"Well, you gonna get yourself up there?" Bumi asked, his arm slung round his sons shoulders. Tahno had pressed himself against his side when Lin had knelt before Korra; he'd slung his arm around him when he'd tensed as Korra entered the Avatar state. When Lin stood and lifted the rocks around the platform he wondered why Tahno wasn't tearing out of his grip and racing up to where Korra was waiting.
Tahno shivered a little. "What if… What if it doesn't work?"
Closing his eyes Bumi turned them so that only he could see his son and cupped his face, tilting it so that he could study him. Tahno still had dark bags under his eyes, and his face was too pale and it was all too obvious how little he had been eating. He reminded Bumi of what he had looked like in the weeks after Fela had died, a part of him had been ripped away and he could never get it back.
He knew exactly how his son felt. He knew intimately how it felt to have his soul ripped to pieces.
"It will work." He said, quietly and with complete certainty.
Tahno locked eyes with him. "How… how can you be sure?" he asked softly. "What if it only works on good people Pa, what if it doesn't-"
Bumi's hands shifted to his sons shoulders and he gave him a small shake. "No more of that. Do you hear me Tahno. Now you are going to walk about there, and I promise you. It will work. Your grandfather wouldn't let it not work, do you understand."
Tahno looked so indecisive that Bumi just dragged him in for a hug, shooting a glare back over his shoulder when he heard someone snicker. Finally he felt his son square his shoulders and he let him go. He turned with him and kept his hand on him as long as he could until Tahno was out of his reach and was climbing onto the platform.
Though he trusted his father's spirit completely, he didn't think it hurt to send a quick prayer to Yue as well. He wasn't going to take chances, not with his son.
Just a little extra scene, for no reason at all.
