To our little ones || Aonung x Neteyam

Chapter 5: Protector

The days followed by the incident the Sully home was filled with suffocating tension. Neteyam refused to even look at Lo'ak and the girls were starting to get affected by this. It certainly didn't help that the two brothers refused to follow their mother's advice, urging them to forgive and help each other.

"Good morning." Lo'ak mumbled as he made his way down the stairs. All three feminine voices answered, leaving behind a heavy silence broken by Neteyam's sigh.

Lo'ak looked at him for a couple of seconds but ended up giving up, deciding to reach for his chair only to find it already taken by one of Tuk's dolls. Only then noticing the unusual sitting arrangement of the table.

None of his siblings were in their usual spot, leaving only an empty chair beside his older brother. He knew his mother knew better than to force the two of them to speak once again, so judging by Kiri's nervous stare, that must have been their sister's poor attempt to help.

He appreciated it regardless.

Lo'ak very carefully dragged the chair, as if not wanting to scare away a bird, however, as soon as he was properly seated Neteyam stood up leaving his half-eaten breakfast.

"Are you leaving already?" Neytiri reached for his face to plant a quick kiss on his son's head.

"Yes, I don't want to keep Ao'nung waiting." He went around the table leaving kisses on top of his sister's heads, going straight past Lo'ak and rushing through the door.

The young man averted his eyes toward the clock. The Geljo's lectures started at the same hour and he still had about twenty more minutes to leave before being late.

"It was a very hard loss for him. Just be patient and he will come around." His mother tried to reassure him.

"Or he will just hate me forever." Lo'ak mumbled.

"You know Net is not the type to hold grudges."

"It's been a week. Is there anything I can do?"

"Give him time to ease his anger." Neytiri watched as her son stood up with his arms folded and expression clearly distressed.

"Well then, how much time? He's never been this angry at me before...Or to anyone, for that matter."

The conversation was cut short as Lo'ak didn't feel like entertaining the matter anymore. His mother was right, he needed to be patient. Time would heal the wound and they would be back as they were before.

Neteyam wouldn't hate him forever and he was unreasonable for thinking the opposite because, at the end of the day, they were brothers.

All brothers argued. All brothers fought. All brothers had fire within them. It was in their nature.

Well, at least it was in Lo'ak's.

Certainly not in Neteyam's.

Lo'ak made mistakes. Neteyam fixed them.

Lo'ak disobeyed. Neteyam followed every order.

Lo'ak shouted. Neteyam remained calm.

Or that is what he thought until the night of the fight, because the moment he saw his brother rise his fist at him he found himself so stunned he couldn't react until that last door slam after he was gone.

How badly had he hurt him to make him react like that?

How cruel had his actions been to drive someone as kind-hearted as Neteyam to violence?

His stomach twisted in the wrong way and he felt relieved he had not eaten any breakfast for he was feeling sick.

"Lo'ak?" A soft voice called from one of the upstairs windows. He smiled as best as he could, waving at Tsireya.