What if? (P2) || Jake/Reader || Draft

Grace & Alcohol 🔞

Beat by beat you hear the sounds of footsteps echoing on tile flooring.

You shuffle around for a few seconds, slowly coming to as your eyes finally open.

"I see you're awake."
You can make out the muffled sound of Jake's voice in his chest as you're so warmly bundled up in his Avatars arms.

"Mmm, what happened? Where am I?"
You stretch out and yawn as widely as you can manage - your bare feet hanging out of the soft blanket as Jake has you in a delicate bridal hold.

He scoffs with a tease of a smile.
"You don't remember? You were out with Grace and Trudy all night."

"Ah, shit..." You groan as you wrap your arms around his shoulders, everything coming back to you along with the awful headache.

_____________________________________________________

"So.. I finally told Spider."

You pause for a moment, and stare at her with a concerned expression.
"How did he take it? Are you two okay?"

"Better than I expected... it seems the older he's gotten, the more he considered both sides of her fate." She takes off her backpack for a moment and decides to sit - Hometree isn't too far out from here, and it's a pretty safe area to break at.
"He wants to take her remains and bury them where we placed our graves."

"Really? When do you want to get it done? Does he need some time to process everything first?"

"Well, I told him I need to clear out her space and actually get her remains down, meaning I'll probably need some help — either from Tsu'tey, Norm, or Jake. Depending on who's got the free time.
Maybe I can get Max to help make at least some sort of a coffin? I'd hate to just throw her in."

"Or we could make it easy and give her the typical Navi burial." You offer. "She may have been on the opposite side of this war, but considering she was still his mother — I'm willing to talk to Tsu'tey about it.. if you need. Get his blessing?"

"If it's easier and everyone is okay with it.. I guess... I don't see why not."

You come to sit next to her, agreeing on the few minutes you could take before continuing the hike out.
"How are you handling it? Is it weird at all?"

"Is what weird? That he has to bury his mother? Or—"

"I'm talking about if you're having any.. I don't know.. insecurities about him? Her? Any of this?"

She places her hands on her knees and sighs. "I don't know. It was definitely a bit of a shock seeing her body. But.. in a way.. I'm glad it brings him the closure hes needed.
It's not like it makes me feel as if I'm any less of a mother to him or anything, I'm hardly insecure about that — you can have more than one parent, one mom, one dad."

You scoot over a bit and wrap an arm around her, giving her a warm side hug as she goes on about the way it makes her feel.
"I see why Da'mik and Spider have been inseparable lately." You try to slightly change things to give her the option in case she wants to. "— I'm glad they have one another. They did last time, too. Except back then Lo'ak was closer with Spider."

"Speaking of weird, is it.. you know.. awkward sometimes with Kiri?" She pries.

"No, not really. I'm still her aunt and she still comes to me for advice or help just like before. I'll always have that bond with her, except now I get to see her develop it with Grace — like it should have been from the beginning."

Which, speaking of — She decides to stand back up, and offers you a hand as it's best the two of you get going if you're gonna catch Grace soon.

"—I love watching them together. I love seeing you and Norm together." And your voice falls a bit quiet, ".. I just can't help but worry that it's all gonna be taken away from me. I dont know that I could handle losing everyone, not again."