Italicize - someone's thoughts or a story from the past
Bold - sign language
"What the hell is wrong with him?" Kiri mumbled.
Marali couldn't believe what had just happened. Spider saved Quartich. The man who had been after Jake and his family since those demons came back to the Na'vi people's home. How could he do something like that? She didn't understand. Marali had never held any of the horrible things the Sky people did against him as Neytiri did. She knew that it wasn't his fault.
Kiri and Marali continued to storm away from the pod as Lo'ak and Neteyam followed closely behind them. "I don't know, but he better not even think of coming near me," Marali snapped as she finally found a good spot on the sand to plop down on.
After Marali sat down, the rest of the teenagers followed her actions, and they all sat facing each other. "I don't understand why he did it," Lo'ak sighed as he glanced at the rest of the group to see if they had any answers.
"I don't care why he did it, and I certainly don't want to understand either," Marali snapped before she took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Lo'ak." She whispered, and Lo'ak told her that it was okay.
Everyone sat in silence as they either looked at each other or at the ground in front of them. Neteyam had been silent the entire time, and Marali thought it would be a good idea to ask him for his opinion on the matter.
"What do you think, Neteyam?" Marali asked.
"About what?" Neteyam questioned, confused.
"About Spider saving Quartich," She said in a duh tone.
Neteyam sat in silence as he contemplated the best way to handle the situation. Of course, he had been angry with Spider, and that wasn't going to change anytime soon, however, there was a small part of him that understood. Spider had never had a parental figure growing up, so he was going to pounce on the first person who would step up to the plate.
The human boy had also never experienced the love that the Na'vi considered a right of passage, no matter if he had biological parents or not. It was understandable to Neteyam that Spider wouldn't care what kind of attention he was receiving from the person he considered to be as close to his father as he was going to get.
His actions were despicable and inexcusable, but they weren't unexplainable. Spider just wanted to feel love. He wanted to feel wanted, and Quartich made him feel wanted. Sure, Quartich's love may have been toxic, but it was still love nonetheless.
"I think that he made a stupid mistake," Neteyam started, and everyone nodded their heads in agreement, "But I don't think that we should never speak to him again because of it," He sighed.
"Are you defending him?" Marali asked, bewildered.
"Mari, you have to understand-"
"I don't have to understand anything, Nete," She snapped, and Neteyam rolled his eyes.
"Mari," Neteyam warned, and she sighed before she gave him a look that meant to continue. "Fine," She said begrudgingly.
"Spider doesn't have any parents," Neteyam said, looking around at everyone. "I mean, we are lucky to have Mom and Dad to love us. And Mari, you're lucky to have Norm to love you. But who loves Spider?" Neteyam asked.
"We do," Kiri said with confidence.
"But we love him like a friend or a sibling. We don't love him as a son; we don't love him as a parent would," Neteyam said. "We can't give him the type of love he wants, the type of love he needs, the type he craves," He reasoned.
The three teens looked at each other, and slowly but surely they started to understand Spider's actions. It still didn't justify them, but it made the entire situation easier to chew. Neteyam was right, and they all knew it.
"That still doesn't make what he did right. And it certainly doesn't mean that we have to forgive him," Marali said.
"I'm not saying that you have to forgive him. I'm saying that you could show a little empathy and compassion towards him." Neteyam responded. "Spider's just a kid like us. He makes mistakes like us. He does things without thinking like us. Who are we to judge Spider when we will never fully understand his situation?"
Marali glanced at the ground as her guilt started to grow. "It just hurts so much," Marali whispered. Kiri and Lo'ak nodded at her statement as they too felt guilty for their harsh treatment of Spider.
"It hurts because you love him, Mari. It hurt all of us because we love and care about him," Neteyam said, causing Marali to look him in the eye.
"I'm still mad at him, and I don't think I'll be able to talk to him for a while. I don't know what I'll do if I get too close to him right now," Lo'ak said.
"It's probably going to take some time to forgive him, and to rebuild that trust, bro," Neteyam responded.
"Since when did you become so wise?" Kiri said, scrunching her nose. Neteyam looked at his younger sister and scoffed, "I've always been wise. It's Lo'ak who's the dumb one," He said, pointing at Lo'ak.
"Hey!" Lo'ak glared.
"We all knew that," Kiri said, causing everyone in the group beside Lo'ak to snort. "What I meant was, when did you become so diplomatic? It's kind of annoying," Kiri shrugged, and Neteyam rolled his eyes.
"I'm trying to do the right thing." Neteyam exhaled.
"Well, don't. I'm trying to be mad over here, and you're making it really hard," Kiri exclaimed as she saw Marali from the corner of her eye.
Marali smirked at her friend before she decided to speak, "I personally think that Neteyam being diplomatic is hot," Neteyam smugly smiled at Marali as Lo'ak and Kiri gagged in disgust.
"Alright, I think that's enough for tonight. I'm going to go back to the pod to try and get some sleep," Lo'ak said, standing up. "Yeah, I'm getting kind of tired." Marali yawned as she also stood up.
The group of teens brushed themselves off as they headed back to the Mauri pod to turn in for the night. They suspected that after the big argument, everything would be quiet enough so that they could sleep undisturbed, but when they got to the pod and saw Jake and Neytiri waiting for their arrival, they knew something was up.
They looked around the pod to see that Tuk wasn't there, and Spider sat at the furthest corner of the pod with his back to them. "Did you take Tuk to a friend's house?" Kiri asked, and Neytiri shook her head.
"Tuk is with Ronal and Tonowari. She and Tsireya are going to have a sleepover." Jake informed.
"Yes, and when we are done with this conversation, if all of you would like to join Tuk, Ronal, and Tonowari said they would be glad to have you," Neytiri added.
"What conversation?" Lo'ak asked, taking a seat in front of his parents.
Jake looked at the teenagers and took a deep breath, "Neytiri and I have decided to postpone the trip home," Jake said.
"Why?" Kiri questioned.
The two parents shared a look before Neytiri scoffed as Jake nudged her to speak. "We can't go home with what just happened. Everyone needs some time to process and decide what they want to do,"
"What do you mean decide?" Marali said.
"We need you kids to decide whether or not you want Spider to come back with you guys when the three months are up." Jake said as he watched all three teens' reactions, "And, no matter what you decide, we will support your decision,"
"What happens if we want him to stay?" Neteyam questioned.
"No decisions have to be made right now," Jake responded. "But if you want Spider to stay when the three months are up, Norm has agreed to take care of him." He said, and Marali felt relieved at his words.
Yes, she was mad at him. She was furious, aggravated, irritated, enraged, and any other synonym in the book, but to hear that even if they no longer wanted him with them that someone had volunteered to look after he made her feel better. Especially considering the fact that it was her dad who had volunteered to do so.
"And if we want him to stay?" Lo'ak spoke.
"Then he will come back here, and he will start his training to learn the Metkayina ways," Neytiri said, grinding the words out as if they were poison on her tongue.
All three teens carefully listened to the two adults that were speaking to them, before they turned their attention to Spider who still had his back to him. Suddenly, a thought popped into Marali's head.
"What if Spider doesn't want to come back?" She questioned as she waited to see if Spider would have any reaction, "I mean, why would he want to come back with us if he doesn't feel like we love or care about him?" She added.
At the sound of her words, she noticed Spider tense and she smirked a little to herself when she knew that all of his words had been a lie he merely said to hurt them as bad as he was hurting himself.
"If he doesn't want to come back, then that would be his decision, Marali. We can't force him to go with us wherever we go," Jake explained.
Neteyam grabbed onto Marali's hand as he soothingly rubbed circles between her thumb and index finger.
"How long is our visit back home going to be postponed?" Kiri whispered, as she was disappointed that she would have to wait even longer to see her mother's videos. "It will only be another two weeks, Kiri. We wanted to give you guys as much to make your decision," Neytiri said, moving over to comfort her oldest daughter.
"Okay, I think I'm going to go over to Reya's now," Kiri said as she absentmindedly got up and walked out of the pod. "I'll go with her," Lo'ak said, immediately following his sibling.
Jake and Neytiri then looked at Neteyam and Marali to see what they would be doing. "I think I'm going to sleep here. I'm too tired to walk to their pod," Marali said.
"I'll stay here with Mari," Neteyam said.
Both parents nodded their heads before Neytiri decided to speak, "If you two would like to sleep next to each other for the night, you can. It's supposed to be cold tonight," Neytiri informed.
Neteyam and Marali decided they would take Neytiri up on that offer as Neteyam pulled out his mattress, and laid down before he signaled that Marali could join him. As the two teens lay down, Marali saw that Jake and Neytiri were also snuggled up together, and then she saw Spider by himself. He was crunched up into a ball, and she knew that it was because he was cold.
Soon, Jake's soft snores could be heard throughout the pod, and the soft movements of Neteyam's chest could be felt as Marali silently lay awake. She couldn't sleep, no matter how hard she was trying to.
The girl could hear Spider's teeth chattering, signaling that he was freezing, and it bothered her. Marali slowly pushed herself off of Neteyam's chest with her good arm but slowed her moving when she felt Neteyam stir in his sleep.
Neteyam mumbled something incoherent as Marali continued to move away from him to look for something that Spider could cover up with. Na'vi didn't use blankets, however, Norm had given Marali one when she was little, and she had never gotten rid of it. Sure, it was a little small for someone Spider's size, but at least it was something.
Marali cautiously walked over to Spider and saw that he was sleeping, even with the chattering of his teeth. She knelt over him as she placed the blanket on his body to give him some warmth. The blanket came up to his torso and covered most of his body, so it should meet its purpose for that night.
Once the blanket had been placed on Spider, the chattering of his teeth came to an end, and Marali let out a sigh of relief before she walked back over to snuggle into Neteyam. She buried her head into Neteyam's neck as she allowed sleep to take over.
~~~~
The next morning, Marali awoke to the rest of the Sully children, as well as three Metkayina teens sitting in the pod. She yawned as she sat up and noticed that everyone was sitting around eating breakfast.
Marali glanced around and saw that Spider was still peacefully asleep, and he was still snuggled up with the blanket she had given him last night.
When Ao'nung noticed that she was awake, he let out a dramatic sigh. "Look who finally decided to wake up," He teased, causing Marali to roll her eyes. She stretched her arms and walked over to sit between Neteyam and Tuk.
"Where's Jake and Neytiri?" She yawned as she grabbed some food to eat. "They're talking with our parents," Tsireya said as she continued to eat, and Marali hummed in acknowledgment.
"Who gave Spider your blanket?" Lo'ak questioned.
"I did. He was so cold last night that his teeth were chattering," Marali shrugged.
"What's a blanket?" Rotxo asked.
"It's something that Sky People use to keep warm when they are cold," Kiri informed.
The entire pod stopped talking when they noticed that Spider was awake. Spider refused to look at any of them as he walked over to grab some food.
"Lo'ak, can I sit beside you?" Spider asked nervously, but Lo'ak made no indications that he was going to move. He simply ignored Spider and ate his food. "Please," He pleaded. Lo'ak still ignored him, and the human boy let out a huff of annoyance.
Spider then moved over to Kiri. "If I can't sit beside you guys, can you at least hand me some food?" He asked, but he was still given the silent treatment. Marali felt bad, but she didn't feel ready to talk to him yet.
"Do you guys hear something?" Lo'ak questioned, and all of the teens besides Neteyam shook their heads no.
Tsireya watched the group of Omatikaya teens in shock. She had never seen them behave in such a way before, especially Marali. To Tsireya, Marali had seemed so kind and warm, she saw Marali as someone who could forgive even the gravest of mistakes and betrayals. The Metkayina girl watched the human in pity as she grabbed a plate and placed some food on it.
"Here," Tsireya said, warmly as she stood up to hand Spider some food. Spider watched her with wide eyes as he cautiously grabbed the food from the smiling Metkayina girl. "Thank you," Spider whispered before he walked back over to his bed to eat alone.
"Why were you guys so mean?" Tsireya scolded.
"Please, if you think that was mean, then you should see what our Mom does to him," Kiri said with a mouth full of food.
"You didn't have to ignore him like that." She said.
"Would you have rather me told him that I want to punch him in the face every time he looks at me?" Marali said, sickeningly sweet, causing Lo'ak and Kiri to snort, while Neteyam looked at her disapprovingly.
After that, everyone ate with the occasional joke being told here or there, while the Sully children and Marali continued to ignore Spider.
The Sully children spent most of the week trying to ignore or avoid Spider at all costs while he pursued them so that he could apologize for his actions. None of them were making it easy on the human boy, but he didn't want them to. He wanted them to make it hard. Spider knew that that was what he deserved.
In fact, them ignoring him or throwing snide remarks at him every once in a while made him try even harder because to him that meant that they still cared about him. Especially when he would catch them watching him when he would go too far out into the water, or when other Metkayina teens would come up to talk to him.
Spider knew that if he wanted to get all of them to forgive him, then he had to go for the person who was the least mad at him, and for whatever reason, that was Neteyam. He was walking up to Neteyam when the Na'vi teen noticed him and tried to make a quick getaway.
"Neteyam!" Spider shouted, causing the boy to stop in his tracks.
Neteyam slowly turned around to see Spider running towards him, "What do you want, Spider?" He asked lowly.
"I need your help getting your siblings to talk to me," Spider said.
"No," Neteyam said as he started to walk away.
"Please, Neteyam," Spider begged. "I'm really sorry about what I did,"
"Then tell them that, not me," Neteyam said, looking around to make sure that no one was watching him.
"Don't you think I've tried?" He exasperated. "Every time I get close to any of them, they scurry away before I can even get a word out,"
"Do you blame them?" Neteyam questioned with an eyebrow raised, and Spider slowly shook his head. "No," The human boy whispered.
"You need to give them time," Neteyam sighed.
"I don't have time." Spider said, raising his voice before he took a few calming breaths, "Please, Neteyam. They'll listen to you. All of them will," His voice cracked. "None of them will talk to me, or look at me. Not even Tuk,"
"Tuk is loyal to Marali. You should have expected that one," Neteyam joked but stopped once he noticed that Spider didn't smile.
"Do you have a plan?" Neteyam asked, and Spider looked up at him hopeful. "Yes," Spider vigorously nodded his head, and Neteyam sighed. "Tell it to me, and then, and only then, will I decide to help you or not," Neteyam said, and so for the next few minutes, Spider explained his plan to Neteyam.
It was a stupid plan, of course, but most Spider's plans usually were. It's one of the reasons he and Lo'ak got along so well, or at least, they used to.
Neteyam knew it was risky to help Spider, but he also knew it was even more risky to not do anything at all.
So, he did the one thing he had promised Marali he wouldn't do. He was going to help Spider.
"I'll help you,"
Unedited. 06/11/23
Word Count: 3,127
Quick note-
Double update for y'all! Three more chapters after this!
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