Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past
Bold - sign language
Neteyam froze in his tracks as he heard a voice from behind call out to him. He knew that voice. He had been craving to hear it for days, and yet, when he hears it, he can't will himself to turn around.
"Mara?" Norm said, and finally, the teenage boy turned around to see Marali frantically looking around the room. Once her eyes set on Neteyam and noticed that he was okay, she immediately relaxed and tried to sit up, only to groan in pain when she pushed on her left arm.
"Mara, you hurt your arm. Max and I should look you over to make sure you're okay," Norm said as he got up to run to the scientist's Mauri pod.
Everyone in the pod looked at each other as if they were in a daze because it was only a minute ago that they had heard the flatlining of the machine, telling them that Marali had left them. Yet, here she was, alive and breathing.
It seemed so surreal to them all.
Almost as if their minds were playing some sort of sick trick on them.
"Marali?" Tuk said as she cautiously took a step toward the injured girl.
Marali looked at Tuk with a smile as she brought her right arm out to pull the youngest child into a hug. Tuk stood there frigid for a moment before she gently wrapped her arms around Marali. The little girl buried her head into her friend's neck as she began to cry tears of joy.
"I'm so happy you're okay. I thought I would never see or talk to you again." Tuk whispered.
Slowly but surely everyone else also took steps towards the girl to tell her that they were glad she had pulled through. Tuk had refused to leave her side as clung onto the girl's right arm, and the other Sully children sat as close as they could to the girl without hitting her left shoulder.
When Marali was shot, the bullet ricocheted and broke Marali's collarbone before some of the shrapnel barely missed her lung. Of course, Marali had been lucky that the shrapnel didn't puncture a lung, but she still had a hard time breathing, which is why she was put on a ventilator in the first place.
"Hey, Mara," Ao'nung said as he looked at the girl with bloodshot eyes.
"Hey, Nungie," Marali said with a smile, and the other two Metkayina teens snorted as the oldest of them playfully glared at her. "We can come back and talk to you later. Is that okay with you?" Rotxo asked, and Marali looked at them with a smile as she nodded her head.
The two boys walked out while Tsireya gave her a look of longing before she slowly followed Ao'nung and Rotxo. "Reya, you can give me a hug if you want to," Marali said, and Tsireya let out a sigh of relief as she quickly walked over to Marali and pulled her into a gentle hug.
"I'm really glad that you pulled through," Tsireya whispered as she pulled away from the hug.
"Me too," Marali whispered back.
Tsireya gave the girl one last smile before she leaped up and left the family's Mauri pod. It was silent as Marali looked over to see Neteyam by the exit, looking down at his feet. Ever since she first looked at him, he was afraid to look at her.
"We'll uh, give you guys some privacy," Jake said as he gave Kiri and Lo'ak a look that meant that they needed to leave. Both teens groaned as they stood up, while Spider simply walked out of the Mauri pod. Jake and Neytiri went to leave before they noticed that Tuk was still latched onto Marali's arm.
"Tuk!" Neytiri scolded, and the young girl looked at her mother with a pout on her face.
At first, Tuk looked like she wanted to resist what her mother said, but when she looked at Neteyam, she knew that Marali and her brother needed some time to talk about things. So, she got up off the ground and ran to grab her mother's hand.
"Do you want us to close the curtain?" Neytiri asked, and Jake went to protest before Neytiri shot him a look that instantly made him shut up. "Yes, please," Marali said, and Neytiri pulled the curtain over the room so that the only light in the pod was a couple of candles that had been lit.
Neteyam still hadn't looked at Marali, so the girl slide onto her knees, and used her right arm to give herself some leverage to get up. As she walked over to Neteyam, she noticed a faint bruise on his chest. She was confused about it but decided that she would ask him about it later.
Once she stood in front of him, she stopped any movement and waited for him to look up at her. Neteyam had heard her footsteps moving towards him, but he was too afraid to look up at Marali. He still thought that he was dreaming, Neteyam thought that his mind was playing tricks on him.
Letting out a shaky breath, he slowly moved his head up to meet her eyes, and then he brought a hand up to cup her face. She looked and felt so real. It couldn't be a dream, could it? Marali was actually standing in front of him breathing, right?
"Nete," She said, and he sucked in a sharp breath as he took a step back, shaking his head. "No, no, no. This isn't real." He said, refusing to believe that she was alive. "You're not actually here. This is my mind playing tricks on me."
"Neteyam," Marali said as she took a step towards him. When she took a step forward, he took a step back. It was like they were playing a game until Marali pinned him up against one of the walls of the Mauri pod.
"Are you actually here, or are you a ghost?" Neteyam asked nervously.
"Would a ghost be able to do this?" She whispered as she brought her face to his and gently kissed him. Neteyam blinked at her as he had absolutely no reaction to the kiss. It felt real, but he still wasn't sure.
"Maybe," He said softly.
"What about this?" Marali said as she brought her face to his jawline and peppered it with kisses. Neteyam instinctively brought his hands to her waist, and that's when he realized that it was real. It hadn't clicked when she touched him, but when he touched her it ignited a fire in his body that he desperately wanted to put out.
He softly pulled her head away from his jaw and smashed his lips to hers in a needy, passionate kiss.
Marali sighed into the kiss as she wrapped her arms around his neck, and lazily played with some of his braids. His lips tasted like salt, and she wasn't sure if it was because he had gone swimming before she woke up, or if he had maybe been crying.
However, she didn't really care. She craved him. All of him, but she wasn't ready to go all the way with him yet. She was still young, after all. But what's the harm in a little kiss here or there?
The girl didn't see any harm in it, so she kissed Neteyam as if her life depended on it until her lungs were begging her for air. As she pulled away and panted to get air back into her lungs, Neteyam still hadn't been satisfied as he pushed himself off of the wall and replaced his spot with Marali and latched his lips onto her neck.
Marali's head fell back onto the wall as Neteyam continued to give her butterfly kisses on the neck, sending a shiver down her spine each time. "Neteyam," She breathed out, and the boy smiled against her skin. "Yes?" Neteyam said as he pulled away from the girl's neck, and she had to hold back the whine that wanted to leave her lips.
"Nothing, keep kissing me," She said, and the boy happily obliged.
We're supposed to be talking, not making out. The girl thought to herself.
Marali continued to lazily play with Neteyam's braids, until her hands felt a little lower, and she softly grabbed onto his queue, resulting in Neteyam releasing a low groan.
~~~~
All of the Sully family and Spider patiently waited outside of the Mauri pod for the two teens to be done talking.
It was taking longer than they expected, and they weren't sure if they should go in there to check in on them to make sure everything was okay.
When they heard quick footsteps, their heads snapped to see Norm and Max running towards them with some more supplies that they were going to use to see if Marali was okay.
"What are you guys doing out here?" Norm asked.
"We decided to give Marali and Neteyam a little privacy to talk," Neytiri explained, and Jake grumbled something along the lines of how it was stupid to close the curtain before quickly shutting up when he saw his mate glaring at him.
"Oh, have they been in there long?" Norm questioned, and the entire family looked at each other.
"They've been in there for a while," Jake said, and Norm raised an eyebrow.
"Has anyone gone to check in on them?" Norm asked.
"No, but I can do it," Lo'ak volunteered as he quickly ran into the pod before anyone could stop him.
Everyone rolled their eyes at Lo'ak's antics before they waited for him to come back out.
"Oh, that is disgusting!" A voice shouted from inside the pod, and everyone quickly ran inside to see what was going on.
The group walked in to see Marali trying to hide behind Neteyam as his tail had been wrapped around her thigh. Jake quickly covered Tuk's eyes, and the little girl tried to pry them off before she gave up with a huff.
"What's going on in here?" Norm asked, and the two teens looked down at the ground with flushed cheeks.
"I'll tell you what's going on," Lo'ak said as he shot his brother a taunting smile, "This one right here," He said, pointing to his brother, "Had this one pinned up against the wall." Lo'ak then pointed to Marali.
"Why did Neteyam have Marali pinned against the wall?" The youngest asked, and Marali and Neteyam both flushed in embarassment.
Neytiri's hands immediately went to cover her youngest child's ears as she shot Lo'ak a glare.
"Is that true, Marali?" Norm questioned his daughter, who refused to meet his eyes.
"Yes," She softly whispered.
"Kiri, I need you to take your brother and your sister out of here while we talk with these two," Jake said, not even mentioning Spider.
The group of kids walked out of the pod, and the three adults looked at the two teens who had still been looking at the ground. The pod filled with an awkward silence as no one dared to say a word until Neytiri decided to break it.
"I told you it would only take two months for them to get together," Neytiri smirked, and the teen's heads snapped up to look at her in shock.
"Hey! I also said two months. Jake's the one who thought it would be sooner!" Norm defended, and Jake stared at his friend in disbelief. "Wow, Norm. I thought we were closer than that." Jake said, and Norm rolled his eyes.
Neteyam and Marali both looked at each other confused.
"Wait, so you guys aren't mad at us?" Marali asked as she stood beside Neteyam.
"Nope, as long as you guys aren't making babies, I genuinely don't care what you two do together," Norm said, causing Marali to choke on her own spit. "Babies?" She shrieked.
"Yeah, we are too young to be grandparents," Jake said, motioning between the three adults.
"Actually, I'm fine with being a grandparent," Neytiri said with a shrug, and Jake's jaw dropped in betrayal. "Neytiri!" Jake yelled. "We've talked about this," He scolded.
"No, you talked, I ignored." The mother said as she walked over to her son to pull him into a hug. "I'm so happy for you." She whispered before she looked at Marali, "Both of you,"
Jake looked at his wife in disbelief. He knew she had been wanting another kid, but he personally felt that Lo'ak caused enough trouble for two kids combined. The father didn't want to have five biological kids. Jake continued to think about the possibility of having five kids before he pushed the thoughts aside and looked at the two teens with a serious look.
"We do need to talk to you both, though." He said sternly, and Neteyam and Marali looked at him nervously.
All three adults looked at each other before speaking, "No making out in places where you can be found by Tuk."
"What about me? Doesn't my innocence mean anything to you?" A voice yelled from outside of the pod.
"Keep talking, Lo'ak, and I may be tempted to reveal what you and Tsireya do!" Marali warned, and Neteyam snorted. Jake and Neytiri looked at the girl, curiously.
"Nevermind!" Lo'ak shouted, "Pretend I didn't say anything!" Marali smiled victoriously when she saw the look on Jake and Neytiri's faces. Even if she didn't tell them what those two did when they were alone, she knew that they would pry the answers out of Lo'ak themselves.
"As we were saying," Norm paused, "We don't care what you all do as long as you follow two rules." He said, holding out his fingers to represent the number.
"One: Don't make babies," Jake said.
"And two: Do not, under any circumstances, do anything where Tuk would easily be able to see you," Neytiri said.
"Okay," Both teens said at the same time, "Sounds fair enough to me," Marali said.
"Okay, let me go get Max," Norm said as he ran out of the pod to grab the other scientist.
~~~~
After Norm and Max had determined that Marali had made a miraculous recovery, they told everyone that she was fine and that they could finally go to sleep after the long emotional day that they had.
Marali had laid down on her mattress and felt movement beside her, causing her to look over to see Tuk snuggling up beside her. She then looked over to see Lo'ak laying far enough away so that he wouldn't accidentally hit her left arm but close enough so that he could be there to protect her if something were to come in the middle of the night. Kiri lay up against Tuk and reached out to feel for Marali's hand due to the fear that if she didn't the girl would disappear.
"Where am I supposed to sleep?" A voice asked, and all of the children looked up to see Neteyam looking down at them.
"On your mattress," Tuk said in a duh tone.
"But I wanna sleep beside Mari," The teen whined.
"There's no room," Lo'ak grumbled with his eyes closed.
"I'm not sleeping until I can sleep close to Mari," Neteyam said as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Kiri rolled her eyes and moved over so that Neteyam could sleep where she was sleeping. "Here, Neteyam," Kiri said, and the boy shot her a smile before he practically ran to lay down beside Tuk, who was right next to Marali.
"Now that we've got that settled, can we go to sleep now?" Marali asked as her eyes became droopy. "Yep," Neteyam said, and that's all it took for all of them to pass out.
Marali's eyelids closed, and she welcomed sleep with ease. Even though it felt like she had slept for an entire month, she felt like she could sleep for another week. She hoped that her sleep would be peaceful.
As she drifted to sleep, her only thought was that she had made the right decision to come back instead of staying with her Mom and Dad.
~~~~
Marali awoke with a gasp as she panted looking around the room. She looked to see the sun had already risen, and the Sully family and Spider were gathered around to eat.
"What's wrong, Mara?" Jake asked worriedly.
The girl looked at him with wide eyes as she tried to process everything that she had just seen in her dream. "Mari?" Neteyam asked as he got up and walked to be beside the girl. Her eyes snapped to his face, and she felt herself relax.
"I'm okay," She breathed out.
Except for the fact that she was far from okay. For whatever reason, last night, Great Mother thought it would be a good idea to show her how the Sully family was coping while she was in the coma, more specifically, Eywa showed her the day that she woke up.
She watched as Tuk refused to leave her side multiple times.
She watched how Lo'ak had begged the Great Mother to take him instead.
She listened to Neytiri tell her that she loved her. Neytiri had never said those words to Marali before.
She watched Neteyam lose his mind as he tried to say goodbye to her.
He had told her the story of when he first realized he liked her. It had brought a small smile to her face as she remembered the events of him giving her the flower from her perspective. Then she remembered his words, "I wasted so much time pretending to hate you when I could have been loving you instead." The phrase echoed in her head like a symphony.
Marali faintly remembered him telling her he loved her the day she had been shot, but it hadn't clicked for her until she saw him hunched over her unconscious body. He loved her. She looked over at Neteyam to see him joking with Lo'ak and admired him.
It was breakfast time, so she should have probably been eating, but she spent the morning admiring the boy she loved instead.
"Bro," Lo'ak said, and Neteyam looked at him confused. "Look," His little brother said, and Neteyam turned around to see Marali looking at him adoringly. Neteyam could feel the blush creeping up to his cheeks.
"Mari," He whispered shouted.
"What?" She asked with a smile on her face.
"You're staring," Neteyam informed.
"I know," Marali said, causing Neteyam's blush to deepen.
"Listen, I know you guys are together and everything, but if you could please not flirt in front of my food, I would appreciate it," Spider said.
Marali looked at him with a smirk, "I'm sorry I wouldn't want to hurt your food's feelings, would I?" She said sarcastically, and Spider rolled his eyes.
"Come on, Spider. It's cute," Kiri said, "In a 'I would to stab my eyeballs out' kind of way," She finished causing everyone around the table to snort.
"Just eat your food," Jake said with a huff, and Neytiri looked at her mate with a smile.
After that, everyone ate until they finished their food. Marali was extremely hungry, but once she finished her plate, it seemed to momentarily satisfy her hunger. She looked over to see Neteyam finishing up the last of his food, and she thought they should probably talk once he was done.
"Do you want to go for a walk?" Marali said, voicing her thoughts aloud.
Neteyam looked at her and then at his parents silently asking for permission.
"I'm fine with it as long as you wait until after Norm comes to check up on you," Jake said, and Neytiri nodded her head in agreement.
"Okay, I'll wait for my Dad," Marali said as she patiently waited for her father's arrival.
Unedited. 06/08/23
Word Count: 3,314
Quick note-
Less of an emotional chapter. I have to work today, that's why y'all got this chapter so early.
Thank y'all so much for 2.3K reads!