*ੈ✩‧₊˚ gentle breeze •°. *࿐

fights

Mindlessly organizing the different herbs in front of you into different baskets, you felt lazy. After your day off with Ao'nung, you had such a nice rest that you couldn't find yourself fully waking up for the day. Your mind dozing off to relive the moments from the day before, you face stuck with a permanent subtle flush.

You were shaken out of your daze by a commotion, lots of loud voices, some even rising to yells as you recognized Tonowari's voice.

"Ao'nung, you are the oldest and you do this? I expected better," you hear him spit out.

With caution you peek out of the marui pod, spotting the two na'vi. Tonowari was pulling at the back of Ao'nung's head, Ao'nung's face bruised and blood slightly seeping from his wounds. With worry, you walk over and next to Tonowari, observing the state that Ao'nung was in.

"What happened?" you ask softly, eyes scanning Ao'nung, seeing him cringe when you speak. His gaze shifts from you to anywhere but you.

"He fought with the Sully kids. Physically fought with the boys," Tonowari says, his eyes drilling holes into his son as he lets go of Ao'nung's head.

The rose coloured lenses that lurked on your eyes suddenly lunged at you, burning red instead of pink.

"You fought with them? I asked you to be nice!" you exclaimed, your forehead creasing with confusion, anger, and betrayal.

"And I said it doesn't mean I would be," Ao'nung whispers, his blue eyes matching with the ocean.

You look at him in disappointment. Maybe you had been blinded by the gentleness he showed you before, but some of the feelings you had drifted away with the breeze. You always knew he was a rowdy person, but he went against something you asked and it hurt something inside you.

"You said he hurt the Sully boys?" you ask Tonowari, worried about the state Neteyam would be in. Tonowari nodded and you sigh.

"I am going to go and patch Neteyam- and Lo'ak up," you decided, Ao'nung's ears perking up at Neteyam's name but relaxing once you say Lo'ak's name. You stare at Ao'nung and after a moment of contemplation, you grab his arm and drag him into the marui pod.

"Sit," he sits down, "I... thought you were better than this," you sigh, grabbing a basket and putting in a container of water from the jungle and some herbal pastes.

Ao'nung stays seated where you told him to be, he didn't say anything back to you. Instead, he watched your every move. Waiting for you to blow up at him, waiting for you to stab his heart with words that made him wish he didn't hate the forest na'vi.

"I expect either your father to tell your mother, or for you to tell your mother what you did. I don't know what she'll say but know I am not impressed right now," you say as you walk past Ao'nung and you hear a deep sigh pass through his lips.

You take a deep breath, closing your eyes for a second as you walk along the rope bridge on your way to the Sully family marui pod. On your way there, you saw Lo'ak walking towards you.

"Lo'ak what are you doing?" you say with a bit of a harsh tone, not fully recovered from berating Ao'nung.

"My dad said I had to apologize to Ao'nung, so I'm doing that right now," he says. His face also looked to be beat up, but not as bad as Ao'nung's.

"No, you are not apologizing. At least not until I take care of you and Neteyam," you say, putting your hand on his shoulder.

He looked at you knowingly, and you rolled your eyes at him.

"You are not in a state to test me, skxawng. Now come with me," you continue your walk to the Sully marui pod. Lo'ak trails behind you.

When you reach his marui pod, you spot Jake and Neytiri, but not Neteyam. You sigh and see him on the edge of the bridge near his home. You motion for Lo'ak to follow you as you walk over to stand at the side of Neteyam.

"Neteyam," you say softly. He looks up to you, his lip bruised, again not as bad as Ao'nung's state.

"Hey, what's up?" he says coolly.

"Don't 'hey what's up me', I'm going to fix your wounds. And Lo'ak's," you say sitting next to Neteyam, putting the basket you had brought to the side opposite to where Neteyam sat.

"Lo'ak, sit," you say gently, your mood improving from earlier. He sits down on the other side of the basket.

"Ah, you don't have to. We've been through worse, if anything just help Lo'ak. He's been through a lot," Neteyam says, looking away from you.

'What's up with everyone looking away from me?' you thought, shaking your head at his words.

"Just for that, I'm helping you first. Both of you got hurt, so I'm helping," you say, grabbing the container of water and put your hand on his forehead, tilting his head back.

"Did you help Ao'nung?" Neteyam asks.

"No. His mother will," you say. In a way, you regret being so mean to the boy. But he has to face the consequences of his actions, which was you being frustrated with him and his father's wrath.

"I started the fight, you don't need to be mad at Ao'nung," Lo'ak comments, jumping into the conversation.

You took a second to take in his words, using your fingers to wipe away the water that lay on Neteyam's lips. Your actions unintentionally slowed as you were thinking, leading you to space out and subtlety caress Neteyam's lip.

"I'm not mad, just disappointed that he would continue the fight. You probably had a reason to start the fight, right? It doesn't help that he continued it. I don't know I just expected better," you say, stopping your actions for a second. You continued to care for Neteyam, grabbing the herbal paste you brought and dipped your fingers in to spread it on Neteyam's face.

"You expected better? From Ao'nung," Lo'ak scoffs, rolling his eyes at your words.

"He's not that bad when he's not around you," Neteyam says, laughing a bit at his own words, "for some reason he has something against you and Kiri. He's been decent to me."

"That's because of the way Lo'ak and Kiri look," you admit with guilt. You knew that they probably knew that already, but you still felt like you had to defend Ao'nung, "in a way, he's trying to 'protect' the clan by being cautious of you two. I'm not sure why you haven't been given a hard time though, Neteyam."

A silence washes over the three of you. You finish caring for Neteyam, and put the herbal paste back into the basket. You move the basket behind you, scooting a bit closer to Lo'ak and bring out the container of water once more.

"At least you don't look that bad, Lo'ak. From the injuries, I mean. You aren't that much different from other na'vi, your differences are subtle," you say, putting the water back into the basket and instead grab the paste since he didn't have an open wound.

"Thanks, I think."

"Your hands don't make you any different than us, same with Kiri. At this point I don't think most of the clan remembers," you say, rubbing the paste into his cheek. Lo'ak looks away, ears pointed down at the mention of his hands but go back to a neutral position when you continue to speak.

None of the boys knew how to respond to your words. Lo'ak wanted to reject your words and continue to combat your words, but a side-eye from Neteyam stopped him. Neteyam knew that you were trying to help with not just your gestures, but your words. He decided to speak anyway.

"But you know from the top of your head that it was my hands, demon blood is the only thing everyone thinks of," Lo'ak says.

"I said your hands, not your blood. Jake is na'vi, is he not?" you say, putting the paste back into the basket.

"Right," was the only thing Lo'ak said, before turning away from you.

The three of you stare into the neverending skyline, silence sleeping on your shoulders once again. They all had medicine on their skin, you got to talk with Neteyam and Lo'ak. All was calm. A couple beats past, before you decide to break the peace.

"Was anyone else involved in the fight?" you ask.

"Three of Ao'nung's friends, Kiri was there too. She didn't fight though," Lo'ak speaks up, "they were making fun of her."

"Of course they were, they're all skxawngs," you sigh loudly at Lo'ak words, "so you fought because they made fun of Kiri?"

"Yeah, called her a freak," Neteyam chimes in, you can tell anger was starting to creep up on him.

You rub his shoulder, "they're the freaks for making fun of someone for no reason. I'm going to find Kiri and check up on her."

Before you get up, you feel Neteyam pat your back. A smile creeps on your face as you stand up and pick up the basket. Neteyam and Lo'ak stay by the ledge and talk, you overhear something about Lo'ak still having to apologize to Ao'nung and you roll your eyes.

You peek into the Sully marui pod and Tuk spots you, "(Y/n)!"

"Tuk! Hello," you say with a smile as she races up to you.

"Do you want to play with me? Everyone else is acting weird..." Tuk says, you look at her with a sad expression.

"Aww, I'm sorry Tuk. Maybe later? I know everyone is acting weird, so I am here to make them feel better! Find Neteyam and Lo'ak, I know they have time to play," you say, patting her head.

Disappoint flashes in her eyes, but she nods her head in understanding, "ok! I like playing with Neteyam and Lo'ak!"

"Yes, playing with them is always fun. Do you know where Kiri went?" you ask.

"Hmm, I think she went to the seawall!" Tuk says, happy to help you.

"Thank you Tuk, you are amazing!" you say, saying goodbye to her as she repeats the farewell.

You arrive at the seawall, looking along the rocks and spot Kiri not too far away. You walk over to her, speaking to surprise her.

"Are you enjoying the water?" you ask, seeing her legs dipped in one of the pools.

"Of course I am," she says, wrapping herself with the shawl she always wore.

"That's good. Are you alright? You didn't get hit by any crossfire?" you ask again, caring for the na'vi in front of you.

"Yup..."

"Can I know what happened?"

"Couldn't you have asked Neteyam? He'll do whatever you say," Kiri comments.

You send her a small smile and shake your head.

"I already did, he didn't want to speak," you lie, wanting to talk more to Kiri.

"Well that's a surprise."

"Really?"

"You haven't noticed?"

"What?"

"Nothing, anyway the fight," Kiri pauses to recollect her thoughts, "ugh... I hate boys. Ao'nung is the worst. I told him to stop but he didn't. He only did when Neteyam told him off."

"Of course he only stops when Neteyam says something..." you trail off, getting annoyed with your arranged mate's attitude toward Kiri and Lo'ak.

"I swear, Ao'nung has a crush on Neteyam or something! He only listens to Neteyam when you're not around, and I guess Tsireya," Kiri complains.

You take in Kiri's words for a second. Ao'nung having a crush on Neteyam? He only listens to Neteyam if you are not around? Ao'nung's respect was hard to gain. His family and you had it built in, while every warrior had to talk about their feats in order to gain Ao'nung's respect, he told you that in private and never showed it in public. Neteyam had only been there for almost a month, yet Ao'nung treated him as someone from the Metkayina and treated the rest of the Sully Siblings like nothing.

"Kiri... do you actually think Ao'nung likes Neteyam?" you ask, curiosity speaking your thoughts for you.

"If he did, I wouldn't be surprised. Ugh, we already have Lo'ak all over Tsireya, we don't need Ao'nung all over Neteyam."

You laugh at her words, "ah, the children of the leaders of the Metkayina and the Sully children, matches made by Eywa!"

"No way," Kiri says exasperated, hands covering her face, "that is the last thing that I wanted to hear from you!"

You laugh even louder, leaning back on the rocks behind you. You went back into thinking mode.

"If Ao'nung does like Neteyam, it would make sense from how differently he treats him compared to the rest of you," you go on.

"Why are you taking my words so seriously, it was just a joke" Kiri says, shoving your shoulder a bit.

"... I don't know, I have a feeling that you're right," you say, suspicion living in your mind.

"Ao'nung is weird, don't overthink it," Kiri says, looking off in the sky.

"You're right," you take in a breath of air and exhale slowly to calm down your working brain, "so no injuries?"

"No injuries!"

"I'm just making sure."

You were definitely asking Ao'nung if he likes Neteyam.

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[a/n]: did u know that love triangle is in the tags (: im back! idk how long the next chapter is gonna be bc i am too lazy to rewatch the movie rn my bad

did you know: that even if na'vis are bonded, they can have relationships outside of their bond? it can be purely sexual or even another emotional/deep relationship but they cannot bond with the other relationship! so poly is very much real on pandora and u guys r gonna hate me for the ending (:
- edit 02/17/23, @neteyamstongue corrected me on this, but poly is present but not as much as a thing i interpreted to be ! while they do have relationships outside their bonds, it's more for fertility reasons or for a certain ritual. na'vi are monogamous, my badddd

also thank u for 69 votes (as im writing this <3)