Work Text:
29 August 2025
Their eyes hurt.
Neither of them can remember a time in their life where it felt like every bone in their body was one fire. As they trudge their way through the apartment complex, pangs of discomfort shoot through their frayed nerves and settle deep within their bones. Somehow, the only thoughts occupying the mushiness of their brains revolves around the pain. Especially now as they struggle to keep their eyes open as they shuffle quietly into the living area of Trinity's apartment.
She kicks off her shoes at the front door as her hand runs along them wall until the overhead lights flicker to life. A loud sigh falls into the room as she tiptoes deeper into the apartment, standing at the edge of the living room. Dennis is quick to follow her led, toeing off his own shoes as he shuts and locks the front door. He takes small steps in her direction, instinctively keeping his footsteps as quiet as possible against the linoleum floor.
Trinity squints against the harsh glow of the kitchen lights as she turns to look at Dennis, pain growing deep behind her tired eyes. Fuzziness drifts in drowsy waves around her brain, coating her with it’s warmth, and pleading to pull her under. She forces the feeling back slightly, needing to stay big until she can be confined within her own space and allow that feeling to take over. Dennis looks back at her with his own big, bug eyes, silently waiting for instructions she’s supposed to give.
“You’re wooms here,” she murmurs, hoping he doesn’t hear the slight lisp in her voice as little her begs to come out. “I’ll go get some sheets.” She pads across the living room to open her own bedroom door to grab extra bedding.
Dennis’s eyes never quit fall away from her moving form, not even as she slips into the darkness of her room. He blinks unsurely for a moment, letting his eyes adjust, before he’s just barely able to make out her figure jostling around in a closest. He shifts his weight from one foot to the next listlessly.
Upon Trinity’s return, her arms are laden with blankets and pillows, of which she gently presses into Dennis’s arms with a small smile. Fuzziness tugs her roughly, making her real unsteady as she forces herself to take a step back for balance. Just one more second, and she’ll be all nice and wrapped up in her cozy bed sheets, drifting fast off to sleep.
Bleary little bug eyes blink back at her as he tilts his head, confusion rippling across the softness of his face. She stands there for a moment longer, watching him, before wordlessly pointing at the bedroom he’d be sleeping in. Dennis slowly follows her movement, but he remains perfectly in place, seemingly lost on what he’s supposed to be doing. She lets out a soft sigh as the back of her skull begins to throb, before guiding him into the room.
“Can ‘ou make a bed?” She asks softly, already tugging the fitted sheet from his arms and laying it correctly across the bed. Dennis nods earnestly, dropping the sheets from his arms and scrambling to the other side of the bed to help tug on the sheet.
Thankfully, they manage to make quick work of making up the bed, and Trinity sighs as the fuzziness closes in on her. She offers him a large smile, before sliding out of the room, and heading for her bathroom to brush her teeth before night-night time.
“Twendy?” A small voice echos behind her, stopping her in her tracks. She turns around to find Dennis standing in the threshold of his bedroom doorway, head bent slighty as the twirls his fingers into the fabric of his worn-out clothes. “Fank you,” he smiles, eyes never meeting her own.
Hesitantly, she takes a small step back in his direction, and swallows roughly as she forces her eyes to remain firmly on him.
“Are ‘ou wittle too?”
“Mhm,” he hums, his bug eyes sparkling as a smile grows across his face. “You wanna p’ay? I gots cars!” He chirps excitedly, bouncing on the heels of his feet at the prospect of a new friend.
“It wate,” she tells him with a small frown, watching sadness creep into his eyes as his face falls. “‘Morrow, p’omise!” She reassures him, holding her pinky out for him to take.
Dennis’s face lights up all over again as he hooks their fingers together and shakes on it. At the agreement, they both twirl on their heels and head for their respective beds. But before she does, she makes sure to stop off in her bathroom first to brush her teeth. Big her will be so proud she remembered!
With her teeth flossed and brushed and rinsed out with mouthwash, she stumbles out of the bathroom to pull on her comfiest set of pajamas. They’re pink with princesses on them, and their her absolute favorite when the world is so big. She flips the light switch off and crawls into her bed. She shuffles her pillows around until she has one on each side of her body, and another one tucked under her bed. As her eyes begin to droop, she grabs her nearest stuffie — a rosy maple moth — gently kisses it’s furry face and begins to doze off.
Early morning light pools in Trinity’s bedroom, gently rousing her from her sleep. A wide smile crosses her face as she blinks, excited for the day ahead. She pushes back the sheets of her bed and waddles across room to go potty.
Memories of late last night slowly trickle back in, only brightening her smile as she washes her hands and runs out to grab her magnetic trains to play with.
She’s never had a little friend before!
Excitedly, she drags her basket out into the living room, before eagerly knocking on Dennis’s door. She bounces on the balls of her feet as she loosely swings her arms around. Small footsteps patter on the other side of the door, before a drowsy Dennis pulls it open and tries to stifle his yawn.
“Wanna p’ay?” She asks, tilting her head and watching him.
“Otay!” He chirps back, before closing the door. As she walks over to the coffee table, she hears rummaging coming from his bedroom, before the door swings open once more and he comes stumbling out with cars in his hands.
Trinity smiles brightly as she settles down at the coffee table, pulling out a couple of her trains and gently placing them on the table. Dennis sits down across from her, but his focus is on the floor as he rolls around his cars with quiet ‘vroom’ sounds.
She connects six of her trains in rainbow order, before rolling them around in a circle on top of the table. As she successfully manages to pass her train around in a full circle a couple of times, she adds another, and then another until she’s at eight and they begin to pull apart again. She takes off the four back pieces, adds an engine, and then rolls the trains in opposite directions until they collide and fall of the table.
Dennis is happy to lay across the carpet rolling his arms around. Most of them are hot wheels, but he has a few wind-up ones that he runs into the TV stand, pulling out tiny giggles.
The two of them, as happy as can be, play the better part of the morning away before their tummies begin to grumble. Trinity leans back on her ankles, looking down at her stomach, before looking up at Dennis and catching his wide eyes.
“B’eakfist?” She asks him, getting a weak nod in reply.
She pushes herself to her feet, before holding her hands out to him to take. Dennis smiles at the offer, taking her hands and pulling him to his feet. Together, they raid the kitchen looking for something to eat that they won’t have to cook. They’re not allowed too, anyways. Cooking is strictly forbidden as long as they’re both small.
In the end, they make themselves each a bowl of cereal. Which, in the process of doing, they split both some cereal on the ground and milk on the counter. They do their best to clean it up, but decide to leave the muss for big them to worry about. They happily munch on their food and turn on a movie to watch.
As Rapunzel sings about the happiness of leaving her tower, they dump their bowls in the sink and begin playing with their toys again.
They make it through two movies, before they decide to replay Rapunzel so they could sing alone with all of the pretty songs. By the time they make it back to the dancing kingdom scene, they’re hopping around the living room and twirling each other without a care in the world. With each song, they belt their little hearts out and forget that others exist. However, the grumpy man living below them, does not.
Jack is awaken by the sound of thumping through the ceiling of his apartment, along giggles and singing. As he rolls in his bed, his nightstand clock tells him it’s a little after noon. He lets out a deep sigh, and tries folding his pillow over his ears to sleep a bit more.
He doesn’t really understand, he’s lived her for years and has never once heard a peep out of his upstairs neighbors before, much less the sound of children.
Even though he’s unsuccessful at falling back asleep, he tries ignoring the noise level of the apartment above, but something gnaws away at him. He just can’t shake the thought of children being left up there along. After a few more minutes of debating himself, he pushes the blankets away and hastily gets himself ready to go upstairs.
The credits of their movie have just begun to roll when the knock sounds at the door. They both gasp loudly as he look at each other with scared eyes. With the second knock, they force themselves to go over to the door and take a peak. Trinity stands on her tiptoes to look through the peephole, before taking a few steps back and running into Dennis.
“Is Doctow Abbot!” She hisses, watching his own eyes grow in horror. “Should I?” She leaves the question unfinished as another knock sounds. They look at each other and back at the door a couple of times before cold hands press into her arms and the staggers forward to pull over the door, Dennis at her back.
Jack’s eyes widen at the sight of the two familiar faces peering back at him. Neither of them quite meet his eyes as he looks at them.
“Hey, I was hearing a lot of noise downstairs and thought I should check.”
“Sow—” Trinity pauses, taking a deep breath. “Sorry, Doctor Abbot. We’ll be quiet.”
Jack finds himself staring at the two of them for a long moment. Even though they won’t meet his own, he can see the glazed looks of their eyes. Their hands fidget by their sides, and he doesn’t miss the pajamas Trinity is still dressed in, nor the messy living room and the toys that’re scattered about. It all clicks into place as to why he could hear children; they’re both regressed, and by the looks of it, alone.
“Are you two alone?” He asks, watching their faces crinkle in confusion. “I mean, is someone here watching you both? If you’re both regressed, then you shouldn’t be alone.” His voice is gentle, but matter-of-fact.
“We ‘wone,” Dennis answers for them both, even as they shift anxiously.
“Can I come in?” He asks, Trinity is quick to pull the door open and let him in, to which he offers a small smile. “We did you both last eat?”
“We had ceweal a wittle ago!” Trinity tells him, and as he turns to look in the kitchen, he can see evidence of that.
“I’m gonna make lunch, you two go play,” he tells them, watching as they luck at him uncertainly, before returning back to the living room.
Jack lets out a soft sigh as he sees the state of the place, before he begins to clean up the mess in the kitchen. He swipes the floor and wipes down the counters and fills the dishwasher up as he goes, before he can focus on fixing them something to each for lunch. Jack rifles through the cabinets and fridge before landing on tacos. Both because all of the ingredients were readily available, and because it’s one of his best dishes. Besides, he’ll replace the grocery's he uses.
The smell of his cooking brings them wondering over, where he notices them slip onto the bar stools and watch him intently as he cooks away. He offers them both a small smile and asks them a few questions, but he doesn’t get much in return. At least, nothing more that isn’t just gibberish, but it yanks his heartstrings each time they talk.
He fills up small plastic cups with water that he sets beside their plates. He expects them to dig right in, but as he turns around with his own plate, he finds them both waiting on him with their big eyes. He can’t help but pinch their cheeks as he sits down beside them and they all begin to dig into their meals.
Jack babysits them. He watches as they play with their toys, and he listens intently as they bubble up questions at him, and he even helps them find a movie to watch. But he couldn’t help the exhaustion wavering over his head.
He means to only lean his head back and close his eyes for a minute, but the beautiful music of Finding Dory lulls him off to sleep. Before he knows it, he’s fast asleep spread out on their couch. Trinity and Dennis turn to look at him with wide eyes, before noticing him asleep, and stopping themselves from being too loud.
Trinity holds her finger to her lips and invites Dennis in her room so they could keep playing, however, that doesn’t last long. As they settle on her bed, their eyes begin to droop and the comfort of her bed beckons them. Just as quickly as Abbot, they’re both off to dream land, fast, fast asleep.
Later that night, after Abbot has also made them dinner and helped tidy the living room, he writes his phone number on a note and puts it on the fridge. Dennis is still on the fuzzy side, but Trinity feels almost normal, and she knows she won’t slip again. It gives Jack the comfort to leave them alone.
“Call or text me any time,” he tells Trinity, “Even if neither of you are small, if you need anything, don’t hesitate to call.”
“Thank you,” she smiles.
And he can’t stop himself from pulling her into a hug and pressing a soft kiss into her hair. Trinity smiles as she pulls back. Jack leans down slightly and presses a kiss to Dennis’s forehead, before leaning back up and patting his head.
“Goodnight, buddy,” he speaks warmly. “Goodnight, Trinity.”
“Nini!” Dennis calls.
“Goodnight, Jack,” Trinity says, watching as he slips out the door and shuts it behind him. All of them are left with a pleasant warmth flooding their chest.