1.Aftermath
BAM-BAM-BAM!
There was a thumping at the door that woke Kai with a start, like Asami had shocked him or someone had doused him in icy water, "Mmm-mho iz it?" Kai mumbled into his pillow, not bothering to turn his head, the pain was almost instant, urrrgh… My head.
"It is Tenzin," came an angry voice, "Get yourself out here now!"
Kai groaned and raised himself up with his arms, as if doing a push-up, his head was throbbing. Each time his heart would beat it would pulse through his skull. He opened his eyes slowly and looked down at his arms, his room was darker than he expected, he lifted his head to the window, the sun was not yet up. What the… What kind of time is this?!
"Kai! Move it!" Tenzin yelled again, the sound hurt.
"It isn't even sunrise! Fuck." Kai yelled back, Uh-oh, should not have said that… Kai prided himself on not often being disrespectful or swearing at adults, despite being from the street, who cares?! Why is he waking me this early?
"Did I stutter, Kai?!" He yelled, Tenzin obviously hadn't heard the swearing, or he would have knocked the door down. "Get out here now!"
"Gaaah!" Kai yelled, airbending out around him, the blast threw his blanket across the room and knocked everything from his shelf. He was only wearing his pants when he tore the door open, seeing a furious Tenzin. "What did I do now?!" he yelled up at the looming figure, almost forgetting every rule about respecting his elders in that moment.
"You and the others will learn the hard way, what happens when you break the rules!" Tenzin growled, walking down the hall and approaching another door.
"Others?"
BAM-BAM-BAM!
…
"HOW DO THOSE DRINKS TASTE NOW?!" Tenzin yelled, pacing in front of Kai, Korra, Bolin, Mako, Opal and Asami. Bumi had somehow alluded him, and he knew the consequences of disturbing Lin's sleep from past experiences, anyhow, he had no real evidence they were even present when Kai was given alcohol, but I assumed Bumi was, he thought angrily.
All of them had their legs bent at the knees, straining, while they tried to hold the weight of the earth Suyin was placing upon their back. She was distributing it depending on the strength of each person, knowing that Kai, Opal and Asami, may not be as trained in strength as Korra, Mako and Bolin. At least, not yet, she smiled internally, remembering this is how her mother had trained her and a few other of their friends in strength, even Tenzin when they were young.
Jinora stood a few steps behind her father and Suyin, watching Kai. Something inside her felt hurt, she was certain that she had adequately expressed her feelings toward Kai, despite their lack of contact, and she knew she stated where she hoped their relationship was heading. She had thought that she had received confirmation of this, perhaps he got tired of waiting... This angered her greatly, she scowled.
She wanted him to hurt, to have him be pushed to his limits. He thinks meditating is boring? Training is repetitive? Just he wait.
This is not how a master should think! She yelled at herself, the tug-o-war game of thoughts in her mind had her second guessing her intentions for Kai. Her arms crossed tightly over her chest, the sun was finally starting to make an appearance behind her. Maybe a master shouldn't think like this… But a young, heartbroken woman? Yes. She raised an eyebrow condescendingly as Kai briefly made eye-contact with her.
"I am very disappointed in all of you." Suyin said, eyes settling briefly on Opal, she was pacing in the opposite direction to Tenzin, walking past each other, trying to keep the smiles of their faces. "This is what my mother would do to me and Lin when we drank too much…"
Suyin had arrived to visit Opal briefly, along with most of her children, having not seen her in almost two months. She was less than impressed to have to pull her, hungover, from her room. Finding it was Bolin who answered her door didn't help her annoyance, she knew they were good for each other, but sharing a room shouldn't be taken lightly. I will have to have a talk with her later… Suyin pursed her lips and paced again, raising her fingers and adding a stone to each person's load.
"As would my father." Tenzin smiled, remembering the nights that all of the children of the original Team Avatar would be caught and punished by angry parents. It sounded strange, but they all treasured those memories. "Of course… We never vandalized our place of residence, or the place of someone else's!"
The vandalism Tenzin was referring to, was simple a bunch of inappropriate pictures and words written on the outside of his and Pema's bed chamber. They were easily washed off, but Tenzin knew that punishment was in order. Though everyone knew the real reason he was angry.
"Do you regret handing drinks down to a youngster now?" Tenzin said loudly. Meelo, Ikki and three other children that had joined the Air Nomads in the last several months had been placing bets on who would break first, and they knew it would end soon.
"They didn't give them to me!" Kai yelled to the ground, the stones were digging into Kai's back, he knew the skin was broken, but it wasn't his own wellbeing he was concerned for. Bolin looked like he was going to pass out, Suyin was keeping an eye on him and Korra, to ensure that he would use bending to lighten their load, or others'.
What they wore when they answered Tenzin's knocking was what they wore now. Mako and Bolin were both clever enough to pull on tank-tops of their own before opening their doors, Korra, Asami and Opal thanked the spirits that they had all decided to wear old tops and long pants to sleep, not that Tenzin or Suyin would have made them come out in sleeping gowns. "I stole them!" Kai grunted through his teeth.
"You what?" Tenzin said, walking forward and standing before Kai. Meelo raised his fist victoriously as Ikki and the others reluctantly handed him a silver piece each, he blew them each a kiss.
"Stole… Them." he managed to grunt again.
"Suyin?" Tenzin turned and looked towards the metalbender, she had disappointed scowl.
"He is lying." She said, feeling his pulse through the earth, she held her hands out parallel to the ground and begin to clench her fists. The weights got heavier, everyone grunted with the added effort, Kai looked across, everyone looked terrible, sweat dripped down their faces, dirt covered their skin. He knew, as much pain that the alcohol was causing him, they were experiencing a hangover much worse than his.
He couldn't fathom how they were even operating, "It. Was. My. Choice to… Continue!" he almost yelled, his legs were starting to give way, sweat was dripping off him, Tenzin raised an eyebrow.
"Su?"
"He is telling the truth." She said, "Mostly.", Tenzin stood up straight and nodded in Suyin's direction. She opened her hands and the stone weighs fell from the shoulders of everyone, Bolin dropped to his knees and vomited almost immediately, Mako stood straight and groaned. Korra was supporting herself on her knees, Asami was tying her hair up into a messy bun, trying to breathe properly. Opal was on her hands and knees, coughing and groaning.
"This wasn't meant as torture." Tenzin said softly to the exhausted people before him, "It is a lesson. It just happened to be on a morning that you are all hung-over." Tenzin said, fighting a smile, "You are all welcome to return to bed now."
It was now Jinora finally spoke up, "Except you, Kai."
Kai finally managed to stand up straight, his hair was dripping and his headache was radiating throughout his entire body. "Why am I staying behind?" he said heatedly.
"You missed training yesterday."
…
"Gee, airbending-school is looking more and more like a party, eh, Wei?" Wing smiled, receiving a high-five from his twin brother as he was walking back from the window, a bowl of fruit in his hand, he handed one to Wei and they smiled widely at the exhausted adolescents.
"It isn't a school." Opal said to her brother, sitting down on the floor and holding an ice brick Korra had made to her temple. Huan nodded slightly in agreement with Opal, Bolin stood in the doorway, Wei threw a fruit to him, he caught it and offered it to Mako, who refused.
"The Air Nomad culture is about freedom. School is an institutional prison designed for the teaching of pupils under the direction of teachers that leaves little to the creative aspects of which the individual can possibly achieve if left to grow and flourish in their own environment." Huan grumbled, pursing his lips and rolling his eyes at his younger brothers, he had spoken quickly and without taking a single breath. Everyone looked at him, his twin brothers and Bolin had their fruits suspended centimetres from their mouths, all with blank expressions. "Well it is…" Huan said, crossing his arms.
"You have a lot of anger, don't you?" Bolin asked, his eyebrow raised. He sat on the lounge behind Opal, she leant her head back and rested it on his knee. Huan ignored the person he viewed as nothing more than an oaf, though, at the same time wished to employ some of his lavabending abilities into his works, so he played nice.
"What made you guys make the trek to the Eastern Temple?" Mako asked, passing a cup of water to Opal and Bolin as he took a seat beside them.
"Father was heaps busy, especially with Junior still, y'know, recovering. Mum said 'free trip', and we were like, 'yew!'." Wing shrugged, taking a large bite from a fruit, "Where is Korra? And Asumi?" he suddenly asked, looking around.
"As-a-mi." Wei corrected, juices from his own fruit spilling from his mouth.
"I know her name!" he growled.
"Korra and Asami are preparing some lunch, apparently Asami knows all the best hangover foods." Mako smiled excitedly.
"Thank the spirits." Bolin mumbled, rubbing his temples.
…
"Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Kai yelled, he was told to create a tornado that would rip on of the medium sized boulders from the ground.
"Come on, Kai! You can do it!" Ikki yelled, she was beginning to feel sorry for Kai, almost.
"And if you can't, don't bother returning to the temple! You lily-livered-chicken-pig-fuzz-bucket!" Meelo yelled. As that reached Kai's ears, he dropped his arms to his side, leaving his boulder still firmly rooted in the ground. Jinora stood back, it wasn't until she saw him bend over, resting his hands on his knees, that she saw the traces of blood on his back from under the bandages.
Tenzin and Suyin had felt almost repentant after seeing that the stony weights had harmed Kai, he had brushed off any sympathy and stomped after Jinora, promising to get healed later. He only allowed Asami to quickly wrap a bandage around them.
"Why are you acting like this?!" Kai suddenly said, standing, cringing lightly from the pain on his back.
"You need to learn that you can't just insult airbending, break rules and think that a smile will get you out of it." She said, she managed to sound stern, but after seeing the blood, she realized how hard she had pushed him and felt terrible. He didn't look convinced, Jinora nervously traced her eyes over his body, he had bandages around his torso and was covered in dirt. He had a sections where sweat and dust had made mud, his eyes contrasted with the condition of his skin. She swallowed nervously, he was incredibly attractive, this made her a tad more annoyed.
"Pfft, that isn't the reason!" Kai said loudly, he walked towards her, "You two, give us some privacy or something." He said to Ikki and Meelo, they looked at each other and then at Jinora, she nodded.
"Go back to the Temple, guys…" Jinora said. They opened their staffs and flew back towards the temple, it wasn't until they were mere specks that Kai spoke again.
"You knew that I found meditating a drag. Korra and I always complain about it." He walked closer to her, she stood strong, "This," he gestured around himself, "is about something else."
She had a scowl on her face by the end of Kai's sentence, she had never fought with Kai, and never really wanted to, until now. "You are right, Kai!" she yelled, "I am furious at you! Airbending has nothing to do with it! You think I can't handle you being a baby about how I am in regards to my culture? How you should be? I have had Ikki and Meelo teasing me for years about my commitment! I have learnt to keep people and their opinions out!"
"Then why are you mad, if you are 'so tough'?!" Kai said, his scowl matched hers, he wouldn't let her make him feel guilty again, especially after the other night.
Oh.
That was when it hit Kai, last night, of course. Jinora was in the middle of a sentenced when Kai interrupted her, "Is this because I didn't say what you wanted me to last night?" he said the words softly, not wanting the whole mountainside to hear this.
Jinora had stopped talking, her scowl had disappeared and blush lit up her cheeks. She opened her mouth slowly and sighed, she didn't speak for a moment, Kai saw tears welling up in her eyes, "I-I just wasn't expecting you to be that ignorant about my feelings for you, about us," She mumbled, the words sounded childish when they left her mouth, she wished she could have said them with more sophistication. "And what feelings I thought you had for me. If you still want me, at all." She tried to sound fierce with her final statement, "Now, I am not even sure that I want you!" She finished.
She turned away and kept her eyes on the temple, she felt the tears about to give way and let them roll down her cheeks. It didn't go amiss between Kai and Jinora that they had never gotten a chance to kiss, or touch or anything else that people their age usually do with each other. It seemed that every time they got a chance, something would happen, and something always did happened. They were once set on making sure that they would have plenty of alone time, to move at whatever pace they wanted, to make sure their first kiss is everything they believed the other deserved. But as the months rolled past, the years, they got more and more anxious to be alone, until it seemed they just gave up.
Kai felt terrible, it wasn't the hangover, or his back. He wanted to say something to her, comfort her, I do have feelings for you, I have for five years now! Please, listen to me, I want you more than anything. He realized that he saying this to himself, she wasn't hearing any of it. He didn't know what to do, what to say that would fix her hurt feelings. He felt like this was all still far beyond his years, like they were too young to have any kind of serious romantic feelings. He wished he had someone who had taught him how to express feelings, how to love. I can't stop thinking about you! You are always on my mind... In my heart. He thought the words, know that he had heard them before.
It was then, a tiny voice in his head spoke to him, it came in the voice of Bumi, his words from the previous night. You just want her to know that she is perfect, even when she thinks that she is pushing you away.
He felt his cheeks glow as he softly bit his lip, you are just looking for a way to prove how you feel! Kai realised that, in an unintentional way, Bumi was talking about his situation. Kai felt like he knew what to do, he squared his shoulders and stood tall, letting Bumi's speech roll through his mind. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him, she momentarily made eye-contact out of surprise, but looked away when she took in his serious scowl. You just want to tell her…
He took a step closer ensuring that their toes were flush against the others, show her…
He placed her hand under her chin and lifted it, leaving it caressing her cheek, he stared into her large, abysmal, chocolate eyes still full with tears of hurt, tears of disappointment. That if you had one wish!
He moved his second hand to the top of her shoulder, holding her tightly, not dropping her gaze. It would be to get under the layer of metal armour she coats herself in…
She breathed in quickly, breath catching in her throat. To keep the world out.
He moved his head in closer to her, leaning in slowly. He saw her eyelids flutter and close, another tear slipped out, rolling down her glowing cheeks and merging with the dust on his thumb. It left the tiniest mark of mud as he wiped the tear away, she parted her lips ever so slightly. And make it crystal clear…
His eyes were drawn to the tiny mark, a dark mark on something so pure, he didn't think of the irony. That she is everything that is right in the world.
He let his eyes close, their hearts pounding together, they were equals in this moment.
Your world.
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Merry Christmas!