It was the next day, and Neytiri was serving breakfast to the teenagers and children.
"Come and get it" She said, before getting a piece herself. Neytiri volunteered to make and serve the food this morning because she wanted to see the children, or specifically, the ones that her sons had taken a liking to. She had a suspicion that Neteyam knew what she was up to, but Lo'ak was none the wiser. When Neteyam first saw her make the food, he had asked her why she was there.
"I'm here to help out of course." She explained.
"Mom..." He looked at her, as if trying to read her mind. He sighed and went to sit down at the makeshift table with his siblings and with Laya. He kept looking up and meeting his mother's eyes, but eventually just went back to the conversation.
"So... I want to take you guys out further into the reef later today." Laya explained. She took a bite of her food before continuing. "You'll need to ride Ilu's there, so that's why I say we practice some more this morning." Tsireya and Lo'ak looked at eachother, but looking back at Laya and nodding their heads.
"Sounds good." Tsireya said.
"I'm down." Lo'ak nodded.
Next to Kiri sat Tuk. "Okay, but I want to actually learn how to ride one this time. Not just watch others learn" She side-eyed Neteyam and Laya. Laya smiled and nodded. "Of course Tuk, I'll help you out." Tuk seemed pleased and smiled, going back to her food. Next to Laya, Neteyam looked at Laya. "What am I supposed to do?" He whined. Then, he heard a voice to his right.
"I can help you jungle boy, don't you fret." Rotxo spoke with his arms crossed, then winked at Laya. Neteyam sighed before looking over and making eye contact with him. "Very funny Rotxo." He said, annoyance in his voice. "I'm serious. I'll help you out." Sarcasm was still in Rotxo's voice, but Neteyam didn't want to deal with him right now. "Go away Rotxo" Laya called out to him. Rotxo looked at her and frowned. "You don't like seeing my pretty face Laya? Shame. We'd be so good together." This annoyed Laya, but she had dealt with this her whole life. Neteyam, in a desperate attempt to get Rotxo to leave, said, "Fine." Rotxo's smile grew. "Good. Finish your breakfast and meet me on the beach." Then he whispered, "Freak." Neteyam had a feeling he had gotten himself into trouble, but decided to not think about it and focus on Laya.
Finishing his breakfast, he looked in front of him. To his left, Laya laid her hand on his. "I'm sorry. I know he's giving you a hard time." She said softly. They made eye contact and suddenly Neteyam's worries disappeared. He softened his gaze and uttered, so only she could hear it, "I'll be fine. I'll see you after, yeah?" She bit the inside of her cheek and nodded. Before letting go of her hand, he slid out of the table and kissed her hand. Then he turned away and walked towards the beach that Rotxo had gone to. What a gentleman. Even as Neytiri watched she felt a little pride for her eldest son and the way he was charming this girl. One thing Laya knew, she was definitely falling for this jungle boy.
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Walking down to the beach, Netayam couldn't get her off his mind. Her hair, her eyes, the way she comforted him, even the way she made fun of him. He was falling more and more each day. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice Rotxo creeping up behind him. Rotxo suddenly shoved Neteyam forward, making him fall into the sand in front of him.
"How does that feel freak? Huh? You must miss your forest floors by now. Why don't you scurry back home and leave us alone." Rotxo mocked. Neteyam just calmly stood up and faced him.
"What's your problem dude? Did I do anything to you?" Neteyam questioned, stepping forward. He didn't care for rivals, and he found that this rivalry was taking more energy than he wanted to give it.
"No problem, just don't like you trying to fit in with us." Rotxo replied, arms crossed. Neteyam even noticed he seemed to be puffing his chest, as if trying to be taller than him. This was a futile attempt of course, Neteyam was much taller than him either way.
"I doubt that's it. C'mon.. spit it out." Neteyam dared. Rotxo's smile disappeared, and he crept forward. "Fine. Maybe it's because you're a little shithead who doesn't understand that he can't take what's others." Rotxo glared. Neteyam looked confused. "What did I take of yours?" He asked sincerely. Rotxo rolled his eyes before looking to the other side of the beach, where Laya was teaching Tuk how to ride an Ilu. Neteyam let out a laugh, thinking that he was joking, but when he looked back to Rotxo, he saw that he was serious.
"You're joking right? You can't be serious."
"Why would I joke? She's mine. The whole clan knows it. Me and her are destined. We're basically mates already." Neteyam rolled his eyes, before clenching his fist together. Rotxo looked back to where Laya was, and Neteyam's fist came crashing with his jaw. Hearing a crunch and letting out a grunt, Rotxo retaliated and threw a punch towards Neteyam, but he dodged. Coming back closer to Rotxo, he threw another. And another. And another. It seemed Neteyam had had more practice, which was fair because Neteyam did have his few shares of physical fights with his brother. Rotxo, laying on the ground, finally retaliated and kicked Neteyam in the face, and Neteyam was thrown back. Rotxo, now having the advantage, started to throw punches at Neteyam. Punch after punch, Neteyam tried his best to dodge and deflect. Deflecting a few, he successfully stood up and started to attack him back.
Catching the attention of others, Rotxo called out. Eventually, Aunong came and started to try and pry Neteyam off of Rotxo.
"Stop! Stop!" Kiri called out to them, running up in front of where they were fighting. Tsireya and Lo'ak followed, along with Laya and Tuk. Laya instinctively pushed Tuk behind her, and made sure to keep her close. She knew better than to get involved in a situation where fists were being thrown.
Aunong, unable to stop Neteyam, jumped on top of his back in an attempt to tackle him. Neteyam, having the momentum, jumped to the side and threw one final punch at Rotxo before adding, "She's not a fucking object, dick. Grow some manners, then some balls." He turned around, and Rotxo was about to attack him from behind when he turned around, and closed in on Rotxo's face. "You heard what I said. I'm going to need you to respect her and my family from now on." Rotxo swallowed, but still kept his ground. Neteyam, not wanting to be in a stare off, walked away, towards the group of people watching. Luckily there were no adults.
Seeing Laya, he cringed inside. He didn't want her to see him do something like that, nor did he want Tuk to see him like that. He gave Laya a small smile before squatting down to Tuk's height. "How was the Ilu riding?" He asked, obviously not wanting to talk about the fight. Tuk didn't seem to get the hint though, because she asked, "Way lamer than your awesome fight! What happened! Who threw the first punch!" She rambled on and on, question after question. He chuckled, before grabbing her hand and leading her back to the village, Laya eyeing him but giving him his space and going to talk to Tsireya. "You're not answering me Netty! C'mon! I wanna know!" He rolled his eyes and just said, "Another time, I promise. I want to talk about your awesome Ilu riding!" She accepted it and started to ramble on and on about how she had initially failed to get on, but Laya helped her.
He mindlessly agreed and kept the conversation going, but looked back behind him. He saw Laya talking to Tsireya with a concerned look on her face. Looking to the right of him, he saw Rotxo talking to Aunong. He could probably guess what they were talking about. Aunong seemed to be annoyed with Rotxo, probably that he didn't win the fight. He also saw Rotxo hold his eye. Just as he was thinking about the black eye that he gave Rotxo, his eye and the skin around it started to throb. He sighed. He could only think about the yelling that he was going to get once he got home.
Once they arrived back at the village, Neteyam looked at Tuk. "Why don't you go find mom? Let her teach you how to weave or something. I have to go do something." Tuk sighed dramatically, before bouncing away to go find their mother.
As she skipped off, his mind was racing. How could he avoid being in trouble? The first issue and the most obvious one was his black eyes and bruises. He didn't know how to get rid of them, that was his grandmothers and Kiri's specialty. Now having a plan, Neteyam went off to go find Kiri. Walking on the boards that went across the water, he searched desperately for Kiri, trying not to draw too much attention to himself. When he looked down at his reflection in the water, he noticed a big bruise on his cheek and a black eye starting to form. This was bad. He needed to find somebody fast. Turning around quickly, he ran into someone.
"Shit- I'm sorry" Looking at who it was, relief fell over his body. "Laya! I need your help. Please" He pleaded. Laya hesitantly nodded. "Okay. But only if you tell me what happened down at the beach today." Neteyam didn't like the sound of that, but he needed to be healed, and quickly. "Fine. Just please, I need to get rid of my black eye." He knew he could blame a bruise on his face on bumping into something, or maybe falling off an Ilu, but a black eye? No way. He knew his father would know what he'd been up to. Laya nodded, and grabbed his hand. They walked quickly to Laya's quarters, luckily nobody else was there.
"Sit." She said. He didn't know why she was a little more restricted, they had been joking around just this morning. He followed her instructions and sat down. She grabbed an herb that Neteyam didn't recognize, but he trusted her enough to not question it. Grabbing a bowl, grounding it up, she looked up at him.
"What happened?" She asked earnestly.
"Turns out Rotxo didn't want to help me ride an Ilu." He said, trying to add some humor into their conversation. She looked at him seriously, and he knew to actually tell the story. "I don't know. I went over there and he pushed me over. I didn't retaliate initially but he kept talking about how you were 'his' and that you guys were basically mates already." Laya stopped grinding the herb and looked up at him. He continued, "Then- I don't know, I got so mad. He was talking about you like you were a prize to be won. It bugged me. I did what any person would do-I punched him. And we got in a fight" Neteyam couldn't fight back the smile that formed on his face. "And I won." He muttered, letting the proud look on his face show.
Laya bit her cheek, trying to bite back her smile, and resumed grinding the herb. She stayed silent and grabbed a wet leaf, putting it on Neteyam's bruise on his face and another for his eye. "Hold it there." She told him. He obeyed. Then she grabbed a pouch that was on the floor and mixed the herb with the contents of inside. "I'm going to need you to lie down." He nodded, going to lie down on his back.
Once he had done so, she removed the leaves that she had given him and started to sprinkle the herb concoction that she made before onto the bruises that formed. Neteyams eyes fluttered and closed. She started to gently rub in the herbs. After a few seconds, a small paste was created on his face. He felt the cooling of the herbs and knew that the bruises were being healed. She stopped rubbing his face, leaned her head down, and whispered into his ear. "Thank you." He opened his eyes and looked up at her.
"Of course."