Little Miss Perfect | Neteyam¹

Chapter 20: Family Bonding

"No, they didn't," Marali said as she stood in front of the boys. From the corner of her eye, she could see Kiri looking around at the boys, and her eyes widened when she realized that he wasn't in the group of boys.

Slowly, Kiri also made her way to stand in front of the children protectively. "He's not here. None of these boys is the one Tuk liked." Kiri said, glaring at her brothers.

"They can tell us where he is then," Lo'ak argued.

Both girls scoffed and made steps forward toward the boys as they started spewing out questions about where the boy was. To be honest, the children had no idea what boy they were talking about. They didn't know anyone who liked Tuk. Not that there was something wrong with the girl. It's just that they were at the age where girls had cooties.

When Kiri and Marali stood in front of Lo'ak and Neteyam, Marali grabbed Neteyam by his ear, and Kiri grabbed Lo'ak by his ear.

Once they both felt they had a good enough grip on the boys, they pulled them away and back towards the pod so that they could scold them.

Jake and Neytiri looked at each other, shaking their heads, before walking away, knowing they would have to deal with their children later. But for now, they were confident that Kiri and Marali would be able to handle the two boys all on their own.

As Kiri and Marali continued to drag the two boys, both of them whined and complained. "Okay, okay! We're sorry!" Neteyam exclaimed as the girl's grip on his ear tightened.

"Not as sorry as you're about to be," Marali muttered.

Neteyam and Lo'ak stumbled into the pod as both girls forcefully pushed them in there. When they turned back around to glare at the girls, they put their heads down in shame as Kiri and Marali looked at them with their arms crossed.

"You're going to apologize to them." Marali started, and Lo'ak scoffed but quickly closed his mouth when Marali glanced at him.

"Why should we have to apologize?" Neteyam asked and knew it was Marali's tune to scoff. "You made them cry!" She whisper-shouted as Tuk was still peacefully sleeping on her mattress.

The boys looked at each other with guilty expressions on their faces before their shoulders slumped. "We just wanted to know who made Tuk cry," Lo'ak whispered.

"And what were you going to do once you found him? Huh?" Marali questioned, and the boy's guilt continued to grow. "Were you going to beat him up?"

Neteyam looked up at her and stared. He wasn't sure what they would do once they found him. But he was positive they wouldn't stoop as low as landing their hands on a child, right? If the teen were being completely honest, he kind of blacked out and didn't remember what all he and Lo'ak said.

"No, we weren't going to beat him up!" Lo'ak defended.

Marali gave him a pointed look, and Lo'ak sighed. "Okay, maybe we were going to injure him a little." He said before continuing, "But nothing serious! Just some soft tissue damage." He finished and then winced when he realized how that sounded.

"We'll apologize," Neteyam said as he dragged Lo'ak along with him.

And that brings Marali to the present time.

Shortly after the boys had left, Jake and Neytiri returned before Neytiri quietly walked over to Tuk to wake up her.

After Neytiri woke her youngest child up, she placed her in her lap hugged her, and repeatedly told her over and over again how beautiful she was. Jake eventually decided to sit by his mate and comfort his daughter.