Summary: Anna was distracted by a bright and colorful object which caught her eye peeking out from behind a flower pot by the front stoop.
Disclaimer: I don't own Downton Abbey. I don't own these characters. Alas, we would have such fun together.
A/N: I set down to write something Not Angsty and with Easter coming up, this is what came to me. So here's a bit of fluff. Reviews are always great.
He arrived late for services, somehow managing to slip into the back of the church quietly despite his cane softly clacking on the wood floor. As he slid into the pew beside her in the seat she'd saved him, Anna glanced at her husband with a questioning look, as if to silently ask, "Where have you been?"
He simply shrugged, his amused smirk making her wonder all the more.
On that particular Sunday, Anna had trouble focusing on the church service with John sitting next to her. She could smell the familiar and masculine scent of his aftershave and feel the heat of his leg as it brushed against hers in the wooden pew. She found it horribly ironic and not a little sinful to be so distracted on Easter Sunday, of all days.
Luckily, they had a few hours after services were over before they'd be needed at Downton, which was more than enough time for a leisurely stroll back to the cottage. But John expressed no interest in dallying, instead leading Anna in an unwavering path to their home.
Her lips curled into a smile as she considered his motives for getting her home sooner rather than later.
But as they approached the door of the cottage, Anna was suddenly distracted by a bright and colorful object which caught her eye peeking out from behind a flower pot by the front stoop. John paused with her as she leaned down to retrieve it.
It was an egg. Obviously hard boiled, the shell had been painted in light pink watercolors with several clever designs. Anna turned to her husband.
"Did you do this?" she asked.
He shrugged his shoulders innocently, but his smug expression gave him away. "Perhaps it was the Easter Bunny?" he suggested.
"So this is why you were late for church," Anna scolded teasingly.
"I only go to be with you anyway," he reminded her. While she knew that her husband was not a believer like her, John never made any complaint about attending services with her.
Anna grinned as she looked back at the pink egg in her hand. "Are there more?" she asked hopefully.
John narrowly suppressed a smirk as he responded, "I don't know. I suppose you ought to look around and see."
She turned hopefully back to the area in front of their cottage with a small patch of grass. She quickly found another egg - this one green painted with flower designs - nestled up next to the building, almost covered by the grass.
"We might need to look in the back," John suggested once she'd located an orange egg on a windowsill. "Rabbits are terribly fond of gardens."
While Anna would have disputed the term 'garden' as applied to her tiny patch of vegetables growing behind the cottage, she happily skipped around to the back of the building. On her wood potting table she found a basket which was already lined with fabric and adorned with a festive yellow ribbon. Smiling in understanding, Anna stowed the eggs she'd already found in the basket before returning to the hunt.
Smiling widely as he watched his wife stoop to look under and behind pots and plants, Bates reached down to retrieve the pink egg from her basket. While Anna's back was turned, he stooped to place it at the corner of the potting table, where it could just barely be seen if Anna turned around. When she found another egg and placed it in her basket before moving to look for more, he repeated the trick with the orange and green eggs, re-hiding them while she was distracted looking for others.
This process went on for some time before Anna realized that the pile of painted eggs in her basket was not growing any larger.
"Where is my pink egg?" she asked, looking through the collection. "I know I had a pink one..." Rounding on her husband, she demanded in mock indignation, "What have you done with it?"
He held out his hands innocently, obviously holding nothing other than his cane.
She would have interrogated him further, he felt certain, if she did not spy a flash of color out of the corner of her eye. She quickly dropped to retrieve the pink egg from the corner of the potting table. Examining it closely, she turned her eyes to him, clearly having decided it was the same egg she'd already found.
"You've been re-hiding my eggs!" she accused.
"Now, would I do such a thing?" John asked. She had to laugh at his expression of innocence, which reflected no innocence at all.
"Yes, Mister Bates, I think you would do exactly such a thing," she said. Placing the egg back in her basket, she reached out to wrap her arms around her husband's waist.
"How do you know it wasn't the Easter bunny?" he asked with amusement, wrapping the arm not holding his cane around her back.
"Does the Easter bunny moonlight as an English Earl's valet all the rest of the year?" Anna demanded cheekily. "Because if so, perhaps it was him."
"Well, even the Easter bunny has to eat. He can't live on eggs all the time. And he has to support his wife."
"His wife?" Anna repeated, smiling widely at the improvisation. "So the Easter bunny has a Mrs. Easter bunny?"
"Well, perhaps... if he's lucky enough, I suppose," John allowed.
After leaning up on her tip toes to kiss her husband, Anna stated with a smile, "That's a very romantic sentiment, Mister Bates."
"Well, you do know where all those rabbits in the fields come from, don't you?"
Smirking at the implication, she remarked, "Mister and Mrs. Easter Bunny must be very busy."
She kissed him again, this time slower and with more languid enjoyment.
As they broke away, John looked around them slightly before suggesting, "Perhaps we should give them a run for their money, before we have to head back up to the house?"
She pulled away from him and straightened her shoulders, grinning despite herself. "But I still have eggs to find," Anna said. "Someone has re-hidden half of the ones I already found."
He chuckled at her statement but nodded his ascent. "By all means, find your hidden eggs."
"And no more hiding the ones I've found," she said pointedly, picking up the basket to carry with her so he would not be tempted.
"I wouldn't dream of it."
She did not need long to find the remaining eggs. He'd only hidden two dozen, and most of the spots he picked were easy enough to spot. By the time she triumphantly placed the last painted egg in the basket - this one a light blue - she looked quite pleased with herself.
"There aren't any more, are there?" Anna asked, a touch of hope in her voice.
"No, that was the last," John confirmed.
As he walked with her into the cottage, she noted with enjoyment, "Well, that was a fun surprise."
She put away the eggs in the ice box so they could crack them open and eat them later. And she placed the basket on their small table, smiling as she admired the yellow bow.
"I can think of other surprises you might like," her husband ventured, pulling her close. Anna melted against him, his warmth and subtle scent as stirring for her as his deep, melodic voice.
"What did you have in mind?" she asked, unable to contain her grin of delight.
"Why don't I show you?" he returned, stepping away from her but capturing her hand to lead her forward. John got her as far as the stairs before his lips were on hers, his free hand wrapping around her waist as he pulled her flush against him. She kissed him back with equal fervor, breaking away only long enough to take a step or two up the stairs.
They were late back to Downton that afternoon, and when Lady Mary questioned Anna as to her tardiness, Anna responded only, "It was the Easter bunny, milady."
fin