"You still have it?" Justin breathed in disbelief.
"Well, Melissa tried to smash it and stuff but none of that worked 'cause it's magic." Ollie casually explained. "She keeps the ring in a safe in the basement now so nobody tries to make any trouble with it...but I know what the combination is 'cause I was watching when she put it away."
"Cooooool."
"Yeah." Ollie beamed and puffed out his chest. "Wanna go see? I think everyone's asleep."
"Yeah!"
The boys wriggled out from under the covers and tip-toed across the room on their bare little feet. Ollie slowly creaked the door open and shone his flashlight down the hall before creeping silently out into it, smiling even as his heart thumped in his throat at every little sound they made and heard on their way through the house. It was the dynamic that forced him to sneak around after bedtime that had been the hardest for Ollie to get used to - that of being wholly under an adult's authority and having to do basically whatever anyone bigger than him instructed him to. In the first few days following the family rearrangement he usually responded to his sister asking him to take a bath by saying that he'd get to it once he was done with his game or when his show was finished - a response that ceased the first time she lifted his little fifty-pound self off of the couch and carried him into the bathroom, leaving and closing the door behind her before Ollie could even register what had just happened. But now the boyish thrill he got out of doing something without an adult's permission was its own reward - though it was up to him to keep Connor in line, he (sometimes with Jackson's assistance when the boy was feeling particularly daring) had already gotten away with all sorts of stuff without Melissa's knowledge, an accomplishment the boy took no small degree of satisfaction in.
Ollie used all the seven-year-old sneakiness he had gained in the past month as he stealthily guided Justin through the house, the engulfing silence and the stretching shadows doing wonders to stoke their boyish imaginations and give credence to the thought that there really might be a monster around every corner. Somehow they managed to make it to the door to the basement without succumbing to any of those terrors, though, the two of them practically on top of each other as they inched their way down the creaky stairs. Though Ollie was surprised that the light was already on when they got there, he was relieved to a much greater degree - the switch was all the way at the bottom of the stairs and he wasn't sure he'd have been able to muster the bravery necessary to descend into a darkness that made the rest of the house look luminous by comparison.
It was, in fact, at that switch that Ollie suddenly froze, oversized ears twitching at the sound of movement coming from the other side of the basement. He signaled for Justin to be quiet before the two boys slowly peered around the corner...to find that the safe was open and that Nevin was standing before it. Ollie furrowed his brow as he squinted as his adoptive dad, just able to make out the gleam of a silver band on his finger.
"He's got the ring," Justin whispered. "What do you think he's gonna do with it?"
Ollie was too puzzled to answer, much less to shush his friend. As he studied Nevin he realized that the man's clothes, while still discernibly adult, were somehow cooler than those he wore on a day-to-day basis. Sharper and more stylish - or they would be were they not ill-fitting on a body that had just begun its descent into middle age. But it was before his and Justin's wide, spellbound eyes that that slowly changed, the boys' jaws dropping in unison as Nevin's hair thickened and his muscles tightened and his stubborn flab melted away. The man raised an arm and flexed its muscle against the sleeve of a shirt that now fit perfectly, both boys able to tell from what little they could see of his face that Nevin was grinning from ear to ear.
"No way!" Justin exclaimed. The grin vanished as Nevin spun towards the little spies, color draining from his face as Ollie and Justin got confirmation of what they thought they had just seen - that of Nevin erasing the last decade of his life and reclaiming the body he had enjoyed in his early twenties.
"C-Come out here now, boys," Nevin commanded, the tremor in his voice undermining his authority. Ollie and Justin hesitated for but a second before doing as they were told, identical looks of guilt (though still tinged with a healthy degree of awe) on their faces as they presented themselves before Nevin for judgment.
"What are you doing out of your room?" The man asked. Putting his hands on his hips helped a little with the authoritative tone he was trying to set but he knew he was still falling well short.
"...we heard noises coming from down here," Ollie managed after a moment with a glance up at his adoptive dad. "We thought it might've been a burglar so we wanted to make sure everything was okay."
Nevin studied the boy. The kid was too good of a liar for him to tell when he was doing it.
"...well, it's just me. Go back to bed now, okay?"
"What're you doing with the ring?" Justin blurted out. Though Ollie wanted to shoot him a "shut up" glare, he was pretty curious about that himself - a curiosity that only deepened when a tinge came to Nevin's cheeks.
"I'm not doing anything with it," Nevin contended. "Now go back to bed before I - "
"...you're going out," Ollie murmured with dawning realization. Nevin's blush deepened as he met the boy's eyes. "That's why I've been hearing those noises at night and seeing the lights of the car leaving. You're using the ring to get younger and have fun at clubs and stuff."
"That's ridiculous - " Nevin started, cutting himself off when he saw that neither boy was buying it. He exhaled and ran a hand through his hair. "Alright. Yes, okay? That's exactly what I'm doing. I keep it secret from Melissa because I know it'd make her mad."
Nevin, changing tact, smiled down at his little brother-in-law. Ollie frowned back.
"Can I trust you to keep it a secret too, kiddo? I know how much you love your sister and I think it might really hurt her if she found out about this. I promise I'll stop if you promise not to tell."