Hangetsu had ridden the ferry to Air Temple Island dozens of times and every time it started to slow in order to dock his stomach tightened.
When his bending was taken away by Amon, Hangetsu saw the world as something cruelly twisted to a fine point and thrust into his groin by angry spirits. When the Avatar returned his bending he saw that instead he was insignificant and at the mercy of far greater forces than himself. For the past six months three women had supported him: His sister, his friend, and Ren. He was stuck with his sister for life and his friend was also his mentor so as long as his work didn't suffer and he paid for the privilege she would be around. Ren, his third pillar of stability felt more ambiguous.

Every morning Hangetsu woke and tested his bending to see if it was truly back.It was a constant fear in the back of his mind. He faced the same problem every time he met Ren. It took a bloodbender of transcendent talent to take away his bending and the Avatar to return it. Ren, on the other hand could be taken away by someone taller and better looking with less emotional baggage. He hated that faceless, superior man in his imagination more than he hated Amon and the Avatar put together.

The boat stopped and Hangetsu grew more and more uncomfortable as he looked through the people gathered to greet the travelers until he saw Ren...Ren and no handsome man by her side. He had at least one more day as the luckiest man alive and he meant to take full advantage of it.
"You would be amazed at how glad I am to see you."

Even among those in plain, simple monk robes Hangetsu felt he looked disheveled. Adhesive bandages covered small cuts on the upper-right side of his face and purple bruises were visible between those. That day's sparring session with his sister had taken an odd emotional turn when he surprised her with a three-sectional-staff Hangetsu had recovered weeks before. Apparently, her appreciation did not extend to letting him get away without a fight.
It was an odd experience being pummeled with a family heirloom.

Clad in his recently purchased, white pin-striped, zoot suit he felt like a horrible combination of over-dressed and grotesquely ugly.

Ren had a way of making Hangetsu feel significant when she was around. It was the Renless times that he doubted himself so over the past six months he made an effort to spend less time in that state.

"What happened to you?"
Hangetsu closed his eyes for a moment and enjoyed the smell of Ren's hands as she cupped his face. Her scent reminded him of the study where he had received some of his lessons in observation and analysis from his grandmother. It was the smell of a happy memory wrapped in the prospect of a happy future.

He gestured to his face. "I have been sparring with Izumi." Even a short time without his bending had revealed how deteriorated his non-bending fighting skills had become. It was a humbling experience to be routinely beaten to the ground by his big sister.
It was a short answer but being cool and laconic was not to last when he blushed as Ren touched her nose against his.
"We'll take care of those right away, okay?"

Ren's hug and the feeling of her face against his neck gave the metalbender more than pause it stopped him completely, breathing and all. Combined with her compliment on his new suit Hangetsu could only stand there mutely in awe of the acolyte's incredible power of him.
When she asked how he was and how he was sleeping the spell was broken. They were surely not meant to be, but these questions were complex.

"Sleep...uh..." He thought of how most mornings he woke up scared but that it was a big improvement over before. "Better. I don't use as many sleep aids as I used to." He decidedly didn't mention that he still required time to sit up in bed and talk himself into getting up and facing the world.
Everything else didn't require excising bits of the truth to make them sound better. Life still had it's bright spots.
"Work is still work. Internal Affairs is still under-staffed and reviled. Tae is still Tae. I do have some wonderful news, though. I finally found it. The staff my dad pawned all those years ago. I gave it to Izumi and she paid me back by hitting me with it."

Ren's guilt-laden reaction to mentioning the Equalists as she led him through the renovations to Air Temple Island was too cute to take any offense to, but so would her punching him in the face.
"It's okay. You can make up for this grave offense by reading to me."
A large book waited in the brown cloth bag slung over Hangetsu's shoulder. He would use any excuse to get Ren to read to him from 'Principles of Bloodstain Pattern Analysis'.

"I want to hear all about your promotion. Have they finally given you your own sky bison?"

The pre-meal prayer to the spirits had, as of late, become more of habit than a gesture of gratititude. It was difficult for Hangetsu to feel grateful toward a group of beings whom treated his life as a mere grain of sand on a vast beach.

His chopsticks lingered between the thumbs and index fingers of his joined hands for an extra moment.
Thank you, he said under his breath. While his faith in the spirits as benevolent beings was shaken he was still grateful to the three women that had supported, criticized and loved him during that trying six month period.

Ah, sweet and sour sauce. The enemy of the man in white."
Hangetsu began his pre-dining preparation by taking off his jacket and out his silver lemur-shaped cuff links before rolling up his sleeves. He was sorely tempted to take off his shirt to keep any red dots from appearing on his white suit but felt he stood out enough.
"It smells great."

While the atmosphere was friendly Hangetsu always had the feeling of being an outsider eager to defile a member of a holy order. It was hard not to feel like a slimy rock tossed into a still pond sporting a sexual attraction to an acolyte while in a temple.
He tried to concentrate on eating and not the cute way Ren's glasses would slide down her nose when she tilted her head down to take a bite.

A red drop of sauce fell to the table and for a moment Hangetsu thought that perhaps it was for the best that Ren not read to him about bloodstain analysis before eating.
"I should probably apologize for making you read me such a weird book every chance I get. Oh, hey, speaking of weird books the new Fleshbender is out. Izumi titled it: 'Defeat Of The White Peril.' I won't ruin the ending but suffice to say that there is defeating involved...and smut. Lots of smut. Or if you want something a little more sophisticated I brought some of Omoi Tenoh's recent work. "

Hangetsu indeed enjoyed listening to Ren read to him but there was also joy in watching Ren read. Her smiles, sighs and blushes defined charming as far as the white-clad policeman was concerned. It was the selfish center of the reason he brought reading material each time he met with the air acolyte.

Ren's reaction to the word "smut" amused Hangetsu enough to the point that part of him was tempted to keep saying it to see just how red she could get. The acolyte Hangetsu had assumed was the cause of all sexual tension on Air Temple Island blushed at the word "smut". It was difficult to get through the rest of the meal without laughing but his smile refused to subside at the idea of something so absurd.

Growing up with a sometimes overbearing older sister taught Hangetsu the value of saving a quip until after a meal. It was too hard to taste the green tea ice cream with the comments on his tongue. Fortunately most of them had been forgotten by the time he reached Ren's room.
"So the Air Temple's resident sexy librarian is embarrassed by smut."
The smiling policeman then remembered that his remarks to his sister were usually ended up with him being the target of physical violence. To distract from his instantly regrettable tempting of fate Hangetsu reached for the smallest piece of rock candy.
"I have some money left over so..." his voice trailed off. It was an awkward thing bringing up physical intimacy while inside a temple. He felt wretched merely thinking about it.

The uncomfortable bender chuckled and sighed while shaking his head. "Now I'm the embarrassed one. Wonderful. Anyway, I have enough to get us a room for the night. Just throwing that suggestion out there."
Hangetsu had a back-up plan in the form of a book on blood pattern analysis that his grandmother had read to him growing up. He couldn't think of anything that killed a libido faster than that.

He moved a stack of books from Ren's bed to the floor in order to sit on the bed. It wasn't until far too late that it occurred to him he might be sending Ren the wrong message by doing so. It wasn't the act that bothered Hangetsu, it was the location. Even something beautiful as being with Ren felt wrong inside of an Air Temple.

"You know, you don't have to be the one to pay all the time. I have money too. And with my promotion I have a little more to spend."
"I know, I know. It's...a stupid pride thing, I suppose. I mean, when the chance to do something amazing comes along why worry about money?"
He silently answered his own question even if it was rhetorical. He should worry because his debt to Izumi was in danger of reaching four digits.

The way Ren asked if they had enough time gave Hangetsu a rush of pride. In his weaker moments Hangetsu sometimes wondered if the physical part of their relationship was only enjoyed by one party. It was nice to see evidence that stated otherwise.
Ren's quiet calculations and question of time made Hangetsu the happiest he had been...well, since the last time this situation had presented itself.
"My mother warned me that bookish women would lead me astray but I didn't listen."

As he put his jacket back on and slung his satchel over his shoulder Hangetsu smiled and offered Ren his elbow.
"Shall we?"
As awkward as it looked with their height difference Hangetsu still loved feeling Ren on his arm. He just wasn't sure if he wanted a leisurely walk feeling like the luckiest man in Republic City or make a mad dash to the ferry. After all, the quicker to the ferry the quicker he'd feel even luckier.

(ooc; I'm not sure if you wanted them stuck on the island or in the city. Let me know if you'd prefer the former and I'll edit my post)

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Ren laughed huskily. "Oh, your mother was so right," she teased gently, a smile lighting her face. "Us bookish women read about all sorts of things you couldn't even imagine."

Placing her hand slightly higher than the elbow, she took Hangetsu's arm as they walked — casually, but quickly — to the docks. The sun was still high enough in the sky that she figured she could get back to the Island before nightfall. Being out after dark still worried her; she had never seen an acolyte go to the mainland for long, much less come back after the sun had set. She didn't want to jepoardise her standing with the other Acolytes, or with Master Tenzin.

The ferryman looked surprised as well to see her leaving the island so close to nightfall, but to his credit made no comment. Still, Ren blushed a dull red as they boarded, feeling her cheeks hot with embarrassment.

Winds were in their favour, it seemed, and the boat arrived on the mainland docks much more quickly than usual. They disembarked, and, after making their way through the crowded port, headed to their usual hotel.

The hotel itself wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible, either: it was decidedly average, in an average-looking neighbourhood with average safety and — most importantly — an average price. A lanky, dark-haired young man in worn-out clothes pass them on their way in, accompanied by a rough-looking older gentleman. Ren politely looked away; it wasn't her business, after all. Just like it was no one's business that she was here.

Feeling like rather conspicuous in her gold-and-scarlet robes, Ren looked down at Hangets, her glasses slipping down the bridge of her nose.

"Will you let me pay this time?"