holding on [Neteyam]

2

"I've been meaning to tell you about someone." he suddenly blurted out. You wonder if it's a new friend he had made. "The other day, I bumped into this girl, her name was Tarya. She introduced me to a lot of things—like the flower that I just put in your hair." he said with a smile on his face. Oh.

You wanted to be happy for him for making new friends, but for some reason you can't help but feel a bit envious of her. It was selfish, but the way he brought her name up in a conversation...Tarya...Does he talk about you the same way he talks about her? You can't help but to over think about it.

He had noticed the sullen look on your face. "Don't worry y/n, she's not gonna steal your spot." he reassured you with a small chuckle as he softly patted your head.

Why should I be jealous?
After all, you're not even mine.

While returning back to your mauri, Ao'nung noticed your hair. "Woah looks like someone made a move on you." he teased, walking up to take a closer look at the flower. "Shut up, Ao'nung." you lightly pushed him away as you made your way to your bed, plucking out the orchid flower and tossing it away. "Hey what happened?" You looked over to a now concerned Ao'nung. You sighed, as much as you wanted to be alone, you couldn't help but feel bad for being rude to him, he doesn't know what happened. "Just some small problems, don't worry about it." you basically forced yourself to sleep so you could stop thinking about it. "Hmm, I don't believe you but alright."

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You wanted to spend your day alone the next morning. But just as you were playing with the water, you were joined by none other than the lapis lazuli boy. No matter how many times you had protested, Neteyam still insisted on spending the day with you claiming that he "had nothing better to do".

Now, when he said he was going to spend the day with you, you were expecting something boring, but no. The boy dragged you onto his ilu to have fun.

Dear Eywa, please protect me.
with his ilu riding skills, he must be trying to drag me with him to the gateway of death.

"Everything is so full of color underwater." He was right. The longer you looked, the more allured to Eywa you felt. Your nervous tension slowly faded away as you gaze fixed onto Neteyam. His presence has never felt so delightful; the way he smiled while looking at all the small creature of the sea swimming around us; the way his hands tightened around your thighs each time he picked up the speed on his ilu.

My dear, you are iridescent.
I can't seem to look away from you.

Your embarrassing thoughts were disrupted as he signalled his hands for you to look at something. He pointed to the group of coral reefs near us. For a moment, you felt calm; you felt as if nothing terrible could ever happen to you down here. It was a gorgeous view, everything was so beautiful and serene.

/

The sky was already dark by the time you both returned, sitting on the sand staring into the distance.

Little did you know, the lover boy has been fighting with his own thoughts since the moment he saw the way you were admiring the ocean; the way you were subtly admiring him. He noticed the way your eyes softened through his peripheral vision. You weren't slick at all. He has been debating whether or not to mess with you.

"You looked like an angel sent from Eywa while admiring the sea creatures." Neteyam spoke softly with a slightly flustered look on his face as he swayed his legs around the water. "Thank you, forest boy. You looked..."

gorgeous?
heavenly?
stunning?
you struggled to form a word to describe how magnificent he looked.

"You looked nice.." you ended up saying the most basic compliment ever to him. "You think I'm nice?" his eyes slightly widened.

"More than nice. You looked so pretty I could cry" you didn't mean to blurt that last part out. Just as you were about to take back your words, something else takes you back.

With his palm on the back of your head, Neteyam brought your head forward as he planted a soft kiss on your forehead. "I could go on for days about how crazy you make me feel." he uttered as his forehead pressed against yours.

"uhm—thank you for spending the day with me, I had a lot of fun." you nervously coughed pushing yourself on your legs. Neteyam giggled noticing how nervous you were. "goodnight, y/n!!"

/

"What is with your mood swing these days bro. Yesterday you were in such a bad mood, Tsireya was scared shitless. And today you came home jumping around everywhere." Ao'nung laughed as his eyes followed you happily walking and jumping around the marui. "Nothing, I just went for a swim today." you murmured, not willing to tell him that your forehead was just touched by the lips of the man of your dreams. "Man, I don't believe you, but I'll just wait till' you're ready to tell the actual truth."

"It's nice to see y/n so happy like this. I hope you come home hopping around like today more often." Tsireya chimed in while giggling. You quickly went to give Tsireya a hug before dropping your body onto your bed. You can't help but dream about what could possibly happen tomorrow.

How strange,
To dream of you even when I am wide awake.

/

Neteyam on the other hand, couldn't hide his smile even when walking pass his siblings. "Bet you had such a fun time being all lovey-dovey with y/n." Lo'ak teased the older sibling, expecting him to try to deny it. "Yeah...yeah, we had fun." He didn't have time to deal with his bullshit as he could barely wrap what had just happened between you and him around his head.

Lo'ak's eyes widened as he elbowed Kiri. "Bro are you seeing this?" He couldn't believe his eyes. Seeing his usually confident brother, so tensed up over someone else. Kiri just stared at him in disbelief as he made his way back to his family's marui.

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early update surprise!!! felt like this chapter was a bit rushed tho TT, I'll try to make it up to you guys!

Apologies in advance cus the next chapter might take a while since I've been having a huge headache for the past week and am in the hospital rn🫂