I don't even know. Basically, missing year, Easter Egg Hunt, Roland is a cutie. Snow Queen, Outlaw Queen, etc. One Shot.
It was all Snow's fault, really. Leaving decorated eggs around the castle, at the exact right height for Roland to find them. Telling the little boy stories about a bunny that could make it to every house in the whole land one night, a bunny who dropped eggs in the gardens accidentally so that children could find them.
Roland was enthralled, telling his papa all the stories in full, and making him check outside every morning, just in case Easter had happened and nobody else had noticed.
No one knew the reason Roland was getting so worked up about a time of year that he shouldn't have heard of at all. It wasn't until Robin and Regina (who had been on a casual morning walk and were absolutely not doing anything else, no matter how untucked Robin's shirt was, or how much hair was out of place), found Snow painstakingly hollowing out and painting dozens of eggs in the castle's council room that they realised the source of the little boy's stories.
"What are you doing, Snow?" asked Regina, smoothing down her hair as much as possible and straightening her dress. This room was supposed to be empty at this time of day.
The pregnant ruler looked up sheepishly, blue-covered paintbrush currently making squiggly lines all over the egg in her left hand. "What, me? I'm… making life more interesting for the castle chickens?" she replied, even her lie sounding unsure of itself.
"Are you the one who has been telling Roland all about Easter, your majesty?" asked Robin, making his way over to the table.
"No!" she replied immediately, before realising that the evidence was very much working against her, "Yes. Yes I have been doing that," she said, waiting to see what the reaction of the two people in front of her would be before choosing her responses.
"Ah," said Robin, picking up a finished egg and admiring it, "So you're the reason that I have to go hunting for eggs every morning in places where chickens would never venture," he said, amusement twinkling in his eyes.
"You've been doing that?" asked Snow, finishing with the squiggly blue egg and placing it gently in an egg cup to one side, "Isn't Easter fun?" she smiled wistfully.
"It is not fun when the result of your stories is that a little boy gets to be disappointed every morning that the Easter bunny STILL hasn't come to visit," said Regina, scowling. One morning, Roland had actually ended up in tears over the whole thing, thinking he wasn't behaving for the Easter bunny.
"Oh my goodness. I didn't mean to do that. I just miss doing all these activities with my class!" said Snow, sounding very apologetic and getting rather upset, "And I thought we could all go on an Easter Egg Hunt together!" said Snow, tears filling her eyes by the end of her sentence.
"Oh no, Snow White," said Regina firmly, leaning down over the table, "Do not cry. Do not start," she would not be responsible for one of Snow's hormonal breakdowns.
But it was too late. Snow's lower lip wobbled with the strain of keeping her sobs inside, as a few tears escaped her eyes, "I… I just thought he might… he might like to have fun with all of us! She said, choking on her words and doing her best to keep the tears inside (which was NOT working out for her), "and I miss my students and Henry so much, and-"
"Alright, Snow!" said Robin, interjecting at the mention of Henry – he didn't need Regina going on a depressive rampage and Snow feeling even worse. "We can have an Easter Egg Hunt with you and Roland, and maybe some of the other children who live in the castle. How does that sound?"
"Really?" sniffled Snow.
"Yes," said Robin, expertly navigating the impending crisis, "Roland would love to find some eggs in the garden, and you can participate also!"
"Oh that would be wonderful!" she said, tears instantly forgotten, "Where will we get the chocolate, though?" said Snow.
"Chocolate? I thought we were talking about chicken eggs," replied Robin, looking questioningly between Regina, Snow, and the chicken eggs on the table.
"We'll deal with it, Snow. You continue with your egg-painting," said Regina, dragging Robin out of the room and off to find someone who made, or sold, chocolate eggs.
About a week passed. Roland had been told that the Easter bunny would be there soon enough, but for now, he had to wait until his papa took him outside to look. All that remained was for Robin, Regina, and David to find some Easter eggs. Which was proving to be rather difficult.
"This is a terrible idea," said Regina, tossing a piece of paper onto the "no" pile of trade notices. They were hoping that there was some kind of chocolate trader who regularly came to the kingdom and would be able to get them the eggs. And the best way to find that out, for now, was to go through the port receipts to see if anything relevant had been recorded.
"What is a terrible idea?" said Robin, having entered the room with more piles of paper from the docks.
"Trying to source chocolate eggs in this world. I don't even know if the cocoa plant exists here!" she huffed, pushing her chair back with a scrape and standing, beginning to pace the floor of the room.
"Of course it does, we had chocolate mousse at dinner a few weeks ago," said David, not looking up from the parchment he was scanning for any mention of cocoa, chocolate, or, preferably, Easter eggs. Surprisingly, he was the most efficient of the three, though they still hadn't found any mention of chocolate in all their searching.
"What?" asked Robin, an obvious answer to their problem suddenly striking both himself and Regina.
"Don't you remember?" asked David, setting yet another piece of parchment aside, "or did the two of you not make it to that meal?" he finished, looking up to find two hard glares being levelled at him.
"Do you mean to say," started Regina, as she strode menacingly towards the former shepherd, a hard edge to her voice, "that we could have just gone down to the kitchens and asked for cocoa, and they could have provided it?"
"Ah. I didn't think about that," said David, smiling as genially as possible. "Would you like me to check?"
"Yes!" came the twin, irritated replies.
The kitchen's stock of cocoa was… impressive. Apparently someone had ordered an excessive amount in a while ago, and they hadn't really found much use for the stuff. It had only taken a few days, but Snow, David, Regina, and Robin, with the help from some kitchen hands, managed to make a few dozen chocolate eggs and wrapped them individually in little cloth bags.
The morning of The Great Easter Egg Hunt, Roland was awoken early so that he could have breakfast and be outside before the eggs melted in the sun. His little body was practically vibrating with excitement when he exited the castle and arrived in the royal gardens, finding Queen Snow and her husband David handing out baskets to a few other children (there weren't many besides him that lived in the castle, but there were enough that competition would surely be fierce).
"Will you help me look, papa?" asked Roland, taking his basket from the Queen with a "thank you!".
"Of course I will, my boy. I do believe the lady Regina said she might help as well, if I'm not mistaken," said Robin, taking Roland to wait with the other children, over near a large apple tree.
"Well she better get here soon," said Roland, eyeing the competition suspiciously.
"Who better get here soon?" said Regina as she sidled up beside the two Merry Men. Robin smiled at her, inclining his head.
"Majesty!" exclaimed Roland, "You look very pretty!" he said, sending a giant, toothy grin her way.
"You look very handsome as well, Roland. Are you excited for the Easter Egg Hunt?" she asked, bending down slightly so that they could speak a little more easily.
Roland's response was an eager nod of his head, before he turned back to the garden, peering carefully into the foliage as if the eggs would miraculously reveal themselves to him.
"Thank you for organising this, milady," said Robin quietly, stepping back from Roland and helping Regina back to a standing position, "It was very thoughtful of you".
"I didn't do much, thief. Just helped make the eggs, same as you," she said, begrudgingly accepting the compliment with a smile.
"Didn't you do the concealment, Regina?" he asked, surprised.
Regina turned her head to face him, "No, I didn't. Someone else was going to do that," she said, frowning a little in an effort to conceal a wider smile at the expression on his face.
"No matter," said Robin, turning back to the children, "it appears that Queen Snow will start them off soon enough".
"Y'know, papa," said Roland, turning away from the action for a second, "none of these other kids have their papas helping them look," he finished, looking a little uncertain.
"That's alright, Roland," said Robin, crouching down to the 5-year-old's eye line, "I'm sure they won't mind. Unless you do?" meeting Roland's eyes questioningly.
"I think…" said Roland, standing up straight and looking authoritatively at his papa, "that I can do it by myself," he took a step back towards the race, as if he was unsure about his own ability and of hurting the adults' feelings.
"Well, then Roland," said Regina, interjecting, "you better get going, I think everyone else has already started!" a statement that immediately earned a short cry of dismay from the little boy as he turned around, before he scampered quickly into the gardens, not one to ever miss out on any sweets.
Five minutes later, it became clear to the four adults who were now standing together near the entrance to the gardens, that the person who had hidden the eggs had done a very good job.
Too good of a job.
In fact, not a single one had yet to be located.
"Well, David, it seems that you have a certain skill for hiding eggs!" said Robin, chuckling slightly at the dismayed expressions of all the children who could not find anything.
"What?" said David, "I didn't hide them. I thought someone else was going to!"
"Queen Snow?" questioned Robin, the one oversight in their plan slowly dawning on the assembled adults.
"I've been organising baskets and things! I thought someone else… did no one do it?" said Snow, bad planning causing her features to crumple slightly.
They looked at one another in turn, each daring someone else to start the blame game. But no one did.
"In the interest of civility," started Regina, looking at Snow, "and in making sure that these 6 children have a nice day," she continued, looking over to Robin, "perhaps we should… lead them to the storeroom by the kitchen," she finished, an expectant expression crossing her features as she finished her statement with her eyes on David.
"Right then," said David, "Perhaps it would be prudent for Prince Charming to lead the charge to the kitchens?" he said, looking down to his wife. Snow nodded with a smile (and a cute little expression of love crossing her features), before standing up on her tippy toes to give him a chaste kiss on the cheek.
"Ew," said Regina, not really offended, but really just wanting to bother the lovebirds. It didn't work, and earned her a nudge in the ribs from Snow's very pointy elbow.
David strode over to the children, commanding their attention in the deepest voice he could manage, and after a few seconds they were hot on his tail as he made his way to the kitchens.
The three adults that were left behind followed as fast as the gait of the slowest of their number would allow, and made it just in time to hear the loud cheers of half a dozen kids tumble down the hall next to the kitchens.
A tiny boy in a green cloak with a dark mop of curls was the first to exit, a formerly cloth-covered egg tightly grasped in his hand, "The Easter Bunny was here papa!" he exclaimed, shouting at the top of his lungs before launching himself into his father's arms.
"Was he, Roland?" replied Robin, "You must show me, my boy," he said, before nodding politely at the two ladies who had accompanied him and moving back towards the over-crowded storeroom to see what the "Easter Bunny" had done.
"So… Roland seems to be enjoying himself," said Snow, rocking forward a little and sending an I-told-you-so look at Regina.
"Yes," said Regina, "It was a good idea," she agreed, "I wouldn't have helped you with this if I thought your ideas was stupid," scoffed the Queen, rolling her eyes.
"Excellent," said Snow as she started to walk towards the storeroom, "I'll start telling him all about Santa Claus tomorrow," she called over her shoulder, a laugh bubbling out of her at the end of her sentence.
"Don't you dare," said Regina in reply, waiting until Snow as out of sight before she closed her eyes and imagined that one of the happy cries of the children belonged to a 12-year-old boy who, worlds away, was probably having just as much fun with an Easter celebration of his own.
Wow that got really emotional anywho. I hope you enjoyed, please don't forget to leave a review!