Ty barely made it out of his room before... something... shoved at him. It didn't hurt, or anything - he didn't even move - but...
Oh. Dustin.
Ty quirked an eyebrow and tilted his head down to take in his foster brother and former biggest bully, who had apparently charged him the second he came out and slugged him in the gut as hard as he could. Ty assumed step two of this genius plan was to make some kind of threat or demand while Ty fell over gasping or something. A few things had gone badly wrong with that plan.
Slowly, Dustin lowered his fist from where it had smacked uselessly against three puberty's worth of padded muscle, and tilted his own head back to look up the nearly foot and a half distance to meet Ty's gaze. His eyes were wide, and looked even wider in his younger face. His thin arms - seriously he was probably a hundred pounds wet - shook a bit as he uselessly clenched his small hands. His feet shifted as his body prepared to run away without him even seeming to realize it.
Ty waited patiently for Dustin to finish processing that he'd just punched someone between two and three times his size, curious what he was going to do next.
Dustin punched him in the nuts.
"FUCK!" Ty gasped, dropping to his knees as tears came to his eyes.
"Give - " Dustin's voice shook and cracked as he shook in place. He took a breath and scowled down at Ty while he could. "Change me back, asshole, or I swear - "
"Freeze," Ty wheezed out, and Dustin did, stopping mid-threat like someone had pressed a magic pause button. With that taken care of, Ty quickly turned to the side and puked. Breathing slowly, he whispered a wish to be healed.
"Holy shit," Ty said shakily as he sat back against the wall and stared at the little kid that knocked him on his ass. He'd put everything he had in that punch and made it COUNT. Ty was going to need a second; a part of him (the part that was about Dustin's size yesterday) was impressed, but mostly he was hurt, and embarrassed, and angry.
"Okay, count to ten or something," Ty muttered, breathing slowly. That was a psychology thing right? "One two - that was NOT cool, Dustin - three four five - Can't hit him back I'd probably kill him by accident - six seven eight nine ten."
Ty wasn't sure if counting had helped or not, but since he'd already healed himself it was time that he wasn't hurting. Grumbling, Ty stood and picked up his foster brother - yep, the little shit was so LIGHT now, jeez - and carried him to his room.
Dustin's room had changed too, after Ty wished him younger. He still had the nicest, newest stuff, but it was middle school stuff, not for a late teenager like Dustin used to be. The laundry hamper was full of clothes that Dustin probably didn't pick for himself, the posters on the wall were NOT all of barely-dressed women (gross, Dustin) so Judy still had some say there. The weight set Dustin got when he was fifteen was not in the corner, instead it had been replaced with a soccer ball, a jump rope, and a skateboard.
"What am I gonna do with you?" Ty muttered, running a hand down his face.
He didn't HATE Dustin, not really. He just didn't like him; and Dustin didn't like him much either. Dustin was a bully, and spoiled, and it was really fun to mess with him. But Ty didn't want to wear a cup at home all the time, or have to lock his door. He didn't want to change who Dustin was, or be his parent or whatever. Ty just wanted to mess with him and have fun.
"I wish... okay, I wish Dustin could hear me now and would unfreeze in five minutes."
"Uh..." Good to know that Ty could be this big and still be this awkward. Hurray.
"Dustin, you're an asshole." Solid start. "And I plan to keep messing with you and with your parents for being assholes. BUT, I don't want to really hurt you guys. I just want to have fun. Getting punched in the junk is NOT fun. So we have a problem."
Dustin didn't say a word. Or move. This talk was a lot easier with him frozen; Ty decided to keep this as an option from now on.
"I... don't know why I can do stuff like this now. And I don't really care?"
Ty shrugged; he hadn't realized that until he said it, but this wasn't about him. This was about his nuts. Wait, no! This was about Dustin behaving. Right. Moving on.
"The point is I can do stuff now. And I'm not going to let you ruin my fun by picking fights every time you're around. So, I'll give you what you want. Sort of! You don't like being a shrimp? Neither did I. Now you know what that feels like. I don't think you're done learning that lesson yet. But, if you don't bother me, I'll help you get back to fifteen again. Uh, faster. You'll get there anyway, but I mean in less than two years."
Ty's eyes lit up. Inspiration!
"And! I wish that just like getting a lot of sleep and vitamins helps you grow, that for YOU, being nice to people helps too. You want to go back to being tall and strong? Fine. But try to be less of an asshole. Be a bully, and it'll stunt your growth; help with chores, be kind, and protect people, and you'll grow like a weed. Maybe you'll make a habit of it or something."
That should work. Maybe. At least Dustin would probably be nice when TY was around, and really that's all that he cared about. As he turned to go, Ty noticed a height chart pinned to the inside of Dustin's door. Quirking a smile, he pointed at the edge of Dustin's desk, closest to the door and still in his frozen foster brother's view.
"I wish there was a cookie jar on that desk. I wish that every cookie I put in there would make Dustin a month older when he eats it."
A cookie jar showed up, just like he asked. It looked like a lawn-gnome version of Dustin, standing up straight and grinning. There was an obvious gap between the bottom of his shirt and the top of his pants, and his ankles were showing. The jar opened by pulling Dustin's head off; Ty felt a laugh rumble up when he saw that. Ty glanced back at his frozen former bully.
"I wish there was ONE cookie in the jar."
As a soft 'plink' sound came from the jar, Ty took off, leaving Dustin alone to think things over. Either way, he was done parenting him; that was NOT his job thanks very much.
Speaking of parents...
"Hey Mark?" Ty asked, taking care to pitch his voice nice and rumbly, and thud down the stairs as solidly as possible.
"Could I have some money please? I need bigger shoes again; I guess I'm still growing after all!"