The job had its perks, like having the power to summon whatever chocolate he wanted whenever he wanted it, but it mostly had downfalls. He lived forever, being immortal did that to a person you see, but he had to watch the people he cared about grow old and die in front of his very eyes. That had been centuries ago, and he had since learned to never grow fond of anyone. Humans were fascinating creatures, and their offspring were just adorable, but they were temporary and would fade away with time. He had a strong warm heart and loved children because that’s what his whole being was about, but no matter how many years passed it would never be strong enough to take the pain of losing another person he cared for. He didn’t have the heart for that at all.

 As Easter the stronger the neatly bound power in his stomach grew. He could shift whenever he felt like it, but it was around that holiday that he felt an urge to; as if he had to feel okay again. Most of the time he could suppress the small attributes, such as the ears and the puff ball of a tail, but when the stupid holiday came around he no longer could.

He could ignore that side of him for most of the year. He could live a life in a country for a couple years as a normal human, maybe even up to ten if he was lucky, but then he would have to move to another because people didn’t take to people not aging very fondly.  Most people would use immortality to say cure cancer but not him. He decided to take advantage of his so called gift and open a chocolate shop. His entire being revolved around the sugary substance, and it was getting to the point he didn’t even like the chocolate covered marshmallows anymore.

 That Saturday night before his big day that happened once every year he laid on his bed and sighed deeply. He should have slept all day today because he was going to be dead on his feet come tomorrow. At the beginning, when he had woken up in the middle of the woods come a dozen centuries ago he had been able to stay up as long as he wanted. He didn’t need sleep, and it was dangerous shifted or not. Those times were rather dark and he would rather not remind himself of them. 

He slipped off his shirt and tossed it over his shoulder. His sweat pants were pulled on, and shoes and socks placed on the floor neatly as the clock ticked another minute toward midnight. When it came to travel across continents he had found that the old well-worn sweatpants did the best job of staying on him no matter how many times he jumped.  Which is why it was the only thing he wore as the time ticked away.  

  As soon as the digital clock blinked midnight he was sighing as he pushed his longer hair out of his face and was jumping; disappearing from the island he lived upon over to the nearest house.

He had a long night ahead of him.

                                                          ----

When he appeared in the apartment there wasn’t supposed to be anyone up. He had felt that there were two humans in the place; a small little boy and a man. Both were in the bedroom, and as he moved down the hallway he glanced into the room. The boy’s name was Minho, he knew, because he knew every child’s name.  A small smile erupted on his face before he walked into the small living room, and with the wave of his hand a blue basket filled with everything the boy would want appeared, along with a small little stuffed bunny holding a soccer ball.

He didn’t expect to hear someone getting out of the bed. Usually if he was about to get caught he would shift and hide somewhere small, because he couldn’t jump when someone could see him, but then the boy was shuffling out of the hallway.

Minho stared wide eyed up at the man with the white fluffy bunny ears and wearing only sweat pants; all sleepiness gone from his eyes. “Who are you? Should I get brother?”

“No, no sweet child.” The man smiled as he kneeled to get to the boys height. “My name’s Onew. I’m the Easter Bunny.”

“Easter Bunny?” The small boy asked slowly; still hesitant as the tall man moved closer to him step by step. When Onew nodded he narrowed his eyes. “I don’t beweve you.”

Onew smiled, and with a twist of his wrist he was holding a tiny little chocolate egg in his palm; wrapped in a shiny blue wrapper. Minho’s eyes widened as his little mouth opened. “Do you believe me now?” The boy just looked between the candy and the man, as if asking if he could have it. “Go on Baby boy. You can have it.”

The boy took it with nervous tiny fingers, and opened it slowly. He looked up at the man, the chocolate between his fingers. Onew nodded, and the boy gently pushed it between his lips. His eyes brightened as he chewed. “It’s so dewishous.”

Onew chuckled then, because the boy was really cute, but he had to go. He had tons of more houses to go to and there was only 2 hours more of daylight. He stood up and ruffled the boys messy mop of dark hair. “Go on to bed. You can’t have your easter basket if you don’t go to sleep.”

Minho’s eyes had a way of surprising the man, because they seemed to be able to get bigger and bigger. The boy ran back down the hall, but a moment later was running back. He pulled the man down to his level and kissed his cheek. “Thank you for the candy.” He beamed before bounding down the hall to sleep again.

Onew wasn’t quite sure if he liked the warm feeling in his chest.

                                                             -----

Years past, and Onew found himself paying a little more attention to the little boy named Choi Minho. As the boy got older he started to believe that the night when he was younger never happened; that he never met the Easter Bunny that’s name was Onew.

The next time he saw him it was 3 years later, when he was 6. He had woken up when he heard the noise, and rushed out. He smiled widely when he saw the white fluffy ears and the long chestnut brown hair. “Onew!”

The man whipped toward the voice, panic filled his eyes before softening at the sight of the boy. “You remember me huh Baby boy?”

The boy nodded quickly. “You gave me a teeny egg!”

Onew chuckled. “That I did. Do you want another?”  The boy nodded and a wide smile spread on the man’s face. “Then check your pockets.”

Minho slowly reached into his pajama bottoms and his eyes widened as he pulled out a tiny handful of the small colorful eggs. “What…”

Onew just smiled, “Magic.”

But then it was time to go and Minho gently kissed his cheek before running away, holding the tiny chocolates tight against his chest. He wouldn’t let his brother touch them ever.

And when he woke up in the morning there was a very fluffy stuffed yellow baby duck lying next to him. He knew it was from Onew just by the smell of it, and he hugged it to his chest with a big smile. He felt really special then.

                                                     -------

Then he was 10 old enough to believe that things like the Easter Bunny and Santa weren’t real but still young enough to want to see the wonder in the world. It was then that he had heard something in their living room.

At first he thought it their cat, but the fluffy animal was still sitting on the end of his bed. He thought about getting his older brother up, but then he looked at the stuffed baby duck that was sitting beside his pillow and the thought that maybe Onew had come back suddenly popped up into his mind.  He was going to rush out to say hello, but then his bedroom door was being pushed open and he saw those white ears.

Onew gave him a small apologetic smile. “It’s been awhile huh Baby boy.” 

Minho pouted. “I thought I had made you up.”

The man sat down on the edge of the bed, “I’m sorry. These last couple years have been really busy.” He eyed the duck and a small smile formed on his lips. “Do you like him?”

A smile tugged at the corners of the boy’s mouth as he ducked his head, “Maybe.”

“It looks like he’s been well loved.” Onew said offhandedly and didn’t even try to hide his smirk when he noticed the boy’s reaction.

“I may or may not have slept with him for the last couple years.” Minho bit his lip before looking up at him.

“You’re adorable.” The man said softly, but then he was looking out of the window at the moon and he frowned before turning his attention back to the boy. “I must go Baby boy, but I’ll be back if I can next year. Remember you can’t tell anyone about me okay?”

Minho nodded his head, the man pressing a tiny piece of candy into his hand.

                                                    ------

When the boy turned 13 Onew came back. “You should be asleep Baby boy.”

Minho looked up from his comic, wide eyes even wider as he took the sight of the older man in. “Onew!”  The boy rushed from the bed to wrap his arms around the man.

Onew chuckled and wrapped an arm around him. “Don’t tell me you’re up for me.”

He didn’t know for sure but he could swear he saw the boy duck his head and blushed. “No! I just got his comic and I had to finish it.”

“At 4:39 in the morning?”

“Yes!” Minho stuck his tongue out.

Onew just smiled as he walked over to look at the books on the boy’s shelf. He pulled one out by his spine, and flipped it over to look at the cover. He glanced at the boy that had sat on the bed again before replacing the book back where he pulled it out. He hummed before commenting quietly, “Not a bad read.”

“Can I have a teeny egg again Onew?” Came Minho’s soft small voice.

Onew’s eyes flicked over to the boy and his heart warmed as the huge smile spread on the boy’s face as the tiny egg appeared on his opened palm. “I should get going. I’ve been here long enough.”

Minho frowned, because he didn’t want Onew to go. He wanted the man to sit down, so he could ask him all the questions he had thought about. “Do you have to?”

The man looked regretful. “I have to. You know that Baby boy.” .”

“Okay.” Minho said reluctantly but then his eyes widened as he rushed to pull something out from under his pillow. He slowly handed it over to the man as he looked everywhere but the man’s eyes. “I wrote you another letter.”

Onew smiled, and placed a letter of his own on the boy’s desk. Minho smiled, but it was dimmed slightly because it would be at least another year before he would hear from the man again. He sighed, and looked at his feet. The man was bring his face up to look at him and he smiled, and this time it was Onew who gently kissed his cheek. Then he was gone.

                                                          ----

He didn’t make it the next year to talk with him. He did leave a letter and a pile of the small teeny chocolate eggs, but that was all before he was gone. He swore to himself that he had to go back once more, just once, to tell the boy that it would be the last time coming, because he was supposed to stop bring the children baskets when they reached 13. He had stepped over that boundary once before, and he really didn’t like crossing over lines that were set for a reason.

He knew that Minho would be 16; he knew that the boy had changed because he had before. There had been 8 years between the two times he had actually talked to the boy, and most of that time he had spent trying very hard to ignore the urge to go see him. He had begun to care for the small boy, and he couldn’t let that happen, but as he stepped through the jump to see Minho’s back how could he really say he didn’t care for him? Then Minho was turning toward him, and his heart did a funny thing against his rib cage as those big dark eyes met his. Could he really ignore the thump in his heart now?

“Onew?” By god how deep his voice had gotten. The boy was tossing his blanket off of him and standing up to walk over to the man. Was this really the all knees and elbows boy that he had seen 2 years prior? The boy in front of him wasn’t a boy anymore; he was a man. Tall, taller than he was by a couple inches, but his face was still as he remembered. So were those eyes; so big and dark, innocent yet accusing.

“Hey Baby boy.” He said softly.

He watched the boy’s adams apple bob as he swallowed. “It’s a lot earlier than normal for you.”

Onew smiled at that. “I left a little early to come here.”

And he tried to ignore the bright spark that lit in the young man’s eyes as he asked, “Does this mean you can stay a little longer?”

“I came to say goodbye Minho.”

He hated it how the hurt expression in his eyes felt like a stab in his heart. “Goodbye?”

“I was never supposed to talk to any of the children, but I did with you. I was never supposed to keep coming back here after you turned 13, but I did. I don’t break the bounds. They are put there for a reason.”

Minho chewed on his lip. “Do you care for me?”  

“Minho.” Onew warned.

But the young man was persistent. “Please answer.”

“I… I can’t care for you.” Onew finally confessed softly.  His eyes were downcast at his hands sadly. “I’m immortal Minho. You know that. I told myself to never care for anything because all it does is hurt me.”

“I still have all the letters. I read them. All the time.” Minho scooted a little closer, hesitantly reaching out a hand to graze his fingers over the fabric of his baggy sweatpants. “Can I try something?”

“I.. what?”

“If this is goodbye let me try something.” Onew was a little reluctant but he finally nodded his head, and Minho nervously smiled as he scooted even closer so their knees touched. The young man was leaning closer, and then his lips were pressed softly against his own. Onew froze, because this wasn’t supposed to happen, but he could feel how panicked Minho was feeling and he hated it, so he pressed against the kiss.

Minho gasped when he felt the man recuperate the kiss, but before he could react properly the man was pulling away, looking even more regretful. “We shouldn’t have done that.”

“But we did.” Minho said softly. “Is this still goodbye?”

Onew glanced at the clock, even though he knew the time. He had come here an hour earlier than normal to give the boy he had gotten to know really well a proper goodbye. He hadn’t expected Minho to kiss him, or even want to, but now that he did that usual steady warm aching in his chest was now a full blown fire storm. He turned his attention to the almost shaking boy next to him, which he knew was from the fear that this was the last time they’d see each other. And he knew. He couldn’t let his Baby boy go.

“No.” He muttered. Minho’s eyebrows rose as his eyes widened; generally shocked at it, but then the man was moving in to kiss him again. He paused before their lips touched and he looked up at him, “Do you want this Baby boy?”

“Yes.”

And this time when he left it wasn’t a letter that was placed on the desk. It was a phone number, one no one knew he had besides Cheery Saint Nick Jonghyun and Sandman Taemin. And it wasn’t a soft kiss on the cheek, but one on the lips, because Minho was his baby boy. Always had been.

And as they parted Onew smiled, “And my name, my real one, is Jinki.”

                                                       ------

2 years later after Minho graduated he found a passport and a letter. He could choose to come be with Jinki where he lived, or he could choose not to.

And when he saw the young man walking through the airport toward him Jinki didn’t know whether it was him or if Taemin was playing a trick on him.

“What are you doing here?” He asked softly as Minho stood before him.

The said man blushed and looked over at him through long dark eyelashes. “I’ve loved you ever since I was 13 Jinki. I don’t care that you are who are, and that it’s different, because that doesn’t matter to me.” The man stepped forward, bringing the man he knew as Onew the Easter Bunny for most of his life into his arms as he brushed their noses together. “I may be centuries younger than you, and I may be mortal, but I’d rather spend my short life with you then without.”

Jinki his lips, and it was strange for Minho to see him without the ears, but he found he liked the man all the same. “Are you sure?”

Minho pressed their lips together. “Positive. I’m your Baby boy remember?”

And it was later as they loaded the luggage into the car that he saw the yellow baby duck, now dull from years of use, sticking out of the man’s pillow. He smiled as he slammed the trunk.

Maybe loving someone wasn’t so bad.

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