Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The middle of the night tended to be a time of peace and quiet for Rumi. Zoey and Mira were fast asleep, Bobby was asleep, and her phone was halfway quiet. The little pings of notifications slowed down whenever most of her fans were in their beds. As much as Rumi loved hearing from them and seeing what they tagged her in, it was nice to get a break in the middle of the night.

Derpy started staying in her room at night. Sussie did as well, but he hardly took up nearly as much room as the tiger. Sometimes Rumi wished that Derpy understood personal space, like when he climbed up in her bed and cuddled against her as though he were a house cat. She spat out a clump of blue fur as that thought crossed her mind again.

“Seriously, big guy, this is not working…” Rumi grumbled as she sat up. Derpy looked at her with a grin on his face and not a thought behind his eyes. Rumi sighed, and she reached over to pet him. She dropped her arm after a moment, though, and she drew her blankets up as much as she could with a tiger sat on them. “I shouldn’t blame my sleeplessness on you, though…” she said with a sigh.

Huntr/x was on a break, a three month break that was meant to let the girls relax and recuperate after their fight with Gwi-ma and the Saja Boys. But Rumi didn’t do breaks—she had never done breaks. Everything was a constant stretch toward their next goal. Everything was about the honmoon, sealing the demons away and protecting people. So to get an actual, real break where Rumi didn’t need to worry…that was almost incomprehensible to her. What was she even supposed to do on a break? She already went to a bath house, she went shopping, she even took a yoga class. Rumi had already done everything that she could possibly have wanted, so what was there left to do?

Rumi just needed something to get her mind off her anxieties. Without a schedule or plan to fall back on, she felt lost. She needed—

Sussie squawked, and he hopped down to her dresser drawers. Rumi eyed him, not sure what the bird was up as he pecked at the handle. Before she could ask, though, Sussie got the drawer opened, and he hopped inside.

“What are you d—”

His little head emerged with a pacifier in his beak.

“Hey!” Rumi hissed, hopping to her feet. Her face burned as she ran after Sussie, but the bird flew over to her bed’s headboard. “Give me that!” Rumi fussed as quietly as she could. The last thing she needed to do was wake up Mira or Zoey with this. She snatched the pacifier out of Sussie’s beak and glared at him. “How’d you know about this?” she asked. Sussie squawked.

Rumi kept her glare on him for a moment longer, hoping against odds that maybe the bird could actually talk. When he didn’t, she glanced down at the pacifier in her hands. The shield was lilac, and it was round, and the nipple was large enough for her mouth. It was an adult pacifier, not a baby one, and Rumi kept it hidden for a reason. She hadn’t even had it out since Sussie or Derpy started staying with her! With a huff, Rumi sat down on her bed. Derpy nudged her arm with his big head to make her smile.

“I only got this thing because it was supposed to help me sleep,” she said as she petted him. She glanced up at Sussie. “If you ask Zoey, she’ll probably tell you that I snore like crazy…and this was supposed to help, and it’s supposed to be soothing or whatever…” she explained. “It…helps. A little.”

Sussie squawked as if to ask why she didn’t use it still. Rumi shrugged.

“It makes me feel weird,” she said. “It’s…I guess it’s a soothing feeling, but it makes me feel… I guess small, or younger, or…like my head’s not totally there. Which makes no sense at all.”

Derpy chuffed and rested a paw on her knee.

“I…” Rumi sighed, and she looked down at the pacifier in her hand. She needed to wash it first. “I’ll be right back…” she mumbled as she got up. She headed to her bathroom, and she ran her pacifier under the water. Once she was sure it wasn’t covered in lint or dust, she stuck it in her mouth, giving a few test sucks as she adjusted it between her teeth.

…She forgot how nice it felt. She forgot how much she actually liked her pacifier.

Rumi giggled to herself as she shuffled back to her bed. Derpy and Sussie waited for her, which she thought was funny. She crawled back into bed and cuddled into her covers. Sussie squawked, but if Rumi didn’t know any better, she might have said it sounded like he said good night. At least, that’s what she thought as she let her eyes slide shut. Derpy cuddled into her chest, and Rumi petted him slowly. Her pacifier bobbed in her mouth as she lulled herself to sleep, a peaceful sleep for once.

Morning light poured into Rumi’s bedroom, and she whined in irritation. She dragged her blankets over her head and sucked her pacifier tighter to her face in annoyance.

Wait.

She gave a few more sucks on her pacifier, and yep. It was still in her mouth.

Knock, knock, knock. “Hey, Rumi, we’ve got breakfast!” Zoey called on the other side of her door. Rumi squeaked, and she tucked the blankets over her hair. “Rumi?”

How could she make Zoey go away?

The door opened. Uh oh.

“Rumi, are you okay—oh!” Zoey said as she made her way inside. Rumi squeezed her eyes shut as she heard Zoey shuffle across the floor. The bed sank down when Zoey sat beside her, but Rumi didn’t move a muscle. Maybe if she stayed perfectly still, Zoey would think she was still asleep, and she would just leave. “Rumiiiii…” Zoey sang, nudging her shoulder. “Time to wake uuuuuup!”

Rumi whined, and she scrunched up tighter in her blankets.

“Are you sick or something?” Zoey asked. “C’mon, what’s the matter?” She nudged Rumi’s shoulder again, a little more forcefully this time, but Rumi only whined louder.

“What’s going on in here?” Mira asked, and Rumi wanted to scream.

“She won’t get out from under the covers,” Zoey said. “And she won’t talk to me.”

Mira made her way to the bed as well, sitting down beside Zoey to shake Rumi’s shoulder herself. “Time to get up, Rumi,” she tried, but Rumi didn’t budge.

“Mm-mm.”

“No…?” Mira questioned. She looked at Zoey, but all she could offer was a shrug. “Are you sick or something?” Mira asked.

“Mm-mm.”

“Then why are you hiding?” Mira asked. She reached up to the head of the bed and took hold of the covers. Before Rumi could protest, she pulled them down to reveal her.

“Mira!” Rumi squeaked out; her pacifier fell out of her mouth, but not before Mira and Zoey saw it. She grabbed the covers and yanked them back over her head, her heart hammering in her chest. Mira and Zoey weren’t supposed to know. They wouldn’t understand. Uh oh.

“Was that…a pacifier…?” Zoey asked, looking at Mira as she did.

“Rumi, what’s going on?” Mira asked. Rumi whined, but she didn’t say a word. Mira sighed, and she gently took the blankets in her hand again. “Hey, I’m going to pull this back down, okay?” she tried, hoping to avoid having Rumi get upset again.

Rumi squeezed her eyes shut, and she gripped her pacifier in her hand tightly. “Okay…” she said quietly. So, Mira pulled the covers back to reveal her once again. Rumi looked up at the two of them with a shy smile. “Hi…”

“Hi…” Zoey said, giving her a soft smile in return. “Can we see what you’ve got?” she asked.

Slowly, Rumi sat up, still hiding her pacifier in her hands. “Um…” She stared at her lap, a blush coating her face as she even considered letting them see it. If she didn’t, though, she worried that her friends—her family, need she remind herself—might think the worst of her. So, Rumi opened her hands to reveal her pacifier.

“So it was a pacifier,” Mira said. “What—how come you’ve got a pacifier, Rumi?” she asked.

“Um…” Rumi’s face felt so, so warm. Could she pass out from blushing? She felt like she might. “I-I got it, um, because it’s hard to sleep sometimes…” she explained. “It helps.”

“How come we’ve never seen it before, then?” Zoey asked. “I mean, the three of us have slept in tour busses together, we’ve slept in the living room together, but you’ve never had it then…?”

“I don’t use it all the time…” Rumi explained. “It—uh, I actually haven’t used it, um, in months! But the bird got it out last time to make me go to bed…”

“So Sussie knew about it?” Zoey questioned, sounding just as surprised as Rumi.

“Believe me, I have no idea how he knew,” she said with a breathy, nervous laugh. “He just got in my dresser drawer and grabbed it, a-and I didn’t even know he could do that…”

“So, how come you haven’t used it in months, then?” Mira asked. She set the pacifier down on Rumi’s knee, and Rumi snatched it up to hide it away.

“Just…” Rumi didn’t know how to explain this without making it sound strange. “It…it makes me feel weird. Like…it makes me feel like I’m younger…? That makes no sense, I-I—”

“Like you’re age regressing?” Zoey asked. Rumi looked at her with big eyes, confused. “I heard of it from an old friend. You feel mentally like you’re a little kid or a baby or something, and it’s soothing?” she questioned. Rumi nodded slowly. “No wonder the pacifier helps you sleep, then!” Zoey said with a giggle.

“Are you…that? Right now?” Mira asked.

“I-I…” Rumi had to think about it for a moment, but she felt more like herself than she did when Mira and Zoey came in just a few minutes earlier. “I don’t think so…” she said.

“You know, a lot of people regress to give themselves the childhood they never really got…” Zoey said gently. Rumi looked at her with confusion on her face. “It might be helpful for you, since you’ve been hiding who you are for so long, and you’ve been training to be a hunter for so long. When was the last time you got to be a kid?”

“I…I don’t really know,” Rumi said with a shrug. “I had toys, and I played, but my whole life has been about demons and the honmoon.”

“Well, maybe sometimes it should be about tea parties and cartoons instead,” Zoey said.

…Rumi didn’t want to admit that it sounded nice. That didn’t seem like something she was supposed to want at her big age.

Mira seemed to notice the apprehension on her face, and she got to her feet. “How about for right now, we make our lives be about our breakfast that’s probably cold by now?” she suggested. Rumi could get behind that, especially as her tummy growled.

“Okay, yeah…” she said.

Zoey and Mira led the way out of the room, Rumi lagging behind so she could hide away her pacifier in her dresser once again. She made her way out into the main room to see Mira shoving bowls into the microwave to reheat. Rumi took a seat at the island beside Zoey, who smiled at her so gently.

“If you wanna try regressing without immediately going to bed, I think we could probably work with that,” Zoey said. Rumi squeaked, and she ducked her head down.

“I don’t know if I want to do that, Zoey…” she said nervously. “I think for right now, I just want to forget about it, okay?”

“Okay…if you say so,” Zoey said, though she sounded totally disappointed.

“Here, eat,” Mira said as she slid a bowl across the countertop to Rumi. She mumbled her thanks and dug into a bowl of rice and fried egg. “Zoey’s right, though, if you wanted to do all that, we can help you.”

“Th-thanks…” Rumi said.

“You don’t have any stuffed animals!” Zoey said excitedly. “We could always go shopping. You could get a cute tiger…”

Out of nowhere, Derpy appeared, chuffing contentedly behind Rumi. That at least seemed to snap Rumi out of whatever daze she still felt from this whole debacle.

“I don’t think I need a plush tiger for him to try to compete with,” Rumi deadpanned. Mira snorted a laugh.

“We’ll think of something,” Zoey insisted, stabbing her egg to let the yolk run.

Rumi rolled her eyes, and she finished off her bowl, licking her lips clean.

“Ah, hold on, you’ve got a little…” Mira reached over to clean off the corner of Rumi’s mouth. “There you go.”

Rumi blushed brightly, her head spinning. She could still feel the gentle touch, still feel the soft way Mira held her chin in place. That felt too nice. It felt like how her pacifier made her feel. She wanted more, but Rumi shoved it down and jumped to her feet. “I’m gonna go take a shower,” she said, and she bolted for her room before either Mira or Zoey could fuss over her.

Chapter Text

Rumi kept her arms crossed and a scowl on her face as she, Mira, and Zoey made their way down the street. They spent most of the morning working on a new song, and Rumi was thankful for it since that kept her from thinking about…regression.

Why did it have to sound so nice? Why did it have to be so appealing? Rumi thought about how fun it might be to play like a little kid again… Or, really, just to play like a little kid. She could remember having dolls or stuffed animals as a child, but she didn’t really play with them. She brushed her dolls’ hair, she carried her stuffed animals around, but she never made a fuss with them. She always kept so quiet, so composed…

She thought she might like finger painting. Or playing with clay, or slime, or something equally gooey. It made her giggle to herself to even consider, but that attracted Mira and Zoey’s attentions. Rumi quickly tried to compose herself, though the blush on her cheeks tattled on her.

“What’cha giggling about?” Zoey asked with a big grin on her face. She hung back a step or two so she could walk beside Rumi, and Mira waited for them so she could sandwich Rumi in.

“It was nothing, honestly,” Rumi said with a dismissive wave.

“Didn’t sound like nothing,” Mira said. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned in closer. “Since when do you giggle?”

“I can giggle!” Rumi insisted with a huff. “What’s wrong with me giggling?!”

“Just unusual from you…” Mira said.

“Did you see a cute puppy? Or kitty? Or maybe you saw a turtle on a skateboard?” Zoey tried. She hugged Rumi’s arm to keep her beside her, but that just made Rumi’s head spin. How was she supposed to get out of this?

“I-I didn’t see anything, Zoey,” she said, her pink cheeks quickly turning red.

Rumi could practically see the wheels turning in Zoey’s head, but for the life of her she had no idea what those gears could be churning up. “Ohhhhhhh…” Zoey finally said. She made eye contact with Mira, then she jerked her eyes back to Rumi. “Are you regressed?” she asked.

“Zoey!” Rumi fussed, her red face almost catching fire. “No! I’m not!”

Mira hummed, and Rumi looked at her with betrayal in her eyes. “You were thinking about it, though,” Mira said. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be so…like this.”

“I’m not like anything!” Rumi insisted.

“But you were thinking about regressing,” Mira said, a little smirk on her face that said gotcha.

Rumi groaned, tossing her head back in frustration. “Fine!” she said. “Fine, yes, I was thinking about it…”

“Well, what were you thinking about that made you giggle?” Zoey asked. Rumi wanted to yank her arm out of Zoey’s grasp and speed away.

“I just…” Rumi sighed in frustration. “I was thinking about…finger painting.”

“Finger painting?” Mira and Zoey questioned, though Zoey sounded much more excited versus Mira’s surprise.

“What made you think about finger painting?” Mira asked, snickering.

“I don’t know…” Rumi said. She sucked in a deep breath, her arms up to wave around in her annoyance. “I-I was thinking about what I used to play when I was a kid, and there wasn’t much to it, and I guess I thought that finger painting or…playing with, like, slime or something…i-it just sounded nice. And kind of gross, kind of messy, kind of…nice.”

“Well,” Zoey stopped in her tracks, bringing Rumi and Mira with her. “We’re in front of a toy store. Why don’t we get some paint?”

“Zoey, I-I…” Rumi’s entire head spun, and it felt clouded. Was she seriously even considering this?

“C’mon, let’s go!” Zoey said. She took Rumi’s hand and dragged her inside, the three girls each making the bell above the door ding. Rumi whined, and she pulled her mask up over her nose. “Oh, paint’s over here!” Zoey said, tugging her along.

“Slow down, Zoey,” Mira said with a laugh. “You’re going to rip her arm off at this rate.”

“Nooooo, I’m being gentle!” Zoey insisted. She stopped in front of a wall of paint, grinning at Rumi. “Wanna pick some paint out?”

The 3-foot section of wall housed every color of paint imaginable. Every shade of pink, purple, green, or any other color that Rumi loved. There were big packs of rainbow colors, packs of ‘tropical’ colors or ‘jungle’ colors. There were glittery paints, shimmery paints, and color-changing paints that Rumi didn’t think she had the brain power right then to figure out. She looked down at her nails, her manicure that she just had done only two days earlier, and she wondered if this was a good idea.

“Don’t worry, they’re washable, see,” Zoey said when she saw the apprehension. She picked up a bottle of paint that proudly read ‘Washable!’ in big bubble letters.

“Okay…” Rumi said shyly, quietly. She reached out for one of the ‘jungle’ themed sets. Inside were five paints: bright orange, magenta, dark green, teal, and maroon. “These are cool…” she said, clutching the pack to her chest.

“Are there any other colors you like…?” Mira asked. Her voice sounded so gentle, so soft, and it made Rumi’s heart soar. Was that supposed to happen? Probably not. They were just picking out paint.

“Um…” Rumi looked over the dizzying array of options, and she picked up a bottle of lime green, and a bottle of lilac. “These.”

“Let’s get a palette, too,” Zoey said, reaching up to grab a plastic palette. “And we need some canvas!”

“Here,” Mira said, picking up a pack with five small canvases. “Just to get started, at least. Maybe we’ll get more if you actually have fun with this.”

“Sounds good…” Rumi squeaked out.

“Did you wanna look at anything else?” Zoey asked. She took Rumi’s hand and swung it back and forth with hers, earning another one of those adorable giggles.

“I-I don’t think so…” Rumi said as she composed herself again. “We can go…”

Mira and Zoey nodded, and they pulled up their own masks to hide their faces. Rumi covered her head with her hoodie, and the three of them headed toward the checkout counter. But, as they went, something else caught Rumi’s eye.

On a shelf was a small plastic display that contained a set of six small teddy bears. The bears were all on keychains, and each one was dressed up in a different outfit. A chef, a teacher, an artist, a firefighter, a doctor, and a train engineer. Rumi gasped through her closed mouth, her eyes going wide. She gripped Zoey’s hand tightly to pull her to a stop.

“Woahhh, why are we stopping?” Zoey asked as she staggered to a halt. “What’s up?”

“Look!” Rumi said, pointing excitedly at the bears. She even hopped in place, though as she realized what she was doing, she stopped. “Look how cute they are!” she said, giggling.

“Wanna get one?” Mira asked.

“Yeah…” Rumi said, giggling as she went to pick up one of the boxes.

“Which one are you hoping for?” Zoey asked. She let go of Rumi’s hand so she could squat down and examine each box. Rumi even took out her phone to use her flashlight on the boxes, though it didn’t help as much as she wished.

“I want the train bear…” Rumi grumbled. She pushed several boxes aside and grabbed one at the very back. She had no way of knowing if the box had the train engineer bear, but she felt confident. “This one,” she said with a sure nod.

“Alright, let’s go check out, then,” Mira said. Rumi smiled behind her mask, excited. She never bought things like this. She never did something so childish; it felt so exhilarating for some reason. At least, until she set her things down on the counter to check out, then this felt terrifying. What would anyone say if they found it she bought a toy and paint?

“Cash or card?” the cashier asked, dragging Rumi out of her head.

“Um…card,” she said, and she shakily tapped her card against the reader. It gave a little beep, and Mira and Zoey picked up the bags. “Thank you…!” Rumi said over her shoulder as her girls led her out of the store.

“Are you okay, Rumi?” Mira asked.

“Y-yeah, I’m okay,” she said with a shrug. “Just…nervous.”

“Would opening your bear make you feel less nervous?” Zoey asked, pulling out the little box. Rumi glared at her, frustrated that she seemed to know exactly what Rumi wanted. How did she do that?

“Give it,” Rumi grumbled, swiping the box from Zoey’s hands as she continued down the sidewalk. She pulled the tab on top of the box, which came off with a satisfying tear, and she pulled out a little shiny black bag. Rumi took a deep breath, and she tore the tab off the bag. She kept her eyes shut the whole time, scared that her deduction work wouldn’t pay off.

Then, Zoey gasped. “Yay, you got it!” she cooed.

“I did?” Rumi opened her eyes, and she gasped at the sight of her bear. “I got it!” she squeaked out. Rumi yanked it free of its bag and hugged the little bear close. It wore striped overalls, a striped hat, and a little red bandana around its neck. “Look, Mira, look!”

“I’m looking!” Mira said with a laugh. “It’s very cute!”

“Are you going to name it?” Zoey asked. Rumi hummed to herself, and she leaned her head down on Zoey’s shoulder.

The little bandana around the bear’s neck had flowers on it, Rumi noticed. “Rose…” she whispered, tugging on the bandana gently. She took hold of the keychain and twisted it around her finger. “Call her Rose.”

“That’s a very pretty name,” Zoey said.

“Well, hopefully Rose likes finger painting,” Mira said, nudging Rumi’s arm. Rumi smiled up at her shyly, hugging Rose to her chest.

“Okay, do you know what you want to paint?” Mira asked, sitting down beside Rumi on the floor.

“Um…no,” Rumi said with a nervous laugh. “I’m gonna wing it.”

“Hm, that doesn’t sound like you,” Mira said. She propped her chin up in her palm as she watched Rumi squirt out her paint colors in the palette. Derpy watched as well, eyeing the paint bottles in a way that made Mira nervous.

Rumi stared down at the canvas in front of her, and she took a deep breath. The trick was not to think too hard, right? All she needed to do was just put her finger in the paint and put the paint on the canvas. She could figure out the image later. Right? She held onto Rose in her arms, and then she got an idea.

She dipped her finger in the magenta paint and hovered over the canvas. What if she messed up? What if she didn’t know how to paint a rose? Rumi’s finger twitched above the canvas, then it accidentally touched the fabric. With a gasp, Rumi yanked her hand away to clutch it to her chest.

“Hey, it’s not a big deal, Rumi,” Mira said. “You’ve got one dot. What about a bunch more?”

“Dots…?” Rumi didn’t want to ruin it…but the dot wasn’t exactly in the center of the canvas. It was a little too far to the left, so Rumi slowly reached back toward it. She put her finger back on the dot of magenta, and she dragged it toward the center, smearing the paint across the canvas. Rumi gasped and yanked her hand back. “Mira!” she whined, looking at her with big eyes.

That fuzzy feeling she usually had from her pacifier came back, Rumi noticed. A little grin fell on her face, and Mira matched it.

“Maybe try the teal?” Mira suggested, and Rumi nodded happily. She dipped a different finger into her teal paint, and she poked the canvas repeatedly all around the smear of magenta. “How about lilac?”

Rumi used her left hand to dip into the lilac paint, and she made big flicks of purple around the bottom of whatever it was she made. Did it really matter what she was painting? It kind of looked like a cow! Rumi dipped another finger in the lime green to drag across the top of this possibly-a-cow. She even gave it a green tail!

“What have we got in here?” Zoey asked as she came in from her room. “Oh! You’re painting!”

“I made a cow…!” Rumi said, holding up the canvas. She made a little bit of a mess with the paint still left on her fingers, but she was sure it’d be okay.

“Oh, that’s very cute, Rumi!” Zoey cooed. She sat down beside Derpy, who was subtly trying to nudge the paint bottles off the table and into his mouth. Zoey scooted them back toward the center of the table. “Can you paint a flower?”

“Um…” Rumi set her canvas back down, looking at the empty space with a little hesitance. A flower was her original goal, but she didn’t know if she could do it…

“Do you want me to show you how?” Zoey asked. Rumi nodded, shrinking back against Mira shyly. Zoey scooted a little closer, and she gently took Rumi’s hand. “What color do you want the flower to be?” she asked.

“M’roon…” Rumi mumbled. So, Zoey, dipped her finger in the maroon paint.

“Then, we can just go boop, boop, boop, boop, boop!” Zoey said as she poked Rumi’s finger down on the canvas in a little circle. “And we get a little orange…” she said, dipping Rumi’s finger in the orange as she giggled. “And we give it a little center!” she said as she poked Rumi’s finger down in the center of the petals.

“Now a stem…!” Rumi said, reaching for the green paint.

“Good job!” Zoey cooed.

That fuzzy feeling felt even more intense, and Rumi thought she felt properly small. She giggled and leaned back against Mira before she reached forward to get some green paint for the stem and leaves. Once she finished, she sat back happily with a satisfied grin on her face. “Tada…!”

“You’re a very talented artist, Rumi,” Mira said, and she grabbed some paper towels to clean off her hands. “Maybe you should have a gallery.”

Rumi squeaked, blushing.

“I think you might be onto something, Mira!” Zoey said with a big grin. “People would flock to see your art!”

Rumi squealed like a tea kettle, hiding her face in her arms. Her friends were too sweet, and she felt so shy. She picked up Rose from her lap and pressed her face into the teddy bear’s belly to let out her emotions.

“Or maybe we should keep your art all to ourselves,” Mira said. “At least that way we know it’ll be very well loved.”

“Wanna paint a bird…” Rumi said since she didn’t know what to say about Mira and Zoey’s compliments.

“That’ll be cute!” Zoey said. “Is it going to have a top hat?”

Sussie squawked from where he perched on top of Derpy’s head.

“No, it’ll have a fw…fw’lower crown,” Rumi said. She knitted her brows together in frustration when her words didn’t work as well as she wanted, but at least Zoey thought she was cute.

“Flower crown it is!” she said, and she did her very best to help Rumi’s masterpiece come together. Mira just watched, but she couldn’t think of a better way to spend their evening than watching Rumi let loose a little bit. She couldn’t help but think this was very good for Rumi, even if she didn’t entirely understand it yet.

Chapter Text

By the end of the day, Rumi wanted her hair down. Keeping such a big, heavy braid all day was utterly exhausting, and it gave her a massive headache sometimes, so the very second that Rumi got into her pajamas, she started unraveling her hair. Unfortunately, that was also a process, not a simple two-minute task, which made it something that she dreaded doing. Rumi groaned as she collapsed on her bed, already frustrated. She grabbed the end of her hair and pulled off the hairtie, letting the ends unravel themselves as far as they wanted to. Her head throbbed, especially along her part, as the tight pull lessened.

Sussie landed on her knee, and Rumi quirked a brow at the bird. He squawked, and he picked at her hair.

“Careful with that,” Rumi fussed, moving her hair away from the bird. “Hair isn’t exactly like feathers or something.”

That didn’t seem to satisfy Sussie, so he flew off to Rumi’s dresser. She rolled her eyes, still not sure if she understood that bird or not. However, while Rumi worked on unraveling the ends of her hair, Sussie flew back with—

“Give me that!” Rumi fussed, snatching the pacifier out of his beak. “Seriously, what is with you and this thing?”

Sussie squawked, which Rumi figured was as good an explanation as she was going to get. She sighed, and she laid her pacifier on her nightstand, which earned more fussing from Sussie.

“I don’t need it right now, honestly,” she said, pushing the bird away when he got on her knee again. “I’m not regressed, and I don’t plan on being that way, so I don’t need a pacifier.”

That wouldn’t do. Sussie squawked again.

Rumi groaned, and she threw her head back to stare up at the ceiling. “You’re impossible, you know that?”

…

Sussie squawked again.

“Fine, fine, if it’ll make you happy…” she grumbled to the bird, snatching her pacifier off her nightstand. Rumi jammed it in her mouth, glaring at Sussie. “Sh’ee? Sh’till not regressh’ed,” she said to the unconvinced bird. He made a little noise of acceptance, gave a nod, and flew off to his perch in the corner of the room. Rumi rolled her eyes, but she didn’t spit out her pacifier. She just…didn’t feel like it!

…Okay, yes, maybe it just felt nice, having that sense of calm and care that came with using her pacifier. Maybe Rumi also grabbed her new little teddy bear, Rose, and kept her on her lap while she worked on her hair. But that didn’t mean she felt regressed.

A knock came on the door quickly followed by Mira’s voice. “Rumi, everything okay?” she asked. “I heard you talking in here.”

Rumi squeaked, dropping her hair just as Mira opened the door.

“Rumi—” Mira continued, poking her head in the door just in time to see Rumi spit her pacifier halfway across the room. Looking up, Mira saw Sussie on his perch sigh with deep exasperation. “Ah.”

“No ‘ah’!” Rumi fussed.

Mira chuckled as she took a seat on the corner of Rumi’s bed. Rumi glared at her, a deep pout set on her face that was far more adorable than it should have been. “Are you small, Rumi?” Mira asked, which ignited Rumi’s face in a deep blush.

“No!” Rumi insisted. “The bird made me take my pacifier, that’s all!”

“Uh huh…he made you use your pacifier?” Mira questioned. She crossed her arms and fixed Rumi with a skeptical look. “Last time I checked, birds can’t make you put something in your mouth…”

“He did,” Rumi said. Sussie squawked, and he flew down to the floor where Rumi’s pacifier landed. He picked it up in his beak and flew back onto the bed, dropping the pacifier in Rumi’s lap. “See?” she said, pointing at him as Sussie flew back to his perch.

“That looks like a suggestion, little one,” Mira said, which only made Rumi’s pout worse. “You know it’s okay if you want to be small, right? Nobody’s going to be mad, nobody’s going to think badly of you…it’s supposed to be helpful, right?”

Rumi sighed, picking up her pacifier. She saw bits of hair stuck to it, plus some lint and—was that a sequin? “It’s yuc—it’s gross, anyway…” she mumbled.

“Well, we can fix that,” Mira said. She got to her feet and held her hand out; Rumi looked up at her with big eyes. “C’mon, give it here, and I’ll go wash it off, okay?”

“O-okay…” Rumi said. She handed over her pacifier and watched while Mira made her way into the ensuite. She heard the water switch on while Mira cleaned off her pacifier, and Rumi squeaked.

She wasn’t small! She was a big girl! Why did she let Mira take her pacifier? Why did she want it back so badly? Rumi didn’t need it, and she certainly didn’t need Mira to be so gentle and caring. She was a big girl.

“Are we having a party in Rumi’s room?” Zoey asked, poking her head into the door. “Oh!” she squeaked when she saw Rumi. Immediately her face softened, and she gave Rumi such a sweet smile. “Hi, little one,” she said, and Rumi whined loudly, doubling over to bury her face in the blankets on her bed.

“She’s trying to say she’s not regressed, Zoey,” Mira said from the bathroom. The water switched off, and she came back a second later with the pacifier in her hand. “She’s a little fussy for some reason…” she whispered to Zoey, who made a little noise of acknowledgement.

“No whispering!” Rumi whined though, sitting up with a scowl on her face.

“Here,” Mira said as she held out the cleaned pacifier. Rumi snatched it from her and set it on her nightstand.

“Dun’need it,” she insisted.

“Let me try,” Zoey said to Mira, who motioned for her to take her turn with the grouchy little. Zoey sat down on the edge of the bed with a smile on her face. “You know, we love taking care of you when you’re small. I know you’re not regressed right now, but if you wanted to be…we’d be totally okay with that,” she tried.

“Not small,” Rumi deadpanned.

“But if you wanted to be…” Zoey tried to make eye contact, but Rumi just fell back over onto her blankets in a refusal to even look in Zoey’s direction. “Is there a reason you don’t want to regress right now, Rumi?” she asked.

“Don’t wanna,” Rumi said. She rolled over onto her tummy, nearly kicking Zoey in the head, and fixed her eyes out her glass doors. Zoey sighed, and she looked up at Mira, motioning for her to sit on Rumi’s other side.

Mira took a seat, and she noticed Rumi’s half-undone braid. “Do you want some help with your hair, Rumi?” she asked. Maybe that could be their way of getting through to her.

It took a moment, a very quiet, long moment, but Rumi did speak. “Yeah…” she whined into her blankets. Slowly, Rumi sat up, and Mira took hold of her braid to unravel it some more.

“Y’know, I bet your hair is really heavy…” Zoey said. She leaned forward on her hand to get a look at Rumi’s face while Mira worked on the braid. Rumi nodded. “Does it give you headaches?” she asked.

“Mhm…” Rumi mumbled. She picked at her nails despite having just gotten them done.

“Do you have a headache right now?” Zoey asked.

“Yeah…”

Aha, bingo. Zoey glanced over at Mira, who nodded to her.

“Y’know, Rumi, if you ever need help with your hair, we’re right here,” Mira said. “I definitely don’t mind helping you take it down, and I’m sure Zoey wouldn’t mind, either.”

“Totally, yeah, it’s relaxing to take down braids,” Zoey said. “And…if your head hurts, we can try our best to make it better, okay?” she added softly.

For some reason, Rumi felt tears sting her eyes. Her nose tingled, and she sniffled. She didn’t want to cry, not over this, so she tried her very best to shove it down. “O-okay…” she managed out, sniffling once more.

“There we go,” Mira said as she finished taking out Rumi’s braid. The hair fell all around Rumi’s face and shoulders, creases and waves cascading down like a waterfall from the crown of her head. “Does that feel better?” Mira asked.

“Mhm…” Rumi said, nodding.

“I’ll get your hairbrush!” Zoey said, hopping up to retrieve it. She came back just a moment later, handing over the brush to Mira.

“Alright, let’s see if we have any tangles in here,” Mira said. Rumi squeezed her eyes shut tight and held Rose against her chest.

“Rumi?” Zoey sat right in front of her, legs criss-crossed. Rumi opened one eye to see her, and Zoey gave her another little smile. “What’s the matter?”

“Don’t want it to hurt…” she mumbled.

“Ohhh, well Mira’s gonna go really slow, and if it starts to tug, she’ll stop so we can detangle it, okay?” Zoey said. Rumi nodded, so Zoey held out her hands. “Do wanna hold my hands?” she asked, and Rumi didn’t waste a second putting her hands in Zoey’s. “Maybe we should get you a dolly so you can do her hair while Mira or I do yours,” Zoey suggested just to keep Rumi distracted. It worked, at least, as Rumi giggled in delight. “You’d like a dolly, wouldn’t you?” Zoey cooed.

“Uh huh…” Rumi said, giggling.

“Well, we’ll go shopping tomorrow and get you a super-cute dolly!” Zoey said, and she booped Rumi’s nose. Rumi squeaked, for a moment surprised, then that surprise morphed into utter delight.

“Dolly…!”

“There we go, all brushed out,” Mira said. “Your hair is so long, Rumi…” Really, Mira thought it was very impressive. How Rumi managed to keep it so long and so healthy when she wore that thick, heavy braid all the time, Mira would never know. “Do you want me to put it in a bun?”

“Mhm…p’ease…”

“We’ll keep it loose and lower on your head so it doesn’t make your headache worse, okay?” Mira said as she gathered up the hair in her hand. Rumi’s hair barely fit in one hand, Mira noticed as she dragged the hairtie through it. She made the messy, loose bun, and she sat back proud of her work. “There we go, Rumi, all done.”

“You’re so cute!” Zoey cooed, and Rumi blushed, raising up her shoulders shyly. That of course wouldn’t work for Zoey, who hugged her tightly. Rumi squeaked, but she didn’t push Zoey away. She liked hugs, after all…they felt safe, like her regression. “Did you want your pacifier, now?”

“Mhm…” Rumi leaned away from the hug, so Zoey grabbed the pacifier off her nightstand.

“Here you go, cutie,” Zoey cooed. She held out the pacifier for Rumi, so she bit down on it and pulled it away from Zoey’s hand, rearranging the pacifier in her mouth.

“Feel a little better, Rumi?” Mira asked.

“Mhm…” Rumi leaned back against her headboard, her eyelids heavy as she settled down and suckled her pacifier.

“You look like you’re gonna fall asleep, now,” Mira said, snickering. Rumi’s eyes opened just to glare at her. “It’s getting late, y’know. How about you get under the covers and go to bed?”

Rumi still glared at her, but she kicked the covers out from under herself so she could slide in. Zoey giggled as she and Mira got up, and she brought the covers up to Rumi’s chin.

“Cozy?” Zoey asked. Rumi nodded. “Well, good, then get some sleep.”

“We’ll see you in the morning, Rumi,” Mira said. She brushed back some stray hairs from Rumi’s face, smiling as Rumi’s eyes fluttered shut. For a moment, she stopped, considering…but she shook her head and left with Zoey.

“We have twenty minutes, Zoey, shouldn’t we do this later?” Rumi groaned as she fixed her hood on her head. “I seriously don’t want to explain that we were late for rehearsal because I wanted to get a doll.”

“Weeeeeeell, then maybe you should’ve said you didn’t want one!” Zoey said with a giggle. “C’mon, by the time we get out of rehearsal, most of the stores are going to be closed, so we have to do it now!”

“I mean, she’s right,” Mira said with a shrug. “And if you’re gonna regress and have me do your hair again, then the doll…”

“I know, I know,” Rumi muttered, stomping forward toward the store. “Let’s just get this over with…”

The bell above the door jingled as the girls made their way inside. Rumi crossed her arms over her chest, letting Zoey lead the way toward the doll aisle. Really, she didn’t even know if she would like any of the dolls when she wasn’t regressed. The last doll she had was a ragdoll with yarn hair, and she barely played with it, so why would a new doll be any different?

“Here we go!” Zoey said, standing in front of the aisle with her hands outstretched. “C’mon, Rumi, pick one out!”

“Not so loud, Zoey…” Rumi fussed, blushing brightly. She shuffled forward, looking over all the options. There were fashion dolls with tiny bodies, too many accessories, and mean looks on their beat faces. There were also Disney princess dolls, cloth dolls, and baby dolls, but none of those appealed to Rumi. She was ready to admit defeat and drag Zoey and Mira out of the store when Mira piped up.

“Hey, did you see these, Rumi?” she asked, holding up a box with a very large doll inside. The doll in Mira’s hands had a soft cloth body, but she seemed structured still. Her face was printed onto the cloth, and her hair was very long. The doll was mostly blue, dressed in a snow coat, overall dress, and boots, and her hair was icy blue. She even had a little hat with doggy ears, and she had a big brush.

“Cute…” Rumi whispered, taking the box from Mira to examine it.

“There’s others, too,” Mira said, pointing out the boxes for Rumi to see. There was a girl with a purple shirt and long brown hair, a girl with red hair in two big braids, and a girl dressed up in pink and feathers like a flamingo. None of those really appealed to Rumi, who wrinkled up her nose and shook her head, until Mira pulled forward a box with a sleeping bag inside.

Rumi gasped at the sight, immediately putting down the other doll in favor of the one with a sleeping bag. The doll inside had long, crimped hair, and she wore teddy bear pajamas with teddy bear slippers. Her sleeping bag had a sleepy bear at the head, and the box also included a teddy bear pillow, a teddy bear eye mask, and a bear-shaped brush. And Rumi was in love.

“I want this one,” she said, clutching the box to her chest as she giggled happily.

“That’s such a cute doll, Rumi!” Zoey cooed as quietly as she could.

“And she’s got a lot of hair, just like you,” Mira said, snickering. “C’mon, we should go check out so we can get to rehearsal.”

As she led the way to the front, Rumi still clutched her doll to her chest. She realized that she was going to have to take it to rehearsal, but she hoped that she could hide the box in her backpack. But, the box was pretty big…

“We can take it out of the box when we get in the dressing room, Rumi,” Zoey said as though she read her mind. “Then we’ll get rid of the box, and you can just keep your dolly in your bag.”

“That’ll work…” Rumi said, mumbling as she sat the box down on the checkout counter. She paid and took the bagged-up doll with a quick thanks.

“And we still have six minutes to spare,” Mira said as they made it outside.

“Six minutes?!” Rumi cried, pulling her phone out to check the time. “We’ve gotta run!”

Zoey yelped, and she chased after Rumi when she started to run. Mira ran after the two of them, wondering for only a second if she shouldn’t have said anything to Rumi. They could show up late, after all. It wasn’t like they didn’t do that all the time, anyway. But, she figured Rumi was anxious to hide her doll away before anyone else saw it.

“Girls!” Bobby yelped the second he saw them come inside.

“Hi, Bobby!” Rumi said with a plastered-on smile. “Bye, Bobby!” she said as she scampered off to the dressing room.

“Wha—is Rumi okay?” Bobby asked, looking at Zoey and Mira as they came inside, breathing heavily. “This isn’t a…demon thing, is it? Or why were you guys late?” he asked in a whisper, hoping to keep any of the other crew members from panicking.

“It’s totally fine, Bobby,” Mira said, waving off his concern. “We had to make a stop on our way here, and we lost track of time. And you know how Rumi is; as soon as she realized we were late, she got a bit anxious to just get here.”

“That makes sense…” Bobby said. He glanced toward where Rumi ran off to, and he was about to ask another question when Zoey piped up.

“Well, we should go get ready for rehearsal!” Zoey said, snatching Mira by the wrist. “We’ll be right out, Bobby, promise!”

“Oh—okay! See you in five?”

“See you in five!” Zoey said cheerily. She dragged Mira into the dressing room where Rumi sat with an utterly destroyed toy box and her new doll on the floor. “Well, that took all of a minute.”

“Couldn’t get the box open easily, huh?” Mira teased with a hand on her hip.

“It didn’t want to open, but I figured it out,” Rumi said, gesturing to the pile of shredded plastic on the ground in front of her.

“And now we’re gonna put your doll away so we can go rehearse, right?” Zoey asked, stooping down in front of Rumi while Mira tried to pick up the garbage. Rumi glared at Zoey, though, which was not a good sign. “Remember, we said we were going to put her in your backpack so that no one else saw her, right?”

“Right…” Rumi said slowly. “But what if I keep her?” she tried.

“That might make things a little hard out there,” Zoey said. “Bobby’s already worried about you, so you carrying a doll around might worry him more…”

Rumi considered it, eyes narrowed on Zoey and Mira in case they were just denying her the doll. But, she ultimately let her reasonable adult mind win over, and she handed the doll to Zoey. “I wanna keep the teddy bear pillow, though,” she said, shoving the accessory into her pocket.

“You can keep the pillow, silly,” Zoey said, snickering. She put the doll and the other accessories away in Rumi’s bag while Mira helped her to her feet.

“And you’re gonna be okay to rehearse, right?” Mira asked.

“I’ll be fine…” Rumi said. She took a deep breath, practically willing herself to shove aside that tiny part of her brain that wanted to sit on the floor and play with her doll. “C’mon, let’s go,” she said, pulling Mira along. If she just left and didn’t look back at her bag, she’d be okay.

“Whoo, new song rehearsal!” Zoey cheered, and she took Rumi’s other hand. She just hoped that they could keep Rumi from feeling small or upset, but Zoey was sure they were up to the task.

Chapter Text

Nighttime settled over the city with pretty lights turning on, billboards flashing, and the moon hung high in the sky. Rumi watched Seoul out the window of the dressing room with her new doll in her hands. She didn’t like waiting on Mira and Zoey, but she needed to wait for them to come out of the showers. Rumi wondered if she should’ve taken longer, but she didn’t think that would help. Then it would just take even longer for Mira or Zoey to join her, probably. Maybe if she did more with her hair than put it in a loose bun, that could’ve filled up the time.

“What d’you think, dolly?” she asked, looking down at the doll in her arms. She brushed her thumb over the fabric face, tracing out her eye makeup with her nail. “I should name you…”

The doll already had a name, but Rumi didn’t care for it. “Lara Vonn” didn’t seem like a very good name for a doll, so she needed to come up with something better. Rumi hummed to herself, holding her doll out in front of her to think. The doll’s hair was honey colored, and her teddy bear pajamas were white, brown, and pink.

“I’m gonna call you Honey,” Rumi said with a nod. She cuddled her doll back in her arms, smiling pleasantly. “When we go home, I’ll show you my room, and I’ll show you to Derpy and Sussie. They’re cool, and you’ll like my house. I’ve got another teddy bear for you to meet, too; her name’s Rose and she’s a train conductor.”

Rumi sat down on a trunk, watching out for the window as a plane went overhead. She glanced back down at her doll and smiled. “I bet you like trains, too, don’t you?” she asked. “I like trains… I could get you a choo-choo, too, and you and Rose could play together on it…” The thought of it made Rumi giggle, scrunching up in her seat to giggle into her doll’s hair. “When we get home, I’m gonna be small so I can play with you, okay?”

“As if you’re not small right now?” Mira asked from behind, startling Rumi nearly out of her seat.

“I’m not!” Rumi insisted, spinning around on her seat. She blushed brightly, squeezing her doll close.

Mira chuckled, and she sat down in one of the vanity chairs near Rumi. “It’s okay if you are, y’know,” she said. “I could tell during rehearsal that you were struggling a little bit to stay big, and that’s okay. You can regress and play with your dolly.”

“Honey…” Rumi said, holding up Honey.

“You named her Honey?” Mira asked with a grin. Rumi nodded shyly, which was just about the cutest thing Mira had ever seen. “That’s sweet. I like that name.”

Rumi giggled, and she brought her shoulders up to her ears to hide her blush. Before either of them said another word, though, Zoey came in with Bobby on her heels.

“I’m totally down for a cooking competition!” Zoey said, giggling as she spun around backwards to face Bobby. “A chance to eat awesome food made by people who know what they’re doing? Yes, please!”

“Alright, I’ll let them know you’re interested, then!” Bobby said cheerily, pulling out his phone. “Y’know, they really want to see about getting all three of you to be guest judges, so what do you two think—what’s that?”

Zoey turned back around, and Mira’s eyes drifted down, until they both stared at the doll in Rumi’s arms. Uh oh.

“Is that a doll…?” Bobby asked, confusion in his voice. Rumi squeaked, and she curled up on the trunk with her back to the window as she tried her best to shield her doll from view. “Why do you have a doll, Rumi?” he asked.

“Uh—um…” Rumi looked to Zoey or Mira for any ideas.

“Practicing new hair styles!” Zoey piped up. “Sh-she wants to see what might look cool with really long hair, so she’s practicing on a doll!”

“Oh!” Bobby stood up straighter, nodding. “Okay, sure! I’m not sure how styling hair likes yours might go, so whatever helps!” he said with a bright smile. Rumi sighed in relief, glad that he bought the excuse.

“What’s this about judging a cooking competition, Bobby?” Mira asked, though, hoping to get the conversation away from Rumi’s doll.

“Well, I was just telling Zoey about it,” Bobby said. He made his way over to Mira and Rumi, holding out his phone for them to see the competition he talked about. “It’s a cooking competition where the contestants get a box of mystery ingredients, and they have to make whatever challenge dish it is, and the judges are always celebrity guests. They want to have you girls on to judge since everyone knows you three have impeccable palates.”

“That’s right we do!” Mira cheered.

“It sounds like so much fun,” Zoey said, hopping in place excitedly.

Bobby grinned, glad to see that he made his girls so happy. But, then there was Rumi, who still hadn’t said an actual word to him… “What do you think, Rumi?” he asked.

“Um…” She curled up tighter with her doll, nervous. “I wanna do it,” she said, but her voice was so quiet.

“Are you feeling okay, Rumi…?” Bobby asked.

“We should probably get going, Bobby!” Mira said, jumping to her feet. “It’s getting late, we still haven’t eaten, and we need to feed Derpy and Sussie before they make their own meal plans!”

“Oh! Okay, yeah…?”

Mira grabbed Rumi by the wrist and pulled her along. “Zoey, can you grab the bags?” she asked, feeling a bit bad for leaving Zoey with the bags.

“I’m coming!” Zoey said, grabbing their backpacks and purses on her way out. She dropped her towel out of her hair and onto the floor in her hurry.

“I-I’ll just let you know when they tell me what you’ll be judging, okay?” Bobby said as she left.

“Sounds good, Bobby!” Zoey said over her shoulder.

Once the girls made it back home, Rumi shuffled off to her room to change into pajamas. She really didn’t want to be in big girl clothes anymore—no, she wanted to match her dolly as best as she could. So, Rumi rummaged through her chest of drawers for anything similar to Honey’s pajamas. She ended up pulling out a pair of pink pajama pants with teddy bears all over them, and she grabbed a plain white t-shirt to go with it. Rumi even found a pair of slippers in her closet with teddy bear faces on them that made her very excited.

“Rumi, everything alright?” Zoey asked, knocking on the door as she poked her head into the room. “Oh, you match your dolly!” she cooed, noticing immediately that Rumi wore so many teddy bears. “Aren’t you just a cutie?”

Rumi giggled, and she picked up her doll to hug her to her chest again. “Named her Honey…!” she said, since Rumi didn’t get to tell Zoey earlier.

“Honey’s a great name,” Zoey cooed. “Did you want to come in here with us? We’ve got dinner, and we’re gonna watch some TV. I think Mira wants to rewatch Strong Girl Nam-soon if you’re interested?”

“Okay…!” Rumi squeaked out with a little nod. “Can Honey watch, too?”

“I think that’d be a great idea!” Zoey said. She held out a hand for Rumi to take, and the two of them made their way toward the living room together. “Go ahead and sit down, we’ll bring over food in just a second.”

Rumi plopped down on the couch, sitting criss-cross with Honey in her lap. Over the back of the couch came a pair of eyes, then a nose, then Rumi felt hot breath on the back of her neck. She turned around to see Derpy staring at her, and she laughed. “Silly kitty,” she said, reaching back to pet him. Derpy’s eyes fell shut as she scritched the top of his head, and his tongue lulled out of his mouth. “Did you wanna see my dolly?” she asked, and she held up Honey for Derpy to see.

Derpy’s eyes narrowed on the doll, and he breathed a little heavier as he tracked it.

“She’s really cute, and she likes teddy bears like I do, and she likes trains I promise, and her hair is really soft…” Rumi rambled, running her hands through the doll’s hair while Derpy slowly inched closer. Rumi looked up, locking eyes with him until he slowly retreated. “Bad kitty!” she fussed, clutching the doll closer to her chest.

“Why’s Derpy a bad kitty, Rumi?” Zoey asked, handing over a plate to her.

“He wants to steal Honey!” Rumi tattled. Zoey gasped, waggling a finger in the tiger’s face.

“That’s not nice, Derpy!” she fussed. “We don’t steal toys from little girls!”

Slowly, Derpy sank down behind the couch until he was out of sight.

“Okay, let’s start the show before you manage to get Rumi’s doll eaten by a tiger,” Mira said, plopping down on Rumi’s other side. “The last thing we need is to go doll fishing in a tiger’s throat tonight.”

Rumi squeaked, holding Honey protectively to her chest. “I don’t want her to get eaten!” she squeaked out.

“Neither do we, Rumi,” Mira promised. “C’mon, we’ll keep her safe, but you should eat.”

“Okay…” Rumi said quietly. She didn’t put Honey down, instead keeping her doll in the crook of her arm while she ate.

It didn’t take long for Rumi to lose interest in their show, however. As soon as she ran out of food to focus on, she slipped off the sofa and laid down on the rug. She could hear Zoey and Mira laughing, but she chose not to focus on them, instead mumbling to Honey about how superpowers weren’t all they were cracked up to be.

“Do you want to go to bed, Rumi?” Zoey asked. Rumi looked up at her with a glare. “I’m just saying, you seem a little grouchy, and it’s been a long day, so…”

“I don’t wanna go to bed,” Rumi fussed, rolling over onto her back. She held up Honey, waving the doll in the air. “Honey’s gonna have superpowers. She can fly, now!”

“Well, technically any toy has the power to fly if you throw them hard enough,” Mira said, snickering to herself. Rumi glared at her, too, which Mira could only take to mean she really was grouchy. “But we won’t throw Honey, I promise,” she tried, hoping not to get on the little girl’s bad side.

Zoey hopped up from the couch and disappeared down the hall. Rumi tried to watch her, but soon Zoey was out of sight. She came back just a moment later with Rumi’s pacifier in her hands, and Rumi glared at her the whole while as she sat down and presented it to her. “Do you want your paci, cute girl?” Zoey asked with a coo.

What Rumi should have done was completely reject it, knock it from Zoey’s hand and insist that she wasn’t tired at all and that she certainly was not grouchy. Instead, however, Rumi bit down on the pacifier and rearranged it in her mouth until it sat comfortably between her teeth.

“You don’t have to go to bed or anything, but I thought maybe you’d like to have your paci…” Zoey said as if she had anything but evil intentions. Enough of Rumi’s big brain still clung on that she could tell when she was being tricked.

“Y’know, Zoey, I’m actually getting super tired…” Mira said. Just to sell it a little more, she yawned and stretched out her arms. Rumi yawned, too, but it wasn’t her fault. “I might go to bed at the end of this episode since there’s only about ten minutes left.”

“Yeah, I think I’m right there with you,” Zoey said, yawning as well. Rumi yawned again, but it wasn’t her fault. Her friends were yawning on purpose to make her sleepy. “What do you think, Rumi?”

“I’m never sleeping ‘gain,” Rumi said, rolling over onto her tummy. “Me ‘nd Honey don’t need sleep.”

“I think even little half-demons need sleep,” Mira said. “Even if they’re totally not tired.”

Rumi glared at her again, but she chose not to respond. She didn’t need to. Rumi knew she was a big girl that didn’t need sleep.

A few more minutes passed, and the episode came to an end. Rumi sat up, watching as Mira turned off the TV and got to her feet. She stretched her arms over her head as she yawned one more time. “Man, I am tired,” she said. “I’m definitely going to bed.”

“Same,” Zoey said, hopping up to stretch and yawn herself. “It’s been such a long day, and tomorrow’s gonna be just as long!”

Slowly, ever so slowly, the two of them shuffled toward the bedrooms. Rumi sat on the floor watching them still, sucking her pacifier tightly against her face. She didn’t want to be alone! Why were they leaving her?

“No!” Rumi squeaked out, jumping to her feet. Mira and Zoey looked back at her, surprised. “Don’t leave…”

Both Mira and Zoey softened immediately, and they backtracked to Rumi’s side.

“We’d never leave you, Rumi,” Zoey said, hugging her shoulders.

“Yeah, we’re right here for you,” Mira said with her own hug. Rumi blushed, and she hung her head, slowly removing her pacifier from her mouth.

“I’m tired…” she said quietly, glancing up at her friends with big, sad eyes.

“How about we all go lay down, then?” Mira suggested.

“Yeah, we can have a little cuddle party!” Zoey cooed. Rumi giggled, nodding happily. “C’mon, let’s go,” Zoey said, taking Rumi’s hand in hers. With her other hand, Rumi held Honey tightly.

The three of them went to Rumi’s bedroom, and Mira pulled back the covers for Rumi to get in the bed first. Once Rumi laid down, Mira got in beside her, and Zoey got in on the other side. They snuggled down together, cuddling up to each other happily while Rumi replaced her paci in her mouth. She didn’t want to go to bed, exactly, but she was glad to do so with her friends.

The elevator dinged and let Bobby into the living room that next morning. “Girls, I’ve got the schedule for the cooking competition! You’re judging next week!” he said as he poked his head around for the girls. Unfortunately, he didn’t see them anywhere…

“Girls?” he called again, checking the living room, the kitchen, and even the pantry… He didn’t see any sign of them. Were they still in bed? “Mira? Zoey? Rumi…?”

Bobby started down the hallway, but as he went he saw that Mira’s door and Zoey’s door were both wide open. He stopped in front of Rumi’s bedroom door, which was cracked open, and he knocked. He really didn’t want to disturb them, but if they overslept…

“Are you girls awake?” he asked, slowly inching the door open just far enough to poke his head inside. In the bed he saw a very frozen, very red-faced Zoey. He also saw Mira with her hand over her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose, and he saw Rumi still fast asleep between the two of them with—was that a pacifier? “Oh! Whoops!”

“Hi, Bobby…” Zoey said, her voice shaking as she gave him a weak little wave. “Can we have five minutes?” she asked.

“Yep! Yep, five minutes! I’ll be in—couch! Yep!” Bobby started to leave, and he saw the tiger wake up from his spot in the corner of the bedroom. With that, he squeaked and darted away from the door as fast as his legs could take him.

Chapter Text

Bobby sat rigid and upright, a smile plastered on his face as he anxiously awaited his girls to come out of Rumi’s bedroom. He tried not to think too hard about it, but his mind quickly shot right back to how Rumi slept right in the middle with a pacifier in her mouth. There was no way he imagined that, right? And with how Zoey and Mira seemed so unhappy that he saw…there was something going on there, right? It wasn’t even his place to know about, though! Right…?

As he felt himself start to spiral, the tiger slunk out of the room and joined him in the living room.

“Oh! Hi, there, pretty kitty…” Bobby tried, nervously reaching out a hand to pet Derpy on the head. Derpy headbutted his hand immediately and leaned into the affection. “Nice…kitty…”

A squawk caught his attention, then, as Sussie landed on the coffee table directly in front of him. He squawked again, making Bobby jump in his seat.

“Can I help you…?” he asked, yelping when Sussie squawked a bit more angrily at him. “Okay, okay, no more questions!” he tried, pulling his hand away from Derpy to hide behind.

“Don’t mind the bird,” Mira said with a sigh as she and Zoey made their way into the living room. “Derpy, go lay with Rumi,” she said, ushering the tiger away from Bobby.

“Sussie is a little over-protective when it comes to Rumi,” Zoey said with an apologetic tone as she sat on Bobby’s left. Mira plopped down on his right.

“Right…that makes total sense, yeah,” Bobby said with a nervous laugh. “Sorry for, uh, for barging in…I wouldn’t have come in if I thought you three were, uh, well. I don’t know.”

“It’s fine, Bobby, it was probably going to happen eventually, anyway…” Mira groaned. “Rumi’s not exactly happy about it, but she’ll be okay.”

Well, it seemed like the girls weren’t offering up the explanation readily, so Bobby tried to dig an answer out. “It just looked like, well, uh…did Rumi have a pacifier?” he asked. “Like, a baby’s pacifier?”

“Technically it’s an adult one,” Zoey said. “But yes. Rumi has a paci.”

“Is there a reason for that…?” Bobby asked.

“Rumi had a bad childhood, yeah?” Mira started. Bobby nodded; from what he knew, it seemed like Rumi had a pretty rough upbringing. She was part demon, she was told to hide that part of her because it was wrong and bad, and she lost both of her parents before she could even remember them. Bobby considered that pretty bad. “Since she had it so rough, she’s got a lot of trauma. So, the way that’s been processing for her now that she feels safe…is she’s been age regressing.”

“Okay…” Bobby said with a nod. “What does that mean exactly?”

“Zoey, your turn,” Mira said as she sat back against the couch cushions. Bobby turned to look at Zoey once more.

“Sometimes, Rumi’s mind regresses so that she mentally feels younger than she really is,” Zoey said. “When she regresses, she gets to have the childhood that she never could when she was growing up…if she lets herself. Which she’s working on.”

“Is that why she had a doll yesterday?” Bobby asked, and Zoey nodded. “So it’s not for her to practice hairstyles on,” he said, though a questioning tone still rang through his voice.

“It’s not not for her to do different hairstyles on, but it’s mostly for her to play with and to distract her when one of us does her hair,” Mira explained. “The doll’s name is Honey.”

“Well, that’s cute…!” Bobby said.

“She regresses pretty small, but she’s still getting used to letting herself actually be small,” Mira explained. “We only found out about this a couple weeks ago, actually…”

“And I know we don’t even need to say it, Bobby, but please don’t tell anyone…don’t post about it or anything, just—this is just between us,” Zoey said.

“Right, right, yeah!” Bobby said. “I have zero intentions of posting about this or telling anyone, I promise. I’m just…worried about Rumi.”

“Trust me, she’ll be fine,” Mira said. “This isn’t an all-the-time thing, and it doesn’t get in the way of anything—”

“Does she need, like, anymore toys or snacks or something…?” Bobby asked, earning a raised brow from Mira and a little giggle from Zoey.

“That might be something to ask Rumi about,” Mira said.

“Although, there’s a series of little blind bag teddy bears with jobs that she likes,” Zoey said. “She’s only gotten one, but she’s showed me several more that she likes…!”

“I could always get her a whole case of them,” Bobby said, pulling his phone out slowly. Mira pushed his hand down.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, Bobby,” she said. “You haven’t even talked to her yet.”

“Will she even want to talk to me?” Bobby asked. “I mean…if she’s shy and she didn’t even tell you two until recently…”

“I’ll go get her!” Zoey said, hopping to her feet. Bobby tried to protest, but Zoey disappeared down the hallway toward Rumi’s bedroom.

“Knock, knock,” Zoey said, knocking gently on the door as she made her way into Rumi’s bedroom. Rumi whined from the bed, rolling over to hide her face in Derpy’s fur. “Rumi, Bobby wants to talk to you whenever you’re ready…” she said. Zoey took a seat beside Rumi, resting a hand on Rumi’s arm while she whined into Derpy’s belly. “Me and Mira told him about you, and he thinks it sounds pretty cute, y’know,” Zoey tried. “He even asked if there’s anything you need like more toys or snacks. Doesn’t that sound like someone who cares?”

“I don’t want anything…” Rumi said, her words muffled by blue fur.

“Rumi, what’s the matter?” Zoey asked. “Bobby’s not going to be mean about you regressing, I promise. He cares about you, and he wants to help.”

Unfortunately, Zoey’s plea only further exacerbated Rumi’s whining. She even kicked her legs to show just how upset she really was.

“I know you didn’t want him to find out, but he promised not to tell anyone else, not to post about it ever, and he even offered to buy you more of the teddy bears you like, the ones like Rose,” Zoey tried. When she mentioned the teddy bears, Rumi’s fit stopped. Her legs stilled, her whining ceased, and slowly Rumi sat up until her eyes met Zoey’s.

“More teddies?” she asked, eyes fixed intensely on Zoey.

“More teddies,” Zoey said with a nod. “Bobby said he’d buy an entire case of teddies so that you’ll get all of them.”

Rumi squeaked, and Zoey could practically watch the gears turn in her head as she considered her options. “I want teddies.”

“Well, then you should go say hi to Bobby,” Zoey said, giggling. She hopped to her feet and held out her hands for Rumi to take, grinning at her as Rumi stood up.

Once the two made it into the living room, Mira stood up. She gave Rumi such a soft look, holding her arms open when Rumi darted over to her. “Hi, Ru, are you okay?”

“No…” Rumi whined into her shirt. “Zoey said… Zoey said teddies?”

“Teddies?” Mira repeated, glancing over at Zoey for an explanation. Zoey giggled, leaning over the back of the sofa beside Bobby.

“The only way I could get her out of bed was by telling her that Bobby would get her a case of those blind bag bears she likes,” Zoey explained.

“Oh!” Bobby hopped to his feet, nervous smile on his face as he clasped his hands together. “Yes! Absolutely, I can get a whole case of them, even more if there’s other series or something! Or if there’s any other toys that you like…?”

“I like the teddies…” Rumi mumbled, never leaving Mira’s arms.

“I’ll get the teddies, then!” Bobby said, smiling. “What about, like, snacks…? You girls have so many snacks that you like, but if there’s anything that’s meant more for little kids that you like…?”

“I dunno…” Rumi said quietly.

“We haven’t really had much of an opportunity to experiment with snacktime,” Mira said. “She hasn’t been regressed to eat more than a meal before, so there hasn’t been much snacking.”

“Well, we can definitely fix that if she wants,” Bobby said. He tried to meet Rumi’s eyes, but she kept her gaze locked on the floor so she wouldn’t have to look at him. “What do you think, Rumi?”

“I like snacks…” Rumi said oh so quietly.

“I’ll see what I can scrounge up, okay…?” Bobby tried. Rumi nodded.

“Did you want to introduce Bobby to Rose and Honey?” Zoey asked with a little coo in her voice. Rumi squeaked, and she buried her face in Mira’s shirt.

“I think that’s a no,” Mira said, snickering. She petted the back of Rumi’s head. “It might be time to just give her some space?”

“Uh! Yeah, yeah, I’ll get going…uh, I’ll just…come back later. And we’ll talk about the cooking competition,” Bobby said as he headed toward the elevator.

“That works, Bobby! Thanks for being so cool about this,” Zoey said.

“Yeah, seriously, thanks…” Mira said. Rumi just made a little squeak, but that served its purpose well enough.

“See you girls later!” Bobby said over his shoulder. As soon as the elevator doors shut, Mira and Zoey sighed in relief.

“Well, that went better than it could have,” Mira said. She glanced down at Rumi, who still clung to her tightly. “What do you think, Ru?” she asked, running her fingers through Rumi’s hair.

“Nervous…” she said, hugging Mira tighter.

“I get it, sweetie, but Bobby’s not going to be mean to you. He cares about you,” Mira said.

“How about we get some breakfast, and we see how we feel after there’s something in our bellies?” Zoey suggested. Rumi nodded, but she still showed no signs of letting go of Mira. Zoey locked eyes with Mira, giving her a look of sympathy as the two of them realized just how difficult this could be.

“Hey, girls!” Bobby greeted as the three of them made their way into the studio that afternoon.

“Hi, Bobby!” all three of them said, grinning happily. Rumi still struggled to make eye contact with him, but she still tried to be friendly. She knew she couldn’t exactly hide from him, so she needed to just dive in and deal with the awkwardness. However, Rumi also noticed that Bobby seemed nervous, and that got her attention.

“Are you okay, Bobby…?” Rumi asked, dropping her bag down on the ground so she could stretch.

“Oh, yeah, yeah I’m doing great!” Bobby said. “What about you, Rumi?”

Oh, that explained it. Rumi hated this. “I’m fine, really. All better,” she said.

“So…you don’t want that case of teddy bears right now, do you?” he asked, laughing nervously. Rumi’s breath caught in her throat, and her eyes grew wide.

“I think you just shocked her,” Mira said with a snicker.

“Mmmmaybe we should wait until after we practice,” Zoey suggested.

“U-uh, yeah, yeah that’s probably smart…” Rumi said. She cleared her throat. “Where’s the case, Bobby?” she asked.

“I just have it in the backroom with your regular post-practice snacks,” Bobby said. “Is that okay…?”

“That’s great!” Rumi said possibly a bit too loudly.

“Are you going to be able to practice, Rumi?” Mira asked.

“Yeah!” Rumi insisted. “C’mon, let’s go stretch and get started! We’re wasting time!” She jogged ahead, leaving Zoey and Mira to exchange knowing looks with one another. “Let’s go!” she shouted over her shoulder.

“I give her half an hour,” Mira said.

“Really? I give her ten minutes,” Zoey said.

“Until…?” Bobby questioned, nervous that he messed something up. Had he already caused problems just by getting the teddy bears Rumi wanted?

“Until she’s small and tearing open boxes of teddy bears as fast as possible,” Mira explained.

“Are we practicing or what?!” Rumi hollered, stamping her feet. Mira snorted a laugh, and Zoey giggled as they headed over to her side.

“She made it an hour,” Mira said, arms crossed as she stood over Rumi with Zoey and Bobby. “I’m honestly very impressed that she lasted this long.”

“Oh, that’s a lot of plastic getting thrown around…” Bobby cringed.

“I think she gave up when she fell over,” Zoey said, ignoring Bobby’s worry. She gasped when Rumi held up a teddy bear dressed in an outfit that looked like it belonged on Ms. Frizzle. “That’s really cute, Rumi!” she cooed.

Rumi giggled and held up a teddy bear dressed as a chef.

“Very cute, Rumi,” Mira said. “Maybe that bear can learn to cook for us?”

Rumi giggled harder, and she held up a teddy bear wearing a smock and carrying a paint palette and brush. “Artist!” she squealed.

“I bet that one would love to paint with you!” Zoey cooed.

“She paints?” Bobby asked, shocked.

“Finger paints,” Mira explained. “She likes it because it’s messy.”

Rumi held up her fire fighter bear and her doctor bear as well, grinning proudly as she held them up for her caregivers and Bobby to see.

“Are you happy with everyone?” Zoey asked, stooping down on the floor beside her.

“Yeah…!” Rumi said. She picked up her second train engineer bear, holding it to her chest. “Got another Rose, though…!”

“Well, maybe you can keep that one on your bag?” Zoey suggested. “That way, she can report back to Rose about all the sights she sees without you having to worry that Rose might get lost or dirty.”

“Yeah…” Rumi looked down at the pile of teddy bears and garbage that surrounded her. She hugged all her bears tightly. “We can take pictures for her, too!” she tried.

“Rose would love that,” Zoey cooed, making Rumi giggle. “Are you going to name all your new teddies?” she asked.

“Uh huh…” Rumi said, still giggling. “I’ll do that at home, though. Takes a long time…!”

“Well, you definitely don’t want to rush it!” Zoey said. “How about we clean up all this trash so we can go home?”

Rumi wrinkled up her nose, not convinced that cleaning seemed like a good use of her time.

“If you clean up, we’ll get ice cream,” Mira tried. She smirked when Rumi’s eyes got so big, and she started scooping up her garbage as quickly as she could.

“Big fan of ice cream, I take it?” Bobby asked.

“Eh, sweets in general,” Mira said with a shrug. “The convenience store on the way back to our dorm has some of her favorites, though, so it was an easy suggestion.”

“Gotcha…” Bobby said. Mira raised a brow at him, curious, but she decided to concern herself more with the little girl in front of her than their manager. If he wanted to get Rumi sweets, he could get her sweets. Mira just needed to help Zoey get her out the door without losing a teddy bear.