And as Jeffery sat down on the bed beside Kit, Chris laid himself on his belly on top of Jeffery’s knees. Jeffery chuckled as he stroked Chris on the head.

“Good little bunny rabbit.” Jeffery said, hugging Chris around the neck while still stroking his head. Chris smiled in self-satisfaction at being called good.

Kit watched Chris playing the rabbit for a moment with a smile. He could imagine that Jeffery was thankful that Chris was light in weight or he’d be complaining that Chris was crushing his thighs 

Jeffery then tucked Chris by the waist under his arm and stood up.

“C’mon, Kit, we got to get back to practicing.” And he walked out of the room, carrying Chris under his arm. Only when they reached the step ladder leading down from the attic bedroom did Jeffery put Chris down and allowed him to walk on his own. He may be light in weight, but Chris was still too heavy for Jeffery to carry like a real rabbit around the house.

They went back to the rehearsal studio and resumed practice, this time starting with the basic and moving up to the more advanced tricks.

“What do you think you’d like to do for a grand finale?” asked Jeffery, as Kit successfully separated the three rings that were joined together.

“I have a trick in mind.” Kit replied. “But I’m not gonna tell you, it’s a secret.”

“Aww, c’mon, tell me.” Jeffery begged him, with his best puppy-dog pout.

Kit, who was becoming cute-proof since he started spending time with Chris, the King of Cute, said firmly: “No.”

“Aw nuts,” Jeffery said, kicking his foot against the floor, clearly disappointed. “It’s doesn’t have anything to do with me, does it?” he read the answer in Kit’s sly grin. “Oh no…” he groaned. “It does! Oh, why me?”

“Guys, it’s time to go.” Chris said. “C’mon, let’s go, we gotta babysit Jason—oh, I wish I can take off this rabbit suit.” He tried to pull down the zipper again, but still with no success. “I hope this thing comes off, I’d hate to have to cut it open just to get out of it.”

“You won’t,” Jeffery said, grasping Chris’ zipper and tried to tug it down but it wouldn’t budge. “This is one of my Mom’s special zippers, to keep you looking cute for days.”

“Oh,” Chris said, looking slightly disappointed.

“There is a trick to get this undone, but I forgot what it is…Sorry, cuz.” Jeffery said with an apologetic expression. 

“Heh-heh, c’mon guys, or we’re gonna be late.” Kit said, grabbing a coat and putting it on Chris. “Here, Chris, this will protect your costume from getting dirty,” he said as he zipped up the coat for Chris.

“Thanks, big brother.” Chris said gratefully, hugging Kit. 

“You might want to put your hood down, so Mrs. Robinson’ll be able to recognize you.” Jeffery said, grasping both of Chris’ rabbit ears over his head and pulled it back, revealing Chris’ natural bear ears.  

“And take your rabbit feet off.” Kit said. “I’ll put them in my bag.”

Chris sat down on the bed and pulled his white rabbit feet-like socks off and handed them to Kit, who tucked them deep inside his school bag. Then, he rolled up the legs of the suit up above his knees, so that they too, would be protected by the coat. 

They all went downstairs, with Jeffery muttering: “Wish we had an elevator,” yet again. They met Melissa at the bottom of the stairs.

“Aunt Melissa,” Chris said, approaching his aunt and opening up his coat to reveal the zipper of his rabbit suit. “Can you undo this, please?”

“Oh dear…” Melissa’s smiling face fell as she took hold of the zipper and tried but failed to pull it down. “Oh, my goodness, it’s one of my trick zippers, I haven’t seen one of these in years.”

Chris’ heart sank a little. “You—you do know how to unzip me, don’t you?” he asked desperately.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Chris dear.” Melissa said earnestly. “But I haven’t used these on Jeffery’s cute outfits for so long, I’m afraid I forgot the trick to unzipping these.”

“What?” yelled Jeffery in an accusatory tone of voice. “So you did put those on some of my clothes. Why did you make them in the first place?”

“Well, Jeffery dear….” Melissa said, her eyes twinkling. “When you were two years old, you made the unfortunate habit of stripping off your adorably cute outfits, so your granddad thought it would be amusing if you couldn’t take them off, so he and I created a few undoable zippers and put them on your clothes…Oh, how frustrated you were when you couldn’t take your clothes off…” she chuckled    

“Mom….” Jeffery groaned, blushing tomato red. “Did you have to tell them that?” he asked, gesturing to Kit and Chris

“Well, it looks like I accidentally put one of my spare undoable zippers on Chris’ bunny suit…” Melissa said, casting Chris an apologetic look.

Chris sighed sadly. “It’s okay, Aunt Melissa, you didn’t do it on purpose… I’m sure we’ll find a way to unzip me without ruining my costume,”

“We will, Chris, I promise.” Jeffery said, placing a comforting arm around Chris.

“C’mon guys, let’s go.” Kit said, opening the front door and holding it open for the other two. “Bye, Aunt Melissa, don’t forget to come to our show tonight,” he said as Jeffery and Chris filed pass him through the door.

“Oh, don’t worry, dear,” Melissa said smiling. “I wouldn’t miss it even if some dark forces from another universe come to enslave mankind.”

“Heh-heh, yeah, like in the Adventures in Space…” Kit said, chuckling a little bit. “Waiiit… you’ve been reading Jeffery’s comic books again, haven’t you?” he asked with a sly grin.

“Well, I had to make sure they were age appropriate, didn’t I?” Melissa said defensively. “I can’t have my baby reading bad comics, now can I? You know how sensitive he is, one of them is bound to give him nightmares.”

“Yeah, I know,” Kit agreed, knowing that Jeffery would be so embarrassed if he knew his Mom said that. “We can’t have that… Well, I’ll see ya later, bye.” And with that, he took off after his brother and cousin.

“Bye, dears. Be safe and have fun!” Melissa called after them before she closed the door.

The three bear cubs walked down the street together, Kit and Jeffery holding each of Chris’ hands, who was walking between them. Walking on either side of Chris, they look like bodyguards, determined to protect the youngest in their group.

They reached Jason’s house within a three minutes, and they walked up the steps and knocked.

The door opened and Mrs. Robinson stood before them, smiling.

“Ah, Chris, come in, come in—oh….” She suddenly noticed Kit and Jeffery standing on either side of Chris. “And who are these two?”

“This is my big brother, Kit.” Chris said, gesturing to Kit. “And this,” he moved his gesture to Jeffery. “…is my cousin, Jeffery.”

“Oh, are they dropping you off?” she asked.

“No, they have to stay with me while I babysit Jason and help me when I need help.” Chris said, and then he sadly hung his head. “I’m sorry; I wasn’t supposed to accept any jobs without asking my Daddy first.”

“And because of his conditions, he can’t really handle a job by himself.” Kit added, giving Chris a one-arm hug around his shoulders. “So I hope you don’t mind that we had to come here with him.”

“Conditions?” Mrs. Robinson asked in concern. “What are his conditions, is he sick?”

 “No, he’s just weaker and weighs far below average due to being fed very poorly at his old orphanage.” Jeffery said, wanting his turn to speak for his cousin, like Kit did. And since his Mom was a nurse, he felt that this was his place to speak.

Mrs. Robinson gasped and clutched at her heart. “Oh my goodness,” and tears begin to fall from her eyes as she imagined her precious Jason in that situation.

She picked Chris up and hugged him, very surprised at how light he was, almost the same weight as Jason.  

“Oh, you poor thing!” she cried, mentally cursing the people who had done this to this child to oblivion.

She carried Chris to the kitchen and set him on a stool at the bar and gestured for Kit and Jeffery to come and sit at the bar.

She then begins making piles and piles of sandwiches and urged them to eat, particularly Chris.

“Eat as much as you can, dears,” she said, putting on her car coat. “Jason is taking his nap now, when he wakes and if he’s hungry, give him one of these sandwiches, I think I made enough to feed an army.” She turned to Kit, who in her opinion looked the most responsible type. “Here’s a list of emergency numbers. Don’t bother with the third one, that’s my sister’s and she’s gone on vacation.”

“Okay, ma’am.” Kit said, accepting the list of phone numbers