[Tag: Sora Kimura, Kamil, Yuri]


Ren’ai listened as Kamil explained where he worked and his true lack of a schedule. Good, then they could make sure and organize practices as best as they could around her schedule. Ichiro was a Probending fan, so hopefully he would make sure that his dad wasn’t too hard on her and Yuri. The two of them were usually pretty flexible, but this was important to them. It was Probending! Sure, at the moment, it was only practice, but, hey… It was a step in the right direction, and that was the important thing. The dark-haired young woman had no idea if he would stick around, but she told herself not to worry about that right now. What could she do about it anyway? All she could do was work with him for as long as he wanted to be worked with, and then if he quit… they were back to square one, yes, but at least she and Yuri could say that they were trying to find a Waterbender and not giving up.

Ren’ai smiled at Kamil. “Good,” she said. “That makes things much easier if your work isn’t going to interfere.” The Firebender’s mind already had ideas going around in her head about when they could practice, where they could practice… She thought there was an abandoned parking lot behind her apartment building. That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? She had no idea where he lived, though… Was it far from her and Yuri? Tadashi started talking again, and it brought the young woman out of her thoughts. Yes, Kamil had talented. He could move, and that was a start. He had good control, it seemed too, and hadn’t frozen during their fight, which was a good start. This was nothing compared to a Probending match, but she and Yuri would make sure that the newest member of their team was up to snuff. She was Captain after all, wasn’t she?

Ren’ai nodded, agreeing with Tadashi’s words about Kamil’s skill. “Yes, you’re good,” she told him honestly. “A little work to make a true Probender, but I don’t foresee any problems as of yet, if this is any indication.” She put a hand on her hip, and gave a small sigh as she thought about actually being able to do this – participating in Probending matches, and winning them! Of course, there was always a chance that they wouldn’t win, but hey… a girl could hope right? Their Team Manager began to talk about posters, and all the Firebender could do was let out a small giggle. “I’m sure you’ll come up with something, Mr. Team Manager” she told him. “And remember, when they ask for money, come to me and we’ll go to my dad. He did promise that if we got in he would pay for everything.”

Ren’ai turned back to Kamil, and smiled. “Yes, my dad is going to pay for anything we need. He promised if we got in, he’d pay.” She shrugged. “Time for the rich bastard to pay up.” This was all very exciting, and Ren’ai was sure that Kamil and Yuri were just as excited as she was. Tadashi sure seemed to be, and he wasn’t even really a member of the team! He was their Team Manager, of course, though, and certainly he would take a bit of the load off of her and the others. A team! They had a team! “We’ll have to meet sometime soon, though,” she said, getting back to business, though the smile on her face wouldn’t leave. “What does your schedule look like? I have to work afternoon shift for the next few days, morning shift after that, then night, and then I’m off. I think Yuri’s hours aren’t that different from mine, but either way, I know we ended up with the same day off.”

Ren’ai knew that they needed to get to practicing together as a team. Individual skill was one thing, but they needed to be cohesive as a group. Eventually, the Firebending Captain was sure that her team would get better at anticipating each other’s moves and thoughts in the ring. That would only come with practice, and the more if it, the better. They could practice in the morning, if they had to. “Where do you live? Yuri and I share an apartment in Pong’s Apartments, it’s about fifteen minutes from here or so, do you know it? There’s an abandoned lot behind it that we might be able to use for practicing.” This all seemed too good to be true, and part of the young woman thought that she would wake up and it would all be a dream, some sick wonderful, dream. No, this was real, as hard as it was to believe right now.

[tag: Xiaolu]

“Hey, it’s okay,” Shuai cooed as she cocked her head toward Xiaolu. Pulling her legs in she sat up and crossed one slender leg over the other. A sharp sting ran up the firebender’s spine as she twisted her body to face Xiaolu. Damn tailbone. Shu-shu winced a bit before continuing. “Don’t worry about that. The park’s huge. No one heard but me.” And it was a good thing too since Equalists were over running the city like an infestation of spider-rats. Sometimes Shuai wished that those loons were more like bugs instead of rats, because then she’d be able to squish them with her foot. If only crackpot revolutions like Amon’s could be solved with the stomping of a foot. Perhaps Avatar Korra had a solution similar to Shuai’s to take on Amon and the Equalists, however Shuai seriously doubted the stomping on them like bugs part, though it would be nice in a really messed up way.

Reaching a hand out Shuai gently patted Xiaolu on her knee. It wasn’t the most comforting of gestures, but it was the best Shuai could manage. She wasn’t exactly the emotional type and the yellow-eyed woman found it quite difficult to deal with feelings. Shu-shu had never learned how to properly console a friend, and it looked as if Xiaolu really needed that sort of emotional support since she was beginning to cry. Shuai found herself at a loss for words. What could she say to comfort this poor woman that she barely even knew? How could she convince the earthbender to think little of the Equalists? They had done so much damage to the short-haired woman already and the damage seemed irreversible. They had gotten under poor Xiaolu’s skin, and it sickened Shuai to think that most newcomers to Republic City were probably in the same position as Xiaolu.

Before she could think of something to say Xiaolu started to talk. She watched the young woman shrug and rub her shoulders and as Shu-shu listened to Xiaolu’s broken speech she couldn’t help but be reminded of her own private thoughts.

“I’ll tell you something, though, you seem to be doing pretty well. Are you living alone? Because if you are, that’s pretty admirable…”

“Me admirable?” Shuai choked embarrassed that Xiaolu would label her as such. “Not even close. I mean I am on my own right now, but I won’t be for long. I’m getting a new roommate soon. In two days I think.” Pausing for a breath she then continued with a small smile on her face. “I’m doing alright now because I had uh’lot of help from a friend. I moved to the city with her about four years ago, and if it wasn’t for her I’d probably be in bad shape.” She couldn’t understand why she was disclosing so much about herself to Xiaolu, but the firebender knew that it was probably the best thing to do seeing as how Shu-shu found consoling difficult for her to carry out successfully.

“It was easier for me because my friend helped me figure out my life here, and I probably look alright now since I’ve been here for so long. You’ve only been here three months right? Are you on your own?”

[Tag: Shuai Ru-shan]

The touch against her knee was so unforeseen that Xiaolu jumped like she’d been stung by a bee. She passed the motion off by shifting where she sat and cleared his throat uncomfortably.

“Three months, yeah. Not long at all. And yes, alone, unless my older brothers decide to make a surprise appearance and keep me company, but I seriously doubt that’ll happen. It’s been enough for me to know, you know, what alleys not to go down, or which streets have a lot of bender gangs and stuff. Or where Equalists like to hang out and be generally unpleasant. Or where benders like to hang out—you know, where you can trot up and just chat about whatever, bending or something.”

She didn’t know Shuai at all, and she’d been guarded about strangers all her life (they came so rarely to her childhood town that she didn’t know how to react to them with anything but distrust, to the point of fault and unjustified xenophobia) but for some reason, it was comforting. It had been so long since she sat down and had a pleasant conversation. She tried to think to the last time she and someone else had spoken about something intelligent, had a coherent sentence about something in the world that mattered.

It had been with a noodle-vendor, almost a month ago; she’d squatted on the curb, eating a gratis bowl of noodles from a sympathetic old man, almost blind, behind a little wooden cart. He’d sat by her, balanced on wooden shoes, and spoke quietly. He spoke quietly, and he carried a big stick which he waved at people who got too close and he deemed untrustworthy.

“Our world? It is a terrible place,” he told her, “and none of us experience as much kindness as we should. Take a kind person for all they are. They might just be the last ones you ever meet.”

Xiaolu had dropped a few precious coins into his pay bowl as she passed and pretended not to notice that he pretended not to hear them, but smiled softly.

She turned to Shuai with a little sigh. The golden-eyed, so-firebender-it-hurt woman had, instead of lashed out and been mad that Xiaolu had carelessly run into her, sat down with her and listened to her childish outburst, complimented her, allowed a window into her life for Xiaolu to peer through and understand what it was like for the rest of the world.

Did the Equalists infuriate and frighten Xiaolu? Of course it did, as it would for any mildly sane person living in Republic City at the time, because it was a frightening and dangerous place to be.

“You can lose your hard-earned freedom if your fears define your world.”

Who had said that? Her father, she supposed. His little voice popped up in her brain often, feeding her his little proverbs and lectures, usually at appropriate times about appropriate subjects. He was right, of course, as he often was, but she couldn’t help but be spiteful of that. He had to be right about everything, didn’t he?

Xiaolu turned to Shuai and smiled weakly. “Sorry I’ve been freaking out. I’m usually quite mild-mannered, I like to think. I’ve got a lot…a lot of feelings,” she put her hands on her chest, “and you’re the unfortunate soul who gets to experience every single god-awful one that I’ve gone through in the last couple of months. So, sorry about that!”

To his surprise, Yuuta was not taking his usual route home after his job at the warehouse. It was dark, but the park always felt like a safe place to walk through. It just felt like a piece of his childhood so in his head it would always be a place of safety even if crime happened in it here and there. Anyways, it was better than taking the dark alleys all the way back "home": his newest apartment with his roommate Shuai who would be off at her job anyways. That's great. Another night alone. He considered several times buying a pet, but he never had enough time to talk to Shuai about it. Besides, what would he get? He wasn't a big fan of anything that could run around a lot or need to take outside to relieve itself. Taking it on walks was also a big no-no for the disabled man.

He took a seat on one of the benches at the park that looked out towards the pond with a loud sigh of relief setting his cane next to him. The walk back to the apartment was always tiring enough without him taking a 'safe' detour on a curvy path. Still the smell of the clean water and the sounds of rustling leaves had a calming effect on the grump of a man, letting him close his eyes for one moment and his stress rolling off his shoulders. His head fell back slightly, his neck supported by the back of the bench as he stared up into the heavens, the stars twinkling in a rhythm it felt like only he could hear. Was his mother looking at the same sky right as he was? He had been worried sick that he hasn't received anything so much as a notice from her that she was doing well and with each passing day, his stomach twisted more and more.

He averted his gaze from the stars and down to his lap, pulling out a ribbon from his pants pocket to tie his loose, long hair back as he continued his disturbing thoughts of which that would only stress him more. "Why can't anything be simple?" he mumbled to himself softly, his head now in his hands. Truth be told, he knew he should get back to the apartment, but something inside of him wanted to stay and rest a little longer. He knew his leg wouldn't object to a little longer stay in a park at night no matter how much his conscious screamed at him to leave before something happened.

Nothing will happen, he reassured himself. Even if something did, he didn't have much to loose besides a wooden cane and the clothes on his back. If his life was something in the equation, it wouldn't make much of a difference if he was here or ten feet away.

Tagged: n/a

[tag: Xiaolu]

Noticing how the recipient of her haphazard gesture shifted uncomfortably beside her, Shuai made a mental note to not touch Xiaolu again, no matter how many tears the earthbender decided to shed. It was very uncharacteristic of Shuai to touch anybody, even somebody who, like Xiaolu, seemed extremely distressed, but at least the firebender now knew that neither of them were a fan of those sorts of intimate gestures. Wiping off a piece of debris–a leaf or a petal perhaps– that had landed on one of her freckled cheeks with the back of her hand, Shu-shu listened without interruption to Xiaolu's speech.

Again the realization of how little time Xiaolu had resided in Republic City troubled Shuai. Without some guidance, the firebender reflected, this young woman could certainly end up in a lot of trouble and the last thing Shuai wanted to hear over the radio or read one day in the paper was the disappearance of a young earthbender named Xiaolu. The thought forced her to shudder, however slightly. Regaining composure Shu-shu wondered of the older brother that Xiaolu had quickly mentioned. From what the dark-eyed bender had said it seemed as if the two didn't get along, otherwise Shuai would have thought it strange that a young woman's older brother refused to visit her in the city. Weren't older brothers supposed to be protective or something? Shuai felt like she had heard that somewhere, however, she wasn't exactly one to judge since she was an only child and all.

"I don't know much about those scenes," she quickly muttered in relation to what Xiaolu had mentioned about alleyways, benders and hanging out. "I don't hang out much, or meet with many people in alleyways." Cause I'm too busy working, she added inwardly.

As her company let release a small sigh, Shu-shu leaned forward and rested her elbows on her crisscrossed knees and balanced herself by suspending her freckled ankles an inch or so above the prickly grass. The woman across from her turned again and displayed a very subdued smile. She then started again with an apology and that only made Shuai smile in return. Her smile grew as Xiaolu continued to be animated by moving her hands and placing them on her chest. Leaning back and ignoring the stings that ran up her spine, Shuai let pass a short, hearty laugh from between her pink lips.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Shuai smiled as she rocked herself back into her previous position. "I like meeting people with some feeling. This city would be uh dark place if it were only filled with emotionless people like me." She winked at the end of her sentence and slowly pushed herself up with her hands and feet into a standing position. Reaching her arms above her head she curved her spine into a good stretch before placing a hand on each of her curvy hips. Suddenly an idea came to her. "How about a cup of tea?" she suggested. "Or maybe uh full on breakfast to settle our nerves? Spirits know I could use some food in my belly." Truth was she could use more sleep than a meal, but she wanted to do something nice for the young woman, to show her that the city wasn't such an awful place to live. "Whaddya say?"