Love as Medicine

by Zelenal

Adora loves her life. There's a lot of hard and tedious work, sure, but she's surrounded by more love than she ever could have imagined. Then, one day, she becomes sick and things take a turn for the worse.

A/N: My last SPOP fic took place about a week post-canon. This one takes place about a year post-canon. As such, I have thrown you all to the wolves in regards to all of my headcanons. I do not apologize.

---

Adora's day started out like almost every other day the past year: with the topless and still sleeping Catra snuggled into her side.

The topless part had started about two months into their relationship. Something that Adora really enjoyed doing was petting her girlfriend first thing in the morning and as they were going to sleep and it was something that Catra very much enjoyed as well. As such, one night, as they were getting ready for bed, Catra had simply shucked off shirt and forwent her usual pajama top. Once Adora had been capable of using words again, Catra had explained that this simply made it easier for Adora to pet her.

As she began to idly pet her girlfriend— her touch feather light to avoid waking her up— Adora couldn't help but marvel at how soft her fur was for the umpteenth time that week. Catra had pretty much always had soft fur— back when they were kids and it was more-or-less allowed, Adora had enjoyed petting her or burying her face in her neck— but her time in Bright Moon had simply made it even softer. Thanks to a combination of high quality soap made specifically for fur and a healthy diet, Catra's fur practically shined and Adora was pretty sure that she now knew what it was like to pet and snuggle against a cloud.

What made today different from all of those other days was a slight itch in the back of her throat and just the general feeling of something not being right. Not the "something is wrong with Etheria" not right but rather the "something is wrong with me" not right. It was a vague feeling, however, and was quickly forgotten as she saw one of Catra's ears twitch and the air was filled by her purring.

This was perhaps Adora's favorite part of the day: watching her girlfriend wake up. It was usually a slow process that started with her ears twitching and her purring starting up (the first time Catra had started purring before she had even fully woken up, Adora's heart had nearly melted) before she'd start shifting. She'd curl a bit closer to Adora, fingers flexing into her side or back, before letting out a sweet little groan as she arched her back and stretched out her legs and arms. Then she'd smack her lips a few times and either open her eyes if she was planning on waking up or curl back into Adora if she wasn't.

Today was very much a "curl back into Adora" day but, regrettably, Adora couldn't stay there and go back to sleep herself. She had a meeting this morning with some dignitary from a place that she couldn't be bothered to remember right now and an unknown amount of things to do after. While she was absolutely not the best pick for the meetings, Catra (who was the Royal Advisor and normally handled these things) had gotten a day off and Bow was working with Entrapta on upgrades to Darla (their brief test roadtrip three months prior had been successful but had also revealed a number of flaws) so it fell to her to back Glimmer up. She wasn't bad at these things— not anymore, at any rate— but it definitely wasn't her forte, either.

While Catra was in the stretching part of her routine, Adora quickly pressed a kiss to her forehead before quickly extracting herself while she had the chance. She quickly and silently got ready for the day before looking at the bed one last time to see, as usual, Catra vaguely glaring at her through half-lidded, sleep-laden eyes.

"Love you," Adora said with a fond smile. Catra replied with a mumbled "Love you, too" as she grabbed Adora's pillow and curled around it before going back to sleep.

OoOoOoO

Adora entered the smaller dining room used where there were only a few people eating and couldn't stop her smile from growing as she saw Glimmer sitting there. She was dressed for the day, all prim and proper in every way that a queen should be, but she was also slumped on her elbows over her barely eaten breakfast, a cup of coffee cradled in her hands as she stared vaguely off into space.

"Good morning!" Adora said cheerfully as she started to make her way over to her.

Glimmer didn't even so much as spare her a glance before grumbling out, "There's no such thing as a good morning."

Adora chuckled as she gently pushed Glimmer's coffee down before bending down to give her a slow, gentle kiss on the lips, one that Glimmer groggily returned. "How about now?" she asked, a smug smirk plastered on her face.

Glimmer looked at Adora for a long moment before muttering "This is an acceptable morning" into her coffee.

Adora chuckled again as she sat down at the plate of food that Glimmer had already ordered for her. This particular development was an interesting and natural one that happened a bit over a month ago just after their roadtrip. It had actually been Catra who had brought it up, surprisingly enough. As they had settled into their relatively peaceful lives and they all started to heal from their various traumas and hangups, Catra had found that she couldn't imagine not having Glimmer and Bow in her life any more than she could imagine not having Adora. That, on its own, was incredibly sweet but there was more.

Catra had revealed to Adora (after working it out with Perfuma in their weekly therapy sessions) that the love she felt for Glimmer was much greater than the love she felt for her other friends— even if it was nowhere close to the love she felt for Adora— and that the title of "best friend" just simply didn't sit right. She wanted to try that whole polyamory thing if everyone else was down for it.

This revelation both was and was not a shock. Catra and Glimmer had basically been flirting with each other for a while and Adora had sensed that, after a certain incident on the planet Anaxes where Glimmer saved Catra's life, the flirting had become a bit more… loaded. It wasn't quite the light and playful teasing that it had been and had gained an undercurrent of something that Adora hadn't been able to fully identify at the time.

On Adora's end, she couldn't deny that she had some particularly strong feelings for Glimmer and Bow both once she started to allow herself to want things. She had felt a familiar— if lesser— flutter in her heart whenever she heard them laugh and had started wondering what it would be like to kiss them. Needless to say, she was down with it so long as the other two were.

Now, Adora was very much a lesbian— this is something she had actually realized alongside Catra back when they were cadets— so her having those thoughts regarding Bow had been a bit of a surprise. After unpacking those feelings, she had found that the love she felt for Bow was different from the love she felt for Glimmer and, obviously, Catra. Her love for him was a purely emotional one that went far beyond simple friendship. She still felt absolutely no physical attraction to men so she figured that Bow was simply her one exception in that regard.

Since both Catra and Adora were down for it, after they worked out a few more details between themselves, they gathered up every ounce of courage that they had and pulled Glimmer and Bow aside one day to talk about it. It was, perhaps, the most nervous that they had ever been in their lives but they knew that, however the conversation turned out, everything would be fine.

Glimmer had had to visibly restrain herself from agreeing the second she realized where the conversation was headed. This also wasn't much of a surprise since it was fairly well known that Glimmer was very thirsty. Upon reflecting on it now that she had better knowledge and understanding, Adora distinctly recalled a fair number of times where Glimmer was clearly (in retrospect) ogling her both during and after the war. She had also admitted once the offer was made to having had a bit of a crush on Catra during the war since she had found both her appearance and general demeanor incredibly hot (something that Adora could 100% agree with— Catra's commanding presence was a thing of beauty that had left her hot and bothered once in the safety of Bright Moon on more than one occasion).

Bow had also been okay with it (a development that, to this day, Adora was unsure as to whether or not it was surprising) stating that he was down with trying it out with Adora. Even if it didn't quite work out that way between them, he was more than fine with Glimmer doing her thing.

And so, that's how the Best Friend Squad turned into a polycule. Things were a bit awkward at first as everyone adjusted to the new dynamics but it didn't take too long until they had everything more-or-less straightened out. They learned more things about themselves and each other and the strength of their bond only grew. The only "loose end," as it were, was Bow and Catra but they talked about it and quickly decided that there just simply wasn't anything there (Catra wasn't even necessarily a lesbian as she had only ever been attracted to Adora until relatively recently; turned out she was demisexual).

"So, what's on the docket today?" Adora asked around her breakfast.

Glimmer, unlike Adora, waited until she swallowed before speaking. "Let's see, we have a meeting with an ambassador from Lythsia, one with an ambassador from Redgrave, the regular meeting with the council, we need to make appearances in three different towns, we need to review the kingdom's budget, we need to arrange aid for Thaymore—"

"What happened to Thaymore?" Adora interrupted.

"Most of it burned down in a freak fire. Apparently, someone's cow kicked over a lantern."

"What is with that place?"

"I dunno. At this point, I'm convinced that it's cursed. Anyway, we need to visit Salineas to renew our peace treaty and junk, uh… I think Entrapta wanted to talk with us about something? And that's basically it for what we have planned."

Adora hummed in thought as she finished eating before saying, "So, just a normal day, then."

Glimmer chuckled slightly. "Yeah, pretty much."

"Sounds like we'll need to schedule some cuddle time in there somewhere."

"We most certainly will. If Redgrave sends the same person as last time, I swear I'm gonna commit at least three different war crimes."

"Can you even commit a war crime when you're not at war?"

"I will find a way."

OoOoOoO

By the end of the day, Adora was more exhausted than she had been in quite some time. The day had actually gone pretty smoothly— thankfully, Redgrave had sent someone different— and she had gotten plenty of cuddle time with Glimmer (by the Sea Gate had been her favorite) but she had found herself flagging barely even halfway through the day. She had managed to push past it, though; to stop it from affecting her all that much. Her instincts were still sharp and she had a lifetime of experience with pushing through simple fatigue.

Now that she was outside of her door, however, the fatigue hit her like a runaway bot. She took a moment to steady herself from the wave of vertigo that suddenly overcame her before finally pushing the door open.

"Hey, Adora," Catra greeted her from where she was sitting at the desk against the wall, various papers containing the drawings she had been working on spread out on it. Adora looked at her smiling face— happy and loving with a hint of mischievousness— and her eyes that were twinkling with joy and tender affection and, just like that, her tiredness was forgotten.

"Hey, Catra," Adora returned as she fully entered their room and shut the door behind her, returning her smile with one of her own. She very much loved Bow and Glimmer— of that there was absolutely no doubt— but Catra was, is, and always will be special. Bow and Glimmer were vital parts of her home but Catra was her home. This was a distinction that she felt absolutely no guilt about since she knew that the same was true for Bow and Glimmer's relationship with each other.

"Long day?" she asked as she stood up and stretched.

Adora took off her jacket and hung it up before running her hand through her hair as she answered, "Oddly enough, yeah. Nothing major happened, it's just one of those days, I guess."

"Aww, did the big, strong She-Ra get tuckered out from a bunch of meetings?" Catra teased as she started to stalk her way over to her.

"Oh, please. Like you haven't come back from those meetings wanting nothing more than to sleep for a week," Adora shot back as she met her girlfriend half way and pulled her into a hug.

Catra stayed quiet for a moment, a gentle purr rumbling through her chest and spreading through Adora's body. It was enough to bring her earlier lethargy back and nearly turn her into a puddle. Eventually, Catra pulled back enough to smirk up at Adora and say, "Yeah but, last time I checked, I couldn't turn into an eight-foot-tall warrior goddess."

"More like seven-and-a-half, actually," Adora muttered in response only to flinch when Catra flicked her between her eyes.

"Dork," Catra said with a fond laugh before leaning back in to give her a long, gentle kiss. When they finally pulled back, they took a moment to get lost in each other's eyes like the lovestruck idiots that they were (seriously, it's been a year and Adora still can't get over the fact that Catra loves her and that she can just do this) before Catra finally asked, "Have you had dinner yet?"

"Yeah. Glimmer and I stopped at The Quick Bisque before coming home. Why?"

"Okay, first, now that you've mentioned it, you need to take me there again next chance we get. Second, good. Sparkles has had you all day and I am overdue for some cuddles."

Adora chuckled as she let Catra slowly drag her to their bed. "Yes, ma'am."

OoOoOoO

Adora's day started out like almost every other day the past year: with the topless and still sleeping Catra snuggled into her side.

While waking up like this was no longer the revelation it once was— her mind struggling to fully comprehend that this was real— it was still something she marveled at. She recalled a time when they were still little kids and had been allowed to sleep like this. While she hadn't really complained at the time, she had been saddened when Shadow Weaver had banned them from doing it. Of course, that hadn't stopped Catra from occasionally sneaking into her bunk once everyone else was asleep anyway. During those times, the fact that Adora was usually awake before everyone else had been very helpful.

Thinking back on things, while Adora had always been a stickler for rules, she'd always break them for Catra. That hadn't changed ever during the war. It hadn't changed even when she had died.

Pushing that morbid thought aside, Adore considered the two reasons as to why this wasn't like every other morning ever since the war. The first was the return of that itchiness in the back of her throat and general sense of wrongness but this time coupled with a vague pressure in her head. The second was that she was still feeling oddly lethargic despite having gotten a good night's sleep. She was half tempted to just cuddle closer to Catra and go back to sleep but she knew that she couldn't. A lot of people needed She-Ra today. What's more, Catra also had a pretty busy day ahead of her.

So, with a measure of reluctance that was greater than usual, Adora carefully disentangled herself from Catra (since she still had a bit before she needed to get up) and started to get ready. She had finished her morning rituals and had just finished getting dressed for the day when she was suddenly hit by the loudest sneeze in her life.

Catra let out something between a startled yelp and a yowl as she managed to jump a solid two feet into the air despite having been laying on her back before twisting to land on her feet. "What is it‽ What's going on‽ Are we under attack‽" she yelled as her wide and wild eyes frantically darted around the room, her claws out and ready to pounce, her fur bristled, and her tail puffed out the max. Meanwhile, Melog had been knocked off the bed and was still staggering to their feet.

Adora chuckled sheepishly as she sniffed and rubbed at her nose with the sleeve of her jacket. "Everything's fine. I just sneezed. Sorry, Cat."

"That was a sneeze?" Catra asked, her voice incredulous as she turned to face Adora. At least her fur started to settle and her claws retracted. "That sounded like a bomb going off!"

Adora could only rub the back of her neck, her smile sheepish and apologetic. "Sorry."

Catra pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned as she hopped off their bed. "Well, guess I'm awake now. Might as well get ready. Meet you down at breakfast?"

"Yeah, sure!" Adora smiled at her girlfriend and gave her a quick kiss. "Love you!"

"Love you, too."

OoOoOoO

Today had been a long day for Adora. There had been a lot of She-Ra'ing to do in a bunch of different places so, since Glimmer was busy with a seemingly endless string of meetings and paperwork, Adora had been traveling around on Swift Wind. While the major reconstruction projects had been more-or-less finished (or at least progressed to the point where She-Ra wasn't needed), there was still a whole bunch of minor work to do as well as the odd magical creature problem.

Normally, such a day wouldn't have been a problem for her. The majority of her time had just been spent flying around on Swift Wind, occasionally chatting with him, but her lethargy and general aches and pains had just continued to grow. The first time she had transformed into She-Ra, she'd had to fight back a sigh of relief as all of that went away. It had come back with a vengeance when she dropped the transformation so, the next time she transformed, she decided to just stay that way for a while. When Swift Wind had questioned her on this, she had just said that, as She-Ra, they could fly as fast and as high as he wanted with the added benefit of getting them home faster. While Adora was typically quite possibly the worst liar in the universe, nothing she had said had been a lie so the words came easily and Swift Wind had bought them.

After having finally finished her assigned tasks for the day, Adora glanced at the afternoon moons and figured that she had enough time for a quick nap before dinner as Catra finished up whatever it was that she was doing. As such, since she was no longer needed, Adora decided to drop out of She-Ra mid flight.

This turned out to be one of the greatest mistakes of her life.

A wave of vertigo hit her that was so strong she had to squeeze her eyes shut to stop the world from spinning. Her heart was beating at a hundred miles a second, her temples throbbing in time with it as her brain tried to burst out of her skull. She couldn't get enough air into her lungs, she felt like she was on fire, she could only hear the sound of her thundering heartbeat, the world was still spinning spinning spinning falling falling falling.

And then Adora knew no more.

OoOoOoO

Catra let out an explosive sigh from where she sat at her desk in the office she shared with Glimmer as she hit hour three of them working through the mountain of proposals and correspondences. This was the part of her job that she hated the most and was also, sadly, what it mostly entailed. There had been a little bit of understandable uncertainty when Glimmer had appointed her as her Royal Advisor but that very quickly evaporated after Catra had gotten everything running with an unprecedented level of efficiency within a week.

Running an entire army effectively by yourself had its upsides, it seemed.

Now, a year into the affair, Glimmer had become a beast of efficiency herself. While she wasn't quite as good as Catra was on her own, she had still managed to squeeze a few more drops of efficiency out of their systems that Catra had missed. Between the two of them, they had gotten Bright Moon running so smoothly and with so little waste that the other princesses had been asking them for advice. They had even taken a day to gather everyone together for Catra to give a lesson on Efficiency 101.

Catra's endless quest for efficiency had little to do with wanting to be good at her job and more to do with wanting to feed her inherently lazy side. The smoother things ran, the fewer problems there were. The fewer problems there were, the less work she had to do.

At least, that's how it was supposed to work. In practice, it just meant that the two of them pretty much never needed to worry about things going on in Bright Moon and could instead focus on the litany of problems beyond their borders. It was astounding how many people needed their help even to this day.

On more than one occasion, Glimmer and Catra had idly entertained the idea of conquering the world in the name of Efficiency. Regrettably, the only one who'd be down for that idea would be Entrapta.

"You okay, Catra? You're fidgeting more than normal," Glimmer asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"Yeah, I'm— I'm fine?" Catra hadn't intended that to come out as a question. At Glimmer's raised eyebrow, she continued. "Well, I'm fine but… I dunno, I feel like I need to do something."

"What do you need to do?"

"I don't know. Something."

"Do you think this has something to do with that weird ESP thing you have going on with Adora?" Glimmer asked. Ever since their first time when they had bared their souls to each other a week after the war, Catra and Adora had this weird, almost psychic bond. It was like their instincts had been woven together and they sometimes just knew what the other was feeling or would feel the need to do something for seemingly no reason. Every time they bared their souls to each other afterward, that connection simply grew. Adora had even started to be able to somewhat hear Melog (she could only make out a few words here and there but she could clearly hear their voice).

They had tried to explain this and what they had done to Glimmer and Bow once but they hadn't been able to understand it at all. The only person Catra told this bit of information to who did understand it had been Perfuma and she had been overjoyed. Apparently, they were something called soulmates.

"Probably," Catra replied with a groan as she rubbed at her eyes with one hand.

Glimmer glanced at the clock before saying, "It's getting pretty close to lunchtime so let's take a break early. That way you should have plenty of time to figure out whatever it is you need to do."

Catra gave Glimmer an appreciative smile. "Thanks, Glim."

"Don't mention it," Glimmer replied as she entwined her fingers together over her head and stretched, letting out a soft groan when something in her back popped. "Do you mind sending these off?" she asked as she gestured to her stack of completed paperwork.

"Sure, no problem." A spell circle formed over Glimmer's hand as she levitated the stack over to Catra's desk and on top of her own pile. While she was more than capable of doing this herself, Catra needed the practice.

With swift, well-practiced movements, Catra manually drew a magic circle in the air before placing her hand against it and placing it on top of the stack. There was a bright flash as the papers were teleported to where they needed to go.

This was something that Catra had picked up about a month after the war ended when the urgency of reconstruction had decreased to the point where the Best Friend Squad could start relaxing a little. Apparently, Magicats had an innate talent for sorcery and Catra had picked it up incredibly quickly. While she couldn't cast anything beyond the simplest spells without manually drawing a magic circle, she was getting better every day.

When this talent had first been discovered thanks to Micah, Catra's feelings on the matter had been mixed. On one hand, she was furious that this was yet another thing that Shadow Weaver kept from her; a part of her heritage that she had taken from her. On the other hand, her experiences with magic throughout her life made her hesitant to learn something that Shadow Weaver had been able to do.

Eventually, after some talks with Perfuma, Castaspella, and a few others, Catra had decided to give it a shot, to try and reclaim her heritage and form good memories about magic to help fight against the bad ones. She was very much glad that she had decided to do that as she had found the process of both learning magic and casting spells to be enjoyable. She had even formed a very lighthearted rivalry with Glimmer to see who could advance the fastest.

The fact that it gave her new and exciting ways to mess with her friends was just a bonus.

With the spell complete, the two of them straightened up their desks. "Where do you need to go?" Glimmer asked as she and Catra approached each other.

"My room," Catra answered as she held out her hand. Glimmer took it and the world lurched as they disappeared in a shower of sparkles before reappearing outside the door to Catra's room less than a second later. Thankfully, after all this time, Catra had gotten used to teleportation so it almost never affected her.

"Good luck," Glimmer said as she gave Catra a quick kiss. "See you at lunch?"

Catra smiled. "You bet." With that, Glimmer disappeared in another shower of sparkles.

Now alone, Catra entered her room and shut the door behind her as she looked around. Whenever moments like this occurred, it was almost always something in their room that they needed to do. It was just a simple matter of scanning the place and letting their instincts guide them.

When Catra's gaze swept over their bed, it froze as she locked onto it. She quickly walked to it and just stood there, letting herself feel for a moment. Her instincts eventually led to her stripping the bed down. While it hadn't even been a week since they last changed the sheets, something was telling her to do so. She even went as far as to change the pillowcases and blankets. When that was finished and the dirty items tossed into the hamper, she scanned the bed again, feeling that she wasn't quite done with it.

Adora's side of the bed caught her attention next, specifically the pillows. After a brief pause to feel, she left their room and made her way to a nearby guest room and grabbed several of the pillows off of the bed there before returning and carefully arranging them on Adora's side. She then made her way to their closet and grabbed a couple spare blankets before folding them up on the foot of the bed where they could easily be pulled up if needed.

Feeling that she was done with the bed, Catra cast her eyes about the room once more as her mind worked to try and make sense of her actions. The clean everything on the bed meant that they shouldn't have to be changed for a while. The extra pillows to help prop someone up or maybe provide extra support for other parts of the body. More blankets to cover someone with to stave off chills.

Was Adora sick?

That thought gave Catra pause as she turned it over in her head a few times. It would explain Adora's ridiculously loud sneeze from that morning and how she had been uncharacteristically groggy. It would also explain why she had fallen asleep a fair bit earlier than she normally did last night. The idea felt neither right nor wrong so her weird instincts weren't being particularly helpful right now.

Nothing else in their bedroom was catching Catra's eye but she also didn't feel like she was finished so she moved on to the bathroom. She noticed that the bathtub could do with some cleaning so she took care of that before checking the medicine cabinet. It was perfectly stocked (growing up in the Horde meant that both of them tended to be prepared for anything) so there was no problem there.

With nowhere else to check and the feeling that she needed to do something more-or-less abated, Catra just shrugged and went to join the others for lunch. Maybe she'd ask Glimmer if she had noticed anything off yesterday.

OoOoOoO

It was now late in the afternoon and Catra and Glimmer were back in their office finishing up the last bit of that day's paperwork. They should be finished around the time Adora got back which Catra was immensely grateful for. That weird instinct of hers had been bugging her all day and she couldn't wait to put it to rest. Some dedicated cuddle time with her love would be a great relief.

Catra paused to stretch, working some of the kinks out of her shoulders and back, only to suddenly freeze, her eyes going wide. "Catra? Is everything alright?" Glimmer asked, having noticed her strange state.

"Something's wrong with Adora," Catra said somewhat distantly. It was that strange instinct again but this time it was on full blast. It had her fur standing on end; her tail puffed out to three times its normal size; and turned Melog's ethereal mane an orangish-red, fluctuating between its normal, smooth waves and spikey ones.

In a flash, Glimmer had her tracker pad out and was calling Adora. Every second between rings felt like an eternity with Glimmer and Catra both waiting with bated breaths. When the call eventually went to voicemail, they shared a worried glance as their hearts dropped.

Catra was immediately up and making her way to Glimmer, Melog hot on her heels, while Glimmer made the tracker pad live up to its name by locating Adora. She was basically in the middle of nowhere roughly halfway between the last place she was supposed to visit and Bright Moon. Without saying anything, Glimmer reached out and grabbed Catra's hand before the three of them disappeared in a shower of sparkles.

When they reappeared, they were standing in the middle of an empty field and saw a panicked Swift Wind dragging an unconscious Adora across the ground, her jacket clenched between his teeth.

"Adora!" Catra cried out, rushing to her love's side and sliding the last little bit on her knees so she could cradle her body.

"Oh, thank the stars, someone's here!" Swift Wind said as he let Adora go, his tone panicked but carrying a hint of relief.

"What happened?" Glimmer asked, tearing her eyes away from where Catra was checking Adora's vitals to look at Swift Wind.

"I don't know! We finished up early and I was taking Adora back home when she dropped out of She-Ra! Next thing I knew, she was falling off my back! I tried to catch her but catching a falling person when you don't have hands is really hard but I managed to slow her down enough to where she wouldn't get too hurt! I was panicking and I didn't know what to do since Adora wouldn't wake up and I needed to get someone but I couldn't just leave her here so I tried to drag her somewhere but I don't know this area too well so I needed to fly up to find someplace nearby but I could just leave her here and I—"

"Hey, hey, everything's going to be alright, Swift Wind. You did a good job," Glimmer interrupted with a level of calm confidence she was not feeling right now.

"She's burning up, her pupils are dilated, her heart rate is erratic, and I think she has at least one cracked rib," Catra reported as she finished examining her love, the scanning spell she had been using flickering out of existence. Her body language was perfectly calm, her movements sharp and precise; the picture of a perfect professional. However, Melog gave her inner panic away from the way their mane hadn't changed and how they were laying down next to Adora, quietly whimpering and softly licking her face.

"Alright. Swift Wind, you can go ahead and go back to Bright Moon if you want. Catra and I have this." As Swift Wind nodded and flew off, Glimmer moved to the other side of Adora and held out her hands, a spell circle flickering to life as pink stardust flowed from it to Adora's chest. After a moment, she then slowly swept down the length of Adora's body before coming back up and stopping at her head. "There. Her rib should be healed as well as anything you might have missed." While Glimmer wasn't terribly good at healing magic, it was something she had picked up as a precautionary measure.

Catra placed one arm underneath Adora's knees and wrapped the other around her shoulders before carefully picking her up. After making sure her grip was secure, she nodded at Glimmer who placed one hand on her arm and the other on Melog's head before teleporting them again.

When they reappeared this time, they were in the middle of Bright Moon Castle's infirmary. "Get a healer!" Glimmer ordered one of the nearby assistants, who had been startled by their appearance, as Catra gently laid Adora down on a nearby bed.

"R-right away, Your Majesty!" the assistant stammered before running off. It wasn't long before a healer entered the room.

"What may I help you with, Your Ma—" the healer's words cut off as he took in the sight of Adora laying in the bed, her face flushed, her breathing heavy, and her skin covered in a sheen of sweat. Catra and Glimmer sat on either side of her, holding one of her hands, while Melog was in their kitten form at her feet, their mane a very pale shade of blue. "By the stars, what happened?"

Seeing as how Catra refused to take her eyes off of Adora, Glimmer looked at the healer and explained everything they knew. As she finished, the healer started barking out orders to the aides and the entire place quickly devolved into well organized chaos.

"I'm going to need you three to step aside so that way I can take her vitals and perform my examination," the healer said. While Glimmer stepped away, Catra and Melog stayed rooted in the spot, the former possibly not having even registered the healer's words. When the healer moved to grab Adora's arm, Catra's head suddenly snapped at as she hissed at the man, her ears pinned back and her hackles raised as she leaned forward to cover Adora's body with her own. At Adora's feet, Melog jumped off and returned to their full size, their mane turning red and spikey as they growled.

The healer let out a terrified squawk as he backpedaled until he was up against the wall. Before anything else could happen, Glimmer teleported to Catra's side and held out her hand, forcing a soft smile onto her face. "Catra, sweetie, he's not going to hurt her. He's going to help make her better."

Catra's eyes— her pupils narrow slits— darted from the healer to Glimmer and then back again before she eventually slowly pulled back and took Glimmer's hand. Glimmer gently tugged Catra away from the bed before slowly pulling her into her arms, Catra's back against her front. Melog finally moved away but the color of their mane hadn't changed.

"Everything's going to be okay. Adora's going to be fine," Glimmer said softly as she rested her chin on Catra's shoulder. Glimmer could feel Catra's tail lashing wildly between them so she started soothingly running her hands up and down Catra's sides while placing a kiss against her cheek. Catra's tail slowed down and Melog's mane faded to a deep purple but Glimmer could still feel the tension radiating off of her.

The two remained silent as they watched the healer work. "Temperature's 103 degrees. Pulse is 102 bpm. Blood pressure is slightly elevated. No signs of a concussion or any internal bleeding." With his examination finished, the healer took a step back and hummed as he put his chin in his hand.

"Do you know what's wrong with her?" Glimmer asked, trying to keep her tone leveled.

"Since my own scanning spell didn't return anything, I can only assume that it's some sort of disease. However…"

Catra tensed further, her tail swishing more as Melog's mane started to turn a sickly yellow. "However?" Glimmer asked.

"Has Adora ever been sick before?" the healer asked as he turned to face them. Glimmer looked at Catra who shook her head.

"No." Her voice came out raspy so she cleared her throat and started again. "No. Not really. Nothing worse than a slight cold."

"I see. The fact of the matter is that Adora is a First One. While she may look like a human from Etheria and may well be identical in many ways, she's not completely identical. Given that and the lack of prior experience, I'm afraid to try any of our usual potions."

Glimmer grimaced at this news and the fact that Melog's mane seemed to be turning black did absolutely nothing for her. "We'll get Entrapta to help," she said, using every single ounce of her willpower to keep her voice even. After a moment, she forced a playful smirk and side eyed Catra. "She always did want to study Adora." Catra didn't react to her attempt at a joke. "Is there anything we can do?"

"We need to get her fever down; a cold bath should help with that," the healer began. "Other than that, the only thing you can do for her right now is make sure that she's resting comfortably and is constantly monitored. In the meantime, I'll go about preparing the ingredients for every relevant potion we know of in case Princess Entrapta clears her for them."

Glimmer nodded. "Thank you, Healer." She turned her head to look at Catra only to stop when the healer spoke up again.

"One last thing. Until we know what this is, we should quarantine everyone who's had direct contact with her just in case this is viral."

"Contact tracing is going to be difficult," Glimmer said slowly. "She's been all over the place all day and that's not counting the people that Catra and I have come into contact with."

"Adora's been She-Ra for basically all of that," Catra said, her voice surprisingly level. "I doubt we have to worry about them. As for us, unless this is airborne, there shouldn't be any problems. The only people we'll have to worry about is whoever handles the paperwork we sent out."

"You're right. Good thinking, Catra," Glimmer said, giving Catra a slight squeeze. "Is that everything?" she asked the healer.

"For now, yes. Contact me if her condition worsens and when Princess Entrapta finds out the cause," the healer said as he stepped away from Adora.

"Right. Catra, sweetie, go pick her up and I'll take us to your room," Glimmer said, giving Catra another kiss on the cheek and gentle squeeze before letting her go.

Catra moved slowly as she stepped away from the Queen and over to Adora's side. She took a moment to scan her with her eyes before ever so gently placing one arm underneath Adora's knees and the other behind her shoulders before picking her up. She nodded at Glimmer who put one hand on Catra's arm and the other on Melog's head before they were off again.

After they reappeared in Catra and Adora's room, Catra almost reverently laid Adora down on the bed— with Glimmer taking note of the overabundance of pillows and extra blankets— before turning to head to the bathroom. Before she could get too far, however, Glimmer's hand shot out and she grabbed Catra by the wrist.

"Catra, wait," Glimmer said insistently while still trying to be gentle. Catra turned and her eyes flickered from Glimmer's hand to her face before she raised an eyebrow in question. While Catra's expression was perfectly neutral, Glimmer could see the fear that was lying behind her eyes. It had been a long time since she had seen Catra look genuinely afraid and even longer since she had seen this level of fear. She hadn't even been this afraid when she was falling to her death on Anaxes.

It made sense, Glimmer supposed. The crazy thing about love is that you generally cared about the wellbeing of those you loved more than your own. Glimmer herself would be more than willing to lay down her own life if it meant saving the life of another member of the Best Friend Squad and she knew that the same was true in reverse. The mere idea of losing someone you loved was painful and, as such, Glimmer would be lying if she said that she wasn't also scared.

However, things were different between Adora and Catra and that's without taking their whole soulmate thing into account. They had spent basically their entire lives growing up together in a nightmarish place with only each other to trust and rely on only to then spend three years fighting each other in a war even though that fight was killing them. What's more, Catra had died in Adora's arms aboard the Velvet Hand and if Adora didn't die in Catra's in the Heart then she came terrifyingly close.

The difference between Catra and Adora when compared to Glimmer and Bow is that they knew from experience what the pain of that loss felt like; it wasn't just some vague concept that they could try to imagine. Glimmer also knew for a fact that, to this day, they would occasionally get nightmares where those events replayed themselves except without the other reviving. Glimmer was fairly certain that a part of Catra wasn't here in Bright Moon but was back at the Heart as the world ended.

So, Glimmer did the only thing that she could think to do and let go of Catra's wrist before holding open her arms while giving Catra a pleading look. "Please?"

Catra's eyes flickered from Glimmer to Adora to the bathroom door to Melog before finally returning to Glimmer. She slowly closed the distance between them and gripped the front of Glimmer's shirt with both of her hands— her claws tearing through the fabric— before burying her face in Glimmer's neck. Glimmer gently wrapped her arms around Catra before fully manifesting her wings and using them to shield Catra from the world, surrounding her in a soft pink that sparkled with the light of a thousand stars.

Glimmer held Catra close, one hand gently tracing up and down her spine, and felt as she started to tremble in her arms. "Let it out, Catra. You're safe here. No one can see you beneath my wings," she murmured into the magicat's ear. Catra's entire body jerked as a choked sob escaped her mouth. This seemed to have broken the floodgate as Catra began openly wailing, her tears soaking Glimmer's shoulder as she trembled so hard it was as though she was falling apart. Glimmer stopped stroking Catra's spine for a brief moment to activate the silencing spell placed around the room before returning to her ministrations.

Glimmer didn't know how long she held Catra and she also didn't care. The sight of her Royal Advisor, her best friend, and her lover falling apart in her arms was enough to force Glimmer to squeeze her eyes shut in an effort to hold back her own tears and she fought with everything she had to keep her breathing even. Catra needed her to be strong right now and so she would be strong enough to rival even She-Ra if she had to be.

Eventually, Catra's wailing turned into sobs before tapering off into whimpers and sniffs as her trembling steadily abated. After she had completely calmed down for a few seconds, she pulled back just enough to give Glimmer a slow, loving kiss before pulling away completely.

"Thank you," Catra said softly, her throat no doubt raw from her crying, as a small smile graced her tear-stained face.

"Any time," Glimmer replied, answering Catra's smile with one of her own as she dismissed her wings. "She's going to be okay. She's going to get through this and we're going to help her do it. You go get started running the bath while I call Entrapta and Bow, okay?"

"Okay," Catra said with a nod. She paused for a moment before giving Glimmer another hug before making her way to the bathroom.

Once the door to the bathroom was shut, Glimmer rubbed at her eyes with the heels of her hands as she took a deep breath to fortify herself. Once she was about as calm as she could be at the moment, she made her way over to where she knew that Catra and Adora kept their tracker pads and made some calls.

OoOoOoO

This just might be the worst time of Catra's life.

That may seem like an exaggeration. After all, how could this be worse than when she was in so much pain that she threw the lever to open the portal so that she'd die and take her world with her? How could it be worse than the final year of the war before Prime came where her mental health was spiraling to all-time lows? How could it be worse than when she betrayed Entrapta and then Scorpia? How could it be worse than her time on the Velvet Hand or the period of time between her rescue and the chip being removed? How can it be worse than watching Adora die in her arms?

In some ways, it's worse; in other ways, it wasn't. There was something to be said about the feeling of absolute helplessness when the one you loved above all others and who loved you just as much in return was in such a miserable state and could very well be dying and all you can do is just sit there and watch. It wasn't like at the Heart where, while absolutely horrifying, it had been brief and ended with one of the greatest moments of her life. It wasn't like all of those other situations where things happened more-or-less due to her own actions. This was long and drawn out and she had absolutely nothing to do with it.

The idea of losing Adora forever had always terrified Catra. Even when they were just little kids, the idea had scared her and that fear had only grown the closer they became. That fear and accompanying pain were why she had stayed with the Horde even when Adora had begged her to come with her. Now that they were closer than they had ever even dreamed of being, the simple thought of losing Adora forever hurt more than anything else she had ever experienced. She'd rather be submerged in Prime's purification pool a thousand more times than go through another second of this.

There was something that Catra hadn't told Glimmer yet and wouldn't tell her or anyone else unless explicitly asked: she could no longer feel Adora through their bond. She could but she also couldn't. She could feel where she was, where they were connected, but she couldn't feel anything from her. It was like going into a room where you knew someone was but not being able to find them.

"Your mate will be fine," Melog said from where they were curled up at Adora's feet, their voice and meow interrupting her thoughts. Catra was currently sitting in a chair at the side of their bed, holding onto one of Adora's hands. "You know she won't leave you and Glimmer will return with Entrapta at any moment."

"I know," Catra said absently as she reached up to grab her left shoulder. "It's just…"

"I understand," Melog replied. The good thing about having a psychic cat-alien-thing bonded to you was that they knew and understood your emotions even when you couldn't speak them. "But even so, everything will be alright. She's still there. Try doing with her what I do with you. Even if you can't fully feel her, she will be able to feel you."

Catra smiled slightly at Melog and reached over to give them a scritch behind the ears before settling back in her chair. She squeezed Adora's hand a little tighter before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. This wasn't something that either of them had tried before; consciously reaching out through their bond. It had always been an instinctual, unconscious thing before but she figured that there was no reason why they couldn't do this. So, she reached out to where she could feel Adora deep within her soul and tried to send every single bit of love and comfort that she could. She didn't know if it worked but it made her feel a little bit better, if nothing else.

One of Catra's ears flicked as she heard the familiar sound of twinkling before there was a flash of light and sparkles as Glimmer arrived with Entrapta in tow. Despite the potential risk of infection, Entrapta had been willing to expose herself in the name of both helping her friends and science.

"Sorry it took so long! Entrapta had to get a few things," Glimmer apologized as she moved over to a couch in the corner of the room.

"Oh, wow! I've never seen Adora in a state like this before!" Entrapta said with her usual out of place enthusiasm as she scurried on over to the bed with a large bag in tow. Catra let go of Adora's hand and stood up from her chair to give Entrapta room. Unlike with the healer from before, Catra knew and trusted Entrapta so she wasn't overcome by a surge of protectiveness this time.

Entrapa placed her bag on the side of the bed and let strands of her hair open it and loot around in it. She started to reach for Adora's arm but paused for a moment, her usual smile faltering slightly as she looked at Catra. "I'm going to need to take some blood samples, mouth swabs, and put some equipment on her. Is it okay if I do that?"

Catra smiled fondly at Entrapta. She had come a long way in the intervening year since the war ended with regards to a number of things but especially with respecting boundaries and asking permission before poking and prodding people. "Do whatever you need. I trust you."

Entrapta smiled brightly at Catra before returning her focus to Adora and getting to work. As she did, a few strands of her hair moved to loosely wrap around Catra's wrist, causing her to smile. "The first time I'm going to need is some blood samples," she began to explain as she grabbed a small packet from her hair and ripped it open, taking out an alcohol swab and using it to sterilize the inside of Adora's right arm just below her elbow. "I'll need to do a toxicology test to make sure there are no drugs in her system, do a white and red blood cell count, and a general screening to test her levels of various other things." With somewhat surprisingly deft hands, Entrapta tightly tied a thick rubber band slightly above Adora's elbow before feeling for her vein. She then grabbed and opened a small, round, adhesive bandage with a white center and placed it over the vein. She then grabbed a butterfly needle from her hair (she assured everyone that she had completely sterilized herself before coming) but paused again and looked back at Catra.

"Did the Horde ever do any blood work?" she asked.

"Um… Not that I'm aware of. They didn't do any on me or Adora, at the very least."

"Aww. That's a shame. I won't have any data from a healthy Adora to compare my results to. Oh well! The data will still be useful!" She stuck the needle into Adora's arm and quickly drew four vials of blood that she then carefully placed into an exterior pouch on her bag while strands of her hair undid the rubber band. "The next thing I'm going to need is some strands of her hair for genetic testing. While I could use her blood for this, I'll need all that I've drawn for other tests and I don't want to risk taking anymore." As she was explaining this, Entrapta reached up to Adora's head and plucked a few stands out (conveniently, they were some of the ones that tended to come out of her ponytail and Catra was not at all surprised that Entrapta knew which ones those were even with Adora's hair being down) before placing them in a baggy. She then proceeded to take out a long cotton swab and swabbed the inside of Adora's mouth, once on each cheek. "This will let me check her saliva for any unique enzymes that might interfere with our potions and medications."

Next from Entrapta's bag of wonders came a small device with two circular pieces connected to it by two wires and a small tracker pad. "This little baby is a heart monitor! It'll keep track of Adora's pulse and display the results both on that tracker pad and a computer in my lab here!" Entrapta was content with letting her hair pull up Adora's shirt and attach the heart monitor as she looked back at Catra once again. "Do you know what Adora's resting heart rate is?"

"It's the same as basically everyone else's. Same goes for when she's active. Her average body temperature is a degree higher than what's normal for everyone else, though," Catra supplied.

"That's good to know! So, her fever is the equivalent of 102 degrees, then. Fascinating!" By this point, Entrapta had finished setting up the heart monitor and the tracker pad came to life, the room filling with a steady if fast beeping. "The last thing I need to do before I can analyze these samples is perform an electroencephalogram. I don't think it's needed but more data can't hurt!" As she's saying this, she pulls out an elastic cap with a bunch of wires sticking out of it.

"What's an electroen— electron— electroencafl—"

"EEG."

"EEG. Right. What's that?"

"Basically, it's a test that measures the firing of neurons in your brain! Since all of the cells in your brain communicate with each other via electricity, this baby can pick up on and amplify those signals to create a graph showing brain activity!" Entrapta explains as she fixes the cap on Adora's head. "The data will be transferred to my lab but I can have it displayed on the tracker pad, if you want. It'll just look like a bunch of squiggly lines, though."

Catra normally only half paid attention to Entrapta when she was explaining things she didn't really care about (and only paid three-fourths attention when she did) but she found them to be a nice distraction from the ball of anxiety in her chest. "I'm good. What're you looking for with it?"

"Like I said, I don't expect to find anything relevant since none of the symptoms Glimmer described sound like a brain injury or stroke. I'm doing this partly just to make sure but mostly so I can have the data!"

Catra chuckled softly. "I always did use to jokingly ask if she had brain damage."

"Well, now we'll find out for certain!" Entrapa said with a way too ecstatic smile as all of her hair returned to her. "Welp! That's everything! I should have the full results back in a couple hours but I'll try to find out if whatever's affecting her is contagious sooner."

"Alright. Thanks, Entrapta," Catra said as the other woman closed her bag.

"It's no problem! Oh!" Entrapta had started to walk away only to stop and put her bag back down before turning back to Catra and walking up to her. "I know you're worried but everything will be fine! Even if I don't find out the cause of this, I will find out if our potions are safe to use! Adora's strong and she has all of us here so you just need to trust in the power of SCIENCE!" With that, Entrapta closed the distance between them and pulled Catra into a hug. Catra froze in shock for a moment before gently returning it.

Entrapta wasn't really the type of person for physical displays of affection; not with her body, at any rate. As such, moments like this where she did hug someone were a rare and precious treat. Let it be known that, though she might not always show it in a way that was obvious, Entrapta very much loved her friends.

Entrapta hugged Catra for long enough to where it would be considered awkward if it was anyone else before eventually stepping back and smiling brightly at Catra. She then grabbed her bag and made her way over to Glimmer, who had been watching the scene with a soft smile. "Ready when you are, Glimmer!" she said as she touched Glimmer with strands of her hair.

"Alright! Next stop: Entrapta's Lab: Bright Moon Castle Branch!" With that, they were off in a shower of sparkles.

OoOoOoO

Night had finally fallen with the first of the night moons steadily climbing into the sky. The light from it and the stars streamed through the windows to bathe the room in a gentle glow. The only sounds that could be heard were the faint trickling of the waterfall, the soft breathing of its four inhabitants, and the steady beeping of the heart monitor.

Entrapta had ended the quarantine roughly an hour after she had left, saying that Adora had an unknown, non-contagious viral infection. Immediately after that declaration, Bow had burst into the room so quickly that he had rivaled Glimmer's teleportation. He all but threw himself at Catra, holding her and crying and saying comforting words that Catra wasn't sure if they were directed at her or himself.

After he had calmed down and he spoke to Adora for a bit, Glimmer teleported away to get them something to eat. Catra hadn't thought that she was hungry but, when Glimmer returned, she ended up falling on her food with an intensity that would rival Adora's. After that, the three of them chatted amicably about nothing in particular. It was during this that Catra learned that Micah would be handling Glimmer's duties for the time being. Apparently, when he had fallen really ill a few times, Angella had delegated as many of her duties as possible so that way she could personally nurse him back to health.

Eventually, Entrapta contacted them to give them an update. Apparently, the disease that Adora had wasn't something found on Etheria, meaning that she had either picked it up on another planet and it just had a long gestation period or had otherwise caught it from a visiting dignitary. What was interesting was that the virus that had caused it was completely harmless to at least the vast majority of Etherians but, evidently, not to First Ones. Catra couldn't understand most of the explanation but it had something to do with the differences between their immune systems which was also why Adora basically never got sick before. First Ones had been intergalactic explorers for a very long time and thus their biology had adapted to handle foreign pathogens exceptionally well.

Beyond that, there were other things that Entrapta had found out about First Ones (although, Entrapta pointed out that she didn't know if this was how First Ones are, how they were, or even how they will be since she couldn't rule out the possibility that the portal that brought Adora here didn't also send her through time). A lot of it was stuff that, again, went over Catra's head but the pertinent information that she did understand was that, at worst, the potions and medications that they used would be less effective but she doubted that any of them would cure her. Entrapta reassured them that she'd get started working on one immediately, though.

Knowing Entrapta, she probably wouldn't sleep at all beyond maybe some quick naps until she was done. While that was typical of Entrapta whenever she had a new or exciting project to work on, they still agreed that they needed to do something especially nice for her later.

"Hey, Catra, do you want Glimmer and me to spend the night?" Bow asked a few minutes after they ended the call with Entrapta and they had taken the EEG cap off. "I don't know about you two but I think we could all use a Best Friend Squad sleepover."

A part of Catra didn't want them to. A deeply instinctual, borderline feral side of her was screaming that she's the only one who should be sharing their den while her mate was like this. That wouldn't be fair, however. Glimmer and Bow also loved them and they were also Adora's partners (that feral side of her had been furious about the idea when she had it but she told it to shut the hell up since the vast majority of her wanted it). As such—

"Yeah. That sounds great, Bow." Glimmer and Bow beamed at her and pulled her into a quick hug before the two of them left to grab some things from their room. It wasn't long until all four of them were tucked into the bed with Catra sandwiched between Adora and Glimmer with Bow on the other side of Glimmer while Melog shrunk down and laid at Adora's feet (they were glad that Catra had convinced Adora to get a bigger bed not long after the war ended).

Catra laid her head on Adora's chest, letting the sound of her heartbeat soothe her even if it was still somewhat accelerated, and sunk into the feeling of Glimmer's arms wrapped around her from behind. It took a surprisingly short amount of time for Catra to fall into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

OoOoOoO

The next day was more of the same. After eating breakfast, Glimmer and Bow were forced to leave for a while. Glimmer had duties that she simply couldn't delegate while Bow volunteered to help Entrapta any way that he could. They reassured her that they'd stop by whenever they had the chance. A healer had also come by to cast a spell on Adora that would help keep her healthy despite her inability to eat or drink.

Catra's day passed at a snail's pace. She read some of the Mer-Mystery books that Mermista had given her one day, played around with Melog or played Klondike solitaire, exercised, practiced magic, and sat by the bed while talking to Adora about whatever. When she had run out of things she could think to talk about, she opted for just reading aloud instead. All throughout, she kept trying to send Adora love and comfort through their bond.

It was around noon that there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Catra called out. The door opened to reveal a smiling Perfuma carrying a small satchel.

"Hello, Catra. How is she?" she asked gently as she entered the room.

"Hey, Perfuma. She's the same as she was before which… At least she hasn't gotten any worse."

"It's good to hear that you're looking on the bright side of things."

"Not that I'm complaining but what are you doing here?"

"A few things. They called me to help create a potion to cure Adora— Castaspella is also here to help with that— but I thought I'd stop by to check up on you and offer some help."

"Thank you," Catra said with a soft smile. "What do you want to do?"

"If you don't mind, I want to spread certain plants to help with the energy of the room."

Catra chuckled softly. "Go right ahead. I think Adora would like that."

Perfuma set her satchel down on the bed before working her magic. Various types of colorful flowers on vines appeared hanging from the poles that held up the bed curtains. More plants appeared to wrap beautiful patterns around the headboard, some of them intertwining with the ones hanging from the ceiling. After she was done with that, she started to move about the room, creating more plants here and there that seemed random but Catra knew that Perfuma had a reason for the types of plants that she used and why she placed them there.

As Perfuma worked, she spoke. "All living creatures are connected to nature; we come from it when we're born and return to it when we die. As such, being around and in nature can help us heal mentally as well as physically. It can provide a peace and tranquility that you simply can't get elsewhere. That's why the bedrooms here have waterfalls. What's more, She-Ra is inherently tied to the life and magic of Etheria. You could say that she is Etheria. A lot of the plants that I've chosen are deeply magical in nature. Hopefully, their magic will strengthen She-Ra and thus help Adora fight off her sickness."

Catra watched Perfuma intently as she worked, letting her voice wash over her. Perfuma had helped talk her through so many panic attacks and spiraling thoughts that the voice she once found annoying now had a uniquely calming effect on her. After some time, she realized that she had fallen into the breathing pattern that Perfuma had taught her for whenever her anxiety was acting up. She then noticed that Perfuma was using the same breathing pattern, wordlessly guiding Catra through it. That realization brought a warm feeling to Catra's chest as the ball of anxiety that had been sitting heavily in it started to loosen.

Once she was finished, Perfuma returned to the bed and opened her satchel. "I also want to apply some ointments, if you don't mind. They'll help improve the flow of her energy while also relieving any stiffness in her muscles."

"Go right ahead," Catra said as she stepped out of the way.

"Do you want to do it?" Perfuma asked as she pulled out a jar of ointment.

"Nah, you've got this. You're the professional."

Perfuma chuckled. "Alright, then." She pulled back the blanket before scooping some of the ointment out with her fingers and gently massaging it up Adora's arms, down her legs, and across her shoulders. As she worked, she asked, "How are you doing?"

"About as well as can be expected," Catra said with a shrug and wry smile. "My girlfriend is so sick she's unconscious and there isn't anything I can do to help her. I feel kinda useless."

"It's understandable that you feel that way but you are not useless. You're her soulmate, Catra. I can feel your aura reaching out to her, enveloping her." She finished applying the ointment and put it away before wiping off her hands and covering Adora back up. She then walked over to Catra and placed a reaffirming hand on her shoulder. "Just by simply staying by her side and loving her, you're doing more to help her than the rest of us. I'm certain that the reason she hasn't gotten worse is because of you."

"How could I be doing that?" Catra asked with an incredulous chuckle.

"Your love for her was strong enough to save her from death and save the universe. Do you really think something like this is too strong for it?"

Catra looked off to the side and blushed, her ears lowering in embarrassment and her tail wrapping around her leg. "I guess…"

"You guess?" Perfuma challenged, arching an eyebrow.

Catra looked back at Perfuma and took a deep breath before saying, "You're right. If I didn't let Prime's virus take her then I'm not gonna let this one, either."

Perfuma's smile brightened as she squeezed her shoulder. "That's more like it," she said as she removed her hand. "Is there anything else you want to talk about?"

Catra thought for a moment before shaking her head. "Nah, I'm good. Thanks, Perfuma," she said as she pulled the other woman into a hug. Perfuma returned it before stepping back.

"Well, I better get to work on that potion. If you need me for anything, please don't hesitate to call me."

OoOoOoO

It wasn't long after Perfuma left that Glimmer and Bow returned with lunch. They both admired Perfuma's handiwork— Catra had to admit that it was beautiful— before they all settled in to eat. After updates were passed around, the conversation remained light with Glimmer complaining about a meeting she was in and Bow sharing some of the things he had learned while helping Entrapta. For her part, since nothing really happened to her today, Catra just talked about the book she had been reading.

It was nice and pleasant and Catra felt better than she had since yesterday morning but it was over far too soon. Glimmer had more duties she needed to attend to and Bow had to get back to Entrapta. Glimmer had promised that, after the next two meetings with alien dignitaries, she could leave the rest to Micah so that was some good news. Bow also said that he'd get back as soon as there was nothing else he could help Entrapta with.

Once they were gone, Catra returned to the side of the bed and looked down at Adora. She looked so peaceful as she slept. There were no signs of nightmares or troubled dreams or sleep fighting. She was a level of relaxed that Catra had very rarely seen. She reached out with one hand, claws carefully retracted, and stroked Adora's cheek, feeling the way the pads of her fingers glided against the smooth skin, the way her hand was warmed by her body heat. She heard Melog wordlessly whine and felt them butt their head into her leg. She reached down to idly scratch them behind the ear but kept her eyes firmly on Adora.

Catra was trying. She was trying so hard. Her love needed her to be strong now, needed it more than ever before. But she was tired. She was tired of sitting here and being unable to do anything. What Perfuma had said had been objectively correct but, subjectively, she felt like she wasn't doing anything.

Catra felt the feral part of her whine in her head, felt it pleading at her to do something. But she didn't know what. She let out a heavy sigh as her ears drooped. If she didn't know what to do consciously then she was going to do something she rarely did and let that feral part of her subconscious take the reins. Let her instincts guide her as to how to take care of her mate.

She walked over the other side of the bed and crawled in. She draped one arm across her mate and tangled their legs together, shifting until she was half laying on top of her. She brought the hand that was draped across her up and ran her fingers through her long, wheat blonde hair. A comforting purr, deep and loud, rubbled from her chest as she brought her head up and began to tenderly groom her mate, running her tongue up her neck and across her cheek. She whined when she realized that, due to their position by the edge of the bed, she couldn't do the other side without removing the heart monitor.

Once she was finished grooming her, she pulled her mate as close to her as possible and buried her face in the crook of her neck, letting her mate take in her scent as she cradled her head in both arms and buried her own face in her mate's hair. Her purr became louder and deeper, the vibrations spreading from her to her mate as her tail curled around her leg. She felt the tiniest spark of something coming from her mate through their bond but, before her conscious mind could recognize it, she slipped into sleep.

OoOoOoO

Adora's world returned to her in stages.

The first thing was something deep down inside her, something deeper than her soul. She could sense a nearly overwhelming amount of love and comfort coming from this something, could sense something desperately calling out to her.

The second thing to return was warmth. She was very warm but not in an uncomfortable way; quite the opposite, in fact. It was an incredibly familiar warmth, one that she willingly sank into.

The third thing that came back to her was a scent. Her mind, inactive as it was, couldn't place it but it was deeply soothing and spoke to a primal part of her, a part that she hadn't fully had until relatively recently. It spoke of safety and home.

The fourth thing she felt was the sensation of a cloud wrapped around her and vibrations running through her body. The cloud blanketed her thoughts but, rather than hide them, it buoyed them to the surface while the vibrations helped scatter the fog that had weighed her down. She recognized them as two of her favorite sensations in the universe.

The fifth thing her mind registered was the faint sound of water falling followed by an unfamiliar but steady beeping. She heard a very deep rumbling sound coming from right next to her but it tapered off almost as soon as she heard it.

The sixth thing that was conjured up were memories. Helping out villages scattered about Etheria. Being She-Ra. Flying on Swift Wind. Falling. A kiss at the end of the world.

The last thing to be recognized as her consciousness finally broke through was a dim light hitting her eyes. It was blinding even through her eyelids but that sensation slowly passed.

Finally, her consciousness broke through to the surface.

Adora let out a low groan as she shifted as much as she was able to. She could feel Catra wrapped around her and felt her face buried in the fur of her neck. She instinctively reached out under the blankets and wrapped an arm around her, frowning when she felt a shirt there. That frown was quickly replaced with a tender smile as she slowly opened her eyes with several hard blinks and saw a particular scar on Catra's shoulder near where it met her neck.

Catra shifted underneath her as she groaned out "Adora?" in that wonderful sleepy voice of hers. That was followed up by a way too loud "Adora!" that made her wince.

"Hey, Catra," Adora said, her voice raspy. Her mouth was drier than the Crimson Waste.

"Hang on!" Catra reached over her to the bedside table to grab something. That something turned out to be a glass of water that was the second most beautiful thing Adora had seen. Catra placed an arm under her shoulders and helped her sit up enough to drink it. A part of her wanted to complain about Catra holding the glass for her but the vast majority of her was grateful.

After she had drained the glass and Catra had returned it to the table, Adora asked, "How long was I out?" Her voice was still a little raspy but it was more from grogginess than her mouth being dry.

"Uh…" Catra's eyes flickered from her face to the wall clock. "About twenty-four hours. You really had us worried." Her voice was small and fragile while her eyes started brimming with tears. Without even thinking, Adora leaned toward Catra and kissed her; soft and gentle but lingering. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty terrible," Adora said with a groan as she laid back down. "My everything hurts and I'm pretty sure that I'm about to burst into flames. Other than that, ya know, same old, same old," she said the last bit with an air of casual indifference that made Catra snicker. "What about you?"

"Now that you're awake? A lot better," she replied before leaning down to give Adora another kiss.

"I have… so many questions," Adora said after a blissful sigh. No matter how many times they did it, Adora would never get tired of kissing Catra. Or Glimmer and Bow, for that matter.

"I bet you do," she replied with a chuckle.

"First up, what the hell is that beeping?" Adora craned her neck to look at the tracker pad on the bedside table while Catra answered.

"A heart monitor. That's also what that thing on your chest is. Entrapta set it up. The healers didn't know what potions could be safely used on you since you're, ya know, a First One so Glim went and grabbed her. She took some blood samples, a mouth swab, and some strands of your hair so she could run a whole bunch of tests on you to see what was wrong and what we could do to help. She figured out that you caught some sort of alien virus that's not harmful to most Etherians and, right now, she, Bow, Casta, and Perfuma are working on a cure."

"Awwwww. We should do something really nice for her."

"That's what I thought, too. Especially since she comforted me and actually gave me a hug."

"She gave you a hug‽ I am so jealous! Entrapta hugs are great!"

"They really are."

"I take it that Perfuma's the one behind all of these plants," Adora said as she scanned the room to look at them.

"Yeah, she swung by not too long ago. She said that they're to help with the energy of the room and that the magic of some of the plants might help strengthen She-Ra or something."

"That was sweet of her. How are the others?"

"Glim was with me when we found you and… was a lot of help with keeping me from freaking out too much. She gave me a Big Wing Hug."

"A Big Wing Hug from Glimmer and an Entrapta hug in one day? Jeez, aren't you lucky," Adora said with a light laugh that was mirrored by Catra.

"Hey, what can I say? Everybody loves me." At that, the two of them broke down into a fit of giggles. When they eventually calmed down, they took a moment to get lost in each other's eyes before Catra leaned down to kiss Adora again. It was warm and soft and gentle and loving and was positively healing. Adora could feel her magic, feel She-Ra, thrumming with energy, called forth by the siren's song that was love, the source of her strength. While Adora pushed her back down with practiced ease, she did let a bit of her magic escape to heal any lingering aches.

The two of them laid against each other for a while, soaking up each other's warmth. Catra's purr filled the air with Adora's responsive hum (a habit she had developed as a kid) joining it. It was as pleasant as it always was— perhaps even more pleasant now for reasons Adora couldn't be bothered to contemplate right now— but there were other people that Adora dearly wished to see.

"I think we should call Glimmer and Bow. Let them know I'm awake," Adora said, breaking the relative silence.

"Yeah," Catra agreed as she moved to sit back up. "And let the others know, too. I'm tired of hearing that fucking beeping. Seriously, couldn't Entrapta have made it a little lower pitched or something? It's been hurting my ears this entire time." As she grumbled, Catra reached over to grab their usual tracker pad— having left it on the bedside table for easier access— and set to calling someone.

"Hey, Catra. What's up?" Adora heard Glimmer ask. Catra had the device pointed away from her.

"I have some news that everyone should hear," Catra said, her tone and expression serious. "Can you poof on over to the others?"

"Y-yeah, alright." Adora could hear the concern in Glimmer's voice. She raised a questioning, almost demanding, eyebrow at Catra who simply replied by giving her a smile that highlighted her cat features before settling her face back into a serious mask.

Adora heard the indistinct sound of Glimmer talking followed by the voices of Bow, Entrapta, and Perfuma. "Alright, Catra, what is it?"

Catra's mask finally broke as she smiled at the screen before letting herself fall forward, twisting her body so that way she fell next to Adora, letting them both be captured by the camera. "Adora's awake!"

"Hi," Adora said softly as she raised the arm that Catra didn't currently have pinned to give everyone a small little wave. She could see everyone gathered around Glimmer's tracker pad, their expressions frozen in shock. Several seconds of stunned silence passed with Adora finding it more and more difficult to contain the laugh that bubbled up her throat before Glimmer, without changing her expression, manifested her wings to make sure she was in contact with everyone before teleporting.

Catra quickly tossed aside their tracker pad just in time for everyone to appear in their room. As they all shouted her name and rushed to dogpile her, Adora removed the heart monitor and threw it to the side, Catra wincing as the steady beep turned into a droning tone. That sound was immediately drowned out by the sound of the air rushing out of Adora's lungs and the excited babbling coming from their friends as they tried their level best to squish her (Adora would later find out that Entrapta had also used a lock of her hair to turn that tracker pad off during all of this).

Adora laughed and reassured them that she was okay (relatively speaking) as Bow gave her a peck on the cheek while Glimmer outright covered her face in kisses. It took a long moment but, eventually, everyone disentangled themselves and left Adora and Catra as the only ones still on the bed.

From there, everything was like a blur to Adora. They talked and laughed for a while before Glimmer released the spell sustaining Adora and went to get everyone an early dinner. They ate and talked and laughed some more before Entrapta, Bow, and Perfuma headed out to get back to work on the cure with Entrapta assuring her that it was almost ready.

When Glimmer returned a short while later, having completed everything that required her attention, the three of them blissfully spent their time as they usually did until night had well and truly fallen. Having agreed to an idea and prepared ahead of time, when the others called back with the news that the cure was more-or-less complete and all that was left to do was wait, they invited Perfuma and Entrapta to a sleepover. They readily agreed and a good time was had by all as usual with Entrapta going on and on about everything she had learned about First Ones through studying the data she got from Adora.

The following day was a bit more of the same. The cure was completed early in the morning but it would take a few hours to take effect so Adora was placed on bedrest for the day. This frustrated Adora to no end— especially once she started feeling better— but she knew better than to go against them for things like this. Especially once Glimmer threatened a repeat performance of the first time that they had to force her to rest.

Still, it wasn't all that bad. Perfuma and Entrapta had to return to their own kingdoms fairly early on. Catra had been given the day off to play babysitter so most of their day was spent cuddling and dosing with Glimmer and/or Bow joining in whenever they got the chance. Apparently, at some point or another, Catra had talked privately to the other two since, when night fell, they had declined another Best Friend Squad sleepover and instead retired to their room for the night.

Once they were alone again, Catra had immediately fallen upon Adora, claiming her lips and later body with a passion and ferocity that was a bit rare. Adora wasn't complaining in the slightest, however, and gave just as good as she got. This was something that Catra clearly needed and, in all honesty, Adora kinda needed it, too. They ended up going at it for a surprising amount of time— almost matching their record— but, eventually, exhaustion caught up with them and they drifted off into a peaceful slumber.

OoOoOoO

Catra's day started out like very few days the past year: with her snuggled into the side of the topless and still sleeping Adora.

This was a sight and sensation that Catra would never take for granted and never failed to bring a contented purr to her chest. It was rare for Catra to wake up first but she never once complained when she did. Seeing Adora so relaxed with a small smile on her face never failed to bring a thrill to her heart; it was a strong contender for her favorite site in the universe (Adora's utterly blissed out state like she saw last night being another strong contender).

There was a time in Catra's life not too terribly long ago where she had taken Adora's presence in her life for granted. Even though a part of her had always been terrified of the thought of Adora leaving her (and the thought scared her even more these days, to be honest, although she knew that Adora would never do so voluntarily), she had still just assumed that it would never actually happen.

Then it did and Catra's entire world fell apart.

But that didn't matter anymore. Adora was back in her life for good and the two of them had sworn time and time again that they'd never leave each other again; a promise that they had upheld repeatedly by this point. If Adora decided to go somewhere, Catra would always follow and the opposite was also true.

There had been a moment when Perfuma had introduced the concept of codependence to her that she had been worried. She was fully capable of doing things without Adora— she did so literally every day— but could she go on living without her? She hadn't been entirely sure then and she wasn't entirely sure now. It'd definitely be easier now that she had Melog and Glimmer and Bow and the rest of the Princess Alliance, at the very least. She also knew that there was a decent chance that she'd find out one day; the odds of them both dying of old age at the same time were pretty slim, after all.

But that also didn't matter at the moment. The only thing that truly mattered right now to Catra was the here and now. It was the present moment in time where she still had all of these wonderful things in her life. Where she could wake up cuddled next to Adora, goof around with her friends and found family, spend time with the other woman that she loved who loved her just as much in return. Catra's life in the present was full of more love that she could have ever imagined even in her wildest dreams.

Catra found herself idly rubbing circles into Adora's side as she listened to the wonderfully soothing sound of Adora's heartbeat. A part of her wanted to wake Adora up with a kiss but another part wanted to let her keep sleeping and enjoy this rare sight a little longer. The choice was taken from her, however, when Adora started to wake up.

Adora normally woke up pretty quickly but that was almost never the case whenever she had gone to sleep blissed out. Instead, she woke up in stages. The first came in the form of a contented sigh that never failed to bring a flutter of joy to Catra's heart. The second varied a bit depending on how they fell asleep but it involved squeezing Catra and/or Glimmer closer to her, if that was an option. If it wasn't then she'd shift back into their embrace a little. Similarly, the third involved her either curling around or curling into the other a bit (this morning, she curled around). Lastly, she'd slowly blink those beautiful blue-grey eyes open, her contented smile never once leaving her face.

"Hey, Adora," Catra greeted her, her voice a bare whisper filled with all of the love she had inside of her.

"Hi," Adora returned, her voice a little groggy but filled with the same amount of love.

"How are you feeling?" Catra asked as she saw awareness steadily return to her love's eyes.

Adora leaned in and gave Catra a languid kiss. It was soft and sleepy and filled with all of the promises that they had ever made to each other. She eventually broke it off with a peaceful sigh, bringing their foreheads togethers.

"Absolutely perfect."

Extra

The Polycule is Born

Glimmer was beyond excited. In fact, she had never been more excited in her entire life. However, with that excitement came agonizing torture and she had to literally bite her tongue to keep herself from interrupting. As it was, she was practically vibrating with excitement.

In fact, she was vibrating with excitement.

It had all started innocently enough with Adora and Catra pulling her and Bow aside one day for a private talk. The two of them had been a bundle of nerves, barely able to form complete words let alone sentences, and that had made little red flags go up Glimmer's head. As Catra (with the occasional assist from Adora) went on, however, those red flags were quickly replaced by the excitement now eating away at her.

"So, we were wondering if, maybe, the two of you wouldn't mind, ya know, maybe forming a… polycule… with us?" Catra asked, her voice little more than a squeak by the end.

The instant the last word left Catra's mouth, Glimmer shot to her feet and threw her arms into the air. "Yes! One thousand percent, yes!" she shouted. A part of her had always hoped that something like this would happen.

Catra and Adora (Glimmer's new girlfriends?) started to sag with relief before catching themselves and looking at Bow. "What do you think, Bow?" Adora asked after licking her lips (Glimmer followed her tongue with razor sharp focus and had to exert every last drop of her willpower to not kiss her senseless then and there).

"Sure, I'm down for it," Bow replied with a somewhat amused smile. "Even if this doesn't work out between the two of us," he gestured between Adora and himself, "I'm fine with Glimmer being with you two."

Glimmer pulled Bow into the fiercest kiss she could possibly give him. "Bow, you are the best boyfriend that anyone could possibly ask for."

Bow shook his head to clear his thoughts before chuckling. "I try."

"For the record, so long as they're okay with it, you have my full permission to get into a thing with Sea Hawk."

Bow laughed a bit more fully at that and gave her a two-finger salute. "Got it."

"Okay, ground rules," Glimmer began, holding her arms out between Bow and her maybe girlfriends. "First, what are we calling ourselves?"

"Well, I guess the three of us are girlfriends," Adora began, "but… Hmm… I'm not sure what to call Bow and me."

"Hey, that's cool. We don't need a label," Bow replied with a shrug.

"Good. Second, what about sleeping arrangements?"

"Same as before unless we feel like mixing it up," Catra answered.

"Got it. Third, are we keeping this secret? I'm fine either way."

"I don't see why we should," Bow answered.

Catra and Adora (Glimmer's girlfriends) shared a look before Adora said, "We're fine going public. There's no need to, like, announce it or anything but public displays of affection are fine."

"Wonderful. Lastly, what's on the table in terms of physical affection?"

"Pretty much anything but I don't think I'm ready to try having sex with Bow," Adora replied.

"That's cool. No need to rush or even do it at all, really," Bow said in response. Adora gave him a grateful smile in return.

Glimmer didn't say anything. She didn't have to say anything. In fact, saying anything would take too much time. Instead, she immediately teleported to Catra (because walking the three steps would take too much time), grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, and pulled her in for a kiss that burned with the white-hot intensity of a thousand stars. Glimmer held absolutely nothing back; full-on tongue and everything. It was almost like she was trying her damndest to eat Catra (although she'd save that for hopefully sooner rather than later).

When Glimmer finally broke the kiss off, Catra staggered back a couple steps, swaying slightly and her eyes unfocused. Off to the side, Adora was staring at her wide-eyed, her mouth agape and a blush steadily forming. Bow, meanwhile, was chuckling in the background, no doubt remembering when Glimmer had done the very same thing to him.

"You," Glimmer said forcefully as she turned to face Adora. Adora let out a cute little "eep" as her eyes somehow became even wider. Before she could do anything, however, Glimmer had already teleported to her side and did to her what she just did to Catra.

When she ended that kiss, Adora was left in a similarly stunned state, Catra had yet to recover, and Bow was laughing uproariously in the background. Glimmer looked between her boyfriend and two girlfriends, one hand around each of her girlfriends' waists, before taking a deep breath and letting out a satisfied sigh.

"I think this is the start of a beautiful relationship."

---

A/N: And there we have it. This story took me a fair while to write. I had contemplated splitting it into three chapters since it was long enough for it and there were a couple good spots for a chapter break but I ultimately decided against it because I couldn't be bothered. It was actually going to take place a lot earlier in the post-war timeline but then I decided to turn it into a Best Friend Squad Polycule fic and thus I had to set it much farther in order to justify it. The extra scene at the end came about because I was talking to my brother about how I imagined that conversation going down and idea was too funny to pass up but it wouldn't be long enough for its own fic so I just threw it on at the end of this one.

Fun fact: This story was originally meant to be lighthearted. Adora was supposed to have just caught a cold but she kept working through it anyway because she's stubborn like that and it made it way worse than it otherwise would have been. That is, as you can plainly see, not at all what ended up happening.

The working titles for this story were as follows: "Untitled Catradora Fic," "Untitled Best Friend Squad Polycule Fic," "Adora, for the Love of the Stars, Rest," and "Healer, Heal Thyself." To be honest, I'm still not 100% sold on this title but it's the best I got.

Please leave a like and review and I'll see y'all next time!