Ethan felt his heart racing as he and Jack carefully approached the source of the sound near the "locker room" area of the gym where the Blue Boxer kept changes of his costume. It wasn't until Ethan popped his head around the corner of the last locker in the line, with Jack doing the same right next to him, that Ethan felt his heart race even faster, feeling Jack's hand unconsciously grab his shoulder to lean over as well. He tried to ignore the fleeting feeling of glee that he felt as he registered that Jack was touching him.
Pull yourself together and focus on what's in front of you, not beside you. Ethan admonished himself, though he had to admit it was getting harder and harder to focus his adult mind with Jack right there next to him. He turned his eyes forward and suddenly felt like an idiot. There, tying a karategi around his lean muscled teen torso was the 17 year old teen that Ethan had taken off the streets and against his better judgment had taught how to crime fight: Ken. Ken had been through a tough lot in life--his parents having been murdered when he was maybe just a tad bit younger than Ethan found himself now, and that had fueled Ken with rage. Ken had ran away from his grandparents who had been his guardians and he ran the streets searching for the brutes that had murdered his parents--refusing to come home until he did, and ending up homeless for a few months, before the Blue Boxer had caught Ken trying to steal the carburetor from his Boxermobile. At first Ethan had tried to get Ken back to his grandparents, only to find that they had died of old age and a broken heart themselves. This left Ken a vast fortune of his own when Ethan immediately put into a trust for Ken that would mature and eventually become available when he grew older. Ethan had tried to keep Ken penned in, but it wasn't until the goons who had murdered his parents were captured and arrested did Ken seem to return to being some sort of normal behaved kid. Ethan then officially adopted Ken, and arranged for him to go to the best schools where Ken showed a talent for computers and karate--a martial arts he had started when younger, but seemed to help meditate and calm the anger within Ken. One thing eventually led to another and soon Ken was joining The Blue Boxer on certain nights of the week as the Khaki Karateka--his teenage sidekick who soon Ethan would hope to see graduate into being an equal vigilante in his own right.
As an adult, the 17 year old Ken had looked awfully childish and as though he needed a few years more maturity to Ethan's eyes. But now, looking as Ken securely tied the black belt and black headband with domino mask attached to himself, Ethan felt he was looking up to a sculpted Greek Hero carved out of marble. Perspective was everything, it seemed.
"Hey K--" started Jack, before Ethan covered Jack's mouth and pulled him back behind the locker.
"I can't let Ken see me like this," said Ethan immediately in a hushed whisper.
"Why not? Ken can help us defeat Jubbar!"
"Ken looks up to me. Sees me as kinda a much older brother or an Uncle. And I don't want him to see me as just a... weak little boy."
Jack put his hand on Ethan's shoulder and again, Ethan's stomach flip flopped at the touch.
"W-we're not the little boys we look like. And besides he's going to find us anyway in five seconds or--"
"Or maybe less?" asked a much older voice and Ethan and Jack turned to look to see Ken, in his full Khaki Karateka costume, leaning on the edge of the last locker nonchalantly.
"H--how much did you hear?" asked Ethan.
"Enough to know that you two pipsqueaks don't belong here--and as much as I'm sure you're the Boxer and Lumberjack's biggest fans, you shouldn't go around playing dress up and touching things that don't belong to you."
"We're not playing dress up," insisted Jack.
"No, you just broke into the Blue Boxer's secret subterranean Gym and took a few of their extra costumes to have a go at being superheroes yourselves. Fork them over boys, I'll return them and make sure that the Boxer and Lumberjack don't miss them and you two and get back dressed in whatever you came in, show me how you found this place, and then I'll take you both home and we'll say nothing about this.
"B-but all our clothes--" started Jack.
Ethan interrupted, seeing the puzzle pieces all fall into place of how he can get out of this situation without Ken ever knowing this little boy body he now was trapped in would grow up to become Ethan Keller, the Blue Boxer. "All our clothes got ruined getting down here--that's why we changed into these. There's nothing left of our old clothes that we can wear. And we have no home to go to... except the orphanage. We heard that the Blue Boxer had taken you under his wing... so we thought maybe we could make the cut too!"
Ethan either had gotten worse at reading faces--entirely possible with the magic returning him to his pre-poker playing days--or Ken had improved his own poker face immensely. There was no way that Ethan could read what thoughts were going through the Khaki Karateka's mind. Finally he shook his head and sighed.
"You can stay, until the Boxer and Lumberjack come back. I make no promises of them not just dropping you two back off at the orphanage in town. You'll have to make your plea with them when they get here. Until then, I likely have some old clothes from my early days that fit you two. Come on, follow me... though I still want to know how you two got in here."
"We'll tell how, honest we will!" agreed Ethan immediately before Jack could say anything. The Khaki Karateka escorted both boys to the hidden spiral staircase behind the lockers that led up to the Keller Mansion.
All along the walk, Ethan's eyes met Jack's who looked at once unamused by the charade Ethan was insisting on playing, and at the same time as though he were trying to swallow a laugh at the biggest joke he'd ever heard.
There, they exited a sliding bookcase door to enter the mansion proper and followed the Khaki Karateka up stairs and down several hallways until they came to a quiet room in the west wing of the mansion that looked like most older teenage boys' rooms. Cluttered with dirty clothes on the floor, posters of bands and Karate champions--and right above the doorway a sexy pinup girl. If Ethan were older he would have swore at his adult self for "respecting Ken's space by not going farther than the doorway for so long as to miss that particular poster. The Khaki Karateka was digging through the bottom drawers of his chest of drawers, where at the back of it he found old clothes that he had clearly outgrown ages ago and never bothered to be rid of. He tossed a pair of jeans at Jack followed by black gym shorts at Ethan. Two slightly too big t-shirts with How to Tame Your Dragon characters on them were likewise given. To follow that up, two pairs of old whitey tighties were soon handed as well.
"I'll let you boys change. Keep in mind the window is locked and even if you do get it open, it's a three story drop to the ground if you try to climb out the window to escape. And I'll be right outside the door making sure you don't go running out and rummaging around where you shouldn't, again." Ken said it with such seriousness and managed to mix the perfect level of threat and endearment to his voice that made Ethan take stock of how much Ken had grown since adopting him.
Once they were alone, Jack finally burst into laughter while they both stripped themselves of the remnants of their adult costumes and started dressing in the clothes that Ken had given them.
"Hey, it's not funny!" countered Ethan.
"I'm sorry, but the more we're little kids, the more I can't help thinking like a little boy... and the little boy in me finds this whole thing hilarious," said Jack.
"Well then, we have to hold ourselves together before we really become the little boys we look like," insisted Ethan.
"Why'd you say that? Have you been having thoughts like a puny preteen too, hmm?" asked Jack with a mischievous glint to his eye.
"n--No," said Ethan unconvincingly.
"You have! What have you been thinking, tell me!" asked Jack as he pulled his t-shirt over his head.
"n--Nothing! Nothing all that important."
Jack gave Ethan an incredulous look before jumping at him and knocking him to the ground and tickling him. Ethan had only gotten his one arm through his shirt, and so half his chest was open and exposed to the wiggling fingers that Jack applied to Ethan's most sensitive spots to being ticklish--like his sides and under his arms.
"q--Quit it!" exclaimed Ethan.
"Either tell me what you were thinking or cry Uncle!" exclaimed Jack.
The two boys wrestled with one another for a few minutes, eventually Ethan used what boxing move he could remember to roll his opponent over so he was now on top of Jack.
"All right, you wanna know, why don't I show you!" said Ethan before leaning down and kissing Jack briefly on the lips. A quick electric feeling ran straight through Ethan as he did so, and Jack seemed to respond likewise as the boy beneath Ethan stopped squirming and trying to escape, but instead went stiff with shock. The moment after Ethan had kissed Jack he could tell he'd surprised him. Ethan, feeling a sinking pit in his stomach, got up and off of Jack, allowing the other boy to get up into a sitting position himself, a shocked expression still on his face as though he were trying to grasp what had just happened.
"J-Jack, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that, it's just with being a kid again my emotions must be mixed up and confused--" but it was quickly Ethan's turn to be shocked as Jack got up and pulled Ethan into a big hug.
"Don't take that back. I--I liked that," said Jack, astonishment blooming in his voice as he said it aloud.
"T-Then you feel the same way?" asked Ethan. That was answered with a kiss from Jack that Ethan felt stunned to receive as well.
"I-I have for a while," admitted Jack a little sheepishly, "But you were always all business and being Mr. Tough Guy all the time. And then you adopted Ken and started playing big brother to him so much that I didn't think you'd ever think of anyone that way at all, so I just buried my thoughts and feelings."
"Truth be told, I think I always had a bit of a crush on you, Jack, it's just... I never let myself think about it, until now."
"Let's talk more about this later, okay?" asked Jack.
"Okay... why?" asked Ethan.
"Cause if we don't show our faces to the Khaki Karateka out there soon, he's going to be coming through that door to make sure we didn't run away. So... Ethan, what's your plan on how to keep our identities a secret from the Karate Kid out there and find Jubbar and make us turn back to normal?"
"I..." started Ethan. And he tried a few more times to say something heroic or inspiring but they all felt wrong coming out of his boyish mouth. Instead it was between one of these false starts that his eyes met Jack's and they took each other's hand.
"I dunno. But whatever it is, we can think of something better together," said Ethan.