Neteyam x Ao'nung: in the cover of the leaves

5- Dont do that again

Neteyams POV

I race off after my father but within 20 minutes Lo'ak is back to shore with one of the Metkayina warriors.

A/N: you all know what happens here I ain't writing all dat

Time skip

'Why does he have to keep doing this shit? And why did Lo'ak apologize?' As I'm sitting in my room of the pod consumed by my own thoughts I hear the stretching rope sound of steps approaching.

"What do you want?" I half-ask half-yell out to the silhouette through the beaded seaweed curtain disconnecting my room from the others. It's Lo'ak, but he seems different... calm?

"Someone wants to talk to you." He responds in a reserved tone.

"Lo'ak I don't want to talk right now."

"Bro," he slides one hand through the streams of seaweed, the beads rhythmically clinking against one another, "I know that you're stressed but I'm fine, I don't want you to be mad for me. It's Ao'nung, he says that he wants to apologize... again."

"Like fuck I'll trust him again." I seethe in return, my brows pressing together as my teeth grit, whipping my head around to face Lo'ak. "You shouldn't trust him either."

"I know that he fucked up, trust me, he knows too, but if I could forgive him then you can too." Lo'ak places a reassuring hand on my back. Thoughts clash in my mind, fighting over whether I should give him another chance or not. I clench my teeth harder and the pressure in my temples only grows stronger.

"You could have drowned." I almost whisper, eyes starting to sting and vocal chords straining. Shit, why am I so emotional? Lo'ak either hasn't noticed or is choosing to ignore the gloss coating my eyes, and I'm hoping that it's the former but grateful either way.

"Please bro, for me?" He sounds more genuine than usual, and his pleading combined with the thoughts of Ao'nungs smile, the way his back flexes when he rides his ilu, and the way that his hair threatens to fall out of it's confinement when we were play fighting make it hard to say no. "I swear that he's really sorry, we had a long talk about it. He knows what it feels like to be one big disappointment, and I guess that it just got to him. Maybe you could help teach him to be more ruley and he could teach you how to have a little fun." He says with a slight smile, punching my shoulder playfully.

"Fine, but this is his last chance." I say sternly, struggling to hold back the curling at the corner of my lip.

"Thanks bro!" He gives me a little hug before I shove him off of both me and the raised net that we had been sitting on. "You're so cruel." He jokes while dramatically throwing his head back with the back of his hand to his forehead.

"Get out before I change my mind."

"Yes sir!" He salutes.

"Don't let dad see you do that." I let out a small chuckle.

"Yes-" he stops himself from repeating the same motion, "will do. Ao'nung is waiting outside of the pod." With that he leaves my room.

I raise myself up from the hammock by putting all of my weight in my palms, nearly flipping myself over as I forget just how flimsy these things are. Ao'nung is waiting for me... He better not fuck it up again. Ugh, him and his stupid... stupidness! And his stupidly broad shoulders, and his dumbly firm back, and his way too blue eyes... and his big ass fangs...

I'm in this deeper than I thought.

I smack myself on the cheek and put on my 'game face', leaning down to grab a handful of water from the edges of the net where the ocean is exposed, and splashing my closed eyes with the salty but refreshing liquid.