about me. ysa, 21 (she/they). loved avatar since i was little. loves to write. english isn't my first language. libra.
REQUESTS ARE: open!
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could you do a Tarsem x human gn reader, like reader was the first born human on Pandora, and when Jake, grace and norm went to home tree in the Steve where the na’vi kids greet grace, that they brought reader along and them and tarsem met in that moment and kinda grew up together
hiiii oohh my first tarsem fic omg... i hope you like it!
Pairing: Tarsem Te Kumon Arun'itan x GN! Human! Reader
Requested?: Yes | No
Summary: What if Spider wasn't the first born human in Hell's Gate? Instead, it was you, taken under Grace's wing. When Jake earns the trust of the Omatikaya to let Grace back in, you come with and happen to bump into a young boy in the clan named Tarsem.
Word Count: 3.5k
Warning/s: slowburn, mentions of war, character death, angst, hurt/comfort
Note: first fic i've written for tarsem... he's so underrated like that's my man fr! i just noticed we don't have that much info on him... so i tried my best to make everything work in the story <3 likes, reblogs, and feedbacks are most welcome and appreciated!
GIF is not mine, credits to the owner!
This was not in Grace’s part of her job. She had taken you under her wing, the first human born on Pandora, your parents were a pilot and a fighter, unfortunately meeting their end on different missions, experiencing these at the early age of 5.
Despite Grace’s attitude, she cared for you, watching over you like you were her own, she does not even owe you anything, until she saw how much you were fascinated with the world, the nature of Pandora like her.
You did not know how, but she always managed to take you on her trips out into the forest the more years passed, and after how much you proved you could handle yourself out there.
Which was not mostly a problem, you’d stick close to her enough she described you like a leech on her leg.
You came across the school, you’ve heard all about it. Grace teaching them English in the hopes to make communications easier between the RDA and the natives… but unfortunately it didn’t work that way.
Then both Jake and Norm arrived, things started to progress from there, Jake’s avatar finding his way into the Omatikaya, learning their ways. You managed to get close to the guy, Norm and Jake acting like your older brothers, though they were surprised to see a teen like you here on Pandora.
You were always the one to quiz Jake about the Omatikaya when he’d show off having a date with the chief’s daughter Neytiri, you perched on one of the counters when he wasn’t stuck in his link unit.
“And you also must learn to speak Na’vi well.” You taunt in Na’vi towards Jake, seeing his face scrunch in thought figuring out what you just said.
“I do… speak well.” Jake manages to utter back to you in Na’vi earning your laughter as Grace and Norm walked in the break room.
“Damn Grace, you sure this kid’s not yours? Kid’s got your intellect.” Jake huffs, finishing his snack while Grace glanced at you, proudly, before she eyes Jake.
“What, marine? Don’t tell me the kid can speak better Na’vi than the one with the avatar.” Grace hums, pouring herself a mug of coffee. “Oh great, yeah, sure… hey, I’m learning!” Jake replied, not happy he was being ganged upon by the two of you but there was a grin on his face.
And so, Jake works his way to earn the trust of the clan, and that is what mattered to Grace. How she longed to see the children again, and those who she taught back then were all grown up now.
You were reading one of Grace’s reviews on her samples one day, eyes focused on the screen, reading how the mycelium could very well be in all parts of Pandora, through the biggest tree to the tiniest plant.
Footsteps take you out of your trance. “Pack up kid, we’re going somewhere.” Grace enters, picking out some of her equipment and stuffing it into her bag. You don’t budge right away, slumping in your seat.
“Going where?”
Grace’s back was turned towards you, and she knew how all you talked about back then was getting the chance to visit Home Tree like Grace did before, and now… an opportunity presented itself.
“Kelutral.” Grace casually responds and you sat up straighter. “No way?” Grace hears the gasp in your tone, and she turns to face you, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Yes way.”
You swore you hadn’t moved that fast in your life, rushing to your room to pack whatever you needed, which wasn’t much, just some spare batteries for your exopack and a few change of clothes.
═════════════════════
“Settle down kid, you’re gonna cause a turbulence at this point.” Trudy comments yet doesn’t lack a hint of affection as you couldn’t keep yourself from swinging in the chopper, holding onto the handle as you peered out, almost bouncing on your feet as you did the same on the other opening, trying to get every glimpse of Pandora, not having made it this far.
The news of Jake having talked to the people to letting Grace back in, maybe even you, was all you could think of.
“Hey, hey, sit still, I don’t want you falling off now before we meet the people.” Grace speaks, already in her avatar form, her big blue hand holding onto your side to maneuver you to sit down in one of the vacant seats, your eyes looking up at her with a sheepish look.
You gesture wildly. “I just- I can’t believe it!” You say, not even restraining the joyfulness coursing within you right now but keeping yourself finally planted on the seat.
Looking out again, all you could think about was Home Tree.
═════════════════════
Okay, you were excited when Jake, in his avatar, meets you and Grace at their meeting point.
“Wow Jake, there’s no way that’s you?” You remark, gesturing to him who is decked in traditional gear of the Na’vi, cummerbund around his waist. His avatar towers over you so much that he had to kneel down, tilting his head at you.
“That’s right kid, it’s me, believe me now?” He responds, curling a gentle arm around you, knuckles rubbing against your head playfully as you complain and try to shove him away, which does not even budge him.
“Oh, get off!” You whine, Jake laughing as he lets go, ruffling your hair for the last time as he stands up fully, now at Grace’s level. “They’re waiting.” Jake only says to which Grace nods.
You look up at them, especially Grace. You know how much it means to her being allowed back in this place ever since the school shut down, you reach for her arm, making Grace look down on you. “It’s gonna be okay.” You say to which Grace needed at the moment.
And so, Jake leads you towards the direction of Home Tree.
═════════════════════
You had not predicted how big Home Tree was. When Jake enters, followed by Grace and you, who decided to shield yourself behind Grace, you see other Na’vi minding their business look up and point you out, curious gazes followed by whispers, all eyes on the human kid.
You keep close as Grace kneels to meet the children rushing towards her, who were taller than you, already engaged in conversation, their laughter filling as they were happy to see Grace, even the older ones she taught had made their way over to you. You were nervous, you didn’t know what for… but you offer your greetings to those eyeing you.
About to back yourself off to let the other children surround Grace, you accidentally back into someone, turning around, you blink wide as the boy, another Na’vi in front of you looks down at you, his eyes curious but soft, welcoming.
“Hello…” You offer, not knowing what came over you to strike up a conversation when you have not even talked to a Na’vi before. The boy squints slightly before you see him relax hearing you speak their language. “Hi.” He replies. “I am Tarsem.” He introduced himself, making you smile and introduce yourself back.
Surprisingly, your nervousness begins to ebb away when Tarsem eagerly wanted to talk to you, having not seen a human being up close, and close to his age. He didn’t make you feel like some kind of ornament he could only inspect and discard, no, he wanted to know about you.
And you wanted to know about him.
═════════════════════
It didn’t take long for the two of you to become close, for the people to start trusting Grace and Jake, even you. You were happy when Grace decided to move and take you with her, Jake, Norm, and Trudy to relocate on site 26 up in the Hallelujah Mountains.
And you didn’t even know how you managed to shut up the moment you flew by the magnificent sight.
You swore the moment you had settled in site 26, the more time you spent outside at Home Tree, learning about the people up close and personal, and them being nothing but welcoming, indulging you in your curiosity.
You and Tarsem had formed this friendship, it was mostly him who went with you to wherever you wanted to go, or to see in the village. Obviously, he could not help but be protective of you, seeing just how smaller you were around everybody else, and knowing some of the others were still wary of you. You were still a sky person after all. You didn’t have an avatar like Grace, Jake, and Norm.
You were also just a teenager.
One night Grace allows you to stay in the village, and you find yourself somewhere quiet with Tarsem, he was starting to grow much taller now, more mature, responsible. But his care towards you did not waver.
You were looking forward, just watching the village alive with torches and the people moving about in their own ways, conversing, laughing, and even chasing each other around.
It was a sight Tarsem was used to, so he slowly let his gaze wander towards you, the occasional hiss of your exopack as you breathed the current noise between you and him. He learned from you that humans had to wear those so they could live here on Pandora, that it filters the air for you to be able to breathe… just another one of those things that he learned to look out for you.
He didn’t know why he was so… taken with you. “Your mask,” he began, nodding towards it when you look at him. “You brought a spare?” He asked, he always does when you stay out more than you can here in the village.
“Always.” You would say grinning, pulling it out of your sling bag for proof, to which Tarsem chuckles at. “You know, I just wish I didn’t need this sometimes.” You suddenly start.
“I mean… I wish I had an avatar you know? Like Jake… Grace…” You mutter out, eyes finding Jake in the crowd with Neytiri trying to get him to drink and dance with the others.
Tarsem raised a brow at this, not entirely having grasped the concept of an avatar, but he doesn’t speak yet.
“I think it would make thing so much easier… pff you know what they told me? They can’t put babies in cryo… like send me back to earth.” You explain, Tarsem nodding along.
“But maybe it’s a good thing… I’m still here, aren’t I? Just not tall… and blue.” You huff. Tarsem finally spoke.
“You have learned to move like one of the people, you speak like one of the people and you care… that is enough.” Tarsem says, nudging your side to which you nudge him back with a chuckle.
His words ring, your eyes locking, a silent understanding passing between you… and your exopack just had to beep.
═════════════════════
A lot has happened since then, the calm before the absolute storm that was the war, the battle of Hallelujah Mountains, kickstarted by the RDA, and you found out along the way that Jake was doing some under the table deal with Quaritch.
You couldn’t believe he had accepted it… that he was confident he could convince the clan to move out before the RDA decimated Home Tree, until he fell in love with Neytiri. The destruction of Home Tree happened, which caused many deaths of the people- Tarsem made it out alive thankfully, but that also left a mark on your relationship.
Jake’s betrayal of Quaritch led all of you to being captured and jailed back in Hell’s Gate, not before Trudy successfully freed all of you, but in your escape and Quaritch finding out, it had ended in Grace taking the bullet for you.
Unfortunately, there was nothing you could’ve done, you watched over her until Jake had bonded with Toruk, proving where his loyalty lies before he asked the clan’s help to try and save whatever’s left of Grace in her avatar.
The ceremony ends unsuccessful, you stay by Grace’s side as she took her final breaths, hand atop yours and muttering that she was with Eywa now, that you shouldn’t worry… you fell back into Tarsem’s arms, inconsolable as you cried your heart out and he held you throughout, the others in the clan sharing the sorrow as Jake bows his head. Grace was gone.
═════════════════════
Jake had rounded the clans, and the Battle of Hallelujah Mountains happened, you hid with the elderly, the women, and children in the clan but you tried to convince Tarsem not to fight, too worried that he might not come back…
“I must fight. This is the way.” Tarsem says, looking down at you while you work on painting his warpaint on him, though you were reluctant… he trusted you the most to let you do this. You did not even think about him possibly losing his life to your kind- you could not… it only makes you think about Grace.
You were too distracted painting him, or just wanted to look distracted to keep yourself from looking at him. Your small fingers trace along his cheeks, down his arms and his chest. His hand comes to hold your wrist, halting you gently.
“Talk to me.” He speaks. You finally breathe. Eyes meeting his. “I’m scared.” You simply say.
“I already lost Grace, and I can’t lose anyone else…” Your voice cracks, blinking away the tears that prick your eyes, not being able to wipe them just yet because of your mask, taking a deep breath and looking away, knowing how much this war would cost.
“You will not.” Tarsem squeezes your arm before his hand moved to yours, curling your much smaller hand in his. “I will stay alive.”
Those were his parting words when the horns blared in the village. It was time, Tarsem gives you one last look before he grabs his bow and arrows and his knife.
It felt like an eternity, waiting for the outcome of the war, to see if any of the people you loved made it out alive.
The horns blared once more when you were making sure everyone was okay and the children were calm. The others chirp upon the sight of the other warriors returning, announcing the battle has been won by Eywa and Toruk Makto.
You did not leap for joy yet, you watch as the warriors came in and found their families, others crying for joy at their son or their daughter making it out alive from the war.
Your heart was beating fast, as the Na’vi move all around you in reunion.
Glancing around, you hope you’d find him. Tarsem.
“What did I say?” Your head whips. There he was, who mustered a grin on his face despite the exhausted expression, a few scratches on him. You rush and tackle him in an embrace, making him lean down enough so his arms can wrap around you.
“You are shaking.” He comments with amusement.
“Shut up.”
Tarsem laughs but he lets out a sigh, closing his eyes and nuzzling his cheek against your head, he stayed alive, like he promised.
═════════════════════
And so, the RDA was banished by Jake back to earth, those who he trusted and truly cared for Pandora were made to stay. Finally, there was peace.
The years evolve with the Omatikaya now with humans living amongst them, learning to work and live with each other.
You and Tarsem grew up, now young adults, you help around with the other remaining avatars along with Max and Norm and in the lab, and you also offer your teachings to the children of the Omatikaya, teaching them is what Grace would have done, what she would have wanted.
Tarsem becomes one of Jake’s trusted allies now that Jake was the olo’eyktan, Tarsem his right hand in hunting parties and in ceremonies.
There were many things that happened since then, with Neytiri being pregnant with her first child with Jake, everyone was overjoyed. You watched Jake become a father, with him even meaning to make you a godparent to his kids which meant a lot.
But at the end of the day, it was always either you or Tarsem that seeks the other out. Whether it be you in your lab or Tarsem in his marui.
Tonight, you stayed a little longer in the lab, stuck on reviewing the other statuses of the avatars and studying the last logs of the others when the door hisses and opens, in steps Tarsem.
“Hey.” He greets, ducking down the low ceiling before he approaches you. “Figured you’d be here.” He murmurs, crouching next to where you stood.
“Hey.” Greeting him back, you place the pad down on the table, facing him, hand reaching out and toying with one of his braids.
“You’re quiet.” He notes, tilting his head, the beads in his braids making a satisfying clinking noise, since usually when he would come, you’d be raving about some science or tech stuff that you’d eagerly present to him. But tonight was different.
“No, it’s nothing…” You shrug, shake your head. Tarsem takes a moment to breathe into his mask due to the change in oxygen before he lets it hang around his neck.
“You do not fool me.” The young warrior says, yellow eyes looking into yours. You sigh, pulling back and turning around, starting to work again which Tarsem’s brows pull together at.
“I just… I don’t know… you should be happy.” You don’t know where your words were coming from, but it stemmed from the thoughts that haunted you every night when you lay awake in your own bed.
“I am happy?” Tarsem replied confused, wondering where this talk was coming from when the two of you had long been strong.
Letting go of a breath you didn’t realize you’d been holding, you brace yourself on the counter, eyes lingering on the avatar monitors on the large screen.
Tarsem follows your gaze and it clicks. “You should be happy with someone else, Tarsem, you’re not gonna find it with me because I’m just… me.” You say, the weight of it is heavy on you. He was a fine man, good, responsible, and caring. Any person from the clan would be proud to have him as a mate. That could not be you.
Tarsem’s eyes were on the screen, before he crouches near you again, his large palm landing on your back. “You do not think I can be happy with you because you are human?” He says low and it sends a shiver down your spine to hear him say so.
You don’t speak but nod.
Tarsem feels a frown tug on his lips before his hand carefully turns you to face him. You could not meet his gaze so his hand cups your cheek, so gentle, just begging for you to look at him.
“But I am happy because you are you.” He begins. “It does not matter to me that you are human.”
Your heart jolts at that, finally looking at him as your face held uncertainty. “But I cannot mate with you.” You finally say. “I cannot form that bond with you, I won’t be able to be one with you-“ You swallow the lump that has formed in your throat.
Tarsem’s thumb brushes the tear that escaped your eyes. “It does not matter to me; you are still here… you are stuck with me for all I care.” He says, offering a small chuckle to which you shake your head, rolling your eyes but the emotions were still there.
“I choose you.” He says quietly like a secret he had kept all this time. “After the war, from the moments we had spent up in those trees, you teaching me anything you thought of… even now we are older… I would still choose you.” His head now bows shyly, his tail curled low by him, ears lowering. He was declaring himself to you.
“Tarsem…” You breathe, everything suddenly feeling a little clearer now. How did you even think of letting him go? He was right here, happy, with you and no one else. Your difference did not matter.
Your hands reach for his face now, making him look up, golden gaze flickering between your lips and your eyes. “I choose you too.”
All the weight you had been carrying, the thoughts that you and Tarsem were not meant for each other was now gone.
He was kissing you before you knew it, making you stagger back from the sudden movement, but his hold kept you upright, pulling you towards him, hands on your sides, your hands placing themselves on his shoulders as you close your eyes.
He kissed you like you were Pandora’s air itself, and he was lacking air.
Pulling back, you press your foreheads together and you hear Tarsem sigh, nuzzling his forehead against you, his eyes still closed for fear that if he opens them, it would all be some kind of dream.
It did not matter, it did not matter that you were human and that he was Na’vi, what was important was this, this connection built upon years of growing up together.
Years of connection that slowly brought love like it was bound to happen, and it did.
I just wanted to say I love your work so much! If you are still taking requests I would love if you could write a norm spellman x omatikaya!reader.
Maybe something with fluff, like where jake introduces her to him and he’s immediately in love. I sent a request earlier but I said to write anything, now im realizing what I actually wanted lol! Thank you!
NORMMMMM another underrated character i love him !!
tongue tied, norm spellman x fem! omatikaya! reader
wc: 1.1k
warning/s: prob norm embarrassing himself that's it... jake secretly a wingman?? idk
The beads in your braids click as you follow Jake through High Camp tonight. You were a part of his war party; you were assigned to go over the acquired items from the recent raid on the RDA’s Mag-Lev Train. You did not know how most of the items that you collected were called and how they were used for, and Jake, trusting you, thought it was a great idea to get you acquainted with someone who knows.
A tech expert or a certain xenoanthropologist, someone Jake considered a brother.
“Chances are you’d probably like him.” Jake says, shrugging but there was a hidden amusement in his voice.
“Just tell him to be quiet when he talks too much.” He adds as an afterthought, half joking.
Your head tilts but still, you make your way through, passing other humans who knew to dodge out the way and other Na’vi who greets the olo’eyktan as he passed.
Finally approaching what they called a ‘lab’ or a ‘science shack’, your yellow eyes scan the outside, it looked tall enough so you wouldn’t be forced to crouch inside. Jake easily gets up the steps, turning back to see if you were following.
“I think he’s in there somewhere.” Jake comments before he opens the door, entering the airlock with you in tow.
You hadn’t been inside of these before and the loud hiss of air makes you flinch; Jake didn’t budge but he glanced at you when he catches you in his peripheral, your tail tense. “Yeah, it does that, just don’t forget to take a mask when we’re in the lab.”
When the main door clicks open, Jake ducks in making you do the same.
Once you made it, there was a bunch of things and it never looked so cramped, dull, and quiet, making your face scrunch, you let Jake step further into the room first and you pluck a rebreather hanging from the racks, being hit with the smell of ozone, metals… and the smell of human, immediately making you grab the mask and inhale.
This place was weird, you think, only having seen it outside in passing. Everything was too small for you.
The place looked empty, so you were curious as to where he was. “Hey, Norm.” Jake suddenly says towards a hunched figure looking at a screen. Said person, Norm, jumps in surprise. “Jesus, Jake-“ Norm snaps his head up to gesture wildly up to the avatar.
However, his complaints were cut short when his eyes drift next to Jake. You.
You weren’t an avatar, you were Na’vi, one who was looking at him with a quizzical look, eyes squinting slightly as your tail curled low behind you, ears twitching with every beep and hum of a laboratory equipment.
Jake looks between the two of you. “Norm, (Y/N). (Y/N), Norm.” Jake gestured and the human stumbles up to stand, almost tripping and knocking off his stuff on the table making you step back at the clumsiness, head tilted.
Norm cusses underneath his breath, not only he was embarrassing himself in front of Jake, but to you as well.
Norm stands a little straighter, craning his neck up to meet your gaze before he signs ‘I see you’.
Though his little stumble makes your tail twitch at the end curiously, giving Jake a look to which the latter clears his throat trying not to laugh, looking away for a moment.
But you find yourself admiring it somehow, a small smile twitches at the end of your lip as you look at Norm, studying his human form but you were sure you came across his avatar maybe once or twice… you let your body relax the moment he signs, keeping your eyes planted on his now.
You sign it back, much more fluid and felt than his, but Norm could only blame his nerves.
“I see you, Norm.” Your voice comes out firm, but open. Something in him shifts and he smiles, nodding.
Then silence as Norm just seemed struck looking at you and you looking at him, Jake furrowing his brows slightly, inside his mind he found this very amusing. Clearing his throat and snapping Norm out his daze while your tail flicks low and against your calf, you look at Jake.
“Norm here would tell you all you need to know, I’ll leave you to it.” Jake said and you missed how he gave Norm a look because you needed another inhale from the rebreather, not standing the uncomfortable oxygen here in the lab for humans.
The click of the door and the hiss of the airlock signals Jake’s exit, now it was just the two of you. “Oh yeah, it’s- the stuff’s here.” Norm suddenly speaks out when you were looking at where Jake left, and Norm manages to capture your attention again with the way your tail perked.
Moving to another room, with you ducking to get through the doorway, you were met with the crates, some of it was already open and empty, contents already spread out on the table. Overwhelming.
Norm looks like he’s just standing in piles of treasure, he nears a batch of smaller… machines? You eagerly follow, nor curious as Norm begins to gesture.
“This little guy here? It’s a laser detector.” Norm says, lifting it up with slight effort as he turns to face you, patting the machine on the side.
You lean in, inspecting it closely and Norm almost felt his hold on the laser detector falter, trying to begin explaining it but with you looking so focused and eager to listen to him? He never felt this stumped before.
“It’s uh.. what’s it again? Oh right it’s kind of like a security measure y’know?” Norm explains the best he could, smacking himself mentally for stumbling over his words and ending it with an awkward chuckle.
Blinking, you glance at him, you could read him easily based on his body language, he was nervous. It was almost like an animal about to be hunted.
“We could place these a few clicks away from camp, let us know if there’s any gunships or anything else close to camp.” Norm finally gets a hold of himself, eyes now looking up at you to gauge your reaction.
You nod, crouching to be more at level with him, leaning as your braids fell over your shoulders and framed your face.
“We could put it on the sides of the mountain, could work.” You finally speak, letting a small smile slip as you look at Norm.
“Yeah!” Norm replies a little too enthusiastic with a grin before he clears his throat, shaking his head and feigning nonchalance. “I mean, yeah, that’s what I was thinking of too.”
Undoubtedly by the end of these lessons, you two certainly left a lasting first impression on the other, and Norm made sure he wasn’t going to let himself stumble over his words when you’re there the next time.
How would Neytiri, Ronal, Kiri, and Tsireya react to their Na'vi! S/O who couldn't keep their eyes off of them <3
Requested?: Yes | No
Warning/s: mentions of injury, little scolding on neytiri's part, one use of y/n, let me know if i missed anything!
Note: this request had been marinating in my drafts since 2023 can u believe it... anyways... i love avatar women <3
GIF is not mine, credits to the owner!
ೃ⁀➷ N e y t i r i
You couldn’t even remember how the argument started. Something along the lines of almost getting yourself killed in the recent raid against one of RDA’s Mag-Lev trains, taking the blow of one of the samson’s bullets which were aimed at Neytiri in the first place when she had been busy shooting another one down with her arrow. Unfortunately, the bullet lodged itself by your shoulder, but thankfully before the pain kicked in, you had gotten your revenge.
Sure, getting shot by a bullet was an absolute bitch, but it wasn’t that bad as Norm confirmed but Neytiri had been so blind with anger and concern that she wasn’t satisfied with the human’s technology that she had her mother, the tsahik Mo’at into your tent to treat you with her herbs, which definitely helped with the pain and the upcoming bruising.
After Mo’at had left and you were sat on the hammock, arm in a sling with an agitated Neytiri pacing back and forth, you were afraid her tail was going to fall off from how it kept thrashing side to side, little hisses leaving her mouth along with grumbled words you couldn’t make out.
Your mouth parts open. “Neytiri, I’m okay—"
The way Neytiri snapped towards you with that stare of hers rendered you to shut up- all possible excuses thrown out the tent as you swallowed, if the bullet in your shoulder caused you to pale, maybe Neytiri’s look was a close rival. “You could have died- you should have moved away or called it to the others! You still do not think!” She hissed, her actions and words clearly out of concern.
And she began gesturing and explaining scenarios which did not happen as you were still here, the sooner you realized her words went in one ear and out of the other, distracted by your angry Na’vi woman, eyes glued on Neytiri while she ranted and moved about.
Her brows were furrowed, teeth bared, her braids falling and framing her face, still simmering at the thought of losing you and having you fall to the hands of those demons.
You only snapped back to reality when Neytiri went silent, instead she was looking at you, arms crossed over her chest, her face the very look of infuriation, though you swore there was that familiar flicker of warmth in there.
“Did you hear a word I said? I lecture you and you only stare.” Neytiri voiced when you blink yourself back to reality.
“Hey, I listened. Call it when it happens and hopefully not get myself killed.” You respond with a sheepish grin, though your tail betrays you with a curl at the end, Neytiri squints. “Okay yeah I was staring-“
“Skxawng.”
Even then, Neytiri’s anger slowly dissipates, she knew you lost track half of what she said when you kept on staring at her like that… in a way, it grounds her, she’d rather you stare at her all day than be unresponsive laying on those hospital beds the sky people called.
“You know I only did it to protect you right?” You reasoned, Neytiri’s shoulders slumped, and her expression softens, she moved towards you, with a sigh, her hand finds yours with a gentle squeeze.
“I know, but it was still stupid.”
ೃ⁀➷ R o n a l
The Metkayina tsahik was doing rounds in the village, a leather bag slung on her shoulder that contained her herbs and medical substances, ensuring the health of the clan members. The horn sounds, announcing the return of the hunting party as the skimwings descended into the water near the shore, the hunters carrying their filled nets, though there was a few injured who faced an attack from an akula.
The others helped gather the game and you detached from your skimwing, eyes landing on Ronal who had approached and inspected the injured, immediately barking out orders and getting the Metkayina to make room and move them to the marui. You walk from the shores towards her, when her eyes finally land on you. Her expression was sharp, assessing… until it softens when she deemed you were alright.
You gesture your greeting through your eyes and a small head tilt, to which Ronal reciprocated, a shared look.
Since you had to see to the distribution of the catch, once you were finished you went ahead and moved to the tsahik’s marui, the flap was already open as a few people came and went.
Stopping at the doorway, you peeked in and saw Ronal tending to the last hunter, which you could recognize was Seo, the young Metkayina who had joined the hunting party, the first ones to spot the akula and fought, earning him a few cuts here and there, but no sooner than that your gaze shifts back to Ronal, who worked quietly, slapping her concoction of herbs upon the leaf, making sure to use the right amount before she had plastered it around his arm, which earned a little hiss of discomfort as Ronal wrapped it carefully.
It was always fascinating to see Ronal work, how deeply she cared for the Metkayina and somehow, she always knew how to care for them, and especially how focused she looked now, saying advice to the boy not before she commended him for his bravery, which made the corner of your lip curl upward. As Seo got up and passed you with a greeting, you return it before entering the marui, watching Ronal start to gather the used paraphernalia with her back turned towards you.
You were about to make your presence known, but of course, she was perceptive.
“Do not think I did not see you standing there.” She voiced, her usual tone but now softer, even a little amused.
“I forget you always sense me, tsahik.” You reply, going over and moving to your knees to help her clean up, you didn’t miss the small second of a smile on her lips as you hand her the empty wooden bowls.
“Why is it you watch me?” Ronal then asked, both of you pause in cleaning, settling on the floor for a moment.
“There is something how you connect with the people.” You respond without thought, brows knitting slightly but your eyes find hers, but you duck and continue to clean up around you.
Ronal was silent, but your words had its depth to them, of course it was only natural to connect with the people as she was tsahik, but coming from you? It feels like you were seeing much more. “They listen, they hold your words close to their heart, you speak greatly and you know always what the people need.”
This sends a ripple of warmth within her.
“But to me, tsahik? I just see you.”
ೃ⁀➷ K i r i
You were already keeping an eye on Kiri for most you can remember, even when back when you were children running around in the forest, exploring with her siblings, making sure that the Sully’s were back home by eclipse.
That didn’t change… only when their family moved to the reef clan, to Awa’atlu for the safety of the people, of the Omatikaya, that’s when you last saw Kiri, who was reluctant to leave, clutching her shawl on her and it even took her family a couple of tugs to make Kiri part with you, with her holding onto you so tightly, she didn’t voice it, but you had a feeling she was on the verge of asking you to come with them.
You haven’t heard from her since, but when a year had passed since then, you took it upon yourself to visit the reef clan, the Metkayina. Your travel wasn’t easy, from your reluctant parents to finally convincing them you would be back as soon as possible, to the erratic weather the first hour you depart from High Camp. All you pushed through because you could not take being parted away from Kiri.
You were near exhausted when the sea wall came to view, patting your ikran as it screeched beneath you, you also felt how tired its wings were and how its breath were huffs.
You swallow when you breach it, hearing the horn announce your arrival made you anxious, yet when you spot the hint of blue amidst the cyan crowd. Landing your ikran, you slowly disentangle as your feet hit the sand, warm.
You offer your greetings to the people eyeing you, their gazes curious towards another forest Na’vi..
“It’s you!” Before you could process further, footsteps were rushing towards you, almost stumbling back when you felt arms wrap around you. Then that familiar scent, now mixed with seawater. “Kiri…” You breathed, laughing and pulling back to look at her before embracing her again, which earned curious eyes, but most left the two of you to your own.
It doesn’t take long for you to settle thanks to Kiri and the other Sully’s were happy to see a familiar face as well, Neteyam and Lo’ak grinning and messing with you, Tuk with her bright eyes rushed to hug you, Neytiri and Jake were glad, seeing Kiri finally lighten up, also asking about how it was going at High Camp, etc.
The next day, Kiri was showing you around the reef, meeting the friends they made, Tsireya, Aonung, and Rotxo. It was a lot to take in, but you managed, fascinated by the Metkayina culture. “Kiri, Kiri slow down.” You laugh as she tugs you by the rocks, settling with her there after an entire day of walking around.
“You really did come here, I thought you’d…” Kiri trailed off. “Forgot about me.”
“Me? Forget about you?” You repeat like Kiri had said something so unbelievable. This earns you a shy laugh from her, watching as she covered her face with her shawl. It gave you the opportunity to laugh and watch her like this, your eyes settling on how her eyes crinkle, her fangs showing with her grin, and the slight dark purple hue on her cheeks.
Kiri notices how you were looking at her and she reaches to nudge you slightly, flustered. “Stop that.” Bowing her head so her stray bangs could attempt to cover her face.
“Stop what?” You reply innocently. “Looking at me.” She says the obvious. You simply shrug, like looking at Kiri was just a natural instinct of yours. Your fingers reach out without thinking, tucking her hair behind her ear to which Kiri scoffs at but leans into your touch, nonetheless. Her tail even perks up at that.
You inhale, golden eyes scanning her, finally this moment together was yours. “I missed you.”
Kiri’s ears twitch hearing that, eyes looking up at you. It hit her, how much she missed the forest, the people there she grew up with, and especially you. You see her eyes squint and that mellow expression of hers appear.
She swallows. “You know I almost asked dad to convince you to come with us.”
Your brows raise in feigned surprise. “Oh? Really?” Kiri notices this and she laughs, playfully shoving you again and you laugh, holding onto her hands.
“You know what? Maybe I didn’t miss you at all…” Kiri jokingly says, hiding the smile on her face, knowing her, she’d try to keep you here longer if she could.
“Well, that’s not very nice.”
ೃ⁀➷ T s i r e y a
“Come, come! You should meet them!” Tsireya laughs, tugging you along to where the Sully kids were, you weren’t able to meet them when they arrived because you were out busy, only finding out through the people and Tsireya, who was tasked with teaching them your ways along with her brother Aonung and their friend Rotxo.
“Tsireya…” You say, you didn’t mind the Sully’s but you didn’t see the point, but it would not hurt to admit you were curious of the forest people… and it would also only be a matter of time until Tsireya asks you to help them as well.
“I want you guys to meet (Y/N), they would also help in teaching you, our ways.”
Oh- there it goes. Before you could complain, you look to see four pairs of yellow eyes looking at you. Giving Tsireya a look, you face the Sully kids again as they sign ‘I see you’.
Signing it back to them, Tsireya’s grin was wide while Aonung and Rotxo chuckled in amusement at your hesitation. “Let’s begin.”
Truth be told, the Sully’s were alright the next few days, sure it might take a couple repeat of instructions but they follow well, now all of you were standing waist-deep in the water, you helping Aonung call for the ilu as they arrive twirling in the water, chirping and swimming around you, such beautiful creatures.
“If you want to live here, you have to ride.” Aonung simply explained.
You two separate and you find yourself teaching the youngest Sully, who you’ve learned the name was Tuktirey. You were near with the others and just in time, another smaller ilu arrived, perfect for the young girl. Tuk gasps as the young ilu swims around her and you smile at the sight. “She likes you.” You comment and Tuk looks at you brightly. “I love her already!”
Once you teach her to make the bond, you hold the ilu gently and let Tuk take the lead as she swims around with the ilu.
You feel accomplished and you turn to see the others, Tsireya teaching the youngest son Lo’ak as he made the bond and maybe he got a little too cocky or the ilu was messing with him, but there he goes, ilu diving underwater and going as fast as it could, leaving large waves until Lo’ak resurfaces without the ilu.
The others roar in laughter, particularly Aonung but you weren’t looking at him, you were looking at his sister. Tsireya watched it unfold, and you watch her stifle a laugh, covering her mouth but there was that crinkle in her eyes, looking away like she wasn’t laughing.
It makes something warm in your heart flutter, just how pretty she looked, her curly hair over her shoulders, her soft big gaze, how she hid her smile.
As if Tsireya had another sense, she turns and your eyes locked, you were sure you were wearing a stupid grin on your face but maybe you were just imagining Tsireya’s cheeks seem to darken knowing you were looking at her.
If you ever learned of anything since the two of you had been together, Tsireya was very easily to fluster, whether it was from your gaze or your touch, you were sure everything in her was full of love. Tsireya? She could not get enough.
After the whole day of the Sully’s trying to ride ilus, it was about an hour before eclipse, painting the village in a soft tinge of orange and purple.
You were waiting on Tsireya as she says goodbye to the Sully’s who were on their way back to their marui, Rotxo and Aonung left a while ago, which left the two of you.
Before you walked her home, you two spent a little more time together, walking by the shore. Tsireya was raving on about earlier, speaking about what else you had to teach them to adapt here in the reef. You mostly zoned out and nodded, eyes on the sunset then at her, she looks like she was caressed by Eywa herself in this light.
Tsireya suddenly bends down to pick up a shell, split perfectly in half when you blink back to see her hold it out to you. “Look! A perfect half.” She says in that soft voice of hers. You chuckle and inspect it as well, your hand moving atop hers that held the shell.
“And what do you plan on doing with this?” You ask curiously. You see her eyes squint in thought, nose scrunching before she looks back at you.
“Matching arm band? For you and for me.” She simply says. The idea makes your stomach flip, your fingers curling against hers until you held her hand, the shell in her other one.
Hi! If you’re taking requests, would you consider writing a Jake Sully × Omaticaya fem!reader oneshot?
I’d love something set during the third movie where Jake is a prisoner, with the reader saving him. Slow burn with angst and fluff would be amazing. Like lots of tension, emotional moments, and that comforting payoff.
anon i loved making this request and i hope you like it as much as i loved making it xx
Pairing: Jacob "Jake" Sully x Fem! Omatikaya! Reader
Requested?: Yes | No
Summary: When Jake offers himself up to Quaritch for the safety of the people and his family even if it meant being separated from you, also with the risk of not seeing you again, you knew you had to take matters into your own hands.
Word Count: 5.0k
Warning/s: AFAA spoilers, some canon events in the movies!!! angst, mentions of violent acts and violence, reader wary of spider at first, hurt/comfort, reader being a badass, let me know if i missed anything else!
Note: poured my whole day into making this i hope you like it... bc im obsessed with this scene ngl... lowkey think i cooked w the ending... likes, reblogs, and feedbacks are most welcome and appreciated!
GIF is made by yours truly!
Your eyes gaze around your surroundings, it was almost eclipse in the village and yet something felt different… It wasn’t right.
Everything did not feel right the past few days with your husband Jake always keeping watch, afraid maybe one day Quaritch and the RDA would come upon Awa’atlu, finding him, finding his family.
You made your way towards the shore, where you saw Jake sat by the edge, his rifle in hand. You were about to call him when you saw every muscle in his body tense, sitting up and spotting something through the lens of his gun.
Your stomach drops the moment the horns sounded, a small weak gasp leaving you as the sight welcomed you, their gunships, big flashing lights scanning the area as the faint hum of their engines began to get louder.
You froze for a moment as Jake scrambles up towards the village, already calling out the other warriors, “They’re blocking us in. Weapons out.” Jake says, urgently towards Tonowari and Ronal.
“Weapons!” Tonowari shouts as the other Metkayina began to scramble, arming themselves when you finally find Tuktirey, your youngest, kneeling and holding her gently by the shoulders while your other hand held your bow, grip tight.
“Where’s your sister?” You ask, feeling your heart start to race, tail lashing behind you.
“Where’s Kiri? Where’s Spider?” Jake appears suddenly next to you, also questioning the youngest. “She went for water.” The youngest spoke before her head snaps towards a direction, making the two of you look.
Kiri. Only thing was she looked distraught. “Dad!” She calls out, breathing ragged as the two of you rush towards her, Jake in front. “Where’s Spider?”
You move, holding Kiri’s arm and offering a comforting squeeze even if what was about to happen is dawning on you. “They took him- the blue colonel took him.” Kiri replies, eyes set on Jake, glassy.
Blue Colonel. That could only mean one thing. Demon. Quaritch.
Your ears perk up and a certain feeling washes over you, eyes meeting Jake’s as you take a sharp inhale.
The ships were close now; you could see their big flashlights filtering through every column in the village. They were here.
You spot the other Metkayina rushing to the shore to meet the enemies, taking a deep breath and willing yourself to stay calm when every fiber of your being was screaming at you to rush.
“Take the girls and go, now!” Jake says, holding his rifle tight as he stops moving and looks back at you.
“I want Jake Sully!” Quaritch’s voice booms at the shore, your fingers instinctively tightening on your bow as the others gathered at the shore.
“We will not go without you.” You say sternly, a growl in your tone, looking back to see Tuk and Kiri following close by, scared. Your heart aches.
“No!” Jake growls back. Fists clenched. “They’ve got Spider- there’s nothing holding them back, you’ve seen what they can do.” Jake says firmly, gaze set on you, hard expression on his face.
“These people will die.” A chill runs down your spine at his words, your chest heaves, ears pinning against your head, there was no way you could leave him, leave Jake, your husband… to what? Serve himself up as bait for Quaritch? Risk never not seeing him again?
You swallow and your voice breaks. “You cannot… you cannot ask this, husband… I cannot,” You can’t even process everything right now.
“I will not leave you with that-“ You began to say until Jake takes the sling of his gun off himself, throwing it with a thud in the sand, the muscles in your brow knitting as well as a pull of your lips into a frown.
“This is the only way.” Jake said, as if he had already made up his mind, that he had been thinking about it for a while. He probably had.
Your heart grows heavy at the thought. “Jake please-“
“Jake Sully!” Quaritch yells again over the noise, a lump forming in your throat. “Show yourself!”
Frozen, your eyes held Jake’s. “You gotta go… baby, please.” He breathes, a part of him, deep inside, that unsure pitch blending into his pleading tone. “You gotta go right now.”
No. You cannot leave your mate like this. To hide? That was not you.
Steeling yourself, you face Kiri, eyeing the girl who looks at you for what to do next. A hand on her arm. “Take your sister. Go and hide.” You command. “Go!”
Kiri looks at you and Jake before she was tugging Tuk by the hand, the latter reluctant, looking up at the two of you before they were off, disappearing from view to hide with the others.
A sudden rush of emotions fills you, holding up your bow. “Ma Jake if you stay I stay. I will kill many.” You announce, that fear in your veins turning into deep hatred.
Jake resigns but he pushes your bow down, shaking his head. “Whatever happens, do not raise that bow.” A beat. “You swear to me.”
All you could do was purse your lips in a thin line. There was no use of arguing.
“I know he’s here.” Quaritch says, eyes scanning the crowd of reef people, tilting his head. “Give him to me.”
“He’s Metkayina. He’s one of us.” Tonowari’s voice could be heard. “He’s one of us!” The olo’eyktan’s words rang with his people, even when they were in the face of grave danger, they will never risk one of their own.
You were heading in with Jake when a burst of bright orange flares through followed by the smell of burning wood, crackling. Fire. Quaritch had burned a part of the village, earning cries from the Metkayina, cheers from the enemy. Your eyes wide, they did not deserve this… you hear their cries of agony, and it forces you to swallow the lump in your throat.
“I want Jake Sully!” Quaritch recurs, the tone now harsher.
Your husband rushes ahead of you before you realize, rushing towards the crowd and presenting himself right up front.
“Ma Jake-!“ Your voice dies down in your throat.
“Stop, stop, no, hold your fire! Hold your fire! Stop!” Jake places himself in the spotlight, arms outstretched in an attempt to de-escalate the situation.
Quaritch complies.
You were left standing along with other Metkayina, helplessly watching your husband at the front, saying something to Tonowari. In a second, the olo’eyktan crouches with their weapons down, the others soon follow, bowing their heads down.
You do not.
Keeping yourself upright with Jake, having managed to already notch an arrow in your bow, you held it close. Then your eyes met with the tsahik of the Mangkwan, an itch forming on the scar she had caused herself when her arrow punctured right through your shoulder.
She hisses and you do not stand down, you hiss back, ears pinning against your head and your tail stiffening.
Your eyes stray to the movement, Jake coming close towards the RDA, towards Quaritch.
“Colonel.”
“Corporal.”
“You take me, you leave my family and these people alone.” Jake directs. Your ears perk, eyes widening by a fraction as you stared into your husband’s back, before your eyes train back on Quaritch and his woman.
“Not good enough, gonna need the missus too.” Quaritch says, offering a nod towards you in which you tense, biting back a snarl as you straightened yourself, a thought away from aiming and releasing your arrow. Your breathing heavy.
Your toes dig into the sand, trying to plant yourself there, reminding yourself you still were capable of doing something- but clearly you were outnumbered.
“You get me.” Jake repeats. “Both of you or I’ll hammer this place flat. Pregnant ladies, kids, I’ll blow grandma’s skinny shit through the back of the hooch ‘cause I just don’t care.” Quaritch chuckles.
“My pals here,” he nods back to the Mangkwan. “Well, they’re just dying to waste everybody and take some scalps.” A chorus of yips and jeers follow behind Quaritch, the tsahik of the Mangkwan smiling like she held this great power over all of you.
You exhale sharply, eyes flitting from Jake to Quaritch, to his woman.
Jake steps back and in a flash, raises his fist and you waste no time raising your bow and aiming, as the other Metkayina stand and mirrors you, their own weapons aimed and growls escaping from their system. Ready to defend their village.
The Mangkwan aims their weapons; guns. You notice the more you eye everyone of them. What was this trick Quaritch had pulled now? But you couldn’t think about that right now.
“Really? We’re doing this?!” Quaritch’s voice was too amused to be in this situation.
“When I drop my arm, you and your new girlfriend die, you in particular die a lot.” Jake growls, taunting.
“I die; everybody here dies.” He replies casually, his rifle the only one held down except for the others directed at all of you.
“Maybe, I think you could get some of us but not all of us… maybe we bum-rush you, and your gunships hesitate because we all look the same…” Jake forwards. “And when you’re begging for your life,” He slips out his tomahawk with his free hand as you watch your mate, your heart still beating very fast in your chest. Ready to cover him if it goes sideways.
“I’ll scalp you.” He finishes, pointing the weapon at Quaritch.
Quaritch looks amused, fangs showing in his grin and shrugging. “God damn corporal, I don’t know if you’re smart or just shittin’ us… you never struck me as all that smart.”
You were beginning to tense up, just begging for something to happen already, your fingers tight on your arrow, just one slip and you could strike him right here, right now…
“I need your word, marine to marine. Safety, for these people.” Jake’s tone was less hostile now, making a pact.
The standoff was unyielding, the sounds of snarls, breathing, the sounds of the gunships with their guns aimed down at the people, the chopper and the bright light didn’t distract you from the fact that your mate stood there on the frontline, facing them all.
“Do we have a deal?” Jake questioned after a few seconds.
“Done. Wanna pinky swear?” Quaritch says, holding that extra finger the avatars have, your eyes squinting at the act.
Jake lets out a breath, looking back at Tonowari before he throws his weapon to the ground, palms up and open as the Metkayina drop down once more. You didn’t budge, arrow still aimed at Quaritch, tail lashing behind you.
It hits when Jake offers his wrists, walking towards him. “Take him.” Quaritch gestures, his fellow recom taking Jake’s wrists and tying it behind him, allowing Jake to finally look back at you.
It hits you. Jake’s expression, how he didn’t fight against the binds, how he just looked at you like he was trying to memorize your face. Your grip on the bow tightens once more, though a shaky breath leaves you, everything suddenly feeling too constricting…
They began dragging him away and Jake doesn’t even look to where he’s going, eyes still planted on you. Your lips tremble, chest aching as you put on a brave appearance but Jake knew. He knew.
Your eyes shift to Quaritch and his eyes peer at you, taunting, taunting you to shoot that bow right at him when they’ve already got Jake. A last challenge.
Your fingers tremble. You let go with a growl, deciding to aim low, but enough to make a statement as the arrow lands in between Quaritch’s feet, him plucking it off and holding it up like a trophy.
Ears pinned down, your eyes flicker between Jake as they took him away into the chopper, Quaritch looking on proudly, his woman still aims at you.
“Another time then, Mrs. Sully.” Quaritch grins and you hiss in return, body coiled and was taking everything in you not to do something drastic.
They began to disperse and the reality sets in further. They were taking him, your husband, your mate… and there was nothing you could do about it. Thinking of not being able to see him again, the possibility that this was going to be your last time with him… You felt powerless for such an exceptional warrior.
You follow Jake’s gaze, your feet having a mind of their own, going forwards as they shove him into the chopper, your ears pinned and tail curled low, hands shaking as he didn’t look at anything else but you. Your heartbeat pounds in your ears.
“Ma Jake…” You whisper, as the engine starts up and they began to rise, eyes brimming with unshed tears.
Then he was gone. Just like that.
Your knees buckle from under you, before they hit the sand, eyes leaving the night sky before it finds what was in front of you. His tomahawk. Your fingers reach for it, caress the handle before you find your tears rolling down your cheeks, bowing your head and letting yourself wallow in the sadness and frustration.
The other Metkayina look in concern, Ronal, even if you two had clashed more often than not, she silently moves next to you, placing her hand on your shoulder. Nobody would even wish to lose someone’s mate like that.
“He will make it. He is strong, and you must be brave yourself.” Her words usually stern, now held something close to comforting.
“That is no guarantee, tsahik-“ You look up at her but she does not argue despite your stubbornness. “He is Toruk Makto, a great warrior. He will find a way.” She simply says before she lets go, leaving you to your own.
Then the rush of footsteps, Kiri and Tuk as their voices echo. “Mom!”
They rush in between you and you pull back from holding Jake’s weapon to cradle the two of your daughter’s heads close to you, the two instantly leaning in but the missing presence of their father already gave them the clue as to what happened. Their father was taken.
── ⋆⋅𖤓⋅⋆ ──
It had been almost three days. Three days since Jake was taken from you. The Marui had never felt so empty. The absence of your son Lo’ak cuts close to the lingering and painful absence of Neteyam. Lo’ak’s last parting gift to you was your bow, how every detail was carved as it had been, careful, strong… and then he was off, saying he had something he needed to do, he doesn’t even know his father had been taken…
It had just been you, Kiri, and Tuk in the large marui. You tried to stay strong for your girls, but you just had this feeling, this pull… you had to do something.
One night you pull them close, after having explained what you plan to do.
“Mom, this is dangerous…” Kiri’s voice reminds you, whilst Tuk nodded in agreement, her wide eyes looking at you. “You should not be alone.” Kiri added.
You sigh, hands coming up to their shoulders and you shake your head. “This is something I have to do… your father… he needs me.” You say, no chance of backing out your idea. “While I am gone, the tsahik would look after you, she has promised.” You say, offering their shoulders a squeeze.
The two look at each other, growing up they’ve learned how much of a fierce woman their mother was, and now with her saying she’s going to try and save their father, all on her own… they knew better than to doubt her.
With no more sounds of protest, you smile at them, leaning down to press kisses to their temples, embracing them tightly before you slowly pull back. “Go…” You say before they nod and start to leave the marui.
Taking a sharp breath, you turn on your heel, grabbing where your bow was perched, closing your eyes and holding it close to your chest for a moment.
Preparing yourself, you look over and crouch, pulling off the mat covering the weapons Jake had recovered from the wreck, opening the latches with a soft click.
As much as you hated the thought, you pluck the arrows Jake had made for you, the one tipped with ‘explosives’ as Jake called it…
“Just don’t be close when it hits.”
With a shaky breath, you began packing.
── ⋆⋅𖤓⋅⋆ ──
Traveling back to the forest with your ikran, it didn’t take long for you to track the growing Bridgehead. It was huge now since the last time you first saw it. Already you feel your eyes darken with hate, hidden by the foliage you look around for any signs, hints of how to progress from here.
As if on cue, there was rustling, ducking to keep yourself hidden, you easily track them down. Mangkwan. Three of them, having just finished a hunt and started to set camp.
Steeling yourself, you get a perimeter around them, moving as swift as a thanator, you got closer.
“…They were the ugliest ones in the village.” One pipes as the other two cackle, voicing their agreement and joked around. One was busy gutting their game, your first target, better to eliminate the one with the weapon first.
Bracing yourself, you grab your normal arrows, notch, aim…
Fire, shooting the one with the knife down, you move quick as they jump to alert while the one with the knife drops dead, snarling as you quickly pull another arrow to shoot one, taking the time to notch as the other grabbed their gun and as they pulled the trigger you hit them square in the chest, the spray of bullets flying, making you dodge them.
Inspecting if they were still alive, your ears pinned down, eyes scanning, until you find something strapped to their necks, you grab ahold of it, yanking it off the lifeless form, it looked to be some kind of… red card, with the RDA logo upon it.
Exhaling, your eyes travel to the walls of Bridgehead, then back to the necklace. One step closer to Jake.
Calling for your ikran, it doesn’t take her long enough to appear, calming her down before you ready to disguise both of yourselves, praying to the Great Mother that what you were about to do was right.
Finishing up the face paint and making sure your ikran also looked the part, you gave your girl a soft nuzzle, palm against her side, tapping lightly before you finally make the bond, hopping on and there, you held the necklace, with the other, you steer her towards the Bridgehead.
You held your breath the moment you got closer, knowing they had all these technologies to spot you easily, so you kept calm and hoped the disguised worked, and you felt relief flood you when you pass the walls.
You were here. Sky people territory. This was no place for them…
Your eyes take it all in, the tall structures, the bright lights, the passing vehicles on the ground, until you finally see it, tents that looked out of place. Na’vi.
Patting your ikran, you banked to the left, lowering until you had her perch on the pipes, landing smoothly and quietly, like you belonged. “Watch for me.” You say to her before you were off, clutching your bow.
You appear to blend in, though the sight of the humans made your skin crawl. “What’s up, cutie?” One even tried to call you for fun, but you respond with a hiss, making your way over to where you assumed the tsahik of the Mangkwan, Varang’s tent was.
Managing to easily cut yourself a small entrance behind her tent, your gaze zeroed on her laying on her furs, alone, much to your luck.
You could take her, then and there, plucking your knife from behind you, you crouch and press it against her throat.
“Make no sound, witch.” You whisper lowly, full of threat as she gasps awake, eyes wide before they met yours. “Where is Jake Sully?” You ask, keeping your grip on the knife tight.
But all Varang does is give you an amused smirk. “Ah, the wife… loyal to her man.” And you had no time for games, pressing further. “Speak or I cut.” You hiss but she quickly yanks back your wrist, but you were faster, free hand yanking around her own kuru, slotting your knife in the loop. “Where?” You demand again, holding her braid and your knife together.
“I will not ask again.” You mutter. She hisses but two could play at that game as you yank her kuru once more, moving your wrist but she yelps out, hands gesturing wildly. “Wait! Wait!”
“Past the camp, a cage for an animal.”
The muscles in your brows met. “Take me there, now.” You command, still holding onto her kuru. “Which way?” You ask but then the voice of Quaritch approaching stuns you, allowing her to break off from your grasp. You try slicing at her but she backs easily, grabbing her own weapon.
Then Quaritch opens the flap to the tent, the scene before him making him pause until you hiss at him, to which he recognizes instantly and wastes no time grabbing his handgun from his side, shooting.
You slip fast from the entrance you made, running and climbing as you hear the others be alerted of the sudden gunshots, heart hammering against your chest as you made your escape.
You climb and climb until you drop off onto your ikran, almost slipping but you got your bearings easily, pulling out one of the explosive arrows, aiming at anywhere before you release, the explosion certainly grabbing everyone’s attention now. Adrenaline was filling in your veins, all you could think about was Jake.
Meanwhile for Jake, he hasn’t touched the tray of food served to him earlier, just crouched down on the end of the cage, flashing lights endless, the TV flashing his face like some kind of spectacle. The traitor. 0600 tomorrow as Quaritch said, would be his end.
Maybe this was it... he didn’t imagine himself going down without a fight, but if it meant keeping the people safe, keeping you and his family safe…
His thoughts were interrupted by a huge explosion in the distance, making him perk up and stand, eyes wide. Then another explosion much closer to where he was now. Until he spots it.
You had set off another explosion, anger coursing through you before you finally spot Jake in the middle of it all. In a cage as Varang said, all eyes on him. You steer your ikran, letting her nails drag on the top of the glass cage, making Jake know you were there.
You were going to get him back.
Jake looks up as the scratch occurs and he couldn’t fight the huff leaving him. “Baby-“ He says in wonder. Of course it was you.
He watches you as you avoid the spray of bullets, making his heart and his mind race. You were crazy… and right now? He absolutely loved you for it.
The bullets follow you, but you were much more swift at evading them, trusting in your bond with your ikran, you dodge and flew, deciding to keep yourself on the low as the choppers began to spread around, without a doubt looking for you.
You find yourself beneath a structure, ikran perched on the post as she screeched, patting her to calm her down. “Shh… we are almost there…” You murmur softly, thinking of how to get Jake out of that cage.
Unbeknownst to you, somebody else had already done that part for you. You fly your ikran out your hiding spot when it was clear, already rounding back to the location but you saw the damages had been made not by you, your eyes scanning for Jake quickly.
Rounding your ikran until you found a sight that made your stomach churn. Jake and… Spider.
The human boy, who now breathes Pandora’s air was using himself as a shield for Jake, gesturing wildly to the ship before he was pushing Jake, running together, trying to get out of the sights of the gunship.
With a hiss, you flew by just in time before they could start shooting, shouting as your arrow strikes the pilot dead center, losing control as it explodes on the ground, sending debris flying everywhere, Jake shielding Spider.
Finally landing across from the two, you were still tense. “Ma Jake!” You yell, seeing him in one piece was enough to put you at ease. “Mrs. Sully!” Spider happily acknowledges, moving before Jake does, running and hopping up your ikran. You look at Spider momentarily before Jake was rushing towards you, hands cradling you and your arms- like he was dreaming.
“Baby! I don’t know whether to kiss you or yell at you!” He says, visibly ecstatic at your appearance. A light shove is what you give him. “You waste time!”
He’s dumbfounded before he follows, the three of you getting on your ikran before you were flying away, and out of Bridgehead.
── ⋆⋅𖤓⋅⋆ ──
You could feel how tired your ikran was, from how long you’ve been flying, even the sun has risen now, but all you could do was face forward, zoned out, your thoughts keeping you awake, as well as a small weight behind you, Spider had fallen asleep on your shoulder.
“Land… anywhere.” Jake finally calls out to you after the long silence, making you blink and follow, making your ikran slowly dip until you came upon a stream, landing, waking Spider up.
All of you disembarked, the peace now a contrast to what you all just went through. “You guys landed just in time.” Spider says with a small grin, moving towards the stream, crouching and taking a drink.
Your golden eyes watch him, still so cheerful after having guns pointed at him, risking his life for Jake’s, and who knows what else he’d gone through at Bridgehead.
You had mixed feelings for the human boy, you knew he meant so much to Kiri, and yet he was Quaritch’s son… your enemy. Despite that, he completely shows who his loyalties lie with. To Jake, to your family, to Kiri… even when he knew you often didn’t like him around.
But this time, you felt a change start to take root, he was a good kid.
Your thoughts were interrupted by Jake tugging you a couple of feet away, blinking up at him as he looked down at you.
“Come here.” He simply breathes, pulling you in an embrace, tight, filled with all the worry he had pent up the past few days, and you gladly lean into his touch, fearing you wouldn’t experience anything like this anymore, from him.
You bury your face in his neck, a soft breath leaving you, his warmth enveloping you before you pulled back, not without Jake kissing your temple first. “I was so worried Jake, I thought I would never…” You began.
“I had to do something; I cannot lose you.” You speak in a hush whisper, Spider looking to glance at the two of you for a moment before he minded his own business, interacting with your ikran instead, helping wash the paint from her.
“Baby you don’t know how I felt seeing you there, you done a number on ‘em…” Jake chuckles, cupping your jaw as his thumb stroked your cheek, eyes closing upon instinct.
“I mean, how’d you even…?” Jake says, tone filled with wonder at how you manage to sneak into such a heavily fortified city. You scoff, pulling back and shaking your head, also beginning to wash the paint off yourself when you crouch by the stream. “It is a long story.” You simply say.
“I knew it. You used the arrows I made you.” He said, quite proud of himself for that, tail flicking behind him.
When you finish, you splash water on your face again, rubbing off the last of the paint.
“Mrs. Sully…?” Your head lifts to see the boy, and you tense for a moment, yet you tilt your head, eyes landing on the scar starting to fade on his chest… a harsh reminder where you had cut him before in your fit of rage when Quaritch had Kiri to his knife, after losing your eldest. It leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.
Spider noticed your eyes drift to his scar, and he almost shrinks into himself, but he only shrugs it off as much as he could. “Thank you… for saving me…” He says quietly. Jake sees this, but he remains where he stood, letting you get this moment to decide.
The more you looked at him, the more you felt yourself start to understand. You even recall yourself arguing with Jake about Spider’s fate… now you regret ever having those thoughts as the boy looked at you with nothing but unselfishness.
You could feel a lump form in your throat, now facing him still crouched, as your hand reached for him, large palm flat on his chest, feeling his heartbeat to which Spider freezes but he realizes what’s happening, his face softening before you moved your hand to his cheek.
“I see you.”
Jake could also feel that warmth bloom in his chest, moving towards the two of you, placing a hand on your shoulder before he looks at Spider who now had tears rolling down his eyes.
You could not hold it off either, finding your tears staining your cheeks when Jake pulled the both of you into an embrace, your hand and his cradling Spider’s head as you rest your own against Jake’s chest, closing your eyes, another press of Jake’s lips to the top of your head, a silent thank you.
And with a silent prayer to the Great Mother, let there be no more blood in this family be shed.
summary: so'lek has had everything ripped from him, his clan, his family, the life he knew. he has sworn himself a life of vengeance until a certain avatar destroys everything he knew about himself.
contents: fem!avatar reader x so'lek, making out, slightly steamy, grief, guilt, angst, lots of shame (duh), fluff eventually
notes: okay so this is for @leonykennedy for my 4k event but i lost the goddamn ask. i really hope you guys enjoy it <3 i got decently carried away (sorry if there are any typos)
A new body. A new coat. A new skin.
An avatar.
You can’t recall the last time you spent more than a couple hours in your human body. Your real body.
It was a tough job to earn your avatar body. The RDA had become precautionary now. Considering how well it went for them last time. Scientists would have to sacrifice much to be deserving of an avatar. A sacrifice that costs more than money could buy.
Time.
5 years. 9 months and 22 days.
The longest 6 years of your life. Endlessly watching the ones who got the pleasure of being in cryosleep. Envying those who got to skip the painstakingly long trip. Each day dragging onto the next on a trip void of anything enjoyable. Stuck in a metal cage, unable to escape and never to return home.
It was heartwarming in a way. Deep down. Because she grew on the flight out. Well...you grew. The body was yours. Your DNA intertwined with the Na’vi. Creating a scientific feat almost unimaginable.
Though, that was almost 2 years ago now.
Your avatar was your own home within the Resistance. You didn’t stay in the RDA long, you couldn’t bear it. Everything felt so gut wrenchingly wrong, nothing sat well inside you, not the commands, or the goals and especially not the RDA food.
Now it had been a year with the Resistance. A year of living in rebellion. Alongside the Na’vi and Resistance members who valiantly risked their lives to destroy the RDA.
Now every time you got into your link bed, it didn’t feel like a simple task, a job to be carried out for the RDA but a way to return to what you believe was home. No matter how deluded you knew you sounded. This large blue body was meant to be yours. You sacrificed for it, you risked your life for it and you’d do anything, be anything if it meant you could leave your human body behind.
You met So’lek without ceremony. Barely a greeting.
He held no acknowledgement for you beyond the simple nod when he walked past you. Neither of you had held a conversation until a couple of months ago.
You were sitting in a small clearing outside of the cave. Resting on your hands breathing in the air. It was a feeling you could never get tired of. The fresh crisp air instantly invigorating your senses. It made you feel as if you were floating. The sounds of the trees in the wind. Their leaves crashing together creating a peaceful rhythm that nothing on your earth could replicate.
“You.” He said lowly, his presence commanding. “What are you doing?”
You looked up startled. “Huh?”
So’lek’s glare tightened. He stayed eerily still in his stance. “What are you doing?” He repeated.
“Um.” You faltered; the words jumbled in your mouth. “Sitting?”
So’lek was taller than most Na’vi. Certainly, towering over you. His body adorned with scars, telling the story of one who had survived against many odds. “You are sitting prey.”
You instantly became more alert as the words left his mouth. Sitting more rigidly, eyes darting around you. “Oh. Sorry I thought staying close to Resistance would mean less…animals.” You realized how stupid you sounded as soon as the words rolled off your tongue.
So’lek evidently thought so too as he let out a loud scoff. “Only small ones. Ones you cannot fight off.” You nodded, letting out a small sigh. Your naïve bubble popped with the sharp pin of reality.
“Should I go back inside?” Starting to get up So’lek put his hand out to halt you.
“Stay. I will sit with you.”
With some miracle, the meeting didn’t just become a moment. It became a routine.
He’d meet you in the clearing when your schedule allows it. Sometimes he’d already be there waiting for you.
Words came easily with time. Never about the past, just the quiet things that felt safe the share.
Within those months, neither of you acknowledged the shift but it became second nature. His presence was no longer intimidating but grounding. Pulling you closer to Pandora.
Pulling you closer to him.
The night was warmer than usual. The humidity grossly sticking to your blue skin.
Yet that wasn’t what had you so flushed.
So’lek was sitting closer to you than he ever before. You weren’t quite touching, not yet. He was just close enough that every time he shifted his skin would graze yours for just a second. A second long enough to send the heat right up to your face.
You watched him silently, the way he rested on his hands. His eyes facing up towards the night sky. The stars shining onto his face. He was so…beautiful. Every part of him had been crafted with precision, and the scars that had formed on him told a silent story of his path.
He glanced at you, eyes shifting. “Do you ever stop staring?”
You jolted in embarrassment, face grimacing. “Sorry.” You responded tight-lipped, ashamed you had been caught so blatantly.
So’lek let out a breathy chuckle, turning his head towards you now. His arm shifting, close enough now that it rested behind your back, your side pressed to his.
Your ears flicked back in surprise. The contact sending a small, electric shivers down your spine.
His gaze was locked onto you, watching you intensely. He waited to see if you would retreat, run away from his touch.
But you didn’t.
“You are stiff.” His words were smooth, his head tilted down, lips brushing against the tops of your flushed ears.
You let out an exhale, your eyes fluttering shut.
Slowly, gently, his hand lifted from behind you, settling on your waist. His fingers rough and calloused, tickling your soft skin. “So’lek…” You murmured, mouth slightly agape.
He inhaled quickly hearing the way his name mewled off your tongue. His hand flexing, grasping onto your waist tighter, pulling you close enough that your chest was flush against him. “You make this so difficult.” His voice was rough, as if the words were strained in his throat.
His tail flicked erratically behind him. Fighting the control slowly fleeting within him.
“What do I make difficult?” Your voice was trembling, eyes gazing into the ones he had screwed shut. “Tell me.” Your hands travelled up his vest, resting on the collar. “Please.”
He let out a small growl, chest heaving, his hands tight, forehead falling onto yours, fighting the last bit of self-restraint he had left. “You don’t understand what you do to me.”
“Then make me understand.”
That was all it took. The push for him to unravel in front of you. Both hands were on your waist, drawing you onto his lap. Even in this large avatar body you were still dwarfed by him. His body wide enough that when he sat you down on top of him, your hips stretched to wrap around him.
His breath was ragged. Head tilted down. He couldn’t help but admire the view that was straddled over him. “You will never understand” His words paused as his hands travelled further down, following the curvature of your frame. Letting a strangled growl out of his throat. “This feeling.”
His head slowly dipped down into the curve of your collarbone. He was controlled, his body stiff.
“Show me then.” Your breath was ragged, almost a pant as his lips tickled your skin. “If you can’t tell me, show me.”
So’lek’s lips crashed onto your neck, tongue gliding the stripes of your skin. He couldn’t contain himself any longer. This restless, gnawing urge that grew from the pits of his stomach ever since he first sat with you.
He hated himself for it. Letting himself get so carried away, especially to the likes of a tawtute [sky person]. But Eywa you were so irresistible, so smooth and soft. Skin untouched by the hands of fate. No, it was only his hands that have touched this body.
His hands that moved from your back to your front, gliding up your stomach into the curves of your chest. His hands that grazed the sensitive spots of flesh. His hands that made you react so loudly.
You groaned in his ear. The sound sending tingles up his spine. Arms wrapping loosely around his neck. “So’lek- Please.”
His head lifted from your neck, lips parted and eyes clouded with lust. “Mm?” His voice rumbled in his throat gazing at the sight before him. “Please what?”
You panted pulling him closer to you, but your efforts were useless. He was strong, unmoving. His broad torso pushing against the tug of your slender arms. “Use your words.”
You let out a shudder, a soft mewl escaping your mouth. “You’re teasing me.”
So’lek smirked as your lips transformed into a pout. “Mhm…” His finger runs up from your sternum to your chin, tilting your head up, making your lips so easily accessible.
“Kiss me.” You pleaded, chest heaving.
So’lek didn’t waste time. The world around you coming to a halt as your lips met, leaving only the warmth between them. There was no calm or tenderness. It was raw and dominant. His hands pulling you in tightly, unable to escape the grip of his kiss.
Not that you intended to.
His lips latched onto your bottom one. Sucking it tightly enough for it to sting. But It stung so good. You let out a whimper as he released your swollen lips. But it just spurred him on.
He came back down onto your lips, crashing them together. If you thought he was noisy before he was blaring now. With every movement and meld he growled into your mouth, his fangs grazing your lips just enough for it to be present.
You were both intertwined, moving together as one. The sounds from your lips kept him raging on. Hands roaming each other’s skin, testing the boundaries that you both ignored tonight.
So’lek was convinced nothing could break him out of the cage of your kiss. Your lips melded together like puzzle pieces. Latched together and locked with a key.
That was until your hands grasped onto the key.
His kuru.
It was a mindless action, just lustful hands roaming. But it became something catastrophic.
Every muscle in So’lek’s body went rigid. His breath hitching sharply as if you had struck him right in the heart. His lips broke away from yours, hands falling off your body as if they burnt.
How could he let it get this far. Setting his body upon this false skin. Letting his urges control him.
He looked down at you perched on his lap. His face grim and disgusted, eyebrows furrowing into a scowl.
You freeze, unable to react at the scene playing in front of you. Hands falling from the grasp of his kuru, falling limp at your sides.
“No.” He shook his head, voice hoarse.
Your mouth opened to respond to him, but he interrupted you before you could say something.
His hands, burning and shaking lifted you off his lap. Discarding you like trash next to him. He couldn’t look at you; his head wasn’t even turned your way.
You couldn’t help the emotions bubble in your chest, tears brimming your eyes. What had you done? Why within moments had you become a figure so horrid and unpleasant that you couldn’t even be gazed upon.
“So’lek, what happened?”
He swiftly stood up, his expression firm and disgusted. “This is wrong.” The venomous words burned his throat, an accusatory finger pointed directly at you, shaking with regret. “I should not have touched you. I should not have played into your fantasies.”
Your chest ached. A scoff escaping your throat. “My fantasies?”
“Yes.” He snapped. His voice was sharp as he spun to look at you. And just for a moment as he saw you sitting on the floor disheveled with tears threatening to spill, his gaze softened but he turned away. “Your demon fantasies. You wear a false skin and convince yourself you belong here. I should not have let you indulge into your human delirium.”
You turned away now, a whimper leaving your throat. This one wasn’t soft, the rhythmic mewls he made you let out moments before. No. This one was shrouded in darkness, raw and gut-wrenching.
“So this was a mistake?”
There was a long break between you. The world was no longer silent anymore. It was deafening.
“Yes.”
The lie that rolled off his tongue sat heavy between you.
Before you could respond he was gone. Disappearing into the forest. Leaving only the marks of his touch burning on your skin.
Hopelessly in denial you went to the clearing the next night. And the night after that.
You waited for him. Wishing that he would come and sit with you like he had before. But you knew he wasn’t going to do that.
Maybe he was right. Human delirium.
You rarely saw him in Resistance, and if you did, he would be gone within seconds. Putting all his efforts into pretending you didn’t exist. There were no more quiet conversations or lingering glances.
It was as if the months you both had spent building just a fragment of something real had never existed.
But your body remembered. Your skin ached in his absence.
And every night, as you left your link, and caught your reflection, you understood what he saw.
The air was different within the Resistance now. Everyone had noticed how off the two of you were. But no one dared to comment on it. Not when So’lek was acting so unlike himself.
Yes, he was a man committed to his mission but was rarely at Resistance anymore. Spending less time working with the other instead riding solo, searching through his rosters to hunt down any unlucky name that appeared on his list.
It had been almost a month since that night. And you were growing sick of the avoidance. You were rotting from the inside out. Unable to look at yourself.
How long had you convinced yourself you could become one of them? How delusional and crazy did you look to him?
Every time you catch your reflection you stop and stare. You didn’t recognize your human self any longer, but your avatar no longer felt safe. Every waking moment in that body you felt as if your skin crawled with the ghosts of his touch. The reminiscence of his touches still grazing along your skin and scarring your heart.
And yet, you still didn’t realize what you had done wrong. Each night you were kept awake, replaying the scene in your head. What did you do to make him lash out so instantaneously?
It was a question you had grown tired of being unanswered.
“Teylan!” You called out to him as he sat in a cushioned seat of Resistance beside the other humans lockers.
Teylan was someone you always found peace with. He was a talkative boy yet, he always knew when to listen. You found it an admirable strength of his.
“Oh! Hi! Is something the matter?” He looked up from the touch pad in his hands, resting it in his lap.
“Do you know where So’lek left to today? I need to speak to him.” You spoke as if you had run a marathon, yet it was only the nerves stealing your breath away.
“Hmmm…he said something about the Bloom of echoes, but I am not too sure.” You smiled
“Thankyou Teylan!” You ran off already trying to find Anqa to convince you to give you a lift to the upper plains.
The sight was nothing you would have ever expected. A purple hue caressing the area, glowing tendrils cascading from the large bloom on the rocky ceiling. Bioluminescent foliage that changes colour with each light-footed step.
The wind whistled through out the rocky formation, the breeze thick with the song of history. With every step your heart thumped in your chest, nerves wracking within your bones frightened of what may come.
Your eyes lit up as you saw him. He was knelt on the glowing grass, head bowed down, one hand bracing himself on the earth, the other holding onto the tendril his kuru was connected to. His shoulders were hunched, his posture stripped of the rigidity you often saw him with.
You froze in your place as his head tilted up, gripping tighter onto the tendril above him. You crouched down behind him, hiding within the cover of a large bush far from where he was kneeling.
You knew you should’ve turned back. Not invaded the privacy of his prayers. But you couldn’t get your body to move.
“Forgive me.” His spoke in a low murmur. “For I fear I have chosen the wrong path.” The words left his lips with pain, as if they were opening a scabbed wound.
“I carry the guilt of surviving. I carry that with me every day. And I wonder why I was the one to survive.” His head bowed down. “My clan, my family. Their blood has soaked the soil…and for a careless moment I fear I may have forgotten who spilled it.”
The tendrils pulsed brighter, the glowing green grass below him moving with his words.
“I have opened my heart to someone who I swore never to love. And in doing so, I have forgotten the journey that I have been set on.”
Your heart lurched in your chest, gripping tightly onto the bush in front of you.
“She wears our skin. You know of the creatures their kind has created. The one of Toruk Makto.” His breath shuddered. “She wears it so much I forget what she is inside. The tawtute inside of her. The same tawtute that has slain my clan. The same tawtute that has left me here alone.”
You shakily look down at your hands and though there is no blood you cannot help but feel dirty.
“And still, I yearn for her.”
A long silence followed, So’lek’s body trembling slightly.
“I laid my hands upon her false skin and felt nothing but peace.” His voice wavered. “Peace…that I do not deserve. Not when it comes to the people that took everything from me. Not when I carry the lives of the fallen on my shoulders.”
Your eyes were blown, hands shaking as you came to a devastating realization. He was ashamed. It boiled within him from the inside out. Your body- No. This avatar revolted him. It wasn’t yours; you have fooled yourself into thinking you belonged in this skin.
So’lek was never going to be yours. That was just a fantasy.
You turned away quietly stepping out of the bush. You had to leave; you had to run. You couldn’t stand to be there anymore. You didn’t deserve to be in this sacred place not while your presence would utterly disgust the man who has occupied your thoughts for months.
As soon as you escape between a crack in the rocks you run. You run until your feet can take it no longer. Muscles burned within your skin, your chest heaved as a loud sob erupted from your body. Collapsing you to the ground.
This planet was meant to be your escape. You thought that your sacrifices, the lost time could warrant you deserving of a fresh chance. And yet you had found yourself in another prison.
Solek was still in the same position, now his breath was shallower, his head hung low as he gripped onto the grass trying to cement himself from losing himself.
“I cannot solely blame her for the sins of her kind.” He continued. “But I cannot live with myself knowing I have betrayed my people. That I have betrayed them by wanting her with every fiber of my being.”
He bowed down completely now, his forehead resting against the soft grass. “I can bear the ache of her hating me, I can bear the hurt of her distance.” The tendrils started to dim.
“Please. I know of your powers Eywa and the path you have chosen for me. Please guide me.” His words break in a sob “Take this feeling from me. Take it away, because I am not strong enough to carry both my grief and the weight of her heart.”
Only silence answered him, the grasses glow fading beneath him. The winds no longer sing in harmony. Only an offkey tune.
He ripped his kuru off the tendril, slamming his hand on the ground.
So’lek was a powerful man and bowing here in front of the evidence of a failed prayer. He felt completely powerless.
So’lek immediately noticed your distance. Yes, he had been deliberately and painfully avoiding you but you entire demeanor had diminished. You didn’t linger with Priya or Anqa anymore. You rarely spoke to any of the Sarentu. And if he happened to catch a glimpse of you on a rare occasion, it broke his heart even more.
He expected you to hate him. Shit. He wanted you to hate him, he wanted you to be furious. To give him the punishment he deserved for being so careless. But you showed no signs of anger.
Your eyes were devoid of happiness. Your mind absent. You moved like a ghost.
He knew he was being a hypocrite. That he was allowed to avoid you, but you weren’t allowed to avoid him. But nothing he had felt these past months had made any sense at all.
He started to get extremely worried when he overheard Alma’s conversations. She talked about the instability of your link bed, urging you to stop using it for just a moment. That your human body was becoming weak and sick. Her words struck him one day, urging him to do something.
“If you stay in a link too long, your human body will not recover from this. You are one link away from never waking up. In either body.”
The world shrinked around him.
So’lek had lost too many already.
He could survive losing your love, he believed he had made peace with that. But your presence? Your existence? That was something he could not endure.
Luckily you were extremely easy to find. You never covered your tracks in the forest, and you could only travel on foot. It made So’lek worry even more. You shouldn’t be alone in this forest, not if he wasn’t there to protect you.
It was how he fell in love with you in the first place. Sitting by you, keeping alert making sure you didn’t get yourself naively killed.
He spotted you sitting on the edge of the riverbed, dipping your toes into the clear water. You were sitting just as he had found you for the first time. Resting on your hands as your face was tilted up to the beaming sun, breathing in the crisp air.
“It is dangerous out here.” So’lek said softly, his voice a low hum, waking you from your trance.
“I know.” You paused, not bothering to turn around. You knew exactly who had come to find you. “I’m fine here.”
“You are not.” His steps were careful, worried he may scare you off. The lack of reply grew into an eerie silence, stretching between you. “Talk to me.” He murmured. It wasn’t a command…but a plea.
You let out a hollow laugh, rolling your eyes. “That’s rich.”
So’lek’s frame stiffened. He should have expected the hostility and yet it still made an ache grow within him. “What is wrong?”
You turned around frantically, your eyes glassy and wide. Bewildered by the audacity of his question.
“What’s wrong? Are you serious?” Your words echoed against the forest shaking your head in disbelief. “You pushed me off like I was something filthy. You won’t look at me. You act as if I have branded your skin with my touch, and then you pray-- because you must be cleansed of me.”
Your voice cracked, the tears slipping from your eyes. You turned quickly to make sure he didn’t see you break in front of him.
“Are you ashamed of me?”
The words hit him like a blade driven straight into his heart.
“What?” It was so quiet, his voice barely carried.
Ashamed.
No. He was never ashamed of you. It was never you.
“You are” you continued, tears staining your cheeks. “Of this disgusting skin I wear and call my own. Of what I am underneath it. I disgust you so much you haven’t looked at me in weeks.”
“No,” the words tumbled out of his mouth immediately “That is not-”
“Then what is it So’lek?” You turned to face him now, despite the growing tremor in your legs. “Stop lying to yourself.”
“I am ashamed.” His words were slow, carefully treading on a tightrope. “But not of you.”
You shook your head in disbelief. “Then of what?”
“Myself.”
You face morphed into confusion,
“I have a mission. A mission of vengeance.” He continued. “I cannot forget what was taken from me. Who took it from me.” Your expression faltered. “And yet when I am with you…that vengeance goes away.”
He takes a deep breath, desperately trying to ground himself. “And it frightens me” he admitted “Because it feels I am betraying the fallen.”
Your breath hitched head hanging low. “So…I remind you of the people that killed your family?”
“No.” he snapped, sharper than he intended to. Immediately softening as he witnessed the shock in your face. “You remind me that I’m still here…”
A long silence followed. So’lek looking at you, waiting, begging for you to say something.
“Which is it then? Am I your peace or shame?” You waited for him to answer, his eyes dropping down to the ground as you watched him go to say something but the words never came.
“God.” You breathed “I knew it.”
You stepped away from him, your body swaying uncomfortable. Your balance almost toppling.
So’lek reached for you, Alma’s words ringing in his head. But you swatted his hand away, pushing past him. The rejection stung more than the slap, watching you walk away realizing how horribly he fucked up.
“I never meant to hurt you.” The words came out like glass, sharp and painful. Halting you in your track. “I was-” The words bubbled in his throat hand reaching out to you. “I was afraid.”
You swayed more in your spot. Feet tumbling in front of you. The leaves crunching loudly below your feet. The colour started to drain from your face. “So’lek-” the words slurred in your mouth.
You felt your body start to go numb, your legs wobbling as they grew weak below you. Panic started to set in as a daunting feel grew.
“What? What is it?” So’lek’s arms brace you, hands tight around your shoulders.
“Something is wrong.” You murmured as you faded in and out of your consciousness, the numbness spreading throughout your body eyelids fighting to stay open.
“It’s okay.” His words were calm, but inside he was panicking. Ears stuck to his head, his hands shaking as they grasped you. His arms surging to catch you as your knees buckled, your consciousness leaving the avatar body. “Hey- no. Wake up…wake up!” He bent down hands trembling as he carried you in his arms calling for his ikran.
He needed to get back to you. Back to the other you.
So’lek held your body in his arms pushing through resistance to the human quarters. The airlock couldn’t have taken any longer. His foot twitched, thumping on the cool metal floors.
The doors hissed open and So’lek rushed out, only to be brought to a halt immediately.
The air felt wrong, stale and stuffy. It burned with every ragged inhale. The commotion grew around the link beds. All the tiny humans frantically ran around, the space blaring with alarms.
Even with all the commotion the world felt empty. He drew closer to the bed, glassy eyes and furrowed brows decorated his face. He had felt this helplessness before, 16 years ago. And as it came back up it reopened all his wounds, letting him bleed from the inside out.
So’lek saw Ri’nela and Teylan rush over to grab you off him. He didn’t want to let go, he was afraid, afraid of what may happen if he can’t protect you in his arms. But it was Ri’nela’s words that broke him out of his daze.
“She is not here So’lek…she is there.”
There.
So’lek’s body felt cold as he saw you. Your human body that laid impossibly small and still on the bed. So fragile and breakable.
Humans surrounded you, their voices frantic, yet sharp with urgency. Wires and tubes snaked in and out of your body. The blaring machines blinked and hummed, the fluorescent lights above reflecting off your skin, so devoid of any vibrance. So different to the glowing blue form he knew.
This was you. At your weakest point. So’lek couldn’t help but blame himself, that he had driven you to neglect your own self to such an extent.
You had no tail, no sharp fangs or beautiful large eyes. You were just skin and bones, purple bruises blotching beneath the surface of your thin skin.
His chest seized painfully, inching closer to try and get a closer look at the woman in front of him.
Someone spoke to him, the words drowned out by the deafening silence in his mind.
“Her body couldn’t handle the brain overload of the link. She’s gotten an intracranial hemorrhage. We need to stabilize her, reduce the swelling in her brain-”
“We cannot perform brain surgery here!” Another human interrupted
The words dissolved into noise; there was too many English words for So’lek to understand them all. He saw the helpless looks on the humans faces that surrounded you.
“This is her?” So’lek asked his voice breaking through the thunderous conversations like a bolt of lightning.
Alma looked towards So’lek, her ears flat and brows furrowed. “She is weak. She isn’t stabilizing…”
So’lek shook his head crouching next to your bed, his hand coming to cradle your face. Your head fitting into the palm of his hand. Your chest rose and fell shallowly. Each breath looked as if it were painful.
“Why are your sky medicines not working? You must do something” He paused taking a trembling breath. “You have to do something!”
“We do not have the means to. She requires surgery…her brain is bleeding So’lek. There isn’t much we can do.”
“So, you are giving up?!” So’lek snapped his hands trembling and quaking as they grazed over your weak form. “There must be something! Let there be something.”
So’lek bowed down his massive head dropping delicately onto your forehead “Do not leave me…please…I can’t- I can’t lose you too.” So’lek could feel his throat begin to close, air getting tight as he tried to calm down his breaths.
“There is something,” Ri’nela stood nervously behind him. “But it is dangerous.”
So’lek looked up to her immediately.
“We can ask Eywa to transfer her consciousness…But if it fails-”
“She will die.” So’lek was somber, looking down at your frail form, your breaths so shallow it barely looked like you were breathing at all.
“If we do nothing” So’lek said hoarsely “She dies anyway.”
The Bloom of Echoes shined at night. The rocks inside lighting up with bioluminescence, the grass beating with the breaths of the words. So’lek held your human body in his arms, it was so small, so weak. He was frightened if he moved himself to fast that he would crush you.
“So’lek…put her down.” Ri’nela ushered to a spot in front of her. Right in the middle of the bloom. Where the wind whistled the loudest, the bioluminescent thumbed surrounded her.
Her kuru was connected to the roots in the soil, breathing in and out, feeling the powers of the earth below her.
So’lek was gentle with both of your bodies, laying them gently onto soil. His hands came to rest on your unconscious face, hand so big, it cradled your head. “Be strong little one.” He murmured connecting his kuru to the soil below.
Ri’nela moved to connect your avatars kuru to the soil. Humming a loud prayer as the winds shifted. The tendrils of the bloom, starting to flicker, growing brighter and brighter.
The world from below started to grow onto your human form, covering you in thin white thread-like roots that found home on your skin. Ri’nela’s hands laid out over the body her hands sweeping towards the avatar.
So’lek’s head dipped down resting on the avatar’s body.
Your body.
It no longer mattered to him what form held your soul, only that you did.
He listened closely to your chest, praying to Eywa that she sensed his desperation, that his prayer before was found in a shroud of darkness and grief.
The tendrils shun a light, brighter than ever seen before. Illuminating the area as if the sunlight had directly beamed over your bodies.
Your human body let out a long exhale, weak and painful. So’lek’s eyes darted towards you. “What is happening?”
Ri’nela shook her head, her body convulsing was the lights of the tendrils started to flash erratically. So’lek bowed his head over the Avatar body, gripping onto your sides harshly “Come back to me.” He growled, panic ripping through him.
Then.
Your finger twitched.
A sharp inhale tore through your blue chest. So’lek’s head flew up violently, praying that he did not make up what he thought he heard.
Your eyes flew open.
“So’lek!” you gasped loudly.
He was cradling you instantly, large hands coming to support you. Running over your body grounding you back to the soil. You relaxed with his touches. They were warm, solid, real.
“I am here.” He hushed shaking hands coming to cradle your cheek. “You are here”
Your vision started to focus. You looked up at So’lek and down at your hands.
Your blue hands.
Your blue body.
You sucked in a sharp breath, tears rushing to your eyes as reality hit you all at once. You had woken up in this body many times before. But this felt different. There was no tug of another body waiting for you.
No.
This was you.
“I was so afraid.” You whisper out, the words are crushing as you look up at So’lek.
“I know” he whispers back, crouching next to you, his hands never leaving your body. “I was afraid too.” His eyes burned fighting back the emotions threatening to spill from his eyes.
You went to talk but the silence spoke enough. It was warm and comforting, wrapping around you both. Your body moved quickly, pulling his large one into a tight embrace. And for once he didn’t have to fight the voices inside of him.
Because with you all he felt was peace.
So’lek’s hands enveloped your body pulling it tightly into his embrace. Your breaths synced together as you finally accepted each other with no woes and sadness.
“I see you.” His voice was quiet, forehead resting against yours. “I see you now…I pray you forgive me for being so blind.”
You shook your head, nuzzling against him. “I see you.” The weight of the words lifted off your chests. Allowing in only the joy of being loved.
This time when his head dipped down to kiss you it was not ravenous. It was calm, lips moving as if it they were always meant to be there. There was no fever in his movements, no they were careful and precise.
Because when his lips melted into yours, he wasn’t desperately searching for an answer.
He was certain he had found it.
a/n: AHH okay i really hope this was good <33 i cant remember the last time i wrote something over 2k words LMAO but im definitely proud of this.
please leave an ask, comment, reblog i love to talk to u guys and i appreciate all of the love sm. okey byeebyee
now this is moment i wanted to capture most of all because neytiri is letting spider sleep on her??
when she was so hellbent on deciding to kill him if not for jake stopping her (before spider saved jake’s life). not to mention spider was probably all exhausted from the science peeps experimenting and doing all kinds of shit to him and this was like a breather, a moment of peace for him and he feels safe even if he knew neytiri hated him?
and ofc we see on the next scenes that jake was convinced and then this time neytiri was hesitant when jake was taking her knife…
then there’s spider joking trying to diffuse the tension but ik he knows that they were deciding/talking about him 😭 and even then maybe spider saw jake taking neytiri’s knife or whatever but he stayed calm…
we see her washing off the facepaint and then the red in her hands signifying blood, or in this scenario spider’s blood on her hands (parallel to neteyam’s blood on her hands in atwow) since she let jake take spider into the forest… (i couldnt take pics bc i was tearing up again 😭) she was willing to let jake kill him and we see her torn when she’s washing herself.
and its only a matter of time before neytiri gets hit with the realization bc spider hasn’t even done anything wrong, what happened to him was eywa’s will/kiri’s power and the great mother let it happen. and most of all? he was just a kid. he was just a victim also in this war with the rda, just like how neteyam was :(
and when she finally hits him with that ‘i see you’? im done. cupping his cheek and looking at each other eye to eye and when she pulls back we see the red streaks from the facepaint transfer on spider’s cheeks when if the opposite happened would probably be his blood and ughh i can talk abt this scene for HOURS 😭
their love is so pure and innocent and you know what? i’m glad we didn’t even get a kiss because what they have is so much more intimate and we’re getting to see it bloom as it happens 🥹💙 just look at how lo’ak looks at her… he’s so JAKEEE
LOOK AT HIM WHEN HE HUGS HER IM AAAAA eyes closed with that giddy ass smile lo’ak I SEE YOU
aonung te tsika'u tonowari'itan x gn! sully! reader
Summary: Gaining his first tattoo, Aonung seeks you out.
WC: 0.9k
Warning/s: none, maybe aonung being romantic?? lmao, maybe a little ooc mb...
Note: i crave more aonung screen time and seeing him with that tattoo oh it was over for me- likes, reblogs, and feedbacks are most welcome and appreciated!
GIF is made by yours truly!
The communal area was filled with bright colors and the dancing of the flames, the sound of the drums beating mirroring your nervous heartbeat.
The festival for the young Metkayina, after passing through the challenging tests from the clan that challenged them with their tulkun and their own strength, before eventually being able to bond with their spirit sibling for the first time.
You watched silently, eyes taking it all in, no matter how long you’ve been here with your family, seeing these things for the first time was special.
And it was also extra special because of a certain boy.
The horns sounded once more and you snap your head up from the fishes swimming on the edge to see them file out one by one, the cheers growing louder from parents and clan-mates alike, seeing their youth with renewed pride and joy from their success in their iknimaya.
Your yellow gaze flickers from face to face, which every one of them wore smiles and laughter and gratitude.
Until you spotted that familiar grin, from which for the first time you laid eyes on him you wanted nothing but to wipe it off his stupid face. Now it was the opposite.
There was Aonung, all in his boyish demeanor, energetic, too much confidence and yet a level of honor. You saw how he looked around- not spotting you yet, and how he jokingly flexes to his friends much to the amusement of his parents and sister, showing off his new facial tattoo and the leather vest he now adorned. Now a warrior making his own path.
Something in your heart lurches seeing him be in his own element, his people, and how grown he now looked to be when it was not long ago, he was picking fights with your own siblings the first few weeks you got here.
And yet… something warm settles over you. You were proud, letting a warm smile slip from your lips even if he doesn’t see you through the crowd yet.
You let him have his moment and eventually the crowd gets a little too much for you, taking a small breath, you let your last gaze linger on Aonung for a little while longer before you turned on your heel, walking off on the bridge out the area, settling for the quiet crash of the waves against the nearby shore.
You sat yourself down on the sand, tail curling around your leg as you stared out, the noise of the festival muffled from where you were.
The waves were calming, almost lulling you to sleep, ears drooping as your eyelids start to feel heavy.
“Think you could leave without congratulating me?”
Your senses jumped, tail lashing in surprise with your ears going up at the sound of a voice, eyes blinking and turning to find him standing there not too far from where you were, same smug expression but a hint of something deeper within his gaze.
Aonung’s tone was playful, but also somewhat genuine, his eyes squinting slightly watching you. Unbeknownst to you, he did catch you leaving.
“No…” you trailed off, shaking your head to wake yourself a little more but his presence did exactly that already.
He shrugs his shoulders before he saunters over, planting himself beside you as your eyes glued to his every move, now seeing his tattoo and his new garment up close, you were hit with that feeling again.
Your fingers reach out without thought, tracing the garment now strapped to his chest, tracing over the weaving and the fish scales adorning it.
Aonung tenses for a moment but he lets you, teal gaze locked down to your five-fingered hand before slowly turning his head to look at you instead, so focused and admiring every detail.
All his boyish demeanor was gone, replaced by something quieter, observing…
When you finish inspecting his garment, your eyes and your fingers slowly drag up to meet his face, Aonung doesn’t flinch.
He keeps his gaze on you, and you lock eyes with him, heart skipping a beat before your eyes take in the new mark on his temple instead, fingers reaching up now, it makes him breathe out a little, like he was holding his breath for that moment.
Light as a wood sprite, the pads of your fingers seem to trace the new tattoo with the same admiration.
Knowing Aonung, he can’t bear silence… or maybe because he wasn’t used to this kind of silence.
Clearing his throat, he turns his face afront so you could look at the tattoo better, though leaning into your touch just by a fraction, tail thumps soft against the sand.
“First of many I’ll get.” He spoke, not with his usual arrogance, no, he sounded hopeful, a dream of his he doesn’t usually voice but lets his actions do the talking, and this makes him feel… exposed.
But the smile that appears on your face after he says that washes away ounce of uncertainty in him. You understood.
“You will make a very fine warrior.” You finally speak and it feels like a reward, your fingers trace the arch again before it lingers there, eyes looking back into his as he turned to face you, teal eyes scanning your face and your yellow eyes, an understanding passing between the two of you.
His four-fingered hand moved to cup your wrist that were still by his face, much bigger than yours, before it decides to slowly trace up to hold your fingers instead, pulling them down to press your hand to his chest, a simple act that meant so much more now to the two of you at this moment.
“Your fine warrior, one day.” He murmured, that all too familiar smirk curling on the edge of his lips, eyes holding all the promise he couldn’t put to words.
