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To be honest, Spider's surprised they even let him stay.
He knew, always had known, that he'd never fit in with his dad Jake's family. He was too human for the Na'vi, yet to Na'vi for his foster parents. He'd never really belong anywhere, and he'd known that for a long time. He would always be the odd one out.
That's why he's so surprised and fucking astatic when his family the Sully's take him in again, because he loves them. He loves them far more than they love him, and he knows that. He's okay with it. He is. He knows the only reason he isn't being cast out is that they're too nice not to pity someone as pathetic as him. Where it's family love that keeps him from running away, it's pity that keeps them from kicking him out.
And that's precisely why, when the Olo'eyktan of the Metkayina Clan tells him he can stay, he promises to himself that he'll be the perfect soldier. He'll never be useless again. He'll give this family that he's so attached to another reason- besides pity- to keep him around. He'll learn and he'll be good at what he learns. He won't mess up.
He drops a fish not even a week later.
———-
Spider had to admit, this place was awesome. He got to climb trees with Kiri, forage with his mom Neytiri, (She hasn't apologized yet for threatening to kill him, but it's fine.) go swimming with Jake, and even got to ride an ilus with Lo'ak! This place would've been perfect if it hadn't been for the looming guilt and fear of letting the Colonel live. Oh, and Aonung, Ronal and Tonowari's son, is an asshole.
Said asshole seemed to have accepted his family the others into the tribe, which is the main reason he hasn't said or done anything against his constant bullying. Oh, trust him, Spider has wanted to punch Aonung's smug ass-eating smile off his face since he got here, but he knows he's already on thin ice. And making trouble, especially something big like punching the leader's son, would shatter that ice.
He's lost in this exact train of thought, lugging a still squirming, probably carnivorous fish towards the home the others have set up, (Not his, it will never be his.) when he trips. Curse his squishy fucking human feet. His foot got caught on a rip in the fabric while he wasn't paying attention. It caused him to tumble forward, releasing the fish, the family's dinner, back into the fucking water! Fuck!
He sits there for a second, kneeling on the edge of the walkway, left hand halfway outstretched towards where the fish disappeared, while what happened sinks in. In the back of his head, he realizes that his left hand is bleeding. Huh. Guess that fish really was carnivorous.
The asshole who distracted him in the first place is the one to knock him out of his trance. Literally.
"Aw, has the little human fallen?" Aonung scoffs, hitting the back of Spider's head. Hard. "I would yell at you for wasting such a good dinner, but it looks like your... temporary providers will do that for me soon enough." With a sudden wave of anger and hatred, (The anger towards Aonung, the hatred mostly towards himself,) Spider grabs Aonung's legs and yanks them out from under him.
Spider's opponent tumbles, and squeals when he almost falls into the water. Spider stands up, grinning wildly. "This little human just wiped the floor with your ass!" Spider was going to full-on fight Aonung when he remembered the fish.
"Shit-" He hissed as he whipped around, looking out at the very large and very empty sea. It's not really empty, he knows, it just doesn't have his dinner fish.
Then someone yanks him back by his hair and, yeah, totally his fault for getting distracted. He turns around, again, and he did it fast enough that Aonung lets go of his hair, but too fast to not trip on the hole in the walkway. Again.
He falls, and this time falls right off the edge. As he feels his feet slip from under him he manages to grab onto the cloth of the walkway. He feels pretty proud of himself, up until he sees the fish they were supposed to eat tonight jump up and snap angrily at his feet. Fucking carnivorous shit.
"I whiua koe e ahau inaianei!" Aonung hollers in victory. He then jumps up and down a few times, dangerously shaking the cloth Spider is desperately hanging onto. He glares daggers into Aonung's head.
"Hey! Tukua ia ki runga!" Lo'ak's voice calls from somewhere behind Aonung. Speaking of Aonung, he turns too slowly and Lo'ak tackles him to the ground in what felt like a second. Spider lets out a holler of joy which quickly cut off into a pained yelp when he tried to use his left hand, forgetting it was bleeding. His right-hand slips further toward the water.
It only takes a minute, then Lo'ak is grabbing his hand and dragging him up from his ledge of death, as he's going to call it. His dinner fish swims away, disappointed.
"Kaore i taea te whawhai ki a ia? You better not be getting soft on me, brother." Lo'ak chuckled good-naturedly until he notices the blood dripping from Spider's left hand. It picked that exact moment to start hurting, the shock of everything wearing off. He hisses in pain.
"That looks like it hurts. You need to get to dad. Now." Spider wants to protest, but Lo'ak is already dragging him towards their Lo'ak's home. So Spider gives up and walks beside the taller one without complaint. Well, maybe with a few, "Ow ow ow fucking ow." Muttered angrily under his breath.
Once they arrive, only Jake is there. Kiri and Neytiri are off somewhere else.
"Spider, where did this come from?! Te Atua." Jake interrogates Spider, while Lo'ak sits in a corner eavesdropping but trying to cover it up and look busy. "I- Well- I sort of, maybe, droppedourdinneronthewayhere." He mumbled the last bit, embarrassment and shame etched in his voice. Jake hears it, though, and responds in the tone that he uses only for his kids and it hurts because Spider will never be his kid. Spider knows he's only using it out of pity.
"Hey, whatever happened, it'll be okay. Can you tell me the whole story?" Jake sounds so caring and gentle that all of Spider's resolve breaks into fucking pieces. "I tripped on a hole in the walkways and lost our dinner fish all because I was thinking about how I failed and backstabbed you because I just couldn't let that fucking colonel die! I don't care about him because he's my dad because I see you as my dad even though you didn't want me as your son before and probably hate me now that I've saved a killer!
“And I know that the only reason you’re letting me stay here is out of pity because I'm pathetic and don't have anywhere else to go and I know everyone's just waiting for the next shoe to drop so you can kick me out, or maybe that's just me and my broken fucking brain and I just- but I can't- I-" He cuts himself off as his lungs demand air, and silence overtakes their little sanctuary.
He only gets a few gasps of air in, though, until Neytiri and Kiri round the corner, and all Neytiri does is ask, "Is that true, Spider?" Spider doesn't need any further specification, he knows this is about his father.
He takes a deep breath and nods once.
Instead of what he expected, hatred and a good exile ceremony, Neytiri runs over and hugs him. The woman who went feral and killed six men in five minutes, the woman who he thought hated him the most, was hugging him. No, not hugging him, holding him in such a way that tells you she's terrified that you'll keel over and die the second she lets you go. She's hugging him the way only a mother can when she's scared for her child.
Slowly, he realizes, everyone's joining. Eventually, it resembles a family-group hug. The one where there's an empty space, where there's someone missing, but everyone still enjoys the hug nonetheless.
They all stand together for a while longer, until the person who initiated the hug pipes up in a steely cold voice, "Spider. Don't you ever say something like that again. Kotahi taku tama i ngaro, I cannot lose another."
He just nods in response, because for once, he feels like he belongs.
----------
"Oh, and dad?"
"Yes, Lo'ak?"
"Aonung is the one who tripped Spider."
"Oh my god-"