Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns the characters that you recognize – except for April, she’s all mine ‘cause I made her up! Oh, and the concept of a Wishing Egg isn’t mine, but I don’t know who made it up.

Spoilers: Everything’s fair game. It’s just easier that way.

Feedback: Yes! Please don’t reduce me to begging? I know I’m behind on sending out feedback, but I haven’t had much online time and I will get around to it as soon as I get to read the stories, I promise. Everyone who sends me feedback will receive my love and gratitude!

Author’s Note: I’m kind of feeling like this sucks, but I really wanted to write something for Easter so I’m sending it out anyway. Besides, I’ve hit a bit of a writer’s block with my other stories. And who cares if Easter was a few weeks ago? It’s not that late, right? …Right?
Second Author’s Note: This is set in an alternate universe’s season five. I haven’t been paying much attention to spoilers, so it’s not based on anything of that sort.

Dedication: To my best friend, Danielle, who gave me a much-needed head’s up.

"Please, Will, no," Buffy begged.

Willow shook her head firmly. "I’m sorry, Buffy, but this is for your own good. You need to get out!" The redhead told her. "Goddess, you’d think that you’d broken up with Angel again or something!"

Buffy’s face darkened further and Willow immediately regretted saying that.

"We went out for a long time," Buffy said defensively. "Over a year! So excuse me if I want to be a little sad over it."

"Buffy, holing yourself up in your room is not considered a ‘little sad’. It’s considered brooding," Willow murmured. "Besides, you’re the one who did the breaking up!"

Buffy snorted. "Come on, Will! You knew it was coming. Riley just wasn’t all there anymore. And he seemed almost relieved when I did it. Now he’s going out with that Andrea girl. You can’t tell me that it was all up to me."

"Maybe not," Willow allowed. "But I’m still not going to let you do this! You didn’t love him – you said it yourself."

"You’re right," Buffy sighed. "I guess it’s just that breaking up really is hard to do."

"It is," she agreed. "But it’s not an excuse for shutting out the world. Not when it’s just a college relationship. Oh, and I’m not letting you make the same mistakes you made last time! Understood?"

Buffy nodded. "But do we really have to go out for an Easter Egg Hunt?!"

Willow’s answer was firm. "Yes, we do. The kiddy stuff is a lot of fun, Buffy. You just have to be open about it."

With a sigh and without much choice, the slayer agreed. "Fine."

**********

"You look so cute!" Willow gushed, is Buffy emerged, dressed for the day.

The Slayer was wearing faded short Jean shorts and a light pink baby doll tee with a yellow chick in a half of a purple Easter egg. She had strappy white sandals on her feet and a tiny silver anklet around her ankle. Her hair was pulled back in twin half-ponytails.

"I decided to dress the part if I was going to be forced to play it," Buffy muttered.

"Good for you!" The Wiccan beamed missing Buffy’s tone completely – not necessarily by accident. "Now, let’s head to the park where the town hunt is being held. I’ve got the baskets!"

Buffy rolled her eyes and snatched the tacky multi-colored straw basket from Willow’s outstretched hand. She then stood rather impatiently by the dorm door while Willow began searching around the dorm room.

"What is it now?" Buffy groaned.

"I can’t find my Wishing Egg," Willow explained matter-of-factly while peeking under her bed.

"Wishing Egg?" Buffy echoed, disbelieving.

Willow stood up and nodded. "It’s a magical charm that’s supposed to grant you a wish. It’s shaped like a yellow egg and it’s on a chain. I got it a few months ago. Apparently, it only works on Easter and it’ll only grant unselfish wishes."

"Thanks for the lesson," Buffy replied sarcastically. She sighed. "Did you check in the closet with the rest of your magic stuff?"

Willow shook her head. "Good idea!" She decided, rushing over to the closet. A few seconds later, she emerged and held up the small charm triumphantly. "Thanks!"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Let’s just go already," she muttered. She turned and left.

Willow frowned, but followed.

**********

Buffy stomped her feet as she walked around the park, searching for the Easter Eggs.

"This is stupid," she grumbled.

"It’s not stupid," Willow protested as she bent down to pick up a tiny chocolate egg with blue wrapping. "It’s fun! The Easter Bunny only comes once a year, you know!"

Buffy rolled her eyes and was about to deliver a scathing remark about how there wasn’t an Easter Bunny while pointing out that Willow was Jewish, when a small cough interrupted them both. They turned towards the source.

Slowly, with unbelieving eyes, the two friends took in the tiny form before them. She had medium length, light brown, wavy hair and sparkling green eyes. Tiny freckles marred her perfectly fair complexion and spread across her nose to her ears, which were adorned with tiny crystal studs. She wore a corset-like strapless and shaped top with a short skirt that poofed out similarly to a tutu. The young girl was also barely seven inches tall and had little transparent yellow wings.

"I don’t believe you two!" Once she was sure that she had their undivided attention, she cried out angrily from her perch on a flower.

"Excuse me?" Buffy choked out.

"Oh get off of it," she spat. "You two reek of magic and the supernatural! You should know better! I am so tired of some stupid myth of a bunny getting all the credit for my work!"

"Your work?" Willow managed to echo.

"Who are you?" Buffy asked simultaneously, finding that her voice did still, in fact, work.

She sighed. "I’m the Easter Fairy! I’m the one who makes and hides all the chocolate," the fairy informed them hotly.

"Oh yeah?" Buffy challenged. "If you’re this Easter Fairy and do all of this, then how come my parents have always done all the buying and hiding?"

"They haven’t. They stopped hiding eggs for you when you turned eleven and then decided that you were too mature for things like that."

"No, they didn’t," Buffy argued. "I found Easter Eggs last year when I went home for the holiday and all the years before that."

"And you think who put them there, exactly?" The Easter Fairy suppressed a feral grin.

Buffy opened her mouth to say something, then stopped, unsure of what exactly to say.

"Just wait a minute," Willow broke in. "If you do all of this, then why haven’t I ever found any chocolates? I mean, just because I’m Jewish…"

"Have you ever hunted?" She interrupted. "You weren’t expecting eggs, so you didn’t find any. At least not at your house, come on, you remember finding eggs on your way to school when you were young, don’t you?"

Numbly, Willow nodded. She had found eggs by "coincidence" ever since she could remember. She’d just never thought anything of it until then.

"Well, if all of this is true, then how come no one else has noticed any of this?" Buffy questioned, hands on hips. "I’m guessing you don’t just do Sunnydale."

"Heck no," the fairy declared. "I do the whole world. But, I also only do the supernatural. Stopped doing everyone a few centuries back. Hey, people stop believing; they stop getting. That’s how it works."

"This is weird," Willow murmured.

Buffy reminded her, "We’ve seen weirder." She looked back at the fairy. "So do you do the Santa thing? You know, watch as all year and make sure we’re good or whatever?"

She snorted. "I’ve got better things to do than that!"

"Which means that you know that we’re magical, but you don’t know why?" Buffy prodded.

"Something to that affect, yeah," the Easter Fairy admitted.

"Witch," Willow stated pointing to herself. She then pointed to Buffy, "Slayer. That helpful?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"So what’s your name anyway?" Willow inquired.

"Used to be Primavera," she started. "Which means springtime, when Easter is."

"Prim – what?" Buffy asked.

She laughed gently. "That’s why I changed it a really long time ago to April. They named the month for me, then forgot about me. Pretty rude, when you think about it."

"Okay…" Buffy murmured.

"This is getting annoying," April complained suddenly. "I’m tired of being small."

She snapped her fingers and was immediately standing in the flowerbed, the same size as the other girls, wearing more conservative clothing – a plain silky yellow long-sleeved shirt and a short, form-fitting purple skirt. Her wings were hidden.

"That’s so neat!" Willow gushed. "So you can do all kinds of magic stuff, right?"

"That is kind of the point of being a fairy," April pointed out, a slight edge to her voice. She watched as Willow shifted slightly and the sun glinted off the amulet around her neck. "You have a Wishing Egg?"

"Yeah, I got it a few months ago," Willow answered.

"And you didn’t make your wish yet, did you?"

"No, I’m still trying to decide that."

"It has to be unselfish, you know," she warned.

"I know," Willow replied. "Actually, I want to make a wish that will cheer Buffy up."

"Why?" April asked, turning to Buffy. "What’s the matter with you?"

"My boyfriend and I broke up," the Slayer answered quietly.

"Is that the guy I saw you with last Easter?" The fairy questioned. Buffy nodded. "So? What’s the problem? You didn’t seem to be that into him. I thought you loved that other guy, the vampire."

"I do," Buffy admitted. "But breaking up with Riley was still hard…"

"Wait a minute, I thought you were over Angel!" Willow accused.

"I never said that I was over him," Buffy responded.

"Yes you did! You said that you’d moved on!"

"Moving on isn’t the same thing as being over," Buffy stated. "And I was happy with Riley. Sort of."

"I can’t believe you." Willow sighed. "Who’re you pretending for?"

"I don’t know," she admitted. "Look, can we not talk about this? You said you wanted to cheer me up. Well, this sure isn’t the way to go about that!"

"Sorry," Willow whispered.

Buffy shook her head resignedly. "Why am I not allowed to be happy?" She asked softly, long-hidden tears brimming in her eyes. She sniffled and attempted to hold them back. "I mean, I do everything for everyone! And I do whatever needs to be done for the world and yet I’m still not allowed happiness." She sighed. "I just don’t understand what I’m doing wrong…"

"You’re not doing anything wrong, Buffy," Willow reassured her friend quietly, wrapping her arms tightly around her. The Slayer sagged in her arms. "It’s going to get better, Buffy, really!"

April looked the two over quietly and quickly decided that she was much happier as a fairy. Humans just had too much to put up with, especially supernatural humans. At the same time, she couldn’t help but feel a few twangs of empathy for the blond girl crying for lost love. But was there anything she could do? She wasn’t sure if she could use those types of magicks.

"I could wish Angel human," Willow suggested to Buffy.

But the Slayer shook her head. "I would really love that, Wills," she replied. "But…it just feels, I don’t know, wrong?"

"Okay," Willow acknowledged the Slayer’s concerns. She supposed that they were valid, you never knew what you were doing if you made a giant change like that. She’d have to keep her wishes a bit smaller. "Well, what if we just wished that he come back to Sunnydale?"

Again, Buffy shook her head, little tendrils of blond hair hitting her in the face as she did so. "He’d never come back. Or he’d just leave again."

Willow sighed exasperatedly. "I wish you two would just realize how stupid you’re being and get back together!" She cried in frustration.

April shrunk, getting ready to do her job and grant the wish, whether or not it was intentional, when she was suddenly crushed under Willow’s body. She let out tiny yells and Willow quickly rolled off of her.

"Sorry," Willow muttered.

"It’s okay," April told her tiredly, looking up from the ground to see what the commotion was that had caused Willow to fall on her.

What she saw, was Buffy and Angel, standing within inches of one another, just staring. Buffy, apparently, had shoved Willow out of her way upon seeing her soul mate.

"And somehow I’m not surprised," she murmured, having seen little pieces of the two’s time together in the past and having heard stories from other fairies.

Willow turned to the Easter Fairy. "Did you do this?" She asked quietly. "Did you grant my wish?"

She shook her head. "I didn’t get a chance." Then she smiled. "He came back on his own."

Both turned to watch the reunion between Slayer and Vamp.

"What are you doing here?" Buffy whispered, looking up at him.

"I needed to see you," he answered. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," Buffy murmured, allowing herself to fall into an embrace with him, and they squeezed one another tightly. Finally, they pulled apart, and looked up at each other. Little space separated them. "We need to talk."

"Yeah, we do," Angel agreed.

And then they went off, hand in hand, to do just that. Talk.

"I think this Easter may actually be a good one," Willow murmured happily.

"Could be," April agreed. "But I’m way off schedule. I’ve got a lot more chocolate to hide, so I’ve got to go! Bye!"

And with those final parting words, the tiny fairy disappeared into nothingness. Willow stood for a few seconds, staring transfixed at the place on the floor where the Easter Fairy had stood only moments earlier.

"See you next Easter," she whispered, then she turned and walked away. Her work for the day was finished – and she still had to decide how she was going to use her wish.