Chapter Text
Ao’nung’s gut churned with guilt as he watched Lo’ak walk away from him after he’d returned unscathed from his prank. The bastard had covered for him and there was a sour taste in his mouth. The luminescent algae swirled on both sides of the walkway in a lazy motion. Ilu swam around chasing after fish.
The faint sound of conversation and laughter carried through the air. Now that Lo’ak had returned home safe, the ambiance had relaxed. He bit his lower lip and clenched his hands into fists. He tried to shift his mind away from how close he’d been to fucking up.
When Lo’ak hadn’t returned by night, all of them had freaked out. He thought his father was going to murder him. Hell, he thought Neteyam was going to cut his throat out after he’d explained to him what had happened.
His eye still throbbed from the punch Lo’ak had given him that morning, and he felt a growing headache starting up. The sound of approaching steps made him turn. He expected Tsireya. So when he found himself eye-to-eye with Neteyam, he recoiled.
His entire demeanor screamed aggressiveness. Ao’nung felt his ears flatten against his head and he hissed in warning. Neteyam’s face scrunched into a snarl.
“I know he covered for you,”
He didn’t know why it bothered him so much to hear the truth from Neteyam’s mouth. Something ugly and twisted reared its head inside of him. Anger and shame shared the same space inside his mind.
“It was a prank,” he knew it was the wrong thing to say. He knew he was antagonizing Neteyam, but the asshole put him on edge. Ever since he’d seen him jump down from the stupid ikran, his mind had been filled with thoughts of him.
Neteyam hissed and bared his teeth. He came closer to him. Despite the aggressive demeanor, warmth spread through his belly. It was fucked that he felt this way about some tree hugger with a skinny tail.
“He could’ve died,”
“But he didn’t,” he said, showing his fangs and drawing closer.
Neteyam shoved him, his tail swishing from side to side.
“You’re a piece of shit,”
He shoved him back, and they struggled against each other. Others were milling around, swimming, staring, and talking to each other. But they didn’t come over to stop them from wrestling. Ao’nung’s body tightened as he tried to unbalance Neteyam.
They shuffled backward. His muscles screamed from the effort of keeping upright. Neteyam decked him on the stomach and he heaved out a breath and before he knew it, he was pinned to one of the poles holding up the huts. Neteyam pressed his arm to his windpipe. He reached up and held onto the limb with both hands.
“Apologize,” Neteyam said.
His face pulled into a snarl, the braids showered around his face and the beads woven into them clicked with the motion. Ao’nung struggled against the hold and Neteyam pinned him harder, using his entire body to keep him from moving.
Ao’nung felt his cheeks burn at the position they were in. He tried to get out of the hold once again and found himself going nowhere. There was something deeply disturbing about having the fucked up object of his desires pressing up against him. Disturbing and confusing to his body, he needed to get out of his hold before he popped out of his sheath.
“Let go of me, tree-fucker devil!” he snarled. “I already spoke with your fucking brother!”
Neteyam was panting. They were face to face, breathing the same air. He could see all the imperfections on his face. The pores, the weird blue color of his skin, how his pupils dilated.
“Good,” he said, pressing closer. “And just so you know, I don’t give a fuck if you’re the chief’s kid. If you ever pull any of that shit with my siblings again, I will kill you. You read me?”
At that point, their noses were brushing. Ao’nung could taste his heart inside his mouth. He tried to wrestle away from the hold, but Neteyam shoved him and pinned him again. Ao’nung had never been so conflicted about a situation. On the one hand, he wanted to allow himself to be pushed and jerked around by Neteyam. But on the other hand, he didn’t want to pop his sheath.
“Do you read me?”
“Yes! Fucking hell asshole!” The moment his hold lessened, he moved away from him. His skin felt too hot and tight.
Neteyam was also breathing hard. There was an uncomfortable pull on his groin. He was staring at him and Ao’nung felt his stomach drop straight to the ground when he followed his line of sight to his groin. His tented groin. Neteyam’s mouth hung open from the surprise. He inhaled sharply and Neteyam’s eyes shot straight to his face.
It was the single most humiliating moment of his life. A few seconds passed where neither of them moved or said anything, and then Ao’nung burst into motion and bolted straight into the water.
“Wait!” Neteyam screamed before everything became muffled.
He needed to escape, to leave, maybe even drown himself. His ilu rushed towards him, chirping happily at him. He’d almost killed the man’s brother, and he was unsheathing himself over a few wrestles? Eywa take him into her embrace.
When Neteyam followed him into the water, he connected with his ilu and pressed him to rush away from Neteyam as fast as possible. He and Tsireya were too good at teaching the tree dwellers. Because he saw Neteyam chasing after him in his own ilu a few seconds later.
He cursed inside his mind and pushed it to go faster. The ilu was amused by his reaction and pushed questions at him through the tsaheylu. Wondering why he didn’t mate if he wanted to. Ao’nung’s gut churned with shame, and he let the negative emotions bleed through their bond.
He categorically refused to be attracted to a half-devil. No matter how tall, handsome, brave, loyal, and fuck, he needed to get a grip. The time frame for Neteyam to acknowledge the bond they both knew they had from the beginning had come and gone.
His ilu made a distressed sound and picked up the pace. The water rushed all around him. The last thing Ao’nung wanted was to be caught by the tree-fucker demon. He was sure the asshole was probably chasing after him to beat his ass.
Maybe the tree people didn’t have mates as they did. He’d never seen one in his life. A sour taste spread through his mouth when he remembered how excited his mother was about his and Tsireya’s mates. And wouldn’t it be hilarious to no one if they both ended up with the demon people that had disrupted their way of life and had brought the imminent danger of sky-people to them?
He clenched his teeth together. He substituted his desire with anger. It was unfair that he felt the way he felt and had no way of confirming or denying his feelings. They should’ve stayed in their mountains and left them alone. At least it would’ve been less painful than being rejected by his mate.
They swam through the reef. Neteyam didn’t give up on his chase and Ao’nung bared his teeth at him and glared. He didn’t lose him in the kelp forest. He took sharp turns and disturbed the fauna to make them shield him from Neteyam’s eyes.
How the hell was he keeping up? Ao’nung’s belly felt funny. He swam up to the surface. The ilu broke up in a powerful jump to give them enough impulse to dive deep. He took a deep breath and held it as they dove back again.
His blood sang inside his skin. The luminescent flora allowed him to see clearly how Neteyam did the same movement as him and dove after him. Their eyes met, and he found Neteyam frowning. He used his hands to speak.
“Leave me alone,”
Neteyam signed back.
“No,”
The ilu swirled around a rock formation, disturbing a family of crabs. He urged him to take cover in the rocks and he stayed as still as he could. His heart hammering away inside of him was disturbing his stamina. Ao’nung closed his eyes and recited the way of water.
His mother’s voice echoed inside his mind with the cadence of the words. He emptied himself of useless emotions. They bled out of him and were washed away by the current. It was just him and Eywa. Ao’nung opened his eyes slowly, and he almost breathed water when he found Neteyam in front of him, staring.
The older boy reached for him and grabbed his wrist. They swam up with the ilu. Neteyam took a dramatic gulp of air, and Ao’nung couldn’t help the derisive snort. Neteyam glared at him.
“We can’t all be part fish, ass,” he said.
Ao’nung rolled his eyes.
“Don’t worry, tree-fucker, I will judge you forever,”
Neteyam shoved him, but there was no heat in it. They floated there, neither of them saying anything. Ao’nung could feel the tension build-up. The need to bolt was overwhelming. He cleared his voice.
“Look, it was whatever, don’t think about it,”
“It didn’t look like whatever,”
He glared at him. Neteyam’s eyes were darting all around his face.
“Was it because of me?” he asked.
“No,” the answer was instinctual. He looked down at the surface of the water. His mind tried to come up with an excuse, something he could use to keep the truth hidden.
Neteyam swam closer to him. He reached for him and pulled him closer. Ao’nung frowned.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
His eyes dropped to his lips.
“I’m trying something,” he said before pressing their mouths together.
His entire existence reduced itself to that moment. Their lips together. The salty taste of the water, how warm and alive they felt. His eyes had closed without his permission, wanting to feel every shift of skin against skin. When Neteyam moved away, he followed, but he snapped from the daze in time to not make a fool out of himself.
Neteyam’s cheeks flushed. There was a wondrous look on his face and he hated him. He hated how he felt hot all over, that even the water couldn’t cool him down. That he couldn’t stop his mind from wanting to scream at the top of his lungs because they’d kissed. They’d kissed. Neteyam had kissed him.
“Wow,” Neteyam said.
“Shut up, just shut up,” he said, glaring at him.
The other boy frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?”
Ao’nung splashed him with water, unreasonably hurt by his words. Neteyam must’ve noticed because he reached for him just as he was pulling away.
“No, hey, it was a joke, okay? It was a joke. What’s wrong?”
He growled and grabbed the asshole by the back of his neck and slammed their mouths together again. And that time it was a real kiss. Their tongues touched each other and Ao’nung let him in. Let him explore inside his mouth. To trace out the ridges of his palate, the softness of his tongue.
Their ilu broke away from them and Ao’nung pushed himself as close as he could to Neteyam. His entire being was aflame. He linked his arms around his shoulders and when Neteyam surrounded his hips with his big alien hands and drew him in; he let out a soft coo on the back of his throat.
They broke apart for a second, their foreheads pressed together.
“You’re mine,” Ao’nung said with a frown deepening on his face. “You’re supposed to be mine, and you ignored me from the second you knew,”
Neteyam looked genuinely confused.
“What? What do you mean? I’m not yours,”
“Shut up! Yes, you are! You feel it too, you feel it! Don’t lie!”
The current carried them deeper into the rock formation. The rocks had been eroded by time and they formed big, swooping arches. Luminescent algae cast Neteyam’s face in deep contrast. Ao’nung knew that desperation was a grim look on him, and he wanted to pull away and flee. But he needed answers. If he was going to be rejected, then he wanted to be rejected for real.
“The same way, Tsireya, and Lo’ak belong to each other, you are mine.”
Neteyam was staring at him with big, wide eyes. He opened his mouth and closed it and he shook his head.
“Is this some Metkayina thing?” he asked. “Because I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
Ao’nung scoffed.
“Then why are you here? Why did you chase me? Why do you keep looking at me and staring, touching, and smiling at me? You didn’t need to pin me, didn’t need to get so close. Why did you kiss me now?”
He saw his throat bob.
“I–” he frowned. “I don’t know,”
“Because of the bond!” He screamed at him. “And I’m the stupid one?”
“What bond?” Neteyam asked in an exasperated voice.
“The mating bond, ass!”
He wanted to slap him across the face with his tail. Understanding dawned on Neteyam and Ao’nung was close to cheering.
“The Omaticaya don’t bond that way,” he said.
He felt his stomach drop. Of course, Neteyam wouldn’t want to mate with him. He’d made fun of his family since the first time he disregarded their bond. He’d called them freaks and demons and he still had the stupid punch on his face from his asshole brother that turned out to be an okay dude in the end.
Ao’nung tried to push down the emotional response. But his eyes were burning and his throat hurt from swallowing around the ball that had formed inside. He gave a sharp jerk and tried to swim away again. Neteyam grabbed him.
“Where the hell are you going?”
“To my fucking home!” he screamed. “After being rejected by my fucking mate, you piece of shit!”
“Who the hell rejected you? I just said that the Omaticaya don’t bond that way!”
“Then how do you tree assholes bond then!?”
“We chose our mates, ass,” Neteyam’s voice softened, and he pulled him back towards him. “We don’t consider the pull to someone as something ordained by Eywa. It’s something we consider as a strong suggestion, but in the end, it’s up to each of us,”
Ao’nung frowned.
“That’s the same way we bond,”
“No, because you’re not mine until you chose me,” he said.
He wanted to argue, but Neteyam’s tongue inside his mouth interrupted him. His lashes fluttered close. His lips were soft, and their tongues stroked each other softly, learning the shape and taste of every corner. There was no rush, no aggressiveness, and Ao’nung couldn’t help the shiver.
Neteyam nuzzled his cheek and pressed soft, barely there pecks before claiming his mouth again. He buried his hands in his hair and angled his face to reach deeper into him. His hands caressed each braid.
They pulled away and Ao’nung chased after his mouth, claiming it again with more fervor than before. He couldn’t stop himself from wanting more. The Omaticaya way was wrong. Neteyam belonged to him. Eywa had made Neteyam for him and him for Neteyam. It was what it was.
“I need to breathe, remember?”
Ao’nung rolled his eyes.
“Breathe through your nose,” he said. “Why do you need your mouth to breathe?”
Neteyam chuckled.
“I see you,” Neteyam said.
A shiver sparked its way down his entire back. The rock formation around them was hauntingly beautiful. There were bioluminescent algae everywhere on the rock surface. He could see both of their ilu swimming lazily around not far from them.
“I see you,” he said back.
They were bobbing up and down in the water. His tail was swishing lazily to keep him afloat. He explored Neteyam’s hair with his hands. Touching each bead, each braid. His eyes didn’t leave his face. Meanwhile, Neteyam’s hands traced his back up and down. Getting closer and closer to the base of his tail.
“So you chose me?” Ao’nung asked.
The fear of rejection churned inside his gut.
“The Omaticaya usually choose our mates when they’re older,” Neteyam said.
The disappointment was so strong it almost drowned him in it.
“Then—”
Neteyam shut him up with another slow kiss. Ao’nung shoved him away.
“It’s a good thing that I’m not an Omaticaya anymore then, uh?”
The disappointment turned into anger.
“Stop playing with my feelings!”
Neteyam laughed and pulled him closer.
“You kind of deserve it,” he said. “You’re a piece of ass,”
“As if you’re any better,” he scoffed.
They stared at each other and then collided again in the middle. The kiss was grounding, and it dragged on for a long time. Their hands explored their bodies in soft caresses. Ao’nung cupped his face and Neteyam pushed his thigh between his legs and pressed up. He buried his face in his neck and keened. Neteyam’s breaths were harsh.
“But my parents are going to kill me if they find out,” Neteyam said, cupping him below the tail.
Pleasure shot through his entire body when he felt Neteyam feeling for his mating entrance. It wasn’t like a woman’s. Very few males could carry children. A carrier was almost as rare as Toruk Macto.
He pushed his tail up, giving Neteyam better access. They pressed their mouths together as he growled in pleasure, nipping at his mouth.
“It’s different,” Neteyam said between pants. “Your mating entrance, from mine,”
Ao’nung pushed into the digits that were shyly moving without actually pushing in.
“How so?”
“Yours is already wet,” he said.
There was a mischievous grin on his face when he entered him. The extra finger made Ao’nung’s eyes widen. Neteyam swallowed his moan, and he stroked around his rim, spreading his fingers inside of him. Their crotches pushed together.
“Neteyam,” he whined.
“I know,” he said.
Neteyam pressed them up against one of the rock walls. The water swirled around them in a gentle caress. His upper back was being exfoliated by the rock face. Neteyam’s eyes were so yellow under the light it made him look almost otherworldly.
“You are a demon,” he said between pants.
He moved his fingers deeper inside his mating entrance, and Ao’nung’s eyes rolled to the back of his mind.
“What I am is crazy,” Neteyam said. Their mouths met again and again. “You bullied my sister, almost got my brother killed, and here I am.”
There was a spot inside the mating canal that made everyone crazy. And just as he was about to reply, Neteyam found his, and all coherent thought fled from his mind. Neteyam reduced him to a moaning mess.
“Fuck me,” he said.
Neteyam panted against his mouth.
“Please,” he said, squirming to get Neteyam’s fingers deeper, for them to strike that point again. “Neteyam,”
Ao’nung kissed him, and Neteyam found that spot again. His entire cock had slipped out from the sheath and Neteyam’s was in the same state. His mouth felt bruised and raw from the kissing, but he couldn’t stop. He needed him deeper, closer.
“It will have to be a secret,” Neteyam said.
“Yes,”
“And your mother can’t see us together. She will know. She’s Tsahik.”
He wanted to scream.
“We will avoid her when we’re together,”
He would’ve agreed to anything at that moment to get Neteyam inside of him. Ao’nung stroked Neteyam’s chest as he tilted his head to the side.
“Do you feel it too?” He asked.
Neteyam covered his mouth with his.
“Yes,”
“Despite being an asshole to you and your siblings?”
“Despite it,”
Neteyam closed his lids and breathed him in. Ao’nung nuzzled his nose.
“Well, I forgive you for ignoring me,”
He laughed and got a kiss as an answer. Neteyam twirled him around and Ao’nung pushed his hands on the rock. He rose his tail to show off the mating entrance. Neteyam crowded him and took his cock in hand as he nudged his entrance.
“Are you sure, Ao’nung?” he asked. He pressed kisses all along his neck and down to his shoulder, where he gave him a playful nibble.
He nodded.
“Yes,”
He slipped his cock between his thighs instead of pressing inside of him. Ao’nung let out a frustrated noise and grabbed the back of Neteyam’s neck. He turned his face to kiss him with fierce determination.
“I will hate you if you don’t fuck me,” he said.
Neteyam chuckled and did just what he’d begged for. The pressure increased as he went deeper. Water filled him as well and his eyes rolled to the back of his head as he was topped off to the brim. He swallowed around the feeling of rightness. Pleasure sparked through his entire being.
“Eywa you’re tight,” he said against the back of his neck.
They pressed up against the rock entirely. Neteyam pulled his hips back and pushed in again. Ao’nung moaned and threw his head back to rest on his shoulder. He could feel him breathe against the shell of his ear.
“More,”
Neteyam obliged. The pace increased, his cock was wider at the bottom and Ao’nung couldn’t think as Neteyam plundered him so deep and thoroughly he didn’t even care about the consequences of his actions.
Explosions of pleasure sparked inside his eyes. Neteyam’s teeth were at his throat, his tail coiled around his.
“You feel so good,” he said. “So good, fuck,”
“There,” he said when he snapped his hips just right and hit his spot dead on. “There, fuck Neteyam,”
Neteyam held him by his lower stomach and pushed him up against the rock every time they moved. His hips pistoned his cock in and out, faster and faster. The build of pleasure was reaching a peak. Ao’nung grabbed the braid that protected his tsaheylu and brought it up and out of the water.
Neteyam moaned deep in his throat when he saw it and reached for his. This was it. There was no going back. If they bonded, they would be bound for the rest of their lives. Ao’nung shivered in anticipation. Because he knew, he knew that this was Eywa’s will.
Neteyam didn’t stop pounding into him. The warmth inside his belly had reached an inferno and the moment the tsaheylu was made, their minds fused into one and they shared everything.
Every experience since the moment they were born passed between them. Every heartbreak, happy moment, and goal. Every dream they’d ever had. He saw the forest Neteyam had grown up in, the rivers, the mountains, the humans, the death and despair. They floated in each other’s minds for eternity.
Getting to know every single crevice of the other. Pushing emotions between them to the point where he didn’t know where Neteyam ended and he began. He didn’t know how long they stayed like that. But when they disconnected, he felt full for the first time in his life.
Neteyam pulled away from him and Ao’nung turned around and pressed himself against him. They didn’t have to say anything because they already knew. Neteyam nuzzled his neck, and they shared a few more kisses. They were lazy and dragging.
“So you hated me because you were hot for me, uh?” Neteyam asked.
“Shut up, tree-fucker,”
“Well, now I’m a fish fucker,”
Ao’nung barked out a laugh.
“Asshole,”
His mating entrance was tingling from the fucking and he was so unbearably satisfied by it was strange. Neteyam kissed his cheek and then his brow before going down to his nose.
“You know our parents will find out, right?”
Ao’nung sighed.
“Hopefully, Tsireya and Lo’ak will have bonded by then and they’ll take the heat away from us, uh?”
Neteyam laughed.
“You noticed that too, right?”
“Me and the entire village,” he said, joining him in the laughter. “I think only my father is blind to it,”
Neteyam chuckled and pulled him closer.
“So what do we do now?” he asked. “Go back and our separate ways?”
The thought made him frown. Because he didn’t want to be away from his mate.
“How much did you say your father was going to kill you?”
Neteyam laughed again. It was deep and big and it surrounded him, and Ao’nung didn’t want to stop hearing it.
“Well, he said we should make nice with the chief’s son,” he said.
Ao’nung joined him in his laughter. At that moment, he realized he would give anything to live in that moment forever. He knew without a doubt that he would braid a bead into his song cord for that moment. So he could always remember, no matter how old he became, how he met his mate and how he came to love him.
-THE END-