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killakirby · 1 year

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‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ hummingbird ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙

notifications ☽︎: fem!navi!reader, selectivelymute!reader, deaf!reader, sully family x reader (platonic), side!neteyam x reader, self harm, panic attacks, sensory overload, child neglect and abuse, canon typical violence, no proofreading whatsoever lmao, 7.5k words

requested ☽︎: uhh sort of?? i reached out to the lovely @inutheangel who happily dealt with my rambling and decided to give writing a mute and deaf reader a shot! so i am really thankful they wanted to see this!

developer's notes ☽︎: okayyyyyyy! i am back! i was originally planning to get this out like last friday but i got reallyyy sick. like 103 degree fever for two days sick, multiple antibiotics, bed rest, no energy type beat. and i worked on it when i could but school started for me and it was taking everything in me to recover lmao. n e ways…. this is my child now. thank you @inutheangel, for gracing me with the opportunity to write this, and for answering all of my questions, and i hope you are pleased!!

so this is a fem!reader, who’s also selectively mute and deaf. i did a bit of research to have a deeper understanding of these conditions, but i didn’t get too technical with it because i didn’t want to bore anyone, and this piece is already long enough without drawn out details. so it’s sort of? family-centric and follows the plot of the second movie loosely, because i couldn’t decide how to include it fully and that would’ve been an even longer work. it’s an 18 page long google doc, please spare me. i apologize to the besties reading on mobile. this whole work consists of headcanons, but i’m lowkey thinking about writing scenarios, and drabbles about fem!mute!deaf!na’vi!reader, which is a mouthful so i’m just going to call her hummingbird!reader, because jake calls her that in these hcs lol. if you want to see more of hummingbird!reader, and have any ideas of your own, or any fun thoughts about her and interactions with the sully’s let me know and i genuinely will respond and enthuse about this!

if i missed any tw's let me know, if you want more of hummingbird!reader let me know, and of course, enjoy!

much love, kirby <3 !!!

your father who died due to wounds being sustained when fighting the sky people

neytiri gave birth to neteyam 4 months before your father passed, and is the one to inform reader’s mother as they are close friends.

your mother is barely 6 months pregnant with you, and the news about her mate sends her into distress and early labor

jake who was close with your parents (being two of the few omatikaya who eagerly helped him learn their ways) frantically got in touch with norm and max when the elders who were assisting your mother said that both you and your mother would probably die during childbirth.

norm and max perform a successful c-section not only saving you and your mother; you are born drastically underweight, barely half the size of your mother’s forearm, and you fail to breastfeed properly and you are transported to the lab to receive proper nourishment

your mother comes with, needing time to heal from c-section and the instinct to be close to you, but her behavior will change unbeknownst to everyone

when you become healthy enough to leave with your mother and return to the omatikaya clan, she’s aided by the women in the tribe helping her raise and nourish you in the absence of her mate, but it is mainly neytiri who sticks by her side bringing neteyam and, jake who stops on his own to watch over you as he promised your father he would

but when she’s alone with you… her instinctive mothering nature begins to dwindle, your face mirrors your fathers, and your mother hurts whenever she looks at you

she ignores your cries for her attention only seeming to return to the present when other na’vi come to check in on why your screams haven’t ceased

and as you grow stronger and older, her feelings of anguish and despair transform into anger.

she refers to you as a demon child, never stopping to remind you that you nearly killed her in the process of your birth, that she wishes you were never born, and that she’d trade your life for your father’s without hesitation

you do not understand her words yet, you understand her body language and the hostility radiating off of her

you're nearing two years of age, and it gets worse. you have yet not begun to speak. no first words, not a single babble besides cries. and she begins to compare you to other children your age who are developing normally

she yells at you for being a stupid, worthless child, embarrassing her with your silence. her volume raises even more when she finds you not even turning to look at her while she screams at you talks to you, failing to notice that you literally cannot hear her

she’s practically breaking the sound barrier raging for you to look at her while she’s talking to you. she marches over—roughly pulling your arm to get you to look at her— and your pained yelp is the only sound that escapes you as she continues to berate you

tiny ears pinned back in distress, tail tucked between your legs to match eyes wide with fear and confusion— not understanding why your mother only treats you like this you’ve seen how sweet neytiri is to her children

you’ve become numb to your mother’s behavior. you adapted to survive her anger. learning to avoid her at all costs; staying as far away from her as possible when she begins one of her tyrants. but this is her first time becoming physical with you

her bruising grip at your arm drops and switches to ripping your hair out yanking at your braids pulling your head backwards uncomfortably, scalp burning, and you begin to scream and cry

she’s completely delusional, cackling, “now you start making noise”

jake who was not far from your dwelling, is preparing a few carcasses to be cooked, when his ears picked up on your cries

he brushes off the first wave of your tears assuming it's just regular childlike tantrums which you rarely have without good reason anymore

jake who fails to brush off tears the second time, your mother’s vengeful screams paired with your terrified cries—his paternal affliction for you overrides him and he rushes to get to you

you blank out of most of the altercation, only remembering seeing the olo’eyktan’s angry expression when he enters the tent, and eventually ending up returning to awareness in neytiri’s arms head hugged to her chest, feeling her sobs

you pull away confused at the change in scenery, looking around a little panicked unknowing of how you ended up in the sully’s tent; neteyam, kiri and jake nowhere to be seen

neytiri who tries to calm you down, but you do not even react, only turning to reach up at her face— a painfully adorable confused expression on your face as you pat her face trying to wipe her tears her heart breaks for you

your mother is probably banished to another clan i don’t know the logistics of that but she is definitely not welcome to stay neytiri would rip her fucking tracks out on god

and from that point forward you are basically adopted by the sully’s

neytiri accepts you as her own daughter, feeling responsible for not being aware of your mother’s neglectful and abusive treatment of you. she’d do anything for you (when you reach an older age she offhandedly mentions that she almost slaughtered your mother lol)

jake fully accepts you as well; he’s angry at himself for not protecting you as he should have. he’s extremely gentle with you, still treating you carefully as you’re still on the smaller side of average you’re barely bigger than kiri even though your almost a year older than her

neteyam and kiri are thrilled that you’re here to play with them forever. both of them accept you with minimal confusion; kiri is extremely grateful that she has someone to help her in bothering her older brother

when lo’ak is born, neteyam and kiri were interested in their baby brother at first but soon become bored when they realize he can’t play with them yet and even more uninterested when all lo’ak seems to do is eat, sleep, and cry. emphasis on the crying part

you on the other hand, are thrilled at having a baby brother, eager to hold him and stay by his side with neytiri and jake.

when neytiri and jake awake to lo’ak’s shrill screams in the middle of the night, neteyam and kiri are awoken as well disgruntled at the interruption of their sleep. but you stay asleep, as if you never heard his cries.

neytiri and jake, who take this as a blessing at first, because they don’t have to soothe all of their children back to sleep. but as all of you continue growing, neytiri and jake begin to become concerned

you still haven't made any effort with words, and they start to notice your lack of reaction at speech, and the sounds of pandora all around you

jake’s sweet call of your nickname “hummingbird” because all you seem to do is hum so quietly it’s almost inaudible, he repeats himself multiple times to try and get your attention, but ends up having to insert himself into your field of view for you to pay attention

neytiri’s warning for you not to stray too far from them at the river in the jungle, toddling off on your own intrigued by the feeling of the water rushing across your feet, ending up alone by yourself further downstream, hysterically crying (so quietly that its hard for them to find you), the only thing you're able to feel is the vibration of the water that soothes you as it gets darker. and the vibration of her panicked footsteps through the ground rush in your direction before your scooped up by her

kiri asking you to add some beads to her hair, distracted by the field of flowers in front of you, only becoming aware of her request when she pats you on the shoulder and you jump unaware of her being that close

neteyam asking if you want to play hide and seek with him and a couple other kids, he knows you get scared if you’re randomly touched,so he stomps on the ground behind you and you turn around curious at the vibrations, and he asks you again and you squint to read his lips

couldn’t think of anything for lo’ak since he’s just a littol baybee

neytiri and jake who finally bring their questions to norm and max after they see neteyam’s manner of interaction with you

and they finally receive an answer for your behavior. you're selectively mute, and completely deaf !!! wow shocker crazy breathtaking shook unbelievable

this isn’t that much of a surprise to jake, but to neytiri this is unheard of in na’vi society, or at least so rare it’s not talked about

norm and max who theorize that your deafness was due to complications of your premature birth, and that your selective mutism stems from the traumatic relationship with your biological mother

jake and neytiri who are at first distraught with this revelation–and the fact that you won’t be able to experience life like other children– but are quick to ask for ways to communicate better with you

and at around 5 years old you begin speech therapy and your own special version of listening therapy with norm and max!

they do a couple tests with you to see where you are developmentally, and find that you’re actually smarter than most kids your age lmao, when you find out about this you definitely rub it in neteyam’s face.

neteyam who allows your non-verbal smugness parade, finding himself happy at your confidence

they learn that the squinting when you talk isn’t because you can’t see, it’s because you're trying to read their lips as they talk. you struggle with it now. not only because you’re a kid, but also because you’ve never heard the language

and as you spend more time in the lab with norm and max, you get more comfortable with them and learning speech.

the lab is the only place you feel comfortable with your attempts at talking because there’s no pressure from the two, unlike the other na’vi. being around everybody who can hear you struggling to speak correctly, and being teased and mocked by kids your age

norm and max suggest that your family learns sign language to try and help communicate with you

when they taught you how to write to more accurately represent yourself the first thing you wrote was “head hurt,” and tried to gesture that it was because of all the eye strain from squinting to read lips

the sully’s who are now dedicated to learning sign language for you <3

jake, norm, and max all work on developing your special language quickly developing it with the help of fancy sky people technology

and you take to it like a ikran does to flying (i’m working on relevant phrases as you can tell i am struggling lmao)

yet you only use it outside of the lab whenever you muster up enough confidence too, it’s still a form of communication and sometimes you just get so anxious that you shut down even more

the first time you sign with your family is in the comfort around the fire, when lo’ak sets his food on fire. you all freak out for a moment, jake scrambling to put it out, and it’s silent for a minute.

lo’ak who is on the verge of tears, and you hum above your normal volume of damn near silent and everyone’s attention flickers to you, but you do not notice.

you sign a simple, “skxawng. eat mine.” offering him your food

everyone laughs a bit shocked and hysterical at tonight's two big events, lo’ak being a lost cause, and you calling him an idiot

when tuk is born, you are happy to have another girl around to outnumber lo’ak and neteyam.

as a baby tuk loves your consistent quiet humming to your own tune, and you love the vibrations of her giggles and even her cries. you quickly decipher the different feelings of her cries understanding what she wants better that her own parents

now you and neteyam are both around 7, kiri and lo’ak roughly 6, and tuk a newborn

you’ve adapted so quickly in pandora

you’ve become way better with understanding the vibrations you feel beneath your feet; whether it’s an ikran pushing off from the ground, a pa’li nearing closer, a stream flowing nearby, or now spider’s failed attempts to sneak up on you (idk what to do with spider can you tell)

with how much you spend time in the lab with norm and max, you eventually start speaking in small quantities around them

your voice incredibly quiet, as you cannot hear yourself, but you watch their surprise and preen at the praise they give you as you succeed and excel

neytiri and jake who are pissed at the fact that norm and max are the only ones who have heard your voice lmao

the labrats take you out into the jungle to study your reaction to the stimuli in the jungle and notice that the mid-tone humming you do in your throat, actually changes to a higher pitch and sometimes you click

your ears flick towards the ruffling of leaves, the fluttering of insect wings, the rushing of water, the growling of animals, as if you can actually hear

they also notice how you hate when your feet are not touching the ground, your feet are always firmly planted, to feel

you’ve grown so much around norm and max with your speech that you can even read some of their english paperwork to them outloud even if you have no understanding of the bigger words but you still verbally close off when you return to your clan

but hey that’s selective mutism, when they ask why you are unable to speak you find that it’s not because you don’t want to…it feels like you physically can’t

when you and lo’ak are running around out of your parents’ range of hearing you love to speak to him (no matter how quiet your voice is) and everytime lo’ak bursts with joy at the fact that you feel comfortable enough to talk to him #youngerbrotherprivileges

he runs off to tell your parents and siblings that you spoke to him, but you pretend like nothing ever happened and that lo’ak is just imagining things

nobody believes him lmaooo, (i’m grinning)

omg! jake who brings you along to war strategy meeting when the sky people return, with you resting against his chest soaking up the feeling of his strong heartbeat, the softest purr continuously rumbling your tiny body

jake who holds you on his hip and explains the strategies of war to you and the various maps, lowkey using you as a medium to help remember plans better not realizing you’re eager to learn more about how to protect your people

omg major plot point alert!! when you come for a yearly checkup with norm and max, they mention cochlear implants for you

neytiri and jake are thrilled that you may have a possibility to actually hear

but you are scared at the idea of hearing everything

the discussion continues norm and max letting you know it would be a few years until you implants are made as there isn’t a audiologist around to assist them in their creation (idk how this would take realistically, but i’m going with this)

eventually you agree, starting to realize that you’d be able to hear your mom and dad’s voice, your sibling’s laughter, and neteyam’s laugh <3

at this point you have lurked around mo’at soaking up all of her tsahik practices, while neteyam is being taught how to use his bow and knife by jake and neytiri

at first your fine with just learning to be a healer, but eventually you start to see how jake and neytiri treat you and neteyam differently

they still treat you as if you’re the defenseless little girl they adopted years ago and neteyam as if he’s a full blown warrior

one more morning of watching neytiri and jake gather their various weapons, and neteyam begin to grab his own, while you’re being sent to mo’at to learn more about eywa (whom you love, but it’s begin to become repetitive, as you’ve heard her lessons many times before) you’ve finally had enough!

you walk up to jake and neytiri, shoulders raised upwards with unbridled anger and begin vigorously signing and them, a little to fast for them to catch up

neteyam who translates the bits and pieces he catches from the side “i….fight too….same…learn…defense…arrows…knives…”

jake who squats to your level and asks you to repeat yourself

slowly you sign as if speaking to tuk a child, “why can’t i learn to fight too? neteyam and i are the same age, we should be equal! i want to hunt fish too, learn to be a warrior, how to defend the people, shoot arrows, and cut with knives!!”

jake who is vehemently against you learning to use weapons and fight, and neytiri agrees

you spend the whole morning arguing as best as you can, before jake dismisses you and trashes your wishes to become a warrior

you break down into sobs, and jake reaches out to pull you his chest, neytiri to pet your hair but you shove their hands away from you, and your very first words to them are an anger-filled “i hate you!” stunning neytiri and jake long enough for you to rush by them and into the forest, narrowly avoiding the other na’vi’s grasps to bring you back to your parents

you travel in a direction you’ve never been in; leading yourself to a part of the forest your unfamiliar with, and discover you’ve gotten yourself lost (skull emoji)

you sit down expecting jake or neytiri to find you but when you feel the vibrations of footsteps reaching you, you realize it’s neteyam

you turn to hiss at him (one of your louder sounds) but he ignores it, going to sit right next to you and throwing an arm around your shoulder

you begin to cry again, using neteyam’s shoulder to literally cry on

he lets you tire yourself out before he pats your cheek causing you to look up at him and he says, “mom and dad are dumb.” (wide eyes emoji) “i will teach you what i learn from them when we are supposed to be playing, okay?”

and you accept his offer (girl boss and boy boss locked in bound 4 lyfe by their treasonous?? actions)

when neteyam leads you home, you allow yourself to be scolded and hugged by your parents and siblings, but their stance on you becoming a warrior hasn’t changed, so you fully rely on neteyam’s plan.

jake who does the bare minimum™ and gives you a little dagger for protection and teaches you how to use it, but refuses to do any more than that

a few more years have passed, sending you and neteyam into awkward growth stages, long limbs becoming lanky, the height difference between you becoming more obvious even though you are only four months younger than him. lo’ak starts learning to fight like his brother, you and kiri fully become apprentices training with mo’at and the other healers, and tuk shadowing her sisters everywhere

for 5 years you and neteyam have kept your promise learning how to fight through everything he teaches you, and the both of you stalking watching omatikaya warriors to perfect your form

anytime you try to tell neteyam that his grasp on his knife is incorrect, or his bow string isn’t taught enough, he automatically claims that you’re wrong and he’s right because “he’s older”

and everytime you say “only by four months!” receiving a smug “i'm still older” in response lol

you’ve definitely developed a little puppy crush on him, making a disgusted face when the other na’vi girls your learning to heal with refers to neteyam as your brother

you are quick to correct them tho, with an audible “no. he is my best friend, not my brother.” stunning them into silence at your firm yet light–quiet voice

kiri and tuk hear all of this of course, and start to prod at you about your crush on neteyam and suddenly you’ve lost the ability to understand sign language and how to read lips (reader is a comedian lmao)

while you and neteyam are locked in, 4 lifers, bound by your mutual-disobedience to your parents; you and lo’ak become a different breed of na’vi

apart from him, you are a poster-child for the poster-child. you weave many clothes, bracelets, baskets for everyone. address younger children's wounds when they played too rough, and genuinely strived to brighten everyones day with your mere presence, not needing to speak to do so

but with lo’ak… y'all are menaces to society, playing pranks on everyone but they’re generally pranks of minor inconveniences. y’all also stay out too late in the jungle, precariously explore areas you shouldn’t, etc. casual lo’ak type beat

jake still brings you to the strat meetings, letting this be the closest you ever get to war, and eventually asks for your point of view on things and starts taking your input into account, and sometimes even says to the other warriors, “my daughter notices that…my daughter thinks it may be better if..” and you preen, happy to accept this level of acknowledgement even if you are still not allowed to fight :(

ding dong! your ears have arrived!!!

as your listening and speech therapy has continued you’ve started to refer to your implants as your “ears” (i just thought it would be cute to call them that lol)

neytiri and jake drop you off at the lab for surgery, and it all happens pretty quick. (small incisions behind the ears while under anesthesia, instructions to keep them clean, and you have another four weeks to wait until you can use them to hear)

a month passes, and this time the whole family ventures to the lab to be there for your first experience of full volume

norm signs to you that he’s turning the ears on and when you begin to hear noises, you gasp, scaring yourself at your own volume, hands covering your mouth, ears perked upwards reaching and grasping for every sound around you

and the very first thing you hear is neteyam laughing at you, you turn to look at him, shocked that you can actually hear it, and then everyone begins talking with you, well at you

the rowdy sully’s are instructed to calm down before they overwhelm you with their voices, and the first words you grace them all with after you told neytiri and jake that you hated them are:

“i love you.” and then you begin crying bc your a soft soul who can’t take all these life changing moments you’ve had with the sully’s

talking is still very hard for you, so when you return home you shyly sign, “even though there are so many beautiful sounds, my favorites have to be the sound of your voices”

you are a rizzologistTM, there go the whole family blushing and kicking their feet

now there are two downsides to your “ears”

1. the fact that they rely on battery and last only around 8 hours (i feel like they’d still be in their prototype-era idk)

and b. that you become incredibly overwhelmed at all the sounds you’re hearing. the switch up was intentional ty (but i think overstimulation is normal for a person who has never experienced hearing before??)

almost everyday, after 4 hours you yank the ears off your head exhausted at hearing and return to the family tent happy with your silence as you recover

one particular day, you go through your daily duties, assisting mo’at in organizing in prepping and preparing medicines, delivering goods to various families, drawing new supply lines for the warriors, refereeing a children’s game, braiding hair, refining your arrow accuracy–and the noises are starting to make you physically hurt

the breaking point is when your whole family is sitting and waiting for dinner to finish cooking, and the sound of neytiri’s knife hitting the board sounds like a gunshot right by your ear

you abruptly burst into tears, the sound of your own distress further upsetting you. your hand cover your ears, before you finally rip your hearing aids off throwing them away from you, uncaring about damaging the precious technology

jake who immediately tries to soothe you asking you questions you can’t hear, and then you begin to claw at behind your ears as if your trying to dig out the internal mechanisms, starting to draw blood

kiri’s who’s sitting next to you tries to pull you hands away, but you shove her off of you, and you now curl up, knees to your chest rocking back and forth frantically

neytiri is the one to manage to get you to stop scratching at yourself, hugging you tightly and not letting you go no matter how hard you try to push yourself away from her gasp

your still inconsolable even though you’ve stopped hurting yourself, rocking back and forth as much as you can in neytiri’s grasp, and neteyam offers a solution

neteyam requests to bring you to a spot that he “found” implying that it might help you calm down. jake and neytiri are against the idea, not wanting to move you in this state, but he pleads, “if this doesn’t work then we can come back and try something different, but i know it will!”

mo’at is called over to watch over the rest of the kiddies as you, neteyam, neytiri, and jake make the trip to this “secret spot”

you being princess carried (i think it’s the bridal carry but nah u a princess today) by jake *sob sob* it the calmest you’ve gotten so far but you’re still unresponsive and very far away from the present

they approach a clearing in the jungle after an 30ish minute walk, and neteyam gestures for you to be set on the ground, while gesturing for neytiri and jake to stop hovering around you while he sits in front of your still rocking body

the grass is a luscious green even in the dark, the area illuminated by the glowing fauna on the outskirts, and neteyam gently brings your hand up to his chest placing it directly over his heart, and presses his forehead to yours, his eyes closed, as he slows and strengthens his breathing

you slowly stop rocking, your eyes clearing as your breathing matches neteyam’s, the bioluminescent freckles on both of your body's flickering in the same pattern, and grass starts to pulse in time with your synced breaths

your eyes flutter closed as well, and a few atokirina start to float around the both you landing on both of you two–and when one lands on neteyam’s head he opens his eyes and carefully pulls his head away, a sigh escaping him as he relaxes fully

and then he turns to see jake and neytiri’s faces (i’m screaming, as i'm writing this) of shock like, he’s never seen his parents this off balance, and figures he owes them an explanation

“we discovered this place when we were kids, and she really liked it because she said that she felt eywa’s presence was strong here, and that it was like she could almost hear my voice when i spoke to her. and when she got her ears, we’d visit here more often whenever we both could sneak out between our tasks so she could relax from the constant noises.”

his last sentence brings neytiri’s and jake’s attention that they’re are very few sounds escaping into the clearing from the dense brush surrounding them, it was a void masking the noises of the jungle

neteyam continues, “it was a little trial and error process to figure out how to calm her down when she got overwhelmed like she did tonight–” he pauses as you slump forward into his chest exhaustion besting you as you fall asleep, “but i managed to figure it out after she crashed during one of our sparring matches.”

and then he does a verbal “oh shit”

jake repeats him, “one of your ‘sparring matches’????” neytiri stunned into silence at his side

and now neteyam realizes he might not make it back alive to the rest of your family as he explains for the past almost 6 years that he's been teaching you how to fight, and jake and neytiri start to lose their mind at neteyam’s prolonged betrayal of their wishes

hey but he’s saved by your sleeping, and jake stonily tables the discussion for the morning

the morning is not very fun for you or neteyam, being lectured for many hours about your secret lessons and everything and jake tries to use your recent overstimulation-episode as reason as to why you shouldn’t be fighting and you lose it at him

you speak, desperately, “you have not even seen my skills yet! it does not matter if it is a bow, or a knife, or a spear, i am very skilled. neteyam says that i have even better aim than him! instead of using my weaknesses as a reason for me to not learn, you should try to teach me to become better! not ban me from protecting myself, my family, or my people!” your voice breaks, “will you not even allow me the ability to defend my home?”

and with those words, neytiri–sees herself mirrored in you–breaks and suggests to jake that he he does teach you how to fight, soothing his worries with the stance of you at least being prepared to defend yourself and your family, while not necessarily having to be fighting on the front lines

spoiler alert jake caves, you and neteyam rejoice before your both consequently punished with morning training and evening training sessions

you have a lot of catching up to do, even lo’ak knows more than you as he teases you in the morning sessions he now tags along in

your relationship with neytiri grows stronger as she teaches you the way of the bow.

it’s like you’re her clone, as you grow up you begin to resemble her more than your biological mother. you become more confident, your presence assertive, not being afraid to speak your mind more often.

your relationship with jake takes more time to mend in the start. you feel his hesitation when you deal with any slightly dangerous matters. but it improves as you make a clean kill on your 13th birthday so precise many of the people debate if you or neteyam had a cleaner kill on your rites of passage. when you beat neteyam’s time for your own iknimaya by a few seconds (a whole seven seconds you taunt to neteyam) jake is berating himself for suppressing your talents

lowkey, i think you would hate flying in the begin because your feet aren’t touching the ground, but that is a story for another time because this is getting way too long

and he begins to allow you to join supply raids with neteyam when you turn 15 (as long as your ears are full charged up)

(let’s pretend like they never went to the metkayina clan for this i am too tired to make this chronologically/canonically accurate; i promise i have a plot somewhere in this long ass headcanon)

you and neteyam are excelling at being the eyes for your father and the warriors, always alerting everybody of sky people and leaving with no casualties or low numbers during the unfortunate but rare circumstances

the warriors ask for your thoughts when planning raids, and even happily utilize your suggestions

when lo’ak joins you two on raids, too eager, it always end up with he and neteyam getting hurt, but when that missile hit you almost lost yourself thinking your little brother and first love died

but unlike jake, you don’t berate lo’ak you only tightly hug him, quietly conversing with him expressing your worry that you lost him, which does begin to have him start considering his reckless behavior

after caring for lo’ak and addressing his few scratches and knicks that were bypassed by your mother and father, you direct lo’ak to the tent with neteyam, your sisters, and your grandmother

the healer in you automatically awakens, taking care of the scrapes kiri and mo’at have not gotten to

you hold his face and clean the knicks from rubble, applying a paste to prevent scarring, and feel his gaze warming your cheeks, you steadfastly ignoring him

mo’at and lo’ak making eye contact and almost bursting out laughing and snorting at the two of you (i hc that mo’at and lo’ak are besties)

omg after that night when neteyam took you to the clearing with your parents, neytiri and jake automatically consulted mo’at about the atokirina and the pulsing of the grass and all she had to say was “eywa has chosen” with a smug ass look on her face (the smug look must be genetic)

lo’ak of course eavesdropping and then gossiping with mo’at constantly about how dense you two were lmaooo i love him so much

the sky people still capture spider. you are unaware of the situation as you’re hearing aids were undergoing updates with max and norm, and you were in the lab with them

when you return to the depressing aura surrounding the omatikaya, kiri’s haunted expression, you get the full story from poor tuk, pulling her into your lap as you wait for your parents to finish their discussion

obviously, when you hear about jake’s plan to leave you tell him that’s utterly stupid, obv he doesn’t want to hear it, but you plead for him to listen as the olo’eyktan, and not as a father

something along the lines of you'd be bringing the fight to clans who have nothing to do with it, you have better knowledge of the mountains than of the sky people yadayadayada,

and he agrees! wow ur so strong and persuasive with logical reasoning, but he still does make a trip to the island to try and recruit some of the homies

you, neteyam, lo’ak, neytiri, and the other warriors start drafting so many war plans together while jake is toruk-makto-ing his ass of in foreign lands, intertwining the reef tactics with your own forest tactics

the metkayina agree to aid you in the rivers meeting the sea underneath the mountains, and secure the coastline of any fleeing sky people and stuff

fast forward, jake draws the sky people into the mountainous area, battle being fought successfully on the na’vi part but the same capture situation of lo’ak, tuk, and kiri occurs

you take tuk and kiri, while lo’ak and neteyam stupidly try to find spider on their own.

you fly kiri and tuk to safety on a nearby cliffside with a trusted ally, and circle back calling the boys’ ikran for a quick getaway

as you order lo’ak to jump for his ikran with spider, gunshots narrowly whizz by and neteyam follows after

his ikran gets hit, and so does he, plummeting out of the air

you dive after him, your ikran just barely getting you close enough to grab and pull him onto your saddle before they crashed

you feel his blood spill onto you, and you abandon the battle to take him back to mo’at and the healers knowing they have all the material prepared for caring for injuries

you dismount, screaming for help, as you lay him on the flat ground, hands applying pressure to the wound above his heart, neteyam whimpering out an “i-i’m okay, you can hear me right- i won’t leave you before…” and he struggles to continue

you cry, as the healers all join you doing the most to staunch the bleeding, on his back as the bullet went straight through, and at the pain he passes out, and you begin to panic at the thought of losing him forever

norm and max are there tho, and with their swanky human technology and endless prayers to eywa–the healers, a dreamwalker, and a human are able to stop the bleeding and stabilize neteyam!!!! (aye i really am not ready to kill neteyam in one of my works my soul is too fragile for that)

ding dong the wicked quatrich is dead!!! or maybe not i’ll let you decide whether or not spider saves him in this scenario it’s not key to the plot at this point

the sky people turn running with their figurative tails between their legs

the metkayina annihilate any stragglers trying to escape off the coast

your family returns learning how close neteyam is/was to death, and rush to see him

you’re sitting by his side, hand over his heart making sure it doesn’t miss a beat, eyes trained on his face, your other hand with a damp rag cleaning all other debrief off of him

mo’at stands behind you, hands on your shoulders, staring at her grandson with worry seeping through her usual expressionless face

your hearing aids have died, so you can’t hear you’re family entering

tuk startles you as she climbs into your lap, and hugs your arm while her own tiny hand joins yours on neteyam’s chest

you look up at your mom and dad while lo’ak, spider, and kiri, rush to neteyam’s side, the tears beginning to flow from your eyes again, a raspy “i was almost too late to save him” spills from your lips

jake embraces you and mo’at, while neytiri kneels next to you, a hand on your knee while dampening your cloth to continue cleaning her son

as everyone begins to get treated for their injuries, various warriors spilling in, you refuse to have you own wounds looked at if it requires you to leave neteyam’s side

you stay in the tent by neteyam’s beside, numb to all the chaos happening around you, and it definitely helps that you can’t be disturbed at the sounds around you

it’s three days before neteyam awakens

you’ve slept in the tent, picked at your food, only eating enough to please your mother, kiri treated your wounds as you refused to remove your hand from his chest.

and when he rouses with a groan, and eyes squinting open, you call for mo’at, max and norm frantically, your whole family tumbling in too

and as dry as his throat must be, the first thing he asks is, “did we do it?”

and you all start crying again, jake walking over to sit on the ground by neteyam’s side and pets his head, nodding softly, choking up

and you finally slip away from his side, neteyam not missing your withdrawal, before his siblings fill up your absence, and you allow mo’at to finally get a closer look at your injuries

neteyam stays in the medical tent for a week, before he’s allowed to be transferred back to his family, and you’ve haven’t been to see him since he’s woken up

you’re afraid

you’ve spent seven days constantly working, over-working, so you don’t have to go to sleep; checking everybodies injuries to make sure they’re healing properly, guiding prayers for the na’vi’s that are returning to eywa, cleaning up debris from the mountain and surrounding area and stockpiling any material/tools that may be useful in the future, healing injured ikrans and pa’li, hunting for hours to gather enough food for the injured, and when you join jake to speak with the metkayina leader with the deepest eye bags and gaunt form he’s ever seen he’s had enough

lol as he’s inviting the metkayina to return when they omatikaya have settled back to normal ronal tsks at him, and gestures to you, you struggling to stop yourself from falling asleep standing and says, “you cannot even take care of your daughter. our visit can wait longer.”

jake who pulls you to his side on the walk back waiting for you to open up to him, and you finally break, “i can’t close my eyes without seeing him die.”

he slows you both to a stop, cups your cheeks and tilts your head upwards so you can read his lips, “babygirl hummingbird, maybe what you need is to remind yourself that you saved him. he’s been waiting for you to come see him. i’m confident that neteyam won’t mind if all you do is sleep next to him, he’d be comforted knowing that you are safe too.”

you end up falling asleep in your father’s arms, getting carried the rest of the way back, and waking up the next morning cuddled up with neteyam

he’s playing with your hair, gently massaging you scalp as he talks with neytiri, a smile on his face, as he watches her prepare breakfast, being scolded when he offers to help

you make a soft questionable hum, and his head automatically turns to look at you, his smile turning into a smirk as he teases, “i heard you couldn’t fall asleep without me?” (RIZZ level 99)

you shove him away from you, cheeks turning indigo and you snark out a “shut the fuck up”

lo’ak and kirk dramatically losing their minds over you cursing in english, and tuk really overselling it with a “she said a bad word! she said bad word!” while jake and neytiri laugh and half heartedly scold you for your choice of words

both of you stick to each other as you eat breakfast, elbows and knees knocking together constantly but you two refuse to even allow a millimeter of space come between you

after everyone’s stomach’s are full, energies high, suddenly everyone is finding an excuse to leave you and neteyam alone in the tent, jake grounding you to bed rest for a few more days to recover from sleep deprivation

lo’ak’s like: “i gotta go walk my ikran real quick” did i say i love him already

before neytiri leaves she gives you a rundown of how to clean and monitor neteyam’s wounds (even though you’re capable of figuring it out yourself, being mo’at’s best student after kiri), but you let her to soothe her maternal instinct

finally alone, neteyam signs to you, “i was asking for you the moment i could speak again, but you never came to see me. i was beginning to accept the idea that you…that you didn’t care for me.” your head snaps up to make direct eye contact with him, tears clouding the dismayed look in your eyes (matching his own broken expression), vehemently shaking your head and you speak, your volume nearly reaching a yell, “do not think for a second that i do not care for you. that i do not need you anymore. like you are not my reason to fight for our lives here.”

neteyam who is stunned to silence not only at the borderline confession within your words but also at the traumatized look in your eyes that you are unable to hide, and you switch to signing, “i was the reason you died if you think about it. it was my idea for us to stay here and fight when we should have just listened to your dad and left! maybe you wouldn’t have been near death! maybe all of us would have never been found! maybe we could just be normal children again!”

neteyam places his hand on your cheek, and you raise your own to hold his wrist as you nuzzle deeper into his grasp and you lightly brush your lips against his palm. your eyes flicker to his own again and he brushes the tears off your lashes and comforts you, “but none of that happened. we made our decision, and your idea to stay here has saved us, saved me. while the sky people have not been ousted completely, we have pushed them back, only because of you and your brilliance. i live to see you grow and flourish because you are a strong warrior, strategist, healer, and more. and most of all, i am thankful you have saved me so i can stand by your side, if you allow me to…?”

you smile, fangs you have yet to grow completely into making you look a lil adorable, and sign the english phrase “i love you,” and you follow it up with an audible, “oel ngati kameie.”

neteyam with hearts for eyes, physically swooning for you, parrots your words and signs, voice velvety, “oel ngati kameie.”

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