Beautiful Eyes (Aonunete)

Dinner

Ao'nung and Neteyam managed to get out of the cave quickly. The dark blue skinned boy wagged his tail frantically, looking at the taller boy with a smile. Ao'nung bit his lip, looking directly at the Omatikaya.

"You lost again, I'm faster." He sneered with his ears up. "And this is your special place, you should have beaten me."

"You are small and skinny, of course you were going to beat me out of the water." He started to say, like it was something super obvious. "When you're as tall as me and have these huge, powerful, heavy muscles, we'll talk."

Neteyam looked at him with a strange expression on his face and proceeded to analyze him with those beautiful yellow eyes and folded-down ears. Ao'nung felt exposed before Neteyam's piercing gaze and in an attempt to shake off his embarrassment, he did a 360 turn. Neteyam noticed that Ao'nung was really a large Na'vi, he was taller than Tonowari and muscular, his legs were twice his own and that tail looked like a strong fin.

Ao'nung was a mighty looking warrior, with that outstanding tattoo on his back that extended to his shoulder and that black hair tied in a bun, undoubtedly an extremely handsome man, Neteyam felt his cheeks heat up.

"You like what you see?" Ao'nung asked with interest, realizing that he wanted to know the answer to his question, he proceeded to put his arms around his waist, looking even bigger than he was.

"Well, you're different from me. My body is specialized to live in the forest and be light, not to live in the water." Neteyam said, as if he was suddenly self-conscious. "Too bad I don't have those muscles and I'm just a fast guy."

"That doesn't answer my question." Ao'nung mentioned with a flirtatious smile and was going to continue to tease but he noticed Neteyam looked awkward and he was sure he didn't want another awkward moment between them. "Oh, Forest boy, that's not why I said it, I just wanted to say that I'm slow because my body moves better in the water, I didn't want to make fun of you."

"I know, I wonder if with time I'll also get slow on land like you." He said he with a small smile.

Neteyam did not know why he suddenly felt somewhat sad. In the forest, he had always prided himself on being one of the fastest hunters, however, that didn't seem to be of much help in his new home. If he wasn't fast in the water, he couldn't help much in Awa'atlu. He was basically useless.

Ao'nung approached him, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing him a little, drawing the attention of the dark blue-skinned boy. Neteyam looked at him again, finding those blue eyes with green tints looking at him intensely. They walked a bit in silence until they reached the edge of the rocks they had climbed before, Neteyam left the fish net on the ground to rest his shoulders.

"Look, boy of the woods, don't feel bad about being skinny or fast. I know you miss home and you're at a disadvantage here, but we'll help you learn the way of water." Ao'nung tried to comfort him. "Besides, I think you're very pretty with that baby tail and that tiny waist of yours." He said quickly, before reaching down and grabbing the net full of fish that shone even more in the presence of the sun and jumping into the water without waiting for a response from the boy next to him.

Neteyam froze, processing the words he had heard come out of Ao'nung's mouth. How had I gone from being a freak to appearing pretty to him? He felt a small smile spread across his embarrassed face and his tail wagged with excitement.

"Hey, are you coming or are you going to stay there forever?" He heard how Ao 'nung was screaming for him, but Neteyam still didn't want to get out of that trance or that feeling that grew inside him for having been called beautiful, for having been praised.

Without thinking, however, he took a few steps back to start running to grab momentum and launch himself into the water like Ao'nung did, only in a less graceful and more disorderly manner. He loved the feel of the wind on his face before letting himself be engulfed by the water.