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Chanse loves Angela. They met while doing improv shows at UCB, and became friends almost immediately.
Chanse is very open about himself with his chosen people, and that now included Angela. He tells her everything, and Angela in return, tells him most things.
And it's what she doesn't tell him that's the most interesting.
He's very open with her about his little space, and while she's clearly hesitant with any conversations about it, she supports him fully.
Angela, on the other hand, always dodges talking about herself when littles are the topic of conversation. And he respects that about her, but that doesn't stop him from thinking about it.
Chanse, like Angela, came from a very religious family. His family was supportive of him, but he had always heard what some other Christians thought about being little.
As time went by, and Angela opened up about her own religious upbringing, it basically confirmed to him what he was already thinking.
Angela was a little. A traumatized little that repressed their headspace.
Chanse never brought any of this up with Angela, even though he wanted to. He wanted to let her open up in her own time. But he would always keep an eye on them. Watching her as best he could, to make sure she was ok.
… – — … …./.. …/–. ._ -.--
Tonight was not a good night for Angela. She had been dumped by her boyfriend of about a year. Chanse was secretly excited by this fact, that man was a walking red flag, but she was devastated.
Which is why the two sat together on the couch in Chanse's living room. Both were drinking wine, but while Chanse was slowly sipping his first glass, Angela was about three in.
She was tipsy, just tipsy enough to maybe be labeled drunk, and Chanse was ready to try to cut her off.
As much as he'd love to get wasted with his best friend, and watch rom-coms, he had stayed mostly sober. He was thinking that Angela would drop tonight.
Even before her breakup, Angela has been getting spacy over the last couple weeks. Nursing a constant headache and almost dozing off when they were out together.
He didn't bring it up, but he kept watch. This all culminated into tonight.
Just intense emotions and alcohol could begin to nudge him to littlespace. Adding Angela's repression, he was almost certain she would drop tonight.
Angela reaches for the bottle of wine and Chanse carefully stops her. “I think we should both be done for the night.” He suggests gently.
She looks at him with wide and sad eyes. “Don't be a buzzkill.” She whines, slightly slurred. “I'm fine, Chanse.”
He raises an eyebrow at her, and she huffs, trying to get around him.
He gently grabs her shoulders, looking into her eyes. “It's time to stop, Ang” He murmurs, lifting a hand to push her hair behind her ear.
And that's all it takes.
He can see the switch in Angela's face, from annoyance, to terror. She scrambles away from him, falling off the couch.
He watches her look around in fear, before quickly crawling under his coffee table.
Quiet sobs drift out from under the table, snapping Chanse out of his shock.
“It's ok, Ang” he starts. At his voice the sobbing stops, silence fills the room until he hears her gasping for breath, the sobbing starting again.
Chanse feels his heart break. She was trying to silence herself, but couldn't stop herself from crying.
He decides to try a different strategy. “Alright” he starts. “I'm gonna go put the wine away and get you some water. You're safe Angela, I'm gonna give you some space.”
He picks up the wine and glasses and exits the room. He slowly puts everything away. He's hoping the space will help her calm down.
He fills a tumbler with water, and walks to the entrance of the room. He can barely see Angela curled up under the table. They're still crying, but have clearly calmed down slightly.
“I'm back,” he says quietly, stopping in the doorway. “Brought you some water, but I'm gonna stay over here in the doorway. You can stay under the table as long as you need, and I'll stay over here.”
He considers her lack of reaction a small win.
Chanse sits on the ground, placing the water next to him. He lets them sit in silence for a couple minutes before speaking up again.
“When I'm scared, I have this game I like to play.” He starts, hoping calling it a game will make her more likely to join him. “I'm gonna play, and you can copy me if you wanna play too.”
“First you breathe in for four seconds.” He takes in an exaggerated breath, and counts to four on his fingers, seeing her peek at him in the corner of his eye. “Then you hold it for seven.” He puffs up his cheeks and uses his fingers to count to seven. “Finally you breathe it out for eight.” He exhales loudly, counting again with his fingers.
“Alright, I'm gonna play now, if you want to play with me.” He says, before he starts going through the breathing exercise again.
“In for four. Hold for seven. Out for eight.” He repeats this twice alone and on the third time, he hears her shakily join him.
He continues the exercise until he can hear her relax.
“Thank you for playing with me." He says genuinely. "I had fun.” he adds, glad that he'd been able to help her calm down
After a few minutes, he speaks up again. “I bet you're thirsty after all that playing.” He doesn't want to mention the crying if he doesn't have to.
“I have some water for you, but I bet you're enjoying your cool fort too much to wanna leave it. I can bring it to you, but only if you're ok with that. Can you stick your arm out of the fort if you want me to bring it over?”
He waits and slowly Angela's arm pokes out from under the table. “Good job sweetheart, lemme bring your water over.”
Chanse stands up and places the cup on the floor within arms reach, before backing up again.
Angela quickly grabs the water, and he can hear her drinking greedily. As the sound of drinking dissipates, he hears a small, mumbled, “thanks” come from under the table.
He coos quietly, too surprised to stop himself. “I think I'm tired after our game.” He says, punctuating it with a fake yawn. “I think I'm gonna sit and watch some tv.”
He moves towards the side of the couch furthest from the coffee table, and seeing no negative reaction from Angela, sits down.
He grabs the remote from where it had been abandoned earlier, and puts on the least annoying show for preschoolers he can think of, not wanting to torture himself.
The opening theme from Bluey begins to play, and by the end of the episode, he could see Angela's head poking out from under the table.
Two episodes later and Muffin's antics begin to pull tiny giggles from the little. By the fifth she's humming along with the theme song.
As the seventh episode starts, Chanse speaks up again. “I know your fort is super cool, but I think you'd be super comfy up here on the couch. I bet your neck is hurting a little.”
She doesn't look at him as he speaks, but she does nod slightly at the comment about her neck.
“I'm all the way on this side of the couch, how about you take the other half?” He asks gently.
He gets no response as the intro ends, and she's absorbed into the plot. But as the intro music plays again, he watches her slowly crawl out from under the table and clamber onto the couch.
She looks at him with apprehension, and he smiles at her, before turning back to the tv.
As more episodes play Angela’s giggles get louder and he watches her slowly begin to drift closer and closer to him out of the corner of his eye.
Eventually, she ends up right next to him and slowly she looks up at him, fear still in her eyes.
He looks down at her and smiles. “Hi Angie baby.” He whispers lovingly.
Angela lets out a choked. “Chansey” before falling onto him.
Chanse carefully collected the crying little into his arms, rocking her gently and rubbing her back as her fear flowed out through her tears.
Angela blinked up at him as her crying slowed, the fear in her eyes replaced with a mix of mild apprehension and love.
He runs a hand through her hair. “There we go,” he murmurs. “Look at those pretty eyes.” He coos. Angela blushes, and tries to wiggle out of his arms, not used to positive attention when little.
Chanse immediately places her on the couch next to him, not wanting to push any boundaries.
The two go back to watching Bluey, Angela giggling and leaning into Chanse's side.
Eventually, they both fall asleep on the couch, Bluey continuing to play on the tv.
… – — … …./.. …/–. ._ -.--
Chanse wakes up as the light shines through his apartment's windows. He groans, his body aching from sleeping sitting up on the couch.
As he wakes up a bit more, he realizes he doesn't feel the weight of Angela laying on him anymore.
He opens his eyes and he's alone. He stands up and stretches, scanning the room for signs of her. Finding none, he goes to his front door to find her shoes and purse gone.
He sighs and goes back to the living room to retrieve his phone. He has one text from her, sent about an hour ago,
“Leave it”