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Tiny didn’t remember the flight…didn’t remember getting in the helicopter…didn’t remember landing. All she knew was that Lunar needed her, and nothing else mattered.

She came alone. Mav was still in LA with Monday, visiting the school one last time before making it official.

As she pushed open the French-style doors, her chest tightened at the sound of his voice. Her feet felt heavier with each step, like she was walking through water. Everything felt wrong and unreal-- like she’d stepped into some twisted nightmare. But if nightmares were the only way she could hear his voice, she’d take them all while smiling through the pain.

Then she heard soft coos, the unmistakable sound of a baby. Her brows bunched because since when was there a baby in the house? There was so much happening in her body that Tiny could barely walk.

Still, she pushed through, dragging her reluctant body through the house, searching for Lunar. As soon as she answered and heard Lunar sobbing on the phone, she knew he wasn’t calling for no reason and that he needed her. But as she stepped into the living room, the weight of the moment crushed her.

Quickly, she closed her eyes afraid to look again.

His voice wrapped around her, dragging her under before ripping the air from her lungs. She hadn’t heard it in years, but there was no forgetting it. The deep steady rhythm… the way his words always seemed heavier than they should be. The cadence and sing song melody it carried when he talked and lord forbid, don’t let him be smiling while he talked… Tiny would never forget the butterflies that swarmed around her whenever she was close to him. And Tiny and Lunar had always been attached at the hip.

Tiny swallowed hard and forced herself forward.

Little Lunar sat on the floor holding onto a baby boy, staring at the TV, his face illuminated by the glow of the screen. If she wasn’t so caught up in hearing Big Lunar’s voice, she would’ve asked about the baby in her son’s arms but her mind was on one track.

Her eyes swayed to the TV, and there he was.

Big Lunar - young, reckless, and alive. Laughing through the speakers like he had forever to do it. Tiny didn’t only see it, she felt it. The moment rushed back, pulling her under and dragging her straight into the past.

Time folded in on itself and Tiny was no longer standing in the living room. She was there, in that moment-- years ago. Watching it all happen like she’d never left.

Like he’d never left.

Lunar’s leg bounced as he slouched in the chair, his low eyes darting around the extra white and extra cold waiting room. It was quiet, with only soft whispers from the people around them.

“You scared?” Tiny’s hand rested on his knee, searching his face for the truth.

“Nah,” Lunar shook his head.

Her eyes bucked and a slow smirk rested on her honeyed face. “Yes, you are! Not Mr. Ain’t scared of shit, scared of bringing a baby into this world… wow,” she smiled hard, but she was just as scared.

“You think it’s gonna be a boy or a girl?”

“A boy for sho,” Lunar smiled staring off into the future as if he could really see it.

Tiny kissed her teeth. “How you know it ain’t twins?”

“Nah, it’s a boy. I ain’t having no twins…only Luna. But this a boy and you gon’ give him my name.”

“Why he can’t have his own identity?” Tiny asked, always wanting to pick Lunar’s brain more. He was magically beautiful like that. Like he’d been here before or had abilities to see the future. It was weird but the one thing that kept people eating out of his hands.

Lunar put his hand on Tiny’s still flat stomach. “He is gon’ be his own person but he’s the only way to make my name mean something… our boy gon’ be special.”

“Like Javen? You think he gon’ play football?”

Lunar shrugged his shoulders so quickly she would’ve missed it if she wasn’t hanging onto his every word. “It don’t matter, T. He can play football, basketball, sing, rap, or become the president… I don’t care for real. AlI I want is for my boy to be happy and healthy. Not this fake happy shit we doing…nah,” Lunar stopped talking to look into Tiny’s eyes. “Little Lunar gonna be the best version of me.”

“Why you talking like you ain’t gon’ be here to see him grow up?” Tiny hated when Lunar talked like that because she always felt there might’ve been some truth to it and that was a pill she didn’t want to swallow.

Lunar ignored her, pulling out his phone. He lay his head on her belly. A big smile curled his lips making those craters in his cheek dimple deep. “Son, you gon’ be special… fuckin’ amazing.”

A sob so deep cut through Tiny’s intimate moment with the man who was once the love of her life. She looked at Little Lunar’s tears and broke down crying softly.

Kamari started to cry too. There was so much going on that neither adult comforted him because their own pain felt more important. Lunar could only rock his body to try to soothe Kamari.

“Ma!” Lunar wailed like a lost little boy. He clung onto Kamari like his life depended on it because listening to his father rap, took every ounce of strength he had.

“Ayo, Lil’ Lunar, you a wish come true,

Just a lil’ glow, but you shining through

You the best of my heart, best of my soul,

A piece of my rhythm, ’bout to make me whole.”

Lunar jokingly beat boxed to Tiny’s stomach making her fall into a fit of laughter. The moment was so sweet, others smiled on at the young couple who seemed so in love.

“Yea, don’t even think about trying to be a rapper, Lunar…you fuckin’ suck,” Tiny shook her head still laughing at how silly he used to be when it was just them.

Lunar leaned in once more to whisper to his baby whom he believed was a boy. “Your mama a hater…don’t be a hater like her, son.”

Tiny slapped a hand over her mouth as she wailed like she’d been holding it in for decades— realizing she actually had been holding it in for decades. Kamari jumped out of sleep at the sound and started bawling harder, along with Tiny. Lunar sat up and comforted them as his own tears dripped down his face, thinking of the father he never got the chance to know.

Tiny’s body shook violently with rage because they had taken him from her, crashed her whole world and denied her the life they dreamed of. She’d never truly had time to grieve a life without him cause she had a family to raise.

“My Lunar.” She rubbed Little Lunar’s head like she used to do to Big Lunar when he came home, tired from the world. Tiny’s tears poured down her face as she cried. Each muffled scream broke Little Lunar’s soul a little more.

He always knew his mama loved his daddy, but all the love he’d ever seen in Tiny’s eyes was for Mav. He appreciated his mama being able to be loved on properly, but somehow seeing her heart break for Big Lunar was healing. It came with more understanding as to why she deserved another soulmate in a world that had been cruel to the first one. The way Lunar saw it, it was the least God could do for his mama.

“I need to call Luna,” Tiny whispered, as if the thought just popped into her head. She knew Lunar’s twin would want to witness the videos of their brother. Luna missed him just as much as Tiny did, because she was born while he was still alive and thought she’d die with him.

Lunar shook his head, resting his hand on Tiny’s to stop her.

Lunar had spent his whole life filling in the blanks. His father was a legend, a name spoken with reverence, but never a voice he could remember. To Little Lunar, he only existed in stories. Tales of a seventeen-year-old boy forced into manhood too soon. A boy who should have been dreaming but instead was sacrificing, providing, becoming everything to everyone except himself. A boy who never got the chance to become a man.

His throat burned, and his chest felt too tight to hold all the pain.

“Mama—” his voice broke before he could stop it.

He wasn’t the type to beg, not for anything, but this? This was different.

“Ma… just wait. Let me hear my daddy,” he groaned, his voice raw, his body trembling with something deeper than grief, something closer to longing. “I need to hear what my daddy has to say.”

Tiny didn’t hesitate. She pulled him in, crushing him against her like she could mold all his broken pieces back together. Kamari was caught between them, but she didn’t care, neither did Lunar.

The tears came hot and heavy, trickling tracks down his face like rain washing over a cracked pavement. He couldn’t stop…didn’t want to neither.

He needed the reprieve, the moment to just sit in what had been in his heart for years. Lunar just needed to release it with the one person, who like him, never really got the chance to grieve Big Lunar properly.

This was what black men weren’t given enough of - space…grace . Everyone deserved a moment to simply feel , to cry without shame, to mourn without always being told to toughen up.

It was both devastating and beautiful, the way his sobs filled the room. For the first time, Lunar didn’t have to be the man holding everything together, pretending to be okay. He could simply be the son who had been searching for pieces of his father, his whole life.

Kamari started to cry which pulled Tiny’s eyes to him. “Where this baby come from and is he yours?” she asked as she wiped her face. Her makeup was ruined and she didn’t give a damn.

Lunar gave her a lopsided grin as he explained everything that happened that day. It had been a hell of a day.

* * *

Tiny called in every favor in her book just to track down Ahvi’s mama. She knew everybody, but nobody seemed to know Sheena—that was the first red flag. But she finally found her. Now they were on their way to her house when they should’ve been still curled up in the living room going through big Lunar’s old phone.

Lunar held Kamari close to his chest, his heartbeat forming a soothing rhythm with the child’s steady breathing as they stood in front of a peeling door that had seen better days. The one one story house sat up on cinder blocks and had wooden steps that creaked when they stepped up. Tiny gave him a look, somewhere between concern and caution, before knocking hard.

After a long pause, the door swung open, revealing a woman who wore exhaustion on her face like makeup she’d forgotten to wash off. She had Ahvi’s eyes—rich brown pools with storms behind them.

“Can I help you?” Sheena asked, voice tight and suspicious.

Tiny cleared her throat, smoothing the tone she often used for difficult clients. “Sheena, right? I’m Tiny, and this is my son Lunar. We’re here because of your daughter, Ahvi.”

Sheena looked them both over, eyes narrowing. She glanced at her grandson. “Ahvi done got herself into something again?”

“She got arrested,” Lunar said softly, but firmly. He adjusted Kamari on his hip, shielding him slightly as if Sheena’s reaction might reach out and hurt the boy. “We brought your grandson to you.”

“Hey, Mari.” Sheena’s eyes flicked to Kamari, then quickly away, discomfort obvious in her shifting feet. “Look, I ain’t in a position to take no baby right now.” She didn’t even feel a way when her grandson didn’t reach out for her, but that wasn’t odd since Kamari was funny acting with some people while he preferred others. It had always been a running joke Ish used to tell about his grandson knowing good people and in Ish’s eyes Sheena wasn’t good people.

Tiny’s eyebrow shot up, disbelief resonating in her voice. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me,” Sheena snapped back, her tired expression flaring with annoyance. “I’m barely keeping these lights on with the three kids I got, I don’t have the money, space, or time for another mouth.”

The words struck Tiny hard, frustration bubbling immediately to her lips. “This ain’t a stray cat we found on the street. This is your grandchild!”

“Don’t talk to me like you know me,” Sheena shot back, eyes narrowing into daggers. “I raised my kids already. Ain’t nobody come to help me. I got my own life.”

“Life?” Tiny scoffed, looking around pointedly at the peeling paint, the dim hallway porch, the chaos barely concealed behind the half-opened door. “This is your life?”

Sheena stepped forward, finger outstretched like a weapon. “Who the hell you think you are, coming here judging me? You don’t know shit about my life. Take your bougie ass back to whatever suburb you crawled out from.”

Tiny laughed bitterly, stepping closer until they were nearly nose-to-nose, the air crackling with danger. “Don’t let these designer clothes fool you. I will drag you out your own shit and beat yo’ ass like your mama should’ve.”

The tension thickened until Lunar’s quiet, steel-edged voice sliced through. “Shut the fuck up!”

Both women turned sharply, startled by the force behind his seemingly calm demeanor. Lunar’s grip on Kamari tightened protectively. The child had fallen asleep, unaware of the chaos that surrounded him.

Lunar looked at Sheena, his voice firm, every word laced with an authority born of something deeper than status. “He doesn’t need your money or your space. He needs somebody who cares enough to put him first. Clearly, you ain’t got that in you.” He paused, letting the truth settle. “I’ll keep him.”

Tiny turned to Lunar, surprised. “Baby?—”

“I’ll keep him,” Lunar repeated, his conviction unwavering, as if saying it twice made it permanent. He stared down at Kamari, his chest tightening with an emotion he hadn’t allowed himself to feel before. He realized he bonded with the kid as soon as Ahvi was taken away - instant love—deep…protective…fierce. “He’s mine now.”

Sheena watched, her eyes softening only slightly, a tinge of shame buried beneath her pride. “Suit yourself. But I can’t help with nothing. My daughter, Butta might want to though. Leave your number so she can get in touch.”

He rattled off his number, making sure he told her to give it to Ahvi when and if she called. He knew she’d want to hear from her baby even if Kamari couldn’t talk.

Tiny exhaled turning around, ready to leave, her body still heated with anger. Lunar stepped past her, cradling Kamari closer, and felt something shift within him. He thought of his father - the man he didn’t know, whose absence had shaped every choice he’d ever made.

Lunar wondered if maybe his father was behind this—some divine arrangement, some last, quiet prayer finally answered.

“Come on, Ma,” Lunar whispered softly, moving toward the porch. “He’s ours now.”

As they left Sheena behind, Lunar silently vowed to do right by Kamari—not just for Ahvi, and not even for himself, but as the final request his father had whispered to God.