“Alright, Princess,” Max gently cooed. “Let me just do one quick thing.” Alby was still in her old fashioned baby gown. The basket lay at the bottom of the stairs. Alby herself was on the changing table up in her nursery. Practicality trumped sentimentality with regards to transport.

“First thing’s first,” Max peeled back the hem of Alby’s baby gown, revealing the cloth diaper she’d dressed herself in. Before his baby girl knew what was happening, Max dug his cell phone back out and took another picture. “This is gonna look great in your baby book,” he grinned.

Alby’s ears flattened against the back of her head, looking embarrassed. “Baby book?” she repeated. “Is that like…Facebook but for big babies?”

Max’s brow furrowed and he blinked for a moment. “No…but it should be.” He pocketed his phone and leaned down to give her a kiss. “Don’t worry, Princess. It’s only staying between you and me.”

“Oh. Good.”

Max almost heard the mixed notes of relief and disappointment in Ably’s voice, but he was preoccupied with seeing to more immediate needs. “Let’s get that gown off,” Max said. “Let’s not accidentally rip anything while we’re getting you sorted out.” Alby obediently sat back up on the changing table and lifted her arms over her head so that Max could get the garment off and then laid back down.

But when Max took a closer look at his pup’s diaper, he had to suppress his laughter. “How did you not give yourself tetanus?” There were enough safety pins in the folded cloth to set off an airport metal detector. They were all at different angles and irregular spacing. There were over a dozen pins all told, and three of them had already come loose out of their clasps. The whole getup looked loose in the parts where it should be snug and snug at the parts where it should be loose. That it hadn’t fallen right off Alby’s hips and wasn’t dangling from her tail could be taken for evidence on the existence of a kind and loving god.

“It’s harder with cloth!” Alby pouted, indignantly. “Especially at night!”

The wolf stopped reaching for the diaper pins and drew back. “What do you mean by that?” There was no fear or concern in his voice, just cautious curiosity.

“I put this on in the back seat of my car before I drove over here!” Alby explained the way a child might recount a particularly eventful adventure crawling through Daddy’s closet. “I couldn’t do it in my apartment because then I’d have to go all the way outside in this, and I couldn’t do it here because I was afraid you’d wake up before I was ready!”

Max set his jaw and arched his eyebrow. “Why didn’t you just dress in your apartment and wear a big coat over it or something?”

“Daddy!” Alby shrieked, obviously embarrassed. “Shut uuuuuup!”

Max couldn’t help himself. He laughed so hard he had to lean against the changing table to stay upright. “Oh my gosh that is the cutest thing I’ve ever heard!” he chortled, nearly to the point of tears.

Alby took it in stride, but clearly still had some pride left to defend. “I…I think I did very well, thank you very much!” She crossed her arms over her chest in a huff. “I even practiced on my stuffed toys to make sure I got it right!”

“Awwww!” Max teased and cooed down at her. “Was my little girl playing house?! Pretendin’ to be a Mama?!” He briefly imagined Alby, alone in her room, wearing nothing but a pink top and a crinkly disposable diaper, practicing pinning tiny cloth diapers on her dolls and little robots with a look of intense concentration. It probably didn’t actually happen that way, but Max wasn’t going to dispel that illusion for himself. “She is such a clever and thoughtful little girl! Yes she is! Yes she is!”

The little dog’s face flushed as her headspace spiraled down firmly into little mode. “Daddeeeee!

“Now, now,” Max chuckled. “Hold still. I don’t want to accidentally poke you.” He started unpinning the safety pins one at a time. All things considered, Max admitted to himself, Alby had done a pretty good job putting the thick cloth padding on. But damn it all if it wasn’t a pain in the ass to remove all of those safety pins. “This is why people upgraded to disposables,” he muttered to himself.

“Sorry Daddy…” Alby hid her face in her paws.

Max clicked his tongue and shook his head as he lifted his baby pup’s hips up and slipped the costume diaper out from underneath her. Since Alby hadn’t used the garment, Max sent it to the hamper and not the pail, making a note not to forget about the safety pins before he did the laundry. “Poor poor baby girl,” he gently teased while he unfolded a proper diaper. “Doing her best to be like Daddy even though she’s never gonna grow up.”

The noise that came out of Alby made Max wonder if his little girl was part kitten. He smiled to himself seeing how content he could still make her and quickly slipped the fresh padding beneath her. She opened her eyes when she felt the cool baby powder on her backside, but then closed them as he finished fastioning it on.

“Nini, Princess,” Max lifted her off the changing table and made sure she was comfortable in her new gown. He kissed her and laid her down on the crib.

“Daddeeeeee,” she whined cutely. “Don’t leeeeave!” She reached for him even as he rose up the bars.

“Tell you what, Princess,” Max smiled gently down at her. “I’m going to go out and take care of your car and make sure you didn’t forget anything. If by the time I come back you’re still awake, I’ll stay with you and read you a bedtime story.”

The little dog yawned in reply. “Okay, Daddy.”

He turned off the lights to the nursery and shut the door. “Damn it,” he chuckled to himself. “I really am a Daddy now.”

The clean up was less work and bother than the fallout of Alby’s last reckless stunt. Too bad Alby didn’t need that bedtime story after all. He slipped a pacifier between her lips and kissed her good night on the forehead anyways.

********************************************************************************************************
Alby woke up with her tail wagging and her legs pumping. It was her own crinkling that ripped apart her pleasant dream world as though it were made of gossamer. Alby let out a yawn and slowly blinked the blurriness out of her eyes.

Maybe that’s why puppies had trouble sleeping through the night. Maybe they kept waking up because they would run and jump and wag their tails in their sleep and their diapers crinkling woke them up? The idea that she’d been running in her sleep like a puppy lit a flame inside her that made it certain she wouldn’t be going back to sleep.

She was so deep in headspace, so gloriously little that she had almost no trouble wetting in bed. She almost thought that she was getting good at this, but since babies didn’t need to practice wetting she shoved that thought aside before she could finish it. Her eyes became bright and shiny in an instant. She couldn’t have woken up faster if someone had put Red Bull directly into her veins.

“Good morning,” she said to one of her dollies in the crib. “I’m gonna be playing with Daddy today. Do you wanna join me?” She waited an appropriate amount of time for a response. “You do?! That’s great!” The diaper swelling and shifting beneath her did little to mute the crinkling caused by her tail.

“What about you?” She asked another one. “Will you play with me and Daddy, too?” A breath. “You will?! Yaaaaay!”

She looked at a third plush. “Now what are we gonna do today?” She tired to imagine games she could play. “There’s tea parties.” That was nice. It was always fun to make Daddy run around and play and do all the voices. “Aaaaand hide and seek?” That idea fell dead the moment it left her mouth . Stuffed animals weren’t very good at seeking and only so-so at hiding. “How about…tag?! Oh wait…” There was a problem with that. “I could play tag with Daddy…”

She rolled over onto her belly and frowned, twisting and untwisting the nightgown in the process as it was just baggy enough to not properly move with her. Playing tag with just Daddy wasn’t very fun. He was too good at it and was faster and stronger than her; and that was before factoring in how her diapers made it harder for her to walk and run. The distinctive crinkle that hovered around her at all times gave him a distinct advantage in hide and seek. Games like tag, tea party, and hide and seek were always better when there were two or more people involved; or at least another kid to play with and make Daddy watch while the two of you played.

She yawned again, but it felt more like a defeated sigh. She’d really lucked out to find a Daddy of her very own. Someone that saw her as she was and treated her as she needed it. Others should be so lucky. Didn’t stop her from feeling needy, though. Appetizers exist because the real hunger comes just after the fast is broken.

“How old are you?” She asked the first doll. “Three? Wow! You’re SO big! I’m…” Alby paused. She wanted to say a smaller number, but something wouldn’t let her. In that moment, some terrible block prevented her from voicing how little she was on the inside.

She sucked on pacifiers. She drank from bottles. She wore diapers. She slept in cribs.

But she was still potty trained. She still had restraint. She still had control. She wasn’t really a little girl. He was just a grown ass man playing pretend. The scare of almost being blackmailed and outed had clumped together into a malignant tumor rooted in the back of Alby’s mind.

And no matter how hard she tried, Alby couldn’t fully get the idea out of her own head. She wasn’t really a baby, was she? The rock in the little dog’s gut landed hard and literally. She wasn’t really a baby because she didn’t poop in her diaper.

Alby had tried to over the past several weeks. She’d tried it in the privacy of her own bedroom. When that didn’t work she tried it in the apartment bathroom. No dice either. Then in the shower with the water off in case of a leak or a blowout. Then out of the shower with the water on so that there was more background noise. Then in the shower with the water on so that the diaper was already wet and sagging. Then standing over the toilet. Then squatting over it with the seat lifted up. Then sitting on the toilet seat with the diaper on. Then all of the above sans padding. Nothing except sitting his bare ass on the cold porcelain would get his bowels to pull the trigger.

Alby had no idea why this block was in place or where it came from. Just that whenever she tried she found herself rammed into this wall of shame and embarrassment. She couldn’t even fart. She could pee and crawl and drink from bottles and get spanked until the cows came home, but having a messy diaper was a limit she couldn’t overcome.

“I could ask for an enema…” she muttered to herself, then ditched the notion just as quickly. “No. That doesn’t count.” For whatever reason, Alby had gamified this problem and it had been decided that enemas were cheating. So was asking for help.
Damn. Stupid brain. It would have been really nice to get Daddy’s help on this. But Alby’s cancerous self-loathing wouldn’t allow it.

“Maybe I’m doing it backwards,” Alby said to her dollies. She twisted and shimmied back up to all fours. Trying it in her apartment bathroom was the least babyish place she could imagine. Here in her nursery, surrounded with baby clothes and diapers and not a potty in sight. The key to it was being more babyish, not less.

As fate and fortitude would have it, Alby felt the need to poop. It wasn’t anything that could be labeled as urgent or an emergency; just a sense of fullness and a desire to make room. The kind of thing that could be sat with for most of a day and ignored if one was prudish about where they pooped.

That was good in Alby’s estimate. She didn’t want to strain herself, but the ones that were big enough to push themselves out tended to be uncomfortable and/or diarrhea. As far as messing one’s diaper went, this was a bunny hill.

Alby closed her eyes, lifted her tail, and immediately realized she was going to fail. The moment she started thinking about it, the moment it felt like the turd was shimmying its way further back inside her. She tried every position she could imagine but none of it was doing anything. She was just too potty trained.

“Maybe I’m constipated,” Alby whispered to herself, trying to salvage her headspace. It’s not like babies her age didn’t get clogged up every now and then. “But if I’m constipated that might mean I should try to…” she cut herself off as her cheeks flushed and her tail tucked itself between her legs.

Daddy’s footsteps signaled his approach. Alby did her best to look casual instead of humiliated for being unable to do something that a literal child could without trying. She was still panting softly from the exertion.

“Morning, Princess!” Daddy greeted her. He lowered the crib’s railing and started to undress her. “Let’s get that nightie off now,” he said. “Then we’ll get you changed and dressed for breakfast.”

The costume jammies were peeled off with the bonnet and set aside on a hanger. Alby giggled to herself, imagining Daddy trying to justify dropping the outfit off at the dry cleaners.

“What’s so funny?” Daddy asked as he brought her over to the changing table. “Hm?”

“Nuffin’,” Alby slurred around her thumb. “Jus’ baby stuff.”

“Just baby stuff?!” Daddy cooed at her, ripping the tapes off her diaper. “Just baby stuff?! And here I thought I was dealing with a big girl!” He looked down at the open diaper and shook his head. “Oops! Guess I was wrong. A big girl wouldn’t get this soggy, would she? Would she?!”

The way he teased her made her feel littler and more cherished, instead of mocked. Her being any kind of big girl was the joke itself. Pure absurdity. How much more babyish would she be then, if she used her diaper for its fully intended purpose? How much was she denying herself? How much was she denying Max? She’d been the one to safeword out of messing last time; not him.

Was he missing out because of her? Was she not only recoiling in shame but also failing Daddy in some way? Was she literally a bad baby; a poor substitute for the real thing; a cheap immitation toddler?

These are some strange thoughts for a little girl to have while her Daddy is powdering her backside and taping on a fresh diaper, but sometimes that’s just how Alby’s mind worked.

“Daddy’s got something very exciting for you today,” he said, pulling a pink dress with a black peter pan collar over her head. “Very special.” He gave her a peck on the top of her head and put a big floppy bow right where he’d kissed her.

He slid her off the changing table and gave her a playful swat on the bottom. “Come on! Let’s get some breakfast.” Then with a devilish grin, he said, “Race ya!”

Alby was out in the hallway and down the stairs in the blink of an eye. Daddy was bigger, stronger, and faster than her, but she was more competitive, more reckless, and had a head start.

“I win!” Alby threw her hands up in the air as she padded into the kitchen. “I win! I win! I win!” She looked around and addressed Daddy as he caught up. “What did I win?”

Daddy’s grin had not faded in the least. If anything there was more of an edge to it. He picked her up and secured her in her highchair. “You win…you win…a baba!” He held the bottle out to her, and she took it without thinking. “Good girl!” He ruffled her hair and straightened her bow. ”Daddy has to go take care of a few grown up things. If you finish your bottle before I get back, Daddy will have a special surprise for you. Will you be good?”

Alby eagerly nodded her head. Truth be told, it was a coin flip, and both of them seemed to know it. But there was no ill intent present. The spirit was willing but the attention span was…huh…where was the author going with this again…?

She gulped down the milk greedily as Max left the kitchen for a few minutes. Alby found out the hard way that she couldn’t poop and drink milk from a bottle at the same time. The highchair wasn’t close enough to a potty for her body’s liking, and trying to lift her bottom up off the seat was already difficult with the harness.

It was a shame. She’d done some reading in her spare time, and the forced aspect of age regression really…appealed to her. Probably because if she embarrassed herself it wasn’t really her fault. It wouldn’t be her fault if she pooped her pampers while Daddy was away and she was locked nice and snug in her high chair. Too bad she couldn’t…

She went back to her bottle and took a few more sips. Before she could get into a rhythm she stopped herself and ran her tongue along the inside of her mouth. There was something…different…about the bottle of milk. She couldn’t quite place it, but there was definitely a strange, overly sweet aftertaste and a chalky film around her teeth. Furthermore she was feeling strangely full.

She finished the bottle anyway, trusting her Daddy to take care of her.

She let out a loud belch and was so proud of herself that she didn’t bother to excuse herself. Daddy came in a minute later. “All done?”

Alby nodded and held out the empty bottle as proof. Daddy took the bottle away and rinsed it in the sink right away. Then he got Alby out of her high chair, but not before checking her diaper. “Just a little wet.” He told her. “You can wait.”

“Wet?” Alby parroted back. “No I’m not…am I?” Alby hadn’t actually wet her diaper without realizing it. Had she?

Daddy heaved her up onto his hip and carried her into the living room, positioning her so that she couldn’t check herself. She felt him patting her backside as if checking for something else. “Not yet,” he grumbled mostly to himself, “but the milk will help that.”

“Help what?!” Alby asked.

Her question went ignored and Daddy put her down on the ground so that he could sit on the couch and pull her into his lap. “Daddy has something for you to watch, Princess. It’s a very special cartoon for little ones. Like you.” Rather than the television, Daddy gestured to a laptop placed there on the coffee table.

“What is it?” Alby asked.

Daddy leaned forward and pressed the spacebar on the laptop. “You’ll see.”

A strange woman’s voice came out of the laptop’s speakers. “You are a baby.” The unfamiliar voice said. “You are not potty trained.” It was rhythmic and soothing. Hypnotic even. “Just watch the cartoon and let all those big people thoughts go bye bye.”

Daddy pressed the spacebar again. “Whoops!” He said. “Need headphones for this cartoon!”

He picked up a pink pair of headphones and positioned them right over Alby’s ears. He pressed spacebar again and punched a few keys. “Here. Better?”

The sound came on in the headphones so loudly that Alby winced when the big band music kicked in.

“Casey Junior’s comin’ down the track!
Comin’ down the track!
Comin’ down the track!”

It was an old cartoon; the kind that Daddy liked. The kind that bragged about being in technicolor at the very beginning. And it started with a train ride and a bunch of storks delivering babies.

But underneath the big brassy music, if Alby listened very closely, she could still hear, “You’re a baby. You are not potty trained.” And every few seconds, the old animation seemed to flicker, like a glitch. Like a coat of paint that was just one shade off of the original, there was something off about the cartoon, but only if scrutinized. If Alby chose not to focus, she’d forget about the occasional blips between frames of animation and the black and white spiral.

“Shhhh,” Daddy stroked her hair and rubbed comforting circles along Alby’s back. “Don’t fight it, baby girl. Just let it happen.”

Alby realized she was blinking too much; squirming too much. She stilled herself and watched the pretty cartoon about the circus elephant with big ears. She soon forgot how to blink. Next she forgot how to hold it in. The front of her diaper warmed up beneath her and expanded slightly. Or rather she suddenly became aware of the warmth. It was less like peeing and more like breathing to her all of a sudden.

Just natural. Nothing wrong with it at all. She wasn’t potty training. She was just a baby. No more big people thoughts. It was her job to sit in Daddy’s lap and watch and listen the cartoon while he bounced her gently on her knee.

It was all just happening. Nothing to fight about. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to be ashamed of. A faint, dumb smile played at her lips while she continued to watch and absorb everything the cartoon was trying to teach her. Her favorite part was where the little elephant was dressed up as a baby by the clowns and put on a show that made everyone happy. And when he drunk the funny water and had those strange dreams…Alby could oddly relate to that, too.

“This is a good movie, Daddy.” She must have said it twenty times. Not that she counted.

Daddy agreed. “Shhhh. Just watch, baby girl. Just watch and make Daddy proud.”
***************************************************************************************************
A little over an hour later, Alby was playing with wooden train tracks, making her own circus route down to the make believe land of Florida. Daddy was off doing grown-up things. Said he was picking out an outfit for dinner later tonight. Alby didn’t think to question it. Her mind made no alterations to the plot or the premise. She just assumed that Daddy would be taking her out tonight and no part of her envisioned herself wearing slacks or undies that didn’t crinkle.

Speaking of undies, she was in obvious need of a change. Her diaper sagged around her hips, soaking wet and bulging as she crawled around on the carpet with her wooden tracks. Daddy had kept her well hydrated throughout the magic cartoon too. Just as her diaper was getting cool, it’d warm up again.

“Almost…done…” she deftly mumbled around her pacifier. She’d almost created a perfect figure eight for her troubles. She just needed to find the right piece.

She paused just before slipping in the final piece. Another crinkle caught her attention as she lifted her tail. Then a few popping sounds filled her ears, like an engine starting to fire up after a long night in the cold.

Then Alby started to push. Her eyes widened and she held her breath. It was happening! She was doing it! She tried to tuck her tail, but her body wouldn’t listen. She tried to stop pushing, but her cheeks started spreading.

She wasn’t in control. The cartoon had seen to that. The bottle of milk she’d been forced to drink down had been a special laxative and the cartoon had robbed her of her potty training. She was just a puppet on a string; not in control of her most basic functions.

That didn’t make her face any cooler as the hot mess entered into the back seat of her diaper, slowly and inevitably ballooning out while Alby’s body continued to betray her.

“No…” she whimpered and whined to her own body. “Not like this…! I’m…I’m an…adult…I’m…” she huffed and realized she was filling even more of her seat. “...a big girl!” But she knew the lie the moment it came out of her.

Daddy was showing her just how silly she was thinking that she was a big girl at all. She really was just a helpless baby. And after she found her voice, she let him know just how right he was.

“WAAAAAAAAAH!”

She cried and wailed for her Daddy. She had not the composure or the presence of mind to use actual words. Her regressed brain clawed at words and scoffed at them. But her tone and tears communicated everything. She was humiliated. She was uncomfortable. She was stinky. She wanted out of her diaper and into a clean one NOW!

Perhaps it was her old adult mindset screaming at her from behind a curtain of drugs and subliminal suggestions, perhaps she was just a little girl that needed her diapers but still knew enough to cry when she felt like being changed. Perhaps it was the last gasp of Alby’s limits and self respect.

As planned and expected, all of it went away when Daddy rushed into the room. “Alby? Princess?” he asked. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Tell me, baby girl!” She did, but not with words. His snout wrinkled with a sniff. “Oooooh. Someone needs a change, doesn’t she?”

************************************************************************************************
“Well I be done seen about everything…” Max sang as he ripped the tabs on Alby’s soiled diaper. Soiled was an understatement. Everything was solid, such as it was, but the little pup had absolutely destroyed her diaper. It was a wonder Max didn’t have to break out the carpet cleaner. “...when I see an elephant fly.”

He wiped and wiped and wiped his little pup’s bottom. Each wipe serving to clean the mess and reduce Alby’s tears at the same time. “If my baby girl was a bird,” he joked while he cleared away the last of the mess and balled up the used diaper. “I’d think she just laid a very big egg.” He made a note to increase her fiber intake in the near future “But she’s not a birdy? Is she? Is she?”

As expected, once the nasty refuse had been cleaned and cleared away, the tears had stopped. Making the resulting powdering and re-diapering a much more pleasant affair compared to when the task had started. “There,” he said. “I bet that feels so much better!”

Alby nodded, her muzzle still burning red hot. “Yes, Daddy,” she chirped. “Thank you, Daddy.”

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” He asked. “Daddy knows how to change a diaper. Doesn’t he?”

Alby answered with a “Yes, Daddy,” and gave sat up to give him a kiss on the cheek for his trouble. “Yes, Daddy!” A beat later she was already trying to inch her way off the changing table. “So…can I…?”

“Go play, baby girl.” Max said. The crinkle from her tail wagging was particularly deafening. The diapers she was in weren’t particularly known for their loudness. Little girl was just that excited.


Max dug out his phone and opened his contacts. A magic feather. All it took was a magic feather.

“Hey, Julie?” the Daddy wolf said. “It’s Max, again. Thanks for the links and downloads. Yup. Worked like a charm!” He laughed. “We still down for dinner and some playtime?” He nodded to himself, already knowing the answer. He’d talked to Julie just before going up to wake Alby up for the morning.

As much as Max felt he’d misjudged his baby girl, she wasn’t nearly as complicated- or subtle- as she let herself believe. After a good night’s sleep, he heard the hope and the longing for companionship in her voice. His resolve doubled when he heard her talking to her dolls over the baby monitor. As for the other thing…Alby was not quiet when she was trying to poop.

To relieve this, Max had taken matters into his own hand. He tossed flavorless protein powder and a few spoonfuls of sugar into the milk to make it taste oversweet and filled with a chalky aftertaste.

An old friend provided him with some roleplay help, too. It was an app that randomly blipped a spiral onto whatever screen you were viewing, and a baby girl ASMR played on loop behind his old copy of Dumbo. It was pure hocum; nothing hypnotic about it. And the only thing that was strange about her milk was that it was technically flavorless Slim-Fast.

But Alby didn’t know that…

Alby needed an excuse to lose; or some form of permission so that she could be as babyish as she wanted to be. So Max gave it to her through a bit of surprise roleplay.

Just like a certain elephant needed to believe in magic feathers, his princess needed an outside source to overcome her own cognitive dissonance. For Dumbo it was a crow’s feather. For Alby it was the implication and fantasy that she was trapped in a forced regression trope.

She needed to believe that she was helpless and have the excuse not to call out for help until it was ‘too late’. So Max gave her space until the time was made right.

He snickered to himself. Despite her whimpering, one part of Alby had seemed very excited during the diaper change in a way that Max hadn’t appreciated before. Max went down the stairs and found Alby back at play as if the entire pants filling incident hadn’t even happened.

Good. That’s how it was supposed to be. She really was just a baby; even if she was a slow learner.

“Okay, Julie.” Max said. “Can’t wait to meet your new little one later tonight.” He hung up the phone.

He’d double check with Alby and make sure she understood that she wasn’t really hypnotized or drugged. She’d been a baby girl all by herself without any real help. Just like Dumbo had flown. Buuuut…maybe he’d wait a couple hours to tell her. Let her have fun in her fantasy world where she was turned into a helpless baby by her strong and loving Daddy.

She’d find out everything that just happened was completely natural soon enough.

Surely before meeting Julie…

Maybe…

Probably…

***************************************************************************************************
Max dug through the guest room closet, looking for the right outfit for Alby to wear that night. One would think dressing their little one for a night on the town would be relatively easy, but for once Max was the one overthinking things.

Alby, doll that she could be, didn’t bring any spare vanilla clothes, and Max didn’t want to risk going back to Alby’s apartment and the little dog chickening out once they were back in the safety and comfort of their bedroom. That and Alby’s taste in ‘adult’ clothes tended to be bland and conservative. Anything that Alby dedicated himself to he excelled at, and that included passing as a boring straight vanilla guy.

Max’s taste in little clothes weren’t exactly subtle. Everything stocked in the nursery was designed to infantilize and be as soft, cute, and frilly as possible. Max couldn’t remember the last time he’d taped up a diaper without smiling cartoon prints on the cover. There were littles out there who knew how to blend adult and childish fashion to give off youthful energy without directly broadcasting to the world that they were a giant toddler, but Alby wasn’t one of them and the clothes in the nursery didn’t cater to subtlety.

So here he was, reduced to sorting through old clothes that had long been outgrown but not yet donated. He hemmed and hawed sorting through the clothing still perfectly preserved in dry cleaning plastic wrap. Just behind his eyelids, Max imagined what he’d prefer Alby wear out tonight, but for some reason Max didn’t think Alby would want to show up to a club being pushed in a stroller, her diaper bulging out from underneath her dress in front of everyone.

The SandLot was doing its monthly “Kinky and Krazy” night this evening, but the dress code still had limits. The SandLot was a good place to dance, have a few drinks, and maybe get some decent fried snacks, but it wasn’t a substitute for a dungeon or a convention. “Kinky and Krazy” mostly meant lots of BDSM cosplay from people who’d never actually played that way.

He found a pink polo that he hadn’t fit in since that final college growth spurt. “Hmmm…” It wouldn’t be too baggy on Alby. Neither would the khakis. The problem was, neither article of clothing was particularly babyish or feminine.

His eyes darted to the size tag inside the pants. Should be good enough to hide the diaper bulge. Alby was definitely going padded tonight. Whether Alby was his boyfriend or his baby girl, they were going to crinkle tonight. Max licked his chops just thinking about it.

If only there was some other way to get Alby into his comfort zone. Max loved the silly puppy, he realized, but didn’t want his princess forever hiding in her playpen. As a caregiver, Alby was the center of Max’s whole world, but he didn’t want to be the whole of Alby’s world. Things had to expand, however gradually.

Until they’d become entangled in each other’s lives, Alby’s limit had been wearing silky panties under his work clothes. Max blinked as if a light bulb had just come on directly above his head.

“I’ve got it!” He said as he trotted across the hallway and back into the nursery.

****************************************************************************************************

“Daddy,” Alby whined for what must have been the hundredth time that ride, “I’m nervous.”

Max took one hand off the wheel so that he could reach in the back seat and grip Alby’s paw reassuringly. Alby gave his hand a light squeeze. Max squeezed back and then put both hands on the wheel. “I know,” Max said. “But you’ll like it, I promise.” A beat. “You’re being very brave.”

Alby didn’t want to be brave. Alby wanted to stay home at Max’s and play with her dollies all weekend.

Daddy patted the laptop over in the passenger seat. He’d brought it just in case. “Do you want to watch your new favorite movie again?”

Alby’s breath caught in his chest. “No thank you…!” Logically, Alby knew the hypnotic video was just a bit of roleplay; a bit of kinky pretend to give the little side of her an excuse to let go. But Alby was so nervous, he knew he’d purposefully and actively resist the commands and fake subliminal messages looped onto the animation track and ruin the fun forever. It’d be like wondering if Santa was real and then confirming that he wasn’t after catching the butler in red pajamas and a fake beard one Christmas Eve. Alby wanted to keep the magic. “But maybe when we get home?”

“Okay baby girl,” Daddy said. “We’ll do that.”

As was often the case, Alby was of two minds about this whole outing. One part was scared and anxious, ready to bolt for the door and cry all the way home. The other part was excited and restless, eager perhaps; if there was fear it was the same type of anticipation one felt when boarding a roller coaster. Funnily enough, the scared half wasn’t the one that needed diapers and the excited half technically shouldn’t be going to bars and clubs. Alby’s lips puckered. God he could use a drink right now.

“No drinking tonight.” Max reminded him.

How did he always know???

“I know, Max.” he sighed.

“Hm?”

“Yes, Daddy!” she chirped.

Alby’s mindset and inner turmoil was paralleled by his apparel. The little doberman was wearing some of Max’s old clothes that were still a size too large for him. A layer beneath the pink polo and the bland khakis was a matching onesie with a white Peter Pan ruffles on the bum and white lace trim on the sleeves. One layer deeper was a (for now) clean and crinkly diaper.

How had Daddy managed to talk her into this? She was wearing her baby clothes underneath ‘normal’ clothes and going into an unfamiliar public space filled with strangers. She often got a thrill from wearing lacy (and more recently crinkly) things under her clothes at work, but this felt like walking into a wild beast’s lair wearing a tuxedo made of raw steaks.

Yes, his arguments that no one would notice her or care if she was wearing a onesie and a diaper made sense on a purely rational level, but that’s not what had enticed her to come along.

“You can call me ‘Daddy’ in public,” Max had promised. “And nobody will think anything of it.”

THAT was something that couldn’t be replicated with clandestine office flirting. It was the difference between feeling like an adult hiding a naughty secret and a baby with extra layers on top to keep her warm and cozy.

Holy shit! Alby’s appearance was a metaphor for her entire life, right now. She was a little girl hiding behind men’s clothes that fit wrong. But as nervous as she was, this needed to be done. Since meeting Daddy and becoming his baby girl, she’d recognized a whole new part of herself. It was like she’d spent her whole life in a box and suddenly had more room to move. Yet Daddy’s house was just a slightly bigger box.

The muscles of her soul had been so cramped up that they’d lost feeling and only now were they beginning to ache and untense. But muscles need to untense all the way. Alby had a need to experience things outside the box and really stretch her legs! The only way for her to feel more babyish is to meet and be seen with other babies her size and their caregivers.

This nervousness? It was just the painful tingles of circulation returning to a limb that had fallen asleep.

But the presence of the adult clothes was throwing off the mojo. If this SandLot club was really so welcoming, why did he have to wear adult clothes and hide who he really was? This was just the same kind of sneaky games at work, except Alby was being expected to cut loose and relax; two things the doberman wasn’t particularly good at while wearing pants.

“It’s just until we get in the door,” Daddy said, reading Alby’s mind. Or maybe not; Alby looked down at himself and realized that he was fidgeting and wrinkling up the polo. “Then you can take it off once you get comfy.”

The neurotic adult part of Alby grabbed control of his vocal chords. “You’re sure nobody from work will recognize us?”

Max’s eyes didn’t leave the road. “Been coming here about once a month for years,” he said, “And never seen any of them. And nobody brings it up when they gossip.”

“But what if they’re there tonight?” Alby whined.

“Then we’ll have mutually assured destruction,” Max reminded. For good measure he also said, “Everyone is going to be doing their own thing. No one will be looking at us. This isn’t the office: no one is so bored that they’re looking for drama.”

Alby winced at that, feeling slightly called out, but Daddy was right.

The SandLot parking lot was full, but not crowded. The sun hadn’t yet fully set and Alby felt especially vulnerable there in the fresh air with the heat bouncing off the pavement. Daddy walked around from the front and took her hand.
He led them to the front door and past the tiger checking IDs. “He’s not memorizing your name or face, he’s literally just checking the birth date.” Daddy said it at a normal speaking volume, but the pounding music made it come out as more of a whisper.

People were socializing in the corners and along the edges in booths and such but everyone was more or less on their first beverage. People were already dancing, but the floor wasn’t packed yet. Alby had a certain feeling that would fix itself in an hour or two.

There were also people who were dressed…unconventionally, let’s say; but no one who looked like her. And for some reason, Alby was certain that it wouldn’t correct itself in a few hours.

“Max?” Alby began but was quickly interrupted

“You can call me ‘Daddy’ here, Princess.”

“Daddy?” Alby corrected herself. “I don’t see any other um…” she felt herself sucking on her teeth and wishing for her binky.

“Babies?” Daddy finished her sentence. “You can say what you are.”

Alby’s face turned hot. “Yeah…No babies.”

“This isn’t exactly a hot spot for our kind of play, but I figured it’d be a good starting point,” Daddy promised. “Baby steps.” Hand in hand, they stepped over to the bar.

The bartender, a bear in a particularly nice suit, inclined his head over to them while he cleaned a mug several feet away. “Hey, boss. What’ll it be?”

The doberman looked up to her Daddy. “‘Boss’?”

“He calls everybody boss,” Daddy replied. “I’m kind of a regular, remember?”

“Oh. Yeah.” Alby felt herself relax a little. This place was safe. This place was scouted. This place wasn’t familiar to her but it was to Daddy and that was enough in the moment.

Daddy handed over his credit card and opened up a tab. “A rum and coke for me and a Shirley Temple for her.” He thumbed over to Alby. “Oh, and uh…let’s pretend she’s under twenty-one…aaaand…is afraid something is gonna be slipped in her drink.”

“Coming right up!” The bear smiled while Alby looked at her Daddy in complete confusion. “Hey, Ernie! We need a wall pic over here!”

“Smile!” A voice caught Alby’s attention. Alby whipped her head around and was blinded by the flash from an old polaroid camera. The spots were still popping in an out of the doberman’s vision while another bartender, a fox, pinned the fresh picture to a wall behind the bar. “Not gonna forget that cute little mug for a while.”

Alby’s “What the-?” was drowned out by pulsing bass, but Daddy was a spectacular lip reader.

He leaned in closely and spoke directly into her ear so she could hear over everything else. “You’re on the no-booze board. Nobody will serve you alcoholic drinks.” That was a punch to Alby’s pride. She’d been remarkably good with her self control. But Daddy made it all better. “You’re too little to drink,” he told her. Then with a grin that could only be described as ‘wolfish’ he teased her with, “But you can have as many fizzy pops as you want.”

The little pup would have melted into the seat of her pamps then and there, had the bear not gently guided her wrist over to the other side of the bar so that he could fasten a wrist band around her. “There ya go, kiddo.” The bear winked, and then slid her a Shirley Temple; it was in a tall and clear, but thick plastic glass; the kind that can be found by the dozen in any chain restaurant around the country. Unlike your typical night at Chili’s or T.G.I.Fridays, however, this one was topped with a lid that had a little spout on the top. Just like a sippy cup. Alby’s astonishment only increased when she looked at the rough paper wristband and saw that it was decorated with little illustrations of baby bottles.

Daddy took a sip from his much stouter and more sophisticated looking glass. “I said this wasn’t exactly a hotspot for us. I didn’t say we were completely unrepresented.” He started guiding her away from the bar and to a side area. “I’ve got friends meeting us here, remember?”

Whatever affect Daddy had intended for his words to have, it likely had the opposite result. Alby suddenly felt incredibly anxious. What if the baby Daddy wanted her to meet didn’t like her? What if nobody liked her? What if she said something stupid and embarrassed herself? What if she was the only baby in the entire world who couldn’t make her own friends?

“Do you want to take your pants off?” Daddy asked. “You can.”

Alby’s eyes scanned the room. Her dancing around in just her onesie certainly wouldn’t be the most outlandish or provocative sight. There was a gazelle whose dress appeared to be made out of bubble wrap. But she’d be the only baby in a room full of funnily dressed grown-ups. “No thank you.” She took a sip of the grenadine enriched sprite. Even with the sippy lid, she felt insecure.

The minutes and the songs stretched out into forever- that or for about fifteen minutes-whichever came first.

“Ah!” Daddy said, his voice still barely audible through the constant music. “There they are!”

Alby fanned her hand over her eyes like an old scout searching the horizon. “Where?”

Daddy turned her head for her and directly pointed through the crowd that was just now beginning to thicken. “There.”

It might have been foolish, but Alby had kind of assumed that Daddy’s friend would be another big scary animal like a leopard or a cheetah or something. Well, if she was following Daddy’s instructions correctly, his Mommy friend was the biggest bunny Alby had ever seen. And following closely behind her was a positively dainty Siamese cat. The bunny was dressed in a flowing black dress that radiated class. Her tremendous frame made her look…not ‘pretty’ per se, though she was that, too. Regal! That’s the word! Regal! The kitty cat next to her was dressed…kind of like Alby, to be honest.

She had a white button up blouse and bell bottom jeans. Her face was framed by black thick rimmed glasses, giving her a sort of bookish vibe. More stylish and feminine than what Alby was dressed in, but still…kind of plain..and adult…and not even the ‘fun’ kind of ‘adult’. Was she even a baby or had there been some kind of mistake?

“Julie!” Daddy greeted the other caregiver, his arms wide.

The tremendous bunny had a couple inches on Daddy. “Maxie!” She said and gave him a hug.

“Maxie?” Alby mouthed, but otherwise stayed silent.

The two bigs took half a step back from one another and gestured to their comparatively petite dates. “This is Kitty,” the bunny woman said. The Siamese waved shyly.

“And this is Alby,” Daddy said. Alby smiled but shoved her hands in her pockets and gave the slightest of nods. “Do you two need to get set up at the bar?”

“In a minute,” June projected back over the din. “We’ll give it a second to clear up.”

“Bathroom?” Daddy suggested. “It’s not gonna get any less crowded.”

The big bunny waved away Daddy’s concern “I’m fine and I just changed Kitty in the parking lot.”

Kitty’s eyes lit up with embarrassment. “Mommeeeee!” But the music and crowd drowned out most of it.

“Yeah. Alby’s just a little wet.” Daddy said.

The pup reflexively stomped her foot at the injustice. “Am not!” Then realized how silly she just sounded, arguing about the state of her underwear.

The wolf and the bunny exchanged pleased and knowing looks with one another. “Be right back,” Julie said, taking Kitty’s hand and leading her over to the bar.

Alby watched the pair walk away and spied the bunny lifting up the back of her date’s blouse, revealing the faintest slip of a disposable diaper’s waistband peeking out. If she hadn’t been looking for it, she wouldn’t have noticed.

The cat WAS a baby! But would she be a friend?

Daddy gently elbowed her on the side and winked. “Ready to get comfy?”
Alby tipped the sippy cup back. “Not yet…” she said.

The Mommy and the other baby returned. The quartered gathered in a booth, sipped their beverages, and paired off. Two old friends catching up on old times, and two little girls just meeting each other. Daddy and Julie were trading soft conversation with one another as if this were literally just another night. The two little ones’ speech was decidedly more stilted.

“So…” Alby said. “Is Kitty your real name?” It was rude to be sure, but Alby couldn’t get over a cat named ‘Kitty’.

Kitty barely made eye contact. If it wasn’t necessary to turn her head to be heard above the din, she might not have made any. “Yes and no,” she said softly and shyly. “I’m Katherine, but Mommy calls me Kitty. Is your real name Alby?”

“Yes and no,” Alby replied. She left her answer incomplete, however, as thinking of herself as ‘Albert Junior’ would have risked a panic attack. “So uh…what do you like to do?”

The Siamese tilted her head from side to side, committing to neither. “Oh…you know…” she said. “Stuff.”

“Like…coloring?” Alby suggested.

“Yeah.” Kitty answered. But the way she said it made her think she meant ‘Not really’.

“Cartoons?”

“Yeah.”

“Tea parties?”

“Yeah.”

She was agreeing to everything but committing and contributing nothing.

Feeling discouraged, Alby took to sipping her drink again. Kitty did the same. This was starting to suck and neither Kitty’s Mommy or Alby’s Daddy was doing anything to make it suck less. Alby subtly shifted and scooted so that her left shoulder was against the wall. Kitty, likewise was digging into her pockets and starting to fiddle with her keys.

It might have ended there if Alby hadn’t spied a certain decoration on her keychain: A cutout of a mech suit bearing dark crimson wings and a segmented whip. The little dog let out a gasp. “Is that the Epyon?!”

Kitty lit up immediately. “It is! I love Gundam! I love anime in general but I looooove Gundam!”
Alby couldn’t hear the crinkle of her diaper over the dance music, but she could feel it when her tail started wagging. “Me too! What’s your favorite series so far?! Wing?”

“Nope,” Kitty’s smile became big wide and toothy. “G-Gundam! It’s so corny but I love it!”

Alby’s head was bouncing up and down so fast that it could have been a jackhammer. “I haven’t seen that one! Have you seen Witch from Mercury?”

“Loved that one!” Kitty cheered. “Should’ve gotten another season though, just to wrap things up at a better pace.”

Neither one consciously recognized it, but they were slowly inching closer and closer to one another. “Amen!” They were practically hugging now. “Iron Blooded Orphans?”

“Fucking! Tragic! Fucking! Epic! Second only to G-Gundam!”

“Kitty,” the big bunny woman tutted from across the booth. “Language.”

“Yes, Mommy. Sorry, Mommy.” Alby already knew that her new friend was kind of excited by being called out for saying naughty words. She was pretty sure she made the exact same face every time she managed to toe the line with Daddy.

“Why don’t you kiddos go and get some of that energy out on the dance floor?” Daddy suggested.

June- Miss June…calling a grown-up by just their first name felt weird, nodded her approval. “Yes. Kitty, go teach your little friend some dance moves. Go play.”

The cat and the dog looked at one another, and silently agreed. They slid out of the booth as one.

“Just a second…” Daddy half-barked just to be heard. “You’re not going out there like that.” He got out of the booth and hooked his fingers into the waistband of Alby’s pants. Ten seconds thereafter, her adult disguise was deposited back in the booth where she’d been sitting. “Don’t want you two to get overheated.

From her seat, Julie gave Kitty an appraising look and nodded to Daddy. Daddy undressed Kitty just as easily as he had Alby, leaving her in just her diaper and a lacey baby tee that was shockingly similar to the pup’s pink onesie. Kitty shuddered but purred so loud that it could be mistaken for the bass line being played.

Had Alby been a cat, she’d have been purring too. Watching Daddy so easily undress another little and take away their adult clothes didn’t make her jealous. If anything, it had the opposite effect: It wasn’t an act. He really did see them as little girls who needed to be loved and taken care of. And he was friends with Kitty’s Mommy, so why shouldn’t he help her get comfy too? That way only one Grown-Up needed to get up?

It just made sense.

“Okay you two rascals,” Daddy said, giving Alby a playful swat on the butt. “Go play.”

Hand in hand, the diapered doberman and her new playmate rushed off to the dance floor to jump and tumble and move and groove amongst all the crazy big people in their silly costumes.

*****************************************************************************************************
Max stared at the girls running onto the dance floor, looking like toddlers at the weirdest wedding reception ever. Images flashed in Max’s mind of him letting his little princess stand on the top of his feet while they swayed. First slow dance that hit, Max was cutting in.

“So…Maxie?” Julie teased. “Mission accomplished?”

“Mission more than accomplished, Julie,” Max said. “Mission more than accomplished.”

The pair sat in silence, sighing contently as they watched their respective little ones shake their pampered tails together.

“I never asked,” Julie said. “How’d you meet yours?”

Max suppressed a chuckle. “New Years Eve. They accidentally broke into the nursery.”

The bunny took a sip from her martini. “Accidentally?”

“Long story. What about Kitty?”

“Friend of a friend of a friend. Bad breakup and some family troubles. Needed a place to stay and I was an idiot and forgot to hide the diapers.”

The two old friends shared a knowing laugh with one another. “Damn, but do we have a type?”

The bunny agreed, nodding along, but keeping her gaze perfectly fixated on her own diapered kitten. “That we do. That we definitely do.”