1. When Kuvira's family found out she was a bender, they grew to hate her.
"You disgust me, you freak!" Kuvira pressed her hands against her ears as she screwed her eyes up tight, trying to block out her father's harsh words that echoed throughout the room. As usual, her mother did not defend her, simply nodding along with the poison her husband was spewing from his mouth. On the ground between the two adults was the rock that Kuvira had been practicing her earthbending on, still frozen in the shape of a sad little star.
As she watched, her father followed her gaze, and in an instant the star was crushed underfoot, leaving only a pile of dust. Her heart ached at the sight of one of her creations being dismissed so easily.
"Daddy, I'm sorry, but I can't help it!" the instant the words are out of her mouth, she regrets them. Kuvira cowers against the wall as her parents loom over her threateningly.
"What did I tell you about excuses?" A vein is popping in his forehead, and his arm darts out quickly to grab her arm, painfully tight. Her cries of pain are drowned out by his furious voice. "What did I tell you?"
"Daddy, please-" With a roar of fury, he pulls her off of the ground and throws her away from him. Kuvira smacks into the front door, her scream of terror dying in her throat. Sitting there stunned, she barely registers her mother's hands on her, bruising her further, pushing her violently out the front door.
"You aren't welcome here anymore, bending freak." She spits on her only child's prone body, crumpled in a growing puddle beside the front door, unaffected by Kuvira's wails and pleads for her to come back. She manages to pull herself to her feet, stumbling wildly as she tries to regain her balance. Head reeling from the events that just transpired, she pads away from her home as fast as her eight-year-old feet will take her.
It's some time before she collapses under an overpass, shivering violently and drenched to the bone in tears and rain from the vicious storm outside. Kuvira curls into a trembling, sobbing ball, her bruised ribs protesting violently. Ever since her parents had discovered last year that their daughter was an earthbender, tensions had arisen. Being non-benders themselves, they were disgusted with the idea that a child of theirs would be so abnormal. Family trees were scoured for hints of where her ability came from, but when none was found it was decided she was simply a freak, and undesirable freak.
That was the first night that her daddy had hit her, and it certainly wasn't the last. Kuvira gave a little cry of pain when she curled in too much, causing her homemade stitches from last week's horrid beating to start tearing.
"I can't stay out here all alone," she whimpered, slowly dragging her aching and abused body to her feet. "I don't want to die!"
And so with that thought burning through her head, she set off, gritting her teeth against the howling wind and biting rain and it beat against her tiny body. It was all she could do to keep putting one foot in front of the other, stumbling blindly away from her small, non-bending town. She did not look back, her mind solely focused on getting as far away from her parents as possible, crying all the way for the loving versions of them she had lost months ago.
By the time she finds herself at another city, she is too exhausted to move, and collapses on the first doorstep she finds. Unconsciousness follows swiftly, and she finds herself in a dreamless sleep for the first time in ages. She is briefly roused by a soft scream from above her, eyes flashing open to focus on a horrified woman with a tiara-like headband nestled in her short brown hair. Kuvira manages to choke out a feeble plea for help before the darkness takes her once more, and she does not wake up until she feels a soft hand caressing her bruised cheek.
Kuvira opens her eyes, recoiling slightly in fear. Startled, the woman from before withdraws her hand, peering down, not unkindly, at the whimpering girl.
"Where am I?" her eyes dart around her, taking in the unfamiliar bedroom and the soft down sheets below her cheek before flashing back up to look at the kindly woman. "Why am I here?"
"Sweetie, I don't know how much you remember, but I found you outside last night and brought you inside. You were pretty hurt, but I had my healer come and fix you up as best as they could." Kuvira's hands flash to her sides, where only a faint ache can be detected. Curious, she pulls her shirt away from her body and peers down at a thin scar, void of stitches. The change is fascinating to her.
"Oh." Is all she says, her face crumpling up in emotion. This is the kindest thing anybody has done for her since her parents turned against her. Tears well up in Kuvira's eyes, and to her shock, the woman carefully reaches out and wipes them away. "Thank you for your kindness."
The woman smiles at her, dimples dotting her face. "No need. But where are your parents, little one? I'd think they'd be worried by now…" She trails off when Kuvira starts to cry in earnest, her shoulders shaking with sobs. "Sweetie?"
"They-They don't want me, miss," she whispers, looking down in shame.
The woman is completely appalled at the child's words. "No, no, you're completely welcome to stay here, honey. We can get this all sorted out, and then you can go home, okay?"
"I can't," Kuvira repeated, blinking up at her with an innocence that only a small child could possess. "They'll just hurt me again."
Her words cause the older woman to flinch, feeling nothing but sympathy for this poor child, who she now realizes is an abuse victim. Determination fills her as she remembers the state of the poor girl when she had found her on her doorstep. A few more minutes, and the child might not have made it until morning. She is speaking before she even makes the decision to.
"You're more than welcome to stay with us, as long as you'd like." The little girl is hugging her tightly in an instant, pleasing her. She feels the wetness of tears on her stomach, and she carefully hugs the child back, only releasing her when she starts to pull away.
"Oh, thank you so much, miss-" Realizing she never asked for the woman's name, she leaves the sentence hanging over them, peering up at the beautiful woman she already adored.
"You can call me Suyin, honey. And what can I call you?"
"You can call me…Kuvira."