Kainora's Hair Pin

A/N: WOW! It feels like it's been SO LONG since I've written a fanfic. It feels SO GOOD to have written one! I really need to get back into it! *sigh* Life keeps getting in my way, though... =(

SOooooo... This is my first contribution to the Kainora (Kai & Jinora) ship from Legend of Korra, Season 3. Thinking it takes place after episode 7.

I have totally fallen in love with this ship! They are just so unbelievably adorable! I can't get enough! Unfortunately, since it's a new ship, there isn't much fanart out on it, yet. :(

This is solely a one shot fic, though. Something I wrote because I can't get the off my mind. I've got so many other series fics that I've started that I really need to get to finishing... IF I ever get time. *cries*

Hope you enjoy. Please let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I claim no rights to these characters or the setting of this fic. This was purely created for fun. Characters and the setting are property of Mike and Brian, creators of ATLA & LOK.

Kai had to remind himself that he turned over a new leaf when he joined Master Tenzin at the Northern Air Temple to become a part of the Air Nomads. It would be so easy though, just to take it, to slip it up his sleeve. Especially since the merchant wasn't even paying any attention to him. Nobody would notice, right?

Wrong…

"What are you doing here?" Mako's familiar voice sent a cold shiver up his spine, which made him drop the hair pin that he thought would look nice in Jinora's hair. "And what exactly are you doing?"

"Who me?" Kai laughed nervously and stepped away from the table of hair accessories. He looked at Mako and turned towards him, smiling innocently. "Oh, Hi, Mako! Fancy meeting you here. I thought you were with Korra," he replied, trying to act as natural as he could. "What are you doing here?" he turned the question around on him.

Mako narrowed his eyes with a suspicious look. "What are you up to, Kai?" The boy was up to something, he could tell.

"What am I up to? What are you up to? I thought there was a band of criminals after Korra," Kai expertly evaded Mako's persisting questions.

Not expertly enough, though. Not when he was up against a veteran thief turned cop. Mako eyed the table behind Kai. It didn't go without notice that, on a table of neatly placed items, one particular item lay askew amongst the others. He stepped closer to the boy who had been proclaimed to be a little brother, by his own little brother himself – Bolin - but before he could say anything, his afore thought of little brother showed up, seeming from out of nowhere.

"Kai? Little Bro?" Bolin, having come up from behind Mako, looked around his brother at the younger boy. "Wow! What are you doing here?" he stepped around Mako to pull Kai into a hug, gave him a noogie, and turned, with his arm still around Kai's shoulder, to look at Mako. "Hey, what's going on?" he asked with clueless excitement. "Isn't this great, we can all have dinner together! Come on, let's get Korra!"

Kai had been invited – albeit begrudged on Master Tenzins part, but thanks to Jinora's insistence – to join them on a brief return to Air Temple Island to see to matters regarding the air acolytes. After Jinora's fathers recent acceptance of her declaration of maturity and the tattoo earning mastery of her heritage, she was allowed to sit in with her father during the meeting. Kai, however, was supposed to be training, but a plan formed when he was standing at the rotating gates. After having to set the gates into motion himself, since the acolyte assigned to see to his training – Or rather, to babysit him – couldn't airbend, he quickly discovered the exercise to be a piece of cake, and soon disappeared out from the other side of the obstacle without being noticed.

"I… uh… actually have to get back to Air Temple Island…" Kai admitted with a sheepish tone.

"What, you're sneaking off? Now you're stealing again? What where you going to do, sell it for money? I thought you were turning over a new leaf," Mako jumped to conclusions and accusations.

"No!" Kai exclaimed. He wanted to argue that he didn't need to steal anything to sell for money, he thought he had proven quite nicely that, with his new airbending skills, he could pickpocket quite well for himself. This, however, was not something that he wanted to do. He had learned his lesson back in Ba Sing Se. He really had turned over a new leaf, at the Northern Air Temple. He had everything that he needed and he was getting closer to mastering his airbending every day. Let's not forget about Jinora… She was smart, fun, an amazing teacher, and pretty. He didn't want to go back to having to live off of the streets. "I was looking at it, honest…," he said, looking up at Bolin with pleading innocence. "For… Jinora." He looked at Mako defensively. "You surprised me, the way you snuck up on me like that."

"Snuck?" Mako repeat, now the defensive one. "I wasn't sneaking!" he argued.

Bolin's eyes brightened at the mention of Jinora. "Awww, isn't that cute? See, Mako, he was looking at it for Jinora!" He smiled from ear to ear, remembering the way that Kai came to Jinora's aide in Ba Sing Se, and the way that Jinora had rewarded him with a kiss on the cheek. "Which one was it?" He was looking at the accessories on the table and, noticing the one that lay oddly across the others, he picked it up to examine. "Hey, how about I buy it and you can give it to her. I bet she'll love it." He was already walking towards the merchant before anyone could stop him.

Kai was too surprised to speak up. He caught the look of disapproval that Mako was giving him and he grinned, raised a hand to the back of his neck and gave a nervous laugh. "You don't have to, really. Hey, wait…" He ran down to where Bolin was already paying for the item.

"Don't you worry about it, little bro," Bolin turned to hand the hair pin to him. "Just run on along," He shooed him on his way. "I wish I could be a spider-fly on the wall to see her reaction," he side whispered to Mako as he waved after Kai.

Kai didn't waste any time to be on his way. He couldn't believe his luck!

His luck was short lived, though. Back at Air Temple Island, everyone had been looking for him, and unfortunately it wasn't Jinora who found him first.

"Kai! Where have you been? We've been looking for you everywhere!" Master Tenzin's voice rang through the court yard as the man strode towards him with surprisingly heavy footsteps for a master airbender.

Clearly not everywhere… Kai wanted to say but he stopped himself. "I… uhh… Fell asleep…" he lied out of habit. "I'm really sorry, sir. I was trying to meditate, but I was really tired after all of that training. I slept so hard that I didn't hear anyone calling for me." The story slipped from his tongue like water off of a turtleducks back. To his surprise, master Tenzin put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him with softer eyes, which left him with a guilty feeling for not telling the truth. If Tenzin knew that he'd gone into Republic City, though, he'd surely be in even more trouble.

"Well, I'm glad we've found you, now. You have been training very hard. I must say that I'm very proud of you. You're my best recruit and I'm happy to see that you are so serious about your spiritual studies."

Wow, talk about knowing how to make someone feel guilty. Though, after seeing what Jinora was capable of doing metaphysically, he had to admit the spiritual side of being an air nomad did interest him. This, he vowed, would be his last lie. He would train harder to master his element.

With the hair pin hidden in his sleeve, he allowed Tenzin to lead him away for dinner, during which he feigned lingering fatigue from his nap. His energy fully restored afterwards, though, he jumped at Jinora's suggestion to continue his studies in air nomad history. True, she was far more interesting of a teacher then Tenzin was, but he was more interested in having the chance to give her the hair pin.

"Hey, wait a minute," he grabbed her hand to pull her to a stop with him. "Let's go for a walk. Show me around?" He gave her a charming smile, the one that she hardly seemed able to resist. Thankfully she didn't seem quick to run off to actually study. Besides, it could be argued that learning about Air Temple Island was a part of his history lesson.

"There's not much to see at night. Tomorrow I'll take you to see the sky bison caves," she suggested after a moment's thought.

"That sounds amazing, are there any babies, like the wild herd back at the Northern Air Temple?"

"Oh, there might be by now. I know one of the females was expecting…"

They naturally seemed to wander away, into the night, soon to find themselves at what Jinora called the plaza, where they could look out across the bay. It was here that he presented her with the hair pin – a nicely polished wooden stick from which a beautifully carved and painted lotus flower dangled.

"Kai, where did you get this? It's beautiful!"

"I didn't steal it." He laughed, raising a hand to the back of his neck when she looked at him oddly. He looked away and laughed before relating his mini adventure from earlier in the city to her.

"You lied to my father?"

"Yeah… don't remind me… It just came out. I already feel bad about it."

She smiled at him knowingly. "You'll have to tell him, you know."

"Yeah… I know…," he sighed and shuffled on his feet.

"Thank you, Kai, I love it!" She told him sweetly, about the hair pin, before leaning in to kiss his cheek.