“come on, get up! we’re going for ikran riding!” he beams. you sit groggily, taking a few seconds to process his words. you look at him confused, in his avatar form at 8 a.m. in the morning.

“since when do you know how to ride an ikran?” you ask, yawning.

“well, i don’t, that’s why they’ll help us!” you look up again, to see him pointing at your door. you turn to see lo’ak standing by the door rather awkwardly. you quickly cover yourself with the blanket before glaring at mike.

“was it necessary for you to bring him to see me like this?” you sneered, which made mike look at you with guilt. he knew you didn’t like most people seeing you in your casual state.

“i’m sorry, but come on! it’s gonna be fun!”

“what about natasha and dev?”

“oh, you know how they are. they wanna stay in”

“well, i also wanna stay in… and sleep” you say, before falling on the bed again.

“that is entirely untrue. we both know you would disappear in the forest if you could. you come out with me all the time. don’t be so lazy!”

“ugh. go away.”

“fine. just so you know, neteyam is also gonna come. and he comes to hangouts rarely, with all that work- he agreed because we told him you are coming” you had already turned your head slightly at his mention, but you didn’t want to give mike all the satisfaction. but hearing the last sentence made you turn your head towards him again.

“are you interested to come now?” mike snickers. you roll your eyes, only to hear lo’ak snickering by the gate as well. you turn your head to glare at him, making him shut up and stiffen his position immediately.

“only because otherwise his day will get spoilt” you sigh, getting off the bed finally. “now get out, both of you!”

“okay, okay! be ready in five, everyone is waiting outside” mike yells, running out of your door. everyone?

you quickly shift into your avatar body, making sure to wear secure clothing and combing your hair, it wasn’t long enough to tie anyway. you walk out of the bunker to see mike, lo’ak, kiri, spider, and neteyam waiting by a boulder. neteyam stands up with you come out. mike and lo’ak notice it immediately, sending each other knowing looks. you pass them a short glare before greeting the others. you decide not to bring forward the fact the neteyam came because of you, you’d rather forget that detail.

“hey” he says slowly, looking at you with wide eyes when you turn to greet him at last.

“hi” you greet shortly, before motioning others to start walking. when you notice that he hasn’t started walking, you look up at him.

“after you” he says simply. you shake your head, not in the mood to get into power play early in the morning.

all of you walk in pairs. lo’ak and mike talking and laughing in the front, spider and kiri speaking in hushed voices in between. you were behind them, with neteyam walking right behind you, almost beside you.

“you will feel hot” neteyam suddenly speaks.

“what?”

“the clothes you are wearing, they will make you feel hot”

“well, i don’t mind” you peek to look at mike, to see him wearing just a loincloth. wao, you must be looking like a weirdo who cannot decide whether to be a human or a na’vi.

but it wasn’t your fault, your avatar body turned out to be more… chubby than you had thought. also, shorter than the others.

“why is the physique of my avatar like this?” you asked the assistant doctor the previous night. “that’s because your genetic makeup for height and body mass are recessive genes from both parents” “…oh” “yea, like dev has dominant genes from both parents, whereas natasha and mike have one dominant and one recessive gene” “but like, they turned out to be much taller and slimmer than me” “that’s because while copying your genetic makeup, the avatar shows the physical characteristics more clearly. that means even if your human form wasn’t as short or chubby, while copying, the avatar manifested the genetic makeup more prominently” “oh, i see. thanks doc”

so, your avatar body looked almost identical to your human form, expect it was taller. you can’t hide your short height, but you could hide your chubby body. not that you were insecure, but you knew the na’vis would get weirded out if they were to see more curves on your body than they are used to seeing, and you didn’t want that.

“well, mike isn’t wearing any human clothes, so i thought…”

you look at him briefly. he raises his arms in mock surrender.

“just curious”

“i’m not comfortable in walking around with clothes that barely hide anything”

“you think body is something to be hidden? na’vis do not believe in hiding. we appreciate it”

“i understand, but wasn’t the same on earth. it’s gonna take some time for me to adjust. plus, the guys could already roam around like that if they wanted to” you motioned towards mike.

“not the girls? why?”

you realise that he doesn’t know the concept of misogyny or violence towards women. you do not want him to know either.

“i don’t know” you say simply, avoiding his curious gaze.

“really? you don’t know?”

“yea i don’t” you reply quickly before asking him about his training to change the topic.

“it’s becoming pretty demanding, i have to admit” he replies with a tired sigh.

“do you want to become the olo’eyktan?”

“what kind of a question is that? i have to. i have to take the position after my dad”

“really? i remember reading about the clans and a lot of times, leadership wasn’t hereditary”

“i have trained my entire life to become this”

“but do you want to be this?”

neteyam blinks at you, taken aback by your simple question.

“i don’t know what else to be, if not the olo’eyktan”

“well, you can be a lot of things” you start. “you are neteyam. and you are definitely very annoying, for starters” you giggle.

“hey! that’s mean” neteyam frowns, pushing you a little. you steady yourself, looking up to see him pouting, actually pouting. how cute. shut up girl.

“just letting you know the truth” you say before running forward to catch up with the others, leaving him behind. he watches you run, shaking his head with an undeniable smile before running up to you. but his mind was now occupied with a question no one had thought to ask him in the 21 years he lived.

jake explains everything to norm, max, and the other people over there. mo’at joins to listen to him at some point as well. he was speaking in na’vi, and you couldn’t really decipher anything, even though you took the classes. you weren’t good with languages anyway. your brother, dev, and natasha kept translating, even though you weren’t really paying attention.

you were observing everyone, trying to analyse their characters, before your eyes finally drifted to him. neteyam stood behind his dad, out of the conversation, just looking at them. you observed him, his posture more relaxed as compared to the encounter in the forest. you couldn’t understand him. unlike his siblings, he seemed to have layers. lo’ak, tuk, and spider were easy-going, fun. lo’ak seemed to be more reckless, and spider seemed to be his partner in crime. kiri was gentle. a little odd too, but she didn’t seem as appalled by all of you as the others, speaking kindly and displaying a sense of understanding from the beginning. neteyam, however, wasn’t as easy to decode. his resistance was understandable. he also seemed to have a sense of protectiveness in him. he was also not there with his siblings during the first encounter. maybe he was with his parents. is he the eldest?

you kept looking at him, zoned out, not listening to the translation that dev and natasha gave. suddenly, natasha shook you lightly, pulling you out of your daze. it took you a few seconds to realise that neteyam was already looking at you, his gaze filled with concern. before you could come up with an explanation, you see him walking up towards you. fuck fuck, what do you say to him?

“are you alright...” neteyam begins slowly.

“...rae. her name’s rae” natasha finishes. you turn to glare at her, knowing exactly what she was trying to do.

“are you alright, rae?” he asks again.

“yea, just a little tired” you respond, rubbing your neck.

“do you want me to bring you some water?” he asked. you look at him, confused. moments earlier, he had his arrow aimed at you, ready to kill you. now he was offering to bring you water? he notices your confused reaction.

“i’m sorry for earlier, i didn’t mean to come off that cold. we were taught that humans were bad”

“spider is also a human”

“but he was born and brought up here-”

“and what about jake-”

“i think some water might calm her down” dev interjected. neteyam nodded to get you some water. dev turned to look at you.

“look, i understand you wanting to justify the stance of humans, but you’ve got to understand his point. he was just trying to protect his loved ones”

“i understand, but you know most humans aren’t even bad. they fought for the rights of pandora and the na’vis. it’s not our fault the rich and bad ones got the resources to come here first and destroy everything”

“you and i know that, but he doesn’t. the na’vis do not know that. you need to give them time, and earn their trust.”

“i know”

“sister. you are tired, you don’t have to take all the burden on your shoulders”

“thanks dev” you replied, leaning your head on his shoulder.

neteyam comes back with the water and an odd-looking fruit. as he walks towards you, he looks at your head resting on dev’s shoulder. you accept the water silently. he then proceeds to hand you the fruit.

“what’s this?”

“a fruit. it’s sweet, will help you regain some energy” you eye him, before accepting the fruit.

“thank you uh- what’s your name?”

“neteyam te suli tsyeyk’itan”

“uh, can you go slower?”

“ne-te-yam”

“neteyam. did i pronounce it correctly?”

“yes, you did. now eat up” he shook your shoulder with one hand lightly, flashing you a quick smile, before going back to stand in his previous position.

“mhm-hmm, someone got hold of the attention of the son of toruk makto~” mike smirked.

“ew, gross” you replied, looking at natasha and dev to see them trying to hide their smiles as well.

“ugh” you roll your eyes, before unconsciously setting them on neteyam again.

“jake sully” you mumble, hand immediately reaching your head to greet him the way na’vis did. “i’ve heard about you.”

“yea? that’s good. now why the hell are you all here?” his gun was aimed at you, while the woman, you assumed it was neytiri, his mate, had her arrow aimed at you.

“the reason why you were here jake, it’s the same”

“so, you’re gonna blow up more people and take more resources?”

“…no, not that. jake, the rda has been dissolved” that made jake lower his gun. neytiri and neteyam looked at him with alarmed eyes.

“what?”

“yea. there’s a lot to catch up on. i was hoping i could speak to the clan’s olo’eyktan”

“for what?”

“negotiations. for extracting resources from pandora on your terms”

jake scratched his head, mildly confused, a sliver of relief on his face.

“so, y’all are not here for war?”

“no. we would have not come here at all, but the earth is dying, and you and some humans were still on this planet. thought we could try one last time” that made neytiri look at you with sadness. she couldn’t fathom anyone destroying their planet to a point where they had to go to another planet to ask for resources.

“neteyam, go and get everyone out. we’re going to negotiate” that made him finally lower his arrow which you realise was still aimed at you.

everyone comes out eventually. as soon as your group saw jake, they stopped dead in their tracks. jake sully was like a legend back on earth, not something they were planning to see on their first day on pandora.

“jake sully? you’re kind of like a hero back on earth” mike gleed.

“wait, really? i thought y’all wanted dad dead” lo’ak asked.

“yea, before the revolution started. you and the other humans who stayed back became a pivotal point of existing trust between the humans and na’vis, and you being the toruk makto and gaining trust of the na’vis is seen as a heroic act.” your brother explained.

“revolution? what kind of revolution?” kiri asked.

“back in the year 2154, when news reached back on earth that the rda had bombed multiple places on pandora and had cut down the hometree, we were very frustrated. since we were still kids and couldn’t do much, we started mobilising the people around us, as well as built a community online which was determined to prevent the rda to go back on pandora. we started revolting in 2162, when news came that the journey back to pandora has been planned for 2164. we ended up putting the rda centres on fire to push back the launch date, and that ended in all of us getting arrested. but we managed to negotiate and make a deal with the government. we could come back and try negotiating with the na’vis on ethical lines, if rda was dissolved. they had no choice but to agree.” natasha explained. everyone was quiet for a moment.

“that’s kind of cool, not gonna lie” spider spoke.

“yea? you know what’s not cool? serving in prison for four years” you snapped suddenly, surprising even yourself. you did what you could to save the planet. you didn’t think it was cool, you thought it was necessary.

“you went to prison?” jake asked slowly, his gaze unreadable.

“yea no shit, what do you think arson is? but at least now we’re here, so shall we get to the actual point now?” you didn’t want them to poke around the time in prison. you would do anything to forget the time there.

“yo chief! look what i found” mike motioned to all of you. you hover around the area, looking at the dishevelled human remains of a bunker and an amp, with a skeleton inside it.

“ooh, spooky” he spoke in a sing-song manner. he earned a glare from natasha.

“who’s could this be?” your brother questions.

“there must be some sort of recording, wait lemme check” you muttered, spooked a little as well.

in further distance, lo’ak, spider, kiri, and tuk were playing around in the forest, when spider notices the amp and a broken bunker in a clearing.

“guys, guys, check this out” he motioned towards the clearing quickly. his exopack beeps yet again, but he silences it quickly, before returning his attention back to the clearing.

“this is where our dads fought, cuz” all of them snickered quietly, before some odd-looking avatars stepped in the clearing. they immediately got alert, lo’ak communicating to his father through his comms.

“yes dad, they are definitely avatars. they all look a little funny, except one. one girl has light hair, one man has brown, another girl has golden brown, and she’s kinda purple and short. yea? no they are not wearing any armour nor carrying any guns”

“they are not carrying guns?” jake questions from the other side, patrolling on an ikran with neytiri and neteyam. they both hear the conversation closely.

“yes sir” lo’ak confirms again.

“that’s strange” jake mumbles to himself. “who all are there with you?”

“spider, kiri, and… tuk.” neytiri has a noticeable worried look on her face now.

“listen boy, you get outta there right now. take all of them, real quietly, and get the hell out of there. we are coming.”

“i know a quick route dad” neteyam speaks. the three follow the path, reaching the location in a couple of minutes.

back in the forest, spider’s exopack beeps again. he panics to shut it quickly, to not alarm any of you, stepping on a twig accidentally.

you immediately hear it. the others hear it too. you all share looks, partly nervous and partly curious. you move nearer to their direction, which make the young na’vis panic, hurriedly getting up and sprinting to run away from all of you, only to notice spider falling down, the oxygen in the exopack almost ending.

“spider!” kiri cried, rushing to sit next to spider’s convulsing body. in the same moment, you appear from the bushes, eyes wide and curious as you try to analyse the situation in front of you. you were briefed before coming here, how quaritch’s son had to be left back on pandora because he was too young, the only human kid on the planet. you step forward, understanding the situation now, to immediately be put in a headlock by lo’ak, his knife pressed to your throat. you waste no time, hitting him on the rib with your elbow and snatching the knife swiftly. lo’ak hisses, his hand rubbing his ribcage.

“he is losing oxygen. he needs oxygen to breathe, get him to our lab” you say, knife still put in front of you for defence.now this is where things start to get a little confusing for the na’vis. their entire lives, they saw the homosapiens as demons, only coming to destroy pandora and loot the resources. but then, why weren’t you making any attempt to attack when you very well have the opportunity to?

your group comes behind you, scanning the situation now.

“the human kid” natasha mumbles. “he dying… he needs the mask!”

“yea, that’s what i’m telling them!” you exclaimed. mike moves ahead, lifting spider on his back.

“come on, let’s get him to our lab before it’s too late”

after telling neteyam to stay near the ikrans, jake and neytiri see your exchange with their kids from behind the bushes. they are puzzled to say the least, but seeing all of you unarmed, they decided to hold.

as all of you started running towards the lab, an arrow comes and hits right across mike’s face to the tree beside him. all of you whip your heads to the right, to see neteyam standing with another arrow aimed at mike.

“bro, quit it! or spider will die!” lo’ak screeches, which makes the male lower the bow and run towards all of you. as he comes out of the bushes, you see him clearly for the first time, and your mouth runs dry.

holy shit, he’s hot- wait, what the fuck are you thinking?

he runs up to see all of you, speaking something to a device attached to his throat. his eyes take in your group before his eyes finally settles on yours. there is a sense of alertness and deep curiosity in his gaze. you whip your head around quickly.

“come on, let’s go” you usher mike to move quickly.

once in the bunker, the doctor removes spider’s mask, allowing him to breathe in the air inside, which was safe for humans. within a few minutes, he gained consciousness. he sits up straight, only to see his friends and the odd-looking avatars together.

“… this is heaven, right? how are all of you sitting together?” kiri laughs and hugs spider at his question, while you shake your head with a smile, coming forward to explain.

“your mask had no oxygen left. we thought it would be best to get you inside the lab to get you oxygen”

“but aren’t you guys supposed to kill us?”

“no?” you snickered. “that’s not why we are here” natasha speaks.

at your response, neteyam pulls out his bow and arrow and aims straight at your head.

“then why are you here?” he asks with a ridiculous sense of calmness as opposed to his actions. your eyes widen as you try to lighten the situation.

“woah there, easy, my guy” you joked, raising your hands up. “we need to speak to your clan’s olo’eyktan, we are here to negotiate about the resources” you turn slightly to look at him now, his posture firm and eyes set on you. your eyes wander to his arm muscles, toned and flexing. you force yourself to look up again, meeting his eyes which had a hint of confusion now.

is she checking me out? neteyam thought, his stance remaining firm as he replies.

“our dad is the olo’eyktan”

“well, we would wish to meet him” your brother replies.

“who is your leader?” he asks. all of your team points at you immediately. wao, they really wanted you dead, didn’t they? you pass him a sheepish smile.

“walk”

“what?”

“start walking” he repeats.

“oh, okay, but where?”

“outside the bunker. you’ll see”

you start walking slowly, being completely aware of how his arrow was still aimed at you. you open the door of the bunker, only to see two other na’vis aiming their arrows on you. why does everyone want to kill you today?

“meet the olo’eyktan, jake sully”

it hadn’t been long since you had come to pandora. you were so cool, he couldn’t help but become curious about you. he had seen many kinds of people; some serious, some funny, some gentle, some fierce. but you didn’t lie in any of those categories. you were wild, rebellious, unafraid of having fun. you didn’t bother shrinking the room for anyone, but made sure everyone had their own space when they were with you. you asked questions no one had asked, and he admired that a lot about you.

when he would be with you, he would always learn something new but fun. which is the reason he found himself almost running to the direction of the high camp where you lived.

he hopped happily on his feet, excited to meet you. he could see your room from a distance. as he neared it, he stopped dead in his tracks. from the huge glass pane, he saw you, banging your head on thin air continuously. horrified, he ran near your window, about to bang at the window pane and yell. instead, he heard faint music being played. he paused to narrow his eyes and look at your face, your expressions. you looked delighted, happy, in your own world as you skipped across the room, headbanging.

curious, he decided not to disturb, but observe you. after some time, he went inside the bunker. as soon as he entered, the music was much louder than what he could hear out there. at this point, your friends and colleagues were used to him being here so often, no one batted an eye when he walked towards your room. he stopped right outside your door, music much clearer. it was very different from anything he had heard before, but the beats were very powerful and loud. before realising, he himself was rocking his head back and forth to the music. when he realised, he walked away from your room to ask your friends what exactly you were doing.

“oh, she's jamming to music. it's a usual routine for her”, natasha said casually.

“jam-ing? can you explain to me a bit more?” he looked at her with wide curious eyes.

“use those eyes on her, and she’ll tell you everything you want to know neteyam” she said slyly.

just as more questions started clouding his mind, the music stopped.

“go now” natasha said with a smirk on her face. he quickly got up and walked towards your room. he comes outside your door to see you smiling down at your phone. he knocks gently, making you turn your head towards the door. you were in your pyjamas, attire completely casual, unlike the professional clothing you always wore. you did not expect anyone at this hour, especially him. everyone knew not to disturb you when you were jamming to your music at full volume, not that anyone had a problem.

your eyes widened comically, as you immediately ran to the corner of the room, hiding at a corner where he couldn’t look, trying to save whatever reputation you had left. how long was he standing there for? did he hear you playing the music? did he see you headbanging?

“hey! let me in. come on- are you hiding from me?” you hear him giggling outside the room. yea, reputation destroyed. you slowly appear in front of the door again, blush evident on your cheeks and the tips of your ears, opening the door slowly and stepping aside to let him in. he looks at you, completely amused by the contrast. the unbothered, bold persona you usually had breaking completely in front of him, hiding and feeling shy around him. how cute.

“what were you doing?” he looks at you, curious.

“oh-um, well i- um, me time. yea. me time” you flashed a sheepish smile at him, as if the entire bunker wasn’t shaking moments prior due to your music.

“yea? what were you doing in this ‘me time’?”

“...listening to music”

“i saw you from outside the window pane. looked a little more than just ‘listening to music’”

yea, he saw you headbanging and yelling, fuck.

“well, i was… enjoying myself”

“tell me more about it?” he looked at you with those wide, curious eyes, and you swear you might melt right then and there. you’re afraid you might do anything for him if he looked at you with those eyes.

“okay, so back on earth, there are different types of music. like types of music that sound different. some are soft and happy, some are melancholic and sad, some are soulful and calming. then there are the ones which are strong, with rhythmic heavy beats and strong music, and a lot of screaming.”

“why would they scream?”

“a lot of times to release frustrations about something. it's more like a type of singing. we have different types of singing back on earth. opera singing, metal screaming, throat singing, yodeling.”

neteyam was fascinated, hearing you with his head between his palms, sitting on the reverse side of your chair, looking at you with quiet awe. you always told him so much about the human world, and he wanted to know because his father was also a human, even if he doesn’t speak a lot about his world now. he hummed at your explanation.

“i saw you banging your head in the middle of the room. i was terrified” he says quietly after some time.

“oh- no no, it's just, the beats are so strong, and you can’t help but sway your head along with it, you know? i wasn’t hurting myself, i was having the best time of the day”

“yeah, i saw that later. you looked really happy”

“mhm, you should’ve told me before you came, i could’ve organised myself a bit more…” you say awkwardly, not used to him seeing you in your casual clothing, let alone in your smaller than usual pjs. he tilts his head as he analysis your outfit, his gaze softening.

“it's okay, i like this on you” he says with a genuine smile, and you cannot help but feel the blush rising on your cheeks and ears again. he notices that, of course he does.

“it’s fascinating how red you can get” he gives you a knowing look. oh, he knows the effect he has on you.

“shut it” you wanted to scream, but instead it came out as a defeated mutter. he giggled seeing your reaction again. oh, you were so reactive. seeing him giggle, you narrowed your eyes at him. he raises his arms in mock surrender.

“okay, but show me the music you listen to, i wanna hear it”

“you sure you wanna hear it? you might not like it”

“oh, i think i will, i was rocking my head along the beats with you”

“HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HERE FOR?!” from outside the room, people could now hear him and you jamming to heavy metal and screaming.

march 14, 2026

march 22, 2026

april 8, 2026

april 19, 2026