...a crinkly little training diaper with Spider-Man prints on its padded front. She knelt in front of Connor - who groaned as he lay half-conscious on the ground - and looked up at Jackson.
"Could stand next to me for a second, sweetie?" She asked. "I think it'd be nice if your brother had a little privacy."
Jackson was puzzled but followed his mother's instructions all the same. Oliver, meanwhile, realized that his sister wanted to block what she was about to do from sight - and so he stood on her other side as though his little seven-year-old body would provide significant cover. Melissa brought Connor's head into her lap and tenderly stroked his hair, the man moaning and mumbling but making no effort to resist her.
"You're still a little boy, Connor." Her voice was soft, gentle, free of judgment. She gave the Pull-Up in her free hand a squeeze. Connor shivered at the crinkle. "That's why I still make sure to carry one of these around. You don't have to be embarrassed that you still wet your pants, sweetie - you're only five. Little five-year-old boys have accidents sometimes."
"I'm not..." Connor murmured, squirming uncomfortably even as he curled up towards his mother. "I'm not a little boy..."
"Yes you are, darling, " Melissa cooed. "It's okay. You don't have to be embarrassed. It feels nice when mommy takes care of you, doesn't it? Feels so nice when she cuddles you and reads you stories and changes you when you've had an accident."
"...it...no...notta...notta baby..."
"No, you're not a baby. But that doesn't mean you have to be a grown-up just yet, either. You're mommy's sweet little boy. Her precious cub. Let mommy take care of you, okay? Everything will be okay. I promise."
For a moment Connor made no sound beyond little half-conscious whimpers - and then he pushed his thumb between his lips, sucking softly on it as he nestled his head against his mommy's tummy. Oliver and Jackson looked at each other in surprise while Melissa beamed down at her son and kissed his hair.
"What a good boy you are," she cooed as she threaded Connor's arm through one of the Pull-Up's tiny legholes. "Mommy loves you so much, little one. My sweet little five-year-old. My darling boy."
Connor's defenseless subconscious could do nothing to fend off Melissa's attack, his mind flooded with thoughts of how nice his mommy was, how warm and safe he felt in this moment, how he wanted nothing more than for her to love him and take care of him like the little boy he was. The ring heeded its wearer's desires. Melissa, caught off guard by her first transformation, gasped softly as the man's features started to shift from Oliver's to Connor's. For a moment Melissa bore witness to the man her little boy would become, lips parted and eyes wide in pure astonishment as she gaped at a face she thought she wouldn't be seeing for twenty years. With a trembling hand she reached out to stroke Connor's cheek, choking out a laugh as her fingertips ran over the scratchy stubble that had flourished over her boy's baby-smooth skin. Regardless of anything else that had happened - or might happen - today, Melissa was grateful that she got to see this.
And then he started to shrink.
All three of the witnesses looked on with unabashed awe as Connor's hands crept back under his shirtsleeves, as his chest deflated, as his shoes lost their purchase on his shrinking feet...as he lost his manly stubble as though Melissa had stroked it away. Melissa didn't so much as dare to blink as she bore witness to her son's development - albeit in reverse - from boy to man, unable to keep herself from smiling at how gawky he would be as a teenager and how boyishly handsome he'd be as an adolescent and how cute he'd remain all through his childhood. And all the while Connor did nothing more than suck on his thumb, the happy little murmurs that leaked out growing higher and higher in pitch as he regressed out of his grown-up pants, squirming in the giant shirt that swamped his tiny body as he shrank into his mommy's lap. When it was done - when Melissa had her sweet little five-year-old back - the woman tenderly helped him out of his shirt and slipped the ring off of his finger, kissing him on his forehead as she cradled the naked boy against her body.
"There he is," she chuckled. "There's my boy."
For a moment she seemed lost in motherly reverie - then she looked up and saw Oliver and Jackson staring down at her, still clearly awestruck by what they had witnessed. Melissa let out a sheepish little laugh before she took the Pull-Ups off of Connor's arm, expertly threading them up his legs and making sure they were cinched comfortably around his waist. She stood up with the child in her arms, his head rested against her shoulder, sound asleep with his thumb still in his mouth, a grown man restored to a dozing boy wearing nothing but an adorable little training diaper.
"We should get out of here," Melissa instructed her son and her brother. She looked around as she gently bounced Connor in her arms to make sure nobody had seen. "Can you grab his clothes, Jackson?"
Jackson did just that, bunching them up under his arm as he and Oliver hastily followed Melissa out of the building. If anybody gave her boy's state of near undress more than a second look, Melissa didn't notice it. She was too occupied with her focus on her destination and what she would need to do there.