Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender
Author's Note: Well, I'm just turning into a one-shot fiend! It's funny how a chapter of a longer fic takes me hours to craft, but I can whip out these short stories like nobody's business. This is sort of self-explanatory and obviously takes place sometime after SOFN.
Babies
"So, you've delivered a lot of babies, huh?" Aang asked Katara curiously.
"Yeah. We had sort of a baby boom at the South Pole a while back. I'd say about nine months after the men left," she told him, grinning and raising her eyebrows conspiratorially.
"I guess that makes sense," Aang said, feeling himself blush a little. He had a basic understanding of how the process of human reproduction worked, and, when he was younger, he had watched the flying lemurs in their mating flights. He'd never understood what made you want to do it, though. At least, not until about six months ago.
"I was kind of young to be helping with it," Katara went on. "Gran-Gran had her hands full, though, and most of the women not delivering were, well…"
"Pretty close to it."
"Or busy with their own new babies," Katara nodded and laughed, remembering. "I remember one day when three women were in labor at the same time."
"That must have been a lot of work."
"It was. I kept running back and forth to check their progress so Gran-Gran would know where she should be. And then, for about two months, it got almost impossible to sleep. It seemed like someone's baby was always crying."
"Still, bringing new life into the world. It's a great thing, isn't it?"
"Even better than waterbending," she agreed, smiling at him. The smile made her eyes light up beautifully, and he was almost unaware of what he was saying as he asked the next question.
"So…ever think about having any yourself?"
"What girl hasn't? Sure, I thought about it. I even had some names picked out. Silly, huh?"
"No, not at all."
"The real problem was figuring out who would give me those children. The only boy anywhere near my age was Sokka, who's obviously out of the question. I used to imagine an exotic stranger would show up suddenly and sweep me off my feet." Katara cast a sly, sidelong glance at Aang with a mysterious smile hovering over her lips. "I just never thought it would be so literal."
Aang laughed and hugged her. Well, he had taken her flying.
"I'm always happy to help out," he said. "By the way, just how many babies would you like to have?"
Katara leaned over, putting her mouth so close to his that he could feel her breath on his lips. He shivered with anticipation.
"I'm pretty open," she whispered. "After all, you do have a whole race to repopulate." Then she closed the gap between them, and Aang didn't really register her words until much, much later.