Hunting Eggs
I'm making no profit from this story. Furthermore, I have no money or valuable possessions so there wouldn't be any sense in a legal action anyway.
I'd like to thank the creators and actors of The Magnificent Seven for the inspiration, and the many talented writers that have come up with both the ATF and Little Britches AU's. Now, on to the short story...
"We're, s'pose ta do what?"
"Remember those eggs we dyed yesterday?" Chris asked, squatting down closer to eye level of the two little boys in front of him. Each one clutched a large basket filled with green shredded cellophane 'grass'. "Well, the Easter Bunny came last night and took them..."
"He tooked our eggs?"
"It's okay JD. He didn't steal them," Buck inserted quickly. "He was just doing what the Easter Bunny is supposed to do. He takes the eggs we color and hides them."
"Why would he do that?" Vin asked, giving Chris a look that said 'there is no such thing as an Easter Bunny and it's silly to think there is one'.
Buck looked at Chris and went for the easy answer. "Because it's fun to look for eggs."
"He hid all the eggs we colored plus hid some special plastic ones he brought with him," Chris tried to get back on track. "He left us a note that said the blue and purple ones are for Vin and the green and yellow ones are for JD. Any other color, you can share."
"How'd you know the easser bunny is a boy?" JD asked .
Chris chose to pretend he didn't hear THAT question. Buck could address it later if the boy remembered he asked it. "Inside these special eggs are toys, money and candy." As soon as the word candy was out of his mouth, JD took off running, the lure of sweets overcoming any hesitation he might have had. Vin still held back, the cautious skeptic.
"Vin?" Chris placed a hand on Vin's shoulder. The serious little boy turned to face him. "Go have some fun, Son."
Vin nodded and wandered off, finding a blue egg and placing it in his basket. Within a few minutes he was running around the yard like JD, finding real and plastic eggs.
Chris and Buck stood and watched, grabbing the occasional picture of the boys on the digital camera, as the two ran around. Occasionally one of the boys would find the other's plastic egg color and would put it back for the other to find on their own.
"Guess we keep forgetting they haven't done a lot of this stuff before," Buck said as he snapped another picture.
"Yup," Chris answered then laughed as the two boys purposely 'ran' into each other and tumbled into the new spring grass. "We won't let them miss anything else though. Not a single thing."
"Ain't that the truth, Pard."End