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Amity couldn’t wait until school ended for the day. The whole week has been insanely stressful. There were so many tests and assignments, her anxiety acted up and almost made her puke in class, Boscha was being a bitch as usual, and sleep was becoming very hard. Luz had also been feeling very little lately due to stuff at human school and needed someone to look after her since her mom was working a lot. So Amity would help her regress through texting. Not like the tamagotchi stuff. Like actual texting. Alador had managed to connect Luz’s phone to the scroll servers so that they could still talk.
She was just really hoping that she could relax today. It was Friday and no teachers gave her homework and she had no plans after school. So she was pretty happy on her walk home. But then she got a text from Luz.
‘Hey, Sorry to ask again, but can you just chat with me while I regress?’
Amity really wanted to say no. She was so exhausted and hadn't regressed in a month. But even the thought of saying no to Luz was impossible. She just couldn’t say no. Even though Luz had told her that it was fine if she was getting caregiver burnout, Amity refused to say no whenever she asked. She had only been online caregiving for luz every other day for a week and a half! There's no way she should be getting burnout already. She was just being weak and a bad girlfriend.
‘Yeah, of course, hun,’ She quickly texted back.
On her walk to her house, she chatted with Luz as she regressed. She desperately just wanted to put her scroll away and never look at it again, but then Luz would feel abandoned. She hadn’t even realized she started spiraling a little and zoning out until Luz called her and her ringtone went off.
“Yes, Luz?” She picked up the phone
“Mama, you stopped texting… you otay?” Luz asked. Amity chewed her lip, contemplating whether to tell her the truth or not. She really wanted to, but it would make Luz feel like a burden. She couldn’t let Luz down like that. The kids at her human school were already making her feel like a burden and a bad person. Amity wasn’t going to add to that.
“I’m…okay, sweetie. Sorry, I just uh, walked into an area with a bad signal,” She said, trying to sound upbeat, “Why don’t you tell me your Azura headcanons again?”
Amity continued to walk home and talk with Luz while she did so. When she stepped into into the manor, Em saw how exhausted she looked when she walked into the kitchen and grabbed an apple-blood Energy drink. However, since she was on the phone, Em didn’t say anything. It would be rude to interrupt a phone call.She would just have a talk with her little sister later.
After dinner, Em walked into Amity’s room. She was reading a book in bed and had her scroll next to her. The elder blight sat down on the bed.
“Hey, sweetie, can you put down the book?” She spoke to her in a soft voice. Amity sighed and set it down.
“Your stress levels have been high again, Mittens,” Em stated instead of asked. All of the signs were there. She saw through them very easily. There was no need to ask if they were high.
“N-No they’re not,” She rebutted.
“Yes, they are. I see you taking nausea vials to school, you haven’t been sleeping right, and you had a borderline anxiety attack the other day. Not to mention that you’ve wet the bed 2 times this week.” Em declared. She saw Amity’s face go bright red at the mention of her accidents, but didn’t care. She needed to hear it.
“It’s fine, Em. I can handle it. I’ll take naps and stop bringing the nausea stuff,” Amity said.
“Is this because you’ve been caring for Luz lately?” Emira asked. She knew that caregiving could be quite taxing. But Amity was a little. She wasn’t used to taking care of people. It probably was really
“Just get out! I’m fine!” Amity bellowed, face growing red with anger, but didn’t touch her ears. Yup, that confirmed it. Whenever Amity raised her voice or everything but her ears went red, it usually meant whatever she asked, was the answer.
Emira, not wanting to upset her little sis further, sighed and got up, walking towards her own room. She pulled out her scroll and made a few calls.
The next day, after getting 4 hours of sleep, Amity woke up to Em knocking on her door and entering.
“Morning Mittens! Luz wants you at the owl house and I gotta pick up my new BGC shirt from Eda, so I’ll be walking with you,” She said.
Amity groaned a little, wanting to get some more sleep, but seeing as it was 10 am, she knew she had to get up. After getting changed and eating some breakfast, she saw Em at the door, with a backpack, waiting for her.
“Umm, what's with the bag?” Amity asked, grabbing Ghost.
“It’s just some shirts Eda tried getting me to sell. No one wanted Bad girl Coven branded jorts so I’m giving them back to her,” Em explained.
Amity just shrugged, not thinking anything of it and they started to fly towards the owl house. It was pretty chilly out since it was getting close to fall but luckily the fly wasn’t too long. Once they landed, Eda opened the door.
“Ah, there’s the Blights.” Eda said. She saw Em carrying the bag and stepped towards her.
“Hey, you need a hand?” She took off her prosthetic arm and waved it in her face with a bright grin. Em gave her a look.
“Alright, alright. I get it, it’s corny.” Eda popped her hand back on. Even though she loved her hook, she had a feeling it could be a little dangerous for what they were doing. Besides, the prosthetic was fine. She just had some troubles moving the fingers, but Alador was working on it. He was the one that designed it.
Once everyone was inside, Hooty closed the door and Em placed the bag on the couch.
“Where’s Luz?” Amity asked, realizing she wasn’t there.
“Ah, she won’t be here. She’s helping her mom out at the clinic,” The owl lady said.
“What? Then why am I here?” Amity was utterly confused.
“Because you are gonna have some little time and relax,” Em explained.
“But I don’t need t-”
“Nope! I ain’t hearing it. Your sister explained what was happening and even Luz called me to make sure you were okay.” Eda started. Em suddenly opened the bag, and inside were her two favorite stuffies, her bottle, her paci, and 3 disposable nappies.
“Come on, kid. You haven’t regressed in a month. You need some little time,” Eda placed her real hand on Amity’s shoulder.
“B-but what if Luz regresses?! I need to be there for her,” Amity urged
“Luz will be with her mom today, she’ll be fine.” Em reassured her.
Even though Amity felt horrible for “making” Eda care for her, she really needed some little time. She was so tired and stressed out. She hesitated before reluctantly agreeing to regress.
“Alright, well, your big sissy needs to go now, she has a date to get ready for. Go say goodbye, kiddo,”
Amity stepped away for a moment to go give Emira a hug.
“I’ll pick you up before dinner, okay?” She told her baby sis. The little one nodded and watched her big sibby fly away on her palisman.
Once she and Eda were alone, Eda placed her paci in and started to help her get changed. It was clear that Amity had gone full baby mood. After all the stress and exhaustion, it made sense. She was babbling softly and drooling a little.
“Alright, baby, first things first, you’re gonna take a nap,” Eda told her, setting out the naptime mat. However, Amity whined when she was laid down.
“You don’t wanna go nini?” she asked. But Amity shook her head. She was really eepy and wanted to sleep.
“Then what’s wrong?”
It was hard for her to speak so instead of verbalizing her wants, she showed her with her stuffy that she wanted cuddles.
“Ohh, the baby wants cuddles?” Amity nodded. Eda picked her back up and got blankets and pillows set up on the couch. She laid down with the anxiety-ridden girl in her lap.
As they cuddled, Amity’s eyes slowly started to droop and she drifted off to sleep. Not wanting to bother the girl, Eda sat there the whole time, rubbing the girls back and playing with her hair. She didn’t care that her legs were asleep. The girl needed sleep and by golly, she was gonna help her sleep.
After 2 hours, Amity started to wake up from her nap. Eda didn’t notice as she, herself, wasn’t conscious anymore. So she tried to crawl off to not disturb her sleeping babysitter. However, as she was trying to crawl off, she took a tumblr to the floor. It didn’t hurt, but it really scared her. Being off balance was horrifying to such a small baby. She felt the urge to cry, so she did. She bawled, sitting on the floor of the living room.
Eda immediately woke up and saw the baby on the floor, crying. Her immediate reaction was to curse before picking her up, but she knew better than to curse in front of literal infants. Instead, she picked her up and started rocking and cradling her.
“Shh, it’s okay, mittens. Did you fall off?” She asked the baby. Amity nodded and snuggled up close, calming down quickly. Eda smiled and continued to hold her.
For the rest of the day, Eda watched over Amity. She was very patient and gentle with her. No loud noises, no over-stimulating activities. Everything was made to help her relax. She had a little trouble with drinking her milk and required some help but it was okay. Eda was more than happy to help out. Besides, she was Mama Eda, the Owl Lady, the most powerful and protective Caregiver on the boiling isles.