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Char, this is a disaster!” Nick wailed, staring at his phone in horror as he walked into the living room.
“What is?” Charlie asked, without glancing up from his book. He was curled up on their plush, navy cuddle chair reading Isaac’s latest recommendation, catching the last of the late evening light streaming through the window.
“THIS!” Nick said, hurrying over and plonking himself down onto the same chair, practically on top of Charlie’s feet. “Here, budge over and give me some room.”
Charlie glanced up at him, looking like he was about to protest that he was too comfortable; he had that same look of annoyance in his eyes that Nick recognised from previous times he’d interrupted Charlie when he was reading.
Nick wished that this irritated expression, combined with the new reading glasses perched on Charlie’s perfect nose, didn’t ignite a fire in his belly.
But to say it didn’t would be a big fat lie. Even after all their years together, he was still completely weak for any and all versions of Charlie Spring.
The glasses definitely weren’t helping things, though.
But it wasn’t the time for that, and rather than dragging Charlie into his lap like he wanted to, Nick pushed that feeling down and instead shoved his phone into Charlie’s face, shaking it dramatically. “LOOK! Look at this!” he said, his panic temporarily superseding his desire.
Charlie sighed and shifted his hips on the chair to make space, holding his book in one hand as he plucked the phone out of Nick’s grasp to see what it was that had Nick in a flurry. He frowned when he saw that there was a heavy rain forecast overnight.
“And? Why is this a problem?” Charlie asked. “It’s not news, Nick - it’s the UK, it rains every other day.”
Nick rolled his eyes in response. “Because of the egg hunt?” he murmured quietly, gesturing his head towards the playroom where all three children were currently watching Tangled.
“Oh. Yeah. Fuck.”
With tomorrow being Easter Sunday, they had planned to set up their annual chocolate egg hunt tonight in the garden for Amelie, Theo and Florence to wake up to.
“What will we do?” Nick panicked, continuing their conversation in hushed tones so they wouldn’t be overheard. “They’ll be so sad if the Easter Bunny doesn’t come. I can’t cope with their little faces.”
“When can you ever?” Charlie laughed.
Nick watched him lift a bookmark from the side table, placing it on his current page as a placeholder and setting the book next to the lamp.
“You’re a massive sap. All it takes for you to give into every whim is for them to flash puppy eyes and a wobbly lip…” He paused, and a mischievous grin flashed over his face. “Actually, that’s usually what works for me getting my own way with you, too!”
“Oi!” Nick started to protest.
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
Nick thought for a moment, then chuckled as he pocketed his phone. “No, you’re right, I won’t even deny that.”
“Mmm hmm,” Charlie smirked. “Thought so.”
He snuggled into Nick’s side, brushing his fingers up and down Nick’s arm in a comforting motion. “I’ve got an idea- what about if we do the hunt in the house instead this year? Cause nobody wants soggy chocolate, right?” He laughed when Nick screwed up his face in disgust. “We could have a treasure hunt around the house like in Bluey? Write them little clues, which will lead them to their gifts?”
“Oooh, okay, yeah that sounds good actually,” Nick said, his face brightening with excitement. “Do you want to start working on clues while I go get the monsters ready for bed?”
“Sure,” Charlie smiled. “I’ll Google it. I’m sure I’ll be able to find some clues or something easily to save me making them up.”
“Look at my Twinkl account,” Nick said as he walked out of the room. “There’s loads of stuff on there, I use it for school all the time.”
Nick spent the next hour getting all three children washed and in pyjamas, taking the time to meticulously French braid Flossie’s wet, poker-straight blonde locks so she could wake up with what she liked to call ‘ crinkly hair’.
“Okay, done,” he said, as he walked into Charlie’s office and flopped down onto the footstool. “Floss is asleep already, Theo and Meelz are reading in their beds.”
“Thanks, baby,” Charlie replied absentmindedly. Nick looked at the paper spread out across his desk, watching as Charlie cut out small rectangles with printed words and colourful egg borders.
“Thought it might be best to type them,” Charlie explained. “As this might be the last year all three of them believe, you know?”
“Yeah,” Nick smiled wistfully, nodding in agreement. “The handwriting. I get it.”
With her rapidly approaching her eighth birthday, Nick and Charlie both knew that Amelie’s days of believing in the Easter Bunny would soon be coming to an end; if she hadn’t already worked it out, she was a clever kid.
“Exactly that,” Charlie agreed. “She’ll recognise our writing, Nick; I thought that, this way, it keeps the magic alive for her for maybe one more year.”
“Now who’s the sap?” Nick laughed.
“Still you, always you!” Charlie sassed back. “Okay, so I’ve gone for a mixture of easy clues that Floss can figure out, and some trickier ones that the big kids might need to help with.”
“Sounds great,” Nick said, leaning over to plant a kiss on Charlie’s forehead. “I’ll go get the washing up started, you keep working at this.”
“Deal.”
Later, once they were sure the children were asleep, they snuck around the house hiding the clues. Each was accompanied by a pile of small chocolate eggs or candies, and eventually, the children would be led to their main Easter chocolate stash and gifts.
The final step was to place the first clue and empty baskets in Meelie’s room, next to the plushie rabbit that the Easter Bunny had brought her last year. Together, they arranged everything nicely and snuck out the door, closing it firmly behind them.
🥚🐰🥚
As expected, they both woke the next morning to screams of joy and little feet thundering around the house.
Nick, warmly cocooned in Charlie’s arms, felt his whole body clench with excitement at the thought of his children's happy faces.
Charlie felt it, too.
“Eurgh, you are so fucking cute ,” Charlie whispered in his ear, as the stomping sounds got closer and closer. “I can literally feel you wiggling like a puppy. Sometimes I can’t stand it, when -”
He was rudely interrupted by what sounded like hundreds of little hands, instead of six, creating a cacophony of banging noises on their door.
Their locked door.
After one too many close calls of getting caught in compromising positions, they had finally installed a lock a year ago to preserve both their dignity and their children’s innocent eyes.
“Daddy and Papa, wake UP and stop cuddling, we want to find the chocolate!” Meelie shouted.
“Papa! Daddy! Lemme in, it Flossie!” Florence supplied helpfully.
“THE EASTER BUNNY HAS LEFT US A CLUE LIKE IN BLUEY!” Theo screamed, sounding like he was fit to burst.
Both Nick and Charlie laughed, and Charlie placed a kiss between Nick’s bare shoulders before he rolled away and hopped out of bed to unlock their door. The kids ran in, in matching pyjamas, brandishing their empty, animal shaped wicker baskets - a yellow chicken for Theo, a purple lamb for Flossie and a mint green bunny for Meelie.
“What’s happening?” Charlie asked, playing along and rubbing his eyes theatrically. “What’s going on?”
“A clue, Daddy!” Meelie said, wiggling the piece of paper in the air. “The Easter Bunny has hidden our chocolate in the house, and he left this.”
She started to read the words on the piece of paper in her sweet, lilting voice:
“The Easter Bunny’s been today
He dropped some eggs along the way
Follow the clues - you need to be wise
As they will lead you to your prize!
The next clue is shivering,
Somewhere very cold,
With milk, eggs and ham
Find it - do as you’re told!”
“The FRIDGE!” all three children screamed in unison.
“Yup, that sounds right,” Nick agreed. “What are you waiting for, go go go!”
He grinned as the children all scurried out of the room, their baskets swinging wildly in their hands, as they headed for the stairs.
“I’ll go down and start making breakfast,” Charlie said, pulling on one of Nick’s hoodies. “I got those bunny shaped crumpets we got last year.”
“Perfect,” Nick nodded. “I’ll be down in five. Can you make me a tea, please?”
For the next twenty minutes, Nick and Charlie pottered around their kitchen, making breakfast and listening to the children’s happy voices as they worked together
It seemed their bad weather contingency plan had worked.
Eventually, the kids reappeared, having finished the egg hunt, with full baskets of chocolate eggs which they started showing off. However, Nick did a double take as he spotted something that shouldn’t have been in Theo’s basket.
It was a bright blue, egg shaped plastic object that to a child, yes, could resemble an Easter egg.
Except it definitely wasn’t an Easter egg.
Instead, most unfortunately, it was one of Nick and Charlie’s plugs; one which they thought they’d lost months ago on a filthy weekend away.
Fuck! Fuck Fuck Fuckety Fuck!
Nick glanced at Charlie, and was rewarded with the moment he choked on the sip of coffee in his mouth when he too spotted the plug.
“Wow, well done gang, that’s some haul this year,” Nick said. He pointed into Theo’s basket. “Uhhh, where did you find this interesting, err, egg, Theo?”
Charlie snorted into his mug.
“The Easter Bunny left it under your and Daddy’s bed, Papa,” Theo said. “Behind some boxes.”
This is not happening. Kill me now.
Nick swallowed, and nodded. “That’s great, Tee,” he said weakly.
Charlie snorted into his coffee again, this time hiding his face.
Oh, you are absolutely NO help, Char!
“Did the clues lead you to under our bed?” Nick asked, still wondering how the fuck this had happened.
“Nah,” Theo said. “I thought I’d just take a peek in case the Easter Bunny had hidden some extra special stuff…and I was RIGHT!”
Great. Wonderful. Fabulous.
“And look at this,” Theo said, as he lifted the offending item from his chicken shaped basket. The juxtaposition of the wholesome with the very adult object was making Nick’s left eye twitch.
“It even has a bit on the bottom that means you can stand it up,” Theo continued.
Oh no…
He watched in silent horror as Theo displayed the plug on the kitchen countertop, stepping back to look at it proudly.
Nick tried not to laugh at Theo’s exuberant little expression, and happened to glance at Charlie, which was a mistake; Charlie was almost purple in the face from a similar predicament as he held in his own giggles.
“It’s like a trophy,” Theo explained. “An egg shaped trophy. Oooh, maybe I won the Easter Bunny’s race and this is my prize?”
As Nick tried to figure out how the fuck to answer this, Charlie suddenly ran out of the door and into the next room; coffee slopped out of his mug and splashed on the tiled floor in his hurry. Seconds later, the muffled, tell-tale hissing of Charlie’s laughter started from where he had obviously planted his face into a sofa cushion.
NO help at all, none whatsoever! Thanks for leaving me to deal with this, you little twat!
Nick turned back to face his son, who was staring up innocently at him. He thought about explaining that it wasn’t actually a trophy left by the Easter Bunny, that instead it was something of Papa and Daddy’s - but swiftly realised that would lead to more questions which he really, really wasn’t prepared to discuss with his six year old.
So, that left only one option - to go along with it.
“Great job, Tee!” he said resignedly. “I definitely think you’re the winner of this year’s Easter Egg hunt - the Easter Bunny has left you a trophy and everything!”
Meelie and Floss both cheered for their brother, while Nick tried to school his expression into more of a grin, and less of a grimace.
“I’m going to put it next to my trophy from Scouts, I think,” Theo said happily.
Fan-fucking-tastic!
And that’s how, for the next two weeks, until Theo forgot about his prize and Nick was able to return it to its correct hiding place, there was a plug taking up pride of place on the Nelson-Spring mantlepiece.