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Kuvira hadn’t expected the White Lotus Compound to be so frosty. The lands of the Southern Water Tribe were cold, and wintery, and cold, and snowy — she knew that, she’d learned that along with all the other basic facts about the world that her tutors in Zaofu liked stuffing inside her head. But hearing about the snowy land and seeing its reality were two very different things.
Kuvira had been plastered to the airship’s windows as soon as the continent had become visible. The sea’s dingy grey was interesting briefly, but they’d been flying over so many islands that she’d gotten bored of it. The islands themselves were mostly interesting, once they were large enough to see. And now, finally, she was getting a proper glimpse at the place she was to be living for the next few years at least.
The plains surrounding the complex were actually richly colored; nobody had told her that. Low-lying plants proliferated across the ground, with some scraggly trees leaning back from the ocean, pushed down by the same wind that propelled the airship closer to its destination. The sky was still light, but as they drew closer to the Compound, the mountains west of it blocked sunlight from reaching its walls. Kuvira, looking at the construction — ice, hopefully bolstered by stone — suspected that it would be gorgeous, shining like a gem, in proper sunlight. Too bad there was no way she’d get to see it glistening from the air like this any time soon.
They were descending towards the Compound now, and Kuvira strained her eyes to see what it looked like within those walls. Fires blossomed at each corner, and at a few points along each wall. Kuvira supposed that those were for the watchers. From what Suyin had told her, they were as much to keep the Avatar in as everything else out. The entire idea annoyed her, and she’d said as much to Suyin, who’d just smiled and said, “It’s for her own protection.”
Kuvira, then as now, thought that was ridiculous. She wasn’t the Avatar, and she’d been able to protect herself well enough at eight to be standing here today. Surely this Avatar, at fourteen, with the best training possible, could do the same. She made a face at the Compound through the window, secure in the knowledge that even with the best spyglasses possible, nobody would be able to see a fourteen-year-old girl making faces in an airship window. Besides, she was totally justified in doing this.
Her breath condensed on the glass, and she rubbed it away impatiently, not wanting to miss a moment of this descent. The Compound’s walls surrounded a surprisingly open space; she had expected to see more buildings in the middle. They could always train outside the walls, after all. Right? But, frowning, Kuvira realised that she could see no signs of construction or movement outside the Compound’s thick walls. “They really don’t get out much, do they?” she muttered.
Beside her, Suyin laughed. “You see why Avatar Korra asked for a companion?”
“Well, hopefully they’ll let me do something fun at least.” Kuvira fingered the wide metal plates of her necklace, a gift from Suyin before they left and an acknowledgement that she understood all the basic principles of metalbending. “If it’s all to keep the Avatar safe, then they won’t mind me going outside sometimes, right?”
“That’s what we were told.” Suyin placed a hand on Kuvira’s shoulder briefly. “We wouldn’t have agreed to it otherwise; you’d be far too bad an influence otherwise.”
Kuvira grinned, turning to face Suyin properly for the first time. They were almost of a size, but Suyin’s lean grace contrasted with Kuvira’s gangly height in ways that the girl privately hated. “I’m not a bad influence at all! Who’s been telling you those stories?”
“Wing and Wei,” Suyin said promptly, smiling herself. “Something about sneaking around Madame Fa’s gardens?”
Kuvira winced. “Well, maybe.” That particular escapade should have worked, too. Her young minions had just been a little harsher of foot than she’d hoped, and they’d left a few footprints in Madame Fa’s precious zen gardens. “I can’t do that here, though.”
“No,” Suyin agreed, turning back to the window. “You’ll find something else just as delightfully against social protocols, and Avatar Korra will laugh and the Order of the White Lotus will cry.”
“I’ll be good,” Kuvira protested, turning to the window as the airship shook with the shifting gears of its final descent. “Really.”
Suyin hummed agreement, and Kuvira stuck her tongue out briefly at her foster-mother’s back before returning her attention to the inside of the compound.
They were setting down on a terrace that seemed more designed for sparring than airships — but then, Kuvira saw, almost everything about the compound seemed designed for sparring rather than anything else. She only barely kept herself from frowning; they were close enough to the ground that people probably could see her expression now, and she really did want to make a good first impression on both Avatar Korra and the Order of the White Lotus.
The airship touched down with a whine of engines and a relatively light thud. Kuvira released the breath she hadn’t even realised she was holding and smoothed down her formal tunic. Her necklace clinked lightly as she moved, a comforting sound even in the midst of everything else. “Well,” she said, turning resolutely from the window. “I guess it’s time to meet everyone.”
“It is indeed.”
Suyin moved forward with practiced grace, and Kuvira followed. Suyin had assured her, time and time again, that once she stopped growing, she’d be as graceful as Suyin was; growing bodies simply don’t lend themselves well to grace, because you’re always getting used to new distances and angles. Kuvira understood that, she really did, but it didn’t make it any easier to follow after her foster-mother right now. And the Avatar, even if she was probably also hitting a growth spurt, had probably gotten enough training to counteract all the coltish movements Kuvira was dealing with.
Kuvira exited the airship into chilly air and repressed a shiver. This was summer. Right? She knew it would be colder here in the south, but this was cooler than she had expected. She wished she had a coat, not that any of the people greeting them seemed to be wearing any. They did have fur lining around the edges of their robes, though, which definitely held heat better than Zaofu’s metal accents. Kuvira sighed, and then forced a smile onto her face as she followed Suyin towards the greeting committee itself.
Most of them were middle-aged and wore white robes; the Order of the White Lotus. Kuvira paid exactly enough attention to learn that Master Jiang was the leader of the Order in the Compound, and then turned her attention to the Avatar, who stood out in the group of whites with her formal blue Water Tribe garments.
Kuvira’s first impression of Avatar Korra was Wow, she looks boring. Korra’s hair was held in three tails, two small ones framing her face, and one with the rest of her hair (as long as Kuvira’s when it was unbraided, at a guess) at the nape of her neck. Her sky-blue eyes seemed lifeless, and her brown hands were kept carefully folded in front of her. For someone with so much power, she seemed surprisingly contained.
Kuvira’s second impression, as Suyin and Master Jiang ushered them towards each other, was She moves beautifully. As Kuvira had expected, Korra’s training gave her a hunter’s grace. When moving, Korra’s eyes started to light up, and when Kuvira met her eyes, the intensity almost made her trip on thin air. As it was, Kuvira felt awkward enough, tall and gangly against Korra’s compact muscular form. But her grip was warm and firm, but not tight, and Korra’s smile looked real enough that Kuvira responded with a proper smile of her own.
Before either of them had a chance to say anything beyond “It’s good to meet you”, the adults were leading them inside, to what Kuvira had been promised would be dinner. It had been a long flight, and she really hoped that there weren’t going to be any more formalities to attend to before she could get something to eat, and then change into more comfortable clothing.
Kuvira did everything but slouch as she walked inside. The interior of the buildings was just as boring and utilitarian as the outside. Zaofu was a fortress, Suyin had always told her, but just because something’s useful doesn’t mean it can’t be beautiful as well. The Order of the White Lotus could definitely learn some things from that. If they ever left their icy fortress. Kuvira glanced at Korra. The Avatar was walking beside her, hands now stuck in pockets that hadn’t been at all visible before, and was looking straight at the white-clad backs ahead of them.
She sighed. If this was how her time was going to be, she wasn’t looking forward to the adventure at all anymore.
They entered what Kuvira guessed was mostly designed as an indoor training space, with its potential use as a feast hall as a secondary design principle. There were two tables laid out; one running the length of the hall, and one, much smaller, the width. Suyin and Master Jiang moved towards the smaller table, and Kuvira followed, swallowing a sigh. The interior decorating of the hall itself was actually kind of nice, if one went in for subtle patterns on rocks. As she sat next to Avatar Korra, Kuvira wondered if the patterns meant something to the Southern Water Tribe, or if they were just pretty.
As soon as they sat down, the hall filled with movement. Other members of the White Lotus — clearly lower-ranked — came forward with (thankfully normal) food and drink, and set platters on first the small table and then the large. Once they finished, Master Jiang stood and thanked them. Kuvira tuned out his words until she heard her name: “—and Kuvira, newly arrived to be a companion to our charge, the Avatar Korra.”
Korra stood, and tugged on Kuvira’s sleeve until she stood as well. Korra bowed, and Kuvira followed suit, still awkward. “Friends,” Korra said, and her voice echoed through the hall, loud and clear and warm, “I thank you for this lovely greeting. I’m sure that Kuvira and Suyin Beifong have journeyed long this day, and wish nothing more than to enjoy the fine meal you’ve placed in front of us. So let us say nothing more than this!” She raised her cup towards the center of the room and grinned. “To good food and good friends!”
“To food and friends!” the room echoed back.
Kuvira echoed the words a beat after and then sat, taking a sip of the water. It was cold, and tasted like nothing. She supposed that the Water Tribe could easily do better at purifying water than Zaofu, with so much around and so many waterbenders.
Then Korra turned towards her and said, in a completely different voice, lighter and faster and much less controlled, “You’re from Zaofu, right? I really want to know more about that! Nobody here quite understands how it works. It’s a city, but your foster-parents made folding walls? Or something?” Her face was a mixture of delight and confusion, and the way her eyes lit up reminded Kuvira of how Huan got about his sculpture, or Wing and Wei about their latest metalbending tricks.
Kuvira smiled. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. “I’m not one of the engineers in the family, so I don’t really know how it works either.” She paused, and glanced at the staid figures around them. “But I’ve been there, so I guess I know better than any of these people.”
Korra nodded vigorously while piling slices of herb-covered meat onto her plate. “We know the Southern territories, but even up in the Earth Kingdom? Nooooot so good at that.” She moved on to cooked veggies, scooping them onto rice. “I mean, there are members from the Earth Kingdom, and from the Fire Nation, and the Northern Water Tribe, but most of the ones who stay here are from here, y’know?”
“Yeah.” Kuvira moved food onto her plate more slowly, trying not to get sucked into the bright hole of Korra’s energy. “It’s like that in Zaofu, sometimes. Traders come through, and technicians, but if you stay there... there’s a pretty good chance you came from there. If not, probably Republic City.”
“Wouldn’t have thought it worked like that.”
Kuvira shrugged. “It’s a center of innovation.”
Korra looked like she wanted to say something, but was too busy chewing and just a little too polite to speak with her mouth completely full.
Kuvira grinned and used the pause to start eating her own food. If this was how Korra was going to act, then maybe this wouldn’t actually be too bad. The food was filling, too, even if it wasn’t as interesting as what Suyin’s chef usually served; probably because the Order of the White Lotus didn’t think it was useful to the Avatar to know the difference between filling food and food to savor.
It seemed that it was possible for Korra to be silent for longer than ten seconds, if she was eating. Kuvira kept glancing sideways at the Avatar bolting food down like it was going to run off the plate. She would have expected... well, she would have expected table manners to be taught slightly better, even if Korra’s utter disregard for manners meant that Kuvira herself was eating more quickly than was usually considered polite. The adults were ignoring them, anyway, so it probably didn’t matter.
When Kuvira finished, Korra had already cleaned her plate and was bouncing in her seat, clearly impatient but unwilling to interrupt Kuvira’s meal. As soon as Kuvira laid her knife and fork down, Korra leaned forward and said, “Want to meet my polar-bear dog?”
“Your—” Kuvira managed, before stopping herself, blinking to make sure that she had heard right, and then smiling. “Yes.”
“Great!” Korra stood and started walking away without even a glance at Master Jiang.
Kuvira followed, though she made eye contact with Suyin and received a quick smile before her foster mother returned to her conversation. Comforted by their departure at least being noticed, Kuvira quickened her pace until she was almost step-in-step with Korra — though once beside her, Kuvira had to hurriedly shorten her paces again. Korra clearly hadn’t gotten all her growth at once in the way Kuvira wished she hadn’t.
“Her name is Naga,” Korra said brightly, grinning up at Kuvira. “I’ve raised her since she was a pup and I wasn’t much bigger than she was. They didn’t think I could do it, but being the Avatar does come with some advantages, and I think one of them is having a polar-bear dog like you better than anyone else.”
“Does she live with you?” Kuvira managed to say as Korra pushed open the doors to the courtyard.
“Kind of?” She shrugged. “She’s got a shelter out here, but when it’s deep winter I make them deal with Naga sleeping in my room. I could stay warm anyway, but it’s nice to have a living space heater around.”
Kuvira’s steps stuttered for a moment and then resumed. The breezy air of casual belief that literally everything would happen the way she expected... that was the Avatar that she’d expected. But applying it to her companion animal, of all things — even a large and predatory one, from what she recalled of polar-bear dogs — wasn’t quite... the same.
“Naga!”
Her shout rang through the courtyard and echoed surprisingly little. Korra stood, head cocked, for a moment, and then turned to the left and slid smoothly into what Kuvira recognised, after half a second, as a formal Earthbending stance, strong and grounded.
Kuvira turned to see what Korra was waiting for, letting herself sink into the stone underfoot to mimic Korra, even if she didn’t quite understand why.
A breath later, as Naga barrelled down the stone, she understood.
The polar-bear dog crashed into Korra and slid her back towards Kuvira, who stepped aside instinctively and watched as Korra fell to the ground, laughing, Naga vigorously washing her face.
She looked like... like a child. Sounded like one. Not like a great and terrible Avatar, but just... Opal sounded like that, and Huan looked like that when he smiled. Kuvira closed her eyes and took a breath, keeping herself from pulling at the earth and stone around them. Korra hadn’t acted like this when the White Lotus could see. She had gotten close when they talked during dinner. And now she was being shown this, deliberately...
Kuvira stepped up to Naga’s large and fang-filled head and offered her hand to the polar-bear dog. Naga looked up from Korra, sniffed perfunctorily at her hand, and then smiled, tongue and tail both wagging.
“She’s going to lick your face, too, if you stay there.”
“That’s—” She was going to say ‘Okay’, but then Naga’s tongue was there and Kuvira was sputtering and Korra was laughing in delight. Kuvira got her hands up and managed enough distance between her mouth and Naga’s to spit out polar-bear dog saliva and say “Wasn’t expecting her that fast,” which just made Korra laugh more loudly and stand up to drape an arm over Naga’s neck.
“She’s quick,” she said, grinning. She ruffled Naga’s fur and leaned against her shoulder. “I’m glad she likes you. If she hadn’t, I don’t know if this would’ve worked.”
“Yeah,” Kuvira said. Korra’s shoulder was lower than Naga’s neck, and Korra was at quite an angle as a result, but looked completely comfortable and relaxed. She smiled. “I wouldn’t want to get between that friendship. I think I’d be crushed.”
Korra snickered. “Only bowled over a little, maybe squished? Not crushed, certainly. Not intentionally, anyway.”
“Oh, that’s much better; less permanent, you know?”
“Right! And it’s all in good fun, anyway.”
Kuvira nodded, her smile widening at how earnest Korra was. “So now I’ve met Naga. Do the two of you want to show me around this place, since I’ll be living here now?”
“You’ll get an official tour tomorrow...”
“Yeah, but I bet yours is more fun.”
Korra straightened up, nodding. “I don’t think you care about the reasoning behind each and every training set-up, right?” Before Kuvira could respond, she continued. “Didn’t think so. I mean, I think they show those off because there’s so little else to show off, but still.” She started chewing on her lip thoughtfully, then brightened and said, “Where do you want to start?”
Kuvira gestured out at the courtyard. “Why not here?”
“Because it’s boring?”
“You’ve lived here forever, it can’t be that boring to a newcomer, can it?”
Korra shrugged and stepped slightly away from Naga, so that she was a little in front of Kuvira. “So over there—” she pointed “—is the firebending arena, and over there is the waterbending plaza, and that field is for earthbending.” She turned and made a face. “They won’t teach me airbending, even in theory, because ‘We aren’t airbenders! It would be improper!’”
She mimicked the horrified tones of an elderly person surprisingly well, and Kuvira started giggling.
“And there are a bunch of guard towers that theoretically have names but nobody uses them, and then there’s this big place, which is where everyone lives. There are also more gyms and stuff inside.” She rolled her eyes. “I think it’s because some people think it’s too cold in the winter and don’t want to go outside.”
“I might be one of those,” Kuvira said ruefully. “It’s a lot colder down here already, and it’s still summer.”
“We’ll figure something out,” Korra said breezily. “Want to see your room?”
“Sure.”
As Korra turned back to the building, she grabbed onto Kuvira’s arm. Kuvira jumped, startled, and Korra let go immediately. “Sorry!” She stepped back, biting her lip. “I forgot to ask, are you okay with me grabbing you and hugging you and things?”
The way she said it, Kuvira suspected that she’d been told to memorise pretty much exactly that phrase as a kid. “I— It’s fine,” she said. She stepped forward and lightly touched Korra’s shoulder. “You startled me, mostly. You’re more... boisterous than most people I’ve been around.”
Korra lit up at Kuvira’s touch. “So you’re okay with it?”
“Give me a bit of warning, maybe?” Kuvira squeezed Korra’s shoulder. “But I bet I’ll get used to it pretty quickly.”
This time, Korra telegraphed the motion as she took hold of Kuvira’s arm and led her back inside. Kuvira happily followed along through the corridors, as this time Korra avoided the grand central halls and instead took what seemed to be back routes.
Korra kept up a running patter about where the halls all led, and Kuvira tried to keep track of it at least a little, but for all that the compound wasn’t very large from the outside, Korra was talking about underlevels and how they could get to any building from any other without ever going outside. It sounded, Kuvira thought, like whoever designed this place had gotten quite a bit of inspiration from the Earth Kingdom and badgermoles.
They stayed on the ground level, though, and Korra stopped in front of one of the most colorfully decorated doors Kuvira had seen since getting there. As Korra paused, Kuvira jumped in and said, “Let me guess—this is your room?”
“Yes!” Korra grinned and opened the door. The room was surprisingly sparse, and everything inside seemed well-worn. Piles of pillows coated one corner, and a low desk sat underneath a window on one of the adjacent walls; training supplies hung on the other, boxing gloves and mats and even a pair of swords. Another door, framed by a pair of drawings of Naga – one in a child’s scrawl, one in a much more mature hand – probably led into Korra’s bedroom.
Kuvira smiled herself, and said, “Nice place you’ve got.”
“Yeah. And you’re going to be right over here.” Korra closed her door and walked down the hall maybe twenty feet. This door opened onto a room built on what Kuvira was almost certain were the exact same measurements. This one only held a chair, another low desk underneath a window, and a rack without anything on it yet. Kuvira’s luggage, such as it was, sat in the middle of the room.
It felt small and lonely. Kuvira took a breath to steady herself; backing out wasn’t an option, so there was no way to go but forward. She stepped into the room, then turned to Korra. “Well,” she said, as brightly as she could, “want to help me get settled in?”
The bloom of Korra’s smile was all that she could have asked for.
* * *
A month passed without any particular note. Kuvira learned the compound layout and stopped getting lost in the maze of corridors in the main building. The summer passed, and a chill took to the air, banishing the green fields Kuvira had first flown over and replacing them first with frosted blades that shivered in the wind, and then with soft meadows of snow.
Inside the compound, the two girls practiced bending. One was significantly warmer than the other.
“Why,” Kuvira said, “did nobody tell me about winter here?” The overly short summer of the South Pole had faded in to what Korra and most of the Order very pointedly called autumn maybe a month after she’d arrived. Kuvira hadn’t quite believed them until another month and a half passed, and here she was, wrapped up in four layers and still at a barely tolerable temperature.
Korra shrugged. She was wearing a thick coat, but nothing like the layers that Kuvira had, and she was plenty warm. “Because most people here are either firebenders or grew up in the area?”
Kuvira made a face, and sighed as Korra giggled in response.
They were theoretically training. Or Korra was, at least. Kuvira was around because even if she couldn’t get herself to actually do any bending in this frost, she at least had to try to acclimate to the cold. Mostly, Kuvira ended up sitting around and trying to convince Naga that no, she should wrap around her, not lick her face or chase snowballs.
Right now Naga was actually doing a pretty good job of staying still and warm, and Kuvira didn’t feel like all of her body was freezing. Pretty much right now it was just her face, because she hadn’t yet mastered the art of wrapping a scarf around her face and being able to see and talk understandably. She sniffed, and watched as Korra settled her feet onto the ground. She’d just melted most of the snow off the training ring with a delightful burst of fire that had made Kuvira feel too warm for exactly three seconds before making the world feel even colder in contrast.
Korra’s form was beautiful, too; her feet rooted into the stone without a pause, and stayed even as snow drifted down around them, lightly coating her deep blue coat. Her body held its angles without any effort, and as Korra moved slowly and surely, the stone around them rumbled in response. Kuvira patted the ground next to her absently as four flagstones rose up around Korra and started spinning in concert with her movements.
After a minute, Kuvira said, “Have you started learning metalbending yet?”
The stones faltered for a moment as Korra lost concentration, and then stabilized. Carefully, they settled onto the ground, and then Korra turned to face Kuvira fully and said, “No.”
“Why not? You’ve got good form, and you’re the Avatar.”
Korra shrugged and sat next to Kuvira, flopping back on Naga. Her arm ended up just behind Kuvira’s head, as she ducked a little. “Because nobody here’s a metalbender, I think?”
“But— it’s not like it’s hard to learn.”
“Yeah, but if nobody’s here to teach me...”
“I could try,” Kuvira said, uncurling herself enough to face Korra and put one gloved hand on her knee. “Suyin said I was a quick study, and she’s been teaching all of us for years.”
“Yeah?” Korra grinned, and leaned towards Kuvira. “So where do we start?”
Kuvira hesitated. “She had us start on bits of meteorite, but you don’t have any of that here...”
“So? What should we use instead?”
“We start by going inside, where I’ll be warm enough to think properly.”
Korra laughed and stood, pulling Kuvira to her feet without any effort, despite being the shorter of the two. “Great. My rooms or yours?”
“You have more pillows. And Naga’s fur is already everywhere.”
“Great!”
The two girls moved inside side-by-side, Naga happily following behind. Korra easily took the lead once inside, still defter at moving through the halls than Kuvira, and moving with an economy of movement that Kuvira told herself she wasn’t frustrated not to be able to match. Just because she’d hit her growth spurt and Korra hadn’t didn’t mean that she couldn’t move well. It just meant that she was more prone to banging into corners and overhangs.
By the time they’d reached Korra’s room, Kuvira was finally warm again. The deep stone held heat better than any other material, especially with the furnaces built into the basement levels. Inside, Naga flopped onto a pile of pillows in one corner, and Korra pulled off her coat and tossed it into a pile of other discarded clothing. “So,” she said brightly, stretching her arms in front of her as she turned, “how do we start?”
“Um.” Kuvira removed her outer layers of coats more slowly, putting them relatively neatly near the door. “Do you have any scrap metal in here?”
Korra was silent for longer than Kuvira expected, and then said, “Noooooo...”
“So... what do you have that isn’t technically scrap metal?” Kuvira raised an eyebrow at Korra, who was fidgeting over by her desk.
“I don’t think anyone would mind if I tried to metalbend an eating knife. We have plenty of those, right?”
The hopeful smile on Korra’s face was enough to make Kuvira laugh and return the smile, warmth rising through her delightfully. “Sure. Give the one you’re gonna use to me, so I can demonstrate.”
Korra tossed the knife over without pause. Kuvira caught it by the handle easily – Korra had thrown it gently, underhand – and sat down on one of the pillows Naga hadn’t claimed. Korra sat in front of her, watching expectantly.
“First things first,” Kuvira said, fighting to keep her voice calm. “Breathing. Just like with anything else in bending. Need to have that center to move from, after all.”
She suited actions to words, closing her eyes briefly and breathing in deeply and letting the air out slowly. The ritual was almost instinctive by now, and she could hear Korra’s breath following hers. She opened her eyes, and saw Korra’s own blue gaze locked upon her. A rush of excitement blew through her almost faster than she could notice it, dispelled only by the calm of the breathing exercise.
“Then you find the earth in the metal,” Kuvira said, voice quieter now. “And it’s there, even if it’s not the kind of earth you’re used to looking for.” She laid the knife flat on one hand and pulled up with the other. The knife congealed into a sphere as her hands moved. “This is pretty nice metal, good and forgiving. Not the easiest to learn with, but it should be good enough, especially for you.” She flattened the metal back out into a rod and handed it to Korra. “The motions are... Suyin said that they always reminded her more of waterbending than earthbending, but I wouldn’t really know.”
Korra nodded, eyes still intent upon hers. “Can I try?”
“Yes.” Kuvira squeezed Korra’s knee. “I want to see you learn this.”
Her friend grinned again, and then closed her eyes briefly, hands settling in her lap with the metal rod cradled between them. As her breathing settled, Korra raised her hands in front of her. She frowned, creating little furrows in her forehead, and pulled up with one hand.
The metal stayed where it was.
“I thought...” Korra let out a breath, and drew it back in again, slowly. With her breath, she pulled up again, more gently this time. It bent, barely enough to notice; Kuvira was pretty sure she wouldn’t have seen the motion if she hadn’t been watching so closely. She tried to keep from making any noise, but she could hear her heart and breathing speeding up as Korra repeated the motion with another steady breath.
The rod bent more fully, until it was an arc.
Korra let out the breath with a hissed “Yes!” and opened her eyes, grinning. “I did it!”
“You did!” Kuvira grabbed Korra’s hand tightly, a smile washing over her own face. “It’s a great start! I can’t wait to watch you learn more.”
“I can’t wait to show everyone what I can do,” Korra said, and if her focus seemed to be more on Kuvira than the metal she’d just bent, well, her next words explained why. “You’re going to keep showing me awesome things to do, right?”
“Of course.” She tightened her grip, meeting Korra’s eyes. “Wouldn’t miss the opportunity for the world.”
* * *
Two weeks later, Korra came running into Kuvira’s room while she was reading in the nice warmth of the pile of blankets she’d wrapped herself – and the chair – in. “They’re letting us go on an expedition!” she said as she burst in the door. “In two days!”
Kuvira looked up from her book. “Um,” she said, very eloquently.
Korra slowed down enough to just be bouncing on her toes instead of running around. “They want me to teach you winter survival skills, and sure, they’ll be keeping track of us, but it’ll just be us!”
“And they were planning on telling me...”
“At dinner, but it came up when I was practicing waterbending.”
Kuvira hid a sigh with her book. “Two days, you said?”
“Well.” Korra stopped moving for a moment to think. “The rest of today and all of tomorrow, then setting off at dawn or so the day after that. So yeah, two days.”
“And you’ll be telling me what to pack, and they’ll be telling us how long to pack for.” Kuvira dearly hoped both of those things would be true, at least; packing on her own would be a mess, and not having a set end time for a journey like this seemed like a terrible idea.
“Yeah, of course!” Korra came close enough to poke Kuvira’s blanket layers. “Can’t let you go get yourself frozen, I don’t know how to heal that yet.”
Kuvira reached out from under the blankets and pulled Korra off-balance, far more easily than she was expecting. The other girl caught herself on the chair before falling all the way on top of her, though; Kuvira was a bit disappointed by that. “Great. Can it wait until after dinner? I was reading...”
“I guess.” Korra looked at Kuvira’s book, reading the title upside down. “Want company while you’re reading?”
“Am I gonna get to read, if you keep me company?”
“Yes,” she said promptly, grinning. “I am capable of not interrupting you as you read about—” glance down at the title “—giant monsters attacking Republic City, or whatever.”
“Riiiiight.” Smiling, Kuvira poked Korra’s nose. “Go get whatever project you’re working on, and yeah, you can keep me company.”
Korra stuck her tongue out, but she did retreat, and she did bring her carving project in – even remembering a small tarp to catch all the shavings on. Kuvira spent as much time watching her carefully pick out designs on the boomerang she was making as she did reading, watching the delicacy and strength of her friend’s fingers as they moved the knife. This task was so purely physical, not even allowing for bending, and she’d seen other attempts Korra had made, and each time the balance improved. It was only a matter of time before the boomerang worked properly.
Dinner led to them being told that yes, they were going to travel to a cabin about a day’s journey away, stay there for three days, and then journey back. The cabin was stocked with dry goods, but if they wanted anything fresh, they’d need to either bring it with them or find it while there. Korra was practically vibrating with excitement. Kuvira was just glad they weren’t travelling too far.
The next day was full of Korra explaining a lot of things to Kuvira at high speed and with a lot of gesticulating. About half of it made sense, and about half of it involved terms for snow and wind and degrees of cold that Kuvira had no frame of reference for, since the walls of the compound and the population of firebenders within it kept a significant part of the winter from affecting them fully.
The end result was each of them having a large backpack filled with warm clothes, fifteen pairs of socks, good blankets, and very little food. Korra assured her that they’d be able to eat well at the cabin anyway, so they only really needed to pack for the journey there. They’d be walking, and taking turns riding on Naga if they got tired. Naga herself was carrying a lot of her own food, as well as some extra clothes, blankets, and human food, and a bunch of tools that could be useful but probably wouldn’t be necessary, like ice-picks for climbing with.
So at dawn, when they set out in the barest hint of light, Kuvira was bundled in twice the layers Korra was – as usual – and looking at the world through a pair of goggles that was probably the only reason her face still felt only chilly and not outright freezing. “Well,” she said with a look at Korra. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Let’s go!” Korra set out with relish, striding across the snow easily. It was still packed down, this close to the compound, so Kuvira let her longer legs lead her out in front of Korra temporarily. She’d be following the other girl for enough of the day; may as well start out ahead for the fun of it. Naga overtook even her, though, tongue lolling as she bounded forward and scattered snow on both of them in her wake.
The tepid shadows of the slow dawn meant that the world was cast in shades of silver, with only slight gradations showing where the snow rose and fell around what would, come spring or summer, be revealed as rocks or bushes or even small trees. Sometimes the larger rolls of hills and valleys were still obscured, and they didn’t notice until they felt the strain on their legs of travelling up or down.
Then the sun crested the horizon, and true light fell upon the world. When it did, Kuvira watched the snow slowly turn from silver into almost blinding whiteness. It was stunning like this, all ablaze with light, glistening and reflecting the faint glow tenfold until the world was as bright as noon. Korra laughed, and said, “This is the beauty of winter,” and Kuvira smiled at her, a dark earth-and-water colored spot on the iridescent whiteness backed by the palest of blues, a perfect picturesque moment until the Avatar picked up a handful of snow and threw it at her, landing a solid hit on her arm.
They only dissolved into a snowball fight for a few minutes. Korra, even without waterbending, had the advantage of many years of practice, both in making and throwing snowballs and in moving around in the snowy landscape. But their laughter rang bright in the empty landscape, where the whispers of birds roused from slumber echoed in the background and – if either had chosen to look up – black-spotted streaks of white fur could be seen scurrying in search of their own meals and joys with the dawning of a new day.
The journey was, overall, very uneventful. It was a bright day, as winter days went this far south, and the wind was nothing worth mentioning. Kuvira was pretty sure they were in an unofficial contest to see which of them would make the choice to take a break and ride on Naga first, and they were both stubborn enough – and in good enough shape – that the first break they actually took was when Kuvira decreed that they’d been walking long enough that they should stop and eat something. Water was a lot easier to take in while moving, especially since they didn’t need to worry about replenishing it with this much snow around – and someone who could bend both fire and water.
They sat leaning against Naga’s warm bulk, and ate travel bars made up of dried fruit and nuts held together mostly by honey. It left their gloves and mouths sticky with the sweetness, and Korra spent ten minutes trying to bend water to get it mostly cleaned off, before Kuvira got tired of the ineffectual attempts and just wiped the residual stickiness off with a spare sock. She handed the other one of the pair to Korra before she could argue about it.
Refreshed by the rest and food, the rest of the journey went quickly. By the time the sun faded away again, Korra could point to exactly where the cabin was, and having their target in sight meant that both girls pushed faster. Despite the cold, by the time they got there Kuvira could feel sweat trickling down her back. Korra got there first, and opened the door. It was just barely big enough for Naga to squeeze in, and they had to take off the bags she was carrying first.
They left all the bags in the main room with the polar-bear dog as they looked around. Inside, the cabin was exactly what they’d been told to expect: one main room, with a kitchen and pantry and a couch; a bathroom; and a bedroom. Somehow that hadn’t really caught their attention back at the compound, but now, looking at the small room and the equally small bed, Korra and Kuvira traded looks.
“If you want—”
“You know we can—”
They broke off, laughing. “You first,” Kuvira said.
“You can sleep in here, I’ll take the couch.” Korra tugged on one of her wolftails. “It’s not a problem.”
Kuvira shrugged. “I mean, I was going to say, we could also just, share.” Her gaze dropped down to the floor as she finished speaking.
“I—oh.” Korra sounded, for once, at a loss for words. That lasted for all of three seconds before, “Can I hug you?”
“Yeah.”
The word was barely out of her mouth when Korra knocked Kuvira half off her feet with a hug. “That’s a great idea!” she said, voice a little too loud with glee in Kuvira’s ear. “It’ll help keep you warm, too! This place isn’t as insulated as the compound.”
Kuvira had been noticing that. They were both still wearing all their outside clothing, except their boots – they didn’t want to track snow everywhere. “There was a fireplace back there, right? We could get that lit, and that’d help.”
Korra pulled back, grinning up at Kuvira. “Great idea! Did you see any firewood?”
“Uh.”
“Let’s go look for that, then.” Korra actually let go of Kuvira, and the taller girl stumbled a little as she found her feet again and followed Korra’s compact bouncing energy back out of the room.
They did find the firewood – it was hiding in a little shed pressed up against one of the walls. Once they knew where it was, they also found the little hatch that let them get to the wood without going out into the cold. Soon the fire was crackling merrily, and Kuvira managed to get warm enough to shed her outermost layer. Korra, unsurprisingly, had shed two. Not that anyone was counting. Or cared.
While Kuvira huddled near the fire, Korra opened cabinets and rattled off a listing of what was in them. Mostly canned food, which is was Kuvira had expected. Dried fruit and meat, and some smoked meat. Nuts. Pasta ready to cook. Solid food that you could eat for a long time and still be active. Korra, judging by her running commentary, was rather more disappointed.
“What were you expecting?” Kuvira finally asked, as she came into the kitchen herself. “They told us what would be here, and you were listening just as much as I was.”
“Yeah, but...” Korra shrugged and closed the latest drawer, turning back to Kuvira and leaning on the counter. “I guess I was expecting...” She bit her lip, turning it pinker. “The last time I was out here – it was over a year ago,” she added, for Kuvira’s questioning look. “Last time, some members of the Order brought fresh food, and they cooked it, and it was an exciting adventure, not...”
“A challenge?” Kuvira shook her head and pulled open some of the cabinets. “Have they seriously never made you learn to cook?”
“It’s not necessary to the Avatar?” Korra said uncertainly.
“It’s totally necessary, if you don’t want to rely on buying food from other people all the time.” She pulled down some dried meat and canned veggies. “Go get a pot of water boiling. A big one.”
Korra didn’t even ask what she was doing, just searched through the kitchen until she found a pot, then opened the door exactly enough to bend snow to fill it. She closed it again while she melted the water over the fire, but Kuvira still shivered with the draft as she organized the jars and bags she’d pulled down.
“Now what?” Korra asked. She was definitely doing half the work of the fire, and when Kuvira looked over, she’d removed all but her normal indoor layer of clothing, leaving half her arms exposed. It was enough to make Kuvira wince.
“Can you leave the fire and come over here?”
“Sure.” The fire settled into a more normal blaze, and Korra stopped right next to Kuvira, radiating heat of her own.
Kuvira leaned into it automatically, only pausing when she realized that she was sort of leaning on Korra. “Um. So, we’re going to make a stew. Soup. Something like that, it’ll depend on how much liquid ends up left by the end. Basically, you just get a bunch of ingredients that are okay sitting in hot water for a while, and let them just sit there until you get impatient and declare it done.” She grinned at Korra. “My—my first family did this a lot.”
Korra nodded and squeezed Kuvira’s arm. “That sounds easy.”
“It is!” Kuvira finally started taking off another layer, in Korra’s comfortable warmth. “There’s some tricks to making sure it all has taste, but I never did it with canned stuff anyway, so we’ll find out together how well this works.”
“So can I start putting stuff in?”
“Start with the meat,” Kuvira said, draping her coat neatly over the couch. Now she was just wearing two sweaters, so only one more than she’d been wearing inside in the compound. “I’m hoping it’ll remember how to be soft by the time it’s done.”
Korra laughed, and did so. Kuvira joined in, and soon the pot was filled to near the brim with simmering water and stuff. Kuvira pulled some of the pillows off the couch and planted herself right in front of it, “To make sure it doesn’t boil over,” she explained. Korra’s answering “Riiiiight” meant Kuvira stuck her tongue out, and, well, from there it was a very short step to a tickle-fight, which ended when Kuvira’s greater reach stalemated against Korra’s greater strength.
They halted, out of breath, leaning against the couch and each other, and it was only natural that Korra’s head ended up resting against Kuvira’s shoulder, and Kuvira’s arm ended up around Korra’s shoulders. Kuvira leaned her own head back against the couch, grinning up at the ceiling. This was so much nicer and more fun than she’d expected it to be. And a lot warmer; she’d been worried about there being nothing but endless cold and chill and snow, but instead...
Well. She glanced at Korra, who was watching the fire flicker and hiss. Instead Korra was leaning on her and they were pulsing with shared warmth. Slowly, almost refusing to think about what she was doing, she tilted her head until it was resting on Korra’s. Korra shifted a little, but she moved closer, not further away. It was... nice.
Then the pot started boiling over, and Kuvira had to get up and stir it and poke at the logs until they settled down more. When she finished, she turned back to Korra, to find she was now sitting on the couch, legs up in front of her and arms wrapped around them, watching Kuvira intently. Kuvira met her eyes from where she was in front of the fire, and started opening her mouth to ask a question, when Korra preempted her, saying, “Come back over here?”
“Yeah,” Kuvira said, smiling before she realized it. She sat down next to Korra, and was almost – but not quite – unsurprised when Korra tilted sideways until she was leaning against her again. Kuvira stared at the fire, watching the colors ebb and flow, trying to convince herself that she could say something, that she could do something – anything – other than sit here and wonder why Korra had decided that this was now a thing they did.
Entirely possibly, it had always been something Korra would have done, if Kuvira herself had shown any interest in it. Korra was like that, about touch – always with a hand on her shoulder or arm, grabbing at her hand, reaching past her without any concern for personal space. But she’d never acted like she wanted to actually... actually snuggle before. Had she?
Kuvira tugged on her braid, where it hung over her shoulder. Sitting near her all the time, asking to spend time in the same room when they had free time, and all that lack of personal space... She looked down, hesitant, at Korra’s face, half-hidden by her hair and the angle. She looked so content there. Kuvira couldn’t recall seeing her look this content except when... well, when utterly engrossed in bending.
By the time Korra finally declared that the food smelled too good to wait any longer, and uncurled herself, Kuvira hadn’t gotten any closer to making a decision about what to do about how good it felt to have Korra tight against her side. Or what that might mean for sleeping in the same bed.
Korra pulled two bowls out of the cupboards and ladled out the food herself, bringing one over to Kuvira with a grin. “You want to try first, O cook?”
“You should go first,” Kuvira said, blowing on a spoonful that was mostly broth. “You’re the one who thinks she doesn’t burn her tongue ever.”
Korra elbowed her gently, but did as she suggested. “It doesn’t taste like what the cooks at the compound make.”
“But is it good?”
Another spoonful, this one with some meat in it. Korra chewed on it, considering the bowl as she did so. After swallowing, she said, “Yeah, I think so,” with a brilliant grin.
The smile, as much as the words, warmed Kuvira’s chest, and started eating her own bowl. It wasn’t great, as Korra had said, but it was good, and the broth wasn’t terribly watery. The meat had even softened enough that it only took a little chewing to break it down. All in all, they agreed, it was a success.
Korra fed Naga some of the food they’d brought for her while Kuvira figured out how best to store the pot of leftover soup so that they could reheat it the next day. She ended up just sticking the pot on top of the counter and putting a plate over the top. Naga was smart enough that she wouldn’t go after it if Korra told her not to, anyway.
They cleaned up the kitchen together, mostly silently. And if Kuvira chose to brush up against Korra more than usual, well, it was a small space. And if Korra chose to match those with touches on Kuvira to help show her where to put trash – that was perfectly normal for her.
The fire was the only light inside the cabin by the time they finished, and the day had been long. Korra tended the fire, making sure that it had enough wood to burn gently through the night without escaping its pit, and Kuvira pulled their bags full of clothing and extra blankets into the bedroom. Enough heat emanated through the wall that it was still warm in there, though cooler than the main room. Kuvira changed into new clothes quickly before burrowing into the blankets. Which were, unsurprisingly but sadly, cold. They’d warm up quickly enough once Korra joined her, though. Kuvira was sure of that.
Korra did join her soon, changing clothes without bothering to go to another room, just an announcement of, “I’m going to strip now.”
Kuvira had her head under the blankets for maximum hope of warming up. She didn’t want to move, even if... that particular thought wasn’t one she wanted to consider when she still wasn’t sure what the snuggling could mean.
When Korra slipped under the covers, a space-heater unto herself, Kuvira curled around her without a second thought, and Korra wrapped her own arms around Kuvira’s. They stayed like that for maybe a minute, before Korra broke the silence by saying, very quietly, “I didn’t think you would’ve said yes to this if I’d asked.”
Kuvira tensed for a moment, then forced herself to relax, feeling Korra’s heart speed up. “I—I hadn’t even thought about asking until we got here,” she admitted, just as quietly.
“Why not?”
She seemed so genuinely curious, like it never occurred to her that this wasn’t something friends necessarily did with each other. Kuvira closed her eyes against the darkness. “It—most of the time, when people share beds, it’s... not just friendship.”
“Yeah.” Korra turned, until Kuvira could feel the warmth of her breath on her face. “Is... would that... be a problem?”
Kuvira stayed very still, heart racing. Her eyes opened, and she said, in an exhale of breath she wasn’t even sure that Korra would understand, “I don’t think so.”
“Then—” noses touching, now “—can I kiss you?”
“Yes,” Kuvira said, and almost before the word was done, their lips touched. It wasn’t what Kuvira had expected, having her first kiss under blankets in the middle of a South Pole winter, but Korra tasted like snowmelt and felt like sunwarmed stone, and Kuvira had slid a hand up to catch the back of her head without even thinking about it. It took all her will to not immediately try and kiss Korra again after they pulled back from that first kiss.
“I’ve been wanting to do that for weeks,” Korra said, and Kuvira could feel the smile against her cheek. “But it never seemed like you’d be interested in saying yes.”
Kuvira laughed, shaking a little from the adrenaline of the kiss. “I think I would have been. I don’t know if I would have known that, but... I think I would have been.”
“But you wouldn’t have said that.”
“No,” she had to admit. “I don’t think I would’ve.”
“I’m glad they sent us on this trip.” Korra pulled herself closer to Kuvira, tucking herself right against her side. “I don’t know when you would’ve thought about it, otherwise.”
Kuvira pressed a kiss to Korra’s nose, and in the midst of Korra’s delighted laughter, said, “I feel the same way.”
They traded kisses until they fell asleep, and more upon waking up, until they realized that it was freezing outside their bed and they had to face that at some point, and, well, it was better to face it together.
Compared to the first night, the rest of the trip wasn’t very exciting. By the time they returned to the compound, they were holding hands and grinning fit to split their faces. As they passed through the gate, Kuvira thought she heard one of the guards say to another, “And we thought they were trouble before.”
Kuvira fought to contain her laughter at that, saying only, “First one to get back and finish showering wins!” to Korra and running off before her friend – no, her girlfriend – could finish parsing what she said.
All in all, she thought, listening to Korra shout fond insults at the length of her legs, she was very glad that she’d come to the South Pole.
The world would turn again, until the endless winter twilight was replaced by a summer sky, all ablaze with light, and until then, well – a snowball thudded into her back, and she didn’t even pause – she had someone to help keep her warm.