Lorne let out a nervous chuckle. "I know I look scary, kiddo, but I won't bite. I don't eat children. Honest to Elvis. So, how about not busting out our eardrums, sugarplum?"
Much to everyone's relief, the tiny blonde immediately silenced and the group wondered if she did this because she finally ran out of air. Harmony blinked. "Silly man, I'm not afraid of you." She declared, as if the idea of being frightened was completely absurd.
Lorne grinned. "Well, that's good to hear then."
"But you're green." She continued, flashing him a fierce look. The host looked down at himself as if realizing for the first time that he was indeed, green. "And you're wearing all red. Do you know that you look like a Christmas tree?" Harmony's dark eyes widened as she managed to look repulsed.
Fred giggled, amused that the new amnesiac five year old Harmony was not at all petrified of the demon standing a few feet before her but more of the fact that the said demon had broken a major fashion no-no.
"She has a point, dude." Gunn uttered with a shrug.
"Thank you, big, tall hunky man." Harmony quipped with a brilliant smile.
Gunn grinned widely, flattered. "She thinks I'm a big, tall hunky man. Did you hear that? She said-"
Spike rolled his eyes. "We heard." He dryly uttered. "Must be nice to be complimented for the first time in your life."
Gunn glowered in response.
"Alright, people." Angel declared commandingly. "Can we worry about who's hunky and who looks like a Christmas tree later?" Murmurs of agreement erupted into the room.
"My suits are at the dry-cleaners." Lorne defensively explained in an attempt to save himself.
"You look fine, Lorne." Fred sweetly reassured her.
"In the meantime, we need to figure out how to get Harmony to her old self." Wesley declared somberly.
Harmony, who everyone seemed to have suddenly forgotten that she was still standing there, piped up. "What's wrong with me now?" She demanded.
All eyes were on Angel just as an uncomfortable silence filled the room. "Fine." He mumbled grudgingly. "Harmony, there's nothing wrong with you. You're perfectly fine." He assured her.
Pleased with his reply, Harmony flashed Angel her best smile yet. "I thought so. I am perfect and I am fine." She drawled cheerfully, invoking yet another amused giggle from Fred.
"Right."
"I'm going to find her something more suitable to wear." Fred offered as everyone began to clear the room.
"Spike, watch her while we work." Angel ordered.
The leather clad vampire almost staggered as he looked from Angel to Harmony and back to Angel again. "No!" He defiantly declared, a frown falling on his face. "No way."
"She's your ex-girlfriend." Angel hissed.
"So? She's your secretary."
"You relate to her more than any of us and we have work to do." Angel quickly retorted.
The blonde scoffed. "Standing around and commanding people to do this and that is not work, you wanker. I could do that."
"Right. So, it won't be difficult for you to stand here and command herto stay put until we turn her back." Angel replied, a triumphant look on his face. Defeated, Spike let out a sharp exhale. "Don't let her out the room. The demons and monsters roaming around might scare her, even if Lorne doesn't."
"You're going to pay for this, Angelus."
"How does seven dollars an hour sound to you?"
Dressed in a baby blue t-shirt, jeans and shoes that Fred managed to have someone run out and buy, Harmony sat in front of Spike, her little legs aimlessly swinging on the sides of the coffee table she was currently sitting on.
Spike shot her a look, wondering why Harmony was staring at him. He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. "So, how about that weather?" He said flatly.
"So, how about that weather?" Harmony mimicked, her voice sounding just as unenthusiastic as Spike's and almost as British.
"Don't even try copying me." Spike warned.
She looked at him, not at all intimidated. "Don't even try copying me."
"Harmony!"
"Princess Harmony!" She corrected, without missing a beat.
"Princess Harmony, stop it!" He hissed.
"What?" Harmony blinked innocently. "You're the copycat-ter. You copier." She boldly accused him.
"I am not!" Spike protested huffily.
Harmony folded her arms in front of her stubbornly. "Are to."
"Alright, this is childish."
The little girl let out an exasperated sigh and slumped her shoulders as if Spike was the one who was grating her nerves. Harmony hopped off the table and roamed the large room, touching and inspecting everything and anything she could get her hands on.
Spike warily watched her, hoping that she does not break anything. Better yet, she should break something. Something expensive, Spike deviously thought. Serves peaches right for leaving me to baby-sit. I'm the big bad. This is degrading. "What the hell is taking so long?" He mumbled to himself, glancing at the doorway.
"Hey, Spike?"
"Yeah." He suspiciously replied. She sounded too sweet and nice. She was up to something.
"I bet you five bucks and all the cookies in the world that you can't catch me."
Was that a challenge?
Before Spike could even open his mouth to form some sort of retort, Harmony swiftly crossed the room, yanked the door open and bolted.
"Oh, bring it on."
"He cursed Harmony?" Angel incredulously asked.
Wesley, Gunn and Fred nodded. Lorne had run off somewhere, probably to buy himself a new suit that was nowhere near the shade of red and no longer be criticized by the pint sized fashion police.
"He cursed her into a child?" He continued.
"Yes, Angel." Wesley replied as he flipped through the pages that illustrated Drevluk demons and their various clans. "And as far as we know, she has no knowledge of who we are. I suppose it's safe to assume that her memory goes only as far as the first five years of her life."
"It's better than having her neck snapped like a twig." Gunn uttered.
Fred nodded in agreement. "Actually," The Texan stated, giving her colleagues a meaningful look. "He cursed Harmony into a child who will be eaten three weeks from now. She's still in danger."
"Can we undo it?" Angel asked, frowning.
"Did you see that?" Wesley asked; his eyes turned to the open doorway. He could have sworn he saw Spike being chased by a giggling Harmony. Was Spike, the second most brooder in the building, actually smiling while being chased by the five year old?
"See what, Wes?" Fred asked.
The British man shook his head. "Nothing."
"As I was saying, can we undo it?" Angel repeated his previous question.
"I haven't found anything that shows how to reverse the mage's spell curse. I'm sure we'll find something that will help soon." Wesley answered optimistically.
"I'll see what my sources can find." Gunn declared.
"Same here." Fred piped up.
Wesley and Angel nodded in unison. "This might take awhile, Angel. What do you propose we do with little Harmony in the meantime?"
The vampire paused for a moment, pensive. "We'll take turns watching her for now. Let's hope this we undo the curse, fast." He said and walked out of the room.
"Hiya!" Harmony hollered as she catapulted on Spike's chest, tackling him to the ground. "Take that, Blondie Bear. Take that! I win! I win!" She victoriously declared, after giving him a series of sharp jabs on the chest. Harmony leapt off of Spike and did her version of a victory dance, her small hips swinging and her blonde hair bouncing wildly on her shoulders.
Spike looked sullen, trying to hide his amusement. "Cheater." He mumbled. "You poked me in the eye."
She let out a laugh and then carried on with her victory dance around Spike. "Princess Harmony wins over Blondie Bear. I am the new WWF champion! Can you hear the crowd cheering, Spike? Can you?"
Glory hog, Spike thought with a small smirk.
"Ahem." Harmony halted her victory dance and stared at Angel who was standing by the doorway, a disturbed look on his face. Angel wasn't quite sure if he was bothered the fact that Spike managed to amuse and entertain the little girl or that Spike was actually having a good time too. "I take it the two of you are getting along." He stated.
Harmony beamed and eagerly nodded.
Clearing his throat, Spike rose from where he was currently laying and straightened his clothes. "We did okay." He uttered apathetically, trying to conceal the fact that he and little Harmony had a blast running around the building playing tag, which evolved into hide and seek and ended with a version WWF in one of Wolfram and Hart's empty lounge areas. The said lounge area was currently in shambles right now, all thanks to the two blondes.
No matter how much he groused, mumbled curses under his breath and looked as miserable as humanly possible when the Wolfram and Hart employees saw him following or being followed around by Harmony, Spike had to admit, only to himself though, that he did have fun.
Just a little.
Spike was not going to let the world, demon or otherwise, know that he was a pretty good babysitter. The devastation it could do to his reputation was unthinkable.
"Is Blondie Bear is trouble?" Harmony asked, clasping Spike's hand. Angel almost guffawed. Blondie bear? Way to shrink a man's ego by giving him an adorable, unmanlynickname.
Spike looked down at her and frowned. "That's Mr. Spike, Harmony. Mr. Spike." Harmony had previously declared while playing WWF, like it was common knowledge, that he should be called Blondie Bear because Spike was blonde and soft like a bear. It only made sense.
Spike had painstakingly tried to brainwash the nickname out of little Harmony in hopes that when she turns back, the adult Harmony would cease to call him by that disturbingly endearing nickname. His efforts were sadly futile.
Ignoring her new found friend's protest, Harmony turned innocent, pleading eyes to the morose looking vampire in front of them. "Is he?"
"No." Angel replied in a clipped tone, steeling his resolve from the cuteness that this child-version of Harmony seemed to radiate.
"Good." Harmony gladly answered, stepping forward and taking Angel's large hands with her free one. "Now, you can play dress up with us. Peach would look nice on you. Peach for peaches."
Angel did not look thrilled.
A/N: This message is for Abisnocom. I'm not surprised that there is a similar story to this one and I'm not surprised that the author wrote it before me. This plotbunny was originally thought up by gidgetgirl and posted as a challenge, which means that it is open for the taking to as many people as possible. I might be wrong here but I'm getting the impression that you're implying that I copied the author that you mentioned. I'm not.
And I will continue this.
Thanks to the rest who reviewed.