Still Breathing

Chapter 24. Freaks

"I dream of you almost every night." ~ Surf Curse

Erica was awoken in the morning by the feeling of someone jumping on top of her and laying down on her. Erica groaned, shoving the person who was on top of her off. "Tuk, it's too early for this."

"What are you talking about?" The little Na'vi questioned from across the pod as she still laid in her own bed. Feeling alarmed all of a sudden, Erica opened her eyes and was met by the kind smile of Tsireya.

"Hi." Tsireya spoke as she sat up, leading Erica and Lo'ak to do the same. Tuk slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes and smiling wide as she realized that Tsireya was there. She instantly jumped to her feet and ran over to her, jumping into her arms.

Erica shook Kiri awake who was somehow able to sleep through all of this madness. Tsireya greeted all of the Sully's and introduced herself to Spider as she handed each of them a fruit. Waiting in the entrance of their pod was Aonung and Rotxo, both of them smiling at the Sully's as they entered inside.

Erica pulled Aonung in for a hug, asking him how he was holding up seeing as she was one of the only people that knew about his situation with Neteyam. "I'm okay." He answered with a shrug but his tone didn't seem too convincing.

It had been nearly three weeks since the Sully's had seen the other Metkayina children. All of them had to take their time to grieve and to process the events that had occurred last month. Although they were all reunited at this moment, everything felt wrong without him. But nobody would acknowledge it.

"We came to invite you to swim with us!" Tsireya stood up excitedly as she pulled Lo'ak up with her. Aonung and Rotxo stood up next, with Aonung picking up Tuk and holding her in his arms, and Rotxo helping Kiri to her feet.

Jake and Neytiri were watching from the corner of the pod with smiles on their faces as all of their children seemed to be okay. They were all smiling and actually leaving the pod to hang out with others for the first time in a long time. Maybe everything would be okay after all.

"I would also like to inform you that my mother has invited you all for dinner at our pod tonight." Tsireya smiled in the direction of Jake and Neytiri who smiled back at her, happily accepting the offer. 

They hadn't seen Ronal and Tonowari since a week after Neteyam's funeral when they said that the Sully's could stay. It would be nice to see them again.

As all of the children, including Spider, were exiting the pod, Neytiri remembered what she had felt from the night a week ago. Wanting to finally smooth things over and confront him about it, she called out to Spider.

"Spider!" The boy in question turned around to look at Neytiri, obvious panic painted his face which Neytiri felt horrible about. "Can you hang back a for a moment?" He only nodded as he looked back at the rest of the kids, Lo'ak promising to wait for him.

Neytiri gave Jake a single look which he knew meant for him to leave, so Jake decided to wait outside with his son. Spider slowly and cautiously made his way closer to Neytiri, terrified that maybe she'd figured out what he'd done.

She gestured to the ground, signifying for Spider to sit. He obliged with Neytiri following suit and sitting on the floor in front of him. There was silence for a moment as Neytiri tried to think of what to say. She knew she had to apologize but she didn't know where to begin.

"Did I do something?" Spider asked, furrowing his brows together as he looked up at Neytiri.

"No. I just..." Neytiri took in a deep breath, trying to figure out how to start this conversation. She'd never actually talked to him one on one before. "I wanted to apologize. For everything."