I'm not going to apologize for the horrible piece of art I am about to subject you all to. This idea plagued me this morning and would not let me rest until I brought it to life. I intended it to just be a five minute pencil drawing to get it out of my system, but I ended up going at it hard and it ended up better than it has any right to be. I was going to show it to you all anyway, but now I have inflected social media with my horrible creation as well, so here is the link to the tumblr post, feel free to interact with me on there :). Just remove the spaces because hates links.
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:/ /accept-n-destroy. tumblr post/623756458989912064/a-horrible-meme-i-spent-way-too-long-making-that
-x-
The four of them sat along the edge of their chunk of the Hallelujah Mountains in relative silence, Tsu'tey's íkran nuzzling gently against Jake's numb legs, seeming to know him despite the change in body.
"Grace has been talking to Max," Trudy said suddenly, speaking for the first time since her vague confession, "it's taken a bit, but he's been able to bug Selfridge's war room. We've got about two months, that's how long it'll take them to ship in all the fire power they want for the invasion."
"Two months," Jake looked out into the misty depths below them, worry gripping at his heart like a vice, "that's barely any time. We don't even have a plan."
"Our plan is to fight," Tsu'tey turned to him, his voice forcefully even, willing himself to sound confident.
"Warriors on a handful of íkrans and pa'lis and our one ship don't stand a chance against an entire army," Jake rubbed a soothing hand over the íkran nuzzling against him, sensing his anxiety.
"We will find a way, Jake-Sully," Neytiri said, her voice more somber than Jake had ever heard, "you did not come all the way here for us to lose. Grace and Norm and Trudy did not turn their backs on their people for us to fail."
"Yeah," Jake nodded, still looking out, feeling the chill of the wind against his skin, "you're right. We'll think of something in two months, we have to."
"Max is working on radicalizing other people on the base," Trudy said, kicking her feet against the edge and watching the rocks fall into the depths below, "the scientists are pretty easy to convince, they were all working under Grace, not Quaritch. The grunts are harder, he has to be more careful. I was able to give him some names, some people I trusted, but it wasn't much. With any luck though, we'll have a nice little backup team of our own here soon."
"You are a very good source of information," Neytiri said, her eyes sparkling as she let her gaze flicker down to the woman beside her.
"I aim to please," Trudy said with a crooked smile and a voice that was probably meant to sound cocky but shook too much in the delivery.
"Indeed," Neytiri breathed out, her voice filled with wonder.
Jake rolled his eyes before turning away from the two women and towards Tsu'tey, who was letting out a snort of disbelief, "is that what we sound like?" Jake asked under his breath with a quirk of his lips.
"I do not know," Tsu'tey huffed, "but I do know that she is no longer allowed to bother us. Look at her, she is practically salivating."
"Curious though," Jake said, looking back at the two, who had gone back to pretending that they weren't trying to glance at each other out of the corners of their eyes, "I've never seen Neytiri show interest in anyone before."
"I have never seen anyone be as bothersome as her either, yet there is a first time for everything," Tsu'tey said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, come on," Jake chuckled softly, "you have to admit they're kind of cute."
"I have to do no such thing," Tsu'tey shot back, but there was a softness in his eyes that betrayed him as he looked over at his friend.
-x-
Tsu'tey and Neytiri stayed until late in the afternoon. They looked for all the world as though they wanted nothing more than to stay and continue sitting in comfortable silence with the two human, but there was a meeting with a neighboring tribe they were expected to sit in on.
"Grace will have my pod up and running by tomorrow morning," Jake said as Tsu'tey mounted his íkran, "but if anything goes wrong, I'll be sure to let you know."
"Thank you for permitting me to visit you, my Jake," Tsu'tey smiled down at him, sending Jake's heart fluttering in his chest.
"I'm glad you came, glad you tagged along too, Neytiri," Jake said, smiling in the coy, knowing way she usually directed at them.
"Yes, thank you," Neytiri flushed slightly, pretending to fuss with her íkran, "it was very nice to meet you, Trudy."
"I hope you'll come back again sometime," Trudy said, shoving her hands in her pockets, "you're pretty good for a laugh, better than these nerds that leave me alone here all day."
"Yes," Neytiri choked, her head snapping around to look at the other woman, before remembering herself and looking over her head to the mobile until behind them, "I am sure I will find myself here again."
"You two are going to be late for the meeting," Jake interrupted, locking eyes with Tsu'tey, who had the look of a man wondering if his friend had been replaced sometime in the past few hours. Jake could practically see him thinking up all the teasing remarks to throw at her the entire way back to Hometree, and he almost felt bad for her, almost, "I love you," he said waving, "see you tomorrow."
The pair waved before their íkran spread their wings and launched them from the edge of the mountain, where they soon disappeared into the mist below.
Jake and Trudy stood watching after them for a moment before turning to face one another.
"Well," Jake couldn't help the grin spreading almost manically across his face, "that was interesting."
"We don't," Trudy tossed her head back, crossing her arms, before finishing with a mutter, "have to tell Grace and Norm about all that."
"Oh, we don't?" laughter began to bubble from his chest, "I was under the impression we told everybody everything around here, god knows everyone gets to know everything about by relationship. Your girlfriend makes sure of that."
"Are you gonna be a dick about this?" Trudy lolled her head over onto her shoulder, fixing him with a look.
His smile didn't fade but the laughter calmed in his voice, "of course I'm not," he rolled his eyes, "why would I be a dick about it?"
"I don't know," Trudy sighed before sitting down, picking absentmindedly at the grass, "you wouldn't."
"Yeah," Jake said, wheeling a little closer to her, "obviously."
"I don't know why I…" she seemed to work the words over in her mouth a moment before continuing, "I don't know why I said anything. It's not like I have an avatar, I'm just me. God, that was so dumb, why did I say that."
"To be fair," Jake said, "she did come here just to talk to you, because she thought you sounded fun."
"Shut the fuck up," Trudy threw a clump of grass at him.
Jake shrugged at her, "Neytiri always liked Grace's classes about humans and Earth, she's never shown any interest in any Na'vi as long as I've known her and I have literally known her my whole life, maybe she's into humans," he shot her a coy smile, "or maybe she's just into you."
"Don't encourage me, you asshole," Trudy groaned, throwing herself back against the ground with a soft thud, "don't get my hopes up or whatever, it's not fair. Just because you get your fairytale romance with your soulmate, doesn't mean we all get our own nice little stories that come giftwrapped and hand delivered."
"No," Jake said, his voice a little stern, "but my relationship wasn't easy, still isn't easy, might never be easy."
"That's not what I meant," Trudy said softly from beneath the arm now covering her face.
"I had to fight for this, I had to cross a literal galaxy to get here, had to lie and trick my way into finally just being able to meet him, we had to beg the clan leader to let me in and let us be together, he risked his place in his clan, his family, risked his life to stand by me," Jake wasn't mad, his voice wasn't angry, but she had to understand, "even when they let me in, he lost the respect he had had before, because of me, he faced ridicule. But he didn't care, he was ready to lose everything, sacrifice everything, for me. That's what love is for them, it's everything. They don't do anything half-assed, if they pick you, they're all in."
"You're talking like I could stay here," Trudy said, pain in her voice, "there's no way for me to stay here."
"There's always a way," Jake shrugged, "we just haven't found it yet."
Trudy was quiet for a long while, her mouth set in a deep frown as she lay there in the dirt. Finally she spoke, "I'm gonna kill you if this doesn't work out."
"You'll have to get in line," he chuckled at her before turning towards the mobile unit, "come on, before Grace sends Norm out looking for us."
"Yeah, alright," Trudy sighed, a weight seeming to lift a little off her chest as she rose to her feet, brushing the grass from her pants, before catching up with Jake, matching his pace, "she's really pretty."
Jake hummed at that, shooting her a grin, "If you say so, I prefer the strong, silent type."
Trudy laughed at that, knocking lightly against Jake's chair as they continued on toward the building, the sun only just starting to set over the horizon.