AN: I was just in a Bunny and Alice mood today. Not much else to say, I guess. Although, sorry for any mistakes in the content. I don't really have any official beta readers for this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Rise of the Guardians or Alice: Madness Returns.

Easter Sunday, 1862

Bunny really should've seen it coming.

Of course Alice would want to help him hide his Easter eggs. What child wouldn't?

Bunny just made the mistake of visiting the girl before completing his egg route in Oxford. He had been ahead of schedule and decided to stop by and wish Alice a happy Easter, just in case he didn't get a chance later.

Recently, many spirits have complained about unusual weather and the reclusive, adolescent Winter spirit that was apparently causing it all. The little brat was making it snow on other people's holidays. Mainly late Winter and early Spring holidays like St. Valentine's Day and Groundhog Day. Cupid didn't complain much though. He was patient and flexible when it came to unexpected weather changes because his holiday didn't necessarily require a shining sun and blooming flowers, but the Groundhog wouldn't shut up about it.

Point being, there was a bit of a challenge hanging in the air that Easter. Would the volatile Winter spirit be daring enough to try his dirty tricks on Bunnymund's holiday?

Cupid and Groundhog were one thing, but the Easter Bunny was a guardian, and that was definitely a game changer.

So understandably, Bunny's mind was a bit frazzled and distracted because it was full of times zones and possible weather threats, but if he had just taken the time to think for five seconds, instead of rushing over like the idiot he knew he was, Bunny would've easily been able to avoid the awkward situation he now found himself in; standing in Alice's backyard with a basket full of colorful eggs as the little, green-eyed girl stared up at him expectantly.

"Sorry, Half-pint," Bunny replied somewhat mirthlessly. "Ya can't come along."

"Why not?" Alice asked with a face just as blank as Bunny's.

That was one of the things Bunny liked about Alice. He didn't have to pretend around her. He didn't have to try and make her like him. She just did.

He didn't have to plaster a big, fake smile on his face everytime they spoke with one another like most adults usually did with children because they weren't old enough to pick up on others ways to decipher a person's mood other than facial expressions. To children, a smile meant happy and a frown meant sad. So because of that, there was another big reason why children gravitated more towards spirits like North and Tooth. Smiling and laughing all the time was just second nature to them. They could do it right on the spot and it would be genuine.

Bunny, as surprising as one might find it, could not do that. He was capable of giving smiles and laughter to the children, but he didn't hand them out like bloody candy. The only time there was an abundance of positive gestures from the pooka, was on Easter Sunday when he felt deep in his element and the most powerful in belief.

The rest of the year though, his face remained rather stoic most of the time with the occasional smirk or scowl, which could be really off-putting in the eyes of a child.

Alice was unbelievably perceptive though.

She was able to recognize, even at such a young age, that just because her pooka friend appeared grumpy and ill-tempered all the time, didn't necessarily mean he truly was.

The little bugger studies him. She looked more to his body language than his facial expressions to convey his current moods. It took her about half a year, with one or two visits a month, to learn that crossed arms and a neutral frown basically meant "I'm happy" for the Easter Bunny.

She never creased to amaze him, even after a year.

"Because ya just can't," Bunny threw back gruffly.

"But why?" Alice stressed adamantly with an unwavering stare. "Adults always say that, but they never explain why."

"Fine," Bunny said flippantly while stepping around the five-year-old like she was hardly a difficult obstacle to get around, which she wasn't. "Ya can't come 'cause my Easter Bunny rule book says so."

Alice quickly followed after him with a deeply skeptical, "You're-so-full-of-crap" look on her face.

"No it doesn't!"

That was another thing about Alice that Bunny found remarkable. She never took anything at face-value. If she picked up on even the slightest hint of deception from him, she would call him out on it. She was always challenging him.

"Oh yes it does," Bunny insisted in a pseudo, matter-of-fact tone. "It's rule forty-six. No children are allowed to accompany an Easter Bunny while he's hidin' Easter eggs."

"You just made that rule up," Alice challenged defiantly, putting her little hands on her hips with an annoyed huff.

Feeling uncharacteristically playful, he mimicked her stance and put his paws on his own hips before looking down at her with a bit of a condescending smirk, which seemed to frustrate the little girl more, but she looked utterly adorable when angry so Bunny didn't let up.

"Did not! It's the oldest rule in the book."

"Then it should be rule number one!"

Bunny opened his mouth to retort but stalled with wide eyes when he realized that the five-year-old had backed him into a rather tight corner. His ears drooped considerably as he picked his brain for something to say before his face twisted up into another scowl when he came up with nothing.

Everything became a bit of a stalemate after that as Bunny glared down at the girl and Alice held the piercing look with a passive one of her own. Ultimately though, it ended with Alice following Bunny around Hyde Park as he hid his eggs and grumbled angrily under his breath while she trailed closely behind, basking in her small victory.

Bunnymund never thought he would see the day where he would be outmaneuvered by such an unassuming little girl.

It was a crippling loss, for sure, but it would've been even more humiliating on Bunny's part if he let himself get worked up over it. So he decided to just let it go and project his annoyance on to the little girl's method of hiding Easter eggs.

"No, no, no, no," Bunny chided roughly for the umpteenth time.

Alice looked up from where she was hiding three, brightly glittered eggs underneath a park bench, and watched as Bunny came over and picked them up again.

"This spot's too open. Way too easy to find," Bunny lectured as he walked over to a nearby bush and hid one of the eggs underneath it. "And don't hide all of them in one place. Older kids participate in these egg hunts and you're gonna want to make it challengin' enough for 'em. Otherwise, it ain't goin' to be any fun."

Bunny then wordlessly took the other two eggs and set out to find an adequate hiding place for them. He was acutely aware of the tiny eyes that watched him as he worked, which he found a bit unsettling, if he were to be perfectly honest. Bunny was used to his holiday being a solo job. Occasionally Tooth would stop by his Warren to check up on things, or if she happened to come across him during his egg routines in her neck of the woods, she would help hide an egg or two, but for the most part, Bunny did his annual job on his own.

As his egg route in Oxford continued, Bunny reprimanded Alice's hiding methods several more times until she eventually gave up trying to hide the colorful eggs, and instead, held his basket and handed him eggs as he asked for them.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Bunny felt a little guilty. He was probably sucking all the fun out of this for Alice. She looked perfectly content with handing him eggs, just feeling immensely grateful that the pooka had let her come along in the first place, but that didn't stop his stomach from churning. It wasn't her fault that he was such an overbearing perfectionist when it came to his holiday.

"Hey," He called softly over to the girl as they neared the end of his egg route for Hyde Park. "You mad at me?"

Alice looked up from her tiny feet as they swung rhythmically over the side of the park bench that Bunny had placed her on top of, several minutes ago. She hadn't said anything to him in quite a while. Normally, that wouldn't be anything unusual for the girl, but since Bunny had been a snappish jerk earlier, he wanted to make sure she wasn't giving him the silent treatment.

"No," She replied simply while reaching into the colorful basket next to her and pulling out one of the last few eggs inside. The egg she had pulled out hadn't lost its tiny legs yet so she watched with a mild look of curiosity in her eyes as it kicked its tiny limbs in the air until she set it right-side-up on the bench and let it go.

"Why not?" Bunny asked, purposely hopping over to the bench like a normal bunny-rabbit to make Alice smile at his silly display. "I know I'd be mad if I were you. I was being a wanker."

"No," She said again with a small shake of her head. "I just think you're having a difficult day, Mr. Bunnymund."

At that, Bunny let out a loud laugh.

Alice was just too funny sometimes.

Of course, he seriously doubted that was her intention. He bet that Alice fancied herself, and her words, to be very serious, but still, he found her tiny-big-person method of speaking, utterly hilarious.

And half the time, it wasn't even what Alice said. It was just how she said it that really cracked him up.

"Do you now?" Bunny smiled around a few chuckles.

Alice only shrugged her shoulders lightly in response before going back to watching Bunny's Easter egg march blindly across the bench, proudly showing off the glittery pink paint that decorated its shell.

"Looks like this is my last googie," Bunny smirked as he caught the egg in mid-air when it walked right off the edge of the bench. He looked down at the kicking egg and stood up straight from his crouched position in front of Alice. "Let me just hide this real quick and I'll take you back home."

Alice nodded mutely and waited as Bunny left her on the bench to find a hiding place for the pink egg. When he came back, he sensed a heavy change in the air when Alice blinked up at him with something strange shining in her green eyes. It wasn't curiosity or wonder. It was something that Bunny hadn't seen before in her eyes. Something negative.

"Are you going to go visit with the other child now, Mr. Bunnymund?"

Jealousy

It was mild, harmless jealousy. Quite common when a child isn't willing to share attention and affection when it came from a person they fancied, but Bunny wasn't used to seeing that. In any child. Children didn't compete for the cranky Easter Bunny's attention.

It made sense though. Alice didn't have any companions except for the ones in her head. Of course she wasn't going to like the idea of Bunny leaving her to go play with other children.

Thankfully, it didn't seem likely that she was going to throw a tantrum about it, which Bunny dreaded. Being as tantrum-prone himself, Bunny wasn't good at handling those.

Still though, he didn't enjoy seeing that sad look in her eyes.

"Yeah, I am, Half-pint. It's my job, and I've still got a lot of eggs to hide," Bunny replied truthfully while he gently ushered Alice off the bench.

He looked down at her with a light, contemplative frown. His emotions warred against his cautious nature as he slowly mulled over the words floating around in his head until ultimately deciding to take a chance.

"But I'll come back to you."

Her face grew slightly skeptical, but also hopeful. It was small and heavily guarded against the many disappointments she had already faced in her short life, but the hope was still there. Bunny could feel it beating inside her tiny body like a heartbeat just as plainly as he could feel his own fur underneath his paw.

"Promise?"

"Well, maybe not today, or even tomorrow, but I'll come back, Alice," Bunny smiled down at her. "I promise."

Satisfied with his honest answer, the little dark-haired girl wordlessly let Bunny guide her back home. Her face remaining blank until she felt Bunny reach down and wrap his paw gently around her hand.

AN: The part in this chapter where Alice accuses Bunny's "Easter Bunny handbook" rule of being fake, I borrowed Alice's witty retort from Hallmark's Alice in Wonderland. In the movie, she says the same thing to the King of Hearts when they're arguing in the Queen's courtroom. I wanted to throw in some references since I base a lot of Alice's childhood Wonderland off that movie. Plus, I wanted to show that Alice was a smart ass, even back then.

Speaking of Wonderland, next chapter is going to be where Alice finally tells Bunny about her imaginary playground.

~Scorpiofreak~