Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"What do you mean, other Avatar?!"

Korra's question was only met with a shrug. "That's all it says," Master Sakari's flat voice replied. "That, and he's bringing them here."

Korra grabbed the telegram, reading it frantically. "This is a joke," she said frantically, as though that would make it true. "Tenzin finally grew a sense of humor, and decided to play an unfunny practical joke."

"Sure." Sakari's tone didn't change, but somehow the sarcasm was clear.

"Well, what do you suggest!?" Korra snapped. "Don't tell me you believe this - that I've been faking my whole life?!"

"No one believes that. I wouldn't let them, with how many of your pebbles I've taken." Sakari's smirk showed the emotion her voice lacked, but her face grew serious again. "Tenzin is not a jokester nor a fool, and he wouldn't send such a message unless he was sure. It must be as he says. There is another Avatar."

"But that's impossible!" the Avatar cried.

"Stranger things have happened."

"Have they?!"

Korra was not having a good day.

She hadn't had a good day since the telegram arrived, actually. But today was especially not good.

Today was the day she would meet the "other Avatar".

She still didn't know anything else about them. Not even things as basic as where they lived, or what elements they already knew how to bend, or their gender.

She was pretty sure she hated them, though.

(In her more hopeful moments she admitted it might be nice to have someone her age around. Maybe they would be a nice, quiet girl that she could teach waterbending to, and they could compete with their bending, and then they would go back to her room and ki-)

She shook it out of her head. Now wasn't the time to fantasize, now was the time to actually meet her.

Them.

Korra took a deep breath, stood to her full height, entered the igloo where they were waiting, and hoped.

Trúc was not having a good day.

To be fair, he rarely did have good days. He never felt quite at home in the swamp, despite it being the only home he'd ever known. But he'd hoped that things would change for the better on his sixteenth birthday, when it was finally time to announce to the world outside the swamp that he was the Avatar. (He'd known for years, of course. Even if airbending was a bit more subtle than the other elements, it's hard to miss using your waterbending techniques to propel a boat on land.)

Instead, he was laughed at. Told there was already an Avatar. And even when he used his bending to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the Avatar and this other Avatar was clearly a faker, he wasn't celebrated. They just went quiet.

Then they took him to their chief. And the same thing happened again. And the chief took him to the city. And it happened again. And again. And again.

So really, how could anyone blame him, when he finally made it to this "other Avatar", some stuck-up angry girl who wouldn't believe he could bend air without a demonstration, for demonstrating knocking her on her ass?

It really wasn't fair that the old man yelled at him for that. And it really wasn't fair that the girl dropped him in a hole and buried him in stupidly cold white stuff, and didn't get any worse punishment than he did.

But most of all, it really wasn't fair that this girl was just as much the Avatar as he was.

Tenzin was not having a good day.

Honestly, he didn't tend to have good days anymore; "disgruntled" had become his default state since he joined the council. But today he was more disgruntled than usual.

He had been flying Oogi nearly nonstop for days, first to Gaoling - where he was summoned with only the cryptic message "There's something you need to see" - then from there to the Southern Water Tribe's land. Trúc had not been a pleasant travel companion, constantly complaining of the cold and the height. And then he had finally reached Sanirajak, introduced Trúc to Korra, and the two had immediately started fighting.

"I'm ashamed of you both," he said after briefly scolding each of them. "I hope you don't act this way during your training together!"

"Training?" Trúc repeatedly warily.

"Together?" Korra asked with equal trepidation.

"Yes, Trúc will be joining your training as of tomorrow," Tenzin stated.

"But I've almost mastered waterbending! I don't need some green swamp kid slowing me down!" Korra protested.

"I'm sure I can keep up with a girl," Trúc sneered, spitting the last word like an epithet.

"Oh you did not - there is no way I'm training with this little misogynist!"

"Well, I don't want to train with-"

"Enough!" Tenzin shouted. "You're training together and that's final! I'm going to see Kenzou about Trúc's living arrangements, you two - try to get along!"

He was disappointed, but not surprised, to hear shouting and the sounds of bending combat as he stormed away from the igloo.

Trúc had to give her one thing - she was powerful.

She lacked grace, and subtlety. But, he thought as he dodged another massive ice blast, she almost made up for it with raw power. It was no wonder she'd started earthbending.

"Wanna take this outside, princess?" he taunted almost flirtingly.

"You bet I do, swamp boy!" she yelled back, sending more icicles his way to force the issue.

Spirits, he was quick. And tricky, she noted as she barely caught the water bolt coming at her from behind. It figures he'd be an airbender. If she wasn't so irritated, she'd be impressed.

But she was the Avatar, and she wasn't going to lose to some untrained chump, tricks or no tricks.

Dinner was, expectedly, tense.

Two potential Avatars, both soaked and shivering, glared at each other across the table. The three White Lotus officials, wisely, volunteered little in the way of conversation.

And yet, Tenzin blithely talked on, seemingly unaware of the atmosphere.

"But enough about that," he concluded a rant about the apparently-inane legislature currently being discussed by the Council. "How about these two? Kenzou, you must have some theory as to how there can be two Avatars?"

All eyes were on the White Lotus leader as he responded. "It all goes back to Aang, of course. When he was in that iceberg, I suspect - well, the world went a hundred years without an Avatar, so to speak. Perhaps the cycle simply tried to - move on, without him."

It was Korra who pointed out the obvious flaw. "That doesn't make sense, wouldn't the second Avatar have shown up, like, a hundred years ago? Why now?"

Kenzou sighed. "I wish I knew. Perhaps the cycle simply couldn't move on until his death. Or, well, it's just a theory; perhaps Aang did something else to cause this." He turned his head towards Tenzin. "I wish any of your father's companions were still alive, surely they would have some idea."

"What? Suki's still alive. Right?" Korra asked, alarmed. "You'd tell me if Suki died, right??"

"Ah. Right. Suki." Kenzou at least looked embarrassed. "I suppose we should at least ask her. Given her thoughts on 'spiritual gobbledegook' though... I doubt she'll be any more help than she was with the new benders problem."

"New benders problem?" Trúc asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Have you been living under a rock??" Korra exclaimed.

"We ain't exactly flush with visitors back home," Trúc sneered defensively. "So what's wrong with the new benders?"

Everyone hesitated, but finally Tenzin broke the silence.

"There aren't any.

"No new benders have been born for sixteen years."

Since I was born, both Avatars thought.

Korra awoke with an edge of tiredness still on her. Bleh... I guess I stayed up too late worrying. Ultimately though, she'd decided there was nothing she could do but continue to focus on her training and let the White Lotus worry about the bigger issue.

She plodded down to breakfast, where she was the last one to arrive. Except... there was an empty chair. She stared blearily at it, wondering what guest they could be hosting this morning, before realizing. Right. Tiriaq¹, or whatever his name was. He's still asleep? I was hoping he'd at least take this seriously.

Breakfast ended with no sign of the swamp weasel. Maybe he ran away. Good riddance, I'd say. But it wasn't so good, Korra found, as the first thing her instructors had planned for the day was a demonstration spar against him, from which they'd determine how to proceed. Until he showed up, there was nothing for her to do but warm up.

Nearly an hour of increasing aggravation later, Korra was startled into an over-large ice blast by a "Hoy!" from right behind her. She turned to find the weasel himself, dressed in a mockery of her people's winter clothes (in late spring) and with a look on his face like he wanted to stab her (which really isn't fair, given how much he's been putting me through).

"They want us to spar. C'mon," he said, as though she was the one delaying them.

As soon as she heard Master Sakari's flat voice intone "Begin," Korra launched an ice blast - this one intentionally large - across the arena. No sooner had it landed than she had it spraying ice spikes in the direction she'd seen her opponent dodge to.

The area sufficiently suffused, she paused to see if the round would be called. Which was when she was bowled over by a wave from the arena's moat.

"Stop. First round, Trúc," Sakari spoke. "Reset."

Korra swept away her ice blast and glared at - Taruq? Was that it? What a weird name.

"Begin."

This time Korra started with a great wave from the side of the arena. Her opponent's eyes bulged and he struck a desperate pose. Gotcha, Korra thought. But after the wave passed, he was still standing, the core of the wave having passed right over him.

Korra's opponent faced her and sent a blast of air her way. She barely recovered in time to freeze her feet to the ground before the second blast. As he continued advancing, she bent a pile of snow from nearby over the arena, blinding them both. Under this cover, she bent up a portion of the arena floor and - with only a little difficulty - sent it flying at the source of the bellowing winds.

"Stop. Second round, Korra."

Sakari turned to consult with the other masters briefly - oh hey, all three of them are here today - then announced new rules. "For the rest of the match, only waterbending may be used. Also, this round, Trúc will be allowed to make the first move. Begin."

Korra bristled - in what real fight would I just let my opponent strike first? - but waited while - Tiruq? - sprayed water out of the moat around himself then pulled it back into a ball.

That's embarrassing, he can't just bend it out as a ball to start? Korra thought, but was begrudgingly impressed when he repeated the move, forming a ball over his other hand. And then a third time, starting to juggle the orbs of water. How can he do that when he clearly doesn't know the basics?

When he'd collected five orbs of water, he finally sent them flying towards her, bursting into spray and soaking her from head to foot. And otherwise having no real effect. What was the spiritsdamn point of all that?? Korra thought.

Her opponent also seemed surprised at his own ineffective move, somehow, so Korra took advantage to fire a series of ice balls at him. He rather impressively dodged them with a boost from a spray of water, but Korra, on a hunch, kept up the barrage. Sure enough, he eventually dodged himself into a corner and the final ice ball toppled him into the moat.

"Stop. Third round, Korra." Master Sakari consulted with her colleagues again - likely having noticed the same thing Korra did - before turning back to the weasel. "Trúc, would you mind showing us your skills with ice."

"Ain't got any," the boy responded freely.

"What, none?" Korra asked incredulously.

"Nope. Can't make it, can't bend it. Heck I ain't even seen the stuff 'til a couple days ago. I can kinda feel it's like water, but that's it." Korra could hardly believe her ears - ice was easier to bend than water - why would he admit that? "Unless blowing the powdery kind around counts," he added.

"That's snow, dumbass."

"Ain't it the same?"

"No!" She thought about it for a second. "Well, kind of I guess, but no!"

Master Sakari cleared her throat. "Trúc, in that case, have you completed your demonstrations."

"Huh?"

"Have you demonstrated all your waterbending skills."

Korra bristled again as he thought. Normally she was the one being asked that.

"I reckon that's about all I can show like this," the boy - Trooq? - screw it, Truck, he's Truck now - said at length. "Most of my tricks involve boats. Or plants."

"Very well," Master Sakari spoke. "Korra, you will train with Master Petuwaq today. Okauyak, you and I shall look into Trúc's remaining skills."

Korra, grumbling a little, followed the ice master to the other side of the compound.

Trúc set his lunch down and seated himself with a dramatic sigh. "Some day, huh?"

Korra made no response except a noncommittal grunt. The White Lotus and waterbending masters were eating elsewhere, it seemed, so it was just him and Korra. He was well aware that neither of them had made a great first impression, but he was willing to grant a second chance if she was.

"So what y'all got planned for the afternoon? Something fun?" he persisted.

Korra shot him a fierce look. "You know we're not done training for the day, right?"

"You're kidding me. How long do y'all train for??"

Korra shrugged. "Four hours in the morning, four in the afternoon."

"Eight hours!?" Trúc moaned. "Ain't nothing in this world worth doing for eight hours! And you do this all the time?!"

"Yes," Korra responded, starting to sound angry, for some reason??

"Spirits, sounds exhausting. Well, how long till next break day, two days? Three?"

"How weak do you think I am?!" was Korra's bizarre response.

"Five? Seven??" At Korra's increased glare, a horrible thought occurred to Trúc. "Oh no. Do not fuckin' tell me you don't at least get regular days off!"

"What do you want, here?! We get a day off for the Spirits' festival, and New Year's and the Black Sun anniversary, isn't that enough?!"

"Three days a year!? Lands' sakes, girl, when do you have fun? When do you rest?!"

"We can't afford to rest!" Korra yelled. "You don't get it, do you?! We have a responsibility-"

"Plenty of folks got responsibilities without spending their entire damn life on it-"

"Well if you don't want to take it seriously, maybe you should just leave!!" Korra slammed down what remained of her lunch and stormed away.

Yikes. That bitch has issues.

The next evening, Korra saw Truck looking exhausted and decided, since he was doing the training, it wouldn't hurt to help him recover afterwards.

"Hey. You look tired."

Truck turned his tired-looking glare towards her. "And what's it to y'all?"

"I just thought I'd let you know what I do, when I'm tired. Like a peace offering, maybe, y'know?"

She wasn't sure, but she thought she saw his glare lessen just slightly. "What'll that be, then?"

"There's a hot spring in the mountains nearby, I like to soak in it and let my soreness melt right off. I can show you where."

His face did something complicated that she couldn't quite interpret, but in the end he was glaring more intensely than ever. "I don't need pity from a girl," he growled, then stormed off.

What the dark was that??

"Again."

Once again Korra drew up water from the basin, focused, and shot it out towards her target.

Once again she sent about five times the amount of water that she intended.

"Again."

Korra glanced at her rival - he was glaring at her, as usual, as he entered the healing tent - where she still wasn't allowed, until she got better control. Spirits, she wished she could wipe that smug look off his face.

This time she shot ten times her intended amount.

"Okay, stop. Korra," Master Sakari said, "I know you've had a hard time of it since Trúc showed up. And I understand it must be upsetting to have someone else claim what you thought was your birthright. But-"

"It's not that!" Korra blurted.

"Oh?"

"It's - well, it's a little bit that. But I could handle that, if he wasn't such a creep! He's always sneaking up on me at the worst times, I haven't been able to relax in days, and he asks his dumb little questions, like I'm honestly gonna believe he doesn't know what money is - obviously he's making fun of me somehow! And he clearly hates me for some reason, I thought it was misogyny but he's only doing it to me which is worse, plus he keeps showing off during training, acting like he's subtle, he's not, ugh, I just - he's so terrible!"

Master Sakari nodded sympathetically - or maybe just thoughtfully, Korra wasn't quite sure.

"As I was saying, I understand his presence upsets you. But one, very important, thing you must learn as the Avatar is the ability to maintain control despite your emotions." At that, Korra let out a shout of frustration.

"But perhaps this is not the time," Sakari amended. "Take the rest of the day off to relax, do something nice for yourself, whatever you want."

Korra stared incredulously as her master walked away, leaving her stranded.

"But what I want to do is keep training!" she complained.

This compound must be the only place in the world worse than the swamp, Trúc decided as he looked out across the bleak tundra from atop the wall.

He could take biting cold that wormed its way in no matter how many layers of fur he wore. He could take loneliness from literally no one anywhere near his age to talk to, except for a girl who hated him. He could even take training for stupid amounts of time daily, with the gap between Korra's power and his only growing wider.

But for there to be a city just over the horizon, its glow taunting him with excitement and novelty and glamour every night, that he wasn't allowed to go to? That was too much.

Something had to give.

Chapter Text

Korra frowned. Lunch was nearly over, and Truck still hadn't shown up.

She hadn't thought anything of it when he didn't show up for training. He skipped out on the regular, making the ridiculous claim that breaks helped him train more than actually training did - she'd given up trying to talk him out of it. And oftentimes he'd sleep through breakfast on these days as well.

But he always came for lunch.

She didn't care where he was. He was an awful, vindictive, irresponsible pain in her ass.

And yet, she found herself knocking on his door.

"Swamp boy?" She yelled through the door. "You still asleep? It's lunchtime, you know!"

No response.

"Yo, weasel face, you in there?!"

Silence.

"Alright, you asked for it, I'm coming in!"

Korra entered and found an empty room.

... A very empty room.

Korra had only been in here once before (the first time he failed to show up for training) but she was pretty sure there had been a lot more stuff in here that time.

Stuff like clothes. (Well, maybe just clothes, actually.)

"He's running away."

She didn't want this to be her problem. He was terrible, as far as she was concerned he could leave and good riddance.

But he was maybe the Avatar. And the Avatar had responsibilities. Responsibilities that, if shirked, would...

Well. She couldn't let that happen.

Naga's nose led them to an out of the way corner of the compound.

At the base of the wall was a narrow hole - something Korra could maybe fit through, but certainly not Naga. Luckily, the wall being made of ice, this was no impediment. She sealed it behind them for good measure.

It had been windy all day, so there was no trail of footprints to follow, and even Naga had some trouble with the scent trail. Progress was slow, even though it was obvious right from the start where he was headed.

Where else was there to go from here, but the capital city Sanirajak?

Still, if they lost his trail now, they'd never pick it up back in the city. So slow going it was.

When they finally reached the city in the mid-afternoon, Korra was cold, tired, and angry. None of these conditions were improved by Naga tracking his trail to a commercial area, and specifically, what looked like the fanciest restaurant on the street. Oh, he's a snob as well as all his other charming qualities, that's great.

Sighing, Korra entered the restaurant, scanning over the seating area for her counterpart.

She was shortly interrupted by a polite cough. "Miss, are you looking for someone?"

"Yeah," she responded instantly, turning to the host. "Swamp boy, about my age, constantly looks like he's ready to kill someone?"

"Oh. Him."

"I see you've met," Korra remarked wryly. "He ran away, I'm here to bring him back."

The host summoned a waiter, whispering something in his ear that sent him striding off. Turning back to Korra, he stated "You'll have to pay his bill first."

"Oh, I cannot believe him!" Korra fumed. She followed it with a sigh, then "How much?" in a weary voice.

The host handed her a scrap of paper.

"Eighty yuan?!" She hadn't known a meal for one person could cost that much. "I, uh, don't suppose you'll take credit?"

"No," he hissed. The waiter from before emerged from the back, weasel in tow.

"I'm good for it!" Korra protested. "I'm the chief's daughter!"

"Right," the host responded, sarcasm oozing from his voice. "Avatar Korra. The one that's currently training in a secure facility outside town. That chieftain's daughter?"

"Yes!"

"You know, he tried to tell us he was the Avatar, too. Learned it from you, I imagine. You at least look the part."

"Because I am Korra!" Korra screamed.

A very large ice spike impaled in through one of the windows.

Oops.

Before she'd processed what happened, Truck had hold of her hand and was pulling her out of the restaurant.

"After them!" shouted the surly host. "Thieves! Vandals!"

Unfortunately for the Avatars, there actually happened to be a militia group passing by who were inclined to chase them, and they found themselves ducking into a side street to avoid flying ice.

Korra whistled for Naga, and the polar bear dog caused a commotion barreling through their pursuers. This bought the Avatars enough time to mount her (even with Truck's difficulty doing so), but the militia were once again on their heels, sending ice to pin them down and cut off their escape. Korra caused her own share of chaos with a hailstorm counter, but the enforcers were not so easily dissuaded.

"Water," Truck said.

"What?" Korra responded distractedly.

"I need water! Pull some from," he gestured vaguely at the frozen ground, "this shit."

Korra rolled her eyes at his incompetence but complied, pulling up and melting a layer of fresh snow.

She lost her grip on the freed water when another missile forced an unsteady dodge from Naga, jostling her. Before it could reach the ground, though, it was seized by Truck and expanded into an obscuring cloud of fog.

Okay, that's a nice trick.

Naga raced off as best she could in the fog, slowing to a silent trot when the commotion of icy projectiles ceased. Korra and Truck repeated the melt-and-disperse trick a few times, and the trio continued to sneak around for a while, to be safe.

After about ten minutes and twelve blocks, Korra felt safe saying "I think we lost them."

Truck frowned. "They seemed real pissed though, we should hide out somewhere in case."

"I suppose," Korra said noncommittally, hopping off of Naga. "What the dark were you thinking, anyway; dine-and-dashing? In a place like that?!"

"Die-nend-ash?" Truck repeated blankly.

"Yeah - you know, eating then leaving without paying?" Korra answered testily. She offered her hand to help Truck off of Naga, since apparently he wasn't capable of that on his own, either.

"...Paying?" Truck asked with seemingly as little understanding.

"Spirits, enough with this already! It wasn't funny in the first place, so please, would you stop pret-" Korra cut herself off as a crazy, horrible possibility struck her. Between his questions and what just happened and, well, he came from the swamp...

"Oh spirits. Oh fucking spirits, you aren't pretending are you? You literally don't know what money is. What the fuck." Korra let out a crazed, strangled laugh.

"... An' what is it?!" Truck demanded after an expectant pause.

"It, uh. Um...?" Korra was at a loss, because honestly, how did you even explain something as basic as money? Her eyes wandered, and suddenly she realized she knew this street. "Hey, I know where we can go!" She surged forward to lead the way-

and felt a jerk.

There was a pause as both Avatars realized they were still holding hands, then "Eurgh!", they separated with a great show of disgust.

Another pause, in which they silently agreed never to speak of this, then- "Come on, this way," Korra said impatiently.

"What's this place?"

Korra grinned as she hopped over the antlers of the reindeer-wasp skull she'd set to 'guard' the entrance. "Cool, right? It's Chief Sokka's old storehouse!" She looked back to where he was standing, wide-eyed, in the doorway. "Well, come in."

To be entirely fair, there was a lot to look at. Weapons - and she still couldn't believe he'd actually known how to use all of these - and armor, trophies from creatures he'd hunted, 'technical diagrams' (she'd hung a few up as wall art) with the occasional functioning doodad, not to mention all the books, clothes, and unlabeled boxes. There was a reason she'd set this up as her private clubhouse, back when she actually left the compound sometimes.

The super comfortable couch didn't hurt either, she thought as she flopped onto it, Naga curling up in front.

"Why's this all just sittin' around?" Truck asked.

Korra shrugged. "My theory is because Katara died so soon after him, this place kinda got forgotten. I haven't actually asked though, I didn't want the adults remembering it exists and taking it from me." Not that it matters anymore, I suppose.

Korra glanced over at Truck. He seemed absorbed in all Sokka's miscellania, so she grabbed one of the books to read. Ooh, letters from Zuko, those are always entertaining. ...And sometimes hot. Literally, too, she thought with a wry pause on a rather singed entry. She turned to a page at random and read.

I don't know what to tell you. On the one hand, I'm living proof that sometimes, people are just going through something. They lash out and do horrible things, and all you can really do is let them sort themselves out and wait for them to be a better person.

On the other hand, sometimes people are like Ozai: irredeemably horrible in a way that will never get better, and you need to stop them from causing more harm any way you can.

I wish I could tell you how to tell the difference. If you ever figure it out, let me know?

And which are you, she wondered of the boy who was currently looking through old uniforms and suits of armor.

The boy who was currently holding up a dress.

"Wanna try it on?" Korra teased.

"'Course not, don't be stupid!" he snapped. "Just wonderin' why Sokka had the thing."

She looked closer. "Oh, that's the Kyoshi Warrior uniform! They're the coolest, they're a group of all-women warriors that use Avatar Kyoshi's fighting style! Suki used to be their leader, you met her right? The uniform must be from when they let Sokka join!"

Truck dropped the uniform with a disgusted sound on hearing that.

"Oh, what, is a man joining a bunch of girls that offensive to you?" she jeered.

He gave her an odd look. "Yeah? It's like, violatin', ain't it?" Oh he fucking did not. "Lettin' a guy into a women's space - that's s'posed to be for them, and he just waltzes on in? It ain't right."

Wait, is he... is he offended for the Warriors?

"What're you lookin' at?!" Truck demanded.

"I don't get you. When you first got here I would've sworn you were a misogynist with how you acted. Still act. But then you bust out," she gesticulated vaguely for a second, "that, and you never seem to have a problem with Master Sakari or Okauyak, just me. So what's your deal?"

Truck sighed, looking down at the floor. He turned away, working up courage, before looking straight at her.

"I don't see why I should explain myself to a girl," he sneered.

Korra huffed and turned back to her book. I don't know what I expected.

To be honest, I didn't really understand most of what you wrote about the 'Heritor Cycle'. But as much as you hate it, the spiritual was always your thing, not mine, right?

Don't think that's me refusing, though. Honestly, as if you even have to ask - how could my own power compare to something so important? What honor could I possibly have, if I refused?

Unless, of course, this is just a ploy to bring me down to your level. You'd like that, wouldn't you? Being able to push me down on a table and have me completely at your mercy. No fire to stop you as you-

"I don't get me either," Truck said suddenly.

Korra looked up to see him sitting across the room, pointedly not looking at her. "What do you mean?"

"Like. I like girls. I respect girls. Most a' the folks I admire's women. But sometimes, I see a pretty girl, and I just get mad, for no reason I can figure."

Korra scrunched her brow thoughtfully. "Maybe... it's a crush?"

"I... is that what crushes are like??"

"Well, not for me, but..." she thought of the letter she'd just read and blushed, "...ah, maybe it's different for boys?"

Truck just 'hmm'ed thoughtfully. And perhaps a bit uncomfortably.

Then Korra's brain caught up to her mouth. Wait, that would mean he has a crush on me!?

She looked over at him again, considering. Well, I guess he's kinda hot...

But he's also terrible! Snap out of it, girl!

"Sso, where were you going, anyway?" Korra asked, as a distraction from that.

"Hmm?" Truck responded distractedly.

"You must have been going somewhere," she pointed out.

"Must I?" he said, sounding almost unaware of his own words.

"You packed up all your clothes. People don't do that for a day in the city."

Truck didn't respond.

"You... did have a plan, right??"

Silence.

"Hey, don't just ignore me, weasel face!"

"Hwha?" weasel face finally replied. "Oh, I... not really? I kinda just needed outta that place, y'know?"

"Too much training for you?" Korra jeered.

"I know how to pace myself, thanks. But like... there just ain't shit else to do, there! It's torture, sitting there with a place like this just waitin' outside. And-" He suddenly cut himself off, shaking his head.

Korra waited a few seconds for him to continue before inquiring, "And?"

"What do you care, anyway?!" Truck burst out. "Ain't you just gonna haul me back anyway, do you really gotta torture me now too??"

"Oh, well excuse me for taking an interest in my.. whatever you are!" Colleague? Counterpart? Rival?

Truck snorted. "Where's that been for the last month."

Korra scoffed. "Oh yeah, 'cause you made yourself so approachable!"

Truck scoffed right back. "Sure, I'm the unapproachable one here."

"I'm plenty approachable! You're the one who keeps creeping around glaring at me and-"

Naga whined, and Korra realized just how loud she'd gotten. Immediately she stopped and started giving her apology scritches.

... And Truck was staring. "What?" Korra snapped.

"... Nothin'," he replied, jerking his head away.

"Spirits, I miss Quy," he muttered, almost too quiet for her to hear.

Naga decided that now was a good time to let out the "Boof" that meant she was hungry. Korra was too, so she retrieved and defrosted some of her stash for the both of them.

Truck was staring again.

"Oh, did you want some?" Korra asked.

"Ggh - I - th - no?? I ain't gonna eat some - mysterious wall chicken."

"It's not mysterious, it's mine. I used to come here all the time. I wanted snacks."

Truck still looked dubious. "An'... when was this?"

"Huh? I dunno. Few years ago."

Truck's obvious disgust grew. "An' you stored it in the wall?"

"Why not? I know it won't thaw out."

"Gross."

"Suit yourself." Korra rolled her eyes and tried to focus on her book and Naga.

(More Naga than the book, if she was being honest; the big lug was just being so adorable the way she gnawed on the bones of her wall chicken.

... dammit, Truck, now she was thinking of it as "wall chicken". It's not even chicken, it's puffin-tuna!)

Her musing was interrupted by a growl from Truck's stomach. A loud growl.

Korra rolled her eyes, grabbed some more wall chicken - tuna, puffin-tuna dammit - and marched over to Truck, shoving the meat into his hands.

"I told you, I ain't-"

"Eat the damn puffin-tuna, weasel boy," Korra interrupted. "It's smoked and it's been frozen. It's fine."

Truck made no motion to eat, but he did stop protesting and start inspecting the meat, which Korra took as a victory (since he wouldn't find anything, there was nothing wrong with it). She returned to the couch and giving Naga her good girl scritches.

A minute or two of peaceful stillness stretched out.

Korra glanced over at Truck, who was now tentatively nibbling on the jerky she'd given him. "So who's Key?"

"Quy," Truck corrected. Then he cringed and looked away from her, saying nothing more.

For... a while.

"... Are you... pretending you didn't hear me? After you already responded??"

"Uh... no?"

He kept on not looking at her, but he mumbled something Korra couldn't make out. Something 'twirl', maybe?

"...A girlfriend?" she interpreted.

That got a snorting laugh out of Truck. "Dark no. I ain't ever..." He shook his head violently. "Frog-squirrel! She-my-pet," he said in a rush.

"Oh," was all Korra could think to say. She felt a surge of sympathy, but she didn't want to feel bad for him! This was the guy who waltzed into her life...

...the boy who was whisked away from his life with absolutely no one he knew around, but who decided to be a raging misogynist who wouldn't leave her alone...

... who had some kind of weird neurosis about girls, but kept trying to patch things up anyway; but he kept mocking her and her tribe...

... he was understandably confused by a culture he'd never lived in, and also fucking cold because he came from probably the warmest place in the world, dammit, why was everything turning out to be reasonable, but he was still a weirdo who was always sneaking up on her...

... and what was even wrong with that, he was just a quiet person, it wasn't like he was spying on her or anything, what kind of jerk would she have to be-

"Aurgh, spirits dammit, fine, you win, we can have a truce!"

"I - uh - okay?" Truck responded, confused.

"And we can go to the swamp and pick up your pet and you can, I don't know, see your friends and relax," Korra continued.

"I... sure? That works, I guess."

"Good," she said with finality. "Now let me read."

"I... ain't been stopping you?"

"Oh, and keep an eye out for Sokka's camping gear. This place gets cold at night."

"O...kay?" Truck said, still clearly confused about where this conversation went.

He continued sneaking glances at Korra for a while, but never said anything more.