Swiftcurrent Creek This isn't a bad guy. This isn't a villain.

Ukko stares at the ground for a long moment when he gets the answer. He won’t be able to visit her, like the man in front of her, with their son. All of it hurts at once and he finds a crack somewhere in the back of his throat that lets a whine slip through. He’d lost Tavi months ago, instead of weeks, and having seen her in the last state she’d been in, he knew it isn’t the same. As much as he tried to help, she didn’t know it. All she knew was the coward of a boy back in the tangle before she left him for good and he made a foolish decision to give up.

He doesn’t deserve the chance to visit her whenever he wants.

Uncertain what to say, or do, for it is apparent the other whom he doesn’t know if grieving just as much, Ukko chokes back the catch in his throat. He doesn’t recognize his scent, it hadn’t been on Tavi’s coat the time he’d found her—or if it had, he hadn’t noticed—but it remains unfamiliar. “Can I—” he pauses, uneasy. There isn’t any clue how the other may take the request. “Can I come by... sometime, to say goodbye?” he says, voice quiet and a careful step back. Just in case.