⚠️ This chapter will make you sad. It is only sad. All hurt, no comfort.
Read with caution. I literally cried writing this chapter and the next. ⚠️
⚠️Trigger warnings for child loss ⚠️
~~~
Tu Cho smiled at Kita as she set down her food. "Now where is your dad?" she asked herself. At just under the 9 months pregnant, Sokka had not stayed away from her often, and rarely was he late for dinner.
Kita attempted to answer her mother but a mouth full of potatoes had the six year old only let out a string of gibberish with a smile.
Tu Cho looked out the window to see if Sokka was near by. Tu Cho gasped and her face continued with pain.
Tu Cho put down her spoon. "Mommy? Are you okay?"
Tu Cho breathed heavily as she tried to smile through feeling her plants become wet. "Get Gran Gran, Kita."
"Alone?" Kita asked.
"It's an emergency, baby. Get Gran Gran now."
Kita's eyes went wide and she ran out the door, pulling on her coat while she ran.
~~~
Tu Cho had cried herself to sleep some time before Sokka returned from the ice dodging trial of a young boy who'd just turned twelve. The sun had just disappeared before they made landing. As soon as Sokka's feet hit the ice, a young teen boy was racing toward him. "Sokka! Chief Hakoda! It's Tu Cho!"
"She's early," Sokka gasped. He grabbed the boy's shoulder. "Where?"
"Gran Gran's hut!"
Sokka took off at remarkable speed across the ice. "I'm coming!" In record time, Sokka slid to a stop in front of Gran Gran's hut. He paused only a second to compose himself before opening the door with a smile.
Tu Cho was laying on the bed, facing away from the door, holding tight to Kita in her restless sleep. Gran Gran sat in a rocking chair, sadly looking down at a small bundle wrapped in Tu Cho's golden sash.
Sokka was shocked by the lack of smile on Gran Gran's face. A baby, especially one within the family, should have been a joyful event. Things felt eerily quiet in the village for the birth of a baby. He quietly closed the door.
Gran Gran looked up and it was obvious she'd been crying, though she wasn't at that moment. "Where have you been?"
"Hanik's ice dodging. I came as soon as we made land fall." Sokka looked at his sleeping wife. She'd obviously been crying and Kita was holding tight to her dress. "What's wrong?"
"He was early." Gran Gran said as she stood. She passed the tiny baby to Sokka. "Too early. I'm sorry."
Sokka stared at the tiny baby in his arms. He looked peaceful, swaddled in gold, like he was sleeping. Sokka saw his baby boy and his heart broke to know there was no spirit in the tiny body. He sat in the chair as tears began to roll down his face and dropped onto the gold fire nation silk. Quiet sobs came from the young man as he held his dead son to his chest. In that moment he felt less like an 18 year old father and more like he was a child loosing his mother all over again.
Hakoda opened the door with a proud smile. His face fell as soon as he entered and he quickly shook his head to the other men who had come to congratulate them before he closed the door, telling them to go. Hakoda set a hand on his son's shoulder as he looked at the swaddled child. "He looks like you." Hakoda instantly knew this was the wrong thing to say.
Sokka's quiet sobs erupted into heart shattering cries of anguish. The sound woke Tu Cho but she didn't turn to her husband, only held Kita tighter and cried again.
The cries echoed through the village and no one had to ask what had happened. For a man to cry like that in the tribe could only mean the death of his child.