students at the royal fire academy for girls are not supposed to act out, which includes things like setting fire to each other, challenging each other to agni kais (within reason), or attempting dangerous firebending tricks. the last one stands no matter how very cool and impressive the trick looks, and no matter how one might want to practise it to impress their girlfriend later.
that's what lands bora and siyeon in detention, bora ill-temperedly blowing out little smoke rings and growling out what exactly she plans to do to their tutors when they get out of detention. siyeon just watches on in amusement, hands clasped in her lap and kicking her feet out in boredom. it's bora's thing, to constantly see what rules she can test, and then bounce back from the ensuing consequences just as quickly as she'd started it all.
"we're eighteen," bora finally says, when she's done swearing to the gods on how this academy is repressing all of them and how they're stronger than they are and could probably bring this place to the ground if they so pleased, "i can't believe they're still allowed to send us to detention."
"you're eighteen," comes minji's voice as she slides the door open, "shouldn't you have know better by now?"
the crown princess has a small, mischievous smile on her face - she's not supposed to be here, but their tutors are a lot more lenient with her. maybe it's the royal topknot pin minji wears to keep her hair in place, or maybe it's something a little more intangible. that air of sweetness and dependability she brings into every room.
"we're being punished for nothing," siyeon says bravely. "it's not our fault."
minji strides towards siyeon with all the authority her position affords her, and says, "show me your hands, siyeon."
grumbling, siyeon lifts her hands from her lap, showing minji the already-healing (firebenders have some increased healing factor - it's an occupational safeguard) wounds in the middle of her palms, star-shaped bits of raised flesh. the tips of the first two fingers of both hands are seared too, and minji's eyes immediately soften.
bora dourly watches minji coo and fuss over siyeon's injury before she clears her throat.
"in our defense," bora says, tapping a finger against the desk to get their attention, "the rumors made it sound a lot easier."
"what rumors?" minji asks, lifting a suspicious eyebrow.
siyeon tries to shush bora, blushing furiously and doing that thing where she shoots mini jolts of electricity from her fingers, but bora continues nonchalantly, "that that man - the man you'll be married off to when you take the throne - can shoot lightning from both his hands at the same time."
minji, of course, gets misty-eyed and hugs both of them, "i'm not marrying anyone. my father can say whatever he likes."
she rarely speaks out against her father. when she does, it's only ever to the two of them, and only ever when he's done something to them.
bora leans the side of her face against minji's waist, "yeah, i told siyeon we were being idiots."
-
the first firebending injury any of them sustains is when they're eight. bora gets distracted during a manoeuvre and inadvertently directs that energy inwards- which results in an inward direction of the energy, and an ugly red mark down her arm.
they're in one of the royal palace's magnificent training grounds, playing with minji's younger sister yoohyeon, and bora says, "yoohyeon, guess what i can do!"
"what?" yoohyeon asks curiously, and bora throws her fist out like how she'd seen the ember island players. fire bursts from her hands, but the power she nurses is badly handled, characteristic of being a child with too much power and too little control. fire sears the inside of her right arm the next moment. (giving yoohyeon the scare of her six year-old life.)
bora screams, falling to the ground, and yoohyeon bolts, while minji and siyeon stare at her. minji is the first one to react, and will prove to be good at reacting to conflict and panic in time to come - she tells siyeon to go call for the royal physician, and to avoid their firebending tutor, and that she will go and tell bora's parents what's happened.
the skin blisters immediately. bora cries out, but she bites her lip very hard even as tears wet her eyes. she stares stubbornly into the sky until there are no traces of tears left on her lashes, and sits with her legs folded, waiting for siyeon and the physician. when siyeon comes back, the physician hot on her heels, she scuttles to bora's side (the one that's not charred) and clings to her.
bora's parents are more amused than upset with bora, and help her apply healing salve to her arm, but not before warning her to be more careful the next time.
-
minji was born in spring. siyeon says it's because nature was celebrating all its beauty, and that included minji. bora, in her own irreverent way, says the fire lord should have tried harder to have a baby in the summer like her own parents did, so they'd have a stronger firebender heir.
to which siyeon had zapped her. it's not untrue, though. minji is definitively the weakest bender amongst the three of them, siyeon the strongest, which is unbecoming of the heir to the throne, but impossible to avoid when you're dating what should be two of the strongest firebenders in the nation.
her twentieth birthday is a particular vibrant spring - as if the elements had planned all of this to perfectly coalesce. she spends the morning with bora and siyeon, who've managed to sneak past the guards (something they're never chastised for, except for if the fire lord or the fire lady find out).
she's summoned for a meeting with the fire lord in the afternoon, and promptly chases bora and siyeon away, "they say it's urgent."
"it's your birthday. can't they give you a break?" siyeon asks, bora nodding in agreement, mouth full.
minji looks pleadingly to the attendant, who shakes her head. her stomach drops. it's serious, and the timing is not a coincidence, but she doesn't let the other two see how worried she is.
"i'll meet the two of you later," minji promises, smiling as they brush past her and blow kisses on the way out of her room. "bora's place?"
"of course!"
and minji does, eventually, show up at bora's place - just that she does it when it's almost midnight, when her birthday has seen its way out.
bora's eyes widen when she sees minji in the doorway, one hand propping herself up. her hair is a mess, let loose instead of into a neat topknot, and her clothes are rumpled. her eyes don't quite focus when she looks at bora-
"you're drunk," she says uneasily. they've gotten drunk before, of course, run around in the royal pantry, but not like this. back then, it had been funny when minji's whole face flushed red, or when siyeon fell asleep and couldn't be awoken till they shouted that the great comet had come and she had missed it. this isn't the same. "are you okay?"
"depends," minji winks, and despite the confident exterior minji is trying to put up, bora can see tears shimmering in her eyes. behind her, siyeon has gotten to her feet, her front cautiously pressed against bora's back, hands hovering at bora's hips. "are you okay being with a disinherited princess?"
"what?" siyeon asks, but bora already knows, and she takes minji in her arms when the girl finally topples into her, the first racking sobs coursing through her. bora's heart aches when she thinks of how long minji must've held in these tears, just to let them loose here in front of the women she trusts most.
"it's okay," she murmurs into minji's hair, through minji's humming cries. she holds minji tenderly, as if she would a child, and presses a kiss to the top of her head. siyeon comes closer, and minji takes in ragged breaths of her two girlfriends.
"minji," siyeon says helplessly, "i'm sorry, i love you."
and maybe bora's mind has always gone too fast, tripped on its own feet, but she can't help but wonder if she and siyeon have anything to do with this.
the details come out slowly, because minji feels the need to give them all the details, even though they don't press. she wants to tell them the truth, in its ugly glory.
the truth is that she has been officially disinherited from the throne, the fire lord had been bound by tradition, and so he had had to wait until minji turned twenty to officially notify her.
she has been disinherited in favor of her younger sister, but will remain in the public eye as the crown princess. the official statement, when yoohyeon ascends to the throne, will be that minji had politely sidestepped the throne in favour of serving the nation in her own personal capacity. she will behave accordingly.
the reason given for the disinheritance had been her unsavoury relationship with siyeon and bora. which is bullshit, because as a noble, bora has seen the most dishonorable, unmentionable, deviant relationships known to man's imagination. what they have is love, pure and simple. but it would not have been acceptable for the fire lord to have two lovers.
bora isn't surprised, but siyeon is absolutely devastated - her mouth falls open as she realizes that she is part of this, and bora knows that siyeon must be blaming herself for what is undoubtedly the worst day of minji's life. she doesn't have to say it - bora knows.
"he said that," minji hiccups from the alcohol, and there's two little flames in her palms, lighting her red eyes. none of them are laughing now. bora continues rubbing her back, "that if i'd be willing to take just one of you as my consort, that i'd be heir again."
"take bora," siyeon says so quickly, like she's afraid bora may beat her to saying it. her eyes are shining, both earnest and teary, "please, minji, you can't lose the throne just because of me."
"siyeon," bora scolds, and then she pulls siyeon close, too, because siyeon, for all her bravado, is one word away from collapsing. she presses her lips against siyeon's softly, and when siyeon opens her eyes, she nips at her lip hard enough for siyeon to whimper. "don't say shit like that. you idiot."
siyeon growls and zaps bora, and then appeals to minji, "minji-"
"no," minji says fiercely, some of the fog clearing from her eyes. she sits up, and stares down both bora and siyeon, her brown eyes reflecting who she is- she's their crown princess, but she is also their minji, strong and resolute, passionate and kind. "they won't take either of you away from me."
minji doesn't make promises lightly. the word of the princess is minji's honour. the other members of the aristocracy may play around with the concept, but not the royal family - they are so tethered by the idea of honour that they might just break.
bora lets her hand drop from its place on minji's back. the sweet tarts they'd procured from a stall in the capital, meant for a smaller, more intimate celebration of minji's birthday, have gone cold and unnoticed, but she smiles weakly when she sees them.
"here, try one."
minji smiles gratefully, and opens her mouth as bora guides a tart into her mouth, only to squeal when bora crushes it into her face.
bora has about a two second head start before minji gets over the shock and starts chasing her around the room. siyeon whines something about how minji was supposed to eat it, not have it splattered all over her face, but bora gets the idea that she isn't complaining all that much.
they commemorate her twentieth birthday with siyeon and bora extending one ball of flame each, and having minji blow those out for candles. it's as good a birthday as any.
-
bora is absolutely determined to help siyeon in her lightningbending training, and this, of course, is what leads to an accident as well in the year they turn fifteen.
when they first found out siyeon was a lightningbender, when they were twelve- the fire lord had been disappointed, for one. minji had hugged her and told her she was so excited for siyeon. bora had been jealous, though she hadn't said it. it'd come through in the way she'd pick siyeon's hands up and study them, run her fingers along the lines and mumble unintelligible things to her.
siyeon gathers that somewhere along the line, minji gave bora a talk and bora realized that it really wasn't anyone's fault that they could bend lightning. they do that a lot - try to protect siyeon by having discussions between the two of them, even though she's the strongest bender among all of them. bora says that bending isn't the only measure of strength.
somewhere along the line, bora learns how to redirect lightning from their firebending tutor, and though expressly told not to - she sees siyeon's excitement and agrees to train with her.
the maneuver is supposed to be easy. siyeon breathes, feeling the energy build up in her veins, under her skin, and attacks, two fingers neatly branched out in front of her. lightning crackles from her fingertips, in that clean way she has perfected, and bora redirects it, taking the lightning into her body and sending it back to siyeon. siyeon leaps out of the way, whooping with glee.
she doesn't notice it, but as the hours pass, bora gets more and more tired, even though she denies it. and then it happens-
bora doesn't move quickly enough. the lightning hits her in the shoulder, and she's thrown backwards into a nearby wall, the resulting boom echoing throughout the royal grounds. it's a surprise the brick doesn't come crashing down, carefully crafted architecture crumbling.
lightningbending training dictates that you do not make skin-to-skin contact with someone who has been electrocuted, because you can get electrocuted too, but that's the furthest thing from siyeon's mind right now. she runs straight for bora, and is thrown aside with a wild body spasm when they make contact. the feeling of being electrocuted is like no other - it's having every bit of your body turned against your will. but it's not half as bad as seeing bora injured.
siyeon is a little more of a crybaby when it comes to getting injured, but for different reasons. she cries the whole time as she's carried to the physician's office, and refuses to sit still and have herself checked until they tell her bora's fine.
this incident is what makes minji consider never letting bora and siyeon out of her sight.
which, as it turns out, works pretty well.
-
there is never a tipping point for them. there is simply nothing keeping them in the capital, near all the other members of the aristocracy and their families and the men their families desperately want to wed them off to. and there is nothing stopping them from leaving. they are free. truly.
they must've known that it would happen all their lives - that they would always be together. because it is all too easy to leave, and the plan is easily pieced. siyeon takes care of the details, bora more so the big ideas, minji to lend a stabilizing hand to their plans.
so one day, in the year they turn twenty-five, when they have each fended off more than enough suitors and trained enough to last a lifetime, princess minji of the fire nation slips into a carriage. she walks straight past the palanquin and onto one of the main roads around the palace, her belongings with her, and climbs into a carriage.
there are no hands to help her into the carriage, and she thinks to herself, briefly, that it will be something to get used to. she suspects the staff will undergo an overhaul soon, anyway, if yoohyeon's paranoid tendencies and mutterings are anything to go by. yoohyeon's consort is a piece of work, all cherry-blossom hair and loud jokes, and only supports yoohyeon making sweeping changes to the fire nation. some of them are bad ideas. some of them are so good that minji is glad she was disinherited, so she could let someone like her sister change the world.
whatever it is, the intricacies and politics of the royal palace are no longer her concern. there are only three things she has to concern herself with from now on.
"your highness," comes a dry voice from inside, before bora's hand grasps hers tightly.
first: bora.
"minji! you came!" siyeon's eyes glitter with wonder, and she looks to bora, who just smiles fondly and kisses her. minji wants to kiss her, too. wants to kiss both of them. until their lips bruise and their lungs are emptied of air. that sounds good.
second: siyeon.
"there's a good training arena near where we're going," bora murmurs, "you two keen on going?"
"what rules do they have on lightning?" siyeon asks curiously.
"none."
"sounds like we have to go!"
and three: never letting them out of her sight again.