Chapter 13 | Act 1: War | Taking Krytis
She knew what she was doing. Adora could feel it under her hand, the tension just beneath the surface, the way Catra’s muscles tightened and flexed in response to her touch as her fingers moved across her abs.
The warmth of Catra’s body under her palm drew her focus that made everything else feel distant for half a breath. Adora found herself aware of the strength beneath the skin, the way Catra held herself so tightly controlled even when she was letting Adora touch her like this.
Catra’s breathing was heavier now and she held Adora’s gaze without breaking it. There was something in that look that stayed with her, something that did not move away from what was happening between them. Catra wasn’t hiding from it.
She had not been ready for how the night had gone. The trees had closed around them. Steel had flashed through the dark. Green light had cut through the space between bodies.
Her chest tightened as the memory pressed back in. It had been close. Closer than she liked to sit with. In the forest, there had been too much happening to feel all of it at once. Her body had taken over, adapting as it always did, moving because there had been no other choice. Now the stillness gave the fear room to spread. It would not have taken much for it to turn, for one movement to land wrong, for one opening to be missed.
The thought did not pass through her lightly. It settled, disturbing something deeper, something she could not push aside as easily as she had in the moment. She knew what this was. She understood what war required, what it took from them, what it demanded in moments like that. They wouldn’t walk out of every fight untouched. She had accepted that but this was personal.
Catra was not just the Prince of Halfmoon. She was not just an ally, a piece of strategy, or someone Adora was tied to because of duty or circumstance. She was someone Adora wanted. The realization did not come with resistance. It did not feel wrong or misplaced. Catra mattered to her, and Adora didn’t want anything to happen to her.
Losing her would feel like she had lost someone she wasn’t willing to give up. Beneath that, there was something else that had been building for longer. Something physical. Something she felt now.
Her hand had not moved. If anything, it had settled more firmly where it rested against Catra, her fingers spreading slightly as they brushed over the taut line of her abs.
It made it harder to think clearly. They had not crossed that line. Adora was not against it anymore, but she knew this was not the moment for it. The thought lingered anyway, persistent, pressing at the edges of her mind she couldn’t ignore it. They had been standing at the edge of it for longer than either of them had said out loud.
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