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Bug's been little for the better part of the entire week - some of the previous too - and insanely tiny.
It was near clockwork for the boy; he'd wake up with a clouded brain - some mornings he'd already be small - before something would cause him to slip and Bug would make his appearance with bleary eyes and dewy cheeks.
Dream's heart broke for his baby, worry eating away at him. Sapnap's never big long enough for Dream to ask the questions stabbing his tongue, to let his worry encase over the boy. He did feel relieved that the boy felt safe enough to let himself be little and vulnerable like that, but it didn't break his worry down any.
Dream doesn't think there's been single day in the last week where Sapnap has been big when he went to sleep. He remembers being cuddled up with Bug every night, a couple of those Bean had been there too, just as worried about his brother.
It's day eight of little Bug when they start running low on supplies, such as diapers.
Dream grumbles as he picks himself up from the couch, Bug sitting on the floor and playing with blocks while George reads a book. He nervously taps the sides of his phone while he thinks, he's becoming even more concerned and just needs advice from someone.
He presses the dial button.
"Dream?" her soft New Zealand accent falls through the line, her own set of worry.
They decided to trade numbers in case either needed something, if Dream needed something, but they've never called each other.
Up until this point, it only had been occasional text messages that where sparse and far between, but he doesn't think he'll be able to convey anything the right way through text alone.
It's also really nice to hear the friendly voice of someone who knows what they're doing, at least someone who seems to know what they're doing.
"I really need some help," his voice comes out more exhaustion and broken then he thought.
He steps onto the porch for more privacy, standing in front of the window so both boys could see him if he's needed, also so he can see them too.
"What's happened?"
It's like she just knows when there's trouble in the water, even if it's as obvious as his voice breaking. She just knows and he's never been more grateful to be understood with so few words.
"I really don't know."
"Okay, tell me. Explain what's wrong."
He takes in a deep breath, it's shaky as his eyes catch the boys inside. George moved onto the floor, distracting Bug from his disappearance. Both of them smile happily as they play with blocks, George helping Bug build a tower.
"It's Bug," he starts, eyes falling away from the window as he shakes his head, "It's just, recently, he's been little more days than big and I'm really starting to worry about him. And I don't know what caused it."
She ah-ed over the line; he could feel how she nodded her head in understanding.
"Yes, episodes like that can be quite scary, especially for new caregivers," She told him with empathy, knowing very well how stressful those can be when you're the only one caring for them.
She doesn't know how he manages with two littles and nearly no help, even though she's offered him plenty.
"You think that it's an episode?" he asked cautiously, eyes flickering back inside and seeing the bright smiles on their faces.
Bug pushes over a tower, it's clear through the glass that he's making explosion noises as it clashes with the ground.
Dream chuckles breathlessly, shaking his head and turning to look down at his shoes instead.
"I can assume as much but tell me more."
"It's just..." he trails off, thinking about how difficult the last eight days have been, "He's been nonverbal and getting really frustrated with me because I can't figure out what he wants..."
"It's really hard like that sometimes, just like with real kids."
"I know," he said sighing, crossing his left arm over his chest and leaning against the side of the house.
"He needs a different way to communicate with you, you should try teaching him baby sign language. I mean, that's what I did with my little and it worked like a charm."
"I can try it," he sighed again, "Was your little ever like that? Nonverbal and little for a long time, I mean?"
"She was, and it was downright terrifying at first, I won't lie about that. It took a lot of time and effort but teaching her baby sign language was the easiest way to communicate, especially after a particularly bad episode she had. It was quite scary seeing her like that, reduced almost to an infant state. It happened almost out of nowhere on the outside, but she was worried about my wife. So, it had cause. The sign language was the only way she could communicate that until she was big again."
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."
"It was a long time ago now. Things are better now and she's all good, my lovely little girl. Littles are just someone you have to learn about overtime, nothing is ever hard set for them. They're forever changing."
He takes in all of her words, a deep breath blooming in his chest as they sunk in.
They need a better way to communicate.
"Thank you, Dix, I really appreciate this."
"Any time Dream, call if you ever need to talk. I'm always an open ear to listen too."
"Thank you," he whispers again, hanging up the phone.
He glances through the window to find Bug sitting on the floor and playing with his blocks alone. George doesn't seem to be anywhere in sight, his book left open on the couch.
He shakes his head as he enters, locking the door behind himself to make sure Bug doesn't get out, or Patches.
"Hey little one, where'd your brother go?" He asked the baby, not expecting an answer as his hand swept hair out of his face.
Just as he thought, the baby ignores him as he continues to play with his blocks.
He's about to sit down when he hears a thump and loud crying from upstairs, he quickly races up them finding a crying Bean on the floor, knee all scraped up.
"My poor baby."
Bean wiped his eyes tearfully, reaching out for Dream and telling him he wants to be picked up.
Dream scoops him up from the floor, holding him tight in his arms and heading towards the bathroom.
Bean sits on top of the closed toilet as Dream pulls out the med-kit. He wipes the scrape down, trying to ease the baby's pain as much as possible without causing more. He pulls the box of band-aids out next, Strawberry Shortcake themed.
He unravels the band-aid and rolls it across his knee, leaning down and pressing a kiss against it to cause a giggle out of the boy.
Bean smiles brightly at his Papa, tears all gone from the baby's eyes as he gets picked up again.
They head back down the stairs and play with Bug for the rest of the afternoon, Dream noting to order more baby supplies for pick-up in the morning before he goes to bed.
The day was quite alright, less tearful as normal as Dream tried to not grow frustrated with the boy.
He looks into baby sign language that night.
Bug is a very frustrated baby as he sits squirming, trying to kick his way out of Dream's hold.
Dream is currently trying to put socks back onto the baby's feet; they're always so cold when he's little and then the baby whines about it, but dressing him is always a fight.
Dream hazzah's victorious, both of his baby's feet now covered in adorable little cat printed socks.
Bug pouts in his arms, his own crossed against his chest.
"I know, Papa's evil, baby," he told him pressing a kiss against his cheek.
Bug takes his arms away from his chest, bringing them up in front of his face before turning his palms out towards Dream again, signally that he's ready to be done.
"We're all done baby, promise," he told him letting the squirmy boy out of lap.
Dream took Dix's advice to heart, spending hours watching videos on baby sign language. He worked over all the hand movements before setting the boys in front of himself and teaching them while he had their attention.
It took a couple of days of trying, and a little working with big them, until the movements became second nature.
Bug's also been a lot less frustrated with him since then, beaming up at his Papa anytime that Dream knows what the boy is trying to convey. It warms up Dream's heart to see the boy so happy again, no more extra tears are needed.
He just smiles down at his cute boy.
They're heads turn around when they hear Bug's door push open, a small kitty walking into the room and plotting down at Bug's side.
Bug looks up at Dream with wide eyes, spreading his right hand's fingers apart, pointing them up towards the sky, then tapping his thumb three times against his forehead signing Papa, technically dad, but Dream thinks of it as Papa instead.
"Yes baby?" he ask him, giving him his full attention.
Next, Bug makes C-shapes at the side of his face with his thumb and index. He pulls his hands away from his face while pinching his thumb and index together signing 'cat,' then pointing down at Patches laying at his side.
"Good job baby," he praised the little, "Patches is a cat. You're so smart," he told him, watching as he preened under the attention.
His baby's so adorable.
Patches doesn't seem to be the only one joining the two, Bean comes stumbling into the room next.
His eyes are bright as he spots his brother, sitting down by Dream's side.
"Bubba?" Bean ask, perking up the baby's interest.
Bug stares back wide-eyed waiting to see what Bean would do.
Bean clutched his palms together, extending out his thumb and pinking. He twist his wrists out towards the boy signing 'play'. The baby bounces on the floor in excitement, nodding his head before scrambling forward towards his toys.
He extends one of his trucks out towards Bean; Bean takes the truck and watches for what Bug does next.
Then, both of them make burring noises as they crawl around the room together, Dream sits back and watches them from the rocking chair.
His heart is full watching the boys play so nicely together, it's truly once in a blue moon when the boys do that, it's really nice whenever they do.
He thinks the best days are when the boys are nice to each other, happily playing around the room.
Bug's eyes grew wide as he sat back on his butt and stopped playing with the truck. In an instance where he'd normally whine and cry, he instead turned to find Dream and signing Papa for his attention.
"Yes, little one?" he asked sitting forward.
He placed his hands down at his waist, tapping his index fingers and middle fingers against his thumbs asking to be changed.
"Of course," he said standing, plucking the boy from off the floor and taking him over to his table to change.
He really wishes he'd done this earlier, known there was such an easy solution to all his babies frustration.
He's so lucky to have Dix in his life, that woman is his sole voice of reason right now.
He places a kiss to his smiling boy's face, setting him back on the ground, and watching as he crawls back to his truck and plays with his brother again.
This was the right choice.