𝙀𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙉𝘼𝙇 𝙇𝙊𝙑𝙀. 𝙉𝙀𝙏𝙀𝙔𝘼𝙈 ¹

𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣. 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙤𝙮

Fei'uey was fuming. As she waited for the others to find Lo'ak, she paced in her Marui. She couldn't believe her younger brother had done something so stupid, even when he knew about how Tsireya felt toward the boy.

"Fei?" Neteyam called out as he slipped into the room. He glanced behind him to make sure nobody saw him enter. When he found her in a nervous state of panic, he rushed forward to comfort her. "Fei, what's bothering you?"

He took her hand in his and laid the other on her hip. She instinctively leaned further into his touch. "I've never seen Aonung act so stupidly." She whispered.

They molded together as one. They would act as one. Neteyam would do whatever it took to make his love happy. "Lo'ak will be okay. He is a fighter,"

"But what if he isn't!" She seethed. Immediately, he put his hand to her cheek to soothe her in a breathtaking kiss. He needed to get her mind away from the worst possibilities.

"'My body and soul belong to you if you let me have yours,'" he recited. He watched as her ears twitched, eyes burning with recognition. It had been from the time they first kissed. When she let go of her fear and duty. She could never have been happier in that moment.

She tried to protest. "But-"

"My heart is yours," He took her hand that had been around his wrist and put it against his beating heart. She let out the breath she had been holding and looked down.

He wouldn't let her. He grabbed her chin and tilted it up so her eyes met his. It was then that he assured her, knowing she would finally listen. "They will find him. He is safe. Trust me,"

When he opened his mouth to comfort her more, a voice called out for her. "Fei!"

Both their eyes widened. Tsireya. Neteyam backed away from her and quickly occupied himself with something else. He had looked at the floor with his hands behind his back, acting interested.

Fei stood in the middle of the room in shock just as Tsireya walked through. She stopped in her tracks when she saw Neteyam, rolling on the balls of his feet and looking anywhere but Fei'uey. "...Oh." 

"What?" Fei had asked, annoyance lingering on her tongue. Neteyam hid a smile when he heard it.

"They have found Lo'ak."

And suddenly, both Fei and Neteyam had begun to rush out and find the boy. They had managed to catch him just as he arrived on a tsurak. She watched as he got up and gave a glare at the humiliated Aonung. He began to pace toward the boy until his father stopped him.

"Hey," he stepped in front of his son. "Let's have a look at you." Fei motioned with her hand for Neteyam to stay back from her as she stood next to her mother. "He's fine, he's fine, yeah, just a few scratches-"

"Lo'ak!" Neytiri called as she stepped down to her son. She put her hands on his biceps and quickly surveyed him. She was agitated. "I pray to for the strength that I will not pluck the eyeballs out of my youngest son!" She snapped her hands over his eyes, to which he moved his head lazily.

"No, my son knows better than to take him outside the reef." By the scruff of his neck, Tonowari pushed down Aonung to kneel. He looked down in shame. "The blame is his."

Jake had thought it was over. "Okay, let's go-"

"-No," Lo'ak suddenly interrupted. Fei furrowed her brows. "This is not Aonung's fault. This was my idea. Aonung tried to talk me out of it. Really."

She glanced back at Neteyam with wide eyes. Lo'ak was really trying to take the blame for almost getting killed. Fei scoffed and gave a look to Aonung. He just saved your ass, it told him.

Once Aonung took off, Ronal turned to her eldest daughter. "Is what the boy said true?" 

She hadn't known how to respond. Fei didn't know what to say. Despite her sense of truth and justice, she grit her teeth and sighed. "Trust Aonung yourself instead of asking me for the answer."

It had been a first act of defiance. To cover her mistake quickly, she spoke again. "Trust is what brings us together as people. It bonds us. To lose trust is to lose faith."

By the nod of Ronal's head, she walked off to Tsireya, who had already begun questioning her. "Why would you let Aonung get away with that?"

"He will learn his lesson when the time comes." 

Tsireya glanced back at where the Neteyam stood, his parents talking with him. "And what were you doing with Neteyam in your Marui?"

Fei forgot. It had been so tense between the two families that she didn't remember how Tsireya walked in on them in the same room. "Nothing," she said. "I told him that if Lo'ak was dead, I would kill our brother myself. I do not like him."

And still, at the end of the day, once everyone was finally calm and some were asleep, Fei met Neteyam by the edge of the walkway with their feet circling in the water.

"What did your father tell you?" She asked him, taking his hand in her own.

Neteyam looked away in shame and embarrassment. "He asked where I was when they led him outside the reef."

"And where were you?" Fei stifled a laugh. She realized what they had both been doing when Lo'ak was tricked.

"You know," he shrugged. She threw her head back in a fit of giggles, to which Neteyam quickly placed a hand over her mouth to quiet her. After all, there were still people who could have heard or saw them.

Fei grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away, a lingering smile still on her lips. He was reminded of what his sister had said earlier.

Neteyam cursed himself. "Shit, Fei, Kiri knows."

Her eyes widened the slightest. She hadn't had the chance to think what would happen when people eventually found out. "Oh..." She bit her lip. There wasn't anything they could do now. "Well, at least it's Kiri who knows and not other people. She's probably one of the only people who will support us."

At the word "support," Fei was reminded of what her brother had said before. "I don't think we're that good at being secretive. Aonung asked me if there was anything between us after that fight."

She had spent the time looking at the water in worry, but when she looked back at his eyes, they were intent. Neteyam's gaze was electric. She let her eyes fall to his lips for a second.

In the soundless night, he whispered softly. "You're too scared, Fei," His hand lifted up to her cheek as he stroked it with his thumb. 

She was speechless, glancing back from one eye to the other. Yellow against the deep blue of his skin. It was like looking at him for the first time on the beach. "Netey-" 

Fei was cut off by Neteyam pressing his lips against hers, stealing her words and her heart.

updates may be a little slow because i'm trying to "stock up" on chapters so if anything happens and i can't write, i can just upload them. it's like a backup.

anyways, i love you all! <3 and apparently, y'all interact the most with scenes where neteyam and fei kiss??? that's horny af calm down