"David, it's...it's me. It's Oliver."
"You're Oliver, huh?" David lowered himself to one knee, smile widening as he played along. The kid was adorable and so resembled Oliver that he must be a nephew or a cousin his boyfriend hadn't told him about. "Then...I suppose you can tell me where you and I went on our first date."
"We went for a walk on the pier," Oliver immediately responded, desperate to prove himself. "You got food poisoning from the lunch we had at Frank's Crab Shack and puked in the ocean. You haven't had a single oyster since."
David froze. His smile faltered.
"It's not nice to play tricks on people," David said, his voice suddenly the one that was small and unsure.
"You were born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts. Your favorite color is blue and there's a scar on your stomach from the appendectomy you had when you were fourteen." The facts gushed out of Oliver, the boy, in his desperation, ignoring the embarrassment he felt at having to sound out the bigger words with his silly little voice. David stared silently at Oliver, mouth slightly ajar as the boy dashed over to his mom's care package and plucked out a family photo album.
"Look!" He commanded as he thrust the book into David's hands. The man looked from it to the boy before warily taking it from Oliver's hands, eyes widening when he opened to the page with the heading "OLIVER'S AWESOME FOURTH BIRTHDAY!" The tyke in the pictures there looked to be having the time of his life, a birthday crown fixed to his soft mop of hair as he played with his friends and opened his presents and messily devoured a huge slice of birthday cake. Near the end, seemingly after the party had wound down, there was a photo that showed the boy proudly modeling in one of his presents - a crisp new pair of Sesame Street briefs, a clear indicator that he was a big boy ready for big boy clothes. David raised his eyes from the picture to the still-sniffling tyke that stood in front of him. He didn't appear quite as proud to be wearing nothing but the cute little undies, but in every other way...
"O...Oliver?" David murmured. Oliver screwed up his face and threw himself into David's arms, the relief so overwhelming that he started bawling into his boyfriend's shoulder. Though caught off guard, David's paternal instincts soon took over, the man setting aside the album as he took Oliver up in a big, warm hug.
"Shhh...shhh...it's okay, sweetie, it's okay...I gotcha, I'm right here..." David cooed as he stroked Oliver's hair. If the boy minded being treated like a real child he didn't show it - he merely hugged David back as he soaked the man's shoulder, feeling warm and safe in the man's embrace even as he cried his little eyes out. Oliver was so comfortable being wrapped up in those big strong arms that it was a few moments after he settled down before he pulled back, smiling sheepishly as David wiped his eyes and stared at him with unabashed awe.
"Oliver, how...how did this happen?" David asked, his eyes and voice filled with wonder. Oliver, with one arm still wrapped securely around David's shoulder, sat on his boyfriend's knee and told the story with the momentous excitement of a child, the details of how the ring worked and how he had ended up as preschooler gushing out of him. Though David still looked disbelieving, the evidence of everything Oliver had said being true was sitting right there in an adorable little four-year-old package.
"So...were you just going to play as a kid for a while, or...?"
"Kinda," Oliver blushed. "But, I mean, now that you're here..."
The boy trailed off and the two of them sat in silence for a moment. David didn't want to ruin Oliver's fun, but on the other hand, this whole thing was so weird that he might need a minute to sort things out. But on the other, other hand, he found the idea of being a kid again so compelling that he couldn't shake it from his thoughts no matter how hard he tried. Finally, he cleared his throat and said...