STILL EXHAUSTED FROM THE DAY BEFORE, A'leyra groggily walked out of her marui, careful not to wake up her parents or her brother. He gets insufferably annoying whenever he's woken up by anyone. Thinking about the time she accidentally woke her brother up, she shivered at the thought and continued walking.
A'leyra had woken up extra early to see the gorgeous Awa'atlu sunset. Not taking her eyes off the pink and orange hues in the sky, she hadn't noticed someone else had accompanied her. Not easily recognising the person's presence, she concluded that it was not Lo'ak. With a frown, she turned around and saw Neteyam.
"Do you mind if i join you?" He politely asked, not wanted to cross any lines.
"Um, sure I guess."
A'leyra was extremely confused. Keeping her distance, she noticed that Neteyam had shifted closer to her, making her a little uncomfortable. They had never really talked one on one before. The last time they had a private conversation was when they were still close friends as children. Not so much anymore, though.
»»»~»»»
"Where is your brother?" She shifted in her spot, nervously pulling at her loin cloth, trying to look busy.
Great. Try to get closer to her and the first thing she mentions is Lo'ak. Neteyam rolled his eyes at his thoughts.
"Sleeping." She nodded slowly at his short answer. After a few seconds of awkward silence, Neteyam tried to initiate conversation.
"How are you? I feel like my brother keeps hogging you all the time. We barely even talk anymore."
A'leyra let out a soft giggle at the light joke he made. Hearing her laugh made a thousand butterflies start to flutter in his stomach. Quickly regaining his composure, he put all of his attention onto her again.
"Im doing great. I love the ocean but I miss the forest terribly." She spoke about her home with passion, while Neteyam found himself distracted by her beauty. Noticing his sudden quietness, she grew a little uncomfortable and kept quiet.
The sun had already fully risen by then. She slowly got up, brushing off all the sand off her legs.
"Bye, Teyam." She spoke softly as she walked away, leaving the boy amazed at the use of his nickname.
»»»~»»»
"-ak! Lo'ak! Wake up!"
Feeling his body being vigourously shaken, he rubbed his eyes and adjusted his vision, only to see his best friends sitting right in front of him.
Fully awake now, he rolled his eyes and chuckled at the girl's excitement.
"Finally! Let's go meet Tsireya, she promised that she would bring us swimming." Not wanting to disappoint A'leyra, he quickly got up and kissed her lightly on the cheek.
A'leyra felt the blood rush into her cheeks as she quickly snapped her head to look at him.
"Since when do we give out free kisses on cheeks?" She raised her eyebrows at him. Realising his slip up, Lo'ak put on a cocky smirk.
"Since now. Let's make it our new thing." A wave of confidence washed over him after saying that. A'leyra somehow felt her scarlet cheeks get redder by the second. He liked how he was making her so flustered in that moment.
A'leyra let out a soft laugh and grabbed his hand, dragging him out of his marui. Now laughing uncontrollably, the pair made their way to Tsireya.
Hearing the familiar laughter ring throughout the village, Ateyo awoke with an eye roll.
Public nuisances in the forest and the ocean He thought.
»»»~»»»
After Lo'ak and A'leyra got distracted for the millionth time, Tsireya felt like she was intruding on their moment. The two were laughing about how the fish reminded them of Aonung, and from then on, they were lost causes. Trying. to swim with them, while they were getting distracted every five seconds was extremely difficult. Though she loved watching the two interact, finding it fascinating how they could be so obliviously in love, and still not act on it. She grew sick of being the third wheel.
Tsireya led them into a secret cove that only she knew about, deciding that if they were going to be all flirty with each other, she should save the local's by letting Lo'ak and A'leyra flirt in private than in public.
Lo'ak and A'leyra were in awe of the cove. They entered the cove where the water did not flow into, making them able to breath just fine. The crystals shone brightly on the ceiling, mimicking a sky full of stars.
"We don't even have to be outside to look at stars, we can just lay down here!" She grabbed his hands excitedly, eyes glistening with hope. He couldn't control the smile that snuck it's way onto his face as he watched Leyra go on and on about how beautiful the cove was. He didn't care to look around. Why would he want to see how gorgeous the cove was, when the view in front of him was already the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen?
Leaving the two to laugh at each other's inside jokes, she quickly dismissed herself, smiling softly.
After a few hours of chatting and gossiping, they decided to see what the other teens were doing.
He gently grabbed onto her hand, leading her out of the cove, knowing damn well they both knew exactly how to get out. She felt the familiar feeling of butterflies she knew all too well. Looking up at Lo'ak slowly guiding her out of the underwater cove, pushing any and all leaves or corals away to make way for her.
Gentleman. I like it. She signed at him in the water, making him lose focus for a bit. Laughing at the effect she had on him, she raised her eyebrows suggestively, making him roll his eyes at the girl's boldness. The short interacted made the two start laughing uncontrollably. Realising that they were losing air, they quickly resurfaced.
»»»~»»»
Lo'ak and A'leyra walked hand in hand to the shore, deciding that they wanted to scare Kiri while she was was gazing at the way the water created mesmerising patterns in the sand. They were quickly interrupted as they watched Aonung and his gross group of friends approach Kiri. A'leyra could feel Lo'ak tense up next to her, signalling that he was ready to protect his sister from Aonung.
Softly running her hands up and down Lo'ak's shoulder to soothe him, she glanced at him with worried eyes.
"Stay here." He said sternly as he watched Aonung and his friends tease his sister. A'leyra didn't listen to him, though. She would always follow him straight into fire, even if it meant that it would cost her life.
"Back off, fishlips!" A'leyra hid her smile behind her hands. Hearing the nickname they had given to Aonung, being spoken directly to his face was very amusing to her.
"Another four fingered freak!" Aonung laughed at Lo'ak's attempt to intimidate him.
"Look at his baby tail!"
"Get off of me!" Lo'ak pushed them off as they were starting to gang up on him.
A'leyra walked right in front of him and pushed Aonung's friends away, loudly hissing at them.
"Aw, your little girlfriend has to defend you. Can't even defend yourself." Aonung smirked at his words as his gang followed.
"Leave us alone!"
Turns out, Neteyam had been nearby. Quietly eavesdropping in on their conversation, he heard the 'girlfriend' remark and his ears flattened. Deciding that he had enough of their teasing, and wanting to stop the image of his brother and crush together, he decided to step in.
"You heard what she said. Leave them alone." His stern tone was more than enough to intimidate Aonung. His friends, not understanding what was going on, thought it would be appropriate to continue teasing the Sully's.
"Ah! Big brother comin-" Quickly being silenced by Aonung.
"Back off. Now." Aonung raised his arms in surrender, slowly stepping away from Neteyam.
"Good choice. And from now on, I need you to respect my sister." He concluded his short speech, nudging his siblings to quickly move away from Aonung.
"Look at them, their all freaks. The whole family." A'leyra's fist clenched in anger. As she was about to punch that fishy bitch, Lo'ak had already started her plan for her, as if he read her mind.
"Lo'ak!" Neteyam whisper-shouted at his younger brother. A'leyra forcefully pushed him back, wanting to see how Lo'ak would play this out. Despite her actions being out of frustration, he couldn't help but feel nervous under her touch as she pushed him away.
"I know this hand is funny. Look, I'm a freak. Alien. But I can do something really cool, watch." Once he knew that he had captured their attention, he grinned mischievously.
"First, I ball it up real tight like this, then.." Before he could even react, Lo'ak's fist had collided with Aonung's face. Catching him off guard, Lo'ak used this to his advantage and punched him two more times.
"It's called a punch, bitch! Don't ever touch my sister again."" A'leyra couldn't help but feel proud of her best friend's actions. Audibly laughing at this point, she watched as the fight continued.
Lo'ak managed to fight off all four of them at once, but alas, he was losing the upperhand. A'leyra decided to take matters into her own hands and get involved.
She roughly shoved that Rotxo wanna-be off of Lo'ak and punched him, hard. She knew she had caught him off guard as she kneed him in his chest, bringing him to his knees. As he was about to land a punch on A'leyra, Lo'ak got up and shoved him as far as he could. He landed roughly on the ground as Lo'ak placed him hand firmly on his chest to keep him there.
"Don't even try to touch her." He threatened as he quickly rejoined the fight.
"What the hell is going on here?"
The fight abruptly came to a halt. Two words were running through everyone's minds.
Oh shit.
»»»~»»»
authors note:
thanks for reading <3
lmk what you think! and please leave some contructive critisism!
word count: 1.6k