Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Today was finally the day Jinora would to have time to start that historical romance novel. It came out recently, and she had been looking forward to reading for such a long time.

“JINORA!! Get downstairs right now!”

Just like that, all her hopes and dreams of binge reading her book had been shattered. She reluctantly went downstairs to see what it was her dad could possibly need.

Being the daughter of a famous and wealthy politician was not all that it cracked up to be, she had realized. Not only was she constantly under the pressure of behaving like a perfect daughter, but as the designated golden child, she was in charge of all her younger siblings. Plus, her dad was constantly hovering over every move she made and shoving more responsibilities on to her. But at the end of the day, she was still a 16-year-old girl, just trying to survive high school and life in general at this point.

Upon her arrival downstairs, she was met with the sight of her dad being used as a jungle gym by her two younger brothers Rohan and Meelo, who were five and eleven, respectively.

“Jinora, I need you to watch over the boys for the afternoon and evening and fill in for me at the community center. I was supposed to teach a class on mediation as a remedial class for juvenile delinquents tonight. An important event has come up that your mom and I have to attend.” Tenzin announced, not even batting an eye at the boys crawling all over him.

“Anything else, your highness?” Jinora responded dryly.

“Actually, I need you to pick up Ikki from her friend’s house at 7 PM,” Tenzin commanded, ignoring her sarcasm-laced response.

On top of being a wealthy and famous politician’s daughter, her dad’s side of the family came from old money. They had also inherited a community center called Turning a New Leaf: Community Center from her grandfather, Aang Gyasto. It had been his vision to help people turn around their lives and give them a new chance by providing a variety of services and funding to people. While Jinora was not sure of the specifics, the fact that Tenzin, Aang’s youngest son, had inherited the center and not either of his two older siblings was a cause of controversy in their family. As requested by her grandfather’s will, her dad was required to actively take part in running the center. To meet these requirements, her dad personally ran some of the remedial courses and sponsored some of the people in need from the center.

“And where exactly are you going that is so important that you and mom have to leave all your responsibilities to me, your teenage daughter?” Jinora retorted.

“Well, I am glad you asked. Varrick, one of our biggest donors at the center and one of my most important connections, has invited me to ‘a very important dinner that I cannot miss’ according to him. So, I will leave you to it!”

She decided to get ready for the long day she had ahead instead of lamenting the loss of her entire Saturday to her father’s whims. At least her mom and dad were dropping off her 13-year-old sister, Ikki, at her friend’s house, so she would not have to deal with her today. Jinora loved her little sister, but sometimes her mischievousness and high energy really got on her nerves, and she didn’t think she could handle that today.

Finally arriving at the center in one piece with her two younger brothers, Jinora sighed in relief, but the hardest part was yet to come. She really was not looking forward to teaching this meditation class. While she excelled at meditating, she had a bad feeling the person she really did not want to see today would be there. Before she could worry about that, though, she needed to set her two little brothers straight.

“Meelo, are you manly enough to keep Rohan in line while I am teaching this class on mediation?”

Meelo quickly fell for the challenge Jinora presented to him. “This is Meelo the man we’re talking about here! Keeping this baby in line will be easy!”

Rohan protested, “I am not a baby! I am 5 and a half!”

“Ok boys, if you behave while I am gone, we can stop by Sonic and get slushies after the class is over.” Both boys instantly stood up straighter and saluted at Jinora.

“You have all the boys eating out of the palms of your hand, I see.”

Jinora gave herself whiplash from turning around too fast. Kai in all his smug-asshole glory stood before her. She held in her sigh of annoyance as she quickly shooed away Meelo and Rohan to go into the center without her. Even she could only take so many troublemaking boys in one social interaction. Plus, she knew staff would keep them in line well enough without her supervision. Her luck really was getting worse today because this was the one person she did not want to see. Kai was the residential “delinquent” she could not seem to escape. He was one of the community center’s regular visitors, thanks to the fact he was always getting in trouble and had to take remedial classes to get out of some of the worse punishments he could be receiving. From what she had heard, all of his crimes were petty ones. These classes were only a slap on the wrist to try to prevent it from happening again, with no luck so far.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you today,” Jinora greeted, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She typically was on her best behavior around Kai and everyone else in the community center, but today her dad wasn’t around to chastise her. She wasn’t going to let Kai get away with messing with her this time, since there was no one around to witness.

“Wow, Jinnie does have a bite after all. And here I was thinking you were just a Ms. Goody-two-shoes.” Kai approached closer. “I am only here to see your pretty face. Obviously, what else?”

Jinora rolled her eyes. “Let me guess, you got in trouble again, and now you’re here to take this remedial meditation course again.”

Kai leaned back and scratched his neck, putting on an awkward smile. He laughed a bit before starting. “You caught me... I am not looking forward to this meditation class with Tenzin. Can’t he make a remedial class that’s more entertaining or something?”

“Meditating is a great way to reflect on your past actions and to turn a new leaf. Maybe the problem is you don’t take it seriously enough. What did you even do this time?”

Kai shrugged indignantly, “May or may not have been caught pickpocketing the principal again, but I gave back the wallet with everything in it! I don’t know what the big deal is here. That really was the last time, I swear!”

“I am pretty sure you said that the last few times, too, Kai. And I mean, if you’re going to be dumb, why do it at school anyway? Seems a little counterproductive to me especially when your brother is a cop.” Jinora retorted back.

Although he was far from a perfect person, and maybe even from being a decent person, Jinora could not deny he was very attractive. Not only was he tall and muscular in a lean kind of way, but he also had the most beautiful emerald green eyes and they really stood out against his mocha-colored skin. His hair was dark brown, nearly black hair shaved underneath, so his ear piercings stood out even more, giving him a “bad boy but don’t care” kind of vibe. Snapping out of her trance before Kai noticed, she zoned back in to the conversation.

Kai only laughed at her insult again. “We both know Mako had his fair share of bad boy moments too. Just because he has a stick up his ass now doesn't mean he was perfect all the time.”

Now that she thought about it, he was right. Kai had originally just been crashing with Mako and Bolin's house since Bolin had a really soft spot for Kai. Even though he had caused them quite a bit of trouble through the years, they eventually ended up officially adopting him and becoming his legal guardians so Kai could escape from foster parent hell. They had gone through so much effort to put him in a better place, and even though Jinora wasn't sure of all the details, she knew that her dad and the community center must have pulled a lot of strings to make it happen since Mako and Bolin were barely more than teenagers themselves at the time.

“I just don’t understand why you keep acting like this. Especially now that you have brothers that care for you. You are given so many opportunities to change. Yet, here you are, behaving like a criminal.” Jinora remarked, staring straight into his eyes. Her statement instantly shifted the mood of their conversation.

Kai looked away from her piercing stare, his face going dark. “Don’t pretend like you know me or could understand my actions when you’re born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Besides, I don’t want your pity.”

Jinora huffed. “Well, unfortunately for you can’t get rid of me yet. I am taking my dad’s place in teaching the meditation course. Thought you wanted to see my pretty face? Change your mind already?”

She already felt regret for snapping at him as soon as the words came out of her mouth, but it was too late to take it back now. Without responding, Kai stormed into the building. Jinora waited a moment, taking a second to breathe, before following him. It seemed like the meditation class was going to be anything but relaxing. Why she tried to start a fight with him like that, she didn’t know. She really wished she were at home reading her book right now.

Jinora walked into the classroom, calmly pretending like her conversation with Kai didn’t happen. She surveyed the room. There were only about fifteen people in total. She could work with that. She discreetly glanced in Kai’s direction. He purposely was looking everywhere except for her. She probably deserved that. Pinching her nose in one last attempt to calm herself, she decided to start her lesson.

“Hi everyone, today I will be replacing my dad, Tenzin, and teaching this lesson on mediation. Don’t think you can get away with slacking off just because my dad isn’t here. I have two younger brothers who are heathens. So know you guys don’t have anything on them and I am not afraid to crack the whip, even if some people here are older than me.” A few people chuckled at that, and Jinora smiled, feeling more at ease.

The class went by smoothly. Surprisingly, even after their fight, Kai looked like he was actually making an effort in class. However, as soon as class was over, Jinora bolted to avoid confrontation with Kai and to start the search for her two younger brothers.

She immediately bumped into Bolin on her way out. “If you’re looking for your brothers, I saw them go that way.” he said, pointing down the hallway.

“Thanks Bolin! You’re a lifesaver!” Jinora responded. Before she had a chance to speed walk down the hallway, Bolin stopped her.

“How did Kai do in class today?” Bolin asked with a worried look on his face.

“He looked like he was really trying! Anyway, I’ve got to go. I will see you later!” Jinora awkwardly announced, walking away briskly so he couldn’t ask her any follow-up questions. She felt bad she had cut her answer short like that, but it wasn’t like she was lying, just dodging any chance of their fight coming up in conversation. It wasn’t long before she spotted Meelo and Rohan. They actually were not looking too suspicious for once.

“Soldier, what’s the report status?” Jinora asked

“It’s Commander Meelo! Jinora, how many times do I have to tell you that!?”

“Well, soldier, if you behaved more often, maybe I would call you that.” She stuck out her tongue at him, since she was the mature one, after all.

Meelo huffed indignantly, but responded regardless. “I promise me and Rohan didn’t get in too much trouble. So can we go to Sonic now???” Rohan nodded along with him, looking as innocent as possible.

Jinora looked at the clock. It was only 6:15 PM. They had time to burn before picking up Ikki, anyway. “Alright soldiers, let’s load up!” Meelo and Rohan both saluted once more before running in the direction of the exit. Jinora ran after them to her car.

Chapter Text

By the time Jinora arrived home with Rohan, Ikki, and Meelo in tow, she felt so mentally exhausted she couldn’t even think about reading her book. However, she knew she couldn’t fall asleep until everyone was in bed, or her parents got home from dinner with Varrick.

She laid down on the couch, half watching her siblings to make sure they were behaving. Ikki already went to her room, and Meelo and Rohan were glued to something on the iPad. She settled for some mindless scrolling through social media, since everyone seemed well-behaved enough.

Her first mistake was deciding Twitter was the correct social media website for mindless scrolling. She immediately encountered some shocking news:

ZHU LI MOON ANNOUNCES SHE IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED REPUBLIC AND CHOOSES TENZIN GYASTO AS HER VP

Not believing her eyes, she started intensely scrolling down the thread to figure out how true this announcement might be. Of course, this was Twitter, so she was only met with disappointment.

🔞Asami is Girlboss🔞: ngl that tenzin guy has dilf vibes he could step on me and i would thank him

 

firelord of getting laid: tony stark who?? i only know tenzin gyasto now 🥴🥵🥵

 

tui & la can’t stop me: this man could scold me, and I would thank him... do we know if he’s hiring any secretaries asking for a friend.

 

ten(inches)zin 😈😈: this man needs to stop being a good father and start being my daddy 🤪🤤🥴

 

korrasami bi powers unite: if you order the tenzin sandwich I heard it comes with a dilf pickle on the side 😈😈

 

She wasn't sure what spirit she offended to deserve this punishment. She exited the thread quickly. Her eyes could not take any more tweets about people thirsting after her dad. She shuddered.

Even after that catastrophe, she continued scrolling further down on her feed anyway. For a second time, she was met with shocking news.

IKNIK BLACKSTONE AKA VARRICK IS ENGAGED TO ZHU LI MOON. DESTINATION WEDDING TO BE HELD WHERE!?

At least this news wasn’t too relevant to her. However, considering that Varrick was one of her dad’s main sponsors for the community center, it probably meant she would have to attend this wedding and miss school.

She might be a goody-two-shoes, but like most teenagers, Jinora did not particularly enjoy school. Especially since Principal Tarrlock was once a fellow councilman with her dad and kept tabs on her every move for her dad. This was the price she had to pay to get to go to public school like a normal girl her age, instead of some stuffy private school with other rich kids.

Besides the point, she was in too many AP classes to miss school for some destination wedding. She would almost just prefer to go to school, so she wouldn’t have to worry about what she might miss in her classes. She sighed- no use in worrying about things she wasn’t sure about yet.

She checked her phone. It was already 9:30 PM.

“Come on Rohan, it’s past your bedtime. Let’s get you to bed, ok? Make sure you brush your teeth extra good after that Sonic slush, or dad will be able sense it and you’ll be in trouble.”

Even at the age of five, Rohan was smart enough not to test that logic. He instantly jumped up to go brush his teeth.

“That includes you too, Meelo. Dad might use his sixth sense and ban you from playing Fortnite for another week again.” Jinora taunted. She had become a professional at playing her cards right to get her younger brothers to listen to her.

Meelo sprinted off towards the bathroom yelling, “Roger that, General Jinora!”

She snorted a bit at that and sank into the couch more. She would just wait downstairs until her parents got home. Then, she could ask them what all this news was about.

The sound of the garage door opening shook her from her half-asleep state. It was nearly midnight now. She sat up looking over the top of the couch, eagerly awaiting her parent’s arrival. Tenzin and Pema walked through the door looking like the life had been sucked out of them.

“Well, that certainly wasn’t what I was expecting,” Tenzin announced in her general direction.

She was tempted to go full Ikki on them and bombard them with questions, but she resisted. She settled for a more snarky answer. “Since I gave away my Saturday for this, I expect more details than that.”

Pema sighed, “I am sorry sweetie, I thought I told your dad no more surprise throwing classes on you like that. Next time we will get someone else to fill in for your dad.” Pema glared in Tenzin’s direction.

Her mom worked as a case manager at the New Leaf Community Center, which is how her parents met. As most things related to her family, her parents getting together was full of crazy drama she did not quite understand. Her mom’s primary job was to help immigrants and refugees settle in to Republic City. Sometimes that required her to work on the weekends too. Part of the reason why her mom wasn’t there to stop her dad from making poor decisions earlier that today.

“You are right, honey,” said Tenzin, swooping down and pressing a chaste kiss on her lips. “Next time, I will ask Korra or Opal if they’re available first.” Pema gave him a look for the last part, but she didn’t try to argue further.

“Anyway, as I was saying,” her mom started back up, “your father just got an amazing job offer from Zhu Li, Varrick’s fiancée, which he accepted. Your dad might be a vice president!”

Jinora took this opportunity to get up and give both her parents a hug. As salty as she was about what happened earlier that day, she still was genuinely happy for her dad receiving an amazing opportunity.

“Congrats, dad, that’s really awesome!” Jinora exclaimed, smiling up at her dad. “Not to draw away attention from your promotion, but I also saw something online about Varrick and Zhu Li’s destination wedding coming up soon. Does that mean we’re all going to have to go to this wedding too?”

Her mom looked at her dad pointedly, motioning him to talk. “About that, yes, we will be required to all attend that event as a family. But, as per your mom’s request, you can bring a plus one to the wedding as a thanks for all your hard work today.”

Jinora smirked a bit at that comment and decided to push her luck. “My hard work just today?”

Tenzin put a hand on her shoulder. “Your hard work every day. We are so grateful to have someone as accomplished as you as our daughter.”

“Thanks dad! I will have to think about who I want to invite. I am not sure yet, but for now I am going to bed! Good night mom and dad! Love you!” Jinora turned to head up the stairs, as her parents wished her a good night as well.

As she laid in bed, a genius idea struck her: what if she brought a date with her to the wedding as her plus one? No better way to break her dad away from his helicopter parenting ways than bringing a significant other with her to the wedding. She was glad he recognized her hard efforts today, but that didn’t excuse the fact he still tracked everything she did all the time and even had Principal Tarrlok keep tabs on her. So far, she had been a perfect child, so it was time for her to be a bit rebellious. She wasn’t sure how she was going to make this work, though. She didn’t really have any friends at school or her age in general, thanks to her dad.

She started brainstorming. It would be best to invite whoever would give her dad the biggest heart attack. Most of her friends were people who had connections to the community center and were quite a bit older. She couldn’t ask any of them to pretend to be her partner. Plus, just anyone wouldn’t be enough of a shock factor. She could ask Skoochy, but he was a freshman in college now, so it was too big of a stretch. Plus, it wasn’t like she was trying to piss off Bolin and Mako, only her dad. Thinking about Mako and Bolin gave her the perfect idea. She knew who exactly the perfect fit for this job would be, none other than Bolin and Mako’s (self-proclaimed) little brother, Kai.

Ugh. She had almost managed to forget about their fight today, but of course, it was already coming back to haunt her. Normally, she and Kai didn’t get along, but they rarely went at each other’s throats. She really had the worst timing with her smartass remarks. It was time for her to be the bigger person and apologize to him at school on Monday, or maybe she should just text Opal and ask for his number and apologize to him now.

Jinora rolled over and buried her face into her pillow. Overthinking was such a curse. It was time for her to go to sleep. She could wait to apologize to Kai on Monday. It would feel more heartfelt in person. Besides, procrastinating was always the best solution.

Chapter Text

She looked in the mirror at her outfit apprehensively. Her outfit was composed of a loose-fitting t-shirt with a long flowing spaghetti strapped dress on top. Her hair even decided to behave nicely today. It was curling inwards towards her face, resting just above her shoulders. She gave herself finger guns in the mirror- she could do this.

She arrived at school relatively early, hoping to find Kai before school started. She wanted to rip this off like a bandaid. Stepping out of her car, she walked towards school.

Yue Bay High School was probably one of the nicest high schools in the district. One of the reasons her dad relented to letting her attend here instead of a fancy private school. Apparently, Asami Sato, a former alumni, had personally poured some funds into the school and helped redesign parts of it. Their bathroom doors even had locks on them, couldn’t get more luxurious than that at a public school.

Walking in through one of the side doors of the school, she set off towards the track. Jinora was almost positive that track team had early morning meetings, and last time she checked, Kai was still on the team. He should really thank her for that. It was because of the remedial courses her family’s community center offered he didn’t have a criminal record yet. Well, that, and Mako’s soft spot for him- as much as Mako would deny it.

She arrived in front of the sports team’s locker rooms in time to face plant into a shirtless Kai, who was only wearing track shorts.

“Wow Jinora, if you wanted a piece of me so badly, all you had to do was ask,” Kai teased.

She backed up quickly, almost slamming into a wall in the process. His hands landed on her shoulders, stopping her from doing just that. Wow, he really would not make this easy. Being shirtless was basically psychological warfare. Maybe she should only apologize and quit while she was ahead. She normally was not affected by his bad flirting since she knew it was all a ploy to annoy her. However, today she could feel her face setting aflame thanks to a combination of nerves, Kai’s shirtlessness, and his embarrassing pickup lines.

“Look Kai,” she started off calmly, despite her internal panic. Focusing only on his face, she tried to pretend he wasn’t half naked. “I know we normally like to pretend nothing happened, but I wanted to apologize for what I said on Saturday. I was in the wrong and I overstepped my boundaries. It was none of my business, anyway.”

Kai dropped his hands from her shoulders, and he looked up thoughtfully. “Wow, am I still dreaming? Did I just hear the Jinora apologizing to lowly me? Aren’t you afraid your dad will find out we were seen together at school? Wouldn’t want a bad boy like me to tarnish your perfect reputation.’’

“As if you’re just a wannabe bad boy. Stop deflecting. I am being serious here!” Jinora glared up at him. Her urge to blush was completely gone now.

Kai met her intense stare, his emerald green eyes locking with her chocolate brown ones. “Fine. Apology accepted, or whatever. I was also out of line too, I guess. Anything else you wanted to add, or can I go to the locker room and get changed before class starts?”

“Actually, there is something I need to ask you. Can we discuss it after school though? Meet me by my car and I can drive us to bubble tea or something.” Jinora said, still making direct eye contact with him.

“Wow, Jinnie asking me out on a date for real? Aren’t we moving a little fast? You don’t even have my number yet.” Even though his answer seemed suave enough, he looked genuinely surprised.

Jinora snorted, turning around to avoid looking at his shirtless self any longer. “Come to my car after school and find out yourself.” With that, Jinora fled the scene, missing how completely flustered Kai was as he walked towards the locker room to get changed.

Surprisingly, Kai was already waiting by her car at the end of the school day. School had gone by so slowly today- she spent the whole day antagonizing on how Kai might react to her proposition. Seeing him standing nervously by her car, she figured this was her chance for some sweet revenge on him and all his bad flirting.

“Wow Kai, eager, much. Did you run here to see me as soon as possible? And you even remembered what kind of car I drive, how cute!” Jinora said as innocently as possible.

Kai rolled his eyes in response. “I guess I sort of deserved that. Not my fault you were being all weird and mysterious. And you’ve never asked me for anything before, so I figured it must be important. Are you sure it’s ok that I get in the car with you though, actually? I heard rumors that your dad has eyes everywhere.”

“Here I was thinking it was your goal in life to piss off my dad, and now here you are being afraid. Come on, just get in and let’s go get some bubble tea. I need sugar and caffeine in my body ASAP,” Jinora responded, laughing at the apprehensive way Kai was acting.

“Ok, but can we make this quick? I have a part-time job to be at in an hour.” Kai’s eyes darted around nervously, as if checking to see if they were really being watched.

Jinora realized they didn’t know that much about each other at that moment. She had no idea he had a job. Sure, they were in similar social circles because Bolin and Mako were basically like family figures to her, too. She had grown up around them, after all. Tenzin helped them out a lot because of the community center. Plus, she knew her dad had a soft spot for them because he even let them stay with their family for a while when they had gotten kicked out of their apartment as teenagers and were at risk of homelessness. After Bolin and Mako had taken over as guardians for Kai, they had gotten a lot busier with Kai and with life. They hadn’t kept up as well as they should have. Especially with Kai always getting into trouble. They had their hands full. Also, Bolin was in a committed relationship now with Opal, someone he had met through Tenzin. It was really a small world.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she got settled into the car. She handed Kai the aux cord as a peace offering. It was the least she could do to butter him up, since she was about to suggest something crazy to him. Kai’s eyes lit up as he plugged in his phone and immediately started blasting a song she recognized as a Naruto opening. This boy was certainly full of surprises.

They arrived at the Jasmine Dragon, one of the nicer bubble tea stores around. Kai was shifting around awkwardly, looking out of place.

“Come on, I will buy yours since I am the one who dragged you out here.” Jinora's motives were not completely honorable, but she did feel a bit bad for dragging him out here.

After ordering a classic milk tea with tapioca, she motioned for Kai to order as well. He proceeded to order a lychee black tea with tapioca, popping pearls, and two types of jelly.

“Dang Kai! Would you like a little tea with those toppings?” Jinora said after paying for the drinks.

“Like you have any room to talk. A classic milk tea, really? Let me guess you order plain vanilla ice cream when you go to the ice cream store? Seriously, ever learn to live a little?” Kai quipped back.

Before Jinora could protest back the lady working the counter was calling them to get their drinks. “I just wanted to say, I think you guys make a great couple.” She complimented as she handed them their drinks. Both her and Kai sputtered at that. “I could tell by the matching outfits.” the lady added before going back to the cash register, not even giving them a chance to respond. She looked back and forth between their outfits and realized the barista did have a point. Their outfits looked really color coordinated that day. He was wearing a hoodie with the same red and yellow colors as her t-shirt and dress.

“Wow Jinnie, I guess we really are made for each other” Kai teased as a way to break the ice after such an awkward moment.

Jinora rolled her eyes and looked for a table.

Finally, they both took a seat at a table. “So, I actually have a really crazy suggestion to make, so hear me out.” Jinora began. “You know how you were talking earlier about how much my dad watches over me and is really helicopter-y?”

“Yeah, but what does that have to do with me?” Kai raised an eyebrow.

“Well… it’s no secret my dad is not too fond of you and my parents told me yesterday I was allowed to bring a plus one to Varrick and Zhu Li’s wedding… soIwaswonderingifyouwouldgowithmeasmyfakedate- maybe?” This was more difficult than she thought it would be. She shut herself up by taking a long sip of tea. Thankfully, she did not choke on any tapioca at such a critical moment.

“Say what now!? Did you say THE Varrick’s wedding? Like the destination wedding that went viral on Twitter, Varrick? CEO of Varrick Global Enterprises Varrick?? Not to mention Zhu Li is freaking running for president!!” Kai seemed more hung up on Varrick and Zhu Li than anything else she had suggested.

“Yes, that Varrick and Zhu Li. Varrick and my dad are close business partners, and now my dad is running as Zhu Li’s VP. So, our attendance at his wedding is basically mandatory. But you’re missing the point! I want you to go to the wedding with me as my fake boyfriend!” Jinora had slowly gotten louder through the duration of her speech in frustration. Kai really had a special talent for driving her insane.

“Has anyone ever told you it’s hot when you’re bossy?” Kai smirked at her.

“Stop dodging the question, asshole!” Kai had the audacity to look scandalized at the fact she had just cussed at him. Her reputation of being a goody two shoes must precede her more than she originally thought.

“Look, I am not going to ask again!” She continued, since he was taking too long to respond. “If you come with me, you get to go on an all-expenses paid vacation, meet lots of famous people, and give my dad a heart attack. It’s a win-win-win situation. Please, I am willing to do almost anything to convince you!” She had a feeling she was going to regret proposing almost anything to someone as annoying as Kai, but she didn’t really have any friends to ask to this wedding. If it wasn’t him, she would probably not end up bringing anyone.

“Almost anything, huh?” Kai had quite an evil look in his eyes. Jinora gulped and shook her head, not trusting herself with words anymore. “Well perfect! Because I am actually doing really bad in my English class, and I am at risk of being kicked off the track team. So, you write my English essay, and we got ourselves a deal.”

Jinora pondered on this. That didn’t sound too bad, but still had the potential of getting her in trouble if the essay was traced back to her. “Read the essay the book is on, and we got ourselves a deal. I don’t want you to be caught for cheating or get me caught for helping you cheat. I have a reputation to uphold, as you know.” She was still getting the better half of this deal because Kai was going to be the one put through hell with her family the entire trip, but she wasn’t going to mention that now.

With no hesitation, Kai responded, “Deal! Now, how exactly is this going to work? Do you think you dad will honestly believe we’re dating?”

“Well, I mean, I have never lied to him before... I am the golden egg child, after all. I don’t see why he would doubt me. The thing is, since he keeps tabs on me all the time, we probably actually have to be seen together before the wedding or it will be suspicious. My dad is close friends with Principal Tarrlock, remember?”

“Wow, so this really is a large kind of commitment. Is this really worth a free vacation and an English paper?”

“No take-backs! You already agreed! Besides, if we go anywhere, I will pay with my dad’s credit card. That’s only another win for you!”

“Hmm… you do make excellent points. Jinnie, go on.”

“Ugh, you’re so annoying. Maybe it’s not too late to ask someone else.” Jinora jokingly started making the motions like she was going to leave him at the bubble tea store. She didn’t get it too far before he grabbed her hand, pulling her back to the table they were sitting at.

“No take-backs~ as a wise Jinnie once said. So now about that plan.” Kai waggled his eyebrows at Jinora.

Chapter Text

Jinora had a surprisingly good time at Jasmine Dragon with Kai, so much so they got completely derailed bantering before they could make any decisions about their arrangement. In the end, she took Kai to work with no progress made. Luckily, they exchanged phone numbers before she dropped him off at Sky Zone. Of course, he would work somewhere like that. Despite his bad pickpocketing tendencies, she had to admit he had always been good at interacting with her siblings. That was whenever they had the misfortune of crossing paths at the community center, at least. 

To think it was only Monday evening, and Jinora was already brooding over her work like this. She questioned if she had been mentally sane when she signed up for five AP classes. Her train of thought broken when heard her phone vibrate, signaling that she had received a text. Well, now was probably a good time to take a break. She had been doing homework nonstop since she dropped Kai off at work anyway, and it was approaching dinner time now.

Kai 💚your boytoy: hey just got off of work. you miss me? 😘

She had not really been paying attention when she handed her phone off to him to put in his number. She couldn’t help but to laugh at the ridiculous name he had put in her phone.

Jinora: Your boytoy? Really… Why are you like this?

Kai 💚your boytoy: it’s ok i am the designated funny one in this relationship 🤪

Jinora huffed, but refused to respond to that comment, knowing he was just trying to get a rise out of her. She opted to change the topic instead.

Jinora: So tomorrow should I pick you up for school to begin our charade?

Kai 💚your boytoy: that’s fine but you’ll have to come early i have a track meeting starting at 7 am 😴

Jinora: That’s fine. I am an early riser anyway. Let’s stick to holding hands at school for now. Deal?

Kai 💚your boytoy: 👍 see you tomorrow morning

 

Jinora caught herself smiling down at her phone. Wait, this was strange. Why was she sort of excited about seeing Kai tomorrow? She put her phone back on her desk, trying not to think too hard about her feelings. Her homework was the obvious number one priority here, and she rarely got distracted so easily. That reminded her. She hadn’t even asked Kai what his essay was about or which book it was on. She had probably already read the book considering he was in standard English 11, and she was in AP English Language. Hopefully, the assignment wasn’t anything too hard. She could basically write essays in her sleep at this point, with all the essay training they did in her AP English class.

She looked back down at her homework. There was only one AP Physics problem left on her paper. And this problem wasn’t going to do itself, unfortunately.

“Sweetie, it’s time for dinner!” Pema called up the stairs.

Jinora sighed and grabbed her historical romance novel with her so she could hopefully survive the meal without losing her mind.

She took her seat at the table after fixing her plate, shielding her face with a book. If no one could see her face, it was like she wasn’t even there, right? Before she could even finish her musing and focus on the words in her book, she heard her sister intake a large breath.

Oh shit, here we go again.

“Jinora, why did you get home so much later today, huh? You got home after I got home from cheer practice. That almost never happens. Wait, did you get a secret boyfriend? You were going on a date after school, weren’t you?” the questions just keep tumbling out of Ikki’s mouth. However, for once, her line of questioning was pretty accurate.

“No, Ikki, I only had to ask a teacher a question after school about an assignment. Then I went to get bubble tea, and it took longer than I thought,” Jinora lied easily. She and Kai definitely didn’t have this planned out enough yet to already come out and say something at dinner to her whole family. Plus, she felt like it would be more believable if her dad heard about it through Tarrlok, rather than her right now. She lifted her book to shield her face once more. Second time’s the charm, right?

Ikki seemed satisfied enough with that answer that she went back to talking about something that happened to her that day at school. Jinora slowly was able to tune out Ikki, who was shouting over everyone else to forcibly tell them about her day, and get back to her skillful one-handed reading of her book. She had practically mastered this down to an art- hold the book in her left hand in front of her face and use her chopsticks to eat food with her right hand. She only glanced at her food minimally to make sure she had a good hold on it before taking neat little bites into it.

Meanwhile, Meelo and Rohan were having a food eating contest next to her, spitting rice in every direction. She was glad to have her handy book shield with her. Her dad looked ready to face palm or burst a blood vessel. It was hard to tell. However, her mom only looked slightly stressed from the situation, making sure to nod every once in a while to let Ikki know she was listening, but she did not bother to try to stop the boy’s contest.

Tuesday morning came faster than she anticipated. She turned over in her bed and looked at her phone. It read 5:30 AM. She was awake before her alarm like usual, as she typically rose with the sun. She stretched out her arms over her head and started getting ready. If she finished fast enough, she would even have some time to read before picking up Kai.

Today she decided for a half up, half down look, tying her hair up in a bright red scrunchy. She pulled out a few hairs to make it into the perfect messy bun. Then she looked in the mirror one last time to check her outfit. It consisted of a yellow flowy button-up blouse that had short puffy sleeves and a square neck, paired with high-waisted light blue skinny jeans. She also put on a pair of white sandals with kitten heels. The extra height would be necessary if she was going to be walking next to Kai. After deciding her outfit looked ok, she walked out of her room to head downstairs. It was still only 6:30, but she decided she was going to bypass her sibling madness and walk out the door with a protein bar in hand.

“You’re heading out earlier than usual sweetie, anything special going on today?” Pema questioned.

“Nope, just felt like getting to school early to work on some homework and stuff.” Jinora replied. While this was not completely a lie, it was also not completely the truth. She was actually going to use her extra time at school to get a head start on some of her homework due later in the week.

She continued on her way out, jumping into her car and heading to the address Kai had sent her. He lived in some of the nicer apartments in Republic City since Mako now worked as a detective and Bolin hit it off as an actor for a little while before changing careers to work in the same station as Mako. They could finally afford nicer housing, but they still didn’t want to commit to an actual house, it seemed.

She decided since she was a bit early, she should probably accept her fate and go ahead and knock on the door to speed up this process. Although she personally hated knocking on doors- she much rather text someone and wait in front of their house until they came out, but seeing as this was an apartment building that technique would not work well. She parked and approached the door warily, then knocked loudly. A sleepy, bed head ridden Kai answered the door, not looking happy to be alive at the current hour.

“Good morning,” Jinora greeted him in a deadpan voice, going ahead and letting herself in since it seemed like he would not be ready within the next couple of minutes. Looking around, the apartment seemed completely deserted.

“Where are Mako and Bolin at?”

“Bolin stayed at his girlfriend’s house and Mako is busy being a workaholic. He decided to sleep at work when I let him know I had a ride to school. You know how he gets when he really gets into a case.”

“Huh... Of course that sounds about right.”

She sat down at the counter as Kai drifted back into the apartment to finish getting ready. She checked the clock. It was only 6:37 AM, so it was still forgivable that he wasn’t quite ready. She would let him off the hook this time. She took out her protein bar and started taking small bites. Even though she had been awake for a long time, she still wasn’t that hungry, but she knew she should eat or she would regret it later.

Kai came back, this time with no bedhead, but still not looking too chipper to be awake. He was wearing ripped skinny jeans (again) with a hoodie (again).

“Wow, are you a cartoon character? I swear I see you wearing the same outfits every day.”

“Wow, isn’t it a little too early to be coming for my life? I just like skinny jeans and hoodies. It’s my aesthetic. Chill.”

“Your aesthetic,” she deadpanned. “It’s ok Kai, you can admit you have no sense of fashion. I won’t judge you too hard. I mean, you were raised by Mako, so it only makes sense you have no taste in clothes.”

Kai cracked a smile at that comment before shaking his head and swinging his backpack onto his shoulders. “I can’t believe I never knew you were a smartass this whole time. You had me fooled. Thinking you were just a snobby rich girl turns out, but it turns out you’re a sassy snobby rich girl.”

Jinora scoffed at this. “Whatever, asshole, are you ready? Let’s head out.”

Kai answered her question by opening the door and motioning his arm. “After you, my lady.”

Jinora glared at him. “Please never say that again. I think I threw up a bit in my mouth.”

“What? I am just warming up. Got to sell the act, you know. Everything I do is for you!”

She could tell by the mischievous look in his eye he was purposefully trying to set her off, so she responded the only way she could.

“I appreciate that, sweetie.” She brushed his arm with her hand as she walked past him out the door.

Kai looked annoyed as he locked the door behind him and followed her to the car. She was getting better at playing the game. She did hate losing, so it was only natural she hit him back with everything he was dishing out at her. They both hopped into the car. She once again reluctantly handed off the aux cord to him. Since he was the one that was half-asleep, he probably needed it more than her. This time she found Megolavania blasting through her car.

“Seriously? I swear I can’t tell if you’re being ironic or if this is really your taste in music.”

Kai smirked. “What? This helps me wake up. I am trying to hype myself up for all the running I am about to be doing.”

“Ugh. Anyway, don’t forget to hold my hand when we get out of the car. I will walk you to the track.”

“Wow, Jinnie, you’re such a thoughtful girlfriend.”

Even though it was too early for many people to be at school, Jinora could feel her heart race as she got out of the car. She honestly had zero experience in dating, and she could feel the butterflies churning in her stomach. This was her punishment for deciding to be rebellious. It wasn’t too late to turn back now, right? Before her thoughts could start spiraling too much more out of control, she felt Kai’s fingers interlace with hers. His hands were slightly callused and significantly warmer than her own hands. Looking down at their interlocked fingers, she saw his hands were so much larger than hers, yet they fit together so nicely. This made her confidence go up. She could do this, probably. They started heading towards the track hand in hand, a faint flush covering Jinora’s face.

“Wait a second, did you seriously not eat any breakfast before this?” Jinora questioned. She realized she never saw him eat anything, and he was about to be running for the next thirty plus minutes.

“Aw Jinnie, are you concerned about me?” Kai cooed.

“Yes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after all,” Jinora countered, reverting back to her deadpan voice.

Kai scoffed. “Well, it’s better for everyone if I don’t eat breakfast yet, or I will just throw it back up on the track. I learned that lesson the hard way. It has happened so many times, no one on the team will let it go! They all call me barf boy.”

Jinora snickered at this. She was beginning to feel more comfortable, and holding his hand was actually quite nice. “I will have to remember that one, barf boy.”

“You know, I am not sure why I willingly gave you that information. Should have known it would immediately bite me in the ass.”

They were basically on the track now. They slowly approached the changing room. Jinora surveyed around a large majority of the track team, was already here and watching them inquisitively. So she decided to be spontaneous. Standing on her tippy toes, she pressed a chaste kiss onto his cheek.

“See you later, barf boy. Have fun at practice.” and with that Jinora walked away. The entire track team gawked at the situation, not seeming to believe their eyes.

“Bro what? Since when are you dating one of the most beautiful but intimidating girls in the school? I wouldn’t even touch her with a ten-foot pole! Tell us how you scored her!” One of the track guys exclaimed loudly.

Jinora scowled a bit at this. She knew she had such a reputation, but she didn’t realize how much it preceded her.

“Dude, she’s literally right there. Don’t talk about her like she’s a prize. We’re family friends. We just never hung out much at school because our schedules don’t line up. It’s not that big of a deal and if any of you guys actually talked to her, you would know how chill she is.” She heard Kai respond.

She smiled a bit. It felt nice to finally have someone playing in her court for once. She couldn’t remember the last time she had someone take up for her at school. Sure, she had acquaintances at school that asked her school-related questions sometimes, but no one that would take up for her. Granted, Kai was only playing his part of her boyfriend, he still could have had some gross misogynistic response or insinuated gross things about them. Maybe this wouldn’t all go to shit before the wedding even happened.

She continued her walk into her first period class so she could quietly work on homework or do something productive with her spare time. She opened up her school laptop and got to work. 

It felt like barely any time had passed when she looked up to see Kai standing in front of her desk.

“Can I help you?” Jinora inquired.

Chapter Text

“Can I help you?” Jinora inquired.

“Just being in your presence helps me, but I was wondering if you wanted to go to the vending machine with me?” Kai responded with his typical shit-eating grin.

She was pretty far ahead on her homework and if she was being honest with herself, she could probably use some social interaction. She closed her laptop and stood up from her desk, brushing off her pants. Then, she reached out and laced her fingers with Kai- it was already getting more natural to do.

“Guess it’s finally time for your breakfast then, barf boy?”

“You’re really not going to let me live this down, huh?”

“Nope! Lead the way, barf boy.” Jinora smirked at him.

Their walk to the vending machine was mainly silent. When they finally arrived, Kai looked around nervously, unconsciously swinging their interconnected hands back and forth, before finally speaking up.

“Actually, though, I wanted to say I’m sorry for what the guys on the track team said. Please don’t let their bullshit bother you.”

“Wow, am I dreaming? A completely serious apology from Kai?!” Jinora teased, reusing words that Kai had once said to her.

“I am being serious here!” Kai replied, his voice cracking slightly.

They laughed together. Jinora missed this. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a friend her own age with all the traveling they did and with her dad’s overprotectiveness. It seemed like the only friends she could vividly remember were her imaginary ones. Wait, friend? Was that what she and Kai were becoming? He still had some asshole tendencies, not to mention sticky fingers, but so far he had done nothing to break her trust and had been pretty nice to her. She decided to put a bookmark on that thought for later.

“Kai, you don’t have to apologize to me about something your teammates said. I know I have that kind of reputation at school, anyway. I just hope you are ready to be harassed by a lot of shocked people.”

Kai scowled, looking down. “Right, of course. Can’t say I will be having many people harass me though, since my reputation also precedes me. I mean, not many people want to be up close and personal with a well-known pickpocket.”

He let go of her hand and keyed in the number to whatever snack he was about to pretend was breakfast, while fishing out change from his pocket with his other hand. Then, he retrieved a giant iced cinnamon roll from the vending machine.

“Well, I guess we really do make a perfect couple then? Two school outcasts together, right?” Jinora gave him a wry smile.

She made a pact with herself that she would lay off the judgemental jabs about his thieving, since he actually looked kind of upset. She couldn’t help but to think there might be some kind of explanation for his strange tendencies that she wasn’t seeing yet. After all, he did have somewhat of a point. She grew up never having to worry about money, and she couldn’t imagine what he might have gone through before he met Mako and Bolin, and what kind of trauma could still be haunting him.

Kai started unwrapping his giant diabetes-looking cinnamon roll. Jinora took this opportunity to change the mood around by making fun of Kai, but this time in a friendly way.

“That’s seriously your breakfast? I don’t think that’s the kind of food you’re supposed to eat after an intense cardio workout… Where is the protein?”

“Awww babe, are you worried about me?” Kai shot back immediately, giving her his signature smirk.

That was the only push he seemed to need to get out of pouting and back to his usual asshole self. He grabbed her hand, lacing their fingers, and started walking back toward her class. This time they were having to swerve around some people- it was getting close to the last bell and hallway traffic was at a maximum. She had never considered the inconvenience of holding someone’s hand in a situation like this, but the combined force of the social outcast was enough to keep people from running into them. All the meanwhile, Kai was aggressively eating his cinnamon roll. He stuffed the last bit of it in his mouth before they even arrived back to her class.

“So I will see you at lunch, right? Where I will hopefully see you eat some kind of food of substance and not just a giant wheel of sugar?” Jinora inquired. She liked to have a plan, and they still hadn’t seemed to get any of their fake dating plan together. It was driving her insane, and she knew for the sake of the charade and her own sanity they needed to get something in order.

“We shall see what the future holds...” Kai laughed a bit. “Let’s eat lunch outside in the courtyard, ok?”

Jinora agreed. When they arrived at her class, Kai gave her a big hug she was not expecting, almost making her fall over. It took everything in her not to squeal at her sudden loss of balance. She had no option but to lean into him, wrapping her arms around him, to avoid falling over. It took her a second before she pulled back and wacked his arm, but was lacking in force. He was lucky there was an audience or she might have actually come for his life.

“Be careful Kai! You almost made me fall over!” Jinora was genuinely annoyed and surprised.

She guessed this was his payback for her surprise kiss, but this was way more intimate than a quick cheek kiss in her opinion. His whole body pressed into hers. Nothing about this was chaste. She probably deserved that for being so spontaneous and treading in territory outside what they discussed.

At this point, they had captured a lot of her class’s attention. It was almost time for the final bell to ring, so most of her classmates were already in class as well as the teacher. They all appeared to be around as shocked as the track team, except this time no one dared to ask Jinora or Kai about it since all the honors class students were afraid of Kai and his bad boy streak and intimidated by Jinora and her perfect grades and her father’s reputation. The teacher, Mrs. Huo-Ting, was brave enough to shoot a piercing warning glare in their direction.

Kai ignored all the looks though and gave Jinora a playful salute before fast walking out of the class and in the direction of his own class. Jinora sat back down at her desk, pretending as if nothing unusual had happened, and went on with her morning.

Jinora was peacefully sitting under the shade of a tree in the courtyard, reading her book while eating her lunch, a bento box. She peered up just in time to see a lost-looking Kai wandering through the courtyard. She waved him over and he immediately perked up after sighting her. Kai sat down next to her and pulled out his own bento box.

“Hey look, we match! Couple goals!!” Kai screeched obnoxiously . Jinora took this opportunity to set down her book. She had a feeling she would not have a chance to read it during lunch with Kai’s shenanigans.

Jinora rolled her eyes at his antics, but continued the conversation with him regardless. “You’re so obnoxious, I swear. Who made yours? I thought no one was at your house this morning.”

“Mako made it before he left to live at work. Don’t tell anyone, but he’s secretly the doting mother type behind that stoic mask.”

Kai was curiously peering into her bento box, carefully analyzing the contents (aka plotting which food he was going to steal from hers). “Wait a second… You’re vegetarian?! How did I not know this?”

Jinora snickered. “Probably because I am not vegan, so I don’t feel the need to announce it to the world. Honestly, somehow, I am not surprised Mako is the doting mom type. I mean, he did have to raise you and Bolin, the world’s two biggest troublemakers.”

“Oh, come on, I am not that bad. Unlike Bolin, at least I can keep a job for more than five minutes.” Kai argued. He did have a point there considering Bolin went from professional athlete to soap opera star to disaster relief worker to cop, but it was obvious he was trying to pull a red herring on her.

“Bruh… you’re literally the one known at this school for pickpocketing. Is how we met not ringing any bells for you?”

“Whelp, if I got the world’s most proper goody-two-shoes bruhing me, it’s probably time to admit I am in the wrong.” Kai rubbed the back of his neck, smiling awkwardly in her direction. His cheeks were puffed out thanks to his mouth full of food.

“Ugh, stop being disgusting and chew your food before talking. I feel like I am at the dinner table with Rohan and Meelo again.”

Kai swallowed his food before laughing off what she said. “Ok mom, sorry next time I won’t talk with my mouth full.”

“Why do I feel like I am just constantly rolling my eyes when I am with you?” Jinora glared in Kai’s direction while taking another bite of her lunch. While Kai was busy shoveling food into his mouth like a madman, she finished chewing her own food and spoke again. It was time to get down to business and stop goofing around.

“We should take this opportunity to think of our fake relationship backstory. You know my little sister Ikki loves to bombard people with questions, so we have to be ready.”

“I think you had to confess to me there’s just no other way it would be believable.” Kai commented, with minimal food in his mouth this time. Jinora’s eyebrows came together and her forehead wrinkled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s no way someone as high and mighty as yourself would ever lower your standards to say yes to someone like me.” Kai admitted.

“Oh whatever, you’re the one with all the game, not me. I have never even dated someone and I am positive that’s not the case for you.” Jinora objected.

“Is now a bad time to admit I don’t really have any experience either…. I mean, sure, girls and guys hit on me, but once they realize I am damaged goods with no money, they run for it. Though, one time I did kiss Skoochy for a dare, if that counts.”

Jinora facepalmed as Kai went back to shoveling food back into his mouth, looking a little more flustered than before.

“So what I am getting from this is we are both idiots and doomed at succeeding in this fake relationship.” Jinora deadpanned. She somberly continued to eat her bento box. Meanwhile, Kai finally took a breath from shoveling in his rice and slid closer to Jinora.

“Don’t worry babe, I got this. Just because I don’t have experience doesn’t mean I don’t got the moves. Flirty is my middle name, trust me.” Kai put his arm around Jinora smoothly and flipped his hair. He gave her his best shit-eating grin, which she couldn’t deny looked quite good on him.

“Ugh, I am not sure how I am supposed to feel about that... Regardless, that isn’t helping us come up with a backstory, remember my little sister is ruthless. Maybe we need to think of something we have in common that brought us together?” Jinora suggested as she shrugged the arm Kai had put around her off and turned away, hoping he wouldn’t notice her blush.

“We do have the community center in common.”

“Thanks, captain obvious. Wait, I think that gave me an idea. By chance, do you have any experience in martial arts?”

“I mean, I learned how to fight on the streets and I work with vicious little kids at Sky Zone. That’s basically the same, right?”

“Hmmm… ok, so here’s my idea. After our fight in front of the center, which multiple of my siblings were a witness to, we decided to duel it out. I completely crush you with my black belt in martial arts. We decide to call it a truce after our fight and you gain respect for me and realize we have a lot in common. Then, you ask me out to which I say yes.”

“I think you have been reading too many romance novels. But there is something sexy about a girl that can kick your ass.” Kai added a wink to the end of his sentence.

“Scratch that. I can just kick your ass right now. Then we’ll see if you still think it’s sexy. And hey, at least I am trying to come up with ideas, I mean we got to convince everyone we’re dating somehow. Before this we could barely talk to each other without coming for each other’s throats. We need some kind of explanation.”

“You got a point there, Jinnie. Still not convinced you could take me, though.” Kai taunted. She squirmed under his intense gaze before straightening her shoulders and gazing right into his eyes.

“If you want to fight me so badly and prove my narrative to be true, be my guest. You, me tonight at the community center at seven. I have to be there anyway to help my dad teach a class.” Jinora gave him her best impression of his shit-eating grin and flipped her hair.

“I guess I deserved that, huh? But I am not one to back down from a challenge you’re on!” Kai leaned in further, giving her his own signature smirk. He took this moment of closeness to pluck the scrunchy right out of her hair and put it on his wrist.

“Hey!!” Jinora cried indignantly, “I put time into creating the perfect messy bun. What the heck!”

“Don’t you know all the cool kids wear their girlfriend’s scrunchies?! How else will everyone know I am off the market?” Kai patted down her hair, messed up from his thieving.

“I am pretty sure the ‘cool kids’ do no such thing, but whatever, keep the scrunchy. I didn’t want to redo my hair, anyway.”

Jinora rolled her eyes for the umpteenth time, pushing away Kai to fix her own hair. Kai, taking the hint, backed up some to give her space to fix her hair and took the time to pull the scrunchy over this hoodie sleeve so it would be visible to everyone.

Chapter Text

The rest of the school day went about as expected, with lots of bugged eyes from students and faculty alike whenever Jinora and Kai walked through the hallways hand in hand. Thankfully, they had temporarily called a truce on unexpected acts of public affection, and the day passed as smoothly as it could for someone in five AP classes.

After their last class of the day, they walked to Jinora’s car, still holding hands.

“Wow! We did it. We made it a whole school day without murdering each other!” Kai announced, sounding genuinely surprised and excited.

“Did you want to say that a little louder? I don’t think all the people around us quite heard that.” Jinora retorted, sending him a look, before releasing his hand to fish for her car keys.

Finally, finding her keys hidden in the depths of her backpack, she unlocked the car doors and climbed in. Kai hopped into the passenger seat and grabbed the aux cord without even waiting for permission. Jinora felt her eye already beginning to twitch at the thought of whatever questionable music he was going to annoy her with next. She took a deep breath, reminding herself that Kai was the one doing her a huge favor, so sharing her aux cord wouldn’t be the end of the world. Kai gave Jinora what she would call a gremlin smile, before blasting “Super Bass” by Nicki Minaj.

“I swear you’re doing this on purpose. There’s no way this is actually your taste in music!”

“What? It was a hard day at school, no better way to fix that than by listening to a bop.”

Her fists clenched the steer wheel tightly. “You’re right. Thanks for sharing this bop with me.” She grumbled, gritting her teeth as she focused on driving.

It was better to just keep her mouth shut at this point. If she admitted how annoyed she was, then she would be letting him win anyway. The drive continued with a playlist that seemed specifically catered towards all of her least favorite songs that were the most overplayed. Finally, she dropped Kai off at his apartment and got the aux cord all to herself so she could go back to listening to musicals.

Jinora got home and began her homework on autopilot. It was better to start now before Ikki got home from cheerleading practice and wreaked havoc through the house. Then, when it was about time for her to leave for the community center, she carefully tied her hair into two buns, a style her younger sister wore often. It helped keep all the hair out of her face better than a ponytail and it was a pretty cute style, even if her sister wore it to death. She decided to put on a baggy tank top and shorts for this class since it required more movement than the typical classes she helped host, plus she had her supposed duel with Kai after.

She was teaching with her dad about balance and meditation tonight- basically a yoga class, but with more focus on anger management. Thankfully, Kai was not in this class, and it passed by pretty quickly. She spent most of the time playing good cop to the bad cop attitude her dad was having- it must have been another stressful day at work. After class let out, she smoothly escaped her dad, who was busy reprimanding to the students after class, and went searching for Kai. She was not sure how serious he had been about challenging her to a match, but she wouldn’t miss an opportunity to take his ego down a couple of pegs.

She walked into the lobby and saw Korra, who mainly taught more physical, self-defense type classes at the center and was a longtime friend of her family- like the older sister she never had. She was wearing a sports bra with high-waisted leggings that shouted off her physique nicely. Something Tenzin would never allow her to wear anytime in the foreseeable future, not that she minded too much; she was pretty self-conscious and preferred baggy clothing.

“Heyyyyy Jinora!!” Korra called out. She wrapped a sweaty arm around Jinora’s shoulders, pulling her closer to use Jinora as her personal towel. “What brings you here?”

“Ugh, why are you like this?” Jinora grumbled, pushing Korra off of her and dusting off her clothes. “I am actually looking for Kai. Have you seen him?”

“Oh Kai, huh?” Korra cooed while wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. “I always thought you two would be good for each other. I just saw him walk down that hallway.”

“Thanks.” She walked off down the hallway Korra mentioned before she could tease her anymore or use her as a towel again.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Tenzin!” Korra shouted down the hallway.

Talk about being subtle, Jinora thought as she walked down the hallway. She was pretty sure almost everyone in the building heard Korra shout that, not that she was particularly trying to keep it a secret. That stunt reminded her of Kai’s inability to be subtle earlier that day. She shuddered at the thought of how much they would tease her together, but Korra was a busy person. Working at the community center was one of her many jobs. So, the possibility of them being together in one spot was pretty low, anyway. Her train of thought ended when she spotted Kai in front of one of the training rooms. He was wearing a simple pair of sweatpants paired with a pullover and the scrunchie he had stolen from her earlier. 

“Nice buns.” Kai winked at her.

“You better hope you’re referring to my hair.” Jinora snorted. She hated that she thought that was funny.

They both entered the training room. Most of the floor was covered in padded mats that had a square taped in the center, and there were a few punching bags in the corner of the room. It was perfect for the showdown they had planned.

“So, in a typical martial arts tournament, the match lasts two minutes and during this time competitors can score points in a variety of ways. The goal is to reach seven points first, but the competitor has to win by at least two points. Any legal hand techniques are one point, any legal kicks are two points, any legal jump spin kicks to the head are three points. If the competitor steps out of bounds in an attempt to avoid an opponent, the opponent will gain a point. In addition, if the competitor is hit out of bounds by the opponent with a legal hit, then the opponent will gain an extra point in addition to whatever points they gain from the hit. If the-”

“Ok, ok.” Kai interrupted her midway through her lecture, holding up a finger to a very offended looking Jinora. “I get it. Martial arts has a lot of rules. How about the first out of bounds or to hit the floor wins?”

“Hmmm... ok if you say so.” Jinora smirked.

“Alright, let’s get down to business.”

“To defeat the Huns?” Jinora added. They both laughed as they walked over to the mats. Jinora placed Kai so they would be standing six feet apart, like they would in an actual martial arts match.

“Since you’re the rookie, I will let you have the first move.”

Kai immediately rushed towards Jinora, trying to use his speed to his advantage. However, she swiftly dodged to the side while sticking out her foot, letting Kai’s momentum be his own doom. He immediately face planted on the floor.

“Well, looks like I am the winner, and I didn’t even have to pull out any of my moves. What a shame I thought this might be more of a challenge.” Jinora gloated.

Kai groaned as he flipped over. “How bout best two out of three? I just wasn’t warmed up yet.”

“If you insist.” Jinora helped Kai up, before once again placing Kai in the correct spot. She then assumed position and gestured for Kai to make the first move again.

This time, they began by circling each other. Then Kai crotched down and suddenly sent out a quick low-kick. He was so tall he didn’t even have to be that close to reach her with his leg. Although she was surprised by this change of pace, she easily jumped over the kick to avoid it, before sending a kick of her own. Kai tumbled out of the way before sending a round of punches that all hit thin air. Jinora’s specialty was in Ba Gua, which included using quick directional changes to confuse and dodge the opponent. This technique was working quite well on Kai too, but she could tell he was starting to warm up to her current dodging pattern. He definitely possessed a talent that even trained opponents she faced didn’t have. He was very on guard, and it would be hard for her to make a move. Therefore, she continued to let him tire himself out by letting him throw hits. Then, when he was going for a more powerful hit, she dove between his legs. As he turned around to face her once more, she tripped him, making him face plant once more.

“Not too bad for a rookie. Are you sure you’ve never been trained in martial arts? You lasted longer than some of my trained opponents did!” Jinora exclaimed, honestly impressed with his skill set.

Instead of responding to her question, Kai retorted, “What is with you and making me face plant?”

“It’s not my fault you were off balance. I was just using it to my advantage.” Jinora replied innocently.

As she started to walk off the mat, a hand suddenly reached out and pulled her down before she had a chance to react, making her face plant as well.

He definitely had the weight and strength advantage over her, which is why she settled for tripping him—using his own weight against him. But in the same way, she could be pulled down by him easily when he got a hold of her since she was way lighter. In an actual tournament, this wouldn’t be a problem since competitors are divided into classes by weight. This is why she made sure he never touched her during their match- she knew that would have given him an upper hand.

Kai rolled over to face her. “Not as fun when you’re the one face planting, huh?” He gave a full teeth smile.

Jinora rolled over onto him and pinned him into a place in a way that he would find slightly painful. “Nobody likes a sore loser, Kai.”

“Ouch! Ok, ok. I get it!!”

Ikki chose this moment to slam open the door.

“JINORA DAD TOLD ME TO—” Upon noticing Kai and Jinora’s questionable position, her jaw dropped to the floor. Unfortunately, this silence didn’t last for long. “JINORA DO YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND?!”

Jinora hastily scrambled off of Kai as he laughed at the situation. Although this would have been a nightmare if they were actually dating, this might be a perfect situation to manipulate to make their fake dating seem real. Jinora clamped a hand over Ikki’s mouth before she could shout anything else or ask any more questions.

“Shush Ikki! Dad doesn’t know yet! It’s a secret and I would appreciate it if you would not inform half the world with your screeching!” Jinora felt an evil smile forming under her hand. She slowly lifted her hand off of Ikki’s mouth.

“Oh~ Jinora’s going to be in so much trouble~”

“No, I am not, because you’re not going to tell. Dad and I drove in separate cars here. So, what if I take you to Smoothie King and buy you an extra, extra large smoothie for the price of your silence?”

“Only if you answer all my questions on the way there!”

“Deal! I guess I will see you later, Kai?” Jinora looked over her shoulder and tried to communicate her thoughts using facial expressions where Ikki couldn’t see.

Kai stood up off the mat and gave Jinora a, thankfully, quick hug. “Well, I guess this is my cue to leave. See you later, Jinnie.” He gave them a quick salute that was paired with a big smile, before running off. Jinora sighed in relief. Looked like her plan might actually work. Plus, she had safely dodged having to answer whatever weird questions Ikki might have asked them. She couldn’t deal with that in front of Kai yet. That would be way too embarrassing.

“Soooooooo… How did you two meet? When did you decide to get together? Have you kissed yet? Oh my gosh, does Meelo know yet?? Am I the first to find out?! Dad is seriously going to kill you! Do you think that means I will be his favorite?”

“Ikki- mom and dad don’t play favorites, they love us all equally. Now, could you please ask questions one at a time?”

“Sounds like something the favorite would say,” Ikki grumbled.

“What was that?” Jinora snapped back.

“Nothing I just said. How did you guys meet again? I bet it was romantic!”

“Not really. I mean, I knew him because he went to the same school as me and had to take remedial classes at the center sometimes.”

“Ooooohhhh!!! Looks like Jinora is in love with a troublemaker~ Should have known you were only into bad boys with all the romance novels you read!”

“Can it Ikki! I won’t answer your questions if you’re going to make fun of me!”

“Ugh, fine! You’re so unfair sometimes, I swear! Ok, well, if he’s such a troublemaker, how did you guys even end up together?”

“Well, actually, he had caught my eye a while back. Since he is my age and lives with Mako and Bolin, I was always curious about him. I guess we grew closer together since he’s around the community center and school. Then, he asked me out, and I said yes. Bam! End of story. Nothing too exciting” Jinora could feel the sweat dropping for this one. This is what she gets for never finalizing the get together story with Kai.

“Hmmmm… Then what in the world were you guys doing today in the training room?? Oh my gosh... Is that your secret make out location?!”

Even though they weren’t dating, Jinora’s face set aflame after this line of questioning. “Ikki!! You can’t just ask someone a question like that!” Jinora screeched. “Besides, he challenged me to a duel because he tried to tell me he has more skill than me, even though I have a black belt. I was only putting him in his place.”

“Wow, Jinora, you don’t have to make up such lame excuses. I know you just went somewhere where you guys thought no one would find you~~”

Thankfully, at this point, they were pulling in at Smoothie King, so Jinora had an out for this line of questioning that was quickly headed south.

“Come on, let’s go order your smoothie so we can head home. I would like to take a shower before dinner, preferably.”

“Ugh! Fine!”

By the time they got back to the car with the jumbo smoothie, Ikki had already forgotten about her last questions and was drinking her smoothie silently. Maybe she should use this tactic to shut up Ikki more often. Tragically, the silence didn’t last long enough for them to make it home.

“So, when are you going to tell mom and dad, huh? Why are you keeping it a secret?”

“Well, you know how dad is. He’s very overprotective. I am going to tell him soon though, I just wanted to date Kai peacefully for two seconds before dad starts breathing down my neck about it.” Honestly, that much wasn’t even a lie. If by some miracle she did end up dating somebody for real, she definitely wouldn’t want her dad to immediately scare them off.

“Wow, I can’t believe Jinora, of all people, is making a terrible mistake like this!” Ikki remarked cheerfully, as if she wasn’t sitting right next to her in an enclosed space, with no way to escape.

“I am going to take your smoothie and chunk it out the window.”

Ikki settled for pouting while drinking her smoothie for the rest of the drive home.

Jinora made sure to take an extra-long shower before dinner, to give her plan more hope of working out. As she walked downstairs to join her family, she could already feel her dad’s stern glare on her for being late to the table. She quickly fixed her plate and sat down.

Before she could even pick up her chopsticks, Ikki announced, “JINORA GOT A BOYFRIEND AND SHE TRIED TO BRIBE ME TO BEING SILENT WITH A SMOOTHIE!!!”

Chapter Text

Tenzin sighed tiredly as he slumped into his chair at the dinner table. This whole vice president endeavor was more socializing than he was expecting. He had been prepared to handle Zhu Li’s questions about the expectations and hardships of running the campaign. What he hadn’t been counting on was Varrick’s insistence that the pair should count his rock collection by hand because he had sworn there was one extra in the case and clearly one of the rocks had achieved some sort of self-replicating capability. Turns out a pebble had managed to get thrown in with the various rocks.

“What a day,” Tenzin muttered to himself, “I’m glad it’s finally over.”

His eyes widened. Why did he say that? He knew better than to say that.

“What have I done!?”

“JINORA GOT A BOYFRIEND AND SHE TRIED TO BRIBE ME TO BEING SILENT WITH A SMOOTHIE!!!” Ikki bounced excitedly, “So I saw them together and it was getting really intense and then they saw me come in and were like ‘oh no Ikki’ and I was like ‘Are you two dating?!~~ Omg does dad know? Dad doesn’t know!!’”

For a moment, everyone at the table went completely silent. Then as expected, all hell broke loose.

Somehow, exactly what Jinora planned had come true. She knew if she didn’t bribe Ikki, it would be suspicious. Therefore, it only made sense to try to bribe her in a one-off sort of way so Ikki would have no motivation to keep the secret. Then Ikki would tell the family in a way that would make them all think Jinora was really dating someone. So really, Ikki was the one doing her the favor at the low, low price of one smoothie. Jinora put on her best poker face to cover the smirk that was itching its way on her face. She tuned back into family freaking out just in time to hear the only person whose opinion mattered.

“Is it true, Jinora?” Tenzin asked calmly. Jinora knew he was anything but by the redness in his face and the slight twitch of his eye.

Jinora opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by more of Ikki’s shouting. “YES IT’S TRUE, DAD! I CAUGHT THEM MAKING OUT IN ONE OF THE TRAINING ROOMS! Are you not listening to what I am saying?!?”

Well- maybe not all according to plan.

“We weren’t making out, Ikki!” Jinora snarled back, pointing her chopsticks menacingly at her sister. The heat began to crawl on to her face, and just when she thought she had the upper hand.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” Meelo started cheering. Rohan joined in with Meelo, also wanting to be included in the festivities, even though there was no way his five-year-old brain could understand what exactly was going on.

“OK! That’s enough everybody! Meelo, Rohan, stop egging your sisters on. Ikki, give Jinora a chance to tell her side of the story and Jinora, be nice to your sister.” Pema cut in, effectively silencing everyone.

“Well…” Jinora started, taking a deep breath. Time for her first boss battle. “It’s true I have a boyfriend, but we weren’t making out!! He didn’t believe I had a black belt in martial arts and challenged me to a duel, so I knocked his ego down a couple of pegs. Then he was mad and tripped me, and that’s when I fell on top of him and Ikki walked in, I swear!” Jinora decided it was probably for the best to omit the part that she was the one who pinned him down and didn’t actually trip onto him. She was internally cursing Kai for manifesting this into existence at lunch earlier that day.

Ikki opened her mouth to refute or tease Jinora some more, but was interrupted by her dad, surprisingly. “That’s my girl!” Tenzin blurted out, before suddenly clearing his throat and snapping back to his angry face. “I mean Jinora, this is ridiculous. What do you mean you have a boyfriend? You’re way too young to be dating anyone!”

Ikki was sending her smug looks from across the table and stuck out her tongue. “Looks like I am the favorite child now,” she mouthed in Jinora’s direction. She couldn’t even be that mad though, because she was so relieved no one questioned validity of her sparring story.

“Dad, I am sixteen and I know you started dating way younger than me. Gran Gran told me so! And don’t worry, I am dating someone you’re already well-acquainted with.” Jinora was having way too much fun with this. She smirked as she dropped the final blow. “I am dating Kai, Mako and Bolin’s little brother.”

“KAI?!” Tenzin screeched, flinging rice across the table in the process. “You really want your first significant other to be a liar and a thief?”

“Dad, quit being so overdramatic. You should know firsthand how much Kai has grown since then, and isn’t the motto of the community center to turn a new leaf and start anew? If you think Kai isn’t right for me because of his past, then you are practically saying you don’t believe in anything the community center stands for.”

Jinora was struggling to keep her serious composure. This was going more perfectly than she had ever hoped and she had cornered her dad using the same values he lives by. She wondered why she had never tried rebelling like this before. She felt invincible. Nothing was more satisfying than destroying people with their own logic.

Tenzin opened his mouth, then closed it. She could see the veins starting to pop out on his head, too. While he was stunned and Ikki was still quiet, she took her opportunity to continue onwards.

“Anyway, dad, if I remember correctly, you said I could have a plus one to the wedding, and so I would like to bring Kai! Isn’t that so perfect since we all already know him!” Jinora feigned innocence.

Rohan and Meelo took this time of Tenzin opening and closing his mouth again to start cheering.

“I can’t wait to whip this soldier into shape! I WANT TO SEE THE WHITES OF HIS EYES!” Meelo screeched, as Rohan continued to cheer in the background. Nothing seemed to unite the two better than the thought of tormenting someone else, apparently.

Although it sounded much like a threat, Jinora knew this was practically a glowing seal of approval from Meelo. She didn’t realize Kai had made such a good impression on her siblings. Maybe she had also been guilty of holding his past actions against him, like her dad was currently.

“Didn’t Kai just recently get caught by Mako pick-pocketing, like last week? Sounds like he’s still a bad boy to me~” Ikki pointed out.

“Shut it, Ikki. You wouldn’t understand the sort of things Kai has gone through that makes him act like that. Unlike you, I was actually at one of his remediation courses, teaching it, and he is really making an effort to be better. So you have no right to judge him!” Jinora snapped back defensively.

“Ooooohh~ excuse me Jinora! I wasn’t doubting his progress. I was only asking a question! I guess you’re really in love~” Ikki responded.

Jinora was really ready to throttle her little sister, if it weren’t for the fact she was currently helping her sell the act. Ikki was lucky she had wanted her to admit they were dating, or Jinora might have jumped over the table at her already. Thirteen-year-olds were truly a force to be reckoned with.

“Well sweetie, I am glad you have found someone. We would love to have him join us on Ember Island for Varrick and Zhu Li’s wedding! Right, Tenzin?” Pema prompted.

“Yes, honey.” Tenzin agreed reluctantly. “But don’t think you guys are going to get away with any funny business! I will put Meelo in charge of making sure Kai stays in the room with him, while you and Ikki share a room.”

“Of course, dad. Wouldn’t dream of it.” Jinora said in a dry voice.

“Wait... That’s so unfair!! How come Jinora gets to bring her boyfriend, but I am not allowed to bring any friends?!” Ikki cried out.

Jinora should have seen this coming. Then again, that was completely on her dad for saying she could bring someone to the wedding. Jinora sipped her water as she waited for this drama to go down. She was glad the heat was off of her for now.

Before her dad could say anything too rash, her mom swooped in. “Maybe when you’re older, remember, this is a really important event for your dad. I am sure you will make friends when you get there, though!”

Ikki just pouted in response, but didn’t argue. They were all going to survive dinner, after all. Kai definitely had some fun in store for him though, it seemed like Meelo was already planning his all night stakeout to make sure Kai never left the room.

“And Jinora, why don’t you invite Kai over for dinner sometime before the wedding? We would all love to get to know him some more!” Pema offered, clearly trying to change topics back away from Ikki.

“Sure, I am sure that will be fine.” Jinora replied.

It was not fine, actually. Hopefully, her mom’s cooking would be enough to bribe Kai over to their house. Plus, he sort of owed her regardless, since he was the one that tripped her and led them to being caught by Ikki in a strange position.

When she got back to her room after dinner, she already had a text message waiting for her on her phone. 

Kai 💚 your boytoy: did u survive tonight?

Jinora: Yes, and I had to make up a get together story on the spot because SOMEONE wouldn’t help me come up with one at lunch today. 🙄

Kai 💚 your boytoy: im sorry will u ever forgive me 👉👈

Jinora: You’re insufferable. In better news, I officially secured your spot in my family vacation in the most hilarious way possible. I think my dad almost popped a few veins in his forehead along the way. But bad news again, my mom invited you to a family dinner.

Kai 💚 your boytoy: i c. so they bought we were dating just like that 👀

Jinora: Well… actually Ikki accused us of making out in the training room together. You have no idea how much suffering you caused me because you thought it would be funny to trip me. Stop dodging the matter at hand, though! Can you come to family dinner or not?

Kai 💚 your boytoy: HAHAHAHHAHA ur sister is a riot! and yeah probs, free food im in.

Jinora: Which reminds me you STILL haven’t even told me which book your essay is over or given me the prompt. I might be smart, but I am not a minder reader! And if you think she is such a riot, you should try living with her for a week and then see how you feel.

Kai 💚 your boytoy: geez such the party pooper i will tell u the details about the essay at school tomorrow dont worry ;P

Jinora: Yay can’t wait. 🙄 Am I still picking you up tomorrow at 6:45?

Kai 💚 your boytoy: yes that would be great thx jinnie ❤

Jinora found herself rereading their conversation, smiling. Oh shit. Were they becoming friends for real? Leave it to her to choose someone so annoying and problematic for her first friend her own age. She hadn’t been lying when she had taken up for Kai. She really thought he was trying to be better, but he definitely still had some issues. Jinora sighed and looked at the clock, realizing it was getting late and she still had some homework to finish up. Ugh. This is why she preferred to be alone, fewer distractions. She couldn’t deny how nice it was to have someone there waiting for her at school though.

Chapter Text

It was finally Friday, but Jinora was feeling really on edge at school. At first, she and Kai had been playing up the part to spread the rumor on the off chance Principal Tarrlok would notice so he would report back to her dad. But now, she was almost positive he was keeping close tabs on their relationship by orders of her dad. She was glad she and Kai had planned ahead for this event because the amount of times they had run into Principal Tarrlok just going about their daily school activities was very suspicious. 

“How’s my favorite student?” Tarrlok greeted Jinora. 

“Kai.” He said with a more threatening tone. 

Speak of the devil, she thought, as she politely greeted him. Kai just nodded begrudgingly in his direction. She facepalmed as soon as he was out of sight, but what she really needed was a wall to hit her head against. This was so embarrassing, even though they weren’t actually dating. All she and Kai had done was hold hands or walk next to each other with the occasional hug at school since their cheek kiss fiasco from Tuesday. She suspected Kai was waiting for the best opportunity to get her when she least expected it, though so maybe she should be planning on surprising him when he least expected it.

Her train of thought was cut off when Kai began to speak. “You know what, Jinnie, I am sorry for ever judging you or doubting you. You really got it hard. Wasn’t that the third time we’ve seen Principal Tarrlok today? It’s not even lunch yet. I am itching to do something dumb to give that man a heart attack. Should I borrow his wallet again and place it somewhere in the school?” 

“Tempting, but no. We don’t need to tempt fate about your record. I wouldn’t want you to lose your job or be kicked off the track team. Plus, he’s really a pawn in my dad’s game. We have to keep our eyes on the prize.” Jinora responded, swinging their hands that were interlaced together.

“Ugh, always the voice of reason. Well, this is my class. See you at lunch, my beloved?” Kai threw in a wink.

“See you at lunch, sweetie.” Jinora responded without missing a beat.

Kai really seemed to have a thing for pulling random nicknames out of his ass. She couldn’t tell if he really liked nicknames or was trying to piss her off. Whatever it was, he had really done his research. It seemed like he always had a new one. Regardless, she always tried to hit him back with one because she hated nothing more than someone trying to outdo her. 

The weather was apparently out for them today, because it was too soggy for them to eat outside. They had to eat in the cafeteria, which wasn’t ideal because Jinora didn’t like loud or crowded places. Thanks to a mice infestation at the school, the places they were allowed to eat were the cafeteria or outside. Either that or face the wrath of a faculty if caught somewhere else. This was definitely a strange public school type phenomenon. 

“Alright, Kai, it’s time to get serious about this essay. You need to choose the prompt now, so I can uphold my end of the deal.” Jinora started. He had given her the rubric the other day, but they had continued to put off picking a prompt since Jinora had more important homework to think about, and Kai was doing whatever Kai does. 

“Chill, we still got like a month until that essay is due.” Kai lazily responded back, while shoveling food in his mouth- an occurrence she was used to at this point since he had done it everyday they had eaten lunch together so far. 

“Well, the wedding is only 3 weeks away, so hopefully this whole fiasco will be over then. Plus, I actually have time to do it now, so choose! Do you want your Lord of the Flies essay to be about how the book is a political allegory or about how the characters represent the id, ego, and superego? You’re the one who will be tested on this later, not me. So it’s important you choose the one you like.”

“Alright, alright, the Sigmund Freud one, I guess. Seems like it would be easier, anyway.” 

“Ok, sounds doable. You know, you’re so lucky your class reading is so short. Like that book is not even 200 pages. Meanwhile, I am reading Crime and Punishment for class and it’s well over 800 pages. And you want to know what was on the last quiz?! The teacher asked us what color the freaking curtains were in chapter fourteen. Like how am I supposed to know when this book is translated from Russian and we’re all reading different translations of the book? Well, I am sorry if the color in my book is slightly different from everyone else’s!” Jinora almost threw her chopsticks in the process of talking about how frustrated she was. It had been a long, stressful week, and it was feeling never ending.

“How are colors not the same? That doesn’t even make sense. But, I mean, that’s what you get for taking a bunch of AP classes. It seems like this is a self-inflicted pain.” Kai managed between bites, only spitting a few grains of rice in her direction in the process. 

Jinora wiped off the piece of rice that landed on her face- unphased from her long-term exposure to the terrible twosome that is Meelo and Rohan. “I don’t know! Why don’t you ask the translator, not me! And yeah, because I am sure my dad would just allow me to go to public school without making me take all the hardest classes offered.” 

“Wait, what do you mean?” 

“Oh, I mean, I was supposed to go to some snooty, expensive private school for celebrities’ kids and insanely smart people, but I convinced my dad to let me go to this public school instead. However, I have to take all the honors and AP classes to stay. I wanted to live a somewhat normal teenage life, at least. Not going too well obviously, since I have no friends still and this is junior year.” 

Kai had the decency to swallow his food this time before talking. “I feel that, as you can see, I don’t have any friends either. The people on the track team tolerate me at best and it’s only because I am not too bad, if I do say so myself.” Kai paused to give her his trademark smug smile before continuing. “Which reminds me, I have a track meet on Saturday, so I might be a little late to your family’s dinner. Not sure when it will be done and I want to shower and stuff before I have to face the wrath of your father.” 

“Yeah, that should be fine. I will just ask my mom to move dinner back or something and text you what she says.” 

“Aight, sounds like a plan.”

They both shoveled through their lunches quickly so they could hide out in the library for the rest of lunch away from the noise of the lunchroom, not to mention all the staring. The staring had not stopped since day one of their relationship. She never realized how infamous they both were until they started their charade and she had miscalculated that when she had formed her plan, but it didn’t change much other than the fact they were really glued to each other’s hips for the foreseeable future. She was getting more comfortable in Kai’s presence anyway, so it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Plus, it would probably be good for the wedding when they will really have to play it up in front of her dad. 

She casually reached over and stole back her scrunchie that Kai had been wearing on his wrist the past few days as a fashion accessory. She pulled her hair back into a low ponytail to keep it out of her face as she pulled out her laptop to go ahead and start the essay. 

“Ooooh, pulling your hair back into a ponytail? Going into full nerd mode, then?” Kai teased her. He sat next to her in the library, surprisingly being on task and reading Lord of the Flies.

“Ugh, you sound like Ikki when you start asking questions in a row like that. I still haven’t recovered from our ‘makeout session’ questioning. I hope you know I am not afraid to throw you under the bus at family dinner. You’ll be trapped by societal convention then, too.” 

“Ok sorry! Excuseeeee me, princess, for asking a mere two questions in a row. You look cute like that, though.” 

Jinora turned red at this compliment. She hated how easily she blushed. It always gave her away. She couldn’t help that Kai, a very attractive person by literally anyone’s standards, made her blush when complimented her. Even if she knew he was only doing it to get a rise out of her. 

“Quit trying to butter me up and get back to reading.” Jinora said lamely as her comeback and Kai just laughed at her obvious blush.

Chapter Text

Friday night family dinner was the last event Jinora had to survive before she could go to her room and be a blob on her bed. While there was a second of silence, Jinora decided to jump in with her inquiry. 

“Hey mom, Kai said he might be late to dinner tomorrow because he has a track meet, and he’s not sure what time his events will be over.” 

Tenzin took this opportunity to pipe in. “A track meet.... How lovely, wouldn’t you say Pema? Maybe we should all attend as a family. Then we can just have dinner with Kai afterwards. Wouldn’t that work out perfectly?” 

No, that in fact, would not work out perfectly , Jinora thought. She couldn’t believe her dad chose now of all time to be interested in Kai. Just a few nights ago, he was accusing her of throwing her life away by dating a riffraff. She could only assume his motives were not as admirable as he was making them seem. 

“Oooohhh~ a track meet sounds like fun! I can use all my cheerleading skills to cheer for Kai!” Ikki added. 

“And I can finally see this soldier's ability with my own two eyes!” Meelo exclaimed. Rohan cheered along with him.

This seriously could not be happening. Usually, no one agreed to things this easily. Jinora sighed quietly, accepting her fate silently as her mom checked over everyone’s schedules on her phone to see if it was a possibility.

“Would you look at that! Seems like we will all be able to attend Kai’s track meet tomorrow, as a family! Which events is he participating in Jinora?” Pema seemed genuinely happy. They hadn’t managed to attend an event together for a long time due to everyone’s crazy schedules- not even for Ikki’s cheer competitions or Meelo’s martials arts tournaments or Rohan’s gymnastic showcases.

“He’s in the 110-meter hurdles, the 400-meter hurdles, and the high jump. That’s going to take a while. Are you sure we should all go to these events?” Jinora was relieved that Kai had been talking nonstop about this event at school, so she actually knew the answer, since she originally didn’t plan on attending. 

“Yes sweetie, don’t worry about it. Your father really has time this weekend! And a great opportunity for us to cheer on your significant other and support him before we all go to the wedding together.” Pema declared, as if to comfort Jinora. Although she was worried about the amount of stress her dad was under, her own sanity was currently at the top of the list. 

“Great, I will tell Kai we’ll all be there to cheer him on, then.” Jinora said, forcing a smile. 

Jinora: So, I have some bad news. I told my mom you weren’t sure when your track events would be over and then my dad suggested my whole family go to the meet and then we can all come to my house to eat dinner afterwards. 🙄🙄

 

Kai 💚 your boy toy: really??  im not seeing any down sides here free food and watch your family embarrass you sounds gr8 to me! dont forget to cheer for me jinnie 😜

 

Jinora: You’re insufferable. Don’t worry, I am sure my family will be embarrassing enough that you will be embarrassed too. ❤ 

 

Kai 💚 your boy toy: i look forward to it! see you tomrrw ❤

Jinora rolled her eyes as she put down her phone. It felt like Kai was so unshakeable sometimes it was so unfair. Although neither of them had dating experience, it was clear Kai had more social experience. He was too good at schmoozing people sometimes, but hopefully this would come in handy at the track meet and dinner she was about to suffer through. 

Jinora woke up Saturday morning to an excited Ikki inviting herself right into Jinora’s room. 

“Yes, come right in.” Jinora said sarcastically. “What do you need this time? Or trying to find some more dirt on me to tell mom and dad? Sorry, but no stowaways in my room today.” She was playing up the part of angry sister about how easily Ikki had blurted out her ‘secret’ the other day, but she was really annoyed how quickly her sister had been to claim she and Kai were making out. 

“About that…. I actually wanted to say I was sorry about the other night... I was just so excited because you’ve never had a significant other before!!! I didn’t get why it had to be a secret from mom and dad. I was just trying to help you rip it off like a band aid and spread the joy of loooOOvvEEeeee.” Ikki jumped on to Jinora’s bed and sprawled out on top of her as she stretched out the last word. 

Jinora playfully pushed Ikki off the bed. “You’re lucky I am such a mature, nice, forgiving older sister. But seriously, next time you get in my business like that I won’t be happy,” She warned. Ikki was fortunate that Jinora had wanted her to blab to her parents, or there was no way she would have forgiven Ikki so easily.

“Hey! No need to push me off the bed! Anyway!! I made you a gift to guarantee your 100% forgiveness.” Ikki declared as she ran off down the hall. She came back holding a t-shirt that was blue, the same shade as their school color, with ‘YUE BAY HIGH GO KAI’ written in glitter letters on the front. On the back there was a semi decent drawing of the school mascot, a polar bear dog, in more glitter. 

“Wow… Ikki I didn’t expect something like this,” Jinora offered, trying to keep a happy expression on her face. It was a really cute and sweet gesture, but at the same time, what did she do to deserve this. Kai was seriously not going to let her live this one down. “Now I don’t have to decide what to wear today! Thanks, Ikki!” Jinora added, mainly just trying to hype herself up.

“But wait- there’s more! I made everyone a shirt so we can all be matching as a family at the game!!! Won’t that be so cute?!” 

“Ikki, it’s not a game, it's a track meet.” Jinora corrected. Internally, she was horrified at the aspect of wearing matching shirts with her family. The one time Ikki decided to not be a complete brat and try to make something up to her. She really did have the worst luck. 

“Same difference! Woo!! I can’t wait! I stayed up all night making these!” Ikki cheered. She was way too peppy for someone who stayed up all night when it was quite early in the morning. 

It was officially time for their whole family outing, and Jinora felt ridiculous. She was wearing her extra-large “GO KAI!” shirt tied in a knot paired with high waisted jean shorts and black high-top converse. Ikki had french braided her hair into two neat pigtails. Of course, she had insisted on adding bows to the end of her hair, and Jinora was regretting playing along with Ikki’s schemes. 

“I am taking my own car,” Jinora announced. At least this way no one could embarrass her on the way home with Kai from the track meet. 

“I call shotgun in Jinora’s car!” Ikki screeched. 

Ikki was dressed in her cheer uniform, but she had put her handmade shirt on top of her cheerleading top. Her hair was tied into a high ponytail with french braid accents, and her arms were full of pompoms. 

“I brought my extra ones just for you!! Now we can cheer together! Don’t worry I will teach you some cool moves that will definitely make Kai fall in love with you even more.” Ikki bounced over to Jinora’s car, carelessly tossing all the pompoms into the car.

“Ikki, that’s not how love works, he’s not just going to fall in love more because of a few cheerleading moves. That doesn’t even make sense.” Jinora corrected. 

“You don’t make sense!!” Ikki retorted back. 

Jinora decided to settle for an eye roll before turning her attention to driving. 

Jinora walked into the event, family in tow. There was quite a large gathering of people for a high school event in her opinion. Then again, she was only in the debate club which didn’t have a record for drawing in large crowds. Maybe if they wore the same uniforms as the track team they would. The boys wore light blue singlets with gray stripes on either side and dark gray short shorts. They encompassed all the school colors well and featured a small running polar bear dog on the back below the player’s last name. 

She spotted Kai warming up with the rest of the track team. This would be their first time interacting in front of her family, so she was ready to make a show. She ran over to him while shouting.

“KAI!!!” 

He turned around, his expression changing immediately to a shit eating grin after seeing her ridiculous get up. She didn’t bother slowing down and just ran straight into him, in an attempt to wipe the look off his face. He effortlessly caught her and spun her around in a circle obnoxiously. At least they were on the same page here. 

“Wow... I am digging the shirt, Jinnie! I didn’t expect you to go all out like this for me! It’s kind of embarrassing,” Kai teased as they broke apart. 

“Very funny,” Jinora then lowered her voice, “Ikki made it for me as an apology gift. Can you believe that?” 

Kai began laughing at her expense before exclaiming. “OH shit! Is that Tenzin!?”

Her dad was in hearing range just in time to hear Kai’s remark, of course. “That’s Mr. Gyatso to you, young man.” 

Kai lowered his head and pushed his hair to the side suavely before staring. “Hey… Mr. Gyatso. I didn’t expect to see you here.”  Kai attempted to put on his award-winning smile but sweat was obviously dripping down his face. 

“I told you my whole family would be here,” Jinora angrily whispered from behind him.

“Yeah, well your dad is basically a celebrity. I thought you meant just your mom and siblings!” Kai whispered back. 

Thankfully, Ikki finally pulled through with good timing and interrupted the tension between them. She shoved all the pompoms she was carrying into Tenzin’s arms and ran up to Kai to hug him.

“Kai~~ It’s so good to see you when you’re not making out with Jinora on the floor!” Ikki exclaimed loud enough for the general vicinity to hear. Her dad almost dropped all the pompoms he was holding at her remark.

Whelp, good Ikki moment ruined.  

Kai laughed easily at Ikki’s jab and patted her head, purposely messing up her nicely arranged bangs. “You’re too funny! I love the shirts you made. They look great on everyone! When I win an event, it will all be because you made these epic shirts.”

He then turned to greet the rest of her family. “Hi Mrs. Gyatso, Rohan, Meelo. Thank you all for coming out today” 

“Of course, Kai. You can just call me Pema. Good luck today! Our army will be cheering you on during your events!”  Seemed like her mom was the only one playing the part of the normal person in her family.

Before Meelo started his soldier spiel or someone else embarrassed her, Jinora decided to wrap it. She turned to Kai. It seemed he already had the same idea in mind. She went in for a hug, but at the same time he went in for a cheek kiss, making his lips brush dangerously close to hers. Her knee-jerk reaction was to immediately pull away, but she reeled herself back in. They were trapped by societal convention so she also gave him a chastise kiss on the cheek to make it seem more natural. Giving him a warning glare, she turned away and headed to the stands. Thankfully, her family followed her lead, settling for just wishing him good luck one last time. Jinora could feel her ears burning the whole way to the stands.

Jinora was starting to understand how Kai was allowed to stay on the track team despite his slight criminal record: he was just that good. His 110-meter hurdle event had already come and gone; the whole race only lasted under a minute. He smoked the competition and brought in first place by a one second margin. 

Now it was time for his 400-meter hurdle event. This one looked significantly more difficult. It still had only ten hurdles like the last race, but the distance looked killer. Kai was hopping around and stretching his legs to warm up for this event in his lane.

She couldn't deny how the track uniform complimented his body. The singlet highlighted his lean, muscular arms, and the short shorts drew attention to his thighs and calves. Jinora snapped out of her thirsty thoughts at the sound of the announcer. Kai was now getting into place on the starting block. 

BAM

The gun went off and the race was starting. He was already beginning to set a gap between himself and the other runners. She found herself cheering for Kai almost immediately. His success was so contagious, she waved her pompoms, even though she had not intended on using them. However, as someone raised in a large family, she forgot how loud her voice could be. Kai looked in her direction at her cheering and threw her a wink before his foot caught on a hurdle slamming it down into the ground and wrecking his speed in the process. 

"Oh, come on Kai you're better than that! You can still recover! GO!" Tenzin screamed in Kai’s direction. He immediately cleared his throat afterwards, and turned his head as if he could pretend he wasn’t invested in the race.

Regardless, Kai’s scuffle with the hurdle had only put him neck and neck with third place out of nine players. Kai managed to pull past third place just barely at the end of the race, just barely making it on the leaderboard. 

Not too long after, Kai ran into the stands where her family was situated. He immediately ran into her giving her a big hug. He nuzzled his face into her shirt, using her as a glorified towel.

“Seriously! I am not your towel!” 

“Really? I was just confused because your shirt had my name on it, so I thought it must be my towel.” 

Jinora laughed a bit as her family began to congratulate him. Some of the glitter from the shirt had gotten on his face just adding to his sparkle effect.

“It sucks you lost, Kai. At least you got a bronze medal for this event! I will cheer even harder for you at the next event!” Ikki babbled.

“Kai didn’t lose, Ikki. He still placed, which means his performance will still get points for his team.” Jinora argued. 

Before their argument could escalate, Meelo cut in. “We’ll get 'em next time chief. Can’t win them all. But next time if you’re going to get distracted by a lady, at least choose a beautiful one.” 

“Meelo! The only thing that is not beautiful is your attitude." her mom chatised. "Kai, you did amazing on both races. Don’t let a stumble get you down, you even had Tenzin cheering passionately for you.” 

Kai smiled easily in her direction and began conversing with her a bit about his performance and his upcoming event. He didn’t even falter at the questions Rohan, Ikki, and Meelo ruthlessly threw at him. Jinora was surprised to see how well he was fitting in with her family. Maybe dinner wouldn’t go so bad. 

Chapter Text

It was late in the evening by the time Kai’s track meet finished. Kai had changed into slightly nicer clothes (that didn’t include his signature hoodie surprisingly) after the meet ended. Now Jinora was in the process of driving them back to her house for family dinner fun times. She handed Kai the aux cord as she always did when they ride together, but this time he only played “Bring Me Back to Life” by Evanescence on repeat. It was halfway through the third play through when she finally broke the silence.

“I don’t understand why you are being all sad boy hours, when you placed in all your events. Stop being such a baby. I swear you are just trying to get on my nerves.” Jinora snapped.

Kai pointedly turned to look out the window and ignore her. She had been too harsh, she knew it, but listening to “Bring Me Back to Life” on loop was grinding her gears in a way only Kai could do. Could he not have chosen something less cringey?

“Ugh… Look, you did amazing today, and you had my dad cheering for you when he, no offense, doesn’t like you. Plus, your recovery was... wow!” 

Kai perked up at this. “You thought I was amazing?”

“Yes! So did everyone else in my family. Did you not hear them all fawning over you? Even Meelo complimented you- although it was a bit backhanded. That’s basically like receiving a gold medal from him. Seriously, I have no idea why you are pouting.”

“Thanks Jinora. You’re such a true homie.” Kai sent her a sincere smile- she could tell by the way the corners of his lips were upturned more than his typical smirk. Only Kai would look sincere when declaring they were officially homies, whatever that meant.

“Did you just refer to me by my full name…? Wait, we are homies now?” Jinora questioned, still confused on what homies might imply.

“No, wait, I will do you one better… We’re partners in action! I mean, we share a secret only the two of us know. It’s almost like we’re undercover agents or something,” Kai corrected. Jinora laughed at his dumb comment, but she was glad that her and Kai were officially friends. 

“So, were you really that sad about your placement? Or is there actually something wrong, partner in action.” Jinora pushed. At this point, he had stopped playing the Evanescence song, and “Oops! …I Did It Again” by Britney Spears on, so she felt it was safe enough to ask him a more serious question without angering him too much.

“It’s just Mako and Bolin didn’t show up to the track meet, and I’ve hardly seen them around anymore. I am feeling like I have run out of second chances, and that they’re mad at me for real after my latest fuck up.” Kai revealed.

“I mean, they are worried about you because you’re their brothers. I highly doubt they’re mad at you. They were probably busy today. You know how Mako gets when he’s trying to solve a case sometimes.” she assured him. Truthfully, she found it strange they weren't there since Mako gave her doting mother vibes. There was always a chance he had forgotten to tell them about the track meet in the first place or they had a misunderstanding.  

He shrugged in response, and Jinora thought it was a good time to quit while she was still ahead. He had just put the title friendship on their relationship, and she didn’t want to lose that five minutes into their new found comradery. They finally pulled up to her driveway. Her family's minivan was already in the garage. Her parents and siblings left as soon as Kai finished his high jump so they could get a head start on dinner. 

“We’re home!” Jinora announced, with Kai in tow. Meelo was already on the TV playing Fortnite and screaming at some poor, unfortunate soul. Rohan cheered him on, and Ikki reluctantly watched while looking at her phone. They had all changed out of their Kai memorabilia and were wearing their typical clothes.

“Ok, I am going to change real quick into some not Kai-themed clothes. Ikki, Meelo, Rohan, entertain Kai while I’m gone.” She commanded before immediately darting away. Whatever thoughts were plaguing Kai’s mind wouldn’t be there much longer with all the sibling shenanigans he was about to deal with. 

She returned downstairs now wearing a plaid tank top with an oversized knit cardigan on top with her same shorts as earlier. The scene of Kai and all her siblings playing Mario Kart welcomed her- well, she would hardly call Rohan a competitor, but it looked like he was having fun too. 

“Jinora, quick, distract Kai! He’s in first place! It’s so unfair!” Ikki complained loudly. 

Jinora laughed as she sauntered over to where Kai was sitting on the floor and wrapped her arms around him, using her oversized sweater to block his view. 

“Jinnie!!! How could you? I thought we had something special!” Kai called out dramatically before easily shrugging her off.

“You’re still in first place though.” Jinora deadpanned back. “Wow, you’re really ahead of everyone. Come on Meelo, I thought you were a pro at this game!” 

“Shut it Jinora! This is all just part of my plan. I’m temporarily letting him have first place!” Meelo argued back. 

“Right…” Jinora replied in a disbelieving tone. “Well, can I hop in the next round using half of someone’s Joy-Con? I need to show Kai who is really the boss around here.” 

Kai rounded the last corner of Yoshi’s Circuit, landing first place in the cup. “Heck ya!” Kai cheered. 

“Congratulations on defeating a bunch of kids. How does it feel?” Jinora sassed. Meelo screamed angrily over his loss, and Ikki pouted. Meanwhile, Rohan was driving through the course in the wrong direction still on his first lap, completely unfazed by his loss. 

“Feels great! Where is my victory smooch?” Kai asked, pulling Jinora down to be sitting next to him. She leaned in close enough that she could clearly see all his eyelashes.

“I am saving it for later tonight,” she countered easily. 

Kai immediately flustered at her comment. He was such a confident flirt until she said something flirty back. She couldn’t help using his weakness against him, and since he also enjoyed embarrassing her, it was only fair. She leaned back out of his personal space.

“Now give me half of your Joy-Con. I guess the two best players have to be nerfed so these babies have a chance of winning.” Jinora smirked and Kai and he sent her a smirk back. 

“Ugh, could you guys be any more disgusting? I think I threw up a bit in my mouth watching that exchange.” Ikki complained.

“Yeah, exchange your cooties somewhere else! I am here for victory!! Not cooties!” Meelo added, while Rohan started chanting, “No more cooties!”

“Ok, ok. We get it. Rohan, you can choose the course this time.” Jinora announced. She knew he would choose Rainbow Road because he thought driving off the course into space was hilarious. However, she was a pro at this track, unlike Ikki and Meelo, and could easily crush everyone.

“Rainbow Road!!” Rohan happily cheered, and everyone groaned in response. Jinora hid her smile with indifference. She was looking forward to showing off to Kai. 

The race started and Rohan immediately drove off the edge of the road, laughing maniacally. He was in a heavyweight car, so he took a NPC and Kai with him as collateral damage. Jinora also laughed, but only at Kai’s expense. 

“See you later, loser,” Jinora teased, as Kai pouted at his bad luck. With Kai out of the way, she easily slid past her siblings and the NPCs into first place. 

The key to winning Rainbow Road was being slow and steady at some spots because going slow was still faster than falling off the track all together. She was getting a good lead on everyone when a blue shell hit her and she fell into the space below.

“Are you kidding me!?” Jinora shouted. This time it was Kai who was laughing at her expense. “I hate you so much,” she added as she jabbed him in the side for good measure while the Lakitu still was putting her car back on the track.

At the end of the race, she and Kai were neck and neck for first. Meelo was fighting an NPC for fourth place, and Ikki was in eleventh place, with only Rohan behind her. The finish line was in sight, when by some stroke of luck Ikki scored a blue shell and successfully knocked Kai and Jinora off the road in one fellow swoop, letting an NPC take the gold. 

“The enemy of my enemy is a friend!” Ikki gleefully shouted as she stuck her tongue out at both of them. 

“Oh whatever, we still beat you!” Jinora retorted, sticking her tongue out at Ikki as well. 

Before Jinora could demand a rematch, her mom’s voice called out. “Dinner’s ready guys!”

They reluctantly put up all their controllers and strolled into the kitchen. Her mom had outdone herself as usual. She made stir-fried pea shoots with a side of rice and steam buns for dessert. Jinora happily sat down and began fixing her plate. Kai took the seat next to her, staring at the food quizzically. 

“What’s that?” He asked, pointing at the main dish.

“Dou miao!” Ikki exclaimed. 

“They are pea shoots with lilies,” Jinora explained, to make up for Ikki’s unhelpful answer. “You just have to try them- they are so good. It’s actually one of my favorite dishes.” 

“Well, if you like it, it must be good.” Kai reasoned, before scooping an ungodly amount on his plate. Meelo, of course, took this as a challenge and began scooping a lot of food onto his plate as well. Jinora casually reached over and took some off Meelo’s plate and put it on her own.

“Everything is not a competition you know.” Jinora advised. Ikki (for once) nodded along with her and followed in suit, taking some greens off his plate as well. Meelo growled in response, but made no move to stop them. 

Finally, they were all situated at the table. Jinora could feel the butterflies growing in her stomach and she wasn’t even the one about to be grilled. She already regretted taking extra food off of Meelo’s plate. 

“So, Kai, what are your intentions with my daughter?” Tenzin began. 

Jinora groaned. It felt like he was reading straight from the dialogue of a romance comedy. Maybe she should have helped Kai prepare for the plethora of questions her dad was going to throw his way. She glanced over at Kai to gauge how dumbass his answer might be- his expression was looking somewhat promising. 

“Well, I don’t have any bad ones, if that’s what you’re thinking. I just like your daughter.” Kai offered. 

“And what makes you think you’re good enough to date my daughter?” Tenzin challenged. The side conversations at the table immediately stopped as everyone immediately went silent. Before Kai could respond or Pema could scold Tenzin, Jinora cut in. 

“Dad! I don’t know where you got this idea about Kai, but I am over it. Kai has faced more hardships in his short life than you probably ever will, so you have no right to judge him or decide whether or not he’s good enough for me. That’s my choice, and I know he’s more than good enough or otherwise I wouldn’t be dating him, so get off your high horse.” 

Although they weren’t actually dating, her dad’s hypocritical behavior appalled Jinora. He pretended to be all high and mighty, helping people out and giving second chances, but that wasn’t good enough to date her somehow. She realized now, after spending the last week with Kai, that he was a decent person underneath his “bad boy persona.” She could tell from the few glimpses she had gotten at the person behind the persona that he was really a dork longing for acceptance somewhere. 

“That’s enough everyone.” Pema declared. 

Kai rested a hand on her leg to comfort her, and Jinora realized she had been two seconds away from flipping the table. Oops. Smoothing down her jacket, she sat back down in her seat and picked up her chopsticks again. She had a nasty habit of throwing hands with people when she knew they were inherently wrong, even if that person was her dad. 

“So, Kai, I hear Jinora has invited you as a plus one to Zhu and Varrick’s wedding. Have you asked Bolin and Mako for approval yet?” her mom asked gently. 

“Oh haha about that… I totally forgot to ask them. I am sure they won’t mind though. Thank you again for letting me crash your vacay! I have never really had a chance to leave Republic City like this, so I’m really excited.” 

“Of course, sweetie. Besides, you will be rooming with Meelo, so you will be doing us all a favor.” She said with a mischievous gleam in her eye.

“Hey! No! It will be me who is keeping this dude in line, not the other way around!” Meelo complained, spitting out rice in Pema’s direction. Kai didn’t seem to be upset over the fact he would have to share with Meelo during the trip- something she had conveniently not mentioned to him yet. They had already made it this far in their façade, so she doubted that rooming with her annoying brother would deter him, but she still had feared bringing it up. 

“Sure, buddy,” Kai reached over and roughly ruffled Meelo’s hair. Well, they’ll be good for each other, the two most annoying people in one room. Jinora snickered at this thought.

The rest of dinner went smoothly enough, featuring small talk about the usual things like school, sports, etc. Kai even retold a hilarious story about how he accidentally shaved off part of his eyebrow when touching up his undercut in middle school. Apparently he was attempting to shave a long hair on the side if his head and accidentally shaved off half his eyebrow in the process. The best part was that Mako and Bolin thought he was trying to go for an edgy eyebrow look and took away his clipper privileges. Rohan thought it was very hilarious and it made Jinora happy to see her little brother get along well with Kai.

After dinner was over, Jinora dragged Kai up the stairs to go to her room.

“Wow, eager much?” Kai raised his eyebrows suggestively. 

“Yeah, very eager- to get away from my family to avoid any possible slip-ups. Plus, it would be weird if I wasn’t trying to get alone time with you.” Jinora whispered back at him. 

“Boo! You’re no fun.” 

“Thanks, I know.” Jinora stuck out her tongue in his direction as they arrived in her room. 

“THAT DOOR BETTER STAY OPEN.” Tenzin called up the stairs. Figured he would say something like that, not that Jinora particularly minded.

“Wow, nice digs. Of course, your bedroom would have multiple bookshelves.” Kai teased. He sat down at her desk, straddling the chair in the wrong direction. 

“Wow, how bisexual of you to not sit in a chair correctly.” Jinora pointed out, while taking a seat on her bed. 

“Yeah? Got a problem with that?” 

“No, I was just making an astute observation. Besides, didn’t you know I am pan?” 

“Wait seriously? I mean, you seem a little-” he did the limp wrist motion. “I have no idea how you have stayed single with a world full of options.” 

She glared at him. “I mean, I could say the exact same thing for you. You know it’s not that easy.” 

Kai ignored that comment and changed the topic instead. “So what do we do now?” He looked around the room idly. 

“Don’t worry, I have a great idea,” Jinora smirked. 

Chapter Text

Jinora walked over to one of her many bookshelves and grabbed a basket. Kai watched her curiously. She just grinned harder back at him.

“We’re going to paint your nails!” She slid the basket full of different nail polish onto the desk for Kai to see.

“Woah, that’s such an extensive collection! Why do you have so many? I swear I have never seen you with your nails painted before.” He paused for dramatic effect, “Rich people… I swear.” 

“Rude! These are Ikki's. I was borrowing them and forgot to return them,” she retorted defensively. “Besides, I like to paint my nails sometimes.” 

“How about I pick out your nail color and you pick out mine?” Kai suggested. He was still straddling the chair in the wrong direction while leaning over the top of the chair to sift through the nail polish colors on the desk. Jinora easily pushed the rolling chair he was in away from desk to get better access to the nail polishes he was blocking. 

“Hey!” Kai cried indignantly. 

“Oh, sorry! Did I mess you up?” Jinora replied innocently. She had already chosen the perfect color for Kai- a dark maroon that matched his signature hoodie he loved to wear a little too much. Refusing to get out of the desk chair, Kai pitifully scuttled back over to the desk to look back in the basket again. He scowled as he looked through the nail polish again. 

“Woah wait, does this one have rainbow sparkles in it?!” He looked about as excited as a little kid on Christmas as he turned the bottle, admiring the little sparkles that changed colors. 

“Yeah, it’s called holographic polish- holo for short. It’s what all the cool kids wear these days.” Jinora smiled as she admired his cute, cheerful expression. It should be illegal for someone to look that wholesome. Wait...there was nothing wholesome about this troublemaking turd , she reminded herself. Nonetheless, she continued to stare as he looked at the bottle in amazement. 

“Jinora, can we do this color on your nails?” He finally asked after ogling the nail polish some more. The color was silver with holo sparkles. He held it up as if he had won the lottery. 

“Sure.” Jinora giggled at his enthusiasm. “Let’s get started. I think I will start with painting your nails first, so you can observe and know what to do for mine.” 

“Wait, I get to paint your nails?!” Kai questioned excitedly.

“Yeah that’s usually how it goes when people do each other’s nails. I’m trusting you on this, so don’t mess this up.” Jinora grabbed one of the storage ottomans she had in her room and pulled it up to the desk. She sat down in the stool and realized it was entirely too short for her to reach the desk comfortably. 

“I think we’re going to need to trade chairs.” Jinora pointed out, glaring up at Kai as he smirked at her short stature. They traded chairs and Kai put his hand on the desk so she could begin. She looked closer at his nails and realized some of them were chipped or strangely shaped and his cuticles looked horrendous.

“Why does it look like you cut your nails in the dark?” Jinora accused. Kai only laughed in response, confirming her suspicions. “Why are you like this?” 

“My bad, I didn’t realize I was going to have to pass a hand inspection today.” Kai protested. 

“This isn’t even a hand inspection, it’s just basic hygiene, you heathen.” Jinora retorted. She proceeded to pull out a fingernail filer from the supplies and began to work on shaping some of the rougher looking ones. 

These were the same hands she had held so many times at this point, but she couldn’t help but to notice some light calluses on his fingers and the overall size difference in their hands. Her hands were on the smaller side and looked deceivingly delicate- but she could throw a mean punch if necessary. Meanwhile, Kai had long, slender fingers that towered compared to hers. She wondered if this was his first time experiencing something similar to a manicure- guessing by the current shape of his hands. The answer was probably yes. 

After shaping his nails, she moved on to tackling his horrendous cuticles. She was for once glad Ikki had gotten an obnoxious rainbow chrome nail kit since it came with a cuticle trimmer tool. She quickly glanced up at Kai to make sure he wasn’t about to lose patience. However, she found him looking at her softly instead. Huh . She froze like a deer in the headlights, temporarily captivated by his emerald green eyes. His expression morphed from sincere to smartass, as their eye contact continued. 

“See something you like? Or getting ready to give me my victory kiss, perhaps?” Kai teased. 

Jinora snapped out of her trance. “No, it’s just that you still have rice on your face from dinner,” she lied easily. She laughed as he snatched his hand from hers and tried to clear the rice that didn’t exist off his face. 

“You were just teasing, weren’t you?” he accused after grappling at his face for a while with no luck. 

“Mayhaps…” Jinora took his hand in hers again, putting it back over the desk to get back to the task of wrangling his cuticles. Finishing cleaning up his hands, she fished for the base coat out of the basket of nail polish. 

“What’s that for?” Kai questioned curiously, pointing at the clear polish she held.

“It’s called a base coat. Basically, it’s to protect your fingernails and it makes the nail polish stay on longer.” She informed him. He watched in great interest as she shook the bottle before opening it. 

“Why do you shake the bottle?” 

“Man, if you keep asking questions, I might have to call you Ikki,” she joked. “It’s to make sure the polish is mixed well. When they sit out for a long time all the layers separate.” 

Kai was, surprisingly, eating up every word she spoke. If only he would pay this much attention in English class. She chuckled quietly to herself at that thought. Then, she pulled the brush out of the bottle and started to carefully paint each one of his nails with the clear polish. She had pretty steady hands and although she didn’t paint her own that often; she felt pretty confident in her skills. Kai was definitely impressed by her talent. She could tell by the way his eyes lit up. She shook up the dark red color and began applying it to his nails one by one.

“Wow! This looks so badass. I don’t know why I didn’t think to paint my nails sooner!” He held up the hand that was currently drying next to his face. “Doesn’t this compliment my  piercings so well?” He sent her his signature shit-eating grin, but she was too focused on painting to give it much attention. She saw his smile turn into a pout out of the corner of her eyes. 

“Yes, babe you look great. Now hold still, I am trying not to paint all over your fingers here.” Jinora deadpanned. She hadn’t intended on calling him babe when they were alone, but it had become such a habit it slipped out of her mouth. Stiffening slightly, she waited for Kai’s obnoxious response, but it didn’t come. She glanced up and saw Kai turning his head away, but his ears and neck were clearly red. 

Seeing Kai turn red made her confused. Before she could think too much about it, he swiftly cleared his throat and changed the topic. 

“So will you paint my nails for the wedding, so I will look extra cool?” 

“Sure! Which brings me to my next topic: what are you planning on wearing to the wedding?” she questioned, giving him a hard look. “I can’t let you embarrass me by wearing an oversized floral shirt or something.” She teased, referring to his current outfit.

Kai narrowed his eyes at her jab, but didn’t fight it. “I was probably going to borrow some formal clothes from Mako or something.” 

“You know, I have been so busy with you I haven’t picked out my wedding outfit either. Why don’t we go together and I will treat you. This way I can prevent you from wearing something embarrassing to the wedding-” Jinora started. 

“Hey! My taste in clothing isn’t that bad!” Kai interrupted. Jinora gave him a skeptical look. He seemed like the kind of guy who only owned cheesy graphic t-shirts or emo band shirts.

 “ And I can make up for this terrible track meet dinner date. I seriously owe you.” She added. 

“OH! A mall date! Sounds like fun, sweetie.” Kai leered. Jinora set down his hand, finally done painting all his nails with a base coat, the nail polish, and the top coat. She didn’t bother to give his teasing a response. 

Kai managed to do a semi-decent job of painting her nails. There were no chunks in her nail polish, but he had gotten nail polish all over her fingers. 

“It’s not my fault your nails are so much smaller than mine! You’re totally cheating here!” Kai complained. 

Jinora laughed at his struggle. “It’s fine. I can peel off the part on my fingers, anyway. It will give me a fun way to procrastinate on homework this weekend.” She added as she admired the job Kai did. It honestly wasn’t terrible for his first attempt. 

Kai pulled out his phone and held his hand next to hers. 

“What are you doing?” Jinora asked.

“I am posting a Snapchat story, so everyone will know how cute we are.” 

“More like so everyone can see how superior my nail painting skills are.” Jinora gloated, peering over at his phone. He captioned the picture “we did each others nails <3.” 

Not even a few seconds later, a message notification from Ikki appeared on his phone. She commented on his story “yall are nasty also dad says come downstairs.” 

“Wait when did you add Ikki on Snapchat?” Jinora questioned. She had hardly seen them interact and they were already friends on Snapchat. 

“Didn’t you know Ikki and I are besties, or we were until I kicked her butt at Mario Kart.” Kai answered. 

“I swear, I can’t leave you alone for two seconds and you’re already scheming with my little sister.”  

“She literally just insulted me and then bossed me around, I would hardly call that scheming.” Kai pointed out. “Come on, let’s go see what your dad could possibly want from us now.” 

“Yay,” Jinora retorted in her most sarcastic voice. Without thinking about it, she interlocked her hands with Kai’s and began to drag him downstairs. 

Jinora glared down her dad, ready to throw hands with him for whatever dumb nonsense about Kai he was going to spew this time. Especially after hearing his confession about Mako and Bolin earlier that day in the car, she knew Kai needed all the moral support he could get (and therapy, honestly). 

She released Kai's hand, to instead wrap her arms around his waist for extra piss-off-her-dad points before she started. "So what did you want dad?" She asked in the sweetest voice she could muster. Kai finally snapped out of whatever trance he was in and relaxed under her arms. His arms slid around her as well, holding her almost protectively. Perfect, it looked like he finally got the memo.

Tenzin's eyebrows scrunched making his forehead wrinkles even more apparent than usual at the sight they were displaying. He sighed. "Actually, I just wanted to apologize for my behavior towards Kai at dinner tonight." 

Chapter Text

“I realized I might have come off as rude tonight at dinner, and want to formally apologize for my actions.” Tenzin continued. 

“How about you demonstrate that with actions instead of empty words, dad. I expect you to treat Kai with kindness on our trip instead of listing off a bunch of bullshit.” Jinora snapped back.

“Language, young lady!” Tenzin called out, clearly scandalized by her cussing slip up. 

Maybe she should have cleared her mind a bit more before she started talking, but too late for regrets now. She began dragging Kai back up the stairs with her, not willing to hear anything else that sounded like it came straight from a Youtuber’s apology video. 

“Thank you for the apology sir, I look forward to spending more time getting to know you on the trip.” Kai called over his shoulder, wearing his thousand-watt smile. 

“You sounded like such a smoochzer. I didn’t think you had it in you,” she commented when they finally made it back to her room. She settled back down in the rolling desk chair while Kai accepted defeat and took the short ottoman to sit on.

“Only when I know I am about to take some poor sucker’s money.” Kai replied. He raised his eyebrows mischievously as he looked up at her. “So when are we going to the mall so we can spend the sucker in question’s money?” 

“How does next Friday after school sound? A certain someone distracted me from homework all weekend and so I definitely won’t have time tomorrow.” She pushed her feet off the desk and glided to her bookshelf and pulled out her school reading book Crime and Punishment . “As you can see, this is over 800 pages long and I am supposed to have finished it by Monday. How is it that your assigned reading is only about 150 pages while mine is this monstrosity!? Plus I have to annotate it! Seriously, does this teacher think I don’t have a life outside of school?!”  

“But it’s true, you don’t have a life outside of school,” Kai teased. “Guess that’s your punishment for being an overachiever. If you were really smart, you would be living it up in standard classes with me.” 

“Ugh, whatever. It’s not like I had a choice, it’s just what’s expected of me as a Gyasto, remember?” 

Kai frowned at that, but didn’t respond. Instead, he opened up his phone and mindlessly checked his notifications. Jinora took that as a sign they were done talking, and sprawled across her bed with Crime and Punishment in hand, hoping to get some reading done. 

Friday came a lot faster than Jinora expected. Despite her disastrous Sunday panic-doing all her homework, her week sailed by smoothly. She even managed to finish Kai’s stupid essay on Lord of the Flies with plenty of time to spare. She was going to feel even more relieved when they had their outfits picked out for this trip, so maybe she could pretend like she was going to relax a bit on this “vacation.” 

They walked out of school, hands swinging between them, arguing about what color theme they should go with for the wedding.

“Kai, we can’t wear white to the wedding, that’s a major faux pas. Only the bride can wear white. Come on, everyone knows that.” Jinora pointed out, while leading him in the direction of her car.

“What do south paws have to do with the bride only getting to wear white?” 

“Ugh, you’re hopeless. I said faux pas like a social blunder. Maybe if you paid attention a day in your English class, you would know what I am referring to.” 

“Sorry not all of us can be perfect like you, dear.” Kai responded easily, ignoring her jab and instead leaned closer into her personal space.

Jinora rolled her eyes. “How about yellow, like the community center colors?” 

“Ugh, the last thing I want is for everyone to think I am goody-two-shoes like you guys.” Kai stuck out his tongue.

“Very funny,” Jinora deadpanned. “But you do have a point there. Wouldn’t want to accidentally match my mom and dad… How about a more red, maybe?” 

They had reached the car at this point and Jinora settled for her usual routine of handing Kai the aux, mentally preparing herself for what kind of music he would find to annoy her today. 

“How about we just wait till we get to the mall?” Kai suggested as he plugged in his phone and pressed play. Today he had chosen K-pop— he never failed to surprise her. “Who knows, we might find some amazing matching tropical shirts, I mean this is a beach wedding. That’s allowed right?” He sent her a pleading face as she ignored it and focused on driving. 

Jinora scoffed, “Knowing Varrick, he wouldn’t even blink an eye if we showed up wearing those inflatable T-Rex costumes. Although, impressing Varrick isn’t going to be a problem.  It’s my dad who we need to be worried about. This is a public event, and you know how much he cares about his precious reputation.” 

“Oh yeah, duh. Guess we’ll have to settle for small acts of rebellion like painting my fingernails, right?” 

“My act of rebellion is bringing you, and if you want me to paint your fingernails so badly again all you had to do was ask.” Jinora teased.

They arrived at the Little Ba Sing Se mall just in time to cut Kai off from screaming along to “How You Like That” by Blackpink. Kai’s dedication to pissing her off every time they rode together was truly astounding. It was almost growing on her a bit, especially when she thought about how her siblings were going to be her only passengers again after this whole fiasco was over. She shoved that thought away just as quickly as it came to instead focus on the task at hand.

Even though they were in public, their hands never separated as they walked into the mall. The chances of running into someone they knew were slim, but it had become so natural that she didn’t even have to think about doing anymore. Kai began to tug her in the direction of a store that looked more like an alleyway. 

“Kai, there is no way we are finding our wedding outfits in that store. I can tell just by looking at it, that it would be instant slaughter by my dad. I don’t like to be shamed in public that much.” Jinora dragged her feet, trying to prevent them from getting closer.

“I don’t know, that’s not what your attitude was like the other day. You didn’t seem to have a problem with PDA and then cursing in front of your dad.” Kai continued to drag her along. It was easy to forget how in shape he was with his laidback, lazy behaviors. 

Jinora felt her face turning red and refused to make eye contact as he leaned into her personal space. “Shut up, that was different.” 

Kai laughed at her distress. “Chill Jinora, we are just stopping by Spencer’s to say hi to one of my buddies that works there.” Jinora apprehensively began picking up her feet as she made her way into this strange store with Kai. 

“HEY BABE!!” a guy wearing a beanie further in the store shouted. 

Kai let go of her hand and ran into the store to greet this guy. Upon closer inspection, she realized this man in question was actually Skoochy. Leave it to Kai to befriend one of the guys his brothers hate the most. She scowled in their direction as they began a strange series of handshakes and fist bumps that ended in a hug. She wasn't jealous. It was just cringey that Kai would do something like that in public. With the guy who stole his first kiss. In front of her. But seriously, she wasn't jealous.

“Babe, your resting bitch face is showing,” Kai called in her direction.

Before she could think of a witty retort, Skoochy responded for her, “But I am smiling right now. What are you talking about?” 

“Not you babe, I am talking about other babe, Jinora.” Kai explained, pointing in her direction. 

Skoochy turned in her direction, just now noticing her. His smile immediately fell to an asshole smirk, but she found it wasn’t nearly as endearing as Kai’s. She frowned harder as they made eye contact.

“Hey Skoochy.” She waved unenthusiastically.

Skoochy turned back to Kai without responding to her sad greeting. “Broooo what did you do to get this killjoy to follow you around?! Have you not suffered death by Mr. Gyatso yet? I didn’t know you guys were friends!” 

Skoochy was lucky she was well-versed at being forgiving and having lots of patience because she had the intense urge to make a rude comment or resort to physical violence. However, she decided to stay quiet and let Kai handle this one since they were friends. He could tell Skoochy about whatever they had going on. 

“Bro, how did you not know we were dating? Come on, I even posted Snapchat stories about it.” Jinora’s face immediately ignited as he walked over and squeezed her close to his side. She thought for sure he was going to tell him what they had going on was fake. 

Skoochy’s face fell for a second before recovering back to default asshole smirk. “Babe, you mean to say you’re cheating on me?! I thought we had something special!” He called out overdramatically. 

“Alas, you’re too much of a brat. Sorry, Jinora here is my one and only.” Kai responded jokingly as he nuzzled into her hair. She was caught between wanting to strangle Kai and blushing, and that made her even more annoyed.

Her blush immediately dissipated as she looked up at the current situation. Not that it was her place to judge, but even though it looked like they were messing with each other, the tension was rapidly growing. As if Skoochy might have actually been crushing on Kai. It must be nice to be as oblivious as Kai, because she was feeling very awkward. 

Thankfully, Skoochy seemed to be aware of the awkwardness and turned the conversation to her. “So tell me, how did this absolute loser like him end up with a pretty girl like you? I know this man has NO game. I mean, how do you have limitless options and still end up with no one with a face like that? At least I have the excuse of only liking guys.” 

“See dude? This is exactly what I was talking about. Brat.” Kai cut in before Skoochy could keep insulting him further. 

Jinora finally joined in, “It was probably because I was the one who did most of the romancing. But what can I say? Us losers have to stick together.” She laughed, “but actually though, Kai is a great guy, I am lucky to have him around.” 

“Alright Kai, she’s obviously a keeper. You better not fuck this one up.” Skoochy replied, seeming to really buy into their romance. She had been completely sincere about her response. Kai really had lightened up her life, and on top of that, was helping her rebel against her dad. 

“Well, it was nice seeing you my dude, Jinora and I have wedding outfits to pick out. We are going to THE Varrick and Zhu Li’s wedding together. This street rat is moving up in the world.” Kai stuck out his tongue at Skoochy before grabbing Jinora’s hand and walking out of the store. She half-heartedly waved goodbye as they set off to do some actual shopping. 

Chapter Text

Her mind was still spinning at all the events that had just gone down in Spencer’s. Kai had told her he didn’t really have any friends, even though he and Skoochy had seemed close (or close enough to have some kind of dumb handshake thing). Then he lied to Skoochy for no reason about the nature of their relationship. For what? Was he that dedicated to keeping their relationship as real as possible because he feared her dad or because he cared that much about their little charade? For someone so dumb, he was really hard to understand.

Instead of looking at the storefronts they were passing, she stared intently at his face. As if that would help her get a read on the situation. He once again was looking like an excitable puppy, probably not even thinking about the run-in they just had with Skoochy. Ugh. She just had to make her one friend her own age be a clueless boy. 

 “Oooh, Jinora, I think I spy the perfect tropical shirt!” Kai exclaimed, pointing in the direction of Forever 21. 

“For someone who is all about taking some poor sucker’s money, you’re not thinking big enough! This is the equivalent to a royal wedding, basically. We can’t show up wearing Forever 21! You have to think bigger than that.”

“Yes, dear.” Kai retorted, but he actually seemed sad about the rejection of the tropical shirt.

“But I like your way of thinking. We definitely need something bright and floral to wear.” Jinora added, causing a shit-eating grin to reappear on Kai’s face.

Becoming Kai’s friend must have actually made her go insane, since she was encouraging his shenanigans. Regardless, a big smile spread its way across Jinora’s face and wouldn’t seem to leave. 

“Let’s go to the inner ring of the mall where the nice boutiques are.” Jinora suggested, pulling Kai along. 

After a bit of searching, they stumbled across the boutique Jinora was looking for in the nicer part of the mall. 

“Do you really think a boutique called ‘Individuality’ is going to sell the clothes we are looking for?” Kai asked incredulously. 

“Well, actually, it’s owned by my dad’s ex-girlfriend's sister’s son. So it should be pretty promising.” Jinora countered easily. 

“Your dad’s ex-girlfriend’s what now?” His face scrunched up in a cute manner as he tried to process the words she just said. She couldn’t help but to smile at this.

“A close family friend, basically.” Jinora explained as Kai continued to calculate the relation.

“Hmmm ok. If you say so…” Kai conceded, as she dragged them further into the store.

There were lots of unique designs carefully arranged on tables and mannequins. The majority of them were worth quite a few yuan, perfect for her revenge on her dad for being so rude and condescending to Kai. Plus, it hopefully guaranteed they would be the only people wearing said outfits.

“Babe, look I found the perfect outfits for us!” Kai pointed at a leopard print bodycon dress with a section cut out on the stomach and a matching outfit that included a leopard print button up crop top with leopard print skinny jeans. 

“You’re not cute.” Jinora deadpanned as Kai held up the dress to himself.

“Can I help you?” An employee appeared, giving them both the stink eye. Since they were both high schoolers wandering around a fancy boutique, she couldn’t blame him for being suspicious of them. 

Kai apparently took personal offense to this, and he squinted at the man’s name tag. “Actually, Ay-why” Kai started, horribly butchering this man’s name. Whether it was on purpose was hard to tell. “Could you bring my girlfriend a bottle of water?” He put back the dress where he found it but caused it to slightly wrinkle, making the employee’s eye twitch.

“It’s Aiwei, and bottled waters are only for paying customers.” Aiwei shot back, unamused. 

“Excuse you, we’re here to buy outfits for THE Varrick and Zhu Li’s wedding. This is politician Tenzin’s daughter you’re speaking to!” Kai bragged. He was one obnoxious comment away from getting a kick in the shin from her. 

“I am sorry. Ignore him. Do you have any suggestions on a couple outfit to wear to a beach wedding?” Jinora cut in before they started going at. In Kai’s defense, Aiwei was rude first, but fighting fire with fire never works out. She didn’t have to be a master guru like her dad to know that one- not that her dad particularly lives by his own rules, anyway.

“Ah, yes madam, I think we have exactly what you’re looking for. Right this way.” Aiwei led them into a different section of the store. 

Kai leaned in close and whispered to Jinora as they walked through the store. “How come he was so rude to me, but called you madam?!” 

“Guess I was just born different.” Jinora smirked, and Kai scowled in response. 

“Here, we have a variety of designs that might suit your needs.” Aiwei gestured towards a few different, more summery looking outfits. 

Jinora's eyes were immediately drawn to the red fabrics on display in the corner. Specifically, a red dress with puffy sleeves (her favorite), ruffles, and a sweetheart neckline with gold flower accents on the skirt. Plus, it was just long enough to upset, but not short enough to cause too many problems with her dad. However, the best part was there was a red satin button up top with matching gold flower design she knew Kai would pull off well. 

“Excuse me sir, can we try on these two items?” Jinora asked politely, while Kai mouthed “goody-two shoes” in her direction. She resisted the temptation to do something dumb, like flip him off, but since they were already treading on thin ice and she didn’t want to get kicked out of the store, she resisted. 

“Sure, if you could come this way, I can assign you a dressing room.” Aiwei led them along again to the dressing rooms. They were the type that just had a thin curtain separating them from the rest of the world, her least favorite kind. She tried to not to let the scowl show on her face as she entered the dressing room he led her to. Kai, on the other hand, seemed to lack modesty, because when she looked back to make sure he walked into his dressing room, he had already started throwing off his shirt without bothering to fix the large gap between the curtain, effectively flashing the world. 

“Kai!” Jinora squeaked out, trying not to stare too hard at the muscular lines of his back.

“Oops, my bad.” Kai responded, sounding unfazed as he fixed the gap in the curtain. He thankfully didn’t seem to notice the fact she was now tomato red or he definitely would have made a more teasing remark. 

Jinora turned back around and started meticulously fixing her own curtain to make sure there were no gaps before she started changing. Because unlike Kai, flashing people wasn’t on her agenda today. She unzipped the back of the dress and carefully put it on since this dress cost a hefty 300 plus yuans. She smoothed out the dress and zipped it back up as much as she could without assistance before staring in the full-length mirror. 

The dress stopped a few inches above her knee and highlighted her curves, but not in the skin-tight way like a bodycon dress would. She smiled at herself and decided it was time to venture out of the dressing room to check on how Kai’s shirt fit. It seemed that Kai had a similar idea because she heard the sound of his curtain opening as she peeked out of her own. 

“K-kai?!” Jinora stammered. He did indeed pull off the shirt. The problem was that more than half the buttons were undone and it was lazily tucked into his typical ripped gray skinny jeans. Her eyes had a hard time making past his chest on display though.  

“Yes darling?” Kai smirked. “See something you like?” He took this moment to study Jinora’s own outfit and Jinora saw a tint red begin to spread across his face, down his neck, and even further. She wasn’t sure what to take from that reaction. 

“Can… can you finish zipping up my dress?” She finally got out, turning away from him and his defined collarbones. Kai’s warm hand lightly grazed her back and he pulled the zipper the rest of the way up. Jinora shivered at the touch.

“You look…. umm…” Kai started. 

“I see the lovely couple has found their outfits!” Aiwei abruptly announced, causing them both to jump and killing the moment. He studied both of them. 

“Those pants simply won’t do and we’re in need of some accessories.” Aiwei stated after finishing his assessment, and then wandered off again. Jinora and Kai stood in an awkward silence as they waited for his return. She was careful this time to stare at the floor so she wouldn’t start blushing again. After what felt like ten years (but was probably only a few minutes) Aiwei returned with a pair of nice looking slacks along with some other accessories. 

“Earring and necklace set for the young lady” Aiwei declared handing the set to Jinora. “And here.” He shoved the rest of the various items he was holding to Kai causing him to frown. They weren’t over their feud yet. 

“Thank you, sir.” Jinora said quickly, pushing Kai back into his dressing room before he could start something. This time Jinora closed his curtain for him, making sure there were no gaps. 

She stared down at the necklace earring set she had been handed. The necklace was a choker with golden leaves going around it, except in the middle there were a few flowers between the leaves, and the earrings featured the same flowers with leaves dropping down from them. Her ears weren’t actually pierced though. Of course, her dad had been against it, and she never cared enough to push it. Maybe she could give them to Kai. He would look really cute with them on. Wait…Cute? Had seeing his chest on display today made her go insane? 

“How does the full fit look?” Kai asked, startling her out of first crisis and into a new one. He was now wearing high waisted slacks with a belt and layered gold necklaces, his button up shirt still mostly unbuttoned. He was bouncing between poses, batting his eyelashes at her while he waited for her response. 

“You look… really good.” Jinora conceded. She knew she looked akin to a firetruck, but accepted that this was her life now. 

“Not as good as you,” Kai shot back, giving her finger guns. She hid her face in her hands, sighing loudly while Kai laughed at her pain. 

“I guess you could say that was Huan and done!” Kai exclaimed as they walked out of Individuality with all the clothes that had been picked out for them.

“Get it because Huan is the owner of the store?” Kai continued. Jinora just sent him a deadpan look, refusing to encourage this kind of bad pun behavior. Kai didn’t seem to mind as he laughed at his own joke and swung their hands between them.

“Actually though, is it ok that we charged that much money to Tenzin’s credit card? He’s not going to come murder me in my sleep right?” he worried.

“Oh yeah, don’t worry about it. This is an important event and to him this is just pocket change. We might not live too fancy, but that’s just because my grandfather always taught him not to obsess over money.” Jinora responded calmly.

“Ouch, darling, why did that feel like that was a shot right at me?” Kai complained, sending her a pitiful pout.

“Not my fault you have a bad case of sticky fingers.” Jinora retorted. 

“Not anymore though, I have a sugar momma now.” Kai smirked in her direction while Jinora rolled her eyes.

Chapter Text

The next couple of weeks flew by rather peacefully (or as peacefully as they could with Kai by her side). Before Jinora knew it, they were all crammed into their family minivan, driving to the airport to get to the destination wedding. 

Her mom and dad were in the front seat with Meelo and Rohan in the middle row, while her Kai and Ikki were seated tightly in the last row. Kai was wearing his carry-on bag on his chest, since there was no room left in the back. However, he was using this opportunity to introduce the IKEA shark that was poking out of his backpack to Ikki and Rohan while Meelo pretended to not be interested. 

“I’m Lefty the shark!” Kai said in a character voice as he lifted a fin, making it wave in Rohan’s direction.

Rohan laughed happily as he waved back. “Hello Mr. Lefty! I hope we can be best friends!” 

Jinora smiled to herself. To think most students at her school were under the impression he was a cool, intimidating, bad boy was kind of laughable at this point. All those hours working at Sky Zone had really paid off because Kai was great with her siblings.

"You know your Lefty reminds me a lot of Jinora's IKEA friend Pepper!" Ikki pointed out.

"Ikki!" Jinora interrupted before Ikki could say anything too embarrassing about her IKEA plush. She should have known she could never stop the inevitable.

“Wait, you have a friend named Pepper from IKEA?” Kai questioned, sounding genuinely confused before pivoting to cheeky asshole mode. “Are you cheating on me with Pepper?!” he gasped in mock horror.

“Oh, she’s definitely cheating on you! Look at this picture!” Ikki pulled out her smartphone and showed Kai a picture of Jinora asleep on top of her giant IKEA bear named Pepper, her hair was going in a bunch of different directions and there was definitely drool coming out of her mouth. How was it whenever she was trying to find a picture in her photo stream it eluded her, but Ikki could instantly find embarrassing photos of her? She groaned and hid her blushing face as Kai laughed hysterically. 

“You HAVE to send that one to me! I spy a new phone background!” Kai said in the breaths between giggle fits. They hadn’t even made it to the airport yet, and Jinora was already questioning all her life decisions up until this point. 

They had all finally made it onto the plane in one piece and survived the pre-flight safety briefing with minimal screaming from Rohan. Thankfully, her mom was an expert child tamer and had somehow gotten Rohan peacefully asleep holding Kai’s IKEA shark, which he had kindly loaned out. 

Her mom and dad sat in the front row of first class with a now sleeping Rohan in her lap, and Ikki and Meelo on the other side of the aisle. By some miracle, her and Kai's seats were a few rows back from them, and she was very much looking forward to the peaceful flight three rows away from Ikki. 

“Hello, this is the captain speaking, and I’ll have the pleasure of flying with you today. Our flight time will be 2 hours and 15 minutes…” As the captain droned on with the usual spiel, Jinora looked over at Kai to check that his seat belt was actually fastened.  

“Is this a bad time to admit I have never flown on a plane before?” Kai squeaked out as soon as she turned towards him. Jinora hoped he was just messing with her, but upon closer inspection, he was covered in a faint sheen of sweat and was gripping the armrests for dear life. Not to mention his shoulders were about to hit his ears they were so filled with tension.

“Alright, come here. I’ve got you.” Jinora relented. She pulled her AirPods out from her carry-on bag and grasped Kai’s chin to turn his head and put it in properly. She was so caught up in the moment, she didn’t realize until it was too late that she could have just handed him the AirPod like a normal person. It didn't occur to her until she glanced up and made eye contact with Kai. The atmosphere changed drastically as they stared into each other's eyes. Green on brown. He was slowly getting closer- so close she could almost count his eyelashes. 

“Could you guys tone down the lovebirds act!? I don’t want to be nauseous before the plane takes off!” Ikki shouted at them, breaking the moment as well as drawing a lot of attention to them from other passengers. 

Jinora shot her a death glare before she let out a nervous laugh, letting her hand drop from Kai's face as he adjusted the AirPod she gave him. 

“Sorry about that. As I was saying, listening to some music might help and chewing gum will help with your ears adjust to the higher altitudes because when you chew you open the small passageway that connects your throat to your middle ear, called the eustachian tube, and that allows the air with the new atmospheric pressure to reach our inner ear…” She realized she was rambling and cut herself off. Immediately, she looked down and started frantically digging around in her bag for said gum. But her primary goal was to hide her face from Kai because she knew she was rapidly turning red.

“Ah ha! Here it is!” Jinora declared, practically throwing the piece of gum at Kai’s face to avoid contact with him further. 

“Thanks darling.” Kai responded, lacking his usual charisma. She stole a quick glance at him and saw he was also blushing on top of his nervous demeanor. Her eyes snapped back to her phone. She scrolled through her music, trying to find the right song to put Kai’s mind at ease. She settled for playing her nerve-calming playlist on shuffle. 

During their antics, the plane had finished its final checks and was just now rolling down the take-off strip. Jinora could see the panic growing in Kai’s eyes as the plane accelerated. In a moment of courage, she grasped his hand, threading their fingers together. At this point, holding hands was like second nature to them, but this time she gently rubbed her thumb over his knuckles- something they had never done before. When she dared to look up at him again, his eyes were closed tightly as he mumbled along to the lyrics of the song. He squeezed her hand hard the second the plane began to gain speed.

The rumbling of lift off briefly jerked them to the side, causing Kai’s head to fall on her shoulder. Before he could move himself off her shoulder though, she reached across with her free hand and started combing her fingers through his hair. She felt bad about invading his personal space like this without his permission. But they were friends, right? Friends could do that. Plus, she knew it always calmed her down when her mom did that to her. She was just helping a friend in need, that’s all. Now that she thought about it, Kai had shamelessly put his hands in her hair before, without her permission. 

His hair was a lot softer than it looked. It was typically messy and wavy, giving off the bad boy don’t care look, but it was obvious that he cared about his hair by how soft it was. She turned her eyes away from his hair to try to catch a glimpse of his face. He seemed significantly less stressed, his eyelids no longer creased with worry. She felt the tension leave her own shoulders at the sight as she relaxed more into Kai. 

Now looking past Kai, she watched out the window as they gained altitude. She personally found this to be the coolest part of the flight, as everything below them turned to tiny specks. But, since it was Kai doing her a favor, she let him take the window seat, thinking she was doing him an act of kindness. But the way he was hanging on to her like a lifeline, that might not be the case. Really his own fault for not telling her about his fear sooner, but she couldn’t deny she was enjoying holding on to Kai like this. As a friend, of course. It felt like it was just the two of them in the sky from her angle. 

What could have been hours later, but was probably only a few minutes later, the captain announced they were now at cruising altitude. Jinora let her hand fall from Kai’s hair, as she no longer had an excuse to touch him. He also sat back up and smiled at her. She found herself easily smiling back. 

“That wasn’t so bad, right? Now we just have to survive landing!” 

“ Landing?! ” Kai cried out indignantly as Jinora laughed at his pain. 

“What’s wrong? I thought you liked heights working at Sky Zone and all.” Jinora teased. 

“That’s completely different, and you know it.” 

It completely slipped Jinora’s mind that she was still holding his hand as they continued to converse with each other.

Chapter Text

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN OUR RESERVATION HAS BEEN CANCELED!?! ” Tenzin screamed at the poor person manning the front desk of the hotel.

The rest of the flight to Ember Island went smoothly, but unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for their hotel.

“I am sorry, sir. It says you canceled the reservation, and as this is a high demand week with the wedding the rooms have already been given to someone else.” The clerk replied calmly, not sensing the imminent danger they were in.

Jinora scowled and looked away from the scene. It was too painful to watch her dad act like a self-entitled Karen. She intertwined her fingers with Kai’s, tugging him away from the ongoing showdown. They didn’t make it far before they saw an unexpected visitor strolling into the hotel lobby. 

“Oh my gosh, is that THE Varrick? Haha, his mustache is even more obnoxious in person.” Kai whispered to her at about the same volume Rohan used when he was attempting to tell a juicy secret. Jinora felt her scowl deepen, but thankfully it seemed Varrick hadn’t heard them as he sauntered proudly up to Tenzin like he owned the place.

“Surprise! I canceled your hotel reservations! Isn’t that great?!” Varrick exclaimed with his usual splendor. 

“In what universe is having my hotel reservations canceled ‘great’?!” Tenzin snapped back, turning around to unleash his anger on whoever dared to interrupt his tirade on the poor receptionist. 

“Varrick?!” Her dad’s demeanor fizzled to polite Tenzin. “What are you doing here?” 

“I just came to surprise my good pal! I decided to cancel your hotel reservations so you can stay in one of my friend’s beach houses on Ember Island instead. I came in person because I had to witness your happiness with my own two eyes!” 

“OH MY GOSH!! A beach house!” Ikki squealed, and Rohan and Meelo joined in, jumping and cheering. At this point, she and Kai could not contain their laughter at the unfolding of events. Her dad’s eye was intensely twitching. He looked about two seconds away from bursting a blood vessel. 

Pema passed Rohan off to Jinora as she went to reel in Tenzin. “Isn’t this great, sweetie? Now we get to be right by the beach and the wedding.” She put an arm around him soothingly as she turned to address Varrick. “Where exactly is this house located?” 

Now that they had arrived at their final destination for real, the situation calmed down. The house they were staying at was within walking distance of both the wedding venue and a private beach, so even her dad couldn’t complain too much. Not to mention the house was a beautiful two-story dream house with four bedrooms and three and half bathrooms. Everyone had chosen their rooms with minimum fighting- Tenzin, Pema, and Rohan together in the king's suite, Meelo and Kai together in the room with bunk beds, and she and Ikki each got their own rooms, much to Meelo’s dismay. Now they had all settled in and changed into their bathing suits to head to the beach.

Jinora barged into Meelo and Kai’s room to make sure Kai had survived Meelo’s initiation. Kai stood proudly in his obnoxious five inch inseam shorts. He seemed intact and unfazed by Meelo, but the same could not be said about their room. It looked like an explosion went off and there were clothes on every surface of the room.

“How are you going to barge into our room without knocking?” Kai teased. “What if I was changing?”

“That’s what the bathroom is for. But how is it that you two just got in here, but it looks like a bomb went off?” Jinora fired back. 

“We’re unpacking our clothes! Is that not what you wanted us to do, lady?!” Meelo screeched back, pushing past her to join the rest of the family in the den. It looked like he was still annoyed that he was the only one who didn’t get a room to himself. 

As Jinora surveyed the room more, she noticed Kai at least had the decency to place his wedding outfit on the back of one of the chairs in the room. Jinora rolled her eyes and decided not to comment further as she held out her hand for Kai to take so they could continue onwards to the beach.

“Not so fast, Kai and Jinora.” Tenzin called out as everyone was crowding out the door. Jinora kept her facial expression neutral as she mentally prepared herself. She figured he would corner them since her mom had her hands full juggling the rest of her siblings and half of their beach accessories. 

“I don’t want any funny business going on now that we are all sharing a house instead of having separate hotel rooms. Don’t even think about trying to sneak around with each other, because I will be watching you like a hawk. That includes now! You are not allowed to leave my range of view to commit scandalous acts.” He called out sternly, however, it was hard to take him seriously considering he had a unicorn float across his chest and was carrying the rainbow beach bag Ikki had bedazzled. 

Before she could react to start her tirade, Kai innocently questioned, “What counts as a scandalous act?” He raised their intertwined hands. “Does this count as a scandalous act?” Then Kai released her hand and pulled her into a hug before Tenzin could respond. “What about this? Is this scandalous?” Then Kai started leaning in as if he were about to kiss her before Tenzin cut him off. 

“Alright, that’s enough. You know what I mean!” 

Jinora was too flustered to think about adding anything sassy to this conversation. She had been attempting to recover from the sudden hug, just to see Kai leaning in for a kiss. She figured he would have swerved to kiss her cheek at the last second or something, but give a girl some warning! Shirtless Kai was too dangerous for her mental health, especially flirty shirtless Kai. She might be doomed.

“Yes sir!” Kai continued in a way that sounded polite, but Jinora could sense more bullshit was about to leave his mouth. “I will make sure to inform you every single time I need to leave your sight! Like if I need to use the restroom or get a refreshment, or go back to the house to get something or-”

Tenzin cut him off, sighing loudly with an annoyed look on his face, and turned around to catch up with the rest of her family. 

When he was out of hearing range, Kai turned and gave her the cutest shit-eating grin she’d seen yet. “So how did I do sensei? Am I great at pissing your dad off or what?” 

Finally shaking off her shock from earlier, Jinora genuinely smiled back. “Not too bad for a young grasshopper, if I do say so myself.” They both laughed together as they moved to join the rest of her family underneath the umbrella one of Varrick’s attendants had set up for them. 

“Everyone gather around! It’s sunscreen time. No one is allowed to leave this umbrella until I see you covered head to toe with sunscreen.” Pema called out. All her siblings collectively groaned, and Jinora just accepted her fate of the gross feeling of being slathered in sunscreen. 

“Since I am not a part of the family, this doesn’t apply to me, right?” Kai asked hopefully. 

“Yeah, if you like getting skin cancer and have wrinkly skin at an early age, be my guest.” Jinora retorted easily. The pros of applying sunscreen definitely outweighed the cons and she wasn't going to let Kai's beautiful skin go to waste. 

“Here, if you help me, I’ll help you.” She shoved one of the spray cans of sunscreen into his hands without thinking about what it implied. She looked up and was met with his smirk. 

“Are you sure this isn’t too scandalous of an act? Maybe we should ask your dad first.” 

Jinora slapped his arm, but felt herself turning red regardless. “Just start applying sunscreen already.” 

“Yes, sweetie.” Kai replied easily. Ikki made barfing noises in the background at their interaction. Jinora chose to ignore her, and she turned around so her back would face Kai.

She held up her hair out of the way and he began spraying the cold sunscreen on her back. The cold didn’t last for long as he followed up with his warm hands, gently spreading the sunscreen evenly across her shoulder blades. She was wearing a fairly modest one piece bathing suit that covered her entire lower back, but she wasn’t sure if she was thankful or regretful for it. 

“You have to make sure you put sunscreen under the straps too or l’ll have random splotches of sunburn on my back.” Jinora added as his fingers awkwardly skirted around the straps of her bathing suit. 

“Alright, but when your dad kills me, it’s on you.” 

His fingers quickly slid under her straps, but were gone just as fast. “Done and done!” Kai declared, and passed off the sunscreen to her. She laughed at his awkwardness and glanced over at her dad, who was actually glaring in their direction. No wonder Kai was being such a scaredy-cat. 

“Try not to get too lost in the vast expanse of my back,” Kai grinned, turning around. 

She couldn’t deny that he had a very well-toned back, especially now that she was being granted free rein to stare at it. She shook her head at the direction her thoughts were taking and began to spray his entire back with a generous amount of sunscreen. Her hands hovered over his back for a second, mentally preparing herself. Starting with his shoulder blades, she spread sunscreen down his back. Her hands slowed down as she reached his lower back. It was so unfair his whole back was exposed, but they were supposed to be a couple, so touching his back like this shouldn’t be weird- she was just applying sunscreen after all. She continued onwards and tried not to think about how strangely intimate the situation felt. 

“HEY LOSERS!” a voice called out in the distance, breaking whatever tension they were having.

“Korra!” Jinora exclaimed as the rest of her siblings ran up to jump on to Korra to give her a hug. 

With Jinora’s siblings hanging off of her, Korra casually approached Tenzin and Pema and politely greeted them before bounding over to Jinora and Kai. 

“Hey! Do you and boytoy want to play a round of beach volleyball with my girlfriend? We'll play first to ten.” She jerked her thumb behind her. In the distance, Jinora could see a volleyball net, along with a girl waving in their direction.

Jinora looked at Kai expectantly, trying to read whether or not she was about to sign him up for something he didn’t want to do. He looked back at her with a glint in his eye. 

“Only, if you're ready to be defeated. Kai is on the track team!” Jinora bragged and Kai lit up under her praise.

“That’s not even applicable to volleyball! You guys are going down!” 

"Wait, Korra's girlfriend is Mako’s ex-girlfriend, and they met because they both dated Mako?” Kai questioned as they took their sides of the court. 

“You missed the part where Asami is also a CEO millionaire and partnered up with Varrick Industries. Also, Korra is her plus one to the wedding, apparently.” 

“Damn that’s crazy.” Kai responded, looking dazed from having this bomb dropped on him. 

“But more importantly, we need a strategy to win this game. Since you’re the one who can jump high, I will try to focus on setting the ball to you and then you’ll spike it. And don’t underestimate Asami. She might look harmless, but she’s just as good at fighting as I am and definitely athletic. Who knows what kind of tricks they might have up their sleeve.” 

Kai nodded at her with as much seriousness as she thought was possible for him. Looked like they were both quite competitive. 

“I’ll let you guys have the first serve!” Korra announced, tossing the ball to their side of the court. 

"I got this," Jinora declared, bending over to pick up the ball, just to knock heads with Kai. 

"Ouch! I said I got this! Move!" but Kai's hands remained firmly grasping the ball.

"I'm taller. Wouldn't it make more sense for me to serve first?"

"Well, I was briefly on the volleyball team in middle school, so I should serve first. You'll probably flop the serve anyway!" 

"Just a second ago you told Korra that I would be great, and now you don't trust me to serve?!" Kai glared at her, but neither made a move to let go of the ball. It seemed like pretending to be a happy couple was completely thrown out the window as their staring contest continued.

"Why don't you guys play rock, paper scissors to decide who goes first?" Asami shouted over the net as Korra looked amused at the whole debacle. 

"Great, now we have to revert back to elementary school ways because you wouldn't just let me serve." Jinora spat out bitterly, reluctantly taking her hands off the ball. Kai followed in suit, and they began their game of rock, paper, scissors.

Jinora won the third round after tying with Kai twice. Kai shot her a glare as she triumphantly took her spot to serve.

"Looks like we got this in the bag, Asami. Since the lovebirds are already bickering at first serve." Korra taunted. 

The serve went over the net successfully and Jinora moved up to get in position to receive the ball. However, Korra ended up spiking the ball into the net. She let out a string of cuss words as Asami comforted her.

"What was that about having it in the bag?" Kai called over the net while giving Jinora a high five.

Just like that, she and Kai got into a groove of steadily scoring points against Korra and Asami. Asami was clearly the more coordinated of the two, but Korra's overeagerness caused them to give up easy points. The score was now 5-9. The last point for her and Kai, and Korra's turn to serve. Although her attacks were sometimes uncoordinated, her serves were very strong. 

They anxiously stood in position as Korra started her jump serve. Kai took a full body dive into the sand to receive the ball in time and Jinora ran under the ball to set it. They made eye contact as the ball touched her fingers, as Kai got back up and bounded for the spike. At the last second, he feigned the ball, just barely tapping it over the net. 

Asami dove for the ball, but couldn't reach it in time, causing Jinora and Kai to be the winners. They both ran to each other and Kai easily picked her up, spinning her in a circle as they both laughed with joy. 

"That was awesome! Where did you even learn that move, Mr. Trackstar?!"

"From this anime…" Kai admitted sheepishly. "Bolin made me watch it with him for brother bonding time."

" Made you , I'm sure," she smiled up at him and he smiled back. She took a moment to appreciate his wholesome smile before realizing they were still hugging and now staring deeply into each other's eyes.

The moment broke when Jinora moved to drop her arms, and Kai hissed in pain. She looked down to see his chest scraped and slightly bleeding from his last dive into the sand. Jinora brushed off some of the spare sand on his chest to get a better look. 

“There must have been a shell or something in the sand.” Jinora decided, talking more to herself than Kai since he didn’t seem particularly upset about it.

"Uh oh, looks like Kai and I have to head back to the house so I can patch him up." Jinora said now louder in the other couple's direction.

"Patch him up, huh? Is that what kids are calling it these days?" Korra teased, causing the younger couple to immediately fluster.

"You know, we made a pretty good team earlier today." Kai commented. They were both sitting on the couch in the common area while Ikki, Meelo, and Rohan argued over what movie they should watch before going to bed. Their parents were in the kitchen discussing something before movie night began.

"Yeah, we were pretty great." Jinora paused. " You were pretty great." 

Kai pressed his face into his IKEA shark, and mumbled "Thanks," at that comment. It seemed almost bashful, if he was even capable of that.

"Can I hold him?" Jinora asked. At the same time, Meelo began berating Ikki on why they could not watch Frozen for the 37th time even if it was hers and Rohan's favorite movie.

"Sure." Kai passed over his plush. She could understand the craze now. It was very soft and perfectly huggable.

Meelo was now preaching about why they should watch Transformers instead of Frozen. 

"How about we let Kai pick since he's the guest?" Jinora interrupted, but her goals were not selfless. She knew her dad would choose one of the Lord of the Rings movies if they took too long, and she really didn't have the attention span to watch that. Not that Kai was a much safer choice since he was such a wild card.

Everyone groaned as Kai debated. Jinora stared him down, daring him to make a bad choice.

"Let's watch Freaky Friday!" Kai declared. Jinora raised an eyebrow at that. 

"What? Lindsay Lohan's love interest is a complete dreamboat, and it's a classic!"

Thankfully, none of her siblings voiced a complaint about the movie choice as they settled into their spots to begin watching. Ikki joined Jinora and Kai on the couch, and Rohan sat between her parents on the loveseat while Meelo took the recliner that he got as compensation for having to share a room. As the movie started, Ikki kept looking at Jinora expectantly.

"Can I help you?" She whispered to Ikki.

“Yeah! Stop trying to hog Lefty! Why don’t you just cuddle with Kai instead? It’s already bad enough I lost the recliner to Meelo and now you must deprive me of Lefty.” She cried dramatically.

Jinora's grip on the plush slackened as she glanced over at Kai. There was a good half a cushion between them. Now that she thought about it, Ikki had a point- if they were really a couple, wouldn’t they be cuddling? Before she could spiral into overthink mode, Kai’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

"You heard Ikki." Kai held out his arms, motioning for her to come closer. 

Chapter Text

Jinora stared at Kai, who was still motioning her to come closer, as she made sure she processed his words correctly. This was a little bold even for Kai, especially with her dad so close by.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw her dad snoozing away on the loveseat and her mom who was enraptured by the movie. That explained a lot, but now she had no excuse not to cuddle with Kai. The blush was pooling in her face and burning her ears as she awkwardly inched closer to Kai. 

"Why are you acting so awkward? It's not like I haven't seen you and Kai doing-" 

Thankfully, before Ikki could finish her sentence, Kai hit her square on the face with a pillow from the couch.

"Hey!" Ikki complained.

"If you want to keep holding Lefty, then be quiet." Kai warned.

Ikki squeezed Lefty tighter and turned back towards the movie without uttering a sound. 

In the time Kai and Ikki had their showdown, Jinora managed to scoot in close enough that their legs were touching. Now that Ikki had turned away, she found the confidence to move into Kai’s personal space. She slowly leaned into his chest, giving him time to back away. However, he only shifted slightly to get into a more comfortable position before wrapping his arms around her and tangling their legs together. 

Admittedly, all her romance experience came from reading about romance or pretending with Kai at this point, but she couldn’t deny the warm comforting feeling being held by him gave her. It was reminiscent of their time on the plane. However, now there was no annoying armrest separating them and this time they weren’t in a stressful situation. 

She glanced up at Kai, who seemed to be 100% focused on the movie, but his racing heart was telling a different story. Since she was such a nice and generous person, she decided not to comment on it, especially since she wasn’t doing much better. But because he wanted to pretend to pay attention, she continued to stare at him unabashedly. The way the TV light bounced off his face she could see some faint scars and blemishes on his face, but that didn’t change the fact he was a very attractive individual. From this angle, she could also see he had a very faint freckle on the tip of his nose. She involuntarily smiled at this fact. 

“See something you like?” Kai whispered without breaking eye-contact with the TV. 

“Yeah, right here.” She poked the freckle on the tip of his nose. He now looked down at her, looking confused and flustered. “You have a freckle right there, but I have never noticed it before. It’s cute. I like it.”

“Oh… Thanks.” He muttered, a slight flush creeped up his neck. She really needed to compliment him more often. 

With her bravery wearing off, she turned back towards the movie to keep watching. She didn’t miss the evil smirk Ikki was giving them as she tuned back into the movie. Somehow she didn’t find it in herself to be mad at Ikki for this turn of events. If anything, she almost felt… grateful? Spending time with Kai had been a lot of fun, even if he had a knack for getting into trouble and, well, cuddling with Kai… made her feel something she’s never felt before. 

Jinora woke up with her legs numb and an unfamiliar weight on her. Ikki, still holding Lefty, was sprawled across her legs, and Kai had his arms wrapped around her waist, effectively locking her in place. While they were sleeping, they slid over to the armrest and a piece of her hair was glued to Kai’s face with his drool. Realizing the compromising position they were in (or at least that’s how her dad would see it) Jinora started moving Ikki off her legs to escape. 

“Five more minutes…” Kai muttered, pulling her back into his chest before she had any luck moving or waking up Ikki. 

Inspecting his face closer, she couldn’t find it in herself to be angry. His features looked so much more relaxed and innocent while he was sleeping. He even found a way to make drool look cute. Before she knew it, her eyelids felt heavy again, so she decided to close them for just a few more minutes before trying to wake anyone up. 

Ikki woke up to the sound of her dad’s angry yelling. In her half-asleep state, she missed most of the words, but it probably didn’t pertain to her anyway. She considered going back to sleep, but whatever she was laying on was moving too much for her to do that easily. She sat up blearily and observed her surroundings. It turned out she had been laying on Jinora’s legs and she still had Kai’s IKEA shark in her arms. Boy, was it soft and cuddly- it was about to be her IKEA shark. Looking up further, she saw a very bewildered-looking Jinora and Kai as Tenzin’s tirade persisted onwards. Now it made sense why her dad was so upset- they had all fallen asleep on the couch together. 

In their defense, they had really just all been watching a movie together. As far as PDA went, Jinora and Kai weren’t actually that bad about it. Not including the time she walked in on them at the community center, everything she had witnessed had been really PG and mainly included bad flirting and gross terms of endearment. Even though she liked to make a show over how gross they were, the majority of her classmates in middle school displayed way more icky PDA than them.

As much as Ikki felt bad for them, it was not her problem. Plus, she couldn’t help but to feel like Jinora deserved it since she got to bring a friend with her to the wedding and Ikki did not. Not that she necessarily had a friend to take. Even though she was on the cheer team, she wasn’t exactly popular, per se. She had been told that she was a lot to deal with, and she couldn’t find it within herself to change her entire personality for some fake friends. 

Slipping away from the chaotic scene in the den, Ikki went back to her own room to change into her bathing suit and get ready for the day. The rehearsal dinner wasn’t until later that night, so they had another half day at the beach before them. 

After breakfast, things had settled down a bit, but didn’t stop Kai and Jinora from looking very forlorn. They were totally killing the vacation vibe. When they finally got to the beach, her dad even prevented Jinora and Kai from putting sunscreen on each other, making her put the sunscreen on Jinora’s back and assigned Kai to Meelo. Tenzin’s punishment seemed a bit extreme, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but to laugh at the pitiful scenes unfolding in front of her. 

To help her karma, she decided that she would let Kai borrow her unicorn floaty. That, of course, didn’t stop her from posting a sad Kai drifting out at sea on her Snapchat story. Getting tired of swimming in the ocean herself, she went back to shore to where Jinora was unhappily reading a book under an umbrella. 

“Are you really going to let dad ruin your day like this?” Ikki questioned as she slid up next to her sister. After all, it was her job as the younger sister to instigate. 

“Ugh, Ikki be careful- you might get water on my book!” Jinora complained, probably purposefully dodging her question.

Ikki ignored that comment and pushed further. “Seriously, instead of sulking, shouldn’t you and Kai be making out or something in front of Dad? I thought you were actually being cool and going through a rebellion phase for once.” 

Jinora blushed, but went back to reading her book. Time to instigate harder by appealing to emotions. 

“Come on! Look how sad and pitiful Kai looks right now!” Ikki pointed to where Kai was sitting in the unicorn float. His hair was wet and flopped down on his face, making him look even more pathetic as he let the waves push him around. 

Jinora studied Kai, making an equally pathetic face before turning back to her book again. Being the younger sister really was such hard work, especially when her sister was so straight-laced and stubborn. 

Even though her plan to cheer up Kai and Jinora didn’t work, she still had high hopes going into the rehearsal dinner. Free fancy food and maybe even family friends she could bother. However, her mood was instantly killed when they walked into the event and realized their group made up like half of the people there. 

“Seriously, dad?!” Ikki said in an accusatory tone. He always did this! He tricked them into coming to an event extra early, insisting they were running late.

“We have to be early to make a good impression.” Tenzin chided. “This is my running mate and business partner’s rehearsal dinner after all.” 

Ikki rolled her eyes at him before checking out the venue. A little spark of hope hit her as she saw a girl around her age helping set up the flowers on the tables. A potential friend and ally among the way too early crowd! She made her way over, but out of nowhere, Meelo materialized in front of the girl.

Ikki gritted her teeth. What had she done to deserve this? She spent the majority of the trip third wheeling and now Meelo was trying to steal her only possible companion!? She watched them from a distance, deciding to wait out her approach. From where she was standing, she could see Meelo’s ears turning red. Backed into a corner like this, she had no choice but to resort to Plan B: embarrass Meelo in front of this girl. 

Ikki approached the scene. “Hey Meelo~ Who are you talking to? Is that your new girl-” Before she could complete her sentence, she got a good look at the girl in question and immediately stumbled. This girl was drop dead gorgeous. 

“friend…” Ikki trailed off lamely. 

“Hi, I’m Tuyen! Nice to meet you! You must be Meelo’s sister.” The girl greeted kindly. 

Tuyen had long, flowing dark brown hair with choppy short bangs and big, kind brown eyes that Ikki could already feel herself melting into. She was wearing a fairly modest green wrap dress with kitten heels. Even without the heels, it seemed like she was a bit taller than Ikki and Meelo. She had to give kudos to Meelo for approaching this total knockout so bravely.

“Yep, that’s me! I am Meelo’s older sister, Ikki. I am thirteen years old and I’m a cancer, and my blood type is A positive. I like unicorns, rainbows, doing nails, and anything arts and crafts related.” The words flooded out of Ikki’s mouth before she could stop them. 

The temptation to run back to the car was real, but before she could flee the scene, Tuyen smiled at her, causing her to freeze in place.

“Wow! I am also thirteen! Well, since you like arts and crafts, do you wanna help me set up the rest of these flowers before more people get here?” Tuyen asked.

“Sure!” Ikki exclaimed, probably way too fast to sound cool.

“You can join too if you would like, Meelo.” Tuyen added, and just like that, Ikki’s heart was sinking again. 

“No thanks! I am too manly to arrange flowers.” Meelo declared, flexing obnoxiously. 

Never in her life had she been so happy that her brother was a Fortnite-loving boy with terrible sexist tastes. 

“That’s ok! See you around then.” Tuyen smiled and patted his head. He turned bright red under her attention, making Ikki want to strangle him. 

“Come on, let's set up the flowers for this table.” Tuyen suggested, pointing to a table far away. 

Ikki happily followed her across the restaurant, but not without briefly turning around and sticking her tongue out at Meelo. She’d won this round. 

Chapter Text

For once in her life, Jinora was relieved to arrive at a social event. As her sister had pointed out, it was annoying to arrive way too early, but at least now that they were at the event, Tenzin couldn’t monitor her and Kai’s every move. 

Her mom had attempted to work her magic earlier, but no amount of soothing could save them when her dad was already so stressed about tonight and tomorrow’s wedding. It just sucked that they were the ones that had taken the hit. When they had been walking to the beach earlier, he yelled at them for just trying to hold hands and kept them separated at all costs. After that, they had spent the majority of the day sulking without each other’s company. It was strange that she was missing his presence so much when he was right there. If there was one thing she hadn’t expected to come from this ruse, it was to actually enjoy spending time with Kai. 

Kai pulled her along to the bar as the rest of her family split off to mingle with other guests. “Could I get a water and a Dr. Pepper please?” 

Jinora was impressed he was ordering her drink for her and that he ordered the correct one. However, she didn’t stay impressed for long as he took a swig from the Dr. Pepper and the water. 

“Why are you drinking from my water?” Jinora questioned, annoyed.

“Your water? But I just ordered it for myself. Order your own water.” 

“So you’re seriously just going to order two drinks?” 

“Well, I was just going to order one, but then I heard Mako’s voice in my head yelling at me for not drinking enough water after being in the sun all day.” Kai explained, as he continued to alternate between drinks. 

“Whelp, can’t be mad at you for drinking water, I guess.” Jinora replied, still shooting a frown in his direction. He sent her back a big smile. “Bartender, could I also get a water?” Jinora asked. 

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Kai teased as Jinora accepted her drink from the bartender. 

“You’re so annoying.” Jinora deadpanned. He flashed her another grin, unphased. The most annoying part was how his grin was shooting butterflies through her stomach. 

“Talking about annoying,” Kai started back up, “is it just me or are your siblings fighting over the same girl?” 

Jinora glanced across the room to see Ikki and Meelo blushing while talking to a girl around their age. This was definitely a dangerous situation, but it seemed to resolve itself as Ikki and the girl walked to the other side of the room while Meelo stayed put. 

“Looks like Ikki is winning.” Kai commented and Jinora nodded her head in agreement.. 

As if she heard her name, she turned towards Kai and Jinora and started suggestively raising her eyebrows and suddenly Ikki’s words from earlier that day started ringing through her head

Seriously, instead of sulking, shouldn’t you and Kai be making out or something in front of Dad?  

Jinora felt the heat rise to her face. Did Ikki have a point? She had been so gung-ho about being rebellious, but everything they had done so far was very PG. Now that she and Kai had become close friends, it wouldn’t be that weird if they kissed. Right?  

Turning back towards Kai, she strengthened her resolve. She should just ask him herself- they were close friends after all. 

“I think we should kiss!” she blurted out. She internally cringed at how terribly she phrased it- that was way too direct and not even a question. Apparently Kai was shocked too, as he sprayed the Dr. Pepper he had just taken a sip of all over her. 

They stared at each other in an awkward moment of disbelief before she grabbed Kai’s hand and started to drag them through the hallway.

“That eager, huh?” Kai teased, but his voice crack halfway through gave him away as being more nervous than he let on. 

She pulled them into a gender neutral bathroom and closed the door. “You know, this wasn’t the romantic setting I was imagining for our first kiss.” Kai spoke up. Jinora really loved and hated how cheeky he was sometimes.

“You’re the one who just spit Dr. Pepper all over me!” Jinora complained as she began wiping soda off her outfit and face using a wet paper towel. “Also, it’s not my fault the words came out all wrong.” The explanation began to tumble out.

“Earlier today while you were swimming, Ikki was getting all mad at me for not rebelling enough and said we should be kissing in front of my dad as revenge. Then I was thinking we have been keeping it too PG for a couple in love. So I was thinking maybeweshouldkiss? But also we need to practice kissing, you know, since I've never kissed anyone before. I am not trying to kiss you right now though. I just thought we should have this conversation where there wouldn’t be any listening ears.” She finished by shooting him a look.

“Oh… right…” He responded sheepishly while scratching the back of his neck.

Jinora shot him a pointed look. It was then she noticed he was rapidly turning red, and felt herself blushing too. “Excuse me for not wanting to stand in the bar while covered in Dr. Pepper.” 

“You know, a bathroom kiss would still be a more romantic first kiss than mine with Skoochy…” 

“You seriously want to kiss me in the bathroom?” 

“Well, this is like the fanciest building I have ever been in my life without trespassing and not gonna lie, this bathroom is pretty nice.”  

He had a point- the bathroom looked like one you would find inside a magazine. It was pristine and sparkling with decorative plants and fancy towelettes. Turning back towards him, she studied him. He was wearing a short-sleeved collared shirt that was probably stolen from Mako along with a pair of nicer looking skinny jeans. His hair was slightly styled backwards, so instead of his notorious bedhead, it looked like he had put in at least a little bit of effort. 

Judging by the look on his face, he had been quite serious about his statement, and she couldn’t find a single reason to disagree. When else were they going to find a moment of privacy to practice before she kissed him in front of someone else? Before she could chicken out, she grabbed the lapels of his collar and yanked him forward. 

Before their lips could meet, she felt his hand press against her forehead. “Woah, I am not trying to lose all my teeth in this interaction.” Kai interjected. 

Jinora felt a new wave of flush wash over her and her grip loosen on Kai’s shirt, but before she could flee the situation, Kai’s hand gently cupped her cheek. Ever so lightly, Kai’s lips brushed against hers. They were softer than she expected, and she felt herself leaning into them more, but all too soon, Kai leaned back.  

She was going to complain about how that hardly counted as a kiss, but as soon as she saw the smile on his face, the words died away on her lips. His smile was like one she had never seen on his face before- so pure and real. 

“Sorry, it’s hard to kiss someone when you’re smiling.” He explained. 

“And why are you smiling?” Jinora asked slowly, her heart rate quickening in anticipation of his answer. 

“Thinking about how you’ll have to admit that your first kiss was in a public bathroom.” And just like that the moment was broken. Jinora sent him a harsh glare. 

She opened her mouth to protest further, but his lips met hers again. Instead of a light touch, their lips slid together clumsily. It was more intense than before, making her heart rate soar, and making her forget all the angry words. It wasn't perfect though, it was actually a bit awkward. Their noses mashed together in a way where it wasn't easy to breathe and their lack of experience was really showing as neither of them really took the lead on the kiss. It wasn't too long before they had to pull back again.

"Ummm… maybe we should turn our heads a bit more?" Jinora suggested, her anger about his comment long forgotten now. Instead, she found herself licking her lips, tasting the slight aftertaste of Dr. Pepper and his cherry chapstick as she stared at Kai's face.

He stared down at her lips intensely as he watched her tongue trace across them. "Oh yeah, uh huh." 

She was about to scold him for his lack of listening, but was immediately distracted when he pushed her back into the counter. The butterflies in her stomach multiplied by a hundred as his arms caged her in and he leaned in for another kiss. She instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck as she helped to decrease the distance between them.

This time, it felt like they had it all figured out. There were no noses being smashed or awkward pauses as they moved their lips together in sync. Jinora found herself enjoying the kiss, perhaps a bit too much, as she pulled him closer to her. However, the opening of the door quickly startled them apart.

"You didn't lock the door?!" Jinora asked incredulously and Kai shot her a sheepish look.

"Oops sorry to interrupt, looks like our makeout spot has already been stolen." Korra told her girlfriend. 

Jinora groaned. Out of all the people that could have found them in this compromising position, it was probably for the best that it was Korra and Asami, but man, she was never going to hear the end of this. 

"Actually, we were just leaving." Jinora pushed herself away from the counter and began fleeing to the hallway with Kai in tow as the older girls laughed at their strife.

"Well, at least that wasn't the worst that could happen." Kai declared as soon as they got out of listening range. 

Jinora turned around to shoot him a look and noticed the incriminating evidence of her lipstick on his lips. "Oh shit," she mumbled as she grabbed Kai's face in her hands. He gave her a confused look, but she ignored it as she swiped her thumb across his lips, removing the evidence. It wasn't until she backed up she saw the blush lighting up his face.

"Sorry you had a bit of lipstick on your face." She explained lamely before turning back around to rejoin the masses at the rehearsal dinner. She smirked a bit and didn't wait for him to catch up as she approached a waiter holding an hors d'oeuvre tray. 

At least the day wasn't a complete loss to her dad. Even if he wouldn't know what they had done, they had a great trump card for the wedding tomorrow.

Although ever captivated by Tuyen's beauty, Ikki couldn't help but to notice her sister and Kai had wandered off for an extended amount of time after Kai spit Dr. Pepper all over her sister.

Ikki had nothing personal against Kai. In fact, she liked him a lot. He was nice and funny and good with Rohan, but when he pulled stunts like this, she couldn't help but wonder how Kai had scored her sister in the first place.

Those thoughts were immediately cut off when she and Tuyen brushed hands as they finished arranging flowers on the last table they had left. Ikki's eyes snapped up to meet the taller girl's and found herself blushing.

"Oops my bad. I just missed everything you said. My mind has a habit of wandering sometimes."

"It's ok!" Tuyen reassured her. "I was just asking if you play any sports." 

"I am a cheerleader!" Ikki announced proudly. "If you couldn't already tell by how loud I am." She flipped her hair over her shoulder dramatically.

Tuyen laughed. “I bet you look really cute in your cheerleading uniform.” 

“Thanks.” Ikki felt herself flushing. It was unfair how smooth this girl was without trying to be. “What about you? What sports do you play?”

“Soccer.” Ikki sighed dreamily. It was all too easy to imagine how nice Tuyen’s long legs would look in soccer shorts and she would be cheering from the sidelines. Her daydream was cut short by an annoying younger brother. He was flexing with one arm and juggling refreshments with the other.He looked absolutely ridiculous. 

“He~llo beautiful lady… and Ikki.” Meelo announced, and Ikki rolled her eyes. He was lucky Tuyen was so nice. “I brought you a drink.” He sat down, placing a questionable liquid in front of Tuyen. 

Shouldn’t he have asked her what kind of drink she wanted before bringing her something random? Ikki didn’t hold back her glare and Tuyen looked at the drink with concern. Knowing her, she would be too nice to say she didn’t like the drink Meelo picked out.

“Hey little man, thanks for the drink.” Kai greeted and swooped up the drink placed in front of Tuyen. He downed it all at once. 

“ Hey! That was for the pretty lady!” Meelo complained. 

“My bad, I heard beautiful and thought you were talking about me. Ikki, why don’t you go get Tuyen and yourself something to drink? Jinora and I will stake claims on this table for dinner.” He slid into the seat next to where Tuyen was standing, and Jinora sat down next to him. 

Meelo grumbled but said nothing further as he sat down next to Jinora, far far away from where she and Tuyen slid into their seats. Kai might just be her new favorite brother if he kept this up. 

“So Tuyen, what would you like to drink?” Ikki asked.

“Water please!” She requested. 

“Alright! Be right back!” 

She skipped the whole way to the refreshments table and back. Tonight was turning out good. Jinora and Kai cut off Meelo for her. Her mom was on Rohan duty and she got to sit next to the prettiest and nicest girl at the party. She smiled big as she slid back into the seat next to Tuyen. 

Chapter Text

Eventually, the wedding party and other guests began to filter in. Everything was going smoothly, other than the cheeky looks Korra and Asami kept shooting in Jinora’s direction. But for now the crisis between Ikki and Meelo had been settled and Rohan was with her parents, so for once in her life Jinora could enjoy a social event like a regular teenager. Not that she would particularly like to spend her free time being social, but better than being a glorified child wrangler.

"Wait, what are they bringing out to the table?!" Kai exclaimed, looking like an excitable puppy as his head darted back and forth between servers carrying trays of food.

"The appetizers?" Jinora responded, wondering if it was some sort of trick question.

"But I thought we just got our appetizers from the tables by the bartender?" Kai questioned.

"No, those were the hors d'oeuvres." 

"I don't speak French. I'm taking Spanish as my world language." 

Jinora shot him a deadpan look. “It's a French word we adopted into English. It’s a small starting dish served at cocktail parties, typically.” 

“So, like an appetizer?” Kai questioned. 

Jinora facepalmed. “No! It’s not an appetizer! Appetizers are the second course, hor d’oeuvres are the first course.” 

“So an appetizer, that’s not an appetizer. Got it!” Kai saluted with a cheeky grin. She wanted to kiss that look right off his face and see who was the one smirking after that. 

“AS you can see,” Ikki said exaggeratedly to Tuyen, snapping Jinora out of her train of thoughts. “They are super gross. All that PDA and for some reason, my parents still let her bring him along as a plus one.”

Jinora blushed as she realized how much she had been invading Kai’s personal space. She smoothed out the collar of his shirt, trying to make it seem like that was the reason she had gotten so close to him in the first place. 

Friends could think about kissing their friends, right? Especially if they were trying to get said friend to shut up. Jinora groaned internally. This reasoning was starting to sound too similar to the plot of a romance book she had just finished reading. She was doomed.

“But that’s ok. I’m not hurt anymore because now I have you.” Ikki added sweetly, giving Tuyen a side hug while smirking in Meelo’s direction. 

What was it with middle schoolers and constantly trying to start shit? It was probably her own fault for thinking any event her whole family was at could go without causing any scenes. She glanced over at Kai to gauge how he was feeling about the ongoing war between her siblings, just to be met with a guilty-looking Kai whose mouth was stuffed to the brim with appetizers she hadn’t even noticed had been placed on the table. 

“Yes dear?” Kai choked out in response to her look, spraying Jinora with food bits in the process. 

Jinora sent him a glare that had made others cower in fear, but Kai just laughed covering his mouth to prevent food from going everywhere. Jinora felt the strength of her glare diminishing. Meelo watched the scene incredulously, thankfully not paying attention to Ikki’s smug looks anymore.

“Nani!?” Meelo exclaimed. “Did Kai just withstand The Glare of Death™ from General Jinora?!” 

Jinora internally groaned as Ikki and Tuyen giggled at Meelo’s obnoxious declaration.This was  just what she needed, she thought sarcastically, for Meelo to look up to Kai and for Kai to have his ego boosted even further. 

“TEACH ME YOUR WAYS SENSEI.” Meelo exclaimed, shooting even more food bits in Jinora’s direction and this time she dodged more prepared for the onslaught. Now she remembered why she always carried her trusty book shield with her to dinner. 

“Sorry buddy, that trick isn’t teachable. Jinora is only soft for me.” He punctuated his sentence by giving her a peck on the cheek and Jinora found herself smiling more than she should at this domestic display.

“Ugh gross!” Meelo complained, scrunching up his face while Ikki backed him up by making barfing noises. Well at least she had succeeded in reuniting her sibling with her PDA.

“I think they are cute!” Tuyen protested.

“You won’t think it’s cute when you’re around them all the time. You would not believe what I walked in on when I first found out they were together!” Ikki started. Jinora hid her face in her hands while Kai started laughing at her expense, no shame to be found. 

Thankfully, the rest of the courses went by faster as Jinora managed to dodge all the food projectiles and preserve her makeup. Now they were sitting through a long Varrick speech about his and Zhu Li’s unlikely love story as they ate dessert. At this point of the party, everyone above the drinking age was at least a little tipsy from the champagne. Varrick was quite the light weight, as it really showed in his speech. Apparently Zhu Li had been the one to propose to him which was “cool” and “unconventional,” but Jinora was wishing that someone in the wedding party would take the microphone from him so they could get onwards with the toasts. Kai was making stupid faces at her, raising his eyebrows and crossing his eyes at her as she attempted to read a book using the Kindle app on her phone. She didn’t mind this distraction though. Lately she was finding everything he did endearing instead of annoying.

“Alright, now letsh have some toasts to our wedding!” Varrick announced after what felt like a million years. “Tenzin, oh pal, why don’ you come up first!” he added,  as he turned and almost tripped over the cord of his mic. 

Jinora held in her laughter as she watched her dad’s expression morph to one of mild panic. Rohan decided he was going to be difficult and clung to one of his legs as he walked to the microphone Varrick was holding out to him. 

“Go Mr. Gyasto!” Kai hollered out during the applause, looking way too smug about her dad’s misfortune. 

“Ehem,” her dad started and feedback ran through the mic, causing Rohan on his leg to scream. While Jinora usually tried to stay a neutral party, she couldn’t help but to join Kai in the snickering. 

“I would like to thank Zhu Li and Varrick for this momentous opportunity…” Tenzin started. Of course, her dad was the only person who could make a wedding toast sound so stuffy and boring while having a screaming child attached to his leg. 

Eventually her dad’s painful toast came to a close and a few other people came up to make toasts, including Asami. 

“Alright, it’s the time you’ve all been waiting for! Open bar and open dance floor!” the DJ announced, adding one too many air horn noises. This was hopefully the part where they would all dip out soon, since they had Rohan and they were all too young to drink. Also, Jinora could not say she was a fan of hanging out around a bunch of drunk adults. 

Her stomach soon tanked as she saw Ikki begging her parents to stay thirty more minutes so she could hang out with Tuyen longer, citing how unfair it was she didn’t have a plus one to begin with and pulling out her biggest puppy dog eyes. 

“I don’t see why not! Thirty more minutes.” her mom agreed, and Jinora groaned out loud this time. 

“Ready to go home?” Kai chuckled. Seemed like he was laughing at her expense quite often today. 

“Yes.” Jinora responded without hesitation, she had already reached her social limit for today and unlike the other members of her family she was no extrovert. 

“How about we pass the time with a little dancing?” Kai raised his eyebrows and sent her a smirk. 

“Nope, sorry. I am saving all my dancing for tomorrow at the wedding. Dancing at the dress rehearsal is not mandatory, so count me out.”

“Suit yourself!” Kai walked out to the dance floor confidently, joining Ikki, Tuyen, Asami, and Korra in their dance group. What really surprised Jinora was that Kai actually had some fancy footwork. She had been expecting him to start doing the sprinkler or maybe cranking the lawn mower, but instead he slid out onto the dance floor and pulled out the smooth moves. 

It didn’t take too long for her to be caught red-handed staring at Kai. It wasn’t her fault, she hadn’t mentally prepared herself for Kai to be decent at dancing. Kai paused his dancing as he smirked at Jinora’s staring. Then he held out his hand and put one of his kicked puppy faces on. Whatever resolve Jinora had left dissolved as she was drawn onto the dance floor. 

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist these moves.” Kai laughed as their hands met. 

“Just decided I couldn’t let you show me up when I am a way better dancer.” Jinora bluffed back.

Truth be told she wasn’t a terrible dancer, as someone who had trained in martial arts her whole life, she knew how to move her body. However, with that being said she was still incredibly awkward, which definitely kept her from being too good of a dancer. 

Before she could catch her bearings or start overthinking things, Kai started twirling her around and then letting her go. She conveniently stepped between Tuyen and Meelo with this dance move, which sparked a great idea. 

As Kai brought her back into his arms, Jinora shouted in Ikki and Tuyen’s direction, “I bet Kai and I could easily out dance you guys!” 

As Ikki had been playing annoying matchmaker with her and Kai this whole time. It was finally her time to get revenge. And even though she didn’t want Ikki and Meelo to start beefing, she definitely thought this would help knock Meelo’s ego down a few pegs. 

Ikki and Tuyen looked at each other and Jinora could see the competitive spark in Ikki’s eyes. Ikki grabbed Tuyen’s hands confidently, pulling her in. 

“Let’s do this! It’s on!” Ikki exclaimed as Tuyen laughed about her enthusiasm.

Jinora gestured for them to take an open space on the dance floor as she and Kai stepped aside.

“Looks like we have a dance battle!” the DJ called out, once again spamming air horns, before dropping the beat and switching to a more dance appropriate song. 

Ikki was not deterred in the slightest by how much attention their little competition had gathered. She confidently led Tuyen across the dance floor. It was then Jinora started to feel regret as Ikki began to embellish her dance with moves that showed off her flexibility as a cheerleader. 

Tuyen held her own as they smoothly danced across the floor in each other's arms as if they had practiced this. This was what she got for challenging kids during the TikTok era. Of course they looked like a well-oiled machine when she knew for a fact Ikki spent a significant amount of time learning TikTok dances trends, even though their dad had banned all of them from having an account on the platform. As they finished, Ikki slid into the middle splits while Tuyen posed cutely behind her.

“TOP THAT!” Ikki screeched over the applause and the DJ’s airhorn sound effects. Tuyen helped her up from her splits and they shared a long hug. 

At least Jinora’s match-making initiative had worked, but at what cost. The majority of the party-goers had crowded around the dance floor, but left the middle wide open for her and Kai. She was not about to let her little sister show her up though. 

“Do you know how to do a cartwheel?” Jinora asked Kai. “I am thinking we should play to our strengths, and use martial arts in our dance.” 

“Wow, so serious.” Kai said with a goofy smile on his face. Jinora sent a glare his way, this was serious! She couldn’t lose to her little sister. Kai dropped his goofy smile and saluted to her. “Let’s do this!” 

Jinora rolled her eyes, but this was about as serious as Kai got so she would just have to work with it. They cartwheeled together to their spot on the dance floor, already causing the crowd to start wooping. 

She arranged herself in Kai’s arms and then they began, Kai mainly leading calmly with his assured footwork and Jinora following him as he spun her around the dance floor. When he pulled her back in close she whisper-shouted. “Alright let’s do a mock fight dance and then end with a lift.” 

“You’re the martial arts expert, not me. Remember?” Kai responded. 

“Oh so now you want to admit you are lacking in martial arts?!” Jinora complained. “Just follow my lead.” 

They began to circle each other before Kai threw out a kick and Jinora dodged with the most over the top back handstand. Then, they went back to orbiting each other again. They continued this trend of circling and over the top martial arts mixed with gymnastics moves until they reached the peak of the song. Then Jinora let Kai catch her and lift her in the air, spinning as the song came to a close. 

The crowd went wild as Kai set Jinora back down on the floor. “LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE OUR WINNER!” the DJ announced and Jinora couldn't even find it in herself to be annoyed by the DJ’s obnoxious use of sound effects as she stared into Kai’s eyes.

His arms were still around her, holding her tight as they both caught their breaths. She found herself lost in his emerald eyes as she inadvertently leaned closer.

Before she knew it her eyes fluttered closed and their lips met. The sounds of the crowd’s screams melted away as she got lost in the feeling of his lips against hers. Romance novels hardly did kissing justice with their description. No matter how good the author, she had always had a hard time picturing the feeling of someone else's lips on hers without thinking about how slimy and gross it would be. Kai’s lips were warm and tasted faintly of dessert, but most importantly they were soft and fit against her lips so well. 

“THERE’S NO WAY Y'ALL DIDN'T PRACTICE THAT!” Ikki’s yelling broke Jinora out of her trance. She finally realized where she was. 

She was at a party in front of around a hundred people, but more importantly her incredibly strict dad, swapping spit with her not-real boyfriend. She briefly glanced at Kai, not being able to hide her smirk about the lipstick smeared across his lips and the dazed look on his face. before deciding to address the problems at hand. 

“Well, practicing beforehand wasn't a part of the rules. Plus, you and Tuyen definitely used viral TikTok dances in your choreo!” Jinora easily rebutted. 

Ikki sent a sneer in her direction along with some complaining noises as she made her way back to Tuyen. Kai’s arm slid around her waist, pulling her into him, distracting Jinora from Ikki.

“Holy shit we just did that!” Kai exclaimed.

“Yeah we did!” Jinora smiled, her feeling of competitiveness faded into joy.

“But why did you let Ikki think we practiced that?” he questioned.

“Well she wouldn't have believed me regardless and it's fun to ruffle her feathers.” she answered, finding herself enjoying Kai's loose embrace.

“True!” Kai laughed, “Even I'm struggling to believe we just YOLOed all that.” 

“Did you just turn the word YOLO into a verb?!” Jinora scowled. How could he use cringe slang, but still make her heart flutter. 

Just for that she decided she'd let Kai remain lipstick-smeared for the rest of the night. The last thirty minutes of the party were almost up and he definitely deserved it after spitting food and drinks at her all in one night.

Chapter Text

“Jinora, you are grounded.” Tenzin ordered.

She should have seen this coming considering she started a dance battle at a public event and then kissed Kai in front of said large audience. On the other hand, all the shenanigans she participated in were wholesome and no one got hurt in the process so there was no reason for her to get in trouble. 

“Dad you can't ground me just because I kissed my boyfriend at the party. You're the one that said I was allowed to bring him, but now I'm not even allowed to interact with him? Make that make sense!”

“Jinora, I don't have enough time for all this debating. My word is final and I have to wake up early tomorrow.” 

Jinora sent a pleading look to her mom, hoping that she would intervene. However, her look went unnoticed as her mom was busy corralling her siblings to start their bedtime routines. 

“With all due respect, sir-” Kai started. 

“I do not need your input on this matter!” Tenzin interrupted, giving Kai a sharp glare. 

This was angrier than Jinora had ever seen her dad before. Not only had he turned red to the tips of his ears, but his always-immaculate beard had tufts sticking out in whichever direction.

Kai sent her a helpless shrug before scampering off into the room he shared with Meelo. 

The fact he even tried to say anything was surprising, so she didn't take it to heart when he fled the scene; this was her and dad’s battle.

“Well soooorry I can't be perfect enough for you!” Jinora exclaimed before stomping off to her room.

She was so relieved they were not sharing a conjoined hotel room for this vacation because she needed time to be alone.

It was so unfair she had done everything in her power to be the best daughter she possibly could. She babysat her siblings without much complaining, volunteered at the community center, took all honors and AP classes and made straight A’s. She had even unintentionally isolated herself in the process, but somehow all her efforts still seemingly went unnoticed by her dad. 

She felt her phone vibrate and she flipped over carefully, almost fearful it would be her dad (not likely since he wasn't very good at working his phone). She let out a sigh of relief when she saw the text was from Kai. Her heart rate sped up. What if he was mad about their kiss or regretted coming here with her?

Kai 💚 your boytoy: hey is everything ok? srry to run off like that but i could tell me being there wasnt going to make the situation better :((((

Jinora, despite herself, felt a small smile tug at the corners of her lips.

Jinora: I'll be ok. I'm just really frustrated with my dad, but I had a really good time with you tonight and I appreciate you putting up with all this family drama. It's probably not even worth it for the free vacation. I'm sorry about everything.

Kai 💚 your boytoy: Y r u apologizing u didnt do anything wrong!!! u definitely didnt deceive me ive had a ton of fun participating in ur family shenanigans even when ur dad is being a bit rude about it 

Jinora: “a bit rude” Understatement of the century. He's being a big turd muffin. I can't believe he's grounding me on this vacation I didn't even want to miss school for. 😐😐😐

Kai 💚 your boytoy: turd muffin?!? 😂😂😂 R u tryin to make meelo beat me up for being loud as revenge 4 earlier today bcuz its working 🤡🤡 

Kai 💚 your boytoy: but yeah sorry i feel like i made ur dad thing even worse 😔😔 i got lost in the moment that was my bad… I forgot 2 ask u permission b4 i kissed u 2 i feel like a big asshole 😭

Jinora paused and reread the message a couple times. She had to resist the urge to spontaneously combust and never respond. It was shocking that they were on completely different pages and worrying about two vastly different things from tonight. 

Reflecting back on it, she had not only her first kiss but three different kisses with Kai. Somehow she was more caught up on family drama rather than the fact she was practically living through one of her romance novels out right now. 

Honestly, it was pretty cute that Kai would worry about not asking permission to kiss her in the heat of the moment. It was hilarious that she had once thought he was a bad boy, he was more like a golden retriever.

Jinora: you're not an asshole, don't worry about that. Like I said I had a really good time with you tonight. Well this is goodnight. We have to wake up early tomorrow

Kai 💚 your boytoy: good night jinnie sweet dreams 💖

Jinora woke up the following morning due to a commotion in the house. She heard a familiar and kind voice floating through the walls and she immediately launched herself out of bed.

“ Gran Gran !!” Jinora called out joyfully as she ran into the living room.

At that moment, she didn't even care that there was a potential that Kai could see her with her bed head, oversized t-shirt and Hello Kitty pajama shorts. She was so ecstatic to see her Gran Gran.

Gran Gran was her dad's mom, but she was nothing like her dad. She was wise but rebellious, kind but confrontational, and a little bit mischievous - pretty much everything Jinora strived to be.

Although she looked old and fragile, Gran Gran gave the best firm hugs. Jinora happily sighed as she melted into the hug. This was just what she needed to calm her soul after fighting with her dad last night. 

“Gran Gran, I missed you!” 

“I missed you too, darling.” Gran Gran responded, giving her one final squeeze before letting her go from the hug. She sat down on the couch and patted the seat next to her which Jinora happily took.

“So what have you been up to? A little birdie told me you had a dance off at Varrick’s reception. And this boyfriend of yours? Hearing about it reminded me of this secret dance party your grandpa Aang and I hosted as teens!” Gran Gran exclaimed. 

It was moments like this that her inner youthfulness shone through. She never wanted to miss out on any of the tea– especially when it came to her grandkids. Jinora could always count on her to be her number one fan and cheerleader. Sadly, dancing and boyfriends were not very safe topics to bring up in the current climate of things. She could already sense her dad's eyebrow twitch all the way from the kitchen as he was listening in on their conversation. 

It was at that moment Kai chose to have the worst timing and walk out of his shared room. He was wearing Naruto pajama bottoms and a t-shirt from one of the places Bolin used to work. It was apparent the t-shirt was well loved given all of its small holes and fraying hems.

“Did someone say secret dance party?!” Kai exclaimed but his speech was slightly slurred by his yawn mid question.

Well, he definitely knew how to make an entrance with his unique outfit and questionable bed head. Regardless, Jinora found herself unable to stop smiling at Kai as he looked around the room, realizing he didn't recognize the person who had brought up secret dance parties.

“Good morning Mrs. Gyasto?” Kai said when he finished assessing the unfamiliar person in the room.

“Please, just call me Gran Gran.” She responded easily. “Why don't you come sit with us? Jinora was just about to tell me about you guys and your dance off last night!”

“Can you tell us about your secret dance party first? That sounds pretty epic!” Kai responded, happily sitting on top of Jinora smushing her into the couch and making Gran Gran laugh at their ridiculousness. 

“We don't have time for talking about dance parties, we have a wedding to attend and prepare for!” Tenzin cut into their conversation before anyone could start sharing their stories. 

“Now, Tenzin, it's only 8 AM and the ceremony doesn't even start until 12. Ikki, Meelo, and Rohan aren't even awake and these two haven't had breakfast yet! What's all this rush for? Surely I have time to get to know my grandson-in-law!”

Jinora was so glad she was halfway into the couch thanks to Kai because she felt her whole body light on fire as the words grandson-in-law were playing on repeat in her head. Why did she have to have the most embarrassing family ever? 

Unfortunately, neither her dad nor her grandmother seemed to care about her plight as they continued arguing. 

“ Son-in-law ?? That's ridiculous! Jinora is just a kid!” 

“Well Aang and I were high school sweethearts, it's not impossible! Or is this you trying to say something about this boy's character? Being judgemental never helped save anyone, you know!”

Jinora finally managed to free her hand which had gotten embedded in the couch from Kai's weight (who was still on her) and raise it high.

“Sorry dad, Gran Gran, but Kai and I just got invited to eat breakfast with Korra and Asami down at their beach house. Asami wanted our professional teenager opinion on one of her ideas. So we're leaving now!” 

With that she gave Kai's back a shove, forcing him off her lap and hopped up from the couch, dragging Kai along. 

“Wow, did we actually get invited to eat breakfast with Korra and Asami?” Kai wondered as he walked across the beach in the direction of Korra and Asami’s beach house.

“No, it was a lie. I could tell World War 3 was about to go down between Gran Gran and dad and I didn't want to sit through that again. My mom can put out that fire.” Jinora replied, kicking the sand wistfully. 

She had unfortunately just remembered that both of them were still wearing their pajamas and had bedheads to boot.

“Didn't know I was dating such a baddie” Kai smirked and Jinora rolled her eyes and hopefully patted the rest of her messy hair. 

“Well I thought your Gran Gran seemed really cool. She seemed to have no problem giving Mr. Gyasto- I mean your dad a run for his money.” Kai laughed. 

“You're only saying that because she called you grandson-in-law! That was so embarrassing- I might never recover! As if Ikki hasn't embarrassed me enough .” Jinora pouted. 

She stopped walking at this point, since they weren't actually invited to Asami’s beach house,and she certainly didn't want to risk walking in on whatever the two of them might be doing. Choosing to sit down on the sand, she put her feet out so the sea water would touch her toes every couple of waves. 

“You're grandmother is quite spunky, it sounded like she was just trying to get under Tenzin's skin though. Who knows, maybe she's doing you a favor and will get you ungrounded!” Kai said, sitting next to her. 

They sat in silence, mesmerized by the constant push and pull of the ocean and Jinora tried not to cringe as she watched the sea water wet the end of Kai’s Naruto sleep pants. It wasn't long before her stomach made a noise similar to the sound of a dying whale. 

“Shall we charge breakfast on your dad's card?” Kai asked with an amused look on his face. 

Not too far up the beach there were a few very bougie and overpriced restaurants. Well she was on a forced vacation and she was already grounded, it's not like she could get in any more trouble than she already was. 

“Let's do it!” Jinora agreed. 

Kai grabbed her hand running as fast as one could on sand while laughing. She joined in, finding that she didn't even mind they were both wearing dorky pajamas on probably the most exclusive and expensive part of Ember Island. It was time for her to live in the moment and enjoy what was in front of her.