Reggie was woken up the next morning by a soft voice, pulling him out of his dreams. He was going to protest getting up, before he suddenly remembered the events of the night prior.
He sat up, dropping the stuffed bear that had been in his arms. It fell on the blanket next to him. "Whoa, calm down Reg! You're okay, I promise." Julie spoke, settling her hand on his shoulder. She sat on the edge of the bed next to him.
"I'm so sorry about last night." Reggie began his anxious rambling despite her reassurance. "I was being a brat for no reason and I kept crying-"
"Reggie." Julie took over a tone not unlike the stern one used to get him to listen when he was small. Reggie went quiet, looking at Julie with a somewhat nervous look.
"You don't have to defend yourself, or apologize for anything. I'm not mad at you." She spoke in a sure, definite voice. Reggie seemed hesitant to believe her, but he nodded.
"Thank you." Reggie decided on his next words after a moment, giving Julie a small smile.
"For what?" She questioned, though she was fairly sure that she knew the answer.
"For dealing with me."
"Anytime." Julie paused, before speaking again. "I wanted to talk to you, about a few things. Is that alright with you?"
Reggie nodded slowly, looking a little anxious about whatever she was going to bring up. "First of all, Luke is distracting Alex right now, so if you wanna be little, you can."
Reggie chose nodding over verbal confirmation, so Julie continued speaking. "I guess I'll get straight to the point. How do you feel about telling Alex about all this?"
There was a pause, and Julie thought that maybe she shouldn't of brought it up. But just when she was going to let him know that he didn't have to answer, Reggie replied.
"I'm not completely against it," Reggie admitted, speaking up with a voice full of hesitancy. "It's still scary though. But I feel like he'd get it, he deals with anxiety too...worse then me really. I feel like he'd be glad I found a way to deal with it."
Reggie sounded hopeful, but also worried. "I think you're right. And no one said that you have to tell him now, Luke and I just thought we'd bring it up now so that you could think about it."
"Was there anything else?" Reggie questioned after a beat of silence.
"Hmm?" Julie hummed, seemingly confused.
"You said you wanted to talk to me about a few things." Reggie elaborated. Julie remembered the other thing she wanted to bring up.
"Oh! Yeah..um, I wanted to ask about the whole 'mama' thing..." Julie trailed off for a moment while Reggie's face went red, and he immediately avoided looking at her face. "There's nothing wrong with you calling me that! If I was uncomfortable with it, I'd tell you. I just wanted to know why, I guess. Is that something that's normal for littles?"
Reggie let out a light sigh of relief. Julie wasn't judging him, she was just curious. She didn't seemed concerned. Or angry...just curious. "Um..kinda? I'm sorry that I called you that without like, talking to you about it first." He apologized.
Julie shook her head. "If its something that makes you feel more comfortable in your headspace, I don't mind it." she repeated.
Reggie kept going. "Yeah. Some regressors have people that take care of them, like caregivers. And they might call them some variation of mom or dad because they play a parent role...and I guess little me recognizes you as 'the nice lady who cares for me' and it just kinda..slipped out a few times."
Julie only smiled, seemingly touched by that. "I'm glad you feel safe around me. I don't care if you wanna call me that, I just wanted to know why. That's all I wanted to talk about."
Reggie smiled a bit, feeling a lot less awkward. "Okay, cool. What are Luke and Alex doing?" He immediately found a way to change the subject, and Julie didn't seem to catch on, replying to his question.
"They're at the beach with Willie, I think. Alex mentioned wanting us to get to know Willie and Luke thought it'd be the perfect way to get him out of the house, because you seemed pretty worried that you wouldn't be able to regress." Julie explained.
Reggie frowned, and Julie interrupted his thoughts before he even got the chance to speak. "Don't apologize for misbehaving again. You wanted to stay up because you wanted to be little, you were upset reasonably. No ones mad at you."
Reggie shut up quickly, nodding in affirmation. Julie sounded so authoritative most of the time, always seeming as if she was right in what she said. She could say the craziest thing in that tone and Reggie would probably agree without questioning it.
"Anyways, I think it's time to get up. You slept in pretty late," Julie stood up, holding her hand out. Reggie took it, allowing her to pull him out of bed with no protest. He picked up the bear before straightening up, hugging it to his chest.
He noticed that Julie was looking at him, so he lowered the bear as if 'correcting' his actions. As if carrying the bear was wrong and he wasn't supposed to be doing it. He had a light pout on his face. Julie quickly jumped to reassure him.
"You're okay! I don't care if you carry the bear...you just don't do stuff like that when you're big. So I was wondering if you were feeling small," she explained, looking at Reggie expectedly.
"Am I allowed to?" Reggie asked, tilting his head and looking at her with curious and innocent eyes. He was slipping fast.
He didn't even really understand why. Being around Julie or Luke always made him feel a little small. They were so protective of him, caring and sweet. Always willing to give up time to take care of him. Reggie felt pretty bad about that sometimes, he felt like he took to much of their time.
"Of course you are, you can be little whenever you need to."
"B-but I dont need to be little right now," Reggie pouted, hugging the bear to his chest again. "I wanna be little. Should be big."
"No, baby." Julie correct him quickly, stopping his pouty rambling. "You're allowed to be tiny because you want to. You don't have to limit your headspace to when you're stressed, regressing for fun is completely okay."
Reggie hummed, nodding a bit. Julie could tell he wasn't completely little, but he wasn't far from it. "We should get you dressed in something soft. Don't you get uncomfortable in jeans after wearing them for so long?" Julie asked.
Reggie shrugged, bringing his thumb up to his lip. "Hmm. Well, how about we look at some of my clothes? If you don't find anything you like, you can stay in your clothes." She compromised.
Reggie nodded, following Julie's lead, walking over to her closet with her. "Do you see anything you like, Reg?"
Reggie settled his thumb into his mouth, his eyes glancing around the closet. His eyes paused on a solid red t-shirt, with Winnie the Pooh on it. He had never seen Julie wear it before, but he immediately wanted it.
He pointed to it silently, bouncing on his feet. "You want the Winnie shirt?" Julie smiled lightly, pulling it off of the rack and holding it up to him. While Reggie was taller then her, their clothing sizes didn't seem to be far apart. The shirt was cropped too, but Reggie didn't seem to care.
"Winnie! Cute bear," Reggie said simply. "Watch it wif Luke." He explained.
"Really? Maybe we could watch it later," Reggie smiled at that, seemingly excited at the possibility of that. "Only if you're really good today." Julie decided, tapping the button of his nose with the pointer finger of her free hand. She walked over and set the shirt on the bed, before going back to the closet.
She started rummaging through it, so focused on finding some suitable pants for the boy that she didn't notice him slip away from his spot next to her. It wasn't until she heard his frustrated toddler voice sound behind her that she realized.
"Juwie!" he whined, his shirt stuck part way over his torso. He had discarded his flannel on Julie's bed, and was trying to pull his black shirt off of him. "Hewp!" he requested, Julie noticing the little frustrated huff he let out. This childish anger was the same thing that led him to his little temper tantrum the night before.
"I'm coming, baby!" Julie chuckled, coming over to him and instructing that he held his arms up. In no time, Julie got the shirt over his head, and it was discarded on the bed with the other article of clothing.
Reggie's face was painted with a little angry pout that amused Julie. He seemed to come to his senses, and that pout faded into a smile. "T'ank you!" he cheered.
"You're welcome, darling. But, you could've waited for me to help you in the first place," Julie said. Reggie seemed confused, shaking his head.
"Always do things m'self!"
"You don't have to, though. It's okay to ask for help," Julie told him, picking up the character shirt and pulling it over Reggie's head. He pushed his arms through their holes and pulled the shirt down. "You look so cute, Reggie!" Julie complimented, patting his head softly. Reggie blushed, biting his lip.
"Thanks." he mumbled, looking down at himself.
"Did you want to change pants, or were you just planning on stealing my shirt?" Julie questioned, crossing her arms.
"Stealing da shirt, das it." Reggie giggled, picking up the bear from where he had left it on the bed. Julie chuckled, shaking her head a bit.
"You're a silly baby, Reg."
"Siwwy," Reggie giggled again, bouncing on his feet. "Baby?" he pointed to himself after a moment, seemingly asking a question.
"Yeah, you're a baby. A very cute one at that," Julie tapped the button of his nose again, and Reggie face broke out into a smile.
Being reminded that he was, in fact, a baby, without any judgement, make him feel like it was okay to be that way. It made him feel smaller.
"Can I play now?" Reggie asked, holding the bear in his arms tight and looking up at Julie pleadingly.
Julie nodded. Seeing him so innocent, just wanting to play and cuddle, it was different. It made her happy to know that something as cute as this childish getaway helped him cope. And she wanted to help where she could.
"What do you wanna do, Little Prince?"
The new nickname slipped out of her mouth without any hesitation. It had popped in her head and she impulsively decided that it felt right. For a split second, Julie thought about taking it back.
But the moment she saw Reggie's shy smile, and the excited look on his face as he went to ramble about his options for playtime, she realized that the nickname made him happy.
It was like how Luke called him 'Little Rockstar' sometimes. Julie never called him that, it was something for Luke and Luke only. Something special for just them.
This was something special for him and Julie.
--
"Mama, da bear is red...like a rose!" Reggie looked at the stuffed toy in his lap. He was currently sitting on the ground in a criss-cross position, with Julie's laptop in front of him. As promised, Julie had put of Winnie the Pooh for them to watch together.
Julie nodded, "Yeah, like a rose." she hummed, pausing before continuing. "Roses are pretty flowers, don't ya' think?"
Reggie seemed confused as to why she was asking this, but he nodded firmly. He leaned his back against Julie's bed behind him. Julie didn't know why Reggie had wanted to sit on the ground instead of her bed, but she let him. He seemed comfortable just sitting on the fluffy rug, a soft blanket of Julie's pulled around his shoulders.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because roses are just like you!" Julie spoke in a playful tone that communicated that what she was saying was absolutely obvious. Reggie's eyebrows furrowed, and he tilted his head, his lips forming a light pout.
He didn't like not understanding things! It made him feel like a baby. Not in the good way either...he just felt stupid. Julie smiled, leaning closer to him and speaking in a quiet voice, as if her words were a secret. "You're a pretty flower." She spoke in a teasing voice, knowing the compliment would embarrass him.
He was just so cute when he got all shy.
Reggie took a second to register, but his face went red. He pulled the stuffed bear from his lap, lifting it up so that his face was covered. "Awe, don't hide from me, Flower!" Julie pulled a fake sad face, reaching forward to pull Reggie's arms (and therefore, the stuffed animal) down.
"You're mean, mama!" Reggie whined, turning his head so that he was looking away from Julie. Julie knew he didn't mean it, but she gasped.
"I'm mean for calling you pretty?"
Reggie hummed in affirmation, keeping a firm pout on his face. "How so, Reg?" Julie watched as he looked back at her, quickly jumping into the babyish logic behind claiming that she was mean.
He didn't seem to be able to come up with anything, though. He just pouted, huffing in frustration. "Mean!" he exclaimed.
"I think you're just pouty because I made you blushhh," Julie teased. Reggie continued to pout, scrunching up his nose. Julie considered continuing to push the teasing, but she figured that she'd eventually actually annoy him. If his angry pout meant anything, it seemed that she wasn't far from it.
She didn't want a grumpy little on her hands.
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry, baby." julie noticed that Reggie was actually paying attention to the cartoon again, wrapping her arm around him. Reggie leaned into her side, mumbling out a few words.
"It's okay, mama."
Those words made Julie smile. Over the past few weeks, Julie had been getting to know Little Reggie, while Luke, Julie, and Reggie became more closer overall. Reggie regressed quite a bit during this period, because it was the first time in his life where he felt safe too.
He had two amazing friends to go to, to take care of him. They didn't care if he regressed every other day, or if he was a handful to deal with. They were so supportive of this vulnerable, childlike part of himself. Because they cared about him.
Because they loved him.
And soon enough, Alex would meet Little Reggie too. The only question was, would he be as supportive as Luke and Julie were about it?
Reggie would find out come the time.
But 'the time', was sooner then anyone expected.