the thief and the airbender

notes

{for Lilybud}

In all honesty, Kai wasn't entirely sure how it had come to this. One thing had led to another, he supposed.

He and Jinora had been in the library, Jinora helping him study for the upcoming Air Nomad history test. Unlike the Earth Kingdom, the Air Nomads didn't have a very interesting history. There had been no wars or major conflicts or anything that would have been entertaining to a twelve year old boy.

"Jinora-" Kai started, once she had finished looking over his notes.

"Shh. Other people are trying to study," she said. Even the former Air Acolyte, Otaku, was hitting the books like the rest of him. Casting the older boy a gloomy look, Kai groaned. There was no way he was going to pass this test if even Otaku was studying. But if he stayed here for a second longer, he was pretty sure he was going to explode.

He pouted, but an idea struck him. He picked up his pen and started to write in the margins on his notes. 'Jinora, no offense to you, but I don't know how much more of this I can take! I'm going crazy! Can we please take a break?'

Her lips twitched upwards as she wrote back. 'Just a few more minutes, and then we'll take a break, okay?'

Hastily, Kai wrote 'OK' feeling very relieved.

And soon enough, it became their thing. Jinora would find a note suddenly floating down onto the page of the book she had been writing. When Kai found her in the middle of meditating, she would hand him a note.

Although neither ever told the other, they kept almost all the notes they gave each other. Jinora used them as bookmarks sometimes, and marveled at how much Kai's penmanship had improved. She couldn't help but blush whenever Kai had asked when they could hang out in the notes, something that happened fairly often. Kai had taken to rereading them when he couldn't sleep, the words soothing and making him think of happy conversations between the two.

Everything went wrong one afternoon, however, when Team Avatar was visiting the Temple.

After a year, Kai had fully realized and accepted his crush on Jinora. The night before, with his heart pounding, his sweaty hands had written: Jinora, I like you a lot. As in more than a friend. And I'm hoping you feel the same way about me. -Kai.' He had made the decision to give it to her when she was meditating. It would take her a while to finally read it, and that way if she rejected him, he could put off knowing. But he did want her to know how he felt.

His arm was reaching forwards, the note clasped between two nimble fingers, just about to drop it in Jinora's lap as the girl meditated - and a hand snatched it out of the air.

Bolin was holding the piece of paper with a joyful expression. "Passing notes huh?" the earthbender said happily. He waggled his eyebrows at Kai while Jinora looked around, startled by the sudden loud noise. "Boyfriends and girlfriends do that sometimes."

Kai's cheeks were red and he refused to look at Jinora.

"Gee, I wonder what it says," Bolin said, and smoothed out of the piece of paper. Kai went to move away but Bolin slung an arm around his shoulders and clamped him next to the older boy's side. As Bolin read his message - Spirits, Kai wanted the ground to swallow him whole and disappear forever. "'-about me, -Kai... Oh, I probably shouldn't have read it out loud, huh?" Bolin smiled sheepishly.

Kai's face was burning. "Ya think?" he snapped.

"Well I think it's sweet," Jinora piped up. Kai's attention snapped to her. Her cheeks were pink, but there was a smile on her face. She walked over and laced her fingers through his. His eyes flitted between their hands and the smile on her face.

"You do?" Kai asked in disbelief. She liked him back? She liked him back. Spirits.

Her smile grew. "I do."

Years later, whenever Bolin visited the couple and saw the framed note hanging on the wall, he always reminded everyone that it was all because of him that they got together in the first place, to which everyone else would just roll their eyes. Still, it felt only right to have Bolin be the best man on their wedding day, and for their wedding vows to go along with the conversation.

("I do.")

More requests shall be up tomorrow, whoohoo! :D Love you guys.