Dancing In The Moonlight

4. Behave

"Mairi? Mairi?" 

Someone was slapping her face. Mairi grunted, scrunching her nose as she lifted a hand to belt the bastard who was disturbing her sleep. 

"Mairi, wake up!" 

The back of her hand connected with something solid, and someone took hold of it. Mairi coughed and opened her eyes, bringing her arm over her face. "Turn down the lights, Jesus fuck." 

"Mairi." The voice was stern. Familiar. Mairi shifted her arm slightly and saw her mother's face staring back at her. "Sit up, you clown. You've been in that bed all day." 

"Excuse me?" she muttered. "I've been doing very important business."

"Mairi! Is the avatar safe?" 

Oh. She wasn't in her own room. She was in the link room. She was in the link room and had just went to sleep in her avatar body, her back pressed against Jake's. Neytiri had found it very funny to put the two of them into a swaynivi together, a family hammock meant for at least three or four people, since they were mated. And she'd spoke all in Na'vi, so Jake didn't even have the sense he was born with to argue with her like Mairi had done. Fucker. She'd also made Mairi put her bow and her old clothes into a little nook next to the swaynivi, insisting that she wouldn't need them. Jake's clothes had been burnt.

"Ugh, Mammy G," she groaned as she gripped the side of the link bed and forced herself to sit up. Her hair fell around her face and she ran her fingers through it, the ends getting tatted. How the fuck they were tangled, she had no idea. It's not like you can move around in the fucking link beds. 

A hand on her shoulder. Her mam's hand on her shin. "Is the avatar safe?" 

"Obviously, Mammy G. You think we'd've been in there for that long if it wasn't?" 

"Mairi," her mam scolded, tightening her grip on her leg. "Don't speak to Grace like that." 

"Sorry, Grace," she said apologetically. "It's been a long fucking day." 

"Language," Louise stated without any punch to it. She'd tried to curb Mairi's language for a long time, but was mostly used to it by now. She just couldn't say cunt in front of her. That was the WORST swear word in the dictionary. 

"Where's Jake?" she asked as she swung her legs over the edge. Pins and needles filled her calves and she winced, flexing her legs up and out. Her mam had let go of her, but Grace was still holding her shoulder. 

"He's still in there. Should be coming out soon." Grace paused as Mairi stood, stretching her arms up above her head. "Where's the avatars?" 

"Grace!" That was Norm's voice. Grace smiled briefly at her, squeezed her arm and then departed, probably to Jake's link bed. She looked down at her mam and grinned at her, slinging an arm around her shoulder. 

Mairi had inherited her father's height, standing at six foot, compared to her mother's five foot five. Louise slapped her belly and she pretended to wince, leaning heavily on her mam. 

"Don't ever do that to me again," she said softly. "You had me worried sick, Mairi."

"Aww, sorry Mammy." She grew more serious, tugging Louise further into her armpit. "I didn't plan on it, if you're wondering. Totally coincidental." 

Louise just scoffed. "Ay, that'll be right," she muttered. "You dragged that poor lad into the forest, didn't you?" 

"Fuck no! I saved him, actually. He owes me." Mairi yawned and took a step forward, begging her legs to start acting like legs. She could hear Grace talking, hear Jake's low voice.