Who: Kevin and Rachel Flynn When: April 1st during the age plot Where: The Flynn household What: Kevin ages up! Rating/Warning: PG
Kevin Flynn woke from a pretty sound sleep feeling like his limbs were heavier and his body still tired. Last night had been pretty tiring, granted, but it'd been worth every moment. He wasn't about to dissuade a particularly horny Mrs. Flynn upon his coming home late from work. It had certainly made for a better ending for what had been a druging Monday for him.
Kevin stirred, opening sleepy eyes to the sight of his wife's rumpled head of brown hair. Sunlight filtered softly into the room through drawn shades, making everything look soft. He smirked and watched her sleeping for a moment before reaching across the cool sheets between them to run his hand along the curve of her hips. "Hey, morning." His voice sounded gravelly, a bit hoarse. His brow furrowed and he cleared his throat a little. He hoped he wasn't coming down with something.
Rachel was normally fairly bright-eyed and bushy tailed from the moment she woke up in the morning. But for some reason this morning she wasn’t feeling so chipper. She yawned and stretched her arms way up over her head at the feel of her husband’s hand on her hips, the sound of his voice. Her brow furrowed, and she finally opened her eyes to look at him--assuming he was simply coming down with a cold or something.
Gasp. Shriek. “WHAT?” Rachel grabbed up the sheet, wrenching it from the bed and wrapped it around herself as she bounced to her feet. “Who are you?? What are you doing in my bed??”
Kevin rolled as she yanked the sheets out from around him. "Whoa!" He chuckled as he sat up and squinted at her. "Little early for roleplaying dontcha think?" But as he really looked at his wife he could see she was seriously freaking out. His brow furrowed in confusion. "Babe what's going on?" He rubbed at his face and his hands froze over his mouth. Blue eyes widened and his hands scrabbled at the beard on his face. "Why do I have a beard? There's no way I grew this overnight. Is this a prank?" He coughed, trying to clear the damned frog that seemed insistent on being stuck in his throat, to no avail. "What is up with my voice?" He sounded old.
Rachel was far from naked. She was wearing the pink, Stark Industries t-shirt over some boyshort panties. And the sheet, now wrapped around her protectively like a makeshift toga. Still, she felt vulnerable, violated, exposed. There was a strange man in her bed! ...one who looked a lot like her husband, but she wasn’t thinking clearly to see that. “I don’t know--I don’t know who you are, but… You’d better get out of here. I’ll call the police!” High drama coming from Rachel. “I’ll scream for my husband! Where is he? WHAT DID YOU DO WITH HIM??”
Oh great. She was going into drama mode. "Rachel, honey, calm down." He slid off the bed and approached her slowly, hand outstretched non-threateningly. He was a bit less dressed than she, sporting only his boxers bearing a printed pattern of the old Atari space invaders game. "I think you're sleepwalking. " Or maybe he was?
“No! Don’t touch me!” Rachel said, batting at his hand with one of her own. The makeshift toga started to slide down her shoulders, so she stopped her flailing and grabbed the sheet again. “I most certainly am not sleepwalking!! You’re… Who are you?”
Kevin held his hands up and backed off. So long as she wasn't running for the phone or flinging things he was okay.
"Whaddya mean who am I? I'm your husband! Kevin Flynn? Guy you married in Vegas?" He wasn't sure what was going on; maybe this was some elaborate April Fools joke? He'd seen YouTube videos of these sorts of pranks, it seemed funnier as the viewer and not the person being punked.
"C'mon Rach. Haha April Fools, very...." and just then he caught a glimpse of himself in the full body mirror on the wall behind the door to their bedroom. "...funny." The sliver of himself he could see on the edge of the mirror was most definitely not him. He could see the beard, all salt and pepper, and a shock of lengthy, grey hair. Kevin walked up to the mirror and took in the full visual of himself, now understanding Rachel's panic.
"Holy CRAP. I'M OLD! " He pawed at the beard again, ran fingers through his aged (and impressively intact and full) head of hair. His body was more mature, fuller, disappointingly a bit rounder in the gut. His face was full of fine lines, the only thing he recognized of himself were his eyes. "Geeze..."
Rachel just stood there, staring (possibly glaring) at him. But when she saw him catch sight of himself in the mirror, her resolve faltered. She could tell that the old guy her husband (???) was just as shocked and confused as she was. It made her lower the sheet just slightly. “...you’re… really you?” She asked, trying to wrap her head around it. Then again, stranger things had happened? Sort of?
"Huh?" Kevin replied, sounding distracted. He straightened up and looked at his wife again. "Yeah, sweetheart it's me. Like, thirty years from now or something." He could see she was still skeptical but not nearly as ready to run for it as she had been a moment ago. "Look at me Rachel, I mean my eyes. I know the rest of me is all...aged. But look: I'm me. We got married on Valentine's Day in Vegas. Tony Stark was my best man, Pepper your maid of honor. You got that shirt on after I wore it the other day cuz me and Tony tied in our laser tag game. Hell there's a poster of the pics Pepper blew up of us in the living room still." If that wasn't proof he wasn't sure what would convince her.
Rachel took a tentative step closer, looking up into his eyes. This was a very Beauty and the Beast moment, where she was looking for the Kevin she knew in this old man. Of course, she found him there. She found him in his eyes, his hair, the curve of his jaw and line of his brow.
“It’ really is you,” she said, and dropped the sheet from around herself. “What… what did you do?”
"Oh sure blame me." he said throwing his hands up. "Never mind the fact we live in Orange County. Aka the Twilight Zone." He glanced at himself in the mirror again. "I gotta say, though, I age pretty damn well. At least you know what you're getting with the whole 'growing old together' thing." He looked at Rachel and chuckled. He had to make light of it, because the prospect of being stuck like this was too terrifying to dwell on. They'd just gotten married! At this age he was a whole lot closer to 'til’ death do us part.'
Rachel came over a little closer, inspecting her husband both in and out of the mirror. “...you really do.” Not that she wanted him this way. She wanted her own husband back. The hot one. The one with the goofy smile and easily excitable eyes. She didn’t want this bearded stranger living in her bed. “...I wonder if this is one of those… those things? Like the Dreams?”
Kevin frowned. "It better not be like the dreams. I've read about people changing because of 'em but not aging up." He stopped short of the obvious as he saw the concern in his young - now much younger - wife's eyes. "I'm sure it's just temporary. Like some of the crazy stuff lately. We'll have to check Valar to see if anyone else is the same." As alarming as this all was, Kevin felt remarkably chill about it. Was that what came with age, this sort of Zen feeling in the background of his mind?
He had the same eyes. Though he was quite a bit older in this current form, he had the same eyes as before. That was comforting in the confusion. Rach gave a little sigh. “It’d better be temporary. No offense, Babe, but I want you back the way you were. I don’t like change, and I certainly don’t like this creepy, old person change.”
"Hey! I'm not creepy!" Kevin protested, and made a sulky face, which looked almost comical with the heavier eyebrows and beard. He studied himself in the mirror. Yeah shirtless in Atari boxers really wasn't his best look at the moment. "Okay, maybe right now this is a little creepy. I'll go take a shower and get some clothes on." Instinctively he stooped and gave a kiss to the top of Rachel's head before heading to the bathroom.
Rach gave a little nod and turned to watch him wander off. Shirtless and in his Atari boxers may have made things a bit more awkward than anything else. If he’d been wearing pajamas… well, it might have been less so? In any case, she was going to change into her own clothes before he came back out again. And pray to God that this worked its way through the Orange County System quickly.
Kevin tried not to look at himself too long in the mirror as he disrobed and turned on the shower. The fleeting glanced he stole showed a body that wasn't too bad after all though he would definitely make a mental note to work on his abs for the rest of his life.
He took his shower, finding the mane of his hair a pain to wash it was so long compared to what he was used to. Afterward, he trimmed the beard, combed his hair and realized he'd need Rachel's blow drier.
"Babe," he said, exiting the bedroom after pulling on jeans that were a bit snug (he was suddenly regretting not having an older more broken in pair just lying around) and a Queen shirt that was thankfully roomy enough. "I may uh, need your hair dryer. I feel like I got a lion mane on my head."
“That’s because you do have a lion’s mane on your head,” Rachel responded, though she snuck past him to pull it out from its hiding place under the bathroom sink. She’d dressed while he was in the shower, as she had plans to go in to her office today--the one where she made and sold dresses and other items in her Etsy shop, and on her own website. (The one he set up for her in his spare time, no less.) “You might want to consider getting a hair cut.” Though, how would that affect when he went back to normal? Please,God,lethimgobacktonormal...
"Ah. Thanks." He held the device awkwardly after plugging it in. Generally he towel tried and combed and let his hair air dry. So this was all new to him. "Um...I may need a little help. " It was embarrassing but Kevin didn't want to look like a drowned rat. Plus he had forgotten there was an important meeting today that absolutely couldn't be missed.
Hopefully everyone at ENCOM would understand that they were in Orange County, and silly things like this happened every once in a while. Hopefully they’d understand? And they wouldn’t question who Kevin was and what he was doing there? Anyway, Rach wanted to make sure he had the best foot forward. She came over and turned on the hair dryer in his hand.
“You just sort of point it at yourself until all the hair is dry. We’ll have to… put this in a ponytail or something.” She said, then gently pulled the hair dryer out of his grip and started to dry his hair for him.
Her fingers in his hair combined with the heat of the hair dryer felt good. Kevin closed his eyes and hummed a little, getting that "zen cat" expression on his face - a sign he was totally relaxed. "Feels good." He mumbled, forgetting momentarily he wasn't exactly himself. "I got that meeting today. With that Japanese firm? Can't exactly call in sick or pull a Go To Meeting." His blue eyes opened and squinted at their reflection; they looked old and wise. He kind of felt like a hollywood actor getting his hair and makeup done before a big scene.
"That's it!" Kevin suddenly blurted, starting to twist around to look at his wife in excitement. "I'll pretend I'm in the middle of doing that Undercover Boss thing and that I couldn't take the makeup off yet! I know everyone in the building; security'll think that's awesome and I'm pretty sure our guests will be cool with it. Japan has the craziest game shows anyway." Granted it wasn't terribly professional but at least he wouldn't catch an earful from his father on missing it entirely.
Rach was nodding as she ran her hands through his hair, the hot air coming from the blow dryer felt normal against her skin. Other people might have been burned, but this was old hat to Rachel. Though, when he suddenly burst with his idea, it surprised her to the point of jumping in shock. Her heart was pumping as she stared at him. “...Undercover Boss? Well.. that works.” She said, and broke into a smile. “That’s as good a plan as any.” She said, then leaned down to tap a kiss against his cheek. It felt so weird for him to look this way!
Kevin smirked at his reflection. It was a brilliant plan. When she was done with his hair he was surprised at how amazing it looked. Waves of grey and white flowed from his head. "Damn I've got good hair. Think I might try growing it this long when I change back." When, not if. He had to stay positive.
He turned and kissed Rachel on the cheek before hurriedly getting dressed from casual clothes to his suit. It was a bit tight but there wasn't time for tailoring. "How do I look?"
Rachel chuckled. “Whatever you wanna do.” She had to admit this was strange, but not as bad as it could have been. She didn’t mind playing with her husband’s hair, even if it was quite a bit more grey than it was yesterday. Then she moved to find some boots to pull onto her own feet, and was lacing them up when he came out dressed in his clothes. “You look… a lot like you.”
"Yeah?" He replied, taking one last look. "They say the clothes make the man. Guess it works for sudden ageing too. Let's hope security buys it. Ready?" They'd need to take separate cars today but Rachel looked ready to head out with him.
“Ready.” Rachel grabbed her hand lotion to stick in her purse, and pulled the thing over her shoulder. She was absolutely ready to head out the door, but was hesitating. It was awkward to stand there wondering how she was supposed to say goodbye to her husband… when he looked like this. It was strange. Absolutely surreal. Finally, she took a step forward, went up on her toes, and tapped a quick kiss against his lips. “I’ll see you tonight.”
Kevin chuckled after he watched her pause and then kiss him as quickly as possible. He couldn’t blame her for not wanting to smooch the old, bearded man version of her significant other. He was grateful though that she was at least trying to go along with this, and as he watched her head out the door that he pulled closed behind him a moment afterwards, he hoped that ENCOM security would be as obliging.