Blood and Water | Neteyam

Unexpected Friendships ∼ 20

Tcelia slowly forced her eyes open as she was awakened by the sound of waves breaking. She looked at the water, and marveled at how the colors of the waking sky painted the whole landscape in different shades of pink and oranges.

A large body was pressed up behind her, providing her with a surprising amount of warmth and comfort. She reached a hand up to rub at her eye but quickly snatched her hand away as a jab of pain went through her eye and it started to water.

"Shit," she mumbled as she realized that she accidentally had rubbed sand into it.

Wait, sand?

Tcelia sat up startled and in the process, an arm fell away from her waist. She was lying on the beach, a sleeping Neteyam next to her. She looked down at him as he frowned in his sleep and shifted, tugging the arm he had held her with, back, now hugging himself. 

Tcelia hissed as another stinging pain jabbed her in the eye, causing it to water even more, and she reached a hand up to cover it. Typical. She thought back to yesterday and recalled how she had laid down in the sand, refusing to break the silence, and hoping that Neteyam would speak his mind.

She must have fallen asleep waiting, because she remembered nothing after that. She cursed herself, and then she cursed Neteyam for not having woken her up so that they could have gone back to the pod.

She stood up, still pressing a hand to her stinging eye, and kicked Neteyam softly over the legs. Her stomach clenched as she remembered the arm that had held her as she slept, and heat traveled throughout her entire body. In her other hand, was the small black pearl. Even in her sleep she hadn't been able to let go of it.

Neteyam didn't open his eyes, but he grumbled rather irritably, his voice low from the early morning, "This is not my preferred way to be woken up."

Tcelia rolled the eye that didn't hurt, giving him another kick for good measure, "Why didn't you wake me last night?" she accused. 

He sighed, cracking his eyes open, looking up at her. He grinned at her sleepily, ignoring her previous question. "You look like one of those pirates my dad told us stories about when we were little."

Tcelia felt herself flush, "Well, if you had only woken me, I wouldn't have accidentally rubbed sand into my eye." She hissed at him, kicking him again, this time in the stomach. Obviously not a hard kick, but enough to annoy.

He scrambled up, "Okay, I'm up. Jesus." Tcelia's anger ebbed out of her as he finished his sentence. It was quite cute how Neteyam had adapted his father's way of expressing himself, even if it was a human expression.

"Let me take a look," Tcelia almost flinched as he placed his hands on her cheeks. She was brought back to the comforting pressure she had felt as she had woken up, remembering how his arm had felt around her.

"Tcelia?" She startled out of her thoughts as she realized that he was looking down at her expectantly. She slowly lowered her hand from her eye, managing to crack it open.

Neteyam gasped as she opened it. "Oh this is bad, you probably won't ever see with this eye again," he said dramatically.

She shoved him away, "You skxawng, that is not funny." she exclaimed but couldn't help a smile from breaking across her face.

Laughing, Neteyam moved back towards her, placing his hands on her cheeks again. She looked up at him as he studied her eye thoroughly, his eyes furrowed in concentration.

She allowed herself to study him back. His vibrant, golden eyes were focused on the task at hand, and his bioluminescent freckles made small appearances as the light from the rising sun moved across his blue skin, making him appear a deep violet color. She was strangely aware of how his hands felt against her cheeks, and her breath hitched at their closeness. What was wrong with her? This was Neteyam, she had known him her entire life. Why was she suddenly all nervous around him? She blamed it on the early morning.