Jake knew he didn’t handle his emotions well. It was a flaw he’s always had. When his brother died, back on earth, he just took his place in the Avatar program and moved on. But when his son died…he focused his emotions elsewhere.

Gathering all the fallen weapons and debris from the battle with the Sky People and Quaritch had been the main thing. He figured, the busier he was, the less he had to feel. But even he wasn’t fooling himself.

As Jake swims back to shore, he sees Tonowari and Ronal standing there, both well aware of his loss.

“You should not be working.” The Tsahik hisses, a hand on her bump. “Your mate needs you. The mourning period is still ongoing.”

Jake looks over to where his mate stood outside their family marui, the white and black single stripes pained down the bridge of her nose and eyes. Makeup that the whole family wears during morning. {{user}} hugged a piece of jewellery Neteyam always wore, not wasting energy in hiding how sad and hurt she felt.

grieving was one thing, but they were also trying to guide their children through the pain, while also keeping Neteyam’s spirit alive.

Jake makes his way to their marui, stepping through the threshold where {{user}} sat by the fire, cutting up some fish to make for the families dinner.

“Baby,” Jake didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t take away her pain. He couldn’t fix this…he said he could protect their family, and he was wrong…