"...seven-year-old."
Connor and Jackson laughed at their uncle's silliness but continued watching him intently, not wanting to miss a second of whatever it was their uncle had up his sleeve. Oliver grinned as he reached into the box with a flourish, looking forward to seeing the astonished looks that would come over their faces when he re-joined them in boyhood. His own heart was thumping at the prospect - he'd still be a bit older than them (the age he settled on decided for that very reason, as he wasn't about to relinquish his authority even as a child), but not by much. A silly little seven-year-old boy. He was seconds away.
"An ordinary pair of underwear," Oliver declared as he held up the Pokemon briefs for his nephews to examine.
"I got some like that," Jackson piped up. "'Cept mine are Chimchar 'steada Pikachu."
"Mine are Piplup," Connor added.
"Well, these were your Uncle Ollie's undies when he first started playing Pokemon," Oliver grinned. "And now he's going to become as young as he was the first time he turned on his Game Boy. Alakazam...presto-chango...abracadabra..."
Oliver murmured the magic words in a theatric whisper as he, improvising a bit, threaded the tiny undies up his arm - he wasn't about to disrobe in front of his nephews to put the briefs on as they were intended, so he hoped that this work-around counted for the ring's purposes as "wearing" them. As luck would have it, the ring wasn't particularly picky about the part of the body the clothing was put on - and so it responded beautifully when Oliver focused on what he looked like at seven, a broad (if slightly nervous) smile splitting his cheeks when the familiar light-headedness came over him, when he started shrinking into the cute little second-grader that hadn't been seen in sixteen years.
The playful - humoring, almost - expressions on Connor and Jackson's faces vanished as the transformation started, jaws dropping in time as they took in the first bit of real magic they'd ever been exposed to in their young lives. Their big bright eyes widened as they followed their Uncle Oliver down, down, down into his childhood, neither them daring to so much as breathe as his beard disappeared from his rounding face, as the cuffs of his sleeves swallowed up his hands, as his hips became too skinny to hold purchase on the jeans and boxers that fell in a heap around his shrinking feet. Oliver, for his part, was loving every second of it, accustomed enough now to the transformation to simply enjoy the sight of the world growing around him and the feeling of his body becoming small and smooth and packed with boyish energy.
When it ended neither Connor or Jackson moved for a moment - and then they bounded off the couch in time, rushing over to Oliver and speaking over each other in their eagerness to know every last thing about what had happened.
"ThatwasSOCOOLIcan'tbelieveyoureally - "
" - howdidyouDOthatIdid'nthinkthatmagicwasREALLYreal - "
" - ifyoucanbesevendoesthatmeanyoucanbefiveortenorfifteenor - "
" - doesitfeeldifferentbein'akidorislikebein'agrownup'cept - "
"Guys, guys!" Oliver laughed in his chirpy voice and held up his sleeve-draped hands for silence. He dramatically pulled one of those sleeves back to reveal the ring that now perfectly fit his little seven-year-old finger. "This is how I did that."
Oliver explained the capabilities of the ring while Connor and Jackson listened in rapt attention, their own minds inflamed with thoughts of its possibilities just as Oliver had been a moment prior. Still, its latest work drew their immediate attention. The boys looked over their little uncle with appraising eyes, laughing at the skinny legs that poked out from the shirt that swamped his body and at the way Oliver's gap-toothed grin revealed a missing front tooth.
"You're a little bigger than us still." Connor's grin took on a devious edge. "But you're way too little for that shirt."
"Way too little," Jackson echoed, his grin matching his brother's. "You should'n be wearin' it."
Oliver squeaked in surprise when the boys, having reached the same unspoken conclusion, simultaneously tugged at their uncle's shirt and started pulling it over his head. He might've been bigger than them but they had caught him off guard, and he didn't stand a chance with the twins working in perfect tandem. Within a few seconds he had been relieved of the Oxford, the twins gleefully clutching their bounty as they giggled at the immature little body their efforts had revealed. Oliver's cheeks burned as his hands flew to his groin, their laughter telling him that they had already gotten enough of an eyeful to know exactly what he was covering up.
"You're REAL skinny," Connor smirked.
"And your pee-pee's so tiny!" Jackson could barely get the words out before the two of them fell over each other with laughter. Oliver, fuming, used their distraction to hastily slide the undies up his skinny legs. He felt ridiculous standing there with his hands on his hips, scowling at his nephews while wearing nothing but a pair of tiny Pikachu undies - but at least now he was clothed enough to keep the boys from getting another peek at his itty-bitty weenie. Though he still had his adult mindset, his nephews' laughter made hot, childish indignation bubble up within him, made him want to sink to their level by shooting an insult right back or by pulling them into an impromptu wrestling match to establish his seven-year-old dominance. His grown-up thoughts found that line of thinking utterly silly - they reminded Oliver that he was still the adult there and that he had to take charge of the situation, to not allow his nephews to force him into a rash and immature act.
Finally - with Connor and Jackson's laughter finally dying down - he decided to...