when we walked inside, tuk immediately came up to me and hugged my hip. i think she was still very confused about what happened but she knew i was upset. we sat down together and i remembered the bracelets that were in my pouch. i pulled her one out. "tuk, i have a surprise for you." i gave her the bracelet and her face lit up. she took it gently and admired the beading. then she got up and ran over to neteyam to get him to help her lace it up. i pulled out the other kids' pieces and handed them out; neteyam, lo'ak and kiri. they all thanked me and put them on immediately.
then i went to go sit next to jake. i had his piece in my hand, but my heart was beating like crazy. he was watching his kids with a small smile on his face. i rested my hand on his kneee to pull him out of the trance. he looked over at me, one of his dreads framing his face on the process. "i have one for you too." my voice was soft, almost whispering. his fingers grazed mine as he reached over to take the piece i held out to him. "can you help me put it on?" he asked. i felt my cheeks heat up but nodded anyway.
my fingers were slightly shaking, fiddling with the delicate string of the bracelet. i finally secured it around his wrist and he admired my work. "thankyou." he speaks lowly. the kids were still distracted by eachother so we stayed in the corner together. my mind raced about how i should tell jake how i felt. my heart was beating and my breathing was unsteady, it was all getting too much. something in me took over and i decided, fuck it.
"jake." he looked over. "i have to talk to you." that sounded very basic but i didn't want to just blurt it out, i needed his attention first. "what's up?" the hi'ang we're back in my stomach when he spoke. "i, um, i just need to get something off my chest. and i apologise if you do not like what i'm about to say." he was getting confused now, cocking an eyebrow at my words. i took a big breath and just let it out. "i see you. i like you, jake. a lot."
i was afraid to look up at him after that, afraid to see his face. i thought that he would for sure reject me, the fact we were at least twenty years apart would have some sort of deterrent. until he put his hand on mine, calming my fidgeting. his other hand went to my face, lifting it to face him. i closed my eyes, refusing to see if he was disgusted with me. "open your eyes." his gravelly voice was right next to my ear and my eyes flew open then. he pulled back and looked me deep in the eyes.
i was expecting disgust or just plain rejection, but instead i was met with an expression of rejoice. he was smiling at me, his eyes lit up with joy. "tayala. i see you. i like you too. a lot." my joints froze up then, unsure what to do. "i- wha.. you do?" he grinned at me. "yes. when i woke up this morning and you weren't here, i thought maybe you had a change of mind and didn't like us anymore, but then you came back. and the way you defended not just me, but the kids too, made my heart thaw. i didn't think i'd ever mate for love. but you have well and truly changed my mind."
i was speechless after his mini-speech and didn't know what to think. "i don't know what to say. i don't even know what happens next." jake had a smirk on his face at that. "i can think of one thing." he leaned in closer, and everything else faded away. it was just us in the room, and then our lips collided. i melted into him, this was something i had only imagined in my dreams. everything was perfect, until "dad! ew!" tuk screeched our and we immediately pulled apart.
i had completely forgot that the kids were still here, too caught up in my own emotions. when i looked up at the kids, tuk looked like she was horrified and confused at the same time, neteyam and kiri both had smirks on their faces as if they knew this was gonna happen and lo'ak looked shocked. clearly he had no idea. jake was at a loss for words, he didn't know what to say to his kids. the. suddenly tuk blurted out, "are you guys getting married?"
that made me laugh, she was so cute and clueless. i knew that marriage was a human concept but it was the equivalent of the na'vi mating. even jake had laughed at that comment. "yes, tuk. we are getting married." i grinned at the thought of that. i was pulled out of my train of thought but tsireya showing up outside the marui. "i have come to get the others for training." they all got up and followed tsireya with both me and jake telling them a chorus of "be good!" and "don't cause trouble!" on their way out.
then it was just me and jake. we both turned to look at eachother and burst out in laughter. "that was not how i expected that to go." i grinned at him. "at least it saved us the awkward conversation with them." he grinned back down at me. "what are we doing today?" he questioned me. "i have another surprise." i stood up and grabbed jake's hand to pull him along with me. we reached the beach and i called two ilu, mine being rini. we both hopped on and swam out to where my secret cove was. jake was following me
so he had no idea where we were going or where we were.
we slipped off the ilu once we had arrived and i climbed up on the rock. jake followed me up and we sat, side by side and hand in hand, together. "what are doing here?" jake leaned down and asked me. "privacy." i grinned back up at him. "this way there's no kids or anything watching us." jake smirked at my words. "is that so?" there was a predatory tone to his words, and my ears twitched as he leaned closer to me. then his lips crashed onto mine. i tilted my head back for him and his hand slid up the nape of my neck to grasp my hair.
we continued making out, and shuffled around a bit before i moved to straddle him. we connected our lips again and my arms went around his neck. his hands had gone down to my waist, teasing me every so often when his fingers slid dangerously close to my core then retracting. after a while we needed a breath so we separated and rested our foreheads together. the air was tense and we just stared at eachother, eye to eye, before we both reached for our kuru's. jake looked down at the two braids before looking at me again.
"you're sure you want to do this?" "absolutely." he made sure before we connected them together. a shock wave of emotions rolled through me the moment we bonded and i took in a gasp of air. i looked at jake to see what he had felt and he looked just about the same. his pupils were dilated and mouth slightly agape. once we had both almost recovered from the emotional shockwave we both locked eyes again. "i never thought it would feel that good."
i chuckled at him and he grinned at me. "i'm honoured to bring you that pleasure, sweets." i could feel my cheeks heating up at his words. "we should probably get back, y'know, before they notice we're gone." i was still looking down at our connected braids with pink cheeks. jake pressed one last kiss onto my lips before we slid down the rock, his strong arms wrapped around my abdomen. i called the ilu and we dove under the water to ride back to the village.
