It was the end of the day when Spider came back with the rest of the Sully kids.

Venus was working at her desk (which was code for resting her head on the table and dozing off to sleep) when the door hissed open. Spider peeled off the mask of his exo-pack. He was about to yell her name when he caught sight of her passed out. 

He froze. Slowly, he walked up to her. For an instant, he didn't know what to do. 

The door hissed again as a group of bustling siblings walked through, voices loud and bumping into everything. Spider's head whipped around and tried to shush them, but he was too late.

Venus grumbled and lifted her head up, rubbing her eyes and stretching. Spider sighed in disappointment and threw his arms up. "Dude!" He felt culpable for the girl's uncomfortable awakening.

"What?" Lo'ak asked, brows furrowed.

Spider gestured to Venus, who was just fluttering her eyes open to find the group in front of her. "Oh, hey guys." She waved lazily and rubbed her eyes some more.

"You woke Vee up!" The human boy complained.

Her eyes widened, quickly denying. "Oh no, Spider, it's okay," she ran a hand through her hair and sniffled. "I'm not even supposed to take a nap during the day."

He still felt sorry she was woken up by him. He put his head down.

"Hi Vee!" Tuk shouted, waving with a large smile. She went off to wander around the lab without waiting for a response. Touching things she shouldn't touch, doing thing deemed unsafe. But who cared? It was too late to think about that, especially not when Venus was way too out of it to even register what the girl was doing.

Just as she was about to lay her head back down in her arms on the table, Tuk yelled from across the room. "What does this do?" She held up a microscope, waving it around for the girl to see.

"That," Venus pushed back her chair and stood up, walking to the girl and taking it from her hands. "Is something you don't wanna mess up." She set it down on the table and rubbed her eyes again to wake herself up. 

Lo'ak came up behind her and set a hand on her shoulder with a worried expression. "Vee, are you okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded. No, she was not. "I was just up all night looking over some stuff." She, in fact, was searching through the database on her computer for any record of her mother. Celeste Oberon was an obscure woman. "Nothing big, I guess."

Her eyes flickered to Spider.

He caught it.

"And this?" Tuk asked, holding up a scribbled note. She attempted to read the English, but struggled heavily.

Venus took it from her hand and bit the inside of her cheek. "It's just a stupid idea I had a couple nights ago."

Tuk looked around the lab. "So," she turned her head to the human girl. "What do you do in here? It's so small."

She laughed. "Yeah, it is pretty small." Venus looked around with her. "But it's my lab. I do all my work in here." She pointed to her desk. "That's where I spend my time. I read textbooks on healing. Scientific healing, not spiritual. It's more practical when you break your arm to put it in a cast than to prey to Eywa."

"Things with the mind, however," Venus poked Tuk's forehead. "That is where Eywa does her best work." 

Tuk nodded and continued to look around. "And this?" She held up the suture kit Venus hadn't put back yet.

"That's from yesterday," She grabbed it and placed it next to the legs of the desk. "When Spider got cut, I stitched him up. I learned from videos on an abandoned hard drive."

Tuk had burning questions and Venus loved to answer them. More often than not, other scientists like Norm and Max knew more than her. They didn't need to ask anything. But talking and explaining things to the younger girl made Venus happier than ever.

"Years ago, Earth people didn't know how to fix nerve injuries to the spine. And the brain was a mystery, but years have passed and they can. Isn't that fascinating? Imagine the years of research those scientists did. Every single one of them helped to reach a final goal of understanding. Teamwork, one might say." Venus smiled awkwardly and looked down. "But I think it's one of the only times humanity has come together as one mind, one movement. That, and the threat of mass extinction."

Spider watched as she rambled to Tuk, who listened intently, despite not knowing half the words. Her eyes sparkled as she talked and talked about her passion. Her hopes, her dreams, the things that got her up and out of bed in the morning. She lived and breathed science.

He tuned out the words of Lo'ak and continued to stare. How could someone as beautiful as Venus exist? She was like the floating mountains, or a waterfall, or a breath of fresh air. She was the sun.

He was out of it until Lo'ak nudged his shoulder. "Dude," Spider snapped his head to the Na'vi boy. "You're in love."

"No," Spider denied quickly. "I'm not."

He laughed and placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking his body. "Yeah, you are. It's the way you look at her, bro, it's like how my dad looks at my mom. Don't worry, I won't tell her," his eyes crinkled as he grinned wildly. "But if you don't tell her, I will-"

"-No!" Spider declined loudly. When he glanced over at Venus and Tuk, both of them were staring at the pair. He felt vulnerable, on the spot.

Venus furrowed her brows and tilted her head, hands still lightly grasping Tuk's in the middle of a demonstration. "Is everything alright, Spider?" Her gaze turned to the other boy. "Lo'ak?"

"Yes," the human boy answered quickly, giving a glare to Lo'ak. "Everything is fine."

Venus turned back to Tuk and lightly shook her head. "You know, I don't know what's up with those two. They're always in trouble, no matter how easy it is to stay out."

Tuk giggled, pulling her hand away when Venus poked a spot on her hand. "Why don't you hang out with us as much as Spider does? You're much better than him,"

Venus stifled a laugh with her hand, quickly looking over at the boy to find him already staring at her. He averted his gaze quickly with a burning blush on his cheeks. She looked back at the younger girl. "I have more priorities than him. It's why I'm literate and smart. Plus, I never liked the nature anyway. Something about it scares me, the danger of being in an unknown place."

"It's not too bad," Tuk tried.

"Well, that's because you grew up in it," Venus raised her brows and tilted her head at Tuk. "I, however, grew up in a lab. All I've known are books and science. And I don't mind it. I love it."

Spider loved Venus the way she loved knowledge. He would just have to show her there's more to life than sitting at a desk all day.

And Spider had no clue how to do so.

At the end of the night, after the Sully kids went back outside, Venus grabbed Spider's arm and whispered in a hush voice to him. "I found more about my mother."

AHH ANOTHER UPDATEEE i'm so happy bc i drank some coffee on the verge of falling asleep to write this. i've been trying to make chapters longer too

i watched avatar 2 again and i'm so excited to get to the part that i really wanna write (i'll tell you when i get there) LOVE YOU ALL <3 <3