A World Of Small

Title: A World Of Small
Author: Perry
E-mail: icemulder@hotmail.com
Characters: Ensemble
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy Productions do. And, I honestly do not know where In Like Flint came from, in my head or who made it.
Summary: What happens if suddenly one morning, all of Sunnydale wakes up, about the size of 4-year olds? Chaos ensues... Only one part, as writer's block ensued as well PG
Author's notes: Okay, this is kind of like Band Candy, from the third season, in the way that adults begin to act younger, but this is soda, and it's for real. All I'm saying is, Don't Blame Me For It Feeling Like Band Candy. It is not Band Candy.
Also, this unfortunately will never be continued. But, if someone would like to make up an ending... by all means go for it!

Giles pretended to ignore Buffy's lack of interest in the new artifact. He pretended that instead of nodding and turning back to her magazine, that she was enthralled with it, asking him important questions. He pretended that she was learning for once.

But who was he kidding? When he took the stone carefully out of the box and set it before her, she looked at it, nodded and turned right back to her Entertainment Weekly, not giving it another thought.

He was supposed to be training her right now, teaching her things that would be helpful, come time for her right of passage.

"Buffy, would you please try and pretend your interested?" He pleaded, glad to have gotten her attention by using his stern, watcher voice.

"Oh, um okay. So, Mr. Important Watcher-man, what's the rock?" Buffy set her magazine down, and folded her arms in front of her on the table, in an attempt at mock-interest.

Giles smiled, and pushed the stone closer to her. It shown a bright green, "It's called a--"

"Hey guys," Xander entered the library, carrying a case of soda.
"Hiya Xan," Buffy was glad for the interruption. Giles could tell, "What's the drink?"

Giles also tried to ignore the fact that his slayer was more interested in the soda Xander was holding than his ancient rock.

"Some new drink. They're in stores everywhere. It's really weird. I mean, I've never heard of it before, and it is seriously everywhere," Xander put the 6-pack down on the table, and plucked one blue can out of the plastic holding mesh stuff.

"New products do tend to suddenly appear wherever you look," Giles took his glasses off to clean them, and sighed, "Anyway, Buffy, this stone is perhaps the only known,"

"What's going on?" Willow asked as she and Oz came into the library.
"Oh, Xander is that the new stuff?" Oz asked, pointing to the soda Xander was opening.
"Sure is, Ultra-Dimension Drinks," Xander said, holding his can up in a toasting gesture, "Cool name, huh?"
Oz nodded and took a can, "Devon said it's really good."
"I haven't tried it yet, but Harmony was drinking it, saying it was the best stuff she ever had," Xander and Oz clinked cans and each took a big swig.
"How is it?" Willow reached for a can herself at the surprised looks on Oz and Xander's faces.
"All around good! Goodness all around," Xander looked to Oz for agreement.
"Totally. I mean the level of goodness in this drink is uncanny," Oz took another sip.

"Really? What does it taste like?" Buffy took another soda, as Willow took a drink of hers.
"Wow," Willow sat down, smiling, "This is good."
"What does it taste like?" Buffy asked again.
"I can't explain it," Willow thought for a moment, "The taste is unexplainable."
"Yeah, it's like, Sprite and Coke, but it's not. Maybe Mountain Dew," Oz put his Ultra-Dimension Drink down and picked up the stone, "What's this?"
"Well, I'm glad you asked it's--"
"Like Cherry Coke, Mountain Dew, and something refreshing, like water or something. It's gives you an interesting tingle, then some fruity goodness," Xander said carefully, trying to pinpoint what the soda tasted like.
Oz and Willow nodded, and Buffy took a sip of hers.
"Yeah, I can see, well, taste the fruity goodness. Ooh, there's the interesting tingle. Did anyone else get some type of grape fruit juice thing going on in their mouths?"
"Thank you!" Willow nodded, "That's what it is! Grape fruit juice!"
Oz and Xander took another drink, "Grape fruit seems right."

Giles sighed again, and picked up the stone, just to put it away. There was no use telling Buffy what it meant. She couldn't have cared less.

"Hey everyone," Cordelia waltzed into the library, and immediately got one of the two remaining cans, "I am so thirsty!"

The watcher just watched (hee hee) as the 5 kids drank their sodas, talking about how good they were. He sighed inwardly once more, and took the rock to his back office.

"C'mon you guys, Snyder will be on our backs if we stay too late after school," Xander picked up his back pack, and he and Cordy left the library, arm in arm.

"Giles, can I go, or do I gotta patrol tonight?" Buffy called to the librarian.
"Do what ever you want," he grumbled.
"What was that?" Buffy stood up, collecting her things.
"Be gone, we have nothing to worry about, no patrolling," Giles came out of the office, just as Buffy left the library through the back door in the stacks.
Willow handed Giles the remaining can of Ultra-Dimension Drink, "You can have the last one."
Giles half heartedly took the soda can from Willow, "I suspect you two are busy tonight?"
Willow looked at Oz, who shrugged, "Why do you want us for anything?"
"No, just um, just small talk, I will see you tomorrow," Giles walked to his office.
"Okay, bye," Willow took Oz's hand, and they began to leave the library.
Willow took note that Oz's hand felt much smaller than it did when she entered the library.
****************
-6:48 pm- library-
Giles looked towards the blue can of soda still sitting on the library table.
Should he drink it?
He wasn't accustomed to soft drinks, he preferred tea and such beverages, but the kids sure seemed to enjoy it.
Giles entered the main library (he had been in his office) and sat down at the table, opposite the blue can.
"It's just one silly drink," he told himself, "A life time worth of not drinking sugary, cavity promising drinks has gone by, and this is my reward."
Giles took the Ultra-Dimension drink in his hand, and plucked at the metal tab thing.

It didn't pull up.

He tried it again.
It opened effortlessly, and Giles took a long gulp.
Then Buffy came into the library.

"Heya Mr. Giles," she said, reminding Giles of Dennis the Menace.
Giles threw the soda down, "I wasn't drinking nuthin'!"
"Huh?" Buffy plopped down across from Giles.
"Oh, nothing. So Buffy, I thought you weren't going to patrol tonight," Giles vision blurred for a split second, then he focused again.
What was going on?

"What? Just 'cuz eariler I said I didn't wanna doesn't mean I didn't," Buffy frowned and crossed her arms.
"Okay, you will patrol tonight then," Giles pretended to start looking through a book.

"Well now I don't wanna," Buffy began to pout.
"Geez, well I don't want you to go anyway," Giles mumbled, slamming the book closed.

"Fine, I'm gonna go home!" Buffy swirled around and stormed out of the library.
"Big baby," Giles grabbed the soda, and took another long swig.
*****************
-8:00 pm- the Bronze-
Oz struggled with the weight of his guitar, it was suddenly much heavier.
And, it was suddenly much harder to play.
He had never been good, but he couldn't remember a time when he couldn't play at all.
Not since he was a little kid.

Devon shook his head. It wasn't just because his dingoes sucked, he was having a problem singing. Everyone was yelling for ridiculous songs, oldies he'd never heard before. Or at least hadn't heard for a long time. Not since he was a little kid.

Willow sighed with disgust. She had finished her soda, and didn't have enough to go get another.

The band finally departed, and Oz ran over to her.
"Am I a horrible guitarist?" Oz asked, sitting at the small table across from her.
"No, 'course not. That's a silly question," Willow threw the can behind her, and leaned her head on her hand, wondering if Oz would offer her another Ultra-Dimension Drink.  
"I'm kind of tired" admitted Oz, "Want me to take you home?"
Willow nodded, and they left.

For a while, they whined like little babies in the car, and Oz kept slamming on the brakes because he had forgotten how to drive, and then they snapped out of it.

Oz slammed on his brakes once more.
"That was weird," Willow pulled at her seat belt, "It was like we were little kids for a few hours."

"God, I'm a whiny little kid," Oz sighed, "And I talk a lot."
"I noticed that."
Oz laughed, "I used to be a little chatterbox."
"What happened?" Willow asked, noticing they were close to her house.
Oz just shrugged and pulled into her driveway.

**********************
-6:55 am- Xander's house- Next Day

Xander yawned and climbed out of bed. He never woke up this early. It was weird.
"Xander, you awake?"
He heard his mom calling him, but pretended he didn't. He just went to the bathroom.
Is it just me or is everything a little bigger?

Xander slammed the bathroom door behind him and turned to look at himself in the mirror.

He came face to face with the bathroom counter.
"What?" Xander asked aloud, and let out a yelp at the sound of his voice. It was all squeaky-ish.
He pulled himself up to the mirror, and stared at his reflection.

He was a little kid.

******
"Oh my god!" yelled Cordelia, "Look at my hair!"
When she was four, she didn't have as beautiful hair as she did now, she had stringy, four year old hair.
She immediately began to sob and panic.
******
"Buffy is everything alright?"
"Yeah mom!" Buffy held the door closed, and tried to lock it. She wasn't equipped with slayer power's when she was four.
"Is something wrong, your voice--"
"I'm fine, please!" Buffy managed to lock her bedroom door and reached for the telephone. Just as she did, it rang.
*******
"Buffy, I have Oz on the other line, but," Willow stared at her full-length mirror, "It's Willow, I know, I know. Well, I'm four year old size, if that says anything!" Willow moaned and nodded, "You two? Okay then."
She switched to the other line, "Oz, you okay?"
*********
"Uh, I guess."
Oz was still in bed, utterly amazed. He thought like a four year old the night before, and looked like a teenager. Now he looked like a four year old and thought like a teenager. Sometimes the thinkage isn't that different.
"Listen, Will, my sis has some clothes that should fit you, Buffy and I guess Cordelia too," Oz ran a hand through his shaggy, yet still very great hair, "I guess I have some stuff. Yeah its all hanging off me."
Oz examined the pajama shirt he had been wearing the night before. It practically slid off him. The pants did slide off.
***********************
---7:30-Library-Hour before school ---

They had all hid behind separate stacks to change. Now they came together, the clothes fitting pretty well.
Buffy had short cropped blond hair, and looked petite, defenseless, not at all what she had felt or looked like 12 hours before.

Xander had a rather large head, and an everlasting goofy smile. His mopped black hair ran over his face, and his jokes were even cornier.

Willow still had bright red hair and her mousy look to her. In fact, she didn't really look all that different, only with a few reddish brown freckles.

Cordelia was still griping about her hair, but that wasn't all she should have been griping about. She had a childish cuteness, but let's just say that she obviously grew into her good looks.

Oz was easily the shortest of all of them by at least 4 inches. He was smaller than everyone too, which did not help his self-esteem. He had reddish blond hair, which as I mentioned before looked great, but nothing like the hair he had yesterday.

The scoobies just looked at each other for a time, wondering what was going on.

"So, what's going on?" Cordelia asked, flipping back her hair, "And might I add, I don't think I used any conditioner back then."

"That's okay, we all forgive you," Buffy walked over to the library table, then came back to the group, "Do you think it's just us?"

"If it was, that would mean it's a spell or something!" Willow pointed out.
Oz nodded and went to the swinging library doors and looked outside.

Larry was leaning on the wall in a shadowy corner, he had a buzz cut, and was about 3 feet tall.

Then a boy in an oversized janitor suit came running down the hall, screaming like a little baby.

Soon more and more kids that fairly resembled Oz's classmates came into the school, and all of them were wigging out.

"Defiantly not just us," Oz came back into the library, "Even the janitor is a kid."

Willow giggled a little bit.
"What?" Oz looked at the others, who were also smiling a bit too much, "WHAT?"
"You're just so small," Willow laughed at loud, but the rest held it in.
"Oh, thanks," Oz rolled his eyes and glanced out the library door windows, "Where's Giles?"

Everyone stopped giggling. Of all people, Giles was the one they would expect to be there, rummaging through books, initiating a research party. Instead, he was nowhere to be found.

As if by some wonderful coincidence or simply impeccable timing, the back door to the library (behind the stacks) slammed shut.

"Giles, that you?" called Xander, slightly worried.

There was some shuffling, and a crash that sounded a lot like someone tripping over a bunch of books.
There was a high-pitched yell, and a tumble.

A small cloaked figure rolled down those small steps, and sprawled out in front of the scoobies.

"Giles? You're, little," Buffy gasped, covering her mouth. She had never seen her watcher like this before.
He was so small. Taller than Oz, of course, but shorter than some. He had curly black hair, and no need for his glasses, so they stuck out of his shirt pocket.

"Yes, I do realize I had acquired a toddler-ish appearance, but that doesn't mean that anything out the ordinary is happening."

"Yeah, because all of Sunnydale turns into preschoolers on a daily basis," Xander nodded, looking around for something to eat.
"I want some candy," he walked into Giles' office, Giles close behind.
"Don't go in there!" Giles tried to pull Xander out of there, "That's my personal space! This is not cool man!"

Xander turned around to face Giles, "None of this is cool 'Ripper'. Everyone is a kid. Everyone."

Little did Xander know how true this statement was.
*****************

"Bloody hell," Spike rolled out of the daylight, smoking a little. He must have left the window open last night, how careless of him.

Spike stood up slowly, wondering when the room had gotten so big.
Spike suddenly began to wonder when his hands had gotten so small.
Or all of him for that matter.

Spike ran to look in a mirror, but then realized how stupid that was.
He slowly made his way into the main room, wondering if Angel and Dru were...

"Angel, do you think Spike will wake up soon?" Dru was saying in her normal slow, drawling voice.
"I don't know love. Hopefully for us, he won't wake up until the open window burns him to a crunchy crisp."

Angel had opened the curtains.

"Crunchy," Drusilla made smacking noise, and she and Angel began to dance, for no real reason at all.

Spike peeked around the corner.

They were adults.

Groaning, Spike realized that there was only one group of people he knew that could solve this.
***************

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
The door behind the stacks boomed and banged until Oz ran to answer it.
Smoke engulfed someone as they ran to the middle room, only uncovering himself after Oz shut all the curtains and blinds.

"Spike?" Willow asked carefully after a beat or two of silence.
He looked like any other normal four year old. Not at all like a dead, blood-sucking killer.
He had spiky, bright blond hair, like he did when he was normal age, and he had all the features of a little kid.
He was actually kind of cute.
For a dead, blood-sucking killer.

The little kid with large, brown eyes, alert with fright and confusion.
In a normal, yet slightly softer British accent, he answered, "Kind of. Well yes."

More silence.

Spike figured he had to say more, "I woke up, and I was really small. Or the room was really big. And I went out, and Angel and Dru were adult size, and I was looking up at them. But they didn't see me, thank god. I'd never hear the end of this from Angel if he found out I was suddenly four instead of two hundred and four. Or however old I am."
Spike ran a hand through his hair, "I can't remember what I looked like back when I was this size," he said curiously.
"Well, just look in a mirror," Buffy suggested.
"I may be four but I'm still a vampire," Spike said, a hint of disappointment in his voice.
"And your still a blood-sucking killer," Buffy said, smiling.
"Spike, why did you come here?" Giles asked, offering Spike a seat at the table they were all sitting around.
Spike accepted gratefully and leaned back in the chair looking tired, "I haven't been able to get a good day's sleep, if you know what I'm saying."
Oz and Xander smiled, they were the only ones.
Author's note: By the by, Cordelia hasn't been in here very much and I don't really need her at this point, so she's off brushing her hair or something.

"I came here because whenever something bad's a brewing, you all figure out what's what. This is one bad that I don't really enjoy the brewing," Spike rubbed his eyes in sleepiness, then continued, "It just occurred to me. I wasn't a vampire when I was four. Why am I still one now?"
"Did your parents ever call you a demon child? Maybe they were right. Maybe you always had a little demon inside of you," suggested Buffy with a smirk.
"Buffy, please," Giles whispered, but then Willow started in.
"Yeah, like, you're so bad that the demon is a big bad part of you. We all still have our personalities, so evil I guess is just who you are," Willow folded her hands on the table in triumph.
"Now that's not very nice! I'm not such a bad person you know!" Spike defended himself.
"Yeah try telling that to all the people you killed! Oh, you can't. Ya know why? 'Cause they're dead!"
Everyone was surprised by the little red-head's courage.
Spike jumped across the table at her in attack mode.
Buffy tried to pull him away, but he kicked her aside.
Oz, fittingly, ended up being the one to save Willow, pushing Spike off the table with all of his might.
He pulled the frightened Willow closer to him, and Buffy slumped back in her chair.
"Why don't I have my slayer powers then? I could have really kicked your patootie Spike."
"Well, you've always treated slaying as a job, and tried to not let it interfere with who you are," Xander pointed out, regretfully helping Spike to his feet.
"Ow man, your good," Spike rubbed his head and gestured towards Oz, "that seriously hurt."
"Thanks," Oz shrugged, and looked towards Buffy, "but I always thought slaying was who you were. No offense."

"None taken, I always thought the same thing," Buffy played with the hem of her skirt, wondering why she wasn't super strong.

Spike returned to his seat, grumpy.

"Why are we all like this?" Xander asked Giles in particular.

"I honestly don't know," the little Giles answered, straightening is tie.

"Exactly, and how come I'm little, but Angel and Dru are still adults? I mean, what did I do differently than them?" Spike waved his hands in the air.

"What did you do differently?" Willow put emphasis on the 'did'.

"Well, they went out to feed, but I had some saved from the butcher, so I stayed in. No, wait, I did leave for a little bit... I went to the movie theater, they were playing In Like Flint, and I always did enjoy that movie. Anyway, I had some chocolate, a drink, that new stuff, and then i went home. I argued with Angel and Dru over something really stupid, I can't remember what, then I woke up, and was little."

Cordelia came into the room, "I've never seen In Like Flint. Wait, what did you drink at the movies?"
She was onto something.
"That new stuff. The Ultra-Dimension drink or something, It's blue, I remember that." Spike shrugged, then realized what she was getting at, "Everyone was drinking it. In fact, even on the street people were drinking it!"

"And now they are all tiny," Buffy clapped her hands together, "We've got it!"

Giles nodded, "The drink is making everyone tiny!"

Oz stood up, "Who's making the drink though?"

All was quiet. Who was making the drink?

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