"Not all of us have been trained all our lives to sense these things, okay?" Claire replies in turn, pouting lightly at the smile on his face, although she can't help but offer her own in return. It's good to seem him smile, even if it's at her own expense; there are times when Zuko seems so wound up and tense that all Claire wants to do is to tell him to live a little. To be young and carefree. Lips parted with the effort to remind him yet again that he didn't need to be on edge all hours of the day, Claire's words suddenly fall into silence as she trips on his question at last, cheeks flushing pink.

"And, uh," she stammers, patting the side of her ribcage and trying to find a proper spot to feel out the whalebone. "A corset's kind of something that girls are made to wear to help... I don't know. Keep everything contained? Look nice and thin? Here, if you put your hand on my back, you'll be able to see what it does. There are these lengths of bone, basically, that they slip into the clothing to help keep women the right shape. I tried just sticking to guy clothing for a few days, but that got uncomfortable for other reasons."