On Thursday afternoon, Ed and Goshen stopped by the Marketplace for lunch. While munching away on greasy, sauce-dripping gyros, they chatted up Ed’s cousins at their stall. Gus and Jack ran a legit business selling mushrooms of all varieties for consumption. Finding them busy at work was the perfect opportunity to ask them for help moving Goshen to his new apartment on the weekend. After that was settled, they took a moment to relax and finish their meals-on-the-go, at rest sitting on the ledge of the fountain in the middle of the Market Square.
“Hey,” said Ed, spotting something decidedly shiny floating in the water. “What’s that?” Without waiting for a reply, he handed his half-eaten gyro to Goshen and turned onto his knees so that he could stretch out over the water and snatch the bobbing object up in his grasp.
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“Oh my gosh it’s an Easter egg!” Ed exclaimed with delight. Swiveling around, he planted his rear back on the ledge and worked on peeling away the protective clear plastic wrap. “Look, Goshen, look! I found an Easter egg! It’s gold! It’s so perfect! Look at it!” He thrust the item right up under Goshen’s nose, which did little to help him see it clearly. The older boy leaned back with a laugh.
“Yes, I can see that,” said Goshen, humorously.
Bouncing on his seat, beyond excited, Ed fiddled with the egg some more, discovering with a gleeful gasp that it had a hinged lid. “Oh my gosh look! It opens! And oh my gosh there’s something inside!”
Turning the egg over, he dumped ten shiny gems into the palm of his hand. They were of various colors and shapes, and smelled suspiciously sweet. Ed’s nose twitched. He leaned over his palm for a more exploratory sniff and then sat back bolt upright with yet another elated gasp. “Goshen,” he exclaimed, “I think it’s candy!” And without any amount of hesitation he plucked up his favorite color (green) and popped it into his mouth.
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Goshen did try to warn him to be cautious, but the words fell short and it was far too late. He sighed, smiling fondly, as he watched his boyfriend chew. But then the strangest thing happened.
Ed had just expressed a satisfied hum of noise and swallowed his bite of candy when a puff of smoke enveloped him. Within the cloud there was a shocked squeak. Coughing, Goshen waved the smoke away with his hand. Once the air cleared, he discovered that his boyfriend was no longer sitting next to him. Instead, there on the ledge, sat an adorable, green, super fluffy cloud bunny that was just big enough to fit in the palm of his hand.
“Oh dear,” said Goshen, scooping up the lighter than air little flufkins. “This is new. I thought you turned into a rat.”
The green cloud of fluff looked at him with wide, wet eyes and squeaked dolefully. Often Goshen claimed he wasn’t very good at reading people. Perhaps he had more of an affinity for animals, because he did not seem to have much trouble figuring out that Ed was distressed, that this was not normal. Magic was, obviously, afoot.
“Don’t worry,” Goshen told him, stroking a fingertip along the crown of his little, cottony soft head. “I’ve got you.” He tucked the tiny air bunny onto his shoulder, and immediately the miniaturized Ed-bunny nuzzled under his ear. It tickled, and was cute as heck, which was probably why Goshen laughed. He collected the other candies that had dropped when Ed had transformed and scooped them back into the egg, knowing his boyfriend would not be happy, despite the circumstances, to have his treasure left behind.
That night, Goshen took the Ed-bunny home, turned on Ed’s favorite movie, and snuggled him to sleep.
—-
The next day, at about the exact same time, Ed miraculously transformed back into himself. He babbled incessantly about the awkwardness of the experience, citing that he never wanted to do that ever again. But then he got the most glorious, most mischievous idea.
—-
On Sunday, after they had had everyone’s help moving Goshen into his new apartment, Ed left the candies sitting on the kitchen counter of the second floor apartment at Old Temple West, amid a collection of other Easter treats. One by one, his cousins helped themselves, and one by one the lot of them suffered similar effects. A few transformed into red, or yellow, or blue super fluffy cloud bunnies. Others still had less drastic changes occur to them. Jameson’s hair turned pink and Olive’s skin turned green. Auntie Sizzle wound up with a purple nose. There were shrieks of horror and laughter, and somewhere outside Ed himself giggled maniacally at the prank he had pulled.
“Happy Easter Fool’s!” he shouted. Moments later he was seen shrieking and cackling as he ran down the street, chased by the man with pink hair who was threatening to drown him in a vat of booze. Fortunately he lost him somewhere over the border between Dockside and Old Temple, and found refuge in his own workshop in Kabuki Street, where he shared the hilarious story with Noodle, who likewise got a good laugh hearing about how Jack’s ears had turned highlighter yellow.
(( All other characters mentioned used with permission. ))
