Title: A Kind of Magic

Category: My Babysitter's a Vampire

Summary: "And sitting on the ground was teeny, tiny version of Ethan, all wrapped up in clothes that were entirely too big for him." Benny accidentally turns Ethan into a four-year-old child, and really? Fate has a cruel and twisted sense of humor.

Warnings: None, whatsoever. It's a simple general fic, featuring four-year-old!Ethan, amused!Sarah, and protective!Benny. How cute, huh?

Disclaimer: I do not own My Babysitter's a Vampire, nor any of the characters involved. No copyright infringement intended.

It all happened as a result of Fate's sick, twisted sense of humor.

Benny had simply been practicing his spells, the binding of the old, worn-out book balanced carefully in his right hand. The skies were overcast, and Benny thought he could feel just the slightest drop of rain land on his forehead.

He smiled to himself and gestured vaguely with his free hand, and that's when it happened. That's when all hell broke loose.

He mumbled the very first spell he saw in the book. The results didn't matter; it would just collide with the tree and shatter on impact as though it was something definite. In all honesty, he knew he probably wasn't even pronouncing the incantation right, but that was what practice was for, wasn't it?

Suddenly, and unlike any of the other spells he conjured, the ball of light bounced right off from the tree's surface. The spell flew right past Benny as he jumped backwards and out of the way, inadvertently dropping the book.

And it kept going until it met with another solid surface: Ethan.

The spell hit Ethan in what Benny would call an explosion. A blinding white light expanded from beyond the spell until it consumed Ethan completely, making it impossible for Benny to see what was happening. It didn't cause a single sound which, admittedly, Benny thought was a little anti-climactic. Honestly, how could you have an explosion without an earth-shattering boom?

It stayed that way for several moments, and Benny felt his eyebrows pull together in consideration.

The edged of the white light gradually gave away to wisps of cloud and smoke, and before Benny could even blink, the smoke backfired and hit him right in the face.

He clenched his eyes shut and coughed, unintentionally inhaling the polluted air that reminded him so much of the many camping trips he'd gone on.

When he finally cleared his eyes, Benny glanced at Ethan. Or more accurately, glanced at where Ethan had been.

He was inexplicably gone, and Benny felt just a slightest surge of panic before he glanced down.

And sitting on the ground was teeny, tiny version of Ethan, all wrapped up in clothes that were entirely too big for him. Baby Ethan appeared to be about four or five years old, and Benny smiled fondly down at him before he realized how absolutely terrible this situation really was.

Ethan was a baby. Benny's eyes widened and he swallowed hard. How did he always get into situations like this? Could nothing ever be simple? Not even for once—

Ethan hiccuped softly, and almost instantly, Benny forgot all about the problem all over again. He had always been told that he had a short attention-span.

"Aw," he said, walking closer to the small child that was staring up at him with big brown eyes.

Baby Ethan promptly stuck out his lower lip, and started to cry.

Well. That was certainly unexpected, Benny thought as he stood there, rooted to the grass beneath his shoes. How was he suppose to take care of...a four year old? Did he look like a responsible, attentive, capable human being? This had to be a joke.

So, Benny just stared down at the crying child with a pained expression, not quite sure what to do.

"Okay, Ethan, what's wrong!" Benny said after a moment, his tone almost a little pleading.

The crying halted instantly. "Binny?"

Benny was almost sure that his jaw had unhinged completely. Ethan remembered him? And Binny? Well, that was cute.

Baby Ethan stood up slowly, his legs shaking as he struggled to hold himself steady. The dark blue t-shirt Ethan had been wearing kept getting caught beneath the kid's feet, and Benny tried not to laugh, he really did, but it was kind of a lost cause at this point.

Suddenly, Ethan tried to charge forward, oversized clothing and all. It was almost as though he was lunging for Benny himself, hoping that he would be caught. However, Ethan's feet were still caught in all of the excess clothing and all he managed to do was stumble forward and lose his footing.

With little effort, Benny leaned forward and caught the kid before he could fall over and hurt himself. Once Ethan was in Benny's arms, he was kicking and squirming all over the place, and Benny got the distinct impression that Ethan was trying to crawl all over him.

"What—" Benny started, struggling as Ethan's foot jabbed right into his ribs "—are you doing, kid?"

"Binny!" Ethan announced excitedly, his eyes bright and wide and unabashedly pleased.

Benny finally got a solid grasp around the kid's waist and was able to hold him up on his hip with little struggle and fuss. It seemed as though Baby Ethan was quiet content as long as Benny was holding onto him.

In all honestly, Benny was quite pleased with himself and his ability to get Ethan to smile and stop crying. The kid weighed next to nothing, and if keeping him happy meant that Benny had to carrying him around all day, that would be just fine.

With a self-satisfied nod, Benny turned toward his house in search of his grandmother.

–&–

"Well, if you don't know the exact spell you used, I'm sorry, Benny, but I can't help you."

Benny watched his grandmother for a moment with furrowed eyebrows as though she was speaking a different language and he couldn't seem to comprehend.

"But it was this spell right here," he said, pointing to the page for a third time.

"Yes, but that spell does not produce those results," his grandma said patiently, gesturing to Baby Ethan who was currently sitting at the dining room table. His little legs were kicking back and forth and he had a small plate of apples sitting on his lap. "Which leads me to believe you did something wrong, dear."

Of course he'd done something wrong! His grandmother should have learned to expect that long ago.

Suddenly, Ethan hopped down from the chair and came running across the living, his little feet tapping against the hardwood flooring. It was easier now that he was dressed in clothes that actually fit him, Benny thought with a wry grin.

Ethan stopped at where Benny was sitting and crawled onto his lap. "I don't like apples anymore, can I have a piece of chocolate?"

Benny sighed dramatically. "So there's nothing you can do then? Not until I know the exact incantation?"

"I'm sorry, but no," she said, her expression caught somewhere between sympathy and amusement.

With a huff, Benny stood up and stormed out of the cozy, apple-pie scented house.

He could hear his grandmother chuckling softly as he went, and he figured it was quite difficult to look fierce with a four-year-old wrapped around his neck.

–&–

"What did you do?" Sarah asked in mild disbelief. Really, she should have learned to expect this by now.

"Well, I accidentally turned my best friend into a four-year-old," Benny replied as though all of this was entirely obvious.

Admittedly, it kind of was. Ethan was balanced atop Benny's shoulders, small hands buried in the mess of brown hair. Every so often, Ethan's fingers would wrap around a handful and give a definite tug, which would cause Benny to wince.

It was just like them.

After she processed all of this, she smiled softly at the small child. This most certainly was not the weirdest thing that had happened to either of them. In fact, it was quite harmless, and furthermore, Ethan was one adorable four-year-old.

"Congratulations, genius," she said, but her tone lacked the usual bite and sarcasm. Her focus was entirely on Baby Ethan. "Can I hold him?"

At that moment, Ethan's grip tightened in Benny's hair, causing Benny to simultaneously wince and embrace the small child that was practically crawling on top of his head. "No," Benny whispered harshly, protectively, and Sarah couldn't help but laugh.

It really was a sight to see. Benny looked like a disheveled mess, his hair and clothes all askew as he struggled to keep his grasp on the child. While Ethan was laughing and hiccuping and bouncing up and down. Sarah smiled wider.

Ethan tugged on Benny's hair once more, his hands grasping onto two fistfuls. "Binny's got puppy dog ears!"

"Sarah," Benny pleaded. "I need your help, c'mon, I gotta turn him back."

"You won't even let me hold him, and you're asking me for help?" Sarah quirked an eyebrow as she watched the pair of them for a moment longer. Then, as a side-note, "I'm surprised you haven't dropped him yet."

"Sarah!" Benny yelped. "Focus!"

Unable to continue wrestling the small child, Benny placed Ethan back on his feet.

It didn't take long for Ethan to start running around in circles at Benny's feet like the small ball of energy he was. He was chanting 'Binny' over and over again, and Benny could feel himself going cross-eyed as he struggled to keep up.

Suddenly, Ethan tripped over a small pebble and was sent tumbling to the ground.

Benny's eyes widened just as the kid started screaming and crying and fussing all over again. It was heartbreaking, really.

"Look at what you did!" Benny announced as he, quite literally, threw his hands up in exasperation and then rushed over to Baby Ethan.

"What did I do?" Sarah asked incredulously. "How did I make him fall?"

"Because...!" Benny sputtered. "You won't help me!"

Benny scooped the crying child up in his arms and held him close, bouncing and cooing and trying to placate Ethan, and once again, Sarah couldn't help but smile.

Well, it was kind of endearing.

With a deep sigh, she finally relented. "Alright, then. Let's go find the solution yet another one of your many mishaps."

–&–

Baby Ethan was sitting on Benny's bed with a lollipop in his mouth and a spider-man band-aid on his knee. It was quiet in the room, excluding Ethan's quiet little hums and coos from time to time, and Benny stared at the spell book, trying to force himself to remember the exact spell he'd used.

Sarah was lying on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. "Why, exactly, did you need my help again?"

"You're helping me watch him," Benny murmured quietly, gaze still focused on the ancient book. Suddenly, he straightened up. "I think I got it."

"Alright, brainiac, let's give it a shot."

Very carefully this time, Benny said the spell and watched as it reacted exactly the same way as it did previously. The ball of white light and the billowing cloud of gray smoke that, once again, tried to blind and asphyxiate him.

Once the cloud finally dissipated, Benny found himself staring at a fully grown Ethan sitting on the bed in clothes that were entirely too tight for him to be wearing. Benny could vaguely hear Sarah laughing in the background, was aware that she was quite literally rolling around on the floor in hysterics, but he was inexplicably frozen in place by Ethan's glare.

The sensible part of his brain was telling him to run. Because, well, Ethan looked as though he was about to break Benny's neck. And then maybe his limited-edition, one-of-a-kind action figures, and really? Benny didn't want to lose those.

"'Ey, buddy, how's it goin'?" he tried weakly.

Ethan's expression didn't appear to waver in the slightest. However, Benny could see the mild amusement in his friend's brown eyes, the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth that almost looked like a smile. Despite all of that, Benny knew what his friend was capable of, and yeah, he should definitely be running right about now.

Ethan growled, but the noise sounded suspiciously like suppressed laughter. "I'm going to kill you."

Benny was out the door before Ethan even finished the statement, laughing all the way down the stairs.

Author's Note: So, I'm rather fond of this television show, and this was just...I don't even know. I have no explanation, I guess, but I do hope you all enjoyed it! That was, after all, my objective. I'm currently working on a Benny/Ethan slash, one-shot, along with a multi-chaptered Big Time Rush fanfic. Hopefully both of those will be posted rather soon.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing! I really appreciate it!

And, finally, I would love to hear what you guys think about this. Thoughts and opinions? What did you think of four-year-old Ethan and his hellish personality? :)