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His friends were all still laughing around him when Tubbo felt himself first begin to zone out. He was well aware of what was happening, more than used to the familiar fuzzy feeling in his brain after a hard or exhausting day. Sure, he was having lots of fun, but being constantly on the move and doing so many different things was a lot to handle sometimes.
Quietly, he removed himself from the group, letting the sound of everyone's voices grow fainter as he searched for his dad. Most of the people there already knew about his regression, it wasn’t something he was ashamed of, but explaining everything always put a funny feeling in his chest. Most people he knew reacted nicely to learning about the coping mechanism, and he’d even found himself an onslaught of other littles and babysitters in his main circle- something he both loved and hated at times since it meant he could never get away with pushing off small time.
Overall he couldn’t complain much about it, more than happy with the support system he’d gained- not everyone had such supportive family and friends after all. He could see his dad sitting a bit of a ways out, talking to some of the security they’d hired for the event, but would be heading home soon now that everything was ending and calming down. He could be patient, he decided, sitting down on the floor not too far away and trying to look busy by fidgeting on his phone until the nice man left.
His dad didn’t say anything at first, just strolling over and sitting down next to him giving a soft huff. With a small nudge to his shoulder, he leaned down to whisper in Tubbo’s ear, “How’re you holding up kiddo?”
Tubbo shrugged. “M’alright. Wanted to take a break,” He fiddled with his sleeves, hoping his dad would catch on and he wouldn’t need to specify any further. Father Underscore, as Tubbo liked to call him on stream, reached over to grab the bag they’d brought with them. It didn’t have much, a few things for his dad to keep himself occupied with, and then some stuff he’d wanted to bring as well. Mostly some extra bottles of water, chargers, and one of his smaller stuffies, a little goat that was about the size of Tubbo’s fist. One thing in particular though had caught his eye; his tablet.
The moment he unzipped the bag, Tubbo was pointing to it and doing his best to give puppy eyes. His dad made quick work to hand it over, connecting a set of Bluetooth headphones before patting his head with a smile. “I’ll be just over there, okay? Going to check in on the others.”
Tubbo nodded, already opening up youtube to put on his small playlist, mostly compiled of some of his friend's stuff and more PG Minecrafter videos because “Swearings not good for little ones to listen to, is it, Bee?” He barely even registered the door closing behind his dad as the Captian’s voice drowned out everything else.
On the other side of the door, the others had taken notice of their missing friend. For the first few minutes they’d all assumed he’d just gone to get a snack or maybe use the bathroom, but the longer he was missing the more their concern grew. Aimsey was sure he had just stepped out, but even he was starting to get more concerned, ready to go and look for him if it weren’t for Jordan standing up. “I was wanting to go get a drink from the coolers anyway, I can go around really quick. You all stay here, no need for everyone to go on the hunt, right?” he chuckled, doing his best to make everyone else at ease. It seemed to do the trick as well, Aimsey relaxing back into their seat next to Ranboo, who was typing something on his phone.
He had just made it out of the room before he was running into Tubbo’s dad. Giving his best smile he brought up the question of where the missing child was. While the response he got answered his question, it did leave him with quite a few others. “Oh, he’s just in the other room, was feeling a bit small today after all the excitement earlier, y’know?”
Small? Small how? Like his confidence? Was he upset? The Cap paused for a moment, managing to sort his words before all his questions came tumbling out. “Oh, does he need some space then? We were just wondering where he’d gone off to, but if he needs a break from everything-”
“Oh no, he’s alright, just watching some videos. You’re welcome to go sit with him if you want. I was just on my way to check up on the other kids.”
Father Underscore continued on his way before Jordan could think of anything else to say, and so he did as offered, stopping to get a water bottle as he passed the coolers. The room was a bit out of the way, but nothing that would be seen as overly inconvenient or hidden, and Jordan thought it would definitely be a good place to sneak away for a bit. He ambled into the room, doing his best to not be too loud and startle him, but Tubbo didn’t seem to notice, only glancing up and seeing him when he was a few feet away. He couldn't have anticipated the way his eyes lit up at the sight, a small hum sounding happily through the room.
Jordan, feeling a bit more confident to have been acknowledged, made stronger strides across the room. "Hey there, I passed your dad on the way in. What're you up to kiddo?" He asked, wanting to give Tubbo a chance to explain how he was feeling himself (and maybe, hopefully, understand what his dad meant by small.) Tubbo beamed at him, practically glowing like the Teletubby sun baby.
"Watching Cap videos, you can too if you want! They help lots and lots when I'm bored or scared or or-" Jordan couldn't help but chuckle to himself. He glanced over his screen to find his own Pixelmon series playing. It always made his chest feel warm and gooey to know other people found comfort in his videos, and while he knew a lot of the younger streamers, kids really, had grown upon him and the other "OG's" as he'd heard them be called before, actually seeing them watching him made him feel especially soft. Without a moment of hesitation, he sat down on the floor, scooting over to watch.
It was a bit funny, the way he went on to explain what he was doing as if he wasn’t the person on screen, but the Captain wasn't going to be the one to interrupt his sweet and excited rambling. It was so funny to see him get so excited over an old video but brought a smile to his face nonetheless.
Tubbo’s eyes stayed glued to the screen, though he had taken off the Bluetooth headphone to let the video play out loud for both of them, so Jordan didn't feel too bad when he grabbed his phone after a few notifications
Ranboo:
Hey! Tubs dad came to check on us and said he'd sent you in with Tubbo while he was getting his bearings, I just wanted to ask if anyone had explained what was going on to you? His dad just assumes most people know at this point, but I couldn't remember it ever being brought up that you'd been told.
It's nothing bad! I promise, um, have you heard of age regression? I can send some links or come to explain it if you want? Or come in to join you guys, everyone else out here is planning on maybe setting up a few games but I was thinking of taking a break too anyway ^-^
Age regression? Jordan was sure he'd heard of it somewhere, probably on some social media when he was looking through fanart or something, but what it meant was dangling right in front of his nose like a golden carrot on a stick. He'd never assume it was something bad, of course, especially not when Tubbo was acting so sweet and innocent right next to him. He'd never thought any of them would do anything bad at all!
He sent a quick message, explaining how he didn't think anything bad of it but wasn't exactly sure what he meant by the term, and Ranboo was quick to send two or three links for him to click through with a short message that he'd be there in a few minutes when he could leave without making anyone worried.
The more he read, the more the way Tubbo was acting made sense, and the softer it made him feel. Tubbo leaned heavier against him, explaining the mechanics of catching the pokemon, and mumbling a bit to himself. Cap didn't hesitate to wrap an arm over his shoulders, letting him get nice and comfy.
He was amazed at how much he trusted him off the bat, though he guessed her finding comfort from his videos might also be a factor in that. It wasn't long before Ranboo was stumbling in on the scene either, sending Cap a calm but appreciative smile.
Tubbo glanced up, his reaction immediate. His face lit up once more, a smile spreading so far across his cheeks it looked almost painful. "Boo! Look, me and Jordan are watching Cap, he's so nice. Can you come watch with us? Please?"
If possible Jordan would say he visibly saw Ranboo melt as he shuffled over. "Of course bumblebee? What are you and Jordan watching today?"
That sent Tubbo back into his whole spiel, Ranboo nodding along and humming when needed. “It must be cool to watch Cap’s Pixelmon with The CaptainSparkles, huh?” the taller said with an excited tone, one Cap would have thought was playfully patronizing if not for having already been briefed.
What was funnier though was how Tubbo looked taken aback by that comment, peeking around the room as if searching for something. “What are you on about? Cap’s not here.” It took almost everything Jordan had in him not to laugh at the very serious look on Tubbo’s face. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that he believed every word he had just said.
Ranboo, seeming to be a bit more accustomed to Tubbo when he was feeling small like this, took it in stride. “Are you sure about that bee? How about I google something and show you really quick?”
Albeit a bit confused, Tubbo handed his tablet over without a fuss, reading out the sentence while Ranboo typed. “What does captain sparkles look like? But Boo that’s- What!”
Ranboo didn’t hesitate to move into the images tab, and to say Tubbo was shocked would be an understatement. His eyes had gone just about as wide as Jordan thought was physically possible, and his jaw dropped. “Bu- but you’re Jordan and I-”
In yet another moment of impeccable timing, Father Underscore cracked the door open with a smile. “Is everything going alright in-”
He was cut off by Tubbo shooting up and running over to him. For a second Jordan was scared. Maybe he wasn’t comfortable being around him after realizing that he was the Captainsparkles that he’d been watching. Maybe him being in here was just one big mistake and he wouldn’t ever want to talk to him again, and Ranboo would throw him out and tell him to leave and never come back. Maybe- he was cut off from his spiral by the sound of excited babbles pulling him back to reality, where Tubbo was tugging on his dad's sleeve and jumping up and down with pure childish giddy excitement.
“Dad! Dad, you’re never gonna guess what Dada. Guess what!”
The older man paused for a second, bringing a finger up to his chin in thought. “I’m not sure, what’s up Tobes? Come on then, tell me.”
“I just met CaptainSparkles! Jordan is The Captain! From Pixelmon and- and Vault Hunters and all the videos dad!”
Father Underscore seemed just as entertained with the reaction as Jordan and Ranboo, who were in a hard battle to fight off their smiles. “Well I sure hope he is silly, he’s only been babysitting you for nearly half an hour now hasn’t he?”
And all of the sudden the jumping stopped, Tubbo got a far-off look in his eyes as the realization dawned on him. “I got babysitted by my hero?” And if that didn’t make Jordan's heart melt he wasn’t sure what else possibly could. His hero.
Slowly but surely Jordan stood up to walk over to the duo, still wanting to make sure Tubbo wouldn’t be upset about his secret identity, even if he didn’t know it was a secret at the start. He made eye contact with Father Underscore who gave him a big and reassuring smile. “He likes to watch a lot of your old series, almost exclusively at this point.” He explained in a stage whisper as if that would stop Tubbo from hearing what he was saying. “You and a few other streamers, but we prefer you because of your lack of swearing. They’re a huge comfort for him and are almost a surefire way to calm our little busy bee down.”
Jordan wasn’t sure what to even say to that but was lucky that he didn’t have to as Tubbo spun around to stare at him. “You’re really the Captain?” he asked, his voice still tinted with a hint of disbelief.
“Yeah, kiddo. I promise I am. I would have told you but I thought you already knew.” He promised, unable to help how he automatically leaned down a bit and his voice softened to talk to him.
With that confirmation, all of his skepticism evaporated into thin air, and he all but threw herself at him. “You’re so cool,” He mumbled softly into his chest, and Jordan couldn’t stop his next words. “Oh my god, you are so adorable. I think you’re the coolest actually, Bo. I might need to steal and adopt you because I don’t think I could handle letting you go right now.”
Father Underscore chuckled again, reaching over to ruffle Tubbo’s hair. “I’m sure he’d love that. I’ll leave you guys to be then, was just checking up that everything was going alright. I’ll be just in the other room if you need anything.”
Tubbo turned to wave goodbye before spinning back around and reaching up at Jordan, which didn’t mean much since they were so close in height already. Jordan hesitated for a moment, not entirely confident he was reading the action right. From behind him, Ranboo giggled, letting him know it was exactly what he thought it might be, “He wants you to pick him up, it means he trusts you.”
Well, who was Jordan to deny a tiny Tubbo of what he wanted? It wasn’t hard to pick him up and carry him around like a little baby, and the way he curled into his chest made it more than worth it. Together they went back into their comfy corner, and Ranboo gave Tubbo his tablet back, the video still pulled up right where they had left off. For all Jordan cared he could stay there for hours with Tubbo leaned against him, soft and cuddly, making little noises or pointing out his favorite parts in the video. Some moments he even mad memorized and would say them at the same time he did on screen. And if when Father Underscore came back to find Tubbo half asleep between Jordan and Ranboo he took a picture to send (and maybe bully Tubbo with when he was feeling bigger) then they didn’t have to mention it.