The first time they meet is an accident.
She is the responsible eldest daughter of one of Republic City's respected leaders, graceful even at ten years of age and determined to follow her father's footsteps towards a peaceful nation. He is the bumbling eighteen year orphan, always ready to grace a goofy smile on his face and prepared to follow his brother to the ends of the earth.
Most of her days if she isn't meditating or training with father or being privately tutored, she spends quiet afternoons holed up in the temple's cavernous library, light filtering in softly against worn pages that she becomes absorbed right into. History, adventures, scientific theory, she obtains it all and cherishes each carefully printed or written stroke that slants against the paper. Knowledge is a far cry from the wisdom her father and grandfather possessed, she knows this, but it's her guilty pleasure and to know that memorizing the facts is a stepping stone to applying them.
Looking back, she finds it slightly ironic that that day she is diligently pouring over old scrolls of her grandfather's and his people's (her people, her ancestors) written in an ancient tongue even she needs to take her time with to stumble over the complicated language about meditation is the one he chooses to barrel into her sanctuary like a cannon, slamming heavy wooden doors behind him and jolting her upright. A small squawk escapes her throat as she watched scrolls fly everywhere, her airbending acting instinctively with her surprise.
He glances up at her with equal surprise, his thick eyebrows shooting up to the ridges of his flyaway hair as he pants heavily with his rigid back pressed firmly against the door. Both are a little shocked to find someone else in their place of sanctuary, but it is he who manages to move past the surprised owl-cat like blinking and grins freely. "Hey, wouldja mind sharing the space for a little while until Korra's calmed down or gets distracted enough that I can escape this island without bodily harm inflicted upon myself?"
Her eyebrows crease a bit as she attempts to place a name to the unfamiliar face that's wandering (running) the hallowed halls of her home. The way he throws out Korra's name as a casual acquaintance and the attire that wraps around a burly frame indicating an earth bender only brings her to the iffy conclusion that he was one of Korra's team mates from the mainland. Affirming this, she asks inquisitively, "Are you…Mako's brother?" It only takes her a second to recall the cute but brooding brother's name who had visited before; her memory never fails her.
"Yeah!" His grin doesn't falter as he takes a step closer before hesitating in his step and turning back quickly to shove a heavy bookshelf in way of the doorframe. She raises an eyebrow but says nothing, and he doesn't supply an answer either. Instead his steady grin is replaced with one slightly more sheepish and he extends a hand courteously. "So, kiddo, I'm Bolin. The other third of the Fire Ferrets."
"Jinora."
She takes his hand uncertainly as he pumps it once firmly before placing his own on the back of his neck and looking around the large library with a low whistle. "Well, I guess I picked the best spot to hide from Korra. I can't see her stepping within a foot of a book and this place has got to be big enough for a zillion hiding spots."
The verbal reminder of books draws her back to the delicate scrolls that have unwound and lay haphazardly across the floor in various positions. She yelps despairingly and begins gently picking them up in order, careful to tear no edges or put creases into the several hundred year old parchment. Once they are all cradled protectively within her arms, she glances at him and frowns, placing her annoyance and blame in herself for losing control and potentially damaging precious scrolls at him. Snappishly, she asks, "What did you do to her?"
"What? Korra?" He asks and shoves his hands into his pockets. "Well, you know her, she's a little hot tempered and gets frustrated real easy…she doesn't like it very much when Mako lectures her on bending form…or anything really. I just happened to pick a bad day to steal her lunch and take my brother's side in the fight." He laughs a bit. "Stupid of me to even try picking a side. They're both so stubborn."
She can't help but smile a little at this. Korra loved her meat and Jinora had heard that the kitchen had prepared some pheasant-chicken in her father's absence; it wasn't very often that the Avatar got to indulge in it while on the island thanks to her father's strict vegetarian regime he attempted to keep her on. No, it certainly was not a good day to steal a grab for her lunch.
As if sensing their speculation upon her, roaring and a string of filthy cuss words that would've made the guards blush echo through the hall outside the blocked door, calling for the blood of one unfortunate earth bender. Bolin quickly claps firm hands around Jinora's small ears and proceeds to flush at the profanity of the words being yelled before paling as they seem to intensify in their gory details of his soon to be dismemberment. Luckily, the tirade becomes quieter and quieter until Bolin lets go of her head and she hears through the high windows of the library the gates to the south gardens being thrown open with a clatter.
Curiously, she skips onto her desk haphazardly strewn with papers and scrolls, all of which deftly avoids stepping on with a light foot, and leaps gracefully onto the top of a bookshelf where she peers through the glass window into the courtyard to see Korra punching fireballs into the sky, moaning about her loss of her pheasant-chicken.
"I think you're in the clear for now. If you go through the north entrance you should be able to catch the ship to the mainland without her noticing there." She chimes down at him while still staring at the dark skinned girl who had moved on to creating small rocky mountains along the stone path in the garden (effectively uprooting a magnolia tree) while cursing her team mate for all she was worth. Oh, father was not going to be pleased…
She leaps down in the same manner she had gone up, careful again to avoid stepping on any reading material, before perching back in her chair cross legged gracefully. He is looking down at her with an impressed expression on his round face, "You're like a little sparrowkeet like that. You're a natural at airbending, eh?"
She can't help but flush, partly with pride in herself and partly with embarrassment at the honest compliment he paid her and merely smiles slightly. "I guess. But compared to Korra…everyone's a natural airbender."
The room is suddenly filled with his bright raucous laughter and Jinora can't help but think that it's a beautiful sound. Deep and honest, and it reminds her of the summer gales she had experienced the one time she had been able to visit the old air bending temples of grandfather's days. He dies down to a few chuckles and grins. "Yeah, I suppose compared to her I could make it look easy."
"She tries though. She tries very hard." She says to try to amend for her uncalled for jab at the water tribe girl. She adores Korra and knows that what she's saying about her trying hard is true, and that it frustrates the older girl to no end.
"Yeah, but it's not something you can just force out. You have to know your element and just…be it." He shrugs, unable to supply a more eloquent situation. He doesn't have to. She knows what he means and agrees. Secretly, she has always wondered if that was why Korra always fails at it and if she will ever succeed if she can't embrace more of the breezing airbending qualities.
A shockwave resounds through the library as Korra finished what was probably a blow that further destroyed her father's gardens and snaps Bolin back to a cautious state as he backs up towards the door. He effortlessly slides the obstructing bookcase back to its original position and gives her a grateful salute with one foot half out the doorway. "Thanks for, uh, sheltering me from the avatar's mighty wrath and helping me with my escape."
She giggles. "I know nothing more terrifying than Korra when she's mad."
"True that." He whistles lowly before giving one final wave goodbye and closing the door behind him with a small click.
She waits until after dinner before bringing a large portion of hog-bear to Korra who had managed to thankfully only destroy a small corner of the garden with her wrath. Her voice is light and innocent as she tells the brightened avatar that she was fairly sure she watched the ship carrying her pro-bending team mates sail back to the mainland a little less than an hour ago.
The second time they meet, he seeks her out.
She is in the library again, curled up on a mat she had dragged in from her room surrounded by more scrolls she had discovered from grandfather's old collection. This time as he bangs the doors open with an obnoxious clatter, she merely glances up curiously and peers through the cracks in the bookshelves as he looks around left and right for signs of life.
"Hello?" He calls out a bit uncertainly.
"Hiding from Korra again?" She answers with a small giggle. He turns his head to her general direction where she's nestled between bookshelves comfortably in a quiet corner he is unable to see.
He weaves his way through a maze of shelves before coming to her small resting corner and gives her that bright grin. "Naw, I actually came here to say thank you. She caught up with me later but compared to before, I'm sure her reaction was much more forgiving."
"You're welcome." She murmurs back graciously and asks, "May I ask why you are here? Were here?"
"Well, Korra invited us last time. She said with your dad off at the trade summit for the day we could finally see where she lived and stay for dinner. Not that that last part ended up happening…but Mako said we should try training out here for our next game this time. Different, freer terrain or something." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "…They're fighting again, so I decided to stay out of it this time and take a walk. Got lost on the way to the kitchens." He grins sheepishly, his eyes suddenly catching on the scroll laid out in front of her. "Is that…metal bending? Is that a scroll teaching metal bending?" His tone becomes higher as his face lights up with unabashed joy before dropping down to his knees, peering curiously at all the scrolls she has lined up.
"Yeah," She places a hand on one and smooths it out. "They're all about honing bending a certain way. There's one on lightning bending and storm bending as well, it's all really interesting to see it come together in their own way."
"Where did you get this?" He picks up the scroll gently, much to her relief, and stares at its contents. "This is amazing."
"Grandfather Aang collected a bunch during his travels. Even made a few." She puffs proudly and puts another one before him. "You might find this one cool. It's combining fire and earth bending to get lava bending. Your brother and you might find it useful during your…pro-bending." She lets the word dribble out of her mouth uncomfortably. Even though pro-bending had helped Korra understand her airbending better, father still considered it a dishonour to the noble bending art, and it was something that had stuck to Jinora as well in her values.
He looks at her in surprise. "You'll let me look at these?"
She blinks. "Why not? This is knowledge to be shared, not something to be holed up selfishly. As long as you're not going to take it out of the library…" Grandfather may have travelled with these as a boy, but they are hardly in the same healthy condition seventy years after having been lugged across the nation to be treated the same way again.
His eyes brighten to something so full of gratefulness and something she doesn't understand, can't understand after spending her whole life being given everything she needs, never having to barter for a favour or necessities. "Thanks, little sparrowkeet." He ruffles her hair to her irritation and she squawks as she attempts to smooth back down the rats nest he has created with a single motion of a strong hand.
He visits fairly often now, about twice a month, and though he can't always spare the time to find her in the library, when he does he turns out to be an excellent student to the works she plans out for him to read. She knows he isn't interested in books about the populations of the squidcopi and the biological impact their growth rate has created on marine life but she instinctively can pick out which ones would garner his attention. Anything with earth bending is obvious, and he shows a surprising amount of interest in the meditation scrolls she had been reading before. He has a certain fondness for the historical scrolls of Grandmother Katara's adventures and sometimes tries understanding the small tidbits of scientific fact that comes with certain bending techniques.
After a few months, she begins seeing him as the older brother she never had and tells him all her accomplishments and secrets she has made, dragging him outside for him to view the small but powerful cyclones she manages to finally do after months of pouring over Grandfather's old scrolls, whispers to him how she tried a piece of pheasant-chicken and loved it, she even brings in her new baby brother once to proudly showcase to him.
He smiles through it all and ruffles her hair calling her, "little sparrowkeet" and holds her little brother so carefully, so scared of breaking him. She likes the small smile he has when he does, likes as it grows to an excited grin smile as he begins jabbering in ridiculous baby talk she's only seen father partake in once with Meelo when he was a baby too.
"Excuse me," Her voice is almost unsteady as she calls in a soft voice to the passing merchant who barely throws her a disdainful glance and continues on his way.
She steels herself this time, takes a calming breath and closes her eyes to listen to her heart beat in its reassuring staccato before trying again, this time making her way towards the middle aged woman marching through the crowd, a child on her bountiful hips and a grocery bag stuffed beneath an arm. Gently, she taps the woman on the elbow, hopeful for her attention this time. "Excuse me—"
"Yes, here, have some change, but don't touch me, you urchin!" The woman trilled sharply and flicked a coin at Jinora where it bounced off her forehead into her open hand. The woman had darted through the crowds before she could even get the chance to correct her.
"Hey! Jinora!" A familiar voice tears through the haze of panic that is forming and she whirls around to find the strong and comforting face of Bolin who is pushing through the market crowd with ease until he is right next to her, ruffling her hair messily. It's all she can do to stop herself from crying from relief and throwing her thin arms around him and instead she settles for not berating him about her hair lets the gratefulness seep into her face.
He senses something this amiss and tilts his head slightly, "What's up, Sparrowkeet? What brings you to the mainland?"
Without warning, the story comes rushing out all at lightning fast Ikki speed, how father had sent her with a few guards to the mainland after her relentless begging to be trusted with the responsibility of retrieving the scrolls the city library had unearthed from the ruins of Wan Shi Tong's library, how she had lost the guards after getting distracted by the sights and smells in the city, how she had gotten lost in the market, and how she was now completely lost. She is hyperventilating by the end and fisting the fabric above the collarbone anxiously, a restless breezing beginning blow against the skin of anyone near enough.
Sensing the small breakdown of the eldest of the airbending children, Bolin wraps a thick muscled arm around her shoulder and directs her towards a quieter corner of the market wedged between a noodle shop and a tailor where he puts hands onto her shoulders and orders, "Breathe. Jinora, I just want you to breathe, okay?"
Suddenly she forgets all her meditation lessons and the impact of what she's done hits her. She got herself distracted enough to get herself lost and has thereby potentially lost the trust of being her father's responsible eldest. She is almost twelve and she was hopelessly lost in a city she should be familiar with but knew nothing about. Why didn't she read practically? Why didn't she leave behind the historical adventure books that beckoned to her so teasingly, instead of the textbooks on trade in the capitol or even a map?
Arms wrap around her and pull her tightly against a burly frame. "Okay, kiddo, breathe. Seriously. It's okay, I'll bring you to the library, find your guards, and get you home, alright? It's fine. It'll all be okay, trust me."
And she does, she trusts him because he's Bolin, keeper of her secrets and one of Korra's, who she trusts most of all, best friends, so she closes her eyes and breathes, taking in the steady heartbeat pounding strong against her forehead. Slowly, the gusts of wind slow to a gentle breeze that whispers across the back of her neck.
He rubs a hand up her back comfortingly before backing up and grinning at her. "So, the library, hm? Should've known that's what it would take to get you off your little island."
"They're scrolls from Wan Shi Tong's library!" She exclaims defensively, "Priceless and really, really cool!"
"Hey, no arguments from me there." He laughs and begins parting through the flow of people for her, though she is perfectly capable of weaving through on her own.
It's at the library she finds her guards who look near sick with worry until they lay eyes on her and all begin reprimanding angrily, relief hidden behind their eyes, to never leave without saying anything or scare them this silly again. She reassures them that this will never happen again and bows her apologies, something that causes a bit of a scandal amongst them as they quickly tut their disapproval at her bows and usher her towards the library curator who would be giving her the scrolls.
As she returns with the scrolls carefully wrapped up and placed in her satchel, she catches the last bit of an altercation between the guards and Bolin, the latter who has his arms crossed against his chest, hissing something softly to the terrified guards. She raises an eyebrow in question as she approaches, but the guards refuse to meet her eye and Bolin merely gives her that grin and a hug goodbye as he explains he has training.
She never finds out what he said, but never again did she lost sight of her guards when she needed them.
This was supposed to be a quick one shot...that turned into a three week long 30 000 plus word project.
Ain't that just the way of things.