xli. ❝ my mess is yours ❞ 
╰ au / extended storyline
( year twelve )

NETEYAM grinned down at his fingertips that were covered in colours. He was teaching his younger siblings and cousins how to paint. Of course many of them didn't listen to his instructions as he pointed out which berries to crush.

Inkire was off doing her own thing, away from her siblings and cousins. She was most likely with her mother or grandmother, learning the ways to heal those around herself. And if she wasn't with her mother or grandmother, she was with her friend, Ta'krue.

Lo'ak just mushed which ever berries he could grasp, and then he used his fingers to spread the mush of colours on a carved and smooth piece of wood. He found the activity fun, but greatly disliked the instructions that his older cousin had been giving him.

Kiri, she used her fingers and instead of painting the carved wood Jake had given them,  she drew lines across her blue skin. They looked like they belonged there, as if they were apart of who she was. They practically were.

Spider was sitting beside Kiri, using his own blue mash of homemade paint to draw blue lines across his body. It made him feel more like those around him, it made him feel like he belonged.

Tuk and Ak'tari were mushing up anything they could, smearing the homemade pain across whatever was closest to them. The younglings giggled and squealed when Neteyam flicked his fingers at them, small dots of paint landing on their sky blue skin.

Odessa steps into the area, her mate, Neytiri, trailing closely behind her. The two step into their home, eyes widening at the sight of Jake laying across the ground, his chests bare of clothes but covered in mashed colourful berries.

"Jake?" Odessa blinks, tilting her head and watching as Jake quickly turns his own head to look at her and Neytiri. His now growing locks of hair falling against his chest and shoulders.

"Dessa, hey!" Jake scrambled to his feet, hands furiously wiping at the colours across his chest. He wanted to get rid of it before Odessa could tease him.

"Mumma! Mom!" Tuk happily exclaimed as she raced towards her mothers, little arms out as she jumped into the open arms of her mothers. "Uncle Jake let us paint on him, we made him prettier!"

Oh how loud Odessa laughed. She turned towards her mate. "My mess is yours, love. And your mess is mine. This is the way this will work. Now you clean the kids? I'll clean the home."

🌍.

JAKE and Odessa sit together, or more so Jake sits on the ground underneath Odessa so she can braid his hair. She holds his hair between her finger tips, pulling and twisting the strands into a small braid.

"Brother, you are lucky I am doing this. It was getting very knotted and messy." Odessa speaks quietly as she glanced to the side where her daughter and nephew were playing with a toy Ikran that one of the science geeks had found somewhere.

Jake smiled, tilting his head upwards so he could look at Odessa through the tip top of his eyes. "Dess, have you seen the birds nest of your one hair? It's worse than mine."

"It is not worse than yours!" Odessa glared at Jake. "Yours is a mess of tangled long locks that you never even wash."

"Oh you little — " Jake starts before he's cut off by a small angry hiss from Kiri.

"It's mine!" Lo'ak says to Kiri tugging one end of the toy that they had been playing with together. "I had it first!"

Kiri tugs at the other end of the small toy, her hands tightly wrapped around what she could grasp. "But I was also playing with it! Why do I have to give it to you!?"

Lo'ak tugs the toy, pulling his arms in and shaking his head cockily as Kiri stumbled lightly towards him. "Because its mine!"

"Lo'ak, you liar! Give it to me!" Kiri snaps, tugging the toy and attempting to get the toy away from her cousin. Out of the whole family, those two bickered the most.

"I hate you!" Lo'ak attempts to hiss, unfortunately it comes out more like a scream. He pulls on the toy, attempting once more to take it from his cousin.

"I hate you times infinity,
Lo'ak! Penis face!" Kiri adds harshly.

"Hey! Hey, that's enough. Don't make me come over there." Odessa snaps, pointing quickly between both her daughter and nephew. Her eyebrows narrowed. She turned her head away when the two young ones quieted. "That is your son. Give him shit. It isn't just my mess, Jake."

"My mess is yours, Dessa. And your mess is mine."