Okay, Korra silently decided, there's high-security and then there's ridiculous.
It was bad enough that the airship had first taken her to Fort Bosco, the old Earth Kingdom military base out in the middle of the Si Wong Desert where she'd once been held prisoner. That alone would have made one of the most secure prisons on the planet; she knew from experience that if you were alone and stranded out there, you had next to no hope of making it back to civilization alive.
But no, that wasn't her final destination. After swiping a metal detector over her and her stuff one more time (because apparently the first three times hadn't been enough), they'd directed her to her ride for the remainder of the journey, a tiny, fragile-looking sand-sailer. And not one of the newer aluminum ones she'd heard the sandbender tribes were starting to use, either; no, this was an old-fashioned wooden one, albeit with a motor, a windshield, and a large (wooden) propeller attached instead of just a sail alone.
"Up until a month ago they thought the motor was too much of a risk," one of the guards-Ruoyu, she thought his name was-had said as he boarded the sailer with her. "If you'd asked to see her back then, we'd hoist up the sail and tell you to make with the airbending right about now."
"But...I mean, do you really think she's that much of an escape risk? Has she even tried to escape?"
Ruoyu had shrugged. "Nope. All this-" He swept his hand around the sailer, indicating the slowly darkening expanse of desert around him. "-It's as much to keep everyone else out as to keep her in, y'know. Lots of folks still think she ought to be in charge, don't think His Majesty's big independence plan is all it's cracked up to be. Someone decided to break her out...even if she didn't like their plans, it'd be easy as anything to make a martyr outta her."
It took what felt like an eternity to cross those last few miles, and the awkward silence that followed that last statement did not help matters much. Finally, just as the sun sunk below the sand dunes, a distant, vague blob of light resolved itself into a building-a single-story wooden structure, easily the size of a Republic City block, surrounded by a tall wooden palisade fence with five guard towers, one at each corner and one above a gate in the center. As they got closer, she noticed a bright red sign stating NO TRESPASSING, AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY, and MAXIMUM SECURITY DETENTION FACILITY in no uncertain terms. The sign was lit up in the darkness, but only by what looked like oil lamps. The lights around the building itself likewise had a telltale flicker to them. "No electricity this far out?" she asked Ruoyu.
He nodded. "Too expensive to get the grid out here, and the sandbenders don't want it anyway. I think your girlfriend's been trying to sell us those sun-powered thingies, but...too expensive, too much metal in 'em. What we got now works just fine."
Korra felt her cheeks heat up at the comment. "Asami is...never mind. Makes sense, I guess."
"Damn right it does. Hang on, we're getting close enough, pretty soon…"
As they slowed down and approached the front gate, she heard a female voice call down from the guard tower looming above. "Yi Ming. Eight."
Ruoyu considered this for a moment, then shouted back, "Wanli. Eighty. Got a visitor today."
"Really?" The other guard sounded astonished. "Who got authorization?"
"The Avatar," Ruoyu announced, clearly relishing the opportunity to surprise her.
Apparently he succeeded, too, as the other guard let out a low, impressed whistle. "Well. Better let her in, then." And with that, the huge, solid wooden gate began to grind inwards...
Everything was slow in here, Korra was starting to notice. With no materials save sand that could be earthbended and nothing metallic or motorized allowed, quite a few large, heavy things had to be moved around via ropes, pulleys, and hand cranks. All in all, it looked like it was quite a pain to keep running. Which probably explained why they only kept one prisoner here, despite the fact that it was clearly built to house many more; as Ruoyu gave her over to another guard who escorted her inside the prison, she couldn't help but notice the number of empty or half-finished cells.
Finally, she arrived at the only closed and locked door in the prison; as with every door before, the new guard first sloooooowly cranked closed the outer door to the cell block, then slooooowly cranked open the door to the cell.
A small, dark room revealed itself, lit only by shafts of moonlight shining through the bars on the window. At first it seemed pitch black, but Korra's eyes slowly began to adjust, revealing a simple, blocky chair and table, a flat, uncomfortable-looking bed, and-
-another shape-
-indistinct, moving-
-shifting and twirling and leaping-
-until it slowed to a stop, and as Korra's eyes adjusted resolved into a tall, slim woman, long braid still swaying, narrowing her eyes at the sudden light and unwelcome interruption.
They stared at each other like that for a moment, green eyes locked with blue, as if frozen in time. Finally, Korra broke the silence. "Uh. Hi." She smiled.
"Hi." Kuvira's face, surprised, confused, and annoyed all at once, didn't change.
She looks...smaller than she used to. I thought she was taller than me; was it the armor? Korra held up the items she'd brought with her: a teapot, brought to a boil only minutes ago via some subtle firebending, and a pair of cups. "I, uh, I brought you some tea."
Kuvira's eyes widened. Then, after a moment, she nodded, her expression softening into something that was almost a smile. "Thank you."
Korra asked the guard to bring them another chair; in the meantime she stayed standing-
"Oh, come on, have a seat, Avatar. Not that it's particularly comfortable." Kuvira abruptly sat down on the edge of the bed, as if following her own order.
Well, guess there's not much arguing with that. Korra sat down on the lone chair, which was every bit as unpleasant as she'd expected. Kuvira watched her shift in the seat a bit, smiling, her braid still swinging back and forth-
"Oh!" Korra snapped her fingers. "That's it!"
"What?" Kuvira asked, taken aback by the sudden outburst.
"When I started seeing pictures of you in the news, while you were, uh, taking charge, I had the weirdest feeling, like I'd met you somewhere before. I mean, I knew you were one of the guards in Zaofu and I think we might have talked a couple times?"
"I don't think we did. I was part of the mission to rescue you and your father from Zaheer, but I don't believe we ever spoke face to face."
"Right, but, I just remembered where I really first...well, not met you but saw you. It was when I first got to Zaofu, when I met Suyin. She was...you were doing that, that dance-"
A voice came from outside the cell. "Another chair, as requested. Prisoner, up against the wall, hands where I can see them."
"Understood." Kuvira complied immediately, pressing herself against the wall of the cell, hands raised above her head. The outer cell door ground open, and the guard silently arrived and deposited an identical wooden chair in the cell. As it ground shut again, Kuvira relaxed. She moved the chair up to the table, across from Korra, and sat down.
Korra realized she'd stood up again at the guard's barked command, and sat back down as well. "Uh, here, let me get that for you." She poured a cup of tea and set it down in front of Kuvira, then poured herself one as well. "Enjoy!"
Kuvira nodded and raised the cup to her lips, closing her eyes as she sipped. "Mm. White dragon. How'd you know?"
"That it's your favorite? I asked around."
Kuvira raised an eyebrow. "And they told you?"
"Uh, well, a lot of people said you liked white jade, but Zhu Li said you'd gotten Varrick hooked on white dragon tea while he was working for you, and, well, you know Zhu Li." Korra took a sip of the tea. "Wow, that is pretty good."
The other woman chuckled. "White jade. I can guess some of the people who told you that. So, what were you saying about my dancing?"
"Right! The dancing! I was just remembering, that's where I first saw you. The dance, with Suyin and the other metalbenders, and the big metal flower thing. You had the same braid you do now. And...you were doing the same dance just now, weren't you? When I came in?"
Kuvira didn't answer, except to close her eyes again. She didn't say anything for a time, sipping her tea in silence until her cup was empty. Finally, eyes still squeezed shut, she spoke again.
"Why did you come here, Avatar?"
"What do you mean? Like I said, I came to bring you the tea-"
"No. Why did you really come here? If it were…anyone else I would assume they were here to gloat. Or to forgive me." She spat the word as if it was a curse. "But...not you. You're not trying to pour more shame on me, not trying to assert your moral superiority. Just...bringing me tea." She shook her head. "I...I'm grateful, I am, but I just don't understand."
"Hm." Now it was Korra's turn to sip her tea in silence, considering the question. Why didI come here? She turned the question over in her head a few times as she finished the cup. "I guess...Look. A few days before you...before the attack on Republic City. I was having...trouble entering the spirit world. Meditating. Entering the Avatar State. I had for years, ever since Zaheer poisoned me; I thought I'd gotten the last of the poison out of my system. But I hadn't. Not really. The mercury was finally gone, but fear, fear was the real poison." For that matter, the thought rose up unbidden in her mind, why am I spilling my guts to Kuvira of all people? "So I went to Zaheer in prison. I went to confront that fear, to get over it."
"Did it work?" Kuvira, now looking interested, poured herself another cup of tea.
"Not at first. I sounded like a child, yelling 'I'm not afraid of you!' And then he made a scary face at me and…" And now that I say it that way it sounds really humiliating. "Point is, yelling at him didn't accomplish anything. But then, here's the weird thing, he realized this. And he didn't gloat, didn't try to rub it in-he helped me. Guided me to the spirit world. Helped me conquer my fear-which wasn't about him, not really, it was fear of my own weakness. Helped me believe in myself again."
"So then you came here because you thought I could help you somehow?"
"Not quite. I came here because...just because someone's your enemy at one time, doesn't mean they have to stay that way forever. Someone who starts out as a friend or a mentor can end up as your worst enemy...and someone who was once your worst enemy can become a friend, or even something more."
"Hm?" Now Kuvira looked very interested.
Oh spirits did I actually just say that? "Uh, what I mean to say is, hang on-" Korra grabbed the teapot and poured the last of the tea into her cup, trying to get her train of thought back onto the rails. "I thought maybe, I don't want to to force it, but I just wanted to talk with you again, and see what happened. And I guess I thought that if it turned out okay, and if you wanted, maybe I could maybe bring you tea again. At some point. In the future. Near future."
"I...see." Kuvira slowly nodded, a hint of a smile at her lips. "You know, Av…Korra, I think I'd like that."
"Oh. Okay! Uh, how does two weeks from today, same time sound?"
Kuvira gestured around the cell. "My social calendar is pretty clear."
"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean-"
Kuvira laughed. "It's all right. I'm going to be here for a long time, I've accepted that. I might as well make the most of it." She frowned, suddenly. "Is something wrong?"
"No, it's just-I've never heard you laugh before. You have a very-" pretty "-nice laugh."
"Oh. Uh. Thank you, Korra." Is she blu-no, it's just the lighting, gotta be. "To, uh, answer your question, no, I wasn't practicing the same dance earlier. It's a similar one, though, a solo performance I came up with on my own. Or, I started on it, but I never had time to finish it, to perfect it, before...before I left Zaofu." She hesitated. "I've had time to work on it since, of course, it's almost done, and...if you'd like to see it someday, I'd love to show you."
Korra grinned "All right, then! So I bribe you with expensive tea until you get off your butt and finish the dance. Sounds like a plan to me!"
Kuvira laughed again. It was, Korra decided, a laugh she would definitely like to hear more often.
Inspired by a beautiful piece of art by nikkipet at Tumblr ( .com, go check it out) that made a Korra/Kuvira shipper out of me in a heartbeat. (Just in time for Korra/Asami to be confirmed as canon, natch.)