Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Rumi was never supposed to have been there.

It was her sister, with her big brain, an impressive PhD and dozens of other accolades that was supposed to have been standing here. Hana was the one that had impressed Dr. Celine Park enough to have gotten invited to this mission.

Not Rumi.

Rumi had never amounted to anything, she hadn’t even made the footnote in Hana’s big Science Magazine profile, an in-depth article recounting all of her sister’s grand life thus far with her big accomplishments that had landed her a spot in this elite Pandoran research team.

No, Rumi had only managed to show up in one nameless line for another kind of article.

Dr. Hana Ryu is survived by her twin sister.

That’s why Rumi was there.

Because Hana had been killed one week before she was supposed to have shipped out, and all the preparations—including the expensive avatar that could only be used by someone with Hana’s genetic markers—had already been made.

And it wasn’t like she’d been welcomed with open arms either.

“A pizza delivery driver? Are you kidding me? Do you at least have any research experience? Lab time logged?” Dr. Park had bitingly asked when she’d arrived, sizing Rumi up with just one glare.

“Nothing beyond high school science…I- uh, I dissected a frog once?” Rumi had responded, trying for some levity.

But that small attempt at humour had vaulted right over the prestigious doctor’s head. Instead, Dr. Park just dragged her hand down her face.

It was why everyone was surprised when Rumi had actually gotten pretty good in her avatar body. Good enough to have gotten invited into the clan by the chief’s daughter and her mated pair.

She was getting closer, learning more about the Na’vi and their culture than anyone else had ever been able to. Except—

“Come on, why now?” Rumi groaned, standing beside Bobby, holding the flashlight with a steady hand.

Bobby chuckled, kneeling beside the generator as he inspected it, trying to find the issue. “Got a hot date or something?”

“Or something,” Rumi mumbled, thinking of her avatar body currently lying between two gorgeous Na’vi.

“Relax, this happens every few weeks or so. The flux vortex really doesn’t like our Earthly technology, so it fritzes out.”

Right, they’d explained it to Rumi before. “I know, which is why I don’t understand why we have to be here, where it’s more concentrated.” When Bobby opened his mouth to explain, Rumi rushed to add, “I know it’s all about immersion, the main lab is on the outskirts, and this allows us to come back and forth more easily, but it’s still annoying.”

So Bobby just smiled, and instead said, “Hey shine the light up here? I think I found it.”

Just as Rumi was about to do so, they heard another doctor yell out, “Two Na’vi are approaching!”

Bobby and Rumi shared a look before scrambling to where Dr. Han was standing by the window. Celine’s research protocols had been very clear. They were not to interact with the Na’vi as humans, only as avatars. They already mistrusted humans enough as it was, if they found their labs, the Na’vi would surely chase them out once and for all.

Celine was already at the window, and she groaned. “They’ve spotted the lab, we’re screwed.”

As Rumi looked out the window, she gasped. “Wait, I know them!”

In her classic do-first-think-later attitude, Rumi scrambled towards the entrance, grabbing an exopack and rushing to go through the acclimatization chamber to exit.

“Wait, Rumi!” Celine tried to caution, but it came too late. The hiss of the door had already sounded, and Rumi was already fitting the mask around her head.

Once outside, Rumi booked it to where she saw familiar blue and turquoise figures cautiously approaching.

Rumi came to a stop in the middle of the clearing, watching as Mira and Zoey continued their slow approach, looking at Rumi with something akin to amazement.

“I see you,” Rumi greeted them each in turn with her broken Na’vi language, bowing and gesturing with her hand. “It’s me, Rumi. What are you doing here?”

“You wouldn’t wake up this morning, and you mentioned you were up here in the mountains.” Zoey explained as she knelt in front of Rumi and grinned. “You’re so tiny!”

Rumi blushed under Zoey’s gaze, and nearly stumbled when Zoey’s hand came to brush her hair and caught her by surprise.

Misunderstanding the gesture, Zoey quickly took her hand back, uttering an apology. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t sure how humans dealt with touch. Are you averse to it?”

“N-no,” Rumi sought to clarify. She’d surely look pathetic if she reached out to grab Zoey’s enormous hand again, right? But still, when Rumi saw Zoey’s hand come to rest on her knee, Rumi reached to place her hand on top of her fingers. Her language skills were very elementary, she could understand a tad better than she could speak it, so she didn’t have the words to convey what she wanted to say. “Please,” was all she wound up being able to say. She hoped Zoey would understand.

Zoey’s other hand came to brush Rumi’s pockmarked arm, a result of being clipped so many times by angry drivers while on her bike. The touch made Rumi gasp. To everyone else, her marks were something people avoided looking at or touching, something horrible she had to hide, but Zoey made it seem like she wanted to memorize every groove of Rumi’s skin.

Rumi felt the pinpricks of tears in her eyes, but she was determined not to cry. Crying in an exopack was a mess.

So she looked to Mira, who was still standing there to the side, frozen.

“I see you,” Rumi nervously repeated to Mira, worried about her apprehension. Was Mira disgusted at seeing how pitifully human and frail Rumi was? Would she kick Rumi out once they got back to Hometree?

Mira didn’t respond. She muttered something to Zoey that Rumi had no way to understand, and just turned on her heel and left.

Rumi felt a strangled noise catch in her throat. She wanted to try and rush after Mira, but between the difference in gait, plus Zoey’s hand still on her skin, made her pause.

“What did she say? Why is she leaving?” Rumi asked, almost afraid of hearing the answer.

But Zoey just gave Rumi the most comforting smile. “You’ll see.”

Rumi took a second to parse through the response. Did…did that mean Mira was coming back? Or was she going to feed Rumi to a viperwolf? Rumi hoped that wasn’t the case. Surely Zoey wouldn’t be looking at her like that if that was going to be the outcome.

So Rumi chose to not dwell on that, which only left her with Zoey’s very soft touches on her arms, tail brushing against Rumi’s legs. Every old scar that littered her body was catalogued and reverently touched.

Briefly, Rumi thought back to the scientists probably ogling all of this from the lab, and hoped they were giving her some space.

The sounds of leaves rustling had Rumi looking up again. Mira was back, no viperwolf in sight thankfully, but in her hand she held something.

Slowly, as if Mira were afraid she was going to spook her, Mira knelt beside Rumi. To assuage her, Rumi placed a hand on Mira’s knee, and brushed the soft skin there. 

Mira’s breath hitched, and Rumi caught a slight blush there. It was harder with the blue skin, but it relaxed her to know Mira didn’t seem mad.

Extending her hand, Mira said, “Eat,” in her own broken English.

Rumi glanced at the palm of Mira’s hands, where these red seed-like things were clumped up. They looked like pomegranate seeds, though certainly more squishy.

“What is it?” Rumi asked in English. With the exopack, she couldn’t very well eat them right now.

But Mira didn’t clarify, and just repeated, “Eat.”

Gingerly, Rumi grabbed at the clasp of her exopack’s mask, and also took a handful of the seeds in Mira’s hand. With lightning-quick reflexes, Rumi took a deep breath, opened the mask and shoved the seeds in her mouth before replacing the mask on her face.

“Chew, wait to swallow,” Mira haltingly explained. Her English was better than Zoey’s, who knew basically nothing of the alien language, but Rumi was patiently trying to teach her, in exchange for lessons on how to communicate in the Na’vi language.

Rumi followed the instructions, and when she swallowed, she found the seeds now had a honey-like consistency, and it felt like they were coating her throat.

“Take it off,” Mira said, tapping the mask.

“I won’t be able to breathe,” Rumi explained, even as she strangely felt it getting harder to breathe as it was. Was it nerves?

“Please?” Mira asked. “Trust me.”

Rumi looked between the two of them, and she saw the same soft looks they gave her the night before, and Rumi relented.

She disengaged the mask and gingerly removed it.

“Breathe,” Zoey said, fingers brushing Rumi’s chest as she saw how Rumi tensed, trying to limit her breathing.

And she did. She was breathing the actual air of Pandora and not keeling over. “Holy shit.”

She looked between the two Na’vi women with something akin to wonder. No, not wonder. Love. She was falling deeper and deeper in love with them and she was so close to telling them.

“Do you want to know what Mira said?” Zoey asked with a grin, leaning forward now, her face so close Rumi could count the individual dusting of freckles on her cheeks. They looked like stars at night, glowing softly.

“Yes.”

It was Mira who answered, her usually stoic facade fading as she looked at Rumi. “I told her I needed to kiss you. So, may I?”

Rumi took a second to respond, before her words tumbled out. “Yes! Yes, please. I want to kiss both of you.”

Mira was first, cupping Rumi’s entire head in her hands before she brought their lips together. The size difference made the kiss a bit awkward, but no less caring. When they parted, Rumi felt breathless, but it had nothing to do with the air, and everything to do with how her heart was beating wildly in excitement. 

Rumi looked to Zoey, whose blush was definitely more noticeable, and she beckoned the other woman to her, reaching out to touch her cheek.

Zoey didn’t need to be told a word. Where Mira’s kiss was slow, like she wanted to commit the feel of her lips to her memory, Zoey kissed her like there was a hunger that could only be satisfied by Rumi’s lips.

Even when Zoey stopped their kiss, Mira was waiting to kiss Rumi again. This happened a few times until Rumi had to ask them to stop.

“I won’t be able to breathe otherwise,” Rumi explained with a laugh.

“You’re so beautiful tìyawn,” Zoey murmured.

Out of all that Rumi had learnt so far, the one word she had yet to find out the meaning for was tìyawn. She’d tried to ask Zoey and Mira, who would only smile softly when she asked, and told her they’d tell her when the time was right. 

She turned to the coven of scientists, and even they would get cagey. The best they were able to tell her was that it meant good friend, though she couldn’t understand why being called a good friend made Celine drop her mug the first time Rumi had asked.

Behind her, she heard the door open. It was Bobby. “Rumi! The power’s back on.”

Rumi waved at him, and looked excitedly back at Mira and Zoey. “I’ll meet you back home!”

Without waiting for an answer, Rumi rushed back to the lab. It was only then she realized the word she used. Home. Not Hometree, as she’d been intending to use.

Oh.

“I can’t believe her,” Celine grumbled from inside the lab once Rumi was safely transferred to her avatar. “Complete disregard for our safety protocols and her own well-being.”

Bobby chuckled. “You sure it’s that, and not that you’re jealous?”

Celine harrumphed. “I’m not jealous. Jealousy would mean I want what she has-”

“Which you do,” Bobby teasingly interjected. “You want to be sandwiched by two Na’vi women. You told me as much when we got drunk a few years ago.”

“That is besides the point!” Celine spluttered. “What irks me is that I’ve been trying to gain their trust for a decade, it took me 5 years for them to stop hissing at me, and even now I can’t get within two feet of the Hometree, and yet this pizza delivery girl with no knowledge of this planet and no scientific tact seems to be having the luck of her life?”

“You weren’t chosen by Eywa like she was,” Bobby pointed out.

“And that’s exactly the point!” Celine crossed her arms petulantly.

“Maybe you should try to be more like her?”

Celine raised an eyebrow. “What, traipse around the forest and fling myself off a cliff trying to escape a viperwolf?”

When Rumi’s eyes fluttered open again, she found herself under a canopy of green, a soft wind making the hammock sway in the breeze.

It was incredible how, in the short span of time she’d been in this body, she’d started to see this as her real life, rather than the one in her real human body.

But then Celine’s last words to her ran like cold water down her body.

“Remember Rumi, you cannot disrupt the Na’vi way of life. Those two are mates, and while they might be open to fooling around with you because you’re interesting, you have to remember that to them, this doesn’t mean what you think it means. They take relationships very seriously, and at the end of the day, their life plans don’t include you.”

Before she could dwell more on it, she felt the hammock creak as someone dropped down without any tact.

“Whoa!” Rumi braced herself, worried she’d go careening down to the ground far—way too far—below.

“Ma tìyawn!” Zoey squealed, settling into Rumi’s left. While Mira’s landing was much softer, Rumi still felt her stomach recoil at the movement.

But with Zoey’s arms around her, Rumi felt safer. She knew that even if she fell, one or both of them would catch her.

“Welcome back,” Mira greeted, lying down on Rumi’s right.

“T-thanks,” Rumi stammered, turning to her. Much to her surprise, Mira surged forward to kiss her.

They’d kissed the night before, but it had been chaste, like a good night kiss that promised more in the morning. Rumi wasn’t ready for how the full force of Mira’s kiss felt in this body. Even earlier, Rumi was sure they were holding back, afraid of hurting her human body.

She still felt breathless when Mira moved back.

And when Zoey cupped her cheeks to kiss Rumi, she felt like the luckiest woman in the world. Who needed air when two most wonderful Na’vi were kissing her senseless?

This doesn’t mean what you think it means.

Celine’s words rang through her head again, and Rumi broke the kiss with a start. She wanted to physically move, but it was impossible in the hammock.

“Rumi? Are you okay? Was that too much?” Zoey asked, all careful words and looks, while Mira’s hand went to stroke her arm soothingly.

“What does tìyawn mean?” Rumi asked, a desperation in her voice that she couldn’t hide.

Mira’s hand stilled, and Zoey’s breath caught.

“Please,” Rumi continued, switching to English because, even if they couldn’t understand her, she had to get the words out. “I know you two are mated, and I would never want to come between that. But I can’t help but feel that it means more than just ‘good friends’. And you two keep kissing me and it’s making me feel so lov- cared for, and you two make me feel like I finally belong somewhere and—”

Rumi’s rambles stuttered to a stop when Mira deposited a soft kiss on Rumi’s shoulder, while Zoey’s thumbs swiped gently at her cheeks.

“Should I?” Zoey asked as she sat up, turning to Mira.

“We’ll lose her if we don’t,” Mira pointed out, moving to prop herself up on one side, hand gently resting against Rumi’s stomach. It grounded her in a way she wasn’t expecting.

Rumi knew they were speaking slowly so she’d hear and understand them, but their words made her falter. 

“Lose me?” she repeated, voice catching in her throat. Was Celine right? Were they going to let her down gently?

Zoey opened and closed her mouth a few times. Slowly, as if trying to find the right words in English, Zoey asked, “How do humans express affection for one another?”

That was not what Rumi was expecting, and she looked between Zoey and Mira, to see if their expressions betrayed where they were going with this.

This doesn’t mean what you think it means.

When she didn’t see or hear anything, she responded, “Uh, in a variety of ways actually. They hug—”

Rumi’s breath hitched when Mira moved to wrap her arms around Rumi, bringing her close. She even felt Mira’s tail wrap around her right leg.

“T-they give each other gifts,” Rumi continued, voice faltering a bit.

Suddenly, Zoey jumped up and moved away from Rumi’s eyesight. Before she could even try to ask Mira what was going on, Zoey returned, with a flower that resembled a water lily you’d find on Earth.

“This is from my home in the Metkayina clan,” Zoey explained, holding her hands out with the flower nestled between them.

Rumi reverently looked at the flower as if it was a precious treasure, entranced with the sweet scent. She hoped her blush wasn’t too noticeable as Zoey entwined it in her hair.

“What else?” Mira quietly asked.

“Oh!” Rumi had been so fascinated with the flower, she’d nearly forgotten Zoey’s original question. “If it’s a friend, or a light romance, you might tell them ‘I like you’.”

Silence greeted her words. With how the hug and gift explanation had gone, she was expecting to hear the words back.

But obviously, they didn’t feel that way…

“What else?” Zoey asked, a soft and reassuring smile playing on her face.

Words of affection were out of the equation so— “If it’s someone you care for in a romantic sense, you might kiss them on the lips.”

She felt Mira bring a hand to her face, turning Rumi’s head to face her, before she kissed her softly on the lips.

It was chaste, and certainly lacked the fire of their earlier kiss, but this one felt so much more in a way she couldn’t describe. And when Zoey also moved to kiss her, Rumi let out a faint whine.

They were going to drive her insane, of that she was sure.

“What else?” Zoey asked yet again against her lips as they parted.

Rumi wracked her brain for something else as Zoey sat back.

“What do you tell someone, to tell them you can’t live without them?” Mira added, breath shivering against her ear.

Rumi felt her heart jump in her throat. There was no way…

This doesn’t mean what you think it means. 

“W-well, the simplest way would be to say ‘I love you—’”

Zoey leaned forward once again, fingers hooking under Rumi’s chin. “I love you.”

Rumi gasped.

Mira moved into her field of vision. “I love you.”

This doesn’t mean what you think it means. 

Zoey added, “Mira’s my tìyawn, just as you are, Rumi.”

This doesn’t mean what you think it means. 

“And you’re my tìyawn Rumi, just like Zoey is.”

Rumi surged forward to kiss Mira and Zoey in turn, and then again and again and again, their laughter mixing in with their tears and gentle touches as they continued trading kisses.

This does mean what you think it means. 

Chapter Text

As Rumi lay there, sleeping in their hammock, she thought back to the day she met Zoey and Mira. Looking back now, she had to smile: she had been such an idiot!

Just then, Zoey readjusted herself, as if she wanted to truly make sure Rumi was still there, and it made her breath catch in her throat.

How had she gotten so lucky?

Run.

RunrunrunRUN!

That single word was taking over Rumi’s mind as she continued to rush through the jungle at breakneck speeds. Her boots thumping on the ground echoed the chaos of her heartbeat, and she wondered how alike Na’vi hearts were to humans’.

She huffed. Wondering could wait, right now she had to survive!

Currently, she was glad that her extensive experience of dodging drivers on the streets of New York with her bike gave her the skills to be able to weave and dodge obstacles of this jungle with ease.

This was crucial, because the viperwolves chasing her down were giving no leeway, and they were snapping at her tail way too often for Rumi’s tastes.

Which, she really had to admit she hated her tail, and tails in general. What was even the point? No matter how fast she ran, that wet noodle hanging by her ass was like bait for these creatures and whatever circle of hell they had manifested from.

Not for the first time, Rumi cursed her situation.

She cursed the jackass that murdered her sister, she cursed Celine and her “you can pull your weight around here and carry the equipment” bullshit that got her here specifically at this point in time.

And now she was cursing these creatures that have made it their mission to kill her for some unbeknownst reason?!

SNAP!

Rumi’s breath hitched. She felt the spittle from the maws of the creature on the tip of her tail, and she let out a frustrated yell.

Yes, it probably wouldn’t help her to waste energy by letting out such a sound, but she was so tired of this shit.

And then, things got worse.

She had made it out of the thicket of trees, grateful for the wide plain before her, but the rest of her gratitudes died in her throat.

Rumi was running at breakneck speeds to the edge of a cliff. And from the looks of it, it was a very, very long way down.

Well, fuck.

She looked to either side, and just saw that these viperwolves had realized the opportunity, and were closing in on her in—

“Seriously? A pincer?!” Rumi exclaimed to no one in particular. Not like the beasts could respond anyway.

So these were her options: die via gravity, or die via the jaws of these hellish creatures.

Speeding up, Rumi decided she would be the first avatar to try and discover how hardy Na’vi bodies could be.

With a burst of speed and a guttural yell, Rumi vaulted from the edge of the cliff and let gravity take her.

She briefly saw the viperwolves scramble to brake, one of them nearly joined her in the fall, but its buddies helped it back up.

And now, Rumi focused on her landing, trying to see what terrain she was dealing with.

Much to her surprise, she saw…water?

She was diving headfirst into a lake, and as she submerged, she couldn’t believe her luck.

Rumi opened her eyes and saw so much beauty that she didn’t want to resurface. She did make her way to shallower waters, not trusting that the waters of Pandora wouldn’t also have their own version of viperwolves.

As she swam, she was schools of fishes, a pair of legs, she could even see a bit of colour from some coral reefs further away, another pair of legs—

Wait.

Shooting back up out of the water, Rumi found that she wasn’t alone.

There were two Na’vi women standing in the shallower water in front of her. One had the same blue hue as Rumi’s current skin, but her hair was a vibrant pink, and the other one’s skin was a turquoise hue and she had dark hair that looked almost black.

They were both gorgeous.

And also very naked.

Rumi blushed and looked away.

Suddenly, someone was yelling at her, and Rumi looked back up, eyes wide in surprise.

“I-I don’t—”

“Kempe si nga fi se!” commanded the blue Na’vi, angrily jabbing a finger in Rumi’s direction.

Oh. Right. Rumi had heard Celine wax poetic about how the Na’vi were very strict with their greeting rituals and how important it was to get it right.

She desperately tried to remember the words. Bobby had given her a book on phrases and important topics, she should know something! She was just about to start a chapter called Muntxa si; it was all about connections from the first sentence she gleamed, so maybe that was it.

Rumi bowed deeply, nose almost touching the water. “Oel…muntxa…uh si kameie?”

One of them yelped, and Rumi could guess she had not said the correct thing. She looked back up, and saw the turquoise Na’vi yammer quickly at her companion, pointing at Rumi and then her own hand.

Rumi looked down at her hands and then the Na’vi’s. Oh. More fingers. That must be a dead giveaway. Not that her clothes were any better. She knew the Na’vi wouldn’t wear shirts or pants, let alone shoes.

“I’m really sorry,” Rumi began, speaking slowly and hoping that they had picked up English at some point. “I was running from those things…”

When Rumi pointed up, back to the ledge she’d jumped from, the two Na’vi followed her finger and spotted the viperwolves still lingering.

“I’m Rumi,” Rumi continued, pointing to herself.

The turquoise Na’vi pointed to herself. “Zoey.” And then to the other. “MIra.”

Mira looked at Zoey and scowled, and if Rumi had to guess, was berating her for sharing their names.

“I don’t mean any harm!” Rumi added, putting her hands up placatingly.

“Fayvrrtep! Faysawtute!” Mira’s piercing glare, plus her inflection, had Rumi thinking that she was probably being insulted.

Rumi would eventually find out that she had tried to proposition Mira to mate with her, much to her mortifying embarrassment. And as Celine would explain to her in some very terse words, this was the worst faux pas one could commit against the Na’vi.

But at that point, she had no idea what was going on, or why she was being treated so rudely, and she was getting a bit ticked off.

Like any respectable person that was learning a new language, Rumi had first gone to the back of the book to look at all the swear words. The Na’vi didn’t have many, but she did recall a particular word.

“Two can play at that game!” Rumi huffed. “You…teylupil!”

In hindsight, calling someone who was already ticked off at her the equivalent of a beetle larva face wasn’t the best of ideas, but Rumi didn’t consider herself a very diplomatic person. She was a fighter. She survived.

Much to her surprise though, it wasn’t Mira who got upset. Frankly, more than anything, she looked surprised at the insult.

But Zoey? Zoey was ready to draw blood. She hissed at Rumi, in a way that reminded her of one of her regulars, Mrs. Choi’s cat, and began to swipe at her, as if she was going to gouge Rumi’s face off.

“Whoa!” Water began to splash all around as Rumi tried to back away from Zoey’s reach.

But while Rumi had her eyes trained on those hands that moved faster than she could block, she was wholly unprepared for the tail that coiled around her ankle, and pulled.

With a yelp, Rumi toppled over into the water again, as Zoey jumped on her. She wondered if she was going to drown here.

No.

With all the strength she could muster, Rumi swatted her hands, and she’s pretty sure she made contact with Zoey, judging from the grunts in response.

She kicked and kneed any direction she could, grinning every time she made contact.

And then, she was free!

But Mira was waiting in the wings, very much not happy with how Rumi was acting towards Zoey.

Were they partners? Was that why they were protecting one another?

Rumi reached down and grabbed a fistful of pebbles and sand, before flinging it at Mira.

Her aim was true, and hit Mira square in the face. Zoey moved towards her partner, probably asking if she was alright, judging by the tone.

Mira’s responding anger had Rumi remembering her plan.

Right. Run again!

Rumi scrambled up and booked it out of there.

Much to her relief, it didn’t look like they intended to follow her, but she did faintly hear one of them yell something out to her.

If Rumi had to guess, they were yelling out a warning: Never come back here again.

And if some deity had some shred of compassion for Rumi, she’d hopefully be able to follow through and never have to see them again.

Chapter Text

“No way! I’m not going back there!”

“You are, and that’s final.” Celine’s clipped tone brokered no argument. She didn’t even spare Rumi a glance, preferring to peer into her microscope, studying whatever it was that she and Bobby had found while Rumi was running for her life.

“Did you miss the part where I said that they wanted to fucking kill me?” Rumi yelped, certain she’d been explicitly clear that she’d left that ordeal by the skin of her teeth. She glanced at Bobby, who gestured helplessly.

Celine finally turned in her chair, and she narrowed her eyes. “First of all, I heard you loud and clear, and I don’t appreciate the insinuation that I wasn’t. Secondly, I don’t tolerate swearing. It’s uncouth and doesn’t befit the prestige of the scientific community. Lastly, this expedition is meant to conduct groundbreaking research and create longlasting diplomatic ties with Pandora, and I will not have it be sullied because you couldn’t remember one simple formality, and 3 words.”

“I’m kinda learning as I go along!” Rumi tried to justify.

“Your mother tongue is Korean, isn’t it?” Celine asked. At Rumi’s halting nod, the head scientist added, “Which means you learnt English later, when you went to New York. This is the same thing, so don’t act like it’s some foreign concept.”

“They could’ve gone a little bit easier on me,” Rumi harrumphed.

Bobby cleared his throat. “From what I understand, you tried to proposition the chief’s married daughter to mate with her.”

Celine’s tone became even more clipped. “It’s somehow the worst blunder you could have committed, which is why it’s imperative you fix things! We’re already hard-pressed to get them to trust us, and if they have your number for this faux-pas, we can forget about ever achieving some semblance of a connection with them. And I refuse to let you be the cause of that.”

Rumi threw her hands up in the air. “Fine! What do you suggest I do then? Throw myself at their feet and beg for forgiveness?”

Celine was clearly growing tired of this conversation, because she leveled Rumi with an indecipherable look before turning back to her microscope. After a beat, she muttered, “I wouldn’t dare try to suggest anything. It seems like you know everything, so I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

With an indignant huff, Rumi got up and stalked out of the lab, heading to their little mess hall slash sleeping quarters. Their field lab wasn’t exactly big, just a couple of portables cobbled together to form a makeshift center of operations, and Rumi wished more than anything that she could leave this metal cage.

After a few minutes of pacing, she heard someone approach and looked to the door to find Bobby standing there. As if he read her mind, he asked, “Want to get out of here?”

“Lead the way.” Rumi said with a flourish of her hand.

They headed to the acclimatization chamber, where they grabbed their exopacks before heading out.

Even if they weren’t directly breathing in the air around them, Rumi still felt grateful to get out. As much as she wanted to do this by herself, she was more afraid Celine would start yelling at her that she was destroying the local flora with her human germs or something. But with Bobby there, at least she knew she was safe from Celine’s wrath.

Out of everyone there, Bobby was the only one who treated Rumi with kindness. He’d shown her the ropes, and made her feel like part of the team.

After they’d walked far enough away that they could barely see the lab, Rumi asked, “Did I screw up that badly?”

Bobby found a good rock to sit on, and gestured for Rumi to sit on a nearby one. “Honestly? It wasn’t good. I think we can salvage it, but we’ve got to be strategic about it.”

Rumi plopped down on the rock with a world-weary sigh. “And how do you propose we do that?”

“Fast track your learning of the Na’vi language. From now on: ayoe nì'aw plltxe na'vi lì'fya,”

Grimacing, Rumi said, “You lost me there.”

“I said: we’ll speak only the Na’vi language.”

“Can’t we start with something simple? LIke the basics? The weather, maybe?” Rumi asked, her trepidation growing.

The scientist shook his head. “Unfortunately, we can’t wait around. The longer we go without getting you to apologize, the more pissed off the Na’vi will be, and if it comes to a head, they won’t hesitate to run us out.”

With a slow nod, Rumi masticated on what she was being asked to do. “I thought they were peaceful?”

Bobby winced. “Not exactly. It’s a common misconception. They seem to favour non-aggressive tactics, as it would be better for the environment, which is something they revere. But they’re also fiercely protective. I have seen some Na’vi fiercely hunt someone down for hurting their family.”

Judging by Rumi’s experience, she could see the reality behind his words. “Can’t we just workshop an apology, write it down, and then I’ll recite it to them?”

“You could, but then you run the risk of screwing things up after the apology is done.”

“Okay, so we just mention in the apology I know shit about their language, and I can leave without screwing things up more,” Rumi suggested. But Bobby’s frown didn’t really give her too much confidence that the idea would be a success. “Or you can come with me! You know the language, you can explain it to them.”

Bobby laughed. “No. The Na’vi don’t do proxies. You screwed up, you have to apologize. Otherwise they’ll see you as a fnawe'tu, a coward.”

“I don’t mind that! I’m honestly more scared of Celine blacklisting me than whatever those Na’vi think of me,” Rumi admitted. “After I apologize, the chances of me meeting them again are slim to none. But if I mess things up even more, Celine won’t hesitate to send me on the first ship back to Earth.”

“I’d have thought you wanted to go home. You don’t exactly look like you’re having the time of your life here.”

Truthfully, before she had experienced piloting her avatar, she would have loved to go back home. She liked feeling the air on her face, and this felt suffocating. And maybe this was why Rumi had been a bit antagonistic at the jump. But the pay had been enough for her to agree to this - she wanted to leave the delivery gig life behind, for the sake of her own battered body - and after she experienced a few rounds in her avatar, Rumi had to admit the experience had its perks. But all she said was, “I just wish Pandora wasn’t full of things and people trying to kill us.”

Bobby hummed. “Earth has those too. We’ve just colonized enough of the land that those predators keep far away. It’s different here. Here they are the majority, and we’re still getting our Pandoran legs.”

“After 5 years?” Rumi asked. She’d have thought Celine would have established communications within the first year.

“They don’t trust easily. The few times we’ve gotten close, we were hissed away, so diplomatic unity is still a long distance away. But we can at least make sure we don’t ostracize ourselves. So what do you say we try to get a few lessons in today?”

Rumi didn’t want to disappoint Bobby, so she agreed to it, even though internally, she knew higher education had never been her strong suit. Celine was right, she’d learned English later in life, but it had been born out of necessity. It was why Hana had gone to great lengths to get her a visa to move to New York, and from there, Rumi spent her days learning what she could via books or shows.

But there were no shows to help her out, and the books were way too dry. She was a visual learner, something that infuriated her parents growing up, always comparing her to Hana, who could grasp things so easily, while Rumi struggled in her academic studies.

Still, she tried. If anything, proving Celine wrong was quite the motivator.

Rumi had no idea where she could find Mira and Zoey, but the lake where she’d met them last time seemed like a good bet. 

A week had passed since the ordeal, and she thought she’d made good progress with how much she’d learnt. But as she approached the clearing, her resolve faltered.

What if she screwed things up more? She couldn’t have that. Rumi didn’t want to think of what might happen then. There was no telling how Celine might react, and that was terrifying. Like Rumi had told Bobby, Celine might finally consider Rumi a lost cause and throw her out of Pandora, on the first ship back to Earth.

Then again, that was also contingent on Rumi surviving this ordeal.

As she arrived at the lake, Rumi noted thankfully that the place was empty. No angry Na’vi, nor any other homicidal entities. So she sat down by the shore, and took a deep breath, inhaling the fragrant smells of Pandora with her avatar body.

A branch snapped nearby, and Rumi’s eyes flew open. She glanced at the source, and her breath hitched.

It was Mira and Zoey, and they did not look happy to see her.

“Wait!” Rumi tried, the word sounding awkward in her mouth. Her grasp of the Pandoran language was very tenuous, and Bobby’s greatest concern was that Rumi had a tough time getting the pronunciation right. She scrambled to stand up, before carefully repeating the greeting ritual she’d spent practicising relentlessly. “Oel ngati kameie.”

She was quite proud that she got the words right this time around, and when Rumi looked back up, she saw that Zoey had said something in a hushed whisper to Mira.

Both Na’vi approached Rumi, but Mira walked a step ahead of Zoey, almost as if she was shielding her from Rumi.

“I want to apologize for the other day,” Rumi continued, fishing out the piece of paper where she’d written her apology. It was messy, and written phonetically, so she could say everything properly.

Mira narrowed her eyes. She said something slowly for Rumi’s benefit, but they were words Rumi didn’t know.

Rumi shrugged and figured she should launch into her apology. She read from the paper, and hoped she didn’t mess this up. “I would first like to say I’m sorry. I’m new here, and I’m still learning the language. It was not my intention to upset you, and I hope you don’t hold my actions against me or my team.”

At first, Rumi was scared to look back up and see their expressions. She could hear them talking quietly amongst themselves, and when her curiosity got the better of her, she chanced a look up.

She found Mira looking at her. Her expression was a little less lethal than earlier, but still tense. She held her hand out for the paper, and Rumi faltered for a moment before handing it over. 

Too little, too late, did Rumi recall that it was all written phonetically, and as the two Na’vi pored over the words, they broke down in a fit of giggles.

Rumi crossed her arms in front of her, very self-conscious, until Mira asked, “Would you like to learn our language?”

“Yeah-” Rumi began, relieved, before she froze. “You know English!”

Mira chuckled. “A little. Your…the lady that is always angry, she left us some books.”

Rumi just knew that that had to be Celine. Sheepishly, she said, “You could’ve said something the other day.”

“It was fun watching you try,” Mira countered with a smirk, slowly for Rumi’s benefit. “Though you could use some sätsan'ul.”

Zoey nodded and added, “We could teach you!”

“You would?” Rumi wasn’t understanding all of the words, but she was slowly making sense via context.

“Yes!” Zoey said enthusiastically. Then she grew serious and held up a finger. “But on one tìfkeytok.”

Rumi had no idea what the last word was, though she nodded nonetheless, figuring it probably meant condition. “Yes?”

“You will teach me your language one day.”

Zoey’s request was reasonable. “Okay.”

With a squeal, Zoey went to hug Rumi. The other woman’s force knocked the wind out of her, and she stumbled a bit. She laughed as she regained her balance, and gingerly returned the hug. She was wary of Mira’s eyes on her. Would she think Rumi was trying to make a move on her mate? 

“Come on!” Zoey said as they parted, grabbing Rumi by the hand and leading her to the edge of the clearing.

She proceeded to show Rumi things around the area, demonstrating how to pronounce the word before letting Rumi try it out for herself.

This was much more effective than Bobby’s well-meaning but dreadfully academic ways of teaching her. She was actually understanding things.

Mira followed along, and every time that Rumi began to think that the more stoic Na’vi was growing bored with this, she would add some grammar lesson for Rumi, like telling her how to use a certain word in a sentence.

They spent the entire day teaching her, and Rumi couldn’t believe how diverse the language was. They had so many words for different leaves, it was making her head spin.

As night began to fall, Rumi figured she should get back to the lab. “Thank you for today, I learnt a lot. I should probably leave.”

Zoey looked up at the sky, as if she’d just noticed how dark it had gotten. “Do you want something to eat?”

Rumi smiled but shook her head. As much as she wanted to, she was sure that if she didn’t show up by the appointed time, Bobby and the others would worry that she had been murdered. “I’ll eat when I return,” Rumi said, regret filtering through her voice.

And if Zoey and Mira looked a bit disappointed, Rumi just told herself it was a trick of the light. It had only been half a day, surely they hadn’t grown fond of her to consider her a friend whose company they would miss, right?

Mira cleared her throat. “We can meet again tomorrow? Earlier, show you some things farther away.”

That made Rumi do a double take. Her surprise was so notable, she blurted in English, “Y-you want to do this again tomorrow?”

Zoey tilted her head in confusion, before looking to Mira for clarification. The latter responded, “Yes? You can’t learn the language in one afternoon. We have a lot to teach you.”

“Plus our customs and traditions!” Zoey enthusiastically added.

Rumi could hardly believe her ears. She somehow had managed to salvage things? And the two women wanted to see Rumi again? Maybe she wasn’t such a disaster after all.

“I’d really like that. So, tomorrow morning here?” Rumi asked. 

Both women nodded.

Mira asked, “Can you find your way back?”

The one thing Rumi had been blessed with was a wonderful sense of direction, so she could find her way back without a problem. “That’s okay, thank you. I’ll see you both tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” they chorused.