"Somebody sure lit a fire under you," Jun observes.

"Celebrity status: mixed bag," says Beila.

"Don't I know it. Anything you want to talk about?"

"Tips?" she asks. "I've been dealing with the press for a while, but this is the first time it's been colored quite this way."

"Quite this way, meaning...? Not that I don't have a guess," he says wryly. "But I haven't actually seen it hit the news. Someone did try to interview me about you last night, but I flirted with him until he went away. Maybe he decided that was enough material."

"There was an article about it; there wasn't much substance to it but it gave everyone the idea. I had an interview this morning and the lady tried to startle me, by asking me suddenly - I told her no."

He shrugs. "Telling them no only goes so far, I've learned. It doesn't bother me."

"It bothers me. I've mostly managed to keep Dao out of the spotlight, but people know I have a boyfriend, and now a bunch of them think I'm cheating on him."

"Not necessarily," says Jun with a quirk of a smile. "Sorry - I wish I could give you tips on not letting the rumors get to you, but the fact is I've never cared."

"...Not necessarily?"

"Not necessarily cheating on him," he elaborates.

"I suppose they could be imagining we have some kind of open setup."

"It's been known to happen."

"All right, maybe they don't think I'm cheating," sighs Beila. "It's still bothersome... at any rate, we have firebending to do."

When Dao picks her up, Beila relates the contents of this conversation to him.

"...I don't know how to feel about this," says Dao.

"You don't have to feel any way in particular about it, I just thought you should be up to date."

"Well. But," he says. "I mean, you know Jun will sleep with practically anybody, right?"

"I've heard. That and the fact that my previous teachers were women are probably why the rumors have started now instead of earlier. It doesn't mean I'm sleeping with him."

"I know you are not sleeping with him," says Dao. "I'm pretty sure you'd tell me if you were."

"...That's one way to phrase it, I guess? I'm not going to cheat on you."

"He... did kind of point out... that that is not the only way for someone who is in a relationship to sleep with him," says Dao.

"Ye-e-es, but by default, monogamy is the done thing."

Dao blushes some more!

"Then - we would have to talk about that, I guess?" says Beila slowly. "Do you want to - like, actually in real life want to?"

"I definitely in-my-dreams want to," he says. "And, you know, it is a thing that could hypothetically happen. If you were okay with it and everything - I'm not going to cheat on you either. And I'm not completely sure that I would actually try it even if you were. But - now I'm thinking about it."

"I guess I'd have to think about whether I'd be okay with it," says Beila after a pause.

"Okay," says Dao, continuing to blush.

"It's really very cute when you blush."

"So you've said!"

"This isn't a dealbreaker, right? If I say 'no, do not sleep with people who aren't me' we don't have a serious relationship problem on our hands?"

"Um... probably not, I guess?" he says.

"...Can you elaborate on that?"

"I can't think of a reason why it would be, especially since I'm not sure I would try to sleep with anybody else even if you said I could," he says. "But I don't know for sure, I haven't really thought about it yet."

"Okay. Keep me posted, please, if you do think about it."

"Of course."

Nuzzle!

Snuggle! Snuggle snuggle. Beila is snuggly.

"That... is true," says Dao. "Should we talk about that?"

"Maybe." In a tone that means obviously.

"Wow, yes, let's talk about that," says Dao.

She laughs and nuzzles him again. "It is something that could happen. I love you, you know."

"Yes, I do know that! I love you too," he says. "Sleeping with people who are you sounds like a great idea."

"That sounds like consensus to me."

Dao beams.

Snuggle kiss!

Kisses! Milkshake-flavored kisses.

"I love you."

More kisses.

"I am going to think about it in extreme detail for sure," he says, giggle-blushing.

"You're adorable. You're so adorable."

"I am adorable." He kisses her.

Kisses. If their milkshakes melt she can refreeze them. Kisses kisses.

Kisses! So many kisses. Adorable kisses.

"It would probably," kiss, "embarrass you if I actually mentioned this to him at some point, wouldn't it?"

"...Yeees," he says, "but I think it would embarrass me much less than trying to talk to him myself."

"Do you want me to?"

"Maybe," he says shiftily. "I don't not want you to. It would be an acceptable amount of embarrassing. And if he laughs at me I won't have to see him do it."

"I really don't see him laughing at you."

"Really really?"

"Well, not in a mean way. He might laugh in a 'that's adorable' kind of way?"

"He can totally laugh in a 'that's adorable' kind of way!"

"I'll bring it up if I see a conversational opening and you don't desperately contact me to change your mind before then, how about. And I will report on his laughter situation."

"You are my favourite girlfriend," says Dao. "Of all the girlfriends I have had. Who are all you."

"I would be really disappointed in myself if I didn't manage that, considering that."

"I meant it in a nice way, not so much a literal way."

"I will take it as it was meant." Pause. "And tease you about the literal interpretation, as you have just seen."

Hugs. "You are so observant."

"You're cheerful today," observes Jun. "That's nice."

"It's a nice day out, I have a roc, I'm the Avatar, my father gave my mother a lovely bouquet of flowers and she grinned about them all morning, it's been a nice time to be me." She cracks her knuckles.

"I can tell! If you keep it up, in a few weeks I might teach you how to do wings. You'll want very good control for that, for obvious reasons, but it's not that hard if you can get the trick and there's limited potential for disaster down here even if you screw it up. Plus it'll be a good way to get further practice in keeping your air separate from your fire. Does that sound like fun?"

"Wings sounds like excellent fun! I don't suppose they do anything for actual flying, of course. Cosmetic wings still sound like fun."

"Strictly cosmetic. But if I ever invent a way to fly with firebending, you'll be the second person to know."

"Nifty."

"It would be!"

"The wings will look awesome, anyway, I can already fly by other means. So I'll keep it up."

"They will look awesome. You could even try the wings while flying - someday, not soon, and probably not with the roc. The roc might object. Not to mention any fellow passengers."

"I'd want to be really sure of not setting my glider on fire, too, and not have my boyfriend with me, he'd squeak more than Liqing would if I surprised him. I can probably fly glider-free if I figure out how to activate the Avatar State, but I don't have that down at the moment."

"That sounds to me like a great incentive to learn how to control the wings really, really well. Separately, I advise not surprising your boyfriend with fire."

"Yeah, only prearranged fire with the boyfriend. I believe it was shortly after I met him that I actually, in words, promised not to lob a fireball at his head. It was my first day with waterbending, I flicked a droplet at him." Pause. "Oh, by the way, he has a crush on you and I have his permission to mention this so he doesn't have to figure out how to say something himself."

"That's adorable," says Jun. "Does he want free tickets to a show? I bet he'd like free tickets to a show."

"I'm sure he would be pleased to receive free tickets to a show, yes."

"He can have them, then! In the meantime, back to work. I want to see how steady you can get those long fire blasts."

"...knowing this guy's reputation, that might actually mean I could end up sleeping with him," says Dao. "I am kind of nervous. But I'm totally using my free ticket. Do you want to come too? It says you can come too."

"I'll come if you like."

"I don't know, is it weird if I flirt with your teacher in front of you? It might be weird. I don't want it to end up being weird."

"I think all the weirdness is in the flirting and none of it is in the 'in front of me', and I have already dealt with that weirdness that there is."

"Then you can totally come! I don't know if I want you to, I don't think it makes much of a difference to my personal experience of flirting with Delightful Jun. As long as it is not weird."

"I think I will come and watch the pretty firebending. It's educational."

"Okay," giggles Dao. "Wow. I'm going to flirt with Delightful Jun."

"You are adorably anticipatory about this."

"If you were going to flirt with a kinda famous very pretty guy you had a crush on I'm sure you'd be adorably anticipatory too."

"But I am not going to do that, and so I am not."

"Well, I am going to do that." He giggles. "Wow."

Beila laughs and ruffles Dao's hair.

Dao blushes like mad.

Beila rolls her eyes and pecks Dao on the blushy, blushy cheek nearest her.

He leans into her a little, because she is extremely reassuring. And. And wow.

"He's amazing," sighs Dao.

"He is an excellent firebender and an excellent entertainer," chuckles Beila. "If he were about a decade younger maybe I'd have a crush on him too."

"He's only something like forty," Dao says defensively. "...Which is more than twice my age, but not much more. Um. Okay, so maybe he's old. He's still pretty!"

Jun comes out in front of the stage, wearing one of his beautiful embroidered robes, to say hello to tonight's small crowd of fans as everyone else files out.

"You want me to hang out while you go flirt with him, or head out?"

"I don't know," he says. "I'm indecisive. I might just sit here wondering if he is wearing anything under that until everyone else has left."

"At a guess, probably not," chuckles Beila.

"Are there rules?"

"Noooo. But look at him! All - pretty, and good at firebending, and stuff."

"He's gonna teach me the wings trick," she volunteers.

Dao spontaneously hugs her.

Hugs!

Hugs.

Beila kicks back in her seat, since she hasn't been told whether to stay or go.

Dao says something that is too quiet for Beila to hear.

Jun says sunnily, "Nope."

Well, now she's curious. She can ask him later.

Dao says something else that is too quiet for Beila to hear.

"Sure," says Jun, and he waves cheerfully to Beila and leads Dao up the steps and through the door to the backstage area.

When she arrives to pick him up, he seems to have a slight problem where he cannot stop grinning.

"You're in a good mood."

"I am," he says, hugging her. "Hi!"

"Hi!" Hugs. "How'd it go? I couldn't hear what you actually said to him."

"Delight is good!" They proceed in a brunchly direction.

"Delight is good. Delight is awesome. Jun is awesome."

"You are adorable."

Beila laughs. She hugs him. "Are you going to tell me what you said? All I heard was him answering you."

"Oh, that." He blushes. "It was just - I don't know. Things."

"Aha."

"He seemed to think I was cute, anyway."

"That is probably because you are cute."

"People do keep telling me that!"

"You should bow to the overwhelming public opinion."

"No," he says, contrarily.

"Why not?"

"Because why is overwhelming public opinion a reason to do anything?"

"Well, sometimes it's not, but when there's enough of it, it undergoes a mystical transmogrification into 'common sense'."

"It is not common sense that I'm cute," says Dao.

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"It iiiiiis though."

"Nooooo. I don't want to be famous and have everyone in the world thinking I'm adorable!"

"Well, you've avoided significant public attention this long, although if you keep sleeping with celebrities I don't know how long that will last."

"I can't help that you're both so great!"

"I am not going to stop being great to assist you in protecting your anonymity," she teases.

"Good! That would be a terrible solution."

"Completely terrible." Here is the brunch place. Beila wants sticky buns.

Brunchy brunch. "I am pleased to report that I am not having unexpected unpleasant reactions to the thing."

"Yay!" says Dao. "It would be terrible if that happened."

"Certainly it would be inconvenient, yes."

"You'd feel bad, and I'd feel bad, and then maybe I wouldn't get to do the thing anymore and that would also be bad."

"Yep. Happily not the case." She leans carefully over their sticky buns to kiss him.

"I love you too."