Alva's heart was still beating up a storm, even after a whole night of restless sleep that was filled with anxious dreams. What had almost happened had yet to really be registered with her. Had they almost kissed? Yes. They had. Did she let him? No. She knew neither of them were ready and that sometimes people get caught up in moments, like the one they had, and her testing his boundaries had almost led to him making a mistake. No, she would wait until they were ready and only then would she walk over the line they had drawn.

"Parker contacted me." Alva started and looked out the window. "He asked me why there hadn't been any logs being sent back to the base. I told him that I deleted them, he wasn't happy but accepted it. He knows me. My brother. My beautiful brother." She sighed and looked down on the ground. "My brother who looks out for me, who cares for me and who has always been there for me. Parker Selfridge, the man behind it all. He is so human, even amongst the others at the base who have all sort of adapted to the Na'vi customs in one way or the other, he remained the same. They all change- except for him, and maybe Trudy. Quaritch became a bigger savage, he adapted to the harsh environment on Pandora, became the very monster he was trying to protect us from. It all comes down to money, not only are they destroying Pandora for it, but Earth and humans. I remember him when we were children, how he loved to watch the clouds. Now he spends all his days inside glaring at monitors and playing with his stone. 'Look at this, Alva', he'd tell me, 'It looks like a dog'."

Alva chuckled and wiped her face. "But they all fall eventually. The world turned him into something else- something driven by money to the point that his whole world revolves around getting Unobtanium. It's so very human, isn't it? Greed and pride. But he knows that it's wrong, I can see it in his eyes when the reports come back that either humans or Na'vi have died. There's always these glimpses in his eyes," She let her hand flow through the air before she swiped them over her eyes. "that tells me that my brother is still in there. That corporate greed hasn't consumed all of him yet. I mean the man hasn't even been in the forest. He's spent all those years locked up in the base, observing but never venturing."

"I only hope that he picks the right side in the end." Alva looked right into the camera as she said it, her voice turning just a small bit of frosty. Frustration built inside of her but she would never let them know that he affected her so.

The woman turned off the camera with one last grin before letting the log be saved and sent back to the base. 'That'll serve him right for nagging me about them', she thought to herself. A rant about her brother should deter her brother from wanting any more of them, unless he wanted to listen to her logging about him that badly.

"Was that for your brother?" Norm asked, amused as he stood leaning on one of the linking units. The man had cooled off a bit since he stormed out of the base all those nights ago. Norm had been gradually warming up to Jake again, even going as far as teaching him some things again.

Alva giggled and shut down the computer. "Of course it was, who else am I sending customized messages to? I'm not Jake." The joke went unnoticed by Norm, only her knew the full extent of what he had done to them and until he told them she would keep quiet about it.

"I just meant- we've heard all about his...concern for you." Norm sheepishly admitted and looked away from her. "It's weird seeing him like that. Normally he's all about his unobtanium and playing mini golf in his office but now he's...different. Sometimes."

The woman gave him a sceptical glance before chuckling and slamming her hands on the desk. "Do you spend a lot of time stalking my brother, Norm?" Alva glanced at him before drawling, "maybe I should inform him of your obsession. He's always been a bit shy."

"No, no, no, no." Norm protested and took a few steps forward. "Please don't-"

His words were cut off by the high, loud laughter of Alva who could barely breathe through the heavy laughter. "I'm just messing with you, Normie. I won't tell my brother that you're obsessed with him. He's happily married to his little clump of Unobtanium, for your information."

"Is Parker your real brother?" Norm hesitantly asked and then cringed when he realised what his words sounded like. "I mean-"

"You mean that I'm adopted? That I'm dark and he's light? That I can see but he's blind?" Alva didn't mind his words, knowing all too well the doubt people held about their family. "He's as much of my brother as I am his sister. Family is beyond blood, beyond DNA, family is something you choose. So yes, he's my brother, as real as the forest around us. In the end, what can tell us what is real and what is not?" Her eyes turned dim and dull, her smile mysterious but vacant, her voice airy and breathy. Alva's stared at him but through him, seeing something beyond him.

Norm shuffled on his feet awkwardly, his face pulled into a cringe and hands fluttering anxiously from his sides, to his waist and then back down. "Good talk but I um- I have to go look at some samples."

"And in the end we all fall like leaves towards the ground."

---

"" Alva pointed to her ear as she held the half-finished earring in her hand. She then pointed to the small earring the Na'vi child had in her left ear; a small red circle with a green circle in the center, probably an heirloom. ""

Alva's na'vi had been steadily improved the last few weeks, so much that she could mostly communicate entirely in na'vi, albeit with faulty grammar and limited vocabulary but it still counted. Her and a couple of the clan's children were cooling off under one of the bigger trees away from the warm sun.

Ylvänin, the oldest of the three Na'vi children was from one of the lower ranked families of the clan. Her father was a hunter, her mother a cook and her brother together with some of other Na'vi were responsible for the animals the clan kept. The young girl was the most outgoing of her small friend group but every once in a while the other girls would chip in with their own remarks or questions to the still undercover dreamwalker.

"" Ylvänin complemented and reached up to touch it. ""

The dreamwalker shook her wrist in response, watching the colors dancing together. "" She asked the group, gesturing to the rest of her accessories.

"" One of the other girls, Fra'vä, a girl from a family of warriors, responded and pointed to Alva's many rings. "" She gestured to the band on Alva's ankle before smiling wide.

"" Alva nodded and twisted her mother's ring around her blue finger. ""

"" The smallest of the group, not in age but in size, said with awe filled eyes. ""

Alva blinked slowly, having not understood what the young girl was talking about. ""

"." The girl, Tri'ad, responded slowly and pointed to the various ones that Alva was wearing. ""

The woman let out an 'aha' sound and giggled lightly. "Silly me." She said and brought the earring back down to the ground where the rest of the works in progress laid waiting for her. There were four earrings in total, two of them were small, bright pink circles and the other two were made out of something purple that she had found back in the base that she thought looked pretty, they were in the shape of small hoops. The circles would be placed on the lower part of her ear and the hoops would both be placed near the top of her whole ear.

She felt a pang of hurt hit her at the thought that she'd never be able to wear any earrings on that ear except for the lowest and the only unaffected area of her wounded ear. Alva shook it off and smiled at the kids she was currently entertaining. They had yet to ask about her wounds, never looking too long and never being uncomfortable around it. Alva assumed it was because of the Na'vi being used to wounds like that.

"" Fra'vä asked before plopping down right in front of Al'va with her hair already let out and waiting to be braided.

Said Alva snapped out of her dangerous thoughts and smiled down at the young child in her lap. "" She replied, her na'vi still rough and accented but good enough to get the message across. ""

"" Ylwänin squealed and rose from her place in the grassy meadow behind their home and plopped herself down besides her smaller friend. "" The girl sighed longingly.

Fra'vä shook her head and placed her hands in her lap. "." She ambitiously spoke and turned around to face the woman behind her. "."

The dreamwalker look surprised at the young child. "" Which home was that? Africa where she was born or the US where she had been adopted. Which home was home? What braids would she show the child? "Wow, that's-" Alva was so stunned she reverted back to english without even realising it.

"It's okay if you don't want to." The girl responded with an apologetic smile on her face.

"African" She responded and absentmindedly ran her fingers through the young Na'vi's hair to check what kinds of braids her hair type could handle and which to stay away from. Truth to be told Alva knew little to nothing about the ways of her people, or their hair, all she knew she had taught herself. Most of her history had been lost in the ages and some destroyed.

The girl nodded, relieved. " 'Africa'?"

"" Alva responded with a melancholic smile as she thought back on her happy childhood that had abruptly ended when her family all together perished. "" The dreamwalker nodded as ideas formed in her head.

Fra'vä nodded excitedly, smiling at her friends before looking back up at Alva. ""

"" Alva pictured it in her mind. The cornrows at the front and the back part of the hair held up in a ponytail with some of the braids acting as the elastic band. It was easy enough and wouldn't hurt the girl's head too much, or damage her hair. ""

"." The girl dutifully replied.

Alva smiled and parted the girl's hair in two sections, one for the back and one for the front. The back she held back using one of her bracelets that easily held the hair away. Next she made more sections as she planned where the braids would be, most of the would be going down the sides of her head, though one, the top, would be braided backwards and that would also be the one that would be wrapped around the back section of the hair.

Instinctually her hands started braiding the first cornrow, making sure to make them as fast and painless as possible while also ensuring that they come out looking perfect. She was representing her whole heritage with that hairdo and she didn't want to mess it up.

"" She called out as she was almost finished with the first braid. "" Alva asked sweetly, grinning at the jealous children who ran off without another word. "" She called out after them though they had long since moved out of her reach.

"" Alva told Fra'vä and gave her the end of the first cornrow. The girl took it and Alva immediately started working on the next one, noting which one would be drawn back and used to tie up the rest of the hair and which ones would be hanging freely.

Just as Alva had finished three more of the braids the other girls came rushing back with their hands holding golden beads, some of them falling off and onto the green ground. The dreamwalker nodded her thanks and clasped the beads around the ends she had completed and noted that the braids didn't unravel. A surge of pride flowed through her as she looked as her work for she had never been good at braiding other's hair.

Time passed fast as Alva finished the rest of the braids, taking extra care when doing the middle one to make sure it was neat and straight. After finishing all of the cornrows and clasping golden beads on them she wiped some of the sweat off her forehead and gave the girls a tired smile, her arms were already aching and she wasn't finished yet. Alva had forgotten how much work it took and how tired her arms got after braiding hair. Still she fought on and after a few tries got the appropriate braids around the back hair and did a nice, high ponytail without using a single elastic band or bobby pin.

"," she smiled and let out a relieved sigh. "" Alva giggled and watched as the young girl flew to her feet and rushed over to her friends while touching her hair. Fra'vä's face was a bit twisted up in pain but Alva hoped it would go away soon and she wouldn't have to deal with the typical headache that came with tight braids and hairstyles she had tried.

Even if some of the braids ended up looking worse than she expected she was proud of her work. She had done the style entirely from memory, add on the face that Alva had never done it before and she had a right to be proud over her work. A pang of sadness claimed her as she stared at the child who happily wore the hairstyles she wished she could growing up, and the way Far'vä smiled proudly to her friends who all awe'd in jealousy.

Alva forced a big smile on her face and kept it there until the creeping sadness disappeared and the smile turned genuine again. This was what home felt like.