not my stars
pairing: gn! avatar! isekai!reader & neteyam word count: 6.3k synopsis: Consequences have been given and looking back into the past. Apologies from an immature boy and making peace. Golden boy's thoughts about you. (reader) Parental issues if you squint. Reader is not considered part of the Sully family, and the reader is more like a close family friend. They have no desire in being part of the family to begin with. warning/s: nothing except maybe the envy of a certain eldest son who felt underestimated and undermined, light angst, you and neteyam getting into a physical fight (flashback) note: part 2 !!!! :0 after i upload the next i will be taking a break!!!! honorary mention of @kaorivx for being my beta reader :]]
PART 01, (YOU ARE HERE), PART 03
You were all sent off to your respective places. You and your opponent—who you learned his name was Koro—were held back for a bit though.
Tonowari cited your punishments. What Koro received was less severe, a few tasks here and there in the village.
But you unfortunately got the brunt of it. The list was longer, if you didn’t know any better, it’s like you committed a crime. As though you stabbed someone instead of the one being stabbed.
You remember your mouth falling open when they cited yours;
You must help the tsahik in her hut for the next few weeks until she deems you’ve learned your lesson. You must help the warriors too in the training grounds. You must help gather materials for the artisans.
And you were grounded. Again. No ilu-riding or going into the ocean further than the shore, you knew this was the work of none other than Jake Sully himself. He knew how to get under your skin just as you knew how to piss him off. But he also knew you were one to respect hierarchy no matter what. He made a point to ignore you when you shot him a glare, shocked when you heard that you were not allowed to set foot beyond the shores.
Last but not least, you had to help Koro with his own assigned tasks. You’re not excited about it, neither was he you assumed. It was going to be so awkward.
But honestly, you were much more upset about not being allowed to go into the ocean. No bettering your techniques, playing with the sea creatures, letting the one ilu you’ve come to bond with so well drag you wherever and watching behind you as your friends try and catch up. No pulling tricks you’ve learned in the water. No—
You stop your thoughts there, fingers digging into the sand, because the more you think about it, the more it makes you depressed. Rubbing your forehead, you let your fingers tangle in your hair as a guttural noise left your mouth. You felt frustrated.
Man.
You did not miss this part of being a teenager.
Expected to act like an adult yet treated like a child. To be fair you definitely have not been acting like an adult. And though you took blame, you can’t help a part of you that wishes you didn’t. Childish. You’ve noticed how much more childish you’ve become once you defected and escaped the RDA with the others.
You look back to the ocean, watching the waves. The sunlight reflecting against the surface.
You’ve been more emotional lately. You don’t know why. You were taking it out on a kid too—or someone you deemed a child.
Maybe it’s because it’s almost that time, when the RDA comes..
You haven’t even told Jake yet about the details he needed to know so he succeeds. So he doesn’t worry. So the stress isn’t as bad.
You stood up, sighing as you dusted yourself off. Planning to find Koro, apologize to him if you do.
When you turn, to your surprise, you see the familiar figure of the guy who stabbed you, there at the edge of the village. Being pushed by none other than his friends, surprisingly Neteyam was there too, accompanying them, he’s saying something, hitting the side of Koro's shoulders. He locks eyes with you, giving a small wave. You just tilt your head, still confused.
You stop, standing there awkwardly with your arms crossed. Waiting, watching as he’s pushing back against them, hissing. Then, walking towards you with his tail hanging down low, flicking occasionally in annoyance.
When he’s close enough, he stops stalking, steps falling into a slower pace. He's fidgeting, then; “Hey.”
You squint your eyes at him. Scrutinizing him, and he can’t help but shift under your gaze.
“Hey.” You say back, falling silent. You’re straightening your back and taking a step away from him to maintain enough distance. He notices but doesn’t acknowledge it.
“…thank you for defending me.” He manages out. Like he's scared. "And I'm sorry."
You raise your eyebrows at that. He doesn’t know how to take it. Sensing his awkwardness, you adjust yourself, less stiff, less like you’re about to lunge at him again the moment he says something wrong. Your tail lowers, ears pointed forward, attentive.
“What, going soft on me now?” You ask. And to your relief, it works.
Koro scoffs, rolling his eyes, but his posture relaxes.
“You wish.” Giving you a challenging grin. You grin back, but it only lasts for a second before it falters.
“Seriously kid, I’m sorry too. I overreacted. You were just—“ you drag a hand up your forehead as you gesture to him. “Y’know, being a kid. I took it personally.”
“No— I—“ he stumbles over his words. He exhales. “I think playing dirty and then stabbing you was a bit much, no?”
The edges of your lips quirk up finding humor in this somehow. He’s not wrong, yet you shrug. “Eh. What can you do about it? I still have a hole in my shoulder, and I still attacked first with the intention of doing damage.”
When that doesn’t seem to convince him. You add, a quiet admission; “...I already decided to let it go when we were in the chief’s hut getting yelled at.”
His eyes widened at that. Oh. If he’s hearing this right, then he really didn’t need to do all this then. “…are you saying you forgive me?”
“Yep. Forgave you, and was planning to look for you to apologize. Why does it matter anyway? You guys don’t even give a rat’s ass about what we think given how easy it is for you to pick on us.” He doesn’t know what a rat is or what it looks like but he nods along anyway.
You raise your hand, and he stiffens, bracing himself, expecting you to punch him—a sneak attack maybe—that this speech about you letting it go being too good to be true, but instead he just gets a light push on his shoulder. “Good job defending yourself though. That was quick thinking. I would’ve done the same.”
He blinks at you as you pull your hand back, crossing your arms as you look at him. He expected a lot of things, maybe you would yell at him. Throw insults again. Or this resulting into another fight. But what he got instead was… your forgiveness and you complimenting him? For stabbing you?
Huh. You forest people were weird.
You raise your head. Your staring should be more intimidating to him right now, but it doesn’t feel like that at all. You’re just observing him. As if you knew what he was thinking. You always had a relaxed demeanor to you. Like you always knew what happened next, unbothered because you knew everything was going to be fine in the end. You were dependable in a sense.
Maybe that’s why Toruk Makto left you in charge. It was never said aloud, but everybody knew. They can see the responsibility that latched itself on your shoulders. Eyes often heavy with something when you thought nobody was looking. You still get into trouble frequently, mostly his and his friends’ fault. But when it mattered you were responsible. Someone to be trusted. Even for them, even if you’re always at each other's necks.
In truth you didn’t know what he was actually thinking. But you could guess to the best of your ability based on his body language and facial expressions alone.
“What, d’you expect another fight? C’mon, I have a stick up my ass but I’m not that petty. I’m injured.” You throw your head back, a smile gracing your lips. Your speech pattern rolls off your tongue in the na’vi language.
He can’t help the comfort he feels from this, how easy it was to talk to you like you weren’t expecting anything from him at all.
“I don’t wanna be constantly fighting or arguing with you guys every time we end up in the same vicinity. So….” You trail off, gesturing between the two of you, then extend a hand. “Friends?”
He immediately pulls a face at that. Friends was definitely too much. You expected that much, you know of the pride the youth held on so tightly, that’s why you tried not to let it get to you whenever they targeted you. They’ll grow out of it. Hopefully.
Jake Sully’s a prime example, gone was the sassy whimsical man you knew from the first movie. You don’t fault him for it, he’s a father in survival mode, but the way he handles it is something you had a lot of reservations against.
You snort, your whole body shaking from the laughter that spilled out of you as you waved it off, still extending a hand. “Nah, you’re right, I’m joking. Truce.”
“Truce.” He finds that more acceptable, he nods. Slotting his hand with yours, the handshake was firm and it was you who let go first. He turns, satisfied with his piece, throwing a hand back as a wave goodbye. But then he pauses, turning back to you.
He seemed to hesitate, but then found the courage to say it anyway; “You up for a real sparring match next time? Teach me your moves. Like when you redirected my strike.”
You’re surprised, again. You weren’t expecting this. You thought after all that they’d stop wanting to interact with you entirely. Kids his age were particularly easily miffed when their pride was involved.
You scaring him, and then proceeded to defend him the way you did, you thought he’d hate to even associate with you. You know many who took offense for less despite your intentions, it doesn't even matter how you did it, or what you said. And you try really hard not to upset someone or set them off.
“Make peace with him.” That was what Neytiri told you, firm. Well, what Miss Sully asks of you, what Miss Sully gets.
You thought it’d be hard to find him and get him to talk to you so you could apologize. But here he was, asking you to teach him how to fight the way you do. It made you strangely happy that you weren’t exactly shut out. You kept your expression relaxed though, doing your best not to let it show.
You knew better than to let them sense even a smidge of eagerness. Their age meant they had a certain sense of cruelty for the sake of amusement.
“Sure kid, when I’m all healed. You did some damage on me. Gotta kick your ass for that.” You shrug at him, casual as ever. He rolls his eyes, but does a pumped up gesture with one arm as walks back to his friends.
That gets a smile out of you, shaking your head. You lean to get a good look at the others lingering in the background. And one last attempt to make fun of him, you cup your mouth with your hands, you yell; “The power of friendship won!”
Koro almost stumbles. But he doesn’t turn around when he yells back, voice cracking; “WE ARE NOT FRIENDS!”
You laugh again, shaking your head. Neteyam’s already making his way towards you once he saw you were done with the conversation, you meet eyes with him when he throws you a look, surprised as he asks; “Is that true?”
“Us being friends? Nah. But I doubt they’ll be bothering us any time soon.” You wave at Ao’nung, who gives you a nod of acknowledgement before leading his lackeys back into the village. Neteyam’s eyes trails after him as well.
Noticing how quiet he’s being, you bump your good shoulder against his, startling him a little, now his eyes are on you. “You won’t have someone making fun of your baby tail and bunny ears for now, golden boy.”
“Nobody does that to me except you.” He throws in after a moment of silence, giving you an unimpressed look. You and that nickname you gave him back when you first came to the Omaticaya clan, he doesn’t know when you’re going to stop using it.
“Yep.” He rolls his eyes when he sees you nod enthusiastically, smiling.
“...they don’t even know what a bunny is.” He adds.
“Yep.” You get a frustrated noise from Neteyam at that.
You both fall silent for a few moments. Just the sound of the sea gently rolling against the shore.
With the sun setting just beyond the horizon. Your thoughts go back to the fight earlier, brows furrowed together, the end of your tail flicking. “Do you remember what I screamed at him? When everyone was holding me back?”
He looks at you, confused. “You don’t remember?”
You shrug; “Dude, I wouldn’t be asking if I did.”
You must’ve been really pissed then. He does not know you as the type to allow emotion to get to you like that, especially not to the point you blow up on someone, and then proceed to forget the words you said.
He hopes that never happens again.
He stares at you longer. You do a lot of strange things. But you always had reasons for them.
He looks to the past, the best example he could recall was when you saved them from an RDA ambush during a hunt. You tagged along much to his displeasure. You weren’t a warrior then, at least not by the clan’s standards. But his father allowed you to for whatever reason. Probably because you kept insisting and he caved.
Usually how you get away with these things now that he thinks about it.
He expected you to make trouble for them, hold them back, complain all the way. Be deadweight. But you caught up just fine. That was surprising, but then again he maybe shouldn’t have.
He noticed how uncharacteristically quiet you were, watching everyone and your surroundings. You were expecting something, waiting for something. He was confused at first.
He quickly ignored you after that, thinking it was just another one of your many strange behaviors.
But then it came, what you were waiting for, it happened. And you made quick work. Your usual personality was nowhere to be found as he watched you herd everyone, barking orders despite your current standing in the clan. But with the chaos, he and many others followed you regardless.
You and this unwavering confidence you had that you could lead them, even for a moment. You directed them elsewhere, somewhere safe, avoiding danger as swiftly as you could, hiding underneath the floating rocks. This was the first time he’s seen you in action, the first time anyone has.
He realized your slowness, that your seemingly lack of urgency that he first resented you for was deliberate. He thought of you as immature. It hasn’t changed, but it was more so reserved for moments when you do act that way.
By the time the dust settled and the danger had passed, everyone was safe. Some were injured, but everyone was very much alive. That was impressive for someone with no battle experience or knowledge for strategy, at least that’s what he thought.
Yet when you carried responsibility. You carried it well.
And this jealousy that he tried his best to bury and deny as anything but—it grew, and along with it was this sense of respect he had for you despite all attempts to snuff it out. Trying to convince himself that you were no one. Nobody of value.
You earned the respect of the people for what you had done despite this. While there were some displeased with you overstepping your place, or the fact that it felt like they were all running away from battle, it doesn’t change the fact that you still led them to safety.
You even managed to silence those whose pride was hurt, thinking that retreating without fighting back was an act of cowardice. Your excuse was that you all could strike back after regrouping, and coming back with a plan, and with as little damage done as possible to the clan’s numbers.
You helped with strategizing too, providing as many details as possible regarding the ships and number of officers involved in the ambush, their positions. Etc.
He saw the way his father had looked at you, full of suspicion. But ultimately trusting you regardless of that. Neteyam’s jealousy grew. Again. It was stupid. So very childish and stupid of him but he couldn’t help it.
You denied everything when you were confronted about it though. Making up excuses, stories, pointing fingers.
“I was flying by one time, I noticed their activity nearby, they were too close, I thought it was strange and out of place, so I looked into it. That’s how I figured out the RDA was planning an ambush.” That was a lie, he knew, because you were with them everyday before then. You all were nowhere near that area before the hunt, and he’d know when you would have slipped away because his eyes were always on you whether he was willing to admit that or not.
“If it wasn’t for Neteyam supporting me, something could have gone wrong.” That was also a lie, the most ridiculous one he watched you say while locking eyes with him. He was not supporting you at all, he was following after you just like everyone else was the moment the first explosion was heard. And you—which he thought at first was an arrogant move, even for you—charged ahead, and started yelling at all of them.
But he didn’t denounce it. He kept his mouth shut. And as though he was rewarded for it, you give him a look of gratitude. Relieved. A first. And the first time you weren’t scrutinizing him whenever your eyes were on him.
It was also the first time he entertained the thought of you becoming his friend.
And in doing so, he was proven wrong once more about an assumption he made of you after that incident, you did not do that because you wanted recognition. You did it because you wanted to keep people safe.
He stopped questioning you and began putting his full faith in you ever since, even if he was still making things hard for you then.
Neytiri seems to have warmed up to you a little bit since then too. You kept her eldest son safe. Protected her people. He knows you’d never admit it, but you looked up to Neytiri in a way. You looked for her approval more than you did Jake’s whether you noticed it or not. Neteyam noticed, he always did, he’s always watching you. It’s hard not to.
You’re always off doing something Lo’ak would likely do. But you’re also strangely…responsible. You know how to balance this urge you had to cause chaos, albeit with intention, unlike Lo’ak who just finds himself in those situations.
He respects his mother a lot. He knows just how capable his mother is, just as much of a warrior as his father, if not more. But when he noticed it, how you were always looking at Neytiri, watching her expression, waiting for what she would say, he still couldn’t help but feel a bit shocked.
You had the Toruk Makto’s attention and support on you, and yet you looked for approval from someone else.
Being able to gain the favor and unwavering faith of his father without much and so quickly too was a feat in itself. It was something he himself hasn’t been able to achieve, not fully at least.
Sure it was his responsibility to protect his siblings, keep them out of trouble. But you? You weren’t anyone at all, that's what he told himself at least, and you had no responsibility or duty that tied you down to them. And yet…
Present time, he’s still looking at you. Intently. You give him a look, tilting your head. Wondering what he was thinking of, waiting for him to say something. He’s usually easy to read for you but sometimes, like these times when he’s assessing you; it’s a bit hard to guess.
He knows he’s not the only one who feels jealous of the other. You said so as much, many times actually. You’re surprisingly honest when you want to be.
“I wish I had younger siblings to mess with.”
“I don’t know how you can handle all that responsibility on your shoulders, the thought of everyone’s expectations…” You’d shudder at the thought before turning to him. Laughing after, voice light as you gave a playful hit on his shoulder. “I can barely handle you guys. I’m jealous of you.”
Or even that one time you were watching the crowd at a communal event. Watching his parents quietly, almost like it reminded you of something. Your voice was melancholic; “...you have good parents, Neteyam.”
He thinks of himself as terrible for this, but he felt better about himself. About his own jealousy towards you that he hoped you couldn’t pick up on.
Then there was the first and only time he’s seen you cry, when you found them after they were chased by the RDA into the forest. He doesn’t know why you reacted so intensely then.
“Please, please listen to me next time.” You kept saying that over and over again, eyes wide in panic. You were inconsolable. Only calming down when you heard agreement from them. After that, they listened to you without question whenever you asked to do something.
That was when they figured you cared more than you let on. About them. About all of this. It wasn’t just babysitting duty to you. Not anymore at least.
Your ease wasn’t something that came naturally. It was purposeful. Well-practiced as the swagger you had when you walked. How it bled into the way you spoke. Or when you had that wide grin on your face when you did something stupid again–so very stupid–trying to convince people around you that you did not care at all. That you had all the time in the world, that you do not worry about anything but flying, or ilu-riding.
But you care. You did not have all the time in the world, you felt you had very little. And that you do worry.
You worry a lot.
After that incident, Lo’ak listens to you more than he listens to Neteyam. That was how bad it rattled them. Neteyam had…personal reservations about his own brother listening more to someone who isn’t even part of the family, especially when he couldn’t even listen to him. That too took Neteyam a while to accept, but he accepted it nonetheless.
He loves his brother. It made sense when he thought about it, you don’t really ask for much from him, not often. So when you do—which is very rare—naturally, Lo’ak follows through without much protest.
…that and you never acted like that before, nobody mentioned it to either parents, or ever brought it up with you. But the siblings did talk about it among themselves, the few times when you’re not around.
You didn’t seem interested in bringing it up either. You went back to normal afterwards, making stupid jokes, pulling the same stunts that made his father lose his mind. Laughter still comes easy to you. But Neteyam remembers it clearly, that look of terror on your face. Distraught and afraid. Like you failed. That the weight was on you if they died. And it was, but he didn’t think you took it seriously. Not like he did.
…he was very wrong.
He thinks of how you were both jealous of each other for different things. How both of you carry similar burdens. And he’s glad he realized this a long time ago.
Back to the present, Neteyam’s eyes flicker to the side, ears twitching with them, still thinking if he should tell you what it was you said earlier to Koro in a moment of anger. It’s not like he didn’t deserve it.
Ultimately deciding against it, he shrugs it off, tail stiff, trying to seem convincing. “I can’t recall. I do not see why you should concern yourself with it, since he went out of his way to seek you out and apologize in the end.”
“Fair enough.” You shrug, thankfully not questioning him further.
Then you raise your arms behind your head. Cringing a little when you felt pain on your bad shoulder, you walked back towards the village. “We should go back.” You mutter out the last part, annoyed but resigned. “Before your old man’s on my ass again.”
“You are the only one who dares talk about my dad the way you do.” He points out.
“What? He’s not that scary and I don’t like him that much.” He gives you another one of his unimpressed looks. From anyone, else, he’d take deep offense. That’s his father, the Toruk Makto, that united clans during a time of sorrow. Even Tonowari himself, the village chief, knew of him, and respected him greatly.
His achievements are so vast that it casts a great shadow over Neteyam. He did his best to live up to his father’s expectations no matter how much it weighed on him.
But sometimes, he still worries he isn’t.
Most of the things you say lack a certain bite that tells people you meant them. He’d think you’re careless, but if he knows anything about you now, it’s that you’re the most deliberate person he knows. You beat his dad on that too.
He doesn’t know if he should admire you for that or what. But one thing for sure was that you were someone he’s come to respect and consider a good friend.
“Again, you are the only one who can talk about him like that here.” He repeats.
“You mean I’m the only one with enough balls.” You offer, laughing. He’s silent for a moment, staring at you, silently judging you for your brazen and crude use of words—then continues his steps. You quickly add, almost sounding nervous, explaining yourself; “I didn’t say he wasn’t scary but I don’t see why I have to be tip-toeing around him the way you do. He’s not my dad, I’m just someone he happened to pick up like a stray.”
He thinks that's a big reason you should be. Not even his mother disagrees with his father so openly the way you do. Lo’ak sure, but that’s Lo’ak for you.
“You should listen to yourself sometimes.” He sighs, shaking his head as he walks beside you.
“Well maybe if he was less hard on you guys, better I’d respect him more.” You countered, and he hums. He wanted to disagree with you. But he lets it go this time. He never understood this one-sided hostility you had with his father. Especially when it came to him and his brother.
It was…pleasant though. A warmth in his chest that grows knowing he has someone willing to defend him so passionately the way you do. You surprised him with that as well.
You and him had a fight once, only once. All he knew was it started with you both arguing at first, same as always. But next thing he knew, punches were being thrown.
He got a few good hits on you. You did too, but your punches were a bit more restrained, like you were holding back. That pissed him off even more then, because it felt like you were underestimating him.
Lo’ak had ran off by then, going to get their dad. Kiri stayed behind, trying to stop you both from fighting. Telling you both to calm down. But there was no use, nothing can stop this, not when this was the result of whatever it was that has been boiling over for years.
“Don’t tell me all the RDA taught you was to be weak.” He huffed out a laugh. Your expression shifted then, eyes staring harder, and your punches landed harder too, albeit still restrained. But your control was slipping, he could tell, each insult that left his mouth chipping away at you.
He enjoyed it, knowing that his words got to you as much as your presence did to him.
You had him on his back on the ground then. He was about to throw in another insult, but he froze, staring at you as tears spilled over your eyes. Your tears dripped on his cheeks as both of your hands grabbed him by his necklace, shaking him, broken beads falling off due to how hard you were gripping him. And for the first time since the fight started, he felt a hint of regret. His mouth opened, but nothing came.
He thought he’d enjoy that, pushing you to the point of tears. He didn’t. He didn’t mean to make you cry, not like that.
“I’m trying to save you, you asshole! Why are you like this?”
He didn’t know, he still doesn’t know. He doesn’t know why your presence irritated him the way it did.
And save him? Save him from what?
He wasn’t able to ask, because by then Lo’ak had returned, and with him was their father, with a look on his face that he’s only ever seen whenever one of them did something stupid and put themselves in danger.
He pulled you off of him. And upon seeing your tears and how badly beaten you looked compared to Neteyam, he assumed it was him who started the fight. And he did, but you started the fight before it became physical. At least in his perspective, you guys were just bantering, as always.
But then you made that comment; “the ever perfect golden boy.” It was harmless really, but for some reason, hearing it from you, it did something. It was downhill from there. His dad was about to grill him, face flushed in anger, but suddenly, you stepped in front of him, surprising both Neteyam and his dad.
“I started it.”
His dad could hardly believe it. You had more bruises on you than Neteyam did. But you insisted, all the while wiping the blood that he drew from your nose.
“I got emotional.” That was all you said. His dad didn’t know what else to do other than give you both a lecture about getting along, and assign more patrols to you both, he made sure you did them together. No doubt trying to give you both the time and space to quell whatever it is between you. It wasn’t even a rivalry, and if it was, it would be one-sided. At least to Neteyam, and that was a hard thing to accept. Knowing you did not see him as a rival at all, that you had no hard feelings against him. It made him feel even sillier.
His father’s attempts at forcing proximity to fix whatever it was between you didn’t work. You both kept to yourself. You didn’t look at Neteyam, not even when he kept looking at you, hoping to meet eyes and start a conversation from there. He even tried intentionally flying his ikran close to yours. But you kept your unfeeling eyes forward, and made space when he did. You avoided his attempts at getting you alone. You avoided him whenever you could outside of what was necessary.
What made it harder was that you weren’t even mad at him. You were just indifferent, detached. And as good as you were at slipping into things you weren’t meant to be in, you were just as good slipping out of situations you didn’t want to be in. And he really tried, even his siblings got involved, mostly because they couldn’t stand the tense atmosphere and wanted everything to go back to normal between you guys again.
They realized this was something that time passing couldn’t fix. They all tried getting you alone, but you’d see him, freeze and immediately turn away, disappearing into the crowd, just gone, before he gets to say anything.
You and this habit of you disappearing and appearing out of places. He doesn’t even know how you do that. You were so light on your feet, he’d be resting under a tree, looking up, then yelping when he sees you, waving down at him with a grin. He almost hit you then. You did the same to his siblings…he remembers you doing it to his dad once. He yelled at you so loudly the entire village heard. Neytiri herself scolded you as well. The thought made him laugh to himself whenever he remembered.
You still tagged along whenever the siblings went somewhere, it was your job to keep them out of trouble after all, but you just kept to yourself then, silent. The siblings would exchange looks, the other two giving pointed ones to Neteyam and then nodding to you. He’d sigh, shrugging as he shook his head, as if to tell them; “I tried. Nothing’s working.”
He was sitting near the campfire one time. Racking his brain on how to get you to talk to him. He didn’t want this to go on for the rest of his life. You’ve been their bodyguard, babysitter, chaperone, eventually friend for so long that he couldn’t imagine you not being part of his life. And it annoyed him, everything about you was inherently annoying. Sure, you guys argued a lot. Butt heads. Sure you irritated him. But that was your dynamic.
You were a good friend as annoying and irritating as he found your presence. Were. He’s already thinking of his friendship with you in the past tense. He rubs his face at that. Didn’t he want this though? He was so sick of you and being around you all the time.
But he also found you hilarious, he wouldn’t be saying that to your face any time soon. He also misses your skxawng ass. Your advice when he asked for them was strangely wise. Just like his siblings depended on him. You were someone he could depend on. Were. Were. And now you can’t even look at him for a second before running off.
All he wanted to do was apologize to you. Did you really have to make it so hard? Did you really find what he said that insulting?
He was so lost in his thoughts, he didn’t see you settling next to him until he heard the clatter of beads in a wooden bowl being set on the ground. His eyes shot up, seeing you squatting down. He’s shocked, and you exhale at his reaction, finding it a bit too much.
He opens his mouth to say something, sorry, but it dies in his throat when you bring out his necklace. The one you broke during the fight you had. Then the dots connected, oh, were you trying to fix it?
“...I don’t know the pattern you used, man. I even asked your mom.” You sigh, focused on the necklace, carefully untying the knot you made to keep the rest of the beads from falling off.
He looks back behind you, seeing his mother watching you both in the distance, a knowing expression on her face. He can’t help the smile that tugs at his lips. She knew the pattern by heart, she’s the one who taught him the pattern in the first place.
She’s shaking her head, nodding towards you with a frown on her face. He knows what she means; “Go, make peace.”
His smile grows bigger, turning back to you. “Yeah. It is pretty hard you know.”
“I don’t know.” You deadpan, fingers stilling.
“Give it to me, I’ll show you, you're still too used to having five fingers after all so—”
“If you finish that sentence dude, I’m getting up.”
“Mawey! Hangvur!” (Calm! Joke!)
You both fall into silence, Neteyam watching as you follow the pattern he’s taught you. Minor corrections here and there, you were a fast learner…that annoyed him for some reason, especially back then.
When he believed you’d fall behind, and prove that his father made a mistake believing in you, putting you in charge. Not because he wanted his dad to be wrong, but because he hoped he’d make you go away. Because again, he couldn’t believe you swooping in out of nowhere and his dad immediately trusting you so fast and having done nothing to actually prove you deserved that.
…yet he felt glad that you’re still here. That you stayed.
While watching you work, his attention went to your knuckles, bruised from the fight you both had. He felt that familiar tug of guilt in his chest. His ears lowered; “...I’m sorry.”
Your eyes flicker to his, holding his gaze for a moment before you focus back on the necklace.
“I’m sorry too.”
And that was that. He is still yet to ask you about what you meant by “saving him.” But knowing you, you’d probably make up some lame ass excuse. He trusts you, yes, but with the full truth? Might as well just walk into an RDA base and hope they don’t capture and/or shoot him on sight.
You’ve both settled into silence as you near the village, the maruis in sight.
…
…
“Watch your step—” He said suddenly, reaching to stop you. A little too late unfortunately, because in your vision, the world is already rushing past you, you slip. And he cringes inwardly, bracing himself for you.
Thud.
…
You were hissing in pain on the ground, clutching your leg. Trying to keep pressure off your ankle.
“Skxawng.” Neteyam sighs, but the insult lacked any malice, softness at the edge of his tone. He's already at your side, kneeling.
“FUUUUUCKKKKKKKK—” You wail through your gritted teeth. His hand was on your back, patting you instinctively, something he’s done for his siblings whenever they got hurt.
He’s comforting you, waiting for pain to subside enough for you to calm down so he could move you.
He suppresses the urge to laugh. But he can’t help himself, asking anyway; “Why are you so clumsy? I know this isn’t your first body but ma’Eywa, it’s been years–!”
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