Chapter Text
“Dad, what’s with the cot? Did Pril need a new one?”
Before Tonowari could answer his daughter, who apparently just woke up, her brother scoffed:
“Are you kidding? That’s way too big for Pril. It looks like one for a small child.”
“But small children don’t sleep in cots, babies do,” Tsireya argued.
Tonowari sighed. His children were up. And Eywa, he loves his children, more than anything, but between them and the unwell sky person, today was shaping to be more dramatic than Tonowari wanted it to be. Please, Eywa, let his children obey him for once and leave Spider alone when he tells them to.
How the two had managed to sleep through the early morning ruckus of Spider’s arrival was beyond him.
“Spider’s in there,” he said, turning to face his children. Tsireya’s large eyes -goodness she looked just like her mother- somehow widened further, as Ao’nung so graciously said “what?”
“He’s resting, and you should-“
The pair hurried over to the basket, looking over the sides to see if their dad was telling the truth. Of course he was. Why would he even lie about having Spider in a basket?
“-let him rest,” he finished, despite being too late. Well, not entirely too late, as Spider continued to sleep peacefully. Tonowari beckoned his children back to him impatiently. Ronal might smack him if he let their children wake her resting patient.
“He looks so small,” Tsireya cooed.
“He is small,” Ao’nung pointed out in return.
“Spider,” Tonowari interrupted, “was injured by a fire fruit’s thorn-,” at this, Tsireya made a sympathetic noise, “-and must stay with us for the night for observation. He is much smaller than we are, his little Skyperson body does not handle the medicine well. When he wakes, he will be too confused and out of it to look after himself, and so we must look after him.”
“So… he’s high?” Asked Ao’nung.
Tonowari sighed, again.
“Yes, he’s high.”
—————————————————
The light of the approaching eclipse turned the basket a golden glow as Spider sat and watched. The light shining through the net of the marui and into his little bed basket thing caused a… a piece of light? A ray of light? A something to stand out against his bed and catch his attention. The light danced and swayed.
Pretty.
Spider wanted to touch it, and keep it. Maybe he could hold it and carry it around, and no one could take it from him. It was in his bed, (although this wasn’t the bed he usually slept in, but when he tried to leave it earlier, Mrs Tsahik said it was his bed,) and if the bed was his, then what was in the bed must be his too. Like the light. It was his! His light.
He smiled to himself as he reached infront of him to pick up his sunlight. It slipped through his fingers. Huh. He had put his hand right where the light was, to hold it, to- to hold his light, but it ended up shining on the back of his hand instead. Had it jumped?
Jumpy light. Spider could probably jump much better than the light could.
Entranced, Spider grabbed at it with his other hand, moving faster this time. Spider was super fast. He must’ve caught it. Alas, his grin fell off his face when he saw that the elusive light still was not in his hold. This wasn’t fair. Spider just wanted to carry the light- it was pretty! Maybe if he caught it, he could show it to Kiri. Kiri liked that sort of thing. Maybe, he could even bring it to Jake and Neytiri! All he had to do was catch it…
When he catches it (and he will) he’ll have to bring it to Jake and Neytiri, obviously, but… but where were Jake and Neytiri. Where was his dad and his… his Neytiri? Spider peered over the walls of the basket bed he was in (his bed, his, Mrs Tsahik said so) and looked around worriedly. No Jake. No Neytiri. No parents. Spider was alone, like, ‘by himself’ alone. Like, ‘abandoned’ alone?
No, no, no. Spider couldn’t be on his own again, he just got parents! Maybe, if he could find Jake and Neytiri, he could say sorry for whatever he did and they would keep him. He could be good! Spider was good at being good. Good.
Just had to find them first.
Immediately, there was an obstacle: the walls. The walls of his bed were pretty high, when he stands up, they reach his chest. But no problem, he didn’t earn the name ‘Spider’ for no reason. He could totally climb over. With a small jump (Spider knew he was good at jumping) he was able to give himself the leverage he needed to (gracefully) clamber up the wall, before (gracefull) dropping to the floor.
Success!
Before he could venture far, he ran into another wall. A big, light blue wall.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The wall asked.
Spider craned his neck way back to see that the big blue wall was Tonowari. Man, Tonowari’s huge. By far the biggest Na’vi Spider had ever met. He was super friendly, though.
Spider grinned up him, a wide smile taking over his face.
“Hi!”
Tonowari looked amused. What about, Spider had no idea. Tonowari raised his eyebrows- no, wait, he didn’t have eyebrows.
Tonowari raised his imaginary eyebrows, as he smiled back at Spider. He then lowered himself way down into a crouch so Spider could see him without causing permanent damage to his neck. What a friendly guy.
“Hi!” Spider said, again, in case Tonowari forgot.
“Hi Spider,” Tonowari mused, “where are you going?”
His hair looked pretty. It was long and sleek and curly. Bouncy curls. (Bouncy curls, not jumpy curls, jumpy was what Spider was). Spider reached out to touch his hair. It was as soft as it looked.
“I gotta go get Jake and Neytiri,” he explained, playing with Tonowari’s pretty hair.
Tonowari gently guided Spider’s hand away from his hair, and instead, they were now holding hands.
Very friendly!
Man, his hands were huge.
“Get Jake and Neytiri, hm? Well, I think Ronal said you need to get some rest.”
“Yeah, but I gotta get Jake and Neytiri.” Maybe Tonowari just wasn’t understanding.
“What do you think Neytiri would say if you went back home?”
Spider frowned as he tried to concentrate. Tonowari (friendly guy, therefore important) asked him a question about Neytiri (very important) and so he would have to put a lot of serious thought into his answer. Spider thought for a moment. He liked Neytiri. She was super cool.
A smile returned to his face as he came up with the most accurate answer he could.
“I think she would say ‘hi Spider!’”
“No, I don’t think she would.”
Spider frowned. Why wouldn’t Neytiri be happy to see him? She liked him now.
He pushed Tonowari’s chest, succeeding in doing absolutely nothing. Stupid friendly guy made of absolute bricks.
“Well what would you know anyway? She’s my mama, not yours,” he sneered.
Tonowari might be Oleyektan, but he certainly wasn’t Neytiri’s son, and he certainly couldn’t tell Spider what to do.
Spider slipped past Tonowari, ready to make his way back home. It was strangely difficult, he felt off balance and weird. Like that time when he drank too much of Norm’s alcohol.
The curtain of beads clacked and made noises as he pushed past them, which Spider thought was pretty funny. Well, he would’ve found it funny if he wasn’t on a very serious mission to find his parents.
His eyes took a moment to adjust to the light of outside, and he stumbled slightly as he tried to walk across the net-path thing. Woah, it was bouncy. He had to stop and grab onto the nearest pole-support thingamjig.
Still holding on for support, Spider bounced up and down by bending his knees, his feet not leaving the floor.
Bouncy.
And way fun.
Spider did it again, with a little more force. He bounced higher! This was awesome. How did the Metkayina ever get anything done? Were they never distracted by the trampoline they all lived on?
Now that he had efficiently tested the bounciness, it was time to properly jump, allowing his feet to leave the floor and reach maximum height.
Up down up down up down up down up down up, and up again as his feet did not return to the ground.
What?
Spider was hovering in mid-air. He was pulled back from his position in mid air and angled slightly to the side.
Tonowari. That bastard.
Tonowari had caught Spider mid jump and placed him on his hip, forcing Spider to wrap his arms around Tonowari’s neck and his legs around his waist to keep himself balanced.
Spider scowled.
“How did you find me?” he demanded.
Unfortunately, Tonowari did not look very fussed by Spider’s intimidating-ness. He was still happy and relaxed. Friendly bastard.
“Well, I used my masterful detection skills as Oleyektan. I am a master hunter, my boy,” Tonowari answered as he jostled Spider on his hip.
Spider considered this. Made sense. He nodded his approval of Tonowari’s explanation.
Tonowari turned and walked three big steps, effectively taking them back to the marui.
No, Spider didn’t want to be here. Why couldn’t Tonowari put those oversized legs to use and just take him to Jake and Neytiri? Spider had enough of this.
Spider brought his hand up, and banged his fist again Tonowari’s chest.
“Put me down!”
Tonowari paused in his steps. Good. He looked down at Spider, who refused to waver under his attention.
“Did you just hit me?” he asked, absolutely bewildered.
“Yeah, and I’ll do it again if you don’t put me down, skxawng,” Spider threatened, hoping he sounded and looked much braver than he felt.
Tonowari’s confused expression morphed into something else, something more akin to annoyed, or mad. Uh oh. Spider tried to look away. Maybe hitting and calling him a skxawng was too far. He was Oleyektan.
Tonowari wouldn’t let him look away. Spider felt his large hand grip Spider’s chin and move his head back up, so he was looking at Tonowari again.
“Spider,” Tonowari said seriously, “we do not hit, okay? I know you miss your mama and daddy, but what do you think they would say if they saw this behaviour? Would they be happy?” Tonawari stared at him intensely, large Na’vi eyes not leaving his own. Spider was suddenly painfully aware of everything. Of how insanely tall Tonowari is, how he was being carried on the hip like a toddler, of how huge Tonowari’s arms were, and most of all, how safe it was in those huge arms.
Spider ducked his head again. Stupid Tonowari. He missed friendly Tonowari. He missed his home. He missed his siblings. And Tonowari was right, he did miss his mama and daddy.
Tears burned behind Spider’s eyes, prickling and hot. He should say sorry. Tonowari didn’t deserve that, even if Spider’s hit definitely didn’t cause any damage. And Spider liked Tonowari. You don’t hit people you like.
But this just wasn’t fair. Why was everything changing? Becoming a Sully was a big enough change, but now, things had changed even more just in the past day. Yesterday, things were normal. Today, he was injured, babied by two strangers, stuck with Tsahik and Oleyektan, drugged, not allowed to see his family, and carried like a baby again.
And worst of all, maybe even worse than not seeing his family and going home, was how out of control he felt. It was like someone took all his emotions and dialled them up to 100. His frustration and upset felt like a physical thing that coursed through his body. He wasn’t in control of his emotions, his emotions were in control of him. Which might be why he did what he did next.
He screamed. Loud. He screamed, and he hit Tonowari’s back, again and again. Wet tears rolled down his face.
“No! No, I wanna go home!” He shouted, distraught. All he could think of was how much this was like when the RDA captured him, and all he wanted was to go home.
What if he never saw Jake and Neytiri again? What if they left him here forever?
“Shh, shh,” Tonowari soothed, rubbing his back in circles. He bounced his hip slightly, rocking Spider up and down in a rhythmic pattern.
Spider’s shouts quieted to sobs as Tonowari tried to calm him down. If he was good and he stopped shouting could he go? Or if he was bad maybe Tonowari wouldn’t want him anymore and he could go? Where would he go if Jake and Neytiri didn’t want him anymore?
“It’s okay, Spider. I’ve got you,” he promised gently.
Spider couldn’t stop crying. He didn’t even have the energy to think about his crying. All he could do was cry.
His sobs lessened, but his tears did not. They rolled down is face as fast as ever. He was just as upset as he had been, but now he was quieter about it.
Tonowari did not stop his soothing. Bounce, circles on the back. It was a comforting pattern. He was cozy.
In Tonowari’s arms, soothed and rocked, Spider’s eyes slowly closed, tired from his outburst, and he drifted off to sleep.