Authors note: This is a reply to a challenge posted on the "Chocolate covered Strawberries" site by Pyro.
"Um, Buff?" Willow called frantically. She was in big trouble. Something really bad had happened. Buffy was going to kill her. This was bad. Incredibly bad.
Buffy poked her head in the door. "Yeah Will, what's up?" she asked. Then her eyes fell on the other person in the room.
"Is that Spike?" She asked incredulously.
Willow nodded miserably. "I'm afraid so" she admitted. "It was an accident, I swear!"
"What did you do to him?" Buffy asked. Spike was pint sized. A kid. A very small kid.
"Nothing" Willow insisted. "I just told him he was being a kid. And then he just... became a kid."
"Well change him back" Buffy told her friend.
"That's the problem," Willow said frowning in frustration. "I don't know how I did it, so I cant really reverse it"
The little Spike ran over Buffy and bit her on the leg. "Grrrr" he said. "I'm a vampire. And I don't like you, so I'm gonna eat you up."
"Owww!" Buffy said plaintively. "That hurt Spike!" she turned to Willow. "Can't you control him or something?"
"Spike!" Willow exclaimed, obviously trying not to giggle. "It's not nice to bite people."
The small child nodded. "Yep. But it's fun" he pointed out.
"And since when do vamps eat people?" Buffy asked. "I know they suck blood, but I thought it was Werewolves that went in for the eating"
Willow rolled her eyes. "Buff, he's a little kid," she said. "He probably doesn't even know the difference."
"Do too!" the little Spike insisted. "A Vampy looks human and a wolfy is all furry. So there, I do know the difference"
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Obnoxious little thing, isn't he?" she said to Willow.
"Not 'noxious, I'm smart" Spike told her.
"Oh, shut up William" Buffy told him, hoping that the usage of his human name would have some effect.
It did, but not a positive one. "I'm not William!" Spike yelled jumping up and down. "I'm Spike. William's a poof name!"
Willow raised an eyebrow. Since when had the word poof been used when Spike was human? Perhaps he'd just been turned into a little vampire, not really turned back to when he had been a true child just... de-aged somehow?
"Spike, how old are you?" she asked him.
"Four" Spike replied.
"And do you know what year it is?" Willow questioned.
"2003 of course" Spike told her, looking as if she had asked him what colour the sky was, "I'm not dumb."
"Oh, I never meant you were" she assured him. "I was just checking"
Buffy looked at Willow. "So, he's not exactly young Spike, he's just our Spike younger?" she queried.
"Seems that way." Willow agreed. "But I don't know if that's good or not. If I'm right, it means we have a four- year- old vampire on our hands. And I don't know if he has his soul. I would hope so, if he's simply been made younger."
"A four- year old vampire?" Buffy said incredulously. "Surely that couldn't be possible? What vamp would bother to turn a little kid? Well, except possibly Drusilla, she might be crazy enough."
Willow rolled her eyes. Obviously, Buffy hadn't really grasped the situation. "Buffy, magick did this, no one turned him. The normal situations don't count in this case." She winced at the last part. That had been such a Giles-esque moment.
"I have cookie?" Spike requested.
"Vampires don't eat cookies Spike" Willow told him distractedly "they drink blood"
Spike made a face. "Blood's icky. Is good for you!" he complained. "Rather have a cookie"
"Go look downstairs" Buffy told him. "Somebody down there will probably get you one."
The tiny blonde child ran happily downstairs, leaving Willow and Buffy to talk.
"So, he knows who we are and everything?" Buffy asked. Spike hadn't seemed at all confused that she knew him, while he didn't know her. So she figured that meant he probably did know her. And obviously, didn't like her.
"Well, he knew me, and he still insists on calling me Red" Willow told her, "So, he's got his memories, or at least some of them. Because he sure didn't know us when he was four for real."
"Yeah, because that was like a century before we were even born" Buffy agreed. "If he had known us then, it would have been... scary, to say the least."
Something occurred to Buffy. "Hang on, is anyone going to know what's going on? Are they going to think some strange kid has wandered into our house?"
"Well, you recognised him" Willow pointed out.
Buffy shrugged. "Yeah, but I knew that you were up here with Spike, so I figured it out from that. The others won't have that advantage."
Suddenly a rather loud, rather unusual clanking noise came from downstairs. Specifically, from around where the kitchen was.
Willow shared a glance with Buffy. "Pots?" she asked. "Is someone cooking?"
Buffy shook her head. "Nuh unh, not in this house. But we have one four- year- old vampire down there, no-one calling up for us, and a lot of banging. To me, that equals no supervision for Spike."
"You mean he's down there alone?" Willow demanded. "Four year old plus kitchen equals disaster you know!"
Buffy swore. "Mom's dishes and stuff are down there. We've gotta stop him before he breaks something."
Willow uncurled from her seated position and followed her best friend down the stairs, hoping that Spike hadn't broken anything yet. If he had, it was on her head, since she'd be the one to turn him into a child.
"Spike!" She yelled as soon as she reached the kitchen. The small boy was standing on the kitchen benches, one of Joyce's precious plates in his hands.
"Okay" he agreed happily, and let go...