It has been three days since the incident and they have been the worst three days for Neteyam.
Esmyrie won't notice him, at all.
Neteyam has tried to convince his father to let him put the ointment on Esmyrie and when Esmyrie found out, she gave him the hardest glare he has ever received.
He has tried talking to her. Nothing.
He has tried giving her dinner. She won't take it from his hands.
He has tried staying in the hut with her. Dead silence.
And he is losing his absolute mind about it.
He hates seeing his siblings hanging out with Esmyrie and nothing is wrong. But the moment he tries to hangout with her, he gets a glare which makes him so uncomfortable he leaves.
The whole family can tell that there is tension too. Not just with Neteyam and Esmyrie though. From Lo'ak and Jake too.
Lo'ak still hasn't apologized to Ao'nung. The bruises are still all on the boys, Lo'ak too. But it's like Lo'ak doesn't care how angry Jake gets with him about the issue. His main concern is Esmyrie.
It isn't until his father threatens to make Esmyrie and him be distant if he doesn't apologize that gets him to leave.
Neteyam assumes that is where Lo'ak is now, apologizing to the boys, following their father's orders (for once).
And again, he is left in the hut, alone with Esmyrie.
Kiri and Tuk are with Tsireya.
Lo'ak is out apologizing to the boys.
And Jake and Neytiri are having a 'date', which is just them riding their Ikran above water.
So it's just Neteyam and Esmyrie in the hut, completely silent. Esmyrie working on matching bracelets for her and Kiri, while Neteyam works on weaving a basket.
He has been working on it the last three days, it's a basket for Esmyrie to put her father's stuff in, as recently his stuff has just been laying beside her bed. He wants it to be a surprise, hoping maybe it can be a apologize gift but he isn't sure how much longer he can take the silence, and he is only half way done with the basket.
He doesn't want to wait three more days until he talks to her.
He can't wait three more days.
It's so silent in the hut, the only sounds being Neteyams hands that weave away and the beads that occasionally fall to the floor for the bracelets.
Neteyam is pretty sure the silence is going to suffocate him whole if he stays like this a moment longer.
His eyes leave the basket he is working on when he hears a hiss from the girl.
Esmyrie pricked her finger while she was engraving into one of the beads, her knife slipping, causing drops of blood to fall to the floor.
"Are you alright?" Neteyam asks, abandoning the basket, his hands now going to help himself up, but Esmyrie stops him from doing so when he sees the look she is giving him.
She doesn't say anything, just stares at him for a moment before going back to her beads, wiping the blood on her bandage that keeps pressure on her slowly healing wound.
Again, nothing. Not a word or a sound from the girl directed towards him.
"Will you please talk to me?" Neteyam pleads out, his ears going against his head in sadness.
"No." Esmyrie says, her eyes staying focused on the beads and bracelet.
"Look... I don't understand why you are so upset." Neteyam says, truly not seeing the problem.
"You don't understand... You don't have a clue as to why I could be mad at you?" Esmyrie asks, finally raising her eyes to stare at her friend, her best friend, that betrayed her in her opinion.
"You're mad at me?" Neteyam asks, his hands instantly going towards his lap, messing with the many bracelets he wears.
"I haven't talked to you in three days Neteyam. Yeah, I'm mad."
"Why?" The boy asks, causing himself to get a harsh glare in response.
"Why? Why? Because you told Ao'nung about my past!" Esmyrie yells out, all her anger and frustration coming out all at once.
"I didn't even tell him anything! Just that your parents are with Eywa!" Neteyam says, trying to argue his case.
"Yeah! Which that's my story to tell! Mine, not yours!" Esmyrie shouts, each word hurting her side as she yells.
"It's not that big of a deal!"
"Yes it is! To me it is!" The girl raises her voice more, hating how she can't stand up so she is closer to the boy to show her true anger.
"How?!" Neteyam is now yelling too, his voice raising with each words, his voice no longer soft or having the accent like it usually does.
"You don't understand!"
"Then make me understand!" Neteyam pleads out.
"Your parents aren't dead Neteyam!? You wouldn't understand. You just wouldn't. You haven't had a hard day in your life! You are always the golden child. The perfect son. The warrior that can do no wrong. The baby boy of Jake Sully. You have the perfect family, perfect siblings. So no, you wouldn't understand!" Esmyrie shouts, putting a hand at her side from how much she is yelling.
"That's not fair... that's not fair." Neteyam shakes his head, his voice turning soft again, sadness in his eyes.
"Yeah, well life isn't fucking fair Neteyam. I know."
"Well I'm sorry that your mother died during your child birth. I'm sorry that your father died because of skypeople! But I didn't tell them that! I didn't say anything besides the fact they are dead!" Neteyam says, his voice stone cold, aggressive, but not loud.
"It doesn't matter whether you gave them every detail or just told them two words 'they're dead' it doesn't matter because it's still going behind my back! Do you know what it's like? To be blamed for your mothers death. To not understand why your father takes you somewhere to be babysat while he goes off. Thinking that he doesn't like you. Thinking that he blames you for his wife's death. Do you know what it is like to hear that the only family member you have left is dead? And not only that but that they died in pain. That they were suffering. Do you know what it is like to have all your hopes up after that confession, thinking that although they are gone, they had the ceremony and Eywa accepted him with open arms, only to find out his body was left there!? Left where he was suffering! Or to see his body be nothing but ash with all the other Na'vi, now never knowing if he is apart of our ancestors. Being too afraid to connect to the tree of souls in fear that he won't be there and that it will be true, that he is gone, forever."
"Esmy-"
"- No, you don't! And for once, just once I wanted to be treated normally. I wanted to be treated like a teen girl that just went with some family friends on a trip to get away from the war because I am so close with all of the families kids. I for once didn't want to be blamed for my mothers death. I for once didn't want the idea of the banishment in my head. I for once didn't want to be seen as a freak. As an outcast. As an orphan. And you took that right away from me the moment you opened your mouth and said they were dead. Because although sure, yeah, you just said that, you didn't go into detail, they still now know. And they are using that against me! They are using the fact that I am an orphan against me!" Esmyrie is breathing hard after her confession, tears falling down her face without her command at her anger.
Neteyam stares at her for a few moments, trying to take everything in. She is right. He has never felt like an outcast. He is Jake Sully's first son. He has never been treated like a freak. But still, what he said was to protect his family and he felt no wrong in that.
"You don't understand Esmyrie, I was protecting my family." Neteyam says, not going to apologize, not wanting to be proven that he in fact, is in the wrong.
"Your family?" Esmyrie whispers.
"Yeah, my family." Neteyam clarifies.
"I thought I was your sister. That I was part of your family?" Esmyrie asks, sadness crossing her face now instead of anger.
"You aren't blood." Neteyam shrugs his shoulders, looking towards his hands instead of the girl.
"Not blood... not- you know, you are really confusing me. One second I'm your sister. The next you call me your bestfriend. Which one is it?" Esmyrie asks, staring the boy down, her gaze almost forcing him to look at her.
"You're both! You're both!"
"Obviously not, because you so easily go against my back to save your family!"
"I'm just trying to look out for my sisters, Tuk and Kiri, and my brother. I want my parents away from this war too! I don't want them fearing that we are going to have to move and find another home again!" Neteyam yells, pointing to each family members bed when he mentions them.
"I thought I was your sister!"
"Well you aren't Esmyrie! Okay!? You aren't! We don't share blood. We don't share genes. So therefore you aren't my sister! Okay! I was protecting my family and if that meant ratting out your little sob story about your parents, than oh well. If it means my family is safe, if it means they know where they are sleeping tonight, than I'm doing it. I will always, always, do whatever it takes to protect my family. And I would do it a thousand times over again if I had to." Neteyam shrugs at, his anger getting the better of him.
He is like his mother in a lot of ways, but once he is angry, his anger is much like his fathers. Spitting hurtful words out because sometimes words can hurt more than any physical action can.
At Neteyams confession, Esmyrie goes numb. Neteyam didn't see her as apart of the family. He proved her right, she would never be a Sully. And to see he had so little care whether or not his words effected her, made it all the more worse.
She goes to stand up, grunting in pain when she forces her body to do so, her side screaming at her to sit down. But she doesn't. She won't. She doesn't want to be anywhere near the boy she thought was her bestfriend. Her brother.
When she finally is standing, not needing to use the huts wall for support, she stares at the boy she thought she knew with the most hurtful gaze she has ever cast his way.
"Well I hope you're happy, Netty. You just lost a best friend." Esmyrie says, starting to walk away, one hand holding her injured side while the other clenches the bracelets she was making.
It seems like those words seem to finally make Neteyam understand everything. It makes him finally look and see that she's right. That he in fact, is in the wrong. That he is the problem. That he should of asked her about it. That he should of just shut Ao'nung up, brought up the topic to Esmyrie and see what she has to say.
It seems like every finally comes clear to Neteyam, and that the words he said, he didn't mean any of it. He didn't mean a damn word. He was just angry. He was so angry for not having her listen that he just, he broke. He broke and said every hurtful thing he could think of because that's what his dad does when he is angry.
But it's too late.
Esmyrie doesn't see him like she used to.
Esmyrie could very well hate him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The moment we have all been waiting for.... The talk between the two.
So, I really hope I wrote Neteyam correctly. I know he is usually seen as the very calm and collected son, but to me, I could see him completely breaking and saying hurtful things, especially if it meant proving his point. Especially if it deals with protecting his family.
I could be wrong and if I wrote him wrong I apoligize, just to me this is how I see him when he is angry, a boy who doesn't think before he argues, that just wants to prove that he is right for wanting to protect the ones he loves.
Anyways uhhh....
how are we feeling after that happened? Bad? Good? Feel like everything is justifiable?
I'm sorry for the late update, I was in the ER really early this morning with a sharp pain in my stomach, I found out I have food poisioning. I'm home now after much needed rest and medicine.
Also, no Lo'ak this chapter but there is going to be a full chapter of just him next! It's going to be of his trip outside of the Reef and we are going to get to see a few flashbacks and see what is inside his mind as he almost dies, so uh....
Do you think Esmyrie and Neteyam will ever forgive eachother or do you think that their friendship is now forever ruined?
Please comment and vote-
thanks