AgeArts 3D Comics

Series commissioned by ageunknown404, originally published on my Patreon.

Continued from Chapter 6.

Greyson woke up after hearing something falling over in his bedroom. His eyes peeked open and searched for the source of the sound. Ethan, dressed in his pajamas, was standing there frozen at the foot of Greyson’s bed. His brother’s eyes were focused on the floor in front of him.

“Ethan?” Greyson asked. “What are you doing?” He nearly smiled hearing his own voice sounding much deeper now. It was still a ways off from puberty, but it was far more substantial than the chirpy baby voice he had been stuck with for most of the week. In fact, he was so happy about it, that he barely even cared that Ethan was sneaking around his bedroom.

“Uh… Hey,” Ethan said, giving him a nervous wave as if they were school friends encountering each other at a store. Greyson noticed that their voices were nearly identical now. “Sorry,” Ethan added without explanation.

“For what?” Greyson asked as he sat up on his bed. He took a moment to admire his skinny arms and his comparatively larger hands. His body felt stretched out, his proportions all uneven, as if someone were trying to take a little boy and reshape him into an adult one clumsy spurt at a time. “Did you break anything?”

“It was just a baseball bat,” his brother explained. “I must have bumped it with my toe.”

“Yeah,” Greyson said. “I bet your feet are bigger today than they were yesterday. I know the feeling.”

“Listen,” Ethan said. “I didn’t want to wake you up. I just needed to borrow a pair of your socks. I know you don’t like it when I do that, but I figured, if you didn’t know, then…”

“It’s fine,” Greyson said, chuckling. “That’s fine. Borrow my socks. Wear my underwear. Whatever the hell you want.”

“Really?” Ethan said, sounding genuinely surprised.

Greyson swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. The additional feet in height he had gained overnight gave him a momentary wave of vertigo, causing him to wobble his stilt-like legs. After taking a moment to steady himself and remember how to operate a 12-year-old body, Greyson walked over to Ethan and stood before him.

Ethan seemed doubtful about Greyson’s intentions. The boy was poised to defend himself against an attack while also prepared to accept a hug. Fortunately for Ethan, it was the second option that happened. Greyson pulled his twin brother in tight for a hug, appreciating their nearly identical size and weight.

“You all right?” Ethan asked as he returned a weak hug in response.

“Thank you!” Greyson said, fighting back tears. “Thank you for sharing your birthday with me. Thanks for being my brother. I love you.”

“Hey,” Ethan said, relaxing into the hug more. “I love you too, man.” The hug continued a bit longer than it probably should have. “Seriously though, are you all right?”

“I’m great,” Greyson said, releasing his embrace. “I’m fantastic.” He looked down at himself, smiling. “I’m 12, and it feels great. Don’t you think so, too?”

“Uh, yeah,” Ethan said. “I suppose it is pretty great.”

“Yeah,” Greyson said, feeling giddy with excitement. “Now, let’s go do some awesome kid stuff. Huh? Yeah?”

“Sure,” Ethan said. After a pause, he asked, “What the hell does that even mean?”

“I don’t know,” Greyson said, bursting out in laughter. “It’s whatever the hell we want it to be. It’s adulthood doesn’t matter yet. It’s years of time to figure things out again. It’s starting fresh.”

“Okay,” Ethan said. “How about we go eat breakfast first?”

“Hell yeah!” Greyson said. “Let’s do it.”

***

Later that night, after everyone had gone to sleep, Greyson was downstairs in the kitchen fetching the candles from the cabinet.

He had been satisfied that morning to leave well enough alone, but then Ethan had requested leftover birthday cake for breakfast. Once more, Greyson asked his mother for any information she had on the candles. She had no new answers though. They were a family heirloom. She had no idea where they were from originally and no sense that there was anything unusual about them. Greyson had only what he knew from his own experience with the candles.

And so, in the dim light of the oven clock, Greyson set the bag of candles down on the counter along with a box of matches and retrieved a slice of birthday cake from the fridge. It was time for one final attempt at making the magic work for him.

He found the number two candle in the bag and held it in his hand a long while, turning it over, feeling it’s waxy shape in his young hand. This was the one that had almost erased everything from him. He had an impulse to throw it in the trash or melt it down in a pot, some kind of crude revenge. Instead he set it on top of the slice of birthday cake and set the number one to the right of it on the cake.

“Two,” he said aloud, sensing that the number had taken on an almost cosmic significance to him now. There were two candles that had transformed him. He and Ethan were two brothers. And now, Greyson had a second chance. A second chance at childhood to live it boldly on his own terms. A second chance at being a good brother to Ethan and him in return.

Should he pass up that chance?

He hesitated to light the candles, knowing that he was playing with fire in many ways. Still, he was sure to regret not trying one more time. He lit the candles, sang a quiet “Happy Birthday to Me,” and blew them out. He rinsed off the match and made sure to dispose of it in the trash. This time, he would leave no incriminating evidence behind, aside from a missing slice of cake in the fridge. He had to eat it, of course. Then, he put away the candles and set the plate and fork in the sink. He went to bed and lay there a long while, unable to sleep from the sugar rush. He thought about what he might do if he did go back to being an adult or if he stayed a child. There was a lot to think about, but he would have no answers until he woke up the next day. Eventually, he crashed and fell asleep.

The next morning, he was still 12 years old. However, he was hesitant to consider the situation permanent until another day went by, so he waited through one more day and night. That following morning, nothing had changed. He had remained 12. At that point, he realized that the game was over. He accepted it and was happy to have tried at least one more time. Now he knew for sure. There was no tricking the candles. They would do their magic only at the right moment. No point in messing with them anymore. He would leave them alone.

To console himself over his defeat or to celebrate having tried his best, he tested out masturbating one more time. The orgasm was as mind-blowing an experience as it had been the last time he was 12. It seemed a good enough consolation prize.

***

Weeks later, Greyson was on the grass stretching in preparation for the opening game of the youth football season. It was a long way still from college, but football was football. College could wait. Today, he was out there to have a good time.

He looked to his side to see Ethan stretching next to him. The distant look in his brother’s eyes was familiar to Greyson. He could tell the boy had butterflies in his stomach.

“Hey, Ethan,” Greyson said to his brother. “You nervous?”

“Uh,” Ethan said, as if he had been startled back from some distant place. “A little. Yeah.”

“It’s okay to be nervous,” Greyson said. “But, really, this is no big deal. This is going to be fun. You know?”

“What if I mess up and drop a pass?”

“Then, you drop a pass. You’ll catch the next one.”

“I’m not ready for this.”

“You are,” Greyson said, standing up. Then, he offered his hand to help Ethan stand up. Ethan took Greyson’s hand and let his brother pull him to his feet. “And, even if you’re not. There’s no better way to get ready than to just dive in and do it.”

“Yeah,” Ethan said, half-smiling. “Damn, Greyson.”

“What?”

“When’d you get to be so grown up?”

Greyson put an arm over Ethan’s padded shoulders and walked with his brother towards the rest of the team standing on the sidelines of the field. “I guess I had to turn twelve to figure out some things. There’s a lot of stuff in life that seems important but really doesn’t matter all that much. Then, there’s some stuff that matters a lot that we can forget about if we’re not careful.”

“Yeah? Like, what kinds of stuff?”

“The stuff that matters?”

“Yeah.”

“Having good friends, having fun, and making time for both of them.”

“Yeah,” Ethan said. “Sounds good to me. Anyways, I suppose all of that other stuff won’t be important until we’re adults. We’ve still got a lot of time before that.”

“We sure do,” Greyson said. “Years and years and years.” He smiled, and then they went off to play.

The End

This is the two candles ending. Here is the one candle ending.