The Breath of Water | Neteyam

77 • Little Spark

"...sunshine, you are my sunshine~..."

Someone was singing.

"...make me happy~, when skies are grey~..."

She turned over, rubbing her eyes. As she forced them open, she saw Neteyam's back. His jeweled cummerbund was no longer on him, instead on the floor beside him. He seemed to be folding clothes.

"...you'll never know dear~, how much I love you..."

She watched him with tired eyes, blinking slowly. The song was soothing to her.

"Please don't take my sunshine away..."

"...what a nice melody."

Neteyam turned upon hearing the sound of her voice. Stopping what he was doing, he went over to her. "...somebody's awake." He laughed softly, rubbing her forehead. She smiled, then looked around the pod. Something was different about the place.

"...where...this isn't your Marui..."

"It is not," he said, bending his head down to her face. "...it's ours." He gave a tender kiss to her cheek before sitting up. Liyanin's ears twitched as she sat up.

"What?"

"I know, I was as surprised as you are."

"But how? When—?"

"After you'd passed out, I was carrying you back to my pod. But then some villagers came up to me saying that they had been making a space for the tsakarem and whoever her mate would be. Now that we revealed our relationship, they deemed it fit to allow us to live here." He explained, rubbing her knuckles with his thumb. Her eyes looked down at their intertwined hands.

"So we have our own home now...?" she asked, still looking at their hands.

"Yes." He answered, smiling. Liyanin couldn't hold back her smile either, nor her little laugh that escaped her lips. Now, she looked him in the face. But then her face changed.

"...wait, you said that I had passed out...? And my mother let you take me?"

He blinked with a blank look on his face, then scratched his head as he chuckled sheepishly. "Oh! Well...about that..."

"...Neteyam...?"

"...I sort of maybe...told her...off...?"

Her mouth fell open. "You what?!"

"Look, I—I was running off of fumes because of what Kaysitxi did, and then your mom kept glaring at me like I was the one who made you pass out so I just—just snapped...!" he rambled. "...I do have plans to apologize..."

Liyanin sat there thinking, trying to imagine the situation. "...well...what did she say?"

He thought for a moment before answering. "...Nothing. I think what I said made her speechless."

"What did you say?" she pried.

"...it doesn't matter, Yawne. You need to focus on getting rest, you are too stressed; that is why you fainted." He assured her, getting up. Her eyes followed him, which made her remember she had her mom's Tsahìk shell diadem. One of her arms reached up to her forehead, feeling the shell. She carefully began to pull it off, cautious to not pull her hair out. The item felt heavy in her hands even though it didn't weigh much at all. As she stared at the shell, she ran her fingers over the ridges of it. It was beautiful.

"...that song, Nete," she started, looking over at him. "...the one you were singing earlier."

"...hm? What about it?"