A/N: This is only my second oneshot featuring this family but I would love to write some more, I love their dynamics.
Please Review!
Disclaimer: I don't own "Avatar: The Last Airbender" or "The Legend of Korra"
Air Temple Island was bathed in red, oranges, and yellows as the once high up sun descended to the line of the horizon. The trees gently rustled in the breeze, the chimes strung from the balconies of the different buildings began their evening melody as the wind hit them just right, and the bay released a sweet, salty smell that joined both the element of air and water into one as they danced swiftly through the open courtyards of the island.
Another smell crept into the air as a woman with deep brown hair and tanned skin stirred a steaming pot on top of the make shift oven calmly. She hummed as the wind played with the loopies in her hair, making her smile slightly at the familiar feeling of the element of freedom. She wore deep blue robes that contrasted with the warmth of the background behind her, but when she smiled, her face held just as much warmth and radiance as the sun.
It was a surprisingly quiet evening, an evening where she hadn't had to break up a fight between her children every five minutes, or had to warn them about playing pranks on the ever forgiving air acolytes, in fact she hadn't even heard her children make a sound in awhile. This made the blue eyed, waterbending master very suspicious.
She continued on with dinner though, ignoring the nagging feeling within her brain.
"Now kids, follow my lead, ok?" A man whispered to three beaming little faces, his tall,
lean body towering over their frames, his airbending robes giving him a slightly intimidating look, though the smile on his face proved that he was just as much of a goofball as the next guy. He had a short, dark beard adorning his muscular chin, and deep blue arrow tattoos adorning his pale skin, showing that he was an airbending master. His bright grey eyes had few wrinkles around them, but laugh lines peppered his face.
A little girl, only about ten, nodded excitedly up at her father, her brunette ponytails flailing wildly about. "Ok Daddy! Bumi and I have lots of practice pretending to be innocent, right Bum?" the frizzy haired, younger brother of the girl bobbed his head, a mischevious smile finding its way into his features, "We we're practically trained for this kind of stuff!"
Their father smiled down at them, rolling his eyes slightly as he remembered all the training they had, including the time they tried to tell their parents it hadn't been them snatching the robes of the air acolytes from the clothes lines and tying them around the necks of the lemurs that flew from branch to branch in the woods behind their home.
"I don't know about this, maybe we should just tell mother the truth?" Tenzin suggested, his looks so much like his father's, but his personality the complete opposite. His companions shared an incredulous look at the mere suggestion of turning themselves in.
"That's just a bad suggestion 'Zin, you don't know what you're talking about!" Bumi scoffed a bit at his younger brother, punching him squarely in the shoulder and knocking the scrawny child onto the cold tile floor.
Katara, who had been stirring their dinner calmly up until this moment, heard a slight thud on the floor behind the wall, next to the entrance of the kitchen. Following, she heard a few whispered words, one scolding another one, another holding a slight deflated tone, and another trying to shush all the others.
"What is going on?" She whispered to herself as she walked towards the source of the sound,
hearing all the voices quiet down as they heard her footsteps coming closer and closer. She turned the corner and would have been amused, had she not been so suspicious.
"What are you doing?"
She could have laughed at the expressions on her husband's and children's faces. Aang looked as if he had robbed a bank, Kya was smiling as sweetly as she could up at her mother, Bumi had a slight crooked grin on his face, one of his front teeth missing, giving him the aura of innocence, but his mischevious grey eyes practically giving him away, and Tenzin looked about ready to cry from how nervous he felt under his mother's accusing glare.
"Hello Katara! Uh, what are you doing here?" Aang tried to sound as casual as he could, but ended up sounding like his young twelve year old self trying to ask a girl out on a date. He nervously dragged his tattooed hand across his bald head, taking note of the sweat that had just formed there.
"I live here, Aang."
"Oh, yeah! I should know that!" Aang nervously laughed as he ran his hand across the back of his neck, "I mean we have been married for years, and I should remember those years!" Katara glared at him slightly, "I mean that in the best way possible! They have been so good that I should remember them!"
"Aang..."
"Oh, yeah and we have children! That's great too!" The man smiled nervously and pointed at the children standing beside him, all staring up at their father with an eyebrow raised slightly at his rambling. "Thank you for them, because their great...really great!"
Katara stood for a second, amused at her husband's nervous rambling but also highly suspicious of what was causing him to act so strangely, "Aang, what have you done?"
Before Aang could start spitting out some random statements, his daughter swiftly stepped in, taking her mother by the arm and gently turning her towards the entrance of the kitchen where she had just come from, "Alright Mommy, you have caught us in the act," the young girl let out an overdramatic sigh as she lead her mother to the dining room, her brothers and father following curiously behind.
"What exactly is the act?" The waterbending master narrowed her eyes at the child, as she smiled innocently at her mother.
"Well you see, Daddy, 'Zin, Bumi, and I were planning on surprising you with a day on the town tomorrow! We spent all day, and I mean all day, in the city trying to figure out what we were going to do tomorrow," the younger waterbender threw up her hands and frowned slightly, "But you ruined your surprise. We were going to tell you at dinner, right Daddy?"
Her father, who had been impressed with his daughter's storytelling skils, tried as hard as he could to nod without looking nervous.
Katara still not buying what her family was saying though, looked up at Aang, "Was that what you were planning on doing?," she smirked slightly as she watched a bead of sweat slide down his forehead, "Sweetie?"
Aang looked slightly taken aback before he quickly changed his face into a calm, crestfallen expression, "Yes, we worked really hard all day planning it, we were in the city from this morning until I got home this afternoon, just trying to figure out what you, the lovely lady at the head of our household, would like to do."
Bumi then voiced his thoughts "Well lovely isn't the exact word I would use when you're glaring at me and yelling but..." He trailed off as his mother, father, and siblings sent him glares, "I mean, Mom your awesome and you deserve a nice day on the city! It was all my idea!"
Katara was about to say something when an air acolyte walked into their dining room looking slightly annoyed with the events that had just played out an hour before. She carried in her hands a pair of robes that had a bit of goop on each one of them. The lady of the house looked at her curiously, as her companions looked panicked at one another.
"Master Katara, I am sorry to interrupt you in your home, but just an hour ago a few of us acolytes were assaulted with flying fruit pies it seems and we wanted to make you aware of the strange occurance," the young girl slightly shifted the weight of the robes in her hands, "We didn't see who threw them, but we guessed it was probably some of the newer residents playing a practical joke of sorts."
It all clicked within the woman's head then. Katara smiled at the girl, and shook her head slowly, "I don't think so, but I promise you whoever did it, will get a stern reprimanding from me." Her husband and children visibly gulped.
"Well don't be too hard on whoever it was, we aren't mad and no one was hurt, we were just a bit curious of such a strange event," at this the children in the room nodded their heads vigorously, her husband also joining them.
"Yes, we can't be too hard on them. I mean, no harm done right?" The Avatar nervously stated as the girl looked over to him in the corner of the room, noticing him for the first time.
"Yes, Avatar Aang, no harm done." The girl squeked slightly, nervous around the powerful bender, much like the other acolytes. Though with the nervous look on his face, he really didn't look all that intimidating.
The young acolyte left quickly, and the family waited quietly, holding their breath and waiting for the master waterbender's wrath.
Katara turned to face the party in question, "You were throwing fruit pies at the acolytes?" Her expression was unreadable.
Tenzin, who had been silent up until now, pointed an accusing finger at Kya, "She made me do it!"
Kya then pointed at her frizzy, haired younger brother, "Well Bumi dragged me into it!"
Bumi then shook his head at his two siblings, feigning innocence still, "Well if Dad hadn't of suggested it, I would have never done it."
Aang looked nervously at Katara, pulling at his tight collar as she glared at him, "I mean...Uhm..." He looked down at his children, "It was all their fault!"
The kid's mouths flew open as they began to defend themselves, when their mother held up one of her tanned hands to silent them. The room quieted instantly.
"As punishment, you all will take me for a day on the town tomorrow, and you will do everything I want to do," the woman pointed her finger at her husband's chest and walked closer to him, almost touching her nose with his, "And that means pedicures, and shopping, and all sorts of fun stuff."
Aang was going to try to get out of it, when he sighed in defeat, dejectedly nodding his head, "Yes Katara," she flicked his nose slightly and shook her head, "I mean, Sifu Katara."
His wife smiled brightly before turning to her children, "You three will also participate in all these activities for even accepting your father's offer of mischief, yes?" All but Kya groaned until Katara added on, "Oh and you must finish all your sea prunes at dinner tonight, no 'Mommy my stomach hurts!' or 'Mom they smell like my feet!' you will eat all of them." That sent them into a new round of groans.
She smiled as her children trudged to their seats at the table, awaiting the torture that was sure to be dinner, but she held her husband back and pulled him into the kitchen where the steaming pot sat cooling.
"Katara," Her husband started, looking down ready to apologize when she put her finger underneath his chin and flicked his nose again.
"You just don't ever grow up, do you?" He shrugged his shoulders smiling apologetically as she turned from him, grabbing the pot and passing it into his capable hands.
"I guess not."
Katara smiled up at him, cupping his cheek within her warm tanned hand, "I must say though, your antics sure make things a lot more interesting around here."
He smiled down at his wife and went in to kiss her when she stuck her finger in front of his lips and shook her head, "But don't think you're getting out of tomorrow, as you said yourself, you spent all day planning it." She walked into the dining room, Aang following, shaking his head and smiling at his wife's comment.
"You don't change either."