#sorrey beans read more ins't working on mobile today

[kanene-yaaay]

A Method to De-Stress

Warning: None. Just a very silly tickle fic. Romantic pairing. Tickly kisses. Lee!Aang and Ler!Katara. Around 1000 words.

Kanene's notes: Found myself wanting to write a loving fic with Katara and Aang being the most PRECIOUS and SOFTEST w each other except for Katara having the need for blood laughter. I will post a title and organize everything better tomorrow abshyegebsjs I am sleepy.

[~*~]

Katara could swear she was feeling a vein on her forehead about to explode from the sheer amount of stress that only grew stronger with each line of the report she read about the reconstruction of the South Pole. Not for the first time she wished that Appa could fly quicker, not for the first time she hoped he wouldn’t.

Huffing a tired breath - she was supposed to be enjoying the little alone time she got with Aang, and instead… - she closed the paper with a decisive fluid movement, shoving it on her purse before looking at her boyfriend.

The Avatar was too focused on directing the flying bison to notice her stare, giving the waterbender plenty of time to watch at him with what her brother called ‘gooey eyes’ before a very specific smile grazed her lips.

The perfect idea of how de-stress just flicked on her mind.

“Aang, sweetie, can you come here, please?”

The other turned around with the same happy excitement he always had when Katara used the sweet petname, blinding smile and a loving gaze that got too unfocused for a few seconds before he managed to get his head out of the clouds painting his features.

“Alright!” He then turned to Appa, petting his head. “I will be right back, ok, buddy? Just keep flying forward and soon enough we'll take a break with plenty of berries for you to eat!” 

Then, in a blink, he was jumping over the saddle and poppling himself in front of the girl, his entire body facing hers, faces close and attentive eyes clued on her, as if Katara was the wind in a good day for sail, guiding and pulling him close like a nature force that he couldn’t bother (nor want) to fight against.

That was perfect for her idea, of course, even if she wanted to laugh and coo about how easy the airbender was making this for her.

“What is it, KatarAH!”

She smiled, softly, innocently, as happy as a polar goose bear who just got their prey as she watched the other shout a loud, incessant laughter. The surprised sound filling and running across the entire atmosphere, chasing the birds in the air and jumping around the clouds as her hands - still attached to his sides no matter how much he squirmed and trashed - squeezed and tickled the spot freely, without a single worry in the world.

“BWAHAHAAIT! WAIT, WHYHIHIHI!” With a content and a tad questioning hum she gently lowered him to the floor when her fingers, skilled from years and years of tickle fights and surprise wiggle attacks with Sokka, wormed their way to the delightful, horribly ticklish base of Aang’s spine, prodding and poking incessantly at the spot as the younger’s his legs gave out under him.

“Why what, Aang? What is the matter? Did something happen for you to get so giggly out of sudden?”

“YEHEHES!” Tui and La, Katara almost forgot how cute his voice gets when she tickles his spine with tiny, careful pinches, each one of them pulling more and more squeaky shrieks. “Yohoho’re tihihIIIIH TIcklING mHEHEHE! Mwhehehe! Nohohohoho!”

“Tickling you?” Katara gasped, ignoring the avatar’s hands batting hers, the touch both too uncoordinated and too light to really diverge her from her objective, the tip of her fingers dancing upwards to scratch all the sensitive spots on his ribs, making his laugher much more high pitched and lost in hysterical giggles for him to do much more than nod non stop to answer her question. “But how so! I am simply resting my hands here, on your very ticklish ribs and there is no problem with me choosing to rest them here, is there? I spend the whooole morning working, they’re tired from writing so much. You won’t force your own girlfriend to take them away, will you, Aang, sweetie?”

“Mmmmhehehehee! Katara!!” He tried to squirm, cheeks involuntary getting hotter with both the nickname and how his muscles melted with the careful touch and silly teases. Still, the light, unbearable tickles kept following every little twist and wiggle of his torso with a determination that could rival Zuko’s when he wanted to capture him. “Ihihihit tickles sohohoh much!!” 

“Please, Aang? Pleeeease.”

He made the horrible mistake of opening his eyes, only for them to be captured by the biggest, prettiest and bluest gaze he had ever seen in his life (and he had seen very beautiful things!), and suddenly every single muscle in his body gave up, all the fight flying away from his spirit in a single giddy breath. She indeed had worked so much these days…

Oh, he was done for, wasn’t he?

“Ohohohokay!”

“Really?” She beamed, and grey eyes watched the exact moment the innocent, pleading disappeared her gaze and was promptly overpowered by a hungry, predatory smirk. “Perfect.”

He felt as the hands that, before, were barely fluttering against his skin closed in fists, knuckles now resting on the tickle spot, and in a sudden hysterical piece of second he realized exactly what he just walked in.

“Katara!”

And then she attacked.

(...)

“Thank you, Aang!” Her words were playful and happy as she peppered a series of quick butterflies kisses on his red cheeks, little huffs of snickers painting her tone as the act only made the other’s tired giggles flow faster.

“Nooo,” his hands were clued on her shoulders, caught between the need to push Katara away before the moment grow into a second tickle attack and basking on how nice the lovely kisses felt. “Yohohou know thahat my cheeks are tihihihicklish!”

With a last chuckle, Katara laid a last kiss on his forehead, finally letting the boy snicker, titter and snigger his way out of the giddiness of the tickling and the adrenaline of the surprise attack. His arms let her go to hug his own torso, a couple of tired kicks being the materialization of the somersaults his stomach kept doing.

Both of them carried gigantic smiles on their faces (one a tad more adoring than the other, that is true) and a joyful wrinkle around their eyes, clothes being softly jolted by the wind as Appa calmly kept passing under the clouds.

Katara knew that there would be more problems and papers and responsibilities and choices waiting for her, no matter the place or time, that was just life.

Still, with Aang's laughter still ringing clear on her ears, Momo jumping on her shoulders to convince her to give him a snack and a grin still stretched on her face, suddenly none of this felt so overwhelming. 

"I do." She chuckled and Aang's smile blossomed wider, probably already thinking about revenge and surprising attacks, she would have to be careful to not let him out of her vision field for the day. "That I do."

A wonderful method to de-stress, indeed.