[ kinda in love with this gif ]

✰

Kit stood outside their family tent, watching as her children sat together. Kiri was rubbing a paste on her eldest brother's back, muttering about how Mo'at should've given her yalna bark instead, Lo'ak in the corner rolling his eyes but getting closer to the middle, giving his input, Tuk dancing around the fire with her small figurine of an Ikran. Even Spider crouched by the fire, enjoying the activity.

Her heart was whole, yet as she turned to her mate and husband who sat outside the tent, polishing his guns, the mother felt her heart clench. She knew he didn't mean to be so hard on them, he just didn't know how to express his love to the kids without being a soldier. He thought he was protecting them by making them strong yet he was only damaging his relationship with them, especially Lo'ak. Kit was bored of the whole good cop bad cop routine they'd had for the last 14 years.

Jake could feel his wife's stare on his back but he didn't stop cleaning his gun. "What?" The man sighed, still covered in his war paint, not having had a moment to clean it.

"Neteyam and Lo'ak are just trying to live up to you," Kit spoke, turning away from her children, grabbing a bowl of water with a cloth and coming to sit in front of her husband so she faced him. Her tail flicked round and brushed his knee, his yellow eyes looking away from his gun for a moment to see his wife's big eyes, "the standards you set are so high, it is very hard on them."

His focus was back on the gun, Kit knew him well enough to know he was avoiding her eyes."I know."

Ever so gently, she put one of her hands over his on the gun, forcing it down. He looked up to meet his wife's gaze, "You're so hard on them."

"I'm their father. It's my job." He clicked the gun into gear, looking ever so serious.

"This is not a squad. It's a family." Kit moved closer and took the gun from his hands, Jake letting her do so and just sitting knees to knees on the ground. Kit grabbed the bowl of water and cloth and dipped it slowly. Once she wrung it out, the woman lifted it and wiped in on his shoulder, getting the grime and paint off. Jake closed his eyes and breathed out slowly, truly listening to her now, "my love, Jake, relax, they didn't do anything you wouldn't have done."

He sighed, covering her hand that wiped down his chest with one of his own, holding them still over his heart, "that's what worries me."

The feeling of being a parent, having created a being and now tasked with ensuring their survival whilst also drowning in this sense of love for them was overwhelming. Jake tried to express this in the best way he knew how, by making sure his boys could fight and survive, he'd worry about feelings later. But that was just the marine in him, not the man who'd come so far from his army days. Nor the husband who was dedicated to making a happy life.

Kit smiled small, bringing their hands to her mouth where she placed a gently kiss on his knuckled before continuing to wipe at the paint and dirt, now moving on to his face. "We're never going to stop worrying about them, they're our babies," though they weren't as small anymore, "but they need to know that they can mess up and were not gonna be mad. They need to trust us enough to tell us when something goes wrong, cause Jake," she tilted her head,"what if something happens and they don't tell us? How can we help them then?"

The couple were silent for a few minutes, Kit cleaning off her husband whilst he tried to organise his thoughts. Every so often, they'd hear their kids laugh and yell at each other, knowing they were safe at the end of the day being all the closure that was needed.

"I don't try and push them away," Jake spoke after the kids quieted down, "I just try - try to keep them safe." His tail came and wrapped around hers and Kit finally finished wiping his body. Putting the cloth down and moving to snuggle into his side. Her head resting on his shoulder.

"Oh, honey I know, and if I didn't love you so much, I'd never stop yelling." He cracked a weak chuckle at that. In their life together she hadn't really ever yelled at him, only when she was in labour, but imagining a Kit filled with anger did bring him a moment of humour. "But training them to be soldiers right now? That's not keeping them safe, that's forcing them to grow up too soon."

"We're in a war Kit, they can't be boys forever." Both Kit and Jake looked over to their kids who were busy in their tent. Tuk chased Lo'ak round the fire, who accidentally stepped on Kiri's tail, she turned and hissed whilst Neteyam chuckled, tucking into a piece of meat. And Spider, the poor boy, just tried to keep up with what was going on.

"I know that," she sighs, "just maybe a little longer. Let them be kids whilst they can." Jake wanted to agree, but it was hard. His boys had already become hunters, gained their Ikrans, there was no reason for them not to fight other than his worry.

"Letting them be kids only makes them more vulnerable." He sighed softly, voice lowering into a whisper, "I thought we'd lost them."

Kit heard the vulnerability in his voice and wrapped her arms around his middle tighter, "but we didn't. And we won't."

The certainty in her voice was enough for him.

✰

"Avatars only, go around!"

Kiri mimicked the human who told her, Lo'ak and Spider off for walking through the avatar zone in the camp. An area used principally by the humans and avatar body drivers, the Na'vi tended to steer clear.

Lo'ak went up the steps to a lab in one smooth jump, looking over his shoulder to smirk at Spider who couldn't do the same. "Those blue stripes don't make you any bigger, bro." Kiri chuckled at the remark and followed behind.

"Yeah, well, I can still kick your ass." Spider went through the door first and pressed a few buttons, sealing the airlock as the door shut behind the two blue teenagers.

Inside the building, all the Avatar drivers were unlinking from their other bodies, machines whirring and lots oof people in lab coats walking around. Norm was one of the first to come out, stretching his arms above his head. "Oof! Hell of a day."

Max chuckled nodding his head, coming over and checking some of his stats, "long run."

"Like a little annoying bug." Kiri and Lo'ak broke out into laughter as they walked into the room, both of their heads already skimming the ceiling. Lo'ak grabbed an air mask that sat on the rack ready, putting it round his necks and following a grumpy Spider into the lab.

"Ha-ha. Real hysterical, guys. You know what really sucks though?"

"I'm sure you're gonna tell us anyway, bro." Lo'ak teased, finding himself hilarious. Kiri slapped him lightly upside the head.

Spider ignored the sibling play and carried on, "Is you can breathe Earth air for hours, and I can only breathe your air for, like, seconds."

"Yeah, Monkey Boy, that really sucks." Kiri pouted, faking sympathy and then a wicked grin took over her face as she reached to tickle Spider. "For you." She turned to grab her own mask and let out a small yell when her tail was yanked, spinning quickly to chase Spider who crouched slightly in defence and snarled at the girl.

Kiri smiled and waved. "Hi, Max." The scientist could never be out with them properly cause he didn't have an avatar, so they only really saw him when they came into the lab. Or they crashed the walks Max and their mom would take, but they wouldn't stay long because they always discussed boring stuff like zoology or Pandoran botany. Kit liked to keep up with seeing Max as she didn't have the same scientific opportunities she used to have, and even though they were in a war, that didn't inhibit Max (and some of their other science bros - the nickname they gave themselves) from continuing to research. Keeping up with her friend and some new research always kept Kit happy, so at least once every two weeks they'd have a wander and sometimes, the kids would encounter their mother and uncle-figure as the two never strayed far.

Sometimes their mother even put them to bed telling them facts about animals.

Jake always teased Kit for that after, saying that their kids took after him and the right side of the family to find the microbiology boring. Kit would always just mutter about his intelligence and how unfortunate it was that her children felt the same.

Max smiled, not at all phased by Spider's animalistic displays. "Hey, kids."

"Hey. What's up, Max?" Lo'ak gave him a fist bump, his own fist being at least double the size of the middle aged man's.

Spider clapped the other scientist on the shoulder, the older man being taller than he was. "What's up, Norm?"

Norm, Max and the two young boys exchanged a few pleasantries whilst Kiri went to the pod holding her mother's avatar. She hugged the glass tightly and sighed in peace.

Kit was her mom, she knew that. The woman had never treated her any different to her biological children and at every moment in her life, Kit had been there for her. But that didn't mean she couldn't long for the woman who birthed her, to know what she was like. Kit didn't have any issue with it either, actually being the one to show Kiri Grace's body when she had asked.

"So got any more logs for us today?" Lo'ak turned to Max, who nodded eagerly. Walking into the room where Kiri was and swiping up on the holographic screens.

Kiri jumped down and fiddled with the beads around her neck. She loved watching the logs from before they were born. It made her feel so much closer to her birth mother.

"You guys are gonna love this one, special find for today." Max sounded positively giddy as he clicked a few more things, entering a past date. Lo'ak and Spider traded a look. "Norm, come over! You said you wanted to watch this one."

The man in question wandered over, still scooping some stew into his mouth.

The blue screen came up. A human Jake lit up the screen, his face pale and blue eyes bright with curiosity. He looked like their dad, he was their dad, just in a completely different form. It was strange to watch him, many of the logs had been deleted when the humans that had been forced to leave wiped their servers.

All three kids were enraptured as the human man who became their father spoke to the camera. "All right. Whatever. So..." human Jake looked around and looked disbelievingly at everything. "Well, here I am, doing science." A feminine chuckle was heard off screen and then a woman was walking over to him, Lo'ak instantly knew it was his mother.

She had the same big eyes and features, he traced her human face lightly with his finger tips. She was still the prettiest woman in the world to him, no one being as perfect as his mom.

"My god, we were young," Norm sighed.

Max rolled his eyes, "how do you think I feel?" Him being quite a few years older than the three who arrived on one of the later expeditions, especially Kit.

Human Kit crouched down next to his father and placed her head in the frame. Her dark hair fell past her shoulders in thick waves, not dissimilar to her hair now. "Doing a wonderful job too, I can practically see your brain growing." His father rolled his eyes, doing his best to ignore her as she pushed herself into the screen but not stopping the twitch of his lips. Kiri smiled as she saw her young parents.

"This is Kit, a zoologist whose main research field is the wildlife of Pandora. Graduated two years ahead of her grade and completed her degree early then going on to be the youngest person in the avatar programme, a woman who has inserted herself into my life and refuses to leave," Jake continued speaking to the camera as if she weren't there.

"He loves it really, but his brooding marine self won't admit it," Kit pinched his cheeks and laughed with a smile as he swatted her away. The camera caught his smile as Kit grinned big but backed off.

Spider's smile fell slightly as he watched, only dreaming of having real parents that loved each other - and him.

Jake shook his head, "for the next six years of our lives we're stuck together so I may as well get used to it." His mother blew his father a joking kiss and went to see what other scientists were looking at.

The screen froze on his parents young faces and Lo'ak couldn't look away, he wondered what he would look like as a human. If he had been born to his parents original bodies. "They were so happy."

Norm cracked a smile, "your mother had - has that effect on people."

In the small silence that settled, Max turned to Kiri, "but don't think we forgot about you young lady," he swiped away the young Kit and Jake and pulled down another screen where a human Grace begun to talk about science.

"...maybe 'awareness' is a better word. It's like the entire biosphere of Pandora is aware... and capable of this cognitive response. Oh, crap, I can't say that. They'll crucify me. I mean, I need
to say something that'll.."

Lo'ak who had watched broke the silence of the three teens who were left, Max and Norm having gone off to work a bit. "So who do you think knocked her up?" Spider chuckled at his friends words, "Pretty sure it was Norm."

"Totally." The human boy covered in blue paint laughed.

Kiri pushed herself off of her mother's tube, looking between the two boys. "You do not deserve to live."

"No, no, no. Think about it, right?" Lo'ak carried on, "I mean, he's the teacher's pet. He's out at the lab with her all the time."

"I would kill myself. I would drink acid." Kiri deadpanned.

Spider tapped Lo'ak's shoulder, chuckling again he pointed to the screen. "Bro, you're right. He's, like, in every shot." They watched the screen where a young Norm was leaning over Grace's shoulder, "Bro, look, look, he's giving her looks."

"Hey!" Kiri firmly spoke, stopping Spider from laughing as he saw her upset face.

Lo'ak didn't stop though, ever so happy to be the annoying brother. "See, I'm thinkin' their two avatars were out in the woods all alone..."

Kiri pushed at her brother who chuckled as he grabbed her hands, "Gross!"

"Guys. I mean, sometimes it's not so great to know who your father was." Both Na'vi children stood still and stared at their friend. Both feeling sympathy but not quite understanding, they both had a dad, and whilst Kiri didn't know who her birth father was, she had no desire when Jake was in her life. Both of their ears flattened slightly as Spider hopped down from the bar. "Whatever. Don't even remember him."

"No, Spider..." Lo'ak placed a hand on his shoulder but was shrugged off.

He didn't want to see the pity on their faces for having a psychopathic father who tried to conquer their home. "Dude."

Kiri wrapped her arms around his waist, speaking firmly. "You are not him."

Lo'ak and his sister traded a look as he stayed silent. The boy coming up with an idea, "Hey, I'm sure mom could use some company, she'd love to see you."

It was a few moments later when Spider unwrapped himself from Kiri and nodded slowly. "Yeah, okay." And so, the three kids set off to find their family that was tucked into their tent. Not knowing that Spider's father was coming back to Pandora at that very second.