"I can't believe you volunteered to take the first shift," Baatar grumbled as he handed Kuvira her bowl of rice and stew. "You've been leading this whole thing, and now you're still working."
She took the food from him, and stabbed hungrily at a piece of moo-sow. "It's because I'm leading this is why I'm taking the first watch. I can't just drag everyone out here and then do nothing."
"Do nothing?" He threw himself down on the ground next to her and immediately regretted it when it turned out to be much harder than expected. Earthbenders. They always managed to make rock, dirt and metal seem cozy. "You've been the brains and the driving force behind all this! We'd still be talking around in circles back in Zaofu if you hadn't decided it was time to leave."
"You sell yourself short," Kuvira said, looking up from her bowl. A grain of rice stuck to her upper lip, but she licked it off before Baatar could give into the urge to brush it away. "We wouldn't have gotten as much support from the Xins and the Jis if it hadn't been for you. And I'm still amazed you managed to get Sifu Wu and his family to come too."
"We all want to do something." He leaned back on his elbows and tilted his head up to the sky. Stars, a rare sight for him at this time of the night, twinkled down at them, but the moon was hidden behind a cloud. "I still can't believe we're out here, doing this."
Kuvira set aside her bowl and tugged her braid over her shoulder, brushing the tip of it under her chin. Baatar knew her long enough to recognize it as a nervous tick and nudged her gently. "What's wrong?"
"Are we doing the right thing?" she asked lowly, her brow knit with doubt. "I know we have the intel Su received from Raiko, and we've got supplies, but Ba Sing Se is in total chaos. I'm just going to get everyone killed."
Baatar sat up. "Look–" he began, when he was interrupted by a sudden commotion from the camp.
They leapt to their feet, fists at the ready, but it was just Varrick, stumbling out of his tent with a giant plume of smoke billowing after him.
"Everything's under control, relax, just a little bit of a mishap with a steamer. Zhu Li, do the thing!"
His beleaguered assistant crawled out from her own smaller tent, and disappeared into his. After a few moments, the smoking stopped, and the grey cloud surrounding his tent diffused.
Varrick beamed at the circle of disgruntled people around him. "See, nothing to worry about."
"If the bandits discover us, Varrick," Kuvira warned.
"We have guards! We're surrounded by an electrified fence I haven't quite finished testing yet!" Varrick's eyes gleamed in the firelight. "And we have you, Captain. We'll be fine!"
Kuvira's lips thinned, but she didn't say anything else as Varrick crawled back into his tent.
"Now I know you're tired," Baatar said, turning back to her. "You would have chewed him out any other time."
"It's not that," she said, brushing her chin with her braid again. "He's no longer under contract with your mother. If I push him too hard, he might leave. He's Water Tribe, what stake does he have in our fight?"
"He wouldn't leave," said Baatar. "He's too crazy for that."
Kuvira huffed a laugh. "What does that make us?"
"Loyal and dedicated citizens of the Earth Nation. "
Her laughter came a little louder. "I should put you in charge of the propaganda." She drew her hand across the air, as though envisioning a banner. "It is sweet and fitting to die for one's nation."
"Ugh," Baatar made a face. "I wouldn't go that far."
He sat back down and patted the ground next to him. Kuvira joined him, her legs folding under her, graceful as always. Looking away from the circle of their encampment, he could see the faint glow of Varrick's experimental electric fence surrounding them.
Beyond the fence were the airships, and beyond that, nothing but darkness. He shivered, and rubbed his arms.
"You cold?"
"No…" He turned his gaze up to the sky. A gust of wind must have blown the cloud away because the full moon beamed down upon them. "Look," he pointed. "We have Yue's blessing for this."
Kuvira tilted her head back, her eyes following direction of his outstretched arm. "You believe in that?"
"Not really," Baatar admitted. "But sometimes it's nice to think about."
She sighed, leaning back on her elbows, and tipping her head up to the sky. "I haven't seen the stars in so long. It drove me crazy sometimes, to be out at night, and to look up only to see those ridiculous domes. I wonder how anyone can stand it."
"Force of habit."
"Fear and complacency," she said. This morning, before their departure from Zaofu, she'd yelled the words in his mother's face. Now they were sad.
"One day we'll go back and there'll be no more domes," he promised. "Zaofu won't need them anymore."
"Mmm," she murmured absently, her gaze fixed on the night sky. "I think I—look!"
She pointed. Something bright streaked through the darkness.
"A falling star?"
"Yes! And it's fallen in the direction of the Four Advisors! Great opportunities await, they will help you make your case to the Dragon Emperor."
Baatar turned to her. "You believe in that?"
She scowled, but in the bright light of the moon he could see her blush. "It's...when I was very young."
"Oh." He knew she didn't like talking about her past. "You don't have to tell me."
But she drew her legs up to her chest and the words kept coming. "My grandmother, she told fortunes. She'd look at the stars and tell the farmers when to plant the crops, when the best time was to marry, what sky a child was born under and what its future would be."
"And?" Baatar prompted, curious despite himself.
Kuvira shrugged. "I believed it. Sometimes. When they came true. And when they didn't it was just proof that the old beliefs were wrong.
"She died when…I don't know how old I was. It was a particularly harsh winter. I didn't really care after that. But when I was…" Her braid was back in her hand, the tail brushing over her chin and lips like she was hoping to sweep the words back in. "When I was alone, I remembered. She said the snout of the Black Lion Turtle always points west. He is looking for the first Avatar. So I went west until I came to Ba Sing Se. And then Su found me."
Baatar looked up at the sky. It was easier than looking at Kuvira, who trying to casually wipe her sleeve across her face. "Which one's the Black Lion Turtle?"
"It's too early for him. He appears in the fall, once the leaves turn."
He narrowed his eyes at a particularly bright star. "That'll be you one day."
"What?" Her eyes were dry when she looked up at him.
"There." He pointed. "Look at that cluster. That's you, metalbending."
"It doesn't look like anything, Baatar."
"You're not looking at it right." Grabbing her hand, he pointed it at the group of stars. "That's you, see?" He drew outline of a triangle with her finger.
"It's a triangle."
"It's your uniform."
"Right."
"And that–" he traced a wavy line moving away from the triangle. "Those are your metalbending cables."
For a few moments she peered up at the sky with him. Then she snorted, pulling her hand back. "Opal's right. You're such a dork."
"I'm telling you," he said with a grin, "One day they'll be looking up at the sky, and they'll tell stories about Kuvira. She walked the Earth Kingdom and united all the lands."
Kuvira laughed. "I walked , huh?"
"It's called artistic license, have you never talked to Huan?"
"And what about you?" She stuck him with her elbow and pointed. "There, that one looks like you!"
"That's a stick!"
Kuvira smirked at him. "Yeah, that's definitely you."
"You know, if I'd wanted abuse, I'd just have stayed back ho—in Zaofu."
Her smirk faded into something softer. "It's okay. It's not going to stop being home right away."
"I know. I wish...that some things worked out differently. But I don't regret this." He looked down at her hand, next to his. Underneath his fingers, dirt, soil, earth. He couldn't hear it hum the way she did, but there were other things he could do, now that he had the freedom to do so.
"We'll make it," he said, smiling back at her. "After all, the stars are in our favor."