AYO MALACHEIGHT FLUFF

Little Space

It had been only about a month since they had arrived at the other end of the void, but Malachai still felt like he had been away from Eight for so much longer than that.  

He had messed up.  Big time.  He had messed up so bad that Eight won't even look at him.  He knew that he had messed up.  But what was he supposed to do about that?  He wasn't in control of his actions at the time, and it sure didn't help that there was now a voice bothering him and judging him for every little thing he did wrong.

Not only that, but there had been so much going on recently where he was around other people that he hadn't gotten a chance to let himself de-stress at all.  Eight was his caretaker before everything happened, but now he couldn't rely on him for when he's little because Eight despises him.  

Malachai had pretty much forced himself to stay big for the past week whenever he had to talk to everyone else.  He wanted to be able to just go into his little space, cuddle into Eight's chest and have him take care of him.  He wanted to be able to feel small again and have no worries.  But he couldn't.

Everyone was gathered together like they usually do, but Malachai was feeling somewhat out of it at the moment.  Truthfully, he had been feeling out of it all day, but it was worse now that he was around so many other people.  

He could barely pay attention to the words Bee was saying as his mind began feeling fuzzy. It was to the point where he hadn't even noticed that Bee had stopped talking and that everyone else was now chatting.  His attention was taken away from his thoughts when he saw a hand waving in front of his face. "Helloooo??? Malachai?? Is anyone in there?"  Duck asked with a tinge of concern in their voice.

Malachai shook himself out of his headspace when he heard Duck speaking.  "Huh?"  The tall boy asked, turning to look at the other with a slightly confused look on his face.  

"You've been staring into nothingness for a good few minutes, bud."  She spoke, letting out a small chuckle. 

"Oh. Yeah, uhh, sorry, just distracted."  He replied, hoping the answer he gave would suffice because he wasn't really up to talking much.

"You sure? You've been acting strange for the past few days."  Bee stated, clearly not convinced by Malachai's cheap excuse. 

 "Yeah, I'm sure."  He spoke, really hoping that they would stop asking him questions.  He looked over to Eight, desperately hoping that he would help him out in some way despite the two being emotionally distant from one another.  Eight had looked away from Malachai as soon as he looked over to him, making it clear that he wouldn't be much help in this situation.  

"Okay, if you insist." Duck spoke, clearly still not convinced by Malachai's confirmation, but shrugged it off anyway. 

Malachai turned back to look in front of him, his brain almost immediately felt foggy after he had done so.  He felt himself slipping, but he tried to fight it off for as long as he could despite knowing that he wouldn't be able to stay big for the entire night.  It was extremely hard for him not to just let himself slip into his little space, go over to Eight and sink his entire weight into the boy, but he couldn't. 

As the group stood up to do what they were supposed to do that night, which was to find the clues of what was going on with this world, Malachai felt himself get dizzy and when he started walking with the rest of the group he found it harder to keep his balance, which wasn't good.

- - Time Skip - -

While they were searching for the clues Malachai was starting to find it harder to stay focused, and even harder to stop himself from slipping into his little space, but somehow he had managed to keep himself big while in the group.  

Now that they were done with the search and they had finished with their final ideas about what was going on Malachai couldn't stop himself from slipping and he had regressed.

Little Mal didn't know what was going on when he came out, but he knew that he felt smaller than he usually did.  

He looked around at all of the unfamiliar faces.  He felt scared, he didn't know who all of these people were and there were too many of them for him to handle.  Tears pricked in his eyes as he looked around for Eight.  When he saw the pink-haired boy he immediately went towards him, struggling to keep his balance as he walked.  

Eight had seen the signs that Malachai had been struggling to fight himself regressing throughout the night.  He was expecting that the boy would regress after everyone was gone, but he was surprised when he felt his sleeve get lightly tugged on.  He looked to his side to see a very shy and teary-eyed Malachai and he immediately knew that the boy was in his little space. 

"Hey bub what's wrong?" He whispered to the little.  Malachai just hid his face in the other boy's shoulder, which earned a lot of confused looks from the others. "Are all the people scaring you?" Eight asked, receiving a nod from the boy. "mm.. i's too loud.." The boy mumbled in response.  

"I thought you hated Malachai?" Andy asked with a confused tone, the others agreeing with them. "He's regressed at the moment and I'm his caretaker when he's little." Eight explained to the group with a small smile. "Isn't that right my little prince?" He cooed to Malachai, earning a child-like giggle from him.  

"What's that?" Mitch asked, obviously still confused by what was going on with Malachai at the moment.  "It's a healthy coping mechanism for when he's too stressed.  So his mental age becomes younger than his physical age so he can figure things out and give himself some time to breathe."  Eight wasn't too bothered by explaining how age regression works since he found it quite interesting himself.  A wave of Oh's came over the others as they understood.  

"So how old is he right now?" Bee asked. "I forgot to ask, yeah, how old you feelin' bubs?" Eight asked the little that was now clinging onto his arm.  Malachai freed one of his arms and put out three fingers. "You're younger than usual, huh?  I bet that's why you were scared of all the new people." He replied as Malachai nodded. 

"Anyway, we're gonna go now so I can take care of this little cutie." Eight spoke before walking off with Malachai towards his home in the flower fields.  

A/N: 1149 words! Here's some Little Space Malachai and Caregiver Eight fluff for you :]