C and/or D. Kuvira/Baatar Jr.
“I have to admit,” Baatar said, running the back of his hand across his forehead, “I didn’t think it was going to be this hard.”
Beside him, Kuvira’s stride was effortless, loping along at an easy jog. She was hardly breaking a sweat, and he struggled to match her pace despite having at least four or five inches’ height on her.
“Of course it’s hard,” she said, keeping her eyes fixed on the trail. “It’s an entire nation, Baatar. Thousands of people struggling just to make it to the next day without starving or being shanked by a bandit. Didn’t you read the papers back in Zaofu? That kind of chaos is going to take all our efforts to fix.”
Baatar slowed and finally stopped, doubling over, hands gripped viselike around his knees. “I didn’t mean the campaign,” he panted. “I was talking about this run. Hasn’t it been five miles yet?”
He squinted up into the cloudless sky, shading his eyes with a sweaty palm. Despite the early morning hour, the sun was already baking the countryside, and Baatar was beginning to feel like a piece of limp dough writhing around in boiling oil.
He felt the tremor of Kuvira’s feet hitting the ground, then her head blotted out the sunlight above him. She stared down at him with her hands on her hips, a few stray stands of hair clinging to her cheek.
“You shouldn’t stop mid-run like this,” she said. “It isn’t good for your heart. We only have one mile left. You can do it.”
“This is cruel and unusual punishment.” He tried to suck in a few deep breaths, but the humidity was winning. It felt like trying to breathe with a sopping wet towel draped over his face. “Next time you need to get a bandit overlord to talk, just make him run five miles in this heat. The whole country will be unified before you know it.”
Kuvira’s gaze slid to the canteen strapped to Baatar’s hip. “You already drank all your water, didn’t you?”
“It was gone after the first mile,” he admitted. “Can I have some of yours? Just a sip or two.”
She sighed, unclipping her own canteen. “Hold still.”
He felt her fingers cupping his chin, her skin somehow still cool despite the temperature, and then a small but blissfully chilled stream of water cascaded over his head and dripped down his cheeks. He closed his eyes, sighing in relief, letting Kuvira tip his head back and hold the bottle to his lips.
“I ought to make you run an extra mile for this,” she grumbled, her thumb flicking up to wipe a stray droplet from his cheek.
He opened his eyes and blinked away the water clogging his lashes, giving her his best kicked-puppy look. “You wouldn’t.”
She shot him a rare but devilish smirk, tugging him to his feet. “Maybe tomorrow.”