*ੈ✩‧₊˚ gentle breeze •°. *࿐

star

Like you had promised her, you went to play with Tuk after your conversation with Kiri. Trying to not think too much about your theory, maybe you were overthinking it. But you were still going to ask.

Playing with Tuk wasn't so much playing, and it was more of her playing with your hair. She was braiding it, placing beads at the end saying that you were a part of her family. Not the Sully family, though. Her little made up family, she used shells in place of each 'na'vi' of her family.

You giggled at the story of the Shelly family she told. The family lost their dog and instead of looking for the dog, they got a new pet fish. You in turn, told her the story of the daughter of a leader, and the son of another leader who fell in love and united two clans.

Neteyam eventually passed by the two of you, he joins you guys in telling stories and playing with the shells, Tuk having a grand time. Neytiri shows up, looking for Tuk, smiling at the three of you before picking up Tuk and bringing her for her nap.

With only you and Neteyam left together, you engage in conversation. Neteyam scooting to sit right beside you.

"So when is my next training session with you," Neteyam says with a laugh. You smile at him.

"We can do it right now. You do need to rest, though. Look at your poor face and all your injuries," you say, gesturing to his body. He barely had any injuries painted on his body, just the one on his lips.

"I think I do need to rest. You're welcome to relax with me," Neteyam says.

"I will take you up on that offer, plus I rather not see Ao'nung so soon."

"What's up with you and Ao'nung?" Neteyam asks.

"What do you mean?" you ask in confusion.

"I mean, if you're not with me or with Ronal, you're almost always with him. Why are you friends with him?"

"Ah, well we're arranged to mate together. I thought that you would've heard it from around the village at this point," you say, looking at Neteyam for his reaction. His face scrunches up a bit.

"Why?"

"Why?" you repeat, laughing at his word.

"Yes, why are you arranged to mate with him? When were you told you were to be the next tsahik," he asks more.

"I've been betrothed to Ao'nung as long as I remember, same with being the next tsahik. If I wasn't born first, I believe Tsireya would be tsahik. She seems to be more connected to Eywa than me," you say, adding in praises to Tsireya as you sometimes felt like being the next tsahik was never supposed to be for you.

"Why didn't they tell you were to be tsahik until you could remember then? They did that with my aunt," Neteyam says in confusion. Your ears perk up at the mention of an aunt. Aside from his direct family and his friend that was a sky person, Neteyam and the rest of the Sully siblings hadn't really talked about other relatives.

"Um, my mother... died giving birth to me. Apparently that has never happened before and Ronal believed that I was a miracle since I had survived, and as a way to 'repay' my mother, they gave me this role. I was the last gift from my mother to the clan," you say with a deep breath at the end. It had been the first time you talked about your mother to someone else.

You, Ao'nung, and Tsireya were told the story of your mother when you were thirteen and going through insecurity about being the tsakarem, and wondering why Tsireya was not. Ronal was your mother's friend, and sometimes you wondered if you thought Ronal made you tsakarem as a way to stay connected to your mother.

"My mother was a great healer and an amazing songstress, sometimes I wish she was here," you felt Neteyam's hand rubbing your back, as unexpected tears run down your face.

"Maybe you're a gift from Eywa herself, thanking your mother for what she did for your clan," he says, grabbing your hand and looking you in your eyes. (E/c) clashing with bright yellow. His eyes were like the sun that had the ability to dry up the tears that rested on your face.

You sent him a gentle smile, wiping the tears off your face.

"Yeah... Originally I thought I was the next tsahik because I'm arranged to mate with Ao'nung. They didn't tell me the story until later on. Thank you for your words, Neteyam."

"My words do not compare to your abilities," he compliments you.

"Don't flatter me like that," you say, shoving his shoulder a bit, "enough about me, tell me about you."

"I was a warrior for my clan. We would ambush the sky people and take their weapons," he said with pride.

"You should be a warrior for the Metkayina, use your skills and help our hunters," you say.

"I should, do you hunt?

"I haven't. I don't think hunting things myself is for the best, I still do appreciate eating what she provides," you say with a giggle, Neteyam joins you in your giggles with a chuckle.

The silent air was filled with not only your laughter but also the stars as the night sky rolled in. As it gets darker, both you and Neteyam start to glow a bit, the spots on your bodies adding to the stars in the sky. You notice Neteyam looking up to the sky and you mirror his actions, he points to a certain star in the sky.

"My father came from a star," he says, breaking the laughter between the two of you."

"Really? Tell me more," you reply with a gentle voice.

As he begins to tell you the story of how his father came from a place called 'Earth' and how his parents found each other through his father's stupidity. You found the story he told you funny, laughing so hard that your stomach start to hurt, your face unintentionally glowing brighter than before. Footsteps could be heard coming towards where you two were sitting. You look back to see Ao'nung and the group of his friends from earlier, you roll your eyes at the group of boys.

"Hey, forest boy, you better look for your brother!" Ao'nung says after one of his friends pushes him toward the two of you.

Both you and Neteyam abruptly stand up, faces full of concern and in Neteyam's case, anger crashes quickly on his face.

"What did you do?" Neteyam says, walking up to Ao'nung's face.

"Haven't you realized your brother has been gone all day? Or were you too busy being in (Y/n)'s face?" Ao'nung teases with a smirk, the smallest bit of nervousness laced in his voice.

"Ao'nung! Now is not the time, what did you do?!" you say with concern heading toward the two.

"Lo'ak is, let's say, past the reef," as the words leave Ao'nung's mouth, immediate dread seeps through your veins. You see Neteyam lift his fist a bit, before completely lowering it and keeping his arms at his sides.

"You're telling my father what you did," Neteyam says, reaching the back of Ao'nung's head, grabbing his queue and dragging him over to his family's marui pod.

You look at Ao'nung's friends, glare at them as they make faces at you and follow Neteyam and Ao'nung. The three of you navigate through all the other homes and briskly run on bridges, finally reaching the Sully marui pod. Neteyam looked around the pod, Neytiri asked what was wrong but was quickly disregarded when Neteyam spotted his father. He waited for his father to turn his head to them, and shoved Ao'nung forward.

"Tell him. Tell him what you told me," Neteyam demands, shaking Ao'nung a bit. From where you stood, you waved to Kiri and she waves back with confusion on her face

Everything leading up to Lo'ak being found was a blur. Jake ran to tell Tonowari what was happening and almost immediately a bunch of Metkayina warriors went looking for Lo'ak. Jake left the group looking for Lo'ak while Tonowari came over and snatched Ao'nung away.

You look at Neteyam while everyone else went out to look, "I'm not sure why Ao'nung did that. I'm... sorry."

"It's not your fault he did this," Neteyam says to comfort you.

"Still, I don't get why he did and I'll talk to him about it later," you say, worried about Lo'ak and if Ao'nung would talk to you because you ditched him earlier.

"I should go out and find Lo'ak," Neteyam says, looking ready to call an ilu and go out into the ocean.

"No. I have lost one son today, I am not losing another," Neytiri said, putting an arm out to separate Neteyam from the sea. Neteyam shakes his head and backs off. Kiri puts a hand to Neteyam's shoulder and he holds her hand.

"The boy has been found!"

"The Sully boy, we found him!"

The four of you heard voices yell and headed to the dock as quickly as you could, you trailed behind Kiri and she looked back at you to ensure you were still following her. When you get there. You see Ao'nung looking down at his feet beside his father, Lo'ak standing alone on the dock, and Jake standing beside him in the water on top of a skimwing. Neytiri walks up to Lo'ak, and goes on to express what she was feeling.

"I pray for the strength that I will not rip the eyeballs out of my youngest son," Neytiri hisses out, motioing that she would take out Lo'ak's eyes with two fingers.

"No, my son knows better than to take him outside the reed," Tonowari says, pushing Ao'nung to a kneel with one knee on the group, "the blame is his."

"Okay, let's go," Jake says, patting Lo'ak's arm. Lo'ak doesn't move.

"No, this is not Ao'nung's fault," Lo'ak says. You see Ao'nung's head move up in surprise, and you and Neteyam share a look. Neteyam's eyes somehow telling you that Lo'ak is taking the blame for this, "it was my idea. Ao'nung tried to talk me out of it, really."

Neytiri grabs Lo'ak's arm and brings him beside you and Neteyam, you both look at him with a questioning look, he shrugs. Jake gets back on the dock and looks at Tonowari with a sign. Ronal and Tonowari have another silent conversation, contemplating who they believe.

"Lo'ak," Neytiri starts.

"I'm sorry," was all he said.

"Come on," Jake says, referring to his family and you, he turns to Tonowari, "I got this one."

Looking at Ao'nung, you see his face is still full of confusion and filled with guilt. He avoids your gaze, his eyes seemingly settling on Neteyam who was beside you.

"Is this true?" Tonowari asks Ao'nung.

"Ao'nung, what were you thinking?" Ronal ask, Ao'nung doesn't reply.

The Sully family starts to leave and you stay where you were for a second, staring at Ao'nung and his parents. Wondering what was going on in his mind, and what you were going to say to him. You observed his guilt but blink yourself out of it when Ao'nung gets up and his parents start to leave.

You turn to catch up to Neteyam to see if you could either finish your conversation from earlier or talk about what just happened, but slow your steps as you hear Jake sternly talk to your friends.

"Anymore trouble and I'll knot your tail, you read me?"

"Yes sir," Lo'ak replies to his father, detaching himself from the group and walks a bit away.

"Where were you?" you see Neytiri ask Neteyam in a noticeably softer voice.

"Yeah, what happened to keeping an eye on your brother?"

"I'm sorry sir," Neteyam says, you can see from the back of his head that his ears had pointed down and that his tail dropped.

They continued to walk back to their marui pod and you decided that right now would not be a good time to talk to anyone from the Sully family. You turn your head to see Lo'ak walking alongside Ao'nung, the frame of the two together surprising you.

You couldn't hear what they were talking about but you saw Ao'nung scoffing. You walk up to Ao'nung when you see Lo'ak leave, sneaking up behind Ao'nung and ambushing him in a conversation with you.

"Ao'nung," you see his shoulders jump a bit when he hears your voice, his ears pointing up in surprise. He slowly turns to face you, the distance between the two of you feels like a chasm.

"(Y/n)..." he trails off, his head turnt down but his eyes looking up at you.

"We should talk."

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[a/n]: uhhh i didnt realize that ao'nung x neteyam was a rarepair and im sorry for last chapter ?? this is kind of a buffer before ao'nung n you talk ! anyway i've been waiting for this chapter for a while !! im happy its out the tulkun r here.

thank you for 100+ votes <33 never have i thought anything i would write would be appreciated like this

did you know: bioluminescence is the way that living organisms emit light. it is employed by nearly all pandoran animals. even the na'vi have patterns of glowing freckles that are unique to each individual. to avoid being detected by predators or prey, animals can damp down their own light. the rda exploited it as another resource in the form of exotic jewelry and clothing ): (from the wiki)