You hesitated, your steps faltering as Neytiri’s voice cracked through the clearing like a whip. The way she said Sky Person made it sound like an insult — and maybe right now, it was. Her tone was sharp, but her eyes… her eyes were what hurt most. There was fire there, but underneath it, something else. Pain.

You swallowed, ears twitching downward as you tried to think of what to say. “Neytiri…”

“Do not!” she snapped again, standing abruptly. The movement was so sudden that her quiver clattered against the log she had been sitting on. “You spend all your time with him! With that demon!” Her tail flicked behind her, a clear sign of her anger. “Have you forgotten what he is? What they did to us?”

You winced. Jake wasn’t like the others — he had proven that much. But Neytiri’s hatred of the Sky People ran deep, like roots sunk into the soul. You opened your mouth to speak, but the words didn’t come out. Not the ones that mattered. Not the ones you really wanted to say — the ones that had been eating you alive for months.

“It’s not like that,” you said quietly instead. “Your father told me to train with him. I only—”

“I see how he looks at you,” Neytiri interrupted, voice trembling now, her anger cracking into something else. “And I see how you smile at him. You laugh with him. You…” She trailed off, as if the rest of the sentence was too painful to say.

You took a small step closer. “Neytiri, please. You are my friend—”

She let out a bitter laugh. “Friend. That is all I am to you?”

Her words hit you like an arrow to the chest. You wanted to tell her the truth — that it wasn’t Jake that made you smile, that it was her. That every time you saw her, your chest ached with something fierce and warm. But you couldn’t. You couldn’t risk losing her entirely.

So you said nothing.

She looked at you for a long time, breathing hard, jaw set. Then she shook her head and sat back down, returning to her arrows. Her movements were sharp, almost violent, the flint scraping against stone in angry rhythm.

You stood there, hands twitching by your sides. Your throat felt tight, and your heart pounded painfully. You wanted to tell her that you hadn’t been avoiding her because of Jake — you’d been avoiding her because of you.

Because you were born different. Because the healers had told you that though you had male parts, you could still bring life — a blessing, they called it, one Eywa herself must have willed. But to you, it had always been something confusing, something that made you feel… wrong.

What if Neytiri found out and looked at you the same way others sometimes did — with curiosity, confusion, even pity? What if she thought you were a freak, an aberration of Eywa’s balance?

You couldn’t bear that.

So instead, you stayed quiet, letting the distance grow between you and the one person who once made you feel whole. The fire crackled between you both, glowing embers reflected in Neytiri’s eyes.

You looked at her — your best friend, the one who had taught you to ride your ikran, who had laughed with you under the light of Eywa’s forest, who once promised she would never let anything come between you.

And yet, here you were, separated not by war, not by the Sky People — but by a secret you were too afraid to share.