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all inhabitants of the house were aware of dream’s habit of crashing after posting a manhunt. he would be tired, and could barely keep his eyes open long enough to read the chat before he fell asleep at his computer. it wasn’t necessarily his fault but both sapnap and george had made him promise to atleast get in bed before crashing and he’d never voluntarily break a promise to them. the longer it took him to edit and upload the manhunt, the longer he’d sleep for. it was almost like the blond was trying to make up the sleep that he’d lost in favor of editing, but if that were the case he’d have to sleep for months.
this manhunt hadn’t taken nearly as long as the last, so the boy only slept to a healthy three in the morning before he woke up groggy and with a fog filled mind. another habit dream had after crashing was regressing, and regressing relatively small at that. during the process of filming, editing, and uploading manhunts, dream would put off his urge to regress with the promise that he’d let himself do it later. that along with the stress that came from needing to upload was enough to push dream into baby space this time, a regularly common occurrence.
this time he felt on the bigger side (if you could even call it that) in that he could pronounce simple things which mostly consisted of his caregivers names and random little things if he tried hard enough to form the correct words. upon being awoken he didn’t feel the need to cry out for his caregivers yet, and instead was content with blearily glancing up at the glow-in-the-dark stars sapnap had attached to his ceiling. dream was always fascinated with the stars, and they kept him relatively occupied for about thirty minutes before he began to get restless.
i mean honestly, he was just a little baby and didn’t quite understand why his mama left him alone. the parental name in reference to george rolled around in his mind quite easily, he felt used to it despite not having used it for his boyfriend before. “m-“ despite that it still felt funny around his mouth, the blond whining in annoyance as he tried to push it past his lips. his next plan to get a caregiver’s attention was to knock on the wall behind him where george’s room resided. how they’d get sapnap, he wasn’t sure, but all he wanted in that moment was his mother to hold him in his arms.
in dream’s regressed state he didn’t even register the fact that mother’s were typically women, all he knew was that he wanted his. his hands felt too big as they were lifted to knock on the wall behind his head. the blond’s head felt too heavy to lift, so when his knuckles rapped against the wall his head stayed in the same spot which admittedly would look a little odd to an outsider. if he really focused and tried to clear his mind, dream could hear george shuffling around his room. it only took a few seconds for his door to be knocked on and then opened, his caregiver coming into view before standing beside the bed where dream resided.
“dream?” he whined softly at that, he wasn’t dream. he wasn’t big dream that george was referring to, he was supposed to be his little boy that george would make bottles and shake rattles for. “oh i’m sorry angel boy, i hadn’t realized you were small. do you think you can tell me how old you’re feeling so i can help?” age in number form didn’t even come across dream’s mind, how could it when it was much easier to focus on the many freckles that dotted along his mother’s face? “are you just feeling like a baby?” he tried again at dream’s silence, receiving something akin to a nod from the boy. “oh so we have a little tiny guy with us today don’t we?”
the blond found that he liked being affirmed of his age. being called things like tiny and small out loud helped him sink further into it, and george was happy to call him those things if it helped. “oh you’re so small, are there any words you can say sweetheart?” dream wanted to try the parental name again. he wanted it to roll off of his tongue as easily as it would roll around in his mind. “m-“ george waited patiently like a baby was saying it’s first words, and in a way he sort of was.
“mama.”
the way the word rolled off of his tongue felt nice, and a pleased smile fell onto his face as it did so. his boyfriend on the other hand couldn’t help but tilt his head in confusion, unsure of where and why dream would learn that word. “baby where’d you hear that?” the brunette knew asking a question that wasn’t a yes or no answer was a long shot, but he figured he’d ask anyway.
dream pointed to george with the best of his ability, which admittedly wasn’t much because he wasn’t feeling particularly mobile. “mama.” he repeated it again, this time with a giggle before dropping his finger that’d been pointing at george. “me? are- are you calling me that?” george tried to not show his uncertainty to the little, afraid that he’d pick up on it and think he’s making him uncomfortable. the caregiver didn’t want to make dream backtrack from the parental name, but he needed confirmation that that’s what was happening.
once again something similar to a nod was directed towards george and he felt his heart melt at that. “oh that’s too fucking cute.” despite it being whispered under the eldest’s breath, dream heard and whined at the usage of the swear. it was well known between the two that dream didn’t like swear words when small, so they’d attempted to lessen the usage of them when around him. “sorry my love, do you want me to go get sapnap? he might still be awake.” all george expected was a yes or no, but dream’s mind began saying things that made him frown.
on one hand, he loved sapnap and wanted to be with him at all times. the younger was always so good and careful when taking care of him, but was best at caregiving when dream was a toddler.
on the other hand, dream really just wanted his mama. george was best at taking care of him when he was a baby, being the most experienced with making him bottles and entertaining his baby mind that was easily fascinated by things like rattles.
because he was regressed dream couldn’t really tell what emotion he was feeling, but george recognized it as guilt. that was another thing about george, because dream was typically non-verbal when this small he’d become scarily good at reading his thoughts and deciphering his emotions. “its okay to say no, neither of us are going to be upset with you.” upon being given permission to, dream shook his head to indicate that he just wanted his mother more than anything. “alright i’m going to go make you a bottle, okay? i’ll be right back.” a whine slipped from dream’s lips at that, he didn’t want george to leave.
if his mama left he’d be all alone in the scary dark room again, and his stars always seemed much less comforting after the presence of his boyfriend left him. “pumpkin do you not want one?” he did want a bottle, more than anything actually. he wanted to drink his bottle and lay in george’s arms and allow himself to be mesmerized by the sounds his various baby rattles make upon being shaken by george, but vocalizing this was rather difficult for him.
dream shook his head, indicating that he did in fact want a bottle before pointing to george similar to how he’d done previously. “mama.” he then shakily pointed to himself, hand feeling too heavy but needing to convey what he wanted. “you… you want me to stay here? but you also want a bottle?” the smile that broke out onto his face made george light up as well. the brunette always understood him so well, and it helped alleviate potential issues with not being understood. “would it be okay if i asked sapnap to make it and bring it up? he won’t have to stay if you just want me, but that was i wouldn’t have to leave.” dream supposed that would be okay with him, although he preferred it when his bottles were made by his mama.
after sending sapnap a quick message george was crawling into bed with him and sitting up against the wall with dream in a half laying down half sitting up position in his lap. they found that this position worked best for them since the blond’s lanky limbs got in the way of being cradled and bottle fed at the same time. it only took a few minutes of george talking gently to dream to give the boy background noise to latch onto, before sapnap was knocking on the door and entering with a bottle.
this particular one happened to be the minecraft themed one dream himself had decorated when he was around the toddler age, and it was definitely one of his favorites. there were various stickers relating to the game stuck onto it and he’s colored on the bottle itself with green, so it felt personal to him. “look, sapnap brought your bottle for you baby.” he smiled as sapnap came into view with the bottle in hand that was then passed off to george. “hey little man, i’m just here to give you your bottle but if you need me tell george, yeah?”
he didn’t like that name being used for his caregiver.
george didn’t sound or feel right, he was his mama and sapnap needed to know that. “mama!” the blond pointed to george to the best of his ability and looked back at sapnap to see if he’d understood, which he hadn’t. the brunette looked over to the boy in question and awaited an explanation since he was significantly better at understanding baby babbles. “he wants you to know that that’s what he calls me now, and he probably wants you to call me that as well. not sure if you calling me george upsets him but it sounds like it.” it took a moment but after that he nodded in understanding, turning to dream once more.
“alright pumpkin, if you need me tell your mama and he’ll get me. i love you, have sweet dreams for me okay?“ the parental name being used by someone other than himself made happiness bloom in dream’s chest, flushing red as sapnap kissed his forehead before exiting the room and shutting the door behind him. “bottle now?” it wasn’t really a request, and more of a warning, but dream somewhat nodded nonetheless.
he suckled sweetly on it as george held the bottle for him and used his other hand to rake his fingers through soft blond hair. “there, there, relax my sweet prince you deserve a good nights sleep.”