Chapter Text
By the time Neytiri came down, ready to make breakfast, Lo’ak had already set the table. Using his extra time, he’d decided to cook.
A mountain of french toast sticks, made the special way Kiri and Tuk liked it, dusted with powdered sugar. Scrambled eggs, bacon cooked, half crispy, half not, to appeal to everyone’s liking. Toast, waffles, even pancakes. He’d cut up some cantaloupe, pineapple, and watermelon, and put it in a bowl. Neteyam didn’t like bacon, so he’d made breakfast sausages instead.
When his mom walked in, they sort of just…stared at each other. Lo’ak in the midst of washing the dirty pans, Neytiri at the door.
Eventually, Lo’ak broke the awkward silence. “...hi, mom.”
Neytiri looked up and down at him, then broke into a laugh. “And to think you were vandalising the streets just last week.” She said, walking over to him and taking the pan out of his hands. “Here, let me do these.”
“It’s okay, mom, I got it–” He said, reaching an arm out, but she swatted it away.
“Lo’ak, you just cooked a feast for us, let me at least do this.” She said, “Go wake up your brother and sisters, Jake’s in the bathroom.”
–
It felt weird, usually Neteyam was waking him up. Today? Lo’ak got his revenge.
Grinning at the opportunity, Lo’ak pounced on Neteyam’s sleeping figure. The latter yelped at the sudden attack.
“What the fuck, man!” Neteyam groaned.
“Mom says wake up.” Lo’ak said. Neteyam raised a brow.
“Isn’t that my line?” He asked, shoving Lo’ak off while sitting up.
Lo’ak laughed. “Not anymore.”
–
By the time the rest of the family came down, Neytiri and Lo’ak were already eating, laughing at something. Jake paused and smiled when he saw everything, meanwhile the other kids scrambled to grab plates.
“You’ve outdone yourself today, Neytiri.” He said, grabbing a plate and pressing a kiss to the top of his wife’s head. She laughed and shook her head, helping Tuk reach the French toast. “Not me. Lo’ak made it.”
Everyone froze and turned to look at Lo’ak, who was chewing a piece of pineapple. He shrunk under their gazes a bit.
“No way. My brother did this? Same one who spent a whole day in custody?” Kiri questioned, as if she wasn’t eating the food he made. Lo’ak gasped in mock-offense.
“Are you saying I can’t cook?”
Kiri rolled her eyes. “I’m just saying it’s not like you. You’re usually like, grumpy and blood-thirsty.”
“Be nice to your brother.” Jake scolded. “And, for the record, it tastes amazing. If only you put this much dedication into staying out of trouble.”
Everyone laughed. It was a joke, obviously, but Lo’ak felt…sad. Like the one time he does something fun, it’s bad and he’s not allowed to ever forget about it.
Whatever. It was Jake-fucking-Sully, Lo’ak couldn’t care less about what he had to say.
–
Lo’ak is slipping on his shoes by the front entrance when he feels it. The hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and a tingling sensation throughout his body, like it was anticipating something.
Personincomingmoveoutofthewaybeforethey–
Lo’ak jumps out of the way, sending Tuk stumbling, clearly caught off-guard.
What the fuck?
Those aren’t just reflexes–it’s like he can sense what’s coming. Tuk gives him an annoyed frown, mad that her ambush attempt didn’t work out. Lo’ak lets out a sigh, running a hand through his braids. “Tuk, I told you to stop doing that.”
She huffs, turning away from him, arms crossed. “Penis-face.” She spits, taking a page out of Kiri’s book. Right at the same second, Neteyam walks in, raising a brow.
“Tuk, don’t say that.” Lo’ak groans, not bothering to look at Neteyam’s amused face. “It’s not nice.”
Tuk scampers off, probably to find Neytiri, and Lo’ak grabs his phone out of his pocket, checking the time. They should hit the road in five minutes, or they’ll be late.
He scrolls through his notification center, a few texts from Tsireya, a notification from YouTube about a new upload from someone he was subscribed to, nothing much.
Lo’ak scrolls down a little more and sees a missed call from Ao’nung, forty-two minutes ago. Sparing a quick glance at Neteyam, who was conversing with Kiri a few feet away, he decided to risk it and pray his siblings weren’t feeling too nosy today. He presses down on the call button, putting the phone against his ear.
It rings, once, twice, three times…
“Lo’ak!” Ao’nung’s voice, a little cheerful, a hint of panic.
“Hey, sorry, I just saw that you called me.” Lo’ak apologises. “What did you need?”
Ao’nung doesn’t respond for a second, and Lo’ak can faintly hear the rustling of bedsheets and footsteps. Seems like he’s going somewhere. After a second, Ao’nung whispers into the mic. “Is anyone with you right now?”
Lo’ak raises a brow, glancing around. “Uh, my siblings are near me. And I think Jake’s about to come over now–why?”
He ignores how his siblings turn to look at him, as if called to attention, focusing on Ao’nung’s voice.
“Can you get anywhere isolated? This is like, for your ears only.”
Lo’ak puts a hand on the doorknob, turning it. His backpack is already in the car, so he won’t have to worry about that. “Yeah, hold on, I’ll go outside.”
He steps out into the cold breeze of the mid-autumn morning, shutting the door gently behind him. Taking a moment to appreciate the beautiful tint of the sky, he leans against the wall of their house.
“Okay. You were saying?”
–
Lo’ak swears his family has the worst timing known to mankind, because when Jake, Kiri, and Neteyam step out, Lo’ak is going through all stages of shock at once.
“WHAT THE FUCK?” He shouts into the phone, then freezes when he realises he has a bit of an audience. Lo’ak presses the phone impossibly closer to his ear. “Look, man, I gotta go, but you gotta tell me more at school, okay?” He hisses quietly.
Ao’nung chuckles softly. “Yeah, will do. Homeroom?”
“You know it.”
“‘Kay. Oh, tell Kiri that Roxto says hi.” Ao’nung says, and Lo’ak smiles. They’ve both known that Roxto and Kiri both liked each other, but they’re clearly clueless, so they’ve taken on the role of cupid to try and get them to talk to one another. “See you. Love you.”
Okay, Ao’nung set him up. Because that bastard knows that Lo’ak’s family are staring holes into him right now, and they will grill him about everything once they’re in the car. Asshole.
“Yeah, love you too.” He mutters, trying to say it quietly, but the way Jake’s eyes widen a fraction and his siblings’s jaws drop, he doesn’t think he’s getting away with it. Lo’ak hangs up, avoiding all eye contact.
“...we should go now, right?” He suggests the awkward tension suffocating him by the minute.
Kiri recovers first, grinning in a way that only means trouble. “Yeah. Dad’s driving Tuk and us to school today, so you can tell us about your secret girlfriend.”
…He was going to murder Ao’nung.
–
“Come on! Who is it?” Neteyam asks for the nth time, shaking Lo’ak’s shoulders. The latter only rolls his eyes, clearly over this whole interrogation. They’ve been at this for the past ten minutes, and even Tuk is in on it. Lo’ak has lost all hope in his father shutting the whole thing down, because that smirk on his face tells him that even he’s waiting for an answer.
“I’m not secretly dating anyone! It was just a friend.” Lo’ak repeats. Neteyam gives him a playful shove.
Kiri, happily in the passenger seat, looks behind at them. “What friend are you saying you love?”
“I don’t fucking love Ao’nung, it’s just something friends say, duh.” Lo’ak says, then freezes, because he just dug his own grave.
Jake speaks first. “Ao’nung? The kid you vandalised our City Hall with?”
“Ao’nung? As in, Ao’nung te Tsika’u Tonowari’itan? The Ao’nung who bullied you all of last year?” Kiri asks in disbelief.
Okay, this one might be Lo’ak’s fault. Sometimes he forgets he can’t be honest about his and Ao’nung’s relationship. Their friendly, totally platonic and not at all romantic relationship.
“He didn’t bully me, his friends did.” Lo’ak defended weakly.
“Why would he be friends with people who are mean to you?” Tuk questioned.
“Ao’nung isn’t friends with them anymore!”
Neteyam scoffs. “Yeah, totally. What, he’s all of a sudden a saint? Did he even apologise?”
He did more than just that, Lo’ak desperately wants to say, he broke his wrist beating up the kids who were picking on him last year. Ao’nung had apologised hundreds of times, no matter how many times Lo’ak had told him that it was okay.
“Yeah, he did.” Lo’ak mutters, thinking back to that one summer night. When it was just him in his room, staring at the ceiling until he heard knocks on his window. And when he opened it, there was Ao’nung, bruised and beaten up, giving him a lazy grin as if he wasn’t bleeding. Lo’ak had let him in, and they exchanged quick, hushed words as Lo’ak tended to him. Ao’nung had shyly admitted to what he did, and apologised like the idiot he was. And Lo’ak told him that–that Ao’nung was stupid. So fucking stupid.
“And now you’re magically best friends, huh?” Kiri says, voice void of emotion. It was clear his family were not satisfied.
Not magically. Lo’ak remembers it clear as day, using his thumb to wipe away blood at the corner of Ao’nung’s mouth, their faces so close he could feel the latter’s warm breath on his skin.
“God, can you drop this already? I don’t have to justify my friends to you.” Lo’ak says harshly. Jake gives him a warning glare in the rearview mirror, but Lo’ak doesn’t notice it.
Bruised lips on his, a kiss slow and passionate yet so desperate, so hungry. Like Ao’nung thought he would never have the chance to kiss Lo’ak ever again. And sure, that could’ve been the case, Lo’ak could’ve pushed him off and told him to get out, but he didn’t. When the two pulled away, Lo’ak had looked into Ao'nung's eyes–those eyes he could drown in, those eyes that drew him in like a siren’s call–and kissed him again. Intense, full of want, because Lo’ak wanted this, he needed this. A kiss that lasted seconds, but he could replay in his mind for years and years on end without stopping. That feeling, that first kiss feeling, the slight taste of metal on Lo’ak’s tongue from Ao’nung’s busted lip, a feeling so feral he feared it would consume him whole–
“Lo’ak? Lo’ak!” Neteyam’s voice snaps him out of his memory, and he looks up. Everyone’s looking at him (minus Tuk, she’s dozing off in her seat).
“What?”
Jake’s brows furrow. “We’ve been calling your name for the past five minutes. We’re almost there, get ready.”
Yeah. That feeling really does consume him whole sometimes.
Lo’ak isn’t complaining.
–
“What does RDA even stand for?” Lo’ak asks Ao’nung when the two boys are huddled in the corner of their homeroom classroom.
“I don’t know, some bullshit like Resources Development Administration.” Ao’nung answers. They’ve been stressing about this for the past ten minutes as if it’s even their place to care.
“That’s a really stupid name for a terrorist organisation.” Lo’ak comments, making Ao’nung chuckle a bit. “No, but really, what would our school have for them? The most interesting thing here is that chick from biology that’s pregnant.”
One of their classmates was six months pregnant, and it was the talk of the school. Lo’ak had tried to ask Kiri and Neteyam if they knew anything about it, but they decided they were too holier-than-thou to gossip.
He wasn’t even being disrespectful! God forbid a guy gets curious. Lo’ak doesn’t go up to the girl and make fun of her, he just silently judges from his lab table, like everyone else does.
“Maybe she fucked an intergalactic creature from another universe, and now her baby is the second coming of Jesus Christ.” Ao’nung suggests, and it’s so stupid that Lo’ak cracks up and laughs so hard that the teacher gives them a judgmental look.
“How the hell is the second coming of Jesus a type of resource? I don’t think the RDA would want that.” He asks skeptically, looking at Ao’nung as if he sprouted a second head, because really, what went through this guy’s mind? Lo’ak swore there were no thoughts in there, just a single brain cell on break.
Ao’nung gives him a playful nudge. “You never know. Weird cult-ish activities, sacrifice for infinite uranium, or something.”
Lo’ak rolls his eyes, a smile evident on his face. “I thought the RDA was a terrorist organisation? Now it’s a cult?”
Ao’nung shrugs. “Hey, don’t ask me, I’m not a part of it. I’m just saying, I’ve snooped through my dad’s files, and they’ve been popping up a lot. Rumors of bomb threats on our school or something.”
Lo’ak shudders a bit at the thought. Surely if there was, wouldn’t the school tell them about it? Plus, his dad wouldn’t let them go if he knew about the group.
“When?” Lo’ak asks, and he doesn’t really expect an answer, because no way the RDA would give away all of their plans on a silver platter, unless they were truly amateurs.
“Not sure. If I had to guess, Prom? We’re having it early this year, so it’s the best time for everyone to be here at once and have their guard down. Plus, half the student body will be drunk, I’d definitely do it then if I was a terrorist leader.”
Yeah, Lo’ak’s (boy)friend was a little crazy. “Well, good thing you’re not.”
Ao’nung laughs, raw and free, and all of Lo’ak’s worries melt away, because when he was with Ao’nung, he was safe. He was loved, he was seen.
Lo’ak couldn’t seem to shake off that on-edge feeling off, though. That feeling that someone was watching his every move, the feeling that made his skin prick with goosebumps and his heart beat a little faster.
He was just…nervous.
The RDA wasn’t real. His supposed “powers” weren't real, either. Lo’ak just needed to ignore it all.
Everything was alright.