This fic is also on my tumblr blog where my username is Kuno-chan and my blog name is Dragoness Ramblings.

Disclaimer: Legend of Korra belongs to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko

Today you will fly or today you will die. It's your life, dear. You fly away or you die today.

The Flight

The following week passed without incident. That monotony Jinora's life had taken was still in full affect and she was still enjoying it. Coming home, eating dinner, going upstairs to finish her homework, relaxing and then talking to Kai on the phone before going to bed was a fine routine for her right now. After the last couple months they'd had, this was all she wanted for the time being.

The following Friday came. Tired, but happy, Jinora came home with a week's worth of productivity keeping her mood afloat. Now that Skoochy was out of the picture, tutoring others was much more appealing to her these days. Aside from that, her school work was getting done at an even, steady pace. Her schedule was still packed well enough, but everything felt manageable. She appreciated how things got done on time and without her ready to pull her hair out for one reason or another. In perfect honesty, she hadn't really felt like this since the very beginning of the school year.

The only thing she had to admit was missing was, well, Kai. Not in the physical sense exactly, but totally at the same time. Simultaneously, she missed him physically and emotionally, yet, not at all. The both of them had a further unity in each other that she felt deep down into her bones. Was it silly to just being able to enjoy the way someone understood you so intimately? To just leave a comfortable feeling in your spirit? She didn't think so.

Now that things had finally settled down a little, however, she found herself resisting the urge to put her hands all over him when they were hanging out at the tree or even in the library during lunch. She missed touching him, but she also missed how when they touched each other and made love she felt his entire soul wrap around hers and vice versa as if trying to keep the other safe. Safe and happy and in their heart forever.

It made her sigh when she went to bed each night as she thought about how much she wished he was laying next to her right now and kissing her up and down her neck.

With everything that'd been going on, they hadn't had the chance. There was no way Kai was going to sneak over to her house when her parents happened to be out. Not only would it make her too nervous, but she was sure it'd make him too nervous to even get started. There was hardly any time for them to try lately and every time they did have time, be it on lunch or after school, they were usually in a spot that was simply too risky now that everybody knew they were dating.

Eventually, she'd tell herself. Eventually everything would align and work out. Things seemed to be going that way.

She walked into the kitchen that Friday afternoon, her parents seated at the dining table. Her mother sat looking over a collection of envelopes spread across the table and her father sat beside her reading a newspaper.

"I'm home," said Jinora.

Her parents glanced up and her mother smiled.

"Hi, honey," said her mother. "You're home a bit earlier. How was your day?"

"It was good," said Jinora, coming around the kitchen island. "I didn't have anybody to tutor extra today so Kai and I hung out for a little bit, but he had to get to work tonight so he couldn't stay long."

"Well, that's a bummer," said her mother, sifting through the envelopes and their contents now. "Maybe you two can hang out tomorrow."

"Yeah, we'll probably go on a coffee date or something," said Jinora, briefly looking in the refrigerator.

"And school..." began her father, not looking away from his paper. "I take it that's been fine?"

"Mm-hmm," said Jinora, procuring an apple from the fridge. "I've finished all my homework. There wasn't a lot. It's been pretty easy today."

"Well, then perhaps you may want to look into some extra credit work then?"

Jinora blinked, having bit into her apple.

"Uh... extra credit work?"

"Yes," said her father. "Just some extra lessons is all. Perhaps if you were to consult one of her your teachers they would be able to help you find something to fill in the extra time?"

"Tenzin," said her mother disapprovingly. "She has enough to do without adding extra credit to that. Why on earth would she do that?"

Her father looked away from his paper, frowning slightly.

"All I'm saying is that since she's dropped that math class she might want to fill in that free slot something. Math is an important skill. We don't want her to get too rusty once she gets into college. Some of the math classes there are much more advanced and she shouldn't fall behind."

"She's not behind, dear. She's taking it easy."

"Easy enough that she has copious amounts of time to spend with-" Tenzin cleared his throat. "Look, all I'm saying is that she should fill in the time with something constructive. It will benefit the rest of her time."

Jinora felt a sharp drop in her chest and she had to remember that she was holding an apple before it too dropped to the ground.

"But Dad..." she started, trying to suppress the shaking in her throat. "Yo—you said that I could drop it. You were okay with it... Mom said that you said I could. "

"And I did. You were feeling the pressure, but things have gotten back to normal and perhaps it'd be best to use your time more wisely again?" said her father, putting down his newspaper now.

His voice sounded gentle, but she didn't believe him.

"Dad-"

"Look, sweetheart. I'm not saying you have to take an entire class, but homework is just that: home work. Perhaps you should be concentrated on other work at school and have at least a little bit to do when you get home? I'm sure that your- your friend will understand."

"Tenzin she does not need more work," her mother frowned now. "What is the matter with you? You agreed that she should drop that class and now you think she should fill in the time by taking on more work? So she can have some when she gets home?"

The more her mother went on, the tighter Jinora's chest felt.

That was exactly what her father was saying in words and, as ludicrous as it sounded, those words were also making everything stand still at the moment.

"It's all about how you use your time, Pema," he said, raising an eyebrow at her. "It's good for your brain. Her friends will-"

"Her friend and her enjoy spending time together," said her mother, arms crossed now. "There is nothing wrong with your daughter spending time with Kai. They're in a relationship and you need to get over it. Stop torturing your poor child."

"This has nothing to do with the boy, Pema! All I'm saying is that she should use her time wisely. This is her last year and you know that everything counts! What if she's not prepared for her exams at the end of the year because she didn't take this one class? Or get a little extra help in math? It's clear to me that math is not her strong spot! She should be working on that instead of flitting away that precious time with him! It's going to hinder her progress entering college!"

"My chances at college are fine!" blurted Jinora, her voice borderline shrilly and feeling as if something began to creak around her ribs. "Get off my back about college! I don't care about college right now!"

Tenzin frowned deeper.

"You certainly should care-"

"I don't! Dad, please, just drop it already-"

"Watch your tone, young lady," her father cut her off sharply. "If I say that you take extra lessons then that's what it's going to be. I'm your father and you will show me respect in my own house."

Her mother frowned at him again.

"Tenzin, don't be like that. You're being too hard on her," her mother looked at her now as well. "And you do need to watch how you speak to us. He is your father. Remember and respect that."

Jinora could feel her breath go unsteady.

Why was he doing this to her?

He said that it was all just fine! Or was that her mother just trying to make her feel better...? Either way, she'd been moving along fine until this. This absolute bomb. She did not want to take on more work.

She thumped the apple on the counter and turned on her heel without another word to them. Her footsteps became faster as they reached the stairs and she ignored everything around her, nearly running into a wall when she finally did get upstairs.

Spirit, she really, really didn't want to take on any more!

Heading to her room, she slammed the door shut and threw herself onto her bed, smothering her face into the comforter. She clutched it, drawing it into her hands like it was some kind of life support. The way she was breathing right now it might as well have been.

Why were they doing this to her?

She turned so that her stomach was laying on her lap at this point, her face buried into her bed as she still clutched the blankets.

Why did her father want to make her life miserable?

Her face was burning up and her eyes stung. That creaking in her ribs and her chest was still there, creaking and creaking and creaking.

If she took the extra lessons how long would she have to do that? How long could she handle that? Would she start failing again like she had started to before? Couldn't they see just how much of a self defeating cycle this was?

She opened her mouth to gasp, but the air resisted.

Wrenching her body around and onto her back, the tears slowly leaked back and into her hair. She ignored them. Her teeth felt the need to grind and she did so, but the sensation drove her mad. It was getting hot and her ribs were still creaking. Her face felt like one big hot air balloon and nobody was going to save her from bursting.

Why was everything getting so damn hot?

Like-

Like-

Like...

Like everything was on fire.

The creaking stopped and finally altogether cracked.

Her eyes snapped wide open.

She stared at the ceiling for a split second that had to be the longest split second to ever occur in her life, but the moment it was over, she found herself on her feet and bursting out the room.

No.

She could not handle all the fire, all the pain, all the suffocation. Not now and not again. She could not –would not- let that fire come back and try to kill her.

Her face was still getting hot and that made her feet pound the ground harder, faster. Down the stairs she thundered, nearly tripping over herself. Almost immediately, she could hear her mother's voice.

"Jinora?" called her mother.

No, go away.

Jinora burst out the front door, leaving it wide open. She hadn't even noticed her siblings sitting on the couch and now they too were calling her. Though she could still hear their voices nothing seemed to really reach her.

"Jinora?" That was Rohan. "Jinora, where're you going?"

Her mother and father apparently had come out now since she could hear their voices too, calling her.

Go away.

She didn't want them to get any closer. Noticing Meelo's black bike laying on the lawn, she grabbed it up and half-climbed, half pushed off on the bike, riding down the street. Her legs wheeled the bike faster, determined to ride away before they chased after her. Where they were the fire raged, and, despite the frigid air fighting with her face, she could still feel it at her back.

She rode on for what seemed like forever, out past the neighborhood, into and out of other neighborhoods and finally into the edge of the city. There she kept on going, knowing exactly where her legs were taking her, but not being fully conscious of it. Though her face was no longer hot, her mind was still burning away, her heart beating at desperate rates.

When she got to a part of town she was familiar enough with, she got off the bike, her legs nearly giving way after all that vicious cycling, and wheeled the bike beside as she walked now. It was late and the sun was nearly down, but her mind didn't register anything except for her destination.

Her phone rang. Numbly, she picked it up, not even bothering to see who was calling.

"Yeah?" she asked weakly, her breath not all the way back from everything that'd just happened in the past hour.

"Jinora?"

Meelo...? He was calling her?

Oh, yeah, his bike.

"Sorry... I know I have your bike."

"Forget the bike, where are you? What was that?" he asked, sounding a little like Ikki at the moment. "You just busted out the door and rode off... Dad's out looking for you and Mom's freaking out a little. They've been trying to call you.'

"I probably didn't hear it while I was riding..."

"Here let me go give her the phone-"

"No," she said. "I don't want to."

"But why? Jinora, c'mon, tell us where you are. At least tell us if you're okay. You're scaring everybody."

"I can't."

It was the truth. She did not want them to know where she was at or where she was going and she certainly didn't know if she was okay the way her heart was pounding against that crack in her chest.

There was silence over the phone for a moment, then Meelo spoke up.

"... you could have talked to one of us y'know... Mom and Dad aren't the only ones in the house."

"It's okay... I'm not sure I can right now. My—my brain's not ready."

"So, where are you going?"

"To a friend's house," she said, feeling a strange kind of tired. "I'm fine. I don't want anybody to call me right now. I'll call you all later."

"...If...If you're sure... Just make sure you call, okay? I'll tell Mom you're safe at your friend's house," he said, sounding less of a statement and more like he was trying to convince himself. "You know... I know Dad's hard on you, but... you've been kind of hard on him too in a way."

He clicked off.

Jinora barely had the attention span to process his words at the moment as she rounded the corner and walked to the door of an apartment building. Normally, she'd go through an alleyway and up a fire escape to get to her destination, but today she hardly had the energy or the mental capacity, her mind numb to the world around her.

She went into the apartment building, dragging the bike with her up the stairs several flights. Down the hall, she stopped at a particular door and knocked with the flat end of her fist.

You could hear several voices and the sound of movement as somebody came to the door. It opened and Bolin just about froze, looking between her and the bike momentarily.

"Bro, who is it?" she heard Mako call.

Jinora opened her mouth to speak, but no real sound mustered itself out of her chest except for the grinding of a sob about to escape her throat. The pressure behind her once again burning face forced a tear down her cheek. She closed her eyes, trying to take some kind of shaky breath, but that grinding sound started back up again and she bit down behind her bottom lip.

"Uh," Bolin leaned back a little, eyes still on her as he called back. "Kai? You really need to come over here."

"Why?" she could here Kai moving and getting up. "Who is it?"

When Kai came into view, Bolin moved out of the way to let him through. When it'd registered who exactly he was looking at, his eyes widened and worry overtook his features.

"Babe? Babe, what's wrong? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked quickly, taking her hand. Then, he looked at the bike she was still hanging onto. He brought a hand to her face, feeling the cold against her cheek and his eyes widened a little." Please tell me you didn't ride your bike all the way here in the dead of winter..."

Unable to keep the sob at bay any longer, Jinora dropped the bike and started to cry in earnest as he still held her hand. Immediately, he pulled her into a crushing hug and stroked her back whispering words of protection into her hair.

She felt unbearably cold and hot at the same time, her legs hurt and her mind felt like it was on the brink of collapse, but at least here in his arms it was safe to cry.

I have been dying to get to this chapter and the subsequent chapters to come. In this latter half of the story (the story is probably going to reach up to chapter 20 give or take a chapter perhaps), things start getting a bit hefty in certain ways and this chapters the start of it. I'm pretty tired typing this message so I don't have much to say, but I honestly can't wait to get to this next chapter coming up. It's rather important.

This chapter is shorter than the others, but I didn't want to take away from Jinora having another rise of a panic attack because I wanted for you to see how much she's fighting it the entire chapter. It's not full blown exactly, but it's just trying to take over and it's dangling her over the edge here.

As always, I love it when you guys drop those reviews as it keeps me motivated and keeps me writing the story! Thank you for reading! Tune in for next chapter!