one's chastity is / widely believed a virtue / not personal choice

[roc_on]

The next day there's an article in a scandal sheet insinuating that there may be something inappropriate going on between Delightful Jun and the Avatar.

Beila adopts a strategy of completely ignoring this insinuation until an interviewer asks her point blank, at which point she says, "No," and declines to elaborate further. Because there is nothing to elaborate on.

She shows up, exasperated, for her next firebending lesson.

Comments

[roc_on]

"Nifty."

[fiery_delights]

"It would be!"

[roc_on]

"The wings will look awesome, anyway, I can already fly by other means. So I'll keep it up."

[fiery_delights]

"They will look awesome. You could even try the wings while flying - someday, not soon, and probably not with the roc. The roc might object. Not to mention any fellow passengers."

[roc_on]

"I'd want to be really sure of not setting my glider on fire, too, and not have my boyfriend with me, he'd squeak more than Liqing would if I surprised him. I can probably fly glider-free if I figure out how to activate the Avatar State, but I don't have that down at the moment."

[fiery_delights]

"That sounds to me like a great incentive to learn how to control the wings really, really well. Separately, I advise not surprising your boyfriend with fire."

[roc_on]

"Yeah, only prearranged fire with the boyfriend. I believe it was shortly after I met him that I actually, in words, promised not to lob a fireball at his head. It was my first day with waterbending, I flicked a droplet at him." Pause. "Oh, by the way, he has a crush on you and I have his permission to mention this so he doesn't have to figure out how to say something himself."

[fiery_delights]

"That's adorable," says Jun. "Does he want free tickets to a show? I bet he'd like free tickets to a show."

[roc_on]

"I'm sure he would be pleased to receive free tickets to a show, yes."

[fiery_delights]

"He can have them, then! In the meantime, back to work. I want to see how steady you can get those long fire blasts."

[roc_on]

"You got it."

She gets back to work.

And later, she presents Dao with his free ticket. "He did not laugh. He thought it was adorable."

[thinklikethis]

"...knowing this guy's reputation, that might actually mean I could end up sleeping with him," says Dao. "I am kind of nervous. But I'm totally using my free ticket. Do you want to come too? It says you can come too."

[roc_on]

"I'll come if you like."

[thinklikethis]

"I don't know, is it weird if I flirt with your teacher in front of you? It might be weird. I don't want it to end up being weird."

[roc_on]

"I think all the weirdness is in the flirting and none of it is in the 'in front of me', and I have already dealt with that weirdness that there is."

[thinklikethis]

"Then you can totally come! I don't know if I want you to, I don't think it makes much of a difference to my personal experience of flirting with Delightful Jun. As long as it is not weird."

[roc_on]

"I think I will come and watch the pretty firebending. It's educational."

[thinklikethis]

"Okay," giggles Dao. "Wow. I'm going to flirt with Delightful Jun."

[roc_on]

"You are adorably anticipatory about this."

[thinklikethis]

"If you were going to flirt with a kinda famous very pretty guy you had a crush on I'm sure you'd be adorably anticipatory too."

[roc_on]

"But I am not going to do that, and so I am not."

[thinklikethis]

"Well, I am going to do that." He giggles. "Wow."

[roc_on]

Beila laughs and ruffles Dao's hair.

[thinklikethis]

Dao beams at her.



He chooses to go to the show that is a few days later.

[fiery_delights]

It's one of the prettiest ones yet. Jun creates beautiful streamers of flame that ripple and hang in the air for a moment before fading away, in every colour from red through orange to yellow to white to blue. And in the course of his exquisitely choreographed routine, he burns off successive layers of his elaborate outfit - blue and white and yellow and orange and red, the outer layers gauzy and translucent with trailing edges, the inner layers more substantial and close-fitting.

When he spins out of the ashes of the red kilt, there turns out to have been nothing else underneath it.

The audience is mainly pleased with this development.