Jacob licked his lips as he reached for the Chronivac, so brimming with anxious energy that his trembling fingers could barely work the buttons of the fantastic device. For as long as he could remember, all he had ever wanted was to be young again. Even as a child he had been prone to daydreams about being put back in diapers, daydreams that turned into full-on fantasies when he hit adolescence and pleasured himself countless times to thoughts of his rapidly-maturing body reverting back into a smaller, cuter, younger form. Reaching adulthood, if anything, had only made his yearning more intense. Whenever he needed a break from his boring grown-up life, all he had to do was close his eyes and picture himself as a happy little boy again, a carefree tyke who could binge on cartoons and junk food and not worry about things like insurance or car payments. And now - after waiting so long - his way back was in his hands.
Jacob took a deep breath and studied what he had set for himself. With only a bit of time before he had to leave for work, he couldn't do much more than test it out - to say nothing of the fact that he'd very much like to be aware of any potential side effects or glitches before going too deep. He'd cut loose on the weekend, but for now...thirteen seemed like a great place to start. Jacob laughed aloud at the thought - after waiting this long, all he had to do to become the boy he was in seventh grade was push a button. His laughter faded as he stared at the device. He took a deep breath and dried his palms on his pants.
He pushed the button.
A deep electric numb poured out of the Chronivac and washed over him, the man gasping in surprise before he remembered to turn towards the mirror he had set up to watch the changes - after a lifetime of waiting, he wasn't going to miss one second of this. He didn't have to wait much longer. It was but a few seconds after he pushed the button that the changes made themselves known, a decade's worth of adulthood shaved away in a matter of moments. A wide, disbelieving smile stretched across his lips as he dipped back into the awkwardness of his teendom, clothes growing billowy on his regressing body as he reclaimed the gawky frame that had dominated his high school years.
Then he started to shrink. Jacob laughed in pure joy at the realization that he was actually getting smaller, then laughed again when his voice cracked the first time, a string of giggles that rose like a musical scale to a boy's alto. His facial hair, having already thinned to a mere dusting, pulled back into his softening skin with the rest of his body hair, a pins-and-needles tickling that reached its crescendo just as his waist grew too skinny to hold up his grown-up slacks. Jacob didn't - couldn't - look down, though. He was too mesmerized by the sight of his facial features softening, of his cheeks rounding and regaining the barest smattering of freckles, of his curly black hair and bright emerald eyes and oversized ears making him look every bit the boy he'd become.
And then it was over. Then - standing where his 28-year-old self had been a moment prior - there stood an adolescent boy whose shirt dangled down to his knobby knees, whose oversized pants had fallen to his ankles, whose cheek-splitting grin made him look even younger than his thirteen years.
"Holy shit," Jacob murmured, giggling at the sound of the curse in his high-pitched voice. "I'm thirteen years old."
Jacob paused, cleared his throat, and took a deep breath.
"I'M THIRTEEN YEARS OLLLLLLLLLD!" He bellowed, joyously, laughing aloud as he flapped the sleeves of his tent-like Oxford. The pure happiness that coursed through him was even more intense than he had anticipated - a little voice in the back of his mind suggested that it might be because thirteen-year-olds don't have the greatest control over their emotions, but he dismissed it as quickly as it arose. He was a boy again and had the power to do just about anything he wanted - how was he going to use it?