Chapter Text
Joe was sitting on the couch, staring at an alarm clock. Why do the little hands always move in one direction? What’s stopping them from moving backwards?? Would something happen if they moved backwards??? He was so engrossed in staring at it that he didn’t even move when Ross and Andrew entered the room.
“Ross. You’re a scientist. What would happen if I moved the clock hands backwards?”
“Uh, I don’t study that type of science, J. But I would think..nothing would happen? It’s a clock. What do you expect?”
“Well I wouldn’t expect nothing! You’d think that something would happen if I did that, right?” Andrew, who took a seat next to Joe and looked at the clock, thought that what Joe was saying made sense. What would happen if they moved the hands backwards? He had to find out.
“He has a point.” Andrew spoke up, looking at Ross, then at Joe.
“I think we should move it. What harm could it do?”
“Well, I want to move it too!” Ross said, going to sit on the other side of Joe, who picked up the little clock and was tapping at the glass.
“Hold on.” He said, quickly going to the kitchen where he found a hammer in one of the drawers and carefully smashed the glass in the sink, making sure it was all the way gone before returning and sitting between Ross and Andrew again.
“Let’s do this.” The three men each placed a finger on the hour hand, slowly moving it backwards. By the time they had reached a full circle, something strange had occurred..
They were little kids.
“I bet you ten bucks he’s still staring at that alarm clock.”
“He can’t be. Joe’s weird but not that weird!”
“Trust me, man, he is.” Rob shook his head, grabbing his key from his pocket and opening the door. He expected to see Joe still on the damn couch with the clock. What he didn’t expect was to see three little kids in their living room. More specifically, they were having a pillow fight, with a taller looking kid clearly dominating the fight. He immediately paused in his steps, even cringing a bit from shock. He didn’t hate kids, but who the hell would leave three random ones in their house?
"Looks like you owe me ten bucks."
“Shut up! Jesus Ch- Hey!! Who left these kids here?!” Rob yelled up the stairs, frustrated with the absence of response.
“Joe! Ross? Andrew?!” Zubin yelled as well, confused when the kids turned their heads but brushed it off. Rob quickly went to put the bags he was carrying in the kitchen. They had just gone out for a few things! What the hell had the other tallies been up to?! By the time he re-entered the living room, Zubin managed to calm the running kids down and was kneeling down talking to them. Well, actually, there were really only two kids fighting, the other one was sitting down on the couch, staring at the others. Weird.
“Hey,” Zubin spoke gently to them.
“My name is Zubin. That’s my friend Rob over there! What are your names?” The kid who appeared to be the eldest of the trio spoke up,
“I’m Jose-..Joey! My name is Joey!!” Zubin paused. Joey? As in..no, no. That was just a coincidence.
“And what about you?” He spoke to the other kid, who looked younger than Joey.
“An..Andew!”
“Right..and you?” He looked at the kid sitting on the couch.
“Ww..Rrr..oss.” He said quietly. Zubin had to lean in to hear him. Okay. So these kids had the same names as their bandmates. Just a coincidence. But if it was, then where the hell were adult Joe, Andrew, and Ross? Well, he’d be able to discuss this because Rob, who had been listening and was waiting for Zubin to be done, called him over with a whisper and a wave of the hand.
“Hey- so, Zubes, I don’t really care who these kids are. I don’t hate them, don’t get me wrong! But..they aren’t ours. What are we going to do??”
“Did you- did you not hear their names? Rob- okay. Just hear me out. What if those kids are our friends?”
Rob laughed.
“Yeah, sure. And how would that work? Joe, Andrew, and Ross all just magically became kids?? How do you know they didn’t hire little child actors and are hiding!” He then proceeded to run around the kitchen, checking the most stupid spots like cabinets and drawers checking for the other three. Zubin just sighed and looked back at the living room.
That’s when he noticed the broken alarm clock on the coffee table.
Somehow, he knew that little clock was the cause of this whole situation.