Kit Again (Priv for LilGirlLya)

[transpikachu]

Ravio threw himself just as hard into the work! He might not be able to lift as much as Claire, but he focused on making the best bread and sweets he could. Got the front all ready, made sure the Midshift would have enough dough to last them throughout the day, ect. So....their breaks also slipped right by his mind. Time flew by on Fridays, you didn't exactly have time to look at a clock, you barely noticed. He had sweets to decorate once the bread was done after all, needed to grab people's attention so they'd be tempted to make an impulse buy of a cake they probably didn't really need, but it would make their kids happy....And he liked working with Claire. She helped him when he needed it, but he could return the favor easily. No snide remarks from her. It was so easy to fall right into rhythm. Ignore everything else besides his work.

Right until he hopped down from his stepstool, and felt the briefest rush of sudden warmth. He froze in place, (stupid, stupid, worst thing he could've done, that just draws attention), his heart jumping in his chest. He....he hadn't...he hadn't even felt like he needed to go, he hadn't even known. But-but it was only a little, right? Because he'd caught himself and hurriedly stopped his body from....just-it was very hard to think! His brain was completely frazzled with sheer panic. Hide it-hide it, just- "I'm going to run to the bathroom real quick." Ravio managed to stammer out, his voice sounding very squeaky even to him. He could fix this, he could, just start speed walking to the bathroom before he-

[LilGirlLya]

OK Ravio, we're almost..." Claire trailed off as she caught sight of her friend. Her eyes went wide and fear gripped her heart as it started beating rapidly. Her best friend was potty dancing in place with his hands blocking his crotch.

"Go!" Claire yelled, thankful Veronica or Laura weren't here yet, "GO! GO! GO!" Claire rushed over and, with time being imparitive, threw away all caution and simply picked up Ravio from under his armpits, holding him up facing her. Her longer legs would make it a shorter trip to the bathroom. For her friends sake, she had to hurry. Claire bolted as quick as she could to the employee bathroom in the back of the kitchen and put Ravio directly on the seat with his pants still on.

"You do what you need to, I'll stand guard. I'm going to think of something." She said quickly before slamming the door shut and sitting up against it to prevent anyone else from going in.

[transpikachu]

Ravio was already shaking the moment she picked him up, mind fully blank with sheer panic. And-and. By the time she'd plopped him down on the toilet, it was already too late. He stayed frozen, heart beating even faster. There was a rushing sound in his eyes, the only thing he was aware of besides....besides that very soaking warmth. It was done, it was over. A complete defeat. No way he could get out of here and get back to his apartment unseen. No change of clothes here, someone had already seen, a customer might have seen or overheard at this point, and he couldn't hide this. It was over, every Little's worst nightmare. He let out one choked whimper, before just burying his face in his hands. Yep, already tearing up. He couldn't even try to play it off or think of something clever to slip his way out of here like you'd hear brave Littles doing. Nope. He was just tearing up alone in a public bathroom. 

[LilGirlLya]

Claire could hear him start to whimper through the closed door.

"What am I going to do?" She thought? Claire's leg bounced from anxiety and she put her head in her hands. She had to do something. All of Ravio's weirdness over the past few days made sense now. What if he had Maturosis? Claire teared up but forced her tears back down. Ravio was her only friend. She wasn't going to just step aside and let some baby crazy Amazon sweep in.and take him from her.

Claire looked at her phone, 6 minutes till open. Veronica would be in the front of the house by now but fortunately she never came back into the kitchen. Laura wasn't here and if Dillon checked the cameras he would have already written her up about doctoring Ravio's time sheets.

She had an idea. Probably a dumb idea but the only one she could think of. Claire pressed Dillon's name on her phone and the call began. Fortunately, it went right to voice mail. "Hey Dillon, it's Claire. Just giving you a call, Ravio is throwing up in the bathroom so I'm going to clock him out and make sure he gets home OK. He only lives 10 minutes away so I'll just make sure he gets there and come back. We're ahead on baking already. Talk to you later, bye."

Claire rushed into the kitchen and put phase two of her plan into motion. Into a blender went some pizza dough, cheese, sauce, pineapples, and olives in with a lot of water. She pulsed it until it looked exactly like it needed to. Claire took the pitcher back to the bathroom door. It was still closed and she could still hear Ravio.

"Hey Ravio? Open up really quick, I've got an idea.

[transpikachu]

Ravio flinched at the sound of her voice, shrinking back. ...Right. Claire obviously...knew what happened. More tears blurred his vision as he forced himself to let out a shaky exhale. Breathe. Breathe. He....he can't just hide in here the entire time, could he? Wouldn't trying to hide make it worse? ...Laura was due to come in soon. Veronica was likely already here. Someone else eventually would wander in and see this. 

"...It's not locked." He managed to squeak out, keeping his face buried in his hands. Not even going to try to get up, the feeling of his wet clothes would likely just make it even worse. Least up here, he could pretend this was just some horrible nightmare he was going to wake up from at any moment. "...Y-you can come in." Brace himself. See if this was going to end up with him being dropped off at one of the Adoption Centers you only hear about in the worst horror stories. 

[LilGirlLya]

Claire came in and quickly shut and locked the door behind her.

"Here," she held out the pitcher from the blender, "this is really going to suck but it will suck a lot less than an Adoption Center." Without giving him time to flinch or reject the help, Claire dumped the slurry onto Ravio's shirt and pants. "There we are, now, lets get a story straight. You got sick off the pizza yesterday and threw up today. We're taking you home. I'm going to come back and finish my shift but you need to stay at your place until I come back this afternoon. We'll keep you free, we just need to be smart about it."

[transpikachu]

"Wait-" Ravio whimpered at the sensation, tearing up even more. Because now that he'd started crying, he couldn't seem to get himself to stop. Tears and little gasps of sobs just kept coming and coming. He felt disgusting, the slurry only adding to his overwhelmed feelings. "I-" Breathe, just force himself to breathe. He scrubbed at his face, gasping once more. "I-I can't get sick. It's-I can't take a day off-" Wasn't the story still immature?? Only a baby would throw up over themselves, wouldn't they? Wouldn't an adult make it? Or know beforehand before coming into work? They'd know, they would all know what he was trying to hide. Yep, tears weren't stopping still. 

[LilGirlLya]

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey Ravio? Calm down, I know you're scared but you need to help sell this OK? Anyone can throw up on themselves, it's embarrassing sure but when I was younger and still went partying I threw up on myself a few times. I'll say I got sick last night too but not as bad." 

Claire tried to help Ravio off the toilet and saw that while her plan was...innovative, it wouldn't account for the went on the back and down the legs of Ravio's pants. Shit. We're just going to have quickly, she told herself. Her friend shook with fear and couldn't stop crying. She couldn't blame him, accidents were often the beginning of the end for free littles. They could come up with a solution today but they'd need something long term if this was maturosis after all.

Claire took some tissue and dabbed the tears from Ravio's freckled cheeks. "Look, we need to hurry. This is going to be close but we have to get you out of here before Laura gets in."

[transpikachu]

Littles didn't get to go off free after a night of partying, did they? He sniffled, trying to get his breathing under control. Just-just stop crying. He'd always been such a crier, a trait he only managed to begin forcing down in high school. He couldn't...he couldn't just let it go free now. He exhaled again, closing his eyes for a moment. Breathe. Breathe. Just....just trust Claire. Do that, and it'll be fine. "...Okay. Okay." He hiccupped once, before finally managing to blink most the tears away. ".....You'll just take me to my apartment? Nowhere else?" Because anywhere else was terrifying, he knew what that meant. 

He stepped back once he managed to get himself mostly under control, though he clearly still looked miserable. Might sell the sink look at least, he was shakily pale. "...Okay. Let's...let's go."

[LilGirlLya]

"I promise. I won't let them get you. Take my hand though." Claire and Ravio ducked out the back with Claire calling out to Veronica she was taking him home. The walk was nerve wracking and every Amazon's eyes were on Ravio. Claire held his hand tight in her grip though. Fortunately, etiquette and law both dictated you couldn't just steal someones little and as much as Ravio might hate it, sick was the lie that got them out the door but the lie that would get him home was if people believed he belonged to Claire.

Fortunately, they made it home with the Amazon's only looking and no Laura in sight. Claire got Ravio up to the his floor and got him inside. She noticed the scent from yesterday, it was more pungent than before and Claire felt she knew exactly what it was.

"We made it, you're safe for now. I can get a bath started for you if you want to go get yourself some new clothes. Period or not you may want to use those pads until we figure out what we can do about this. How long has this been going on for Ravio?"

[transpikachu]

Ravio was in complete terrified silence on the walk home, keeping his gaze fixated firmly on the ground under his feet. The Amazons gazes were awful, but the worst were the occasional Little they passed by. He could feel the pity coming off them, politely averting their eyes. Or, more likely, being too scared to look at him for too long. This was the nightmare scenario after all. But, finally, finally they were home, Ravio's shoulders remaining drawn up. 

"I...I can just take a shower." Ravio mumbled quietly, moving over to his small dresser to grab some new clothes with shaking hands. The question got a flinch out of him, avoiding eye contact with the Amazon. "...A few days." He admitted quietly, biting his lip. "....Almost a week. That's...that's why I've been late."

[LilGirlLya]

"OK..." Claire let out a frustrated but determined sigh, "OK. I understand why you didn't tell me." Claire turned the knob to change from bath to shower. "That just...it makes it harder to come up with a solution, but we will find one, OK? I'm not going to abandon you to deal with this on your own." 

Claire straightened up, having to slouch slightly in the littles bathroom. "Alright, I've got to get back to work. I'll think of something we can do. If we can keep you employed, we can keep you free." Of course there was a Laura shaped elephant but Claire wasn't going to focus on that right now. "I think it might be a good idea to stay off work for a bit, maybe just a few days until we figure something out. You and I are both off the schedule this weekend, we can figure something out. I'll be back in a few hours. Please, please, please do not unlock the door for anyone but me."

Claire was doing her best to keep her emotions muted and present an 'in control' face because right now, with Ravio as emotional as he was, someone needed to take charge. Still, she knew as soon as she left the apartment she would fall to pieces.

And she did, crying the entire walk back to the bakery.

[transpikachu]

Ravio hiccupped again, tears starting to threat again. "...I...I won't. I promise." He didn't-he couldn't exactly afford to miss work. Today's pay was already going to hurt him. And Dillion was nice, but even he would raise an eyebrow about too many absences from a Little...

He waited for Claire to leave, before venturing into the shower, trying to bury his misery under lukewarm water. His mind was still too scattered to think clearly, a jumbled mess. No clever plans forming there. A smart Little would take these few hours to grab everything they needed and would book it to the next city. Maybe even country if they were really determined. Instead he just took his sad little showering before stumbling out to do a load of wash. Maybe...maybe if he had everything perfect and clean by the time Claire came back, she'd....he didn't know. Forget about all this? Likely not. But he was miserable and scared, weak hope was all he had left.

----
Laura was chatting away to Veronica by the time Claire got back, glancing at the other Amazon. "Oh, you're back...! How is the little guy? Poor baby, it must be awful getting sick in front of others without him knowing. Well, hopefully he didn't know, coming to work sick...well, that's not very sanitary, is it?"

[LilGirlLya]

"Hey Veronica, hello Laura." Claire said coming back into the bakery. "Ravio's is fine. I got him home OK and he's resting up." Claire gritted her teeth at Laura's statement, "Yeah, I'm sure we've all had to leave work early before after getting sick and come in when we shouldn't have. He left when he did and that's what matters." Claire headed back to the kitchen and threw herself back into her work, trying to retain her focus while trying to game plan out a strategy for helping Ravio.

If the accidents could be contained, pads *might* work but they'd be risky. An accident like today and he'd over flow it in a minute. No, maybe for dribbles and drops but Ravi was having full on accidents in his pants. Absorbent underwear with a pad? It was better but still an extremely flawed idea. As much as she hated it Claire knew what the most sensible solution was but getting Ravi to trust her enough to even say the word around him without him freaking out was going to be a process.

[transpikachu]

"It's a little immature if you ask me...." Laura commented, focusing down the pastries she was working on. Since they were down one member after all...

But alas, the rest of the work day went by mostly smoothly. Very busy throughout everyone's shift, though that wasn't too surprising on a Friday rush. Laura mainly ignored the other Amazon throughout the time, not having much reason to interact with her without their Little co-worker being around. Though before Claire left for the day, Laura did speak up in a sweet concerned tone. "By the way, Claire, do you mind sharing Ravio's address? Maybe one of us should check on him later today, see how he's feeling with that upset tummy. See if he needs any extra help, hm? Seems a shame he's all alone without anyone to check in or care for him there..."

[LilGirlLya]

"One of us is checking on him, thanks." Claire tersely replied to Laura before clocking out for the day. She walked around the neighborhood a bit first, diverting from her promise to go straight home until she was certain that she wasn't being followed by Laura. Claire wouldn't put it past her in the slightest to clock out early and stalk her to Ravio's home so she could adopt him. She set out walking the opposite direction and, once she was certain she wasn't being followed, diverted back to Ravio's on the opposite side of the block from the bakery.

It was a longer trip but she soon found herself outside Ravio's apartment and, giving one last quick look, quickly turned and ducked inside the entryway of the building. Claire ascended the flights to her friends unit before knocking on the door.

"Hey Ravio? You in there? It's Claire."

[transpikachu]

Ravio jumped at the sudden sound, nervously fidgeting in place. He...he could always just not answer it. Wait till she went away and moved far far from here where no Amazon had witnessed him having an accident. But-Claire....Claire was nice. She..she hadn't taken the most perfect chance to adopt a Little she could ask for. No...she'd just helped him. So. So, calm down.

He squirmed for another moment, before moving over to open the door for his Amazon friend. "...Hi." He went for a very weak smile, stepping back. He still looked pale and shaky, but he was fully clean now. So was the apartment! He'd taken this time to do a decent deep cleaning, trying to erase any traces of....well. Just in case Claire wasn't the one who came back. "...Um. How...how was work?"

[LilGirlLya]

Claire let out a relieved sigh when her friend opened the door. She'd been worried that in addition to Laura, one of the neighbors might have spied them coming in. She didn't see anyone at the time or else she wouldn't have left but there were few things trickier than an Amazon trying to nab a little.

"Hey," she smiled and let herself in, "it was busy. Being short staffed wasn't easy. And you can bet Laura wants to 'check on you'," Claire air quoted for emphasis. "Don't worry, I made certain I wasn't followed here. Took a long way and everything. Any more, um...incidents, since I've been gone?"

[transpikachu]

"I'm sorry." Ravio frowned, his shoulders hunching at hearing the short staffed news. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I didn't-I just caused a big problem for you and you're being really nice and you don't even have to and I'm sorry-" Okay. Okay, he's making an effort to cut off his sudden upset blabber of words. Stop it! Calm down, stupid! "I-" He exhaled, forcing himself to relax. "...No. No...no incidents. I just showered and then I did wash....it was very quiet otherwise."

[LilGirlLya]

"Don't worry about it. I'm not trying to guilt you. I only brought up it being busy because you'd know I was lying if I told you Friday with a man down was smooth sailing. You're an adult, I don't need to hide things from you." Claire let out another sigh of relief,

"Good, I'm glad to hear that. Hopefully that means it was just an accident and not...something else." Claire didn't want to discuss maturosis, she knew littles really didn't like that, disagreeing with it as a concept and labeling it as a psuedoscience. Claire was sympathetic to that but...well, wasn't necessarily a doctor and couldn't disprove the entire body of medical literature on littles. Some of it was probably propaganda, most of it even, but if maturosis was 99% Amazon BS, there was that 1% there.

"Have you been thinking of anything we can do to help you? I did some research over lunch but I want to know if you've got any ideas before I tell you what I found."

[transpikachu]

Some of the tension in Ravio's stance clearly went away as Claire reinformed she still saw him an adult. Okay...okay. Maybe...maybe they could just move on from this. Just one awkward day. "Y-yeah." Ravio bit his lip, fiddling with his sleeve. "Just some weird fluke. Um...yeah, maybe it's just that." Claire didn't seem the type to believe in that maturosis BS, luckily. That was some top tier Amazon nonsense after all.

He sighed, dropping his arm. "...Would you like a drink maybe?" He offered, ready once again to be polite. "Um-and...I...I don't know. I guess I need to be more aware. No getting too hyper focused and not....paying attention." Which meant he needed to start forcing himself to schedule bathroom breaks, he had to. Just beat his bladder that way.

[LilGirlLya]

"Yeah, maybe..." Claire replied, although she wasn't entirely convinced and it didn't seem like Ravio was entirely either. "Tomorrow is probably going to be the real test. It's OK to hope for the best but having a plan beyond hoping wouldn't be the worst idea."

Claire accepted another little sized glass and took a sip. "I can make sure to remind you to go to the bathroom more at work, maybe I can wear a watch with a timer, that way there's some deniability since you aren't the one wearing it. Combine that with some pads and maybe we have a stop gap for any leaks. What do you think?"

[transpikachu]

"....Maybe." Ravio frowned, looking down at the ground as he took a seat. "...I'm sorry, you shouldn't have to worry about this, it's just a problem for you now to think about when you should be working." And her suggested plan got him worried too. Someone....maybe Veronica or...the worst case person might notice Claire's sudden interest in giving him reminders. Might make them wonder why he needed them. "...Um. But-um...thank you." 

[LilGirlLya]

Claire could tell from the look on Ravio's face he wasn't entirely convinced. That brought her to suggestion number two and honestly the one she'd be dreading the most.

"Or..." she cleared her throat, "there is another option." Claire took a deep breath prior to continuing, if this went over poorly, she would likely be putting her friendship with Ravio on the line. "Timing you and frequent bathroom trips are going to be noticed. There's no way around it. Even if me timing you goes unnoticed at first, it won't for long. You know how Laura watches you. So, I'm going to say something and then I want you to tell me if you've got a better plan."

Claire watched Ravio's response prior to continuing. "I think probably the most mature and adult," she made sure to accentuate both of those words, "way to handle this is to have a back up plan in case more frequent bathroom trips wont cut it. Pads can help with leaks but any more than that and you'll flood them. I think tomorrow we should go to the store and get some training pants for you just in case."

[transpikachu]

Ravio froze the instant she cleared her throat, already knowing what she was going to say. Of course, she would. Wasn't that always the solution? Heavy duty protection? Happened in every little's warning tale, it rarely stopped at just training pants. Any other little would do the sane thing and politely refuse, wait for Claire to leave and then run as far as he could.

But...but Claire was....Claire. She had had the perfect chance to plop him in diapers earlier today, and no one would have said a single thing against her. After all, he had the accident, he'd proved he wasn't mature- "I...." Ravio shrunk back, hands vanishing further into his sleeves so he could fiddle with them. "...Can....Can I think about it first? Is that okay?"