diaper dimension Done Adulting, Vol. 2 (Final chapter posted 12/21/20)

[Gentle Gemma]

On 2/8/2020 at 10:17 PM, Shotgun Diplomat said:

That would be a frightening power indeed to hold. 

Indeed.  I would make all clouds cotton candy, all squirrels could talk, and pizza would have negative calories. 

[Alex Bridges]

Chapter 91

 

Jamie was sitting up in bed reclining on his bear when Becky came in to get him up. He felt especially well rested. He’d gotten used to it and told the truth when he said he liked the bed they picked out in the store together for the apartment, but a mattress of medium firmness was a lot more firm when it was made for bigs’ much heavier bodies. He liked Amanda’s bed, but he was glad to be back in his crib.

“Good morning,” he said when Becky came in.

“Morning. Ready to start our day?” He held his arms up. Jamie reflected on when the last time she lowered the rail might have been. She and Amanda just reached over it. He was up and on his changing table in one motion. Jamie put his hands behind his head while Becky wiped him down.

“A week of summer left,” he said.

“For me. Not for you and Manda,” Becky said.

“Sorry you have to go back to work.” She picked him back up and carried him to the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the tub with him while she let the warm water run.

“Ya know, I’m ready to. I love summer time, but what makes it special is that it’s not the whole year ... And getting to spend all day with you makes even more extra special.”

Jamie sighed and said, “I’m glad to be home,” before he thought how that might be misunderstood.

Becky furled her forehead. “Something not okay at the apartment?”

“No! Everything was fine. I just ... this still feels more like home than there. Familiar. My bed, my room, my dog ... my mom.”

Becky kissed him on the head. “I’m glad you’re home, too. I do want the apartment to feel like your home, too, though.”

“It does. Just not as much as here yet. I’m sure it will feel more and more like home over time.”

“I’m sure it will, too.” She took him off her lap and lowered him into the tub. Hot water made him sigh every time, like a chemical reaction. 

“What should we do with my week left,” she asked him as she started washing him. She started at his feet, always at his feet.

“Actually, I was wondering if I could pick out some new diapers.”

“What made you think of that?” He’d been wearing the same couple of brands for the past two years. She’d take any excuse she could to take him shopping for little things and have him actually participate instead of zoning out in his stroller.

“A commercial I saw on TV,” he lied.

“We can do that this morning. Do you remember what they were called?”

“No, but they had stretchy sides. I think they’ll be more comfortable for playing in. They’ll stay up better.”

“Hmm. Not a bad idea ... though watching you tug your diaper up while you’re playing is so adorable it makes me want to gobble you up.”

It was Jamie’s turn to furl his brow. “Everyone wants to eat me.”

“Well, littles were first introduced to Itali as a delicacy,” Becky teased. “But you all are so cute we decided to keep you instead.” Jamie frowned at her. “People thought the first person in Itali to let a little live inside was crazy, but it really took.”

“Har har.”

“We can also look at some clothes for you. Autumn is around the corner, and I think back to school sales started today.”

“That means the mall,” Jamie said.

“Yeah, but we’ll just look at things for you ... Unless I see something for Manda. Or me.”

“I’m not going back to school ever.” He’d been so happy to say that when he graduated, and six months later he found himself wishing he were back in school where things now seemed so much easier and less stressful than working.

“But you are going back to little care, and it wouldn’t hurt you to look a little nice on your first day back.”

“I look nice all the time,” Jamie pouted. Sure, wearing pants that require a belt and shirts with buttons had become special occasion things, but he could really pull off the a tee shirt and shorts or sweatpants look. He thought of it as athleisure wear for littles. It was the jeans and khaki pants with the elastic waistbands and fake flies he thought looked ridiculous. Like something an old man would wear.

“Maybe a shirt with buttons on it just for Day One? For me?”

“My onesies have buttons on them.” If he’d been asked four years ago if he would ever defend his right to wear a onesie, he’d have said no way.

“Maybe a button or three right here,” she said as she poked him on the sternum just below his neck. He didn’t mind polo shirts and henleys. Those had become his preferred shirts in his last years before his departure when he started feeling uncomfortable wearing just a tee shirt in public, like he’d crossed out of his twenties and had to look just a little not like he rolled out of bed before going to the grocery store.

“Those are okay. Just nothing with a collar that stands up.”

 

————————

 

Manda came along grudgingly. She didn’t have any money to spend, didn’t really need anything, and didn’t want her mom to buy her anything else. Manda ordered her books for the semester that morning on her credit card and was freaked out that she couldn’t pay the balance off in full that month. She’d come along only after Becky had said, “Jamie does need some things, and you know how he gets when we go shopping. A second set of hands would be doing me a real favor.”

Put like that, Amanda didn’t have much choice and met them at the mall. Jamie astutely brought his headphones along, figuring at some point they would start looking at things for themselves and he’d be so bored he would want to eat the stroller just to have something to do.

“Little store first,” Becky said. They carried a small selection of diapers, and she hoped the ones Jamie wanted were there. If not, she’d make the trip to A Little This A Little That before going home, but she didn’t want to. It wasn’t on the way home. 

Becky was in the habit of going into a store and searching for what she needed on her own. Manda would usually ask a salesperson. It was a difference borne of Becky’s generation having been on the tail end of the online shopping addiction. It had taken a long time, but society had finally gotten over that and treated screens like the treats they are, not something to revolve life around.

“Excuse me,” Manda said to the woman behind the counter, “we’re looking for these diapers with a really stretchy waistband but we don’t know what they’re called.”

“Stretchy’s,” the woman said. She stepped out from behind the counter and led the way. “They’ve been so popular since they came out. Is he very mobile?”

“I’m a contortionist,” Jamie said with a smirk. Manda stifled a laugh, and even Becky smiled. She wasn’t a huge fan of sarcasm from littles, but so long as Jamie did it in a way that made it clear he was joking and not being rude, she was okay with it. Otherwise, he’d get a warning and then a timeout if he didn’t knock it off.

The woman’s eyebrows perked up as she smiled. “O, I like him,” she said as she looked from Becky to Amanda. “You guys must have your hands full.”

“He’s super easy,” Becky assured her.

“Except when he gets himself stuck in a knot and we have to untie him,” Amanda added. 

The woman thought the three of them made a likely trio; she wondered who was the worst influence on the others. “These what you were looking for,” she asked.

“That what you saw on TV?”

“I think so.”

Becky looked at the price tag. “These are pricey for a diaper. Are these less expensive at other stores?”

The saleswoman wasn’t on commission and felt no reason to lie and said, “Only if you buy in bulk, which we don’t stock.”

“Wish we could try them first,” Becky said as she picked up a package and looked over the information on the back.

“We have samples in the changing room,” the woman said as she showed them to the back. “Just knock if we’re out.”

“Be right back,” Becky said. Amanda waited outside with the saleswoman.

“You got a clever one,” she said.

“Clever, smartass. Depends on his mood.”

“I wish our little was more talkative.”

“Gotta adopt one who isn’t regressed.”

“O, that makes sense ... Is he still like a traditional little though?”

While Manda was explaining Jamie, Becky had his feet in the air and a new diaper under him. “Let’s see how this works,” she said as she lowered his legs and pulled the front of the diaper up. She pressed it to his hips and smoothed it down. She made a face like she was thinking and did first the right side and then his left, noting that the sides were were quite flexible. It seemed odd. “How’s that feel?”

Jamie wiggled his hips. “It’s comfortable.” She held out her hands and helped him sit up, then told him to stand on the table. She gently turned him. Jamie felt like he was a car being carefully inspected by a potential buyer as she put two fingers inside the diaper at his thigh, where she checked him for wetness, and gave a tug on the waist and leg gathers around his butt.

“Well,” she said, “your entire butt is in the diaper at least. Does it feel snug.”

“Very.”

“Here,” she said and helped him back to the floor. “Dance around for a second.”

“What?”

“I wanna make sure it still feels snug after you move around.”

Jamie felt ridiculous and did a half hearted jump. “Feels like it stayed put.”

“Well, there’s more room in the store. Let’s go dance out there.”

“Mommy!”

“I’m teasing, Baby Bear.” She bent over to pull his shorts up for him and the two of them walked back out.

“Everything okay,” the saleswoman asked.

“They fit fine, but if they’re more flexible now doesn’t that mean they’ll get saggy after he ... ?” Becky left the last words unsaid.

“The off-brand stretch diapers do, but the name brand ones have a lot more elastic in them. They stay on really well. Our little wears them at the little gym.”

“What’s the little gym,” Jamie asked.

“A place where littles can climb on things and tumble on the mats.”

“Wanna try that,” Becky asked. 

“Maybe.” Amanda walked away and came back with a package of the stretchies. After they’d checked out, Becky steered them toward one of the department stores that was having a back to school sale. There were cute things in the little store, but littles don’t go to school, so no sale.

“I am going to join one of those club stores, and we’ll see what those cost there. Until then we’ll have to save these for the park,” Becky said.

“That’s fine,” Jamie said.

“Fifty centums a diaper is a lot,” she mused our loud. She didn’t say that was actually less than what Manda’s bedwetting diapers cost once she outgrew the kid ones. She was glad she never had two in diapers at the same time. Double the work, sure, but also the expense. 

“What are we looking for,” Manda asked.

“Presentable versions of the stuff he likes to wear. You’re hard on clothes, Jamie Bear.”

“Sorry.”

“Littles are supposed to be hard on clothes,” Becky said as she leaned over the top of the stroller and looked down at him. “That means you play hard.”

“I play to win.” His clothes showed it, especially at the end of the seasons. Grass stains and frayed hems and sun-faded shorts and shirts she had run through the laundry so many times they lost their brightness. Not to mention the food stains on so many shirts, but Jamie blamed those on the two of them; maybe he was a messier eater than he’d once been, but nine out of ten food stains came from him letting them feed him ice cream or cake or, worst of all, pasta. They enjoyed it, and Jamie let them do it, but whether they missed his mouth or he missed the spoon was a hotly contested debate. He was pretty sure they did it on purpose sometimes because they thought the pictures of him with a messy face were cute.

“Maybe also some new shoes,” Becky suggested. “Can we do that today, Jamie?”

“Yes,” he said. “I’ll be good.” Shoes were the easier part of shopping for him. She let him pick them out and didn’t browse nearly so much as she did for clothes. It would be even quicker if she didn’t insist he try on three sizes to make sure they fit, as though his feet were still growing. Different brands fit differently, she’d remind him.

It was the clothes shopping that tested Jamie’s patience. He could be done in a half hour if she just gave him her credit card. But no, she browsed. Jamie had noted in his first year that, setting aside how toddlerish most of his clothes were, there was much more variety in his wardrobe’s styles and colors precisely because she browsed whereas he’d just get the same few styles and colors if left to his own devices. He appreciated the variety. He liked the way he dressed, especially now that the most toddlerish things had been replaced over the years. There were still plenty of clothes with an animal on them - Jamie wondered if they came from a series Becky was trying to complete - but they’d found a good balance of cute and functional. He just didn’t like Becky’s shopping style. If he’d known his simple ask to try a new brand of diaper would lead to a fully fledged shopping trip, he’d have kept it to himself.

It never failed to irritate Jamie that the displays in the little section were built for bigs.  Amanda took him out of the stroller and placed him on her hip so he could see the shoes on the tables. Buying new shoes meant sandal time was drawing to a close for another year. A return to socks and no bare feet in the grass. He didn’t buy new shoes every year before he came to Itali. He was a little harder on his footwear as a little, all the running he did, but also the shoes weren’t made as well. They were just slightly different versions of toddlers’ shoes, and no one makes toddler shoes to last very long. He steered Amanda to the more expensive ones; they were more comfortable and held up better to how much he played.

“I like these ones,” he decided. They were similar to what he had.

“You don’t wanna try something more colorful?”

“Grey is a color.”

“So easy to please,” Becky said. She wanted to get him the red ones or the blue ones or something more colorful, but Jamie could decide for himself. It wouldn’t be right of her to insist given his level of development; she thought some shopping trips with Amanda would’ve gone a lot smoother if she’d accepted her daughter had reached the age when she could decide more things like that for herself.

“I don’t have any socks on,” Jamie realized when the clerk brought out the requisite three sizes for him to try.

“I planned ahead,” Becky said as she produced a pair of socks. He knew he’d grow used to it again, but they felt like cotton foot prisons on his feet. He missed that about his home, the warm weather year round.

The trying on of shoes wouldn’t take so long if the shoes came laced in the box. Why they don’t come laced in the box never made any sense. Like they leave the customer the choice of whether to lace them? Of course they’re gonna lace them! But Jamie was patient while the clerk did the laces and fitted his foot into each pair and tied them much tighter than Jamie tied them. He rarely tied them anyway; once tied, his playing shoes became slips ons. Only the stiff dress ones he wore a couple times a year needed to be tied every time, and he hated those.

“I used to have a lot of shoes,” Jamie said. “All different kinds, and then I’d wear the same ones all the time.”

“I’m guilty of that, too,” Manda said. He stood up each time a new pair was tied on and walked halfway down the aisle with the clerk and his bigs looking at him as though a breakthrough in shoe science was in the making, and each time Becky would kneel down and feel his feet through the shoe, seeing if he had enough room for his toes and if the shoe was wide enough and if the heel slipped. Nearly an hour after they’d started browsing, they left the shoe department with grey shoes in the same size he wore. It had only taken him five minutes to pick them out.

He reached into his pocket for his headphones, taking out just one and putting it in. A fair compromise: he wasn’t not participating, but there was entertainment. He focused on his music while Becky and Amanda looked through racks, only speaking up if he saw something he liked.

Itali was so much less consumerist than his home. People bought less, and what they did buy lasted longer. Jamie had pieced together a story that life there had borne a close resemblance to life at home several generation ago, when Becky’s mom and grandparents were young. It seemed like they just outgrew it as a society, that all the consumerist habits and worries had fallen out of favor. All the things humans back home knew were bad for them - the constant buying and the constant screen time and the addiction to social media - had all happened in Itali. They’d just grown out of those bad behaviors. He noticed it when he saw Amanda buying notebooks for class, or when he went to her campus and didn’t see students glued to their phones, and in the absence of the weekly or more stream of packages showing up on doorsteps. Yet despite all that, Becky and Manda both loved to browse.

The only clothes that interested Jamie were the functional ones: stuff to play in, stuff to sleep in. If it wasn’t comfortable or suited to either of those, he didn’t especially care. He rubber stamped their choices except for the ones he just didn’t like at all, and he paid little mind to some of the cuter choices Becky didn’t ask his opinion on. 

“Should we look through the little girls’ section,” Amanda asked.

“Nothing there will fit you,” Jamie responded.

“O, come on,” she told him, “maybe there’s something you’ll like.” He doubted it. The skirts were for hot weather and the dresses were for after the pool. He didn’t see himself wearing girls’ clothes once the weather cooled. She steered them in that direction, and he returned to his zoned out state while they looked. Nothing seemed worth asking his opinion on.

“I like that,” he said when he spotted a hoodie.

“Yeah,” Becky asked as she took it off the table. “What do you like about it?”

“It looks softer than mine.” She handed it to him. A marled cotton in a heather purple. “May I get it?”

“Sure. Anything else you like?”

“They do have skirts that go down to your ankles,” Manda reminded him. “Even if it’s for laying around the house, they’re comfy ... Or nightgowns instead of sleepers.”

Jamie thought on that for a moment. “I’d try a nightgown.” Despite the name, he knew back home there were still stores that sold nightshirts for men, the same thing by a different word. She wheeled him toward pajamas. Becky sorted through racks while something caught Amanda’s eye and she disappeared.

“What did you find,” she asked when she returned and saw Jamie holding a nightgown. “Purple,” she answered her own question when she saw.

“I like purple,” Jamie said, defending his choice. “And it’s very soft.”

“What do you find,” Becky asked.

“Hear me out,” she said. “You’re always cold when we go outside in the winter and your feet are little ice cubes.” She opened up a plastic egg and unfurled a pair of tights. “No will see them under your pants.”

He shrugged. “I’ll try it. It’s just like long underwear.” Becky envisioned him walking through the house in white tights and a tee shirt, the prints on the back of his diaper visible through the sheer fabric. How disappointing truly cold days were still months away.

“And if you want,” Amanda added as she tried to get them back in the egg, “you can wear them with a skirt without getting cold ... How do these ... screw it; we’re buying them anyway,” she said as she gave on trying to get them back in.

There would be another shopping trip when autumn turned to winter, but this took care of most of the basic articles he needed for the cooler months, new outfits he could proceed to slowly abuse while he played tag at the park and climbed on the swing set at daycare and got paint on them with Ella, despite wearing a smock.

“There’s just a couple things I wanna look at before we go,” Becky said.

Knowing this was why Becky wanted her to come so much, and knowing Jamie was about to go from disinterested to bored, and shortly after from bored to impatient, Manda said, “Why don’t Jamie and I go to the food court and find a snack?”

“Okay. I’ll meet you in a half hour.” They all knew it would be a full hour.

“Can I ask you something, Manda,” Jamie inquired as they left the department store and went back into the mall.

“Shoot.”

“How come when we’re on a nice, smooth surface like this, you never get a running start and let go of the stroller?”

“Meh, because I love you I guess.”

“Too bad we can’t ride bikes in here.”

“Not enough room.”

“Maybe not for you. Ever go roller skating?”

“I don’t do good on wheels in general.”

“Hmm. May I get out?” She stopped and helped him down, and they walked side by side. There were dozens of stores Jamie had never been in selling designer brands he’d never heard of. For each one, he thought of the similar brands back home. “Best part of the mall growing up was Sam Goody,” he told her. “Could spend hours in there going through CDs and not buying anything.”

“CDs?”

“Like a BVG but for music.”

She shook her head. “Probably something my great grandma would know about,” though Amanda never met her great grandma. “Got a snack preference?”

“It’s almost lunch time,” he told her.

“So dessert comes first today,” she decided.

“Maybe a cookie. I can save most of it for later.” Amanda chuckled at him, willing to be pushed in a stroller across a huge tile floor but not wanting to spoil his appetite. Cookies in hand, they took over a bench where they could people watch. She put him on her lap and kept a protective arm around his middle.

“Look at that one,” Amanda said, pointing to a mom with five kids in tow, everyone looking unhappy.

“Yikes. Maybe baldy over there is gonna buy a hat to wear over his combover,” Jamie said, pointing to a big who’d look a lot better if he gave up the pretense.

“We’re so bitchy,” Manda said as she licked at the icing in her cookie sandwich.

“We’re nice all the rest of the time.”

“You sleep well back in your crib last night?”

“Definitely ... I mean, it’s just comfier.”

“I get it. Didn’t hurt my feelings.”

“It’s a trade off. It’s comfier, but I like having someone in the bed with me. My bear doesn’t hug back.”

“He doesn’t?”

“No. In fact, he can very demanding. Always wants to be held but really doesn’t reciprocate,” Jamie said.

“First time I think I’ve heard you share any of the inner workings of your bearriage.”

“My what?”

“Your bearriage. Your bear marriage.”

“Well, we gotta have a little privacy if we’re gonna have the level of intimacy you need in a ... bearriage ... even if it’s a common law bearriage.”

“I get it,” Manda assured him. “Me and the bear you gave me are still in the getting-to-know-you phase.”

“You haven’t learned her name yet?”

“Cookie,” Amanda said.

“Is that because you happened to be eating a cookie when I asked just now?”

“Yeah, but at least mine’s got a name.”

“My Bear doesn’t need a name,” Jamie sassed back, “He’s got mystery. Who is he? Where did he come from? My bear is a cypher wrapped in an enigma and smothered in secret sauce.”

“You didn’t come up with that on your own.”

“I saw it on cable reruns once, but my point stands. He’s got a dark past he ran away from.”

“Is he as silly as the bear on my lap?”

“Sillier than he used to be. He was very serious when we first got together ... But very sweet, too.”

“I like bears like that,” Manda said as she give him a kiss on his head. “Does he also not care for shopping?”

“There’s very little he wants that he doesn’t already have ... He likes the cookie part, though.”

Amanda looked at Jamie and brushed off his back. “I’m getting cookie all over my bear.”

“Thanks for coming today.”

“Thanks for being a good sport ... And for being a good sport later when I get my fingers under that nightgown and tickle you til you squee.”

“I can always just squee without the tickling.”

“Why would that be fun?”

“Fair point.”

[Sarah Penguin]

whee more bear shenanigans

[littleTomás]

Love it! Jamie’s shenanigans with Amanda are always fun and I love how Becky is pushing the tights ?

[SGTbaby]

Silly and sweet Jamie bear!

[Renly]

Since summer is ending, some chapters where Becky takes Jamie to work will be fine, I don't know I just say it

[littleTomás]

1 hour ago, Renly said:

Since summer is ending, some chapters where Becky takes Jamie to work will be fine, I don't know I just say it

What about littlecare though?

[Sarah Penguin]

1 hour ago, Renly said:

Since summer is ending, some chapters where Becky takes Jamie to work will be fine, I don't know I just say it

Oooh take your little to work day!

[Renly]

I was just saying ??

[Shawnie]

I love it , I enjoy talking to my Mr.Bear everyday . 
he’s very sweet sometimes grumpy , but that’s ok just needs loving too ? 

[Alex Bridges]

Shawnee is too kind.

 

new chapter tomorrow.

[Alex Bridges]

Chapter 92

 

Perhaps what Jamie missed most when he was staying at the apartment was the big, and private, backyard. A raised planter bed separated the patios, but beyond the edge outside their apartment, there was a long, wide strip of grass running past other apartment buildings, broken only by the sidewalk. The playground was of course open to the entire complex. There was no private place outside the edge of the patio, and that was more secluded than private.

Becky and Amanda had talked first among themselves and then laid out the rules for Jamie. He could play in the grass behind their building and the two buildings on either side, but he couldn’t go anywhere else in the complex and especially not the pool. They were worried about Jamie. They were worried about a little seemingly alone and how bigs might react to that. The good intentions of strangers worried them, and the bad intentions did, too. They didn’t want Jamie being brought back by the manager, or worse, and what that might cause. They didn’t want to see Jamie hurt whether by accident or on purpose. Until they got to know the neighbors and the neighbors got to know Jamie, they decided to be cautious. He was, after all, still a little in a world made for bigs.

There wasn’t much to do behind the building. There was no sandbox or swing set or anything beyond a picnic table. After reminding him once again the limits of where he could play, and after he assured her he understood, Manda stayed inside with a book while Jamie took his football and went to just walk and kick it around for the distraction on a slow day. Dribbling the ball, he made his way down to the end of the building over and back past their apartment to the end of the grass on the other side. He turned and started his way back wishing there was someone to kick the ball around with. He didn’t want to ask Manda because she seemed content with her book, and he always tried to be cognizant of the fact that it wasn’t her job to keep him entertained.

Growing bored, Jamie approached the fence that marked the boundary of the complex on the back side. From their patio, he couldn’t see over it, and curious, he found a knothole and looked through. On the other side was a small wood choked with undergrowth and more than few discarded cans and bottles. Jamie figured teens likely used it as a place to get away from the prying eyes of parents, and perhaps older kids used it as a secluded place to play games and explore in the dirt. He assumed it was off limits to him, though he planned to ask Manda if the two of them could check it out, and he turned to continue his dribbling to see three and then four older kids crawling through the fence where the boards were loose at the bottom.

Jamie never had much interest in older kids, or younger ones either. The younger ones could be dangerous once they grew to be bigger than him, and the older ones seemed mostly disinterested. He only encountered them at the pool, and he looked on them there the same many of them seemed to look on him: as being in the way.

One of them spotted him, and she saw her wave her arm at her companions, three boys. Assuming they’d chase after him if he walked away, and Not wanting to be chased, he stood still until the reached him.

“Are you lost,” the girl asked.

“No. I was just playing with my ball.”

“All alone?”

“I’m allowed. My big said I could,” Jamie replied. Curious, he asked, “What’s back there?”

“Just woods. I’m Yasmine. My friends call me Yazzy.”

“Jamie.”

“This is Brett, Steven, and Hao.” The boys all said hello, looking eager to find a new adventure, and they well knew that littles don’t go on adventures. 

“What do you guys do back there?”

“We have a fort,” the one called Steven answered, “but we don’t allow littles.” Yasmine turned and gave him a dirty look.

“I’m not allowed to play back there anyway.” He hadn’t specifically been told that. He just assumed the fence was a boundary.

“Don’t you have any friends to play with,” Yasmine asked.

“We just moved in. That’s my building,” he told her as he turned to point.

“We’ll play with you.”

“How old are you guys?”

“Eleven,” she answered as the same boy said, “Too old to play with littles.” Jamie wasn’t sure he would have had a different reaction at that age to the prospect of playing with the toddler they saw him as, but the boy’s reaction struck him as typical of the attitude he seemed to find among a lot of older and teen boys. They just weren’t interested in littles. Girls were more likely to take an interest, though he rarely interacted with them.

“Don’t be a buttface,” the boy called Hao said. “We’ll kick your ball with you,” he offered.

Jamie was a little suspicious. Hao seemed sincere enough, and Yasmine seemed genuinely nice. They were still big kids, though, and Jamie was torn between his reservations about kids and wanting to make friends at his second home. “Will you play nice,” he asked.

“Yeah, we’ll play nice,” Yazzy told him. Still not entirely confident but willing to take a risk, he dropped his ball and kicked it toward her gently. She passed it back. The fivesome started dribbling and passing the ball between them, starting to walk, for them, and jog, for Jamie, down the strip of grass. They were careful with the ball and didn’t play rough. The boys especially seemed amused by the small size of Jamie’s football. They dribbled it more easily than one of their own balls, and Steven and Brett seemed mostly to play with each other. Yazzy and Hao included him whenever they got the ball.

They stopped in a larger grassy area and spread out to pass the ball back and forth. Jamie was enjoying himself. Brett and Steven may have been mostly ignoring him, but they weren’t being mean and he had people to play with. They were no longer behind his building, but Jamie decided Becky and Manda’s real concern was him being alone outside the boundaries, and he wasn’t alone. If they kept playing for much longer, he’d go back to the apartment and tell Manda.

“Remember to share,” Yasmine reminded Steven as he passed again to Brett, and the boy shrugged and kicked the ball toward Jamie. Without meaning to, it sailed over his head, and Jamie ran to get it. Wanting to show he could play well, if not kick as hard as they could, Jamie drop kicked the ball back into the circle and chased after it.

“Good kick,” Hao congratulated him. Jamie tried not to smile as he took his place in the circle again. He wanted them to think it was business as usual. Steven and Brett started to include him more, and Steven paused the ball with his foot on top and nodded at Jamie.

As Jamie said, “Not too hard,” Steven hammered the ball at Jamie. It went wide of him, and he had no intention of trying to stop it. It follows a straight line into the parking lot and bounced off a car door. Jamie followed it with his eyes and turned back around to find himself alone. He rolled his eyes, not exactly blaming them for getting scared and running away. He would’ve at their age. He walked toward the parking lot and very carefully poked his head out from between two cars parked at the edge to make sure it was safe and trotted across the row to get his ball, which had come to rest against a tire.

Being a responsible adult, Jamie went over to the car Steven had hit and checked to see if the door panel was dented. It wasn’t, but there was a scuff. Jamie spit on it and used the hem of his shirt to wipe it off, hoping it would rub out easily. It did, but he couldn’t reach the whole thing. About to stand on his ball, Jamie found himself in a shadow. Feeling caught, he turned ready to explain and apologize but didn’t get the chance.

“Did you do that,” a woman standing over him asked. She had a hand on her hip.

“A big kid I was playing with did. I’m sorry, but it’s rubbing right out.” The woman leaned over to take a closer look and straightened up.

“I don’t see any kids,” she said. “It’s better to always tell the truth.”

“I am telling the truth,” Jamie defended himself, a little emphatically but still calmly. “They ran away.”

“So there was more than one of them?”

“Yeah. There were four.”

“Well, come on. Let’s go.” 

She held out her hand, and Jamie didn’t take it. “Where,” he asked. She didn’t seem angry, but she was three times his size.

“Your apartment. Which building do you live in?” She hoped he knew.

“I can go home on my own,” Jamie told her.

The woman wouldn’t leave a little in a parking lot anyway, and she wanted to take him to his mom and let her deal with his naughtiness: the scuff on her car, and being in the parking lot. She was tempted to give his mom a piece of her mind for letting him wander away.

“I’m gonna take you,” the woman said. “Which one is yours? And no fibbing,” she warned him. 

“That one,” he pointed. She took his hand. He reacted and tried to pull it away. He didn’t mean to; it was just instinct.

“I’m holding your hand,” the woman said, still calm but growing impatient. She gripped his hand more tightly but not painfully. She took the ball from him and carried it in her palm.

Knowing he was in trouble now, Jamie didn’t look forward to facing Amanda. He hadn’t gotten in trouble in months, and he wasn’t sure just how much trouble he was in. The woman let go of his hand, knocked on the door, and put her palm firmly on top of Jamie’s shoulder. Amanda opened the door and frowned, expecting this well-intentioned big brought him home thinking he was where he shouldn’t be.

“Is this your little,” the woman asked.

“Are you okay,” she asked him first. He nodded and walked through the door, turning and standing next to Amanda’s left leg. She put her hand around his shoulder.

“I found him in the parking lot trying to rub a scuff out of my car door.”

Jamie looked at the floor and didn’t see the look of surprise and disappointment Amanda turned on him. She hadn’t considered she needed to do anything beyond the reminder she’d given him to make sure he stayed where he was supposed to. Jamie was unregressed, after all, and didn’t need that kind of supervision. At least, he didn’t at home.

“I’m Amanda,” she said. 

“Dorothy.” She handed the ball over. “He said the kids he was playing with did it, but I didn’t see any kids.”

“Is you car okay?”

“Yes.” The woman wanted to lecture Amanda about not knowing where her little was but held it in. “I’ll leave you to it.”

“I’m sorry about this. Jamie, anything to say?”

He’d apologized once already in a general way, as in he was sorry for the inconvenience. He wasn’t going to apologize for hitting her car because he didn’t do it, and it was an accident anyway with no harm done.

“A big kid did it, and it was an accident,” he said a little plaintively. “I’m sorry it happened,” he added for the woman’s benefit.

“Thanks for being him back,” Amanda said. The woman nodded and left, and Amanda shut the door behind her. Jamie had music to face.

“C’mon,” Amanda said and guided him in front of her to the couch. She sat down and he stood in front of her. “What happened?” She wasn’t angry, at least not audibly, but she was more than disappointed.

“I didn’t lie,” he said.

“No one said you did,” she said evenly.

“She did when I said I didn’t do it.”

“So where did you meet this kid?”

“In the yard behind our building. They were playing in the woods behind the fence.”

“Did you got back there?”

“No. I didn’t think I was allowed. They came through a hole in the fence.” Jamie was telling the story to the couch cushions on either side of Amanda, having a hard time looking at her. He was embarrassed to be in trouble and embarrassed to have been brought home and embarrassed to have been treated like a little kid by that woman.

“And,” Amanda asked with a patient nod. 

“We started playing with my football,” he said and recounted the story. “I was bored and I wanted to make friends and I’m sorry. I won’t do it again,” he said when he was done.

“Well, I’m not upset about the car, Jamie, but I am upset you went outside the boundaries and that you walked into the parking lot and that you wandered off with strangers. I’d didn’t even know you weren’t in the back.”

“I didn’t go far,” he weakly defended himself.

“That’s not the point and you know it. If you had come ask permission, I might have said yes, but you know where you’re not supposed to go and went there anyway.”

“I didn’t mean to at first ... And I was gonna come back if we stayed much longer.” He knew that didn’t excuse it. It only showed that he knew what he did was wrong. His voice was getting shaky. 

She reached out and picked him up into a hug, giving him a kiss and a good squeeze. “Let’s take a moment to calm down, and then we can finish talking about it.” Knowing what was coming, he stayed silent as she carried him to the corner behind his playpen and set him on his feet. “Think about what you did, and we’ll finish talking when I come get you.” Jamie nodded and Amanda gave him a gentle pat on his butt to check his diaper. As much as he hated corner time, Jamie counted himself lucky. He knew enough to know that every other big of his acquaintance save Becky would’ve had his diaper down and his butt over their lap. He didn’t recall every timeout he’d ever gotten, but he was sure this was the only time he’d done something most bigs would view as an automatic spanking. The thought of it made him unconsciously reach behind himself to rub away an imaginary itch on his left butt cheek. At least he knew that would never happen.

Amanda went out through the patio door, leaving it open, and sat on the chair she’d borrowed from her mom. She felt the weight of guardianship in a new way, with a serious issue to deal with and without Becky to take the lead. She considered calling her but wanted to use this opportunity to demonstrate that she was in charge at their apartment and that he had to follow the rules there just at his other home. She needed also to make him understand that the stakes were different here. Everyone here was a stranger so far; no one knew them; and it wasn’t at all like wandering over to Amy’s house without telling anyone. That he wandered off with some random kids and had walked through the parking lot alone just added to it, and both of those were big deals on their own. Giving his butt a few hard swats would’ve been satisfying were it not for want she believed about hitting littles and everything she knew about Jamie’s past.

“Hi,” a girl said, interrupting Amanda’s thoughts. She looked up. “Do you have a little?”

“Yes. Are you one of the kids who was playing with him?”

She nodded guiltily. “Jamie didn’t hit that car. Steven did it. Can I tell Jamie I’m sorry I ran away?”

Amanda took a deep breath and let it out. “Jamie is in time out right now.”

“But he didn’t hit the car.”

“What’s your name?”

“Yasmine.”

“I’m Amanda. Jamie isn’t supposed to go out of past those buildings, and he isn’t supposed to go anywhere with strangers.”

“I didn’t know that. I wouldn’t have asked him to play.”

“Well, Jamie knows that. It’s okay for you to ask him to play, but he should’ve come and asked me if he could.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m glad you came and found me. It’s okay for you to play with him, but you need to remember he is a little. You can’t wander away with littles.”

“I ...” She didn’t know he had boundaries, but she did understand now that boundaries or not, she did wander away with him. “It’s my fault he got in trouble.”

It was a little bit, but it was really Jamie’s own bad decisions. This girl’s bad choices were easier to excuse than Jamie’s. Amanda expected him to show better judgment than this girl. “Jamie knows the rules. He didn’t have to go with you.” The girl nodded solemnly.

“Can I tell him I’m sorry when he’s out of timeout?”

“How about me and him come to your house later and meet your mom?”

Yasmine was certain she’d get in trouble if her mom found out what she’d done. “Mom’ll get mad if you tell her.” That wasn’t something she’d say to someone her mother’s age, but Amanda seemed so young by comparison.

“I don’t think we need to tell her so long as you understand he’s a little and you can’t take littles anywhere without their gig’s permission, and that he needs to ask before he goes somewhere with anyone.”

“I understand.”

“It’s our job to watch out for littles. Sometimes we gotta help them stay out of trouble.” The girl nodded and told Amanda her apartment number. Amanda watched her walk away and felt a little calmer. She looked at her phone and decided to let Jamie think for ten more minutes. That was longer than his standard timeout, but his actions were also worse than his standard misbehavior. 

Explaining what she shouldn’t have done to the girl made Amanda feel a little like a teacher; it struck her that part of having a little or being a parent is thinking of it as a job, and addressing naughtiness is just a part of the job. She knew she shouldn’t take misbehavior personally. Jamie’s actions were upsetting, and thinking about what might have happened scared her, and she needed to make sure he understood all that and what to do instead in the future. It wasn’t about punishment. It was about teaching. It was as simple and as complicated as that. She went back inside to get him.

If Jamie had forgotten his good sense and walked out of the yard with strangers, he remembered how timeout worked. He stood still with his hands at his sides until Amanda picked him up from behind and carried him back to the sofa on her hip. She sat down with him on her lap, one arm around his waist, so they could look one another in the eye. Amanda renewed her resolve when she saw what looked like almost watery eyes, reminding herself she could hug him until he couldn’t stand it after she was done with her lecture.

“I love you,” she decided to begin with and regretted it, “and I’m disappointed in you. You know better.”

“I know...”

“Please let me finish.” He nodded silently.

“You know the areas where you’re allowed to play. You’re smart enough to know the fence is one of them. You know not to walk away with strangers. And you know not to walk through parking lots alone. So, tell me what you were thinking.”

Jamie sighed. This was still an odd part of being a little to him. So rarely did he ever want to do something he wasn’t allowed to, he’d never gotten used to what it felt like to be chastised like a child, and for exercising his own judgment to boot, even if he did see it was glaringly bad judgment. “I saw these kids and they offered to play, and then we were running and we were around the corner. It took me a second to realize I was out of the boundaries, and then I thought I’d come back and tell you if we stayed there much longer.”

“Come and tell me what, exactly?”

“That me and my friends were just around the corner. I wasn’t alone, I mean, and I know that’s what you and Mom are most worried about.”

“You’d thought I’d give you permission to go back there?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d have put you in timeout.” She let that sink in. “When you realized you were around the corner, you should’ve come right back. That rule is for your safety, not just because we don’t want the someone bringing you back. But what really scares me is you ran off with strangers. Why would you do that?” She tried to soften her voice and make sure he understood this talking to came from a place of love.

“I ... they’re just kids. This girl and one of her friends were nice, and I wanted someone to play with. I didn’t think ... they’re kids. I didn’t think of them as strangers.” In fact, Jamie had gotten used to not thinking of anyone as a stranger anymore, not as an adult. They may be people he didn’t know, but they weren’t strangers in the sense people mean when they warn kids. In his years as a little, he didn’t hold quite that same view, but he hadn’t reverted to thinking of strangers as being strangers in the way he did as a child.

“Anyone you don’t know is a stranger.” That had never been an issue until now, living in an apartment complex with people they didn’t know in such close proximity. “They may be kids, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe. They might not have bad intentions, but they also might. What if they just didn’t let you come back when you said you were ready? They might think that’s just playing or teasing, but that wouldn’t make a difference to you if they did that. And what if one of them carried you to their apartment or into those woods? What if one of them thought it would be funny to be mean to you?”

“They seemed nice enough ...”

“And they probably are, but we can’t just hope. If you meet a new person here and want to go play with them, you need to bring them to me first, and I need to go talk to their parents, and then we’ll decide where you can play and how long.”

Jamie nodded. “What if the big is an adult? Like Amy?”

“Then I need to get to know them. Does all that make sense?” Jamie nodded. “It’s not just about keeping bigs from thinking you need help when you’re safe. It’s about making sure you really are safe. And you don’t set a toe onto the parking lot without me or a big I approve.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I know, honey. I don’t want the manager coming or your social worker getting called, but more than anything - anything - I don’t want you getting hurt. It scares me just to think about it.” Jamie expelled air from his chest, his eyes getting watery.

“For the rest of this week if I’m not outside with you, your play area outside is the grass right behind our patio, like there’s an imaginary line from the edge that goes all the way to the fence. Next week, we can try again with the bigger area. Understood?”

“Yes,”  Jamie said with a pitiful voice. “I’m sorry. I was stupid.”

Amanda pulled him closer and let him put his face against her, buried in the fold of her tee shirt. She put both arms around him and held him for a moment. He calmed himself down in just a minute and sat back, wiping his eyes and looking embarrassed again to have done such a dumb thing.

“You’re weren’t stupid, Jamie Bear. Your behavior was stupid. You are a very smart and very good bear.” Jamie’s lips formed the tightest frown Manda had ever seen him make as she drew in a deep breath through his nose and pushed it out, resting his head on her again but not nuzzling into her shirt. She patted his back. She knew he wasn’t trying to be cute or get out of trouble. Sensitive thing that he was, he was in the process of making himself feel guiltier than Amanda ever could. She had to pivot and put a stop to that before he got any further into his own head.

“Do you have any questions?”

“No. I’m sorry.”

“I know, and we’re all done talking about it. You’re forgiven, and I know you’ll use better judgement in the future.”

“Are you gonna tell Mom?”

“I don’t see any reason to. This is our house. We just dealt with it. Now we can get on with our day.”

“What are we gonna do?”

“We are going to change your pants,” she said as she kissed his head, “and I met your friend, Yasmine, and later on we’re going to over to her apartment so I can meet her mom. Sound good?”

“Yeah.” 

“You don’t cheer up, and I’m gonna make you sleep in the woods.”

“No, you won’t. That’s outside the boundaries.”

“I was just testing you,” she gave him another kiss and pinched the back of his bare thigh. He jumped and gave her a dirty look, smiling at her.

“I love you muchly, Jamie Bear.”

“I love you, too.”

“Let go change those pants.”

“Would you please read to me for a while?”

“Read our bedtime book in the middle of the day,” she asked, letting the register of her voice climb a little higher, helping him to hear that she wasn’t angry or disappointed anymore and she was ready to have fun with him again. She knew what he was really asking: could he sit in her lap while she held him tight around the waist and he leaned into her, one of his favorite ways to be in the world.

“I know. I’m just all out of sorts today.”

“Such a silly bear. We’ll have to go to the library soon to get a new book.”

Five minutes later she had a Jamie Bear in just a dry diaper, his paci between his lips, and as she glanced from the page to him, she knew he needed a nap before lunch. Perhaps she did, too.

[littleTomás]

Manda is a good big. I don't blame Jamie for going "out of bounds." I do agree with Jamie that the weirdest part of being a little would be getting chastised like a child despite being an adult. That being said, it's nice to answer for your actions with minimal responsibility.

[Sarah Penguin]

[Alex Bridges]

7 hours ago, littleTomás said:

Manda is a good big. I don't blame Jamie for going "out of bounds." I do agree with Jamie that the weirdest part of being a little would be getting chastised like a child despite being an adult. That being said, it's nice to answer for your actions with minimal responsibility.

I’m with Amanda. I’m sympathetic to Jamie, but wandering off with strange kids and not telling Manda on top of it? If he weren’t such a delicate little thing, I’d paddle his butt for him.

[HyperShark]

1 hour ago, Alex Bridges said:

I’m with Amanda. I’m sympathetic to Jamie, but wandering off with strange kids and not telling Manda on top of it? If he weren’t such a delicate little thing, I’d paddle his butt for him.

He needs a watch with a panic button that activates an implanted chip in him that tracks his location at all times. That was she could have a little more peace of mind, or a mini mobile phone.

[Alex Bridges]

12 minutes ago, HyperShark said:

He needs a watch with a panic button that activates an implanted chip in him that tracks his location at all times. That was she could have a little more peace of mind, or a mini mobile phone.

He does have a chip, but it’s in case of kidnapping or getting lost. I don’t wanna them to be checking his exact location all the time, but I’ll do it if he didn’t learn his lesson.

 

(I think he learned his lesson. He’s a smart and very responsible bear, most of the time. But ya never know...)

[Guilend]

I truly enjoy this story. I can already feel the ending coming and it saddens me but at the same time I'm happy to have been able to follow Jamie and his bigs for as long as I have and been able to enjoy his life and everything. 

[Alex Bridges]

1 hour ago, Guilend said:

I truly enjoy this story. I can already feel the ending coming and it saddens me but at the same time I'm happy to have been able to follow Jamie and his bigs for as long as I have and been able to enjoy his life and everything. 

Well, I’m not sure how well the conflicts that drove this volume are resolved. I’m not sure how close we are to the end.

But, I do know that I recently picked up a different story, and I have another I need to return to. I don’t think Jamie et al are going away any time soon, but regardless, I have plenty of stories to share with you.

And this likely isn’t the last volume of Done  Adulting even when I do wrap it up.

[Renly]

It is a job to be a writer, I would like you to recommend me some other stories written by you or that have inspired you to write these two volumes.  I hope to see many chapters of Done Adulting I loved reading each chapter, it is a story that catches you in its plot that makes you be part of the same story and is fantastic

15 minutes ago, Renly said:

It is a job to be a writer, I would like you to recommend me some other stories written by you or that have inspired you to write these two volumes.  I hope to see many chapters of Done Adulting I loved reading each chapter, it is a story that catches you in its plot that makes you be part of the same story and is fantastic

I liked it so much, that I thought about re-reading from volume 1 to the last chapter of volume 2

[Alex Bridges]

1 hour ago, Renly said:

It is a job to be a writer, I would like you to recommend me some other stories written by you or that have inspired you to write these two volumes.  I hope to see many chapters of Done Adulting I loved reading each chapter, it is a story that catches you in its plot that makes you be part of the same story and is fantastic

I liked it so much, that I thought about re-reading from volume 1 to the last chapter of volume 2

See the links in my signature to see my other stories. The closest may be “The Vacation,” which you can get on Amazon. I no longer have the original file or I’d re-post it here.

But I’m particularly proud of “You’re Not to Old For It,” which is a spanking story with a slow build of ageplay and ABDL elements.

[messyman]

Anyone else picturing Jamie getting enough freedom with the kids to make them his minions? I am pretty sure manipulating big children can't be that hard.

[SGTbaby]

Aww Amanda handled it very well and responsibly 

[WBDaddy]

21 hours ago, Alex Bridges said:

“I love you muchly, Jamie Bear.”

OK, I'm suing for copyright violation for Becca's and my favorite non-word affection phrase.   

[Alex Bridges]

1 hour ago, WBDaddy said:

OK, I'm suing for copyright violation for Becca's and my favorite non-word affection phrase.   

My mom’s favorite too.