Late Night P1 | Rough Draft | fin

38. Gifts and Boundaries

"Wait, Niikeym. Don't go over there. Uncle Max is-" And of course you hear the sound of the computer turning off as Niikeym managed to climb on top of it.

Ah, Fuck.

"Niikeym, seriously. Don't make me come over there."

So much for getting in the avatar on time - you can't even gather the children on time to send them off with Norm.
He'd been asking for some time with them, and now was as good as ever since you were supposed to have an afternoon with Neytiri and a few of the other girls. Hunting, mostly.

And of course, Norm happens to walk in right in the middle of the commotion.

"What's going on?" He asks, bending down to get through the doorway easier. "I thought heard you yelling."

"Your nephew is getting on my last nerve, that's what."

"Oh, so when he's behaved-" He steps over carefully to where Niikeym is, and reaches out to grab him. "- he's your son, but when he's like this — he's either Jake's son or my nephew?"

"Exactly. He's all yours for today, well, and Lo'ak. Kiri and Da'mik are—-" Norm looks at you when you suddenly stop in the middle of your sentence, and turn to the chair behind you.

"Oh thank Eywa." You hate to wake him, he's so peaceful sitting up in the chair and making the cutest little noises. it's no surprise that he barely budges when you pick him up, though. "- I thought he had run off, too. They've both been giving me so much trouble today."

"What is it they say?" Norm starts to ask, adjusting Niikeym so he's sitting better on his hip. "-Terrible twos?"
All the while Niikeym is making little happy noises and smiling away like he's done nothing wrong.

"You think Max is gonna kill me for the computer? I hope he wasn't in the middle of anything."

"Nah, we've got our programs set up to auto save. We came prepared." He reaches down and scruffs up little Niikeyms hair to pick on him. "Didn't we, Niikeym? Yes we did. We were prepared the second we realized babies were coming."

"Well congratulations, you've got two boys to go with Lia for the day." You hand over Lo'ak and he takes him on his other hip without any protest. "-Have fun."

Niikeym grabs for Norms hat starts to hit it softly against norms shoulder.
"How long do I get to hog them for?"

"I'll be back in a couple of hours. The kids things are in my bag on my old desk. — Neytiris training some new hunters and she insisted I come along to help out. It's nice to see things slowly but surely getting back into rhythm with the clan.
I just hope it stays that way."

As you go to lay down and link in, you find yourself waking up on the other end.
You see the ceiling of your new hut, rather than the wooden one you used to live in..
Realizing it was another dream, your mind and heart reminiscing about the older days.

"Good morning, beautiful." Jake greets. He's sitting across the hut with Tuk in his lap - working on showing her how to carve a few things for decoration.

You stretch out and yawn as the cooler air hits your exposed feet, and throw off the crocheted blanket as you sit up finally and start to wake up for the day.

"Morning." You half-smile back as you still feel so groggy.

No matter how many times you woke up with blue hands and blue feet, you still had that moment where you expected to have your flesh toned skin, shorts, and one of your button down shirts on.
Or even waking up back in the lab, with everyone else.
When times were easier.

Jake looks over as he hears the way you sigh, sounding disappointed almost.

"Bad dream?" He asks.

"No, it was a good one. Old memories." Your heart burned with the feeling of missing everyone. You hadn't gotten around to emailing them yet, simply trying to adjust with the kids and Jake before you sent out a first message.