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At this point they had been rehearsing for six hours. Lolla was in a week, and they were still hard at work trying to perfect the M.I.A choreo. They didn't have their choreographers there that day, so Daniela was given the "dance captain" role for the day. The girls didn't mind this, they knew Dani knew her shit and they weren't going to complain if they were being given the opportunity to get direction from someone less strict than what they're all used to.
The only issue was that Dani had the freedom to decide when they would be done.
"Dani, come on. It's been hours, I think we're fine for today." Lara groaned. She wasn't typically one to complain about long rehearsals, but it felt like they kept going over the same two things for ages and it literally wasn't getting anywhere. That, and she noticed Sophia looked more tired than usual. She knew that she hadn't been sleeping very well recently, often catching her active on socials way past midnight. A few of the others noticed too, but nobody wanted to ask. Even if they did, Sophia would always say she was fine, not wanting to worry anyone. Now here she was, putting all of her effort into making it through this rehearsal.
They ran the number again, but it wasn't long until Dani stopped the track. "Sophia, your arms were weak there." She pointed out. "Pay attention to that next time. We're gonna do it again." She explained before restarting the music.
Sophia took that note and focused on her arms next time. However, she focused so hard on keeping her moves strong that any spatial awareness she had just went fully out the window, and she accidentally hit Megan's arm. "Shit, sorry-"
"You're good, don't worry." Megan reassured her.
Dani shot Sophia a glare. Not necessarily as discipline, just slightly out of annoyance. "Again."
Something about that glare made Sophia anxious. Usually she was good at ignoring that, but right now she couldn't. She kept fucking up, she rarely ever fucks up choreo, especially to this degree and because of it, she's making everyone rehearse longer. It's her fault.
Lara noticed Sophia started staring off into space. "You okay?"
Sophia blinked slowly. "Yeah." Was all she said. Lara wanted to press further, but the music started before she could.
This time, they only got through a single count of eight before Sophia stumbled over her own feet and fell right on her knee.
"Okay, Sophia what the fuck is going on with you?" Dani snapped.
Suddenly it felt like every negative emotion at once crawled to the surface. Sophia just wanted to cry, but she didn't know why. She wanted Mam- no, Lara. Shit, she was starting to drop. Not here, not now, this wasn't supposed to happen. This couldn't happen.
Tears began to fall due to the combination of the strong pain in her knee, her anxiety and the start of her drop. "Maybe if you stopped being a controlling bitch for a minute and let us take a break, we wouldn't still be here right now." She bit back.
The second the words left her mouth, she started to full on sob. Sophia didn't want to be mean, she didn't want Dani to be upset at her, she was just really overwhelmed and frustrated. Before anyone could respond to her outburst, she shot up and ran out of the room.
The girls all glanced at eachother silently, trying to decipher what the actual fuck just happened. Then all eyes were on Dani.
Dani, who was now also starting to cry. It didn't take a rocket scientist for them to pick up on what was happening with her. Manon caught on first, obviously, being Dani's carer. " 'ela, come here baby." she ordered softly, holding her arms out for her.
The regressed girl walked forward and allowed Manon to wrap her arms around her. "Didn't mean to." She cried.
"I know, honey. I think she's just a little tired and she's having some big feelings because of it." Manon explained, glancing over at Lara, almost to clarify if she was on the right track with that explanation.
"Did Sophia slip?" Megan asked.
Lara shook her head. "I think that was a drop. She doesn't really let herself regress. It's weird, she usually drops and then fights it for a bit before fully dropping."
"Is this bad then?" Yoonchae followed up, concerned and about ready to go and check on Sophia. She was still pretty new to all of the terminology, so she just heard "slip" and "drop", and figured she might've been needed.
"Possibly. I just need everyone to leave her be for a bit until I see what's going on with her. I'll update you guys when I know." Lara explained as she grabbed her stuff and headed out of the room.
Megan and Yoonchae looked back over at Dani and Manon, pretty much awaiting their next instructions. "Want us to go too?" Megan asked.
Manon nodded. "She'll be okay, she just needs a minute. You guys go do whatever, we'll join you eventually." She explained while rubbing Dani's back in an effort to calm her. Megan and Yoonchae nodded before collecting their things to head out as well, leaving Manon and Dani alone to talk.
Once Lara left, she booked it to Sophia's room. When she got there, she waited before she did or said anything, instead she just listened through the door to try and gauge how upset Sophia seemed. She heard some sniffling and some whimpers, but that was all. "Soph?" Lara called as she knocked on the door, making sure to not be too loud.
"Go 'way!" Sophia whined loudly. That volume had a soft edge to it though, one that made it obvious to Lara that the girl didn't really mean it.
"It's just me, Sophibear." She figured the nickname would help get Sophia more comfortable, and when she heard a quiet giggle for a split second she knew she got through to her. "Can I come in?"
"Mhm." Sophia hummed.
Lara opened the door and watched Sophia hide her face behind her blanket. "Nobody else is here, babe. They're all still in the rehearsal room."
Sophia peeked out from behind the blanket to see Lara, and suddenly she started crying again. Was she in trouble? Was Lara going to yell at her for being mean to Dani? Was Lara mad that she was the reason they were all stuck at rehearsal for so long? She didn't know, she just wanted to be held. "Mama-" She cried weakly, reaching toward her for comfort.
"Oh, my baby." Lara cooed gently before sitting on the bed next to her and pulling her into her lap. "It's okay, I've got you."
The regressed girl glanced up at Lara with a quivering pout. "Not mad?"
Lara frowned and shook her head, her heart breaking at how upset her baby was. "No honey, of course not. I could never be mad at you. Nobody's mad, they're all just worried."
"Dani mad." Sophia stated.
"She's not mad at you, Phi. She was just overworking herself and it was affecting her. Would I be wrong to say that I think that's what happened with you too?" Lara asked. She already knew that she was right, but she wanted to let the kid speak for herself.
Sophia nodded. "Didn't wanna be mean." She mumbled, bringing her thumb up to her mouth to suck on her knuckle. She didn't like sucking on her thumb because it felt weird.
Lara grabbed Sophia's hand to gently pull it away from her mouth. Sophia didn't really fuss about it, she knew she wasn't supposed to be doing it anyway. "Can you tell me how old you are right now?" Lara asked.
"Not little." Sophia pouted.
"Soph." Lara started before pulling her off of her lap for a second so she could look her in the eyes. She grabbed her hand again to hold it. "It's okay to be little, you know. You're safe with everyone in this house. Even if you weren't, Mama would keep you safe, yeah?" She explained.
Sophia shook her head. "No. Gotta be big for em." She argued.
"Sophia." Lara said firmly, not in a bad tone, just in a tone that would get her to know she's being serious. "You have to put yourself first sometimes. You take care of the other littles all the time, you always look out for all of us, but you never take some time to let yourself get taken care of."
"Still not little." Sophia huffed.
Lara looked around for something to counter the statement, and then she saw the girl's stuffed dog on the very edge of the bed and smirked before going to reach it. "Alright, what's this doing here then?"
Sophia whined and moved to grab it out of Lara's hand, but when she moved onto her knee she shrieked and immediately started crying again, crawling back into Lara's lap instead.
Shit. Lara forgot about the whole knee thing, she probably should've checked on that. She went to speak, but when she saw a bit of blood soaking through Sophia's pants, she was caught off guard for a second. "Phia, can I look at your knee?"
The girl just whined in response, so she just took that as a yes, and carefully rolled the pant leg up to take a look. Thankfully, it didn't look fractured or anything, but she definitely skinned it pretty bad. It was starting to bruise too, but she couldn't fully see how severe it was due to the blood. "You took quite the fall, huh? I'm going to get a wet cloth to clean it, okay? I'll get one of the Disney Princess bandaids too."
She knew a Disney Princess bandaid was absolutely not going to be big enough for that, but it was a good way to get the girl to cooperate. Sophia didn't want Lara to leave her, but yeah, the princess bandaid did sound pretty intriguing. Lara grabbed the stuffed dog again and gave it to Sophia as she got up to go get the stuff. "He can keep you comfy while I'm gone." Sophia nodded and buried her face in the plushie's matted brown fur.
Lara left and beelined to the kitchen to grab an ice pack, followed by a cloth. She ran the cloth under the sink for a few seconds to get it fully wet before wringing it out. She turned around to go get a bandaid from the bathroom, but was jumpscared by a concerned Yoonchae leaning against the kitchen island.
"Is she okay?" Yoonchae asked.
Lara nodded. "Yeah, she just hurt her knee earlier, so I'm getting stuff for that."
"Has she had water?" Yoonchae continued. She knew that when Sophia got emotional, she was the biggest crier on the planet, which in turn called for lots of hydration.
"I don't think so, not since the rehearsal probably." Lara replied. "Should I get some?"
Yoonchae took the lead and opened the cupboard. "How old is she?"
"I don't know. She's in pure denial right now, I'm more worried about getting her like, calm right now." Lara explained.
"Well.." Yoonchae started as she looked at the cup options. Then she grabbed two, a Disney princess sippy cup, and a baby bottle with pink butterflies on it. She turned back to Lara with her signature smirk. "How old do you want her to be?"
Lara smiled. "You're so determined." She laughed, examining her options. She figured getting Sophia to drop to her minimum might've been impossible, but easing her into it seemed smarter. "I'll try the sippy first, see if she even takes it."
Yoonchae nodded and put the bottle on the table. "If you need help, I'm free." She offered while she got the sippy cup of ice water ready.
"Thanks, but she's just barely getting comfortable with me right now. Eventually maybe, but right now it's better if it's just me I think. I appreciate it, though." Lara said.
"Okay." Yoonchae smiled and handed her the sippy cup.
Lara smiled back. "Thanks, Yoonchip." She replied before walking to the bathroom to grab the bandaids. She got a bigger one, and then a princess one to put over it. Anything to make the little one happy, even if it was lowkey wasteful.
Once she had everything she needed, Lara made her way back to Sophia's room. She knocked twice and cracked the door open a bit as a warning. "It's just me." She said as she fully opened the door, but she didn't see the girl on her bed. Lara then heard shuffling and turned to see Sophia, trying to reach something on the top shelf of her closet. "Soph- oh! What are you doing, baby?"
"Book." The little whined, trying to reach up higher, but not succeeding at all. The more she tried, the more frustrated she got.
Lara set down the stuff she had, and made her way over to Sophia. "I can get it for you." She assured her. And yeah, thankfully, she happened to be wearing her platform UGG slippers, so she was just barely tall enough to grab the colouring book that the kid wanted. "Can we go sit for a second so I can patch up your knee before you colour?"
Sophia nodded, before sitting back on the bed. She pulled her pant leg up to show Lara her injury, allowing the older girl to begin cleaning up the wound. It hurt a bit, but she didn't feel like fussing over it. "Princess ban'aid?" She asked.
"I got you one, don't worry." Lara smiled, and held up the princess bandaid. "First, we need to put on this big plain one though, because it's a big owie." She explained as she put the bigger bandaid on her knee. Then she put the princess one on top of it. "Better?"
Sophia nodded quickly before reaching for her colouring book again. This was a good opportunity for Lara to discretely check the girl's age. "Phi, do you want water?" She asked, holding up the sippy cup for her. Sophia nodded again and took it, immediately taking a big sip.
So she was definitely dropped, and definitely really young. Usually, Sophia would fight the use of her sippy cup for literal hours if she wasn't.
"How old are you right now, Sophibear?" Lara asked.
The younger girl went back to her colouring book. "Two." She said bluntly, too distracted by the colouring page to display any emotion about it. This was a good sign, it meant that she wasn't as upset anymore.
Lara nodded and sat down next to her. "You're pretty little then, huh?" She smiled. Sophia hummed in response and leaned into Lara's side, allowing Lara to wrap an arm around her."What are you colouring?"
Sophia showed her the colouring page, Hello Kitty in a princess costume. "Very cute, baby." Lara stated.
The two sat there for the next ten or so minutes before Sophia stopped colouring, and hugged Lara, burying her face in her carer's neck. Once Lara realized that Sophia had started crying again, she pulled the little into her lap and began to rock her gently, one hand rubbing her back, the other running through her hair. Lara didn't want to say anything and risk upsetting the girl even more, so instead she whispered her reassurance to remind her that she was okay.
Eventually, Sophia rested her head on Lara's shoulder. "Wanna say sorry." The little mumbled.
Lara kissed the top of Sophia's head. "To who, honey?"
"Dani." Sophia whined.
"You wanna go see Dani?" Lara repeated, just to make sure she was understanding the kid right. After all, Sophia never really tended to want to see the others when she was little. But Sophia nodded in response anyway. "Alright, let's go see Dani."