Title: Under the Rug: Arrival

Rating: PG-13

Warnings/Tags: Age Regression, Agender Character, Unreliable Narrator, Mental Issues, Health Issues, Scary World, Self Insert, Introspection, Language

Summary: I'm eighteen going on six... Yeah I really don't know what's going on. I mean it's the day after my birthday, and then I'm somewhere else, tiny and swamped in my clothing with my suddenly four year old brother clinging tightly to my hand as we run away from somewhere... Also the Rugrats are here!

Disclaimer: I don't own Rugrats, I do own myself... and well for this story I guess I own my brother in a way.

Notes: Let's get this thing started! Welcome to Self-Insert Week 2016!

It's cold...

It's cold and I'm shivering and confused and I don't know what's going on. I'm running, a single much smaller hand clutched in my own much smaller hand and the other arm wrapped around an actual living platypus.

It's strange, especially because the last thing that I remember before this was settling down for bedtime. The night of my birthday, ready for Mother's Day the next day, and of course Self Insert Week. And now I'm running, with my brother clinging to me and a platypus. Honestly I can't possibly explain this situation. I mean seriously.

"My feet hurt!"

Incoming whining. And I don't slow down even as he begins to complain and ask why we couldn't just go back to the Orphanage. Okay what? Since when were we Orphans?

I don't wonder for long though as our pet(?) begins to chatter and make some strange vibrating noises. I stop and look up at the headlights and growl before tugging my brother behind a bush and curling there. We're not going to be found.

If we were running away then surely there was a good reason for it.

At least, a good reason in the minds of a four and six year old. No matter that I'm eighteen and I know we probably won't survive that long on our own. The world is full of scary things. Danger lurks around every corner and-

"Hi there!"

I yelp, my brother yelps and then I snap my head up to stare at... blue shirt, wide grin and a diaper. Tommy?

Tommy Pickles?

What? What's going on. Why is there a fictional character right in front of me, and one of the babies from Rugrats to boot. I mean I loved that show, even when I rewatched it, all of it(except All Grown Up, because All Grown Up sucks). I loved the show. It was my childhood, my early childhood... And now it looks like it's going to be my actual childhood.

"We're running away from evil!" I said and my brother looks up at me with wide eyes. "A place where they take you away from your parents and put you in all identical rooms with other kids. And serve you mush that tries to pass itself off as food and... the bed bugs!"

"Icky!" my brother agrees with the last statement. Also, really I'm mostly bullshitting this stuff. Not all orphanages are bad, but then again... We're running away from one.

"And there's the Matron... The scariest person alive! With glowing eyes and if you step even a toe out of line. It's. The. CHAIR!" I was always more scared of the chair than I was the paddle. True facts.

"Oh No!"

"Yes! The chair..." I solemnly say, I'm honestly having way too much fun with this. Like seriously, I'm basically playing Angelica except not as bad... I'm not going to pull the stick a milliped in your ear trick here... and beside that was when I was five.

Also regret... Major regret.

"But we escaped!" I say with a huge grin splitting across my face as my brother nods his head. "But now we need to find... find..."

"We need to find Eden! Mom would always talk about it!"

"Right Eden! It's the most beautiful garden in the widest world!" I say trying to figure things out in my head. We're looking for Eden? As in the Garden of Eden? Really, really. "Oh and Obi will help!" I add holding up the platypus who doesn't agree or disagree with the statement. The statement that was mostly for comical value.

"Alright! Hey guys! We're going to find Edien!"

"Eden!" I correct and then my train slams onto the breaks and I stare at the boy. He looks like he's not even two yet. "Hold on a minute! Who said anything about you joining us? This trip will be dangerous. We'll face high seas! Blazing deserts! Howling gales! And you want to come along!"

"Well, yeah!"

I give up. And look around at the others who come and join us. Chucky with the bright ginger hair, Kimi, Phil and Lil the twins, Dil smiling with a bubble, Tommy, then I make the mistake of looking at my own younger brother. He's holding Obi the platypus and I just melt.

"Okay then crew! It's going to be hard but we'll be strong and make it!" I declare curling a hand into a fist and then throwing it into the air.

"Did we have to bring the infant along?" I grumble in reference to Dil. He's more that useless, he's a dead weight and we've gotten exactly no where. Not that I expected us to really get anywhere. But we're all in little explorer outfits and in the middle of a jungle now. With danger around every corner and the infant Dil is not even worth the trouble.

"Yes! He's my brother. And I can't just leave my brother." Tommy says and I sigh, it's true. Because I wouldn't be able to leave my brother behind either. I wouldn't be able to leave Cordell. As annoying as he can be and as much of a dead weight he is sleeping on my back. And honestly we're all getting tired.

"Through rain and snow, storm and sleet we will get there!" I growl and keep walking.

I honestly shouldn't have agreed to bring them at all. But they got the Reptar Wagon, and that's made things both easier and harder.

Easier because we can go so much further so much faster.

Harder because now we don't have any idea of where we are.

It's all jungle. And we're explorers. We're looking for a place of paradise.

We're out on our own! Going so far, but we're all alone!

We run around and split up when a pack of wolves start to chase up, and flip up and cross the branches my brother opens his eyes and grabs snapped twigs throwing them at the wolves. Which yelp and run away.

Goin' high and goin' low! We'll find that place so let's go!

A paradise garden, the most beautiful in the world. A place where we can be free and our parents will be waiting!

I can almost imagine what our parents would have been like in this world. Pretty and smiling and happy as I sit in the Reptar Wagon with Dil as we ride in a river. Tommy is the captain and he points. It's a waterfall.

A paradise home, with everyone and everything in peace. Now all we got to do is find it!

We're out on our own! Going so far, but we're all alone!

Goin' high and going low! We'll find that place so let's go!

We crawl across the desert sand with our heads down. I keep my eyes closed at the glare and eventually we make it over the desert and we all stand up panting before grinning and continuing to search.

We'll get there and be the ones to find paradise. The garden, Oh it's the Garden of Eden. So we goin' high and we goin' low.

Just watch us cause we goin' high and goin' low to find the place of paradise!

Goin' high and low. So here we GO!

We keep walking and I look around.

"Surely we're close now!" I hear Tommy say and I want to agree, but the fact is. Eden isn't really, not anymore. It would have been destroyed in the flood. So we're chasing a pipe dream, and honestly having fun doing it and then. "LOOK!" I look.

"We found it!" I find myself shouting and running down. It's a very beautiful garden and everyone's laughing and cheering. Because we found it. We found Eden. I grin "thankyou!"

"Kids?" I look around and stare. It's the matron, and the parents of the Rugrats. "Oh thank goodness."

"Look! We found Eden!" my brother happily says and the Matron actually smiles.

"Yes... You did. The Eden Gardens." she pats his head and then takes my hand and I wave at the Rugrats as she speaks quickly with their parents and then buckles us into the car.

This is probably only going to be our first misadventure with them. Obi chatters in my lap and I laughed.

"See you again Tommy!" I wave. And maybe... maybe the Matron's not as bad as I built them up to be.