Sea of Stars | neteyam sully

chapter 22: desirable

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Neteyam sat by the water. His eyes were focussed on one thing and one thing only. Ikariya. She was playing with Tuk by the rocks. He didn't know why, but Ikariya had been on his mind constantly these past days. He honestly came to terms with it after the third day. At first it annoyed him deeply but he couldn't help it. So he accepted it. He wanted her, that was clear.

But he knew one thing, she was going to be his by the end of the week.

Lo'ak pulled him out of his thoughts, calling his name. 'What?' Neteyam said, looking up at his brother.

'Can I talk to you?' Lo'ak asked him, probably for the second time. His eyes met with Neteyam's gaze, following it to a certain girl. What a coincidence, she was exactly what they were going to be talking about.

Neteyam sighed, slowly standing up from his comfortable position. 'Sure.'

They both made it to a more secluded part of the beach. 'What the hell are you doing?' Lo'ak started, surprising Neteyam with his tone. He didn't know it was going to be this kind of talk.

'What do you mean?' Neteyam asked, frowning.

'Ikariya.'

Shit. Lo'ak figured it out. How? Was he so obvious? He tried to play dumb, hoping it would save him. 'Bro, what are you talking about?'

'I see what you're doing here. Stop it. Listen, I don't mind sharing all of my stuff with you. Hell, I'll give you anything you ask. But as far as Riya goes, she's my friend. We have a special connection. I love you bro but you have got to lay off.' Lo'ak sighed, putting his hand on his older brother's shoulder.

Neteyam shook his head, trying to get this idea out of Lo'ak's. 'Bro, you have got it all wrong. I don't want anything to do with her. Trust me. I was just checking if Tuk was having a better time here, that's all.' He explained.

'Just keep in mind what I said.'

Neteyam nodded. 'Yeah of course bro.'

'Anyways, I'm off to go see Tsireya.' Lo'ak said, wiggling his eyebrows. He grinned as Neteyam shook his head while smirking.

'Have fun with that.' Neteyam told him as Lo'ak walked away.

Lo'ak didn't turn his head to face Neteyam as he left. 'Don't worry, I will.'

As soon as Lo'ak was out of his sight, Neteyam sighed. Fuck. He wasn't allowed to be with her. She was desirable.

And that only made him want her more.

☆彡

That was a problem, a huge one at that. Neteyam wanted to talk to Ikariya so bad but Lo'ak always had his eyes on the two of them.

So the only time he could, was at night.

Ikariya was peacefully laying down on her mat when all of a sudden Neteyam barged in. She shot up, looking at him as he'd scared her. 'What the hell are you doing?'

'You sound like my brother.' Neteyam said, rolling his eyes.

'What the fuck do you mean?' She frowned, rubbing her head. 'What are you doing here, Neteyam?' She asked him again.

'I just wanted to talk.'

'In the middle of the night? What is so important you need to talk about?' She raised an eyebrow.

Neteyam rolled his eyes again. 'I don't know. Why were you awake?'

'Seriously. You "don't know"?' Her hand met with her forehead. 'I can't sleep.' She confessed.

'Hey, I have an idea.' Neteyam said, his face lighting up as he did.

'Alright, tell me.'

'Let's watch the stars. They look beautiful tonight.' Neteyam was a fan of the stars. He didn't know what it was about them, they just looked so magical.

Luckily for him, Ikariya loved the stars as well. She couldn't say no even if she wanted to. 'Okay.' She said, jumping up and walking out of her pod.

Neteyam watched her hips sway from side to side with her tail trailing behind her as she called him from outside of the pod. He slowly shook his head, smirking as he walked over to her.

They made it to the beach, being the only people awake at the moment. They sat down on the sand, it was still a little warm from the sun shining on it all day. It felt nice. Ikariya dug her fingers in, looking up. He was right, the stars looked immaculate.

'Hey, how do you like it with us this far?' Neteyam turned his head to meet Ikariya's eyes. She was a little surprised by his question, not thinking he'd even care.

She cleared her throat, looking back at him. 'It's been pretty fun, honestly. It's fun seeing a different part of the planet.' She chuckled softly to herself.

'Don't you miss your family?' Neteyam was a little worried about her. She'd been without her family for a very long time, Neteyam couldn't bare it if he were her.

Ikariya bit the inside of her cheek, looking away. 'No, not really. I don't have a big family anyways. I only have a mother, my father disappeared a couple of years ago. He probably died in the battle with the Sky People. But we never really got proof of that. It's just me and my mom.' She sighed, thinking about her mother. She was wondering what she was doing now, if she even thought about her daughter when she was away. 'And sometimes that's hard. She's not the warmest person. But I am forever grateful for her training and how she raised me, I turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.' Ikariya smirked to herself.

Neteyam didn't really expect that answer. He'd thought this whole time that she had a pretty lame backstory. Because she was so cheerful. But it turns out that wasn't really the case. 'You did turn out great.' Ikariya's head flung to the side to meet his face. She had a confused expression on her face. Like she was expecting a "but" or him telling her he's joking. But he didn't say anything like that. 'Thank you for helping me with Kiri. I couldn't have gotten her up that quickly without you. If it weren't for you, she would've probably been dead right now. So, thank you.'

Her eyebrows quirked up a little, looking into his eyes. His sweet, genuine eyes. He was being so sweet, Ikariya felt like she was simply melting. 'No problem.' She softly smiled. 'You're close with your siblings.'

'Yeah,' Neteyam looked down, a crooked grin forming on his face. 'They're my everything. They're pains in the ass, all of them. But I wouldn't trade them for anything.'

'You take great responsibility.'

'Yeah, but sometimes that's hard. You know, my dad's expecting a lot from me. I try to be the perfect son, the perfect Olo'eyktan. My parents ask me to watch my younger siblings all of the time and that puts a lot of pressure on me. Sometimes it's just too much. But I can't show that because my parents expect me to be fine all the time. I don't want to be here any less than Tuk but I can't show that, the whole family would break down.' His eyes sunk a little as his ears lowered.

'Neteyam,' Ikariya unexpectedly put her hand on his shoulder, catching him off guard. He looked up at her, a surprised look on his face. 'You're an amazing big brother. But you need to take care of yourself too. It's okay to be selfish sometimes.'

'Thanks, I needed that.' Neteyam said, noticing how Ikariya visibly got more tired. 'I think we should get some rest.'

Ikariya nodded, standing up with Neteyam doing the same thing.

They silently made their way back to their pod, slowly stepping inside.

They walked to their sides of the pod, looking over at each other one last time before going to sleep for the rest of the night.

'Goodnight.'

'Goodnight.'