Chapter Text
Tilly Tweak, or Tweek Tweak, as most people called her, hated almost everything about her life. She hated that stupid nickname that everyone called her, even teachers. She hated that she was constantly made fun of for her twitchy and overall anxious demeanour. But, she also hated her parents.
She’d never said so, or even hinted at it, but she hated them with a burning passion. She hated the way they never offered any reassurances, the way they always made her work in that stupid coffee shop. They didn’t even call her Tilly anymore.
She’d made the mistake of mentioning how she didn’t like the nickname she’d been given by her peers, and how it’d stuck to the point of the staff calling her it. Instead of going to the school and helping the name calling stop, her parents snickered and began calling her Tweek too.
Over time, she’d just sort of accepted it as a fact of life. She’d be known as Tweek for the rest of her miserable life… if she even lived for that long anyway…
Tilly also knew that the coffee her parents constantly fed her wasn’t just coffee. They’d been open to it having a ‘special ingredient’, just never specifying what that ingredient was. Tilly had her suspicions, she’d been the one sent to pick up the ‘special ingredient’ from Kelly McCormick’s garage, after all. She was too scared to admit it to herself, however. Even if she knew deep down in her bones, what exactly the ‘secret ingredient’ was. A part of her didn’t want to believe.
She’d known pretty much from the moment she was first given the ‘special ingredient’ laced coffee at three years old. Maybe she didn’t know what it was back then, but she knew it wasn’t good.
When her hair had started falling out in clumps every time she washed it, however, she knew it was definitely bad. It was definitely meth.
It was part of the reason she tried to stop tugging at her hair as much when she was anxious, scared that she’d quickly make herself bald.
Tilly Tweak didn’t hate everyone, though. There was one person she had never hated, not even when the four local idiots, Erica, Kelly, Stacy and Kaylea, had pitted them against each other back in the fourth grade. That person of course being Ciara Tucker, now her fake girlfriend after a Yuri incident sweeped the town. Despite that happening six years ago, they were still ‘dating’ and Tilly wasn’t entirely sure if they were still pretending or not. Although, she didn’t dare ask incase she had made a wrong assumption and ruined everything.
She’d told Ciara, about wanting to pull on her hair less, not the actual reasoning behind it. Ciara had originally just hummed thoughtfully in response, and Tilly had thought that was the end of it… Until Ciara approached her the next day in school with a piece of paper in her hand, her somewhat messy handwriting scrawled all over it in the form of a list - god, now that girl loved making lists.
“Hey, honey, come here.” Ciara had called out, waving the paper in her hand as she walked closer.
“You have a list.” Tilly stated, a small smile on her lips.
“Yes I do, how very observant of you.” Ciara shot back in playful sarcasm, “I was thinking about what you told me, about not wanting to pull on your hair as much when you’re stressed out. So,” Ciara handed Tilly the list, “I googled some other ways to manage stress.”
Tilly felt her heart fluttering in her chest, as she shakily took the paper from her, her eyes scanning the list for a moment. This was so… kind. Tilly didn’t exactly know why she was so shocked by it, Ciara had been nothing but kind since this whole charade of a relationship started.
“I was originally just gonna tell you to shave your head, then you’d have no hair to pull, but, I figured you probably wouldn’t wanna do that.” Ciara stated, a slight grin on her face as she watched Tilly’s reaction - the reaction being a brief glance up at her as she scowled slightly.
“Thanks for changing your mind.” Tilly stated dryly as she went back to scanning the list for anything she hadn’t already tried before.
Her eyes landed on two words she didn’t quite recognise, tilting the paper slightly as she pointed at them, looking up at Ciara questioningly.
“What’s that?”
Ciara looked at where she was pointing, before letting out a slight hum.
“Oh, that, age regression. It’s a coping mechanism for people who have trauma or are just really stressed out. You basically revert to a younger age mentally so you don’t have to deal with the stresses that come with being ‘big’. I could send you some more info if you wanna try it?” Ciara said, acting as though she was hazy on the details, even though Tilly knew full well her ‘girlfriend’ had probably scoured the internet for hours to collect the information.
“Uh… Yeah, sure, send me some links or whatever… I’ll look into it.” Tilly said a little hesitantly. It sounded like it could help her out, but it also sounded like something Erica would have an absolute field day with if she ever found out.
Ciara instantly pulled her phone out and Tilly felt her phone buzzing in her pockets just moments later. Ciara had definitely planned on this being the coping strategy that Tilly landed on, Ciara always somehow knew things like that.
Tilly had read over the articles Ciara had sent her during her free period, which she spent in the quiet tranquility of the school library. She had to admit, it really did sound like something that would help her out. Her actual childhood hadn’t exactly been the best, and it would be nice to have another shot at it.
She reopened Ciara’s contact in her phone, sending a brief text after reading all the articles - ok ill try it out
Ciara replied almost immediately, despite definitely being in a class at that moment - :) sleepover at mine?
Tilly felt herself smiling a little as she typed her reply - yea
She was only waiting a few more seconds before Ciara texted back, her slight smile growing into a grin as she snickered slightly reading the message - ദ്ദി(ᵔᗜᵔ)
She brought her hand up to cover her mouth as more little snickers escaped her. Ciara always managed to make her feel a little better, even if it was just by sending silly little emoticons instead of actual text messages.
Soon the school day ended and Tilly found herself walking home with Ciara, making a stop at her own house to pick up some pyjamas and clothes for the next day, before walking down the street to Ciara’s house. Tilly was quiet the entire walk, something that was a little unusual for the girl who hardly took breaths in between her paranoid ramblings. She was deep in thought, hardly even registering that Ciara had grabbed hold of her hand at some point and was swinging their hands in between them as they walked.
She soon snapped out of her little zoned out moment as they arrived at Ciara’s house, shaking her head slightly as she zoned back into reality. Ciara was smiling at her with a hint of amusement on her face, “How nice of you to join me, come on, I bought some stuff for you, it’s in my room.”
Ciara outstretched her hand, Tilly hesitantly taking it and following her up the stairs to her room. Ciara’s room was always in a constant state of ‘organised chaos’, meaning to literally everyone apart from Ciara, it looked like a total mess.
Ciara kicked some of the laundry littering her floor to the side, sitting down with Tilly. She reached for a plastic grocery bag that was leant against her bed.
“I had a feeling this would interest you, so, I went to the store and bought a few things. And, before you start, I used the money my parents gave us for being gay, so, I’m allowed to spend it on you.” Ciara said, tipping out the bag, an assortment of random items spilling out onto the carpet.
Tilly looked over the items, it looked like Ciara had ransacked the baby aisle of the nearest store. She’d bought a baby bottle and a toddlers sippy cup, a few random toys, and something Tilly could only describe as some textured plastic rings, she picked one of them up out of curiously, squeezing the soft plastic.
“What-“ Tilly began, glancing up at Ciara in mild confusion.
“It’s a teether. You, like, chew on it.” Ciara interrupted with her explanation.
Tilly hummed slightly, looking back down at the item in her hands. Ciara continued, rambling passionately - similarly to how she did whenever the subject of space came up, or that cartoon she was infatuated with. It made Tilly feel almost cared for, in a way, because it implied that Ciara was also infatuated with her.
“Have you thought about how old you want to regress to? It’s okay if you don’t know, we can try and figure it out. That’s why I bought all this stuff, I figured if you had some items to choose from, you’d be able to find out how young-“ Ciara’s rambling trailed off slightly as she watched Tilly bringing the teething ring up to her mouth, giving it a few curious nibbles before accepting it, chewing on it absentmindedly.
Ciara smiled, pulling her phone out of her pocket, “I also ordered you some things while I was in class, you wanna see?”
Tilly glanced up, tilting her head in curiosity as Ciara turned her phone. Tilly saw that Ciara had custom ordered her a pacifier, and while a hint of unease lingered in her mind, she was quickly overcome with excitement after seeing what word had been spelt with plastic beads.
Tilly.
Tilly’s mouth opened in slight shock, the teether falling out and dropping to the floor. No one ever used her real name, so much so that she hadn’t even told Ciara what it was. Her eyes were starting to water slightly as she stared at Ciara’s face, momentarily struggling for words.
“You… My name?”
Ciara nodded, smiling as she looked into the blondes wide blue eyes, “Yeah. I may or may not have broken into the office to look at your school file.”
Tilly, without much thought, quickly threw her arms around her ‘girlfriend’, hiding her face in Ciara’s chest as her tears spilled. Ciara chuckled slightly as she returned the hug, resting her arms on Tilly’s back.
“I’m guessing this means you like it?”
“Love it.” Tilly muttered as she pulled her head away with a little sniffle.
The pair spent the rest of their sleepover trying to figure out what Tilly’s regressed age was. After a bit of thought, they eventually landed on a general idea rather than an exact age - somewhere between a toddler and a little kid.
Regressing did work to help Tilly to stop yanking on her hair when she was stressed out, instead she would go to Ciara (or text her, if they weren’t in immediate proximity to each other) and they’d go somewhere quiet and private so Tilly could regress and calm down.
For once in her life, Tilly wasn’t constantly freaking out about every little thing. She’d almost forgotten about the ‘special ingredient’ her parents put into her coffee, but, innocent bliss can never last.