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Beila studies waterbending, and when she has the basics (waves, ice, the water whip, other relatively simple forms) she's permitted to specialize in healing.
Later on she'll be able to volunteer at a hospital and get her practice in that way, but to start, her teacher advocates practicing on oneself - just a few times, to get a feel for what one's healing bending is doing on both ends at the same time. This dojo produces more and better healers than most, so Beila's inclined to agree with the practice. It's only a few minor injuries, the teacher will be right there to patch her up if Beila doesn't manage the trick by the end of the lesson, and - it's not like she minds, in the right mindset.
Beila gets this faster relative to other students than she did the ordinary waterbending forms. The teacher says she has a natural aptitude. Over the course of her three-hour lesson she heals several burns (these are the easiest injuries to handle with waterbending) and then moves on to slicing her palm shallowly and then pressing healing water into the cut.
It's almost meditative, almost hypnotic. The teacher is satisfied she doesn't need immediate oversight and has gone to see to another student; Beila loses track of time. She's sitting in the dojo courtyard with her bowls of water (one bloody, one clear) and slicing her hand open again at the time her boyfriend is supposed to pick her up.
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roc_on
roc_on
"Are - are you okay? I was worried you'd be weirded out, but you seem to be having some completely unrelated reaction that I don't understand."
thinklikethis
"It means you are weird in a way that is okay," Dao says to the insides of his hands, "and I am weird in a way that is not okay, is why I was scared when you turned out to be the Avatar, is why I blush at weird times and then don't want to talk about why, is why horror movies are my favourite kind, is why I like it that you're a masochist."
roc_on
Beila blinks.
"I'm not sure what me being the Avatar has to do with anything? I don't have - kink sensing powers. And if I did I wouldn't be judgy."
"I'm not sure what me being the Avatar has to do with anything? I don't have - kink sensing powers. And if I did I wouldn't be judgy."
roc_on
Beila reaches out and pets his hair. "I wanna help you but I don't really get what the problem is. Like, so far, this sounds really convenient, except you're all distressed on top of that."
thinklikethis
"I'm distressed because the things I think about doing to people sometimes are distressing," Dao says helplessly.
roc_on
She slides her hand off his hair and takes his hand in hers instead. "Then it's okay."
thinklikethis
He intertwines their fingers and leans his face against the back of her hand.
"Man, you make it sound so easy," he sighs.
"Man, you make it sound so easy," he sighs.
thinklikethis
"Because I've been hating myself over it for years and it has, like, momentum now?"
roc_on
She kisses the top of his head. "Well, I don't hate you for it. I think it's convenient. Unless you have enough issues around it that you're not going to let it be convenient when we get there?"
thinklikethis
"You do have those super spiffy healing powers," he reminds her. "I think I can maybe handle some convenience."
roc_on
"They are super spiffy! I had not gotten around to deciding what to do about not having them, before I got named, and now I don't have to."
roc_on
"Like, I imagine kinky couples where neither party is a waterbender must figure something out, but drowned if I know what."
thinklikethis
"Um - maybe they - do things - that heal pretty well by themselves," says Dao, blushing furiously.