Possessive
Trudy wandered idly across the tarmac of the landing field in the early morning light. She was finding Norm very difficult to read. He had barely said anything yesterday, disappearing back into the human area of Hell's Gate just before sundown.
She missed the companionship of the tribe at the evening meal, although the dreamwalkers tried to make up for her sadness, bombarding her with questions about life with the Tipani. Even they left after a couple of hours, as the tawtute spirits abandoned their uniltìrantokx bodies to return to their own. Ableryder had been closeted with her lover all night, and there was no way Trudy was going to intrude on them. She wanted to retain possession of her head, thank you very much.
At sunrise she not surprised to find that both of them were gone, and for the first time since she had woken as a Na'vi she was lonely.
This was strange. When she was human, she had not felt the need for constant company, and spent much of her time alone. It had been safer, to avoid people and the entanglements they created. Look what happened when she got involved – burnt to a crisp and transmogrified into a Na'vi. All she wanted to do was fly somewhere beautiful. And Pandora was most beautiful place she had ever seen. That was why she had volunteered to ferry the science 'zoids around, despite the danger from the Pandoran wildlife, and the danger with having to spend time with the same people all the time. Before she realised it, she had made friends.
And now she was Pandoran wildlife.
Not that she regretted it – Nari'ong alone was more than worth the change, let alone the warmth of being a Tipani. It was just...
"Hey, Trudy!" shouted Norm. "Wait for me."
The geekiest looking Avatar in existence – or Na'vi, for that matter - was running after her.
Trudy sighed to herself. It had been a huge mistake to sleep with him, back when Grace had been alive and they had been in the shack up in the mountains. It was supposed to have been just a little not-so-innocent fun while Jake was doing his learning-to-be-Omaticaya thing, some sweaty friendly exercise, but stupidly she developed feelings for the guy. And they were still there.
She half-turned towards him. She was thinking to herself that damn, he looked good without a shirt, when her eyes narrowed. There was a group of three bullet scars in his chest and left shoulder. If the same grouping had hit a human, his arm would have been blown off.
Trudy snarled, "What the fuck happened to you?" She instantly regretted her words, as his face assumed the expression of a puppy that had been scolded for playing inside.
"What? Oh, that," he said, as she pointed with her chin at his shoulder. His right hand unconsciously brushed the scars, and he gave a small shudder in remembrance of pain. "It was the battle..."
"I thought I told you to be careful," she snapped, her ears laying back against her skull. The idiot could have got himself killed, Avatar or no Avatar. A driver had died in the early days of the program when his Avatar had been killed by a thanator, his heart stopping from the shock, even though the full medical facilities of the main link room had been on tap.
Norm's eyes blazed with anger, "You can talk," he spat. "I didn't get blown out of the sky and disappear for over a year."
"Yahhh!" she screamed, springing at him and knocking him to the ground. They rolled in the dirt, grappling, scratching and biting, spitting their fury at each other, when an explosion went off in their heads. Unwatched, the ends of their queues by chance pressed together under Norm's back, the pink tendrils intertwining into the bond of tsahaylu. A kaleidoscope of emotions burnt into Trudy's brain, anger and hurt and pain, but all were overwhelmed by a flood of love. Before she knew it, her arms were wrapped around Norm's neck and she was kissing him.
After an eternity, her eyes opened and she broke the kiss. "I See you," she whispered.
Norm smiled at her. "Oel ngati kameie, Trudy Chacon," he murmured, stroking her hair.
"Truti'tsakon," she corrected, and began to laugh. Only Norm could have made the mating bond of tsahaylu by accident. Norm feeling her amusement through the bond, laughed with her. She stood up, took his hand and hauled him to his feet. "We have a lot to talk about," she said softly, leaning against his solid chest.
Looking puzzled, he said, "What? I thought..."
She chuckled, "That has always been your problem, Spellman. You think too much." She tweaked his nose and started walking back to the Avatar long-house, leading him by the hand, telling him, "If you think I'm going to let you get away..."
Norm said, "We can go see Mo'at this afternoon. She should be able to arrange for me to pass through the Eye of Eywa in the next day or two."
"Good," said Trudy possessively. "I don't want you unlinked and ogling any human hussies."
