Author's Note: As always, I love all the reviews and hits and faves and alerts and EVERYTHING about you lovely people. this is a longer chapter finally...

Story Note: I think Jake will be getting his Na'vi body back soon! :D prolly in the next couple of chapters...

italics for emphasis, thoughts, na'vi. Translations at the bottom

X*X

Night looms outside the cave, the light growing dimmer and dimmer through the cracks between the vines until only darkness mixed with starlight remains. The fire dies down to coals and the occasional growl and eerie whistle of the night predators resound. Tsu'tey orders a tìtusaron'pongu of seven warriors while the other Omaticaya settle down, some setting out beds of the white leaves he saw earlier while others warm themselves by the fire.

Tsu'tey moves Jake closer to the warmth and then sits down next to him. Jake is startled to feel the other male's fingers touching his hair curiously and moves his head away. "What're you doing?"

"I could make some little aytswin in your hair if you want, make you look more like Omaticaya."

"Ta...swins," Jake struggles to pronounce. "You mean like braids?"

"Bray...ddss?" It's Tsu'tey's turn to have trouble enunciating. "Where you take hair and..." He searches for the right word in English. "Weave it?"

"Yeah, braids. I don't think it's long enough though," Jake feels the dirty-blond hair that brushes his jaw.

"It is long enough," Tsu'tey holds up a few strings of thin vines. "We put these on ends to tie them."

Aw to hell with it, "Sure, I guess." Neytiri had always wanted to braid his hair as well; sneaking up behind him when he was eating and weaving strands of his hair together, giggling when he tried to pull away. He wondered if braiding hair was a hobby for the Na'vi.

He reaches back and moves the strap around his head around his neck instead to make it easier and sends the other male a pointed look.

Tsu'tey nods and starts with left side of his head, his dextrous fingers gently tugging and pulling the strands into tiny braids, continually biting off a piece of vine when needed. An hour or so passes like this, Jake squirming when Tsu'tey pulls a little too hard-which earns him a slap on the head- but otherwise he stays put.

Tsu'tey is nearly done with right side when a holler from outside alerts him that the hunters have got something. He stands up and stretches, "Asuy'ri!"

A female Na'vi stands from among the others and hurries over. She looks older than Tsu'tey, her hair an intricate design of criss-crossed, short and long braids. "Oel ngati kameie," she says, putting her fingers to her forehead and lifting away in the normal greeting.

Tsu'tey repeats the gesture then points to Jake, "'Änsyem fìkem, rutxe srak?"

Asuy'ri smiles. "Sran, Tsu'tey."

Tsu'tey gives her the vines before he leaves to assist the hunters in bringing in the kill while Asuy'ri settles down to finish braiding Jake's hair. Five minutes pass before she talks in a lightly accented tone, "Tsu'tey likes you, you know."

"I find that hard to believe," Jake scoffs.

"I see the way he looks at you, just like he used to look at me when we were together..."

"You were together?" Is what comes out of his mouth but Tsu'tey looks at me like that...? is what he thinks.

"Yes, a long time ago. Before he met Neytiri and was chosen to be olo'eyktan. Tsu'tey was much...different then," she sounds wistful. "I thought we would be together a long time."

"But...?" He winces as she tugs a little too hard.

"Sorry. But then the Sky People started to come here, tearing down the forests and killing us; Tsu'tey became very angry. Well, we all were, but Tsu'tey had a special hate of the humans. He was so young..."

"Why'd he hate us so much?"

She doesn't speak for a few moments, choosing instead to start braiding a large section of hair at the back from the top of his head, making a short queue. She's twining the thin vine through the large braid when she speaks again, "They killed his older brother, T'hasa. They were very close. That death..." she finishes the queue, tying the vine at the end in a neat knot. "is what made him into the man he is today."

He's struck with a surge of empathy for the other male. "That explains a lot," he says quietly, eyes downcast. "So many dead because of my people. Grace, Norm, my own brother, not to mention the countless others murdered in war." He feels almost ashamed.

"Many of the Sky People are violent, but not all," she gently turns his head to look up at her. "You are not, Jakesully. I think Tsu'tey knows this also." She smiles softly. "He needs someone like that."

Jake smiles back, knowing he's found a friend. The moment is interrupted by the vines being pushed aside from the entrance and all the seven hunters including Tsu'tey carrying a large mammal on their shoulders. The cut neck rests on Tsu'tey, dripping blood down his arm.

Asuy'ri stands and is about to leave when Jake grabs her hand. "Hey...thanks."

She nods her head and smiles before turning away and resuming her spot over by the other end of the coals.

The hunting party spits the animal and tie saplings together to hold it over the fire. The smell of cooking meat is intoxicating.

"When will that be done cooking?" Jake asks, his teeth eager to tear into flesh as he feels around his head at the braids adorning it and moves the exopack strap back up.

"Soon. We eat and go to bed...your hair look nice," Tsu'tey says, his lips turning upwards in what Jake might think was a smile if he didn't consider the person talking to him. Jake finds himself looking into the amber eyes for a few moments before the other male averts them suddenly. "You are turning red again."

Jake himself looks away to concentrate on the fire, willing the burning in his face to go away because damn it why does that keep happening?

If Tsu'tey thinks something of it, he stays silent, his body language giving nothing away; tail moving slowly and ears in their neutral position. He kneels down next to Jake and throws a few sticks into the fire, causing it to crackle.

He looks across the fire to see Asuy'ri smiling knowingly and nodding, her whole face saying I-told-you-so. Jake finds it a little freaky but that thought is cut off as he thinks of something else, "Hey, that girl...Asuy'ri...does she have a mate?"

He almost wishes he didn't ask. Tsu'tey's tail lashes in long sweeps against the ground and his ears fold back to lie against his head, his lips parting but keeping the snarl inside. "Why?"

It's probably one of the most venomous voices Jake's ever heard. "Jesus Christ, forget it. It's just a damn question. It's not like I like her or anything," he says honestly, scooting a few inches to avoid a possibly painful encounter with Tsu'tey's tail. "She's just all by herself. You'd think by now she'd have a mate or something, considering how old she is."

Tsu'tey apparently hears the sincerity in his voice because his threatening actions slow. "She had a mate, but he was killed few months ago," Tsu'tey turns his head to look him in the eye again and there's no denying the fading spark of jealousy along with the abundant amount of anger.

"Oh," Jake says, wondering why she hadn't told him. "Um..." He tries to come up with something to say that will address the look in Tsu'tey's eyes. "You know I'm not...looking for a girl or anything right? You don't have to get all jealous or anything."

"I was not jealous," Tsu'tey says, but his voice sounds thin.

"Ngaytxoa," Jake says sarcastically. "I can tell you're lying you know."

Maybe he's pushed too hard; Tsu'tey doesn't reply after that.

Jake sighs in frustration and finds himself looking across the fire at Asuy'ri, who has been watching and has a similar expression on her face. She comically rolls her eyes and mouths "skxawng" at Tsu'tey.

Then a thought suddenly occurs to Jake; did he just flirt with the other man?

Nah. Of course not. What the hell am I thinking? Pull yourself together, Jake, you're going insane. He takes a deep breath and tries to think about other, less troubling, things.

"And dinner is served," Jake says appreciatively as he takes the plate made out of some kind of bark from Tsu'tey with a substantial amount of meat on it.

"What part is this?" He asks as he pokes his fingers into the meat; Na'vi have no utensils. He picks a piece of the dark meat up and lifts his exopack a bit, then tears off a piece with his teeth. It's not bad; at least it has flavor.

Tsu'tey gets a plate of his own and sits next to him, laughing under his breath.

"What's so funny?"

The Omaticayan takes a bite before answering, still laughing, "The part you are eating is the..." Amazingly, he starts laughing so hard he has to put the plate down. "The...txìm," he forces out and then doubles over in a fit of giggles, causing the other members of the clan to look concernedly at him.

"Shit, are you drunk or something? What the fuck does "zim" mean?"

"No, it is just funny," the Na'vi manages out between breaths of laughter, the line of spots across his cheek glowing slightly brighter. "I do not know the word in English...the 'tail-end' part," he says, shaking with guffaws.

"What? You mean the-...God I don't even wanna know," Jake shakes his head. "Of course you'd give me that part you asshole." But Tsu'tey so uncharacteristically laughing is contagious and he starts chuckling quietly as well.

"I've had worse, that is not going to stop me from eating this," Jake mutters when Tsu'tey manages to finally stop laughing and picks up his plate. "You know when I was in the Jarhead clan, we used to eat bugs all the time? We always said they tasted like chicken. Gooey, crunchy chicken."

Tsu'tey wrinkles his nose, "I am thankful that Omaticaya do not have to do that."

"Well most of it was on a dare or to prove who was the macho guy, which yeah, was a lot. Eventually they do start tasting like chicken though."

"That sounds like my brother," Tsu'tey says. "We were always competing with each other..." He lowers his eyes, his ears falling slightly.

"Shit, so was mine. He always thought just because he got better grades and eventually a PhD that he was better than me. 'Course, he probably was, but he sure rubbed it in my face enough."

"Was?" Tsu'tey asks after swallowing a piece of the meat.

"Yeah, he was murdered a few years ago. He was supposed to come here," Jake gestures with his hand. "Instead of me. Guess I should be thankful or something; if it wasn't for him passing away I would've been stuck on Earth."

"My brother is with Eywa also," Tsu'tey says, looking at him for a moment before going back to his food.

Jake wonders if he should bring up his prior conversation with Asuy'ri but decides against it; that would probably just make him angry, a past flame divulging the secrets of his life. "How about parents? Are they still around or..."

"My sa'nok died giving birth to me," Tsu'tey says softly. "My sempul was a great warrior of this clan before he was killed by Sky People not long after my brother, who died same way." Tsu'tey's unsure why exactly he's deciding to tell Jake this; afterall, usually anyone who brings up his parents gets a snarl for an answer.

"That's...tough," Jake says, looking back on his own family life that was good, hell, amazing compared to Tsu'tey's. "Me and my brother were twins you know; our own parents would confuse us with each other."

"Twins?"

"Yeah, identical. We looked just like each other. You know, that's probably one of the reasons I joined the Jarhead clan...to distance myself from him."

"Family should stay together," Tsu'tey says, using a finger to clean up the scraps of meat left on his plate.

"Ain't that the truth. Tom kept telling me not to get wrapped up in all that "proud for your country" propaganda, said I'd go there and get killed for nothing, but I was too stubborn. Well, I'm anything but proud now."

"And you should not be," Tsu'tey mutters, his tail whipping the air for a moment. "You have seen what Sky People have done."

Jake's surprised that it's sky people, and not your people; making the statement a little less personal. He finds that he has nothing to say in response and picks up his last piece of meat.

Glossary:

tìtusaron'pongu - hunting party

aytswin - braids

Oel ngati kameie - I see you

Änsyem fìkem, rutxe - finish this, please? *note: srak is used for questions that have yes-no answers, which is why you pin that at the end.

sran - yes

Ngaytxoa - my apologies

skxawng - moron, idiot, fool

txìm - ass, butt

sa'nok - mother

sempul - father