"Strange like how?" he wonders.

"Well, for one thing, I didn't get to do any earthbending today, it was all about stances and breathing and listening to the earth."

"...Does the earth make noise? I didn't think it was known for doing that," he laughs.

"Well, it does during seismic events, but I think she meant some kind of earthbending sense thing. I think I might have felt something by the end, but then she gave up for the day and sent me home."

"She didn't say so. She didn't say much at all, actually, she poked me and moved the earth under my feet to get me to stand how she wanted."

"I am envisioning this lesson and it is a weird, weird vision," giggles Dao.

"Are you incorporating into this vision that she's three inches shorter than me and wears assorted rocks tied in her hair and lots of bracelets?"

"Yep. I mean, gemstones - mostly - but rocks. She's very serious about her rocks."

"I'm definitely getting that sense."

"I don't really know why the nuns picked her out, but I'll give her a while before I write her off as incomprehensible, I guess."

"Maybe she's a really good earthbender," he hypothesizes. "What with being so serious about her rocks."

"Maybe, but she doesn't have any other students - not right now, anyway - so whether she's a good teacher remains to be seen."

"Well, good luck, I guess."

"Thanks."

"Maybe you will learn how to listen to the earth."

"I wonder what it has to say."

"Um... 'quit stepping on me'?" he suggests.

"Spirits, I hope not. I don't think that would be sustainable."

"Yeah, if the ground wants people to stop walking on it, it's kind of screwed," laughs Dao.

"Maybe it'll say, 'walk on me more, I have this awful crick in my spine'."

Dao cracks up.

"Or 'walk over there, I have an itch', I don't know. Maybe Shifu Riko has an idea and will tell me eventually."

He giggles some more.

"I would like to actually, you know, bend some earth, and I thought I was going to today. I haven't gotten it to work trying it on my own. Perhaps it's ignoring me because I don't listen to it."

"Well, when's your next lesson?"

"Tomorrow. The lack of other students does make scheduling densely more convenient."

"So you can learn how to listen to the earth really quickly. I guess."

"Perhaps the earth speaks very slowly, and I need to show up every day to listen to the two syllables it utters at around noon."

Dao giggles helplessly.

Beila's next lesson lasts longer, and she shows up at Dao's, visibly exhausted, dry of perspiration thanks only to the constant play of wind around her. She flops onto him and groans.

"Today the earth was mad at me and it decided to show its displeasure in the form of a tiny madwoman."

"Oh, dear. What'd she do?"

"She said I wasn't listening to the earth, and if it was so hard, I should see how much harder it would be to get rocks to move by brute force, and I spent most of the day carrying chunks of stone around. As in, in my arms. And you know how I can barely walk without airbending? That does not get easier when I'm carrying something heavy, I fell over a lot. Occasionally under the heavy rocks. This is me after fixing up a lot of bruises as best I could. I don't think this is standard earthbender training."

"...I don't think so either," says Dao. "That is weird. Weird and disquieting."

"If she tries to get me to do that again I'm signing up with a regular dojo," says Beila, shaking her head.

"That is a wise decision!" he says. "Because wow."

"But I dunno, maybe tomorrow all of this boulder-hauling will have granted me special insight and I'll be able to bend the earth like I have its children hostage."

"Maybe that's why she carries rocks in her hair," giggles Dao.

Beila bursts out laughing and hugs him.

Giggling, he hugs back.

"I think she might actually carry rocks in her hair so she can have them available in a pinch. Sort of like how metalbender cops like Chali wear metal armor," shrugs Beila.

"That makes more sense," he concedes. "But isn't as funny."

"It is not nearly as funny," Beila agrees.

"So I'm just gonna keep thinking about her taking them hostage."

"Very well. You may do so," says Beila magnanimously.

He giggles some more.

"Anyway. I don't wanna walk anywhere right now, but we could hop on Liqing and catch a movie or something? Sit in the nice rock-free theater," snorts Beila.

"I am all in favour of rock-free theaters!"

"Excellent. I continue to never have any idea what's playing, do you know?"

"Nah. Guess we'll find out when we get there!"

"Well, I know which one I wanna see."

"Enlighten me."

"The horror one?"

"The horror one it is." She buys the tickets and limps into the correct part of the theater with him.

He plops into a seat and hugs her.

Beila thinks that's very cute. She squeezes his hand.

He blushes. And squeezes back.

And eventually the movie is over. (A lot of characters are dead now, but there was a B-plot about some others who can be used in the next sequel if they make one.)

"That was fun," says Dao.

"Yes. We should find someplace to go make out. Which is not too far away because my legs are still not in full working order."

"Is 'somebody's house' too far?"

"I can get Liqing, I suppose. Pick a house," she says, wobbling out of the theater and whistling.

"Yours is nicer," he laughs.

"Okay." When her bird appears, Beila flies them to her house and doesn't bother going down through the roof, just gives Liqing a treat and flings her arms around Dao for makeouts.

Makeouts! Rooftop makeouts!

Post-gory-movie makeouts.

Yeeeeeeeeeeees. Those.

She thought he'd like that.

She was right! She was very right.

Good. She likes being right.

She is right pretty often!

Yep! It's a good thing she has a taste for it. Mmmmkisses.

Kisses kisses kisses. On the roof.

Is the roof special in some way?

Well... it's a roof. It's theoretically possible that someone might see them kissing on it.

If he would like to depart the roof he has only to ask.

He is busy kissing, though.

Well then. They can carry on kissing on this roof.

Yes. Yes they can.

Delicious boyfriend!

Delicious girlfriend.

Yes. She prides herself on flavor. Well, no, but she'd start pretending to if this possibility were ever raised.

At the moment he is too busy to bring it up. Maybe later.

Snuggly kisses.

Yes. Very snuggly. And very kisses. Very, very kisses.

So, overall, more kisses than snuggly?

Yes indeed.

Oh good!

"Congratulations!" he says. "Did you take its children hostage first?"

"Nope," laughs Beila. "I asked Shifu Riko what in all the spirits' names I was meant to be hearing, and she realized she wasn't dealing with someone who'd known herself an earthbender all her life, and actually explained quite lucidly in plain language that since earth isn't transparent like air or water I need to be paying attention with bending senses, to have a handle on all of it at once when I'm trying to move a chunk bigger than a grain of sand. And she got me some sand so I could use waterbending forms with it as a transition and then I was able to pick up some rocks. She doesn't like sand herself but she knows how to work it."

"Okay, that's much better," says Dao. "Like, reasonable. Reasonable is what that is."

"Yep. She maintains that hauling boulders was good for my character but apparently I won't have to do it again."

Dao giggles. "Oh good."

"I can live with a little philosophical disagreement, yeah."

He laughs and hugs her.

Hugs!

Hugs and kisses. Of a congratulatory nature.

"I thought you said you didn't take any hostages," he says playfully, tapping the bottle.

"Fff. This isn't the earth's children. It is the earth's dandruff."

Dao cracks up.

"I can work with sand almost like water," she adds. "Except it's about five times harder. I'm not sure if that's because it's unfamiliar or if it's just naturally more difficult to bend sand."

"I guess you'll find out, if it gets easier later," he says.

"Yeah. And of course I can't heal with sand. I guess I could exfoliate somebody."

He giggles.

"Actually I could probably really inconvenience someone with excessive exfoliation if I were ever in a situation where I needed to do combat sandbending, although I doubt it's ever going to be my first choice."

"...Wow, there's a mental image," laughs Dao.

Beila snorts. "In a good way or a bad way?"

"Kiiiind of a good way."

Dao blushes.

That requires kisses.

Awesome!