this mission. This is Force Captain Huntara" That got Catra's attention. Shouldn't they have started with that? She looks to where they're pointing as she looks over Kyle's big annoying head. She sees the tall muscley lady nod in their direction and keys Catra in to where the alpha unit is. She leans further and stands on the tips of her toes to get a good look, but she still can't see. She huffs and shoves Kyle and two other soldiers out of the way, but she makes it to the center of the huddle. She looks over at the group of alphas. Man, they all smell so… nauseating. Blegh. Adora always smells so musty, but it's pleasant, like sandalwood. Ugh I can't smell her over their nasty asses. She growls as her patience is beginning to run dry.

She can make out the first row of soldiers on the small little force, but there were some more in the back.

"-alright! That's it. Everyone head over to your vehicles and let's get ready to move out!"

Everyone starts to disperse towards their vehicles and Catra starts to push herself towards the unit of alphas. She hopes she can catch something, some kind of hint that Adora is here. She rushes forward shoving herself into the alphas, pushing past one after another; and each one gets more aggravated with her by the second. She finally can't take it, so she calls for her as her voice is just barely above whispering, getting louder each time, "Adora, Adora!"

Suddenly, the group stops moving as the very tall-muscley-Huntara-lady comes straight for Catra. "What you want, little beta?"

Catra's eyes go wide, but she stands firm. Looking up into her face – a six foot four inch woman from her much shorter stature of five foot six – she shows no fear. "Is Adora with your unit?" She holds her ground and pushes out any fear from the intimidating pheromones being shoved into her face, because the need to see Adora outweighs all of it.

"What's it to you, runt?" Her eyes shoot daggers into the feline, but Catra does her best to shoot them right back.

"Catra!" Lonnie says. "We need to get to the vehicle."

The cat woman growls from deep in her throat as she continues her stare down. But Lonnie comes up and grabs her arm.

"Apologies, Force Captain. I'll handle her." Lonnie pulls at Catra's arm and is just barely able to get the two to break apart from their pissing match. They start walking over to the skiff they were assigned.

"What are you doing?!," says Catra. "I almost got an answer out of her. I need to know if Adora is here." She's nearly foaming at the mouth with her anger rising towards Lonnie. Her need to get Adora back is clearly fogging her brain, but she couldn't care at this point – not when she's so close.

"Catra," Lonnie attempts to take a calmer approach to Catra's anger. "If Adora was here, she would've heard your scuffle with their Force Captain and told you to 'shutup' herself. You know that. But she didn't." Realization hits Catra the moment she heard Lonnie's words. They made sense even if she didn't like hearing them. "She must not be here for this mission, Catra, but we still have a job to do. Now, c'mon." She tries to pull the woman towards their skiff, but she holds her ground and doesn't move.

"Go," Catra says. "I'm driving a damn tank." Frustration and anger clear in her voice as she storms off towards the large behemoth. The soldier is about to mount the cockpit of the vehicle before she grabs him by the back of his vest and tosses him off. His body falls to the ground with a loud thud.

"Hey!" He protests, but Catra just hisses in his direction. She got her tank, now she needs to find out more about where they're keeping Adora.