#start blinking hiiiii. this idea was stuck in my head for a good while im happy i got to make something out of it

[dinojay-art]

Living Millennium

[heyyyyadora]

I haven’t written in a while but finally I can post my Secret Santa gift to @caprisunns based off their amazing prompt image of Literal Big Furry Catra

really indulged in this one cause im a big slut for supernatural AUs

“Okay, go ahead! Coast’s clear.”

“Adora… I don’t know.”

“Come on, Catra, it’ll be fine! It’ll be awesome, actually! You deserve to have a good time.”

“I just… I don’t know, it still feels weird. Bad.”

This was Adora’s idea, of course. She knew Catra hated having to be stuck in such a feeble frame (as she put it), day-in-day-out, suppressing herself, her instincts, her self. As much as she protested she was fine, she was okay, it was just the way of things, Adora could sense her buzzing with need, the drive, to just let herself go.

She didn’t get on too well with most of the supernatural community. She’d… made kind of a name for herself. She had a couple of fae friends, maybe, but only one was more than a loose acquaintance and was kind of a bit much to deal with all-in-all.

But she still had a right to find a space that she could be who she needed to be, a safe space. And now Adora was in her life there was no way that she wasn’t going to be there for Catra, to be her support and help her find happiness and health.

“Catra, you will not be the weirdest looking girl in the house. In fact I think for once I’ll actually stick out the most of the two of us.”

“Well, you are pretty freaky lookin’…”

“Oh, you are not going to bait me into responding to that, I’m not falling for it! Now go on… I’ll look away.”

“I mean, heh… it’s not like I mind you looking.”

“Psh… just do it, okay?”

Catra sighed and nodded, and Adora turned her back to the girl to stare at the alley wall. “Just tell me when you’re ready.”

Okay, Catra. Relax. You’re like, the most confident person out of everyone you know. Not to mention the most terrifying. Not like anyone would dare to mess with you now, let alone when… ugh. Okay. She put the bag she carried down and slowly started to undress. This was… the most annoying part of it all, really, that moment where you’re all gross and fleshy and exposed. It did encourage her to get on with it, though.

Catra breathed slowly in, then out. Then, trying her best to stay relaxed, she summoned herself up from deep within.

Her hands were first. It was a tingle in her fingers that spread up the back of them, like static electricity buzzing up her arms. It took a few seconds then slowly, barely noticeably at first, a few dark hairs began to appear… then more and more. Not a second or two later the same sensation began in her feet, then at the back of her neck.

As the fur grew so, too, did the underlying flesh and bone. This went in reverse to the fur, starting from her back and shoulders, which grew longer and wider; her neck, thicker, along with her thighs. She sneezed as whiskers sprouted from the sides of her nose and, immediately after, her face followed the lead of the rest of her body, stretching out and expanding; soon her nose was a snout that extended out under her eyes. Her vision blurred a little and she had to blink a few times to focus properly; the colours of the world were changing, growing less vivid, but she could see much further in the dim evening light than was possible just a few seconds ago.

A minute later from when it began she finally exhaled the breath she’d been holding, a good foot and a half higher from the ground than before. She flexed her claws, brushed them through the mane around her neck, guided some rebellious fur out of her eyes and ears.

“I’m done.” Her voice was deeper than before, rougher. She wasn’t used to the feeling of her tongue in her mouth, but at the same time her whole body felt looser, more relaxed, more natural. This was her. This was Catra. This was how she’d be all the time if she could.

Adora turned slowly, her eyes trailing up to meet Catra’s as she broke out into a grin. Immediately she reached up and offered a gentle scratch at the fluffy fur around Catra’s neck.

“You look great.”

Catra couldn’t suppress a purr but batted the hand away with a rumble in her throat. “Don’t push it.”

Her thick tail flicked with agitation and she shifted nervously from paw to paw. “Let’s go inside, quick.”

Adora bundled Catra’s human clothes into the bag and zipped it up before taking it up on her shoulder. Still smiling she took Catra’s hand, curling her fingers around just one of hers. Then she guided Catra out of the Alley and down the steps of the club to start their night proper.

As they stepped inside immediately they were hit in the face by the usual sights and sounds of a thriving nightclub – though of course a few of the sights were not so standard at all: vampires dancing with werewolves; fairies chatting up demons; dragons and mandrakes and kelpies alike drinking each other under the tables peppered with supernatural creatures of all shapes, sizes and colours.

Catra’s eyes hurt.

“Oh! There they are!” Adora chirped up and led Catra by the paw to one of the tables where two people were sat- well, one of them was, at least. Some sort of bird or angel girl with pink, sparkling hair and fluffy white wings she was obviously struggling to stay comfortable with as they pressed into the back of her seat. The other wasn’t sat at all because, well, there was no suitable means for him to achieve it with the body of a horse. He was the first to look up and call out brightly.

“Adora! Hey!”

“Hi, Bow! Hi, Glimmer! Sorry, we had some stuff to sort out real quick.”

“It’s cool! We got drinks already.” Bow looked from Adora, to Catra, to Adora again. His grin never faltered but he was clearly waiting.

“Oh- Catra, this is Bow! Bow, this is Catra.”

“Hiiiii, Catra! So cool to meet you!”

“Hey.” Catra offered plainly. Bow’s hand hovered in front of her. She grunted and took it in a paw to shake hands, which he did far too enthusiastically.

“Aaaaand this is Glimmer!” Adora next indicated the winged glitterbomb that had been too busy looking at Catra to say anything. “Glimmer? This is Catra!”

“Ohhh, hey, yeah, hi.” She was similarly curt which ticked Catra off. They shook hands too but with much less vigor from either side.

“Sure.”

“Sooooooooo,” Bow cut through the ice like a pro, annoyingly. “How long have you been seeing each other?”

“Bow! I told you all this stuff already!” Adora huffed.

“I know, I know! But I wanna hear it from Catra too! Besides, maaaaybe there’s some stuff you left out…” He wiggled his eyebrows and Adora snorted. Catra just sighed.

“Like… a month.”

“Aaaaaand? How did you meet?”

“…I’d got my fur stuck on her fence.”

Adora sniggered but Bow didn’t – he looked delighted, actually.

“And she totally didn’t freak out because she’d already met me and Glimmer, right?”

“I guess. I figured she must have been crazy but she was super cool about it all. Took me in her place and patched up a load of my cuts. I was too… shocked, I guess, to stop her.”

“So she knew you were a fae from the start?”

“Maybe. I dunno. But it probably gave it away when she went away for a minute and came back to find a naked girl raiding her wardrobe covered in barbed wire cuts.”

Adora choked. Bow clapped his hands joyfully. Even Glimmer gurgled into her drink a little bit. Catra raised her eyebrow at Adora. “You left that part out, huh?”

“Well, yeah! For your dignity, I thought!”

“Adora. I have no dignity.”

Bow, meanwhile, was beaming at the two of them, “Awwwww, but seriously, that’s so cute! Like an actual fairytale!”

“Bow, literally everyone here is like an actual fairytale.”

“It’s so romantic though!”

Catra sniggered. “Well, it probably would be less romantic if you knew I was gonna raid one of your horses…”

“You what?” Adora’s gaze locked onto her in outrage.

“I’m a cat, Adora! And when I get a big hunger, I gotta eat something big!”

“You are staying away from my horse field.”

“Soooooo, anyway!” Bow chimed in again. “That’s kinda how Adora and I met! And Glimmer, through me. She was just so like… obsessed with some of my herd, I was kinda sorta super flattered. So I like, begged Glimmer to say I should go up to her and well… she did kinda freak out, but in a sorta…” He put on his best Horse-Freak-Adora voice. “‘Oh-my-god-you-are-amazing-is-this-real-am-I-dreaming-etcetera-etcetera…’”

Adora put a hand over her face, blushing. “I do not sound like that.”

“Yeah, you totes do.”

“Okay! Well. Now that we’re all introduced! Catra and I are going to go and get drinks!” Adora was blushing harder by the second and moved quickly away from the table. Catra shrugged and followed, a slight smirk on her face.

“Okay! Seeya guys later!” Bow cheered after them.

“Later.” Was the only word from Glimmer.

They navigated the crowd slowly, a tricky task given the added difficulty of additional limbs sprouting in front of you at the worst of times, plus having to avoid stepping on the number of patrons who were less than a foot tall at times.

“Sorry about Glimmer. She’s… usually chattier than that. I dunno what’s up with her.”

“I caught her once.”

“You…” Adora stopped and looked at Catra. “You caught her?”

“She looked like a bird.”

“You were going to eat her?”

“I let her go, duh.” Catra shrugged it off like it was no big deal.

“Wh… why didn’t you say anything?!”

“I wasn’t gonna embarrass her in front her friends, Adora.”

“But…” Adora couldn’t argue with it and she decided against it. “…Fine. Okay. That’s cool. My girlfriend tried to eat my best friend.”

“I caught her, Adora, I didn’t try to eat her. Don’t be weird about it.”

“Don’t be…!” She stopped and just gripped Catra’s paw tighter, lurching forward for the bar. “I need a drink so bad.”

“Yeah… you and me both.”

“What? What is it?”

Catra sighed. She nodded her head to a small group that was at a booth to the left of the bar. The most notable of them was the Spriggan, a tree-person who had to crouch for her head not to be reaching the ceiling. She had long, wavy vines for hair with flowers tangled into them. With her was a human man who was entirely focusing his attention on the third person… a girl with dark, leathery scaled skin and terrifyingly sharp teeth, like those of an angler-fish or other deep-sea terror. Catra’s eyes were on her and they were filled with all number of mixed emotions.

“You okay?” Adora pushed in gently, noticing her distraction.

Catra snapped out of it, looking back to her girlfriend. Her shoulders sagged for a second. “Yeah. It’s nothing, forget it.”

“Who’s that?”

“Ugh… look, I told you I’ve not got a lot of fae friends right now. She’s…” She sighed. “She’s part of that. The fish girl. She’s… my ex-girlfriend.”

“Oh, god.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Catra.” Adora took both of her paws and looked her in the eyes. Despite Adora’s entirely mundane aura, just this once they seemed to glow with an unseen fire. “You are going to have a good time with me, and Bow, and yeah Glimmer once we get past the whole thing that I’m sure she’s totally actually cool about. You don’t have anything to worry about with her, or her friends or anyone she might think she knows here. She is not going to ruin your night.”

Catra looked back at Adora and swallowed. Her heart rose up to her throat a little and she had to push it back down hard. Eventually she offered a weak little smile. “I know. Just, like…” She paused for breath again, giving only the briefest of looks over to the deep-sea girl before Adora pulled her gaze back. “…It’s not her I’m worried about. It’s me. Can you… can you promise me- promise you won’t let me ruin my night?” Adora looked at her with such pure care and sympathy she wanted to die a little. “No, seriously. She’s… she’s okay. She’s cool. I just- don’t let me start anything. Keep me away from her. Please?”

Her response was a tender little kiss to the side of her face and a brush through her mane that got a soft rumble in response.

“Yeah, of course. Come on, Catra.”

She let her wonderful girlfriend she had to fight hard to believe she deserved, take her to the bar. Their night started right here.