Chapter Text
"Sa'nok, sempul, you have to listen to me just this once!" /mother, father/ Neteyam exasperates as he stands tall in their marui, confronting his parents for the second time that day. His shoulder is carefully bandaged with healing leaves and herbs where the bullet grazed him mid-battle. It aches still, which makes him more irritable, but he actively chooses to ignore it to be able to make his point better.
"Neteyam, we have already heard you out, and the answer is no," Jake sounds more annoyed and tired than angry as he places his palm on his son's healthy shoulder to lean in and make his words more impactful. But he is shrugged away by his eldest very quickly.
Neteyam shakes his head and squeezes his hands into a fist. He looks at his mother for a moment. His parents are always such a united front. He knows they have their arguments and weak moments, but they never allow it to show in front of other people. They are a team that never relents or allows space between oneanother. If one of them says something, the other will stand behind them in support, even when they disagree. It's infuriating. Neteyam knows his father's words are actually his mother's and that Jake isn't the one he needs to convince.
"Sa'nok," /mother/ He tries, softening his voice and going around his father to approach Neytiri. "You heard Lo'ak about how close it came. Spider saved my life."
Neytiri's face twists and shows some strange mixture of anger and denial. She doesn't want to believe her eldest- so she doesn't. She reaches out to place a hand on the side of her son's face, gentle and caring in her love and affection. She makes no demands and doesn't turn away. From him, she never could. Neytiri has no favorites, or her mind won't allow her to admit that she does. But if she could, her favorite would be Neteyam by a landslide. The bond between them had been strong from the start. It was the beginning of her fierce motherly protectiveness. He was the first true light of her life.
Whenever things were difficult in the home, Neteyam sided with her first, even before Jake sometimes. He stood up for her and placed value behind all of her words. Never argued back or went against her rules unless it was to try and protect Lo'ak from his own stupidity. He was a great older brother. A great warrior and protector. He took after her so strongly that even their mannerisms were very similar.
But with this? He had to fight back.
"Without Spider, you would be missing a son. I wouldn't be here. You'd be burying me tonight." He tries to push all of his gratefulness and worry into what he says. Tries to emphasize their importance. But it's like his parents have already decided not to believe him.
Jake brings his hands to his hips and shakes his head: "You can not manipulate your mother and I into taking Spider in permanently. And even if he had saved your life, it still wouldn't mean we'd say yes."
Neteyam's gaze sharpens into a scowl when he looks at his father again. He shakes his head a little, his braids swaying with him: "If he had? He did! We were getting shot at, and as we jumped off the ship, he shoved me aside just in time."
Jake's eyes fall to the injury on his son. One corner of his mouth tilts down, and he runs a hand over his face. For a moment, he seems to consider something, but after a quick look at his mate, he straightens back up. He opens his mouth to speak, but Neteyam can feel the no coming and disrupts him.
"You said he'd rat us out. You said he'd tell them everything," at this, Jake looks away guiltily. It's true he expected the worst of the boy and had been certain High Camp would either be raided soon or the boy would be spotted leading troops nearby. It never happened. It was Norm arriving at Awa'atlu to help with Kiri's seizure that led the RDA here. "He stayed loyal to us. Under all that pressure, he never broke. Never let us down. The Ta'unui Tsahìk said that he was able to control his father and-"
"His father?" Jake darkens. His voice turns icy and low. "You know you do not speak of him here! In your mother's home."
Neytiri has lowered herself to sit by the home fire and is stroking it aflame now. She doesn't look at either of them, fully tuned out of the conversation now, wanting no part in it. She only has two modes for Quaritch. Unibliterating rage or dissociation. And when her children are near, she defaults to the latter.
"I-" Neteyam stutters and rapidly blinks. He hadn't meant to mention Quaritch. "I apologize." Neteyam hangs his head. He wants to be clear that he misspoke, but in the Sully family, overexplaining yourself is making excuses, so his words are still in his throat, and he just feels ashamed.
"Your mother has been through so much," Jake sighs as he places a hand on the Neteyam's upper back and gives it a small tap to reassure his son that everything is alright. He leads Neteyam out of the marui and into the sunny daylight of Awa'atlu. "I can not accept Spider into the family. Not just because of his parantage, but for all the he signifies to your mother. We can not have that reminder haunting her every single time she turns around and sees him."
Neteyam shakes his head, his willpower to argue slowly returning to him: "Spider didn't get to choose his parents. If he had the chance, he would have chosen you." His eyes are so sad as he says this. Neteyam has watched on the sidelines for so long as Spider gets brushed off and ignored by Jake and Neytiri. It's so obvious the boy adores and admires them; that one of his fondest wishes is to be one of them. And Neteyam has always turned his back on this and chosen not to acknowledge it just to please his mother. Now that the boy has saved his life and he feels like he owes it all to Spider, it's jarring to watch him yearn for something as simple as having a family.
Neteyam has to try to help.
"The answer is still no, my son. Spider will never be a Sully."
Neteyam sidesteps his father and strongly shakes his head. "I can't accept that."
Walking away from his own father, Neteyam feels like he's leaving something behind. The right to look away from Spider's distress, maybe? His youth? The favor of his mother? It all feels like an equally heavy stone being lifted from his heart, and for once, he knows he is absolutely doing the right thing. He's on the path The Great Mother wants for him. And his will shall not be swayed.
He spots Spider in the distance. Sitting alone on a rock, his skin sizzling in the sun as it beats down at him with far more force than it does on the Na'vi. He needs shelter and shade, a place to stay.
Neteyam's footsteps grow more certain. He walks to the edge of the jungle and, with a clean swipe of his dagger, cuts out a tall leaf with the stem attached. He marches it over to Spider and sticks the stem into the sand by his rock, turning the leaf so that it casts over the boy like a very large, green umbrella. It spreads a shadow over him, and Spider looks up with confusion, and then a grateful smile when he realizes it's just Neteyam. He looks so small under the leaf, now protected from the burning rays and excessive heat.
He says thank you, as he always does, for even the smallest acts of kindness towards him. If any Na'vi thanked people for the same things Spider does, then they'd never stop saying it. But for Spider, the cruel truth was that people overlooked him so often, even small deeds were rare and far in between. If he got to say thank you twice in one week, it was a great week for him. A reason to celebrate, really.
"No problem, Spider. Sit in shade from now on, okay? I don't want you baking in the sun," Neteyam chuckles as he ruffles Spider's hair quickly, small hands smacking his away immediately.
"Watch the dreads, watch the dreads."
"Smell them more like! There's a nice hot spring down that path. Go wash up today, Spider, you stink a bit." Neteyam advises and points towards the small footpath that disappears into the jungle. Spider twists to look at the path and then nods in agreement. "I have to go speak to someone. But make sure you eat at the communal fires before the sun starts going down and ask Kiri to take you to the river to get some clean water, okay?"
Why exactly didn't he do this in the jungle? Looking after Spider is pretty easy. It's just the same as being Lo'ak's older brother. Reminding him to do the basics when he's wired a bit too fast and has a tad too much to do. It comes naturally. Maybe it's an eldest son thing?
Momentarily, he wants to just kick his feet up, sit on the rock with Spide,r and just stare at the ocean for a while. But as soon as he spots Tonowari ducking into his marui, he knows now isn't the time. He follows after the Metkayina quickly, already running a hundred scenarios of what he could say in his head. "Olo'eyktan, I must speak to you about Spider," Neteyam calls out as he barges into Tonowari's home uninvited.
And just like that- the first rebellious phase of Neteyam te Suli Tsyeyk’itan has begun.