You, Me, and Riley

chapter 6

For the first time in forever I woke up before Dana and crawled out of bed to get my morning started. As I headed downstairs to cook breakfast I peaked in on Riley's room to see her curled up in a little ball in the middle of the bed. Thankfully it was a Saturday so we had the whole weekend to talk to Riley and figure out what was going on.

As I started breakfast I heard the shower turn on and new that Dana had woken up, shortly after I heard someone quietly walk towards the kitchen and when I looked up I saw Riley slowly peek her head around the corner.

"Good morning sweetheart I hope you slept well." I said with a smile. "We didn't get to talk about breakfast yesterday so I don't know what you like but I thought everyone likes pancakes rights? Do you want to come help me?" I asked hoping that she would move out from behind the corner.

She shook her head no but slowly walked into the kitchen and sat at one of the stools at the counter. "You're not very chatty in the morning, are you?" I asked. she shook her head no again. "That's ok. But speaking of mornings." I set her pills and a glass of water in front of her "You need to take these my love."

"Thank you." She whispered as she took the pills.

"Pancakes for breakfast my favorite!" Dana exclaimed with a fist pump as she walked into the kitchen and grabbed plates to set at the table. "So Riley after breakfast do you maybe want to have that chat that we were going to have yesterday?" Dana asked

Riley nodded her head sitting down at the table as I brought the pancakes and bacon to the table. Dana looked at me in question after Riley barely responded.

"Riley's not a morning person, maybe she'll talk more after we get a little food in her belly hunh?" I said running my hand over her head. Dana and I carried the conversation as we ate breakfast catching the slight smile and giggle from Riley as she started to wake up.

"Ok." Riley said after breakfast was done and we were all in the living room "I don't know why but I have a feeling this conversation is going to be kinda awkward."

"There she is!" Dana said causing both Riley and me to role our eyes.

"You're probably right Riley" I said. Dana and I had already decided that I would do most of the talking as she tended to be a little brash at times. "So I'm just gonna dive right in. Have you ever heard of ageplay before?" apparently I was too. 

Riley squinted her eyes at me before she answered "yes I have, why?"

I took a deep breath so far so good. "Dana and I have been a part of the CG/L community side of ageplay for a while now" I continued. "We had a little for a couple of years and then for various reasons that fell apart and we haven't been able to find one since."

"Okay, so you guys are care givers you had a little but now you don't. What does all this have to do with me?" She looked at me with confusion in her eyes waiting for me to continue. I had hoped that she would catch on but life is never that simple. "Oh! You guys want me to be."

I closed my eyes before I continued. "Dana and I got a vibe from you that you might be a little. If you're not and we are overstepping we are so sorry and we will walk away right now." I felt nauseous thinking about not being with our baby girl but if that's what she wanted we would respect that.

"It's not that, but I've never actually been in a headspace before, I just do little things." She said with a shrug.

Dana and I smiled at each other "You don't have to have a headspace to be a little and sometimes having a caregiver brings out a headspace." Dana said "You feel more comfortable and safe to be yourself."

"It's not something we want to force you to do, but please think about it." I said

"Ok." She said with a smile. "I've never had a care giver before, so I don't know what all of this will entail but you guys have really taken care of me so far. So, I trust you to keep doing it."

Dana and I just sat there staring at her for a few seconds neither of us expected her to agree so quickly. "Oh my gosh." I whispered picking her up and holding her in my arms. She rapped her arms around my neck and laid her head into my shoulder.

Dana eventually snapped out of it and took her from my arms and they hugged as well. "All right" Dana said "We have all day today and all day tomorrow to celebrate what do we want to do. And Riley you can be big or little or both or whatever the heck you want to be." She said still holding Riley. "I never realized how small you were. We were so preoccupied with the hospital yesterday it was the last thing on my mind!"

"Yeah I've always been small." She said blushing "only 4' 11''."

"Wow" Dana said. "Anyway! What do we want to do today?"

"Um, I kinda need to call my work." Riley said quietly. "I might not be able to go in the next couple of weeks."

"Because of a broken arm?"

"I work in a house with 13 schizophrenic men who are like 3 times my size. If something goes wrong I can barely defend myself on a normal day let alone on a day that I have a giant plaster brick on my arm." She said with a casual smile.

"I'm sorry you work where, with who, doing what?" I asked in complete shock.

"That came across really bad didn't it! The guys in my house are fantastic. I have worked there for almost three years and I can count on less than two hands the amount of times that I have actually been afraid and on less than one the amount times that I should have been afraid. Plus, I know that half the guys there would never let anything happen to me." She tried to reassure me. Key word TRIED "I should probably go call my boss" She said running off to grab her phone.

"What the heck Dana!" I said looking at her with wide eyes. "What kind of job is that?"