Kataang One-shots

The Beach Party

A/N: This one is Kataang & Co. :) I'm judging Bumi, Kya and Tenzin's ages differences on how they looked in their family picture. 100% my personal opinion. This one is set shortly before the picture was taken, before there were too many expectations and they just got to be a happy family. No pressure.  :D

A/N 2.0: Listen to Carry You Home by Alex Warren (previously Belong Together by Mark Ambor)

Katara's POV:

"BEACH PARTY!!!!" Bumi hollered at the top of his lungs as he threw himself at a huge wave. His skin had barely touched the surface of the water before the wave reared up and spat him back out. The water slid out of his hair and off his skin, hovering over him in frozen teardrops. "Hey!" he sputtered, startled by the surprise waterbending. 

"No partying before sunscreen Mr. Buckets-of Energy!" Katara chided. Bumi trudged towards her with his head hung low. 

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnneeeeeeeeee... But can you do it extra quick? I have a vision!" 

Katara sighed to hide her grin. "Alright you. Get over here." She was able to smear him with a fairly thick coating of sunscreen before he wriggled out of her grasp and took off running across the sand. He didn't run straight into the water like she'd expected, but instead he careened right into the sand and got right to work on some kind of sand... thingy. 

Katara settled back down on her beach towel to wait for Aang, Kya and Tenzin, who had stayed behind for a bit to let Kya and Tenzin finish their naps. Katara had volunteered to go ahead to the beach with Bumi, because she'd almost been afraid that he would explode from anticipation if he didn't get to the beach AS FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. She watched him piling up sand, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth and his dark hair even more wild than usual. The salty air was swimming with sticky heat and Katara rubbed some sunscreen on her own nose. They were scheduled to have a family picture taken in a few days and she didn't want to be sunburned.

"Shhhhh!" she heard a voice say quietly a little ways behind her. She peeked into her peripheral vision to see Aang crouched down on the sand, pointing little Kya towards Katara. "Go get Mommy!"

Katara stifled her laugh as she heard tiny footsteps running toward her. Kya hit her mother's back giggling and Katara swung her daughter over her shoulder so that Kya landed in her arms. "There's my baby girl!" 

Kya giggled again and flung her arms around her mother's neck. "Hi Mommy!"

"Hello love. Have you had fun?"

Kya nodded, her big blue eyes shining with excitement. "Me and Daddy read a story to baby Tenzin!" she paused for a moment, thinking. "But it was mostly me."

Katara's smile widened. "I have no doubt." She dolloped a little bit of sunscreen onto Kya's face.

"Kya!" Bumi called, bounding over to his mom and little sister. "Come here! I want to show you my masterpiece!" he bent over so that Kya, with a little help from Katara, could climb onto his back, before he raced back to his creation, Kya laughing all the way.

"Whoa. Post-nap Kya is a whole different child." Aang commented from where he had plopped down next to her while all of that was happening, Tenzin cradled in one arm. Katara's head was bent over, her shoulders shaking with silent laughter. She looked over at her husband shaking her head and beaming, tears of laughter gathered at the corners of her eyes. Aang was looking at her with that one look that she could never quite explain except that it was everything. She leaned closer to him and held her face a hair's-breadth away from his. Just as he moved in to close the distance, Katara stuck her tube of sunscreen up between them at the last second.

"Oh come on!" Aang complained, but he was grinning just as wide as she was. Katara leaned back on her knees and squirted a couple drops of sunscreen on her finger to rub on Tenzin's little face. The nine-month-old wrinkled his nose at the texture and stuck his little tongue out. Katara laughed softly as she rubbed the sunscreen into Tenzin's skin. When she was done, she looked up into Aang's grey eyes with a mischievous expression. He looked at her quizzically as she got up to stand behind him...and promptly started squirt sunscreen all over his bald head. She felt like a little kid again as she slathered the white lotion all over her husband's head and face, laughing maniacally to herself. The best part though, was that she could feel Aang's grumpy expression as surely as the sand beneath her feet and it only made her laugh harder. 

Finally, when Aang's head was effectively protected, Katara collapse against his back in a fit of giggles. Aang was laughing now too; he was never able to be the single straight face for long. Katara rested her chin on her arms, which she had crossed over one of Aang's shoulders and they watched Bumi and Kya's sand Appa building contest for a few minutes, still chuckling. 

Katara turned her head a bit to kiss her husband on the cheek. "I love you, Sweetie."

Aang slid his arm his arm around her waist and pulled her closer so that they were facing each other. "I love you too, Sweetie. More every day."

She took his face in her hands and kissed him long and slow. He kissed her back as steady and soft as when they were kids. 

They would've stayed that way for who knows how long, but Tenzin was still between them, and he started hiccuping really loudly and Bumi yelled, "OOGIES!!!" from where he and Kya had been, apparently, watching attentively. 

Something sparkled in Aang's eyes and he handed a hiccuping Tenzin to Katara and took off running towards Bumi and Kya. "You kids have been spending to much time with your uncle Sokka!" They shrieked and raced away. Kya was only four and a half, so she tripped and fell into the sand within her first twenty-five steps. Bumi flinched towards his sister, but Aang had already scooped her up and was carrying her under one arm. Bumi gulped and sped up, his eight-year-old feet kicking up enough sand for a Suki sand sculpture as he ran. Aang could've used his airbending to catch up to his son, but he kept a consistent pace of about four feet behind Bumi. That is, until Bumi started to slow down. Then Aang swooped in, threw Bumi over his shoulder, and pranced back over to Katara.

"I discovered a new species for you, my lady!" he announced, laying Bumi and Kya down on the sand in front of Katara. Bumi and Kya loved this game, and they kept mostly sort of perfectly still. 

"For me?" Katara gasped, playing along. "Oh my dear, you shouldn't have!" 

"I call them silly geese!" Aang declared and Bumi snorted.

"How delightful!" Katara grinned. She bopped Bumi on his sunscreen covered nose. "I will name you... Silly Goose One," she bopped Kya's nose. "And you will be Silly Goose Two!" 

Silly Goose Two sat up and bopped her little finger against Tenzin's baby nose. "And Baby Goose!"

Katara laughed softly. "Yes love. We can't forget Baby Goose." Kya nodded, satisfied, and crawled up into Katara's lap next to Tenzin.  Bumi scrabbled his way up onto Aang's shoulders and slumped over so that his head flopped onto Aang's.  Aang took Katara's hand and she hugged Kya and Tenzin closer to her. Her eyes fell softly onto Bumi, who finally looked tired with his cheek pressed against the back of Aang's head and his eye lids fluttering. Of course there was Aang. Her husband. The great love of her life. As she saw and felt and loved the family that they had built together, the fact that they eventually had to go back to the real world outside the beach melted off her mind like water. 

All there was, in Katara'a eyes, was a happy, happy family having a beach party.