Roses are red
Violets are blue
I don't own A:TLA
And neither do you.
"Aah," Katara sighed as she leaned against her husband, her hair still wet from the shower they took just minutes prior, cuddling against him with the same lazy love that follows when the Avatar and his wife have 'alone time'.
She smiled at the airbender, leaning up and forward slightly for a soft kiss, pressing her hand to his bare chest, their tongues languid and loving against each other, before burrowing her face in his neck as they laid down for bed. Their attire was hardly appropriate to be worn in public, Aang wearing but his trousers and Katara in a nightgown that barely went past her mid-thigh. All in all, however, it seemed that the world was in a highly infrequent state of blissful monotony.
Of course, this rare peaceful moment just had to be broken by their young rambunctious children.
"Mom! Dad!" they yelled, jumping onto the bed, baby Tenzin only doing so with his older brother's help.
The two benders gave each other a tired knowing smile before turning their bodies to greet their oncoming children, arms outstretched.
"My babies, come here," Katara said, pulling Tenzin and Kya into a hug, kissing both of their foreheads as Aang did the same with 10 1/2 year old Bumi ("The half is very important, Dad!").
"So, what's this late night visit for?" Aang asked, lovingly looking at his beautiful family.
"Bedtime story, of course!" Bumi replied, already making his way between his two parents in order to prevent any possible oogies.
Rolling their eyes at their son's antics, the two complied, Katara managing to lean her head against her husband's shoulder since it was his turn to tell the story.
"Hmm, where should I begi-"
"WAIT!" Kya interrupted dramatically.
The older waterbender looked on amusedly. "Yes, Kya?"
The 5 year old narrowed her eyes.
"Your hair's wet and so is Daddy's beard."
"Yes..."
"Which means you two took a shower!"
"Mhm..."
"And since there's only one bathroom in your room, you took it together!"
Both parents' eyes widened ever so slightly.
Quickly realizing where this was going with their daughter's detective work and not wanting to have to explain what parents did in their 'alone time' to their three young children (although the eldest probably had some idea of what happened), both benders tried to subtly steer the conversation away from their 'activities'.
Subtlety, however, was not their strong suit, despite what many would think given that their childhood was spent sneaking around and attacking Fire Nation troops during the war, as well as rebels during their teenage years.
"I heard you had a field trip today at school-"
"Remember the waterbending trick you showed me earlier? Let's focus on that-"
"You know, I found an old waterbending scroll with plenty of moves to show you the other day-"
Alas, with Bumi catching on, the two older children were not so easily deterred, choosing to wait until their parents were out of excuses before laying out their argument.
"So, what do you do in the shower together?" Kya asked accusingly.
"Probably something involving lots and lots of oogies," Bumi muttered.
"We..." the elder waterbender started.
Katara shot a look at her husband, asking him to come up with something.
"We're conserving water!"
At this, all of the other four raised their eyebrows at the Avatar; even baby Tenzin cocked his head to the side.
"Conserving water..." Katara, Kya, and Bumi trailed off disbelievingly.
Recovering quickly from her internal facepalm at Aang's response, Katara nodded, attempting to convince her children as well as herself.
"There's only so much fresh water on the planet, Sweetheart, and by conserving water," she shot a glare at the 28-year old airbender, "We're doing our part to make sure it doesn't run out."
Bumi frowned.
"How does taking a shower together help with that?"
Clearing his throat, Aang replied, "Instead of taking two showers and using two times the normal amount of water, we can use the amount of water one of us would but both end up clean."
"Ohhh," the two elder children chorused, Tenzin also releasing his own baby-like version, "Euugh".
"Great! So now we can get back to the bedtime sto-"
"Wait!"
"Uh oh," the married couple simultaneously thought.
"Showers are taken without clothes..."
"Danger danger danger danger!"
"And you said that only the doctor and our parents are allowed to see 'that'!"
"Well-" Aang tried feebly, "Things... change when you grow up."
"Ugh," said Bumi in disgust, "Is this one of the things filled with oogies that we're not allowed to know until we're older?"
Pausing slightly in surprise, both master benders nodded vehemently, hoping the subject would be put off until later.
"Yep! Lots and lots of oogies!"
"It's a... talk for another time!"
All three children stared suspiciously at the flustered parents before simply saying, "Okay! Now the bedtime story!" the matter left for another day.
Later that night, Bumi, Kya, and Tenzin fast asleep in their rooms, both Katara and Aang took a moment to reflect on the night's events.
"Well," Aang started, "That was interesting."
Katara snorted and looked up at him. "Conserving water? Really? Of all the excuses in the world, the best you could come up with was conserving water?"
The airbender flushed in embarrassment while his wife simply shook her head and tsked with her tongue.
"So, when are we going to have that talk with the kids, hmm?"
"I mean, Bumi, he'll probably learn easily by himself, given how much of a flirt your son is. Kya and Tenzin are another story."
Aang's eyes widened at the thought of his little girl ever doing... that.
"No telling Kya until she's at least 18!" he exclaimed frantically.
The waterbender raised her eyebrow at her husband. "We were married when you were 16."
"...That's different. Can we just jump over this hurdle when we get to it? Preferably in more than 13 years?"
The two had a mini staring contest, Aang's eyes pleading, Katara's calculating, before she relented and settled back into bed.
(Years later, this whole incident backfired on the master benders when one day, Bumi came home in tow of an angry father. When asked what happened, he simply replied, "She and I were just 'conserving water', like you and Dad did!" before running up to his room to escape.)
A/N: This has been an idea in my head for ages and I'm glad I was able to put it out (finally)!