𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 | 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐲𝐚𝐦

11.

Heading back was the easy part, explaining their absence was more difficult.

"What were you guys doing? We all came back like 10 minutes ago.." Tsireya asked, eyeing the two with swollen lips and messed up hair. The two looked at each other and Neteyam stepped forward to answer them.

"We were uh.." He struggled to think of an excuse. "Exploring." Laya abruptly added. They both nodded at the same time. Aunong looked to Lo'ak. "Exploring each other's bodies, that's for sure." He remarked. Neteyam shook his head. "No really. We were exploring the corals. I- uhh practically begged her to take me." He shrugged. Laya cleared her throat. "Yeah- definitely" She looked to the others. "I just couldn't say no to him." They made eye contact and his eyes softened when they met hers. Rotxo suddenly broke through the group of people and cleared his throat. "Okay love birds." He paused and looked down. "We get it."

Even if Rotxo's a dick, Neteyam felt a little bad for him. Must've been hard to like a girl his whole life and then this guy from another tribe comes and steals her from him.

He winked at Rotxo and whispered in his direction. "No hard feelings, right?" Rotxo rolled his eyes and walked away. Looking back to Laya, Neteyam pointed his head to his family, essentially saying that he had to go talk to them. She nodded and smiled at him. She remembered his request from earlier, to meet him at midnight tonight. He seemed to remember it too because as he was walking to his family he turned back and mouthed, "Midnight" and winked at her. She blushed and looked away from him, accidentally making eye contact with Aunong.

Aunong looked at her and sighed. Walking towards her, he started to speak.

"You need to be careful Laya. You're hurting people and you don't know it. Y'know You're hurting Rotxo, and the future of this clan?" He tried to reason with her, but Laya just scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Just because I'm not into Rotxo I'm hurting him? How does that work?"

He looked to the side. "That's not fair Laya, you know he's always liked you."

She sighed. "That shouldn't be my problem though."

Aunong shrugged. "Well it is. And you're affecting other people with this little 'relationship'. Mom and Dad always wanted you and Rotxo together but now you're" He used airquotes ,"Mingling" He looked at her, "With a jungle freak. I just want you to be safe. You're treading on dangerous grounds here."

She looked down, but held a face of defiance. "So what." She stated. "Because I like a guy from a different clan, suddenly" She paused and swallowed. "Suddenly I have to tread lightly? How is that fair. So what if I like a guy? Eywa forbid I fall in love." She rolled her eyes.

Aunong was about to speak when she interrupted him. "No. I'm done with everybody telling me to 'be careful'. Neteyam would never ever do anything to hurt me, and I'm sick of people telling me what to do! Just leave me alone." She huffed, and stormed off.

He looked at her receding figure and sighed, feeling sorrowful for his friend. His whole life he saw Rotxo chase after Laya, and now suddenly she's with this other boy who doesn't even know their ways. It must be hard for Rotxo to see that every day. There was a point in time where him, Rotxo, and Laya were all friends, but Rotxo has this tendency to mess things up when they're working in his favor.

One day, when they were all sitting together and looking out towards the water, Rotxo said something that really hurt Laya, and their friendship never became the same. He still remembers that night, as if it were yesterday.

They had just sat down when Laya started talking.

"I wonder what it's like, as a sky person I mean." She looked down at her five fingers, scenarios running through her mind. To her right, Aunong nodded.

"Probably terrible. They're so small and weak." He shrugged. "Who knows, maybe that's why they came here. To figure out what makes us so much better." He started to puff his chest, but Laya slapped him gently in an attempt to humble him. Rotxo laughed, and nodded.

"All I know is that they're lame. Even the dreamwalkers try to be like us." He looked at Laya. "Even their offspring are freaks." Cracking a smile, he looked down at her fingers. "Five-fingered freak."

In his mind, he was joking, but to Laya, who was already extremely insecure of her human features, she took it seriously. She looked down.

"Why would you say that?" She muttered, not meeting his eyes. Rotxo, realizing he made a mistake, sighed and looked at her.

"I was just joking- no need to go and call mommy." Then he smiled. "Oh wait- you can't!" Then he burst out laughing. Obviously not getting the memo to stop, Rotxo thought he was the funniest person ever. Laya just stood up and walked away, trying not to show her eyes tearing up.

Aunong shook the memory away and looked at Neteyam playing around with his family. He saw Neteyam carry Tuk and bring her on his shoulders. Running around, Neteyam made Tuk shriek and laugh all at the same time. He was obviously a good brother, and a good man at that, but the main issue was that he just wasn't from the Metkayina tribe. A part of Aunong wished he was, so he could see his cousin be happy, but the other part, the part that was loyal to Rotxo, was glad he wasn't. It created a definite border that stopped Laya and Neteyam from officially getting together, or even mating. They could technically mate together, it would just be confusing for everybody involved. It could cause revolt of the clans, with debate of which clan their children would belong to, and where they would live.

It was something to think about in the future, but in the meantime, Aunong just wanted to keep his friend from being hurt. Obviously talking to Laya about it wasn't working. Deep in thought, Aunong looked up and noticed how dark it had gotten. It was probably time for dinner.

Neteyam walked with his family back to the village to get dinner, Tuk still sitting on his shoulders. He looked up at her.

"You hungry Tuk?" He asked, holding onto her legs so she didn't fall. She grabbed his braid and tugged it and threw it to the side of her. He winced and looked in front of him. "I'm guessing that's a yes." He walked to where the food was being given and grabbed a fish, making sure Tuk got one. "Alright" He looked up at her. "Time to get off." She whined. "No! I feel so tall up here!" Neteyam laughed but grabbed her and placed her down. She looked up at him with an angry face, before sticking her tongue out at him and running off to find her mom.

Neteyam looked around and went to go sit with Lo'ak, who was talking to Tsireya and Kiri. Then he remembered his midnight plans with Laya. That was bound to be an interesting night.