The inn was quite beautiful, and bigger than he had thought. It looked quite nice, which worried Kohaku a little. What if the rooms were expensive? He had some money, but he was nowhere near rich. And he didn't know how long they planned to stay in the town. It wasn't his way to stay in one place for a long period of time, but now that he was traveling with someone else, maybe he'd have to get used to spending more time immobile.

The man nodded at Fu-Ling's appraisal of the inn as perfect. Her question of checking out a room made him realize just how exhausted he was. It would be nice to set his stuff down, The Firebender pondered the question as he changed into the offered sandals. He found himself stuck on the woman's word usage. She had said "a room." Did she think that they would be sharing? He hadn't thought about that. Sharing one room made sense monetarily, but if there was only one bed...just the thought got him blushing. Perhaps it would be easier, if not as cheap, to have separate rooms.

"I think I'd rather get rooms first," he replied, the decision made. That was done, but he was still worried. What if Fu-Ling tried to shout him down about having separate rooms? He didn't want her to think that he had something against sharing a room with her. He was just interested in preserving their respective rights to privacy.

Fu-Ling nodded, but could only hoe that her disappointment wasn't showing. "Okay," she agreed, and stepped up onto the tatami to make her way to the desk. Rooms meant more than one. She wasn't sure exactly how it would work out, to be honest. Most normal inns allowed travelers to have a room to themselves if they were traveling on their own, but Fu-Ling had been to exactly two ryokans in the past few years which would not allow singles. It hadn't been an issue at the time, as Fu-Ling had simply followed a man to his room for the night, but now Fu-Ling was stuck. Not to mention her companion clearly had issue with sharing a room.

Still, she put on a cordial face when she approached the woman at the counter. "Hello," she began, trying to be as polite as possible. "I know we don't have any reservations, but we've been traveling for a long time and we just now got into town. Is there any way there might be two rooms open for the night?" There. She'd said it. Hopefully Kohaku would be appeased. She glanced at him and then had to look away. He definitely had seemed averted to such intimacy. And Fu-Ling couldn't blame him, of course. No way. They were complete and utter strangers who happened to be moving in the same direction. No. She'd just hyped herself up was all. Why did I believe he would actually share a room with me willingly? she thought sadly, and realized that alcohol had sort of been a crutch in her plan.

But Fu-Ling's heart (and smile) fell when the woman gave her a confused, uncomforted look. "Is someone else planning on joining you...?" she asked hesitantly. Fu-Ling shook her head slowly, not sure what was going to happen. The kind lady frowned. "Well... As you can see, we have a lot of customers here already. We usually don't allow guests to have their own rooms on busy nights, especially if they are traveling together..."

Then the woman seemed to realize that the two firebenders weren't a couple. "We do have a few available rooms, but you would have to pay full fare for both. And if more guests come in, we'll have to ask you to share one to accommodate - with a full refund of the second room, of course..." Fu-Ling frowned, unsure of what to do. Really, it was all up to Kohaku. Both of them knew what the other wanted, even if they weren't really happy about it. The sign that listed the fares for the different rooms was posted on the wall, and the pegboard next to was noticeably bare of room keys.

So she turned to Kohaku. "Well... Like I said, money isn't really an object. What do you want to do?" she asked him quietly. It wasn't as if they'd be cramped on a tiny futon: most rooms had two or more. The firebender was about to say something else, but she didn't want to sound as if she was trying to convince him to share a room. Undoubtedly, anything more to say would have that bias, so she was forced to look him in the eye and pretend it didn't matter.

Kohaku was glad that Fu-Ling didn't question his use of the word "rooms." Fighting about that would be silly, and completely unnecessary. He was willing to pay for his own room, as long as it wasn't that expensive. He couldn't quite tell, but he didn't think this inn was too pricey.

The Firebender followed his companion over to the counter and listened as she began negotiations. Unfortunately, things weren't going well. Apparently their choices were sharing a room or each getting their own with the possibility of having to share anyway. It seemed they had a pretty big decision to make.

The man would have preferred not to share a room, just for the sake of privacy. He looked at the inn's rates. Not low, but not horrible. He could afford his own room. But if more people showed up, and he was forced to share with Fu-Ling anyway...Kohaku noticed as another couple entered the inn, the way they looked around as if they didn't know where to go. There were already more guests arriving. It wouldn't be very fair to them to take up two rooms.

That made his decision easy. He flashed Fu-Ling a small smile. "We can share a room. That seems like the more sensible option."

(picking up from my last post in this thread)

The water that the Master had sent flying into the air came raining down on the battlefield and when it did, he could see the extent of the damage done by both sides. Tears welled in his eyes at the sight of his fallen comrades, and the ones who survived the attack had gone elsewhere to get medical attention. Closing his eyes, he besought Tui and La to watch over the spirits of the slain, feeling a surge through his body when he did. He couldn't count how many times he'd meditated in the Oasis, and he'd grown quite fond of the fish. The night he'd lost his bending because Zhao killed one of them had been the scariest of his life, but he waved a hand in an effort to brush the memory away.

The walk back to their temporary headquarters was slow and long, but he trudged through the carnage with a solid stride to mask anything he might have been feeling at the time. What would the others think, seeing a Master giving in to his emotions like that? It wouldn't go well, he knew that for sure. He spent a few more minutes outside the barn, idly listening to the commotion within. None of it concerned him, but that did nothing to deter him; it was then that he heard the voice of his former student, Akado. His feelings toward the man were mixed, but he took a deep breath and walked into the barn and over to Akado, putting a hand on the man's shoulder.

((I take it that we have already left Sabaku? Or where are we, because that line about a temporary headquarters suggests that town everyone met up at.))

With a grimace, the middle-aged waterbender began playing with the charred holes that littered his attire. After rubbing a few black ends between his right thumb and index finger, he lifted up the two newly darkened fingers and examined how the burned cloth had stained the circular pattern on his index finger. Hopefully, he’d be given a new set of clothing. Not that he deserved it, but the least that could be offered was maybe a cloak or something he could use to cover himself up before they headed off, again. He turned his gaze back down to the tan garments that he was given when they landed in this foreign land. He never thought that he would miss his plain, dark blue parka or even the bitter landscape of the south. But then again, he didn’t really miss it. He just preferred the biting cold to this hot, dry and unforgiving heat. Sure it wasn’t that bad, honestly, he was the only one who seemed to mind, but then again, it was only expected, he had never traveled in the Earth Kingdom. The only time he had ever experience this kind of heat was on their journey to the Southern Tribe, but at leas then, there was always a wonderfully briny sea breeze to cool him down. But this land was different, it was relentless in the way it seemed to punish its inhabitants, and yet people still made a life here…but why?

Slightly started, Akado turned his head to the hand that was now on his shoulder; it was Master Pakku of course. The only other person he spoke with in this caravan or whatever the word was was that one guy with the pockmarks. The pockmarked man was quite a character, he’d be charming if it weren’t for that glaring reason. But who was he to critic someone on their looks.

Akado turned his icy blue eyes to his master’s, and then began to ask him about what he had been hearing or eavesdropping from a few men.

“It is true?” He began, and then quickly added with a curious, slightly wide-eyed look, “I heard from a few people that we were headed to Ba Sing Se next or at least to an area around it?”

Then he quickly clarified his reason for asking, “Not that I have a problem with it, but I thought you were going to train me?”

The Master could feel the chi flowing through his former student's body, and he couldn't help but note that it was stronger than he'd remembered; of course, he didn't expect any of his former students to not progress since leaving his classes, but then again, many of them had lucrative jobs as civil servants in the North Pole or scattered practices all over the world. The students he trained, however, went on to become great Waterbenders (though none as great as him, save Katara).

"Ba Sing Se?" Apparently, this was news only the Avatar's group was privy to. His, as well as the rest of the Order members', role was simply as reinforcements. "I believe I heard word of that, but my role in this venture ends here. I have business to attend to elsewhere."

"Train you? Ah, yes. As I only know of my role in this battle, I can't say for certain what you should and shouldn't do to aid the Avatar and his friends; however, if you'd like to, you can come with me tonight and I will train you." Taking on another student seemed like nothing, but ever since he became a Master and a teacher, he'd been looking for a protegé; after all, there was no Waterbender in the world more powerful than him (save the Avatar) and he needed to find someone to carry on his legacy. Who else would train the next Avatar after he was gone?