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[ Whoever is using Catra's comm is standing at the foot of her hospital bed. Probably one of the medical staff or some other Jorgmund pencil pusher. Catra is sitting up, still bandaged but much grumpier than usual (or just as grumpy as usual?). A pair of nurses, along with a couple of other Jorgmund employees are crowded around her bed, one of them holding a plate on which sits a small, sad looking cupcake in which someone has stuck a very lonely candle. The fellow holding the plate, a rather selnder man with too-large glasses and too-cheery disposition, speaks. ]

We want to congratulate Catra on her continuing recovery and wish her a very happy twentieth birthday from all of us at Jorgmund. We understand that it's been a bit of a rough time for some of you lately, and thought this might help raise morale. All together now.

[ The group launches into a slightly off-key rendition of 'Happy Birthday to You' and Catra seems to sink down into her bedclothes, as if it might help her disappear from this plane of existence. Having no such luck, she is forced to sit through the song. ]

Go ahead and blow out the candle, Catra.

[ Catra looks like she would rather do anything except blow out the candle. Maybe even go toe-to-toe with the killer again. In spite of this, she leans forward and gives a half-heard puff of breath, which extinguishes the candle. Styrofoam plate is carefully balanced on her bedside table, and the glasses-wearing guy, no doubt from HR, takes the comm. ]

Go ahead and leave Catra some birthday wishes. I'm sure that hearing from her fellow employees will be just the thing to help her get back on her feet as soon as possible.

[ The comm is deposited into Catra's lap. She stares at the camera, then plants her face in her hands. ]

I swear if ant of you say anything...

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Speaking of deserving something nice...

[Tenten reaches out and takes the scroll, unrolling it on the table. It's full of seals and symbols, but she's tracing her fingers along them like she knows what they are either way.]

One of the traditions that come with a birthday is that the person having one gets presents. Normally, I'd just give her a weapon of some kind, but I don't have anything like that right now. [Thanks, Obama.] And I don't know what she'd like otherwise. So I was kinda hoping, y'know. You could help me pick a present?

[There's a beat.]

Um. Of course, I'd give you something to give her too. No offense, but our resources here are a little... limited.

Hmm.

[ Adora wrinkles her nose as she thinks. That's honestly kind of a touch question for her to answer. She and Catra never had a lot of stuff when they were growing up, so figuring out if there's more stuff that Catra might like is kinda hard. ]

I can try. No guarantees, though. It's not like either of us actually owned a lot of our own stuff growing up.

[ She scratches her chin. ]

...clothing, maybe? If you can get some.

[That casual little admittance kinda gets her attention. No personal possessions? Sounded... Not good, really. Were they just cogs in some war machine, then? There to fight and nothing else? It was a miracle the two came out as well adjusted as they had. If you could call Catra's standoffishness 'well adjusted'.

Tenten's finger's skitter down the scroll until she finds the seal she wants. Then she places her hands on it and, with a puff of smoke, a few neatly folded piles of clothing are just... There. Largely things she considered work outfits, since this was what she worked with on missions, but there were one or two fancy dresses and robe arrangements in there. And, of course, Master Guy's infamous gift of a green bodysuit. Somehow, she didn't figure Catra for one of those.]

I'd figured she might like some clothes. And she and I are about the same size for a lot of things. I'll need to fix up a hole for that tail, though...

[She had the clothes she'd come in with now, of course, a reward for her 'good service', but she hadn't seen the point in wearing them with Planker around to ruin a decent outfit for his own amusement.]

What kind do you think she'd like? Go ahead and look through them. I've got some other stuff, too, but I need to do up the whipped cream real fast.

[Unless Adora stops her, she's going to just. Step away and do that. It shouldn't take her more than five minutes.]

Huh.

[ Adora is thankfully used to magic, so someone summoning a pile of clothes out of nowhere isn't all that strange. She crouches to start sorting through them, holding the outfits up one by one as she tries to figure out which one might work. ]

Something sleek, I think. And definitely needs a hole for her chest-tuft...

[ She's half talking to herself and partially to Tenten to see if she has any ideas. ]

[Honestly, Adora just accepting that as a thing that happens is a little gratifying for Tenten. The people who freak out over the things she can do are a little annoying, it's like ninjas are lame in their worlds or something.

True to her word, she's doing up the whipped cream while Adora pokes through her outfits. It feels weird to have someone just going through her possessions like this, but it's for Catra. And, honestly, better Adora than some of the other options around here. The cream is already thickening, thanks to the beating, the powdered sugar, and smells great thanks to the vanilla extract, so she glances over her shoulder.]

I don't have a lot of outfits with a gap there. It's, um. Not an area I advertise a lot.

[Look, Hinata and Ino already put her to shame, no sense in advertising that fact to everyone back home.]

I'd need to take a few hours to adjust one of them for that.

I mean - you don't have to. It's just something she usually likes...

[ She's not thinking about that particular bit of endowment, anyway. Just Catra's chestfur. ]

Besides, I don't want you to have to do a lot of work with your hand still busted up.

It's no-

[There's a pause, then Tenten looks down at her hand.

Oh. Right.]

...Yeah. Yeah, thanks. Sorry. I guess I'm just kinda caught up in, you know. You two deserve something nice.

Well, I have my jacket back-!

[ She laughs and tugs on the hem of said jacket in illustration. ]

So at least there's that. But... yeah. Catra could use something after all of that. I don't have anything for her, though. But... that's sort of how it is. There's not a lot. [ It's like the Fright Zone all over again. ]

They're letting me wear my clothes and my forehead protector. But I don't trust Planker, you know? And then there's whoever keeps leaving jackets on my bed while I'm out...

[Adora's got a nice jacket!]

I wouldn't mind working for Jorgmund normally. Like, if they'd come to the village for a long-term contract instead of trying to pick up slaves. They're incompetent, but they... seem to mean well? It's just that they can't seem to stop being evil. [But, hey, if there's a paycheck...] So, find something nice for her and claim it. I don't have to give her clothes, if you don't want to give her the same thing. [She'd like, to, though, just to see Catra's eyes light up. And see how they look on her.] What else? I don't have any weapons here, but I've got, um. A lot of stuff.

I'll figure something out. Problem is I don't actually have a lot of my own stuff, let along anything I can hand out as a gift.

[ She wrinkles her nose in thought. ]

I mean... I guess they're not as bad as the Horde in some ways... worse in others. Weird to think about.

[ OK. Back to thinking about Catra. ]

...maybe I should find a weapon for her.

Adora, [she begins with a long-suffering tone of voice] A present from you is going to mean a lot more than a present from me. She loves you. I'm just... [Excess.] just some girl she's met and hangs out with now and then.

Give her a gift whenever you can, but birthdays are special. They're a time for people to let you know how much they love you and think of you while celebrating your life. That's why I'm telling you to pick something. I'll give it to you. You give it to her. She doesn't need to know where it originally came from, just that you gave it to her on a special day.

[ Adora blinks. Wait a second- ]

Tenten, you are way more than just some girl. I was Catra's only friend for as long as I knew her! The fact that she's connected with you at all is... it's great!

[ She flashes a big smile. ]

Look - we can give her something together. From the both of us.

[Tenten's... honestly not sure what to say here. She blinks stupidly at Adora, then coughs and pauses. Oh! Cake. Yes. Without a word, she busies herself, checking the cake, then pulling both of them out of the oven. They look... Not perfect, but good. Time to just let them cool.

It also gives her time to think. Refusing an offer like that, it would be horrendously rude. And, as much as Adora's her silent rival for Catra, she honestly doesn't want to hurt the girl. They ARE friends, after all. Or maybe just friendly, but she's pretty sure Adora would call them friends. Then again, Adora seems like the person who'd consider someone she met five seconds ago friends.]

...Yeah, that would work. She'd be fine with that?

[ Adora's a little confused by the sudden silence, but she goes back to filtering through the clothing until Tenten's finished with the cakes. That's a little weird, isn't it? ]

Catra's never been good at saying "thank you" or anything like that, but... I think she would.

[Thankfully, Adora didn't call her on it. Tenten's still not sure how she'd reply to it.

At her follow-up, however, Tenten smiles, wiping away her earlier fretting, then moves over to the clothes. It's still weird, having someone else go through them, but... Well. A good cause. And now she's there to watch.]

That's good. So, what choices do you think look good?

I like this brown and white one, actually! I'm not sure it's totally her color, but I think she'd look good in it. Don't you?

[ She holds up the little jacket to illustrate. ]

Ah.

[Her usual outfit. She used to separate her clothes out from civilian wear and mission wear, but after After Pain had destroyed Konoha, she'd kinda just. Stuck with that. Still, she had spares. And other outfits.]

Yeah, I think that would be cute on her. I usually have my hips wrapped up in bandages and chain mail underneath that, but Catra might appreciate some air flow. You don't think it's too loose for her tastes??

[Then again, given their slight height and weight differences, something loose on Tenten might be a little less so on Catra.]

I think it'll work... and we can always take it in a little, right?

[ She does know how to sew a little. Sometimes you have to patch your own stuff in the Fright Zone. ]

I think we can make it work.

[Seems like anyone who lives the lives they do ought to have some skills in patching up clothes.]

Well, we can see how it'd look on Catra as is, then make decisions on alterations then?

[She glances at the outfit, then closes her eye. Her hands clap together, then contort into a series of knots, ending in a puff of smoke that envelopes her. When it fades, Catra's standing there, as she was before her contact with the murderer. She opens her eyes, looks down, clucks her tongue in annoyance, then moves her hands again. Another puff and she's in the outfit that Adora's holding, exactly as it is, and with the new haircut demanded by her surgery.

Catra's, or rather Tenten wearing Catra's form, is about fifteen pounds heavier and an inch or two taller. When she speaks, it's Catra's voice, but not her words. And her left eye, Tenten's bandaged one, remains closed except for instances where she forces it open.]

The tail's kind of weird. But we can definitely do a hole for it.

[She turns, posing a little.]

What do you think? Is this the one for her?

[ Adora stares for a long moment. She knows about Double Trouble, but this is something a little different. Still weird to see Tenten turn into her girlfriend (Catra's her girlfriend now, wow) and she has to remind herself not to keep staring. ]

Uh.

[ She walks one way, then the other, trying to get a better look. ]

Yeah. Yeah, I think it is. You're the second person I've met who can do that.

[Tenten turns, flexes, at one point just straight up bends backwards to touch her palms to the floor while keeping her feet flat. She wasn't quite sure she'd gotten the musculature right, but it felt like Catra would be fine. The staring doesn't quite escape her notice, but she manages to fight off the blush by writing it off as an examination. After all, it was Catra being eyed up, not her.

She straighten back up, wincing as she does so, then turns her head to look at Adora. She said that like it wasn't exactly welcome.]

All ninjas can. It's a basic skill, you don't get to graduate from the Academy if you can't pull off a transformation jutsu. Sorry, is it uncomfortable? I can stop.

[Thankfully, she doesn't know anything about Double Trouble. She's got Catra's body language down pat, though, except for the one closed eye. She ought to have, she spent enough time watching the older girl]

[ It's kind of uncanny. Adora isn't quite sure how she feels about someone else being able to flawlessly imitate Catra, but at least Tenten isn't going to be running around causing trouble like DT, right? ]

No, it's fine. I just wasn't expecting it.

[ She settles on the floor, knees drawn up to her chin as she watches. ]

You must've spent a lot of time keeping an eye on her. You're good.

Edited 2020-11-13 20:11 (UTC)

[That gets a quick flush. Was Adora calling her out? No, couldn't be. For one thing, well. Adora wasn't the most observant person around.]

She's worth keeping an eye on.

[Tenten coughs awkwardly, then squats to see how that feels. Still comfy. She stands again, then feels at Catra's exposed fur on her hips. She hadn't done up the bandages there, because she hadn't figured Catra would want to wrap up every time.]

Maybe we should give her a pair of shorts, too. I don't know how she feels about showing a little, uh. Fur. And if the angle's wrong, someone might be able to see something she doesn't want them to.

Yeah. She really is.

[ Adora sounds a bit dreamy, but she snaps herself back to the present after a moment. She follows Tenten's gesture and eyes the little tufts of exposed fur on her hips. ]

Huh. Maybe. She doesn't usually mind that much, but... yeah. I don't think she wants to show off to everyone. Shorts are probably a good idea...

[Adora, you dumb, sweet, oblivious girl, she could kiss you.]

Yeah, when I first started wearing these, I realized pretty quickly that the wrong gust of wind and, well.

[An illustrative tug.]

But I can tuck things in there, so I just started wearing armor and then hiding it with some bandages. But some shorts like, uh...

[She reaches over and pulls a tight, black pair out of the pile, then held them out for Adora to examine.]

What do you think? Still a little eye-catching, but nearly pervert proof.

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