*ੈ✩‧₊˚ gentle breeze •°. *࿐

ride with me

"Ma tsahik!" a voice calls out to you, startling you and making you drop the basket of clams you had collected.

You knew only one person would call you this when his own mother was currently the actual tsahik. Ao'nung. You look at him, leaving your mess in front of you.

"Ao'nung... pick this up," you say to him, you cross your arms.

"Yes (Y/n)..." he quietly says while picking up the clams in front of you, putting them in the basket.

"Alright, what do you want?" you say as he hands you back the basket.

"Why do you assume I want something?" he asks, putting his arm around you. You lean into him a bit.

"Hm, maybe because it's been a bit since we've hung out. Even though I am in your home everyday, training with your mother," you say, looking at his face.

He sheepishly looks away, "well no everyday, the past couple days you weren't there."

"So you were looking for me?"

"I- No, I was stopping by my own home."

"If you were wondering where I could've been. I was helping the Sully's get used to living in the water. Teaching them, like you are supposed to do as well," you say while you start walking.

"Of course you've been helping the Sullys. You should hang out with me instead," Ao'nung whines.

"But your father said we have to help them, and I am doing what the olo'eyktan says."

"But I'm your olo'eyktan, so you should listen to me," he continues to whine.

You roll your eyes at him, leave his arm, and drop off the basket to one of the na'vi that was working on preparing dinner for later that day. You thank you, and turn to Ao'nung to finally reply to him.

"You would be my olo'eyktan, if your father was dead. And you don't want a dead father, do you?" you say, pushing at his chest. You hear the na'vi that you gave the clams to laugh at your comment, leading you to carry a smile on your face.

Many people knew the fate that Ao'nung and you held together. The leader's son and the girl with an eventful birth being put together like a book being bound together. No matter what they did, their actions had to be intertwined no matter what. The people of the Awa'atlu had watched the two from a distance, so seeing them interact up close was like a treasure that was to keep shiny.

"Yeah, but... whatever. Spend more time with me, please?" he asks, his eyes pleading as he stares as deeply as he could into your soul.

"I will, I will. You're so interested in hanging out all of sudden, what happened?" you say, suspicious of his actions. You didn't mind spending more time with him, you actually enjoyed it a lot. Just like you had said though, his interest in spending time with you wasn't there before.

"I just want to," he simply states, grabbing your hand and dragging you toward the water.

You were happy with two things. One, being dragged toward the water as it was luring you in like a fish out of water. And two, spending time with the na'vi you've been assigned to spend the rest of your life with.

The both of you walk into the water, feet being caressed by the soft sand, your bodies being engulfed by the saltiness of the sea. The sun reflecting brightly off your skin, bathing in your peace.

"So, what are we doing?" you ask, hands resting behind your body.

"You favourite, ilu riding!" he says, calling for ilu again.

You spot Nane swimming toward you, another ilu swimming up toward Ao'nung. You happily pet Nane, "ilu riding is not my favourite, I just like to swim."

"I thought I saw you riding around with one of the forest freaks..." he says, trailing off and getting more and more quiet around the time he says 'with', not allowing you to hear the full sentence.

"I said I was training them."

"Training, riding around for fun, same thing. Come, ride with me," Ao'nung says with a smirk, pushing you closer to Nane.

You bond with Nane, feeling a burst of euphoria connecting with Nane. Bonding with her was always the best, it was easy to let only positive energy flow between the two of you. Never startling each other.

Ao'nung gets on his ilu and starts to ride away, leaving you behind in the bubbles, "hurry and catch up!"

You let out a laugh, shaking your head and his figure submerging into the water. 'Of course he's leaving me behind in the bubbles,' notioning for Nane to get a move on and to catch up to Ao'nung.

With both of you under the water, the ilus speed up and dance around each other. Circling each other, swirling around each other, and navigating through the coral in the reef like it was nothing. Joyous faces were shared between you and Ao'nung, sneaking looks at each at any given moment.

You felt so alive, as you had been the past couple days yet today felt different. Maybe it was because you didn't have to worry about someone you liked potentially drawing and getting lost in the reef, or maybe because Ao'nung was more comforting to be around than you thought.

You look up to the water, seeing the underside of a wave mull over and you look to Ao'nung. The smirk finding its way back to his face, he points up and signs, 'let's surf!'

'I don't like surfing, you know this,' you sign back to him.

'Fine, let's at least jump off the waves," he signs, desperate for some airtime on his ilu.

You roll your eyes but nod your head. At least jumping off the waves would be fun.

You ride side by side with Ao'nung, crashing through the waves and leaving the ilu to hang in the air, as you both quickly release your bonds and jump into the water. Cheers and laughter could be heard from the two of you as you repeated the action again, and again.

Eventually you get tired, and instead of revving up Nane, you opted for going up to the surface to watched Ao'nung continue to play, some of his friends joining in.

"(Y/n)!" you hear a name call for you. You look around and see Neteyam not too far away, waving at you.

"Neteyam! How are you?" you ask, riding over to him.

"I'm good! Are we not doing any training today," he asks. You cover your mouth with your hand. Even though you had told Ao'nung off earlier about having to train the Sullys, you got so carried away with playing around that you forgot about actually training them that day.

You didn't notice Ao'nung stopped playing with the waves and, but he did. His friends also dispersed as you heard their rambles slowly fade. He rode up beside you, looking Neteyam up and down, "she doesn't have to help you everyday. You're not that helpless are you?"

You smack Ao'nung's chest, hearing a small 'oof' from him.

"Ao'nung! What did I say about being nice?"

"And what did I say back," he replies while rolling his eyes. You ignore him and redirect your attention to Neteyam.

"I guess I took the day off today, you should too! Go play with Tuk and see what's up with Kiri and Lo'ak. You can even hang out with us," you say. You realized that you yourself have not spent that much time with Lo'ak, wondering if you'll ever run into him.

"Ah, I'll find something to do then," he says, riding off. He looked like he wanted to hang out with you but something was stopping him.

"Practice your breathing! You can never breathe too much," you call out after him with a giggle. You turn to Ao'nung staring down Neteyam as he rides off. You sent him a questioning look.

"Did you scare off Neteyam?"

"No."

"Then why doesn't he want to hang out with us?"

"Maybe he wants to hang out with his stupid siblings," he says. You flick his forehead in frustration.

"You make friends by actually talking to others, not by staring at them."

"I don't want to be his friend."

"Right, and Tsireya isn't the kindest na'vi alive."

"Yeah she isn't, cause you're alive. Unless you died and I'm seeing a ghost," you push his chest.

"Your sister is much nicer than me," you say.

"...Not to me," he says quietly. You laugh at his dismay.

"Whatever. Let's go find something else to do," you say, pulling his arm along and letting him go to dive back into the water with Nane, Ao'nung following.

The two of you ended up sunbathing on one of the sandbars that was further away from the village to not be disturbed by anyone. While sunbathing the two of you talked about trivial things.

You told him about Neytiri joining you in tsakarem training and how she was able to adapt well yet still strongly struggled. You didn't know how to explain it but in the end he understood what you were talking about. You went off about how well specifically Neteyam was adapting to everything, Ao'nung actually listening to your words when you thought he would've drifted off at this point since you were the only one talking.

When it was Ao'nung turn to talk, he went off about hunting with his father and you father. It was an activity he only started recently but he really did enjoy it. You could tell from the shine in his eyes as he described the adventures he's been on. A soft smile rested on your face as you heard him talk, feeling yourself glow a little as the eclipse started to settle in.

You asked him about the akula tooth that stayed around his neck, even though you heard the story so many times in the past months. It was his pride and joy, his first akula kill with Rotxo. Retelling the story was like singing a song for Ao'nung, the words slipping past his lips so smoothing and seamlessly that you could listen to him talk about the same kill over and over again. Sometimes you wished you asked for one of the teeth of the akula so you two could match, but that would be too much since matching arm bands was already enough. 

Eclipse had made herself known, casting a spell of darkness on Pandora, letting the sealife glow, and the star shine so bright they were like lamps. Your hear the croaks of the skimwings sail by as the na'vi who guard the edges of the reef make their rounds, the gentle lull of the sea as the tides pull in closer to you and Ao'nung, close to burying the sandbar the two of you rested on.

You call for the ilus once again, this time Nane not being around. The both of you soar through the water, taking your time to get to the village. You find after you spend a day with Ao'nung, you get closer no matter what. Even if some time passes before the two of you meet again, you always feel closer.

Once you get to the village, you pat each ilu, then face Ao'nung with a tired smile. The day had been fun and calm, eventful yet relaxing. Ao'nung grabs your hands and looks into your eyes with his blue ones, "we need more days like this."

"We have a lot of time to have days like this," you say with a giggle. Knowing that the two of you were each other's place to relax.

"Still. I want to spend more time with you. And I mean it," he says seriously.

"Of course we can," you say.

He smiles at you and cups your face in one hand, using his thumb to caress your cheek. You lean into his hand with a smile. This was the most intimate you've ever been with Ao'nung, your heartbeat quickening.

Ao'nung gently kisses your forehead, whispering a goodbye and walks to his marui pod.

You stayed glued to your spot at his actions, a smile stretching across your face as you looked around you. No one was around, but the moment was definitely real. You let out a deep breath, slightly skipping to your marui pod to get to bed and treasure the moment by engraving it into a bead for your songcord.

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[a/n]: FILLER FR!! also gonna be a bit for the next chapter - 2 weeks max bc i have midterms and i am stressed !! (also know that i am excited for chapter 6) also i just realized i have put the same scenario in this book and in my other on called die for you which is a neteyam x reader fanfic hehe

did you know: the metkayina have also developed a third inner eyelid (nictitating membrane) like most amphibians do (i stoled this from reddit)

for my readers !! i've changed my user on wattpad and im waiting to change my username on quotev !! i have a progress tracker on quotev for the stories and i currently trying to get aestheics for "preview" chapters on both platforms <33 ty for your patience for everything im trying to get done <3

ALSO I HAVE TO KNOW ARE WE ROCKING WITH THE NEW COVER ???? it was done by @ quillscribble and i appreciate them sm for doing this for me !

dt. phoenixfiyaaaa on wattpad <3

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