Wise Fish | aonete

2 𓆞 Common Ground

It took a little getting used to at first, but Neteyam had started to love Metkayina cuisine, especially when it was cooked in a hāngī. As he and Ao'nung took their seats with the rest of their siblings (and Rotxo), he could feel his mouth watering as he caught a whiff of freshly cooked food.

More often than not, it was the responsibility of each individual family to prepare their lunch, but every so often, the village got together for a hāngī cooked meal. The group of older Metkayina men and women that had been preparing it for several hours were busy unearthing the food and dividing it up for everyone to eat. Neteyam smiled and sincerely thanked the woman who handed him his serving. He wasted absolutely no time in digging in.

Not too long after, he could see movement off to his left. He peered up and caught Ao'nung staring at him, something like amusement in his eyes.

"What's so funny?" he asked, although it came out as almost an accusation.

Ao'nung smiled and shook his head, taking a normal sized bite of his own fish. "Nothing, just wondering if that sort of behavior is somehow considered attractive among your forest people."

Neteyam furrowed his eyebrows and stared back at Ao'nung like he'd just proclaimed he had a second head. "Excuse me? What does being attractive matter right now?"

Ao'nung tsked loudly and put down his plate of food to give Neteyam an unblinking look of mild pain. "You've gone through your culture's iknimaya. That's the point of this, isn't it?" He poked at Neteyam's cummerbund that sat around his mid ribcage.

Neteyam smacked his hand away and took another bite of food. He didn't get to wear it as much, now that they spent nearly all of their time in the water, but there were occasional days—like today—where he could display the signifier of his accomplishments. He tried to enjoy them as best as he could.

"Yes, I have. Among the Omatikaya people, I am considered an adult, but I know my siblings and I have a ways to go before we make it through all the Metkayina iknimaya." It was strange using the word to describe all of the rites of passage, rather than just the bonding with one's ikran. Still, it was much easier than learning their weird underwater finger talking.

Ao'nung chuckled. "Yes. You can barely ride an ilu, forget about getting on a tsurak any time soon."

Neteyam rolled his eyes, but couldn't help the smile from crossing his face, especially as Ao'nung laughed at his own words. This kind of teasing was nothing different from what he and his siblings traded back and forth with each other. Poking fun without the intent to truly hurt. Maybe Ao'nung was finally beginning to warm up to them.

Ao'nung's laughs subsided. "Anyway, that is not what I wanted to say. What I meant to ask was if you'd thought about choosing your mate yet?"

If Neteyam had been eating, he most certainly would have choked, but he'd cleaned his plate already. That didn't stop him from gaping at Ao'nung, who was finishing off his own lunch nonchalantly. They may have been acting more friendly with each other than they ever had been, but Neteyam's own parents hadn't even approached him about this, let alone some boy he'd barely even gotten to know.

"Well, uh, no, I hadn't. We had barely held the ceremony to commemorate my Dream Hunt before my parents decided to uproot and move here. It didn't really cross my mind."

Ao'nung raised an eyebrow at him like he'd been expecting more than the bland answer he got. Neteyam shrugged, helpfully, and held his plate up to the Metkayina man that had come to give out seconds to those who wanted them.

"Really?" Ao'nung gawped, his own plate nearly forgotten at his feet. "Oh, come on, you must have met one person where you came from that you at least considered."