Surface| Neteyam

22.

"I know you won't" I lay down on my back, there is a small opening in the ceiling of his room that opens up to the night sky.

"Do you see that?" I point up to the large star perfectly placed in the center of the sky. It was my star.

"Vega" he responded, I turned over, furrowing my eyebrows.

"That star is called Vega, my father taught me about it when I was younger" He laid down beside me, using his arms as a headrest.

"Vega" I repeat.

I could feel his eyes on me as I continued to stare out into space,

"What about that one?" I shifted my hand over to a small dot in the sky, it didn't emit much light, in fact its surroundings looked dull.

Neteyam cleared his throat, "My dad came from that star"

"Really?!" I spun over onto my stomach, resting my face on my hand.

"He doesn't like to talk about it much, his people killed their mother and they have tried to do the same with ours."
"Why would they do such a thing?" I twisted the ends of my hair impatiently,

"What they can't have, they take from others." Neteyam's voice was heavy, clearly it was something he had experienced.

"They should have never come here, why can't any of them see it's wrong?" I tried to calm myself, but it was true, since the arrival of the sky people nothing but blood has been shared.

"Well, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them" He chuckled. I hadn't thought about that, maybe that was one thing I was thankful for, but nothing else.

"You know what I mean"

"Seytira, I know you wanted me gone the first time we met" He sat up dramatically, pouting a little bit as he spoke.

"Still do" I laughed,

He gasped before raising the back of his hand to his forehead swaying back and forth as if he had been knocked out until he finally hit the floor in fits of laughter.

I collapsed beside him laughing uncontrollably at his stupidly childish act. It felt like I hadn't smiled this hard in ages. I dropped my hand over his mistakenly but before I could pull it away he squeezed my hand tightly. This sent an array of butterflies down my stomach which didn't help with the fact that I could barely breathe from laughter.

We finally calmed down after remembering his family could most likely hear us through the thin walls.

"I would love to see the look on my dads face if he knew I was here with you now" I sighed

Neteyam turned to me, studying my face before standing up.

"Why don't we" He taunted, clamping his fist together jokingly like he was about to start a fight,

"Teyam get back down here right now!" I exaggerated a gasped and tugged him back by his tail,

"Woah-" He tumbled backwards, completely missing the mattress and landing straight onto the floor instead.

"Tey!" I clasped a hand over my mouth which started out as just my initial reaction to then holding back laughter.

"Mghhm" he groaned, slowly sitting up while rubbing his back.

"Dum dum" I snickered as I propped myself up. He gently pushed me back onto the mattress before collapsing on it himself. We laughed so hard to the point we couldn't even face each other anymore.

Right then there was a small rustle from the other room which made us both perk our ears up in alert.

"Shh shhhhh sh" I giggled, bringing a finger to his lip, although it didn't take long for us to fall back into our manic laughter.