zatchie

Here's chapter 6! The march of the horrible Little progresses ? Chapter 6 The condo wasn’t too large and with the open floor plan the only defined rooms were Erin’s master bedroom and bathroom, Luke’s bedroom (Erin had to catch herself before she said nursery) with a bathroom that attached both to the room and opened to the main living area, and a third bedroom that doubled as Erin’s office as well as another full bathroom with laundry facilities. Conceptually, Luke understood that by Erin’s standards, the condo was only moderately sized, however he hadn’t stopped being impressed the size of stuff in the dimension, and a bedroom that was the size of a university classroom seemed amazingly luxurious. Luke was less impressed by his bedroom (he thought he should maybe call it a nursery). There was a crib equivalent to a queen sized bed that opened out with an attached set of stairs to climb down, infantilizing, but not horrible; Erin showed him that he could manage the latch which locked the gate. There was a changing table with a significant amount of diapers and diaper supplies stacked under it; he’d apparently be wearing diapers with blue pinstripes for a while. There was a couch in his size, along with a Big-sized rocking chair. Unlike the other areas of the house with their wood floors and occasional rug, his room had plush carpet, it encompassed he toes as he walked in the room. His room also had a window rather than a glass wall, and it looked down onto a side street rather than the main river area. Luke wasn’t so bothered by the individual furniture items as he was by what they represented. It hadn’t even been a week since he arrived in the dimension, and already it was clear that he would be wearing diapers forever, sleeping in a crib forever, and having a caregiver forever. The permanence of it was part of the reason he disliked Erin; if it was just chatting for lunch, no big deal, but what she represented was a lifetime of Littlehood, and so everything he didn’t like about her stood out that much more. The other problem was that while Erin was aiming to give him a less Little experience, everything, including the couch, screamed Little (it was white and blue polka-dotted). There was no anchor for Luke to hold on to his past life, even a little bit. For Erin’s part, she had been understandably nervous when showing him his room. He seemed reserved and maybe a little unhappy when looking in; he hadn’t even sat on his crib, though he did try out the couch. He didn’t pay attention to the toys or books Erin had imported from his dimension: Legos instead of Pegos (which, somewhat incredibly had cost more than the crib itself), Crayola crayons instead of PoseyArt, and a variety of books from his dimension. She didn’t know any of them, and so had gone with what she inferred were classics: Twilight, the Bible, The Brothers Dostoyevsky, Love in the Time of Cholera, and Harry Potter to name a few. She had tried reading the Bible, having noted that it was very influential for many Littles. The only thing she got out of it was that Littles are a very imaginative, esoteric bunch. In addition, she also purchased the book ‘So You Want to be a Little’, which was apparently a guide for what humans could expect in coming to her dimension. She hoped it would be helpful given that the orientation had not gone well. “So are there other things you can think of now that you’d like to get for your room? If you can think of any now, we can order from Rainforest, and they’ll get here tomorrow.” “Hmm.” He wanted to lash out and say a new room but realized it would be useless, even if Erin agreed to major changes, the problem was the situation, not the items. Save your energy for bigger fights. “I need some exercise equipment, the doctor said I’d have to exercise frequently because the dimensional sickness will make me lose muscle mass more quickly. I guess a yoga mat and some weights to begin with.” ‘Why didn’t you get those already? You knew you’d be getting an Accidental Little.’ Luke thought but didn’t say. “Sure, I can definitely get a yoga mat, though it will probably be Big-sized, I hope that’s okay. I’m not sure about weights though, they don’t really make Little-sized dumbbells, and you probably couldn’t pick up a Big-sized one comfortably…” Erin didn’t want to say that she was worried he’d hurt himself. Bodyweight exercises should be enough right? “I think I could use just one dumbbell to do things like lighter weight deadlifts. A really effective way to get strong is to pick up and set down heavy stuff.” This was an area Luke could talk for hours. In college he hadn’t been that interested in getting swole, but the optimization of strength and staying fit was a really interesting subject to him. “What sort of weight were you thinking?” “Well, I guess one 50-pound weight and maybe one 20-pound weight would work.” He would use the 50 pounder for lifts and the 20-pound for limb and core exercises. Erin mentally breathed a sigh of relief. There was no way he could hurt himself with such light weight. She was worried he’d ask for 300-pound weight, she sometimes had trouble with those. “Sure, I think that would be fine. I’ll order the exercise stuff on Rainforest tonight. Maybe I’ll order a yoga mat and weights for me too. We could work out together.” Erin had caught on to Luke’s eagerness. Maybe this was where they could form some comradery. “Yeah! It looks like you could really benefit from the exercise.” ‘Did I really just say that?’ Luke thought, even he knew making that comment was mean. “I mean, it’s always good to, uh, stay fit.” Erin’s smile fell a bit, she had always been a little self-conscious about her figure and appearance. She knew that exercising would be a step in the right direction, but going to a gym for the first time is scary, and forming the habit is hard. She didn’t feel that she had the knowledge to set up an effective routine at home either. So in the end, besides her frequent walks by the river, Erin didn’t do to much to maintain her physical fitness. She was more-or-less healthy, but not really fit. That Luke was so athletic had already made her feel awkward, and now she had a sense that his opinion matched her internalized insecurity. “How about we check out the bathroom?” She didn’t want to let Luke the hurt his words had caused. She didn’t even feel bad, more like exposed. Plus, he did catch himself, so maybe it was just a slip of the tongue. She wanted to form some sort of bond with him, even if it would be through something she’s a little insecure about. He’s dealing with a lot of insecurity given his new situation, Erin thought it’s only fair that she steps out of her comfort zone too. “Sounds good.” The bathroom tour went more smoothly. Though it was obvious he wouldn’t be able to use the toilet, Erin had included a stool for the sink, and Luke thought he would be able to work the walk-in shower by himself. He didn’t see how he could use the tub, not that he was much of a bath taker: there was no elegant way to get in and out without making a major mess, and the knobs were more rounded than the levers in the shower, making them harder to operate. He didn’t think it was a big deal. “Well that’s basically our place. If you think of anything else you think you want or need, let me know. I want to get some furniture for you for the living room, but I think we’ll need to take a trip to ‘A Little This, A Little That’, and you might not be up to that yet; Littles tend to attract attention. “Ah, I get ya, yeah, I’m not ready for that yet. What movie were you thinking of watching?” Erin hadn’t really thought that far ahead yet. She wanted a movie that he’d enjoy, nothing infantilizing, but at the same time, she didn’t want something violent or inappropriate for maybe a mildly regressed Little. She did have some standards after all. She decided to go with one of her personal favorites. “I was thinking we could watch ‘My Roommate Dodoro’, it’s animated, but more in an artistic way, it’s not a cartoon, it’s actually one of my favorite movies, it’s really heartwarming, and a lot of adult Bigs really like it, it’s not even aimed at children or Littles.” Erin had rambled, scared that Luke would protest or not like her taste in movies. She really liked animation, and when researching adopting an Accidental Little had come across anime in the human dimension. She thought the quality was pretty good, but not quite up to snuff compared to the stuff Bigs made. Luke, for his part, found the whole ramble a little amusing. He could tell Erin was a little insecure about her choice, but the fact that the movie was animated didn’t bother him at all. He just wanted something to take his mind of the situation. “Sure, let’s watch it. Can we have popcorn too?” “Of course!” Erin made the popcorn and put the movie on, helping Luke onto the couch that was just a little bit too squishy for him to pull himself onto. Erin spent about half the time watching the movie, and about half the time watching Luke watch the movie. For all his anger and aggression, his relative maturity and desire to not be a Little, this scene was something very familiar to Erin from her days as a Little-sitter: a Little, relaxing on a couch, eating popcorn kernels half the size of their fist, getting into a movie. He was adorable, his butt was way back in the couch seat and his ankles barely made it over the edge, munching on popcorn more carefully than any regressed Little she had ever seen. She had a strong urge to pick him into her lap to continue watching the movie. She resisted, but wondered if she could ask him for some similar type of contact later. After all, she didn’t adopt a Little just for it to be a roommate. Luke stopped munching on the popcorn. He had kinda liked the novelty of giant-sized kernels, but now had more pressing issues to worry about. He felt his stomach rumble a bit more. He had wet earlier, but not so much that he needed changing: the diaper he was wearing was super-absorbent. “Um, Erin?” “Yeah?” “I need to use the bathroom.” She paused the movie and looked over. Any other Little would have just gone then and there. She knew that Luke was self-conscious about pooping, though she had caught his ‘peeing face’ earlier. She figured she’d change him once he felt he needed changing. Erin assumed this was part of what Luke was asking about. “Okay, well, you can go in the bathroom if you want privacy. You don’t uh, want to try using the toilet again do you?” She felt awkward bringing it up, but thought she should just make sure. “No. Can you the movie paused?” Erin grinned big. “No problem.” Luke slid off the couch and went on to the bathroom. Erin stayed, messing around a bit on her phone. She was a little disappointed she hadn’t gotten to take any photos of him yet, but knew he would feel like that’d be an invasion of privacy. In the bathroom, Luke couldn’t figure out how to poop. At the hospital, he had only pooped while either unconscious, or in the arms of Erin dangling over a toilet. Here, at first, he sat on the sink stool, but realized the surface against his bum was making it harder to push anything out. Then he tried standing straight up, but felt incredibly awkward; his body telling him that this was absolutely the wrong position to poop in. Finally, took off his pants (like somebody using the bathroom should do), and got into a deep squat with his bottom nearly touching the floor. He held himself up using the bathtub ledge just above his head. This was the correct position to poop in, there was no physical discomfort, and everything came out quickly and easily. Luke hated it. The movement was hot and sticky against his backside and went both up his crack and a little forward over his scrotum. He could also smell it, and while the smell wasn’t any worse than using a toilet, the knowledge that it was touching his skin made him want to throw up. Eventually, he finished, walking gingerly out of the bathroom, but sticking nearer to his room and the bathroom rather than going all the way out into the living room. He raised his voice a little bit. “Hey Erin, um, I’m finished.” “Okay. I bet you’d like a change huh. Let’s go to your room.” Inside, Erin prepped the changing supplies and got out one of the pinstriped diapers. “I’ll just lift you onto the changing table, and we’ll get you cleaned up really quick.” “Uh, actually, I can change myself.” Luke hadn’t yet changed himself, but he didn’t really want to be seen naked by Erin again, and definitely didn’t want to have her hands down there any time soon. This was something Erin wasn’t prepared for. No Little changed themselves, they’d make a big mess, or they wouldn’t be able to clean up well. As far as she knew, no Little wanted to change themselves either, it was easier and more intimate for their caregiver to do it. “Are you sure? It’s not easy to change yourself, the angle’s difficult and diaper rash is definitely no fun if you don’t clean up well.” She figured she’d let him try if he really insisted. Luke was getting irritated again. Was Erin implying that he’d be incapable of cleaning himself up? He wasn’t a baby or a Little. “Yes. I’m sure. Can you give me the supplies? I think it will be easier if I do it in the bathroom.” “Uh, okay. Make sure to use enough cream and powder. Put the used one here in the pail when you’re done.” “Thanks.” With the Big-sized supplies + diaper bundled into his arms, he walked to the bathroom door, waited for Erin to open it, walked in, and looked back and waited for Erin to close it. Twenty minutes later, Erin was wondering what had gone wrong. She’d expected it to take longer, but not this long. Did he fall in the toilet or something? She resisted the urge to check on him. Five minutes later, Luke came out of the bathroom looking somehow more irritable than when he’d gone in. His diaper was somewhat lopsided, and the tapes were clearly uneven. He’d done a really bad job diapering himself, and it looked like he knew it. Erin chose not to say anything, though she did hope that it wasn’t so bad that he’d leak when he peed, though then maybe he would let her change him after. They continued watching the movie, with Erin again mainly watching Luke. The more she thought about it, the more she thought it was cute that he changed his own diapers. Her Little was big, tough, and independent. That the rediapering quality wasn’t very high made it even more adorable, like Luke was kind of a caricature of the previous qualities rather than the real deal. She wanted to hold him more than ever. Eventually the movie ended. Both Luke and Erin wore a sad smile on their faces, letting the story wash over them. “So what did you think?” “It was really good. Dodoro was pretty cute, and a terrible roommate.” Luke stifled a small yawn. “It’s just about time for bed. How about you get ready, and I’ll clean up here?” “Sounds good. I am pretty tired.” While Luke was brushing his teeth and washing his face, Erin was working up her courage. She really wanted to hold him and give him a nighttime bottle. She knew it wouldn’t be his ideal activity, but maybe he wouldn’t think it too bad; maybe it could become their nighttime ritual: the one Little thing he allows himself. Luke finished up and went to put on pajamas in his room. Normally he just slept in boxers, but given he was wearing a diaper, he’d like something covering it. After choosing some sweatpants and a t-shirt (that had a bear cub on it, he figured he’d rather sleep in it than wear it during the day) Erin came into the room. She had strategically placed the hand holding the bottle away from where Luke could see when she entered the room. Erin’s heart was pounding. She knew that this would be taking a risk, Luke had resisted every Little thing, but she hoped he wouldn’t think it was a big deal (though it was to her), and in the back of her mind, she felt like she had earned it. “Hey, uh, Luke. I know it’s your bedtime, but, um I was wondering… Um, I was wondering if you’d like some water before bed. And um, if so, um I was wondering if I could feed you a bottle?” There. She was able to spit it out. She took one breath and held it, waiting for his reply. Luke was incredulous. He raised his voice. “Are you kidding me?! No! I’m not drinking out of a bottle, and certainly not while you’re holding me like I’m some kind of baby.” He took another breath, he needed to nip her behavior in the bud. “Erin, I don’t know what you thought you signed up for when you chose to ‘adopt’ me.” Luke used actual finger quotes around ‘adopt’. “But I’m not whatever it was you were expecting. I hate wearing diapers. I hate being small. I don’t like having to sleep in a crib. I don’t like anything about being a ‘Little’!” He used finger quotes again. “So, no. I’m not drinking from a bottle. I’m going to bed. Goodnight.” At that, he climbed up the stepstool attached to his crib and laid down, turning his back to face Erin. Erin was able to croak out an “Okay.” Tears were crawling down her face. Everything she had been scared for had just happened. She felt like she was going to be sick. In her mind she thought that if she hadn’t been so selfish, asking him to do something so uncomfortable so quickly, maybe he wouldn’t have felt so unhappy about all the other stuff. Erin decided to go to bed as well. Despite it still being light out and a few hours before she normally slept, she wasn’t emotionally prepared to be awake anymore that day.

yeah! I think a spin-off focusing on an 'academic' view of Littles would be a really interesting short story. I'd be curious to see how Bigs think they understand them.

Also, I wonder if Manda's MS thesis will be on human-tail docking ?

Poor Jamie! I hope he's okay. I honestly feel worse for Amanda and Becky though. Can't wait to read the post-surgery scene(s).

Thanks for all the comments everyone! They really made my day and put my writing into overdrive. So we have our next, albeit shorter chapter. A mix of fun and 'Bad Little' scenes. This is the first one where Luke isn't actively freaking out, so that's a positive change! The next chapter will hopefully come soon as well. Chapter 5 “Hi Erin, thanks for getting here so quickly. How about we go into my office to finalize the pick-up paperwork. Luke, do you mind waiting out here for a bit?” Luke was sitting at one of the round tables near the entrance, his knees were tucked up to his chest and he was staring out into nothing. He had acknowledged Erin with a nod when she came in. “Sure, I’ll be here.” Anything to get out of here ASAP. Alyson was already waiting in Steve’s office. Steve and Erin took a seat at the small square table he used to meet with potential adopting parents in private. “There’s only a couple pages to sign. We really wanted to bring you in here to talk a bit more about Luke.” “Yeah, you said that he had another really bad reaction to how he was treated today. What was that about?” Alyson filled Erin in about what had gone wrong with the finger painting. “At first I thought he was just being a snarky unregressed Little, I didn’t realize how uncomfortable he actually was.” “And then with the Little food…” “Yeah, I didn’t know he had that aversion to Little food.” Alyson glared briefly at Steve who was carefully studying the form document he’d used to sign out Littles to their new families thousands of times. “That is pretty weird though. I mean, what Little doesn’t like Little food? It’s literally made for them.” “Oh, he really likes it. He doesn’t trust it because it is made so that he’ll like it. He’s also concerned about addiction or something.” Steve jumped in. “A lot of Little formulas in non-Alliance countries have chemicals added so that they are addictive, one more way ensure dependence from their Littles I guess. Additionally, we know the breastmilk from Bigs is moderately addictive to Littles as well. If Luke heard some stuff about our dimension in his world, it would make sense for him to have some fear about Little food. Trying to explain it hasn’t worked well so far. I’d just let him eat regular food for now.” Erin thought that she’d have to hide all the Little formula she purchased before Luke found it and became convinced she was planning on drugging him. At least until he trusted Little food more. “And what about getting him used to treatment as a Little? That was what this orientation was for right?” Erin suspected that Luke basically didn’t really have an orientation, he was just treated as a Little to the point of mental breakdown. Alyson and Steve shared a guilty look. “Yeah, it didn’t really go well. I think the best thing to do for the time being is to let him live in the way he wants to – like a Big probably. Very gradually you can introduce him to Little things. You’ll have to insulate him from people who would treat him like a normal Little, I really can’t stress how important that is for his mental well-being right now. He’s really sensitive.” Alyson spoke up. “Help him find things he enjoys, Big or Little. I think he hasn’t really had any positive experiences here yet. Once he knows that he can be happy here, maybe he’ll be more open to being treated in a standard manner. Just don’t take away those things he likes, even if they are Big focused.” This was all review to Erin, and basically what she had been planning on doing in the first place. The only additional work for her would be protecting Luke from well-meaning but overbearing Bigs who would treat him like a normal Little. She was a little disappointed that Alyson and Steve hadn’t been kinder to Luke, even though Luke had treated Erin worse than just about anyone else. “I think I’ve got that under control. I wasn’t looking for a typical Little anyway. And if he eventually does decide to be Littler, that’s fine too. Let’s sign the paperwork and I’ll go see if I can’t make his day better.” Erin just wanted to be out of there with Luke. She felt a bit uncomfortable leaving him in the main room unsupervised, though she knew she would be leaving him to do his own thing a lot of the time. She just didn’t have control over this specific environment. Papers were quickly signed and Luke arrival certificate was briefly amended. In Aquitane, all Littles took on the family name of their caregiver, whether they asked to or not. Luke Kepplin was now Luke Miller, whether he wanted to be or not, though Erin and Steve both thought it would be better not to tell him. There would be no need for him to know unless some official issue occurred in the future. The three Bigs returned to the main room wearing a smile. Steve and Alyson looked both nervous and relieved, while Erin was truly happy that she would get to take this big Little boy home. Luke kept his outward appearance towards uninterested, today though, he was willing to cooperate in just about any way to get away from Steve and Alyson. “Hey Luke, the paperwork’s all signed. You ready to go? You got everything?” “Yep, I’m ready.” He climbed down from the chair and frowned slightly. He didn’t have anything to take with him; even the clothes he was wearing came from the current dimension. Alyson came up to him, knelt down again, this time without going for a hug. “Hey Luke, I’m sorry again that things didn’t work out here. Just remember what I said about your job in this dimension. You being happy is the thing that will make your Big happy.” Steve walked up and sat in the chair Luke had been sitting in. Luke still had to tilt his head a ways up to make eye contact. “Good luck Luke. I think you and Erin will get along really well. You’ll have calls with your parents every week. And for at least the first three months, I’ll be checking in every other week as well.” Luke nodded to both of them. “See you guys later. Let’s go Erin.” It wasn’t spoken meanly, but it was clear that Luke had had enough of these two Bigs. “Sure.” She walked over and reached down to take Luke’s hand. Waiting for him to put his in hers. Luke didn’t get it at first, and then realized. He didn’t really want to hold Erin’s hand, but figured humoring her would be the fastest way to get out of that building. He lifted his arm, his hand was engulfed by Erin’s, and she supported most of his arm’s weight. They left without looking back towards the adoption center workers. When they got to the parking garage Luke took a bit more care looking at Erin’s vehicle than he had Steve’s. This would be the car he’d have to ride in all the time. It looked like Erin was driving a luxury sedan, though Luke didn’t know brand names, it was clear the car was nicer than Steve’s. The car seat in the back was an elegant combination of black, red, and gray. Luke approved, though he also thought that if it had been just black and gray it would look a bit cooler. “Do you mind if I put you in the car seat? You can try to climb in if you want, but I think it will take a lot longer and be a bit tricky.” “Let me give it a try first. Just to see.” Erin shrugged and Luke pulled himself into the car. The frame bottomed out at his upper thigh, so a very high step got one leg in, and he crawled his body and other leg into the vehicle. Standing on the floor of the rear passenger area, he gripped the car seat and pulled himself again. He was able to get his belly onto the seat, and then wriggled the rest of his body up. Finally, he flipped himself around, so that he was looking towards the driver’s chair. It took nearly 5 minutes in total, Luke was sweating and meekly grinning, Erin was smiling noncommittally; this attempt would be worth it if Luke didn’t want to do it again. “I think you can handle it in the future.” Luke was a little proud of himself for having made it in: this was by far the most physical exertion he’d experienced since coming to the new dimension. But 5 minutes to get into a car seat was too long. The car seat itself was also much nicer than the one he had ridden in with Steve. He could tell that the fabric was of a higher quality, the buckles and straps simply seemed to be made better. The best thing however was the headrest, instead of a normal foam padding, this one was memory foam, and Luke’s head was gently encompassed as he let the seat take his weight. Erin buckled Luke in and got behind the wheel. “So I was thinking we could grab some food for dinner.” Luke immediately looked concerned, was she also going to try to drug him. Erin quickly noticed his reaction in the rear-view mirror. “I know you’re not good with Little food, and you haven’t eaten for quite a few hours now. It’s perfectly fine for you to just eat regular food if you want.” Luke took a deep sigh, relaxing visibly. Erin wanted to make their first meal together a positive experience. What did college age guys like to eat? Pizza? Burgers? Steak? She’d get just about anything today if it made Luke happy. “I was thinking we could pick up something and take it home. What do you think? I could really go for pizza or a burger. Is there anything you’d like?” Luke looked at Erin a bit and considered. Here was a person that was willing to do just about anything to make you happy. But she was also kinda pudgy, and her taste in fashion was questionable at best: her slacks were not flattering on her figure, and her sweater was a painfully eye-catching plaid of black and fuschia. Luke was already certain that Erin was a good person, but he thought he’d like her more if she was cool also; at the moment she didn’t seem like a person worth respecting, that was part of the reason the bathroom incident was so hard on him. In his mind, if he could guide her to healthier eating habits, and eventually better fashion taste, maybe they’d end up getting along better. “Umm, I’ve been kind of craving a Cobb salad, we could both get one I think.” Cobbs aren’t actually that healthy, but Luke figured it would be a better choice than carb-heavy burgers or pizza (though a burger did sound amazing to him right now). Erin was at a loss, he wanted a salad?! “What’s a Cobb salad? I’m not sure if we have that here.” “Hmm, well it has lettuce, tomato, bacon, hardboiled eggs, and chicken breast. Usually with a vinaigrette dressing, and sometimes it has avocado.” Luke was pleased that she didn’t dismiss the idea outright. Maybe he could work with her. “Oh! We call that a Posti salad. There’s a place near where we live that I like to go to sometimes. I usually just get a sandwich though.” “Well, let’s try their Posti salad this time. Maybe it will be really good!” Luke though Erin getting a sandwich while he was stuck with a salad would probably be the worst outcome possible, not that he disliked Cobb salads. Still better than pizza or a burger though. “Sure! I’ll call ahead so I can just run in and pick it up.” They left the parking garage and Erin drove them back through downtown Bordeu. She spent the time pointing out various places; Luke couldn’t see much and wasn’t paying too close attention. He was thinking more about the finality of his situation. Up to this point, things had been continuously changing, and his position wasn’t solidified. Now, he was sitting in a car seat, in the car with a person who he would presumably be spending the rest of his life with. It was like a marriage, except there was no choice in the matter, well no choice for him at least. Erin got to choose him, while he didn’t get to choose her. Just thinking about it was making Luke a little grumpy. Luke noticed that they crossed back over the river running through the center of the city again, though they took a different bridge this time. “My mom told me that your condo has a nice view of the river. Does that mean you live close to here?” “Yep! We live down that way, you can see the building from here, though maybe not from the car seat. We’re across the street from Riverside park, so we’ll be able to go there a lot. It’s really nice.” Luke didn’t think he’d want to hang out at the park just yet, though he was surprisingly excited to see the inside of Erin’s place. Though she didn’t talk about it, it seemed like she was pretty wealthy, Luke wasn’t sure why, and was a bit curious. He decided to save it for later though. Erin dashed into the restaurant that was apparently called Yuppie’s. She left him in his car seat. As it was still cool out, she left the windows rolled up, and hoped that no bystander would take issue with her leaving her Little in the car. She figured Luke would handle the issue effectively if it got to that point. She came back with two salads and a couple bottles of lemonade. “Okay, let’s head home and eat up!” She wasn’t sure if she should try to sound excited about everything. She wanted to be positive so that he’d feel a little better, but she also knew that he might interpret it as her being demeaning, which was the opposite of what she wanted. “Yeah, I’m looking forward to it.” The drive to Erin’s place was quicker than the drive to the restaurant. Luke could tell they had backtracked somewhat, but directions are hard when you can’t really see the street. Erin drove down into an underground parking area, taking the food, and then unbuckling and setting Luke down on the ground. This was the sort of time she was extra glad he was unregressed – she didn’t need to worry about carrying both him and her groceries or having to make multiple trips to the car. They entered another elevator, and Erin pushed the button for the 22nd floor. Luke knew just by looking that the button was at least 10 feet up, there was no way he could reach it. The elevator was shiny and modern-looking, making Luke think that Erin’s condo was in was of the new buildings interspersed between the historical stone structures. It was a brief walk out of the elevator to Erin’s apartment, by Big standards at least. Luke felt like there was a lot of ground to cover, not an unreasonable amount, but it was significant. Erin unlocked the door and they walked in. “Welcome home. I hope you like it.” She really did hope. She loved her condo and really didn’t want to have to move. They entered through a short hallway tastefully decorated with artwork. Reaching the end, Luke could see that the condo had an open floor plan. There was a kitchen to his left, wrapping around the hallway. In front of him was the view his mom had raved about. She was right. The entire side of Erin’s condo was made from glass, and allowed him an awesome view down onto the river, park, and various buildings that made up Bordeu. There was a dining area on the left side, partially attached to the kitchen. The right side had a living room with thick, comfortable looking rugs laid out around the seating areas. He ran up and pressed his face to the glass. “Wow! This is awesome! How could you afford all this?” Erin just smiled. She never got tired of the view either, and was glad Luke liked it as well. “How about we eat our meal, and then I give you the official tour?” “Sure!” Erin got the food set up on the table while Luke kept looking out the windows. The condo wasn’t huge, but it looked like there were two or three bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms. The wood floors and general quality of all the furniture kept Luke’s curiosity piqued. He figured if Erin had been born into money, then she would dress more fashionably, so how could a woman this young be so wealthy? It was obvious that she hadn’t married or anything – thus explaining her choice to adopt a Little. It was a puzzle Luke hoped to solve. “Ready to eat? Would you prefer a booster seat or the highchair?” Luke turned back to the dining room. He hadn’t paid much attention earlier, but now noticing the highchair, his visage darkened. Maybe Erin did plan on treating him like a typical Little after all. “I’d really prefer neither, but I guess the booster.” “I’ve got it set up here.” She motioned to the chair next to hers. “I don’t think you’ll want to eat at the table without one. I don’t mind you sitting in the chair, but standing to eat means a farther drop, and the chairs are a bit slippery. Especially with socks on.” Luke walked over. “Why’d you get a highchair anyway? You knew I wasn’t going to be regressed.” Luke’s tone was reprimanding. He wanted to make it clear to Erin that he wouldn’t tolerate being treated so Little. Erin cringed a bit. Here it comes. Maybe he was just being nice for a short period of time. “I got it because I thought you might like it sometimes. Even with the booster seat, you won’t quite be at my level at the table, while you can see higher with the highchair. Also the tray makes it easier for you to manage your own food. You can reach down instead of more horizontally, a better angle, you know.” Erin hoped that would convince him. The reality was that she had just assumed a Little would prefer to use the highchair at home, and she had only ran to purchase a booster seat yesterday after meeting Luke for the first time. She lifted him up and set him in the seat. She thought about pulling the strap over his waist to keep him from falling out, but by the look on his face she was sure he wouldn’t approve. “Sure…Let’s eat.” It was clear that Luke was still a bit suspicious of her. He tested a single leaf of lettuce, and a tiny drop of dressing before satisfying himself that the salad wasn’t tainted. The Cobb salad was pretty much the same here as back home. He was a little annoyed that Erin had gotten lemonade; it has tons of sugar too, but figured they were already making some progress with her eating a salad with him. They got to know each other a bit more as they ate, though Erin kept deflecting how she was so wealthy. She wanted to have that conversation a little later at least, she wasn’t especially embarrassed or proud, but wanted to be in control of the situation when she discussed her money. Eventually they finished their meals. Erin cleaned up the dishes. “How about that tour, and then we watch a movie or something?” “Sounds good.” Luke didn’t want anymore action tonight. Sitting and relaxing sounded nice.

Thanks to both of you! I was having a lot of trouble writing this chapter. I really enjoy world building, so the first few chapters flowed pretty easily. I also have a few future chapters mostly planned already, it is just a matter of guiding the story there. But these in-between chapters are really difficult! I didn't have much sympathy for writers who dropped their stories after a period of time before getting to a climax or conclusion. Now I do! The whole reason I'm writing this story is because I really like my first planned climax, and so I want to at least get there and farther, as the climax doesn't really bring closure. Not too sure how far we are from it though, certainly a few chapters at least.

I definitely agree with most of your perspective here. The whole relationship and concept of Bigs and Littles is pretty toxic in my opinion (though I would jump at the chance to be adopted into that situation). I can tell you now that Luke isn't going to be a human rights leader, he definitely has some development in his future, but the story will mostly stay on a personal level. I would like to write a more politically oriented diaper dimension story sometime though... Finally, thank you for the compliment about Steve! I also like him a lot as a character, I drew from a few people that I know in real life. They don't really have bad intentions, but too often take the path of least resistance, to the detriment of others.

Chapter 4 “So you ready to go?” Steve was sitting in Luke’s room while Luke was finishing his lunch. Some light-meat animal, veggies, bread, and water. Luke was still adamant that he didn’t want Little food. “Yeah I guess so. I’m staying at the adoption center for one night, right? Why’s that?” “Well, partly it’s protocol: all incoming Littles stay for at least one night, just gives us a chance to make sure everything is okay with them, a lot of them have some procedures done upon arrival, and this also gives them a day of recovery their parents don’t have to deal with. I think all the other Littles will be asleep though, probably sedated for recovery from surgery or interdimensional travel.” “And the other part?” Luke had a little trepidation about meeting other humans, there was a subconscious fear that if he acknowledged their existence, then he would somehow accept or encourage the treatment that they were receiving to be performed on him. “It gives you a little chance to dip your toes into the pool if you will. You’ll probably be treated a bit littler at the adoption center than you will at Erin’s place, not that we will be treating you as if you’re regressed; you’ll just get more leeway with Erin.” Steve didn’t feel the need to mention his ulterior motive: Perhaps Luke would be happier to move in with Erin after being treated littler during his day at the center. Luke was still looking for any way out of having to move in with Erin (he didn’t even want to think of it as an adoption). Nurse Joy had taken an early shift so that she could see Luke one more time before he left. He had taken the chance to ask her directly at breakfast that morning whether she would consider adopting him instead (he had used the ‘A’ word that time). Her answer wasn’t the one he was hoping for, though he knew that asking in the first place had been a long shot. Joy tried to convince him that Erin would be a much better fit: Erin had a lot more free time than Joy had, Joy was already married and had a kid, and Erin probably had more money than Joy and her husband combined (definitely true, though Joy didn’t know that for sure). Luke didn’t necessarily think Erin having more time for him was really a good thing, but wanted to show Joy he could handle it; he wanted to leave a good impression just incase there was a chance for her to adopting the future. “Well, I’m ready to go I guess.” Steve had brought Luke some clothes for his trip to the adoption center. As it was still early spring, Steve had brought a pullover sweater in dark blue, it had been a significant effort to find one without any childish designs, and khaki pants with an elasticated waist: the hospital diapers were relatively thin, so Luke didn’t have much of a diaper butt. Steve figured Erin would be getting him thicker, higher quality ones. Finally, the one childish article of clothing besides his diapers (which were plain) were his shoes: they were sneakers splotched with red, blue, and yellow as if a naughty Little had run around a shoe factory with dripping bottles of paint in his hands. Luke was less than impressed. “Really? Those are the shoes you chose? I’ll look like I’m going back to preschool! They’re even Velcro!” “Would you have rather had the ones with firetrucks, or dogs on them?” Steve was having a bit of fun, there had been plenty of plain, regular, lace-up sneakers for Littles, he just wanted Luke to have something that showed he wasn’t a miniature Big. “Besides, Velcro is practical, even some Big shoes use them. If you really don’t like them, you can ask Erin to help you get some other ones.” “Fine, let’s get going.” Luke got himself dressed; Steve had done a good job estimating his size, and his clothes seemed well-made, better than the fast fashion he had been used to purchasing back in his dimension. Joy had come back in with a Little’s wheelchair again. “Wow! That looks really good on you Luke! You’re very handsome.” She had helped him take a shower earlier in the morning; Joy wasn’t bothered seeing Luke’s adult body by now, though it was extremely blushy for Luke who hadn’t been bathed by anyone but himself since he was like 7. However, Luke did feel sort of handsome after the shower; the light bathing that happens in a hospital bed doesn’t make one actually feel clean. “Uh, thanks. Why’d you bring the wheelchair again? Can’t I walk out? I feel pretty much fine.” “Well, you are still recovering, even if you feel a lot better. You’ll be a little weak for quite a while. Remember what the doctor said about keeping up with exercises and such. Plus, it’s pretty far to the entrance, and we walk a lot faster than you do.” Dr. Hansen had told Luke that the dimensional travel was extremely traumatic on his body, and while Luke still had a very good physique, if he wanted to maintain it, he would have to keep up a serious, consistent exercise routine. Something about the unprotected dimensional travel made it a lot easier for him to lose muscle than for somebody who came through normally. Luke was a little concerned, but didn’t really mind, he enjoyed exercising, and thought that not even Erin would try to prevent him from doing so. After Luke got his sneakers on while sitting on the edge of the bed, Joy lifted him down. Luke walked from the bed to his wheelchair near the entrance of his room. He had done some physical therapy the night before, but his legs still felt a little wobbly. Whether it was from the dimensional travel or the extended period in bed, he wasn’t sure. The travel from Luke’s hospital room to the entrance of the hospital where Steve’s car was waiting took longer that Luke expected. He realized that he probably wouldn’t want to walk that sort of distance with his legs in their current state, though his pride said that he could if he really needed to. At last they reached the entrance and Luke stepped out of his chair. Joy was kneeling down, wrapping Luke in a big hug before he could take more than a single step. “Congrats on your discharge Luke! I know it seems really tough right now, but I promise you’ll enjoy your life here faster than you think. Just remember that your job here is to find things you enjoy and do them.” Joy knew that it would be harder than that; keeping an unregressed Little stimulated was always a challenge, even more so when the Little doesn’t want to be there in the first place. She hoped he’d be able to make some friends or come to enjoy things that made him feel Littler, if neither of those happened, she thought it would be a long while before he could accept his life let alone be happy. “I hope so, and I’ll try. I hope I can see you again nurse Joy.” Luke squeezed her a bit harder, she was still definitely his favorite person here in this dimension. “Aww bud, I’m sure you will.” “Okay, my car’s that one there.” Steve pointed to forest green station wagon that may as well have been an army Tank as far as Luke was concerned. He had vaguely gotten used to the size of the stuff in the hospital, but now, really paying attention to stuff outside, everything seemed giant again. Luke waved goodbye to Joy one last time and began walking with Steve to his car. Here at the hospital entrance, Luke saw many more people than he had previously: There were Bigs walking around with various purposes in mind dealing with appointments, picking up others, going about their jobs. All the Bigs were huge: the shortest was Joy at just under 12 feet, the tallest was clearly well above 13 feet, pushing 14. There were a few Big children, toddlers were about the same size as he was, and they definitely had more mass, elementary school aged kids would be bigger than even the biggest humans at home. Finally, there were a few Littles other than himself; it was easier to tell them apart from toddlers through their leaner frames and more developed facial features even if they had all been de-aged to some extent. The Littles were all dressed less maturely than he was, though he did notice at least one other Little with lace up shoes. Steve opened the rear door to his car, he had two car seats installed in the back for when he needed to transport more than one Little; his wife’s car was what they used when they were taking friends somewhere. Luke looked up at the seat with a sigh. He hadn’t really been expecting this, but he hadn’t been not expecting it either. He pursed his lips into a frown and thin a small smirk. Steve was preparing himself for another angry or sarcastic quip. Luke exhaled through his nose with a smile, a tiny laugh. “Don’t worry, I understand this one is necessary. This shit is huge.” He liked to think that cursing would be off-putting for Steve a little, but if anything it made Steve like Luke a bit more. “Well that’s good. The drive’s pretty short anyway.” Steve lifted Luke and strapped him into the car seat. The center buckle pulled tightly against his diaper, making him more aware of it than he was usually. He was slightly wet, as he was normally – he didn’t like the feel of the hospital diapers when they were dry, and he didn’t want to ask Steve to change him, a guy, especially Steve changing him somehow seemed worse than anyone else, including Erin. The drive to the adoption center was quite quick. The hospital was apparently located near the center of Bordeu. Luke didn’t get to see a lot from his car seat, but he did see a number of massive marble or granite buildings, often short and squat, only rising a few stories, but covering nearly a whole Big city block. Interspersed with those old buildings were shiny new ones. Shiny steel, reflective glass, clean geometric lines: Bordeu was half historical masterpiece and half futuristic metropolis. They crossed the river running through the city on an old limestone bridge. A massive tree-filled park lined the river on either side, full of walking and biking paths. Combined with the elevation of the bridge, Luke was finally able to see more than just the upper floors of buildings: there were tons of Bigs, children, and Littles; the park was extremely busy, and given that it was around noon, Luke figured that today was a weekend day, though he didn’t really know for sure. The adoption center was in one of the old granite buildings. The Bordeu adoption center of the Aquitane Department of Little Services was only one of the pieces of the DLS: there were many other offices and adoption branches throughout the country. Unlike in many other countries where adoptions are regulated at the federal level but actually carried out through private agencies, in Aquitane, all adoptions and management of Little welfare were handled by the DLS, ensuring that all adoptions followed the policies set out by Aquitane and Alliance nations. They parked in an underground garage below the building. “So I’m gonna take you up to our care facility and make sure you’re settled. Alyson will be there to take care of you. After I’ve dropped you off, I have to go back to the hospital and pick up the other Littles who will be adopted out tomorrow.” “Who’s Alyson? She knows I’m an Accidental Little right?” Luke didn’t particularly want to hang out with Steve, but having to stay with someone he hadn’t me was scary in its own way. “She’s the care worker at the center today. Usually the Littles we get are sleeping, so she usually just changes diapers and makes sure everyone gets fed. Once in a while there will be an awake Little to look after. We have a smallish daycare area for that. You’ll probably hang out with her there today.” “And she knows I’m not regressed right…?” “She does, but remember, this is not just a one-night stop. It’s your chance to get a little bit acclimated with how Littles are normally treated here. Erin might treat you more as an adult, but there will probably be times when she can’t take care of you. During those times, even if the caregiver knows you’re unregressed, you will still probably be treated more like a typical Little than you’re used to.” “So Alyson is going to treat me like I’m regressed?” Luke thought that if he was just going to be treated like a baby, he’d rather go directly to Erin’s house. He may not like her, but at least she more or less knew how he wanted to be treated. “Sort of, but unlike a Little who is actually regressed, you’ll be able to ask questions and get answers about your treatment during the process. Also, if it really gets to be too much, you can ask her to stop. Though some policies about Little treatment at the Center will make you feel Littler regardless. Bottles and cribs are requisite.” Would an unregressed Little know the word ‘requisite’? Steve thought so. They entered the elevator, Steve pressed the button for the second floor. Luke chose to keep silent. He realized he would have to jump about as high as he could if he had wanted to push the button himself. Even then, he wasn’t sure he would be able to reach it. The elevator beeped their exit. There was a long hallway with a few junctions going towards the right. However, on the left side, about twenty feet from the elevator exit was a single door. Steve and Luke walked down the hallway approaching the door. Once they were close enough for Luke to crane his neck and get a good angle, he was able to read ‘Aquitane Department of Little Services – Bordeu Adoption Center’. Steve knock-opened the door. Inside was more of a community room than an office space or reception area: a few round wooden tables with comfortable-looking chairs occupied the center of the room. To the right was a bar with a coffee/espresso machine and some assorted snacks and fruit. To the left were doors to individual offices and a long hallway which led to the Little care area. Seated at one of the tables with her feet resting on top of the table was a Big woman. She was nearly as tall as Steve, with short blonde spiky hair and makeup that hinted towards got. Luke figured that this was Alyson. Upon seeing Steve and Luke enter, Alyson stood with a big smile and walked over to them. She gave Steve a brief nod, and immediately knelt down. “Hi Luke! I’m Alyson, I’m going to be taking care of you today! We’re gonna have lots of fun, and you’re going to learn a lot!” She wrapped Luke in a hug that he couldn’t have pulled out of if he had wanted to. She pulled him into a cradle position and stood up. Luke was stunned. Steve was smiling politely. Alyson looked like she was having more fun than should be legal. “Looks like you’ve got it under control. I’ll be back with a batch in a few hours. Luke, remember what we talked about. This is a good learning opportunity for you.” At that, Steve turned and left. He didn’t really need to go to the hospital this early, but he didn’t want to have to deal with Luke while he was being treated like an infant. After the door closed again Luke grimaced up to Alyson. He decided to be polite. “Hi Alyson, nice to meet you. Please put me down.” “Sure! Right after we change your diaper.” Alyson walked from the main entrance room down the long hallway. She turned into a room that was mostly nursery with a couple of changing tables along one side of the room. There were ten cribs, five on either side of the room, all spaced evenly apart. They were all empty. During the brief walk, Luke had tried to wriggle his way out of the tight cradle Alyson was holding him in. He hadn’t been able to budge her arms even a little bit, and she hadn’t acted like she noticed anything. Luke figured that if she hadn’t been using an arm to control his feet, he could have at least kicked at her a bit. But as it was, he was essentially immobile. Alyson set him down on one of the changing tables and buckled the strap around his chest. “Aww, you look so precious in your grown-up outfit. You look like a miniature Big! But your shoes are still super cute!” Luke blushed a bit. “Hey, why did you carry me all the way here when I said I wanted to be put down! And why are you acting like this? I know this is supposed to be training or whatever, but aren’t you going a little overboard?” Alyson immediate switched into her professional voice. “Well Luke, basically what I’m doing is treating you like a regular Little. The difference is that I’m going to answer your questions while doing so. There will be a lot of Bigs who will pick you up without asking, and some of those won’t listen to you if you ask to be put down; they’ll just ignore you. If it really gets to be too much for you today, let me know. I won’t tone it down, but I can put you in your crib or a playpen to just chill for a bit if you need to decompress.” Luke was inclined to ask her to stop it right away. This was already kind of overwhelming. He didn’t say anything though. “Now let’s get you in some cuter diapers! The hospital ones are so thin and boring!” “I think I can change myself.” She kept her Little voice this time. “No way mister. It’s really hard to change yourself well. You might get diaper rash. You should always let a Big do it for you.” Alyson removed his old diaper and wiped him down. She then applied a layer of cream followed by a dusting of baby powder. The diaper Alyson changed him into was at least twice as thick as the one he had been previously wearing. It was decorated with stars and moons and spaceships. The thickness of the diaper and the width of the gusset forced his knees much further apart. Luke was certain he would be waddling once he was put back down. After pulling Luke’s pants up, she unbuckled him from the table and set him on the ground. His diaper butt was much more visible. Alyson didn’t tell him, but she had changed him into a nighttime diaper. If asked, she’d say it was because he’d be napping soon, but really it was to make Luke feel Littler. “Let’s go play for a bit, then it’s your afternoon naptime. Follow me.” Luke was having a harder time keeping up in these thicker diapers. He had to swing his legs a bit around the path they would normally take when walking. He felt like he could lose his balance at any time. “So what sort of things do regressed Littles usually play?” “Oh tons of things, think about what little kids play in your world. Make believe, finger painting, playing with blocks, playing on a jungle gym and slides and that sort of thing.” Alyson’s voice trailed on like she could continue listing for hours. She probably could. “So what are we going to play?” “I was thinking you’d do some painting. It’s a smaller daycare here, but we have a pretty good art corner.” Painting didn’t sound that fun to Luke. “I’m not a very good painter. I don’t think I’ve painted anything since middle school.” “Aww, that’s no big deal. The point isn’t for you to make a masterpiece, the point is for you to have fun. That is literally your job here: find things you enjoy, do them, and share your happiness with others. Also, as a Little, you’ll have lots of time to learn new hobbies. You may find yourself becoming a very good painter.” Luke wasn’t sure he believed Alyson’s description of his job here. It felt more like he was expected to act like a baby, and the act of taking care of him would be the thing that brought Bigs happiness. What Luke didn’t understand was that the act of taking care of him was supposed to make him happy, and that was the thing that would then make Bigs happy. “Um, okay. I guess let’s paint.” They got to the art station. There was a cubby full of paints and palettes. Alyson set up an easel with a canvas. “How about you pick out a few colors. I need to grab a couple smocks.” “Sure.” Luke wasn’t sure what he was going to paint, but the idea of painting something was sounding kind of relaxing. Maybe what he made would even look half-decent. He picked out blue, orange, green, and black. Alyson came back with Big-sized and Little-sized smocks. She took the four paints that Luke had picked out and put a Big-sized dollop of each on the palette. “Okay, get started. Do you know what you’re going to paint? Or is it a surprise?” She said the last bit of her sentence like she was talking to a very young child. Luke still didn’t really know what would trigger her switch from talking to an adult to talking to a regressed Little. “I’m not quite sure yet. Maybe something abstract. Where are the brushes?” “Silly boy, this is finger painting! We’ll clean you up at the end.” Not what Luke expected. It seemed silly, but he felt a lot of trepidation about putting his hands in the paint. All the years of being taught to be neat and clean were being thrown away by Alyson in a single sentence. “Umm, okay…” He dipped his index finger in the black paint and drew a cautious line across the top of the canvas. “Oh come on! You can do better than that. Here, let me help.” Alyson gripped his left wrist and pulled his whole hand over to the orange paint. Most of it got on his palm, but some amazingly actually got to his fingers. She guided his hand up to the canvas and rubbed it in a smudge that connected almost perpendicularly to his black line. “Could you not. I don’t want to get that messy.” Luke suspected it might be hopeless but he didn’t want to get his entire hands covered in paint. Besides, he had had something in mind for his painting, and Alyson already ruined it. “Nope! Until you start painting like a Little, this hand is mine. Mwahahaha!” She tickled him a bit under his right ribcage, and when he pulled that arm in tight, she pushed his left hand into the blue paint. She drew another vertical smudge down from the top of the canvas. “Hey what are you fucking doing!” Luke was getting really frustrated. This wasn’t just being treated like a Little. She was picking on him, and manipulating him so that he had no sense of agency. “I’m not doing anything silly boy! You’re the one who is finger painting and getting all messy.” She dipped his hand in the green paint this time. “Fine! Fine! I’ll fucking paint!” Alyson let go of his hand while Luke put a green blob near the bottom of the canvas. “Also, Littles don’t use language like that in public. I don’t know what Erin’s rules will be, but the only reason I’m not putting you in timeout right now is that nobody else is here, and you have a painting to finish.” Luke kept silent as he plunged his left hand intermittently into the various paint colors. He decided to not use his right hand at all, hopefully Alyson would be satisfied with a half-messy Little. Where he had initially planned to paint something, now he just wanted to be done with the activity as quickly as possible. The canvas was just an array of multicolored smudges with no intention about their placement. He though about asking to take a break, but sitting in a crib or playpen with literally nothing to do sounded more like prison. He figured it was close to his afternoon naptime anyway. Eventually, Alyson saw that Luke had no intention of doing any more. She hadn’t intended to make him miserable; she just wanted him to try out playing the way regular Littles do, and she hoped she could provide insightful answers to questions as he did so. The other unregressed Littles she had done this with had gone along with the game at least somewhat. Instead all she got was a Little boy making angry markings in silence, not asking any questions about the life and activities of a Little. Alyson switched to her adult voice. “Hey, how about I get you a bottle and then you can nap for a bit. You’re probably a bit tired from all the moving around today.” “That’s fine.” Alyson came back with a bottle and lifted Luke into her lap. His eyes flashed anger when she lifted him, but he didn’t say anything. The bottle entered his mouth. He had actually taken a bottle from Joy at the hospital when it was close to his bedtime, though she let him hold it, and she had promised not to tell Steve or Erin. He suckled on the formula. He spoke around the bottle. “Wha isth this? Isth really good.” “Hmmm? Oh, it’s Little formula, didn’t they give you some at the hospital? It’s made so that Littles really like it.” Luke stopped suckling while his eyes widened to take up his whole face. He pulled his mouth away from the bottle. “WHAT THE FUCK! You decided to drug me?! You fucking Amazons think that if you have a Little who’s unhappy then the right solution is to just give them a drug to make them happier?” Luke started squirming to get out of Alyson’s grip. She hadn’t been holding him tightly as he sat on her lap, and his use of the ‘A’ word made her loosen her grip even more. Luke was able to partially slide down her legs before she could grab him. “Hey hey, I’m not drugging you. You don’t have to drink it.” He was still squirming as she tried to hold him still. Alyson ended up dropping the bottle so that she could hold him with both hands. It wasn’t that she needed him to be on her lap, she just didn’t want him to hurt himself. Luke’s reaction had scared her a little bit. “Let me go! Put me down! You bitch!” Luke wanted to be anywhere but Alyson’s lap, and was willing to say anything and do almost anything (he remembered not to bite this time) to get out of there. “I’m just gonna take you back to the crib, then I’ll leave you alone for a bit.” Alyson was nervous, she normally didn’t have to deal with awake Littles, and while she had dealt with unregressed Littles swearing before, she hadn’t dealt with anything like the panic-attack/temper tantrum that Luke was having. Luke kept kicking air and struggling against Alyson’s arms as she tightly carried him back to the nursery. His heels pounding into her upper thighs were starting to actually hurt, and she was sure that there would be bruises there tomorrow. She set him in the crib that had a cover and latched it closed above his head. He flopped into the mattress and pounded it with his fists, screaming incomprehensibles into the sheet. “I’ll just leave a bottle of water here for you. I think you’ll feel a bit better after napping.” “I hate you! I fucking hate all of you!” Alyson wanted to cry. She never intended to make Luke so unhappy, and in some ways, she could clearly see how it was her fault. He obviously wasn’t ready to be so directly treated like a standard Little, and they should have been more receptive to his desires. Perhaps a more formal question-answer based orientation would have been easier on him, and they could have tried to make it clear to Erin that he would need to still be slowly eased into Little-ness. She would still make sure to do the last part. Steve returned with six sleeping Littles about four hours later. Alyson had filled him in on what happened with Luke. He was dozing in his crib, still half asleep, still pretty angry. He woke up completely and sat up as Alyson and Steve wheeled in each of the Littles. The two boys were swaddled in navy blue blankets that covered them from neck to toe; the four girls were in light pink. As much as he wanted to say that swaddling an adult so that they couldn’t move was wrong, each of the Littles looked peaceful and content as they slept. Luke even thought it looked pretty comfortable, though there was no way in hell that he’d ask to be swaddled; that would just open him up to other Little things that he absolutely didn’t want. When Steve saw Luke sitting up he held a finger to his lips asking for silence. Luke nodded his assent. Steve whispered: “We’ll get you out once we’ve finished moving these guys in.” A couple minutes later Alyson came back, she unlatched the top of the crib and lowered the side rail while opening out her arms for Luke to be picked up. She hoped he wasn’t still mad at her. Instead of going into her arms, Luke pulled himself to the edge of the crib and jumped down. The drop was a good seven feet, and Luke fell to his knees to absorb some of the impact. As Alyson was about to tell him that he shouldn’t jump off the crib, Luke simply walked past her. It was clear that he hadn’t gotten over the bottle or painting incident. Without any indication that he was aware of Alyson’s existence, Luke walked into the daycare room; he didn’t want to talk or hang out with Steve either. In the daycare room Luke picked up a fist sized foam ball and walked over to some padded matting that made up a reading area. He laid down on his back on the matting and began to throw the ball in the air, only moving or adjusting his body so that he could catch the ball every time. This was something he used to do as a teenager with a tennis ball when he had arguments with his parents or sister and needed to cool down. Now he felt like it was the only thing he could do without having to interact with Alyson or Steve. Alyson watched him, concerned for a moment, and then walked to Steve’s office. “We need to do something for him. He’s completely miserable here.” Steve sighed. “Yeah… I figured he’d probably have a tantrum at some point during your orientation, I thought it would be good for him to experience how regular tantrums are handled. I didn’t think he’d blow up that badly. I think he has some ingrained fear about Little food, or maybe just about becoming Littler that other unregressed or Accidental Littles didn’t have.” “Do you think Erin could pick him up today? I know it’s against policy, but technically he has had an orientation, and the overnight rule is mainly to check health. We already know he’s healthy. Physically at least.” “I guess, I’ll go ask him. Why don’t you stay here for this one.” At that, Alyson felt a little hurt, like Steve had confirmed that she really had mistreated Luke. However, she also knew that he was right; no matter whether her actions were correct, Luke didn’t want to interact with her right now. He was still throwing the ball when Steve walked in. Luke didn’t notice until Steve directly entered his line of sight; Bigs moved unnaturally quietly. Luke stopped tossing his ball but didn’t sit up. He watched Steve with his back flat against the floor. Steve decided to crouch down, but kept his distance a bit. He used his ‘talking to scared Little’ voice, something he hadn’t used with Luke before. “Hey Luke. Alyson and I were just chatting a bit. We were thinking, would you rather go to Erin’s place today? You might like that more than just staying here.” Luke turned and sat up. Would he like going to Erin’s more than being here? He wasn’t completely sure. His interaction with Erin hadn’t gone well, but he also knew that she wouldn’t be limited by government regulation, and she knew that he didn’t want to be treated like a Little. He’d have to go to her place tomorrow anyway, and his stay here wasn’t really turning out to be a reprieve from unhappiness. “I guess so. Can she pick me up today?” “We’ll have to call her, but my guess is yes. She might be out getting stuff for you, but I’m willing to bet that those things can be put off until later.” “Then yeah. Call her.” It took an hour and a half for Erin to arrive at the adoption center. She had been very nervous when Steve called her, thinking that something about the adoption had gone wrong, or that Luke would have to stay in the hospital a few more days. When she heard the actual reason, she was relieved, to her own shame. That Luke actually wanted to be with her made her feel better than she had over the past day or so. She went back to her apartment to drop off the shopping she had done. Did a look over on all the Little furniture she had already set up, and then did another look over trying to calm herself down. She was finally getting a Little! And while the circumstances weren’t good, the Little actually wanted to be with her! Maybe if she could make the rest of his day better, they could form a more positive relationship.

I like her a lot too! I didn't know what to write for that parents' phone call. It was obvious to me that one was necessary if this wasn't to be a kidnapping story, but what went into the call was kind of made up on the spot where most of the rest of the story is planned. I think I might end up incorporating his parents (at least Lindsey) into the story a bit more than I was planning on previously.

I think I'd hesitate to call him either a hero or intrepid ?Everyone's on team Erin except for Luke, and maybe Erin herself. I think what happens to Luke depends on how Erin develops as a person.

Big update. But now that much of the world building and major character setup is out of the way, the next chapter we will leave the hospital. Yay! I'm looking forward to seeing Luke interact with other Littles as well as Erin when Steve's not around. I don't know if your opinion of him will improve anytime soon. He is the worst little ever after all Chapter 3 Part 3 “She’s too young. Is she supposed to be my roommate or my caregiver?” The discussion had been going on for nearly ten minutes already. Erin was waiting outside the room. By now, she had composed herself and realized that Luke’s reaction was mostly due to the situation he was in rather than anything she did, though she still felt terrible about laughing. When he had said he didn’t want her, she had felt physically ill, worried that Steve would immediately agree, deciding that somebody with more experience or a larger support network would be more appropriate. Of course, that didn’t happen, and Steve had been continuously defending her since, though it also seemed like Luke wasn’t even close to running out of steam. She wanted to go back in and try to defuse the situation a bit; she really just wanted whatever it took to make Luke happy outside of banishing herself as his caregiver. However, she could tell that she should probably wait at least a little while longer. “She’s at a completely reasonable age to adopt a Little. You need to remember how your species is viewed here; your actual age is pretty much irrelevant. There are 50-year-old humans regressed to infancy, and 18-year-olds who are older toddlers. There was even the case of a 13-year-old Accidental Little; that was the one time we allowed and supported family coming here, but each of them still had their own Big caregiver, that was a mess to manage. Sure, you might be physically and mentally more mature, but by the laws in this dimension, you need someone to care for you, and Erin is well suited.” “What about nurse Joy? I like her, I’d be okay living with her I think. She treats me more normally.” “That’s because she has more experience with unregressed Littles than just about anybody. She’s not adopting you, for one thing, her nursing schedule would make you almost impossible to care for by herself, and I doubt you’d find the other people taking care of you as understanding. Erin will ‘get’ you really soon too. You just have to give her a chance.” “But why does Erin even want me in the first place?! It’s suspicious that she’s interested in a human who’s here against their will, even if she wasn’t specifically looking for me. Aren’t there other regressed humans she could take care of? I think she’s trying to humiliate me! I told you already about her laughing at me.” Steve scowled and stood up from his chair near the door. He was tired of dealing with Luke, he was definitely the most troublesome Accidental Little he had dealt with to date, mostly his reflexive refusal to agree to anything a Big suggested had Steve feeling completely done. He crossed over to Luke’s bed in two steps, leaning over and gripping the bed rail so that his head was even closer to Luke’s. “Luke, we’re going in circles now. You know she wasn’t really laughing at you, and I told you using the toilet in the first place would not be pleasant. I’m tired of arguing with you about this, and you’re going to be talking to your parents soon. I’m gonna give it to you straight. You are SO fucking lucky to have landed in Aquitane rather than a non-Alliance country; if you had landed in one, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, I’d just be beating you every time you tried to talk. You should be grateful that there’s somebody willing to adopt you, understanding the baggage you’re coming with, and not trying to have you regressed. You literally found a diamond and are treating it like a piece of trash. I understand that this situation feels like your life is ruined, and yes, it is not going to be the life you expected, but nearly every Little in our country is happy, even the unregressed ones. So if you start being a constructive member of this situation rather than fighting tooth-and-nail on every little thing, I’ll remind you again, something you couldn’t physically do in a lot of other places, then maybe you’ll start to notice that not everything sucks, it’s just different.” Steve had given his diatribe directly over Luke’s bed to emphasize the size and power difference between the two. He didn’t like scaring Littles, and he almost never had to, but he felt that making it clear to Luke exactly what situation his was in, and how much worse it could have been would at least be a temporary solution for his complaints about Erin. Maybe Luke would even become closer to her if he was a little scared of Steve. Luke was a little scared, a Big had never even slightly raised their voice at him before. However, he wasn’t really impressed with Steve’s speech either: He should be grateful that the Bigs here were doing what they, at the minimum, should be doing? Should they be patting themselves on the back for doing what would be expected of them based on normal levels of human decency? He understood it would be much worse in other places, but it didn’t feel to him like they were really doing anything but trying to make him live the life of any other typical Little rather than the human he wanted to be. Luke half-whispered. “Okay.” “Good.” “So when can I talk to my parents?” “We’ll head down to the conference room right now. How about you apologize to Erin on the way down?” Luke frowned but nodded. He figured being amenable to Steve was the safest choice. Luke still didn’t like Erin, but he wouldn’t have liked any person who wanted to adopt him. It’s hard to trust somebody who is being given the keys to control over the rest of your life. On a more personal level, he also didn’t like Erin’s style; she didn’t look like she cared for her image the way he did, and definitely not in the way girls in the crowd he hung out with did. She seemed so plain. He never really ‘got’ the nerds and less popular kids. Never actually bullied them, but didn’t understand why they couldn’t just be normal. Why couldn’t he just have a normal caregiver at least. Though even he knew that would be too much to say at the moment. “Hey Erin, you can come in, we’re gonna get Luke prepped to go downstairs.” Erin opened the door. She was as nervous now as the first time she met Luke. She had heard Steve’s rant, and didn’t really like what he’d done. She didn’t think that scaring a Little into short-term submission was going to help them accept their situation. She wanted to earn Luke’s trust, and felt like now they were at a place that was worse than square one. She gave a small toothless smile. Steve stared hard at Luke. “Um, uh, Erin, I’m sorry for what I said to you earlier.” He paused trying to think about how to explain himself. “It’s just all so different and uncomfortable, but it wasn’t really anything you did. I think the whole toilet thing was a pretty bad idea.” “No worries Luke, apology accepted. And again, I’m sorry for laughing and making you upset.” Inwardly Steve rolled his eyes. His only misgiving about Erin adopting Luke was that she was too much of a pushover. “Okay guys, lets get going.” Steve pushed the nurse call button. This time Joy came in. The other nurse had briefed her on what at happened, so she was pleasantly surprised to see that Luke wasn’t actively glowering, and that Erin didn’t look miserable. “I bet you’re excited to talk to your parents aren’t you! I’m sure they’ll be happy to see you and hear that you’re safe as well.” Joy wanted to get everyone into a more positive mood. Somehow Steve seemed to be the most unhappy, though he never really seemed to go above neutral on the happiness meter. Joy moved Luke into a Little-sized wheelchair with raised handlebars to push him along. He wouldn’t be carried this time. “Yeah! I hope they’re okay. I wonder if my sister came too, or if she had to stay home and go to school?” That he had a sister was news to everyone, even Steve. His last communication with the agency agent in the human dimension was just to confirm the time of the meeting. There hadn’t been any indication of other family members coming, and Steve hadn’t asked Luke if he had siblings, he figured Luke would’ve provided that information. “Oh, I didn’t know you had a sister Luke, how old is she?” Joy could tell that he had caught them all unawares. This would be an elegant way for Steve to save a bit of face, though she wasn’t really convinced he deserved it. “Melody is 16. She’s about to finish her second year of high school. We kinda get along but used to argue a lot too before I went to college.” Thinking on his sister, he was sure she would make fun of him if she knew he was wearing and using diapers. Even if she knew it wasn’t his choice, it was one more weapon in the armory to needle him with. Steve spoke this time. “I don’t know if your sister came. The agent in the other dimension just confirmed the time with me this morning, but didn’t say anything else.” “Hmm, well let’s go talk to my parents. It’s not a big deal either way if Melody is there or not.” It was a bit of a big deal. He wanted her to be there, he was already missing all of his family even though he would technically be contacting them at least as frequently as he did while in college. The physical distance made the longing for family bigger. While he did want his family there, he was scared to talk to them too. He didn’t want to break their hearts; their son was going to live the life of something akin to a toddler. He would never have a job, never get married, never have kids. He’d already convinced himself that he’d show his parents that he was more or less okay with it so that they wouldn’t worry too much about him. If it had been possible, Luke would have begged them to rescue him from this dimension, whatever it took. But he knew that in the current situation, it would only cause them more distress. They arrived quickly back in the conference room where Erin and Steve had their talk. There was a booster seat in a chair that was clearly meant for Luke. Joy helped lift him into it. Steve sat directly to Luke’s right, and Erin to Steve’s right. The projector screen was to Luke’s left, facing the center of their conference table. Joy left the room. Luke wished she’d stayed. “Okay, so we’re right on time. You ready to talk to your parents Luke?” Steve had pulled out his tablet and hooked it up to a wire coming out of the table. “Yep, I guess so.” The group of three spent a minute and a half in silence as they waited for their call to connect to the other dimension. Each of them waited with different reasons for trepidation. Luke was most concerned about managing his parents’ emotions, and a little scared of what they’d say to him about what happened. Steve was concerned with how Luke’s parents would influence Luke to behave; whether they would encourage accepting his place here, or suggesting he fight tooth-and-nail. Erin was scared about acceptance from his parents. She knew that Luke’s parents would get to read her file as well and was scared that they would agree with Luke’s initial assessment: she was not fit to adopt him. The projector screen lit of from its screensaver pattern. Looking back at the two Bigs and one Little was a pair of Littles. Mark and Lindsey Kepplin were both in their early 50’s, both had dark hair and eyes that matched Luke’s. Mark’s hair was now interspersed with grays, and he very clearly was the one who had passed down his face shape to Luke; the sharp, well-defined jaw was apparently a family trait. Lindsey was waifish and elegantly dressed, with large, warm, brown eyes; she had been a stunning beauty when she was younger, and now she was elegantly passing through middle age. She did dye her hair, not that she’d tell anyone. Luke, Mark, and Lindsey had all taken a small gasping breath at seeing each other on the screen. It was confirmation to Luke that he wasn’t totally alone, and confirmation to Luke’s parents that he was safe. Steve introduced himself. “Hello Mr. and Mrs. Kepplin, my name is Steve Barnwell, and I’m Luke’s caseworker here in Aquitane. This is Erin Miller, the person who will be looking after Luke here once he leaves the hospital.” Erin gave a small wave and polite smile. “Hello Mr. and Mrs. Kepplin, I’m looking forward to living with and getting to know Luke.” Erin felt more insecure than she had already. Looking at Luke’s mother, dressed elegantly in a grey cashmere sweater, with matching emerald earrings and necklace, her long-sleeved top and skirt were plain by comparison. She wore no jewelry or makeup; she almost never did. Usually she was somewhat insulated from the standard judgements placed upon women by society through her current wealth, or previously by her academic achievements, though those had their own challenges and expectations. Mark was already crying with tears streaming down his face. He wasn’t really making noise, but wasn’t in a position to talk. Lindsey seemed much more composed, and wore a welcoming, positive smile. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Barnwell, Ms. Miller.” Lindsey nodded to both of them; Mark was wiping his eyes with his sleeve. “And hi Luke! I’m so glad you’re okay! Gosh you look small.” Everyone except Mark chuckled, he was too busy trying to stop crying. “Hi Mom, Dad, it’s really good to see you.” Luke choked up a bit, he wanted to say more but didn’t know what to say. Steve waited a heartbeat for more from Luke, then spoke. “So we just wanted to introduce ourselves and let you know that Luke is safe and in good hands. Erin and I will step out of the room for a bit so that you can talk to Luke privately. After that, Luke will head back to his room, and Erin and I will spend some more time talking with you and answering any questions you may have.” “Sounds good, it’s nice to meet you both, I’m so thankful you have treated Luke so well.” Mark was nodding his head along to his wife’s words. Erin could tell now that Lindsey didn’t just look good, she was good; everything she did made you feel like you could be a better person, not in a diminishing way, but in a way that encourages you to do and be better. It also worried her that this superhero of a woman is who she would be continuously compared to. “Okay Luke, Erin and I are gonna step out. I’ll check back in in about twenty minutes. No worries if you’re not done talking by then. Take all the time you need.” Steve and Erin exited the room, leaving Luke facing his parents, all of them staring at each other in silence. It took at least a minute before Mark spoke up. “I’m so glad to see you son.” He was almost ready to cry again. “I’m so glad you’re safe and not hurt.” He was crying again. Lindsey patted his shoulder. Mark had always been a huge wimp. “We’re sorry Melody couldn’t come, classwork and the sudden happening made it hard to drop everything and travel.” “That’s okay. Let her know I said hi and I’m doing okay.” “The good news is that in situations like these, the government will install a communication station in our town, at a conference room in city hall. We won’t have to travel to talk to you after this, and Melody will be able to come to all the calls too.” Mark had composed himself to speak up again. “You are doing okay? They haven’t hurt or mistreated you have they? We do have a little power over the situation, if our agent finds out that you’ve been mistreated, they can put some pressure on the Aquitane government.” Luke wanted to cry. He wasn’t doing okay, everything was so big, so different, so wrong. He was sitting in a booster seat like a 3-year-old, wearing a diaper like a 1-year-old, and soon to be adopted out to a woman, never to grow out of dependency. “I really am doing okay. It is hard, everything is so big, like really really big, but the people here have been nice so far, and are being understanding of my situation. I think I’ll end up being fine, it’s just a really big change.” Lindsey smiled, glad to see her son was trying to take a dignified approach to his problem. It’s what she had taught him. Keeping your emotions under control meant keeping more control over the situation in general. “That’s right Luke, you can kind of think of it as having a forever vacation, or early retirement. Hah, you get to retire before me.” Mark chuckled at his own joke. He was the least okay with the situation, he thought, but anything Luke could handle, he decided he could handle. “I really like Erin, did you know that she has her PhD? Usually in their dimension, they don’t get them until they are at least 30; she got hers at 27. Her condo looks really nice too, she has a view of the river running through Bordeu. I think you’ll have a lot of fun living with her. It’s funny that it looks nothing like the Bordeaux we have in our world though, I guess it’s just dimensional differences.” “You actually like Erin?! I thought you would hate her, she’s nothing like you… I don’t really like her, she seems like the kind of person I have trouble getting along with, she doesn’t even look like she exercises.” “I do like Erin. I’m not so naive as to think that there is only one way to be a good or successful person. I like her personality, she seems very pure, if a little fragile. And both your father and I have talked with you about this before, you need to work on you empathy skills. You’ve never been good at getting along with others besides people who act, look, and dress like you do. I think living with her will be a good learning experience. Perhaps you two can help each other.” Lindsey’s smile had receded a bit. This was a continuous problem with Luke. Everything in life had gone his way: Born into a warm, loving, stable family, financially secure if not rich, intelligent enough that he had never had to work very hard in school, good looks, athletic, popular. She and Mark both regretted that they hadn’t raised him to look out for people who were not as lucky as he, they had tried, though it seemed not hard enough. His lack of understanding had hurt his relationship with his sister who didn’t have a standard fashion taste and had to work a lot harder in school than he did. Lindsey also worried that this first major challenge in life would prove disastrous for Luke, especially since she and Mark couldn’t be there to help him through it. Lindsey thought that Erin would be a person who could help Luke manage the difficulties of Little-hood, provided he didn’t ruin his relationship with her first. The family continued talking for another half-hour. Discussing logistics of what would happen to Luke’s identity at home: Officially, he would be categorized as a volunteer adoptee who had waived his right to return; Alliance nations didn’t want anything to indicate that they had taken Littles against their free will. They talked about his university situation: He was removed from the school’s rolls officially due to family emergency; his student loans were forgiven by the government. They made small talk about family and friends, his aunts and uncles had promised to come by to chat on the phone some time in the future. His girlfriend Sasha hadn’t taken it too hard, their relationship was more physical than anything, and while she felt sorry for him, she didn’t exactly miss him. “So do you guys know when you’ll be able to come visit?” Mark and Lindsey shared a look, they had been briefed by their agent, and agreed in principle that it would be a good idea to give Luke time to adjust before they came to visit in person. They hadn’t really discussed what they would tell Luke though. Just that they wouldn’t be coming right away. Lindsey felt like this was definitely a Mom job. “Honey, you know that sort of thing is quite hard to organize. Dad and I will have to get time off work, and we’ll have to take Melody out of school. Not to mention non-accidental travel and quarantine takes a long time in and of itself. We will be able to talk to you on every week, or even more often if need be, but actually travelling across dimension will take some time to set up. Probably not for a few months at least.” Steve poked his head into the room, visually checking with Luke if they were wrapping up. Luke gave a slight nod. “Oh, okay. But you promise we can talk every week?” “We promise son, we won’t miss a single one. And we’re proud of you for handling this so well, you have always been a wonderful son to me and Mom. Think of this as a chance to do something almost nobody else gets to do. We’ll always be here to support you too.” “I love you so much Luke. Be good to Steve and Erin, they care a lot about you too.” She Luke a warm smile, though her eyes were telling him to be on his best behavior. “I love you guys too. Let’s talk soon, say ‘I love you’ to Melody for me.” Lindsey’s heart just about melted. Luke almost never told his sister he loved her. Steve walked all the way into the room. “All set Luke? Did you guys have a good talk?” Steve was curious if Luke’s parents had made him more cooperative or defiant. From his brief interaction with Lindsey, he hoped more cooperative. “Yeah, is Joy taking me upstairs?” “Yep, she’s just outside. Joy, Luke’s ready.” “Bye Mom, bye Dad.” “Bye Luke, talk to you soon.” Luke was rolled away by Joy in his Little-sized wheelchair. Steve reinvited Erin in while Mark and Lindsey had a glass of water. They sat in the same seats as previously. “Thank you so much for taking the time to quickly travel so you could talk to Luke. I know he was really missing you guys.” “Of course, he’s our son. And thank you all for being so good to him. I’m so glad he didn’t land in a non-Alliance country.” “As are we, we look forward to him being a Little citizen of our country. So how about we get down to business. I’m sure you guys have some questions for Erin and I, and I know we have some questions for you about Luke.” Steve looked at Lindsey. “Want to get the ball rolling?” “Of course, I guess my first question is how is he actually doing? I know he said he was more or less fine, but I’m guessing he’s taking it really hard.” “You guessed right. He had a small violent incident when he learned about what it means to be an Accidental Little, that’s fairly normal, I’ve had it happen before…” Mark caught that Steve had more to say. He didn’t like his son being talked badly about, but everything Steve and Erin had done so far had been positive or helpful. “And… what else?” “Well I’d say he’s been a lot less accommodating than any other client I’ve had. The majority of my interactions with him end up with him having emotional outbursts. Erin has had the same, if not more trouble, and she’s a lot more flexible than I am.” Lindsey wasn’t that surprised, though she was a bit disappointed. “I’m so so sorry about his behavior. I’m sure some of it is because of the huge change, but I think part of it has to do with the kind of person he is.” She stopped for a second, was she really going to talk this badly about her son? She decided that them knowing where he was coming from would help them understand his behavior at least, and help them manage him as well. “I’m not trying to throw Luke under the bus here, but he’s never really had any hardship in his life. Everything he’s ever wanted he’s pretty much gotten, not because we were spoiling him, though I suppose we did a little bit, but it kind of always felt like the deck was stacked in his favor. He was always extremely popular, good with girls, athletic, that sort of thing. He never really developed empathy for people who didn’t fit in because he didn’t understand the advantages he started with, or at least the ones he lucked into. Him coming to your dimension might end up being good for him, though given the circumstances, this isn’t really what any of us wanted.” “Ah, I kind of get it now, this is his first time facing adversity. Do you have any suggestions for managing his anger outbursts?” Mark responded. He didn’t like that Lindsey was so frank about Luke’s shortcomings, but agreed that a situation like this would have arisen sooner or later. “I think you should be pretty firm with him. He respects authority, mostly because his social position gave him some kind of authority. Just keep it in the back of your mind what he’s dealing with…” He didn’t want them to be too hard on Luke, they were so big. Lindsey looked to Erin. “I think especially for you Erin, you need to be mentally tough. I’m guessing you were not really with the popular crowd in high school or college?” Erin blushed a little, Lindsey had seen right through her and was now going to mite out her judgement. “Um yeah, I was always in the science and math club. I wouldn’t say I was unpopular, but I wasn’t a ‘cool’ kid.” “Oh, Erin, don’t worry about a thing, this isn’t a ‘you’ problem, this is a Luke problem. Just based on your file, I think you are awesome, you just gotta realize it. But in regards to Luke, think back to how popular boys interacted with less-popular girls. Not really positive right?” Erin nodded her head, if she hadn’t taken the science path that lead to wealth, she would have wanted to be Lindsey. “You need to make yourself an authority figure in his eyes. I’m guessing he might fight it at first, but you need to be firm with him, otherwise I think he might take advantage of you in terms of what he can get away with. Once you guys have your relationship established, you two can probably learn a bit from each other.” This was the closest Lindsey would come to criticizing Erin, she had lovely skin and beautiful hair; if she put a bit more effort into her appearance, and gained a bit more confidence, she’d be turning heads. “Okay, I’ll try to be tough.” She smiled and tried to pull her posture up a little straighter. She knew it would be hard, she’d never had to really face down a popular boy before, and even knowing Luke was a little, the idea of it was still intimidating. Mean words can hurt. “Do you guys have any other questions?” Steve liked Luke’s parents a lot more than he liked Luke. Mark asked. “Um will Luke actually have to wear and use diapers? Isn’t that a little infantilizing?” “He will, remember the size discrepancy. Nothing is really built to fit humans. Also, if he didn’t use diapers, he’d probably be the only human in Aquitane doing so. He and Erin already had some challenges associated with that.” Steve filled them in on the story. “Well at least I’m not the one who will have to change his diapers this time.” Lindsey laughed. They talked more about Luke’s likes and dislikes. He was a very health eater, but also liked to party, and they were pretty sure he was drinking alcohol (he wouldn’t be allowed to do so in Aquitane they assured). He exercised a lot and was very conscious of his image. He liked to watch sports but didn’t play that much. They, like Erin were concerned about his ability to have a social life, but there was no easy answer for that at least in the beginning. Erin promised she’d bring some of her more open-minded friends over. They asked about Steve’s check-ins: once every other week at least to begin with. And Erin’s ability to make their weekly calls: she promised to would be the absolute priority; in their dimension they could even take the calls at home. “So what’s the plan for him moving in with you Erin? Is it happening soon?” “I think he’s getting discharged from the hospital tomorrow.” She briefly looked at Steve for confirmation, who nodded. “Then I think he will spend one night at the adoption center for orientation, and I will pick him up the next morning. So in a little less than two days.” Steve spoke up after a short pause. Everyone was just taking everything in. “So that’s all for questions on our end. Anything else from you guys?” “Nope, I think that’s it. Take care of our little boy, once you guys get along, I’m sure you’ll love him just as much as we do.” “I’m sure I will.” Erin smiled. As much as Luke intimidated her, she was really looking forward to having a little in her house. “Okay, well, we’ll chat again in a week. I guess your government will have the communication equipment set up in your town by then. Let your agent know if there’s anything else to share with us before then.” “Alright, will do. Take care.” The screen went black. “I thought that went really well, Luke’s parents are a lot more reasonable than Luke.” “Yeah, I guess I have to work on being tougher. I kinda thought we could just be buddies with me giving a bit more care, but I guess every Little is different.” ‘Understatement of the year’ Steve thought in regards to Erin’s toughness. He didn’t understand how she could go through a PhD with her sanity intact given her seeming lack of fortitude. Perhaps she really was just a genius. The two made their way upstairs and bade their goodbyes to Luke. Communicating some of what they talked about with his parents, but not all of it. He was cooperative and stable, but mostly seemed tired. It was time for his midday nap.

I really enjoy world building, so its fun to kind of expand and build on this setting. I always like the random portal trope, kind of gave me a way to imagine myself going to the diaper dimension. I got into the diaper dimension through Chasing Emily, but went back and read the originals after that. I'm not a fan of all the stories, but I am definitely a fan of the DD multiverse. A lot of my other story ideas are based more on native Littles in the more typical universe. Here's the second part of chapter 3. There's at least two more parts after this one, and then we're out of the hospital! Chapter 3 Part 2 When Luke woke up, his room was empty, though the door to the hospital hallway was still open. The guard rail on his bed was pulled up, and was a lot higher than the ones used in normal hospital beds in his dimension. He figured he was in either a pediatric or Little’s wing, and everything’s size combined with his comparatively small stature made falling a bigger risk than it would for a Big or human in his dimension. The size of everything hadn’t stopped bothering Luke, it served as a reminder that he was as far from home as possible, and that there was apparently no going back. It wasn’t just that stuff was big, it was that because it was big, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do things that previously wouldn’t have required a conscious thought. His cup of water was sitting on a stand that was adjacent to the bed, but because of the bed rails he couldn’t reach up and over to grab it. He didn’t really want to stand on the bed to lean over; it was more than large enough, but he’d have to pull himself just a little off the surface, with his belly on top of the rail. Even if he didn’t think he’d fall, the drop was quite far, and if a nurse saw, they’d definitely be unhappy. Lying back in the bed, he thought about the biggest, and worst change since coming here, other than being adopted of course. Diapers. Consciously he knew that, at least in this dimension, there was no shame with humans wearing and using diapers for all their intended purposes, however they were still new, and he didn’t really like the feel of them. When they were dry, they felt somewhat papery, or at least not as soft as he would have expected; regular underwear felt a lot better. If he didn’t use the diaper relatively quickly, they clumped up, which was uncomfortable as well. Finally, while wetting solved the previously mentioned problems, the squishiness reminded him that he had pissed himself rather than used a toilet; at least the diapers didn’t actually feel wet, that was a pleasant surprise. Now, after about a 12 hours since first waking up in the hospital, Luke knew he needed to poop. This was something he was really dreading. Peeing was humiliating, but messing was gross as well, a much bigger leap into dependency that we didn’t want. He also didn’t want to have to sit in his own waste for even a second. He wasn’t 2 years old anymore. He decided to press the nurse call button. He wanted his water anyway. A different nurse came in. “Heya Luke, what’s up?” “Um, could you give me my water cup on the table, and uh, is nurse Joy around?” It felt embarrassing to even say he needed to poop. At least Joy would make him feel dignified. The other nurse crossed the room in two steps and gave the sippy cup to Luke with a smile. “I think Joy’s with another patient right now. Is there something you want or need, anything you can tell her, you can tell me.” That might be true officially, but Luke felt like there was a big difference. “Um, no, that’s okay, it’s nothing really important.” This was definitely not a discussion for anyone but Joy. “Okay Luke.” The nurse could tell that he was fidgeting. “It’s around breakfast time, is there anything you’d like to eat? We have toast, eggs, oatmeal, cereal… If you want to try food more suited towards Littles, we have Little cereal and formula as well.” “I don’t usually eat breakfast, maybe just grab some coffee on the way to school. Is it okay if I skip?” Luke didn’t want coffee given his bowel situation, didn’t really want more food to move things along either… “You definitely need to eat something. How about just some cereal. No one’s gonna force you to eat all of it.” “I guess that’s okay, just regular cereal right? I don’t want the stuff designed just for humans right now.” He was aware that specialized food in this dimension existed, but he was also (somewhat incorrectly) aware that it was addictive, and didn’t want to be drugged into cooperation. “Sure it’ll get here in a bit, I’ll have them bring some regular milk too. You’ve got your water… Sure there’s nothing else?” He knew that Luke probably needed to poop and figured that if Luke simply did so, he could get the diaper changed much faster than if he did without telling. “Do you need a clean diaper?” He knew he didn’t but felt like pushing a bit might be helpful. “No! I don’t need anything! You can leave.” Luke was indignant, this nurse was definitely making fun of him for being in diapers. “Okay, okay, no worries. Just buzz if you do, we’re really quick.” Hopefully that would make it a bit easier on him. Sitting in poop never sounded nice to the nurse either. Luke ended up eating all the cereal and drinking most of the milk that had been brought to him. It turned out that he was a lot hungrier than anticipated. Not even a hospital can mess up basic breakfast foods. During that time he wet himself once. He wanted to call for a change, but his stomach was getting more urgent, and he also wanted to make sure that nurse Joy would be the one to change him. He decided to call for a nurse again. It was the same on as before. He decided to put on a parody of a business voice. “Hello Luke Kepplin what business do you have with me this time?” He was hoping for at least a smirk. Almost all the nurses in the Little’s ward were good at getting a laugh out of even unregressed patients. He was a little peeved that Joy was beating him with Luke. Luke wasn’t in the mood. “Uh, do you know if nurse Joy is free yet? I have something I’d like to ask her.” “Look Luke, Joy is still busy, and is gonna be for quite a while I think, why don’t you just tell me what it is and I’ll see what I can do.” Luke sighed. His intestines rumbled again. “Fine. Uh, I need to poop. Is there a toilet or something I can use?” “’Fraid not. Look, how about I step out of the room and close your door. You go, and then I come back in and change you quick as can be.” “You really don’t have any sort of toilet for someone my size? What would you do if there was a Big child here?” It was getting pretty urgent, but still controllable. “A child your size would still be in diapers. And before you ask, no I’m not going to hold you over a toilet, I’m almost certain that’s against hospital policy for a number of reasons, and it’s definitely grosser than you just using your diaper.” “Just this time. I don’t want to shit myself!” He was angry, while holding him over the toilet might be grosser for the nurse, Luke thought pooping his pants was probably even worse, at least for himself. A hand knocked on the door frame. Luke looked up in anticipation of Joy, at least she could make him feel better. It was Steve again, there was another Big woman standing a bit behind him. “Hey Luke, are we interrupting anything?” Steve could tell that they were. Luke didn’t know what to do. Telling more people that he needed to poop seemed like the least desirable option, but telling them there was no problem meant that they would come in, and he would more and more urgently need to poop. He decided being louder would not be better, maybe being polite could sway them. “Umm, I need to use the bathroom…” “Oh, okay, want us to give you some privacy?” This was pretty common with new unregressed Littles of all types. “Well, uh, I need to make a bowel movement, and I was, um, looking to go to a toilet.” “You know that’s not really possible unless someone holds you over a toilet right? I’m definitely not going to, and the nurse can’t. I don’t think you want your first interaction with Erin to be that either.” Erin had been listening to the exchange. She was sympathetic to Luke’s discomfort, and thought that while it would be gross and awkward, it might help them bond. She decided to speak up. “Actually, I’d be okay with it if Luke is. And hello Luke, my name’s Erin, I’m the person who will help to look after you here in Aquitane.” She hoped her introduction wasn’t too infantilizing. She had practiced variations on that sentence for nearly an hour in front of a mirror the night before, and thought this was the most balanced between defining their Big-Little relationship, and helping to maintain his maturity. Luke’s ears turned off after he heard she’d be okay with it. “Uh, nice to meet you Erin, is there a bathroom nearby?” The last part was a question for everyone. Steve and the nurse looked at each other. Neither had expected Erin to offer nor Luke to agree. Steve didn’t think this would turn out well. The nurse replied. “There’s one down the hall. You’ll need to take the IV stand with him, and you’ll have to carry him, he doesn’t have shoes, and we don’t allow walking without them.” Maybe that would make them reconsider. “You’re okay with me picking you up Luke?” He nodded his assent. This would be his first conscious time being held by a Big, and while he wasn’t happy with the prospect. The thought of pooping his pants was much worse. Erin walked over to his bed and Luke started to take in her appearance. She was shorter than Steve, but perhaps closer to his height than Joy’s, so putting her near 13 feet. She had dark brown hair folded into a messy bun that made her look like she was preparing to do some housework. She was a little plump, but not even close to fat; she just didn’t look like she exercised that often. Her skin was tanned both from travel and from genetics, but she still had quite a few freckles across her face and over her nose. Luke concluded that she looked pretty nerdy, but nice enough. Erin carefully reached behind his back and under his legs and lifted him to her hip, supporting his bottom with one hand. He wrapped his legs around her waist and gripped her shoulder with his non-IV’d hand. Erin took the IV stand in her other arm. “All set?” “Yeah.” The walk down the hallway was thankfully brief. Luke again was made aware of how big everything was, but for the most part tried to keep his concentration on Erin’s shoulder while also holding back his bowels. Inside the bathroom, Erin pulled out the diaper changing station and quickly pulled the tapes off Luke’s diaper. She’d never seen a Little with pubic hair before. She didn’t even realize they could have any/ “Um, I could’ve done that.” “Oh, sorry, I just thought this would be faster.” Erin kicked herself a bit inside, she was starting to get a little nervous again. “It’s okay, let’s just get this over with.” “Sure.” She first moved the IV stand a little closer to the toilet, while Luke rolled up his gown above his waist. He felt a little awkward being nude below the waist in front of someone (a woman!) he didn’t know, but tried to stay composed and pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary. This time, she lifted him from under his armpits, with him facing her. He spent about a second or so dangling in the air before the part of his thigh just above his knee was on the toilet rim. The toilet itself was clearly too big for him to use alone, but in this position, his legs could hold a bit of his weight. “Do you mind looking away?” Luke knew he minded her looking at him. Erin blushed a bit and turned her head. The bathroom wall was not a very interesting shade of white. Luke released. Despite his desire to remain composed, his face started burning. The first ‘plop’ into the toilet was probably the most humiliating moment of his life. He hadn’t realized the drop would be farther, making everything extra loud. There was a lot to get out. The two were consciously avoiding eye contact with each other, both feeling very embarrassed and nervous. You’re holding your Little in your arms, and he’s pooping. Don’t say anything. He doesn’t seem mad at you. I hope he doesn’t want to do this again. What if he doesn’t like me, this isn’t exactly a comfortable first impression. Maybe I can ask him to shave for when I change his diapers? Don’t think about him pooping. Don’t think about him pooping. Laughing when you’re nervous or embarrassed is a tick a lot of people have. It is not one Luke had. It is one Erin had, and as much as she tried to control herself, the ridiculousness of the situation, combined with her nervousness about meeting Luke made her start to giggle. Luke wasn’t quite done yet. Hearing her laugh made him want to die. He was sure she was laughing at him, what else could she be doing. He felt awful, here was someone 7 feet taller than he was, young enough that he would’ve considered dating (though he didn’t think she was attractive enough, he had some standards), holding him over a toilet while he was pooping, and now laughing at him. He couldn’t do anything to get out of the situation but finish his business. He couldn’t help himself, he started to cry silent, angry, embarrassed tears trickled down his hot face as he finished pooping. “I’m done.” It was all that he could croak in one breath. Erin finally looked back at him and saw him crying. “Oh Luke you don’t have to feel embarrassed, it’s over now, nothing's happened. Let’s get you cleaned up.” “I’ll clean myself up, give me some toilet paper.” Luke glared at her and tried to lever himself off the toilet with his lower legs. Erin’s arms held steady. “Luke your feet are bare, you don’t want to stand in a bathroom.” “I don’t care. Just give me some toilet paper.” Luke was trying with all his might to latch on to his anger so that he could at least forget his embarrassment momentarily. Erin didn’t want to get into an argument so soon, and she realized that her laughing certainly made it worse. She set his feet on the floor and give him ample bath tissue. As he was cleaning himself she decided to apologize. “I’m sorry for laughing Luke, I wasn’t laughing at you, just the situation, and when I get nervous I sometimes laugh, and I just couldn’t help it. I really don’t care about you pooping.” Luke didn’t make eye contact with Erin, didn’t say anything. His tears had stopped, and he finished cleaning himself. There was a stool adjacent to the sink, so he was able to wash his hands from the side of the sink in order to reach the knobs. Erin didn’t interfere. Erin quickly taped him in a new diaper. They had forgotten to bring powder or oil or lotion or anything. “I’ve gotta carry you back, they’ll yell at me otherwise.” “Whatever.” Luke would never ask to use a toilet here again. They reached Luke’s room again in under a minute. “How’d it go?” Steve knew it wasn’t going to go well, and could tell that it hadn’t. Erin didn’t know what Steve knew, and wanted to downplay the awkwardness. “It went fine, it’s all done. You’ll want to re-diaper him soon, we didn’t have any supplies.” She nodded to the nurse who had been chatting with Steve in the room. “Steve?” “Yeah Luke?” “Find me somebody other than Erin. I’m not going to live with her.”

Here's the first part of chapter 3, the next part will be out in the next couple days. I've realized that I'm much more interested in writing a Big-centric story, which kind of surprises me because I'm not really a daddy or switch in any way, but I think thinking about how people deal with Littles in the diaper dimension is really interesting. Chapter 3 Part 1 “Hi Erin, I’m glad you could make it here. Luke’s still sleeping, so I thought you and I could chat for a bit before he wakes up. Then you and I can meet with him for a little while. After that, we will talk to his parents for a bit, trying to get more of a feel for how Luke is as a person. Then Luke will talk to them. Hopefully they will encourage him to be a more open to his new life, though this is also a time of loss for them too. Does that sound fine? It will probably take a few hours in total.” Steve and Erin were sitting in a conference room in a different part of the hospital where Luke was staying. There were about a dozen chairs around an oblong wooden table, with a large projector screen at one end. This would also be the room where the calls with Luke’s parents would take place. “Of course! Other than the intensive course, I’ve just been getting the last touches on his room set up. I had the basics before he arrived, but you never really know which gender, or have a general idea of what kind of person they’re going to be, so I waited to get some of the details.” Despite having met Steve a few times, Erin was always a little nervous when talking to him and had a hard time making the flow of her voice feel natural. Steve didn’t really notice. “That’s great Erin, I really appreciate it. I just want to go through a bit of stuff about how you should interact with Luke at first, and how we will handle our discussion with his parents.” Erin smiled and nodded vigorously. “First, I’m sorry if some of this sounds obvious or is review. When you meet him, describe yourself as something along the lines of a person who will help take care of him. Not mommy, mom, aunt, or anything like that. Right now, he’s still completely attached to his other dimension and isn’t ready for a new emotional attachment here.” “Be ready for him to be unhappy with you. He doesn’t want to be here, most of what Littles hear about our dimension is negative, so the idea of a person interested in adopting him throws up a huge warning flag. I think especially in Luke’s case, he has just gotten to the stage of life where he was entering adulthood, to be sent back to having the legal status of a minor, and realizing that it won’t be changing has been a major kick in the pants.” Steve squeezed the bridge of his nose. He expected Luke to stay oppositional for quite a while. “He might try to say that you’re equivalent to the Bigs in non-Alliance countries. Or he might say you want to turn him into a baby or something along those lines. I think the most important thing for you is to not do anything that might confirm it. If he asks or does something and it would be okay for a Big to do, let him do it unless he’s in obvious danger. Essentially, treat him more like a peer who you are responsible for. Eventually, he will probably ‘grown down’ a bit and be more receptive to something resembling a standard Big-Little relationship, but it will take quite a while.” Erin had been nodding her head continuously while Steve gave his mini speech. She thought she could assuage some of his concerns right away. “I understand, I’ve been trying to think how’d I’d act if I were in his position; I’d be completely freaked out. But also, as I’ve said before, I’m not really looking for a standard Big-Little relationship, I’m happy to let him maintain his independence, and when he wants to act more like a typical Little, that’s okay too.” “That’s great Erin, I really appreciate it.” Steve only had a few canned responses to acknowledge his clients’ statements. “I also want to make sure you’re prepared for how others view you and Luke. A lot of people can’t even conceptualize what it means to be an unregressed Little; I know that your parents understood, and helped you understand from a young age, which is great, and a big reason why we were happy to have you adopting. The ‘Little blind’ ones are relatively easy to handle, the real challenge is those who think that unregressed Littles should be physically limited. If you have any friends or acquaintances who have those beliefs, you need to cut them out of your life now. It’s not that we are concerned that they will hurt Luke, but rather it will confirm Luke’s fears about how Bigs view Littles, making it even harder for him to accept his life.” Steve had reclined in his chair with his feet sitting on the chair adjacent to his. “I don’t have any friends like that as far as I know, and I already explained to a few close friends, as well as my parents that I’ll be adopting an Accidental Little. They were pretty supportive, though my parents have already had reservations about that sort of thing.” Erin sighed. She also knew that she had many friends who definitely qualified as ‘Little blind’ and she really wanted to figure out how to get through to them. She decided to ask. “Do you have any suggestions for how to connect with the ones who are Little blind? What about you? Were you always aware of Littles in a more ‘progressive’ way?” “To answer your second question, I was never ‘Little crazy’ but I was Little blind, even if I didn’t think I was at the time. I didn’t really get it until a class in college, about human culture; the concertos and art produced in their dimension was just as complex, interesting, and beautiful as what we have here. Just because we’re smarter and have better technology doesn’t mean we are a better people, we just have better stuff.” “And the answer to the first question?” “That one’s not so easy. Exposure to unregressed Littles in a controlled environment is best for both parties, though exposure by itself usually helps. With Luke especially, you will want to make the situation clear at first, though just saying doesn’t help as much as you’d think; Luke needs to, and probably will, show that he’s not regressed and doesn’t want to be treated that way. Time heals all, even biological stupidity.” “What about a social life for Luke? He won’t want to play with regular Littles, or Big kids all the time, and I hardly see unregressed Littles anywhere. It’s not like he can go out to bars and stuff with me and my friends either.” This was one thing Erin was really concerned about. It had taken her a long time to learn how to make and keep friends, as she was very shy and a bit of a nerd as a kid. When she thought about the possibility of someone she cared about not having friends, or a social life, it made her really worried. “Well at first, you guys will mostly want to spend time just getting adjusted, but yes, he will probably always have reservations about playing or socializing in the normal ways we think about for Littles. You might be surprised about his maturity and ability to socialize with Bigs though. Less intelligent doesn’t necessarily mean less mature, unless there’s an explicit ban on Littles in a location, there’s no reason you can’t take him with you, and once Bigs realize that he’s unregressed, at least some of them will be happy to become actual friends, not just a Big-Little relationship. And finally, there are unregressed Littles in Aquitane, especially in a big city like Bordeu. I can’t connect you directly, as there are privacy restrictions, but they do exist, I think they even have regular meetups that Luke could go to eventually.” “Heh, that’s a relief, I’m glad he’ll be able to make some friends that understand his situation. How do you think his parents will handle it? They’ll be pretty oppositional too right? Are they gonna come visit soon?” Erin both wanted and didn’t want his parents to come. She knew it would make Luke happier, but knew that when they inevitably had to leave, it would be even harder on him that he couldn’t go too. “Well, they probably want what’s best for their son, and probably understand that he wasn’t actually kidnapped, so they will hopefully work to help make the transition smooth. It’s not always the case, but family members are usually pretty cooperative with the agency. In terms of visiting, we strongly encourage them to wait until the Little gets settled, usually a few months at least. It’s quite expensive anyway, so it often takes time.” “I could help pay for their travel if it makes it easier on everyone.” “That’s really nice of you Erin, and probably something you eventually talk with Luke and his parents about, but I wouldn’t bring it up today unless they ask directly. They’ve been given the rundown by an agent in their dimension, so I’m hopeful that they’ll go with our guidelines rather than ask to come right away.” “Do you think he’s awake yet? I really want to meet him.” Really, Erin was getting more nervous about it by the minute, and figured if she waited any longer, she might panic and back out. Better to rip the bandage off. “Why don’t we go see. If he’s not, we can go chat with nurse Joy, he really likes her.”

awwwww! It's silly, but this chapter gave me more feels than any in either volume. Becky was always one of my favorite characters, and to see her feeling come out is really great.

It definitely is! I've just been very busy with work this week. I think I'll be posting on Friday or Saturday.

Oof. This last one was a major feel trip. I'll also echo that I can't wait for the reunion!

Sooo frickin great! I loved the ending! I'm glad she could find her happiness.

Thanks! I'm gonna go and edit the intro and tell everyone that I'm actually an amazing storyteller?I guess I didn't know if I was or not, and I know that there are specific areas where I can improve I have read some of wrong place at the wrong time, I think that and the intro in the biggest little vacation also have littles showing up in a similar manner, they definitely deserve some credit for the premise. I just wanted to make a device where it is clear that there is no going back. Thanks Kerry! I've always had this mild fear of having a serious medical issue in a foreign country, where you might be stuck there much longer than expected, so I tried to communicate at least part of that here. I have at least a few more original ideas for the diaper dimension (either author_alex's or the more standard bbykimmy style), so hopefully it can make a return as a fun/interesting abdl story setting.

Hey All, So this is my first attempt at a story. I do a lot of technical writing in my day job, but nothing creative, so this has been an interesting outlet so far. I was heavily inspired by Author_Alex's Done Adulting, as well as by bbykimmy's Making The Best Of It (though I don't think that really shows yet). In general I'm mostly using Author_Alex's iteration on the diaper dimension (with potential non-canon changes), though in a new location. When I was reading his novel, I kind of wondered what would have happened if Amanda didn't exist, and Jamie wasn't a superhumanly good person. Would there still have been a happy ending? This has lead to the story I'm writing now. I'm not a good writer like the two mentioned above, but I hope my story will at least be interesting. Also! I would be very happy to receive critiques, as I do plan to write more stories in the future (though this one isn't even close to finished). I know I currently have problems with the 'show don't tell' rule, but I think I am getting better, and I didn't want to wait any longer to make a post. I hope my writing will improve with every update I think I'll try to update weekly or so. With that, here is the first few chapters of The Worst Little Ever: Prologue------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Erin Miller had been a research scientist for an agriculture forecasting company, trying to predict what crops will do well each year. Last year she had made a significant discovery in the field, essentially adding an extra week of predictability to regular crop forecasts. While this doesn’t sound that impressive, the financial repercussions were massive. Erin was wealthy overnight, and while she enjoyed her job as much as most people enjoyed their jobs, retiring at the age of 29 sounded amazing, and the sort of thing her friends would yell at her for if she didn’t do. So, about six months ago, Erin quit her job to live off her windfall. At first, she had had great fun travelling. Eire, Albion, Itali, Catalon, she had spent nearly two months of these six playing tourist, wining and dining, and generally taking advantage of never having to worry about money again. Home in Aquitane wasn’t bad either. She had bought a nice condo in the capital city of Bordeu; she didn’t have the need or desire for a large house, chores were never really her thing. Eventually, Erin had started to grow a bit bored; all her friends still had to work and there is only so much traveling one can do before home sounds like the best place to be. She started thinking about adopting a Little. Erin wasn’t particularly interested in adult romantic relationships, her previous boyfriend and girlfriend didn’t last long. When she was a little girl, Erin had begged her parents for a Little, and was always rebuffed. Her parents didn’t like the idea of people with full, vibrant lives being snatched from their homes. They also felt uncomfortable with the idea of Littles (who really should be called humans) agreeing to be mentally and physically regressed (or in the mind of Erin’s parents, mutilated) just so that they could escape the pain of life in their world. In Erin’s parents mind, the best thing to do would have been to help humans with the problems in their own world, it’s just that for most Bigs, biology makes Littles seem oh-so-cute, and so there was no reason to stop them from coming. As she grew up, Erin came to mostly agree with her parents’ reasoning, in most cases, it would be something near inhumane to adopt a Little. However, biology is a fickle thing. Like most Bigs, Erin thought Littles were adorable; she took every opportunity she could as a teenager to babysit and otherwise interact with the Littles in her neighborhood. But now, she had to consider the type of Little she wanted, and both morally and personally there needed to be a good fit. Until their joining with the Alliance nations, it hadn’t been explicitly illegal to adopt a kidnapped Little in Aquitane, though it was heavily frowned upon. Aquitane had tried to maintain a neutral state in order to maintain positive connections with nearly all nations. It hadn’t worked out very well, hence their joining the Alliance. It was (and had been for a very long time) illegal to either physically or mentally regress a non-consenting Little, which made kidnapping a less appealing option – who wants a Little who will bite and scream and cry all the time? Even if you can stop the outburst with spanking, it doesn’t really fill the parenting itch nor eventually guide the Little towards happiness. Littles who had been kidnapped here (there were very few) were grandfathered in by the new agreement, though they were monitored more heavily by the Department of Little Services to make sure they weren’t being mistreated by their Bigs. Actual consenting adoptions were much more common, and some of the companies that had for a long time only operated in Itali were beginning to open branches in Aquitane as well. However, the vast majority of adoptees came regressed. Erin knew her parents would not be okay with her adopting a regressed Little, and she didn’t really want one anyway. What Erin wanted was a partner, someone she could have meaningful conversations with. Somebody she could care for, and could, eventually appreciate that care. Adoptions of unregressed Littles weren’t very common in Aquitane, so the only real source of unregressed Littles to the country was through the adoption of Accidental Littles. Accidental Littles were humans who had made the trip to their dimension accidentally, usually happening when a small dimensional rift opens that both humans and Bigs weren’t prepared to contain. Occasionally these rifts open in populated areas and a Little or two gets sucked through before the rift collapses on itself. Being an Accidental Little had consequences that other types of Littles didn’t have to worry about. Usually, when one prepares for a cross-dimensional trip, there is significant medical and mental preparation. A planned trip takes many days, while machinery and medicine helps to make sure that the Little arrives healthy, and without any trauma associated with the travel. Accidental Littles travel without those luxuries, and a trip which takes days normally may be over in an hour or two. An hour of trans-dimensional travel wreaks havoc on a body, in a similar manner to exposure to large amounts of radiation, trans-dimensional travel increases a Little’s risk factors for all sorts of diseases as well as cancer. Another negative side effect is that once the Little arrives in the new dimension. If they don’t leave again within a few hours, their bodies won’t ever be able to tolerate any sort of trans-dimensional trip again. Given that Accidental Littles are ‘accidental’, essentially all of them that come are suck: there’s no time to prepare them for a trip back. This ‘dimensional sickness’ essentially traps them in a dimension where they are the size of a toddler, and most Bigs view them in that way, or some variation of it. Erin thought she would be a pretty good fit for and Accidental Little, she was mostly aware of their cognitive abilities from discussions with her parents, and she felt prepared to help them transition to a life they were not expecting. She had read the classic books on raising Littles: Caring for your Little, Growing Up or Growing Down, Helping your Little be a Little, and When your Little is Pissed Off. Erin figured the last one probably wouldn’t be necessary; she could use reason to keep them calm. Conceptually, she understood that the transition period would be tough: The Little wouldn’t be regressed like an adoptee, and she had no desire to damage the Little into submission like Bigs associated with a kidnapping do. She felt that she would be able to show the Little that they could actually have a good life here; they could be early retirees together! Erin really didn’t understand how big and bad of a change it could be for the incoming Little. So, under the assumption that an Accidental Little would make her happy, and that she could make said Little happy, she applied to adopt one. Portal rifts are rare enough that there is generally a considerable waiting time after the application until adoption. Simultaneously, not that many Bigs wanted this sort of Little anyway, so it was not like she would be competing with a ton of other Bigs for the next incoming Little. Her financial resources and well-educated background made her a strong candidate for adopting. Chapter 1----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luke Kepplin had been studying in his university’s library when the world ended. He had been preparing for his macroeconomics final, the exam would be his final final of his third year at university. Instead, he and about half a dozen books were ripped out of reality. Unplanned trips across dimensions are always rough. Luke’s was luckily on the short side, that means it hurts more, but the bandage gets ripped off rather than torn slowly away. By the end of the trip it felt like he was aware of every individual skin cell, every piece of his body felt like it had been penetrated by a blinding light, despite the fact that the during the entire event it was pitch black. He arrived in the new dimension about 3 meters above a lake. One benefit of that was that when he immediately vomited upon arrival, he was clean pretty much instantly. The lake was cold, and Luke wasn’t really prepared to keep himself afloat after the trip he had. His first gasp was a cold blast of water going all the places it shouldn’t within his body. The rip in space-time immediately attracted the attention of the Bigs who were spending the day near the lake. From the shoreline it looked like a small child and some even smaller books plopped out of a hole in the world and fell into the water. The portal evaporated by the time Luke hit the surface of the lake. The Little was immediately splashing in the cold lake, but it took a long moment for any of the Bigs to react. It’s not every day that reality gets torn asunder, even if it’s a just little bit. The first person to act was a man who had been fishing in his canoe. He was less than 100 meters away and began paddling like a bat out of hell. Another Big who had been lounging on shore ran to her kayak saw, and immediately began paddling as well. The rest of the Bigs, maybe 15 or so, were crowding the shoreline nearest to the Little, though it was still quite far away. The man in the canoe got to him first. Luke was still struggling, but was at least aware of the situation. The biggest problem for him had been his soaked clothes dragging and slowing his movements. He had been able to kick off his shoes at least, so that he could tread water a bit better. With one hand, the Big grabbed the seat of Luke’s pants as well as the bottom of his shirt. “I’ve got you buddy, you’re gonna be fine.” The kayaker reached them. “Is he okay? He’s a Little right? I think someone’s already called for an ambulance.” “I think he’ll be fine, he’s just cold. Let’s get him to shore.” Luke had sort of become aware of the situation around him, but was massively confused. It felt like he was sitting on the bottom of a Viking longboat, and a thirteen-foot-tall giant had just thrown him a towel. “How ‘bout you dry yourself off bud. Can you tell me your name?” Luke had wrapped the towel around his shoulders. It was more like a quilt considering his size, he wasn’t really drying himself, just sitting there shivering. “I’m Luke.” It was then, after his body had realized it was no longer in danger of immediately dying, that it decided now was a good time to pass out. The trauma of the trip and time in the lake had taken its toll. It was a much more disturbing view for the Bigs paddling back to shore. The Little gave his name and then proceeded to fall face-forward into the floor of the canoe. He hit nose first, and a trickle of blood began to drip onto the bottom of the boat. “He’s probably passed out from the cold, get in the canoe, you need to warm him up, I’ll paddle us to shore.” “But won’t that make you a lot slower?” “Yeah, but I think right now he needs to get warm more than anything else.” Slowly and with great care, the kayaker maneuvered to the side of the canoe. Putting one hand on the bottom of the canoe for stability, she slid her legs over from the kayak. Then, with one hand on the kayak, and one on the canoe, she pushed her butt off the kayak and slid over, resting on the wooden bench seat above the unconscious little. The canoe only tipped a little bit. “I’m gonna strip him and try to warm him up. Paddle as fast as you can.” The man was already paddling. The woman sounded like she was trying very hard to be calm but was failing. She picked Luke up from the floor of the boat, immediately unbuttoning his jeans and pulling them off along with his underwear. The tiny button and zipper were hard for her fingers to manage and took a frustrating amount of time; she had never taken care of a little before. With his naked butt sitting on her lap, she tried to take off his shirt. The combination of a clinging wet shirt and an unconscious Little made the task impossible if she didn’t want to hurt his shoulders. She gripped his collar with both hands and tore the shirt down the middle. Once she had gotten the tear most of the way down, she was able to pop his arms out of the sleeves and get the shirt off. More gently than she might have otherwise, the Big woman quickly set to work getting Luke dry. His tiny body was shivering heavily, due to both the cold lake and the trauma endured due to the travel. The woman pulled Luke to her chest and began vigorously rubbing him to try and get him warm. The man was focused on paddling. By the time they had gotten to shore Luke was no longer shaking. Every 30 seconds or so he would moan an “urrgh” into the woman’s chest, but he was sleeping more or less soundly. The crowd had parted to make way for the canoe coming towards shore. Two men had waded into the water so that they could pull it the final 20 meters or so as quickly as possible. Getting off the canoe while cradling the little boy, the woman yelled into the crowd. “Does anybody have a change of clothes? His towel’s pretty damp and he needs to stay warm.” “Yeah I’ve got a change over here.” A man with a Little boy holding onto his thigh was standing on the outer edge of the crowd. “Let’s change him on that picnic table there.” They unwrapped Luke from the towel. The man pulled out a spare diaper intended for his son, and put it under Luke’s butt, he powdered his diaper area and tapped it on. Luke’s nose had stopped bleeding, the woman cleaned it off with a wet wipe. The sleeper the man had for Luke was a bit too big; his hands were completely covered by the edge of the sleeves, and the legs covered his heels. The woman cradled Luke to her chest again and waited for the ambulance to come. It took about 10 more minutes, about 30 from the time of the call, for the ambulance to arrive. The lake was relatively isolated. By the time they arrived, the park ranger had as well. Quickly, the paramedics had loaded Luke into the back of the ambulance, thanking the canoer, the woman, and the man who had given the change of clothes. The woman was jogging to her car. “Excuse me, miss, I’m gonna have to ask that you stay here. I’ll need to interview everybody so that we can establish exactly what happened here.” “But, but, I’d like to go make sure he’s okay, I took care of him!” The woman was finally allowing the reality of the situation to wash over her. “Miss, he’s in good hands, and you’re not his caregiver. You wouldn’t be allowed to follow even if I didn’t have to interview you. Perhaps you can contact the adoption agency once everything’s been settled.” “Where are they taking him?” She was breathing normally now. “He’ll be taken to a hospital in Bordeu. After that, the Department of Little Services will either send him back to his dimension, or he’ll be adopted out.” Aquitane didn’t have independent Littles. “I wonder if I can adopt him?” Chapter 2----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Part 1 “Hey buddy, you in there?” The nurse figured he would have woken up by now. Unprotected trans-dimensional travel was really stressful on the body, but not anything that couldn’t be handled with modern medicine. “Mmmm ugrgh” Luke shifted a bit but didn’t open his eyes. “Great job buddy! Let’s keep waking up!” Nurse Joy epitomized her name. She loved her job as a specialist Little’s nurse, and was looking forward to meeting this one conscious. She was humming around his hospital room. He had no real belongings remaining, except for his wallet which was found by the canoer and sent to the hospital the day after his arrival. They had been able to find his parents’ contact information, though it remained to be seen when or if they would be able to visit him in this dimension. The time window for getting an Accidental Little back had already closed. His arrival location and general situation had made it impossible, and the authorities had been focused on getting him safe and healthy. According to his driver’s license, Luke Kepplin was 20 years old, due to turn 21 in three months’ time, 5’8” tall and 170 pounds (nurse Joy thought that was mostly muscle), very dark brown hair that was kept quite short and brown eyes. In nurse Joy’s eyes, he looked like the kind of guy who would be pretty popular in college, he had a handsome face and a well-defined jawline. It still surprised her to look at him: most littles had some amount of age-reducing treatment performed on them and they often looked pre-pubescent. Luke looked every bit a miniature adult. His body hair was also a bit disconcerting as well, with every diaper change Joy was again reminded that Littles are all actual adults, even if they don’t act that way. She figured that he’d eventually go through some amount of de-aging process to fit in a bit better. “Mmmgh hello?” Luke was apparently conscious. Joy was very familiar with the process of settling a Little who hadn’t really interacted or seen Bigs yet (his short period in the boat not really counting). She stepped behind a screen set up on one side of his bed so that she could talk to him without him seeing her at first. “Hi Luke, you can’t see me just yet, but my name is nurse Joy. I’m one of your nurses here in the hospital. Can you tell me what you remember? Do you know where you are?” Joy was sitting on an armless chair with a clipboard in her hand ready to take notes. “Urrgh, um I remember studying in the library, then it felt like my body was kind of on fire, like I hit my funny bone, but everywhere. Then I remember being cold and in some water… What happened? Where am I?” Luke started to sit up, and tried to fiddle with is IV. Other than that, there was no tubing on him, just a wireless ECG monitor in the wristband on his right wrist. “Luke, bud, um, so you got sucked into a dimensional portal, that’s probably what caused that funny bone feeling you were describing. Do you understand what that means buddy? You got dropped in our dimension…” On hearing the words ‘dimensional portal’ Luke sucked in a gulp of air. He knew about kidnappings to the Amazon dimension, he knew that occasionally people would go there voluntarily under very special circumstances, he wasn’t really aware of accidental travel, maybe he had heard about a human coming back from a trip one time on the news, but didn’t remember the details. That pretty much all Bigs were aware of all the ways a Little might come to the dimension, while humans were only vaguely aware of some of the possibilities spoke volumes about the difference in focus. Here, a large portion of the world revolved around Littles; back in the human dimension, Amazons were at the periphery, a vague boogeyman and occasionally a savior for people whose lives had taken a difficult turn. “Um, so I’m in the Amazon dimension right? Does that mean that you’re an Amazon too?” Joy winced a bit at his choice of wording, ‘Amazon’ was about as bad as it got in terms of trans-dimensional cursing. She also knew that he probably didn’t know any better. “That’s right Luke. Though we definitely prefer the term Big, using Amazon is considered pretty rude here.” “I’m gonna pull the curtain back. I want you to prepare yourself a bit, I’m gonna seem really really big to you. It’s okay if you get a bit scared, but just know I won’t hurt you, and I won’t come closer to you until you’re ready.” “Um, okay, you can pull the curtain, I won’t get scared.” Looking around the room during the conversation, Luke had vaguely understood that he was tiny compared to a standard-sized Big. The room was not sized to fit humans at all. Nurse Joy gripped one side of the curtain and pulled it back. Neither quickly nor slowly, she was revealed to Luke. Even sitting, she towered over him reclining in his hospital bed. She was about five feet away from the edge of the bed. “Woah! You’re huge! How tall are you?” Luke’s conscious brain was simultaneously amazed and impressed: this would be an awesome memory to share with his friends at home. Luke’s animal brain though was quickly realizing that he might be in danger. His heart rate was getting a lot faster, as evidenced by the ECG’s more rapid “beep..beep..beep”. Joy smiled internally, it was always nice when the Little wasn’t absolutely terrified of seeing someone so much bigger than them. In reality, Joy was quite short for a Big, not even 12 feet; she had hoped that her short height would make Littles more comfortable with her, but it hadn’t really seemed to matter, some got scared, a few didn’t. She was an awesome Little’s nurse anyway. Now she put on a caring smile outside to match the internal one. “I bet I seem pretty big to you huh. Can you take some slow deep breaths for me? Let’s try to get as little stress on your body as possible.” Luke complied, realizing that maybe he was a little more nervous than he had thought initially. “Are you okay if I stand up and touch you? I need to check you just a little bit.” “That’s okay.” Luke’s heart was under control, but his conscious brain was getting more and more concerned. Did his parents know where he was? What about his girlfriend? Would his university be okay with him missing presumably a lot of school? He didn’t want to have to make up a semester. Extra student loans would suck. He hoped they wouldn’t try to charge him for damage caused by the sudden dimensional portal, he obviously wasn’t responsible for that. Joy had gotten up and checked his diaper. She was prepared for some argument, but Luke had just blanched a bit and stayed quiet. He figured it would just be for while he was recovering in the hospital. She gently rubbed his shoulder and sat back down, picking up her clipboard. “Luke, I’m gonna ask you some questions to try and confirm some things. Your case worker from the Department of Little Services should be here in an hour or so, but if we can handle some stuff now, that will make everything easier.” “Okay. Sure.” “Let’s start with your full name, and your date of birth.” The date didn’t really mean anything to her, but these first questions were more to get Luke in the moment and focused rather than actually confirming the information. “Luke Pascal Kepplin, born June 10th 1999.” “Mmmhm. Can you tell me your home address?” The drivers license had an address, but they weren’t sure if that was his parents’ home, or somewhere else. “I live at 159 Ritah Way, Apartment 404. Springfield is the city’s name.” Joy took a note. “Okay, that doesn’t match what we have on file, did you have the license address from a previous residence?” “Oh! No, the address on my license is where my parents live, it’s where I grew up. They live at 2468 Appreciate Drive. Pleasantview is the town where we live.” Joy made a check mark. “Great, and can you tell me your parents’ names?” “Mark and Lindsey Kepplin.” “Great. That’s a big help Luke. Before you ask any questions, I’m required let you know that only your caseworker can tell you specifics about your situation here. I can tell you that we have sent a message to the inter-dimensional embassy for your country, along with most of the personal info we confirmed here. I don’t know if your parents are aware that you’re here yet, but if they’re not, they will be very soon.” While nurse Joy had been talking, Luke had been thinking a little more clearly about his situation here, trying to remember everything he knew about the Amazon (Big) dimension. One thing that he realized might be very important is exactly where in the dimension he arrived. If he arrived in a country where they preferred to kidnap humans, he might be in a great deal of trouble, though from his interactions with Joy so far, he was cautiously optimistic. “Um, so can you tell me where I am… I mean what country I’m in?” He couldn’t hide the fear from his voice. “We’re in a country called Aquitane Luke, do you know where that is?” Joy had never met a Little who knew more than the basics of Big geography. She was preparing herself to be very impressed. “No, um is it…. Um, one of the agreement countries?” He was struggling for a polite word to ask if he was in danger. “Oh, you mean an Alliance country? Yes! Aquitane is bud, you don’t have to worry about being kidnapped, you’ll be safe here Luke.” Joy wasn’t impressed, but glad she could make him feel better. Luke breathed a sigh of relief. “Great! You don’t know when I’ll be able to go home do you? Or is that something for the case worker? How about how long I’ll have to stay in the hospital?” Now Joy was worried. Luke’s positive attitude had surprised her considering he was an Accidental Little, but now she understood that he didn’t understand. She also understood that she probably shouldn’t and couldn’t be the one to break it to him that he was stuck here. At least not yet. She hoped he wouldn’t take it too hard once he realized his reality, but knew that was unlikely. “That’s one for your caseworker Luke. As for your hospital stay, the doctor will have to check you over, but he’s said you were looking pretty good, so I can’t imagine it will be too long.” “Ya know, I know you just woke up, but I bet a quick nap before the caseworker gets here would make you feel better. You still seem a bit groggy. Can I bring you something to drink?” Luke didn’t feel sleepy, just physically tired. He figured he’d be polite. “Um sure, a glass of water would be great. I guess I could rest a bit.” Joy left the room and came back quickly with a sippy cup holding about a pint of water. Joy knew he wouldn’t be overjoyed about the sippy cup, but figured he should start getting used to a few small bits of Littlehood. “Hey Luke, here’s your water. I know it’s in a sippy cup, but most of our Little, erm human patients are regressed, so policy is that you drink either from a sippy cup or a bottle.” Luke cringed theatrically, but he didn’t really seem that bothered. “I figured you’d prefer the sippy cup.” “Uh… yeah thanks. I’ll try and nap a bit. Will you be here when the caseworker comes?” Luke really liked Joy, and was a bit smitten. Not in a romantic way, Joy was clearly much older than he was, though relatively attractive for her age, emotionally, Luke just felt extremely comfortable around her, and liked that she was thinking about things that would make him feel more comfortable. “I probably will be here, unless the caseworker doesn’t want me to be sweetie. But you don’t need to worry, even if I’m not here, you’ll be safe, I guarantee it.” Joy figured she’d be there because when they broke the news that he’d be stuck here, they’d probably need someone to administer diazepam once he had his breakdown. Part 2 Steve Barnwell didn’t really like dealing with Accidental Littles; in general he liked Littles a lot, and he wouldn’t have worked for DLS otherwise, but he wasn’t infatuated like a lot of people, and dealing with an Accidental Little was always painful. In his not-so-extensive experience, nearly every Accidental Little was a nightmare to handle: pretty much none of them knew about dimensional sickness, and the general opinion of Bigs back in the Little’s dimension wasn’t really positive (something that would probably stun most Little parents here: Bigs were more or less thought of as monsters by everyone except for a very small subset of people). Eventually Accidental Littles were usually able to find their niche, but it often took quite a long time, and quite a bit of pain. The other major challenge with Accidental Littles was finding them adoptive parents. Generally, prospective parents aren’t really interested in helping a Little who’s stuck here involuntarily, and the Littles themselves often aren’t satisfied with having so few choices in adoptive parent, not that they want one anyway. Right now, for Luke, there was only one reasonable option, and Steve actually felt that she was the best he had seen for all the Accidental Little cases he had dealt with so far. He hoped that Luke would eventually appreciate how good he had it, even if he didn’t get a choice of adoptive parent. Steve stopped by the nurse’s station to talk with both the doctor and nurse before going to meet Luke. “So how’s he holding up? Has he been talking at all?” “Well his body went under a lot of stress with the travel, but his arrival in the lake wasn’t as much an issue as initially expected. He didn’t even suffer from hypothermia.” Dr. Hansen was pretty unflappable, but more focused on healing the Little’s body than really worrying about the other stuff. He figured that’s what the case worker was for. His bedside manner was calm and generally positive, but he wasn’t so much a Little’s doctor as he was just a doctor. Other than size, there weren’t that many physiological differences between Bigs and Littles. Joy spoke next. “I talked with him for a little bit a little over an hour ago, he was pretty groggy, but easy to deal with. He definitely doesn’t know what it means to be an Accidental Little. In fact, he doesn’t seem to know much about our dimension in general, though he was accommodating when I gave him a sippy cup.” Even Dr. Hansen cringed upon hearing that Luke didn’t know what it meant to be an Accidental Little. The next hour or so was going to really suck. “Let me write a diazepam script right now. Steve, do you want me to be in there when you break the news?” Joy jumped in “Actually, Luke already seemed to want me to be there when Steve was gonna meet with him. I’m fine administering the pen if necessary.” Steve smiled, “I think that’ll be really good, if he has someone he already likes and trusts, I think that will make everything a lot easier.” After picking up the pen, they walked down the hallway towards Luke’s room. Upon reaching it, Joy popped her head around the doorframe and simultaneously knocked on it. Luke had been sitting up staring into nothing, but quickly popped his head around. Joy’s tone was light and cheery to try and keep things positive, at least for the moment. “Hey Luke, your caseworker is here to chat with you. If you still want, I can stay here too?” Luke smiled, Joy had been the best part of a bad situation so far. “Yeah, you can stay.” He didn’t want to betray how nervous he was about this meeting. It was good to know that he was in an Alliance country, but having somebody who he knew was on his side was even better. Joy stepped all the way into the room and gestured behind her. A man a least a foot taller than she was stepped in at her indication. “This is Steve Barnwell. He’s your caseworker here in Aquitane.” By Luke’s accounting, Steve looked to be in his mid-thirties, he was slim, bordering on skinny, and looked to be pure business. Steve was wearing perfectly tailored slacks and light blue button-down shirt. Steve’s appearance and much less warm expression did not put Luke at ease. Steve had been wearing a business meeting smile rather than nurse Joy’s I’m happy to see you smile. Steve spoke first. “It’s nice to meet you Luke, as nurse Joy said, I’m Steve and I’ll be your caseworker here in Aquitane. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, and I’ll have a lot of answers, but let me get some info to you right off the bat so that we can all be on the same page.” Steve hoped that if he took control of the conversation then Luke wouldn’t be able to set himself up for a major breakdown. Pacing and tone can get you through a lot of difficult conversations. It helped that Steve didn’t really care if Luke thought of him as a friend, he just wanted the best possible outcome for both Luke and the Aquitane government. “So, you’ve been here for about three days so far. You were caught in an unanticipated rift in our dimensions’ inter-dimensional fiber, which sucked you over to our dimension. Here, your situation is called an ‘Accidental Little’, and some people will probably refer to you as such. Your arrival here was quite eventful as far as these things go: you popped out over a lake and had to be saved from drowning before we were able to get you to a hospital here in Bordeu, which by the way is the capital of Aquitane. It took quite a while to get you here, and by the time doctors determined you were safe and stable, more than 3 hours had passed since your arrival.” Steve paused for three heartbeats to see if Luke recognized the importance of that final sentence. Luke was simply listening intently. Steve decided to continue with other info before coming back to the Accidental Little situation. “We got into contact with your government on the same day you arrived, so they’re aware you’re here. It took another day for the government to get into contact with your parents, but they now know you’re here too. Apparently you lived quite far from an inter-dimensional communication station, so it’ll take another day or two before you’ll be able to talk to your parents.” Luke heaved a sigh of relief. His family knew he was here, which meant that they wouldn’t be so worried. He was looking forward to getting out of the dimension, but assumed it took some time to prepare a more standard transportation. He decided to ask. “Um, so if you’re planning for my parents to call me, will it take quite a while for me to get sent back to my dimension?” Steve and Joy shared a gulp and a look as though they were deciding who would break the news. Of course, there was no real choice. Steve replied. “Not to step around your question Luke, but do you know much about interdimensional travel?” Luke shook his head. “Okay, this is gonna be slightly technical, and a little weird, but stick with me for a second. In each of our dimensions, we are surrounded by 4th moment dimensional plasma. This plasma is unique to each individual dimension. When travelling between dimensions, one travels through 5th moment dimensional plasma. This plasma will strip you of the plasma associated with your home dimension if you aren’t protected during the trip. This is why we use the transports and medication we do when transporting between dimensions. The consequences of having your plasma stripped are significant: it causes some sickness, and is the main reason you’ve been unconscious for the last three days. Additionally, when you don’t have your own plasma layer, you get a new one within a few hours of arriving here, you now have the same plasma layer as me and Joy. In the universe’s eyes, you are from our dimension.” Luke was getting really nervous, he could kind of guess what Steve was trying to imply, but his brain wouldn’t let him believe it. “So if I were given the same protection for my return trip, I could live in my dimension, but with your dimension’s plasma right?” Steve smiled weakly. “You’d think that, and it is true for Bigs from our dimension, that they can at least travel to your dimension safely. However, having your plasma stripped has long term consequences. Your body will recognize your home dimension’s plasma and try to get back to it. However, our dimension’s plasma won’t let that happen easily; this situation puts your body under extreme stress, and rapidly causes damage at the cellular level. It’s like having a shirt, and travelling here shrunk it down to fit our dimension; bringing it back to your dimension would be like trying to unshrink it by tearing it apart and then sewing it back together. Eventually your body would have your home dimension’s plasma, but you’d be long dead by then. You won’t be leaving our dimension Luke.” Now Joy was sitting in a more active ‘ready’ position. Luke’s eyes had gotten wide, he was holding his breath. His head felt like it was being pressed under a vice. Anxiety, fear, anger all were building up inside of him. He decided he preferred anger at the moment. “That’s fucking bullshit! You guys just want to keep me! You think we don’t hear about how Amazons treat humans in your dimension. You guys must be so glad to have another human fall into your laps, you didn’t even have to work for me. You can send me back but you won’t even let me go.” Luke was panting for air. His yelling was loud enough to attract the attention of another nurse who came briskly towards the room. When Joy saw her, she subtly motioned her away. Steve responded calmly, this was going pretty well so far. Luke was angry, but hadn’t done anything wild. “You know that’s not true Luke, nobody hopes for this outcome. People don’t want to adopt someone who doesn’t want to be here. In those other countries, they alter you surgically so that you can’t talk or fight back. Doing that here is illegal, and certainly will not be happening to you.” Steve paused to let Luke have more of his say. “Adopt me?! I have parents! I have a family! I don’t need to be adopted! I had my whole fucking life ahead of me and you guys have ruined because you’re all twisted freaks who want to kidnap adults and treat them as children! I’m leaving!” At that, Luke kicked off his blanket and tried to stand up on his bed. His hospital gown had shifted off to the side, so his diaper butt and most of his front was showing clearly to Steve and Joy. His IV line was pulling at him, and he reached to try and pull it out. At this, Steve acted, in one quick step he was holding Luke’s arm to prevent him from reaching the IV. “Luke, you can’t leave the hospital yet. And we aren’t lying about the dimensional sickness. It is fairly well known even in your dimension. I can get somebody from your dimension to talk with you about it later if you’d like.” Steve’s hand was still wrapped not too tightly around Luke’s left arm, from wrist to elbow. Luke wasn’t listening at all, instead, he twisted his body around and grabbed Steve’s thumb with his right hand and tried to pull it off his arm. Luke was really strong: he was in the gym five days per week lifting and rowing, and had a body that had allowed him to easily pledge to a fraternity when he entered university, it also allowed him quite a bit of success with women. His strength was essentially useless here, Steve’s hand may as well have been made of titanium, there was no way for Luke to free himself with pure strength. Without thinking or consciously meaning to, Luke twisted a bit more, and brought his head over towards Steve’s hand. Joy knew what was about to happen, she’d dealt with littles undergoing mental breakdowns and episodes, but she was too slow to intervene, the switch that flipped Luke from quiet and concerned to loud and angry had stunned her a bit despite her ‘ready’ position, leaving her ineffectual in her chair. Luke bit Steve on the wrist, hard. His mouth was too small to do damage to major tendons, veins, or arteries, but little teeth are still sharp, and he pierced Steve’s skin, drawing blood and getting that strong metallic taste in his mouth. “Ahhgh shit! That hurts!” Steve grabbed Luke by the shoulder and pulled him away from his wrist, while still trying to keep control over his left arm. “Fuck you you fucking asshole go to fucking…” Joy finally injected the pen into his thigh, and Luke drooped back into bed. “Let’s get your wrist taken care of Steve. He got you pretty bad. Lucky you’re in a hospital.” Joy called another nurse over to get some disinfectant and bandages. “Crazy little. I’m used to these ones kicking and screaming, I didn’t think he was going to bite me. Hopefully he’s at least less violent when he wakes up. I hope we can get him adopted quickly, or at least that his parents can calm him down…” Steve was holding the bandage around his wrist even though he didn’t really need to. It didn’t hurt anymore, and there wasn’t too much blood. The big thing with bite wounds is the potential for infection, but being in a hospital allowed them to disinfect the injury almost instantly. He wasn’t mad at Luke, but mainly frustrated with the situation, Accidental littles make everyone look bad: the dimension for keeping them against their will, the country (at least in the case of the Alliance) for the same reason, especially Aquitane which didn’t allow independent littles, and finally, Accidental littles were massively uncooperative, though there were relatively few of them, the rate of return to the agency was almost five times higher than a standard adopted little. In fact, issues with the return rate on Accidental littles had caused agencies in Aquitane to institute a unique policy: If you are unable to care for the Accidental little you adopted, you will be barred from adopting any other little for life. The natural concern about this sort of rule is that it keeps the little trapped in a bad situation as well. However, experience has shown that this isn’t the case: The main changes that occur in this situation is that the big is now forced to more conscientiously evaluate how they can respect their little’s needs. The agency had previously provided substantial reading material about what sort of massive changes may have occurred in the little’s life, but often that information would go in one ear and out the other for bigs who are little crazy. That changed once the new agreement was instituted, at least once the big and little reached a critical climax point. Additionally, the reality was that after the institution of the new rule, life satisfaction for Accidental littles approached that of normally adopted unregressed littles after 3 years or so, whereas previously it took longer to approach similar levels of happiness. In order to prevent abuse from sadistic bigs who would have otherwise wanted a kidnapped little, Accidental littles also received much more frequent and thorough welfare checks than any other type of little. Part 3 Luke woke up again about an hour later. Steve was waiting in a chair near his bed browsing his cell phone. When he noticed Luke waking up, he called for Joy to join him. “Welcome back to the land of the living Luke. You sure got me good.” Steve smiled and raised his bandaged wrist into Luke’s field of view. “Please don’t do that again. If you do, we’ll have to restrain you, which will probably make you confirm all your fears about bigs and littles.” In truth, they were already supposed to have restrained him, but Steve convinced Dr. Hansen not to, explaining that it would probably cause more significant damage to Luke’s mental health than any reaction could cause to Luke’s or anyone’s physical health. “What did you guys do to me?” There wasn’t much anger in Luke’s voice, just exhaustion. Joy stepped in. “Honey, we gave you some medicine to fall asleep. You had already hurt Steve, and we were concerned you were going to hurt yourself as well. You have to remember that our number one job is to keep you safe.” “I have some more information to give you, so I’m gonna talk, and then let you ask questions at the end okay? Can you try your best to stay calm for me?” Steve looked to Luke who gave him a nod while holding a glare that communicated his deep dissatisfaction with the situation. “Okay, so you’re what we call an Accidental Little. You’re suck here, but that doesn’t mean your life has to be miserable. Our government spends considerable resources to ensure that you are adopted to a caregiver that will actively work to keep you happy and healthy.” Luke glared even harder. Steve could tell that he had taken issue with being adopted. “You will be adopted. Littles living independently isn’t a thing in Aquitane; it isn’t a thing in any country but for a select few, and they don’t allow Accidental Little immigration anyway. There are no public facilities designed for Little use. You have to remember that 99% of humans here are treated as babies or young children. Being adopted means that you will have the rights of a minor.” Luke was ready to blow up, he had only become an adult a couple years ago, now he was going to be stuck as a little kid?! Steve spoke quickly. “However, we actively search to make sure you are adopted by a caregiver who is more willing to let you express your independence. This means things like wearing much more mature clothes than what standard Little’s wear, eating more adult-style meals, having a more mature room, more mature toys and activities, maybe there won’t be restrictions on the type of television you watch, you will likely not have to use a high chair (though it’s really more convenient). All-in-all, legally you’re still their kid, but we make sure that they understand you are an adult, and desire, at least for now, to maintain most of the independence that you would have otherwise had.” Luke wasn’t ready to say anything. When Steve went through the list of differences between him and other Littles, he was simultaneously relieved and indignant. Glad that he wouldn’t be kept as a baby, but frustrated that those other things were actual possibilities. “There are some things that you aren’t going to like, beyond just the whole situation of you being here.” Steve ran his hand through his hair, he was preparing for another blowup. “You will almost certainly be expected to wear and use diapers.” Luke jerked up and interrupted. “I don’t need diapers! I don’t want to wear diapers!” “I know you don’t need diapers Luke, and conceptually your caregiver might understand that as well. However, there are no Little sized toilets or public accommodations as I said. It is honestly more dignified for both you and your caregiver to keep you in diapers rather than holding you over a toilet for your needs. It’s also something that probably won’t become that big a deal in time. This is one thing that even Accidental Littles accept without too much fuss after a relatively short period.” “So what else am I gonna hate?” Luke spat. He was still angry, but he was mostly tired and feeling more and more hopeless. He felt like he had essentially died and been sent to Hell, or at least Purgatory. “Hmm. Well you will probably have to drink from a bottle occasionally and a sippy cup nearly all the time. You will probably sleep in a crib, though maybe you can convince your Big to keep the bars down. If your Big has a job, you’ll probably have to go to daycare. Only some handle unregressed Littles, so they’ll be relatively aware of your cognition, but a lot of things will still feel infantile.” Steve shifted in his chair again, explaining how Bigs viewed Littles was always uncomfortable to a Little who didn’t want to be there. “The last, and probably biggest thing is how Bigs other than your caregiver will view you. Remember that 99% of Littles are treated as toddlers or infants. Most Bigs will view you in the same way until they interact with you. Some still will even after that, we call it ‘Little blindness’ and don’t really understand what causes it, but there are just some Bigs who can’t help see you as a toddler, no matter what you say or do.” “Wait, so you’re saying that other than my caregiver, I actually am going to be treated like a baby?” Luke was more than angry, he felt he had been lied to. They promised he would get to keep a lot of his independence, but now the caveats just kept growing. “A little bit, at first, yes. However, I’d say that most Bigs are not completely Little blind, and will treat you more maturely after interacting with you. Complete blindness is mainly an issue associated with the older generation, though some younger Bigs have it to, we think it’s at least partly biological.” Steve paused and spoke again. “But! Right now your caregiver is going through some intensive training on how to treat an Accidental Little. Part of that training is on making sure other Bigs treat you with respect, and strategies to make public outings more enjoyable for both of you.” Luke was both relieved and annoyed, it felt like every improvement had a caveat. “You mean you’ve already chosen who will take care of me? I don’t even get a say in it? What the hell!” Steve cringed. He probably shouldn’t have let it slip like that. “We have. Sometimes the Accidental Little gets a choice, but usually there is only one or two Bigs at any time applying to adopt an Accidental Little, so the choice is kind of made for you. In your case there were two applicants, including one who was specifically interested in you. However, that one was fairly Little blind, and didn’t really have the resources it took to handle this sort of unique situation. The other is a lot more open minded, and, if we’re being honest, fairly wealthy, which will probably be lot more fun for you.” Luke frowned, but for the most part agreed with Steve’s reasoning. He was a little insulted that so few Bigs wanted to adopt him, even if he didn’t want to be adopted himself. “I want to talk to my parents.” Luke was emotionally done. Joy was happy that there wasn’t another blowup, but she also really felt bad for him, it just didn’t seem like he could imagine any positives to living here. She wanted to tell him that it would be like an eternal vacation, but figured it would be insulting to his previous life. “You’ll get to talk to them tomorrow. We already have a time setup.” “Can you tell me about the person who’s gonna adopt me?” “You’ll get to meet her tomorrow too. She’s gonna chat with you parents for a bit after you do. Her name’s Erin.” Luke yawned. It was well past the time most Littles went to bed. “How about you get some sleep, and you and I can chat more tomorrow before you talk with your parents.” Steve stood from his chair and reorganized some of his files before putting them in his briefcase. “I guess I don’t really have a choice.” Joy reached over and patted his hand. Luke didn’t respond but to look up at her. His eyes were glistening with tears, but he wasn’t crying yet. He had ran out of energy to be angry, and now pure sadness was filling its hole. “My life is completely fucked, isn’t it?” Joy just patted his hand again.

Still awesome! I can also feel that it's getting a lot more episodic, but I really appreciate that in doing so you're still developing the characters around Jamie. I'd still like to meet Kyle though, there aren't enough guys in Jamie's life

Hey, just wanted to say I made an account here because of how good this story was. The absolute wholesomeness of it was incredibly satisfying. I'd really like to see a prequel based on Ella's experiences (namely the process of healing after getting rescued). I totally understand if that's not your thing (too much horror), or the story resembles Jamie's too much. In any case, thanks for writing what is probably the first piece of ABDL literature in our fetish! It was amazing.