Slices of Life and Family

by bluefrostyy

PART 3 of The life of Sebastian Pines! (Read that first, I doubt you'll understand what's going on) The story follows Seb's life after Gravity Falls. Bill was defeated, but the Pines family still have thousands of adventures together. Old characters will come back, new characters will make an appearance, all to accompany Seb through his journey as a human (Cowritten with Mizuuma)

51. Chap50

Hello sorry for taking so long, we were rlly busy but were here :)

---

Seb opened his eye, the confusion of sleep addleling his mind and making it so he didn't really understand something was wrong until a couple minutes had passed. And then his eye widened. "Where the fuck am I…Wanda?" He asked in a whisper. She definitely wasn't here.

He looked around. It was dark. His head was pounding, as if he was hit by a million bricks. Seb groaned and rubbed his face, he didn't remember anything…

Ow! He winced, feeling a stinging sensation on his cheek when he rubbed his head from the pounding headache. Ow. Ok, it was sensitive to the touch. He raised his hand to light a fire but nothing happened. He frowned. The heck? He reached out and felt around himself. There was a faint light seeping through wooden cracks, was he in a storage room? No… this was…

…an attic?

Seb frowned. He felt blankets, he was on some kind of thin mattress?

Well, an attic would have a lightswitch somewhere, and a way out. His eye was adapting to the darkness now and he could make out shapes and such. He found the pull string for the lights and clicked it on. He winced at the sudden light, blinking rapidly before he finally took in where he was.

The… fuck?

A sense of familiarity hit him first, and it wasn't the wholesome nostalgic feel. It was dread.

He knew this attic.

It was his bedroom.

He… hadn't seen this place in… years. Decades.

Why was he here now?

And…

The other thing that Seb finally noticed…

"Why am I so goddamn short?!"

He wasn't a tall man, but he knew he shouldn't be THIS short!

He looked down at his hands. They… looked so soft and small.

Wait.

He was sure his voice wasn't like that….

"Where…Where am I…" He whispered to himself, throat closing up as panic settled.

–

It took more time than he'd hoped before Seb finally went downstairs. Not because he couldn't figure out how to open the attic, but because he had to lay down for a panic attack. But once that passed, with him using Linda's breathing techniques to calm himself, he had to go and check. He needed to know for sure if he really WAS somehow back in the past, and what was worse, as a TEEN. Ugh, he's had dreams about this sort of thing, but this sure didn't feel like a dream. The throbbing pain in his foot from when he'd kicked a wall by accident also quelled any thought that this was a dream.

He pulled open the attic door on the floor, and winced when it cringed as it unfolded. Seb carefully made his way downstairs, now remembering how loud these were and why he stopped coming down at night…

He avoided making any sound when walking past the master's bedroom and immediately headed for his brothers' room, just because he had to. He was scared and confused, and he wanted his triplets.

"Seb?"

He stared at the also awakened young faces of his teen brothers. Gosh, were they ever that small? So cuteee~

"Hey Stan, Ford… um… weird question… but… do you two feel like something's wrong? Or are you just…dream yous?"

"Oh, thank Tesla!" Ford buried his face in his hands. "Yeah. If you mean how I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be grown men and not teenagers, yeah. We noticed."

Stan shrugged, tired and grumpy. "Stupid time travelling– what the hell happened THIS time? How did we end here?!"

Ford rubbed his head. Urghhh it hurt.

"Part of me wants to say Miz is behind this." Ford rolled his eyes. "But she's not here laughing at us, so that kinda puts a damper on that theory." He couldn't figure out why she would do so anyway, even if it was her.

"Well… what's going on? Do you have any idea?" Seb asked, fidgeting with his hands.

"Well, it doesn't appear to be a dream, I can feel all the sensations, read the words in my books, remember who I am and… well… I remember everything except how we got here. But I'm sure this is not a dream. I've had enough experience with it, and this, weird as it may be, is real life. The waking world." Ford didn't seem uncomfortable discussing his history with Dreams, which was a testament to the years of therapy.

"So what? We… went back in time?" Stan huffed. "And turned back into teenagers?" He just wanted to sleep with his wife, for moses' sake.

"I don't know. Probably? I will figure this out. But…" Ford yawned. "I'm tired. We can think about this more in the morning when I've had proper rest." It wasn't lit enough for the Stans to see Seb's face correctly.

Seb just stared at him with an incredulous look on his face. He wanted to sleep? In a moment like this? (Space had trained him well.) Why was he so calm, why was he like this?

"Yeah, you certainly need your beauty sleep." Stan snickered. Ford threw a pillow at him before climbing into bed.

Seb just stared at them before turning on his heel and going back up to the attic. A few minutes later, he was back, clutching his blankets and a beheaded teddy bear. He couldn't help the big smile and squeal he made when he saw his plushie. Robespierre! He was here! He set them down on the ground, on top of the carpet. "Well, if we're sleeping, then I'm gonna be here."

"...you're sleeping here?" Stan blinked.

"Yeah, the attic's scary."

"Sebastian, you know you're an adult, right?"

"Yeah, and the attic's scary. Good night." Seb flopped over and pulled his blankets over his head, ignoring the way his brothers chuckled.

Stressing really wasn't gonna help anything, so Seb just resolved to sleep like Ford suggested. Maybe things would fix themselves in the morning.

–-

Things did not fix themselves in the morning.

They all woke up exactly in the same place.

"Well, that sucks." Stan yawned. "So… stuck here?"

"So what now, genius?" Seb questioned.

Ford reached for his glasses and hummed. "Well…We-oh my gosh, is your face ok?" He finally looked at Seb. The purple blob he saw without glasses took the shape of a bruise that extended from his yellow eye's socket to his cheekbone. Stan rubbed his eye and leaned closer. "Geez! That looks terrible!" The two men's dad instincts kicked in (kid, bruises, pain, must help) and they reached to try and soothe the pain.

Seb stepped back, fingers gently touching his cheek. So that's why it's been hurting… "It's ok, guys. It's just a bruise…" A bruise that belonged to 'young him'. "It's probably a beating, it's ok." Was it?

Ford and Stan didn't look so convinced, but decided to drop it…for now. "Ok, so we're back in time. A timetape might have been used…but I don't have one, and I don't know how long it'd take to build one…or if it'd fix our bodies…"

Seb gasped. "Wait! Shermie!" Seb smacked Stan as he ran out of the room into the toddler's room, once again smacking his foot against the wall, because he didn't remember how close or far away things were anymore. "Fuck!"

"We should go see if anyone else came back too." Stan stood up, "I'm gonna check on Shermie and Seb, knowing those two, they'd start panicking together and make each other more worked up."

Ford nodded. "Good idea. I'll check on…mom." He walked out of the room, dread in his chest. If he was a teen again…Filbrick was alive… (He didn't want to admit the heavy feeling at that thought. Filbrick had JUST finally died and was gone from their lives, and now he was potentially back?)

Thinking this through with nervous hands fiddling with his clothes…they were a team! He shouldn't just go on his own! And he quickly skipped back to Shermie's room. Stan had already gone into Shermie's room to see Seb sitting on the ground, rubbing his foot. "Damn limbs!"

"Heeey Shermie! Are you our Shermie or are you a baby?" Stan grinned at his youngest brother.

Shermie's response was to scream and kick him.

"Nope, it's a baby." Stan pried the 5 year old off. Seb raised an eyebrow, "I dunno, seems like a very Shermie response to me."

Shermie giggled and climbed into Seb's back, taking advantage of his sitting position on the floor. "Help! No! OOWWW!" Seb screamed, getting his hair pulled for NO REASON AT ALL!

"Wanna watch TV! C'mon!"

Ford came in to catch the tail end of the conversation. "Ok you two, stop. We need to figure out what's going on. Seb, put him down!"

"I cAn't!" Seb cried. Ford pulled Shermie back. "Shermie, honey. Stop, you're hurting your brother."

The three youngest stopped in their tracks as they stared at Ford. What?!

Ford continued. "And until we know what to do, we should keep a low profile. If we're really in the past, we can't afford to change things, in case it messes with our future."

Seb finally got Shermie off him. "Ok, I agree. We could get in trouble with the Time Police, who knows if they're still operating even if that damn baby is dead."

The three poked their heads out of Shermie's room, checking the hallway. Clear. Still wearing their Pj's, (and Stan carrying Shermie), the three sighed.

Seb was brought back to the day Filbrick died, to his anger and confusion about it all…And Seb was suddenly not ready again…

"I don't wanna see him, he must be in the living room." Seb said in a whisper, staring at his hands. He could stay in the room until all this was solved!

Stan rolled his eyes. "Seb, we gotta go or they'll think something's wrong. Besides, he can't hurt you now. We're together." Stan clenched his fist. He wouldn't let that happen again. Not again. Not ever again.

Seb didn't even realize he was trembling. "No. Right now, he's VERY capable of hurting me! That's the entire point!" The Stans were trying to look for the right words as Seb hugged himself. They knew the death had affected him the most, regretted a lot of stuff, and now they were here…

"Boys? I'm not gonna repeat myself!" They heard their mom's shout coming from the kitchen.

Ford sighed. "C'mon, we'll deal with this as we go, before we get in trouble or something…" He was also dying for a cup of coffee right now…Why was he so exhausted?

Stan placed Shermie on the floor to gently nudge Seb forward and the three went to the kitchen. They smiled a little at the sight. Woah…they hadn't realized how…old their mom already was in their present day…Ma looked so young here, maybe younger than their real ages…

Time moving...

"Good morning, sweeties~" Kari planted kisses on their forehead. "Go sit down! You're not even changed, you're gonna be late for school!"

The poor adults trapped in their young bodies groaned loudly. School? They weren't even aided by it being summer? They sat down, and the Stans mumbled a "Good morning, sir.", at the man already dressed up, reading his newspaper at the table.

An arm was smacked on the table in front of Seb when he sat down. "He's still grounded." Filbrick said lowly.

Oh… Maybe that explained his cheek.

Kari gripped the cup tighter. "It's been long enough, Filbrick. Please."

Seb's eyes teared up immediately. No… No, this was not happening again… He was not seeing his mom beg for him again. "I'm fine…" He choked out. "I'm not hungry." He was starving. This stomach at least, was.

The two parents stared at each other until finally, without looking away from him, Kari softly said, "Here, sweetie…" Seb passed the lump in his throat. The plate was put in front of him, the arm retired from its position, locking access, and Filbrick went back to reading his paper. Mom went back to serving breakfast to their little brother (who was fiddling with the tv, fortunately away from the interaction this time.)

The Stans were trembling, hands unable to stop shaking. No. This was horrible. No, no, no. Ford especially felt disgusted. What did 'young him' do in situations like this? Stare? Eat? Nod along?! He stared at the breakfast. It smelled delicious but he was having trouble even keeping it in his mouth. It tasted sour and sick.

And even worse, he reached for coffee and Ma said NO!

Seb couldn't stop staring at Filbrick, which wasn't a good thing to do, because, feeling clumsier in this body than he had in decades, he knocked down his glass onto his plate. Shermie laughed innocently, and Seb immediately stood up to clean it. Filbrick just made a grumble of, "Stupid freak," but didn't do much else.

Seb glanced at his smaller hands (they would NOT stop shaking even if he tried calming down.) What was happening to him? He hoped they figured out what was going on soon and they could go home.

-.-

Xin was meticulously making all the cakes for the octuplet's party tomorrow when he Felt it. Xin frowned as he turned to look out the window at where the Center was. "There is a disturbance in the Force…" He whispered. The octuplets gathered around his legs, gasped. ("Wait, what does that mean?")

Sebastian rubbed his head. Ugh…Did he fall asleep on the table again…? He rubbed his eye and cracked his neck. The boy blinked, looking around. Wait… this wasn't his room… He glanced down at himself. And… he didn't fall asleep with these clothes, what was going on?

'You were kidnapped~ You were sold away, finally they got tired of you.' Bill2 whispered maliciously as always.

He looked at the other two people in the room. One was on the floor, rubbing his forehead, the other was also leaning on the table. They kinda looked like Filbrick, but less scary. What a weird thought.

"...Who are you?" Sebastian couldn't help but ask, his voice sounded weird though? He coughed a little. He hated when his voice sounded weird.

The one on the floor frowned. "Who are YOU? Where am I?"

"I should be the one asking you three who you are." A voice came from behind Sebastian. He turned to see a very pretty Asian man with his arms crossed. "Because you sure aren't supposed to be in there. And by in, I mean inside, and by there, I mean those bodies."

"H-huh?" Sebastian was so confused. He looked to his side. The other person, the one with glasses, also woke up by now. He pulled at his 6th finger nervously. "Look, I'm not looking for trouble. I-I just wanna go home, please." Sebastian glanced at his hands, something he usually did to avoid looking someone in the eyes, but… they looked weird.

There was nail polish on them, and they looked so much bigger, with scars he certainly didn't have when he went to sleep.

They looked older too…

His hand flew to his face, and when it landed on a beard, he screamed.

The other two, prompted by the panicking guy, checked themselves up, and couldn't help but scream too.

The one in a brown jacket stood up, stumbling. WH-What? Why was everything so weird? His body felt so weird! "Look! I don't know where I am but-but I'm gonna beat you up if…" He trailed off as his sight was drawn by the hands of one of the people in the room. Wait… he had… 6 fingers…

The Asian man sighed and rubbed his face. "Ok, well, first off, you're not in your own bodies. You appear to have switched bodies with my boyfriend and his brothers. I repeat, who are you? The sooner I know who you are, the sooner I can fix this mess."

"Name's Stan… Pines." Stan narrowed his eyes, not really sure if he should be trusting him.

Seb looked at him, almost snapping his neck. "Stan?" But now that he really saw him… "I-It's me! Sebastian."

The one with glasses raised his hand, "U-um, I'm Ford." Ford checked the hands of the one claiming to be Sebastian. Well, he did have 5 and 6 fingers…

The triplets stared at each other in shock and made funny faces. They looked so OLD! Like their PARENTS!

The Asian man sighed. "Ok, I think I have an idea of what happened here." He muttered to himself, "So, should I just tell them? I mean, chances are they're from an alternate, so it wouldn't actually cause problems here if they knew…" Xin wondered aloud quietly.

Oh heck, he wasn't him if he didn't take some risks…

"Ok, so, um… Good news and bad news. Good news, Fordsie's experiment worked. Bad news, this wasn't what we were expecting… How old are you?"

"Fifteen." The triplets said at the same time. Xin let out a soft, "Oof."

"Who are you sir? Where are we? Why are we…why do we look so much older?"

"Well, it's the year 2024. And a scientist named Stanford Pines was running an experiment that was supposed to allow him to see into the past." The man rolled his eyes, "He asked his brothers to come and check it out with him… and… well, it appears his insistence on reusing the parts from his Electron Carpet and Project Mentem has reacted with the Time Seeking Artificial Eye and caused a body swap with the past instead of simply seeing into it."

That idiot! Xin told him to get new parts, but Ford insisted on a, "Recycling and green attitude." even though this and that weren't the same situation and–

The triplets stared and blinked twice. Ford finally broke the silence with a little laugh. "I'm a scientist!" He made a little squeal, jumping up and down.

"Also, the name's Xin. I'm Stanford Pines' boyfriend. In case you were wondering." The man shrugged. Ford's jaw dropped as his face went completely red. Stan gasped. "You're GAY?!"

"No I'm NOT!"

"I'm seeing it! You are!"

"STOP! I'M NOT! I AM NOT!" the kid Ford wailed.

"Anyway, to prevent a paradox, their reach through time seems to have actually ended up creating a new dimension, where the older triplets are now." Xin was mumbling to himself as he walked over to the machine and poked at it. The thing sparked a little, somewhat burned out from its test run. "I can fix this mess if I can figure out which dimension you three came from so I can track down my idiots and swap you all back."

Xin straightened up. He regarded the children (in adult bodies), "It's gonna take a while because I have trouble telling people apart. So, I guess it wouldn't hurt to let you guys sight-see the future while you're here. I hate those people who go, 'Oh you can't let them see the future! It might change the past!' 'cause fuck that." He paused, "Also, this is technically a different dimension from the one you three came from, so don't take everything you see here for granted, because it might not be exactly the same."

"Is this like that movie? 'Going back to the future?'" Seb asked. Stan gasped. "It totally isssss! Your gay butt will build the technology of the movie!"

"I'm notgay!" Ford pushed Stan, making him stumble and laugh.

"No, because you're not within the same timeline, so any changes will not do something dumb like cause you to slowly fade from existence. Also, Stanley, stop saying that, it's very rude. I can and will put you in time out if you keep that up, young man." Xin glared.

Xin led them out of the lab and took them to the house before they were tempted to grab something and hurt themselves. "Behave. You can check the modern technology while I'm gone. Your phones might be in your pockets." Xin sighed, already mentally sending a text to the group chat. Being able to text by hijacking signals was so much faster than having to type it down.

"Phones don't fit in pockets!" Stan challenged him with a very rebellious look. Ugh. Teens.

"Just do it. I'm gonna tell the triplets' wives about what happened." Xin refocused, he would need to check his Com anyway wasn't he? He pulled it out, yup, his mental text sent, but having to reply to everyone would be easier with the physical Com.

Stan, who just found the phone, almost dropped it at that information. "Woah hoho! Wives? I'm married?! Who is it?"

Xin didn't even look up as he typed a response to the [?] he was getting. "Carla McCorkle. Older you and her have 2 sons together."

"Yeeeeees! Yes! Yes!" Stan cheered, manhandling Seb and shaking him around. "I MARRY her! I wanna see adult Carla! I bet she's SO HOT!"

"She sure is." Xin once again responded, only half listening. Yeesh, of course the women were panicking. [I told you, I've got the situation under control.] He texted back mentally. [Look, I'm busy right now, I'll handle this later, just stop panicking!]

Ford didn't find a phone in his pocket like Xin said, so instead walked around, examining the place he was in. Seb did find a phone and was twirling it around in his fingers. This wasn't a phone… It looked like… a tiny flat tv, with a screen and all.

Stan didn't care much about the phone and instead focused on the wallet he found in his pocket. He pulled it out and gasped. It was full of money and credit cards! Holy shit! "I'm rich! I'm gonna buy myself a car! Look! Look!" He smacked Ford in his excitement. His triplet took it as a challenge and smacked him back.

Xin texted furiously as he held his head, [No, it was an experiment that Fordsie was working on], he sighed, [I have the boys with me, I will figure this out.]

Seb managed to unlock the phone with the face id and was touching the screen, watching it in awe as it moved. He sat down on the floor as his brothers pushed each other, and clicked on everything he saw. Then the phone began ringing as it was BOMBARDED with text messages. The teen screamed and let it fall on the carpet.

'What did you do? Did you break it? You broke it! How dumb, now they'll get angry!'

"I didn't do anything! I-I'm sorry!" Seb cried as Bill2 sneered at him.

Xin picked it up. "It's not your fault, kid. Wanda's just worried and trying to contact you, even though I KEEP explaining to her it'll be of no use!" He growled at his Com. "Anyway, I just need you three to stay out of trouble for a bit, I can't focus on you and also talk to your family at the same time." He sighed. "I really just can't handle multiple conversations at once right now."

As soon as that was said, Stan came running past him. "HAHA THE FUTURE IS AWESOME!" He had found his own phone and waved it in Seb's face. "Haha! Look, mine is way bigger!"

"I wanna see a phone." Ford reached for the one Stan was holding and he tiptoed and lifted it up to keep his big bro from getting it. "Get yer own phone, this one's mine."

"Please, Stanley, I don't have one!" Ford kept trying to reach for it. "No!"

Xin sighed. He was not gonna get anything done like this. He glanced at Ford. He knew he was… (had been?) a mature kid for his age, intelligent and stuff, but seeing him acting like this… it was a shocker, it reminded him that a child was actually piloting this 6ft body, and very clumsily, at that.

"You can… you can have this one, I don't understand it." Seb offered his phone to his big brother with a little smile. Ford grinned and grabbed it, ALSO unlocking it with the Face ID unknowingly, because the phone didn't realize they all had the same face.

Xin shook his head. Didn't even say 'Thank you' huh? While they were distracted… Do the family talking… He needed to answer poor Carla and Wanda, they were hysterical right now.

"Look at all those little icons…It says Clock, Calculator…Calendar…" Child Ford (CFord for short, as Xin will now think of him as), poked the calculator app and "Oohhh'ed~" CSeb peeked over his shoulder.

"It's like having a calculator in your pocket all the time! And a calendar and a clock!" CFord laughed, typing in some numbers to try it on. And the teachers said they wouldn't have a calculator with them!

Of course, he didn't need them, but they always said it for kids who wanted calculators for the exams~

"I don't see how this is called a phone though, it doesn't even have numbers!"

"There's a phone icon there, touch it!" CSeb pointed. CFord smacked his hand away. "Yeah I did notice…" He informed him before pulling the phone a little closer to himself.

'He knows you're stupid, you're gonna damage it.' Bill2 cackled.

"Oh… Ok… I'm sorry." CSeb nodded. Of course he already saw it, he was Ford, the genius…

CFord typed the numbers and smiled. "Woaa, it doesn't have a disk! You just… press the numbers and they appear!" He wrote their house number just to see a full number on the phone.

CSeb wanted to ask to try as well, but decided against it, holding his own hand.

Yun came into the room, followed by a bunch of toddlers a bit younger than Shermie's age. It was obvious Xin couldn't do this on his own. The toddlers squealed when they saw their daddy and ran over.

"Eeeww let go." CFord jumped when one of them held onto his (now) long legs with his sticky hands. The boy with brown and blond hair, who was wearing a blue shirt, began sobbing.

"Excuse me, those are Ford's children, please be gentle." Yun picked up Nick as he cried. "It's ok, Daddy's just not mentally himself at the moment. A stranger has stolen his body."

"His WhAt?!" CSeb cried out.

"Oh, this is Yun. Ford's girlfriend. Adult you is in a relationship with both of us." Xin explained.

Yun was tempted to embarrass the teen, saying Fordsie was such a playboy, but decided the kid looked pale enough. "Seven of these are mine, and Gu–Marie is Xin's." She was kind enough to use their (boring) human names right now.

CStan and CSeb watched as CFord fell backwards like a plank of wood. They stared at their fainted brother for a second, until CSeb began laughing loudly.

"I KNEW IT! I DID CURSE HIM WITH 8 KIDS HAHAHA!"

-.-

CFord eventually woke up. CSeb squeezed him a hug, thinking he'd DIED. "I'm fine…"

Realizing he had two partners in the future was HORRIFYING (what would his parents think?! Wasn't this, like, extremely prohibited?) And having EIGHT damn kids made things EVEN WORSE! They told him their names, but ? How was he supposed to remember all that?! It was a nightmare! CSeb asked if he wanted tea.

"I'm fine!" CFord exclaimed loudly.

But… something about this… made him feel kinda… nice. This meant someone actually LOVED him, 2 people, actually! He wasn't gonna be an unlovable freak forever, like the bullies liked to say. And it was a funny feeling to see some of them have 6 fingers like him.

"Daddy?" The oldest of the octuplets, what was his name again? Isaac? asked him.

Nope, forget it. This was terrifying.

"I'm not your dad!" CFord shouted. Isaac stepped away, scared. (Yun growled at CFord before comforting her children. "Daddy messed up his experiment and switched his mind with someone else. So that's a stranger in his body right now. We'll figure this out, I just wanted you all to know sooner rather than later.")

"Hey! Don't be mean, he's just a kid." CSeb frowned. CStan crossed his arms.

"YOU try dealing with kids saying you're their dad! Ugh!"

"I'd like to meet them!" CStan said defiantly. His older self had kids! CStan wanted to see what they were like.

Xin, sitting on a chair with his head resting in a hand, looked at the arguing boys with a bored look. "And you will, both you and Seb."

CSeb froze at that. He ALSO had kids?

Xin continued, pointing at Seb. "They're called Zach and Zoe, they're really nice kids. Their mom, Wanda, is with them right now, and… probably really worried. Also, the adult you adopted my little sister after our parents died, so you've got another daughter." CSeb rubbed his arm. He didn't know this woman, but… why would she even marry him? He was dumb and now there were 2 kids cursed to be like him. Stupid older him. And wait, he adopted ANOTHER kid? Xin's sister? Wait, why didn't Xin take her in? CSeb was so confused.

CStan called for Xin. "Hey! Am I a millionaire or what?" He asked, shaking a credit card. "Thinking about it, I could be an expert thief or a treasure hunter, I'll be fine with those too!"

Yun chuckled as Xin grumbled and argued with the wives over his Com.

"Yeah, you make a lot of money. 'Adult you' has a very big penthouse, with a pool and a great view. He has his own company and he coaches a football team right now." Yun hummed in thought. "Oh, his older son Dillon doesn't live there anymore 'cause he's old enough to move out, but Diego does!"

CStan was grinning so brightly, and CSeb couldn't help but smile too. It was contagious. Stan looked so happy. He was married, he had kids! Stan bet they played football all day! And he had the coolest job! Stan Pines, no matter which Stan, was a family man, and he could only hear he was having the perfect life and more!

CFord squealed. "And I have that entire research center because I'm a scientist right? Can we go check it?"

Yun petted his head. "When we all have sorted things out, probably." (She was wearing one of her poofy jackets right now, so none of the boys had seen her extra arms yet.)

"YES!"

CSeb wasn't really sure if he wanted to hear it. He probably was a terrible father and they all hated him…

Xin had finally left the room to have a group call with Carla and Wanda, who hadn't stopped crying.

"What are we gonna tell the kids?" "What will we doo?!"

"I told you to stay calm. I'll let them explore for a while, they're kiddos and they're really surprised right now. Then I can begin searching for their dimension to find our dumbasses."

"But will they come here or stay in town? How are we supposed to treat them?" Carla stopped and whispered. "Can we even touch them?"

"They're FIFTEEN YEAR OLDS! Of course NOT!" Wanda roared in the shared call.

"THAT'S WHY I'M ASKING!"

Xin rolled his eyes. "Stan certainly will want to, but I'm gonna say you shouldn't until I get your husbands back." He frowned in thought. "And I think they should go to you. They gotta be in their houses and see their families too. Also, if I have to keep all three of them here, I'm going to eat them."

Carla and Wanda let out a long sigh. "I'm gonna scream into my pillow till then." Wanda muttered before the two hung up.

CStan looked outside the window to a group of people being led through another door of the house. "Can we go see outside? Pleaseee."

Yun nodded. "Ok. But I really want you to hear this first. One. You gotta behave and act responsibly. You need to uphold the older you's reputation. Two. The older yous worked really hard to get here. So I don't want you three thinking it'll just happen the same for you without any work, got it?"

The triplets, being more childish than ever, let out a loud "Yess mooommmm~", to which Yun gasped, offended.

They mocked her! How dare they! Those lil critters!

CStan stuck his hands in his pockets and found car keys. Before anyone realized it, he was bolting outside to look for the amazing car that surely came with it.

(They had come to town with the portable portals, so no car, but they didn't know that.)

"I'm gonna drive!"

"But you don't have a license!" CFord reminded him with a worried look.

"But HE doessss!" And CStan threw the license at CFord's face.

Xin and Yun looked at each other.

Yun finally spoke up. "Oh don't look at me. I'm on octuplet duty today, and I have to finish all the cakes. You babysit them before they kill themselves."

"UMMM HELLO? THIS GOLF CART ACCIDENTALLY CAUGHT ON FIRE?"

"...Ok I see your point." Xin groaned.

-.-

School was just as horrible as the triplets remembered. Smelly, crowded, loud…

Just stepping foot inside got on Seb's nerves. This place was also a known location for his nightmares…He trailed behind his brothers, looking around with a scowl. Gosh, he hated this place…

"Oops!" Seb barely processed the voice before he was falling and hitting the floor. "Argh!"

He looked up at the laughing guys who just made him trip. "Sorryyy didn't see a trash bag walking around!"

"Maybe if you weren't a cyclops, you'd have seen us! Cyclops!"

Seb rolled his eye. Oh wow. Bullying, and it wasn't even 9 o clock. Great. He rubbed at his cheek absently. Ow. This still hurt though. Seb couldn't help thinking back to that morning… They'd been running late, but mom pulled him aside for a second and gently applied some concealer on his bruise. Part of it was covered by the eyepatch, but not all.

Seb glanced at her bag of cosmetics. "Can I borrow your tweezers? Got a few ugly hairs growing oddly." He looked at himself and his eyebrows. Little him needed to step up his game. "Or maybe some mascara?"

Kari pushed him out of her bathroom. "Stop saying stupidities and go with your brothers already." She scoffed. Seb had stared at her, hurt in his expression.

That hurt way more than the bruise. He'd forgotten… that… Mom wasn't really supportive either… not back then…

"HEY!" Stan growled, bringing him back to reality, and stomped in his direction. The bullies laughed and scrambled away. Stan waved a fist at them. "Yeah! You better run, brats!" as Ford helped Seb up. "You ok?"

"Oh, yeah, don't worry. Have had it worse." Seb rolled his eye. "I have had more intense fights with Carol."

Ford adjusted his glasses. "Ugh. I don't want to see our bullies today. This is horrible enough."

"Don't worry, I got it. I'm not letting them hurt you again."

"What? No. I'll beat them up if they touch me and I shouldn't! Because I didn't know how to fight at 15." Ford scoffed.

Seb and Stan giggled as Ford pulled out something out of his backpack. "I searched everywhere for this, it's our classes. I couldn't remember what classes we're supposed to be having at 15, so I looked for them…" He glanced at Seb. "I…didn't know where yours was though…"

"It's probably in the attic…or…" Seb mumbled before reaching for the 'trash pockets' in his bag. "Ah hah!" He successfully found his wrinkled timetable. "I knew these pockets would come in handy."

They compared it, already running late for any class anyway. Stan and Seb had most classes together, but there were some with the 3 of them, like, the one they were late for.

The teacher looked so surprised to see they were late. "I thought you'd not be coming, boys! What happened?!"

"Oh, we had some problems at home before coming here-are you ok?" The teacher looked about to cry. She didn't want to write 'Late' in Ford Pines's school record!

"Wait, miss…uh…" Seb didn't remember her name. "Miss, it's my fault. I held them up." The teacher lowered the notebook.

"Hmph. Yeah that sounds more like it." She scoffed and wrote down his name. She let the Stans in, she didn't want to damage their records, but stopped Seb. "Wait. You're not coming into my class. You came in late and forced your brothers to be late."

"Then what? Do I stay outside?" Seb exclaimed. He just couldn't believe a teacher would treat a kid like this. The kid was late so she literally forbade him from even KNOWING what her class was? How did she expect him to be able to learn anything if she literally made it so that he was NOT allowed to learn shit as a punishment?! He was so glad he got his babies out of public school. Yuck.

"That's no way to talk to me! Go to the principal's office! And stop interrupting my class already." She turned around.

The Stans were frozen, mouth gaping at the bullshit they just witnessed. The other teens were sitting there, bored at seeing this every day.

Seb waved at them to sit down. Keep a low profile. And he dragged his backpack around the school, SEARCHING for how the fuck to get to the principal's. He gave up and just sat down on the stairs to eat an apple angrily.

This…this wasn't fair. He didn't deserve to be treated like this. He DIDN'T deserve this…and yet, he'd had to deal with this treatment ever since he was a child. Why did the teachers hate him so much? He KNEW he wasn't an easy child, he knew, but…he didn't deserve to be treated like he was the worst scum on earth! There were kids fucking peeing on the bathroom's floors and HE was the pariah because he moved too much, because he spoke too fast, because he looked weird and small and especially, helpless, because they knew his parents wouldn't come to defend him...

And no one, none of the teachers, ever fucking cared. That's how it's always been. Seb should have been over this, he was a grown ass man now, but he still felt his eye tearing up. Fuck.

Back in the classroom, Ford was frustrated. "Ma'am. If he's not allowed into the class, how's he supposed to learn the lesson you're teaching?" He asked the teacher. She shrugged. "He wouldn't have learned even if he was in here, and if he was in here, he'd only disrupt class." Ford's eyes narrowed, Stan gripped his sleeve, "Keep a low profile Sixer. We can't…"

Ford took a deep breath, but he was pissed. How come he had never noticed the way the teachers treated Sebastian all those years ago? He was so angry at his younger self.

He glared at the wall the entire class, now angry AND bored. Stan put his feet on the table, knowing he'd always done this and no one said anything, and just tried to nap. Ford glanced at Stan. Sure. Stan could do this, but Seb couldn't stay in class. Ugh…

"Are you feeling ok, Stanford?" Came the teacher's worried question at least 3 times. Ford heard some giggles. Ughhhhh! So much for keeping a low profile! "Just angry that apparently this school and its teachers believe that denying education to a child due to personal feelings is apparently perfectly fine." He couldn't help but snark.

Stan suddenly smacked his arm. Ford gritted his teeth. "I'm sorry. I'm fine, ma'am." He was the first out of the class when the bell rang, much to the woman's surprise, and looked for Seb. He was still seated on the stairs, leg bouncy and doodling. "Hey you're out! Finally!" Seb smiled.

"I don't think I can just pretend nothing is wrong." Ford told Seb plainly. "I wanted to punch her. It wasn't fair."

"It's fine." Seb smiled. "Look, I drew a horse." He showed him his notebook and Ford shook his head. He was losing his mind here and Seb was just calmly doodling.

He sniffed. "...The legs don't look right." He couldn't help but correct. Seb rolled his eyes.

For the next class they tried not getting late, and it was Chemistry, so Ford wasn't with them. Ford was in an advanced chemistry class, but there was no point paying attention to the guy teaching, since he was struggling with the concepts himself. Ugh. Pathetic. So instead, Ford wrote to himself all class, thinking on how they even ended up in the past. All his memories were so fuzzy, but he was beginning to think this had to do with his project…

"I'm ready for the first test! Xin's busy so I thought you could help me–"

"Are you alright, Stanford?"

UGH. THERE IT WAS AGAIN! He got interrupted when he tried to remember! "...Yes, sir. Just taking notes of your interesting lesson." Ford rolled his eyes as he glanced down. He was so bored, the guy wasn't any good at teaching. He clearly couldn't even understand his own lesson, just reading out of the textbook. Ford had sat in on some of Yun's chemistry lessons with the kids and those were more engaging and understandable!

Over in the normal chemistry class, Stan wasn't as feisty as he would have liked, he knew how to keep his act, unlike Ford, but he also watched the male teacher doing his own class, and calling Seb to the board in a mocking voice. "Why don't you come do this exercise? Or were you not paying attention like always?"

Stan glared, breaking the pencil he was playing with. Well, Seb walked up and looked at the board. He… actually understood this. He had to teach himself lots of science to rebuild the portal. Plus, in his new lessons to manipulate reality, his magic lessons, Miz had taught him all this and more.

His lessons with Miz involved learning the periodic table of elements to infinite detail, and also intense chemistry to remember the molecular structure of objects. Compared to having to memorize the entire molecular structure of an apple, this shit on the board was baby's level. He took the chalk and answered easily. The teacher opened his mouth to mock Seb and then paused. "U-um… that's correct."

Stan nearly burst out laughing. HAH! IN YOUR FACE! He was beginning to remember this guy. Didn't Seb blow up his lab once?

"You should get a white board instead, chalk is too messy, yuck." Seb stated simply as he handed the chalk back, dusted himself off and went to his seat. The teacher looked confused.

They survived half the day, and they were rewarded with lunch! Then Seb remembered it was school lunch and gagged. "I'm hungry! I want good food!"

"Once we're home, you can eat good food." Stan rolled his eyes as he pulled up his jacket's hood.

"Wha-What are you doing?!" Ford questioned, incredibly moody from the shit he had to shut up about today, so the question came out very rude. Ugh. Were these HORMONES?! He hated this! He couldn't even be angry now, could he?!

"I don't want young Carla to see me! Duh!" Of course he'd love to see a little Carla, to remember how she looked in their youth, but he'd feel so wrong if she tried kissing him! "If she kisses me, I don't know what I'd do." Stan whispered.

"Then… don't." Seb deadpanned.

"You clearly don't know how teenage couples operate, do you? Hey, where's Wanda, by the way?"

Seb sighed. "I don't know… I think we're only 15 so… We haven't met yet." he sighed. The three got into the lunch line and then Seb felt his stomach drop. Oh right. He… he didn't get lunch at this age. Filbrick never let him. The money that mom gave them for lunch was always taken by Filbrick as some bullshit tax for being allowed to fucking live. Seb grimaced. He was about to leave when Ford said, "Hello, three lunches please."

Seb blinked. "Ford?"

"Come on, let's go find a place to sit." Ford said simply, handing Seb a tray of… some kinda gray looking meat and bread. Maybe he'd be fine not eating this one… He was used to good food from his own hand!

"Stan! C'mon now!" Stan looked askance at the football team, who looked back at him, incredulously, when he didn't sit with them.

Stan ignored them, what were their names again? Ugh he knew just a while ago! Brett, probably. It's not like he didn't appreciate the friendship he had…but some of these guys had mocked his brothers and he didn't feel like hanging out with immature 15-16 year olds just to keep up appearances.

Something Stan didn't ignore were the familiar bully faces looking at them, and he glared coldly at them all. Come on, come and try him. He'd break their arms.

Seb put his head on the table, sipping his juice box, the only edible thing in the tray. "Y'know the school is always in my nightmares? Like, I once had a nightmare where zombies ate my head in the school's bathroom." He was pretty sure he was beaten up in the head there, huh. Metaphors.

Ford poked the food. "I know, I don't think I like thinking of the school anymore." He loved being here before. Umm, hello? Was young him ok? (He wouldn't blame him if it was to escape their dad…that was a very reasonable excuse to like this hellhole better than home.) Ford sighed at the shit on the tray. Living in space taught him to eat anything. Living with Yun had spoiled him, he also wanted good food.

"Stan! Where have you been! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Oh crap." Stan looked up and saw the CCarla running towards him. He almost fell off the seat as she slammed against him, laughing.

"I thought you'd eat with me today!" She pouted before addressing the surprised triplets. "Hey, boys~"

Ford and Seb waved at their sister in law–(future sister in law?) with a little smile. She looked so tiny, just a young girl wow. Her brown hair was long and disheveled, like girls at the time styled it. Seb couldn't help but marvel at how much she looked like Dillon, or rather, how much Dillon looked like her at this age…

Stan laughed sheepishly. "Oh I'm sorry I…I just have triplet stuff to discuss, y'know? Brother stuff, confidential."

CCarla giggled and grabbed his face with her hands before leaning in to kiss him. Stan panicked. He loved her, but he didn't want to kiss a child!

"Eeeee!" he yipped, pulling back. "Blister! I have a blister! It hurts!" he pointed at his mouth. CCarla sighed. "Fineee~ You're excused TODAY…I'll leave you to your triplet business, bye boys~"

""Bye~"" Seb laughed at Stan's little blush.

-.-

When school was done, the 3 men trapped in their teen bodies walked out, dragging their backpacks, and drained of any will to live.

"I didn't remember school was this tiring..." Ford groaned and popped his back. Those chairs sucked ass.

"Yeah let's just go home, I need to sleep." Stan stretched. They started to walk away from the building until Seb stopped and gasped.

Wait a second…

"Before going home...Can we go visit someone?"

"Urgghhh! Sebas!" Stan moaned. "Fine. Who?" He scratched his belly.

"My dad..."

"But why would you want to see Filbrick? We're going home anyway!" Ford questioned. God, he was so moody right now. Take big breaths…

It took them a second to process what Seb really meant. OOOOHHHHHH! His boss…!

"We can, right? It wouldn't break this timeline?" Seb really looked hopeful about it, but if it was too dangerous, then he'd accept.

Ford hummed and shook his head. "I don't think so! Us meeting him is not really a major event." he agreed with a nod. "Let's go."

Stan looked back and his brown eyes widened when he noticed Crampelter and his minions walking around. They'd stayed in one place too long. He pushed his now tiny brothers forward. "Yes, yes, but move it, because Crampelter is around."

The triplets rapidly escaped the conflict and went in the direction of Matsuda's house, Stan completely forgetting that he used to have football training every day, and gym 3 times a week…

Seb walked through the streets eagerly, jumping over each line in the sidewalk. He couldn't wait to see his dad again! He really felt as young as he looked. And he was sure he had met him already because he found a sewing kit in his backpack that wasn't mom's!

"When did you meet Matsuda anyway? Who actually went 'I'll hire a 15 year old as a tailor?'" Ford asked curiously.

Seb hummed. "Well, remember that time we broke some glass at the store?" The Stans winced at the memory.

"I ran away and met him. He helped me clean the glass off my hands and just let me see him work. Then he offered me a job helping him." Seb looked at his hands, the scars from the glass looked healed enough, so it must have been months ago. "He couldn't pay me much, but it was ok, it gave me enough to, y'know, some snacks or…pay what I needed to pay…He gave me dinner, and some snacks, and even prepared a room for me to stay if I needed to."

The Stans shared a look. Seb continued. "That time I ran away, I…I wasn't planning to come back." Seb kicked a rock that crossed his path and focused on it. "I wanted to stay with him, just because he bandaged my hands and made me soup…A literal stranger…he could have, I don't know, killed me, but I thought it was better than going home. HE convinced me to go home. Because he was worried that my family would worry."

Stan opened his mouth to apologize when his brother's expression immediately changed. "We're here!" They stopped in a house that had somehow a similar style to theirs, with the front acting as a store, and behind it the house.

Seb pushed the door of the store, giggling. After the little bell rang, the Stans realized they've never come here before…They've never been told this story before…Did…Did their younger selves really not care where Seb disappeared into after school most times?

If they didn't work on their boat, Stan was training, Ford was studying…They assumed Seb was at home, or doing something…but they didn't bother to know why or where…

There was a part that still rang in their heads. A room to stay…Seb had stayed in here more than once…

"Matsuda-san! I'm here!" Seb called in japanese.

And, they, as his brothers, never wondered where he spent the night? They'd never really heard Seb opening the attic ladder to go to his room late at night. They always assumed Seb was very quiet sneaking back in because they never heard him, but they've already seen in their stay here that Seb hated to make noise with the squeaky ladder…Which means he just never made it back home at night some nights…

What was WRONG IN THEIR HEADS?! Stan worried over letting Dillon go anywhere on his own at that age, let alone not come to sleep at home (hence the private driver), and Ford couldn't imagine the octuplets just straight up leaving and not coming home…staying in some stranger's house!

Mom must have been worried sick… Did… did mom even know? Did she notice?

As the Stans flinched in on themselves, looking like little guilty teens, a japanese man came out from behind the No entrance door. He was in his late 60s, was kinda short and wore glasses, but he had a really kind smile.

"Sebastian-kun!" Matsuda chuckled. "Oh. Is it me, or am I seeing triple?" He joked upon seeing two more boys standing in the doorway. "M-Matsuda!" Seb couldn't keep it together any longer. He was wailing, he was here! He was here! Seb ran forwards and wrapped his arms around his dad.

Matsuda stumbled a little, but he was laughing. He patted Seb's back. "Seb my boy, I'm glad to see you too?" He was pleasantly surprised at how affectionate the boy was today.

Seb was sobbing. The dam was broken and he couldn't stop crying now. He didn't let go, he would never let go now.

"I-I'm sorry...I'm SO sorry...I was late…I…I wasn't here on time…" he whispered. He wasn't able to say goodbye… he had left Matsuda to die alone…

Matsuda waved it off. "It was only a couple minutes...and I see you brought your brothers!"

Seb wiped his tears. Matsuda… "Y-yeah..." He turned to his brothers, hoping to introduce them. The two stretched their hands out, well acquainted with the idea of politely meeting a stranger now that they were adults.

Their teen selves would have waved awkwardly and smiled.

"Stanford Pines, PHD." Ford cursed as soon as his dumb mouth spoke. "Future, I mean. I'll be a PHD."

Matsuda nodded with a grin. "Oh yes I know! You're 'Sixer', Seb talks about you all the time. He says you'll be the most brilliant mind when you grow up and do great things." Ford went red, Seb too. "Matsuda-san..." he whined.

"And you're Stanley, huh? The strong one! I know you're the star in your football games."

"That's me!" Stan said proudly, nudging Seb with a grin.

"Woah, I have such talented boys here!" Matsuda praised, patting the Stans' shoulders. Ford rubbed his neck and Stan coughed. God, that kind of praise only came from their mom…or their partners. Having a dad doing that? Weird. Seb had it good here, they were glad. Even if Filbrick was an ass, he did have a dad with Matsuda.

Seb settled in to help Matsuda around the shop like usual, his movements were fast and excited to be here. Stan and Ford hung out and did their homework, just to get it out of the way.

And then Ford and Stan brainstormed about what things they needed to remember about this time period so they wouldn't get found out before Ford figured out how they got here and how to get back. Ford was trying to remember HOW they got here. He was getting close, a memory of a… something he built?

The hours passed and nightfall came. They actually stayed for dinner, since Matsuda was thrilled to have company. Seb helped him cook and Matsuda looked quite surprised with how much he improved. Of course he only knew 15 year old Seb's cooking ability, and didn't know this was actually a middle aged Sebastian who'd been cooking for years. Oh geez, Seb suddenly realized he was only around ten or fifteen years younger than his dad now…

Ford and Stan were thankful for the food, since they didn't eat much during lunch today.

And finally, the three headed home (despite wishing they could stay)… and met with Filbrick… looking pissed.

"Where were you?"

Seb flinched, but for the first time, the scream wasn't directed to him. Filbrick poked Stan's chest. "Your coach called! He said you didn't show your butt at training today!"

Stan grimaced, crap, he forgot.

Filbrick then turned to Ford. "And YOU! What are you doing wasting your time! You're supposed to be here! Studying!"

Seb wanted to disappear, trauma reignited vividly as his body froze. God he couldn't move, why couldn't he move, was happening to him? He consciously KNEW this was wrong, that he wasn't at fault, that nothing was, but right now he was face to face with his trauma, in a place HE couldn't control, like the therapist or his mind, to a tall intimidating man and it wasn't easy to fight, to remember to breathe.

Stan and Ford listened to their father shouting, not through the eyes of scared boys, but tired men who didn't want to deal with this bullshit. The Stans weren't intimidated.

Ford raised his hands. "We were just doing a school project in the library, Stan forgot to tell his coach. My fault, I dragged him away too fast. Calm down." His eyes widened.

Oops…

Filbrick looked completely taken aback. "Calm down? ...Did you just tell me to calm down? Who the FUCK do you think you are!"

Seb pulled at his brothers. Just apologize and GO. They shouldn't be picking fights with the man! Especially now that he is taller and stronger than them! You're not adults! You're just kids! He's gonna hit you! Please move! Have some self preservation!

But Ford didn't back down. He'd failed to protect his brothers all his life. He didn't want to just be a fucking bitch and let Filbrick hurt them all again without at least trying to fight back. Fuck Filbrick, fuck laying low. His father was dead and none of them needed to deal with this shit AGAIN!

"Yeah he told you to calm down. It's not that deep, man." Stan also stated. "You know one day is not gonna change anything, can we please, like, talk? No need to shout."

Filbrick only got angrier. He'd never had such DISRESPECT from these boys before. How dare they!? He raised his fist.

—-

They got hit, but not all that much, they had managed to deflect some blows and only had some bruises (although that didn't make Seb feel any better). They didn't care, though. Standing up to Filbrick was more important. Stan and Ford were used to getting scraped up from their years in space. Seb actually wasn't hit, for once, partially because Stan and Ford would keep calling Filbrick's attention back to them instead.

Kari was pissed. "What are you DOING?!" She cried. How dare he hit her babies?! Unlike Seb who kept quiet about the blows, who hid after it, the Stans just began SCREAMING and howling to get their mom's attention.

"They were talking back to me!" Filbrick protested.

The Stans looked at each other and went with the 'victim way'. "He began shouting at me just because I missed one day of training to spend time with-with my brothers!" Stan sniffled dramatically.

Ford saw his chance too, holding his hurting shoulder. "And this is not the first time, Mama! Pa regularly hits Seb when you're not looking." He pouted at her.

Seb's eye widened. Sixer what the hell were you doing?!

Kari gasped. "What?!"

"Yeah, I've seen the bruises and scars on Seb." Stan backed Ford up. "They claim it's just Seb tripping and getting hurt, but we all know that's not true."

Seb stared at the two. What were they doing?! They were supposed to keep a low profile!

But the Stans had stopped giving a shit. Being hit by Filbrick reminded them now that Seb wasn't safe here. He was going to be abused all over again. And they refused to just sit back and let that happen anymore. So… yes, they were tattling on Filbrick to their mom.

And when Ford pulled up Seb's hoodie ("HEY!") to show his half healed and unhealed bruises along his back, in the shape of a belt, along with the ribs that could be partially seen due to the teenaged Sebastian being severely malnourished…

Well, Kari exploded.

—.-

The triplets could hear the argument happening on the other side of the house. Stan handed the icepack to Ford. "Heh. We're out of practice, huh?" He joked.

"This body isn't used to the hits."

Seb was so tense. "That isn't funny! You shouldn't have talked back to him."

"Peh. I'm not gonna just lie down like a bitch." Stan snorted.

"Ma's really ripping into him." Ford smirked, listening to the muffled screeching.

"It was you who said we were supposed to keep a low profile!" Seb stressed.

Ford sighed, taking the ice off his cheek, "Yeah…but I just didn't want to see you get hurt anymore."

Seb frowned and put the ice back on Ford's cheek. "You wouldn't have done this as a kid!"

"Well I'm not a kid anymore." Ford winced. Ow. He hadn't been bruised this bad since forever.

Seb sat on the floor. "Ugh, the time police will totally get us now…" He ran a hand through his fluffy brown hair.

Kari and Filbrick were having a huge fight. She couldn't remember when was the last time they had done this. When was the last time she got the courage to vocalize all her frustration with that man? And Filbrick was denying everything, "The brats are lying!"

"But Sebastian has scars! They look like belt whips!" She saw them herself! She had grabbed Seb before she sent them all to their room, and ignoring his deep blush, checked his back. Old wounds. New wounds. Half healed wounds, all over his weird birthmark. She'd never gotten to see her boys recently. They all got so bashful since becoming teenagers. Didn't want their mom to see them shirtless or checking them over.

"Nothing to do with me. He probably ran around like an idiot and fell on a fence." Filbrick shrugged.

Kari wasn't a fucking idiot. She could tell he was lying. "A slap here and there– but a belt?! You can't hit him like that, are you insane?!"

"I'll do WHATEVER I WANT TO PUT IT IN HIS PLACE!"

Shermie was whimpering. He didn't like when daddy shouted, but he hadn't heard mommy shout back before. He couldn't stand it anymore and didn't want to be alone in his room, so he ran out to find his big brothers. He quickly climbed into Seb's lap. Seb blinked and hugged the five year old. "Here, I'll cover your ears, ok?" Shermie nodded tearfully, burying his face in Seb's chest.

Ford sighed, going back to their conversation, not really caring if Shermie was here, his ears were covered anyway. "Time Baby's dead, you killed him. I really doubt they'll keep up their functions. Besides, the Time Police would have shown up by now if they really did notice us."

More shouting from behind the door. Stan sighed. He was looking out the window and chuckled. "The neighbors are coming over to complain."

""SHUT THE FUCK UP!"" Kari and Filbrick shouted in unison at the neighbors. At least they agreed on one thing.

Shermie eventually fell asleep in Seb's arms. He glared at the Stans. "Look at what you did! You're making things worse!" His eye teared up, "What's even the point of trying to stand against him now? You never did! You never cared! A-and trying to drag me into this– even though you've never once did ANYTHING for me when it was all happening–"

Ford looked hurt, "I know I never helped you. And I'm so sorry for that. I don't want to repeat my mistakes again." He rubbed his eye. Gosh he was gonna cry, wasn't he?

Stan grabbed Shermie from Seb's lap and put him in his bed. "Maybe… Maybe we're here to make things right y'know? Like, a second chance kinda thing." He shrugged, taking off his shirt.

Seb thought about it, rubbing his palm, missing the familiar sensation of his flames. "...maybe…" The brothers, all four of them, fell asleep, the screams outside slowly fading away from their awareness as they slept.

—-.-

Seb couldn't sleep. He tried and kept tossing, but this mattress sucked. Besides, Stan AND Shermie kept snoring so damn loud. Seb was about to stand up and choke them with the pillow when he heard soft climbed to the upper bunk bed to check on Ford, and his gaze softened in worry when he saw Ford doing everything in his power to keep his sobs in.

"Fordsie?"

Ford cursed and acted asleep.

"I saw you, bitch." Seb whispered annoyedly and climbed the rest of the way, force-snuggling his brother. "What's wrong?"

"I...remembered more of why we ended up here." Ford sniffled. He'd dreamed about it. A nightmare, actually. And he woke with a clarity he hadn't had before now.

"Oh..." Seb hated mental lagoons. Ever since they came here it's been so confusing.

"I wanted to show you my work, I thought you'd think it's cool… And it was a good idea because-because it was the octuplets' birthday the next day..." Ford held back another sob.

Seb's eyes widened. Shit. He was right. The octuplet's birthday was on April 1st… the poor kids, everyone forgets because of April fools.

Wait.

Seb glanced at his usually reasonable (in his own way) brother. That meant...

"You two came before...and your wives would come with your kids in the teleporters later...and spend the day and..." Ford gasped for air as he struggled. "Yun wanted a sleepover before the party day…"

Seb squeezed his eye shut as Ford squeezed his own in an identical expression. They'd been here in the past for a day already, who knew how time worked between here and home, but there was no way they hadn't missed at least a day. "I missed it… I missed my kid's birthday because of a dumb project!" Ford was so upset over it, of course he was, and he had FORGOTTEN it. That must be so scary for him.

Seb pulled Ford towards himself and shushed. "It's ok..."

"Not it's not! They must think I hate them..."

It was so hard being a dad, but he always tried SO hard. He had no idea how to interact with kids, but he made sure to know their favorite shows, books...he was always checking if new books came out to buy for them... he tried so hard… he sat with them if they needed him to color with them and he checked in the middle of the night that they were sleeping well, specially little Emmy and Jane (so much smaller, fragile, he worried for his daughters so much-). "Yun never asks me to help with them anymore! S-she doesn't… think I'd even want to…"

Ford knew people said he was a bad dad… Jokingly or in a serious way… He knew they said it. And if not bad… just, absent, that he let Yun do all the work. More silent tears rolled down this body's round cheeks. He didn't want to be an absent dad. Despite how hard dealing with toddlers was for him, he TRIED. He knew their allergies, dates of vaccines (even though Yun never asked him to take them to the doctor), kept his snacks out of sight so they eat healthy, He made sure to eat Yun's cooking in front of them. He remembered how old they were! Something that Yun had trouble with!

He wasn't like Seb though… He didn't cook for them or cuddle or spent hours talking to them. He literally couldn't, his brain did not know how. He wasn't like Stan, teaching them his arts of scamming and sports. All Ford knew to do was be there for them, sit there with them while they did their activities. But now he missed their birthday. He was so stupid and a terrible father…

Seb couldn't do much more than hold Ford as he cried himself to sleep. "You're a good dad, Ford"

"No, I'm not! I-I missed it! And-And I've been preparing! Yun and I talked!"

"Shh, it's ok. None of us knew something like this would happen. And if I know Miz, she's already taking care of things back home."

"She-she said! It was months ago! It was ME who brought the kids' birthday up after th-the pandemic restrictions were fully lifted! And she said she'd be on party duty! Because she's the 'party master'- So-So of course I was in charge of gifts, right? She didn't say it, but… if she was doing the party planning and all t-the decorating and food, didn't that mean I was doing the gifts?"

Seb nodded slowly. Made sense, he also divided duties with Wanda when dealing with their kids.

"B-but… I'm not there! I– I can't even give my kids the gifts!" Ford gasped. He was so upset, he's been planning it. He had them ready and wrapped and hidden in his office so the kids wouldn't find them before their birthday came…

Ford smiled and let out a choked sob. He wasn't sure if it was this body or the situation making him break down in such an immature way, but Seb didn't seem to mind…

Ford even bribed and trained Maria to spy on the kids for him ("Do you know how much 50 cents is?" "No." "I'll give you 50 cents for every useful piece of information you give me, pumpkin~" "Ok!") and tell him what sorts of things they liked or wanted so he could prepare their presents months in advanced just in case something happened and he didn't have time to get their gifts closer to the date–

And now all his work was rendered useless because he was stuck HERE and had definitely missed his children's birthday already and– his gifts were hidden, so they probably didn't get the presents either–

"Hey, it's ok. You'll make it up to them once we get back." Seb patted Ford's back. But Ford just shook his head. "It's all my fault that we're here. Yun even TOLD me that I shouldn't go forward with my experiment without her supervising… but I just… I just wanted to finish it and show everyone. I wanted to surprise Yun with it…" Ford wiped at his eyes. And he'd fucked up, and now they were all stranded here. He didn't even know if they would ever get home.

Seb just curled up with his brother until Ford cried himself to sleep.

"It'll be ok. We'll make it home. We will." Seb whispered, though he wasn't sure if he was just trying to reassure Ford or himself.

—.-

Seb kind of expected to wake up in his real body after this. Like, it was a test or something. But he didn't. He was still a tiny teen. Uugh.

After that, though, Ford and Stan stopped caring about keeping a low profile. Seb didn't know if it was amusing or he should be really worried. He decided to do both.

Like when Ford beat up Crampelter after the ape slammed him against the floor. It was quite easy. Because he wasn't some scared child anymore, and he wasn't afraid to get hit if it meant he could hit back. And Ford hit back, hard. In the spots that he knew would quickly take a human down. And Ford couldn't help but relish in it. That felt pretty good. Though, he did make sure not to deal any lasting damage to the brat.

Bully or not, Crampelter was still a child. Still, Ford hoped this would get him to leave them alone. (Yes, he knew that it didn't solve the problem, it didn't change Crampelter or make him any better of a person, but at least it should make him rethink what he was doing.)

The people who had crowded to look at the twig beat up a teen twice his size, thinking Ford would die, ended up rooting for him. It was something Seb never thought he'd see. And he knew it made Ford feel good too. Looking back into your past and only seeing yourself bleeding and cowering on the bathroom floor was quite pathetic. Everyone wished they could beat up their childhood bully.

And all while Stan did the exact opposite. He liked fighting, sure. But he decided dialogue had a better effect. So Stan started using diplomacy and charm to settle disagreements and drama with the other teens in school. He really would love to punch a teenager, but it wasn't quite right? Carla didn't know why Stanley was acting like this, but it was kinda hot~ So mature too~

One day, after Seb was back from Matsuda's house, Seb gasped at the rearrangement his brothers had done while he was gone. They'd cleaned up their room and fit a 3rd bed…

"You couldn't keep sleeping on the floor." Stan shrugged from his bed, playing with a paddleball. "We should have shared a room anywa-Oh god, don't cry!"

Too late. Seb was crying now. Ford poked his head from the upper bed. "C'mon, it's not that big a deal."

Seb cleaned his eye with his shoulder. "I…It is for me…We've never shared a room…Even as babies, mom moved me…because I kept making you bleed, I'm sorry…" Stan rolled his eyes. Really, it wasn't hard.

"Ow." Ford complained from his bed. He was rubbing his knuckles with a pout. "This baby body can't handle a punch." He muttered. Ford was rather miffed at that. As an adult, he worked hard to build muscle and toughness so he could wrestle a dragon– er, combat the wild beasts and survive the wilderness. Yes, that's what he meant.

Stan sighed and went to his drawer to get bandages. "I loved it, though! This was the 3rd time you wiped the floor with him!" Stan laughed. "I'm sure he was crying. I don't think he'll annoy you anymore."

"You'd think he'd have gotten the memo after the first two times I punched him out. Well, third time's the charm. So I hope so, this is very troublesome, ow, ow!" Ford felt more tears welling up.

"Stop whining like a baby or I won't give you jelly beans." Stan threatened. Despite Ford having beaten Crampelter, he didn't get in trouble for it. Ford was careful not to hit Crampelter in ways that would leave bruises, having mainly smacked him in areas for nerve and joint pain and bringing him down fast. Also, the teachers didn't believe Crampelter when he claimed Ford beat him up. He was twice Ford's size! And none of the kids were snitching. Not that the teachers would believe them. Ford was the goody-goody teacher's pet.

Seb sat in his bed, still feeling weird about how he was here. "Y'know, you've caught lots of people's attention, girls too." He told Ford.

"While that would have been nice as a real kid..." Ford shoved the gifted candies into his mouth. "I literally have kids with Yun."

"I mean people are saying you're nicer…"

Ford rubbed his hands, poking the bandages. Ok, yeah. He was kind of a dick as a kid he knew, and it was hard to be reminded of it every day. A lot of people judged him for his hands and called him names, mocked him, and on top of that, he was being called a nerd for getting good grades. But there were people who WEREN'T as shitty and it was HIM who pushed them away, thinking they'd all be the same, and wouldn't want to be friends anyway.

Of course he understood it wasn't something conscious he did as a kid, he just stayed away from people who weren't his brothers in fear of being mocked, but it didn't take away the fact that he did it anyways.

He was mature now, a literal adult, so he tried being nice to the literal kids he interacted with in class.

...and it showed a big difference.

He offered to explain something to a girl during class when he noticed her tearful frustration at the shitty way the teacher failed to explain the lesson, and she seemed genuinely surprised. No doubt everyone at school had just assumed Ford didn't care about them, because the younger him didn't know how to interact with them.

The teachers probably noticed the triplets were way calmer than usual. Stan wasn't groaning and eating in class all day, Seb seemed to be more focused, Ford wasn't trying to answer every question and get everything right. He ACTUALLY wanted to do the class activity with someone else, VOLUNTARILY! He usually did his classroom activities alone because he hated talking to others, but today she liked seeing him approach another shy student and offering to be partners for the English exercise. None of the teachers understood why, but they liked it.

-.-

Not everyone made it to the octuplets' birthday party, all of Shermie's family for instance, got super caught up with stuff (they sent their presents though) and CFord upset the children enough that he was told not to go altogether by the crying children. Yun winced.

"Wh-Why would I-" CFord was so shocked and upset some babies were screaming at him. It hurt his ears.

"You're NOT daddy! Go away!" Acedia sobbed. Yun was busy trying to comfort them. "I'm sorry, don't worry, I'll find Ford, I will. But can we all please calm down and try to enjoy today? I will find your daddy, I just need time."

So CFord was sent to his room for the day while everyone else had the party. He was incredibly upset by this, this wasn't his fault! He didn't want to BE here either! but after being handed a tablet with internet access, he was quickly distracted by looking things up. Also, miss Yun brought him several plates of delicious food and cake, so he supposed it wasn't too bad.

The octuplets got to play with their guests and cousins Diego and Zach and Zoe, who also got their daddies stolen away, they got them, so at least they still got to have a fun day regardless. And mommy promised they could have a mini party with daddy once she found him and brought him home.

CFord's triplets wanted to accompany their triplet, but their brother just wanted to be alone. So now they were standing there, awkward.

CSeb glanced at the food Xin was placing on the tables. The party was set up outside on the many picnic tables around the Mystery Shack. Decorations were everywhere, it looked very fun. "Can't we stay?…I..I've never…been invited to parties."

Xin had hesitated at the sad expression before finally nodding. "Alright, but if you make the children upset I'm going to have to ask you to go inside. Also, if anyone asks about Ford not being here, he's feeling sick and needs to rest." Xin held out a plate of pizza to CSeb, "Wanna help me finish putting out the food?" CSeb nodded quickly, wanting to help out.

CStan just followed his younger brother with a typical moody teen expression, he just wanted to go home… And then he tried some of the food and decided he could wait a bit longer… as he filled his plate with more food.

-.-

After the party, it was decided that CSeb would go home with Wanda while CStan went home with Carla. The triplets didn't feel comfortable not staying together, but were told they could see each other later. For now, they had to keep up appearances so people wouldn't question where their adult selves were.

Everyone was cleaning up and getting the Mystery Shack back in order as the guests left. Now only the family remained helping out.

CSeb skipped around, sweeping. He had such a fun time. He watched the games and he helped Xin hold the piñata and hand the guests little presents and cake. He'd never been invited to parties when he was their age…but now that he looked like an adult, he got to help out! And mister Xin smiled and thanked him! It made CSeb feel nice.

CFord was 'freed' and was sitting in a corner, holding the tablet he was reading on. He deadpanned as CSeb told him all the things he did and helped out with.

"Good for you, you had soooo much fun and you weren't locked up like a dog."

His younger triplet felt guilty now. CFord was right. 'You're a horrible brother, he must hate you.' Bill2 sneered.

Wanda rubbed CSeb's shoulder, watching him flinch at the touch. "Why don't you go take a shower? I'll bring you clean clothes." he was covered in dirt, cake and extra food.

CSeb went to the bathroom to get changed and bathe himself. He hadn't done that yesterday because people had been too busy and CSeb didn't have any change of clothes. He slipped his eyepatch off and…

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" CSeb's scream rang through the house.

"Seb!" CStan rushed over, afraid something must have happened. CFord gasped and rushed after.

Seb was grinning wildly, poking at his eye. "The eye! It's gone! This– this is a fake eye! He ACTUALLY got it out!" He squealed, pointing at the NORMAL BROWN eye that had been hiding behind the eyepatch, in the place of his ugly yellow one. The Stans stared, "Oooooh…" They wanted to poke the glass eye too! It looked like a real one! What?!

The boys in adult bodies giggled amongst themselves.

Meanwhile, Wanda and Carla were getting ready to take their (not really) husbands. They'd bring the boys back to their homes but would come back to Gravity Falls every few days because the boys weren't comfortable being apart from each other for too long.

"Good luck" Wanda grinned sheepishly. "See you on the other side" Carla rolled her eyes.

-.-

It didn't take long before Wanda and Carla met up with Yun during one of the triplets' meetups with each other so they could discuss what's been going on since they last saw each other.

They'd spent 3 days and a half with them and the women were just… tired. They felt like babysitters right now. Their own kids didn't leave them this exhausted. Maybe it was because they were teens.

"Wow, I forgot how off the wall Seb was as a kid." Wanda groaned and complained, "The other day, Sebastian was fighting with Zach because he wanted to play on the Switch. He got angry at Zach because he wasn't budging, so Seb grabbed and threw the Switch. He made Zach cry."

"Oh no! He broke Zach's Switch?!" Carla gasped.

Wanda rubbed her face. "Luckily, no, but Zach's still really upset. He shouted at him something like 'Now I get why the octuplets hate your brother! You're mean!'"

"I didn't think he'd be the fighting type." Carla said, surprised, referring to both CSeb AND Zach while rubbing Wanda's shoulder for comfort.

"Me neither. He's not like that with the Stans…My guess is that he's ok fighting strangers, which…adult Seb also does, so…" Wanda rubbed her face. "He did realize he fucked up and noticed I got angry and Zach was crying to me and snitching, so now he just stays in the guest room, he's scared. Of course this didn't help at all to change Zoe's opinion, she was really…not welcoming."

(CSeb didn't mean to get so angry, and now everyone there hated him even more. He didn't mean to throw that kid's toy, b-but it was that kid's fault for not sharing it with him! CSeb knew that Zach and Zoe were apparently his kids, and Wanda was his wife. But he didn't know them. He didn't like living with those strangers and Bill2 wouldn't shut up about how those kids hated him before this, and how Wanda was always glaring at him and she'd probably hit him because she didn't like it. The only one who was nice was a girl named Miz. She was the older Sebastian's adopted daughter. She was nice, and she made him pancakes.)

Carla kept rubbing Wanda's shoulder. "I'm sorry…" The blonde smiled sadly. "It's ok… I know it's not his fault, but I don't have the kind of patience Seb had for this, y'know? He tried helping before, like, wanted to help make breakfast the first day with us, I thought that was kinda sweet… Then Zoe said it tasted horrible because she just wants to fight him and he shouted at her, because they're the same, and I got angry and well, I messed it up and now he doesn't even want breakfast. Miz takes it to him. She's the only one he doesn't seem scared of right now."

It broke her, a little. His scared face made him look so helpless…

"Ooof." Carla winced. "Damn… Now I feel bad for complaining…"

"No, no. You can tell me." Wanda nodded encouragingly. "This doesn't mean you can't feel like you're struggling."

Carla shrugged sheepishly, "Eh, Stan's mainly the same as the normal him… but he IS a teen and y'know teens love to go against you, I had it with Dillon and now I feel like I'm going through it again. He's… INCREDIBLY impulsive, like it's insane, I know he wants to see the future and all, but holy shit… I had to lock the liquor cabinet because I didn't think he'd get WASTED while I went out for work!"

"Urghh!" Wanda massaged her temples. "I do remember doing crazy shit like that…"

"I grounded him, but well, I don't think he sees this as something serious, he only knows me as his school girlfriend. At that age we were kissing and sitting together at lunch, he doesn't know I'm the boss here!" Carla complained. At least her Stan understood SHE ran the household and he bowed to her will.

Wanda chuckled softly.

"How 'bout you, Yun? Did you luck out with Ford?"

Yun sighed. "He's… young. Still immature. I think it's complicated… He's selfish. Self absorbed. He talks about missing his brothers, he cares about them, but aside from that he only thinks about what he wants and doesn't really care about anything or anyone outside that." She started. "And, I can understand that we're all strangers to him, but seriously. The octuplets are missing their dad and he KNOWS they're his older self's kids. He could be TRYING, at least, right?" Wanda and Carla nodded. Teen boys were the worst.

"I asked him to help out with the kids, but he said he didn't know how and refused to. I know he's bullshitting. Shermie should be just a little older than the octuplets from his point of view. He MUST have helped out with his own freakin' baby brother before!" She fumed. She took a few deep breaths and calmed herself.

"Anyway, he's also… kind of a little shit. Obnoxious. I can see why he got beat up as a kid, he's just insufferable. I'm so glad Fordsie grew out of that." She wouldn't be able to start a relationship with Ford as a teen, he had an incredibly unappealing personality.

"I mean, Ford's still obnoxious." Wanda couldn't help but comment. Carla grinned. "I'll give it to Yun, here. He's not AS obnoxious. And you used to like him."

"Crush! From afar!" Wanda corrected.

Yun folded her arms, ignoring them. "Also, like… he doesn't know me either. And he's just an anxious ball of nerves. Keeps thinking everyone is criticizing him or looking down on him. Or judging him for his hands, but…" Yun raised her four arms, "Like fuckin' shit. Why does he think that I, of all people, could be judging him for having extra fingers?!" She had eventually showed CFord her arms, since wearing her jacket all the time would have been annoying.

Yun couldn't stop ranting once she started. "The first night here, Ford worried about whether or not the adult him was going to school in his place because he was scared of losing his perfect attendance! Because he didn't want his dad to get mad!" She scowled. "He's in another freaking dimension and he only thinks about school!" More than angering her, it made Yun… sad.

"This child is still trapped in the toxic abusive mindset that Filbrick forced into him. He needs therapy. I want him to get therapy. It's not good for a child to grow up with this shit." Yun grimaced.

Wanda nodded. "I haven't gotten Seb to talk to me much… but I'm pretty sure he's glad he's not going to school… Adult Seb always hated it, and was really eager to get the kids homeschooled."

Carla hummed. "I don't know if Stan really needs it… But maybe getting convinced about some modern thoughts from someone who isn't me would help… He'd been getting along really well with Diego, a lot rougher than usual, and he'd been teasing him a lot, Diego even threw one of his trophies at him, and Stan dared him to hit him… I mean, boys, ok? I get it. But uuugh."

Wanda blinked. "Is that why Stan has a bruise on his forehead?"

"Oh, yeah. Diego managed to throw one into his face and Stan accepted defeat."

"Boys…" Wanda shook her head. "So what happened?"

"So I thought the same would happen with Dillon, he came to visit with Phillip before I could tell him what happened and… Stan, y'know. Had it rough." Carla groaned.

Wanda winced hard, immediately knowing what she meant. "Oh no."

"Dillon was… well, he already got that from his dad the first time around. And when Stan finally got over his little issue with gays, suddenly this Stan was there to freak out over him again."

"Oh gosh…" Wanda sighed heavily. "Is Dillon ok?"

"I mean, now, yeah. But I only briefed Dillon into what was going on and left them alone, I think that was my mistake…I only came back when I heard Dillon screaming for me." She winced.

"Was he a little shit?" Yun questioned.

"I mean, yes? Dillon said Stan 'Apologized to me for not helping me not be gay!', he was really pissed and poor Phillip was just so confused, this poor kid never knows what's going on…. But I don't think Stan's got a problem, he's just conflicted, and probably worried to hear it. The 80s were peak shitty and… to his credit, he did hang out with them after that, listening to Phillip and gushing about Phillip's tattoos." Carla laughed.

"Well, Stan did grow up with Filbrick." Yun rolled her eyes. "I bet Stan would hear him say it was shameful and disgusting. And he'd internalize it, but he's not personally against gay people. Like, if his brothers had said something, he'd just tell his brothers to hide the fact that they were attracted to men, to protect themselves from Filbrick or other people."

Wanda nodded. "Yeah, Stan's always been a good guy. I'm sure that with some time and explanations for understanding it, he'll be fine."

Meanwhile, Xin called the triplets inside after they played with water balloons outside. CStan and CSeb ganged up to beat the crap out of CFord and he was soaking wet. Being at the beach was much better, but the forest was cool too. Xin handed them towels and a bowl of fruit for each. "I've also started a bath for you after you finish the snacks." Xin told them.

"Eww don't you have real snacks?" CStan smiled, but after the growl he got, he quickly thanked Xin and shoved fruit into his mouth. CSeb and CFord laughed.

CFord showed off his ability to use future tv. "This tv service is like a Brickbluster, but instead of renting 1 video, you rent the WHOLE thing and you can look for series and movies." The boys sat in the living room while still soaked with water. (Xin twitched at the wet spots growing on the ground.)

"That's the coolest thing I've ever seen…" CSeb's eyes sparkled.

"Umm no? First bath, then movie." Xin was stern. He had been telling Ford to take a bath every day, and CStan probably hadn't bathed either (his opinion on CSeb was still in progress). And Xin would not tolerate awful stinky children in here. To his ire, the boys ignored him. What? Did they think it was only a suggestion?

As they ate, CFord noticed something white sticking from Seb's sleeves. "What's that? Are you hurt?"

CSeb immediately stuffed it back. Damn it! He forgot this sweater wouldn't hide the bandages as well as his hoodies!

"It's, um, I'm fine. just… um… this was from before coming here. It's adult me, not me! He probably got hurt working!" CSeb spat quickly.

CFord narrowed his eyes before dropping the subject. "Fine… but, um, if you need, you know, help, tell me." CSeb nodded.

"Hey." Xin's antlers and tail were out as scales began spreading across his skin. "I notice you're done eating. Bath. Now." He growled.

"Nnooooooo!" CStan complained. "I'm not even training these days or sweating!"

"Does it look like I care? You were running around outside, rolling in the grass and mud. Bath. NOW."

The triplets hurried off to the bathroom when they noticed the way Xin's eyes had turned bright yellow with slitted pupils. CStan nudged CFord, "Seriously dude. Your older self just had to go and fuck a dragon, huh?" ("I mean, I can see why he would date a dragon, dragons are cool.") (Xin and Yun had eventually revealed themselves to be a dragon and an alien, and CFord finally understood why his older self was dating them.)

"Hold on a second." Xin stopped CSeb before he could leave the living room though. "I'm sorry! I'll go!" CSeb flinched, wincing in pain as Xin held his arm. Xin looked at the arm and let go. "I know 'adult you' wasn't hurt before… was this after your fight with Zach?"

CSeb was trembling. Oh no. How would he know?! Did Wanda tell him?! How would she know! He was quiet! She surely did it so the dragon would hit him. Would a dragon hit him harder than Dad? Probably… He nodded shakily.

Xin only nodded back. "In each bathroom there's always first aid kits. So you can dress your arms…But be careful next time, ok?" CSeb looked confused for a second, but only nodded back and scurried off to the bathroom.

Xin sighed. He wanted to just heal it, but CSeb wouldn't learn if he did. Xin wouldn't tell CSeb to stop, it would be hypocritical to do so. Xin looked down at his own arms, smooth and blemish-free. He snorted, super regeneration did that. Otherwise, he'd be joining CSeb in bandaging himself.

-.-

The women were still complaining and letting out their frustrations.

"I miss cuddling with Ford." Yun sighed. Wanda drank her wine. "Well, at least Ford doesn't look at you as if you'd eat him! The idea of being next to me was very horrifying to Seb, apparently." Wanda remembered how Seb had been absolutely terrified of sharing a bed with her.

Carla scoffed. "Well, I WANT Stan to go to a guest room but he doesn't! He's so touchy! He keeps wanting to touch me, and he listens when I say no, but like, can someone get this horny teen to stop perving on me?" She knew she was hot as fuck, especially compared to kid her, but pleaaasee!

Yun hummed. "How about we just get them therapy early?" She repeated her idea. She really thought getting the triplets the more than necessary help at this age would have so much improvement in their lives. The women thought about it.

Wanda brought up the first roadblock. "We would have to explain what happened. No therapist would take us seriously though. And with the triplets being such prominent people, it would destroy their reputation if anyone blabbed about how they've all suddenly mentally regressed into childhood."

Yun shrugged. "We can tell Linda. She already knows about weird shit."

Wanda hummed. "Ok…I guess it's better than nothing"

Xin appeared. "Yeah, we need a therapist like, right now." He didn't want to tell on CSeb, but he really didn't want him hurting himself, even less in his adult body, Seb worked hard to keep those arms clean…

CStan returned from his bath, eating more snacks he found in the kitchen. Carla called bullshit. She approached him, narrowed her eyes and pointed to the door. "GO. Bath!"

"B-But I JUST did!"

"No, you didn't! You just wet your hair, you nasty!" She crossed her arms. CStan gaped.

"Wh-How did you know?"

"Your sons did and DO the same shit. Bath! Now!"

CStan stomped away and Wanda looked at Carla, kinda impressed. "Dillon did that?"

Carla sighed. "No… Diego does, but Kari told me about Stan doing the same shit, so I better take precautions."

"What is it with Pines boys and refusing to bathe themselves?" Xin grumbled. "I won't have my sons growing up like that." He'd bite Isaac and Nick if they ever pulled this on him.

Wanda nodded. "Ok I'll contact Linda to help us with them then…" She frowned. "Hold on. What have you told Kari?" She looked at Carla. "How come she hasn't seen Stan yet?"

"Oh, well…" Carla sighed. "She's currently out of town. A spa vacation for a week. To get pampered and taken care of. She wanted to relax. I don't want to stress her out while she's on vacation."

"I mean…fair." Wanda shrugged. Damn, Kari was just a cool old lady. Wanda wanted to reach her age and be as chill. "But as soon as she's back you gotta tell her why her 2nd oldest son is whining about BATHS again."

The triplets were finally ready to go to their houses. CSeb had kidnapped little Isaac and claimed this one was his favorite because both had 5 and 6 fingers. "That's your godson." Wanda nodded.

"Aah cool!" CSeb high sixed the toddler, making CFord roll his eyes.

Yun sighed. "Alright, well… I'm gonna go and get the 'plan' started…"

—.-

Linda was used to weird things happening to her. She worked with Seb. She worked with Lucifer. She worked with Miz. Hell, she even worked with Blue.

This really shouldn't have bothered her as much…

All she could hear was that her progress with Seb had been wiped clean! And she'd have to start all over again! Not fair!

"Alright, I've been briefed about your situation. And... Well, therapy takes months of work, so I don't know how long they're gonna stay here."

Yun waved a hand. "It's fine. I can put filters over them and handle their careers quite fine while the adults are away…I don't even know where they are yet." She shrugged. "I haven't been able to Look properly, they're such a handful. Seriously. I have eight children and two little siblings and these three idiots are taking more of my time and attention just to keep them out of trouble!"

And now she also had to create illusions of the adult thems going to work so people didn't ask questions! Did anyone even understand how much work she was having to do?! Fucking Ford!

Linda sighed. "Well, teenagers are a handful. You have my condolences when your kids reach that age."

"I might go insaner than I already am." Yun deadpanned. "Regardless, you can do this?"

"Yeah. Tell me when you want them to come in, here's my schedule."

"Thanks Linda." Yun smiled.

---

First part ready xd

a drawing is in my tumblr xd