Two Words, “I know”- N. Sully
Summary: Reader says something they instantly regret during a fight, will pining and apologies be enough to make Neteyam forgive them?
Pairing: Neteyam x Human to Navi reader
Warnings: Couple’s quarrel, angsty Neteyam, angsty reader, somewhat yelling, cursing, pining, angst for days, fluff at the end!
A/n: This idea came to me because I feel like there’s often so many writers on this app that make it out to seem like the reader can never make a mistake or if they do its always somehow not their fault. I want to humanize reader a little bit more, so this is what came out.
P.S: I totally made-up sugar root, the inspo was sugar cane but I didn’t want to say sugar cane so I did that instead lol
***
You had been forcibly moved to pandora by your two parents, both of whom were scientist who’d dedicated their lives to picking up their lives to study Pandora and the life on it. Unlike most so called “sky people” your parents were beloved by the Natives, especially Jake and Neytiri.
After getting themselves Navi bodies, as a tenth birthday present, they made one for you too. Five years after that, at fifteen you had your soul permanently transferred into it do to complications with your health.
Now though, you live happy and healthy in your new home planet, with your best friend and Boyfriend, Neteyam, and all the others. Your life was the image of perfection, but it didn’t feel like it. You loved your life, you really did, but that didn’t stop parts of you from missing earth, missing the family and friends you left behind, the life you left behind. You often spent hours at a time wondering what it’d be like if you still lived there. Would you go to a boarding school like you’d always wanted as a kid? Would you be studying for your dream college for your dream career?
You pinched the bridge of your nose as you settled down in the crook of a tree and attempted to massage the Migraine away. Your ears twitched instinctively as you hear branches creaking and the padding of feet. Of course, you thought bitterly, not even two seconds alone and someone had already found you. All you really wanted right now was a moment alone. “Y/n” Neteyam’s voice prick your ears as he pears around the tree, smiling down at you. “Hey” “you hiding from someone?” you snort, and bite your tongue, refraining from saying “I was trying to” and instead “Just the world I guess” his smile faulters a bit, and you can tell it wasn’t the answer he necessarily expected. “Does that include me? Cause I’ll leave you alone, if you need” but as you looked up into his sweet yellow eyes you didn’t have the heart to send him away. You smile and shake your head. “Never” you extend a hand to him and guide him to sit next to you. He wraps his arm around your waist and uses the other to take your hand in his. “So” he sighs “Why are we hiding from the world” you sigh as well, picking at the skin of your thighs “I had a fight with my parents” he raises his eyebrows “About?” “Just…stuff” he waits patiently for you to continue “It’s just like, sometimes I can’t help but be angry at them. I had so many plans on earth, family, friends! And they just took it all way from me without even giving me any option. They just ripped me away from my life and across the cosmos to pandora so they could advance their careers. But what about me? What about my life? What about my dreams?” your voice rises with emotion and Neteyam’s ears flick down a small frown crossing his face. “You have friends and family here, and dreams…Right?” you look to him “Of course. But that doesn’t mean—” “it doesn’t mean they have less value does it” you nod silently. “Do you… do you regret coming here?” “there’s nothing for me to regret, I had no say, it wasn’t my choice to be here” he slightly draws away from you, but you don’t notice, too caught up in your own thoughts. “Do you not want to be here?” maybe you were so worked up already you didn’t realize what you were saying. “If it were up to me, I would still be home” the word Home slapped Neteyam in the face. As he fully pulled away “I thought this was home” he says quietly and your head snaps to look at him. “It is Neteyam but” you trailed off “but what?” “But I just wonder what my life would be like there, I wasn’t meant to live here. I was born on earth, meant to live on earth. To have friends and a boyfriend and go to a shitty high school and get my first apartment and everything.” Neteyam stood up suddenly. “What?” “I’m so sorry you didn’t get your dream human life with friends and a human boyfriend y/n, really that must’ve been really hard for you.” He said coldly, and dread squeezed your heart and lungs “Wait Neteyam—that’s not” “Save it” and with that he hurried away, ignoring your calls for him.
***
Neteyam wasn’t talking to you, and it broke your heart. You never meant what you said three nights ago, it was a mistake, are you sad about the life you’re missing out on, on earth? Definitely, but it occurred to you that you were spending so much time dwelling on what you couldn’t have rather than everything you have here. There is a reason people say, “The grass is always greener on the other side”. Your heart clenched every time you saw Neteyam and watched as he went out of his way to avoid you or act like he didn’t see you at all. You never meant to make him feel this way, and you couldn’t forgive yourself. But hopefully you could get him to forgive you. Since that night you’d been trying to figure out how to make it right. You had written an apology and a list of reasons you loved your life here. You left these two letters on his bed, but after another two days he still hadn’t acknowledged you.
***
“Dude that’s enough” lo’ak suddenly burst out, as he caught his brother pulling two letters out from the pages of a book for the umpteenth time in these past few days. Neteyam jumped “what?!” “Whatever you did to piss y/n off just go apologize I’m sick of wa—” “I didn’t fuck up” Neteyam said harshly “she told me she wished she could’ve stayed on earth so she could have human friends and her human family and a human boyfriend. Because apparently, I was just what she downgraded to since she couldn’t have some weird, greasy, short, tan stupid” he began to pace angrily, alarming his younger brother “Dude, dude calm down” Lo’ak said, standing up “Don’t tell me to calm down!” he yelled “okay, okay I’m sorry” he said backing off with his hands raised. Neteyam sighed “No I shouldn’t have yelled, I—I’m sorry” Neteyam hung his head and his brother searched him, trying to find some answer “I know she said that. And its fucked up, but I also know—hey look at me” he lifted his older brothers chin with two fingers “I know that y/n loves you more than she loves anything else in her life” Neteyam shook his head “Dude listen to me. You don’t hear her talking to Kiri about you” he put on a high pitch voice, failing to imitate you “Neteyam is so amazing, your brother is the most handsome man in the whole world, listen to this stupid date we went to isn’t that so romantic?” Neteyam snorted “She’s crazy about you man” Lo’ak said in a softer tone. “Go talk to her, figure this out, because if you guys don’t make it I have absolutely no faith in love itself”
***
After confessing to your mother everything that happened between you and Neteyam, she was holding you and letting you cry against her shoulder. “I really messed up mommy” you say, your voice wobbling horribly. She sighed and gently pushed you away to meet her eyes “Do you know how many times your father has fucked up?” you laugh, despite yourself “And do you know how many times I forgave him? People, they can be stupid, and they’re certainly not as emotionally adapt as Na’vi. And I wont lie, you made a mistake, a big one. But Neteyam loves you sweetheart, and you love him. Love like that doesn’t go away after one stupid comment, one mistake.” You nod “So now” she began wiping your tears “you go, and you apologize, and you apologize, and you apologize, and you do all the grand gestures, and everything you can to make this right. Until he forgives you” you nod again “go now my love, go to him” you stand up and walk out of your tent.
***
You approached the Sully’s tent full of apprehension and anxiety, you didn’t want to be here, but you understood why you had to be. Being a great hater of conflict the idea of willing walking towards a person who at the moment, probably hated you, made your heartbeat like a drum in your chest.
Neytiri emerged from their tent with her bow slung over her shoulder and a quiver of arrows strapped across her back. She smiled sadly at you, and you wonder if Neteyam told her what you said or not. “He’s alone, I’m going hunting and won’t be back for a while”. You bowed your head in respect and a silent thankyou and walked forward.
Neteyam’s back was facing you as you entered, letting the flap fall silently behind you as you shuffled your feet anxiously. You cleared your throat, clutching several pieces of sugar root in your hand. He turns around, and the moment his eyes land on you, his jaw sets and his gaze hardens. Though he agrees with what his brother said to him days prior, the sight of you is still painful and frustrating though he does miss you.
“Yeah?” his tone is cold, but you try not to let it discourage you.
“Uhm…I was wondering if we could talk?” he narrows his eyes for a moment but then gestures towards Lo’ak’s cot which sits across from his. “I wanted to say—well first here this is for you” you hand him the sugar root which he takes gingerly, not acknowledging it. “I wanted to say that I’m sorry, and before you say anything, I know that’s lame but its how I feel. Neteyam I am so sorry. I-I want to make this better I want to make this right. And if you don’t take me back, I understand because if you said something like that to me, I’d be so angry and so hurt. But I want to know—even if I can’t fix it all the way. How I could at least make things better…”
He studies you for a couple of seconds before breaking the silence. “I want to know…how I can be sure you didn’t mean what you said that night” This. You had prepared for this, how much you didn’t mean what you said had been on your mind 24/7 since you said it.
You can’t help but laugh. “Have you seen me Neteyam? I can barely function without you. These past days I can’t sleep, I can’t eat, I can’t do anything because I feel so guilty. I found my person, you who is so, so sweet and patient with me, and you actually listen to what I say even if it’s stupid, and I—I realized that those thoughts I had about what I wanted on earth, I was picturing you there with me. And its okay if you don’t believe me or if you don’t believe that! But all I know is when I would imagine it, somehow you were there, with me. And maybe because I was only daydreaming it didn’t occur to me that if I was on earth now, right now you wouldn’t be there. Your family wouldn’t be there, all my friends, there would be no ikrans or floating mountains, no nothing. Nothing I love about my life now, could travel with me to earth.” You took a deep breath and look up, Neteyam is already looking at you.
“When I talked to my dad once, he told me there was many things about being human he didn’t miss. But he also told me, that it hurt him that he’d never see his family or friends again, and how much he wishes we could meet them, that everyone could know he turned out okay. That was…the only time I ever saw my dad cry.” You look at him confused, unsure to the point he’s trying to make. “I’m sorry”
You shake your head with a sad smile. “I’m not. I love my family, I do. But as long as I don’t forget them they are not truly lost. You are my family now, I need to stop focusing on what I lost when I left earth, but what I got when I came here.”
Neteyam sits up slightly and extends a hand, making a ‘come here’ motion with his fingers. When you stand and walk to him, he grabs your waist gently and pulls you down to sit on his lap. You wrap your arms around his neck, and he wraps his around your waist, you both rest your heads on the others shoulder. Your heart is beating fast now, not because of anxiety but because you are so happy and relieved to be with him again, with both of you happy. You place a few gentle kisses onto his smooth and soft skin, kissing the little bioluminescent dots specifically. Taking great care to smell him as you do so, you didn’t know the smell of a person could be so comforting until you met Neteyam.
After a while of just holding each other, you pull away so you can look in his eyes. “I love you, and I’m sorry” he pulls you down once more to kiss you, and when the two of you break away, he only says two words
“I know”