Aang loves every one of his little bubbly bumble bees
He sells honey and honeycomb and beeswax at the little farmers market under the bridge in the city. It’s held right against the grassy bed of the canal, and the bridge is huge and gives them plenty of shade. It’s like an amphitheater in under there
His stall is 2 aisles across from Katara’s, but they clearly see each other through the gap that was made for the walkway in the aisles between them.
Sokka runs a food truck and leaves the TV on so the mini-plaza that they made can always watch the game (the “Icedodgers” are Sokka’s favorite team)
Aang’s literally the sweetest thing there
Katara got stung by the love bug and hasn’t recovered.
He was so calm and nice that he rarely ever got stung by his bees, not even those that accidentally followed him to market (he hushed them like little kids, put them in a little net carrier, and took them back home)
He was a quiet man, but he was always moving, even if it was just the slightest bit--the bouncing of his leg, the tapping of his finger, or the little fiddle with a fold of his shirt. If he talked, though, he was anything but quiet...but he was always kind
He was always—always—moving. Always buzzing with energy.
He was graceful but also clumsy. It was a...unique combination. It didn’t hurt him one bit, though. He bounced off like it had meant nothing. (he was literally like the lil bees he so loved...he claimed to have a favorite named Appa)
Katara grows moonpeaches and sells them in the market, but, one year, her trees aren’t doing too hot.
She has a little cry about it after she hits her breaking point, and Aang is helping her in an instant
Long story short, she asks to rent some of his bees to help her trees (that her mother had planted) so that her business doesn’t go under (renting bees in a real thing btw my neighbors do it with their blueberry farm)
Aang does her one better and gives her a full hive, but he has to teach her how to handle and care for them, of course.
Katara was by no means weak, but even she couldn’t help herself if she was swarmed.
She hit her head pretty bad when she gets spooked and falls back, but she didn’t want to go to the hospital. The last time she went there with someone, she was the only one to come out.
Aang helps her get better
Katara has to take some medicine, but a spoonful of sugar isn’t around (honey works just as well, though)
The first time she calls him “honey”, it’s an accident
The second time she doesn’t know she did it until she sees his smile
The third time it’s to wave him down when he’s a little lost trying to find the restaurant she had chosen to have their first date (he had spun in a graceful little circle but also bumped into a pole--clumsy but graceful as always)
The first time he calls her “sweetie”, it’s right before their first kiss
The second doesn’t have a limit, because he called her by the nickname every moment after
...Their businesses both boom in the next season
Because no one had seen moonpeaches so big
And no one had tried honey made from the pollen from moonpeaches. It was almost pinkish in the right light
Okay so you know how Toph is the only one not to go on a life-changing field trip with Zuko?
...What if she went on one with Azula?
Azula needs her own Uncle Iroh, but, instead of soft love like Iroh gave Zuko, she needs tough love. So Toph—who is arguably the best people-reader of everyone and so ‘sees’ that Azula needs someone to give a damn about her instead of coddle her—becomes her Uncle Iroh. (And Toph had a convo with Iroh before and got his wisdom—Azula may not want her around, but she’ll be there if she needs her)
They both have unresolved issues with their moms. Azula thinks her mom didn’t care about her. Toph thinks her mom cared too much about her. (And Toph already reconciled with her dad in the comics, but not with her mom—the one who Toph got excited to see when she heard the letter Long Feng had in Ba Sing Se).
Zuko orders Azula to go on a buddy-buddy trip with Toph because, like Iroh said, sometimes the best way to solve your problems is by helping someone else solve theirs.
Azula helps Toph reconcile with her mom in a very Azula-way that doesn’t work out, and she doesn’t understand why. She had the perfect strategy, so why is it taking so long for the blind fool to get it over with? But Azula comes to realize that wounds can be healed, sure, but you can’t rip out stitches. These things take time and care. So Azula stops talking and starts observing, and she sees, over time, how Toph and her mom compromise in order to understand each other better and come to peace with one another.
^^^Azula tries to hide how jealous she is, but Toph can ‘see’ right through her. Azula can never hide anything from the blind earthbender, and it makes Azula feel vulnerable in a way she hates.
^^^Because of her change of heart, Azula loses her firebending. Toph doesn’t know about the dragons, but she does know about the badgermoles. She takes Azula to them, and Toph and the badgermoles help Azula learn that the elements and bending are a way of interacting with the world and not just weapons.
Toph gives Azula advice like she gave Zuko advice at the Ember Island Players. (“Your mom talks about you all the time, y’know. It’s pretty annoying. But also very sweet.” “She despises me.” “Doubt that. She’s just sad.” “Pfft. Hardly.” “I’m serious. She’s not mad at you. She’s just sad that you lost your way.”)
Ozai scarred both of his kids—Zuko just has a scar that’s easy to see. Toph can’t see at all, but she knows that Zuko and Azula were both equally hurt by their father. Zuko just had someone (Iroh) to take him under their wing. Azula had—and still has—no one.
Azula and Toph start to argue but in an endearing way like sisters because their personalities are actually more alike than not, and Azula is baffled by having what feels like a real sibling. Azula has a lot of trust issues, but Toph is literally the most trustworthy person around because she has mastered the art of not ever giving a single damn. She’s like a rock. A foundation. A cornerstone.
They both think they’re more self-reliant than they actually are, but they truly do crave companionship. Toph understands this, now. She didn’t have a real friend until she was 12. Azula is almost a young adult and never had a real friend (that wasn’t forced to be her ‘friend’.)
I think that Toph and Azula would get along so well once they become friends. “Fuck you.” “Fuck you, too.” would be their version of a hug. They both hide their weaknesses and are the ‘strongest earthbender to have ever lived’ and the ‘strongest firebender to have ever lived’.
imo They’re so much more alike than not, and I really, really want them to have a buddy comedy adventure together.
Katara of the Southern Water Tribe was a loving daughter, a doting sister, and a pirate without equal. She was the youngest Master of White Waters that anyone had ever seen, and she was the only captain from her Tribe to gain naval renown since the Raids.
She had captained The Last Airbender ever since she found it frozen and abandoned in ice when she was a girl. Hers was the fastest ship on the ocean. It was engineered, through repairs, in part by her brother—her first mate and her favored back to have to hers in a firefight. Some sailors claimed The Last Airbender sometimes flew over the water since the wind was forever partial to its sails, orange and always pulled taut like a glider by insistent breezes.
Katara and her crew made their living reacquiring airbender artifacts that the Fire Nation looted from the ruined holy sites—now mass graves—that were once the Temples that housed her Tribe’s closest companions and allies.
No one knew why the Fire Nation wanted the Air Nomad’s relics, especially after they had collected a hundred years of dust.
It didn’t matter, though.
If the Fire Nation wanted it, Katara wouldn’t let them have it.
Besides, tonight was promising. The moon was full, their hearts were heavy with song, and, if the security on board the black navy ship was anything to go by, this night’s haul looked like a good one. The older men of her crew hadn’t seen an entourage like that since they were boys apprenticing under their fathers (before the Fire Nation rebranded her people’s trade and branded them all pirates...But her people were nothing if not honest, so they became exactly what the Fire Nation feared.)
There was a firefight and a storm from hell, and Katara couldn’t help but feel a little betrayed by the wind. It usually warned her of such things by feeding her the smells of lightning and pregnant storm clouds.
She labeled the wind a traitor when she was knocked overboard.
She cursed it a thousand times over when a cyclone turned her world black.
Katara woke up surrounded by dead plants, debris, and dead relics—loaded in splintered crates—of a dead nation. The wind greeted her like an awkward friend and welcomed her to an island from nowhere.
’The Boy in the Box’—as Katara had come to call him—had eyes like pirate’s silver and was as much a living relic as Katara had ever seen.
“Will you go sealturtle surfing with me?”
Well, at least Katara had friendly company to help her search for The Last Airbender.
Even more Toph and Azula life-changing field trip headcanons:
PART I
Toph tells Azula that she was Melon Lord. Azula likes her style. Toph also tells her that Katara hates papaya, so Azula calls Katara the Papaya Peasant.
Toph tells Azula about the time she became the Blind Bandit, and Azula is impressed. They restart the gig for a while, and Toph loves Azula’s strategies. Together, they wreak havoc in gambling and other dastardly (but mostly harmless) ventures.
They pass the time by people-watching and making fun of everyone. (“Well, that sounds really shallow and stupid. Let's try it!”)
They meet June and have an absolute blast together. (God I want to write something with these three causing chaos together. ‘Chaos Crew’ lmao).
June joins them...and Azula suddenly realizes that she doesn’t want to talk to boys anymore. (“Do you...You like her, don’t you?” “What? That’s ridiculous. June is just a valuable asset to our operation.” “I can tell you’re lying~”)
^^^Azula still has a lot of trouble flirting, but Toph kicks her in the ass and gets her to try again and tells her to just be herself. Azula does try to be herself, and, surprisingly, June is in love with her method of flirting. (“Together, you and I will be the strongest couple in the entire world! We will dominate the Earth!” “You son of a bitch, I’m in.”)
Azula needs an outlet for her anger and the war-driven nature that Ozai instilled in her, so Toph helps her become the Kemurikage (but without a cloak) to dole out vigilante justice. Azula loves destroying the mafias and etc. that they find around the Earth Kingdom, and as they travel and she doles out justice, Azula comes to see what the Fire Nation did in the war because her great nation allowed low-life’s like this to worm into and take over their conquests (her experience is very a la ‘Zuko Alone’)
Toph teaches Azula what makes one-liner jokes funny, but she immediately regrets it because Azula becomes the Queen of dad jokes and is very proud of it because she can cause pain to anyone within earshot and laugh at them at the same time.
(Will add more ideas as they come to me because I am loving Toph’s and Azula’s dynamic)
It’s the ATLA/TLOK crossover we all deserve, and I am having such a blast writing it it isn’t even funny. Aang with the Krew and his grandbabies and his kids and modern technology is glorious.
Basically, through a series of events (don’t wanna give too much away there lol), Korra stumbles upon a post-The Search Aang. Shenanigans and plot and feels ensue, especially since no one tells Aang who they are or where he truly is at first. There’s an alternate beginning to this story that I have half-written that I love and almost went with instead, but I’ll probabibly post it as its own separate thing.
Chaos from the older gaang of course if for no other reason than because I refuse to believe that Suki is dead.
And I’ll be damned if I don’t squeeze in as much bestdad!Aang as I can because my God young Aang being anxious about being a father gets me right where it hurts, and to be sure there will be conversations between Aang and the adults who he doesn’t realize are his kids (here’s a draft-snippet of the scene I’m currently working on):
He smiled even though he was crying, and his face looked like a sun shower. His voice trembled just as badly as his lip when he spoke. “I know they’ll hate me, but that’s okay. They’ll have Katara. And they’ll have Sokka and Toph and Zuko and Suki. T-They can teach them the things that they won’t want to learn from me. And that’s okay. Isn’t it?” He looked up at them. His smile was smaller, but he was crying harder. “Isn’t it? I mean, I was kindof hoping that they would go penguin sledding with me, but they might not want to. But that’s okay, too. Katara can do it way better than me—and they’ll love Katara. Katara is Katara. Yeah. I-It’s okay. Perfectly okay.”
Halloween-themed drabble because I have no ✨self-control✨
Katara is a witch who heals anything for a price.
...she doesn’t know how to respond to the teary-eyed boy offering her two copper-pieces for a nation’s-worth of souls.
“I know it’s not much, but…b-but I’ll give you whatever you need?”
Katara scoffed. She could see the hole in his chest. He was a walking wound bleeding everything everywhere at once. Even now his pain pooled in his eyes and threatened to run down his still damp cheeks.
Katara swallowed. Her frozen heart throbbed.
The moat surrounding her hut rippled with something that wasn’t anger and steamed with something that wasn’t rage.
Her hand itched to touch her mother’s necklace just as the boy thumbed the two copper-pieces and worn Pia Sho tile. He didn't flinch when Momo curled about her shoulders and cocked his head in curiosity. The water-being pulsed through all states of matter before settling on a steamy mix of powder and frost that gave the illusion of fur.
The boy wasn’t afraid in the least. Maybe he had been so scared for so long that even magic held no sway over him.
Katara blinked. He was still looking at her—looking through and into her. His gaze charged through her walls and danced around the spikes and barbed wire that a hundred years of isolation and deals with the unsavory had conditioned her to keep up.
She could read him just as easily, but she didn’t like what she found. He—Aang, he said his name was—wasn’t even an open book. He was a single page, torn out and laid bare and alone without even a cover to protect him.
He had been holding on for so long. Holding on to a hope so foolish for so long—how could he expect her to actually—
“I can’t give you what you ask.”
His impossible hope wavered like his grip on it was trembling with the waves of exhaustion it had been fighting for spirits’ know how long, and Katara found herself speaking before she could stop herself.
“But I may be able to teach you.”
The boy smiled so wide that Katara had half a mind to reevaluate whether or not he was a shape-shifter. “Really?”
Katara tried and failed to hide her small smile. The boy was infectious. “Perhaps.” She turned and made a motion for him to follow even though he was already at her heels. Momo ran twice around her neck in a stream of water before pooling and reforming in the hood of her parka. He glanced between Katara and the boy and gargled sounds of bubbles that rippled like high-pitched chittering.
Sorry for the wait!🙏 Crazy two days of life and work and family
(Kataang + #5: “You’re burning up.”)
(This is in the same AU as THIS hurt/comfort ficlet ask)
Fire Breather
Words: 1,248
Rating: G
ArchiveOfOurOwn
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The snow was soft, wouldn’t stop falling, and cloaked Katara in a powdery cape. The grown-ups and big-kids were all at pick-up, but her best friend still hadn’t come out.
Aang wasn’t on the stairs.
He wasn’t with Mister Bumi, either.
Katara tightened her arms around the apple Aang didn’t pick up. Mister Bumi always brought one for Aang’s invisible friend, and Aang never forgot Appa’s daily treat.
Miss Kyoshi hadn’t seen Aang since recess, but Mister Roku said Aang went to play hide and seek with Hide.
Katara didn’t like that one bit. Hide had a face that made her want to hit him, especially when he flicked Aang where it hurt or when he tried to take her best friend’s beanie.
Katara bit her lip, puffed her cheeks, and held Appa’s apple a little bit tighter. The snow reached past her knees as she followed the tracks trying not to be found. She passed the body-sized holes where Aang had tripped once and then twice. The tracks went under the chainlink fence and turned a corner out of the grown-ups’ sight.
Katara stepped into the inky blue shadows behind the schoolhouse. Chilly cold like jumping into the snow after a hot bath made her skin tingle.
Aang’s nothing-voice—the cry that needed his breathing-box—had her sprinting and her stomach flipping like it was jumping off a teeter-totter.
“Aang—!”
Hide, the bully, was grabbing Katara’s best friend with one big-kid hand and holding Aang’s beanie in the other. Aang’s breathing was rough and gritty like running on frozen mulch, and his little tears made Katara’s heart hurt. He jumped and struggled more than he ever should, all in his desperation to get his beanie back. It was useless. The snow swallowed him nearly to his waist, and Hide was the biggest kid in their class.
Katara remembered how Sokka threw his baseball with their Dad. She also remembered what Suki did to Sokka when the softball player first met her brother.
Hide dropped Aang like the boy half his size had caught fire. The bully first held his bruising head where Appa’s apple left its mark, but then Katara was in front of him and furious, and Hide fell to his knees to cradle where she kicked him.
“You leave him alone!”
Hide limped like something was broken and sped up like Katara was something ferocious disguised as a girl. “I-I’m telling Miss Kyoshi!”
Katara lunged at him. Hide flinched and slipped in the snow.
She couldn’t wait to hear what Miss Kyoshi would do to the meanie.
“Aang?”
Aang wheezed. His nothing-voice was panicked and thin as he fumbled for his breathing-box. It was white, shaped like a bison, and anchored to the inside of his coat pocket by a string of beads.
Katara dropped to her knees in front of him. They sat in a bowl of snow with walls nearly two feet high. Aang’s fingers were stiff as if frozen, and Katara scooted closer like sharing her warmth would somehow help.
She remembered how her Dad helped Aang with the breathing-box when he and Katara played for too long in the park. She also remembered what her Mom said to help Aang back then, too.
“It’s okay, sweetie.” She helped Aang prep the white bison and guide it to his mouth. “It’s okay. I got you, Aang. You’re okay.”
She counted slowly and out loud like Sokka did when Katara was scared. Aang’s breathing fell in line with it, and he looked at her in teary awe.
“You okay?”
“Mhm…” Aang hiccuped. “...’m, okay…”
The beanie Hide tore had a blue arrow and was Aang’s favorite. Katara made it for him when her Mom first taught her to crochet.
Katara took it from Aang’s hand and tucked it—very carefully—in her backpack. She could mend it later.
In the same moment, she took off her own beanie—blue with black and white fishes and made by her Mom on the Solstice—and slid it over her best friend’s head.
Aang wiped his eyes. Katara could read the ‘thank you’ in his smile even though she couldn’t read all her letters. And she knew for a fact that hugs made Aang’s hurts go away better than any bandaid.
His voice was even smaller than him when she pulled away. “...T-Thanks, K’tara.”
“Do you wanna go play together? Before my Mom picks us up? The big-kid side of the playground is empty.” Aang’s shy smile got a little bigger. “We can make a snowfort if ya wanna. I saw how Sokka made his tower yesterday.”
“Can Appa play, too?”
“Well, duh.” Katara lent him a hand and didn’t let go even after she tugged Aang to his feet. “We might have to make a snowcastle for him to fit, though.”
“Yeah! Yeah!” Aang bounced a little bit, even though it made his breathing harder and faster and had Katara’s heart hurting again. “And you can be the knight like in the storybook Miss Kyoshi read today! And I—I...I, um…”
“You can be a knight, too. Appa can be your horsie.”
“...But I can’t be a knight.”
“Why not?”
“I can’t run a lot…” Aang scratched his chest and over the breathing-box in his coat pocket.
Katara still held his hand, but now a bit tighter. “That doesn’t mean you can’t be a knight. You don’t have to run a lot a lot.”
“It makes my chest hurt real bad. Gyatso said Imma get a puppy, though. He said it’ll help.” Aang tried to smile. “You can be the knight, though! You’ll be the best knight! You’re really, really brave, K’tara!”
Katara didn’t like that one bit. Aang had a face that made her want to hug him, especially when his teary eyes hit her where it hurt and his shaky lip tried to hide his hiccup.
Katara bit her lip, puffed her cheeks, and held his hand a little bit tighter. She scowled like she was threatening an answer to come out of hiding.
“Okay. I’ll be the knight, but you’re gonna be my princess.”
Katara puffed her chest and picked up her stride. Aang tried not to be dragged as his best friend marched them to the shallow snow where they played.
“What?” His voice was breathless, but in a good way. “Really?”
“Yeah-huh! And as my princess, you need to stick with me so I can protect you.” She showed him their held hands. “So I’m not gonna let you go, okay?”
“...Promise?”
“Promise.”
She looked him in the eye like when her Dad told her Mom he would be home by Christmas.
Aang smiled like it really was Christmas, and Katara’s best friend sucked in air like he might have trouble breathing again.
“Okay! Okay!”
Katara was nothing if not a knight of honor. Her princess was wounded and slow (and short) in the deep snow, and he had to lift his knee almost to his chest with every step he took.
This was unacceptable.
Katara had no sooner said her vows than herded her too-light princess (and both their backpacks) onto her back.
She struggled a bit, but then Aang laughed. It drowned the memory of his nothing-voice and filled Katara with something like strength. She liked it when he laughed. It made her heart run and jump like Nyla did when June got off the bus at her house.
It nearly left her breathless.
Her best friend was in never such a danger with her around to protect him.
“Oh, thank you, Miss Mighty Knight Katara!” Katara’s princess swooned just like in the storybook. “You’re my hero!”
He kissed her cheek just like in the storybook, too.
Lava gushed under Katara’s cheeks, and Katara waited, frozen, for her body, now on fire, to melt through the snow and into the center of the earth.
“K’tara? Katara!” Katara’s princess patted her cheeks, and her best friend looked ready to cry. “Katara, you’re burning up!” Aang patted a little bit of snow on her and sounded like he would need his breathing-box. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”
Katara hugged him, laughed until he did, too, and patted his back when she pulled away.
“Shush, princess! The dragon is coming!”
“A dragon?”
“The dragon! Now hurry, princess!” Katara spun and made room for him on her back. “The dragon’s super strong and is gonna burn the school down! We gotta run away! With Appa! Into the storm!”
Aang tugged his best friend’s beanie more snugly on his head and giggled as his brave knight herded him onto her back. Katara ran fast and long enough for both of them. They dodged fireballs and firestorms until princess, knight, and Appa were covered in frost and snow and safely hidden from their enemies.
Sokka found their hideout and poked a hole that broke it open from top to bottom.
Katara bowed and Aang did the same, and they finally broke character to hug.
It had never been harder for them to leave the schoolhouse.
Tomorrow felt like a hundred years away.
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👏I👏stan👏childhood👏friend👏AUs👏
I broke my rule to keep this under 1,000 words but I just...I had half of another answer to the ask written when this idea hit me like a truck. I just couldn’t resist. And it felt criminal to cut any more words than I already did😭
Hurt/comfort dialogue prompt ask: Send me a number with an ATLA ship and any other details you want❤️
(I’ll add a read more + I’ll post this and the other dialogue-ask-prompt-ficlets on my ao3 when I get to my PC!)
Also just a PSA I love this fandom and everyone in it y'all are so kind and sweet it’s making me short-circuit😭
FFWF: How's that "collectively Steve Irwin but w/ dragons" story comin' up?
Oh ‘Flameo Is the New Crikey’ is coming up 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍𝒚~
I still gotta work out a few wrinkles and add in a bit more Gaang bonding because lawd help me I will jam in as much as I can, but I am loving the bits that I have written so far. (I posted its summary in this ask!)
Here’s a snippet:
Suki entered the medbay, and, honestly, she shouldn’t have been as surprised as she was by the chaos unfolding before her. Sokka had been grinning like a madman and fumbling with the crew camera—like he couldn’t get rolling fast enough—when he ran past her in the hallway.
And Sokka grinning and giggling was the last seal to every apocalypse that befell their humble sanctuary.
“Zuko!” Aang backed away from his scarred friend and didn’t realize he’d been cornered until his back hit the the wall and Zuko’s shadow eclipsed his escape. Zuko grinned like a playful drake planning something that would get him in trouble. He crept forward, his hands up like a loaded net pulled taut and ready to catch a fitful hatchling resisting rescue. “Zuko, stop!”
“Sokka, put the camera down. I might need a tagging partner for this.”
Sokka laughed all the more. Aang turned equal parts red and white.
Outside, giant claws slid down the metal dome of the medbay and filled their ears with the piercing screams of talons on metal. A mournful growl like a longing purr shook the building’s foundation.
Zuko turned to his new tagging partner. “Hear that, Sokka, my friend?”
“Indeed I do, Zuko, my compatriot.” They stepped closer, and Aang glared between them and sunk like he was trying to become one with the wall. “We shouldn’t keep the lady waiting.”
“Absolutely. You know how so very important it is that new mothers not be separated from their hatchlings for long.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
They lunged, and Aang tested the limits of his parkour abilities to avoid them. “You guys are the worst!”
