174 AG
"I couldn't just leave with you still angry with me," Kuvira said, pacing into Opal's bedroom. Opal was only wearing her undershirt and a blanket but Kuvira didn't look. Instead she walked over to the window and opened it, almost like she was putting her own personal touch on something that had been Opal's for the past few days.
"We're going to be family soon," Kuvira said, turning her head to look at the airbender. Her dark green eyes caught the light and Opal had to glance away, tugging the blanket closer around her. She was still wearing her undershirt but even with that and the blanket Opal felt naked. "So I want us to be on at least civil terms when Baatar and I marry."
This was all too invasive and sterilized. Opal hated it, but she didn't let it show. "I'm not angry with you," she said, getting off the bed, her blanket sliding to drape around her waist. "I don't trust you. There's a difference."
Kuvira looked at her. "I don't think in this case there is any." Opal flushed.
"Turn around," she barked, holding up her Air Nomad bodysuit. Kuvira turned around, crossing her arms behind her back so each hand clasped on her opposite elbow. Opal's sleepy self-pity was boiling into righteous anger that woke her up and made her anxious and sick.
And yes, she was angry. Kuvira, and probably anyone, could see that easily. Opal couldn't help it. She hid her shaking hands as she stepped into her suit and zipped it up. Kuvira was right. Opal was pissed that she couldn't trust whoever the hell this was. She wasn't mad for the sake of being mad and her anger didn't mean her distrust was inauthentic or unjustified.
"Where's Bolin," she asked, trying to keep her voice controlled but it just came off edgy.
Kuvira sighed. "He and Baatar are travelling to the next town to replenish supplies. I came here with my own train car. I won't stay long, but I'd like to talk." She frowned. "If that's alright," she added with a softer voice.
Opal looked at her, and sat on the bed, resting her elbows on her knees. "I guess," she said, but she didn't speak any more. She fiddled with her hair self-consciously as she waited for Kuvira to speak.
"It's been a long three years," Kuvira began. "A lot has changed."
"I'll say," Opal snorted.
"Opal, please," Kuvira said. Glancing up at the taller woman Opal saw that Kuvira looked genuinely distressed. Kuvira didn't speak for awhile, instead she slid off her gloves and placed them in a pocket on her uniform. When Opal finally began to look away Kuvira chose to start speaking.
"When I left Zaofu I was angry," she confessed. "I was angry at your mother. I guess I still am. This job, uniting the people in our land, it shouldn't have been mine. She almost single-handedly created Zaofu, a city where every single citizen can do more than just survive, but can attain their greatest potential. When the monarchy fell I was, and so many other people were, convinced that your mother would step up and lead us."
"She didn't want to seize power, like you did," Opal said, getting to her feet, prepared to fight for her mother. Kuvira didn't go on the defensive.
"I'm only the interim president until Prince Wu comes of age," Kuvira reminded her. "Which isn't that long now." Opal's face made it clear that she wasn't buying everything Kuvira was selling. Kuvira went on, "Besides, assuming I did seize power, if it wasn't me someone else would have. And their goals would not have been as benevolent as mine are."
Opal knew that someone else would've seized power but Kuvira was being deliberately vague underneath her inspiring rhetoric. "What are your goals?" she asked, curiosity getting the best of her.
"I want all of us to be united," Kuvira said softly, walking over to Opal and keeping eye contact with her. "All of us. I want to give every Earth citizen the opportunities you and I had. I can't do that right now, just as the Air Nomads can't help every single person right now. All we can do at the moment is make sure that our people are safe and fed, but eventually I plan to do better than that."
"And I know it may not seem like it," she went on. "But I need your help for this. The next few months are going to be like nothing we've ever dealt with before. Other countries and nations, people who did nothing to help this country in the years after the revolution, will want to interfere with the Earth Nation. These people could damage us just as surely as the Earth Queen did."
"Are you asking me to pledge my loyalty?" Opal asked through gritted teeth.
"No, Opal," Kuvira said. "I'm asking you, for these next few months, to really think what you want for this country. Even if you're an Air Nomad now, it should be just as important to you that things here are stable so that we all can live, instead of just survive."
"And I want," Kuvira said. "I do, really, want you on my side. I know you believe, like your mother, that I seized power for selfish reasons. All I want is to give our people security and progress, if they didn't want me to do it I wouldn't be here right now."
"I don't think they have as much of a choice as you say they do," Opal said, her voice barely above a whisper. "I heard you're putting your dissenters in prison camps." Kuvira's jaw dropped in shock.
"Opal!" she said, eyes flashing with hurt. "Those rumours aren't true! I know a lot has changed in the three years we didn't see each other but they haven't changed that much." Opal felt a pang of guilt. She hadn't seen any evidence of prison camps after all, maybe Kai was right and Opal was overreacting.
It didn't matter. Kuvira had placed her hands on either side of Opal's body, coaxing her attention back to the metalbender. "Listen, in the end - I want what you want. We have to make sure that, despite whatever happens next, we fight for our people. The way I came into power may have been unorthodox, and I didn't believe I was the best person to do it at the time, but I made it my job, my duty, to fight for the needs of the people. I want to go beyond those needs some day."
Her hands squeezed Opal's upper arms reassuringly. Opal didn't know if she'd ever seen Kuvira not wearing some type of glove, or bandage binding. Her palms were soft and warm on the fabric of Opal's suit. Her eyes were bright and focused on Opal. Opal suddenly felt a wave of nostalgia, the same feeling she'd fought back when she and Kuvira had seen each other again.
"Are you sure that's what you want?" Opal asked, voice wavering dubiously.
"Yes," Kuvira said, softly but insistently. "Absolutely. I know Suyin, and the Air Nomads, have their own biases just like I do. I blamed Suyin for not assuming a position she didn't want, and her son left her to follow me. There isn't an airbender in my army, that I know of, so I'm sure you've heard more rumours than facts. I'm just glad you gave me this chance to explain myself." Opal nodded at Kuvira, looking her in the eye.
"And Opal, the other reason why I came." Kuvira smiled at her, body relaxed now. "The wedding - I'd love for you to attend." Oh, that was right. Kuvira was engaged to Baatar.
"Of course I'd come to Baatar's wedding," Opal said, her voice punched out of her. Kuvira took no notice. She put her hand on Opal's cheek and smiled at her, the smooth, uncalloused skin burning Opal's cheeks. In the pit of her stomach Opal felt disappointment grow like a retch. Kuvira had never touched her like this, so warmly and so calculatedly.
"Thank you, Opal," Kuvira said, face softening with sincerity.
"You're manipulating me," Opal realized out loud, trying to remind herself more than anything. Kuvira smudged her thumb across Opal's cheek, and Opal could feel a blush burning wherever she touched. Opal's legs felt like they would give out. Kuvira's expression was still soft, her eyes darting across Opal's face like she was memorizing it.
"No, Opal, I really do want you to come," she said with her gravelly voice. She moved closer to Opal, her free hand landing lightly on Opal's hip, barely touching her. She waited until Opal would look her in the eye and then smiled a little, eyes wide and earnest, but entirely too calm. Kuvira was imitating herself so perfectly that Opal wanted to sob.
"You're manipulating my brother," she said fiercely, ripping Kuvira's hand from her cheek and gritting her teeth. "You're manipulating my family, my kingdom, you're manipulating my boyfriend." Kuvira's face soured, and she stepped back from Opal. Opal almost stumbled but caught herself; she looked after Kuvira in desperation.
"Believe what you want," Kuvira said, breaking character. Her tone was venomous. "I'm doing what I think is best for the kingdom, we all are. And don't tell me you believe that the Earth Kingdom is your kingdom." Opal gaped at her Kuvira turned around, almost smirking at her silence.
Kuvira suddenly changed pace, haughtiness turning into anger. "I wish you and the other Air Nomads well - patching bandages on a gaping wound, but I'm performing surgery. I don't have time for silly games; I don't have time for manipulation. So believe what you want, Opal."
Then she broke off, her voice softer, regretful. "I only wish you would find it in you to forgive me, for whatever wrong I committed." She turned to go. Opal knew enough to see that wasn't how you asked for an apology. Kuvira's soft words had confused Opal, and her about-turn gave her whiplash but she wasn't about to back down.
"I still don't trust you," she spat after Kuvira. "I don't trust who you are. I don't know if I never knew exactly who you were but now I know I have no idea."
Kuvira whirled around, furious and frustrated, "Then why do you assume the worst of me? Do you have any evidence that I'm doing anything wrong? I'm uniting the kingdom; I'm bringing people food, and protection -"
"Only when they pledge their loyalty to you!" Opal yelled.
"We don't have the resources to give supplies to anyone but our people," Kuvira responded, a practiced lie.
"Why are you saying 'we'?" Opal said. Kuvira's mouth opened, then shut. "When you get people to pledge their loyalty - they don't pledge their loyalty to the Earth Kingdom. They don't pledge their loyalty to Prince Wu. They pledge their loyalty to you."
"I'm the interim president," Kuvira said, attempting to recover herself.
"Don't," Opal said, and to her dismay her voice broke. Kuvira's mouth closed and she watched Opal, who was struggling to hold back tears. Opal took a deep breath and tried to keep her voice steady, though her hands were trembling. "I didn't know you before, if you always were who you are now. But I - I don't think you ever lied to me."
Kuvira's expression changed. It was soft, but not schooled. She walked up to Opal again, hands behind her back. "What do you want to know?" she asked in a breath of defeat. She stood in Opal's bedroom, looking her in the eye, simply waiting for her response.
"I want to know," Opal said, and the whole world rested on her tongue. She knew for that moment, she could ask Kuvira anything and get the right answer. "I want to know," she said again. "Do you love my brother? Are you in love?"
Kuvira blinked. She hadn't expected that question either. Kuvira stood up straight and seemed to think for a moment. The fact that thinking was required already gave Opal the answer, but she couldn't help but hold her breath.
At last Kuvira looked back at Opal. "I'm not in love with Baatar," she said. Opal's legs knocked together.
"But you're marrying him," Opal said numbly. "He loves you, why else would he . . . " she couldn't go on.
"Perhaps he does love me," Kuvira conceded. "He knows that those feelings aren't reciprocated. He understands, at least."
"Understands what?" Opal said, her eyes were wet with angry tears. "Why would he stay with someone who doesn't love him back?"
Kuvira smiled a little then, the unfamiliar edge of her that Opal hated coming back. "He loves this country," she said. "Just like I do. He wants to take care of it, not just so that the kingdom can survive, but so that it can grow. That's the philosophy we grew up on in Zaofu. Your own mother, even though I'm sure she hates me now, was the person who instilled that value so strongly in me, and your brother."
Kuvira frowned then. "Your mother resents the fact that he left Zaofu, leaving engineering behind. She saw it as a betrayal. But Baatar has progressed beyond architecture schematics. As much as I love Zaofu, and no matter how much I owe to it, the Earth Kingdom takes precedence. The nation couldn't just right itself. Riots in the streets, thievery, chaos. I couldn't ignore that, and neither could Baatar."
"I didn't ignore that!" Opal broke out. "The Air Nomads didn't! And we never needed to force anyone join us before we would help them!"
Kuvira's voice softened, making Opal feel ridiculous for yelling, "And perhaps you could have done something, if there weren't so few of you. But I'm the only one who can pull all these states together. And if we're not united we'll never survive, much less grow. I really do want what you want, Opal." Opal stiffened when Kuvira murmured her name. "We might have different ways of going about it, and you might be angry that Baatar left, but he's a grown man and he has that right."
"Our end goals are the safety and comfort of as many people as we can help," Kuvira said. "And I want to thank you and Kai for convincing the Governor to join us. We should be working together, the big picture is much more important than whatever happened in the past."
Opal felt like Kuvira was trying too hard to move on from the topic. She'd just admitted that she wasn't in love with Baatar, and had come no closer to explaining why Baatar had made the decisions that he had. Some of the stuff she said had made sense, but other things felt like lies. Opal guessed that Kuvira's moment of honesty had been real, but temporary.
Opal had been given one question to ask and Kuvira had answered it. All the rest were evasions at best. Kuvira was standing in Opal's bedroom, the first soft bed Opal had slept on in months, just looking at her and willing her to surrender. Opal wanted more questions answered, she'd only been granted one and she'd wasted it.
Kuvira had grown somewhat impatient in Opal's silence. "Are you happy, now?" she asked, hovering there, almost exasperated. Opal glanced up at Kuvira, meeting her gaze willingly for the first time in a long time. So much had been said, but none of it had gotten Opal closer to any answers. She felt sick.
"Of course not," Opal said. "But it doesn't matter." Kuvira's face twitched.
"Right," she said.
Opal's legs gave out as she sat down on the bed. "Do you still want me to attend the wedding?" she asked, almost spitefully.
"I'm sorry for wasting your time, Opal," Kuvira said, fishing her gloves out of her pockets. She shut the door on the way out far too gently. Opal felt like she should cry, but she didn't. She and Kai spent the rest of the morning saying their thanks and goodbyes, and left Yi not long after Kuvira did.