Author's Note: Hmm, not much to say here. Hey, would any artists be interested in doing some doodles for this story? Because that'd be amazing. I'll pay you with...a fic! You could request a ficlet! (about this pairing of course), whatever prompt you want. It'd have to be a one-shot between 2k-4k words so I can get it done quick and get back to this story.
so... If you do draw something, you can use any scene you want, I'm not picky. If you want ideas just ask because I do have a few in mind.
If you're interested, pm me or put it in a review or something. With links tho, make sure to put spaces inbetween the lines in the URL, because it won't show up otherwise.
Also: Noticed some people have added this story to C2s! That's really cool! And yet another thing, a reviewer (in a PM) commented on that I was one of the few authors that replied to her reviews, and she said that some people don't review because they don't get replies. So to let you know, I reply to nearly ALL of my reviews, except the little short ones (though I do sometimes...) with not just a "thanks for the review" but commentary on what you've written. I think it's only fair that since you take the time to review, I take the time to reply back.
So maybe that'll get the long-time lurkers to become first-time reviewers :D I don't bite, honestly...
Story Note: The fish scene in here is directly inspired by the scene in "Avatar: The Last Airbender" episode 'The Warriors of Kyoshi' where Aang rides the Elephant Koi fish to impress Katara. Now, is Tsu'tey trying to impress Jake? idk. his motives are bizarre.
Translations and fanon (for this story) info at the bottom. italics for na'vi and all the usual stuff.
Jake lands a few feet to the right of Tsu'tey, watching for a moment as the other male gets down and taps his ikran several times on the nose, "Fitseng i'awn, yawnetu," he murmurs affectionately, smiling.
He has such an nice smile, Jake thinks to himself and even grins himself for a moment before his straight brain catches up and begins beating that thought down with a baseball bat.
Letting out a conflicted sigh, he drops down off his own ikran and disconnects their bond. The sound of water is trickling nearby, the sun strikes his back, sending warmth over his shoulders.
Something's wrong however.
It takes Jake a few seconds to figure it out. "Wait..."
Tsu'tey turns his head to look at him and flicks his tail.
"It's...are there any birds here? I don't hear anything. At all," the silence presses down almost oppressively on ears that are so used to birdsong and animal hollers. It's almost creepy.
"This is Tìfnu'ora. It means—"
"Silent Lake," Jake finishes as his ears prick up, trying to find any noise except the sound of both of them breathing and their ikrans snorting softly. "But where's the lake?"
"This way," Tsu'tey jerks his head north and then lifts his bow off his back to strap it on Duri'sen's shoulder reigns. "We will not hunt here."
Jake's own bow and dagger are already on Txur so he has time to look around. It's not much different from what he has gotten accustomed to seeing; sparkling ground and bioluminescent trees that are oddly spaced.
No bugs, birds, or any other wildlife. "God, this place is like...dead."
"Lake is not," Tsu'tey says as he begins walking, following the sound of the water. Jake follows, still weirded out, his tail stiffly moving slowly behind him. The ground seems soften beneath his feet, more like sand, indicating the water is close.
They walk for ten minutes before they arrive into a bright clearing.
The lake is beautiful; the clean cerulean water laps at the bank, soft waves making gentle splashes. The sun casts it all in a sheet of sparkling brilliance. The size is magnificent; stretching from Jake's feet out until it meets the horizon.
The wind blows against Jake's face and stirs his hair as his lips part in awe. The lake's beauty almost hurts his eyes.
A fish leaps out of the water, its purple and silver scales refracting the light, water droplets spraying off its flopping body before it slips back into the water with barely a ripple.
Something splashes next to him and he looks over to see Tsu'tey already waist deep in the water, his hands steadying himself as he walks further in, the water swirling around his narrow hips, his abominable muscles flinching slightly as it tickles his skin.
"Hey, wait for me!" And then Jake jumps in like a sleek dolphin, his body arcing through the water. And instantly regrets it. When he comes up he gasps at the frigid temperature, his chest heaving, his hands furiously wiping water from his face. Cold, cold, cold. Freezing!
"Thought you said the lake wasn't dead! Thought t-that was s-some kind of metaphor for it being w-w-warm or something..." Jake trails off, his tail curling around his waist to seek his body's diminishing warmth as his teeth start chattering loudly.
"Baby," Tsu'tey says, his voice only half-mocking as he goes in further until he's neck deep and the lake's sandy bottom disappears under his feet. Swimming idly, he looks over to find Jake trying to proceed further, his teeth chattering as he mutters angrily under his breath.
"Ugh, I hate you," he says quietly for the second time today, unable to move until his body adjusts to the icy temperature.
"Come on, Jake! Srew'payoang ke pey uniltìranyu na nga, ha eltu si!" He slaps some water at the other male, which makes Jake flinch slightly.
"Well, f-f-fuck you and your stupid d-d-damn fish," Jake chatters, unable to understand the rest of the sentence. His body is adjusting though, and he takes a deep breath before slowly going further in, his hair irritatingly dripping cold drops onto his shoulders.
Tsu'tey's getting further away, and Jake groans before letting his feet leave the sand below to swim after the other male. The lake's water gets easier to bare and eventually he dives underneath, his tail like an extra limb as he cuts through the water with ease, years of military training helping him catch up quick.
Jake smiles as a humorous thought comes across his mind.
Stopping in the water for a moment, Tsu'tey turns slightly to look for Jake and doesn't see him. "Jake?" He snorts slightly; leave it to a fool like Jake to go and drown.
Tsu'tey scans the water a second time and is about to grudgingly go look for him when—
"Ah!" Something warm wraps around his legs and pulls him underneath. In the water, he opens his eyes to find another pair of yellow eyes peering up at him and white spots decorating a smirking face. Snarling at Jake, he kicks him away and then before the other male can move, grabs his tail and pulls harshly.
Jake hisses and kicks him in the chest, then puts on his best "bring-it-on" face, whipping his tail out of Tsu'tey's hand. He swims further away until he's out of sight, comes up for air discreetly and then goes back.
But Tsu'tey's smart and can hold his breath for longer. His swims in the opposite direction and this time, Jake loses sight of him. The Dreamwalker goes as far to look for awhile before he has to come up for air again.
Taking the opportunity, Tsu'tey swims the distance between them and wraps his arms around Jake's chest, pulling the other male beneath the surface. Jake's queue is a streak of black behind him as they're face to face, stray strands of hair brushing against his cheeks and neck.
Jake blinks and suddenly Tsu'tey's very aware of the other male's heart beating steadily against the side of his arm and how close they are. Jake's ears move to face him and he gives the other male a curious look as if waiting for something to happen.
It lasts all of six seconds before Tsu'tey unwraps his arms and the sudden need for air propels him to the surface. Jake follows shortly after and shakes his hair like a dog, causing the drops to spray in all directions.
Jake's confused. Not only with Tsu'tey, but with himself. The other male's arms around him, the flash of confusion and something else in the Tsu'tey's eyes...his brain is struggling for it to all make sense, struggling to catch up with possible implications that shouldn't even be thought of.
But somehow, he pushes it all to the back of his mind to be thoroughly dealt with and sorted our later when he has some time alone, cleanses his mind of those thoughts and sweeps it all under the carpet.
Hides it away.
"Let us go find Srew'payoang," Tsu'tey says after a few tense moments, his voice an inflection of things not spoken as he starts swimming in his previous direction.
"What is that, anyways? A fish, right?" Jake asks as he follows him, pleased at the change of subject.
"A fish?" Tsu'tey asks, clearly not understanding what Jake means.
"Yeah, you know, the animals that are in the lake. The slippery ones...scales, can swim fast."
"Oh. Yes, it is a fish. But—"
Jake stops hearing Tsu'tey as something brushes against his legs. Something big. "Uh, Tsu'tey. Uh..."
The olo'eyktan stops and turns, his eyes on the water. A large dorsal fin emerges, blue with silver streaks and sporting the same spots that Na'vi have in five rows along the edges.
Jake's about five seconds away from diving into the water and swimming as far away as he can. The fin circles around him once like a shark and he's suddenly reminded of that old movie "Jaws", which isn't helping. He regrets not bringing his dagger as it bumps against his shins, causing him to move away slightly.
Tsu'tey smiles, which to Jake seems like a crazy thing to do. "That is Srew'payoang!" He says before delving into the water like a fish himself.
Jake's tense as he feels the side of the fish graze against his knees again, the feeling decidedly unpleasant as the slimy scales slip across his skin. And Tsu'tey has obviously gone off the deep end and shit he's going to be eaten right here in this stupid lake because the Tsu'tey is fucking crazy—
Something loud splashes somewhere behind him and he turns just as he hears, "Jake, look!" And yeah he really is insane.
Srew'payoang is not really a fish. More like a huge cat with fins and scales. It's bigger than a shark with large blue fins and a dark purple iridescent hue on its body, two large neural whips stream from its huge triangular head, one of them connected to Tsu'tey's own queue as he balances neatly; one hand on the top fin and his feet managing to find a standing on the bottom one, his other arm out to keep his balance.
The fish dives under the water and Jake loses sight, but comes up again after a few moments. Tsu'tey shakes the water from his braids like a dog and laughs as he re-adjusts himself, his tail whipping around rapidly as the fish shifts.
"You insane?" Jake asks, swimming away from the spectacle a little as the fish gets closer.
"You want to try?" Tsu'tey yells over their distance before he's underwater again. As the fish and him surface, the light sends refracted light from the scales onto his blue skin, puts the sleek muscles of his arms and torso in relief.
Jake raises a brow and stops his ogling. "Hey, I ain't insane like you." He backs up further to make a point, watching as the fish dives a few more times.
"But it is...fun!" Tsu'tey shouts, disappointment in his voice. "And easy!"
"Hey, kiss my blue ass! You're gonna fall off any—"
And just as he says that one of Tsu'tey's feet slips, and he's too slow to regain his standing. He falls from the fish's side, his queue painfully disconnecting a few moments later.
Srew'payoang swims away. Jake watches its antennae disappear into the water, and with a large swing of its forked tail, it disappears.
Surfacing, Tsu'tey slaps the water and swears at the fish in Na'vi.
"So does that make you Srew'payoang makto, now?" Jake asks as he comes up besides the other male, watching the settling ripples and waves in the water as the fish travels further away from them. Jake chuckles.
"Pxasìk. Snumìna payoang," Tsu'tey snarls once again, picking up his braid and checking the ends of it for damage. All the tendrils are still intact, so he lets it drop before shaking the water out of hair for a second time.
"Aw, don't blame the fish; back on Earth we don't try and ride sharks, eh?" Jake exclaims as he starts laughing lightly again.
"I have done it before," Tsu'tey says. "But that was...long ago."
"You saying you're old? How old are you anyways?" Jake asks when he stops laughing, genuinely curious.
"I am Omaticaya's youngest olo'eyktan," Tsu'tey says, as if taken aback my Jake's question. "I am not old."
"Hey, all right. Whatever you say. Tsu'tey... pa'li makto, Srew'payoang makto, ikran makto, taronyu, tsamsiyu, olo'eyktan, tsko swizaw tsulfä si...you have a lot of titles you know?"
Ignoring that Jake mispronounced half of those words, Tsu'tey begins to make his way back to shore. "Let us leave this place."
Jake makes a sad sound, "All right, but can we come back and go fishing? I'm getting sick of that meat you call food. And oh, we could go tanning—...do Na'vi tan? They can tan right? I mean—"
Tsu'tey's eye twitches. He is pretty sure Jake is starting drive him crazy.
Glossary:
Fitseng i'awn, yawnetu - stay here, loved one (aw Tsu'tey...!)
Tìfnu'ora - "Silent Lake". A lake that's in the atxkxe ay Eywa region. The only animals to reside there are the fish that are in the lake; there is no insects or any other living thing except plants, making it deathly quiet.
Srew'payoang ke pey uniltìranyu na nga, ha eltu si - Dance fish doesn't wait for Dreamwalker like you, so stop messing around!
Srew'payoang - literally "dance fish". Legendary fish that resides in Tifnu'ora. Na'vi "pastime" to try and ride the fish. Requires skillz however.
Srew'payoang makto - rider of Dance fish
Pxasìk. Snumìna payoang - fuck this. Stupid fish
pa'li makto, Srew'payoang makto, ikran makto, taronyu, tsamsiyu, olo'eyktan, tsko swizaw tsulfä si - rider of pa'li, rider of Dance fish, rider of ikran, hunter, warrior, clan leader, master of bow and arrow