#die !!!!!

          pins and needles race across your skin, sending goosebumps rippling across the surface of your flesh. your hair instantly stands on end, and involuntarily, you find yourself tensing in anticipation of…something. you’re not quite sure what ; terribly sharp claws ripping into you, or just the sharp press into the knotted scar tissue, but what you had not expected was…such a gentle caress. loving, careful fingers brushing down the raised skin that runs jagged down your back ; the feeling sends something…painful into your heart. it’s a primal hurt, it tightens in your jaw and steals the breath from your lungs. 

                    you’re stricken. stung. aching.

          it was hardly the first time catra’s claws have left a mark on you. your hands are an atlas of pricks and scrapes from sharp claws, from running in the halls with your hands clutched tightly together, so tight that when you finally pulled away, your hand was littered with pinpricks. your body is a map of cuts from training, hand-to-hand combat. it was hardly the first time catra has left marks on you, but...it was the first time catra intended on doing you serious harm. and doesn’t that hurt you the most? doesn’t that just twist the icy knife further into your heart? that your mistakes are the reason you’re in pain now?

                    you brought this upon yourself, silly girl, what were you expecting to happen?

          you crane your neck to look at her over your shoulder, gaze taking in the look in catra’s eyes, the slow and gentle caress of her fingers across the raised flesh. the tension bleeds from your joints and you relax into her touch, eyes slipping closed in contentment. things are different now. you know you have nothing to worry about now. be still, soldier, you are at peace.     “ i’m not upset about it, you know. it was war, and it’s in the past now. ”     you shift yourself around on your bed, so that you can face her head-on. you reach forth and take her hands into yours, cradle them softly in your grasp.     “ it’s okay.”

    SPUTTERING. 

     ❛ I -- ! It’s none of your business, Merlin ! S - So, what if I do ?! ❜ Of course, Merlin came here to pry into his business in regards to CERTAIN affairs !