Chapter Text
Stiles doesn't like English on a good day.
He hates it on a bad day.
And would rather throw a tantrum in front of the entire class on a little day.
It's why Scott is actively leading him out of the classroom and towards That Locker Room that they always go toward when he has some level of freak out in school. He's trying to calm his little down on the walk, but Stiles is entirely inconsolable.
Snot and tears are practically coating his face, he got taken out of the classroom before it got too bad (He saw Stiles start crying and made an excuse to get them both out of there, thank god), but he’s about one wrong move away from a full-blown meltdown.
Meltdowns for Stiles are bad enough when he's big, when little? Not something you want to do around other people. Especially anybody who isn't your caregiver.
The locker room is a familiar sight, and despite the smell that assaults his nose he's relieved to know he's away from other people. Of course, that also means that once the door is shut and Scott has set him down leaning against one of the chain walls he's getting loud. Broken, cracking sobs and squirming limbs.
The chain wall rattled loudly when he smacked his head against it, Scott is still talking to him, trying to get him to calm down. His tone sounds a bit more frantic now, but Stiles can't understand any of the words through his racing thoughts.
His hand latches onto the links, yanking on the wall and rattling it so it echoes around in the room. It's a good sound, like a more aggressive key ring.
That's what he wants!
He wants a key ring. More specifically he wants Lydia’s, because she has a lot of keys and trinkets and it makes a nice noise. He whines, yanking on the chains again, “Lydi,” he shouts it, even though he just meant to say it to Scott because doing anything quiet might drive him entirely off the deep end.
“Lydia?” Scott echoes, but whatever he says next is lost on a much too little Stiles (He hates this, he hates when his regression gets so deep he struggles to process English unless he's focusing on it completely. It's terrifying)
“Wan’ Lydi!”
He can hear Scott’s phone ringing. He yanks on the fence again, giggling at the sound. It rattles around his skull in such a pleasant way, he yanks again. It echoes around the locker room, hitting every wall and the other chain fences, and then falls back on him.
Scott's talking to Lydia, he can tell. She better be coming over, he wants her keys!
(He doesn't think about how he doesn't want her to see him flapping one hand, covered in tears and snot with his legs curled up against his chest and the other hand yanking on the chain fence. Doesn't want her to see him a total mess because all he wants are her keys)
Sure enough, a couple minutes more of Stiles rattling the chains and finding anything he can to keep his other hand occupied (Including but not limited to flapping and hitting, which Scott attempted to stop if his raise in volume meant anything) and the telltale click-clack of Lydia’s heels approached the door.
Hopefully, at least, it could always just be a teacher. It's not though, and soon Lydia is crouched down on his other side and is talking with Scott. Stiles reaches his free hand toward her.
“Keys!” he more-or-less demands, yanking on the chains again. His wide eyes lock on her pink, long-strapped purse where the jingle jangles are certainly hiding from him.
“Keys?” Lydia echoes, looking over him towards Scott. One hand is slowly venturing towards her purse, so Stiles whines and makes a grabby motion towards it to make her speed up, “Why do you want my keys, Stiles?”
Stiles pouts at her, slumping when she doesn't give him what he wants right away, “Jingly.”
Lydia smiles, then chuckles, finally retrieving the jingle jangles and setting them in his hand. He sits up and squeals, letting go of the chain to hold the keys by the hook and shake them. Shake, shake, shake!
He giggles and starts rocking, moving his legs so he's crisscrossed and happily shaking the keys. Occasionally he brings it up to his ear and rattles it, but every time Scott brings his hand away so he doesn't damage his hearing.
Super mean, but if it makes bubba upset then he'll keep the keys away from his ears!