This Oneshot occurs during the episode "Return to Omashu", right before they go to trade TomTom for Bumi. Chronologically the first part in the Tylokka series.

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The last airbender, it's story or it's characters. I do not make money on this.(I wish)

Fire nation babies

Sokka grumbled as he carried TomTom through Omashu. The little baby had taken a shine to him, and while Aang and Katara checked the environment for hidden soldiers, he had to entertain him.

"Ga-gurgl. Hihi"

"Bad fire nation baby, be quiet."

Sokka immediately ducked, barely catching TomTom, expecting a blow from Katara. But as luck had it, she wasn't around. Somewhere along the construction site, the water-tribe girl's hand itched.

'Ugh, why do I have to take care of stupid fire nation babies? Katara is the one with the sudden mother instinct.'

The baby in question was looking at Sokka's face, quiet and with a sad face after being yelled at. The blue-clad boy looked at his face and felt all anger dissipating. Grabbing his water tribe club he handed it to the baby, who immediately started sucking on it.

'Why did I do that? Another hour with this kid and I'll turn into a woman.'

"I bet you're loving this, aren't you? Acting all cute, you don't fool me. You'll grow up to be a fire nation soldier."

Walking over to a fountain he set the fire nation baby on the edge. Momo flew by and landed on Sokka's shoulder, hoping for a treat.

"Now you stay here while I wash up. Momo, you watch him, will you? I'll give you this rock-shaped nut as a reward."

Sokka said throwing an actual rock(unknown to him, of course) next to Jin Jin. While the blue-clad boy jumped into the water, Momo tried to eat the nut-shaped rock, it of course, not ending well for both parties.

Our favorite fire nation baby saw his favorite playmate again, and having enough from the tasty stick, he tried to catch the colorful tail again. Angry, hungry and afraid, Momo fled the scene and TomTom, being the adventurous baby he is, chased after him.

Sokka however, was enjoying a relaxing bath, and the two bandits were several streets away when he finally noticed the baby left in his care was gone.

'Oh god! Katara will kill me!'

Jumping out of the fountain, taking no heed to the fact that he wasn't wearing anything besides a loincloth, he ran into the many streets of Omashu. It was lucky for him that the streets were deserted.

A few streets away, TomTom held fast onto Momo's tail as the lemur in question was trying to fly away from him. Shaking as much as possible, TomTom finally let go and Momo flew straight back to Appa, telling him the entire affair. Unfortunately(or fortunately), Appa was asleep and missed most of it.

Our favorite fire nation baby however, fell right into a cart of cabbages. The cart slowly started to roll after being assaulted by flying babies(and who could blame it?). While TomTom was enjoying his new ride, he could've heard(if he paid attention), a desperate man screaming "My Cabbages!" far behind him.

Sokka, hearing a man scream, ran as fast as he could to the sound. Running from a side ally, he was nearly hit by a cart speeding down the hill. If the blue-eyed wonder ever ran harder than he did at that moment, he would've won the 4-nations annual sprint with ease.

The cart however, had no trouble moving faster than him. Crashing into a stand near a square, TomTom flew through the air(and loving it) and landed right into the nimble arms of a girl wondered off as well.

The water tribe boy, finally arriving at the crash site, nearly burst out in tears thinking of the punishment he'd get. But just before he started wailing about the fact that he'd have to eat sea prumes every day, he heard a very familiar giggle nearby.

Moving towards the sounds, hopeful at the thought that he might still eat meat someday, he arrived at the square. Seeing that TomTom wasn't alone, his eyes grew wide, he immediately jumped behind a wall.

"Arent you a cutie. Are flying babies normal in the earth kingdom?"

"Hihi, blurrap."

"Awww, I just want to hug you."

Peeking over the wall, the blue-eyed boy saw a girl completely clad in pink hugging his fire nation baby.

'She's pretty cute… Stupid Sokka, you can't think of that right now. She must be fire nation, right?'

Looking down he finally noticed he was almost naked.

'Well, I guess it doesn't matter, I can't go out there like this anyway. But how do I get that annoying brat back?'

Ty lee in the meanwhile was thoroughly enjoying hugging the giggling little boy. Thinking of multiple scenarios where she could keep the baby, her eyes glowed in hope.

"…and I will dress you in cute pink and we will play hide and seek and I'll show you to Mai, she'd love you, and…."

TomTom didn't really pay attention to the rambling, but to the braid that was swinging around her head. Sokka leaned in a little, trying to catch the conversation.

"But how did you get here? Why are you alone?"

"Gurglz, Sokra ngs"

Stroking TomTom's face with her finger, the acrobat girl's face grew sad all of the sudden. It almost seemed to Sokka as if she was remembering something sad.

"Did you run away from home, little baby? I don't blame you. Do you want to run away together? Just you and me?"

"Hihi, gagalz"

"Run away, from home and responsibility, from Azula, from the fire nation, would you like that?"

"Geh!"

sigh "If only."

At the end of this nearly one-sided conversation, TomTom finally got hold of the pink-clad girls braid and tugged at it, hard. Out of surprise she dropped him, but he still had a firm hold on the braid.

"YEEAAOW!"

Sokka nearly fell over the wall at the scream. When his vision started to come back from the blow to the head, he could see that the girl had put down our favorite baby to fix her braid while grumbling louder than he himself was just an hour ago.

'Now's my chance!'

The moment the pink aura girl had her back on him, he ran as hard and soft as he could, took the baby and ran back to the wall. After fixing her braid and nearly cursing a couple of times, Ty lee finally turned around to glare at the baby who caused all this.

However, something was missing. She was glaring at an empty spot on the floor. And however guilty the empty spot felt by this, she looked up in shock.

"Baby? Baby!? Where are you!?"

Sokka thought he heard a sign of desperation in her voice. As if this baby was her last chance to run from her life, her last chance to run from the problems in her life.

He heard himself whispering in the dark.

"I'm sorry."

He didn't know why he said that, he didn't want to know. Walking back towards the fountain, hoping no one would ever know about this, he looked at the fire nation baby that started all this.

The defeated cabbage merchant that walked through the dark street could hear a faint grumbling from the direction of Earthlight square.

"Fire nation babies.."

--

Ty lee: "Yey! Babies!"

Me: "This doesn't forbode well."

Azula: "It's all your fault."

Me: "Not true! Mai?"

Mai: "I don't care."

Ty lee: hugs "I want a baby."

Azula: "Oh dear.."

Me: 0.0