The next day there's an article in a scandal sheet insinuating that there may be something inappropriate going on between Delightful Jun and the Avatar.

Beila adopts a strategy of completely ignoring this insinuation until an interviewer asks her point blank, at which point she says, "No," and declines to elaborate further. Because there is nothing to elaborate on.

She shows up, exasperated, for her next firebending lesson.

Author: roc_on	The next day there's an article in a scandal sheet insinuating that there may be something inappropriate going on between Delightful Jun and the Avatar. Beila adopts a strategy of completely ignoring this insinuation until an interviewer asks her point blank, at which point she says, "No," and declines to elaborate further. Because there is nothing to elaborate on. She shows up, exasperated, for her next firebending lesson.
Author: fiery_delights	"Somebody sure lit a fire under you," Jun observes.
Author: roc_on	"Celebrity status: mixed bag," says Beila.
Author: fiery_delights	"Don't I know it. Anything you want to talk about?"
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: fiery_delights	"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."
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: fiery_delights	He shrugs. "Telling them no only goes so far, I've learned. It doesn't bother me."
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: fiery_delights	"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."
Author: roc_on	"...Not necessarily?"
Author: fiery_delights	"Not necessarily cheating on him," he elaborates.
Author: roc_on	"I suppose they could be imagining we have some kind of open setup."
Author: fiery_delights	"It's been known to happen."
Author: roc_on	"All right, maybe they don't think I'm cheating," sighs Beila. "It's still bothersome... at any rate, we have firebending to do."
Author: fiery_delights	"That we do," Jun agrees. On with the lesson! Beila is progressing nicely, even with all of her difficulties.
Author: roc_on	When Dao picks her up, Beila relates the contents of this conversation to him.
Author: thinklikethis	"...I don't know how to feel about this," says Dao.
Author: roc_on	"You don't have to feel any way in particular about it, I just thought you should be up to date."
Author: thinklikethis	"Well. But," he says. "I mean, you know Jun will sleep with practically anybody, right?"
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: thinklikethis	"I know you are not sleeping with him," says Dao. "I'm pretty sure you'd tell me if you were."
Author: roc_on	"...That's one way to phrase it, I guess? I'm not going to cheat on you."
Author: thinklikethis	"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.
Author: roc_on	"Ye-e-es, but by default, monogamy is the done thing."
Author: thinklikethis	"What if I want to sleep with him," says Dao, blushing fiercely.
Author: roc_on	Beila blinks.
Author: thinklikethis	Dao blushes some more!
Author: roc_on	"Then - we would have to talk about that, I guess?" says Beila slowly. "Do you want to - like, actually in real life want to?"
Author: thinklikethis	"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."
Author: roc_on	"I guess I'd have to think about whether I'd be okay with it," says Beila after a pause.
Author: thinklikethis	"Okay," says Dao, continuing to blush.
Author: roc_on	"It's really very cute when you blush."
Author: thinklikethis	"So you've said!"
Author: roc_on	"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?"
Author: thinklikethis	"Um... probably not, I guess?" he says.
Author: roc_on	"...Can you elaborate on that?"
Author: thinklikethis	"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."
Author: roc_on	"Okay. Keep me posted, please, if you do think about it."
Author: thinklikethis	"Of course."
Author: roc_on	Nuzzle!
Author: thinklikethis	Snuggle! Snuggle snuggle. Beila is snuggly.
Author: roc_on	She is! "Might be a little premature," she murmurs, "to talk about whether you're going to be sleeping with people who aren't me. We haven't really talked about you sleeping with people who are me."
Author: thinklikethis	"That... is true," says Dao. "Should we talk about that?"
Author: roc_on	"Maybe." In a tone that means obviously.
Author: thinklikethis	"Wow, yes, let's talk about that," says Dao.
Author: roc_on	She laughs and nuzzles him again. "It is something that could happen. I love you, you know."
Author: thinklikethis	"Yes, I do know that! I love you too," he says. "Sleeping with people who are you sounds like a great idea."
Author: roc_on	"That sounds like consensus to me."
Author: thinklikethis	Dao beams.
Author: roc_on	Snuggle. Squirm.
Author: thinklikethis	Snuggle kiss!
Author: roc_on	A couple of days later, when they're hanging out with milkshakes on the roof of the milkshake place (because roofs are awesome, that's why) Beila says, "So, I think I could pretty well live with it if you wanted to sleep with other people, as long as I knew who it was ahead of time - no surprises - and I wasn't neglected or anything."
Author: thinklikethis	He grins and kisses her.
Author: roc_on	Kisses! Milkshake-flavored kisses.
Author: thinklikethis	Kisses. "I love you," he declares.
Author: roc_on	"I love you."
Author: thinklikethis	More kisses.
Author: roc_on	Kisses, kisses. Milkshake-sippage. "So are you going to proposition him or just think about it in extreme detail?"
Author: thinklikethis	"I am going to think about it in extreme detail for sure," he says, giggle-blushing.
Author: roc_on	"You're adorable. You're so adorable."
Author: thinklikethis	"I am adorable." He kisses her.
Author: roc_on	Kisses. If their milkshakes melt she can refreeze them. Kisses kisses.
Author: thinklikethis	Kisses! So many kisses. Adorable kisses.
Author: roc_on	"It would probably," kiss, "embarrass you if I actually mentioned this to him at some point, wouldn't it?"
Author: thinklikethis	"...Yeees," he says, "but I think it would embarrass me much less than trying to talk to him myself."
Author: roc_on	"Do you want me to?"
Author: thinklikethis	"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."
Author: roc_on	"I really don't see him laughing at you."
Author: thinklikethis	"Really really?"
Author: roc_on	"Well, not in a mean way. He might laugh in a 'that's adorable' kind of way?"
Author: thinklikethis	"He can totally laugh in a 'that's adorable' kind of way!"
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: thinklikethis	"You are my favourite girlfriend," says Dao. "Of all the girlfriends I have had. Who are all you."
Author: roc_on	"I would be really disappointed in myself if I didn't manage that, considering that."
Author: thinklikethis	"I meant it in a nice way, not so much a literal way."
Author: roc_on	"I will take it as it was meant." Pause. "And tease you about the literal interpretation, as you have just seen."
Author: thinklikethis	"Yes! Yes, I did just see that. That is a thing that just happened." He hugs her.
Author: roc_on	Hugs. "You are so observant."
Author: thinklikethis	"Yes I am." Observant and snuggly.
Author: roc_on	Very much so. So anyway, Beila has firebending lessons pretty regularly. She appears at her next one, humming.
Author: fiery_delights	"You're cheerful today," observes Jun. "That's nice."
Author: roc_on	"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.
Author: fiery_delights	"I was right, that is nice. Time to make fire!" She's been progressing pretty well in her studies, picking up more and more of the basics and putting them together with increasing complexity. Jun encourages her to take it slow and pay attention to the element, to put as much precision into her form as she can manage, and to take a break every so often and think about what she's learning. "Your control is improving," he comments at one such interval. "Faster than I expected, with that precision issue you have. Good work."
Author: roc_on	"Thanks! I have been practicing." (She has incentives. 'Cause on the one hand she's not very patient, but on the other, hasty kink has got to be the most embarrassing way to burn down a house ever.)
Author: fiery_delights	"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?"
Author: roc_on	"Wings sounds like excellent fun! I don't suppose they do anything for actual flying, of course. Cosmetic wings still sound like fun."
Author: fiery_delights	"Strictly cosmetic. But if I ever invent a way to fly with firebending, you'll be the second person to know."
Author: roc_on	"Nifty."
Author: fiery_delights	"It would be!"
Author: roc_on	"The wings will look awesome, anyway, I can already fly by other means. So I'll keep it up."
Author: fiery_delights	"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."
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: fiery_delights	"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."
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: fiery_delights	"That's adorable," says Jun. "Does he want free tickets to a show? I bet he'd like free tickets to a show."
Author: roc_on	"I'm sure he would be pleased to receive free tickets to a show, yes."
Author: fiery_delights	"He can have them, then! In the meantime, back to work. I want to see how steady you can get those long fire blasts."
Author: roc_on	"You got it." She gets back to work. And later, she presents Dao with his free ticket. "He did not laugh. He thought it was adorable."
Author: thinklikethis	"...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."
Author: roc_on	"I'll come if you like."
Author: thinklikethis	"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."
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: thinklikethis	"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."
Author: roc_on	"I think I will come and watch the pretty firebending. It's educational."
Author: thinklikethis	"Okay," giggles Dao. "Wow. I'm going to flirt with Delightful Jun."
Author: roc_on	"You are adorably anticipatory about this."
Author: thinklikethis	"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."
Author: roc_on	"But I am not going to do that, and so I am not."
Author: thinklikethis	"Well, I am going to do that." He giggles. "Wow."
Author: roc_on	Beila laughs and ruffles Dao's hair.
Author: thinklikethis	Dao beams at her. He chooses to go to the show that is a few days later.
Author: fiery_delights	It's one of the prettiest ones yet. Jun creates beautiful streamers of flame that ripple and hang in the air for a moment before fading away, in every colour from red through orange to yellow to white to blue. And in the course of his exquisitely choreographed routine, he burns off successive layers of his elaborate outfit - blue and white and yellow and orange and red, the outer layers gauzy and translucent with trailing edges, the inner layers more substantial and close-fitting. When he spins out of the ashes of the red kilt, there turns out to have been nothing else underneath it. The audience is mainly pleased with this development.
Author: thinklikethis	Dao blushes like mad.
Author: roc_on	Beila rolls her eyes and pecks Dao on the blushy, blushy cheek nearest her.
Author: thinklikethis	He leans into her a little, because she is extremely reassuring. And. And wow.
Author: fiery_delights	Jun goes right back to his gorgeous firebending with hardly a pause. And it is gorgeous. He doesn't do the lightning trick to drop the curtain this time, but he does do the wings.
Author: thinklikethis	"He's amazing," sighs Dao.
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: thinklikethis	"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!"
Author: fiery_delights	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.
Author: roc_on	"You want me to hang out while you go flirt with him, or head out?"
Author: thinklikethis	"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."
Author: roc_on	"At a guess, probably not," chuckles Beila.
Author: thinklikethis	Dao squirms a little in his seat. "He is unfairly attractive."
Author: roc_on	"Are there rules?"
Author: thinklikethis	"Noooo. But look at him! All - pretty, and good at firebending, and stuff."
Author: roc_on	"He's gonna teach me the wings trick," she volunteers.
Author: thinklikethis	Dao spontaneously hugs her.
Author: roc_on	Hugs!
Author: thinklikethis	Hugs.
Author: fiery_delights	Jun's little crowd of fans has dwindled down to nothing. He and Beila and Dao are the only people left. He grins at them.
Author: thinklikethis	Dao squirms and hides his face in Beila's shoulder briefly. Then he says, "Iiii'm going to go flirt with Delightful Jun now!" And he gets out of his seat.
Author: roc_on	Beila kicks back in her seat, since she hasn't been told whether to stay or go.
Author: thinklikethis	Dao says something that is too quiet for Beila to hear.
Author: fiery_delights	Jun says sunnily, "Nope."
Author: roc_on	Well, now she's curious. She can ask him later.
Author: thinklikethis	Dao says something else that is too quiet for Beila to hear.
Author: fiery_delights	"Sure," says Jun, and he waves cheerfully to Beila and leads Dao up the steps and through the door to the backstage area.
Author: roc_on	Well, that looks like her cue to head home. She sees Dao before Jun, the next morning; they are getting brunch.
Author: thinklikethis	When she arrives to pick him up, he seems to have a slight problem where he cannot stop grinning.
Author: roc_on	"You're in a good mood."
Author: thinklikethis	"I am," he says, hugging her. "Hi!"
Author: roc_on	"Hi!" Hugs. "How'd it go? I couldn't hear what you actually said to him."
Author: thinklikethis	"It was," he says, "delightful. I'm delighted." He kisses her on the cheek and hugs her some more.
Author: roc_on	"Delight is good!" They proceed in a brunchly direction.
Author: thinklikethis	"Delight is good. Delight is awesome. Jun is awesome."
Author: roc_on	"You are adorable."
Author: thinklikethis	"You know what? Yes," he says. "Yes I am." He hugs her again.
Author: roc_on	Beila laughs. She hugs him. "Are you going to tell me what you said? All I heard was him answering you."
Author: thinklikethis	"Oh, that." He blushes. "It was just - I don't know. Things."
Author: roc_on	"Aha."
Author: thinklikethis	"He seemed to think I was cute, anyway."
Author: roc_on	"That is probably because you are cute."
Author: thinklikethis	"People do keep telling me that!"
Author: roc_on	"You should bow to the overwhelming public opinion."
Author: thinklikethis	"No," he says, contrarily.
Author: roc_on	"Why not?"
Author: thinklikethis	"Because why is overwhelming public opinion a reason to do anything?"
Author: roc_on	"Well, sometimes it's not, but when there's enough of it, it undergoes a mystical transmogrification into 'common sense'."
Author: thinklikethis	"It is not common sense that I'm cute," says Dao.
Author: roc_on	"Is too!"
Author: thinklikethis	"Is not!"
Author: roc_on	"It iiiiiis though."
Author: thinklikethis	"Nooooo. I don't want to be famous and have everyone in the world thinking I'm adorable!"
Author: roc_on	"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."
Author: thinklikethis	"I can't help that you're both so great!"
Author: roc_on	"I am not going to stop being great to assist you in protecting your anonymity," she teases.
Author: thinklikethis	"Good! That would be a terrible solution."
Author: roc_on	"Completely terrible." Here is the brunch place. Beila wants sticky buns.
Author: thinklikethis	Sticky buns sound like a great idea to Dao! Mmm. Brunch. It's so brunchy.
Author: roc_on	Brunchy brunch. "I am pleased to report that I am not having unexpected unpleasant reactions to the thing."
Author: thinklikethis	"Yay!" says Dao. "It would be terrible if that happened."
Author: roc_on	"Certainly it would be inconvenient, yes."
Author: thinklikethis	"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."
Author: roc_on	"Yep. Happily not the case." She leans carefully over their sticky buns to kiss him.
Author: thinklikethis	He grins and kisses her back. "I love you," he says happily.
Author: roc_on	"I love you too."
Author: thinklikethis	Yay! Om nom sticky buns.