Iluak heard a trumpet and his mood darkened enough almost enough to create a black hole that sucked in and crushed any joy that existed in a certain radius.

"You didn't tell me there would be music tonight, you bastard," the ill-tempered doctor said to the bartender who served Iluak personally in order to save the other staff from the water bender's emotional miasma.
The bartender just sighed and left a bottle filled with an odd mixture of cactus juice and a tiny amount of rat viper venom. The other ingredients were no less horrific. The pickled snake inside the bottle stared at Iluak who stared back. To an observer the dead serpent had the livelier eyes.

"It's a jazz trumpet kinda night, my pickled friend," he said to the bottled rat viper. "If only you had more venom."

When the dark clouds come, blue bird fly in the night time. When trouble comes new love comes at the right time.
Iluak started to tune out the rest, but he knew that song wouldn't leave without a great deal of assistance. He slumped down further in his booth in the corner and rested his head on the table. It almost looked as if someone had left a dirty brown wig on the table next to a bottle.

"Don't look at me like that, rat viper...I didn't make an oath not to harm myself. Heh. That reminds of a joke...um, there's this clown and he's at the doctor and says he's depressed...can't remember the rest. " When he could no longer take the judgmental stare of the rat viper Iluak Chu turned the bottle so that the gaze faced the other way.

OOC: Let me know if anything needs changing. Writing in the middle of the night makes for strange postings.

The music was particularly festive tonight. Katsumi appreciated that. Dancing was always more enjoyable when the music was fun. Usually the music was supposed to be seductive, with the dancing tailored to match. Tonight, though, the mood was just happy, and she was more than willing to dance along. As long as the drunks had something pretty to look at, they were happy, and that meant she got to keep her job. It was a simple existence, but she enjoyed it nonetheless.

The song to which she had been dancing ended, and the woman took the opportunity to leave what passed for a stage in the saloon and wander out among the many patrons scattered around the place. While she always made sure to keep some distance between her and the drunkest of the lot, she did enjoy surveying the crowd for familiar faces. Being heckled by drunks was always easier to handle when there was someone around to watch her back.

Unfortunately, Katsumi didn’t see anyone she knew. She was just about to return to the stage as the beginning notes of a new song filled the air, but then caught sight of someone she knew. The dancer smiled as Ling entered the saloon, followed by a woman Katsumi had been told was her sister. Just like that, her day got a whole lot better. Ling was one of her favorite regulars. With the woman came good conversation and a bit of extra money. What was there not to like about that?

Katsumi watched as Ling and her sister made their way over to a table and sat, then ambled over there herself when Ling waved for a server. Strictly speaking, Katsumi was only employed as a dancer, but she also worked as a waitress when one of the other girls was absent. Besides, it was much easier to plot with Ling when she was waitressing. Dancers didn’t get many chances to converse with those watching them, and wouldn’t if they could. Drunks had few things on their brains, none of them pleasant. She much preferred Ling and the other mostly-sober types.

Reaching the table, the dancer smiled at the two women seated before her. “Welcome to the Golden Fan,” she said. “What can I get you two?” As she finished her question, she tilted her head toward the loud group of drunks who’d been betting and yelling about betting all day. This was a subtle signal to Ling that the men were easy targets and that there was money to be made from them. When Ling came in alone, Katsumi’s signals were more obvious—covert whispers, shoulder taps, that sort of thing—but she didn’t know if Mei what her companion got up to in the saloon. Better to play it safe, just in case.

"She's not going to stop flailing around like that, you know?" Iluak imagined the snake in his bottle saying. Iluak couldn't deal with enthusiastic people. He'd have better luck trying to understand a creature living on the ocean floor.
He looked up and tried to think of excuses not to go over.
Don't feel like it.
Too drunk.
Not drunk enough.
It would be awkward.

Iluak closed his eyes and imagined what his closest un-bottled friend would say. The situation had come up before any time a woman had looked Iluak's way. His friend would tell him to go over there and then threaten to stab him in the neck if he did not.
The mental projection of his only living friend, who in his case was an annoying enemy, began to list the reasons he should join her.
She's cute.
The snake in his bottle agreed and he was out-voted.

To look at least half-way presentable Iluak ran his fingers through his hair and tied it back with a small piece of brown twine that came with an old package he was once delivered. "She's just being friendly to her boss," he muttered to himself. "She's has better options. She's just being polite. Exchange greetings and then let her enjoy her night. Okay? Okay?"

The healer smiled and pulled up a chair as if his body openly rebelled against his pessimism.
"Miss Yao...Mei..." he smirked bitterly at how awkward he sounded. "Long day. There's a bout of food poisoning going around so lots of expelled contents around the clinic today."
He sarcastically complimented his smoothe bile-filled anecdote as he sat down. "Let me try again. Mei-Zhen, it is nice to see you."

The imaginary friend cheering him on gave him an imaginary nudge.
Now tell her how sexy she looks and suggest teaching her some more anatomy.
The way he imagined his friend was usually a little more risque than she actually was, but not by much.
"You look nice. How have things been? Keeping up with your studies?"
He mentally groaned. Socializing wasn't easy.

Iluak mentally slapped himself in the back of the head when he saw how he had inadvertently made Mei feel guilty by mentioning the food poisoning.
"Don't worry, the pharmacist next door has most of it covered. You know me...if it's not life threatening it's a pain in the ass for me."

The socially awkward bender felt even more self-conscious with his bottle on the table which to a lot of people was shorthand for "hardened alcoholic". He tried to think of a way to explain it that didn't involve the words "self" and "destruction".

"My friend...she used to dare me to take shots of these...now it's just a habit, I guess." It was mildly true and a great deal less pathetic than the full truth...that he was drinking to forget.
For a moment he panicked that he mentioned his friend was a woman. He tried his best to think of a subtle way to indicate that it was just a platonic friendship and that he was woefully and painfully single.
"She's not my girlfriend...just a friend."

At that moment Iluak wished that the snake in his bottle would come alive and give him a fatal dose of venom. At the very least he hoped for some sort of distraction.
"Ah! Sleep. Uh, no. I mean...yeah. I uh, intend to get some tonight. It's been a couple of nights. That's why I'm so frazzled. Thank you for asking."

The healer wondered why this young woman put him so on edge. He found it difficult to maintain his aura of spite and self-loathing with her around and reverted to a dizzy beast made of hormones crashing into everything around it.

Mei chuckled. “True. If there’s anyone who can handle it, it’d be you. You’re the best healer I’ve seen.”

She leaned over and scrutinized the bottle of liquor. The rat viper on the label stared back, bearing its teeth in the most threatening way the artist could manage to depict. Shots were done one at a time and added up, an entire bottle added itself up beforehand. A couple of shots bought you a ticket to inebriation with stops at possible giddiness follow by depression and eventually stopping at passing out. A bottle on its own was an express ticket that probably skipped just to depression and immediately to passing out.

“Well…as long as it’s alcohol and not poison…” she looked up at the dancer and smiled. “Could we have some shot glasses?” Mei paused and looked back to Iluak. “If you don’t mind sharing? I can pay for it.”

Mei cleared her throat and stared back at the bottle again. Iluak seemed…nervous wasn’t the right word--he’d never appeared nervous for as long as she’d known him--uncomfortable? She thought that until he said it had been a few days since he slept. It was sleep deprivation! The doctor just helped everyone else to his own expense far too much. It was so easy to fall into those patterns, work and let everything fall away. When others needed so much more it felt natural to have the world stop as you made it right for them again. Why was it fair that you were healthy when others were not and you had it within you to help them?

On the stage the song wound down. The assorted dancers and lookers on applauded, its loudness only punctuated by some drunken shouts at one of the gaming tables. When the clapping subsided the band stomped their feet. One. Two. Three. Another song sprang to life, this one dominated by airy springy strings.

“A couple of nights?! You know what sleep deprivation does to a person after just one day. If you need a break, just let me know. I’ll make the time to fill in.”

It was the truth. The greater truth beneath that was that the clinic felt like home now. When it came down to it, Mei had never been happy as a waitress. Her waterbending skills had been suited to it, and easily adapted, but it had never been fulfilling. It had just been what was needed to make ends meet. Now when she was at the restaurant, her mind was at home or at the clinic. Mei sincerely hoped that what she and Ling were going to do would be enough. Not just to help others, but give her the chance to help Iluak more. It wouldn’t hurt to have the chance to see him more.

More of him. More of him. Not…Mei blinked quickly shifted her focus to a point one foot and seven inches to the right of Iluak, hoping she hadn’t just thought herself into embarrassment.

Iluak genuinely smiled when Mei offered to pay for the drinks.
"No need. This is a business expense as far as I'm concerned and is going on the clinic owner's tab. There's a few places in town that have traded me free food and drinks for my healing. If people can offer me services I'll take those instead of money." He took a drink and paused for a moment, lost in thought.

"If someone can fix my satomobile or bake me a cake it gives them some of their power back. That's the worst thing about being sick, Mei...being powerless. Besides, I can heal but I damn sure don't know a thing about carpentry or satomobiles."

It cheered Iluak to discuss being inept in certain areas that didn't involve life and death. Mei tended to do that to him. Perhaps because they didn't have a past. As far as his assistant knew he was a good man.

The bartender who served him before brought a row of shot glasses to the table and gave a suspicious look to Iluak. The man bent over the table and whispered in Mei's ear.
"Sorry about Iluak. If he's bothering you blink twice and I'll throw him out."

The water bender with the dark circles beneath his eyes was too focused on pouring the shots and blocking out the music to even notice that a dust mote or one of the lights shining into Mei's eyes would have gotten him violently ejected.

Discreetly he ordered a bottle of water, as he no longer felt like drinking himself into an irreversible coma. Being in the presence of a pretty woman who thought well of his healing abilities was strangely enough of a high for him.

He looked intently into his drink and wondered if his judgement had been so impaired as to even consider speaking the following words.
"Would you like to work for me? For money?"
Even the part of him that urged him to talk to Mei and try to live his life thought this was a bad idea now urged him to shut up and pretend like he was joking.
But he didn't. Damn the voice and damn the consequences. He liked having her around.

"If you want, that is. You'll be around sick people a lot more and they're no fun." He gauged the looks from both Mei and Ling and found that he was terrible at reading people.

Ling's laughter caused every muscle fiber in Iluak's body to contract. At thirty-three years of age the healer had yet to exit his socially awkward pre-teen phase. He wasn't sure how if he could deal with this woman until she poked holes in his suggestion regarding Mei working with him. The part of his brain less prone to idiotic flights of fancy concerning his assistant was grateful.
Ling, you beautiful, wonderful creature, thank you!
After all, caring for someone meant keeping them away from human satomobile crashes like himself.

When Ling made a comment about how little money he made with an accusing tone Iluak brightened significantly. Flirting was alien to him, but being a defensive jerk was different. Breathing only wished it could be that natural.
"That's a good point. I don't make much money. I take trades, accept installation payments...whatever. It's not a lucrative business enterprise," he said to Ling.

He took a drink returned Ling's stare. "I don't believe in making money off of people's suffering. If someone comes into my clinic riddled with arrows the last thing on my mind is his investment portfolio. Everybody pays but I'll not take a person's last yuan. As far as I'm concerned lust for money is this city's greatest evil."

It was almost funny. Ling had pressed one of the few buttons not wired to Iluak's sense of apathy and he was glad to feel something other than debilitating shyness.

There was a familiar pause in Ling's voice far too many of his clients used but tried his best not to say something to ruin the mood.
"Yes, I'm sure your means of monetary acquisition are utterly safe and surely legal," he said with a sarcasm that nearly dripped onto and disintegrated the table.

Many people thought Mei was simple and thus oblivious. In many ways, she was. Where they were wrong was thinking any of that added up to stupid.

Innuendo was impossible with her, she saw the good in everyone before even grasping the bad, and her loyalty was as unbreakable as the hardest metal in a world without metalbenders. Mei was honest and compassionate in everything she did. In a faux glittering city like Republic City this would give her about five minutes off the incoming steamer before being crushed underneath the city’s cosmic analogue heavy soled leather boot. But Mei had two things going for her. One, her father’s instruction in waterbending had given her the means of self-defense, and two, her sister Ling who would go to any length to make sure their family was safe.

Ling, who had just done her best to pretend she wasn’t laughing. Mei glared at her, though unsure just what had hit her younger sister’s funny bone. Ling’s sense of humor was more diverse than Mei’s, but she was reasonably sure that Iluak hadn’t been joking about anything. Sarcasm he was pretty good at (and Mei could understand sarcasm if not speak it), but speaking about his friend…that had seemed nothing but nervous honesty.

The shot glasses arrived, and were placed on the table as the bartender whispered in Mei’s ear. Afterward, he retreated to behind the counter, wiping it down with a rag as if nothing had happened. Mei’s eyes narrowed. Wanting to look after customers from unwanted advances was one thing, but she had invited Iluak. He was a guest, and above that, a man who would never start trouble.

“We’re all fine here,” she called back to the bartender. “We’re all fine here, thank you!” She turned back to the table, her features terse for a brief moment before it melted away into a smile. “So! Cheers then,” Mei added quickly, holding up the shot glass to everyone at the table and then downing its contents all at once.

"Would you like to work for me? For money?" Iluak proposed and the world began spinning faster than she could keep up with.

Mei sputtered and coughed, feeling the burning liquid going down badly. The ensuing conversation was about the same. Both Iluak and Ling wielded words like a blade, and both knew how to sharpen them to a point. That and sarcasm, which they also seemed to be jabbing at each other like a fighter seeking an opening.

“Enough!” Mei slammed her shot glass down on the wooden table, but its impact was drowned by the music and the shouts. “This is the whole thing, isn’t it? One way or another it comes back to money…I hate that.” She sighed and sat back in her chair. She looked over to Iluak, “I appreciate--thank you for the offer, Iluak, but you’re already teaching me. That means--” the words the world, everything, and a parade of grandiose phrases marched across Mei’s mind “--a lot. I couldn’t ask to be paid for that. That would be like…being given money to learn and those yuans would be better spent elsewhere.”

Yes, a lot, she thought. If she had been as good at sarcasm as Ling this would have been the perfect place to think something spectacularly sarcastic at herself. Instead she just felt a twinge of disappointment in her understatement.

“Besides,” she added, trying to ignore the twinge, “Ling’s right. We’re planning on opening a business soon. If it goes well then I can just split my time between there and the clinic. And home, of course.”

Letting out a deep breath, Mei reached out and poured out another shot and downed it. Whenever Ling spoke of her previous work, and wagers with stupid people Mei felt like her skin was itching in an attempt to escape. Mei had never asked the right questions--or any really--wanting her little sister to find her own way. It hadn‘t worked out. She had failed her little sister. And noticing peoples’ flaws to your own advantage…it was legal but it felt wrong. It was still profiting from the failings of others. That was a difficult thing to square away.

“I can squeeze in a couple more hours a week, I’m sure.” She looked down at her empty shot glass. “If you want me--my help. Want my help.”

On stage the band began a low tune, a lurching and sashaying piece complete with matching lyrics and brassy accents. Mei was pretty sure she’d heard this one before; the Ba Sing Se Infirmary Blues. The world was a bit odd that way.

The lovestruck simpleton and the haunted healer sides of Iluak Chu ceased fighting once Mei declined his offer for full employment. After some considerations both considered only adding a few more hours to be the best solution.
"Your help would be greatly appreciated, Mei."

When the Ba Sing Se Infirmary Blues started playing Iluak felt a little flush as the opening bass line thumped just before the trumpet came in. While most jazz songs were like pulling barbed wire through his soul that particular tune by Blind Lemur Song actually made him smile.
"I had to have it explained to me that this wasn't actually the recorded noises of a blind lemur," Iluak said over the music while leaning in Mei's direction. "Apparently Song is his given name...and..." he sighed in disgust over his dry and uninteresting tone.
"Anyway...I got this record last month."

Iluak focused his attention on the man with the ornate pipe dangling from his lips playing the upright bass. Unintentionally, the healer's fingers plucked at the table to try to match the rhythm but he did so poorly. The same intense focus placed on the bassist's movements were the same he used as a student in the North Pole. Only jazz bass seemed much more difficult.
It was well into the song until Iluak noticed he had gotten lost in his own head.