Author's Note: And another one! :D
"Half... siblings?" Tsireya echoes, blinking rapidly. "What does that mean?" She looks around at the other Metkayina, all of which are just as perplexed by it as she is.
"It means that between Tuk, Neteyam, and I, we share one biological parent," Lo'ak explains, smiling a bit at her. This is normal to them. Explaining their family dynamics to people wasn't new.
Neteyam can understand why such a thing is a foreign concept to them, though. Such a thing doesn't happen to Na'vi. They mate for life with a single partner. Dad... well, he mated to mom first even though Eywa was pushing him to papa. It takes time for most to reconcile such a thing. They think that dad is a bond breaker for breaking his oath to mom when they bonded. But he's still able to bond with both mom and papa. He has children with both. Grandmother thinks that Neteyam taking so many features of Neytiri is Eywa's way of saying that she approves of their two-way union. That she understands dad is able to be a loving partner to both of his mates.
Because it's just dad. He's the center of their union. Mom and papa love each other but dad is their mate and while they have perfected co-habitating. Neteyam knows that the time they spend away with just dad is that time for one to be alone with him. Dad calls them date nights and he switches off between them. Neteyam doesn't want to put a whole lot of thought into these date nights between his parents, but he knows that dad is far more reserved than his mom and papa are. Whereas most couple can be seen pulling each other into dark corners or off to the side in gatherings to make love, his dad wasn't like that. Hugging and kissing and cuddling was fine, but dad never usually initiated it, and he was always respectful of perceived boundaries. He let the clan do what they want, but he never participated like that. At least, never that Neteyam has seen - thankfully.
He heard stories from his friends about them coming home to their parents making love in their huts or catching them in a dark alcove. But never Neteyam. His dad would let his mom and papa hang off of him, kiss his neck and shoulders and whisper suggestive things to him that they don't realize their traumatized eldest could hear, but he never let it get that far. If he was... agreeable, he would take their hand and lead them to their ikran and away from home.
In that measure, Neteyam can understand. He isn't sure how public he would like to have his own relations. It's normal for Na'vi to have many partners - even some while mated - so long as their mates approve. But Neteyam isn't sure he would like that either. His dad has always had many offers - he's a powerful Olo'eytkan of a strong, renown clan - but he is also Toruk Makto. Most are beyond caring about his alien features and the fact that his soul came from the sky. But dad has always refused. He never bothered asking mom or papa. It was always a no.
"Neytiri and Tsu'tey are all I want," Dad would say, offering a kind smile and polite tip of the head. "You honor me by asking, but my answer is no." Neteyam has faint memories of when he was a kid, when his dad would flush in embarrassment at the approach, but now, his dad is so used to it. It doesn't faze him anymore. Now it's polite, proper, but kind. And always firm. A hard no. A concise reason.
Mom and papa had been approached before too, that he's seen. But they have turned all suitors down too. Whether it was something that they had all discussed ahead of time, or never even considered it, or maybe dad's firm stance that he would only ever be with mom and papa, was enough for them too, Neteyam didn't know. But to him, he would like something like that. He knows not a lot of mated pairs go outside of their pair, but some do and so long as they don't mate and form tsahaylu outside of that pair, then it wasn't even frowned upon. It's common enough to be normal, but Neteyam wants just one. He wants one person that only wants him.
Ironically, dad is the only person that they know of with two mates, yet he sees sleeping with any other as being unfaithful - whether they approve or not is inconsequential. It is being unfaithful and unfair. Its why dad was pushed so hard to mate with papa despite him already being mated to mom. He fought so hard because it was unfair to her. It was horrendous to think of for him. It was cruel to her, in his words. He loved her so much, he never wanted to hurt her again.
"Dad and papa were to be mated," Lo'ak says, as if he was able to read Neteyam's mind, but maybe they were thinking about the exact same thing. Their parents' strange union that brought about the three biological half siblings of the Sully family. "It was Eywa's will, but dad fought it. He fell in love with mom and couldn't bring himself to betray her. She was bound to him, and he would never take her ability to love and be loved away from her as she wouldn't be able to bond to another again. Dad tried to get the Great Mother to understand. He loved mom, and he because of that, he was fighting his connection to papa. Despite that, she kept drawing them together."
"She started showing them dreams," Kiri adds, her eyes sliding from the enraptured Metkayina to Neteyam. "Dreams of a son that they would have."
All eyes turn to Neteyam in awe. He laughs, though, flushing. "She fooled them. She showed a strong, mighty warrior that would be able to lead the Omatikaya in papa and dad's stead one day. Imagine their surprise when they got me. All that hooing and haaing for me."
Ao'nung frowns at that and so does Lo'ak, his eyebrows pulling together. "But you are strong and mighty."
Neteyam's smile doesn't faulter, still amused. "If someone sneezes around me, I have to be sequestered off to protect my shotty immune system."
"But you fought a thanator!" Lo'ak disagrees, looking at him. "You got sick and still carried Rhalwari up and down a cliff in the rain! You held out until we got to mom and dad while he could barely breathe! You got shot, Neteyam, and you were up and walking just days later!" His voice raising in pitch as his face pinches in anger. He studies Neteyam's surprised face, not realizing his brother felt so strongly about this. They used to always joke about Neteyam shit immune system. That if Lo'ak ever wanted the upper hand, all he had to do was cough in Neteyam's vicinity.
"You're amazing!" Tuk gushes, grinning at him.
Neteyam flushes, bringing a hand up to cover the bottom half of his face as he looks around, avoiding the intense eyes of the Metkayina, clearly in agreement with Lo'ak and Tuk, to see the Omatikaya hunters staring at him with wide eyes and Neteyam realizes in that moment that no one else knew about the thanator aside from his parents, Uncle Arvok and Tarsem. And it seems like they didn't spread that - but now it's going to circulate the clan, and everyone is going to know before nightfall.
Neteyam sighs, rubbing at his forehead. Kiri shrugs in his peripheral as he looks over at the Metkayina. "Was there anything else you were curious about?" He asks, wanting to get away from that topic specifically.
"I'm still confused," Rotxo admits. "How are you your dad and papa's kid?"
Neteyam tilts his head slightly. "What's not to get? My conception is the union between my dad and papa." Then a thought occurred to him right as Rotxo opened his mouth to expound. "Oh, do you mean how was I conceived between two males?"
"Yeah," Rotxo says, smiling when Neteyam didn't look upset at all by his question. "I have never heard of two males having a kid before. Or two females."
Kiri looks at him. "Does the Metkayina not have same sex unions?" Her normally bland tone is up ticked in curiosity. Her golden eyes gleam in interest as if that's true, it would be so different from their own culture.
"They do," Rotxo admits. "I've just never heard of them having kids before."
"There is a ritual," Ronal says evenly, looking at Rotxo. "It can be performed by the clan Tsahik. It can give one member of the mated pair the genitalia to make conception possible, but it is extremely difficult to do and even harder to succeed in doing. The ritual can be done perfectly a hundred times and not once is the desired outcome reached. I guess the Omatikaya have better luck."
Kiri tilts her head. "We don't use a ritual. Dad is intersexed."
Ronal looks perplexed by that, peering around Tonowari to look at her. "What's that?"
"It means that we have both sets of genitalia," Neteyam says kindly, drawing her eyes to him. Ao'nung blinks rapidly, staring at him in disbelief, making him laugh at the look. "I am still in puberty so it's not so easy to tell, but I'm not going to look like a typical male forest Na'vi. Just like dad doesn't. But I'm not going to be as broad shouldered or muscular as he is. Dad's body was made in a lab so it was designed closer to human dimensions, had it not, he would have been leaner in the chest and hips."
Ronal leans forward, blinking rapidly as if trying to take this all in. "So, there are forest Na'vi that are born both genders?"
"Yes," Neteyam says. "The more common type is males that have wombs but there are some females that also have male genitalia."
"I am so confused," Tsuy'asha admits. "How are you different from your brother?"
"I am like my dad," he explains, still looking at Tsuy'asha. "I am for all intents and purposes a male. I just have more effeminate features. My hips are wider to accommodate a womb and my musculature is more male than female oriented, but I am definitely going to be tall and lean as opposed to broad shouldered like papa and dad and even Lo'ak one day."
Zestira leans forward, too. "Is this because your father was a dreamwalker?"
"It's normal for forest Na'vi," Kiri cuts in, her voice even. "It's not super common, but there are a few here in the clan. Dad and Neteyam are both one, but there is another male and one more that's female. Given, some clans are much more unforgiving about such things than we are, but the Omatikaya, for its long history has always had at least one for as far back as the First Songs."
"Wow," Tonowari says, like he didn't know what else to say. Neteyam has to wonder how open the Metkayina re with free love. How if they aren't careful, they could round the corner and witness two people going at it in a dark alcove. But seeing as they are still mostly keeping to themselves, Neteyam's not going to use this first instance of questions to broach that topic. Maybe next time. Neteyam isn't ashamed or anything, but they are already talking so much about genitals and sex, they need a reprieve, he thinks.
"What this means," Neteyam says easily, "is that I can have a mate of either gender and still be able to have children in the future. If my future mate is female, she can carry our children, and if my mate is male, I can."
"You... would carry your children?" Ao'nung asks, slowly. Ronal casts him a long look but he doesn't seem to notice.
Neteyam shrugs. "Why not? I get that it probably feels weird to you because you grew up without seeing something like that, but if a male didn't carry me, I wouldn't be here," Neteyam says softly, offering him a little smile. "Besides, I know that I want kids one day, and I'm fortunate to have the ability to have my own without worrying about the gender of my mate. Most don't have that luxury. We don't get to control who we fall in love with and who the Great Mother intends to be ours, so it makes me feel better to know that I will have kids one day."
A complex look crosses over Ao'nung's face but Neteyam doesn't get to observe it long enough before Tsireya pulls his attention over to her. "I think that's amazing," she says quietly. "You don't have to worry about something like that for your future. I'm happy for you."
"Thanks," Neteyam says, flushing a bit. "I am very fortunate."
Lo'ak rolls his eyes, shaking his head.
"Neteyam," Rhalwari says quietly, drawing his eyes to her.
"Yes, mama?"
She smiles softly at the nickname and asks, "Are you getting better? You seem to be moving better and better each day. I just worry. You pushed yourself so hard for us, and it almost cost you... everything."
"It was nothing," Neteyam says, shaking his head. Lo'ak sends him a sharp look, frowning at his words.
"It wasn't nothing," Lo'ak protests, tension forming between his eyebrows. "What you did was amazing. I don't know anyone who could have pulled it off like you did. Not even dad or papa."
"Yeah, you almost died," Tuk reminds him from Kiri's side. Her small face twisting in fear at the remembrance of that day.
Neteyam offers her a little smile. "It's okay, Tuk. It's all okay."
"No, it's not," Lo'ak insists. "If I hadn't... had you not been..."
"You saved all of us, your siblings included," Tonowari says evenly, trying to defuse the growing tension between brothers. Kiri glances at him, her eyebrows pulling together before looking between Neteyam and Lo'ak, the latter of which getting more flustered as time goes on. "If you hadn't been there, we never would have survived."
"And yet I also almost costed you your children's lives," Neteyam reminds him in a soft, knowing voice.
"You were shot," Ao'nung cuts in, coming more and more to life. "That's hardly fair."
"Look," Neteyam says evenly, looking around the group, "it's fine. Everything is fine. We don't have to worry about that anymore. Count our blessings and move on when we are ready to. It's okay."
"Bullshit," Lo'ak snaps, making Tuk and Rowee jump at his volume. The hunters are staring at him intensely, but not moving to intervene.
Neteyam sends Lo'ak a look, but his younger brother is still glaring at him. "Lo'ak," Neteyam starts but his brother cuts him off.
"You always do that. You're great at everything and then just talk down about yourself. Come on, bro," Lo'ak says, switching to English, which surprises all of them. The Metkayina immediately losing what the growing argument is about. Only the Sully siblings, Spider and maybe one of the hunters is fluent in English, the other two maybe have some peripheral understanding seeing as most of the humans only speak Na'vi here. "You don't really believe any of that, do you? And what's this about everything being okay? Are you kidding me?"
Neteyam's lips press together tightly, not sure where this came from. He knew Lo'ak thought that he was perfect - that he was great at everything, even though that was far from the truth - but he's not sure why it's suddenly coming up now. "Why are you angry at me right now?" He asks, also switching to English, since clearly his brother didn't want the Metkayina to know what they were saying.
"I'm not," Lo'ak says, forcing his voice to be even. "You're perfect, Neteyam, yet you act like you're not. I don't understand."
"You don't understand?" Neteyam asks, keeping his voice even, his face neutral like he was always taught to, yet that seems to only make it worse. "You were just complimenting me, and now you're angry at the compliments? Lo'ak, what is wrong?"
"Nothing," Lo'ak snaps, rubbing at his forehead. "Nothing at all, don't worry about it."
"You're being stupid," Kiri says, probably to both of them, but neither brother looks at her.
"Tell me what I did wrong," Neteyam says, putting a hand to his chest. "Don't just say it's nothing. How am I to know what I did wrong if you don't say anything?"
Lo'ak rubs at his face, letting out a groan. Suddenly, Lo'ak is on his feet, glaring down at Neteyam. "Get angry!" He yells, slipping back into Na'vi. There is a beat of deafening silence that follows before Lo'ak continues, staring right into Neteyam's eyes. "You are never angry at anything! How can you be so calm about this? They shot you, Neteyam! They almost killed you and you say, what? It's okay? It's not okay, Neteyam!"
Neteyam stares at him, struggling to keep his face calm despite the fire burning in his gut. He takes a slow breath, letting it inflate his lungs before evenly saying, "Lo'ak, I know what you're saying, but I don't know what you want from me."
"I want you to get angry, Neteyam!"
Somehow, Neteyam's feet are under him and now he's staring down into Lo'ak's eyes. Not by much. Even with a year separating them, there is still only a matter of inches that separate their heights. One day, Lo'ak might be taller than him - sooner than Neteyam wants.
Lo'ak looks surprised, like he hadn't expected Neteyam to move so quickly to his feet - honestly, Neteyam isn't sure how he did it without hurting himself. But then again, the fire of anger burning his insides might just be more than anger, but he doesn't care about that right now.
Lo'ak looks down at Netyeam's wounded side, worry flickering across his feature. Shame too, at once again just jumping from one extreme to another. Sputtering, he says, "Bro," because they are back to bro again, apparently, "you should sit down before - "
"- I hurt myself?" Neteyam cuts him off, voice low and even despite the trembling in his hands. Lo'ak's jaws snap shut. His silence is answer enough. "I'm already hurt, Lo'ak."
Shame is written across Lo'ak's face and despite how angry Neteyam is, he feels sorrow for his brother. He understands where he's coming from. He understands that Lo'ak is angry because Neteyam isn't letting himself be angry. Lo'ak is trying to get him to let some of it out, using himself as the battering post. Lo'ak feels like the family punching bag and apparently felt like Neteyam needed a few swings despite his assurances that he was okay.
"I didn't mean - " Lo'ak starts. To make him mad? To rile him up enough to stand up? Neteyam doesn't know.
"No, but you sort of did, didn't you?" Neteyam asks, and he feels a stab of cruelty cut through him. He shouldn't have said it like that. That wasn't fair to Lo'ak either. In his own, backwards, twisty way, he was trying to help Neteyam and himself. They both were kind of avoiding this blow out despite knowing it was building between them. Neteyam just wished that it wasn't right now.
"I'm - "
Neteyam holds up his hand, feeling like the heir to the Omatikaya in that moment with a stern command, "Stop." Lo'ak snaps his jaw closed so tightly that Neteyam's teeth hurt from it.
After a beat, Neteyam calmly continues, "That's not fair, Lo'ak. Just because I'm not screaming or crying or throwing things doesn't mean I'm not angry. It doesn't mean that I don't think that this is all messed up. That I hate that things turned out this way. Do you think I like this? The Metkayina and the Tipani and all the other clans being torn from their homes? Their lives uprooted? Their families decimated and the remains scattered to the winds? That we can't go a single day without hearing about a fire burning down a part of the forest? Lives of our brothers and sisters both Na'vi and beast, all torn to shreds or captured and tortured for the sake of people who seem to only want to hurt us?
"We are all people - all of us. Both of Eywa'eveng and of the sky. We are all peoples capable of doing such great and wonderful things. We make art and music. We spread love and kindness and joy. We help and live in harmony with everything around us. But we also hold an equal capacity for cruelty. Clans have fought in bloody conflict with one another since the First Songs. We have held grudges that have wiped out entire clans for a slight caused by one family's ancestor many generations before. We like to blame everything on the Sky People. We call them demons and monsters when the truth is they can be just as much good as they can evil, just like us.
"I am angry, Lo'ak," Neteyam continues, the words just tumbling out of his mouth at this point, hardly even stopping to check in with his brain before being spewed forward. "I am angry that my siblings have to grow up in this mess. That anyone's children would have to. I am angry that the only reason I got to meet such great people here in our clan now is probably because their homes were burned, their lives otherwise ruined. That their suffering, their loss, granted us the privilege of their presence here. Our fortune comes at the cost of their happiness, their livelihood, their culture, their family. How can that make anyone feel anything other than rage?"
It takes a moment for the haze in his head to clear. To stop looking through Lo'ak and at him. To see the shame, the heartbreak, but also the admiration. The love. The dedication, all shining in his brother's eyes. To feel Lo'ak's hand wrapped tightly around his own to keep him planted in place as Neteyam tended to pace when he got riled up - which was thankfully very rare.
Not just the hunters or the Metkayina, and even his siblings stared at them, but others drawn to the noise. Other members of the clan - the Omatikaya and all the clans umbrellaed beneath them. All staring at Neteyam with looks of awe, sadness, understanding, and even appreciation. Validation too, that their clan heir understands their troubles, sees their sacrifice and is angry on their behalf.
And then he feels dad's hand on his side, sees the opposite on Lo'ak's, as if dad had moved to separate them, but Lo'ak held them together. Neteyam's body hurt from behind held so tense, and his throat hurt, he must have raised his voice - not yelled, though. Neteyam doesn't yell no matter how heated he gets. His ears are pressed tightly to his skull and his tail is lashing in anger behind him, still shaking. Neteyam takes a few heaving breaths, his body aching horribly, and his stomach is burning, but there is some cathartic release that follows the slumping of his shoulders.
"I know," Lo'ak finally says quietly. And Neteyam feels it in his bones. Lo'ak does know. "You don't see what we do. And sometimes even we forget what's right in front of us," he continues, quietly. "You are the strongest person I know, Neteyam. Sometimes, the clan forgets because of your immune system, or how your body is shaped. But you were born for this. You will be the leader of the Omatikaya one day and I will be there at your side, always supporting you."
The last of Neteyam's anger bleeds from him as he stares down at his mischievous younger brother, trying to find the words. "Did you... rile me up on purpose?"
Lo'ak sends him a crooked half smile that looks so much like their papa. "You'll never get angry on your own behalf, bro. But you will for everyone else."
Neteyam sighs, reaching out to pull Lo'ak into his arms, hugging his little brother close, resting his cheek on Lo'ak's braids, smiling softly when his brother hugs him back, being careful of his wound. Which reminds him with a painful throb that he pushed himself too hard - which annoys him to absolutely no end. All he did was stand up, and apparently move away a few steps to give them space from the Metkayina, but still. It shouldn't hurt. He should be stronger. He knows that he's getting there, but it's taking too long for his liking.
Dad steps back, allowing them their moment while shaking his head.
"I love you, bro," Lo'ak mumbles against his shoulder.
"I love you too."
That night, Neteyam slept fitfully, his side throbbing. But by morning, he was well enough to go about his day. He felt the eyes of his clan on him and knew that word had spread about his supposed argument with Lo'ak. He also got his brother to admit why he had done it. Lo'ak was afraid that Neteyam's views on himself were shared with some members of the clan - which Neteyam is sure is true - and he just wanted to reaffirm that Neteyam was still the "better" of them. That he took on a thanator and saved the lives of the Metkayina and his siblings, as well as his passionate stance on their way of life.
Stupid moron, Neteyam called him, annoyed that Lo'ak felt the need for theatrics. He wasn't concerned about the clan, but apparently Lo'ak was. Dad didn't punish them, but he did chastise them for making a scene but left it at that.
Neteyam did happen to notice that dad slept with Lo'ak that night, whispering something softly into his ears as he cuddled against their dad's chest. Dad pet down his braids and rubbed his back until he fell asleep. Mom slept with Tuk, all curled around her while papa held Kiri, petting down the wild strands of hair and listening to her as she told him all about the things she was seeing behind her eyelids. The amazing things that only she could see.
Everything was back to normal the next morning, even though now everyone was talking about what had happened the day before. The Metkayina, thankfully, didn't ask about it, and instead pushed on with lessons. More plants from Kiri, before Neteyam opened the floor to more questions. And that was their lives for the next week and a half. Learning about plants and asking questions, learning how the Omatikaya worked.
Slowly but surely, they began expanding outward a bit. Ronal and Tsireya went to work with Mo'at, Kiri and Tuk, learning more from her and Ghresa about the structure of the Tsahik now that the clans are blended. Rowee was taken to the Carers as he was too young to fully participate in the lessons that the other Omatikaya children were learning from. Rhalwari was brought to the weavers to see how she would fair making items for the clan, seeing as she still needed time off her leg and was the first to admit that she didn't see a hunter's life in her future. Tsuy'asha, Zestira and Tonowari were shown around First Base and High Camp, which is further in the network of caves, where even more of the Omatikaya and their umbrellaed clans lie in safety, to learn about its structures and familiarize themselves with locations for safety and defense. Rotxo's grandfather was brought to the elders to help offer his age and wisdom as well as doing other small tasks around the clan such as cooking and watching over the young. Rotxo Ao'nung stayed with the Sully boys and Spider. Told them all sorts of stories about what to expect out in the forest.
Their chores started simple. They would go out and do something for the clan, learning from what would be their perspective jobs in the near future. Those of the Metkayina that already established themselves as hunters and warriors would no doubt continue down that path so they would see to the needs of the hunters. Tsireya And Ronal would help around the Tsahik hut. Tonowari, Tsuy'asha, and Zestira would help organize weapons or assist in repairs. Rotxo and Ao'nung would help Lo'ak and Neteyam with their chores - well, Lo'ak's chores, seeing as Neteyam still needed to take it easy.
But once their simple tasks were done, they would all mostly come together - excluding Rotxo's grandfather and Rowee seeing as one would be better suited not leaving First Base any longer, and one was still too young to fully grasp what he was learning and would be able to join lessons with other children his age soon enough - to go over more things with Neteyam and his siblings.
It was simple. It was easy. But Neteyam could see, plain as day, that it had finally come. The Metkayina were finally too stir crazy after weeks of not leaving First Base, that they were ready to face their fears. That once more the Metkayina would take to the rainforest. The home of the Omatikaya. And before they were to get too far, they had to see where it all began, at least, to Neteyam. The beginning of their lives as they know it. Lo'ak made Neteyam realize something very important that he knew lurked within him all along but hadn't realized it until he said it out loud.
Everyone lost something in order to come together - even the Omatikaya. Which is why, when Neteyam approached his parents that morning, asking them to help him get the Metkayina out of First Base and take them to the forest, when they asked him where it was they were heading to exactly, Neteyam somberly said, "I am going to take them to Hometree."
