Author's Note:
This is a submission for Day Two of Kuvira Week with the theme of redemption or drunken nights, so I ran with the redemption idea, which was actually a lot of fun to write. Also, I've become obsessed (always have been but the obsession has resurfaced) with Beatles songs, so the prompts are gonna be Beatles song titles. Wheeeeee.
The sunlight was practically blinding when Kuvira stepped off of the mech train. It wasn't as if she had not seen sunlight for many years, in fact it was quite the opposite, but it had been a long time since she visited Zaofu, and the reflecting sunlight off of the metal took a couple of seconds to adjust to.
The city had not changed much in the ten years since Kuvira had last seen it, although the buildings were taller and there were buildings and what Kuvira assumed housing spread all over the mountainside. One of her permanent marks was the vacancy of the domes, which had all been stripped to make her colossus.
Kuvira picked up her bag and slung it around her shoulder. In the other hand, she clenched tightly to the walking stick that she had carved for herself in the early months of her service. It was now old and careworn, and there had been many pieces of wood of better quality than it, but it had gone through the past ten years with Kuvira, and for nostalgic purposes, she refused to part ways with it.
The train to reach the Beifong Estate was faster than she had remembered, and she wondered vaguely if Baatar had designed it himself, or if he had gone back to working for his father during his time of house arrest.
The Beifong Estate itself was warm and green, and it was exactly how Kuvira had remembered it. There were only subtle changes, such as the flowers were no longer tiger lilies but instead a bunch of fire tulips imported from the Fire Nation. As Kuvira climbed the steps leading up to the house itself, she got a turning feeling in her stomach with each step. It was a ridiculous feeling to have, Suyin had extended the invitation out to her, and Su was the spitting image of her sister when it came to grudges.
As she neared the house, the sound of a young child's laugh emanated from the back which was immediately followed by Baatar's laugh. The sound made Kuvira freeze, and she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. Of course, she should have known that there was an ulterior motive for Suyin to hand her an invitation. She wanted to watch Kuvira crumble when she saw that Baatar had moved on and began a family of his own. She wanted to show off to Kuvira what could have been hers had she just retreated from Republic City, or if she had just not ran away to try and stabilize the Earth Kingdom in the first place.
A small child ran around the side of the house. She was clearly no older than three, and her hair was cut short in a similar style to Opal's when she had been a teenager. Her hands were in the air as she ran, a wide smile on her face and her eyes alight with amusement. Kuvira's grip on her staff tightened, and she braced herself for the moment she knew would happen.
Minutes later, Baatar appeared. His hair had grown back out and he donned the old clothes he used to wear before they had left. His frame was still lean and muscular, and he had kept the glasses that Kuvira had picked out for him. Or at least, glasses of a similar frame.
She watched as Baatar scooped up the young girl in his arms and playfully tossed her into the air. He had not noticed her standing there, and she very soon became aware of the fact that she wished for nothing more than to be able to turn invisible or have the courage to turn her back and walk away.
But she stood rooted to the spot, captivated by how well Baatar was with the girl and how enthusiastically she responded to his laughter and his touch. It was a couple of minutes, but he seemed to realize that he was being watched. Kuvira laughed silently at his own obliviousness, but quickly regained her composure when Baatar's eyes fell on to her.
He slowly lowered the girl to the ground and whispered something into her ear. She nodded once and ran around to the other side of the house. They both watched her go, and as soon as she had disappeared, Baatar made his way over.
"Didn't think I'd ever see you here again," he said once he was a couple of feet away.
"I never thought I'd be able to come back here," Kuvira said. They held each other's gaze for a while. Kuvira studied his face, the one that had once been so familiar to her she knew it like the back of her own hand, but now it seemed foreign, especially with the scar on his left cheek that was a souvenir of the failed Operation RC. After a few silent seconds, Baatar adverted his gaze to the ground and he shuffled his feet.
"The girl you were with, she was very beautiful," Kuvira said, attempting to break the tension.
Baatar looked up from the floor and offered her a half smile. "She is something else, isn't she? Opal and Bolin practically had a hippo cow when—"
"Hello, Kuvira. It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
Suyin cut across Baatar's sentence, and Kuvira smiled at the matriarch. Her hair was shorter than Kuvira remembered, and she had a few more wrinkles on her face and her expression was more tired and worn out.
"It certainly has," Kuvira said.
"I'm glad you accepted my invitation." There was no hostility in Su's voice, and Kuvira almost felt as if all the events before had never happened, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost pretend that she was fifteen again, and Su had just been congratulating her on her position in the guard.
"Thank you for inviting me," Kuvira said.
"Come in the back, everyone's there, and I'm sure they would all want to see you again."
Kuvira hesitated before following Su around the back, Baatar following close behind. The scene that greeted Kuvira was not what she had expected. Korra and Asami sat underneath a tree with their newly born son tucked in the safety of Korra's arms while Asami rested her head on the Avatar's shoulder. The twins were talking with Opal and Bolin, and a couple of feet away from them the airbending family stood with Varrick and Zhu Li. The kids were all running around and playing games while the adults would watch them out of the corner of their eye.
"When you said everyone, I didn't realize you literally had meant—"
"Everyone?" Baatar finished with a small smile. Kuvira nodded, and Su gave her a wan smile.
"I've had a decade, Kuvira," Su said. "I'm not going to lie, a part of me is still upset about what you and Baatar did. But the better part of me—the part of me that I hope is still admirable to you—won me over. That, and Korra has told me all about your improvements. And I thought—I thought back to the mistakes I had made when I was younger." Su laughed and bit her lip before continuing. "And thinking of that, it also made me realize my own mortality. I thought about how I don't want to die hating you, and I don't want to die leaving you with a belief that I had hated you."
"I don't hate you either, Su," Kuvira said. She was surprised at how much she meant the words. The last time she had meant something with as much emotion and honesty, it was her surrender to the world's mercy.
"I'm glad," Su said. "It will take me some time to get over it, but if Lin can forgive me, I can forgive you."
"You didn't try and take over the Earth Kingdom," Kuvira deadpanned.
"Of course, it'll be harder to forgive and forget if you keep mentioning—"
"Thank you, Su," Kuvira said.
Su nodded once and gave her an awkward hug before she turned and walked to her husband's side, leaving Kuvira alone with Baatar.
"Care to go for a walk with me?" Baatar asked.
Kuvira hesitated before nodding. Baatar gave her a small smile, and together they walked back towards the front of the house.
"How has your labor been?" Baatar asked.
"It was exhausting," Kuvira admitted. "Believe it or not, it was harder than our campaign."
"During our campaign, you were giving the orders," Baatar reminded her. "I'm sure if you were a soldier it would have been hard."
Kuvira scoffed and scolded him for being so ridiculous, jokingly trying to convince him that her measures had not been hard, but generous.
"How has house arrest been?" Kuvira asked. "Do you still hate it here as much as you did?"
Baatar stared at the setting sun, and he shrugged. "It isn't horrible. My father let me do some of my own projects, which was nice and it kept me occupied, but it's been an empty couple of years."
Kuvira nodded in silent agreement, and she bent down to smell some of the fire tulips. Baatar waited patiently behind her, and she picked one out of the earth and twirled it in her hand.
"So what were you telling me earlier?" Baatar raised his eyebrow in confusion and Kuvira quickly added. "About Bolin and Opal, and that girl you were playing with."
"Oh, that was Bolin and Opal's daughter—" Kuvira exhaled a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding "—and I was saying that they nearly had a hippo cow when they found out Opal was pregnant. They had a huge celebration party to announce it, and of course, Mother got all teary because it was her first grandchild." Baatar rolled his eyes and stuck his hands in his pockets.
"You weren't the first?" Kuvira asked, trying to convey disinterest in her voice.
"To be the first would imply that I have a wife—or at least, a girlfriend."
"Don't you?"
Baatar shook his head and sat on a bench. He patted the seat next to him, and Kuvira hesitantly sat down. He stared into the setting sun for a couple of minutes before taking a deep breath.
"I had tried to date, I won't lie to you about that," he said. "But there was just nothing there. Each date was just more boring than the last, and it eventually just became a waste of my time and hers. So I stopped and just focused on labs and inventing."
Kuvira tried to contain a smile, but instead it only widened it. "Is there a particular reason why?"
Baatar groaned and gave Kuvira a pointed look. "Now, this isn't fair, Kuvira. You know as much as I what that reason was, and it's not really polite of you to march into my home and demand me to tell you why my dating life is a complete flop." Kuvira laughed and Baatar rolled his eyes. "I'm being serious."
Kuvira immediately stopped laughing and gave Baatar her old facial expression she used for dissenters and misbehaving soldiers. "I'm aware."
Baatar let out a small laugh of his own, and they sat in a silence for a little. There was no awkwardness to it, and Kuvira felt as if a weight had been lifted from her chest.
"I have a question though," Kuvira said, angling her body so she faced Baatar. He didn't look at her, but simply nodded his head for her to keep talking. "Do you still hold that decision against me?"
Baatar's body stiffened, and there was a pregnant pause before he turned to her. "A part of me—granted, it is a very small part—still holds it against you. At first, I had tried to hate you for it, but I couldn't bring myself to it. And over time, I began to understand why you did it, even though it hurt. And when I saw you at the first trial—I knew right there and then I still loved you. But you weren't allowed visitors or allowed to write or receive letters, so I had no means of communicating it to you. Then you went around the Earth Kingdom with your contract, so I wasn't able to pin point your location exactly. Once Korra returned and informed us when you would finish your labor, I sat down and I talked with my parents."
Kuvira's lips curled into a small smile and she tilted her head. "How did that go?"
"At first, awful. They had thought I was over you and all this nonsense, but I told them the truth and I just talked to them. In the end, they listened. And over time, they overcame their own barriers."
"How about the rest of your family?"
Baatar shrugged and took the tulip from Kuvira's hands. "They didn't care quite as much as Mother or Father. In fact, they all thought that you deserved to have a clean slate in the family."
"Oh yeah?"
Baatar nodded and plucked some of the petals off of the flower. "Really. I mean, they had all seen you as a sister. And I genuinely do believe that they want you as a sister."
"Even after all that I've done?"
Baatar nodded and he smiled softly. "I would think so."
The sun had finally set below the horizon, and Baatar stood up. He stretched out his back before extending out a hand to her. "We could start out with a clean slate, too, if you wanted."
Kuvira stared at his waiting hand and she nodded slowly, taking it in his own. "I'd like that."
As the two made their way back to the others, there was a different feeling building inside Kuvira. It was no longer one of worry or uneasiness, but it was peaceful, tranquil, and happy. As she climbed the final steps to the house and as she heard the music and sounds of laughter from the party, and even though it had just set, Kuvira felt as if the sun had risen.