I. Illusion

"And this one, as you see, is a cactus flower. It's one of the rarer, white ones. They only bloom one week a year and they smell gorgeous", Jinora said and brought her nose closer to the flower's core to inhale its fragrance. It felt like a trip among fluffy spring clouds early morning with some euphoria sprinkled on, if that feeling would have a smell. As she got lost in the images induced by the shy flower, she noticed Kai was no longer by her side, but a few steps away.

"It really is beautiful," he said, but his attention was keenly focused in another point.

"My mother started this garden with the flowers my father'd bring her," Jinora recalled. She scooted closer to Kai, waiting for him to actually say a few words. She had always felt lighter and more blissful being in Pema's garden, surrounded by so many exotic pot flowers, so she found it a nice idea to show Kai one of her favourite places in the world. But he…

…is he listening?

"Kai? Are you there?"

He narrowed his eyes.

"How does the novel you say you've enjoyed the most look like?"

"It's a hardback book with blue and golden inscriptions," Jinora answered, not knowing why would he ask something like this out of the blue.

"So Meelo's doing something with that one book over there," Kai remarked and pointed to the beach, where Jinora's younger sibling was outrageously flirting the book like a fan.

"It's so hot out here," the boy said theatrically, then suddenly stopped. He wrinkled his nose and opened his mouth agape, then flipped Jinora's book open and let a sneeze wash over the thin paper.

"Meelo, give me back my book, right now," Jinora shouted over to him in one breath.

"Over my dead body," he ranted holding his trophy up in one hand and quickly disappeared behind a patch of bushes.

Jinora didn't think twice about coming after her brother and, most importantly, her favourite book, so she jumped off the balcony on an air cushion and rushed in his direction. Kai could barely blink given the rapidity of the events, but he decided to help Jinora and proceeded to follow her close behind.

She could hear Meelo's evil laughter, but she could see no sign of him.

"You're in such big trouble, Meelo," Jinora let him know. "I swear, if you do something you may regret…"

"I've never had any regrets," her brother said popping up behind a boulder, and so he hid the book under his robes and fled swiftly.

Jinora remained in her place, hands on her hips, staring in the distance. A smooth, but thick streak of orange began to creep in the horizon.

"You don't go after him?" Kai asked approaching her.

"He's going to get bored and leave the book somewhere in the dining room, so I'm not granting him satisfaction," she reckoned.

"You're lying. You simply know you can't catch him, so you gave up," he teased.

"I beg your pardon? I'm a master airbender and I can catch anyone," she said with a playful irritation. "Including you. Right now."

Kai stared at her for a moment, a gentle breeze playing with their hair.

"You want to catch me?" he said raising an eyebrow. "I've only been caught about," he sat a few seconds to ponder, "three times in my whole life."

"So you're afraid I might break your record," Jinora teased back.

"I am not, especially of you," he said crossing his arms, which earned a bitter pout from Jinora. "Let's do it. No airbending."

"I agree. If I catch you until dinner, I win. If you manage to stay uncaught until then, you win."

"Well then, good luck," Kai briefly said and made a few steps away from her, gradually quickening his pace until he actually took to his heels and shoot Jinora a look that said, "It's on."

It's so on, she mentally responded and burst towards her friend.

Kai entered the grand hallways of the temple with a thunderous sound of boots hitting sandstone echoing through the high walls. Jinora shortly came after him, but he didn't keep a straight direction, taking the first hallway branch he saw. She could hear the sound too, crisp and non-airbender-ish.

The boy noticed the noise he was making too and struggled to make lighter steps. However, when he felt Jinora approaching, he pressed the acceleration pedal and tried to figure out how to escape the literal dead end that was facing him.

A wooden wall enveloped with ancient air nomad paintings.

Instead of trusting his speed and slipperiness, he chose to pull the wool over Jinora's eyes and jumped over to a balcony leading to the next floor, raising himself over the banister with legerity.

Jinora then realized that he is indeed a hard game, but didn't let his trick stay in her way and decided to take on an element of surprise and choose another way to the floor Kai was laying his steps on, albeit a longer one.

But he didn't know that.

So when he met the giant sky bison statue, he found it a good idea to play another trick on Jinora and hide behind it. Less than a minute passed when his eyes met Jinora's, who was coming from the opposite direction. He quickly changed the plan and rushed to another hallway, Jinora closely behind him. Kai knew how to not make his life harder, so he slipped into a chamber that had its door open, after taking another turn to the right.

In the few seconds he had to observe the room, he realized that it is, in fact, one of the great meditation halls which was crowded with stone pillars. He snuck behind one of them and waited. Jinora couldn't possibly find him in that spot.

She was indeed left a bit confused by his complicated trail, but she inferred that he might have entered a room. Suddenly, she stopped. She came to the realization that she was ignoring the easiest way of finding him without actually using airbending or spiritual projection in particular.

She could sense his energy like an incandescent source of light.

Jinora entered the meditation room on tippy toes. She was getting closer, but Kai couldn't feel the slightest hint of a foreign presence. She positioned herself on the other side of the very same pillar Kai was hiding behind and loudly tapped her feet to the floor, which prompted an almost instinctual reaction from the boy to run.

However, when Jinora noticed he got out of his hideout, she threw herself in front of him like a moose lion, the force of the collision knocking them down like two ragdolls. Jinora then found herself lying on a dizzied Kai's side.

"I guess this is the fourth time," she said with a jolly tone and placed a peck on his cheek. "See you at dinner!"

After she left the room, Kai was still lying outstretched on the floor, staring at the ceiling.

Of course she cheated, he said to himself and suddenly felt a faint cactus flower fragrance teasingly tickling his nose, like an illusion.

A/N: Most of these stories will take place while they're still in the friend phase, so expect lots of childish fun with a hint of innocent fluff rather than Disney level romance. Also, lots of thanks to Hope7 for giving everything a beta!