Chapter Text
Umbra watched as his children recovered in their own ways after a mission. Glal had taken a quick trip to his transference room to access the medical supplies there, and Siyanda had come out of hers, given Ivara a high five, and then the two of them had sat down with the tablets that Umbra had bought on the last trip to the relay, with Ivara pulling up a video on the sign language course all of the aware and sufficiently intelligent frames were taking, and Siyanda pulling a stylus from the top of hers and settling down to draw.
Glal eventually came over to Siyanda's orbiter, holding onto both his shawzin and Umbra's, closely followed by Nidus, who had the other tablet. Umbra smiled, and sat down on the cushion covered floor. He held out a hand, and Glal passed over his songbook. Umbra opened to a new page, and pointed to a chord guide at the top, showing Glal the proper finger placements. He gave an experimental strum, and winced at the noise.
Umbra reached out and moved the offending finger to the correct place, and then strummed his own shawzin. He nodded at Glal, and he managed to make the same sound, the music rippling through the room.
They filled the next hour doing that, other frames slowly joining, crowding around the videos on the tablets. Umbra signed. With only four tablets, there was quite a competition among the children as to who held them. Currently, it seemed to be Oberon, Volt, and Octavia with tablets open to their course, and Siyanda was curled up in the corner still drawing, back to the room, Ivara next to her.
He left Glal to practice their song and headed over to see his daughter at her own practice. These last few months had been strange for him, with her, both because of how much she kept her emotions behind walls, and because he'd never had a girl before. That, and she was incredibly traumatized as opposed to the happiness Isaah had had at her age.
He peeked over her shoulder, and felt the feeling of peace that had lasted these months splinter. It was the drawing, he knew that. He snatched the tablet from her hands, and stared at it, unable to look away from the eyes, crinkled up in a way that he just knew she was laughing.
Siyanda had stood up next to him, peering down at her work. He passed the tablet back.
"Apologies," he said. "Who is it?"
Siyanda's face did something interesting before landing on the neutral one she used whenever she flattened them at a card game.
"I remember better when I draw," she explained. "I had a dream last night, with her in it. I don't know what she did, but it was important."
Umbra shut his eyes, knowing full well who he was looking at.
"I know who it is," he said, and the hope that lit up her face chased away the clouds of her mask. Glal had come over at some point, and was staring transfixed, like a good gust of wind might blow him away.
Both of them looked at him, and he could feel the eyes on his back. But the only eyes that mattered were there on the screen, glowing an odd orange but undeniable.
It was her. The wife of the man he had once been. The mother of his son. His wife.
How had his children met her?