𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘵 𝘣𝘦, 𝘐𝘬𝘢𝘳𝘪? 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩, 𝘰𝘳 𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯? He reaches out and runs his rough palm over her skin. His fingers come back damp with ash-grey powder. He remembers the light line of her smile as she swooped around him. That smile had cost him everything. He doesn't catch it. She'd saved his life. He was sure of that, but why would an ash na'vi help him? And why does he help her? 𝘞𝘩𝘰𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦, he mutters, wiping her blood off onto the rock beneath them. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵. ❥ Aonung was supposed to be strong. He was supposed to protect his people, as a good Olo'eyktan would, but following the battle with the RDA and the mangkwan, the Metkayina are grieving and his duty is greater than ever. Now he must overcome his own loss to save not only his family, but his clan. ❥ Ikari doesn't know how to live without her people. Injured and stranded in the reef without any word from the Mangkwan, she needs to adapt to a new life as learns to heal. With the son of the grieving chief seeming to be just as lonely as her, she might just find this harsh change manageable. She knows a thing or two about duty.

As the future Olo'eyktan of the Metkayina, Aonung prides himself on control-over the reef, over others, over himself-until Kel 'Hani disrupts it with a single laugh and a look held too long. She tells herself she dislikes his arrogance; he tells himself she's too stubborn. Yet the space between them tightens all the same, heavy with things unsaid and moments unfinished. Where restraint is tested, denial becomes habit, and the sea quietly shifts along with something neither of them is ready to face.