Pacifier.

Ch. 4

Hide and Seek – Part 1.

Summary: Oh no! A malfunction with the Mask of Time has turned Jaller, Hahli, Matoro, Kongu, Hewkii, and Nuparu into toddlers! And the Turaga have to take care of them all and find a way to change them back! What cute chaos will ensure!?

Non-canon verse, obviously. Although this takes place while everyone is still on Mata-nui.

HUMANIZED!Bionicle.

A/N~ Ah, finally, the part you've all been waiting for! Hope you have a dentist on standby, cause this is where the tooth rotting cuteness takes off! All aboard!

A/N 2~ Now edited!

No actual POV, but individual surroundings and experiences will shift every now and again. The X~ line divides them just so you know.

X~X~X~X~X~X

Jaller was known for many things as a Matoran, by both friend and foe.

A captain of the guard, a fierce warrior, skilled craftsmen with fire and metals when he still resided in Metru-nui, a nuisance, and a few other choice words by enemies, and quite simply to others, a friend…

However, to some others, he could be described as a Kane-ra bull or a Kikanalo. The words 'short tempered' and 'stubborn' were not the only words used to describe him, but they were the primary words to describe him at times.

Case in point, right now.

The toddler that was once Jaller was wandering the vast halls of the Coliseum, his companion Hewkii following close behind.

Only moments ago, he led the others out of the room they were previously in. Now that they were much more mobile in their proper clothing, they figured they'd explore a bit.

The place was so big! The hallways themselves were big enough to probably allow a juvenile Kane-ra bull to walk through comfortably. There were lots of new and weird looking things, especially shiny things! Kongu seemed to like shiny things, so that was a plus for them. (1) Sometimes they'd see a small Stone rat every now and again. Matoro took quite the fancy to those before one of the others scared it off with their enthusiasm.

Pausing in his wobbly trek, Jaller blinked up at the three hallways splitting off from the one they were previously in. One to their left, the other to the right, and the third middle one continuing forward. Well, this wouldn't do.

"Where we go Ja?" Hewkii asked. Jaller pouted at the nickname. (2)

"Dis way." And he promptly marched forwards down the middle hall.

"No. Wanna go tha' way." Nuparu pointed to the hall to the left.

"No! Dis way!" Kongu pointed to the right. Jaller shook his head, puffing his cheeks in irritation.

"No! Dis way!" he snapped. Matoro cocked his head.

"We go our way?" he suggested. Jaller fixed him with an annoyed look, mostly directed at the fact Hahli was holding the small Ko-Matoran's hand. (3)

"Hmph, fine. Hawi goes wit' me though." He said.

"Hahli…" Hahli corrected, fiddling with the hem of her little blue dress. She didn't look too excited.

"Hawi?" Jaller asked.

"No! Hahli!

"Halwi?"

"Hahli!"

"Hawaii?"

"HAHLI!" (4)

The other four watched their little back and forth game of 'what's my name' before becoming a bit restless. Kongu ultimately decided he wanted to go left, and did so with Hewkii following him.

Matoro was getting a bit bored of all the yelling and decided to go right…

"Pwitty!" (5)

Obviously with an enthusiastic Nuparu following him. He wasn't looking forward to that.

"Name not pwitty. It's Matoro." He said.

"'Toro?"

"Ma-toro."

"M'toro?"

"…" the little ice Matoran wasn't going to get into it. Instead he chose to just ignore the whole thing and move on.

Hahli and Jaller could still be heard yelling in the background (at least Hahli was yelling, Jaller just sounded confused). With Kongu and his companion Hewkii going the other way, it was obviously going to be a very difficult hunt for their Turaga…

X~X~X~X~X~X

"This is ridiculous!"

Really, it was. At least to him and the others. Turaga were not babysitters, let alone babysitters who have to find said babies and just pray they haven't gotten into any trouble and or maimed. Which would be bad.

"You think I'm enjoying this?" Whenua asked.

"No, but you know it's true!" Onewa snapped back.

The two of them had been wandering the lower regions of the Coliseum for the past half hour now, looking for their hell spawn. Not an easy feat, considering the giant size of the Coliseum and the tiny stature of the kids. It was more or less like trying to find six mobile needles in a five story haystack.

Best case scenario, they find them before nightfall. Worst case scenario, they don't find them. Even worse case scenario, they find them injured or worse.

"Ugh, where would they even go?" Onewa asked.

"Not a clue. They're children now, they could be anywhere." Whenua said dejectedly, "In a room, up on a bookshelf, under a chair, in a tree, on the roof…in some rahi's stomach…" (6)

Onewa blinked at the statement before rolling his eyes, but none the less continued looking and calling for the little ones. Obviously no answer came. They were starting to wonder if they were intentionally ignoring their Turaga…

"Wonder how they're doing anyways…" Whenua wondered aloud, concern clear in his voice.

X~X~X~X~X~X

"Wheeeeeee~!"

"Yaaaaaaay!"

Against the Turaga's thoughts, the kids were alright. And Kongu and Hewkii apparently discovered an old engine room, and were making the best of their time with riding on the various pushing, pulling, swinging, and spinning machinery.

"Faster!" Kongu laughed, spinning himself faster on a large cog wheel.

Hewkii cackled merrily as he swung from a chain linked to the ceiling, narrowly missing the dangerous equipment he'd swing between.

Yep, absolutely no danger here…

X~X~X~X~X~X

Hahli was a girl known for her bold attitude and strong willed charisma.

A fair athlete and a good fighter when need be, and also a good friend. Probably known for being 'one of the boys' in some aspects, she was a tough cookie.

Or at least, she was.

Now as a toddler again, her persona did a complete back flip. (7)

She jumped at pretty much any loud or sudden noise, and whenever Jaller tried to touch her hand, she'd shy away. It didn't help that they were in a more run down part of the Coliseum, so it wasn't hard finding old and creaky areas. The little Ta-Matoran was at first frustrated, but let it go when he was seeing how frightened Hahli was getting.

"Why you scared?" he asked as they continued along.

"I-I not scared!" Hahli protested with puffed cheeks. Well, she at least retained her stubbornness.

Just about then, a small Stone rat ran by, causing her to squeak and cling to Jaller's arm, trembling as she did so. Jaller blinked, slightly confused.

"It's just a wat…" he said. Hahli blinked, seemingly realizing what she was holding, and jumped back, her face slightly red.

"I-I know dat!" she said. Jaller cocked his head.

"But you got scared?"

"D-did not!"

"Yah-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yah-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yah-HUH!"

"Nah-UH!" (8)

X~X~X~X~X~X

"Pwitty!"

"Stop it!"

Matoro rarely ever got this irritated, even as an older Matoran. His mellow nature and soft spoken attitude pretty much gave him immunity from being easily annoyed. Sometimes…

Now, however, he was annoyed to a good point. And he was tired. He couldn't find his papa! Why he even agreed to go with Jaller in the first place was still unknown to him. His curiosity got the better of him, he supposed.

"Pwitty!"

"My name not pwitty!"

And Nuparu…why oh WHY did he let the little black-haired nuisance follow him? And why did he keep calling him pretty? His name was Matoro! Not-

"Pwitty!"

-that. That was getting on his nerves.

Speeding up his teetering pace, Matoro once again tried to ignore the happily striding Onu-Matoran. He was at least grateful he finally shut up for a while.

"…what we lookin' for?" Nuparu suddenly asked.

"Papa." Matoro answered simply.

"Oh…" And they continued on without speaking. For a moment.

"Who yer papa?" the Onu-Matoran asked after a brief pause.

"Papa is papa."

"Oohhh…"

Another pause.

"…what's he look like?"

"Tall."

"He nice?"

"Uh-huh."

"Pwitty like you?"

"Ye-wha? No!"

"You're pwitty!"

"Stop it!"

"Pwitty!"

"Ugh…"

If he were his older self, Matoro would be wondering if it were possible for a toddler to get a migraine…(9)

X~X~X~X~X~X

"What did we ever do to deserve this?"

Nokama honestly didn't know. She could think of a few things Matau did to deserve this, but as of now, nothing was really making too much sense now. Honestly, going to their homes and finding their Matoran turned into infants was bad enough. Losing said infants in such a huge place was worse.

But honestly…Nokama was getting to that point where she wanted to laugh. Not from the situation, no, not in the slightest. But from how Nuju was reacting!

He was practically fidgeting now. Eyes shifting from left to right to try and pinpoint where the kids might be. Mostly Matoro from the looks of it. She and the other Turaga had been teasing Nuju relentlessly for years about their little father-son relationship. Nuju would always full out deny it with stubborn resolve, but that just made his care for the Matoran all the more obvious. (10)

And now…now he was pretty much reduced from a cool, level headed Turaga to a panicking parent. It was honestly laughable!

"Nuju, I'm sure he's fine now." She tried to reassure, and without cracking into a smile. The latter was rather difficult.

"Well how do you know? For all we know, they could have gone outside! And he's small enough to be picked off by a damn bird!"

Yep, he was worried. Scratch that, he was panicked. Although he was trying to hide it (with very little success), he was hysterical.

He was worried, obviously, about Matoro. With the Matoran's new, much small, stature and infantile mind, he could get into any number of problems. Whether by his own hand or by the other's. Although, even if he stuck his tiny hand in a light socket, most likely he'd still blame the other five infants…

But really! What if he really did stick his hand in a light socket? What if he fell over and hit his head on something? What if he was lost? What if he walked up to some rabid rahi and was eaten?! Or what if he walked off the edge of a cliff and fell into a smelting pit then was spewed out by a puff of gas then eaten by a passing by bird with a chronic bowel defect!? (11)

"Brother…?"

"Huh…?" he rasped.

"…do I even want to know what you're thinking of?"

"…not really."

"Then stop thinking about it. Matoro is fine."

"…"

He didn't stop thinking about any of it for the remainder of the search…

To be continued…

X~X~X~X~X~X

Geez, took me a while to update this one, mainly because I had SO many scenarios I wanted to do, I couldn't decide which to put first! That and I had a bit of a block. Lol

But anyways! You get an update! And possibly an update tomorrow in Falling Black. Look forward to it!

More cuteness to come and even more mush to melt your faces!

1)- Soooo shiiiiiiinnnnyyyyy... w

2)- Baby talk! Ain't it adorable? XD

3)- Awww someone's jealous!

4)- Either you can't remember a name, or you can't pronounce it. That, or you can't seem to grasp the King's English and are therefore an idiot...I'm kidding. XDD

5)- You ever had a constantly following admirer when you were little? If you have, you should be feeling some déjà-vu and sympathy for Matoro. XD

6)- Well that was some dark thoughts there.

7)- Many have theorized or experienced, when they were little, they are the complete opposite of what they are today. I myself am included in this persona teeter-totter, and I find it pretty interesting.

8)- It's a denial-off! GET IN THE CAR!

9)- Hm, now that's a good question actually. Can toddlers get migraines? O.o'

10)- D'aaw we all know you love Matoro Nuju, just admit it. XD

11)- ...I take it back. THAT was a pretty dark and uh...gross thought.