I'm not a puppy! (age regression)

27. Hard Work

I watched Jamie stab their fork into another halved potato and try to cram it all into their mouth. I sighed and chided for what must have been the 3rd time this dinner
"Jam stop trying to eat all that at once, you're gonna choke if you don't cut it up and I assure you choking isn't fun"
Jam put the potato down with a frown and focused instead on the shredded chicken, moving alot easier through that.

We continued eating our dinner without much other talk, just listening to quiet kitchen radio and savouring our delicious roast.
Sadly though I had to break the comfortable silence between us with news.
"Bambi there's actually something we need to talk about"
Jam froze mid-chew of a mouthful of carrots and looked at me innocently. I could practically see them cooking up insane defences for the crimes I hadn't discovered yet.

I first assured them
"It's nothing serious bambi-"
Jam sighed in relief, their no doubt air tight defence saved for another time.
"-I just have to go into work tomorrow to drop off a few things and have a meeting about.. well... You jam"
Jamie Frowned
"Why?"

"Oh it's stupid bureaucratic stuff that I have to get sorted"
I poured more gravy on my food and tried to think of the simplest way to put it for jam.
"Basically I need to prove to cps that I can get adequate parental leave with a steady pay. But to get that I need proof I have adopted or am adopting, which I can't get without proof of parental leave-"
I realised my simplified version wasn't a whole lot simpler and therefore going right over Jamie's head as they stared blankly at me and nodded.

I broke it down even further
"Double basically, I need to prove to my job you exist"
Jamie was absolutely baffled by this
"What why?"

"Cause some people are stupid and evil, and try to lie to get some paid time off work, and now I suffer the consequences"
Jamie smiled at my funny little complaints. So I continued.
"So I need to go in and show my boss some notes from Dr eggleston that prove you're not just a scheme by me to scam the company out of millions, probably trillions of dollary doos"
Jamie sniggered
"Dollary doos"
They echoed, giggling and kicking their legs as they took another bite of food.

I smiled and tried to steer the conversation to my main point
"But the thing is Jam, I don't wanna leave you home alone. I'm sorry bambi, I know you've done it before but I'm just not ok with it right now. And I don't think I can get Tom in- so unless you'd be ok with my mom-"
"No!"
Jamie immediately jutted in to protest, as expected. Despite the magic regression blanket and kind words, jam was still very weary of my mom.

"That's alright, but you're gonna have to come to the office with me Jambam. What do you think of that?"
Jamie just sort of shrugged and continued eating
"Jam I'd like to know what you're thinking"

Jamie groaned, putting down the fork and then mumbling
"It's fine I guess"
"You guess?"
"Yeah... Am I gonna have to be like pretending to be a kid so y-youre job thinks I'm real?"
I almost laughed at how out of nowhere Jamie's concern was, assuming they were joking. But a very serious look told me they were not.

I was quick to rebuff Jamie's idea
"Jam you just have to be yourself, act however makes you comfortable"
Jamie nodded as they took that in

But their worries weren't over just there.
"Are people gonna be weird to me?"
"What do you mean weird hun?"
Jamie whined
"I dunno, like are they gonna treat me weird or small? Cuz I don't want that"
They looked down all ashamed and I frowned, seeing I needed to immediately squash any possible shame brewing

But I didn't want to give them false hope either
"Jam I'm gonna be honest, people at my work know I've been wanting to adopt for a while. So they may initially think to treat you littler than you are, but I'll let them know right away you are not to treated any different from any other person, ok?"
Jamie shrugged again, still looking down at their plate.
"Ok"