A Night of Desperation

Part 2

"Hey." The guard spoke to his squad mate standing on the other side of the bedroom door.

"Hmm?"

"You think she killed her—"

"What?" The other guard looked over to him; his taken back stare indiscernible behind his dark mask.

"I-I mean Suyin's been in there a long time. A very…very long time."

"Maybe they've been talkin' a while…you know how these political things are." The other guard turned his focus forward once more. "It doesn't mean anything."

"It's 7 in the morning." The guard's head turned to the man beside him. "And the shift before us said Suyin arrived around 11pm." His eyes darted behind his mask. "That's like…8 hours ago…"

"…Doesn't. Mean. Anything." The other spoke with a stern voice, trying to keep his eyes straight, before he gave in and looked down. "Besides, it's not our business anyway."

"Yeah…sure."

Opening her eyes to the morning sun's rays stretched over the ceiling above her, Suyin turned her head to see the curtains pushed to one side of the window, as though someone had been looking out. She could understand why though, the view outside that window was breath-taking, and had been strategically placed there for that reason. You could watch the sun spread across the rolling hills and valleys, light conquering darkness, as it washed over the city in the distance.

'Maybe Bataar's up.' Suyin went to move, only to feel slightly pinned under the weight of someone else. She sighed. 'Maybe not.'

The sheets over her obscured the person's leg strewn between both of hers, but she could feel the annoying jabbing of an elbow into the side of her back.

"Ugh, Bataar."

It seemed like a normal morning she'd had many times before. Although, what struck her as odd was that Bataar was almost always awake, showered, and roaming the estate before she'd woken up. He had his lazier days, but normally kept to his schedule. He was a firm believer in "early risers meet success".

Suyin smiled and turned her head, expecting him to be the culprit jabbing her, but froze when she saw the rolled up forest green sleeve the elbow belonged to.

Turning back, she gazed up with wide eyes. The room, even with the sun streaming through, seemed to grow darker as the events from the night replayed themselves.

So used to the mornings in her room, she'd forgotten for a moment everything that had transpired, how Zaofu was being torn apart, how her and her family had been locked in a crate like animals, and how she'd been let out, only to feed the Great Uniter's needs.

Too bad she couldn't dismiss everything as a long, terrible dream.

It was all the doing of the young woman lying face down beside her; a light snore coming from her pillow.

'I can't believe I let her…' Suyin's thoughts trailed off as she rolled out of bed, grabbing her discarded pants from the floor. 'I feel gross.' She pulled them on, trying to ignore the sticky feeling of sweat dried to her skin. Walking past the bed with her bare feet, she stopped and stood in the middle of her room; her back turned to the Great Uniter. It was there that she caught herself with the urge to gaze at Kuvira's sleeping form, but didn't turn, not wanting the crumpled, disheveled sheets and the Great Uniter's body, lying haphazardly spread across the bed, to remind her of their encounter.

What was worse, is that she knew at the end of those memories, she'd realize, the night wasn't at all terrible. Tense maybe, but not terrible. She'd gotten one of the best nights of sleep in a while. Sleeping in a wooden crate wasn't doing much but keeping her and the family cranky.

'Family.' Suyin lifted her hand to her mouth. What kind of mother was she, to allow herself to give into pleasure willingly, without thought, as her family sat miserable, wondering, probably worrying about her?

She took her hand down, biting the corner of her lip with a furrowed brow. Turning to the vanity, she walked over, her curiosity drawn to an open document on the table; her hand brushing past the tall, empty liquor bottle as she picked up the lengthy document and flipped it to the cover.

'Reclamation of Zaofu'

'Terrible.' Suyin locked her jaw, eager to see just what destruction Kuvira had planned for Zaofu.

She ruffled to a random page.

'This title will establish Earth Empire as the absolute and only proprietor of Zaofu, constituting Earth Empire as the owner of all now and future holdings. All resources and assets of the land will be sole property of Earth Empire. This is a binding contract.'

Suyin flipped to the second to last page, seeing blank lines for signatures.

'VI: Demand of Sovereignty'

'By signing this the signer hereby agrees to relinquish any deed of ownership to the property, and claim Earth Empire as the sovereign, rightful owner of the former Earth Kingdom now and into the future. To dispute this is treason by law. Punishment will be immediate.'

"I guess she expects me to sign this." Suyin gave a chuckle and tossed the document back to the vanity, before turning and setting her eyes onto Kuvira, her brow slowly returning to its furrow as she sauntered to the bed's edge and stopped.

"Get Up." Suyin growled, her open palm shoving the Great Uniter in the shoulder, her heart rate skyrocketing, the crease in her brow deepening as she watched Kuvira give a nasty groan and turn the opposite way.

'How could I let her touch me?' A scowl twisted Suyin's lips. Lifting her foot, she gave Kuvira an extra hard shove in the same place. "Get Up." She took her foot down and put a hand on her hip.

"Kuvira."

The Great Uniter's eyes shot open at that voice, and she whipped around, rolling over too fast for her head.

Seeing Suyin's image standing over her, looking down at her with disdain, Kuvira was onslaught with a wave of horrified confusion, her eyes wide. "What the…S-?" She caught herself, clenching her jaw before her mouth uttered the name she used to be fond of. "You're not real."

A smug smile stretched across Suyin's face. "No, I'm just your conscience coming to haunt you." She watched the Great Uniter reach out a hand; a curious shock befalling her widened eyes.

'Su.'

"Of course I'm real." Suyin smacked away the hand nearing her hip, as fury poured into Kuvira's eyes the moment the Great Uniter knew the person before her was not an illusion.

"How did—" Kuvira's words were cut short as her focus shifted to getting out of her prone position to stand on her feet. 'She wants to see me weak. Look at that sarcastic smile, she's ridiculing me.' Mistaking how little of the bed she had left, Kuvira went to set her hand down to push herself up. Unfortunately, nothing but air rested beneath that hand. Right at the very edge of the bed, gravity took over and her body followed her hand, as she ungracefully tumbled to the floor.

Suyin laughed, watching the Great Uniter kick her tangled foot out of the sheets and groan before trying to get up. "You really are a complete mess." Suyin stood witnessing the Great Uniter's uncouth moment as Kuvira rolled off her side and onto her forearms. When Kuvira's eyes slammed shut, squeezing together with a face contorting force, Suyin knew there was a nauseating bout of agony pounding its way through her head and disrupting her senses. "That's what you get." Suyin glanced away.

Slowly standing off her hands and knees, Kuvira sat on the edge of the bed, too nauseous and overwhelmed to go after Suyin. Taking a few breaths, she let her body rest, her narrowed eyes finding their way up Suyin's thigh. "How did you get in here?"

Suyin's eyes widened, and her mouth hung slightly agape for a few seconds. "Don't tell me you don't remember what happened last night?" She watched Kuvira's eyes start to lazily wander about the room, and took the Great Uniter's silence as her answer. "Well try to…because I'm not filling you in." Suyin looked to her pillow behind Kuvira—the Great Uniter's hands overtaking her, the night playing out as some guilty sexual fantasy.

'Err.' Her core started to radiate a pulsating ache, and she looked away from the hands her eyes had found their way to.

Now sitting dormant in Kuvira's lap, those same hands had latched onto her, holding her captive through the night as they brought her to ecstasy. Then, once it was over, those hands softened and Suyin remembered feeling something troubling as the Great Uniter calmed and drifted to sleep. Finger tips weakly kneaded into her lower back over and over again as the woman holding her occasionally groaned in her sleep; her breaths hastening then slowing minutes later, distress tensing her face.

She wiped away the sweat beading on Kuvira's forehead, wrapping her arms around her troubled former guard, and her mouth automatically opened expecting to soothe the Great Uniter. But when she went to speak, her voice was stilled by mental images of Earth Empire guards trampling over Zaofu, its citizens being forced out, and her family being locked away. But, although her brow may have furrowed as she stared at the ceiling, she never once let Kuvira go.

Slouching, Kuvira's hands braced the bed's edge. "I'm still trying to figure out why you're here."

"You know, I was wondering that same thing last night, when one of your guards told me, you had ordered him to bring me here."

"I wouldn—" The disbelief on Kuvira's face quickly fell. She remembered how some dreaded sense of nostalgia drew her back to the mansion. As night fell, she roamed the estate halls she once patrolled, alone, seeing ghosted memories of the very woman standing above her now. Her gut told her walking into Suyin's bedroom was a mistake, but she defied it, only intending to spend a few minutes letting herself remember what was. "Suyin kept me from my true potential."

She told herself that, reconfirming her choice to move on from what they had, not realizing that as she spoke to herself in the darkness, she moved over and sat in Suyin's chair. It was there where minutes turned to hours, and strength gave way to weakness.

Kuvira's eyes found the vanity behind Suyin, bouncing from a glimmer coming off the armor left beside the chair, to the now infamous bottle sitting on the table above.

"Ugh…" Kuvira hunched over setting her elbows on her knees as her hands covered her face. 'Shit.'

"Now do you remember?"

Kuvira didn't answer the voice above. But some of the memories were coming back, from what she now considered to be her not so finest moment. An apprehensive look in Suyin's eye, her lips on Suyin's, her fingers moist and warm, her hands roaming over hot skin; the images were hazy flashes, nothing clear and concise, but it was enough. "A momentary lapse of judgement…" Kuvira berated herself, disappointment coloring her soft tone. "Why would you stay?" She lifted her face from her hands but kept her disgruntled gaze averted.

"Didn't really have a choice…" Suyin smirked.

"That's never stopped you from leaving before."

"There are two guards standing outside this door, and I've been in the Great Uniter's company too long for you to excuse this as a diplomatic meeting." Suyin smirked, watching that realization pour onto Kuvira's face. "Any clever ideas Great Uniter—"

"Stop." Kuvira threw up a halting hand, her mind was trying work. 'There's a solution to everything—why did I let this happen?'

Kuvira's eyes darted about the floor, her hand slowly coming down. 'This room only has one exit—fuck my head hurts.' She grimaced through a sharp pounding wave of pain, her hand going to her head. 'Even if I was able to get Suyin out another way, the guards would wonder where she went.'

A tender touch on her shoulder brought Kuvira back, her eyes freezing in one spot.

"Send the guards away…and while I'm here…we might as well talk." Suyin's hand slid from Kuvira as she turned around facing the document on the desk.

A sore ache on her shoulder blade led Kuvira to lift a hand and slip it under the collar of her loose coat, sliding it down her back until she froze. Beneath her fingers, she felt three thin scabbed over marks that ran at least three inches down. Then she remembered their bodies together; Suyin's hands squeezing into her shoulders, nails raking into her skin, her hand gripping Suyin's thigh to counteract the stinging pain. Taking her hand from her coat, Kuvira didn't bother to check the other side. It wasn't the first time Suyin left marks down her back.

"What is this?"

Kuvira couldn't help that her eyes trudged up at Suyin's voice, connecting with the document in Suyin's hand. When Suyin moved over and stopped in her personal space, Kuvira looked away. "Move." Her voice barely held its normal conviction as she spoke soft, her hand going to push Suyin aside.

But the stubborn woman didn't move when the back of Kuvira's hand weakly touched, or rather, brushed against her thigh.

"Kuvira…this has to end."

"Move."

"No."

Tossing the document to the bed, Suyin turned to the metal vanity chair and lifted her hand, dragging it over until the chair was right underneath her. She took a seat on the plush cushion, her eyes studying Kuvira's face, watching the Great Uniter's resolve falter ever so slightly.

When their knees brushed, Kuvira flicked her wrist, using her bending to scoot the chair away from her.

Suyin chuckled. "Have it your way." The light smirk on her face didn't last, falling to a guilty frown. "I made a mistake." She started soft. "But that doesn't give you the right to take vengeance out on Zaofu."

Kuvira's eyes snapped to Suyin's with a sharp, menacing stare.

"That's not going to rattle me, you should know that." Suyin gave Kuvira a short-lived smile. "You're driving yourself over an edge…" Concern replaced the anger that should have been in Suyin's eyes. "What will it take, hmm…what will it take to stop this?" She paused. "You've already done so much damage. But right now, it's still reversible." Suyin's brow furrowed. "I hate you for what you've done to Zaofu…But what you're doing to yourself is far worse." She sighed, leaning back, reclaiming her chair as she looked over Kuvira's shoulder to the near panoramic window. "That…" She pointed. "Is going to take…money, time, and work…" Her eyes came back to Kuvira's. "But it will be rebuilt. We did it once, we'll do it again." Suyin felt Kuvira's gaze boring into her, but shrugged off the intimidation, looking to her lap. "I could give you Zaofu, sign it away, let it be yours in an instant…but what would that do? Is this mass of metal and concrete going to solve all your problems?"

"This isn't about me."

"Oh but it is." Suyin smirked. "Last night I saw a very broken person."

Kuvira's brow creased to a dangerous point as Suyin leaned forward.

"And, if you had seen yourself from my point of view, you would have thought the same."

Their eyes locked.

"Zaofu's reclamation is a necessary step to unify Earth Empire…nothing more." Kuvira forced the words.

"You're missing the point." Suyin's words came out with a light scoff, and unfortunately, she felt the roll of her eyes before she could stop it. "You want to know what I think?"

"No—"

"I think something is bothering you, but you're constantly tossing your feelings aside because they don't fit the Great Uniter's indestructible image." Suyin watched Kuvira look away. "Be candid with me, when have you not been able to?"

"When I realized I couldn't count on you."

Kuvira could see Suyin's annoyance, knowing the matriarch was trying to refrain from smacking her lips.

"Let's put us aside for a moment, what else is bothering you?"

"I've worked too hard to let that boy tear down everything I've established." Kuvira looked down. "He will bring us to ruin."

"…I can agree with that." Suyin shifted in her seat, taking a last moment to carefully consider her next move. "…In fact…I want to help you—"

"HA, a little late for that." Kuvira met Suyin's eyes with a grin.

"You need a strong ally, am I wrong?"

"…"

"Because right now, no one likes you…besides your coerced army."

"What do you get out of it? It's always something."

Suyin smiled. "Restitution." Her smile dropped as she furrowed her brow. "I want Earth Empire to pay every cent it will take to fix Zaofu."

"No—"

"In return, you'll have my support." Suyin watched Kuvira's mouth close. "But, some things need to change, and I expect them to—"

"No, you will not undermine me or my decisions. I did this to get away from you." Kuvira lashed out. "And I've succeeded. I'm more powerful than you'll ever be."

"I don't care about that…" Suyin grinned, taking her eyes away from Kuvira as she turned her head. "In fact, I was proud to hear of your accomplishments." She turned back to Kuvira, seriousness re-planted on her face. "But you've taken it too far." A small bit of worry slipped into her eyes.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Three years ago, you marched out to help the Earth Kingdom, and its citizens. But now you extort them for loyalty and resources. They're only pawns in your one-man adventure." Suyin felt her brow knit together. "The closer you got to Zaofu, the more vindictive you became."

Kuvira looked away, wondering why, for the first time, she couldn't find a rebuttal.

"You're becoming an outright tyrant. If you are going to fight to stay in your position, you can't lose your humanity." Suyin paused. "The "re-education" camps need to go, laying siege to cities needs to stop...must I go on." Suyin deflated a little from her haughty, aristocratic posture as she looked away, crossing one leg over the other. "I know you're better than this. You've always been a strong leader. But there's a fine line between governing and reigning."

Hearing positive acknowledgement from Suyin, Kuvira's eyes met the ones shifting to her. In them, she saw genuine warmth returning, concern for her well-being, and maybe, even love. Her brow loosened a touch.

"Your extreme methods will only get you so far before those supporting you start to defect."

"They can't. They signed a contract." Kuvira smirked.

Suyin looked away, waving a dismissing hand in the air. "Contracts and more contracts…Kuvira you're asking for rebellion."

"What do you know, living in your perfect world…"

"What do I know?" Suyin gave a wry grin. "Kuvira, many leaders have come before you, or me for that matter. It is a tried and true fact that when you set rules or limits, people will break them…contracts mean nothing to rioting citizens. And at some point…you'll end up like the Earth Queen." Suyin paused, her mind grappling with the thought of the woman before her being assassinated. "I don't want to see that happen."

"I have plenty of safeguards in place to make sure that doesn't happen—"

"Just stop."

Kuvira's eyes snapped to Suyin's.

"For a moment, leave the Great Uniter behind—"

"This is me—"

"An angry part of you." Suyin stared at her, watching the Great Uniter look away. "What about who you were before this started?"

Kuvira sat up, lifting her chin a touch. "I was weak…following your every order blindly. And in the end my trust in you was betrayed."

Suyin rolled her eyes and sighed, leaning down to draw a hand over the bridge of her nose. "Kuvira…I made a bad call. I'm human, get over it. You of all know I'm not perfect…" Her thoughts were drawn to Bataar for just a moment. "And don't even say I never listened to you." She lifted herself, dropping her hand to glance around the room. "You were my right hand. How much time do you think we've spent together…"

Kuvira looked down, knowing the amount couldn't possibly be counted. She used to see more of Suyin than the matriarch's own family.

"You know I've taken your advice into account multiple times. You helped make decisions, important ones. Even your security schematics have become the backbone of guard operations today. You took my model and improved it." Suyin looked over sensing the lessening tension, seeing Kuvira's defenses weaken.

Then it hit her; what Kuvira wanted was attention, recognition...from her. The Earth Kingdom was only part of the problem. 'I caused this.' Suyin stared at the Great Uniter. Left alone to fend for herself for so many years, Kuvira only wanted to feel like she mattered, to be loved by the one person she cared about the most.

Suyin hated to admit it, but sometimes, she did use Kuvira for her own gain, getting close to the young captain, only to push her away again and again. It wasn't long before it all became second nature to her. She just figured Kuvira knew that their relationship would never and could never develop into something beyond rendezvous and secrecy.

Knowing she'd never leave her family, she still allowed her affair with Kuvira to continue, letting her budding fascination with the passionate, yet patient lover turn into a robust played-out fantasy. Like an unhealthy addiction, she couldn't stop going back, and found herself coming to Kuvira, time and time again. Kuvira knew how to manipulate every one of her senses…carefully, slowly; this young, "less experienced" woman spiked sensations in her body, knowing just how to intensify them with the right touch.

More and more Suyin found she loved looking up into the other woman's emerald eyes, searching her face, as Kuvira hovered over her, linking their hands, bringing their bodies together once again. There was almost always a hint of something predatory in Kuvira's eyes when they had sex, but in truth it unleashed her own desires, making her heart race with anticipation.

After almost a year of engaging in their life's distraction, the possessive gleam in Kuvira's eyes dimmed slightly, and Suyin could not only feel but see Kuvira's protective tendencies intensifying. It scared her...feeling safe in Kuvira's arms, and from there on she focused on distancing herself from the guard. 'I didn't really think about her feelings. Guess Lin was right, I haven't really changed.'

"I wanted more…"

The concealed pain in Kuvira's deep voice sulked through the room and Suyin looked down, readying a response, only to be side tracked as Kuvira stood and moved past her; the Great Uniter's face twisting into a grimace as she fought another wave of pain in her head, her arm extended out to the vanity counter to stabilize herself.

Kuvira looked up to meet her reflection in the mirror. Bloodshot eyes, faint dark circles, scruffy loose hair, she hadn't looked this bad in a long time. For a moment she remembered the dirty, putrid streets of Ba Sing Se's lower ring, and the meager existence she had before meeting Suyin, on that fateful day she stole from the wrong woman. Suyin quickly out-bended her, taking her somewhere to eat and letting her keep the loose change once they finished. Up to then, she had heard a little of the Beifong name and stories of Toph on the Ba Sing Se streets, but thought it was more myth than anything.

Time flashed before her eyes, and Kuvira watched her admiration for the older woman steadily grow into passion. She would have done anything for Suyin; it felt like her duty, something she owed the woman who had given her the world.

She couldn't pinpoint it, but at some point, passion became love. She never forgot the first time she slept with Suyin, hardly able to comprehend that the object of her thoughts and yearning wants laid in bed, naked right beside her. She gave Suyin everything she had that night, just in case the opportunity never came again.

The day after that started out painful. Suyin didn't acknowledge what happened the night before, barking orders at her, treating her no different than anyone else. But then Suyin called her into the office, only to close the door behind her and quickly walk across the room, taking her into a warm hug. Kuvira let her doubts go, accidentally dropping the helmet in her hand as she returned Suyin's embrace. In that moment, Suyin became hers, at least in her mind, and jealousy became her worst friend.

"I've wanted to hug you all day. But I can't be seen getting close to you in public. You understand that right?"

"Of course."

From then on their relationship became part of a game, and Suyin knew how to play it well. Their rendezvous were timed almost perfectly and calculated meticulously…until they weren't. As their meetings became more spontaneous and sporadic, Suyin got used to locking her office door, even purchasing a house in the guard's name.

But as months turned to years, Kuvira noticed Suyin beginning to distance herself. All of a sudden she was constantly too busy for her.

Then the fight happened shortly after the Earth Queen's death.

As her former home burned, Kuvira sat patient and kept quiet, having faith that the Matriarch—the woman she loved—would do something to help.

"What are you doing? Why would you decline their offer?"

Suyin looked at Kuvira with disbelief, never once hearing an outburst of this magnitude come her obedient and dutiful captain.

"I thought you were more than just a stuck-up person with a wealthy name…but maybe I was wrong —"

"Kuvira —"

"They are our people."

"I don't have the resou —"

"Excuses are a waste of your time…If I was out there, what would you do?"

"I'd do everything I could to bring you back."

"You sure? I don't know Su…maybe you'd let me burn out there too —"

"I would never."

Kuvira chuckled. "That's right, you wouldn't want to lose your play toy."

Fury erupted in Suyin's eyes. "Get out."

"I'll do you one better." Kuvira walked over placing her helmet on the coffee table. "I can't sit around and watch this."

'Kuvira' Suyin stayed quiet, watching Kuvira leave, trying to understand what just happened and how it was all over so fast.

"Are you going out there?" Suyin turned over the chair, watching Kuvira stare at herself in the mirror.

"What do you expect from this Su?" Kuvira's voice was flat; a semblance of defeat in her tone.

"My city, my family unscathed…" Suyin paused when Kuvira's brow knitted together. "You, in a better state of mind." She stood, carefully moving around the chair to stop and place her hand on the top of it. "Sit." Suyin picked up the chair and turned it around, but the Great Uniter didn't move. "Kuvira, please."

Kuvira pushed away from the vanity without a word to Suyin, and turned in the opposite direction, moving towards the door.

"Hey-hey-hey…wait." Suyin practically jumped in front of the Great Uniter and sized up Kuvira's uniform jacket. "You can't go out there like this." Suyin grabbed the material with both hands. "It's all wrinkled." She paused. "…Just take it off—"

"No—"

"Trust me." Suyin's fingers were already working at the buttons before Kuvira could protest. Making her way from the bottom to the top, Suyin was stopped as Kuvira pushed her hand away, undoing the rest on her own.

Looking down, Kuvira watched Suyin's hands come up to her lapels and push back her jacket; her eyes briefly searching Suyin's face.

Then her heart began to thump behind her chest; the pace quickening as her brow furrowed. She couldn't help how Suyin made her feel, so she steeled her jaw.

Pulling the jacket from Kuvira's arms, Suyin hid her face and the smile threatening to break the best she could. She could feel the change in Kuvira's pulse through the bare soles of her feet. "I might be mad at you, but I don't hate you enough to let you go out there like this…Sit." Tossing the jacket over her shoulder, Suyin moved past Kuvira and grabbed the back of the Great Uniter's white tank top, pulling her to the chair, briefly taking hold of her waistband to guide her down to the cushion. Staying behind Kuvira, Suyin pulled out a drawer to the vanity, grabbing a silver hairbrush.

"I love you, I do." Suyin's words were soft as she put the brush to the Great Uniter's dark locks and pulled it back towards her abdomen. She was in no way expecting a response from the woman below, but still, Kuvira's complete silence put an eerie tension in the room as her emerald eyes stared straight ahead and nowhere else. "But what you're doing is hurting me." Suyin's hand paused mid-stroke but resumed shortly after she gave a sigh. "There has to be a way we can meet in the middle on this." She pulled Kuvira's hair into a long ponytail.

They didn't speak as Suyin's fingers separated Kuvira's ponytail into three sections, crisscrossing the hair with practiced ease. 'I miss this.' She thought of happier moments, doing Kuvira's hair as the captain nodded off. Some days a moment like this was all the time she had with Kuvira, having to leave the guard with a kiss on the cheek or forehead shortly afterward. Taking a thin rubber band out of the same drawer, Suyin tied it around the end of Kuvira's braid.

Sensing Suyin was finished, Kuvira leaned forward; the shorter section of her hair slipping from the ponytail, cascading down one side of her face as she slid her elbows to her knees and pressed her fingers against her temple. "I have a proposition for you." The muscles in her forehead tensed as a sharp pain rushed through her head once more.

"What?" Suyin hesitated to ask.

"I'll give you Zaofu and let your family stay…Junior too." Kuvira paused, her eyes closing.

"What about everything else?"

"It can be done." Kuvira stood and turned to Suyin; the matriarch feeling a pang of relief looking at the more familiar face of her guard.

"So...what's the catch?"

"I want you by my side."

Suyin's soft sigh wiped the surprise off her face as she looked down, walking away from Kuvira, pacing the room for an answer. "So…an ultimatum." Suyin's brow furrowed. "I come as your hostage…or else…" She turned around to face Kuvira and look her in the eye. "Why do you have to give me an option I couldn't possibly say yes to?"

"Hostage? Is that how you think of yourself with me?"

"My family is my life. My city is my life. How could I ever leave?"

"How long will it take to fix Zaofu?"

"I don't know Kuvira…at least over year."

"You stay with me until Zaofu is fixed, as my advisor."

"How do I know you won't stall the construction?"

"…You have my word."

Suyin gave a wry smile. "Will you even listen to my advice? I thought you wanted to get away from me so bad." She looked at the blank expression on Kuvira's face. "Do I have a choice?"

Lifting her head, Kuvira gazed past Suyin, knowing what she was getting into wasn't healthy. But at least for a while Suyin would feel like hers again.

"I'll do it."

Kuvira's eyes brightened as she looked to Suyin, but the older woman didn't let her gaze linger, and turned her head away.

Walking forward, Kuvira reached out, gently taking Suyin's hand, lifting it up with her own. "You just said you loved me, yet the prospect of staying with me is unfavorable to you…" Kuvira traced the back of Suyin's hand with a finger.

"It's not that Kuvira." Looking into Kuvira's eyes, Suyin saw the Great Uniter's intimidating gaze. "I know Bataar can watch over Zaofu just fine, but you're taking me away from my family..."

"…I won't keep you from seeing them." Kuvira let Suyin's hand drop from her own and moved across the room, heading to the door.

Suyin stepped out of the door's view as Kuvira opened it and stuck her body between the frame so the guards couldn't look in.

"We've come to an agreement, bring me some paper and a pen." Kuvira spoke to one of the guards, doing her best to keep her Great Uniter image intact as she only imagined the shocked and puzzled look behind the soldier's mask. "Well?" She furrowed her brow at the silent guard.

"Uh-um…y-yes Great Uniter right away." He turned and jogged down the corridor.

Kuvira looked to the other guard. "You're dismissed."

The guard said nothing as he gave a nod and turned on his heel to move down the hall.

Closing the door, Kuvira wandered further into the room, her eyes catching Suyin's.

"What's the paper for?"

"We have to draft a contract."

Suyin sighed. "Oh Kuvira…you can't just trust that I'll keep my end of the deal."

"…No."

A.N. I had a burst of inspiration for this story. Since it's been like 3 years (-_-), I briefly considered re-writing the first part…but I'm already a slow writer, so to keep myself moving, I sadly will leave it alone. :(

Anyway, I tried my best to write something coherent…yeah yeah I know I can get carried away with dialogue. ;)

Update: Here's a song that inspires this chapter: Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (Oh heart, it's difficult), check it out.