Fruit Snacks

Rating: General Audiences

Relationship: Phoenix & Maya (Platonic)

About: This is an age regression fic where Phoenix regresses, and Maya finds him :]

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Wright & Co. is silent when Maya steps in.

Though she could assume that Phoenix is in by now, if she didn’t know any better she would think the office was empty. As she walks back to the main office, she leans in the doorway, hoping to announce her presence, only to pause at the sight before her.

Phoenix is at his desk, his head resting on his folded arms as he snores quietly. Maya smiles fondly, shaking her head.

“Silly Nick…” She whispers to herself, walking over to the desk and bending forward to get a better look at him.

Though he vehemently denies it, Phoenix is a bit of an over-worker when a case really has him in its grips. It isn’t on purpose, Maya can tell, he just gets so absorbed into his work that everything else falls to the wayside. Even basic needs, like getting some sleep in an actual bed…

His hair is a mess, the spikes fraying at the ends and a lock of hair at the front now resting on his forehead, free from the shackles of whatever product Phoenix plasters it down with. He’s drooling a bit on his sleeves. Maya chuckles lightly at the sight of him.

“Wakey wakey, Nick.” She firmly shakes his shoulder, only to be met with a small sleepy sound and no sign of Phoenix actually waking. She sighs. She’d forgotten what a heavy sleeper he could be… She plants both hands on his shoulder and shakes him dramatically.

“Waaaaake uuuup Niiiick!”

Finally, she earns a tiny huff from him that tells her he’s waking. She stands back with her hands on her hips and stares down at him. Phoenix peers up at her, blinking blearily. He rubs the sleep from his eyes with a small yawn.

“Mm? Maya?” He mumbles.

“Good morning, sleepyhead!” She chimes. “Were you here all night?”

He wipes the drool from the corner of his mouth and blinks slowly for a moment, as if trying to gain his bearings and focus on the question.

“Yeah…” He responds after a long moment, his voice groggy with sleep, but… oddly soft.

Maya gives him an odd look. He was clearly still half asleep, yes, but there was something else in his tone, something unfamiliar from him. Maya grins. Looks like she needs to do a bit of investigating…

Step one was waking him up a little more.

“You just hang in there, Nick, I’ll get your coffee going.” She ruffles his hair playfully, earning her a very amusing pout as Phoenix half-heartedly swats her hand away. She presses what she hopes are the right buttons on the coffee makes and fetches a mug from the cabinets. She doesn’t operate the coffee maker too often, being more of a tea drinker herself.

Once the coffee is poured, she adds what she hopes is a reasonable amount of sugar and cream. Though, it was hard for her to measure out what a normal person might consider “reasonable”... she only found coffee tolerable if she drowned it out with sweetness.

Phoenix looks a little more awake when she brings the coffee to him. He accepts it with both hands. “Thank you…” He quietly says, taking a small sip. He winces at the heat, lowering the mug with a pout. He glares down at it, though he looks far from intimidating.

“The coffee isn’t gonna be scared of you like this.” She leans on his desk and flicks the stray lock of hair that’s fallen on his forehead. “You’re too pouty.”

“‘M not pouty.” Phoenix retorts, definitely pouting. His tone is so… childish. It sounds rather strange coming from him. Maya just smirks, lightly giggling at him.

“Oh no, you’re definitely pouty.” She gently pokes his cheek. “Someone’s pretty grumpy in the mornings, huh?” She teases, testing for how Phoenix will react.

She expects a glare, or a snappy retort, or an annoyed huff. She doesn’t expect Phoenix to look so… bashful, his cheeks gaining a slight pink tinge as he stares down at his mug with a frown.

“A little…” He quietly replies. Maya quirks her eyebrow at him.

“Okay Nick, is something going on?” She asks, starting to sound just mildly concerned. “You seem a little… off.”

“Fine.” Phoenix keeps staring at his coffee instead of looking up at her. He pulls his legs up into his chair, his knees to his chest as he rests his mug atop them. She looks him over a few times. He’s so… demure. It was a strange look on him.

Maya tries to think… She keeps thinking about that softer tone to his voice, the way he’s gone so quiet and reserved. Everything about his mannerisms reads as nervous, like he’s trying to curl himself up as small as can be, but she can’t decipher any reasonable explanation for why he’d feel that way. Not that Phoenix was always reasonable or anything…

He looked, and sounded, well… pretty childish.

Ah. Maya smiles when it clicks into place. There it was. She’s so smart. Phoenix was lucky to have someone with her investigatory prowess by his side.

“I see what’s going on now, Nick.” She says, trying to be a bit more gentle with him than before. Any trace of teasing has left her tone entirely.

“Y-You do...?” He asks. She sees the smallest spark of anxiety in his expression.

“Sure do. Just look at you!” She boops his nose. “You’re just little baby Nick now, aren’t you?”

He looks conflicted. Maya knows she’s hit the nail on the head, but she suspects he’s not too eager to admit to that. She wouldn’t call Phoenix prideful per se, but he wasn’t always keen on being seen as vulnerable either.

“Don’t you worry your little head, Nicky.” She ruffles his hair. “Your big sister’s got everything under control. Step one!” She grabs the mug from his hands in a quick swoop and, miraculously, spills none of it. “I’m not sure you’re big enough to be drinking coffee right now. But that’s okay! I’ll have you a new drink ready in no time.”

Maya disregards Phoenix’s mildly disappointed expression and turns on her heel. She pours the coffee out and opens the mini fridge near their little kitchenette, retrieving a carton of milk and filling the mug with that instead. She returns the mug to Phoenix gently.

“This should be much better.” She tells him. He takes a small sip and gives her a small smile of appreciation. She cheers internally. Yes! That was the right move!

“Okay. Now when’s the last time you ate something, huh?” Maya asks, hands resting on her hips.

“Uh…” Phoenix avoids her gaze.

“No worries, I’ve got you covered!” Maya opens a filing cabinet and pulls out a little cup of instant mac and cheese. Phoenix gives her a puzzled look.

“Why’s that there?” He asks. Good to know that even in this state, he’s puzzled by her decisions.

“For emergencies, Nicky! Emergencies like this one!” She pulls a little packet of fruit snacks out as well before bumping the cabinet closed with her hip. “You never know what might happen!” She sets the gummies on his desk before returning to the kitchenette, filling the mac and cheese to the line, and popping it into the microwave.

“I find myself in mac and cheese related incidents all the time, y’know. Sometimes mac and cheese is the only solution to a problem! You know what I mean, right Nicky?”

Phoenix hums noncommittally, a handful of fruit snacks in his mouth.

“See, you get me.” Maya points at him and nods. She stops the microwave right before it beeps and extracts the too-hot plastic bowl. “Ah, hot hot hot!” She sets it on the counter and adds the cheese sauce, stirring it up with a plastic fork. She steals a bite for herself before placing it on Phoenix’s desk. She moves some files around, not wanting him to drop food on anything too important.

“Eat up! Careful, it’s a little hot.” Maya warns. She grabs one of the packets of fruit snacks from the cabinet for herself and eats them as she leans against Phoenix’s desk and keeps an eye on him. She ponders a bit as she eats her little snack.

She hadn’t ever suspected this of Phoenix, but it makes sense when she thinks about it. It was completely safe to say that Phoenix is frequently under tremendous amounts of stress for stretches of time. He was prone to over-working, under-sleeping, and generally not allowing himself enough time to stop and breathe. If he was on a case, he lived and breathed that case until it was done. And if he wasn’t on a case, he still spent so much of his time worrying about everyone around him instead of taking time for himself.

It was no wonder that his mind was fighting back, forcing him into a state where he had to rest, even if only for a little. Forcing him to need help, to let someone else take the reigns and worry about him for a change.

Still, she has so many questions she wants to ask. Like, what age does he regress to? What sorts of activities does he enjoy? She bets he would like coloring books, but then the question was what kind? Did he have any regression gear back at home? Did he have any stuffed animals? Does he even know what’s happening, or was he completely ignorant to it? And really, why were there carrots in fruit snacks? There’s just so much she wants to know…

Phoenix finishes eating, and Maya re-emerges from her own mind. “All done?” She asks, disposing of the bowl and plastic fork, as well as both of their fruit gummy wrappers. She ponders what to do next, when a great idea strikes her.

“Hey Nicky?” She gently calls for his attention. He looks up at her curiously. “What d’you say we take a break today and binge that show you showed me? Signal Samurai?”

That does the trick. He gasps slightly, eyes lighting up like a little kid in a toy store. She giggles, taking his hand and guiding him out of his desk chair and over to the sofa. Thank goodness they had a TV in the office, otherwise what else would she do here most days? She hunts down the remote and pulls up Signal Samurai. Phoenix sits beside her, knees back up to his chest, his shoes kicked off and set aside. He takes his jacket off and drapes it over the arm of the sofa. Glancing over to him, Maya scoffs good-naturedly.

“Even as a baby, you’re so stuffy.” She says, reaching for his tie and loosening it until she can pull it off. Phoenix pouts.

“‘M not a baby.” He insists.

“You're still little. And you’re my baby brother whether you like it or not, now hush.” She clicks on the first episode. “Don’t you wanna listen to the theme song?”

Phoenix quiets at that, eyes glued to the screen. Slowly, that remaining tension he’d been clinging onto melts away. His desperate attempts to still pretend to be an adult are gradually shed as he watches the show intently, giving way to a childlike starry-eyed gaze. He’s still looking pretty sleepy, and Maya gets the feeling he’s going to be fast asleep sometime within the next episode or two. But for now, he’s fighting it, trying to give the show all of his attention. She lets him rest his head on her shoulder, patting him on the head when he does so.

Maya could ask all her questions some other time. For now… Phoenix seemed happy enough. And that was all that really mattered.