Title: Piece of Cake

Length: 1,071 words (short)

Characters: Jake Sully, Neytiri

Pairings: JakeXNeytiri

Rating: K+

Summary: Neytiri and Jake share a moment at dawn before Neytiri goes to The Hallelujah Mountains.

~*~

The dawn is just as beautiful as the night on Pandora. The forest is lit with a benign glow, traveling through the trees on mist and fog. It touches each leaf with a loving caress and brings with it new promises. That doesn't mean it's particularly easy to wake up to.

Jake groaned in his throat as he forced himself out of pleasant dreams. The hollow he and Neytiri shared was still very dark, the fungi and other bits of plants still glowing gently. Jake sat up and stretched, yawning hugely, before swinging himself out of the hammock. Of course, Neytiri was already awake and readying herself for the long trek to the Hallelujah Mountains. He watched her as she coiled up the natural 'lasso' used to snap the jaws shut of the ikran. She moved with a nervous energy, taking out her dagger to inspect it and placing it back in its sheath, bending her bow back to make sure it was still supple, fiddling with the fletching on her arrows. Finally Jake couldn't take it anymore. He strode over and took both her hands in his, holding them down between them. Neytiri looked up with a mildly surprised expression on her face as though she had forgotten Jake was there.

"Neytiri. Relax." He said with a kind grin.

"I am calm." She replied shortly, pulling her hands from his to unwind and rewind the lasso again.

"It's gonna be fine, I promise." Jake said placing both hands on either side of her face and titling her head up to look at him. "Every ikran up there is gonna wanna be yours."

Neytiri's lip quirked up in a wry smirk. "That is not comforting."

"Haha, yeah well, it'll be a piece of cake." Jake said, bending down to give her a soft kiss.

When he pulled back he saw the now familiar expression of perplexion with a pinch of annoyance on Neytiri's pretty face. "A 'piece of cake'? What strange SkyPeople custom is that?" she asked with a sigh.

"Ha, it's not really a custom. It just means 'it'll be easy, no problem, simple'. Things like that." Jake explained.

"Then why not just say that?" Neytiri asked, exasperated. "SkyPeople make everything too complex."

"Yeah, I guess they do." Jake agreed, his tail entwining with hers.

"But My Jake, what is 'cake' and why is a piece of it easy?" asked Neytiri curiously.

"Hmm…well, cake is a type of food on earth. A dessert really. It's…soft and spongey and comes in different flavors, with a glaze of sweet stuff over it." Jake fumbled with an explanation. The way he described cake made it sound like some horrible, pus covered fungus. Yum.

Neytiri's brow scrunched as she tried to picture what Jake described. "It sounds…nice." Neytiri stammered. She didn't know if this 'cake,' which sounded so similar to 'Jake' was important to her mate or not. She didn't want to voice her true opinion of the fungus sounding meal.

A misty light was beginning to stain the walls of their hollow, finally putting out the glow-in-the-dark plants within. The small dots on both their faces slowly dimmed before they were little more than shiny.

Neytiri looked outside the hollow and said, "I must go. It is far to the ikran and I do not want the others to wait."

"Alright, lets head out then." Jake replied, moving to leave the hollow. He was stopped when Neytiri placed a hand on his shoulder. Confused, he looked back at her.

"No My Jake. Only those who go for ikran travel on pa'li." Neytiri explained, using the Na'vi word for 'horse.'

"You mean I can't go with you?" Jake asked, feeling indignancy and anger bubbling up in him. He had promised Neytiri he would go and he would be damned if some custom disallowed him.

"You cannot travel with us, but you may meet us there." Neytiri replied calmly, sensing Jake's turmoil. "The way I did when you bonded with your ikran. Only those who go for ikran and Guide may travel on pa'li to the Mountains."

"Hmmm…" Jake mulled this over. He supposed it would be ok. He would still be there for her when she made tsa'helu with her ikran. And, he thought, with my ikran there I can catch her if things go bad… He remembered how he had nearly fallen off the cliff when trying to bond with his ikran and mentally shuddered. "Alright. Me and my ikran will be there." Jake replied with a firm nod.

Neytiri smiled up at him, relieved, but her smile turned into a confused frown. "Jake, have you not yet named your ikran?"

Jake blinked at her question. "Well…no, I guess not. Is it important?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

Neytiri could feel her lips turning up at the sight of her Jake looking so childlike and confused. "It is important for your bond. It is odd to have an unnamed ikran. It will make him feel better if he had one." She explained.

"Alright…" Jake thought, looking down for a moment. "I'll name him Kyle."

Neytiri blinked. "…'Kai-all'?" she said slowly, lips and tongue finding the foreign word hard to pronounce.

"Yup. I had a friend in the Marines named Kyle, and believe me, if anyone deserved to have a giant flying dragon monster named after them, it's Kyle." Jake said with a broad grin. "They kinda look alike too."

"Ahhh, a warrior name." Neytiri said, understanding now. She had latched onto the word 'marine' which in Jake's old life meant 'warrior.' "A strong name, if strange. But, My Jake, you are very strange." She said with a sweet smile.

"Oh yeah? Wanna say I'm strange again?" Jake growled. Without warning he pulled Neytiri into a tight hug and kissed her ear. Neytiri shrieked in surprise, the sound turning into badly suppressed laughter. Jake kissed her forehead before releasing his vice like grip. Neytiri looked up at him lovingly, rising up on her tip toes to kiss him softly.

"I must go now Jake." She said quietly.

Jake sighed and nodded, completely releasing her. "I'll see you soon." He said, just as quiet.

She gave his hand one last squeeze before leaving the hollow to climb and jump her way to the base of Hometree. Jake watched her leave before turning away to prepare himself for a long flight.

~*~

Thank you everyone for all of your wonderful reviews! They really do make my day! And thank you everyone who gave me steed names. Sadly, I fell in love with the name Kyle for Jake's ikran. I forgot that Jake's life on Earth was very different from ours now. For all we know, horses are extinct. That and Jake doesn't strike me as a guy who memorizes famous horses, haha. So Kyle it is.

Also, I want all of these stories to be able to be read separately but also flow together. Atleast these first few chapters. I'm open to all requests and suggests of mostly any nature; they don't have to be superstitions or funny human quirks. If someone really wants to read a story about *blank*, run it by me, I might be able to do it. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next time!