Adora stared up at the late afternoon sky, enjoying the feel of the warm stone roof beneath her, the slight breeze that stirred her hair, the distant call of a bird, and—her eyes opened fully—the slight scuffling sound of someone climbing up the wall.

Catra's head popped into view, and Adora felt a twinge of guilt at the worry in her friend's face. Their eyes met, and worry quickly faded to a relieved smirk.

"Hey, Adora."

"Hey yourself."

Catra lithely hopped over the low wall and peered over the edge, feeling a tingly, excited sensation at the incredible distance to the ground. "You know, I'm actually kind of impressed you made it up here."

Adora puffed out an amused breath. "Yeah, me too."

Catra sauntered across the short distance to her friend and sat on the stone roof near her, pulling up Adora's shirt a few inches to check the bandage at her side. It was such a familiar motion that Adora barely reacted, save for a hissing wince when Catra prodded near the wound.

"Watch it."

Catra retracted her finger with an apologetic look. "Sorry."

A thin, blotchy line of red had soaked through the bandage some time ago, but the stain was small enough that the stitches appeared to have remained intact through Adora's (entirely unsanctioned) climb to the roof. Satisfied, Catra pulled Adora's shirt back down and poked her forehead instead. "You know, sometimes I really think you do have brain damage."

Adora gave a playful scowl and raised a sore arm to flick Catra's forehead in return. "Takes one to know one."

Still, climbing up here probably hadn't been her finest idea. The latest battle hadn't gone particularly well for anyone in the rebellion—She-Ra included, Adora thought as her fingers brushed against her side. Any battle where she couldn't remember leaving the field wasn't a good one. She'd felt better on the climb up, fueled by the urge to get away and an adrenaline rush from the height, but now… she gazed up at the late afternoon clouds, which were tilted and spinning lazily in a way that she was almost certain had nothing to do with the wind… yeah, climbing down from here did not sound appealing. She hadn't even bothered to raise herself up on her elbows when Catra arrived, preferring to remain flat against the stone of the roof.

Catra had stretched out beside her, hands comfortably tucked behind her head as her tail flicked lazily to the side.

"Glimmer and Bow are turning the castle upside down looking for you, you know," Catra volunteered. "They're pretty worried."

Guilt twisted in Adora's chest. "Yeah. I probably should've left a note, or something."

"Probably."

She knew she could trust them, knew they cared for her, knew she was safe with them—but even though she knew, she couldn't control what she felt. Head injuries tended to make it worse; that extra haze of confusion and uncertainty would bring back old feelings in full force, and she had to be out of sight in order for the tension in her chest to release. Hide. Hide your weakness. Stay out of sight.

"I love them, it's just-" Adora sighed. "Sometimes I still feel like I need to be alone."

Catra felt her stomach drop, then immediately became angered with herself for the reaction. Despite the fact that their younger selves had hidden away countless times when injured or sick, they'd never had to hide from each other—but she shouldn't care. Sure, they used to be best friends, but… well, a lot had happened.

She shifted, making to get up as she forced her tone to be light. "Alright, alright; a girl can tell when she's not wanted."

Her motions were stayed by a hand gripping her wrist.

"Oh, c'mon—obviously you don't count."

"Gee, thanks."

Still, a feeling of warmth chased away the chill in her chest as she lay back down next to Adora, folding her hands across her stomach and staring up at the sky.

It was… peaceful up here, Catra thought. The handholds carved in the outer wall that had let Adora climb up here seemed like a vestige of the castle's builders, if anything—clearly no one came up here anymore. It was almost the highest point of the castle, offering a stunning view of the surroundings if one looked down, but still slightly sheltered from observers below by a short wall at their feet. Laying down as they were made them invisible from the ground. The whole small area seemed built for someone who wanted to see without being seen.

"I can see why you like it up here," Catra observed a while later.

"Yeah," Adora's voice was drowsy, her eyes half-lidded as she watched the clouds drift slowly by. "Thought you'd like it."

The warmth in her chest increased a little bit, and Catra wondered when she'd gotten so pathetic that the simple knowledge that people thought and cared about what she enjoyed made her happy.

She decided to distract herself by counting clouds. That took a while. There were a lot of them today; small puffy ones, big towering ones, long wispy ones—and they kept changing shape, blowing, drifting… eventually, she found herself drifting with them.

Catra was pulled from her hazy almost-sleep by a hitch in Adora's breath. Adora's hand was on her wounded side, and her brow was knit together in… it didn't quite look like pain. Frustration? Anger?

"'s wrong?" Catra asked, voice roughened from her partial nap.

Adora's features smoothed, leaving only a hint of her consternation behind. Catra felt a twist of annoyance that Adora still felt like she had to hide things from her.

"Nothing. Go back to sleep."

Catra let her annoyance show in her narrowed eyes. "Uh-huh."

Adora sighed. "Fine. I was thinking about the battle."

Of course you were.

Adora's voice sounding strained. "So many rebellion soldiers are down now—or worse. If I had just been a little faster, a little better, I wouldn't have been wounded and I could've done so much more-" she was interrupted by Catra's finger poking her forehead, forcefully smoothing away the remaining stress lines.

"Knock it off."

Adora's eyes crossed as she looked up at Catra's finger. "Huh?"

"You can't fight a war by yourself. Any dummy knows that." Well, maybe not any dummy. Catra could swear that every time Adora transformed, She-Ra got some of that extra height by borrowing a few of Adora's brain cells.

"I can try," Adora said lamely, hoping it came across in a joking tone. She kept hearing from her friends how she wasn't alone, shouldn't try to be alone, how it wasn't her sole responsibility to turn the tide of this war—and she was trying to share the burden; she really was. Years of a deeply ingrained sense of duty and a horrible, petrifying fear of failure were not so easily dispelled, however.

Catra groaned. "You're hopeless." She collapsed back onto the roof in an exasperated huff. "Well, at you're not running off to battle anytime soon. You probably couldn't handle one-on-one combat with a mosquito right now."

Adora laughed then immediately winced, one hand covering her bandaged side as she drew in a hissing breath. Catra followed her motions with a sharp gaze. Adora's wound had been treated well; just laughing shouldn't pain her that much unless-

"Did you take the medication they gave you?"

Adora's eyes slid to one side. "Yes."

"When?"

A slight pause. "A… while ago."

Catra propped herself up on one elbow and flicked Adora in the forehead. "Idiot." Adora tried to flinch backward from the motion, but with her head resting on the stone roof had nowhere to go. She settled for rubbing her forehead while shooting Catra an annoyed glare.

Catra had already resumed her reclined position, staring up again at the sky. The pinks and purples were deepening now, as twilight gave way to night. "Punishing yourself doesn't help anyone." Catra's voice was quiet, and Adora was taken a little off guard by its seriousness. The next statement was given in a more familiar volume: "So take your meds or I'll kick your ass."

Adora almost laughed, but thought better of it at the sharp sting in her side. The climb to the roof had done her no favors, and the last dregs of yesterday's painkiller had long since faded. "Yes, ma'am."

Catra gave a somewhat mollified grunt of acknowledgment.

"Hey," Adora said a moment later, bumping Catra's arm with her elbow. "I'm glad you're here."

Here, where? Here with the rebellion? Here on the roof?

Adora's arm now rested on the ground between them, close enough to Catra's own that she could feel the warmth radiating out through her sleeve.

"Yeah. Me too."

Twilight was almost gone now, the night moons shining brightly as the last hints of bright color faded from the sky. The warmth of the day still rose from the stone roof beneath them, but it would soon fade. A cool night breeze raised goosebumps on Catra's arm.

"You know Glimmer's gonna have to to teleport your sorry butt down from here, right?"

A slight grin. "Yeah, I know."

"Gonna give you an earful, too."

Another smile. "Yeah."

"Should I go get her?"

Adora sighed, the sound oddly contented, her eyes closing. "Not yet. Just… a little longer."

Catra hummed, letting the familiar peace of their nearness wash over her. Warmth radiated from the stone of the roof and from the side where Adora lay. She let her own eyes drift shut, suffused with a rare contentment.

Yeah. She could wait.

….then Glimmer frantically teleports up there like an hour later (still freaking out cause she hasn't found Adora), finds them both asleep, and chews Catra out for not coming back right after she found her. xD

Let me know if you liked it! I just wanted to write something kinda soft and peaceful. I almost made this a new chapter of 'For the Night is Dark,' but decided I might as well just publish these separately.

Thanks for reading!