The Mystic Spring- Part 6

Toph's face was about as dirty as her feet perpetually were, somehow, but the blind girl didn't seem too troubled by it now that she was nice and full. Instead, she simply gave a contended sigh and excited, "Good!"

"Great." Sokka had a bit of food on himself, mainly since Toph flailed around and giggled while she was being fed, but didn't share her disregard for it all. Frowning, he soon got to swatting the crumbs off his tunic, "Well, glad you're finally happy at least."

Toph simply nodded then, not rising from her seat just yet. Instead, she just twiddled her legs about for a minute, before asking, "What now?"

"I dunno, could go down to town after the Fire Nation lovebirds." As Sokka rose to his feet as well, he added, "Heheh.. Y'know, I really think they had a thing at one point. Although I'm not sure how that could've worked with Azula being in the middle of it."

"Dunno." Toph shrugged, choosing then to stand up. After she stretched for a second, she commented, "Could follow them - not got many supplies left so don't need to drag them with us I guess."

"Mmm..." Frowning hesitantly, Sokka added, "Yeah, with the number of diapers you're using up, I don't think I want to go anywhere unless I have six dozen of them on hand. We better take some supplies."

"Hmph." Toph crossed her arms in annoyance at that, pouting a bit as she answered, "I don't make go poo-poo that much."

The young watertribesman frowned, walking over to their gear, "It just feels like less to you because you're not on the receiving end of it all. Speaking of, you're way, way too comfortable about all this."

"Yeah, yeah." Waving a hand dismissively, Toph responded to that with, "You just like to whine about everything."

"No, crapping your pants without control is something totally okay to whine about. At least Zuko and Mei have the excuse of not being emotional." As he turned over his shoulder to look at the girl, Sokka smiled, "Heh... This kinda just adds more fuel to my guess you were in diapers 'til you were ten."

"You really want me to hurt you, don't ya?" With a look of annoyance, Toph commented afterward, "Maybe you should go stick your booty in that water and see what it's like making go poo-poo for yourself."

"Heh..." Threatening, but Sokka could help but ask, "Uh... do you not know you're speaking like that?"

And apparently, Toph didn't, as her answer came in the form of the question, "Speaking like what?"

"You keep saying "Poo-poo" or "booty" or stuff like that. Can't widd-" Wait, no. Babytalking might be funny, but Toph could still rockalanche him into that spring...

Coughing and killing the instinct to keep going, he added, "It's like your vocabulary took a big hit. Like uh... What do you use after you stop using diapers?"

"That's stupid." Toph stopped to roll her neck back like she did sometimes, before without thinking on it for a second answering, "Everyone knows once you get out of diapies you don't need to pee-pee or poo-poo anymore."

Okay, Sokka couldn't help it, he gave a pretty happy snicker at that point, after which point it took some time to recomposed himself.

"Heheh... O-Oh, yeah?" Grinnin,g he tried to think of a point, "Oh, what about people who wet the bed. Heh... Katara used to do that all the time..."

"Well, that's different." Still looking irritated, Toph explained, "Katara was probably just accidentally Waterbending or something."

"That wasn't water," added Sokka. "See, you see have to pee once you get out of diapers- heck I did it after I finished breakfast. What does that tell you?"

"Heh. Well..." Toph shuffled her feet a little bit as she pondered that, before she answered, "You should still be in diapies then!"

"Wh- I AM NOT!" shouted Sokka angrily, glaring at the little Earthbender. "If I were wearing diapers, the rest of the gang would've noticed by now, don'tcha think?"

"Heheh. Not if Katara helped ya hide it." With a little snicker, Toph went on to say, "Explains a lot 'bout why you act like such a baby, too!"

"How do I act like a baby?" Marching over, the Watertripesman pointed at the girl's face, "I'm the one who's been saying "poo-poo" and "diapies" all day!"

"See! Said it yourself you say stuff like that." Toph was looking all the more amused now, as she went on to say, "Plus you're throwing a tantrum - that's something babies do!"

"THIS! IS NOT! A TANTRUM!" Glaring angrily at the preteen Earthbender, Sokka demanded, "This is me being driven insane by you having no idea how the human body works!"

Of course, Toph didn't have much regard for what Sokka was actually saying. Particularly since she was far too busy giggling in response to his tone. After a second of that, though, she added a singsong chant of, "Sokka's getting mad! Sokka's getting mad!"

Glaring angrily, the Tribesman simply rose a finger at the blind girl and said bluntly, "You're asking for a spanking." Sinking in how that wouldn't go very nicely, he smirked and further announced, "Or maybe when you need your next diaper change, I just won't get around to it."

That seemed to catch Toph's attention a bit. As she considered that, though, she eventually crossed her arms and casually said, "Uh-uh! You have to."

"Who says?" Now feeling the winning cards in his hand, Sokka leaned against a nearby tree trunk and smoothly got to checking his nails, "I mean, you've always been talking about how independent and self-sufficient you are. Why would you want my help?"

"Well, uh...." Okay, Toph didn't know how to address this one. Still, she could certainly try. "Because..."

Okay, she had nothing. Besides the obvious, anyway, and she decided to go for that, "C'mon, everybody knows you can't clean poo-poos by yourself! It's impossible!"

"Oh, yeah?" Chuckling, Sokka added, "Well, by your logic, I wear diapers and I've certainly never had a problem with it." Looking the girl over, he smugly requested, "But if you reeeaaally need my help, I guess a nice, flattering apology couldn't hurt...."

"Mm..." Okay, Toph was never one to like apologizing, but what choice did she have? Finally, after a moment of consideration, she admitted, "I'm sorry..."

"Hmmm..." Given just how big of a mess Toph had just made, Sokka was tempted to say that wasn't enough. Still, he did feel a little bad Toph was stuck in diapers. It really couldn't be pleasant for her.

So, with a happy smile, he just smugly patted her on the head, "See? Isn't that better?"

"Mm, I guess..." Eager to get off this subject now, though, Toph crossed her arms and turned her head downward (not that that made much difference to her vision) while questioning, "So, we gonna go find them or what?"

"Sounds good to me." Giving Toph a quick pat on her diapered butt, Sokka began calmly walking toward the town, waiting for her to follow, "'Til we get into the village, see if you can't hold it in, okay?"

- - - - -

While small chuckles aren't much signs of having a ton of fun from most people, the fact that Mai was the source made them akin to uproarious laugher.

As she and Zuko set to heading away from the group they played with, the normally emotionless girl kept it up as she commented in what was chuckles aside her usual flat voice, "That was actually kind of fun."

Feeling free and loose himself, Zuko gave a calm smile, patting Mai on the shoulder as they kept walking down the street of the small village. "Yeah... Y'know, I don't think I ever did that as a kid... You and Azula played together sometimes, I know...

"Not the same." Obviously, but Mai still felt the need to say it. "Azula is more where to go for --"

The girl broke off as she heard fairly closeby what sounded a little like screaming, and she used that as a cue for a quip of, "Well, that."

"Heh... yeah." Getting a look on his face that seemed he was trying to look happily at a bad memory. "She would cry for our father a lot. Use it just to get me in..."

As they rounded a corner, Zuko stopped speaking at once. He had just barely avoided bumping into a rickety baby carriage, and was now staring directly at a little girl just his height pushing it.

"Oh, excuse me..." After an awkward moment, though, as said girl took in the features of the boy she bumped into she seemed to get a bite wide-eyed just in time as she stammered out, "Z-Zuko!"

"Hm? What's going --"

As Ty Lee rounded the corner, though, she spotted firsthand exactly what the situation was. And her immediate response was a surprisingly casual (or maybe not, for her), "Oh, hi!"

"Katara?!" Between the Fire Nation clothing and the lack of any majorly distinguishing marks like his scar, it took the boy a moment to place the Waterbender's softer, rounder face, "No, way! You too?"

He took a quick glance at Ty Lee as she appeared, but soon his attention was on the contents of the baby carriage. The arrow was unmistakable- Aang was strewn lazily in his seat, stirring only a little as the buggy stopped moving. Beside him Azula was curled up and sucking on her thumb, actually looking weirdly adorable and angelic.

Staring, at the two infants, almost mind-boggled, the little boy remarked, "You're kidding me..."

"Hm." Naturally, Mai wasn't quite as quick to act shocked over this, and instead took it as casually as one really could. "You are sure that's Azula? I think you may have swapped her with someone else."

"Uh huh, that's her." Ty Lee gave a little nod, grinning a bit while she giggled out, "Trust me, she hasn't been as peaceful as she is right now."

"I can imagine," remarked Zuko lowly. He had to suppress a smile though. The idea of his hellish sister wearing diapers and trying her sinister monologues from a pram was honestly pretty funny. Still, on a serious note, he spoke directly to Katara, "Listen, we've picked up some informa-"

"K'atawa?" One of the babies was up. Thankfully it was the one not typically in the interest of burning things. Rubbing his eye he informed the big kids, "I t'ink Azoowoo went..."

As he opened his big innocent eyes, Aang trailed off. Spotting they'd found another member of their group, he soon leapt clear out of the pram with a happy cry of "ZU-ZU!"

Mai gave a little sigh in response to that, though she did at least joke about a bit with it by mumbling, "Apparently he's heard your nickname..."

"Yeah, think he got a laugh out of it." As she studied the two they had run into a bit, Katara asked, "What kind of information did you say you got, though? Is it anything related to turning us back?"

Ty Lee had a thought on that one, though, by saying, "Hehe, well, if ya ask me all of you came out cute enough that it might just be better if you don't, huh?"

"Somehow I'm less than thrilled at that idea." Now being forced to hold Aang (which led to the frowning boy getting a rather enthusiastic snuggle), Zuko explained, "Luckily for us, we found out that pond is actually temporary. Apparently the people in the next village know a lot about it."

"Da fountun of yoof'?" Getting a funny look from Zuko as he brought up the item's proper name, Aang glanced at Katara and exclaimed happily, "K'tawa, 'dat means I c'n gwow up 'gain soon, wight?"

"Yes." Mai almost wanted to say 'too soon', but she chose not to do so. Instead, she decided to point out one thing that the group had largely ignored since it came up, "When we asked, the man who told us tried to say something else that we didn't get the chance to hear, though."

"Like what?" Katara asking now, and looking a little alarmed in the process, "Is there something that you have to do to make it happen or something?" The only response Mai gave was a very slight shrug.

"I think he'd certainly have mentioned that if it was the case..." Zuko pondered the question over in his head, "I can't really think of what you would need to do to get this fixed up though."

"We could go back an' ask him!" Suggested Aang, tugging happily at the big boy's shirt. Although the next moment something struck his thoughts and the diapered Avatar began looking over the prince's shoulder, "Hey, where's Sokka an' Toph? Dey're wif' you, wight?"

"The campsite." As Mai motioned in a random direction that could or could not have been the proper one, she explained, "They stayed to eat breakfast - we already did."

"Hm." Katara gave a little nod at that, not sure how to properly react. Instead, she questioned, "Did anything happen to either of them?"

Zuko gave a little smile as he admitted, "Amazingly, Sokka wound up being totally unchanged. Toph though, she wound up wearing diapers."

"Weawwy?" Zuko looked grumpier then usual as he said that, so Aang guessed he must've had to change Toph at some point. Not sure if he was sad for his friend or happy to get a playmate, the little Avatar asked, "So Toph's a baby wike me an' Azoowoo?"

Looking slightly annoyed, Zuko explained, "I didn't say she was a baby. I said she's wearing diapers."

That was good for a giggle out of both girls, though Katara caught herself after a moment. Having no such shame, though, Ty Lee kept at it before saying, "Hehe, well..."

She seemed about ready to say something in regards to Katara, particularly when she nodded her head to the girl, but before the acrobat could say the Waterbender protested, "That was just bedwetting - that's different!" Of course, afterward she realized what she exclaimed to the new arrivals to the group and turned a slight pink.

"Heh..."

Zuko had to work to avoid a smirk at that outburst, but only partly succeeded. He tried to sound polite as he explained, "You're a water-bender. I guess you can't really help it."

The infant in Zuko's arm was a bit better at offering comfort, though. "Dun feel bad K'tawa..." Leaning over to pat the Waterbender on the shoulder, the baby cooed out with a bright smile, "'Weast you's notta baby wike me."

Of course, it was easy to decide that that would, in fact, be worse. Still, while that didn't offer much improvement to her mood Aang attempting to cheer her up by saying it sure did, and soon he found his bald head being rubbed in thanks.

"Yes, everyone's happy." With a small sigh, Mai decided to try and guide things back to the subject at hand by questioning, "Shouldn't we go get the other two and head our separate ways now?" Granted, not that she was in any rush to do that...

"Nuh-uh!" After releasing a happy coo at the pat, Aang at once shook his head, snuggling with Zuko again. "I wan'sa stay wif' you guys. Ty Wee's funny!"

Trying to look stoic as he got hugged by the baby, Zuko explained, "I don't care if she's funny, the less time I have to spend around Azula, the better." Turning to Mai, he said in a much softer voice, "I liked getting to see you but-"

"Mwah!" Zuko's explanation stopped when a loud, wet kiss was planted on his eye. Looking struck, as if he didn't know it had happened, the boy turned to stare at Aang, only to get another smooch on his face.

"Aang," said the young prince simply as another kiss was planted, "What are you doing?"

"I'm kissin' your boo-boo so it'll get betta!"

"Heh, that's sweet, huh?" Katara certainly though so, anyway, though as she watched the baby she did have to explain, "Zuko's, uh, boo-boo is a little harder to fix than that, though..."

"Understatement."

After that comment from Mai, though, she was caught a bit offguard by way of Ty Lee asking, "So, what'd you two come to town to do, anyway?"

"Honestly we came here to get diapers for Toph," explained Zuko before simply adding, "Which they apparently make."

"Hee..." Giggling, Aang gave the big boy another cuddle as he mentioned, "Toph needs big diapies, huh?"

"That's it." Now definitely annoyed, Zuko held the baby out at arm's length to Katara, "I've had way too much cuddling for today, you take him."

"A little too much cuteness for you, huh?" Still, Katara certainly didn't object to taking Aang into her arms, and she did so quickly and carefully.

As it pertained to him, anyway - the girl accidentally bumped her stomach into the pram containing Azula as she grabbed for him, and while she did not have much wait to her it was enough to get it rolling before stopping suddenly upon colliding with Mai.

This did not do much to hurt the emotionless girl, but fear of what could be coming led her to sarcastically quip, "This should be fun."

Indeed, as Azula jolted awake, the first thing that she noticed was a dirty diaper pushing against her skin. At once this caused her to let out a pained, disgusted "EWWW!"

"Oh, wight..." Looking up at the big girl holding him, Aang explained, "Fergotta tell ya, Azooloo did poopies. Kin'a woke me ups."

"Wh-What?!" The infant in the pram must've overheard that, as her body temperature shot up and her face turned a painful orange. Squirming in her pram, she soon spotted the emotionless girl standing just in front of her, "M-Mai?"

The girl gave no greeting beyond just a nod, though that was plenty enough. After a moment, though, she commented, "I hope one of you takes care of that..."

"Heheh, well..." Ty Lee grinned a bit teasingly then, as her head turned to face Zuko. "Baby's big brother wanna help out this time?"

"No." The answer was horribly blunt as the little boy crossed his arms. "Didn't do it back then, not doing it now."

"Hehe..." In spite of the state of her diaper, Azula soon snickered as she looked at her brother, "Zu-Zu, you'er aww tiny. Lookit how scwawny ya woun' up!"

"Still old enough to not wear diapers," explained back the boy bitterly.

Grinning to herself, the infant cooed out, "Butcher my big bwudda. I wan'cha ta change my poopies!"

"Yeah, I'm a fugitive now," explained Zuko with a wide frown. Pointing to Ty Lee and Mai, he added, "It's going to be one of you, alright? I want to be as far away from her as possible."

"I'm not doing it."

After that flat, to-the-point statement from Mai, that left it down to Ty Lee evidently. Still, while not opposed to the idea, she did have to say, "Heh, if you two've been doing it for someone big, can't be hard for a little baby, right? Especially one this cute, huh?"

As Ty Lee bent down to lift up the smelly princess, though, Katara pointed out, "Well, I'm sure Toph acts a lot more mature than her regardless of the shared diapers."

"No, not really."

After this rather to-the-point quip from Zuko, Aang thought he should try his hand at getting everyone to be more friendly, taking point by waving at Mai, "Why duncha wanna change her? She's your fwiend wight? Duncha wuff' her?" Turning to Zuko afterward, he added, "An since you're da big bwuddah, don'tcha hafta take care of widdew Azoowoo?"

Zuko only turned away, giving a dismissing wave, "Family disowned me. I don't count as being her brother anymore."

Being stuck in a poopie diaper while everyone debated who should change her wasn't sitting well with the little princess. Bringing her raging red eyes up at Mai, she explained, "How 'bout 'dis? You change me now, an' I dun' set yet face on fira when I gwow up?"

What with all of the arguing going on over the state of the girl's diaper, Katara decided to try and interject herself by way of offering, "I could do it." Gross, but she had experience with it both with Aang and prior to that...

"Yes, do that." Mei gave another quick sigh, then mumbled to the burned boy nearby, "Maybe we should have kept playing."

"Pwaying?" Wow, Katara was nice. Giving her another little snuggle, Aang soon jumped out of her arms and toward Zuko (leading the Prince to fumble to catch him). "What kin'a games were ya pwayin', Zuzu?"

"Nothing!" The rest of his face turning orange enough to blend in with his scar, Zuko cried too suddenly, "Nothing. She wasn't talking about us."

"Huwwy up!" Mai and Ty Lee were going to get it when she was a big girl again, thought Azula to herself. She gave a little bounce inside her pram, but soon gave a cry of grossness when her diaper pushed against her butt, "D-Dish's icky!"

"Got it." Right after being freed of one baby Katara bent down to pick up the other, then fished for supplies out of the sack that hung off of the pram.

Once she rounded up everything into one of her two arms - the other, naturally, dedicated to holding Azula - Katara gave a quick, "I'll be right back," and then headed into a nearby alley.

And that left the rest of the group. At once, Ty Lee took the opportunity to ask what Aang had already questioned, "So, what were you playing?"

"I told you, nothing." Glaring at the acrobat, Zuko explained, "We were just spending some time together on our way here, that's all."

Spotting the big boy glance away from Mai at that, Aang couldn't help but sing out, "Mai - an' - Zuzu, sit-in' - in - a - twee..."

"Oh, grow up!"

"Yes, nothing happened." After denying this, Mei began to look about a bit if only to find something to focus on. She was growing bored.

"Nng!" Although there was soon an interruption of sorts, as she suddenly felt a sensation in her gut that made her double over in pain.

"Mai?" Face lighting up in concern, Zuko moved to hug her before remembering he was still holding Aang. Thinking quickly, he rose the boy up and put him on his shoulders, "Sit up here, okay? Be careful."

"'Kay!"

That taken care of, Zuko moved to the Emotionless girl's side and asked quietly, "Are you alright?"

"Mm..." Mei was in too much pain to properly respond, but she laid a hand on Zuko's shoulder if only to support herself - and in doing that, it was noticeable her arm was longer than it had been.

Feeling concerned herself, Ty Lee silently stepped forward a bit - just in time to notice that the girl's clothes were starting to look rather tight on her.

"Mai?" Looking relieved, the little boy smiled and noticed, "Wait, you're back to- GAH!"

At once Zuko took the same motion his girlfriend did a moment earlier, keeling over painfully. On his shoulders, Aang tipped dangerously, leading the baby to leap off the big boy and toward Ty Lee.

And landing directly on her breasts.

While Mai was woozy and could barely move without splitting her clothes, she did have a favor to return and so rather instinctively hugged the steadily growing boy herself.

Which produced a ripping sound along her back, though she ignored that. As did Ty Lee, though in her case it was more in favor of awkwardly catching hold of Aang - not too early as to prevent the pain of his collision, though - she smiled and commented to the baby, "Hehe, this is kinda sweet, isn't it?"

"Uggghhhhh..." Zuko quickly and tightly grabbed Mai's arms, groaning as he shot upward through puberty. His muscles ached and bulged, clothes bursting at the seams. As he painfully approached his standard age, the sleeves of his shirt split around his biceps.

"Hehe... Yeah!" Giggling, Aang giggled as he was held by the acrobat, snickering, "Ya gotsa boyfweind too, Ty Wee?"

A sudden subject, but Ty Lee was quick to shake her head. Just to be sure the baby understood, though, she said, "No, but they're real cute together, aren't they?"

"Be quiet." Now that Mai had mostly regained her own composure, she was able to talk in her usual flat tone at least. Still, she hadn't totally recovered, and so she continued to support Zuko while using him to do the same for her; she did ask him, however, "Are you okay?"

"F-Fine..." Zuko stumbled a bit as he got his footing back, groaning as he straightened his posture back to his full height. "Ugh... God that hurt...

The shirt tore again, but thankfully his pants stayed in good condition. Raising an arm to rub him temple, the Firebender opened his eyes to take in Mai, "Wow... Thank God that's over."

"Agreed..." Mostly for the process of the transformation itself. Yes, that definitely hurt. . .

Besides that, though, the need for clothes was definitely there; before either of the newly grown-up teens could comment on it, though, there was another voice; this one belonged to Katara and asking, "Did.... I miss something?"

"You missed a very quick and painful aging process." Glancing at his chest, Zuko soon just frowned and ripped his shirt clean off, leaving him in a pair of overly-tight and very painful pants. Sighing he soon walked over to the Waterbender and noted, "Hm. Was kind of expecting you'd be fixed up too."

"Hey, yeah!" Suddenly grinning as the embarrassment of her diaper change subsided, Azula gladly noted, "I guess I'm gonn' be a gwown-up soon too, huh?"

Thinking about this point, Aang let out a taunting giggle, "Good 'cause you use up wotsa diapies."

"SHUT UP!"

"For the record, that could be worse." Mai was speaking from experience with Toph, naturally... She felt inclined to rip off her dress as well, but then remembered that she wasn't exactly very well covered underneath it - which was to say that it was virtually all she had on.

Before she could say anything about this fact, though, Ty Lee questioned the obvious of, "Heh, so I guess we better go get clothes now, huh?"

Giving a pained noise as his pants squeezed against his nether-regions, Zuko nodded, "Yeah. Definitely."

"Hehehe..." Azula tried to carry off her smug chuckle but instead it came out like an amused giggle, "Y'know, Zuzu... All I hafta do to is yell out who ya are an' ya might get 'wested."

"...." Staring at his tiny sister for a moment, Zuko slowly turned to Katara and bluntly asked, "Has she been spanked yet?"

"The temptation's been there," the little girl answered, though she opted not to mention that she'd gotten her face share of well-placed pokes from Ty Lee. Instead, Katara commented, "But then usually she gets tired or something."

"Right." Mei could move about a bit more comfortably in her clothes than Zuko could his, though she wasn't the best off either. "We should go back to the campsite now."

"Hehe, okay..." Ty Lee was good for that, though she did have a question, "But which one?"

"Hmm..." Tough call for Aang. Appa was his bestest friend in the history of ever, so he wanted to play with him some more. But he hadn't seen Sokka and Toph since he got little and he missed them too.

"Toph ran out of diapers this morning," explained Zuko bluntly. "We were on our way to get her some more before we got side-tracked pl- doing stuff." Turning pink, he announced, "I think they're waiting for us."

"Heee..." That was right, Toph was in diapers now. Suddenly going very giggly, Aang cried, "I wansa go see Toph an' Sokka!"

"Maybe we should..." As Katara considered it, though, she put forth the idea, "We could go get Appa - you three could head off and we could go on to them."

"As much as I love the idea of being stuck walking while you travel quickly..." Mei looked a bit irritated as she looked down at the smaller girl, though there was only the slightest hint of it in her voice. "I would like to have my clothes and the money you owe me."

"Hmm..." Azula actually wanted to stick around with Zuko and drive him crazy a bit more... Grinning to herself, she reached over to Ty Lee and tugged on her sleeve, "I wansa go wif' da udders."

"Splendid news." Patting Aang on the head just for something to awkwardly do (which made the boy coo happily) Hope someone else is coming along to watch her.

"Hee, well, if everybody else is goin' I might as well, right?"

After Ty Lee's point, though, Katara had something to point out on that subject, "Well, Appa can't really support that many people..."

Mei, though, had her own point to make on that matter by bluntly stating, "There's one more in your group than usual and two of them are infants."

"Uh-huh." Nodding, Aang gladly cried to Katara, "Dun wurry 'bout Appa! He's weal stwong. He's so big!"

As if he needed to inform the other members of the group about the enormity of Appa's size, Aang threw both arms out as far as they could go. Feeling a little embarrassed about how enthusiastic Aang had gotten, Zuko turned to Mai and asked, "Your brother this hyper?"

"No one's this hyper." Mai gave a tiny sigh, before confessing, "Though I suppose it could be worse."

As if on cue, from the distance at that moment there was a loud, shrill, and very pleased cry of, "I a poo-poos bender!"

Mai's response was an immediate, deadpan, "See? I was right."

Giggling loudly at the cry given by the girl, Aang let out a cry of "TOPH!" From there he easily slipped out of Zuko's arms, landing awkwardly on his bottom, and began speedily crawling in the direction of the voice.

"Aang, watch it!" Growling, Zuko bent down to pick him up, thankful his pants didn't rip as he did so. As he had the bald baby in hand again, he angrily informed him, "Don't wander off like that- understand?"

"Aang?!" Hearing the boy's name was enough for the WaterTribesman to run into view, carting Toph along behind him. The first thing he laid eyes on however, was his sister. "Katara?"

"Hey..." While the reunion was nice, given how much shorter she was than her brother at the moment Katara couldn't be entirely comfortable with it. "Nice to see - wow..."

That was in response to picking up the smell following the blind girl. While Katara said nothing, though, Ty Lee took the opportunity to ask the group at large, "Have ya had to deal with that a lot?"

"All. The. Time." Growled out Sokka. Still, he gave a relieved sigh before reaching forward and grabbing his sister into a hug, "But I'm so happy to have my little, baby-loving sister to take the burden off- OW!"

The Water-Tribesman jumped back, holding his ribcage, "Something just-"

"-Bit you?" Glaring up at the teenager, Azula gave him the cold shoulder, saying, "Your stupid hug was smooshin' me."

"... Pft..." Pointing at the toddler, Sokka couldn't help but snicker out, "That's Azula? Really?"

"Toph!" Happy to see both the other comrades, Aang soon squirmed around in the arms of his surrogate-big-brother, "C'n I go see Toph now?"

"If you can take the smell." Holding the baby boy out at arm's length, Zuko bluntly informed the girl, "Here, hold Aang."

"Uh-uh." The blind girl shook her head in response to that, though her reasoning took a second of awkward fidgeting before she explained, "I need a new diapie."

"Great." And just as things had started to look up a little, Mai was given something new to complain about. First thing was first, though, "I'm not doing it."

"Ya know..." Ty Lee piping up here, changing the subject off of the girl's diaper and instead to another subject entirely, "Since we're all together now, we could go get Mei's clothes now and be going!"

"That leaves Zuko and Azula without their clothes, tho-- oh...." Katara dragged off then, as she felt a pain in her stomach. A pain great enough, in fact, that she didn't quite take notice of her body responding to it by taking the same action it had when last she slept.

"Kata- WHOA!" Taking a step away, Sokka noted worriedly, "Katara, are you alright?"

"EWWW!" Between getting hugged by the Water bender and the smell of pee filling the air, Azula gave the big girl's torso an angry kick, "Lemme go! I dun wanna be 'wound you, pee-pee pants!"

"I can guess what is happening, and am glad that that wasn't part of it for me." After that comment, though, Mai stepped forward toward the pained Waterbender - just long enough to take Azula out of her arms.

Not that Mai was happy about that, of course, but Ty Lee seemed to get a kick out of the visual. She didn't say much, though, as instead she turned her attention to Katara by way of asking her, "Are you okay?"

"Mmm..." While he was worried about Katara at first, Aang was also concerned about Toph. Still being offered out to her by Zuko, he helpfully informed her, "Dun be upset, Toph. Azoowoo's goin' thwough wotsa diapies."

No response through the pain of rabid growth, but Ty Lee's question was still more direct involvement than Toph contributed. In her case, all she did was proudly inform Aang, "I did big poo-poos."

"Heee... Yeah-huh. I c'n smells it. I betcha Zuzu'll change you..." Turning over his shoulder to look at the teenager, he announced, "Won'tcha Zuzu?"

"For starters, stop calling me that." Glaring at the infant, Zuko followed up with a long stare at Toph. An inkling of guilt rising up inside him, he growled out, "But... I guess if nobody else will..."

"Katara? You're growing up!" While he was uneasy about hugging his peeing sister, Sokka had already gotten wrist-deep into some stuff he'd rather not have and was able to step forward and give his sister an awkwardly positioned hug, "You're gonna be okay, alright?"

"Nng..." As the pain and the growing let up, Katara awkwardly returned the gesture as she replied, "Mostly."

This was going to be awkward in the future, of course, and Katara realized that; Toph, though, clearly did not as her counter to Zuko's offer was to begin wringing her hands in joy with a happy repetition of, "New diapie! New di-- iii...."

Then she suddenly stopped, only to a second later shake her head and question, "Okay, what just happened?"

As he was pulled closer to Zuko's body, Aang bluntly informed the diapered blind girl, "Toph did a big poopies."

From there though, Aang's tiny attention span went to Katara. Turning and looking over Zuko's shoulder, he soon let out a happy cry of "Katawa's a gwown-up!" And leapt away from the prince to hug her.

"Grr...." Held close in Mai's arms, Azula looked down at her tiny, stubby hands as if expecting them to get larger and more mature any second. After two eternally-long seconds of waiting, she angrily kicked the aristocrat and cried, "Why's it not workin' fer me?!"

"It could be awhile." Mei of course didn't much have much reason to want to rush it due to the nature of Azula's tiny self compared to her proper one, but she didn't argue either way. Instead, she supplied the detail, "The man we talked to said it can last for days."

"Days?" As Katara worked on getting herself together and caught hold of Aang, she commented, "Heh, kind of not sure whether or not to hope for that."

In the interim as Toph became familiar with what happened, vaguely, by noticing the feeling in the diaper she was wearing and Aang's statement, she declared, "No one mentions this again."

"Oh, c'mon! How can we not mention it?" Snickering, Sokka gave the little blind girl a nudge. "Lookit you. As gross as you were, you did make a snuggly baby, didn'tcha?"

"Ha." Toph of course was busy sarcastically replying to a different joke entirely, in this case Sokka's. "The offer's still on the table to dump you in the water yourself."

"Ooo..." Aang cooed happily at that as he snuggled up to Katara, "Sokka'd make a weal cute baby, huh?"

"Whatever, I'm just happy you can change yourself now." With that, Zuko turned away disinterested and instead went to Katara and Aang as they kept snuggling, "Keep in mind, as long as the comet's coming, the sooner we get Aang back, the better."

"Hmph." Glaring up at the emotionless girl holding her, Azula soon growled out, "You betta hope I dun take days ta change back. I c'n get you too in wotsa twouble if I do."

As Mai and Ty Lee took a glance at each other in response to that, the calmer of the two put forth the idea, "I vote we leave her in a ditch."

"Hee, nah...." Recognizing it as the joke it was, if only because of the fact that she was one of the people that knew Mai best, Ty Lee responded with one of her own, "One of the air temples would be much better!"

"Ha-ha." Frowning cutely, the little princess reminded them, "Dun ferget, I c'n still makes stuffs happen as a widdew kid. Wike when I got my nanny 'wwested by sayin' she hit me, or my teachuh essecootud by saying he yelled at me, or Zuzu spanked when I put Daddy's dwagon pennen' on his bed."

While up until now, Zuko had been listening, amused, at the talk of shoving Sokka into the fountain, the mention of that last venture suddenly grabbed his attention. Turning his head to stare at the girl, he asked, "That was you?"

Azula didn't answer at first. Instead she just grinned smugly before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. When she next opened them, tears were running liberally from each and she was sobbing.

"DADDEEE!" Squealing in a frightened, award-winning tone, Azula cried out, "I-I saw Z-Zuzu take yer dwagon pennet! I tw-twied ta stop him, but he said he-he'd hit me! He's awways so mean ta me Dade-"

SLAP!

After her big brother's hand flew flash-like across her face, Azula at once stopped speaking. Sitting there in Mai's arms, she felt the throbbing pain in her cheek radiate through her body, stunned at the very occurrence. The next second she started a loud infants wail, this one totally genuine.

Hitting a baby was typically unacceptable, but Zuko felt totally justified. Nonetheless, he stepped away from his sister and asked the group at large, "Anybody got a problem with that?"

"Uh, maybe a little much, but I can't hold it against ya too much!" Ty Lee was clearly unsettled by it, though she didn't want to get into that and there was a certain appeal all the same. "I've been playin' with her nerves an' stuff for the whole time anyway."

"Right..." Reluctant but not having much of a choice, Mai moved the baby so her head was resting on her shoulder and then got to awkwardly patting her back. "You won't hear me complain."

"Good, good, all agreed." Looking a slight bit annoyed now, Toph pointed to an alley and said, "I'm going to go get rid of this, now, and then can we get to pretending none of this ever happened?"

Right after the question, though, there was the sound of chattering just a second before a lemur scurried into view.

As the little critter flew onto Katara's shoulder, Aang happily announced, "Oh, there you are, Momo!" before giving it a hug.

"Not gonna ha-"

"Yeah, fine." Eager as anyone else to put this behind him, Zuko soon stepped over toward Mai, speaking just loudly enough to be heard over his sister's wails, "Look... This was nice. I think it was... worth it. Or if not that then it was better than it would be otherwise."

"Hm." While Mai definitely agreed, she didn't outright say it. Instead, she looked around for a second at the group at large.

Then, with a slightly raised voice, she announced, "We're going to go ahead - may as well change as soon as possible."

After that statement, though, she gave the shirtless young man a light poke in the chest with a whispered, "You're it," before setting to a brisk jog toward the campsite.