TW: Miscarriage in italics.
It took six weeks after Catra came home for Adora to come clean. Initially, she was just going to let it be swept under the rug and not bother upsetting her wife. She'd done it before, when she'd lost a baby. Yeah. This weren't Adora's first rodeo. Sure, Catra had wondered why Adora hadn't fallen pregnant, despite having the rune that allowed them to, and often asked why she was particularly upset on the odd week, but she was so excited about the potential child to come forth, Adora didn't want to risk breaking her heart over something her body failed to do successfully. For a while, she'd written it off as stress.
But that only worked when you had something to be stressed about.
Who had she cried to when the losses happened?
For the first two times, nobody. She cried to herself when she was alone, smiling when she was in public. After the third wound her in the infirmary for excessive bleeding, and thankfully Catra had taken Violet away to see Entrapta for the weekend - so she never knew - it was Bow who found her, pale as a sheet, trying to get to the infirmary.
He'd become her go-to for every failure her body did… which was more often than you think. Until the one before this, where he was actually trying to mediate a fight between Adora and Catra, agreeing to let Adora sleep in her old room for the night to cool off. She remembered the night, vividly.
Adora paced angrily in hers and Catra's room, fuming to a silent Bow, who simply rocked, at the time, an eight-month old Angelle to sleep. "I just- UGH!" She growled, throwing her hands in the air. "Can you believe her?" Bow hummed in agreement, though looking back on it, Adora seriously doubted he'd heard her. "Not that I don't love you're finally letting your emotions out and not balling them up like before," He began. Adora glared out of the corner of her eye. "But if you aren't speaking to her, I'd go to your room. She's due to finish with Glim," Adora puffed out heavily between her lips, flashing a tight-lipped smile at her friend and stood up. A sharp pain darted across her middle. She winced. "You good?" Bow asked, hovering a hand near her shoulder. Adora bit back the tears, already knowing what was happening. "Yeah… probably overtrained again... but I'll be good in the morning,"
...
Adora woke up the next morning in a groggy state of mind. Her eyes felt crusty and her throat burned. She groaned loudly and swung an arm over her eyes. The sun lit her room up. She rubbed her eyes and sighed into her hands. She should really apologise to Catra. She said some... not nice things. Maybe if she apologised, she would too? She shook some of her hair out of her face and swung her legs out of bed. They were very cold for some reason and... damp? Adora glanced down, expecting to see water stains. Maybe she'd dropped some on herself in the night? But no.
Blood. Everywhere. Down her thighs, in her trousers, all over her bed. She gasped. She slowly moved off the bed, tears streaming down her face. Tears leaked from her eyes. She sobbed, putting hands on her belly. No. No, no, no, no, no! She cried.
She stood, frozen, on the spot. Tears fell from her eyes, but she couldn't move. "Princess Adora?" Somebody called. She gasped wetly. "Uh... I'm coming," She called. Adora inhaled deeply and squeezed her eyes shut. She forced herself to assume her solider head: clean everything up and put some clean clothes on. Being She-Ra and pregnant meant regular visits to the healers to make sure the baby was ok. All her clothes were back at her house, so she had to improvise and use her one pair of clean underwear balled up as a protection to stop the blood leaking into her trousers. She could grab some supplies from the healers. It was the only way it'd work. She took off her soiled sleepwear and bundled it up into her tiny bag.
Adora cried softly at the blood that had begun to form at her feet. She took a deep breath and opened the door. Surprisingly, Mermista was loitering the corridors. "I heard you had your first marital fight," She called. Adora rolled her eyes, trying to fit into her usual persona. Mermista narrowed her eyes. "Uh huh. I'm going back home today… so whatever's wrong will be sorted," Adora answered. Mermista hummed quietly. "Just don't go all She-Ra on her,"
Adora made a face but matched her pace. Her stomach kept sending waves of pain through her entire body. "Do you know if Catra's still here? I doubt she went home that late," She asked. Mermista made a face. "You're not very good at marital grudges, Adora," She noted. The blonde sighed evenly through her nose. Mermista raised her brow, gesturing over her shoulder. "Mooding in her old room," She nodded her thanks and slowly made her way over. Adora reached Catra's door, just as ehe opened it. "Oh," She said. Catra blinked. "I was just about to come talk to you," She quietly said. Adora hummed softly. "Come in, I need to ask you something,"
She steeled her nerves again and walked through. She stayed standing even when Catra sat down. "Bow grabbed me last night," She began. "Told me you were injured in training," She continued. Adora bit her lip hard. "Yep." Catra sighed. "Are you ok?" The question threw her. She was expecting: Why didn't you tell me straight away? or Why do you do this to yourself? Did you go to the healers? Why are you so stupid?
She couldn't hold it in anymore. Tears began to rush down her face. "Hey, why're you crying? What did you do?" She dropped to the ground, unable to stop her legs from quaking. She felt Catra's warm body grab her and hold her tightly. She sobbed into her shirt. "Shhh," Catra whispered as she rocked them back and forth. "I miscarried," She whispered. She felt Catra's body tense. "What?" She whispered back. "Please don't make me say it again," She begged. Tears raced down her cheeks at a newfound rate. Catra pulled away and held her by her shoulders. "You... you were pregnant?" She asked quietly. Mulan looked away and sniffed as more tears raced down her face. "I was... about three months," She cried softly. Catra didn't say anything. "Please... please say something," She begged. "I- did I cause it?" She asked quietly. Mulan shook her head, "No… I uh… I'd started having pains early… I just… I thought it was like Vi," Telling the tale made her nauseous.
She thought Catra would yell, push her away and accuse her of being careless. But instead, she pulled her in for a tighter hug.
Suffice it to say, Adora didn't want to put Catra through that emotional toll again. So she waited. What spurred the moment to tell her, actually, was cleaning the bathroom. Violet had gotten into the pain supply and decided to try and colour her hair blue, like Merlea's. It's safe to say it didn't go well, hence Catra running her to the nearest hairdresser. As Adora was sweeping out the cupboard, an old pregnancy test fell out. She held it in her hands, flipping it back and forth a few times. She glanced up at the clock briefly. "Oh, what the hell," She mumbled to herself. Putting the test on the counter, she grabbed her glass and began to drink water.
It took twenty-five minutes for her body to need to pee, so she held the pregnancy stick out and did her business. After she'd finished, she put it on some toilet roll (didn't wanna ruin the freshly cleaned counters, obviously) and left it on the side to time. In the dreaded five minutes, despite already knowing it was gonna say no, she brushed her hair in the mirror, picking out any dead ends. The fourth minute passed by, just as Catra walked back in. "Crisis mostly averted!" She shouted. Quickly hiding the test in the cupboard, hidden within the toilet roll, Adora washed her hands and jogged downstairs. "Oh… Vi," She couldn't help but laugh.
Violet harrumphed, stomping on the ground. "That's what you get for using paint to dye your hair," Catra smugly said from the doorway. Violet whirled on her, yelling. "Don't TEASE me!" Catra's ear twitched in tandem with her tail, showing her agitation. "Violet Rey," Adora warned, using her, dubbed "mom" voice. The… slightly less blonde/red headed, more very light blue/light purple haired six year old, spun in her direction, immediately withering beneath her mom's warning eyes. "YOU'RE BOTH MEANIES!" She screamed, running for her room.
Adora puffed a breath out, glancing at Catra. The magicat held up her finger, waiting until…. SLAM… Violet slammed her bedroom door. Only then, did she begin to laugh.
Her worries forgotten, Adora laughed too.
