OOC: Karena, I beg your pardon for taking a few liberties. I can edit this post if necessary.

Tadashi loved passing by the large memorial to Avatar Aang on his way back from Air Temple Island. He couldn't say why for sure, though his brother once joked that it made sense for Tadashi to love a huge metal man. But it wasn't really for aesthetic reasons; it was more a sense of grand admiration... maybe even appreciation. An appreciation of his own for the work that the Airbending Avatar did while he was alive, as well as an appreciation for the Fire Nation's appreciation.

He laughed out loud a little bit at that. Being around the other Air Acolytes and absorbing the old teachings and meditations always made him wax philosophical. That kind of seriousness would have to be put on hold. He was looking forward to an afternoon hanging out with Ren'ai at the base of the great monument. She was a good friend, supportive of his decision to join the Air Acolytes as well as of his lifestyle.

Tadashi pulled his boat up to the northwestern dock, leapt lightly out of his craft — imagining he was an airbender as he did so — and tied it up securely before standing up and looking around. From here he could not see any clock towers, so he wasn't sure whether Ren'ai was here yet or not.

Tadashi's eyes opened wide as his friend's story came pouring out. When she finally got through everything, he didn't know what to say, but felt so bad for her. She needed consoling — not pity, not Ren'ai, she'd never stand for that. "Oh, Ren'ai," he frowned, "I'm so sorry. My day wasn't anything like yours." He sat down on the bank of the shore and motioned Ren'ai to sit by him as he took off his sandals and lowered his feet into the cool, clean water of the shallow surf. Aaah, relaxation.

"We just did a lot of the same at the Temple today," he went on, not really to compare his day to Ren'ai's but just to prattle on and take her mind off her own experiences. "Master Tenzin gave all the Acolytes a morning address, and then we went off to all our different tasks and lessons. I learned more about the Councils of Monks and Councils of Sisters today," he rolled his eyes a bit as he referred to the old ruling bodies of the extinct Air Nomads.

Tadashi knew what he was doing though. Even though he blew off his day, he had enjoyed the vast majority of it. Being an Acolyte made him feel like he was part of a great working, an effort to bring back the teachings and customs of the Air Nomads. And, being in the monastic class at the Temple made Tadashi feel less pressured to find a girlfriend — something he wasn't interested in at all, anyway.

"I saw that guy from the gardening class again today," he started up again, but the thought made something Ren'ai mentioned come back to the forefront of his mind, and he gasped again. "Wait. Back up. You said some creepy guy hit on you. You didn't kill him, I hope." He was only half-joking.

"Cradle robbers," Tadashi muttered, in regards to Ren'ai's creeper. But he kept listening, and when he could get a word in edgewise, he insisted, "Hun, I understand. I can't empathise, you know. I haven't been through everything you've been through. But I can sympathise at least." He huffed, a sharp exhale of breathe, and squinched up his toes as he went on, "There are plenty of talented waterbenders in the city. You can find someone. And when you do, I want to be your manager," he laughed.

Wincing a bit, he centered his weight to his tailbone and stretched his sore back, lacing his fingers together and pushing his palms up toward the sky. His body mentor had started him on a new, harder exercise routine during the noon hour, and this was only the second week. He liked to keep looking his best, but the curvature of his lower back caused him more than a few problems.

Tadashi tuned back in to hear Ren'ai ask her last question. He considered, blushing a bit, before answering. "Oh, the cute guy that was checking me out last week. I flirted with him a little bit today," he tried to answer nonchalantly, but a slight quaver in his voice gave him away. "He wanted to figure out what flower matched my eye colour." Nervously he grasped at his right tricep and rubbed his thumb up and down it, staring blankly out across the water back toward Air Temple Island, not quite sure what he should be feeling or whether this was anything other than a casual flirt. He always thought of Ren'ai as perceptive about those sorts of things.

OOC: Sorry about the delay, Taed. Storm brought internet issues…

Ren’ai laughed as Tadashi said he wanted to be their manager. “I’ll bring it up with Yuri later, Mr. Future Manager of the Dragon Hawks.” A smirk crossed the Firebender’s face. That was their choosen name – the Dragon Hawks. Obviously, they hoped that whoever ended up joining the team liked the name as much as they did. “At least we don’t have to worry about sponsors.” Her dad’s family had more than enough money. Evidentially, both of her mother’s parents had money – they had both been noble families in the Fire Nation. It meant her father had more than enough money. In fact, if she didn’t want to work she didn’t have to. However, the blue-eyed young woman had always felt that there was something different about her money versus her families money.

“And when we find a third member, you’ll be the first to know,” Ren’ai told him. Of course, they actually had to keep their third member. Emotion flashed in her blue eyes, and she knew that she couldn’t hide her feelings completely. She always wore her emotions on her sleeve, something that didn’t really bother her, but it did complicate things sometimes. She knew that she could be hard to deal with sometimes, and Yuri was no angel, but… if Tadashi could deal with her, than some Waterbender could, too, right? Well, if they could manage to be patient enough that she tried to control her power, and she was doing her best. She would have to work three times harder to make sure she did that way, if they did manage to find a third member to fill out their team, this time, they wouldn’t lose him or her.

Ren’ai noticed how her friend had winced a bit, and a worried glanced crossed her eyes. She quickly pushed it away, though. It was probably nothing, especially if it was something that he hadn’t said anything about. Besides, the Firebender wasn’t entirely sure of what his training consisted of. He quickly answered her question about what guy from gardening class that he had been talking about. A smile crossed her face as he talked. It was almost cute the way he was blushing. It was also cute the way he was trying to act as if he was all cool about it, but she saw right through that. How much does he really like this guy? she asked herself. Well, she was no mind reader, so there was only one thing that she could do to find out – she was going to have to ask, and tease him a bit in the process.

Ren’ai rolled over on her side, looking at him. “Oh, that guy,” she said, a teasing tone in her voice. “What are you going to do about it?” Her blue eyes searched his face for any kind of reaction to her words as she spoke. “He obviously likes you, so are you going to do something about it or wait until he makes his move first?” She gave him a light smack on his arm, the smirk still on her face. Obviously this guy liked Tadashi, or he wouldn’t bother trying to match eye colors and flowers, which she honestly thought was a bit silly. That didn’t matter, though, because evidentially, her Air Acolyte-in-training friend liked him back or he wouldn’t have bothered mentioning it. “So, what will it be?”

The thought of actually managing Yuri and Ren'ai's probending team was both exhilirating and frightening. Tadashi didn't doubt he could do it, but just the newness of the idea was daunting. Unfortuantely, as they kept coming back to, it was finding a waterbender that would stick around that was the real problem.

Ren'ai's heckling brought Tadashi back to his romantic problems, and made him smile — for a moment. Then he curled himself up into a ball, more in response to his own uncertainty than to the impending bruise on his arm, and sighed. "I... don't know. I don't know what to do. I don't know." He stared blankly out at the bay for a few more seconds, and let a loud growl of frustration escape as he collapsed onto his back against the dune grass. "There should be a manual or something! This is the first guy I've had a serious crush on since I realised I liked them! How do you do this?!" He groaned and put his arms over his face.

It was kind of funny — a distant part of his mind noted — that Tadashi and Ren'ai were both so frustrated by something, and that they could help each other out, but not themselves. His teacher at the Air Temple called that "mutualism." Insofar as Tadashi was concerned, it was a great concept in theory, but it circumvented the ideal of strengthening yourself through your own experiences.

Abruptly Tadashi decided that moping wasn't going to do anything, and he sat up and looked seriously at Ren'ai. "Whatever. Don't worry about that right now. Let's get back to that Dragon Hawks bit. Where do you think we're likely to find some talented waterbenders just itching to join a pro bending team?" He started thinking feverishly... the docks, the marketplace, the city park...

See, this was why Tadashi liked his feisty firebending friend. She had a knack for cutting to the heart of the matter — often bluntly and sometimes tactlessly. She'd laid out in a few simple sentences the most obvious and easiest plan of action, and wasn't really giving Tadashi much choice in the matter. He could imagine the scenario perfectly... the cute, silly pick-up line that his opposite would start with, Tadashi bravely blurting out his invitation... but then the dark half of my imagination kicked into overdrive and he imagined a dozen or more rejection responses. He clutched his right arm again instinctively, but made another attempt at apathy as he answered Ren'ai. "Tea. I can do that. It's casual, non-committal. Piece of cake." Spirits above and sea around, as his grandmother was so fond of "cussing," he thought.

As conversation turned toward the probending team idea again, Tadashi slowly loosened his grip on himself and his face grew more animated, following Ren'ai's thought processes with rapid facial expressions and reactions. The most violent reaction was to her outrageous suggestion — "Your brothers?! Are you nuts? I swear you don't have any room for logic in that head of yours, with all your impetuous instincts!" he teased a little bit. "Having a family member on your probending team is the worst idea I've ever heard of. Your older brothers would try to boss you around, and you'd try to boss your younger brother around! That's out. Forget it." He glared at her mockingly.

The lights shifted on the surface of the water and cast dancing reflections across the sand and dune grass around them, playing off their faces and clothes. Tadashi smiled at Ren'ai, dressed in an apron of servitude, shouting grievances and annoyances, planning to take the probending championship with an incomplete team. This was the epitome of youthful camaraderie and fun. Our lives to plan and share, without the heavy load of responsibility that comes in only a few short years, he thought. And shuddered.

"Hmm," he mused in response to her next non-rhetorical question. "As far as I can tell, a Team Manager tells you everything you're doing wrong, without knowing how to get you to do it right!" He laughed at himself and then added, "Seriously though, I think it's just like arranging practice times and places, taking care of your publicity, keeping track of tournament fees and other expenses, stuff like that. I've got a mind for organisation, at least. And I can be at most of your matches; they don't usually happen during the day while I've got Temple instruction, right?" He chewed on his lip and then said, more to himself than to Ren'ai, "Grandma won't mind me helping you out, as long as I'm staying out of trouble."

Tadashi nodded and grinned, like his mind was already made up. And it was, of course; once he came to a conclusion, he generally stuck with it. His indecision just made it difficult to get to the conclusion all the time.

"Right then," he said, standing up and brushing the sand off of his pants and robe. "The afternoon is still young. Ish. As your unofficial Team Manager, I suggest we canoe back over to the mainland and get some food, and maybe go to the park and watch for some good waterbenders. The sooner we get a complete team together, the sooner we can register for a tournament. You game for a little scouting?" He grabbed a little handful of sand from the beach and gently rubbed it against the sides of his face. He wasn't sure what he looked like after a day of education and exercise, and a little exfoliation never hurt.

As he sanded down his jawline, he looked out across the bay one more time. Living in Republic City was... amusing to him somehow. His mother had raised Katashi and him on stories of their recent ancestors — Grandma Sora, Great-Grandpa Tadashi and Great-Grandma Etsuko, and even the old Tadashi's mother Riko. Firebenders all, except for Etsuko. They all fought, made allies, and contested the rest of the Fire Nation's desire to conquer all during the Hundred Years War, and when Republic City was founded they were quick to move to the city as it embodied all their ideals.

Now, equality meant jack in a city where the divide between the wealthy and the gutter rats was wider than ever, and Tadashi, a non-bender despite his family's impressive pedigree, was really trying to do the same thing. He didn't remember if he'd actually explained to Ren'ai what this team meant to him, but for him it was a new realisation of his great-grandfather's last great wish — Fire, Earth, Air, and Water, re-combined into a glorious cooperative effort. Even if he could never actually be an airbender himself.

Shaking off his philosophical funk, he went to the edge of the water to rinse off the sticking sand and added on to his earlier suggestion, "We might be able to grab Yuri too, if she's not busy."

OOC: Taed, feel free to move us to the Park.

Ren’ai shrugged, raising an eyebrow as she watched him sand his face. The Firebender didn’t ask what he was doing, and just laid there on the ground, watching him do it. After he was done and spoke to her again, the young woman stood up, stretching her hands above her head. It seemed… almost too easy, after two years of training – and failing – to fill that third spot. They couldn’t just go down to the park and just… find someone, but the idea of putting up posters around town seemed kind of silly, too. What else were they supposed to do then? They had to find some way to find a willing Waterbender to join their team, and she wasn’t coming up with any better ideas. It was just then that Yuri walked up, being cheerful. The shorter of the two didn’t know why, and honestly didn’t really care right now.

“Oh, yeah, sure, that’ll work,” Ren’ai said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “It would also probably get me arrested in the process or something like that. That’s the last thing we need.” No Waterbender and no Firebender or Team Captain either. Fabulous… Part of her knew that she shouldn’t take the fact that she has a bad mood out on Yuri, who had obviously not had such a horrible day. The other part just felt that there was something wrong when someone else was in a good mood and you weren’t. She wasn’t sure why that was, and right now, she didn’t care. She was frustrated with her life in its entirety right now and her mood wasn’t making things any better. She had almost forgotten about how bad a day she had until Yuri walked over all perky and happy for some odd reason her best friend didn’t care about right now.

“Do you honestly think that we’ll find a Waterbender just by going to the park and looking?” Ren’ai asked Tadashi and Yuri. It almost seemed silly after all their time of looking and losing Waterbenders that they’d find what they needed just by going to the park and looking for a Waterbender. It seemed silly that it would be that easy. Nothing in life was that easy, or it wasn’t supposed to be anyway. Then again, they’d spent about two years going between not having a Waterbender to having one for a while and then losing said Waterbender. Even if they found one there was no guarantee that they’d keep him or her. It hadn’t worked well so far. Did that mean they were doomed for failure? Or did it that mean that it was just a matter of time before they found the right person? “Well, let’s go then.”