Kai stood at the alter, in awe of his beautiful bride before him. To his surprise, he actually managed to compose himself enough to look presentable.
And as the minister read aloud Jinora's vows to her, Kai couldn't help but think of all the reasons he loved her.
Jinora, at first glance, may have appeared to be an open book. She was intelligent, somewhat of a book-nerd, mostly a Daddy's girl, and an incredibly powerful airbender. She had a rebellious side to her, though she took pride in being able to control it. Though she had reason to, Jinora never boasted, and she was always willing to see the good in people. Even so much so, in fact, that Jinora had been one of the biggest advocators for "treatment over jail."
But Kai knew that she wasn't exactly an "open book." While the version of Jinora that people tended to believe was in fact genuine, there was so much more to her than that. Over the years, Kai has had to dig a little deeper to learn all the things that distinctly made her Jinora.
The first day he met her, he learned that she defied every expectation he had previously had of her.
Jinora's birth represented the beginning of a new generation of airbenders, and it made national news. The media's spotlight always seemed to follow her and her family. Kai would pick up newspapers only to read about how Jinora helped Korra save the world, or an "exclusive interview with the granddaughter of Avatar Aang." From this, he always assumed that Jinora was spoiled and uppity.
This couldn't be further from the truth. She was encouraging of his newfound airbending, and her praise always made him feel like he was on cloud nine. She was soft-spoken unless provoked and kind and easy to forgive. Kai found himself enjoying being in her presence. He even found himself respecting her, and considering that there were very few people that he respected in this world, that was saying something.
Over the next few years or so that he spent training at Air Temple Island, he was able to pick out the smaller things.
For one thing, she had very faint freckles dotted across her nose. You'd have to get close enough to notice them, though. For another, her handwriting was absolutely atrocious — something that Kai found highly amusing given the fact that she was such a bookworm.
He could remember an instance where Jinora had slipped him a note when she thought her father wasn't looking, and Kai could not — for the life of him — figure out what was written. The fact that Kai, someone with no formal education and disdain towards literature of any kind, had better penmanship than a girl who received nothing but the best private education for her entire life was something Kai sometimes used as an argument against the validity of the current education system.
In fact, he was only able to discern that it was a love note of some kind based on the scribbled heart in the corner of the slip of paper.
Still, he didn't want to embarrass her by commenting on her illegible handwriting, so he just smiled and gave her a goofy-looking thumbs-up, signaling that he had understood whatever it was she had written. To his confusion, Jinora had given him an utterly puzzled glance before gesturing to her own upper lip and then pointing at him. He had thought that she was blowing him a kiss, and so he gave her another thumbs-up before going on with his day.
As he later found out, the content of the note was not a letter of her admiration of him, but rather her polite way of telling him that he still had remnants of that morning's breakfast on his upper lip. She hadn't wanted to embarrass him by saying it in front of everyone else, hence the subtle note and scribbled heart in the corner.
And there were other things he learned on the way as well. About who her favorite bison were ("but you can't tell them that!") or what her favorite foods were.
But it was only after Kai proposed to Jinora when he really learned all the little things about her.
About her odd rituals and pastimes, which included eating her food in a particular order that made sense to her and her alone. He also learned about the things she tended to keep close to her chest. Her fears, her worries.
Jinora liked to pretend that she was fearless and that she never let anything ever get to her, but Kai knew better. The truth was, Jinora held on to a lot of fear from her childhood. She was afraid that there would always be people looking to harm her and the people she cared about. She was scared that the Red Lotus or the Equalists would rise again and attack the Air Nation once more.
In the past, airbenders have been historically persecuted for no reason other than their pacifist ideals and the element they bend, and Jinora feared that history would repeat itself. And that whenever history did repeat itself, she wouldn't be able to protect the people she loved.
She'd sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with shuddering breaths, looking around the room frantically as if to make sure that Kai was still there and alive. As if she was scared that one day, she'd wake up, and he would be gone. Whenever this would happen, Kai would pull her into his arms, murmuring sweet nothings into her hair until she fell asleep again.
But Kai proposed to Jinora because he loved her, and he loved all the little things that made her the woman she was.
He loved her kind nature and bravery. He loved how she was quick to apologize whenever she was wrong and careful to not hurt anyone's feelings. He found her slightly crooked teeth and the raucous laughter that she sometimes emitted to be the definition endearing. He thought her handwriting was a hilarious juxtaposition, and her odd rituals something that intrigued him.
And while he was always disheartened whenever he would see Jinora struggling with anxiety, he was about a vow to stick with her through thick and thin, through sickness and in health, and everything else life threw at them.
"Do you, Kai," said the minister, dragging Kai from his train of thought, "Take Jinora to be your lawfully wedded wife? Do you promise to care for her in sickness and in health, and honor her and cherish her?"
Kai smiled. "I do."
And he would shout those two words until his voice died if he had to. Kai didn't believe in soulmates until he fell in love with Jinora, and boy, did he fall hard. She was his first love and the one person in this entire world he felt truly understood him.
The minister's lips quirked up into a smile. "You may now," he paused for dramatic effect, "kiss the bride."
Jinora smiled as he took her face into his hands, and when their lips met, Kai was sure he could fly.
"I love you," he whispered when he pulled away, just loud enough for her to hear. "For forever and always."
Tears of joy filled her brown eyes, and she sniffled as she whispered back a soft, "For forever and always."
A/N: I love Kainora, so this definitely won't be the last time I write about them. I know this was super cheesy, but I couldn't resist writing a sickly-sweet Kainora wedding fic. Either way, let me know what you think. As always, any criticism/suggestion/feedback is always welcome!