Author's Note: Okay so I seem to develop fanfiction for random pairings. This idea just came to me a super long time ago and has been banging around in my brain ever since. I just HAD to write it down:D WARNING: Kocoum is SUPER OOC (out of character) because I don't think he would do this and still act like himself. To any fans of this particular pairing is it Nakocoum or Kocoma? I prefer the later, but that's just me. Anyways I'm not too satisfied with the ending so I may rewrite it if I have time. Meant to be a one shot, but if y'all like it and want another chapter I'm more than happy to come up with one. Otherwise it is a totally stand alone piece. Enjoy the story!

EDIT: Eureka! I have blessed this chapter with question marks. :D That is a simple and suprisingly common mistake for me. But most of the time those mistakes don't make it into the fanfiction. Most of the time. Oh and if you see a spelling/ grammar mistake within these chapters don't be afraid to call me on it! I love editing my chapters. :)

"Failure and success seem to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, of fighting with their star or against it, and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle." ~E.M. Forester

...

She wasn't here and I was compelled to make excuses for her disappearance.

"Oh no," I would say. "Pocahontas just went out for a bit. She'll be back within the safety of our space all too soon. You know how she is." Then people shook their heads with a small smile. Pocohontas is wild, but also the chief's daughter; a fact that would exonerate her from almost anything. And I—sturdy, dependable Nakoma—sit there and clean up her mess. Not that I have anything against her. Pocahontas is my best friend, really. But sometimes I wish I could trust her enough to turn around and have her stay by my side, instead of gallivanting off to who knows where.

The biggest lie that I regret to tell, however, is to Kocoum. Like so many bugs drawn to the bright, capricious light of the fire, men are drawn to Pocahontas's beauty and easy laugh. They make one dangerous mistake, though. They believe they can tame her. So this is probably why when I see Kocoum sitting around a fire, sharpening his knife with his brow furrowed from troubled thoughts rather than effort I sit down next to him. And I don't speak of Pocahontas. Only pity could stop my tongue tangling in more excuses and actually caring about Pocahontas's fiancé, which is more than she can say. I do not wish to speak ill of my friend, but this is true. She treats Kocoum poorly. If anyone, she should tell him outright that she isn't willing to settle for his sturdy walls. When I sat next to Kocoum, he seemed not to even register my presence. So I sat there in silence with him for a moment. This was just as well. It's not as if I knew anything truthful to say to him anyway.

"Are you alright?" Kocoum asked. His question surprised me, not just because it was an interruption of the silence but that it was about my welfare rather than Pocahontas's.

"I'm fine," I said automatically. "Why do you ask?"

"You seem troubled," he said tersely before lapsing back into silence. He tried to look busy with his knife, but I could see that he was just staring into the fire.

"It's only the cares of an overactive mind, really. I was just wondering how the negotiations for war are going."
"Poorly. I hate to trouble you further, but it's true. They are afraid to fight a people they have no knowledge of."
"It is so strange that everything changed so fast. Just a month ago we were at peace. And now…"
"Sometimes I wish they would leave us alone."

"Pocahontas would say that we could all just co-exist if we tried hard enough," I said softly then mentally smacked myself for bringing up Pocahontas. Now he would ask about her. I had already lied for her enough, and the excuses were wearing thin. So the only places to shed light on were the newly exposed patches of truth. And I had worked so hard to hide it for her.

"And you?" he asked looking directly at me. It was my opinion he asked for. That brought a smile, unbidden, to my face.

"I guess," I said caught off guard. "I'd like to say what she does. But I can't believe that. We all want too much to ever be satisfied as neighbors. From the moment they stepped on this soil, they wanted something and so did we. Only our desires were opposites. We are too different to ever be able to see eye to eye with one another. At least that's what I think." Kocoum smiled at this, looking down as if privately laughing at his own inside joke.

"What?" I asked.

"You are both so different and you are friends, yet you say that two different cultures can never coexist."

"Oh, I suppose that's true. We've always been different, even as kids I was warning her not to jump off too-high rocks. And she was always pulling me along with her." For a moment I closed my eyes to remember. Together Pocahontas and I were a blur, moving too fast for the eye to see. And now, when I slowed down to pick up the ruins of our invaded homeland she had run off. But this time she had run off without me.

"I can see that," he said, as if he was imagining our past along with me.

"And where were you, secretly looking at Pocahontas through the bushes?" I said with a laugh. "I totally can see the little kid you admiring her from afar."

"Actually," he said fixing his trademark, intense serious gaze on me. "I had always liked you."
"You did?" I asked suddenly shocked. Then I tried to brush it away. "It must have been an easy switch from me to Pocahontas then. She told me, you know, about your proposal."

"It wasn't as easy as you think," he said.

"Then why did you ask her?" I asked confusion showing in every line of my face. Why make it harder on himself? He could get me in a heartbeat. My father would be overjoyed in the match. And I…well that consideration was certainly out of the question now. I shouldn't even have thought of him in this way. But he brought it up.

"I was talking with Powhatan and he told me of his intentions to marry off Pocahontas. It was what was expected of me."
"I understand," I saw in his face a mirror of my own crushed hopes. However, I knew he placed more weight on the dreams of others than his own desires. Above all, Kocoum fulfilled his duty as a husband, as a warrior. For a while we sat there in silence. We were separated not merely by a lack of things to say, but of an ocean of separate interests that were not our own.

"It should have been different," he said.

"I know," I replied and for a moment we eased into a new possibility an almost, getting closer and closer.

"Well, this is an interesting conversation," Pocahontas said coming up behind me. Her tone was light and teasing. "And what secrets were you conversing, just the two of you?"
"If I told you that," I replied, with an assumed breezy disinterest at the loss of a last chance. "Then it wouldn't be a secret."