Sea of Stars | neteyam sully

chapter 19: princess

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

The morning air was crisp and the bright sun was slowly rising from the waves. Ikariya opened her eyes, feeling something hard underneath her. She rubbed her eyes, finally realizing what's happening. She was laying on top op Neteyam. 'Shit.' She muttered underneath her breath before carefully sliding off him.

Neteyam had been awake for a little while, watching the girl that was in his arms merely a few seconds ago. He watched her chest rise and fall with her breaths when she was peacefully asleep. He was desperately trying not not to laugh as he heard her struggle to get off of him.

When Lo'ak came in, he dropped his mat on the floor. As it made a loud thudding noise, both Ikariya and Neteyam shot up from their comfortable position. 'What are you two doing? Why are you laying on the same mat?'

'You literally took yours.' Neteyam raised an eyebrow. 'And keep it down. Do you want mom and dad to hear?'

'They already caught me sneaking in.' Lo'ak said, still looking a little disturbed at the scene in front of him.

Neteyam and Ikariya quickly glanced at each other. Figures.

'Why didn't you grab your own mat?' Lo'ak continued, looking over at Ikariya.

'Because it would've been weird if it was missing from my room. It would be too obvious.' She explained.

Lo'ak frowned. 'So it would've been more obvious that a mat is missing but it wouldn't be obvious if there's a person missing along with a mat?' He blabbered. She could've said she was sleeping over at Tsireya's.

'Okay you're not making any sense now.' Ikariya said, frowning as well as she was trying to figure out what he meant.

Neteyam too, had a hard time understanding. Ikariya saw his expression in the corner of her eye.

'Anyways, breakfast is ready.' Lo'ak told them, glancing over at them one last time before turning around and walking out again.

It was silent for a bit. Ikariya thought back to yesterday. There was definitely some tension between the two of them.

But that all seemed to have disappeared when Neteyam stood up, not saying a word and walking out of his room.

What she didn't know was that he was panicking. He needed to get out of there. If he didn't, he was afraid that he'd say something he'd regret. And being next to her made his heart go feral. He needed to catch his breath.

Once Ikariya made it to breakfast as well, she could see Neytiri and Jake glancing over at each other. They were smirking, looking back at Ikariya. Ikariya raised her eyebrows slightly, making Neytiri snicker to herself. What did they see? Oh no, what if they saw her sleeping on top of Neteyam this morning? They probably did, judging by their looks.

Great.

☆彡

'Are you guys coming?' Aonung yelled at them, looking rather impatient.

Ikariya and Neteyam looked at each other, wondering what he meant. 'Where to?' Neteyam asked him as Tsireya had gathered Tuk and Kiri. They were all standing on the beach, watching the confused pair.

'To the cove of the ancestors, silly.' Tsireya said, petting the ilu she'd just called over. 'Did you guys forget?'

Ikariya's eyes grew wide. Of course, they were going to that cove today. After last night, she'd forgotten basically every thought she had beforehand. 'Right. I knew that.' She nodded, walking over to Aonung.

Aonung chuckled, rolling his eyes. 'No you didn't.'

Ikariya's eyes scanned the people around her. Aonung, Neteyam, Tsireya, Rotxo, Tuk and Kiri. Where the hell was Lo'ak? 'Where's Lo'ak?' She asked Tsireya.

'I have no idea. I haven't seen him since—' She stopped talking, looking over at Aonung as if she'd said too much. He didn't seem to catch on.

Neteyam stepped in. 'He is, ehm, helping our parents. He's not coming.'

Ikariya frowned. She knew for a fact that he wasn't helping Jake and Neytiri. Neteyam looked at her and slowly shook his head when nobody was looking.

'Alright, then this is everyone. Let's go.' Tsireya said after looking around the group of people.

When Tsireya was helping Kiri get settled on an ilu with Tuk behind her, Ikariya slowly walked over to Neteyam. 'Where is he?'

'He went to go see Payakan. I tried to talk him out of it but he didn't listen.' Neteyam rolled his eyes.

'You should've stopped him.' Ikariya whispered to him. She knew Lo'ak was capable of taking care of himself but the ocean is huge, he could get lost by himself. And, could they even trust Payakan? She just found this whole thing really sketchy.

Neteyam sighed. 'I know. But you know how extremely stubborn he can be. Almost as bad as you.'

'What? Hey— I am not stubborn!'

Neteyam looked at Ikariya, one eyebrow raised saying "really?" 'Do you even hear yourself right now?'

'Are you two coming or what? This isn't a tea party for Eywa's sake.' Aonung said, getting extremely impatient.

The two of them walked back to the group. Ikariya looked and counted the ilu as she felt something was off. 'There's six of us, why are there five Ilu here? We're missing one.'

Tsireya rolled her eyes, looking over at Aonung. An expression saying "I told you so" appeared on her face. Aonung ignored her. 'I thought you would be more comfortable riding with me, seeing its a pretty long way there and such.'

'What about us?' Neteyam said, raising an eyebrow. He didn't love the idea of her being so close to Aonung the whole way there.

'You can manage.' Aonung responded, not taking his eyes off Ikariya.

Neteyam rolled his eyes. Aonung was so annoying. 'You can ride with us, Neteyam!' Tuk yelled from her comfortable position on the ilu.

'No, Tuk. It won't fit.' Kiri told her, putting a loose braid behind Tuk's ear.

'Aw.' Tuk looked down, pouting as Kiri tried to make her laugh again by tickling her in her side. She succeeded, Tuk giggled and slapped her hands away. 'Stop.'

Ikariya cleared her throat. She didn't want to make this a big problem. She had to keep her head low as Jake told her to.

So she climbed behind Aonung, his hand placed on the downside of her thigh. She looked at it and swatted it off. 'Keep your slimy little hands to yourself.'

'As you wish, princess.' He said, chuckling. It made Ikariya laugh a bit as well. Only because he was being so cringy.