𝙀𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙉𝘼𝙇 𝙇𝙊𝙑𝙀. 𝙉𝙀𝙏𝙀𝙔𝘼𝙈 ¹

𝙤𝙣𝙚. 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙖𝙣

If you had told Fei'uey that her miserable but content life would be interrupted by a family from the Omaticaya people, the eldest son of Toruk Makto would be suddenly interested in her, and she would be in constant annoyance, she would have been sure that it was a complete joke.

But sometimes, to her dismay, jokes turn into reality. And reality becomes a piece of shit.

They had first taken the children to the water. Tsireya had practically begged Fei'uey to come along with her, their brother, and his best friend. "Come on, Fei, please! Don't you want to see that boy, Neteyam?"

Fei'uey pretended to think, holding in her smile at the hopeful look on her younger sister's face. "No." She declined and walked away to tie loose threads of a string of shells. She could act like everything was boring, but the uncontrollable response of her ears, twitching at the sound of his name, could have given her away.

She was lucky when Tsireya was too busy in her own mind, thinking of reasons to drag her older sister along with her. "Please, Aonung, Rotxo, and I will be there! We can laugh at them! Please," she dragged her words and had that puppy look in her eyes. No matter what Tsireya said, Fei knew nothing would make her want to join the forest people and swim around. She had other priorities.

"I'm not like you, Reya," she sighed, laying her hands down to her sides. "I don't even know if I can go and have fun right now, there are other things I must do." If she were honest, she would have told the girl about her lack of interest in messing around, especially when it includes stupid boys.

"Like what, huh?" Tsireya scoffed, hitting her sister in the shoulder. "You always say you have duties and other stuff when we wanna have fun! It's not cool, and it doesn't make you sound cool." She crossed her arms and frowned, walking away with an extra stomp in her feet.

Fei'uey was so close to evading her tactics. So, so close. It was until Reya's words had finally sunk in. If she didn't go, even if it was a bluff, her younger sister would be sad. It was like all those years ago, when Fei'uey had missed Tsireya's birthday because she was out getting her gift and lost track of time.

She remembered the tears in her eyes like yesterday. Reya wouldn't talk to her for a week after that. Fei sighed and balled her fists. "You're so- so..." She grumbled and huffed. "Ugh! Fine! I'll go." Fei'uey called out, grabbing her hunting knife and slipping it into the sheath behind her back.

An ecstatic Tsireya jumped out from behind the wall that blocked them and squealed, grabbing her sister's arm and pulling her towards the water. Fei had managed to grab a hold of her own body and stopped. "Reya, slow down, you manipulative baby!"

Tsireya only flashed her a big smile and swam away toward Jake Sully's children. The older girl could only roll her eyes and follow behind.

The four jumped into the sea with a running start. Fei'uey watched as they looked around at the nature. Especially the oldest girl, Kiri, who had become fascinated with what she had seen around her. She followed the little creatures and grazed her fingers against all the plants she could find. She had dissolved into her own world.

The other children trailed behind the four Metkayina teens, who had already submerged themselves deeper into the water. Fei'uey watched as they swam back up for air, before swimming back down.

She turned toward Tsireya with a confused look on her face. She had never seen Na'vi with such short breath. The younger girl understood and returned her question with the shrug of her shoulders. Both didn't know what was wrong with them.

They had swam around and deeper. When Tsireya and Fei'uey were deep, Lo'ak and Neteyam were still dwelling around the surface. Tsireya signed a few words, asking what they were doing. When both didn't understand, Fei'uey rolled her eyes. It was stupid people that made her the most annoyed. She signed to her sister, pointing up.

Soon, all of them were treading water above the surface. "Are you alright?" Tsireya asked.

"You're too fast," Tuktirey exclaimed. "Wait for us!"

"Just breathe," Tsireya instructed. Fei'uey thought it was stupid to be so vague. She kept her thoughts to herself, though. She didn't want to make her sister feel bad.

Even when she had just glazed her eyes across the three foreigners, she still caught a glimpse of the eldest, Neteyam, staring at her. Pursing her lips, she looked back to the water. Fei couldn't help the light blush that dusted her cheeks.

When she cooled her face down, she looked back at her sister and avoided the temptation to look back at Neteyam. She could have imagined his gaze, but even if she did, she still felt the burn of his stare. She didn't dare look back again.

Right then, Aonung popped up from the water with a taunting smile. "You are not good divers. Maybe good at swinging through trees, but-" He was cut off by Tsireya, who had slapped him on the head. Unlike her sister, Fei hid her smile with her hand and stifled a laugh. She discretely flashed Aonung a wink with a light smile.

Neteyam spoke first. "Come on, bro, we don't speak this..." he flailed his hand around above the water. "Finger talk. We don't know what you're saying."

Tsireya, before Fei could clamp her mouth shut, responded quickly. "Fei and I can teach you."

Fei'uey, from next to her, bit the inside of her cheek and squeezed her eyes shut. She knew her sister would do something stupid so she could spend time with Lo'ak more. Especially if Neteyam was involved, she would drag her older sister into anything that had an opportunity. She grumbled lowly with a glare. "Tsireya,"

Tuk brought Kiri up, which caused all of them to look around the surface of the water for a sign of her head popped above. Fei'uey sighed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "I'll look for her." Before anyone could protest, she dove under water and swam around.

Eventually, she made it to a reef. Kiri was there, studying a group of creatures that were swimming near each other. She had this happy smile, one that she had seen before in the children of the Metkayina.

She made her way around to Kiri. At first, she had thought to bring her back up to the surface. It was until she saw the look on her face, astounded by the nature around her. Instead, for the first time, Fei'uey gave one of the Omaticaya a smile.

It was because Fei realized that her and the girl shared a common emotion: fascination.