Chapter Text
Zhu li thought the uniforms were kind of tacky. The actual material was very earth kingdom- silky and rich, a deep verdant green. That wasn’t what concerned her. It was the shiny metal epaulets that gave her a pause. For metalbenders, it was a convenient built-in source of metal. For non-benders, they were just heavy lumpy shoulder-pads. Not to mention a potential hazard, a bendable material settled dangerously close to their necks.
She contemplated pointing it out to Kuvira, or potentially Bataar, but it felt frivolous.
And Bolin seemed to like them, eyeing his neat broad silhouette in the reflection of train windows with faint earnest pride. He also tended to smooth out his unruly black hair as he studied his mirrored form, looking painfully like a child who thought he looked grown-up.
Zhu Li couldn’t help but imagine him as a giant muscular baby. He had the innocence for it, and the youthful face. He seemed more likely to be several children stuffed in a trenchcoat than a young man turning nineteen in four days and seven hours.
She glanced at the clock. And thirty-two minutes.
She didn’t technically have to keep track of birthdays anymore, but years of writing and sending cards and gifts to investors and company executives on Varrick’s behalf had made it a habit.
Besides, nineteen was the official eligibility age for drinking in the earth kingdom, so she was anticipating having a careful conversation with the kid about safe alcohol consumption. If she didn’t, no one would.
That you could join an army before you were allowed to drink confounded her, but the earth kingdom had bigger problems to worry about. She knew, it was her job to worry about them.
“Zhu Li!” Varrick called from where he was sat at a makeshift desk settled between half-built rails and train cars littering the warehouse. Several papers were scattered across the desk along with pock-marked bitten pencils and magnetic train models. The tight-fisted looping graphite scrawl across the papers made her wince. That would be a pain to read over and type up for her records.
“Yes sir?” she said monotonously, settling behind his seat.
“Everything is a disaster!” he fumed theatrically, throwing his hands into the air.
“Yes sir,” she agreed, not bothering to ask for clarification. Everything was in its experimental phases, hardly a disaster, but it certainly felt like it sometimes. Kuvira’s metalbenders had set up makeshift rails and train carts across the plains between Omashu and Zaofu, but the technology for the frictionless magnetic track was proving exactly as finicky as to be expected.
He elaborated, gesturing broadly to the work scattered in front of him. “We are two weeks behind schedule and I still can’t figure out how to keep the doohicky on the whatcha-ma-call-it.”
They’d run into this problem a lot. To keep the train frictionless they’d had to use like-poled magnets, but to keep it from disconnecting from the tracks they needed a connection with opposite poles. It was a delicate balance to keep the two from interfering with one another.
Electromagnetic fields were exactly as complicated as they sounded. Who would have guessed?
Zhu Li sighed and got to work.
They had a rotating cast of engineers and metalbenders providing assistance, but Varrick seemed to be the only one of them bright enough to conceptualize the railway system properly. Zhu Li liked to think it was because he was a genius, but it was probably more due to his eccentricities and his infuriating tendency to ignore any rules he didn’t make up. That put most of the work on their shoulders.
Bolin popped in after a few hours of steady designing and wielding- unusual for Varrick but normal for her- looking rather frantic.
“Zhu Li,” he cried, making a beeline for her, a piece of paper clutched to his chest.
She set down her blowtorch and flipped up her visor, arching an eyebrow. It was a rare day when someone sought her specifically.
“You’re a girl.”
Oh boy, she didn’t like where this was going. “Last time I checked,” she confirmed awkwardly.
Varrick glanced between them, looking wholly amused with whatever was about to happen.
“Okay, so I need help with a girl,” Bolin said earnestly, rocking his weight from the balls of his feet to his heels.
Spirits, she really didn’t like where this was going.
“Bolin,” she said gently, “I don’t think I’m really the person to ask-”
“It was you or Kuvira.”
Oh.
Varrick snorted. “You made the right decision, kid.”
Zhu Li agreed, but only incrementally. Kuvira was hardly a welcoming option, but she hoped she wasn’t much of one either. With how her love life was looking, only the truly desperate would come to her for advice.
She pursed her lips. “I suppose I could try to help.”
“Yes!” the kid said, pumping a fist in the air.
He smoothed the paper he’d been holding over their sketchy blueprints. “So I haven’t told my girlfriend Opal that I’ve joined Kuvira’s army-”
Zhu Li felt an ache pierce her temple.
“-she still thinks I’m just volunteering with the relief force. I don’t know what I can say to make it sound better because her whole family is still argh about the whole Kuvira thing so-”
Zhu Li held up a slender hand. Bolin’s rapidly moving lips came tumbling to a stop.
“I understand the issue-” she understood all too well, when Varrick had broken the news to Suyin the lovely woman had looked about two seconds from punching him in several unmentionable places. Poor Bolin was in for a treat.
“Good communication,” she continued, “is a fundamental principle of any long-term relationship. The best way to tell her is to be as clear and honest as possible and make sure she fully understands your perspective on the issue.”
Bolin nodded quickly.
“That’s terrible advice Zhu li!” Varrick said, sliding the blank page away from her. “If you want advice for suckers you could do that, but if you want to avoid disaster you gotta butter your girl up!” He jabbed a finger into the paper. “Call her a lotus flower, or a gem, like jade or opal or something. Actually, not opal that might be confusing-”
Bolin looked conflicted. Varrick kept talking.
“You have to write the situation to your best possible advantage. You didn’t join Kuvira, you were tricked into joining her and it is one-hundred percent not your fault!”
“Isn’t that lying?” Bolin asked with wide eyes.
“Kid, is making a mover script more entertaining than the original story lying?”
“I mean sorta-”
“NO! It’s just artistic liberties to give the audience what they want!”
Zhu li shook her head. “Don’t listen to his romantic advice unless you plan on personally engineering ridiculously fast vehicles to escape your bending EX-girlfriend.”
“That was low, even for you,” Varrick hissed at her.
She wrinkled her nose at him before remembering Bolin was there and turning back to him. The kid was glancing between her and her boss with lifted eyebrows, getting all sorts of ideas he should not have.
“Anyway,” Zhu Li cleared her throat, “Just tell her what motivated you to join the army and assure her that your loyalty still lies with her.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Bolin said, carefully printing a few lines across the page.
“Don’t forget a few flashy compliments to keep her on your side. Don’t start with the bad news! Call her pretty and ask about her family!”
Zhu Li blinked. “That’s… actually not bad advice.”
Bolin kept writing, murmuring to himself as he went.
Both she and Varrick followed his words, tacking on helpful pointers (and occasionally not helpful pointers, courtesy of Varrick) (She was ninety-nine percent sure he was doing it to fuck with the kid, not that he’d ever admit it out loud) (the glint in his eyes were damning enough for Zhu Li).
Bolin lifted his hand and displayed the letter with a flourish. Both Zhu Li and Varrick reviewed it before giving the kid the okay.
Bolin gave an awkward little giggle or relief before grinning. “Thanks, guys,” he said clapping Varrick heartily on the shoulder. The older man’s wiry frame bowed forward from the force of it.
“Yeah, yeah, careful there kid, watch the hair,” Varrick said, the corners of his mouth twitching up earnestly.
Bolin turned to Zhu li, seemingly wanting to do the same to her before his hand hesitated in the air. “Ah-” he diverted its trajectory and instead gave her a very gentlemanly handshake. “Really, Zhu Li, thank you so much.”
She smiled. “Of course.”
Bolin nodded before bounding out of the room.
“He’s a good kid,” Varrick muttered to himself before grabbing a wrench and turning back to his workstation.
“Yes,” Zhu Li agreed softly before giving him a firm look. “You’re not allowed to corrupt him.”
“Aw, you’re no fun,” he said, scrunching his nose and running a hand through his wild hair. “Corruption is the best way to influence impressionable giant muscular babies.”
“Sir.”
“It was sarcasm Miss Moon, don’t look so ready to dig my grave,” he said, holding up his hands.
“You have motor oil in your hair,” she refuted, flicking the errant curl on his forehead while looking over a sketchy blueprint.
“Yeah, that was a real clever one Zhu Li,” he scowled, tugging on the curl self-consciously.
“I know,” she said sweetly, not looking up.