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While you're taking a shower after a long and exhausting day, Caleb decides to tidy up your room for you. Make it nice and cozy so you have minimal things to do before bed.
He picks up your dirty laundry from the basket, puts a fresh glass of water on your bedside table, then goes and gets your clean laundry from downstairs for you. When he comes back to your room, he opens the sock drawer and goes to put away your underwear when he sees a little bag.
It's an inconspicuous toiletries bag, but he's curious as to why it's in your sock drawer of all places. Caleb picks up the bag, rough floral fabric covering the outside. There's something inside and he can't make out what.
He shouldn't snoop, the back of his mind telling him to just put it back and forget he even saw it. Surely there's a reason it's in there and it's your business and your business alone.
But he can't help himself, too curious at this random yet seemingly purposeful placement.
Undoing the zip, he looks inside and sees...
His brows furrow in confusion, taking it out and looking at it. A pacifier. Not only that, but the nipple of it isn't small but fit for an adult mouth.
He immediately knows it's your's, but entirely full of confusion as to why.
The shower turns off and he quickly puts it away, shoving it back into your drawer before you come out of the door. He tidies away the rest of your laundry and tries to forget about it.
Ever since last night you can't help noticing Caleb has been acting weird. Not entirely out of the ordinary, not enough to give you reason to question anything, but something is off about him. He's zoning out a lot more, busying his hands. He seems his usual cheery self though, which is why his behaviour seems almost uncanny.
You're sitting alone with him in the living room, a typical evening ritual for the two of you. When it gets quiet, Caleb groans like he can't take the silence anymore. "I need to ask you something."
Your stomach sinks a little, that phrasing of question and the way he seems so pensive always racks up your anxiety.
The pause stretches awkwardly long before you reply, his eyes trained on your face as they war something that seems like nerves of his own. "Okay."
Caleb sighs, facing away from you and leaning his elbows on his knees, one hand coming up to scratch the back of his neck. "I was doing your laundry, because I thought it'd be a nice thing to do, and when I opened your sock drawer..."
You already know what he's about to say next, ears feeling hot as the mortification hits you.
"I found something," he quickly carries on, talking with his hands. "And I'm not, you know, judging. That's- not what this is about. I'm..." He sighs loudly again, hanging his head down to collect his thoughts and own feelings of embarrassment about admitting to his snooping.
"I'm just curious, I suppose and it's been on mu mind all day." Caleb looks up at you, a softness in his eyes that reminds you of when you were kids. "Why do you have a pacifier?"
There's not a single hint of malice in his tone, but you can't help feeling incredibly embarrassed at the bluntness and abruptness of this conversation. No wonder he was acting like he had something on his mind, and that only makes you blush more.
You'd wanted to have this conversation with him at some point. Just by the frequency of you seeing each other, it was inevitable that there'd been times where you, involuntarily, were in little space around him that he had no idea about. He's the person who makes you feel safest and you remind yourself in this very moment that you had planned a conversation like this based on the fact you knew he wouldn't judge you.
Whether this is how you wanted it to go or not, he's still the same Caleb.
"I kinda wanted to tell you at some point about this, and I don't exactly know how to bring it up or explain it, so... I suppose I'll just come out with it." You're surprised how calm your voice sounds, albeit a little shaky to match your hands.
Caleb keeps looking at you expectantly, then looking at his clasped palms as he realises it might be a bit intense to have him staring.
"I have- uh... age regression." You sound unsure, and you berate yourself internally for how awkward it came out and how it causes a crease on his forehead to form.
A beat of silence before he responds. "Age regression?" He says it aloud and connects the dots of what that could mean, but not elaborating his thoughts in fear he gets it wrong.
"It's just something I do. It's basically like," you hum in exasperation at your struggle to get the words in your brain to meet your mouth. "When you revert to a younger age. Mentally. Where you start thinking and feeling like a child."
Caleb looks back up at you when you explain, the cogs turning in his mind. There's so many questions he wants to ask, but there's one that he needs to know before anything else. "And it's not a bad thing, right? It helps you?"
You quickly nod, that being the one thing you can give a definitive answer on. "Yes."
He relaxes back into the couch, thinking this foreign concept through. He couldn't care less about what it is; as long as it keeps you safe and makes you happy, Caleb likes it. He nods to himself, now just wrapping his head around the actual entity of age regression itself. If it's something you like then he wants to know everything there is to know about it. How he can help, how he can offer support.
Turning to face you, he offers you a classic, warm Caleb smile. His hand reaches out to ruffle your hair. "Alright, pipsqueak. How about you tell me more."