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(POV: Lo'ak)
The first thing I heard this morning was my dad calling everyone for dinner.
Wait, but... If it's morning, why's he making dinner?
I rubbed my eyes, opening them to darkness, making me question if I had even opened them to begin with. I sat up on my hammock, waiting for my eyes to adjust as I turned towards the exit of my hut.
Ah, that's why. — It's not morning.
I chuckled to myself, not yet realising the danger that was waiting for me at the end of my bed. I turned back, my eyes being able to see a lot clearer, unfortunately. It felt like my lungs had been ripped from their cage, my throat almost closing in on itself as I saw her, sat directly in front of me, staring with an extremely specific glint in her eyes.
"Eywa have mercy!—" I jumped back in my seated position, my hand moving to cover my face due to habit. — When the hit I thought was coming my way never reached me, I slowly moved my hand down, finding the girl as still as she was before.
Just how long had she been there for?
I copied the way she had her hands, placing them down in my lap and waiting for her to say something first. However when she didn't say anything at all, I tried my own luck with it.
"Are you o—"
"You're a dick."
Well shit, way to shut me down.
Her face that had been stern since I woke up slowly started to crack, her brows inching closer to each other and her lips curling downwards. Promptly, I realised that I had screwed up royally... Again.
I began to ask her for some context, but was quickly denied my right to speech. "What did I—"
"You're an asshole, too." She paused. "And a prick, a penis-face, too—"
"Aright! Okay, I get you're mad at me! But could you at least tell me what I've done before you start calling me names?!" I tell her, climbing off of the hammock and standing next to it instead, gesturing my hands out for her to take them as I spoke.
However Ni'teya didn't take my assistance, ignoring my hands as she stood up by herself.
"If you don't know, then that's just as bad, if not, worse!" She charges towards me, her finger pressing against the centre of my chest as she looked up at me with beady eyes. I sighed, wishing my eyes had never adjusted to the darkness.
"Okay, I'm sorry! Whatever I did, I didn't mean to do it, just—"
I tried to reason, holding both of my hands up to the sky in a weak effort to show my reluctance to argue, hoping she'd accept my apology, which I soon understood was stupid of me to think possible. Before I could finish what I had to say, she made me realise what I'd done.
"Why didn't you wake me up, huh?!" She stepped back, crossing her arms together and raising her shoulders, as someone who was shivering would do.
Oh... Crap. Like, double crap, triple even.
I didn't know what to tell her, so, I didn't say anything for a long while. Instead, we stood in silence, Ni'teya staring daggers at me until I was half-saved by my dad's yelling voice.
"Kids! Come on, your food's getting cold here!" He called over from his hut, making both me and Ni'teya answer him at the same time.
"Coming!" We shouted in unison, though her yell was much more aggressive than mine. She swiftly turned her head back to me, her brows somehow looking even more furious than before she'd looked away.
Knowing she wouldn't be the first to speak, I tried to explain myself. "Look, Teya. I'm sorry, I meant to wake you, I really did but—"
"You promised!" She raised her voice however not moving to attack me in any way, which surprised me. She held her own arms with her hands, her gaze drifting away from me more often than not.
"I know, I just thought you should sleep more, okay? You looked really tired!" I said. As I tried to approach her, she only stepped backwards.
"So what?! Now you're the one who's tired, clearly! — You should've told me you were dreaming, Lo'ak."
I frowned, opening my mouth to speak but getting a rude interruption instead.
Even louder this time, Jake yelled out "Kids!"
"Coming!" Ni'teya shouted back at him as she'd done before. I stayed silent, watching her fangs become clearer. As she turned back, she rubbed one of her hands along the part of her upper arm she was holding, making me sigh and tilt my head, understanding what her body language meant.
"You don't have to worry about me Teya, seriously! I can handle things on my own, you know." I walked nearer to her, this time noticing she wasn't backing away.
All the girl did was look down. "But—"
"No, don't try to fight me. Just trust me when I say that I'm fine." I tell her in the most sincere voice I could muster, taking my hands and placing them on her upper arms, on top of her own hands that were cold to the touch.
A shake in her breath was heard. — "So I'm supposed to just sleep soundly away from you while you're having nightmares not ten feet away from me?!" She asks, refusing to look up at me, making no difference in whether I could or could not see her facial expressions. She was obviously slightly panicked as well as anxious, explaining her cold state.
"Yes." I bluntly answered, finally making her look up to me with widened eyes, ones that I could then see were welling up.
"No!" She tries to yell but her shakiness stops her, causing her voice to break.
I chuckled softly at her desperate attempt, not out of amusement but because it made me feel seen. I closed my eyes, raising my chin a little before pulling Ni'teya into me, hugging her tight. — "Stop worrying! Jeez..." I rested my chin on the top of her head, letting a deep sigh escape me. — I could tell that had stopped her from crying, luckily.
As a silence grew, I thought of something.
"Hey..." I began, pulling back from the hug but not letting go of her, noticing she'd started to hug me back too. I grinned as I spoke on. "...I don't think this is just about my dreams, hm?"
I saw her eyes flicker, undeniable confusion spreading across her face.
"Uhm, what else would this be about?" She asked quietly, her puzzlement rather endearing.
I placed one my hands on her neck, my fingers inching towards the beginning of her face; The other, I used to push the braided strand of hair she had dangling down, moving it behind her ear before resting my hand down where it stopped. — "Let's see..." I whispered, lifting up her chin gently and lowering my head only slightly. "I think, maybe... You just want an excuse to sleep next to me?"
She audibly flinched, an almost offended look appearing for a second before she tried to hide it. The flinch she experienced made her hands shoot up to grab both of my wrists in at attempt to... Well, I'm not so sure what she'd planned to do with them if I'm honest. Nonetheless, I then noticed how she avoided my eyes even though her head was pointed directly at me, watching them shift lower every now and then.
She shook her head slowly, back and forth, blinking quickly.
"No?" I quietly turned her movements into a word, not dropping my hands from where they were.
I could feel her grip start to lessen on my wrists, eventually feeling one of them leave me completely, beginning to make it's way up to my own neck. When her eyes would divert from mine, I didn't mind so much; As I knew exactly where else she was looking. My head began to move forward on it's own, I wasn't paying much attention to anything I was doing, it was as if something in me hit autopilot and ditched all sense of awareness. I closed my eyes after I saw her close hers, rubbing my thumb against the lobe of her ear.
But of course, like every other time, my least favourite word for a very good reason, interruption.
We were, once again, interrupted.
(POV: Narrator)
"If I've got to ask you kids one more time, I'll—" Jake said as he walked straight into a strange scene, making him unable to finish his threat.
In front of him, in the darkness, stood Lo'ak and Ni'teya, meters away from eachother. Lo'ak was scratching his neck, looking up at the roof of the hut for some unknown reason. Far away from him, Ni'teya had her arms hidden behind her back, looking down at her legs that were moving around aimlessly.
Jake took a second to assess the situation, picking up on a heavy feeling in the air around the two of them.
However, before he could say anything, Ni'teya was the first to zoom past him, finally doing as she was told and going to eat her food, that was cold by that point. Shortly after, Lo'ak followed; Avoiding eye contact with his dad at all costs. — Jake wondered just what he'd stumbled into, although the relief that they were finally going to eat outweighed his worries.
What he didn't know, was that that wasn't the first time he'd interrupted a moment between the two of them. — Over the last however many months, Lo'ak and Ni'teya had been interrupted countless times by various people, not just Jake. Anytime they'd get close to closing the gap between them... Person X presents themselves.
And it was getting incredibly frustrating.
.
.
.