Author's Notes:

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter.

The relationship between Adora and Catra are so complicated and amazing and interesting and I just- gah! I love writing them.

And, hey, I know this story isn't as popular as the rest of my stories (especially with how new the She-Ra fandom is and how cliche this AU is)... but that's not gonna stop me from uploading~

The story does have a plot. It has what I call an "outer plot" which won't be revealed until later chapters and an "inner plot" which is basically Catra and Adora's romance. They correlate with each other. I don't think it's that heavy, really, especially compared to the other conflicts of my story, but it is quite... interesting.

The world-building is also nice.

Bow is a gem and he is my child.

Histories and Chemistries

III

"Hey, Adora." Those heterochromatic eyes sparkled with mirth and gratitude as the girl put her feet down from the desk to stand up. Her eyes roamed to her figure up and down and Adora blushed, looking away and gripping the strap of her bag.

"Catra," she greeted, hoping her voice didn't show her enthusiasm.

She closed the door to gain a better sense of privacy before walking to the goofily-grinning noirette, her footsteps echoing in the empty classroom.

"Wow." Catra laughed, rubbing the back of her neck. "Didn't think you'd actually come."

Me too, she wanted to say.

The girl's nervousness disappeared as she gave a low chuckle - one that fastened Adora's heartbeat. "Not that I'm complaining, of course."

She rolled her blue eyes at that. "Okay, what do I have to tutor you?"

The other girl clapped her hands together. "Right! Getting down to business!" She unnecessarily pulled a chair for Adora before grabbing a seat from another desk, sitting backward, resting her head on the top rail of the chair.

Adora's eye twitched but she made no comment. Technically, she wasn't a teacher… which meant she couldn't scold the girl for her unorthodox way of sitting.

Catra pulled out her textbook, flipped a couple of pages over before beginning to point. "So, I don't understand this and this and this and this… oh, maybe a little bit of this too."

Blue eyes squinted at the circles she made, as well as a couple doodles of a middle finger and… dicks…

How… mature.

"... I'm starting to regret coming here."

Catra looked up to her with those enigmatic eyes and giggled, one side of her lips twitching more upward than the latter. With how the sun cast its light to this room… it almost looked like Catra was literally glowing. "No you're not."

No. She was not.

…

"Do you even need my tutoring lessons?" asked Adora as she looked down on the answers written on the paper, not knowing whether to scowl or be impressed. "You're doing fine on your own."

'Fine' was putting it lightly.

Catra had been able to answer almost every question correctly in a rather short period of time… even if she chose to answer them using her own 'creative' ways instead of using the formulas instructed by the textbook.

The troublemaker gave a light shrug. "As I said, I wanna do more than just fine." Suddenly, her face adopted a face too pitiful to be genuine. "Unless… you don't want me to do more than just fine."

Adora huffed, giving the girl's shoulder a light shove. "You know what I mean." Honestly, the girl could be such a drama queen at times, which was weird since she claimed to be 'the realest out there'... whatever that meant.

Then, a question popped into her head, one that had been lingering for quite a while. She was reluctant to ask but knew that if she didn't do so, then it'd bother her for the rest of the evening.

"How's Shadow Weaver doing?"

Catra's face fell and she adopted her aloof and distant mask, leaning back, refusing to meet her eyes. "Still a bitch," was the quick answer. "And still wants you to go back to The Horde." The noirette's tone made it clear how she felt about that.

Shadow Weaver.

That was, obviously, not her real name. But it was the name she insisted upon everyone calling.

She was a teacher who - though not officially - was part of The Horde. No one knew why she hadn't been fired as the teacher. No one dared to ask, either.

She was involved in their childhood, moreso than she really should be considering her… eccentric… personality.

She, for unknown reasons, favored Adora more than the other children.

She also, for also unknown reasons, disliked Catra.

Adora bit her lip, remembering the times Catra would get yelled at for seemingly no reason. Wanting to change the dark subject, she tried, "What about-"

"Hordak?" Catra beamed, glad that they were talking about another topic, leaning forward and slightly hunching on the chair. "Still the same mysterious, brooding, angsty teen who listens to too many emo musics." She slyly grinned. "I think he's plotting to take down The Princesses, by the way, so you better watch out for any… evil auras." She waggled her eyebrows not-so-suggestively.

Adora stared at her.

"... I was going to say our friends, actually."

Catra's face fell and a light shade of red rose to her cheeks, accenting her freckles, causing Adora to put a hand on her lips, quietly giggling. She always looked so cute when she was blushing.

After sputtering a few jumbles of incoherent words, the noirette pouted and crossed her arms, trying to look like the uncaring troublemaker she was known as but ending up looking like the real Catra. "They still like you better than me."

This time, it was Adora's face that fell, the small smile on her lips vanishing in an instant, like a light that had been switched off.

"Catra, why… why do you still want to be apart of The Horde?"

The Horde…

Adora never believed Catra belonged there.

It was such a brutal place, the worst of the worst, even by the school's standards. There was a reason why all students and even many teachers feared them.

And Catra played a role in it all, she was in the midst of all the mayhem.

She didn't fit in.

Not like Adora used to.

Catra smiled softly at her, the kind of smile she wore when she wanted people to stop worrying.

"Because it's fun." She gave a helpless shrug. "I get to do what I like and anybody who says otherwise can go fuck themselves." Her gaze drifted outwards, towards the window. Adora wondered what she saw outside. "It makes me feel free, you know. And it makes me feel good, too, knowing that I'm not the only one who likes messing around and messing with the teachers."

The eyes of bright yellow and green met the calm shade of dark blue.

"I could ask you the same, Adora." Her smile was almost wicked. "Why do you still want to be apart of The Princesses?"

"You know why." The answer came too easily.

Catra gave her an odd look before running her hand to her hair, lightly grooming it as she hummed thoughtfully. "Actually, I don't think I do." Adora blinked. She elaborated. "You have this thing where you want to just help everybody and… I don't know why. I've never known why."

The last part was a whisper.

A whisper caught by Adora.

She blinked and looked down, fiddling with her pen. "Well, it's because… helping others is the right thing to do. I don't need any other reason."

Catra refused to meet her eyes. She laughed in that carefree way that made Adora feel lighter and better about herself.

"This. This is what I love about you, Adora."

Her heart skipped a beat.

"Love?"

Their eyes met again and, for a moment, Adora felt something sparkling in her eyes. But, as always, Catra hid whatever that something was and ducked her head as she fluttered her lashes. "Yeah. L-O-V-E. Love." She then propped her face on one hand as she waved the other. "Like that nice guy's shirt."

"I know what love is!" she choked, mad at herself with how red her face was.

Catra looked into her eyes. Adora felt like she was looking right at her soul. How was this girl able to make her feel so transparent? So… vulnerable…

"Do you, now?"

No, she didn't. She just pretended that she did.

"Do you love someone?"

A beat passed.

Then another.

And then…

"I better get going, Catra." She was already standing up, picking her notes and textbooks and shoving it into her bag at a fast pace.

Catra simply stared, looking at her with that unreadable, infuriating gaze of hers.

"Right." A soft sigh. "Bye, Adora."

To be Continued

Author's Notes:

Someone on YouTube made a video titled "Hey Adora" and it's a compilation of Catra saying - you guessed it - "Hey, Adora".

When I watched it, I noticed just how nice her voice sounds whenever she said it. And now I don't want to write Catra greeting Adora by anything other than "Hey, Adora" and ending it on "Bye, Adora". It just… It doesn't feel right, you know.