Seokjin stared across the dregs of the fire, studying the girl whose features lit up in the flames. The soft brown eyes that hid the grey, the quiet features tinged with stubbornness. His eyes trailed over towards the boy, catching the similarities despite the opposing expressions they both appeared to favor. Darshi’s tended to be solemn and unyielding, while Jungkook’s was pure teenage angst and annoyance. At first Seokjin thought the boy had something on the air bender for her to yield to him so easily and with such wariness. But now when he truly looked at them, not taking into effect their personalities, they had to be related somehow. This may just be their regular dynamic.

Sort of like how Seokjin didn’t do anything to Taehyung despite his unerring petulancy that drove him insane.

He still didn’t understand how Darshi was going to defeat his father. She was strong, but he wasn’t certain what that amounted to against his father. Even King Shichiro hesitated with a full on fight with the Fire Lord. The only thing Seokjin could recommend to her was that he used his anger to fuel his flames. It made his bending stronger, but could possibly leave openings for her since it was based on the fluctuation of emotions.

It was strange to be instructing her on how to kill his own father.

Seokjin wondered if he had ever regarded his father as that and not just the Fire Lord. Seokjin used ‘father’ as a title, something he merely called the man. He realized belatedly that was not how other’s thought of their parents.

Seokjin couldn’t help but think if he made the slightest threatening pose towards the boy Darshi would kill him without remorse. It was in her stance. He had perfected the same one. Appearing relaxed but in reality standing on pins and needles. One poorly thought out move from him and that would be it. After seeing Darshi’s duress he had no doubt who was the better bender between them.

Darshi looked up, eyes pleading with the boys who frowned into the fire. “Could you get some firewood please?” she asked, her voice soft and unthreatening. Like one would talk to a baby animal or a young child.

“Get it yourself,” Jungkook grumbled, ignoring her.

Darshi let out a sigh, sending Seokjin a look promising violence before reluctantly heading into the darkness. It seemed the boy had not realized the thin promise that buzzed above their heads: that she was protecting him against the big, bad fire bender.

Seokjin cleared his throat as soon as she was out of hearing distance, throwing a twig into the flames. “Why are you so hard on her?”

Jungkook’s brows furrowed, placing his attention on the fire benders’ for the first time. So far he had been unbothered by Seokjin’s company, preferring to annoy Darshi instead. Almost as if he had made a game out of how long it would take to wear her patience thin and get a reaction out of her. Every time it looked as if she would have an outburst his throat would bob, chin tilted up as a pleading look filled his face. Then she would drag the anger down, closing her eyes and releasing that bunched up energy inside of her by responding in a mild tone that sent him scowling.

“What are you taking about?”

“You keep teasing her.” Not kindly either. Pointing out any imperfections in her plans and on her person; bringing up past failures that made Seokjin think that if they had not lived together then they might as well have.

“Dunno what you’re talking about,” he denied.

Seokjin withheld an eye roll. “You just made fun of her cooking, reminding her of the time she burnt dinner to a crisp. Now she asked you nicely to get fire wood and you ignored her too.”

Jungkook blinked, shaking himself as if coming back into himself. “Force of habit,” he muttered, poking at the fire. “I’ve always done that.”

After a moment of hesitation, Seokjin asked finally, “What is she to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you related? Did you two… date before?”

Jungkook’s face screwed up in disgust, moving away from Seokjin as if being near him made Jungkook physically ill. “You’re disgusting! Why would I date my own sister?” He made a retching sound as if to punctuate his words.

Seokjin’s breath stopped, truly giving him a good look. He thought at the most they could be was cousins. He realized then that Darshi had kept secrets from him and came as no surprise. Now everything made sense. Her relationship reminded Seokjin of his and Taehyung’s so much because they were the same thing: siblings.

No wonder Jungkook kept messing with her.

He wasn’t certain that Darshi realized that all his words were in good fun though, a way of messing with her as he always had. Darshi seemed to deflate every time Jungkook opened his mouth, locking another part of herself away to hide the hurts and pains.

“It makes sense,” he settled on, understanding Darshi’s protectiveness. “Tell me, did the boys