"The Ship of Dreams, they called it. And it was. It really was…" Over five days, the lives of Kai Wen and Jinora Gyatso became irreversibly entwined. But their adventure was not the typical love story, for the ship they met on was the RMS Titanic. From the moment the ship set sail from the Earth Kingdom in 177 AG, it was destined for disaster. [Kai/Jinora] Titanic!AU.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Legend of Korra, or any of its trademarked characters. I also do not own the plot of the movie Titanic: that belongs to James Cameron and his associates. I only own the story that you see written, and hope that you enjoy my spin on things.

Those in Peril on the Sea by boasamishipper

Chapter Three

177 AG

LingShi hadn't been particularly pleased with her for running out on him during lunch, and had kept telling her so for the duration of the night. Jinora's mother had asked if she'd felt alright, then had reprimanded her for not asking LingShi to accompany her. Altogether, her entire evening was a mess.

Dinner that night ended at around ten o'clock, and a few minutes passed before the men at the table, including Mako, Bolin, and Hiroshi Sato, began to rise and headed toward the smoking room. Korra stood up as well, deciding to retire to her bedroom for the evening, and Asami followed soon afterward. Jinora wished more than anything that she could go with the men to smoke because she couldn't even remember when her last cigarette had been, but knowing that if she did so LingShi's reputation would be annihilated—therefore hers would be too.

Her life was so complicated, and lately, it seemed like every action had been dictated on whether or not it would please her fiancé. If she went to the bathroom, she had to constantly second-guess herself and wonder if she'd made the right decision to go without him.

"Are you done, darling?" LingShi inquired.

"Hmm, what? Oh, yes, I'm done," Jinora said, looking up at her fiancé, smiling, and then looked back down at the remains of her dessert. At one point the strawberry pie on her plate had actually looked appetizing, but now she would've rather done anything than eat it. She hadn't had much of an appetite all day—she attributed it to her stomach hurting. "I'll stay here, though, with the women."

LingShi nodded, although she strongly suspected he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes. With that, he took off into the crowd of people rising from their chairs, tempted sorely by the thought of brandy and first class worthy cigars.

"Jinora," Suyin said, smiling and leaning forward in her chair, "have you given any thought to your wedding recently?"

"I think about it all the time, Ms. Beifong," was her slightly sarcastic response. After all, how could she not when it was all anyone and everyone was talking about? The topic to end all topics, Jinora Gyatso to marry LingShi Zhang. She suspected half of the people on the ship had invitations to her wedding already. Jinora composed herself, making an effort to still be polite. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I was just wondering about the reception and who you else were planning on inviting. I know that my sister and I are invited, we received our invitations a while ago, but who else?"

"Yes," Lin deadpanned, rolling her eyes, "we've been ever so eager."

Finally, someone who had a vague sense of sarcasm. Jinora's respect for the older woman rose.

"Lin, stop." Suyin laughed. "My apologies, she can be a bit sarcastic at times."

Luckily, Mother intervened and began talking about the wedding reception, keeping up a steady conversation about the flower arrangements and which reverend was completing the service. Lin looked at Jinora in pity, but she didn't notice, too busy staring at her plate. The babble about such inconsequential things didn't matter to her, not in the slightest. Who cared about flowers when she was going to be sold into glorified slavery?

She stood up, unable to bear it any longer. "Excuse me," she said, beginning to leave the table when Lin grabbed her arm, nearly startling her out of her skin.

"What're you doing, Ms. Beifong?" Jinora asked, thoroughly startled. Spirits, she doesn't want to know more about the wedding, does she?

"Just don't do anything stupid, kid," the older woman muttered out of the corner of her mouth before diving back into the conversation so quickly and easily that Jinora wasn't positive that Lin had spoken at all.

Before she could waste any more time thinking about how cryptic Lin's actions were, Jinora walked away, going up the stairs and down a corridor. The stewards nodded at her, and she smiled back, trying to remain composed. She ducked into a bathroom, where she locked herself in, slid down the door and placed her head between her knees, sobbing and trying to breathe at the same time.

Oh, Spirits, I can't do this. I don't want to do this.

She couldn't do this any longer. She couldn't handle the pressure.

Jinora opened the door and ran out along the promenade deck, nearly running into a couple that looked shocked at her emotional display. Crying, she tore off her pearl necklace and stuffed it into a potted plant, shaking with hatred and humiliation.

I can't do this anymore.

I think what sent me over the edge was the way that my mother and Suyin were discussing my life, as if I were a doll that could bend to their will without any say at all. My future was a stern monotony of the same narrow-minded people, the same cotillions and parties, the same mindless gossip—year after year after year. It was almost like I was standing on a cliff with no one to pull me back to safety. I felt like there was no one who cared about me, or even noticed my existence beyond being LingShi's fiancée.

I hated it more than anything in the world, and I wanted to end things. To end my life. To hell with my mother, with LingShi, with the entire Ayre Corporation, I'd thought. I didn't care anymore.

I needed to escape.

Ever since Tahno had discovered where the crew kept their alcohol, he'd swiped it like a professional and had offered it to practically all the men in third class. Kai wasn't much of a drinker—he knew what alcohol did to people on the streets, turning them into completely different people once they'd gone past five glasses of beer. He didn't intend to ever become one of those people.

So while Skoochy, Tahno, and the other third classers went and got rip-roaring drunk down below in their dining room, dancing to fast-paced guitar music, Kai had gone up on deck and laid himself on a bench near the stern, gazing up at the night sky and smoking a cigarette. The stars always calmed him, because ever since his parents had died the pinpricks of light up above were his only constant. After all, weren't the constellations the same over Ba Sing Se? Or in Capital City? They reassured him more than anything.

Someone stumbled past his bench, and he sat up straight as he saw that it was a woman, and the woman was crying. Sobbing, really, judging by the way her frame was shaking like crazy and how loud her sobs were in the stillness of the night.

Kai stood up, squinting into the distance as he blew out his cigarette and tossed it aside. Could it be?

As the girl passed under a lantern, he felt as though he'd been poleaxed. It was her. The girl. It was the same girl that he'd seen that afternoon on the promenade deck. What's she doing out here, anyways? And what happened to her to make her cry like that?

He followed her and watched from the shadows as she slammed against the base of the stern flagpole and clung to it, her breath hitching in an occasional sob, which she kept trying to suppress. Kai's heart leapt into his throat as the Girl started to clumsily climb over the railing, her movements slow and methodical.

Spirits, she's going to jump.

With that abrupt realization, Kai moved closer as she turned her back from the railing, facing out toward the blackness of the sea. He could see below her the propellers churning out white foam that trailed off toward the horizon. She leaned forward, her dress and hair whipping in the wind. Her grip on the railing loosened.

He had to stop her. He had to say something!

"Stop!" Her head whipped around at the sound of his voice, her long brown hair flying around her face. Her cheeks were flushed and stained with tears. Obviously she'd thought that she'd been alone. Well, too bad for her. I can't let her do this. "Don't do it," he said, sounding stupid even to himself. That line never worked on suicide jumpers. "Look, you don't have to do this."

"Go away!" Her voice was loud and shrill, and Kai nearly recoiled. "Go away, I—I want to be alone. Leave me alone and forget you ever saw me."

"I'd let you be alone, see, there's just one thing stopping me," Kai said conversationally. "Well, the fact is that you're kinda dangling over the edge of a ship here. If you go over, I'm a witness, and I'll be in some pretty deep trouble with the Master-at-Arms." He shook off his jacket and tossed it on the ship deck.

The girl looked around at him, as if she was surprised that he was still there. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like?" he countered. "I'm preparing to go after you."

"You—you can't." She sounded unsure of herself, and Kai didn't know whether or not that was a good thing or a bad thing. "The fall alone would kill you."

"Hey, I may not look it, but I'm a pretty good swimmer. The water's freezing and all, but I'm prepared to do it."

"Freezing?" Her voice quivered just the slightest bit, and Kai realized that the girl was absolutely terrified now. Her gaze flickered down to the water below, and the waves were roiling and crashing into each other so many feet down. It suddenly struck him just how young she looked. How old was she? Eighteen? Nineteen? "How—how cold is it?"

"Like I said, freezing, maybe a couple of degrees below," he told her, stuffing his hands in his pockets, trying to remain casual. Spirits, he wished he knew what to say. "I'm telling you, it's not worth it to go in there. You're going to die before you even hit the water from the angle you're at. See the propellers? Hit them, even a little, and you'll pinwheel into the ocean like a macabre puppet cut from its strings."

He wasn't an expert, but that time he knew that what he'd said was wrong. Kai wanted to slap himself.

The girl looked over at him again, this time scrutinizing him like an art critic inspecting a famous painting. "You don't know what I've gone through, though. If you had, you'd encourage me for doing… well, doing this. It's the easy way out, believe me."

"Even if it's the worst thing ever," he said, trying to sound convincing, "it's not worth it to die like this. Life's too precious to throw it all away over problems that can be solved. You don't want to do this, Miss. Just give me your hand."

She sniffled, but said nothing in return. He assumed she was just thinking things over. He hoped so.

"My name's Kai," he said. "Kai Wen."

The girl's brows furrowed, as if she wasn't sure what he was trying to imply, or if he was trying to imply anything, but she shook it off once she seemed to realize that he didn't have an ulterior motive. "I'm J-Jinora," she introduced, if not a bit awkwardly. "Jinora Gyatso."

Kai was still having trouble wrapping his mind around that last name. He couldn't even figure out how to spell it, much less how to say it again. "I'm going to have to write that down," he muttered under his breath. She giggled, and the tips of his ears flushed as he extended his hand toward her once more. "Go on, take my hand."

"A-all—alright," she said. She unfastened one hand from the railing and reached it around toward him. He grabbed it firmly in his, inwardly marveling at how well they fit together…almost like two puzzle pieces.

Maybe the cold was getting to him.

The following couple of seconds were chaotic, and Kai couldn't remember exactly what had happened. He assumed that as she started to climb, her dress had gotten in the way, and the next thing Kai knew Jinora was dangling off the railing by her free hand. Kai was jerked forward like he'd been dragged by wild ostrich-horses, bending nearly in half as he struggled with her weight, suddenly so much when a few seconds ago it had been so little. "HELP!" she screamed. "HELP ME!"

"Hold on!" Kai ordered, trying desperately not to freak out. That wouldn't bode well for either of them. "Just keep holding onto my hand, okay? I've got you. I can pull you over."

Jinora shrieked, almost on reflex, and Kai nearly flinched. Spirits, were his palms always this sweaty? "Hey! Hold on to me. It's okay. I've got you."

"K-Kai," she stammered, breathing harshly. Her grip on his hand felt like he'd gotten his hand stuck in a desk drawer, but he didn't dare say a thing. "Pl—please, Kai, I d-don't want to die. Please, help me!"

"You're going to be fine, Jinora," he promised. "Look, I'm going to pull you over, okay? You—you're going to be fine. I won't let go."

Kai braced himself on the railing with his free hand, trying to lift her over with every ounce of strength in his entire body. He couldn't let go of her. He'd made her a promise. With his previous words echoing in his mind, he clutched Jinora's dress in a death grip and, while she failed, managed to get her over the railing. They fell together onto the deck into a tangled heap, Kai slightly on top of her. He could feel her heart beating through her clothes.

"What's all this, then?" One of the officers had run up to them, looking barely older than Jinora, and Kai had a feeling that he knew exactly what they were thinking. A shaggy-haired third class man on top of a rich-looking young woman in a torn dress? It was a wonder they hadn't shot him on the spot. "Bloody hellfire. Min, Aiki, fetch the Master-at-Arms!" The officer glared at Kai like he'd evolved from pond scum. "Don't even think about going anywhere. You have a lot of explaining to do."

Kai exhaled heavily. "Fuck," he muttered under his breath.

Jinora curled up next to him, inhaling Kai's scent, and tried to block out the world.

Thanks for reading, guys, and don't forget to review! The next chapter will be up soon, I promise. :)