𝐈 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 | 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐲𝐚𝐦²

13.

Laya brushed her hair out of her face and decided to go introduce herself. She swiftly walked out of the hut. He saw her walk over and excused himself from the conversation and walked over. He looked her up and down, then smiled. She looked at him with a dead stare.

"I don't believe we've met.." He tilted his head. Laya nodded. "I'm Rolayea-" She paused. "Call me Laya." He smiled.

"Okay... I will" He paused. "So Laya- I'm Ayakam." Laya nodded and crossed her arms.

"So I've heard. I also heard you're going to be the one training me?"

Ayakam nodded. "Yep. That's me. Is that a problem?" His eyes glinted with amusement.

Laya shook her head. "Not at all." She kept eye contact.

He looked around awkwardly. Finally, he spoke up. "Wanna go now? Get a start on things?"

Laya shrugged and nodded. "Why not."

Ayakam smirked and pointed his head in a direction. "C'mon- I know a spot." Suddenly he grabbed her wrist and dragged him along with her. She jerked forward and nearly fell over, but that didn't stop him. He kept them running along the trail. Laya eventually found her footing and chased after him, barely keeping up with him. This was the start of her training, simply keeping up with other forest Na'vi.

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When Ayakam first saw Laya, he immediately thought of the rumors. He had heard many things, most of them including her appearance, but he never actually saw her. She wasn't at all what he expected. Ayakam was immediately intrigued.

He had also heard rumors of her and Neteyam. Apparently they were intertwined, together, possibly even mated. Regardless, he knew he wanted to speak with her. Then when he saw her walking towards him, he knew this was his chance. He had spoken briefly with Jake about training her, but he thought he had more time until he was going to have to meet her. He wasn't going to lie and say that she didn't make him slightly nervous. Her boyfriend also made him nervous. Neteyam was a nice guy, but he knew how protective males get over their mates. If the rumor was true, Ayakam knew to be slightly scared to get so close to her. He tried to get over it though, Toruk Makto asked him to do something so he would do it. Even if Neteyam scared him.

So he tried to seam at ease when they talked. She didn't seem to be entirely happy that he was helping her, but he wouldn't be happy either if he was in her position. He was a random guy that she was going to have to spend nearly every day with, she probably wanted to be trained by her boyfriend. He wanted to be friends with her. That's it. Even if the butterflies in his stomach appeared every time he talked to her.

So when he led her to his favorite spot in the Hallelujah mountains, he knew it was the right move. He showed her to the cliff of a waterfall, where a rock sat in the middle of the water streaming off the mountain. He jumped to the rock and sat down. He saw her hesitating and waved her over.

"I thought you loved water?" He teased her. She chewed on her lip and looked at how high they were.

"Water I'm okay with- heights not so much."

Ayakam held out a hand to her, but she just ignored it and clenched her jaw. She jumped to the rock and released a breath. She really hated how high they were. Ayakam saw this and tried to comfort her.

"We'll be fine. I've slept here multiple times- we're okay sitting." Laya shrugged but then looked at him. "Slept? As in fall asleep? You could fall!" She looked at the cliff and shivered.

Ayakam shrugged. "Whatever. I'll die when I die." Suddenly he grabbed something out of his pouch and looked around. He stepped up and jumped off the rock onto the piece of land that they had originally jumped from before.