Every year they had a family reunion, and Addison knew she should have enjoyed it, but most of the cousins that weren't part of her immediate family—the only cousin she had through immediate family was Bucky—were much older than they were and didn't want to play with the two youngest members of the family.

Because their older second, third, and other cousins were busy talking about their latest crush or who they were dating or who they hoped to ask out, Bucky and Addison were left playing on the playground by themselves while all the adults talked as well.

At the peak of the height of the swing Addison was on, she launched herself off like she had done almost countless times before and had watched other kids do on the school playground. As she landed perfectly, Bucky flew of the swing beside her, also sticking the landing perfectly. They found knowing how to stick a landing to be one of the advantages of growing up in families that were obsessed with cheerleading. They had both started almost as soon as they could walk and already knew the method for a perfect landing—even when jumping off the swings.

"This is boring," seven-year-old Addison reported to Bucky, who was two years older than her at nine. "I can play on the swings whenever I want in the park by home."

"You know Grandpa likes this park because it's so far away from Zombietown," Bucky replied. "He hates zombies for biting his ear off, and we need to too."

"His missing ear creeps me out."

"It creeps everyone out," Bucky spoke, earning a laugh from Addison.

"I wish we could go closer to home for this," she sighed.

"You know how Grandpa feels—"

"I know, I know," Addison waved Bucky off. As they fell into silence, she looked to all her older and more distant cousins. They were looking at their phones and texting their friends they would see in a couple weeks when school started again. Her eyes next landed on all the adults talking near the picturesque and perfect pavilion where they were paying no attention to their kids and grandkids, assuming they would stay out of trouble and look out for each other. Finally, her eyes landed on some of the only wooded and forest-like piece of land remaining in the Seabrook area. "Want to go e'sploring?" Addison asked, still being young enough to have trouble perfectly pronouncing difficult letters like the 'x' in 'exploring.'

"Exploring? Where?"

"The woods," Addison pointed as she replied.

"Addy," Bucky sighed. "I don't know about that."

"Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?" she begged, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.

Bucky sighed, he couldn't resist Addison's request. He could see that she was determined to go exploring in the woods, and he would much rather be with her than letting her go to the woods alone. "Okay," he agreed.

Addison's smile beamed and showed off her missing front tooth. She had been excited to report that she had lost the day before when she saw Bucky at the park for the family reunion. "This is going to be fun," Addison said.

"Before we go, we should grab some water bottles to take with us."

Addison nodded her agreement, and they were soon off without anyone seeming to notice when they left the party.

"I'm going to climb this tree," Addison reported, finding one where she could reach the lowest branches.

"Addy," Bucky began, his tone almost questioning if it was a good idea to climb a tree in the middle of the woods. He decided against saying anything more about it and made his way over to her to be there in case she needed him.

When he got there, Addison had already set her water down and had her hands around the lowest branch, trying to use the trunk to get her legs wrapped around the branch as well. "Bucky, can you give me a boost?" she asked. "Pretty please," she added, turning her head upside-down to face him and give him her puppy dog eyes once again while her feet were still pressed to the trunk of the tree.

Bucky let out a light laugh. Addison always got him with her 'pretty please' and she knew he had a hard time saying no to it. "What do you need me to do, Cuz?"

"Give me a boost into the tree."

"How?"

"Put me on your shoulders? Or let me step on your back?"

"Let's try my shoulders first. But that means you need to get down."

Addison nodded and let her feet fall from the tree. Her hands slipped off from the branch and she landed perfectly on the ground. She waited while Bucky squatted down to allow her to climb on his shoulders. He was strong for only being nine from practicing hand stands and other strength building things for cheer, and Addison was a light-weight seven-year-old.

From Bucky's shoulders, Addison was able to easily get her hands and then legs on the branch so she was sitting on it.

"You good?" Bucky questioned.

"Yeah," Addison replied.

After taking one last look to check that Addison was in the tree well, Bucky reached up to the branch and pulled himself up to join Addison in the tree.

"What do we do now?" Bucky asked, though he was already looking at the higher branches of the small tree that he and Addison could reach.

The grin that spread across Addison's face as she too looked up was the only answer Bucky needed. After a few minutes of climbing, the two had made it as high as they dared go in the tree. They had made it to the point where they could tell going any higher in the tree meant going to branches that would not support their weight. Together, the two began their careful decent back to the forest floor. Once they had landed, they took a minute to rest and drink their water while they tried to decide where they wanted to go next.

"Over there?" Addison suggested, pointing behind Bucky when he questioned her on where they should continue their adventure in the woods.

Bucky turned to see the vines and weeds that snaked their way through the trees and bushes. "We just need to stay away from anything with prickers. Those hurt."

Addison nodded her agreement, and they were soon weaving their way through the brush. They were perfectly unaware of some of the plants they were walking through, and had already walked through, that would cause trouble later. After a few more minutes of walking and exploring, Bucky and Addison decided that they needed to head back to the family party before anyone did notice they were missing.

As they made their way out of the woods, Bucky and Addison noticed that all the adults still seemed to be having perfectly casual conversations. Their older cousins were talking as if nothing had happened.

"No one even knew we were gone!" Addison exclaimed, sounding a little disappointed.

"It's okay," Bucky replied. "I'm sure Grandpa's boring everyone with the story of how the zombie bit his ear and they have to pretend they want to hear it for the hundredth time," he finished with a laugh, earning one from Addison as well.

"Want to go back?"

To toy with his cousin, Bucky took a few seconds to reply. "We probably shouldn't. We could go back to the swings and monkey bars though," he suggested.

"Okay."

"But first, you have a few twigs in your wig. Heh, that rhymed."

"Hey."

"Okay, okay," Bucky said, reaching to take the twigs as wells as some leaves out of Addison's wig. "Does my hair look all right?"

"I think you have some stuff in it," Addison said, looking up to try and see what might have been caught in Bucky's shaggy hair.

He leaned over and ran his hands back and forth over and through his hair for a couple seconds. "Good?"

Addison paused and reached for a leaf that hadn't fallen out with everything else. "Good," she confirmed.

Before they had the chance to start playing again, attention was called by the adults. There were some games that had been planned with prizes that were to begin soon. Reluctantly, Bucky and Addison left the playground to join the rest of their family in whatever games they were supposed to take part in.

The following hours dragged on slowly. Why they still needed to spend hours with these people was something both Bucky and Addison were unsure of. However, when all the games were over, desserts were served, which was the silver lining of the afternoon for them.

"Bucky, my legs are starting to feel itchy," Addison reported, reaching down to her calf as they sat at a picnic table to eat their chosen desserts.

"So?" the elder of the two replied.

"Are your legs itchy too?"

Bucky paused as if to consider whether his legs felt itchy or not. "No?" he replied, questioning if his legs felt itchy even as he replied. He picked one of his legs up and rested it on the bench beside him where he noticed some bumps that looked like a rash. "Do your legs look like this?"

Addison picked one of her legs up and noticed a rash beginning in one of the places she had been scratching. "Yeah."

"Uh-oh," Bucky said as he realized his legs were beginning to itch as well. "I think we walked through something in the woods," he explained, resisting the urge to scratch and taking a bite of his dessert instead.

"What should we do?"

"We have to tell our parents, otherwise it'll just get worse."

"Do we have to tell them? I don't want to get in trouble."

"Addy."

"Fine. But I want to finish my dessert first."

Bucky nodded because he too wanted to finish dessert before they admitted to their parents that they had gone wandering through the woods. After a couple minutes, they had finished their desserts and made their way over to Addison's parents who could be seen most easily through the crowd of family.

"Hi, Darling," Addison's mom, Missy, greeted. "What have you two been up to?" she asked as her husband, Dale, turned his attention to his daughter and nephew.

"Mommy," Addison began, doing her best to sound innocent. "We walked through something and now our legs are all itchy."

"What did you walk through?" Dale asked, seeing the rash that plagued Addison and Bucky's legs.

"We're not sure," Bucky explained.

"Can you show us where you walked?" Missy questioned.

"It would be hard," Addison mumbled.

"What was that?" Dale's voice was gentle. "You're going to need to speak up, Sweetheart."

"We went to the woods," Addison said, her voice was low, but the surprised and shocked reaction from her parents showed that they had heard her.

"That could be poison ivy!" Missy exclaimed.

"Or it could be poison oak," Dale added.

"It itches," Bucky reported, rubbing one leg against the other in attempt to scratch it.

"I don't think there's a way to tell the rashes apart, but we need to get your legs washed, you'll need to put on clean clothes, and you may need to take a shower each to get all the poison ivy oils off your skin," Missy quickly listed off.

"Can we go now? It really hurts," Addison spoke, reaching down to scratch.

"Honey, don't do that," Dale said. "Since you were going to come over to our house, Bucky, I'll go find your mom and get your things in our car. Then we'll get you two home and washed up."

Missy began leading Bucky and Addison towards the car. "I'll go get the dishes we brought. Is there anything you two need to get that you brought?" Missy asked, stopping for a moment to make sure the kids had everything they brought.

"I didn't take anything out of the car," Addison replied.

"Me neither," Bucky added.

"Okay," Missy replied. She continued with the kids to the car. "You'll have to try and keep from touching too many things in the car. If there was oil from the poison ivy or poison oak that's still on you, it can get in the car too."

Though the kids didn't exactly understand what Missy was talking about, they were careful not to touch their legs and arms to things more than they needed to. After making sure the kids were secure in their seats, Missy went to get the dishes her family had brought to the reunion. On the way back towards the car, she met up with Dale, he explained that he had talked to his sister, Bucky's mom, to let her know what was going on. She would share the news with the rest of the family and had used her key fob to unlock the doors of her car from where she was.

"When we get home," Dale began as he got the car started a few minutes later. "Addison, you'll need to get in a shower in your room, and Bucky you can shower in the guest bedroom. Make sure you're careful when you take your clothes off so you don't spread the rash more. You'll want to make sure you scrub your arms and legs well with good, warm water. Okay?"

"Okay," Bucky and Addison agreed.

Soon, the quartet had arrived home. As they had been instructed, Bucky and Addison went to get in showers where they made sure they made sure to scrub the rashes that had formed on their legs and the ones beginning to form on their hands well. When they were in fresh clothes, Missy and Dale instructed them to put cortisone cream on the rashes to help with the itching and helped them put it on when they needed an extra hand or two.

"Now kids, what did we learn from this experience today?" Dale asked after the cortisone cream had been rubbed on Bucky and Addison's skin.

"That we should be careful about what we walk through when we go e'sploring in the woods!" Addison replied proudly.

"Addison, it might be better if the two of you didn't go into the woods to begin with, okay?"

Sighing, Addison agreed.

"Right Bucky?"

"Right, Uncle Dale."

"Now you kids go play and have fun," Missy spoke, motioning for the kids to leave to go enjoy themselves.

"Sorry I made us go in the woods and get these rashes," Addison apologized.

"I'm glad I went with you. I didn't want you to go alone."

"You can tell me if I have an idea that we shouldn't do." Addison's voice was low and slow.

"The woods weren't too dangerous. It was fun. Now, what do we want to do?"

"Jungle gym in the backyard?"

"Great idea, Cuz," Bucky ruffled Addison's hair. Though she had taken the wig off to shower, she now had it back on since she and Bucky liked to play outside, and they didn't want their neighbors to know she wore a wig.

"Want to ride bikes around the block?" Addison asked as they had gone to the garage before making their way to the backyard.

"What about the jungle gym?"

"Pretty please?"

"Okay," Bucky easily gave in. They let Missy and Dale know what they were doing before taking off down the street. Even though Addison's 'pretty please' may have gotten her and Bucky in trouble, he was glad to spend time with his cousin bonding over the things they did together.

A/N: The inspiration for this fic came from the end of cheer tryouts when Addison says 'pretty please' to Bucky to have him let Bree on the team. I had a feeling that it wasn't the first time she had said pretty please to him to attempt to get something she wanted. This is one of the times I imagine Addison may have used 'pretty please' to somewhat manipulate Bucky and get something she wanted.

I hope you enjoyed, and I'd love to know what you thought of it. Thanks for reading,

-CrazyHayniac