Shells | Lo'ak Sully

Part 24 - Belonging

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"Please part of our family, Teya!" Tuk jumped, staring Ni'teya down and clapping her hands together in excitement.

Ni'teya didn't know how to respond for two reasons. One, she didn't know what the question meant specifically; In Ni'teya's mind, it could mean that they wanted to adopt her into their family or they wanted to be able to deem her as "family" while to actual ties were being created between them. Two, Lo'ak's face.

The boy hadn't stopped staring at Ni'teya, supposedly to watch her reaction however if he actually wanted everyone else to believe that that's what he was doing, he'd have to wipe the desperate look off of his face before he tried. He was widening his eyes at her, biting his fingers between his teeth and tapping his foot against the floor beneath him.

After a few long seconds of consideration, Ni'teya decided to question the question itself to make it clearer to her.

"What, like, adopt me?" She asks Jake, checking to see if Tuk hadn't just blurted something incorrect out accidentally without her parents wanting her to.

Before he could even breath in to answer, Lo'ak chimed into the very clearly directed conversation. "No!" He yells, dropping his hand from his mouth and stomping slightly without meaning to. In response to this childish act, Neytiri shoots her hand out towards her son as she'd done plenty of times before, hissing at him and proceeding to give him a "don't even try" sort of look.

Once that whole spat had paused for the time being, Jake got the chance to speak. "No, not if you don't want to. It's up to you completely."

Still not fully understanding the context of the question at hand, she tries again. "But... What do you want?"

Jake takes a moment to think, turning to his wife which passes him an affirmative nod.

"We want to keep you here, as a Sully."

That still didn't answer Ni'teya's "are they adopting me" or "are they just sentimental like that" query. However, it didn't matter seen as Lo'ak had already decided for her.

"Say no, pretty pretty please, say no." He steps towards her, making Ni'teya have to step backwards and away from Jake so that Lo'ak was now blocking him.

"And why must I say no?" Ni'teya crosses her arms, folding them intimidatingly and raising her brows at him.

He hesitates, "You know why!" is what he decides to go with, leaving Ni'teya with no clues.

"No, I don't. Why don't you want me to be part of your family?" Her tone was almost offended by now, struggling to see what Lo'ak was unaccepting of and why.

"Because-" he stops again, trying to choose his words carefully but failing to as he ends up shouting completely nonsense at her. "Because you can't be my sister and my mate one day!"

Silence was heard from both Ni'teya and the rest of the Sully's except for one particularly entertained Kiri, who was covering her smiling face. Jake reacted with quite a shocked face, shaking his head to himself and covering his eyes.

"I don't want you to be my sister, you can't be!" He carries on, still waving his arms around and shouting.

Ni'teya is met with a conflict. Though a silly and ridiculous one, it was a conflict all the same. She agreed with Lo'ak, also thinking that she can't be both a sister to him and a mate, although that was were the conflict lay. Ni'teya hadn't been aware that her future had been decided for her already.

"And who's said that I'd agree to that, Lo'ak?" She tilted her head to the side, smirking up at him whilst holding her intimidating stance. Lo'ak was stunned then, realising that he had in fact decided that on his own, not ever having actually asked Ni'teya about it. He'd taken their newly formed "bond" as a sure sign, it seems.