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Four teenager Cookies walked together through the warm streets of their hometown. Gingerbrave and Strawberry chatted about everything and nothing at the same time, bickering every once in a while when Skater quipped something absurd along the lines of them being "cute together". Meanwhile, Ninja watched them, quietly giggling to himself to distract his mind, but...
Something felt off.
It all started when Gingerbrave invited his friends for a sleepover at his place. Of course, Ninja got excited about it — maybe a bit nervous, even? Nonetheless, he was happy to hop along.
The thing is that, well, his dad didn't agree with the idea. So obviously, he's disobeying the man. He wasn't one to disagree with his dad, but all his friends are going too! So why can't he?
Besides, it's not every day he was getting invited to a sleepover, so who was he to refuse?
"Anddd, we're here!" Gingerbrave pulled him out of his thoughts, snapping back to reality as his friend unlocked the door to his house, quickly stepping in.
"Whoa!" Skater exclaimed, impressed at how packed together things were at his home. A bit on the claustrophobic side of things, but they will survive.
"So cozy..." Strawberry commented, muffled by her hoodie.
"Nice," Ninja added, to not seem like he was as disconnected from reality as he was at the moment.
Truth be told, he was scared.
The teen was going to be sleeping over at a male friend's house without telling his dad. If he finds out—
Well, what's the worse that could happen? He might as well enjoy the moment.
"What's all this then?" An old lady popped in from the kitchen in a way too thin nightgown and mismatched socks, holding a bowl of fresh Jellies for herself. Ah, that was—
"Grandma!" Gingerbrave covered his face in his hands. "I told you to not leave your room when I brought my friends over!" He then got even more red in the face when he saw the clothes she was wearing. "Especially not like that!"
"Wha', I'm sorry I can't walk comfortable in my own house," Cream Cookie teased. "You're lucky I'm clothed!"
Skater held a chuckle. Strawberry hid herself in her own hoodie. Ninja was unamused.
The boy dragged— er, guided his friends upstairs as quickly as possible to his own room and stood quietly for a few moments before he broke the silence. "I'm really sorry you guys had to witness that."
"Is she single?" Skater adjusted his cap as he asked, immediately getting slapped in the back by Gingerbrave.
"Dude, she's my grandma!" He winced in disgust at the idea of his so-called friend trying to get with his grandma.
"Fine, fine," he rolled his eyes. "My bad."
"So, uhm," Strawberry cleared her throat as she tried to quickly change the topic at hand. "You should do a room tour, Gingerbrave!"
"Ah, of course!" He clasped his hands together in joy. Everyone who's met the boy knows how much he enjoys talking. His friends didn't mind, though, they found it sweet that he could trust them enough to yap about whatever came to his hyperactive mind.
Speaking of hyperactive, it seemed like it all went incredibly fast as Gingerbrave bounced from a place to another in the room to explain about the objects there.
One thing that Ninja was focusing on, though, was a certain colourful chest at the corner of his room. But Gingerbrave wouldn't stop talking about his new Tomodachi Life game, too focused showing off his island to his two other friends on his Switch 2.
So he walked over to it.
"What's that?" Ninja tilted his head as he pointed at the chest.
"Huh?" He looked up from the device, then he sighed fondly as they met said corner. "Don't mind that. It's just my old toys in there."
"Oh." A pause. "Can I see them?"
He blushed at his own words the second they came out of his mouth. Why was he so interested in some old toys?!
But at the same time, he was curious, it was natural for that to happen, it's not his fault!
"I dunno why you'd want to see those old things, but sure, go ahead!" Soon after that, his attention was back on his game.
"You should make Naruto and Sasuke next," Strawberry suggested to Gingerbrave.
Meanwhile, Ninja kneeled in front of the toy chest. With his hands shaking in anticipation, he opened it and...
Several superhero toys along with dolls. Not exactly what he expected — he wasn't expecting anything, after all — but it left him pleasantly surprised.
Then, he started to tear up.
He didn't know why— actually, screw it, he did know why. His dad never would let him have dolls, and that just broke his heart.
It made Ninja feel a whirlpool of emotions within his chest. "How come he can have that and I can't?" He questioned mentally. It was unfair! It didn't make sense!
So, he cried silently as he stared at one of those fairy dolls that became cupcakes with a nice smell. He felt... weird, dumb. Childish, even. And that was wrong! Because— because he was supposed to act his age! He was supposed to be like any other sixteen year old boy!
"Ninja?" Gingerbrave called from afar. "Do you wanna see Naruto and Sasuke on my island?"
Oh, shoot. He wiped his eyes discreetly. And if he was sniffling, nobody commented about it as he walked over to Gingerbrave's bed where Strawberry sat on his left, while Skater sat on his right.
"Look, I made them really similar to the first seasons of the anime!" The boy grinned, showing off his creation. He had just got the game, so he wasn't the most skilled in character creation, but they were definitely recognisable.
"Cool," Ninja let out plainly. Speaking more than that was suddenly much harder than before.
His friends probably noticed something was off with him, because Skater immediately stood up from his seat. "I'mma get some water, be right back!" With that, he was off. Meanwhile, Strawberry fiddled nervously with her fingers.
"You can sit now, Ninja!" Gingerbrave smiled oh so brightly, it could burn him alive.
He sat where Skater was previously, looking blankly at the device in Gingerbrave's hands, then at him, then back to the device. The Sasuke and Naruto Miis started to interact, and he held back a grin. "I like Sasuke." His voice was... oddly soft.
Both of his friends in the room took notice of that. "Yeah, we know, buddy," Strawberry said, and Ninja blushed at the nickname. She never called him — or anyone, for that matter — that! Worst of all, it made that weird fuzzy feeling inside of his chest and head grow even stronger.
"Ah," he spoke with no much thought behind it. He was solely making a noise of acknowledgement with his mouth, to be honest.
Gingerbrave's gaze softened at him when he looked down. "Aw, it's okay! I like Sasuke too!"
After that, they sat in comfortable silence for a few moments before Ninja found his words again.
"Guys, uh," he started. "I feel weird." If Skater was there, he would have joked along the lines of "We all do, you're not special", so he was thankful that he was still getting water.
"Oh no!" Strawberry exclaimed. "Are you sick?"
"No, no, just..." Ninja grimaced at himself. "It's not necessarily bad, but it's weird, you know?"
Both looked at the boy, confusion clear in their faces. He was gonna have to be more specific than that.
"Okay, so, I was looking through the old toys, right? And then I just started to feel that weird, fuzzy thing enveloping my brain, and— and I dunno! It sounds dumb now that I'm talking about it, but—"
"Whoa, whoa, Ninja, calm down," Gingerbrave interrupted him before he could ramble further. "It's okay, we won't judge you. Whatever it is, we're not judging, okay?"
A weak nod.
Then, Strawberry's eyes lit up. She wasn't any professional, but she loved to study psychology and such; brains were simply too interesting for her! So the second Ninja confessed that, she remembered a few websites she browsed the other day, talking about different coping mechanisms. She felt like she was extremely close to crack a case wide open. "Do you feel like— like a kid, maybe...?" It would be embarrassing if the answer was no, however...
The way Ninja nodded again told her everything she needed to know. Bingo.
"Knew it," she murmured under her breath. "It's okay to feel like that! Actually, that's quite natural."
"Wait, what's going on?" Gingerbrave tilted his head. It felt like he was lacking some important information to the conversation at hand.
Strawberry and Ninja exchanged a look. "Should I tell him?" She asked.
"Uhm, sure," he mumbled, suddenly very shy.
"So, Gingerbrave…" She started slowly. "Have you heard about this thing called 'age regression' before?" He shook his head, so she took it as a sign to continue. "It is basically a coping mechanism where your brain reverts to a younger state of mind to deal with heavy stress or trauma. In other words," she glanced at Ninja, who was currently distracted with the posters in the room. "He's on baby-mode."
Gingerbrave's brain took a second to process that, but when he did, he giggled.
"Hey, what's so funny about that?" She could feel herself getting defensive over the little guy.
"No, it's just that— like— why didn't you tell me before? I wouldn't judge!" He was fully honest. "We care about you, Ninja."
"…Thanks," he croaked, tears threatening to form in his eyes.
"No problem! It's what friends are for!" Strawberry assured.
"…Are we gonna tell Skater, though?" Gingerbrave asked, worried about the other boy's reaction.
"Better not," she concluded. As much as they loved their friend Skater to bits, they were pretty sure he wouldn't understand this whole age regression thing too well. Not out of malice, of course, but… Yeah. Maybe another time. "Speaking of, where is Skater?"
"No clue," Gingerbrave shrugged.
The rest of the afternoon was uneventful for the three of them, with Gingerbrave and Strawberry chatting about whatever came to mind while Ninja nodded along.
Then, a ringtone was heard. It came from Ninja's pocket, so he picked it up without even checking who was calling. "Hello?"
"Where are you." A deep male voice was heard from the other side.
"Oh no," his face went pale. "I have to go," he told Gingerbrave as he hung up.
"Aw, see ya tomorrow at school, then?"
"Maybe, maybe not." With that ominous comment, Ninja packed up his things and sprinted through the door as Gingerbrave waved him a confused goodbye.
"Uh, okay…" He was definitely concerned now, but hey, it's gonna be okay, right?