|𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐬| 𝐚𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐧𝐠 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 .𝟎𝟗

I feel the sun burn holes into me, so I squint my eyes to see Aonung stare down at me.

"Thank fuck you're awake. My leg is so dead, get your head off."

"Good morning to you too." He laughs at my comment.
What a way to be greeted, I guess.

I slowly stand up, stretching as I see all of my friends and siblings sitting by the shore.

"Can we go over to them?" I ask, pointing their way.

Aonung limps on his leg. "Sure." He shrugs his shoulders.

"My brother doesn't like you, though. So watch your mouth." I made sure to be clear on how to act infront of my brother. We make our way over, I sit down next to Aonung, and Neteyam.

"Hey guys." I yawn. They all greet me in response.

"What's happening?" Aonung asks.

"We're just talking." Neteyam says, ruffling my hair as I swat his hand away.

My head turns towards the ocean, to see some big sea creatures swimming towards the land.

"Oh my Eywa! One of those animals saved me when I got hurt!" I exclaim, astonished.

"They are tulkuns. Our brothers and sisters." Tsireya says. "Follow us!"

Her and Aonung dive in, as I turn my attention to see their parents swimming towards these tulkuns too.

Aonung rises from the surface.
"Come. Let me show you." He says, beaming.

I think I've only seen his genuine smile a few times, and it really was pretty. Maybe he should do it more often instead of being a dick.

Without hesitation, I jump into the water.

Do you want to ride our ilus? Or swim?
He signs to me. I was still learning their underwater language thing.
Swim.
I sign back.

I occasionally wack him with my tail. Purely because it was funny.

Aonung swims up to one of the tulkuns, patting its side.
Hello, brother.
He signs to the tulkun. I only knew things like Hello, good, yes.
Which was really embarrassing.

I stare at the two, reaching out for aonungs hand as he helps me up.

╰┈➤ ❝ aonungs pov❞
I sit on the fin of my tulkun.
Hello, Brother.
I sign to him.
Aonung! Who is this?
I met a girl. She is a bit of a skxawng.

Y/n reaches out her delicate hand at me.

I grab it, carefully making sure she doesn't get hurt as she adjusts herself next to me.

Do you like her, Aonung?

No.

Do not lie to me.

Maybe. I do not know!

She looks pretty.

I know.

Y/n looks at us both, in confusion.

What is that scar on her leg, Aonung?

She got hurt in the ocean. She was saved by a tulkun.

He didn't respond for a few seconds.

Well then, go find this tulkun! Goodbye, Aonung.

Goodbye, Aonung's girlfriend.

She's not my girlfriend!

He throws his fin up in the air, causing us both to fall off.

We splash into the water, as I roll my eyes, trying to find y/n.

What if she hurt herself again?

I realise that she'd already been up at the surface, as I feel her hands grab my tail, in attempt to drag me up

I slap her hand away, but I didn't mean to. Maybe it hurt?

I quickly get myself back up to the surface.

I grab her hand, to see it a purpley blue.

"Does it hurt? I'm sorry y/n." I kiss her hand, squeezing it ever so slightly.

I'm such a skxawng!

"It is fine, Aonung!" She laughs, her voice was soothing.

I don't let go of her hand, as we swim.

"Look!" She yells happily, to what looked like the tulkun that saved her swim over to us.

She places her hand against it.

Hello!
She signs. Seeing her sign was something I didn't know I needed.

—

╰┈➤ ❝ readers pov ❞
Hello!
I sign to the tulkun.

"How do you sign 'Thank you for helping me'?"
I ask Aonung.

He helps me with what I needed to say.

Thank you for helping me.

The tulkun makes noises. I need to ask Aonung for more help on how to sign, because I don't know shit.

"Come, y/n. Let's go."

He pulls me by my hand, and we dive into the water. I didn't know where my siblings were, as usual.

I feel like Aonung has been becoming a lot more caring and affectionate towards me.

Although I loved his teasing, I really preferred him like this. Caring and gentle.

I catch him looking down at my scar a few times while swimming, making sure I don't hurt myself.

Once we get up in the shallow water, Aonung does something very unexpected.

He didn't even try to be slick with it. He throws his hand on my waist, gripping it tightly.

Although our luck must be rubbish, considering the fact my brother was staring at us.

That brother being Neteyam.

—

a/n: heyyyy!!! here's another chapter for you 💗💗 you guys have to really help me out with some of these chapters because I'm running out of ideas 😭😭 I hope you've enjoyed this one!
luv ya xox