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If someone had told Amanda this time last year this was what she would be doing, she wouldn’t believe them, but here she is, and she’s excited.
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Angela is sitting on the couch in Chanse’s apartment. It’s almost his bedtime, and the little is lying with his head in Angela’s lap, watching “Kung Fu Panda.” She’s gently combing her fingers through his curls as the movie comes to an end and he looks up at her.
“Y’know what I want for my birthday?” he asks sleepily.
She smiles down at him. “What's that bubs?” she asks curiously, playing with his hair.
“Wanna play with Angie again.” he answers and Angela’s hands freeze.
She takes a couple deep breaths before responding. “You want to regress together again?” she clarifies, and he nods before changing the topic, already past it in his mind.
Angela moves him through his bedtime routine and tucks him in, mind only half there. When he finally falls asleep, she leaves his room quietly, moving to the living room to tidy the little bit of mess left.
He wants to regress with her again. There’s no way that can happen again. Her first excuse falls short in her head however. Until this year, there would be no one to watch them both, now there's Amanda, who would happily watch them together.
Her second excuse still worked, she refused to regress on purpose. It was almost like admitting to herself something. She wasn’t exactly sure what she was admitting, but whatever it was she couldn’t do it.
She sighs as she exits his apartment. She obviously wants to give him what he wants for his birthday, but she doesn’t think she can.
Angela sits in her car, driving home in silence. Stuck in her own mind, fighting with herself. Her love for Chanse battling her self image issues and trauma. With her mind getting louder and louder, she calls Amanda.
She answers after a couple rings, and Angela skips pleasantries, jumping straight to her problem.
“Little Chanse told me that he wants to play with Angie for his birthday.” she blurts out.
“What are you gonna do?” Amanda asks curiously
Angela groans. “I don’t know, that’s why I called you.” she whines
“Do you want to?” Amanda questions
She sighs “I wanna make him happy.” she admits
“That’s not what I asked,” she counters, “I asked if you want to.”
Angela parks in her spot and lets her forehead fall to the steering wheel. “I can’t” she mumbles
She wonders if Amanda heard her until a minute later she hears her response. “Why not?”
“I just can’t. I can’t regress on purpose, I can’t.” she says almost hysterically.
Amanda immediately stops pushing, switching to comfort. “Hey, Ang. It’s ok, if you can’t do it that’s ok.” she says comfortingly
“I want to do this for him.” she whispers sadly “He’s done so much for me.”
The two sit in silence for a couple minutes.
“What if.” Amanda suggests quietly, “We don’t schedule anything far in advance. We wait until you’re on the edge, and then pick a day to both go over to his apartment, and we just nudge you into it.”
Angela sits with the idea. She doesn’t have to drop on purpose, it’ll be because she can’t hold it back anymore. And Chanse will be happy.
She sighs. “I think I can do that.” she murmurs.
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That’s how Amanda ended up sitting on the couch with an excited Chanse and a wary Angela.
Chanse is bouncing with excitement, clutching his new robot toy in his hand, waiting for his friend to drop.
“Hey Chanse?” Amanda asks quietly, Chanse turns her attention to her so she continues. “How about you play a game on your Switch while I sit with Angela, and I’ll call you when she’s ready?”
Chanse looks between the two contemplatingly, but nods, scrambling to the other side of the room to play, laying on the floor as he turns it on.
Amanda turns her attention to Angela. She’s curled in on herself on the couch, clearly uncomfortable. “Ang,” Amanda murmurs quietly, and she looks up.
“Can I pick you up?” Amanda asks gently, Angela blinks up at her before giving a slight nod.
She scoops the girl up, hugging her to her chest. Angela melts into her and Amanda starts rubbing her back.
“You’re so close to dropping Ang, you gotta let go.” she murmurs to her.
She lets out a low whine, burying her face in Amanda’s neck.
Amanda hums quietly under her breath, rocking slowly, and after about five minutes Angela pulls her head up from Amanda’s neck.
“Manda.” she mumbles quietly, squishing Amanda’s cheeks between her hands.
She lets out a small laugh. “Hi Angie.” she coos quietly, kissing the little’s forehead.
“Are you ready to go play with Chansey?” she asks gently, wanting to give the girl more quiet time if she needed it.
Angela nods rapidly, and Amanda places the little on the floor, watching her run over to Chanse with a huge smile.
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Angela runs over to Chanse excitedly, lying on top of him. “Happy birthdays!” she yells at him.
He cheers, placing his Switch up on the table carefully before crushing his best friend in a hug.
“Angie!” he yells back excitedly, “We can play now!”
She nods, rolling off of him when he lets go. He scrambles to his feet, running over to his bin of action figures and dolls, dumping it out.
Angela crawls after him, and sits next to him, leaning into his side.
Chase begins explaining the game to her, a massive battle between aliens and humans with songs, multiple love stories, and explosions.
She listens, not really absorbing any of it, but she knows he doesn’t care. She peeks up at Amanda, smiling at them from the couch.
Angela pulls on his sleeve, “Chansey?” she asks quietly.
“Yeah?”
“Can Manda play too?” she asks, and he looks up at her in surprise.
“I forgot she was here.” he says with a laugh. “Wanna play too?” he asks hopefully.
Amanda comes and sits with the littles on the floor, and is handed a superman action figure as Chanse continues to ramble about the story.
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The three play for hours, but as the main alien is having his brain scientifically transferred into a human body to join the Space Rangers, Amanda has them pause.
Both the littles whine, but Amanda continues. “It’s getting close to dinner time, what does the birthday boy want?”
Chanse looks thoughtfully at Angela, “Garlic bread.” he responds resolutely.
She beams at him, bouncing on her knees. “Garlic!” she cheers excitedly.
Amanda smiles at the two, and at how much Chanse loves Angela. “We can definitely have garlic bread, but what else?” she asks
He looks between the two. “Pasta?” he questions, and both of the girls nod.
“Amanda.” he says, grabbing her hand as she goes to stand up. “I bought stuff yesterday.”
She looks at him in surprise. “I was gonna order something.” she responds, and he shakes his head.
“Look in the kitchen.” he pushes and she nods, standing up.
She looks at them as she walks away, “Be good.” she says jokingly and they both nod as she leaves the room.
She walks into the kitchen to find a note from Chanse under a box of pasta and a brown bag.
“Sorry to make you cook, but I really want Angela to enjoy this, so I set everything up for her to have a dinner she loves. You can see the pasta, the bag next to it is pre-made garlic bread, and there’s sauce in the fridge. I trust you can figure out how to put it together.
Thanks bitch,
Chanse”
Amanda rolls her eyes fondly. Those two love each other so much. And she figures she loves them both a lot too as she gets to work making dinner.
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Chanse looks back at Angela with a grin. “Whatcha wanna do till dinner?” he asks, dropping his toy on the ground.
She shrugs, copying him and dropping her own toy, before crawling over to him and into his lap, facing him.
He laughs, wrapping his arms around her. “I love you” he says happily, kissing her cheek.
She beams up at him. “Love you.” she repeats, clumsily kissing his cheek.
They both smile at each other, Angela reaching up and playing with his hair while Chanse walks his fingers around her body like they were exploring a mountain. They stay like this for a while, both happy in each other's arms, as Chanse hums under his breath.
Angela rests her head on his shoulder, wrapping her legs around his waist, and he tightens his grip on her slightly. She sighs in contentment.
“Chansey?” she mumbles into his ear quietly.
“Yeah?” he whispers back.
“Like a big brother.” she states, holding him a little tighter. “Is good”
Chanse makes a surprised sound, leaning back to look in Angela’s eyes.
“I’m your brother?” he confirms softly. She nods hesitantly, and he smiles at her. “That means you’re my baby sister.” he announces, and she softly shoves him.
“Not a baby.” she grumbles and he laughs.
“Fine.” he agrees, “Not a baby, just my baby sister.” he declares
She tries to pout at him, but can’t fight back her smile as she starts to cry.
Chanse wipes at her tears clumsily, also crying. “Happy tears?” he asks, clarifying and she nods. “Me too.” he mumbles, pulling her into a tight hug again.
“Are you guys okay?” Amanda asks, and Chanse turns to look at her standing in the doorway.
He nods, wiping his tears from his face. “Happy crying, right Angie?”
Angela pulls her face up from his neck and nods, scrubbing at her own tears.
Amanda smiles softly at them. “I’m glad you’re both ok, dinner should be ready in five minutes, can you two go wash your hands for me?” she asks gently and the two nod. “Perfect, come to the table when you’re done.” she says as she turns back to the kitchen.
The two littles untangle themselves from each other, holding hands and walking to the bathroom to wash their hands
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Angela sits at the table next to Chanse, kicking her feet, excited for garlic bread.
Amanda carefully brings dinner to the table, three bowls of pasta and three little plates with garlic bread on them.
She notices that her bread is cut into pieces, but ignores it, too excited to care as she shoves a piece in her mouth.
The three eat dinner happily, Chanse telling Amanda about his birthday party that she hadn’t been able to come to, with Angela occasionally chiming in.
Angela finishes her garlic bread and eats a couple bites of pasta before deciding she’s done, so she watches the other two eat.
Eventually Amanda notices. “Are you all done eating? Or just with the pasta? There’s more garlic bread.” she explains.
Angela looks at her excitedly, “more?” she asks hopefully.
Chanse laughs at her response as Amanda stands. “Lemme get you some more sweetheart.”
She bounces in her seat as Amanda places two more servings of garlic bread cut into pieces. “You don’t have to finish it.” she reminds the little carefully, before returning to her food and conversation with Chanse.
Dinner winds down as the other two finish their food and Angela decides she’s done with her garlic bread.
Amanda stands, and the two littles copy her. “How about we finish Chanse’s game, and then we watch a movie to wind down?”
Both littles nod, rushing back to the living room with Amanda following after them.
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They play for a couple more hours as the story finally winds down. The aliens and the humans realize that maybe they aren’t so different after blowing a bunch of each other up. With the main alien becoming an alien again, and kissing his human love interest.
Chanse grins at the two girls. “Thank you for playing my game!” he exclaims excitedly, tossing his figure lightly in the air in celebration.
Angela laughs, copying him, as Amanda responds. “I had a great time, and so did Angie, right baby?” Angela scrunches her nose at the nickname but nods.
“I have a surprise,” Amanda says with excitement and the two turn to her excitedly. She grabs her bag and carefully grabs a container of homemade peanut butter cookies.
Chanse shrieks in excitement. “Cookies! Manda thank you!” he cheers, lightly stomping his feet.
Amanda smiles and hands him a cookie, before turning to Angela. She looks up at her and holds her hand out. “Please thanks Manda” she chirps and Amanda coos, handing her a cookie.
She guides the littles to the couch, and sits them down, Angela sandwiched between the other two.
“What movie do you wanna watch, bud?” Amanda asks Chanse as she turns on the tv.
He hums, looking over at Angela in thought before choosing, “Up” he answers and Angela cheers.
She presses play on the movie, putting an arm around the two littles that are cuddled into each other.
As the characters in the movie reach the blimp, Angela looks up at Amanda. “Hi,” she whispers quietly, not wanting to disturb Chanse, “I’m back”
Amanda looks at her in surprise “Are you ok?” she whispers back.
Angela nods, turning to look down at a still little Chanse curled into her side.
“I’m perfect”