Reader Inserts

You crouched down to embrace him properly, cheek pressed against cheek. A deep inhale as you retained your composure. Everything was far from over, there was no time to break down. Not yet. You could feel Spider’s breath on you, something you had never been able to experience before. You were free to kiss his cheek, his forehead, wipe his tears away. Kiri had granted Spider with the capability to breath the air on Pandora. You were not sure how she did it, you had no desire to know, you were just grateful to have your son back in your arms knowing he was unharmed.

You placed a quick peck to Spider’s cheek before rising, walking him over to the river, “Come, this paint is dry and I want to be clean.” Spider started playing around in the water, kicking it over at Amay who shrieked back and playfully snapped her jaws at Spider’s feet.

Despite you running on pure negative emotions, you were able to crack a small smile at the sight, Spider hadn’t changed at least. He was still your playful little boy, always happy. Your ear twitched as you heard raised whispers, your head turning to see Jake and Neytiri speaking to each other with worry etched all over their faces. You frowned but shrugged it off, knowing their struggles they had much to be concerned about still.

You crouched down to start splashing water up your forearms, the dark paint masking your blue skin into an almost black. You managed to get your hands clean when Neytiri’s voice caught your attention. “(Y/N), would you walk with me?”

With hesitation, you rose to your full height. You glanced a look at Spider then towards Jake but he wasn’t looking at you. Neytiri looked nervous, it was very out of character for her. You were worried but you nodded, following her as she walked some way down the river bed. She waited until the both of you were out of sight from the boys before turning to face you. Her hands shook and her eyes were glazed with unshed tears. “Neytiri? What troubles you, sister?”

She gasped, dropping to her knees to scrub her hands and face in the water. You frowned, slowly lowering into a squat position, “Neytiri?” You tried again but she gave no answer. Her hands scrubbed and scrubbed until the red paint from her face ran down her hands. A broken sob as she stared in horror at the sight. You snarled, grabbing the woman by the shoulders, “Enough, what is it?!”

Neytiri looked at you, guilt written all over her face. “He’s going to kill him..he’s going to kill Spider.”

In a flash you were on your feet, sprinting back to where the Ikran’s were. Your heart raced when there was no sight of either of them. Red clouded your vision, bursting through the treeline. Rocks and mud flicked behind you as your feet pounded against the ground. Trees scraping against your skin didn’t even register to you as you ran, desperate to get to your son. You could hear him pleading. He was close. Oh Eywa, how you roared as you took in the sight of Jake holding the back of Spider’s neck, knife by his side. Hissing, you leapt forward, tackling Jake to the ground to release his hold on Spider.

You would kill him for this. You rolled off Jake just to pounce on him again, your arms swinging as you threw punch after punch to his chest, face, throat, anywhere you could reach. Your nails clawed at his arms, he brought them up to cover his face. You cried out, leaning back to slam your hands down against his stomach, making him raise his upper body off the floor enough to grab his kuru, yanking it hard to bring him onto his knees as you leapt onto your feet. Your other hand an iron grip on his throat. His hands came up to pull at your wrists.

“Stop! Stop! Mom!” Mom, your brain recognised Spider’s voice and hesitated. You looked over your shoulder to see Spider kneeling there, unharmed. Neytiri ran through the trees, panting as she knelt down by Spider. Tears fell down her cheeks as she cupped Spider’s face in her hands, “I..see you.”

You dropped Jake, stepping back, anger and hurt rising to the surface though they were already bubbling just beneath your skin. You bared your teeth as you snarled, “You see him now? After all he has done to prove himself to you? To the clan? You never saw him as one of us did you? I have always seen him! He is a part of me and you were ready to just discard him, kill him like an animal!” Neytiri let her tears fall as she turned away from you, the truth of your words hit like knives in her chest. You craned your neck to turn to Jake, “You may be my Olo’eyktan, but I would fight even the Great Mother herself should she let any harm befall him.”

Jake raised his hands in surrender, his breath heavy as he leaned back onto his heels. “If the sky people figured out how to breathe this air, it would be over for all Na’vi. I had to… I thought if I…” he turned to look at Spider, “but I couldn’t do it. He is one of us. Not them.”

You swallowed, from a logical point you might have been able to understand their side of things, but from where you stood, you were a mother who’d just found her son been pinned down and held for slaughter, an innocent boy who wanted nothing more than peace for your kind. Your eyes hardened, “You touch him again and I will make cloth from your skin.”

Jake nodded, perhaps it was the Mangkwan paint or maybe the undiluted rage in your eyes but you were terrifying right now. He knew his wife could be a whole new level of scary but you appeared utterly formidable. He let out a breath as he slowly rose onto his feet. You walked over to Spider, encasing him in your arms tightly, feeling him immediately tighten his own arms around you.

A feeling of uncertainty ran through you, could you even trust your own people now? They have proven that Spider would not be safe with them so long as the sky people reside here. Could you have faith in their word that they wouldn’t change their minds once again?

Tensions settled somewhat, an unspoken agreement to not speak about what just occurred. The four of you headed back to the river bed. You had too much weighing on you. If this whole situation wasn’t bad enough, you still hadn’t decided what to do with Quaritch. He’d gotten himself in deep with the Mangkwan clan. ‘He’s probably gotten himself deep in Varang too’ you thought, the idea causing your lips to twist into a scowl.

Something had changed with him, some kind of sickness was spreading fast inside him. He had grown more and more obsessed with wanting to bring Jake Sully down that he had teamed up with the Mangkwan tribe. Their Tsahik, Varang, had somehow managed to get him hooked around her finger. She was deranged, violent and impulsive. You took little comfort in the notion that she was practically a crazy version of you.

It had felt good to hear Neytiri was close to cutting her kuru off, you’d wished she had. And scalped her too, for good measure. You would leave it for Quaritch to find when he returned to the hut.

It bothered you that it bothered you. You couldn’t help but feel this irrational jealousy. He had whispered fairytales of a family into your mind only to tear them apart at the first chance. He had you, both of you, but his actions drove you away from him.

You’d pressed a gentle kiss to the top of Spider’s mask where his forehead was before jumping onto the back of Amay to fly. She was antsy as she flew, you could feel her irritation at feeling crowded in although you weren’t sure if it was your own feelings mirrored back to you through the bond. You kept your eyes locked on Quaritch and Spider, they were talking an awful lot.

That pang of hurt clutched at your chest once again. Your gaze hardened as you looked ahead, the vast area of land stretching out in front of you. The thick collar around your neck vibrated against your skin. Another condition. You’d been coerced into wearing a comms device so the team, mainly Quaritch, would be able to keep in contact with you.

Your hand came up to click the buttons as instructed to hear what came through. “Boss, long range patrol picked up a radar hit. A rogue gunship.” Wainfleet’s voice echoed through the device.

“Where?” Quaritch’s voice now joined in through the speaker.

“Eastern sea. Four hundred clicks north.” Your brow furrowed as you mapped out the area in your head. Confusion came over you, that was the metkayina clans. They had zero contact with the sky people. What was going on?

“Uh huh. Hang on.” You glanced ahead to see Wainfleet and Quaritch diving to the left and you followed suit. You realised after roughly ten minutes of flying that you were headed back towards the RDA base. Your teeth gritted at the thought of being locked up in that white room again. Everything was too small, too crowded, too human.

Eventually you reached the base, landing much more gracefully than the others. You hopped off Amay, placing a comforting hand against her thick neck and whispering for her to stay close. The hairs on the back of your neck stood up, a feeling of dread settling into the pit of your stomach as you walked towards Spider. Your son met you halfway, grabbing on to your outstretched hand. “It’s okay, he agreed not to let us be separated.”

You only nodded, letting Spider take the lead and increased your speed to walk up front. You found yourself between Wainfleet and Quaritch as they strode with purpose, faces hard and jaws clenched. Your eyes darted around the surroundings, seeing lots of sky people in uniforms staring at you, murmuring to each other. There was a lot of noise around you but you managed to pick up a few words, ‘practically naked’, ‘barefoot’, ‘dirty loincloth’, ‘savage’.

Savage. You’d heard that word before used to describe your species. It was ironic coming from the people who did nothing but destroy your planet. They heartlessly tore apart the homes of thousands of Omaticaya, hunted your sacred animals, polluted the air and waters, brought destruction and death with every move and yet because you did not conform to their idea of how someone should dress, you were the savage.

Your hand tightened around Spider’s momentarily as you were brought through to a large area, one tall enough you weren’t straining your back crouching over in thankfully. Wainfleet held his arm out in front of you effectively making you halt as Quaritch continued forward himself to stand in front of a blonde female human and a few others by her side.

Your ears strained as you heard them exchange greetings. A few beeps and a large holographic map of Pandora appeared, Quaritch navigating through to circle an area further past the oceans. He stepped into the projection, “The signal was intermittent and they lost it over open water, but… if you project the track, it hits this island group.”

The blonde general placed her hands on her hips as she argued back, “That’s hundreds of islands. That’s a big search box with lots of villages.”

“This is our guy. You give me ships and aircraft, I’ll bring you back his scalp.” Your brow furrowed in confusion, you knew he was talking about Jake Sully. What was he doing all the way out there amongst the Metkayina clans? Who had taken over as Olo’eyktan? What had happened in your time apart? It had only been a week.

The general sighed, “Alright, there‘s a ship heading that way, departing in about 45 minutes. Captain’s name is Scoresby, he’ll be your guide.” She turned to look at you and Spider over her shoulder. You tilted your head up slightly as you frowned at her, inching closer to Spider.

“You can take the kid, but it’s time to send the hostile back.” Your eyes widened at the thought of being separated from your son. Spider moved to stand in front of you, crossing his arms over his chest. Quaritch cleared his throat as he took a step closer to the woman. “Unfortunately General, they’ve made it clear they come as a package deal. I need the kid and he won’t cooperate without her.”

The general’s face hardened as she also took a step closer, your ears twitching as you could just make out her words. “He’s not your son, Colonel. Take them and go before I change my mind.”

Your eyes narrowed as you saw Quaritch’s jaw clench, his lips curling into a frown before standing up straight and walking away from the human woman. Her words clearly bothered him in a way you wouldn’t expect. Did he really see Spider as his son? It was getting harder and harder to form definitive opinions on Quaritch. He waved to his soldiers for them to follow and you hand your bicep grabbed by Wainfleet as he escorted you back outside. You yanked your arm out of his grip, hissing, “I know where I am going.”

You were herded back to ikrans, a thought niggling in the back of your mind. If Quaritch was every bit the heartless mission-driven soldier he claimed to be, he could have complied with the general’s orders. Spider, as much as you didn’t want to picture him like this, would not be strong enough to hold up against the recom soldiers should he disobey orders. You would not have been able to take them all down before most likely being shot with a tranquilliser dart. He could have sent you away, you held no extra leverage. That left two answers. One, he was trying to gain favour with Spider in allowing him to have his mom stay by his side. Two, Quaritch wanted/needed you around for some reason. The ridiculousness of the notion had you shaking your head. It was clear to you now, in the worst way you’d seen, Quaritch cared for Spider. He himself may not realise it but you did. You still didn’t like him but you couldn’t hate him for that.

The ride to the ship didn’t take long, Quaritch signalling all riders to land with a simple raise of his fist. You hopped off your Ikran and headed to Spider who waited at the edge of the roof for you. You jumped down onto the deck, turning back to offer a helping hand to your son but he was already dangling off the side, letting go to land the three feet distance only to jump straight onto the metal railing. You scoffed at his triumphant grin, shrugging his shoulders in a typical Spider way that said, ‘See? I can do anything you guys can’, you’d seen it too many times to count.

You playfully went to pinch at his shoulder but he successfully batted your arm away making you laugh softly. You saw Quaritch turn to look at you from the corner of your eye but when you raised your head he turned away, facing the skyperson who had his arms crossed.

“You Scoresby?”

“I am. Are you the arsehole that’s commandeering my ship?” Scoresby’s bluntness made you snicker, facing your head down so it wasn’t as obvious. Your laughing set off spider who turned his face against your stomach to hide it, though his shaking shoulders gave it away.

He glanced back at the two of you before turning back to face Scoresby, his hand resting on his belt. You expected him to get angry, make a harsh comment to the man. He only quirked his lip and replied, “That would be me.”

Spider came over to you as you sat on the railing, placing an arm around your shoulders to whisper against your ear, “Well at least he’s self aware.” You snickered again but was quick to compose yourself, masking your amusement with a blank expression as you once again found yourself under Quaritch’s intense stare.

Quaritch trailed Scoresby inside the ship while the rest of the recom troop stayed outside on the deck. Spider jumped off the railing, grabbing your hand and pulling you to follow them inside, “Come on.” You had to duck quite low to not hit your head on the ceiling. As the men gathered around the projection screen in the middle of the control room, you crouched down at the side behind the other skyperson you assumed was in charge. He looked to be a very anxious man.

Crouching was no good, you moved to kneel, your head still above all the sky people in the room but at least you wouldn’t have to worry about knocking yourself out by standing up too much. Spider left your side to peek at the projections.

“The targets pretty much this whole island group.”

“Never been up there. You know those waters doc, what kind of indigenous we got?” Scoresby nodded to the other man across the map.

“Uh Metkayina mostly. Some Ta’unui. Maybe fifty villages.” He seemed like a very anxious man, it was quite unsettling to be around.

“And you are who?”

“Oh. Uh Ian Garvin. Marine biologist.” Garvin lifted his hand for Quaritch to shake but he ignored him, waving away as he spoke. Garvin slowly lowered his hand down, probably embarrassed.

“Fifty villages. A hundred villages. I don’t care we’ll search ‘em all.”

“I hunt tulkun. It’s what I’m rigged for, it’s all my guys do. I’ve got quotas to meet.” Your face twisted into a scowl at the notion of these demons hurting more sacred creatures. Why couldn’t they just leave everything alone?

“I’ll be nice once. Then I won’t.”

“Well if you can’t get out of it, get into it. All teams to stations!” And with that, Quaritch had taken control over the ship. He turned to look at you, a triumphant smirk on his face but you just rolled your eyes. You weren’t impressed that he vaguely threatened some sky people into doing his bidding, just look at the size of him compared to them, of course they would listen.

Garvin seemed to realise your presence behind him and cleared his throat stretching out his hand after looking you up and down. “Uh, Ian Garvin. Marine biologist?”

You raised a hairless brow as you slowly wrapped your hand around his, “You do not seem so sure.” His hand was too small to embrace the width of yours so it felt awkward in comparison to the way Quaritch’s hand felt against yours.

“Sorry, I’m just nervous. I’ve never met an indigenous before. Are you from the Olangi tribe?” You gave him an amused half smile, slightly caught off guard by his interest in you.

“I am Omaticaya.” Garvin’s face lit up with awe, “Ah I should have guessed, the fibres of your top is made from rain thistle right?” You glanced down at your top and it was indeed mostly rain thistle. You scoffed in surprise, “Yes, that is correct. You know much for a human.” Garvin shrugged, “It’s all part of my job, ma’am.”

Ma’am. You’d heard Quaritch use it to speak to that blonde woman. Did it have any significance or was it just a formal term for women for these people? Either way you weren’t sure you liked it. A turn of your head and you caught Quaritch staring at the two of you, having watched your entire interaction. His face was blank but the way his knuckles were turning pale blue from clenching the railing so hard told a different story. You got up and walked out of the room starting to feel the need for fresh air and since you didn’t have a mask like Quaritch and Lyle did, you had to head out.

…

Two weeks. It had been just two weeks and you were ready to pull your hair out from stress, boredom, madness. Any of them could fit your situation. It brought your mind back to a phrase you’d heard Spider mention after a trip to the outpost to visit the scientists. Cabin fever. Your memory was vague but you were sure it had something to do with feeling caged in.

You were sat on the deck with your legs dangling over the side of the ship as your arms rested on the railing that came up to your lower chest height. You had the sudden urge to bang your head against the metal just to do something. You weren’t allowed to sit in with meetings; apparently your constant hissing and snarling at Scoresby for bragging about killing Tulkun was ‘scaring the others’. Good. They should be scared, if you had your way they would all be hung for their crimes against Eywa.

Quaritch was confusing you again. He was always staring at you even when you scowled at him, hissed at him, baring your teeth did nothing anymore. It just seemed to amuse him, stupidly grinning back at you like it was all some kind of inside joke he’d forgotten to tell you about. Even flicking your tail at him didn’t seem to have the same effect. In fact, you had to stop doing that.

A couple days ago you’d been walking around the far-too-short deck to try and stretch your legs when Quaritch strode over to you, Spider in tow. “I don’t like these people either, but you keep causing problems and we’ll have to throw you overboard, cupcake.” You’d hissed at him and brought your tail up to whip at his thigh when you walked past. Seconds later you’d felt a sharp sting against your hip as his tail smacked against your skin. You’d gasped and spun around, only to meet his smug smirk, “Tit for tat, princess.” You’d had no words, too stunned to speak and resorted to storming off to the other side of the ship. Spider had been conflicted, it wasn’t often he’d seen anyone who riled up his mom so much, he wasn’t really sure if this was a good or bad thing anymore.

So yes, you had decided to refrain from using your tail against him, not wanting him to think you wanted to play along with his silly game. But then, you thought, would you be giving control to him by not doing it? You placed your head in your hands, letting out a deep sigh.

Spider stood next to you, leaning his elbows on the railing backwards. “You okay mom?”

“I don’t know if I can take much more of this torment. It is horrible being stuck on this tiny ship! There is no space! The people are dreadful and Quaritch. Ugh, that man drives me to the brink of insanity!”

Spider chewed on the inside of his cheek before crouching down by your side. “What if I told you we could sneak out tonight?” You raised your head, eager but wary to hear out your son. He continued, “I’ve been spying on their rotations and I think I’ve figured out everyone’s schedules. Between 1 and 3 in the morning there aren’t any recoms keeping watch, just humans. If we can knock them out then we can escape!”

You brought your hands up to either side of Spider’s mask to pull his head forward as you pressed multiple kisses against his mask. “Oh my genius son. You are incredible! Let’s do it.” Spider grinned up at you and you grinned right back, feelings of hope and joy blooming inside you at the prospect of finally going home.

Spider sat by you for a little while longer before curiosity got the better of him and he walked over to one of the sky people using the guns to ask him lots of questions. You shook your head, typical Spider, always so curious, he was full of questions all the time. Even when he first learned to speak all he wanted to do was mostly point at different things and ask “what is that, mama?” It was adorable and you still thought so.

You’d not been able to sleep, well not even without the potential jail break. You’d been given a weird puffy rectangle to lie on in a very small room. It was uncomfortable and you woke up with a new crick in your neck every morning. You were very glad to be leaving.

It was now one in the morning, you could tell from the clock that was inside the room. Spider had pointed it out to you and told you that when the two lines pointed in certain directions that that meant it was time to go. You quietly got up, opening your door and closing it behind you. You had to crouch down very low in these corridors, even the tallest humans would feel claustrophobic in these halls. You took a breath from the mask around your neck that Spider had demanded you to be given when he found out you were to sleep inside the ship with the oxygen rich air.

You crept along the hallways, there was no one walking around but you heard some rustling inside the rooms to your left and right. You’d made it to the top deck and out onto the roof without any interruptions. Your dark blue skin blended in nicely with the night sky against the dark grey metal. Your yellow eyes were trained on the oblivious human guard walking up the opposite set of stairs to get onto the top deck. You crouched down low, shushing Amay so she didn’t alert anyone to your position. You watched Spider come up the same stairs behind him.

He was quiet but not quiet enough. You winced as the guard spun around, “Hey, Kid! You’re not authorised to be here at this time. Get back inside!” Spider smirked, lazily raising his hands in the air in surrender as he watched you silently step off the roof to creep up behind the guard. Spider tilted to the side, making it very obvious that the guard should look behind him. When he did, you slowly raised to your full height as you snarled at him, exposing your sharp fangs. The man stumbled back, arms flailing to reach for the gun at his hip but you grabbed him by his safety vest, yanking him off his feet.

“Make no sound and I will let you go.” Too scared, or too stupid, the man ignored your words and began to scream. You grunted in frustration, fingers going to unhook his mask leaving him struggling to breathe. “I said be quiet!” You shouted in a hushed tone. This man was proving to be incredibly useless and weak. He choked and wriggled to get his mask on. You hissed, placing his mask back on, only giving him enough time to regain consciousness before throwing him out overboard. Spider laughed behind his fist, “Damn mom, not quite the distraction I meant but I’ll take it.”

You shrugged your shoulders in a similar fashion to your son’s. You reached down to lift spider up onto the roof and watched as he walked over to Amay. Your ikran nudged him with her head, recognising him as your son through your bond. Spider smiled and petted her neck as you lifted yourself up to climb on top. Just as you brought your legs up, a strong hand wrapped around your ankle and yanked you back. You fell down onto the floor, groaning as your head hit the side of the wall.

“Oh fuck,” you cursed under your breath as you looked up at Quaritch from your position on the floor. He had his hands on his hips and his face told you that he was no less than outraged at the situation he’d caught you in. Spider rushed over to the edge, crying out as he saw you, “Mom! Are you okay?”

“Just what in the fuck do you two think you’re doing?” Quaritch’s voice had you gritting your teeth as you moved to stand back up. Before you could get in his face, he pushed a hand flat against your collarbone, slamming you against the wall to pin you there. “C’mon I ain’t got all night, cupcake.”

Spider quickly jumped down to push at Quaritch’s stomach to try and ease him off you. “Hey! Stop it, it..it was my idea alright?! We were getting restless being cooped up on this fucking ship so I asked my mom to take me for a little night ride. We were gonna be back in like an hour.”

“You expect me to believe that crock of shit? I expect better from you boy.”

“It is true! What’s the point in leaving, you’d just track me down anyway remember?” He tapped against his mask hoping that Quaritch wouldn’t remember he’d changed his mask when he got on the ship so it was no longer traceable. Quaritch kept his eyes on you as he questioned Spider but you remained silent. Just glaring, your hands twitching by your sides wishing you had your knife to dig into his ribs.

“And the overboard crew member? Explain that.”

“He was being an ass to me. Threatening me. He deserved it.” Quaritch’s jaw clenched as the corner of your mouth twitched upwards into a smirk. His lips pursed into a scowl before letting you go, taking a step back. He looked at you then down to Spider. He placed his hands on his hips and nodded once, “Alright then. I could use some breathing space myself. You want some freedom, then I’m coming wit’cha. Need to keep my eyes on you. No funny business.”

His eyes burned into your own, waiting for some kind of defiance, but you gave him nothing. You merely forced a smile, “Fine.” Quaritch let go of you, gesturing for Spider to climb back up onto the roof. Spider turned and gave you a worried glance before climbing up, you following and pulling your kuru over your shoulder as you walked to Amay.

“We’re taking mine. Any arguments with that and you can go back down into that closet for the night.” You gritted your teeth as you let your kuru fall from your hands, turning to look at Quaritch’s ikran. It screeched under the attention although you refrained from looking in his eyes. Quaritch reached back to grab his kuru, making tsahaelu. He jerked his head in the direction of his Ikran, Spider making the first move over. He jumped up to sit high up, near the base of the Ikran’s neck. You froze in place, trying to figure out if this was going to be worth it. Spider waved you over and your feet moved instinctively. You batted away Quaritch’s offered hand, placing one hand on the Ikran’s back to jump over. It had been a long time since you last flew on an Ikran other than Amay.

Finally, Quaritch threw his leg over to sit behind you and the ikran jerked forward to push all three of you closer to together. One arm wrapped around Spider’s waist while the other held on to the harness he’d tied around the ikran’s body. “Hiyah!” Quaritch cried out and the ikran shot off with another screech. You held your breath as the movement shot you back against Quaritch’s chest. No words came from his mouth though on instinct he moved to place a strong arm around your own stomach, between you and Spider.

The anxiousness of being in such close contact with Quaritch faded as you felt the wind through your hair and blowing against your skin. He brought his ikran higher and higher in the sky until you could barely make out the ship below. Spider cheered, holding his hands up in the air knowing he was safe with your hold on him. Your son started to yip and you couldn’t resist from joining in, shouting out into the air as the Ikran swooped down and around in a large circle motion before returning to its original height.

You’d almost forgotten Quaritch was there, having fun with your son had you reminiscing about all the times you’d taking him flying previously. “Man, this is so cool! Do a loop!”

Quaritch’s chuckle in your ear brought you back to reality as his grip tightened around your waist, “Hold on tight,” he spoke in your ear before you felt the Ikran turning straight up. Your arms locked around Spider as you were turning upside down before the world around you straightened out. Spider whooped, throwing his fists in the air. You were silent, your mind only focusing on the way his hand was splayed against your stomach, keeping you close to him. His palm was warm but to you it was as though it was burning into your skin to leave a permanent branding.

You could feel your heart race as you were overcome with nerves, but what for? You pressed your lips together to remain quiet but then his fingers started to move. It was slow and barely noticeable at first but you could feel his thumb brushing back and forth over your skin. You swallowed, gripping his hand to tear it off you.

You might have pushed his arm a little too hard, he wobbled as he tried to regain balance. His ikran felt his slight distress and shook as he tried to look back at his rider. You cried out as you were pulled to the side by gravity, hand slipping off the hardness. Suddenly the ikran quickly turned the opposite way to bounce you back up before levelling out. Quaritch’s hand was back, on your hip now, his ring and pinky finger laid against your thigh. He felt you tense under his touch. A cocky grin stretched over his lips as he pressed up against you. You weren’t hiding how much you hated this at all, so of course he had to try and push your buttons further.

“Relax cupcake, I’ve got you.” His voice was low, whispered directly into your ear, spider was unlikely to hear with no doubt the wind causing lots of noise against his mask. You recalled many times he hadn’t even heard you shouting at him to get his attention while riding in wind,

You turned your head, straining your neck to glare at him, channeling all your rage through your eyes. He only grinned at you. It made you all the more infuriated.

“You do not have me. You will never have me.” Quaritch still stayed smiling as if he was hearing something other than your actual words. It caused a hiss of frustration to slither out your mouth.

“I’ve got Spider. That means I’ve got you too. We’re still playing happy families right?”

Quaritch released his hold on you to reach ahead and hold Spider’s arm up higher, “That’s it son!”

Son.

It hit you hard. Especially as Spider looked back his face full of awe and joy as he whooped back to Quaritch, his father.

You frowned as the tears came rushing to your eyes. You blinked them away before the wind could force them out. You opted to stay silent. Soon after, the wind died down and the flight was peaceful. So peaceful that Spider had begun to slump in your arms. You peaked around his shoulder to see that he had fallen asleep. You scoffed in amusement, moving him into a more comfortable position.

Quaritch took that as a sign to turn back, you couldn’t recall how long you’d been out there perhaps maybe a couple hours, maybe longer maybe shorter, you had struggling to keep a focused mind while sadness consumed you. After landing, Quaritch made it clear to you that he had noticed. Quaritch got off the ikran then carefully took Spider from your arms so you could dismount as well. When you moved to grab your son back, he stepped back to gain your attention.

You hissed softly as your head turned up to glare at him, “I do not have patience for your games.”

“You wanna tell me what the hell that was about?”

You bared your teeth, “I do not know what you speak of. Give me my son.”

Quaritch chuckled, “Ah there we go. You’re jealous Spider’s warming up to me. You didn’t think he would want to know his own father.”

Your hurt reached its boiling point. “You are not his father! You have not been any kind of parent to him. He is my son! My.. my child.” Your voice cracked with emotion and you tried to swallow the lump forming in your throat. “I have taken care of him for his whole life and you think you can try to steal him from me. Eywa knows I would gut you inside out before I let that happen.”

Quaritch shifted Spider so he was only in one arm leaning against his chest. He placed his now free hand on his hip. “I ain’t tryna steal him from you. I’ll admit, I didn’t like the idea of a hostile raising my boy…but I’ve seen how he acts around you. He trusts you. Protects you just as much as you protect him. Loves you.”

He took a deep breath while you could feel your body heaving, too many emotions firing off inside you leaving you short of breath. He continued, “Hell, I don’t think he’d want nothing to do with me if I took him away from you.”

You frowned, “I do not understand what you’re saying.” You felt like there was more that wasn’t being said.

Quaritch took a step closer to you and grabbed your chin. His touch was unnaturally gentle given your past experiences. Your eyes widened. Frozen in anticipation, you couldn’t move, didn’t smack away his hand or anything. You just stood there, waiting. He grinned but it seemed softer somehow, gone of any malice behind it.

“He could be our son.” You recoiled, physically and mentally. What?! Your mouth hung open in shock, you hadn’t known what he would say but you would never have been able to guess that. He dropped his hand from your face, his grin dropping to a bemused smile as you stepped back. You acted on impulse, your ears pinning back as you bared your teeth at him, “Never speak such a thing to me again!” Your hands itched to do something. Take Spider, slap him, shake his head to straighten his thoughts, take his hand. Your eyes widened as you remembered the way his hands on you always sparked a warm feeling deep in your stomach. “Gah!” You snapped at him before jumping off the roof, storming down the stairs and practically having to crawl your way through the corridors to get back to your closet room.

As soon as the door shut behind you, you sat down with your knees up to your chest, head hitting back against the wall. Your eyes scrunched close before you covered your head with your hands. The Great Mother was relentless in testing your emotions. Images sparked in your mind from his words, visions of the three of you flying but this time all three of you were happy and laughing, you and Spider back in your hammock but both of you resting on Quaritch’s chest either side, a flash of a scene that began with you and Quaritch kneeling down together at the tree of souls. No. No. It was not to be. Never.

You needed to get away from this place. It was clearly driving you to madness, thinking such outrageous things.

Spider’s twitching went unnoticed in his father’s arms as he was carried inside. He had woken up in the middle of your shouting, hearing that you two had been arguing about him. He’d feigned sleep to hear what was being said, needing to feed into his curiosity. He was shocked by Quaritch’s move on his mom, but what truly surprised him was your response. The mom he knew four weeks ago would have jumped on Quaritch and tried to pluck his brain out through his eyeballs for such a thing. You barely yelled at him and stormed away. Concern filled Spider, things were getting complicated and the lines between pretending and reality, good and bad were getting blurrier.

Taglist:

You hadn’t hesitated to accept his offer, you loved spending time with the children and you knew Norm did as well. You were sat leaning back on a hammock with one leg tucked up and the other laid down with your foot touching the ground to slowly rock the hammock side to side. On your chest lay a babbling baby Tuk, the youngest and most recent addition to the Sully family. Your finger gently stroked her nose as you watched her eyes flutter shut before they quickly opened again. The process repeated as she tried to fight off the sleep taking over her tiny body. Finally, her eyes closed and did not open again, feeling her small puffs of breath against your skin. You held her close with one arm, the other relaxed by your side as you continued to rock yourself in the hammock.

You turned your head to see Norm holding Neteyam by his sides as he spun around, bending his knees to swoop the little boy through the air. An amused grin stretched over your lips as you watched Lo’ak and Kiri jump up and down waving their arms in the air as they pleaded to be the next one to have a turn.

You leaned further back slowly, making sure not to wake the sleeping Tuk cradled against your bosom. Your head rested against the netting of the hammock as you happily watched your husband play with all of the children. A warm feeling bloomed in your chest from the sight. You couldn’t help but picture it with little children that shared both yours and Norm’s features.

Norm had expressed to you about wanting kids before but you hadn’t been ready. But the sky people had been long gone now, peace and happiness was restored within the clan and you believed it was now a time you could safely bring up a family. You bit your lip as you tried to picture all the ways your husband would react to your news when you told him. Before you could get too lost in your daydreaming, a quiet gurgle brought your focus back to Tuk. She wiggled slightly, her nose scrunching up before her body flinched as she let out a little burp. Your chest vibrated with quiet laughter as she settled once more, cuddling into your warm embrace.

Your hand came up to stroke her tiny soft black hairs, eyes softening as you were overwhelmed with the desire to hold your own baby in your arms.

A few hours later and Norm had successfully managed to herd all of the children into their shared hammock to sleep and awaited the return of Jake and Neytiri. Your Olo’eyktan and his wife arrived not much longer after their children drifted off and Neytiri was first to hop over to you to take her sleeping baby off your hands. The couple thanked you profusely despite you insisting it was your pleasure before you finally took your leave.

Your hand was intertwined with Norm’s as you began your short walk back to your own sleeping area. A mischievous grin etched on your face as you turned, leading your husband down a different path. Norm furrowed his brow, “(Y/N)? Where are we going?” You only giggled at him over your shoulder as you continued to lead him towards the Tree of Souls. He was confused but let himself be guided to wherever you were taking him.

As you suspected, there was no one around. It was very late into the night and all of the clan would be sleeping at this time. Norm laughed at your grin but his face still looked very confused. His head tilted to the side as you slowed down, carefully walking through the makeshift path in the gaps of the tendrils until you reached the centre.

“Not that I don’t love coming here with you, but is there a reason we’re here so late at night?” You turned to face your husband, pressing your chests together as your arms came up to wrap around his broad shoulders. Your eyes gleamed in the bioluminescent light around you, a nervousness coming over you. Your hands shifted to run through Norm’s soft hair, it was more of a dark brown than a charcoal black like yours, another indicator of his avatar body.

You smiled as you looked into his eyes, “It was nice taking care of the children tonight. You certainly had your hands full.”

Norm matched your smile, his hands placing themselves on your hips, holding your warm body against his own. “Of course, they’re good kids. Jake’s a good friend I don’t mind helping him out.”

You bit your lip as you shifted your weight from one foot to the other, “Perhaps he could return the favour some day?” Norm’s brows scrunched as he processed your words, it was clear he was not understanding your subtle hint. You laughed as you tried again, “Ma Norm, I have been thinking that it is time to see if Eywa would deem us worthy of parenthood?”

Norm froze against you, worrying you as he didn’t even blink. You frowned, “Ma Norm?”

“Do you mean it?!” His whole face lit up as he leaned back to hold onto your shoulders, crouching a little to be face to face with you. You giggled as you nodded. Norm laughed, his arms encasing around your waist as he lifted you into the air and spun you around. A surprised squeal came out of you as he held you close, gently placing you on the ground. His hands came up to hold your face, leaning down to kiss you passionately. Your own hands came up to his chest as you bunched up his shirt in your fists.

“Yawne, I have waited so long to hear you say those words.” Norm’s confession made you blush, a flirtatious grin on your face as you teasingly dragged your fingers down his torso to hook your fingers into the waistband of his shorts.

“Then it would be cruel of me to make you wait any longer, dear husband.”

Norm could’ve easily been convinced he had died and was living out his dreams within Eywa at that moment. He could feel his heart racing as he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you in once again to encase your lips with his own. He slowly lowered himself to the ground, sitting back on his knees, lifting you up to sit on his lap as your legs spread to rest either side of his hips.

Your hands held his face as his neck was curved to look up at you. Turning his head to the side, you began peppering soft kisses against the side of his long neck. His arms tightened around your waist and back, holding you close to him. His shaky breaths urged you to pull more sounds from him, your teeth gently scraping over his skin earned you a quiet gasp.

Your hand moved back to fist into his hair, tugging firmly the way you knew he liked. “You will be such a good father, I shall be proud to carry our children.” Norm’s hands dug into the skin of your waist, his hips rolling up against yours to force a sharp moan from you.

In an instant you found yourself being laid on your back, legs open wide as Norm wedged himself between your thighs. His head dipped down to brush his nose against your neck, your head instinctively turning to give him more access to it. Your action was rewarded with a trail of open mouthed kisses leading down to your collarbone.

Norm’s hand pressed against your flat stomach, raising his head back up to speak in your ear, “You’ll be so beautiful when you’re pregnant. I know it. Can’t wait to see you full with my child. Have everyone see that you’re mine.” A shiver ran down your spine as your eyes darkened with lust. Norm wasn’t the jealous type and you didn’t want him to be, but sometimes during your intimate moments he would whisper these things to you that came from an entirely different personality. He was possessive and greedy and raw and you loved it.

A needy whine filled the air as your hands pulled on the fabric of his shirt, trying to take it off his back. He lifted away from you just long enough to yank the material off his torso and throw it to the side, immediately replacing the empty space with his body once again. His fingers carefully lifted the bindings of your top over the swelling of your breasts, exposing them to the evening air. Your back arched as his mouth latched onto a hardened nipple, his thumb brushing over the other.

Fingers laced between his hair, keeping his face smushed against your chest. Your hips wriggled underneath him as you tried to relieve the growing ache between your legs. Soft moans egged Norm on as he rolled his hips against your own, grinning around your nipple as you spread your legs even wider, “Ma Norm, please.”

“I know sweetheart.” His head switched to your other breast, long fingers ghosting over your stomach to reach for the ties of your tewng. You raised your hips to allow him to pull the material off your body, discarding it to the side somewhere with his shirt. You didn’t care where, more focused on his hand that gently caressed the underneath of your thigh. His hand moved lower and lower, a deep groan of relief came from your throat as he finally touched you there.

“So wet already.” His lips mumbled against your skin as he came back up to kiss at your neck. You moaned when his fingers slid between your pussy to circle your clit. Your hips bucked, enjoying the feeling but wanting him to touch you lower.

“Next time, tìyawn, I need you now.” You brought your hand down to encase his wrist, pushing it lower. He was only too eager to comply with your wishes. One finger entered with ease, pulling it out to guide two fingers in on the second motion. He rose to rest on the elbow of his unoccupied arm, eyes glued to your face taking in every reaction.

You were always beautiful to him, but when you were like this, it was something else entirely. The way your skin glowed in the light from the tree of souls, your eyes closed, long eyelashes splayed against your cheeks. Full lips parted into a moan as he curled his fingers inside of you. A sound between a whine and a sob as your head tilted back showing him the extended curve of your neck. You were ethereal.

“Please, tìyawn, more.” The hunger in your voice had him moving to shuffle out of his shorts, kicking the offending material down his legs and off his body. He kneeled between your legs, hand stroking his hard length once, twice. Your eyes opened to lock onto his, so full of love and lust, he couldn’t take it any longer.

Leaning over, he guided himself to your entrance bucking his hips forward to push the tip inside.

“Fuck” Norm groaned as your mouth opened wide in a silent moan, hands raising over your head to grab at the blades of grass. He opened his legs wider to lower his hips, filling you more and more with his cock until his pelvis was flush against yours. One hand came up to interlock against yours above your head as the other reached behind his head to pull his kuru over his shoulder. With a shaky hand, you managed to reach for your own, lifting the end of your braid to expose the tendrils. A shared breathless gasp had you both panting softly as you made tsaheylu, the pleasure heightening to an intense level that almost brought you over the edge already.

You shifted your hips to indicate to him that you were ready for him to move. Norm gritted his teeth as he rolled his hips. The action scraped a moan from your mouth that he was only too eager to swallow up into his kiss, taking advantage of your parted lips to slide his tongue into your mouth. He shifted to lean down on his arm, your stomachs sliding against each other with the thin layer of perspiration that covered your bodies. Your hands came up around his sides to grab on to his shoulder blades.

“You feel amazing sweetheart. You’re so tight, squeezing my cock. So good for me.” Norm’s incessant need to talk certainly had its perks at times. You couldn’t speak, trusting your moans and cries of pleasure would show him the effect he was having on you. A five fingered hand gripped tight on your hip, holding you down as he increased the pace.

Your nails dug into his blue skin earning you a rough growl and a sharp thrust of his hips. Your back arched almost painfully as your body chased the approaching high.

A whiny sob of pleasure, “Ma Norm, I can’t.. not gonna last much longer.” A gentle nuzzle against your neck followed by a soft kiss, “Me either, it’s okay.”

He sat up, hands gripping your thighs to pull you back onto his cock with every thrust. The wet slap of your skin echoed into your ears flushing your face with a purple blush. “Ah, ah!” Your moans grew louder and louder as the knot in your stomach tightened.

“That’s it honey, come on, cum with me. You can take it.” Tears gathered in the corners of your eyes, toes curling as your orgasm wracked through your body. Your pussy clenched tightly around him, his hips slamming harshly into yours with one last powerful thrust. His seed was warm as it spilled inside you.

Heavy pants came from both of you as you slowly recovered from your highs. Norm’s arms shook as he struggled to hold up his body weight. He wrapped his arms around you, rolling onto his back and pulling you on top of him. Your head rested against his heaving chest, ear listening to the fast drum of his heart beat. You sighed contently, having mostly caught your breath back. “Well that was fun.” Norm’s chest shook as he laughed, his hand raising to brush the loose hairs away from your face.

“Do you think it worked?” You grinned in amusement, “So impatient, tìyawn. We can’t possibly know until my next bleed.” An unsatisfied sigh had you rolling your eyes at his silliness. You lifted your head to meet his eyes.

“I wonder who they will take after the most.” Norm hummed in response, his hand continuing to stroke your hair. He felt your contentment through your joined kurus, making him smile. “I hope they have your beauty and caring nature.”

You smiled warmly, “And I wish for them to have your intelligence and clever wit.” Norm blushed, his cheeks turning a faint purple colour. You continued, “But I will be happy no matter what because they will be a product of our love. I will pray to the Great Mother to find us worthy.”

It just wasn’t fair. And it certainly didn’t help that Jake felt the need to brag about having a ‘date with the chief’s daughter’. He knew he shouldn’t question it, be grateful for the opportunities he was already granted but it was hard to feel fortunate when his wildest dream was handed to someone else right in front of his face.

He’d been on another routine excursion with Grace, Trudy and Max for samples when they’d brought up Jake. Grace was excited, he knew that she saw this as a way to get back in with the Omaticaya. She should count herself lucky that she had gotten the chance to be one with the people at all. Of course, Norm couldn’t hold anything against Grace, he knew what happened wasn’t her fault and yet the guilt ate her up every day. Jake filled her with so much hope she couldn’t help but bring it up at every opportunity. Like this afternoon.

Norm was a little embarrassed at how quickly he’d gotten upset. Well, more annoyed really, his jealousy had tipped over the edge when Grace brought the whole thing up again and he’d stormed off without thinking. Grace tried to call him back but he waved her off, shouting that he needed some space.

Frustrated and needing to calm down, he walked and walked, steps heavy as his anger was channelled through his every move. They grew softer after a while and at last he came to a stop, taking a deep breath in through his nose. Norma looked down at his watch. Oh shit. He’d been walking for an hour. He sat down on a large tree root next to him, resting his elbows on his knees to place his head in his hands. He would head back in a moment, he just needed to compose himself. He sighed and rolled his neck, unaware of the pair of yellow eyes on him.

You had always been a curious thing. You couldn’t help it. Admittedly you know you were a little too far past clan territory but you were a grown woman, you were more than capable of taking care of yourself especially since you had your bow and arrows with you. Speaking of, you’d first aimed them towards the skyperson when you first locked eyes on him. But there was something about him that made you hesitate. Maybe it was his overwhelming emotions that he clearly wore on his sleeves. Perhaps his soft features or the way he gently moved around the nature surrounding him opposed to the way other sky people only knew to destroy and make their own path.

You’d tucked your weapon away, following him up in the trees. He was clearly upset about something and that curious itch of yours grew stronger. Your movements were silent and graceful, leaping from branch to branch to keep up with his long strides. You’d came to halt with him as he sat down, your head tilted to the side as you took in his disheartened form.

Your tail swished behind you with intrigue, so many questions ran through your mind and you were eager for the answers. Your friend Neytiri had found a warrior skyperson and brought him to the clan with claims of a sign from Eywa. He did seem different from most skypeople but he was arrogant and cocky even as he stumbled through the forest like a confused baby. This skyperson in front of you also seemed different, he had a gentleness to him. One you hadn’t seen in another his kind except from Grace when you took part in her school program until a few years ago.

Finally you could bear it no more, you needed a closer look. You jumped down off your branch to land in a crouched position in front of him with a soft thud. It was loud enough to gain his attention and you watched his head snap up to meet yours. Your tail whipped around behind you, your head tilting to the side making your black hair fall off your shoulders. The man quickly raised his hands in a sign of surrender, standing up onto his feet, “I…I come in peace.” Oh? He could speak your mother tongue? How pleasant.

Your eyes narrowed in suspicion and you remained silent as you slowly rose to your full height, walking around him to check for any weapons. You didn’t see anything to raise concern, but it was rather amusing to watch him dart his head side to side as he followed your movements. You could even hear his heart beat, it was so loud and fast. He was scared.

You reached your spot back in front of him, raising your hairless brow, “What are you doing in these parts?” The skyman stammered as he answered your question, his hands still raised in the air, “U-Uh, I came to gather herbs to study.” You hummed in thought taking a step closer to him. He was tall, taller than most of the clan males and his features seemed softer up close. His hair was unbraided and simply tied back with his kuru. Your eyes glanced to his hands that were still in the air. You reached out and grabbed one of his hands, pulling it closer to you to inspect it, curious over his extra fingers.

“What is your name?” You glanced at him from the side watching at his face flushed, a purple hue covering his cheeks and the bridge of his nose as he stared at your hands on one of his own. You wouldn’t admit it but you thought it was cute how flustered he seemed to be.

“My name is Norm. Uh Norm Spellman.” You hummed contently, removing one of your hands on his to slowly place against his chest where you felt the racing drum of heart beneath his skin, though it was dulled through the fabric of his strange clothing. “Calm yourself. I do not wish to harm you…yet.” Your mouth curved into a half smirk that showed your amusement at his panicked state.

He let out a soft laugh, slowly bringing his hands down. He mentally cursed as he felt his face warming but he couldn’t help it. You were so close, another step forward and you would be chest to chest. It didn’t help that he thought you were so pretty. He nervously swallowed before trying to speak, “May I ask your name?”

You started to walk around him again, closer this time. Your hands wandered over his form, his broad shoulders, his lean arms, even daring to wrap his swinging tail around your forearm before pulling it away. Your voice was light with amusement, “Ah, you speak with such formality. My name is (Y/N).”

“That’s..that’s a very pretty name.” You beamed under his praise, smiling at him as you came back into his view. His cheeks were still purple as he looked at you. You grinned, exposing your teeth and small fangs noticing the way his eyes glanced down at your mouth before meeting your eyes again.

“Do you flatter all the women you meet this way?” Your eyes were drawn to his throat watching it bob as he swallowed. You didn’t usually act so brazen but something about this man was pulling you in. He seemed so different than any of the clan males who had yet to interest you. Surely it wouldn’t be so bad just to find out more about this man.

Norm’s eyes widened, “No no! I don’t meet many women.” He cursed himself for how lame that made him sound as you covered your soft snort of laughter with your palm. “I meant to say, you are the first true Na’vi woman I have met.”

You tilted your head upwards, “I should be honoured then, to be your first impression of us. How am I doing so far?”

Norm felt dizzy, he kept having to turn around to keep eye contact as you walking around him. He hadn’t been lying, he didn’t get much female attention not even as a human. To have you, a beautiful Na’vi woman, giving him such intense contact was frying his brain. He couldn’t, or didn’t want to take his eyes off you. “Amazing. I..I mean you’re beautiful.” He switched to English at the last two words assuming you wouldn’t be able to understand him.

The way you fluttered your eyelashes at him made him suspect otherwise. You grinned up at him, “Thank you, Norm. I also think you are very handsome.” Now he was really blushing, the purple tint spreading down to his neck. You’d moved closer now, practically pressed up against his chest. He awkwardly stumbled back a few steps before his back found itself pressed against a tree. You took slow steps to follow him, removing the distance again.

He was so shy and embarrassed, you just wanted to see how much you would be able to push him before he exploded. You placed your hand on his chest again, feeling his thumping heart, “You are quite nervous. Do I make you uncomfortable?” Your ears pinned back and your eyes portrayed the sadness you felt at the idea of him agreeing with your statement.

Norm felt his mouth go dry, was this a dream? There was surely no way this was happening to him. He looked down at your hand on his chest, swallowing his nerves. “N-not uncomfortable, I’m just not sure if I’m dreaming.”

You smiled again at him, leaning in on your tiptoes until your eyes bore into his own. You saw the way his pupils dilated, “Close your eyes and see if you wake up.” Your voice had dropped to a soft whisper and there was little enough distance between you that he could feel your breath against his lips. He froze for a couple moments before his eyes slowly closed, his hands tensing against the tree he was cornered against.

His mouth was parted as he took shallow breaths. Your eyes flickered up to check his eyes were closed before landing back to his mouth. You had to gather your own courage before closing the small gap between you two, placing your hands on his shoulders. Softly pressing your lips against his for a moment before he tilted his head forward to kiss you back. His hands traded rough bark for the soft blue skin of your waist. Your ears twitched when you heard rustling in front of you close by. You pulled back and whispered in his ear, “keep your eyes closed,” before letting go of him. You bit your lip to muffle the laugh you wanted to release watching him lean forward as if he was trying to chase your retreating body.

You silently walked backwards for a few steps before turning and making a run for it back towards the clan. You had to be back home in a hour or you’d get into trouble and that was without anyone figuring out what you had been up to.

Norm waited but as the seconds ticked by his brow furrowed in confusion.

“Norm? Norm?!” Grace’s voice was far away behind him but he could still make it out from the distance. His eyes shot open, you were nowhere to be seen. A dejected sigh left him as his head rolled back to hit against the tree behind him. Perhaps it was just a hallucination, did he touch the wrong kind of plant or something? He knew it was too good to be true, why would a stunning creature like yourself be interested in him? All the Na’vi women were probably fawning over Jake. Tch, Jake. He kicked a rock by his foot as he scowled to himself before turning around and walking towards Grace’s voice. Hopefully she wouldn’t question his length of absence or what he’d be doing because he wouldn’t really have an answer for her.

He turned to look over his shoulder, peering out into the distance but saw nothing. His head tilted down as he walked back to the others, relaying every detail about you in his head.

———

Norm felt like he was in a daze, it had been two weeks since he’d last seen you and you were all he could think about. You’d even taken over his dreams, leaving him waking up in a cold sweat as he reached out for someone who wasn’t there. He couldn’t mention this to Grace or Jake and it really boiled down to the fact that he simply didn’t want to. He wanted to keep you all to himself. Maybe you didn’t know Jake but he’d seen the way women just seem to fall for his charm on many occasions so perhaps it was selfish but to him it was justified.

He’d scheduled himself in for as many expeditions to the forest as he could but he’d yet to see you again. Every time he’d been clapped round the back of the neck from Grace, too distracted staring into the forest in the hopes of seeing you to focus on his work.

He was on another expedition now, deeper into the forest. Still a way away from clan territory but he was certain it was close to where he’d met you last time. His body drummed with nerves of excitement as he mumbled some excuse to Grace before running off into the forest. She would be fine, she had Trudy and had brought three of the other Avatar students with her.

Norm panted as he looked around him, neck straining as he tried to look in the trees above him. He groaned as he saw nothing, speed walking in another direction and then another and another. It had been almost an hour at this point and he knew he didn’t have much time left before he’d be getting his ass chewed out by Grace.

He placed a hand on a nearby tree to lean some of his weight off his feet as he used his other hand to go under his shirt to lift the fabric and wipe the sweat off his forehead. A deep sigh escaped his lips as he turned to head back. As he spun around, there you were in front of him.

His ears pinned back and eyes widened in surprise but the smile on his face told you he was happy to see you. You mirrored his smile, but you’d found yourself shocked when you watched Norm press the pads of his fingers against his forehead before lowering his hand down in a curved motion, “Oel ngati kameie, (Y/N).”

You visibly perked up, a sparkle in your eyes as he performed the Na’vi greeting. You grinned, lowering your head to repeat the motion. “Oel ngati kameie, Norm.” Your voice was light with surprise but the good kind.

“You know much for a skyperson. I am impressed.” Norm blushed again and you felt that same swell of giddiness in your chest at being the reason why. None of the clan men were like him. They were very serious and straight to the point, none of them reacted to you the way Norm did. Although you didn’t really act the same way towards them as you did with Norm, but you couldn’t resist it. Everything screamed at you to push his buttons, see how far you could spread his blush.

Norm rubbed the back of his neck, “There’s still a lot I don’t know. But I don’t think I’ll get the opportunity to be taught by the Na’vi people.”

“Ah! You mean like Jake Sully? He is a friend of yours?” Norm’s head snapped up to meet yours as you mentioned Jake. Of course you knew him. You watched as his ears drooped and an air of dejection overcame him. “Erm yeah. Yeah, I guess you could say we’re friends. We work together.”

“Hm,” you were intrigued. You spied a thick log out the corner of your eye and made way to sit down on it, straddling it. Norm followed you but chose to sit facing you with one leg tucked in as the other fell straight down by his side. “He says he is a warrior, come to learn our ways.”

Norm’s jaw clenched, this was one of the last things he wanted to talk about with you, but of course, he was overlooked again. His hands started tracing the lines on the wood of the log, “Uh yeah, he’s an ex-marine soldier. There was three of us, me, Grace and him. He ventured out and got chased by a Palulukan which led him deeper into the forest where Neytiri rescued him from a pack of Nantangs. Eywa must have sent her to him.”

Your eyes were wide as you listened intently, you hadn’t known this before but it made sense. Neytiri was a strong fighter and her prejudice towards the sky people was strong albeit justified. It hadn’t made much sense for her to just pick up strays as Tsu’tey had phrased it. You shuffled closer, “I hear a tone in your voice. Are you jealous of Jake Sully? Norm?” Said man’s mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for water. He couldn’t think of an excuse, not while you were staring at him with your big round eyes, thick eyelashes fluttering at him. He was silent for a moment before sighing, “I..I am.” He lowered his head, embarrassed by his confession.

Your lips twisted down into a frown at his slumped shoulders and lowered head. You couldn’t bring him to the clan, not without great cause, you would get into big trouble. There was plenty you could show him out here though, it would help cure the boredom you’d been experiencing ever since you met him. You’d also been stuck with thoughts of Norm in your time apart. He’d been a big distraction to you already so you were sure this wouldn’t be a big deal.

You placed your hand under his chin, gently lifting his head to look at you. “I can be a patient teacher for the right student.” You hoped the smile you gave him was enough to drive your words home. Norm felt like his heart stopped. Your brow furrowed in confusion as you watched him pinch his own arm. He laughed, “Sorry, I had to make sure I wasn’t dreaming again.”

You grinned, leaning forward, “Do you often dream about me?” Amusement tickled through you as you watched him blush and get all flustered once again. You turned your head to the left, you could hear a woman’s voice faintly in the distance. “Your first lesson shall be tomorrow. Find a way to meet me here.” Norm could only nod, not trusting his voice as you got up off the log to head back to Hometree. You paused then turned around to face Norm. You leaned down, “I almost forgot, close your eyes.”

Norm’s breath caught in his throat at your words. He swallowed, his tongue swiping over his lips that felt instantly too dry before closing his eyes. You smiled even though he could not see you, leaning down to press your full lips against his own. Your hands cradled his jaw as you kissed him, but you pulled away before he could touch you himself. With a giggle, you pressed a soft kiss to his cheek then turned to run out of sight, leaping through the dense trees. Norm waited a few moments before opening his eyes, and again he was disappointed with the empty view.

But he didn’t have to be for long, he would have the pleasure of seeing you tomorrow. He got up with a newfound enthusiasm, heading back to where Grace and the others were to catch up with them. Grace chewed him out for leaving again, all the while giving him a strange look. He thought he’d managed to play off his behaviour but when they’d put the avatars away for the night and come out of the link pods, he’d found himself cornered. He’d gotten up and stretched, a content smile on his face. Grace had grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into her private office. “Who is it?”

Norm stammered, holding his hands up and scoffed, “I-I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about!”

“Cut the crap rookie. You’ve ditched the group twice in the same place for over an hour, you tell me what you’re doing or you’re off the team.” Grace folded her arms over her chest and pierced him with her firm glare. Norm sighed, rubbing his hand over his forehead as he told her everything. Well, almost everything, he kept the kisses to himself.

Grace groaned, holding her head in her hands, “For God’s sake Norm, what the hell am I supposed to do with you. You’re supposed to be the smart one but you’re following in that Jarhead’s footsteps.” It had been easy to convince Grace to allow him the time to see you, promising her intel and samples and he’d even said he could try to convince you to convince the others to grant her permission to visit. And with that, he’d escaped to his room, eager to await the following morning when he could see you again.

“We’re close to the nest. From here on in we have to look Na’vi, we act Na’vi, we ride Na’vi and that includes speaking the language.”

Spider openly snickered at Quaritch’s pronunciation whilst you kept your grin hidden behind the palm of your hand as you covered your mouth. The colonel didn’t take too kindly to Spider’s mockery, “Something funny?”

“You call that speaking the language? You sound like a three year old.” You couldn’t hold back your snort of laughter at your son’s words. It was true, Quaritch did nothing less than butcher your beautiful language while Spider spoke fluently, it had been his mother tongue whilst living with you after all.

“I think that is too generous,” Spider held his sides as he laughed even more at your mumbled input. Quaritch frowned at the both of you before turning to face Spider, “Well it looks like you’ve just upgraded from monkey mascot to official translator.” Spider twisted his lips, worried about what that might entail for him in the future. Instinctively, you took a step closer, standing in front to partially block your son from view.

Quaritch gritted his teeth as he snapped his eyes to yours, “You got a problem with that? Huh?” Your ears flattened against your head as you bared your teeth. He glanced down at your canines with a smirk before turning back to face his men.

Spider tapped your arm, “Just leave it mom, he’s not worth it.” No he wasn’t. Spider was right, you thought as you reached over to tussle his hair but it didn’t move all that much since his dreadlocks were very thick. He tried to push your hands away but you only pinched his cheek in retaliation. The clearing of a throat made you roll your eyes in Spider’s direction before turning around to see Quaritch looking expectantly at the two of you. “We’re not here to play around and pull each other’s pigtails, so get stepping,” he pointed a finger at you, “You’re up, buttercup, so let’s go. I want all my men on an Ikran by tomorrow afternoon.”

You swished your tail to whip at his legs again as you walked past. The hand that wrapped around it, catching the attempted attack, caught you off guard. Your torso jerked forward as the grip on your tail prevented you from moving your legs in time. A sound crossed between yelp and a hiss left your mouth as you scurried back a step to loosen the pull on your tail.

“You hit me with that thing again and we’re gonna have a real problem, lady.” What you did next was not a very smart choice. It was impulsive, based on the fact you knew it would hurt him. Your arm swung back to grab at the base of his kuru, yanking his head back hard. A snarl of his own echoed through the trees as the hand not holding your tail came up behind his head to grab onto your wrist.

The clicking of guns didn’t phase you. You stared into Quaritch’s eyes with an intense glare who pressed his lips together as your fingers clenched just a bit more around the sensitive anatomy. Yellow eyes stared into yours, you saw the insanity dancing in them that mimicked the rage of fire flickering in your own.

Spider nervously looked between you, Quaritch and the guns aimed in your direction. He rushed to jump in front of you, holding his arms out wide. “Stop it! Just let go of her you asshole!” Quaritch broke away from your glare to flicker his eyes down at Spider. He was baring his own teeth at him, an imitation of his mother’s intimidating snarl. His son’s anger directed at him hit something deep in his cold heart. Quaritch only chuckled, bringing his eyes back up to yours as he released his hold on your tail.

“Easy gentlemen, just a bit of horseplay. Ain’t that right (Y/N).” Your name on his tongue sent a shiver through you. In his voice it sounded like a threat. A low growl rolled from the back of your throat only meant for his ears. Your fingers grasped tighter, “Do not test me, Quaritch.” A cocky grin stretched over his lips and the way his eyes seemed intent on baring into your soul infuriated you. There was something else there too. A faint whisper of excitement about the idea of having him under your control. It startled you enough to yank your hand away from him as if his kuru turned into pure fire to burn your hand.

That stupid smirk of his, how you would love to slap it off his smug face. You had no idea what he was so smug about, you had won this round. Right?

“Gah!” You yelled at him, a noise of irritation as you turned and walked away back to your position in front. You barged past the bald one, Lyle, who stumbled back a step to maintain balance. Your face twisted into a scowl and your tail whipped furiously behind you. The other recoms saw their colonel who only had a smug grin on his face. Quaritch waved his hand, “Keep moving.”

The other recoms slowly broke off to follow you further into the forest, leaving Spider and Quaritch towards the back. Spider scoffed, shaking his head as he started walking. “I don’t know why you keep pissing her off dude, you just got your ass handed to you.”

Quaritch glanced down at his son, “Pissing off the natives is my job description, kid. May as well get some practice.”

“You’re lucky she didn’t chop off your kuru. I’m shocked, using her son as a threat really keeps someone in line.” Quaritch’s lips twisted into a frown as he heard the sarcasm lacing Spider’s words. This kid really detested him. But he didn’t understand why that bothered him so much. This kid was only his through name alone. They shared no DNA, they weren’t even the same goddamn species. But he held memories of a man who had been excited for a little soldier to train, a boy he could mould into a man.

That opportunity was long gone, his boy was not nearly a boy at all anymore. He was almost all grown up and he’d missed it all. He had been nothing to this kid for years. Hell he didn’t even want to keep his name. He’d been left alone in a world that wanted nothing to do with him. Until you’d stepped in. You found him, took him under your wing. You’d warped his mind with talks of tree-hugging nature and love.

Love, just the word alone made Quaritch scoff to himself. To him it was a weakness, it made you vulnerable to your enemies. Gun to his head, he wasn’t even sure if he had even loved Spider’s birth mom. She was one ferocious lady and he was attracted to that, her anger had reeled him in. Their relationship hadn’t been very long plus his job required him to be away for long periods of time, they barely saw each other while she was pregnant and he could count the times he saw Spider as a baby on one hand. He’d been a terrible father, didn’t even consider his son when he’d dived head first into battle with the Na’vi, too hung up on his hatred for Sully to think of anything else.

Your love for Spider seemed to make you stronger, it fuelled your hatred when fighting. When you first met Quaritch wouldn’t admit it but he’d been kinda scared of you. Almost as much as Mrs Sully. You were dangerous in many ways. Your fire never went out, it could roar in anger or it would dim to a calming flame, crackling in contentment. He couldn’t help but be drawn into that. Even with your nails digging into his kuru, he’d felt a flicker of attraction to you. The way your eyes burned into his own, he was unsure whether he wanted to put your fire out or succumb to the flames.

“Your mom is pretty protective of you huh?” He took a breather from his thoughts, they were going down a path he wasn’t ready to explore. Spider raised an eyebrow at him, as if he’d said the dumbest thing he’d ever heard.

“Well no shit, she’s my mom. If you were any kind of parent you’d feel the same way.”

He felt that sharp pang in his chest again, a reminder of his failed fatherhood. He didn’t acknowledge Spider’s pointed insult, choosing to move on to another question. He needed to get the kid to trust him, to try and get some intel on the Sully family. “What was it like growing up here? Can’t have been easy being the only human kid on Pandora.”

Spider furrowed his eyebrows together in a small frown before his face relaxed back to normal. His shoulders shrugged, “It wasn’t that bad. I don’t remember much before my mom took me in. I know some of the Na’vi don’t think of me as one of them but they respect my mom too much to say anything. My mom was always there for me, she showed me unconditional love regardless of being a whole species apart. I dunno, I feel like sometimes she needed me as much as I needed her.”

That piqued Quaritch’s interest, “Why do you say that?”

Spider hummed, unsure if he should continue or not. He was going a bit too deep here, but it was all part of his plan. He needed to play along, try to connect with Quaritch to see if he could make him change his mind on his mission of revenge. He hadn’t told you about his idea, knowing you wouldn’t like it and discourage him from it. But he had to try, it just might work to save Jake and his family. And more importantly, save you.

After a heavy sigh, he continued. “My mom, she had a chosen mate but before they could bond he died fighting in the war. Jake told me that she was all depressed over it, of course, that she never joined in any ceremonies unless necessary and barely left her hut. It was by chance that she decided to go out and fly that day when she stopped at a river and I’d wandered off and found her. Jake said I’d ran away from him when he was trying to convince Neytiri to let him take me in,” Quaritch’s stomach turned at the thought of Jake and his missus raising his boy.

“He ran after me to find me and he found my mom with me in her arms. She likes to remind me how I refused to let go of her but I don’t remember that part. She offered to take me in and I remember one day when I was playing with Lo’ak and Neteyam. Jake pulled me aside and told me how glad he was that we had each other. Apparently she came back out of her shell, being more involved with the clan and just being happier. My mom always tells me she thanks Eywa every day for sending me to her. I do the same.”

Quaritch didn’t know how to feel about hearing your backstory. It was clear your bond went deeper with Spider than he thought. He felt a lump in his throat at the idea of treating this native, no this woman, so poorly when she’d been everything he could’ve asked for as a parent to Spider. Perhaps he could consider a change of heart. Perhaps not. Maybe he had already made his bed and had to lie in it.

Spider mentally cursed at the silence that followed, maybe that had been too much after all. But he needed to make Quaritch feel bad. Feel some remorse, make him think that he wanted to build some kind of relationship. “I guess it was hard to not have a kind of father figure around. I mean, I had Jake I suppose.”

Spider glanced out the corner of his eyes to watch the recom body of his father visibly scowl at the mention of Jake. He knew it would get to him that his mortal enemy was more involved with his own son than he was. And right he was, Quaritch was practically seething with rage, or jealousy, or perhaps both.

Another uncomfortable silence followed, stretching over a few minutes before Spider picked up the pace to join you at the front of the group. Quaritch observed from a distance as Spider lightly brushed his hand over the end of your tail before joining you at your side. Your whole demeanour changed instantly as though just seeing Spider dissolved all of your stress and anger. His ears strained to try to pick up what the two of you were discussing but he was just out of reach to make it out clearly.

He watched as your teeth exposed in a wide smile. It was… different to see your fangs in a non-threatening way. He was only able to see it from the side as you faced Spider but couldn’t help the curious urge to have you smile at him so he could see the whole image. Quaritch cleared his throat as he stormed ahead to the middle of the group, retrieving the gun off his back to clutch it in his hands. He wasn’t about to let his mind go down that road anytime soon. He was a soldier on a mission, nothing more. He didn’t need some native hoochie distracting him from what’s important.

…

The next morning you’d came to the conclusion that walking was now incredibly tedious to you. You wished you had your Ikran close by to run away with your son, or at least fly the rest of the journey. You could feel her in her your veins, she must be close by. Worry coursed through you, she had never been separated from you for so long before. Even in your time of grief you made sure to visit and talk with her although you hadn’t the energy to fly with her. You were missing her dearly.

Last night had been uncomfortable for you to say the least. Quaritch seemed to have changed his attitude with a snap of his fingers. He had yet to say a word to you, not that you minded all that much, in fact you were liking him more when he stayed silent. But that wasn’t why you were uncomfortable.

You’d left the group with the female recom soldier to do your personal business and upon returning you saw Spider laughing along with Quaritch. You were too far to hear what was being said, but the two looked very close. Your son was sat sideways on a log as Quaritch straddled it, facing Spider. Quaritch’s arms moved wide as he spoke, a softer grin appearing amidst his sharp features. Your ears pinned back as an unfamiliar emotion swirled in your chest.

Jealousy. Spider looked just as happy and carefree as he did with you, or with the Sully children. You had been Spider’s sole parent for fourteen years and had never felt like this when Spider bonded with any other Na’vi. Though, you supposed Quaritch was not just any other Na’vi. Quaritch may not technically be Spider’s father but he had his memories, his feelings.

You knew Spider loved you, there was no doubt in that, but Spider had never had a true father figure in his life. Jake Sully was the clan leader and because of that he bared some responsibility for Spider especially with him being so close to his own children, but he wasn’t around enough to be classed as a father to Spider. Spider had never voiced any disappointment or resentment about his lack of paternal roles in his upbringing before so you didn’t think you would have anything to worry about. You supposed that was foolish of you to assume such a thing. Quaritch was his father, not biologically, but he was him nonetheless. It was only natural for your son to want to get close to him, to make a connection.

It was scary for you. You bared no biological tether to Spider. You were not the reincarnated body of his birth mother. If he decided to build a relationship with his father then there was less room for you in his life. Undoubtedly, it was a selfish thought to have, but your heart clenched at the notion of being pushed aside by your son. Spider was everything to you.

You didn’t want to just walk over there, it would let them know that you were bothered by it. No, you settled on making yourself comfortable against another tree, appearing oblivious to their newfound bond.

It was almost an hour later when Spider came over to you. You gave him a small smile that didn’t reach your eyes. Spider sat down next to you, tucking his legs up to his chest and wrapping his arms around his knees. You spoke in a low voice meant only for his ears, “You should be careful Spider, these demons do not look out for your best interests. I’m worried for you.”

Spider sighed, facing his head down to stare at the ground, “I dunno mom, they don’t seem so bad.” You glanced back over to where Quaritch stood talking to Lyle before turning your gaze back to Spider. You tentatively placed your hand on Spider’s shoulder making him raise his head to look at you. Your eyes were wide with concern and sadness.

“Sometimes I worry I am not enough for you.”

“What? How can you say that? No, mom, you’re like the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I love you, mom,” Spider’s words helped to comfort you but your mind was still spiralling with curiosity. You smiled at your son before continuing.

“I only mean that I know I cannot be a true father for you. I have tried my best but I know that it is only natural for you to be drawn to him. I will not stand in your way but I fear he might turn you into something you’re not. His kind only know to ruin, they do not nurture.” You didn’t have to say his name, you both knew who you were talking about. Spider looked away. He knew he should tell you about his scheme to ease your mind but he knew it would only make you more worried. It pained him, but he would have to keep you in the dark for a while longer.

“I know, but I can’t help it. I know he’s kind of an ass, but he’s not been so bad to me so far. You know, if you take away the kidnapping and all that.” You scoffed a laugh out at Spider’s casual mention of the less than pleasant situation you two were in. It was bearable since you had each other. The two of you had talked a little more before getting comfortable to eventually fall asleep.

That brought you back to this morning where you had guided the group closer to their desired destination. You could see the thick ropes of vines hanging down were many young Na’vi had made the climb to choose their Ikran. A fond smile twisted at your lips as you remembered your own battle. Amay was a strong spirit, she had not wanted to go down easy for you. She’d clawed at your legs and bruised your shoulder but eventually she’d given in, with your arm wrapped tight around her jaws she’d settled enough for you to make the bond.

“We don’t have time for you to be daydreaming, missy.” You rolled your eyes as Quaritch came up beside you. With great restraint, you held back a snarky comment and chose to ignore him. Clearly, it was the wrong move to make. Either he was annoyed by your lack of response or egged on even more to try to make you snap at him.

“Woke up on the wrong side of the tree, cupcake?” Your chest heaved with a deep breath, your lips smushed together as you bit back the snarl threatening to come out. You managed to give him a side eyed glare before returning your vision back to in front of you.

“I’m surprised you learned how to shut that pretty mouth of yours.”

And with that, you had enough. Your hand came up to push at his chest. Caught off guard, he stumbled back a step or two to catch his balance. “Gah! I try to keep peace, for Spider. But you make it so difficult.”

Quaritch’s eyebrows creased together as he processed your words. Spider wanted his mom and him to get along? Did that mean the kid was softening up to him? He felt a warmth in his chest at the idea of Spider warming up to him before he squashed it down. No, it was good for one thing only, he was closer to the information he needed on Jake Sully. He didn’t seem to be making much progress on that front though. Were you the missing piece to the puzzle? He had little to no idea of your place within the clan. Perhaps chumming it up with you would be what he needed to put his plans into action. Huh. Seems things were going his way this morning.

You frowned as Quaritch continued to stare at you, his expression frozen in confusion before it morphed into contemplation and finally a small grin. His eyes bore into your own, “Well, seems we should put aside our… differences. For the kid.”

Your lips turned downwards, a disapproving frown at the notion of having to be friendly to Quaritch. It sent a shiver down your spine. But still you gave him a swift nod, “Yes, I agree. For my son.” You put a little emphasis on the word ‘my’ not being able to resist the little dig at him further. It may be your last chance for a little while.

Quaritch only grinned back at you with that cocky smirk you just itched to smack off his lips. He outstretched his left hand towards you and you instinctively flinched backwards, expecting an attack. You froze when none came, just his hand in the air sideways. You looked down at it, confused. “Now don’t tell me you guys don’t have handshakes? Look, it seals a deal made. Here,” Quaritch grabbed your left hand and lifted it to his own, flattening your palm against his before his thumb and the tips of his fingers wrapped around your hand. The first thing you noticed was how large his hands were but you were tempted to chalk that up to his extra fingers. The second was how warm his skin was. Your brow furrowed as you slowly closed your own thumb and fingers around his palm. He raised your joined hands slightly before pulling them back down and drew his hand away. You brought your hand to your side trying to not focus on the lingering warmth of his palm.

You merely kissed your teeth at him before crossing your arms over your chest. “I suppose, if we’re getting along, I should tell you that your Na’vi is still dreadful, like a child babbling.”

“Perhaps I just need the right teacher. I promise I can be a very quick learner.” You scowled at him. Just what was his deal? Yesterday the two of you were at each other’s throats now the second you agreed to play nice he was already trying to spend more time with you. A glance to your left saw Spider who was parading around in between the trees with ‘Z dog’s’ dog tags who was chasing said human boy to get them back. You sighed heavily before looking down at your left hand again. You lifted your gaze to meet Quaritch who hadn’t seemed to take his eyes off of you. “Very well. A deal is made.” You outstretched your hand and Quaritch grinned wide as he shook it with a firmer grip this time. Feeling the strength in just his fingers sent a warm feeling into your stomach. You maintained a stoic expression before pulling your hand away.

“Now, gather your dogs, we’re here.” You walked off through the trees to your right where you brushed some branches aside to see the edge of the mountain you were standing on. The infamous vines hung heavy, hitting the side of the mountain as a silent invitation to grab on and climb to your destiny. The wind whipped around your braids and you closed your eyes to feel it against your skin.

Spider whooped behind you. “This is fricking awesome! I can’t believe I get to come with you this time.” You smiled wide at Spider, you had told him many times the story of how you bonded with Amay and you could tell he was disheartened by the fact he would never experience the same connection. You hoped that being up here with all the ikrans might lessen his disappointment. You waved him over to you. “Come Spider, you will have to climb on my back. This climb will be too dangerous for you to do alone.”

Spider laughed as he leaped over to you, jumping as you crouched to land on your back his arms and legs securely wrapping around your waist and shoulders. Quaritch cleared his throat, “Maybe I should take him, wouldn’t want our guide struggling behind.”

You scoffed, raising your brow at him, not being able to resist your own cocky grin. “I doubt I am the one who will struggle.” With that, you leapt off the edge of the mountain with a loud whoop, hands outstretched to grab onto the vine that passed in front of you. Spider yipped in your ear as you climbed, hearing muffled orders from Quaritch to his men behind you. You didn’t take much notice, embracing your small taste of freedom before you were back under careful watch again.

“Yeah! C’mon mom, you’re smoking them!” You laughed as you moved your arms and legs even quicker, the competitive side of you egged on by Spider’s encouragement. You finally reached the top, hand grasping hard rock instead of vine. You stayed low until Spider was safely off your back before turning around to peek over the edge at the recom soldiers. They were still far behind.

“All the ikran will have flown away before you get up here! Hurry!” Spider chuckled as you taunted them, it was only fair for them doubting your abilities to climb with your son. Spider barely weighed you down and you had made harder climbs than this in your lifetime. Unsurprisingly, Quaritch was the first to reach the edge where you stood with your arms crossed and your hip cocked. He panted softly, clearly he wasn’t used to making such trips like you were. He awkwardly scrambled over the edge, rolling his body onto the hard ground before pushing himself onto his feet. He looked you up and down, not even a bead of sweat on your forehead. “Show off.” His mumbled words only made you grin at him as he turned to wait for his men and one woman.

Finally they were all up and you could continue onwards. Excitement drummed in your veins as you heard the ikrans screeching. You hoped they would deem them all unworthy and throw them off the edge of the mountain. You highly doubted any of them would succeed in an Ikran brawl. You slowly crouched low, coming to the end of the small cave to which you could see all the Ikrans on the other side. Causing a small holdup, Quaritch backed into you and placed his hand on your hip to stop himself from toppling over you.

His touch sparked against your skin. A small gasp and you batted away his hand without a word, trying to shake away the tingle down your back. You walked through the opening to walk to the left, crouching down behind a large rock. The recom soldiers followed suit.

Your eyes darted around looking for your winged sister. She was here, you could feel her much stronger now. But where?

“Younger kids than me do this with their bare hands.” Spider’s laughing brought your attention to Quaritch and Lyle who were holding tranquilliser guns. You hissed, “Skxawngs! You cannot use that here! You must prove your worth for a strong bond.”

Quaritch looked between the two of you, “Jake Sully did it the hard way?” Spider scoffed at him, “What do you think?”

“Our mighty leader did not need help. Even the weakest Na’vi do it by hand.” Quaritch’s face scrunched in anger as he put his gun down.

“Well, alright then.” You hopped up onto the rock for a better view as Quaritch jumped over and walked towards the Ikrans. Spider nudged you, covering his hand with his mouth to hide his laugh. You smiled back at him.

Quaritch found his opponent easily, the blue Ikran rearing up to screech loudly in his face. You watched as his ears pinned back and he hissed at the Ikran. Hm, he’d found a match.

Your brow furrowed as you watched Quaritch race forward to try and wrap his legs around the ikran. It only angered the beast who roared and snapped its sharp teeth at Quaritch to try and get him off. “Did I mention you’re supposed to tie the mouth closed first?!” Spider laughed but you kept watching intently.

“Thanks a lot kid!” Quaritch was angry and you couldn’t help the small smile at his struggling. The Ikran continued to tussle with him and your eyes widened as you saw them getting dangerously close to the edge. You moved forward, crouching low so as to not draw attention from any ikrans. Quaritch brought his hand up to bring his kuru to the Ikran but as he did, the Ikran slipped and the two went tumbling over the edge. You gasped, running but the clouds made it impossible to see. Lyle hurried next to you, also trying to see his boss.

The soldiers didn’t even look sad as you turned to face them. Their leader had just fallen to his death and they felt nothing? Oh how you would never understand these sky people. Lyle sighed after a few moments, bringing a hand to your lower back to push you forward back to where you had come from, “Let’s go, missions over.” Your lips curved into a frown. This was a good thing right? One soldier down? You turned to look back over the edge and then to Spider who was also looking over there. You frowned, cursing to yourself before running back to the edge, calling out loudly for Amay with an Ikran call. Your sister screeched as she flew in from the left of you. You grinned as you grabbed your kuru and jumped onto her back to make tsaheylu.

Just as you were about to fly down for him, Quaritch burst through the clouds riding his Ikran. “Yeah! That’s right!” The soldiers cheered as he held his fist in the air. You looked at Spider who was clearly relieved but was trying to not make it obvious. You smiled softly at him before turning to Quaritch who awkwardly landed on the mountain. He looked at you on your own Ikran that was pointed to where he had just come from. He grinned, “Don’t tell me you were worried about me?”

You scoffed, scowling as you turned your head, “Do not be ridiculous. I worry for Spider alone.” Quaritch’s grin only widened as if he didn’t believe you. He looked you up and down before chuckling, “You can tell yourself that if you want.”

Your ears pinned back as you scowled at him, angry at the insinuation. “Gah! Do not be ridiculous!” You snapped at his direction before climbing off of Amay to stoke her neck who in turn rubbed her head against your side. You didn’t want to look at Quaritch, scared he might be able to see that he wasn’t all that wrong. You had been worried when you watched him fall over the edge. You told yourself it was because of Spider, how he wanted to be close to his father but you knew you wouldn’t be able to keep up the lie to yourself for much longer. He was prying through the cracks in your well guarded heart.

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You instinctively stood onto your feet, pushing yourself between Quaritch and Spider, your hand coming up to push against Quaritch’s chest. He barely budged, “You do not threaten him.”

Quaritch only scoffed out a laugh, lowering his head so that there was only a couple inches between you two. “If you want to take his place for a spanking, I’d be more than okay with that.”

Your snarl was barely audible over the sound of the aircraft landing, “You will never lay your hands on me.” Your tail whipped around behind you, furious. Quaritch stood back up straight, “We’ll see,” he turned to face his squad, “Let’s roll out!” You jumped out the side of the aircraft, turning back to hold your hands out for Spider, who gratefully accepted your help onto the forest floor. Quaritch adjusted the weight of his gun that was strapped across his chest before looking down at Spider, “What’s first on the agenda?”

Spider’s nervous disposition unsettled you. He turned to glance up at you briefly before turning his attention to Quaritch, “If you want the Na’vi to trust you, you’re gonna have to look and sound like them.” Quaritch frowned, rolling his shoulders, “Alright, I suppose you and your ‘mom’ can help with that, huh?” At the mention of you, your head snapped to look at Quaritch, glaring once again. You frowned before an idea came into mind. A glance down at your son to hopefully have him catch onto your plan,

“You want to look like one of us? You need an Ikran.” The journey was at least three days from here and half these idiots would be mauled to death before they could make the bond. Thus lowering the ratio of skypeople to make an attack. Spider scratched the back of his head, trying to look doubtful, “I’m not sure they could do that Mom, I know Jake did it but these guys? Hmm..” At the mention of Jake, Quaritch gritted his teeth.

“I can do anything that traitor did. Where do we get these ‘Ick-rans’?” The butchering of the Na’vi language almost made you recoil, the sound of it similar to grating metal in your ears. You huffed, head jerking in front of you, “Three days north from here. Up high in the mountains. You cannot use your aircraft, it will scare away all the ikrans.” That wasn’t exactly true, but it was advantageous to remove them from their electronics. Quaritch pursed his lips, glancing at the forest ahead back to you, “Fine. Lead the way. Any funny business and I’ll have to put a bullet between those big (e/c) eyes of yours.”

You glanced down at the gun strapped across Quaritch’s chest before walking to the front of the group. You weren’t allowed to walk too far ahead, you might run away. You ended up with Quaritch on your right, Spider on your left and the bald headed demon, who you’d heard be referred to as Lyle, behind you on your left. You wouldn’t waste your own energy killing them, not when the ikrans would hopefully do that for you.

It didn’t feel right, walking amongst your homeland with these demons surrounding you. You held your hand up to stop the group. Thankfully, you gained enough trust as a native to have them rely on your instincts. You could hear the rustling behind you as the soldiers twisted and turned, looking around to see what you heard. You took a small step backwards, ending up side by side with Quaritch. “What is it?” He asked in a soft whisper, strange to hear in his voice. You pointed up to the right where a small group of Prolemuris swung into view.

Immediately Quaritch grabbed his gun, clicking the safety off to aim at the one closest to him. Your hand pushed down the weapon, lowering it. “No! Mawey!” He frowned, raising it once again. You growled, “Down. They are not dangerous.”

“Well they look pretty freaky to me.” You huffed, making a soft animal call to the blue and yellow coloured creatures. Two yellow eyes blinked at you before carrying on their journey across the forest, the rest of them following. Once they left, Quaritch finally lowered his gun. You shook your head, “You cause trouble, waving that thing around here.”

Quaritch scoffed, tucking his left hand into the side of his vest, “This ‘thing’ is what’s keeping us safe, cupcake.” Your arms folded over your chest, tail coming around to whip at his thigh. You were slightly satisfied at his small grunt of pain. “You’re like a baby, don’t know what to do. You should listen to me. Put that away.”

“Now you listen to me, and listen well. I’m in charge here and I’ll use this gun as much as I goddamn please.” To prove his point, he raised the gun into the air, firing a round into the trees. You covered your ears from the loud noise. The trees rustled as many animals were disturbed by the unfamiliar sound. You bared your teeth in a snarl, hand coming up to clip the side of Quaritch’s head.

“Skxawng! You are not the most dangerous creature in this forest, but by Eywa are you the most foolish!” Spider came in front of you, placing a hand against your stomach to try and push you back as you hissed at the stupid man in front of you. Quaritch clenched his jaw, glaring back just as hard. The other recoms shared an uncomfortable look, it wasn’t often someone squared up to their boss like this. Lyle took a step closer, intent on separating the two of you, when there was a low growling behind the group.

Spider’s tensing and the sound of the guns being aimed had you tearing your eyes away from Quaritch to follow their eyes. You furrowed your brow as you tried to make out what was hiding. A flash of bright green eyes and shiny black skin struck fear into your heart. You gasped, grabbing onto Spider’s hand as you turned, breaking into a sprint.

“RUN!” Your shout had the Palulukan pouncing out from behind the bushes, knowing it had been spotted. It immediately tore into a recom soldier you hadn’t bothered to learn their name. His screams didn’t last long, Palulukan was a swift killer. The others tried to shoot at it, but only succeeded in angering it more, its skin impenetrable to their bullets. Quaritch was brainless enough to keep trying though. He had followed you when you ran, but turned back, getting the creature’s attention as he shot at its head and shoulders. He seemed to have a knack for pissing off the natives. The Palulukan abandoned the chase of the other soldiers, choosing to follow the three of you.

Panic set in as Spider’s hand started slipping from your grip. You cried out, stopping to reach for Spider. You would have to carry him, his human legs would not be able to keep up. Quaritch got to him first, a strong arm wrapping around his midsection. “I’ve got him! Now how do we get rid of that?!”

“Well if you hadn’t shot that thing, it wouldn’t-“

“Oh yeah? Well if you wouldn’t run your mouth-“

“Can you guys please do this another time!” Spider had your head twisting back to see him and just had enough time to bend yourself backwards, lowering your body as the Palulukan jumped over you, claws extended. A second later and you would have been sliced through like a piece of fruit on your knife.

You pressed your lips together as you saw the ditch behind Quaritch. Without much thought behind it, you ran at the tall man, turning to shoulder barge him backwards. With his hands around Spider, he wasn’t able to use his arms to balance himself out. His feet slipped and he groaned as he fell onto his ass. You crouched and hissed towards the creature now stalking you. You had to lure it away. Make Spider safe. That was all that mattered to you. The Palulukan stood on its hind legs, the frills at the back of its head flaring out as it roared, the vibrations shaking the ground.

You ran. You heard the shouts coming from Spider, which meant the Palulukan also did too, but it was focused on you now. You’d dared to challenge it and it was time to prove your worth.

You grunted as you jumped over tree roots, spun around trees to confuse it. You’d tried to climb but it was just as fast in the trees as it was on the ground. The sound of falling water refuelled your adrenaline. There was your plan. You knew you couldn’t spare the second to take a look behind you. The air around your ankles told you it was very close to you. Your eyes quickly scanned the area looking for a thick vine that would hold your weight. The creature took advantage of your distraction, closing the distance to swipe your legs out from under you.

You were quick to roll to the side, just as it dug its claws into the mud where you would have been lying. It growled at you, already trying to get you again. Finally, you saw a vine hanging down. It would have to be a gamble. You weren’t completely sure this was going to work, but it was the only plan you had. Your hand wrapped around the vine, a short test of its sturdiness. You cried out when a heavy paw slammed into your back, forcing you to the ground. The landing winded you, but you had to carry on. Sucking in broken breaths, you rolled over, using the momentum of the movement to slam your leg into its side. It moved but didn’t make a noise. It came back and you kicked it again, this time bringing your leg further up to its head.

Whining, it flinched back, giving you enough time to scramble onto your feet. Your heart beat accelerated with each step closer to the edge of the waterfall in view. Two more steps to the edge. The snapping of teeth told you it was close again. One more step. You screamed as you jumped, the vine pulling against the cliff face and turning you to the side. The Palulukan tried to stop in time, scraping its paws against the dirt but it was too late. It swiped its paws at you, crying as it fell past you and down into the water.

It was painful how your chest heaved, catching your breath now that the adrenaline of survival was no longer needed. You gripped into the vine so tight the skin around your fingers was turning a pale blue colour. Closing your mouth, you took deep breaths through your nose before trying to pull yourself up. Your hand reached over the cliff top, digging your nails into the ground for purchase. It was then you heard the soft shuffling of feet. Too light for Na’vi, it must be, “Mom!!” Ah yes, you blew out all the air you were holding in relief, Spider hadn’t been hurt. You groaned as you pushed against the ground, managing to get as far as lifting your head and shoulder above the cliff but you just couldn’t reach anything with your feet to use as leverage. Spider grabbed onto your arm to try and pull you up but you were a lot heavier than him. You knew your son was strong for a skyperson his size, but it still wasn’t enough. You gasped as your hand slipped, quickly grabbing back onto the vine before you fell to your most likely death.

“Stuck are we?”

You mumbled a curse under your breath, wishing the Palulukan had taken you over the edge with it. Your head peeked over the edge as you looked up, taking in the sight of Quaritch and the smug smile on his face as he put his hands on his hips. He grinned, crouching down to get closer, “Need a hand darlin?”

As you needed both your hands to keep yourself from falling, you settled for bringing your tail up to swat at his hand, “I do not need your help, demon!” Quaritch only chuckled, twisting his wrist around your tail, grabbing onto your arm with his other hand and lifted you with ease. You frowned, brushing the dirt off your body and your arms over your chest.

Spider wrapped himself tight around your stomach, “You looked so badass fighting that thing mom, I really thought you weren’t going to make it when I saw you go over the edge though.”

You gasped playfully at his words, placing your hand over your chest. “You wound me, my son, to have such little faith in me.” Spider laughed before catching Quaritch glancing at you with that strange look again, your son cleared his throat, pulling your hand to walk away from the cliff edge. Quaritch had nothing to say as he followed the two of you back to where you had been separated from. The remaining recom soldiers were there. They raised their guns at the sight of you, only lowering once their leader came into view.

“Relax, I’m still kicking. Alright, seems we need to make up for lost time now. Everyone head out.”

“Time we would not have lost if you just listened to me.” You took pleasure in the sound of Quaritch’s annoyed sigh. Getting under his skin was obviously not something easy to do so you had an almost sense of pride when you got his stoic mask to shift.

But he did not react the way you expected, merely shaking his head with a small chuckle and said, “I guess so cupcake.”

You frowned slightly, thrown off by his agreement. You had nothing more to say after that, but you could hear Quaritch asking Spider how to say things in Na’vi. “Don’t you think my mom is more qualified for that?”

“Maybe, but she don’t seem to like me too much. Don’t wanna have to fish her nails out my eyeballs if I get something wrong.” The corner of your mouth twitched upwards when you heard that, amused at the mental image his words provided.

You continued to walk until the night was fully settled in. The forest life around you glowed brightly as your fingers gently stroked each flower, petal or leaf you brushed against as you walked past. The forest called to you, as it always had. You were at peace, basking in the tranquility of the nature around you.

“We should rest for the night.” And there went your peace. You shook your head, “We should keep going,” you called over your shoulder.

The forest was just as dangerous as it was beautiful at night. There were many things that waited in the shadows. Creatures to prey on those who did not know the ways of the forest. A firm hand grabbed your elbow, halting your movements. You stopped but yanked your arm out of Quaritch’s grip. “We’re stopping.” His tone told you there was no room for argument. You would’ve liked to beg to differ, though when your eyes landed on your son you changed your mind. His shoulders were slouched, hands on his hips as he took deeper breaths than usual and he had to keep blinking to fight off sleep. You frowned, walking to Spider. “Fine.”

Quaritch huffed, watching you herd Spider over to a large tree root that was covered in some moss-like stuff. You sat with your back leaning against the tree as Spider lay down next to you, using your thigh as a pillow. Your hand absentmindedly stroked his hair. The recom soldiers shuffled around, taking off their heavy vests and patting the ground with their boots to test its comfort level. Your ears strained to hear the words between Quaritch and his second in command.

“I’ll take the first watch, then it’s you and Z.” The bald one, Lyle you remembered, nodded like the perfect obedient dog he was.

It didn’t take long for Spider’s body to go limp against you, he must have been more tired than he let on. Sometimes you often wondered if he pushed himself too hard because he was scared to acknowledge it. That if he made it obvious he was slower, shorter, weaker, that the Na’vi would look down on him. You wished to tell him that wasn’t the case, not for you.

“Even without the scary monsters, you’re still frowning. Don’t you ever smile?” You closed your eyes to try and will some patience to not reach over and attack Quaritch. Why must he always be such a disturbance.

“I still see one.” Your eyes opened to meet his. Your insult only provoked a grin, not the offence you wanted from him. He chuckled as he sat down near you, he had enough sense not to push his luck by sitting too close.

“You’re one tough cookie ain’t ya?”

You weren’t sure how to respond to his question, if it was even a question at all. Scowling, you turned your attention back to the sleeping boy sprawled over your leg. Spider shifted, turning to be more on his back, but still had his shoulders and head propped against you. You weren’t the only one who was watching him.

“He seems comfortable with you.” A scoff left your throat before you could stop it. “Of course he is, he is my son.”

“That’s not what I mean. He trusts you. I know he can’t have had an easy life being so different.” You frowned at the implication that Spider was unhappy with his upbringing. “He has many friends and family. He is Na’vi in here.” Your fingers pinched together to point against your chest where your heart beat beneath the surface. You continued, “He is kind and patient. He has a love for our way of life I have never thought capable from one of your kind. The people see that. They respect him.”

Quaritch went silent for a while, a tension rising between you two, so thick you could use your knife to cut it. He shifted, as if going to say something but stopped himself. You raised a curious brow at his anxious disposition. He sighed. “I can tell how much he looks up to you. You…You’re not the mother I expected for my son, but I’m glad he has you.”

Your mind was reeling as your face remained still, not giving away your spiralling thoughts. At your silence, Quaritch moved to stand up, heading to begin a small patrol around the area. You turned your head in his direction before he was too far to hear your voice. “Thank you… demon.” The word held little malice compared to at the beginning of your day.

Quaritch’s back was turned so you weren’t able to see his amused grin, but you noticed the way he stopped and twitched his ears to hear you. He said nothing as he kept walking to leave you with your thoughts. You scowled, what was the matter with you? Demons like him had no softness to them, no sense of remorse for their destruction. They knew nothing of mercy, forgiveness, or compassion. Right?

You eyes glanced down to your sleeping son. Spider was a true Na’vi spirit stuck in the wrong body. He was all those things you said and more. Jake Sully, your own Olo’eyktan, had learned to see as a Na’vi as well. That scientist man, Norm, he too was not like many other sky people. Were they all capable of such change? Was Quaritch?

Your eyes drooped as your exhaustion caught up with you. You blinked, trying to fight off sleep but your body needed rest despite feeling unsafe in your surroundings. How you wished you and Spider were back in your hut right now, cradled in your hammocks. The sounds of Spider breathing combined with the low hum of the forest lulled you into slumber, your back slumping against the tree. Your head rolled to the side exposing your long neck. Your hand still held onto Spider’s chest, an unconscious need to keep him safe, close to you.

Quaritch only meant to take a quick look at you, wanting to check if you were still awake. After spying your closed eyes he let himself explore. Yellow eyes trailed over your black hair, the patterns of darker blue over your face. Your long eyelashes laid against your prominent cheekbones forcing his gaze lower to look at your full lips. Your head moved, turning to the other side exposing more of your neck to your observer. He briefly looked at your Na’vi clothing, if you could call it that, it was the human equivalent of lingerie to him. And yet, you carried yourself as if you were wearing the most impenetrable armour. That was what drew him in the most, your fiery attitude.

You defied him at every chance, it was exhilarating. The crunching of dry leaves had Quaritch’s focus turning onto Spider who was turning in his sleep again to cuddle into your side. Even in your sleep you were the ever doting mother, your other arm coming around to lay across his waist. He turned his head away, the scene feeling too intimate to watch any longer. In all honestly, he hadn’t thought about his son until he’d came across him in the forest. He was too hellbent on bringing Sully to justice to think of such trivial matters.

But he saw a lot of himself in Spider. It had only been a couple days but he was fond of the boy, he was his flesh and blood in a manner of speaking. It was surely natural to have a paternal instinct for him. Of course, Spider hated his guts. Sully had gotten into the mind of his son, filling his head with crap about how goddamn trees had thoughts and feelings or whatever. Quaritch couldn’t help but feel jealous of the bond you and Spider had. You were a warrior just like him, a strong fighter. You could be just as vicious, he saw the fire in your eyes that reflected his own. If you could get Spider to love you, then perhaps he had a shot at this whole ‘father’ thing after all.

He frowned, walking away to do another patrol of the area before he was due to wake up Lyle and Z for their watch. He needed some space to stop the thoughts of you and Spider clouding his mind.

~ Taglist ~

(I just put everyone who commented on part 1 as I don’t usually do tag lists)