Heart to heart- Aonung x reader

2. Teachings

"Uh huh, you seem patient."
"Oh I am trust me, unlike my family I can be quite the calm soul." I joked.
"We will see about that when I'm teaching you." He challenged.
"Are you insinuating that you're an annoyance?" I laughed.
He rolled his eyes, I could tell he was suppressing a smile, "Obviously not, I'm just difficult to impress."
"As I said before I love a challenge." I whispered.
"You're cocky aren't you."
I shrugged, "Depends on the day."

He broke eye contact with me, looking back at the ocean. I decided not to fill the silence, and just keep quiet. As a first verbal interaction, it seemed that he was quite a confident boy, which didn't surprise me by his demeanour. I pondered if he was always like this.

The next morning was tough to my dismay, and I could tell that it would be a long winded effort to even get one skill barely perfected. However, that didn't stop me. I quite liked the constant feeling of the water on my skin, at first it felt quite cold, like you are meeting a stranger. Overtime I became more accustomed to it, even though it was incredibly out of my comfort zone.

"You're too fast wait for us!" Tuk complained flailing her arms in the water.
"We aren't as adapted as you to this." I mumbled.
"You don't fair well in the water, maybe swimming through the trees but-" Aonung laughed, but was cut off my Reya hitting his head lightly in protest.
"We also don't understand this.. finger talk." Neteyam explained.
"I will teach you, It just takes patience." She commented.
Aonung glanced at me at the mention of patience, he seemed to have remembered last nights conversation as well as I.
"Should we teach them breathing techniques?" Rotxo suggested at the other two. They collectively nodded, turning to us.
"Neteyam, Lo'ak you can come with me. Tuk you go with Rotxo, and Y/n you go with Aonung.
Aonung looked at her in protest which made me laugh, but she ignored him.

"Follow me." He muttered, leading me to an area of flat rocks.
I sat opposite him, trying to calm my nerves. I was used to my parents teaching me things, and maybe Neteyam, but not someone I barely knew.
"What's your issue?" He asked, I couldn't tell if it was concern or plain annoyance.
"Hm? Oh, nothing." I lied.
He tilted his head to the side, "I'm not stupid you know."
"I never said you were." I replied.
"You can't learn to calm your heart rate to be able to breathe if you're like this. Spit it out."
"Agh, I'm just nervous, thats all. Totally normal." I mumbled, throwing my hands in the air.
"It is normal, I'll try not to judge too much." He joked making me finally crack a smile. At least he had a sense of humour.
"Fine, teach me your ways then." I retorted back.

The explanation was simple enough, it was the action itself that felt more difficult than taming a bloody Ikran.
"You're doing it wrong, you need to breathe from your stomach." Aonung stated, rolling his eyes. ]
"What does that even mean." I complained, leaning back on the rock.
"Not so patient now are we?" He said cockily.
"Shut your mouth fish boy."
He laughed, "My apologies forest girl, but you kind of need to get this eventually."
I rolled my eyes, sitting back up and looking at him.
"Try again." He said after a moment of silence.
Straightening my back, I put my hand to my heart, trying to feel my heart rate slow down gradually.
"Remember, as you take your breath before diving into the water, you want to feel calm, you want to control your emotions, in order to stay under for long periods of time."
I nodded, breathing slowly, trying to get my racing heart rate under control. Before doing so, I was distracted with the laugher of Neteyam in the distance. We both looked over seeing Reya having her hands on Lo'ak's stomach, trying to make sure he breathed from his stomach to slow his heart rate I assumed.
I glanced over at Aonung who cracked a smile at the sight as I tried to suppress my laughter.
"Ah, young love." I joked.
"Her technique for teaching isn't half bad." He thought, looking at me.
Raising my eyebrow, I gave him a confused look.
"I'm joking, I'm joking, lord your face is priceless." He said covering his mouth to laugh.
I put my face in my hands, "How funny,"
"I know I am." He remarked.

It had felt like hours and I still hadn't understood what the hell I was doing. I was surprised Aonung hadn't thrown me in the water out of frustration.

He pondered for a moment, until he looked back at me, as though he had come up with a genius idea.
Gently, he grabbed my wrist, placing my hand on his chest. I looked up at him in confusion.
"Just feel how my heart rate slows gradually." He explained, before closing his eyes.
He breathed in slowly, his stomach expanding ever so slightly. He let out a long breath before breathing in again, his stature was calm. For once it made me feel at ease.
As I had my hand pressed on his chest, I felt his heart rate slow, my eyes widened. It was incredible.

He opened his eyes, I hadn't realised our close proximity.
"I guess that was impressive." I said nonchalantly.
He chuckled, "You try."
I nodded, allowing him to place his hand on my chest, his hand was surprisingly warm.
Breathing in, I surrounded myself with a feeling of calmness, listening to the waves crashing in the background. I was safe in the water and I was part of it as I entered its presence. Finally I breathed out, a tingling sensation momentarily was felt on my skin, before dissipating. I opened my eyes, hopeful that I had done it right.
Aonung looked at me for a moment, removing his hand before smiling, "You did it."
My eyes widened in surprise, a huge smile appearing on my face, "YES! Finally," I said exasperated.

"Thank you Aonung, couldn't have done it without you unfortunately."
"Well well well, is that a thank you?" He remarked.
"Shut up before I retract my statement." I warned in a joking manner.
"Duly noted, are you ready to try ride an Ilu tomorrow?" He asked me as we got up from out seated position.
"As ready as I will ever be, under your guidance I'll be just fine." I said sarcastically.
"You will be, I am the best teacher after all."
"Eh, debatable." I laughed.

Day one was complete, a success in my books.

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Hope you guys liked this! This will always be one of my favourite scenes to write haha.
-Author out