Rating: PG
A/N: I would like an award for worst title ever. Thank you. I'll let you know where you can send it. Anon on Tumblr requested the Bunny fic, so I wrote it. Younger Killian in a bunny costume has been making me giggle incessantly all through this process. Still fighting with my other AU. This was entirely too much fun to wait, though. Hope you enjoy it, Anon!
Prompt: "you're dressed as the easter bunny at our town's easter egg hunt and I take my younger sibling, but they're afraid of people in costumes and you accidentally make them cry and you take off the bunny head to apologize and hey you're kinda cute" au
"Emma, please! Please! Pretty please? Please, please, please, please, Emma come on, please?"
For at least the third time in ten minutes, Emma's head drops back and she stares at the heavens, praying for patience. She wishes they would've taken a walk anywhere but the park, where a giant sign displays an upcoming event starting in a half hour.
"Neal, if you ask one more time, I'm going to leave you in the Lost and Found box," she says, pushing down a smile when Neal rolls his eyes in a perfect imitation of how Emma normally does. While he's only seven, a whole eleven years her junior, he's quickly growing to be a miniature version of Emma herself, which is both entertaining and infuriating. "You don't even like the Easter Bunny. Why do you want to go to this egg thing?"
"Because candy. Duh!" he responds, with all the sass he can manage. Emma considers it for another moment. She's in charge today, entrusted with her brother's care while her parents prepare for family to come in for the holiday only three days away. It also just happens to be the day of the town egg hunt, and Neal is angling for any reason to get more candy in his system.
"Only if you give me a cut of the candy," Emma says, finally settling on a suitable exchange for letting them stay.
"How much are we talking, here?" Neal asks skeptically. He is growing up to be just like her.
"Twenty percent," Emma starts her bargaining.
"Emma!" Neal whines. "You know I haven't learned percentages yet!" She holds in the chuckle at his panicked expression.
"That just means if you get ten eggs, I would get two of them," she assures him. The information doesn't sit well with him. He eyeballs her uncomfortably.
"What if, for every ten eggs I get, I gave you one? How much would that be?"
"Ten percent," she tells him. He looks a little happier with this information, so she adds, "And I'll help you with your math homework for a week." It will certainly be easier than her own math homework.
"Deal!" he exclaims happily.
There are already people milling around the park waiting for the event to start. Emma gets a little worried when she spies a costumed figure walking amongst the crowds. Neal and costume characters are not a happy mix. The last time she took him to an event, he kicked a frolicking Elmo in the privates, and she couldn't tell from the whine if the victim was male or female. Either way, she apologized profusely and shuffled Neal away from it as quickly as possible.
"Promise you won't maim the Easter Bunny if he comes close to you?" Emma asks as she sees the ears moving through the people. She steers them clear of it every time, but she wants to make sure they don't have a repeat experience.
"Is it gonna try to touch me?"
"I don't know, buddy. Just keep your eyes on the eggs and I'll try to keep the rabbit clear of you, okay?"
Neal nods his head in solemn agreement, and they announce the start of the egg hunt. The set-up this year is slightly better than it was in the past, where they would partition off part of the flat field in the park and the children were set loose inside markers with tape. This time, they've actually hidden the eggs for the slightly older age groups, and Neal loves nothing better than finding hidden treasures.
As the kids are released to find eggs, Emma keeps an eye on her brother and an eye on the bunny, still bobbing his or her way through the throngs of people clustered in the area. She can't help but smile when she sees the figure stoop down to entertain a crying baby. The baby, surprisingly, giggles and gurgles happily, reaching for the floppy ears of the mask in an attempt to teethe on them. One white mitten hand reaches out and boops the youngster on the nose before she loses sight of the character again.
Neal is back when they blow a whistle, and he has a bag loaded with colorful plastic eggs.
"Jeez, buddy. Did you leave any for the other kids?" Emma exclaims when she sees the haul.
"They were everywhere Emma! I ran out of room!" His eyes are so bright, the excitement of mass amounts of sugar already dancing through his little head. She laughs and ruffles his hair, steering him in the direction of her car.
Emma is so caught up in Neal's excited rambling that she doesn't notice that the rabbit is right in front of them until it's too late. Neal runs head-first into the white fur legs in front of them, dropping and scattering the bag of eggs in every direction. She freezes, eyes wide, waiting to see how badly he can injure this one. But instead, he throws her off guard by crying.
"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Emma yells at the person in the suit. Knocked back from the collision, the person is sitting there in somewhat shock, until it moves in a flurry of motion and reveals that it is a he and he…Well, he's actually pretty damn cute.
He has dark hair, matted down from the last hour spent under the foam of a character head and the prettiest blue eyes she's seen outside her father's. The five o'clock shadow doesn't hide that he isn't much older than Emma.
"Oh god, I am so sorry. It's the blo- I mean, stupid mask. I didn't see you. Are you okay?" He directs all his attention at Neal, English accent piquing her curiosity even further. He shucks off the mittens to the costume and starts gathering eggs, placing them back in the plastic bag Neal was carrying them in. Neal, to his credit, is scrubbing the tears off his face with a somber, albeit petulant look on his face. "Are you hurt?" the guy asks again, genuinely concerned for the well-being of her brother.
"I'm okay," Neal says, breath hitching one more time as Emma helps him to his feet. She kneels down to help gather the last of the eggs, coming face to face with Mr. Pretty Eyes.
"I'm really sorry," he says again, this time looking at Emma and the second their eyes meet he gasps and drops the eggs that were in his hand. She smirks a little at his flustered state, looking back down at the task at hand. When the eggs are all gathered in the bag again, she stands and accepts the bag, passing it back to Neal.
"There. No harm, no foul, right?" Emma asks Neal, brushing her hands off on her jeans. With the proffered bag back in his hands, Neal grins and nods his head happily. She turns back to the bunny still on the ground and offers her hand.
He rises to his feet and bends to collect the mittens and throws them inside the mask. "Once again, really sorry about that. I think I might have something, though." He reaches into a pocket built into the side of the costume and comes up with a couple certificates for free ice cream. He bends to one knee and hands them directly to Neal. "Does this make us even?"
Neal stares at the certificates for a moment before a wide smile splits his face. "Yes! I mean, I guess so. I'm Neal, by the way. And this is my sister, Emma."
"Pleased to meet you both. When I'm not masquerading as a festive rabbit, I go by Killian," he says, bowing deeply to both of them.
He ends up walking with them to the parking lot, having parked just a few spots from where Emma's car sits. She unlocks the door for Neal, warning him to not eat all the candy before she can get her share.
"Congrats on being the first holiday mascot he hasn't injured," Emma says, wry smile on her face.
"Ah, I feel honored then." As he speaks, he carefully pulls at Velcro on the back of the costume and peels off the fake fur until he's standing in just a t-shirt and basketball shorts. "They did warn me that some children could have adverse reactions to the costume. Glad I didn't have to find out first-hand."
She hums a little, trying to not stare at the barest hint of muscle playing beneath his exposed arms and calves. He still seems to notice, amused expression twisting his lips up.
"Well, I better get him home before he makes himself sick with all that candy," she says, suddenly not so eager to leave the park.
"Once again, lovely to meet you, Emma," he says. "And uh, if you happen to go get ice cream tomorrow at say, four o'clock, I hear that's an excellent time for it." He scratches a spot behind his ear as he says it, and she finds herself watching him with her head tilted to the side.
"Four o'clock, huh? I guess that sounds like a good time to go," she responds. She knows Neal will be thrilled to get ice cream right after school.
The next day, when they show up at the ice cream parlor down the street from the elementary school, Killian is already sitting outside sipping on a milkshake. As Neal excitedly runs inside to get his treat, Emma goes to find out more about her new friend and thinks she may even offer to help Neal with his homework for two weeks as repayment.