Chapter Text
“Letxi, don’t bully your brother!”
Laughing the little girl ran away, her brother close by.
-“Don’t worry, mother, I’ll get my revenge!”
“Nimwey, please-”
Neytiri shook her head lightly but her eyes were warm and her lips were curled to a soft smile. Jake snickered.
“They listen like a dumb rock.”
-”Well, it appears they take after their father.”
Jake made a fake hurt sound looking jokingly to Tsu’tey, who did not smile with his mouth but with his eyes. At the beginning Jake never thought that they would get along just fine. But it was the truth. And he was grateful for that because to his utmost surprise he really cared for what Tsu'tey thought. Especially when said Na'vi thought to be alone, because then one could see clearly the wish for death in his eyes. And it hurt Jake somehow.
He sighed and watched his children chasing each other. Letxi was the older one, born a few minutes before her brother. And she was definitely more like himself, loving the adrenaline, the danger... She was running and climbing almost every day and loved hunting. Her dream was to become the best huntress, even better than Peyral. Nimwey however was calmer, he loved exploring flora and fauna and hated his hunting lessons with passion. He even disliked meat, which was hard to cope as a parent at first. But they eventually learned to accept that strange wish of him. As troublesome as it was sometimes.
Nimwey caught up with Letxi, hugged her tightly from behind and then gave her the biggest kiss on her cheek he could muster. Letxi was perplex at first, but then managed to hug her brother back, wiping her drooled cheek on his with passion.
“Ew, Letxi!”
“Blame yourself, you moron!”
Laughing their chase after one another continued. Neytiri sighed and leaned closer to Jake while he was reliving his own memories.
“They remind me of when Tommy and I were little...”
“I feel for your parents.”
She smiled mischievously but Jake couldn’t muster a proper reaction. His eyes shifted up to the sky.
“Well, we lost our mother when we were 11 and our father had left us at age 4. Went somewhere far from us.”
Immediately Neytiri tensed.
“Oh, Jake, you’ve never told me!”
“It’s alright.”
The silence was kind of awkward. Jake was about to give in to his impulse to flee.
-”Who took care of you after the death of your mother?”
Tsu’tey didn’t hide his honest interest and Jake appreciated his open yet cautious concern. He learned by now that Tsu’tey was not close with everyone. In fact after all of his friends had died at some point during the invasion of the humans he was with nearly no one on a friendly term. He had been kind of close with Neytiri, at least to an extent, being betrothed to one another, but now after her mating with Jake it was quite tense between the two of them.
Despite that there was still his disability that hindered him to be in close contact with anyone at all -to be exact it wasn't the disability that did that, it was his pride. If it wasn't for the stubbornness of Jake the bitter warrior wouldn't leave his nivi other than to eat something that was for sure.
“...Well, we were put into an orphanage, where all those children live that lost their parents or were handed over.”
“There are parents that don’t want their offspring?”
Neytiri looked at him with big eyes. Jake shrugged.
“Yeah... Either that or they just couldn’t afford to care for them. Some are too poor to secure the life of their children. They give them away so that they have food and education.”
“That’s horrible!”
Jake sighed.
“There are worse things than that in my old world, believe me… Anyway, the one’s in charge of the orphanage can do what they want with the children, we hadn't any voice at all. They wanted to place Tommy and me in different families because we were too erratic together, 'unacceptable for a possible new family' they claimed... We weren’t fond of their decision and made enough trouble in our new 'homes' that we never lived longer with those than a couple of months. We thought that that would make them see their mistake...”
Tsu’tey scoffed.
“I hardly believe that that worked.”
Jake smiled afflicted.
“Yeah, we were naive.”
“What happened after that?”
“We were delivered to a dozen foster families until we had a reputation for being troublemakers and no one wanted us anymore. With 14 we were one of the few kids that lived in the orphanage permanently. But Tommy wanted to go to college and because of our behavior before they thought we were not worth it... I enlisted myself to the military to earn money and with it Tommy could attend trial lessons for a scholarship. He only needed that much to make every professor love him. Back then he had already been obsessed with the tales of Pandora. He had big dreams and planned exactly what he wanted to achieve with a strict schedule, while I was failing to figure out what to do with my life.”
“...You do not talk often about your former life."
"Well..."
Jake really didn't know what to say. Pandora was not comparable with...well, everything. Nothing back there was something he thought fondly of. He never liked thinking about it, so the need of talking about his former life was small.
-"Sempu!"
Nimwey hobbled to them, crying heartbreakingly while being supported by his sister. Immediately Jake leapt to his feet and lifted his son up to comfort him.
"What happened?"
Letxi scratched her head irritated while Nimwey was at a loss of words and just hugged his father deeply.
"We had fun climbing a tree and then he climbed on a dead chunk and fell on his leg."
Sighing Jake sat down again, still with his son in his arms.
"How bad is it?"
Embarrassed Nimwey looked to Tsu'tey. His father and him were close to one another but he still was pretty intimidated whenever he had to speak in his presence. His mother registered his reluctance and examined his knee without waiting for an answer.
"The bleeding already stopped, it will hurt for a few days, but you should be fine."
Nimwey nodded slightly, still clinging to his father. He needed some moments to gather himself, before he was settled enough to accept the help of his sister to try and use his leg again.
"Maybe we shouldn't climb again today... Maybe we should ask Ninat for some storytelling?"
Nimwey was visibly excited.
"...I'd like that!"
Smiling widely Letxi helped her brother walking his first steps and carefully watched him walk on his own as if she feared that he could hit a rock and get hurt yet again. Her protectiveness brought a smile to the adults. Neytiri got up.
"I'll have to attend a meeting with Mo'at."
She rested her head for a short time against Jake's before leaving. And sooner then later she was out of sight. Jake was a bit on edge every time he was alone with Tsu'tey. He felt for the other male. Deeply. The inability to walk properly was drowning the other male.
"You want to train?"
Tsu'tey gifted him with an annoyed look. Jake rolled his eyes.
"Come on, we can go somewhere else so no one will see us."
Growling Tsu'tey looked aside. That was as much a OK as Jake would get, so he stood up and helped him to his feet. It took a while until Tsu'tey stood steady enough to allow Jake to loosen his grip around his wists again. Jake suppressed a growl. The prideful Na'vi shouldn't have those kind of troubles. But Tsu'tey's tswin had been badly injured. The human that had attacked him on the ground cut it off before the Na'vi had been rescued by his ikran. He barely managed to live with all those bullet holes in his body and his cut off tswin.
And if it weren't for those humans that were allowed to stay -the scientists, healers and few soldiers that weren't greedy assholes- then Tsu'tey would be dead for sure. They stopped his bleeding, took the bullets out of his body and managed to put him in one of those strange pods to keep him alive while reconnecting his tswin. It kinda worked but, well, not entirely. His balance wasn't what it used to be and if he didn't concentrate he hit the ground.
Tsu'tey snarled. He knew exactly what was going on in the other's head and he hated the sympathy he saw there. As if Jakesully knew what he had to endure! He knew nothing! Every movement required much more attention, yes. And that was definitely hard. But the hardest part was that Tsu'tey somehow lost the control of his bladder and even worse, his excrement. It was something he just didn't accept -couldn't. Something none of his clan was allowed to know. So far the only Na'vi knowing of this was Mo'at.
Either way he participated only on small hunts, he held his speeches together with Jake, he made sure everything was alright within their new home -a union of many big trees, connected with long bridges made of leaves and wood. Their housings were built around the trunk with the same ingredients they needed for their eywa k'sey nivi'bri'sta. It was hard work and nothing like Hometree, but it was enough. He helped his people as best as he could. Which wasn't enough. Jake managed good for being a former Dreamwalker.
All in all everything was different. And somehow he felt different himself. Mo'at often talks to him about him needing to 'open up' to somebody, to 'divide his burden'. He wasn't interested in doing so. It was his problem. His alone. It was too intimate. He was still their leader, well, together with Jake -which was a strange constellation that had never happened before in Na'vi history and still wasn't something they yet talked about. Two Olo'eyktan. There were some difficulties because of that, of course. Complications regarding their connection with the other tribes. And definitely some mocking. But for now they managed to withstand any public criticism so far.
But all was lost if it would somehow be known that he... That he was...one who could not use his body properly anymore. He was a hindrance for Na'vi as a whole. He knew of at least 3 former great warriors that killed themselves honorably due to their battle injuries, he and his hunting parties sometimes sung for them after a great hunt...
His song would not be about honor or great achievements. It would be a story of loss, grief and incompetence. And that knowledge hurt more than his disability itself.
No one was allowed to know of his difficulties. No one. How could anyone see him like a leader if they knew with what he dealt on a daily basis? If they knew that he had a hard time figuring out when he had to go to the bushes to relieve himself? That he couldn't even control it and had to wear special, thick leather stripes in his trousers so no one can see his failures? There already was talking about his new 'sense of fashion' regarding him wearing that dark trousers they normally only wear while riding one's ikran...
He will be a figure of fun if everyone knew. By Eywa, he himself would've looked down upon such a "warrior" for sure!
"...Tsu'tey, my friend, you seem to be in deep thought."
The Na'vi shuddered and tried his best to ignore the feeling that accompanied his dark thoughts as best as he could. Jake was looking at him in his typical way that made him feel like his naked soul was laying right in front of that man. It was scary how much the former Dreamwalker seemed to know just by looking at him...
Coughing he concentrated on moving his legs to be able to follow the other one to a more secluded spot.