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The campsite they eventually pick is in the middle of a large, dead plain, nothing obscuring vision in any direction for hundreds of yards. It might have been a farm once; it's all dead now.

They're all exhausted. It was dark when they'd camped the first time; it's close to midnight by the time the two cars pull off the road and into this field, and it's raining - cold, thick, heavy rain that blows any hope they might have had of making a fire.

Thank everything for Toph.

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Hana is carried to the tent without much fuss from the sleepy toddler. Loo, however, starts crying very soon after she wakes, and won't stop, demanding to be held by her Mommy.

Mel takes a few minutes to make sure everyone's OK, giving a few more orders than she would usually, then retreats into her tent with Louise still in her arms.

It's nearly an hour before the crying from that tent dies out completely.

They all wake up late in the morning - understandable; it was a long night. Steph manages to get a fire going in spite of the continual rain, and shortly after that she's crouching at the entrance to Mel's tent with a mug of tea and a handful of their pre-packed breakfast bars.

"Morning!"

The advantage of winter months, of course, is that kiddie firebenders wake up at a perfectly reasonable time just like everyone else.

Of course, if they haven't had much sleep, they're still going to wake up at sunrise, tired and tetchy.

Hana greets Steph at the entrance, putting her hands out for a hug despite the tea and bars. "Morning!" she barks, a little like an order.

The other two are further in: Mel with just a shirt on and her legs covered in the blanket, as she struggles to dress a tired, irritable Loo, who's complaining at every turn.

"Morning," Mel offers, sparing only a quick glance at Steph.

"Morning, gorgeous," Steph says, putting Mel's tea down carefully out of the way so she can hug Hana properly. "Brought your breakfast!"

Hana squeezes Steph tight without any intention of letting go.

Mel nods her gratitude, and frowns down at Loo's stubborn refusal to move her arm to help with sweater wearing.

"Breakfast, Louise."

"Dun want."

The advantage of this, of course, is Mel can be preoccupied with an acting up daughter and not worry about herself.

Hana gets kisses, and Steph unwraps a breakfast bar for her behind her back, lifting the toddler onto her lap so she can sit in the entrance. "Suki's hunting," she reports, "so there may or may not be food. Sokka's sleeping. Toph hasn't shown her face yet. Katara's suspiciously quiet and I think I'm going to try to keep her away from Socks for a while. And then there's you."

She waves at Loo cheerfully, unwrapping a second bar that's totally not in any way for Louise not at all nope.

Loo doesn't want it.

"We're grouchy," Mel informs Steph, maybe using 'we' to mean just the twins, maybe including her. "Firebenders weren't meant to wake up in the mid of the night, right, Looloo."

"No," says Loo, sulkily, and then screams in indignation when she looses the battle of the sweater. "Nononononono!"

Mel turns her head away from Steph and Hana to grimace at Loo's screaming. After a second gaining her composure, she pulls Loo into a hug.

Steph nibbles on the end of it and pets Hana's hair. "Nobody was meant to wake up in the middle of the night when they're two," she agrees. "We should get to the lake pretty early today, anyway, if the roads hold out. I think we're gonna skirt the city altogether though. Too dangerous, huh, Hana-banana?"

"Th," says Hana, spitting breakfast bar everywhere because she's trying to speak and eat at the same time, as well as watching her sister worriedly.

Loo is just out and out crying now, and Mel is clutching her like she's still a baby, rocking her gently, kissing her hair and making cooing noises. Over the girl's head, she nods.

"We'll need to get out and walk at some point, if Toph's going to find the right place."

"Yeah. I figure we'll get as close to the lake as we can drive, and then ... I don't know. Let Toph do her thing. I'm so glad she came - I really wasn't looking forward to the diving."

Steph decides to eat Loo's breakfast bar. There's plenty more and Loo isn't interested. She uses her other hand to pick up bits of half-chewed Hana-food and scoop them back towards Hana's mouth.

"The girls will like not being in the car any more, anyway."

"Yeah, Looloo? You wanna go for a walk later?"

It's muffled in Mel's shirt, but Loo protests that "wanna go home." There are more kisses and a hair ruffle.

"Hana does. Right, tiny?"

Hana has her attention divided between Loo's crying and her breakfast, but she does nod solemnly. "Yes."

Mel's smile at the solemnity is 100% genuine, if only 60% happy.

Steph is watching the babies, smiling softly.

"I never had any siblings," she says, out of nowhere. "I don't know - I can't even imagine what it's like..."

To lose them.

"If you want anything - I don't know what to do, but - but anything."

Mel glances up sharply, the non-sequitor catching her off guard. It makes Loo cry again, but she's already running out of energy.

"It's spled," she says bluntly. "Let's just do this for Tara and get home."

So at least Sokka can have his sister back.

"Yeah," Steph agrees gratefully. "Yeah, let's do that."

She leans over to touch Mel's knee for a second anyway, before Hana demands more attention and Steph's busy hugging her again.

"At least - yeah."

"No, Steph," Mel says.

She pulls Loos away from her shoulder, smiles and pulls a ridiculous face for her, and reaches towards Steph with one hand.

"Give me one of those bars, OK?

"Do this. Get home. Settle the babies in, check on the farm. Get on with things. That's all."

Steph grimaces at her. "I'm not even allowed to worry about you a teeny little bit?"

"If it makes you happy," Mel allows. She leans over Loo to take the bar, and unwraps it with her teeth.

"Breakfast, Loo."

Loo doesn't want it, and pushes the bar away.

Steph beams at her. "I'll try to be subtle about it," she promises. "Loo-loo, you want something else? We could go see what's in the back of the car. I think there's strawberry bars, apricot bars, and just your standard tastes-like-nothing-but-is-very-nutritious bars."

"...we really gotta get some better travelling supplies for when we can't hunt."

"No," Loo objects.

Mel shakes her head. "She's fine with this. Loo, eat it, OK?"

There's more protesting, and Mel leans down to break bits off and push it to her mouth.

Once it's her mouth, Loo chews and swallows, but meanwhile she gets more and more distraught about the situation.

Steph occupies herself with keeping Hana distracted from the crying, with debatable success.

"We should get going sooner rather than later. Whenever Suki gets back, and Toph finishes ... whatever Toph's doing. And I should wake Sokka up, but he'll be grumpy when he finds out there's only these for breakfast. Won't he, Han?"

Han agrees Uncle Sokka will be grumpy.

"He's good at getting up quickly. When we get some meat, wake him. No, Loo."

Loo has decided that turnabout is fair play,and is pushing half chewed bar into Mel's mouth.

Mel relents and chews some of this. About half of it, though, she returns to Loo. (She hasn't been squeamish about sharing food since the babies were weaned.)

It's a good strategy, because Loo calms when Mel eats. Not as much as she calms as she eats, though.

"Ooh, that's a good idea. I'll keep the fire going long enough we can cook whatever Suki brings back. Way less grumpy then." She grins, bouncing Hana. "And then we all get meat for breakfast!"

Beat.

"Three years ago I would have thought that was the most disgusting thing I'd ever heard. Go figure."

Mel smirks.

"I don't know how you can even think of eating meat," she decides, reaching for another bar.

Steph kisses Hana's head happily. "Meat, Hana?"

SEE SHE WILL PROVE IT.

"Meat!" Hana agrees. "Mommy meat?"

Mel shakes her head, breaking bits of the breakfast bar off for Loo, who eats it more happily.

"For you. Mommy's not hungry."