[kabuto_rocks]

"I expect I'll still be cuddling Bandit when I'm old," she smiled, thinking of herself with grey fur and granny glasses still clutching the same old stuffed toy. She had already made up her mind to be one of those crazy, eccentric old people so that suited her just fine, "And it's hard not to love bunnies! They're one of the reasons I love Spring so much."

Shifting back so she could get a better glimpse at her egg, she hesitated slightly.
"I think I should be able to reach it, although there are quite a few branches in the way. I can probably scoop it out though," she started to push through the leaves, sneezing again with the pollen, "If you were any more adorable you'd be illegal. Could you maybe dig it out? I can help you if you like?" She backed up a little, ready to go help him if needed

{8}

[Shieba]

"That's good! Cuddles are always awesome, no matter how old you are!" After all, his Daddy liked cuddling, too, so it clearly was a good thing for all ages. "Bunnies are the best animals ever!" Lelouch insisted. "We have another girl living at the Chateau who likes duckies, but clearly, bunnies are better!"

"That's good! Then we have three eggs already!" Lelouch was still inspecting the egg he had found. "What does 'illegal' mean? I want to be as adorable as possible!" he asked and then beamed. "Dig! Like a bunny! I'll do that!" Albeit clumsily, he tried to emulate how he saw his bunnies digging in their pens, earth flying around. Since he was a Fellox, it didn't exactly work well, but at least he made some progress.

[kabuto_rocks]

Satisfied that he was okay for now, she shimmied back into the bush and started swiping at the egg with her paw.
"I must admit, ducks are pretty cute too. Bunnies are definitely better though," her paw collided with the egg and she clung on, careful not to squeeze too hard, "And 'illegal' means 'not allowed'. As in, you'd be so cute that people wouldn't be able to cope when they saw you." Edging back, she gently dragged the egg across the ground. Finally she got it out into the light, revealing a small blue egg with a pretty moon pattern painted onto it.

"There we are! Aww, it's so pretty!" Taking her time, she rolled it closer to Lelouch, making sure to avoid the perilous digging area. She shook a few leaves out of her fur, wiping pollen off her snout before sitting down near him.

"Are you sure you wouldn't like any help with that?"

{9}

[Shieba]

"Yeah, but you can't pet duckies! And their beaks are really sharp! So I really don't understand why she doesn't like bunnies. I'm glad you agree with me!" It was really pretty sad that the only other child his age at the Chateau didn't like bunnies, so Lelouch was glad that Iota seemed to understand him pretty well despite being all grown up. "Oh no, people must come to me and love me! Can I really be too adorable? That can't be!" No one had told Lelouch that there was something like being too adorable before! "What can I do now? How can I tell when I'm too adorable?!" Being distressed now, he looked at Iota with big eyes.

The egg was really pretty! "You can put it in the basket! We can collect them all in there! And if you want to dig like a bunny, too, then you can help as well! We can both be like bunnies!" Lelouch declared. After all, who wouldn't want to be like a bunny?

[kabuto_rocks]

She couldn't help but smile at his distress, especially when he looked at her with such big eyes. He really was one of the sweetest children she'd ever met.
"I wouldn't worry. I don't think there's really such a thing as being too adorable. And even if there was, you'd be far too adorable not to love wouldn't you?" She wasn't sure if he'd understand that logic (after all, she'd managed to confuse herself a little) but it sounded reasonably okay to her. At least, she hoped so anyway. Sometimes she tended to blabber a bit.

"That sounds like a good idea." She agreed, carefully pushing the egg over and lifting it gently into the basket. Then, stretching out her paws, she trotted over beside Lelouch and started to dig. It was probably a bit easier for her, given that she was larger than him and had often enjoyed digging in her childhood. She used to give her dad an awful shock, digging small tunnels and holes and hiding in them.

"Phew! I wish we had some bunnies here to help us. Do you think you can get it out yet?"

{10}

[Shieba]

Lelouch was a bit confused now - hadn't Iota said before that if he got more adorable, people wouldn't be able to cope? - but if she thought it was okay, then it hopefully was. "So I can continue to become more adorable?" he asked, still a bit unsure. "Everyone loves me and that's awesome, but I want to be the most adorable boy ever!"

Lelouch made a bit of space so that Iota could join him and then, when she started digging, was amazed at how good she was at it. "Woooow! You can do it like a bunny! Awesome! And I could get some bunnies who wouldn't run away, but I don't know if they would understand that they would have to dig for the egg!" He tried to reach it when Iota asked him about it and managed to touch it with his paw, but since it was a paw and not a hand, he couldn't really pull it out yet. "Not yet! I clearly must become smaller again, like a bunny!" Becoming smaller seemed so much harder than growing up...

[kabuto_rocks]

"I'm pretty sure you already are the most adorable," she grinned, "But yes, it will be fine if you find a way to be even cuter." God help his subjects if he did. It was quite a nice thought though, thinking of a king who wanted to rule through love and cuddles instead of desiring power. Hopefully he wouldn't lose that.

"Yeah, they'd probably rather eat the grass or something," Pausing her digging while he reached, she sat down briefly on the soft grass. It was pretty nice in this area actually, all fresh and springy, "Becoming smaller can be quite tricky. Would it be better if we dug some more?" Blimey, the person who hid these certainly knew what they were doing

{11}

[Shieba]

Lelouch beamed. "I love being super-adorable! But I'm not adorable enough yet or I would be allowed to get more ice-cream and get a bunny at home as well! Daddy is resisting my cuteness!" In Lelouch's head, it all made sense.

"They love to do that", Lelouch agreed. "Or they would run around and sniff the ground. That's super-cute, but it doesn't help us! And I really don't want to grow up and instead become smaller again! Daddy can't even lift me up and carry me around anymore. That makes me sad!" He tried reaching for the egg one more time and failed again. "Yes, we need to dig a little bit more! The Easter bunny was probably really small and had no problem getting there!"

[kabuto_rocks]

She grinned, wondering who could possibly resist his cuteness? Perhaps that was why she had never become a mother. Apart from being too young to really think about all that, she would never be able to deny her child anything. She didn't have the willpower, which probably meant any child of hers would end up terribly spoilt. Besides, she was hardly the ideal role model for a sensible parent. She was often known to indulge in childish things too much herself, let alone if she was trying to stop someone else.

"Aww, but look on the bright side! Don't you want to grow up and be king like your daddy?" Crouching down, she proceeded to dig a bit deeper and closer to the roots. She hadn't seen the egg herself but she had seen where he was reaching and that gave her a bit of a better idea where to aim. Surely they had to create a big enough gap soon?

{12}

[Shieba]

Lelouch shook his head. "Nooo! I want to be a king like my Daddy but still be really small! Because grown-ups aren't as cute anymore! No one ever calls my Daddy cute, for example, but they say that I look just like a small, cute version of him! So growing up is bad! I like being adorable! Also, when you're all grown up, you can't play as much anymore and must work a lot! And you get less huggies for free from girls! Daddy says I only get away with all the huggies from girls because I'm little and that I can't just run up to girls and hug them anymore when I'm grown up!" Lelouch really didn't understand any of it, but it was obviously bad. He liked being adorable a lot. "I think I'm all grown up enough already to be a king!" he declared while waiting for Iota to make the hole big enough. Clearly, she was very good at digging like a bunny!

[kabuto_rocks]

"Okay, well admittedly some of that is true," she paused her digging momentarily, deciding that such a passionate response deserved her full attention, "But just because you're an adult doesn't mean you still can't have fun. I still play games, like going out on Easter egg hunts and finding new animals to play with. And okay, you might not be able to just run up to strangers and hug them, but I'm sure you'll still be adorable enough as an adult that girls will want to hug you anyway." It had been a while since she'd spoken to a child as young as him. She'd forgotten how worried they could get, how the things adults said often made no sense whatsoever.

"If it were up to me I'd make you king right now," she smiled, digging for a while more before stepping back again. The hole was quite a bit bigger now, hopefully big enough for him to squeeze in a bit, "There. Why don't you try to reach it again?"

{13}

[Shieba]

"I'm scared of growing up", Lelouch admitted, a bit sad. "When I was even smaller, I didn't have to go to school. Now I have to and have less free time to play! That's so sad! I'd rather spend all day with the bunnies! But I hope that all girls will still want to hug me when I grow up! I like being hugged by girls, they're squishy!" Okay, so his father had told him to not say that anymore (especially not to girls), Iota would probably understand and also, since she wasn't a human, she also wasn't squishy.

He beamed. "I'd like to be king! I'd order everyone to be nice to bunnies and pet them! And I'd give everyone free ice-cream!" He waited until Iota had stepped back, then he tried to squeeze in the hole again. It worked quite a bit better now and while he couldn't grab the egg with his paw, he managed to knock it towards himself until it rolled down. "Yaaay!" He looked at the egg which was red and yellow pained. "There it is!"

[kabuto_rocks]

"Aww, I used to worry about growing up too. But then I realised that just because I'm older doesn't mean anything has to change really. And you could always become a bunny farmer instead of a king, if that's what you decide you really want." At one point in her childhood Iota had been convinced she was going to own a farm and spend her days raising chickens and other livestock. Not to eat of course-never to eat, it would be far too sad. But she could sell the produce and she was convinced it would be enough to live on. Then she'd realised that she'd never be able to have the patience to own a farm, nor the discipline required to run it. Ever since then she had stuck to livelier pursuits.

"Yippee!" She leapt for joy when she saw the egg, her front paws still caked in dirt. She brushed a bit off before giving up, choosing instead to take a closer look at the egg, "It's so lovely! I adore Easter eggs. All eggs should be this pretty. Well done for reaching it." She beamed, giving him one of her most excited smiles. She couldn't wait to find more eggs!

{14}

[Shieba]

"You think I could?" Lelouch pondered that. "I'm not sure. I'm the only prince of the kingdom, after all! And I also like to be a prince. People give me lots of toys because I am. Can I be both, maybe? A bunny-farmer-king?" He would have to talk with his daddy about it, but he doubted his father would allow it. After all, he wasn't even allowed to own a single bunny at home yet, even though he cared for all the bunnies at the Chateau.

"I agree! They're all colorful and pretty! The Easter bunny is far better at this than chickens!" He beamed back when Iota smiled at him. "I want to find more, too! We only have three so far, after all! Where else could some be?" He started to look around, wondering if there were more in this area.

[kabuto_rocks]

"Well, in that case your daddy might have a problem with you giving up your throne. On the other hand, once you are king then you'll be able to have all the bunnies you want right? I see no reason why you couldn't be both." She giggled slightly at the thought. Now not only would he be the Hugging King, he'd be the Bunny King too! She loved the thought of it. What subjects wouldn't adore having a king like that?

"Hmm, I'm not sure," Also glancing around, her gaze fell upon a fallen log. It wasn't particularly large but part of the middle had rotted away, potentially leaving a gap for eggs to be hidden in, "How about there?" She pointed with a mud-covered paw, prompting her to try one last time to wipe the remainder of the mud off on the grass

{15}