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When George gets back from the Bahamas, before he even says hi to Dream, he plops his suitcase down on his bed and opens the top pocket. He brought his paci with him, just in case, and he used it a few times, only when he was going to bed. But now he finally has the opportunity to actually be baby, and he won’t right now, not until he’s said hi to Dream, but he just wants to have his paci in his mouth for a minute.
He wiggles his hand around in the front pocket of his suitcase, searching for the paci. But it’s not there. He panics, waving his hand more frantically, searching everywhere in the pocket.
It’s nowhere to be found.
It’s not like it’s just a plain paci, it’s his only paci that he commissioned from someone on Etsy, a baby blue one with matching gems covering the whole surface of the shield and a red tinted teat. And he can’t just get a new one, the Etsy seller went out of business a few months after he got that paci.
He feels his brain going little and tears pricking at his eyes, but he keeps searching the front pocket. He can’t have left it! He can’t!
“George!”
George whirls around to see Dream standing in the door.
Tell him, part of George’s brain screams instantly. Ask him for help!
George hesitates, but he can’t think logically right now. After a moment of fuzzy thought, he launches himself at Dream.
“Lost it!” George sobs, wrapping himself around Dream.
“Woah,” Dream says uncomfortably, then he asks concernedly, “Lost what?”
“Paci!” George clutches at Dream, panicking, more worried that he’ll lose his paci than about Dream thinking he’s weird right now.
“Oh, are you-” Dream cuts himself off. “We can talk about that later. Where was it?”
“Front pocket,” George tells him, calming down a bit with the prospect of getting help. He backs up a bit, taking Dream by the hand and leading him over to the suitcase, pointing to the open zipper.
“Alright, I’ll find it,” Dream assures him, feeling around inside the pocket. George’s breath catches in hope when Dream’s arm stays in one place, but when he pulls it out, his hand is empty. George releases his breath, then tilts his head when Dream opens the main pocket of the suitcase.
And there’s the paci, right under a hole in the pocket. George grabs it as soon as he sees it, popping it into his mouth, then pulling it out just as quick when he remembers Dream’s there.
“Um,” he starts, but Dream starts talking before he can finish.
“Do you regress?”
George’s eyes widen. He nods a bit, not making eye contact. “How do you know what-”
“I’ve taken care of regressors before. I just never really thought that you might be one.”
George flushes, suddenly realizing he’s not little anymore, then pushing that realization away for the time being. It’s probably for the best. “You don’t care?”
“Of course not. I can even be your caregiver, if you want, and if you don’t have one already.”
George hesitates. “Can- can you?”
“Do you want me to?”
“Yes.”
Dream laughs. “Are you still small?”
Still not making eye contact, George says, “Uh, not really, but I haven’t been baby in a while, so I’ll be able to be small again easily. If, uh, you want to take care of me today.”
“I can take care of you any time you need, alright? If you want to be baby today, you can. I’d like to take care of you today, but if you don’t want to that, whenever you feel like it, I’ll take care of you. It’s you who’s being baby, after all, not me.”
George fidgets with his hands, stumbling over his words as he says haltingly, “I want to be baby. But, uh, my brain doesn’t want me to be baby sometimes? I don’t- you think you could- can you try to help me be baby?”
Dream nods. “Do you have any littlegear other than your paci?”
George shakes his head.
“That’s alright. I can get you some more at some point.” There’s a pause, then, “How old are you when you regress, normally?”
“Younger than four, I want to be really tiny but I can’t a lot of the time.”
“Well, now you can,” Dream declares, sweeping George up into his arms in a princess carry and rocking back and forth. “Is this helping you be baby?”
George forces himself to relax, nodding a bit. He can tell it’s helping, even if he’s not nearly actually baby yet. It’s a bit uncomfortable at first, but Dream starts cooing at him softly, saying all the baby words George loves so much, like “cuddles” and “juice” and “tiny boy”. Very quickly after Dream starts that, George slips. He slips far, as well, to being one, or maybe two at the oldest.
George cooes softly, letting Dream know indirectly that’s he’s baby.
“There’s my tiny boy,” Dream says instantly, kissing George’s head, to more cooing from him. “You want your paci?”
George nods, hooking his fingers into his mouth without really thinking about it.
“Don’t do that, baby boy,” Dream scolds lightly. He scoops up George’s paci from where it landed when George dropped it a minute ago, pulling George’s hand out of his mouth and replacing it with the paci.
“Sorry,” George says softly around the paci, twisting so he can hide his face against Dream’s chest.
“It’s alright, I know it was just instinct. Try to remember not to do it again, though, yeah?”
“Yeah,” George mumbles, curling his fingers into Dream’s shirt.
“You, uh, wanna watch a show?”
George nods sleepily, eyes half closed. Dream bounces him lightly as he walks down the hall towards the living room. Once they get there, Dream sits down on the couch, letting George stay curled up in his lap.
“You want to watch some Technoblade?” Dream asks.
George nods. “‘Tato Wars.”
And even though George tries his hardest to stay awake, he only makes it halfway through the first episode.
Oh, well. He can finish it another day.