Say Her Name (Neteyam x OC)

❝𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟺 - 𝚆𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚑𝚎?❞ ✧ ೃ༄

𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐲𝐚𝐦'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Today the first thing I planned was to find Aonung and clear the air between us.
Even though I didn't like the idea of apologizing to someone like him, I did it for Dad's sake.

"Hey, Tsireya, do you know where your brother is?" I asked her, in a hurry.
I refused to make an effort in searching for him.
"I think he went diving with his friends" She pointed into a direction of the sea, smiling at me warmly.
I thanked her and made my way to the direction she pointed at.

I dived into the cold water.
"Hey Sully!" Aonung and his friends approached me first, on their ilus.

Man, his voice already annoyed me.

"Look..." He said with an almost pained expression on his face.
"I'm sorry for yesterday" His friends nodded in agreement.
Wow, I didn't expect him to actually apologize first. I guess I could live with that.

"I'm sorry aswell" I answered and reached out to him to shake his hand.
He shook my hand.

"You know, us both being the eldest sons, we should become friends" He said, smiling.
I didn't care to smile back.

Although I didn't want to be friends with any of them I nodded.
No point in starting a new conflict.
"See you later" He said before he turned away with his friends. Atleast that was cleared up.

Back to where the others were, as I planned to go look for Yui'Ki, someone grabbed my arm forcefully. I turned to see it was Aonung.
"Bro, what are you-"
"It's important, come with me!" I was interrupted. He looked seriously worried.
I didn't protest and just followed him.

"That Demon, Yui'Ki!" I looked at him irritated before pulling my arm out of his grasp.
"Listen to me, please.
She tricked Lo'ak." He said, desperately. I was confused.
"What do you mean, 'tricked Lo'ak'?" I wasn't sure whether to trust him or not.
"I overheard them talk, so I stayed behind and listened in on their conversation." He answered frantically.
"She told him that apparently we were all going hunting and that he should join us. To make friends.
But we are never allowed to hunt alone! It's dangerous!" My stomach dropped at Aonungs words.

"Are you serious? You sure you heard them right?" I asked as my concerns started to grow.
"Yes, I'm sure. There's a reason why we don't like her Neteyam. She's not a good person" He answered, furrowing his brows.
I couldn't believe my ears.
How could she do something like that? It didn't make any sense.

"I'm serious, why would I lie about such thing?" Aonung added.
He was right, he might've not been the nicest person but this was serious, he had no reason to lie about something like this.

Furious, I went to look for Yui'Ki.
I saw her innocently sitting there, dangling her feet in the water. She was stroking an ilu's head.
The nerve.

I ran up to her and before she could say anything, I grabbed her arm, forcing her to stand up.
The ilu jerked back in surprise and dove back into the water.
Her acting all shocked and unknowing made my blood boil.

"Where is my brother?" I asked,
no, demanded to know.

"Neteyam what are you-"
"Im asking where my brother is! Where is Lo'ak? Answer me!" I shouted, interrupting her.
She only looked at me wide eyed with a pained expression.
She tried to pull her arm away but I just squeezed harder.

"Stop! It hurts!" She told me, tears forming in her eyes.
Annoyed at her behaviour I pulled her all the way to our room, where my father hopefully still was.
I didn't care to look her in the eyes.
It was hard to believe she'd put up such an act.
Now it really made sense why it had been so easy to trust her.

I dragged Yui'Ki to dad.
"Tell him." I demanded. She still looked at me as if she didn't know what I was talking about.

I hissed at her before letting go of her arm.
"Yui'Ki tricked Lo'ak into leaving this area, he's in danger!" I told Dad, who quickly stood up.
Yui'Ki looked at me shocked.
"What are you talking about? I didn't even see Lo'ak today!" She told me.

Dad looked at me annoyed.
"What are you guys talking about?"

"Aonung told me you tricked him" Yui'Ki seemed shocked at my words.
"Why would I do something like that? I can't believe you!" Yui'Ki hissed at me.

"Aonung is the one who is lying, not me! I can't believe you'd take his word over mine!"
Seriously, I didn't know who to believe anymore after seeing the hurt in her eyes.

And where was my damn brother?

"Get Aonung" Dad responded, confused. "Yes, Sir"
I ran out to look for Aonung, hoping Yui'Ki had spoken the truth.

"Aonung" I shouted as I saw him right outside from a distance. He turned to look at me, confused.
I ran up to him and dragged him back to dad by his arm.
"What is going on?"
"Tell him what you told me" I asked him.

He looked at Yui'Ki who shot him a death glare, then back at me.
"Fine, whatever, it was me" He said, annoyed.
I shook my head at the audacity.
"I lied. I told him we should be friends, he agreed on going hunting with us."
"And then?" Dad asked him impatiently.

"We left him there, alone."
I saw the concern in dad's eyes. My anger only grew.
"Where is he now?"
"I don't know" Aonung looked down, embarrassed.

I shoved Aonung out of the way and ran out. Dad followed me.
"Neteyam!" I ignored him.
"Neteyam!" He said once again and grabbed me by my shoulder, holding me back.
"You're staying here" He told me.
"But Dad-"
"No buts! You understand?"

"Yes sir" I answered, defeated. My shoulders sank in disappointment.

I just prayed my brother was okay.

Dad ran outside, seemingly unsure of what he was going to do about this situation.
I turned to Aonung.
"If something happens to him, I will-"
I bit my tongue and ran out.

I sat down by a fireplace and listened to the fire crackle. It had gotten dark and Lo'ak was still gone.
Yui'Ki sat beside me.
Even though we didn't speak, her being here after what I had said comforted me.

"I'm sorry" I said, too embarrassed to look her in the eyes.
She didn't say anyhing for a while.

"You can get scary when it comes to the people close to you" She said, her voice was hoarse.
"It's fine. You were worried about your brother" She added. I was relieved hearing those words.
"But don't ever scare me like that again" She slapped the back of my head. We both couldn't help laughing.

"I really didn't think Aonung would lie about something so serious.
At first I doubted him but he just kept on insisting.
I'm sorry, I should've known it couldn't have been you"
I looked at her to see that she was already looking at me.
She patted my back.

"I didn't think he was capable of doing something like that either.
Let's just put this behind us, Lo'ak is more important right now" She said, smiling at me.
Even through her smile I could tell she was still hurt. I hoped this didn't ruin our friendship.

"Guys, Lo'ak is back!" Tsireya shouted from a distance.
I bolted upright and took Yui'Ki's hand. We both ran to where Tsireya was calling us from.

Thank Eywa.

He stood there, mom and dad were all over him. I ran to where they were standing.
Chief Tonowari said the fault was Aonungs, rightfully so.
I felt relieved to know everything was okay in the end.

I was so damn exhausted that I slept like a baby that night.