Author's Note

Day Five of Kuvira Week! GAH! Hard to believe only TWO MORE DAYS LEFT! Themes were family/forgiveness, and I ran with the forgiveness idea. This story sort of connects with Here Comes The Sun one I wrote for Day Two. But you don't need to read the other one to understand this. It just ties together.

The hard labor was not quite what Kuvira had expected it to be. During her time as the head of the Earth Kingdom, she had found her work to be much easier. Granted, there was more paper work and it was overall more stressful, but as the leader, she was able to make all the final calls and do as she pleased. Now, as she worked alongside some of her top ranking generals and some of the United Forces soldiers, she found the work to be more grueling and humbling. The schedule was much like the one she had lived by during the years of her campaign, early mornings and late nights, and she found herself right at home with it.

The first few years of her sentence, Kuvira had traveled around the Earth Kingdom with General Iroh and his platoon. They visited the poorest states in the eastern Earth Kingdom and stayed there as long as necessary until the state was stabilized and able to run on its own. After nearly five years of working for him, Kuvira was switched over to working with the Avatar, who was busy helping to stabilize the western Earth Kingdom.

During her time with General Iroh, the rules of her sentenced for enforced and followed through thoroughly. He always had a United Forces soldier with her whenever he was unable to keep an eye on her, and he had her chi blocked whenever she would go to take a shower. She shared a tent with five other United Forces soldiers, which wasn't incredibly unusual, but there was always a guard watching the tent to ensure she didn't escape somehow.

When she transferred over to Korra, the Avatar was lax on all of the rules. Her chi was almost never blocked, and instead of having Kuvira sleep with the other soldiers, Korra had ordered for Kuvira to sleep in the same tent as her. The bed that Korra had arranged for Kuvira to sleep in was softer than the one she had had with General Iroh, and she found herself in much better moods during the day than she remembered being in for a while. There had been countless late nights where they both lay on their beds, exchanging old stories and just having random conversations.

As her seventh year of hard labor was approaching, Kuvira's restrictions were practically gone. Korra had stopped the chi blocking completely and had lifted the rule that Kuvira always had to be accompanied by a guard to places. The loosening of restrictions had enabled Kuvira to go on her morning runs and practice her bending in the evenings. Slowly she slipped back into the old routine she had during her own campaign days, but she ensured that she was not slipping back into the old person she had once been.

Kuvira had just finished cleaning her dishes after a particularly inedible dinner when Korra walked in with a letter clutched in hand. From her two years in prison and the past seven years of labor, Kuvira had never once received a letter. Part of the reason for that was she was not allowed letters or visitors during her jail time, and she would move from state to state in the Earth Kingdom so often that it was pointless to try and write anyone. She had seen Baatar and his family during their trials, which had resulted in him having house arrest for twelve years and she was given ten years of labor under the control of the United Forces and Korra. After the trials, there was little time to talk since Baatar had left the same night the trials concluded and she had been put back into her cell until they figured out a schedule for her to follow.

"I've got a new assignment for you." Kuvira glanced over at Korra, who was reading the letter.

"What is it?"

"You're being moved to Ba Sing Se, they need some help rebuilding the train and the tracks that connect the rings," Korra said. "Asami's been tasked with redesigning it, but she needs a metalbender."

"Not to be rude, but why can't Su do it?" Kuvira asked.

Korra pursed her lips and tilted her head. "Zaofu needs Su's immediate attention. Besides, I can't think of anyone who's a better metalbender than you."

"I can think of—"

Korra held up her hand, and Kuvira stopped talking. "It's only going to be for a year, and they've agreed to knock the last two years off of your service if you do a good job."

"Two years for one year of service?" Kuvira asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's not going to be an easy task," Korra said. "I know you've built trains with Baatar before, so I also took that into account, but the train isn't on the ground, and the structure has to be able to hold up several hundred tons—but don't worry, you're just in charge of bending the metal into place. Asami will be able to work the structure."

"How—how is that not going to be an easy task?"

"Well, because it's just going to be you." Kuvira's eyebrows shot up and Korra gave her a weak smile. "There will be more joining you later, but for the first couple of months or so, it's just going to be you and Asami, and one of her business partners who has a supposed 'special talent' when it comes to these kinds of things." The jealousy in Korra's voice was not missed, but Kuvira brushed past it.

"When do I leave?"

"Tomorrow morning at five," Korra said. "So go and get rested up. I'll wake you up."

XxXxX

The train that took Kuvira to the Earth Kingdom capital moved faster than what she had wished. Since her trial, Kuvira had not seen the CEO of Future Industries. It had not plagued her much, since the two had had a purely professional relationship. But the death of Asami's father had plagued her the first couple of months when she began to work with Korra. It was not that it had not plagued her during her service with General Iroh, but it had simply been that the general and Asami Sato did not, at least, as far as Kuvira's knowledge went, have a personal relationship with one another.

When the train slowed to a stop, Kuvira grabbed her bag off of the floor and stepped off the train. Many passing people stopped and stared at her, some shook their head at her and others shook her hand and thanked her for the help she had brought. Kuvira smiled politely at those people, but it wasn't long until she found Asami waiting on a bench. She had a sketchbook in hand and was quickly drawing what looked like a bridge.

"Uh, Miss Sato?" Kuvira asked, trying to keep the uneasiness from her voice.

Asami glanced up from her notebook and a wan smile spread on her face. "Are you ready to go?"

Kuvira nodded and Asami shoved her notebook into her bag and then stood. Kuvira marveled at how much the past seven years had changed Asami. She had more worry lines on her face and she was already obtaining some grey hairs from the stress of work. Kuvira had not recently looked in a mirror, but she was sure that her hair would be sporting flecks of grey and that she would have some wrinkles of her own.

"How have you been? In Korra's letters, she's told me about all of the great things you've done. It sounds like a lot of good has been coming out of this." Kuvira searched for signs of hostility or anger, but instead she found genuine interest.

"I've been well," Kuvira said. "And I am glad at the chance of redeeming myself. It's nice."

Asami nodded and led Kuvira to a small house. Inside, an older man sat at the table eating a bowl of noodles while reading a newspaper. "Kuvira, this is Gao. He's the owner of Cabbage Corp, and he's going to be helping us."

Gao nodded slightly to Kuvira and flipped the page on his paper. Kuvira placed her bag on the table and Asami pointed to a door at the end of the hallway. "That's your room down there, then. It's sort of small, just a bed and dresser in it really, but it's better than nothing." Asami held open the front door and tilted her head outside. "I figured we should take a walk and I can show you the plans, so you're not totally in the dark tomorrow."

Kuvira nodded and followed Asami out the door. She listened absently as Asami explained where the tracks were going to go. As Asami talked, Kuvira thought back to the days of her campaign. Asami explaining to her how everything was going to work reminded her of the late nights she had with Baatar when he would explain how some new technological invention he made worked.

"—and I'm starving now, so do you want to grab a bite to eat?"

Asami's question brought Kuvira back to the present, and she nodded. Asami smiled brightly and began to head down the street. "I know this really good rice stir fry place. I found it a couple of nights ago, and I thought it'd be a cute place to eat."

They walked in silence to the restaurant, and Kuvira gnawed on her lower lip. She appreciated how hospitable Asami was being, but a small part of her kept wondering if Asami was just being nice because she had to, or if she had truly forgiven her for what she had done.

"How has your life been?" Kuvira asked once they sat down at a table. "I just realized I hadn't asked."

"It's been decent," Asami said. "Not much to complain about." Asami tilted her head slightly and furrowed her brows. "Although, you seem like you've got your head in the clouds. Is something bothering you?"

Kuvira picked at the skin around her nails and gnawed on her lip. "I don't understand how you're being so friendly to me. I killed your father." The words escaped her before she had time to process them in her head, and her eyes immediately widened when she realized what she had said.

Asami's face softened and her eyes darted to the floor before she looked back up. "I've had reasonable time to mourn him," Asami said slowly. "And hating you, it's not going to bring him back. And I'm not going to lie to you, the first couple of years were hard. I had, at the time, thought I hated you for what you did. I was certainly upset. But then I realized that we had killed some of you soldiers as well, and that that's just how war goes. There's going to be deaths, and unfortunately, my father was one of them." Asami took a deep breath before continuing. "And hearing from Korra—how much you've improved—I realized that you deserve a chance. And I also realized that he had the chance to escape. He chose to stay in the humming bird suit and try and break into the Colossus. You were just trying to stop invaders."

"I had completely lost my mind," Kuvira said. "Baatar—he was my rock. And when I fired on you—and I apologize for that too—I knew it would kill him. But then I when saw everyone alive and I didn't know what his fate had been, it made me lose a bit of my sanity." Kuvira moistened her lips and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, though. For any anguish or hurt I've caused."

Asami offered her a half smile and tilted her head. "I forgive you, Kuvira. I would have taken much longer, but some talks with Korra helped me pull through." Asami's smile faded quickly and she narrowed her eyebrows. "Just don't make me regret it."

Kuvira nodded quickly and Asami flashed her a smile and opened the menu. Her eyes scanned it before closing it and taking a long sip of her water. "I think I'm going to do the vegetable stir fry."

Kuvira nodded in agreement and closed her own menu. They placed their orders and after the waiter was gone, they easily kept the conversation alive. And as the night drew on, Kuvira felt as if a large weight had been lifted from her shoulders.