✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩
"I'm not scared of you."
-M
✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ
Dahliä decided to take some time off by herself, that's what she really wanted right now.
Eclipse was yet to arrive, she sat down staring at the water, she was in that little beach close to the village alone, after she and Neteyam had informed their parents and the chief of what happened.
She was eager to join the search party, constantly plead with them to join, but the chief made it clear she had to stay back.
It sucked that she couldn't do anything but wait, it angered her.
Oh, and of course she's tried to run off and look for Lo'ak, but Ney'tiri and Jake would always catch her and tell her off. "Lo'ak is strong at heart, he will survive and be found."
The girl clenched her knife, about to stab whoever it was, "If you're going to stab me, I can take it."
Hearing that deep voice only made her want to scoff,of course it was him. "I don't want to talk to you. I'm not in the mood." Dahliä didnt exactly our her knife away, but it was awfully close to her.
Malìk sat next to the girl without a problem, he was pretty stupid for not being scared. "You need the company. I heard Zeiu didn't accept your ap-."
"If I hear that name one more time," Dahliä placed the knife close to his face, "You will have a new scar." Malìk slowly nodded at the girl, to let her know that he understood, Dahliä placed the blade on her other side.
They began to sit in silence, he didn't mind it if that's what Dahliä needed, then he respected it. Today didn't go how he wanted it to, in fact it went really really bad. He wanted to tell her he loved her, how much he treasures her, but right now, that didn't matter.
Apologizing and reassuring her that he feels nothing for bleep, was much more important.
The boys eyes focused on the waves, small specks of white illuminating the water as it hit the shore.
"I pity you, having to mate with a girl like her." Dahliä spoke up, Malìk turned his attention to her. "She's weak, having a wife that cannot fend for herself. She won't be fit to lead the Metkayina. She will be nothing but a mere accessory in your leadership."
He slightly scoffed, it was like she spat out each word she said. "I know, there's no girls around here like you."
"Don't sweet talk your way to me, I will slap you."
Malìk understandably nodded, "I know, I'm not trying to sweet talk my way to you. I need to let you know what I think, and what I should've have said from the beginning." Dahliä side eyed him, as he began to prepare himself to talk to her.
"Dahliä," He took her hand gently, still wary if the girl might hurt him, he placed her hand on his heart. "I apologize to you, I should have let you know about her, it's my fault. I understand if you don't want to talk to me."
It all went silent again, sat in silence as her hand was against his chest, feeling his chest. It was just like their first kiss.
"Ok, I accept your apology." He raised a brow, his heart skipped a beat, that was surprising. "You do?" Dahliä took her hand away, and nodded as she got up, "Mhm. I do." Malìk kept his eye on her as he got up.
"Are you going to punch me?" He asked, his tail waggled slightly in curiosity, patiently waiting for an answer. Dahliä licked her teeth, "No." A small surprised scoff escaped his mouth, as Malìk nodded. "I'm happ-!"
Dahliä kicked his chest, his precious chest that was always getting kicked or hit by her, he grunted as he hit the ground. "That's for not telling me." Malìk almost seemed to struggle to breathe, before he mentally slapped himself in the face, he only said punch, not kick. "I deserved that..."
"I know you did, skxawng." Finally a playful smirk appeared on her face, he smiled through the pain, it was finally nice seeing her not so upset. Pleased with herself, the girl sat back down, "You only got up to kick me?"
"Of course," She rolled her eyes at him, Malìk slowly sat down as he hissed from his chest pain. "I don't know what will happen if Lo'ak doesn't come back." Malìk's eyes softened. "Don't say that, he will come back. I'm sure that he will."
Dahliä scoffed, "You don't know if he will come back or not. I should know, but I got distracted, you distracted me." Malìk blinked at her comment, completely taken back, he did not see this coming.
"Long before I even met you, I promised myself I would protect my family till the day I meet with Eywa," She growled through her words, Malìk just listened to know, not knowing if he should say something. "I get distracted by you, and my brother is lost at sea, with nobody with him. No way of returning back to us."
"W-Wait, it's my fault?"
"Yes! It's all your fault! You've distracted me! You've made me soft, and stupid! You made me actually care what people think, I don't care what people think!" His brows furrowed, "People or me?"
Dahliä rolled her eyes, clenching onto her knife, "Do you care about what people think or what I think? Dahliä, why are you scared of liking me?"
The girl's growling only grew with that question, she didn't know what to think or say. Dahliä pushed him away from her, finally clenching onto the knife, and pointing it towards him with a hiss.
Dahliä," Malìk reached his hand out towards her, "I'm not scared of you."
"You should be!"
"I'm not, and I won't be. Please-." He got pushed to the ground, the girl placing the dagger on her knife, small amount of blood showing from the wound. "Shut up! I'll kill you!"
It must've been with how overwhelmed she's been today, with the fighting, her conversation with her dad, Lo'ak missing, and everything with Malìk, Dahliä was truly breaking down.
She's never felt so tired in her life, she was physically fine, she has a great physique with great stamina endurance, but she's tired.
Emotional, it was like her self defense walls were crumbling down, unsure on what to do. Should she yell? Should she defense herself? She had no idea, her eyes widened once she felt Malìk cupping her cheek, their eyes met.
She never really truly admired his eyes, how they reminded her of the ocean, it's calm waves where she finds herself at when she's most stressed.
And to Malìk, that fire behind her eyes, was nothing but a dim flame about to burn out. "I'm not scared of you, Dahliä," Her breath began to slow down, as Malìk slowly set his other hand on the knife, her hand shaking, and began to get it off her. "It's ok, I'm not scared."
She was completely frozen, she had no idea what to do, her brain stopped working.
Malìk threw her grandfathers knife to the side, and began to get closer to her, placing his other hand on her right cheek. "It's ok." His once deep cheerful voice, was now a calmly and consoling one, she almost wanted to melt.
Dahliä kept staring at him, frozen, Malìk caressed his thumbs on her cheeks, wiping the small tears.
"I see you."
It was a complete trigger for her, the girl fell forward, landing in his arms and began crying. "You had my heart, the second I saw you. Let me in your heart, I won't ever hurt you."
Dahliä wasn't a crier. In fact, she's only ever cried 4 times in her whole life.
The day she was born.
The day she got her first scar.
The day she got her first nightmare about everyone she loved dying.
The day she left home.
But this time, it was different. It was a bad different, and she didn't like it, not one bit. Malìk kept comforting her, they sat in silence, with only Dahlia's cries being heard.
His eyes shifted towards something in the distance, the search party group. "Dahliä, Dahliä." He kept calling out to her, he grabbed her by the shoulders, wiping her tears. "The search party have returned."
"What?" She chocked on her words, "The search party have returned, we have to go." Once the girl realized what he said, she wiped the tears off, as Malìk took her hand.
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ
Jake rushed to his middle child, as Lo'ak made eye contact with Ao'nung, and stiffened up.
"Hey, let's take a look at you." Jake quickly stepped in, Lo'ak didn't take his eyes off the reef boy. "He's fine! He's fine! Just a few scratches." Jake tried to deescalate the situation, he didn't his family to get into more trouble with the clan.
Dahliä and Malìk arrived, she saw Lo'ak and she cried with a smile out of relief.
He had his arms already slightly opened, the two embraced. "Thank you, Great Mother. Thank you, thank you." She whispered, and kissed his cheek. "Are you alright?" She worriedly asked, continuously checking for injuries, the boy nodded. "I'm ok." He reassured her.
Malìk stood next to his parents, and glanced towards his younger brother. The rest of the family quickly went through, as Ney'tiri showed convened look before it quickly turned sour. "I pray for the strength that I will not pluck the eyeballs out of my youngest son!"
"No. My son knows better than to take him outside the reef." Tonowari spoke up, getting attention from the Sully family. "The blame is his." Malìk pushed Ao'nung's shoulder down, and got down on one knee.
Jake sighed, he just wanted this situation to be over with. "Ok, let's go." He told his children. "No. This is not Ao'nung's fault, this was my idea. He tried to talk me out of it, really."
She couldn't believe what was happening, for once, Lo'ak was taking full responsibility at the wrong time. "What are you doing?!" She angrily whispered towards him, slightly hitting his arm.
"Alright, come on." Jake told his children, Dahliä made sure to follow behind Lo'ak, not wanting to leave his side. She gave a soft look towards Malìk, which he nodded to as he stood next to his brother and left with her family.
Malìk turned to his younger brother, "Malìk, I-." He kept a nonchalant face on, and gestured for him to go after Lo'ak to apologize.
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ
"Dad, you told me to be friends with these kids. That's all I was doing-."
"Don't. You bring shame to this family." She heart broke into pieces, she hated hearing that." Can I go now?" He asked his father, already hurt from this situation.
Jake nodded and Lo'ak left, Dahliä tried to go after him but Ney'tiri held her back. "Where were you two?" She asked her eldest children.
"Yeah, what happened?" Jake shot back the question, Neteyam put his head down, and Dahliä grabbed it up. "It is my fault, it was my turn to keep an eye out on Lo'ak. The blame is mine."
One of her brothers already took the blame, she couldn't let it happen to the other.
"Dahliä-."
"I accept the blame," She told her brother. "Punish me if you just, but Neteyam shouldn't take the fall."
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ
✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩
Authors note——!!
Here's the deal, I saw someone's post talking about the Ash people in the upcoming movie, and how to make her a badass. I really liked that idea, so thank you to them!
The Neteyam story idea was about him and a surfer girl who lives a very carefree live, so basically the opposite to Dahliä.
Id rather let you all decide if you'd rather have a alternate reality version of Dahliä being born with the Ash People, and being a antihero or the surfer girl x Neteyam story.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed!! 💕💕 Also might be the last chapter I post today, sorry!!! But thank you for reading 💕💕 :)