Real quick I would just like to say how much I have genuinely appreciated the overwhelming amount of support and kindness I have gotten from so many people commenting on this story. You all have told me how much you enjoy this story and how much it means to some of you, and I cannot express how much it means to hear that.

I started this story when I was 18, updated it on and off for two years and then abandoned it for two more. Barely a week went by that someone didn't comment during those two years encouraging me to continue this story, and I'm just going to say that I find that so genuinely impressive considering that I abandoned it on chapter 9, when almost nothing had really even happened yet. Because of that, because of you all and those comments, I never stopped thinking about this story.

When COVID hit, some combination of stress and cabin fever lit the fire that bore chapter 10, and when I posted it, I didn't think anyone would read it. I posted it thinking it had been too long, it'd been two years since I updated, eleven years since the movie came out and effectively disappeared for the collective consciousness, I thought I was just posting for me. But then, within a few hours, the comments came pouring in, and here you all were, still here after all this time, and I was so happy.

I started working on the next chapter right away but something was wrong, I couldn't focus, the words weren't looking right on my screen. A few days later I found myself in the ER, disoriented, barely able to walk. They told me they found a malformation in my brain, and I'd have to stay in the hospital.

You all kept commenting, while I sat, afraid and frustrated, turning 23 alone in a hospital room during a global pandemic.

After a few months and a brain surgery later, when I could finally put together words on a screen, I was able to post chapter 11 and I gave you all a brief apology for my absence. This time the comments that rolled in weren't focused on the story, it was comment after comment of you all, strangers for all intents and purposes, genuinely worried about my health, imploring me not to push myself during recovery, telling me you were willing to wait for updates if it meant I took care of myself.

You all are the kindest, most genuine group of people, who have encouraged me to continue creating when I haven't felt creative and who have made me smile when I have felt at my lowest. Thank you all for sticking with me, thank you for your kind words.

P.S. I show my husband (who I started dating just a few days after I first published this story) some of your comments sometimes, and he thinks you are all very kind. Even though he hates the movie Avatar because he thinks it's just Dances with Wolves.

-x-

Jake arrived back at the unit late, having been held up by the festivities of the night, his blood still singing with the energy of the fire light playing against the dancing bodies and the forest echoing with cheering voices.

He exited his pod, humming a tune one of the young warriors had been playing as he and Tsu'tey had finally retired for the night, but stopped when a pair of legs stepped into his path.

Jake looked up to see Norm staring down at him, an oddly determined look on his face that Jake couldn't quite read.

"You're still up?" Jake tried, his voice quiet as the soft breathing of the other occupants reached his ears.

"I think I get it," Norm said, his voiced clipped in way that made Jake almost certain that he was not about to have a pleasant conversation, the thought making him more tired than anything.

"Oh, do you now?" Jake's mouth drew into a tight line, unsure how many more times he could take Norm's accusations.

"Yeah, yeah, I do," he eyes flashed, "you like it, all this," he waved his hands around, "fanfare."

"Excuse me?"

"That's what this is," Norm's voice began to rise, bordering on hysterical, "you came here so you could have your little Dances with Wolves fantasy, yeah?" he snapped out the words like a physical blow, "you get off on it, lording over them, acting like their savior, like they're savages who wouldn't make it without the big strong white man coming in to save them. Then what? Then the game's over, or god forbid it stops being fun for you, and then you get to strut on back to earth with your hero complex well quenched?"

Jake stared at him, really stared into his eyes for the first time, and saw the hint of something past the jealousy, which was no doubt still there. He saw a righteous anger, the anger of a man who thinks he is dealing with someone who doesn't appreciate the stakes of war.

Jake almost laughs, but he manages to stamp it down as he fixes Norm with an earnest look, "you have misunderstood," he spoke just loud enough for the words to take form past his lips, "this was a one way ride for me, I'm not going back to earth," words Jake had never said out loud, words he'd never even let himself admit in his own mind hung heavy in the air around them.

"You're not... what do you mean?" Norm asked, the jealously and anger he had worn like a mask for so many days splintered at the words, "You can't survive here, you're human, in case you've forgotten."

"Whenever we chase Selfridge and his whole damn company off this planet, which is what we're gonna do," Jake looked out the window of the unit, staring out into the air he couldn't breathe, "I'll keep whatever equipment I need to, I'll figure something out, or maybe I'll die during all this. It won't matter, one way or the other, I'm not going back."

"That's insane, you're insane," Norm scrubbed his hands against his face, all the fight he had been positively brimming with a moment ago draining from him like water through a grate, "why? For what? To maintain your ego? So you can keep your little romance going?"

The anger and frustration that had been flaring in his chest whenever Norm said things like that before did not come to him now.

"You can trivialize it all you want," he said with a slight shrug, "You don't seem to get it. This isn't fun for me, this isn't a game, this isn't a feat of scientific discovery or curiosity or me wanting to feel strong. I have lived my whole life here... I would go about my day on earth and then I would go to sleep and I would live my night here, it's all I've ever known. There's nothing for me back on earth, but here, I have something to live for. Here I have a people I belong to, I have a friend who understands me, I have a man who tries to protect me when all I want to do is protect him. So," Jake turned back to the man in front of him, who stared at him with wide eyes, and offered him a small, sad smile, hoping against all hope that this time Norm would finally understand, "When this is all said and done, if I have any life left to live, I'm going to do it here, no matter what."

"You're crazy," Norm breathed out, the last crumbles of his mask falling away to reveal tired eyes.

"Yeah, probably," Jake laughed without it reaching his eyes.

"You'll die out here," his tone was almost scolding, like a friend worried, Jake smiled at that.

"Everyone's gotta go out somehow," at that, he clapped his hand against Norm's leg, since he couldn't very well reach his shoulder, before wheeling past him towards the bunks.

-x-

"Good morning, my Jake," The words greeted him before he even had a chance to open his eyes the next morning.

"Morning," Jake smiled, pressing into the warm body beside him.

"We have an exciting day today," Tsu'tey said, his fingers tracing patterns blindly across Jake's spine, "it is time for you to select an íkran."

"Seriously?" Pressed back against Tsu'tey's chest to look him properly in the eye, "You think I'm ready."

"You are an Omaticaya, you are a strong warrior, you have already selected a mate," Tsu'tey pressed a light kiss between Jake's furrowed brow, "You are more than ready."

"Wow," Jake breathed out, pressing back into Tsu'tey's chest, "I'm gonna name it something stupid like sparky or Kevin."

There was a pause, the hands at Jake's back stilling, before he was nearly startled out of his hammock by the laugh that ripped its way from Tsu'tey's throat. The sound of it filled the air around them, Tsu'tey's chest shaking beneath Jake's fingers with the effort of it.

The laugh lasted only a moment, but Jake stared up at the other man like he was the most brilliant thing he'd ever seen.

"I haven't heard you laugh like that in almost a decade," Jake reached up to press his hand against the other's jaw, thumb rubbing gently against his cheek.

"I have not been this happy in a very long time," Tsu'tey admitted in a soft voice, "You make me feel as though... you give me hope, my Jake."

"I love you," Jake felt tears prick at his eyes, "more than anything, more than I can stand."

"As I love you," Tsu'tey leaned down to capture the other man's lips in his own. They stayed like that for a long while, filling the silence with soft kisses and the slow exploration of hands over skin.

-x-

"If you two think I am above pushing you out of your hammock just because you want to waste the morning saying sweet things to each other, you are mistaken," Neytiri yelled at the men as they reached the common area, her arms crossed where she stood beside Grace and Norm.

"And yet you did no such thing," Tsu'tey said, his mouth pulled in an even line, "so I think we will continue to do as we please."

"Jake," Grace cut through their bickering, though her eyes shone bright with amusement, "I heard you're selecting an íkran today."

"Yeah," Jake smiled, eyeing Norm for a moment, expecting his normal display of jealousy, but was pleased to see no trace of it, "though I'm still not entirely convinced it's not an elaborate murder plot."

"If you can survive a tsaheylu with Tsu'tey, I think you'll manage an íkran just fine," Neytiri grinned at the glare Tsu'tey threw her way.

A laugh broke from Norm's throat, though he snapped his jaw shut around it when four pairs of eyes turned to him, "sorry," he said with a tight, sheepish smile, "it was funny."

Neytiri hummed, her lips twitching with a smile "see, the rude Dreamwalker thinks I am funny."

"Someone has to," Jake grinned at her, shooting Norm a look that seemed to ease some of the tension in the other human's shoulders.

"Come, we are joining a group of new warriors on their journey to the íkran," Tsu'tey said, his mouth drawn in an unamused line, grasping Jake's hand in his own.

"We'll see you two later, yeah?" Jake called over his shoulder as Tsu'tey lead Neytiri and himself away, waving as they stared after the trio.