Yuuta heaved a sigh as the girl became passive aggressive. Indeed, this was none of his business, but she was the one who had approached him, asking for directions, bugging him about his leg and telling obvious lie after lie, though insisting he keep talking. There was just... no pleasing this girl! He had talked to girls before, hung out with them and even rents an apartment with one, but none have been this unpleasing or annoying. He began to wonder how on Earth the Equalists dealt with her, or agreed to be associated with her.

"That," he said, "sounds like the basis of the, er, book club's ideas. What are your reasons for joining? Why are you putting yourself in the line of fire?" he asked, ignoring any and all extras from the girl, like turning away from him or snorting. "Besides, action doesn't always have to be aggressive. If you think the benders are bad, attacking them back is just as so." Fighting fire with fire never made sense to the medicine man, especially when one side thinks the other side's violence is against them. Conflict always leads to more conflict.

"Well, if it's a suggestion, I'll have to decline. We've finally found something to talk about," he said, leaving out "besides my leg" as an attempt to be more polite. "Are you worried for me?" he teased. If digging deeper was something that wasn't good for him, then why did she defend the ideals? After all, he was a non-bender with a disability who didn't care one way or another.

Yuuta almost laughed when Shachi began to shout at him, verbally defending herself and the 'book club'. Almost. It came out like a hiccup and a sneeze combined, tickling his sinuses so he sneezed as well. For the rest of her defense, he remained silent, as usual, not wanting to interrupt her. Actually, he was a tad afraid if he interrupted her, he would be the target of a physical assault. While she talked on, punching the air and whatnot, he began trouble tear apart her reasoning inside his head.

"You didn't really answer my question, Shachi. Fine, I'll rephrase my question: how did these become your ideals?"he asked, raising a brow at her. Surely one didn't just wake up and decide to join the Equalists out of the blue, otherwise this city would be in chaos. "For me, I haven't a quarry with any bender on the grounds of their advantage. I live a perfectly fine life, though money is a bit tight becau-" He stopped himself, noticing he was this close to talking about his mother and her illness and -in turn- his paranoia of the illness.

"I'm not saying I'm against your book club or anything, as long as no one is getting hurt- especially you. A sense of belonging is never a bad thing unless its what drives you to do things you might later regret,"he said. It took him a moment of pause in his voice to realize he hand been ranting. Dear spirits, was her annoyance contractible?

Well, that would be predictable with any human being, to only be dangerous once angered, but he's heard of that chi blocking thing. He wondered if there was any long term effects on the opposer's body after repeated attacks. "Well then, just don't let them talk to me and I'll be fine." Yuuta knew he wasn't a pleasure and could anger just about anyone other than a patient within seconds.

The man at the park? She did mean to refer to the annoying preacher that kind of just yelled at everyone passing by? Don't get him wrong, Yuuta didn't have anything against the freedom of speech, but he did have a limit to his tolerance of when people blatantly yelled the first thing off the top of their head. He even saw a bender or two get picked on for defending themselves. Honestly, stereotypes and prejudice would be the downfall of this city. Whatever happened to the nice days that the elders liked to talk about, when Avatar Aang was around and crime was at it's lowest? He almost wished he was born a few years earlier just so he could see how things used to be.

Yuuta groaned loudly, finding her idea of lack of personal space quite invasive as she poked his chest "My mother is ill, if you want to know, and she is the only family I have so most of my money goes to the North Pole for proper treatment. Happy?" he asked sarcastically, his words with little space between them so he could stop talking about it as soon as possible. "So I actually rely on the waterbenders there to heal her because I know none of my herbal remedies could cure what she has." He felt a bead of sweat drop down his neck; was if from talking about his mother and the anxiety that came with it or the fact he was pushing himself to finish what he started to do.

He smiled at the fact Shachi hadn't realized she should control her voice and stop yelling nonsense in the context she was giving the bystanders. Book clubs that got hurt and arrested? Makes the average person wonder what kind of books they're reading, if they even still believed it to be a book club. "I merely meant that if you suspect any fowl play, get yourself out of it. You don't want to be digging your grave by staying when you know something bad is going to happen," he tells her. What was Yuuta beginning to feel? Was he starting to feel protective of her? It was obvious she was better off than him, though she seemed to be more manipulable and not as clever as he.

"It's fine," he muttered with a slight shake of his head. Again, he didn't like being looked down on or thought to be weak. But at least she wasn't talking about how he should have sent his mother to a non-bender. To tell the truth, despite his occupation, he didn't trust modern medicine to be able to cure cancer and defiantly not with his mother's life on the line. He didn't hate sending her to benders, but he didn't like the costs of sending her all the way up there, to cold and in a place without any friends or family.

"You're finally catching on?" he replied, rolling his eyes. His mind was now on track thinking about his mother and his health, leaving pleasantries such as nicer conversation out of the mix. Worries filled his mind like: "had he eaten enough for breakfast?", "did he eat enough of a certain vegetable?" and "was he avoiding any illnesses that could avoid the lowering of his immune system?". Who knew if this girl was carrying some type of cold in the air around her that he could catch? He couldn't afford any blips in his health.

"Whatever," he sighed, stopping in his walk. "We're here. The place you want is right there on the first floor," he said, pointing towards one of the least run down buildings. "I'm off," Yuuta grunted as he turned around and kept on walking, though he felt like his leg was going to fall off at any moment.

"Yes, I was," he groaned. Why wouldn't he have wanted to leave as soon as possible? Most people would have left long ago. If she still wanted to follow him, he didn't care; he had done his part by helping her. Now, to start back near that bench he was around before and find that best route to his jobs. Preferably, he'd walk a route with little to no inclines or stairs, even if it meant a longer route. He just wasn't able to deal with stairs before, but now that he had to climb to sets of them to get to his apartment, any more stairs would be murder.

"And you can tell how?" Yuuta replied snarkily. Friends? He had enough social contact as it was with two jobs and a roommate (though thankfully their face-to-face time was limited by their schedules) without needing to keep up with people and pretend to care about stuff he couldn't give a crap about. However, her oddly annoying way of going about her business was interesting in the fact it was better than nothing.

"You are that annoying," he said with a sigh. "Are you just following me so I won't head to the cops or whatever?" he asked, accusing her, even though he knew it was wrong. He just hoped it would get her away without having to directly say it.

Scathing attidue? Bitter words? Those were because he wanted her to go away. She just kept following him everywhere despite everything he said. The general grumpiness was normal, though, was normal and something he was always aware of but did nothing to stop it. It only stopped when he was around people he liked (he didn't like a lot of people) or when he was dealing with patients. His job was important to him and there was nothing he wouldn't do for it, but random people like Shachi? There was no way he was going to put on his 'nice guy' attitude for it- er... her.

Yuuta sighed. "But I don't need any friends," he told her. The trying of these kinds of things seemed like a waste of time to him. The biggest waste of his time, to tell the truth. Why did he need people to like him? His social contact consisted of: letters to his mother, his roommate, his master -the herbalist- and the patients/customers of the store. Friends would get in the way of his schedule and not to mention any disease people might carry with them.

"Oh spirits, please don't," he exasperated. That was not at all how he wanted her to take it. If anything, he might have wanted Shachi to take it as an insult and leave. Nope. He got his hopes up for nothing.

An excuse? He didn't have an excuse. He just didn't like most people. He tried to be nice and gentlemen-like and this is what he got? A hyperactive Equalist that wanted to be his friend? What if he was a bender? Would she have be so keen on being his friend, then? Perhaps he could throw a bit of water in the air, say he's a bender and run off- if he could run. "Whatever," he dismissively said, trying to brush away her overly energetic words. It seemed like being mean wasn't going to get her away. Did he really? Did he really have to ask nicely for her to leave so he would be alone?

Food sounded quite nice right about now after his long, useless walk with Shachi. "Sure. A noodle shop," he told her. "You're paying." It was the least she could do for constantly bugging him. Besides noodles were his comfort food -as long as they weren't that instant nonsense- so he hoped he could sound her out as he ate. At the very least, the noodles could up his blood sugar so her voice didn't seem nearly as annoying to him.

Shachi had sounded so shocked when he accepted her gift of a meal. Did she think he didn't eat or that he preferred noodle shops? Inwardly, he groaned out of anguish but outwardly he offered her a passing smile. It was possible a little kindness wouldn't kill him, but he was positive that she could manage to kill him if he let her continue the way she had been going.

Whoa whoa whoa. In no form was this a 'date'. "As if. You're not my type," he said, noticing her blush. He couldn't help that his cheeks had reddened slightly as well, but he figured it was from pushing his body to keep walking while his leg screamed in pain each time. He noticed a noodle shop barely a block away. Thank goodness. He could sit!

"There's a place right there,"he pointed out as he headed that way. In no time, he reached the shop and took a seat at the nearest place he could, letting out a sigh of relief as the pain reduced, but didn't completely go away.

Karena Edit: Fixed formatting.

He knew she would go off on the 'his type' ordeal for a bit, though a bit shocked that she had softened her tone of voice and was a bit less ecstatic about everything she talked about. It was almost funny what she thought his type of girl was and how she put so much effort into finding just the right words to describe the fake, imaginary woman constructed in her mind, but he knew better than to feed into the fire just yet.

Adjusting himself to the high stool, she listened to her once more. Why was she acting all awkward, now? Did she seriously get it into her head that this was a date. By the spirits, let it be time for work already. At least the endless repetition let himself think.

"No, she wouldn't be anything like that,"he said, sitting erect in his seat as he waited to be served. "I like women that can take care of themselves seeing as, well, I can barely take care of myself. I don't bother with physical aspects such as light skin or weight, but I would like someone a tad younger than myself and ready to raise a family. I like intellectual but quite women, someone who isn't afraid to speak their mind but knows when and how to say it, like picking your own battles. However, much to your distaste, I would prefer to marry into a line of benders."

"As for noodles, I prefer stiff noodles with strong broth, extra spice and lots of toppings," Yuuta told the equalist. "That instant nonsense is revolting and plainly disrespectful to the art of noodles." It wasn't before long until someone took his order, copying what he had said to Shachi.