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Benji woke up on the floor. He didn’t know where he was and the carpet beneath him didn’t do anything to hide the concrete underneath. He groaned and buried his hands in his face. Everything was sore and his stomach felt as if it was tied up in knots. He felt gross, like a liquid had dried up all over his body.

“Finally, a sign of life,” He heard someone say, “You awake?” 

Benji whimpered, “No”

“Damn, all right,” 

Suddenly, the past couple hours came flooding back to him. Escaping the Angels, meeting the boy in black and his friends, controlling the Graces, and…his dad. Benji looked down and realized the dirty feeling was his dad’s dried up blood, mixed with some of his own and some of the Angels. 

“Name’s Salvador, pronouns xe/xem,” The person, Salvador, said to him.

Benji had the intent of also telling xem his name, but when he tried to speak, he choked on a sob. Oh God, what was happening? His dad was dead. The angel killed him. His dad was dead. His dad was dead. Oh god, his dad was dead. Benji’s heart raced but it was getting hard to breathe but his body was too exhausted to even take quick breaths. He just stared into the floor in front of him, tears running down his cheeks as he hiccuped for air once every couple seconds.

“Hey, kid!” Salvador kneeled down in front of him, trying to snap him out of this trance he was in.

Benji didn’t know if it was a side-effect from the injection or the adrenaline but his brain was feeling so strange. He just felt so…small and vulnerable, like he was a little kid again, or hell, even younger. Everything was so big, and realizing that his dad wasn’t here made him feel even worse. He wasn’t supposed to be grieving, it was wrong. And the fact that he was acting like this probably because of it was worse. All of his emotions and feelings have been building up ever since he got injected with that virus and now he was crashing. 

Hot tears poured down Benji’s cheeks as he let out another sob. Why did the Angels have to kill his dad? He did nothing worthy of being killed! They should’ve killed him instead, even though he knew they never would. They couldn’t kill their precious Seraph. The reminder of the monster he was going to turn into made Benji let out a crying wail. He grabbed his choppy hair in his hands and tucked his knees into his chest.

“Hey, hey, shh, it’s gonna alright. Can I hug you?” Salvador asked. Never in his life had someone asked before hugging him. It just wasn’t something they did in New Nazareth. Getting a hug was rare enough. But nevertheless, Benji nodded, needing comfort from one.

Salvador scooped him up into xyr lap and hugged him, tucking his head into xyr shoulder. Xe let him cry for as long as he needed to. While he was just getting done with sobbing into xyr shirt, the door suddenly opened. Benji jumped and tried to scramble out of Salvador’s arms. These were the Angels, they’ve come back to get him, he was going to be tortured and forced to kill, he couldn’t do this!

“Hey, shhh, it’s okay, you’re not in danger,” Salvador promised. The people that walked in looked like teens, just like Benji. One was a girl, or well, feminine presenting, and the other a boy/masculine presenting. He recognized them from before, when they found him.

As Benji started to calm down, the tip of his thumb had unconsciously made its way into his mouth. He could hear Salvador whisper something to the girl.

“...think they’re regressing” was all he could make out. What did that mean? Benji thought he knew all the “nonbeliever” stuff from the books his dad smuggled him, but he had never heard of that. 

When Benji had fully calmed down, he kept his head resting upon Salvador’s collarbone. He didn’t want to leave the safety and comfort that came from being held like this. He just felt so small and little. There wasn’t really any other way to describe it.

“Hey, bud, how are you feeling?” The girl asked, “My name is Erin, she/her, and that’s Nick, He/Him,”

“Benji, ‘nd he/him,” He sniffled. His voice sounded so weird, but he just assumed it was from all the crying.

“Alright, Benji. Do you think you can tell me how old you’re feeling?” Erin asked. Benji tilted his head, confused

“Sisteen,” He mumbled.

“Are you sure? Sometimes our mental age can be different from our physical one. Are you feeling a little younger?” She said. 

Now that Benji thought about it, he did feel young, as if he was a 3 year old in a 16 year old’s body. He was about to tell her, but he realized how weird it would sound. Being a boy in a girl’s body was strange enough, saying he was 3 as a 16 year old just felt embarrassing. 

“Can you tell me using your fingers?” Erin suggested. It felt better and less awkward than using his voice.

“Mhm…” blushing, Benji held up 3 fingers.

“Okay, thank you for telling me,” Then she whispered something to Nick and the boy walked out of the room, before turning back to Benji, 

“I know things are overwhelming right now, but you’re safe here at Acheson LGBTQ center,”

“We just call it the ALC for short,” Salvador interrupted

“Yes, but we aren’t just an LGBTQ center. We also accommodate age regressors such as yourself. Age regression is where a person reverts back to a younger mindset despite their physical age. It can happen both involuntarily and voluntarily.” She explained, “It wasn’t very well known before the Flood, but a lot of the members here do it or used to,” 

Other people also felt like this too? He wasn’t just weird? It felt nice to know he wasn’t alone, that this feeling was somewhat normal. 

“I’m assuming you haven’t regressed before, right?” Salvador asked. Benji nodded, this was all extremely new to him.

“Well, don’t worry too much about it, bud. We got everything you need and we’ll help you learn this part about yourself,” Xe said.

As Sal finished xyr sentence, Nick suddenly walked in. The boy held a small plastic box, a sippy cup with water, and a baby blue beaded lizard.

“We have a small room with some more regression items you can pick out later,” Nick said, kneeling down to Benji and handing him the items. Benji took the lizard first and immediately got shot back into feeling all small and little. He grabbed the lizard and played with it, rolling the beads between his thumbs before going to put it in his mouth.

“Don’t put that in your mouth. You have a pacifier,” Nick gently eased his hand away and opened the small box. He took out a baby blue, white, and pink pacifier and placed it in Benji’s mouth. 

At first, the boy blushed, his face becoming red. Seeing a babyish looking pacifier being placed into his mouth filled him with embarrassment. But it felt nice and soothing.

“We’re going to ask you some questions in a bit, but it’ll have to wait. You need some time to decompress,” Erin said. She wanted Benji to relax a little and at least drink some of his water before giving him a bath.

Salvador helped hold his sippy cup up to his lips. Benji drank some of the water, it was warm and tasted a little weird, but it soothed his sore throat. After he finished, Erin lifted him up out of Salvador’s lap and into her arms.

“Alright, Benji was it? It’s time for a bath,” She said, starting to carry him into another room to give them some more privacy. She set him down once they stepped inside the bathroom and asked what undergarments he’d prefer to wear

“We have boxers, briefs, binders, bras, and sports bras. But we also have pull-ups and some tape-style padding too if you prefer to have those while regressed. We already have very few regressors still here, and only one person wears them every once in a while, so don’t worry about trying to conserve the supplies,” She asked.

Benji hesitated before telling her he’d prefer boxers and a sports bra. The pull-ups and the other one (saying diaper sounded too weird, even if it was just in his head) did sound like they’d be comfortable and he kind of wanted to maybe try it, but he chose the boxers instead. He was still trying to wrap his head around this whole situation. With running away, to the regression thing. It just felt strange to do at that moment. Maybe once he was more educated on this, he could try it. Hopefully before his body changes too much.

Erin went into a pretty big closet and picked out the undergarments that would be his size and then a t-shirt and shorts. She came back with a towel too and set it down on a counter nearby. 

“Do you need help bathing?” She asked. Benji shook his head, he already hated how his chest looked, he didn’t need another person to see it.

However, as he stepped into a shower stall with a bucket of water and got undressed, he could’ve really used her emotional support. He washed off the blood, mainly his dad’s, as tears started to fall. His papa was dead. The last thing Benji had of him would soon be gone and washed away. But he hated the stickiness of the dried blood, it was too uncomfortable. Plus he smelled. He needed to get clean.

Even though Erin stood outside the stall and could hear his quiet sobbing, she didn’t interrupt. Benji was extremely vulnerable right now, the last thing he needed was for her to scare him off. So unless he outright called for her, she would keep her mouth shut and wait for him to finish.

It took a while, but Benji soon washed away all the blood and grime on his skin. It was the longest and most painful bath of his life.

“Can I have m’ clothes please?” He asked in a small voice once he was done. Erin grabbed the undergarments first and handed it to him through the curtain. Then when he was done, she handed the rest and he soon walked out. 

“Do you want your pacifier?” Erin asked. He had to take it out when he took his sponge bath, so she kept it safe on the counter. Benji nodded, still needing some time to be little.

After handing him the soother, she showed him to his “apartment”. She opened the curtain and led him inside. It was very small, only really being able to fit a mattress. But what was interesting was that on his bed, there was a teddy bear with a small trans flag heart stitched into its chest.  He sat down on the mattress and held the bear, smiling. When he was young, his mom made him give up all his toys, saying that the only “comfort” he needed was acceptance from God.

Miya grumbled in the backseat of the car while his Social Worker drove him to his new home. The past couple months had been crazy. With the cases against Adam and his parents, Miya had been moved into a new home, one that would apparently “help” him adjust to normal life again. But at this point, Miya didn’t even know what “normal life” was. He could barely even remember a time where he wasn’t stressed with competitions and where his parents were actually taking care of him instead of forcing him into lessons with Adam, no matter how many times he tried to tell them about him.

Miya didn’t understand why he needed to go into a new home. Wouldn’t it just be easier to send him off to boarding school or have him live on his own? He practically was already doing that anyways, with how often his parents took vacations. 

“We’re almost there, Miya,” His social worker announced, “It may be different than what you are used to, but your new family is going to help you get better,”

He hated how she said “get better”. Although he knew she was talking about trauma and ptsd, he didn’t think he really had it. There was nothing to get better from in his point of view.

When they finally pulled up to his new home, he was surprised that it actually looked somewhat nice. He expected foster homes to be overcrowded and small. The social worker stepped out of the car and helped grab Miya’s duffel bag. The boy himself took his skateboard and backpack, not wanting anyone to touch it.

She knocked on the door with Miya standing beside her and waited for someone to open. After hearing shuffling coming from inside, eventually the door opened. A pink, long haired man with glasses stood in front of him. Immediately Miya recognized him as Cherry, the AI skater from S. His new guardian was going to be him? That was actually somewhat cool. Maybe he’d let Miya join the national team again and go to competitions. 

“Miya, this is Kaoru, he’ll be one of your caregivers,” His social worker said. Normally, Miya thought the right term for it was “guardian” or “caretaker”. He heard of caregiver before but couldn’t exactly remember where. 

“Hi, Miya,” Kaoru put on a soft smile. It was weird seeing him smile. Miya always thought he was a very serious kind of guy.

“Come in! Kojiro just finished setting up the bedroom,” He said, gesturing for the two to walk inside. They followed Kaoru until they got to the kitchen, where a big green haired man stood at the counter.

‘Joe? Another person from S?’ Miya thought.

“Welcome to our home. I’m Kojiro, I’ll be your other caregiver. Are you hungry? I can whip us up some snacks,” Kojiro offered. 

“I’m good,” Miya mumbled right away. His social worker looked down at him and frowned.

“Miya…can you try?” She asked.

“I’m not hungry,” He said with a little more annoyance added to his tone. His social worker sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to get anywhere with this.

“Alright, well why don’t you go check out your new room while I talk to Mr. Sakurayashiki and  Mr. Nanjo,” She told him. 

Joe gave him directions to where his room was and that it apparently already had a sign on it. He took his backpack and started walking. The house was quite nice, a mix of modern and traditional japanese structure. Once he got to the room where a sign with his name hung, he slid the door open and saw what his new living space would be.

It was a bit shocking, to say the least. In the right corner there was a daybed with small railings on the front. They were open right now, but could easily slide and close, making the bed look like some kind of crib. It also had what looked to be a very soft blanket with cats at the foot of it. Then right next to the bed, there was a big storage container. It was probably empty, so he didn’t go looking in it just yet. There was also a small floor desk which already had a stack of paper and crayons on it. Then there was a nightlight in the corner and a closet on the other side.

Miya was definitely confused. It looked like it was some kind of room for a toddler. He did a double take and checked the door sign. Once he confirmed that it was his room, he sighed and set his bag down on the bed. This was a bit weird, but there was probably a reason for it. He crawled on top of the bed, surprised by the comfort. The blanket was very soft and kind of cute. He rubbed the soft material between his fingers, smiling at the comfort. Though, it wasn’t for long as he grabbed his Switch from his bag and began playing Pokemon. He stayed in bed, playing his game until Joe opened the door

“Hey, kiddo, Kaoru and I want to talk to you before your Social Worker leaves. Can you come into the kitchen?” He asked, though, not really giving Miya much of a choice.

Begrudgingly, Miya hopped out of the bed and walked with Joe into the kitchen. Cherry and his social worker were sitting at the table, waiting for him. Once they walked in, Joe gestured for him to take a seat.

“Miya, what you went through was not a normal childhood experience. You were abused and neglected by both your parents and your teacher. Regular therapy might not be enough. Which is why Kaoru and Kojiro will help you essentially live a better childhood through regression. Age regression has been proven to help people in your situation,” His social worker explained.

That's why the term “caregiver” stuck out to Miya. He somewhat knew what age regression was. Just the bare minimum of information. He had no idea what this would mean for him though. Would they just help him regress or make him do it on his own? Did he even have to regress? This all sounded so stupid.

“Okay but what does this mean for me?” He asked.

“Well, Kaoru and Kojiro will act as the parents you never really had. You will regress and they will take care of you as caregivers. They will feed you, help change you, put you to bed, all the things a parent does to their young child, they will do to you. This will help you process and recover from your trauma, Miya” She said.

“No. I’m not gonna be some baby. I’m 12 years old!” Miya declared.

“Yes, but regression doesn’t have an age limit. You’ll learn to accept this, Miya. It’s going to be good for you,” She assured him, “I need to head back now. Everything will be alright, don’t worry.” 

It was a regular Tuesday afternoon, Vaggi had just finished her shift at the Hazbin Hotel. Now that she and Charlie were working together, she had time for other activities during the day. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Vaggi would spend her afternoons training with Carmilla and sometimes helping out with the angelic weapon making.

However, this Tuesday wasn't the best. The morning had started out okay, she got to wake up next to her wonderful girlfriend and cuddle for a little bit before needing to get ready. However, when breakfast came, it started to get bad. 

When she went downstairs for breakfast, she found out that the menu for the buffet wasn’t to Vaggi’s liking. Oatmeal, watery eggs, and yogurt. They had run out of fruit the previous day so she couldn’t even get that for her meal. She was about to get just yogurt, but low and behold, the yogurt was also watery. She got the less of the worser two and decided on oatmeal. However, as she was walking back to her seat after plating her breakfast, someone who had broken into the bar and became drunk, started yelling. It was something about wanting to leave and how he was trapped in a matrix world. Charlie had politely gone over to him to calm him down.

However, the yelling had surprised Vaggi and she had dropped her bowl to cover her ears. One thing she hated people knowing was that she had autism. She heavily masked when she was in the exorcist army so she assumed it just “went away”. But it never did. As she started living with Charlie, she began unmasking as she felt more safe with her. But now that they had more guests, she needed to hide that part of her again or people would take advantage of her.

When Charlie had managed to calm them down, Vaggi uncovered her ears. She looked down at the bowl she had dropped and saw the mess of mushy oatmeal scattered on the floor. Her heart raced in her chest, but she refused to show it. This was fine, it was just a minor inconvenience. She could clean it up. 

She grabbed a roll of paper towels and started to clean up the mess. The feeling of the oatmeal on her hands, even if it was through the paper towel, felt awful. It was 8:30 and she already felt like crying. She couldn’t though, she wouldn’t let herself. 

After cleaning everything up, she decided to just skip breakfast. With how overwhelming everything already was this morning, she couldn’t force herself to eat something unpleasant.

The rest of the morning was a bit more difficult than any other day. Due to the whole situation during breakfast, talking felt like such a chore. But she would be leading a group today and needed to use her voice. So despite how she felt, she forced herself to speak. 

By the time noon rolled around, the overwhelming feeling was replaced with exhaustion. She was so tired from everything, but she needed to get through just a few more hours before she could leave. It was hell (quite literally) but she managed to get through it without having a shutdown. Even though her skin was sweaty from running back and forth, she ignored the discomfort and carried on.

Finally, 3:00 rolled around and she could relax for almost an hour before needing to go to the Carmine factory. She mainly scrolled through her phone and listened to music in the lobby. But by the time she needed to leave, she still felt like she hadn’t fully recovered. 

She was so exhausted from everything that she couldn’t help but feel small. Regression wasn’t something that happened often with Vaggi. She did not like feeling vulnerable. But she knew that she had to in order to cope with difficult feelings. 

However, even though Carmilla knew she was a regressor, she did not want to regress in front of her. She had done it once before but it was embarrassing and awkward. Carmilla had just called Charlie to come pick her up and then waited with her. 

To avoid a situation like that again, Vaggi pushed her regression down and trudged out the door. Not before saying goodbye to Charlie though. 

The walk to Carmilla’s did not help. There were so many things happening in the streets that she just became overwhelmed again. People were throwing molotov cocktails at each other, cars were speeding down the streets, and sinners were blasting their horny rap music from their apartments and vehicles. Even with her headphones in, Vaggi could still hear the loud noises coming from the streets of hell. She took a couple deep breaths, trying to calm herself. It only helped a little bit, but luckily she’d get a distraction as she had arrived at Carmillas.

She knocked on the large metal door and the camera immediately zoned in on her. She gave it an awkward smile before the door opened.

“Good afternoon, Vaggi,” Carmilla greeted her.

“Same to you, Carmilla,” Vaggi replied. 

“Lets get started, shall we?” 

The two walked into the middle of the training room and began. Carmilla had Vaggi practice on some training dummies with a normal steel spear at first. It was a good warm up, but Vaggi just couldn’t focus. She found herself zoning out whenever Carmilla would give her advice on her form. 

After a couple more exercises, Vaggi was starting to get very frustrated with herself. She couldn’t focus for the life of her. With how small her brain wanted her to be, paying attention was just not in her priorities. She felt zoned out and dissociated the whole time. Not to mention how uncomfortable her shirt felt as it clinged to her from her sweat. Normally, she could deal with it, but with all the events leading up to it, it felt like a huge deal. Zoning out was one of the ways she “dealt” with sensory issues like these. This unfortunately led to some pretty harsh hits from Carmilla, who was starting to realize the strange behavior from her student.

“Okay, that's enough,” Carmilla announced abruptly. 

“Huh? Is it 6 already?” Vaggi asked. She got pretty good at managing to keep her voice normal when she was slipping.

“It’s barely been an hour, Vaggi. What’s on your mind?” Carmilla said, standing tall in front of her. Vaggi felt a little intimidated by her height and strong build and cowered back a little, her regression starting to get the best of her. 

“It’s nothing,” She tried to say, digging her nails into her triceps to distract herself from feeling the uncomfortable shirt clinging to her skin. However, Carmilla knew she was lying, she could see through Vaggi way too easily. She sighed and walked closer

“Come on, let's take a break,” Carmilla put a hand on Vaggi’s back, trying to guide her to her office. However, that single touch, her hand pressing the fabric into her back, was too much for Vaggi to handle. She choked on a small sob and jerked away from her, running to find somewhere to calm her ass down. 

In the mindset she was in, she hid behind a pillar, thinking it would be enough to hide from Carmilla. She let a few sobs out as she wrestled against her shirt, trying to find a way to get it to stop sticking to her sweaty skin. 

Carmilla gave her a few moments to calm down, thinking that this was something she didn’t need her help with. But after not hearing any improvement and sensing her get more and more distressed, she began to walk over.

“Vaggi? Are you okay, bebe?” She asked, kneeling down to her level.

Vaggi shook her head. The whole day had been horrible and overstimulating. She just wanted to crawl into her mami’s arms and regress from all the stress. 

Seeing how Vaggi was tugging at her shirt, Carmilla could only assume one of the things bothering her were her sensory issues. 

“Is your shirt bothering you?” She asked.

“Mhm,” Vaggi responded. 

So Carmilla lifted her up, careful not to touch her shirt, and held her with her arm supporting her bottom. She carried her through a couple halls and elevators as Vaggi cried into her shoulder. Eventually, they came to the doors of Carmilla’s huge penthouse. She went through all the security systems before entering and immediately walking towards the bathroom. She set Vaggi down on the closed toilet and got out a towel and washcloth. 

“Do you need some help bathing?” she asked. She could see the signs of her regressing. The crying, the clinginess, the sensitivity, it was all there, especially for someone like Vaggi. 

Vaggi nodded, though blushing a little, “sowry...” 

“It’s alright. I’m going to go grab a shirt for you to wear, I’ll be back” Carmilla said before standing up and exiting the bathroom door.

It didn’t take long for her to return, it was quite a quick trip. She held a plain purple t-shirt and what seemed to be a pull-up. Vaggi was a little confused and stared at it, but too afraid to ask anything.

“My daughters also sometimes regress. They won’t mind if you borrow something,” Carmilla assured her once she noticed her gaze.

After the bath, Vaggi officially started to calm down. Feeling clean helped her sensory issues die down so much. Plus, Carmilla was extremely gentle with her, making sure no soap or water got in her eyes and lightly scrubbed her body with the washcloth.

Carmilla put Vaggi in the t-shirt that was a tiny bit too big (it was one of Clara’s old t-shirts) and helped her get the pull-up on, which was luckily a perfect fit.

“Are you feeling a little better?” She questioned after getting her all changed.

“Mhm, thanks,” Vaggi responded, curling up a little. The pull-up and comfortable t-shirt felt good against her clean skin. The pull-up was soft and fluffy, and the shirt had no scratchy seams or tags.

“Today must’ve been exhausting, huh? You look so tired,” Carmilla said aloud. Vaggi simply nodded. 

Smiling, Carmilla took Vaggi into the living room and laid her down on the couch. She sat next to her and pulled her body into her lap before covering her in a soft blanket. It was so fuzzy and cozy, Vaggi found herself smiling a little from the comfort it provided.

“Close your eyes, Cariño, you’re safe,” she whispered to her, gently scratching her scalp as she held her. 

Although it wasn’t noticeable, Carmilla was a huge softy, especially for her daughters. With Vaggi resembling them, her soft spot was revealed to her. She cared for her exactly how she would with her children.