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Kuvira eagerly awaited her teacher's arrival. Su had said the night before that their training the next day would be new and, in her opinion, fun. Kuvira had barely been able to sleep that night; she loved metalbending training with Su to a fault. It was one of those special times that Su paid attention to her and only her.

She tapped her foot on the ground excitedly, both eager for her teacher to arrive as well as a bit nervous for the new style of training Su had told her about. Her seismic sense skills were improving, and she could detect someone down the hall making their way toward her location. It had to be Su; Kuvira could tell it was her from a mile away.

Su arrived with new equipment in her hands and a smile on her face. Kuvira could not tell what the pouches she was carrying contained, but it made her nervous with anticipation.

"I think you're ready to try cables," Su mused after helping Kuvira stretch before their lesson. The older woman retrieved the two small pouches she had set down before and gave one to Kuvira. Kuvira tied it to her waistband the same way Su did.

"In these bags are metal cables," Su explained. She bent one out, attaching it to a fixture in the ceiling. "They can be used in a lot of different ways. For example, Republic City's metal bending police use them to get around the city fast and to detain criminals. They can also be used as good weapons, especially if you need to subdue someone quickly. However, they are a lot trickier to use, and if you aren't careful and let them get out of control they can do more damage than good." Kuvira swore she saw a pained expression on her teacher's face for the briefest moment before she continued.

"Go on, give it a try," she urged Kuvira.

Kuvira took a ready stance and focused on the cables at her side, determined to bend the metal just as her teacher had. She moved her arm and was happy when she was able to mimic her teacher's movements, and a cable wrapped around an adjacent ceiling fixture. Su smiled at her, indicating a job well done.

Su clenched her fist and sent herself slowly up toward the ceiling until she was suspended about three feet off the ground. Kuvira did the same and stopped when she was about eye level to Su. It was a weird sensation, one that Kuvira did not particularly care for. She preferred being rooted to the ground.

"Very good," Su said when Kuvira was suspended off the ground. "See how you can metalbend them and swing around." Kuvira experimented with the cable a little bit, focusing on it and making it swing her lightly back and forth. She thought they must look insane to anyone who passed by their training room. "With multiple cables you can travel pretty fast and have a very versatile weapon. And once you get the hang of it the movements will become more graceful."

"It's like a dance," Kuvira wondered aloud, looking at the cable in her hand. Su stopped, thinking while lowering herself to the ground. Kuvira followed suit.

"That's right," she agreed. "It is a dance. I've never really thought about it that way." Then she seemed to get an idea as her eyes suddenly lit up. "A dance troupe."

"Dance troupe?" Kuvira asked, not following her teacher's thought process.

"Metalbending is about so much more than fighting," Su elaborated. "Look at Huan; he's not a fighter, but he uses metalbending to make artwork instead. A dance troupe is just what Zaofu needs in its art program." She paused. "When I was traveling with the circus I did a lot of acrobatics with wires just like these, but I never bent them. Think of what could be done with experienced metalbenders."

"Wait, you want to have metalbenders dancing in the air?" Kuvira asked. Her teacher was rambling, but Kuvira could see the gears whirring in her head. Whenever Su had an idea, she got terribly excited. She smirked, "I was only kidding when I called it a dance."

Su smiled deviously. "Oh I know. But it actually was a great idea, and I think you would be very good at it. Tomorrow I will draw up a plan for it and figure out how to introduce it to the arts program and get more people involved. For today, we can see if it is actually possible and come up with something to show people to get them interested." She paused and then added with a smile, "This is a wonderful idea, Kuvira. Thank you."

She shot the metal cable back up at the ceiling and lifted herself into the air once more. Then, she looked expectantly at Kuvira who did the same. She found that the second time was much easier to maneuver the cable. She was also in an amazing state of mind, beaming both inside and out from the compliment of her teacher.

They spent the afternoon practicing ways to move in the air. Kuvira was already quite flexible, making it easy for Su to show her some acrobatic moves from her circus days. By the next day, muscles Kuvira didn't even know she had ached and throbbed.

~AN~

Thank you all for reading and reviewing! I really appreciate your kind words! :)

I always imagine Su being overly excited for anything Zaofu, which would be the only way it was built and successful in such a relatively short amount of time. Also I just realized that this was another kind of origin story about things that we see being established sort of traditions in Zaofu. Sorry about that if that's not your cup of tea. The next chapter will not be I swear.

I will probably have a new chapter posted earlier next week, before Thursday for sure. I will be leaving some time at the end of next week and will be without internet at least through the fifth :( so I want to make sure I get something posted before then. No more of this waiting a month to post nonsense for me.