CHAPTER EIGHT: Catch Me

"I hope that you catch me, 'cause I'm already falling."
– Arms, Christina Perri

Kai found it hard to believe that a whole week and a half of being at the Northern Air Temple had already passed. His days had changed from a haphazard of crooked streets and small meals to one of a sturdy routine. Wake up call at 7:00 in the morning, meditation, breakfast, break, training, break, lunch, history lessons, break, and then the rest of the day was free. He couldn't deny, it was a pretty sweet deal. Even if Tenzin's history lessons were the most boring thing ever.

But the one thing that always made his day a good one was Jinora. Kai had fully taken her word on what best friends do, and they had spent the last two weeks getting to know each other pretty darn well, in Kai's opinion. At the very least, she knew him better than anyone else. She knew that his favourite colour was brown, that he didn't know how to read (he was getting better with her lessons), he loved Bacui berries, and that he found Air Nomad history pretty boring when Tenzin taught it, but it was actually okay when she taught him about it.

And in turn, it was fun getting to know her. So far, he had learned that her favourite colour was green, The Adventures of Avatar Aang was her favourite book, she loved pandalilies, and she wanted to travel across the world like her grandfather and Gran-Gran had done.

The most important thing about her travels though, was her map, and she was going to show him today.

Kai had let Jinora lead him to the large library in the Temple. It was mostly empty, except for a couple of airbenders, Otaku and Kushala, a girl with glasses and messy hair, were reading together.

"Wait here," Jinora told him when they took a seat at one of the empty tables. "I'll be right back."

A few moments later when Jinora returned, she had a scroll held gingerly in her hand and a pen. She laid the scroll out before him. "This is my map," Jinora said. "The places with little markings are places I want to go."

Kai could see many places in the Earth Kingdom marked up, Omashu and the Great Divide among them, the cities and places visible by large circles not added by pen ink, but printed on. Leading up to the Southern Air Temple was the Patola Mountain Range, also with a little star as a marking. Near the Southern Air Temple there was a little mark too, at the Patola Mountain Range. Kai's eyes roved over the map, and when he was done, he found Jinora looking at him expectantly.

"This is amazing Jinora," he said, giving her a smile, which Jinora returned. "All of these places look so cool."

Jinora pushed the pen into his hands. "You pick a spot."

Kai stared at her, wide eyed. "But this is your map!"

Jinora's eyes softened, a gentle look coming across her face. "And you're my best friend." Kai still looked doubtful. "Go on, anywhere you want," she added.

Kai's hand hovered over the map, hesitant to press the pen onto the paper. What if he screwed up or something? Nobody had ever shared something that was obviously really important to them with him before... He looked to Jinora, and she gave him an encouraging nod. He swallowed, and his eyes landed in the Fire Nation. Weren't there old ruins of an ancient civilization there? He scanned the nation for it; there it was. The Sun Warrior Ruins. Nervously, Kai circled the small picture of rubble. He looked up at Jinora again, this time for approval.

She was beaming at him. "I never even thought of going there, but it would be so cool. Thank you Kai."

Slowly, Kai grinned back. "You're welcome Jinora..." He gathered up his courage. "Just make sure when you go there, you bring me along." It was scary, in a way, to suggest that in a few years he would still be here, that Jinora would still be his friend - a tightness was building up in his chest. Nothing good ever lasted long and he just wanted this to stay so badly.

Jinora smiled softly. "Of course."

The tightness evaporated immediately. Maybe this time something good would last.

Jinora was taking a bite of toast at breakfast a few days later when Kai plopped down in the seat next to her, his face lit up with a huge smile and a lot more energy than usual this early in the morning. "Today's the day!" he said excitedly.

Jinora's eyes gleamed with amusement as she offered him a tiny smile. "Gliding is a lot harder than it looks, Kai," she told him. "That's why Dad had to postpone the lessons. But," she continued, her smile growing, "you are the first one to get trained, and I'm the one teaching you. Since we're around the same height and weight, we need to manipulate the air currents the same way. The others are going to be trained one-on-one with my dad over the following days."

"Thank the Spirits you're my Sifu," Kai said, and Jinora flushed. "This is gonna be so much fun now."

Or, maybe not. Standing on a balcony that afternoon, a glider clutched in his hand, Kai wasn't so sure. What if he fell? What if he hurt himself? Or worse, what if he made a fool of himself in front of Jinora? Nothing would be worse than that! Jinora had made it look so easy, but now confronted with the task himself, it was terrifying.

"It's natural to be nervous Kai," Jinora said reassuringly. She put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll be with you every step of the way." Despite his nerves, Kai felt himself relax. "I'll show you again, okay?"

"Okay," he managed out, turning his attention onto her. She clutched her glider tightly, and she went through the movements slowly, stepping off the balcony with grace, her glider snapping out with ease as she did a simple circle before landing again. Kai watched her intently, and thought that, maybe he could give it a shot now; Jinora was a great teacher, after all.

"Ready to give it a try?" Jinora asked, giving him a bright smile.

"I think so," Kai replied, his confidence growing.

"Don't worry, if you start to drop in altitude, I'll catch you," Jinora promised, and Kai found himself trusting her. If he couldn't trust her, who could he trust?

Kai took a step off the balcony, his glider springing open, catching the air currents. He did his best to copy the movements Jinora had done, and made a sloppy circle before landing. It was a start, at the very least. Kai beamed at Jinora, feeling immensely proud of himself. Jinora returned the smile.

"That was really good Kai," she praised, and he felt heat creep up his neck and spread over his face.

Kai rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanks Jinora." He looked at the sky - now he could fly. How cool was that? "Can we start doing tricks now?" he asked eagerly, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

Jinora chuckled softly. "I think we should make sure you've nailed the basics first, don't you think?"

Kai grinned sheepishly. "Er, yeah, that's probably a good idea."

Jinora took a step back to study his movements as he went through the simple motions again, gently critiquing when she needed to. She was surprised at how quickly he had taken to it; it had taken Meelo much longer (then again, she was sure the fact that Meelo could barely sit still for more than two minutes had something to do with it too).

After a few more times, Kai grew more and more confident, and Jinora could see his concentration slipping as his excitement took over. It was a good thing too - she had just enough time to snap her glider open as Kai made the wrong movement, faltered and began to fall. Jinora dove after him, wrapping an arm around his torso tightly and pulling him against her side, airbending with her legs to shoot them upwards onto the balcony again. The fall wouldn't have been serious - the reason she chose this balcony in the first place - but it definitely would've hurt.

They landed, both breathing heavily. "Are you okay?" Jinora said worriedly, turning her head to look at him and finding herself nose to nose with him.

"Yeah," Kai said breathlessly. "Yeah, I'm fine..." His green eyes bore into hers. Jinora realized she still had an arm wrapped around him and quickly retracted it, and they broke apart. "Thanks Jinora," Kai said, blushing furiously, rubbing the back of his neck again. His free hand went up to fidget with the suspenders that were no longer there, and dropped to his side.

"You're welcome," Jinora said, her face still red. "I think this is enough for today, we'll work more tomorrow. Besides," she glanced inside the Temple, a bell ringing loudly, "it's lunch time."

Kai smiled at her, a mischevious glint in his eye. "Race ya!" And he went off running, his glider swinging in one hand.

"No fair!" Jinora laughed, taking off after him. "That's cheating!"

"Dad," Jinora said at dinner a few days later, "are Mom, Ikki, Meelo, Rohan and Auntie Kya arriving today?" She had asked the question nearly every day, although unfortunately Tenzin had been unable to give a straight answer; traveling by sky bison sometimes took longer, and they had predicted it would be a three to four day trip.

"Actually," Tenzin said, smiling, and Jinora tuned back into the conversation, "they're coming tomorrow, mid-afternoon."

Excitement built up in her stomach. She hadn't seen any of them in nearly a month, the longest period of separation she had ever known from them. Being at the Temple with the other airbenders and Kai was great, but she missed the rest of her family terribly (well, maybe not when Ikki and Meelo got on her nerves, but that was besides the point).

"Your mom's coming?" Kai asked, sitting in his usual seat next to her.

"Mm hmm," Jinora affirmed. "I can't wait for her to meet you, although you probably want to avoid Ikki and Meelo."

"You - you want me to meet your mom?" Kai said in disbelief.

Jinora gave him a kind smile. "Of course, silly. You're my best friend."

Kai returned her smile slowly. "Yeah, okay. I can't wait then." Jinora was still smiling at him, and Kai wasn't sure what she wanted him to do, so to distract himself to took a sip of his lychee juice, a drink that had quickly become his favourite.

When he set his cup down again, he heard a soft giggle. He looked at Jinora, confused. "What?"

"Lychee juice mustache," she said, still fighting down laughter. Kai wiped it off his face, looking at her fondly. He was still getting used to this 'best friend' stuff, but he was definitely okay with it.

cries over my babies. Next chapter is "Original Airbenders" & aftermath so I am very excited, I hope you are too. I'd love to hear your thoughts, leave a review in the box below. Thank you for reading.

A big thanks to Nadogirl18 for helping me with this chapter. :)