Work Text:
Charles sighs dramatically once again from his place on the couch. He sees Edwin eye him amusedly from the desk, but he can’t help it. He’s just so bored.
They’ve had a slow day, and all they’ve been doing since morning is paperwork. It’s like it never ends! And it should be nice, since they’ve been super busy and kind of overwhelmed lately but it’s just not, and Charles is so bored and he just wants Edwin to pay attention to him!
Oh, he realizes. He’s slipping. That would explain why he’s suddenly lonely bored out of his mind. He looks over at Edwin, who’s been sucked back into his work.
Obviously this cannot stand, so Charles gets up and stands over him, staring intently down at him. Edwin looks up at him, quirking an eyebrow in equal parts amusement and frustration.
“Do you need something, Charles?” Acting on his first instinct, Charles huffs and whines at him. He didn’t think he was quite that far gone yet, but whatever. Edwin is ignoring him and he hates it! Edwin’s face softens slightly, but the amusement remains.
“Ah, I see. That’s not the way we ask for things, is it, love? Can you ask me nicely, please?” Charles grumbles a little more, and Edwin just waits. Sometimes he needs to fuss a little before he builds up the courage to ask for things, he’s used to it by now.
“Don’t wanna do work anymore. Want you.” Edwin smiles sincerely at him.
“You’ve been working very hard today, haven’t you, little one?” Charles nods.
“Been working hard all week! And then… then the one day we’re not busy, we still have to work!” Edwin sighs. He did get a bit carried away with work. Maybe he should’ve allowed more time for Charles to voice his concerns.
“I’m sorry, Charles. I was simply… focused. I hadn’t realized it had been so long since we took a break.” He stands up out of his seat.
“But we can take one now. After all, I have a wonderful boy that I believe requires my attention.” Charles smiles and reaches for Edwin, who wastes no time pulling him into a hug.
Charles whinges at him and bounces on his toes, and Edwin rolls his eyes affectionately. He knows exactly what he wants after so long of being with him, and he hoists Charles into his arms where he sighs dreamily and snuggles into him. Edwin stays quiet for a moment, allowing him to settle, before he breaks the silence.
“Is there an activity you’d like to do? I recall a certain someone getting a new coloring book recently.” Charles gasps and wiggles excitedly.
“Yeah! Coloring!” Edwin retrieves his box of coloring supplies from its place on a shelf and sets it down on the floor. It’s always astounded him how much Charles loves his ‘floor time’, as they call it. One would think he’d prefer to make use of the nice, comfortable couch, but if Charles is happy, that’s all that matters.
The two of them get settled on the floor, and Charles starts eagerly flipping through his coloring book to find a picture. He settles on one depicting a brightly smiling dog, presumably supposed to be a lab or a golden retriever. Fitting. He shoves another coloring book into Edwin’s lap.
“You should do one, too!” Edwin flushes slightly.
“No, thank you, dear. That is not necessary.” Charles, ever the little conniver, pouts and bats his eyelashes at him.
“Please, Edwin.” He sighs and opens the book, making Charles grin so widely he can’t even be mad. He’s got Edwin wrapped around his little finger, and honestly? Edwin is totally okay with it.
He flips to a random page (he’s lying, he put a fatuous amount of deliberation into it) and takes a crayon out of the box Charles has already opened.
As he’s coloring, staring down at the smiling cat on the page, he starts feeling that soft feeling poke at the back of his mind. He squashes it and shoves it down. He’s doing a very important job right now, Charles needs him. He can be mature and stay in the proper headspace.
But a moment later, he finds himself needing to put his crayon down and breathe. It’s just so tempting. He’s got a coloring book in front of him and he’d even have someone to color and be small with!
He shakes his head. No, he won’t have that, because he’s the caretaker in this moment. Charles isn’t his playmate, he’s his charge. And it’s his job to ensure that he’s safe and happy. Edwin can regress another time.
Except he can’t, because that fuzzy feeling is getting stronger and harder to push down and he can’t regress! He can’t because… because…
The reasonable part of his mind is kind of getting overshadowed by the part of his mind that’s freaking out right now. He’s definitely not supposed to be regressing right now but he is, and no matter what he does he just can’t stop it.
“Edwin? Are you okay?” He looks up to see that Charles has stopped coloring and is now looking worriedly at Edwin. He lifts a hand to his face and finds that he’s been crying without realizing.
He pulls his knees up to his chest to hide his face, ashamed and afraid of how Charles will feel if he figures out what’s going on. He’s going to be so irritated! He’s trying to regress and unwind so he doesn’t have to worry about anything and Edwin’s going and messing it all up.
He feels Charles bump his shoulder against him and scrunches up further.
“I don’t know what’s wrong, but… I’m sorry you’re sad.” Edwin lifts his head slightly to glance at him, and Charles may be regressed, but he’s still been Edwin’s best mate/boyfriend/caregiver for years.
“Are you small, too?” Edwin hides his face again. He’d been hoping Charles wouldn’t notice, but he should’ve known. Charles, however, makes a delighted sound.
“That’s so cool! We’ve never both been small at the same time before!” Edwin looks up at him incredulously. Surely Charles realizes that Edwin is doing something wrong?
Edwin tries to voice this, but he finds that speaking at all, much less saying something coherent, isn’t very easy in this state. He groans in frustration and drops his head again.
“Oh! Are you extra small, like you get sometimes? That’s okay! I can be like… your big brother!” Edwin lifts his head again, curiously this time. Charles is grinning widely, and he relaxes slightly. He’s kind of starting to lose track of why exactly he was so upset, but Charles is smiling, so obviously it’s not that big of a deal.
He looks back down at his coloring book, and the blur of regression starts to settle in his mind. He sees Charles hand him his crayon back, and he smiles, taking it and going back to coloring. Charles, seeing that Edwin is calm again, goes back to his own coloring.
He looks up a few minutes later to see that Edwin is gnawing on a crayon. He gasps and grabs it from him. He doesn’t really know what it would actually do to a ghost, but he remembers that when he’s in caregiver mode, he always stops Edwin from doing that, so he should probably do that now.
Edwin, however, is not in agreement. His eyes start to fill with tears, and his lip starts trembling. Charles is stunned for a moment, caught between the desire to make Edwin feel better and the guilt that he made him cry.
He’ll have time to dwell on that later, though. He jumps up, finding the box with their pacifiers in it, and pulls Edwin’s out. He returns to see that a few of his tears have started to fall.
“I’m sorry, Edwin. Crayons aren’t meant for chewing, right? I’ve got your pacifier, though!” He holds it out and Edwin is happy to take it, suckling eagerly as Charles wipes away his tears. He’s not really sure how the whole tear wiping thing is helpful, but Edwin always does it when he’s small, so he thinks he should give it a try.
It seems to help, though, as Edwin starts to calm down. He eventually leans forward into Charles, resting his head on his chest. Charles scoots back until he’s leaning against the couch, and lets Edwin crawl into his lap.
Usually he’d be bored, but here, snuggled up with Edwin, he just feels relaxed. He goes into sort of a dreamy state, his eyes half lidded and his mind going into a haze. From what he’s aware of, Edwin is doing the same.
Maybe it isn’t the usual arrangement, but neither of them care too much about that. They’re together, and really, isn’t that all they’ve ever wanted?