CHAPTER 24

       "Erìhe."

Erìhe groaned and moved closer to the person beside her. For the past two minutes someone had been trodding and poking her, trying to get her to move from her comfortable position. With her eyes still closed, she smiled when she felt the persons arms constrict around her.

"Neteyam!" The person got frustrated and kicked the boy next to Erìhe instead of her. This jostled the entire path that they had been sleeping on, and caused Erìhe to finally open her eyes.

She pushed herself up from the ground with her arms, feeling empty once the arms that had been embracing her fell from around her. "What?" She demanded, annoyance evident in her voice.

"Oho - that's what I get for saving your neck?"

Erìhe's eyes widened when she saw Aluva crouched on the other side of Neteyam - who by the way was still trying to deny the fact that he had to get up. His hands sought for Erìhe's warmth, and his frown relaxed when his hands grasped onto her arm.

Erìhe's head whipped around as she took in her surroundings. It was the crack of dawn and her and Neteyam had fallen asleep on the path where they had stayed the entire night. They had fallen asleep again.

"Aluva?" Erìhe asked, confused.

Aluva smiled and poked her cheek, reaching over Neteyam, "That's me."

"Oh great mother-" Erìhe gasped as she hurriedly pulled her hand away from Neteyam's reach. He frowned once more before sitting up, groggily rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

"What's up?" He asked. Both of the girls looked at each other - his voice was damn attractive so early in the morning.

Aluva was the first of them to speak, "Um - I just saved your asses, that's what's up."

Erìhe glanced back at the pod.

It was still quiet which meant that Tuk had not gotten up yet. She breathed a sigh of relief - if Tuk wasn't awake, that meant that nobody else was either. She leaned over Neteyam to grasp Aluva's hands, "Thank you so much," she said dramatically.

Neteyam looked at their interlaced fingers that hovered right above his lap. He looked between the two girls - wondering how they could so easily initiate physical contact.

It went without saying that he was jealous of Aluva. Though he was giddy that he had once again slept while cuddling Erìhe.

At this point you might just call it the new normal - or Neteyam hoped that it would become that. It had already happened twice and Neteyam could not wait for the third - if he was fortunate enough to be allowed a third time, that is.

Aluva laughed as she shook Erìhe's hands, "Of course," she said in just as a dramatic tone, "You two better head back before you get your heads chopped off. Food is soon too."

By now Neteyam had gotten rid of the disoriented feeling of having been woken up the way he had. He looked around and suddenly he was very aware that they had slept like that - in each other's arms in front of anyone that may have walked past.

Though he hoped that not many people had seen - he also wished that Ao'nung had stumbled across them like that. With Neteyam's arms holding Erìhe close as her head had rested on his chest, their feet tangled and tails wrapped around each other's legs.

Oh what he'd do to see Ao'nung's reaction.

Erìhe nodded to her friend as she let go of her hands, "See you after breakfast."

Aluva waved at them as she got to her feet and started heading for the shore where she ate with her neighboring Na'vi. Erìhe did not spare Neteyam a look as she started walking back to their home, smoothing out her hair as she did.

Once they had both arrived, they had gone straight to their mattresses and pretended to be asleep. In no time at all, Tuk had woken up and laid on top of Erìhe as usual, waking her up.

Once the family had gotten themselves sorted out for the day, they all headed to the gathering area for breakfast. Jake and Neytiri had left the kids to go sit with the adults as usual, and the teenagers along with Tuk had headed over to the circle of other teenagers as they always did.

By now Tuk had made a few friends closer to her age, and she preferred sitting with them to being with her siblings.

"Morning!" Tsireya greeted them with a smile as Lo'ak grinned and went to sit beside her.

"Kiri," Rotxo said as the girl rolled her eyes and reluctantly sat beside him, glaring at him when he tried giving her food. She had not warmed up to him quite yet - but Erìhe was sure that she'd get there sometime. Neteyam did not seem pleased by how friendly Rotxo was being with his sister - though he'd be all for it if Rotxo had just friends in mind.

Erìhe glanced at Ao'nung, who sat beside his sister. He looked up and met her eyes, grinning as he pat the space beside him, "Forest girl," he greeted.

Erìhe rolled her eyes at the nickname before walking over and sitting next to him, "Fish boy," she shot back and Ao'nung chuckled as he draped an arm over her shoulders. Erìhe did not shake him off, but she merely glanced at his hand questioningly.

Tuk was looking over at them with a repulsed expression and Erìhe laughed as she saw this.

Ao'nung snickered as well, but he did not let go or pull away, "We're having a party at eclipse."

Eríhe looked at him from the corner of her eye - she was interested. "A party?"

Ao'nung nodded, "The new hunters will go outside of the reef today and bring back meat. The adults have their own celebration and - well.. so do we."

Eríhe grinned, "What kind of celebration?"

Just then Neteyam walked over as sat on the other side of Ao'nung, purposefully bumping into him and causing him to jostle. Ao'nung merely looked at him accusingly before turning his attention back to Erìhe. "You know," he nudged her gently. Erìhe grinned - she did know.

Neteyam glared at the side of Ao'nung's face whereas the boy payed him no mind. Neteyam had half a mind to go and tell some adults about this party.

You know - just so that Ao'nung would not have the chance to get closer to Eríhe.

Neteyam frowned as he watched the two interact. He thought she'd said that she felt like beating him up whenever ahe looked at him, yet here she was - smiling and laughing at his unfunny jokes.

He had been glaring at Ao'nung and been so lost at thought that he had not even immediately registered that Erìhe was talking to him.

"Neteyam?" Erìhe leaned over Ao'nung, waving a hand in front of Neteyam's face as she tried getting his attention.

Blinking rapidly, Neteyam turned his eyes on her. He wished that he was not sat on the other side of Ao'nung as she leaned over him, her face so close to his. Neteyam could see Ao'nung's eyes studying the side of her face that was mere inches from his, and Neteyam had to force himself to look back at Erìhe. "What is it?" He asked.

"Aren't you eating?" Erìhe said.

Neteyam realized that he had not even touched his food whereas Erìhe and Ao'nung had been eating as they talked. "I am," he said as he looked around for something that he'd like.

During the morning - like every other mealtime - there was a circle for children, another for teenagers, and then one for adults. In the middle of those circles were different kinds of fruits that you could pick your favorite ones from.

"You like this one, don't you?" Erìhe reached for a green fruit that was nestled in among all the others inside a fruit bowl.

Neteyam looked down at the fruit before nodding. He felt a blush creep on his cheeks as he thought about the fact that Erìhe knew what he liked.

"I love that too," Ao'nung smiled as he lifted up a hand to take the fruit from Erìhe.

"Take another," Erìhe chuckled as she held her hand out of his reach before holding it out towards Neteyam.

Ao'nung merely laughed as Neteyam smiled, accepting the fruit from her. "Thank you," he said.

"No problem."

-
A/n:
I'm alive <33

Exams are coming up so I kind of had no time to edit this chapter plus I was still stuck in that damn cottage with all those people so it made updating very hard.

But I made a friend who is an avatar fan and another friend who I forced to watch avatar with me so that was fun

Um slay