Sophie ♥

I knew this was coming before you posted it, Penn. But I gotta just jump in here to say. One, I am never going to let Mia forget that when you wrote her life, it's in the format of an S&P story!! 😈 Two, you did a REALLY good job imitating our style. Also, I wanna be the first to say it. Your story is 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Oh my gosh! FlashyFlesh (https://twitter.com/TheFlashyFlesh) did a cover art for Academy II for me! I am so smitten with these characterizations of Ai and Bala!

Omg Pudding came up with that and I was SCREAMING. What a stupid joke!!! XD Thank you so much! I was honored to be a part of this amazing narrative that Mia has woven. I'm just glad I didn't let her down.

Chapter Seven After a long discussion, the principal assured Ai that what happened to her would never happen again. The only reason it slipped under the radar in the first place was because nobody had ever entered the Academy in diapers before. It also didn't help that she was in mittens, which automatically branded her as a kind of girl who got herself in trouble. The principal suggested "safe word" posters around the school, just in case, and they were up on the walls of every classroom within the week. With her boundaries safeguarded, Ai decided to spend some time at Ageplay Academy. Most of her days were in the Middle classroom, getting in touch with a childhood she never truly had. Other days, she volunteered as a babysitter for the daycare, just to understand the experience. Nothing gripped her quite like that first day, chained to the desk and flooding her diaper, but she never found the courage to return to that room. In truth, the most important and inviting element of Ageplay Academy to Ai was Rin. She was the first person with which Ai had ever had any kind of serious sexual encounter, and she wanted to explore those feelings. Rin was supportive, maybe out of a feeling of obligation or guilt, but Ai was also an attractive woman. Rin was a sucker for hot girls, especially hot girls in diapers. Unfortunately, Ai wasn't into diapers. Or, she said she wasn't. She tried a dozen other roles: "big" to Rin's "little", "disciplinarian" to Rin's "brat", "teacher" to Rin's "student". But despite the premise of the Academy, Ai was too embarrassed to delve deeply into ageplay. As it became more and more apparent that Ai wasn't willing - or maybe ready - to explore the things that brought them together, Ai and Rin started to drift further apart. In every bubble, Ai always did her best to stay for as long as she could. She didn't want to leave behind a place where she could be happy, where she could belong, unless she was absolutely sure it wasn't the right place for her. Sooner or later, that feeling always grew in her heart, that feeling of wanting to see over the next horizon. For Ageplay Academy, that feeling came in less than two weeks. Ai packed a bag. A diaper bag, because diaper bags were in abundance. The principal let her take anything she wanted from their stock; "it's the least I can do," he said. Ai took a few outfits worn by the daycare attendants, and buttoned herself up in a white blouse with dark pants. She was starting to feel like herself again. As she left the storage room, Ai hesitated by the door. She looked back at the room as if it were the entire Academy. All the things she experienced. Her awful introduction. Her adventures in babysitting. Her time with Rin. But one thing lingered a little longer than the rest. She picked up one of the white diapers off the shelf - in her size - and tucked it into her bag. "Just in case," Ai said to herself. "Once I'm outside the bubble, I can know for sure how I feel..." Rin went with Ai to the vending machine where she left her compass. Ai had considered going back for it a few times, but the location felt safe. No one knew about it but her, and it was still her only real possession. After rummaging around under the machine for a minute, Ai stood up and opened the compass. "Aren't you supposed to follow the needle?" Rin asked. "That's how you get back to your bubble, right?" "I'm not trying to go home," Ai said, turning herself in place to find the right path. "Why not?" Rin asked. "I dunno," Ai shrugged. "I got bored..." "You could do anything you wanted, right?" Rin asked, because Ai had talked about home before. "How could that be boring?" "It just was..." Ai didn't know how to explain it. Some bubbles were made up of a hundred people. Those bubbles were shaped by a lot of different minds, and a lot of different wants and needs. People who shared a bubble tended to be grouped together for a reason. Like Ageplay Academy. But other bubbles had fewer inhabitants. Some, like Ai's, only had one. A solitary mind, with singular wants and needs. Ai could make her world any way she wanted it to be. But that was the problem. What she wanted wasn't hers to give; it had to be something she found. She had to look for it, through error and opportunity. So she left. She gave up infinite power in one tiny universe for no power at all in millions. Because out there, in the millions, she had a chance to find where she belonged. She had the chance to find her purpose. "Well if you're going in the opposite direction from the needle, then you can follow it back here, right?" "Yeah, I think so," Ai said. She didn't know if that was how it worked, but she hoped it was. Ai had said goodbye hundreds of times, through hundreds of bubbles, and they always felt the same. A universal feeling, despite all the other inconsistencies. A necessary pain. It didn't seem fair to Ai that, in worlds where people could have pretty much anything they wanted, any pain at all was necessary. But she worried that a world without loss would be a world without love. And what was the fun in that? "I'll miss you." Rin said. "I'll miss you too," Ai said back. "I hope you find it, whatever you're looking for." "I'm getting close," Ai said, and kissed Rin goodbye. It made Ai's stomach flutter with pleasant feelings, but not pleasant enough. Ageplay Academy wasn't far from the edge of its own bubble. On certain nights from certain places, Ai could see the faint shimmering without even leaving the building. As she approached the unworldly surface, she wondered what she was going to face. She wondered what the price she'd paid in leaving all of this behind would buy her. When Ai stepped through the shimmer, the sun was warm and the air was pleasant. The grass beneath her feet was a deep, beautiful aqua, and a lake in the distance glittered gold in the midday sunlight. All around her, trees and bushes curled in beautiful shapes out of the ground, like something from a fairy tale. But most of all, Ai didn't feel anxious to be in a new place. The atmosphere wasn't charged; it was heavy. Heavy and light at the same time, with a wonderful wistfulness to it. In only moments, Ai started to feel very sleepy. Ai wandered down the hill toward the lake. It was in the center of a park, with paths of glass stones and benches with big, cavernous chairs. In the distance, Ai thought she could make out the pink gingham of a blanket. But Ai's feet wouldn't take her much further. She sat down on the edge of the hill and yawned. What... a... beautiful... day... "Mm..." "Hey there, sleepy head," a voice cooed. A familiar voice. But when Ai opened her eyes, she didn't recognize the face. A woman, a little younger than her. A warm smile. Dark, heavy hair. And a diaper in her hands, wringing it gently to open it up. Ai blinked a few times, then looked over at her diaper bag. It was unzipped. And that diaper was... "You had a little accident," the woman smiled. "But don't worry, I'm taking care of it." Ai tried to sit up. Her body was heavy. Her mind was heavy. But sure enough, the dark pants she had worn through the shimmer were wet between the legs. The woman unbuttoned the front of them and began to strip Ai of her wet pants and underwear. "I, um... dunno how that... happened..." Ai said sleepily. "That's okay," the woman laughed. "It happens to my sister all the time. Do you have a name, little one?" "Little... one?" Ai wanted to contend with that nickname, but she felt too sleepy to come up with a good argument. So she answered the question instead. "Ai, um... I'm Ai..." "Nice to meet you, Ai. My name is Aya." Aya. Yeah, that sounded familiar too. But before Ai could try to figure out where she'd heard that name before, her legs were pulled up into the air by an unseen force. The sleepiness took a backseat to sheer surprise, and Ai quickly tried to pull down her shirt. "Shh, shh, no one is going to hurt you," Aya said calmly. "The Specters are just helping out." "Specters...?" Ai asked, as Aya slid the diaper under Ai's bottom. "They're our friends," Aya said cheerily. "They take care of my sister and I. And, well... I suppose you too, now that you're here." "Where... where is here?" "Here," Aya repeated, motioning out to the park, to the lake, to the trees and the gardens all around the both of them. "Eden." "Eden..." Ai rubbed her eyes and the invisible Specters set her back down on the diaper. Aya sprinkled some powder on Ai's skin and pulled it up between her legs. The sound of each tape echoed through the whole world, like faraway bells. And when Ai was once again in diapers, she knew without a doubt that it hadn't been Ageplay Academy that made her feel this way. The diaper was resplendent in the light that seemed to come from everywhere but nowhere at the same time. It felt like a long lost love. It felt like everything she had ever wanted. Ai belonged in Eden. Ai belonged in diapers. "Is Eden a nice place?" Ai asked, because it was the first thought that came into her mind. "It's the best place," Aya said simply. She patted the front of Ai's diaper and helped her off the grass. Right away, Ai stumbled and nearly fell down the hill, but a flurry of invisible forces held her upright. Then, they lifted Ai off the ground completely, just a few inches. She could feel hands grabbing at her, squeezing her ankles and her arms and her diapered butt. But just as quickly as the feelings were there, they were gone, to other places on her body. Ai didn't know if the Specters were invisible people, or a mass of shifting forcefields, or both at the same time. "C'mon, I'll show you around," Aya smiled. Suddenly, the force beneath Ai compressed itself so thickly that it became visible. Bending light and energy, twisting space. But the more it twisted, the finer the form it took. In less than a second, it became its own kind of matter. And that matter shifted in color and appearance, until it looked exactly like an oversized pram. Ai was gently lowered into it, and found it to be soft and comfortable, as if it was never anything but an oversized pram. "What just happened..." Ai asked sleepily, trying to make sense of everything. "Don't think too hard," Aya said softly. "Just let the Specters take care of everything for you." Ai nodded, and the pram started to move on its own. Down the hill of bluish grass, toward the golden lake. Aya followed at its side. "Um, I can... can walk..." Ai tried to argue, but she wasn't sure why. She was so tired, and the pram ride was so cozy. Why would she want to walk? "No need," Aya answered. "Just relax." "Relax..." Ai repeated. That sounded... so lovely... "The Specters can carry you, move you, do everything for you," Aya explained. "They can be anything you need, or anything you want, or… anything, I guess. So you don't have to worry about anything, not a single thing." Not worrying wasn't something Ai was good at. All her life, she'd had an insatiable curiosity, like an itchy fabric in the back of her head, something her skin didn't agree with. But when Aya told her that there was nothing to worry about, Ai believed her. She trusted her, implicitly, like a voice from on high. At first glance, the golden lake didn't look to be particularly big. But as Aya led Ai around it, it seemed to take forever. On the right, they passed a playground. A beach. Trees that looked like cotton candy. An ocean of bubbles, like a giant bath. A pretzel stand. A hot dog stand. A lemonade stand. The night sky, in the middle of the afternoon. A penguin rental kiosk. A castle with an army of empty armor. A very large bed. A very small bed. Paintbrushes. A "Fill" tool, to color anything. Kisses with wings. A spacecraft. Everything, but upside down. Giant mountains made of candles, with flames of fireworks. A musical. The timeline. Lost atmosphere. Corduroy. Mixed tapes. Mixing bowls. Marshmallows. Mars. Honey made of money. Money made of honey. A kickball field. Waterslides. The absence of the descriptor "sticky". Waterfalls of watermelons. Trampolines. Trapezoids. Pennies. Lightning, but small. Clouds, but ice cubes, but warm. The center of a whirlpool, but only the center. Kindergarten. Kind gardens. Mean gardens, but kind when you got to know them. And a million other things Ai didn't have words for. Perhaps, because she didn't need those words anymore, or perhaps because there never were any in the first place. And on the left, there was the golden lake. "Do you understand?" Aya asked. "This is the best place." Ai nodded. Her diaper was soggy and warm, and her mind was alight with arousal. The kind of feeling she had when that girl touched her diaper. That girl, from that other place. Who was she? Where was that? But it didn't feel like that at all. It wasn't sexy; it was pure. It was what all emotion should have been. A warm, soggy diaper, and an endless lifetime of pleasantness. Before long, Ai was lying on the grass and Aya was patting her diapered butt. Ai sunk into the ground like an ice cream on a hot day. She grunted and pushed and effortlessly filled her diaper. And life was perfect. Except... "Ai, do you mind if I ask you a question?" Aya asked. "Mm... nuh uh..." "Where are you from?" Where was she from? Ai didn't know. So she said: "Here." "No, I know... but what about before here?" Aya asked. "No one else has ever come here... I didn't even know there were others, other than my sister and myself. And now you're here." Ai didn't know what to say, but Aya's question seemed like a good one. "Are you a Specter?" Aya asked. "Are you like the pram?" The pram... Ai shook her head. She was not like the pram. She wasn't from here, was she? Aya had convinced Ai that Eden was the best place to be. That there weren't any better places. And if no places were any better, what was the point of discussing other places at all? But Aya was curious, and there was no crueler fate to Ai than a question unanswered. So Ai tried her best to think of one, and the answers came easily to her. Like they were there all along. "I'm from another place, many bubbles away. Like circles touching, and going on and on, and on and on, and on and on..." Ai paused, and for a moment she considered something Aya had said: no one else had ever come here. Aya had never met anyone other than her sister, and now Ai. "What was it like?" Aya asked. "It was..." Ai paused. When she tried to think about all those other bubbles, only one word came to mind. "Different..." "Eden is different," Aya said, almost in defense of it. "There can't possibly be anything anywhere else that doesn't exist here already. Right?" Ai shook her head. She didn't know how to answer Aya's question, so she spoke from the heart. "Everywhere I've been... maybe this is the best one. The best feelings, and... the best of everything. But I guess... if it's the best... then there has to be things that aren't as good. And because they aren't as good, they can't be here, right?" Aya was quiet, but she slowly nodded. "I'm happy to be here," Ai said. "But... I think... I think I was happy to be in those places too, for different reasons. Because the best isn't very good at all without something to compare it to." Ai remembered why she left home in the first place, why a single universe was never going to be enough for her. Because she believed, deep down in her heart, that she wasn't meant to stay still. Perhaps her quest for belonging was never about a destination, but about the journey. She found a little bit of belonging everywhere she went, and in a way, everywhere else belonged to her too. The conversation with Aya continued for eternity. Or it lasted just a few minutes. That was the problem with endlessness: there was no point of reference. No transitions. Nothing to lead you to the next important moment. "Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Bala asked sharply. She was sitting in a playpen, on foam puzzle piece tiles. Ai was sitting across from her, and walls of plastic surrounded them like mountains surrounded a village. Like a river surrounded a castle. Like a yard surrounded an academy. Bala was dressed in a white onesie, decorated in halos and cartoon wings and the laughter of children and the heat of the universe. Ai looked down at her own clothes, which had changed: a red onesie, with horns and pitchforks and block towers of arrogance and the coldness of space. "Subtle," Ai sighed, rolling her eyes. Suddenly, everything was so clear to her. She remembered her purpose. "I gave you everything you wanted. I gave everybody everything!" Bala balled her hands at her sides. "Do you know how hard it is to make everybody happy? I had to break it all up into a billion pockets. Into tiny happinesses, instead of one big one! But I did it! I did it, and you had to go and ruin it! Why do you have to ruin everything?" "I didn't ruin anything," Ai shot back, balling her own hands at her sides. "You did!" Bala shouted. One baby shouting at another across a plastic, colorful universe. "I put you so far away from us, but you came here anyway. Then you told Aya all about the other places, the other people. You brought sin into Eden. And now she's gonna leave! Maybe not right away, but sooner or later." "Then let her go," Ai fumed. "She can make her own decisions." "Let her go? What do you think happens to the universe when God abandons Heaven? Everyone else does too. The structure of it all, the building blocks... nobody will be happy ever again." "You're wrong," the demon said to the angel. She toddled forward a single step, rattle of Damocles in hand. "I was happier in every other bubble than the one you stuck me in. I was happy, because of the possibilities. Because there was so much to learn and know, and so many new ways to grow and get better." "You think you're any better?" the angel asked. A throne appeared beneath her and she was lifted up into the sky, safely secured with a tray in front. "You're worse than ever before. You're selfish, and you're willing to sacrifice everything I made for everyone else, because you think you're right!" "You hypocrite," the demon hissed, waving her rattle. "You want to condemn me for selfishness, when you trapped all those people here to take care of you? You think I don't know who the Specters are? Was this their wish?" "They can be anything!" Bala screamed. "They can be the stars themselves! They aren't bound by matter or reality or anything! They have all the power they wanted!" "They can't be anything, because you won't let them choose. You're too scared that they'll choose wrong, and they'll blame you." "You don't know anything about me!" Bala said as loud as she could, as loud as the Big Bang. "You want to put everyone in a box of what is 'best'," Ai said angrily, because when someone didn't listen, the best answer was to say it louder. "Just like Aya, and this farce of a paradise. But if something is the 'best', then there's no getting any better. There's no point." "SHUT UP!" The walls of the playpen around Ai and Bala exploded into stardust, along with the chair and the rattle, and the two of them were left alone in the dark. Then Ai felt a pang of something other than anger, a feeling that resonated through the emptiness and through the both of them. Ai felt disappointment, because the universe was at the whims of a true child. "You can't start at the end," Ai said sadly. "Fucking watch me."

Chapter Six "What do you two think you are doing?" Ms. Lady's voice was sharp and loud, like the sound of breaking glass. Her timing was the opposite of impeccable: only seconds after Ai twitched and spasmed, splattering the inside of her diaper with cum. Her timing was sinful. "Oh, Ms. Lady!" Rin said through labored breaths, struggling to her feet. "I was just, uh... this new student here—" Like the crack of thunder, the ruler came down on the side of Rin's thigh. Ai squinted up at the bleary lights, at the fresh air... she was dizzy and in disbelief. "Both of you, to the principal's office. Now." "Y-yes ma'am..." Rin reached down and helped Ai off the ground. Ai tried to pull away, but she was weak and malleable after her first orgasm. Before she could defend herself to her teacher or her classmates, Rin had dragged her haphazardly into the hall and Ai almost fell down. The diapers between her legs felt thicker than ever, and her mind was fuzzy with conflict. When Ai finally came to, she was sitting in a wooden chair in a long hallway. The door in front of her said "Principal's Office", and Rin was in the chair beside her. When Rin looked over, Ai quickly dropped her gaze. She didn't know what to say... what to do! Ai had no experience with something like this, and her face was burning with embarrassment. "I can't believe you got me in trouble..." Rin's voice was different to the cocky bully in the classroom; she sounded a little pouty, actually. Maybe without an audience, she didn't have any reason to keep up the persona. Or maybe she was genuinely worried about getting in trouble. "You got you in trouble," Ai muttered, trying to argue with Rin in a way that wasn't technically a lie. Everything they had done together, Ai had liked. She hated that she liked it. "Ah, so you're playing it that way," Rin sighed, rolling her eyes. "Well, that isn't what I'll be telling the principal." Ai was so angry, but she didn't have the energy for it. Her body and mind were spent, and Rin was still trying to make it worse for her. But before anything could get worse, the door opened and a head poked out. "The principal will see you girls now." The principal's office was mostly wood decor. The walls were a polished wood, and the large desk was wood as well. It had windows, with soft light streaming through them. Ai wondered where her exit was, and how she would get there. She had to get her compass back. But for now, the principal demanded her attention. He was taller than Ai, but most people were. He was also older, but not by much. Above everything else, he was attractive. "What has gotten into the two of you?" he said with disappointment dripping in his tone. Both Ai and Rin shrunk a little, standing in front of the desk. "She started it," Rin pouted. "I was trying to help her learn her manners, and—" "You're in here once a week," he said to Rin. "It feels like you can't stay out of trouble. But this is the first time I've seen you, Miss..." "Uh... me?" Ai was too distracted by everything that happened to remember why she was here in the first place. "I'm Ai Sinclair, sir. And I'm not from here. I'm trying to get to a different bubble." "Blah blah blah," Rin mocked. "Just another lie to get out of trouble." "I'm not lying," Ai said firmly, but her cheeks were still pink. "Look, she's blushing," Rin teased. Even in front of the principal, it didn't seem like she could behave. "She's loving all this attention. She wants this to happen." "I do not!" Ai said a little louder, and her cheeks took on a bit more color. "You can't assume that stuff just because my face is red! If you'd just... listen..." Something was wrong. Suddenly, everything around Ai was muted and grey, like looking through foggy glass. The room was a little darker, and the expression on Rin's face was frozen mid eye-roll. The principal behind the desk was also frozen, looking a little annoyed. But Ai wasn't frozen, and she was still the same colors as before. "Um... hello...?" Neither of them answered. Ai got a little panicked. "Rin? Hey, Rin?" Ai took a step toward Rin, reached out, and touched her. Suddenly, Rin's colors returned and she took stock of the grey room. "Oh, hey," Rin said, noticing Ai. "Should I be less mean? I feel like I'm being too mean." "I... what? What are you..." Ai shook her head, trying to shake away the nonsense of the situation. If she could just think for a moment... "I can come clean with the principal if you want," Rin suggested. "I'll get in trouble, but that's kind of the point, right?" The confusion on Ai's face must have been evident, because Rin started to become confused too. "You safe-worded, right?" Rin asked. "I... I don't know what you're talking about!" Ai sighed, angry and exhausted. "Woah, hey! No playing in Safe Space. You have to be real." Now Rin seemed annoyed. But as she watched Ai's frustration build, as tears filled her eyes, Rin hesitated. Her annoyance dripped away. "Hey... you know what's going on, right?" Rin asked. "I mean, no games. No pretend. You opened this Safe Space, right?" "I don't know what that means," Ai said again, just as angry and exhausted as the first time. But this time, she sounded a lot more defeated. "Oooh boy. Oh boy oh boy. Shit. I'm so sorry, I should have checked! I just, we don't usually have people who don't understand how things work here. I am so sorry." This wasn't the same Rin. Well, she was the same Rin, but her attitude and demeanor couldn't have been more different. This was a concerned young woman who was realizing that she'd just pushed the limits of someone who didn't know the rules of the game, and she felt awful. But more importantly, this was a person who wanted to make sure that Ai understood everything, and that was Ai's favorite kind of person. "Are you okay? I was really rough with you in there, and if you didn't know that you could safe word that's hugely negligent of me." "I'm... fine? I guess? What are you talking about? What safe word?" Ai's frustration was beginning to wane, though her confusion was not. At least it felt like someone was finally listening to her. "You said 'red', remember?" Rin asked. Had she? Ai tried to go through her own dialogue, but she couldn't be sure. "When you say 'red', it sets up the Safe Space," Rin explained. "You can take any time you need, and anyone you touch enters the Safe Space with you. That way, you can talk about what you need, or what you want to go differently, or whatever. And it doesn't ruin the scene." "This is... a game...?" Ai asked, starting to puzzle it out. "You're all playing a... a weird... dress-up diaper game?" "Uh, yeah..." Rin blushed a little and twirled the ends of her hair. "For some people, it's just a way to play and relax. For others, it's kind of like a kink? Sexy, you know?" "I don't know," Ai said bluntly. "Why would I know this!" "Well, you were put in the brat classroom!" Rin said in her defense. "I just thought... I mean, you were really convincing..." "Convincing that I didn't want to be treated like that?" Ai asked rhetorically. "Yeah, because I didn't want to be treated like that!" "Look, I'm so sorry! It's not usually my job to check stuff like that; we have staff. But when you didn't safe word, I should have known. I'm... I'm not trying to shirk my responsibility here. I'm just trying to explain." Ai hesitated. She wanted to hate Rin, but she seemed so sincere. And in retrospect, looking back, it all seemed so made up. Like a play. Of course it was a play... but Ai had never been to a bubble like this one before... "Okay... I believe you," Ai finally said, crossing her arms. She looked down at her own outfit, then up at Rin's. They were both still in their diapers, and Rin's was full. Thankfully, the time-stop seemed to prevent the smell from getting through. An important stipulation, surely. "I can talk with the others and let them know that you weren't informed, and they won't ever mention that scene again. It will be like it never happened. I'm really upset that nobody told you. I was having a great time, and I thought you were too, and now… well, I just feel so guilty. And like, I'm not blaming you for that! I just wish whoever dropped the ball… well, hadn't." "No, um... it's... a misunderstanding, I guess..." Probably the biggest misunderstanding of Ai's life, but sometimes that came with the territory of bubble hopping. Now that everything was starting to make more sense, Ai felt a little twinge of embarrassment. "It wasn't so bad," Ai admitted shyly. "I don't know why I acted like that... and I don't even know why I'm bringing this up." "Safe Space does that," Rin explained. "It tries to coax the truth out of you, so you can express yourself. And since you opened this Safe Space, I'm actually more inclined to listen and believe you. Which... is maybe why I didn't listen before..." Rin paused a moment, lost in thought, then continued her explanation. "As for your feelings when we... uh... ya know... don't be too embarrassed about that. A lot of feelings are amplified at Ageplay Academy, like how it feels when you wet a diaper. Or if someone touches you in one. It's like turning up all your feelings to eleven. Even the teachers and caregivers feel it, but it's different for them." "Right... so even if I don't like any of this stuff, the rules of this bubble make me like it?" "Well, no, it should just amplify it..." Rin paused for a moment. To her knowledge, a Big didn't feel the same things a Little did. Rin herself had experimented with different roles, but nothing ever felt as good as bratting. "Well, maybe something went wrong," Rin shrugged. "You came into this bubble in a diaper already, right? It could have messed with things." "Yeah, that makes sense..." But if Ai thought too hard about it, she would find that it didn't really make sense at all. Something else was pulling her strings. "We should explain all this to the principal," Rin urged. "Just touch him and it'll draw him into the Safe Space. And when you are ready to close it, when you feel safe, just say 'green'." Ai nodded. She still had a lot of explaining to do.

Chapter Five Ai Sinclair had no memory of wearing a diaper. She had no memory of wetting one. She probably had, because that was what babyhood was like. But unlike most kids she met in her travels, Ai didn't have parents. She never had a babyhood, as far as she could remember. If she thought hard about it, her imagination could fill in the gaps: the tension of a blanket swaddling her shoulders, or the sight of looking up at someone as they wiped her skin clean. But Ai had lived for a long time in her bubble, and she'd never known anything about aging until she'd left. That was the thing about bubbles. They're just... different. But nothing was quite so different as the feeling of soaking her diaper. The heat on her skin. The sodden padding, growing thicker and thicker. The uncontrollable bliss... the blissful lack of control. And it seemed to go on forever. It didn't stop. Never in her entire life had she peed for so long, and never with anybody watching her. Ai's humiliation got the better of her, and she closed her eyes. She didn't want to see the teacher or her classmates. She wanted to pretend they didn't exist; out of sight, out of mind. But with another one of her senses stripped away, others lit up like fireworks. The tingling between her legs. The warmth on her cheeks. The sharp inhales and exhales as Ai lost control of her breathing. Her fingers trembled in the mittens. Her stomach fluttered with excitement. And it just... didn't... stop... Soon, the diaper between her legs was heavy and warm and pleasant. Her mind was swirling with a thousand feelings, but not a single thought. Sweat beaded on her forehead and she opened her glossy eyes. Everyone was still there; they didn't disappear. They were still watching her, and Ai had never been so embarrassed. "Well, it seems someone had a little accident," Ms. Lady teased. Her voice felt like daggers, slicing up Ai's pride into ribbons. Ai wanted to argue that it wasn't her fault, that Ms. Lady wouldn't let her use the restroom, but her words were frozen in her throat. Her brain wasn't sending the right signals anymore. All she felt was... good. So, so good. Ms. Lady went back to teaching the class, and Ai sunk lower into her seat. The diaper was so squishy beneath her, and Ai made the mistake of squeezing her legs together. The plastic crinkled and a shiver zipped up her spine. Involuntarily, she did it again. And again. And again. Ai hung her head in shame, and in an effort to mask her shallow breathing. To hide her pink cheeks. To steer her focus away from Ms. Lady and the classroom and toward the willpower to stop what she was doing. But there wasn't enough willpower in all of Ai's mind or body. For the next ten minutes, she squirmed and crinkled and flooded herself with undeniable pleasure. At the same time, and somewhat paradoxically, the students seemed both entranced with Ai and entirely dismissive of her. No one was watching her, but any time she looked away, she could feel the attention of her classmates. She could almost hear the things they were thinking about her. How Ai was just one step away from Henry's fate: a mushy-bottomed toe sucker. Ai's breathing was still shallow, and every now and again little gasps would escape her lips. How she longed to cover her mouth with her hand. "That's all for today, class," Ms. Lady finally said, shaking Ai from her introspection. The ropes around her wrists unfurled, as they did with everyone else in the classroom. "Tomorrow's class is about etiquette, and I expect you all to be dressed appropriately," Ms, Lady said, sharply pointing her words at Ai. Unbound at the ankles and the wrists, Ai could get up. But getting up was a little dizzying. She was still adapting to all the sensations of her wet diaper, and even lifting her bottom up off the chair caused so many new ones. The tug on her hips, as the heavy padding sagged between her legs. The squishiness in all new places. Finally, Ai gave up and sat back down, resting her head on her mittened hands. "Hey there new girl." Ai lifted her head just enough to see Rin standing over her desk. She was leaning on one foot, twirling her hair with her finger. She smiled sweetly. Sickly so. "Seems like you really had a good time in class," she teased. "Shut up," Ai muttered, putting her head back down. Every muscle in her body felt tense and weak at the same time. "You must really love your diapers, hm? Pissing yourself like that in front of everyone, then moaning like a little slut?" Ai raised her head and glared at Rin. She knew a slut wasn't exactly a bad thing to be, but Ai didn't have much experience. Sex wasn't a thing in her original bubble, but Ai knew enough to be offended by Rin's implication. "What's your problem?" Ai said sharply. "I didn't do anything to you." "My problem? I don't have a problem. Do you?" Rin asked rhetorically. "It seems like you had a really good time, that's all. Did you like it when I stared at you like that? When I watched your widdle assident?" The last two words from Rin's mouth were twisted into baby talk, and Ai was struggling to keep up with her logic. Her head was swimming. Or drowning. She couldn't even tell. She tried to get a word in between Rin's, but the other girl just kept talking. It was like one unbroken sentence, moving from topic to topic, and Ai couldn't find a spot to interrupt. It was kind of hypnotic. "It makes sense that a pervert like you would be obsessed with me though; I'm kind of a big deal around here. You're lucky that I'm even talking to a little diaper dork like you." The fact that Rin was in a diaper too didn't seem to matter. "And not only are you a pervy little dork, but you're rude too! You haven't even thanked me for my attention." "I'm not thanking you for anything," Ai said fiercely. She knew different bubbles had different rules, but she always stood up for herself when she thought she was being treated unfairly. Communication was important, after all. "Aww, you think you're such a big girl," Rin cooed. "But this behavior of yours isn't very mature at all. It's rather childish, actually." "Because acting like a bully is so grown up?" Ai shot back. Then a low chorus of "ooo"s flooded the room. Ai looked around to find the rest of the class watching from the sidelines. Somehow, their argument had become a spectacle. "Oh, oh, you think I'm a bully?" Rin crossed her arms, and looked over her shoulders to the left and to the right, at the gathered crowd. "You hear that, y'all? This baby slut diaper dork thinks that I'm a bully. It sure sounds like she's never known what it means to be bullied before, doesn't it?" Her attention shifted back to Ai and she smirked confidently. "Maybe I should show you what bullying looks like?" Ai felt a pang of anxiety. Most of the people in her travels were rather kind; there was no history of abuse or violence or neglect. Every now and again Ai's ethics and morals didn't quite line up with the worlds she visited, but almost all of them were respectful of their differences. Once or twice, in extreme cases, she was asked to leave. But what happened at the King's Kingdom and what was happening now seemed so disproportionately violating. "Whatever," Ai sighed, trying to tone down her frustration. She got to her feet with every intention of walking out of the classroom, but the weight on her hips was startling. The diaper sagged halfway down her thighs, and she almost lost her balance. Her agitation was whisked away, replaced with embarrassment and fervor. Ai blushed deeper than before. "Oh? Whatever? Did you mean, whatever you say, Miss Rin. I'm a little diaper brat who needs to be put in her place? Is that what you meant?" Rin stepped directly in Ai's way and gave her a shove. Ai held onto one of the desks and managed to stay standing, but the heavy padding between her legs caused her to lose her footing. With another shove, Rin pushed Ai backward, away from the door and toward the crowd of students. They dispersed, giving space for Rin and Ai to have their tussle. "Oh my gosh, what is your problem!" Ai said angrily, losing her composure. Every step in her soaking wet diaper was a rush of new sensations, each one stealing more and more of Ai's breath. So when Rin stepped toward her again, Ai panicked and shoved her right back. Ai had been in fights before, but none were so inelegant. They were demonstrations, like a show of strength. Or they were customary, like a call and response. Sometimes fights were acceptable, sometimes they were necessary, and sometimes they were lauded. But this was none of those. This was a total mess. Rin didn't strike or attack Ai; she tugged on her clothes and pulled her hair. Ai, realizing very quickly how immobile she was in such a thick diaper, mirrored Rin. In the end, Ai was knocked onto the floor, landing on her padded behind with a squish and a shiver. She was out of breath and her body tingled in an unbelievably pleasant way. Her face was red with embarrassment. Rin stood over Ai with her hands on her hips and a wicked smile on her face. Rin stepped forward twice, so that each of her feet was on either side of Ai's hips. From that position of power, she descended and sat her ass upon Ai's stomach, pinning her in place. She grabbed Ai's wrists, one in each hand, and held those down too. "Pinned on the ground by a girl in a diaper? You're so pathetic." Ai was awash with conflict. On one hand, everything Rin said sounded like something on a radio drama. That's where she learned about bullies to begin with, since she had never gone to a proper school. It was so stupid, it was almost laughable. But on the other hand, Ai's body was flooded with gooey emotions and her soggy diaper begged to be squished and rubbed. And a girl was on top of her? For the first time in a very long time, Ai wanted to kiss somebody. "Y-you're... um... lemme..." Ai's conflict was a terribly slow tug of war. It was humiliating, and the entire class was looking down on her. Literally and figuratively. "Tsk tsk... you really should learn your manners," Rin teased. "If you'd just thank me for all this attention..." Ai shook her head; it was all her determination would allow. Rin sighed, clucking her tongue in that universally chastising way, that way that everyone understood. "Well, lucky for you, I'm really good at teaching little brats how to be polite and grateful." She kept Ai pinned to the ground and looked up at the gawking students. "Aren't I?" Rin asked. There were a few quiet mumbles, all of which sounded affirmative, and some nods of the head. But there were a lot of blushing cheeks. Before Ai could come up with a solution, Rin pulled Ai's wrists down to her sides and spun around on her tummy. With her knees on either side of Ai, she pinned her arms in place and arched her back. Rin's diaper was on full display, only inches from Ai's face. It was thick and swollen, forcing Rin's legs apart. Ai could see the faint line halfway up her backside, where the pure white padding changed to a muted yellow. "Goodness, what a cute little print," Rin teased, lifting Ai's dress. "Everybody, come look at the new kid's diaper! It's like it was made for a baby!" Then Rin pressed her hand to Ai's diaper, causing her to shiver involuntarily beneath the bully. The rush of pleasure was intense, but it quickly capsized to violent waves of humiliation. "Oh my gosh, did you all see that?" Rin mocked. "She's like a little toy, look! I push the button~" Rin pressed her hand expertly against Ai's diaper and grinned, pressing fingers into the padding like a skilled artist crafting from clay. Then she flattened her palm, forcing the sodden, swollen padding up against Ai's intimates. Ai shivered, and let out the cutest little noises. "And she moves and makes sounds!" Rin went on. "Maybe that's why you don't have any manners, diaper dork; maybe you're just a toy who doesn't have that function. Maybe you're just for playing with? Is that right?" "Lemme... up..." Ai tried to throw Rin off of her, with no success. It felt insurmountable, like moving a mountain. "No, no," Rin tsked. "Toys don't give orders. Toys get played with. You don't think you still have any power, do you?" She squeezed Ai's diaper again and Ai whined a needy whine. "You know, if you'd just used your manners, I might have even mistaken you for a sweet little girl. But you're not, are you? You're a naughty little toy." Each of Rin's ministrations had been precise, planned, and theatrical. What Rin did next was much more chaotic: she began to knead at Ai's diaper like a cat kneading a blanket, like the padding was dough. And as she kneaded, she began to rock on her knees, shifting her diaper closer and closer to Ai's face. Ai couldn't focus on any one thing. The pleasure from the soggy diaper. The words Rin used to humiliate her. The sight of everyone looking down on her. The gentle press of plastic against her nose, as Rin sat back onto her face. She knew she had gotten into this mess herself, but the way out was shrouded in smoke and mirrors. "You're the most helpless little diaper dork I've ever met," Rin jeered. She seemed to be having the time of her life. "Even a brat in a diaper like me can top you. Could this be any more humiliating for you?" Ai thought, with resounding certainty: no. Rin thought, with resounding certainty: yes. "You're clearly at the bottom of the social ladder. You're clearly helpless. You're clearly just a toy to be played with. So I should treat you exactly the way that I'd treat any of my other stuffies. Any of my other toys." There were some gasps from the people that had gathered; some knowing sounds and mumbles. "I can't believe you're going to let me do this to you, diaper dork. But you're such a pervert that you're probably getting off on it." Rin leaned forward and her diaper pressed ever-closer to Ai's face. Ai tried to turn her head, but the soft squish of Rin's diaper pressed into her cheek. It left an imprint in the padding, contouring around Ai's nose and chin. The faint smell of pee from inside Rin's diaper wafted around Ai's face. Ai was about to thrash again, to push Rin off, when the bully pressed on the front of her diaper and Ai moaned involuntarily into the bully's padding. Rin arched her back a bit more and the seat of her diaper began to swell. The padding was soft and mushy as it warped around Ai's face, covering her lips and her nose. Then the smell of pee mixed with something new and Ai realized: Rin was pooping her diaper while sitting on her face! Ai reeled and whimpered, kicking and twisting to throw Rin off, but Rin held her ground. Grunting and pushing, the diaper grew bigger and bigger. It was almost comical, the way her diaper ballooned out. It continued to swell until Ai's whole face pressed into it like a fluffy pillow. She could still breathe, but Ai almost wished she couldn't. "Wow. You just stayed down there the entire time," Rin teased. She sounded a little out of breath, and her cheeks sparkled with perspiration. "You must really enjoy this!" As Rin leaned back, she arched her back and raised her arms to stretch, using Ai's face as a seat for her mushy bottom. The crowd mumbled and gossiped and made declarations about the kind of girl Ai Sinclair truly was. Now she had a reputation, and it would only become cemented in the coming minutes. Rin leaned forward again. This time, when she began to rub Ai's diaper, it wasn't to tease or interrupt Ai's arguments; this time, it was with intent. "How pathetic," Rin's voice rung in Ai's ears. "It's one thing to be a little diaper dork, or a helpless toy to play with. But to let a girl fill her diaper on your face? To whimper and moan while you bury your face into my stinky diaper?" Ai hated Rin. And not because Rin was teasing her, but because Rin was right. Because ever since she'd wet her diaper, the feelings inside of Ai had been overwhelming. Lust and desperation she had never known. Sex itself was an uncomfortable urge at best, something Ai had gone her entire life without much interest in. And now, in a soaking wet diaper, with her face plunged into the seat of another girl's messy diaper, she was more turned on than ever. Even Rin's taunts weren't enough to quell her libido. For the first time in her known life, Ai really wanted to cum. She hoped her pride and self-control would be enough to triumph over her desire, but nothing had ever stopped nor could ever stop Ai Sinclair from getting what she wanted. Not even herself.

Chapter Four When Ai woke up, everything felt heavy. A welling anxiety filled her up, and just as easily as it came, it slipped away. She was with Mommy and Daddy. She was okay. Then Ai woke up again, and everything was still heavy. A welling panic itched in the back of her mind, and she tried to shoo it away. She was with Mommy and Daddy. Everything was wonderful. Ai woke up a third time, and everything was still heavy. But there was something more than anxiety, more than panic... she slowly rubbed her eyes and the mittens jingled. Jingled? Mittens? Ai managed to open her eyes. She expected to find the morning light, and Mommy unbuttoning her shirt for another meal. Or Daddy's thick, heavy words, telling her how to be a good girl. But it was dark. Dark? Nighttime. Ai remembered what that was. Night and day. Like yesterday and today. Everything was night and day... ever since nursing on... The milk. It was like Daddy's voice. It was so entrancing, and... wait, why did she wake up in the first place? Because Ai had to pee. Ai laid there for a few moments, looking up at the canopy, like waking up from a dream. Which reality was real? The one where she needed to get up and use the bathroom, or the one where she wet her diaper? So many realities in diapers... so many realities without them... which one was real…? But as it often is with dreams, Ai started to find her footing in one reality. The reality where she was lying between a man and a woman who had taken her in and made her their baby. The reality where she had somewhere to be, somewhere she belonged. And it wasn't here. There was a window in the bedroom, and outside the sky was growing brighter. Black changed to a deep, deep, deep blue. Sunrise was coming. Ai was running out of time. But when she tried to get up, her mittens jingled and the queen beside her stirred in bed. She had to silence the bells, but she didn't have her hands. What did she have? Her feet? Her mouth? Teeth? Maybe... Ai wrapped her lips around one of the little metal bells, like she had with Mommy's nipple the night before. She closed her lips around the bell and bit at the stitching. It took a while, but it finally popped off the mitten with a muffled jingle. Ai tucked it into her cheek and started gnawing at the next one. When Ai was done, she had four bells in her mouth. She was too scared to spit them out, in case they made any kind of noise. Then, with more care than she had ever put into anything in her life, Ai slinked her way to the end of the bed. Finally free of the king and queen, she tip-toed over to the corner where her backpack was strapped to a chair. Ai tried pulling the straps up, to sling the bag over her shoulder, but it caught on the heavy wooden chair. She tried once before, wiggling the bag a little, but no luck. Finally, she noticed that one of the straps had been woven through the wood slats. Intentionally. Fuck. Quietly, Ai slid to the floor and fumbled with the clasp on her bag. It was such an easy thing to latch and unlatch, but the mittens made it impossible. And she couldn't gnaw the strap off without spilling the bells all over the stone floor. The sky outside was red and pink, welcoming the coming day, and Ai was no closer to getting her backpack. Then something squeaked loudly behind her. Ai nearly screamed, but she had been holding her mouth closed tightly for the better part of the hour. She turned and saw the king roll onto his side, so that he was staring right at her. If his eyes had been open. The memory of the spanking from a few days before ran through Ai's head, and her heart started to race. If he saw her, if he caught her like this... not only would she never have another chance to escape, but she would go over Daddy's lap again. She would rather die. Honestly, truly, she would rather die. Ai gave her backpack one last glance. All the gifts from her friends, all the things she loved... Ai made one of the hardest decisions of her life, and got to her feet. She had to leave. But as luck would have it, on her way out of the room, she saw the compass on the dresser by the door. Even with her hands in mittens, she was able to scoop it up with both hands and squeeze her way out of the room. In the doorframe, Ai glanced back at the bed, at her sleeping 'parents'. The first parents she'd ever had. They were awful. But that feeling in her heart when she saw the queen's sleeping face… Sometimes love just doesn't make any sense. Ai raced down the stairs. Through hallways she hadn't memorized. She hugged the walls of open rooms and didn't bother with any door that had a handle. Thankfully, in defiance of security, most of them were pull-rings without latches or empty archways. Finally, Ai found her way to the drawbridge. She thought for sure Rupert would be waiting to catch her, but the bridge was empty. She walked the center of the drawbridge, to avoid any water nymphs, and hurried into the woods. The first thing she did was spit out the bells. They jingled to the forest floor, but the tinny sound was so much quieter in the outdoors. Then she bit and tore at the mittens with her teeth, but the fabric was a much higher quality than the bell thread. That was the first time Ai really thought about what she was wearing. A diaper, a nightie, and locking pink mittens. And she had abandoned all of her other clothes. She was really kicking herself for that one. But right now she had bigger problems than her outfit. She fumbled with the compass and, with a combination of her mittened hands and her teeth, managed to get it open. It pointed to the left of the castle, so she went right. That early morning walk through the forest was the most scared Ai had ever been. The trees seemed to lean in and grab at her, leaves flitting off the branches like an early winter storm. The wind pushed against her, causing her to stumble and fall into the dirt and grass. The thick diaper between her legs made it difficult to run, and every rustling bush or snapped twig made her jump. By the time Ai came to the edge of the wood, she could hardly breathe. She looked up at the steep hill in front of her and checked the compass one more time. This was it. "Ice and Claire!" The voice was faint, in the distance. But even the sound of Rupert's voice was enough to trigger Ai's panic. She scurried toward the hill and tried to run up the side of it. Halfway there, she put the compass between her teeth and ran up on all fours. When she reached the top, she didn't look back. She ran headlong into the shimmering wall and the countryside vanished. Suddenly, Ai was on the landing of a staircase. Inside. In a building? She had only appeared inside a building once or twice before. Behind her, there was no shimmering veil, but a solid wall. She reached out to touch it, but Ai stopped herself. She didn't want to risk going back. Ai slunk down to the floor and tried to catch her breath. The ground was wood. Nice wood. On one side, a staircase went up and a staircase went down. And the stairs were wide - this wasn't someone's house. A public building? Ai's panic wasn't subsiding. The new place didn't feel safe, and she was still dressed in her silly baby girl outfit. So she got to her feet and decided to go down instead of up. At the bottom of the staircase was a vending machine, filled with brands Ai didn't recognize. Even the currency cards weren't familiar to her. She poked her head out into the hall, and Ai knew immediately where she was. A school. On one side of the hall, there were classroom doors. On the other, a series of windows spanning the entire wall. Outside was a field, with soccer nets and a running track. By the look of it, Ai was on the second floor. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Ai saw someone open a door. She quickly ducked into the stairwell, behind the vending machine. She heard the tapping of shoes, but they faded away. "I'm scaring myself," Ai said aloud to herself. "This is a new bubble... there's nothing to be afraid of." Ai looked down at the compass in her mittened hands. She had been clutching it tightly. "But just in case..." Ai leaned down and set the compass on the ground. It was the last thing she owned, and arguably the most important. She wanted to keep it safe. So she gently pushed it under the vending machine for safe keeping. "Now to find a way out of these clothes…" Ai was halfway down the hall when she heard a voice behind her: a young man's voice. She turned around and tried to decide if running or hiding was the better option, but the logical part of her brain reminded her that this was a different place. A safe place, hopefully. The man in question was about Ai's age, or maybe a little older. He had short cropped hair, dyed in different rainbow hues, and lots of earrings that matched his lip and nose piercings. He was also a little shorter than Ai, which was not a very common trait others had. When he caught up with Ai, he said: "Well, who let you out? You shouldn't be out in the hall without an escort." When Ai didn't know what to say to that, he asked: "What's your name? I'm West." "Uh... Ai," Ai answered, blushing a bit. The way he looked her up and down... she unconsciously tried to tug down the nightgown, but the mittens didn't let her. The best thing she could do at that moment was explain herself. "I'm not from here, as you can probably tell," Ai tried to laugh, but her embarrassment got the best of her. "The bubble I came from, they dressed me like this... I barely got away. Do you think you could help me find something to wear?" The man tilted his head as he listened to Ai's plight, like he was trying to puzzle her out. It made Ai nervous. But in the end, he nodded and smiled. "Oh totes, absolutely, for sure. I know where we can get you changed. Come on." West confidently took Ai by the hand - well, by the mitten - and led her down the hall. "Here we go, boo," he said, stopping in front of one of the doors. He turned the doorknob with his free hand and half-pushed Ai inside. She stumbled into the room, but it wasn't wasn't a changing room or a closet or a wardrobe or anything. It was a classroom. Or, at first glance, it was a classroom. There were rows of desks, occupied by a dozen or so students. They all wore matching uniforms, regardless of gender, with button up blouses and short plaid skirts. At the front of the room was a heavy desk and an older woman with thin glasses and her hair in a bun. But on second glance, each of the students was seated in a very specific way. Their hands were bound in front of them and tied to a hard point on the desk. Their ankles were spread wide apart and buckled to the legs of the desk. And under every skirt, on full display, was a diaper. Ai felt a heavy sinking feeling and turned to rush out, but the man who led her there shut the door with a smile and stood in her way. She turned back to the class; all eyes were on her. "I... I think there's been a mistake..." Ai tried to explain in a panic. "Oh, there's certainly been a mistake!" West agreed, still smiling. "Walking around the halls all alone, without supervision? Tsk tsk. But I'm sure Ms. Lady will help you behave." Ai didn't know what to say to that. The bizarre circumstances of her situation were too difficult to wrap her head around. "Go on, don't be shy," West said. "Introduce yourself to Ms. Lady and the students." One of the students stifled a laugh, then gave up trying to hide it all together. She bursted out with the words: "Your diaper is so thick that it's got its own zip code!" Ai didn't know what a zip code was, but she knew how obvious her diaper was to the classroom of strangers. But before Ai could explain herself, the woman at the front of the class - Ms. Lady - strode down the center aisle toward the disobedient student. Ms. Lady seemed to produce a ruler out of nowhere, which came down sharply on the top of the student's thigh, just below the hem of her skirt. The student let out a whimper and leaned over the desk. "What was that, Rin?" the teacher asked sharply. Even her tone made Ai's blood run cold. "Nothing, Ms. Lady," Rin muttered, twisting a little in her chair. Ms. Lady didn't return to the front of the room, however. She laced her hand in Rin's curly hair and held her tight and upright. Then, she gestured to Ai with the ruler. "Go on." Ai was frozen for a moment. The suddenness of it all... it reminded her of the spanking that Daddy - er, the King, Ai corrected herself - gave her. And all the students were wearing diapers, and... "I... I'm in the wrong place," Ai tried explaining again. "Um, I'm not from this bubble... I just got here and—" "Then why are you dressed like that?" one of the boys asked, smirking like he'd just trapped Ai in a legal argument. "That's... the last bubble I was in, this king and queen, um..." "Put you in a diaper?" someone else asked. "Put your hands in mittens?" another student spoke up. "Yes!" Ai said a little too loudly. Defending herself was overwhelming when she had to do it in front of a dozen people. "Yeah, Ms. Lady," Rin said, craning her neck to look up at the woman holding her hair. "That's what happened with me too! I don't know how I got here, but I just want to go home!" "Well you know what you have to do to leave, don't you, Rin?" "Yes, Ms. Lady," Rin said quietly, the teasing tone fading from her voice. "But you won't do it, will you, Rin?" "No, Ms. Lady." Rin muttered, a bit of color on her cheeks. "So maybe you want to be here. Maybe you want to be dressed in a diaper. Maybe you want to be trained to be a good little girl." Rin didn't say anything else, and the teacher knew she had won. She turned her attention back to Ai. "There is a seat in front," she said. "Sit your padded butt down there and I'll be there in a moment." Ai had absolutely no idea what was going on. That other student kept undermining her, and none of the class seemed to believe her. So Ai took a step toward the teacher instead - Ms. Lady - and tried to keep her cool. "Listen, if we could just talk about this..." "Good girls don't talk out of turn," Ms. Lady declared. Ai found that to be a rather unfair rule, but it was followed with: "Unless you're a bad girl. Then I'll have to discipline you in front of the class. Is that what you want?" Ai hesitated. The threat of discipline had a whole new meaning to Ai, and she knew that she had to work within the customs of the bubble. But it was just too serendipitous, too on the nose. After everything that happened in the King's Kingdom, and now this... Ai took a deep breath and decided to play smart. So she went over to the chair where she was instructed and took a seat. When she did, the buckles around her ankles latched onto her and spread her legs apart. Then, like magic, the rope on the desk unfurled, bound Ai's wrists, and pulled them tight to the tabletop. "Of course," Ai muttered under her breath. Most of the bubbles had magic of some kind, but the animated object stuff was some of the most annoying. She had lost count of the amount of magical ropes that had restrained her in the past, for one reason or another, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. Just like that, Ai was one of the students in the weird classroom. The only difference was her outfit: a pink nightie, instead of a school uniform, and her hands were still in mittens. Arguably, her outfit was even worse than the uniform. Ms. Lady turned to the chalkboard and wrote something on the board: a series of letters and numbers. Then Ms. Lady turned to the class and tapped her crop on the desk. "You all should be able to solve this math problem. Who is going to try?" No one raised their hands - in part because no one could - so Ms. Lady pointed the crop at one of the students. "Henry," she said. The boy looked nervously at the chalkboard and down at his desk. Even if he knew how to reason through the problem, his hands were bound; he would have to do all the arithmetic in his mind. "It's unsolvable, Ms. Lady," Henry guessed. "Is it, Henry?" "Yeah, uh huh." Henry seemed adamant in his lack of answer, and his confidence seemed to grow with each passing second. He even pulled on the ropes a little, trying to sit up straighter than before. "You're just giving us stupid questions to trick us!" he said, which elicited a few murmurs from the students around the room. Ms. Lady slid the drawer open from her desk in a threatening manner, and pulled out a marker. The whole room fell deadly silent, including Ai. She could feel her body tense up and her heart pound as the teacher walked over to Henry with the marker in hand. "Um... I'm sorry, I'll be good. I swear, I'll be good," Henry tried, leaning back in his seat, trying to pull away from the desk. "Maybe numbers are just too hard for you," Ms. Lady teased. "Is that it? The little boy who still wears diapers to school doesn't know his numbers?" "No, I do, I... I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!" Henry tugged harder on the table and Ms. Lady uncapped the marker. The tip was... felt, like an ordinary marker. Ai didn't know what she expected, but it wasn't that. Suddenly, her anxiety felt a little silly. "I think numbers are just too grown up for you, Henry. Maybe you should be demoted back to daycare, what do you think?" Henry shook his head, and he actually had tears forming in his eyes. Everyone else was silent as Ms. Lady took the marker and leaned down to draw on his desk. Ai leaned up to see... a simple number sign. It was actually kind of anticlimactic. But Henry's tear-filled eyes glossed over. A few tears dripped down his cheeks, then he shook his head in disbelief. "I'll give you another chance," Ms. Lady said, returning to the front of the room. This time she put a number on the board: 4. "Tell me what number this is and I won't kick you back to daycare." All eyes were on Henry now, as he looked at the board. He blushed a little and bit his lip. The tension in the room was heavy. "Um... eighty...?" Henry tried, and it was clear that he truly did try. A collective sigh erupted through the classroom and Henry looked a little panicked. "West, could you please take Henry back to daycare?" Ms. Lady asked. "Yes Ms. Lady, gladly." Ai watched with a mixture of confusion, anxiety, bewilderment, and paranoia as West approached Henry's desk. With the snap of his fingers, the ropes came undone and he helped Henry to his feet. On the way down the aisle, West patted Henry on the butt - which crinkled loudly - before saying to the class: "Say goodbye to Henry. Next time you see him, he'll be a little mushy-bottomed toe sucker." That made Henry really start to cry. But West closed the door behind him and the classroom was quiet again. Ms. Lady waited for the dread to sink in, then tapped the board one more time. "Ai, solve this," she said, pointing to the original problem. Ai felt the floor drop out from under her. "I'm not really good at math..." Ai muttered. She debated bringing up her explanation once again - that she wasn't from here - but it felt like a dangerous move. "Maybe you could ask someone else?" "I'm asking you, Ai," Ms. Lady repeated. "Are you telling me that you don't know numbers either? Just like Henry?" She still had the marker in her hand. "No, I do! Um. I know my numbers. I'm just... I don't know the problem that well, and, well... I never actually went to school. I mean, I did, for a semester. At, um. A cooking school? I'm still not great at cooking. But, uh... math, uh..." "So you've never learned a bit of math?" Ms. Lady sighed. "Well math is different in different bubbles..." Ai tried to explain, but the truth was exactly as Ms. Lady said. The more immutable facts at Ai's disposal, the more complicated her travels became. It was like holding onto trinkets, each weighing her down a little more than before. Truth was so subjective, and any presumptions she took with her were dangerous. Ai had learned the hard way that nothing was universal. "Can you give me one good reason why I shouldn't move you to one of the younger classes, so you can learn math?" Ai didn't really have an answer to that, but she did have an opportunity that sprung to mind. "Well, um, if you'd just listen… I'm not from here, so none of this makes any sense to me. I'm not supposed to be in any classroom." "I do not tolerate bratty girls," Ms. Lady said flatly. She took two steps toward Ai's desk, which was all she needed. She uncapped the marker and drew a number sign on the desk. Ai panicked and pulled at her restraints, the same way Henry did, but she didn't cry. She didn't understand the consequences of any of this. Ms. Lady went to the board and wrote a new number. She tapped it with the marker, but Ai was looking down at her desk. The number sign the teacher had written was beginning to fizzle at the edges, like soda pop. Henry's hadn't done that. Ms. Lady had to tap the board once more with the marker to get Ai's attention. "Final chance," Ms. Lady said. "If you can't tell me what number this is, you're going back to kindergarten." "Ten?" Ai guessed, seeing a one and a zero on the board. Hopefully that was ten in this bubble. Then she glanced back down at the desk, but the number sign had all but faded away. Tiny specs of black ink shivered and disappeared. "That's..." Ms. Lady looked at the board, then at Ai, and nodded her head. "That's correct," she said, a little confused. But even someone who didn't know their numbers could have guessed at random. The chances were slim, but it was possible. Ms. Lady decided to let Ai have her win. "Perhaps I underestimated you," Ms. Lady said warmly. "Let's talk after class about where you belong." "Yes ma'am," Ai said brightly. Finally, someone willing to listen to her! "Just be good and quiet until then," Ms. Lady said with a little more assertiveness, and Ai nodded. Class went on. It ranged from incredibly mundane to weirdly abusive. Rin got four more swats with that ruler in ten minutes, and one of the boys had to write lines with his hands tied. As for Ai, she was contending with her own problem. She really had to pee. She woke up that morning needing to use the bathroom, and then she had to escape. She still had her mittens on, and finding a bathroom was the least of her troubles. But sitting there in class, she couldn't stop thinking about it. The pressure in her bladder. The way she squirmed in her diaper. The ache, the need to let go... Ai looked up at the clock. It was only eight minutes until the end of the hour. Most bubbles had the same timekeeping methods. Maybe class would end then; that seemed reasonable. But every time Ai checked the clock, it was still eight minutes until the end of the hour. She even counted the seconds in her head, but she lost track around thirty. Sure enough, the clock hadn't moved. Meanwhile, the feeling of desperation in Ai was only building. Her squirming became active wiggling, and she couldn't sit still for more than a second. She knew she was in a diaper, but she didn't want to wet it! That felt like she was just giving the queen what she wanted. But Ai was feeling something else, as well. Along with the rising desperation, the ache in her bladder, the discomfort... Ai felt twangs of excitement. Of curiosity. Of panic, but in a good way? Could panic be a good thing? She couldn't seem to sort out this particular feeling. So, when she was at the end of her patience, she interrupted Ms. Lady mid-sentence. "Excuse me. Um. Is class almost over?" "Class is over when I say it's over," Ms. Lady said with a touch of annoyance. Perhaps that was why the clock wasn't moving? Was that how it worked here? A contest between the inexorable march of time and the teacher's sense of authority? Time didn't seem to march at all; it meandered, milled about, putzed around. Class wouldn't end until Ms. Lady said it would. Ai couldn't even cross her legs, because they were forced apart by the restraints and by the diaper. Her bladder ached and strained to hold it in. All the while, her cheeks continued to redden. She waited for as long as she could, but waiting wasn't working. She interrupted Ms. Lady again, but her desperation was peaking and her words were a little breathless. "Excuse me, could... could I please use the restroom?" This got a few head turns from the other students. Rin mumbled under her breath, a seat behind and to the right of Ai: "What a bottom." Ai didn't know what a bottom was, but her indignation boiled up all the same. Rin had been nothing but an annoyance since Ai got to the classroom, and her commentary was not welcome. But her opinion didn't matter anyway; it was Ms. Lady she needed to convince. "Why would a diaper brat use the restroom, Ai?" Ms. Lady asked simply. That caught Ai off guard. What the hell did diaper brat mean? And why did Ms. Lady think Ai was one of them? "I'm not a... that," Ai tried to argue. "I am trying to tell you, I don't belong here!" But as Ai's desperation increased, so too did the volume of her voice. She couldn't get into a debate right now! "You're in a diaper," Ms. Lasso argued, without Ai's reservations about a debate. "You're acting like a brat, interrupting class with your silly fantasies of using the restroom." "That's—" But this time it was Ms. Lady's turn to cut off Ai in the middle of a sentence. "You're in diapers because you belong in diapers. Now be quiet and stop causing such a fuss." "I'm not... I don't belong in diapers!" Ai's patience was too thin to shut her up, and she couldn't stop wiggling in her chair. She tugged on the rope around her wrists. "Just, listen! I'm trying to tell you!" "Clearly you need to be the center of attention," Ms. Lady said dismissively. "Class, everyone pay attention to our new student so we can get on with the lesson." The entire class turned their heads to stare at Ai, and nobody said anything. Every single student, even Rin. Ai caught each of their glances, one by one, until she got back to Ms. Lady. Her arms were crossed, like she was bored. "No, that's not…" Ai's voice was the only sound in the silence. All eyes were on her as she struggled to keep her diaper dry. She looked down at her desk, to pretend it wasn't happening, but she could feel them all watching her. "Please...! Please, please, please..." Ai begged and pleaded, struggling in her chair. Every second or two, pressure would threaten to break through her lifetime of potty training. And every second or two, she would just barely fend it off. Until she didn't. Until it felt like she was just frozen on the brink. And a second later, it pushed her over. Ai let out a deep exhale as she flooded her diaper. A steady stream of relief. Heat between her legs. Soft, squishy padding, absorbing and expanding, forcing her thighs further apart. She couldn't stop wetting herself. She didn't even want to.

Chapter Three Ai was still trembling, even fifteen minutes after the spanking was over. The queen had taken her by the hand and led her down the halls of the empty castle. She was talking about something, but Ai was struggling to focus. Her body was alight with adrenaline, but she was tired at the same time. "Now, Ice and Claire, it's not proper for the king's justice to be suspended, so we certainly need a reason for it, otherwise you'll be right back on his lap before you know it. You're such a small little thing, though… I think we can come up with something." Ai nodded. She didn't know what she was agreeing to, but anything was better than getting spanked like that again. She had never felt so helpless in her entire life, and nothing had hurt her quite so badly. Sure, she'd had a few concussions. She broke her leg once, and two of her fingers. But there was something about that spanking that made all that seem like gentle bruising. Perhaps that was just the way spankings felt, or perhaps the king himself had something to do with it. The queen led Ai up the stairs of a tower and into the room at the top. There was a bed with curtains above and around it. There was some white furniture that really seemed to bring out the brightness of the grey stone walls. But most importantly, there was a balcony. It overlooked the forest, but not the way she had come. That's when Ai realized she didn't have her backpack. Or her compass. "Your Majesty, could I please—" "Ah, ah," the queen interrupted. "You know better than to call me that." Ai had to pause to remember what it was the queen was talking about. The spanking and the conversation that followed were nothing but a blurry memory to her. When Ai finally pieced it together, a blush came over her cheeks. "Um... Mommy..." Ai muttered. She had never called anyone that before, not once in her life. She knew what a Mommy was; she'd seen it enough times. The parent to a child. Specifically a woman, and specifically a very young child. A child with no autonomy, who relied on the parent for every little thing. Ai felt embarrassed, having put herself in that category. But there were more pressing concerns. "Could I please have my backpack?" Ai asked. "When you're done with your discipline, you can have your belongings back," the queen said simply, and Ai knew there wasn't room to argue. "Let's get you dressed, Ice and Claire," the queen said, motioning to the bed. "It's inappropriate for you to be wearing clothes you picked out." "My clothes are in my backpack," Ai argued, but the queen didn't seem deterred at all. She went over to a wardrobe in the corner and Ai sat on the edge of the bed. She couldn't go through all those spankings again, so she had to figure out a way to get her backpack back. Maybe it was still in the throne room. The queen turned around with a puffy pink dress in her hands, the kind of dress Ai had only ever seen on little girls in fancy houses. And, well, the castle was kind of a fancy house. But Ai wasn't a little girl. "I don't really like dresses," Ai tried to tell the queen. "Dresses are easy access for the king and me, Ice and Claire. And that's important, because you may need to be checked on." Easy access as a term sent a shiver up Ai's spine. Why did they need access to anything under her skirt? The only thing that came to mind was more of those spankings... was the dress a reminder to behave? With a reluctant sigh, Ai reached for the dress. "Oh, no no," the queen said sweetly. "I'll get you dressed. I'm your Mommy, after all, aren't I?" Ai didn't answer, but that was answer enough. The taller woman stripped off Ai's shirt and pants, leaving her in nothing but her wet underwear. Ai blushed, looking down at her feet and covering her bare chest with her arms. "These too," the queen said, pulling down Ai's panties. Ai reached to grab them, but the queen slapped her hands away. "Please, I can change myself..." "Nonsense," the queen said simply. Then she unfolded a pair of underwear that Ai didn't recognize, not at first. They weren't made of the same kind of material of any panties Ai had ever seen. But when the woman prompted her to step into them, she realized why. They were the same kind that little kids wore when they were potty training. "Wait, hold on. Why do I have to wear those training pants?" Ai asked incredulously. "Well, you got your other panties all wet," the queen said simply. "Well, yeah, but... you don't think I wet those, do you? That awful forest nymph threw me in the river!" Ai was blushing furiously. "Then you'll be able to keep your pull-ups dry," the queen countered. "Pull-ups?" Another name for the training pants, no doubt. Ai shook her head. "Absolutely not! You have the wrong idea!" "If you won't do as you're told," the queen said coldly, "you can go over Daddy's lap instead." Ai froze. Her heart rate doubled and panic zipped up her spine. The fact that the woman had referred to the king as her Daddy was just another straw on the camel's back for Ai Sinclair, but fear gripped her like a noose. She was too scared to even breathe, for just a moment, and stars appeared at the edges of her vision. "What will it be, Ice and Claire?" the queen asked. Ai looked down at her feet shyly and stepped into the training pants. *** Over the next few days, things only got worse for Ai Sinclair. The queen had an endless supply of little girl dresses, and she did everything from feeding Ai to giving her a bath. She would give Ai cups with lids full of milk, and the milk would make Ai's thoughts fuzzy for a few hours. But the worst part was, the queen seemed intent on getting Ai to have an accident. At first, it was just a lot of water and milk, so much that it was an inconvenience. Ai had to get up every hour to use the bathroom. Then the queen would plan walks around the garden, and try to keep Ai out for long periods of time. Then the queen started locking the bathroom door, so that Ai had to ask permission. But through all the trials, Ai always managed to keep her pull-up dry. Whenever Ai had any free time, she searched for her backpack. It wasn't in the throne room, and the castle was massive. Finally, the queen let it slip that it had been put in the royal bedroom for safekeeping, but the door was always locked. Objectively, Ai could always ask Daddy for the rest of her spankings. But she had seventeen sets of ten remaining, and any time she even thought about it she would panic. As much as Ai hated it, the reasonable way out wasn't a viable one. She had to find another way, and it came in the form of a silver lining. Of all of Queen Errata's inexplicable behaviors, Ai hated one more than the rest: though the queen would talk constantly to Ai, she never once listened. Even if Ai tried to engage in the conversation, she was dismissed or actively ignored. It reminded Ai of how a child talks to a doll or a cat. But it was from one of these soliloquies that Ai got an idea. "I don't see why you insist on keeping up this big girl act," the queen sighed, after yet another trip to the bathroom. "There are a lot of perks that only a little girl can get." Ai ruminated all day on what the queen meant by that, and if maybe one of those perks could get her closer to her backpack. That night, before the queen got Ai ready for bed, Ai tugged on her dress as cutely as possible and played her hand. "Mommy..." she said shyly. "Um, I was thinking about what you were saying. And at night, I get kind of scared all alone in here..." "Oh?" The queen didn't take Ai for a woman that was afraid of the dark. But the queen truly did see Ai as a little girl. "You said little girls get perks, so, um... if I were a little girl, would I be able to sleep with you and Daddy?" The queen's eyes lit up and she enthusiastically nodded her head. This lasted only a moment before she regained her composure. "Absolutely, Ice and Claire. Little girls get to sleep with Mommy and Daddy. Of course... a little girl must be properly dressed for bed, as not to have any night time accidents in the royal bed. And your pull-ups are certainly not sufficient." Ai knew part of this plan would involve a few embarrassing concessions, but she wasn't entirely sure what that looked like. The queen wanted to treat Ai like a little girl, to make Ai reliant on her, and Ai was determined to do her best to prove otherwise. What would happen when she gave up? "Yes, Mommy..." Ai muttered shyly. "Whatever you think is best..." Those magic words were far more potent than manners; those were the words that the queen wanted taught to all royal charges. She smiled blissfully, because she was getting everything she wanted. But there was mischief in her eyes. "Up on the bed," she said. Ai sighed and went over to the bed, sitting on the edge. Her feet barely touched the ground, and the bed was bigger than ones she was used to. This whole world made her feel a little smaller than the others, or maybe it was the constant doting from the queen. The queen went to an ever-present dresser on the far side of the room. When she returned, the queen set down some stuff on the bed beside Ai: a square of folded plastic and a pair of pink fluffy ovals covered in bells. Ai recognized the diaper at first glance. She had never seen one that big, and it didn't really look anything like the others she had seen for actual babies, but she just knew. She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach and an indescribable anxiety filled the space. The other things, though… Ai searched through the mental catalogue she had accumulated over her travels, but the results came back empty. She looked nervously up at Mommy for answers. "Queen Mommy and King Daddy are sound sleepers, and we like to sleep in. So a nighttime diaper is a must for my little Princess-to-Be, and some mittens for your hands to keep you from fidgeting." Ai didn't know what mittens were, but it seemed like they were meant to keep her from using her fingers. But then how was she supposed to get her backpack? Ai felt like the ground was falling out beneath her feet. She had to do something. "But I'm... I don't need those, um... I don't fidget, really. I won't touch anything, I swear." And anyway, how were bells supposed to help her stop fidgeting? Ai felt like she was missing something crucial to winning her argument, but challenging the queen felt too dangerous. "Well, just as Daddy doesn't make alliances with kingdoms he hasn't visited, we can't have you sleeping in the royal bed without proving that you won't be a problem. Doesn't that make sense, Ice and Claire? Now, lay down upon the bed, sweet girl." "But... I, swear, I'm—" "Unless you'd rather sleep alone in the dark?" the queen offered. Ai hesitated. She was giving up the only card she had, giving the queen everything she wanted, and there was a good chance she wouldn't be able to get what she needed out of it. But if she went back on her deal, it was only a matter of time. Sooner or later, she'd have an accident and the queen would get her way anyway. So, with a defeated sigh, Ai laid back on the bed and looked up at the canopy. "That's very royal behavior." Which was, Ai supposed, the highest compliment that her Mommy could pay her. As Ai pondered her next move, her Mommy stripped her of the pull-up and lifted her legs. She unfolded the diaper and slid it beneath Ai's bare bottom before pulling it up between her thighs. "You're never going to have to worry about accidents again, my little girl. And there are so many perks," the Queen cooed. Ai was only half listening, if at all. It was the first time Ai could remember anyone putting her in a diaper, and it felt so routine. The familiarity was dizzying, like a book she had read a thousand times. Not a single word was new, not a single piece of punctuation was surprising. And all the same, Ai's cheeks were red with embarrassment as her Mommy taped the diaper around her hips. When it was over, when the queen pulled Ai to her feet, the familiarity vanished, but the embarrassment did not. The thickness between her legs was nothing like the pull-up, and Ai worried she wouldn't even be able to walk. She tried to act like none of this was bothering her, but Ai looked up at Mommy with such shyness. "You'll get used to it, Ice and Claire, and you'll soon wonder how you were ever not a little girl. Now hold up your hand, like this." The queen held out her hand to demonstrate, and waited for Ai to do the same. Then she fetched the first of the two jingly mittens. Ai watched carefully as her Mommy put the mitten on. Two bells, one on each side. An elastic part around the wrist. Mommy slid the fabric over Ai's hand and pulled a strap around the elastic, which clicked shut with a press. Like a lock, but there was no place for a key. Then she did the same with the other hand. Ai tried to ball her hand into a fist, to warp her wrist a little to get as much leverage as she could, but the tall woman flattened her hand inside the mitten and tightened it all the same. Ai reached over with one mitten to pull the other off, but she couldn't get a good grip. The inside was lined with some kind of padding, and the bells jingled with each of Ai's movements. "Sleeping girls don't need their hands, so this shouldn't be any problem at all for you, should it?" the queen asked, but it was a rhetorical question. "Don't fret and fuss, Ice and Claire. Just like your diapers, you'll get used to them." The queen stripped Ai of her dress and pulled a nightie over her head. Without the use of her hands, with her thighs spread apart, and with the height difference between her and her caregiver, Ai realized exactly how helpless she was. Then the queen picked her up and set her on her hip like Ai didn't weigh anything at all. The front of her diaper pressed into her Mommy's side and all Ai's plans of rebellion began to dissolve like sugar in water. The queen carried her charge from the little girl's bedroom, down the hall, up three flights of stairs - each more grand than the one before it - and finally into the royal bedroom. The king was already waiting inside, and seemed to already know what was going on. "Well, I was wondering when you would arrive, my dears. Ice and Claire, you do look positively exhausted and ready for sleep. Doesn't she, dear?" "She does," Mommy agreed, as she walked to the large bed in the center of the room. But she didn't set Ai down on the bed. Instead, she took a seat and put Ai on her lap, on her padded bottom. Her mittens jingled as she tried to hold onto her Mommy's clothes. "Now, my darling," Mommy whispered in Ai's ear. "You truly want to be my little girl? Are you absolutely sure?" Ai looked up at her with burning red cheeks. She certainly did not want that! But then she caught sight of her backpack in the corner. It was wrapped around a chair, only a few feet from the bed... With a deep breath, Ai nodded her head. "Yes, Mommy..." "Then you'll need to go to bed with a full tummy, so you wake up with a full diaper. That's appropriate for a girl your age I would say." One hand held Ai in place, like she was simply stabilizing an infant in her lap, as the other did something Ai didn't expect: it unbuttoned the top clasps of her dress. It wasn't until Mommy's bare breast was pulled from her bodice that Ai realized what was happening. A panic welled up in her so quickly that she couldn't stop it. "No, no way!" Mommy gave her a look of curiosity and Daddy crossed his arms sternly. Ai quickly backpedaled. "I... I mean... that's... a bit too far, isn't it? That's..." That was something Ai had seen done only a few times in her entire life, always by women with newborns. Every time, it made Ai blush and she had to excuse herself from the room, though her response was always quite disproportionate to the situation. "If you're to be of royal blood, then you must drink royal milk," Daddy explained, keeping his composure. "This is a divine privilege, Ice and Claire. Not many people are offered this, and many would die for it. You should be more grateful." "R-right, but... I just..." "If you'd rather finish your spankings, you can go on your way," the queen said coldly, and ice ran through Ai's blood. "N-no..." Ai was stuck between a breast and a hard spank. She tried to think of a way out of it - of any way out of it! - but time was up. Mommy cradled Ai in her arms and put Ai's lips to her chest. With a tight pull on her hair, Ai opened her mouth and latched onto Mommy's nipple. The humiliation was unbearable, but it didn't last long. Warm, sweet milk dribbled into Ai's mouth and she felt fuzzy and warm all over. Mommy's heartbeat was deep in her ear, echoing through her brain. And suddenly, all of Ai's problems melted away. It was the first time since meeting Queen Errata that she and Ai connected on something. It was spiritual and intangible. It was magic. And Ai felt things she had never felt for her Mommy: patience, curiosity, empathy… In this new light, Ai wondered if maybe the queen was doing all this for some other reason than to torture her. That maybe Ai didn't find where she belonged in the King's Kingdom, but her Mommy found where she belonged in Ai Sinclair. That maybe, since Ai hadn't yet found her own happy ending, she could be someone else's instead. It could have lasted a single minute or an eternity. Eventually Ai was removed from the queen's breast, but the feelings didn't go away. Her eyes were glossy, and as her Mommy spoke to her, Ai agreed absentmindedly. "You're a good baby girl, aren't you?" Nod. "You are so happy to be in diapers, aren't you?" Nod. "You never want to grow up again, isn't that right?" Nod. "You'll live as my baby girl, and you'll feel like this forever. Doesn't that sound wonderful?" Nod. "Say it." "Wonderful... to be your baby... forever..." Ai's voice was slurred, unable to put in enough effort to form the words correctly. Why would she need words? She was just a little baby. Ai was tucked into bed, flanked by Mommy and Daddy. Her diaper was soft between her legs, and her head was sticky with thoughts of the rest of her life. A happy, blissful life with Mommy and Daddy. Maybe this was where she always belonged after all.

Chapter Two Suddenly, everything was different. The evening sky turned mid-afternoon. The snow vanished and the fluffy grass beneath poked up. The mountain wasn't so steep anymore, more like a hill, and all the mountains on the horizon were replaced with thick, autumn trees. But one thing stayed the same: Ai's momentum. The canvas sled skipped across the grass a few times before friction got the best of it, and Ai was thrown off. She landed on her hip and tumbled down the hill on her side, eventually sliding to a halt near the bottom. "Ow," Ai said to herself, struggling to sit up. She rubbed her shoulder, which broke some of her fall. Then she wiggled her fingers and toes, just to make sure everything was still working okay. Other than a few scratches and a lot of sore muscles, Ai was just fine. "Well, where am I now..." Ai said to herself, fumbling for her compass. It pointed back the way she had come, up the hill. She turned and looked at the forest in the opposite direction. Under the canopy, the grass was littered with fallen leaves, orange and yellow and brown. A gentle breeze would sometimes pick them up and scatter them around, like moving around paint on a canvas, trying to cover up every blade of grass. There was a crispness in the air that made Ai think about apples. She hadn't had an apple in a long time. Ai took her first step into the forest, because her compass told her not to and for no other reason. The forest was tranquil and lively at the same time, and Ai immediately took a liking to it. Unlike the last bubble she was in, this one had animals. Deer. Deer with antlers. Rabbits. Rabbits with antlers. She had never seen a rabbit with antlers before. She offered one an M&M, but it ran into the brush. With a shrug, Ai continued onward. As the day went on, the wind brought a gentle song to her ears. The leaves were swept around and set down once again, leaving a path of yellow and green grass. Without thinking too much about it, the path and the song led her to the edge of the wood. In front of her was a river of sparkling blue water, and on the other side, a large stone castle. Ai's admiration lasted only a second before it was swiftly interrupted by a rumble at her feet, and vines sprung up around her. They twisted themselves with impressive speed into a tight cage, trapping her inside. The melody on the air fell away, and was replaced with a woman's voice. "Trespasser!" it boomed, and a woman rose up out of the river in front of Ai. Her skin was blue and shimmery, almost translucent, and her clothes were barely clothes at all. They were made of water, with rushes of bubbles to cloud particular parts of her body. Another woman dropped down from the trees behind Ai. She had green skin, her clothes were made of leaves, and her hair was decorated in flowers. She also had antlers on her head, just like the animals in the wood. They both looked annoyed and curious at Ai Sinclair. "Who are you?" asked the woman who came from the trees, though it sounded more like she was demanding an answer than asking for one. "I'm Ai Sinclair," Ai said. "And I'm not trespassing. I'm walking through. "Walking through without permission is trespassing," said the woman in the water. Ai sighed to herself. She had been in bubbles like this before, with magical denizens. Ai used to have magic too, a long time ago, but she gave it up for other things. Exploration. Possibility. "Please, I'm just trying to get to the other side of your kingdom," Ai explained. "If you'd let me go—" "Let you go?" the woman in the water gasped. "You've broken the law. You have to be sentenced by the king!" "Yes, the king," the woman from the trees agreed, and suddenly the wooden cage began to shake. It tumbled forward into the river with Ai inside. "Hey! Watch it!" Ai shouted, trying to kick at the cage. But whatever magic the forest nymph used was strong. The water lurched and spun the cage, causing Ai to sink underwater, only to bob back up again for air. She clung the wooden bars of her cell for dear life as it drifted along with the river current. All the while, the two women laughed. It wasn't long before the cage arrived at a stone bridge. Water rose up underneath Ai and she fell roughly on the bridge, cage and all. She coughed up water and rolled onto her back, vines and sticks digging into her coat. "This is why I hate magic," she said more to herself than the two women. "It makes people so entitled." "Us? Entitled?" the woman in the water said. "You're the one trespassing!" the flower-dressed woman added, standing on the grassy bank. "Good point," Ai sighed, not wanting to fight with her captors. Maybe once she met this so-called king... "Oh, and what's this one?" The new voice was one of a young man in armor. He stood in the castle doors, looking down at the sopping wet girl. "Trespasser," both women said in unison. "Well, I'll take her to the king," the man said, staring curiously through the wooden bars. "Free her." Sure enough, the wood unraveled itself and left Ai in a puddle on the bridge. She struggled to get to her feet, completely waterlogged. But her freedom from captivity was short-lived, because the man in armor quickly forced her wrists into cuffs. Ai groaned. "You're new to the King's Kingdom, aren't you? Well, ignorance is no excuse when it comes to The King's Law." His tone was stern and serious. Then it softened. "Although The King is in a good mood today; this morning's harvest of honey was particularly to his liking. What is your name?" "Ai Sinclair," Ai said, without any deference in her voice. She'd been to enough "King's Kingdom"s in her travels to know the type. Arrogant, bossy men who liked to tell people what to do, thinking that what they wanted was always best. And often Ai was just another way to assert their dominance. "Well, Ice and Claire, that is an unusual name. But I'm not here to judge. I'm Rupert, and I'm Junior Squire to Lady Errata and a member of The King's Royal Guard. It's very nice to meet you, and I'm sure that once justice is dispensed you'll have a pleasant time here." Ai didn't believe in Rupert's prediction; lands like this one were always her least favorite, and she wasn't looking to stay long. But she knew to get what she wanted, she had to play the game. The castle was unsurprisingly empty. Though each world had a lot of space, they often only had a handful of people. There were exceptions, like the City in the Sky; Ai only stayed there for a day, but she guessed there were something like five hundred residents. Rupert led Ai through a large set of doors and into the throne room, where a tall man in fancy robes was sitting. Beside him, there were two chairs: one had a woman in it, who was nearly as tall as the man and dressed in equally-but-different fancy robes. The other chair was empty. "Your Majesty," Rupert said. "This is Ice and Claire. She was found trespassing in your wood." "Pardon me, Your Majesty," Ai said kindly, putting on a fake smile. "I am new to the kingdom, and I meant no disrespect." "Mm... and where were you going?" the king asked. His voice was oddly warm and deep, lulling even. Ai felt his words in her chest. "To another bubble," Ai answered honestly. Then, on the rare chance the king didn't know what she was talking about, she added: "A different land." "And what is wrong with my land?" the king asked. "Nothing, Your Majesty," Ai asserted. "But it isn't my home. I am trying to get home." "Mm... and have you a compass? You should have one, if you left home." "I do, Your Majesty. It's in my bag." The king snapped and Rupert unclipped Ai's backpack from her back. Ai let out a sigh of mild irritation, but she couldn't do anything but acquiesce. The king opened it up and sifted through, as if it was his own. "This bag is quite deep." The king sounded almost impressed. "It's enchanted, Your Majesty. A friend gave it to me, to help me on my journey." "Mm... yes, you have quite a lot of things in here." "For travel, Your Majesty." Ai was getting really tired of saying 'Your Majesty'. The woman on the king's side - perhaps Lady Errata - leaned in and whispered something to the king. The king nodded his head. "Well, you must be disciplined for trespassing," the king said, and that deep, velvety voice echoed in Ai's ears. "Um... yes, Your Majesty," Ai managed to say. As soon as she resolved whatever discipline he had in store, then she could leave. "I believe that twenty sets of ten ought to be sufficient; you're a first offender, after all." The king looked to the woman for her opinion, maybe her approval, which the woman gave with a small, understated nod. Ai didn't know what the king was talking about, but he said in a smooth voice: "Come here", and Ai did just that. With Rupert at her side, Ai approached the throne until she was an arm's length from the king. He reached out, took her by the handcuffed hand, and lifted her up onto his lap. At first, Ai was stunned. The man was at least a foot taller than her, but he picked her up without any effort at all. He didn't make any comment about how her wet clothes were soaking his robes. Then Ai was confused because the king was adjusting her over his knee, the way a child might adjust a doll. But when the grown man tugged down the seat of Ai's pants, flashing her wet underwear to the queen beside him, her confusion turned to deep embarrassment. A familiar sinking feeling filled Ai's stomach, but she didn't know why. "Hey! What are you doing?" "Administering justice, as is my duty as the king." The king acted swiftly, bringing his hand down in quick succession over Ai's wet behind. A wetness that certainly exacerbated the sting of his very large hands. "Now dear," the woman, Queen Errata smiled with faint amusement, "you must count, or they don't." "I... what... I'm..." The pain was nothing compared to the sheer shock. Ai's whole body tensed up in a panic, and her mind whirled with a thousand feelings she couldn't explain. Another spank on her bottom pulled her out of her shock, and another reminded her exactly how much it really hurt. And it really hurt! "One?" Ai asked, after the third hit. She should have started at three, but she didn't. Something in her head told her to start at one. "Good girl!" Queen Errata cooed. "And what comes next?" Another spanking came next. The pain radiated through Ai's bottom, up her spine, into her head. Her whole body was trembling. "T-two..." Ai tried to hold it together. Counting, ignoring the pain, ignoring the embarrassment. She'd never been spanked before - she didn't even know what spanking was! - but it filled her with such heavy feelings. "T-ten..." Ai finally stuttered, and the king stopped. Ai was quivering in his lap, the skin on her bottom red and angry. She was dizzy from the flood of emotions. "A little break then," the king said, gently rubbing Ai's bottom with his hand. "I... I'm sorry I... um... please... lemme up..." Ai begged the king, but his hand on her butt felt nice. Comforting. It made her heart warm. "Now now Miss Ice and Claire, there's no hurry. Your justice will be delivered swiftly and regally, as I, the king, see fit. Enjoy your reprieve, and no more squirming now, understand? There's a good subject." "I'm not a subject," Ai said sourly, kicking her feet and trying to get off the king's lap. There were limits to her willingness to follow the rules in someone else's land, and those limits had certainly been crossed. "I said no squirming," the king said sharply, and a heavy fog filled Ai's mind. She hesitated on her words and her body stilled. The king clearly had some kind of magic of his own, and Ai wasn't able to contend with it. "I think that's enough time," the king said, and loosed his palm onto Ai's bottom. She did her best to count, but the second set was so much worse than the first. Humiliation was waning away, and the sheer amount of pain in her body made her eyes fill with tears. By the time he got to ten, Ai was spent. She couldn't take another round. "Please... your majesty... I've learned my lesson, please..." "If you had learned your lesson, Miss Ice and Claire, you wouldn't be begging me to stop." "You'd be begging him to continue," Queen Errata offered smugly. Ai shook her head. She knew what kind of behavior the king wanted, and she had been determined to give it to him, but this was too much for her. Even as he rubbed the seat of her panties, Ai was so anxious about the next set that she couldn't stop crying. "One," Ai managed. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Each spank was so powerful, and she was in agony. Two, three, four. Five and six were slow and slurred. And after that, her wailing of numbers was indecipherable. Her brain had turned off entirely, and her base instincts kicked in: bawling like a little baby. "My king," the queen whispered, looking forlornly at the bawling woman in her husband's lap. "Perhaps let's wait for the rest." "Mm..." The king looked at Ai, then the eyes of his wife. He nodded. "What do you think of that, Ice and Claire?" the queen cooed. "We will postpone the rest of your discipline until you are ready. And until then, you'll be our honored guest." Ai quickly nodded her head. She was only catching every other word through the ringing in her ears, but Ai knew that the queen was offering to end the spankings. "But you must do what you are told," the queen said sternly. Her voice didn't have the same command as her husband's, but it was just as serious. "Any disobedience, and we will add more discipline. Do you understand?" Ai didn't hesitate. Her higher thoughts had shut down, and the concept of cause and effect was a wistful memory. Above all else, Ai needed the spankings to stop, and she would do anything to make that happen. "Yes, Your Majesty..." Ai fumbled, mispronouncing every syllable of those words. "Good girl," the queen said. "But from now on, you'll call me Mommy."

Academy II By Sophie & Pudding "At the end of the world, there will be neither clamor nor calamity, neither echo nor epoch. It will be mired in silence and sleep, in deliverance and death. At the end of the world, there will be both patience and purpose, both temperance and time. Only then will it be graced with eternity, and from eternity, a chance." -The Source, in valediction Chapter One Ai Sinclair packed her bag with clothes and trinkets. She had a snow globe from her friend Pyrah and a plastic recorder from her friend Tennessee. She picked up the pair of knitting needles and looked them over, from one end to the other. They were warm and stainless, and Ai wondered if they would stay that way for long. She threw her bag over one shoulder and carried the needles outside. Ai stepped out onto a long porch, a porch that connected to three other cabins. In front of her was a cobblestone path through a field of flowers, and in the distance, a small, humble town with only a dozen or so buildings. Beyond that, picturesque snow-topped mountains surrounded the town and the field of flowers and the cabins and the porch. From the porch where Ai stood, the view was perfect. A ways down the porch, in a cluster, was a set of four rocking chairs. Three of them were occupied by older women. If the day had been yesterday or the day before, Ai would sit down in the fourth chair. But today, Ai did not sit down. She walked up to the women and held out the set of knitting needles. "Thank you for teaching me how to knit," Ai said. "But I have to be going now." "Going?" asked one of the women. "You don't need to go anywhere." "Come now, Maribel," another woman tsked. "You knew when she arrived that Ai wouldn't be staying." "I know, but..." Maribel sighed in resignation. "I suppose I had hoped that we could change her mind." "I wish you had," Ai said sadly. "I can't think of a more beautiful place to live." "Then stay," the third woman urged. "Margie said herself she wants you to stay." "I did," Margie laughed. "But don't let us sway you. You seem like you have somewhere to be." "I think I do..." Ai said, more to herself than the three older women. She'd been looking for that somewhere for quite a while; no matter how comfortable she found herself, it was never enough. "You always have a home here, should you find your way back," Margie said, and the other two agreed. "These belong to you," Ai said, holding out the knitting needles once again, but Margie was quick to raise a hand in objection. "They're as much yours as they are ours. Take them with you, in case you need to knit a scarf. It's cold in the mountains." "Thank you," Ai said again. Every time someone gave her a new gift, she was always surprised. But time and again, she was given gifts anyway. "Thank you for staying as long as you did," Maribel said. "I don't suppose there's an easier way up the mountain?" Ai asked. "I'm afraid not," the third woman said. "But as they say, life is more interesting with hardship." "What is a mountain if not a challenge?" Margie winked. "Then I suppose I'll need these knitting needles after all," Ai smiled. She hugged each of the women goodbye and did her best not to cry. When she'd arrived at the small, humble town in the mountains, she didn't expect to stay very long. But she'd spent half the season there, with no regrets. She waded into the field of flowers, down the cobblestone path, and toward the town for the rest of her goodbyes. Before she lost sight of the porch, she turned and waved one last time. There were fewer people in the town of Hamlet than one might expect. John Bootie ran the General Store, and a younger man named Zachary Hicks helped in the afternoons. Charles Clarke managed the Old Bank, where Robert Molyneux worked the counter. Sydney Parkinson tended bar at the Misty Pub all by herself, every single afternoon and every single evening. But the Misty Pub was always full of townsfolk with drinks, though no one in town was a brewer. Often the women on the porch would take trips to the bank, though Ai had never seen any money exchanged. And the shelves at the General Store were always stocked with what you needed, even if what you needed wasn't very general at all. And though everyone should have been at work, they were all instead waiting for Ai in the town square: men, women, and some who didn't say one way or the other. The town crier, a portly fellow by the name of John Satterley, was the first to run up to Ai and pull her into a tight bear hug. "Hamlet won't be the same without you, darlin'," he said a little too loudly, causing Ai to wince. "Uh huh, yeah, thanks..." Ai struggled a little to hug John back, but her arms were pinned to her sides. When he finally let go, Ai was a little lightheaded. "You make sure to come back now," he said with a very serious tone, and then erupted in a loud laugh. Before Ai could give John the same reassurances she gave the women on the porch - that she would try - Charlie Green slammed into her hip with all the force of a seven year old girl. "Miss Ai! Don't go!" Ai untangled herself from Charlie's hug and knelt down to ruffle her hair. "I've got somewhere else I need to be," Ai said warmly. "You gotta be right here!" "Well, maybe one day I'll figure out how to be in two places at once. And if I do, I'll send one of me back here. How does that sound?" "You promise?" Charlie asked with comically big tears dripping down her chin. "I promise." Ai gave Charlie another hug. Then she shook some hands, gave one salute, and hugged Charlie again. Ai waved back at the town and walked backwards for quite a ways, until she rounded a hill and Hamlet disappeared behind it. A part of Ai wanted to stay in Hamlet forever. It was pleasant and welcoming, and filled her with a sense of safety. In all the lands she'd visited, nowhere felt more like home. But it wasn't enough. With a deep sigh, Ai finally stopped walking. She rubbed the tears from her eyes and looked up at the mountain tops. "Leaving is always the worst part," she said to herself. Then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a little compass. The needle pointed solidly to the left, so she went right. The climate in Hamlet was unique; it was always warm and temperate, snuggled into the mountain range. It was like the peaks were cuddling the town, keeping it safe and warm, because once you got too far away from it the temperature began to drop. Ai unzipped her backpack and rummaged around inside until she found her snow coat. She also grabbed a scarf that Margie had knitted her and wrapped it around her neck. Ai remembered Margie's indignation when she first arrived in Hamlet: "No scarf? No hat? You think a coat is enough to keep you warm in the mountains?" But truthfully, Ai had no idea what a scarf was before she met Margie. Everywhere she went, Ai learned something new. With the coat warming her body and the scarf warming her neck, Ai wondered why nobody had thought of a scarf for her hands. The brisk air made her knuckles ache, like her elbow when she knocked it against a doorframe. She slipped her hands into her pockets. Ai wondered if she'd run into anybody else on the mountain. She decided to hum a song she never remembered learning, so if someone was nearby they might hear her. Then she might have some company. Ai pulled her arms inside her coat for a while, to keep her hands warm, but the mountains only grew steeper and steeper. There was no path leading the way, and if it wasn't for Ai's compass, she may have gotten lost herself. Every so often, she'd reach a small mesa and turn to see Hamlet in the distance. Every time she looked, it seemed smaller and smaller. Ai stopped again to change shoes, to switch from hand-sewn climbing shoes to a pair of snow boots she got from her friend Tanner. And on she went. "Going up is a lot harder than going down," Ai groaned. She had stopped for a drink of water from the bottle in her backpack. The sun was starting to set, and the cold was only getting colder. It only took her half a day to get to Hamlet the first time, and she had hoped it would only take half a day to leave. Animal sounds were abundant in the mountains. Chirps, whistles, flapping. The crunch of footsteps on fluffy snow, distant and rhythmic. Or maybe it was just the echo of her own footsteps bouncing off the mountains, because Ai didn't come across any animals at all. "I'm sorry for traipsing through your home," Ai said to the animals, in case they were shy. "But if you live here, you can come out and say hello." When nothing came out, she added: "It's an open offer." When Ai had no one else to talk to, she often talked to herself. Sometimes, on her journey, she would go entire days before finding someone new. It helped her feel safe knowing that someone was around, even if that someone was just herself. As the setting sun glinted off the snow, Ai lost her footing and fell flat onto her stomach. Before she could grab onto something, she slid down the incline. Her arms flailed through the snow like she was making snow angels, but she only picked up speed. Just as Ai thought, "I'll slide down the entire mountain at this rate," a rough surface snagged the toe of her boot. She fell over herself and landed flat on her back, like a pancake on a griddle. She was still on the mountain, on a flat ridge near the top, but her ankle was twisted and her back hurt from the rocks. It felt like even the terrain itself was trying to keep Ai from leaving. "I guess I have to set up camp after all..." Ai sighed, trying to get to her feet. The layers of snow were thin, and she felt like it wouldn't be too much work to set up a tent. She scavenged around in her backpack until she found a sheet of canvas and some metal poles. In the end, her bivy tent was barely bigger than she was, but it warmed up quickly. Ai could just barely see off the edge of the cliff, at the little lights that must have been the town of Hamlet. They were so far away. Then she looked up at the stars, even brighter than the lights below. They beckoned Ai onward, like trail markers. "Thank you," Ai said to the sky, because her star was out there somewhere. She just had to find it. Early the next morning, Ai emptied a whole bag of M&Ms into her mouth and packed up her tent. She filled her water bottle up with snow and breathed warm air into it to try to make it melt. It was slow going, as was her trek up the mountain. By noon, the sun was high in the sky and Ai felt warmer than she had all day. The heat was rejuvenating. She unwrapped a layer of her scarf and doubled her pace up the mountain, taking a more careful path through the valleys. The town of Hamlet was long gone, and Ai's determination was at an all-time high. It was early evening when Ai reached the peak of the mountain. She was out of breath and her hands were frozen pink, but her eyes were bright and beaming. She rushed to the other side and saw the ground slope down in front of her. In the distance, the mountain range continued for a while, but that didn't matter. Ai checked her compass. She found the exact opposite direction the needle was pointing and went into her backpack to get the canvas tent. She fluffed it out like a blanket on a bed and grabbed one of the corners. With a running start, Ai leapt off the top of the mountain and into the snow. The canvas slid across the surface and Ai slid along with it, down the slope. As she picked up speed, she laughed. She laughed, because all that hard work finally paid off, and Ai was having fun. As she slid faster and faster toward the bottom of the slope, there was a shimmer. It filled the whole sky, like a wall of transparent fabric. Like the surface of a bubble. Then Ai Sinclair crashed right into it.

The Second Stop "Let’s sit on the bench over there," Harlow said. "I’ll let you to take a picture of my ID so you can send it to a friend and they’ll know where you are." That kind of precautionary measure was hardly the topic of sexy online stories, but Harlow was a stickler for making sure that people engaged in safe habits. Campbell read through the ID with roaring curiosity. He wanted to know everything there was to know about Harlow, details nobody ever thought to ask about because it never really mattered. "Your middle name is Emery?" Campbell asked. "What kind of middle name is that?" "I mean, my first name is Harlow..." Harlow shrugged. "Good point." Campbell took a picture and sent it to a friend online, another one of the friends he had never met in person. Then he gave Harlow his license back. Harlow tucked his ID into his wallet and put his wallet away, then he took Campbell by the hand in a firm embrace and began to lead him down the train platform. "It’s about a ten minute walk to Daddy’s house, buuut… accounting for your waddling, and you probably needing Daddy to piggyback you half the way, it’ll probably be close to fifteen. Are you warm enough? Do you wanna wear Daddy’s hoodie?" "I'm alright," Campbell promised. The sun was still out - just barely - and the temperature hadn't dropped yet. The pair walked along a busy street for a little while, then turned onto the sidewalks of some side-streets. Harlow didn't live in a very busy neighborhood, much to Campbell's relief. But by the time they turned on Harlow's street, Campbell was starting to realize that Daddy's teasing wasn't unfounded. Without the anxiety of people around, his attention turned to his own waddling. The diaper really did make it harder to walk, and he found himself lagging behind once or twice. "You know, maybe I should get you a stroller if we’re going to go on longer walks together?" Harlow suggested. "I know you’ll be a bit blushy at first, but once people see your diaper I think they’ll all understand why you’re in a stroller." "I don't need a stroller," Campbell pouted, but with every step that resolve seemed to falter. A stroller sounded kind of nice to Campbell right then... Harlow and Campbell stopped outside a house. It was a picituresque bungalow, with a veranda that ran from the front around the sides. Not a huge place by any means, but Harlow lived alone and it was plenty enough for that purpose. His Vespa-style motor scooter sat around one side on a part of the veranda that he’d built a little ramp up to so he could store it outside. "What do ya think?" Harlow asked, somewhere between proud and anxious. His house wasn't the rich-ABDL-Daddy aesthetic, but it was his. Truthfully, a small part of him was worried that his lifestyle might not be enough for Campbell. But for Campbell, just about any lifestyle was enough. "I like it a lot!" Campbell said happily. "I like it even more that you live alone." "It does allow for a lot of freedom, like bringing cute boys home." Harlow unlocked the front door and motioned Campbell inside. His house smelled really nice, like blackberry scented candles. Although Harlow wasn’t what anybody would describe as a neat-freak, he did keep things tidy. "Living room is to the left," he prompted, closing the door behind the two of them. Notably, the living room didn’t have a TV; it did have two very nice matching leather sofas, and a perfectly sized oval oak-stained coffee table. But probably most surprising for a man his age was the fact that he had decor, and it was all tasteful. Pictures, shelves, accessories to bring it all together. Maybe, given the gay boy stereotype, it wasn’t surprising. Harlow didn’t know - he was pan, anyway. But this was his house, and he was proud of it. "Jeeze, you own all this...?" Harlow was only three years older than Campbell, but he had made it a lot higher up the ladder of life accomplishments. Campbell was immediately relieved that he didn't invite Harlow back to his apartment. "It’s mostly from thrift stores and college dorm sales, honestly," Harlow laughed. "Shop smarter, not harder, right? I used to do that kind of thing in MMOs and doing it in real life is pretty much the same." Harlow wasn’t the sort to brag, though, and so he shifted the topic away from his possessions. "Take a seat! Do you want something to drink?" "Oh, uh... water, I guess?" Campbell never knew if "something to drink" meant alcohol or not. He didn't drink anymore, not after one too many bad nights in college. And it was probably too late for coffee. Campbell sat awkwardly on the sofa, kicking his feet against the carpet. It was a little demystifying, seeing Harlow's home. Not in a bad way, but... everything suddenly felt more real. Like Harlow was a real person, and not just a guy on the internet he happened to have a crush on. A guy who had diapered him in the family bathroom at the mall like this was a kink story. Sitting on the sofa, all that banter felt miles away, like it was with a different person. Harlow was only in the kitchen for a minute or two, and when he came back to hand the drink to Campbell he had that silly proud smile as he watched Campbells face. Processing. Loading. Processing. Campbell was holding a blue sippie cup with sharks printed on the blue-tinted plastic. "I dun need a sippie cup," Campbell argued, because he always argued online over silly stuff like that. And because it was really unexpected that Harlow even had a sippie cup! It was certainly purchased for Campbell, just like the diaper bag, just like the diaper. It wasn't hard to see how invested Harlow was in Campbell's little kink. "Oh, you need a baba instead? Here I was thinking that my little diaper boy was a big kid." Harlow was really good at teasing. "No... I am a big kid..." Campbell pouted and reached for the sippie cup, but Harlow pulled it away. "Ah, ah. What do you say?" "Daddy..." Campbell whined. "That's not fair. You probably don't even have a baby bottle!" "Do you want to take that chance?" Harlow smirked. Campbell crossed his arms and took a moment to think about that. Online, Campbell would fold. Obviously there was always a grown-up sized baby bottle in an imaginary space. But this was different... this, Campbell might actually be able to win. He just had to gamble that Harlow hadn't over-prepared. And why would he? What if he didn't like Campbell? What if the date was a bust? Harlow would be stuck with all this baby stuff and nothing to do with it. So Campbell took his shot. "I dun need a sippie cup," Campbell said again. Then he held his breath. "Alright little man, Daddy will go make you a baba instead." Harlow didn’t even skip a beat. There wasn’t even a moment of hesitation. But as he walked away, toward the kitchen, he counted silently in his head for how long it would take Campebll to get up and waddle after him. One… two… three… four… "Wait!" Campbell stumbled to his feet and hurried after his Daddy. He couldn't be entirely sure that Harlow had a bottle for him, but his confidence shed a lot of doubt on Campbell's gambit. Harlow turned around and tilted his head. "You wanted something?" Harlow asked sweetly. "...that," Campbell muttered, pointing at the sippie cup. "Hm? What was that?" "I want... my sippie cup..." Campbell blushed. "But I thought you were a big boy who didn't use sippie cups," Harlow repeated Campbell's words back at him. Campbell shrunk down into himself and shyly looked at his feet. "I'm not... um... I'm not a big boy..." "That’s right, Crinkle Bell, you’re not a big boy at all. You’re Daddy’s little baby boy. And I think now that we’re home together, we need to make a little adjustment, don’t you?" Harlow handed his baby the sippie cup, but then once his own hands were free, he pulled the boy close to him and began to unfasten his jeans. It was a crime for a diaper to be covered up inside the house, after all. Those were Campbell’s words from a conversation that they’d had online, and the diapered boy had a lot of opinions and fantasies that Harlow had committed to memory. "Um... that's not really necessary..." Campbell tried to argue, but admitting he wasn't a big boy had already dropped him into a submissive headspace. He held the sippie cup with both hands while his Daddy unbuttoned his jeans and slid them down to his feet, prompting him to step out. Once he was pantsless, Harlow folded the jeans over his arm and led Campbell back into the living room. In nothing but his shirt and a diaper, Campbell's resistance was shattered. When Harlow got to the living room, he put the folded jeans on the arm of one of his sofas, and then he sat on the other. When Campbell looked from one sofa to the other, with blush red cheeks and a diaper that wouldn’t stop crinkling, Daddy made his wishes clear. "Come sit on Daddy’s lap, Tiny Bell. Daddy will hold your sippie for you; you’re too little." "I dun... um..." Campbell tried to come up with some excuse, but Daddy waved him over. With a bit of resignation and a lot of anticipation, he toddled over to Daddy. Harlow lowered Campbell down onto his lap, causing his diaper to crinkle, and took the sippie cup from his hands. On Harlow's lap, Campbell was actually taller than him. Harlow had, admittedly, never fed someone a bottle. Or a sippie cup. But he’d roleplayed it a lot with Campbell, but there were some things that didn't translate perfectly from the internet to real life. It seemed like sitting on a grown man's lap and letting him feed you a sippie cup was one of those things. Harlow tried to cradle Campbell in his arms a few different ways, until finally he found a comfortable position. Campbell was a little slouched down, and his bottom was almost entirely off Harlow's lap, but his head fit perfectly in the crook of his arm and holding the sippie cup felt easy and natural. As they worked their way through different poses, Campbell's anxiety began to rise. He felt like maybe he was too big to be a little boy, or that their online games weren't things they could do in real life. But once he found that spot in Harlow's arms, everything felt right again. It felt good. It felt easy. And he felt small. It wasn’t only Campbell who’d been anxious, either. Harlow - to whom this was a new thing - was worried about his own ability to perform in the role. But things had worked out well. Harlow stroked Campbell’s hair with his free hand, and shared some praise out loud. "There’s a good boy. It’s hard to find a good spot on a new sofa, but you did great. Daddy’s proud. This is where you belong. In diapers, in my arms, and all mine." Campbell mewed behind the spout of the sippie cup, but he didn't argue. He didn't say anything at all. His eyes fluttered closed and he sipped his water until the whole cup was gone. When Daddy sat up him up again, it felt like the whole world was underwater. Like he was at the bottom of that sippie cup, after Daddy had filled it. "You’ve had an awful big day, for such an adorable little boy. Let’s go to Daddy’s room and we’ll cuddle up so you can take a well earned nap." No question marks. No questioning infections. This was what Daddy said and what Daddy said was what good boys did. Campbell was a good boy. "But... um..." A nap? Campbell didn't want to take a nap! He didn't want to waste any time with his Daddy! But Campbell knew that a part of being a little boy was listening to Daddy. Harlow helped Campbell up and led him to his bedroom. It was well-decorated and very clean, almost as if it had been picked up in anticipation of something. The whole house was cleaner than usual, and it wasn't a coincidence that it lined up with Harlow's date. He started to turn down the bed, unfolding the blankets at one of the corners, while Campbell swayed awkwardly in just his diaper and t-shirt, shifting from foot to foot. It had taken Harlow a few moments longer than he’d have liked for him to notice his boy swaying, and he thought a lot about online roleplays. Harlow figured that Campbell probably needed to pee, but in the end, he simply decided to ask. "Is everything okay, Crinkle Bell? You can tell Daddy if something’s on your mind." "Huh? Uh. No. I mean... uh. I just..." A blush came over Campbell's cheeks. Things were so different in real life, and they also weren't different at all. If he asked to use the bathroom, Daddy would say no. Or, he would if they were roleplaying online. What would he say now? And wasn't that kind of weird, peeing in front of a guy on the first date? Campbell played shyly with the hem of his t-shirt. "Use your words, Baby Bell. Do you need some pajamas? It’s only for a nap, but if you like you can wear one of Daddy’s pajama tops?" No bottoms, of course. Those weren’t for little diaper-wearing baby boys. "No, um... I mean..." The idea of sleeping in Daddy's shirt sure was appealing to Campbell. It wasn't even something he'd fantasized about before, but it felt like unlocking a new achievement in his brain. "You don't think this is too much, right? Or too fast? I mean, I'm in your bedroom..." Immediately, Harlow shifted his tone. He stopped what he was doing and sat on the edge of the bed with a smile. "I don’t think so. If I’m going too fast for you, that’s okay - we can talk about it. I want you to be comfortable. My goals were maybe for you to fall asleep cuddled up with me, maybe wet your diaper if you want to. And then I’d make dinner while you slept, and wake you up, maybe change you into a fresh diaper if you wanted, and see how we both felt after that." Spelling it out like that did take away some of the mystique and romance, admittedly, but it also took away the ambiguity and that was way more important in the moment. "How do you feel about my intentions? I wanna make you comfortable and happy." "Um, I like all that... that sounds good... I just, I think I'm just anxious." Campbell laughed a little and ruffled his own hair. He didn't know how to do this kind of thing, and it felt a little selfish to be getting everything he wanted so quickly. "Is all this okay with you?" Campbell asked. "Like, you don't have to rush anything... I really do like you, so I'm not going to ghost you or anything. I don't want you to feel pressured to... uh... perform..." It wasn't the usual kind of performance one expected on a date, but to Campbell, it was comparable. "I don't feel pressured at all. I hope I'm not making you feel pressured, either. I don't think any of this is outside my comfort zone, and I think it's all pretty appropriate for a first date. When you want to do something like mess your diaper, those are bigger talks to have. But I don't feel rushed, or pressured, or outside my comfort zone. This is all genuine want from me." Harlow smiled and tilted his head. "Penny for your thoughts?" Campbell shook his head. "No, no... I think I'm alright now. I just wanted to make sure, that's all. And, um... I don't know if I'll be able to fall asleep? I mean, this isn't my bed, and you know how hard it can be for me to sleep." "That's okay," Harlow smiled. He reached out and took Campbell's hand in his, pulling him close. "You can just spend half an hour in here and relax while I cook." Campbell nodded and Harlow wrapped his arms around him in a hug. Then Harlow kissed Campbell gently on the lips. "And," Harlow whispered, "it gives you some privacy to use your diaper." Campbell's cheeks went crimson. "Hey! I don't... that's not..." "Mmhmm, I'm sure that potty dance of yours is just a coincidence," Harlow teased. And right when Campbell thought he couldn't be any more embarrassed. "Let me get you one of my pajama shirts," Harlow said as he went over to his drawers. He only wore one type of pajamas: warm, woolen, button-up shirts with long sleeves, and fluffy pajama pants, never in matched sets. He got a dark purple and black top out from the drawer, tossed it on the bed, and approached Campbell. "Arms up, tiny boy. Daddy’s gonna get you into jimjams, okay?" Harlow pulled the shirt up over Campbell's head and then Campbell was completely naked except for the diaper. He felt so exposed, so vulnerable... he covered up his chest like a girl because he didn't know what else to do with his hands. He was standing in front of another man in just a diaper, and Campbell knew they were not equals at that moment. Harlow was a little taller than Campbell, but not by much. However he was quite a bit broader and stockier, and that meant that when he wrapped his pajama shirt around Campbell and pulled the boys arms through, it looked positively huge on him. Which had the knock-on effect of making Campbell look positively diminutive. The top came down almost all the way past his diaper, and the sleeves had a good 3 inches past his hands. It was a very cute look. "I'm gonna need to keep an eye on my hoodies, aren't I? You seem very much the Boyfriend’s Hoodie kinda boy~" "I am," Campbell admitted, blushing a little and playing with the long sleeves. With clothes on again - clothes that were actually more concealing than his other ones - Campbell was feeling less nervous. Of course, he still had to pee. "In you get," Harlow said, ushering his charge into bed. Campbell didn't hesitate to follow the instruction. Campbell crawled up onto the bed, diapered butt up in the air, and then shimmied over to the far side, reaching for covers that were out of his grasp. Which was perfectly fine, because Harlow got into bed next to him and pulled the covers up enough for the two of them. "Who'd have thought Daddy would wind up with the cutest boy in town in his bed tonight? I'm very lucky, aren't I, Baby Bell?" "If you say so," Campbell blushed. He leaned up and kissed his Daddy on the lips, and Daddy kissed him back. And one kiss led to another, and another, and another. Daddy's hand wrapped around the boy and pulled him close, tracing lines down his side to the wing of his diaper. Making it crinkle. And Campbell found himself pressing closer and closer to Daddy's body as Daddy pressed their lips together. After a while, Campbell didn't care that it was their first date. He didn't care that they just met today. He was the happiest he'd ever been. But Harlow pulled away and put a finger to Campbell's waiting lips. "Nap time for my little boy." "Noooooo," Campbell whined, trying to pull in for another kiss. "You aren't acting up, are you?" Harlow warned. "I'd hate to punish my Crinkle Bell." The word punish echoed in Campbell's head. Punish. Like a spanking. Or a show of ownership. Force over him. Campbell wanted that very much. But then Harlow said: "Bad boys don't get rewards. Only good boys, who take naps when they're told and wake up in a wet diaper." Campbell hesitated. He didn't want to be a good boy! He didn't want delayed gratification! He wanted Harlow, and he wanted kisses! But the promise of a "reward" was powerful. When they roleplayed, sometimes that was a sexy thing. Usually, it was a sexy thing. In that moment, Campbell was so wound up that he wanted a sexy thing. "I'm not gonna have an accident," Campbell argued, but his tone was pouty and small. "Then you'll have an on-purpose," Harlow teased. "Once you get used to being back in diapers, your on-purposes will become accidents and then surprises, and Daddy is very excited for that day. Now you snuggle in and take your nap. Daddy will wake you up when your diaper needs changing and dinner is ready." Harlow was incredibly fucking turned on; there were no two ways about that. He was comprised of approximately 176% lust in that moment, so not ravishing his boy was extremely hard. And so was he. In the kitchen, Harlow remembered reading once that breakfast cereal was invented to stop people from touching themselves and getting off. And he hoped that cooking would have the same outcome for him, because his head was buzzing with arousal. It wasn’t the plan to have Campbell come home with him, but he'd anticipated the possibility and made sure he had enough food in his fridge. It wouldn't be fancy; he was, quite literally, a steak and potatoes kind of guy. But his steak was excellent. And his potatoes were pretty good, too. Neither made a very baby boy meal, but he figured if he cut up all the food into pieces and only gave Campbell a fork or spoon, then it would be close enough. So Harlow cooked. He made steak, he made potatoes, and he eyed a bottle of wine atop his fridge in a neat diamond shaped rack. He eventually decided to maybe open it after dinner. And by the time he finished cooking, by the time he finished plating up, by the time he finished cutting Campbell’s food into bite size pieces, Harlow's arousal... ...had not diminished in the slightest. Damn you, Mr. Kellogg, he thought. You don't know shit, apparently. All the while, Campbell laid in bed, looking up at the ceiling of his Daddy's room. A stranger's room, before today. Campbell wondered how many times he would see that ceiling again, lying on his back in Daddy's bed... For the first time since he was diapered, Campbell was alone. He quickly threw off the covers and lifted up Daddy's shirt, inspecting the front of his diaper. It had cartoon teddy bears on the landing zone, and colorful patterns on the wings. They were modeled after a baby diaper, with a wetness indicator between the legs, but these ones were plastic and crinkly. They were embarrassing. They were adorable. They were everything Campbell wanted in a first diaper. And gosh, were they thick. He pulled up on the waistband, tugging a little bit at each tape. They were on pretty tight, but all the walking had loosened the fit around his waist. He put his hand between his legs like he did at home and pressed his fingers to the plastic. It felt so different from the cheap ones on Amazon. Campbell's brain pulled him in two directions. The first was primal and needy. His Daddy left him alone, and he was so turned on. He wanted to rub his diaper until he came. But it felt disrespectful, touching himself while he was on a date. He should at least wait until he got home. The second urge he had was to use the bathroom. To feel the relief of giving in, of being a good little boy for his Daddy. To feel the heat on his skin as the diaper grew heavy and wet. But Campbell had only wet a diaper a dozen or so times, and they had leaked more than once. If he leaked on the bed, he would absolutely die of embarrassment! In the end, Campbell decided to test fate. He got out of bed and stood awkwardly in the middle of his Daddy's dark bedroom. The sky outside was almost black, and the room was heavy with shadows. It took him a while - maybe five or so minutes - but he did indeed have an on-purpose. Then he crawled back into bed and rolled onto his stomach to keep his hands from finding their way to the front of his soggy diaper. Campbell was just about to fall asleep, or maybe he'd been asleep for a few minutes, when Harlow opened the door. Without a break in his stride, Harlow came over to the bed, gently peeled back the covers, and slid a finger into the back leg band of Campbell's diaper. "Oh! My! God!" Campbell shouted out of embarrassment. His sleepiness disappeared like the flick of a switch. Surprised, Campbell quickly rolled over and tried to cover himself up with the blanket. His cheeks were burning, but the room was still too dark to notice. "Not God, just Daddy," Harlow said. "But I guess at your age there isn't much of a difference. And you made Daddy proud, Baby Bell; you soaked your diapers just like I knew that you would." How long would a diaper change take? Harlow wondered. 5 minutes? Food was a little too hot, and he needed to give it time to cool off anyway. "Daddy should get your diaper changed before you eat, huh squirt?" "Um... y-yeah... that's..." Campbell blushed furiously and looked away from Harlow. Every word his Daddy said to him sent Campbell further and further into submission. Soaking his diapers. Needing a change. The soggy diaper between his legs sent shivers up his spine. Campbell had been such a good little Daddy's boy. Harlow figured this change would be easier than doing it in a public restroom. He put the diaper bag on the bed and motioned for Campbell to pivot about so he was facing the edge of the bed. "That's right, Baby Bell, just like that. Now lay back down for Daddy, so we get this wet diaper off you and get you into something fresh and dry... for as long as that lasts." "Daddy..." Campbell mumbled, looking at the ceiling with embarrassment. He couldn't even meet Harlow's eyes. Harlow turned on the bedside lamp so he could see what he was doing, then unfolded another diaper from the diaper bag. The same kind, Campbell's favorite. Campbell would often glance down and look at it, just to remind himself that he would be wearing that soon. That he was already wearing one, and he'd already wet it. The diaper felt tighter around Campbell's hips. Harlow untaped the diaper and peeled it down between his legs. The inside was sodden, and he was pleased to see that his baby boy was just as turned on and he was. He used baby wipes to tenderly start to wipe down Campbells skin; his thighs, between his legs, and then he turned his attention to cleaning up the boy’s cock. He was gentle with his motions: slow, methodical, and deliberate. Swipe. Swipe. Swipe. Lift his ankles. Slide a new diaper underneath; just to rest him atop of, not to fasten yet. "Remember your colors, Crinkle Bell. You remember for Daddy, don't you?" "Y-yes Daddy..." Campbell muttered. Ever since the wet diaper was untaped, Campbell had been unable to quell his arousal. Even as the cold wipe slid up his shaft, it remained erect and eager. The crinkle of the fresh diaper only fueled the fire, and the soft dry padding beneath his bottom sent a shiver up his spine. But Daddy didn't tape his diaper on; he took out another wipe and wrapped it around his cock. "You're such a good boy," Daddy said warmly. Without even thinking, Campbell nodded his head. He was a good boy. Daddy was a polite man, and a well dressed man, and a man who made a good steak to boot. But he was also only a human, and he could contain his arousal only so much. He'd wrapped a fresh baby wipe around Campbell’s cock, and wrapped his fingers around the wipe. It was cold to the touch, but Campbell didn’t shrink away. With all the expert of a man who spent his high school years in other boys’ beds, Harlow began to slowly, and oh-so-intentionally, stroke Campbell’s pretty, needy, hard-as-a-steel-girder cock. "Daddy just has to make sure that his baby boy is nice and clean." Harlow’s words were honeyed, but his breath was short and catching. "By the time Daddy is done, you're going to permanently be Daddy's little boy, because only... only Daddy's little boy, only my little boy would be so turned on right now." "Mmm... y-yeah..." That made sense to Campbell. What kind of grown man would be so aroused getting his diaper changed? He had to be a little boy. Daddy's little boy. "And this feeling, this arousal," Harlow said sweetly in his low voice, "this is what it's like to wet your diapers for Daddy. Doesn't it feel so good?" "Mmmmm... mmhmm..." "What was that?" Daddy's tone was suddenly sharp, and Campbell replied instinctively. "Y-yes Daddy... it feels so good..." Campbell's body seemed to move on its own, twisting its hips and gently thrusting his cock into the baby wipe. Already, the coldness was gone and it felt warm and pleasant. "And this is how Daddy conditions his little baby boy to love his diapers," Harlow said warmly. This particular fantasy was an ongoing one for Campbell, and Daddy was all too happy to play into it. "To need his diapers, and to only ever want the pleasure that comes from wetting his diapers." Harlow was gentle and slow and purposeful with each motion; it wouldn't do to have Campbell getting off too quickly. The boy would cum when Daddy said he could cum. "Tell Daddy you want to be in diapers all the time, Baby Bell. Tell Daddy you want to feel this way all the time. Tell Daddy what a little Daddy's boy you are." "I... I wanna be in diapers all the time, Daddy... I'm your baby boy..." Campbell quivered under his Daddy's words, like waves of arousal through his mind. He thrust himself into Daddy's hand, but Harlow pressed down on his hips to keep him steady. "My my," Harlow teased, running his thumb along the underside of Campbell's cock. "So eager, so impatient... you don't seem to have any control over your body, hm?" "Mmmmmm..." Campbell whimpered and his body once again tried to grind against his Daddy's hand. This time, it failed. He was helpless. He couldn't control himself, and he was at Daddy's whims. "Daddy is in control, my sweet submissive little diaperslut," another word that Campbell had dug his own grave with by sharing with Harlow, "and Daddy decides when... or if... his baby gets to cum." Harlow’s voice was firm, his grasp tender. His authority absolute. Campbell wasn't just drowning; he was at the bottom of the ocean and Daddy was his only light. Campbell had never been in this position before, not in real life. He'd never had someone control every part of his body, every part of his mind. He'd never been so submissive, so helpless, so needy... it was like opening a door to a whole new world. A new Campbell, the kind of little boy he always wanted to be. A little diaperslut with no control. "Please, Daddy... please... please, lemme cum... I'm a good boy... such a good boy..." The words spilled automatically from Campbell's mouth. The humiliation came like a hurricane, but not even it was enough to censor his truest feelings. Daddy had a lot more experience with sex than Campbell did, and it showed in everything he did. It showed in the way he teased, it showed in the way he expertly brought Campbell to the edge and eased him back, over and over, and over and over. And it showed in his final move: he slid his hand - and the baby wipe - all the way down to the base of Campbells cock... and kissed the head. Just once. But once was more than enough to give Campbell the push he needed. Campbell wiggled and squirmed on the bed as waves of pleasure pulled him under. As all his feelings of embarrassment and helplessness stirred themselves into a perfect storm. As Daddy's lips touched his cock and he felt himself explode. Warm, sticky cum ran down his shaft, pooling around the base, and oozing down his bottom. It soaked into the diaper underneath him as he whimpered and moaned, trying to grab hold of his body like a bucking horse. But it was hopeless. He was helpless. He let go of the reins and surrendered to the orgasm. The orgasm Daddy gave him. Campbell was still shivering and moaning when he felt Daddy pull the diaper up between his legs. The soft padding pressed down on his cock, squeezing more of his cum out onto his skin, only to be absorbed into the fresh diaper seconds later. "Come on, Baby Bell, Daddy made dinner - I bet you've worked up an appetite." Daddy grinned cheekily and stood up, stretching his back, and admired the beautiful boy before him. It was one heck of a first date.

Your wish is my command! ^_~

The Second Train Harlow and Campbell caught the train with ten minutes to spare. Harlow led Campbell by the hand through train car after train car, until he found one that was mostly empty. There was an older woman asleep on the far side of the cabin, and a young couple about their age looking at their phones. Harlow pulled Campbell into one of the bench seats and tried to sit him on his lap, but Campbell squirmed off. "I can't sit on your lap in public," he whispered nervously, looking around the train car like a bunny in the forest. Scanning for danger. "I don't think it's a big deal, Crinkle Bell, but I won't push if this is a red for you. Is it a red? Or is it a yellow?" Harlow was very well versed on his colors, and he'd been the one to teach Campbell about the notion when they'd first started playing online. "I dunno... yellow I guess..." It took Campbell a long time to get used to the safe word system. He knew about it, of course, but using it was a different story. If someone was roleplaying with him at all online, he felt indebted to let them do it their way, even if it made him uncomfortable. But Harlow was very strict about it. And actually, Harlow was kind of sexy when he was strict. "Well, there are no more stops between here and where we get off," Harlow said, "and I don't think anybody else is going to come down this end of the carriage." Harlow stood up as he was talking, and he peered around the cabin, trying to figure out what spot was most private. "How about I sit down on the floor here," he gestured with a smile, "and you can sit on my lap? That way we're not in anyone’s line of sight." "You're being ridiculous," Campbell sighed. But Harlow's persistence was charming. He just wanted Campbell to be happy, to experience something nice. But this was the first time Campbell had done anything like this in real life: it was already nicer than he could have ever imagined. Campbell checked his phone. 52 minutes until the train arrived at Harlow's station. "What if you sat sideways, and you could put your feet up on me?" Harlow asked. "That's a perfectly normal thing, isn't it?" Campbell couldn't think of a single time when he saw a man put his feet up on another man's lap, but it was the kind of thing a girl would do with her boyfriend. And Campbell was a little petty when it came to gender stereotypes. So he nodded his head. He turned so his back was to the wall, facing away from the window, and put his feet up on his Daddy's lap. Under his jeans, the thickness of the diaper forced his thighs apart and the position felt a lot more vulnerable than Campbell anticipated. Color crept up to his cheeks. "You're such a good boy. You know, when you visit, we'll have to do this on my sofa. Except you won't have pants on then, and you'll just have your crinkles all visible and available for," and Harlow did lower his voice progressively during this little fantasy, "Daddy to see and touch and play with however he pleases." "Haaarlow," Campbell whined, under his breath. "Ah, ah. Try again." Campbell pouted and shook his head. No way, absolutely not. But Harlow put a hand over Campbell's thigh and inched it forward, between his legs. He gently brushed his palm over the denim jeans, along his inner thigh, only a few inches from the diaper concealed beneath. Campbell sunk lower into the seat and looked away. "Try again," Harlow insisted. Campbell glanced around. At the sleeping woman. He couldn't even see the couple anymore, with how he was sitting. Finally, in a voice that was so quiet it was mostly just mouthing the word, he said: "Daddy..." "Good boy," Harlow grinned. He reached up and patted the front of Campbell's jeans to reward him, and a slight crinkle echoed between the two men. "You know, we have to savor these moments," Harlow teased. "It won't be long before this is just the norm for you, after all. At first, maybe you’ll just forget what you're wearing, and when Daddy touches you, you'll blush and remember." Harlow was so good at the 'from now on' narrative. "I doubt I will ever forget this feeling," Campbell admitted with a small smile. It was heavenly. His first real diaper. His first real Daddy. It felt like all his dreams had come true. "Maybe not forget," Harlow said, deciding to rephrase his teasing. "But it'll be normal. Your baseline." "That... doesn't sound so bad," Campbell blushed. Harlow knew it was a long trip on the train, and he wanted it to be entertaining; one of Campbell’s biggest fears was 'awkward pauses and silences' and the two didn't have the natural rapport in person just yet to completely stave that off with natural chemistry. So Harlow said: "Do you wanna play a game? Do you know how to play Fortunately/Unfortunately?" Campbell shook his head. He'd never heard of it before. Harlow grinned. "Okay, the rules are really simple! One of us starts by saying fortunately... and then something fortunate. And then the other replies with unfortunately... with something unfortunate and related. And we go back and forth until one of us messes up and then we swap who does which role. It's really simple and really fun." "Alright... but you'll have to start, because I still don't think I understand." And Campbell had the sneaking suspicion that he would be better at the unfortunately side of things. Not that he was intrinsically pessimistic, but skepticism came naturally to him. Self-doubt. That kind of thing. "You got it, Crinkle Bell." Harlow was beginning to really like that as a nickname for his little diapered baby boy; it had a nice ring to it. "Unfortunately, we can’t play the Alphabet Game because you’d have to sit up," Harlow started. "Wait, so I'm supposed to do a fortunately now?" Campbell asked. His Daddy nodded. "Mm... okay... fortunately, this game seems easier?" Campbell said it like a question, wanting to be sure he was playing this game right. Harlow nodded in acknowledgement, but didn’t say anything because he didn’t want to stunt the flow of the game. Instead, he replied with: "Unfortunately, I’m not sure if it’s easy enough for a baby as little as you are, squirt~" "Fortunately, I'm a grown up!" Campbell shot back. "Unfortunately, your attire says otherwise." Campbell blushed. "Fortunately, I'm capable of a lot of grown up things to offset anything I'm wearing." "Unfortunately, I haven't seen any examples of that," Harlow teased. "Fortunately, I can prove it." Campbell swung his legs off his Daddy's lap and leaned forward on the seat. He leaned up to kiss Harlow on the lips, but hesitated at the last second. His eyes flickered around the train car. The moment of hesitation was all that it took for Harlow to seize the opportunity and flip this one to his own advantage: in Campbell’s hesitation, Harlow leaned closer and kissed himl, instead of allowing the smaller of the pair to take the initiative. And it was a good, firm, wonderful, hot, very Daddy kiss, too. Possessive. A possessive kiss. After it melted away, Harlow smugly smiled and whispered directly into Campbell’s ear: "Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure your diaper just got a whole lot less dry~" "F-fortunately... that's not... true..." Campbell managed to mumble, but the kiss had slowed his thoughts to a halt. The game was hard to keep up with, and all he could think about was the pressure on his lips that was no longer there. He had to take a deep breath. "Unfortunately, I don't think refuting my statement counts as your own statement," Harlow laughed. "I win." "...fortunately..." No, unfortunately! Campbell shook his head and leaned back again. "Yeah, okay. You won that one. But I think you cheated." "Feet," Daddy said, patting his thighs. Campbell obeyed, putting his legs back up on Harlow like they were before. "There’s Daddy’s good boy. Now it’s your turn, and you get to start with an unfortunately." "Unfortunately, this game seems rigged," Campbell said sourly. The lingering feeling of that kiss was still heavy on his mind. "Fortunately you look so cute when you’re pouting like that, Crinkle Bell." Campbell had a truly adorable pout, because his whole face got soft and slightly pink when he did. It was one of the cutest things about him, and one of the things that Harlow had been attracted to from the beginning. "Unfortunately, that is the worst iteration of my nickname so far," Campbell said, sticking out his tongue. "Fortunately, you’re going to look even cuter when we get your tongue pierced for Daddy." The topic had come up a few times when discussing gender stereotypes. Tongue piercings were such a slutty girl thing in movies and lewd stories, and Harlow had suggested (or playfully threatened - was there a difference?) that given the opportunity he’d take Campbell to get his done. "Unfortunately, needles freak me out," Campbell sighed wistfully. He had wanted to get his ears pierced in high school too, but never built up the courage. There was something freeing about letting someone else make all his decisions, but the fear never quite went away. "Fortunately, little kids often grow out of those fears." When Daddy said this one, he made sure that his hand was resting on a part of Campbell’s pants where he could feel the subtle bulge of the diaper. Just a gentle reminder. Campbell shuffled in place and looked down at Harlow's hand, curled around his thigh. Fortunately, there was a part of Campbell that believed him. Unfortunately, he lost another round of the game. It seemed like, with his Daddy around, it was hard for Campbell to find anything at all unfortunate. "Next stop, Policy Street Station." "Oh, that's us!" Harlow nudged Campbell's feet off his lap and grabbed the diaper bag from the seat next to him. Campbell hurried to follow suit, making their way to the sliding doors. Before the train came to a stop, Harlow turned to Campbell and took his hand. "It's getting late," Harlow said warmly. "I think the only thing we can really do from here is go back to my apartment. So if you'd like to end our date here, I understand. It's been a wonderful day." Campbell stood frozen for a moment. He hadn't thought about any of that. It was almost dark out, and there was still an hour-long train ride back to his town. But now that he was standing there, at the end of his time with Harlow, he really didn't want it to end. Was that too much? They had only just met each other... "No wrong answers," Harlow gently reminded Campbell, because he knew full well from their conversations that Campbell often got lost in his own head, trying to figure out what the ‘right answer’ was. Harlow had reassured him time and again that, with him, there weren’t wrong answers. Everything was the right answer. "Is it weird?" Campbell asked. "I mean... I want to spend more time with you, but... is it weird if..." Harlow shook his head. "It's not weird. I want to spend more time with you too." Campbell nodded. Then, if he got to choose... what he really wanted... "I want to get off at your stop." Harlow was kissing Campbell when the train came to a stop at the platform; there was nobody else in the vestibule, but Harlow would have kissed Campbell either way. When the creaking, squealing wheels finally piped down and the doors slid open, he took his diapered baby boy by the hand and led him off the train and onto the platform: the platform that Campbell was supposed to have gotten off at in the first place.

The First Stop Campbell realized three things about Harlow on the station platform: 1) Harlow was taller than he was. He knew that, but standing side by side gave him a different perspective on it. It felt more real. 2) Harlow was carrying a bag over his shoulder. It had a black and white checkered pattern, single strap, with a large compartment. On one end, something was stuffed into one of the sleeves and Campbell could see a familiar baby blue plastic disk filled with holes. Baby Powder. Which meant... 3) Harlow had brought diapers with him. "Well, we've got an hour here at the station before the next train arrives," Harlow said, "So let's get inside out of the cold." Harlow took Campbell by the hand and led him into the train station building. The station was warm, but it was barren. There was nothing to do. Thankfully, the station was two streets away from a shopping center. Harlow was following a map on his phone, heading that way, still holding Campbell's hand in his. "Where are we going?" Campbell finally got the nerve to ask. "Somewhere warm," Harlow said, pulling the smaller man closer and kissing him on the top of his hair. Campbell melted like the snow as it touched his cheeks. "You know," Harlow whispered, "in the cold air, with your cheeks pink; little flecks of snow in your hair, your eyes all glassy and cute and wanty like that? You look adorable, Campbell." The sliding doors opened with a quiet whoosh, and then a louder one from the heat above washing down over the gap to keep the cold air out. The shopping center wasn't empty, but it was a quiet time of day. For a long time, Campbell didn't know what to say. Every time he thought about how quiet he was, he thought about how he must look to other people. How he was holding a taller man's hand as they walked through the food court of the shopping center. How Harlow ordered him an iced coffee and a donut from the cafe. How he was prompted with little questions in a tone that was just a little too unnatural for one adult to use with another. Finally, Campbell thought to check his phone. The train would be there in 38 minutes. Had they already been walking around for that long? Then Campbell thought of something to say. "Do you want any coffee?" he asked, holding up the straw from his cup. "No, no," Harlow laughed. "It's a bit too cold for iced coffee, in my opinion." "Oh." But Campbell only liked iced coffee. Hot coffee was always too hot for him. It dawned on him that Harlow had remembered that little bit of trivia, and he blushed again. "But you know," Harlow said thoughtfully, "all that iced coffee... and you never do know with those train bathrooms. Sometimes they're in order, sometimes they're out of order. And it's an awfully long train ride back." Harlow was clear with his implication. He watched for Campbell's reaction. If he had to be less subtle with his intent, he would be. But the blush on Campbell's cheeks took on another few shades of pink. Campbell had been roleplaying with Harlow online for quite some time, and that little speech echoed an online one almost verbatim. "I'm sure it'll be fine," Campbell said, which is what he would have said online. In truth, he wasn't sure how he felt about any of this. Harlow brought a diaper bag, and they had discussed the possibility of something like that, but this was a random shopping center in some other town. There weren't any variables to control for. And hey, they just met! It would be weird to expect anything like that... right? "I think for the young man who missed his train station, it's fair to say that a lot is on your mind. And with me by your side the whole way back, I'm sure you’ll be distracted. I think it's best we take some precautions, don't you my Little Bell?" Little Bell. Ding Ding. Campbell. It was a stupid nickname that Campbell had hated at first, but after months of getting closer and closer online, Campbell hadn't just come to like the nickname - he treasured it. And hearing it from Harlow's lips the first time in person almost made him shiver with delight. "Well, that was... because..." Campbell hesitated. His thoughts were sticky from the silly little nickname, the absolutely stupidest nickname anyone had ever given him. But he'd never had someone like Harlow in his life. He'd never even had a real boyfriend before. Every time he thought he was getting close to someone, he'd sabotage it. Why would anyone like him, anyway? His interests were so... absurd. But Harlow had reached out to him. Harlow had prompted again and again until Campbell told him the truth. Harlow didn't laugh at him or shut him out; he asked more questions. Harlow got to know a part of Campbell that Campbell had never told anyone, not even himself in the mirror. Campbell looked up at Harlow with glossy eyes and felt close to crying. But he knew that if he started crying now, Harlow would comfort him and the whole game would end. Campbell didn't want the game to end. So he looked down at his feet and swiveled the toe of one of his shoes in embarrassment. "Don't you worry, I'm going to take care of everything," Harlow said, a signature line that he would use online. But in person, with sincerity, it felt like he really could take care of everything. Harlow squeezed Campbell's hand and led him to the back end of the food court. There were several bathrooms, but the family bathroom was where Harlow was leading his charge. He'd been to this mall once or twice, and knew that the family bathroom had a large sofa against one wall that would suit his needs perfectly fine. "Harlow, I... I'm not sure about this..." Campbell argued half-heartedly, as he was led by the hand. They were just outside the family restrooms, and Campbell's head spun around - snapping left and right - to see if anybody was watching. If anyone would notice two adult men walking into the family bathroom together, without a kid at their side. Sure, there were people, but nobody seemed to pay them any attention. That fact didn't quell any of Campbell's anxiety. "I know you’re worried, and you know your colors, right my Little Bell? Yellow and Red? And what's the other color, do you remember?" He pushed the door to the bathroom open and stood in the precipice; a man acting as the gateway between two worlds. Campbell looked around one more time. Nobody was watching, but standing there with the door propped open wasn't inconspicuous. So Campbell made a snap decision, one that he would ordinarily talk himself out of. "Green," he muttered, and hurried into the restroom after Harlow. Harlow smiled that brain-meltingly confident smile and led Campbell into the bathroom. He knew that Campbell would be hyperfocusing on every little detail, so his actions were decisive. Click went the lock on the door. Then Harlow pressed his lips to Campbell’s, kissing him firmly and passionately. As he broke the kiss, he grinned and added: "I've got your favorite diapers, the one that one model on Twitter wears. And you are going to look so much cuter than they do, just you wait and see." Campbell looked sheepishly up at Harlow with red cheeks and tried to argue. Obviously, there's no way a guy like him could look as cute as those guys on Twitter. But before he could get a word out, Harlow kissed him again and the words melted like ice cream down his throat. Campbell found himself sitting on the couch while Harlow leafed through the diaper bag, fishing out one thing after another. A changing mat. Baby powder. And finally, one of those thick diapers. One of the diapers that Campbell had never even worn before, because they were just expensive enough to triumph over his wants. Campbell's entire body tingled in anticipation, but when Harlow came back over, Campbell grabbed his wrist. "You don't have to do this," Campbell said shyly. "I know you want to make me happy, and I know we talk about it online, but... but I know it's weird, and I'm not a little kid, and... and we can just have a normal date, like normal people..." "Wait wait wait, are you saying other people don't diaper their incredibly gorgeous boyfriends on the first date?" Harlow asked with mock surprise. "What the fuck is wrong with those people? Well baby boy, they might squander their opportunities, but not me - I'm going to diaper you, and the entire way home on the train you can sit in my lap and crinkle while we make out cowgirl style." That was Harlow's biggest strength: his confidence, his determination. He knew what he wanted and he wasn't afraid of that. Campbell laughed a little. He finally let go of Harlow's wrist, but he didn't seem completely assured. For his entire life, the idea of some guy diapering him was all he'd dreamed of. Now, it was right in front of him, and... well, he thought it must be a dream. It had to be, right? He'd wake up any moment now... "Campbell," Harlow said softly, dropping down to one knee. "I promise, I want to do this." "I know, you say that..." Campbell muttered. "I believe you..." "But?" Harlow prompted. "But... I'm scared..." Campbell admitted. "I'm scared that the things I like... they make me unlovable..." "I understand baby boy, I promise I do. You think that just because I'm all confident and assured that I was always this way? I had to come to love myself too. And I'm going to show you how to love yourself, because you deserve to be loved - by yourself, and by everyone whose day you make brighter with that little smile of yours." "And you want this...?" Campbell asked nervously. "I want this," Harlow reassured him. "And you won't see me any differently?" "Oh, no promises there," Harlow teased. "Once I see my little boy in a diaper, maybe I won't be able to see him as a grown up ever again." Campbell rolled his eyes, but his tummy was fluttering. Maybe this wouldn't be as terrible as Campbell imagined. Maybe it might even be as wonderful as he imagined. Harlow motioned to the sofa with a big goofy smile and gestured for Campbell to lay down. They both knew how this went; they'd both written this scene together a hundred times or more. But having it actually happen? Harlow was better at hiding it, but he was just as excited as Campbell. The sofa wasn't an ideal changing table, but Harlow could stand at one end, and Campbell could lay back with his butt on the soft arm of the black leather, and it would do just fine. "Unless my baby boy is too little and needs to be lifted up onto the sofa?" Campbell laid down on his back and looked up at Harlow. He was even taller, and Campbell blushed a little deeper. Harlow leaned down and unbuttoned Campbell's pants and the both of them had the same thought at the same time: Usually taking a date's pants off for the first time isn't for a diaper change. Harlow hardly hesitated, stripping off Campell's pants and underwear all in one motion. Campbell quickly looked at the ceiling and tried to steady his excitement, which was wholly unsuccessful. His arousal was obvious, and the embarrassment of his first-ever diaper change only seemed to add to it. Harlow had all kinds of smooth comments in mind - like how if this wasn't the first date, and they had more time, he could take care of that arousal for Campbell. But that moment was about making Campbell feel comfortable. "You're doing so great, Little Bell." "Mmhmm..." Once the diaper had been laid out, Harlow lifted Campbell by the ankles - both of them in one hand, such was his physical prowess. Harlow stood up and leaned around to one side to make certain that he'd gotten things straight and centered. "Like wrapping a gift, Little Bell; and you're my favorite present." Harlow grasped the bottle of baby powder, twisted the lid, and began sprinkling a large amount of scented cloud all over Campbells diaper area. "Now try not to squirm too much, alright my little diaper boy? I need to rub it in now~" "That's really not necessary," Campbell tried to assert, but with the softness of the diaper under his butt and the fuzzy feelings in his head, his assertions weren't very strong. The sensation of Harlow's large hands between his legs, against his bare skin, touching his most intimate places... Campbell's breathing grew labored. "There's a good boy," Harlow cooed. "We just need to make sure we get the powder into every nook and cranny, just to make sure my baby boy doesn't get a rash on the long train ride back." Harlow's movements were soft, but tender. Firm, but gentle. Campbell couldn’t sit still as he rubbed in the powder. "Someone's a squirmy little mister. I should have brought a pacifier with me, huh?" "Mmm... Harlow..." His name felt wrong on Campbell's lips. He didn't call Harlow by name online, not unless things were particularly serious. But they had just met, and Campbell didn't want to freak him out. But Harlow was one step ahead of him. "Come on now, that's not what you want to call me, is it?" "Mmmm..." Campbell quivered at Harlow's touch and the aroma of far-too-much baby powder filled the air. "Be a good little boy and use your words," Harlow prompted. Campbell closed his eyes in embarrassment and his mouth fumbled for the word they both wanted to hear: "...Daddy..." Campbell whispered. "There's Daddy's good boy." Harlow rewarded Campbell's good behavior with the pull of the diaper up between his thighs. He undid the tapes, one at a time, and a tightness wrapped around Campbell’s hips. Harlow helped Campbell sit up, and the diaper was so much thicker than Campbell had ever dreamed. It contoured perfectly to his body. It taped perfectly around his hips. It was soft and warm and crinkly, and everything Campbell had ever wanted. He kept waiting to wake up from the dream, because there was no way reality could be so perfect. The way he felt was something he had only read about in fairy tales. That feeling of "happily ever after", when everything is right and perfect. Even the embarrassment didn't take away from his first real diaper change; it only added another layer of mystification and excitement. Campbell truly felt like a submissive little diaper boy. Campbell looked up at his Daddy with shining eyes, glossy with excitement. He had never been so happy before. It was really hard for Harlow not to ravish the young man in front of him, the gorgeous little baby boy in just his t-shirt and diaper. After Campbell stood up, Harlow settled instead for pressing his hand to Campbell’s rosy cheek, reaching around to squeeze his padded butt, and kissing him with all the passion he could muster. Unfortunately that kiss had to come to an end. Campbell and Harlow had a train to catch. "They can tell," Campbell whispered nervously, holding Harlow's hand tighter than ever before. They passed by another couple on the way to the station platform. "They can't tell," Harlow reassured him. "I'm waddling like a duck," Campbell hissed. "I look like a toddler taking his first steps." "Nobody pays attention to how someone walks," Harlow said. "Do you?" Campbell did not pay attention to how people walked. "I'm crinkling," Campbell muttered. "I sound like I'm smuggling grocery bags onto the southbound train." "Trains are very noisy," Harlow insisted. "And why would anyone think that crinkling is from a diaper?" "Shh!!" Campbell shushed, louder than someone should shush. "Don't say that word!" "Diaper?" Harlow whispered in Campbell's ear. "Like the thick diaper you're wearing between your legs? Like the diaper that's making you waddle? Like the diaper that brands you as my little boy?" Campbell fell silent, blushing deeply. And not from the cold. "Your pants aren't too tight, and your coat covers your butt," Harlow reassured him. "They can't tell." "I guess..." Campbell muttered shyly. His grip on his Daddy's hand loosened a little. "Besides," Harlow added, glibly, "that's stuff for Daddy to worry about. Your job is much more important: Daddy is seriously in need of some kisses."

(It's been a while!) Added Like A Baby, which FawnyABDL did an audio recording for! Added four Aimes & Pawson stories, which follow characters created by JuiceBoxArt through the four seasons! Lastly, added a cute romantic story: Three Trains

Three Trains By Sophie & Pudding I'll be releasing this story over the next few weeks. It's about 5 chapters long, and all of it is currently available on SubscribeStar: www.subscribestar.adult/sophieandpudding Premise: Campbell and Harlow have been talking online for months, but they have never met in person. They plan to meet up at the train station in Harlow’s town, but disaster strikes when Campbell misses the stop. Is this a bad omen, or will Harlow find a way to salvage the date? Disclaimers: m/m, diapers, wetting, sex ----------------------------- The First Train People often talked about seasickness. Even car sickness was a thing! And general motion sickness to boot. But train sickness? Campbell had spent the last hour doing everything possible to try and stave off the waves of nausea and discontent. Clicky clacky. Clicky clacky. Clicky clacky. The scenery seemed to go by slowly. Campbell was full of anxiety: meeting someone for the first time in real life. It was such a stupid idea; online had so much more protection! Two screens at least. And some phone lines. Did the internet even still use phone lines? Campbell was so busy with the whole train sickness thing that the person who sat down across from him went completely unnoticed. Until they talked. "You know, Policy St. Station was the last stop?" "That's nice," Campbell mumbled, not looking up. "You look even cuter than in your pictures, you know." Pictures? Campbell finally looked up to see a familiar face. Familiar, like when you walk around a stranger's house and recognize people from one picture in the others. His heart skipped a beat. "Harlow?" He was taller than Campbell expected. A little stockier, around the shoulders and the ribs. His dark wavy hair was mostly hidden by a beanie, speckled with tiny dots of snow. He must have just gotten on the train. It really was him... "I knew you'd forget to get off at the station, you goofball. Probably had your head so deep in your phone that you didn't even notice. Probably worrying about something-or-other~" Campbell looked at Harlow. Then Campbell looked down at his phone, out the window, and then at his own lap. "I got trainsick… how did you even know I was actually on the train?" "I didn’t," Harlow shrugged. "You don’t seem like the type to stand me up though, so I figured there was some other explanation. Campbell stared dumbfounded; Harlow had put a lot of trust in him, boarding the train like that. "It sucks that you got trainsick," Harlow said. "Let’s get off at the next station." And then, just like in the movies, the announcer came over the train speakers to let everyone know that the next station was almost an hour away. "Well, that sucks," Campbell sighed, but his traveling companion didn’t seem fazed. Harlow had a presence about him that Campbell had only seen on TV. He went around the car asking for motion sickness medicine until he managed to find an older gentleman who had some left over from his flight last week. He gave Harlow two pills, who in turn gave them to Campbell. "It's remarkable how you can just go up to strangers and ask for things," Campbell said in awe. He took the two pills and put them in his mouth, drinking a swig from his water bottle. He never left home without his water bottle. How long until the medicine kicked in? "It's no different to when I said hello to you the first time on Discord. Or when I slid into your DMs," Harlow said with a wink. "Sometimes you just gotta ask for the things you want." With that sentiment hanging in the air, Campbell had no choice but to extrapolite. Harlow wanted him. It was a weird feeling to have; like sixty-three butterflies in his stomach arguing over whatever-it-is-that-butterflies-argue-over. Something worth getting all aflutter about. "Hah. You're even cuter when you blush," Harlow said, sitting next to Campbell once again. "I knew you would be. Nobody who uses blushy emojis as often as you do does so without having a super cute blush." "I don't think there's a strong correlation between the use of blushy emojis and actually blushing," Campbell argued, but in his case, the correlation was extremely strong. It was nearly 1. Harlow looked out the window, watching the scenery go by. "This is a little unfortunate," he siad. "I had ideas of places we could go, and now we are stuck on this train." "Oh, I'm sorry," Campbell said quickly. "I should have been paying more attention to the stops. This is all my fault." "Well, it is your fault you didn't get off at the right station," Harlow agreed, "but I'm here with you and the people mean more than the venue. And by the time we get to the station, we'll probably have gotten past the awkward phase, right? We’ll be all laughter and kissy kissy." Campbell didn't understand how people like Harlow existed in the world; hadn't he ever heard of anxiety? Did some people just go around being all normal? Wild. "Harlow, you know I've never..." "Kissed anybody, I know." Actually Campbell had kissed people, but it was never on his terms. It was pushy girls or social expectations, so they didn’t count to Harlow. "But we're gonna fix that little shortcoming; I promised that we would." A first kiss on a train was pretty romantic, Campbell thought. But the notion of kissing this man he'd only just met today... and what if he wasn't a good kisser? What if Harlow didn't want to see him anymore, after such an awful kiss. Campbell grew quiet and looked down at his phone. 44 minutes until the next stop. "I see you thinking! This is like when we roleplay, and you write these big long internal thoughts - but ah! This time I have the upper hand, because I've been writing with you for months. So let's take a guess!" Harlow tilted his head and pursed his lips, leaning around to look at Campbell’s face. "You are thinking... what if you're not a good kisser? Or worse, what if Harlow - and by that I mean me - isn't a good kisser? Am I close?" "The first one," Campbell laughed nervously. The thought that Harlow wasn't a good kisser didn't even cross his mind. Upon seeing him, Campbell knew without a doubt that Harlow would be a good kisser. Nonetheless, his skill at reading Campbell's mind was impressive. "Well, you have the home-field advantage. You got on the train first, so I think that’s how it works. Admittedly, I’ve never watched baseball, but that sounds right." Harlow grinned. He had a damn pretty smile for a boy. It kinda made Campbell melt a little bit. Harlow was just as stupid in person as he was online, but that seemed to put Campbell at ease. There was something very disarming about playfully stupid men. By the time the meds started to kick in, Campbell was feeling a lot more comfortable with Harlow. "Are you still feeling sick?" Harlow asked. "Less so," Campbell admitted. He checked his phone again. 35 minutes. "Rad. Because..." Harlow peered at Campbell’s phone with an analytical look and then moved his lips right to the ear of the latter; speaking in one of those 'kind of loud for a whisper, but still functionally private tones.' "That means I have 35 minutes to kiss you, and convince you that I'm just as smooth and dreamy in person as you say I am online." As time ticked on, Campbell wondered exactly how sincere Harlow's words were. Every movement Harlow made, every touch Harlow gave, every glance Harlow shot... each was dripping with intention. But none of them were a kiss. But they were holding hands. Or rather, Harlow was holding Campbell's hand in his, running his thumb along the back of it. Campbell checked his phone again, like he did every few minutes. 9 minutes. There were three minutes left on the clock when Harlow made his move. And it wasn't motivated by the time until arriving at the station. No, it was triggered by the passengers at the front of the carriage getting up and moving into the vestibule compartment in preparation to get off at the station. Harlow waited until the two of them were alone, because he knew full well that Campbell would be so much more comfortable with some relative privacy. Harlow put a hand on Campbell’s cheek to guide his face, and then he pressed his lips to Campbell’s. And with one smooth motion, he pushed him down onto the bench seat, and continued to kiss him. Kissing was a lot like it looked on TV, Campbell thought. His head was swirling with things he thought he should be doing, but each thought was buffeted away by another crash of Harlow's lips to his. One after another, until his thoughts were a senseless little puddle and there was nothing but the tingling on his lips. When it was over, Campbell's cheeks were pink and Harlow was hurrying him off the train. He stumbled behind Harlow, trying to keep his footing, until they were on the station platform and Campbell's labored breaths made puffs of misty fog in front of his mouth.

Like A Baby Written by: Sophie This story was recorded as a bedtime audiobook by FawnyABDL and you can listen to it on The Usual Bet, an ABDL discussion padcast! Here's a link! Premise: Do you ever struggle to get a good night’s rest? Perhaps all you need is a visit from Mistress Sleep. Disclaimers: diapers ---------------------------- You don't want to open your eyes. You nodded off for a moment — a lucky moment — but even in the darkness you know it wasn't for very long. You wait for time to lull you back to sleep, but time starts to do the opposite. You feel warm. The weight of the blanket on you starts to make you uncomfortable, so you kick it off just enough to let air underneath. Your shirt is bunched up underneath you, tugged taught around your shoulder, so you roll onto your side and fix it. Your nose itches, so you scratch it. You roll onto your back and wipe your forehead, though you aren't sweating much at all. You lay your arms out at your sides like a rag doll and try to think about absolutely nothing. You think about absolutely everything. With a sigh, you open your eyes. You tap your watch; maybe you slept longer than you thought. You didn't. But your watch has a notification from Discord. It's something innocuous, something that doesn't need your attention. But as you lay there, you wonder if that person is still online. You wonder how their night is going. If you check your phone now, maybe you can catch them before they go to sleep. So you check your phone. Their status is offline, but you reply anyway. The bubble doesn't change colors. Instead of putting your phone back down, you switch apps. Within the hour, you find yourself switching between the apps for no reason. You have no new notifications and no new posts to scroll through online. News is slower than you are. You finally put down your phone and try again to sleep. "Sleep is a cruel mistress," you mutter to yourself in the darkness. "You think so?" a voice says. You shoot up in bed and adrenaline spills through your body as if a cup of it had been balancing precariously on your chest. Your fight or flight response ticks back and forth at unbelievable speed, unable to land on a decision, until — just as suddenly as it came — it abruptly stops. At the foot of your bed is a woman. Even in the darkness, you can see her as clear as if she were standing in sunlight. But she isn't glowing. She doesn't hurt your eyes. Her face looks soft to the touch, like a doll or a painting, and her features are so delicate that they don't cast any shadows over her cheeks or around her nose. She's wearing a long white gown, embroidered with moons and stars, that falls over her arms and all the way to the floor. And she's tall. She's very tall. You remember that only a second ago, you were afraid. A strange woman appeared in your house, at the foot of your bed; you had every reason to be afraid. But she didn't scare you. Rather, her presence felt as ordinary as night itself. It came as a surprise at first, like when you leave a movie theater and it's still light outside. But then you remember what time is and how time feels, and you aren't scared anymore. "Now now," the woman says slowly, with a smile so slight you aren't even sure it's there. "No need to get up, darling. Rest your head for me, will you?" You do. Without another thought, you slide back down into bed and put your head on your pillow. Your eyes dart to the foot of your bed, but the woman has already come around to the side of it. She sits on the edge of your bed, but her weight doesn't disturb the mattress. "I'm so sorry for my tardiness," the woman continues. Her voice is calm and quiet, just above a whisper. There is no echo or gravity to it, like the winds could carry it a mile away and you would hear it just as clearly. Just listening to her few words lifts your thoughts out of the tar and into the sky where they have room to move. "Who are you," you say, but the inflection is lost at the end. It doesn't sound like a question at all, and you wonder if there is any question in the world worth your energy. "I'm Mistress Sleep," the woman says simply, like you should have known all along. Maybe you had known all along. "Like, the Sandman," you ask, once again without the inflection of a question. But Mistress Sleep understands. She knows the kind of effect she has on people like you. “Something like that," Mistress Sleep says airily, "though I'm not so assertive. I prefer a... gentler touch." And with that, Mistress Sleep runs her fingers across your forehead and pushes your hair out of the way. Her skin feels like a cool blanket on a warm night, or a warm blanket on a cool one. Her fingers slide down your temple, until she can cup your cheek in her palm. She leans over you like a parent tucking in her child, and you feel an overwhelming sense of comfort. For the first time, maybe in your entire life, every muscle in your body relaxes and you sink into the mattress. You aren't even sure you can move, and that thought doesn't scare you even a little. "Hmm..." Mistress Sleep looks down at you with an ounce of wonder. You would never read her expression as worry or concern — no, she's far too content. You know two things instead: the first, something is wrong, and the second, you have nothing to worry about. "Goodness, I am quite late," Mistress Sleep says to you in her charming voice. Charming, quite literally, as you feel her words are the catalyst of a spell. You are enchanted with her. "I don't understand," you say. You try to move, and you succeed. You lean up on your elbows and Mistress Sleep tilts her head at you. "Well, I am forgetful at times," Mistress Sleep laments, more to herself than to you. She doesn't seem at all bothered by this statement; she sounds more like she's explaining something very basic to a very small child. Two plus two equals four. I am forgetful at times. "That's okay," you say, trying to reassure her, though you know intrinsically that it isn't necessary. It's an automatic response, a human nicety. It's conditioning. You feel a little silly after the words leave your lips, but Mistress Sleep looks at you with deep appreciation. "Allow me to make it up to you," Mistress Sleep says. Her voice never changes, never grows in volume or takes on unexpected inflections. She's so predictable. You find so much security in her words. "How," you ask, without the energy for a question mark. Already, your elbows are starting to ache. Sitting up, even a little bit, in her presence is not something an ordinary human can do. But you and sleep never had a good relationship. You've never had a house call before, not like this. "I'll leave you with a blessing," Mistress Sleep says. "Something to always remember me, even on nights when I am late." "A blessing," you say, but this was never a question. Your head is a little fuzzy, and you had to repeat it to properly understand it. "Now let's see..." Mistress Sleep stands up and wanders around your room. Your adrenaline is turned off. Your thoughts are flighty and light. Your body is weak. Above everything else, you're so tired. Maybe that is why you don't think to stop Mistress Sleep from exploring your room, or maybe you want her to find it. "Ah," Mistress Sleep says, turning over one of your diapers in her hands. "This will do." "What... wait, um..." The moment comes back to you so quickly that it feels like whiplash. Like that moment where you lean back too far in a chair. Like that moment when you fall in a dream, and you wake up thinking you're falling in real life. You manage to sit up straight, but at the cost of everything else. You begin to feel nauseous. "Ah ah, what did I say?" Mistress Sleep says in her same voice, though you swear you detect something new. Something maternal. "No need to get up, darling." "But... it's not what it looks like..." The nausea creeps into you like a virus. It spreads through your stomach and into your brain. The next thing you know, Mistress Sleep is laying you back down on your pillow. The nausea subsides and heavy exhaustion takes its place. "There we go," Mistress Sleep coos, brushing your hair back once more with her fingertips. "Doesn't that feel better? There's no need to be embarrassed." But you are embarrassed. Though Mistress Sleep shows no signs of judgement in her voice or her actions, your cheeks are warm and pink. You look up at her as she unfolds your diaper and the crinkles echo through the quiet room. "I really dun need..." You try to argue, but you stumble over your consonants. The T in don't is hard to hit. Mistress Sleep either doesn't notice or she finds it too ordinary to acknowledge. "You must feel so insecure without your diapers," Mistress Sleep says airily, like the word diapers was no less common to her than the word darling. "It's no wonder you've been sleeping so poorly. But this will help, I assure you." Mistress Sleep peels back your blankets and grabs you by the ankles. With no friction at all, as if you were lying on air instead of a mattress, she turns you to face her. She puts your ankles together and lifts them into the air with one hand, and the other expertly pulls off your pajama bottoms and underwear with the other. The way she maneuvers you, like you weigh nothing at all, makes you feel so small and vulnerable. Yet, you know that you could stop her with just a word. You know that you could tell her no and she would listen. But you don't tell her no. You don't want her to stop. You feel safe with her, as surely as you feel safe in your diapers. Mistress Sleep lays the diaper under your bottom and lowers your ankles. Every touch of her skin on yours is like an invitation into another world. By the time she has powdered you and taped the diaper in place around your hips — with unbelievable symmetry — you're awash with dreamy faraway feelings. You look up at Mistress Sleep with heavy, glossy eyes and a dumb little smile. "Now doesn't that feel wonderful," Mistress Sleep says dreamily, as a statement and not as a question. Her voice sounds no different, and yet it washes over you like waves at the beach. Each word is liquid candy, sticking to the insides of your mind. You squeeze your thighs together and the diaper crinkles. "Now let's see, what else helps a little one like you drift off to dreamland?" Mistress Sleep says to herself as you lie helpless and happy in your own bed. Then she nods in recollection, like it had been a while since she had to put a baby to sleep. "Ah yes, a bottle. That should help." Inside Mistress Sleep's dreamscape, there is no true time or linearity. It looks like your bedroom; it very likely is your bedroom. But the way Mistress Sleep already has a baby bottle in her hands confounds you. Maybe you nodded off again. Then again, does it really concern you where an adult gets your bottle? All you need to worry about is drinking it. Mistress Sleep sits on your bed, with her back against the headboard, and pulls you into her lap. Once more, you're reminded how little you weigh to her. She nuzzles you into her chest, so that your cheek is against her breast. She could lower her top and slip her own nipple into your mouth, but her gown is so long and graceful and complicated, that your mind can't process what that would look like. Instead, the nipple of the baby bottle is pushed between your lips and you suck it without thinking. Warm milk — the temperature of the human body — splashes onto your tongue. It's thick and creamy, like a dessert, with a tantalizing sweetness. After only the first mouthful, you want to drink nothing else for your entire life. While you nurse the bottle, Mistress Sleep hums a lullaby you swear you have heard before, maybe when you were very little. You feel her hand on your diaper, gently patting the plastic. Everything she does reminds you of what you are to her: an incapable baby, in need of adult intervention. Time is not true or linear in this moment. You nurse that bottle for what feels like hours, and at the same time, only minutes. When the bottle is empty, she picks you up like you are nothing more than an actual child and sets you on her hip. She tucks your head into her shoulder and cradles you with an arm under your diapered butt. She bounces in place, slowly and rhythmically, as a bit of drool spills out of your mouth and onto her pretty gown of stars and moons. "You're safe now," she whispers to you, but her voice is no different. "You're safe in your diapers, and you are safe in my arms. They are one and the same to you." "Mmm..." This sound escapes your mouth, but it isn't one of protest. It is one of agreement. You are safe in your diapers, and you are safe in her arms. Your eyes are so heavy, and your thoughts are so small in such a vast sky. They are birds flying off into the horizon. The only things close by are Mistress Sleep's sticky words and the calming bob of her body, like a rocking cradle. "Whenever you can't sleep, my darling," she says, "all you have to do is put on one of your diapers. You'll feel my arms around you. You'll feel the world fall away. You'll be safe with me, no matter where you are." You hear her. You understand. For the rest of your life, as long as you are diapered, you can drift off to sleep with ease. You can take naps. You can sleep the whole night through. And if you have to go potty? Well, there's no reason you would even need to wake up. "Ahh, there we go..." Mistress Sleep slowly stops rocking you. Your eyes are closed, and you can only barely feel the tilt of your body as she tucks you into bed. You try to mutter something. Maybe you say thank you. Maybe you say you love her. You can't remember now, so close to sleep. But you remember one final thing, one final feeling: a kiss on your forehead. Then you sleep like a baby. [End.]

Aimes & Pawson See What's In Store Written by Sophie & Pudding Art & Characters by JuiceBox Aimes & Pawson is an ageplay children’s picture book intended for adult audiences. You can buy the full version with pictures on Amazon or by joining our SubscribeStar. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXN7J86C https://www.subscribestar.adult/sophieandpudding Our goal was to create a book for story time or bedtime, with no sexual themes and maximum Little feels! Some of the words can be quite big - upwards of 10 letters long! - so you may need an adult to read it for you. This story takes place in the winter, when Aimes and her teddy bear Pawson go shopping. ------------------------------ Chapter One Snow fell in flakes over the ocean. Most of them fell into the water and disappeared in an instant. Some of them fell on the harbor docks and made a thin, white blanket over the ground. A very lucky few of them landed on the shoulders and hats of two adventurers - a young woman named Aimes and her teddy bear Pawson - as they stared out at at the huge ships and the empty horizon. "Gosh, it's cold," Aimes shivered, wearing nothing but a short sleeve cargo shirt, a safari hat, a pair of well-worn boots, and a thick diaper. She wrapped her arms around herself to keep warm. "Maybe it's finally time you got some pants," Pawson chided, rubbing his own magenta fur with his paws. "I refuse," Aimes said sharply. Pants were always in the way whenever she had to climb something or get changed. Why anyone wore them at all was beyond her. And besides, Pawson didn't wear any pants either! "This wouldn't be a problem if we left for Bermuda last week, like we were supposed to," Pawson sighed. "I thought I had the map the right side up," Aimes pouted. It had been quite an ordeal even finding the harbor in the first place. "This is why I do the directions," Pawson added. Aimes rolled her eyes. The sun was setting behind the buildings and every minute felt colder than the last. That was when Aimes caught sight of a sign: "Wonderland Department Store". "Let's warm up in there," Aimes suggested, pointing at the large storefront. There was a big window with a display, and the lights inside were yellow and inviting. It seemed warm. "Our ship," Pawson warned. "We have a few hours before we leave port," Aimes added, knowing the time from her experience with sunsets and not at all from knowing how to read a clock. Pawson hesitated, but he didn't want Aimes to catch a cold either, so he nodded. Aimes and Pawson hurried through the front doors of the department store, and it was very much like tumbling into a storybook. It was like stepping into another world, and one far removed from the cold, bleak, and grey sky that hung above the horizon outside. The sky inside was denoted by warm chandeliers that hung in rows above the rich, plush, and red carpet aisles. Long streamers of green garlands wrapped in baubles and tinsel draped down from the ceiling, drawing their eyes to lines of glass and steel countertops adorned with trinkets and fancy décor. Above the din and chitter of the murmuring shoppers, Aimes could hear the faint sound of a small brass band playing warm and lovely music on a distant side of the store. She could also hear a crinkling and rustling that came for once not from her own midsection, but from decorative paper wrapping stations nearby. More importantly than any of that, it was warm. Warm, but not too warm. And more importantly than even that, with a store this size, Aimes knew there had to be a toy department! "Excuse me, Miss," a man said, approaching Aimes and Pawson. He was wearing a nicely pressed suit and had a pocket square on his jacket with a monogrammed W. The other notable thing about him was that there was color on his cheeks, and he never quite met Aimes' stare. "I regret to inform you," he continued, "but you seem to be missing your..." His hand politely gestured to Aimes, at her lower half, and Aimes wondered for a moment if she had put on the wrong diaper that afternoon. But because of Pawson's earlier comment, she quickly understood. "Oh, no," Aimes said with a smile. "I don't wear pants." "Right..." The man looked once more at Aimes, then down at Pawson, who shrugged his shoulders. "That's not a problem, right?" Aimes asked, tilting her head. The man stood there quietly, running through the store rules in his head. Shirt? Yes, she had one of those. Shoes? Yes, she had two of those. And thus, service. "No, Miss," the man said with a bit more embarrassment, mostly for making a mistake of his own. "No, that isn't a problem at all. Is there anything I can help you find?" "Toys?" Aimes asked, looking at Pawson with an amused smile. "Ah, yes. Those are upstairs. Just go straight down this way and you will find the staircase on your right." "Thank you!" Aimes said cheerily, then bounded off past the man with Pawson in tow. Chapter Two "There sure are a lot of people here," Aimes said, waiting for an old woman to come down the stairs before taking her turn. The staircase was wide, but she wanted to allow the woman some space to get through. "It's that time of year," Pawson said, watching dozens of people hurry by in the aisles. "What time?" Aimes asked. "Holidays, you know. Christmas, Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice." "Huh..." Aimes and Pawson had been off on adventures around this time for the past few years. She had forgotten about the holidays. "Kwanza, New Year, Chinese New Year, Diwali, Las Posadas—" "I remember that one," Aimes said, reflecting back on the year before. They sung carols. "They really should spread these holidays out more, I think." "Probably true," Pawson chuckled. "But many of them are religious celebrations, so having them all at about the same time means everyone can celebrate together." "Oh, that's nice." Aimes felt like it would be awful not celebrating anything when everyone else was celebrating something. When she was growing up, Aimes had celebrated Christmas. Aimes put her finger to her chin and thought about something for a moment. Then she nodded to herself and made a decision. All the while, Pawson was still watching shoppers go by with increasing nostalgia. When the old woman had rounded the corner, Aimes and Pawson started up the stairs. "This time of year feels kind of magical," Pawson said to his best friend. "I thought you didn't believe in magic," Aimes teased. "It's a different kind of magic," Pawson said simply. Without a better way to explain it, he said: "The lights glow a little differently, and it makes you think of home." "Hmm... I see what you mean," Aimes said, staring up at the lights. They weren't any brighter than any other lights in any other department store, but they glowed a little bit more. She thought of the Christmas tree in her living room when she was younger. The green and red bows and wrapping paper. The feeling of Pawson in her arms. He was a lot bigger then. But before the two could fall into any deeper nostalgia, Aimes caught sight of the toy aisle and raced toward it, crinkling with every hurried step. "You know you move much faster than I can, Aimes!" "That's to help you learn to move faster," Aimes called back with a self-assured smile. Even though Pawson couldn't see it, he could hear it in her voice. He followed the girl into the toy department, and it took him looking down three separate aisles before he found her: on her hands and knees, diaper up in the air, looking deep into the back shadow of the bottom shelf and mumbling to herself. "What are you looking for, Aimes?" Pawson leaned down, looking at the adjacent toys - dolls and dollhouse accessories it seemed like - and tried to puzzle out the answer. "Toys, obviously," Aimes dismissed, then got up to her feet. The shelves were massive, almost twice as tall as Aimes herself. They were also stocked with cardboard boxes and plastics in such an array of colors that the rods and cones in her eyes had trouble keeping up. The nostalgia from earlier, staring at the lights, flooded her again as she remembered all the toy stores she went to as a little girl. She would climb on the shelves, two or three feet off the ground, just to grab at something she thought looked cool. Pawson always hated that. Nowadays, Aimes climbed so many things that he didn't mind so much. Unfortunately, every other space on the shelf was empty. Or, the item that should have been there was pushed so far back that Aimes had trouble seeing it. She moved away from the dolls and into the next aisle, scanning over colorful wooden blocks, cut and shaped like animals. After that was puzzle after puzzle after puzzle, many made from pictures of places Aimes had been before. Some of them were imaginary, but Aimes still felt like she had probably visited once or twice. The next aisle was full of board games and tiny musical instruments. After that was a row of hard plastic animals and figurines. With a huff, Aimes doubled back to some earlier aisles and put her hands on her hips, the wings of her diaper crinkling. "You can't buy anything big," Pawson warned. "We have to carry everything with us. Nothing heavy either." "I know, I know!" Aimes huffed. Then she noticed something on the shelf and ran over to it. She was in the doll aisle again, shuffling through a few different boxes, when she finally found what she was looking for. Unfortunately, she only found a small paper tag. "Shoot..." Aimes turned the tag over and held it tight in her hand. Pawson tilted his head to see it, but he couldn't read the writing all the way from the ground. Just then, a woman walked by the aisle wearing pressed slacks and a button-up shirt. She was talking to someone else. "Just this way, and down this aisle! Thank you!" Aimes raced to catch up to her, almost running headlong into the woman when she turned around. The woman took one look at Aimes, in her diaper and her adventuring attire very much not suited for winter, and didn't skip a beat. "Hello, how can I help you?" "I was wondering if you had any more of these?" Aimes handed the girl the little paper tag just as Pawson caught up to the group. "Oh, hm..." The woman read the tag and looked at the ceiling, thinking to herself. "I swear there are some in the back..." "Could I have one please?" Aimes asked, her eyes lighting up. "I'll check for you," the woman smiled, just as someone down the aisle called: "Excuse me, this is last year's model. Do you have this year's?" "Oh, um..." The woman handed the tag back to Aimes and gave her an apologetic smile. "Just give me a few minutes." The woman hurried to the customer she was helping and Aimes puffed out her cheeks. Waiting was never a hobby of hers. "She said there were some in the back," Aimes said more to herself than Pawson. "Oh come on," Pawson groaned. "She said she'd be right back." "But it's a very busy store today," Aimes added. "It would be rude to continue bothering her, especially when we are quite capable of finding it ourselves." "What if she goes to look in back and we're not here?" Pawson pleaded, hoping that reason might sway her, but Aimes shook her head with certainty. She answered: "She probably won't even remember, Pawson. It's berry busy. And if she does, then we can meet her in the back and tell her we found it ourselves." "But we're not supposed to be there..." "That's just a recommendation! Like eating apples. It'll be fine, you worry too much." "You don't worry enough," Pawson mumbled, deciding to ignore the apple comment for the time being. He had to pick his battles. "That's why I have you~" Aimes said sweetly. Then she headed towards the wall of the toy department, looking for a door that might lead to the mythical area of every store: The Back. Sure enough, The Back was marked with two large double doors and a sign that said "Employees Only." "We are not employees," Pawson reminded Aimes in a last ditch effort to dissuade her. "Well, we're employing... a... strategy to..." Aimes looked sheepishly at Pawson, who was not impressed by her feeble attempt at rationalizing. "Fine, so we shouldn't go in!" Aimes admitted. "But I want to. And this is important. So... please?" "Why is it important?" Pawson asked. "I can't explain it," Aimes defended. "But you'll see. I promise." Pawson looked at the sign on the door and then up at Aimes, who was pouting and giving him those cute sad eyes. He knew they should just wait for someone to be available to help, but he also knew they had a boat to catch in an hour. "Fine," Pawson said reluctantly. "But you're sleeping with your pacifier all week, so I don't have to listen to you snoring!" Aimes blushed a little and nodded her head. "Deal." Chapter Three Aimes and Pawson pushed through the door to The Back. The warm inviting lights of the department store gave way to cooler clinical colors. The room was impossibly tall and expansive, lined with racks that went up further than the eye could see. The middle of the room was organized into aisles, with tall shelves - taller than both of them, even on the second floor - dividing the space. In front of the two adventurers was a railing and a set of stairs leading down into the room proper. "The building didn't look this tall from outside..." Pawson said quietly to himself, but Aimes was already heading down the stairs. She held the rail for balance and Pawson toddled along after her. "It looks like the shelves are labeled," Aimes said, reading each sign taped to the sides of the shelves. Housewares. Bedding. Clothing. The two of them hadn't seen a single label that said Toys before Aimes was distracted by a different one. "Diapers! Oh, do you think they have something festive? Like a Christmas one, or Las Posadas?" "You don't even like printed diapers," Pawson argued, following his friend off course. "No, but there are exceptions. Special occasions, holidays. And you know, if the fancy ones were anywhere near the quality and capacity as my white ones, I'd be more open-minded! The last thing I wanna worry about when being chased by pixies is if my diaper is going to leak." "We're supposed to be looking for the toys," Pawson reminded her. "But they're right here!" Aimes argued. "Let me just check them out." The rack for diapers was a tall one, and Pawson's stuffy little mind's eye was filled to the brim with visions of Aimes climbing the edges of the racking like a monkey climbing a tree, or a baby climbing a jungle gym, and the thought made his stomach ache with worry. "Only if we can find a ladder first…" It was a concession that Aimes didn't want to make, but she had to pick her battles too. There was a ladder just one aisle over, and it took both of them working together to lug it all the way to the shelves of diapers. Pawson held the bottom, which was good ladder safety, and Aimes went halfway up to pick a pack of diapers off the shelf. "A lot of these are too small," Aimes lamented, which was the same lament she would often have any time she was shopping for diapers. But then she found a box on the third shelf that was her size. She pulled it forward and rummaged around inside until she picked up a plastic pack. "Look, Pawson! These ones have string lights on them! And the color in the lights goes away when they get wet." "That would be convenient," Pawson said aloud. Her usual diapers didn't have wetness indicators, and Pawson had to constantly remind her to change if she needed to. "I bet they didn't even have these on the shelf in the store," Aimes said more to herself than to her companion. "That's why we had to come to The Back. I don't know why they don't just make The Back a part of The Front." Just then, the loud bang of a door closing echoed through the impossibly large room. Aimes caught sight of someone coming down the stairs, but it wasn't the woman who had offered to help. She quickly put the diapers back on the shelf and slid down the ladder. Her and Pawson ducked behind a large box of packing peanuts. Both of them were quiet for a while, until Aimes peeked her head above the box and saw the person heading deeper into The Back. When they were finally out of earshot, Aimes let out a sigh of relief. "Wait," Pawson said after a moment of realization. "Why didn't we just ask them to help us find the thing you're looking for?" It's not like they would really get in much trouble for walking into the back of a department store. "Well, this seemed like more fun," Aimes said happily. "It's a stealth mission!" "You turn everything into a game, don't you?" Pawson asked rhetorically, but he got an answer anyway. "Anything I can, sure." Aimes checked a few of the signs nearby and found one that said Toys. It had an arrow pointing pointing to the right, where the mysterious worker had gone. "Maybe they are trying to get the toy I want, and it's the last one," Aimes said, talking about the worker they were following. "Or maybe they are looking for something totally unrelated," Pawson offered. "Nuhuh Pawson, it's like what that Clocko guy says: the simplest answer is always the best one!" "...are you talking about Occam's razor?" Pawson asked uncertainly. There were so many flaws with what Aimes had said that he didn't know where to start. But before he could try, Aimes shushed him for being too loud. Aimes and Pawson hurried down the aisle toward the back of The Back. Or rather, Aimes hurried, ducking behind one box after another as the floor worker came into view. Pawson followed at a brisk pace for a teddy bear and hid behind nothing. Eventually the aisle ended. In front of Aimes and Pawson was an archway, lit up with string lights. Written in colorful cursive lights, along the top of the arch, said "Toys". On the other side was a massive room, just like the entryway, but this one was filled to the top with colorful boxes and packages. There were no overhead lights, but instead warm bulbs on strings draped over the racks, filling the space with bright yellow light. Racks were stacked haphazardly, diagonally, and seemingly randomly, and in one of the corners was a mountain of toys. They were not in boxes or packages: just loose toys stacked on top of one another twenty feet high. For someone who liked toys - like Aimes - it was a paradise. "Woah..." Aimes and Pawson both said at the same time. "This doesn't make a lick of sense," Pawson said skeptically. "Everything else was racked and palletized and ordered and this is... this is..." "Amazing!" Aimes finished. "...chaos." Pawson corrected. "Let's just find what you're looking for and get out of here before we get in trouble." So that was what they did. Aimes & Pawson made it past three rows of shelves - which were very distracting for Aimes - before Aimes took a half step backward and put her arm out to keep Pawson from walking forward any further. Just as Pawson was about to ask what was going on, Aimes turned toward him and put her finger to her lips: the universal sign to be quiet. Aimes slowly peered around the edge of the shelf and Pawson did the same, albeit a few feet lower. And what they both saw was that worker from before, dressed in black pressed clothes that seemed a little too big for them. The cuffs at the bottom were brushing the floor and they had to keep pushing up the sleeves of their jacket. The worker was picking up one toy after another, muttering to themself, and then choosing a new one. "No, it's supposed to be a pink and blue, not pink and yellow... oh, and look at this one? A knick on the side! We have to do better than this..." Pawson looked up at Aimes with confusion, and Aimes looked back down at him with wide eyes. She reached up to her own face and tapped her ear. She couldn't hear what the worker was saying, perhaps? That was Pawson's first thought. Then Aimes pointed at the person and tapped her ear again. Pawson looked at the worker, then at their ear. It was pointy? Like... Aimes made the mistake of taking a step forward just as the worker paused for breath. The slight rustling of her diaper echoed awkwardly in the room, bouncing off the walls and bending over shelves. The worker with their unusual ears turned to face Aimes and Pawson, who quickly ducked behind the shelf. "Is someone there?" the worker called. They were quiet as they listened for an answer. Then Aimes and Pawson heard footsteps. Aimes looked around in a panic. On the shelf beside her, she found a bag of individually wrapped hard candies, which weren't toys, but Aimes didn't have time to wonder about that. She silently motioned Pawson away and then tore the bag. A cascade of crinkling candies tumbled onto the hard concrete and Aimes dashed after Pawson and hid behind the corner. A few more footsteps. "Oh, I guess some of these fell out... shoddy packaging job, Merry. I'll get Noel to fix it up." For a good few minutes, even as footsteps paced around the room, Aimes was too nervous to move again. Usually her diaper didn't crinkle all that loudly, but there was something about the acoustics of the room. She exchanged glances with Pawson every so often, who was halfway between bewildered and anxious. And then finally, after what felt like an eternity, the echoing of the footsteps faded deeper and deeper into nothing. "That was close," Aimes mumbled, letting out a huge sigh of relief. "You acted like it was a life or death situation," Pawson said, hiding his own relief. "We would probably have just been kicked out." "Kicked out and put on the naughty list," Aimes said, shivering. "You saw those ears, right?" "There's no way it's one of Santa's elves," Pawson said skeptically, preempting his best friend's theory. But after a moment of looking around the massive toy room, he added: "Probably." "It's the simplest solution," Aimes argued. "That is not true in the slightest," Pawson said. "Either way, we should get out of here before someone comes to clean up the mess you made. Good thinking though." "Thank you," Aimes said cheerfully. "Of course, I have to find that toy first." Pawson was afraid of that. Chapter Four Aimes began looking for her toy, alternating between bending down to see things below her line of vision and standing on her tippy-toes to see things up higher. "It's gotta be here," Aimes muttered to herself. "The lady said it was." "She said she thinks she saw it," Pawson said. "If you tell me what we're looking for, I can help." "No, no," Aimes said dismissively. "You'll see when I find it." Pawson sat down on a large box that was home to a dollhouse, watching his companion search high and low, sticking her diapered butt out any time she bent down low and raising her top past her belly button any time she stood up high. It seemed impossible to him, finding anything in a disorganized place like this. It was a needle in a haystack scenario. What they needed was a magnet. But in a way, Aimes' determination was its own magnet. She looked over every box she could find, on every shelf, and inside any alcove. She went to the pile of toys and looked through it as well. And just as Pawson began to worry less about being caught in The Back and more about missing their boat's departure, Aimes saw something that excited her. "More diapers?" Pawson asked. "Nope!" Aimes said brightly. "I found it!" "Well then let's get it and go," Pawson urged. "Okay. But it's way up there." Aimes pointed up at one of the higher shelves, past the strings of light bulbs. The direction of her finger wasn't enough to tell Pawson exactly what it is she had found, but that it was a dangerous place to find anything. "I'll go find a ladder?" Pawson offered. "The ladder isn't tall enough," Aimes said. "It wouldn't even get us halfway up. I can just climb up there and get it." "You can't," Pawson said plainly. "Oh, don't worry, I'll be fine!" "No, I mean you literally can't." Pawson pointed at the ground level, where the boxes on the racks were so full and pressed together that there was no way to get good footing. Logistics aside, the toy was at least twenty feet in the air. If she fell, she could seriously hurt herself. "Oh..." Aimes sulked and looked around the room. Maybe there was another way up? If she climbed around from the other side, then... But then Aimes remembered where she was. This was a toy department! "Okay, I have an idea," Aimes said excitedly, "but I'm going to need your help." Pawson knew that whatever Aimes planned to do would be dangerous, but he also knew that she thought this one through. She was quick to jump into a situation, but when she was forced to think about things, she usually had some good ideas. So Pawson said: "What can I do?" That was how Aimes and Pawson began searching The Back of a department store for some very specific toys. Once Aimes and Pawson gathered everything they needed, Aimes tied a blanket around the shelves' metal struts and pulled it taut. She fixed it in place with a series of heavy boxes at the other two corners. Then she took the toy grappling hook and shot it up the hill of toys. It took a few tries for it to catch on anything. Pawson pulled sticky slime out of a plastic container and smothered it over the ends of three arrows from a bow and arrow kit. He spent the rest of the time trying to get it out of his fur. Finally, when everything was set up, Aimes handed Pawson the bow. Pawson didn't understand why, and it showed on his face. "You gotta do the climb," Aimes said. "What? No way! You do it!" "I wish I could," Aimes said with a pout. "But I'm heavier and the grappling hook might not hold me. Even if it did, I'd break all those toys if I tried climbing them." "So?" Pawson said, trying anything to get out of having to do this. "So, those toys are probably going to be important to someone, like how you're important to me. I don't want to break them." Pawson looked up at Aimes, and he could see the sincerity in her eyes. With a groan, he took the bow. He pulled it over his body like a sash and grabbed the rope leading up the mountain of toys. Pawson grumbled as he began to climb the rope, toddling left and right to keep is balance. For someone who had hands that could be be described as mittens crossed with paws, Pawson did do a pretty good job of rope climbing. After all, he wouldn't have made it through half the adventures he went on with Aimes if he didn't at least have some survival acumen. "You're doing great!" Aimes called up from the floor. Already Pawson had climbed higher than the top of Aimes' head, almost halfway up the pile of toys. She didn't look away from her friend, even as he got further away, just in case she needed to catch him. He had her undivided attention. Pawson stepped over the toys with his bare feet, but the toys didn't really hurt. The perks of having a stuffed animal body, he supposed. And under his weight, not a single toy cracked or chipped or crunched. The mountain of toys wasn't unsettled at all, even as he reached the part where the grappling hook was wedged between two boxes of wooden blocks. He had another five feet to go, but he would have to free-climb. Thankfully the pile was less steep near the top. "You know I still don't know what to aim at, right?" he said down to Aimes, then grumbled to himself: "Just a few more feet, a few more paws-lengths and..." Pawson grunted as he made it to the top of the toy mountain and collapsed on the mound. After a moment to catch his breath, he sat up and looked down at Aimes. "Okay! What am I shooting at?" "See the two yellow boxes? The one on the right." Aimes pointed at a yellow box on the wall, high high high above her. It wasn't that far from the top of the toy pile. It wasn't the best angle for Pawson, but the box wasn't far away either. It looked like a doll or something, and Pawson felt a twinge of annoyance at the fact that all this was for some doll. But if it was important to Aimes, it was important to him too. Pawson took the bow off his body and untied the bundle of arrows he had fashioned to the bow. He took the rope off the grappling hook and tied it to the end of one of the arrows, with the sticky green goo on the other side. He nocked one of the toy arrows, pulled it back, aimed, and fired. It went a little wide and stuck to the shelf. "That's okay," Aimes called from the ground. "Just reel the arrow back in and try again." Pawson pulled the rope until the arrow came back to him, but the end was covered in dirt and dust. It wasn't very sticky anymore. So he took the rope off that arrow and tied it to the next one. He loosed the second arrow and it struck the target. With satisfaction, Pawson tugged the rope and the box tumbled off the shelf, landing right in the middle of the big blanket net Aimes had built at the bottom. "Pawson, you're incredible!" Aimes said excitedly from the ground, but as she picked up the yellow box, her expression soured. Pawson almost couldn't see it from so high up. "It's the other one," Aimes hollered. "The other yellow one." "You said on the right," Pawson argued. "Uhh... yeah, I meant left." Aimes blushed and scratched at her cheek in embarrassment. She should have checked using her hands to see which one made an L. Pawson sighed and pulled the arrow back up the mountain of toys. Sure enough, the sticky goo was not so sticky anymore. He untied the rope again and knotted it to the tail of the final arrow. Thankfully the left box was closer than the right one. The little teddy took a deep breath and shut one eye as he lined up his shot with the toy bow, and then held his breath as he zeroed it in. His tongue stuck out the side of his mouth in concentration and he loosed the arrow. Fwoom! Time seemed to slow down for just a second as his eyes followed the arrow until, with a wet SPLOTCH!, the sticky end impacted the box and held tight. With one gentle tug on the rope, Pawson dislodged it and caused it to tumble down perfectly into the net below. Aimes picked up the box with wide eyes, bright with excitement. It was exactly what she wanted! She hugged it tight to her chest and told Pawson to come down. The way down was not much easier than the way up, but it felt safer. Pawson scooted along his bottom, like a child going down stairs for the first time. When he finally made it to the concrete floor, he felt exhausted. "Let's get out of here," he said. "Yes, let's!" Chapter Five Aimes and Pawson made their way back to the stairs on the other side of The Back. Pawson didn't even think to ask about the doll until both of them were pushing their way past the Employees Only door and into the department store. As they rounded the corner, Aimes nearly bumped into the same woman a second time. "Oh, I was just looking for you," the same woman said. "Sorry it took so long. I can look for your toy now if you'd like." "Actually, I found one," Aimes said with a smile, holding up the doll in her hands. The woman looked at Aimes, at the Employee's Only door just a few feet away, and slowly nodded her head. "Well... if that's all for you, I can ring you up?" the woman asked. "That would be wonderful." Aimes rummaged through her backpack to find her wallet and paid for the doll. Pawson sat by the front door on the bench, still rubbing gooey green slime off his paws. When Aimes finished checking out, she met up with Pawson - a box in her arms - and the two headed outside. It was then, under the light snowfall, that she handed him a box. This box was about the same size as the doll box, but it was wrapped in beautiful magenta paper and a large silver bow. Pawson took it, but his face was full of confusion. "What's this?" "It's a gift," Aimes said simply. "For you." "For me?" Realization dawned on Pawson and the whole picture came together. The trip into The Back. The effort Aimes went through to get this particular toy. Even the fact that she wouldn't tell him what they were looking for. "This was all for me?" "Of course, you silly bear!" Pawson looked at the gorgeously wrapped gift and then up at Aimes, and then down at the gift again. "Well, come on!" Aimes said impatiently. "Open it!" The sun had gone down quite a while ago and the lights from the harbor lanterns reflected off the snow, covering the harbor in a warm glow. It was like a postcard, or a picture on a puzzle. Even though Aimes was in just her short-sleeved shirt and her diaper, she wasn't even the least bit cold in that moment. Pawson started pulling the beautifully wrapped paper off his gift. Sure enough, what he found wrapped up was indeed a small doll, but this doll was dressed in a short-sleeved cargo shirt and a safari hat. It looked a lot like Aimes, if Aimes had brown hair and it wasn't so frizzy. And if Aimes ever wore pants. Pawson stared at the package for a while, at the doll inside, and felt warm. He held the box close to his chest and smiled up at his best friend. "I love it, Aimes," he said. "Thank you so much." "It wasn't any trouble," Aimes lied cheerfully. "Oh, I should have gotten you something though," Pawson realized. But Aimes said: "No need. Remember our first Christmas together? I wasn't even a year old. I actually don't remember anything else from when I was that young, but I remember opening up my favorite gift. You. Every year, as long as you're with me, then I get that gift all over again." "Aimes..." Pawson didn't know what to say. "I know I can't give you a gift as good as me," Aimes laughed, "so I hope this one comes close." "It does," Pawson stuttered, trying not to get too choked up. "It's perfect." The two of them were quiet for a moment, together in the warm light and the cold snow. Then Aimes got goosebumps on her thighs and felt the urge to move onward, as she always did. "Ready for our next adventure?" Aimes asked, taking Pawson by the hand. "With you, Aimes? Always." [End.]

Aimes & Pawson Take Fright Written by Sophie & Pudding Art & Characters by JuiceBox Aimes & Pawson is an ageplay children’s picture book intended for adult audiences. You can buy the full version with pictures on Amazon or by joining our SubscribeStar. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXN7J86C https://www.subscribestar.adult/sophieandpudding Our goal was to create a book for story time or bedtime, with no sexual themes and maximum Little feels! Some of the words can be quite big - upwards of 10 letters long! - so you may need an adult to read it for you. This story takes place in the fall, when Aimes and her teddy bear Pawson find a haunted house. ------------------------------ Chapter One It was a dark and stormy night. The wind howled like coyotes at an invisible moon, trapped behind heavy rumbling clouds. Barren tree branches bent sharply toward the ground and bounced back into place. The cobblestone path was littered with dead and shriveled leaves. It was this path that guided the way for two adventurers: a young woman named Aimes and her teddy bear Pawson. "What's that rustling sound?" Pawson asked, a quiver in his voice. He had been so careful to avoid stepping on the fallen leaves, but the subtle echo of crinkling continued to follow him through the woods. "It's just my diaper," Aimes scoffed, shaking her padded butt to make a point. Since Aimes wasn't wearing any pants, the rustling was loud enough for the little bear to hear. After all, he barely came up to her waist. "Oh..." Pawson would have blushed if his stuffing would allow it. "I swear, it's like you're scared of everything," Aimes said, stepping from one cobblestone to another like it was a game. She would sometimes criss-cross her steps just to make it interesting. "Fear is a survival instinct," Pawson said. "It protects us from danger." "Well I survive just fine," Aimes replied, "and I'm not afraid of anything." Pawson elected not to add that the only reason she survived half the time was because he had enough survival instinct for the both of them. Instead, he said: "Everyone is afraid of something." "Not me," Aimes said confidently. Pawson looked at her with skepticism, but a raindrop fell from an empty branch and onto his nose. "Oh great..." Pawson sighed. "Why are dark nights always stormy ones?" "C'mon," Aimes said, pulling Pawson by the paw. "I think I see a house up ahead." Sure enough, there was a house up ahead. A flash of lightning illuminated the leaning building, askew on its foundation, resembling a tower of blocks more than a suitable home. It was huge, with missing shingles, broken windows, and fallen shutters. Ivy grew across it like time itself was threatening to reclaim the wood and glass. Thunder sounded a moment later, rolling loudly across the overgrown lawn like pins at a bowling alley. There was a fence of warped and rusted metal surrounding the property with only one entrance: a creaking gate, swinging in the wind like a ball of yarn between a cat's paws. "Absolutely not," Pawson said sharply, turning on his heel, but Aimes was still holding him by the paw. "It's just a house, Pawson. You don't want to get wet, do you?" "I'll risk it." "Well I won't," Aimes said flatly. "I just changed, and I'm not wasting a good diaper." Aimes let go of Pawson and walked past the creaking gate toward the spooky house in the distance. With a groan, Pawson resigned and followed behind her. "I don't want to go into a haunted house," Pawson argued on the way to the house. "Do you know what a misnomer is, Pawson?" Aimes asked her best friend as she dragged him up the uneven cobblestone pathway and onto the front porch. He opened his fuzzy mouth to answer, but Aimes had already started to provide one. For a girl her age, time moved at a different rate to the rest of the world. "It's when someone thinks something is true because something else is true. Like, for example, this house is old and scary looking, and that's true. But it's a misnomer to think it's haunted just because of that." Confidently, Aimes raised her free hand to knock on the door, but as she did... the door opened on its own, with a loud crrrreeeeaaaak. "You were saying?" Pawson said sourly, still standing on the far side of the porch. "I say," Aimes said, "that the house is very inviting. Now stop being a scaredy bear." Aimes stepped into the dark house, and - with no better option - Pawson hurried after her. For Aimes, nothing was worth believing until she could see it with her own eyes. "That's what science is," she always said. The entryway opened up into a grand foyer, with a large staircase in front of them and doors on either side. The tile was dingy and dusty, like no one had cleaned it in years, and the nearby coatracks and sideboards were covered in cobwebs. "Hello?" Aimes called up the stairs. "Hello?" her voice echoed back, but quieter and further away. But before Aimes could ask the echo another question, the door behind Pawson slammed shut with a bang. "AH!" Pawson yelped. "It was just the wind, Pawson." Aimes rolled her eyes, taking her adventuring pack off her back. "Aren't you supposed to be the one that offers up all the rational explanations?" "I draw the line at creepy old houses," Pawson stammered, trembling as he shuffled toward Aimes. "There are some things I'm happier not knowing." "Like what? Ghosts?" Aimes was rummaging through her backpack for something. "For starters." Just then, in a flash of light, the shape of a ghost appeared on the far wall. "AGH!" Pawson nearly jumped out of his fur, stumbling clumsily over himself and landing flat on the dirty tile at Aimes' feet. "Oops," Aimes stifled a laugh, fumbling with the flashlight in her hands. She took off the little cap and the bright ghost shape on the wall turned into a plain circle. She had bought the spooky flashlight caps from a Halloween store in the last town; she forgot the ghost one was still fitted on the end. "You're doing this on purpose," Pawson said, still trying to catch his breath. "I swear, I'm not!" Aimes argued, still trying not to laugh. "Would you feel better if you held the light?" Pawson didn't answer right away. He stood back up and dusted himself off, then took the flashlight from Aimes. "Scaredy bear," Aimes teased. "We'll see," Pawson said sourly. There had to be something Aimes was afraid of. Chapter Two "Do you really think there's ghosts in here?" Aimes asked curiously, walking over to a nearby door and opening it up. It was a broom closet, and there were no ghosts inside. So she tried the next one. "Oh absolutely," Pawson encouraged, knowing full well that there was no such thing as ghosts. Lying to Aimes wasn’t a habit of his, but she had been teasing him all day. And besides, Aimes had to be afraid of something. Everyone was afraid of something! The sooner Aimes learned to set aside her pride, the safer she would be. As Aimes struggled with a locked cabinet, Pawson fiddled with the flashlight and leaned back against the wall, but he leaned too far and fell flat on his back with a yelp. That’s when he realized that he hadn't missed the wall: the wall moved. "Oh cool, Pawson!" Aimes said excitedly. "You found a secret passage! How'd you do that?" "Just lucky I guess." Or unlucky, Pawson thought, because he knew that Aimes would want to follow it. Sure enough... "Let's see what's in there," Aimes said, pushing past her friend and into the little hole that opened up in the wall. Pawson shined the flashlight ahead of Aimes. The passageway was a dark and empty corridor. It was low to the ground, like a crawlspace. Aimes quickly fell to her knees and made her way in. Pawson walked behind her diapered butt and his hat only barely grazed the beams above him. "Did you ever stop to think that we are breaking and entering?" Pawson asked. "This isn't our house." "Well, we didn't break anything," Aimes challenged. "The door opened all on its own. And we did announce ourselves." "I don't think shouting up the stairs is the same as announcing yourself," Pawson said, more to himself than to Aimes, who had reached the end of the corridor. "Shine the light over here," Aimes said. Her teddy bear did as he was told. The wall in front of Aimes looked different. Most of the tunnel was made of plaster and old wooden beams, but this wood was polished and pretty. Aimes took a moment to think about it, then pushed on the wall. With a soft scraping sound, it slid out of the way. When Aimes climbed out into the new room, she found that the thing she had pushed was the back of a bookshelf. Actually, the room was full of bookshelves! "It's a hidden library, Pawson! Look at all the books. There's soooo many, but I don’t see any doors out... oh! Oh! Maybe one of these leads to a secret passage." Aimes was giddy with excitement as she walked to one of the bookshelves and pulled down on one of the books. Nothing happened. At least, nothing happened that Aimes could see. High above her, on the upper shelves, books started to wiggle out of their places. Pawson flashed the light around the room just in time to see one of the books wiggling on the shelf above his companion. "Aimes, look out!" Pawson shoved Aimes out of the way just as a book fell off the shelf above her. "Woah, hey! What's that about?" Aimes asked, because the book didn't hit the floor. It spilled open, pages fluttering in the air, and swooped back toward the ceiling. Pawson pointed up at the high ceiling as another book - no, two... no, three... no, four! - fell off the shelves and started flying around the room. Every so often the books would dive down at Aimes or Pawson and they would duck out of the way. "Run!" Pawson said in a panic. "Where?" Aimes looked around the room, but there wasn't a way out. "Then hide!" Pawson said, dodging another book and ducking under the table in the middle of the room. A big book swooped down from the top shelf like a bird and Aimes stepped out of the way. She pressed her back against the bookshelves and watched the books flap their covers. "Aimes, get under here!" Pawson urged. "You're gonna get hurt!" "Hold on a sec," Aimes said to her friend, eyeing the books as they circled around the ceiling. "I've seen that before..." "Seen what?" Pawson asked, just as a book crashed to the ground in front of him. He shined the flashlight on it. "I dunno. That pattern." Aimes watched as the book on the floor took flight again, catching a glimpse of the cover in the otherwise dark library. A coloring book? "Aimes!" "One second!" Aimes was tapping her chin with her finger, working something out. She watched the books flying around, darting from one side of the library to the other. Then, like a little huntress, she waited for a book to get low enough to pounce on top of it. The book landed hard on the floor with an oof! sound and Aimes pinned it in place. "I got you!" Pawson looked on in awe, but he was shaken from his stupor when Aimes called: "C'mere, Pawson!" "Ugh!" Pawson crawled out from under the table and hurried over to her side. "Get the crayons out of my backpack, okay?" "Crayons?" Pawson asked. But before Aimes could explain, he was already climbing onto his friend's back and rummaging through her pack. The book thrashed, almost knocking Aimes off a handful of times, but she kept it pinned to the ground until Pawson handed her the box of crayons. "I need a black one," Aimes said. "The color is important?" Pawson asked. "Of course!" Another book swooped down and Pawson ducked out of the way. He opened up the box of crayons and found the black one in the light of the flashlight. Once he gave it to Aimes, she pulled open the pages of the coloring book and started to fill in the outline of a bat with black crayon. Within seconds, the book settled down. Actually, all the books flying overhead slowly lowered themselves into a pile on the nearby table. Aimes stuck out her tongue in thought, focusing hard to make the bat on the page look as bat-like as possible. "Wow..." Pawson was impressed. "How'd you figure that out?" "They were flapping around differently," Aimes told him. "I think some are birds and some are butterflies, but this one was definitely a bat. It was all over the place." Pawson couldn't argue with that logic, as much as he longed to. And boy did he long to. Instead Pawson said: "These coloring books must have been here for ages." "I bet they just wanted to be colored in," Aimes said. "I don't think coloring books have wants," Pawson said. Aimes rolled her eyes, gestured to the stack of coloring books, and said with sarcasm: "Clearly." Chapter Three "Well, while you do that, I'm gonna look for a way out of here." Pawson left Aimes' side to look at the books on the shelves. Every so often, he would have to return with the flashlight so Aimes could pick a new colored crayon. After a while, Pawson found one book in particular that was an unusual shade of red. It was also much thicker than the other books on the shelf. The title read: A Guide To Secret Passageways. "I might have found something," Pawson said. "I only have one book to go," Aimes called back. Pawson dragged the table from the center of the room over to the bookshelf with the red book. Standing on top of it, he could just barely tug on the spine. Sure enough, as he did so, the wall opened into a dark hallway. This one was person-sized. "I like when things make sense." Pawson let out a sigh of relief. “Aaaaand, done,” Aimes said, adding the final coloring book to the stack. She got up off the floor and slipped her box of crayons back into her pack. Then she made her way over to her teddy bear, standing in front of an impossibly dark hallway. Even the flashlight could hardly pierce the blackness. Pawson didn't want to go down that dark and spooky corridor, but there weren't many other options. Other than crawling back through the tunnel to the foyer, this was the only exit he could find. Aimes could have walked behind him, since Pawson had the flashlight, but she walked alongside him anyway. She didn't seem the least bit scared. "None of this gives you goosebumps?" Pawson asked, not knowing entirely what goosebumps felt like. "Not really," Aimes shrugged. "Everything in the dark is also there in the light, so what is there to be scared of?" "That's... a fair point." Actually, it put Pawson's mind at ease. At least, it did until he remembered neither of them had seen the haunted house in the daytime either. "I wonder where the owners are? It's such a big house, someone has to live here, right?" Aimes posited as the two of them walked down the corridor. Pawson thought about that question and offered: "Well, someone opened the front door." "Or it was a ghost," Aimes said flippantly, and it took every bit of willpower for Pawson not to correct her. For now, Pawson let her believe that was the case. The hallway eventually came to an end, and there was nowhere else to go. "Looks like we're going into one of these rooms," Aimes said with a chipper voice. It sounded like she had been waiting to say that since the moment they entered the hallway. She looked to Pawson for approval, who reluctantly nodded. Aimes picked the closest door and opened it. Inside was a long table and a dozen or so chairs. Pawson flashed the light over the room; the table was dressed in a white cloth, stained red in some spots. Plates were placed in front of each chair, and some of the empty goblets were tipped over. A large set of windows spanned one wall. Outside, the pattering of rain splashed against the unbroken panes, and the howling wind found its way in through the broken ones. Tree branches tapped and scratched against the windowsills. "Looks like they left before dinner was served," Aimes observed, running her finger along the fine silver spoons. They were caked in dust. "At least they’re not still here," Pawson said, adding a bit of spooky ambiance to the whole situation. "Could you imagine the smell? It might be worse than your morning di—" "Oh look!" Aimes cut Pawson off, pointing at a spot on the ceiling beside the chandelier. A drop of liquid fell down onto the tablecloth. Crimson spread over the white linen as the drop was soaked up. It seemed to be leaking. "It’s red?" Aimes asked inquisitively. "That's odd." If the color could have drained from the magenta teddy bear's face, it would have in that moment. Pawson watched another drop splat down onto the tablecloth, soaking into the fabric and leaving behind a slick gooey residue. Aimes climbed up onto the table to get a better look. Then the drops came down faster. Drip. Drip. Drip. Then in more than one spot, peppering the tablecloth in red puddles. Drip. Drip. Drip. Aimes was still standing on the table, looking up at the cracks in the ceiling where the heavy chandelier was pulling down on the woodwork. "Aimes!" Pawson clamored onto the table as best as his little bear arms would let him: first onto a chair, then onto the table. "Roofs don’t usually leak red stuff, Pawson." Aimes didn't seem fazed by this at all, but the fuzzy little bear was almost in hysterics. It was raining blood! Lightning struck something outside. The roar of thunder was paired with a loud crunching sound, and then the groan of something heavy. With a loud crash, the table shook and knocked Aimes, Pawson, and two place settings to the ground. Then the ceiling gave way and the chandelier crashed down just where Aimes was standing a moment ago. With it came a flood of red and glass. Once the dust began to settle, Pawson tried to catch his breath. Aimes rubbed her hip, crinkling the wing of her diaper. Everything was so still all of a sudden, and the whole room smelled of... Was it fruit? "Jeeze, that hurt..." Aimes said, climbing to her feet. She helped Pawson up next, then went to inspect the damage. There was a huge hole in the ceiling. Then her boot crunched down on a big heap of glass. She picked up the flashlight from the ground where Pawson had dropped it and shined the light on it. Amongst the shards was a label. Aimes had to tilt her head to read it. "Raspberry jelly?" Aimes read aloud. "I guess the pantry is above this room. That explains a lot." "...what do you mean raspberry jelly?" Pawson asked. There was no way that the bleeding ceiling could have been raspberry jelly! That was absurd! That was silly! That was... Pawson dipped his paw into the red and took a tentative sniff. That was absolutely correct. Pawson was shivering, coming down from a darn near panic attack, and Aimes wasn't even perturbed in the slightest! "Well, we should get going," Aimes said. She dusted off her bare thighs and headed to the other side of the dining room, where a door was waiting for them. Chapter Four Aimes led the way through the door in the dining room and into the next room. Pawson toddled after her as fast as his little legs would allow. They wandered through two sitting rooms before Aimes noticed a staircase along the far wall. "If there are any ghosts, they have to be upstairs, right?" Aimes asked. "I suppose..." Pawson was losing faith in his practical joke. The more they wandered through the haunted house, the less likely it seemed that Aimes could be scared of anything. But until the storm passed, it wasn't safe to go outside. "Then upstairs we go!" "Just be careful," Pawson said. "After all that raspberry jelly fell into the dining room, I don’t think the floors are very safe. This place should honestly be condemned." "Condemned?" Aimes asked. "I think everything deserves a second chance." "Not that kind of condemned," Pawson sighed. Regardless, Aimes went up the staircase two steps at a time. They creaked under her weight. Pawson shined the way with the flashlight and Aimes had to brush some cobwebs away on the upper landing. In front of them was another hallway, lit only by the flashlight and the occasional flash of lightning from the windows on the far end of the hall. "Eenie meenie miney mo..." Aimes sung to herself as she passed by the doors. Finally, she settled on one near the end of the halls and knocked politely before entering. "I don't think you need to knock, Aimes. I'm pretty sure there's nobody else here but us." Or at least Pawson hoped that was the case. "It’s only polite," Aimes said. "I would hate to walk in on someone changing." Though to Aimes, ‘walking in on someone changing’ had a different meaning. She waited a moment after the knock and opened the door. Inside was a nursery. The wallpaper was striped with little stencils of boats and planes, but it was already peeling off the walls in huge sheets. There was a painted-white wooden crib on the far wall by one of the only windows in the house that wasn't broken. Little bookshelves were decorated with toys. But most interestingly, shelves lined every single wall - about a foot from the ceiling - and they were filled with porcelain dolls. Pawson hesitated in the doorway, shining the flashlight everywhere Aimes went. She went to the changing table first and fished around under the tabletop. She turned back to Pawson and the smile had faded from her face. Just when Pawson began to worry something was truly wrong, she said: "Cloth diapers. Ew." Pawson put his paw to his face and groaned. Nothing was going to scare Aimes at this rate. Pawson slouched back, and for a moment he could have sworn one of the dolls’ heads moved to look at him. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, all his fur standing on end. "Aimes, I don't know about this place..." He stepped into the room to be closer to his companion, and when he did the door slammed shut behind him. He dropped his flashlight in surprise and turned to tug at the door. "It's probably just jammed," Aimes said calmly, walking back over to the light on the other end of the room to give Pawson the flashlight. As she took her own shot at opening the door, Pawson looked around the room nervously. The flashlight lit up the crib. The unbroken window. The changing table. The shelves and shelves of dolls. Except... two spots were empty. Weren't there dolls there before? "Aimes," Pawson hissed quietly. "Two of the dolls are missing." He pointed a paw, and Aimes looked up at the shelf and gasped. "Oh no... no no no, oh Pawson, don't you know what this means?" Finally! Pawson thought. She understands how much danger we're in! But then Aimes said: "It means the little kid who lived here never got to complete their collection!" Pawson groaned and turned to his friend: "No, they were there a moment ago!" When Pawson turned back, two dolls - no taller than Pawson himself - were standing side by side in the center of the room, both facing Aimes and Pawson. "AH!" Pawson stepped backwards into Aimes, trembling from head to toe. He held the flashlight tight with both hands, pointed right at the dolls, and refused to blink. If he looked away for even one moment, they might... "I bet they wanna play," Aimes said, stepping forward. She reached down and scooped up one of the dolls the same way she would scoop up Pawson. "Oh gosh, look at you. I bet you haven't had someone play with you in so very long! My name's Aimes, and I'm going to call you... Audrey." Aimes nodded her head happily and looked down at the other doll. "Your name can be… Staycee." "Aimes, I really don't think this is a good idea..." Pawson tried the handle again, fumbling to do so without looking away from his best friend. "Nonsense," Aimes dismissed, dusting off the dolls with her hands. "Imagine if you were stuck in a room all alone. You'd wanna play too." Pawson couldn't argue with that, but he kept the flashlight on the dolls all the same. Aimes went to a nearby shelf, grabbed an old tea set, and put it on the floor in the middle of the room. Then she situated the dolls so they were sitting, one on each side of her. "Come on, Pawson" Aimes urged, motioning to the empty spot across from her. "We saved you a seat." "You know, I just don't know if I'm in the mood for t-t-tea..." The bear stammered out, one bright paw held in front of his mouth nervously. Lightning flashed outside and it filled the room with white light for a moment; when it faded, both the dolls had their heads now turned to look directly at Pawson. "You're being very rude to our hosts," Aimes hissed across the tea set, pouring a cup of imaginary tea for each of the dolls. Pawson knew when he wasn't going to get anywhere with Aimes; sometimes she was just too headstrong. So with his eyes on the dolls, Pawson sat down on the floor across from Aimes. "Well let's hurry this up then." "More tea, Miss Staycee?" Aimes asked, then poured the empty teapot over one of the dolls' cups. "And for you, Sir Pawson?" "I'd be delighted," Pawson said, putting on a haughty voice and doing his best not to allow his trembling to impact the tone. Aimes tilted the teapot over his cup as well and he picked it up, sipping from the rim. After a few more cups of tea and a discussion about the difference between cookies and biscuits, a quiet creak interrupted the party. "Look Pawson, the door is open." Aimes pointed behind Pawson, and sure enough she was right. "That was spooky," Pawson muttered, letting out a sigh of relief. “I told you it was jammed," Aimes said, standing on her feet and picking the dolls up in her arms. She put each one back on the shelves in the empty spots. "Now that the house has settled, it opened up." "That doesn't make any sense at all..." The bear grumbled, with his arms crossed over his chest. "And yet the door is open," Aimes countered. "Let's just get out of here." Pawson picked up the flashlight and hurried to hold open the door, just in case it decided to close again. Aimes put the tea set away and followed Pawson back into the hall. Chapter Five The hallway had a few other doors, but Pawson wouldn't go into any of them. "I don't want to get stuck again," he said. "Fine," Aimes groaned. "But I think you're just being a scaredy bear." "I'm being practical." "Practically a scaredy bear," Aimes teased. At the end of the hall, there was a corner turn. It led to the foyer, at the top of the main set of stairs. "Oh, thank goodness," Pawson sighed. Even the thunder outside was becoming nothing more than a low rumble. He could hear the pattering of rain on the shingles above beginning to slow. "Look at this," Aimes said, walking down a short hallway to a pair of double doors. "This must be the master bedroom." "Or we could just sit by the front door and wait for the rain to stop," Pawson said. Aimes looked at him like he'd just spoken a foreign language that she didn't know, and then after a moment a big grin spread across her face. "Oh Pawson! You almost had me, there!" And with that, Aimes shoved open the double doors. Aimes was right: it was indeed a master bedroom. The decor was fancy and old, with beautiful wooden furniture covered in dust. The fabric on the bed was ridden with holes where bugs had nibbled away at the threads. On the far side was a huge window, looking out into the backyard. Aimes pranced over to it excitedly, floorboards creaking beneath her, but outside was so dark that it was hard to see. There wasn't even that much lightning anymore. Aimes turned around and met Pawson in the center of the bedroom, looking a little disappointed. "I guess I expected something more unusual," she said, tilting her head. "Um... Aimes..." Pawson said. "Coloring and playing tea party was really fun," Aimes went on. "Aimes?" Pawson's voice became a little more urgent. "But I thought there would be a ghost or something, at the very least." "AIMES!" Pawson was shaking head to toe. "Oh my goodness, what?" Pawson pointed at Aimes with his paw. No, he was pointing over Aimes' shoulder. She turned slowly, until she was face to face with a translucent person with sunken eyes and long wild hair. It leaned in close to her, floating above the ground, and Aimes felt a shiver run up her spine. "OOoooOOoo!" the ghost wailed. For a moment - a very brief moment - Aimes was speechless. Then she took a breath and shouted: "Cool! A real life ghost!" "Seriously?" Pawson asked in disbelief. He stomped forward until he was standing between Aimes and the ghost. "This isn't scary to you? Seriously?" "Not really," Aimes shrugged. "It's. A. GHOST!" Pawson shouted, his frustration boiling over. "It's terrifying!" "I am kind of terrifying," the ghost said, quiet and ethereal. "Sorry," Aimes shrugged, a little bashfully. "I just think ghosts are cool." "I give up," Pawson sighed. "I'm done. You're not scared of anything, okay? Are you happy?" "Hey now," Aimes softened her tone. "It's okay that you're scared and I'm not." "No it isn't!" Pawson shouted. He walked through the ghost toward the far window. "Being scared keeps you safe! If you can't be scared, how can I be sure you're safe?" "Pawson," Aimes sighed, following Pawson through the ghost. "Uh... boo?" the ghost tried again, having just had two people walk through them like they weren't even there. "We're trying to have a conversation," Pawson shouted at the ghost. "Go haunt someone else." "Wow. Okay, rude." The ghost drifted through the floor and vanished. "I don't need to be scared of stuff to be safe," Aimes said to her best friend, ignoring the ghost's departure. "I have you. You'll be scared for me." "You make fun of me for it," Pawson shot back. "I was teasing," Aimes argued, but... "But if it upsets you, I won't do it anymore. I never want to make you feel bad for who you are." They were both quiet for a moment. The silence was only broken when a loud crack rang throughout the house. Suddenly, the floor tilted and Aimes fell flat on her diapered butt. Pawson tumbled backwards and fell into the big glass window. The floorboards between them cracked and split and the panes of glass shattered around Pawson. "PAWSON!" Aimes dashed to her feet and sprinted across the length of the room, jumping over the broken floorboards. She reached out and grabbed Pawson's paw just as the window gave way and crashed down into the backyard. The floor collapsed under Aimes' feet and she fell onto her stomach, holding Pawson out the two-story window. "Don't let go!" Aimes shouted, but Pawson could hardly hear her over the cracking and snapping of wood as the back of the house began to crumble down around them. She inched herself forward until she could see Pawson's face, looking up at her in fear. "The whole house is coming down!" Pawson shouted. Just then, another crack lilted the house to the left and both of them slid to the corner of the window frame. Pawson was almost touching the ground at that point, so he kicked his feet against the house and pulled on Aimes' wrist. She tumbled out after him, and they both crashed into the soft, wet grass. "Ow..." Aimes rubbed her shoulder and looked down at Pawson, who was wet and ragged. Another cracking sound brought Aimes back to the urgency of the situation. She scooped her companion up in her arms and ran down the hill just as the debris of the house came crumbling down around her. She tripped over something invisible, dropped her friend, and fell forward until she reached the bottom of the hill. At the bottom of the hill, everything was still. The rain had stopped, but everything was dark and wet. A few feet away, Aimes could see the light of the flashlight, having tumbled down the hill after them. She reached for it and flashed the light around. "Pawson?" Aimes said, fear in her voice. She shined the flashlight up the hill, at the mound of old wood, but no sign of her purple teddy bear. She shouted louder: "Hey, Pawson? Where are you?" Aimes waved the flashlight, pointing the light at everything around her. Her eyes were wide and her movements twitchy and erratic. "Pawson! Pawson! Where are you? Pawson...? Oh oh oh!" The light glazed over something that caught her attention in the mud; the top curves of a very familiar looking hat. Pawson's hat! She dropped to her hands and knees in the mud and grasped at the hat, but when she lifted it up... there was nothing beneath it. No Pawson. Not even a sign of Pawson. The rain might have stopped, but nothing could have kept Aimes’ cheeks dry in that very moment. "No no no, pretty please no..." The storm had passed, and the house was gone, and the only noise was that of Aimes sobbing quietly to herself. Quietly, but perhaps loud enough that she didn't hear the soft plush footsteps approach. "That was a disaster," Pawson muttered, stumbling into view. He fell back on his butt and rubbed the side of his head. His fur was covered in mud. Then he looked up at Aimes with tears in her eyes. "What?" he asked. "Pawson, you're okay!" Aimes sprang forward and hugged her muddy teddy bear tight against her chest. "I was so scared you were hurt or something!" "You were scared?" Pawson asked incredulously, trying to get out of her embrace. When she finally let him go, she looked at him a little dumbfounded. "I guess I was," she admitted. "I was scared I'd lost you." Pawson was quiet for a moment, then he took his hat back from his companion and put it back on his head. "Scaredy bear," he teased. "I sure am," Aimes laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. "I told you that house was dangerous," Pawson said, using his stern voice. "I should have listened," Aimes agreed. "I guess I was so sure nothing bad could happen to me that I didn't think about what bad things might happen to you." "Well, I guess I'm so worried about what bad things might happen to you," Pawson said, "that I don't think about what good things might happen to me." Aimes got to her feet and handed Pawson his flashlight. He got to his feet and took it. "I'll be more thoughtful from now on," Aimes promised. "No, that's alright," Pawson smiled. "I never want to make you feel bad for who you are." "Well, I think we make a pretty good team." "Yeah, me too," Pawson agreed. Then he looked around the empty wood. It was the middle of the night and they had nowhere to go. "So what now?" "We should find somewhere to set up camp," Aimes insisted. "I could really use a diaper change." "I bet," Pawson laughed. With the the haunted remains of the haunted house on the haunted hill behind them, Aimes and Pawson ventured into the woods hand in hand. [End.]

Aimes & Pawson Dive In Written by Sophie & Pudding Art & Characters by JuiceBox Aimes & Pawson is an ageplay children’s picture book intended for adult audiences. You can buy the full version with pictures on Amazon or by joining our SubscribeStar. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXN7J86C https://www.subscribestar.adult/sophieandpudding Our goal was to create a book for story time or bedtime, with no sexual themes and maximum Little feels! Some of the words can be quite big - upwards of 10 letters long! - so you may need an adult to read it for you. This story takes place in the summer, when Aimes and her teddy bear Pawson go to the pool. ------------------------------ Chapter One Of all the quiet, charming towns in the world, none were quite as quiet and charming as Kingston. It was the kind of town where one would walk through and decide to live there forever. But Kingston was not a town of adventure. That was why the young woman named Aimes and her teddy bear named Pawson only planned to stay there for a few days. The summer heat in Kingston made everyone lazy. The only place in the whole town with any excitement was the public pool. Aimes thought a public pool couldn't possibly be very exciting, but for once Pawson's insistence had paid off. "There's nothing else to do until your shirt is fixed," the magenta teddy bear reminded his friend. "Or you could buy a new one." "I don't want a new one," Aimes pouted. "That one is durable and easy to wash. And it's so short that it doesn't get in the way during diaper changes." "Then we're going to the pool," Pawson concluded. Though his companion was always eager for the next adventure, Pawson appreciated slow moments like this, where he could relax poolside. How much trouble could Aimes get into at a public pool? Pawson thought. Aimes had some bad experiences with public pools. She once wore an ordinary diaper into the water and it ballooned up like a beach ball. She’d had to waddle all the way home to get changed. Another time, she thought she didn’t need a diaper. The water around her had turned purple and the pool staff had to drain the pool. This time, however, Aimes was wearing a swim diaper and a one-piece bathing suit, with frills on the shoulders. Her arms were dressed in big inflatable water wings, though she knew how to swim just fine. It was Pawson's idea, something to keep her out of trouble. Aimes also had with her a little bag of pool toys: a toy boat, a squirt gun, and a set of underwater crayons. As Aimes told Pawson: "You never know when you'll need to write something underwater." Pawson wore his usual hat to keep the sun out of his eyes and that was it. Teddy bears didn't need to worry about modesty the way young women did. The public pool was quite large, but it wasn't very crowded. A handful of people were swimming about in the water, but most of them were sitting in lounge chairs. Umbrellas shaded them from the sun and many side-tables had glasses of lemonade placed upon them. There was a diorama of underwater life along the far wall, complete with hand-painted manta rays, jellyfish, kelp, and even a little goldfish bowl. It looked like a community project. Before Pawson could find a place to sit, Aimes leapt into the air over the pool and curled herself into a ball. She crashed into the water, splashing Pawson. When Aimes surfaced, Pawson stared down at her from the side of the pool, dripping wet. "You could have warned me," Pawson huffed. "The sign says no yelling," Aimes grinned, pointing at the sign on the wall by the pool. No Running No Yelling No Diving "It also says No Diving," Pawson reminded her, wringing out one of his paws with the other. Aimes flashed him a cheeky smile. "Jumping isn’t diving," she said. "Diving is when you explore the bottom of the ocean. It’s when you look for shipwrecks and lost treasure. I don’t think there’s any of that here, and that’s why they say No Diving: because it lets you know that there’s nothing down there." Then Aimes put her finger to her chin in thought. "Although… that is what someone would say if they were trying to hide something…" "I'm going to find a place to sit down," Pawson muttered, heading over to the lounge chairs. Aimes shrugged her shoulders and reached up onto the side of the pool to get a toy from her bag: the little toy boat. For a while, Aimes was content to swim and splash and play. The water wings kept her afloat, so she didn't have to focus on anything but her toys. She made up a story where the boat was full of criminals, trying to escape from the law. But the criminals were actually the good guys, and they were trying to steal an ancient treasure to give it back to the original owners. She sped around the water, dodging obstacles and other swimmers. Then, just as the criminals were about to get away, the boat slipped out of Aimes' hand and headed straight for the wall of the pool. "Oh no," Aimes said out loud, trying to swim fast enough to catch up to it, but the water wings slowed her down. Then, just before the criminals crashed into the wall, a flicker of light appeared beneath the boat and a small wave steered it away. Another wave made the boat turn again, right into the filter: the escape route. Aimes watched in awe as the criminals escaped with the treasure, knowing that they would soon return it to its rightful owners. She swam over to the filter to collect the toy boat. It was like the boat had been steering itself! "How peculiar," Aimes whispered under her breath, then she looked over her shoulder where Pawson was sunbathing in one of those banana lounge chairs. She yelled, which she wasn’t supposed to do. "Pawson!" The pool wasn’t all that busy and crowded, but Pawson didn’t respond. Aimes puffed out her cheeks and splashed the water in frustration. Then Aimes noticed that sign again: No Diving. She looked down through the bluish water. Aimes was a great adventurer: she knew how to climb trees and scale rocks. She could swim and jump and run really fast. Something as easy as seeing underwater was natural to her. She took a deep breath and pushed her face into the pool, looking down at the bottom. There was a shallow end with tiled floor on one end of the pool, but as the slant of the floor went deeper down, the water began to get murky. Soon, she wasn't able to see the bottom of the pool at all. Then, in the foggy water, she saw another glimmer, like a glare off of something shiny. Aimes tried to swim down toward it, but the water wings kept her afloat. With a huff, she pulled her head out of the water and brushed her hair from her face. There was something down there alright! Aimes made her way over to the ladder and climbed out of the pool. Her swim diaper, full of water, sagged heavily between her legs. It forced her to waddle over to where Pawson was sitting. "There's something in the pool. A fish or something." "Fish don't live in pools, Aimes," Pawson said dismissively. "This one does. I saw it. It steered my boat and everything." Aimes had an active imagination, but Pawson knew better than to call her a liar. He sat up on the lounge chair and looked at the pool. "Help me take these water wings off," Aimes said, tugging at the inflatable plastic triangles. "We're going after it." "Well," Pawson said to himself, "at least I had an hour of relaxation. That was more than I expected." Chapter Two "Are you sure about this, Aimes?" The two of them were standing by the water’s edge, and Aimes had her water wings removed. Pawson had pulled down a set of swimming goggles with a loosely fitting snorkel over his face. "A hundred percent," Aimes said. "Think about what we might find! A sea monster? Or a sunken pirate ship?" "It’s probably lost change," Pawson said under his breath. Pawson's goggles and snorkel were merely decorative. Since he was a teddy bear, he didn't need to breathe. Aimes, on the other hand, still had to worry about getting oxygen. After getting into the water and trying to swim down as far as she could, she still couldn't see the bottom of the pool. She had to resurface for air. "That's a lot deeper than any pool I've ever seen," Pawson said, pulling the snorkel out of his mouth. Aimes was too lost in thought to congratulate herself. She was tapping on her chin, trying to think of a way to breathe underwater. In books, they had suits that were full of air, but Aimes didn't know where she could get one of those on short notice. Then again, why did she need a whole suit of air? She just needed one of those big helmets. "One sec," she told Pawson, climbing out of the pool once again. She waddled her way over to the ocean life diorama. There was a large glass fishbowl with a little paper fish inside, standing on a stick. Aimes took the bowl and tipped it upside down, spilling the colorful rocks and the paper fish all over the deck of the pool. A few people in lounge chairs looked at her from behind their sunglasses. "I'll return it when I'm done," Aimes assured them. Pawson, still in the pool, sunk down shyly so that the only thing anyone could see was his hat. Aimes grabbed an elastic string off one of the jellyfish. It was sticky at the ends, so she stuck both sides across the top of the fish bowl. She took her new contraption with her back to the pool and slid into the water next to Pawson. "What are you doing?" Pawson muttered, somewhere between embarrassed and annoyed. "Making a diving helmet," Aimes said. "You see, air always goes up. So if I put the bowl in the water upside-down, it will stay in the bowl. As long as the bowl stays upside down, the air won't go anywhere." Aimes demonstrated by pulling the bowl over her head and tucking the elastic string beneath her chin. "You look ridiculous," Pawson said. "It'll work," Aimes assured him. And sure enough, when Aimes went underwater, the fishbowl was still full of air. It floated upward, but the elastic string held it in place over Aimes' head. As a final thought, Aimes grabbed her underwater crayons, which she tucked into the side of her one-piece bathing suit. Aimes & Pawson began swimming down into the deepest depths of the public pool. The sun flickered through the surface of the water, shining down in long, bright rays. But the deeper the two of them dove, the fewer sunrays came along with them. Soon, the surface seemed miles away, so far above them that it was almost like nighttime: muted and blue. The tiled walls of the public pool started to look a lot more like rocks, decorated in colorful algae. As the light of the sun faded away, the algae glowed softly and lit up the path beneath them. Aimes grabbed a crayon out of her swimsuit and drew a big arrow on one of the rocks in a brightly-lit spot. Pawson muttered something behind his snorkel. When he realized Aimes couldn't understand him, he motioned at the arrow on the wall. "In case we get lost," Aimes said. She could speak inside the fish bowl, but her voice was muffled by the water. Pawson had to listen closely to hear her. Aimes drew a few more arrows as they went further down — little signposts in case she needed to find her way back to the surface — until Pawson caught sight of a glint in the distance. It seemed to be going sideways rather than down. He tugged on Aimes' swimsuit and pointed. "I think that's it," Aimes confirmed. She and Pawson swam toward it, into a little cave. Aimes stopped to draw another arrow and the pair continued onward. Inside the cave, things were a lot brighter. The bioluminescent algae was more abundant and the water was full of little sparkling bits that reflected the light. A fish swam into view, and then another. Each one passed by Aimes and Pawson in sequence, but something looked odd about them. They didn't shimmer, and they didn't have scales. When another fish swam by, Aimes reached out and cupped it in her hand. It looked like it was made of plastic or rubber, and when she tickled its belly little bubbles spilled out of a hole where its mouth would be. The fish quickly swam away. "They're like bath toys," Aimes said excitedly. She always wondered where her fish toys came from!" Pawson tugged again on Aimes' swimsuit and pointed forward. There was a bright light at the end of the cave. Aimes drew another arrow in crayon and followed Pawson toward it. When Aimes and Pawson got to the end of the cave, it was a sight to behold. High above, sunbeams bent through large holes in the cave, casting a glittering magical light over the sandy ocean floor. There were a few plastic boats - not unlike Aimes' own toy boat - but these ones were much bigger and broken into pieces. But the most impressive sight of all was the massive underwater city made of glittering coral and shells. It seemed to go on for miles! Then, just as Aimes and Pawson thought they couldn't be more in awe, a glint from a scale caught the light. Swimming out of the underwater city was a woman with long blue hair and a long shimmering tail. Aimes and Pawson had found a mermaid. Chapter Three Although Aimes was no stranger to adventure, and although she’d seen many fantastical things exploring the world, she had never seen a mermaid before. She had so many questions, so many things she needed to know. Taking Pawson by the paw, as though he might not swim fast enough, Aimes began to swim toward the underwater city. "I can’t believe it," Aimes said, her voice muffled through the weight of the water. She was taking advantage of the fact that Pawson couldn’t interrupt her flights of fancy. "A real live mermaid! I can’t wait to ask her name and her favorite food and… do you think I can touch her tail? Is that taboo? Oh Pawson, this is amazing! And that city, it could be a lost city! Like Atlantis!" Pawson cocked an eyebrow and looked at Aimes with deep skepticism. Atlantis was a legendary city that was lost in the ocean a long time ago. It didn't make any sense for it to be under a public pool in Kingston, one of the most quiet and charming places in the world. Then again, Pawson knew that even if he could argue such a thing, Aimes would say: "But isn't that the best place to lose it? No one would ever look there." Aimes and Pawson swam until the two had made their way to the front of the city. It was then that Pawson was glad he couldn't speak his mind only a moment before, because Aimes would never let him live it down. The archway in front of the city gate read: "Welcome to Atlantis!" Before Aimes could get out a smarmy comment, the mermaid - the one with blue hair - noticed the pair and swam over to them with incredible speed. "Hello!" the mermaid said cheerfully. She sounded crystal clear in the water, like she had been speaking in water her entire life. "Hi," Aimes said with a wave. Her voice was muffled but the mermaid seemed to understand well enough. "My name is Aimes, and this is my best friend Pawson." She motioned to the little bear, who predictably kept his distance. Pawson was always overly cautious; someone had to be. "It’s nice to meet you both," the mermaid said. "I’m Verdana." "It’s very nice to meet you, Verdana!" Aimes replied. "Your city looks gorgeous, and your hair and your tail… everything, actually." "Why, thank you!" Verdana said with a gleeful smile. "Would you like me to show you around the city?" Pawson shook his head, but Aimes nodded hers. They both knew who was going to get their way. Verdana swam much faster than Aimes and much much faster than Pawson. After doubling back a few times, she took Aimes by the hand. "This will be a lot faster," she said. "Hold on." Aimes took Pawson's paw and Verdana sped through the city. The buildings went by in a blur, streaks of beautiful glimmering color. Other mermaids watched in awe, but they were going too fast for Aimes or Pawson to get a good look at them. Pawson had only one paw free, so when the snorkel and goggles flew off his face, he chose to hold onto his hat instead. Finally, Verdana stopped in the heart of the city, where coral buildings towered all around them. In the center of the plaza was a huge fountain, spilling bubbles out of the top. Dozens of mermaids had stopped to see the newcomers. "Look Pawson!" Aimes said. "There are boy mermaids! Or, uh... mermen!" Pawson was still trying to get his bearings. Now that his goggles were gone, it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the shimmering water. But when they did, sure enough, some of the mermaids looked a lot more masculine than Verdana. "Mermen?" Verdana asked, tilting her head. "Like, mermaids," Aimes explained, "but not maids, because that's usually a girl word." "Mermaid isn't a girl word here," Verdana explained. "It's just who we are." "That makes sense," Aimes agreed. "Sorry, humans can be very..." "Assumptive," Pawson finished, who had a lot of experience being misgendered. Most strangers saw a magenta teddy bear and assumed he was a girl. Aimes was always quick to correct them. "Oh hey, you can talk!" Aimes cheered. Their words were still muffled by the water, but it felt like the water in Atlantis let more sound through. "Well, I didn't exactly need my snorkel," Pawson explained, fixing his hat. "It just makes me more comfortable thinking I have air, and you aren’t the only one who can play pretend." Verdana perked up at the mention of air. "If you want air, then you should go to the pool," she said. "But we just got here," Aimes whined. "I don't want to leave!" "No no," Verdana said. "The pool is in the city. It's very nice, and you'll be more comfortable there." Aimes and Pawson exchanged looks. Another pool? What good would more water do them? But if Verdana thought they would be more comfortable, then maybe it was worth a try. "This is the quickest way to get to the pool," Verdana said, leading the way down an alley way. "I used to go this way when I was a little tadpole. Come on!" Aimes made mental note that baby mermaids were called tadpoles, then her and Pawson followed Verdana. The paths between buildings weren’t very straight, but the layout was fluid and kinetic. The walls of the buildings were curved and bendy, usually made from large shells or reefs of coral, which let water flow quickly between them and made for fast turns in the currents. At the end of the alleyway, which led out onto another street, Verdana waited with a smile. "The pool is just across the street," she said. "We’re almost there!" Sure enough, in the center of an underwater coral park, there was a massive seashell low to the ground. It was the kind of seashell you imagine when you think of seashells, but this one was much bigger. It was lying horizontally so that you could swim up into it. Verdana did just that, with Aimes and Pawson close behind, until all three of them broke through the surface of the water. Inside the shell was a huge pocket of air. It looked like a beach, but the sky was pink like a summer sunset. Aimes gawked at the mermaids sunbathing on rocks and curled up on the coastline. Pawson gawked at the mermaids resting on floaties, the kind that humans would normally use in a pool. "Oh wowzers…" Aimes said in awe. When Verdana had talked about a pool in the center of town, she certainly hadn’t expected to find this. To humans, a pool meant a big area of water for recreation. To mermaids, it meant a big area of air for the same thing. Aimes and Pawson swam to the shore and climbed out of the water. Pawson glumly shook out his very soggy fur as Aimes squeezed her thighs together, causing a torrent of water to gush from her swim diaper. She took off her diving helmet and looked around in a whole bunch of awe. "Verdana this is so cool! I didn’t know mermaids liked stuff like this." To be fair, until a few minutes ago Aimes didn’t know anything about mermaids at all. "We see a lot of humans relaxing by the water, so we started to do the same thing," Verdana explained. "It's very pleasant." "It's pleasant for humans too," Aimes said. And then, almost as an afterthought: "You don't have any diapers, do you? I would love to change..." "Of course," Verdana said brightly, still only half-out of the water. The fabric of her top - a slimming halter - was soaked through. All the mermaids seemed to wear clothes on the top half, by Pawson's observation, though the ones sunbathing had their shirts wadded up beside them on the rocks. "You should find a changing station behind that ridge." "Thank you!" Aimes and Pawson waddled down the beach, each trying to dry themselves off in their own ways. Pawson kept trying to wring the water out of his hands and Aimes kept tugging at the leg band of her swim diaper. Eventually, the two of them found a part of the seashell that acted like a privacy screen. There were thick cloth diapers stocking a nearby table. The whole changing room was full of water up to Aimes' knees, but she had changed a diaper standing up before. "I'll wait outside," Pawson said, going to stand guard at the front of the changing room. After five or so minutes of waiting, Aimes stuck her head around the corner. "You know... I might not have thought this through." "What do you mean?" Pawson asked. Aimes stepped out from behind the privacy screen to show Pawson what she meant. Her one-piece swimsuit was unsnapped at the crotch, pulled up to her stomach, and around her hips was... well, it wasn't really a diaper. It looked like a thick towel that was stuck together in the front with two large baby pins. There was no protection between her legs because... "Mermaids don't have legs," Aimes sulked. Pawson burst out laughing. His companion looked more like she was wearing a cloth mini skirt than a diaper. Aimes blushed and crossed her arms. "Hey, you didn't think about it either!" Aimes challenged, and she was right. With everything else going on, Pawson didn’t even think about how a mermaid wore a diaper. But he still couldn't stop laughing, and eventually Aimes couldn't help but laugh along with him. Chapter Four The cloth diaper the mermaids used was stretchy enough to pull up between her legs. Pawson helped pin it in place with an extra set of baby pins. It wasn’t a very secure diaper, but Aimes knew she didn’t have much of a choice. When Pawson was done, Aimes snapped up her swimsuit and shuffled side to side. "It is comfortable," Aimes said. "It’s unlike anything I’ve ever worn, that’s for sure." "I wonder where they get their clothes," Pawson thought out loud. "But we should be getting back. We’ve been gone a while." The two adventurers hurried back to the edge of the beach, where Verdana was waiting for them. "You have such a beautiful home," Aimes said, sitting in the wet sand and dipping her feet in the still water. Verdana was still halfway up the shore splashing her tail lightly in the shallows. "Thank you," Verdana said. "It's a shame we don't have more visitors." "You want more visitors?" Pawson asked. "Why would you want that?" "It gets boring after a while," Verdana answered. "Sometimes I go up to the pool and move a toy around in the water. Sometimes I bring things back here for others to play with." She motioned at the half-dozen inflatables on the water’s surface. "Why don't you talk to the people at the pool?" Aimes asked. "They would love to see a real mermaid." "I'm... quite shy," Verdana admitted, blushing a little. "Many mermaids are. Haven't you noticed not many mermaids have spoken to you since you got here?" Aimes and Pawson both looked at each other. They hadn't noticed, but it was true. Some would wave and smile, but none other than Verdana had approached. "So we'll tell people where to find you," Aimes said confidently. "No one would believe us," Pawson said. "Atlantis is kind of a myth to humans." "Well it's hard to find an underwater city in the public pool of a quiet, charming town," Aimes argued. "It's quite literally the last place anyone would look." "Well you found it," Verdana said. "On accident," Pawson corrected. "Well, no." Aimes tapped her finger to her chin. "I found it because of that sign. It said No Diving, and I thought maybe it was trying to hide something from me." "Only you would think that," Pawson laughed. "Hey, I was right! And maybe if the sign said Atlantis..." Aimes paused for a moment and grinned. “You know, if we made a big sign for Atlantis, I bet people would check it out! Other people always listen to signs!" "We have some big lengths of cloth at the Tailers?" Verdana offered helpfully. "That's a good start," Aimes said. "What about markers?" "Ummm..." Verdana seemed stumped by the word. "I have water crayons," Aimes thought aloud, but quickly shook her head. "I couldn’t make a very big sign with them though." "On land, we usually use paint to make signs," Pawson said. "Oh! Yes!" Aimes excitedly kicked her feet in the shallows. "Watercolors!" "I think you mean colors," Verdana said with a smile. "We have those." Pawson had only just finished drying off when Aimes pulled on her fishbowl helmet and took him by the paw. She pulled him into the water and followed Verdana out of the pool and toward the Tailers. Amies and Pawson were both curious about the clothes worn by the mermaids. It looked like a light cotton with a satin-like shine. When they arrived at the Tailers, they realized why. Dozens of mermaids were having their tails cleaned by other mermaids, who were taking thin strings out of their scales and setting them aside. "When we swim around," Verdana explained, "we catch these little fibers on our tails from some of the local plants. We come here to get our tails cleaned and they use the fibers to make cloth. If you go too long without getting your tail cleaned, swimming feels a lot harder." Aimes was positively beaming. She wished she had a tail in that moment, not only so her diaper would fit properly, but also so she could get her tail cleaned. "Once we get the fibers," Verdana went on, "the cleaners put them in those funnels there. They go through a little vortex and create strings. Then we use those strings to weave cloth. "That is the coolest thing I've ever heard," Aimes said in awe. "Do they make banners? We need the biggest one so it can’t get lost, since a lot of stuff gets lost around here." "Well, let's see if we can get a sheet of cloth," Verdana said. She swam down toward the bottom of the building where a few other mermaids were weaving strings together into cloth. Some of them were doing it upside down, and some were doing it sideways. No matter how Aimes tried to orient herself, her helmet made sure she stayed right-side-up. "Excuse me," Aimes asked, waving to one of the mermaids. "Oh... hi..." The mermaid looked more masculine than Verdana and he spoke timidly. "No need to be shy," Aimes said brightly, which probably didn't make the mermaid feel any better. "We were wondering, what is the biggest cloth you have?" "Um..." The mermaid thought about it for a moment. "We have a full sheet no one has claimed, if you want it." "We do!" Aimes didn't know how big a full sheet was, but nor did she care. She would make it work. The mermaid swam a ways away and came back a moment later with a folded cloth. Aimes took it from the mermaid with a bright smile. "Thank you!" "You're welcome..." The mermaid went back to work and Aimes went back to her project. "Good job," Pawson congratulated, when Aimes returned with the cloth in her hands. It felt like it was soaking wet, even underwater. "Now for the colors," Verdana said, leading her charges to the edge of the city, toward the botanical garden. "Swimming is a lot more work than walking," Pawson lamented, but Aimes waved her hand dismissively. "That can't be true," Aimes said, "because we weigh less underwater." The bear sighed and muttered to himself: "That’s easy for you to say; you’re not waterlogged." The water muffled Pawson’s complaint and Aimes never heard it. But even if she had, she would have been too distracted by the sight of the botanical gardens to say anything. A whole city block was full of colorful plants and flowers. Chapter Five Underwater vegetation sure was different than land vegetation. Everything was very floaty and twisty, unbound by something as silly as gravity. On top of that, the gardens always aimed to get the most unique and colorful flora from the area. One of the flowers was taller than Aimes and it seemed to sway in the currents. Aimes watched the plant dance to unheard music, lulling her ever closer, until Verdana pulled Aimes away. "You don't want to touch that one," Verdana urged. "Or you might need another diaper change." "Oh..." Aimes blushed a little, feeling a little silly. When she noticed Pawson smiling, she stuck out her tongue at him. "Come on, this way." Verdana led the way toward a series of heavy looking boxes. She opened one up like it was a treasure chest and pulled out a handful of colored pearls. "Are those the colors?" Pawson asked. "How do you use them?" Aimes asked, a much more pressing question. "They are concentrated from some of the local flora," Verdana explained. "The surface of these pearls is permeable, so you can put your finger in and take it out again without breaking the seal. Then you draw with the color." "That's incredible!" Aimes said, grabbing for the pearls. "Ah, ah," Verdana laughed. "We should do this outside the city. Colors get everywhere." "Especially with Aimes painting," Pawson added. "I'm an excellent painter," Aimes said, "especially with my fingers!" With the cloth and the colors, Verdana led Aimes and Pawson back to the front of the city. She couldn't pull them along this time, and by the time Aimes saw the city gate, she was starting to understand what Pawson meant about swimming taking a lot of energy. It was exhausting! "Is swimming easier with a tail?" Pawson asked Verdana. "I don’t know," the mermaid said, laughing a little, "I’ve never swam without a tail." "That does make me feel foolish for asking." "Don’t feel silly! It’s a good question!" "Is here good enough?" Aimes asked impatiently. "A little further," Verdana insisted. The three of them went past the entrance to Atlantis and stopped near the ocean floor. Aimes put her bare feet in the sand, but it was hard to keep from floating upward. Verdana unfolded the cloth. It was maybe six or seven feet long and two or three feet tall. It was a good size for a banner. Verdana taught Aimes and Pawson how to paint with the colors. The banner would float in the water no matter what they did, so it was important to float along with it. If they dipped their finger in a color, they could paint with that color. The colors liked to run, because the whole banner was wet, but they could draw lines by rubbing the pearl on the fabric like a crayon. It took Aimes and Pawson a long time to learn the tricks, and they still weren't very good at them. But each time they dipped a finger - or paw - into a pearl, it left a little splash of color in the water. Eventually those colors started to grow into wispy clouds, coloring the whole fabric in whirls of faded pastels. When the banner was complete, it was shimmery and magnificent, like no other banner in the world. Aimes loved to learn things: she loved learning how to climb rocks, she loved learning how to count to a million, she loved learning how to travel through time, and she loved learning how to finger paint with Atlantian watercolors with her new mermaid friend. But like all good things, this adventure - just as all of Aimes and Pawson’s other adventures - had to come to an end. "I’m going to hang this up," Aimes said to Verdana, "and you’ll get lots more visitors! I know you’re all very shy but do your best, okay?" Verdana nodded nervously, and Aimes swallowed her sadness. Goodbyes were always the worst part of making new friends. "I’m gonna miss you," Aimes said. "But we’ll come back to visit." "We will," Pawson said in agreement. "Thank you for showing us around your home." "Thank you for visiting," the blue-haired mermaid said with a smile. "I will miss you both." Then, as an afterthought, Verdana asked: "Are you sure you don't want a ride to the pool? It's a confusing path." "We can do it," Aimes said confidently. "I left arrows to mark the way back." "Alright then." Verdana waved. "Goodbye Aimes and Pawson." "Goodbye Verdana," they both said in unison, and started swimming up toward the surface. Aimes' arrows proved to be a good idea, but halfway through the cave she started to regret not asking for a lift. She didn't have the same mobility with the banner under her arm, and Pawson was struggling with a lot of upward swimming. "Almost there," Pawson encouraged, noticing the exhaustion in his companion. "It feels like forever," Aimes whined. The two of them were using the rocks to help them move, jumping from one end of the cave to the other. The strap under Aimes' chin was starting to chafe and Pawson's paws kept slipping off the rocks. "Almost there," Pawson said again, a few minutes later. "I don't even see the light yet," Aimes complained. The glowing algae that had been so pretty on the way up was dim and sleepy now. Both of them felt like the could lull off to sleep at any moment, but falling asleep underwater was never a good idea. That’s Adventuring 101. "Almost there," Pawson said once more, and just as he did, both of them broke the surface of the pool. There was no light to follow because there was no light out: the sun had gone down and the sky was growing crowded with stars. Aimes crawled to the ladder and managed to pull herself up onto the deck. She collapsed on her back, soaking the cold concrete. Under the full effect of gravity, she struggled to move her arms and legs. Pawson sat at her side and patted Aimes on the arm for support. He tried to wring out his hands, but he was as waterlogged as Aimes' diaper. "Do you think the mermaids come here at night to look at the stars?" Aimes asked. They were pretty tonight. "I would if I were them," Pawson said. "I can't believe we met a mermaid," Aimes laughed. "I can't believe we found Atlantis," Pawson laughed. "I'm glad we did though," Aimes said. "I'm glad too," Pawson said. "I can always count on you to lead me to another adventure." It was a long while before either of them felt capable of doing anything, but all that ended when Aimes spoke. "One more thing to do," she said. She didn't want to move, but she made a promise. Aimes returned the fish bowl to the diorama and strung up the banner over the top of it. No matter how much time seemed to go by, the fabric of the banner always felt a little bit wet. Before leaving the public pool, Aimes and Pawson stood in the entryway and looked up at the banner, shimmering in the moonlight above the ocean life diorama. On the magnificent fabric was a rather juvenile painting of a mermaid with blue hair, a messy cityscape, and some splotchy colorful words: "Atlantis!!! Yes Diving". The three exclamation points were Aimes' idea. [End.]

Aimes & Pawson Pass the Time Written by Sophie & Pudding Art & Characters by JuiceBox Aimes & Pawson is an ageplay children’s picture book intended for adult audiences. You can buy the full version with pictures on Amazon or by joining our SubscribeStar. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BXN7J86C https://www.subscribestar.adult/sophieandpudding Our goal was to create a book for story time or bedtime, with no sexual themes and maximum Little feels! Some of the words can be quite big - upwards of 10 letters long! - so you may need an adult to read it for you. This story takes place in the spring, when Aimes and her teddy bear Pawson are stymied by the rain. ------------------------------ Chapter One Deep in a faraway jungle, there was a cave. That cave was once home to a family of bears, and long before that it was home to a colony of prehistoric bats, but today it was home to two explorers: a young woman named Aimes and her teddy bear Pawson. An unexpected storm had chased them inside, and though Aimes was fast enough to avoid the worst of the rain, Pawson's tiny legs struggled to keep up. "Do you have a towel in there?" Pawson asked, trying to shake the rain water out of his fur like a dog. Unfortunately, teddy bears didn't have that ability. "I have a rag," Aimes offered, sitting down on the cave floor so Pawson could reach into her backpack. "It might have some food on it though." Pawson took his chances, taking out the little rag Aimes would use to wipe her face after a meal. It looked clean enough, so he started drying off his fur. "I hate spring," Aimes pouted, looking out at rain. It poured down with no end in sight. "Rain comes out of nowhere." "It helps the flowers wake up," Pawson explained. "They sleep an awful long time during the winter." "Yeah, well it's getting in the way of our expedition," Aimes sulked. Aimes wasn't a very patient woman, and she didn't like that something as silly as the weather was stopping her from having a good time. She briefly considered pressing on, despite the rain, but the downpour would soak her diaper in no time at all. She would hardly be able to walk, let alone continue her adventure. "We don't have a choice," Pawson said, wringing out the rag. "The rain will stop eventually. Just give it time.” "But I don't wanna give it..." Aimes perked up as she finished the final word of her sentence: "Time..." Aimes tilted her head and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. It was a posture Pawson knew well, and if he hadn’t been so busy trying to dry his fur, he may have raised a protest before Aimes did anything silly… not that it usually mattered. Once Aimes had an idea in her head, it was hard to change her mind. Aimes pulled off her backpack and set it in her lap. She rooted around inside until she found a little toy clock with plastic hands and colorful numbers. It didn't work anymore, not since Pawson lost the winding key, but all the gears and stuff were still inside. Then Aimes grabbed her toolset of plastic screwdrivers from the bag's side compartment, along with a bubble-blowing gun. Using her screwdrivers, Aimes started taking apart the clock. She haphazardly took out all the gears. Then she unscrewed the frame of her bubble-blower and started replacing the internal mechanisms with the gears from the clock. Aimes couldn't remember exactly how they went, but she managed to fit them all inside just the same. Finally, she screwed the cover back in place and held up the bubble-blower. "Now I just need some water," Aimes said, more to herself than to Pawson. But Pawson was dry - or as dry as he could be - and was once again paying attention. "Water for what?" he asked. "For my time machine," Aimes said. She got up off the ground, opened the liquid chamber on the bubble-blower, and held it under the pouring rain. "I don't think I've ever seen a time machine that looks like that," Pawson said. "And how many time machines have you seen, Pawson?" Aimes countered as she tapped her foot in place, waiting for the rain to fill the time machine’s water chamber. "Well, I don't think that's important…" "It toe-toe-lee is important! If you've never seen a time machine, how can you say what one looks like?" Pawson sighed and watched in resignation as Aimes pushed the little stopper back into the handle of the would-be-time-machine and gave it a good shake. "Anyway," Aimes continued, "if this works, then we can travel through time a few hours and get away from this stinkin' rain!" "Speaking of stinkin’-" "Quiet, Pawson! I'm doing science!" Aimes shook the bubble blowing gun a few times and pointed it at the cave entrance. The rain outside was still pouring down. Aimes pulled the trigger on her bubble-blower and a huge bubble started to form on the end of it. It kept growing and growing until it touched the walls of the cave. Then, with a snap, it pulled itself apart and coated the cave entrance in a thin film of soapy water. But on the other side of the transparent wall, the rain had stopped. Actually, it looked sunny and bright, with tall trees and massive bushes. The dirt in front of them tan and dry. "Toldja," Aimes said smugly, looking down at her childhood friend with a bright smile. Pawson's skepticism was replaced with wonder for just a moment before it shifted back to skepticism. "I don't know about this," he said. "Come on," Aimes whined. "I want to keep exploring." With a sigh of reluctance, Pawson walked alongside Aimes out of the cave entrance, through the soapy wall, and into the bright light of day without disturbing the water tension of the bubble. Then, after both of them had crossed through, the wall collapsed in on itself with a quiet pop. "It's hot," Aimes said, fanning herself with her hand. The sun was beating down on both of them, and it looked like it hadn’t rained in days. She reached for the baby bottle on the side of her backpack, but found - after putting it to her lips and sucking a few times - that it was empty. Maybe she should have prioritized her drinking water over the time machine. "Where to, Miss Time Traveler?" Pawson said without a hint of teasing. Truthfully, he was a little impressed with his friend's ingenuity. "Well," Aimes said, "we need water. But as you pointed out earlier, I need a change first. Stand guard, okay?" Aimes hurried into the cave and Pawson stood watch at the entrance. When it came to protecting Aimes, he took the role very seriously. He crossed his plush arms and stood as tall as he could: a towering two feet and three inches. He took in the sight of every bush, every tree, every pattern in the dirt, looking for any sign of danger. Unfortunately, Pawson was looking the wrong way. "Run!" Aimes shouted, dashing past Pawson. The teddy bear blinked a moment, then turned around to see a swarm of giant bats swooping out of the cave toward him. Chapter Two Running was much easier for Aimes than it was for Pawson, but the stubby little bear did his best to catch up as a wave of leathery wings flapped above their heads. The downdraft knocked Pawson onto his tummy. When Aimes noticed, she doubled back, grabbed him by the paw, and kept running with him at her side. The bats were much larger than any bats Aimes had ever seen before, although her experience with different breeds of bats was more limited than breeds of cats. She could name at least four types of big cats without any trouble at all, but she only knew two types of bats. Soon, the screeching and flapping subsided as the bats dispersed into the bright blue sky and Aimes and Pawson stopped running to catch their breath. "I wonder what spooked them so much?" Aimes wondered out loud. Pawson shrugged his fuzzy little shoulders. "Maybe bats have good noses?" he answered, not entirely serious. "I think they have good ears." "It could be both, like with dogs?" Pawson liked to talk to Aimes about hypotheticals. She was a very bright girl, but sometimes it reminded Pawson how much she still needed him. "Does that mean bats are colorblind?" Aimes asked. "I think they are actually blind." Pawson said. "Or close to it." "Got it." Aimes nodded. "So that's why there are no seeing-eye-bats." "Yup. That's the reason." Pawson sighed, taking stock of the jungle around them, but Aimes had already started looking at something else on the ground. Egg shells. Big ones. Aimes squatted down, leaning forward to get a closer look. "Maybe we shouldn't touch those," Pawson cautioned. "They must be from an ostrich," Aimes said, poking the shell with a single finger to turn it over. "They lay the biggest eggs in the world, you know. And these are much bigger than any egg I've seen." Aimes sat herself down on the ground once again, pulling off her backpack to fetch one of her picture books. Fish. Berries. Birds. Eggs! She grabbed it by the spine and opened the cover. "Should we really be doing this right now?" Pawson asked, looking back toward the cave. It was just out of sight. "Bats don't attack people, Pawson," Aimes said. "We just startled them, and they startled us." "Startled isn't the word I would use," Pawson muttered, taking a few steps around the bend to get a better look at the surroundings. Meanwhile, Aimes skimmed through her picture book, looking for an egg that matched the pattern of the shell she found. It wasn't an ostrich egg, that much was clear. "Uh... Aimes..." Pawson's called, but Aimes was still searching for a match. Her picture books were very thorough, going so far as to include things that couldn't actually be found. That very reason was how Aimes identified the egg. "Aimes?" Pawson said again, a little more urgently. A tyrannosaurus rex? Aimes thought. But that was a kind of dinosaur, and those had been extinct for millions of years. Aimes continued comparing the egg to the picture in the book when Pawson finally got her attention. "Amelia!" "Oh my gosh, what?" Aimes turned around to see Pawson looking up at something. Curiously, she got to her feet and walked around the bend to see what was so important. In front of them, the jungle opened up into a vast plain of tall grass and bushes. In the distance, Aimes and Pawson saw a herd of dinosaurs - the kind with the long necks - eating from the tallest trees. For a moment, both Aimes and Pawson were awash with wonder, until their natures caught up with them. Both of them spoke the exact same words at the exact same time: "We have to go!" The two of them looked at one another. When Pawson said ‘go’, he meant go away, away from a dinosaurs, away from wherever they were. But when Aimes said ‘go’, she meant go closer, toward the dinosaurs, toward adventure. And Pawson knew, when the two of them were at odds, who would usually get their way. His attempt to stand his ground was feeble, because Aimes had already slung her pack over her shoulder and started toward the dinosaurs. "What if they eat us?" Pawson asked as they walked through the brush, checking behind him every so often. "They're veggie-sauruses, Pawson. They’re like big cows, and cows never hurt anybody." "That's not true," Pawson said nervously. "Bulls have big horns!" "Yuhhuh, to protect the cows." There was really no convincing Aimes otherwise, and no amount of Pawson’s concerns or thick shrubbery they had to push through could make a dent in her adventurous spirit. As the two of them got closer, the ground trembled and shook, but not from earthquakes. The creatures were the size of houses and ships, and they would walk from one place to the next without much grace. Even when they moved softly and slowly, the ground would rumble. "See, Pawson? They're calm and happy! If there were any meat-asauruses around, these ones would all be in a tizzy. You worry too much!" "You don't worry enough," Pawson countered. This was a bigger deal than just getting trampled on or eaten by dinosaurs; the whole space-time continuum could be at stake. "If we really travelled back to prehistoric times, then any action we take could affect the future." Then, in a moment of clarity, Pawson asked: "We can get back to the present, right?" "Of course," Aimes said with confidence. "If we walk backwards through the bubble, it should take us back to where we started. But we need water, remember?" Pawson sighed. Aimes was so much easier to manage when she and Pawson were the same size, but humans grew quite large and teddy bears didn't. The only way to get his way these days was to compromise. "We can go see the dinosaurs," Pawson conceded, "then we find some water and return to our time. In the meantime, don't touch anything.” "Sooo... when you say not to touch anything," Aimes pondered, trekking onward toward the dinosaurs, "what does that mean exactly?" "It means don't touch anything, Aimes." "So like... we're walking. Isn’t that touching the ground? And the plants?" "And I don't like it," Pawson said. "But if it's the only way we can get back to the present then that's all we can do." "So walking is okay. What about disturbing all those bats?” "I’d rather not think about it," Pawson sighed. That was quite the interference, and it could mess with an entire ecosystem. "What if I had a part of that T-rex egg in my shirt pocket?" Aimes asked, "That’s okay, right? They're all about the same, in terms of time travel problems?" "Aimes." "Pawson." "Why do you have part of a dinosaur egg in your pocket?" Pawson knew that his friend wouldn’t have asked if she hadn’t already done it. "You distracted me!" Aimes said. "I had to put it somewhere." Before Pawson could say anything else, Aimes pushed her way out of the brush and onto the flattened grass. A huge long-necked dinosaur stood towering above her, dozens of feet high. As it took a gentle step, a tremor shook the ground and Aimes vibrated along with it. "This is so cool," Aimes said excitedly, hurrying toward the huge dinosaur. When she got up close, she put her hand on its foot, ignoring all of Pawson's advice. "Aimes!" Pawson called after her. "No touching! We don't want to change the future!" "Oh, right." Aimes took her hand off the dinosaur just as it lifted its foot to step away. She looked up at the giant creature before tilting her head in thought. Pawson finally caught up to Aimes, just in time to notice that thoughtful look on her face. He would recognize that look anywhere: Aimes had an idea. Chapter Three "We are looking for water, right?" Aimes asked her companion. "Yes?" Pawson said cautiously. "I bet our dinosaur friend can see all kinds of rivers and lakes," Aimes said, "since he can see over the tops of the trees." “Yes, I'm sure that he can," Pawson agreed. He tucked himself behind Aimes for fear of getting stepped on. "But we can’t ask him. I don’t speak dinosaur, and I don’t think you do either." "That's a good point, Pawson. But…" Aimes knelt down, nearly knocking her best friend over as she slung her bag around in front of her and began to look through her belongings. She hummed a triumphant tune when she found what she was looking for and held it above her head: a bright red baby rattle. "Wait here, Pawson," Aimes said. She left Pawson’s side and hurried into the dinosaur’s line of sight. She waited until the long-necked dinosaur lowered his head, then she started jumping up and down. She shook the baby rattle with big sweeping motions to make extra noise and movement. "Excuse me Mister Dinosaur, or Missus… or…" Aimes realized that she didn’t know the dinosaur’s gender. Then she shook the thought from her head and shook the rattle twice as hard. "Excuse me! Down here, please!" Pawson groaned; he was sure Aimes’s plan wouldn't work. But sure enough, with a curious expression - if dinosaurs could have such things - the dinosaur began to lower its long, long, long neck towards the small human woman making all the racket. Aimes shook her baby rattle a little to the right, then a little to the left. The dinosaurs eyes didn't move, but its head imperceptibly tilted one way or the other, as if following the sound. Soon, its head was so low and so close that Aimes could reach out and touch it. Aimes put out her hand, then hesitated. She looked over at Pawson, who stared with wide eyes and shrugged his shoulders. With Pawson's blessing, Aimes took a step forward and put her hand on the dinosaur's nose, which was as tall as she was. The scale was unbelievable, like she was just a small rabbit touching the nose of fully grown elephant. In all her adventures, she had never experienced such a size disparity. "Excuse me," Aimes said, still resting her hand on its nose. "Would you mind if I climbed on your neck? I'm looking for water, and I'm too small to find it." The dinosaur didn't answer, but after Aimes removed her hand it didn't stand itself back up. Slowly, Aimes moved around the dinosaur's head until she came to the neck. She reached up to climb on it, but was just a little too short. "Pawson, gimme a boost!" Aimes hissed, trying not to scare off the dinosaur. After a moment of disbelief passed, Pawson hurried to help his friend onto the neck of the dinosaur. It would have been a lot smarter if Pawson went up instead - he was much smaller and much lighter - but truthfully he didn't want to. Anyway, Aimes would never pass up an opportunity like this. Pawson wasn't very strong - as one might expect from a teddy bear - but he could be used as leverage when Aimes needed it. She put her foot on his paws, so the seat of her diaper was right in his face, as she climbed onto the dinosaur's neck. It wasn't a very modest position for Aimes, but she wasn't a very modest woman. She found pants too restrictive, and they just made it harder to change her diapers. "Just...a little more....ah-huh!" Aimes got onto the back of the dinosaur’s neck, near the top where it met with its head. She almost stood up in celebration, but the dinosaur shifted its neck and Aimes had to grab tightly to the back of its head to keep from falling off. She squeezed her thighs together tightly to hold herself steady. "Be careful!" Pawson called from the grass. "I’m fine," Aimes assured him, then addressed the dinosaur. "I don’t know your pronouns, and I think it might be rude to keep calling you Mister Dinosaur, so I’m going to call you Alex because anybody can be named Alex. I promise, if I ever learn dinosaur, I’ll ask you for your proper name." Maybe Aimes was waiting for the dinosaur to acknowledge her, but this time the outcome was more in line with Pawson’s expectations: Alex didn’t seem to be listening. "Now Alex," Aimes continued as the neck moved again and the dinosaur’s snout moved over to Pawson, "could you pretty please take me up high so I can look for water?” At first, the dinosaur didn’t seem very interested in anything but the magenta teddy bear on the ground. Then Aimes said: "Oh, don’t worry about Pawson. He wants to stay on the ground, don’t you Pawson?" "Uh, yes…" Pawson agreed, taking a few small steps away from Alex as its face got closer and closer. "I’m going to wait here." That seemed to do the trick, because the dinosaur left the teddy bear alone and stood back up at its full height. The speed at which Aimes rose from the ground was frightening, but it maybe frightened Pawson more than Aimes herself. Soon, she was high above the treetops and looking out at a vast landscape of trees and cliffs. She clung tightly to the back of the dinosaur's head, squeezing her thighs together and pressing the front of her diaper against the dinosaur's rough skin. After a moment of awe, she noticed a glittering river in the distance. "Pawson! That way, a few miles!" Pawson looked up at the direction she was pointing and drew a little arrow in the ground with his foot. "Thank you so much Alex, but I need to get down now," Aimes said, but the dinosaur didn't respond. It reached its head upward, toward a tall tree, and took a leaf from one of the branches with its mouth. The tilt of the dinosaur's head knocked Aimes backward and she slid a few feet down Alex's neck. "Okay, um..." Aimes looked down at Pawson thirty or so feet below her. Carefully, she clamped her arms around Alex's neck and lowered her thighs, then shimmied down the dinosaur until she wound up on its back. "Are you okay?" Pawson shouted from the ground, full of worry. "Doin' great," Aimes smiled. She looked around for a way down and noticed the curve of the tail. It wasn't all that different to a slide, if she thought about it. "I'll be right down Pawson!" "How?" Pawson said, fretting and tugging at his ears, but Aimes had it all under control. She crawled along the back of the dinosaur - because Alex’s skin was too uneven to walk on - until she reached the dinosaur’s tail. She sat down at the top of the tail and pulled the slightly damp rag from her backpack. She shimmed her diapered butt onto the rag, so it was between her and the rough dinosaur skin, and swung her weight forward. Aimes zoomed down the tail just like a slide! It was a little rougher than the slides she was used to, but the padding on her butt helped ease the discomfort. When she got to the bottom, she tumbled off Alex’s tail and into the flattened field of grass. "Aimes!" Pawson hurried to where Aimes was lying in the grass, but she sat up and waved at the dinosaur. "Thank you, Alex!" Aimes said. "Goodness," Pawson sighed. "You might have gotten yourself hurt!" "I was perfectly safe," Aimes assured her friend. "And what if you'd fallen off?" Pawson challenged. "You'd catch me." Aimes winked at Pawson and dusted herself off. Then she took Pawson by the paw, and together they set off toward the river. Chapter Four "Are you sure this is the right direction?" Pawson asked. "I'm sure," answered Aimes. "Either way, the river was pretty long. If we keep going in this direction, we’re bound to run into it." "We haven't seen any other dinosaurs in a while," Pawson said. To him, that was a good sign, but Aimes had a different perspective. "I know, isn't that a shame? I was hoping to meet some other kinds. You remember when we were at the bookstore and you said..." Aimes put on her best Pawson voice, which sounded a lot more like a slightly deeper Aimes voice. "You don't need a dinosaur book. We aren't going to run into any dinosaurs." "I could not have seen this coming," Pawson admitted. If it was up to Aimes, she would bring an entire library, and packing light was essential when everything you owned had to fit in a backpack. "I would like to see like one of those ones... you know, with the..." Aimes spread her hands out like fans and put them behind her ears, like a lizard’s frill. "You know, this one? But I think they're meat-asauruses, and I’d rather be a friend than a food." Aimes waved a bug out of her face and pushed through another shrub. "I would say we're having rather good luck, considering..." Pawson struggled to keep up with Aimes even in the best of times, but the tall shrubbery of a prehistoric jungle was particularly frustrating. Finally, the both of them emerged into a small clearing of flowers and Aimes stopped to stretch. "Wait here, okay?" Aimes said to her teddy bear. "I'm going to get changed." "Don't go far," Pawson warned. Aimes didn't go far. She walked around a tree and found a plush place in the grass. She wondered idly what the ramifications of leaving a dirty diaper in the past would have on the present, but the slide down Alex's tail certainly made Aimes more eager than ever to change. Plus, if Pawson wasn't concerned about it, what reason did Aimes have to worry? Aimes had just unfolded the fresh diaper and set out her supplies when she heard Pawson shout: "AIMES! HELP!" Aimes and Pawson had been best friends since Aimes was an actual baby; she knew the difference between a cry for help and a literal cry for help. She quickly got to her feet, grabbing the baby powder and wipes as she went, and sprinted into the clearing of flowers. Sure enough, standing only a dozen or so feet away from Pawson, was a tyrannosaurus rex! Or, well... a small one, maybe a child. It looked a lot more like a lizard on two legs than it did a dinosaur, but it was only a foot shorter than Aimes. It took a step toward Pawson, then turned to look at Aimes. "Just stay still," Aimes told Pawson. If her childhood books about dinosaurs were right, then T-rexes had trouble seeing things that weren’t moving. Pawson did what he was told, and Aimes stood quietly in place as the little T-rex got closer. Then she saw the little thing sniff its nose. She tilted her head. Aimes got an idea. If it was using smell to track her... Aimes twisted open the lid on the baby powder and threw it at the T-rex. It hit the dinosaur in the side, and a huge white cloud of baby powder filled the air. "Run!" Aimes shouted at Pawson. He turned around and ran into the woods with Aimes close behind. When she caught up to him, Aimes grabbed Pawson’s paw to help him keep up. The sounds of cracking branches echoed behind them as they were chased through the woods. Suddenly the trees fell away and Aimes and Pawson found themselves looking up at a large, rocky wall. They had nowhere else to run. "We have to turn back," Pawson urged, but when they did, the little T-rex was waiting for them. A large splotch on its skin was white with powder and it growled softly. "Stay still," Aimes said again, but Pawson didn't. He put himself between Aimes and the T-rex, spreading his arms out in her defense and trying not to tremble. If anyone was getting eaten by a meat-asaurus, it was going to be him, though Pawson didn’t consider that stuffing and fabric probably wasn't the T-rex's diet. The T-rex took a step closer and looked around. It tried to sniff and then let out a sound that could only be described as a whimper. Aimes tilted her head again, touching her chin. "If it wanted to attack us," Aimes whispered, "why didn't it?" "Maybe the baby powder confused it?" Pawson suggested quietly, whispering to the woman standing behind him. "But it didn't attack us even before the baby powder," Aimes argued. "And if it's from that clutch of eggs I found earlier, why was it all the way out here?" They both came to the same conclusion at the same time: it was tracking them. "It must be that eggshell I took!" Aimes said. "It must have a kind of smell!" "I'm sure there are easier smells to track you with," Pawson sighed. "Hey!" Aimes pouted. "I've tried to change twice since we got here!" "Can we focus on the T-rex wanting to eat us, please?" Aimes did just that. She looked at the little T-rex, who, until that moment, hadn't roared. But when it did - when it opened its huge jaw to whine - Aimes noticed something curious. "Its teeth hasn't come in yet. See? How can it eat us with no teeth?" "With powerful jaws?" Pawson countered. "With claws on its... finger things." "Hm, I know what it needs," Aimes said, swinging her backpack off her shoulder. The motion drew the T-rex's attention and it took a step closer. "Aimes, you said not to move!" "Just one sec," Aimes said, rooting through her bag again. "Ah, here we go." Aimes had her back to the wall - figuratively and literally - and Pawson was doing everything he could to get in the way of the little T-rex. The meat-eating dinosaur opened its mouth, only a foot from Pawson's head, and Aimes tossed something inside. "Was that… a chicken nugget?" Pawson asked, bewildered. The T-rex chomped down on it with its toothless gums and swallowed the mashed nugget whole. "A dinosaur chicken nugget," Aimes corrected, holding up the little plastic bag of dinosaur-shaped nuggets. "Because T-rexes eat other dinosaurs." She took another nugget out of the bag and tossed it into the dinosaur’s mouth. "Where did you get those?" Pawson asked. "From my backpack." "You have to keep them cold, Aimes!" "But they taste so much better when they’re warm," Aimes shrugged, taking a bite of one of the chicken nuggets before tossing the other half at the T-rex. "No wonder you always have a tummy ache," Pawson muttered to himself. At just the thought of it, he felt a little queasy. Then again, since Pawson was a teddy bear, he didn’t eat all that much to begin with. Despite Pawson’s disapproval, Aimes was very pleased with herself. She gave her last nugget to the dinosaur, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough to sate a growing T-rex. As the dinosaur finished the final chicken nugget, Aimes started to sift through her pack once again, umming and ahhing until she found what she was looking for. This time, she pulled out a pink and yellow teething ring, the biggest one she had. Honestly, it was probably too big for Aimes anyway. The next time the T-rex opened its mouth - expecting another chicken nugget no doubt - Aimes tossed in the teething ring instead. The dinosaur bit into the teething ring few times, pushing it around the insides of its mouth, and started chewing where its back teeth should have been. Then, after a minute of awkward chewing, the T-rex turned around and wandered back into the woods. "Wow..." Pawson shook his head in disbelief. "How did you know that would work?" "I get cranky when I don't have things to chew on," Aimes shrugged. "I was going to give it a binky, but I don't think it would have been able to keep it in its mouth." Pawson wanted to correct Aimes that a binky was for sucking, not chewing, but he was too impressed with Aimes in that moment to ruin her fun. Once again, her quick thinking had saved the day. "Come on," Aimes said, waving Pawson forward. "If we follow this cliff we should find the river." Chapter Five As they walked, they talked about the dinosaurs and their adventure so far. This was so much better than a rainy day! Mid-sentence, Pawson interrupted her. "Be quiet, Aimes." Her eyes went wide and the teddy shook his head, cupping one paw over one ear. "I think I hear water." Aimes heard it too. They both hurried toward the sound and, before long, Aimes and Pawson found themselves looking at the crystal clear river. A ways downstream, there were dinosaurs drinking from the water, and high in the sky where they hadn't even looked before, there were silhouettes of massive flying creatures against the evening sun. They both stared in awe for a moment, taking in a sight that no human - or teddy bear - had ever seen before. Then Aimes remembered why they had come to the river in the first place. She approached the shore and knelt down next to the water. "It's so clean and clear, Pawson, look!" "Probably because the dinosaurs didn’t put a bunch of junk in it like people do," Pawson said, but Aimes was already pulling off her backpack. She took her baby bottle out of the side pocket, unscrewed the cap, and held it in the stream to fill it up. Once it was full, Aimes twisted the teat back into place, sat down on the grass by the riverbank, and suckled on the bottle with a happy smile. After a long minute, Pawson finally asked: "What about the time machine?" Aimes popped the nipple out of her mouth. "What about it?" "Don't you need to refill the time machine bubble blower?" he asked. "No, we still have a ton of water in there." "But... but then... why did we need to get water?" Pawson asked. "I can't drink the water in the bubble machine, Pawson," Aimes said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "There's soap in there. I would get sick." Aimes put her bottle back between her lips and sucked down more of the clean river water. Pawson stood there for a long while, thinking about the day they had, about the time machine that could have been used at any time, and finally took a seat beside his best friend in the grass. After Aimes had finally quenched her thirst, she refilled the bottle in the river just to be safe. Then she wrapped her arm around Pawson and looked up at the dozens of different dinosaurs peppering the landscape. "What a fun day," Aimes said cheerfully. "Don't you think?" Pawson sighed and leaned into Aimes. The sun was setting on the horizon, and so too was their adventure through time. "Better than a rainy one," Pawson admitted. Aimes and Pawson had to look for a new spot to use the time machine bubble blower, because the cave was much too far away. Eventually, they found a cluster of trees that were close enough together. The large bubble clung to branches and tree trunks and dirt on the ground, making a transparent wall filled with soapy swirls. On the other side, it was pouring rain. Aimes pouted. "It will stop eventually," Pawson reminded her. "I know," Aimes sighed. Aimes and Pawson put their backs to the bubble and walked through it in reverse. Once they were on the other side, the time bubble popped and rain splashed off the rims of their hats. "I suppose we should find a cave," Aimes suggested. The rain was already soaking through her shirt. "Or we could keep exploring," Pawson shrugged. "For just a little bit." "Yeah?" Aimes smiled brightly. "Thanks Pawson!" It wasn't long before exhaustion caught up with Aimes, and waddling around in a rain-soaked diaper certainly didn't help. Within the hour, Aimes and Pawson found a canopy to hide under, and Aimes finally got the change she had wanted for a hundred million years. As she curled up in her spare shirt and a fresh diaper, the rain became a drizzle and the sun shined through the canopy. "Look at that," Pawson said, nodding toward the sky. "It just took a little bit of time." But Aimes was already fast asleep. Sometime Later Aimes and Pawson were browsing around a local bookstore when Aimes came up to her best friend with a book of dinosaurs in her hands. It wasn’t small, and the papers were thick and glossy as most picture books were. Pawson knew what she was going to say before she could even say the words. "What are the chances we're going to run into dinosaurs again," Pawson asked, crossing his arms. "Come on," Aimes whined. "It's just one more book, and who knows when we’ll come across another bookstore. We’re setting out tomorrow morning on another adventure." "And you have to travel light," Pawson reminded her. "No more books." With a sigh, Aimes stepped away and flipped through the pages of the book she wouldn’t get to keep. It had realistic depictions of a lot of dinosaurs, with their names and a few traits about each one. But one page was more interesting than the rest. She turned back to her teddy bear. "Hey, Pawson. Look at this." Aimes turned the book around so Pawson could see the rendering of a young T-rex chewing on a rather familiar teething ring. "It's a shame we didn't have this book," Aimes said wistfully. "It would have saved us a lot of trouble." After a long pause, after a lot of thought, Pawson nodded his head. "One more book couldn’t hurt," he conceded. What were the chances they were going to run into dinosaurs again? Higher than one might expect. [End.]

Done! Updated and ready to go. If you want all the prompts, I guess you can put like 200 in each box?? It'll give you everything available. *shrug* Hope you enjoy it!

Not annoying at all! I've been wanting to fix it for ages, and it's nice to have a reason. I'll drop another message in this channel when it's a little cleaner. Maybe update some variables... ?

That was a little annoying, but we fixed the site! New URL. https://abprompts.glitch.me/ We are thinking about updating this thing in the coming days tbh, because it's been... 4 years... XD ~Sophie

Let me see if I can find our original list that we used to make this generator. I know the website stopped working a while ago, but we might have the code still.