Republic City

Like a match made in heaven, Taru and Leta were watching the fish with great interest. And both reached out and touched the surface of the water at the same time. The koi reminded her a great deal of the moon and sun gods that her people believed in. Leta glanced up to Bael and Bast, standing up as she did. She dusted herself off and picked up Taru, who seemed less than ready to leave the fish.

"Is there somewhere that you were wanting to go, Bael?" she would ask quietly, glancing around.

Bael is confused by Bast's sudden outburst, and if he's hurt by it, it doesn't show. He'd just shrug and hang back, until Leta approached him again, "Not really. Bast wanted to see more of the city, didn't have anything else to do today with the port shut down."

"We can keep walking if you want. The park is pretty big." He's still keeping an eye on Bast though, as if he were afraid the kid was going to fall into the water and drown.

Bast was resting his chin on his knees and watching the fish flock to Leta. He wasn't really sure why he was sulking other than he didn't want Falu to get into a fight with the ferret. The mouse was chattering loudly in Bast's pocket now, but he would be charging the other animal if he could. Bast watched the fish disperse when Leta stood and he lifted his head to look at her. He glanced from Leta to Bael as they spoke, but kept to himself.

He used to be the animal guy!

Leta looked to Bast after a moment, noticing his sulking. She heard the chattering from his pocket. She made her way over to him, holding out Taru for the tribesman to pet. She seemed to piece together why he might have been upset, seeing as he already had a pet, and he had been so concerned for the fire ferret when he saw it. He just really liked animals.

"You can play with him, whenever you want..." she said quietly, looking up at Bast.

Bael didn't have much to do, other than to keep an eye on the two of them and make sure they didn't do something stupid. He still wasn't entirely convinced that Bast should be allowed around water, and so he'd just cross his arms and wait. He had absolutely no idea why Bast was so upset so he was just going to let Leta and Bast sort it out themselves.

Bast stared at the ferret for a hard moment and his face broke into an expression that could only read 'THAT IS TOO CUTE FOR WORDS'. He stood and in that motion scooped up Taru and cuddled the ferret to his chest, speaking to it in gibberish. Falu found his way out of Bast's pocket and sat on the man's shoulder making angry noises at Taru, all puffed up.

Taru tried to flail from Bast's grip at first, not knowing what was happening. But slowly he realized that the male was just cuddling him, and he seemed to settle in quite well. With Falu chattering angrily above him, Taru seemed to taunt the little mouse by cuddling into Bast's chest, glancing up to the little mouse.

Leta turned to Bael, walking up to him. "You can play with Taru too, when you would like. You saved him... after all."

Bael watched the two of them, and then Let was walking up to him, "Oh...uh sure. I bought him for you though. Because you like animals...besides, Fire Ferrets don't do well in cages." He'd watch Bast for a moment, before his attention drifted back to Leta, "Guess Bast wants one too." Sometimes Bael was slow with things, they just had to give him time!

"He could get a girl ferret..." And then they could have a baby fire ferret explosion!

Falu was having a fit on Bast's shoulder, chattering and bouncing around while his fur all puffed out. He clearly did not enjoy the newcomer taking his person's attention. Not to mention Leta's attention. Now how was he going to get fed by here if she was busy feeding Taru?! Bast was oblivious to the polar mouse's fury as he pet and cuddled Taru.

"That's okay. I'm pretty sure Falu would explode with jealousy if I got another pet right now." Truthfully Bast wanted something much bigger. And probably deadlier. Deadly thing were apparently cute.

Leta watched Taru for a long while, before she turned. She knew the fire ferret was in good hands, and he seemed comfortable enough with the positive attention, by the way he was rubbing his head against Bast's hand anytime he stopped, even for the briefest moment. She made her way past both males, and made her way deeper into the park, taking in the scenery, and the people in it. She was still getting used to how everyone dressed. She supposed that her and Bast were sticking out like sore thumbs, but that fact didn't really bother her that much.

Bael watched the mouse throwing his fit, and he might have had something that almost resembled a smile on his face. It was pretty funny. The look is quickly gone, and he'd just shrug at Bast, "Suit yourself." He wasn't going to make Bast get a pet he didn't want. Leta was wandering off, and Bael follows her, but he keeps glancing behind him to make sure Bast hasn't been kidnapped or something else equally as ridiculous.

He's keeping an eye out for the man that was usually preaching about the equalist movement, but so far he didn't see him. Maybe he'd decided to give today a rest, since the attack on the ports was being blamed on the movement, even though Bael just knew that wasn't what things were about. Part of him wanted to find that man, just so he could ask about it.

Bast would follow after Bael; who kept looking at him. He wondered if maybe the man wanted to play with Taru also? He moved the ferret from his chest and held him up. Smiling he planted a kiss on it's head and sped up to hand him back to Leta. When the hand off was complete, he plucked Falu from his shoulder and kissed the mouse also.

Bast was nothing but smiles.

Taru squirmed out of Leta's grip, and up to her shoulders, to look back at Bast, wondering just why the male had stopped his loving. He seemed content though, when Leta reached up and rubbed the side of his head. Both he and Leta would look at Bael curiously.

"Are you looking for someone? Do you have a girlfriend you plan on meeting here?" she asked, as if it weren't a big deal at all.

Bael felt a little bit better when Bast caught up to them instead of walking behind. Now it was easier to keep an eye on the kid. He'd only stop in his looking when Leta asked about a girlfriend, and his cheeks turned red. "No. I don't have a girlfriend." Yet anyway. "I'm looking for an older man that's usually here. He talks about the equalists...I wanted you to hear him. I guess he got scared away because of all that nonsense at the ports yesterday."

He didn't look pleased, but then again, Bael never looked pleased so it was probably hard to tell if he had a change in mood or not.

Bast looked around for an older man that Bael mentioned, but didn't see anyone either. He was almost relieved. He didn't exactly want to meet any equalists, even if he was just giving information. What would these people think if benders showed up at one of their meetings? He didn't think the people would treat Leta very well and that made him frown.

"Maybe he'll be back tomorrow." Bast had to offer something to Bael.

Leta listened to him explaining, but when she spoke, it wasn't exactly about the equalists that he had talked about. "I knew someone from the northern tribe who was like you as well. I give you much luck when you finally decide to tell him how you truly feel..." She pulled Taru off her shoulder to hold him, and walked ahead of him, taking interest in a newly sprouting tree next to a park bench.

Bael was so busy looking around for the equalist guy he almost missed what Leta was talking about, and then he's taking it the wrong way, "He already knows how I feel, that's why I'm looking for him." They were having two different conversations here, let's see how long it takes one or the other to pick up on it! "Wait, there are people like this all the way up in the northern water tribe? How does that work? Do they have to keep it a secret?"

"Equalists in the water tribe? Or older men?" Bast was entirely lost. There were no equalists in his home, but there were older men. Did Bael need to travel to one of the poles to get an Old Man to bring to the equalist rally?

"We just got here from the Poles. Are we going back to one of them to find the guy you need? Did he leave?"

Leta stood up, looking at both of them. She first looked to Bael, and shook her head. "No, he did not keep it secret. Surprisingly, everyone was very accepting of it. We usually don't go against tradition, but you can't deny what you feel is right, I suppose." She would then turn to Bast.

"We could go to one of the tribes... I don't think Bael is looking for other men though. I think he is only interested in one... To bad he wasn't here today. I would have liked to say hello. Does he return your feelings, Bael?" she would ask, turning her attention back to Bael, while Taru gave a nibble to the leaf of the tiny tree.

"Well of course they have older men, older men are everywhere." He was more interested in what Leta had to say, "Wow. I had no idea the Norther Water Tribe was so accepting. I should visit there one day." Though being from the Fire Nation, he'd probably freeze to death before he got very far.

He'd look at Bast, "No...at least I don't think he did. Maybe he heard about the Northern water tribe and decided to go up there." He'd shrug, "Yeah, of course he does."