Legend of Korra 1. Chapter 1: Polite

_Author's Note: Hello all. I'm pretty new to this whole fanfiction thing, so please throw some advice my way if you have any. Reviews would be great! I'm intending this as a multi-chapter fic about the beginning of Baatar Jr. and Kuvira's relationship. It was kind of inspired by Suyin's comment that Kuvira had "turned her own son against her." I imagine Baatar and Kuvira having actually been in love much longer than Su knew about, and that there was no "turning against" involved, that Baatar was just supporting and believing in the woman he loved. It might have gotten a bit more nefarious from there (as they say, power corrupts), but I think the base of their relationship is pure, no brainwashing involved. So, along that train of thought, here's my little fic, with eventual Baatar Jr/Kuvira (development will be slow, so look elsewhere for a quick or anything M rated) Enjoy! _

Chapter 1: Polite

Junior sat cross-legged on a bench, tugging at the gleaming metal collar around his neck. His mother, Suyin Beifong, the legendary metalbending daughter of Toph Beifong and matriarch of the metal clan, had given it to him as a gift for his 16th birthday. It was a mark of manhood, a right of passage really, since adults in Zaofu generally wore more elaborate metal ornaments than children. He knew his mother had meant to make him feel grown up, but the metal around Junior's neck just felt heavy and cold.

A slight breeze ruffled Junior's carefully combed brown hair, pulling him from his daydreams. Even in a poor mood, Junior couldn't help but admit that Zaofu's Beifong Square was a work of art. His father, Baatar Sr., the genius architect responsible for all of Zaofu's building projects, had mimicked the petal-like design of the city walls in the terraced steps of the plaza - someone standing at the reflecting pool in the center would see the square as a huge metal lotus flower blooming around them. Fountains and meticulously sculpted shrubbery broke up the harsh gleam off of the countless metal surfaces.

But to Junior, the real beauty was the newly installed rail system. Northbound and southbound trains guided by magnets slid silently along metal track, streaming through the twin stations located at the western and eastern ends of the plaza. From here, at the northbound terminal's waiting area, he could see the countless green-clad citizens as they climbed politely in and out of the shining carriages, never catching a glimpse of the carefully hidden machinery propelling their lives. _ Father is a fantastic architect, to be sure. But his real gift is in engineering,_ Junior thought to himself, tapping his fingers impatiently against the metal bench. He checked his watch - the train should have been here five minutes ago. _On second thought, maybe he should stick to buildings. _

After a few more minutes of waiting, Junior heard a soft ping come over the station intercoms, reminding those waiting at the terminal that a train was arriving. Everything was polite in Zaofu - people, buildings, culture, train station reminder pings, every aspect of life here was comfortable and unobtrusive. Sometimes the sheer monotony of it all got on Junior's nerves, but it was better than living in fear and squalor, like so many did in other parts of the Earth Kingdom. Poverty and disease were obsolete of here, let alone bandits and warlords. Junior stood up and strode for the train, gasping a little as the heft of the metal resting on his chest resisted his breath. He'd get used to that, he thought, grabbing a pole for support as the train lurched slightly, the gleaming plaza shrinking as the train hovered away. Junior pulled out a notebook and jotted down a note on the train delay. _I'll have to tell father about this. _As the train carried him home, Junior slid the notebook back into his satchel and lifted a hand to tug fruitlessly at his metal collar.

* * *

><p>Suyin Beifong was shaking her foot restlessly, the short cord of the telephone preventing her from pacing the large, sweeping arcs she usually did when frustrated.<p>

"What do you mean, you quit? It's not like you didn't know the commitment you were making when you joined. This isn't just some game. We've got a performance in two weeks, and some _very_ important people are going to be there."

She continued to readjust her stance agitatedly, anger boiling in the green pools of her eyes.

"No, that simply won't due. That brilliant tycoon from Republic City, Hiroshi Sato, is it? Well, he's going to be in the audience. Zaofu doesn't exist in a vacuum, Ming. We need to maintain relationships with men like Sato to keep going. And an elephant-rat's nest of a dance performance just isn't going to cut it!"

The voice on the other end of the phone was muffled, so Junior couldn't make out quite was going on, but from the conversation, he assumed that something was going wrong with Su's metalbending dance troupe. He shrugged off his bag, hanging it with his brothers' on a rack by the door before tiptoeing across the metal hall, headed for his room. He needed to decompress, maybe read for a while. Mostly, he needed to get that damned metal necklace off. But he couldn't offend his mother, so, until he was in private, it stayed on. If he was lucky, he'd make it across the long entryway before she got off the phone or noticed him.

"Fine! You were never better than mediocre, anyways!" Su slammed the phone down, its metal shell crushing beneath her angrily twitching fingers. She'd have to have Baatar fix that later. Taking a deep breath, she brushed her hands across her robes, smoothing them down, and turned to see Junior stalking towards the stairs. Su had felt her son's footsteps the moment he had stepped into the house.

"Junior! How was your day?" Su's severe expression melted away, a smile lighting up her face as she strode towards Junior. Her oldest son looked so much like his father, she noted, eyes falling proudly on the collar she had given him a few weeks ago for his birthday. They grew up so fast.

With a sigh, Junior opened his arms to accept his mother's embrace. "Fine, mom." He was taller than her, now, something neither of them had quite gotten used to.

Su released her son, raising a hand to his face to tuck a stray strand of hair behind his ear. Junior took a deep breath, attempting to center himself even though his mother's treating him like a child put him on edge. Su raised an eyebrow. "Just fine? Anything interesting happen? What about that girl I told you about, Minh Li? The guard captain's daughter? Did you talk to her?"

Junior growled under his breath, pulling his mother's hand from his face. "No. It was just fine. And maybe, if you like Minh Li so much, you should talk to her. Not me." His mother's bright, expecting eyes narrowed in frustration. Realizing his mistake, he forced an awkward smile. "But uh, how was your day?"

Su's eyebrows pulled together and she crossed her arms aggressively, turning away from her son. "Like you care. You never want to talk to me about anything anymore." She flashed a glare at Junior. "I don't even know why I bothered trying to make conversation. I'll be in the training yard with your brothers, _practicing_. Talk to your father if you need anything." She whirled away, footsteps echoing furiously through the empty hall.

Junior winced. His mother knew that bending was a sore spot for him. Whenever they fought, she'd bring it up. Of course, she'd never come outright and chastise Junior's inability to bend-it was more subtle than that: "I'm going to go _train_" "Go be alone in the library, I'll be _outside_," "If you're going to be like that, you can watch Opal while I _work_ with Wing and Wei." Su knew how the right emphasis on the right word could strike straight at Junior's insecurity. He hated it - she'd never apologize, never even hint that she regretted being so petty, cutting so low. And, even though Junior knew she loved him, it hurt. He couldn't help but feel like a failure in her eyes. He was the _average_ son.

Fuming, Junior wheeled away, charging up the staircase and into his room. He quickly shrugged off his over-tunic and boots, throwing his glinting collar into the pile of deep green clothes crumpled on his bed. He stomped over to his bathroom, throwing his glasses to the side and turning on the sink. Junior cupped his hand beneath the facet, splashing icy water into his face and growling into his hands. _Mother needs to back off, _ he thought angrily. He kept his face in his hands for a few minutes, feeling the cold water held against his skin warm and drip through the space between his fingers. Eventually, his rage dripped away too, and he drew his hands away from his face. He never stayed mad for long-the hot anger always gave way to a sort cooler, empty aching after a while. It still hurt, but just more... politely.

Shaking the water from his hands, Junior met his own gaze in the mirror. He really did look like his father - the stubble just starting to appear on his chin only reinforced the resemblance. Junior exhaled, fogging the reflective surface with his breath.

After toweling off his hands and face, Junior trudged back to his bedroom and flopped on his bed, rolling to the side and stretching to grab a book he had left on his bedside table. The red leather cover felt supple, inviting, beneath his hands. It was so unlike the cold metal that practically everything else was made of here. The book was classic from the literary tradition of the pre-Sozin Fire Nation. Junior was especially drawn to Fire Nation books, mostly because they were so emotionally intense, so unlike his subdued life in Zaofu. The heroine of the book loved so deeply that she burned an entire country and leaped into a volcano - not the wisest way to deal with a broken heart, of course, but Junior found the story compelling nonetheless.

A few pages in, Junior heard a high pitched, juvenile voice calling from beneath his bedroom balcony. "Juuuunnnnniiioooorrr! Where are yoooouuuuu?" Sighing, he marked his place in the book and stepped out into the soft twilight air of his balcony. His little sister, Opal was yelling up at him.

"Opal, I'm up here. Cut it out." He called down. Opal's wide, hazel-green eyes lit up.

"Junior! Daddy told me to go find you. Dinner's ready. You'd better be there, grumpy pants." At that, Opal grinned, trotting off into the house and out of Junior's view. Of all his siblings, Opal was his favorite. Perhaps it was because she was still young enough to be endearing in the way that children often are, but maybe it was also because she didn't throw rocks at his head or metalbend his chopsticks into useless shapes.

Junior shrugged on his clothes, rolling his eyes as he fastened the metal choker around his neck and pulled on his shoes. Time to put on a happy face, even though he knew it was a futile effort. If he knew his mother, she wasn't going to let their little fight go for at least a night. Dinner was going to be anything _but_ polite.


	2. Chapter 2: Complicated

Turned Chapter 2: Complicated

_A/N: Sorry for the wait, everyone. School and such. This one's about three times as long as the last chapter, so I hope you don't get bored. As promised, Kuvira enters! This is really Baatar Jr.'s story, though, so be patient. She'll play more of a role as time goes on. However, I'm considering writing the next chapter or two from her point of view, so please let me know what you think about that. More to come soon, probably within a week or so. Also, if Baatar Jr. seems like he's overreacting a bit in this chapter, that's because he is. Don't worry, he'll get put straight here coming up. /spanThanks for all of your comments, likes, and follows! Now here's to hoping that upcoming episodes don't completely fly in the face of what I'm writing..._

"I've been working on the design for weeks, and I think I finally figured out the scaffolding!" Baatar Sr. exclaimed, throwing his hands wide as if to demonstrate the size of his breakthrough. Opal continued with her attempt to stuff an entire salad roll into her face, while Huan flicked his fingers, twisting what had once been his soup spoon into a more... well, he would call it an _artistic_ shape.

Suyin looked up from her plate. "That's nice, dear. I'm glad you -" She swung her head around to flash a warning glance at the twins. "Wing! Wei! Don't think I can't tell what you're doing under there. You know there's no bending at the table." Out of the corner of his eye, Junior could just see Huan frantically bending his sculpture back into something that resembled a spoon.

Baatar Sr. lowered his hands, bringing them together to twiddle his thumbs. He muttered under his breath, "now construction can finally get started..." Without a doubt, Baatar loved his family, but sometimes he just wished someone would _listen_ to him. Su did her best to be attentive, of course, but the kids made it difficult. Now that he thought of it, he could be a bit more attentive himself. How may hours had he been absent, working on the tower designs in his office? He made a mental note to take Su out soon, maybe to see the Fire Nation circus coming through town. She loved the circus.

Meanwhile, Junior took a deep breath. It was risky to speak, to open himself up to the possibility of making eye contact with Su, but his father really did need to know about the train delays. He tore his gaze from the untouched kale rolls on his plate and turned to face Baatar.

"That's excellent, father." As he turned in his chair, Junior's metal necklace tugged at his robes uncomfortably. Although he couldn't see her, Junior could practically feel his mother's eyes burning into his back as he spoke. "I'm glad the work on the tower is going well, but I have a concern about the trains."

Junior dug his notebook out of his pocket, leafing through the pages. Baatar Sr. looked on curiously, pushing up his thin rimmed glasses and leaning over to inspect his son's work.

"Hm, so you say the trains are late?"

Junior nodded, turning the notebook 180 degrees and pushing it across the table to his father. "Yes, look at this. I've been taking notes the past few days, and the 3 o'clock is consistently eight minutes late." He pointed out a line of handwritten numbers. "These are the times that the trains should have arrived."

His father nodded. "Mmhm."

"And these is the times the trains have _actually_ been arriving." Junior pointed out another line of numbers.

Dull, clinking sounds interrupted Junior's explanation as Chef moved around the table, sweeping up the empty appetizer plates and replacing them with fresh trays of steaming rooster-pig dumplings. Opal wailed as her plate of half-eaten salad rolls disappeared.

Baatar Sr. squinted, picking up the notebook. "Strange... I can't say I'm that concerned, though." He pushed the green, leather-bound book back to his son. "Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the conductor just took too long on his break for the past few days or something like that."

"I guess, that's probably it."

Junior shoved the notebook back into his pocket and picked up his chopsticks, nudging a dumpling across his plate. Even though Su hadn't made any moves yet, that didn't mean that his mother was just going to let him be. He took a deep breath. _Two courses down, two courses to go._

Su dabbed at the corner of her mouth with a light green napkin. "Huan, how is your art exhibition going?"

Huan dropped his chopsticks dramatically and raised a hand with flourish. "It's a whirlwind of raw, emotional power." He closed his eyes, as if to emphasize his point. "I've been told it's some of my best work."

"That's great, Huan. I'm so proud of you."

Baatar Sr. chuckled. "Before long, I'll have to have more gardens commissioned so that there's room to exhibit all of your sculptures!"

_Sure, if you consider those things Huan comes up with sculptures._ Junior rolled his eyes, shoving a dumpling into his mouth. He worried about what he'd say about Huan's _art_ if there wasn't something physically stopping him from doing so.

Really, Junior had been keeping a metaphorical dumpling shoved in his mouth ever since they found out that Huan was an earthbender. The day stood sharp in Junior's memory, even though it had been years. Su had taken the boys out into the yard to play, and he was trying to teach Huan pai-sho. When, inevitably, four year old Huan failed to grasp the rules, he got frustrated and threw a temper tantrum, sending the jade pai-sho tiles flying with a few angry gestures.

Su had been ecstatic, running to find her husband and having Huan show daddy how he could move the tiles. The next day - and every day after - his mother took Huan out into the yard alone to start training him. For a while, Junior hoped that if he practiced the forms Su was showing his brother, if he _tried_ hard enough, that he'd be an earthbender too. But a few years later, when it became evident that Wing and Wei had the gift as well, any false hope that Junior still clung to was shattered. He resigned himself to the fact that he just wasn't _special_. Of course, Opal wasn't a bender either, but she was still so young. And, as the only daughter, she didn't need bending to stand out.

Of course, Junior had talents, too. He excelled at school, and possessed a knack for coming up with innovative answers to problems. This made it only too easy for his parents to justify turning him into a cheap reproduction of his father. The practical armada of tutors that Su hired to teach Junior everything from electrical sciences to geometry seemed more like an insult than a thoughtful gesture: It was easier to pay others to educate Junior as an engineer than to spend time developing his individual talents like she did with the twins and Huan.

That's not to say that Junior didn't enjoy engineering. Actually, quite the opposite - he loved it. But he still felt bitter that the choice had never really been his to make.

Huan tossed his head sending his newly-dyed green bangs flopping over his eyes. "I'd like that. My work belongs where it can be seen," Huan clenched his fists and took a deep breath, "where it can be... _felt_."

Wing cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah right, Huan."

"Everyone _loves_ walking around gardens, _feeling_ your art," Wei quipped as he crossed his arms, eyes rolling sarcastically.

The two twins burst into laughter, high-fiving each other as Huan huffed, blowing a strand of hair off of his face.

Su smirked, flashing a glance at Junior before turning to the twins. Junior sighed. _Here it comes... _

"Wing, Wei, how is that new game you're working on coming?" She asked as Chef swept by with his cart of roast rabbit-duck. Plates clinked again as the ex-pirate whisked away what remained of the second course. "That looks exquisite, Chef," Su remarked.

Wei grinned widely. "It's great, mom! We've got the rules almost finished. And I just came up with the name - Power Disk! Doesn't it just _sound_ awesome?"

Wing slammed his hands down on the table. "Hey! I thought of the name!"

"No way, I'm the smart one, everyone knows that."

The two glared at each other for a few seconds before jointly breaking their stare and guffawing in a way that Junior was tempted to label maniacal. It went on for a while before Wing wiped a tear from his eye and looked up at Baatar Sr. "Pretty soon, could you help us build the court, dad?"

Their father smiled and nodded, "I'd love to. How about I help you two next week? By then, I should be completely done with the tower designs."

Su took a bite of rabbit-duck. "That's great, boys. You're going to be _such_ great athletes one day."

_Low blows, mother._ Junior winced. He hated this, how mother would try to get at him through his brothers. Whenever they fought she'd do this, highlighting how _proud_ she was of Junior's siblings to point out how dissappointed she was in him. It would almost be easier if she just came out and yelled, grounded him, anything! But instead, they just played this game, Su throwing compliments to the twins and Huan as a sort of backhanded jab at Junior. _Mommy issues are a bit of a family tradition at this point. I shouldn't be surprised._

Baatar Sr. looked to Junior, smiling softly. "What about you, Junior? How are your studies at the university going?"

Junior had barely opened his mouth before his mother interrupted him. "Don't bother, Baatar. Junior doesn't _feel_ like talking."

Junior stood up from the table abruptly, his silverware clattering as his hands slammed down onto the table. Silence fell over the family. He gritted his teeth. "May I be excused, _mother_?"

Su flicked her wrist, looking away. "Fine."

Junior bowed curtly, pushed his chair in, and whirled away from the table. He could hear conversation awkwardly resuming as he pounded down the hall. Tears welled at the corners of his eyes, threatening to stream down his face at the first opportunity.

After nearly sprinting up the spiral staircase to his bedchamber, Junior dropped his notebook on the floor and threw open the glass double doors onto his balcony, charging through into the dark. He collapsed onto the balcony railinh, burying his face in the sleeves of his dark green robes.

The air was still - the city's petal-like panels were closed, shutting out the wind. After a time, Junior raised his eyes from the folds of his robes and looked over the gardens. With the stars hidden behind metal panels, the only light came from a few electric lam posts scattered along the garden paths. He sighed. Especially night, with the city closed out from the rest of the world, Junior felt like Zaofu was more like a prison than a home.

At least he could escape into his books. He was just turning to go back inside and read when a flickering movement in the gardens caught his attention._ Something passed in front of one of the lamp posts._

He narrowed his eyes, scanning for any more signs of movement. Sure enough, a few moments later he saw a shadow pass by one of the iridescent green lights. Someone was sneaking around.

_I should probably tell mother, or the guards. _Junior thought, standing up and leaning over the railing to get a better look. He thought about it for a few minutes. Su would probably just brush him off, like she usually did, and if he called the guards and it turned out to be nothing, his mother would just get more mad at him. In any case, he didn't feel like interacting with his mother at all right now, even just to inform her of the intruder. Besides, maybe if he figured this out alone, Su'd finally realize he was good for something other than crunching numbers or reading.

_No, I'm handling this myself._ Junior swung over the railing, dangling by his fingers for a few moments before dropping down onto the roof below. He huffed, the impact forcing him onto his knees. _Come on, Baatar. You can do this._ Junior shook himself off, raised a hand to straighten out his metal necklace, and inched along the rooftop before slipping down into the gardens.

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><p><em>Where'd you go?<em> Junior had been sneaking around the estate for an hour, searching for the person he had seen from the balcony. From there, it had been easy to see whoever it was who was lurking around, but without an arial vantage point, Junior hadn't had any luck. The twisting paths and meticulously trimmed topiaries down here were a practical labyrinth.

Junior felt his motivation slipping away, sleep weighing heavily on his eyelids.. _Maybe it was nothing. _He yawned, turning to walk back to the house when a dark shape flickered in front of the nearest lamp and disappeared around a corner. _Yes! I knew it. _Suddenly feeling awake, Junior sucked in a breath, flattening himself against the nearest hedge and inching towards the corner. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his body, each heartbeat putting him more and more on edge.

_Now... what are you doing? _In just a few more steps he'd be able to peek around the corner. _Just... a few... more -_

Before he could so much as yell in surprise, Junior felt his feet slip backwards underneath him and was sent flying forwards, falling face first into the dirt.

"Who are you, and why have you been following me?" Head pounding, Junior scrambled to pull himself off of the ground, falling backwards into a sitting position. His assailant stood over him, feet planted firmly in a horse stance.

As Junior's face came into view, she dropped her fists and stood out of her stance, cocking a hip to the side. "Baatar?"

Junior squinted up at his attacker. _Braid, voice, mole... _ "Kuvira? Wha- agh!" A pillar of earth dug into his back, throwing him up onto his feet. He winced, bringing a hand behind himself to rub his back.

"You're welcome," Kuvira smirked, light dancing mischievously in her green eyes.

Junior brushed his hands along his clothes, dusting them off. _I'm covered in dirt, great._ He had never been that close to his mother's protégée. Of course she'd come to dinner more than a few times over the years, and Kuvira would sometimes participate in functions or go to festivals with his family. They had even been childhood playmates, but that was a long time ago. Now, most of the time if Kuvira was on the estate she was in the yard practicing her earthbending with Su. No, Junior wouldn't consider her close. Yet, he felt unusually embarrassed for his blundering fall and subsequent dirt-covered state. Had there been much more light, the hot blush spreading across his cheeks would have been painfully obvious. _Thank the spirits mother had those ridiculous walls built. At least they're good for something._

Collecting himself, Junior took off his glasses, cleaning grit off of the lenses with the inside of one of his sleeves, "What are you doing here?"

Kuvira leaned against a nearby lamp post and rolled her eyes. "I asked first. Why were you following me?" She continued, smirking as she took in Junior's dirt-stained robes as if admiring her handiwork. "By the way, next time you want to sneak up on someone, you might want to tread a bit more lightly. I could hear you all the way across the gardens."

He frowned, shoving his glasses back up over his nose. "I saw you from my balcony - er, well, I saw something moving around in the gardens. I couldn't tell it was you. Honestly, I thought someone was sneaking onto the estate, a thief or something."

"Why didn't you just call the guards? Or tell your mom?"

Junior sighed. "It's complicated."

Kuvira snorted, crossing her arms. "Sure it is."

_"_It's just... I got in a fight with mother and - why am I telling you any of this?"

"Beats me." Kuvira shrugged and pulled a long strip of linen fabric from one of the pockets in her loose-fitting green pants. She began wrapping it around her her hand, moving up her lower arm. "But that doesn't mean I'm not open to listening."

Junior shook his head. "You still haven't told me why you're out here. You know the grounds are closed after dark."

By now, Kuvira had finished wrapping both of her hands. She pushed off of the lamp post, making for a bend in the path up ahead and gestured for Junior to follow her. "Come on, I'll show you."

Not in the mood to argue, Junior plodded obediently after Kuvira. They wove through the path for about a minute before emerging into a medium-sized courtyard. Dark, oblong shapes stood on pedestals littered about the open space.

"Why did you bring me to my mother's meteorite collection?"

Kuvira walked over to one of the pedestals, picking up a black, fist-sized rock and tossing it back and forth between her hands. "I'm answering your question" She caught the rock in her right hand, holding it while making a sweeping motion to indicate the collection with her left.

_Stupid! I should have guessed._ "You're just here to practice metalbending."

Kuvira nodded, tossing the rock to Junior. "You got it. Su says there's something about meteorite metal that makes it easier to bend."

Junior inspected the rock in his hand. It was black as night and smooth to the touch, with a sort of iridescent quality when the light struck at just the right angle. _Beautiful._

"I've been working with your mom for months, but I can still barely make a dent in the things." Kuvira explained, striding over to Junior before plucking the stone out of his hand. "So, a few weeks ago, I started sneaking in here at night to get some more practice."

She placed the little black rock back on it's pedestal and sighed. "I just don't understand why this is so difficult!"

"Why don't you just ask my mother to borrow a meteorite? I'm sure she'd let you."

Kuvira closed her eyes for a few moments and took a deep breath before smiling coyly and raising one of her thick eyebrows. "It's complicated."

Both of them were silent for a moment before simultaneously breaking down into laughter. Somehow, when he was laughing, the heavy metal collar resting on Junior's chest felt just a little lighter.

Catching her breath, Kuvira rested a linen-wrapped hand on Junior's shoulder and flashed a glance towards the house. "But really, I do need to practice."

Kuvira's touch, however innocent it might have been, startled Junior. He flushed, noticing the suddenly closing distance between them. "Oh, um. I'll head back then." He took a step back, straightening his collar self-consciously.

She chuckled, tightening the band holding her braid in place. "Sorry. You're welcome to stay. I just figured - "

Junior smiled and shook his head. "I'll pass."

"Right." Kuvira clasped her hands together, cracked her knuckles. "Oh, and if you ever feel like talking to someone about whatever's so complicated, you know where to find me.

Junior nodded and turned away, making for the main path back to the house. The lights shining from the many windows ahead of him burned his eyes, schathingly bright compared to the dim lamplight in the garden.

"Hey, Baatar! One last thing," Kuvira called. Junior paused and looked back over his shoulder to see her sliding into an earthbending stance. "Don't tell Su about this, if you wouldn't mind."

"Sure." It wasn't as if Kuvira was doing anything wrong. Even if she was, he didn't feel inclined to tell Su anything at the moment.

"And you know, most people just call me Junior."

Kuvira pulled her arms in towards her body, taking a deep breath before throwing a smirk at Junior. "I'm not most people." At that, she threw her left fist forward in a crisp motion, sending a tiny meteorite shooting across the courtyard.


	3. Chapter 3: Difficult

_Hello all! Sorry for the wait on this one. Things just got a little crazy, and I didn't have time to write. But, thanksgiving weekend has brought you: this chapter! I know, I know, things are a little slow, where's the action? IT'S COMING. I promise. I just need to establish the characters and the backstory I'm working with here before we take off into the adventure portion. Also, this is Kuvira's POV She's a complicated character with her own issues and personality to deal with, not just an element in Baatar Jr.'s story, so I think it's good to give her a little moment in the spotlight. _

_Thanks to everyone for reading/following/commenting/favoriting! I'm so surprised there are so many fellow Baavira fans out there. So, without further ado, I give you chapter 3!_

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><p>Turned Chapter 3: Difficult<p>

Soft, dawn sunlight filtered through the slats in the blinds covering Kuvira's window to dance behind her eyelids, pulling her from sleep. She groaned softly, pulling a pillow up over her head, fruitlessly attempting to block out the daylight's encroachment into her rest. The light only intensified, and eventually she conceded defeat, pushing her pillow to the side and sitting up.

_If I can't beat you, I might as well use you, _Kuvira decided, rolling out of bed and throwing open the window. Morning light flooded into her room. Rubbing her green eyes, Kuvira squinted out the window as she felt the sudden brightness pull her out of drowsiness. She smirked. _Nothing like getting blinded to get you up and going. _

Even though she felt more awake, Kuvira could still feel fatigue weighing heavily on her body. Losing four hours of sleep each night to train secretly with Su's meteorites was certainly taking it's toll, and no amount of stubbornness could blind Kuvira to that fact. She'd been at it for about two and a half weeks now, and the bags under her eyes were starting to feel just as heavy as her worn-out arms and legs. Kuvira only hoped that the results would be worth it in the end. So far, she didn't have much to show for her toil other than a bruised body and bruised pride.

After making her bed, Kuvira rummaged through her dresser, pulling out a grey tank top and dark, emerald pants. Her eyes lingered on a pair of metal bracelets that had been tossed to the back of the drawer. They were sleek and minimalistic, unembellished steel bands. Su and Baatar had bought the bracelets for her at a festival when she was a little girl. She could still remember being fascinated by the way light warped and curved off of their rounded metal surfaces, and practically dragged Su and her husband to the vendor's cart. They'd spoiled her, like they did so often, buying the bracelets even though they were much too big for Kuvira's eight year old wrists. "You'll grow into them," they'd said. Only, Kuvira never really felt like she had. Even though it they perfectly now, the bracelets was just a reminder of her inadequacy.

No, Kuvira would wear those bands only when she could bend them to her will. _Not today._ She shoved the door closed, sending the bracelets clanging against the metal dresser's walls.

Heavy footsteps thunked in the hallway outside of Kuvira's room. "What are you doing in there? Saya's got breakfast ready."

Kuvira blinked, shaking her head and pulling herself from her reverie. "I just got up, sorry Aji!" She started to shrug off her clothes, wrinkling her nose in disgust when she realized that she hadn't even bothered to change out of her training garb before going to sleep last night. "Don't wait for me to start eating, it might be a few minutes."

"Alright, Kuvira. No worries. See you down there." Kuvira could hear her Aji going down the stairs as she started to unwrap the linen strips she had worn around her hands and arms last night to train. She winced as she started to pull the sweat-stained fabric away from her knuckles. As she peeled them back, the linen wrappings tugged on thick, dark scabs lying beneath, reopening her wounds.

Sucking in a quick breath, Kuvira grabbed her dirty shirt and pressed it against the blood welling up from her cracked skin. It was only so many times you could slam your hands into meteorites before your knuckles started to bleed. _If only they'd just bend like they're supposed to._ Kuvira threw her bloody shirt to the side and closed her eyes before ripping away the rest of the cloth, hissing under her breath at the stinging pain. She had started wrapping her hands hoping to avoid just this sort of injury, but it looked like there wasn't a way around raw knuckles if she was going to master metalbending. She'd just double wrap her hands tonight. _Stubborn element my ass, I'm more stubborn than some space rock._

Kuvira pulled on her shirt and pants before heading for the bathroom and running the tap. The cold water cooled the burning in her hands, but they weren't done complaining about the gauntlet she'd put them through just yet. She continued washing, and, after toweling down her face and hair, Kuvira pulled her thick black locks into a braid on the side of her head, weaving any unruly strands tightly into submission. She secured her hair with a silver band and took in her handiwork.

Even as fatigued and beaten down as she was, it would be hard to tell just by looking at her. Kuvira stood as erect as ever, shoulders resting slightly back to lift her posture and feet rooted firmly a shoulder width apart. Training had sculpted and toned her body into the lethal instrument that it was, but she hadn't lost the smooth curves of her feminine form; she was beautiful, but also strong. Something - ambition, maybe, or passion - burned intensely behind her eyes, untarnished by the dark circles forming half moons on the delicate skin beneath them. She pulled her braid forward to fall over her right shoulder and took a deep breath. Getting ready for the day was a ritual of Kuvira's: looking intelligent and professional might be a small thing, but she thought was important that she looked on the outside like she was on the inside.

Satisfiedwith her appearance, Kuvira pushed out of her room into the hallway and dashed down the staircase. Aji and Saya were sitting at the kitchen table, Aji adjusting the metal bracers and pauldrons he wore as a member of Su's metalbending guard and Saya adjusting the nob on the radio. She looked up as Kuvira came downstairs. "Hey, you. What's going on? You're not usually one to sleep in."

Kuvira shrugged, swooping in on the table and taking a seat. Saya and Aji were good guardians, but sometimes she just wished they would stop trying to be her parents. They had always wanted children, but for some reason Saya hadn't been able to get pregnant. So, when Su asked if anyone could take care of a little orphan girl she had found, they had enthusiastically volunteered. Kuvira still wondered why Su hadn't taken her in herself, but she supposed that six children would have been too many. Or maybe adopting would have ruined the _perfect_ little family she was trying to make. In any case, Saya and Aji had given Kuvira everything she ever needed. But she knew what she was - no amount of home cooked food or kind words were ever going to make her forget what she was: an orphan.

She reached for the plate of zongzi - leaf-wrapped sticky rice buns - and poured herself a cup of tea. "It's nothing. I just had a long night, is all." Kuvira took a bite, closing her eyes and smiling as she tasted the sweet banana filling - her favorite. "Thanks for breakfast, Saya."

Saya smiled. "Of course." She checked her watch. "I'm afraid I'm going to need to leave here in a few minutes, I have an early class today." Saya was a professor of architecture and worked with Su's husband, Baatar Sr. at the university.

She leaned over to kiss Aji on the cheek. "Have a good day, honey." Kuvira's guardian smiled, grabbing her bag and turning for the entryway. "You too, Kuvira."

Aji nodded, metalbending one of the last clasps on his armor into place. Kuvira just took another bite of zongzi and reached to turn up the radio volume.

_"Good morning Republic City! This is Shiro Shinobi, coming to you live from our studio." _

Even though Zaofu was hundreds of miles from the United Republic, the radio receivers here were powerful enough to pick up stations from all over the world, and Shiro's show was undoubtedly the best on the air.

_"Before we get going with our usual morning program, we want to congratulate our new chief of police, Lin Beifong, on her new position. That's right, folks, the daughter of our very own Toph Beifong, legendary metalbending founder of the Republic City Police is going to be taking over the duties of chief within the next week."_

Kuvira cocked an eyebrow. _Su's sister? Chief of police?_ She couldn't decide if Su would be pleased or angered by the news of her sister. Su had been trying to get ahold of Lin for years, but bad blood between the two had kept her sister from responding. Whatever had gone down between those two, it was serious, but it also wasn't any of Kuvira's business. She had the good sense not to go poking around uninvited into her mentor's past.

_"Alright, now getting to our regularly scheduled material. Cabbage Corp has just announced plans to construct the tallest skyscraper in Republic City. Using a previously unknown technology in its design, they claim that their tower will stand at least twice as high as our tallest buildings today. What can't technology do these days, folks?"_

"Hey, Kuvira, I heard a few days ago that Su's looking for a new dancer for her group." Aji stated as he stood up, grabbing his plate and carrying it over to the sink. "Have you thought about trying out?"

Kuvira shook her head. "No, I didn't know there was an opening." _ Why didn't Su tell me?_

_"In other news, there was commotion at upscale dining establishment Kwong's Cuisine last night after a visiting Earth Kingdom dignitary's pet platypus-bear was refused service."_

Aji set his plate by the sink and came by to pick up Kuvira's. "You should go for it, 'vira." He ruffled his hand in her hair, mussing up her carefully engineered braid. Kuvira seethed, wanting to force his hand away and fix her hair immediately, but instead she held her tongue and focused on her breath. Oblivious, Aji smiled. "I'm sure you'd be great. And you could practice your bending while you're at it."

_"Our news correspondent from the Fire Nation just radioed in with news that the Firelord has announced plans to contract Republic City's own Future Industries for the development of infrastructure in the Fire Nation. That Hiroshi Sato's been nothing if not on the up-and-up, ladies and gents!"_

Kuvira thought about it for a moment. If she was on Su's dance squad, she would get more one on one coaching - more help with her metalbending. And that's not to mention the powerful connections she could make; some of the most important people in the city danced with Su. It would be a practical boon to be on the team, that is, if she could actually make it on. It was a _metalbending_ dance troupe after all... But Kuvira was sure that if she made the team, she'd get the extra practice she needed to not only get a handle on her metalbending, but master it. She could do this. Now it was just a matter of getting that spot.

_Maybe I'd even see - _Kuvira was surprised to find her mind wandering and promptly pulled it back to thoughts with _purpose_.

_"We're going to finish up our broadcast this morning with some highlights from the pro-bending arena last night."_

She nodded. "I'll ask Su about it today, I'm going over to train later."

"Great. Saya and I think it'd be a great way for you to make some new friends and have some fun." Aji grabbed his helmet off of the table and pulled it on. "We just want the best for you, you know that, right?"

Kuvira let down her braid and attempted blindly to re-twist her black hair into it's signature, impeccable knots. She glanced up at Aji, using all of her willpower to maintain at least the illusion of contentment. _I'm just not in the mood to play this make-believe father daughter game today, Aji._ "Yes, Aji. I know."

_"Last night, the rookie Broken Mountain Mooselions cemented their streak of victories last night with a humiliating blow to the pro-bending veteran Golden Temple Tigerdillos. Lead by their wing-dinger of a waterbending team captain, Kesuq, the Mooslions swept away the competition with their signature pound-'em-down strategy!"_

Aji nodded and walked towards the doorway, metal boots clanking against the metal floor. "Alight, I'll see you later for dinner." He winked at Kuvira and wished her luck before stepping outside and closing the door.

_"That's all for now, folks. Be sure to turn your radio dials to 194.5 again tomorrow morning for another episode of Republic City in Fifteen Minutes. Stay tuned for a special one hour broadcast from the Republic City Orchestra as they perform legendary Earth-Kingdom composer Chong's 'Secret Tunnel' Suite!"_

After finishing her tea, Kuvira washed her hands and the remaining dishes before running back up to the bathroom and fixing her hair. Aji meant well, she knew. So did Saya. But she felt like if they could just recognize that they weren't a normal family, that Kuvira wasn't their daughter and she didn't need them to dote over her that things would just run more smoothly. Besides, even if she _was_ their daughter, she wasn't the kind of person who needed constant support and attention. She could get what she wanted on her own.

She grabbed her bag and threw in a couple of towels and a change of clothes before grabbing four fresh strips of linen. She'd wrap her arms and legs on the train to Su's. Ready to go, Kuvira flipped the house lights, grabbed another zongzi for the road and breezed out of the door.

The street outside of Aji and Saya's gleamed brightly in the morning sunlight. They lived in a development in one of the peripheral domes, away from the city center. From here, she could see the rest of Zaofu, opened domes blooming like giant silver lotus flowers on the green landscape. Most of the guards and their families lived out here, where they were comfortably removed from the hustle of downtown while close enough to everything that they could react to threats quickly. That is, if there ever _was_ a threat to Zaofu. Kuvira doubted that anything or anyone would ever poise a danger to the metal clan's stronghold. _What was it that Su always said? Zaofu's the safest city in the world._

By now, Kuvira had made it to the train station and boarded the express to North Dome, taking a seat by the window and digging the linen straps out of her bag. As the train lurched away, she began wrapping her ankles drawing the fabric tightly around her lower leg. Her fingers, usually deft and strong, felt leaden and sore. Her swollen knuckles and fingers made it feel like she was working with thick gloves. When she finally finished, the train had already pulled into the station and it was time to get off. Kuvira shoved remaining two fabric strips into her pockets and hopped out of the train, shoes clicking against the metal ground as she swept up the hill towards the Beifong estate. She'd have to finish up later.

Kuvira wove up through the curving metal paths, nodding to the guards she passed through the gate onto Su's property. _It's so different during the day_, she noted, eyes flicking up to the unlit lamps lining the walkway into the gardens. At night, she snuck past the guards and stuck to the shadows between lights. Today, they greeted her as she walked in and strode straight down the biggest, widest path.

The only person who had ever caught Kuvira was Baatar, and really, she'd caught him. Two nights ago, she'd tripped him with a well-timed rock after hearing him follow her around the gardens. She hadn't known who he was, of course, until he was already on the ground - if she had known it was just Su's bookish shut-in of an eldest son, she would have let him keep bumbling about in the dark. But she didn't know, and she was actually sort of glad they ran into each other. It had been a while since she let loose like that, _laughed_ with someone. It almost felt like they were friends. Kuvira should have been worried about Baatar ratting her out to Su, but somehow she felt she could trust him. It would seem they both had less than perfect relationships with the matriarch of the metal clan.

No, Kuvira wasn't worried about Baatar telling Su about her secret midnight training sessions. They had an understanding; he wouldn't tell his mother about her, and she wouldn't let on that she knew that there was trouble in Su's little paradise.

Plus, Kuvira noted with a smirk, if she so much as felt that Baatar was thinking of stabbing her in the back, Kuvira could beat whatever treachery he was plotting straight out of that big brain of his. He didn't seem the type to put up much of a fight.

"Kuvira! Nice to see you." Su waved at her from the training yard ahead. Sunlight glanced off of her scaled metal bracers and the angled pendants hanging from her robe. Her eyes were soft and friendly, like always. Kuvira sometimes wondered why Su gave her so much support, taking time to train her herself, paying for her education, and putting her up with Aji and Saya. But then she remembered - Su's only daughter wasn't an earthbender. She could only live through her sons up to a point. She _needed_ a daughter like her, and Kuvira fit the bill. She was just a part of Su's vision.

Kuvira threw her bag onto a bench and started to finish wrapping her hands. "Hey Su, nice to be here." She looked around the yard. "Who am I sparring with today?"

Su grinned slyly. "You mean, who's your next victim?" She put a hand on Kuvira's shoulder. "Huan's going to be training with us today. The twins are off working on that game of theirs; they're calling it Power Disk now. I don't want to disturb them when they're on such a creative roll."

Taking a deep breath, Kuvira pulled her braid over her right shoulder and clapped her hands together, turning to Su. "I'm ready when you are. But where's Huan?"

"Right here!" Huan pushed off from the tree trunk he was leaning against, shuffling over to Su and Kuvira. He blew some of his long, dyed hair of his face. Kuvira didn't care much for Huan. He was moody and dark without having a reason to be, and his insistence on turning _everything_ into art got downright annoying. At least he was old enough to be somewhat decent competition. The twins were still getting the basics down, and sparring with them was more like babysitting than practice. Also, Huan was a better metalbender than her, seemingly without trying. It was downright infuriating watching him twist sheets of aluminum and steel with the flick of a wrist while she couldn't so much as budge meteorites bigger than a pebble. Kuvira had to fight not to give in to the jealousy clawing at her insides every time they practiced. _Not everyone is born lucky. I can make my own luck._

Su smiled. "Great. Let's get started then, shall we?"

* * *

><p>A hunk of rock whizzed by Kuvira's head, barely missing her as she ducked out of the way. Huan had the high ground, pelting her with rock after rock from a raised platform to her left. Kuvira's thoughts raced as she analyzed the situation, looking for an opening.<p>

Another boulder slammed into the ground, crumbling into a heap as it made contact just a few yards from Kuvira. _Thanks for the ammo._ She ducked behind the pile of rock before sending it flying forward with a crisp motion of her arms. As she predicted, Huan bent the attack out of the way instead of dodging it, giving her a chance to advance while he was preoccupied. She drove her foot into the earth, shooting herself forward as a short column of rock rose violently from the ground at her command. A few rocks flew with her, hovering around her arms and hands before she spread her fingers and sent them flying towards Huan while still in midair. The earthen projectiles veered for his right wrist, forming a heavy band that Kuvira bent into the ground as she descended.

Her opponent faltered, his balance thrown by the rock cuff pulling his right hand to the floor. Huan struggled to send a few stones flying Kuvira's way from his compromised position, feet splayed and one hand held firmly down by Kuvira's attack. _There we go. _Kuvira grinned maniacally, landing behind Huan and dropping to her hands before spinning her legs around to sweep his feet out from beneath him. He fell hard, huffing as his chest slammed into the ground.

"Great work, Kuvira!" Su clapped politely, beaming as she approached her pupils. Kuvira released the rocky band from around Huan's wrist and offered him a hand, pulling him up off of the ground a little more vigorously than he was expecting.

"Agh! What are you trying to do, pull my arm out of it's socket?" Huan rolled his eyes, pouting as he rubbed his shoulder with his other hand.

Kuvira smirked. "Sorry, I didn't realize you were so fragile."

"Alright, alright, you two. Cut it out." Su handed Kuvira and Huan each a cup of cold water. "Take a little break. One more round of sparring and then we're going to work on the meteorites." She turned to Kuvira. "I loved that move you used back there, Kuvira, the one where you restrained Huan's wrist with earth and then used it to pull him off balance."

Kuvira nodded. "Aji was telling me about how the guards use cables and grab onto people's ankles and wrists to restrain them when I got the idea. I thought, doing that, they can pull on their opponents, sure, but there's not too many options past jerking their arms or legs around." She took a sip of water and smiled up at Su. "I figured an approach where you can use bending to move your opponent's body around in any direction would be more flexible."

Her mentor patted Kuvira on the shoulder. "That's brilliant. I bet it would translate extremely effectively into a metalbending move." She nodded towards her metal bracers. "You could even use your jewelry or armor to bind your target's wrists or ankles." She grinned. "I knew I saw myself in you."

_Right... a metalbending move. _Su had always assumed that Kuvira would become a member of her prestigious guard one day, a metalbending master, maybe even captain. Kuvira hadn't gotten around to telling her that there might be a hitch in her plan. _No, I can do this. I'm a metalbender, I can move the meteorites, just not very well yet. If I couldn't do it, I wouldn't be able to budge them at all. No, I just need more practice, the right motivation, coaching - something. I'm just having a block. _ "I was even thinking, eventually, I could get precise enough with it to earthbend a blindfold onto someone."

Su's eyes flashed. "Wow, well I'm sure you could, but that seems a like a bit of a cheap-shot, doesn't it?"

Kuvira nodded. "I guess."

"Alright, then get back in there and work on this new technique of yours." She turned to Huan, who was putting the finishing touches on a sculpture he had made out of his water cup. "Huan, dear, back to work. This time, I want you to stay on the same level as Kuvira - no running to high ground. Work on your footwork."

He sighed, tossing his cup-sculpture-thing to the side before plodding to the center of the yard and taking a fighting stance. "Alright, let's go."

Kuvira joined him, taking her usual sparring stance; 60 percent of her weight back, 40 percent forward, hands staggered in front of her body and elbows arced in a comfortable, yet strong half-moon shape. She waited for Huan to make the first move, nimbly evading his onslaught of strikes before going on the offensive herself.

"Mother!" Baatar Jr. was pounding up the path, panting as he skid to a halt in front of Su. Kuvira could see distress brewing in his stormy hazel eyes behind the circular rims of his glasses. "Mother, something's wrong."

_Why are you here?_ Kuvira thought, eyes wandering over to Baatar. He stood a little taller than her and had a slight build that suggested he spent more time in the library than the training yard. The way he struggled to catch his breath after, she assumed, just running from the house, confirmed her suspicions. Baatar was almost amusing to Kuvira - all of the boys her own age that she had spent time with before were the beefy earthbending sons of Aji's fellow guards. He couldn't be more different in mannerism or appearance than her usual cohorts.

Off to the side, Su and her son were conversing frantically, Baatar explaining something and motioning towards the house while Su held onto his every word. _Whatever was going on between you two, it looks like something more important came up_, Kuvira thought, straining to listen to the two as they spoke.

"Oof!" A stone dug into her shoulder as Huan's attack hit home, sending Kuvira stumbling backward. She growled and reeled around, braid swinging as she turned. _Stupid! Kuvira, keep your head where it belongs. _She reeled around, preparing to knock Huan to the ground with her next attack. _You won't catch me off guard, again._

Kuvira was just shifting her weight to her back leg, preparing a strike with her front foot that would sent Huan into the ground when Su turned away from Baatar and called out. "Huan, Kuvira. Stop."

Reluctantly dropping her attack posture, Kuvira bowed curtly to Huan, ending the match. She turned to Su. "What's going on?"

"There's been an emergency. Practice is going to have to wait for another day."

Kuvira's gaze drifted over to Baatar, who was leaning against a lamppost, shifting his weight from side to side as if he was anxious or uncomfortable. "Is something wrong with Baatar?"

Su shook her head, "No, well, yes. Junior's fine, but my husband's apparently in a crisis. Junior just told me that Baatar thinks the plans for the tower that he's been working on the past few months have been stolen." She glanced back towards the house before addressing Kuvira and Huan. "I need to go be with Baatar. You use the house radio to call the guards and tell them what happened."

"Of course."

Eyes narrowing, Su continued, "It's too soon to say if the plans were stolen for sure, Baatar might just have misplaced them, but I'll be damned if someone thinks they can steal from _my_ husband in _my_ city and get away with it."

Kuvira nodded and grabbed her bag. "I'll go call them right now. Don't worry, Su, I'm sure they're figure out what happened. Go see if your husband needs help." She turned and started for the house at a brisk pace, whisking past Baatar on the way out of the courtyard. There was a part of her that wanted to talk to him, ask what happened, see if he was okay. But she couldn't reveal their... friendship, was it? Kuvira wasn't sure. Whatever it was, Su didn't know that they were anything more than acquaintances. Expressing familiarity could cause some questions she didn't want to answer. She needed to at least maintain the illusion that metalbending wasn't as difficult for her as it was, especially if she wanted a spot on Su's dance team. Su was _not_ going to find out about her secret practice sessions.

So, Kuvira kept her eyes forward and gaze straight ahead as she approached Baatar. But she could have sworn she caught his eyes following her as she breezed by.

* * *

><p><em>AN: I'm looking for a cover photo for this story! **So, here's a little contest** for all you people with more art skills than me: Draw a cover for Turned, and if I pick your entry I'll write you an Avatarverse one-shot (Korra or TLA) with your pick of characters and premise. Fair warning: I'm in no way qualified to write M rated stuff, so if it's a pairing fic, keep that in mind. :) Just PM me a link to your entry! Thanks everyone!_


	4. Chapter 4: Nervous

Turned Chapter 4: Nervous

_A/N: Hey everyone. I'm SO SORRY for the wait on this one, a lot of things came up, and I just didn't have time to write. Blame the people who assigned me five essays over winter break. -.- Anyhow, I took some extra time on this one because I wanted to make sure the dialogue was right - it took two rewrites! Forgive my tardiness, and enjoy the chapter._

_As a side note, I'm still looking for someone to draw a cover for this fic. Just PM me a link to your submission, and if I pick yours, I'll write you a Korraverse one-shot with your choice of characters and prompt (with a few restrictions). Without further ado, enjoy:_

* * *

><p>Junior sat on the edge of a sofa in the family living room, absently buttoning and unbuttoning the cuff of his sleeve. It was a nervous habit of his - Su was only half joking when she said that she'd had the buttons replaced on each of his shirts at least twice. His hazel eyes were locked on his father's prized grandfather clock, gaze following the spasmodic flickering motion of the second hand around the platinum-gilded clock-face. There was nothing else to do but sit, anxious and useless, as Su attended to his father in the study downstairs and Kuvira paced back and forth further down the hall, the house radio microphone clutched in her linen-wrapped hands.<p>

_I should be down there with father right now_, Junior thought, tugging a little too vigorously on the button of his right shirtsleeve, ripping the metal widget right from its strings. He hissed and chucked the button against the glass cabinet of the grandfather clock before flopping backwards. Laying like this, half sprawled over his mother's favorite sofa and staring up at the skylights in the living room's high vaulted ceiling, Junior could feel his metal necklace digging heavily into his chest.

He had been the first one to know that something was wrong, anyways - why did his mother insist on excluding him from this? She even had _Kuvira _call the city guard instead of him. He was perfectly capable of tuning to the correct frequency and explaining how he had walked in on his father rummaging ferociously through all of his filing cabinets, pulling his hair from its roots and eventually breaking down into hysterical tears and knocking over every piece of furniture in the study screaming "It's stolen! It's gone!" until he lost his voice.

Su had no idea what he'd seen, how bad it was. Junior sighed, closing his eyes in surrender to the memories flooding his mind.

_Junior jerked his head backwards, attempting to move his glasses up the ridge of his nose as he used his hips to nudge open the door to his father's study. His arms were overflowing with rolls of blueprints and stacks of paper. _

_"Father, I know you said these blueprints were ready for me to start working on prototypes, but honestly, there are a few -" Junior fell silent. His father was stooped over a filing cabinet, its bottom drawer pulled free and resting on its side, contents spilling over the steel floor. Papers were strewn all about the room and it looked as though his father had already dismantled two other filing cabinets. Baatar Sr. was digging frantically through the middle drawer, opening files and inspecting them rapidly before throwing them to the side, their contents apparently not what he was looking for. It reminded Junior of scenes from the detective books he liked to read where the cops would tear apart a suspect's home or office - a search. _

_"__Father, what are you doing?"_

_With a growl, Baatar Sr. lurched forward and ripped the middle drawer from its hinges, heaving it to the side. He reeled around, snarling. "Gone, all gone!" He spat, kicking the gutted shell of the filing cabinet and sending a throbbing metallic clang through the study "Stolen!"_

_In the moment it took Junior to gather his thoughts, Baatar Sr. had begun to pull every volume from his bookshelf, ripping through the pages in search of whatever he had lost. Never before had Junior seen his father like this. Baatar Sr. was more given to bouts of near-comical panic than anything resembling rage, and the light behind his eyes was always more like the jolly glow of a candle than the terrifying scorch of a forest fire. For the first time in his life, Junior was afraid of his father._

_"__Father, please! Calm down!" Junior pleaded, reaching for Baatar Sr.'s wrist. "Tell me what happened, let me help you!" _

_Baatar Sr. snapped his hand away, brows furrowing and forming even deeper folds in his forehead. His eyes flashed. "No! You can't help me! No one can!" With a sudden movement, Junior's father swept a full row of books from its shelf. _

_Junior didn't know what to do. He wasn't good with people when they were acting normal, let alone when they were... well, he couldn't really describe how his father was right now. The only word that came to his mind was _broken_, and even that failed to truly capture the hurt he saw dancing in the angry flames burning behind his father's eyes. He froze in panic, watching the incident unfold as if he were reading about it in one of his books. _

_He stood silently in place for what felt like hours, but was probably more like a few minutes listening to his father scream and wail and kick over everything not bolted to the ground. Eventually, though, as all storms do, Junior's father's hurricane of rage blew itself out, and the study fell eerily silent for a few moments. _

_"__Junior?" Softer, weaker, now, Baatar Sr.'s tone was almost afraid. He turned around to face Junior, quaking as if terrified by the sudden realization of what he had done. "Junior I'm so sorry." Tears welled from his eyes, choking his words as he began to wobble forward over his unsteady knees. Junior stepped to catch his father, huffing as Baatar Sr. crumpled limply into his arms as he lowered him to the ground and hugged him close to his own body. Junior could feel his father's ribs heave as he sobbed into his shoulder, sense his father's fingers grasping at his robe like it offered him some sort of handhold._

_Between ragged breaths, Baatar Sr. mumbled into Junior's robes. "I can't believe - happened again - stolen - third time this month - lost - why would they - scaffolding - a month ago - ruined..." Junior could barely make out the words between his father's sniffling and sporadic bouts of wailing cries. _

_He held the embrace, silent and with eyes clenched firmly shut, until his he could feel his father's breath begin to slow and deepen. Baatar Sr.'s hands fell from where they had been buried in the folds Junior's clothing, fingers releasing sweaty handfuls of balled up robe as they slowly unclenched. Junior released his arms, guiding his father's back to lean against a pile of books behind him before standing, slowly, as if not to startle a frightened animal, to his feet and making for the study door. _

_"__I'm going to get mother, dad." He stated, turning back to look into the study as he reached the doors into the hall. Baatar Sr. remained motionless slumped in his pile of books, not so much as nodding. His eyes were blank, focused on something far away, and tears crawled silently down his cheeks. Yes, if Baatar Sr. could be described by any word at that moment, it would have been broken. But Junior really didn't think that words would ever capture fully the alien feeling of simultaneous terror, confusion, and deep sadness that he had seen consume his father back in the study. "Something's wrong with father, he needs help," would just have to do until Su could see for herself. Junior ripped his eyes away from the wreckage and charged up the stairs, panting as he pushed out into the daylight and ran for the gardens, where Su would be training..._

"Rough day, huh?" Kuvira flopped down into the couch beside Junior, tearing him from his reverie. She smelled like sweat and dirt, Junior noted, wrinkling his nose. Somehow, though, it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

He sat up, blinking slowly and scratching his head. "Oh, uh. Yes, I suppose today has been less than -" Junior coughed, awkwardly. "- less than, err, 'smooth,' so to speak." This was so strange, talking to Kuvira. They hadn't seen each other since she'd almost smashed his head in after finding him following her through the garden. Well, perhaps it hadn't been that violent, but certainly, it had been a strange encounter.

Junior had been more than tempted to go and try to find her again, to maybe talk to somebody who at least seemed to understand him, or was at least willing to listen, but something held him back. It just seemed too _odd_, sneaking out at night to talk to a girl he barely knew - it felt wrong, somehow. He doubted his mother or father would approve if he asked them. And, even though he might not get along with his parents all the time, Junior was hard-pressed to remember a time when he'd ever actually _defied_ them.

Kuvira flashed a smile, as if to lighten the mood. "Well, it's a good thing you came and interrupted the training session. One more second, and Huan was going to find himself with a mouthful of dirt, face down in a less than _artistic_ position."

Imagining Huan getting his pride handed to him was more than enough to send him into a fit of laughter on a usual day, and he appreciated Kuvira's reference to art. But the shock of his experiences earlier kept his expression almost stoic. However, Kuvira's magnetic grin tugged at the corners of his mouth, and Junior's eyes softened at her gesture.

"Hey, I get it. Talking's rough." She laughed softly to herself, flopping back into the couch cushion and looking at the skylights, much as Junior has been doing before. "Especially when you barely know the only person you feel like you can talk to."

_Only person... _Junior's mind lingered on her unexpected honesty. The two couldn't be more different - Su's special favorite protege and forgotten eldest son - but for some reason they had some sort of, previously unspoken, trust. Kuvira had just put what he was confused about feeling to words.

"Sorry, I just, err -" He sighed. "Is this as awkward for you as it is for me?"

Kuvira grinned. "Perhaps more so." She rolled a bit onto her side to face Junior more directly. "But it's better than sitting alone in my room back at home, tying my mind in knots over whatever just happened." She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. "Just thinking about your dad's plans being stolen, _here_, in _Zaofu_, has me stressed. I can't imagine what you're going through - it must have been pretty rough being the one to actually find out." She paused, waiting for Junior's response and opening her eyes. Sunlight filtering through the skylights glittered softly in their mossy green irises.

Junior found himself swimming in the shimmering pools of Kuvira's eyes, before he found his gaze wandering along the gentle curves of her body to places it shouldn't. _She's so -_He blushed, mentally slapping himself. _Get it together, Baatar!_

He nodded and nervously began readjusting his glasses. "I, er - it was, well - I uh..." Junior sighed, falling back into the back of the couch and slumping. "It was hard, seeing my dad like that..." His gaze fell on something far away, eyes becoming glassy and voice trailing off."

Kuvira's thick brows flashed. "Wait, what happened? I know what happened with the tower plans, but it sounds like -"

"It wasn't pretty." Junior interrupted, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. "I've just never seen my dad so - really, the only word I can think of is _broken_. One minute he was raging, throwing things and ripping his office apart, and the next he was crying in a pile of books on the ground." He crossed his arms, hugging himself a bit. "I've never seen _anybody_ like that before."

Junior felt something resting on his shoulder and opened his eyes to see Kuvira reaching out to him. His skin crackled under her touch, like the static in the air after a storm.

"It's okay. You don't need to tell me about it if you don't want to." Kuvira's voice cut in before Junior had a chance to mentally reprimand himself for his reaction. She took her hand from his shoulder, as if noticing his discomfort, and sat up to lean against the arm of the other side of the sofa. "What's important now is helping get this whole mess resolved."

Junior huffed. "Like I can do anything." Anger began to well up in Junior's chest, surging up against the walls of his ribcage and swirling beneath his metal necklace. "Mother thinks I'm useless, if she even remembers that I exist." His rage boiled over. "She even had _you_ call security, and you're not even family! You're not the one who found father, you're not more capable of using a radio than I am!" He growled to himself. "Why can't she trust me?"

Kuvira's brows furrowed, gaze narrowing.

Immediately realizing his mistake, Junior felt his rage sink violently into the pit of his stomach. _Idiot_,_ it's not her fault that my mother thinks I'm incompetent failure._

"Kuvira, I'm sorry. It's just -"

She cut him off, growling "No, no, it's fine. I'm used to people treating me like an elbow leech to be ripped off of _family business_."

Then, Junior did something very impulsive. He reached for her wrists, pulling her up from her lounging position to look her in the eyes. "No, that's not what I meant."

Kuvira blinked, taken completely off guard. She shook her head, then narrowed her eyes in confusion. Junior, meanwhile, was still entirely surprised at what he had done, and felt blood rushing to his cheeks yet again. He dropped his hands, scrambling away from her on the couch a little bit and began to fidget with his shirtsleeve button.

"I, er - I meant, It's just..." He sighed. "I'm just a bit, _insecure _I guess, about mother - er, I mean, what she thinks of me." Junior shook his head. "I'm sorry. It's not that she asked _you_ to help, it's that she didn't ask _me._"

Kuvira cocked her head, as if trying to rationalize the sudden outburst of bravado from Su's most timid son. "It's... fine." Keeping her eyes on Junior, she sat cautiously back as she had been before. "You know, you should cut your mom some slack. Su probably just asked me because you were - maybe still are - kind of in shock." She explained, drawing out her words a little. "Also, I live with a deputy. I kind of know how to deal with the guards."

Junior blinked. He'd never thought of it like that before. _Idiot. She's right._ His anger trickled away as shame moved in to replace it. The metal around his neck felt heavier than ever.

The two sat silently, Junior fidgeting with the buttons on his sleeve while Kuvira tapped a finger to some unheard rhythm on the sofa's arm, both unsure of how to proceed, until the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a dull butter knife.

It became too much for Kuvira. "You know, it's a good thing Su had me call, anyways." Her eyes twinkled mischievously.

"Why's that?" Junior sighed.

She leaned over and punched him playfully in the shoulder. "Because, Baatar, it was kind of important to get that call in quickly, and you're a horrible runner."

Junior laughed, rubbing his arm. "Hey! First you're insulting me, now you're beating me up. What is this?"

The two burst into laughter, the mood lightening. After a few moments, Junior caught his breath and wiped a tear from his eye. "You know, thanks."

"For what? I just insulted and beat you, apparently." Kuvira quipped.  
>He shook his head. "For, I don't know. Putting me in my place about my mom, listening, everything."<p>

Kuvira nodded, and was about to add something before the chime of the grandfather clock interrupted her. She turned, inspecting its face, before standing up and gathering up her training bag.

"Hey, I've got to go. I promised my guardians that I'd be home early today for dinner."

Junior blinked, quizzically. It was 4:00 now, so Kuvira would have already missed the 4:00 train, and the next train away from the Beifong estate was at 4:40. "Not that I'm trying to keep you, but why are you leaving _now? _You can't possibly make the 4:00, and the next one's not until 4:40."

Kuvira smiled, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "The trains are late, haven't you noticed?" She checked the clock again. "Yeah, by about 8 minutes each time. I have more than enough time to dash down to the station."

Junior was taken aback. _She noticed it too? So there _are_ delays! I was right - _

"Hey, Baatar?" Kuvira called over her shoulder after taking a few steps toward the hallway. "Baatar?"

Junior blinked, only realizing that Kuvira was talking to him the second time she called. Nobody called him Baatar.

"I'll see you later, okay?" It was less of a statement, and more of a question. _She's _asking_ me to see her._

He nodded.

"Alright, later it is, then." Kuvira smiled and turned to walk down the hall, before Junior had a thought, and stood up, with a start. _No, it couldn't be..._

"Wait, Kuvira!"

She turned around "I'd love to stay and chat, but like you said, I'm late for a train."

He shook his head. "No, it's not that. Just - can you remember when you started to notice that the trains were late?"

She brought her hand to her chin and thought for a moment before responding. "Yeah, I remember I was late to training about a month ago because of a late train one day and Su had me run laps around the whole estate when I finally showed up." She laughed. "Trust me, you wouldn't forget either."

_A month ago... _Junior thought, falling back onto the sofa after Kuvira disappeared down the hallway. He could hear the door clank closed as she left. _What was it that father said? Third time _this month_?_ _The first theft was some scaffolding plans about a month ago? No.. it couldn't be... _He furrowed his brow in concentration, trying to come to any other conclusion, but it seemed too much of a coincidence to be purely the result of chance.

Junior gasped, eyes widening as the full realization of what he had discovered, before whispering under his breath. "They're using the trains to steal father's plans."


	5. Chapter 5: Cages

_A/N: Hello all! So sorry for the delay on this one. Life really does get in the way. I promise the action is going to pick up here really soon, but I didn't want to push anything or write any actions that I thought would be inconsistent. Playing with someone as awkward as Baatar, you've got to move things a bit slowly. _

_For anyone interested in drawing a cover for this, I'd love you forever. I'd even write you something if you wanted. PM me if you're interested!_

_Anyhow, I hope you like this next installment. Comment if you like it, comment if you see something wrong, because I want to know so I can fix it! Thank you to everyone who has been reading this, honestly I can't believe this little fluff bucket of a fic has reached 2,500 views. You're all so amazing, and your lovely comments keep me going. Enjoy!_

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><p>Chapter 5: Cages<p>

Kuvira's feet brushed across the metal path as she dashed down the hill from Su's estate. She only had six minutes before her train home would leave, and the next one wouldn't be there for a half an hour after. Sher might not make it - all because Baatar had finally decided to get chatty as soon as she'd needed to leave. _What was all that nonsense about needing to know when the train schedules got messed up anyways?_

She sighed, throwing her hand onto the metal railing running alongside the curving path cut into the hill beneath the Beifong Estate, and, with a swift motion, twisted her body over the bar. Kuvira landed softly on the train platform a few meters below. Jumping this ledge was a shortcut she'd discovered years ago. Of course, the first time she'd made the jump, she fell and broke her wrist. Su found her crying, huddled against the face of the ledge, and carried her back to the estate. She even set Kuvira's wrist in a splint herself. Once the bone had healed, Su had her practice the jump until she could do it blindfolded. "_If you're going to be throwing yourself over ledges, you might as well do it right." _ It was one of Kuvira's earliest memories of Su, from the months she stayed at the Beifong estate before being placed with Saya and Aji.

A voice came over the station intercom as Kuvira pounded onto the station platform, announcing the arrival of the "Outbound via City Center." _Just in time_, Kuvira noted, straightening the strap of her tank before hopping onto the train car. She took a seat at a window and began to unravel her braid. As her tired fingers stumbled to pull through her thick black hair, Kuvira found her mind absently wandering back up the hill to the Beifong estate.

She still couldn't believe how impulsive she'd been - talking to Junior where Su could so easily have walked in, seen them chatting , and asked about how they got to be so friendly with each other. She could probably come up with an _alternate _explanation just fine, but Kuvira didn't get the impression that Baatar was cool enough under pressure to lie directly to his mother. He'd blow her secret training sessions and that would be that. Su would know how much of a failure she really was.

Wincing, Kuvira pushed the thought away. There wasn't any reason to dwell on what _could_ have happened. But something more concerning gnawed at her mind - why had she been so reckless in the first place? She usually thought things through, almost to the point of overthinking them. But this time, her impulses had gotten the better of her. Maybe she felt bad for him - whatever was going on with Baatar's father seemed to cut him a little deeper than just being concerned about stolen plans. The way he was sprawled out on the couch, blank eyes locked on that clock and fingers pulling incessantly at his sleeve reminded Kuvira of how Aji had described the trauma victims he'd dealt with as a guard. Or, she admitted to herself, she could have just _wanted_ to talk to him.

The trace of a smile flickered on Kuvira's lips as the train pulled away from the station, the Beifong estate shrinking in her window as she was ferried away over the gleaming metal tracks. She couldn't help but be a little amused - _friends, with Baatar_. It's not that she was opposed to the idea of friends. She just hadn't had time for them, in the past. But as awkward as Baatar was - and he was _incredibly_ awkward, as she'd quickly discovered - she didn't feel like she had to go out of her way to build friendship with him. For some unknowable reason, they'd trusted each other from the beginning.

_Maybe this could be good, having a friend. _She thought, dropping her hands as the last coil in her braid came undone, sending loose black waves of hair cascading over her shoulders_. He's amusing at least. _Kuvira chuckled, remembering how completely obvious Baatar had been about his attraction to her. Oh, of course she'd noticed. Kuvira was anything if not observant. While she didn't reciprocate, she wasn't entirely opposed to the idea of Baatar's less than platonic admiration.

Nobody'd ever thought of her like that before - most boys her age were more interested in the kind of girl who would oogle at their muscles and giggle at their idiot jokes than one who could wipe the floor with them in a sparring match before crushing them at pai sho. Baatar's fumbling admiration was both flattering and amusing. Regardless, it was innocent enough and he was too awkward to do anything about it, anyways. They'd stay _just _friends as long as she wanted.

"_South Dome Residential Quarter, doors to my left."_

The nasally voice of the conductor cut in over the intercom, sparking a shuffling movement in the passengers. Kuvira gathered her hair to one side and grabbed her bag, striding for the door and stepping into the cool evening air. A breeze ruffled the folds of her sweaty clothes as she made for Aji and Saya's, the wind breathing wakefulness into her stiff and tired muscles. Weeks of extra training were wearing her down, but she'd still go back to work on the meteorites tonight. At this point, though, Kuvira felt like she was waiting for a breakthrough more than training. _What am I missing?_

"'Vira! You're home!" Saya chimed as Kuvira pushed open the front door. She was reading a newspaper at the table as Aji swished water around in a large metal pot, cleaning rice for dinner. Kuvira threw her bag onto a bench in the entryway and kicked off her shoes before padding into the kitchen and taking a seat at the table. Saya put down her newspaper and took off her reading glasses, folding them and hooking them over the collar of her blouse. "How was training? Did you ask Su about trying out for that spot on the dance team?"

_Shit. I completely forgot. Idiot! Now there's no way I can tactfully bring that up, with all the drama going on with the theft. _Kuvira shook her head. "No. I was going to, but we had to end before I had a chance to ask because someone stole Baatar Sr.'s designs or something and -"

Saya gasped, causing Aji to drop the pot of rice in surprise before hissing and letting out a few colorful expressions. Unfazed, Saya pressed for more information. "What? Are they okay? Did the thief hurt anyone?"

Kuvira shook her head. "No, no, nothing like that." She smirked, able to practically see the dark imaginings swimming in Saya's mind of black-clad robbers breaking into the Beifong estate in the dead of night, holding Baatar Sr. at fire-knife point before looting the entire place. Her guardian had an active imagination that sometimes got the better of her.

"I get the impression it was more of a covert operation than an armed robbery." Kuvira explained

Having recovered his pot and moved on to transferring the rice into their new steamer, Aji craned his head over his shoulder to join the conversation. "Did Su alert the guards?"

"Shouldn't you know, Mr. guard?" Saya teased, more at ease after Kuvira's clarification.

Aji rolled his eyes playfully. "I was on assignment away from the station, Mrs. know-it-all." He shoveled the last of the rice into the steamer, flicked the switch, and joined them at the table. "Because if she hasn't, she really should. If not just to give us something to do. Nothing exciting ever happens in this city." Aji kicked back in his chair, sighing. "Sometimes I feel like like we're just exotic birds in a cage, you know? We're some of the best fighters in the world, but -" Aji trailed off, eyes losing focus for a moment before he snapped back to the present, flashing a cheeky grin. "Just kidding. But really, did Su alert the guard?"

Kuvira raised an eyebrow inquisitively, wanting to ask Aji what he meant, but got the impression that he was trying to avoid just that sort of question, so she archived his unusual remark for future consideration before nodding in response. "Yes, she had me run in and radio the station as soon as Baatar - er, I mean - Junior came out to the training yard and told her what was going on."

Saya traced circles on the table with her pointer finger, anxiously. "And you told them everything they needed to know, right?"

"Yes, Saya." Kuvira sighed. Aji had gone over how to correctly radio the guard with her more times than she could remember: "_Just in case you ever need to, 'Vira."_ _Name, date, location, names of additional witnesses... _"All the usual stuff and the extra things Su told me to report."

Aji cocked a brow. "You mean there was more?"

Kuvira nodded again. "Yeah. Su said that there were two other blueprints that went missing this month, but that she and Baatar Sr. just thought he had lost them. Now, she thinks they might have been stolen too."

_Blip!_

The steamer's timer chimed and Aji rose from his seat. He moved over to the device and began to portion out the sticky grains into three bowls before pouring a hearty scoop of stewed, spiced vegetables and slivers of rooster-pig over each steaming white mound.

"Wait, let me get this straight. There were _three_ robberies? In Zaofu?" Saya pressed.

Kuvira shrugged. "Well, one for sure, it looks like. The other two aren't haven't been confirmed yet" She thanked Aji as he ferried the bowls over to the table before lifting hers and shoveling food ravenously into her mouth with her metal chopsticks. Saya seemed too upset to remind her to use her manners today, and Kuvira intended to take advantage of that fact.

"In any case, I'm sure we'll get this resolved sooner rather than later." Aji added, lifting a bite of rice from his bowl. "We're good at what we do."

Saya let out a sigh and began picking nervously at her food. Kuvira just hoped Aji was right.

* * *

><p>The low groan of metal moving rumbled in Kuvira's chest as the great domes of Zaofu closed on the cloud-dusted indigo sky. On any other day, she would have wished the city could remain open to the night air, but tonight security weighed more heavily on her mind than stars. <em>A cage can be a fortress<em>, Kuvira noted, thinking of what Aji had said about the guards at dinner. She slid open her window.

Tonight, like every night, the closing domes marked the beginning of Kuvira's journey to the Beifong Estate. She took a deep breath, sending a frosty cloud spinning into the air on her exhale, and threw her bag through the window before ducking after it into the chill. After landing below, Kuvira made a quick downward motion with her hands, pulling the second-story window closed by the pebbles she had glued to the metal window frame just for that purpose. She gathered up her bag and slipped off towards the train station.

_Rock is a stubborn element. If you're going to move it, you've got to be like a rock yourself. If you're going to move metal, you've got to be even more stubborn._ Kuvira mulled over one of Su's training mantras as she approached the station. The intercom crackled as a disembodied voice informed train-goers that the "inbound from the North Dome via Toph Beifong Square" was now arriving. _Stubborn, sure. I'm more stubborn than anyone I know. _She huffed, making for a bench. _So why can't I -_

"Ugh!" Her stinging thoughts were interrupted as a rushing passerby slammed into her chest. She swung around to the side, trying to see whoever had run into her. "Hey, watch where you're- "

The man she saw upon turning around was still reeling from the impact, scrambling to recover his balance. Dark and tall, he wearing a grey newsboy cap that nearly covered his grey-blue eyes. Kuvira moved to help him steady himself, but the man shrunk away, making uneasy eye contact before shouldering his messenger bag and dashing off.

Kuvira rolled her eyes. "Jerk," she huffed under her breath, flopping down onto the metal bench to wait. By the time her train rolled in a few minutes later, Kuvira was shivering from the cold. She didn't bother bringing a jacket - she'd just end up wanting to take it off once she got down to business. But until then, her teeth rattled hollowly in her mouth.

The ride itself was uneventful aside from Kuvira nearly missing her stop after dozing off, and soon she found herself drilling her fists into a kinked black meteorite. It only just gave way under her knuckles, and, if she lost concentration for just a moment, it wouldn't budge at all, and she'd hiss, shaking out her aching hand as it pounded from the impact. She fought her instinct to duck around the rock, looking for a weaker point from which to approach it. _There's no different angle, no clever solution, no trickety-trick that will move that metal, _she echoed something Su had told her before, pivoting her foot to swing an angry roundhouse kick at the meteor.

Kuvira yelped as the ball of her foot pounded into the stone, tasting blood as she bit her tongue at the pain. While she balanced on one leg, cradling her throbbing foot, the meteorite teetered lazily from the collision, threatening to roll over its side and off the pedestal.

"Shit!" Kuvira dropped her foot and scrambled to catch the heavy stone. She slipped to the side, catching the meteorite and heaving it back into place. After wiping the sweat from her brow, Kuvira moved to inspect her handiwork.

_That's it? _Where her foot had jammed so painfully into the meteorite there was little more than a divot just bigger than the ball of her foot. "Urgh!" Frustrated, Kuvira flopped to the ground, her face falling into her palms. _That's it. _

"Rough day, huh?"

She scrambled to her feet, sliding into a sparring stance. It was more instinct than anything, as she already knew who it was. Kuvira dropped her aggressive posture, smoothing back the stray strands of black hair that had fallen in her face. Baatar was sitting on one of the stone benches at the side of the courtyard, looking up from the book he was hunched over.

Rolling her eyes, Kuvira leaned up against the meteor's pedestal. "Mocking me?"

Junior's eyes flashed. "No! No! I mean, yes, but… sorry." _Idiot._ Kuvira chuckled as he squirmed in his seat.

"Relax, Baatar. I'm not going to earthbend you into the ground like last time… right now," she teased as she began to unwrap her hands. _I guess I'm done practicing tonight, anyways._ "What brings you out here? I would think you'd be trying to help with the whole theft affair, or at least be stuck babysitting Opal and the twins while your mom took care of it."

Sighing, Junior set his book to the side and lifted one of his legs onto the bench, hugging it close to his chest. Kuvira cringed a little as she saw the nervous flash in his eyes fade to painful vacancy at her words. _Too far, Kuvira. _

"I…" He stopped for a moment. Then, Baatar's brows furrowed and eyes narrowed angrily. "It's not like I didn't try." Clenching his fists, he stood off of the bench and began pacing, fingers of one hand curled furiously into his brown hair while the other flew through the air in angered movements as he launched into a rant. Taking in his display of furious, however incredibly comical gestures, Kuvira was surprised to notice that Baatar's hands were covered in callouses - she hadn't expected someone who had probably never even _thought_ about punching something to have such developed any. _Curious, I wonder how -_

"It's not fair, she wouldn't even listen to me!" He proclaimed, releasing his grip on his hair to make an exasperated flailing motion with both arms. "I _tried_ talking to her about it. I even tried talking to father! I just can't understand how the both just brush off everything I say as if there's no way I could possibly be right, I'm not a child! I - Urgh!" Growling, he lunged for his book and threw it across the courtyard. The red-leather cover made a less-than satisfying _clunk_ against a tree trunk as Baatar slumped against a lamppost, sliding to the ground with his legs crossed. "I just... " he mumbled, voice wavering, 'I just wish someone would _listen_ to me." _._

Baatar closed his eyes, sighing, as if he were embarrassed at his display. Kuvira thought she could make out blush on his cheeks, but it was hard to tell in the dim light. Not wanting to deal with that at the moment, she gave him the benefit of the doubt. He laughed halfheartedly, shaking his head. "I guess - as idiotic as this probably sounds - I guess I came out here to read, not just to get away from my family and all, but, well, hoping you'd be here and maybe listen to me.''

Kuvira blinked. _Me, listen?_ She'd never really thought of herself as the go-to-girl for advice. She was better at handing out bruises than meaningful guidance. _I guess that's what friends are for, _she thought, taking a few steps to sit on the bench near where Baatar was slouched on the ground. Kuvira still wasn't entirely sure how she felt about this whole friendship business as a whole, but she couldn't help but admit that something felt right about being there for Baatar. _He'll repay the favor._

That was it, Kuvira realized. That was why she'd engaged in this strange experiment with Baatar. She _trusted _him. She _knew_, somehow, that he'd be there for her if she ever needed him to be. For what, she couldn't fathom, but she knew, if she ever did need him, Baatar wouldn't abandon her. Sure, she trusted Saya, and Aji, Su and a few other adults, but it wasn't the same. There was always the threat of abandonment, the haunting memory of being discarded by her own parents and the threat that it would happen again.

Logically, Kuvira knew Su and the others would never _really_ throw her back on the streets. But all of the logical thought in the world couldn't kill the fear crouching in the corner of her heart that she would one day be tossed aside just like before. That was why she'd never bothered with friends before - fear. No, Kuvira didn't really _trust_ her loving, amazing guardians or her brilliant, generous mentor: For some unfathomable reason, she trusted an awkward, shut-in, bookworm of a boy who she had nearly given a concussion the first time they'd really talked.

Taking a deep breath, Kuvira put her elbows on her knees and leaned over, placing her chin in her palms. "What's going on?"

Baatar's eyes widened at her response. "Wow, um," he coughed, readjusting his position on the ground and sliding his legs out from his chest. "Er - well, right as you were leaving earlier today, I - do you remember me asking you what must have seemed like a random question?"

Kuvira smiled softly against the inside of her hands. _I remember._ "Oh, I don't know, it seemed like everything you say is pretty scatterbrained."

Baatar's eyes flashed nervously for a moment, before he caught the subtle undercurrent of sarcasm in her voice. He was learning. Baatar rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean."

"The one about the trains that almost made me late to mine?"

"Yes, exactly." Baatar answered before stopping, scratching his head nervously. "Er - but you made it on time, obviously, right?"

Kuvira just chuckled, shaking her head. After a moment, Baatar went on.

"In any case, the reason I asked you was, well, I had this idea: My father, earlier, when he was… well… when he found out the plans had been stolen, he mentioned something about it having happened 2 other times this month. This got me thinking - I first noticed that the trains were late about a month ago." He began tugging at his shirtsleeve. "Now, I'd tried to tell father that he needed to get that fixed, but he never listened to me, and he and mother together almost had me convinced that I was imagining things, that it was just some lazy conductor, or that the trains had always run a little inconsistently. But when you said that you'd started noticing the late trains at the same time as I had, I knew I wasn't imagining anything."

Furrowing her brow, Kuvira sat back on the bench. _Is he going where I think he's going with this?_ She extended Baatar's logic to its inevitable conclusion. _He thinks the theft has something to do with the trains… but how?_ She mulled it over silently as Baatar continued.

"Now, I don't know how, yet, but I'm absolutely positive that the thefts have something to do with the trains being late." Baatar stated, beginning to trace a lazy circle in the earth with his pointer finger. He sighed. "But it doesn't matter what I think, because even if I were right, there's no way my mother would ever believe me."

They sat silently for a moment after Baatar trailed off. Kuvira's thoughts were swimming. _Could he be right? Sure, it's probably nothing, just a coincidence, but what if he _is _right?_ She closed her eyes, trying to construct the appropriate response. Should she tell him to just let it be? Help him get over it before he spent any more nights drawing sad circles in the courtyard dirt over the whole affair? Maybe, tell him that she'd talk to Aji about it for him? _Or..._

"You're sure about this? You know it could just be a coincidence, right?" She probed, feeling out how Baatar would react to what she was going to say next.

He nodded. "I'm sure. Eight minutes late every time is too consistent to be a series of flukes, and the thefts coincide with the time this has been going on. There has to be some kind of connection."

"And you're sure you couldn't convince Su to have the guards look into this?"

Baatar shook his head. "There's no way."

Kuvira took a deep breath. Part of her held back, but she knew she had to push him. _You're __my friend, idiot, and I'm going to help you my way. If you never do __anything, nobody will ever take you seriously. _

"Alright then, _Junior_. It's time to stop feeling sorry for yourself and grow a backbone. We're taking care of this ourselves." Standing up, she smoothed down her shirt before extending a hand to a speechless Baatar, pulling him to his uneasy feet. She grinned, noticing his pulse leap beneath her fingers. _You'll thank me later._ "Now listen up, here's the plan:"


	6. Chapter 6: Darkness

_A/N: Oh god, it's been so long. I hope you're all still there, everybody! Haha. Anyhow, still looking for a cover. I have an idea of what I want it to look like, and it doesn't involve drawing people, so please let me know if you're in any way interested in helping and skilled in digital art, let me know! _

_Otherwise: I've been getting some complaints from my friends who've read this that Su is a bit to bitchy. I know she isn't actually that mean! But having a tempermental teenager that thinks everything you do is a personal attack can put anyone on edge. Also, this is from the teenagers' perspectives (albeit through third person), so remember that the narrator might not always present a reliable representation of what Su (or anyone) is like. Narrator bias is a thing! Don't worry, she'll get a chance to defend herself coming up, and I plan the epilogue to be an exchange between Su and Kuvira, no Junior involved. I also *MAY* go back and change some phrasing so she doesn't come off so bitchy. _

_Thank you again to everyone for all of your support and encouragement, and especially comments and favorites. That's how I know you're reading and enjoying! As always, constructive criticism is welcome. Please enjoy Ch.6. It's been a long time coming..._

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><p>Chapter 6: Darkness<p>

"Hey, four-eyes, if you're going to nod off on me here, at least hand over those binoculars first."

Junior blinked absently as Kuvira's jeer pulled him from drowsiness. It took his eyes about as long to adjust to the darkness as it took for him to realise that he was slumped against Kuvira's shoulder.

"Oh! Ah, erm - sorry..." He scrambled to pull himself up, nearly fumbling the binoculars over the side of the two story apartment complex that he and Kuvira were perched atop. Junior could feel his cheeks burning against the cool evening air and silently thanked those stupid walls yet again for the moonless darkness.

"Here, uh, go ahead." He tentatively handed the binoculars over to Kuvira, who casually brought them up to her eyes.

"Mmph." Kuvira made a sort of mumble in acknowledgement as she leaned forward, propping herself up over the edge of the building by her elbows to steady the binoculars against her face. The lenses were focused a block away, on the train station that Junior was supposed to have been watching for at least an hour more before his shift was up.

When Kuvira had first suggested a stakeout, Junior had been more than a little unsure about the whole affair. Even Kuvira acknowledged that there was a good chance they'd have to be at it for at least a couple of days before noticing any patterns suspicious enough to give them any idea of what was going on with the trains and the plan thefts. Now, sleep-deprived and more than a little embarrassed after taking a nap on Kuvira, Junior was seriously regretting blindly following her to this rooftop. _Like a well trained golden raccoon-dog. _

He sighed, taking off his glasses to clean them. They must have fogged up while he was sleeping from breathing heavily... or from being so close to Kuvira's warm skin. Junior winced, feeling something uncomfortable twist into a tight knot in his abdomen, threatening to reach for a more conspicuous place if he couldn't get himself together. He didn't remember falling asleep on her, but for the first, glorious seconds after waking up, Junior could feel the warmth of Kuvira's bare shoulder against his cheek, the contours of her muscles against his skin. How long had he stayed like that? How long had she _let_ him stay like that? Did she -

_Snap out of it, Baatar. Just because you're an awkward pile of inappropriate feelings doesn't mean she's the same way. Just friends. Friends lean on each other, it's normal, right?_ Really, Baatar didn't know. He had never really been close to anyone outside of his family, and he could only assume that conventions for appropriate behavior were different for friends. Especially attractive, female friends. _Hey, it could be worse. You could have drooled all over her..._

"See anything?" He questioned cautiously, squinting into the this distance and without the binoculars, he could just barely make out the shapes of late-night train-goers passing in front of the station lights. Kuvira would have a much better view.

"Nooooope." She drawled, letting out a sigh before punching Junior in the shoulder without warning.

"Hey!"

"Maybe if you could keep your eyes open long enough to take a look yourself, _you_ would have seen something." Kuvira explained cooly, keeping the binoculars close against her face with the hand that hadn't been preoccupied with bruising Junior.

"I don't know…" Junior rubbed his shoulder. He got the feeling she was just messing around, but it still hurt. _Damnit, she's strong_. "Do you really think we'll get anything out of this?"

Kuvira shrugged and without warning tossed the binoculars into Junior's hands before reaching for a box of take-out, whipping out a pair of chopsticks. They'd hit the Fire Nation restaurant earlier for a few boxes of spicy fried noodles to get them through the night. "I don't know," she confessed between mouthfuls, "but it's better than just sitting around and wondering about it, you know?"

She stabbed her chopsticks into the box - poor manners, Junior noted - and extended her arm, offering the box to Junior. He gingerly handed back the binoculars and accepted, taking a few bites. _I guess we're already on food sharing terms, huh? _ If he weren't so hungry, he wouldn't even bother - the stuff burned going down and he had to stop to pant between mouthfuls. _How does she pound this back like it's nothing?_ Kuvira told him earlier that she had a thing for spicy food. What he didn't realize was that when she asked for "really spicy" at Li's 24 hour Fire Nation Cookery, she was really asking for "slow death by fire of my taste buds and digestive tract."

Thinking about it, Junior realized just how little he did actually know about Kuvira - she was strong, beautiful, had a talent for mildly hurtful sarcasm, and liked spicy food. That, and she couldn't metalbend. Well, that wasn't exactly true. She _could_, as far as he gathered, at least sort-of move small meteorites and make shallow dents in iron sheets. She had the ability, it was just… blocked, somehow. What was puzzling was how secretive Kuvira was about the whole thing - she really didn't want Su to find out. That was another thing he knew about Kuvira: She would rather eat her own arm than let his mother find out about her little deficiency.

_Why, though? Why does she care so much? And why can't she metalbend in the first place? She's a talented earthbender… _Junior rubbed his thigh, remembering how Kuvira had launched him (without warning, of course) to the second story with her earthbending. _Maybe a little too talented… _While she landed gracefully, he managed to tweak his leg tumbling onto the rooftop. No, there was no denying she was powerful, so why -

They sat silently for a while, Kuvira eventually saving Junior from the box of tongue-scorching noodles and using one hand to hold the binoculars while she ate with the other. Stewing in a thick soup of his own thoughts eventually became too much for Junior. He just _had_ to ask.

"Kuvira?"

"Yeah, Baatar?"

"Stop me if I'm stepping over a line or anything..." he continued, taking a deep breath. The more time he spent with Kuvira, the more confident he got with her, but he was still a far cry from suave. He still labored over every word, paranoid that he'd screw up this strange friendship thing they'd built with a poorly crafted phrase. "...but can I ask why you're so scared of letting my mother find out you're having so much trouble with metalbending?"

Kuvira didn't respond for a few painful seconds. Junior winced, _nope, I definitely stepped over a -_

"I'm not scared." She responded, voice softer than what Junior had been expecting. Still peering through the binoculars, Kuvira continued. "It's just - I don't want to let her down, you know?"

She put down her chopsticks, and readjusted herself so that her head was rested in the crook of her arm, which was folded across the raised edge of the rooftop. Her other hand still held the binoculars to her eyes. "Su's had these expectations for me for as long as I've known her, and, well, I want to live up to them. Of course she knows I'm struggling, I can't hide it from her at practice."

Kuvira sighed. "But she doesn't know _how_ _much _I'm struggling. She told me, if I kept practicing, I'd get it. So that's what I did, I started practicing. But it's not working." Kuvira lowered the binoculars, setting them in her lap before turning to Junior, eyes burning green and cold as she held his gaze. Junior's pulse leaped against the skin of his neck, and he could only hope she couldn't tell. Then, she deftly unwrapped the linen strips curled around her left hand and placed it on his knee before reaching for his right, guiding his fingers to brush across the back of her hand. "Look." Kuvira nodded downward, inviting Junior's gaze to follow.

Junior gulped. Wrenching his eyes away from Kuvira's and sheepishly withdrawing his hand, he saw what he had already felt beneath his calloused fingers. Kuvira's hands were cracked and raw, her nails dented and scratched. The knuckles were the worse, rising like jagged, scabby peaks at the base of her long fingers, red and hot and painful.

"Don't you see?" Kuvira explained, pulling back her hand and beginning to re-wrap it in linen strips. "If she knew, if Su knew about _this_," She nodded at her hands, " I'd be a failure in her eyes. A defect. I don't want to give her an excuse to throw me back where she found me."

Junior's mouth dropped open. "What?" _That's what this is about? _" You think she'll abandon you if you can't metalbend? That's sick." He rubbed his temple. "I mean, seriously, Kuvira. My mom can be harsh, but not that harsh. I can't even earthbend and -"

"And _what_, Baatar? Are you really okay with being the _other_ son?" Kuvira snapped. "Face it, you don't fit into her little vision, her perfect little family. She didn't know with you, so she just hired tutors to turn you into your father and tried to forget about you all together!."

Junior clenched his teeth, feeling his eyes begin to water. _It's not like you haven't thought the same thing yourself, _he thought, fingers clenching into angry fists. Next to him, Junior could hear Kuvira's breathing, at first ragged and buckled as she fought back tears, beginning to slow to a deep, steady rhythm as she calmed down. The heavy night silence fell upon them, suffocating and cold. Soon, Junior felt his closeted rage begin to dull as well, fading to that familiar muted ache: bearable, but present.

"I'm sorry." Kuvira offered, sheepishly.

"No, Its okay."

Silence again. But the tension had broken. _We'll be okay_, Junior thought, stealing a glance at Kuvira from the corner of his eye.

It went on like that for a few more hours. Behind the metal sky, the moon crept unseen towards the horizon. Junior was dozing again (this time on his own crossed arms, safely removed from Kuvira's shoulder) when Kuvira shook him awake.

"Hey, Baatar, wake up. Take a look at this."

Before he could so much as mumble "what?", Kuvira had shoved the binoculars into his hands and guided them up to his face, steering his vision to the train station.

"You see that guy? The one in the newsboy hat?" She whispered, as if their quarry could hear them talking from a block away.

Junior squinted, scanning the small crowd within his field of view before finding the man Kuvira was talking about. He wasn't anything special or suspicious. Just a tall fellow with a messenger bag, sitting on a bench. "Yeah, got him. What about it?"

Kuvira snatched the binoculars back, taking another look herself, as if to verify what she was about to claim. "I ran into him earlier when I was at this station."

"How do you know?"

"His eyes," Kuvira explained. "They're blue. You don't see too many people from the Water Tribe around Zaofu, so his image just kind of stuck with me."

"Let me see, again."

Sure enough, Junior noticed upon closer scrutiny, the man sported intense blue eyes that were more than out of place here.

He handed the binoculars back to Kuvira. "Okay, he's Water Tribe, and you ran into him before." Junior sighed. "That doesn't mean anything, does it?"

"I don't know…" Kuvira said, her voice tight with concentration. "Usually, I'd say no, but the thing is, he's getting on a train going right back the way he came earlier, the one that eventually goes to your place, Baatar. The one that's late all the time." She went on, energy building in her voice. "And the thing is, he's done this three times while we've been watching, and each time, he gets off the train, walks off somewhere to the west, and then comes back with a _different_ bag. The last one was brown and had buttons. This one -"

"- Is grey." Junior offered, feeding off of her excitement. He gripped the edge of the building, leaning to try and get a better view. "Do you really think he's got something to do with this?

Kuvira bit her bottom lip, put down the binoculars, and ran her hand over her face, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Ugh, well, there's no way to know for sure." She turned to Junior. "That is, unless we follow him."

"What? Follow him?" Junior was taken aback. "What if he _is _a criminal? Wouldn't that be dangerous? And then, what if he isn't? It'd all be so embarrassing…"

"Get it together."

"What?"

Kuvira laughed. "You heard me." She stole a final peek through the binoculars before throwing them into Junior's bag and pulling out his notebook, fingers fluttering through the pages. "You're the one who wanted to do this in the first place."

Junior scrunched up his nose. "I said nothing about a stakeout and subsequent potentially stalker-ish activities."

"No, but you wouldn't shut up about it." Kuvira smiled as she reached the page she was looking for, drawing her index finger down the lines of text, searching for something."You said yourself, your mom won't listen to you, and you know she's wrong not to." Her grin widened, and she handed the notebook to Junior, finger indicating a time scrawled in one of his many train schedule tables. "_This_ is your chance to finally do something other than what she tells you to. To do something because _you_ know it's right."

Junior sucked in a breath, taking the notebook from Kuvira and lowering his eyes to where she was pointing. _She's right, of course. I can't just be mother's little engineer-doll my whole life. I'm ready for this._

"And see, your chance is going to walk away and hop on the next train here in 6 minutes, according to your schedule here." She continued, beaming. Junior rolled his eyes, smiling. _Yeah, yeah, you're right again, smug pain in my ass._ He didn't mean it, of course. Kuvira, while she had earthbent him to back (and leg) pain on multiple occasions, was, he had to admit, probably one of the best things that had happened to him recently.

Junior nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

* * *

><p>They arrived at the station, Junior huffing and puffing, after a three block sprint from their lookout. The man was still where they left him, much to their relief, clutching his bag tightly against his chest. <em>Just in time<em>, Junior noted as their train pulled up to the platform and he and Kuvira followed the water tribe man onboard, taking seats across and down the aisle from him.

The first part of the ride was uneventful - painfully so, and it took all of Junior's willpower not to quake with anticipation. Kuvira had told him on their way here that they had to act "normal," whatever that was. Junior knew that, he wasn't an idiot. But still, it was hard - hard not to stare at the man slouched up against the train's gleaming window, hard not to search through that mysterious bag with his eyes. He focused on his breathing instead, trying to match Kuvira's steady 20-count rhythm before he realized it was a lost cause after starting to get dizzy.

Junior could just make out Kuvira's eyes flashing uneasily as the train slipped down into one of the new subterranean tramways. _When is he going to _do _something? _Junior's fingers tugged anxiously at the buttons on his shirtsleeve as he eyed the train clock uneasily, eyes hinged on the second hand's painfully slow march from 12 to 6, 6 to 12, 12 to 6, 6 to twelve…

"Baatar," Kuvira's whisper was warm against the skin of his neck. She nodded towards the back of the train, where the man in the newsboy cap was disappearing through the sliding door connecting their compartment to the one behind them.

"Come on." Her fingers wrapped around his wrist and Junior found himself being pulled down the aisle after Kuvira. Just as they approached the door, a screeching sound cut through the air and the train shook, jerking as it was forced to decelerate.

"He's somehow slowing down the train!" Kuvira flung open the compartment door and burst onto the narrow connecting pathway between the two cars, Junior teetering unconfidently behind her. The wind suddenly ripping through Junior's hair made him acutely aware that they were standing on an open walkway between two cars of a train careening along its dimly lit track. _Add to that the fact that we're chasing after someone who's more than likely dangerous, if he is who he thinks he is… and we're not in the most… ideal... situation,_ he thought, fingers clawing at the metal rail as he fought to keep his balance.

Kuvira peered through the window of the door to the next car before turning back to Junior and shaking her head. "No good."

"What?"

She cupped her hands to her mouth and raised her voice. "No good! He's not in the next car!"

"What?!"

"I SAID, NO GOOD! HE'S NOT -"

"No, I heard that! I mean, what? As in, what the hell happened to him, then?"

Kuvira's eyes widened. "I don't know, he could have -" _He slowed down the train. That means..._

"You don't think he -"

The two of them leaned as far as they dared over the sides of the railings, searching for some alternative to the obvious_. He couldn't have just jumped. The maintenance walkway has over two yards of clearance from the side of the train. So how… _

Then he saw it. "Ice."

Kuvira reeled around. "Wh-"

"I SAID-"

"No! Baatar, where's the ice?"

He pointed out a rapidly receding trail of shining white ice on the maintenance walk on their left. "He must have used waterbending to jam the train wheels and slow it down enough to jump to the maintenance walkway."

"You mean he got off while the train was still moving?"

"Seems that way. Though I guess this solves the mystery of the late trains. It'll take a few minutes for it to get back up to full speed. The tracks near here are still under construction in a few places, so the conductor probably just thought the slowdowns were some kind of problem related to that and didn't report them. " Junior peered into the blackness behind them. "That's one hell of a stop."

"Well it's our stop too. We're getting off." Kuvira grinned, maniacally.

"WHAT?"

"This time, I know you heard me." She started digging through her bag before pulling out a stone spike attached to a long line of rope. _A grappling hook_, Junior thought as Kuvira began wrapping the rope around her waist. "You trust me?" Kuvira asked, extending her hand to Junior. Her eyes glittered green in the dim light of the tunnel lights.

_Yes. _Junior took her hand. "More than I should."

"Oh, don't be like that." Kuvira retorted before pulling him to her chest and flinging her arm upward, sending the stone spike flying forward into the (luckily for them) unfinished stone ceiling. Before Junior could think twice, his feet flew up from the platform with a lurching movement and he was weightless: horrifyingly, and thankfully, briefly, weightless. That was, until he came crashing down onto the maintenance platform, falling painfully on his left hip. Kuvira's slamming down on top of him didn't help things.

"Ouch," Junior coughed, his vision swimming and a sharp pain shooting up his left leg.

"See? We're… fine." Kuvira wheezed, rolling off of Junior and sprawling out on the ground next to him.

"Mmph."

Kuvira took a deep breath, swinging up over her hips and onto her feet, extending a hand to Junior again. "Come on, we're going to lose him."

He winced, gripping her hand and allowing her to pull him to his feet before pounding off after Kuvira. Each step sent splintering pain up his leg, but the adrenaline burning in his veins kept him scrambling behind Kuvira along the narrow walkway.

"There's some ice on the railing, this must be where he leapt off the train!" Junior huffed, pointing ahead to where a chunk of white ice was clinging to the walkway handrail.

Kuvira nodded. "There's a trail on the ground too. He must have skated down the tunnel." She chambered her hands, fingers curling into fists before she slowly extended them in front of her, unfurling her fingers as she rotated her hands. The stones in Junior's bag followed her movement, flying out from under the folds of fabric to hover beside Kuvira for a moment. As they approached the slippery ground, she made a swift movement, sending the rocks tumbling forward and grinding against the ice, breaking it apart in front of her as she ran.

_Amazing_, Junior thought. He was struggling to breathe keeping up with Kuvira's brutal pace, and his leg felt like it was on fire, but Kuvira seemed like she was in complete control. _It's like this is just a nice little stroll for her. She's barely even broken a sweat!_

Turning her head so that she could just make out Junior in the corner of her vision, Kuvira shouted, "there's a turn up ahead and the ice leads around the corner! He must have gone that way!" She skid to a stop, swinging around to dive into the black tunnel.

"Wait, Kuvira! Hold up!" Junior stumbled as he tried to follow Kuvira around the sharp bank, nearly falling to the ground. His fingers clawed at the walls, grazing across a rough stone surface. _Stone? What? _He shook his head, pushing off the wall and scrambling along after Kuvira. Junior's eyes swept around, scanning the tunnel as he ran. It was unfinished, under construction. The metal walls were only partially built, and in places the rock face peeked through.

_It makes perfect sense, _Junior realized. _Whoever is responsible for stealing the plans must have some kind of base down here, in the unfinished subway tunnels. The man we're following must shuttle the things they steal out the tunnels, to someone else. It's the perfect place to hide, a lot of these tunnels aren't scheduled to be worked on again for at least a year, and it'd be easy to access their base of operations from anywhere in the city… _

"I see him! We've almost got him!" Kuvira called out ecstatically. She flashed Junior a maniacal grin before leaping into the air mid stride and executing a crisp aerial maneuver, bending a slab of rock out of part of the unfinished wall, cutting off the waterbender in front of her. _Well, there's another 6 months of construction_, Junior thought. Meanwhile, Kuvira had the man cornered, and he turned around to face her, a worried expression on his face. His hands drew down to the waterskin on his waist, and a stream of water bubbled in front of him as he readied a water whip. _She's got him. We've got him!_

Then, there was a flash of light and Junior heard the sound of footfall behind him. He reeled around, wide eyes falling on his pursuer just in time to duck from a fireball. The pungent smell of burning hair filled Junior's nostrils.

_Shit_. Reeling around, Junior managed to catch a glimpse of his assailant before she launched another blinding attack. She had a petite frame clad all in black except for her hands and gold eyes. _A firebender_.

"Baatar! Get over here, I -" Kuvira's words caught in her mouth when she looked behind her. Junior was on the ground, scrambling backwards away from the firebender standing above him. He tried to stand, but his assailant was faster, sweeping his feet out from under him before he could steady himself. She rushed forward, leaping into the air and igniting twin flames in both of her hands. Junior closed his eyes, raising his hands to his face. _This is it. We should never have -_

"Argh!" The firebender grunted as her right wrist was suddenly encased in stone. She struggled against the restraint, legs kicking helplessly below her in the air and sparking desperate flame bursts.

"Stay. Away. From Baatar!" Kuvira growled, flinging her victim across the tunnel. The firebender slammed into the wall on the opposite side of the tunnel with a sickening thump before slumping to the metal walkway in a limp pile. Kuvira grabbed Junior under the arms, hoisting him up onto his feet. "Are you alright?"

Junior was speechless. _Did she just… kill that firebender? _He turned to look across the tunnel. His attacker was pulling herself unsteadily to her feet. _No._ Junior let out a sigh of relief as he watched the firebender stagger away, gold eyes glinting fearfully at Kuvira from across the blackness. Kuvira was already running back for where she'd left the waterbender earlier. _But she didn't care either way._

It was only as Junior turned around that the waterbender completely disappeared into the hole that had opened moments before in the tunnel wall. Kuvira pounded after him, but it was too late, before she could so much as bend a volley of pebbles his way, the metal warped closed behind him with a shrill shriek. The messy closure left a puckered mark on the wall, and Kuvira slammed against it, pounding her fists futilely against the steel. Junior could only watch on as she tried again and again to bend the passage open again. He watched her throw punch after punch, kick after kick, slam herself against the wall shoulder-first. It was only until Junior could see blood dripping from the stains blooming on the linen wrapping Kuvira's hands that he stopped her with a hand laid softly on her shoulder.

"Kuvira."

She turned around, face streaked with silent tears, and pulled Junior into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She sank to her knees, dragging Junior to a kneel. Adrenaline rush fading, Junior winced at the pain in his leg, but gritted his teeth and allowed Kuvira to cling to him. _It's not your fault. It's mine. If I had only been able to defend myself, you wouldn't have been forced to chose. I'm the weak one_. Kuvira's fingers curled into the fabric of his robe. "I failed. When it counted, I failed." She whispered against his shoulder, clenching her eyes shut. "I'm sorry..." _I'm sorry._


End file.

Legend of Korra, Adventure, Romance