Shells | Lo'ak Sully

Part 8: Boys Cry

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The few minutes that followed were a mess. One real, big, mess.

Jake had been uncooperative for a while, which made Tuk worried. She hugged her dad, making him come back to his senses a little, just in time to see Lo'ak storm off, pulling his hand away from Ni'teya. As she tried to chase after him, Jake stopped her, not saying anything but giving her a look. She knew relatively well what it meant, however he had to vocalize it eventually to make sure. He told the girl that he wanted them both, them being herself and Lo'ak, back with him before dark, to which she agreed right away.

Then, as she was free to do so, she ran off in the direction she'd seen Lo'ak go in, which happened to be the area of forestry she knew quite well.

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"Lo'ak?" She called, not having yet found him. She'd been tracking the footprints he'd left behind as he walked however they were getting harder to follow. She continued to search nonetheless, suddenly hearing small noises coming from behind a tree up ahead, figuring out early on what they were.

"Oh, Lo'ak—" She whispered, speeding up towards the tree and discovering what she already knew was behind it. Lo'ak stood with his head in his hands, turning away from her as she approached so that she wasn't able to see him.

"No! Leave me be, Teya." He whined, shoving off the girl's hands that had only just landed on his arms, gasping as he spoke.

Instantly, she protested. "What? No, I'm not leaving." She told him, trying again to take his hands away from his face or at least make him turn towards her, however he shoved her off once again.

"Please, just— Leave me alone! I don't want you here." He stated, beginning to walk away from her.

"Don't be silly, Lo'ak, come on—" She rushed ahead, tugging one of his arms in an attempt to stop him from walking further away from her.

"No!" He finally snapped, turning around without meaning to as he was growing agitated. Ni'teya then saw what he was trying so hard to hide. — The boy had tear-stained cheeks, his eyes reddened from the saltiness of them. "Just go already!" He sobbed, trying to shake her hand off of him once again but failing. Ni'teya had grabbed ahold of his wrist and she was not letting go of it.

She understood why he'd told her to leave, knowing he didn't mean it in the way it sounded. She knew he simply didn't want her to see him cry. He didn't want to seem weak, vulnerable.

"I'm not going anywhere." She said slowly, tightening her grip as she stared at him with force, making sure he understood that she meant it. "Jake wants us back by sundown. So, we have until then to decide what we're going to do."

He used one of his hands to wipe his eyes, returning the girl's stare with his own, however he was confused.

"What we're going to do?" He repeated her words back to her.

She sighed a little, taking both of his hands into hers and pulling him downward so that they were both sat opposite each other, Ni'teya not letting his hands go once they were comfortable. She looked at him. "The way I see it, we have two options." She began, speaking in a tone Lo'ak knew well. "One, we sit back and do nothing. We wait, for weeks maybe, for that so-called 'advance team' to get off of their asses and go out looking for Quaritch, to then come back having lost half of their men whilst Quaritch lives on." She paused.

Lo'ak seemed tense as she spoke, not liking the sound of what she'd just portrayed, mainly because it was a very real and likely scenario.

"Or, two; We wait for only a little while until the time is right to do this our way. They don't know Quaritch like we do, we've fought him much more than anyone else has... Except for Jake, maybe. But anyway! We can kill him, I know it." She said, pulling his hands closer to her as she tries to show her confidence.

He spends a moment just looking at her.

"What about my dad?"

"Yeah, uh— Look. We can get around whatever we need to when we come to it, the important thing is is that we get the job done." She spoke as if she was some sort of team-leader. "He should be dead right now. He's supposed to be decaying at the bottom of the ocean, paying for what he did. He said it himself; He has something we want! So who's stopping us from taking it back?" She smirks finally, expecting the same reaction from Lo'ak however receiving a different one.

"...I seriously can't tell if you're making valid points or if you're really good at manipulation." He tried to make a joke, although it went straight over Ni'teya's head. She sighed, thinking it would be difficult to convince the boy to come with her, not realising that he'd already decided.

He chuckled, releasing one of his hands from her grip and placing it on the side of her face. He pulling her head upward to face him again, chuckling as her hopeless expression.

"I'm kidding, you're right." He said, caressing her cheek with his thumb, smiling a little. Ni'teya picked up on the sadness behind it nonetheless. "As always." He added, successfully making her laugh that time. He lowered his hand, making Ni'teya's ears twitch as she'd gotten used to having it on her.

"So... Option two?" She checked to make sure they were on the same page.

He lowered his head as he snickered, amused by how clueless she was of what he was thinking. "Yes, option two is it."

"And you're sure? You don't have to go just because I want to, I don't want to pressure you—"

"Teya. Don't be stupid." He straightened his face, a serious complexion showing. "You seriously think I'd let you go out there all on your own? What would the poor damsel do without her knight in shining armour?" He whispered with a cheeky grin, repeating her words from before, altering them slightly which made her smile.

"Alright, you got me." She giggled, leaning forward as her stomach began to hurt from laughing too much. She then rolled her head back, opening her eyes to see the sky above that was darkening. "Oh— Shit." She swore, making Lo'ak quit his laughter too.

"What?" He said quickly, checking her hands, arms, face all at once, placing his hands on her neck. She smiled at his extremely unnecessary concern, placing her hands atop his as his face screamed worry.

She then looked up at the sky once again, pointing upward with one of her index fingers, making him look. "Curfew." She whispered, noticing a hint of embarrassment as he'd previously thought she might have hurt herself somehow. — Ni'teya started laughing once again as he slowly let go of her, sighing and poking the inside of his cheek with his tongue in slight annoyance.

He watched as she shut her eyes due to laughter, clutching her stomach as she'd done before. He felt at ease, much less stressed than he did a while back. However, lingering in the back of his mind was the thought of what avenging his brother meant. He knew it would be dangerous, and danger was nothing to mess around with.

Slowly, the impounding fear of what was coming closed in on him, unable to voice his fears as he needed nothing more in that moment than to hear his Ni'teya laugh.

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It's my birthday in 20 minutes 😍😍

Lowkey hate birthdays but we move lmao