Work Text:
“Five?” Miko called, rubbing her hands together nervously. The two of them had, essentially, been benched to cashier duty for the day after a spectacularly bad hunt. She’s fairly certain it was both their faults, but Five had acted like he was the whole problem! And then when his break came up he didn’t even say goodbye, and he never came back when she was supposed to go on hers so they could swap out.
She called Bergy up to watch the register for a bit so she could find him, and go on her break because now she’s thirty minutes late for one, but she’d already checked the break room, the locker room, the womens bathroom, everywhere except, well.
Here.
The mens bathrooms. She’d never been inside, obviously, and she was super icked out at the idea of going in there. But if Five was in there then she’d brave it! She needed to make sure he wasn’t wallowing in self pity. Even if he was, Five never– never ever!-- gets so wrapped up in his emotions he can’t work, he’d just do his work all mopey, not hide for an extra thirty minutes.
“Five, you in here, buddy?” She crossed the threshold, her sneakers squeaking on the suspiciously damp tile. She shivered. If these shoes weren’t lit on fire when she got home assume she got possessed by a possessor glitch and should be put down immediately.
It looked similar to the womens bathroom once she turned the corner, except there were fewer stalls to make way for the urinals. It wasn’t… filthy, but it certainly wasn’t clean. Agh. Men. “Fi~ve?” she drew out, walking in front of the stalls and looking for his feet anywhere.
A sniffle. He was in here! Miko perked up, “I knew you were in here! Five, you left me all alone out there, what’s going on, man?” she whined, and yeah, maybe guilting him a little bit wasn’t the best way to go but– she’s never been very good at thinking things through before she says them! There’s another sniffle, then another, and she realizes with an “Oh no.” that he’s crying.
“M-Miko?” His shaky voice answers while she’s frantically trying to think of how to respond to this situation- should she get someone else? She’s terrible with emotions! She should not be put in charge of this situation, nope, no siree! “What- what’re you doin’ in here?”
She furrows her brows, mind squealing to a stop at the tone of his voice. It’s… weird. But not like, I’ve been crying for forty-five minutes weird, it’s… she doesn’t know how to explain it. Actually, it sounds a bit like her voice does when–
A figurative lightbulb lights up the space above her head. When she’s regressed she pitches her voice up like that. Is that what’s happening? Maybe he regressed while he was on his break from the stress that he was putting on himself and he got too scared to come back!
No, wait, she could be wrong. Don’t go in too strong, “Yeah, it’s me! Why don’t you, uhm, come on out here and we can go talk in the break room, yeah? Bergy’s covering for us!”
There’s a long pause that makes her shift her weight uncomfortably. Logically she knows she needs to wait for him, because when she glances at her gauntlet watch after what feels like five minutes it’s only been thirty seconds, but it’s just soooo boring. Sure enough, eventually he sniffles again and says, “Okies.”
Okay… she’s fairly certain that he’s never said ‘okies’ in his life before. Another tally in the regressor column!
The stall opens slowly after what had to be at least a minute of fumbling with the latch, and it reveals a splotchy, red eyed Five. Another to the regressor column because it’s so rare to see Five crying. She can’t actually think of any times right now, and it’d definitely require something a lot worse than just a biffed glitch hunt.
“Come on, buddy!” she pats his back, guiding him out of the bathroom. He rubs at his eyes on the way out, and once they’re in the hallway he starts pulling at the hem of his wrinkled uniform shirt. The break room is a pretty cozy place, and she drags him back into the sensory corner that employees have built over the years and plops him onto the couch. As far as she knows, that’s his favorite place in the break room.
He pulls his feet up onto the couch, disregarding the sneakers still on them, and wraps his arms around his legs. He looks up at her, eyes wide and innocent.
He looks so small, so innocent! Is this what she looks like when little? Eh, probably not… she’s a bit of a menace with regressed. Unless it’s impure, because then she’s usually just crying. Still a menace, though. “Five, can I ask you a question?” she crouches down, his eyes following her. He nods, “Are you little right now?”
Five’s face blooms into a bright pink color faster than she can blink, and a grin splits across her face.
“I knew it!” she bounces up, standing to her full height. It’s when her own feet try to trip out from under her and she flails to keep her balance that she realizes this entire situation is triggering her own regression, “Oops. Okay, well! Uhh… I don’t know what we do about this.” she leans forward, squinting at Five. He’s unsually quiet, and a quiet little isn’t really one Miko knows how to deal with.
Bergy is still covering them, but there aren’t many actual store worker Techs or otherwise on shift today. Unless Phil or, god forbid, Mitch was going to cover for them, then they couldn’t just leave.
However, two little kids- especially one who isn’t talking and one who’s somehow even more hyperactive than when she’s big- working the register and sorting for the next three hours probably isn’t the best idea.
Okay… okay, think, Miko! There’s gotta be a solution that makes sense here, right? She doesn’t really need the money, but regardless of leaving Phil and Bergy alone to man the shop until Mitch and Nix’s night shift starts, going home might not be the best choice either.
Most of Mikos family is home today, and she can’t just send Five home alone like this. Maybe they can pull some sort of mental health thing and keep hiding in the break room? Or swap out with whichever techs are on patrol, even?
“Meeks?” Five mumurs, and she looks down to realize he’s grabbed her wrist, stopping her from the nervous pacing she’d begun in her thinking.
Her face falls, “Sorry, Five. Just tryna think about what we’re gonna do here.” he pats him on the head, his hair bouncing in response, “Do you wanna try and keep workin’ or go home? Maybe we could even go out on patrol if we get those other techs in on it?” she crouches back down, winding up on her butt when the precarious position disagrees with her barely repressed regression.
It’s not a big drop, at least, but still. Avoiding becoming maybe eight- at most!- because she needs to watch Five who can’t be any older than four. He kicks his legs, looking down at his hands in his lap and furrowing his brows in thought. “Wanna wor’k.”
She scrunches her nose up. Right, guess they’re going back to work. “Well, I’ve still got– uhm…” she flips her wrist over, tapping at her gauntlet watch for the time, “Ten whole minutes on my break, so what do you wanna do until then?”
“You gotsa eat.” Five pokes her in the forehead, and a giggle falls out of her mouth before she can draw it back. He blinks at her while she weighs the pros and cons of her moms brain food and the vending machine. “Meeks?”
“Hm?”
“Is you a’so lil?”
She turns back to him, eyes just as wide as his. “Uh, no!” she laughs, “No, no, no, what would make you, uh, think that?”
He grins, “You is!”
“No!”
“Yeah!”
“Nope, no, nuh-uh, I’m- I’m the biggest girl to ever.” she stands, waves her arms around as she pulls her debit card from her pocket and flips it between her fingers. She needs some comfort food here, and that means vending machine chips!
“Sure.” Five teases, “Supa’ big.”
“Super duper big.” Miko confirms, nodding. Her chips drop to the bottom of the vending machine, so she grabs them out and hops onto the couch beside him. “Did you eat anythin’ on your lunch?”
“Uhm… nuh-uh.” he shakes his head.
“Well, that’s no good. You brought a lunch today, right?”
“Mhm.”
“Wanna go get it? We’ve gotta work lots more tonight.”
He kicks his legs, staring down at them like they had personally offended him, then looks back to her. “Dunno if I can.”
What? Why can’t he? Can he not walk? That’s crazy, how young is he? She’s never had any trouble walking! Well, sometimes she’s a bit wobbly, but she can always walk! Trying to take care of a toddler was not on her to-do list today. She is not a babysitter. “Well, that’s okay!” she tries, clapping her hands. She sets her bag of chips to the side so she can stand and grab his lunch from the fridge, “I’ll just have to get it for you!”
Five smiles, something small and shy, “Thank ‘u.”
“No problemo!”
The metal game-themed lunch pail is easy to find in the fridge, set in the same spot it’s always in, in stark comparison to her own bag of stinky brown paper that goes wherever there’s space closest to her at the time. When she makes it back to the couch with the lunch pail, she fumbles with the metal clasps so Five doesn’t have to.
“There you go!” she sets it on his lap, watching him kick his legs happily and start unwrapping the burrito inside. Her own bag of chips is half empty, and she’s still hungry, but she’d rather go hungry than eat whatever her mom dared try and pack for her today.
If she could remember consistently, she’d pack her own lunches! But every day without fail she seems to forget to grab the lunch bin she bought specifically for work, and even if she grabs the bin she somehow ends up leaving it on the counter, empty and forgotten.
“Wan’ some?” Five offers, handing her a baggy with cucumbers and carrots inside it. She blinks.
“Uh, no thanks, buddy. You should eat your whole lunch.”
He frowns, hand sinking back into the lunch bin, “Where you lunch?”
“This is my lunch!” she shows him the bag of chips, but he shakes his head.
“Nuh-uh. Snack.” The bag crinkles when he pokes it, “Need food.”
“I’ll be fine.” she waves a hand, stuffing another chip in her mouth, “I’ll have BITT make me something later?”
He squints at her suspiciously, eventually nodding in approval, saying, “Okies.” and then going back to his own food. She can’t deny the way her stomach turns uncomfortably, but the chips would do for the night. Even if being little made her more uncomfortable with being hungry, she’d be fine!
And she can always get more chips from the vending machine. Or, even better, some twizzlers!
She finished her chips quickly, tossing the wrapper away and then sitting on the soft flower-shaped rug that covers the tiling for the sensory area. She picks at the fibres in the rug, waiting for her break to end and Five to finish eating. She doesn’t realize that it’s already ended until she finally checks her watch and it’s five-past.
“Oh, shoot!” she hisses, “C’mon, Fivey! We gotsa- gotta get back to work.” He flips his lunch box closed, nodding and flashing a determined look at her. He fumbles with the clasps, as expected, but successfully gets it locked and jumps to his feet.
She has to stabilize him once he gets there, but they make it across the room to the fridge, and then even out into the hall before his knee gives out and the two of them nearly topple to the floor.
Yeah, this is going to be a… process.
Once they’re back in the front room, she tries her best to make it look like she’s just side-hugging him because he was having a rough time, not like she’s shouldering half his weight as he eagerly looks around the room like a little kid let loose in a candy store.
“Thanks for covering me, Bergmaster!” she drops five into the only chair they have behind the counter, one that they’re not technically supposed to be using, “We’ve got it from here!”
“Are you sure?” his wobbly voice asks, setting the box he’d only just picked up to stock with on the counter. She nods eccentrically, and he responds with a far more hesitant one, “Alright, bye Miko, glad you’re okay, Five.”
Five waves, but stays quiet. Good. She’s doing much better with hiding that she’s regressing than her is. She’s getting the feeling that either it’s because it’s a stress-response regression, or he’s one of those littles that can’t just bounce in and out of their regression like she can.
She doesn’t really know how she managed to get them through the rest of their shift. Her regression heavy on her mind and distracting her whenever she tried to do anything but customer service, only to be stamped down when she had to rush back to the counter to tend to a customer.
Five, for the most part, sat on his phone in that chair for the next several hours. She made sure he took a bathroom break, and gave him a small task of restocking gift cards and little things near the registers.
It’s a miracle and a half that Phil never came out and realized something was wrong. When Mitch showed up thirty minutes prior to closing to start his own shift he’d sneered at them, slicked his hair back as if it didn’t have enough hairspray and gel in it to keep it that way for the next forever, and slipped through the portal to Glitch Tech Command.
“Do you guys need a ride?” Bergy asked, slinging his bag over his shoulder and looking at where Miko was helping Five stuff his lunch bin into his overstuffed backpack that he still hasn’t unpacked despite school ending for the summer like a month ago.
She blinked at him, then nodded, “That’d be great!” she grinned, zipping up Five’s bag and seeing him nod in agreement, “‘Cos I don’t wanna be biking back at night, and I think Five’s too tired to after, well, today. Y’know how it is.” she rambled, just a bit, as she tugged her messenger bag over her head and kicked her locker shut.
“Alright! I’ll be outside starting up my car, okay? It’s the, uhm, the white Kia in the employee parking lot.” They gave him twin thumbs up, then she waves excitedly when he heads for the employee exit. She had a lot of energy right now, despite it being nearly 11pm and having just worked an eight hour shift.
Five, on the other hand, looked about dead on his feet. “We goin’ home?” he murmued, leaning against her sleepily. She patted him on the back, then slung her arm over his shoulders and started walking with him toward the door.
“Yep! Well, we’re going to your home, since my, like, entire family is home right now. Your grandparents are asleep, right?”
“Mhm.” He reached a clumsy hand up, rubbing at his eye with his fist.
“Cool! Unless you don’t want me to come, then I’ll just go home.”
He shakes his head against her shoulder, “Wan’ ‘u dere.”
Miko’s chest warms. That was so cute. She’s pretty sure he won’t remember any of this in the morning- and if he does, then he’s gonna be super, duper embarrassed! “Works for me!”
The two of them pile into Bergy’s backseat, finding the vehicle surprisingly clean until Miko spots the trash mound in the passenger seat and has to bite back a giggle. Five doesn’t when she points it out to him, but Bergy doesn’t say anything about the sound.
He plays quiet Jazz music on the way to Five’s provided address, waves them off and wishes them a good night once they’re dropped off outside the apartment complex. “Home?” Five blinks up at the building, yawning with a quiet, positively adorable squeak (if you asked Miko, anyways) at the end.
“Yeah, we’re at your home, munchkin.” She boops him on the nose with her free hand, “D’you have your keys?”
“Mhm, bag.” he rolls his shoulders, emphasizing the backpack on his back with the movement. “Lil’ pocket.”
“Got it! Here, come sit down, okay?” she guides him toward the steps, making sure he didn’t fall too hard onto the concrete. The keys were exactly where he said they’d be, but there were just so many keys on the keychain and she had no idea which one went into the apartment building. “Which key?” she dangles the keychain in front of his face.
“G’een key, has a, uhm… a house on handle.”
Okay, that narrowed it down a lot. She squinted, closing one eye and sticking her tongue out in focus, flipping through the keys and keychain decor until she found it, “A-ha!” she cheered, spinning around and sticking it into the handle. “C’mon, Fivey! Le’s get you in bed.”
He babbles nonsensically when she picks him up, and she practically melts at the cuteness. Okay, okay… trying to keep him alive and stuff, she can admit, is pretty fun. She gets why babysitters and caregivers do this. Granted, she’s also like six mentally and shouldn’t ever been given this task again, so maybe her opinion is skewed.
Miko gets the door locked behind them, then helps him one foot at a time up the two flights of stairs to his apartment. She has to shush him- likely far too loudly- when she nearly trips over her shoes trying to get them off and he starts giggling.
She has to untie his sneakers for him, tapping his leg and saying, “Up?” so he’d lift his foot and she could tug the shoe off. “Where’s y’room?” she yawned, setting both of their shoe sets aside and standing. She’s been here plenty of times, but the layout hasn’t committed itself to memory yet.
“Dis way.” Five says. His room is on the other end of the apartment, the last door before the bathroom at the end of the hall. It’s not a big room by any means, but it’s all his and he keeps it clean unless he’s super busy or being an emotional wreck as far as she’s seen.
He doesn’t bother to get changed, merely tossing his backpack onto the ground and nearly falling to the ground with the weight of it, before he drops onto his bed and yawns again, wrapping himself up in his thick blanket and holding a custom Alpha plushie to his chest that Miko had gotten him, a payback gift for the Ally one he got her.
She looks around awkwardly. Usually she sleeps on the floor or they both set up in the living room, but she doesn’t know where any of his blankets are, or a plushie, and she’s suddenly a little more than afraid of sleeping without her precious Ally plush and blankie. Especially in a relatively unfamiliar place.
“Comin’?” Five’s quiet, shy voice asks. She cocks her head to the side in question. Does he want her to sleep in his bed with- with him? The still logical side of her brain knows that’s usually not allowed, but his bed does look pretty cozy, and she’s getting cold just standing here. Getting together a pillow and a set of blankets and a replacement stuffie right now, with him so young and her so lost, isn’t looking hopeful.
So she crawls in beside him, and they sleep with their backs toward each other until his grandparents wake them up in the morning– one with a raised brow and the other laughing at their bright red faces.