Shells | Lo'ak Sully

Part 7 - Coward

His face turned from one of slate to a sorrowful and distressed expression. His ears bent, his lips curled downwards and his eyes were looking everywhere except from into hers.

"I'm sorry." Is all he says, looking at her one last time with an even more regretful glint, to which she lowers her knife.

"Are you? Are you really, Aonung? Why is it that you can't accept someones differences?" She quietly asks, not attacking him this time.

"Yes I-" a pause occurred, it seemed as though he was thinking of something to say.

"I'm really sorry." he began, "I wasn't thinking, I was stupid, I'm sorry." He ends his apology in a whisper, releasing genuine emotion and remorse instead of his usual lack of it.

Ni'teya watched them both fidget and look away, probably waiting for her to snap at them again.

But she didn't, Ni'teya had had enough of both of them, thinking it wise not to involve herself with either of them for a period of time. The last thing she uttered as she turned to leave was "cowards." before Neteyam followed her back to where his brother was waiting patiently.

"Brother!" Neteyam exclaimed upon sight of Lo'ak, who was clinging to Ni'teya's ilu for some form of balance. He rubbed his brother's head, making Lo'ak push away his hand saying, "I'm okay bro, seriously." making him stop.

"Everyone's worried about you, you know. We should let them know you're safe so that those cowards can speak for themselves." Neteyam suggests, to which Lo'ak had no option but to comply to, as his brother was most of the time correct in these situations. This idea didn't resonate with Ni'teya, though. In her head, she played the scenes that were about to take place over and came to a conclusion. She was going to play mediator.

Ni'teya was far behind Lo'ak and Neteyam as they wandered over to where Jake and Neytiri were stood, watching the ocean, still deep in search for their youngest son.

By the time Ni'teya had caught up to them fully, Jake had already called off the search and patted down his son to make sure he had no injuries, much like Ni'teya did prior.

Tuk was hugging Lo'ak tightly, making him pull an embarrassed face towards Kiri who only continued to laugh in his face.

Tonowari and Ronal had come over just as Tuk finally let her brother go, joined by Tsireya and her brother, who was dawdling slowly behind her.

Jake didn't look too pleased despite having his son back to safety. He turned to Neteyam, asking him a question.

"Where was he?"

"Out past the reef's edge-" he almost finished his sentence before a mass gasp sounded from anyone who heard him. Jake looked at Lo'ak this time, immediately asking "Why were you all the way out past the reef's edge? You know you're not supposed to go out there." tipping his head down towards his son.

"Dad, let me-" Neteyam tried to intervene, realizing Lo'ak was either going to lie badly or not answer his father at all.
"No, you cannot keep taking the heat for this knucklehead!" Jake's word was final, making Neteyam step back and remain silent for the rest of the confrontation.

Ni'teya was standing to Lo'ak's left, Tsireya and Aonung to his right, watching as the father and son quarrelled quite one-sidedly. Ni'teya was more-so concentrated on Aonung's behaviour, which was extremely unusual and understandably on-edge.

"Are you gonna come clean, or am I gonna have to find give you heat for this completely?" He inquires, giving his son a chance to take some of the blame off of himself.

Lo'ak had nothing to say, it was clear he wanted the whole thing to be done with, without giving anyone else a punishment but him. In his mind, he thought himself reckless for agreeing to go with Aonung and Roxto anyway, rendering him just as guilty and at fault as they were.