Forbidden Love | Neteyam x Reader

Chapter 8: Getting Close

The next morning I woke up and noticed that I was the only one left in the hut. Normally I'm the first one awake in the morning because someone will wake me up or I'll have something to do that morning. Either way, I'm happy I got the rest. I clearly needed it.

I stood up and walked out of the hut, making my way to the water to see where everyone was. When I arrived, I saw Tsireya, Ao'nung, Rotxo, and the Sully kids were all in the water with Ilus.

Rotxo and Ao'nung were helping Tuk and Kiri get used to the Ilu. Tuk was too young to learn how to ride yet so they were having her feed them. Kiri on the other hand was carefully getting used to sitting on the Ilu and bonding with it.

Tsireya, of course, was helping Lo'ak learn how to ride the Ilu, but it wasn't going as well as she hoped it would. I could hear her explaining everything to him and he nodded in agreement. As he tightened his grip on the handle of the Ilu, he took a big breath of air before going under the water. Ao'nung stuck his face underwater to see how he was doing and came back up laughing. Tsireya slapped him.

"What? It is funny seeing him struggle," Ao'nung replied, still laughing.

"Stop it. He's learning," she said, glaring.

After a moment, Lo'ak came back up riding the Ilu perfectly. Tsireya clapped her hands and cheered at the sight.

"Yes, Lo'ak!" She exclaimed. A huge smile spread across Lo'ak face as he saw how happy she was for him. It made me happy seeing the two of them so happy. Tsireya deserved it.

As I was smiling at the scene, I noticed that someone was missing. Neteyam.

I looked around and saw that he was sitting at the edge of the dock, dangling his feet in the water. I was a little confused why he wasn't learning how to ride, normally he was so eager to learn new things. I decided to walk over to see what was going on.

"Hey stranger," I said, walking up behind him. I sat down on the dock next to him and stuck my feet in the water as well. He looked over to see who I was and smiled.

"Hello. How did you sleep? Your sister said you were fast asleep when they left the hut this morning," he said.

"Oh yeah, I slept really well actually. I stayed up a little later than I normally do but it was worth it." I looked over at him, smiling. I remembered last night and all of the stories we told each other. How invested he was when I was talking about the most pointless things. The way his eyes glistened with the stars in the night sky. I hoped to do it again sometime. It was truly peaceful.

"Why aren't you in the water learning? I thought you were excited about learning how to ride an Ilu," I questioned.

"Well, you said that you would teach me so I wanted to wait for you. Besides, everyone else was busy teaching the others. Your sister seemed really eager with teaching Lo'ak and I didn't want to be stuck learning with the girls so I decided to wait," he replied.

"Oh. Let's get started then." I stood up and held my hand out for him to grab. He smirked a little before holding his hand out for me to take. Big mistake. When our hands met, he locked our hands together and acted like he was about to stand up but instead he yanked my hand down toward him. This caused me to fall forward and I fell off of the dock into the water.

I paused for a moment under the water, taking in what he had just done. I smiled to myself and thought of a plan. I swam back up to the surface and made an appearance.

"You are awful for that," I said, wiping the water from my eyes. "Now help me out of the water."

I held my hand out from him to take once again but this time it would be different. He stood up and grabbed my hand, getting ready to pull me out. As he started to pull me out, I put my feet on the edge of the dock and yanked myself backward, pulling us both into the water.

Once completely submerged, Neteyam looked at me and glared. I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. Suddenly, his mischievous smirk came back onto his face as he started to swim after me. Unfortunately for him, I'm a faster swimmer.

I kicked my feet fast, almost kicking him in the process, and made my way away from him quickly. I looked back to see that he was trying his hardest to catch up but it was difficult for him. I managed to swim toward the beach and climb my way out of the water. Neteyam coming out right behind me.

"Ha! How does it feel to be the slower one?" I said, laughing at my victory.

"I wouldn't say I'm the slower one," he said, smiling once more.

"Wait what do you mea-." Before I could finish my sentence, Neteyam began to run after me. I tried my best to book it away from him but I found that I was much slower than him on land compared to water. After a minute, he tackled me to the ground, pinning me down.

"Who's the slower one now huh Y/n?" He said. At this point, I was stuck. He was on top of me pinning my hands down with his hands and his body was putting just enough weight on me so it didn't hurt but I couldn't get away from him. My heart was racing fast as I looked up at him. Our eyes met and he gave me a smirk. I knew there was no way of getting out of this.

"Okay fine. You're the slower one in water and I'm the slower one on land. There are you happy?" I said, rolling my eyes at the position I was in.

"Not yet. But I will be after this," he replied.

I gave him a confused look, unsure what he meant by that. Suddenly, he moved his hands from mine and moved them down to my stomach to tickle me. I squealed and began laughing harder than ever.

"Neteyam! Stop! Get off of me!" I said while uncontrollably laughing.

"What's the magic word?" He said, continuing.

"Please! Please stop!"

"Okay princess only because you asked nicely," he said, climbing off of me. He held out a hand once more but this time without any tricks. I gladly took it and wiped the sand off of my body.

"Do not call me princess," I said, glaring at him.

"And why not princess?" He said, smiling.

"Because I'm not a princess. I'm far from it."

"Hmm, I don't think so. You're the chief daughter which makes you something like a princess. Plus you don't like it when I call you that so looks like you're stuck with the nickname."

"Whatever you say." I rolled my eyes at him and began walking back over to the dock. "Now come on. I need to teach you how to ride an Ilu."

*Is this the start of a new friendship or maybe something more?? Hopefully, something or someone doesn't come in between Y/n and Neteyam. you'll just have to wait and see. I hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. There are going to be a lot more chapters than what I have right now I just have to get around to writing them.*