.·:*¨ ✘ die for you ✘ ¨*:·.

basket

after having dinner with the sullys, it wasn't odd to see neteyam by your side. he was always finding some reason to be beside you

"no."

"please?"

"why?"

"i learn the best from you," neteyam said with a stupid smile.

as much as you didn't want to admit it, he was growing on you. although your demeanour was still cold, you waited for him to chase after you when his lessons for the day were finished and your duties were over. but you didn't make it obvious you were waiting for him, you would be hovering around spots you knew he would be and walking to your next idle task as he followed you around.

"you should be learning from tsireya or ao'nung. ao'nung is your age, you should be getting along better with him," you comment, picking up a couple of dried leaves, planning to weave a basket that your mother needed for herbs.

"i already said that i learn the best from you, plus shouldn't the future olo'eykte help their people?" neteyam asks.

you turn to look at him and just stare at him.

after a moment you turn away and shake your head a bit, "you are right, but you have my siblings assigned to you."

"you don't even know what i want you to teach me."

"tell me."

"teach me your finger talk thing," he says while moving his fingers in an indescribable pattern as you gave him another look, picking up the last of the leaves you needed and starting to walk away.

as always he chases after you as you look for somewhere to sit. when you sat down, he sat down in front of you. you laid out the dried leaves in front of you and picked up a couple leaves, starting the bottom of the basket.

"why weren't you assigned to help us?" neteyam asks, fidgeting with the leaves that you weren't currently using.

"i am not a teacher, tsireya is. and ao'nung knows more than others," you say, completing one row of the bottom of the basket.

"ah, i guess that makes sense," he replies, looking off to the ocean that was a bit away.

"how is your breathing?" you ask, wanting to know his status with that part of his training.

"i think it is going good?" he says, with a questioning tone at the end of his sentence.

"how long have you been able to hold your breath for?"

"a little longer than when i started, not as good as you guys."

"you'll improve fast," you say, hoping the best for him without verbally saying so.

"thanks, i'll try to."

a moment of silence fell between the two of you, the only noises being from you weaving the basket and the soft crinkle of the leaves. you look up at him for a second, looking at his features. he looked different, of course, but in a nice way. his darker skin contrasted with the bright skin, the sun creating a halo around him.

neteyam must've felt your eyes bearing into him and he looks over, catching you staring at him. he sends you a soft smile, looking down on you for a second.

"why are you staring at me?"

"you block the sun," you say, rejecting the internal idea that you were even admiring his features in the first place.

"oh, i'm sorry. did you want me to move?"

"no."

"okay."

and so while you were weaving the basket, neteyam stayed in front of you to 'block the sun', the atmosphere around you two being as calm as ever with no words being exchanged. just the two of you spending time together, you weaving and neteyam simply watching you.

when you finish the basket you get up and turn it around, looking for any errors or loose leaves. neteyam gets up as well and you show him the basket.

"it looks good," he says with an approving expression and a nod of his head.

"thank you," you say, unintentionally happy with his approval.

"how do you even weave?"

"you were watching me the whole time, you should know," you say, picking up the scraps you left below you.

neteyam joined you and picked up more than you currently had, "just because i watched you, it doesn't mean i learnt from that."

"you learnt from watching me hunt and debone a fish," you say.

"yeah but that made sense, this," he motions to the basket, "looks complicated."

"it's an art we are taught young, did you not learn when you were younger?"

"i learnt how to make clothes, but not baskets and other stuff like that," he replies.

"you know how to make clothes?" you ask, finding yourself interested in her textile ventures.

"yeah, i uh, helped with tuk's clothes 'cause she can't make clothes on her own," he admits.

"that's nice, do you make her clothes often?"

"yeah, most of her clothes are made by my mom, kiri, and i."

"you are a caring brother."

"you are a caring sister," you look at neteyam with a confused look, stopping in your tracks. he stops beside you.

"what do you mean?" you ask, not knowing how he could tell when he hadn't seen you around with your siblings.

"the day you came to eat dinner with us for the first time, you came with tsireya even though i can tell you didn't want to," he says, "every time that you pass us when we're training, i can tell you're mostly checking on your siblings."

you slowly nod your head, sort of understanding his words. you do think you are caring toward your siblings. especially since they are younger than you, so it was only natural that you made sure they were alright and not in trouble.

"you are the same with your siblings. always with them to make sure they don't feel like they are alone and help them adjust here," you say, noting the moments whenever you saw him with his own siblings, "you are the oldest, yes?"

"i am."

"so we have that in common," you say.

"how old are you?" neteyam asks, not knowing your age and spending time believing that you were the same age as him.

"i'm 16," you answer.

"oh, i'm younger than you."

"i know."

"how do you know?" he asks.

"ao'nung told me."

"oh."

by this time, you have reached the center of the village. you had walked toward where your mother would be working right now. neteyam had taken the scraps from your hands and left your hands with only the basket. you enter the marui pod with neteyam behind you, looking around for your mother. you had spotted her with neytiri, your mother showing her the different herbs, pastes, liquids, and other things that she used for rituals and healing others, the two looking as if they were getting along.

"we don't have many healing roses, so we only use them if desperately needed," you overheard your mother say.

"i see, we are closer to where they grow but the clan there tends to take extreme care of the healing roses. only allowing us to take a couple each year," you hear neytiri say to your mother.

"we get ours from a clan in the jungle, they only have a little amount," you mother starts, then she spots you, calling out to you, "(y/n), my child."

"mom, i've made you another basket," you say, motioning to the basket that you weaved for her.

"thank you dear, would you collect some oysters for me? i would like to teach neytiri how we weave with them," she asks, looking towards the woman beside her when talking about weaving.

you nod your head and turn around with the basket you made in hand, softly calling for neteyam to follow you and he does so but not without greeting both of your mothers. neteyam caught up to you and walked beside you, following your pace with the scraps still in his hands, you eye the pieces of the leaves.

"you should've left those in the marui pod," you say.

"oh, i didn't know that."

"we use everything that we can," you say, not acknowledging the fact that you had never told him what to do with the materials.

"we do that too," he says, reminding you that using everything is one of the most common practices of the na'vi. you didn't say anything, a little embarrassment blooms on your face, not knowing what to say back to him. instead you start to walk faster, going towards where the muddier tides were.

neteyam kept up with you, a smile on his face as he followed you but it's not like you could see his face as your kept yours away from him. when you reach the tides, you allow the basket to fall to the ground. it landed on its bottom and it didn't collapse, meaning the basket you had made was of good quality.

"we collect oysters, they have pearls inside but can also be used for food. their shells we use to hold liquids and pastes," you explain to neteyam, looking toward him, "they hide under the sand. if you see the sand move, an oyster is under there. you just dig and place it in basket, okay?"

he nods at your words and lets out a little "alright," before you start to search the sands for any signs of oysters. oysters were easy to find but hard to harvest pearls from since they involved killing the oyster. even though they used everything from the oysters, it was hard not to feel bad for taking so many lives without keeping them alive after taking the pearls. at least when you got oysters, it meant that there were going to be more types of food at dinner.

you didn't notice him at first but neteyam was watching you crouch down to dig for the oysters, then would copy your actions as soon as he saw a spot where there would be an oyster. but after collecting a good handful, you realized he got the same amount as you and would only put oysters in the basket after you did. as much as you wanted to question him, you didn't continue your work and figured he was doing what he did before and mirroring you to get the work done.

after some time you call out to neteyam, telling him that you have gathered enough oysters. altogether you both had collected around fifthteen oysters, and while it didn't seem like a lot, you figured that if your mother was only showing neytiri how to weave with the pearls, they would only use a little. both your hands and neteyam's were covered in dark grey sand that looked more like mud. he looks at you with an unreadable expression before he slowly reaches toward you and drags his muddy hand down your arm.

nothing happens for a second. then you crouch down a bit before throwing a pile of the sand at neteyam, a smile slowly approaching your face. he soon does the same and launches his pile at you as the both of you fall into a sandy-mud fight, running around the beach, and forgetting about the oysters that laid waiting for you to pick up and bring back to your mother. when things calm down, a smile had found its way to your face to stay.

"you look prettier when you smile, like you looked pretty before but you look prettier now," he says, staring at your face.

you felt your cheeks grow warm and you turn away from him, leaning down to pick up the basket. before you can reach it, neteyam grabs it and starts to walk back to where your mothers were.

"wait," you call out to him. he looks back, expecting for you to stay something sweet like he had. "we need to rinse the oysters... and ourselves. we are a mess."

"alright," he says, turning back around and walks toward the ocean with you. this time, you kept in pace with neteyam, waiting for him to get closer before following him.

⎯⎯ ୨୧ ⎯⎯

[a/n]: i had this chapter in my drafts for so long im so sorryyyy i've been going through some stuff and i would rant abt it but not now !!