~~~Superstes~~~UNDERGOING MAJOR EDITING

Wonderfully wrong.

Spider tumbled off Lo'ak and ended up squeezed in between Tuk, Kiri, and Neteyam. The seven-year-old just grumbled and held her brother's arm closer, her lips pouty. Kiri rolled her eyes and sat up, her choppy hair a mess. When Spider's puffy eyes realized that Neteyam was awake, all traces of exhaustion vanished from him and he shot up, laughing. "Dude!" 

"Shut up!" Neteyam snapped, the effort of whisper-shouting making his sides ache. "Tuk-Tuk is asleep." 

"Oh, yeah, sorry." Spider piped down, but he still smiled crazily. "I can't believe your awake. How do you feel?" 

Lo'ak, avoiding touching Neteyam, sat up eagerly and waited for his older brother to respond. He seemed quieter this morning than he usually was, where he'd typically be bouncing off the walls. But then again, nothing about this certain morning was really normal. "Yeah, bro." Lo'ak added, "How do you feel?" 

"Like I was trampled by a stampede of sturmbeasts." Neteyam grumbled, his tail flicking. "Hey, but guess what? I flipped off Quaritch after he beat me up." 

Each of the teenagers visibly got excited upon hearing that, a round of laughter echoing in the section of the marui. Lo'ak's eyes brightened, and Spider made an "Oooh-oo!" sound, while Fey'atsi just shook her head and giggled. Kiri rolled her eyes again, but even she smirked. Neteyam grinned at their reactions, thinking something up to add to the story but he was bombarded with questions instead. 

"What did he do after that?" Lo'ak pressed, his tail swiping back and forth. "Did he get mad?" 

"I hope he did." Neteyam responded, "But I passed out before I could see. He punched me right here." He gently touched a finger to the swollen area around his eye. He felt stitches woven into his skin up there. Just thinking about being clocked in the face again like that made his head ached worse than it already did. 

"Did he..." Spider paused and swallowed thickly. He pointed at the whole of Neteyam's injuries. "Did he do all of that?"  

Something deep inside Neteyam's stomach turned bitter at the human boy's tone. He sounded like it was his fault that Neteyam was wounded, and that made him feel uneasy. Something was off about Spider, and Neteyam knew that since he was bleeding out on that rock. No matter how much he cared about his sky-person brother, he was suspicious. 

"Pretty much." Neteyam answered, his voice quiet. The question was an odd one, and it was even more awkward to answer it. Then, he looked at Spider. "Who else do you think did it, skxawng?" 

Spider raised his hands in an exasperated gesture. Kiri watched him, her face unreadable. 

All of the teenager's head's whipped around when they heard a deep, hoarse voice ring out in the dark marui. Neteyam immediately recognized the muscular silhouette of his father, and his heart lodged in his throat. Dad.  

"I heard voices," the man whispered, his golden eyes searching the hammock. "Are you all okay?" 

Something familiar to that childish longing inside Neteyam wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around his dad and give him the biggest hug of his life. But with all his siblings around, that was going to be hard to do. He wasn't even sure if he could climb out of this hammock with how badly he hurt.  

Jake grinned when he saw Neteyam. "Well, look who's awake." 

Neteyam felt states boring into his skin. His siblings and Feya were watching him--all except Tuk, who was seemingly exhausted. Being as young as she was, she didn't handle not sleeping well, so her snoring away was a good thing for now. Neteyam wasn't used to all this sudden attention—typically, he was the one who remained quiet and content with whatever was happening, never making anyone concerned with what he felt. That was his role as the older brother. That was also how he chose to be--as close as he could to being like his dad.