Dedicated to mazula for the revival of my plot bunny. :D Thanks!
Also: "regular speech" "Nuju's bird talk" emphasis thoughts Just to clear that up.
I own nothing, sadly.

Nuju studied his translator. Matoro was gazing at some unknown point on the floor, his eyes half-glazed, his mask slightly pained. The Turaga looked at Kopaka, with whom he'd been speaking, then flicked his eyes back to Matoro. Kopaka inclined his head and said, "I shall take my leave, then." And he turned and walked out in his usual curt manner, but at least he had the decency to close the door behind him.

Matoro looked up when he heard the click of the door shutting. He looked over at Nuju, then quickly away again. Nuju was perplexed at the Matoran's odd behavior—then again, Matoro never was one to speak his mind. He never wanted to be a burden to anyone, which Nuju supposed was one of his more admirable traits. In this case, though, it was annoying, because something was clearly upsetting him, and Nuju wanted to know what it was.

"Matoro," he said sharply. It came out as a whistle, but the Ko-Matoran understood.

"Yes, Turaga?" he asked quietly, refusing to meet his eyes.

He walked over and planted himself directly in Matoro's line of vision, looking him right in the eyes. "What's bothering you?"

"I-I don't know what you mean," Matoro stuttered, looking away again.

Nuju grabbed Matoro's mask and yanked, forcing him to look at his elder. "Don't lie. Something's bothering you, and I want to know what." Seeing the almost pleading look on his friend's face, Nuju's face and heart softened. "I want to help, Matoro," he said kindly.

Matoro shook his head. "I…I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"It's…it's about you," he admitted. Nuju raised the ridges on his mask in shock. "I mean, it's not about you, exactly," he quickly amended. "But it involves you, sort of, and…I'm not making any sense, am I?"

The corners of Nuju's mouth twitched in a small smile. "Not really." The Matoran sighed and Nuju patted his shoulder. "It's alright, you can tell me."
Matoro took a deep breath and nodded. "O…okay. I…I was talking to Ehrye earlier, and somehow the topic of work came up. He was talking about the perks of his job, and I said something about how I get to travel the island with my job with you, and he started laughing. I asked what was so funny, and he said that…that I don't have a 'real' job; I'm just a Turaga's pet!"

Nuju was shocked. As a general rule, Ko-Matoran were icy, but not downright mean. Then again, this was Ehrye they were talking about. Only Nuju and the other Turaga remembered how he had been on Metru Nui, and he hadn't been the, ah, nicest of Matoran then, either.

The dam had burst, and the words came tumbling out of the translator's mouth. "He said that I wasn't really a worker, I was just a useless Matoran whose only purpose was to follow an…an old coot around and tell people what I think you've said because I don't know for sure what you mean. And then I said my job was just as important as anyone else's and he just laughed and kept calling me a stupid, useless Turaga's pet. And I…I ran away. I ran away and cried!" Matoro hung his head in shame. Ko-Matoran never cry. He felt himself starting to tear up again, and he bit his lip, hoping to hold them in.

Nuju saw this and put his hands on the younger's shoulders. "It's alright, Matoro," he said softly. "You can cry if you need to."

Tears slipped down Matoro's Kanohi. "It—it just wasn't fair!" he protested, his voice breaking. "I'm not a Turaga's pet! I'm not!"

The Turaga let him cry for a little while. Poor Matoro, he thought. I didn't realize that people said things like that to him just because he works for me.

He wiped away some of the tears on Matoro's mask. "You're right, Matoro," he agreed. "You're not a Turaga's pet. You're a Turaga's assistant, and that's something else entirely."

Matoro looked up at him voluntarily for the first time since he'd entered the Turaga's hut that day. "Really? I'm not useless?" That was Matoro's biggest fear: being useless.

The hope shining behind the tears in his eyes compelled Nuju to say yes; not that he'd been planning on saying otherwise. "Matoro, you're probably one of the most useful, helpful, caring, and supportive Matoran on this island. I'm proud to call you my assistant."

Matoro felt like he might cry again; he was so happy. "Th-thank you, Turaga!" he said, practically leaping out of his seat and giving Nuju a hug. Nuju smiled and returned it. When they parted, he gave Matoro another pat on the shoulder.

"Now, weren't you going to go see Kopeke today?" he asked.

"Oh! Right! Kopeke! Um, are you sure…?"

He waved a hand as though shooing the idea away. "Don't worry about it. I have some things I need to do on my own, anyway. Have fun, but be back in time for the meeting tonight."

"Yes, Turaga. Thank you again." Matoro was practically beaming as he left.

As soon as the door closed, Nuju frowned. He loved Matoro like a son, and what father wouldn't be angry that their child was being bullied? But he couldn't do anything without Ehrye knowing that Matoro had 'squealed,' as it were, and subsequently making it even harder on Matoro.

Or could he?

Nuju's frown was replaced by a devilish smirk that would have made Matau proud. Kopaka owed him a favour, and if Nuju's hunch was right, Matoro wasn't the only one on the receiving end of Ehrye's juvenile taunting.

He opened the door and went in search of the cold, distant, and above all intimidating Toa of Ice. No one got away with bullying in his village. No one.

This is semi-based on my experiences in grade school. I went to the same school that my mom taught at, so of course I got called 'teacher's pet' all the time. Kids said that the only reason I was smart and knew certain stuff was because my mom told me. (Excuse me for finding the Salem Witch Trials fascinating because two of my ansestors were hanged as witches!) And to make matters worse, if I told anyone, they thought I'd gotten my mom to pull strings to get them in trouble. (Someone said to my grandpa, a vice principal, "I don't like VPs; they're always getting you in trouble. Maybe if you didn't do stuff you shouldn't they wouldn't have to get you in trouble.) Anyway, it sort of fizzled out around grade 8, except for one annoying girl who no one liked anyway, and by high school, it was gone completely. But I still have a deep mistrust of popular people, because it was preps, jocks, and preppy jocks who did this to me.
I've always wondered what the other Matoran thought about Matoro's job with Nuju. Would they think it was cool? Would they bug him about it? Probably some of both. (Takua probably would think it was boring, but that at least he was allowed to travel the island, for example.) I needed a Matoran to play the part of the bully, and Ehrye just seemed to work. Sorry if you like him.
Anyway, thanks for reading! I might end up doing another Nuju and Matoro fic because my plot bunny's sitting here eating my notes for class and I kind of need those...so if you review it'll eat those instead! (Hint hint!)
Thanks again, and please review!
Ed