Well, I've had the idea for this chapter and the next one floating around in my head for a month now. I hope you enjoy it.

Once again a billon thanks to my beta KrystalFruit22 who took time out of her Christmas Eve to check three chapters for me.

And, as if you didn't know, I don't own ATLA, I just have fun messing around in their world.

Confrontation

Tenzin's first week at school went swimmingly. Adra and Kuji were pretty good friends, and even though he found Cam to be entirely too negative, he had his moments. All his teachers were impressed with his knowledge and work ethic, and nothing threatened his identity, until the second Monday when his father came to speak to his class.

Before leaving home, Tenzin asked Aang not to acknowledge him while he was at the school. Aang agreed, assuming it was because Tenzin was never one to welcome attention. So when he came to the school before lunch he didn't single his son out. He gave a little speech and answered questions until the lunch bell rang, then he stayed behind and talked to Mr. Yoo.

Tenzin, Kuji and Cam went out into the school yard together where they met Adra. "How was the lecture?" the older boy asked.

"It was cool, real interesting," Kuji said, "just imagine, they did all that stuff when they were about our age."

"Big deal," Cam said. Tenzin fought the urge to say something.

"Yeah, it is a big deal." Adra said, "Fire Lord Ozai was going to burn down the entire Earth Kingdom. Our family would have been cinders if it weren't for them."

"Yeah, yeah. I know that. The whole group of them is just weird though." the shorter cousin said, "I mean, come on. The Avatar has all this power and he's always talking about peace and non-violence until he has to kick ass, then it's okay."

Tenzin was getting irritated, but he did his best to cover it. "My father says that the Avatar does not have the option to live a completely peaceful life. He says that sometimes he has to use force to solve a problem."

"Whatever. I think he's a big sissy who's the luckiest S-O-B in the world."

Nobody paid attention to the fact that in the middle of a warm still day a steady breeze started blowing. "So what do you mean by that?" Tenzin asked, maintaining his calm tone.

"Look, every other air bender in the world was killed except for him because he bitched out and ran away from his responsibilities and he got rewarded by being frozen in an iceberg for one hundred years, only to be found by a couple of Water Tribe kids who then leave their home to go around the world and take care of him. He was born the Avatar, how much more lucky could he get? It's gotten him everything." the wind picked up more, "I mean, if he wasn't the Avatar do you think that water bender would've married him?"

"That's enough!" Tenzin said stepping into Cam's face.

"What's your problem?" the boy said, "You act as if…" Cam noticed the wind, "Oh, I get it. You're the air bender kid."

Adra and Kuji looked at each other, "No he's not, he's Water Tribe." the girl said.

The short boy didn't break eye contact with the tall one, "Oh, this is him. Look at his face, he's all upset because I talked about his precious daddy." Tenzin stepped closer, "Yeah, I've been wanting to tell you this. Your whole family is a bunch of weirdoes. I mean Bumi's cool and your sister's plenty hot, but everybody else is a bunch of misfits, and your dad is the head creep."

"Stop it Cam." his cousin called out, "That's not cool, back off the man's family."

"Quit being a jerk Cam." the girl said, grabbing Tenzin's arm "Don't listen to him. He's just being the ass he is. Calm down."

Tenzin pulled his arm away from Kuji, "Apologize. Now." he demanded.

"Oh, you know what," Cam said with an evil look in his eyes and a smirk on his lips. "I'm sorry your whole family isn't weird. Your mom, now that's one hot piece of ass. Too bad your dad's too much of a punk to appreciate it."

Tenzin raged, "You leave my mother out of this!", and he pushed Cam back twenty feet.

.~.~.

Bumi came running into Mr. Yoo's classroom in a panic, "Dad, Dad! You have to come here right now!"

"Manners Bumi", Aang corrected, "You're always so overly dramatic."

"Hi Mr. Yoo," he rushed out, "Dad you don't understand. Tenzin's about to fight this kid and I can't get him to stop."

"Boom, that's not funny." Aang said, thinking this all was a prank.

"Dad, look at me, I'm serious. Tenzin is out there stewing and this kid is taunting him. As soon as I get close to Ten he just blows me away."

.~.~.

A crowd had gathered around the edge of the school yard to watch the fray. The young air bender stood there, his hair whipping in the wind that surrounded him, fist clenched, breathing hard, trying to calm himself, but nothing was working. Cam continued to taunt him, noting that jabs at his mother tended to make him even angrier. The young earth bender shrunk back for a second when the Avatar landed halfway between him and Tenzin.

"Tenzin!" Aang called out, "Stop this!"

"Father, stay out of it." the boy answered.

"Son, calm yourself." the Avatar said, as he stepped closer.

"Yeah little baby," Cam yelled out, "You'd better do as daddy says."

Aang started to turn to the boy, but he slid out of the way when he sensed the boy going into a bending stance. When Tenzin saw his father dodge the perceived attack, he reacted.

Things seemed to move extremely fast to everyone else, but to Aang and Bumi time crept by. First they saw Tenzin split his legs and crouch as if he were on a tight rope. Then he extended his arms and rotated them in a circle causing himself to surrounded by a wheel of air that he rode full force toward Cam.

Aang was in shock, he had never seen anything like it. Tenzin was moving so fast and with so much determination.

Lin popped up in front of Cam from the ground. Tenzin stopped in his tracks, his wheel changing into a ball of air. "Move Lin." he ordered.

Aang watched in awe as the little earth bender walked calmly. She stepped through the ball and grabbed Tenzin's clenched fist. She spoke softly, "Tenzin, stop it."

For the first time Tenzin's icy stare left Cam. He looked down at Lin's face. The wind around him died down . Lin reached out with a small smile and tugged at a loc of his hair. All she said was "Good."

Cam opened his mouth to say something else, but quickly found himself punched hard in the mouth. "You don't talk about my family!" Bumi said as the boy held his swelling, bleeding lips.

.~.~.

Katara was prepared for Aang to come home about an hour past noon, but she was surprised that both of the boys were with him. "What's wrong?" she asked as Aang stepped through the door with Tenzin moping behind him and Bumi looking proud.

"Mom, you should've seen it." Bumi said, "This kid was bothering Tenzin, I mean talking much shi…mess about all of us and Ten went ballistic. Dad couldn't even get him to calm down."

"What?" Katara asked, looking at Tenzin with an expression of disbelief.

"Yeah Mom, it was ama-"

"Boys," Aang said in his sternest tone, "go to your rooms." The two young men turned to walk away, "And Tenzin."

"Yes Father?"

Aang did not look at him, "Go shave your head."

"Wha-, but father, I wanted to keep my hair for a while.'

The Avatar snapped his head toward his youngest. "I said go shave your head and I mean for you to do it now!"

"But Father, you heard the things her was saying. I-"

"I said now Tenzin."

If looks could kill, Aang's head would've popped off at that moment. Tenzin turned and huffed his way down the hall, followed by Bumi.

"Aang, I'm guessing by your reaction that this really happened," Katara said, "but this is the first time he's ever gotten into trouble. Don't you think making him shave his head is a bit much?"

"It's not a punishment," he said as he sat in the armchair and rubbed his hands down his face, "He's been suspended for a week and a half."

"Then why does he have to cut his hair?"

"Because Katara," he said looking up at his wife, "he's done, he's mastered air bending." the water bender's mouth fell open, "You should've seen him, he was awesome. He formed this wheel of air and rode it."

She was in shock, "I..I didn't know he was so close."

"Nobody did, I didn't even let him know how fast he was progressing. I was hoping that he wouldn't invent his own move for a few more years, until he was stronger, but he's earned it, so I have to tattoo him now."

"I don't understand, didn't you get yours when you were ten?"

"I did, and it was extremely painful. I didn't want to have to do that to him while he was so young."

This was the first time Aang had ever really talked about getting his tattoos. Whenever Katara or anyone else would ask he would just gloss over it. "I always thought you just meditated through the pain." she said.

"I did," he answered, "until I passed out."

"Passed out?" Katara jumped, "You passed out?"

"I did, boys older than me, and grown men did too. Gyatso said everyone either passes out from the pain or exhaustion because it takes so long." He rubbed his face, "I'm not ready to do this."

Katara settled down on the chair arm beside him, placed her hands on his shoulders and her head on his, "It'll be okay. I'll be there to ease the pain and Kya can help."

"You know Ten, he would never agree to that. Besides, I don't think he wants his mother and sister seeing him naked. It's bad enough Mushi will be there."

"Then we'll just have to wait until he," she didn't want to say the words, but she did, "passes out and then we'll come and help ease the pain."

Aang pulled his wife's hand from his shoulder and kissed it.

.~.~.

Kya walked into Bumi's room and closed the door. He looked up from where he was laying across he bed, "What's your deal?" he asked.

"What happened?" she asked in a straight tone.

"Tenzy was about to kick some kid's ass for talking shit about the family. Me and Dad couldn't stop him, but Lin did. We got suspended."

"Hold on, if Ten was the one about to fight, why did you get suspended?"

"Because when Lin finally got Tenzin calmed down I knocked the jerk in the mouth."

"Bumi!" Kya said shaking her head at her brother.

"No Ky, you should've heard the things this brat was saying. If I wasn't so busy trying to keep Ten from killing the kid I would've handled him myself."

Kya sat on the floor across from her brother's bed, "Tenzin's mastered air bending." she said quietly, "Dad said that that wheel thing he did was the last step. He's getting his tattoos in a couple of days."

"That's great. That's why Dad made him shave his head…He was a little harsh about it though."

"What do you expect, you guys were fighting. Plus he's worried about doing Tenzin's tattoos. He doesn't want to hurt him."

"Oh," the young man said, then a thought occurred to him, "Wait, how do you know all this? Have you been eavesdropping?"

"Hey, I was about to walk in the front door and I heard them talking. I didn't want to interrupt, so I just sort of…stood there."

"You snoop." Bumi said, falling onto his back, "So, should we tell Tenzy?"

"No, we should leave that to Dad, but I do have an idea."