Chapter Text
Ao’nung Te Tsiaku Tonowari’itan was face-to-face with what is currently the worst thing he’s ever seen. What was this? It was his teammate, his left wing, his former enemy, making heart eyes at his little sister. While any fool with a working set of eyes and a baseline knowledge of social norms could tell you Lo’ak had a huge crush on Tsireya, it didn't make witnessing what Ao’nung regarded as a disgusting display of affection any more appalling.
“Aww, such a cute couple!” came a jestful voice to his right. Ao’nung turned to face his taunting best friend, Rotxo. Ao’nung turned back to face the lovesick teenager gazing lovingly at his sister and huffed in annoyance.
“Come on,” Rotxo laughed out, reaching out to shake Ao’nung’s shoulders. “You act like you're not as bad as him.”
“I’m not!” Ao’nung shouted too defensively, realizing that his overreaction would all but confirm that Rotxo was right. Eager to distract from his sudden outburst, Ao’nung shot up from his crouched position near the pool's edge and started to stretch. “We should start warm-up already,” Ao’nung called out to his team. Slowly, his teammates gathered around him, making their objections to early warm-up known.
“Why do we need to start early? Coach isn’t even here yet,” his friend Koro asked. While Ao’nung did want a diversion to distract Rotxo from his earlier outburst, there was a good reason to get started early. What was the reason? Soon they’ll have their first round of district water polo games that will determine which local schools are the best, and put themselves in a better start for the regional tournament at the end of the season. Ao’nung was determined to make this year their best one and to end his senior year as regional champions.
“You don’t have to warm up early if you don’t want to,” Ao'nung said to his peers, watching as their faces relaxed at the idea of having a break. Ao’nung smirked as he continued, “But when you’re slow and get no playing time, don’t come crying to me about it,” he announced to his team, knowing he struck a nerve threatening their playing time.
Quickly, his teammates silenced their complaining and jumped into the pool, starting their 20-lap warm-up. All but one seemed to pay attention to Ao’nung’s threats. Who was this person? Again, it was Lo’ak Te Suli Tsyeyk’itan who seemed too busy looking at Tsireya like she hung the stars to even notice his practice starting.
Even though Ao’nung could claim that Lo’ak’s outward affections for his sister grossed him out, he was glad she had someone who liked her as much, and she liked them. Would he ever admit this out loud to either of their faces? No, but he was content with keeping this secret to himself and giving Lo’ak a hard time in the meantime.
In front of him, he saw the perfect opportunity to do just that. He slowly stalked his way toward Lo’ak and Tsireya near the water. Lo’ak had his back toward Ao’nung, and it gave him the perfect opportunity to push Lo’ak into the water, cutting off his conversation with Tsireya and getting him in the water for practice. In Ao’nung’s opinion, it was the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.
He looked down into the water as Lo’ak came up, looking like a wet, disgruntled cat. Looking at his sister from the corner of his eye, seeing her giggling behind her hand, Ao’nung smirked at Lo’ak in the water. “Sorry to interrupt you, Romeo,” Ao’nung started mockingly, “but if you haven’t noticed, practice started already without you.” He finished his sentence by pointing to their teammates already starting on their laps.
‘Shit,” came Lo’ak’s fast response as he looked where Ao’nung had pointed him. With a quick bye to Tsireya, he dove underwater to join his teammates in warming up.
“Shouldn’t you join them too?” Tsireya suddenly asked, putting her hands on her hips while looking up at her older brother. Quickly, Ao’nung retorted, “Shouldn’t you be at the diving well for your practice?” while crossing his arms. Mirroring her brother's actions, Tsireya was quick with her response. “ My coach is going to be late today, so I have time. You, however, do not,” Tsireya finished, looking pointedly behind Ao’nung.
Quickly, Ao’nung turned around to see his coach, and father, approaching while looking down at his clipboard. Knowing that not even he was exempt from his father's punishment if he was late to warm up, Ao’nung quickly ran to the side of the pool, aiming to dive in. Unfortunately for him, in his haste to dive into the pool, his foot slipped, and instead of skillfully diving into the pool, he ungracefully flopped on his stomach. When his head broke the surface of the water, he saw Lo’ak smirking at him from his position at the wall. In that moment, Ao’nung made a silent vow to give him hell during their after-practice scrimmage.
When Tonowari approached the pool, he looked utterly pleased to see his players already warming up without him having to tell them. He blew his whistle, calling all of his players to gather around so that practice could officially start.
“Good afternoon!” Tonowari boastfully announced, clapping his hands together. He continued, “ As you all know, this year's water polo season is about to start! I want to make sure we are all ready to play and become regional champions”. A spike of nervousness and excitement rushed through Ao’nung. No matter how many years he’s played this game, this feeling never left him; if anything, it only grew. He truly loved this game.
“I’m happy to announce the first string, and after careful consideration, this year's team will go as follows. Ao’nung, Lo’ak, Rotxo, Koro, Nash’vi, and Ongu.” Ao’nung looked at Rotxo at the news and mirrored the smile on his face. Slowly, the team started to chat among themselves, some in congratulations, others in mild disappointment. Before the team could get too far conversing, Tonowari continued, “This, of course, doesn’t mean they will be the only ones getting playing time, and you all will have a chance to play and show your abilities.
And if the unfortunate event occurs that one of our first strings gets hurt, I’m counting on one of you to step up in their place. So let's work hard,” and with that final statement, Tonowari started to explain the swim set he prepared for their practice today. It was a decently hard set, with a total of 40 laps, aimed to condition them for fast sprints and endurance in the water. After 30 minutes of straight swimming. It was time to practice the fundamental skills of water polo. Dribbling the ball, doing dry passes, and trying to score on the goalkeeper from different distances.
While Ao’nung and Rotxo were paired together for dry passes, they made a bet to see who would be the first to drop the ball in the water. Whoever loses has to pay for the other the next time they go out. It was a good motivation to stay focused and not let the ball slip from their grip. The two best friends were chatting among themselves while practicing their passes when suddenly Rotxo got a curious look on his face. For some reason, it made Ao’nung nervous and dread whatever it was that he would say next.
“So,” Rotxo slowly started catching the ball. “Do you want to talk about your little outburst earlier?” Rotxo questioned, passing the ball almost making Ao’nung drop the ball. Ao’nung knew he had a reason to dread what his best friend would say. Still trying to save face, Ao'nung quickly tried to shut down the conversation he knew his friend would start.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Ao’nung said as he passed the ball back to Rotxo, making him jump higher to catch it in the water. Rotxo looked back at him skeptically.
“Oh really?” Rotxo asked, cocking his eyebrow. “Well, let me remind you then,” Rotxo continued as he passed the ball back to Ao’nung. Ao’nung felt his face slowly heating up with the conversation he knew his best friend was about to start.
“I’m talking about the way you shouted when I implied you were just as bad as Lo’ak when he's making heart eyes at your sister,” Rotxo laughed as Ao’nung passed him the ball again. Did he pass it with a little more than necessary to try and make Rotxo drop the ball, losing their bet and changing the subject? Most definitely, but if you asked him, he’d deny that accusation until he was blue in the face.
“It’s kinda ironic actually,” Rotxo said, tossing the ball from his right to left hand, “ You being so irritated at Lo’ak for his crush on Tsireya when you're harboring secret feelings for his brother,” Rotxo finished throwing the ball at Ao’nung.
Unfortunately for Ao’nung, Rotxo’s exposure of his feelings was just the right distraction Rotxo needed to make Ao’nung drop the ball and lose their bet. Seeing Ao’nung drop the ball, Rotxo cheered in victory as he jumped in the water and splashed back down.
Ao’nung quickly looked around to see if anyone had heard what Rotxo had said. Thankfully, no one was paying them any mind as they were focusing on their own skills to improve. It’s not that Ao’nung was ashamed of his feelings towards Neteyam or was trying to hide them from his family. In fact, they had figured it out a long time ago for themselves, often teasing Ao’nung in private about it. It was more of the fact that Ao’nung wasn’t ready to admit his feelings to his crush himself and was less than eager for others to find out about them and tell Neteyam before he got the chance, too.
Especially Lo’ak. He knew he’d never get another moment's peace if Lo’ak found out Ao’nung was crushing on his brother while also giving him a hard time for crushing on Ao’nungs sister. Ao’nung was perfectly fine with letting his feelings towards Neteyam stay a secret from him until he got enough courage to admit them to the man himself.
Ao’nung quickly swam up to Rotxo, sushing him and urging him to “keep his voice down” unless he wanted Ao’nung to announce how he too was harboring secret feelings for one of the Sullys.
That quickly shut Rotxo up as he looked around, making sure no one could hear their conversation now that it was pertaining to him and his crush.
Before any more words could be exchanged between the pair of best friends, Tonowari quickly blew his whistle and announced that their team would split into two in order to have a scrimmage as practice was coming to a close. This allowed them to practice their skills in a real game-like setting and to learn how to work with different team members than they were used to. Among Ao’nung’s team right now were Koro and Nash’vi, while Lo’ak, Rotxo, and Ongu were on the opposite team.
He was currently staring down Lo’ak while his father held the ball in the middle of the pool and suddenly blew the whistle. Ao’nung pushed off the wall and sprinted towards the ball in the center of the pool, just making it in time to scoop the ball away from Lo’ak and toss it back to Koro, who then took the ball and drove it up toward the goal. Ao’nung took this chance to weave past Lo’ak and sprint toward the goal. Aiming to be open if Koro needed to pass the ball.
Unfortunately for Ao’nung, Lo’ak had figured out his plan and took a spot between Ao’nung and Koro, perfectly positioning himself to block a pass toward Ao’nung if Koro attempted it.
“Hey fish lips, do you mind if I stay here?” Lo’ak said, pushing his back against Ao’nung’s front, pushing him further from the goal. Smirking at himself, Ao’nung pushed his left arm against Lo’ak’s back, creating distance from him.
“I don’t, but Tsireya might if she sees you backing up on me like that,” Ao’nung said, hoping to strike a nerve. He did.
Quickly, Lo’ak placed some distance between them as his face flushed at the implication. He looked indignant as he yelled, “In your dreams, fish face,” while facing toward Ao'nung. Just as he looked back at Ao’nung and took his eyes off Koro, Koro spotted an opportunity and passed the ball towards Ao’nung. Almost like he read Koro’s mind, Ao’nung took his chance to weave past Lo’ak, catch the ball, and shoot the ball straight into the goal.
Satisfied with himself, Ao’nung turned back to smirk at Lo’ak before swimming back to his side of the pool, high-fiving Koro in the process. That was the great part of being on the team for what seems like forever with the same people: you’re able to read each other's moves and work together to score points like a well-oiled machine.
As Tonowari blew the whistle again, indicating they were to start, one thought crossed Ao’nung’s mind: ‘Man, I love this game’.
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The scrimmage lasted a good while before Ao’nung’s team was able to make the final point, with Koro and Nash’vi working together to make the final point.
As the teens got out of the pool and walked towards the bleachers to gather their stuff and change, idle chatter was being heard. Different teammates were talking about what skills to improve, compliments towards each other, and even some light-hearted trash talk.
Ao’nung was listening to them, not having much to say, his mind being occupied with other thoughts. The center of those thoughts was the oldest sully. As if Ewya herself heard Ao’nung’s thought and aimed to bless him, Neteyam himself came through the pool entrance and walked towards their little group.
“Neteyam.” Ao’nung was the first to greet him, making Rotxo and Lo’ak turn towards Neteyam as he approached. “How long were you waiting?” Ao’nung asked, wanting to know if Neteyam caught him as he was playing.
Neteyam smiled towards Ao’nung before turning towards Lo’ak, sweet smile turning into a teasing smirk. “Long enough to see Lo’ak getting his ass beat. What happened to being the best player, brother?” Neteyam asked, walking to Lo’ak and messing with his wet hair.
Lo’ak was quick to defend himself. “I would have done better if Fish Lips hadn’t been coming on to me,” he said, reaching his arm out and slapping Ao’nung on the arm.
Ao’nung’s face looked utterly insulted at that insinuation, while Rotxo and Neteyam burst out laughing. Ao’nung was quick to retort, “ I wasn’t coming on to you! If anything, you were coming on to me!” Ao’nung shouted. At Lo’ak’s aghast face and Neteyam's and Rotxo’s increased laughter, Ao’nung turned around to show his back, which had scratches that Lo’ak had accidentally given him.
“Look!” he exclaimed, showing off his scratches. “The little demon even scratched me!” Neteyam quieted down and ran his hand along Ao’nung’s back, along the scratches, as he cooed, “Aw, you big baby,” he said and laughed. This made Ao’nung’s playful anger grow silent and a furious blush bloom across his face. As he turned around to face his friends, Rotxos's laughter started to border on manic as he took in his best friend's flushed state, seemingly finding this the funniest thing ever. Lo’ak thankfully looked none the wiser as to why Rotxos's laughter increased.
“Ah, Neteyam!” Tonowari’s loud voice was heard as he approached the boys. He greeted Neteyam by clapping a hand on his back and took in the boys' laughing and smiling faces. Tonowari’s smile grew as he started to address them.
‘I’m glad you boys are enjoying yourself even after a hard practice. I remember when I was your age. Busting a nut laughing with my friends,” Tonowari finished, looking at the boys.
Ao’nung never had wanted more in his life than to disappear from that moment, and mortification washed over him at his father's misuse of modern slang. He looked towards his friends, seeing them looking on the verge of tears at his father’s words settled over them. Thankfully, Neteyam quickly composed himself and was able to change the subject back to the events that happened during practice.
If Ao’nung didn’t think he was an angel before, he definitely did now. As the group walked out of the pool and towards the lobby, splitting off into pairs, Neteyam finally let his composure break and started laughing at what Tonowari had said.
“I’m so sorry, nung,” he started, “but that was the funniest thing I’ve ever heard,” he said as he continued his laughing fit. As Ao’nung stared at him, he decided that even if Neteyam never let him live this down, the pretty laughter he heard from him was worth whatever teasing or embarrassment that would come in the future.