Despite living on the serene and peaceful Air Temple Isle, Kai and Jinora found there was something Republic City could offer them that the Air Nomads could not. A good time.
The two airbenders would often escape the isle and sneak their way into clubs or house parties, always hiding their recognizable arrows with hats or hoodies. They managed to befriend a guy from the city named Skoochy, who they got along with really well, along with a few other people their age as well. They loved talking to people who weren't monks or politicians. Just kids their age who wanted to give sloppy kisses and get ridiculously drunk. They really liked getting drunk.
Kai loved drunk Jinora.
Her cheeks would flush with red and her eyes would grow wide. Her confidence would grow to unseen heights and she would dance on random people and share stories with girls in the bathroom. She would constantly scream over blasting music that Kai was her best friend, bragging about him to anyone who would listen. If she got too excited, she would accidently create a small whirlwind, resulting in a few broken glasses and some askew hair. Sometimes she would step outside and befriend the people smoking, her eyes locked on the smoky air flowing in and out of bodies.
When she was drunk, she would hold his hand or play with the hair growing on his arms. She would say his name slow and blurry, making his chest flip and his mind go blank. Once, when she was drunk, a frat boy harassed her relentlessly, until she lost her patience and punched him square in the jaw, making his blood abundant and his sobs ridiculous. He liked how when Jinora threw up, she always cried a bit after and hugged him. And the next morning, Jinora would always wake up with a pounding in her head but somehow manage to make it to morning meditation.
Jinora loved drunk Kai.
He would wear his classic shit eating grin and slip back into his thick Earth Kingdom Peasant accent. He would loudly laugh unapologetically and stomp around with little grace, smelling of tequila and cactus juice. He would reminisce on his life growing up and would drunkenly sing Earth Kingdom songs, with a voice of silver and green. When he drank, his senses dulled and he could barely bend air. He could feel the air against his skin, asking to be moved, but would be unable to focus long enough to airbend. Random girls would hit on him or start dancing on his lap and his eyes would quickly find Jinora's from across the room as if to ask, "Can we keep her?"
Usually, however, Kai wouldn't go home with a random girl. He and Jinora would walk home together, and Kai, drunk, would call her his "paulo passah," then grab her around her waist and hold her. The next day, Kai would roll out of bed around three, greeted by a tedious and cold lecture from Tenzin.
It was a warm night and the street was lit by wax colored streetlights. Their skin was sticky and reeked of vodka, but they held hands anyway. The party had been like most of the others with lust, laughter, and liquor. The two benders were tired from a night of excitement, walking in the direction of Yue Lake, their words slurred and unclear. Their eyes were both half closed and they dragged their feet against the street as if it was magnetic.
"Hey, I had a good time tonight, mea paulo passah." Kai said in a deep, sleepy voice.
Jinora frowned at the words, unable yet again to decipher them. Her mind was walking in quick circles but stayed focused on the sound of his calming voice.
"Kai," she wondered out loud, "what does mea paulo passah mean?" Jinora loved to read, but she couldn't read the expression on his face.
He sighed, realizing he was too drunk to think of something clever to say. So instead he just spoke the truth. "My little sparrow. In an ancient Earth Kingdom dialect."
If she wasn't shit faced, she would've asked why he called her little sparrow, or why he called her that only when he was past drunk. She would have asked why he never told her he knew parts of a different language or why he was desperate to hide his past, still unwilling to share all he endured.
Instead of asking this, she could only manage to ask "Why?"
He shrugged and gave a dumb, "I don't know."
"Can you speak it fluently?" Her voice was loud now, echoing across the empty street. "How many languages do you know?"
"Uhm," he closed his eyes, remembering. "I can speak four, but only write in one."
"Fuck, Kai. You've got to be kidding," she said, shocked.
He didn't bother to answer her remaining unasked questions. He didn't want to tell her how the family who adopted him, and could have grown to love him, spoke only the ancient dialect at home. That he became fluent in the language because of them. He didn't tell her about the beautiful tale of the one of the first badgermoles, Icarus, who fell in love with a small sparrow and left his home to live in the skies with his love. He didn't tell her that their love was immortalized in the stars, or how it is custom to call the person you are courting mea paulo passah, as sign of respect to the spirit of Icarus.
Instead of telling her this, he remained silent, his mind blank from liquor. The two benders reached Yue Lake, seeing Air Temple Isle in the distance. Jinora reached her arm around Kai's waist and poorly bent them both home.
When they reached the island, the drunk teens fell on the first sleeping bison they could find, ready for sleep to wash over them. ("Don't think I'm done giving you shit about this, buddy.")