Shells | Lo'ak Sully

Part 11 - Accepted

Once we both got the hang of it, we started to head back to the huts.

(POV: Narrator)

The whole Sully family was yet again cooking breakfast for themselves all together, probably assuming Lo'ak had gone to do something else already.

To everyone's dismay, in strode Lo'ak and Ni'teya, visibly struggling and tired of walking.

"Teya, what- Lo'ak! You did this, didn't you!" Kiri sprung up, stomping towards her brother, threatening to strike him in assumption. Her friend couldn't blame her, she'd have probably thought the same if she was in her shoes.

"He didn't do anything" Ni'teya tried to force out, wincing over and over because it seemed her wound had started to bleed again due to all of the walking and therefore, stretching.

Lo'ak noticed, placing both hands on her to steady her balance, letting Neteyam and Tuk make way for her on the hammock they were sat on. Jake had already stopped what he was doing and was hovering over his son and his patient, obviously trying to examine the wound to see what needed to be done to it in order to mend it.

Ni'teya thought otherwise; She only picked up on the fact that he hadn't said anything yet and therefore, in her mind, that meant that he was deciding wether or not to send her back home.

Of course, this wasn't true at all. Jake leant down above the hammock, trying to get his son to move to which he refused to do.

Jake carefully rolled Ni'teya over, unwrapping Lo'ak's decently crafted bandage, where he realised that this wound hadn't just happened. It was plain to see that the blood around it had already dried and the wound had begun to close in on itself already slightly. He shot Lo'ak a look, before continuing.

Neytiri had already retrieved some real bandages and cloths which Ronal and Tonowari had kindly lended he family, letting Jake re-do the bandage properly and for good this time. Everyone was crowding around Ni'teya the entire time, Tuk, Kiri and Neteyam were all stood above the hammock, Tuk holding Neteyam's hand and leaning against his arm as she didn't like seeing people in pain.

"Teya is okay, right Lo'ak?" Tuk asked her brother quietly, signalling to Neteyam to pick her up, which he did.

"She'll be fine, don't worry Tuk."

Once Jake had finished up, he didn't wait around to start questioning the two as it was crystal-clear to him that this had happened a long time before now.

"So. Do I have to ask or is someone going to tell me what happened?" he asks rather calmly, watching Lo'ak's face the most as he expected his son to answer him and explain.

His son let out an "Uh..." as he looked around the room at everyone else, who were all staring at the two of them waiting to hear his answer also.

"Alright, let me talk to them alone, please." He asked of his family, specifically expressing the alone part.

Once they'd all left, Ni'teya sat herself up on the hammock so that Lo'ak and herself were now sat next to each other, proper interrogation style.

"I hurt myself while swimming, sir." Ni'teya told him as he paced the hut's space.

"When?"

An obvious hesitation sounded through the hut. When she didn't want to admit what he already knew, Lo'ak stepped in.

"Yesterday evening."

As Jake already knew this, it called for no shocked reaction.

The next thing he did however, did shock Ni'teya. He crouched down before her, taking her hands into his, causing Lo'ak to have to let go of her wrist, and asking her softly, "why didn't you say anything?"

She lifted her head, meeting his eyeline. She saw his not angry eyes, which she'd fully expected from the get-go. He was genuine, he was gentle with her. This made her both emotional and at the same time, trusting.

"I thought it would be a bother for you, I'm sorry." she spoke through a whisper, her eyes starting to fog.

He sighed, knowing what she meant by that. Clasping her hands tighter now, asking her a favour.

"Please, don't hide things like this from us. If Lo'ak hadn't found you-" he stopped for a second, readjusting his crouch and breathing in, "-who knows what would've happened, Ni'teya." He wasn't done there, he then added a sentence that evoked a different reaction from Ni'teya all together. Instead of keeping it together, Ni'teya's face froze and blanked for a moment, before feeling herself cry, hard.

"Don't feel like you can't ask for help" is what he told her.

She smiled into her tears, a shining relief clear on her expression, letting Jake know that she could be left thereafter, and that she understood him. As he stood up, he patted his son on his head, clearly meaning that as a thank you for what he'd done.

Ni'teya was a mess, both on the outside and inside. Her happiness and sadness couldn't come to an end, she was crying, laughing, smiling, the whole lot.

Lo'ak had walked to the other side of the room, fiddling with something for a while however Ni'teya had other things to attend to.

As she tried to stop her overbearing emotions, she remembered how Lo'ak had helped her breathe before, repeating the scene in her head before playing it out again, but ending up laughing even more because of it.

As he finished up what he was doing on the other side of the hut, Lo'ak tried his best to hide it for as long as possible before telling Ni'teya to simply place her hands out on her lap and to shut her eyes. She obeyed, not completely trusting him.

She opened them once she felt whatever it was reach her grasp, looking down to see her headpiece, as it once was before, the gap in it mended and filled by her favourite shell. Lo'ak took it from her slowly, resting it atop her head, caressing her cheek as he got up again and going to clean his mess. He wasn't exactly a handyman.

"You know, just because I didn't let you tell me you had it, didn't mean you could steal it!" she comments, smiling to herself and feeling around the headpiece for the shell he'd recovered.

"But... Thank you, Lo'ak." she adds, feeling slightly bad for not having said that yet. He didn't turn to meet her gaze that lay on his back, although she could tell from the way he was moving and the slight glimpses of his side profile that he was indeed smiling and content having heard that.

"It fell off when you were carrying Kiri up from the Spirit Tree." He said, probably waiting for more gratitude and compliments, which he didn't receive. Ni'teya almost spited him by commenting on how he'd 'gone for a shell instead of his own sister?' however she decided to let him have this little moment.

Ni'teya began to think back to what Jake had told her, her relief residing in the final statement he made. He'd singlehandedly allowed her to feel comforted by him and his family, a completely different sensation than what she had experienced at the forest. She felt seen as well as noticed, she felt like someone finally understood her and what she was so scared to do.

Lo'ak could see this in her too, he'd long before realised that she couldn't ask for help herself, and before, would've rarely got any if she asked. However now, it was a different story. Ni'teya had only just noticed that fact.

She now understood that it was okay to ask for help herself, and that she'd get it if she asked.

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