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Neteyam reached the surface and gulped down as much air as he could, gasping to breathe. Aonung, still on his ilu, was laughing at him so hard his head was thrown back and his mouth was wide open.
“Hey quit making fun of me, I'm trying okay.” Neteyam said, partially laughing too, as he splashed water on Aonung.
“I know I know I'm sorry but if you would just listen to me, you wouldn’t have to repeat the same training exercises over and over again.”
“I’m doing it exactly as you taught me! I follow your exact movements everytime!"
Aonung had been teaching Neteyam how to properly ride his ilu for weeks now. Ever since he caught him trying to secretly practice alone a few weeks ago, he’d taken time off everyday to teach Neteyam the proper techniques of riding.
Though the truth really was, Neteyam wasn’t NEARLY as bad as he pretended to be. Aonung was a great teacher, and with how closely Neteyam watched him everyday, Neteyam had quickly picked up on the proper movements in only a matter of days. But Neteyam wasn’t ready to give up these hours that he spent with Aonung, of course he enjoyed getting taught properly, but it was the time he spent with Aonung that meant the most to him.
So everyday, Neteyam would go out into the water pretending to be bad at riding simply to spend more time with Aonung.
It might seem selfish that Neteyam had spent weeks wasting the boy's time, taking up part of his day for seemingly no reason, but Neteyam couldn’t help it. Every time they would practice, Aonung would place his hand on Neteyam's stomach showing him exactly how to breathe, he would ride behind Neteyam on his ilu in case something happened, and he would always be right next to him the entire time. Neteyam just simply wasn’t ready to give up this closeness and proximity to Aonung yet. Soon he would tell himself, soon he’d tell him that he was better in the water and that he didn’t need Aonung’s training anymore. Then Aonung could finally get on with his life and move on, but for now, for now Neteyam was savoring every touch, every laugh, every conversation that he and Aonung had.
“You’re clearly not doing exactly as I do, or else you’d be perfect in the water by now, forest boy.” Aonung said with a smile while slightly rolling his eyes.
“Oh yeah because you're just perrrrfect at everything aren’t you.” Neteyam replied in a sarcastic tone, and Aonung let out a laugh. Neteyam might’ve said it sarcastically but he sure as hell hadn’t meant it that way. To Neteyam, Aonung really was perfect. His swimming strokes under the water, the way his body perfectly moved on top of his ilu, the way that the strands of hair falling behind his bun floated around his head in the ocean and the way they moved with the air on land. He could never admit that to Aonung though, or at least not yet he couldn’t.
“Okay well i may not be perfect but at least i can beat you in the water. Your forest limbs hold you back from your great potential.” Aonung said, still laughing, while taking a hold of Neteyam's arm and shaking it slightly, showing how his hands weren't made for the water.
Aonung may have been making fun of Neteyam, jokingly obviously, but even Aonung's joking hand on his arm made Neteyam all warm on the inside. He wished he would leave his hand on him, that Aonung would forever remain touching Neteyam. That his soft hands always remained in his skin.
“Ahhh, so you think I have a lot of potential.” Neteyam replied with a slight smirk.
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, forest boy, I said great potential, not a lot.” The boy said with a smile on his face and a soft laugh following his words. “But yes I do think you have great potential Neteyam, more than you think you do.” He continued, while looking deeply into Neteyam’s eyes.
Hearing Aonung say his name out loud while looking straight into his eyes warmed up something inside of Neteyam and made him feel all fuzzy. Though he was right though. Especially in the beginning of their training, Neteyam had a whole lot of lack of self faith, even now when he was much better at riding and a much better swimmer, he still doubted himself at times.
Neteyam was about to reply when both the boys heard noise behind them. They hadn’t ridden too far from shore and the sand was still very much visible from where they were. Both of them turned their heads to look at the beach and unsurprisingly Lo’ak and Tsireya were walking alongside each other on the very edge of the water, laughing loudly. Even from the distance that they were at, Neteyam could see the huge smiles on his brother’s and Tsireya’s faces.
Lo’ak had told Neteyam how he felt about Tsireya, and he often talked about her. Well “often” is an under statement, Lo’ak never stopped talking about her. “Me and Tsireya did this” “Me and Tsireya did that” “Do you wanna know what Tsireya told me”. It was annoying at times hearing about the same things over and over again, but Neteyam knew that his younger brother was just simply excited and giddy about his time with Tsireya. It was cute too, watching him blabber when she was near, and seeing how badly he blushed when she touched him.
Some time ago. after weeks of watching Aonung, and constantly hearing Lo’ak chatter about Tsireya. Neteyam had finally decided to tell Lo’ak about his feelings for Aonung. Lo’ak was, obviously, supportive and had even given him advice. Though his advice sucked ass. “Just talk to him about it” “tell him how you feel” Bla bla. Easy for Lo’ak to say. He had always been the charismatic and flirty one, always knew what to say when it came to these kinds of things.
At least Lo’ak knew that Tsireya felt the same. Aonung was never clear with his signals. He would constantly touch Neteyam and stay close to him, but that was during training, it was quite literally his job to touch him and stay close in order to teach him. Though Neteyam was guilty of being indirect too, he had never made a full move on Aonung, he’d thought about it close to a thousand times. But anytime he was close to saying something or making a move he would give up. What if telling Aonung his feelings changed everything? And suddenly Aonung didn’t want to spend time around him or go on lessons anymore. He couldn’t risk that.
Neteyam had zoned out too far and had completely forgotten about Lo’ak and Tsireya on the beach and hadn’t even realized he’d been staring at Aonung instead. Lo’ak and Aonung were yelling something at each other and Neteyam only heard the ending of the conversation. “OH YEAH WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT FISH BOY.” Lo’ak yelled out and Tsireya was dying laughing next to him, clutching her stomach as she was bent over in laughter.
“Uh oh.” Aonung said. Neteyam turned his head back to the shore and saw as Lo’ak called out to his Ilu and climbed on top, Tsireya getting on behind him.
“What!? What happened?" Neteyam asked, confused.
“Come on forest boy, were you not paying attention!? I might've made fun of him too hard and pissed him off, get on now.” Aonung replied with a huge loud laugh.
Neteyam loved the sound of his laugh. He hadn't even realized that his Ilu had swam away a long while ago after he fell into the water. Aonung had his arm stretched out to him, and Neteyam grabbed it strongly and climbed on behind Aonung’s Ilu.
“Hold your breath Neteyam.” Aonung began to navigate his Ilu under the water, FAST under the water. Neteyam turned his head back and saw a faint image of Lo’ak behind them. Turning his head back forward, he met Aonung's eyes as he turned his face, both boys staring at each other for a second before giving out huge grins while laughing, accidentally gulping down huge amounts of salty water.
“i know a path that we can go in order to lose them” Aonung signed with one of his hands to Neteyam under the water. Neteyam nodded in understanding as they picked up speed and suddenly turned left. They were headed towards a rocky path. But neteyam trusted Aonung, he knew he’d be able to get them through it. He turned his head again and he could barely see Lo’ak in the distance anymore.
He let out a sigh of relief with a smile on his face and grabbed on tighter to Aonung. They sped in between rocks and dodged countless animals as they rode in between them.
Aonung looked back at neteyam fully laughing underwater as he realized that Lo’ak and Tisireya had fallen behind. Neteyam smiled at him back before noticing the huge rock that was in front of them. He let out a huge muffled yell as he pointed to it. It was too late by then though. Right as Aonung turned to face the front again his whole body collided with the rock, sending him flying off of his Ilu. Neteyam barely dodged the rock, it scraped the side of his stomach fully, but he was able to hold on.
He moved closer to the front of the Ilu and took control of it, not even bothering to connect his kuru to the animal. He turned back, going faster and faster until he saw Aonung floating in the water. His eyes were blinking fast and he was clutching onto his chest trying to swim up to the surface. There was a huge red mark reaching from right underneath his neck to all the way down his stomach. Neteyam quickly rushed to him, taking a hold of his body and going up as fast as he could.
When they reached the surface, both breathless and gasping. Aonung was groaning in pain.
“Holy shit are you okay? Does it hurt? we need to back now. we need to get you help. Shit Shit are you okay?”
“woah woah relax forest boy i’m fine it’s just-” Aonung let out a grunt as he clutched his wounds tighter.
They were both in the water now holding onto one another, with Aonung’s Ilu swimming close by.
Neteyam’s hands were shaking as they were running down Aonung's body checking his wounds and making sure he was okay. His breath was shaky out of pure worry too.
“Hey, what about you look you’re all cut up.” Aonung said suddenly serious and putting his hand on Neteyam’s stomach to look at his cuts. The scrapes weren't that deep, though there was a slight amount of blood dripping onto the water, and the salt was causing the cuts to burn.
“I’m fine really, it’s you who got slammed into the rock.”
“Didn’t hurt as much as it looked, really. I mean due to the speed that you rode my Ilu i guess it seemed like i was pretty hurt huh?” He paused for a second to look right into Neteyam’s eyes before continuing, “looks like you couldn’t keep up your, may I just say, VERY unconvincing act of being bad at riding, this time could you.”
Neteyam’s face dropped. Fuck fuck fuck. He knew? Had Neteyam’s fake falls off of his Ilu the last few weeks been that noticeable?
“Shit Aonung please i can explain it’s-” Before Neteyam could finish his sentence Aonung placed his hand on his mouth, wincing slightly as he moved his sore shoulder.
“There’s no need to explain forest boy i’ve known all along believe me. You’re not the only one that likes to watch people you know?” He drops his hand from Neteyam’s mouth and moves it to one of his lose braids floating in the water instead, removing his eyes from Neteyam’s and focusing on his playing with his hair instead. “i’ve seen you on your own Neteyam, i’ve seen you ride and i’ve seen you on the water. We were barely a week into training when you already had all the techniques and movements perfected. And well when you kept showing up to practice with me and kept acting like an idiot every time we practiced, and well, i didn’t say anything because i liked, like, spending time with you. I didn’t know if you felt the same or not, so i just went along with it.” He let go of Neteyam’s braid and met his eyes again. “And well i really hope i’m not making a fool out of myself for telling you all this b-“
Before he could finish his sentence Neteyam grabbed his face. Cupping each one of his cheeks with his hands and kissing him deeply. Not even a second later Aonung grabbed Neteyam's side, sliding his hands to his back and bringing Neteyam as close as he could to him , slowly running his fingers up and down his skin, carefully in order to avoid touching any of his cuts.
Neteyam’s right hand slid down into Aonung’s neck as he slid his tongue into his mouth. He pulled Aonung’s head as close as he could to his. They were still soaked from the water, their skin dripping cold, yet their kiss was still soft and warm.
Aonung pulled away slightly as Neteyam’s shoulder pressed into exactly where he’d gotten hit.
“oh shit i’m sorry are you okay?” Neteyam asked worried while keeping his left hand on Aonung’s face and running his thumb across his face, while his right hand drifted down to where the huge red mark was.
Aonung let out a little laugh replying “yeah i’m fine just a little sore.” Neteyam met his eyes again looking at him fully before touching his forehead on Aonung’s while both boys broke into laughter. They stayed there for a moment, floating in the water, gabbing onto each other, laughing, mouths still tingling from the kiss.
Movement of water behind them startled them both as they turned to look and saw Lo’ak and Tsireya riding towards them. The boys broke apart, not fully though. They remained close together and kept at least one hand on the other's skin.
“Looks like we caught up to you guys.” Lo’ak said with a huge grin. “Woah woah wait guys are you okay?” Lo’ak asked with a worried face after looking closer, hopping out of his Ilu into the water, turning around to grab a hold on Tsireya's hand to help her down too.
Aonung and Neteyam turned to look at each other again after that, both of the boys breaking out into huge laughs again.
“What?” Lo’ak and Tsireya asked at the same time, with a slight blush on each of their cheeks.
“Nothing,” Aonung replied. “We’re fine, just hit a little rock is all.
Tsireya rushed to her brother and Lo’ak quickly swam towards Neteyam to see if they were okay.
“You guys both have bruises and cuts, we have to go back to get you guys help.”
“yeah.” “okay”
“Tsireya you take Aonung on his Ilu and i’ll Take Neteyam on mine, they can’t ride by themselves after this.” Lo’ak said.
Neteyam thought it was a bit of an exaggeration but he knew lo’ak just wanted the best for them. Neteyam hopped onto the back of Lo’ak’s ilu and before riding off he turned back to give Aonung one last smile, only to find he was already looking at Neteyam with a huge grin.
Neteyam was laying down in his hammock trying to go to sleep. It had been hours since Lo’ak had brought Neteyam to his family's pod so that his mother could put bandages and ointments on him.
Neteyam heard some noise coming from the side of his hammock, Lo’ak came in, trying to be quiet but failing terribly at it. Giddy as always with a huge smile on his face. He’d always sneak out during the night to go on walks with Tsireya.
“Whoops sorry brother,” he said as he bumped into Neteyam’s hammock.
“Have fun tonight Lo’ak?” Neteyam said letting out a quiet laugh.
“oh sush,” he said while making a face at Neteyam. “i mean.. if you wanna get into it, let’s talk about you an Aonung today mhm” He said jokingly while making fake kissing motions and sounds towards neteyam.
“oh shut it,” Neteyam replied throwing a pillow at his brothers face, who was, still, not very quietly laughing.
Even after Lo’ak got into bed and started snoring, Neteyam remained awake, replaying every moment of that day in his head.
Well at least now he won’t have to pretend to suck ass at riding his ilu he thought.