Slush-Savage, Rubble-Brain, Ember-Eater, Air-Head

…

Aang's eyebrows pulled together in quick irritation. "What did you say?"

The night had grown dark among the trees behind the small knot of earth kingdom soldiers gathered around the campfire. It had rained earlier in the day, the ground around the camp still squishing wetly as evidence. The group circled rather closely around the fire, as much to dry off as to enjoy one another's company as they laughed raucously. No one seemed to notice the Avatar's sudden shift in mood as they continued to talk and joke.

This group of men represented a small military team assembled to travel from Ba Sing Se to the earth kingdom town of Lin'ah, a squat little village somewhere in the northern forests that, over the past few years, had received some harassment by an opportunist clan to the east. The clan had demanded a mandatory tribute from the townspeople, who had been left vulnerable since the removal of Fire Nation troops at the end of the war. The people of Lin'ah had been happy to be rid of the Fire Nation, but when the troops went, the town was left weakened and defenseless.

The town was small and remote enough that not until now, nearly ten years after the end of the war, was their plight finally brought to the Earth King's notice and deemed worthy of attention. In fact, it likely still would not have been deemed worthy of royal intervention at all if it weren't for a desperate twelve year old girl who had grabbed the hand of the Avatar's fiancée in a market, begging for her help to plead with the Avatar for mercy to save her family and her town. Not long afterwards, King Kuei took a "particular interest" in Lin'ah, and the injustices happening there.

Aang had been traveling with this small company of soldiers for the last week, and had become familiar with each man, beginning to consider them as friends. Overall they were a simple lot, coming from humble backgrounds and spending their professional lives in the military. For some, the end of the war, although welcome news, had thrown an air of uncertainty on their future careers that professional soldiers had not known in one hundred years.

One of the men, Lang, a sergeant not more than a year or two older than Aang (if you don't count Aang's iceberg years) and who had been in the army since he turned fifteen, elbowed Aang with a laugh, "Lighten up! He didn't mean anything by it. She's real pretty, your Tribal girl," and then turning to his companions with a conspiratorial wink, "Earth knows half the dirt-heads here wouldn't mind getting wet with their own water squaw, eh boys!?" A loud round of guffaws burst from the group.

Its not like Aang hadn't heard these derogatory terms used before. When he stopped to think about it, it was interesting so many slurs had remained the same in the last one hundred years; although, admittedly, with one hundred years of separation, war, and resentment, a fair amount of venom and variation had been added to the average person's derogatory term repertoire.

Aang remembered from his childhood the many less-flattering terms he'd heard in his travels describing him and his fellow nomads: Bean Sprout, Bison Jockey, Blow Hard, and Gust-Queer to name a few.

Aang remembered with clarity his first trip away from the Southern Air Temple after receiving his arrows. As they entered an Earth Kingdom town he had walked a little taller next to Monk Gyatso, immensely proud of his hard-earned tattoos. Moments later, however, he deflated, his shoulders sagging and his ears reddening when a group of Earth Kingdom kids his own age had shouted, "Lookie there! A Grandpa Tats with his very own Tat pup!" followed by a chorus of barks while the boys held their fingers on their heads in mock of his arrow. He had known this kind of racism before, but somehow the shame of it had burned in his gut with added heat that day.

Strangely enough, now Aang was spared much of the racial discrimination his forefathers experienced simply due to the fact that very few remembered what prejudices to hold against the widely forgotten and almost entirely misunderstood Air Nomads... As the sole remaining representative of his people, and the Avatar no less, whatever presumptions people had became more of a personal issue rather than a racial concern.

His fiancée, however, was not exempt from the racism common among the three nations.

Aang remembered as a kid the way Katara's face had ducked and colored in shame when workers on a dock would call out "Hey Beads!" or men lazing on a corner would whistle at the "Snow-fox Darky". He remembered how Sokka's jaw and fists had clenched in their travels when others would refer to him as a "Drip" or an "Icie". Although his own blue-arrowed fists had clenched in anger too, they all knew that such slights weren't worth a confrontation. Most of the time they just tried to ignore them.

And not all prejudices came from the other nations; sometimes there were even divisions within the nationalities themselves. Although they had traveled to the North Pole countless times since the end of the war, Katara still felt at times an invisible distance between herself and some from her fellow water tribesmen in the North. It wasn't just the sexism that, although improving, was still a fetter on the culture there. She found that many looked down their noses at her; that the term "Southerner", although not a bad term by itself, when said with the right kinds of superiority, might as well have been a slap to the face.

But one beautiful thing about his fiancée was her righteous indignation, her ever readiness to set injustice to right. So it was not uncommon for Katara to fight back, for Sokka to candidly correct the slurs, for Aang himself to call out the racism when it was blatant.

But experience had taught them that blatant was much easier to combat than the small, daily discriminations that often popped up suddenly, fleeing away too quick for retaliation, but still leaving hurt in its wake. Sometimes it was clear that the perpetrator did not even realize they had done anything offensive. Many of these slights were done in ignorance.

But it rankled Aang whenever it happened. Katara enduring fake smiles to her face, that turned to acid remarks when her back was turned. The lurid looks from men who excused themselves for such disrespect due to their perceived superiority. Prices that were somehow higher for her than when he asked for the same product a moment later; storekeepers who clutched their wares closer when Sokka or Hakoda walked passed.

Katara had raged at first, but with no place to direct her anger, he watched as she began to simply file away the pains somewhere inside. Aang could do little more than boil internally, and when that cooled, long for a way to fix it all for the woman he loved.

Aang tried to remind himself that no one was free of biases. Aang recalled the number of times he had heard Sokka curse the "Ash-lickers" or "Pyre Brains". He had even overheard Katara call Toph a "Dirty Crag" once under her breath after the two had butt heads. And he knew that he himself had biases too. That it was hard, maybe even impossible, to fully escape the assumptions of one's upbringing.

Har, a soldier sporting large side-burns in a vain attempt to age his baby-face leaned over, throwing his arm around Aang's shoulder, "Seriously! Wouldn't mind a water whip from her, eh!"

Aang bristled again, his angry huff making the campfire flare. "Watch your mouths, boys."

Shunmu held his hands up in surrender from across the fire, "We mean no disrespect, Aang. On the contrary. Clearly Har is just jealous!"

Har laughed, "Yes. Yes I am!"

Taking a long calming breath, Aang forced a cocked smile, "Well Katara is taken. I'll ask you to keep your grubby thoughts, and vile words, to yourselves."

Since his defeat of Fire Lord Ozai so many years ago, Aang had found his new role as Avatar sometimes hard to navigate, and very often impersonal. He was treated with a high level of deference, which as well meaning as it was, was often very isolating. Aang had enjoyed his time with these soldiers, who after a few days traveling with him had opted to treat Aang as a person, as one of the group. Aang had enjoyed the easy comradery, welcoming being included in the gentle ribbing and joking that came so easily among them. For this reason Aang was loath to pick a fight with his new friends, not wanting to ruin the ease of their companionship.

But even as the joking continued, it was obvious that the Avatar was no longer at ease.

"Whoo, looks like we touched a nerve! Don't go all glowy on us – we're just having a bit of fun!"

"Yeah, we don't mean nothing by it."

"We know you like Tribal women – no need to get uptight. Just wishing we had our own exotic foreign water-fox, am I right boys!"

Aang's head shot up. Who had said that?!

This was not the first time it had been insinuated that his choice in a wife could be boiled down to some sort of exotic fetish. That Katara's value to him was just in her foreign beauty.

If only they knew. Katara: she was everything to him.

Lang spoke to the group at large, but clearly for Aang's ears. "But she ain't here right now. What's say we find Aang a good solid earth kingdom beauty once we get to Lin'ah, eh Boys? Let him expand his pallet a little!"

Har joined in, "Yeah, one who can keep quiet to boot! Your water girl won't ever know the wiser. It might do you well to try some other flavors, know what I mean?"

The fire flared again as Aang stood up abruptly, quieting the boisterous soldiers. He walked to the edge of where the light from the campfire touched before it dissipated into the dark forest beyond. Everyone froze as they watched his ridged back, hands balled into fists by his sides.

But when he turned to face his friends again, he had visibly calmed. There was even the trace of a smile beginning at the corners of his mouth.

"No thanks. I'm definitely not interested." And a wicked glint shone in his eye as his grinned widened, "But I would like to introduce you to Katara sometime. Did you know that she's an accomplished Water Bender? She taught me everything I know. Including this move…"

Aang swept his arms around his head in a large circle, calling water from the rain puddles surrounding the camp and bending it into a large flowing ring above the soldiers' heads, every man's eyes following the water's circling motion above them.

Aang continued, "Wanna see what she would do if she heard some of the things you've said tonight?"

Without waiting for an answer Aang halted his arms' circling and splaying his fingers for a moment, the water stopping its movement, waiting suspended in unnatural immobility. The men's countenances grew uneasy in the stillness. Then, with a sudden strike downwards with his arms, the water formed into long spikes of ice, every one streaking downward and wedging into the ground between each soldier's thighs. Aang's precision was startling, no one was hurt, but every man there could feel the cold radiating off the ice, eyes wide knowing how close the spikes had struck.

Silence and shock filled the air as they stared down at the ice between their legs.

Aang spoke again, keeping his tone light and conversational, "My family is Water Tribe now, ya know. I've never met any people more kind and loyal and brave. I really do hope you get to meet Katara someday. But I'd advise you to watch your mouths when she's around. Because one difference between me and my fiancée is…"

Aang pursed his lips trying hard to hold back a laugh, "She's likely to aim a little higher."

…

A/N: This is a little idea that came to me after reading Loopy777's fic Traitor's Face (an EPIC tale if anyone is looking for a long, fantastic Avatar AU read!) in which racial slurs were tossed around between the characters. Just got me thinking about how in a world divided up into such distinct and separate nationalities, racism would surely be a part of society.