୨ৎ | Learn to accept, i accept you. || Neteyam

2

- II.

Neteyam stepped out of his marui. He got in to a little argument with kiri earlier because of how she was taking all of the blanket's space the whole night. Taking a deep breath of the fresh morning air. He scanned the beach, his eyes landing on Maelie's form sitting by the rocks, fiddling with a net. His initial annoyance returned when kiri shoved him by the shoulder while giving him a knowing look, but he couldn't help but return his gaze on her, the way the sunlight danced across Maelie's skin was a sight to behold, well, maybe not frustration that was written all over her face.

Neteyam excused himself from his family and headed over to where she was. "What are you up to?" Maelie felt a shiver run through her spine as she heard a voice call out to her from behind. She looked back and up to the standing boy. "Aonung and his friends were supposed to hunt for breakfast this morning, not until his ass didn't want to wake up so i covered for him." She replied before looking back at the net and fiddled with it once more. "Isn't there a stock?" He asked. "There was, but it was out of preservation so we had to throw the contains of it out."

"This net is going to be the death of me. It decided to clot up all of a sudden." She complained, annoyance written all over her face.

"I can help you?"

"I don't want your help."

"You sure need it."

Neteyam stood on a big lower rock just below the one Maelie was sitting on and grabbed the net. He meddled with it for a mere few seconds and it got untied. "Considering you were Metkayina many years before me, this is embarrassing." He laughed. "Shut up." She retorted before grabbing the net from him and summoning her ilu as she jumped on the water getting a hold of the handle. "Can I come?" Neteyam offered. "Only if you help." She mumbled, his eyebrows furrowing at her own words; like they slipped out themselves. Neteyam smiled softly before summoning his ilu.

"You are only doing this to pay me back for what I did for you, right?" He asked.

She paused for a moment before answering. "..Yeah, what else could be the reason?" She stammered. Neteyam felt pensive but not for a while, understanding their relationship. She got a head start with her ilu, a few meters away from neteyam. Neteyam followed not long after.

The hunt was successful, even though Maelie lacked the ability to acknowledge Neteyam's presence the whole time. They got back on time just before everybody woke up. Neteyam helped Maelie drag the net to the marui that contained all of the edible contents the sea and Island provided. Once Breakfast was done, the children had grouped up by the beach. Nothing much was going on, just talking about past memories and some other shit. Maelie zoned out of the conversation before getting tapped by rotxo. Turns out the group was talking about Neteyam and Maelie's little moment earlier in the morning. Tsireya wasn't far from them at that exact time so she saw them.

"He just helped me with something, it's not a big deal Kiri." She retorted. Kiri was also the one who noticed her brother's glances at you, not just this morning but far more many times before. "Is something going on?" Rotxo teased. "Nothing is going on. We're friends, that's all we'll ever be. Now stop making things a big deal when they aren't." Maelie didn't know why but she felt guilty after saying that. She shouldn't be...it was true. Neteyam silently nodded before attempting to change the topic, his eyes betraying his usual demeanor. Neteyam felt something he couldn't explain. Yes, him and maelie were friends. "But is that really all we'll ever be?" He said to himself before mentally beating himself up for it.