Twisted Reality

Just as promised, Jake and Jinxx took their infant frontman over to the drummer’s house once all five of them were at least awake. Because he was so young and didn’t have the same physical control over himself that he had forty-eight hours ago, Andy was up early with a dirty diaper, whimpering softly until the guitarist heard him and woke up. Thankfully, the guitarist’s dexterity with a guitar was easily transferred to diaper changes, and it was but a few minutes after waking up that he had the little guy cleaned up.

Now he sat in his lover’s lap in CC’s living room floor, Ash’s little arms wrapped around his equally little body as he cuddled him. Sure, the roles were reversed since the bassist was now bigger than he was, but it was good enough for the two of them, considering the circumstances. However, that didn’t stop Jinxx from listening in on his thoughts every now and again to make sure he was doing okay.

The remaining band members that hadn’t been effected sat around the kitchen table, nursing mugs of coffee as they woke up enough to get down to business. CC’d found getting comfortable the previous night to be almost impossible since he had to sleep in boxers and was used to sleeping nude. On top of that, he had their pint-sized bassist in bed with him, and even if he weren’t physically a child at the moment, he wouldn’t have felt comfortable sleeping next to him while nude. That said, it was no wonder he hadn’t slept well and was having a hard time waking up right now. He was somehow managing to keep his non-morning person temper in check, knowing that there was nothing he could do about it.

Jinxx was also a bit cranky from getting up with baby Andy in the middle of the night after going to bed exhausted, even though he’d had his lover to switch off with. The coffee was working to wake him up and improve his mood, but it was working slower than it normally would. Jake was also having some issues getting completely woken up without showing his temper, but thankfully, Andy and Ash were far from irritable right now. Even though they’d normally be a bit cranky upon waking, it seemed that being children again caused them to wake up in good moods, which boded well for the rest of the day.

“So we still need to call Andy’s parents, as well as Ash’s grandparents,” Jinxx said, taking his last sip of coffee.

“Yeah, we do,” his lover agreed with a yawn.

“How ’bout Jinxx calls Andy’s parents, and you call Ash’s grandparents?” the drummer suggested. “I don’t really wanna have to make a call like that unless I have to.”

“Works for me,” Jake agreed, nodding. “If his grandparents ask to talk to him, we can put Ash on the phone, but it’s doubtful they’ll recognize him by his voice since he’s so young unless they remember what it sounded like when he was seven.”

“And unfortunately, Andy can’t really say anything,” the multi-instrumentalist agreed. “At least, not like we can.”

“What do you mean, sweetheart?” The guitarist looked at him curiously, his brow cocked.

“I discovered something cool about myself last night.” He smirked at him. “If I put enough thought into it and have a strong enough connection with someone, I can read their thoughts. How do you think I’ve been able to anticipate his needs all morning?”

“He’s been telling you what he needed, was thinking, and what he needed?” they asked, gasping in shock.

“Mmm hmm. I can hear his thoughts as clear as if he were actually talking,” Jinxx answered, nodding. “The only difference is that instead of hearing his voice as I’m used to, it sounds like that of a child. I’m guessing how it sounded when he was little, before he hit puberty.”

“What about me? What am I thinking?” Jake asked, a devious grin on his kisser.

“Something that I wouldn’t mention in front of CC, and definitely not with ‘little ears’ around,” he chuckled.

“Just because we’re in childrens’ bodies doesn’t mean we’ve got the minds of children!” Ash called from the living room.

“True enough, bud, but that doesn’t mean I wanna talk about it with anyone but Jake!” the multi-instrumentalist answered, full-on laughing now.

“Touché, Jinxx,” the pint-sized bassist agreed. “And I think Andy needs a diaper change! He’s getting squirmy!”

“What’s wrong, bud?” Jinxx asked, now kneeling down in front of them.

Ash’s right. My diaper’s dirty, the baby answered in his thoughts, grimacing as he squirmed again.

“Well, stop squirming. It’ll be that much harder to clean you up if you grind it into your skin,” he told him, lifting him from the floor.

I can’t help it! It’s itchy! Andy whined.

“And it must suck that you can’t do anything about it on your own,” Jinxx said, trying not to chuckle.

You just be glad you’re not the baby. I’d let you sit in it for a little while to teach you a lesson for laughing at me!

Jake and CC laughed at the infant frontman’s facial expression, which clearly showed displeasure, as the former’s sweetheart headed to the guest room to change his diaper. Ash soon joined them in the kitchen, his little belly letting out a soft growl since he’d refused breakfast as soon as he woke up like he normally did. The little boy blushed in embarrassment as the guitarist offered to start breakfast, even though he was technically a guest right now.

Agreeing wholeheartedly since he wasn’t much of a chef, the drummer took the pint-sized bassist to what they’d consider his bedroom till things went back to “normal” to help him get dressed. He was able to dress himself for the most part, but had some trouble getting his jeans buttoned and his boots tied since his dexterity wasn’t as good as it was when he was an adult.

By the time they returned from his new bedroom, the guitarist was finishing up the eggs and toast, although the bacon still needed a bit of time, and his sweetheart sat in a chair at the table. Andy sat in his lap with one of his arms wrapped around his little torso, the look in his eyes saying that he wanted some of the bacon. Since he had no teeth and couldn’t chew it, Jinxx held off on giving him his baby cereal, telling Jake to save him part of the leftover grease. The guitarist looked at him like he’d grown a second head, but he said that he needed just enough to flavor his baby cereal or they’d have a hard time getting him to eat it. Not enough to hurt him or make him sick, but enough to give him some palatable flavor.

Andy’s eyes lit up when he heard what the multi-instrumentalist was planning for him, and he even began to giggle and attempt clapping his hands. That brought a grin to Ash’s face, mainly because he knew his infant lover was happy, even if he was in the body of a baby and couldn’t verbalize his thoughts like the rest of them could. Seeing the two of them happy made the rest of the guys as happy as any of them could be in this situation, which was a good thing. Hopefully the calls to their parents and grandparents would go well and make them even happier, but they just didn’t know.

* * *

Once they’d all eaten breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen, they congregated into CC’s living room to start making the calls. They eventually decided that maybe Skype would be a better tool to use, considering that the Biersacks and Purdys would be able to see Andy and Ash, which would add weight to their claims and make them more believable.

Jinxx signed into his Skype account, making sure to keep himself invisible so random people that he didn’t want to talk to at the moment wouldn’t realize he was online. He sighed heavily, relieved to see that the baby’s mother, Amy, was online. Even if his father, Chris, wasn’t online at the moment, he didn’t really care; so long as he got to talk to one of them, although he’d prefer both, that was better than leaving them in the dark. He crossed his fingers and handed Andy off to his own lover, CC keeping the pint-sized bassist off to the side so she wouldn’t see him until they were ready for her to, either.

“Hey there, Jinxx,” she greeted, having accepted his video call request.

“Hi there, Amy,” he answered, pausing to clear his throat.

“What’s up? Has Andy tried calling me?” the middle-aged woman asked.

“No, but it’s actually Andy that I called to talk to you about,” Jinxx answered. “I didn’t want you and Chris to be in the dark. In fact, if he’s around, it’d probably be a good idea for you to get him real quick.”

“Chris!” she yelled, an expression of fear crossing her face before she turned to yell over her shoulder so he’d hear her.

They sat there in silence and the multi-instrumentalist thought he heard muffled yelling as her husband responded, then heavy boot steps as he came into the room beside her.

“Hey there, Jinxx,” he greeted, taking a seat beside his wife. “What’s up?”

“I wanted to call you guys about Andy; I didn’t want you to be in the dark,” he started, having to pause to take a breath and clear his throat again.

“What’s wrong with our baby boy?” he asked, hiding his fear better than his wife.

“You’re not going to believe this, but he’s just that: a baby,” Jinxx answered, holding his breath as they awaited the Biersacks’ response.

“He’s a…baby?” Chris asked, sounding a bit incredulous.

“Yes, sir.” He reverted back to the manners his own mother’d pounded into his head years ago, feeling a bit afraid of the big, burly man who’d helped create their infant frontman. “We woke up yesterday morning to find that, instead of a fully grown man sleeping in the bunk room, there was a baby. Believe it or not, he wasn’t the only one to be…de-aged, as it were.”

“What do you mean by that, Jinxx?” Amy asked curiously.

“Ash, c’mere,” he said, beckoning the pint-sized bassist over to him.

“Hey, Amy!” Ash cried, sounding a bit excitable. The only reason it would be easy to believe that it was really the band’s bassist was that, although in a child’s body, he still had his tattoos, including his infamous “OUTLAW” tattoo.

“Oh, my God!” they gasped in unison, their eyes widening as they covered their mouths in shock.

“Yeah. We estimate that Andy’s now about seven months old, while Ash appears to be about seven years old,” Jinxx told them. “And yes, your son is still the same young man you know and love mentally; he’s just literally trapped in the body of a child.”

“Are you sure he’s our same little Andy?” the middle-aged woman asked, tears streaming down her face.

“I’m sure. Something I discovered about myself last night is that, so long as I have a strong enough connection with someone, I can read a person’s thoughts,” he answered. “Not only can I read Andy’s, which is how I’ve been anticipating his every need this morning, but I tried it out on Jake. I won’t say what he was thinking, but needless to say, I read his every thought as if he spoke them aloud.”

“So the rest of the guys are there?” her husband asked.

“Yes, sir.” He nodded as he held his breath.

“Can we at least see our son?” Amy asked, crying even harder now.

“Lemme see him, Jake,” the multi-instrumentalist requested, holding his hands out for their infant frontman. He quickly got him settled on his lap, having moved CC’s laptop to the coffee table in front of him.

“Ma-ma!” Andy cried, smiling and waving wildly to his mother.

“Oh, Andy. I haven’t seen you that small since you really were seven months old,” she said, having to wipe tears out of her face.

The baby sitting in his lap frowned at the camera, reaching out as if to mimic wiping her tears away, as well.

“He says, ‘Don’t cry, Mom. I’m still your little boy…just a lot littler physically than I was a couple days ago’,” Jinxx told her, having read his mind.

Andy turned to smile up at him, then turned his attention back to the laptop. “Da-da!” he cried, acknowledging his father as best he could in his current physical state.

“What happened to them?” Chris asked, still sounding shocked.

“We don’t know. Like I said, we woke up yesterday morning expecting the day to be like any other,” the multi-instrumentalist said. “Jake, CC, and I heard a piercing scream from the back room on the bus that sounded like a baby, and when I went to check it out, I found a seven-year-old Ash holding a baby Andy in his lap, rocking him back and forth and trying to soothe him as best he could.”

“How have you been feeding him?” Amy asked, concerned about her only son’s current welfare.

“His first feeding was with a beer bottle that Jake cleaned out,” he answered. “We had no other options till we got Jon to stop at a nearby Wal-Mart to do some shopping. After that, it’s been formula from an actual baby bottle mixed with some baby food and baby cereal, depending on the time of day.”

“So long as he’s being fed fairly well and his needs are met, I guess that’s a good thing.” She sounded a bit uncertain. “Considering that, even though he’s still mentally an adult, he’s physically a child, Chris and I could easily take custody of him again. You guys know that, right?”

They all waited with baited breath, wondering what they were going to say next.

“However, knowing that he and Ashley are in a relationship and how much they love each other, that alone would stop us from doing that,” the middle-aged woman continued. “We just wanna know who’s taking care of him right now.”

“That would be Jake and I,” Jinxx answered, his breath still baited. “We all know CC’s a little too wild to take care of a baby, although he seems to be able to handle Ash in his current state fairly well.”

“You and Jake seem to have things under control,” Chris said, nodding in approval. “The only thing we ask is that we get to come out and see him, try to help out any way we can.”

“We don’t mind you guys coming out to see Andy; we’ve already said that we wouldn’t force him to go back to Ohio with you guys unless that’s what all three of you wanted,” he answered. “And the extra help would be great since we’re kinda stumbling along, as it is.”

“Being able to read his mind and know exactly what he wants and needs probably helps,” they chuckled in unison.

“Yeah, it really does.” He glanced down at the baby in his lap, who’d leaned back against his torso. “In fact, he’s saying that he’s hungry again and wants a nap.”

“I don’t doubt it. He used to eat like a pig when he was a baby,” Amy laughed.

“He says, ‘Hey! I wasn’t that bad’!” he chuckled. “Anyway, it’s probably best to give him a bit of a bottle, even though breakfast wasn’t that long ago, and get him down for his nap before he gets cranky.”

“Yeah, that’d probably be best,” she agreed, nodding. “We love you, son, no matter how big or little you are.”

“Wub ooh, too, Ma-ma,” Andy babbled as best he could. “Wub ooh, too, Da-da.”

Grins split their faces and they said they were going to get to work on booking a flight out there, which was when Jake offered to step in to help with arrangements. Thanking him, Jinxx took their infant frontman to the kitchen to make him a four-ounce bottle, mainly to make sure he didn’t give him too much before naptime since breakfast really hadn’t been that long ago.

He chuckled softly as Andy grabbed his bottle in both hands once it was ready, holding it steady as he drained it as slowly as he could to avoid upsetting his little stomach. While he rocked him back and forth in his arms to help lull him to sleep, the multi-instrumentalist listened in on the halfhearted argument his lover was having with the Biersacks, eventually getting them to allow him to pay for their flight out to LA, then their return flight home whenever they were ready to leave. They were obviously unhappy and feeling a bit like a charity case, but Jake was a born negotiator and wouldn’t back down.

By the time the guitarist had ended the Skype call with them, their son was sleeping peacefully in his arms, his little mouth still working to get the last few drops from his bottle. Jinxx held it up a little higher and let him get them, then gently moved him against his shoulder so that his head rested on it. A soft burp erupted from his mouth as he got him settled, even though he was sound asleep, and he couldn’t help but chuckle as he used one hand to get the lid off the bottle and rinse it out. While he was busy doing that, he got his lover to go set up the playpen they’d brought with them in what was now Ash’s room, that way he’d have a quiet place to nap. He jumped up and ran down the hall, telling him he was on it as he passed the kitchen.

CC was in the living room having a bit of trouble keeping Ash awake, the pint-sized bassist getting sleepy and wanting a nap of his own. Seeing it as a last resort, and knowing that he’d be the one to deal with the aftermath later, he promised him ice cream after they called his grandparents if he sat up and paid attention for just a little while longer. Jinxx chuckled again as he went to lay the baby down, thinking that he’d probably been faking being tired to a degree in hopes of getting a promise like that. He shook his head as he laid Andy down, thinking that kids did the damnedest things to get their way as he slipped a passie in his mouth.

Notes