ATLA And LOK Oneshots (Requests Open)

Spirits (Katara)

This is a part two of the last chapter.

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Ever since the cactus juice incident (y/n) Bumison has been seeing things that weren't really there. Spirits mostly, ones that nobody else could see. He told nobody about this. He was determined to find out why he could see them.

They had arrived in Ba Sing Se a while ago and now that they each had enough time to do what they needed to (y/n) was on his way to the library to research.

"Do you think you can tell me which books have the information I need?" (Y/n) whispered to Toph as he entered the library and quickly walked past the front desk.

The dragon bird spirit he had named after his friend quickly flew off and he decided that was a yes. He quickly followed after until he saw the spirit land on the top level of a bookshelf, he'd need a ladder to reach the book that the spirit was pecking at.

"Not a ladder" the boy realized with a smirk before he started pulling out books and stacking them on the floor. Ten books or so later he could reach the book.

"(Y/n)?" The boy turned his head to see a very confused looking Katara.

"Hi!" The boy smiled as he pulled out the book and waved at her with it in hand. "

She frowned as she saw the cover of the book. "Why are you reading a book on sandbenders?"

"Huh?" The boy looked down at the book in his hand and noticed she was right. "Uh- I- well I was thinking maybe it would have some info that could be useful to Toph when it comes to learning to sandbend" he lied with a shrug.

Katara stared at the boy as he jumped off his pile of books before shrugging. "Good idea, mind if I join you?"

"Uh- well-" (y/n) shook his head. "I guess not" he quickly started putting away the books he had used as a ladder. "Just don't read over my shoulders alright?"

"Sure" Katara shrugged as she helped the boy put away the books. Spirit Toph landed on Katara's head but as always she didn't notice.

Soon enough the two humans were sat at a table as (y/n) opened his book. Toph quickly flapped her wings from up in Katara's head and that sent out a gust of wind which turned the pages of the book until it was on the needed page.

Katara was quick to look around for a window that must have been open as (y/n) began reading.

The section that the book had flipped to was on vision quests, a tradition where teenage sandbenders would fast themselves before drinking the juice of a cactus. The goal of this quest was to have a vision of the spirit world and subsequently be able to see the more elusive spirits of our own world.

"Is that what this is?" The boy didn't even realize that he said it out loud until Katara asked about it.

"Is what what what is?" Katara asked as she looked over at the book.

"Hm?" (Y/n) looked up at her. "Nothing" he couldn't stop himself from smiling as he noticed that Toph had seemingly fallen asleep in Katara's hair.

"What's with the smile?" Katara frowned as she got self conscious. "Do I have something in my teeth?" She quickly closed her mouth.

"No!" (Y/n) spoke a bit too loudly before quieting himself. "It's nothing- just-" he shook his head. "You're beautiful, it's hard not to smile when I look at you" it wasn't a lie but it wasn't the truth either. He wasn't sure yet if he wanted to tell her about the spirits.

Katara smiled widely, unable to contain her reaction to the sudden compliment. "Thanks" she looked away as she blushed.

The boy continued reading for a few minutes before closing the book. "Alright, I'm done here"

"Already?" Katara asked with a surprised look. "Did you find anything on sandbending in there?"

"I did" the boy nodded. "I'll borrow the book so I can help Toph"

"Alright" Katara nodded, looking like she wanted to say something else.

"What is it?" (Y/n) asked after a moment of silence.

"Why are you lying to us?"

The question caught (y/n) off guard. "Why do you think I'm lying to you?"

Katara crossed her arms and stared at the boy. "Toph can tell when you're lying, she told me. She says you've been weird since the desert"

(Y/n) considered his options here before sighing and shaking his head. "I've been seeing things, things which I'm not certain are really there" he held out his hand and spirit Toph flew out of Katara's hair and onto his finger. "Spirits" he pet the spirit as it made itself comfy. "I didn't want to worry you"

"Spirits?" Katara asked with a not completely sold look. "Like the ones you mentioned seeing in the desert?"

"The spirits are strange creatures Katara" (y/n) spoke as he placed Toph on the table and continued to pet her. "You've seen some but not all are visible to most of us. Most don't even live in our world, as you know"

"And what do you see now?" Katara asked with a curious look as she looked down at the empty air which (y/n) was petting.

"A baby dragon bird spirit" (y/n) replied as he smiled down at the happy creature. "In my cactus juice caused drunkenness I named her Toph"

"Right" Katara nodded as she remembered him mentioning the spirit in the desert. "And you don't think that this is just some lasting affect"

"I don't" the boy shook his head as he finally looked back up to Katara. "Everyone in this group has been here for a reason, all except me. You were here to teach Aang waterbending, Sokka is the brains... at times, and Toph is here to teach Aang earthbending. Up until this point I've been the useless one. What if my reason for being here is to learn about the spirits and teach that all to Aang?"

Katara considered that for a moment before nodding. "That could be the case, I don't know. But I do know that you don't need a huge world saving purpose to justify you being here. We want you here, I want you here, and that's all really that matters. You've never been the useless one in our group"

(Y/n) looked down in an attempt to hide the smile on his face. "Thanks Katara" he reached over and squeezed her hand. "I'm really glad you said that"

Katara grabbed the boys face and pushed her nose and upper lip against his cheek, an interesting water tribe custom which the boy had gotten used to recently. "I'll always be here if you need to hear it again" she whispered.

She pulled away a moment later, quickly giving his cheek a normal kiss after a moment of hesitation. "Now how about we head back? I'm sure Toph would love to start working on her sandbending"

Word count: 1200

(Thoughts? Criticism? Requests?)