Author's Note: HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WHEN THE HELL IS SPIRITS GOING TO COME OUT?! I'M DYING OVER HERE, BRYKE!
AND I'VE ALSO JUST JUMPED ONTO THE BOLIN/ESKA SHIP! What shall we call it? Eskalin? Bolska? Or a combination of the two? XD
Okay, so I noticed that there were absolutely no Korra/Eska/Desna cousins/siblings fics, probably because we know next to nothing about the twins, other than the fact that they're "creepy and androgynous", so I decided to make one, regardless (and to sate my hunger for new LoK). ;) Enjoy!
Seeing Double
She always manages to get them all scrambled up, one way or the other. Was the cousin sitting next to Uncle Unalaq Desna? Or was Eska the one staring glumly off into space?
Spirits, she can't even tell what gender they were sometime. Both had shoulder-length, straight, glossy black hair; both wore eyeliner (Korra had never known what to say about that); both wore extremely similar clothes; they were of the same stature and build; slightly hunchbacked; and if not for Desna's square-ish chin, Korra would be getting them mixed up a lot more often than she already does.
And that's saying a lot.
And their voices. Damn it, their voices. Korra wants to doze off into a slumber every single time she hears one of them open their mouths and talk. Their tone is just so monotonous, so devoid of any emotion, so...flat.
Actually, she's sure that everyone sees them in that way, as those creepy, androgynous twins. Everyone except for Uncle Unalaq who, as well as being the Chief of the Northern Water Tribe, turned a blind eye to his children's non-existent social skills. (Which can't be a good thing for Eska, as she's the Princess of the Northern Water Tribe and is expected to marry into some important, rich and influential family.)
That is the part that baffles Korra the most. How can anyone related to her have non-existent social skills? It had to be one of the stranger anomalies of nature.
Korra grimaces whenever she reminisces over the last time she and her family payed a visit to their sister tribe in the north.
"Hey! Eska, Desna!" Six-year-old Korra bounded up to her cousins happily, spraying snow everywhere as her brown seal-skin boots land softly in the puffy whiteness.
"...Hello, cousin," Desna drawled.
Or is it Eska?
"Hi!" Korra cheerfully grinned. "Hey, did you guys hear? I'm the new Avatar!"
"Yes, we heard, cousin," Eska piped in.
...Or is it Desna?
Korra tilted her head, frowning. "Why d'you always refer to me as 'cousin'? I mean, you can call me Korra."
"We know, cousin."
Korra resisted the urge to bury her head in her hands, or, more preferably, firebend some sense into her two creepy, identical cousins.
"Is there something wrong, cousin?"
"Actually. Yeah. Stop calling me cousin!" She stomped her foot petulantly on the ground. "Can't you just call me Korra, like everyone else does? Anything other than 'cousin'!"
"As you wish, Avatar."
There is not a hint of a mocking attitude in Desna's tone. (Or was it Eska?)
"..." Korra ended up stalking away.
Eleven years have passed, and they haven't changed a bit. All right, maybe they grew a little taller, but that is about it. Their drab clothing hasn't changed. Their dry attitude hasn't, either.
Her arrival at the Northern Water Tribe is met with much fanfare: important members of the legislature keep on coming up to shake her hand until Korra is sure that it will fall off, she's hugged and kissed more times than she cares to admit, and she hates every second of it. But she keeps a smile plastered on her face and saves the screaming and pounding and childish antics for her room.
The celebratory dinner, however, is far worse than she could have ever dreamed it to be, even with Bolin there (Mako couldn't make it to the Northern Water Tribe quite yet; something about Chief Beifong keeping him in Republic City for a "dreadfully important criminal case that you may not flaunt to go and party in the poles", while Asami was still negotiating with Verick). Bolin wasn't really helping either, because he was just inhaling seaweed noodles by the bowlful.
"So, Avatar Korra, what brings you to our humble abode in the North?"
Korra looks around at the palace, which is anything but humble.
"Um..."
"Avatar Korra, have you come to help Princess Eska pick a suitor for her husband?"
Korra blanches at the somewhat (or so she considers) intimate question. "Um," she mumbles again, looking down at her sea prune stew, "not...really?"
"What our cousin means to say," Desna flatly says, "is no."
Bolin's slurping pauses for a moment, and then resumes.
Korra licks her lips nervously.
"Avatar Korra," a third councilman pipes up, and Korra has to flat-out quickly shove a spoonful of stew into her mouth to keep herself from screaming (and, to be honest with the population, she hates sea prunes, unlike the majority of the Water Tribes) and almost ends up choking instead.
"Avatar Korra, have you come to help us deal with the threat of the dark spirits?"
"Er, right!" Korra forces a smile at the councilman, although she has absolutely no idea what he's talking about. "Evil dark spirits to take down? If it means, um, saving the world and all that related stuff, then, yeah...!"
Bolin taps his chopsticks against his bowl, turning to the twins seated next to Korra (who is, understandably, trying to stay as far away from her cousins as possible). "So, it's Eska, right?" he brightly asks, piercing the awkward silence that has settled at the table. "And your brother! Densa! I mean, Desna!"
Desna stares imperiously back at him while Korra tries hard not to throw up into her bowl of brown, murky soup. She's not sure whether or not Bolin's horrible attempts at fliriting is a good thing or bad thing yet, because Eska is flat-out ignoring him. (Actually, she's ignoring everything that's happening in the room, although she's busying herself with staring at Korra, who is shrinking into her blue parka hood like a turtle to its shell.)
"So," Bolin babbles, "the noodles are good. Really, really good. They're even better than Narook's! Narook's is this place in Republic City where they serve really good Water Tribe food; Korra can tell you! Right, Korra?"
Kick, kick.
"Right," Korra automatically says. "Authentic!" She grins weakly as she kicks Bolin back.
Desna does not look impressed at all, while Eska continues staring at Korra who, by this time, is fast growing scared of her creepy cousin and her purple eyeliner.
As Bolin continues to blather on, Korra excuses herself and slips off to her chambers, flopping onto the mattress. Not a minute later, the door to her room blows open, and there, in her their scowling glory, is Desna and Eska.
"Oh, Agni...what?" Korra nods at Eska. "And why were you staring at me like a messenger hawk the whole time? Seriously, you're starting to creep me out."
Starting to creep me out is a gross understatement.
Desna's eye twitches. "Choose your friends more carefully, cousin," he warns her.
Korra sits up straighter in her bed. "What? Who do you mean? Bolin? What's wrong with him?"
"There is something wrong with him," Desna deadpans.
"...Um..."
"He has no social skills whatsoever."
The door closes behind the twins, and Korra is left to stare agape at the door.
...Who in the world are they to say that Bolin has no social skills?
Eska doesn't even talk half the time.
These are the times when Korra bemoans that she is related to the cheiftain of the Northern Water Tribe.