Katiya chewed her breakfast as the salty flavor of fish filled her mouth.
A leaf plate of berries would usually be her morning breakfast, but Neteyam, the caring older brother that he is, brought her a fish to eat.
"One... two... three..." Tuk murmured, counting the berries on her leaf plate as she stacked them to build a tower.
"Tuk, don't play with your food," Neteyam scolded her.
Choosing not to listen to him, the little girl began to sort the berries by color.
In an instant, a blue hand swiped one away from her.
"Hey!" Tuk cried, reaching for Loak's hand to retrieve her berry.
However, he quickly popped the berry into his mouth.
"Hmph! Kati!" Tuk called her older sister, who rolled her eyes and smacked Loak's head.
The impact of Katiya's slap sent the berry flying out of Loak's mouth and landing on Kiri's leaf plate.
"Ugh, gross!" Kiri scrunched her nose in disgust.
"That's what you get for being a thief," Tuk said, grabbing the berry and sticking her tongue out at Loak.
"Sharing is caring, Tuk," Loak mumbled as he rolled his eyes at her.
"You can have my berries since you blew your germs all over it already," Kiri said, sliding her leaf plate toward him.
"See?" Loak smiled at Tuk. "Kiri is the perfect role model."
Tuk ignored him and stuck her tongue out at him instead. A heavy sigh escaped Neteyam as he watched his siblings interact.
Seeing the others bickering and Katiya in her usual gloomy mood, he could tell it was going to be a long day.
From a distance, Loak caught a glimpse of Tsireya approaching them.
"Guys, Reya's coming. Be cool," he whispered, sweeping crumbs off his hands and fixing his hair.
Neteyam snickered at his little brother's cute crush on the reef girl as Kiri rolled her eyes.
Meanwhile, Katiya shook her head and continued to pick at the fish on her leaf plate. A pair of teal arms suddenly appeared in the corner of her eye holding a leaf plate.
"Morning, pretty face."
As soon as she heard the voice of a certain reef boy, her frown deepened.
Katiya looked up at Aonung with an annoyed scowl on her face.
"I thought your sister said you're not a breakfast person," she mumbled.
Aonung's lips curled into a smile as he set his leaf plate next to hers on the table.
"When did she say that?" He asked, forcing his way in next to her in the seat, prompting her to glare at him.
As a result, she moved closer to Loak to avoid having direct physical contact with Aonung.
Katiya concluded that Aonung's lack of manners was probably inherited from his mother.
"Oh, hey, bro," Neteyam greeted, noticing Aonung's presence at their table.
As the others also greeted him, Aonung returned the greeting. Then he turned his attention back to Katiya, who looked about to leave.
"Something so small, and you remembered. Why?" He asked playfully, continuing their conversation.
Katiya rolled her eyes.
"I can't swallow my food if I have to see your unpleasant face every morning," she said.
"Well," Aonung nodded, rolling his eyes in response. "I'm serving my purpose then."
"Good morning, everyone," Tsireya said, her sweet voice brightening the atmosphere.
"Hey," Loak greeted her with a smile, and she giggled shyly.
"I hope you guys are off to an excellent start," Tsireya continued. "Today, my brother, Rotxo, and I will teach you how to free-dive effectively."
"That's fantastic. Sounds like fun," Neteyam nodded, glancing at his siblings in excitement.
"Yeah, I'm down," Loak nodded.
"Yipee, a real party," Kiri mumbled, focusing on her food.
"Aren't you all a lively bunch?" Aonung joked, his eyes flitting from one person to the next and landing on Katiya.
"Well, thank Eywa I don't have to put up with you today, fishbreath," Katiya said, glaring at Aonung as she got up to leave with her leaf plate.
"Wait, Kati, you are not joining us?" Tsireya asked.
Katiya shook her head and turned on her heels.
"Hey, pretty face!" Aonung hollered at her, a playful tone evident in his voice. "Did you enjoy the fish you ate? You know, just curious from one fishbreath to another."
Katiya turned around and walked back to him, eyebrows furrowed in anger.
"Whoa, whoa, hey!" Neteyam stammered, standing up to stop his sister.
Aonung glanced up at Katiya with a smile, unfazed by her towering over him. It would be a lie if he said he didn't enjoy pissing her off.
"Listen here, guppy. I have no problem messing up your face, even if you're the chief's son," Katiya hissed, biting her lip in anger.
Standing up, Aonung towered over her. He glared down at her, his gaze flitting from her lips to her eyes.
"You listen here, pretty face. Clearly, you have anger issues and it shows," he murmured, watching her eyebrows twitch in irritation when he realized he had hit a nerve.
His lips curled into a faint smile. "Learn to control your temper a bit and have some fun in your life, why don't you? That frowny face of yours will scare others away, you know."
"Don't tell me what to do, you two-faced fish," Katiya spat, jabbing her finger at his chest. "I have no interest in playing games with you whatsoever, so you can fuck off."
"Hey!" Neteyam shouted, pulling Katiya away from Aonung. "Just go, Kati. Come on."
"For once, can you both be civil? Please?" Tsireya begged, her eyes flitting from Katiya to Aonung.
The brief banter they exchanged drew the group's attention and created tension.
Aonung kept provoking her and Katiya hated how easily he got on her nerves.
Tsireya sighed and stepped in front of Katiya.
"Please, you and your family are part of our clan now. You are family," she said softly, her kind eyes penetrating Katiya's anger. "I apologize for my brother's behavior. We just want to show you and teach you the ways of our people."
"Come on, Kati," Loak whispered, grazing Katiya's arm with his fingers.
Katiya flickered her eyes between her siblings and sighed as she raked her fingers through her hair.
"Fine," she said.
Katiya pursed her lips, glared at Aonung one last time, and walked away.
Aonung chuckled amusedly as he observed her, and Tsireya smacked his arm to quiet him.
"Do not!" She hissed. "It is your fault Kati will not join us today."
Aonung rolled his eyes. "You said to be playful. So, I'm just playing with her."
"It's fine," Neteyam assured. "Kati's grounded, so she can't join us. Not until tomorrow, anyway."
"What is grounded?" Tsireya asked. "And why is she grounded?"
"You don't know what that is? It's when you get banned from doing activities you like because you did something bad," Tuk explained, drawing everyone's attention to her.
"Yeah, except Kati didn't do anything bad," Kiri mumbled, glaring at Aonung. "It was thanks to your crybaby girlfriend that my sister was punished."
Aonung scoffed. "Nayim is my cousin."
"Okay, well, your crybaby cousin then," Kiri huffed.
"Oh, I'm sorry about Nayim," Tsireya apologized. "I heard about the trouble she caused from my mother."
Amid the group's conversation, Aonung licked his lip. It puzzled him why his sister was so kind to the Sullys.
Despite her kind nature, he had never seen her show such compassion toward anyone.
But it was because Tsireya knew about the Sullys' tragic encounters with the Sky People from Loak. During their moment alone on the rock yesterday, he shared with her about what his family endured.
Her heart was filled with sadness for them and she understood why they had fled their home—to protect their family and clan from the Sky People.
Tsireya glanced at her brother and sighed. She hoped that he would see things through her eyes and welcome the Sullys with open arms.
Aonung tuned out the group's voices, catching sight of Katiya's silhouette in the distance.
Her golden pupils flickered with flames every time he met her eyes, revealing a lot of anger inside her—anger that could burn anyone around her if she doesn't learn to control it.
While he assumed it was just her nature, he couldn't help but wonder why and how that anger developed.
And perhaps, although he won't admit it, a small part of him yearned to water those flames in her eyes and extinguish them.
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Katiya sighed for the umpteenth time as she scraped the scales off the dead fish in her hand with a knife.
"What is wrong?" Neytiri asked, glancing at her daughter.
Jake lifted his head, his eyes flitting from his wife to his daughter as he weaved a basket of some sort.
"What is it, baby girl?" He asked, drawing their attention to him.
"Nothing," Katiya answered her parents.
"It can't be nothing. You've been sighing for fifteen minutes," Jake said.
"So? I can't sigh without issues?" Katiya asked, prompting her father to drop the materials in his hands.
"Listen, baby girl," Jake sighed. "I know it hasn't been easy, alright? But I also know that we can make this work if we communicate and work with each other. Come on, we're a team."
"A family," Neytiri added, glancing at her husband.
"That's right, a family," Jake nodded, clearing his throat awkwardly.
Katiya looked at her parents and remained silent as she pondered what to say.
"Then I want to go home," she said, catching them off guard with her response.
"We can't go home, Kati," Jake frowned. "Not anytime soon, at least."
"This is our new home now, Ma Kati," Neytiri whispered, placing a hand on Katiya's forearm.
Katiya sighed and looked away. Jake and Neytiri exchanged glances, careful to speak their next words.
"So, the other day, I learned a really funny joke. Wanna hear it?" He asked with a playful tone in his voice.
Katiya's eyebrows furrowed in concern and she narrowed her eyes at her father. Every time he could, he told Dad jokes to cheer her and her siblings up.
Jake cleared his throat and said, "What do you call a fancy fish?"
"What?" Katiya asked warily.
"So-fish-ticated!" Jake exclaimed, bursting into laughter as Neytiri chuckled with a hand over her mouth.
"Oh, Eywa," Katiya muttered, rolling her eyes as a small smile adorned her lips.
"There's that beautiful smile," Jake said, gently squeezing Katiya's shoulder. "But don't show it too much or these pesky boys will flock to you."
Katiya rolled her eyes. "Do I look like I have time for boys?"
Jake's smile dropped and he looked at his wife, then his daughter.
"Baby girl, you're not, uh... you know..."
"What?" Katiya frowned as she glanced from her mother to her father.
"Ma Jake, do not—" Neytiri hissed, but Jake cleared his throat and continued.
"Listen, your mother and I have been talking lately about how you've never really talked to us before about any of your crushes."
Neytiri groaned at her husband while Katiya looked at her father suspiciously.
"Why are we having this conversation right now?" She asked, slightly uncomfortable with where they were proceeding with this.
"You've never expressed to us about any boys before, so... do you—uh, are you into, you know, your kind?" Jake asked nervously.
"What?" Katiya looked at him strangely. "My kind? What's that supposed to mean?"
Then she paused and scrunched her nose in disgust.
"Hold up! Do you mean girls?" Katiya exclaimed.
Neytiri smacked Jake's arm and shook her head.
"Ugh, what your father means is do you have any interest in finding a mate, Ma Kati?" Neytiri said.
"I can't believe we're having this conversation right now," Katiya scoffed. "No, I do not have any interest in finding a mate, and whether I like girls or not, it doesn't matter anyway because once again, I do not have any interest in finding a mate whatsoever. Please, may we never speak of this again?"
Without waiting for her parents' response, Katiya grabbed her woven plate of fish and knife and set off for work elsewhere.
"Ma Kati," Neytiri called after her.
"Damn it, I blew it," Jake muttered, shaking his head.
Neytiri glared at him and his eyes widened in realization.
"But wait, does that mean she likes girls? Or no? We're never having grandchildren, oh god," he muttered.
Neytiri sighed at her husband. "You just told her to stay away from boys earlier, Ma Jake. Make up your mind, my love. And perhaps, we should not have assumed such things."
Gritting her teeth, Katiya gutted the fish in her hands after settling in a new location.
While she couldn't believe what her father had told her, she couldn't understand why he was so worried.
Can't they see that her priority right now is to destroy and chase away the Sky People?
"Well damn, guess that fish must be your next body count."
Katiya paused when she heard a deep voice, annoying her to no end.
"What do you want?" She muttered, her gaze focused on the fish in her hand.
"Not so much like a want, but more like a force," Aonung murmured. "Come on, everyone's waiting for you on the rock."
To prove his agreement to be civil with Katiya, they sent him to fetch her.
Katiya glanced up at him and said, "I'm busy."
Aonung rolled his eyes.
"You already gutted the fish. Just take it with you and bring it to the communal later."
As she remained silent, Aonung let out an annoyed sigh and bent down to take the knife from her hand.
He threw it onto the woven plate and picked it up.
"What are you doing?" Katiya frowned as she stood up with him, clutching onto the other end of the woven plate.
"Just shut up for once and come with me," Aonung hissed as they pulled it back and forth. "Let go, damn it!"
"No! You let go!"
Suddenly, the woven plate tore and the knife fell through the tear.
Aonung blinked and pushed Katiya out of the way as the knife's tip hit him on the big toe.
He grunted painfully and fell to the sand, clutching his foot as Katiya's eyes widened in shock.
"Fuck, why do you always make me bleed?" He hissed, pulling the knife out as blood seeped out of his big toe.
"You're an idiot!" Katiya shouted, kneeling in front of him and ripping her loincloth in half. "Move your fucking hands!"
To stop the bleeding, she swatted his hands away and wrapped the cloth tightly around his big toe.
"Great Mother, I should have never agreed to be civil with you," Aonung muttered, panting heavily from the chaos.
He paused, his brows furrowed in anger as he gazed at Katiya, who suddenly burst into laughter.
As a result of everything that had happened, her emotions went into overdrive.
Even though the situation was inappropriate to laugh at, she couldn't help it.
Despite the aching pain in his toe, Aonung's breath caught in his throat at her laughter.
Perhaps his assumptions about her angry nature could be wrong.