Chapter Text
It was kind of crazy to Jinora that marriage was listed as #7 of the most stressful events in one's entire life. She wasn't even the bride of this wedding and she could feel her hairs turning gray thinking about the weight of her wedding responsibilities and all the drama leading up to the event.
She learned that weddings weren't always fairytale ending but more like a fight to the death please all family members, especially the elders. To make things more complicated, their family was Thai and the other bride's family was Vietnamese and both families wanted to include all their culture’s traditions. That was not possible unless the ceremony was going to take place over multiple days and Jinora was pretty sure she wouldn't survive that event.
It didn't help that Tuyen's family was first generation Vietnamese while Jinora's family was second generation Thai. Even though her dad was very strict about teaching them about their homeland and culture, to some of Tuyen's elders it just meant they were more watered-down Asians which meant they had less of a say in what happened in the wedding.
After much negotiation (and thankfully no physical alterations from her elder Gran Gran), Ikki and Tuyen convinced both sides to mix in a bit of both traditions, but mainly keep the ceremony a simple Buddhist wedding since both of their families were practicing Buddhist.
Now that the hard part was over, today was supposedly going to be the best day of her younger sister, Ikki’s life. However, so far, all Jinora had felt was stress leading up to this event piling on and she was one bump in the road away from losing it. Being the maid of honor definitely wasn't as fun as all the movies made it out to be, especially when it included attending and mediating multiple peace talks trying to agree on the events of said wedding. Thankfully the rehearsal dinner was a smaller event that had taken place the night before and went relatively smoothly (or as smoothly as events could with her large messy family mixing with Tuyen's).
Even though the wedding ceremony took place at 2 PM and the reception started at 4:30 PM, she had to wake up at 5 AM to start the festivities of the wedding. Jinora was typically an early riser, but she preferred to spend her early morning time watching the sunrise with her cat Pepper sipping tea and reading a book or meditating.
Unfortunately this morning at 5 AM she was panic-reading over her master checklist of emergency items which was practically having the opposite effect meditating would have. She was finally reaching the end of her neverending list of things to pack with her…
- Stain remover check
- Bobby pins check
- Emergency back-up shoes check
- Emergency extra wedding veils check
- Band-Aids check
- Granola bars check
Even with everything, Jinora had a creeping suspicion that she was forgetting something important. There was no time for second guessing as she still needed to pick up a few members of the wedding party and meet at her family's house for getting ready pictures, getting ready pictures, and then tea ceremony, and tea ceremony pictures.
Pictures . That was another thing about weddings that drove Jinora off the edge. They were the main reason they had to start getting ready so early so the photographer could take a million pictures of every wedding moment for a keepsake which meant stopping every five seconds while trying to get ready to pose and pretend to act natural. Plus they already had different places they were going to have to go today to complete all the traditional ceremonies (her family's house, the temple, the reception hall) In her opinion, it was a waste of time making every single part of a wedding its own individual photoshoot moment. What's wrong with a couple of candid photos and then moving on?
Regardless, she needed to set aside her wedding Grinch mentality. Her sometimes lovely little sister Ikki was getting married to the love of her life Tuyen. Jinora was going to be so happy for them in their beautiful princess themed wedding extravaganza.
That's right today the gays are winning it's going to be a good day Jinora thought, thinking to stay positive for the long day that awaited her.
Although she was a self-proclaimed wedding Grinch, she couldn't deny how beautiful the wedding dresses her sister and her sister's soon-to-be wife picked out (with multiple outfit changes) and how obviously head over heels they were for each other. Besides, it would probably be a fun event after like 5 PM when they arrived at the reception hall and food catering was almost ready. Then, maybe, Jinora could finally breathe again. That was still over 8 hours away though and who knew what could possibly go wrong before that event.
Ikki and Tuyen had originally met in high school. Tuyen was a soccer star and student body president who was well loved by anyone she met. Meanwhile Ikki was quirky and crafty but bogged down with extracurricular activities chosen by their dad. So they didn't spend much time together in high school, but knew of each other as they all practiced Buddhism at the same temple. Jinora could still distinctly remember Ikki non-stop talking about this girl to anyone that would listen. Even her brother Meelo who was two years younger than Ikki caught a case of the Tuyên love-sickness and it was not fun having to mediate for them during this time.
Later, Ikki and Tuyen became closer after high school in a tragically hilarious way. Tuyen signed up to volunteer at the animal shelter Ikki also volunteered at. When Tuyen showed up for her first day, it was the same time that Ikki had over-confidently taken a 150 lb Mastiff mix on a walk by herself. Needless to say they both ended up covered in dog hair, mud, and slobber before Tuyen even managed to walk in the door.
Now they were all grown up, well, sort of– Ikki and Tuyen were both 22 years old (Tuyen being six months younger than Ikki). Tuyen's only sibling was named Xuân and he was 24 years old. Her and Ikki had their two troublemaker brothers, Meelo was 20 and her youngest brother, Rohan, was 15. Meanwhile Jinora was sitting here at 25 years old, which is practically an old geezer– she knew this because Rohan liked to constantly remind her how she had -100 aura points, whatever that meant.
It was probably a fair assessment considering her romance prospects were not looking too great. Sure she had dated a few people here and there but she had never been in any serious relationships. Her longest lasting relationship was 6 months long and it hardly counted because it was in middle school and she never even held hands with that person, she was so awkward. It didn't help that most of her relationships she had kept secret from her dad since he had very strong opinions on how each of his children would run their life and since she was the oldest she got the strictest version of her dad. Which meant all A’s valedictorian life with a million extracurricular activities, being only the most perfect oldest daughter. Between all those events she never really had a chance to have a big social life or time for dating. Dating in secret was exhausting and most high schoolers didn't want to have to settle for that when there were plenty of other fish in the sea.
Then in college she was busy intensely studying like her life depended on it for her nursing degree (with a minor in gender studies) Jinora spent most of her time third-wheeling her close family friend, Korra and her girlfriend Asami, instead of trying to meet new people anyway. That was just how she was straight-laced and focused on her goal and being a nursing major was very cut-throat which made it hard to make friends.
Which pretty much brought them to the present day, she was a nurse who worked 12-hour shifts and was a little bit too good at her job- constantly being called in for night shift and morning shifts back to back and training and mentoring new interns and nurses. She was, of course, friends with all her coworkers but most of them were older and married with kids so it wasn't as easy to relate to them. It's not like any of them were into the same hobbies as she was.
Her main hobby was reading historical fiction. She also liked watching cartoons after work to decompress and holding a conversation with her cat Pepper like she was a human. None of which were good for going out and meeting new people. Not that it mattered, she had her family and her little sister was getting her mostly fairytale ever after.
Getting ready didn't come without its struggles. In addition to posing for pictures to help the bride get ready for outfit part one , Ikki’s earring stuck in her ear and it took all the brain cells of her and her mom to figure out how to get the earring out and put on the earrings that matched with her first outfit.
Ikki happened to be the same size as their mom was as a young adult so she was going to wear her mom's “vintage” traditional Thai two-piece ceremony dress that her mom had also worn in part of her wedding ceremony. It mainly featured tones of yellow and orange. The bottom piece was a simple wrap skirt that was calf length while the top piece was a highly embellished piece of fabric that went over one shoulder with the excess fabric trailing over it. Jinora's bridesmaid dress part one was similar in appearance to Ikki’s dress but made with way simpler fabric, showing that Ikki was indeed the star of the show today.
Jinora only felt a small pang of bitterness in her chest seeing Ikki in her mom's traditional ceremony dress. As a girl, she had always dreamed of reusing the dress in her own wedding as she had always been proud of her culture. But she knew realistically that Ikki hadn't done it to hurt her feelings.
There was a chance she wouldn't have even fit in the dress considering her mom and sister's bustier build and wider, more curvy bodies. Compared to them she looked like a beanpole with her skinny stick-like body and the fact she was very lacking in the boob department. According to her old Auntie Toph, she looked just like her grandfather Aang, when he was 14 years old. Not the compliment girl's were dying to hear as a young adult.
The tea ceremony that they were currently dressing for was a Vietnamese tradition in which the soon-to-be spouses would serve tea to their elders and parents showing that all parties were in agreement with the marriage. They had decided that each family should proudly wear their own culture’s traditional clothing. Tuyen was going to be wearing a traditional red áo dài for this part, which Jinora had only seen in photos, but was truly stunning with its gold accents.
The tea ceremony was not at all similar to the Thai Khan Maak tradition which would normally take place during pre-wedding ceremony time. During Khan Maak the couple was supposed to visit the temple first and then host a fun parade-like procession with music and dancing to the bride's house where the groom proves he's worthy of her bride. However, since this wedding had two brides and lots of prideful elders involved, Ikki and Tuyen decided it would be best to host their Khan Maak procession directly after the wedding ceremony for the best of both worlds.
A squeeze on her hand catapulted Jinora back to reality, it was time for the tea ceremony to begin. Jinora escorted Ikki to the tea tray as Xuân escorted Tuyen to the tray. In the living room all the aunties, uncles parents, and grandparents were waiting.
Tuyen and Ikki began serving, starting with their elders and stopping with every person they served to take a picture. Jinora kept her picture hating eye twitch to a minimum as she and the other wedding party members stood off to the side.
The wedding party itself was pretty small, only made up of Jinora, Meelo, Rohan, and Xuân. Jinora and Meelo were Ikki's bridesmaids while Xuân and Rohan were Tuyen’s. Jinora was definitely thankful that at least she didn't have to see anybody from high school or college that they had been friends with. They were all of course invited to the wedding but it made getting through the events easier since she didn't have to use her social battery to please her little turd brothers or Tuyen’s kind, reserved brother.
When every person had been served tea, they were finally allowed to break formation to join in to converse and eat. They were serving bao buns with various meats in the middle and fresh fruit. Jinora was picky and a vegetarian so she opted out of the buns and grabbed some fruit before making her way over to Gran Gran, her dad's mother and her most kindred spirit at the party to talk to.
If you asked Kai how he was going to spend his Saturday, he would have guessed crashing on the couch of his and his brother Mako's apartment while Mako was off being gross with his boyfriend somewhere else. Unfortunately he was met with a wake up call at the way too early time of 11:30 AM.
“Five more minutes…” Kai mumbled into his pillow as pulled his blanket further over his head. He accidentally knocked his cat Lefty off the bed in the process, waking him up slightly more.
“Huh? Mako, why are you in my room?” Kai questioned as he finally peaked out from under his blanket.
“Trust me it's not by choice… Wu just cancelled on me for this wedding I'm supposed to go to today… Something about needing a full spa day after some family drama.” Mako had a tight grimace on his face.
“Okay? And what does that have to do with me?” Kai groaned. He had worked the late shift at the restaurant last night and today was his only full day off this week.
“Well it's an important family friend of mine and I can't just show up to the wedding alone when they gave me a plus one. That's just rude.”
Stupid Mako and his stupid polite ways Kai cursed in his head. It was even worse that his older brother looked so earnest while saying that too.
“Can't you ask Bolin?” Kai pleaded as he picked up his cat Lefty and placed the cat back on the bed.
“Already tried. He's out of town with Opal again doing who knows what.” Mako shrugged, looking very unapologetic.
“Damnit, Mako. What time do I have to be ready by?” Kai scrubbed his face and patted his bed head inspecting the damage, finally beginning to accept his fate.
“Well the ceremony is at 2 PM but it's an hour away and I want to be 30 minutes early so we need to leave in an hour.” Mako stated calmly.
“I only have one hour to become presentable for this wedding?! How important of a family friend is this?!” Kai was starting to think his best tactic was going to be to pull out all his hair at this rate, one less thing to worry about.
“Tenzin once gave us a place to stay when our apartment building burnt down once and he also is an important government figure in Republic City. He also helped me adopt you. It's his younger daughter getting married.”
“Oh great ! What's next, are you going to tell me he helped found Republic City or something?” Kai joked as he petted his cat Lefty got emotional support.
“Actually that was his father.” his older brother pointed out in a matter of fact way.
“Oh Agni, why is this my life?” Kai cursed. Last time he was going to make a joke in front of his lame, earnest brother.
“There will be free food and booze. I heard they're serving a 7-course meal for dinner” Mako added.
“Fine I'm getting out of bed but just know you owe me big time for this and so does Wu,” he begrudgingly agreed.