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Things were going well with Sam and Punz’s arrangement. The following week, Punz went back to Florida to pack his stuff, with help from Sapnap, who was disappointed that his friend was leaving him, Punz never did tell him why.
Sam was getting comfortable with being a new Caregiver, and Punz was getting comfortable with having a Caregiver. Punz still was scared to regress occasionally, most of his regression was happening through involuntary slips, which took Sam a while to get him calmed down.
Punz didn’t like talking about his family, which was hard for Sam to hear because he prided himself on being a family-oriented man. And, Sam noticed how Punz refused to call him any sort of parental name, which he understood.
On one particular day, Sam was streaming, after not streaming for a while after Punz moved in. It was only a just chatting stream, he was explaining his absence, not going too into detail about it since Punz never publicly announced he had moved in with Sam, but the brunette also didn’t mention Punz’s regression because of obvious reasons.
“Chat, calm yourselves”, Sam said, chuckling gently. “Calm yourselves. I was only gone for a couple days. Peepochill.” The chat was flooded with messages that asked where Sam really was, and if he went to Florida, which he personally thought was funny. “You guys have abandonment issues.” The chat agreed with him.
Before long, Sam heard a soft knocking on his door. He quickly muted and turned off his facecam.
“Hey, buddy”, Sam said softly after he opened the door. “Were you crying for me? I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you.” Punz looked at him, confused.
“No..”, he replied. Sam was confused too, the boy clearly was regressed, but he didn’t look like he involuntarily regressed. “W’at doin’?” Sam smiled softly.
“I’m streaming, buddy”, he said. “Do you need something?” Punz shook his head.
“No, ‘am”, he replied. “I waitin’, ‘kay?” Sam tilted his head and nodded slowly. Punz smiled softly and left the room. Sam shrugged and went back to his office chair, unmuting his microphone and turning his facecam back on.
“Sorry for that, chat”, Sam said. “Something must’ve fallen over or something. But, with that, I will be ending the stream for today, I just got a wave of exhaustion. I will talk to you guys soon, maybe even tomorrow… Bye! Peepobye, chat!” The brunette sighed and leaned back into his chair after ending the stream. He quickly got up to go find where Punz had wandered off to. He found the blonde sitting at the counter, spinning in the chair.
“‘am!”, Punz explained. “‘m hung’y.” Sam chuckled softly.
“Is that what you were waiting to ask me?”, he asked. Punz shrugged and smiled. “Okay, Punzie. I guess we can start cooking dinner. Do you wanna help?” Punz looked up and smiled excitedly. “How old are you, buddy?”
“‘m big boy”, Punz replied, hopping off of the stool. “Have pancakes?”
“Yeah.. we can have some pancakes for dinner”, Sam said. “But you need to tell me your age, bud. I need to know if you can handle the baking.” Punz thought for a minute before holding up 3 fingers, then 4, then back to 3. “Alright, you can help make some pancakes. What do we need first?”
“‘cake mix”, Punz replied, as if that was the dumbest question Sam had ever asked him. “‘nough fo’ 6 ‘cakes.”
“Six?”, Sam asked. “That’s way too many for a little guy like you.” Punz grinned and shook his head.
“No, ‘am!”, he replied. “We shawe. I gets three an’ you gets three.” Sam smiled. “..wight?”
“That’s right, Punzie”, Sam said. He got the pancake mix out for the Little, plus eggs and milk. “Do you think you can pour the mix into a bowl?” Punz nodded. “We need about half a cup.” Punz looked from the box to the measuring cup, back to the box, then up at Sam.
“He’p”, he mumbled. Sam took the measuring cup and poured some mix up to the 1/2 cup mark. “Thankies, ‘am.”
“You’re welcome, buddy”, Sam replied. “Now, can you crack the eggs into the bowl?” Punz nodded and cracked the two eggs into the bowl, the only thing was that Punz didn’t know that the shells needed to be thrown in the garbage, so he just put them in the bowl as well. Sam had to stop himself from chuckling, instead he just quietly removed the shells and disposed of them into the garbage. Sam then added the milk needed for the recipe and let Punz mix it all together.
“Awl done!”, the Little exclaimed proudly. “I pou’ it?”
“I don’t think so, buddy”, Sam replied. “I don’t want you to burn your fingers.” Punz pouted, but reluctantly nodded in understanding, Sam just wanted him to be safe. Sam poured a couple puddles of pancake batter into the pan, and Punz watched with wonder.
While the pancakes cooked, Sam turned his back and got some syrup and butter out. While Sam had his back turned, Punz watched as the pancakes cooked, the little bubbles intrigued the Little, enough to make Punz’s eyes widen and he reached his hand over to touch one of the bubbles.
Punz let out a loud sob from deep in his chest, which made Sam turn around. He searched for why Punz was so upset before he saw Punz holding his finger tightly. Sam quickly grabbed a paper towel and wet it with cold water.
“What happened, buddy?”, Sam asked calmly, wrapping the paper towel around Punz’s finger.
“Papa!”, Punz sobbed. Sam was a bit taken aback by the nickname, too deep in amazement to notice Punz’s frantic explanation. He just wanted to touch the bubbles.
“Shh, honey”, Sam replied gently. “I’m right here, my little Punzie. Come over to the sink with me, baby.” Sam led Punz over to the sink and let cold water run on his finger. Before long, Punz’s sobs turned into light sniffles, and there was only a dull ache in the tip of his pointer finger.
“..fankies, Papa”, Punz mumbled. “I-I mean.. ‘am.” Sam smiled softly.
“You can call me ‘Papa’, buddy”, he replied. “I don’t mind, honey.” Punz smiled shyly and nodded. “Why don’t you go in the living room, I’ll go turn on some cartoons for you and I’ll let you know when the pancakes are done. How does that sound?”
“I wike dat idea”, Punz said, breaking away from Sam and taking his hand, leading him into the living room. Sam was making progress, that’s all that mattered.