Author's Note: Sorry about the wait! Enjoy!
When he opens his eyes the next morning, the male is there, hand very gently rubbing his back. Tsyeyk squints up at the cut out of the strange place to see the blue of the sky above. It's morning now, and he slept in later than he usually does. He's been doing that a lot lately. The space is cool, but his growing pile of blankets are so nice and warm that he can snuggle into them and not have to worry about being uncomfortable.
Tsyeyk yawns, rubbing roughly at his face, moving from the warmth of his blanket nest on the floor, to turn into the thigh of the male, seeking comfort. He smiles at the soothing sensation across his back and just that... well, the male is there. Usually, it was only mommy who was there when he would wake up, until she started coming later and later into the day.
And then she stopped coming all together.
Now it's him. Hopefully Tsyeyk can do all the right things to make sure that the male stays with him.
As much and as badly as Tsyeyk missed his mommy, he was glad that someone was there with him. He carefully crawls into the male's lap; in case the male decides to push him away. Thankfully, he spreads his arms out so give Tsyeyk room to rest one cheek rest on the male's knee while his legs drape over the other. The male's hand rubs over his neck, his shoulder and arm, and then his ribs. Back and forth soothingly. His little tail taps against the male's thigh, relieved that he didn't push Tsyeyk away.
Tsyeyk has no idea what he did to prove he was good enough, but he's glad that he did.
A large hand, the one not running along his side, lands heavily on the side of his head, gently rubbing his thumb along Tsyeyk's little ear. It's all so soothing, something that mommy hasn't done in a long time - even if he can't completely recall when it was last that she did it, surely, she had - and Tsyeyk doesn't want it to stop. The male didn't try to push him away or tell him that he shouldn't be doing these things, instead he just... holds Tsyeyk, gently rubs his skin and sooths the small spike of anxiety that had flooded through him.
He blearily looks at the pile of his things, neatly placed a few feet from his nest. Out of the way so if he moved around at night, he wouldn't bump anything, but close enough that he could reach out and grab something if he wished to pull it into the nest with him. He's relieved to see that despite the destruction from the day before, at least some of the wonderful things his mommy got for him managed to survive. Even if they looked incredibly different now. Mommy will just be happy to see that Tsyeyk is okay, and he managed to save some of their things.
Tsyeyk dozes a little longer before the male squeezes his ribs and brushes his choppy black hair off of his face.
The male says something with a questioning lilt that makes Tsyeyk squint up at him in the bright room. Despite the sun outside shining through the cut outs in the tree they are in, the orbs of floating light above shine as well, making it hard for him to see all that well. Tsyeyk rolls onto his back on the male's lap, looking up at him curiously. The male says something again and then places his hand on Tsyeyk's stomach. Tsyeyk perks a bit, his tummy growling in interest. Was the male asking him for food? To eat, at least? Because Tsyeyk could definitely eat something.
"I get food?" Tsyeyk asks. He brings his hands over to the one covering his whole tummy and part of his chest. He wraps his hands around the smallest finger on that hand - the extra one he didn't have - and the pointer, holding it in place. "Please?"
The male considers before saying something and rubbing his tummy a little before nodding towards the entrance way into the space. Tsyeyk figures that he was going to get more food out of this, so he smiles, nods, and rolls off of the male's lap, popping up onto his feet. The male smiles lightly and follows him up, reaching out with a hand for Tsyeyk to happily take.
Tsyeyk sits by Grace's feet on the floor by her desk as she works, it's been a few days, and he's getting used to not being at his own home anymore. He likes it here. He likes Grace and Lyle, Ja and Fike and Z, Maria and Zhang and Prager, Mansk and Brown and Warren. He likes that the male - who he still doesn't know the name of - is there for him every morning. He spends most of the day with him and if he can't, at least one of the others would be. But most of the time, they are in large groups, playing with Tsyeyk and looking after him.
They bring him toys and food and they sit with him. Like right now, the male is busy at what Grace calls a "meeting", but Lyle, Ja and Prager are hanging around to keep him company, which he very much enjoys. He hadn't realized how lonely he was before because all he had was mommy, but now he only wants to be around the others. They scare away that feeling and he couldn't be happier for it.
Ja had brought a strange block with movable sections of different colors for him to play with. The colors were all misarranged. Ja called it a "Rubik's cube" and showed him how to move the pieces. The point of the toy is to make sure all the colors are on the same side. That part Grace had to say, seeing as Ja didn't know the words that Tsyeyk and Grace knew.
With his little brow furrowed, he just spins around the pieces at Grace's feet, not listening to the soft voices talking around him. He's struggling to figure out how this all was possible, until he recognized the pattern of movement. He not sure how long he was spinning it around, trying and failing, confusing himself more before it finally starts to make sense to him. It takes a few minutes of concentration before he got a line done. Three greens in a row. One movement on another side dismantled what he got completed. His tail curls, displeased.
Ja lowers down next to Tsyeyk, sitting at his side, still talking with Grace and the others, occasionally looking at Tsyeyk and his process. Tsyeyk doesn't really notice. He just focuses intently on the cube, trying to figure out how it's possible to get one side done let alone six. Try. Try. Try. He would lower the cube to his lap, letting out a little sigh in frustration, not sure how to do this. He looks around the adults talking around him before putting them out of his mind and focuses back on his cube, determined to figure it out. And then, after what feels like forever, he does.
"Ja!" Tsyeyk gasps, lips spreading in joy as he holds up the cube to show him, eyes bright. The pride is evident in his voice. "Look!"
Ja blinks at the red side pointed toward him, smiling and taking it. "Gud boiee. Yuu got ohne..." he stops, turning the cube to the white side, then the yellow. His golden eyes widen as he spins the cube around. "Holey sheet! Hez a fuking jeenius! Luk!" He holds the cube up for the others to see. He tosses it over to Lyle for the other man to curiously look it over. "Ii hav had this theng foreevr ahnd havent figuurd it out!"
"Oh, wow," Grace murmurs, eyes wide. All the while Lyle looks at it curiously, spinning the whole cube around in his hand as if to inspect it. Prager leans against the table, looking down it. He whistles.
Ja grabs onto Tsyeyk and rolls onto his back, holding Tsyeyk up above him supporting his weight with his hands over the little boy's chest and ribs. Tsyeyk giggles in joy as the man bounces him up and down a bit, grinning broadly. Ja twists his hands back and forth letting Tsyeyk sway with it, his giggling increased, eyes crested in joy. His long kuru slips over his shoulder and hangs with the longer strands of his hair in the space between them. Tsyeyk's legs curl up so that he doesn't kick the male playing with him, tail swaying in joy.
Lyle undoes Tsyeyk's work and offers it back to him once Tsyeyk is placed back onto the floor next to Ja. Tsyeyk blinks, curiously, as he takes the cube from Lyle, twisting it around with a little pout on his face as he realizes that all his hard work was gone. Then after sending that cute little pout up to Lyle for undoing the cube, he tries his hand at fixing what was undone. Lyle smirks at him and murmurs an apology but Tsyeyk is already back to work, little brow furrowed once more as he tries to replicate what he did before.
This time, they all watched as he worked through what he did before until it was done once more. Then he showed it off again, smiling as Grace praised him, the little hair above her eyes shot towards her hairline and the three other males were talking slightly animated to one another.
After that, it was all sorts of games or other little puzzles, things that they offered him some direction, but mostly just left him to figure it out on his own. Sticks with rings moving from one side to the other without bigger rings being placed on smaller ones. More complex Rubik's cubes. All sorts of things that are growing increasingly more difficult, but he was enjoying it. The attention, the happiness. He would do anything to keep it.
Tsyeyk lays against the male's side, his head resting in the curve of the male's shoulder as they stare up at the starry night sky close to the large gray trees that separate the forest from Grace's home. Somewhere that people don't go, at least not while Tsyeyk has been there. The male was saying things that Tsyeyk didn't understand but was pointing to the stars, to the large planet that swallows most of the sky. The little boy's eyes follow where the male points, even if he doesn't understand what he's saying.
They have been spending an increasing amount of time together over these last few days. More and more. This was just one of the many ways that they were getting to know each other, despite the male not using a lot of the words that Tsyeyk knows. Occasionally, a word or two will slip in that he knows, but mostly he's left unsure. All that he can do is follow body language and hand gestures, that he's getting better at reading.
Tsyeyk presses close to his warmth, growing increasingly used to the physical contact that these people are willing to offer him. Even this male, which started out pretty reserved and seems like he's floundering on what exactly he wants from Tsyeyk, he is just as kind as the rest of them. Something about him Tsyeyk really likes. He's been so kind and so gentle and comforting to Tsyeyk. He likes the male and loves the time they spend together.
The male might not be able to be with him all day every day, but either he's there for Tsyeyk every morning, or every night before bed, sometimes both, sometimes all day long. But he always sees the male. At least once a day. And the male being there, consistently, is important to him. It eases a growing terror in him. That he'll do something to make the male not want to be with him anymore.
Tsyeyk is always so excited to see the male who he feels this connection with. He comes back. He always comes back, day after day, and Tsyeyk is so thankful for every time he sees him. The male likes to hold him, carrying him around a lot or hugging him. These people have all been very touchy-feely with him, which he loves, but this male always just looks at him and touches him so gently as if afraid to hurt him. He doesn't know why that is or how to assure him that he's not hurting Tsyeyk.
The little boy turns to curl more into the male's side, looking up from his shoulder to see the male looking down at him. The male wraps his arm around Tsyeyk, holding him close as they stare at one another. Tsyeyk smiles at the male, and he smiles back, his expression gentle, growing more so as the days go by. Like whatever thing it is that has been keeping him so sad is soothed more as time passes.
The male murmurs something softly to him but Tsyeyk doesn't understand.
"Not words," Tsyeyk says. "I don't know them. Say words I know?"
He blinks at the male. He's spent enough time around these people to know that only Grace seems to fully understand him. Maria seems to understand him more than any of the rest of them, but her words are limited. The male here seems to offer his rapt attention whenever Tsyeyk speaks, even if he doesn't understand. Mommy wasn't like that. She spent so much time not looking at him when he spoke, he just didn't know what he was doing wrong, but the rest of them look at him. They talk to him. They listen to him even when they don't understand and touch his skin. They give him clothes and help him bathe. Give him toys and food without him having to ask. They are so nice to him.
"Tsyeyk," the male says. One of the few words that the male knows that's the same as what the little boy knows. Tsyeyk.
"Yes?" Tsyeyk asks, leaning up a bit, still pressed to his side. The grass under him is a little prickly, but he doesn't mind. He reaches out and lightly runs a little pointer finger along the glowing marks on the male's skin.
"Iem gunna tel yuu. Iee think that Iem redee tu tel yuu hoo iee am. Soon, okaee? Iie promiss."
Tsyeyk tilts his head a little. He doesn't know the words. He doesn't understand. But the male is looking into his eyes, and the tinge of sadness is back. Tsyeyk rests his head on the male's shoulder, reaching up to pet his cheek a bit, hoping that it soothed him like it had last time.
"Don't cry, don't cry," he says, softly. The male hugs him tightly, pulling him close and comfortably tight, pressing a kiss to the center of his forehead. They lay like that for a long time until Tsyeyk's eyes droop closed, and he falls asleep. He doesn't worry about being left out there, like mommy would sometimes do if he fell asleep when he wasn't supposed to, no, this male - and honestly the rest of them too - don't leave him where he lay, he always wakes up back in his little nest, no matter where he fell asleep. And for that, he's grateful because sometimes he's just too tired to keep his eyes open.
Tsyeyk cries. Deep, body shaking sobs, as he clings tightly to the male, terrified that he will just disappear the moment that Tsyeyk takes his eyes away from him. It took many, many days, but eventually the male, who was spending more and more time with Tsyeyk and seemingly warring with something, trying to say it to the little boy, finally seems to make the decision and told him what his name was.
His name was daddy.
Well, it was Miles Quaritch - which he couldn't say, too difficult for his little mouth at the moment - but to Tsyeyk, his name was daddy.
Tsyeyk understands now why Grace was trying to get him to understand that everyone had one of each. Then she confused him by saying sometimes two of one and one of the other, or two of each, but then she just settled on saying one of each. He didn't fully get it, and she apologized for confusing him, but now he understands why on the rare occasion that he saw a child like himself, there was always at least two adults like his mommy with them. Tsyeyk had never really thought about it, but now he understands that his daddy simply hadn't been with him.
Tsyeyk didn't ask why he wasn't there. He didn't really care. His daddy was there now. Since that day that Tsyeyk first saw him, he has been with Tsyeyk. If they aren't in a large group going out wandering the forest - sometimes with Grace, sometimes without - then he did all sorts of different things with them. They would walk around his daddy's home in the forest, or out on their strange trees were his daddy's friends would run through all these strange... things as fast as they could, swinging from white branches, crawling under strange pokey roots, climb flat trees. All very strange, but Tsyeyk loved running with them, his little legs struggling to keep up, but they didn't mind. They would cheer and urge him faster if he fell behind.
And other times, Tsyeyk would sit with Grace, and she would teach him more words and counting, helping to correct any and all bad habits that he picked up from simply observing the other Na'vi around him. Mommy never taught him how to speak really, and so she never really showed him how to better say the words that he wasn't saying right or didn't know at all. It was hard at first, trying to understand how he was wrong, and while they have only done it for a short amount of time, he feels like he's understanding so much more than he did before. And Grace keeps saying that he's a "very smart little boy".
And yes. Yes, he is.
They play those games that make Tsyeyk have to think really hard to figure out, but everyone is so proud of him when he does it. He's getting so good. He's getting them faster and doing them better. And if they are proud of him, if they like him, then maybe they won't leave him if he messes up again. Maybe they'll give him more chances to do better.
Finally, after so many days of them being together, Daddy and Grace sat him down out in the garden that the people Grace works with like to see to, and Grace carefully explained to him who his daddy was. Explained that for Tsyeyk, he was made by a mommy and a daddy, and while he spent so much of the beginning of his life with his mommy, he still had a daddy too. And that was the male that found him. Or better yet, who Tsyeyk found first. She tried to explain that there were ways of daddies not knowing about their babies - because that's what Tsyeyk was, he was daddy's baby - but now that his daddy knew about him, there wasn't anything that was going to separate them again.
Then, as Tsyeyk cried and held onto his daddy, begging him to never leave him, just in case Grace was wrong about daddies never leaving because it turns out that mommies do sometimes, Grace left them so that his daddy could hold him. He was rocking back and forth, and kissing Tsyeyk's wet cheeks, his wild hair, his forehead, murmuring something soothing but not using words that Tsyeyk knew.
Grace said that it was called English, these words that he didn't understand. She said that it was because it was entirely different from his own words. When he asked her why, she said it was because they came from different places. Like how there was a big Grace and a small Grace because one body comes from where she comes from, so too, is their words.
Tsyeyk kind of understands.
"Tsyeyk's daddy?" Tsyeyk asks him, wrapping his arms and legs around his daddy, hugging him tightly. "Tsyeyk's daddy?" He was scared to let him go. What if his daddy left him like his mommy did? Maybe Tsyeyk wasn't good enough to have his mommy and daddy at the same time? Could that be it?
"Yes," Daddy says, and Tsyeyk has grown to understand that word in daddy's language. "Yes, Tsyeyk."
Tsyeyk sobs, rubbing his cheek against his daddy's, scared that he'll disappear. His daddy gently rubs at his back, moving to stand so that he can sway back and forth. He holds him close and Tsyeyk is thankful that he doesn't seem to want to let go of Tsyeyk as much as he doesn't want to be let go. So, his daddy just walks around the paths, his eyes looking around the building, making nonsense twists and turns that Tsyeyk doesn't understand, but he doesn't say anything. One, because he knows that his daddy doesn't understand him yet and two, because he doesn't really care enough to ask.
So long as Tsyeyk can prove that he's good enough for his daddy to keep around, that's all he cares about.
They walk around for a while, daddy softly murmuring and kissing Tsyeyk's ear, as the little boy struggles to get his emotions under control. He holds tightly to his daddy, nuzzling his cheek and occasionally while looking around at the darkening sky, he'll sniffle and then press another tight hug around his daddy's neck. The forest beyond starts to lighten up as the beasts of the day transition to the beasts of the night. Tsyeyk is happy not to have to worry about sleeping when the beasts are around while he's here with daddy and Grace. He hasn't seen one get close since having been brought here.
Which is a relief.
They walk into a place, "building" Grace called it, where the avatars sleep. There are two sections, one for the avatars that work for Grace, and another building on the other side that is for daddy and his avatars. Most of them were in there already, taking up all of the nests. There seems to be one for each of them. Ja, Z, and Prager are sitting at the third bed on the left side of the room, while Lyle is sitting along at the furthest to right, putting his gear away in a trunk under the bed. Fike, Maria, Warren and Brown were laying unmoving in their beds. Zhang and Mansk were on patrol. Tsyeyk only understands that patrol means they are out walking around, but he doesn't know what the point is beyond that.
As they make their way over to Lyle, Tsyeyk rasps out, voice low and rough with his previous sobs, "Wyle, it's Tsyeyk's daddy!" And he points to his daddy, blinking thick, wet lashes. Lyle twists around, tilting his head a bit to look at them. He blinks golden eyes before a grin pulls at his lips, looking between them.
"Oh?"
Tsyeyk nods, wrapping his arms tightly around his daddy, sniffling. "Yes. Tsyeyk's daddy." He rubs his cheek against his daddy's, tail curling loosely around the arm wrapped under him.
Lyle scoots over so that Daddy could sit down next to him, resting Tsyeyk on his lap. Tsyeyk distracts himself with the strange flat things hanging off his daddy's neck. They are smooth and a strange silver color, drooping low to the center of his chest. To which all he is wearing is simple green top that Tsyeyk is growing used to most of them wearing, only his daddy's strange top was showing off his arms. One of which had a marking of a winged creature on it that Tsyeyk liked to trace with the tip of his little pointer finger.
While he was doing that, Lyle says, "So, yuu fineally told him. Seems liek hee tuk it wel. Allredy cawling yuu daddy."
Daddy's chest rumbles a bit, fingers running in soothing motions up and down Tsyeyk's back. "Fineally manedged tuu geht him tuu stohp criiying..." A soft kiss to his messy hair. "He hazent leht go uf mii sinse."
Lyle lets out a huff. "Uv corse. Yuur hiz daddy. He luvs yuu."
Daddy hugs him tightly, kissing the top of his head again before letting him go after Tsyeyk squeaks softly at the strength of his hug. Not that Tsyeyk is at all protesting. He liked the feeling of it and even after his daddy loosened his hold, Tsyeyk still rested against him, turning his attention back to the strange silver things dangling by his eyes. He touches them gently, recognizing that everyone but Grace and those like her had the same ones. He wonders what they are.
"Hez mii baebee," his daddy says softly.
A beat of silence, then just as softly, Lyle says, "Yeh he iz."
A few more soft pets down Tsyeyk's back, then, "Thaynk yuu, Lyle. Fore luking aftur him."
"It wazn't dificolt. Hez miraculusly wel ajusted fur the shit hez bin throo. Hav yuu bin fallowing Augustine's charts? Shee thinkz that hez a bonifiied jeanius."
"Yea," daddy says, pushing some of the longer strands of Tsyeyk's hair down his back. "Shee sayz he lernd the langwage frum just lisening to other Na'vi tahlk."
"Ahnd he sulvs evry puzel put in frunt uv him. Shit Ii cahnt do."
"Naht tuu hard tuu fiind sumwon tuu duu that, Lyle!" Ja teases from across the room. Lyle makes a hand gesture at him that makes Ja and Prager laugh and a smile to curl at the corners of Z's lips. She wiggles her fingers at Tsyeyk when he peaks around his daddy to look at them, curiously.
He giggles, waving his hand back at her. She fully smiles at him. The males exchanged some more words while Tsyeyk idly look between them but before long, with the sky pitch black outside with only the gentle light of the forest outside of his view of the opening to the space, Tsyeyk let out a long yawn, flagging against his daddy and rubbing at his eyes.
Ja, Prager and Z all moved to separate nests, all very different from Tsyeyk's, saying something similarly to Tsyeyk, waving at him before laying down and falling asleep immediately. "Night night," Tsyeyk murmurs softly, eyes bouncing between the three now unmoving figures.
He leans back a bit to look up at his daddy to find the older male's eyes on him, soft and gentle.
"Iiem gunna do rite bii yuu, beutifull boyee. Nowon needz tuu no abowt yuu. Bluu teem and Augustine arr enuff. No RDA, no Selfridge. Just us."
"Biing hed of sacurity haz its perks," Lyle says easily, reaching over and running the back of a finger over Tsyeyk's cheek. When the little boy glances over at him, he says, "Yuu arr luved, kiddo. We arr yuur famalee now. We'er yurs and yuur owrs."
He doesn't know what Lyle said to him, but he smiles and the older male smiles back. "Go to sleep now, Wyle?" Tsyeyk asks, knowing that most of the time daddy and his people pile into this building together. All they are missing right now is Zhang and Mansk.
"Iiem lerning, kiddo," Lyle says, shaking his head. "Iiell undrrstand yuu soon."
Tsyeyk's ears twitch as creases appear between his big blue eyes, trying to understand the words, but doesn't. He lets out a little huff, shoulders drooping. Lyle laughs, reaching out to gently tuck some of his messy black hair behind his ear. Tsyeyk reaches up to take his hand, which makes the older male squeeze it tightly. He leans forward to give the back of his hand a kiss.
Tsyeyk's tail curls a bit. "That tickles," he giggles.
Lyle grins, giving his hand a little squeeze before letting him go. Daddy moves to stand, saying something in farewell to Lyle, who returns it before waving at Tsyeyk and moving to lay down, while Daddy walks to the entrance again. They go out into the warm night, Tsyeyk resting his cheek on his daddy's shoulder while they head back to the place - building, Tsyeyk, remember that - where Tsyeyk's nest is. Once they get inside, Tsyeyk shivers at the shift from hot to cold.
Daddy carries him all the way to his nest before lowering down into a sit and laying Tsyeyk into his nest, wrapping him up tight in his blankets. Tsyeyk didn't get the chance to insist his daddy stay a little longer as his daddy settles in, laying down on his side next to Tsyeyk. He tucks all of Tsyeyk's limbs under the covers before propping his head up on a fist and placing the other hand into the blankets to hold Tsyeyk's.
"Thank you, Daddy," Tsyeyk says softly, tension bleeding out of his little body. He was so worried that his daddy would be upset for asking him to stay. For not being a good boy. But daddy must have known that was what Tsyeyk wanted.
He shifts closer, holding Daddy's hand tightly before letting his eyes drift closed. He's exhausted from crying earlier and his eyes hurt. Hopefully he'll be all better in the morning and he and daddy can spend the whole day together. Daddy stayed with him until he fell asleep. Tsyeyk was so lucky. Already, he had the best daddy in the entire world.