ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗚𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗣 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗔𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦, and Tuk had moved closer to the shallows of the water, still standing in it as Ao'nung was making throaty calling noises, clicking his tongue to gain the attention of some ilu lurking about.

A few ilu's heard the call, and appeared above the surface, showing their fins to the teenagers as he continues the throaty noises. "These are ilu," He tells the group, showcasing the animals, "If you want to live here, you have to ride."

Now, Lo'ak and Neteyam went to their separate ilu's, as Kiri and Tuk watched from a few feet away. The younger brother grabbed his braid, as he went to attach his queue with his ilu's one.

"Make the bond gently." Tsireya was explaining to the male, as she holds up the ilu's queue for him and watches them connect with each other.

When they did, the ilu's pupils went wide and it made a loud grunting noise, not use to the new feeling as it moves around a little.

"Feel his breath, feel his strength." She continues to calmly tell him, smoothing the ilu as he wiggles around a bit.

Lo'ak takes a deep breath, closing his eyes momentarily and exhales when he opens them.

"Hold here." Tsireya instructs, gesturing to the handel on the saddle, as he takes it and ignored the comments from the oceanic teen Na'vi, as they were teasing him once again.

Lo'ak releases another breath, just before his ilu took off fastly into the water, swimming under the surface as the male was just barely hanging on, and the force of how fast the ilu was going ended up knocking him off.

Ao'nung and the rest of his fellow Na'vi were watching the scene, and he cackles underneath the water seeing what happened, as they all come back up with laughs of their own.

Lo'ak also breaks the surface, gasping for air as his ilu squeaks at him and ends up swimming away. The teen was so glad (Y/N) wasn't here to witness this, as he felt embarrassed enough in front of the others.

Tsireya tries to hide her laugh, her four fingered hand covering her mouth as she looks away, giggling and tries to go back to straight face seeing Lo'ak grumbling, as he made his way back.

...

Down bellow under the water, (Y/N) was still having the time of her life away from the brothers and all the others. Her knees were touching the sand, as she kneels on the bottom ocean, arms out as she tries to touch some of the sea animals.

Her bright eyes catch onto an animal that was swimming directly at her, and she squints to see what it was. Her mouth splits into a massive grin, as she sees an ilu coming up to her, and it makes soft noises at her as it circles around.

The ilu stares at her, making clicking sounds as it goes to nuzzles its head into the side of hers, and (Y/N) reacts with another smile, leaning into the animals touch.

The ilu swims around her once more, ending back to where her braid was as its flipper touches it. (Y/N), seemingly to understand what it wanted, took her braid and held out her queue for it, and connected it with the ilu's.

(Y/N) would never replace her Banshee, as he was her best friend, but for some reason, she felt even more connected with this ilu, as she goes to mount the saddle, holding onto the handle as it goes to kick its back fins, and the two go swimming gracefully through the water.

Tsireya, who was also underwater watched this all happen with a in awe expression, never seeing an ilu so calm around someone before. Though, she smiles with her teeth, and motions for (Y/N) to join her in swimming.

(Y/N) grins back with excitement, telling her ilu through the bond to go in the direction of the other teen, as it clicks and makes noises, and she follows right behind Tsireya.

Kiri and Tuk had joined them, as their ilu's swam under (Y/N)'s, and the three girls all share happy smiles, swimming right next to each other.

The small group fly past many reef corals, seeing a lot of different fishes, and beautiful sea animals on their way, as the green and blue eyed girl reaches her out hand, running it through the water as her ilu moves.

...

"Breathe in," Tsireya now demonstrated how to breathe properly under the water, as she shows all the group of teens, who were all now above water, "And breathe out."

(Y/N) was in between the brothers as she copies the girls instructions, with Kiri and the boys also doing so.

"Imagine flickering a flame," Tsireya says to the group, one hand over her heart while the other was up in the air, "You must slow down your heart beat."

She goes to press a hand against Lo'aks chest, where she could feel his heartbeat, "Breathe in," He does what he was told, "Breathe from down here, breathe out slowly."

"Mmh, your heartbeat is fast." Tsireya notices, as she takes a peek at (Y/N) next to the male, seeing her knee and body touching Lo'aks, making her join the dots together and smile knowingly to herself.

"Come on, Lo'ak focus." (Y/N) teases the teen, as she grins at him and places her hand flat against his back, making his heart rate pick up under Tsireya's hand and he avoids her eye contact with a flustered expression.

The oceanic Na'vi tries to hold back her giggles at this, as Kiri and Rotxo stifle laughs, while Neteyam was rolling his eyes, totally not jealous of his brother while Tsireya continues with her teaching.

...

Later that day, with the sun slowly descending once more behind the mountains, and the skies were filled with a beautiful hue colour, four of the teens were under the water, swimming on their ilus.

(Y/N) was going around in a circle with hers, as Sae, her name for the ilu, clicks and chirps happily at her new friend.

The brothers see her swimming by herself, and they share a quick understanding look between each other, and tell their ilus to move towards hers down the bond.

She smiles warmly when she spots the two coming to join her, and waves at them in greeting, as she gained two grins back. The three of them now circle around each other, going upwards towards the surface, as the boys eyes didn't leave (Y/N)'s figure for a second, drowning in her beauty the ocean's water was giving her.

Sae notices the looks on her rider, and chirps at her, gaining (Y/N)'s attention, as she looks down at the ilu and then back at the brothers. Her eyes grow wide, becoming shy as she spots their soft gaze on her, making her look down at Sae's head with a small, flustered smile.

They are very beautiful... She thought with a heavily beating heart, not knowing they were thinking the same thing she was about her, as they all break the waters surface with a breath of air.

Tsireya, who saw the whole thing grinned at herself and she nudges (Y/N)'s side, as their ilu's were beside each others, "You guys are learning to breathe."

...

(Y/N), Lo'ak and Tsireya were all sitting down on some of the rocks, that were surrounded by some coral, as Tsireya was telling them some important information about her home, while the other two practiced breathing.

"The way of water has no beginning and no end."

A few minute later, they were in the oceans water, the waves swaying them a little but not alot, as Tsireya goes to chuck a seashell, and it sinks down below so the other two could go get it.

"The sea is around you, and within you."

Tsireya gives (Y/N) and Lo'ak a confident nod, as the two blue Na'vi clasp each others right hand, and take a deep breath as they go to dive down under the clear water.

"The sea is your home, before your birth and after your death."

The two of them kick and swim with their free arm, and legs as they depend on each other to swim down to where the seashell was still descending into the depths.

"Our hearts beat in the womb of the world."

A few sea creatures come to pass by them, swimming around them and through between them, as (Y/N) smiles a little bit when a tiny fish brushed her cheek, and Lo'ak watched with warm eyes.

"Our breath burns in the shadows of the deep. The sea gives, and the sea takes."

The two swim, and push through the water a little bit more, before their eyes spot the seashell Tsireya threw down. Lo'ak reaches out to grab it, while (Y/N) shakes her hand intertwined with his, happy he actually got it without needing to break for air as their legs tread water.

(Y/N)'s stomach flips with butterflies when Lo'ak turns to face her, lifting his hand out of hers as he gently touched her cheek, and rubbed his thumb across her face, removing the speck of seaweed off.

"Water connects all thing. Life to death. Darkness to light."

He smiles fondly at her seeing her embarrassed reaction to his touch as he removes it, and grabs her hand as the two of them swim up to the surface, and break it with breaths of air, and heavily pounding hearts.

"Look! We go it!" Lo'ak cheers, holding up their intertwined hands and the seashell in his other one up.

Tsireya claps with a excited laugh, and smiles in proudness as she pats (Y/N)'s shoulder, "You guys did it!"

...

Nighttime had fallen over the environment, as the waters seemed to come more alive at nighttime, as all the things underneath were glowing, and lighting up.

In the water, Tsireya was showing (Y/N), Kiri and Tuk a special sea creature, that helped them breathe air underwater a bit. She gently grabs the glowing jellyfish looking creature, as Tuk shows her back to the teen and Tsireya places the animal onto her back, as it attaches itself to her.

Tuk smiles in excitement, the little girl looking like a glowing fairy as she spins back to the other three.

"It allows you to breathe under water." Tsireya signs to the little girl, and the other two, explaining what the sea creature does.

Sometime later, the group had split apart but was still close by in case something happened. Tuk was grinning widely, as she watched Ronal pick something off the rocks under the water, and places them into her small bag that was carrying them.

However, Ronal's attention was taking away by a sight that she has never seen, nor expected. Her eyes narrow slightly, as she swims a bit out to get a closer look but was still hidden behind the rocks.

(Y/N) was seen there, kneeling on another rock as she had the breathing jellyfish attached to her back. Her spots and stripes along her body were glowing a lot, flashing and illuminating her body and face, as her arm was moving back and forth as the yellow glowing school of fish followed her movement, creating a beautiful light show.

If the brothers saw her like this, they most definitely would feel weak to their knees on the spot.

Sae also comes up to her rider, and squeaks in greeting as she swims between the yellow fish, playfully trying to bite some making (Y/N) giggle with her shoulders, continuing moving her arms around with a carefree smile.

Ronal eyes widen a little in surprise and awe, as she doesn't take her attention away from the magnificent sight. She was starting to truly believe this girl wasn't exactly what she seemed, and that there was something different about her.

A good different that Ronal wanted to find out.

...

The next day with the bright sun beaming down on them, (Y/N) and Kirir were laying underneath the shallow water near the bank, as the took in the relaxing feeling and watched a small creature dig a hole inside the sand.

The two of them were very unaware of the oceanic Na'vis gathering around them, and watched with confusion. "What are they doing?"

"They're just looking at the sand." One of them comments, pointing at the girls with a rude laugh and the girls pop their heads up at their arrival.

"Huh?" (Y/N) blinks rapidly, her eyes adjusting to the bright sun as they were just in shade, "What did you say?"

Ao'nung was also stand there, and he was the one in front of his little group as he stares down at (Y/N), "Are you some kind of freak?"

The green and blue eyed girls ears flatten at this, frowning at his words as Kiri scowls and helps her up from the water, keeping an arm looped around hers.

"He asked if you were a freak." The one next to Ao'nung repeats more harshly, getting in their personal space.

(Y/N) sighs heavily at this, her face dropping a little as she realise that everyone, even the people who she thought she could be friends with, thought of her as a freak, a weirdo with no family or home.

"No.." She muttered loud enough for them to hear, as Kiri glares at the boys and goes to walk straight through the gap between the group, holding onto (Y/N) reassuringly.

"Are you sure?" Ao'nung presses again, as he starts to circle the purple striped Na'vi with a humours expression. "You're not even real Na'vi," He goes to touch her hand, but Kiri slaps his hand away with a low hiss, "Look at these hands, I mean look at them."

He actually gets ahold of her hand this time, causing his other friends to laugh with him, as (Y/N)'s anxiety started to rise now, and she tries to pull her hand back knowing they were judging her different looks to them.

"Hey!" An angry voice shouts, and the group turn to see a pissed off Lo'ak approaching them, his tail swaying rapidly behind him as he sees the situation (Y/N) was in. "Back of fish lips!"

"Ooh, another five fingered freak!" A'noung mockingly cooes, as Lo'ak goes to square him up with glaring eyes, all while Kiri pulls (Y/N) protectively in her arms and away from the bullying teens.

One of the bullies goes to pull on Lo'aks tail, making him spin around and push him away, "Don't touch me!" And he shoves some more of them, as they humourless laugh at his behaviour.

"Leave us alone!" (Y/N) now speaks up, her voice a half yell as she had enough of them attacking her, and the others about their different features.

All of them were very aware of a stomping Neteyam coming there way, as his raged expression was focused on the teens that were harassing (Y/N).

He continues to stomp his way to them, and shoves Ao'nung, who was nearing (Y/N) back roughly and stands protectively in front of her, "You heard what she said," His low voice told him, accent thick as he pushes a single finger against his chest, "Back off, now."

A'noung just keeps his face neutral, as he places an arm out to stop his friend from acting out, and then smirks a little as lifts his arms up, showing he would stand down.

"Start choice," Neteyam nods his head tightly, but his expression was still harsh, as raw anger shot through him remembering what they did, and said to (Y/N), "Touch her again, and I won't be as nice next time, assholes." His voice was much deeper and threatening as he gets close to Ao'nungs face with his teeth bared, and glances at the other bullies as well in warning.

(Y/N) felt her heart clench with adoration, butterflies blooming, as she watches her best friend defend, and protect her from the boys.

The friend next to Ao'nung hisses back at him, but the leader just presses his hand against his arm, stopping him from doing anything again.

Kiri sticks her tongue out teasingly to the bullies, as she felt assured knowing the brothers would always be here whenever the girls, especially (Y/N) was in trouble.

"Lets go." Neteyam says to the three behind him, giving one last threatening glare to the other teens as Lo'ak does the same, and his brother pats the back of his head when he moves past him.

(Y/N) turned around also, going to walk away with her head down and arms wrapped around her shawl still attached to her, thankful it was so her purple strips weren't as visible.

However, a warm hand gently grips her chin in their fingers and directs her face upwards to meet their eyes. Her green and blue ones met Neteyam's worried but soft ones, the one who grabbed her.

"Are you alright, love?" He questions lowly, rubbing his thumb slowly over her chin which makes her swallow nervously, and part her lips to answer him.

"I am, thanks to you, Lo'ak and Kiri." She replies back softly, thankful for them stepping in to help her, which did make her feel useless, but pushed away the feeling as her heart leapt at his closeness to her.

Neteyam nods his head approvingly, still staring down at her worriedly, and his thumb now brushed her bottom lip a little as his hold lingers, and eventually lets go with a heavy exhale.

"They're all freaks, the whole family of them." Ao'nung comments to his group of friends, them all laughing at the dumb comment. Lo'ak was the only one to hear it, making his jaw clench and sigh annoyed as he turns back around.

"Lo'ak!" Neteyam hissed a little, seeing his brother turning back to the bullies as he stands with (Y/N) a few meters behind.

"I got this bro." Lo'ak reassures, showing a hand for him to calm down as (Y/N) watches him panicked, making Lo'ak give her a comforting grin before he marches back to the other teens.

"I know this hand is funny, look," Lo'ak starts off as he holds up his five fingered hand, and shows it off to the males in front, "I'm a freak, alien." His words make some of them snicker, agreeing with him.

"But I can do something really cool, watch." Lo'ak was trolling Ao'nung, as he balls up his fist, "First I ball this up real tight like this, see? And then," He swings his clenched fist into Ao'nungs face, once, twice and a third time which has him knocked onto the ground.

"It's called a punch bitch! Don't ever touch (Y/N) again." Lo'ak was itching to swing at the male the first time he eyed (Y/N) off when they first met, and him bulling her fueled that need more.

Ao'nung gets back up with a hiss, as he goes to charge at the other teen and aims for his chest, and tackles him to the ground. Lo'ak shoves the other male off with a grunt, and goes to punch him once more. But, some of Ao'nungs friends grab Lo'aks tail and drags him off the teen, and he gets slapped in the face by someone's tail, which has him on the ground fighting them all.

(Y/N) gasped at this, eyes going wide with concern as she looks to Neteyam straight away. She sees him scratching his head with a sigh, as this wasn't what he planned, but honestly wasn't complaining as he also wanted to swing at the males for what they said to his beloved.

With a quick kiss to the side of (Y/N)'s head, Neteyam joins the fight as he grabs the one nearest to Lo'ak and punches him straight in the face, sending him to the ground as he grabs another, and knees him in the stomach.

"Stop it!" (Y/N) and Kiri's yells of protest were heard, but of course ignored by the males all fighting, to busy with taking the other out. "This is so stupid!"

Neteyam gets tackled into the water, creating a splash as two of the oceanic teens were wrestling with him. Ao'nung grabs Lo'aks tail, and starts to drag him by it which cause him to yell out, "Ow! my tail!"

And in return, he grabs a hold of the males ear he was fighting on the ground, tugging on it roughly as he yelps out in pain, "My ear! Let go! He's got my ear!"

(Y/N) and Kiri share a brief look, and then they break it as they start to laugh loudly, trying to hide it behind their hands covering their mouths, while they watch the males fight.

...

After the fight, a bloody, injured and bruised Neteyam and Lo'ak walk through the entrance of their Marui, Jake behind them as he went to collect them for a scolding.

"What was the one thing I asked?" Jake hisses at his sons, standing in front of them inside their home, "The one thing?"

"Stay out of trouble—" Lo'ak tries to say it, holding his sore arm from the punches but his father cuts in.

"Stay out of trouble! Right." Jake scolds with a firm tone, looking between them both.

Neteyam steps in front of them, his hands up a little as blood was covering his blue skin, "It's my fault—"

"I don't think so, you gotta stop taking the heat for this knucklehead," Jake grits out, the first half to his eldest than to the second oldest brother.

"Dad, Ao'nung was picking on (Y/N)." Lo'ak roughly tell him, ears twitching with anger still at what happened, "Called her a freak."

Jake pauses at this, his face dropping a little as he sighs sadly and purses his lips with a clenched jaw. The girl was already dealing with fitting in issues, and he knew this wasn't going to help her, "Go apologise to Ao'nung."

Both the brothers freeze up, looking at their dad in disbelief as Lo'ak breaths out, "What?"

"He's the chief's son, do you understand?" Jake answered his son, as Neteyam looks away and wipes the blood a little off his lip, "I don't care how you do it, just go make peace. Go!" Jake scolds some more, turning his body so the teen could leave as he does reluctantly, not wanting to make so called peace.

He leaves the Marui with a head shake, as Neteyam goes to follow, wanting to find (Y/N) but his father stops him, "Hey."

Jake move his head up a little, trying to not show emotion as he questions, "What did the other guys look like?"

"Worse." Neteyam replies shortly, not belveing his father would actually ask this, but then again him, and everyone else always did have a soft spot for (Y/N).

"That's good," Jake doesn't show it, but he was very proud of his sons for defending the girl, and punching the ones who picked on her.

"A lot worse." Neteyam tells him again, grinning with his teeth as he could see his father was proud, and he also felt pride for defending the girl he likes.

"Get outta here." Jake orders him, side glancing the teen as he motions outside and he steps out, with his father watching briefly with a heavy exhale.

...

Now inside the Marui, (Y/N) was sitting on the ground, legs crossed as she decided to hide in their house away from the brothers, and the other teens.

She was currently trying to distract herself from her overload of emotions, as she helped Ney'tiri fold some food in the leaves for later, and to eat also.

Ney'tiri watches the girl closely, already sensing something was wrong by how quiet she was, "What is wrong?" At her question, Jake, who was outside sticks his head up and listens to the conversation as he looks at (Y/N).

(Y/N) doesn't look up from her work, a frown on her face as she continues her folding of the leaves, "I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?" She now looks up, face a little blank and slaps the food onto the ground when she finished folding it with a long leaf.

Ney'tiri purses her lips, and goes to move next to her, placing a comforting hand on her leg as she squeezes gently.

"Why can't I be like everyone else? I mean, I'm even more different from the rest of you, and I get treated like trash because of it." (Y/N) wavers out, voice cracking a little bit as she bites on her wobbly bottom lip, and pulls her knees to her chest, looking at the floor.

Ney'tiri sighs sadly at this, feeling her heart hurt for the younger girl as she brushes some of her hair behind her hair, comforting her softly like a mother should, "Oh, (Y/N).."

The girl moves away from the touch a little, placing her head in her arms and doesn't say anything more, making Jake and Ney'tiri share a sad, but understanding look.

NOTE;; okay this was a lot of words, and the longest chapter so far defiantly. i did enjoy writing this one though, but it got a bit sad at the end..sorry 😭

also i really wanna touch on this because some people keep commenting this... y/n is not related to the Sully family, and is not a sister to the brothers... i don't know how that isn't clear enough but i guess i didn't clarify it well for people to understand??

as well i may or may not be working on a alice in borderland story as well... i'm obsessed again so expect that to come out soon ;)

apart from that i hope you enjoyed this chapter & i'll see you all in the next update! <3 mwah 🫶 (my wrists hurts help ok bye)