Author's Note: Hello, my loves! I'm sorry about the long wait! Thank you so much for all of your support for this story, it really does mean a lot to me! I do hope that you continue to enjoy! Sorry if this chapter is a little weird. Jake is extremely lonely. I don't blame him.

Jake's favorite thing since coming to Pandora has been working on the school. He just listens to the foreman and spends his entire day there. He starts bright and early and doesn't leave until late at night. No one stops to talk to him unless it's to give him instructions on what to do or where to go next and he can easily slip away when it's time to stop for lunch.

He saw the Na'vi for the first time and most, as Grace initially said, were under ten years old, but still as tall as human men which was jarring to see. And there was only three or four that were closer to Jake in age. While the younger kids came every day, the older ones were much more sporadic in their attendance. They had obligations to their clan that they weren't able to ignore but they came as much as they could. Once or twice a week, sometimes. Other times they would come for the full week, or not at all.

One male - the oldest, or at least the tallest - and three females. Two of which are extremely close to one another. They would poke at one another and walk side-by-side most of the time or walk to and from the school arm and arm, laughing. Jake suspects that they might be sisters, but he doesn't know for sure, and he certainly doesn't ask anyone.

He stays out of the way of where the Na'vi could see him as they are coming and going and hidden behind his hat for them and everyone else, avoiding eye contact as much as possible, which thankfully most don't have any sort of problem with. And if the students are here, typically no one bothers Grace while she's teaching, and if anyone needs to, thankfully the foremen or his second go to speak to her.

And because of Jake's training, when he isn't working, he's patrolling the grounds acting as security for the staff and students, which also assists him when people are around, he can just grab his gun and go wander the grounds.

The school isn't super far from the massive tree - Hometree, Tommy calls it - and from Hell's Gate where the human compound is located. They are situated between the two so the kids don't have to travel far and it's not a long ride on the Samson every morning and night. But like clockwork, every morning parents and hunters drop off the kids before vanishing into the forest on their giant horses - Direhorse, he's told - while only the horses that the older kids bring remain for the school day, which is to be expected.

While Jake avoids the Na'vi, children and adults, he doesn't mind their horses. He doesn't usually get close, just opts for watching them graze in the clearing around the school. They don't appear all that different - behavior-wise - to what Jake knows about horses from Earth. They just hang around all day until class is dismissed, and the kids are sent on their way. They don't stray too far and always come when called.

Jake likes the peacefulness of watching them. They aren't loud or demanding and he's content to just sit and watch them on his breaks. It's not that they are doing anything remotely interesting, but in these last three weeks, since he's been helping out, they seem to be noticing him.

The first time they tried to just straight walk over to him, Jake bolted. He's never been kicked by any sort of horse, but he imagined that would be enough to send one body into the next week and another off the next census. Any time they would just walk to him, he'd get a safe distance away just in case. He has absolutely no idea what happens to his real body if this one dies and he certainly doesn't want to figure it out. Nope, he'll just air on the side of caution instead.

After a few days, they stopped, but he has noticed that they graze closer and closer to him the longer he remains where they can see him. At first, he didn't notice, but he has started noting the no matter where he's watching them from, by the time he heads back to work, they are significantly closer. They are always sneaking peaks at him, but none are ever aggressive and almost... huff annoyed when Jake's break comes to an end, and he heads back to work.

And honestly, it's very weird. Almost like these animals are trying to carefully approach him once they realized just walking up to him wasn't going to work - that he would just run away - that they would just need to find a different approach if they wanted to get closer to him.

Like these animals are treating him like the animal!

But the closer they get; the calmer Jake feels. If they were aggressive, they would have attacked already, so he's probably not on the hit list, but he is still a little anxious.

Maybe one day he will be brave enough to reach out and touch one, and maybe it won't launch him into next week or bite an ear off or something. Maybe.

It's about two days after deciding that Jake finally takes the leap He waits until the patrols pass while he's on break, before carefully stepping over to the closest one. It perks at his approach, slowly lifting its head from where it was pretend grazing, to watch him.

Jake has seen the teens jump off the horses and pat them on the side of the neck, from a distance, enough times to have a good guess on where it was okay to touch. God, it better not bite him or any confidence he needed to build to get to this point will shatter to pieces.

And honestly, confidence isn't exactly his strong suit anyway, so that'll be a killer for sure.

It watches as he gets as close as he dares, reaching out his hand as far as it will go, touching the tips of his fingers to the horse's neck. Carefully, as if afraid to startle him, the horse turns its head into his hand, letting out a little huff.

Jake feels the muscles and warmth from the horse beneath his fingers, a small, tentative smile crossing over his features as the horse leans more into his touch, letting out a whinny both similar to what he's heard from horses on Earth and somehow distinctly different.

Jake pulls his hand back when the horse steps closer, suddenly scared it'll change its mind and knock his head from his shoulders, but it lets out a low rumble, stepping closer and nuzzling into his hand.

Jake hesitates, worried, before swallowing nervously and bringing his other hand up to touch its face. Despite how sensitive his skin is, and how good he is getting at anticipating how it will affect him, it's not too bad, actually. His fingers tingle, but it's not enough to hurt. It's just an uncomfortable sensation. But that's easy to look past. Easy to forget about. Pleased by his touch, the horse steps right up to him, nudging his shoulder before nibbling with blunt teeth, whinnying again, tail whooshing behind it.

Jake smiles, feeling more confident in this beast's willingness to be friends. Jake leans in close to hug the beast's head to his chest, lightly wrapping his arms around its jaw and under its neck. It's not too late for the switch to flip and this horse round house kick him into a new state of being, but it keeps pressing close, grumbling and huffing, tail swaying behind it.

Feeling a tension loosen from his shoulders, Jake presses his weight into the horse, which seems to accept this without complaint, and instead gently nibbles at his shoulder and ribs, tickling him slightly. Jake lets out a little laugh, pulling his hat back down over his eyes from where the horse playfully nudges it, huffing in his face.

Jake pats at the beast's strong neck, finally feeling a sense of peace that isn't laced with unbridled terror - for a single moment. That is, until something carefully, stealthily, steps into the corner of his vision.

Jake's entire body goes rigid, holding in place as that terror goes slamming into his chest. Jake feels the trembling in his body travel through his hands and into the beast's neck. It huffs in confusion, or concern maybe, pulling back a bit to look at Jake.

A male voice, definitely not human, speaks. And what he says has Jake's mind spinning.

It's not English. It's not Spanish either, from what his minor understanding of the language would tell him. It is something else entirely. Something foreign, but smooth, like it could carry a tune. Speaking like a slow, speech passed song. It is beautiful.

And terrifying.

Jake turns slowly, eyes blown wide in terror. His heart pounding in his chest as he peaks at the tall male Na'vi, staring at him with wide, curious eyes. His ears flip a bit, swiveling around.

Jake takes in his long limbs, colorful adornments - hair beads and feathers, necklaces, arm bands from wrist to bicep, and a loincloth with beads and feathers and colorful sticks - his deep blue skin with lighter stripes. And those eyes, gold, like Jake's seen in the avatars, seen in the few quick glance in the mirror, beneath the bill of his hat. But those eyes all look fake. Artificial.

His eyes are real, though. They are vibrant and bright. Breathtaking... breathtakingly...

Beautiful.

Immediately intimidated, Jake looks away, hiding behind the bill of his hat, taking a step away from the horse. It huffs, following his retreat to press its face into his chest. Jake takes another step back as the male Na'vi steps closer, holding out a hand and speaking again.

His song-like words, spoken in a raspy voice mean nothing to Jake. They are beautiful to listen to but he has no idea what was being said. It doesn't sound angry or anything, but Jake doesn't want to take the chance of creating a conflict with the Na'vi and ruining all of Grace's hard work - and of everyone that wanted to make this... school thing work.

Jake hesitates, peaking at the young Na'vi, one of the students around his age. Jake peaks under his hat at the Na'vi, who twists a bit at the waist, trying to look at Jake's downturned face. Jake lowers his face more to obscure it.

"I'm sorry," Jake mumbles, pushing the face of the horse away, gently, still weary about getting hit hard enough to see God on a planet so far away from Earth. It huffs like it's unhappy about him pushing it away. Jake pushes it away again as it tries to inch closer. The Na'vi watches the motion, tilting his head slightly. Suddenly worried that this entire thing was a mistake, and touching the beasts was some sort of crime, Jake holds his hands out for the Na'vi to see and backs up quickly. "I'm sorry. I won't touch again. I'm sorry."

With that he turns and races off, ignoring the singing words calling out to him as he retreats.

Jake expected an explosion. He doesn't have a lot of good reason for it. Rationally he knows that he didn't do anything wrong, but he still felt like the world was going to blow up around him after the encounter, but nothing happened. No one came stomping over to him, demanding to know what was going on, what he did. But no one came charging for him. No one even asked around about anything strange. Nothing.

So, then one of two things happened, either it didn't matter enough to the teen for him to have said anything to anyone. Or, maybe Jake just imagined the whole thing. He knows he didn't, but he's so used to things just blowing up around him, so there has to be a reason for it now. Jake is never just that lucky.

But maybe this once, he was. As the hell storm that kept him up for the night without even attempting to close his eyes, passed by without so much as a gust of wind. Jake spent the entire night staring at the ceiling, hands shaking, breath labored, waiting for someone to kick his door down, but it never happened and when morning came, it was business as usual.

Jake watched as the teens showed up the next day, noting how the male kept looking around, as if looking for him, and that was all Jake needed to see to know that it wasn't a figment of his imagination, but while no one said anything or came charging about, it mattered enough that he has his eyes open for Jake. Which is all the reason Jake needs to stop taking breaks and stay out of sight.

And that's what happens when he gets too comfortable.

Jake hid away at the back of the building, amidst the construction to find solace away from the eyes of both the crew, who head into one of the side buildings for air conditioning and somewhere the bugs can't get to them, and in a place forbidden to the kids for their safety. The horses are on the opposite side of the building, so he no longer has them to look anymore.

It's all for the best, he would tell himself day after day, despite the bite of loneliness that would take bits and pieces from him. That brief moment of happiness that he had with the horse now chases him, tauntingly from his memories alone. He can hardly watch them approach from the forest without feeling sad. The animal seemed to like him. Seemed to want to be around him.

Jake spent every break and lunch hour alone at the back of the building, mournfully staring at his meal, fighting the feeling of sadness, as once more he got his hopes up only for them to be crushed. He won't go back, even careful in his patrols to avoid the gaze of the beasts or leave their presence quickly before they can even attempt to approach him, all because he can't ruin this anymore than he almost did. He can't jeopardize Tommy or his happiness, and what Grace is doing here is hopefully a good thing, so he won't be the one to ruin that either.

Jake is just so incredibly lonely, and even with Tommy so close, he's never been farther than he is right now. Every day that Tommy has experienced here on Pandora has been a joy. Jake has never seen Tommy freer. Happier to get up every day to face it head on. Jake has always wanted Tommy to be happy, and this is it for him. Jake could never stand in the way.

So instead, he's being left behind.

And if that's what will make Tommy happy, then Jake will quietly stand alone as the dust settles, and he'll do so without complaint. Even if he misses his brother and is incredibly lonely.

He hears the door to the front of the building open as the kids scatter out of it to play and eat lunch in the forest. Parents have been getting into the rhythm of stopping by to eat with their children before returning to whatever else occupied their day. Jake listens to the sounds of their gleeful cheers and chattering, foreign song-like language fills the air as they vanish into the forest.

Mutely, Jake takes a bite of his sandwich, not tasting it, while staring at the dirt he's digging the toe of his boot into while resting on the concrete wall that will probably be another barrier for a garden or something in the future, but Jake's not sure. A wave of exhaustion washes over Jake's shoulders and he lays his food next to him before rubbing at his face with his hands, letting out a long sigh. He adjusts his hat, pulling it lower over his head, thankful for the bill of the it for blocking out the blazing sun above him.

Jake's back and shoulders are killing him. His avatar is finally adjusting to the muscles needed for heavy lifting and the strain of working day in and day out, but his mental exhaustion is greater than even that. He's getting anywhere between three and five hours a night, if he's lucky, since starting the avatar program, which he's thankful for, but it's wearing him down both physically and mentally. He knows that his avatar is relatively well rested, and that it has to be his human body that is really the only thing that's suffering and the rest of it is mentally, but it's hard to tell the difference.

He feels horrible all the time.

Jake sighs, rubbing at his face a few times before opening his eyes and dropping his hands to see a face staring up at him. Jake's horrified scream is trapped by a sharp gasp as he nearly tips over backwards, falling off the concrete wall.

Large blue hands land on his thighs, keeping him in place, making him hiss slightly as the sensation shoots up and down his body. Jake steadies himself, staring wide-eyed at the face of the teen Na'vi, his age or maybe older, from a few days earlier. He seems intrigued, tilting his head slightly, before a wolfish smile showing off a pair of pretty white fangs crosses his full lips and he says something - with a playful lilt - in his song-like language.

Jake huffs a few times, pulling down his hat more, heart pounding in his chest. He looks away, trying to control his breathing and racing heart as the teen pulls his hands away, dropping onto his hunches, squinting up at Jake. "You," he says, voice deep and raspy. "I scare."

"Yeah," Jake grumbles. "You scared me."

His lips spread wider, throwing his head back to laugh. "I scare," he says again, golden eyes sparkling with mirth. "I look to find you," he says, settling down. "Pali look to see you."

Jake stares at him, mouth pulled tense at the corners, trying to understand. "What?" Considering the school has only been open for a few months, his English is actually really good, surprisingly enough. Jake could never have picked up on a completely foreign language that quickly. Especially an alien one.

"Pali look to me to see," he says. Jake stares at him from under his hood, relieved for the cover it offers for his face, his heart finally slowing down.

"Pali?" Jake echoes, hoping that was the key to his misunderstanding. "What is that?"

"Pali," the Na'vi says, lips quirked into a smirk. He brings his fists to the dirt and pounds them down. "Pali. Mount of Omatikaya."

Mountain Omatikaya? Jake blinks rapidly, trying to understand. Oh, wasn't that the name of this clan of Na'vi? Omatikaya? Ohh. Jake could slap himself. The Na'vi is talking about the horses. They must call them pali.

"I'm sorry," Jake says, looking down at his lap. "I didn't mean to mess with, uh, your pali."

"Pali," he says, enunciating for Jake. He says something in his language before saying again, "Pali." He keeps repeating, staring at Jake expectantly until the avatar yields to the other boy.

"Pali," Jake says, hoping that would be the end of it.

The Na'vi nods, pleased. He says something else in his language and when Jake doesn't react, or say anything back, he frowns, ears drooping a bit before saying, "I don't remember. I try to English at school. I try."

Perplexed, Jake carefully says, "Okay."

The Na'vi shifts his weight a bit, looking up at Jake's face, trying to see it better, while Jake looks away. The Na'vi tilts his head, still looking up at him before letting out a little huff when Jake still doesn't look at him.

"Tsu'tey," he says, putting his hands to his chest. "What are you called?"

Jake sighs, rubbing at his face, wishing that he didn't run the risk of making a bigger deal out of this by walking away. He looks around to see if literally anyone would be around that could help him out of this, but he apparently hid well enough that he's avoiding foot traffic, but not enough for this young man to find him. Somehow. The Na'vi looks around, following his sight, before looking back over Jake, curiously.

"Jake," Jake says, sighing again.

"Ja... Jake..." Tsu'tey tries, stressing the 'a' and the 'e' of his name.

Jake nods figuring that he was close enough and jake wasn't interested in correcting him any more than was necessary, while pulling his knees closer to himself. The Na'vi - Tsu'tey - stands up, moving to sit next to him, not seeming to mind the way that Jake tenses up next to him.

Jake rubs his sweaty palms on his thighs, glancing over at Tsu'tey carefully, asking evenly, "Is there something that you want?"

Tsu'tey turns to him, head tilting to the side enough for a thick waterfall of black braids to fall over his shoulder, three shorter braids dangling in front of his face. He takes a moment, either coming up with a response or trying to understand Jake's words. Maybe it's a little bit of both as he carefully says, "You pet pali. You leave the pali. Why leave?"

Jake pulls down his hat a bit more, shaking his head. "I'm sorry."

Tsu'tey frowns, leaning down a bit to look at Jake's face, or try to. Jake turns away, toes curling in his shoes. "Why sorry?"

Jake wrings his hands together at his stomach. Tsu'tey looks down at the motion, golden eyes wide and curious. "I didn't know..." Jake says softly. "I just didn't want to do anything wrong and upset you. Or anyone."

Tsu'tey considers this for a moment, absorbing his words before saying, "No wrong. Pali like you."

Jake tries not to feel any warmth from that. Tries not to feel anything. He's not sure why this Na'vi - this Tsu'tey - is talking with him, but he hopes that he gets bored soon and goes away. Maybe Jake can get his two days off starting tomorrow and call out sick for a day or two, would that be long enough for this to stop being a problem? Or maybe he needs to hide in one of the other buildings with the rest of the crew. Maybe he won't bother looking for Jake in there.

Honestly, Jake has no idea why he was looking for him at all. He doesn't seem angry, and he's made no indication that Jake touching the horses - Pali - was wrong, so he's not sure what's going on here. Grace is going to skin him alive - both bodies - if Jake somehow does something wrong.

Tsu'tey says something in his language, which makes Jake glance over at him, tilting his head up a bit to look at him, offering Tsu'tey a part of his features and Tsu'tey just stares at him for a moment, golden eyes wide as he says something again that Jake doesn't understand, only able to pick out a single word, "Narlor" but once more, Jake has no idea what it means, and he's not sure he wants to.

Jake turns away again, lowering his face once more, but not before a flicker of something passes over Tsu'tey's face. Confusion? Hurt, maybe? Jake has no idea, and he didn't get a good enough look to know for sure. It could have just been nothing for all Jake knows. He could have just been seeing things.

Jake scoots back to the edge of the block he's sitting on, which gives him just enough room to bring the heels of his boots up to the other end, wrapping his arms around his knees and his tail around one of his ankles. Tsu'tey watches the way Jake folds himself up, tilting his head, whatever look that was on his face before is gone now. He simply looks confused.

"Are you... dreamwalker too?"

Jake glances over at Tsu'tey, curiously. "What?"

Tsu'tey holds out a hand for Jake to place onto his palm. Jake hesitates for a moment before placing his right hand onto Tsu'tey's palm, not sure what is going on. He watches as the Na'vi takes his hand and looks at it, running his fingers down Jake's. And it takes Jake staring at Tsu'tey's fingers against his own for him to realize that the Na'vi next to him only had four fingers as opposed to five and he had to wonder how he never noticed before. He hasn't exactly been looking at the Na'vi that come through here, even from a distance, and he only looked at that manual that first night he got it so it's to be expected.

Tsu'tey's hands were long and warm, somehow warmer than Jake expected. He gently touches Jake's pinkie finger. He lightly runs his fingers down up and down the digit, going into Jake's hand to feel the tendon and where it attaches to his wrist, and Jake doesn't stop him, momentarily distracted by how gently he was being touched. It's... not something he's used to.

"No used to so many..." Tsu'tey says softly, running the rough pad of his thumb up the length of Jake's finger. "All dreamwalkers have?"

"Five fingers?" Jake asks quietly. "Yeah."

"Fingers," Tsu'tey repeats the word, as if committing it to memory. "Fingers."

His eyes stay on Jake's fingers as Jake quietly asks, "Are you... hungry..? Isn't this your lunch break?"

"Hungry?" Tsu'tey echoes the word, finally glancing up at Jake but not letting his hand go. "Oh, food. No. I'm no food." He blinks for a second before glancing up at the darkness beneath Jake's hat, seeing the freckles around his nose and eyes glowing slightly in the shadows. "And you, Jake? Are you want food? Do you...?" Creases form between his eyebrows - wait no. No eyebrows. Just smooth skin where they should be. Tsu'tey says something in his language, looking annoyed.

"Do..." Jake says slowly, drawing Tsu'tey's eyes up toward Jake's.

"Do..?" Tsu'tey repeats, blinking bright golden eyes.

"Do you want food?" Jake asks, quietly.

"Do you want food?" Tsu'tey repeats, lips curling slightly. "Do you want food, Jake?"

Jake fights this feeling curling in his gut, lowering his chin to his chest. "No, Tsu'tey. I have food. But thank you." He makes a motion to his food on his other side, Tsu'tey leans around him, still holding his hand, before nodding in acknowledgement.

Tsu'tey's tail curls behind him as he leans back into place, the motion being caught in the corner of Jake's eye as he says, "Okay, Jake. You're welcome, Jake."

If Jake thought the pali were bad, they were nothing compared to Tsu'tey. He's not sure how it is, but Jake can't seem to hide anywhere from Tsu'tey. His reports after each jump is still nothing compared wo what he supposes he should be writing about. He hasn't told a soul about Tsu'tey, and once more, judging that no one has come charging at him, demanding an explanation, Tsu'tey hasn't said anything to anyone either. At least not to Grace or anyone else at the school.

He had his two days off, which he spent almost entirely in his room once more, hiding from the world.

Tommy stopped by the last night with food, barely waiting for Jake to open the door before piling in and dropping down onto his bed, laying out the spread of drinks and snacks that he pulled from the cafeteria, no doubt from where he sweet talked one of the staff like Jake's seen him do a thousand times. That was Jake's brother through and through. Tommy has always been the charming one. The better brother.

Jake quietly listens as Tommy gushes about all the fun things that they were learning in the school and how good the kids were getting at learning. He talked about mountains that float and waterfalls that seemingly fall forever. All sorts of wonderful, beautiful things that Pandora has to offer. All these unexpected but fascinating things that he wanted to show Jake one day. That he wanted to see with Jake.

Finally, tentatively, as Tommy talked about anything and everything, cracking jokes and sending Jake that smile he adored on the face of his little brother, Jake managed to stomach a decent bit of snacks and even a soda, which he hasn't had since waking up. Jake caught himself smiling more than once that night, even cracking a joke or two, that made Tommy's face light up brighter than the sun.

"You got to meet the others around our age too, Jake," Tommy says, nudging Jake's knee with his own. "Sylwannin is, like the sweetest and most gentle person I have ever met, and Neytiri..." he shakes his head, smiling fondly, "she's a fireball, bro. Tan'ki is so crazy smart, she's learning faster than anyone. And Tsu'tey," Jake perks up at the name, but thankfully it goes unnoticed by his brother, "well, he's great. Intimidating as hell at first, probably because of how seriously he takes learning but he's great. Funny, smart, you'd love him, Jake. You'd love all of them."

Jake didn't mention that he actually already met Tsu'tey. That they spent his entire lunch hour talking - or trying to as Tsu'tey was still using broken English and Jake didn't know a lick of Tsu'tey's language - but he stayed the whole time until the kids started piling back into the school to continue with their lessons and Jake had to get back to work. Tsu'tey had held his hand the whole time, and Jake did everything he could not to think about it. Not to add any sort of feelings into the mix that would just complicated things.

He didn't tell Tommy, because he figured it wouldn't happen again - or maybe he hoped. Or maybe he secretly hope that it would.

But Tsu'tey didn't come at all Jake's first day back, or the second, but in the three days that followed, every lunch break, no matter where he was or what he was doing, Tsu'tey seemed to find him. And since Jake has gone out of his way more than any time before to try and avoid people of any kind, they've been able to sit around and talk in relative peace.

Talk mostly being Tsu'tey trying to communicate with him and Jake just quietly responding or helping his sentences. After the second day in a row, Tsu'tey began bringing out his homework, all verbal things, as they haven't even gotten close to learning how to write, for Jake to help him with. Most vocabulary words. And he's good. Really good, despite still being new to the language.

And Jake suspects that Tsu'tey realized that Jake isn't really all that good of company without a reason for being there. He has basically no skill in upholding his half of a conversation and with Tsu'tey's skills in English still lacking, he doesn't know enough words to form enough questions and statements to help him keep the conversation going, which Jake feels bad about. He can see that the other young man is trying to connect with him, but, well, Jake's just not good at any of those things. He feels bad for the sagging in Tsu'tey's shoulders whenever Jake lets their conversation fall into silence, or he doesn't know how to respond to a broken question too garbled for him to be able to understand.

Tsu'tey has taken to trying to look at him from under his hat and Jake has taken to it being his personal mission not to let it happen. He's been ducking and dodging the lightning-fast reflexes of the hunter in front of him for days. He learning to stay alert and on his toes around Tsu'tey, who at first seemed annoyed by him trying to stop him from looking at Jake's face but seems to be finding more amusement in it now. Seeing as a game. Or maybe a challenge.

Jake just... doesn't want Tsu'tey to know that he and Tommy are twins. Not because he's ashamed of Tommy or anything like that - he could never be. Tommy is the better of the two of them. But because... it's nice to not be compared. To know that when Tsu'tey looks at him, he doesn't just see the shittier version of Tommy. The less worthy one. He just sees a weirdo in a hat that won't let him see his face. And yeah, it's stupid but... well, Jake just wants to have this for a little while. Just a little bit. He won't... he won't ask for anything more.

He just wants a tiny modicum of joy. Just a little bit. He won't push it. He'll accept it for what little bit it means, and when it's time for it to leave him, he'll let it go. And he will do so happily.

He just wants this. Just for a moment. Next week, he'll let it go. But for this week... he wants it.