Counting Stars - Aonung x Neteyam

Part 1

- Sleep. - he grunted and I realized as he settled down that he was sleeping a few feet away from me. I tried to think of something else, but my body shut down. The next thing I knew, I had slept for a day and a half straight. My mother was very worried, but everyone was fine. We Sully's had survived.

There were moments in life that Aonung looked forward to. The older he got the more moments appeared on his mental calendar. The day of his first tattoo, the day he would come of age, the day his father would tell him he was proud of him and lately the day he would join his partner. Like any other boy his age he also had in mind the first time he would be bonded to his partner in more ways than spiritual.

He wanted to know why people made so much noise about sharing all kinds of fluids with another person. It wasn't that he didn't see what was interesting about it, he had actually spent many nights exploring his body, discovering what felt best and where he needed to push to make it feel really good. That he understood, the pleasure, the electricity that traveled through your body. The feeling of calm and relaxation afterwards. That was logical.

But he didn't fully understand how someone else could do it better, how they could help. When he had spent the afternoon with that boy from the nearby tribe, it had felt good to kiss. He wanted to go fast, touching everywhere and was almost frantic. But he didn't feel that way, it felt okay to stop it at kissing. It felt good, but the idea of someone seeing him vulnerable like that wasn't the most appealing idea in the world.

Then he grew up and began to see that relationships sometimes weren't for the purpose of making him feel good. There was power behind the wandering hands, there were exchanges of desires and of course children.

The woman he was supposed to be engaged to had ended up marrying earlier, to a riverside swimmer, a tall, strong man. Full of tattoos. She had apologized to him in the traditional way, in front of his parents and talked about love, fate and wishing him well. But that had only been in front of my parents.

When we were alone, she had told me how the swimmer was powerful, had a tribe that prospered more and more every day. She didn't want that power for herself, but her tribe, her parents' tribe, was becoming more and more afraid of the demons in the sky. They had no fighters in their tribe, they were fishermen only. So, it was the best decision for her tribe and she would be happy with that decision. She would find a way to be.

He didn't understand it at the time, because he was childish and ignorant. But Eywa was quick to put the explanation in front of him and when he had to pull his sister's unconscious body out of the water because the demons in the sky had hurt her, he understood his former fiancée. He would do everything in his power to protect them.

Strangely enough, thanks to that day he got to live many moments he had dreamed of.

- Breathe, my sweet girl, breathe. - Neteyam's mother hugged her daughter tightly, letting her cry on her shoulder. Since they had returned from the ship, her attacks were more frequent. My mother helped her whenever she could, but she still didn't understand exactly what was going on.

- Kiri? - I heard Rotxo's voice to my right, he approached the two women with objects I didn't recognize in his hand. - I asked Ronal and she told me that this might help you sleep. - He said quietly and slowly approached her. His mother nodded as he looked at her for permission. Kiri was still leaning on her mother's shoulder, but she looked at Rotxo calmly.

- Thank you. - she murmured through her tears. He smiled and sat down across from them. The rest of us who had come to hear the screams started to leave.

It wasn't the first time; it had happened several days in a row. She would wake up screaming and seemed to wake up every living thing nearby. The Ilu would move splashing around the marui and any plant in sight would twitch nervously.