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Jinora sighed as she walked out of school. The next few weeks were going to be busy as hell, so she couldn't even go and see Kai now. Well, part of her wanted to sneak in ten or fifteen minutes with him, but with the workload they had right now, it simply couldn't be done. It was that horrible time of year where everything as due at the same time.
Of course, Kai didn't care as much. Even though Jinora couldn't help but smile as she realized that he was putting in slightly more effort since they got together, it still wasn't brilliant. Still, progress is progress. He was becoming more punctual, had his homework done more often than not, and had generally stopped the business of loudly revving his motorcycle every time he arrived or took off.
(It's the small things in life.)
It still irked her that well over two months after she found out about his foster parents, she still hadn't been able to come up with a way to help him. She tried calling Child Services under the guise of writing an essay on the subject, but all she got out of them was official bullshit that might as well have been recorded on a tape. That wasn't going to help anyone.
And now she was slumping over to the car park, done with today. It was Friday, and this was the weekend that she was planning to use for working ahead. Normally, Friday was the best day for her and Kai to go out into town and do something, be it a walk in the park, cup of tea in a café, but also more specialized things. Kai had taken the effort to take her to the release of a new book that Jinora had been talking about, but she couldn't find a store that had it. She had almost resigned herself to ordering it online, but Kai found a store and took her to it. It was definitely one of the sweetest things he'd ever done, or anyone had ever done for her. He had also invited her along when he got himself another tattoo, and while Jinora didn't really know how to feel about that, he was utterly sure of himself, so she went along with him.
He got an anchor on his right hip, and she couldn't help but wonder what else he already had, thinking that it did look quite sexy on him. Kai told her there were more, even if she hadn't seen them. They hadn't really gotten much more physical, though Kai was becoming slightly more assertive in the fleeting moments of real privacy they did manage to steal. Going to second base a few more times, pinching her butt at others, and Jinora loved it all.
Masturbating definitely wasn't something Jinora frequently did, but she just couldn't help herself anymore. There had been more than one session with Kai as the primary mental stimulus, in various stages of undress, of course. He had once carefully asked her for 'spicy' pictures of herself, but Jinora had flat-out refused that. She didn't like that people were doing it, and Kai conceited. She preferred to use her imagination, and it also saved them the risk of getting caught.
Overall though, they were pretty careful, with Jinora sometimes bringing different clothes and always switching out her glasses for lenses, and those things had paid off.
No one outside of the skate park had found out about them yet, not even Fen, bizarrely enough. Jinora was kind of amazed that they had already made it five months without her best friend knowing exactly what was up. Fen had suspicions, sure, but could never find anything conclusive. She may be a yenta, but she wouldn't spread rumors like that about Jinora. That would just be a total bitch-move and nothing like Fen. That meant that the person closest to Jinora in school would keep her trap shut and that the secret would remain just that: a secret.
And yet none of that all could help that she was going to be spoken for the next few weeks. Interactions with Kai had been quite frequent, especially if it meant avoiding Ikki. The relationship between Jinora and her sister had mostly cooled down, but that was exactly the problem: it was frigid. There was no real animosity between them anymore, but there also wasn't any progress. Everything had been locked in place, they were both entrenched, and neither one of them was about to move.
Of course, this had been much to the frustration of their parents, especially Pema. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do about from there. She'd tried talking to them separately, but that hadn't worked, not even a little bit.
It did, however, give Jinora a good idea about what was going to happen next. She'd gotten a text from her mother telling her to come to the car park proper as opposed to the street in front of the school where most parents usually picked up their children.
-"Hey, sweetheart," Pema opened as soon as Jinora walked up there.
"Hey, Mom," she replied. "Say, why did you ask me to come down here instead of the street?"
-"Because it's a nice day and we might as well talk out here."
Jinora sighed. "This is about me and Ikki, isn't it?"
Pema quickly nodded. "This little feud between you has gone on long enough, and I am just about sick of it. Since it's a nice day, we are going to sit out here and talk this over until you two have reached some sort of resolution, because it is starting to border the ridiculous."
"Mom..." she groaned, already regretting not taking the bus home.
-"No buts, Jinora. You know just as well as I do that this can't go on any longer."
"Hey, I extended an olive branch twice now, and neither one had a lasting impact."
Pema nodded in agreement. "I know, we talked about this. I also talked with Ikki, and now it's about time you talk with each other. I'll act as the mediator, but it'll have to come from you."
Jinora thought this was a pretty good opportunity to get out if it. It had actually been kind of peaceful without Ikki yapping her ear off all day long. "Why me and not her?"
-"Because you're the oldest and the wisest, and you know damn well what I'm talking about."
Kind of to Jinora's surprise, her mother sounded more irritated than anything else, like she was tired. Both of them had a decent position to come from, even if they were stretching it a bit. "Would it help if I said I'm busy?"
Pema shook her head. "No, because this can be over as quickly as you want it to be. In fact, there she is."
Ikki was indeed just coming around the corner, already having a somewhat suspicious look in her eyes. "What's going on?" she asked, definitely not trusting the situation.
"Hello to you too," Jinora snarked, immediately earning a disapproving look from her mother.
-"As I was just telling Jinora, you two are going to make amends, because whatever it is that's going between you has done so long enough," Pema said. "Now I have all the time in the world, and we're not leaving this parking lot until you have reached an agreement of sorts." She leaned against the hood of their car and crossed her arms in determination. There was no arguing on this one.
Ikki threw her mother an unconvinced look, who didn't budge. Instead, she turned to Jinora, who could only shrug. They weren't going to get out of this one. "Fine," she groaned. "What do you have in mind?"
"Hey, I'm asking you," Jinora said. "I tried twice, and both times it went nowhere."
-"That's because the moment we made a truce, you ended up yelling at me again."
"Which had absolutely nothing to do with that truce itself and you know it. You'd have been pissed as well if the roles were reversed."
This was the time Pema spoke up. "Girls..." she warned. "We're not here just throw accusations back and forth."
Jinora sighed. "Fine. What do you think we have to do in order to end this whole thing between us?" she asked her sister.
-"I don't know, you seem pretty content keeping it this way."
"Well, I'm not gonna lie to you, it's been nice and quiet, and I'm gonna need that the next couple of weeks."
-"See?" Ikki said, raising her hands at Jinora. "This is exactly what I was saying. She doesn't want to make up."
Pema didn't look convinced. "There are different kinds of quiet, and yours isn't the right kind. Jinora is going to need the time to study, but you two not talking is not because of that."
Both of the girls nodded at that, because it was true. "But if we're both okay with the situation as is, why not leave it at this?" Jinora offered up. "I don't really see the downside here."
-"Because you're family and I don't want to have you two not talking for the foreseeable future," her mother coldly replied. "You are sisters, and I know what that's like, I have two of them. We went through our ups and downs just like you have, but never something like this, going months without talking to each other. So, Ikki, what is bothering you?"
Ikki sighed. "I don't know what she's capable of anymore."
"Are you worried that I would actually hit you?" Jinora asked in surprise.
-"Well, I wouldn't put it beyond you these days. It felt like you wanted to that night at aunt Kya's."
The older girl sighed. "We may not get along, but I would never hurt you like that."
This was the point where Pema decided to come to Jinora's aid. "Ikki, you know your sister is not a violent person, and I don't believe that she would hurt you like you are afraid of."
It fell silent after this, and it was clear that both Jinora and Pema were waiting for Ikki's response. "Okay," she ultimately nodded. "Do you want us to shake on it or something?"
-"No, I want you two to act like sisters again. Try and talk to each other over dinner, go and do something together like you used to."
Jinora shot Ikki a meaningful look, because there was no getting out of it anymore. "Fine," the younger girl said. "You mean like, go to a movie or something?"
It actually sounded sincere, which had been rare the past couple of months. It only made Jinora feel more guilty about having to turn her down, at least for now. "I can't," she said. "These next few weeks are going to be hell, and I can't take an afternoon off to go see a movie with you." Ikki looked a little disappointed, so Jinora tried to cheer her up. "Tell you what, after the last exam, I'll have some more time, and we'll go then, okay?"
-"Deal."
Yes, I'm well aware it's a filler chapter with not much going for it that mainly exists to move around a couple of chess pieces on the board and is consequently pretty exposition heavy but I have a good reason for it. What's likely going to happen is that the next one is going to be a bit of filler/fluff, though that chapter is a concept as of yet. But after that, it's going to be a big one, or if it keeps growing like it has, two big ones. So there is plenty to look forward to.
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