Kainora, The Adult Years

Part 1

One warm summers evening about 6 years after the conflicts with Kuvira, Jinora sat in her room at air temple island sorting through a pile of books. She had just finished one, and wanted to pack the sequel for her up coming trip to the fire nation. She saw it in the back of her rather oversized book shelf and yanked. Books tumbled to the floor creating quite a ruckus.
"What was that?" Said now much older Ikki from next door.
"Nothing" Jinora replied quietly restacking the books. "I just dropped something"
Ikki appeared in the doorway of the room with a concerned look on her face. Jinora sighed and put down her books. "I told you I was fine Ikki, now go back to sleep."
Ikki stared at Jinora for a second before rushing over to give Jinora a hug. "I'm gonna miss you" she whispered quiet tears streaming down her face.
"No need to cry Ikki, I'm just going to help the fire lord for a couple of months since dad has been so busy. I'll be back before you know it."
Ikki sighed and left the room. Jinora quietly continued placing the books on her shelf. As she was doing this one flipped open. She curiously picked up the book only to be overwhelmed with emotions for the second time that night. It was a photo album from just about 6 years ago. The paged it had flipped open to a picture of every one ad Zhu Li and Varricks wedding. Everyone was all together, looking happy. She placed her finger over herself and started to tear up. She and Kai were arm and arm laughing at the camera.
It had been 4 years since she had seen him. He had gotten his airbending tatoos and then was stationed some where in the earth kingdom to help out. They kept in touch for a long time, but drifted apart over time. She hadn't heard from him in a very long time. The thought of her first young love made her tear up again. She shoved the book quickly back in the shelf and quickly put away the rest.

.....

Two days later Jinora was in the fire nation. She was just settling into her room when she heard a knock on the door. "Come in" she said in a timeless voice. She wasn't trying to be rude, it was just she'd much rather be home spending time with her family, especially because it was her birthday.
A man she had never seen entered and briefly told her about what she was going to do concerning helping the fire lord tomorrow. She sighed and sat down, of course no one remembered her birthday. At least she had the rest of the day to herself.
Wanting to get out, Jinora walked aimlessly along the streets of the fire nation royal city. She poked in a couple of shops, got some food and even made conversation with some locals to pass the time. Nothing helped her aching mood however, and she was just heading back when she bumped into someone.
"Oh I'm sorry!" Jinora said scrambling to pick up her dropped books that she had earlier purchased. "I wasn't looking where I was going"
"Oh no it's my fault" Said a slightly familiar sounding voice. "I was walking to fast, I should've been more careful..."
The stranger helped Jinora to her feet and picked up the last book that she hadn't managed to pick up. "There you go" he said handing it to her. Jinora was just about to Mitter her thanks and head on her way when she stopped.
"Kai?"