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spiderlandry · 1 year ago

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this is eclipse — neteyam sully

Description: The golden child is reduced to a nervous mess all because of a fierce hunter from the Metkayina clan.

Pairing: Neteyam te Suli Tsyeyk'itan x GN!Reader

Warnings/Tags: fluff, talks of courting/mating, maybe timeline inaccuracy? impulsively written at 3am and unedited so apologies for any mistakes

Word Count: 1.6k

Author’s Note: spreading the loona agenda with this title so don’t forget to stream OEC’s new comeback and also a reminder not to stream any music owned by blockberry <333

The waves crash against the shore, pushing and pulling. The sand digs into your thighs and hands. The light of the sun dwindles as the eclipse blankets Awa’atlu in darkness, the glow of the sea finally threatening to come out at dusk.

You’ve been alone for a while. An hour, maybe. But a familiar shadow looms behind you.

“Are you just going to stand there?” You ask him.

Lo’ak clears his throat, clearly surprised at having been caught. It’s not even that you’d seen his shadow—you felt his presence from his breath alone.

“Um—no. Sorry.” He tentatively steps beside you, lowering himself to sit criss-cross.

“Do you have a reason why you were just standing behind me?”

You can tell he’s a little scared. Of what, you don’t know. These few months you’d welcomed them into your home, assisted your friend Tsireya in helping the Sully family get settled. You have been nothing but kind, albeit reserved. So maybe Lo’ak reads the confusion on your face when he’s suddenly nervous.

“I just wanted to ask you something,” Lo’ak states with a layer of reluctance he’s trying to mask.

You stay silent.

“Are you…being courted by anyone?”

You resist the urge to snap your head in his direction, instead opting to turn your head slowly.

“Does Tsireya know you’re asking me this?“

You’re not a fool—you’ve seen them sneak off together at dawn a few times this month.

“Yeah. I mean…no. But I’m not asking for me,” he stumbles out his response, a little shocked that you’d noticed his ‘thing’ with Tsireya.

“Whom are you asking for?”

“Um…” He hesitates, “My brother.”

Ah. Neteyam. You’re not strangers. You helped him with his ilu, you remember his eagerness vividly. And how secretly proud he was after Lo’ak said he bonded with a tulkun, despite his teasing. You look out into the sea again, formulating a response.

“If your brother wishes to court me, he can ask me himself.”

You stand up, dusting sand off your body, leaving Lo’ak with a grimace and a thought that he might have just blown his brothers chances.

Upon arriving at Awa’atlu, Neteyam’s eyes had been drawn to you the second you emerged from your people, standing out as a graceful presence rather than a cautious stranger. He recalls how you watched his family ask for sanctuary with only a careful gaze rather than with any semblance of disgust like the others did.

His infatuation with you only grew tenfold when you were assigned to help the Tsireya and Ao’nung with getting the family to learn the ways of Metkayina. At first, he thought you were the eldest child of Tonowari and Ronal by how they treated you with such respect, but he was proven wrong when the leader said your families are just close.

You helped him focus on his breathing, tapping him lightly when he would get distracted with teasing Lo’ak about Tsireya.

He thinks the infatuation turned into something else—something more—when he really saw you in your element.

It turns out, you come from a long line of fierce hunters. Tsireya said that you’re one of the youngest to have completed Iknimaya a few years ago, and your grandfather taught Tonowari how to hunt. Neteyam’s heart deflated at the thought that you were likely already being courted, if not mated.

A few months into learning, you offered to take Neteyam hunting beyond the reef. Seeing as he was mastering his skills quickly, you’d been granted a pass from the leaders to show the oldest Sully what happens beyond the reef, partly to show him the dangers, a warning not to go out there unless he is with an experienced hunter, as you are.

He watched from his ilu as you navigated the complicated terrain that was the sea, weaving your body through corals and seaweeds.

Though you didn’t stay for long, you brought back a decent amount for the clan.

Needless to say, he couldn’t get enough of you after that.

He begins to observe you even more, since the training load had been lightened, he would allow himself to focus on how you carry yourself around your people.

He knows you’re reserved around the Sully family. A day after their arrival, you barely said two sentences to Neytiri, letting the basket of gathered fruits speak for itself as a welcome gift rather than using your words.

However, the way you act around your own people is different. It’s not surprising to him that you’re popular, often kids huddle around you during the start of celebrations to hear about hunting stories you’d inherited from your family. He notices men and women your age make conversation, and older clan members hold respect for you. Hell, even Ao‘nung backed off with a nod when you warned him about his teasing.

But what really got him was seeing how you opened up to his family.

During the fifth month, your parents, along with many others, had gone on a long hunting trip for the upcoming cold season.

He wonders why you stayed back, as Rotxo offhandedly mentioned that you typically went on these trips. Neteyam doesn’t care, though, because that means he gets to see more of you.

With your parents away, you find more time to get to know the Sully’s past teaching them about Metkayina life.

He finds you playing with Tuk, even introducing her to other kids in the clan, and his chest swells with pride as he watches his little sister feel more at home. Later, he spots you talking to Kiri, and she looks genuinely engrossed in the conversation.

There is nothing more he’d like than to begin courting you. But the problem is that he doesn’t even know if you’re available. What if you’re already mated?

He ends up regretting voicing these thoughts to Lo’ak in a small rant—because the day after the conversation, Lo’ak comes running to him, apologetic, saying that he might have made you mad.

“Why would they be mad?” Neteyam asks.

“Because!” Lo’ak shrugs, and the older brother has that face saying spit it out. So he does. “I told them that you were interested.”

Neteyam’s eyes widen, and for a moment Lo’ak is scared that he’s about to get a light smack in the head, but it seems Neteyam is too concerned with running to your marui, so he’s safe. (For now.)

Neteyam slows down a few feet from your home, catching his breath. The flap is open, and he can hear a fire crackling inside. It’s almost dinner.

He hesitates, stepping closer to the entryway of your marui. You’re chopping vegetables, and you don’t realize he is there. He hovers. You’re too focused to hear him.

But he’s wrong.

“You know,” You begin, and Neteyam is taken aback. “It is customary to announce your presence upon entering someone’s home.”

He clears his throat a bit too loud for it to be real. You both know it’s fake. Yet you don’t look up to him with any hints of dissatisfaction on your face—no, it’s the opposite. There’s a smirk lingering on your pretty lips. (Get it together, Neteyam! You need to apologize, he thinks to himself.)

“Does the sneaking run in the family?” You tease, talking with the knife in your hands and gesturing to him. “It is the second time that’s happened.”

“I—I’m sorry,” he bows his head slightly, ears pinned against his skull in embarrassment. If any of his siblings were here to see, he just knows the jokes would be unbearable.

You manage to reduce him to a bumbling mess. Well, as much a mess as the golden child could be.

“Why are you sorry?” You ask, and at first he thinks you’re doing it to test him, but when he looks into your eyes and finds only curiosity, he answers.

“For sneaking up on you. And for Lo’ak bothering you about my interest.”

“Wait—“ You hold back a laugh, putting down the knife and clambering up to stand close to him. His breath hitches. “I was only teasing you. And Lo’ak was not a bother to me.” You shake your head, confused.

“He…he thinks he might have made you angry.” Neteyam is a little quiet, but his eye contact does not yield. Neither does yours.

“I wasn’t angry. I just wanted you to ask me about courting matter, not your brother.”

“He asked without my permission, please understand.” As the words register in his brain, his jaw slackens. “You—you want me to ask you?”

“Is that not how your people do it?”

“It is, it is. But I thought…you might have already been promised. To someone.” He searches your eyes for something, anything.

“I am flattered you think that, Teyam. But I’m not.”

His tail swishes in excitement at the nickname. No matter how embarrassing you may think it to be, he just can’t help the way his body reacts to you.

(You think it’s cute.)

“So?” You continue at his silence.

“I would like that. To court you, I mean.”

The smirk on your lips morphs into a genuine smile and he mirrors your expression, the two of you gazing into each other’s eyes like nothing else mattered.

A small pop of the fire snaps you out of the trance, and he glances at the empty marui. Right. You’d been alone for a while.

The question is stumbling out of his mouth before he can realize its implications:

“Would you like to eat with my family?”

But surprisingly, you don’t falter, “I was hoping you’d ask.”

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