Author's Note: Here we go again! Enjoy!
Quaritch had forgotten to check that morning when he first got up, but he made sure to check to see how Neteyam was doing and was happy to see that the little boy's fever broke at some point from last night. Now he was curled up peacefully sleeping without a care in the world. Still like a little angel at rest. Halo of braids on the pillow and the covers pulled up to his shoulders.
Neteyam woke to the recoms talking and laughing out in the commons. He stretches as he rolls onto his back, splaying out his hands against the headboard, wrapping little knuckles against it before curling up into his little ball again on his side, eyes drifting shut again. Another bout of laughter makes him jump, blinking and looking around in a daze, confused about where he is. Quaritch watches as he sits up, rubbing at his eyes and squinting around the room, mind working as he recalls the last day and puts it together with his current situation. He mumbles something, yawns, and crawls out of the bed. He snagged on his breathing pack and had to go back for it. Once he was back on the ground, he walks over to Quaritch, leaning on him and glancing at the computer screen with wide, vacant eyes. He might know how to speak some words in English but definitely not how to read them.
He yawns again, stretching, before resting his cheek onto Quaritch's thigh, appearing to be drifting back to sleep for a bit, despite standing and leaning against the older man. His little tail twirls a bit before drooping as he starts to doze. Quaritch can't help himself, he reaches down and picks the boy up under his arms and settles him against his lap. Neteyam doesn't protest, curling around him with his head resting on the man's shoulder.
They stay like that for almost a half hour, Neteyam dozing with the older man whistling a tune from his memory quietly into the little boy's ear and Quaritch reading reports through occasionally peaking to see if Neteyam is still alseep and rocking a bit, before a couple of the recoms walking by again right outside the door, laughing. It wakes Neteyam up again. He leans back a bit and yawns, blinking blearily before turning big golden eyes over at the door and pointing at it. He says something that has a questionable uptick at the end. Guessing at his question, Quaritch nods to it.
"You want to go see what they're up to? Go ahead, now. Go get them."
Neteyam smiles, golden eyes cresting a bit. He's slow to leave Quaritch's lap and the older man holds onto his little arm when the boy stumbles a bit, still half-asleep, before he gives himself a little shake and walks over to the door, hesitating before stepping in range for it to automatically open since it's not locked. He jumps despite having gone through this last night, hand pressing to his chest before his shoulder slump, and he hesitantly goes out of the room. Quaritch watches the little boy go, his little tail twirling in anxiety.
The door hisses shut behind him, and Quaritch hears the recoms calling out to Neteyam excitedly. The chatter drawls away from his door and he forces himself to turn back around and get to work now that he can focus. The little blue distraction out of his line of sight.
Quaritch blinks at the loud din that catches his attention over two hours later as soon as he returned to the recom quarters from going to check in with Ardmore. He figured it would be proper to check in personally and take that chance to take a cursory look at Bridgehead. And it was like it was described to him. A lot of military personnel, which was expected, but there was also an ungodly number of avatars. Strangely enough, the recoms could blend in so effortlessly amongst them. Literally no one would be able to tell who amongst them was an avatar and who wasn't without directly addressing it or knowing ahead of time.
At least, they wouldn't. Quartich and his men know their faction and that's enough. Well, not their faction. Their people. Yeah.
As for Ardmore, she is as pleasant as before. Condescending and meaning it. Demanding beyond reason for problems to have "been dealt with yesterday." Both literally and figuratively seeing as if they had managed to capture Jake Sully even with Ardmore's shotty intel, then this all would have been over, that's true. Thankfully, despite her hard-ass attitude, she's not without grace and magnanimously allowed them to proceed as Quaritch saw fit so long as he "got it done." But she made no mention of Neteyam which Quaritch isn't sure is a good thing, or a bad one.
He steps out of the dividing room between facility sections and heads for the commons. He stops at the entryway just down the hall from the dividing room, crossing his arms over his chest, eyebrows raised at the sight before him.
Neteyam lets out a squeal of joy, running back and forth across the commons, effortlessly leaping up onto the narrow back of the couch, along the arms, even bouncing across the pillows. Up onto the sitting chairs with grace. All of it, so smooth and effortless. His big, golden eyes are bright with joy. His chest is heaving hard from excitement. Ja, Fike and Warren are bouncing around pretending to try and catch him, but the little boy is fast, ducking beneath their hands and squeezing between them. He's breathless, laughing in gasps. The others are gathered around, watching them play. Zhang and Walker are sipping from their coffee cups while Brown is whispering something into Z-dog's ear, which she huffs at.
Neteyam looks over at Quaritch, catching his arched eyebrowed look, a small quirk to the corner of his mouth. Neteyam's eyes brighten with greater joy, stabbing something warm into Quaritch's chest as the little boy leaps off the arm of the chair and sprints for Quaritch. The Colonel opens his arms in time to catch the little boy and pull him up to his chest. Neteyam is panting and sweating and laughing through it all. His body is shaking with exhaustion despite the joy all over his face and the racing of his heart. The sweet boy starts talking to him, mostly in Na'vi, which none of them knows, but says "Ja" and "Fike" and "Warren" with more clarity in English.
"Were you getting the better of them?" Quaritch asks, moving a bit so that the boy was resting on his arms comfortably.
He doesn't understand, but the hitch in Quaritch's tone - the lilt that turned it from easy going to almost playful - flashed excitement across the little boy's face. He seems to recognize it, leaning into Quaritch's chest and rattling off a long explanation, gently framing the man's face with his hands as he talks, livelier and more excited than he was yesterday. Today is a good day for him, despite the wheezing in his mask.
Neteyam rests against Quaritch, still grinning brightly, as he looks over at the other recoms gathered around. The only ones not present is Mansk, Prager and Lopez. Quaritch glances around the room as Warren jumps up next to him, hands up, fingers wiggling in a tickling motion. Neteyam squeals in joy, wrapping tighter around Quaritch as if the man could protect him.
Little tail swinging back and forth happily, Neteyam laughs, squirming in Quaritch's arms as Warren tickles his sides. The colonel makes note of the missing recoms and glances over at Lyle to see if it was anything that he had to worry about. Lyle shakes his head, reading his expression with practiced efficiency. It wasn't anything that needed to be worried about. He nods, rocking a bit while Neteyam wiggles, grinning broadly at Warren. He coughs, wheezes and giggles, resting against Quaritch when Warren squeezes his little shoulders and backs up to give him space.
"He's been running around like a mad man since you left, colonel," Fike says grinning at the panting boy. "It looks like he's starting to feel better."
"Good," Quaritch says, keeping his voice intentionally even. He walks around, patting the boy's back. Neteyam wraps his arms around Quaritch's neck, whispering something softly to him while running a finger over the shoulder strap of the older man's tank top.
"So..." Ja says slowly, sitting down onto the couch next to Z-dog after she deemed it safe since the little blue tornado is now contained to a single space. "When I got up this morning, someone just so happened to have abandoned his post on the couch..."
"Couldn't sleep, I guess," Quaritch says intentionally flippant, walking over to the fridge to get some water for Neteyam. "But don't worry," he continues, passing the water bottle over to Neteyam who takes it immediately, pulling down his mask, and drinks greedily. Tipping the bottle straight up and leaning as far back as he can. Quaritch watches him closely to ensure that he doesn't start choking. "He will be sleeping out on the couch tonight until we can find a place for him."
Quaritch wakes up to the sound of his door opening and light tapings of little feet making their way over to him. He rolls over to squint over at Neteyam as the door whispers closed behind him. Quaritch considered locking his door before going to bed just a few short hours before, but he didn't. He hesitated at the last minute. What a silly thing... not to do.
Neteyam stops by Quaritch's side, sniffling a bit but he's not crying like he was the night before, although he's obviously still shaken. He reaches out little hands and resting them along the length of Quaritch's arm. He leans in close so that he's staring into Quaritch's eyes. The bioluminescent freckles along his body are significantly brighter today than they were the day before.
"You should be in bed," Quaritch drawls out, his voice rough from sleep.
"Sempul," Neteyam says softly. He continues on, bring Quaritch's hand up to his chest as he talks, cradling it like the man would pull away from him. The thought didn't cross his mind.
After Neteyam stops talking, he coughs lightly into his mask, but he turns away as if to cough into his shoulder but forgets about his mouth already being covered. Quaritch stares at the markings drawling out an intricate and beautiful design on his skin. There is even a bit of a glow to his big, golden eyes. Something that no doubt helps them hunt at night. Probably the reason why his own vision during the night has improved so much since awakening as a recom. Or... coming to life?
Whatever.
Quaritch fights to not close his hand around the little ones holding his. Why it was him that they little boy constantly sought comfort from, he has no idea. And he would like to think that it would annoy him, but it doesn't. It pokes and picks at a place in the center of his chest, digging out more and more pieces of him. But he can't focus on that. He clears his throat, blinking the bit of sleep from his eyes, and says, "Well? What are you doing in here, Neteyam? You should be asleep."
"Sempul," Neteyam says again, then keeps going. He stops, sighing, as if realizing that Quaritch doesn't understand a word of it. He reaches out a single hand and lightly touches Quaritch's face. "Sempul." He pats Quaritch's cheek. "Sempul..."
"What?" Quaritch says, voice soft, despite him knowing that he shouldn't outwardly acknowledge it. Not give a voice to that desire that lurked inside of him. To answer that call. He couldn't hear the boy call him that. Not over and over again. Not so softly and so sweetly. Not as if begging for the man to love him with just a single, soft-spoken word. Two days, and it was killing him. This little boy was going to be the death of him.
Neteyam says something, carefully moving to sit onto the bed, staring down at Quaritch. "Sempul," he says again. Quaritch tries not to smile at the kid's boldness despite the hollowing in his chest. He's obviously trying to convey that he wants to sleep in Quaritch's bed, but he doesn't have the words for it. So, he's just trying to slowly worm himself into place, like Quaritch wouldn't be able to stop him once he's there.
"What?" Quaritch asks again, managing to control his facial expressions. "You got to use your words. How am I supposed to understand if you don't?"
Neteyam scoots closer, pressing up against Quaritch's side. He reaches up one hand to rub the dampness from his long, dark lashes, before shifting closer still to Quaritch. "Daddy?" He shifts to English and points to the other side of Quaritch's bed, toward the wall and says something with an upturned lilt to his words. Na'vi was hard enough. Na'vi was foreign. It was still spoken in a little voice that could trick him. That he could trick himself into believing it wasn't what was being said. But that... that word. that little voice, it was enough to cause a fissure inside of him.
"You want to sleep there?" Quaritch asks, because he wants to suffer. Because knowing that one day Neteyam was going to leave him wasn't enough to stop him from just wanting... a moment. A single moment to have what Jake Sully had taken from him. One moment, that's all he wants.
Neteyam blinks, not understanding. But he points again to the space between Quaritch and the wall that is conveniently large enough for him to fit. Quaritch looks at it, then back over at Neteyam expectantly. The fissure growing larger inside of him.
"What?" he asks again.
"Daddy," Neteyam says again, pointing to the spot still. "Sleepy."
Quaritch sighs, despite this being exactly what that little part of him that stopped him from locking his door hours before had warned him would happen. He reaches out for the boy who eager lifts his arms up. He tucks his legs close to his body so that he can be passed over Quaritch easier, tail twirling in happiness. Neteyam immediately lowers down to press his face against Quaritch's shoulder, curling up. A soft, gentle purr escapes him, pleased, as he snuggles into the heat of the older man and closes his eyes, already ready to go to sleep.
His smile is angelic as he stares up at Quaritch before big golden eyes droop closed. Quaritch turns carefully to look down at the little boy, frowning. He carefully watches as all signs of consciousness fade from his body. His shoulders relax, his face softens more than it already is, and his breathing deepens with a slight wheeze. Once Quaritch is sure the boy is completely asleep, he carefully removes the breathing pack from around his little body and rests it up on the headboard again before relaxing against the pillow and stare down at that little sleeping face.
Quaritch sighs, trying to ignore the feeling blossoming in his chest as he stares down at the little boy. Once more, Quaritch has to wonder what it would be like if Miles Jr was here with him. If this was something normal that a father and son would do. He was never close to his own old man, but he also knew that the Na'vi were a little different. He didn't know a lot about child rearing when it came to human children and even less about Na'vi child rearing.
He just... doesn't know. He doesn't know anything. He's just making stuff up as he goes along. Not... not that he's child rearing or anything. They just... are holding onto him until Quaritch can decide what he's going to do.
Neteyam shifts, curling up into a little ball, his fist hands resting by his face as his tail wraps around his little legs. He scoots closer, pressing his forehead into Quaritch's arm before falling still once more.
"What are you doing to me?" Quaritch asks softly. The little boy doesn't respond, eyelids moving while he dreams. "Two days isn't anything," he says quietly. "It doesn't change anything. What has to be done is going to be done."
Neteyam doesn't respond, but Quaritch doesn't intend for him to. It's not personal. It can't be.
No one says anything about Neteyam leaving Quaritch's room the following morning as well. Maria just sat him down, fed him, and together with Quaritch and Wainfleet, brought him back to the medical wing. They took more blood samples, checked his temperature, and poked and prodded him until Neteyam couldn't take it anymore. They did give him more medicine and a refill on his air before he left. He cried in Quaritch's arms all the way back to the Recom quarters while the other recoms are running drills outside for the first time since they woke up.
Or, were brought to life.
Neteyam only cried, thankfully, but he was inconsolable for a half hour that followed. And Quaritch carried him around without complaint. He had Lyle and Maria join drills and Neteyam just sat in Quaritch's arms, watching them go through their practiced routine until the tears stopped. He didn't seem to fully understand what they were doing, but eventually hopped down from Quaritch's arms and tried to copy them, thinking that they were playing.
He didn't do any of the weightlifting or firearms training, in fact that scared him beyond words, he had to go back to the recom quarters to hide from the sound. Quaritch had left to try and see if there was something that he could do to occupy Neteyam's time. He got him a bottle of water, set him up in front of the television and put on a show. It took him a while, but he figured out how to change the audio settings to Na'vi. Neteyam seemed so perplexed by it, he sat and stared at it with wide eyes and parted lips. He looks completely enraptured by the images.
Quaritch is certainly not going to get him used to sitting in front of the television, but maybe to avoid at least firearms training. No doubt the sound reminds him of the attack that separated him from his parents. Which he still hasn't really brought a lot of attention to. Which Quaritch thought was strange. But so long as the boy was still being docile about it, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
They find themselves into a routine for the next week. The poison in his system is finally worked out and the tail end of cold revealed itself. He had the sniffles and a cough that persisted for the whole week but eventually was able to stop using the beathing mask. Every night Quaritch insisted that Neteyam would sleep on the couch, and every night he started there, but then at some point throughout the night Quaritch would wake up to the door he didn't lock opening up and Neteyam coming in to ask to sleep with him, all the while already crawling into bed to go to sleep without a true yes or no.
Neteyam would join them for drills, running around in the outdoors, enjoying himself, same with weightlifting. He never participated - unless it was to sit on Mansk's back, laughing in joy as the man did push up with Neteyam perched along his spine, rocking back and forth with the motion - but he did run around the track with them. He couldn't keep up with their larger strides, but he was laughing breathlessly chasing after them.
He seemed to enjoy it. He didn't run on the track - it was too hot in the sun and the material hurt his feet - but he ran in the grass on the inside, making his path slightly shorter than the rest of theirs, but none of them minded. He enjoyed just being able to be with them. He liked what little bit of the obstacle course he could do too, thinking that it was more for playing than anything else.
Neteyam enjoys individual time that he has with each of them as well. He's Warren's helper in the kitchen - and his taste tester, which is always an experience. Neteyam isn't particularly varied with his palate, but every new taste is an experience. That's also how they learned he's deathly allergic to peanuts. That had been a scary experience and another interesting note by the science pukes as no other Na'vi had shown any sort of allergy in their studies, but that could also attribute to his nature as a hybrid. But it also could be from the limited pool of people they pulled from to test if there was any allergies.
Mansk and Prager liked games. All sorts of games, from board games to strategy games, and Neteyam loved to learn how to play them. He was proving to be a wizard at checkers and liked the complexity of chess even though he was no good at it. Communication is still shotty at best, but he liked to watch them play against each other, or when he makes a move, he looks to them to show him if it's something he can do or not. Slowly but surely, he's learning.
Zdinarsik is a painter in her free time. And she's actually pretty good at it. She would have him sit by her side on the floor of her bedroom, painting with his fingers, mixing colors together. He usually just makes the colors for her to use, not really able to understand how to paint yet, but all his little fingers are different colors by the end of it, with smudges all over him. And even over the course of a week, there have been many bathtimes as a result.
Lopez loves movies. Neteyam doesn't know anything about them, but he likes to sit there and watch them whenever his daddy would let them. Daddy wasn't a big fan of him spending a lot of time in front of screens. Which brought him to Fike, who played handheld video games. Neteyam didn't play them, not really having the hand-eye coordination for it, but he liked to rest his head on Fike's shoulder and watch him play. And just like with Lopez, Neteyam usually falls asleep before long. But from the little bits of both that he sees, he enjoys them.
Ja is the fixer. He likes to pull stuff mechanical apart and fix them. Neteyam likes to sit with him, listening to him drone on while working on things. He doesn't understand most of what he's saying, but he does like to hand him things when he asks for them and has tiny enough hands to hold screws and reach into small spaces to grab things. He doesn't understand what any of the things do, but he likes to be there and listen to Ja talk while he hands him things.
Zhang takes him out to play. They walk around the complex or into the forest nearby. Zhang is very quiet and just lets Neteyam do whatever he wants so long as it doesn't put him in danger. He just follows Neteyam around as he explores. Zhang also lets him hang off of him or drag him along to whenever he wants to go next. He holds everything that the little boy has passed to him to carry and even sits with him whenever he sits in the commons, crafting little items from his pile of gathered sticks and twigs and bark and flowers.
Walker loves his hair. After the first few days, someone needed to redo it, and that was her. She used everything he had already in his hair, learning how to weave it in. Then she had Neteyam start making more things and she would figure out how to decorate his braids for him. She took care of his health and body religiously. Any cough or sneeze that escaped him, she was always there to look after him. Thankfully there hasn't been any more of the cold once it ran its course, but she tended to him after his allergic reaction with fervor.
Brown has been trying to teach Neteyam basketball. He is horrible at it, but he loves it. He loves running back and forth, tripping over the ball or bouncing it wrong and having to chase after it. He's way too short to make any shots but he's laughing in joy whenever Brown lifts him up high enough to push the ball into the basket. Nothing nearly as impressive as when Brown is able to just jump and shoot it across the court and make it in, but Neteyam loves it.
Lyle lets Neteyam climb up onto his lap and he quietly reads to him. He carries him around, on his back or his shoulders. He's always there. He's Neteyam's protector. Whenever daddy isn't around, it's Lyle. Well, it's all of them, but Lyle is daddy's best friend. Whenever Neteyam needs to go to medical, daddy always comes, but so does Lyle. And when the scary people come for him, Lyle is always the one that stands between them and him.
And when daddy goes to meetings with the scary lady, Lyle stays with him.
Daddy is daddy. He pretends to be aloof while carrying him around and sitting with him at meals. But late at night, daddy will sit with him and teach him words. And learn words from him. It starts with body parts. Daddy will point to his eyes and say, "eyes" and then Neteyam, when he gets the word, will point to his own and say, "nari". And daddy will say it. Neteyam doesn't fully know how to speak daddy's language, but he is steadily learning to understand it just by listening. More and more each day does everything that the others say become clearer and clearer.
Daddy tries to be tough around him, and whenever Neteyam tries to mimic him, this strange look crosses over his face and he would correct the behavior. Something seems to be holding daddy back that Neteyam doesn't understand, and sometimes, Neteyam fears that daddy is pushing him away. That daddy hates him or only tolerates him and that brings this deep-rooted agony stabbing at the center of his chest, but then daddy holds him. Through nightmares or when he's scared, or sometimes when he opens his arms up to daddy, praying that he won't be rejected.
And he doesn't. Daddy will scoop him up and hold him to his chest. And each and every day, daddy holds him a little bit tighter, a little bit longer. And then daddy stopped leaving him on the couch at night and instead would carry him to bed. Would rock him to sleep in his arms. They would lay side to side at night and daddy would let Neteyam run his fingers over his face and stare into his eyes. And daddy's expression would soften more and more each night.
One week became two, became a month became two.
They still take him to medical appointments where the scary people poke and prod at him, but he's doing better knowing that daddy is always there for him. Except for when it comes to that lady. That scary lady that makes Daddy mad despite the way he smiles when dealing with her. The others don't like her either, but they don't even pretend, not like daddy does. But daddy and the others do everything they can to make sure that they weren't crossing paths. Neteyam appreciated that. She still scared him so bad that sometimes he still wakes up crying and daddy had to comfort him.
The strangest thing is that there are others like daddy. Other five fingered Na'vi. Avatars, daddy calls them. They are different but Neteyam still doesn't understand how that is just yet, but they are scary. Scarier than even the lady because she looks at him - in the very brief, very limited times that he's even been in her vicinity - like he is nothing. Like she's staring through him.
But not them. Their eyes followed him wherever he went. They stared right at him. They called out to him. And when he looks at them, they say things that he doesn't know. Things that make Fike snarl or Prager bare his teeth. Zhang will clench his jaws and heft Neteyam up into his arms and walk away. They don't stop, not even when Ja hit one so hard a spray of blood passed his lips and Fike carried him away. Even as he looked over Fike's shoulder and saw Prager shove another away while Mansk stepped up to the largest of them.
Daddy rounded the corner a moment later and everyone walked away. No one said anything and daddy didn't seem made at Ja for hitting even though Neteyam knows it's not nice. And when Ja spoke with Maria, her face twisted in rage and she snarled something before pulling Neteyam from Fike's arms to cradle him to her chest, petting down his braids and kissing his cheek. Her smile had been soft but angry.
They don't do it scary things when Lyle is around. Frightened cats, Ja would say, glancing at Neteyam, but while they didn't make moves while Lyle was around, they scattered like bugs whenever daddy was around. Just like they had that day Ja hit one of them. They were scared of Lyle, he guessed, but they were terrified of daddy. Neteyam didn't know why because daddy was so sweet and kind to him, but he didn't see those strange Na'vi outside of whenever he is with daddy and members of Blue Team. They didn't leave their little corner of Bridgehead often other than to go to the forest, so any interaction was always limited.
Neteyam tries not to be bothered by those rare, scary things that happen, but overall, he's happy. He knows that everyone worries about him, he can see it in the way they surround him, but he doesn't want them to. He's okay. He hasn't been this happy in a long time.