“i never see you at the club” ok well i never see you on ao3 at 2am reading about the same two bitches falling in love for the 1000th time in the 500th way
🏁 pit stop ! 𖦹 aang has always taken up space, in your heart, your mind and amongst the things that you own. he's larger than life and perhaps, larger than what you can physically take. (6K)
🏁 safety car ! ⋆ not safe for work ⋆ smut ⋆ eighteen plus only. aang the last airbender, sorta canon compliant, characters are adults, established relationships, size kink, strength kink, condescension, fingering ( f!receiving ), just the tip, unprotected sex, cumming inside, he glows when he cums. avatar aang, fem reader.
🏁 team radio ! ⋆ hey ... hi ... what started out as a little silly thought turned into something very crazy. so very crazy. this is for @peachversace with a little help from @bfbkg at the end hehe !! aang is so fine guys im gonna tear my teeth out. anyways i rlly hope u like mwah sorry for any typos !! click for more.
if you were to try and pinpoint the exact centre of the solar system, you would probably start with him. his personality glows, like the golden delicious flicker of sunlight on your skin as it wades through tree leaves and breaks through a canopy with ease. if a planet were to die because the sun stopped burning, you think you’d feel the same if aang suddenly went away. the two are comparable. objectively.
he regards strangers with the same amount of kindness as a child with no clue on how the world works would. wide eyed, uncaring — a friend of a friend until there is a reason to find someone an enemy. one might say that it’s his greatest weapon, another, his fatal flaw. aang’s larger-than-life smile, all teeth and dazzled eyes, is the glue that keeps you all together, the one person that seals the space as though it were some kind of bonding. the same space he takes up. his heart is large with room for all, including you, always you. even if it took time to see beyond the blinding light and notice.
aang takes up physical space too.
you have no idea when you started having to crane your neck up to get a glimpse of him. when the short boy, with the wildest dreams and weight of everything on his shoulders, started towering over you without looking down at you. you can’t remember when he turned stocky, and his shoulders broadened to rival the wingspan of those who feel just as at home in the sky as he does. it’s hard to place when his welcomed hugs stopped feeling like a warm kiss from the sun and started stoking the same level of heat deep within as if someone had thrown coal onto a fire and left it to burn into ash for the wind. if aang were to hug you now, you’d only be able to think about his size, and how it could crush you. with all that muscle and all that strength — it fills you with greed.
vacancy and blankness become common themes in your mind whenever the avatar dares to be near. he leans down to your height, an easy going smile slanted onto his lips with the type of carelessness that comes with throwing caution into the wind too many times to count. “hm?” he’ll often say, as though the added height makes it harder to hear and aang is always so keen to listen, clinging onto your every word as though it’s ancient scripture. you’ve never had this problem before, not growing up glued to his side and watching him become the world’s hero — at least you think.
perhaps your heart has always fluttered for him like petals in a breeze.
it’s just worse. now that you know each other intimately.
aang takes up space.
the tent you’ve set up for the night feels cramped, fit for a bird who doesn’t dare fly free. what one might call a prison, another would call a dwelling for something precious. the width of his shoulders, down to the angular taper of his torso are somehow large enough to shield the bare bones of your body from any one who may happen to pass by. you feel sheltered underneath him, daunted by his mountainous shape that seems to cast a shadow over you — one where you can hide the quiver in your bottom lip, not from fear but from anticipation. a root in your lungs that intermingled with the bronchial trees that help you breathe. the root then florets and flutters, bringing a pleasant tingle south of where your mind grows misty as though a cool fog has broken over a calm body of water.
it’s all because of how…thickset and strapping he’s become.
your dainty fingers traverse the mountainous man like an explorer trying to reach the top, you feel the way the jus les in aang’s back ripple and interlock underneath his clothes that strain to keep him contained. he peers down at you with a kind of … alluring patience. the fact that he’s willing to wait, won’t use his strength against you, worsens the lurch of lust in your lower stomach and between your thighs which part to make room for his waistline. through the smog that clouds your sensibilities, you manage to take a peek at the avatar, let your gaze fall over the edge to admire the sights of his plush heaving chest and the sky blue arrowhead markings that he wears proudly on his sleeves — you can’t believe how beautiful he is. that he’s yours. that he puts his shoes next to your own when he steps into your home, that he’s got a favourite pillow on his side of the bed that you share, that he—!
“are you sure you want to do this?” his voice breaks through the clouds like a striking ray of sunshine ready to ghost its warmth over your skin. when you blink, aang is already looking, already analysing you the way one would read over their favourite passage in a book to make sure they hadn’t missed anything. he drinks in the details of your visage, the breathless part of your lips and the dilation to your sparkling eyes — there’s hunger within them, an appetite only aang has the ability to appease. he knows the answer to his question before he’s even asked it, unspoken as the words hang his perfect pearly white teeth. hooked there like they’re the keys to your heart.
“aang,” your heart, that organ of yours — the one that keeps you alive and present and in the moment. it skips a beat, enough to make you notice but not enough to make you worry. it won’t beat out of your chest, you won’t die of a heartache if the way he looks at you doesn’t kill you first. something out of history, something timeless to be admired for generations to come. you wait for your heartbeat to settle under the nightly ambience outside of your tent, though you’re sure aang might have picked up on it already. “i said yes.”
he leans away from you to shrug off a flurry of orange and yellow fabrics — revealing a battle scarred and well-carved body. there’s so many colours within aang, the sun, the sky at golden hour, the brilliant blue of the morning, the stormy grey whirling in his eyes. he could be a painting, a work of art they’d speak of for millennia to come… but he’s yours. taking up space in your mind as though he hasn’t a dime of rent to pay.
there were times where you’d hesitate to reach out and touch the avatar, to smooth over the sketching of his scars in the middle of his chest. now you’re sure, certain, pressing your fingers into it because it has to mean something. you have to affect him as much as he affects you.
“aang.” you repeat all the letters of his name, seriousness stirred between them — blending like honey in milk.
an infallible, perhaps teetering on the edge of omniscient, beam breaks out on the smooth canvas of the avatar’s face. no longer youthful like you remember, but older, handsomely aged like a brew perfected over time. “if you’re positive.” he says, cheerful — so maybe a little childlike, tongue darting out to playfully nip your fingers that now cup his chin. wagging his clean shaven head from side to side.
so handsome, there’s barely enough room in your head to think anything else in the world could be this pretty.
you almost forget that you’re bare. naked as the day you were born. you shudder when aang’s bare hand presses firm against your sternum — warm because, of course, he’s the avatar who can bend the elements at his skilled will. it’s heated a touch, but still goosebumps rise on your skin in a tidal wave, and your nipples harden into whipped peaks. aang ignores them in search of something more, not that he doesn’t want to take his time with you. you’re just undeniable, you’ve been waiting all day for more than intimately placed touches and soft lips against your forehead. there’s more he intends to give to you.
the avatar finds your slick entrance with the kind of practised ease only a man in love would possess. there’s no need for guidance when he can effortlessly find the points and spots that have you dulcetly drawling his name as though it’s one of your prized possessions. a best kept secret. a hidden treasure. two digits, thick and calloused, slide in with little to no resistance and curl almost instantly in search for your sweet spot — pressing down hard on the gooey nub nestled further along your walls. for the whole duration, aang waits for your silent please, consent for more, with baited breath. his lungs full of enough anticipatory air to give birth to a thunderstorm.
that’s all the sign he needs to navigate further south, follow the pulse of your blood flow to the aching buzz hardening in your clit. cheekily, the avatar tacks the pad of his thumb to the pleasure button, brushing it from side to side, round and round in tight circles — launching you into the stratosphere with what feels like a gust of blistering hot wind. meanwhile, his deft fingers between pudgy thighs get to work — the pace aang begins with reflects exactly who he is, unyielding and unpredictable. the intensity doesn’t build slow, it’s rapid akin to that of a dangerous river sectional. though his movements are not rushed, the flex of his wrist aids the two digits scissoring you open for the stretch that’s yet to come.
your entrance grows sappy and filthy around what manages to fit inside — filling you and dragging along your molten ichorous walls, so hot you’d put a fire bender to shame. the little squeaks that escape you, airy and feather light layer messily over lewd squelching sounds echoing from between your shaky legs that tremble as though the earth has decided to split in two. grey eyes start to glimmer, mimicking the moonshine through nightly cloud cover, and a wry grin splinters on the avatar’s soft lips — a result of your precious cunt, making a spectacle around aang’s fingers. rippling and drooling down arrow shaped tattoos that twist around the length of his muscled arm and wrist.
aang maps you out, travelling your gooey walls as though he’s trying to rediscover a place he once called home. familiar. welcoming. like discovering a new island, he pinions against pleasure spots lining your walls that you’d never be able to reach without him . although your tightness presents as resistance, the manner in which you paw at his wrist in a quiet plea for more and anything further to placate the twist in your gut, tells aang that you want this. need this. soaring high, aang flies you to new heights of ecstasy — sets your body adrift, floating above cloud nine.
he’s mesmerised, watching his favourite view, the squeeze of your cunt around him to prevent escape. each time his digits pump in and out of you, you cutely clench at the knuckle, as if to stop him from going too far. under the candle light, the avatar can’t help but flux into the giddy feeling like a slow drip of pale candle wax pooling at the base of its holder. simply knowing that he is the one making your pussy gush, translucent essence sliding down the length of your swollen slit and into the rustling fabrics below, licks his ego. stokes it like coals on a flame.
“so wet here, so soft.” aang makes a sort of chuffing noise against your hairline, swooping down to level flat against the flooring of your tent. chest to chest, hearts beating in sync as though they’re drums following a similar tune. though aang’s voice dips low, the baritone register winding ropes within your lower stomach, his intonation is cheery — bright like the sun at noon. “pretty baby, just look at you chasin’ it.”
your hips twitch upwards at the avid taunting, called upon by his convincing siren’s song. you wonder if he’s bending your body in the same way he does with the four elements because you arch your back into the centre of him, magnetised by the lull of his heart beating for you.
“someone’s impatient, easy baby.” neither mean nor gentle, aang divulges objective fact — sweat settling into the smile lines that bracket his subtle smirk. his teasing is as relentless as the press of his digits against the one special spot that clears your mind completely. he gives, gifting you another slab of arcadia until it stacks high to come tumbling down because aang has always been so, so kind. your quivering hole stretches wide over the broad stroke of his fingers, clear and sticky essence a glimmering glaze over them, wetter and wetter by the second beside you can’t stop bucking against their force.
you point him in the right direction as he navigates your ecstasy, helping him erratically assault your pussy even though the avatar is more than capable of crumbling you like precious stone. but you burn everywhere, in your pelvis and your muscles pulled tight with the tension of holding back — flames burn at the oxygen nurturing your lungs and if aang weren’t the center star that boils to a billion degrees, the heat in your face would be enough to rival him.
a dopey, delirious smile creates a habitat amongst your sweat-slicked features — carved against them like ancient scripture on stone only a man such as aang has the skill to decipher. “been waiting all day...” waiting for more than just hands under clothes. more than just yearning gazes swapped between the motions of your friends. “please, please, please. need you more…” the plea tastes like desperation against the tip of your tongue, the kind you only feel when your whole world is about to cave in, the sort that brings a tear to your eyes with the same sharp rapidness of a tidal boar.
aang grounds you, soothes you, becomes the very force that brings you back to land out of fear the waters may wash you away. he takes up that space around your heart that knocks the beat down to a level that’s sustainable. with sweltering kisses marked against your hairline, chaste balmy from his own layer of perspiration, appearing almost like a second skin. in response, a heatwave crashes through your body like a desert breeze — particles of unadulterated lust and hunger catching on the high points of your body.
the back of the avatar’s head is clammy where you reach to it for leverage, crossing your arms at the back of his head. you bring the hardline of aang’s body against you, his stomach meeting yours with a wet slap because so much arousal has pooled there. his cock, leaky, hard and monstrous, rocks against soft flesh — jumping between you both like a glaring warning sign because he is just so big.
“i don’t want to hurt you, might not be ready yet.” he says with the same restraint as a child being told to wait until after dinner for a sweet treat. aang is good, he regards you gently as though you’re something that might fracture with too much pressure — yet he knows what you can take, how much you can endure for the sake of losing yourself to him for a little while. just like his body on top of yours, aang’s large palm slots perfectly against your pussy — the seat of his palm grinding against your puffy clit alongside the rhythm of his thrusting fingers. nirvana begins to flash behind your eyes, blurting your vision as you blink up at him meekly.
you like the burn. the stretch. the pain that comes with taking aang and he reads it in your darkening eyes, open like a book.
“it won’t hurt,” you argue back, though your words carry no weight. they taper into a cottony sigh, whisked away from the night’s breeze — icy against your temperate skin. sweat drops from his shoulders to your chest, glueing him to you. he’s a solid mass on top of you, contrary to the silky webbing of your mound, ruined beneath his fingers that work you unrelentingly. pleasure breaks through you like the sun rising above the horizon, highlighting the glow of your body as an orgasm nears. “please don’t make me wait, aang…”
aang chuckles, the weight of it carried by whirling winds and his fingers leave you for just a moment, an empty hole waiting to be filled – trembling without him. seamlessly, his delicate caress glides over your throbbing mound, growing cold and slick as time passes by. strings of clear, tarry elixir pruriently prevents his touch from straying too far from where you need him most. “you’re so pretty when you say please.” he exhales through his nose in a serene gust, spreading his fingers to watch your arousal web amidst them.
“aang–!”
“how about i make you cum?” he volunteers, and you despite the steamroll of fog starting to cloud your mind, you fail to miss the playful lilt that clings to his every word. it’s more of a statement than a suggestion, with aang riding the clouds between your thoughts, there’s no room to argue either. he acts first, on the same kind of brave impulse you’ve seen from him in battle many times before, delivering a few sappy love taps to your unattended sex. toying with you through a guise of a half-lidded smile that lures you into feeling safe.
he discerns your swollen clit from equally swollen folds once more, a muddlement of sin to be solved by one of the most powerful beings on earth, and draws his name across the hood of the sensitive little nub — drawing back the extra skin just to press your own slick into it. your back peels away from the tent’s flooring from where sweat had gathered to cleave the skin to it, trembling and twitching as you bow into aang, invade his space, crawl into it for sanctuary. though, in this safety net – you find yourself pincered, caught between his lips that descend upon yours and the lengthy, agile pointers that act with the alacrity of the sky’s breath. aang licks into your mouth briskier than your brain can keep up, stealing every soft breath and shackly snuffle that lays underneath your tongue. he tastes you like he’s losing a memory he wants to keep, tracking your flavour in your breezy breath before you have the sense to plead for more.
in due time, he’ll give it to you.
he’ll instimulate the careful crease between your brows and the petulant little pout that drags down the corners of your mouth even as you meet his with the same balance of the elements. harmonious and restorative all at once. he kisses you like it’ll heal him, the dulling phantom ache in his scars, the mass of loss in his past and the burdens of the future. you take it all to your lungs, inhale it into the space within your vital organs because pain like his should never be borne alone.
even still, the avatar hisses with a mix of awed ail when your nails break carmine crescent moons against the blue sails of his arrowhead tattoos. you grasp at his sinewy forearms for stability, something grounding like a plant taking root in new soils, and clench around dexterous digits that once more reclaim the claggy path of your ruined insides. whilst you howl like a storm’s winds and chase the seed of pleasure flourishing within your bubbling tummy – aang has a vision, like one of those who have walked the same path before him, casting imagery of hurricanes pulled from skies and storm clouds torn to little tufts in the name of you.
because he loves you.
your struggling, shuddering thighs and aerated gasps. the way you hold onto him like a lifeline as your orgasm brings you right to the edge of balance – the pendulum threatening to knock you off. aang’s fingers twist and brush amongst your sensitivity and it’s not long before all the pleasure that had been building crumbles under the tidal wave of arousal that crashes through you. “let go for me, baby,” he whispers earnestly against your cupid’s bow, hoping that it coaxes you along and unties the tightness lingering there. “there you go, good girl…”
his words undo you like your binding holding you together never existed, weakened by time and attention. the care aang takes to bring you to heaven pushes you into release, one that has your juices splashing down the length of aang’s burly arms as though he’s squeezed a ripened fruit. all at once, you seize beneath him and gush into his palm seat, quaking through aftershocks where your cunt is the epicentre. he finds your mouth, fallen open in a whiney mewl, and wheedles you into a soothing wet kiss where tongue’s tangle and breathing draws ragged like the sharp edge of an earth-bended mountain.
once you’re calm, reduced to the gentle rock of a boat on the very water aang controls, your needy screams retreat too. everything melting into soft pants and a dreamy gaze through your droopy eyelids.
your appetite remains unruly, however.
“wan’ more.” you mumble in a quiet wisp – demanding, nearing playful. a challenge laying in the candle light like a trap for the avatar, plans barely concealed by the mirth swirling in your clearing, glassy eyes.
in their reflection, aang sees himself. body worn but spirit never tired of the games you play with one another. he heedily lowers you back to the flooring of the tent, arranges you neatly amongst fur pelts and blankets that soften like his leer on you.a picturesque view, skin shining like the surface of silk, thighs sticky with your body’s syrup, bare chest heaving like you’ve got oxygen to spare. you’re so beautiful it's easy to give into you. if there were any weakness the avatar were to possess, it would be you.
silence, bearable and conservant, is born between your bodies. it steals space, not unkindly, because you know aang’s quiet gives way to his next actions, the plan he’ll take to bring you to bliss once more. his large palms, coarse from weathering the elements, span down your being again – through the valley of your breasts, down your sternum and into the soft fleshiness of your tummy.
“you’re sure?” he laughs, holding breath under his tongue. even as he questions you, aang shuffles onto his haunches to shred the last of his dignity – the fabric of his pants whirring across the tent.
your vision stoops low, following the arrows that point to the one thing you’ve been craving all evening. to say the avatar is … gifted… would be an under estimation – his shaft is ample in both size and weight, dripping from the dull tip and seedy slit, slightly curved with balls that are pink and plump. ripe with seed. you feel your stomach twitch underneath his touch and he does too – as though its preparing to take his size fully. grey eyes darken with a storm of lust once you find aang’s face again – merriment dawning on his features.
“you’ve asked me that a million times already,” you huff, cadence carrying petulance. “you don’t think i can handle you, avatar?’
he shakes his head. “i know what you can handle, i pay attention to your limits.” he says it like he knows something you don’t, a trick up his metaphorical sleeve to be unveiled the further this game advances. your move. it reads.
crawling over you once more, broad upper body blocking out the world and a slender waist shuffles between your thighs. aang is at your neck this time, gently nipping at your neck to leave his mark in the same manner that you’ve left one on his heart. saliva soothes the crease of his teeth indented into your skin, warm and distracting while the hands once at your stomach press into the lissome fat at your hips – manhandling you in the position he desires most.
there’s no space between you know, not even a millimetre, ardent flesh bonding and soon to become one. the beat of your heart links like the next note of a song, nipples brushing sensitively as they harden under the night air. aang throws your legs over his wide-set shoulders, spreading you open and parting the webs of slick glueing together your swollen folds. a warm, gooey pressure burns against your entrance, his hips jutting forward to run his cock through the length of your slit – the sensation is not unwelcome, the slight sting of pain feels just like returning home after a long journey. where everything aches and nothing seems to settle.
his tip dully breaks through the translucent netting gathering at your entrance, gradually filling you inch by inch until you physically feel swole just from the tip. you flutter around him weakly, once for every throb of his girth against your nociceptive ridges.
only half of what he has makes it in, and even then, you experience the kind of fullness that comes with that of a full moon. hard to ignore, a sight to behold. you lift your lower half, circling your hips down to swallow what he offers, because too much is never enough and you have always been greedy when it comes to aang.
he’s a hero to the world, barely something you get to keep sacred and to yourself.
it’s hard to miss, impossible not to notice and aang bucks forward ever so slightly, rewarding you with more stretch, more burn, more of his cock. you suction around the rippling pang and clasp the back of his damp neck while your body accommodates for his size. “aang…m-more!’ your voice is raw, throat bobbing from the delighted tears you’ve been holding back and the avatar’s strong hands lift your lips higher, hoping it’ll alleviate the ache for more.
“baby, you’re being so greedy tonight, what’s with that?” the question slips into the sudden torrid atmosphere, though it’s amused – sitting behind a smile you can’t see ( it blurs as you sniffle ), aang groans. fractured, lust living between the cracks. “just take this much for now,” he doesn’t bottom out, only thrusts shallowly, letting the sweltersome head of his cock nudge your ribbed walls. “can’t give you all of my cock… have to be somewhere you can get help if it goes wrong,”
that should be enough to destroy you.
aang fucks you half way down his length all whilst caging you in, his sweet mouse caught in a trap, pushing and pulling from your adorably selfish hole – beginning a sensual, swing to his own hips. you feel the wiry muscle of his thighs crook against your ass as the avatar practically puts you through the bedding. in your mind, aang makes up the middle of the universe, yet to him, your pleasure becomes the heart of his – he uses the strength bursting from his biceps to jerk you back and forth on what plugs you full.
he is not rough, but focused, relishing in the juices you baste him in – smearing your juices along his hard stomach, where it pools against his tattoos and his belly button. the force he uses to roll into you lulls a symphony of whiney bleats from between your wet and kiss swollen lips, a sweet song that mingles with the soft slap of skin on skin filling your tent.
your body threatens to break once more, your arms like a loose neck tie around his thick throat and your shaky hands finding purchase on his clean shaken head. all you can do is sink into him, let him overrule your body, taking it over— mind, body and soul. in return, he frees a hand to angles in your roots like the winds rushing through your hair, hugging you close so that you never fade away. even then he kisses you as though the world has taken you from him, too much all at once, overwhelming you with the curve of his tongue breaching realms beyond your pearly white teeth. aang tastes you, and tastes you, lips balmy moving against yours with such vigor it nearly distracts you from the intensity of his thrusts.
where aang usually carries the scent of freshly cut grass and freedom – the fragrance twists into something more profane, the husk from your cunt and the sweat evaporating on your skin from how frequently it all meets. the atmosphere tingles with his devotion to you.
your calves start to tingle where they violently shake on aang’s shoulders, every part of you spasms even down to your cunt that wraps around him like a vice. you feel ravaged, fractured, pathetically split open on his thickness even though it’s still only half.
it doesn’t matter how you thrash and whine in a desperate effort to swallow another inch, aang remains sturdy above you. immovable. where the blankets and pelts begin to slip from the motion of your bodies working together, the avatar allows his mouth to cover you – silken spit drying against your breasts that bounce from passionate motion. he acts with the motion of a starved man who cannot go a second without another meal, tongue circling your areolas at a speed that matches the feverish punch of his weighty girth against your g-spot.
you cannot imagine a world without aang in it, without aang’s presence filling every corner like the sunrise in an empty room. kisses golden and glowing. the way he looks down at you like you’re worth a war and regards you with cool toned eyes that feel free of burden when you’re in view – draws you closer to a peak. there are so many feelings in aang’s eyes, slithering between your bodies, he fills you with more with each rut of his hips into yours, a creamy and lewd ring frothing around what doesn’t fit inside.
“y-you’re so good,” you babble him earnestly, losing breath to his intensity, pussy pulsating over the prominent veins and ridges twirling around aang’s chubby girth. his thrusts pull and push at your spongy insides – bumping against pleasure spots you didn’t even know you had. “c-can you please just…give me more…?”
“you’re so needy, baby,” aang circles an arm around your waist and leans back on his haunches. his knees resting pelts whilst he manoeuvres himself in a kneeling position. this time, he is able to bottom out fully, unexpectedly. he hits the hilt with a low, rumbling sound against the crown of your head – as if finally being sheathed inside of you has pulled him to pieces before you.“how’s this? d-deeper? fuller?”
in this new position, you’re sure you’ve crossed over to the spirit world. the new pressure is blinding, the assault on your g-spot is constant and mimics the ever-turning of the planet you live on. if you could, you’d cry out for the aid of a spirit but instead, through the lasciviousness lodged in your throat, his name is born like a prayer on your lips. “a-aang!”
“yeah, i know,” he mutters, overcome with emotion, eyes on you everywhere. the angelic contortions of your face, the drip of nectar from your hypersensitive cunt to his balls. everywhere. “gods i know, you’re practically choking me out down there. that’s nice… so nice.”
your eyes become misty and aang’s voice becomes a murky strain, breaths of exertion coasting over your heated face as he strikes up an almost bullying, breezy pace to his slender hips as they pummel into your sex. now, he is able to hit deep — twist and turn your gummy organs up and drag over the sensitive ridges you can’t reach normally.
clawing at aang’s neck, you use the last of your vigour to grind against him. futile but sweet. your second release borders on pain since you’re spread over him, dull head of his cock near kissing the entrance to your womb. you asked for this, now you’re slumped and weak in his lap. a pathetic ragdoll that’s loved more than it’s toyed with. neither of you mind the fade in your endurance, after all the support and care you’ve given to aang through his hardest moments – he adores being able to return the favour like this. watch himself bulge in your tummy whilst your mind slips away from you. watch the faint part of your lips as you cry his praises and flit of your lashes whilst you attempt to hold his gaze.
“you like it better like this, i know.” aang coos, tone not too far off from wonder. lilt a little more than condescending. without disparaging his strength, he hauls you back and forth on his soiled shaft, a crude mix of precum and the sweet nectar your cunt drools helping him glide through your tightness. “when i…. move you up and down up and down… there we go,” for the millionth time that night, he laughs. pure and bright, sparking your nerve endings. that’s when you gush, when the chord of tension snaps and you begin to violently convulse with your second orgasm.
he leans an arm past your back to steady himself with balls of air at his finger tips, other hand jumping up to span into the curve of your spine whilst you keen into him. wailing high like whistling winds. “you’re so cute when you’re cumming.” he purrs, boyishly devoted to your pleasure just as you reach the summit on the mountain, your peak, squirting all the way down aang’s thickness.
the world around you blurs as though water has mixed with wet paint used to capture darling memories,. a scream rips through you and burns at the fraying edges of your voice. clear streams of arousal shoot from your sluice sex and dampen the pelts, soak aang to the bone – nearly forcing his drowning dick out of you.
his rhythm barely wavers; not even when he is chasing both of your releases, running with the wind as his tip nudges against your pleasure spot over and over. moans rising in octave with every step he takes closer to orgasm.
for a moment, you think, your presence fills aang with as much light and life as he does with you.
a thumb winds down to your clit with a brand new purpose, noting the aftershocks running through you that bring him his own sense of euphoria. he’s careful with you now, gently jerking you in his lap while his thoughts turn blank, mind crowded with thoughts of only you. “so small… compared to me. it’s adorable, god, you really are —!” when aang cums, his forehead falls to yours, grey eyes brimming with a glowing blue that extends to the tattoos painted permanently into his body. he glows bright, a beacon of love in the night. then he hiccups, airy and low, succumbing to your shuddering warmth – ecstasy twisting through him like a tornado that’s grown over time. “perfect.”
opaque white shoots into you in viscous ropes, clinging to your wet walls – gathering in a frothy ring at your entrance. none of it is wasted, the avatar insistent on plugging you full. he finds sanctuary in the curve of your neck, breathy curses tattooed into your skin which tickle pleasantly. aang keeps you in his arms before exhaustion settles into your bones and his body threatens to cop out completely— he just about manages to land on his side before his weight crushes you.
a pregnant silence takes up space in the tenant. tender as your weary eyes meet and heart rates slow to a standstill. aang’s face creases with adoring attachment, triumphant and adoring and childish. you don’t need words to know that he loves you, that he would give up anything to stay right here with you.
i love you.
it comes easy, reciprocating – you find his fingers in your heap of lips and brush a kiss against them so briskly one might mistake your light affection for a breeze.
i love you always.
aang takes up space, in your room next to your things. in your mind where all your best memories lie. and most importantly, in your heart.
end ! likes are appreciated, but just liking doesn’t do much on tumblr! to support and motivate myself and other writers, reply, reblog and comment if you'd like to see more!! — asks are open to thirsts and thoughts! join my taglist ! love you!
warnings : gravity disappears, angst, the need to be alone, Ryland tries to fix everything, Rocky is here too, some fluff, maybe… a kiss?
note : It's hard to find personal space on Hail Mary.
[Ryland Grace masterlist] [main masterlist]
Gravity vanished without warning.
Just a second ago, you’d been standing at the panel, exhausted from constantly focusing on strange data, and the next you were drifting toward the ceiling, your shoulder hitting it painfully.
“Really?” slipped from your lips, louder than you’d intended.
Ryland’s voice reached you from somewhere above. “Everything’s under control. It’s just—”
“Nothing’s under control!”
You pushed off the wall a little too hard, sending yourself spinning before you slammed into the passage leading to the control room. You caught hold of something, but you were already angry.
At everything. At the ship. At the whole situation. At the mission. At the lack of sleep. At them.
Grace appeared quickly in front of you, slightly out of breath, carefully adjusting his position so he wouldn’t bump into you.
“Hey, hey. Relax—”
“Don’t do things like that without warning!” you snapped, irritation sharp in your voice. “You’re not alone here.”
Behind him, in the semidarkness, Rocky shifted—quiet, alert.
“Change of circumstances. Unexpected. A mistake?” he asked calmly.
“Yes, a mistake,” you said too quickly. “And I… I just…”
You paused, closing your eyes for a second.
“I need space. Okay?” you added more quietly, though still tense. “Personal space. No experiments, no surprises. No one constantly doing something right next to me.”
You looked at both of them.
“Just leave me alone.”
You pushed yourself away, and before either of them could respond, you disappeared into the dormitory.
Grace stared at the place where you’d vanished for a long moment, completely still. You didn’t come back. Maybe it would’ve been easier if you’d kept yelling.
“Okay,” he muttered to himself. “Great, Grace. Really great.”
He pushed himself back slightly, hovering in the control room for a moment.
“She: nervous,” Rocky said beside him. “You: the reason.”
“Thanks, we already established that,” he replied wearily. “I didn’t mean to. I mean—she’s already exhausted, we all are, and I just—yeah, great job, Grace.” he repeated.
Silence settled between them.
“Personal space,” Rocky said finally. “Explain.”
Ryland sighed, running a hand through his hair and messing it up even more. “Sometimes people just need to be alone. No stimulation, no one expecting anything from them.”
“You: stimulus? Question.”
“Apparently. Which is not great. I was aiming for ‘supportive presence,’ not ‘overstimulating disaster.’”
“Fix it, Grace.”
“I’m thinking, okay? It’s not that simple.”
He glanced toward the interior of the ship. You felt further away than ever, and he didn’t like it. The guilt pressed heavier with every passing second.
“Playlist. Explain.”
Rocky shifted slightly as he watched Ryland work on the laptop.
“It’s a collection of music,” Ryland said, eyes still on the screen. “You use it to express emotions. Things you can’t say out loud.”
“Will help. Question.”
“I hope so.”
The library was massive. Choosing anything felt impossible. Eventually, he clicked on a track.
“What do you think, Rocky?”
“Terrible. End-of-world sound.”
Another click.
“And this one?”
“Disturbing.”
“It’s jazz.”
“Still disturbing.”
Ryland nodded as if that made perfect sense. He was trying to find something that felt like an apology—but not desperation. Something safe. Something warm, not empty.
“We don’t need much… low emotional bandwidth, low input. We don’t want to overwhelm her.”
“Delivery method? Question. She wants space.”
“I’ll figure something out.”
Nearly an hour later, the playlist was ready. Not perfect, but real. Made with you in mind. He felt a little ridiculous, but doing nothing would’ve been worse.
He transferred everything onto a small portable device and grabbed a spare pair of wireless headphones.
“Fingers crossed, buddy.”
When Ryland stopped at the entrance, he heard nothing—just the quiet hum of the ship.
He cleared his throat.
“H-Hey. It’s me. Obviously.” His voice wavered slightly. “I’m not coming in. I respect your space. I just—I have something for you. You don’t have to listen to it. I’ll leave it here.”
He gently nudged the device inside.
“I…” He hesitated. “I’m sorry. Really.”
Silence followed—louder than anything else. There was nothing more he could do now.
“She’s leaving.”
Rocky’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Ryland appeared in the doorway almost instantly.
“Hey. Hey, you,” he said, uncertain.
“Hey.” You held up the device. “Did you make this?”
He nodded.
“Pretty cool.”
A hesitant smile appeared on Grace's face.
“Listen,” he said, pushing himself slightly closer, careful not to bump into you. “I’m sorry. I don’t want you to be mad at me. I mean—statistically, that’s a terrible outcome for me.”
“I know. I don’t want you to be mad at me either.” You sighed. “Sometimes it’s just… a lot. Not you, not Rocky. Just… everything.”
“The situation is… not exactly stable,” he said.
You smiled faintly. “I’m sorry I reacted like that. I shouldn’t have.”
“You should have. I was—”
“The trigger,” Rocky interrupted. “Grace: the trigger. She: not evil.”
“Thanks, buddy,” Ryland muttered, though your smile already eased something inside him. “Are we okay?”
“Almost.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Almost?”
“Turn on gravity. Please.”
It jolted again, but this time you were ready. When the Hail Mary stabilized and gravity returned, you both stood steady.
“Here.” You handed him one of the headphones. “You made it for me—now listen to it with me.”
He hesitated. “Is this a trap?”
“Of course.”
“I like it.”
He put the earpiece in, and the music filled his ears—the same one he’d chosen for you.
“I was really worried… that I messed it up. Like—irreversibly messed it up. Not just the experiment. Us.”
You looked at him—not with anger, but with the same quiet fear.
“You didn’t break anything,” you said softly. “I messed up too. I should’ve handled it better.”
“We can’t control everything. Statistically impossible.”
“Yeah. Definitely.”
The song shifted, a new melody flowing in.
“I like this one,” you said, then glanced at him with a soft smile on your lips. “Do you dance, Grace?”
He frowned slightly. “I used to move uncontrollably to music in school. We can classify that as dancing.”
You laughed, and the sound loosened something in his chest. When you reached for his hand, he didn’t hesitate. Your movements were clumsy, unbalanced; when he tried to spin you, you both ended up tangled and laughing.
The music slowed. Softer now. You didn’t need words.
Ryland still held your hand, his other settling hesitantly at your waist. You didn’t pull away.
“You’re… really bad at this,” you murmured.
He huffed quietly. “I warned you.”
“Didn’t think it’d be this bad.”
“Wow. Okay. Harsh.”
The music faded, but neither of you moved.
“You’re still analyzing,” you said.
A faint smile tugged at his lips. “I’m trying not to.”
Silence settled—but this time it was warm.
“This isn’t dancing anymore, is it?” he asked.
You shook your head. “I don’t think so.”
“And… is this okay for you?”
“Yes. And for you?”
“Absolutely.” He cleared his throat. “What about personal space?”
You smiled.
“I’ll need it sometimes. So will you. But right now… this is good. Better than before.”
“Definitely.”
He was looking at your lips. You noticed.
“Grace…” you started, but didn’t finish.
He didn’t either.
He stepped closer, his hand tightening slightly at your waist, as if making sure you were really there.
“If this is too much, just—tell me. I really don’t want to get this wrong.”
You shook your head. “No. It’s okay, Ryland.”
That was enough. His breath brushed your lips, his nose grazing yours before he kissed you—soft, careful, testing boundaries. You didn’t pull away. You leaned in, returning the kiss just as gently. A few heartbeats later, he pulled away hesitantly. But you were still there.
“Okay…” he murmured.
“Okay.”
“That was…”
“Nice.”
“Very.”
The silence that followed was different. Yours. Shared.
“Physical contact. Question. Explain,” Rocky said from behind you.
Ryland sighed, eyes closing briefly. “Later.”
You smiled. And he smiled back. The tension didn’t disappear all at once. It just… loosened, little by little.
Hey queen, I have a requestttt (kinda angsty and lots of fluff)
It can either be loak x reader or neteyam x reader and it’s a misunderstanding trope where reader has had a crush on neteyam for years now but never said anything, rumour goes aroynd that neteyam has found his mate and she gets so depressed and it’s kinda angsty. Then she finally confesses her feelings to tsireya or kiri and neteyam overhears EVERYTHING and he has a crush on reader too. However reader avoids him a lot cuz she thinks he’s already mated while neteyam keeps trying to talk to her like multiple attempts, then finally someone forces her to talk to him and he confesses
(Sorry it took this long, but Uni has been killin my ass lately. Hope you like it. )
Like a tidal...
༉‧₊˚✧Pairing : Neteyam x Fem!Reader
༉‧₊˚✧ WC :
Love. To love, to be loved, and to be in love.
Among your people, it was more than a feeling - it was a bond whispered and carried by the tides, and blessed by Eywa herself.
Like a tidal.
You had always held it close, fragile and sacred, like a glowing seed cupped carefully in your palms. Never spoken too loudly, never shared too freely - as if naming it might break it.
That was simply who you were.
A heart worn openly, like the shimmer of the sea carried by the sun. Your emotions were not something you hid, they flowed through you, visible in every glance, every breath, every soft tremor in your voice.
A spirit as fierce as yours demanded a heart just as powerful—and yours… was hopelessly drawn to love.
And yet, beneath that warmth, there was fear.
Because love, you knew, was not always returned.
And to love alone, to give everything and feel nothing echo back, was a kind of drowning no ocean could rival.
A silent, suffocating ache. One that could hollow you out until nothing remained but the memory of what once was.
So you were careful.
Careful with your smiles, with your lingering glances, with the way your heart reached without permission. You told yourself that you only had one heart to give, and it belonged to someone who had not yet found you.
Someone chosen - not by chance, but by something deeper. Something sacred.
But no amount of care could prepare you for what was to come.
For the quiet unraveling of something once so pure.
You still remember the first time the Sullys arrived.
The sky had darkened under the shadows of their ikrans, their wings slicing through the golden light as they descended upon the shores of Awa’atlu. The villagers watched in silence, tension coiling through the air like an unseen current.
They were outsiders, carrying stories, scars, and a past that clung to them like salt on skin.
Some called them cursed. Others simply kept their distance.
But you… you couldn’t.
Something about them pulled at you, deep and insistent. Like the tide answering the breeze. Maybe it was curiosity, or perhaps admiration, but they were unlike anything you had ever known.
Different, yet undeniably powerful.
Like a storm that had learned how to walk on land.
Everyone knew their story.
Jake Sully - the Toruk Makto, the one who had once led a revolution, the one born of sky-people blood who chose to become something more. And Neytiri - the fierce daughter of the forest who gave up everything to stand beside him.
They had lost their home. Their roots. Their world.
And yet… they endured. Because they had each other.
“Sullys stick together.”
It wasn’t just something they said, it was something they were. You could see it in the way they moved, in the way their eyes always searched for one another, in the silent understanding that passed between them without words.
But it wasn’t the legend that caught your attention.
It was him, the one carrying himself like the Sun.
Neteyam.
From the very beginning, your gaze found him as if it had always known where to look.
The eldest son. The firstborn.
The weight of expectation resting heavily across his shoulders, yet he carried it with a quiet grace that made it seem effortless.
He stood tall, like his father. Moved with purpose, like his mother.
And yet, there was something softer beneath it all.
Something… gentler.
Neteyam was a warrior, yes, but not just in the way others were. His strength wasn’t only in his skill or his bravery, but in the kindness he carried so naturally.
It was rare. Almost startling.
Like finding still water in the middle of a raging sea.
When he spoke, his voice held warmth. When he smiled, it reached his eyes.
And when he stood beside you… the world felt quieter.
Lighter.
As if all the sharp, jagged pieces inside you slowly began to smooth themselves out, reshaping under the quiet influence of his presence. You found yourself softening without meaning to, mirroring him, drawn into that calm like something instinctive, something inevitable.
At first, you didn’t even notice it happening.
The way your heart lingered a little longer when he was near. The way your thoughts drifted back to him when he was gone.The way your chest tightened, not painfully, but achingly, when he smiled at someone else.
It grew slowly. Quietly.
A glance here. A shared moment there. A laugh that lasted just a second too long.
And you kept it to yourself.
Guarded it like a secret only Eywa could hear, waiting for the right moment - the perfect moment - to let it bloom into something real. Something spoken. Something returned.
But time has a way of slipping through your fingers when you’re not looking.
Days became weeks.
Weeks softened into months.
And before you could truly understand what your heart had become…
Years had passed.
Growing up beside Neteyam had never felt like something that needed effort. It simply… was.
Like the tide meeting the shore, like breath filling your lungs without thought.
You learned each other in quiet, instinctive ways - matching steps without realizing it, finishing each other’s thoughts with nothing more than a glance.
Wherever you were, he followed, or maybe you followed him. At some point, the line blurred so completely that it no longer mattered.
When you sat with the other girls, polishing shells and threading them into delicate patterns, he would always find his way beside you, clumsy fingers fumbling through the process just to hand you the prettiest shell he could find, a shy, crooked smile tugging at his lips.
And when you braided someone’s hair, your touch careful and practiced, there he was again - lingering close, asking Kiri just loud enough for you to hear to braid his hair the way you always did.
Always there. Always close.
Those small things, those tiny, almost meaningless gestures, became everything.
They fed the quiet flame inside you until it burned brighter than you could control, until loving him stopped feeling like a choice and started feeling like something carved into your very being.
You didn’t just fall for him, you became entangled with him.
It reached a point where everything that belonged to Neteyam - his voice, his scent, the sound of his laughter carried by the wind - felt like something you needed, like air, like water.
You dreamed of him with your eyes open, imagined him beside you not just as he was, but as something more - your mate, your other half, the one Eywa had shaped you for.
And the more he grew, the more he seemed to become exactly what your heart had always been searching for… or maybe your heart had shaped itself around him all along.
In your eyes, he was perfect - not flawless, but yours.
The way he made you feel had no name, too vast and consuming to be contained in words.
You couldn’t get enough of him - always finding reasons to be near, to touch him in passing, to laugh a little too loudly at his jokes.
You circled him like a restless songbird, bright and devoted, without ever realizing you had made him your center.
He was your happiness, and he didn’t even know it.
He didn’t need to - because for a long time, it felt like he was yours anyway.
But happiness like that is fragile, and fragile things break the loudest.
It didn’t happen all at once - just a crack, then another, until the glass world you had built around the two of you shattered before you could understand what was happening.
Rumors had always existed, clinging to the Sullys like shadows.
Some admired them, praised their strength and the way they proved themselves again and again.
Others whispered, their jealousy sharp and quiet.
You had learned to ignore it, to let it pass like wind through leaves, but then the whispers began to change, to shift, to circle closer and closer until they wrapped around him.
“Of course he doesn’t want a mate yet… why would he settle for one when he can have many?”
“Seyra followed him into the forest… she came back hours later like she had seen the stars themselves.”
Each word struck like something cursed.
At first, you refused to believe it, you couldn’t.
Not him. Not Neteyam. He wasn’t like that. He couldn’t be.
He was… yours. Wasn’t he?
But doubt is cruel - once it slips in, it spreads quietly, patiently.
And your heart began to ache long before the truth ever reached you. You could have asked him, you should have, but the fear of hearing it from his own voice was unbearable.
So you waited, clinging to a fragile thread of hope even as it unraveled in your hands.
Until one day, you saw them.
Neteyam walking in perfect sync with Seyra - close, comfortable, certain.
And just like that, everything ended.
The boy you had loved so quietly, so completely, had found someone to stand beside him, and it wasn’t you.
Not after all those years, not after everything you had been to each other.
The bitterness of it settled deep, because Seyra was everything you were not - taller, stronger, shaped like a true warrior of the reef, her name spoken with admiration among your people.
She fit beside him in a way that made sense to everyone, and of course they celebrated it, of course they were happy for them.
And you… you were left behind in the quiet, slowly poisoned by something you couldn’t fight.
You mourned a love that had never even been given the chance to exist, like a widow grieving a life that had never been lived. It hollowed you out, drained you until even breathing felt heavy.
Knowing he was near, just a few steps away from your marui, was enough to twist something deep inside you, sharp and unbearable, so you hid.
Curled into yourself, rooted to the same place for hours, replaying everything over and over again, searching for the moment it slipped away.
When did it change?
When did he turn away from you… or had you imagined it all?
Eventually, you had to step out of your home, if only to keep up appearances.
Too many people had started to worry, their glances lingering a second too long, their voices soft with concern whenever they spoke your name. You couldn’t hide forever, no matter how much you wanted to.
Still, the moment your feet touched the warm sand again, something felt… wrong. The sun no longer kissed your skin the way it used to, its warmth dull and distant, like it belonged to someone else.
The grains beneath your feet didn’t tickle or soothe you, they were just there. Everything was.
And you… you weren’t.
It was as if something inside you had gone quiet, leaving behind a hollow, echoing cold that spread from your chest to the very tips of your fingers.
People noticed.
Of course they did. How could they not?
The girl who once moved like living light - always laughing, always reaching, always there - had faded into something unrecognizable.
Your presence no longer filled a space, it barely occupied it.
It showed in your eyes most of all - those deep blue hues that once shimmered with turquoise brightness, now dulled, dimmed like a sky before a storm that never breaks.
Your arms stayed wrapped around yourself as if you were trying to hold something in place, something fragile that threatened to fall apart at any moment.
Your lips, once so quick to smile, now pressed into a thin, tired line.
And somewhere beyond your awareness… Neteyam noticed it first.
Your absence unsettled him in a way he couldn’t quite explain.
At first, it was just a thought - she hasn’t been around much.
Then it became something sharper, something that tugged at him with quiet insistence. He knew you too well to dismiss it as nothing.
You weren’t the type to disappear, not without reason.
And when reason didn’t present itself, concern took its place.
He asked about you - casually at first, then more often, his voice tightening ever so slightly each time your name came up without a clear answer.
But the worst came when you began to avoid him entirely.
Every time he tried to catch you alone, something stood in the way.
You were sleeping. You had somewhere else to be. You slipped away before he could even reach you, turning your back the moment his presence brushed against yours.
It wasn’t subtle, it couldn’t be, and it left him with a quiet, gnawing ache he didn’t know how to name. He had thought your bond was something shared, something mutual. Not something that could simply vanish overnight.
Were you hurt? Were you sick? Had someone done something to you?
He didn’t know. And not knowing ate at him.
“Come, come…”
Tsireya’s voice broke through the haze, light and insistent, as she patted the sand beside her.
Before you could even think of an excuse, Kiri’s hand had already wrapped around your wrist, pulling you along with a familiarity you didn’t have the strength to resist.
The two of them sat as they often did, small baskets of beads scattered between them, threads catching the sunlight in soft glimmers. It was such a normal scene, so painfully normal, that it irritated you in a way that felt foreign, almost wrong.
All you wanted was to go back, to curl into yourself and disappear into sleep, to escape the exhaustion that clung to you like a second skin.
But Kiri never took no for an answer, and Tsireya’s smile was already too warm, too expectant. So there you were, back in your old place, like nothing had changed.
Your lips parted, a complaint ready to slip out, heavy and sharp, but Tsireya cut you off before you could speak.
“We missed this,” she said softly, her voice carrying a quiet joy as her fingers continued their work. “So yes… you’re staying.”
And just like that, guilt settled over you, thick and suffocating. It pressed against your chest, making it harder to breathe, harder to think.
It wasn’t fair. Not now. Not when you could barely hold yourself together.
You had the right to be selfish just this once… didn’t you?
Then why did it feel like you were the one doing something wrong?
Being around them only made it worse.
Their laughter, their ease, the soft rhythm of their movements, it all felt like a mirror reflecting everything you had lost. Everything you no longer were.
Their happiness twisted something deep inside your stomach, a quiet reminder of how out of place you had become ever since… him.
And Kiri, Eywa, Kiri was the worst of it.
Not because of anything she did, but because of what she was.
There was something about her - her softness, the way she carried herself, the quiet strength beneath it all - that echoed him in ways you couldn’t ignore.
She felt like a reflection, like a fragment of him standing right in front of you, and it made your chest ache in ways you couldn’t put into words.
“I don’t know what to say about this…” you finally murmured, your voice distant, fingers dragging absent patterns into the sand just to avoid looking at them.
Both girls stilled, their attention shifting to you immediately.
It wasn’t like you, not at all.
You loved these moments, cherished them.
So where had that version of you gone?
“Y/N…” Kiri’s voice softened, her hands leaving her work as she turned fully toward you, concern written clearly across her features.
“You’re like our sister. Seeing you like this, it’s worrying us. Please… talk to us.” Her hand came to your shoulder, rubbing gently, grounding, comforting.
And just like that, it hit you.
That unbearable, suffocating need to cry. To let it all spill out, raw and ugly and real. It clawed at your throat, burned behind your eyes, but fear held it back.
Fear of saying it out loud. Fear of hearing it.
Fear of making it real in a way you couldn’t undo.
“I… I’m just tired.”
The words came out wrong - tight, strained, barely holding together as the knot inside you twisted painfully.
Even you didn’t believe them.
Tsireya moved without hesitation, closing the distance between you in a single motion. Her arms wrapped around you, pulling you firmly against her chest, warm and unyielding, like something meant to protect rather than comfort.
There was no escaping it - not that you truly tried.
“I can feel your spirit,” she murmured gently, her voice low and certain. “Something is hurting you. You were fine… not long ago. What changed?”
You did.
That’s what you wanted to scream.
Your heart did. Your feelings. Your foolish, fragile hope that had grown into something too big, too consuming to survive.
You fell in love.
And it destroyed you.
“Nothing, really. I’m just going through a rough phase, I believe. Just… give me some time to figure myself out.”
Your voice came out softer than you intended, fragile at the edges, as if it might crack apart if pushed even a little further.
Tears burned behind your eyes, already threatening to spill, but you forced yourself to look away, far beyond them, far beyond everything, fixing your gaze on the endless stretch of sea. The waves rolled in and out, steady and indifferent, as if nothing in the world had changed.
Just a little longer.
If you could just hold it in a little longer… you could break later, when no one was there to see.
The silence that followed was heavy.
You didn’t need to look at them to know they didn’t believe you.
How could they?
You had grown up together, shared too many moments, too many pieces of yourselves. They knew you like the lines of their own hands.
To them, you were as easy to read as clear water over white sand.
“If you don’t want to speak to us…” Tsireya began carefully, her voice gentle but firm, “you could speak to someone else. Lo’ak, maybe… or my brother. Neteyam is worried too. He’s been trying to talk to you for so long…”
And just like that, everything shattered.
His name struck something deep inside you, something raw and unhealed, and before you could stop it, the tears spilled over.
Your chest convulsed violently as sobs tore their way out, sharp and uncontrollable, each breath catching painfully in your throat. It hurt, just as much as it had every other day, tight and suffocating, like your lungs refused to work properly under the weight of it.
“Great Mother, help us, Y/N, what’s happening to you?!”
Kiri’s voice broke, panic slipping through as her hands came up to cup your face, turning you toward her as if searching for an answer hidden somewhere in your expression.
But there was nothing there to find.
Just broken breaths.
Shaking shoulders.
Tears that wouldn’t stop.
“I’m sick of it… I’m sick!” The words ripped out of you, jagged and desperate, as you pushed yourself away from them, your body trembling as your hands pressed into the sand, grounding yourself against the sudden surge of emotion.
“Both mentally and physically-...it’s like a parasite, eating me from the inside out!”
Your voice rose, strained and unstable, your fingers clawing instinctively at your neck before dragging down to your chest, pressing hard against the place where your heart throbbed erratically beneath your ribs.
“This heart is messing with me- I… I want it out!”
The words came out almost hysterical, laced with something raw and dangerous, your eyes flashing with a kind of anger that didn’t belong to you, not really.
“It sickens me, do you get it?!”
The two of them froze.
Neither of them knew how to respond, your words hanging in the air like something forbidden, something wrong.
It was as if they were looking at a stranger, someone twisted by pain into something unrecognizable.
“We can talk about it, okay? It will be fine—...” Kiri tried, her voice soft, careful, reaching for you like she always did.
But this time, you recoiled.
A sharp, almost feral hiss slipped through your teeth, your body tensing as if her touch burned.
“Stop this crap!” you snapped, your voice breaking under the weight of everything you had been holding in.
“You don’t know anything! It’s not like I could help myself either - do you think I like the way I am now? Hell no!”
Each word came out heavier than the last, soaked in bitterness, in frustration, in something dangerously close to self-loathing as your hand pressed harder against your chest.
“And for what? Because of this stupid heart I have?”
Your breath hitched, voice dropping into something quieter, more broken, yet somehow more painful.
“I got cursed…”
The words trembled as they left you, barely above a whisper now.
“Cursed by loving someone who was never meant to be mine.”
Your lips quivered, your vision blurring again as fresh tears slipped down your cheeks, unstoppable.
“I wasted the one thing I treasured… for what?” your voice cracked, hollow and defeated. “For nothing.”
Silence fell again, but this time, it was heavier.
Different.
“…But you never looked at anyone,” Tsireya murmured slowly, confusion threading through her voice as she tried to piece everything together. “You never told us you were interested in someone…”
A laugh escaped you - low, hollow, and completely lifeless. It didn’t sound like you at all.
“I didn’t want to,” you admitted, your voice trembling as your gaze dropped back to the sand, unfocused.
“Not until I felt him… falling for me the same way I was falling for him.”
The words felt bitter on your tongue.
“Can you imagine?” you let out another weak, broken breath, shaking your head slightly.
“All those years… trying to matter to him. Trying to be seen.”
Your lips trembled again, your chest tightening painfully.
“And another woman got him… in just a few weeks.”
The shame hit harder when you said it out loud. It burned through you, hot and suffocating, making your face flush as if the truth itself was something humiliating.
Something you should have hidden better.
“Are you speaking about—...” Kiri started carefully, her voice barely above a whisper.
But you cut her off immediately. A weak, trembling motion of your hand, as if even the sound of his name would break you further.
“Don’t,” you breathed, your voice fragile now, almost pleading. “Don’t even say his name… I beg you.”
Your throat tightened again, your stomach twisting violently at the mere thought of him being close, existing somewhere within reach.
“Just thinking about him being near me…” you swallowed hard, your voice dropping into something quiet and raw, “makes me sick.”
You drew in a shaky breath, your body still trembling, your heart still aching...
“…the worst part is that I still love him.”
From afar, Aonung jabbed Neteyam sharply between the shoulder blades, the sudden impact snapping the forest Na’vi out of whatever thoughts had taken hold of him.
His body tensed instinctively, head turning with a quiet, irritated breath, only to be met with Aonung’s knowing look, brows slightly raised, lips curled in something halfway between amusement and concern.
“Pay attention,” Aonung muttered under his breath, though his gaze flickered past Neteyam almost immediately, toward the scene unfolding not too far from them.
Both Lo’ak and Aonung had noticed it - the shift in the air, the way your voice had risen just enough to carry, strained and breaking in a way that didn’t belong to you.
It wasn’t hard to connect the pieces.
Not when Neteyam had been restless for days, distracted in a way that was unlike him, his attention always drifting, always searching.
And now… this.
Neteyam frowned, confusion knitting his brows as his gaze followed theirs, landing on you.
At first, he didn’t fully understand what he was seeing - your trembling frame, Kiri and Tsireya gathered close, the tension thick around you like a storm about to break.
But then your voice carried again, raw and uneven, and something inside his chest tightened sharply.
“…Don’t even say his name… I beg you…”
He froze.
It wasn’t just what you said, it was the way you said it.
Like it hurt. Like it destroyed you just to speak.
A strange, uneasy feeling crept up his spine, something cold and unfamiliar. His jaw tightened slightly as his eyes stayed fixed on you, trying to understand, to make sense of something that refused to fall into place.
“What’s wrong with her?” Lo’ak murmured, his voice lower now, stripped of its usual edge as concern settled in. His brother couldn't really figure out if he was worried because of you or for his mate, who was desperately trying to help you cope with your emotions.
Neteyam didn’t answer right away.
He couldn’t.
Because something about this felt… wrong.
You had been avoiding him, he knew that much.
Felt it every time you turned away, every time you slipped through his reach like something he wasn’t allowed to hold onto anymore.
And now, seeing you like this - broken, shaking, unraveling right in front of him - it didn’t sit right with anything he thought he knew.
“…I don’t know,” he finally admitted, his voice quieter than usual, rough around the edges.
Both Aonung and Lo’ak shared the same look - one that sat uncomfortably between irritation and something almost pitying, their expressions tightening as they watched the scene unfold.
“Man, I told you to stop getting involved with that woman,” Lo’ak muttered under his breath, though there was nothing light about it this time.
His hand lifted, gesturing sharply toward where you sat, barely held together between Kiri and Tsireya.
“Look what you did… to the one who actually loves you.”
The words hit harder than any blow.
Neteyam’s jaw clenched, a quiet, frustrated sound leaving him as he dragged a hand down his face, but he didn’t argue.
He didn’t deny it. Because deep down, far deeper than he ever allowed himself to admit, he knew they were right.
They had always been right.
From the very beginning. And still… he chose not to see it.
Or maybe it was easier that way.
Easier to pretend, easier to push it aside, easier than facing something he didn’t know how to handle.
Because the truth was simple, and yet painfully complicated.
Neteyam didn’t understand feelings.
Not the way others did.
He had grown up learning that emotions could be dangerous, that they could cloud judgment, weaken resolve, put not only him but the people he cared about at risk.
He had seen it happen, seen how deeply things could spiral when feelings took control. He had watched it through Lo’ak, through every reckless decision driven by impulse and heart rather than reason.
And so, Neteyam learned the opposite.
He learned control.
Distance.
Neutrality.
Or at least… he thought he did.
Because none of that prepared him for you.
At first, it had been easy to explain.
You were always there, always just behind him, beside him, laughing too loud, pushing too hard, never afraid to challenge him in ways no one else dared.
You were part of his life in the most natural way possible, woven into it so tightly that he never thought to question it.
You were… his responsibility.
Something like a younger sister - someone he had to look after, to guide, to protect.
That’s what he told himself, over and over again, whenever his chest tightened a little too much when you smiled at him. Whenever his gaze lingered a second too long.
Whenever your absence felt… wrong.
He ignored it.Buried it. Because it didn’t make sense. Not when you had always been you. But time had a way of shifting things, whether he wanted it to or not.
You grew. Changed.
And somewhere along the way, without him realizing it, without him allowing himself to realize it, something inside him changed too.
It wasn’t sudden.
It was quiet. Subtle. Dangerous in the way it crept up on him slowly, until it was already there, already rooted too deep to be ignored.
The way his heartbeat picked up when you were near.
The way your voice lingered in his mind long after you were gone.
The way no one else - no one - ever seemed to hold his attention the same way you did.
And when it finally clicked…
It unsettled him. Because it wasn’t supposed to be like that.You weren’t supposed to be the one.
And yet… you were.
You - with that taunting smile that always managed to get under his skin.
You - the only one bold enough to push him, to challenge him, to make him feel something other than control.
You - with your rough edges and ocean-deep eyes, impossible to ignore, impossible to forget.
It had always been you.
And seeing you like that - drained, hollow, nothing like the girl he had known his entire life - forced something into place inside him with a sharp, almost painful clarity. It hit him all at once, heavy and undeniable.
Every broken word that left your lips, every tear that carved its way down your pale cheeks, twisted something deep in his chest until it hurt to even breathe.
He had done this.
Not intentionally, not cruelly, but that didn’t matter.
The result was the same.
He had stood there, silent, uncertain, letting others speak for him, letting assumptions grow into something ugly and untrue. He had let the wrong story be written… and you had paid the price for it.
“I… just—shut it, guys. I’ll fix it.” His voice came out low, strained, his jaw clenched so tightly it ached. “I’m the one responsible for this.”
There was no hesitation left in him now. No doubt.
Only urgency.
His steps moved almost on their own, faster with each second, cutting through the distance that suddenly felt unbearable. The closer he got, the heavier it all felt - the tension, the pain, the weight of everything he should have said long ago.
He expected resistance.
Expected you to push him away, to look at him with anger, with hurt—with anything that matched what he had done.
And you did.
But not in the way he had prepared for.
The moment his presence reached you, it was as if something inside you snapped. Your entire body reacted before your mind could catch up, tensing, recoiling, your head turning sharply toward him as if he were something to be feared rather than known.
Something feral flickered behind your eyes.
Something broken.
“Y/N…”
His voice softened instinctively, cautious, careful, as if approaching something wounded - because that’s what you looked like.
His ears pressed back against his head, his posture lowering just slightly, the way it always did when he felt… wrong. When he didn’t know how to fix what stood in front of him.
But this time, it wasn’t enough.
Just when you thought the fire inside your chest had reached its limit, when you were certain nothing could burn worse than this, it did.
Because there he was - close, too close.
Reaching for you with the same arms that had always meant safety, warmth, something dangerously close to home… and yet now they felt unbearable, heavy in a way that made your skin crawl, like something sacred that had turned into a burden you could no longer carry.
“Get away!”
The hiss tore out of you before you could stop it, raw and primal, sharp enough to freeze the air around you.
It wasn’t just anger - it was something feral, something wounded, something that had been locked away for far too long.
No one dared to interfere. Not Kiri, not Tsireya.
They saw it clearly, this was the breaking point, and it belonged to you.
Neteyam didn’t step back.
Of course he didn’t.
His ears flattened instinctively, that familiar crease forming between his brows as his tail lashed once behind him, restrained but tense, like he was holding himself together by force.
“Y/N… we have to sort this out, okay?” His voice was steady, but there was something underneath it now - something strained, something almost desperate.
One sharp glance toward the others was enough to send them away, reluctant but understanding, leaving the space between you exposed, raw, suffocating.
Just the two of you, standing in the wreckage of something that once felt unbreakable.
“What is there left to talk about, huh?”
The words spilled out harshly, your throat burning with the effort of holding everything else back.
Tears threatened again, blurring your vision, but this time you refused them, you would not let him see you break again, not like before.
Not when he was the reason.
He frowned, confusion flashing across his face, real and unfiltered, and somehow that made it worse.
“What happened to you, Y/N? To us? Why didn’t you come to me? Why couldn’t you tell me what was bothering you?”
There was no blame in his voice, no anger - just sincerity, just that same quiet care he had always carried for you.
And for a second - a single, dangerous second - it made your chest twist with something that almost felt like regret.
Almost.
A hollow laugh slipped from your lips, bitter and lifeless, nothing like the sound he remembered.
“Eywa must hate me,” you murmured, your voice trembling despite everything you did to steady it.
Every nerve in your body felt like it was burning, small tremors running through you, making it harder to even stand still.
“I’m so sick of pretending… pretending about what I feel, pretending this - this friendship is enough, pretending I’m okay watching everyone circle around you like it doesn’t tear me apart from the inside out.”
Your breath hitched, uneven, your hands curling into themselves as if you could somehow hold everything in.
“It’s the worst curse someone could have.”
Confusion shifted across his features again, but this time it wasn’t empty - it was searching, desperate, like he was finally starting to see the shape of something he had missed for far too long.
But you didn’t give him time to speak, because if you stopped now, you would fall apart completely.
“I can’t be your friend anymore.”
The words landed heavy, final, cutting through the space between you like something irreversible.
“Not because I don’t want to…” your voice cracked despite your efforts, betraying the truth you were trying so hard to control, “but because it hurts. It hurts to have the one thing my heart wants so close to me and still not be able to reach for it.”
Your hand pressed weakly against your chest, fingers trembling over your racing heart.
“Because it doesn’t belong to me.”
You laughed again, quieter this time, broken, painfully aware of how it sounded even as you said it.
“I know… I know how stupid it sounds. After all these years…” Your gaze dropped for a moment, your body swaying slightly under the weight of it all.
“And Eywa knows I tried - I tried so hard to stop it, to ignore it, to kill it before it could turn into something like this.”
Your voice faltered, breath catching as everything you had buried clawed its way out. “But it was too late.”
Slowly, you looked back at him, no anger left now, no sharpness - just something raw, something completely exposed, something that had nowhere left to hide.
“Because this stupid heart of mine…” your voice broke, barely holding together, “chose you. From the very beginning.”
He followed every word like it was something sacred, something fragile that could slip through his fingers if he didn’t hold onto it tightly enough.
His ears twitched with each sound, catching not just what you said—but what you meant, what trembled beneath your voice, what broke between your breaths. He had never listened like this before. Never needed to.
And now… now it felt like if he missed even a single piece of you, he would lose you entirely.
Because that’s what this was.
A breaking point.
You stood there, both of you, on the edge of something neither of you fully understood - he didn’t know if he was about to lose you, and you didn’t know if you were about to lose him too.
And for the first time in his life, Neteyam felt something dangerously close to fear wrap around his chest, tightening with every second you looked at him like he was already gone.
“I see you…”
His voice came quieter than before, stripped of control, stripped of that practiced calm he had always hidden behind. It wasn’t the voice of a warrior now.
It was just… him. Raw. Unguarded.
“Body and soul. More than you think… more than I ever allowed myself to admit.”
He took a step closer—not enough to crowd you, not enough to push you—but enough to close the distance that suddenly felt unbearable. His movements were careful, like he was approaching something sacred… or something that could shatter at the slightest touch.
“You think I didn’t notice?” he continued, his voice low, almost breathless now, like the words had been waiting for too long and didn’t know how to come out properly. “The way you look at me… the way you’re always there, always reaching, always giving more than anyone ever asked of you?”
His gaze softened, something aching settling deep within it.
“I noticed everything.”
A pause. A breath.
“I just didn’t understand it… not at first.”
His hand lifted slightly, hesitating mid-air before falling back to his side, like even now he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to touch you anymore.
“You were always there,” he murmured, quieter now, almost like he was speaking more to himself than to you. “Always beside me. I thought… that was all it was. That you were just…” he exhaled shakily, searching for the right words, “…mine in a way that didn’t need questioning.”
His jaw tightened slightly, regret flickering across his features.
“But then it changed.”
His eyes met yours again, steady this time, even if everything else about him wasn’t.
“And I didn’t know what to do with it.”
There was no pride in his voice now. No certainty. Just honesty—painfully clear, painfully real.
“My heart started to… react to you,” he admitted, the words slower now, like each one mattered too much to rush. “The way you smiled, the way you fought me, the way you challenged me like no one else ever could…” A faint, almost broken hint of a smile touched his lips. “You made me feel things I wasn’t taught how to handle.”
He swallowed hard, his voice dipping lower.
“And that scared me.”
The confession lingered between you, heavy and unpolished.
“So I did what I thought was right,” he continued, quieter still. “I ignored it. I buried it. I told myself it wasn’t real… because I didn’t know how to face something that could take control away from me.”
Another step closer. This time, slower. More certain.
“But it was real.”
His voice steadied, not because the emotion was gone, but because he had finally stopped running from it.
“It’s always been real.”
Now, when his hand lifted again, it didn’t hesitate as much—fingers reaching carefully, slowly, until they hovered just inches away from yours.
Close enough to feel the warmth, but not yet touching. Waiting.
“You think you’re the only one who suffered?” he asked softly, not accusing, just… asking.
“You think it didn’t hurt, watching you pull away from me? Feeling you disappear without knowing why?”
His brows drew together, pain flickering across his face.
“I thought I was losing you… and I didn’t even understand what I had done wrong.”
A breath. A pause.
“And now I do.”
His voice dropped into something deeper, something steadier—something that carried weight.
“I was too late.”
The words hurt to say. It showed.
“I let fear make choices for me… and it pushed you away.”
Finally, his fingers brushed against yours, barely there, hesitant, like he was asking without words if he was still allowed.
“But listen to me…”
His gaze locked onto yours, unwavering now, filled with something that could no longer be mistaken.
“You didn’t love alone.”
The words settled softly, but they carried more truth than anything else he had said.
“I loved you too.”
A breath caught in his chest, like even now, saying it out loud felt unreal.
“I just didn’t know how to say it… until it was almost too late.”
His hand finally closed around yours, gently but firmly, grounding himself as much as he was grounding you.
“You were never a mistake,” he whispered, his voice rough now, emotion breaking through despite everything. “Never something I overlooked. You were the only one who ever reached that far into me… the only one who made me feel like I wasn’t just what I was meant to be.”
His thumb brushed lightly against your skin, a small, trembling gesture that said more than his words ever could.
“And if you think I’m letting you walk away now…”
A faint, fragile smile broke through the tension, soft and aching. “…then you really don’t see me as well as you think you do.”
“But what about the woman you were spending all that time with, huh?” The words came out uneven, fragile despite the sharp edge you tried to give them.
Your eyes, glassy with unshed tears, searched his face like you were trying to carve the truth out of him, piece by piece.
“All those days… just the two of you, running through the forest, so close…” Your voice faltered at the end, quieter now, almost breaking under its own weight, as if even saying it out loud hurt more than you had prepared for.
For a split second, Neteyam just looked at you - really looked at you -and something softened so deeply in his expression it almost undid you.
Then, to your surprise, a quiet laugh slipped from his lips. Not mocking. Not cruel. Just… relieved, almost disbelieving, like he couldn’t quite grasp how something so simple had twisted into something that hurt you this much.
Before you could react, he closed the distance completely, his forehead pressing gently against yours, warm and grounding.
He rubbed it lightly against you, a familiar, affectionate gesture that felt so him it made your chest tighten all over again - but differently this time. Softer.
“She’s building a place for her mate,” he murmured, his voice low, calm now, like he was smoothing over every sharp edge inside you with each word. “Somewhere hidden. Somewhere safe… in case they ever need it.”
His breath brushed against your lips as he spoke, close enough that you could feel every small shift in him.
“She loves her woman,” he added, a faint smile tugging at his mouth, something almost amused flickering in his tone. “Deeply. Enough that if I had even thought about making a move…” he huffed softly, shaking his head just a little against yours, “…I would’ve been torn apart by both of them before I could even explain myself.”
One of his hands came up slowly, carefully, like he was still afraid you might pull away, his fingers brushing along your arm before settling there, steady, warm.
“I was helping her,” he continued more quietly. “Keeping it quiet so no one would question where she was going, what she was doing. That’s all it ever was.”
There was a pause then, a breath shared between you, the tension shifting, unraveling, piece by fragile piece.
“And all that time…” his voice softened further, almost a whisper now, something heavy with meaning settling into it, “…you thought I was choosing someone else.”
His forehead stayed pressed to yours, unmoving now, like he didn’t want to risk losing this closeness again.
“I was never looking at anyone else.”
You felt the heat rise instantly, spreading across your cheeks until it burned, impossible to hide.
There was no denying it - you were ashamed.
All those days spent crying, breaking, convincing yourself of something that had never even been real.
All that pain, all that misery… because you had been too afraid to ask, too afraid to face him. In that moment, you felt painfully, embarrassingly small.
“Her… woman?” you echoed weakly, lips pulling into a crooked, uncertain line as you glanced up at him, still trying to process it. “Eywa… this is just—...”
You didn’t even get to finish.
Neteyam laughed, soft at first, then fuller, warmer, like something had finally lifted from his chest.
His hands came up to cup your face, fingers spreading gently over your flushed cheeks, thumbs brushing lightly beneath your eyes where tears had once fallen.
There was no mockery in it, no cruelty, just relief, affection, and something deeply fond.
“Uh-huh,” he murmured, still smiling as he leaned closer, his voice dropping into something softer, more intimate. “You fooled yourself… all because you were too scared to come to me.”
His thumbs traced slow, absent circles against your skin, grounding, steady. “Little skxawng…” he added under his breath, the word lacking any real bite, softened completely by the warmth in his tone. “Making me wait for you like a mad, driven man…”
Your breath caught somewhere between your lungs and your throat as he leaned in closer, his nose brushing yours. Everything slowed, the sound of the waves, the distant voices, the world around you fading into something quiet and distant.
“And now…” he whispered, his voice barely there, lips just a breath away from yours, “let’s stop wasting time.”
There was no rush in the way he moved. No hesitation either.
Just certainty.
His hand shifted slightly, one thumb tilting your chin up just enough to close the last inch of distance between you, and when his lips finally met yours, it was softer than you had ever imagined.
Gentle, careful, as if he was afraid you might still disappear if he pressed too hard.
It wasn’t overwhelming.
It wasn’t rushed.
It was… right.
A quiet kind of right that settled deep in your chest, unraveling every knot that had been tied there for so long. His lips lingered against yours, warm and steady, like he was memorizing the feeling, like he had been waiting for this moment just as long as you had - only neither of you had known it.
And when he pulled back, it wasn’t far.
His forehead rested against yours once more, breath still mingling with yours, his hands never leaving your face.
“There,” he murmured softly, a faint smile in his voice. “Was that so hard?”
-----------------------------------------------------
Description: After becoming an alien in a new body, getting swept up in a brutal war, and raising children, Jake's trauma catches up to him in the form of panic attacks.
Content Warnings: Angst! Panic Attacks, PTSD, empty nester!Jake/reader, takes place 6 years after Avatar: Fire and Ash, but in an AU where the humans were driven back and the Sully's moved home.
Author's note: Based on this and this request! Both were for more Jake angst, so here's what I came up with. I hope you guys like it! Requests for Jake are open!
Thank you, Finnie, for helping me as always!! You're a real one!
“What do you want for dinner, Baby?” Jake called with a smile as he put away his equipment, walking around to tighten straps and pack cases outside of your kelku (home) as you sat nearby.
You looked up from where you were wrapping a new piece of leather around your bow’s grip, the old one wearing away and causing your aim to suffer. You hummed at the same question that had plagued you for years. “Something easy, I do not feel like slaving over the fire tonight,” you answered and Jake nodded along in agreement.
“Okay, what about dried yerik, or wraps?” he asked and you mulled it over.
“Whatever you feel like making is good with me,” you shrugged, a knowing smile on your face as Jake threw a mock-exasperated glare at you and rose to stand.
He pointed a finger in your direction, “I’ll make you dinner, as long as you know that you’re lucky I’m in love with you,” he said, but you just beamed.
“You do? Really? Who would have guessed after over 20 years of marriage and four children ,” you teased as he began his approach.
He huffed out a laugh and stalked closer. “I never should have taught you about human sarcasm,” he groaned. He gently sandwiched your jaw between his hands and pressed a firm kiss to your mouth, effectively wiping the grin off your lips. He kissed you one, two times in quick succession, before lingering on the third and final kiss. Even after all these years, he still made your head spin.
But he withdrew nearly as soon as he appeared. He pulled away and let go of you, causing you to let out a groan of protest as your hands reached out for him.
“Do not tease,” you huffed as he backed away, still facing you with a smug smile.
“You wanted me to go make dinner,” he shrugged, hitching a thumb over his shoulder towards your home.
You frowned, “I will help you make it then, just come back,” you begged and he paused, hands finding his hips as he looked down at you.
“As interesting as that offer is, I don’t think we’d get much cooking done, Angel,” he pointed out.
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, an ikran screamed nearby, enraged by another ikran nipping at its side. Its wings spread wide enough to bump into a metal crate full of heavy equipment, which fell from its ledge, crashing onto the rock below and making a hollow, sharp clanging. The sound was vaguely reminiscent of a gunshot.
The bang echoed off of the cavern of Highcamp, multiplying in volume until it reached your kelku, causing you to flinch at the jolting noise. The Ikran’s rider ran to make tsuheylu and calm the beast down, but the damage was already done.
Your eyes flew to Jake as he froze. His eyes shot around Highcamp, searching for any sign of danger as his body rigidly lowered onto a gun case to his left. His chest began to heave from the exertion of pulling in and pushing air.
“Jake,” you asked lowly, warily watching for signs that you needed to intervene. His hands started clenching into fists and you could visibly see the internal war he was waging. His legs were splayed in front of him as his hands cradled the sides of his head, panic obviously wracking his system.
You lowered your equipment immediately and hurried over to his side. “Okay, it is okay,” you murmured absentmindedly as you moved. You dropped beside him, inches away as you watched Jake shake his head and squeeze his eyes tight.
“You are safe, Jake,” you reassured him. “Equipment was just knocked over by a clumsy ikran,” you informed him. “You are safe.” You kept your hands consciously to yourself, knowing your husband hated to be smothered when he got like this. The man was usually always reaching for you, loving any skin to skin contact he could get, but in this state, he said he felt constricted enough.
Jake nodded, hands shaking as they clutched his head. His golden eyes were still rapidly darting around, wide and panicked. You gave him a few moments, knowing it needed to run its course and he needed to rationalize his thoughts.
Finally, when time seemed to stretch indefinitely on, you asked, “What do you need?” Your hands clenched into fists in an attempt not to reach for him as you had in the past. You remembered the way he had swatted you away and the subsequent guilt he still felt days after because of what he had done.
“I don’t… I don't know,” he said through his teeth, jaw tight and barely moving.
“That is okay,” you nodded. Pattering footsteps alerted you to a new arrival and your eyes flitted to where your 13 year old daughter, Tuk, was bounding over. Her smile faded when she realized her father was having, what Norm called, a panic attack.
When the first one had overtaken him, you had genuinely thought he was dying. You had cried, begging for him to snap out of it, but it took two hours for him to regain control and his composure. You had made Norm run every test he could, Jake had refused some of them. But when you received more information, you started working on solutions, learning what worked best for him. One of those things was space.
You shot up and intercepted her path before she reached her Sempul (father). “Tuktuk,” you said, “Can you do me a favor?” you asked.
Her eyes were wide as she looked up at you, obviously worried. “What is it? Is he okay?” she replied, her little hands wringing together.
“He will be fine. But can you go to the humans and get some of their ice? Oh, and an avatar mask from the lab,” you instructed, already steering her shoulders back towards the direction she came from. “Be as quick as the wind, they will help Sempul.”
“Okay,” she nodded eagerly. Her brow still sat low with worry, but she looked determined to help.
And you bit your lip in thought before adding, “And do not tell your sister if you pass her. Say you are doing chores.” You did not need your adult daughter worried over her father too.
Tuk nodded in confirmation. “Go,” you requested and she took off towards the lab.
You turned back to your husband to find him blinking hard at the rock below. Water pooled under his eyes and dripped straight down to the craggy surface. “I am here, Ma’Jake,” you said, coming back to your perch beside him, your heart twisting in pain at seeing him this way.
After Neteyam’s death and your war with the Skypeople, Jake had become different. With the first war against the humans, decades ago, he had not fully understood the bond of family. He had grieved Grace and Trudy, mourned their deaths as he did the others, but that could not compare with the misery of losing a child of his own.
When Neteyam died, it had fundamentally changed you both. Jake’s laughter lines slowly softened and your hands felt empty after only preparing 5 meals, instead of 6. There seemed to be a great, gaping hole blown right through the center of your family that you knew nothing could fill.
You had stopped wearing your veil after the mourning period, but it had taken a year for you to stop wearing the paint. You knew Lo’ak spent some time each day at the Spirit Tree visiting his brother and Kiri still coddled Tuk like she was a baby. Your family had fractured into pieces you could not easily meld back together. Even all these years later, you all still needed time to heal.
But things had changed again when your family had decided to move back home. The skypeople had been pushed back and they would not suspect you to move back to Highcamp, even as it doubled as the perfect place to keep an eye out that humans did not rally more strength. But besides the war, Kiri and Tuk longed for the forest. It had been years since they had been with their people and you still hated the sea, never growing used to the customs there or the way the salt dried your skin. So, with hesitancy, Jake decided to give in to his girls.
But while the four of you had eagerly started packing, Lo’ak had broken the news that he had decided to stay.
He was 20, fully his own man, and did not want to leave his brother or the home he had found amongst the reef. Even more so, he was mated. He would never leave Tsireya, and she would never leave the reef or her young sister. He had chosen the sea and although it had felt like a dagger in your heart to hear it, you knew he could not go.
You had understood, of course you had. You had once chosen your mate over your people, and you did not regret it, but you now understand your own mother’s fear. He would be without his family, you could no longer watch over him as you had his entire life, but you knew it was what was right.
Shortly after you had arrived back in the forest, Kiri had moved into her own kelku, saying she wanted her own space and her own schedule. You had understood her reasoning as well, but that left just you, Jake and Tuk. The peace and quiet was sometimes nice, but the space also felt yawning and wide open. There was less laughter, less people around the fire, your hammocks barely took up any room and you never bumped into them in the middle of the night anymore.
And so you and Jake had started mourning for new reasons. Your children living out of the home had felt like another loss. You were no longer young, your children no longer depended on you, and you began to question who you were, if not parents. You no longer held your old titles, there was no war to be fought, no clan for you to lead. You were just… people. And you both realized you did not like that conclusion.
You had started weaving, joining the other women to gossip and craft, but Jake had turned back to what he knew, training. He practiced aim, built up muscle and endurance, even started hunting on new grounds just for the added challenge. You had no idea what he was preparing for, and you had a feeling that he did not either.
Then, a few months ago, Jake had started having episodes where he would dissolve into shaking fits and even struggle to breathe. You had demanded answers from Norm and Max, but their diagnosis made little sense to you.
They had named them Panic Attacks caused by something called PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Jake had assured you it was fine, even common on the planet he came from, but you did not feel that anything about this was common. They had explained that when someone, soldiers especially, undergoes extreme and overwhelming loss or stress, they can develop this disorder.
Jake had seemed ashamed of it, not wanting to talk about what that meant for him or your family. He simply said it was fine and would go away, something both you and the scientists had disagreed on. But, it did not matter what you said or did, he did not want to talk about it, so you had decided to let it go for a while.
But that was months ago, and he only seemed to be getting worse instead of better.
“Jake,” you called, slowly placing a hand on his knee as a comfort, wincing when he flinched. You kept your hand on his skin as he relaxed just enough not to jump at your touch. You could feel the shaking of his knee, as if there was an undercurrent of energy buzzing through him.
“Sa’nok (mother),” Tuk said, running toward you both with a mask outstretched.
“Thank you, my girl,” you replied. You took it from her, lowering into a crouch in front of Jake and you saw how blown wide his pupils were.
“Here is air to breathe,” you warned, slowly moving the mask to his face and you were grateful that instead of fighting you, he grabbed at the clear plastic and held it tight, sucking in lungfuls of air so he could get a concentrated amount of oxygen. You slipped the elastic over his head to keep the mask in place as you went for your next secret weapon.
You reached towards Tuk for the ice and she dropped three square cubes in your hand, slightly melted from her trip here. Max had suggested trying anything that would gently shock Jake’s system and ground him. You had tried touch, making him drink water, even singing songs, but nothing helped, not until Norm had jokingly suggested an ice bath.
“I am giving you ice, Ma Jake,” you informed him before you slipped the frozen water into his hands and he closed his fist over them, squeezing tightly.
“Thanks, Baby,” he murmured, eyes pressed closed. You relaxed at the familiar nickname and the way his shoulders were slowly lowering.
“Sa’nu (mom), is he going to be alright?” Tuk asked from behind you, uneasily gnawing on one of her fingernails as she watched her dad’s breathing even out.
You did your best attempt at a smile, “Yes, Ma’ite (my daughter), he will be okay.” You reached out for her and pulled her to your side, arms around her shoulders in a tight embrace as she hugged your waist.
“I’m fine, Peanut. Don’t worry about your old man, okay?” Jake said, lifting his head to look at Tuk through half open lids and a lowered brow. His voice was hoarse and raspy, but he was stringing sentences together and that was enough to placate the teenager.
The use of Jake's nickname for her seemed to calm her nerves a little. “Okay,” she nodded.
“Why don’t you go find your friends?” you suggested, running a hand over her back.
Her eyes shifted between her parents, looking uneasy about leaving. “Or I could stay here in case you need me,” she offered, but as a mother, you saw right through her anxiety.
You smiled at her. “That’s very kind, but I think we have it now. You already helped us a lot. Thank you.”
“Okay,” she nodded hesitantly, “You are welcome,” she added before backing away. “Feel better, Sempu,” she called as she walked away.
“Thank you, Babygirl,” he called back, pulling the mask away from his face and setting it down on the crate beside him. His head found its way back to his hands, staring down at the rock in shame and guilt.
You pursed your lips as your daughter left your line of vision. “Do you want me to leave too?” you asked lowly after a moment.
“No,” he said immediately, but did not look up at you. You let the silence sit, giving him time to recover and regroup.
“What do you want me to do?” he finally asked, breaking the relative quiet of the evening.
You stiffened at the loaded question. “What do you mean?” you replied, shifting on your feet as he finally lifted his head.
“You want to say something, I can feel it. I’m tired of doing this, I can’t protect you and the girls if I’m freakin’ out over everything that makes noise. You know me better than anyone, and you see what I can’t right now. What’s your advice?” he asked. He still gripped onto the ice and water dripped onto the floor.
You blinked, unsure what to say. Your husband was often too proud to ask for help. He was a leader, a strategist, and an overthinker. He planned each step well before he took it, but he did not ask for help, not even from you. You knew it was not because he did not think you were capable, but more so because he was terribly stubborn.
You sighed, sitting down beside him on the crate, pushing the mask out of the way to make room. “I think you need to talk to someone, anyone. Mo’at, Akwey, Norm, somebody. You cannot keep everything bottled up,” you admitted.
He nodded, brows pinching together. “I’ll think about it,” he relented and you let out a breath.
“That is all I ask,” you said, laying a hand tentatively on his shoulder. He dropped the ice, flicking off the water from his 4 fingered hands and clasping his opposite hand over yours. It was cold and sent a shiver down your spine, but you found that you did not care. “We love you, Jake. We do not want you to suffer,” you added.
“I’m not suffering," he insisted, “I just… this is hard.”
“This is hard,” you agreed, “This is unknown territory, and it feels… empty,” you said, finding the right words. “But we still have each other. You still have this family, Ma Jake, even if it feels different. You are not alone.”
“I know, Angel.” He nodded, taking your hand in his and tugging you to his side, wrapping an arm around your back and holding you close. Even though his hands still trembled slightly, his fingers almost bruised your arm with how tightly he held you.
“I had so much to fight for, but now the children are grown. They don’t need us anymore. Lo’ak is so far away after everything that went wrong between us. Kiri and Tuk are independent, they do their own thing. I don’t like feeling like I’m just… here. I want to be needed," he explained.
“I need you,” you exclaimed, gripping onto him where your arms circled his middle. “You are my everything. I thank the Great Mother every day for giving me you all those years ago. I need you and the kids still need their daddy. I do not care how old they are or where they may be. A child will always need their parents.”
“You think so?” he said against your hair.
“I know so. We both lost our fathers so young, but think of how much we needed their guidance when we were Kiri and Lo’ak’s age and could not turn to them for advice. They do need you, Ma Jake,” you promised.
“Thank you, Angel,” Jake said, pressing a kiss to your head, and you closed your eyes at the sweet contact.
“Always,” you whispered, “Please do not close yourself off to me. I am here.”
He nodded, fingers relaxing against your skin. “I’m gonna do my best. Just have some patience with me.”
“I would not have stayed with you all of these years if I did not have an abundance of patience,” you teased, and the chuckle he let out eased your soul to hear. “Take your time, I will wait right here beside you.”
“I love you,” he said, and you did not have to look over to tell he was grinning. A turn always found its way to his lips when he said that.
note i’m just obsessed with a parallel universe where neteyam reached adulthood and had a family of his own :')
warnings: the cutest toddler on pandora, lil smut in the end (p in v)
wc: 2.4k-ish
Sunlight filters through the thick canopy of the Hometree, dappling the woven fibers as your fingers, nimble and accustomed, guided the threads, creating a vibrant pattern that would soon become a new sleeping mat. A soft gurgle, followed by a delighted squeal, pulled your gaze from your work.
Your son, a miniature Neteyam in every conceivable way, sat cross-legged on a soft hide beside you. His tail, a thick, plush extension of his small frame, twitched with an independent life of its own. He clutched a crudely carved ikran, its wooden wings spread as if in flight.
“Fly, fly, little ikran!” you watched him whisper, his voice a sweet, high-pitched melody. He bounced the carving gently on the hide, a soft thud accompanying each landing. “Go to the big tree! Find the yummy fruit!”
You smiled, a warmth blossoming in your chest. His imagination, even at such a tender age, was boundless.
“Is your ikran on an adventure, little warrior?”
He looked up, his bright, golden eyes, so like his father’s, sparkling with mischief. He pointed a chubby finger at the carved creature.
“He is brave, Mama! He fights the big, big skunk-worm!”
You laughed, a genuine, heartfelt sound. “A skunk-worm? Oh, no! Is he winning?”
He nodded vigorously. “He uses his sharp claws!” He mimicked the shing sound that Neteyam often makes when telling stories about how sharp a palulukan’s claws are with his mouth, making exaggerated clawing motions with his free hand.
“My brave boy,” you murmured, reaching out to gently smooth the soft skin of his arm. “You make the best stories.”
He preened under your praise, a wide grin spreading across his face. He returned to his play, the ikran now swooping and diving through an invisible sky, its wooden companion, a small direhorse, galloping beneath it.
Hours later, the sun dipped lower, casting long, shifting shadows across the forest floor. You had moved from your loom to the Tsahik’s tent, the familiar scent of drying herbs and ancient wisdom filling the air. Your son, ever your shadow, remained close, now nestled against your hip as you sorted bundles of luminous moss.
“This one, for the stinging nettle rash,” the Tsahik’s voice, calm and steady, instructed. “And this, for the fever tree berries.”
You nodded, carefully separating the herbs. Your son, meanwhile, had found a discarded seed pod, its intricate patterns fascinating him. He turned it over and over in his small hands, murmuring to it as if it held profound secrets.
Suddenly though, his tail, which had been idly swishing, stiffened. A tiny tremor ran through his body. His head, previously bowed over the seed pod, snapped up. His ears swiveled, straining to catch a sound only he could hear.
“Papa!” your son shrieked, his voice piercing the quiet of the tent. He launched himself from your side, a blur of blue and boundless energy, scrambling towards the entrance.
The hide flap parted, and Neteyam’s towering form filled the opening. He was a vision of strength and grace, his warrior’s braid swinging gently as he bent to enter. His eyes, tired from patrol, softened the moment they landed on you and then his son.
“My little hunter!” Neteyam’s deep voice rumbled, a sound that always sent a shiver of warmth through you. He scooped the boy into his arms, effortlessly lifting him high above his head.
Your son squealed, his small hands gripping Neteyam’s thick braids, tugging playfully. Neteyam laughed, a rich, open sound that always made your heart sing.
“Did you protect Mama today?” Neteyam asked, lowering him to rest on his shoulder.
“I fought the skunk-worm!” your son declared proudly, puffing out his chest.
Neteyam’s eyes met yours over his son’s head, a silent message passing between you. A shared understanding, a deep, abiding love for this small creature who had so completely captured your hearts.
“A fearsome warrior, indeed,” Neteyam murmured, nuzzling his son’s cheek. “And what did Mama teach you today?”
“Herbs!” your son chirped, pointing a finger at the pile of moss you had been sorting. “For sick people!”
Neteyam smiled, a gentle, tender expression. He brought his son over to you, settling him back on the hide beside you. He then knelt, his gaze sweeping over the herbs, a silent acknowledgment of your continued learning.
“You are well, my love?” Neteyam’s voice was low, for your ears alone. His hand found yours, his thumb brushing over your knuckles, a familiar comfort.
You leaned into his touch. “Always, with you here.”
As dusk deepened into night, the sounds of the forest grew louder, a symphony of chirps, rustles, and distant roars. Inside your family’s pod, the bioluminescent plants cast a soft, ethereal glow. Your son, exhausted from his day of adventures, lay curled in his small hammock, his tail twitching occasionally in his sleep.
You watched him, a profound sense of peace settling over you. He was a perfect blend of you and Neteyam, his golden eyes and proud nose Neteyam’s, his delicate fingers and the curve of his smile, yours. He was a living testament to your love.
Neteyam sat beside you, his arm a warm weight around your shoulders. He watched his son with an intensity that never failed to move you.
“He grows so fast,” Neteyam whispered, his voice thick with emotion.
“Too fast,” you agreed, leaning your head against his shoulder. “Soon he’ll be off hunting with you.”
Neteyam chuckled, a soft rumble against your ear. “He has much to learn yet. But he will be a great hunter. A great warrior.”
You hummed, content. The silence stretched, comfortable and familiar, punctuated only by the gentle sway of the hammock and the soft sounds of the night.
Later, much later, your son was deeply asleep, his breathing soft and even. You and Neteyam lay entwined on your own sleeping mat, the soft hides yielding beneath you. The faint glow of the bioluminescent plants painted his strong features in shades of blue and violet. His eyes, usually so sharp and alert, were heavy lidded, filled with a deep, languid desire that mirrored your own.
His fingers, calloused from his bowstring, traced the curve of your hip, sending shivers across your skin. A low groan, raw and guttural, vibrated in his chest as he pulled you closer, your bodies molding together. Your breath hitched as his lips found the sensitive skin behind your ear, his tongue tracing a hot, wet path down your neck.
“My love,” he murmured, his voice a husky whisper that ignited a fire deep within you. “You are more beautiful than the stars.”
You arched into his touch, your own hands finding the thick braids at his shoulders, your fingers tangling in the dark strands. His mouth descended, capturing yours in a deep, hungry kiss. His tongue, slick and powerful, plunged into your cavern, exploring every curve, every crevice.
You met him with equal fervor, your own tongue dancing with his, a primal, intimate exchange. He tasted of the forest, of desire, of everything you craved. His hips pressed against yours, the hard ridge of his cock, still sheathed, a tantalizing promise against your wetness. A soft moan escaped your lips, swallowed by his kiss.
He broke the kiss, his eyes, dark with passion, searching yours. His hand slid lower, over your stomach, down between your legs, his fingers finding the soft, moist folds of your labia. A gasp tore from your throat as his thumb brushed over your clitoris, a spark igniting a wildfire.
“So wet for me,” he breathed, his voice ragged with need. He moved his thumb in a slow, deliberate circle, each stroke sending a wave of pleasure through you. Your hips instinctively bucked against his hand, seeking more.
His fingers parted your lips, finding the entrance to your pussy. He slid one finger inside, then another, stretching you, preparing you. You whimpered, a low, animal sound, as the delicious pressure built. The shlicking sound of his fingers entering and withdrawing, slick with your wetness, was a symphony to your ears.
He watched your face, his gaze unwavering, devouring your reactions. He leaned down, his mouth finding your nipple, drawing it into his mouth with a soft suckle. His teeth grazed the sensitive peak, sending a jolt of pure ecstasy through your core. You arched your back, your breath coming in short, sharp gasps.
“More,” you pleaded, your voice barely a whisper. “Please, Neteyam, more.”
He responded by pulling back slightly, his eyes still locked on yours. With a slow, deliberate motion, he reached down and unsheathed his cock. It sprang free, thick and engorged, glistening with pre-cum. It was twitching, a testament to his desire. You gazed at it, your breath catching in your throat.
He positioned himself between your legs, his cock pressing against your opening, slick with your wetness. He hesitated, drawing out the exquisite torture, his eyes burning into yours.
“Look at me,” he commanded, his voice a low growl. “Look at me as I take you.”
You nodded, your eyes wide, mesmerized by his raw power. He pushed, slowly, deliberately, his cock inching into your pussy. A sharp intake of breath escaped your lips as the head stretched you, pushing deeper, deeper. The sensation was intense, a glorious fullness that consumed you. You wrapped your legs around his waist, pulling him closer, urging him on.
He groaned, a deep, guttural sound, as he finally sank fully inside you. Your pussy gripped him, tight and hot, a perfect sheath for his thick cock. The air left your lungs in a whoosh as you felt him deep within you, filling you completely. The squelching sound of your bodies joining was loud in the quiet pod.
He began to move, a slow, powerful thrust, withdrawing almost completely before plunging back in. Each stroke was a delicious agony, sending waves of pleasure radiating through your entire body. Your hips met his, a rhythmic dance, a primal mating ritual. His balls slapped against your ass with each thrust, a rhythmic thud that added to the intoxicating rhythm.
You cried out, a strangled moan of pure pleasure, as he found your G-spot, hitting it with each powerful thrust. Your clitoris, already swollen and sensitive, throbbed with every movement. You clung to him, your nails digging into his shoulders, your body convulsing around his cock.
“Neteyam,” you gasped, your voice thick with desire, “Oh, Neteyam.”
He thrust harder, faster, his breathing ragged, his face contorted in a mask of primal pleasure. You could feel the pressure building, the glorious, unbearable tension coiling tighter and tighter within you.
Just as you felt the first tremors of your orgasm begin to ripple through you, a small, sleepy whimper drifted from the hammock.
Neteyam froze, mid-thrust, his body rigid above yours. His eyes, still clouded with passion, flickered towards the sound.
“Papa?” a tiny voice whimpered again.
Neteyam groaned, a sound of pure frustration, his head falling back against your shoulder. His cock, still buried deep inside you, twitched.
You, however, were still riding the edge of your own climax. The sudden interruption, while frustrating, had only intensified the sensation. You tightened your muscles around his cock, milking another groan from him.
“Just a moment, little warrior,” Neteyam muttered, his voice strained. He pulled out, slowly, reluctantly, the wet, shlicking sound of his cock leaving your pussy echoing in the silence. He quickly re-sheathed himself, his breathing still heavy.
He rose from you, his movements stiff, and went to the hammock. Your son, rubbing sleep from his eyes, reached out for him. Neteyam scooped him up, cradling him against his chest.
“Did you have a bad dream, little hunter?” Neteyam murmured, his voice now soft, soothing.
Your son shook his head, burying his face in Neteyam’s shoulder. “I heard… noises.”
Neteyam’s eyes met yours over his son’s head, a sheepish grin playing on his lips. You couldn’t help but smile, a soft, knowing smile. Your body still throbbed, aching for release, but the sight of Neteyam comforting your son, his warrior’s hands so gentle, filled you with a different kind of warmth.
He rocked your son gently, humming a low, wordless tune. Slowly, your son’s breathing evened out, and he drifted back to sleep. Neteyam carefully placed him back in the hammock, adjusting the blanket around him.
He returned to you, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. He lowered himself onto the mat beside you, pulling you into his arms.
“Eywa, the size of his ears proves to be very efficient,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “He always knows when I’m coming home.”
You chuckled as you nestled into his eyes, touching one of his ears. “He got your ears, my love,” you whispered, feeling the warmth of his skin against yours. “He got everything from you.”
Neteyam snatched your hand and kissed the palm of it. “I’m never living down the bunny teasing,” he said as laughter rumbled deep in his chest. “And it seems I passed it down to our boy.”
You grinned before silently laughing into his chest, remembering the time Lo’ak and Spider brought out Norm’s laptop to show everyone a Terran animal that they swear looked like Neteyam. It didn’t look like him, of course, but you also see why they think so. It’s the huge ears that sometimes propped so straight and his two front teeth.
Neteyam hugged you to him, kissing your forehead. You still felt a delicious ache between your legs, a lingering throb of unfulfilled desire. But the night was long, and your son, for now, was asleep.
“He loves you so much,” you murmured, tracing the strong line of his jaw.
“And I him,” Neteyam replied, his voice thick with devotion. He pulled the soft hides over you both, enveloping you in warmth and darkness. “And you, my love. I love you.”
You closed your eyes, a content sigh escaping your lips. The night was still young, and there would be other moments, other nights. For now, the warmth of Neteyam’s embrace, the soft breathing of your son, and the quiet rhythm of the forest were enough. You drifted to sleep, a smile playing on your lips, dreaming of a life filled with love, laughter, and the occasional, delightful interruption.
notes fake dating (this trope was requested <33), he falls first AND harder, yearning neteyam, reader is the sweetest girl in the world, smut (p in v), oral (f&m receiving)
synopsis neteyam offered a proposition to the most quiet girl in the clan: pretend to be his intended to make another girl jealous... but a short time into it and the lines had blurred for him. not for you, though! you’re serious about the mission, much to his frustration.
word count 14.4k
₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧ ₊˚
“The moons are ripening,” Elder Peyka remarked. “The courting season will be upon us before the next great hunt. The young warriors are already preening like forest ikrans... Oh, how nice to see.”
“And the girls are no better,” another elder chuckled, tightening a string of seed beads. She turned her clouded but sharp eyes toward you. You were sitting a few paces away, your fingers flying across a loom. “Child. Look at me.”
You paused, your heart giving a small, nervous flutter as you looked up. “Yes, elder?”
“You are of age now, are you not?”
“I am,” you replied softly, your voice barely rising above the rustle of the loom.
Peyka sighed, shaking her head. “If only you would go out there and be seen, child! You have the grace of the willow, but you hide like a yerik. You are too shy for your own good. If you do not lift your head, the season will pass you by and you might actually become a spinster, weaving alone while the rest of the clan sings of mates!”
A chorus of gentle, teasing laughter erupted from the circle. You felt the heat rise in your cheeks, and you quickly ducked your head back down, focusing intensely on a loose thread. You let out a small, embarrassed chuckle of your own, a soft sound that barely escaped your lips.
You are painfully aware of that but you don’t know where to start. You have friends, yes, but they are not friends you hang out with outside of the weaving looms. You are almost always alone, and while other girls had found their places among the hunters, practicing their war cries or vying for the attention of the said men, you found yourself hidden in the looms to enjoy the repetitive routine of weaving.
It’s not like you were the best weaver, too. You are not the best, not the worst either, just a girl whose hands were often stained with berry dyes and whose eyes were usually cast downward. It was safer that way. When you didn't look up, you didn't have to see the way the world seemed to orbit around people who weren't you.
A few feet away, leaning against a sturdy root, Neteyam sat silently. An elder weaver was currently binding a new leather guard to his forearm, and while he appeared to be focused on it, his ears were swiveled toward the elders' conversation.
He watched you.
Neteyam knew everyone in the clan. It was his duty as the future Olo'eyktan, but as he looked at you now, he realized he has never even heard you speak. He knew your name, he knew your family, but he couldn't recall the sound of your voice until that very moment. Your shy, quiet laughter brought a warm feeling to his chest for some reason, making him take a deep breath.
His mind drifted to Ka’ani. She was the finest huntress among their peers, just like him. And he’s always thought of a partnership much like the one his parents have. His father is a great warrior and so is his mother. To be a great leader is to stand beside a fearsome woman as well... And he thinks it’s Ka’ani.
But right now, she was becoming a challenge. She’s making him look like a fool, flitting from warrior to warrior to test his patience. She wanted him to chase her until he was exhausted, and Neteyam, the proud, capable, and unaccustomed to losing firstborn of the clan’s pillars, was reaching his breaking point. He was never fond of playing, but some games need strategy, too.
Neteyam’s gaze lingered on you. You were still working, your movements steady and humble, completely unaware of the weight of his stare. A slow, calculated thought began to take root in his mind.
“Finished, Neteyam,” the weaver said, patting his arm.
“Thank you,” Neteyam murmured. He stood up, taller and broader than most men.
Instead of heading back to where the warriors were gathering, he turned his steps toward the shadows. He walked with deliberate strides stopping right in front of your loom until his shadow blocked your light. “You’re doing that wrong.”
The voice startled you so badly that the bone needle slipped. “I—what?” you stammered, finally looking up.
Neteyam was standing over you. In the flickering firelight, his bioluminescent freckles were glowing like stars. “The weave,” he said, gesturing vaguely at the basket in your lap. “It’s too tight. It will snap when it dries.”
“The ones I did last moon were fine,” you murmured. You tried to look back down, to disappear into your work as you always did. “Is there something you need?”
Instead of answering, he sat. The movement was fluid, but there was a heaviness to it, sitting so close to you that his knee brushed against yours.
“I have a proposition for you, Y/N,” he said. His voice was low, dropping into a register that felt dangerously intimate. He knows your name?
You blinked, your insecurity rising up like a shield. “A proposition? Do you need help with the weaving?”
“No, no, I don’t,” he answered. “The elders speak the truth, you know,” he said, his voice a smooth baritone. “It would be a shame for you to be hidden in the dark.”
You finally looked up, your eyes wide. Neteyam wasn't looking at the fire, he was looking directly at you, and for the first time in your life, the Golden Son was smiling as if you were the only person in the clearing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you breathed, your voice trembling.
He leaned in just an inch closer, his amber eyes sparking with a hidden intent. “Hear my proposition... It might just solve both our problems with the coming season.”
You swallowed hard, the dryness in your throat making it difficult to breathe. You were a weaver of threads, but sitting before you was practically the weaver of destinies in this clan. You know he could alter your life and he was looking at you with a terrifying amount of focus.
“Our... problems?“ you whispered, your fingers curling tightly around the bone needle. “I don’t have problems. And I don’t think someone like you have problems, Neteyam.”
He let out a short, huffed breath that might have been a laugh if his eyes weren't so sharp. “Everyone has a role to play. Sometimes, that role becomes... suffocating. My mother is already looking at the daughters of the council. She expects a match that strengthens the line. I’m thinking of Ka’ani. She’s the finest huntress my age.”
At the mention of her name, his jaw tightened. You remembered the last time you saw the girl. She was draped over the arm of a young warrior, her laughter loud and pointed, as if it was a performance, designed to reach the ears of a certain warrior. You remembered Neteyam standing in the training grounds then and everything clicked in your head.
“She wants a chase,” Neteyam continued, silencing your thoughts. “But I do not have the time for nonsensical games. And you... The elders say you are a shadow. That you will be left behind.”
“I am fine being a shadow,” you countered, though your voice lacked conviction. “It’s not complicated. I will have what comes and accept what doesn’t.”
“Shadows are lonely,” he said softly. “Be my partner. Not just for the ceremonies, but the communal meals as well. I will be with you. Let the clan see us, let them see you.”
Your heart gave a violent thud. You weren't a fool. You knew what this was. You were the girl no one would suspect he will actually notice, which made you the perfect weapon to make Ka’ani lose her mind with jealousy.
“You want me to be a decoy,” you said. “You want her to see you with me so she’ll get jealous. You want her to stop playing around.”
Neteyam didn't flinch at your bluntness. Instead, he reached out, his large hand covering yours where it rested on the loom. His skin was warm, his touch steady. “Correct. And in return, you will no longer be the girl the elders pity. You will be the woman everyone sees. When the season ends and the act is over, every hunter in this clan will finally know your name. You won't be a spinster, Y/N. I’ll make sure of that. You’ll have your pick of any man here.”
It was a cold, calculated trade. He will get the girl and you get a reputation and a way out of the shadows. He looked so sincere. You knew you should say no, you wouldn’t know how to act around him. But the thought of being someone for once, of walking through the village and not having people look through you, was a siren song you couldn't resist.
“What if I'm not a good actress?” you asked, your voice a mere breath.
Neteyam’s smile widened, but it didn't reach his eyes. It was the smile of a strategist who had just moved his final piece into place.
“Just sit by my side. I’ll do the rest.” he murmured, his thumb grazing your knuckles.
You took a shaky breath and nodded. “Okay. I'll do it.”
Neteyam squeezed your hand once, a seal of the contract, before standing up. He offered his hand to help you up, and when you took it, the world felt like it shifted on its axis. You were stepping out of the dark, and into a fire that you knew, eventually, would burn you to ash.
Neteyam is a meticulous director and it was very hard for you as an easily embarrassed person. Being seen isn’t even enough for him, the act had to be over the top! He wanted it to be undeniable.
“Chin up,” he whispered one afternoon. You were walking to the central clearing for the communal meal, his hand hovering over your waist. “You look like you’re walking to a funeral. Look at me. Smile.”
“It’s hard to smile when I feel like a piece of bait,” you murmured, keeping your eyes down, feeling at least a hundred eyes on you.
Neteyam let out a sharp breath. He stopped walking, maneuvering you to turn and face him. To anyone watching from a distance, it looked like a tender, private moment between lovers. Up close, his eyes were scanning the crowd, pinpointing exactly where Ka’ani was sitting with her friends.
“You agreed to this,” he reminded you, his voice low and firm. He reached out, his fingers tilting your chin upward. His touch was warm, but it lacked the softness you’d imagined his touch would have. It was the grip of a hunter holding a prized bow. “If you don't look happy, she’ll know it’s a ruse. Do you want the elders to go back to pitying you by tomorrow sun-up?”
The reminder of your own invisibility stung. You forced your lips to curve, a small, shaky smile that felt brittle. “Is this better?”
He studied your face for a beat too long, his thumb grazing your jawline. For a split second, his focus shifted from the crowd to the way your eyes searched his, but he shook it off quickly. “Better. Keep it there, hm?“
He led you toward the long tables. This was the stage. He made a show of picking out the best cuts of roasted meat for you, leaning in so close that his braids brushed against your shoulder. He was performative, ensuring the warriors nearby heard him.
“And since you’re starting a new tapestry,” he said, loud enough for Ka'ani to hear from across your table. He draped an arm over the back of your seating mat, effectively fencing you in. “I’d fly to the borders to get you fibers for it.”
You pursed your lips, lowering your head down to chuckle. “Your voice is too loud, Neteyam...“ you mumbled. “I’ll end up with busted ear drums by the time this is over.“
His own head lowered and angled toward you to catch what you’re saying, but it threw back as he let out a bark of genuine and deep laughter. You startled, your hand flying to his chest unconsciously, your head swiveling to the crowd of people who are now looking at you. You caught a glimpse of Ka’ani’s sharp eyes narrowing to slits.
The mission is working. You know it is working, you’ve seen Ka’ani’s candid reactions in the past days and it was almost comical. You don’t understand how she can let other men touch her when it was Neteyam she truly wants. It’s confusing, especially because you can see how she jealous she looks.
“You can relax, Neteyam,” you whispered, leaning toward him. “She’s gone. She stomped away five minutes ago.”
Neteyam’s posture didn't soften. He didn't pull his arm back. He took a slow sip of water, his expression unreadable. “The act doesn't stop just because the primary audience leaves, Y/N. There are other eyes. Word must travel. That is how a reputation is built.” He looked at you then, and for a moment, the strategic coldness was all there was. “Eat your food. We have a walk through the groves. People need to see us.”
The following days, and weeks, was a blur of choreographed intimacy. Neteyam was serious with his acts, he was everywhere you were. If you were gathering fibers, he was there, scouting the perimeter but always staying within your line of sight. During communal meals, he always ate with you, listening to you ramble and chuckling at everything you say.
Now that he has brought you out to light, more and more men were trying to talk to you, asking you random stuff they wouldn't even bother asking before. For them, you were almost unreachable in the past. You are too shy, too aloof, to be in the selection of girls they dare to play with.
But as the days pressed on, the meticulous director started losing his grip on the script.
The script had been clear: Neteyam would bring you into the light, and the hunters of the clan would finally notice you. It was exactly what he had promised. But as he stood on a ridge overlooking the path back to Hometree, watching you walk beside a hunter who was carrying your bundle of fibers under his arm, the air in his lungs seemed to turn to ice.
The hunter was Ki’ong, a young man known for his easy smiles and a way of speaking that reminded him of the way you speak. If he saw this moons ago, the match would have made so much sense. The gentle hunter matches your gentleness. But today, he felt only bitterness. You were laughing, the sound he wanted to bottle and bring with him on patrol to help him calm down.
Now, Ki’ong is easily basking in it, his tail twitching with a rhythmic interest that Neteyam recognized all too well for he was a man, too. His hand tightened around the grip of the bow until the wood groaned. His jaw locked. This was the trade, wasn't it? He had told you that by the time the season ended, you would have your pick of any man in the clan. So why did he feel like he wanted to shoot an arrow through the dirt at Ki’ong’s feet as a warning?
His feet moved, and by the time you reached the shadow of the massive fern near the entrance, Neteyam was already there, blocking the path, calling your name in a sharp and dangerous tone that made Ki’ong stop in his tracks.
“Neteyam!“ you said, surprised. “I thought you weren’t back from the scout yet.”
Neteyam ignored you, his amber eyes fixed entirely on the other hunter. He stepped forward, entering your personal space with a possessiveness that felt far too real to be an act. You looked around. There was no crowd and no Ka’ani at all, and this confuses you. What more, Neteyam wasn’t even looking around for the audience. He was looking only at Ki’ong’s hand, which was hovering just a bit too close to your elbow.
Ki'ong blinked, his easy smile faltering under the sheer weight of Neteyam's stare. “I saw her in the forest, Neteyam, uh... What she was carrying was heavy—”
“Thank you for that, but I’ll take it from here,” Neteyam cut him off, his voice dropping into a warning growl. He reached out, not gently, and pulled your fiber basket from the hunter.
“I'll... see you later then... Y/N,” Ki’ong said before walking away.
Neteyam’s head snapped back to Ki’ong’s retreating form, his entire body coiled like a viperwolf ready to strike at the mere mention of a later. You watched him, your confusion slowly melting into a mischievous realization. You looked around one more time, and there’s still nothing but a stray woodsprite. No Ka’ani. No prying hunters. Just a very, very grumpy warrior holding a basket of fibers as if it were a thermal detonator.
A bubble of laughter escaped you, and you poked his rigid bicep.
“Wow,” you giggled, leaning in close to peer up at his stormy face. “Neteyam, that was... incredible. The growl? The death stare? You’re getting really good at this. If I didn't know better, I’d think you were actually trying to pick a fight over my honor.”
Neteyam didn't relax. His jaw remained a hard line. “He was overstepping. He was touching you.”
“He was just helping me,” you countered, your eyes dancing with amusement. You started walking, motioning for him to follow with your basket. “But honestly, I’m impressed. You’re such a perfectionist. Even with no audience, you’re still acting the territorial suitor.”
He fell into step behind you, his tail still lashing even though he’s not speaking.
“Oh, come on,” you teased, walking backward for a few steps so you could admire his scowl. “Let’s just hope Ki’ong tells everyone about your reaction. If word gets back to Ka’ani that the great Neteyam almost bared his teeth at a hunter just for carrying my basket... well, our mission is as good as won. It’s going to make it sound so real!” You turned back around, a satisfied hum leaving your throat. “But I don’t think Ki’ong is the type to talk about stuff like that. He seemed too nice to gossip.”
“How would you know? You don’t know him,” Neteyam cut you off, his voice sharp.
You laughed again, the sound light and airy. “Maybe I just know. I can sense if people have good hearts,” you said, reaching back to give his chest a playful, comforting pat. “Come on,” you smiled, oblivious to the way his hand tightened on the basket handle until his knuckles turned pale. “Let’s bring that to the looms. You can put all that 'warrior energy' into helping me sort the threads.”
You turned on your heels and skipped ahead, feeling lighter than you had in days. Behind you, Neteyam stood for a beat longer, his eyes locked on the sway of your braids.
₊˚ ✧ ━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━ ✧ ₊˚
You two were swimming in the river, not alone anyway, because it’s just one of your many stages. His fellow hunters and warriors were swimming in the river several paces away from the two of you, but he has since swam to a secluded bend away from their prying eyes. You don’t always swim in the river. Mostly because you don’t want to swim alone, so now, you’re enjoying everything, even the reflection of the shimmering canopy above. You kept diving for as long as you could, the act momentarily paused because he had stirred you two away from the audience. You shrieked when you felt something tiny dart on your ankle. You dove your head, swimming after the tiny fish, your hand shotting forward to catch it and you bubbled a laugh underwater when you actually caught it.
You swam to the surface, holding up the fish as you laughed, the sound of your mirth echoing off the rock walls like bells. Neteyam stared at you from where he is, leaning against a mossy boulder, his chest heaving slightly, though he had been idle the entire time. You waded toward him, bringing him the fish, but he looked so serious that your lips pushed forward instead. Neteyam gritted his teeth at the sight of your smile fading.
“You looked like the sky had fallen on you. What is it?” you asked, putting the fish back in the water and watching it dart away from you with a small smile.
“Our scout yesterday everning” he said suddenly, his voice low.
You nodded. He was late to the dinner last night... You figured there was something wrong, but you heard no news about it.
“There was a near skirmish with a violent clan. They were one of those clans whose lands were spoiled by the sky people's actions. Apparently, they’ve been looking for a place to settle in, but they are also harming non-combatant clans.”
You stopped splashing, the water settling around you. You hadn't heard about this. The elders usually kept such news quiet to avoid panic, but to know this now, and to see how burdened Neteyam was by it, you couldn't help but be bothered.
“The council expects me to be like him,” he said, staring at his reflection in the water. He didn't specify who him was and he didn’t have to. You know who he was talking about. As the firstborn of Toruk Makto, Neteyam has always lived in the shadow of a legend. “Every battle, every hunt, every word I speak... it's measured against a standard I will never reach.”
You stopped creating ripples in the waters, looking up at him. “You don’t need to be your father, Neteyam,” you said softly. “Have they considered a dialogue between the people of that clan? Perhaps... The chieftains of our neighboring clans could convene in a large council and speak with their representatives. I don’t think it needs to lead to people getting hurt when speaking would reach a much better conclusion.”
Neteyam went still, his gaze snapping from the water’s surface to your face. He watched you with an intensity he had directed to no one, but you wouldn’t know that. For a moment, the weight in his shoulders seemed to flicker, unsettled by the peaceful logic of your words.
“A dialogue,” he repeated. He had been so focused on formations, weapon readiness, and the cold calculations of a warrior that the idea of a diplomatic council felt like a sudden breath of fresh air. “Why do you think I am a warrior?” he asked, a ghost of a smile touching his lips. “I am taught to protect. To fight.”
“You are taught to lead,” you corrected gently, lightly splashing a bit of water toward his chest. “And a leader’s first duty isn’t to fight, but to ensure peace. Your warriors will think of war, you will think of how to protect the people and the forest. The people of that clan is desperate, for sure... They lost their home, they are living like beggars. There is a reason they steal and harm the people who stop them. Have the clans thought of helping them?”
He blinked, his amber eyes searching yours as if he could find all the answers there now.
You smiled lopsidedly, “You can think of all that later though,” you said softly, reaching into the crevice of the rock wall and plucking a small, ripe fruit that hung low. His eyes watched you peel it with nimble fingers. “But right now? The water is cool, the fish are annoying, and you can rest your mind. Try being here for five minutes.”
You gave him the fruit and when he took it, his fingers brushed against yours, lingering in a way that wasn't for show. He ate it slowly, watching you as if you were a piece of the puzzle he found after a long search. The silence was warm, humming with a new, dangerous kind of energy.
“You think it could be that simple?” he asked, his voice a low vibration.
“I think you make it too hard,” you laughed, feeling a sudden surge of playfulness. You stepped back, the water splashing around your chest. “I’ll bet a week’s worth of weaving that I can reach the falls before you!”
Before he could answer, you dove, your body disappearing into the water.
Neteyam stood there for a heartbeat, stunned. He didn't check the treeline. He didn't look back toward the other hunters. He didn't think about his father's expectations or the violent clan at the border. He simply dove in after you.
He caught up to you just as you reached the white water of the falls. You surfaced, gasping for air and laughing, only to find him right there, his eyes bright with a genuine, carefree light you had never seen before. You panicked at the sight of him, though, shrieking and kicking the hand that held your ankle. He barked a laugh, deep and resonant, that even he knows he hasn't laughed that way before. He reached out again, his hand finding yours under the water, squeezing it before pulling you to him. For the first time, he wasn't holding you so people would notice. He was holding you so you wouldn't drift away.
That night, as you both walked back to the village, Neteyam’s hand stayed on your waist even after you had passed the last group of onlookers. When you saw Ka’ani appeared near the communal fire, looking particularly striking in her new top and loincloth that seemed to match the feathers in her hair, Neteyam didn't even turn his head even after you pointed it out. He was too busy listening to you describe the specific shade of teal the river turns into when the moons are at a particular shade. There's lightness in his chest that made him feel like he was flying.
Several nights later, Neteyam moved through the crowd with a lightness in his step that hadn't been there days prior. The communal dinner was buzzing with different conversations, but for him, it was merely a background, his eyes locked on your form, looking like a man who had finally found the trail home.
Earlier that afternoon, the Council had been tense. Jake and the elders focused on battle plans, on dispatching warriors to fight when necessary. Neteyam saw how the council, including him, lack the sight you have to see things differently. He didn't know where it was coming from, but his chest was puffing with full confidence on the idea you had given him, that when he spoke of dialogue, of the displaced clan’s desperation, and of communal aid rather than battles that would only end in loss, his voice was laced with certainty.
Jake had looked at his son with a mixture of surprise and pride. “That is a path well thought of, Neteyam,” he said.
“You think like a true leader of the people now, son,” Neytiri had added, her hand resting on his shoulder. “You have grown.”
Neteyam had offered them a small, humble smile. “I cannot take the credit, Mother. It was a good friend who gave me the perspective I needed,” he said.
Neytiri tilted her head. “Oh? Who is this friend?” she asked.
Neteyam had looked at his mother. It was the easiest question he’d been asked, but it strike him quite deeply that he didn’t know what to say. “Someone I... trust deeply.”
Now, standing in the glow of the fire, Neteyam didn't even pause to greet the other hunters who called out to him. He made a beeline for the corner where you sat, tucked away with your latest weaving. When you looked up, your eyes widened at the sight of the massive, genuine grin splitting his face.
“They accepted it,“ he said, dropping down beside you, his presence instantly making your corner feel warmer. “The envoys will be sent at first light. My father and the elders... actually listened. We’re calling a council of all the neighboring clans to help the displaced.”
You felt a swell of pride in your chest, your grin matching his. “See? Sometimes, you need to rest your mind and your soul, clear it until it is still water,“ you gestured in the air and be watched you with a lazy smile. “Only then can you see the path clearly.“
Neteyam’s gaze was soft, lingering on your face in a way that made your heart skip a beat. It was no longer the calculated look of someone directing a performance, it was the look of someone truly seeing you. You tear your gaze away, picking at the nuts on your leaf plate.
“I have something for you,” he murmured, reaching into the small pouch at his waist. He held out his hand, palm up, revealing a mountain of perfectly ripe berries, the kind that only grow on the highest, most dangerous ledges.
You gasped, your fingers trembling slightly as you reached out for one. “Neteyam, these are rare. How did you—”
“I was scouting the upper ridges,” he lied effortlessly, though his eyes twinkled with the truth of the effort he’d put into finding them just for you. “They’re all yours. Take them.”
You popped one into your mouth, the burst of sweetness making you hum. Neteyam let out a low chuckle, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he watched you enjoy the small gift. He didn't even notice the silence that had fallen over the nearby tables as they all watched him dote on the girl whose voice they rarely heard.
From across the fire, Ka’ani felt the roasted meat in her mouth turn to ash. She couldn't even swallow. She had been so sure of what Neteyam wanted, sure that it was her in her strength and vitality. She was merely trying to break at his carefully cold facade, but he never did give her the satisfaction of seeing it.
But as she watched him now, she saw the way he leaned toward you, his body instinctively closing off the rest of the world to keep you in his private circle. She saw the way he laughed, unguarded, soft, and intimate. She had never seen that light in his eyes directed at her. She had never seen him look at anyone with such... peace.
Her fingers dug into the bark of her seating mat. This wasn't a game anymore. The challenge she thought she was winning had been forfeited by the man she wanted most, and the realization made her blood boil with a jealousy that was no longer a performance. As fot Neteyam, he has long forgotten to look if Ka’ani even had her eyes on them, and tonight, he had forgotten she was even there.
Days later, you were at the washing stream, submerging your fibers in the cool water. You were thinking too much of Neteyam and the ride you had on his ikran last night when he brought you to the Hallelujah Mountains, but your peace was disrupted with the presence of another. You stopped and turned around, your breath hitching when you saw Ka’ani step out from behind a massive fern.
“Ka’ani,” you said, your voice steadier than you felt. You adjusted the empty leaf plate in your hands, refusing to cower.
“How does it feel?” she sneered, pacing a slow circle around you, her tail lashing behind her. “To be the little pet? To be the girl Neteyam uses to get a reaction from me? You think those smiles of his mean anything? You think that look in his eyes is real?” She let out a mocking laugh. “He’s a warrior. The future Olo’eyktan. Do you think think I don’t know what he’s doing? He wants me, and he’s using a quiet mouse like you to punish me for playing hard to get.”
You pursed your lips to stop yourself from chuckling. This is comedy to you, but you also feel guilty that she seems to be really upset. If only she weren’t being mean, you’d have advised her to go to Neteyam and talk to him properly, so that they can fix things between them.
“If you are so certain of that, Ka’ani,” you said, your voice dropping to a calm, melodic register that seemed to grate on her nerves, “then why are you talking to me?”
Ka’ani froze, her lips pulling back in a snarl.
“If you're so sure he’s yours, go to him,” you continued, stepping closer into her space, though your heart was hammering against your ribs. “Whine to him. Demand his attention. Tell him to come back to you. Perhaps it will do you better.”
You didn't wait for her to respond, you walked past her, maintaining your composure until you were well out of her sight. You stopped when you’re well away from her, pursing your lips. “Wah... That was a good one from me. That’s literally method acting,” you chuckled to yourself.
At the same time, Neteyam was on patrol through the high canopies of the Omatikaya lands’ borders. Patrols are usually a time of hyper-vigilance for him, he was trained to scan for the unnatural glint of obsidian or the misplaced shadow of a predator. But today, his eyes kept snagging on a bright plant. He spotted a cluster of a familiar stalk, their ribbed skin a good shade of cerulean.
Moons ago, he would have seen them as a slippery obstacle on a landing branch. Now, he found himself hovering his ikran near the cliff edge, reaching out to pluck a single stem. He rubbed the surface, watching the pigment stain his thumb.
This, he thought, a ghost of a smile tugging at his lips, this is the blue she said looked like the deep water in the eastern seas. He found himself wondering about every plant he passed, not for its toxicity or its strength which he is wont to do as a vigilant hunter, but for how beautiful its hidden colors would be in the eyes of a weaver he keeps thinking about. He didn’t even have names for the shades he collected, but he knew you would find them beautiful.
When he finally returned to hometree, he didn’t head for the warriors' lodge to report in. He went straight to the weaving looms. His heart doing a strange, light hop when he saw your form hunched over a weaving loom. He silently crept up behind you and leaned down to tickle the curve of your ear with the cool tip of the blue plant.
You shrieked, your shoulders jumping as you nearly dropped your bone needle. You whirled around, your eyes wide but when you saw Neteyam, standing there with that lazy, genuine grin, you glared but still laughed.
“My work will be ruined because of you,” you breathed, clutching your chest.
“I thought a weaver's hands were supposed to be steady,” he teased, his voice low, handing you the blue stalk. “I saw this on the ridge. Is it the one that turns to ink when you boil it?”
You took the plant, your fingers brushing his. “It is. I.. I'm surprised you remembered.”
“I remember everything you say,” he said, and for a second, the air between you felt thick and heavy with a truth that had nothing to do with your deal. He tore his gaze away when his cheeks burned at the realization of what he said.
Before he could lose his footing, an elder weaver called out from the circle, asking you to venture into the lower groves to find specific climbing fibers for the council’s new tapestry.
“I'll accompany you,” Neteyam said before you could even reach for your basket.
As you walked into the dappled light of the forest, your fear of the ruse ending began to fade, replaced by the sheer comfort of his presence. You started to ramble, and Neteyam, as you have discovered in the past weeks, was a good listener. He didn't interrupt, or patronize. He simply watched you with a curious, steady gaze that made you feel... heard.
“You see that?” you said one afternoon, pointing to a cluster of deep crimson berries clinging to a damp log. “Most people think they’re just for eating, but if you crush them with a bit of limestone and the sap from a yellow stalk, you get a purple that looks like the sky before the sun sets. It’s the only color that stays after the fiber is boiled.”
Neteyam leaned in, peering at the berries as if they were a new species of prey.
“And those,” you continued, stumbling over your words in your haste to explain. “If you harvest them when they’re still young, they give a gold that practically glows in the dark. I used it for the elders' ceremonial sashes last year. Everyone thought I’d traded with the reef clans for it, but it was just right here, under our feet, being stepped on.”
You laughed, a bright sound that echoed through the trees, but when you realized you were rambling, you quickly shut your mouth, touching your lips.
“Sorry. I’m talking too much,“ you gripped the basket hard.
Neteyam stopped walking. He turned to you with a genuine frown on his face. “You can talk my ears off. I’ve spent my whole life looking at the forest for threats or targets. I never realized how much I’m missing what was right in front of me.” He chuckled, a low vibration in his chest. “I found myself looking at different plants lately, wondering if it was the right kind of hue for your weaving.”
The admission was bold and he didn’t even feel shame even though he did feel his cheeks burn. He was thinking of you when you weren't together. The deal was working, but the lines were blurring so fast he doesn’t even care about the reason it began.
Weeks later, the success of the sturmbeest hunt was the reason for the thrumming of drums and chanting of the Omatikaya warriors dancing in the hometree’s communal clearing. High on the central dais, the Olo’eyktan’s voice carried over the throng as he announced the success of the council’s efforts to begin a dialogue with the displaced clan that has been disrupting the way of lives not only of the people, but that of the neighboring clans as well.
The chieftains of the other forest clans had apparently agreed to convene in a Great Council with the envoys returning with messages of unity. Neteyam stood beside you in the crowd, his shoulder brushing your arm. The rigid, perfect posture of a mighty warrior was gone, replaced by a relaxed stance he only seemed to find when he was within your orbit.
“You did it,” you whispered, grinning up at him.
Neteyam looked down at you, the firelight reflecting in his eyes. “We did it,” he corrected softly. “I was ready to lead a war party until you handed me that fruit and told me to breathe. I would have missed the obvious path if you hadn't been standing there to point it out.”
You shrugged, picking a berry out of the leaf bowl he gave you. “So, what happens now?” you asked. “Now that the chieftains have agreed?”
“The next step may be the hardest,” Neteyam said, his expression turning thoughtful. “We have to send someone to the displaced clan. Not to fight, but to invite their Olo’eyktan. Someone has to show them we aren't their enemies and that we’ll help them settle and get back to their own feet.”
You looked at him, admiring the way the light caught the beads you’d given him which he had immediately put in his braids. “You should go, Neteyam.”
He blinked, looking surprised. “Me? My father will likely send an experienced diplomat, or perhaps a senior warrior.”
“No,” you insisted, stepping closer. “You’re the one who suggested it to the council. It’s a great opportunity for you to hone your diplomatic skills. You’re going to lead this people one day, and this might not be the last time a clan is desperate or angry. If you go, you’ll learn a lot.”
Neteyam went quiet, watching you with an intensity that made your breath hitch. He listened to you as if every word you spoke was important. “You really think I can do it?”
“I know you can,” you said firmly. “You have the heart for it.” You looked at your berries again, eating more of it.
The wind shifted then, kicking up a swirl of fine wood-dust from the dancefloor. You winced, your hand flying to your eye as you felt a sharp things.
“Ow—wait, something’s in my eye.”
“Don’t rub it,” Neteyam said immediately. His hands were suddenly on your face, his touch firm but incredibly gentle as he cupped your jaw. “Look at me. Keep it open.”
You looked up at him, your vision watering and blurred. He was so close you could feel the heat radiating off his skin. He leaned down, his face mere inches from yours, and blew a soft, steady breath across your eye to clear the dust.
“Is that better?” he whispered, blowing another.
You chuckled as you blinked several times, your heart doing a frantic dance in your chest. “It’s just a bit of dust, Neteyam, you look so serious,” you said, smiling.
He stared at you, still not pulling away and when you didn’t move your head, he tilted his and pressed his lips to yours. It was deep, soft, and carried the weight of his yearning in the past moons. He didn’t know how long he had wanted to do that, but the softness of your lips is making him melt like candle wax.
In your belly, it felt like a hundred forest ikrans had suddenly taken flight. You felt giddy, almost lightheaded, but the thought of the deal flickered in your mind. When he pulled back just a fraction to let you breathe, your eyes pierced through him and spotted Ka’ani across the fire, her face fuming as she watched Neteyam’s back, specifically how he was bent at the waist just so he could kiss you.
“She’s looking...” you murmured against his lips, your voice a shaky mess.
Neteyam’s mind was hazy, drugged by the taste of your lips. His brows furrowed. “Who?” he asked, his voice a gravelly rumble as he kissed the corner of your mouth, his hands tightening on your jaw.
You closed your eyes, feeling the spark of his skin against yours. “Ka’ani...”
“And?” he responded, his nose nuzzling yours before he angled his head to kiss you more firmly. “Open up...”
“Uhm, about what? I mean, she talked to—”
Neteyam let out a low, vibrant chuckle that vibrated through your lips. “Your mouth, space cadet.”
Before you could even process what he meant, he darted his tongue out and licked at the seam of your lips. Your head reared back in genuine shock though, your eyes popping wide open.
“That was...” you sputtered, your face turning a deep, embarrassed crimson. “Why did you lick me? Neteyam!”
He barked a deep, resonant laugh, a real, belly-deep sound that made his whole frame shake. The sight of your shocked expression was too much for him. You tried to maintain your dignity, but his joy was too infectious.
“It’s a sweet gesture!” he laughed, reaching out to pull you back toward him.
“What? Like a fwampop?” you asked, but you were already giggling, the two of you leaning against each other and laughing so hard you forgot the rest of the clan was even there.
The festival fire continued to crackle, but for the rest of the night, Neteyam didn't leave your side. He followed you to the communal food pits when you offered to help the cooks, not letting you carry the heavy food trays so you just rambled about anything you could think of. Every time your hand brushed his, or you leaned in to tell him a secret about one of the dancers, he looked at you with a gaze so heavy and warm.
The next morning, the festival fog had settled over the village, but Neteyam was already awake and waiting by the weaving looms. He was standing there with a slightly large, intricately carved wooden bobbin. Something he spent days working on, but he won’t tell you that.
“Bobbin?” you asked with a huge smile when he gently handed it to you.
He shrugged nonchalantly, as if coming here early in the morning before his patrol to bring you something he had worked on for days meant nothing. “I saw you struggling with the one that kept snagging your thread,” he said. His fingers lingered on yours as you accepted it, his thumb tracing the back of your hand in a slow caress.
“Wow... This is perfect, Neteyam,” you said, beaming up at him as marveled at the craftsmanship.
He stared at you, fighting the urge to punch the air or beat up his chest as if he won a huge prize.
“You really didn't have to. Do you not have patrol?” you asked.
“I have,” he said. But he wanted to see you. Talk to you about last night, to clarify that the kiss had nothing to do with your deal.
“Alright, then. I’ll see you at lunch,” you said, your attention already focused on your new bobbin. He stood there for a few more seconds, just watching you, his ears twitching at the sound of your voice.
Later that afternoon, though, the rain began to pour while you were in the forest, the raindrops caching you near the lower groves. You tried to shield your basket of dyed fibers with your own body but just as heavy drops soaked your braids, you saw a familiar figure coming, holding a massive, broad leaf.
“Neteyam?” you uttered in surprise.
He had a boyish grin on as he held the leaf over your head. He was getting soaked, the rain slicking down his blue skin and making his muscles gleam, but he didn't seem to care. He stepped so close that his chest was almost touching your shoulder, the heat from his body acting as a shield against the chill.
“How did you even know I was here?” you asked, chuckling and pulling him close so he won’t get wet.
“I think I already know your routines,” he said, smirking playfully, though his voice was thick with a tenderness that made your breath hitch. He reached out and tucked a wet strand of braid behind your ear, his touch far more lingering than it needed to be. His eyes dropped to your lips for a heartbeat before returning to yours, as though searching for something.
You tear you gaze away. “I swear, you’re going to catch a cold! And you’re all muddy. What if Ka’ani sees you? You always have to be in character, you know?” you exclaimed, trying to push the leaf more toward his side.
Neteyam’s smile faltered for a second, a flicker of frustration crossing his features before he masked it with a soft chuckle. “Right. The act.”
He guided you back toward the shelter of the Hometree, his hand resting firmly on the small of your back. As you walked, he intentionally slowed his pace, pulling you closer to avoid a puddle. When you reached the dry roots of the tree, he didn't immediately let go. He leaned down, his face close to yours.
“Do you really think I'm doing all this for the audience?” he asked, his golden eyes searching yours with an intensity that felt like a plea.
Your brows furrowed, panic rising in you before laughing nervously, patting his arm and moving away into the shelter of the hometree’s canopy. “Well, you're a very dedicated actor, ‘Teyam. I have to hand it to you. Everybody believes us,” you said with a huge smile.
Neteyam went still. He stared at you, his hand still in the air, his mouth slightly open as if he wanted to say something. Instead, he let out a long, slow sigh, his shoulders dropping just an inch. “I suppose I am dedicated,” he said quietly, a sad, lopsided smile touching his lips.
“I’m just glad I can help you with this. I’ve never had an actual friend, you know?” you said brightly, grabbing your basket from him. “See you at dinner? I heard they’re serving the smoked fish you like.”
Neteyam watched you walk away, your silhouette disappearing into the winding ramp. He looked down at the hand that had held the leaf, his fingers still tingling from the brief contact with your skin. “Damn it...” he whispered to the empty air. This isn’t an act anymore and he doesn’t know how to cross the threshold between the stage and the reality.
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“No way! You can't move there, that's against the rules!” Lo’ak barked, leaning over the board.
“You’re not one to talk about rules!” Spider countered, reaching for your game piece to help you. “Go on, girl, take his territory. Do it!”
You laughed, your face flushed with the kind of rowdy joy you usually only heard from a distance before. You slammed your piece down, successfully “capturing” Lo’ak’s base. You turned to Spider and Lo’ak, throwing up a hand for a high-four. “Did you see that?“
Spider barked a laughter. “Tell him, ‘suck it!’”
“Suck it?” you repeated with a confused smile.
The word had barely left your lips when the air in the room seemed to shift. Neteyam, who had been leaning against a nearby pillar watching you with a soft, protective smile as he sharpen his bows suddenly went rigid. He looked at Lo’ak and Spider, who were both chuckling, explaining to you what it meant.
“Hey, don't look at us,” Lo’ak muttered, though his tail was twitching with mischief. “She’s just part of the crew now, brother. One of the guys.”
Neteyam pushed off the pillar, stepping into the circle. He ignored the snickering from Lo’ak and Kiri’s knowing smirk. “She is not one of the guys,” Neteyam hissed under his breath.
You turned to him, still grinning from your victory. “Neteyam,” you called and his ears twitched at your soft voice. “Are you angry?”
He blinked, shaking his head right away. “No, no, of course not,” he told you, his eyes softening but a flitter of reprimanding gaze to Lo’ak and Spider promised later. He had just introduced you to them more than a week ago, for Eywa’s sake, and now, they are already teaching you the wrong things!
“You're teaching her the wrong things,” Neteyam told the two later that night when you left the small kelku they created for their games.
“Brother, I think she’s enjoying just fine. I’ve seen her before, she’s usually alone. I’m sure Lo’ak and Spider are just who she needs,” Kiri said,
“Right! She’s really fun. Just yesterday, we played with squid fruit by the river and she threw a mashed handful on my face. Look, I still have stains all over!“ Spider said, pointing at his pink-stained face.
“What?” Neteyam replied, horrified, remembering the stain on your temple that he saw last night. “Just what are you two—”
Lo’ak snicked. “Bro,“ he put a hand on Neteyam’s shoulder. “Don’t be too grumpy. You said you want her to have more friends and we are her friends now,“ he grinned.
Neteyam let out a huff, rolling his eyes. He understands this. You’d told him you have never had an actual friend and he thought he could remedy that. He’d give you everything, if he could.
A few days later, he insisted on coming with you to the forest and you agreeed, knowing you will have to pass by the training grounds where Ka’ani could be and she was indeed around, her eyes following Neteyam as if she’s waiting for him to spare her a glance but he was focused on the path ahead, oblivious or uncaring to her longing stares.
“Ka’ani was looking at you,“ you grinned up at him, nudging his side with your elbow.
You saw his brows furrowed for a moment and then his face hardened. You pushed your lips forward. You assumed it was because Ka’ani still didn’t go and talk to him. The woman is fierce warrior, she was probably too proud to see that as an option. She wants Neteyam to come to her. To her credit, you had not seen her in the company of man in the past weeks... You wondered if Neteyam has realized that.
“You know... I noticed Ka’ani has not been hanging out with guys lately? Have you noticed that?“ you asked, angling your head to look up at him as you rambled, “What if she’s just waiting for you to go and talk to her? I think that’s what she wants. She talked to me, you know? She was mad, so I think she was jealous, isn’t that great—”
“She talked to you? And she was mad?” he turned to you, his face etched with both anger and worry.
You grinned. “Yes. I can tell she was jealous—”
“Did she hurt you?”
“No, she didn’t...” you said. “She was just angry, because the act is working—”
You saw the bone in his jaw tick as if he was clenching his teeth. “Let’s not talk about her.”
Your lips pushed forward and you shrugged, listening instead to the soft crunch of dried leaves breaking beneath your feet. Neteyam fell quiet then, his tail twitching with a restlessness that told you something was weighing on him. You walked faster to match his face, pressing a palm on his chest which made him stop walking... and breathing, too.
“What’s bothering you?” you asked, standing in front of him and feeling his chest slowly deflate.
This is crazy. He has never noticed girls’ voices before, but now, they could probably use yours to cool him off. Your voice caresses him and your laugh sounds like bells in his ear. He wouldn’t have said a word if a different person had asked him, but you always have a way to make him open his mouth and just talk.
“The council... they are advising against it,” he said, his voice heavy. “They think sending me to the displaced clan as an envoy is too much risk, because they see me as a target, not a diplomat.”
Your eyes searched his face and he felt warm inside. “And what does your father say?”
He let out a frustrated sigh and your hand caressed his chest. His hand rose to catch your hand, pressing it against his lips. “He doesn’t say anything. Not yet. He just listens and only then he’ll decide. I’m worried he’ll take their advice,“ he looked at you.
You huffed a breath, patting his chest, and giving him a supportive smile. “Then remind them, Neteyam, that you are no longer a child to be shielded. At your age, your father was already Olo’eyktan. You have to learn diplomacy just as much as any other leader. It wouldn't do you any good to be a leader who is ill-equipped in the discussions of peace.”
Neteyam’s gaze softened, the tension bleeding out of his shoulders as he looked at you. You removed your hand but he caught it again. “Thank you... for always sharing my burden. I don't think I could have faced them today without hearing that.”
You chuckled, swinging your joined hands lightly. “Bro, it’s nothing! That’s what friends are for, as Spider says,” you beamed at him before turning back to the path ahead, missing the way his face completely dropped.
His smile faltered, and then it deadpanned. It was a total double-kill. Bro and friends in a single breath. You might as well have just shot him in the head and he would have taken it lighter. He huffed, his tail lashing once in irritation as he followed after you.
“I’m not your 'bro,'” he said, suddenly reaching forward to grab your basket from your arm.
Your brows furrowed in confusion, and you laughed at his sudden grumpiness. “Silly! We’re all brothers and sisters in the eyes of the Great Mother,” you said, lightheartedly twirling as you walked, enjoying the dappled sunlight. You didn't even notice how his eyes narrowed as he watched you move through the forest with no care in the world, seemingly oblivious to how much Lo’ak and Spider were ruining his life with their vocabulary lessons.
He had reached his limit.
Before you could twirl again, Neteyam stepped toward you. He reached out, gently but firmly grabbing your arm. Your eyes widened in surprise as he guided you backward, gently pushing you against the trunk of a nearby tree. You looked up at him, your breath catching. His face was inches away from yours, his golden eyes burning with a sudden, fierce intensity that made your heart hammer against your ribs.
“Neteyam?” you whispered, your eyes dropping to his lips before you stupidly, unconsciously licked yours.
He leaned down, and when you didn't pull away, he pressed his lips to yours in a kiss that was deeper and more demanding than the one at the festival. He licked your lips again and you chuckled against his mouth but when his tongue darted inside yours, you made a sound that sounded so womanly it surprised even you. His tongue tangled with yours as his lips devoured yours.
Everything made you feel hot, and weirdly, tingly between your legs that you had to close your thighs together.
When he finally pulled back, his hands moved to cup your face with a tenderness that made your chest ache. “There’s something I want to talk to you about,” he said, his voice low and trembling.
You blinked. “Now?”
“There are things that needs to be dealt with first,“ he said, caressing your jaw. You nodded.
The thing that needed dealing was Ka’ani. He didn’t know the extent of the conversation you had with the huntress, but he knew how Ka’ani talks, and the fact tha you said she was mad solidified what he knew. You two walked back to Hometree, with him carrying your basket for you. The elders giggled at the sight of him following you around like a loyal pet, and when he left with a lingering brush of his thumb against your cheek, they nosed around and asked if the warrior was truly courting you like they kept hearing from the youth.
“No, he’s not... He’s a friend,” you said, noticing the arm band on your basket. You took it and thought perhaps Neteyam had left it there.
You followed after him, thinking he hasn’t gone far yet, but when as stood in the Hometree’s shadowed entrance, you saw him approach Ka’ani near the training grounds, your breath hitching. Ka’ani tilted her head and smirked at him, turning on her heels into the privacy of the deeper woods. You saw Neteyam follow and you tucked yourself behind a massive fern, your pulse thrumming in your ears.
In the dimmed bioluminescence of the forest, Neteyam stood in front of the huntress, seeing that Ka’ani was already smiling, a triumphant, sharp look. “No need to say sorry, Neteyam, if that’s how you’ll start your piece. Because I know,” she said. “I know exactly what you’ve been doing. You’ve used that weaver girl to make me jealous, to straighten me up. I get it, so you can drop the act now. I’ve learned my lesson. I know it’s me you want—”
“I do not want you, Ka’ani,” Neteyam’s voice cut through her arrogance like a blade. “I never even thought I wanted you. Yes, you are a strong and fierce warrior, and I once thought that was what I needed by my side for when I lead one day... but I didn’t realize just how much I needed to see and be seen.“
“And have I not seen you?” Ka’ani snarled, her tail lashing. “We trained together, Neteyam! We fought, we hunted! I was always here! You just spared that girl a glance literally like yesterday and you think she’s perfect for you—”
“You don’t know me in the ways that matter, Ka’ani,” he countered. “I’ve had more connection with a rock, and I don't know why I ever entertained the thought that I needed someone strong by my side when strength is not the only thing this clan needs.”
Ka’ani’s face contorted, her pride wounded in front of the man she wanted so much and thought wanted her, too. “We can get to know each other! I regret it, alright? I regret playing around. I’ll focus—”
“Don’t regret what you did,” Neteyam said. “I’m glad you did it, because not only did it prevent me from making a huge mistake, it also brought me to her. And now, I have the rest of my life in front of me, bright and clear as day.” He stepped closer to her, his voice dropping to a warning growl. “Have a good life, Ka’ani. And do not ever approach my woman to tell her nonsense again.”
He turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Ka’ani watching him in deep contempt. All those last words he said not to do? She will do it. Back at Hometree, you sat by your loom, your fingers trembling as you picked up a strand of gold thread. You forced a smile onto your face, practicing the words of congratulations you would give him, even as you felt like the sky was turning a purple far deeper and darker than any storm. That was probably what he was going to talk about with you...
Outside, Neteyam walked back to Hometree with a sense of purpose he’d never felt before. He headed straight for the weaving looms. Tonight, you will be his. He’d tell you the act ends here and you two will start something real. No act from here on end. No games. Just the two of you.
But he never made it to the looms.
A hunter intercepted him midway, out of breath and frantic. “Neteyam! The night patrol was ambushed by the violent clan. Two are wounded. Your father is calling for the council.”
The shift in his demeanor was instantaneous. The soft, yearning man disappeared, replaced by the disciplined warrior. He hurried to the council, standing before Jake with a firm resolve. “I’ll go,” Neteyam insisted. “Fighting would be the last thing I’ll do. I’ll talk to them, Dad. You call for the chieftains to convene and I’ll convince them to come.”
He left within the hour, riding on his ikran, but his heart was back at Hometree, in the weaving looms... He thought he’d be back by light, but he didn’t know he’d be gone for days.
You had been crying. You learned that Neteyam left for a mission regarding the displaced clan, so even though you were heartbroken, you went to the Tree of Souls to pray for his journey. Your vulnerability was too obvious as you walk back to Hometee, and in it, Ka’ani found her opening. You were so close to Hometree when she stepped out from the shadows, a satisfied smirk on her face.
“Hi,” she greeted. “I’m pretty sure you’d heard of Neteyam going to battle... Did he say good bye to you?”
You lowered your gaze and shook your head.
“Where do you think he was last night before he went to battle?” she asked, her voice dripping with mock pity. “He was with me... getting his strength from me.” She stepped closer to you to tilt your head up. “He apologized to me, weaver. For losing sight of what’s truly for him... which is me. He loves me, which I’m sure you know... And he did make me feel loved... see?”
She tilted her head back, exposing the dark hickeys on the side of her neck. To your untrained eyes, it simply looked like bruises, but you knew what you were talking about. Pain bloomed in your chest and you felt ashamed for feeling it. You’re not supposed to feel it. You knew where this is leading to, you knew it was all an act. This woman in front of you was the only reason he approached you.
Ka’ani giggled. “Neteyam was insatiable. He missed me, as you can see... and now, I’m still sore, honestly,” she sighed, looking at you with that mock pity again. “Do you get it? He’s back with me... After he strayed. I hope you can respect that?”
You blinked, your lungs feeling as though they had turned to stone. You didn't realize you were holding your breath until she turned and walked away, and you felt like you might collapse, but the sound of Spider’s familiar voice cut through the silence. He came running toward you, laughing, with Tuk trailing just behind him.
“Was that Ka’ani?” Spider asked, his smile faltering. “What did you two talk about?”
You forced yourself to blink, the world slowly coming back into focus. “Uh... nothing. What are you two doing?”
“Playing tag!” Tuk squealed, slamming into your waist and hugging you tight. You automatically reached down to ruffle her braids. “Tag! You’re it!” she shouted, tapping your belly with a giggle before darting away.
Your soul wanted nothing more than to crawl into a dark corner and let the tears fall, but looking at Tuk’s bright face and Spider’s expectant grin, you couldn't bear to be the killjoy.
“Oh, you’re going to get it now!” you called out, forcing a smile as you chase after them.
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Neteyam had done the impossible. He had returned not just with his warriors intact, but with the promise of a unified forest. The first pace of the Great Council’s efforts to help the displaced clan find a dwelling land, he had secured a future for the displaced and for that, he was their hero.
The clan had a small celebration for it, but as the smell of roasted meat filled the air, Neteyam’s eyes were only on the winding path toward your family’s hut. He hadn't seen you in the crowd. He hadn't seen you at the landing where he expected you would be. Waiting for him. Kiri did tell him you were sick, though, which had sent a cold spike of dread that halted his celebratory high.
He didn't wait for his father’s final toast before slipping away, feeling a worry he didn't even feel during his mission. He arrived at your family’s hut, breathless, practically vibrating with the need to pull you into his arms and tell you that he had thought of nothing but your face as he sat among the displaced.
When you emerged from the flap, he froze. You were pale and your eyes were swollen and bloodshot, the telltale signs of the days you spent in quiet agony. His brows furrowed, his feet moving before he could even think. He stopped when he saw you step back though.
“I... I’m sick,” you said when you saw the question in his eyes. You didn't look at him with the warmth he’d been dreaming of. You looked at him as if he were a threat.
He stepped toward the platform, his hand reaching out instinctively. “I know. Kiri told me. But what made you sick? Why are you crying?" His voice was thick with a worry so raw it made your chest ache. “I haven't even been gone for a week, and this is what I return to?”
You stepped back into the shadows of the hut, a sharp scowl flickering across your face. “I... I don't know why I got sick. But I do know I want to lay down and rest. So if there's nothing else, I’ll go do it.”
Before he could utter another word, you grabbed the woven flap and slammed it shut. Neteyam stood there in the silence, staring at the closed entrance. His brows furrowed, his head tilting in genuine, painful confusion. He had expected a hug, a laugh, perhaps even a repeat of that soul-searing kiss in the forest. Instead, he had been shut out like a stranger. The victory he had carried on his shoulders suddenly felt hollow. For this, he didn't return to the celebration at all. He walked back to the his family’s hut in a daze, laying awake for hours wondering what could have poisoned the air in his absence.
The next day was filled with council meetings. He sat through hours of strategy and relocation discussions, but his mind was in the looms which he would check every time there's a chance, ready to scold you for working while ill, but your spot was empty. It wasn't until the following morning that he found you. You were sitting at your spot, your movements stiff and mechanical. And it seemed like you were waiting, too, because you looked at him the moment he stepped into the looms.
“Let’s talk,” he said, his voice firm, trying to reclaim some shred of authority to hide how much his heart was racing.
You stood up, your face impassive. “We do need to talk.” you said, your voice cold and sharp.
He stopped in his tracks, staring at you for more than a minute. For the first time in his life, after facing predators, raids, and the weight of a legacy, Neteyam felt a genuine, cold prickle of fear. But as he looked at the fire in your eyes, a small, reckless part of him couldn't help but admire it. He feels crazy. You are so hot when you’re mad.
You walked into the forest, feeling even more slighted when you remembered him going in this same route with Ka’ani. You felt his hand on your elbow though, steering you toward a different path instead. You glared at him. “Where are we going?”
The sight of direhorses answered your question though. You saw some warriors riding their mounts and Neteyam whistled for his. You saw Ka’ani among the warriors nearby and saw how her eyes narrowed at the sight of you and Neteyam. Shame rose in you and you tried to wriggle away from Neteyam’s hold, especially when a warrior came jogging toward you.
“Brother, will you not watch the young tame their mounts?“ The warrior asked. “They’ll be here in five minutes.”
The warrior glanced at you and you took your elbow from Neteyam again, but you weren’t able to get away though, because his hand found your waist and pulled you to him.
“No. I got something more important to do,“ Neteyam said. “I’m sure they’ll do well.”
The warrior snickered, “Enjoy then,” he glanced at you meaningfully before nodding to Neteyam, and turning away.
Neteyam’s hand spanned your waist and lifted you up on his direhorse in under ten seconds, making you slightly shriek. He mounted the beast behind you, making tsaheylu with it before wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you against him. You tried to move away, but the direhorse had started moving, and in a second, it was running.
The wind roared past your ears as the direhorse ate up the miles, forcing you to lean back against Neteyam’s chest just to stay balanced. You enjoyed the sight during the ride, fighting the urge to move your head away when you felt him pressung a kiss to the crown of your head. You felt sad when he pulled on the reins, already missing the exhilaration of riding and the good view.
Neteyam slid off the mount first before reaching up to lift you down, his movements fluid and sure. He didn't let go immediately, his hands lingered on your waist as he looked around the clearing. He felt a surge of triumph that you hadn't jumped off and bolted, though he felt a twinge of guilt, too, because he’d brought you this far specifically so you couldn't run away.
The glade was breathtaking and it immediately snagged your attention. Under any other circumstances, you would have danced through the high grass, but the weight in your chest kept your feet heavy.
Neteyam turned to you, the light dabbing across his face. “Alright," he whispered, his jaw tightening. “Tell me. What has changed since I left?”
You scowled, the image of Ka’ani’s smug face flashing in your mind. “Are you sure things didn’t change before you left? I’m pretty sure you made up with Ka’ani, and did more than just talking.”
The accusation hit him like a physical blow that his eyes widened, his head snapping back in shock. “I did not ‘make up’ with Ka’ani. Yes, I talked to her, but I simply told her to back off. I told her never to approach you again. Did she talk of nonsense to you again?” He was practically vibrating, his tail lashing behind him.
“Yes, she did! We talked,” you threw back at him. “She showed me the hickeys on her neck, Neteyam! She said she was so sore... because you were insatiable! Because you missed her so much that you had to get your 'strength' from her before you left!”
“What?” The word was a rasp of horror. A visceral disgust washed over his features, his body shivering at the image your words painted. “I did not lay with her. I never did and I never would. Oh, Great Mother... that woman is a huge liar!”
You searched his face. You looked for a flicker of guilt or lie, a shift in his eyes, but all you saw was a man who looked genuinely nauseated by the very idea. You believe him, despite yourself and without your consent, the suffocating clouds over your head began to lighten. He stepped toward you, his hands reaching for your arms, but you crossed them over your chest, refusing to let him in just yet.
“Believe me, please,” he pleaded, his words beginning to tumble over each other in a frantic rush. “That night after we were in the forest, all I did was find her and shut down her delusions. I was so mad that she dared to talk to you, dared to get mad at you, so I told her to back off and never approach you again. I was coming back to you, baby. I was going to tell you our ruse ends there and then. I was going to beg you for a chance to make it real.”
He palmed his face , sounding completely undone.
“But then the incident with our warriors happened and I had to go... Jesus. I was so stupid. I should have gone to you before I left, but I was thinking... I was thinking I probably wouldn't be able to leave at all if you told me you’d give me a chance.”
His heart was beating too fast and to hard against his chest, watching the fire in your eyes finally die out, replaced by a soft heat. You believed him. It wasn't in your nature to stay angry when the truth felt so solid, and you knew Neteyam well enough now to know he would never play around. The fact that Ka’ani had looked so bitter earlier suddenly made sense. She hadn't won anything, she had just tried to burn down your bridge.
You bit your lip, your shoulders finally dropping. “Alright...” you whispered.
Neteyam didn't hesitate. He stepped into your space, gently wrapping his arms around you and pulling you into the solid warmth of his chest. “That’s it? ‘Alright’?” he asked, his voice soft and breathless, his face so close yours.
You pushed your lips forward in a small pout, though you didn't pull away. “I guess I believe you... I don’t think it’s in your character to lie like that.”
A wave of shame washed over you as you realized how quickly you had let Ka’ani’s poison work. You had given him so little confidence, believing a lie over the man you know to be so genuine and kind. But then, you had been protecting yourself; you were in an act, and the lines had been so blurred you didn't know where it all ended.
“I’m sorry,” you murmured “I just... I thought it was still an act. That we were still acting to get her back...”
Neteyam tightened his grip, lowering his head to bury his face in the crook of your neck. “I’ve long forgotten about the deal. I think I stopped truly caring about it just a week after I started spending my days with you. I just didn't know what it was I was feeling until the thought of it ending and not being with you anymore felt more terrifying than any battle.” He pulled back just enough to look at you, his thumb caressing your cheek. “This is why you’ve been crying...”
You pushed your lips forward. You wanted to forget that part! “Let’s just forget it...”
“No, we won’t. You don’t know how much it broke me to see you cry, to see you so gray, and not know why. She hurt you, she meant to hurt you,” he said, his voice hard and his jaw tightening. “And I played a part in it. I should have talked to you, clear everything for us so you would have confidence in me. So you won’t believe her.”
You looked up at him, your hand pressing against his chest to calm him down. “It’s over and done with, Neteyam... What’s important is that we’te okay now. Right?”
He looked down at you, his head tilting. Ka’ani was lucky that you are so kind, but she wasn’t that lucky because he’s not. He leaned down to kiss you, “Right. There will be no more acts and games... Just us.”
You looked up at him, the weight finally gone, and for the first time in days, the light returned to your golden eyes. “Just us.” you beamed at him.
He sucked in a breath, pulling you and tilting your head to kiss you hard. He was a man starved and you could tell with how he's holding and kissing you. He moaned when your tongue licked his lower lip, making him pull his head back to look at you.
“It’s you I missed so much...” he mumbled, kissing you softly. “It’s you I’d be insatiable for... And you I’ll make so sore—”
“Neteyam!” your hand lifted up to clamp around his mouth and he laughed. You shrieked when you felt his warm and wet tongue lick at your palm.
“I know... I’ll court you... Then you'll accept me as your mate... And then you’re in big trouble wth me—”
You groaned, your cheeks burning purple. He kissed your cheek before angling his head to kiss you for real.
The next afternoon, the Sully siblings were in on the plan—though only Kiri truly understood the gravity of it. They had dragged you down to the river, telling you they’ll teach you how to properly splash a person without getting soaked yourself.
“Focus! You have to cup your hand like this,” Spider shouted, sending a wall of water toward a ducking Lo’ak.
You laughed, the sound genuine and bright, completely unaware that Neteyam had quietly slipped away. He had seen Ka’ani heading toward the upper trails, and he wasn't about to let another sun set without finishing this. He intercepted her near the high roots, his silhouette blocking her path. Ka’ani stopped, her smirk faltering when she saw the look on his face. He didn’t look friendly at all, not that he had look friendly the last time they talked, but the hard storm masking his face right now was the look of a man who had seen a threatening the peace.
“Neteyam,” she started, trying to reclaim her cool composure. “I thought you'd be busy with your little weaver.“
“I am busy,” Neteyam said. “I am busy realizing how wrong I was about you. I thought you were a warrior of honor, Ka’ani. I thought that even if you were proud, you were noble. But to purposely hurt a woman who did you nothing wrong? To lie about the most disgusting things just to see her cry—”
Ka’ani’s eyes narrowed, her tail lashing. “I know what I’m doing, Neteyam! You were only using her to straighten me up! I just leveled the playing field. I was reclaiming what was mine—”
“I was never yours,” he cut her off, disgust for her delusions crumpling his face. “There was nothing to reclaim, you had nothing. The life you are living is the one you actively chose. Even if we had tried before, I know I would have quickly realized it would never work, what with our lack of connection. The only thing we shared was the training grounds.”
Ka’ani winced as if he’d struck her. “I... I was just blinded, Neteyam. I was jealous! I was envious. I’m sorry, alright? I was just trying to get you back.”
Neteyam let out a sharp huff. “I wasn’t yours to get back, we had nothing to do with each other. And you’re not really sorry. At least not yet, because you didn't think of taking your words back during the days I wasn't home. You knew she was crying. You knew she was hurting from your lies, and you sat back and enjoyed it. You are only sorry now because I am standing here confronting you.”
Ka’ani opened her mouth to argue, her hands trembling, but no words came out. The truth of his gaze was too heavy to deflect.
“I hope you grow,” Neteyam said, turning on his heel.
“Neteyam, wait!” she called out, sounding frantic as he turned to walk away. “I’m sorry! I’ll go to her right now. I’ll apologize to her! Please... can we still be friends? We’ve known each other our whole lives.”
Neteyam stopped, but he didn't turn around. He looked over his shoulder, his profile sharp against the sunlight filtering through the leaves.
“We were never friends, Ka’ani. You don't see me as a friend. You see me as a prize to be won.” He took a breath, thinking of your laugh echoing by the river. “Friends don’t hurt the people you love. And that is exactly what you did to the woman I love. After that, I don’t think your wish can be possible.”
He left her standing there, the weight of her own choices finally settling on her shoulders. When he returned to the river, he saw you. You were dripping wet, laughing as Tuk tried to climb onto your back.You looked up and caught his eye, beaming at him with a warmth that made his heart feel like it was soaring home.
He didn't say a word about Ka’ani. He just waded into the water, pulled you into a lopsided embrace, and whispered into your ear, “I think it’s time I started that courting I mentioned. Properly.”
And just like that, the moons had drifted by like dust in the wind, and Neteyam had kept his word. He courted you openly and even formally asked your parents for your hand, which they initially did not want to grant him. They think your life wouldn’t be as peaceful if you mated Neteyam instead of a simple man in the clan. Honestly, your parents didn’t know what to do with him. Neteyam was so intense in his courtship to you and your family that, most times, your parents were literally hiding from him. By then, he had already brought your family the finest meat and the rarest fruits, but surprise of your parents’ lives probably came when he brought Jake and Neytiri. He wasn’t really planning to bring them along, it was just... Neytiri is apparently getting impatient over the fact that Neteyam isn’t an official suitor yet, and Jake wanted to relieve your parents of their worries over you being Neteyam’s mate.
And today, the celebration for the new village of the displaced clan felt like the culmination of everything you and Neteyam had built. It seemed so long ago when you two discussed the matter when you were swimming in the river, and now, the clan found a home by the river. The Olo’eyktan of the displaced clan stood before the grand fire. You’d met him only today, but you could already tell the respect he has for Neteyam.
“For too long, we were ghosts in this forest,” the Olo’eyktan started. “We lived like beggars, raiding for sustenance, hurting our brothers and sisters among your clans, and also fearing their spears, but a path was cleared where we saw only hopelessness. Our homes are standing here today because of Neteyam te Suli, our brother of the Omatikaya. Because of him, we have peace. Our children will know only the beauty of the forest and never the tragedy that forced us out of our lands.”
You grinned as the crowd erupted, but Neteyam tried to sink into his seat, his ears pressing back in embarrassment as his arm pulled you to him. He hated the attention, but the chieftains wouldn't have it. They pushed him to the center, where he was forced to give a piece of his mind.
He cleared his throat, his golden eyes immediately finding yours in the crowd as if to ground himself. “The peace you see today was not born in my mind,” he began, his voice steadying as he looked at you. “I am a warrior, I was ready to lead with my bow. But it was my woman who showed me the wisdom in a hand offered instead of an arrow. She gave me the strength to listen when I wanted to fight. If this land is a home today, it is because her heart guided my way.”
Neytiri turned to you and smiled as the men in the crowd roared to tease the warrior they’ve been acquainted with in the past moons. As he strode back to you, pulling you into a deep kiss of victory, a warrior from a different clan hooted from the side. “Careful, Neteyam! Keep your wits about you and don’t let her hit her head, or she might wake up and realize she could leave your ass behind!”
Neteyam let out a deep, resonant laugh, pulling you flush against his side. “I have no intention of ever letting her get far enough to find out!”
As the party reached its high, Neteyam’s eyes found yours, looking at you meaningfully, in a way that made your skin tingle. You raised a brow and he jerked his head toward the dark woods. You pushed your lips forward in a playful pout but tugged his hand anyway, leading him away from the noise and into the glowing embrace of the forest.
You skipped hand in hand, admiring the bioluminescent flora lighting your path and when you reached the secluded bend of the river, the sounds of the festival was nothing but a hum. You turned to him with a grin and, without a word, untied the ties of your beaded top. His hungry eyes followed the movement, his breath hitching as if he has not seen them for a hundred times already. You untied your loincloth next, letting it pool on the floor.
He watched you with an intensity that excited you, and when his own loincloth fell, you bit your lip, seeing of the hard-on you had become quite well-acquainted with over the past moons. The glow of the river and the forest illuminated his handsome face so perfectly your heart hammered against your chest. He is so handsome.
“Hi,” he whispered, his large arms on your waist pulling you close.
Your smile grew to a grin. “You’re silly,” you chuckled, pressing a palm against his muscled chest to gently push him back. “I’m going to swim... why are you holding me?”
Neteyam’s eyes narrowed playfully, a boyish grin spreading across his face as he leaned in, his nose brushing yours. “Oh, I think there are other things that need swimming, too,” he teased, his voice dropping as his hand caught yours, bringing it down so you could feel his hardened cock. “Your babies want to swim in you.”
“Neteyam!“ you called, almost swiveling your head around in case someone could hear him. You’ve learned, in the past moons, how lewd he can be with his words but your habit of looking around will probably stay for a few years more.
He angled his head to press a hard kiss against your lips. “What? Don’t you want our kids to have fun time?”
You laughed, the sound like bells in his ears. You threw your arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug. “Am I in big trouble again?” you whispered against his ear.
He groaned. “You’re always going to be in big trouble with me if I had my way.”
You smirked, tilting your head. “I want to take care of you tonight...” you mumbled, your hand on his chest caressing his skin and pushing him back.
He raised a brow, always surprised still whenever you show him fire. You pulled him down to kiss him, your lips crashing into his with a hunger that made him vibrate in excitement. He let you push him back against the trunk of a towering tree, letting out a gravelly groan when his head thumped back against the bark.
His hands gripped your waist, pulling you so flush against him that the ridge of his hard-on felt like it was imprinting itself on your belly. With practiced ease, he reached behind himself to bring his queue forward, while his other hand found yours behind you, making you break the kiss for just a second, watching through hooded eyes as the pink tendrils of your kurus began to reach and weave together.
The familiar psychic jolt of his intense love, raw devotion and desire for you flooded your mind, feeling his heart hammering against your ears, echoing the rhythm of your own. His fingers cupped your jaw to kiss you again, ad you smiled against his lips, pressing a lingering kiss to the corner of his mouth before trailing your lips down. You licked and kiss his neck, your palms staying flat on his chest, feeling the heavy thud of his heart as you kissed your way down over the hard ridges of his stomach.
“My warrior...” you murmured, kissing his lower abdomen.
You peered up at him, seeing his head pressed against the tree, but his eyes were looking down at you. You kissed sharp V-line of his hips before your hand reached out, fisting his girth. Neteyam’s breath hitched, a strangled sound escaping his throat as your hand began to move. The bond between your queues flared, sending waves of his pleasure crashing through the both of you.
“You are celebrated tonight,” you whispered, looking up at him with your innocent doe eyes that contrasted the sinful movement of your hands on him. “I think you deserve a reward, don't you?”
“Baby...” he rasped, his hands fisting as he tried to ground himself.
You didn't give him a chance to respond. You lowered your head, taking him into your mouth with a heat that made his entire body shudder. Through the bond, you felt the exact moment he weakened. His hands flew to your long braids as your mouth started sucking around his girth, your tongue playing with its underside, getting another sharp intake of his breath. You drew back slightly, then plunged deeper, taking more of him down your throat. You worked your mouth, your lips sealing around him that made him tremble. His fingers tightened in your braids in a gentle tug, guiding your movements, urging you faster.
Your tongue swirled, licked, teased, tracing the veins along his length. You felt him grow even harder in your mouth. You pulled back, then swallowed him again, your breath hitching as you felt the wide head deep inside your throat. His hips began to thrust, his hand on your jaw, meeting your eager mouth until you tasted him, the musky scent of his arousal filling your nostrils. Your throat ached, but the pleasure in his groans kept you moving.
“Oh, baby,” he gasped, his body trembling.
His hips bucked, a deep growl rumbling from his chest. You felt the first warm gush of him erupt into your mouth, hot and thick, and you swallowed as his body convulsed, still pouring into you. He groaned deeply, a powerful sound that made you shiver, his fingers digging into your hair as he emptied himself.
He slumped, his breathing ragged. “Enough, my love,” he whispered, his voice hoarse, trying to pull your head up.
But you weren’t finished. You wanted to clean him, to savor every last drop. You ignored his pleas, your tongue flicking out, licking away the remnants of his pleasure, tracing the underside of his shaft. You heard his sharp intake of breath, his abdominal muscles tensing again. He was literally fighting to hold onto his strength, and you felt his cock twitch, hardening slightly at your continued ministrations. You ran your tongue along the tip, then sucked gently, drawing out the last of his cum.
“Fuck. I regret teaching you, you know?” he said weakly, his knees buckling.
You glared at him before reluctantly releasing him, your lips glistening. He reached down, pulling you up with a sudden, fierce strength that lifted until your bodies collided. His mouth found yours in a hard, demanding kiss, his tongue plunged into your mouth, mirroring the thrusts of his shaft earlier, tangling with yours. You met him with equal fervor, your arms wrapping around his neck, pulling him closer still, your hips instinctively grinding against his.
He broke the kiss, his lips trailing down your jaw and your throat in a fiery path. He lifted you, cradling you in his arms, your legs wrapping around his waist before he lowered you gently against the soft moss. He knelt above you, his golden eyes devouring your body like a man starved. His hand traced the curve of your waist, then upward, toward your breasts. His fingers brushed against your nipple and you arched your back, a soft moan escaping your lips. He leaned down, his mouth closing over one of the pebbled tips, sucking hard. You gasped and shivered, your fingers tangling in his braids, pressing him closer. His tongue swirled around your breast, while his other hand kneaded the other, his thumb circling the aroused tip.
“What a great reward,” he groaned, his voice muffled against your flesh. He suckled hard that it made you arch your back both in ache and pleasure. He moved to the other breast, giving it the same intense attention until you cried out, your body writhing for more.
He pulled away, his eyes hot with a familiar predatory hunger in them. He shifted, kneeling between your legs, which had instinctively parted for him. He leaned down, his mouth moving lower. You moaned, knowing what was coming, your hips lifting in anticipation. His tongue flicked out, tracing the velvety folds of your pussy, already wet with anticipation,
He spread your lips, his tongue plunging directly into your clit, making you arch your back, your fingers scratching at his back. He licked, sucked, and torment, his mouth relentlessly sucking and his tongue playing more than it licks. He used his fingers, too, parting your lips to allowing his tongue full access on you. He tasted you, the salty-sweet essence, a taste that always drove him wild.
“So sweet,” he murmured against your folds his voice a low growl, his tongue flicking faster, harder.
Your breath came in ragged gasps, your legs trembling, wrapping around his head, pressing him deeper into your pussy. You felt the suction of his mouth and the relentless assault of his tongue on your clit, and your orgasm coiled in your belly. You whimpered, unable to form words, only sounds of pure pleasure, your hips bucking as your body shivered with release, leaving you gasping. You felt the soft shudders of your pussy, contracting around his tongue.
He pulled away, moving above you, his hard cock pressing against your folds. You whimpered, still quivering from your orgasm that your pussy was still throbbing and incredibly sensitive. He still pushed though, the head of his cock sliding inside. You moaned and he pushed deeper, stretching you, and filling you completely.
You wrapped your arms around his body that hovered above yours, his eyes locked with yours. He began to move, a slow thrust, then another, pulling almost completely out before plunging back in deep and hard. The sounds of him sliding in and out of your wetness filled the air, mingling with your gasps and his grunts. You wrapped your legs tighter around his waist, urging him deeper and faster.
He gripped your waist, his fingers digging into your flesh, lifting you slightly to control the angle, to thrust even deeper. “Harder,” you pleaded, your voice hoarse, your hips bucking to meet his.
He responded instantly, his thrusts becoming a furious assault. He pounded into you, deep and relentless, filling you with every thrust. You felt yourself tightening around him, your muscles clenching. Your breath hitched, your vision blurring. You cried out his name, again and again, as your body convulsed, leaving you gasping, clinging to him.
He groaned, his body trembling above you as he thrusted a few more times, deep, desperate strokes. His body tensed, his seed erupting inside you, hot and thick, filling your womb with your babies that needed swimming. He collapsed onto you, heaving, his breath ragged against your neck. You lay there, your entwined bodies both slick with sweat and release.
He let out a long, shaky exhale, his tail giving one final, exhausted twitch against your leg. With a groan that sounded sated and delirious, he pulled out of you, watching the gush of his heavy and thick cum dripping out of you. “You emptied me,” he mumbled, his voice thick.
You chuckled, breathless. “Complaining, are we? You’re the one who started talking about ‘swimmers’ in the middle of our conversation,” you smirked.
Neteyam let out a dry, boyish laugh, propping himself up on one elbow. He looked down at your stomach, then back at your face, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I believe in my warriors. They’re fast.”
You groaned, reaching up to swat his chest, but he caught your hand, bringing it to his lips to kiss your knuckles. “Neteyam, if my mother sees me walking back looking like this, I’m going to receive a scolding.”
“Tell her you are a mated woman,” he suggested shamelessly, pulling you closer until your head was resting on his chest.
“Neteyam... They don’t know that yet. We are following the traditions!” you whisper-shouted playfully. “Beside, what happened to being modest for my parents?” you narrowed your eyes at him.
He laughed, a genuine, chest-shaking sound that made you feel warm all over again. He rolled to his side, his hand grabbing your waist with a renewed look of heat in his eyes that made you groan. You sat up and his head angled to catch the pebbled tip of your breast into his mouth.
“‘Teyam...” your hand clutched at his shoulder.
“Just one more...” he said, his words muffled because he had your flesh in his mouth.
You bit you lip and laid back on the soft moss, spreading your thighs as your hand caressed the soft skin on his back. You watched his large, formidable form hover over you, his thick and long cock already pointing at your pussy as if it knows its target. You shivered at the sight of it, your excitement vibrating in your body. His hand clasped under your knee and pushed your leg back, stretching you before his cock nudged your entrance.
His other hand moved over your pussy, his thumb rubbing your sensitive nub as his length disappeared in you. You moaned a long one, arching your back, offering your rounded breasts to him and he lowered his head to take one into his mouth, his tongue immediately swirling on your nipple. In a sudden, hard movement, his hand on your hips pulled you to him, burying himself to the hilt inside you.
“Ah!” you moaned, your thighs quivering to close around him but he kept them open, restraining both of them tightly befote delivering a series of hard and intense pounding.
You held onto him, your eyes flying open and meeting his. You probably looked so aroused and fucked, because his pupils blew even wider, almost swallowing the gold. Your mouth remained perpetually gaped, releasing jagged breaths and moans as he continued pumping into you. Your hand pressed against his lower abdomen and his thrusts quickened and hardened even more.
He lowered his head to kiss you, his tongue immediately plunging into your open mouth. You wrapped your arms around him, feeling his hard muscles contrasting his soft skin until all the sensations he’s giving you pushed you to the edge. He came first, shuddering above you despite his efforts to hold out longer. You hugged him tighter when you felt yourself erupt.
He kissed your neck softly, feeling your body shudder against him, you legs literally quivering as your walls clenched around him to milk him dry. He chuckled, pressing a hard kiss against your jaw. “I told you. Big trouble.”
You let your head fall on the mossy ground, feeling him lick the skin on your exposed neck. “I think I can handle the trouble,” you murmured. “As long as it’s yours.”
He squeezed your hip, giving you a lingering kiss. “I love you so much, space cadet,” he mumbled. “Now, let’s put on act that we just swam in the river and are too tired to return to the festival.”
yes hello, I’m now going to be feral over Jake. My request: you and Jake fall a sleeping together but Jake wakes up in the middle of the night to masturbate to you because he can’t help it, since he thinks you look so pretty when you sleep and you wake to the feeling of him with his hands all over you, him softly grinding himself on you, you get turned on at the thought of him being so needy and desperate for you so you help him out. (Him biting your neck should be involved for sure, he seems like the kinda guy to enjoy that, and makes it even better that Na’vi have fangs 🤭)
❀࿔: needy
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔ jake sully x fem! omaticaya! reader
warnings: lower caps, smut, masturbation, p in v, somnophilia, oral (m receiving), biting/marking, i think dats it lmk ???
wc: 2.7k
author's note: i luh this idea tysm for requesting 😈😈 like TRUST i know dada
you and jake step into your dimly lit kelku after a long day of patrols.
as you enter, you immediately feel a sense of relief. the day has been long and tiring, and all you want to do now is rest. jake watches as you shut the door flap behind you and turn to face him.
“i’m so tired…” you breathe out, your limbs aching from the days work.
jake nods in agreement, feeling the same exhaustion in his own bones. “me too.” he says softly. he sets down his things before turning to face you. “how about we go lie down?” he asks softly.
“yes, please.” you reply, your words slurred.
as you both settle into your sleeping area, jake lies down on his back, staring up at the ceiling of the kelku, feeling your warmth beside him. after a moment of silence, he turns his head to look at you. “you alright?”
you nod lazily. “mhm… i just need to sleep…”
jake nods understandingly. he turns back over onto his back and stares up at the ceiling again. the kelku is small and quiet, filled only with the sound of your breathing as you start to drift off to sleep.
after a few hours, jake wakes up. he’s disoriented for a moment before remembering where he is. you’re curled up beside him, sleeping peacefully. he turns over on his side and looks at your sleeping form.
his gaze lingers on your peaceful face, taking in the soft curves and gentle features. he notices how long your lashes are against your cheeks and the slight parting of your lips as you breathe softly. a strange warmth spreads through his chest at the sight, and he quickly looks away, cursing himself silently. “fuck...”
his mind starts to wander to things it shouldn't. he imagines running his hands through your hair, pulling you close, feeling your body against his. he thinks about kissing those soft lips, biting them gently, hearing you breathe heavier in his arms.
his thoughts are interrupted as you stir in your sleep, shifting and letting out a small noise.
jakes head snaps toward you at the soft sound you make in your sleep. his breath catches, something between a sigh and a moan, and his mind immediately starts imagining all sorts of filthy things. his hands turn into fists at his sides, trying to resist the urge to reach out and touch you.
he shifts uncomfortably, trying to adjust himself without making noise. his cock throbs painfully against his loincloth as he continues to stare at you. he imagines spreading your legs, pushing inside you slowly while you sleep peacefully beneath him. the thought makes his dick ache even more.
his hand slowly slides down his stomach, his fingers brushing over the band of his loincloth before dipping inside. he bites his lip to stifle a groan as he wraps his hand around his cock. he starts to stroke himself slowly, silently, watching you sleep as he jerks off.
his palm rubs over the head of his length with each stroke, spreading the pre-cum that's dripping out. his face flushes a deep purple as he fights to stay quiet. his hips buck slightly with each stroke, his mind filled with images of you wrapped around him, your lips parting to moan his name. “fuck...”
his hand moves faster, his grip tightening around his cock. he can feel the pressure building up inside him, the urge to release growing stronger with each passing second. he bites his lip hard to suppress a groan as he pictures himself pounding into you ruthlessly, taking what he wants. “shit...” he lets out a small whine.
without realizing what he's doing, jake reaches out and gently pushes your hair away from your face. his fingers trail down your neck, your collarbone, before slowly slipping underneath your beaded top. he hesitates for a moment before cupping one of your tits, squeezing it gently. “goddamn...”
his hand stays under your top, gently massaging your breast as he starts to move his hips slowly, quietly grinding against you through the fabric of your loincloth. he knows he should stop, that this is crossing a line, but he's too far gone to care. he just needs some friction, some relief.
his other hand joins the first under your shirt, both of them squeezing and kneading your soft flesh. his grinds his hard cock against you, the thin fabric of your loincloth the only thing separating you. he can feel his orgasm building, his balls tightening. “oh, fuck...”
you suddenly stir awake. it takes a second for you to fully process whats happening, but when you feel jake rubbing against you as well as his hands on your breasts, understanding quickly dawns over you.
he’s so close to coming that he doesn't register you stirring at first. he keeps grinding slowly, his hands still under your top, pinching your nipples gently. his breath comes out in quiet moans as he gets closer and closer to his release. “fuck, yeah...”
“jake…” you whine out, breathless.
jake freezes at the sound of your voice. his eyes snap open, his hands immediately stopping their movements under your top. his cock thats pressed against you throbs, but he doesn't move, doesn't grind, doesn't do anything. he just lies there, shocked and embarrassed.
your eyes dart down to where he’s holding you, and a warmth spreads through your core.
he follows your gaze and realizes that you can clearly see his hands under your top, cupping your tits. he feels his face heat up, realizing that you're awake and aware of exactly what he was doing. he swallows hard, his voice strained as he speaks. “i... fuck. i’m sorry, baby.”
he quickly removes his hands from your breasts, pulling back so that his cock is no longer pressing against you. he turns onto his back, his chest heaving as he tries to catch his breath. he feels guilty for touching you like that without you knowing, but he also can't ignore the way you whimpered slightly at the loss of contact.
you cant help the smirk that tugs at the corner of your mouth. “you were that needy for me?”
he turns his head to look at you, his expression a mix of embarrassment and desire. he nods slowly, his voice low and honest. “yeah. i’m sorry if that’s too much. i just... fuck. i needed you.” he runs a hand through his hair frustratedly.
your smirk widens at the thought of him being so needy and desperate for you that he had no choice but to jerk off while watching you sleep.
he watches as you slowly turn onto your side, facing him. his heart ratchets up at the realization that you're not angry or upset. instead, your eyes are soft and understanding. he swallows hard, his voice low and carefully measured. “baby...”
you bring a hand up to cup his face, rubbing his cheekbone with your thumb. “so desperate for me, hm?”
he leans into your touch, his eyes closing briefly at the warmth of your hand against his face. when he opens them again, he's looking at you with an intensity that makes your breath hitch. “mhm,” he admits quietly. “you just looked so pretty. so peaceful.”
a deep blush spreads across your face at his words. “mmm, let me help you out, jake..”
his eyes widen slightly, a jolt of surprise and arousal running through him. he swallows hard, his voice hoarse with need. “you... you don't have to. i don't want to pressure you or-"
you cut him off by capturing his lips in a deep kiss.
he kisses you back immediately, his mouth opening under yours as he wraps an arm around you and pulls you closer. he pours all of his pent-up need and desire into the kiss, his tongue sliding against yours hungrily. when you finally break apart, he's panting softly, his pupils dilated with want. “fuck...”
you kiss him again hungrily and position yourself on top of him.
he groans into your mouth as you kiss him again, his hands automatically gripping your hips and pulling you down so that you're straddling him. he can feel his hard length pressing against your heat through your loincloth, and he bites back a curse as he kisses you back fiercely.
“let me take care of you.” you whisper softly.
he nods silently, his eyes locked onto yours as you begin to kiss down his neck. he swallows hard, his hands trembling slightly as they move to your waist. he’s completely at your mercy now, letting you take control and take care of him in a way he desperately needs.
his breath hitches as your lips trail down his chest, each kiss sending shivers through him. by the time you reach his abs, he's gripping the sleeping mat tightly, his hips lifting involuntarily towards you. when your hand finally unties the knots of his loincloth and wraps around his cock, he lets out a low groan.
he watches you through hooded eyes, his jaw clenched as you slowly jack him off. he can feel the wetness spreading across the head of his dick, and he knows you can see it too. he’s so fucking sensitive right now, every touch sending electric shocks through him.
you smile at his reaction and lean forward, pressing a kiss to the head of his cock.
“fuuuck, baby...” his voice comes out as a strangled moan, his hips jerking upwards slightly at the feel of your lips against his tip. more precum leaks out at the contact, and he knows you can taste it. “you don't have to...”
“i want to,” you reassure him before taking him into your mouth.
he throws his head back, a deep groan rumbling through his chest as you take him into your hot, wet mouth. he feels your tongue swirl around the head, collecting his pre-cum before sliding further down your throat. “oh my god, fuck...”
you bob your head rapidly before dragging your tongue along the vein on the underside of his cock.
his hands fly to your hair, gripping the strands as you suck him off. he’s panting heavily now, his hips thrusting upwards involuntarily to meet your mouth. “easy, easy girl…”
“too much?” you pull off just enough to speak.
he shakes his head quickly, panting as he tries to catch his breath. he looks down at you with heavy-lidded eyes, his voice hoarse. “no, baby. just... fuck, you're good at that.”
a smile tugs at your lips before taking him into your mouth again.
his back arches off the mat as you take him back in, his fingers tightening in your hair. he watches you through half-lidded eyes, watching you take him deep, bobbing up and down with your tongue working furiously. “that’s it... that’s my girl...”
you moan around him, the vibrations sending him right to the edge, his eyes rolling back. he feels his balls draw up tightly against his body, a tingling sensation starting at the base of his spine. “baby... baby i’m gonna come...“
his words only encourage you more. you yank at his hips and pull him even closer, if possible.
with a choked cry, he comes. his release pulses directly onto your tongue and down your throat. you swallow it all, milking him dry until he's completely spent. he collapses back against the mat, overwhelmed by what just happened.
you crawl back up his body and kiss him deeply, letting him taste himself on your tongue.
he kisses you back hungrily, tasting himself. his arms wrap around you tightly, pulling you close as he explores your mouth with his own. he feels completely boneless and satisfied, but his body starts to stir again as you kiss him. “mmm, wait...”
“what?” you ask against his lips.
he looks up at you, his expression soft but insistent. his calloused hand cups your cheek, thumb brushing across your bottom lip gently. “it’s your turn. you took care of me, now let me take care of you.” he flips you both over suddenly so he's hovering over you, looking down at you with dark, hungry eyes.
“please, jake…” you breathe out. “need you…”
his expression softens immediately at your breathy plea. he sees your legs falling open invitingly and his body settles between them without hesitation. he starts kissing you deeply again, but this time his hands are roaming your body possessively. “shh baby, i’m here...”
he kisses down your neck, leaving a trail of open-mouthed kisses across your collarbone and down to your chest. he pays special attention to your breasts, sucking and licking each nipple until they're hard pebbles. your hands are in his hair, gripping tightly as you whimper for him. “please, jake…”
hs hooks his arms under your thighs, spreading you wide as he settles between your legs. his hard cock presses against your entrance, and he pauses.
he meets your gaze, his eyes full of desire. he leans down to press a soft kiss to your lips before slowly pushing his hips forward, sinking into you inch by inch until he's fully seated inside you. “fuck, baby... you're so goddamn perfect.” he starts to move, setting a slow, deep pace.
you wrap your legs around his waist, moaning as he begins hitting something that makes you see stars.
he hits that spot again on his next thrust, making you cry out. a deep groan escapes him as your legs tighten around his waist, pulling him in deeper. he starts to move faster, hitting that spot over and over again with precise, deep strokes. “there you go…”
“fuck, jake..” you whine out, digging your nails down his back.
he hisses at the sudden pain and rests his forehead against yours, your breaths mingling as he continues to pound into you deeply, your bodies moving in perfect sync. he nuzzles your nose with his, kissing you softly over and over again as he fucks you deeply. “shh... i’ve got you...”
you start to flutter around his cock, a warmth pooling in your stomach as your orgasm approaches. “im close…” you gasp out.
as you tell him you're close, he suddenly bites down on your neck, marking you deeply as he starts to thrust even harder and faster. the sensation of his teeth on your skin combined with the intense pleasure from his cock hitting that spot inside you sends you over the edge instantly.
you cry out, clenching around him as your orgasm rips through you, your head falling back in pleasure.
feeling you come around his cock makes him lose all control. he buries his face in your neck, groaning deeply as he starts to come with you, his release filling you up as he thrusts through both of your orgasms.
as you come down from your high, jake leaves gentle bites and nips along your neck, marking you with his teeth as he stays buried deep inside you. he’s still leaking come into you as he gently rolls his hips, keeping both of you sensitive and overstimulated.
you lie back against the mat, completely spent
jake gently pulls out of you, his cum leaking out onto the mat as he moves to lie beside you. he pulls you into his arms, holding you close and pressing gentle kisses to your forehead. “you okay, baby?”
“mhm..” you nod lazily, a satisfied smile playing on your lips.
he looks at the deep mark on your neck, along with the other bites and hickies he's left on your skin. a possessive groan rumbles in his chest as he notices them. he gently touches the biggest one, his thumb brushing over it softly.
“everyone will see these…” you mutter.
he groans deeply at your words. he loves the idea of everyone seeing his marks on you, knowing that you belong to him. he pulls you even closer, nuzzling your neck and inhaling your scent mixed with his own. “damn right they will.”
he smiles against your neck, pressing a soft kiss to the mark before burying his face there again. he’s finally calm and content, his mind quiet for the first time in a long time. he holds you tightly, his breathing evening out as he starts to drift off to sleep with you in his arms.
hi love!! i have a req for tsu’tey x reader few years post war, where he’s the oloeyktan and busy always working. Say they have gotten an arranged mating due to eywa and mo’at will, live like roommates but the attraction is there and it’s tensessse. reader gets sick of him being a gentlemen and takes things into her own hands w neytiri , staging a convo she knows tsutey will overhear where she mentions returning back to her clan and marrying this warrior tsutey has never gotten along with as her and tsutey’ marriage can still be void . Tsutey is mad asf and he comes home later that night n takes reader to pound town. N
❀࿔: you belong to me
°❀⋆.ೃ࿔ tsu'tey x fem! omaticaya! reader
summary: you were chosen as future tsahik after neytiri stepped down from her position to be with jake, which also meant you were now promised to tsu’tey. the two of you live together, and the attraction between you two hangs thick in the air. however, tsu’tey doesn’t allow himself to make a move, wanting to be honorable. you grow impatient and decide to take matters into your own hands…. 👅
warnings: lower caps, smut, p in v, tsu’tey is a bit of a bootyhole at first but redeems himself, oral (f receiving), masturbation, tit sucking, multiple positions/orgasms, squirting, fingering, biting/marking, mo’at and neytiri being queens, forgot a tsaheylu scene smh, jealous tsu’tey, wants to be a gentleman but reader said nuh uh 😂, possessive tsu’tey but reader reciprocates the energy
word count: 9.8k
author's note: this flowkirk might be one of the sexiest things i’ve ever written im ngl 😂😂✌️ tysm for requesting and i hope you like it, i had a lot of fun writing this 💗
na’vi translations:
irayo - thank you
tsmuke - sister
the fire crackled softly, casting flickering golden light across the woven kelku. the evening air was cool, and the forest outside hummed with night creatures.
you sat on a low woven mat, arranging dry vines and leaves to coax the flames higher.
tsu’tey had not returned yet. It was normal for him to be late, you knew tsu’teys duties as olo’eyktan never ended—scouting borders, training hunters, settling disputes among warriors.
as the olo’eyktan, tsu’tey had grown into his role with grace and strength. his leadership was respected and admired by all in the omatikaya clan. he had healed from his wounds both physically and emotionally, using his experiences to guide his people.
after neytiri stepped down from her position to be with jake— mo’at had chosen you to be the next tsahik.
tsu’tey had been slightly surprised when mo’at made the announcement, but he quickly composed himself and bowed respectfully. he knew the importance of the tsahiks role and trusted mo’ats judgment. besides, you had always shown wisdom and connection to eywa.
however, as future tsahik, you werent only spiritual leader in training, you were also tsu’teys promised mate.
as olo’eyktan, tsu’tey was aware of the arrangements made for the new tsahik. when mo’at informed him that he was to mate with you, he felt a mix of honor and...something else. he had always respected you, and now he would be bound to you in the most sacred way.
months had passed since mo’ats announcement, and tsu’teys kelku had become yours too.
it was simple but strong: woven vines, sturdy poles driven deep into the ground, a low entrance draped with soft furs.
the air inside was thick with something unspoken.
tsu’tey hadn’t touched you, atleast not in a way that could be called affectionate.
but he watched you: the curve of your jaw as firelight danced on it, the grace in your movements when tending herbs or when weaving vines. when he thought you weren’t looking, his eyes traced every part of you—lingering on your lips, then quickly darting away.
tsu'tey had always been patient and respectful, especially considering his role in the clan. he never wanted to rush or force anything, especially when it came to such an important bond. he had shown his attraction through gentle gestures, protective behavior, and lingering glances.
he was trying to maintain some sense of honor and respect despite the chaos your presence was causing within him. he didn't want to take advantage of the situation or of you. he wanted things to be proper between you when yoy eventually mated.
but the silence stretched too long.
you sat across from him night after night, close, yet untouched. the attraction was palpable, burning like the fire between you, but tsu’tey remained rigid, respectful to a fault.
he treated you as his promised mate, yes, but with distance, and it drove you mad.
the fire burned steadily now, casting long shadows that danced across the walls of your shared kelku.
the entrance flap to the kelku rustled as tsu’tey finally returned. he found you sitting by the fire, your expression a mix of annoyance and longing.
“you are home late.” you observed.
“the clan needed me,” he replied simply, his voice deep and steady. he could see the fire reflecting in your eyes, casting shadows on your face. “are you well?”
you gave him a simple nod. “mhm.”
he moved closer, his presence filling the kelku. he sat down near the fire, deliberately close to you but not touching. “the fire is warm.” he commented.
“it is cold out. come closer and get warmer.”
he hesitated for a moment, his eyes meeting yours. slowly, he moved closer, his body pressing against yours as he sat beside the fire. “i am warm enough.” he said quietly.
you let out a small sigh before turning your attention back to the fire
tsu’tey watched you out of the corner of his eye, noticing your posture stiffen slightly at his response. he could feel the tension between you two, the unspoken words hanging heavy in the air.
he finally turned to face you, his eyes locking onto yours. “you grow tired of my patience.” it wasn't a question. his hand came up to cup your jaw, tilting your face toward him. “i wait because this bond is sacred. but i am no longer a young hunter who does not know what he wants.” his thumb traced your cheek.
“okay” you replied simply.
tsu'tey's hand lingered on your face for a moment longer before dropping away. he could feel your impatience radiating off of you in waves, and it only served to increase his own frustration. he watched as you turned your gaze back to the fire, your posture rigid and uninviting.
“how was your day?” you asked suddenly, hoping to ease some of the tension.
“it was long," he replied. “i dealt with some disputes among the hunters.”
you nodded understandingly. “are you tired now?”
“yes,” he admitted, his voice low and gruff. he was tired, not just physically but emotionally as well. the constant tension between you two was wearing on him, and he could feel his resolve cracking. “i should sleep.” he began to rise, preparing to move to his sleeping mat.
tsu'tey paused, turning to look at you as you extinguished the fire. he watched as you stood up, your movements fluid and graceful in the dim moonlight filtering through the kelku. his eyes followed you as you began to walk towards your sleeping mat, his own steps slowing.
you settled comfortably into your mat, but you kept your eyes on him.
tsu'tey hesitated for a moment longer, his gaze locked with yours. he could see the expectation in your eyes, the silent plea for him to do something, anything. with a deep breath, he decided to ignore it, moving instead to his own sleeping mat.
you sighed heavily as he settled into his mat.
tsu'tey heard your frustrated huff and it only served to fuel his own growing irritation. he lay down on his mat, turning his back to you deliberately. his muscles were tense, every fiber of his being screaming at him to go to you, but his stubbornness held him back. “sleep,” he whispered.
you tried to, but you couldn’t. most nights were like that.
the silence stretched on, and tsu’tey could sense your restlessness. his own sleep was elusive as well, his mind racing with thoughts of you lying just a few feet away. he clenched his jaw tightly.
“tsu’tey?” you called out softly.
tsu'tey's body remained still, but his ears twitched at the sound of your voice. he didn't answer immediately, hoping that if he stayed quiet enough, you might just give up and go to sleep. but deep down, he knew that wasn't going to happen. “what is it?” he finally grumbled, his back still turned to you.
“come lie down with me. i’m cold.” you whispered.
tsu'tey's heart pounded in his chest at your words. it was a simple request, but it held so much more meaning behind it. he hesitated for a moment longer before standing up and walking over to your mat.
he watched the way you smiled at him in the moonlight and it nearly undid him. he lay down beside you, keeping a small distance between you two initially. his body was warm, and he could feel you scooting closer to him, instinctively seeking his heat. “i am not cold.” he muttered.
“well, i am. and you are warm.”
tsu'tey felt your body press closer to his, seeking warmth. he could feel your cold feet tangling with his, your arms wrapping around his waist unconsciously. he stiffened at the innocent contact.
you felt him tense under your touch, and you placed a hand on his chest, hoping to calm him down.
his breath hitched as your hand landed on his chest. his heart beat wildly under your palm, a stark contrast to the calm facade he was trying to maintain. he felt your cold fingers spread out over his warm skin, and without thinking, he covered your hand with his own.
“you are so tense. why is that?” you asked softly.
he looked down at you, his eyes searching yours in the dim light. his thumb gently caressed the back of your hand, a soothing gesture that belied the turmoil inside him. “i am not tense.” he lied, his voice low. “go to sleep.”
you began to rub your hands up his arms, aiming to create a more comfortable atmosphere between the two of you. “i am not tired.”
his body tensed even more as your hands moved up his arms. he felt your fingers gently squeeze his biceps, and he could feel his resolve weakening. he turned his head to look at you, his eyes locking onto your mouth. “stop touching me.” he growled.
your eyes narrowed. “why?”
tsu’teys jaw clenched as he struggled to find an answer. he couldn't tell you the truth, that your touch was driving him insane with desire. instead, he said, “because i am trying to sleep.” his voice was strained, his breathing shallow.
you let out a heavy sigh and let go of his arms, turning your back to him deliberately.
tsu'tey felt the sudden loss of your touch and his body ached with frustration. he watched as you turned your back to him, your form stiff with annoyance.
the night grew silent except for the distant calls of nocturnal creatures. tsu’tey lay awake, his mind a battlefield of self-control. he could feel your restless movements beside him, knowing you were just as awake as he was. the tension between you was palpable, almost suffocating.
you eventually lulled off to sleep and woke up the next morning to see tsu’tey already gone, like always.
you sighed heavily and rose from your mat, feeling the emptiness beside you. the morning air was cool and crisp, carrying the scent of the forest after a brief rain. as you stepped out of the kelku, you could see tsu’tey in the distance, already engaged in a conversation with some of the hunters. his posture was rigid, his expression serious.
you didn’t bother going to him. instead, you went to mo’ats hut for your daily training as future tsahik.
mo'at greeted you with her usual smile as you approached her hut. inside, the atmosphere was calm and focused, a stark contrast to the turmoil outside. as you began your training, mo’at watched you carefully, her eyes thoughtful. “your control is improving.” she complimented.
“thank you, tsahik. i try.” you replied warmly.
mo'at nodded, her gaze lingering on your face for a moment before she turned her attention back to the lesson at hand. as the morning progressed, you felt yourself sinking deeper into the calm and centered state that your lessons provided.
as you excelled in your training, the constant reminder of your future role as tsahik also served as a painful reminder of the bond you were supposed to share with tsu’tey. the position demanded closeness, understanding, and unity— things that seemed increasingly difficult between you two.
his cold shoulder and deliberate distance only confused and frustrated you further. you could see the longing in his eyes when he thought you weren't looking, the way his gaze lingered on you during meals or clan gatherings.
“irayo, mo’at” you thanked her.
mo'at watched as you gathered your belongings, her eyes reflecting a mix of pride and concern. she had seen the unspoken tension between you and tsu’tey, and she knew that it was taking a toll on you.
she paused as you prepared to leave, her expression turning thoughtful. she stood up from her seated position, her voice low and serious. “come here for a moment, child.” she beckoned you closer.
as you approached, mo’at gently placed her hands on your shoulders, her touch warm and comforting. she looked into your eyes with a mixture of understanding and concern. “you are doing well in your training, very well indeed. but there is something else weighing heavy on your heart, isn’t there?”
“i… i dont think so.” you lied.
mo’ats eyes softened, and she gave your shoulders a gentle squeeze. she was not fooled by your lie, her years of experience as tsahik allowing her to see the truth behind your words. “i have known you long enough to recognize when something troubles you deeply.”
you sighed heavily. “tsu’tey…” you started. “he just… he’s not allowing himself to open up to me.”
her expression turned thoughtful, her hands slowly releasing your shoulders. she guided you to sit down beside her, her voice gentle but firm. “the path of olo’eyktan and tsahik is complex and intertwined. it requires openness, trust, and a deep understanding that goes beyond mere words.”
“i know. i thought that we had that. i see the way he looks at me. so why won’t he do something about it?” there was frustration in your tone.
she listened, her eyes reflecting empathy and understanding. she paused for a moment before responding, choosing her words carefully. “tsu’tey is a leader born of great responsibility and expectation. his heart desires you, that much is clear to anyone who observes you together.” she paused.
“but tsu'tey is also a man of honor and dignity. he will not act rashly or carelessly, especially when it comes to matters of the heart and his duty as a leader.”
you smiled warmly. “thank you, tsahik.”
mo'at returned your smile warmly, her eyes basking in the respect and affection you held for her. “you are always welcome here, child. be patient and stay true to yourself, and trust in the wisdom of your heart.”
as you stepped out of mo’ats hut, the cool evening air wrapped around you like a comforting blanket. the sound of laughter and chatter from the village filled the air, a reminder of the simple pleasures of life. you took a deep breath, feeling a renewed sense of calm and understanding.
as you began to make your way back to your kelku, you noticed tsu’tey standing nearby, his tall figure illuminated by the soft glow of the setting sun. he was engaged in a conversations with a few warriors, his arms folded across his chest as he listened attentively.
you eyes raked over his body, taking in his serious expression, his toned muscles…
tsu’tey remained oblivious to your lingering gaze, his focus entirely on the conversation at hand. the other warriors seemed engrossed in his words, their expressions serious and respectful. as you stood there, watching him, you felt a familiar ache in your chest— longing mixed with frustration.
you snapped out of it and stepped inside the kelku you shared with tsu’tey.
the kelku was dimly lit by a small lantern hanging from the ceiling, casting soft shadows across the simple yet cozy interior. your eyes immediately went to the separate sleeping areas— one for you and one for tsu'tey.
you couldn't help but feel a pang of disappointment and confusion as you looked at the separate areas. it was a reminder of the distance tsu’tey maintained between you, despite your intended roles as mates.
the kelku flap rustled as tsu’tey entered, his figure momentarily silhouetted against the evening light. he moved quietly, seemingly lost in thought as he hung up his gear and adjusted his clothing.
“what was going on out there?” you asked curiously.
tsu’tey paused, his hand hovering over the lantern as he seemed to gather his thoughts. he turned to face you, his expression stern but not unkind. “a disagreement among the warriors. nothing for you to worry about.” he moved to sit down on a nearby mat, his movements stiff and deliberate.
“olo’eyktan duties must be affecting you.”
tsu'tey's expression softened slightly, though he still seemed distant. he let out a small sigh. “the burdens of leadership are heavy. every decision i make affects our people.” he looked at you then, his eyes searching yours for a moment before he looked away.
you nodded understandingly. “well… you are doing an amazing job.” you offered, smiling at him warmly.
his jaw tightened at your words, as if your praise unsettled him. he shifted on the mat, his gaze lingering on the ground between you. “you should rest.” his eyes drifted up to yours again, dark and conflicted, before he looked away once more. “it is late.”
“come sit with me by the fire. i made it for both of us.”
tsu'tey hesitated for a moment before slowly rising from the mat and moving towards the firepit. the flickering flames cast shadows on his face, highlighting his strong features and the exhaustion in his eyes. he sat down beside you, leaving a small but noticeable space.
you turned your attention to him. the firelight danced across his face, painting his features in warm tones that contrasted with his usual stoic demeanor. his eyes, normally sharp and alert, softened slightly as he stared into the flames, lost in thought. his profile was strong and proud, his jawline firm.
after a moment, tsu’tey seemed to sense your gaze on him. he turned his head slightly, catching you staring. instead of looking away or reprimanding you, he held your gaze, his own eyes searching yours in the flickering firelight.
a smile tugged at your lips before you looked away.
he eyes lingered on your smile for a moment before he too looked away, back towards the fire. the silence between you was comfortable yet charged with a tension neither of you seemed willing to acknowledge.
you poked at the fire, sending sparks flying upwards. tsu’teys gaze drifted from the flames to your hands. they were small and delicate compared to his own, moving with a grace that held his attention.
his gaze intensified as he watched you, his thoughts drifting away from the duties and responsibilities that usually consumed him. in this moment, all that mattered was the way your hands moved, the softness of your skin, and the gentle curve of your cheek as you looked down at the fire.
you turned your head and locked eyes with him, and for a moment, time seemed to stand still. the fire crackled softly, casting long shadows across your faces as you stared at each other. tsu’teys heart beat a little faster, his chest feeling tight as he held your gaze.
then he suddenly looked away again. the sudden change in his demeanor was palpable. his jaw clenched tightly as he turned his focus back to the fire, his eyes hardening once more. the intimacy that had been building between you seemed to vanish in an instant, replaced by the familiar sternness he was known for.
you let out a sigh and stood up.
tsu'tey's shoulders tensed, his hands clenching into fists on his lap. he didn't look up at you, instead keeping his gaze fixed on the fire. the air between you felt thick with unspoken tension and frustration, the warmth of the moment replaced by a cold, heavy silence.
“i am going to sleep.” you said flatly.
his voice was low and gruff when he replied, “sleep well.” he didn't move to stop you or acknowledge your words with more than a curt response. as you walked away, he remained sitting by the fire, his back stiff and his expression unreadable in the flickering firelight.
you watched as tsu’tey extinguished the fire with a forceful puff, plunging the area into darkness except for the faint, glowing embers. his movements were deliberate, almost angry as he stood up and walked towards his own sleeping area without a glance in your direction.
he lay down on his mat, pulling the thick fur coverings over himself. his movements were abrupt, bordering on angry as he tried to get comfortable. despite the cool night air, beads of sweat had formed on his forehead, a testament to the internal struggle he was clearly engaged in.
you had struggled to fall asleep. you shivered slightly, pulling the thin blanket tighter around you. the night air was cooler than you expected, and your body struggled to generate enough warmth. you tossed and turned for what felt like hours, trying to find a comfortable position, but the cold persisted.
“tsu’tey?” you called out suddenly.
no response came from his direction. the silence was deafening, and you could only assume he was either already asleep or intentionally ignoring you. the cold began to seep deeper into your bones, making it difficult to ignore. you shivered again, hugging yourself tightly.
“tsu’tey?” you called his name again, your voice growing slightly panicked and shaky from the cold. still, there was no response. tsu’tey either seemed determined to ignore you or was truly asleep.
you let out a heavy breath and stood up, making your way over to him.
as you approached, you could see the slow rise and fall of his chest, indicating he was indeed asleep. his face was turned away from you, his profile sharp and unyielding even in sleep. you hesitated for a moment, debating whether to wake him or not. the cold decided for you as you shivered violently.
you stayed silent as you lied down next to him, using your blanket aswell as the heat of his body to warm yourself up.
you pressed yourself close to him, seeking his warmth. his body was like a furnace, radiating heat that quickly began to seep into your cold limbs. you snuggled closer, wrapping the blanket around both of you. tsu’tey stirred slightly in his sleep but didn't wake up.
you sighed contentedly, draping an arm around him, seeking more warmth. thats when he woke up.
his eyes snapped open instantly, his body tensing beneath your touch. he looked down at your arm draped around him, then up at your face in the dim light. his expression was unreadable for a moment before it shifted to annoyance. “what are you doing?” he growled softly.
“i was cold. sorry.” you whispered.
his expression softened momentarily at your apology, but he quickly regained his stoic demeanor. “you should have woken me up instead of... this.” he hesitated before continuing, “...getting so close.”
“you’re warm. it helps.” you smile, rubbing soothing motions on his chest.
your simple touch and gentle smile made his chest tighten unexpectedly. he knew he should push you away, maintain some distance, but your cold body pressed against his was incredibly difficult to resist. when you rubbed his chest, he had to suppress a satisfied sound. “stop that.”
“just relax.” you say soothingly, nuzzling into him.
he inhaled sharply as you nuzzled into his chest, your cold nose pressing against his warm skin. his arms remained stiff at his sides, unsure of what to do with himself. he felt a strange warmth spread through his chest, different from the physical warmth you sought. “i am trying to sleep.”
“then go to sleep.” you replied flatly.
he grumbled internally at your simple response. how could he sleep with you pressed against him like that? your soft body, your gentle breathing, and the way you occasionally rubbed his chest were incredibly distracting. he tried to ignore it all and closed his eyes tightly. “move back to your mat.”
you frowned instantly at his words. “what?”
his voice came out harsher than intended, but he couldn't risk losing control. he needed you to move away before he did something stupid. “i said move back to your own mat. i can't sleep with you like this.”
“just let me hold you. im cold.” you run ypur hands up his arms. “please?”
his breath hitched as you ran your hands up his arms. the plea in your voice was nearly his undoing. his shoulders relaxed slightly, his voice softening despite himself. “…for just a little while.” he murmured softly, pulling the blanket tighter around both of you without conscious thought.
you let out a relieved sigh and began exploring his body with gentle touches, running your hands over his chest and arms. it was innocent exploration driven by curiosity and the need for warmth, but it was making him incredibly uncomfortable in the best possible way. he tried to focus on anything else, but your soft touches felt amazing.
you leaned forward and planted a soft kiss to his shoulder.
that simple kiss nearly broke his resolve. his shoulder tingled where your lips had pressed, and he had to bite back a pleased sound. he cleared his throat quietly, trying to distract himself from the growing warmth in his lower body. “you should sleep.” he suggested gruffly.
“i don’t want to sleep.” you whispered, a smile playing on your lips.
his eyes snapped open at your smirk, and he suddenly understood the shift in your behavior. you weren't just cold anymore; you were intentionally trying to seduce him. he swallowed hard, his body responding despite his mind screaming warnings. “stop it.” he ordered softly but firmly.
you felt his body tense up and you planted another kiss, aiming to calm him down.
he sucked in a sharp breath as your lips touched his shoulder again. he felt his control slipping, and he suddenly grabbed your hand before you could kiss him again. “enough.”
you wanted to scream in frustration. “why?”
he looked into your eyes, seeing the frustration and desire there. “…because i won't be able to stop if you keep doing that.” he admitted gruffly, his voice low and strained. “i am trying to be honorable here.”
“but i dont want you to be honorable. i dont want you to stop.” you admitted. “im tired of waiting for you, tsu’tey.”
his heart pounded in his chest at your admission. he knew he should push you away, tell you to wait longer, but the look in your eyes and the desire in your voice were too much for him to handle. “stop talking.” he grumbled out.
your features contorted in anger. “fine.” you stood up abruptly, yanking your blanket up from him and returning to your own mat.
he watched you storm away, his heart aching at the sudden coldness in your voice. he wanted to call you back, to apologize and explain himself better, but he knew that would only make things worse right now. he lay there for a long time, listening to your angry breathing across the room.
he could hear you tossing and turning on your mat, the blanket rustling restlessly. every small sound you made was torture. he lay there with his jaw clenched tight, staring at the ceiling, his body rigid with want.
you barely slept that night, your thoughts racing with the details of how he tensed beneath you.
his sleep was just as restless, plagued by dreams of you wrapped in his arms, kissing his shoulders, running your hands over his body. he woke up several times during the night, his heart racing, his body aching for release.
sunlight filtered through the kelku’s woven ceiling as you stirred awake—alone. again.
tsu’tey was gone, as always. already out among the trees: leading patrols, training new hunters.
cool, crisp air kissed your skin as you stepped onto the soft moss outside the kelku. for a moment, it soothed you. the quiet rustle of wind through vines, the distant chatter of animals, no warriors shouting orders yet.
you hadn’t heard the noises at first, too lost in thought. it wasnt until a particularly loud grunt came from behind the kelku that it caught your attention.
the sounds came from behind a nearby tree, muffled but unmistakable.
you stepped closer to where you heard it, walking further towards the edge of the kelku. the noises grew louder then— soft grunts and occasional whimpers.
you slowly poked your head around, and your jaw dropped at the sight before you.
tsu’tey was leaning against the tree, his back arched, one hand gripping the bark while the other moved swiftly along his cock. his eyes were closed tightly, lips parted as he struggled to keep his movements quiet.
your eyes were fixated on him, arousal pooling between your legs as you watched him jerk off vigorously. he clearly had been just as pent up as you were. you shifted, trying to get some friction.
he continued to stroke himself, his movements growing faster and more urgent. he bit his lip hard to suppress a groan, his hips thrusting slightly with each movement. he was completely lost in the pleasure, unaware of your presence or the slight shifting sounds you made as you watched him.
you slid a hand down your stomach, teasing the skin above the waistband of your loincloth before dipping inside. your fingers found your clit, already aching with need. you quickly covered your mouth to muffle a whine that escaped as you began to rub slow circles.
his hand moved faster, pre-cum leaking out. he caught it with his thumb, spreading it around the tip to lubricate better. his breathing was heavier now, more labored.
the pleasure inside you built quickly as you continued to rub frantic circles over your swollen clit, keeping all of your focus on him.
the wet sounds of his hand working over his cock mixed with his heavy breathing filled the quiet space. he tensed as a particularly intense wave of pleasure hit him. he had to bite back a loud groan by clenching his jaw shut. his hand sped up even more desperately, chasing his release. the tree he was leaning against shook slightly with his urgent movements.
your movements became quicker then, a coil starting to form low in your stomach at the pressure you were applying to your clit.
with one final, hard stroke, he bit down on his own arm to muffle the deep groan that tried to escape as he came, thick ropes of cum shooting out onto the forest floor.
you covered your mouth with your hand, your fingers digging in to your skin as you muffled a moan, your own climax crashing over you.
he slumped against the tree, legs shaking slightly as he continued to stroke himself through his orgasm, milking out every last drop of pleasure. his chest heaved with silent, labored breaths, completely unaware that just a few feet away, you were also silently climaxing with him.
after a moment, he slowly pulled his hand away, looking down at the mess he'd made. he quickly wiped his hand on some leaves before adjusting himself back into his loincloth. he leaned against the tree for a moment longer, catching his breath and composing himself.
you silently walked away, making sure not to alert him. the release had helped you, but it was no where near enough.
you’d had enough. it was time to take matters into your own hands.
you scanned your eyes across the clan, seeing it already bustling with activity. your gaze landed on jake and neytiri, talking near one of the huts, jake laughing at something neytiri said.
you saw your opportunity and walked over to them, your expression determined. as you approached, jake saw you and smiled warmly. “morning.” he greeted.
“good morning.” you replied.
neytiri looked at you curiously, sensing something was off. “are you alright?” she asked softly, her eyes searching yours. jake noticed the exchange and his smile faded slightly, picking up on the tension.
“neytiri, may i speak with you?” you asked softly, your tone slightly urgent.
meytiri's eyebrows rose in surprise, but she nodded immediately, recognizing the serious tone in your voice. she glanced at jake, who stepped back with an understanding nod. the two of you moved away from the area for privacy. “what is wrong?”
you didnt answer right away, just sighed heavily.
neytiri's expression turned concerned as she saw the frustration and unhappiness in your eyes. she knew you well enough by now to understand that something significant was bothering you. “is this about tsu’tey?” she asked gently, putting the pieces together.
“of course it is.” you muttered.
neytiri's eyes softened with empathy. she had always been fond of you and wanted to see you happy. she also knew tsu’tey well. “what happened?” she asked softly. “did he do something?”
“its what he isnt doing.” you corrected.
neytiri's eyes widened slightly as she caught your meaning. she sighed thoughtfully, considering her words carefully before speaking. “tsu’tey is... complicated.” she began. “he has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders.”
“yes, but he doesnt allow himself to open up to me. he clearly wants me. he claims he wants to be “honorable” but i am tired of it!”
neytiri listened patiently, nodding her head understandingly. she knew tsu’teys strict moral code and his tendency to put duty before personal desires. she also knew how frustrating that could be for someone who cared deeply for him. “i understand your frustration.” she said gently.
“so…” you began.
neytiri leaned in closer, giving you her full attention. “so… what are you thinking?” she asked cautiously.
“i have an idea.”
neytiri raised an eyebrow, intrigued. she waited for you to elaborate, her curiosity piqued. “what kind of idea?” she asked softly.
you explained your plan to her. the two of you were to stage a conversation that tsu’tey would overhear where you would mention marrying a warrior tsu’tey has never gotten along with.
neytiris eyes widened as she listened to your plan, and she couldn't help but smile. she knew exactly which warrior you were referring to— the one tsu’tey had a long-standing rivalry with.
“so…what do you think?” you asked, studying her expression.
neytiri chuckled softly. “i think it is brilliant.” she admitted. “tsu’tey will lose his mind. he is already barely keeping himself under control around you… this will push him over the edge.”
you nodded, a smirk tugging at your mouth. “exactly.”
“well…when do we start?” she asked eagerly. she chose that moment to look over your shoulder and spot tsu’tey approaching with a group of other warriors.
tsu’tey walked past, unaware of the conversations and plans being made behind his back. he was deep in thought, his mind preoccupied with clan matters and ongoing tensions.
you turned back to neytiri once he was fully out of view. “we will need to do it at a time when he is alone and not busy with others.”
neytiri nodded in agreement. “that makes sense. we want him to overhear every word without any distractions.” she paused thoughtfully before continuing. “perhaps after dinner tonight? most of the clan will be busy with their own tasks or already sleeping.”
“that sounds good.” you agreed.
as the day wore on, the two of you went about your separate tasks, exchanging subtle glances and smiles. the anticipation was palpable, and you were eager for the evening to arrive.
as predicted, after dinner, the clan began to disperse, leaving the camp relatively quiet.
you made your way over to neytiri. she saw you approaching and quickly moved to your side, her expression carefully composed. “are you ready?” she asked softly.
“where is he?” you asked. neytiri pointed through the bushes, giving you a clear view of tsu’tey sitting alone, sharpening his knife. he was unaware of your presence or the plan you and neytiri had made. the faint sound of the stone against the blade filled the quiet night air.
you both moved closer to the bushes, positioning yourselves where tsu’tey could overhear but couldn't see you.
neytiri took a deep breath and began the conversation, her voice soft but clear enough for tsu’tey to hear. “you know... i have been thinking about what you told me earlier.”
“oh, you have? do you… think it’s a good idea?”
neytiri continued, her voice taking on a thoughtful tone. “yes... i do. in fact, i think it is the perfect solution.” she paused again, letting the words sink in before continuing. “i mean, who better than him? he is strong, respected by the clan..."
you noticed tsu’teys ears perk up slightly as he tried to disguise the fact that he was eavesdropping. his knife sharpening slowed almost imperceptibly. neytiri caught your eye briefly.
“yes. aylan would be a good choice…”
as you mentioned aylan’s name, tsu’teys grip tightened around the hilt of his knife. his jaw clenched, and he tried to focus on his task, but his attention was now solely on the conversation unfolding before him. neytiri kept her expression neutral.
“he is loyal, honorable... exactly the kind of warrior you would want as a mate.” she paused. “and he's quite handsome too.” neytiri sneaked a glance towards the bushes where tsu’tey was sitting tensely.
“indeed he is.” you added with a smirk. “however, mating with him would mean giving up my position as tsahik…”
tsu’teys knife stopped moving entirely as he listened intently. his knuckles turned white from gripping the blade too tightly.
“true... but think of the benefits.” she replied seriously. “a strong warriror by your side… a family… security… things that you clearly aren’t getting here.”
a smile tugged at your lips. “that is true. is he looking to court anybody?”
tsu'tey's heart pounded in his chest. he could barely breathe as he listened to your conversation. neytiri took a moment before answering. “yes... he's been quite open about it actually.”
“has he? has he shown interest in me?” you exaggerated the excitement in your voice.
neytiri nodded slowly, enjoying the way tsu’tey was practically shaking with barely contained emotion. “yes. infact, he asked me about you just this morning.”
as soon as neytiri finished speaking, tsu’tey stood up abruptly, his knife clattering to the ground. he stormed off into the forest without a word, his footsteps heavy with anger and frustration. neytiri turned to you with a satisfied grin. “i think that went well.”
you nodded in agreement, still looking in the direction where tsu’tey stormed off. “well… i guess i will let you know what happens.”
neytiri nodded, her smile widening. “i’ll be waiting to hear the details tomorrow. now go get your warrior, ma tsmuke.” she gave you one last encouraging look before walking back into the shadows, leaving you alone.
you made your way back to the kelku, your heart hammering against your ribs.
you knew he would be back soon. the question was, how would he be? would he be furious? jealous? both? you couldn't help but feel a mix of excitement and anxiety.
after a few moments, you heard the sound of heavy footsteps approaching the kelku. the entrance flap was pushed aside, and in stepped tsu’tey. his face was thunderous, his eyes dark with emotion. he stood in the entrance, his chest heaving with breaths that came a little too quickly.
“oh. you are back early.” you commented.
tsu’teys gaze locked onto you, his eyes blazing. he stepped further into the kelku, the entrance flap falling closed behind him. he opened his mouth to speak, but for a moment, no words came out. Instead, he just stared at you, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
“is everything ok…? you look…”
he interrupted you, his voice low and dangerous. “you were talking with neytiri.”it wasn't a question, but a statement. his eyes narrowed, his voice dropping even lower. “about aylan.” he took another step closer.
you tried your hardest to suppress the smirk that dared to play on your lips. “oh… you heard?”
his jaw clenched, his eyes flashing with jealousy. he took another step closer, his voice barely above a growl. “i heard everything.” he paused, his gaze searching your face for any sign of emotion. seeing the smirk you were trying to hide only made his anger rise.
“yes.” you said simply. “he has shown interest in me. perhaps he would be a good choice.”
tsu’teys face twisted with anger, and before you could react, he closed the distance between you both. his hands gripped your arms, pulling you up against his chest as he backed you against the kelku wall. “he wants to court you?” he snapped.
your breath hitched at the new position, his strong arms holding you down with ease. “you heard the conversation. thats what neytiri told me.” your voice came out breathy. “maybe… i should mate with someone who actually shows interest in me.”
his grip tightened on your arms, his face inches from yours. his eyes were wild with jealousy and possession. “and what about what i want?” he demanded roughly. his body pressed against yours, trapping you against the wall.
“what about it?”
“what if i don't want you mating with aylan? what if i don't want you mating with anyone else?” his face was so close that his breath fanned over your lips as he spoke.
“what happened to being ‘honorable’, hmm?” you asked, your mouth now a full blown grin.
his eyes flashed with frustration. he leaned in closer, his voice barely above a whisper. “i am being honorable by telling you what i want.” he paused, his gaze locked onto yours. “i don't want another man courting you. i don’t want another man touching you.” his voice was low and intense, his eyes searching yours.
he was so close now that your noses were almost brushing. his eyes were intense, burning with emotion. he wanted to kiss you, to claim you as his own. but he held back, his jaw clenched tightly. he wanted you to make the next move, to show him that you wanted this too. “say something.” he commanded roughly.
your eyes darted down to his lips before going back up to his eyes. “…so are you going to kiss me?” you asked, your voice barely above a whisper.
as soon as the words left your mouth, tsu’teys lips crashed against yours in a fierce, possessive kiss. his hands released your arms to wrap around your waist, pulling you even closer as he deepened the kiss. his tongue pushed past your lips, claiming your mouth with a hunger that spoke of long-denied desire.
you moaned into his mouth, bringing your hand up to his hair to deepen the kiss.
tsu’tey groaned at the sound of your moan, his hands tightening around your waist. his lips never left yours as he lifted you up, pressing your back against the wall as he continued to kiss you with a fierce passion. he nipped at your lip, dragging it between his teeth before soothing it with his tongue.
he pulled back slightly, his eyes dark with desire as he looked at you. “would you let aylan kiss you like this?”
you shook your head. “no…”
“would you let him touch you?” his hands slid down to grip your thighs, squeezing possessively. “like this?” he lifted you slightly, pressing your core against his growing erection. “aylan wouldn't know how to touch you. how to make you feel good.”
you whimper softly at the feeling of his erection pressing against you. you dont respond to him, instead crashing your lips against his again.
tsu’tey groaned at the sudden kiss, his hands squeezing your legs as he pressed you harder against him. he kissed you back fiercely, his tongue dominating yours as he tried to prove his point. he knew you weren't answering because you couldn't deny the truth. “you like this.”
“maybe.” you whispered against his lips.
he leaned down and sucked hard on your neck, marking you possessively. his hands slid up your legs, pulling them around his waist as he carried you to one of the sleeping mats. he laid you down gently, his body covering yours as he continued to mark your neck and collarbone with harsh kisses. “only maybe?”
you moaned softly. “mhm…”
tsu'tey groaned, his hips grinding against you as he continued to mark your skin. he knew he was winning, that you were getting lost in the sensation of his touch. his hands slid under your top, his fingers brushing the undersides of your breasts.
you arched into his touch, making him smirk against your neck. his fingers closed over your breasts to squeeze and knead the soft flesh, his thumbs brushing over your hardening nipples. “so responsive.” he murmured approvingly.
you quickly made work to remove your top, your fingers untying the knots.
as soon as your top was removed, his eyes locked onto your bare chest, his pupils dilating at the sight. without hesitation, he bent his head and captured one of your nipples in his mouth, sucking hard as his hands continued to squeeze and massage the other.
“oh— oh, tsu’tey…” you tangled your fingers in his hair, crying out softly.
tsu’tey groaned at the sound of his name on your lips, his hands tightening on your breasts as he switched to the other nipple, giving it the same treatment. he sucked and licked, his hands kneading the soft flesh as he listened to your cries of pleasure. he was so hard it was almost painful.
you looked down at him. the sight of him working your breasts was incredibly attractive, and it only served to arouse you more.
feeling your gaze on him, tsu’tey looked up from your chest, his lips wet and puffy from sucking on your nipples. his eyes were heavy-lidded with desire as he met your gaze, his hands still squeezing and massaging your breasts. “could aylan do this to you? could he make you feel like this?”
“no… he couldnt.” you breathed out.
tsu’tey smirked arrogantly against your breast before sucking your nipple back into his mouth. he wanted to make it absolutely clear that he was the only man who knew how to pleasure you.
you reached for his hand, grabbing it and guiding it downward to the ties of your loincloth.
tsu’teys eyes immediately flashed with understanding. he released your nipple with a wet pop and sat up, his hands making quick work of the ties. as the fabric fell open, revealing your bare core, he let out a low groan of approval.
he leaned forward and kissed his way down your stomach slowly, his hands pushing your thighs apart gently but firmly. he could smell your arousal and it was making him dizzy with desire. he looked up your body to make eye contact as he settled between your legs.
“please…” you breathed out.
tsu’tey smirked at your plea, blowing cool air over your heated core before pressing a gentle kiss to your slit. he knew you wanted more, but he wanted to tease you, to make you beg for it. “please what? what do you need?”
“you know what i need.”
his smirk grew wider, more arrogant. he knew exactly what you needed. he could see it in your flushed face, in your parted thighs, in your desperate whisper. he shook his head. “i need to hear you say it.”
“i want your mouth on me.” you said, way past the point of embarrassment.
with a satisfied groan, tsu’tey buried his face between your legs, his tongue licking a broad stripe up your center. he licked slowly, tasting you thoroughly as he explored every inch of your core with his mouth. he focused on your clit, sucking and circling it with his tongue in a way that made your vision blur.
you threw your head back, a broken moan echoing across the kelku as your hand fisted in his hair.
he moaned against you, loving the sounds you made and the way you tugged on his hair. his arms wrapped around your thighs, pulling you closer as he feasted on you. his tongue worked faster, his fingers sliding inside you suddenly to pump in time with his sucking. “is this what you needed?”
the addition of fingers made you cry out. “yes… oh- yes… that’s exactly what i needed.”
he moaned against you, smiling wide as he continued to lick and suck you mercilessly. his fingers curled inside you, pressing on that spot that made your whole body tense. “could aylan make you feel this good?”
“no…only you.”
tsu’teys ego swelled with satisfaction at your words, making him double his efforts. he wanted to make you come so hard you'd never think of aylan again. he sucked your clit hard as his fingers pumped faster, hitting that spot over and over.
you wrapped your thighs around his head, keeping him locked in place, and he groaned approvingly.
he loved being trapped there. he could feel your legs tightening around his head as he continued to devour you. his nose pressed against your clit, breathing you in as he licked and sucked. he could feel you getting closer, your body tensing, your thighs squeezing his head tighter.
“tsu’tey… im-“
before you could finish your sentence, he sucked your clit into his mouth, sucking hard as his fingers curled inside you, pressing down hard on that spot. your whole body convulsed as you came hard, crying out loudly. he held you in place, continuing to lick and suck through your orgasm.
he loved the taste of you, the feel of your shaking thighs around his head. he kissed your inner thighs gently before nuzzling into your core, just holding you there for a moment as you came down from your high. then he pulled back, looking up at you with a satisfied smirk.
he crawled up your body and kissed you deeply, letting you taste yourself on his tongue. his arms wrapped around you, pulling you flush against his chest as kissed you slowly and thoroughly. when he finally pulled back, he pressed his forehead against yours, breathing heavily.
you brought your hand down and palmed him through his loincloth, making him moan deeply. he watched as you slowly untied the strings holding it in place, revealing his cock. he was large, thick and long, pulsing with need.
“please… i need you…” you breathed.
he groaned at your desperate words, his hands shaking slightly as he grabbed your hips and lifted you up. he settled between your legs, pressing his hardness against your still sensitive core. he leaned down and kissed you hard. “you need this?”
“yes.. yes, please.”
“i thought you wanted to mate with aylan, hmm?” he teased.
“no… i only want you, tsu’tey.” you replied, your voice rough with desire.
his eyes darkened with possessive satisfaction at your words. he positioned himself at your entrance, the tip of his cock pressing against you. he didn't enter you yet, just teased you, rubbing against you slowly. “say it again. say that you are mine.” he pressed just the tip inside, stretching you open, then pulled back slightly. “please… please say it.”
“im yours” you said, your voice shaky. “im all yours, tsu’tey.”
at your words, he thrust forward, sliding his cock inside you in one long, slow motion. you both moaned loudly as he filled you completely. he grabbed your legs and wrapped them around his waist, pulling you closer as he began to move his hips slowly. “all mine?”
“yes. all yours.” you gasped.
he groaned possessively, his hips snapping faster. he lifted your legs higher, changing the angle so he could hit deeper. you breasts bounced with each thrust, and he leaned down to capture one nipple in his mouth, sucking hard as he began to move faster.
you cried out, wrapping your arms around him tightly as he hit that spot inside of you over and over again.
he kept that angle, thrusting deep and hard as he sucked and bit at your nipples. one hand slid down to press on your clit, rubbing circles in time with his thrusts.“why do you want to leave me? why do you want to mate with aylan when i’m all you need?”
“i dont, tsu’tey. i only want you…” you breathed out.
he moaned as you claimed him back. he loved that you wanted only him, that you were his. he fucked you harder, faster, deeper, his hand working your clit relentlessly as he kissed and bit at your neck and breasts. “i am yours. all yours.”
you raked your nails down his back, marking him. the slight pain made him thrust even harder. he loved being marked by you, being shown that you wanted him as much as he wanted you. he could feel you getting closer, your walls tightening around him. “are you going to come on my cock?”
“yes.. yes im so close. please-” he bit down hard on your neck, his fingers working your clit faster. his other hand grabbed your hip to pull you down harder onto his length. he looked up at you, watching your face twist in pleasure as you got closer to your orgasm.
you moaned as he bit your neck, the slight pain only pushing you over the edge as you came undone.
he felt you clamp down on him, milking him as you came hard. that was all it took for him to follow, moaning loudly as he emptied himself deep inside you. he stayed inside, holding you close as he caught his breath. then he kissed you softly, gently. “you are mine. not aylan’s. mine.”
“yours...” you agreed. “i’m yours and you are mine.”
he smiled against your lips. “say it again.” he ground his hips slowly, still buried deep inside you, not ready to pull out yet. his hand traced lazy circles on your hip as he waited for your next words, craving the affirmation. “tell me that i’m yours.”
“you’re mine, tsu’tey. all mine.”
his smile widened into a satisfied grin, his heart swelling with love and pride. he pulled out slowly, watching as his cum leaked out of you. he pushed back in gently, spreading his release inside you. he repeated this a few times before pulling out completely. “turn over.” he commanded.
you whimpered slightly at the loss but obeyed, positioning yourself on your hands and knees.
he grabbed your hips and slid back in easily, his cock gliding through your combined wetness. he held your hips securely, keeping you in place as he began to move slowly, deeply. he leaned over your back, his chest pressing against you as he kissed your neck and shoulders.
you moaned softly at the kisses, the heat of his body encasing you. “harder, please…” you begged softly.
he groaned against your skin, loving your demand. he gripped your hips tighter and started thrusting harder, faster. he pulled your hair to the side and bit and sucked on your neck possessively as he snapped his hips forward, hitting that spot inside you that made you cry out. you fisted your hands in the mat, moaning loudly.
the sound of your pleasure drove him wild. he let go of your hair and wrapped an arm around your waist, lifting you up higher onto your knees so he could hit that spot even better. his other hand reached around to play with your clit as he pounded into you from behind. “am i good enough for you? am i what you need?”
you nodded frantically. “yes… yes you are.” your voice came out broken.
his movements became even more intense, his body slapping against yours with each thrust. he rubbed your clit faster, harder, determined to make you come again. his voice was strained as he grunted out, “tell me i’m the only one you want.”
“only you, tsu’tey. i only want you.”
his control snapped at your words. he rubbed your clit furiously, thrusting hard enough that the mat beneath you started to slide. he leaned back, pulling you with him so he could watch his length disappearing inside you with each snap of his hips.
you started to back yourself up against him, fucking yourself on his cock as you met his thrusts.
his eyes rolled back as you started to fuck yourself on him. the sight of you taking him so eagerly was too much. he continued to rub your clit in quick circles as he met your movements thrust for thrust. the sight was making him even harder, and he could feel another orgasm building quickly. “thats it… use me. use me to make you feel good.”
you could feel another orgasm building quickly, but this one felt different. more intense. “tsu’tey…” you gasp.
he could tell by the way your body tensed that this was something different, something even more intense than before. he leaned over your back again, wrapping an arm around your chest to hold you close as he continued to thrust deep and hard. “let go for me. come on my cock again.” his voice was soft but commanding.
his words push you over the edge and you came with a cry, your climax ripping through you as you squirted over his cock.
as soon as you started to come, he felt your body squeeze his cock tightly, and then warm liquid gushed out around him. the sensation was so intense that it pushed him over the edge as well. he groaned loudly, burying his face in your neck as he came hard inside you, his release mixing with the liquid from your intense orgasm.
he held you close, both of you trembling and gasping for air as you came down from your intense orgasms. his cock was still buried deep inside you, twitching occasionally as it emptied the last of its load. he nuzzled your neck softly, placing gentle kisses there. “shh...”
he slowly pulled out, feeling his cum and your fluid leak out of you. he watched as it dripped down your inner thighs, marking you as his. he gently pushed you back down onto the mat, spreading your legs wide open to look at the mess he'd made inside you.
you immediately pulled him down to kiss him deeply.
he kissed you back hungrily, his tongue sliding against yours as he watched you spread his release inside you with your fingers. he broke the kiss to nuzzle his face between your breasts, his hands roaming possessively over your body.
you wrapped your arms around him, and he instantly melted into your embrace, his body relaxing against yours. he felt safe, loved, and completely satisfied in your arms. he nuzzled his face into your neck and held you close, breathing in your scent.
he pulled back slightly to look at all of the marks on you. he lightly traced the hickeys and bite marks he had left on your neck and shoulders with his fingertips, a possessive smirk playing on his lips. he knew every single one of those marks was a statement— you were his, and he was yours. no one else could have you.
“everyone will see these…” you muttered, chuckling softly.
his smirk widened into a full-blown grin. he wanted everyone to see those marks. he wanted the whole world to know that you belonged to him. he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to your neck, right above the most prominent mark. “good. let them see.”
he wrapped his strong arms around you, pulling you closer, protecting you. he knew that anyone who looked at you would know you'd been thoroughly loved. claimed.
“they will see that you’re taken. that someone loves you enough to mark you. let them look. let them know you're mine.” his hands gently rubbed your back, soothing any potential worry or embarrassment you might feel.
you smiled contentedly and leaned into him. you both drifted off to sleep wrapped around each other, completely satisfied. he slept deeply, one arm wrapped possessively around your waist, his body curved around yours protectively. and for the first time in months, tsu’tey slept without nightmares or restlessness.
genre & warnings. fluff — reader is a mother of three. reader is joyful & fun wifey. reader is very curious, blunt, has little knowledge of the sky people. jake overusing the nickname 'baby'. cute moments - watching old videos of jake and filming each other. | smut — sex tape. voyeurism. semi-public sex. oral sex (f_receiving). jake being a tease. dirty talk. binding & doggystyle. spanking.
note. imma include my main icon beyoncé in everythingg, the act iii theories are draining mee😭 don't ask how i got this idea just by listening to the song.. i might as well introduce her to pandora- anyway enjoy this juicy fic & watch my mind put in work!! ☺️🩵
Once the morning loitered for too long, the ritual began for sanitizing the Sullies sanctuary.
No one couldn't escape it, your three little rascals especially. Polishing multiple decors, watering flowers and plants, foldaway rags. Legs were shredded from the labor which led for the endless nagging from your children to go outside finally snapped your patience, then the marui was wrapped in silence and now it was you and your husband Jake.
Chores were completed anyway, and at last you could rest your swollen feet, the ache of the day finally settling into something bearable. Until you saw the unfinished banana fruit on top of Jake's kit you knew your youngest son was eating. And you knew you told him to dispose the waste. More than twice.
"Ta'txo..." You clenched your jaw so tightly, cursing mentally before disposing it eventually.
It gave you the opportunity to look inside Jake's kit to see if anything else needed care, yet this odd machine caught your naive eye.
It was half-buried in dust and debris, but the dust was only your translation for the dull particulate shimmer around it. Its surface didn't reflect the world back to you the way natural things do. Instead, it absorbed patterns of light like it was swallowing them.
What you perceived was a layered stillness, an artificial focus-point that feels too deliberate to be part of the environment, a constructed gaze. It stored you, held the shape of your environment including your face of confusion and refused to release it.
Mated with a sky person was a challenge especially discovering new metals every day. You took the device in your palm before asking Jake, "My love, what is this?"
His ears perked up at your voice as he turned from polishing his guns. His eyes widened slightly when he saw what you were holding, his old video camera, its black plastic casing dulled by years of neglect.
He wiped his hands on his loincloth and crossed the room in a few strides, reaching out to take it with gentle reverence. The weight of it in his palms felt familiar yet foreign, like holding a relic from another lifetime.
"Oh, this?" He chuckled softly, thumb brushing over the lens cap. "It's a video camera. From my old life." His voice dipped, softening with nostalgia. "Humans used these to record moving images and capture memories."
Your eyes flickered with intrigue as you leaned closer. Your slender fingers hovered near the 'video camera' but didn’t touch, you were hesitant to mess up a forgettable past, but fascinated to know more.
He then pressed a button on the side, and the screen flickered to life — a grainy, faded image of jungle foliage, shaky from his demon-blooded hands. You gasped softly in delight.
"That was from my first days here," he murmured, scrolling through clips — Neytiri teaching him to hunt, Tsu'tey’s scowling face, the Omatikaya gathered under the Tree of Voices.
Then it shifted to the footage of younger Jake, human-Jake, grinning into the lens before the screen went dark.
"You were different," You said softly, in awe.
"Yeah," Jake admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "That was before Eywa gave me this body. Before I became one of you."
This was just the beginning of your acknowledgement on this piece of plastic, it felt like sin to understand more about its concept.
"Show me more." You wished in such an eager tone that made Jake laughed, "You wanna see more?"
Your tail curled around his leg before your fangs glinting as you grinned. "I want to see you." That was all the invitation he needed.
Time continued until the early afternoon, you sat cross-legged on the woven mats as the camera was between you both. Jake flicked through more videos, sometimes pausing to explain something. Telling you how he felt about you, how he learned to ride on his Ikran for the first time. He showed you moments of laughter, moments of pain, all captured in pixels and flashes of light.
Through it all, you listened, your gaze rapt and your questions endless. You took a hold of the camera once again, examining this small object that could keep memories forever, it was like a time machine, you didn't know if this was a blessing or curse from Great Mother but you knew you will keep this thing close to you like your songcord, unless you took good care of it.
"Can it take me?" You switched your gaze to Jake in wonder.
"Yeah, it can." He scooted closer, "Want me to show you?" Immediately you passed the camera over and leaned towards him, your expression was a blend of excitement and curiosity.
As Jake fiddled with the buttons, his heart fluttered unexpectedly. He angled the viewfinder to frame your surreal face, his thumb hovering over the record button. "Go ahead and chat, baby." he commanded softly, his voice barely a whisper.
Your eyes sparkled with anticipation. Jake looked through the viewfinder, a strange feeling curling within him. He'd filmed friends and family, landscapes and wildlife, but never like this. You were the one that stood out most, now he wasn't gonna let this camera go.
"Okay," You started by standing up and balancing allure with clumsy charm to make Jake snicker. "Hello. I'm ___. I'm Toruk Makto's wife. I love my babies-
Jake chuckled, the camera shaking slightly as he tried to hold back a smile. "You're boring me out," he mumbled. "Try again, but... less dramatic this time."
You feigned offense, "Dramatic? I am simply introducing myself to your magic human-box," You retorted.
"It's called a camera, baby. Not a magic human-box." His thumb hovered over the record button again, this time with an amused but expectant look. "And less posing. Just be natural."
You scoffed, "What should I say? 'Hi, I'm ___. Goodbye'." Plainly sarcastic.
Jake rolled his eyes, a smirk playing on his lips. "You realize you're supposed to say a bit more than that, right?"
"Like what?" You shrugged.
He leaned back, one ankle crossing the other, his gaze drifting to the camera's screen. You in focus: your sharp features, playful gleam in your eyes and your slight pout. The sight made his heart skip a beat.
"I don't know," he said with an exaggerated sigh. "How about something more personal?"
He was stalling now, and he knew it. But he wanted to capture more than just your physical appearance. He wanted to capture this moment, he wanted more.
"Fine," You huffed dramatically, tossing your braids over one shoulder but then you softened, exhaling through your nose. Your gaze flicked to the camera, then past it, to Jake's face. Something unguarded flickered across your expression.
"Okay," You started. "I’m ___." A short pause. "I rode with Toruk Makto. I laugh when my children pretend to be warriors. Mmmh-" You took a moment to add another fact, "I chose you. Every day. Even when you forget where you put your spear."
"You forgot one thing," He murmured.
You tilted your head in wonder. "Hmm?"
"That you're the most stunning creature on this whole damn moon."
The camera jostled, capturing the blur of your movement, the sound of your shared laughter. "You like what you see? That's why you are videoing me?" You teased slightest.
"Damn right I do," Jake admitted shamelessly, zooming in slightly just to watch the way your purple blush darkened under his attention. "You’re gonna make this whole recording about yourself, huh?"
You smirked, striking another exaggerated pose, one hand on your hip and the other dramatically tossed over your forehead like some human soap opera character Jake must have accidentally described to you once. "Of course. Isn’t that the point of your magic human-box?"
Jake snorted. "It’s called narcissism, sweetheart."
As the moment unfolded, you slowed down, choosing to savor it with quiet attention. This magic human-box could take reality and keep it forever — to view it as memories, watch moments over and over again...
You had to ask.
"Can it show how we make love?"
Jake nearly dropped the camera, "Huh?"
Your gaze was unflinching, you were completely serious.
Jake took a deep breath, trying to regain some semblance of composure. "You wanna do that on camera, baby?" His voice cracked slightly on the last word, his throat suddenly dry.
"Yes. I want to see you. If I feel good, it must look good to watch over and over again." You smiled warmly, almost innocently, even as the request carried a risqué edge.
"You realize that's a very private thing, right?" He informed.
"Yes." You nodded in agreement as you swayed your way to Jake before sitting close, your hands resting on his chest. "It's your camera afterall. Your eyes only."
Your sweet, luring tone made him swallowed hard, the heat of your touch and closeness made his head spin even more than your words. He'd be a fool to deny you anything.
Jake chuckled before biting his lip at the thought, some quiet voice that had been whispering in the back of his mind now was speaking loud and clear. Shit, why not...?
He exhaled, slow and deliberate, before positioning the camera flat on the floor as he turned it toward you both, the lens capturing the tangled closeness.
"It’s not just my camera," he murmured, voice thick. "It’s ours now."
Jake took hold of your neck to bring you close for a steady kiss, the camera continued to record as your bodies moved against each other, the touches and kisses a blur of passion and desire. The sounds of your heavy breaths and the sound of your lips meeting again and again, the lens captured every shift.
He needed to be closer, his large hands guided your hips to straddle his lap. You pushed his dreads gently that once rested on his shoulders to rest your arms there, his beefy arms were a cage around your waist to balance you.
It was something that excited you about the camera capturing this moment, you could watch it anytime you wanted, facing the camera too, seeing how your husband kissed and touched you.
You caught in the heat of the moment, he captured your chin, tilting your face upwards and to face him. "Look at me." You obeyed instantly. You saw the raw desire burning within you both, the possessive edge that always made your heart skip a beat. You two have been together like this countless times, but this was diverse.
"I'm looking." You gasped softly.
"Good." He leaned in, voice a growl against your mouth:
"Now let’s give the camera something real to remember."
A sudden clash of lips, a battle of tongues, a storm of need. He didn't hold back, his body pressing into yours, his hands roaming freely, knowing exactly where to touch to make you shudder and feel satisfied.
The camera caught it all: the way his hands traced the curve of your hip, the way your body responded instinctively to his, the sounds of the mingled breaths. He broke the kiss, but only to trail his mouth down your neck. You gasped for air, a low moan escaping your lips, and the sound echoed in the small space, picked up by the camera's microphone.
He lifted his head then, his gaze locking with yours. "You like this, sweetheart? Like being watched, huh?" His hand slid down your leg, fingers tracing the inside of your thigh that made you inhaled sharply, a shudder running through you at the question.
"I love it..." You soughed.
"Yeah?" His voice was so dark with a teasing rumble. His hand moved higher, closer to hid under your loincloth for his fingers to be warm by your lower lips. He was drawing this out, making you wait, and the camera was catching every second.
You hated him for his bothering habit yet loved him for it at the same time. But in that moment, there was only one answer you could give. "Yes," you repeated.
"Good girl." His own gaze was hooded, the hunger in them intensifying. He was enjoying this far too much — the power, the control and the knowledge that he could bring you to the edge and back again, all caught on his magic human-box.
His hand moved higher, his touch both torturous and pleasurable, drawing closer to your center. The camera caught it all: your ragged breath, the way your hips lifted slightly, desperate for more. Yet he held you there, teetering on the brink, until you were trembling with need.
Your back arched slightly, and he watched in fascination as the camera captured every tiny reaction: the way your lips parted on another soft gasp, how your tail lashed against his leg in restless anticipation. He increased the pressure slightly, his fingers moving with practiced ease, he knew exactly where to touch, how much friction to give.
Your breath came in shallow pants now, and Jake could feel the tension coiling in your body like a spring about to snap. "Lick. Lick me, Jake." Your words stumbled out in broken pieces, unfamiliar and unshaped, and he couldn’t help the quiet fascination that flickered in his gaze.
Without hesitation, he lowered himself between your legs, still kneeling on the woven mats and hooked his fingers into the waistband of your loincloth. He made sure both of you were seen, you especially, sitting up by your elbows as you eyed him below.
With one smooth motion, he slid it down just enough to expose your damp lower lips. The camera remained pointed in your direction from its spot beside you as Jake leaned in and pressed a slow kiss on your slit with gentle pressure before dragging his tongue upward in one long stroke.
There was no reason to rush, he took his time tasting you with intentionally, savoring the salt, tangy savour of your deep universe. His tongue moved with skill honed by years of loving you like this, knowing when to tease and when to press down hard enough for a real reaction.
And he was killing it, just by the judge of you bringing your hips closer and lewd sounds escaping your lips.
Your eyes were challenging the camera, knowing and seeing yourself being fucked so well. Somehow with this camera made you feel devastatingly sexy, you knew your worth. How your husband glanced up at you through half-lidded eyes, smirking by the fact of your clear enjoyment before lowering his lips again to really get to work this time.
Licks and flicks. Swirls and curls. It was an entire messy devotion.
He was relentless, alternating between deep thrusts of his tongue and quick flicks over your clit, the piercing adding textured friction that had you seeing rubbish.
"Pussy still taste so sweet, baby." Your entire body jolted at the filthy praise. It caused your hips bucking up against his mouth involuntarily. That human word, that rough tone — Jake knew exactly what it did to you.
You cutted yourself off by the sudden detachment from Jake's lips, sitting up to get himself undone. Garbs hit the floor in a hurry from Jake’s loincloth falling to you shrugging off your feathered top with impatient hands.
He pulled you against him by your puny waist and kissed you once more, it was deep and filthy now that there were no barriers left between you both. Tongues tangled, naked chests pressed together, every point of contact burned like wildfire under Eywa's glow outside.
Your bodies slotted together perfectly, now skin on skin. The camera kept rolling from its spot on the mats — capturing Jake's hungry gaze as it traveled over your bare, lean figure: those sharp collarbones, the swell of your breasts, all his to devour and worship.
His hands mapped every inch of you: your back, the dip of your spine, the curve of your ass before he positioned himself behind you. You twisted to kiss him over your shoulder, messy and open-mouthed while Jake's other hand slid around to cup one of your breasts, his thumb brushing over your excited nipple.
He lined himself up, teasing you both with that slow, torturous drag of his cock against your slick heat. Every sweep sent sparks through him; he was painfully hard, aching to be inside you but savoring this moment first. Watching your back arch under the sensation, he exhaled sharply through his nose at the grasp of his dreads by you.
You gasped sharply as the first inch of him breached you, stretching you perfectly. Your fingers tightened in his dreads, grounding yourself as you adjusted to the feeling.
But he didn't move yet beyond that initial press, letting you both breathe through it. The intimacy of this moment was so strong and intense. The lens traced how your thighs trembled slightly where they framed his hips as he pressed a kiss to the side of your neck, he composed despite how badly he wanted to thrust in deep at that moment.
At last, he pushed in completely. A slow, deep slide that had your breath so brittle and his own jaw clenching at the overwhelming sensation of being you. His hips experimentally, testing how it felt to move together after all this buildup. The movement was slow at first, he withdrew just slightly before pushing back in, a shallow roll of his hips that made you whimper.
It felt bizarre how good it was, how your body welcomed him, the heat and tightness around him. Jake bit his lip to stifle a groan, focusing on keeping the pace steady despite every instinct screaming to take. He kissed your shoulder blade and then traced bites down your spine as your bodies began finding rhythm: soft pulls and gentle thrusts that built the tension.
The footage preserved the way Jake's hands slid up your sides as he kissed your shoulder, how your back arched into him with each slow thrust. The breathing was synced: deep inhales when you both stilled and soft exhales on the outstrokes.
But constantly, you were tightening around him, that was your signal for much solidity and his hips finally answered by pushing in deeper with a little more force this time, a test run for what came next.
With a low groan, he gripped your hips and began moving in earnest, deeper thrusts now, each one punctuated by the slap of skin against skin. The shot centered on the bounce of your body with every drive forward, his meaty biceps flexing as he held you steady for his rhythm and the connection from between your legs as his full sack kissed your clit repeatedly.
The marui was packed with the sounds of passion: panting breaths, whispered moans, the rhythmic slap of bare skin. His hips snapped faster, his pace turning urgent and chasing that sweet friction, that perfect angle where you would gasp and clench around him.
He could feel it building: the coil in his stomach tightening with every thrust; the heat pooling low in his gut. His mouth found your ear to growl: "Fuck, you feel so good baby." You whimpered at the praise, your nails digged lightly into his forearm.
Suddenly, Jake shifted quickly, guiding you onto your hands and knees before positioning himself behind you. The camera was still dutifully rolling and capturing the smooth transition, your back arching gracefully as you braced on all fours with his hand running down the curve of your spine to give a soft squeeze of your ass, admiring how perfectly your bodies fit like this.
Once again, his cock aligned with your entrance, but from this animalistic angle, the view was even more intense than before.
Jake exhaled sharply as he sank fully into you from behind, the new angle sending a fresh wave of sensation through you both.
It made you drop your forehead to the mats, a soft moan escaping your lips as you adjusted to the different depth. Jake gave you a second before his hands found purchase on either side of yours and he began moving again.
This time, each thrust was deeper, much deeper, hitting places inside you that made your vision explode behind your closed eyelids.
He set a punishing rhythm, each snap of his hips driving him deeper, harder. The camera swallowed the nasty chaos whole of your braids swayed with every thrust, your fingers twisted into the woven mats beneath you, his biceps bulging as he braced himself above you.
The slap of your skin echoed through the marui, wet and loud yet neither cared who might hear. The intensity between you both peaked and every movement, every breath synced in perfect harmony. His penetration became more erratic, his control fraying as pleasure coiled tighter and tighter in his gut.
You were just as far gone, from moans to desperate little cries with each deep stroke, you gazed at the camera, watching the hypnotic sway of your ass with every one of Jake's pounds that eventually made you earn a light smack. Your expression were glazed-over, equally mesmerized and aroused by the sight.
And he noticed where your were looking and smirked — oh yeah, this was hot for both of you. So he deliberately slowed his movements for a second, making each stroke longer, more exaggerated, showing off the connection like a performance just for the camera and for each other.
It was filthy. It was beautiful. And you were loving every second of being recorded like this.
Jake snapped his hips faster again to reach the sweet friction that would tip you over the edge soon. His hands slid up to grip your waist tighter, holding you steady as he drove into you relentlessly.
The camera shook slightly from the force of the intense movements now, the passion was too strong to stay perfectly still…
"I'm feeling it!" You warned, it was your explanation to say you were close to your release.
"Fuck, me too," he rasped, his own release barreling toward him like a runaway banshee. He adjusted slightly, angling his hips to hit your sensitive spot, his pounding turned erratic now; there was no rhythm left, completely pure need.
A cry tore from your throat as your orgasm ripped through you, wave after wave of white-hot pleasure. Your muscles clenched around Jake in rhythmic pulses, dragging a ragged moan out of him as he felt it too. That was all it took.
He followed right after, his hips stuttering before he buried himself deep inside you with his warm release.
Still, the camera was rolling. You managed to giggle through your heavy pants, gazing at the camera once again. "Oh that was fun, my love."
Jake laughed breathlessly against your skin, his lips curling into a lazy smile. "Fun is an understatement, baby." he murmured, pressing one last kiss to the curve of your shoulder before reaching for the camera.
He finally stopped recording, pressing a button on the side to pause it and set it aside gently. Then he rolled onto his back, pulling you with him so you rested half on top of him as your limbs intertwined.
"Best video ever," Jake declared smugly… and then yawned like a man who’d just been thoroughly loved.
lwk one for roxto where we love his stomach, like very much. and currently were biting and kissing his stomach, and hes like whimpering nd shi. and we move our hand down to his loincloth so he can grind against it, and he lwk finishes by doing that 👀👀
❀࿔: you looove rotxo’s stomach
cw: lower caps, aged up! rotxo, smut, body worship (his stomach), touching & coming through clothes, grinding against readers hand
rotxo lies back on the soft sand, his chest rising and falling rapidly with each breath. he looks up at you with pure adoration and desire, hands planted on either side of him as he lets you take the lead, completely at your mercy.
your breath catches slightly as you take in his form. your fingers trace patterns on his stomach, feeling the warmth of his skin beneath your touch.
he can feel your eyes tracing every dip and curve of his stomach, and he shifts slightly to give you a better view, his skin flushing slightly with warmth. he loves the way you look at him, like you're drinking in every inch of his body.
you lean down, your face hovering just above his stomach. your nostrils flare as you catch his scent, a mix of saltwater and something else uniquely him.
rotxo watches you, his breath hitching as your warm breath tickles his skin, causing his muscles to tense beneath your gaze. his hand instinctively moves to tangle in your hair. “baby...”
you place a gentle kiss right below his belly button, your lips lingering for a moment before looking up at him through your lashes.
a shiver runs down his spine as your lips press against him. his fingers tighten in your hair, not pushing you away but holding you there, savoring the sensation. he lets out a soft moan, his hips lifting slightly off the ground involuntarily.
a smirk spreads across your lips and you begin to place open-mouthed kisses and gentle nips along his stomach, your hands roaming over his skin possessively.
he gasps and squirms beneath you, his abs clenching. his hand that’s not in your hair grips his own hip, trying to keep himself still.
“i love this part of you...” you murmur against his skin, your hands spreading over his stomach possessively as you continue to kiss and nuzzle the area.
his whole body shudders at your words, a deep blush spreading across his cheeks. “yeah?” his voice comes out breathy. “what about it?” he watches you through half-lidded eyes, his stomach muscles twitching involuntarily whenever your lips or teeth graze his skin.
“mmm, everything,” you whisper, licking a stripe up his stomach. “its so soft and warm… all mine.”
he gasps loudly, his back arching off the ground as your tongue traces a wet stripe up his stomach, his muscles rippling uncontrollably under the sensation. his breath catches in his throat at your possessive words, his head falling back against the sand. “yours...” he breathes out. “all yours...”
uncontrollable whimpers escape his lips as he becomes fully hard beneath you. his loincloth tightens around him, unable to hide his growing erection. he spreads his legs slightly wider without realizing it, trying to relieve some of the pressure building inside him.
“mmm, look at you...” you murmur approvingly, sliding your hand down to give his length a gentle squeeze through the fabric.
his hips buck violently as your hand closes around him, his breath turning into incoherent whispers and whimpers.
you press your palm firmly against his straining length, rubbing him through the fabric in slow, torturous circles.
he writhes beneath you, his hips lifting off the ground to meet your hand. his breath hitches sharply every time you lick or kiss near his belly button, the sensation sending electric jolts through him.
he begins to grind shamelessly against your hand, his movements becoming more desperate and needy. his eyes roll back as he feels the friction through his thin loincloth, his hips moving in a rhythmic pattern. “ahh... ahh... baby, please...”
you hum against his stomach, your kisses becoming more insistent, leaving wet marks as you work him through the fabric.
the vibration from your hum makes his whole body jerk, a desperate whine escaping his lips. his hips buck harder into your grip, chasing his release. “i’m not gonna last—“ he cuts himself off with a broken groan, his thighs trembling. “you’re gonna make me come just from this...”
“yeah?” you ask, chuckling softly against his skin.
“yes,” he cries out, his voice breaking as he grinds faster against your hand, his loincloth becoming soaked with pre-cum. his abs contract sharply with each movement, your kisses and bites only making him more sensitive. “just from this… from your mouth on my stomach...”
his movements become erratic and sloppy, his whole body tensing up as he feels the familiar pressure building at the base of his spine. his mouth falls open, his eyes squeezing shut as he grinds himself into your hand at a frantic pace. “ahh, i can’t— i’m gonna—“
he cuts himself off and comes with a loud, choked cry, his body convulsing violently as he comes. his loincloth is completely drenched as he grinds through his orgasm, his length pulsing uncontrollably in your grip.
you moan against his skin, satisfied at the sight of him reduced to a shaking mess just from you kissing his stomach and touching him through his clothes.
he whimpers softly as the last waves of his orgasm wash over him, his hips slowly stilling their movements.
you kiss his stomach a final time before leaning back up and removing your hand.
rotxo watches you with half-lidded eyes, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he tries to catch his breath. his loincloth is soaked and clinging to him, his length still twitching slightly with aftershocks.
you smile at him, leaning down to press a soft kiss to his forehead, your fingers brushing through his hair gently. “you look so beautiful like this...” you whisper, stroking his cheek. “did so good for me.”
he leans into your touch, his eyes fluttering shut. he gestures vaguely to his soaked loincloth and murmurs breathlessly,
°˖➴author's note: this was inspired by me writing for other fandoms, and i thought it was funny to imagine neteyam getting all jealous cause i don't write for him as much :,) neteyam can be considered ooc in this!
neteyam often thinks of himself as a patient man.
it is a trait he cultivated early, born from being the eldest of four siblings and the pressure of living in his father’s shadow. he has learned how to breathe through kiri’s eccentricities, how to temper lo’ak’s impulsive fires, and how to remain a steady, unyielding rock for tuk. as the golden child of the omatikaya and the clan's olo’eyktan, he is a living monument to composure. his tolerance for discomfort, for annoyance, for the slow grind of diplomatic duty is vast, stretching as wide as the hallelujah mountains.
it is utterly baffling to him, then, that he has no patience for you.
the calm, cool exterior he projects to the world has been stripped away, replaced by a demanding hunger that feels more like a fever than love. he has you slightly bent over, your forearms pressing against the rough, moss-covered stone of the high camp's outer wall, the bioluminescent ferns around your feet glowing a pulsating violet as you arch your back into him. your tewng (loincloth) is skewed, the now ruined fibers caught between his frantic movements and your skin. his three fingers are buried deep in your mouth, a possessive, silencing weight that tastes of the hunt and the forest.
he is pounding into you with a harshness that would shock his parents, his hips striking yours with a rhythmic, bruising force. he is usually so careful, but you have pushed him past the point of restraint. you asked for this; you invited this version of him with every cancelled plan and every lingering look you gave your other friends while he waited in the shadows. he is being cheeky, a sharp, dangerous grin playing on his lips, but beneath the teasing, he is undeniably, purely livid.
"you are so loud now, ma yawne (my beloved)" he murmurs against your jaw, his voice a vibrating rasp that makes your bones ache. "where was this energy at the dinner fire? you were too busy laughing with the others to even look at me. you didn't even notice when i left."
you try to speak through his fingers, your voice coming out as a series of muffled, unintelligible sounds as you struggle to explain. your hands reach behind you to clutch at his quadriceps, your nails digging into the blue-grey muscle, but he only clenches his hand on your jaw lightly, a reminder of who is in control. the pressure is firm, not enough to hurt, but enough to make you feel utterly trapped. you let out a pathetic, high-pitched moan, your eyes fluttering shut as the friction between your thighs reaches a searing, unbearable peak.
neteyam speeds up, his breath coming in short, sharp hisses through his teeth. he’s mocking your silence now, his amber eyes tracking every twitch of your expression. you manage to pull your head back for a fraction of a second, gasping for air, the cool night mist hitting your damp skin. "’teyam... stop... someone... someone is going to find us. you're too loud."
he lets out a short, bark of a laugh, his non-existent eyebrows raising in a look of pure, unfiltered arrogance. he leans down, his face inches from yours, and cups your jaw with his free hand, forcing you to maintain eye contact. his pupils are blown wide, reflecting the faint glow of the forest.
"then let them find us," he says, his voice flat and uncompromising, the true heir to toruk makto surfacing in the set of his shoulders. " i guess we'll just be caught like this, muntxate (wifey) . maybe then they'll finally understand that you belong to me, not them. they can watch me take back what you've been wasting on everyone else."
the jealousy in him is a physical thing, a thick, suffocating heat. he thinks of all the nights you stayed out late with that group, the way you’d leave early in the mornings before he could even press a kiss to your temple. he had to practically drag you away from their circle tonight, his hand tight around your wrist, ignoring the attitude you gave him in front of everyone. you had rolled your eyes, told him he was being overprotective, and now, he’s proving exactly how protective he can be.
he thrusts again, a deep, sliding motion that hits a spot so sensitive you let out a strangled squeal, your legs shaking as they try to keep your weight. you’re drooling on his fingers, the slickness of it making his grip slide, but he doesn't let go. he likes the way you look like this—broken, messy, and entirely focused on him for the first time in weeks.
"look at me," he commands, his voice dropping to a whisper as he leans downwards, pressing against your back. "tell me you're not thinking about them now. tell me you're only feeling me."
your eyes are wet with tears of overstimulation, your chest heaving as you try to catch your breath. the scent of crushed petals and his own musk fills your senses, making your head swim. you shake your head, a desperate, frantic movement, and he rewards you with a slower, more agonizingly deep thrust that makes your cunt clenches around him in a desperate plea for more.
he isn't a patient man anymore. he is a man who has been starving in the middle of a feast, and he intends to take every single thing you owe him before the sun rises over the canopy. the village is quiet, the sounds of distant ikran cries the only witness to the way he’s rewriting the laws of your relationship against the cold, unforgiving stone.
"you thought you could just blow me off?" he asks, his lips brushing against your ear, his words punctuated by the wet slap of his skin against yours. "you thought i'd just wait at the fire like a dutiful lenensip (small viperwolf)? you don't know me as well as you think you do."
he pulls his fingers from your mouth, but only to replace them with his lips in a bruising kiss that tastes of desperation. you're sinking, falling into the rhythm he's dictating, the fear of being caught replaced by a terrifying, beautiful need to be completely consumed by him.
he’s winning, and the smug satisfaction in his eyes tells you he knows it.
i don't think i've written olo'ekytan neteyam before... so i hope you guys like!! <3
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