Airi watched eagarly as the game played before her. Constantly her eyes moved from the other players back to Ling, wondering if she could get anything off of them. Quickly she found out that the answer to that was going to be a no. Only one seemed to be visually distressed by the hand he was played. Everyone else was a mystery to her except for the woman beside her. Every so often, the firebender would remember her job and smile sweetly at a few people which caused a bit of confusion. One or two of them would look conflicted, wondering whether they wanted to put their energy into smiling back or concentrating on winning the game.

It wasn't too long before Ling won and her heart skipped a beat. Ling was good at this! She tried to imagine herself in her companion's position and soon found that she wouldn't be doing as well. Her face was too easily morphed by emotions. She'd never be able to keep - what did they call it when someone could look stoic?

She shot up in her seat, pushed out of her own thoughts, when she was nudged. "Stay," she told the men, "I'll grab them for you." Her skirt swished behind her as she made her way back to the bar to pick up another few drinks. Returning, she knew she might not have the same kind of luck she had earlier. This might actually take some thought process to try and get these men to drink. As she neared the table, she replaced the men's drinks, taking their cups if they were empty or nearing it. No one really seemed to notice her involvement. More than a few looked even more detirmined than before; it would take more coaxing to get them to drink.

After taking the empty mugs to the bar, she took her seat and looked at her own beverage, still as full as it was before. With a surge of courage pushing through her, she took hold of the glass and held it up to her mouth and took a sip. It wasn't too strong but with her intolerance for the stuff it wasn't that hard to pretend that it was. "Whoa, this stuff is strong. I can't believe you guys drink this often," she exclaimed, blinking quickly. From the corner of her eye, smug looks from the men stood out and they took long drinks from their own glasses.

"It's no problem for us," one told her, obviously trying too hard to be sauve.

"Wow," she said, pretending to be impressed, her yellow eyes wide and excited.

As the game progressed, Ling always in the lead, Airi became more and more comfortable with serving the men their drinkings. It wasn't long until she noticed how high their bets were becoming. Sadly, their luck this night had quickly run out as they found out one of the men was quite an angry drunk.

"I'm getting sick of losing!" one of the men shouted, throwing down his cards. For a moment Airi feared he might've flipped or broken the table, her eyes growing large at the sight before her. Some of the others joined in, claiming that Ling was cheating. Without a moments hesitation, she pushed her seat back and stood up. Suddenly she remembered what Ling had said earlier about her being able to protect herself but not Airi as well. That was fine; she could take care of herself.

Though most of the rage from the losing contestants was aimed at Ling, they quickly remembered her presence there. "Ling," she whispered, her hand absently reaching for the woman's. "We should probably run."

As the scene before her played out, Airi realized that she was way out of her element here. Before it was kind of obvious but now it was so obvious that it was like a street vender shoving their product in her face. The woman was apart of the silent and everwatching crowd as Ling unbuttoned her sleeves to show the drunk she hadn't cheated - which surprised Airi as she had thought the woman had to have been cheating to win that well or was very lucky.

A nervous laugh made its way past her lips, joining the chorus of the laughs of some of the patrons of the place. Was a joke a good idea, dealing with a drunk like that? Her eyes wide, she passed a glance towards the player, wondering if it had made him disfuse a bit or had possibly put him more on edge. She hoped it wasn't the latter. Thankfully, others in the crowd joined in with Ling's teasing and Airi relaxed a bit, not having noticed how stiff she had become in her panic.

Not even a few seconds later, Airi found herself pushed down by her companion, hitting the floor with a loud thud. Confusion swept over her like a wave and she couldn't quite manage to orientate herself quick enough. Which was up? Which was down? Left or right? The only time she had ever remembered this kind of disorentation was when she was trainging to be a probender and she took a dive into the sink to learn how to get back out in case she was ever in the rink and knocked out. A hand met her own as she struggled to balance herself and without giving it much thought, she took it and heaved herself up.

"This thing is kinda my calling though, so I'm going to stick around," said Ling whose smile couldn't have been any bigger. Just what kind of person was she, gambling and fighting like it was just as normal as anything else.

Still, no matter who Ling was, Airi thought of the fight. She knew she could fight. She had been taught to fight by her mother, if ever she needed the chance to defend herself. Probending had been so much fun to just let herself go along with and she couldn't shake the thought that a fight like this could be just as fun or worthwhile. "I'm going to stay. I can take care of myself," the firebender stated. She smiled and her fists curled together, ready to fight.

The drunk had picked himself up with the help of one of his 'buds' and charged their way. Airi didn't know why, but she wanted to prove to Ling she could fight. The woman was amazing, doing all these things so smoothly that praise from her sounded like something to strive for, so as the man stormed towards them she swiftly slid herself around the tanned woman and grabbed his outstretched arm and redirecting him towards a table and pushing him, a trick taught to her by her brother while her bending was gone.

What Ling had said about this place going wild after the first punch wasn't wrong, it was simply understated. As he fell, others joined in to the fight. Airi doubted there was even a reason to the others joining to fight other than to participate in a fight so in the chaos she tried to find Ling to see what she was doing except she wasn't given a chance to look, most of her concentration trying to survive the fight. Using her firebending crossed her mind but what use would that be? Even if she used it only a little, in this space she could burn down the building.

A fist swung her way and she ducked, her hair comically poofing up as she dropped and moved forward to deliver an attack of her own.

Fists here, feet there, the whole place was a mess of limbs flying around the place trying to connect with whatever they could. The hardest thing about the fight was keeping her back safe. With attacks coming in from every direction, her back was a big target. Despite her best efforts, several blows had been delivered to the back of her legs and a few to her shoulder which ached with every movement from then on out. Each punch she threw sent a shock through her body and left her feeling like two platypusbears had walked all over her back.

Suddenly, the place muted itself and all Airi could hear was the sound of her heavy breath and the steps of two large men who entered the Golden Fan. Her hair was in disarray and her exposed skin was patterned with bruises - man, was her mother going to have a field day with that when she got home.

She watched with ready eyes as a man was thrown out of the room, wincing at the sound as the man hit the ground. With no more fighting going on and the scapegoat dealt with, the firebender turned to find Ling only to find out she was already there, wrapping an arm around her. She winced as the pain in her shoulder sent another shock through her body, feeling it all the way down to her toes. Airi's yellow eyes studied her companion's face. She had taken a few bad hits there, huh? Whereas Airi was left with a bad shoulder, a ton of bruises and a few scrapes. It made her feel very lucky only to get out with that few of injuries.

"Thanks," Airi said, a light blush heating up her face, glad to get a compliment from Ling. Sadly, that didn't last long as her tone took a sudden turn to being suspicious. "You got me. I've never been in a fight like this, but I was a probender once. One game, plus we lost," she told her awkwardly. The woman made her way outside slowly, the heat of the fight making the air very stuffy in the Golden Pan - uh, Fan.

"Should I have told you?" the young woman said flustered. "I'm sorry. Things just slip my mind! Did I worry you? I didn't mean to worry you. Sorry," she squeaked out, her face turning more red than before. Good job, she thought to herself pitifully.