Ao'nung sighed. The sound of the morning birds woke him up from his light sleep. Outside morning was cold, and despite still being early the sober yellowish sun brightened his entire room.
He sat in bed contemplating what to do. There was an hour or two left until breakfast, and the paperwork that had been torturing him for the last few days stared at him, sitting quietly on his nightstand.
His father needed those papers done by yesterday, and he had failed miserably to fulfill the task. The man didn't say anything about it the day before, and he seemed to be in a fair good mood throughout the day, however, by supper when the sky was dark and those papers still missing from his desk, that unsightly frown on his face was hard to overlook.
Ao'nung brushed his eyes in tiredness as he buttoned his shirt, thinking of the thousand and one things that were bound to go wrong during the day.
He grabbed the halfway-done paperwork and made his way to his father's study, sighing and praying that the tiredness of the early morning would at least soften the man's anger.
The hallways were quiet. Ao'nung knocked on the door, pushing down the anxiety that brought him to hear his father's voice allowing him in.
"Good morning..." Ao'nung mumbled closing the door behind him. His father, standing next to the window, didn't turn around to greet him.
His son walked slowly to leave the stack of papers on the desk, dragging his feet and wearing the spirit of a soldier who had surrendered himself to the enemy.
"Finished. I would like to think." Tonowari spoke as he put his cigarette down for a moment.
"...Half of it is done." Ao'nung avoided his eyes. "If you give me until tomorrow I can..."
"But I don't need them tomorrow. I don't need them at all...No longer at least."
"...I know. I'm sorry." He mumbled breathing heavily.
"Are you?" Tonowari walked up to him, forcing him to look up with merely his presence. "Are you really, Ao'nung?"
"It was merely a slip. I forgot."
"Like you always do." He nodded to himself, not caring to hide his disappointment. "I believe you must be doing it on purpose."
"I'm not." Ao'nung shook his head, scratching his itching neck like every time anxiety would arise. "I simply-"
"Didn't want to do it."
"I just forgot!" He raised his voice a little, growing exasperated. "Can't it just be that? I have no malicious intentions, I didn't do it to spite you!"
"And I would understand that if we wouldn't have this conversation every time I trust something important to you."
"Well, it's easy to forget about things one does not care about, no matter how important." Ao'nung frowned, bitter words rolling down his tongue with ease.
His father, whose expression was growing harsher, took one last puff out of his cigarette and turned his head to the side to exhale the smoke.
Ao'nung waited feeling so on edge that his body could not keep up with the tension of his muscles and he began to shake imperceptibly, as if a momentary shrug due to the cold wind.
"You are twenty-one...Don't you think it's time to leave tantrums aside?"
"...I've been trying to tell you-"
"But I do not wish to hear it, Ao'nung."
"If you would just- let me."
"That is enough."
DU LIEST GERADE
Water's Embrace || Ao'nung x Neteyam
Fanfiction"The corruption begins with the mouth, the tongue, the wanting. The first poem in the world is: 'I want to eat.'" - Where It Begins, Erica Jong.
