#korramills

Behind her, Adora was playing with two very fancy, non-magical swords. One of which was supposed to be for Catra. (Apparently part of the tradition was that, should there be a dispute, the two chosen knights would settle it with a duel. Catra kind of hoped someone made a fuss just so she could tussle with Adora for fun.)

“What’s the worst thing about joining the rebellion?” Adora asked, the bored tone of her voice indicating that she already expected a less-than-serious answer.

Catra adjusted the buckle on her boots for the fiftieth time, wiggling her toes and grimacing. “You keep making me wear shoes.”

She glared down at the well-polished boots that Glimmer had all but blackmailed her into wearing. Although, to be fair, these ones weren’t actually awful to wear, and clearly had been made with her in mind. They weren’t all that uncomfortable but she wasn’t used to it, either.

“Oh, how awful.” Adora said, voice dripping with sarcasm. She set Catra’s sword down and slung hers back over her hip. Wrapping her arms around Catra from behind, she grinned wide. “You should file a complaint at the next Peace Council meeting. Etheria needs to know about the heinous crimes being committed here.”

“Shut up!” Catra laughed and elbowed Adora in the ribs, getting a soft hiss. “You’re such an idiot.”

Behind her, Adora blew against the back of her neck, and the small tuft of a ponytail she’d managed with her current hair length. Catra shivered and tried to refocus by leaning away, but Adora just pulled her closer.

“But you love me,” Adora sing-songed into her ear.

Catra rolled her eyes but couldn’t keep the smile from her lips. In the past, she might’ve played it off with a self-deprecating joke, but these days she’d accepted that being happy sometimes meant being a bit of a sap from time to time.

“I do. And you–” Catra twisted to kiss Adora’s jaw– “love me.”

She interlaced her fingers with Adora’s at her waist, pausing her train of thought when Adora leaned down to kiss her properly.

And, oh, it didn’t matter how many times they did this, it always made something surge up in Catra’s chest. Always made her feel like the magic of the planet was flowing through every nerve in her body. Her free hand came up, claw featherlight on Adora’s cheek, knees weak as Adora’s tongue dipped into her mouth, hips pinning Catra against the vanity.

They broke apart with heavy breaths, Catra ducking away from a second kiss. “We’re going to be late.”

Adora’s eyebrows arched up in amusement. “Oh? Didn’t realize you cared so much about following the rules.”

“Adora, please,” Catra said. “I don’t care, but if I’m late, Glimmer is going to be so annoying about every other rule I’m breaking.”

“Like… leaving your shirt mostly unbuttoned?” Adora’s gaze dipped in the mirror’s reflection. Her hand slipped from Catra’s hip to her stomach, thumb toying with the button just below the exposed skin, but it didn’t stray further.

The heat pooling from that action alone was enough to make Catra reconsider the whole “not being late” thing.

“How much time before we’re late again?” Catra asked, voice thick.

“I thought you didn’t want to be late,” Adora’s lips brushed against her neck with every word.

“I–”

Glimmer appeared in the middle of the room in a sparkling cloud of magic. Adora’s hands jumped away from Catra, as if to pretend they hadn’t been up to anything scandalous in the private bedroom they had been sharing for the last four and a half years.

“Hey! Glim–” Adora was cut off when Glimmer, with a hand covering her own eyes, grabbed Adora’s wrist and teleported them both out of the room, the sound of them reappearing coming from the corridor just outside the door. Then Glimmer came back into the room alone and uncovered her eyes.

“Uhh…” was all Catra could manage.

“Tradition. I’m not supposed to see Bow or his chosen Knight before the ceremony.”

“Sounds stupid,” Catra said, without preamble. Maybe it was a bit mean-spirited, but her and Glimmer just talked to each other like that. “You know that Adora and I are basically wearing the same thing, right?”

“Okay, first of all, no, because yours is way more elaborate, and secondly, I’m pretty sure Adora actually buttoned her shirt.”

Catra sighed, still facing the mirror as she tried to fix the last of her outfit. “First you make me wear shoes, now you make me button up my shirt. Next you’ll be asking me to make a speech.”

She expected a laugh and when it didn’t come, Catra furrowed her brow in confusion. She was pretty sure that had been funny, but when she found Glimmer’s gaze in the mirror, the Queen’s face was full of distress.

“Uh, what?”

“Catra, please tell me you know about the speech.”

“I…” Catra didn’t know what to say. Clearly, there was actually a speech involved. She’d only skimmed the nauseatingly long scroll of etiquette and traditions, and of course she’d missed something important.

Glimmer inhaled deeply, then started to panic. “Please! Tell me Adora knows she has to make a speech, too.”

“…No?” Adora’s voice came from the other side of the door where she’d been left in the hallway.

Glimmer opened her mouth to scream and then thought better of it. “Adora, Bow - now.”

Adora’s footsteps thunked down the hallway towards Bow’s wing (he’d had to stay in a completely separate wing as part of the tradition), and Glimmer slumped to the ground. “Oh, no! This is a disaster.”

“Hey, hey,” Catra was quick to jump to Glimmer’s side. She’d gotten pretty good at the whole comforting other people thing, according to Perfuma. “It’ll be fine. I’m sure Adora and I can think of one or two nice things to say about you and Rainbow.”

“The speech is more than just one or two nice things, Catra.”

“According to who? A scroll written by some geezers hundreds of years ago? Or you, the Queen, who actually, y'know, makes the rules?”

“That’s not–” Glimmer paused. “Okay, that’s sort of how it works.”

“Look, I’m not gonna lie, I don’t understand a lot of this fancy tradition stuff, but also, you’re marrying Bow, so there’s no way today won’t be perfect. I mean,” Catra paused, suddenly swept away by visions of her and Adora, not standing on the sidelines as they had the day before during rehearsal, but standing where Bow and Glimmer had been standing. Her throat dried and her heart felt so full that her chest might burst. “You’re marrying someone you love and you’ve spent your whole life with, how can that be bad?” Catra desperately tried to ignore the flush she could feel spreading through her face.

“You’re thinking about you and Adora now, aren’t you?” Glimmer accused, watching Catra with a knowing stare.

Catra shifted awkwardly, an inferno burning across her cheeks. “Can you blame me?”

“Not really.” Glimmer sighed and leaned in for a hug that Catra awkwardly returned. It wasn’t that she was bad at hugs, or disliked them, but unexpected physical affection from anyone other than Adora (and maybe Scorpia, but physical affection was always expected with Scorpia) still caused a bit of discomfort. “Sorry,” Glimmer murmured, pulling away. “This is going to sound silly but I’m just… I’m scared.”

“What? Why?”

“What if something goes wrong? Like, not with the rules and traditions and stuff, because uh, we definitely flubbed a bunch of that stuff during my coronation, but like–what if I get up there and Bow realizes that he doesn’t want to get married?”

Catra pressed her hands to her face and sighed heavily.

–

“Adora, I’m freaking out!” Bow said, only briefly pausing in his erratic pacing around the centre of the guest room he’d been stuck in for the last couple of days. The last time Adora had seen him, he’d been fully dressed, but now he’d shucked his jacket and untied the very intricate and time-consuming knot of his silk belt.

“I… see that.”

“What if something goes wrong? What if I walk in there and Glimmer realizes that she’s cool and awesome and never has to get married? I mean, we’d still be together and that would be fine if that’s what she wants but what if, Adora? What if?”

“Uh, do you want to get married?”

“Yes! Of course I do.”

“And Glimmer agreed to marry you?”

“I mean, we haven’t had the ceremony yet, but she was the one who asked me, so yeah I think it’s safe to assume she wants to get married.”

“So… there you go, problem solved.”

“Adora,” Bow’s voice cut off in a frustrated groan. “That’s not the problem.”

“…It’s not?”

“The problem is that I’m nervous.”

“Oh, well I, uh…. do you want to do a deep breathing exercise? Oh, should I get Perfuma to lead you through it? She’s way better at it than I am.”

“No, no, it’s fine.” Flopping onto the bed, Bow let out a pitiful moan. “I should’ve picked Catra to be my Knight instead, she might actually be more helpful.”

“Wow, okay,” Adora sat on the bed next to Bow, feigning offense (okay maybe a little part of her was genuinely offended, but only a tiny bit). “I did offer to get Perfuma to come help.”

Bow said nothing, just groaned into his pillow some more.

“What are you so nervous about, anyway? Glimmer’s not going to change her mind, not after everything you two have been through.” For a moment, she thought about herself and Catra instead, how they’d also been through so much together, and her breath caught in her throat briefly. “And, let’s be honest, between Princess Prom and the Coronation, you know we’re going to miss most of the royal etiquette, so don’t expect any of that.”

Bow hummed in agreement, but there was still a tense line in his shoulders. Adora patted his back in an attempt to be comforting. “And it’s Glimmer, who you love. It doesn’t matter if SeaHawk and Swift Wind get into another drinking contest and set the building on fire, it’s going to be perfect.”

Bow let out another pained noise. “You’re right but I also wish you hadn’t said that.”

“What, that it’ll be perfect? Or that SeaHawk and Swift Wind might set the building on fire?”

–

The ceremony itself was fairly private, with only other princesses and close friends and family in attendance. Glimmer had let Catra keep her shirt mostly unbuttoned and Adora spent most of the opening ceremony trying not to stare while also remembering what she was supposed to be doing. She only had so many brain cells, and Catra’s presence constantly wreaked havoc on them.

Nothing distracted Adora (or Catra) from watching as their best friends stood before each other, though, Bow and Glimmer both smiling so wide they couldn’t help but giggle, cheeks flushed and eyes glassy. Micah presided over the joining ceremony, barely holding it together himself. He used a magic thread, enchanted with power from Bright Moon’s runestone, to tie their clasped hands and whisper a few words as Glimmer and Bow brought their foreheads together.

Unable to stop the wishful thoughts of herself and Catra in their place, Adora swallowed and glanced towards her girlfriend, heart stuttering to a standstill when she saw Catra staring back, something soft and yearning in her eyes.

The rest of the ceremony was a blur. If she gave a speech, Adora couldn’t remember what it was, only the thunderous cheers of their close friends, and then the uproars of the public outside when Bow and Glimmer were presented on the castle balcony, Bow now adorned with a royal circlet to match his wife’s.

“I’m kinda mad we didn’t even get to fight,” Catra said, arms folded as she watched the happy couple from the entrance to the balcony.

“Wait, fight?” Adora said. “Fight who? Me?”

Catra gave her a look. “Did you even read the scroll? If there was a dispute between the two during the ceremony, our duty as their "knights” was to fight it out in their stead. I mean, I knew there wasn’t going to be a dispute, but I kinda hoped they’d make one up anyway.“

"Huh,” Adora looked towards Catra, at the figure she cut in her outfit with her elaborately embroidered cloak hanging from her shoulders, sword dangling at her hip. “Or we could just cross swords anyway.”

“…I do like the way you think, Adora,” Catra’s eyes shifted from watching Bow and Glimmer to meeting Adora’s gaze. Her lips pulled up in a smirk her fangs poked out over her bottom lip. “Right here?”

While it would be fun, she didn’t want to distract from Bow and Glimmer’s big day by starting a duel in public view. Besides, judging by the heat pooling in her gut and the way Catra’s eyes kept running up and down, this fight was going to lead places not appropriate for prying eyes.

“No, we should go to the garden.”

“Race you there.”

And then Catra was off, bounding away down corridors and around corners, slipping into old shortcuts with Adora hot on her tail. She stumbled just before the entrance to the garden, her boots catching on the ground when she tried to run on all fours, and Adora had no time to react before sprinting right into her, sending them both tumbling out onto the grass.

Flat on her back, Catra glared up at Adora, expecting a smug or teasing grin, but Adora’s face was awestruck instead. “Catra, do you–?” Adora paused, hand cupping Catra’s face and thumb brushing over her cheek.

“What?” Catra asked, wondering where all of Adora’s bluster had gone but also, inherently, knowing exactly where it was. Because she was having those same feelings.

And it was the fault of Sparkles and Rainbow and the image burned in her brain of them smiling at each other like they were the only two people in the room.

“Do you want that? What Bow and Glimmer have?”

“Bad taste in fashion?”

“Catra.”

Catra shifted uncomfortably underneath Adora and centred herself, focusing on her breathing, just like Perfuma had taught her. She wet her lips, looking up at Adora, who was illuminated by the sun sitting high in the sky. “You mean like, get married? Because I thought that was stuff only royalty did.”

“I mean, I am technically a princess, in case you forgot,” Adora said, taking advantage of the brief brevity to calm and collect her frayed nerves. “But… yeah. Do you want to get married? It-it doesn’t matter if you don’t, I’m happy as long as we’re together but, it would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

Catra’s hand slid up to cup Adora’s jaw, and she stared deep into Adora’s eyes. “Adora, I already told you I don’t care about following the rules. And I’m not saying it wouldn’t be nice, but--” She thought about all the years her and Adora had spent together since the defeat of Horde Prime, of the promises and the vows they’d given each other over their lives. “Don’t we kinda have that already?”

For a moment, Adora only stared, and then she started laughing. “Oh my gosh, we do, don’t we? I mean, there’s a bit more paperwork involved in an actual wedding--”

“I can definitely live without the paperwork.”

Still mirthfully breathless, Adora pressed her forehead to Catra’s, squeezing back the tears in her eyes as Catra pulled her into a burning kiss, mouths constantly reconnecting between the giddy laughter that came bubbling up, both of them overflowing with euphoria.

“Holy crap, we’re married. Unofficially but still.”

She giggled into Catra’s cheek, holding her close.

Hard to say, honestly. Despite not being particularly fond of Clover, I would like to believe that he is at heart a good person who has a tendency to let his ego run away with him. I’d like to think he was, at the very least, being genuinely cordial. His tone didn’t strike me as sarcastic.

The Ace Ops’ relationship to Robyn Hill is complicated, I think. They’re loyal first to Ironwood and to the job, and Ironwood may not like Jacques Schnee (at least I fuckin’ hope he doesn’t) but he also doesn’t particularly trust Robyn. Not to get all Marxist here, but the Ace Ops are cops first and foremost. You can see that in episode 6 just from the way Marrow speaks to Robyn and makes insinuations about the legality of Robyn’s activities. 

Robyn Hill is a populist figurehead who makes use of direct action--arguably for the greater good of the lower and working classes of Mantle. Jacques Schnee is a capitalist who legally exploits those lower classes.