133.)

Blossom took me by the hand and led me down the stairs. I waddled behind her, but I really didn't waddle all that much. The bunny diapers were thinner than the Megamaxes, and they were a little less crinkly. If this were really Academy T, this design wouldn't cut it. Diapers had to be thick and obvious, for maximum... uh... efficiency.

Nonetheless, even in the thinner and quieter diaper, I was still blushing when we got back downstairs. Blossom led me to the couch and sat me down. I looked up at her with glossy eyes and shuffled in place. I hadn't felt this cute in a long time, and I didn't know what to do with those feelings.

"Let's see," Blossom said more to herself than to Amy, in true babysitter fashion. She picked up the remote and went over to Disney+. "Looks like you're on Season 2? For a big girl, you sure watch a lot of little girl TV shows."

The blush creeped back up my neck. I sunk into the sofa and pushed my fingers together shyly. It wasn't the same as pulling on them. Pushing was different, I guess? It felt different.

Blossom sat down next to Amy on the sofa, and held out one arm, gesturing for the crinkly girl to come cuddle with her, while she navigated the episodes and selected the next one with the remote. Babysitting was a teenage girl's rite of passage, and this wasn't all that different - apart from the connotations of the Town that transformed adults into baby girls by turning their brains into McDonald's McFlurries.

I wasn't sure how it happened, but I had sunk into Blossom's arms. I was laying somewhat sideways, with my head on the side of her chest. Her arm was draped over my shoulder. I only realized it because she had to slink out from under me to get up and I almost fell over.

"Keep watching," Blossom said.

She patted me on the head like a puppy. I pouted up at her, but she was already on her way to the kitchen. I sat myself back up just as the second episode was starting.

"Keep watching~" Blossom repeated, sing-song-like, as she opened the fridge and plucked out a carton of juice from the shelf inside the door. She took the baby bottle out from the pocket of her hoodie, which she had snatched from the trunk upstairs when changing Amy.

I sulked a little into the sofa. I wasn't sure if we were still in character or not, but it felt easier to play a role than to properly play myself. So I was trying to stay in the mindset of Amy The Candy who was slowly losing intelligence. So when the theme song (dance?) to Bluey ended, I let myself become fascinated with the episode. They were going to the store to buy a pizza oven.

A few moments later, Blossom squeezed back down onto the sofa, gently lifting Amy up a little so she could get back beneath the girl, before guiding her charge's head back down to her lap.

"Focus on the show, little peach."

She'd kept the bottle of juice - the baby bottle of juice, to be precise - out of sight for now, and waited for Amy to get engrossed in the show again.

"Um..." Ordinarily I wouldn't have let Blossom usher me down onto her lap, but I was a little lost in the scene. And whenever I moved, like when Blossom nudged me around, the crinkling of my diaper made me more and more malleable. Until finally, my cheek was resting on the top of her thigh and her fingers were twisting my wavy brown hair.

I glanced up at her, but she was watching the TV. So I watched the TV. The episode ended and another started. The episodes were so short, but they felt like they took ages.

Once the next episode started, once Amy was engrossed in the opening moments of the plot, Blossom guided the teat of the baby bottle into position at Amy's lips.

"Shh, open up, it's just Good Girl Juice~"

"Mm!" I reached up to swat the bottle away - more out of instinct than anything - but Blossom shushed me and lowered my hand. Then the nipple of the baby bottle broke through my lips and I felt it against my tongue.

I'd never used a baby bottle before. I mean, I probably had as a baby. But I didn't remember ever using one in my teens or adult life. But I was good at using pacifiers, so I started to suck.

I thought it would be a huge pain, but it wasn't. The apple juice dribbled out of the teat in a steady stream, coating my tongue. I swallowed and sucked more. It felt easy. It felt... rhythmic. I sank calmly into Blossom's lap and looked up at her dizzily.

Blossom Brixley was feeding me, I reminded myself. She was feeding me a baby bottle, as I laid in her lap in a diaper. She was babysitting. Gosh, even without the context of Academy Works, I was floating. Her fingers kept playing with my hair and I thought the water tension holding my body together was coming undone.

"There's a good girl. You're being so good for me; I knew you had it in you, my pretty little peach slice~" Blossom cooed, with pride dripping from her words, but her tone was soft and gentle.

I whimpered a little, a small whine of despair, because that felt right. That felt like something my character would do. But it didn't matter. After that little whine, I was a puddle. Blossom held the bottle to my lips and I sucked softly. I watched television, blurry and unfocused even though I was looking through the lenses of my glasses. Everything felt so far away.

Everyone imagines things they think will never happen; things like winning the lottery, or going to space, or dating a movie star. In this case, for Blossom, it was bottle feeding a grown woman in a diaper with her head in her lap and Bluey on the television. It seemed surreal the way that some drugs seemed surreal; beautiful and dreamy. Blossom couldn't have imagined a happier moment.

"You're such a good girl, cupcake~" she whispered, running her fingers through Amy's hair.

The bottle was halfway gone by the next episode. I was in a dizzy dream, and I wasn't sure I was processing the episode properly. It felt like baking, but a thousand times better. It felt disconnected, like I had shifted into another dimension, an overlapping one in the same space. But it was warm here, warm like hugs and blankets and kisses from my mom on my forehead. It tingled, like the way your muscles feel after a massage. I moved, just a bit, and the crinkling sounded so much louder than the television.

Another episode.

"This is good for you," Blossom whispered. "Your Good Girl Juice is going to fix everything. No more silly tantrums, hm?"

"Mm..."

Was that an agreement? A protest? I could barely understand her words. They felt like whispers in the back of my head, but they came through clear as day.

"And once all those silly thoughts are gone, once all those silly ideas are gone, once all that silly resistance is gone… what's going to be left for a baby girl? Only happiness… only calm… only contentment. You didn't need that resistance, sweet pea. You didn't need those thoughts. You might be sick, but the sickness is taking away all your worries and stressors… it's a blessing, isn't it? You're better this way. Your Mommy and Daddy love you better this way. I love you better this way~"