"Of all the things…" Tenzin mumbled for the tenth time. He paved the small room, glancing at the couch where his daughter and her (boyfriend?) sat. "How long?" he asked again into the room. "I thought she would know better," also bounced around.

Jinora knew that he was just mad, and that he didn't mean it to offend Kai, but jinora also knew that Kai didn't know her father the way she did. She nudged her way closer to him on the couch and whispered, "Don't take it personally," to him.

Kai seemed fine, considering. His face was set, not showing much emotion. He sat patiently, like he has been through this before and knew that he should just wait it out. "I'm fine," he whispered back. He thought how it went downhill so fast. He was kissing her.. KISSING JINORA, and then her Dad saw us kissing and got mad. Understandable he thought. He tried to play it off cool, tried to introduce himself and praise Tenzin for raising such a lovely lady. But he wouldn't have any of it. He just corralled them into the house and sat them on opposites ends of the couch (even though they shuffles their way back towards each other).

Jinora was a bit rougher, she sat rigid with a red (and guilty looking) face. She didn't regret it, she just wished that it ended differently. Jinora would look up every now and then to glance at her parents. Her Dad marching in circles angrily and her mom standing to the side with a neutral face.

Tenzin stopped suddenly and turned towards the two teens, "Just tell me what happened," he asked.

Kai started to talk but Tenzin quickly put up a hand, "Jinora, what happened?" he asked again.

Jinora audibly swallowed the lump in her throat, "Well, Kai and I were assigned to write a story together for an English project, a love story actually, so we were spending a lot of time together and we both like eachother and we kissed and you saw us?" she said really fast. She looked at her dad questionly, looking for any sympathy in his eyes. None.

"You can't just go around kissing…" Tenzin was cut off by his wife.

Pema stepped between Tenzin and Jinora, "What your incredibly protective Father is trying to say is that you should have told us that you and Kai were dating."

"We're not dating!" Jinora retorted, "I mean, we never said we were. That's up to Kai," she said. She looked at him, his face looked hurt but recovering. She wrapped her pinky around his, "Do you want to date me Kai?" she asked.

Kai's face went red, his pulse racing. It felt like he was sweating but he knew he wasn't. "Yes!" he nearly screamed. "Um- " he coughed, "I mean… yes, I would love to go out with you."

"Smooth like Jason, yeah?" she laughed.

"You caught me off guard," he laughed back at her.

Jinora relaxed at their usual banter, but was brought back to reality by her oh-so-annoying father. "Do I have any say in this?" he asked to no one in particular.

Jinora was saved from answering that question by her mom, "You," she said with a hand on her husband's chest, "do not have a say in our daughter's love life." Jinora was in the middle of thanking her mom when she was interrupted, "BUT, we will talk. All three of us," she said pointing to Jinora and Kai. "You can go now honey," she said, dismissing Tenzin.

He was about to put up a fight, but the look on his wife's face told him to leave the room quickly. "Just call if you need me!" he said, leaving the room.

"Thank you Mrs Gyatso," Kai said.

Jinora's mom stood in front of them, not threatening, but definitely intimidating. "Okay, ground rules. No kissing in front of me or your father," she started.

"Mom!" Jinora said, gaging on the thought of deliberately kissing Kai in front of her parents.

"Just listen, and save questions for the end please" she said. She took a seat between them this time. "Okay, so no kissing. You need to tell me or your father when or if Kai is coming over. If you are in your room the door stays opened," Jinora winced again, "and I ask that either of you come to me with any problems." Pema now turned to Kai and spoke to him directly, "You seem like a kind young man. Jinora obviously likes you very much and I can see how happy you've already made her with your friendship. All I can ask is that you treat her and the rest of my family with the respect that you want us to treat you with," Pema grasped his hand and gave him a light hug.

"Thank you, and I will," Kai told her.

Pema got up and began to leave the two alone, "Oh, and if Tenzin gives you any trouble just tell me. He can be very protective sometimes, but he just doesn't want jinora to get hurt like last time."

Jinora winced again, mumbling under her breath about Skoochy. Kai held her hand, lacing their finger, "I'll protect her ma'am, I promise."

"You do that," she nodded.

Jinora looked up at Kai for the first time since they kissed, "So…"

Kai stopped her and asked, "where would you life to go for our first date?"

AUTHORS NOTE

yes, I am alive. And yes, I have gotten your messages about updating! I know, its been MONTHS... and I'm sorry for that. But I get in these slumps where I just dont want to write and then I forget about the story and then trying to write the next chapter seems like the hardest thing ever. So that's what happened.

On the other hand, here is a short chapter to settle me back into this fic. Hopefully the errors are minimal and the plot line stick 0_0

I'll try to post a longer chapter sometime within the next week or so. honestly, it's the comments and messeges I get from you guys that encourage me to continue my writing even after one of my MANY MONTH LONG slumps. One again VEY SORRY FOR THAT...

As always 3 ~ NADOGIRL18