🎀

(1) general

ada regresses more regularly than leon does, much to her chagrin; as if to compensate for this, he tends to go younger than her.

both of their schedules often leave them unavailable to spend time together, so they carry burner phones for the express purpose of being able to contact each other if they (and/or someone else) are feeling small and want to talk.

they're both autistic; ada is just better at masking. leon gets understimulated easily, while ada gets overstimulated easily. he wants to run his fingers up and down his jacket sleeves over and over again, while she wants to set all of her socks on fire because they're itchy. leon has a collection of stim toys, while ada has noise cancelling headphones covered in little ladybug stickers.

(2) little leon

leon's regression is pretty much always involuntary. sometimes he gets a bit fuzzy when he's stressed, but typically speaking, it's triggered by his nightmares or his chronic pain. either way, he usually wants ada to be there, even when he knows that she can't be.

has a habit of trailing after her like a little puppy, even if it's she's only going from the kitchen to the dining room. sometimes it's because of his paranoia, worrying that if he loses sight of her, she'll disappear. other times, he just wants to follow her around for the fun of it.

surprisingly, leon has a bit of a sweet tooth while he's feeling small, which ada is more than happy to exploit for her own gain. she enjoys baking with him, even though she usually has to stop him from eating the raw cookie dough, and she especially enjoys sharing the finished product together.

he's the most spoiled kid ever. comfortable clothes, merch from movies he likes, his favorite snacks, ada can and will buy him whatever he wants. he isn't the biggest toy person, but he does have shared custody of their steadily growing teddy bear collection.

ada's favourite nicknames for him are honey and puppy

(3) little ada

much more likely to regress on her own than leon. sometimes she wont even tell him she's feeling small while visiting, and let leon try and figure it out, something her older self teasingly refers to as a mental enrichment game.

likes to try and maintain some level of independence while she's small, which leon respects, but he still tries to offer his help every now and then. ada is always surprised when he asks, as if she's never had someone there to assist her when she needs it, and it breaks his heart a little bit every time.

she's a bit of a homebody, despite leon's best efforts. ada will whine about just wanting to sit on the couch and read a book together, only for leon to suggest they go out to the library and pick something new first. it's a 50/50 chance for who wins the argument.

despite ada's insistence that she doesn't play favorites, she has one teddy that she's particularly attached to named honey. he's clearly old and well loved, with signs of emergency stitching over the years; leon suspects she might have owned him since her childhood.

leon's favorite nicknames for her are baby and kitty-cat