Ren's evaluation was kinder than he'd anticipated, given that he was attempting something entirely new to him. Her clarification that smushing was what was needed was helpful, and as she gestured for him to continue, he returned to his task with renewed vigor. It took a few more cycles for him to get in the rhythm of it, but soon he was working almost without thinking.

The whistle of the kettle snapped Johar out of his reverie, reminding him that there was more in the world besides mochi smushing. Ren pronounced the mochi as acceptable, and so while she prepared the Flameo trays, he went to wash the stickiness from his hands. That done, he gratefully accepted the tray Ren handed him, setting it gently down on the kotetsu. He turned back and, seeing Ren carefully balancing an armload of condiments, started toward her to offer help. Before he could manage, though, she'd made it to the kotetsu in one piece, and suggested balling the mocha while they waited. He nodded, and got to work once more.

——

Balling mocha was a simple, relaxing experience. Johar always enjoyed using his hands on non-strenuous tasks like this. The farm work his parents had required of him had often been more intense than he was comfortable handling, but this he could do with ease. And best of all, he could eat the final product.

But first, the noodles. While Ren immediately went to town on hers, Johar took a more measured approached. He nibbled at the noodles, then added a dash each of soy sauce, lemon juice, and green onion before taking a second bite. After that came a bit more lemon juice and green onion, then a third bite. A bit more soy sauce, and he was finally satisfied. He ate in silent contentment for a moment, but looked up mid-slurp as Ren spoke. He took a moment to swallow his food before replying. "Definitely," he agreed. "I'm not a big fan of crowded celebrations anyway. This is much better. Thank you for teaching me how to make mochi. I don't know if I'd be able to handle it by myself, but it's still good to know the process."

Ren grinned, keeping her lips tight so she didn't flash the green onion she could feel was stuck between her two front teeth. She was silent for a few moments, working the annoyance out with her tongue, before replying.

"Well, mochi is really a two-person creation. You can't go fast enough with the kine to get the proper consistency if you have to stop to roll the rice every time. Honestly, the usu and kine aren't even mine, they're the landlady's, she gave me a bunch of stuff she wasn't using anymore when I first moved in."

Honestly, the Flameo was good. Not as good as fresh noodles, of course, but it was by no means a bad meal, especially when supplemented by soy sauce and other condiments.

"Did you want to stay for the fireworks?" she asked. "It wouldn't be as big as what the city would probably have, but I heard there's a small celebration in the town square."

She paused, then looked up wide-eyed. Fireworks went off at midnight, and the trains didn't run that late. "N-not, not, not that I'm asking you to stay the night or — or anything!" she squeaked out, flushing red with embarrassment.

It was slightly disappointing to hear that mochi making was meant to be a two-person endeavor. Not that he minded working in tandem—he'd really enjoyed partnering with Ren—but it would have been nice to be able to make mochi by himself at home should he feel the urge. Ah, well. There was always store-bought mochi. That would do in a pinch.

They ate for a few moments in companionable silence. Flameo instant noodles weren't a gourmet meal by any stretch of the imagination, but with the condiments Ren had provided, the noodles were perfectly acceptable—good, even. Johar could see how some people could stand to live off the stuff. For his part, though, he'd stick to the fresh stuff when possible.

Johar looked up as Ren mentioned fireworks. It was a great idea. He'd still been travelling the previous new year, and so hadn't gotten a chance to take part in any celebrations. He'd rung in the year alone, in a tent. Watching fireworks with a friend sounded much better. He opened his mouth to say so, but then Ren stammered out the rest of her thought, and his mouth simply hung open. He left it open as he thought, before stumbling over a response.

"I…I mean…I'd like to watch the fireworks with you, Ren. But the trains won't be running then, and…I wouldn't want to impose on your hospitality…I've already eaten enough of your food as it is, and I don't…" he trailed off, giving Ren a pained look. Just once he wanted to be able to get his thoughts out clearly when in an awkward situation. Was that too much to ask?

Ren turned scarlet. "No, yes, of course!" she replied, her voice high pitched. "Yes, I wasn't thinking, of course, I'm so sorry!"

She turned abruptly and headed off to the kitchen to hide her face. When would she learn to THINK before she spoke? "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable!" she added, her face hidden behind a curtain of silvery locks, "I was just thinking of the fireworks."

The tall woman shifted uncomfortably. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Oh, by the spirits, Ren was apologizing. Johar's face was hot, and he was probably as red as she was. Silently, he cursed himself for his awkwardness. It shouldn't be this difficult to politely refuse a suggestion. Yet here he was, having made such a mess of things that Ren actually got up and turned away. This was exactly why he made a point of avoiding conflict as much as possible.

Johar stood, but didn't move toward Ren. If she wanted some distance, he had to respect that. "It's okay," he said, trying to peer through her hair and catch her eye. "Really, it is. I really would love to watch fireworks with you, but I can't ask you to let me stay here, and there really aren't other options. But…" he gestured back to the kotetsu, where the noodles and mochi still sat. "This has already been the best New Year I've had in a little while. I can't thank you enough for allowing me to stay as long as I have today. Fireworks or no, that's more than enough."

Ren peeped out at him through her hair, evaluating what Johar had said. After a few moments, she straightened and pushed her hair out of the way. Her face was still a dull red from embarrassment, but it was starting to fade. She smiled shyly.

"Well... all right."

Sitting back down, Ren resumed eating her noodles, still smiling. Johar was really a nice person; she had a hard time clicking with people, even among the other acolytes. It wasn't that she was disliked; everyone at the temple went out of their way to make her feel welcome, and she was on friendly terms with everyone. It was just she hadn't made very many friends.

Johar was different though. What started out as a chance encounter had quickly blossomed into a little friendship. At least, that's how she felt; she thought — hoped! — he felt the same.

"Well, in the absence of fireworks," she said, realising with a little guilt she had been quiet for some time, "perhaps I can go to the city for the Lantern Festival — er, for the lanterns and festivities," she added hastily, blushing a little.

The Lantern Festival was the last day of celebration for the new year, customarily taking place a week after New Year's Eve and the culmination of the hopes and wishes for the upcoming year. It also doubled as a romantic holiday for couples, however, and after the last faux pas Ren didn't want to give out the wrong impression again.

Johar breathed a sigh of relief as Ren smiled. He'd never been great at big speeches, preferring short, quiet statements. He had felt pretty silly, standing and speaking to someone whose face was hidden behind her hair. But it had had the desired effect, so he did not regret it.

As Ren sat back down, he did the same. Finishing his noodles, he reached for the mochi, apprehensive about the fruits of their combined labor. He was pleased to discover that the mochi they'd made were as good as any he'd bought in a store—perhaps even better. "This is good," he told Ren. "We should make these again sometime."

Then Ren spoke again, mentioning the Lantern Festival. The significance of the event didn't escape Johar, and he glanced away for a moment, feeling his face heat up. "That—that would be nice," he replied, doing his best to keep his tone steady. "We can just skip all of the romantic stuff…"

Johar had arrived in Republic City too late to witness last year's Lantern Festival, but had heard what usually went on during that day. He wasn't opposed to romance—he quite liked the idea of it, having no actual experience in it himself—but had no such feelings for Ren. It would be interesting, spending the day dodging romantic entrapments.

Ren nodded, her eyes intent on her noodles as she ate so she missed Johar's expression. He seemed amicable enough to the idea, so that was good enough for her.

"Yeah, no need for that," she agreed. She had no desire to think of romance so soon. She wasn't so brash so as to decide she'd swear off love at her age, but nor was she naive enough to hope for it mere weeks after she had discovered her boyfriend's abandoned apartment. It still didn't seem real, and she furiously blinked away the tears, willing them not to fall. By the grace of the spirits, they didn't, and after a moment she finished her meal and reached for the mochi.

"You know," she said, her voice muffled slightly as she talked around her mouthful, "the Air Temple does a great Lantern Festival." Ren pushed down a wave of anxiety that threatened to wash over her at the thought of returning. She continued after a split second, taking a deep breath to steady herself.

"The acolytes in charge of preserving Air Nomad cuisine do a huge confectionary display, with food to sell of course, the proceeds benefiting the Temple. Plus we make great lanterns, and the riddles in the lanterns are doozies, if I do say so myself." She grinned, a little mochi stuck in her teeth. "I helped write about a dozen of them, at least."

Johar had never put much thought into how many different ways there were to ring in the New Year. Back at home with his family, they hadn't done very much. His mother and oldest sister worked throughout the day to make food, but that was about it. They had one day of rest, and then it was back to work on the farm. New Year's on the road hadn't been much more exciting. The woman who'd taught him healing had lived in a very small town, too small for anything as grand as fireworks. But Republic City was humongous—at least, it was to him. There had already been small celebrations throughout the city in the week leading up to the New Year, and now things were in full swing. He was looking forward to fully immersing himself in as much as he could.

Ren fully captured his attention with her mention of the Air Temple. He'd been made keenly aware of how sensitive of a subject that was to her, so he smiled at her in a silent offer of reassurance. "That sounds great," he replied. "I don't think I've ever had any Air Nomad food—I haven't yet gotten the chance to visit the temple. What sort of sweets did the Air Nomads eat?"

"Oh, well," she said, much more animatedly; despite her anxiety, she loved being an acolyte. "Macaroons are their specialty."

The fluffy confections were made either with whipped coconut or whipped egg whites; personally, Ren prefered the latter, finding the taste of coconut unpleasant unless paired with pineapple juice. The inside of macaroons were dense and chewy, unlike a similarly-named confection called 'macaron', which were light, meringue-like cookies.

"There are loads of flavours and they're dyed different colours using fruit dyes," she continued. "Then to a lesser degree, they make moon cakes and sticky sweet buns."

Ren didn't notice that she referred to the Air Nomads in the present tense; she frequently did so when wrapped up in talking about what she knew about them. They were alive in her mind's eye, and her mind subconsciously switched tenses because of it.

"Of course, the big thing is that they were vegetarians," she said, looking guiltily at her shrimp noodles, "and some of the acolytes create confections replacing eggs with coconut or tofu." The vegetarianism was something she struggled with mightily. While she had eliminated all non-poultry or fish from her diet, Ren couldn't quite completely make the switch just yet. The other acolytes were fairly understanding, considering Ren hadn't been an acolyte for very long, but it was something she still felt guilty about after every slip up.

She smiled though and clapped her hands. Visiting the Air Temple still twisted her stomach into knots, but a spark of anticipation had been lit at the prospect of showing her new friend the traditions of the Air Nomads. "I just realised," she said, "we can also feed the air bison."

Johar had always loved listening to other people talk, particularly when they were talking about things they loved. It was the same with Ren. From the moment she began to answer his question, a light entered her eyes, and her entire body shifted. She seemed to sit up straighter and speak with a much firmer tone than she had before. It was clear that she was enjoying herself.

"No, don't think I've eaten macaroons before," Johar mused, scratching his chin. "Anything that comes in a bunch of different flavors has to be good, though. I'll have to try those when we go." The more he heard, the more excited he became. He'd been in Republic City long enough that he really should have taken the time to visit Air Temple Island. And yet, he hadn't. But maybe that was actually a good thing, he realized now. What better way would there be to visit the temple for the first time than with someone who had lived there and knew the place in and out?

He'd been lost in thought, and so jumped a bit when Ren clapped her hands. She mentioned feeding the air bison, and it took Johar a moment to understand what she meant. Now that he thought about it, he did recall seeing the creatures flying around the island every once in a while. He'd never given them much thought, though. From a distance, they reminded him of the hippo cows his parents kept on their farm, except bigger, and more intelligent, and with more limbs and the ability to fly…

Johar's mouth was suddenly dry. He swallowed. "That sounds…well honestly, it sounds a little intimidating." He let out a nervous chuckle. "I mean, I'm sure it'd be fine, but, uh…I think I'll probably let you go first."

ooc; new thread time maybe?

Ren smiled and giggled. "That's fine," she agreed, "the air bison are huge and intimidating. And they're usually very quiet but when they aren't, they AREN'T, if you get me. There are also a few babies in the herd, though, so you can try with them first. They only come up to about your waist, like a fat dog with six legs."

"They're very gentle," she reassured him. "They're herbivores, so they're not going to be looking at you like a snack, and their docile nature really doesn't leave much room for any aggression you might see in other large herbivores. Plus, these Air Bison were discovered and domesticated by Avatar Aang himself, so whatever secret Air Nomad ways — they're very good with animals, you know — were passed on to this new generation of bison."

Tilting her head, Ren tapped her chin as she pondered what else to do. "I could also take you to see the library. Aside from the transcriptions of teachings and lectures and recopying old scrolls into books that we do, we also collect information about as many things as possible. I heard from another acolyte it's because Avatar Aang wanted to make sure that no one's teaching and culture were lost like his were. I don't know if that's true, of course, that's just what I've heard."

OOC: Sure. You wanna start it?

Johar smiled gratefully at Ren as she agreed to take the lead in air bison feeding. Though, it didn't help that she described the adult bison as huge and intimidating. Comforting, that was not. But, at least she wasn't sugar-coating the facts to make him feel better; he could appreciate. His healing teacher had always emphasized the need to be truthful with patients. "If someone's leg needs to come off, tell them it needs to come off" she'd said in her gravelly voice, its once dulcet tone eroded by years spent with a pipe clenched in her teeth. Her blunt nature had been jarring in the early days of their relationship, but he'd come to see the value in being straightforward on important matters.

"Hopefully I'll be able to manage it without making a fool of myself," he said, grinning slightly. "And if not…" he shrugged. "At least it'll be an interesting experience." Though Ren's reassurances had helped ease his apprehension somewhat, he was glad when she moved on to a different subject, and especially pleased at the mention of a library. Though he'd been familiar with the concept of libraries his entire life, he hadn't actually entered on until arriving in Republic City; none of the towns he'd stopped in along the way had been big enough to warrant having libraries, and life on a farm didn't offer much opportunity to read. He'd acquired a library card within a week of his arrival in the city, and had quickly run through the library's collection of books on horticulture and medicine. But he'd never been to the library on Air Temple Island. There were entire full shelves of books he hadn't seen yet, new knowledge to be learned. His mind spun at the possibilities.

"That sounds wonderful," he said, his eyes wide. "I don't know anything about Air Nomad horticulture or medicine. I'd love to learn about that."