At Jin's mansion.
"Inkasha" yawned as she approached the desk, which held several envelopes and neatly arranged documents, where Jin was using inkbending to finish paperwork ahead of time for several matters. "Dad~ When are we going after the evil queen?" she asked. "I've been following her for a week and I can't take it anymore!" she complained resentfully as big tears formed in her eyes.
When she'd been asked to spy on the Earth Queen, Inkasha had found it interesting and rushed off to play spy.
But soon she had gotten fed up. The queen was a bad, very bad person!
Just remembering how much food she threw in the trash put Inkasha in a foul mood!
And who has the gardener whipped just because he couldn't come to work due to a severe fever, sick and unable to get out of bed?!
"Soon, you know Asami has been very sad," Jin replied as he stood up and patted her head to comfort her. "Did you write down what I asked?"
"Yes!" Inkasha pulled a notebook out of somewhere and handed it to him.
Jin took it and placed it on the desk, not even checking its contents yet.
"Do you want to play for a while until lunchtime?"
"Really?!"
"Of course." Jin felt he didn't spend enough time with Inkasha and was taking measures to fix that. Aside from her, he was definitely going to have more children in the future… so he needed practice.
"I want to play Power Disc!" the spirit said excitedly.
"Alright, let's go to the backyard, I can change the terrain in a moment," Jin agreed, laughing at his spirit daughter's request.
…
"I was so close to winning!" Inkasha whimpered pitifully when lunchtime arrived. "I was only two points away from beating you!"
"Better luck next time." Jin was breathing slightly short of breath, something unthinkable given his usual condition, but when you play against a spirit who can maintain a high-intensity game regardless of chi cost and who doesn't get physically exhausted because she flies instead of running, things get a little more demanding after three hours nonstop. "Ah, I'll have to take a shower, I'm all sweaty."
Inkasha rolled her eyes.
Of course he was sweaty—he had competed against her without taking off that damn armor!
The weird thing was that, with the weight of that thing, he hadn't passed out yet. With her understanding of human capability, she knew anyone in his place would have collapsed unconscious in the first twenty minutes.
She felt Jin was perhaps a bit paranoid; he only took the armor off to shower or be with one of the moms.
"Could you tell Asami to come eat while I go up to clean myself?" he asked kindly.
"Okay~" Inkasha lazily phased through the wall to enter Asami's house.
She didn't sweat unless she wanted to—one of the benefits of being a spirit.
"Should we connect the properties?" Jin mused distractedly for a second as he watched her leave like that. "I'd just have to put up a door to connect the yards."
He shook his head; he would bring it up with Asami during lunch.
He entered the shower and stood under the hot water, grateful that plumbing had reached levels that were only found in the Fire Nation seventy years ago. Unless it was to relax, he preferred a good waterfall shower over a sad bath.
"Jin." Kyoshi phased through the wall while Jin was soaping his hair.
"You'll have to wait until later, darling," Jin said as he made sure to wash properly. "I need to eat something to regain energy before—"
"It's not that!" she interrupted, bringing a hand to her forehead as she felt her cheeks heat up.
Kyoshi couldn't even scold him; it wasn't the first time she entered like that so the two of them could…
But this time she had another reason!
"Do you remember the airbender problem you told me about when we were returning from the South?"
"Yes, but we already tried without success," Jin rinsed himself off before turning off the water and giving her his attention. "Why bring it up now?"
They had tried, nothing had happened, and they moved on.
In a way, they had an unspoken agreement not to mention the matter.
"I came up with a different way for new airbenders to appear, although it's much slower than using the Harmonic Convergence for it," Kyoshi tried to keep her eyes on Jin's upper body, avoiding temptation.
"Really?" Jin was surprised, but quickly considered a possibility. "Wait, you don't expect me to go around opening the chi pathways of nonbenders who have airbender chi every time I find one, do you?"
"It's one way," Kyoshi shrugged. That was indeed her idea. "Think about it: you knock them out, open their chi without them knowing, and leave. The rest is Tenzin's problem."
"And what if people don't want to be airbenders?"
The show had shown a realistic reaction to the reappearance of airbenders—many of the people Tenzin and company sought refused to let their new abilities change their lives or join the Air Temple.
Some, like Kai, even used it for their own purposes, like stealing.
"Then it's as simple as them not using airbending. They can go on with their lives as if nothing happened," Kyoshi argued—a solid point Jin couldn't refute.
Sure, there would be a scare or two when they accidentally used airbending, but within a few days they could instinctively master the gestures to prevent it from interfering with their daily lives.
"Jinora would be delighted if her father met more airbenders," Kyoshi added belatedly.
Jin raised his eyebrows.
"Why are you bringing her up?"
"Are you seriously asking me that?" This time it was Kyoshi's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Jin, I saw how you treat her. You act the same way you did when Toph was a very small child and you spoiled her."
To Kyoshi, it was clear that despite them both having been freed from their prisons, Jin still had some inconsistencies he was unaware of as he adapted to the current era. Not many, but the way he treated Jinora was undoubtedly one of them.
Perhaps his little sister suddenly becoming an old woman had been too much for Jin's psyche, leading him unconsciously to seek someone he could treat as a sort of substitute little sister. Jinora wasn't like Toph, but in some way she had ended up filling that role without Jin noticing.
"I…" Jin wanted to refute what his partner said, but realized he couldn't.
He really did treat Jinora like a little sister, and he hadn't even noticed when it started.
Jinora came to visit every weekend with Pema and Tenzin's permission, who were very aware that their daughter would be completely safe with him present.
Not only did Tenzin's eldest daughter frequently ask him and Kyoshi about their past lives, she also consulted the library, which contained information Jin had rewritten with inkbending on many topics, and she had become one of Inkasha's best friends as they spent time together.
Jin had even seen her bring those dragonfly-bunnies she used to play with, an occurrence that to this day left Retsu uneasy and busy putting everything back in its place.
Even Asami ended up growing fond of Jinora, something the young airbender celebrated, since she didn't have many friends outside the family, and apparently both she and Asami liked the same kinds of romance novels.
Yes, Jin hadn't known about that side of Asami—it seemed she treated it like some kind of embarrassing secret.
Asami also helped Pema solve certain issues and doubts for Jinora that Pema didn't feel comfortable discussing. In a way, Asami began to influence Jinora without either of them realizing it, to Tenzin's confusion and amused bewilderment.
He still remembered the shocked expressions of Meelo, Ikki, Pema, and Tenzin when Asami took Jinora to a women's hair salon to try a new hairstyle without telling anyone.
Oh, how he laughed then!
Too bad Korra hadn't been there to complete the ensemble.
"Alright." Jin knew it was pointless to postpone it—after thinking about it long enough, he would end up giving in anyway, so he might as well save himself the headache. "But I won't go looking for anyone. If we find someone and I have time, I might do it, but that's all."
"Even if you only open the chi for a dozen people, it will already be worth it," Kyoshi smiled. "Now finish your shower and go eat… before I change my mind."
"You could leave," Jin pointed out.
"I actually could," Kyoshi crossed her arms without moving in the slightest now that the serious conversation was done.
Jin opened his mouth to say something, but ended up giving up and simply turned the water back on to finish bathing. It wasn't as if Kyoshi hadn't seen him before…