She never knew just how short a human being's lifespan is until now.
During their mad dash across the world finding Lion Turtle cities and learning the four elements, not to mention training for Harmonic Convergence, she and Wan had either been to distant or too busy to speak of their lives before they'd met. Not that there was much to tell in either case; he'd been a pickpocketing street thief since the age of six, and she'd spent the last three Harmonic Convergences and the ten thousand years in between battling against her other half to ensure the safety of the world.
Now, fused into one body and soul, Raava can only watch as his life slowly begins to drain away before her eyes.
She hadn't noticed at first; now she knows she really should have.
The first decade after their fusion is perfectly normal, if it can be called that; he's just as vibrantly happy and naively optimistic as she has always known him to be.
He takes his new task of protecting the world in Raava's stead with a vigor most mortals would think unhealthy, willingly leaping directly in between opposing armies to force them away from each other and try to talk sense into one general or another.
She often scolds him for this reckless behavior – what if he got hurt? – but he tends to ignore her advice in favor of saving as many lives as he can, no matter how much she might yell at him later. It infuriates her to no end, but he eventually seems to listen and acts a tad more cautiously.
They continue to travel across continents on Mula, saving people and stopping many wars with seemingly no effort at all.
They'd stop in towns for supplies on occasion – very rarely, but it did happen once in a while – and she got to see what 'normal' humans were like. Men, women, and children all living together in makeshift little homes, so different from the wandering spirits she is used to and especially different from Wan, who can't seem to stay still for more than a few hours before desiring to explore the world a bit more.
She can't help but notice most of the men seemingly Wan's age have a wife and family by this point in their lives, but Wan never brought it up and she would be lying if she said she was brave enough to ask – which is simply the strangest thing; she'd never been afraid to ask him anything before.
Their journey continues for another decade, but, slowly but surely, things begin to change.
It's unnoticeable enough at first; Mula starts getting a bit slower, starts sleeping in a little longer than normal. Every morning, when he gets up for the day's journey, his legs tremble the slightest bit when he climbs to his paws.
Wan passes it off as fatigue and decides to camp earlier in the evening; Raava does not have the heart to tell him otherwise until sometime later.
Another decade passes, and the world seems determined to remain at odds despite Vaatu's imprisonment and all of Wan's good work stopping battles – if only temporarily.
Wan still doesn't seem bothered by the fact that he has no family to call his own.
Mula is now much more noticeably slower, often moving no faster than a trot unless urged faster for one reason or another. His whiskers have lightened to the point of being nearly invisible.
Luckily, Wan seems to understand what's happening to his friend without Raava needing to mention it, though he never acknowledges it.
Things begin to change much more quickly the morning after a long battle they'd just managed to stop a short time before dawn. Raava can still spy the moon slowly drifting toward the horizon when it happens; Wan's fingers slip as he's tying a bandage onto his leg.
The abrupt and inconvenient moment is overshadowed by the sharp pain that twinges into existence in his wrist that rapidly moves up to his knuckle and finger joints.
They both feel it simultaneously, man hissing and spirit wincing in surprise.
Wan released the tension in his hand, staring at it in disbelief.
The pain floats around his joints for a while, not getting worse or better for several minutes, before finally fading away to the point of near nonexistence; still there, but bearable.
The duo remains silent for a moment or two, neither knowing what exactly to say, until Raava asks incredulously, "What was that?"
Wan blinks, seemingly dazed for a second, before smiling good-naturedly like he usually did when he didn't understand something and yet liked to pretend he did. "Nothing; probably from that boulder I punched earlier. It really hurt, remember?" he explained calmly, tone upbeat as he reached down to pick up his dropped roll of cloth.
Raava would have given him a blank stare if she could; instead, she simply sent several unimpressed vibes his way. "Wan, you punched the boulder with your left hand, not your right," she deadpanned, tone clearly stating that she would not be buying any of his cheery bullshit today.
"Did I? That's funny; I could've sworn it was my right," he muttered, puzzled as he finished tying the bandage in place.
"Is there something wrong with your memory, too?" she tried to snark at him casually, but there was an undercurrent of concern she couldn't quite keep out of her voice.
"No!" he squawked indignantly.
"It must be a result of you constantly smashing rocks with your head," she mused thoughtfully.
"I don't even do that!" he denied immediately, face flushing red.
She would have smirked if she could. "Oh really? Need I remind you of the battle of Yi Valley? I recall having a headache for days afterward-"
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, I want head-butt rocks anymore, okay?" he muttered, pouting like a five year old.
'Honestly,' she thought, a warm fuzzy feeling fluttering briefly though her soul, 'Why do I even put up with you?'
Of course, she did not make him aware of this rather embarrassing thought; instead, she simply sighed, "Whatever, just stop ratting your brains around; you don't have enough to lose."
He looked deeply offended by that; she had to stifle the urge to giggle like a young girl. Really, sharing the body of a human gave her far too many human traits.
But despite the distraction, she wouldn't forget this; his joints still felt painful once in a while.
Five more years down the line, and she notices that a few of his dark hair have started to lighten just the slightest bit at the crown of his head.
She remains silent on the matter for a while, unwilling to admit what they mean, keeping up their repertoire of banter throughout most of the day, until Mula decides they've traveled far enough and falls asleep under a tree, leaving Wan to go and refill their water-skins at a nearby stream, and she finally decides enough is enough.
"Wan?" she calls, a part of her wishing to stall for time before the inevitable conversation starts.
He hums absently in response.
She would be rolling her eyes if she could, and, before she can lose her nerve, she blurts, "Why is your hair turning gray?!"
She knows the answer. She doesn't want to admit it, though.
He pauses in his task at her loud outburst, causing a small amount of water to plop back into the stream – he water-bends the water into the pouches now; his knees hurt too much for him to crouch comfortably now, and she knew that, but…
He stands silently for a while, inspecting his reflection critically, turning his head at every angle; she realizes he hadn't even noticed the color change until now.
"… Well," he says slowly, "I suppose that means I'm getting old."
It was one thing to know about it; to hear it aloud just completely throws her off track.
"Old? You haven't even seen a full century!" she protests, unwilling to allow herself to accept this false statement; the Wan she knew would always be the reckless, slightly dimwitted boy who insisted on helping her with an impossible task. 'Old' simply was not in her vocabulary.
But it was hard to deny when he himself simply deadpans, "Raava, I'm fifty-five. For humans, that's pretty old; most of us don't even live to see a century."
Any protest she has dies in her metaphorical throat when she looks at him; really looks without lying to herself. Aside from the graying hair, his face bears lines she isn't used to seeing. His bones, while still sturdy, are significantly weaker than they were when they first fused.
"Raava," he began quietly, and she did not like that tone in his voice, "Humans don't live for very long; even animals don't last that long. Spirits are the only beings known for hanging around for a while, you know?"
Oh, she knew; she just didn't want to think about it.
Yes, Raava had lived for a very, very long time.
Yes, she knew humans and animals and any other mortal beings didn't usually last very long.
But she'd never once before thought about getting involved with a human.
But she'd never thought a human would become precious to her.
And she certainly never thought she'd end up regretting her immortality because of a human.
But Wan had never played fair. He did the impossible on a daily basis just by existing.
And she couldn't help both loving him and hating him for it.
A/N: What can I say? I'm Waava trash. This is also on my Tumblr for those of you who have one; my url is on my profile!
~Persephone