Author's Note:
Day Six for Kuvira Week! One more day...daaaaaaaarn it went so fast. Prompt six was about first love/ambition, and I guess I sort if tied both in? Not really sure, but I mean this definitely revolves around first love.
The tiger lilies made their first appearance in early May. Kuvira had walked into the guard station after a particularly hard dance practice in which Suyin had insisted she demonstrate the new dance move that Kuvira had not even mastered yet. She had opened her locker in an angered rush when the bouquet of flowers fell out. She stared at them on the floor before leaning down and gently picking them up. She glanced around the guard station for her secret admirer but was thoroughly disappointed when she found it was completely empty. She quickly metalbent her armor on and then placed the flowers in one of her water bottles before grabbing her helmet and rushing out for patrol.
The second time they made an appearance was later in May. It had been nearing the end of her shift, and Kuvira wanted nothing more than to collapse from exhaustion. She had decided to get up and grab a water bottle from her locker, and when she opened it another bouquet of flowers fell out. It had almost been four weeks since the last flowers made an appearance, and Kuvira had almost forgotten about them. She leaned down to pick them up, looking around for any signals from the person who had sent them, but everyone in the room was too engrossed in what they were doing to notice her by the lockers.
The third time the lilies appeared, it was the middle of June. The announcement that there was to be a new captain had everyone in a daze, and people had begun to work especially hard to prove that they were worthy of the post. Kuvira had simply rolled her eyes when she saw everyone working ten times harder than usual, and she walked to her locker to take off her armor and head up to the Beifong Estate for dinner. Zekhi appeared next to her moments after she had taken off her armor. His face was pale and Kuvira was worried he would throw up. Instead, he brought a hand he had been hiding behind his back into plain sight and held out a bouquet of tiger lilies. Kuvira's eyes widened in surprise and when he asked her on a date, she nodded numbly and his smile was the widest she had ever seen.
After their first couple of dates, they became exclusive, and before the end of each shift, Kuvira would find a bouquet of tiger lilies in her locker. She would smile to herself and Zekhi would wink at her when she left before he returned to his paperwork. Each time she came home with the bouquet, Su and Opal would coo over it while the boys would roll their eyes and walk away. It didn't bother Kuvira much, since she knew that none of the Beifong men, save Huan, were explicitly romantics, but it did bother her how distant Baatar had become. He no longer visited her for late night talks, and whenever Opal or Su asked about Zekhi at dinner, he would scoff and roll his eyes.
The first time she and Zekhi had fought, she was sure that it would be the end of their relationship. He was a party animal, Kuvira knew that. Most times after a shift, if he had not already made plans with her, he would go out with some of the men on the security team and they would go to a bar and become so incredibly drunk that they'd pass out. She had usually turned a blind eye to it, but the first time she witnessed it herself, she had exploded on him the next day when they were hanging out at his apartment and he had fought back. After hours of straight yelling at each other, Kuvira had stood up and slammed his door. She leaned her back against the metal and screamed into the empty hallway before storming out of the building to find Su.
When they had made up after the fight, he stopped going out to the bars. Instead, he returned with her to the Beifong Estate and walked the gardens with her. They had helped the twins create their game and occasionally helped Huan with some of his sculptures. Being a firebender, Zekhi had little use to the twins' game and Huan, but he posed as a good third opinion and won over their admiration. Eventually, he broke through to Opal and Baatar, though the latter still rolled his eyes whenever Zekhi swung by for dinner.
The first time Kuvira had stayed the night, they had almost been dating a year. The second she walked into his apartment, she laughed. He had lined the kitchen and living room with candles, and on his bed he had scattered tiger lily petals and the candles in the bedroom were scented with lavender. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy the romantic gesture, it was just more than what she had expected. The girls on the dance troupe and the security team had informed her that she shouldn't get her hopes too high, that her standards should be low so if anything better happens it would be a pleasant surprise. It had not hurt as much as they had described it would, but there was definitely a couple minutes where it was uncomfortable, and Zekhi had been gentle. When she fell asleep in his arms that night, she wondered how permanent the arrangement would be.
Almost a year and a half into the relationship, Zekhi began to grow distant. At first, Kuvira had not been too bugged by it. It had allowed her to focus on her position as captain of the guard and it gave her time to practice for dance. The bouquet of flowers slowly became just a single flower, and then that single flower became nothing. Kuvira had thought nothing of it originally, until some of the girls on the dance troupe and guard began to whisper in her ear about the things Zekhi was getting in to.
When they had almost hit their two year anniversary, and when Kuvira had had enough of second hand information, she held Zekhi back in the office. She had waited for everyone to clear out before locking the doors and crossing her arms. Under her steely gaze, Zekhi had confessed. He had relapsed on his drinking after work hours, and he had slept with a few of the women he met at the bars. He had insisted they were all mistakes and that it meant nothing to him, but Kuvira was having none of that and she broke up with him on the spot. She glared out the window as he made his exit, and the second the door closed, she broke down into tears.
She had returned to the Beifong Estate later than what she told Su she would be back at, and she walked into her room to find Su waiting up for her. The matriarch was sitting on one of the sofa chairs in her room, reading through the newspaper. When Kuvira opened the door, Su had jumped up immediately and hugged her, whispering about how concerned she had been. Kuvira had simply nodded and pushed Su away. Su had furrowed her brows and tilted her head and asked what was wrong. They had stood in silence for a couple of minutes, and then Kuvira broke down again and told Su everything. Su had comforted her by making some hot tea and they sat together in the dining room, snacking on biscuits and cursing out Zekhi.
The next morning when Kuvira walked into the guard station, she found it was littered with tiger lilies. The other guards all had exchanged uneasy looks when she entered, and she pursed her lips at the sight. The flowers completely covered the floor, and the desks were strewn with them. Zekhi appeared out of one of the rooms with a large bouquet of flowers. He had such a sad look to him that it almost made Kuvira feel bad, but the conversation that they had the previous night resurfaced and she made a few quick gestures with her hand and the earth below him rose up quickly and nailed him in the balls.
Upon her return that evening, Kuvira walked into her room to find Baatar sitting in the seat his mother had occupied the night before. The minute their eyes made contact, she knew that he knew everything. He stood up and slowly made his way towards her, asking simple questions as he approached. When he was an arm's length away, he had stopped asking questions and pulled her in for a hug. She gripped the front of Baatar's shirt and fought back tears. He rubbed small circles on her back, whispering encouragements into her ear and saying small jokes in an attempt to make her laugh. They stayed like that for a long time, and with each passing minute, Kuvira wondered how permanent the arrangement was.