#it's soft so don't fear the SW tag I just got a specific urge

[parts-of-spop]

A gentle morning...

A soft morning snippet of reflection and love

“Do you ever miss her?”

Catra blinks out her sleepy doze to find Adora’s face mere inches from her own.

She gazes back at her for a moment, taking in the soft lines of pale scars that line her skin despite the power of She-ra in her bones.

“Hm?” She grunts back softly and she waits with the kind of patience she never had when she was too young to realise there was a better option… that she had time to spare and nothing would come along to punish her for it.

“… Shadow Weaver,” Adora whispers, like her name is a secret. Not like something sacred but something dangerous as if that maybe if she said it too loud it might burn her tongue.

Catra is suddenly much more awake.

“Do you?” She replies just as quiet and after a long moment Adora raises her hand between them -they often sleep face-to-face so the other is the first thing they see- and she gently brushes the back of her finger over Catra’s cheek like she’s something precious… like she’s something worth keeping.

“I asked first,” She says softly.

Sometimes questions like that can feel like an interrogation, like the asker is waiting for her to slip up and say the wrong thing but this is Adora so Catra manages to wrangle back the reflexive urge to cringe from her touch and her words.

Instead, she gives a tired sigh and leans into the gentle touch on her face.

“Sometimes,” She admits as her eyes slip shut and the quiet drags on for so long she starts to worry she said the wrong thing.

But then she opens her eyes and Adora is looking at her with the tenderest of smiles.

Her heart swells in her chest so much it almost aches.

Then Adora leans in and presses a soft kiss to her lips.

It’s brief and almost achingly sweet.

“Do you wish she were still here?” She whispers like it’s a secret.

And after a long moment, Catra reaches back and kisses her in tern just the same.

“No… because then I’d never have this,” She says gently and she feels Adora’s small smile against her skin as she tucks herself into Catra’s neck and simply breathes for a moment.

“Yeah,” She agrees, pressing even closer in the warm comfort of Brightmoon’s night. “… Is it bad that I don’t care that she’s gone?”

Catra remains quiet, taking in the words and thinking through everything that Perfuma has spent hours upon hours talking her through.

‘You deserve happiness, Catra… and the people that hurt you do not deserve your suffering’.

“No…” She murmurs as she gently strokes her hand through Adora’s hair, claws safely sheathed and touch soft, “She didn’t earn it…”

And after another long moment of quiet, Adora exhales shakily and nods into her.

“Yeah…” She says as she hugs Catra only a little tighter.

She always does that.

She holds Catra like she’s something she could break and she could if she wanted to. She’s got a goddess built into her bones and she’s always careful not to squeeze too tight, never too suffocating and always giving Catra the space to escape if she needs it.

Sometimes she needs that… A moment to find the space to breathe alone and find her footing.

But not then…

Not in this quiet moment in their shared room where nothing and no one is out to get them.

Catra can hear the birds start to rouse outside their window with their soft chirps and the distant sounds of the kitchen staff as they start to prepare breakfast.

Those are safe and muffled sounds that are steadily becoming ones of comfort.

“I love you…” She whispers and she feels Adora smile against her once more.

“I love you,” Adora replies, almost like clockwork and one day soon Catra is certain that she’ll come to expect it without a trace of fear it may not be said.

Not just yet. But every day she smiles back and it’s a little easier to believe.

“I love you…” She says again, “So much.” And when Adora tilts her head to kiss her again then the ghosts of the rancid feeling of undeserving feel a little duller.

She’s certain too that the rising sun shines a little brighter too.