II. Sugar

Kai's nose was glued to the window, small circles of steam pulsating on the glass under his bated breath. It felt cold, but enchanting and thrilling at the same time. How little particles of light were dancing chaotically one second and fell in straight line the next one, thickening something that looked like a blanket of powdered clouds. It felt strange.

"You can't be serious that this is the first time you see snow."

"Actually, it is. The place were I've been living was surrounded by desert and didn't even have a decent rainfall for weeks straight, let alone snow," Kai informed. Even the word had a strange feeling surrounding it, the letters falling out of his mouth with a bizarre cadence. "Snow," he repeated to himself to feel it again, his gaze captured by the millions of descending crystals.

Jinora smiled. It was nice to see him being enthralled by such a beautiful, albeit mundane phenomenon. Truth is, she had always been excited by the first snowfall. By winter and everything about it. She couldn't wait to show Kai the joys of the season. He had so many things to find out about and experience. Most notably, feeling balls of snow and Jinorian wrath crashing on his unexpecting back. But better take one thing at a time and let him in on the real joys firstly.

"I'd heard about it, but never actually seen snow," he added and sneered. "It looks funny."

"It's fun, too," Jinora said tapping on the window. "Wanna get outside and find out what all this is about?"

Kai furrowed his brow. "You go outside on a weather like this?"

Jinora giggled. "If it's cold, it doesn't mean it harms you. And airbenders can regulate their body temperature, too." The slightest bit of disappointment crept into her voice. "But it's okay if you don't want to go."

"Are you kidding me?" Kai said, facing her. He opened the window with a slight movement, letting a thin veil of cold sprinkled with snowflakes enter the room. "Let's go."

Jinora approved with a beaming smile. The two let themselves fall gracefully on the ground. Kai enjoyed the funny sound the snow under his feet was making when he pressed himself on it - grush, frush. Billions of snowflakes brushing between each other. It sounded like...rubber? That would be a good term of comparison. He then took a handful of snow to watch it closer, but was taken aback by the sudden feeling of thousands of icy needles piercing into his skin.

"This is colder than I expected," Kai remarked, running the snow through his fingers and watching it melt.

"But if you're like Meelo, you'll enjoy eating it. Although I'd advise you to better not," said Jinora looking for a key object. She was sure it was hidden somewhere around, but it was harder to find during snowfall.

"I...am not doing that," Kai grimaced. But he did press his tongue to the snow he'd gathered, making a mental note to not do that again because of the flat taste.

"You know what people often do in the winter? Sledding. In the South Pole, they like to sled on penguins' back, but we'll have to make do with this," Jinora said gesturing towards a newlyfound meditation mat.

Kai raised an eyebrow, but before he could say anything, Jinora told him, "We do have a real sled, but I can't really find it."

The boy took a few moments to formulate a realization. "Oh, if you're talking about that wooden board with iron thingies that lay under the bush over there, I kinda used it to pick up some berries," he admitted innocently. "I don't think it's going to work for some time."

Jinora wanted to ask how on earth and why, but instead, she decided to condemn him to a thunderous ride on the steepest slope on the island. For the sake of fun, of course.

"Are you ready?"

"You are asking me if I'm ready?. I think you are the one who should brace himself," Jinora said with a grin.

"You're not getting me off this sledding mat," Kai teased.

"Not yet." The girl sent a powerful air gust backwards and in a split second, the two were cutting through air and snow at a blinding speed. The shy snowflakes now seemed more like tiny daggers rather than innocent sugar crystals. Jinora, who was expertly steering the mat, could barely see through the hailstorm and struggled to hold on and keep their balance. Meanwhile, Kai was holding onto her and was laughing hungrily.

He had no worries.

Jinora thought that she might have pushed them too hard just to surprise Kai. The rocky path they were gliding towards looked like it wouldn't show any kindness if they crashed into it. Their trail was close to vertical. It was a disaster that had to be averted.

She airbended the improvised sled into the air to jump over the obstacle, and while they were descending from a generous height, the gravity worked her magic faster than Jinora and attracted the two onto a pile of fresh snow.

Miraculously, they landed in one piece, still sitting on the sled. Kai opened his eyes, sparkling with tears of excitement. Jinora's face, however, was deprived of any warm blood. But they were safe, she thought and let out a sigh full of relief. However, before they could notice, the mat started to drift away again and this time, it stopped into a nearby tree. The tall chenar, whose leaves were now melted into the ground, shook of its icy crown all over them.

Yellow fabric now covered by snow, they looked like freshly baked cookies.

"Let's do this again," said Kai after getting up and ruffling his hair.

Jinora leaned on the tree to raise herself on her feet. "You are not exactly an example of sanity," she forced herself to laugh, but her cheeks were frozen.

"What? I thought you do this on a regular during winter. I had fun," he beamed.

"Well, not on a regular. I mean, you might break something if you don't handle this properly." Jinora looked at him hoping he would relate, but without success. She let out a steamy breath. "But you know what we do even more often?"

"Surprise me."

Jinora wanted to do exactly that. She furtively rolled a handful of snow into a snowball and threw it straight towards Kai; for the sake of fun and reservation-free.

His natural reflexes were something he was born with. He learned to think and act fast and be quick and clever. When he noticed the snowball flying threatingly towards him, he instantly redirected it with an air gust soft enough not to scrape away the snow, but strong enough to knock Tenzin off his feet when he was strolling casually in the victinity on one of the wooden pathways. A snowball hit him out of the blue.

Kai's face was written with shock. Jinora subsequently grabbed his hand and dragged him inside the temple on the shortest way possible, making rubber grush-frush noises all the way there.

"Getawaygetawaygetaway-"

Sometimes, sipping innocently on a mug of hot chocolate in front of a fireplace while Tenzin is getting the snow out of his shawl can be one of the winter's sweetest joys, too.

A/N: I decided to put this one up while it's still April and not scorching hot. Thanks for reading!