Mei lied in her messily made bed, her knees tucked up against her chest and her arms wrapped around them. Ling was out at her job and Mei had been given paid leave from her first job as a condolence to... the incident. She had wanted to work, to get her mind off the tragedy, but they insisted, telling her she needed to take a break. At home, there wasn't much else to do that could take her mind off of things. She cleaned, cooked, rearranged the apartment (except one room she couldn't bear to step foot in again), studied healing and tried to focus on different techniques. Repetition was her only comforter for the moment being, giving her a pleasurable false sense of security.

Still, you could only clean so much, run out of supplies to cook and places to move their stuff and ended up laying in bed for the past two hours or so. Sleep evaded her regardless of what she tried, heavy bags forming under her eyes. And her eyes could not seem to shed one tear for the dearly departed. The thought haunted her: why can't I cry for my mother? For the woman that raised Ling and I, the woman we both loved dearly. They had already lost their father, but their mother, too, so early in life? It was just too much to take and it didn't help that they still had bills to pay.

Upon the realization (for the third time that day) that she was not going to get any sleep, the waterbender got up and dressed herself in simple blue colors and ran a brush through her hand. That didn't change the fact she had nothing to do and sat on the floor, her back to the door.

Knock, knock.

The sudden noise startled her and she jumped, her heart pounding away. Managing to pull herself up, her hand rested on the knob of the door as she took a deep breath. Should she open it? To let someone in? She waited, trying to think despite her mind as musty and cluttered as a teenager's bedroom. Without the realization she was doing it, she opened to the door. Only the face of Iluak snapped her back into reality as if someone dumped a bucket of cold water on her head. Her mouth was left agape as she just looked at him while he asked for her help.

"Of course,"

[/color] she said, her voice cracking. Those had been the first words all day she said to someone besides her sister. Probably the first words for the past couple of days. Mei walked to the kitchen, filling her water skin to the brim and exiting her home, the door closing with a click. Whatever help he needed, she assumed to be outside, or perhaps, she wanted it to be outside. It was simply too hard to stay there, though she had no where else to go. Now she did. She looked to the healer with big blue eyes, waiting for some type of request that he needed her help for.[/blockquote]

"I was inherited," Iluak tried to explain while he drove Mei through Republic City in his patchwork satomobile of varying models and parts smuggled out of an assembly line over the years.
"I used to work for a man, a criminal, and after he died his protege took over. For some reason he took my offer to free me from his service."

"I have a list. Before I came to see you I had to lie to an old man about a crime he witnessed. I think that will probably be the most noble thing I have to do."

Once parked Iluak pulled the neatly hand-written list Mugen Yuan had given him.
2: Yu-Ti Chuan. Make him suffer. See other side for details.
The details on the other side were only four words and they seemed like an ambiguous cause to inflict pain to another human being.
Trust me, Mister Chu.

The look he pointed in Mei's direction felt like it could communicate his longing all by itself.
"I don't suppose that in the course of your investigations you have come across a man named Yu-Ti Chuan who was a mass murder who clubbed baby penguins to death, have you?"

Iluak knew his young boss enough to know that when Ziu Yuan was invovled the normally passive young criminal held a sadism that frightened him. It could have been something genuinely horrible Chuan had done to the young man's mother but it could have been an off-color joke about her being from the Foggy Swamp.

Whoever the man was he was seemingly trapped or otherwise preoccupied inside the warehouse they faced while seated in Iluak's satomobile.

Iluak brushed off some of the road dirt from the dark blue changshan he wore and sighed as he pulled his hair back tighter.
"I'm sorry to have dragged you into this, Mei-Zhen. I needed someone who could fight...I also needed someone I could talk to."

Leaving out the words "self", "destructive" and "belligerent" people tended to describe Iluak Chu as "calm" or "passive".
That didn't include the times he found a group of men loading obviously stolen hospital supplies into a truck.

Every so often Iluak Chu thought that given the right motivation and circumstances he could be the toughest man in the near vicinity. Stealing from healers like himself made him angry enough to believe that he could summon the will to beat the five men unloading the truck senseless.
Like many of his patients Iluak found that anger usually led to a need for a healer.
One swift kick to the ribs and a punch to the face and Iluak was robbed of the illusion that he could ever be a fighter.

One could say throughout the car ride she was silent, calm and composed, but she was anything but. As she listened to Iluak, her already confused mind became even more so. She had absolutely no idea he had been in this kind of mess, but perhaps that had been intended all along, to keep her in the dark. At a time like this, she could understand why he wouldn't want her to know anything of this before. After recent events, it felt like she understood a bit more about helplessness. To help Iluak gain his freedom? She'd do anything to help, in any means possible.

Mei nodded at his question. "I've heard of him, yeah,"

[/color] she said softly, running a hand through her hair, her gaze unfocused and simply staring at the scenery that passed by. Though she knew her mind wasn't totally into discussing things, she would help, but maybe it was best just to keep her in the dark a little longer. She fought when she needed to, not to simply hurt someone. Still... if it was someone bad, she could handle it. Besides, she told herself, it'd be a good release of energy. I've been cooped up too long doing nothing. "Just... tell me when and I will."[/color]

"D-don't worry,"[/color] softly she said, turning away from the passing scenery to look at him with a small smile. "I'm happy to help you."[/color] No matter who she helped, she was happy to make a difference. But for Iluak, it seemed to make her happy that he turned to her despite what he was asking for. Shyly, she reached over and touched his forearm, meant to be a warm-like gesture, though she was probably sure what she was doing was just weird.

She looked ahead at the warehouse with weary eyes before opening the door of the satomobile and slipping out, shutting the door quietly. "I'll lead,"[/color] she said, a little more force in her voice compared to her previous words. Without another word, she left, her right hand opening the cap to the water skin. When the waterbender reached the warehouse door, she gave the door a little tug. It wouldn't budge. She pulled out a bit of her water and froze the wooden door around the lock. Picking up a rock, she tossed it in her hands a few time before throwing it forward, breaking the frozen wood.

Ahead was hundreds of stacked and orderly wooden crates, one upon the other as they reached towards the ceiling. A man was supposed to be here? In one of the crates perhaps? She continued forward. "Where,"[/color] she whispered to Iluak, "Do you suppose he is?"[/color] If the man was here, he had not been seen instantly. Hiding behind one of the crates? Or simply inside one of them? Either way, it was going to take a while to find the man.

"Lets split up. I'll take the right side and you can take the left,"[/color] she suggested. "I mean... we can cover more ground that way,"[/color] Mei said. She wanted to be by his side, but he needed these things done to gain his freedom. Without hesitation, she headed to the right, her arms up in case she found him and needed to protect herself. Crate by crate she passed by until they became somewhat of a blur. Nothing was different. There was no disturbance in the orderliness of the crates, nothing that could tell her where this man was, if he even was here.

Finally, she reached the end of the warehouse without the slightest trace that he was here. "Iluak! This side is clear,"[/color] she called."Where are you-?"[/color] she was interrupted by footsteps that came from behind her, turning her head around to see who it was. But before she could see who it was, something sharp passed her arm, a minor, though significant cut appearing on her skin. The waterbender didn't hesitate to pull the water from the waterskin, throwing it at the assailant, pushing him back and to the wall. Before he had a chance to remove himself from the floor, she froze the water around his hands and feet.

"I found him,"[/color] she said, somewhat ironically.[/blockquote]

Iluak couldn't understand the wounded pride of men who had to have a woman fight their battles. Getting beaten up...that really hurt.
As far as he was concerned Mei could fight all of his battles. He wasn't too proud to stand back and let his better use talents he lacked. He also wasn't too proud to kick a wounded man who would steal supplies earmarked for a hospital.
"Twenty-four, thirty-eight, twelve." The wounded criminal then murmured something about protection before passing out.

The beaten healer could almost see the stack of pink bills in the safe. The worst people always seemed to have the most money. He ended up leaving the building even angrier than when he came in.
"You think I'm some thug collector? Huh?"
Even he wasn't sure who that question was directed toward, the man frozen to the wall or the man who sent him there in the first place.

Once he had managed to lurch himself outside again he knew he dare not drive anywhere as angry as he was. He bit into his lower lip and made it bleed even more.
"I..." he growled in frustration and banged his fist on the hood of his satomobile.
"He used me like some mook to collect his money." The healer went a little pale when he looked at Mei.
"And I used you as muscle..." he let out a frustrated grunt. "Years of medical training and Mugen uses me like some illiterate hood. And you...ah!" He clenched his fists until red crescents formed. "I made you an accessory."

The stack of yuans Iluak suspected was to be delivered to Mugen instead took a shorter trip to the ground only to have the water bender's foot join them. It wasn't until the fourth stomp that Iluak realized it was pointless taking his anger out on a wad of money.
Iluak reclaimed whatever yuans weren't damaged. A lot of people went without medical care for that money, the least it could do was buy him lunch.

Once his hands stopped shaking and his nerves steadied Iluak felt up to driving.
"I can't apologize enough. You're a detective as well as a healer. You can't be committing crimes and hurting people."

Mei-zhen stood idly by as Iluak did his thing, whatever that was. Her mind was still on edge from the sudden attacked placed on her by the some subdued man, leaving her to wait until the next chain of directions like a hired gun. Her companion returned with a wad of cash in his hands, storming out of the building quickly that she had to put an effort into keeping up with him. Before she had the chance to ask him what happened, it all came pouring out.

"Its not your fault. You needed help and I'm glad to," she told him once she could slip in a few words. Nothing truer could have been said at that moment. Not only was she glad to offer her assistance to someone that really mattered to her, but for a few moments- a few blissful moments- she had managed to ward off the suffocating thoughts of her mother's death. "Iluak, I would have rather you come to me for help like this than facing it on your own, risking yourself."

[/color] The man before him was capable of so much, in her eyes, but she knew he could not finish these thins if left to his own accord for one reason or another.

Mei took a seat in the satomobile, tapping her fingers on her legs as the man apologized. She looked at him with a smile and soft shrug of her shoulders. "Like I said, its fine. Your freedom from this man is worth beating a few bad people,"[/color] Wow. That had sounded a lot better in her head. She began to second guess her assumptions. What if the next tasks meant beating others? Innocent people that simply got into the wrong sorts of people? Thinking of that man as evil helped her justify it, and the fact that she had not been on the offensive, merely defending herself from an attack.

"What's next on the list?"[/color][/blockquote]

Some foolish guru or other once told Iluak that there were five stages of grief. Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. At the time Iluak was inebriated enough to vomit at will and there were no further attempts to help him.
Five stages of grief, twelve steps to sobriety, one-hundred and eight earthly desires to be rid of and the noble eight-fold path.
After deciding to quit drinking and more importantly quit the employment of a monster Iluak looked around for help. Everybody had different lists with different steps and none of them seemed like the right one.

It was during the horrors of his alcohol detox that Iluak Chu decided that he would need to be his own guru with his own list to lead him to spiritual fulfilment...or whatever atheists aspired to. Contentment perhaps.
Iluak's inner wise-man told him their expensive lunch should be paid by his future former boss.

With something akin to glee Iluak jumped into the seat of his satomobile.
"Would you like to eat? On Mugen's yuan of course. Think of a nice place."

He studied Mei-Zhen for a moment. It wasn't the usual stolen look but an actual attempt to get to know his protoge via study.
"Do you believe in the five stages of grief? Are you in one now? Denial, anger, bargaining...all that? Speaking for myself anger seems the hardest to overcome. How can either one of us NOT be angry? Why are you not cursing cruel Gods for their treatment of you?"

A few more looks and Illuak and for a moment he thought of how different his loss was from that of Mei-Zhen. She lost a mother while the person Iluak would be rid of was more like a polyp. A polyp in the form of a handsome young man who played any role possible to get where he wanted.
She lost something precious, he longed to lose something horrible. It was another strange dichotomy between the two.

Iluak's offer caught her by surprise. "I don't know. You pick," she said, her eye cast out around them. Mei hadn't been anywhere expensive before, and the few places she frequented fairly weren't so extravagant. They were usually places with cheap, mediocre foods so that any extra money could go towards savings or something nice for Ling in the future. Even then she didn't eat out all that much. In fact, eating a substantial meal was becoming hard for her, her appetite barely there so she could manage a few mouthfuls of rice. Besides, with what she was wearing, she knew she would stick out above the rest like a sore thumb.

She felt herself pale as the subject of grief came up and she turned to look at Iluak directly, her mouth agape as she tried to think of words though none came right away. "I really... don't know. I probably followed the stages when my dad died. But for my mom as well? I... just have no idea how I feel. I accepted her death, but I never got angry, I never cried." she told him, her hands bundling handfuls of the loose fabric of her clothes with her uncomfort of the situation. "I don't know... anger, maybe. I hate that I can't react the way I want to about this. I feel simply... void."

[/color]

What else was there to say? She wasn't angry at the spirits. She blamed herself for not being around when her mother passed on, but even then there was no real energy put in to the self hatred. Self pity, perhaps, fit her current state of mind more closely, the way she hid away in her room or threw herself into her work to forget if only for moments at a time, but that was no means of a solution for the problem.

The mention of the spirits got her mind spinning. Why had she not blamed them? Why hadn't she become angry for their mistreatment of her and her family? Those inquiries did not last very long as the answer came quickly: she blamed herself. She wasn't angry, she wasn't sad, but, as always, she put on the weight of responsibility that wasn't even real. There was no way she invoked or could have stopped her mother's death, but the haunting thoughts wouldn't leave. They chanted in her ears with tunes of fault and expectations.

"I'm hungry,"[/color] Mei lied. "I'll... I'll tell you more once I get some more energy."[/color] At that moment, the last of the adrenaline flushing from her system, the sting of her cut surfaced though it did not daze the thoughtful woman as she sat there in the satomobile.[/blockquote]

Driving was a calming experience for Iluak Chu. For some it was a source of stress he'd heard referred to as Road Rage. Iluak had something more akin to travel zen. He became his satomobile. When his engine was turned off Iluak sighed at once again being himself.

Upon exiting Iluak smiled slightly while looking up at a tall, crumbling apartment building.
"We'll need to climb to get there but it's worth it."

While pulling the fire escape ladder down that would lead them to the roof Iluak felt talkative.
"You know...I don't like money. I don't even like taking it. If someone can do something for me I'd rather have that." He jumped from one fire escape to the next and began climbing again. They didn't make accessing the roof of the building easy.

"Hikiko is...shy. Wait, no that's not right. I'm shy. Hikiko fears rejection and and just about everything else this city has to offer on a level I can't even fathom. " Iluak's ribs still hurt and he was glad to sit down on the gravel lining the roof near a steam pipe.
"He's good with buns and soups." Iluak actually found himself smiling. "I had to come to him so at first I had to talk to him through his door. Kid did wonders for my bedside manner. Normally I would have frozen the hinges and kicked in the door. I think I might be the only person he talks to."

The nostalgic healer leaned over to the steam pipe which connected him directly to his shut-in short-order cook.
"Bone soup. And pork buns." He looked back at Mei and assumed he looked rather odd sitting on a roof ordering food through a pipe. "What would you like? I think he just knows soups and buns but he has a lot of variations of each. Considering the staph infection I took care of he owes me quite a few meals. Good thing the kid didn't own a bar."

The fact that this second meal he had in Mei's presence outdoors made Iluak a little self-conscious.
"I'm sorry. I should have taken your some place nice. Where you don't have to order food through a pipe to be cooked by an amatuer."

Mei-zhen followed the man, not really caring about the location of the place, nor how they got there, or even the food that might be served. She would probably take a few bites, a recent habit, and play with the rest to make it look like she ate more than she did. The older sister seemed to take it worse for the remaining Yao's, Ling always worrying about her and making sure things were taken care of. The sentiment was appriciated, but wasn't welcome. She couldn't let her sister worry too much about her when the only problem was that she couldn't keep herself in check. She was the older one. She had the responsibility now.

So why couldn't she be more responsible, working and providing instead of sulking around?

She left that thought unanswered for the moment as she concentrated on climbing the fire escape, finding a slight comfort in Iluak's words. Well, comfort in the simple sounds of words to fill the silence. The silence was a horrible thing, a permanant silence overcoming the dead, a silence that overcame her mother... The brunette shook her head; why wouldn't thoughts like those just leave her alone? What had she done to deserve such a torture?

"It's fine, Iluak. Really."

[/color] It wasn't like she was used to big fancy dinners or anything more than a warm, home cooked meal. Besides, a dinner was less about the food, but rather who you ate it with. She doubted what she would do if she didn't have Ling. Perhaps she wouldn't be eating at all without a pair of worried eyes making sure she kept herself healthy. "I'll have the same thing you have."[/color] Not like she had much room inside her head to actually think of something else to order, especially when she wasn't even hungry to begin with.

The woman stared at her lap, sighing softly. "I'm so confused about how I feel. How I should feel. And why I should feel it. I wish... I wish someone could just tell me what I should do, what I should feel and how I should act. If anything is for certain, Iluak, it's that I feel lost."[/color] She paused, taking in a deep breath. A big lump had formed in her throat and she felt like she was close to crying, though she knew she couldn't. "What would you do in my position? What would you do if... if I had died?"[/color][/blockquote][/blockquote]

Nothing soothing came to Iluak's mind. The most tactful people said he had a terrible bedside manner. The less tactful tended to punch him in the face.
Even the simplest platitudes died on his tongue when Mei-Zhen asked what he would do if she died. Silently contemplating the concrete below him was all he found himself capable of.

"I..." The building's roof he sat on suddenly became so entrancing he could not take his eyes off of it.
"Leave." With a sigh Iluak lifted his head but still couldn't meet Mei's eyes.
"I would leave town. Drive in any direction and go heal somewhere else. I'd break off my relationship with his city for good. No one should stay in a place that has been nothing but cruel."
For a moment Iluak was proud his lie. It sounded much nicer than the truth that he would drink himself to death.

Thinking on the times he'd seen death up close Iluak tried to think of something remotely soothing. He knew that Mei's mother had not been in good health for a while and thought of the faces of families of some of his patients.
"It...It's okay to feel relieved." He slid a little closer to Mei.
"It's an ordeal, watching someone slowly fade away." He groaned then let out a grunt of disgust in himself.
"Obvious. Sorry."

Drunken stupors were Iluak's typical means of expressing grief...or any other emotion. All of his friends and acquaintances seemed to die during his alcoholic years. He didn't know what he could say to Mei about processing her grief when he wasn't capable of it himself.
He simply reached over to Mei but instead of touching her left his hand on the ground where she could take it at her will.
"I'll be here if you need me."

Patience had been a great trait of Mei-zhen's, something she developed over the years. She was used to waiting for something she wanted, putting everyone's wants and needs above hers. She never minded waiting on others. So why now, of all times, was she so anxious to hear what Iluak had to say? Her stomach felt like it flopped around and then tightened, her ears perked up making her aware to every sound around her and she even began to wiggle her toes nervously, something she had never done before while waiting. Her own actions confused her, causing her to question herself and her ideology.

Finally, when Iluak spoke, she mistook his words as an order from him. Words sat at the tip of her tongue: "Why do you want me to leave? Did I ask something I shouldn't have?" Thankfully, that hadn't been the case. The fact he would seem so upset about her death almost comforted her, though that thought just made her feel guilty on the inside. She never wanted anyone to be delayed or set back because of her. When she did die, she wanted people to live a happy life. In no way had she wished ill upon another. Why was she so messed up? Had her mother's death really taken that much of a toll on her and only now was she realizing it? What a mess she must have put Ling in.

She didn't reply to Iluak right away, her mind lost in her own doubts and questions. Only the words "I'll be here if you need me" managed to bring her back to reality, away from all the 'if's and 'why's. Silent tears fell down her cheeks as she stared off, not realizing she was finally crying until a few drops hit her hands that lied in her lap. She didn't lift a hand to dry her tears nor did she try to cover up the fact she was crying. She had waited so long for it to happen. She had tried to force herself to cry the day after their mother's death, the first day she had been too shaken up to do anything at all.

"Oh Iluak,"

[/color] she cried, quickly though gently leaning over and throwing her arms around the man. "I would have rather sat by her bedside with her everyday. But.. she died alone. Ling and I were both gone. We left her to die on her own,"[/color] she told him, digging her face into his shirt. It wasn't soon before she could feel her tears in the clothing. "I don't want to feel relieved. I just... I just want my Mama back."[/color] Mei held on a little longer before her grip on him began to go lax.

Slowly, as if her head was made of lead, she pulled away, her hands the last to leave his body. She wanted to apologize for the outburst, but she knew it would have been a useless statement. He had already said he was here for her, and what would come out from apologizing about being sad over something legitimate? "Thank you, Iluak. I mean... I don't think I could've gotten past that barrier without you."[/color] As to which or what barrier she was referring to, she didn't even know. Was that acceptance? Or the end to the depression? My, how confusing this had all been.

Still, she didn't think she was all the way done. She knew she wanted to mourn for her mother a bit longer, but at least she wasn't stuck any longer, stuck in a part of her mind that frightened her beyond belief. She looked up at him with steady pale-blue eyes, the whites of her eyes tinted red from crying. Beyond that look spread a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. "When's that food getting here?"[/color][/blockquote][/blockquote]

An apartment building roof seemed like a bad place for a meal, but the service put the homemade food in a category all it's own. No fake smiling or small-talk when served by a man who feared social interaction the way some feared demons.
Iluak wanted a meal with no more social awkwardness than necessary.

The sudden appearance of two large bowls of broken koala-sheep bones in a bright red soup was extremely welcome. As meals went bone soup was messy and bright enough to ruin a good set of clothes, but utterly comforting. Iluak couldn't think of another cook who owed him. It was unpretentious and at times a lot more effort than it was worth. As dishes went Iluak felt it represented him the best.

Having something in front of him that wasn't Mei-zhen was a blessing. He didn't know what to say to her when things were going well but felt like an epic word-smith compared to how dumbstruck he felt dealing with his assistant's tragedy.
"I wish you had a broken leg."
He paused, winced and let out a moan.
"What I mean is. I wish I could help you."

Iluak took a sip of his bright red soup, already staining his lips.
"I can't offer any advice from my own experiences but I can sit and listen." He smirked and took another sip of bone marrow infused soup. "I can also shut up and let you enjoy your lunch."

While trying to look as if he was intently soaking his bread into the red, meaty broth Iluak stole a few glances at Mei-Zhen. She was still beautiful when sad but it was the kind of beauty that came coupled with a punch to the heart.
He wished she would smile. More than anything, he wished he could be responsible for it.

"Have I ever told you the story of how I dislocated my shoulder penguin sledding?"
He almost choked while laughing and eating a piece of soup-soaked bread.
"Let's see...I was young...by that I mean about twenty-six and got talked into sneaking into the zoo with some co-workers back at the satomobile factory. Believe it or not but this was before I drank and it still seemed like a good idea."

"So, here we are, four dirty, tired and inebriated, except for me, Sato workers standing atop a slope in the zoos penguin preserve watching penguins slide down. I was the most excited so naturally I went first."
He closed his eyes and for a moment lost himself in memory and smiled. It was the type of thing that was only amusing years afterward.
"Anyway, I reach for a penguin and the damned thing bites me. I slip and flail around trying to take that stupid bird down with me. Well, I managed to penguin sled...nearly...only I was on my back and acting as the sled while this terrified penguin is on top of me trying to get this crazy human to let go. Long story short, dislocated my shoulder and I'm no longer allowed in the zoo. As far as youthful shenanigans go that's all I have."

Oddly enough, Iluak felt himself cheered up by his own story.
"Your turn."

Despite overcoming her mental block, she still couldn't find her appetite when the food arrived. Yes, her stomach was empty and gnawing at her, but -as it was for the past while- she couldn't make herself dive into the food or find it's appeal very appetizing. It must be good, she tried to convince herself, if Iluak ordered it and eating it right away. Still she only managed to set the food on her lap, waiting for her mind open up to the idea of eating especially if it was Iluak. As if testing the waters, she mirrored his actions, tearing off a bit of the bread and dipping it in the soup and popping the piece into her mouth. It was... good.

She continued to do the same action, tearing bit off by little instead of dipping the whole thing in the soup. "It's good,"

[/color] she mumbled after her fourth piece of soggy bread. The only thing that made her pause in eating was her teacher's odd comment of wishing her physical ail, then his explanation causing her to nod her head lightly. She could understand the helplessness of helping someone that was beyond their area of expertise. She knew the feeling with having Hyuk-jae around the house. If ever something happened, she would be the best person in the vicinity to help him, but she knew that there would be nothing she could do to help at all.

His smirk was comforting and she almost found herself safe when he was bumbling like an idiot. Not that she thought he was stupid, not at all! It just let her let her guard down, the silliness of it all, putting her at ease. Those were moments when she didn't feel the weight of the world on her shoulders' and could put her responsibilities on the back burner if only for a few blissful moments.

As Mei-zhen turned back to her food, eating it away little by little, she was caught off guard by his strange question. "N-no?"[/color] she replied, a few coughing following after as a spoonful of soup when down the wrong pipe. She listened intently, willfully hanging on to each word. The story was strange, but a good kind of strange. It was a feeling similar to when Ling would bring home a bit of money from gambling where she wished that her sister hadn't, but at the same time pleased at the winnings, or in this case the story that came out from such a trip.

She laughed. She laughed loud and long at the end of his story, holding on to the bowl of soup tightly so it wouldn't roll off her lap as she threw her head back in ecstasy. She could only imagine a slightly younger Iluak in a reverse-penguin sledding incident. She felt a smile crack on her lips, her cheek muscles unrelenting when it came to returning to her resting face. It almost hurt to smile like that.

"Lets see..."[/color] she thought to herself, her blue eyes looking towards the sky as she tried to remember a time before her responsibilities, before her father's death. "I lived in a small village a bit south from here before my father's death. Even then, I didn't get into a lot of stuff,"[/color] she mused out loud, trying to find something in her past that could brighten the conversation. "Ling, if you can believe it, got into her more... unique ways of having fun when we were younger, while I was learning traditional waterbending. She used to call it a sleight hand -our mother always claimed it to be pickpocketing and nothing more- but, anyways, most of the time she wouldn't get caught. The other times, she wound up in quite a bit of trouble and turned to me- though that was rare in and of itself."[/color]

"Ling had taken one too many yuans from the wrong guy and ended up hiding all over the village trying to get away from this guy and somehow found me. Sadly enough, so did the guy. Ling hid in the closet and I ended up trying to talk him out of looking for her. He almost found Ling when he insisted on scouting the place and I ended up clubbing him on the head with an improvised chunk of ice in a moment of panic. It felt like I had killed him and trying to hide the evidence when we dragged him back to the bar. Ling told the bartender he had too much to drink and that he chased her around, "falsely" accusing her of taking the money he spent on sake."[/color]

She never got hurt, but that was as close as she went when it came to shenanigans- helping Ling out of an...interesting situation. Even then, she was still helping others. Wow, she really should take a break every now and then. "I guess I'm not that interesting when it comes to fooling around,"[/color] she confessed with an awkward smile.[/blockquote][/blockquote]

Mei-Zhen still made Iluak nervous. While she spoke he played with his long, brown hair by continuously tying and untying the leather strip that intermittenly held it back. He could choose at a moment's notice whether or not to amputate a limb and do so with proficiency and distance but dealing with her was something that took real nerve.

For a moment the woman across from him ceased to be a monster of beauty and grace and was just another human being, better even, an amusing one.
Laughing without an ounce of self-revulsion or cruelty was something new to Iluak and it came out in an awkward Hee, hee, huh
He knew it would be something would need to be worked on later.

"Typically, behind every crazy story of fooling around there is a healer whose night has been ruined. Someone has to heal the wounded people from bar fights or deal with a practical joke gone wrong. Sometimes I fear that all I do is keep stupid alive for their next act of idiocy."

Unconsciously, Iluak had slid even closer to Mei. It was like not being able to look at the sun but still desiring its warmth.
"I happen to like you a great deal," he ended up saying to the red soup stain on his blue changshan. He wondered if it would relay that message to the rightful recipient.

Atop an apartment building, eating soup made by a shut-in and speaking words into his chest. Iluak doubted that it would ever be mistaken for a scene from an Omoi Tenoh story, it didn't even reach the level of Izumi Tsukishima's cheap and tawdry romances few people admitted to reading.

Hoping that Mei hadn't heard such a lackluster statement of love, Iluak changed tracks.
"Tell me more about yourself...uh, you know...pets the like. What's your favorite drink? What are some good jazz songs with easy bass lines? How's the ...de...tec...tive thing going?"
Why he felt the need to enunciate every syllable of the word "Detective" he had no idea and blamed it on his detox.

Mei didn't know why he did it, but she liked the closeness nonetheless. She had been pushing away just about everything she could since her mother died. Even Ling had received only so many hugs. It was something different, sitting up here and having a nice, though odd, meal after an equally odd job. His confession seemed to be obeying by the laws of threes, though in a sense of oddness. As a result, she had nothing to say, instead, her eyes fixed ahead and her mouth agape as she searched for words in her head. "I happen to feel the same,"

[/color] she said. Then the bumbling began. "About you. Not me. How I feel about you, I feel the same as you feel about me."[/color] Her words, mostly squished together, were spoken quickly as her face heated up.

She was relieved when he started asking her about herself, she hoped to say something to derive his thoughts from her awkward response. "I've never had a pet, though I always did bring a turtleduck or two home, begging my mom to let me keep it. I really like licorice spice tea with honey. There's too many songs to list. And... the detective thing, yeah..."[/color] She trailed off, remembering how the end of that job went down, finishing it right after their mother died. "I feel like I made a huge fool of myself, saying things to try to fix other things. It never worked. I feel like a big... a big... dum-dum,"[/color] she said, for lack of a better word. "After it was done, I ran home without Ling, leaving her to finish up the last loose ends."[/color] She had little awareness as to how that last phrase might have been otherwise interpreted, especially when talking about her sister.[/blockquote][/blockquote]

Iluak's mother taught him how to cook sea prunes in a way he could stomach and his father taught him how a wolf goes from stalking the lands of the North Pole to becoming jerky and pelts. He knew human anatomy and just how much to drink to numb his guilt without passing out but comforting people was something he never recalled learning.

He could hear the weary voice of the woman who taught him to heal. Without even a hint of thought Iluak mimicked his teacher's slightly annoyed tone as he quoted her.
"They can heal their spirits on their own time, boy. You just make sure they got all their blood and organs before they go navel gazin'."
He smirked. "Something my sifu used to tell me. No wonder I'm so bad with people. Your story reminded me of her. She'd always call me 'dum-dum'."

With the last of his soup gone Iluak no longer had something to occupy his mouth and hands. He busied one by playing with his hair tie and prayed the other was through spouting non-sequiturs.
"So...what was this case where you allegedly made a fool of yourself?"
"Idiot," he quietly muttered to himself.

Suddenly, courting Mei-zhen seemed like too much to take on. A romantic relationship seemed too risky. It made sense to amputate what would become a gangrene limb before it infected their working relationship. It made logical sense and it coincided with his fear of rejection. Going back to a platonic teacher/student relationship was obviously the best thing to do.
Hadn't he had enough changes in his life as of late?

Iluak Chu glanced upward to meet Mei's eyes and his resolve crumbled. He could handle one more change in his life, providing it was a good one.

Mei nodded, a small smile at the thought of Iluak having a sifu that belated him. She could only imagine a younger version of the man that sat next to her, trying to waterbend or heal.

"No, no, you're fine."

[/color] She probably had planned on telling eventually; talking to people was always soothing for her no matter the topic. Well, depending on the person that is. Lee, the man that sent the sisters on that first job, was so nerve wrecking to be around that Mei would do almost anything to leave the room. In those situations, even being my Ling's side wouldn't calm her, nothing but a full water skin hung by her side. Right now, she did have a water skin by her side which she guessed what made her feel a little bit more at ease in willingness to tell him about it.

"I.. I just,"[/color] she stopped, sighing before continuing. "I thought I could handle something in a way only I could. I was arrogant and I ended up just looking naive."[/color] She debated telling him the full details of the events that had come to pass and decided against it. She didn't need to prove Hyuk-jae's mistrust against her, not already. "I looked like a fool because I assumed everyone had a nice, loving family at one point and found out otherwise. I felt like anything I said or did was wrong no matter how hard I tried. Right after my mother's death... I felt absolutely helpless, I could do nothing,"[/color] she sighed. Way to make things depressing again, making it about her mother when nothing she said or did could make her come back to life.

Things now just started to feel awkward, sitting on the roof top talking about soon to die-out topics. "Is there anything else you need to do?'[/color] she asked the man. After all, hadn't the initial reason he called upon her help for were a series of tasks?[/blockquote][/blockquote]

"Is there anything else you need to do?"

Iluak heaved a great, exasperated sigh and once more checked the list written for him.
Broker deal for Lugubrious Chen's severance.
"...I think I have to fire someone. I've never had to fire anyone before. Why would he make me fire someone?"
The word felt so strange on his tongue that he had to keep repeating it.
"Do you think criminals take being fired poorly? In a strangle-a-person sort of way?"

Iluak smiled while he winced. "At least I'll have some muscle on my side." Having someone able to dole out physical punishment on his behalf was something of a novelty that Iluak found he enjoyed. Before, his words and actions usually had consequences but with Mei-Zhen at his side he felt less restricted.
Withouth Mei, the healer wouldn't have joked about being choked to death.
He tried his hand at laughing again but it still felt unnatural.
"If the nickname is anything to go by this Chen character shouldn't be too difficult. I can deal with the morose. It's not like he's called 'Bone-Breaking Chen' or something like that."

He had to pause for a moment and let it sink in that he was actually optimistic about something.
"Let's eat. You know...later...on another day. I can make fried kelp. I'd like to, uh, have another meal with you some time. Come to think of it, outside of eating and drinking I don't know what couples do....um, not that I would presume we were a couple. I enjoy your company while you seem to tolerate mine so in a sense I suppose we are a couple."

It took a few nervous breaths to get the air he expended talking back into his lungs.
He looked up and then at Mei-Zhen while rolling his eyes at what a dolt he was sober.
"Dinner sometime. At a restaurant, maybe. Or I can cook. Would you be open to such a thing? I can maybe get my friend to play her trumpet again. It might be nice to spend time together that doesn't involve wounded people or people whom give wounds."

Iluak could only sneer once at what seemed like a brutal massacre then torture of words that came out of his mouth. He preferred it when he was only vaguely aware of how foolish he sounded.
"A date, Mei...are you agreeable?"

Facing Mei turned out to be very difficult due to the red hue of his face and the feel of shame coursing through his veins. So he began to head back down off the roof. If he was going to be dumped he didn't want it to be on a high building. Far too melodramatic a death for a simple healer.

"Ask her out and run away. You, Iluak Chu are quite possibly too stupid to live."