Hey guys!
All right… I keep telling myself not to do such things, but it just seems to help me finish the current fan fictions I have. So, I did this one. Since I do adore Neytiri (even though I do admit she seems to suffer the worst in terms of drama 80% of the time) and Adaman is one of my favourite characters, I thought this pairing could be interesting.
For those of you who are just joining us and have not read 'Stay the Night' and have no clue what is going on, here's all you need to know:
Eytukan and Mo'at divorced after she found out that he had been having an affair with Grace for years, though in reality she had cheated on him in the first place and actually told him to go and have an affair to even the score. Complicating matters even more, Grace's niece/daughter, Bree Augustine, came to Pandora as an Avatar, catching Tsu'tey's attention and causing them to be married. So, Neytiri finds herself alone, and that is how this alternate fan fic came up. Just a note – in the actual story, this never, ever happens. This is just one of those 'What if' fan fics.
Genre: Romance/Drama/Comedy
Pairings: Eytukan/Grace, Adaman/Neytiri, Tsu'tey/Bree
Chapter One
When Neytiri was ten, her best friend, Eutalli, wrote a note to Ahurewa, a male around the same age as them.
This may not seem anything of note to an outsider, nor the questions asked within said note. What is your favourite colour? the note said. What is your favourite season? And, like an afterthought: Who is your favourite girl in the clan?
Eutalli didn't mention the note to Neytiri before delivering it, but when a few days passed without a response, she was too agitated not to tell her. Hearing what she had done made Neytiri agitated too. She felt as if a race had begun, and Eutalli had taken off before Neytiri was even aware it had started. Not wanting to bring harm to their friendship, Neytiri said nothing. Besides, as three days turned to four, and four to five and Ahurewa had sent no reply, Neytiri's distress had turned into sympathy, only for the alarm to be sounded again when Eutalli pressed a piece of parchment into Neytiri's hand one morning.
Red, it said in a careful print.
Summer.
Kaimana, also Neytiri.
Kaimana was the smallest girl in height in their age group, a hunter's daughter who seemed to have a slight speech impediment. Whenever they recited their history in class, or some other subject of the like, her classmates were always quick to correct her pronunciation. And Neytiri, of course, was Eutalli's best friend. Surely, to this day, Ahurewa's answers represent the most earnest, honest document Neytiri had ever seen, mainly because it was written by a child who didn't know any better, but growing up to be surrounded by Na'vi politics, and in a world where lies were starting to take hold, this simple note was the testament of their old life, before Grace and all dropped in.
Eutalli and Neytiri read his replies in the royal's lounge after lunch, after their lessons were done for the day. Neytiri was allowed in the lounge due to Mo'at's marriage to Eytukan, immediately giving her a royal's ways; Eutalli was only there since Eytukan was rather lenient, and didn't have the heart to kick them out. Seeing that line – Kaimana, also Neytiri – made the latter feel as if she were floating on air. Just like that, all the pent up agitation at Eutalli dissipated. Neytiri – he liked her. She didn't even mind the fact that she had to share his affection with Kaimana, or the fact that the other girl's name was the first on his mind since he wrote her name before hers. "Should I keep the note?" Neytiri had asked, rather boldly, looking back. She felt proud that day; she felt her chest puffing out more, her head coming up higher. She had Ahurewa's heart before Eutalli had – she had taken off to a good start and was surpassing her. That statement was her making her ascent over Eutalli loud and clear. Eutalli merely scowled at Neytiri and whipped the parchment out of her hand.
By the end of the day, which was no less than two hours later, Neytiri learned not from Eutalli herself, but from her elder sister, Sylwanin, that Eutalli and Ahurewa were 'going steady'. Neytiri had no idea what the hell that had meant, but when she saw them holding hands at dinner, she got an idea.
The next day was a day off their lessons, and Neytiri moped around the lounge room, not speaking to anyone. She felt betrayed. What had happened to Kaimana, also Neytiri? Eytukan noticed his youngest step-daughter's sorrow, as did his best friend and advisor, Adaman. Adaman was a few years younger than Eytukan, and they were as close as brothers could be, so naturally, Adaman knew Neytiri very well. "What's wrong, little lady?," he asked in that cheery tone of his. "Why so blue, hmm?"
Eytukan had shot Adaman a sharp look before looking at his daughter. "You've been awfully quiet today. What's the matter, Ney Ney?" he asked, using his affectionate term for her.
Cat-like ears had dropped low, and Neytiri shook her head. "A lot," she replied, in a tone that told her father she no longer felt like dwelling on the subject. Eytukan didn't probe any further.
Amazingly, Ahurewa and Eutalli remained a couple for the next six years. A pubescent couple, granted, meaning there may have been no one besides Neytiri who took them seriously. They continued to hold hands in public, and they were permitted to spend evenings together, a liberty which was ended when Eutalli got her term a few years later, and was no longer a young girl. Since Eutalli was away at those times, and Neytiri was still considered a child, not a woman, she was allowed to stay with Ahurewa. She tried to look for a sign, any sign, which said he remembered that note all those years before, where he said he had liked her, but any ideas of such a fantasy had obviously slipped his mind.
One afternoon in the beginning of the year where Neytiri was to turn sixteen, Ahurewa unceremoniously broke up with Eutalli – in front of the whole clan. Neytiri watched from beside her step-father at dinner as Eutalli's face crumpled, and then she had hardened. She had reached out for the nearest object – a drink – and flung the contents into his face. In a loyalty to Eutalli, Neytiri stopped contact with Ahurewa, unless she walked into him during the day when she was apart from her friend, in which she gave a smile and perhaps a, "I see you". But apart from that, contact was limited. By the time Ahurewa and Eutalli had fully broken up, Neytiri had, somewhere along the way, stopped dwelling on the two of them and on what hadn't happened between her and Ahurewa. When she did think of it, fleetingly, it seemed ridiculous; if the events behind held any lessons, it was about how silly young people were. Ahurewa and Eutalli's supposed love affair, Neytiri's own yearnings and confusion – they all came to seem nothing more than the backdrop of her childhood.
Now that she was a big girl, Neytiri had dropped her yearnings of love. She had been hurt and learned, in one direct or indirect form of another, that love, in basic terms, sucked. After all the troubles Eytukan had with Mo'at due to Grace, and the fact that Tsu'tey, similar to Ahurewa, unceremoniously ditched her (not that she particularly minded) for her best friend Bree, she just gave up on it. She didn't mind being alone all her life – in fact, it sounded rather pleasant. Jake seemed to be going it alone, too, and he was doing just fine. So why couldn't she? Why were women who were 'left on the shelf', so to speak, treated so differently to that of a man who never got married? Neytiri never understood true social politics, and she knew that if she tried, she would retreat from the confusion to the safety net of clan doings.
Unfortunately for the princess, the things that she needed to cement in place didn't stick. Now that all her friends were getting married, Neytiri found that her schedule never entirely matched up with theirs. A single woman could be friends with married ones, definitely, but it was never quite the same, particularly if they had children. At least Bree hadn't quite reached that stage, but she knew it was just a matter of time. Neytiri didn't hold marriage against Bree, or who she was married to, but it was only when she backed out of commitments due to her 'time' with her husband that pushed Neytiri's buttons. "You cannot just do this to me!" Neytiri exclaimed desperately as Bree broke the news that she couldn't help that night. "We had this planned for months! We have to help Adaman."
"I know, I know," Bree groaned in response. "But come on… It's Tsu'tey's birthday and we haven't seen one another all week." Neytiri put her palm to her forehead in exasperation. Her other friend, Nikti, who sat beside her in the lounge, patted her shoulder in sympathy. "You can find someone else, right?" she tried to suggest.
"No! Not at this late hour," Neytiri sighed, before casting her eyes often to Bree, trying to begging approach. "Bree… I am actually begging you. I need you there!"
Bree's ears went back, and she gave a sigh. "Well…"
"Look, I can be a waitress!" Nikti piped up. "I can be a waitress for you, Neytiri."
"Oh, see? Thank you, darling! See, Nikti, Nikti!" Bree chirped happily at her Na'vi friend.
Neytiri was sceptical of that. She looked at her old friend. While Nikti had her uses, she was sometimes limited in terms of the normal. "Really?" she asked her in their native tongue. "You would have to actually help me. This can't be like; you know… what happened at your last birthday party."
Nikti's eyes sent daggers at Neytiri, who just shrugged. "I can do work," she told her sternly in English. "Just let me give it a try." Neytiri was hesitant, but seeing no true other option, she relented. She didn't think this night was going to go well. Nikti had been known to embarrass her on more than one occasion, so she was almost certainly positive the same would happen again.
"All right, promise to behave?" Neytiri questioned one last time as she and Peyral walked towards the area Adaman had set up for the party. Adaman was the head healer of the Omaticaya clan, and was Eytukan's closest friend. They had known each other since they were eight years old, so naturally, Neytiri knew him very well. Likewise, she knew Nikti very well, and just sent a prayer up to Eywa that she would be good.
Nikti gave a laugh and nodded, giving a mocking bow to the princess before swiping the plate of food she carried on her arm. "I shall do as you command, O Mistress," she declared, clicking her heels together as if some magic trick was about to happen, and then marching out to the area just outside Hometree, which was being set up for the get together.
"Oh, hell," Neytiri muttered to herself as she followed her friend. As she came to help Peyral properly set up, she felt a warm hand placed onto her shoulder. She turned around to see a familiar Na'vi looking down at her. A crooked smile, an ever so slightly weathered face and warm, liquid gold eyes met Neytiri's own. His smile was infectious, and Neytiri smiled back at the figure. "Hello, Adaman," she greeted happily, giving him a hug. "Long time no see."
Adaman gave a small laugh. " 'Long time no see?' " he echoed his best friend's daughter's words. "You see me every day; what are you talking about?"
"You are so busy doing work – we rarely see you out of your office," Neytiri teased him. She cast a glance to Nikti, guessing she best introduce the two, seeing as Nikti was quite a new member to the Omaticaya clan itself. Coming from a neighbouring clan, she doubted Adaman knew her. However, upon seeing Nikti's love-struck look as she got a gawk at the handsome doctor, Neytiri thought otherwise, turning back to Adaman with a smile. "So how have you been?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as she asked.
"Well, obviously you know S'Éramuna and I broke up, else you wouldn't have done the head tilt."
"The what?" Neytiri questioned.
Adaman gestured to how her chin was tilted. "Yes, since the break-up, whenever someone asks me whether I'm okay, it's with the customary head tilt." For effect, Adaman copied Neytiri's position, tilting his head ever so slightly. " 'How are you doing? Are you okay?' "
Neytiri gave a small laugh. "I am sorry."
"Oh, it's fine," Adaman chuckled.
"I didn't realise you and S'Éramuna had parted. So is that why you're throwing the party?" Neytiri joked, but the moment the words were out of her mouth, she regretted her callous choice of words.
Adaman didn't seem to hold it against her, giving a laugh. "You could say that. But no – this is a get-together for some of the healers around here. And your parents."
Neytiri stiffened, and just like she had a few moments ago, Adaman regretted his words. "She's not my mother."
'And neither is Eytukan really your father, as far as we know', Adaman thought in his mind, but he held his tongue. He didn't want to say it, just as Neytiri didn't want to hear it. He knew she was having trouble adjusting to the fact Grace was now effectively her step-mother, and who could blame her? For years, Grace had been that figure within her life. She had been the person Neytiri had run to if she was sad, or needed help, or just wanted to talk, rather than Mo'at. The Avatar had raised her more than her true mother, as Neytiri had pointed out in a family dispute a couple of years ago. But now with the fact that Grace would be coming into the family, Adaman could see how Neytiri was taking it. She felt like she was pushing Mo'at out, though he could have easily assured her that wasn't the case. Still, he held his tongue. At least the grief she felt over the situation had numbed considerably over the past year, without the rawness of surprise.
To alleviate the settling awkward air, Adaman looked at the new member of the clan which he hadn't had the pleasure to meet yet, giving her a flawless smile. "Hello, I'm Adaman Santol."
When no sound came from Nikti, Neytiri turned her head to see her friend gaping like a fish at Adaman. A swift elbow from her, and Nikti snapped back into reality, giving Adaman a smile. "Hehe… Hello…" she said like a nervous young girl at her first dance, twirling her hair with her fingers suggestively. Neytiri resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Nikti alone with a man was bad enough, but if the man was Adaman, they were screwed. Having the two of them at a party and in the case of Adaman, the wives would have to be locked up, and Nikti, the eldest son of the family. Thankfully today, Adaman wasn't interested in her, and Neytiri prayed that would never change.
Within a few hours, the healers arrived, but Adaman was promptly not intrigued by them. Considering the mind-numbing conversation and anecdotes about patients with syphilis and other disturbing ailments they carried with them, Neytiri couldn't blame him, and saved him as she was inside helping prepare more food. Adaman used that excuse to stay up with her, and absent-mindedly brushed the meat that Nikti was actually meant to be preparing. His hand had a bit of an expert flick to it, a grace and steadiness that only came with years of doing his profession. 'Good for stitching people up,' Neytiri thought to herself. She came over to him with an amused laugh. "You have to get out there – it's your party!"
"But they're so dull!" Adaman complained to Neytiri. "They're all healers."
"That is such a weak excuse – you're a healer."
"Only because my parents wanted me to be; I wanted to be a hunter," Adaman insisted. Neytiri found herself laughing for what felt like the hundredth time that night, and not because it was polite to do so. Adaman cast his eyes up from his work on the meat as Nikti tried to escape from the party, trying to shield herself from all the healers as they all tried to joke with her. Adaman and Neytiri watched with amusement in their eyes as Nikti got cornered by an elder one continuing his joke he had been telling her about surgery. "… And the other thing you don't want to hear a healer saying after stitching someone up is, 'Did anyone see my scalpel?'"
Nikti gave a tortured, forced laugh. "Ah… that's great. Yeah, I get it, but you stay out there!" she exclaimed as she quickly ran to the safety of her friend.
Adaman pointed to Nikti as she retreated from his colleagues. "See?"
Neytiri gave a small chuckle, looking at what he was doing. "All right, fine. But you have to go out sometime. Tell you what, you go out there and in a few minutes I will come and get you with some… soup emergency. We'll say Nikti burnt it."
"Hey!" Nikti complained, a frown creasing her features.
Adaman nodded, getting up and patting Neytiri's hand. "You'd better," he told her. "I'm going to go and see how your father is dealing with all of this." Neytiri smiled and waved him off, watching as he went. Nikti was sharp and caught the look that passed through Neytiri's eye, and picked the perfect time to start pecking at her about her single status. Admittedly, although Neytiri absolutely loved Nikti, she often tried to get out of spending time with her to avoid the most lacklustre conversation they ever engaged in.
"You are so smitten," Nikti teased her with a smirk as she watched Adaman's disappearing figure.
Neytiri shot a look to her friend, her voice causing her to snap out of her reverie. "What? I am not!"
"You are so much the smitten kitten." When Neytiri made no vocal reply, but merely gave a blush that made the stripes on her cheeks stand out, Nikti suggested, "You should ask him out."
Neytiri found herself wondering if Nikti's parents had dropped her on her head as a baby. It would explain for a lot of happenings over the years she had known her. "Are you insane? I cannot do that… Adaman's like, a grown up."
"So?" Nikti scoffed. "He seems to be really into you."
Neytiri looked at Nikti as if she did indeed belong in a mental asylum. She frowned at her friend, putting her palms up. "Nikti, he's a friend of my da's. He's like… thirty-three years older than me!"
"So what? You got to live, baby!" Nikti exclaimed, giving her friend a nudge with the bone of her elbow. "You'd be cute together."
"Nikti…"
She backed off, much to Neytiri's relief, but unfortunately, it only lasted a few moments; a few silent, blissful moments, however fleeting. "You're just never going to see him again?"
"We live with him, Nikti. I see him all the time…" Neytiri trailed off, and cleared her throat. Nikti was impractical, and she shouldn't even be having the conversation of 'maybe' in her mind with herself. "And… I will see him again at my check-up tomorrow."
A small smile of mockery started to dance upon Nikti's features. "Didn't you just get a check-up?"
"Well… yes. But you know. Nineteen is a dangerous… illness age," Neytiri argued, promptly picking up a tray of food and moving out of the area before Nikti could probe even further into her already poked through shell.
After leaving the girls, Adaman came over to find his friends. He found Eytukan with Grace, as well as Tsu'tey and his mate Bree, and Jake. Giving a smile, he came over to the few of the only sane people here. "And how are my favourite people doing?" the host asked them.
The olo'eyktan of the clan leaned forward to Adaman, muttering. "Dying… How did I ever become best friends with a healer? Your race is strange." Adaman snorted with laughter.
Grace looked at her lover's best friend, and someone who she was close to as well. "How is Neytiri doing?"
"She's well. She'll be out in a few minutes." He looked then at Grace's niece, giving her a smile. "And how are you?" he asked, speaking in English for her.
Bree gave Adaman a smile. "I'm doing well. We're doing well," she said, taking Tsu'tey's hand for emphasis. The head warrior gave her a smile and pressed a kiss to her temple.
Jake gave a groan. "Christ's sake, get a room you two."
"Shut up," Tsu'tey told the ex-Avatar.
As the group of friends and family conversed, Nikti and Neytiri watched from afar. "Why don't you go and talk to them?" she asked. As Neytiri's best friend, Nikti thought she fully understood her, but was always shocked to find that she never did, and for that matter, so did Neytiri. Didn't she understand that it was hard for her to talk to her family now with Grace?
"Maybe later," was all Neytiri said. Nikti decided to leave her be, knowing that when Neytiri got like this, it was best to leave well enough alone. The moment Nikti left however, she was promptly replaced by Peyral, who came over to talk to Neytiri. "I have not talked to you in a while," Peyral smiled at her. "How are you?"
"Just fine," Neytiri smiled politely. "And you?"
Another friend of theirs, Re'tré, looked over to where Nikti had gone, and gave a fake laugh as she saw her trying to talk to the youngest healer there, who couldn't be more than twenty-three. "Nikti sure is a piece of work."
As if misunderstanding her meaning, Neytiri nodded and said, "Nikti's the most entertaining person I know."
"But does she drive you crazy? She must do."
"Not any more than I do to her," Neytiri smiled sweetly, but it pretty fake. Peyral and Re'tré didn't seem to notice.
"She is practically throwing herself at Varn. Do you think we should warn him?" Peyral wondered aloud.
"About what?" Neytiri asked her directly.
Seeing that they were not about to start an interesting topic on the subject of Nikti's conquests, Peyral tactfully changed the topic to Neytiri. 'Stupid me,' she thought as Peyral began quizzing her. "Neytiri, am I right that you have not had a serious suitor since that tall man… remind me of his name –"
"Tsyal." Neytiri smiled tried to smile agreeably, and that did it; she gave her what she was sure she wanted – some admission of failure on Neytiri's part – because she hoped it would get her to drop the subject. No such luck though.
"Well, you will find someone. Surely you have your mind on someone now?"
The conversation with Nikti previously over Adaman came to mind, and mentally, Neytiri kicked herself. She couldn't let her mind go here – it was insane. "Not really." She gave a smile to tell them that she didn't mind that, and she kept telling herself that, but to be honest, Neytiri was a little lonely. It wasn't that she needed a guy, but just with all the large changes around her, just having someone to talk to wouldn't be too bad – and someone who would actually listen, and maybe give her some advice. Jake was there for the listening, but for the advice giving, he wasn't quite the best. She knew he meant well, but his advice never truly worked or helped in any way. Neytiri cast her eyes over to Adaman as he spoke with her father, and then looked back to her friends, putting him out of her mind and deciding to just enjoy the company of the girls.
