Chapter Text
They were having a guardian meeting. Well, most of the guardians were anyway. Jack supposed it wasn’t unlike Bunny to be a bit late but why did this feel like they were starting without him? Or acknowledging that he wasn’t here?
“Good. We are all here. There is problem,” North spoke.
“All?” Jack question from where he was floating on his back and watching elves slide around on ice. “What about the Kangaroo?”
“That is what meeting is about. Bunny is…unwell.”
“Easter was a week ago,” Tooth commented between giving instructions to the swarm of fairies around her. Baby Tooth took over as she addressed the room. “Maybe he just needs sleep?”
“It is worse than usual. Bunny is apparently rampaging through Warren tunnels all over world.”
That…sounded odd but not concerning. Maybe it was some kind of meditation thing? A way to unwind after Easter stress? “What does he normally do after Easter?”
Sandy made an image of a bed.
“Maybe he’s trying something new? What are we supposed to do about it?”
Sandy shook his head. A bunch of symbols flew over his head that Jack couldn’t make sense of. There were a lot of hearts involved in whatever it was.
It made the hair on his neck stand up.
“Sandy?” He questioned. “You know what’s going on with the furball?”
“What? Mating season?” North asked.
Jack fought to keep his composure. Bunny had a what?
Tooth seemed to understand something, “Oh! I heard Pooka have them…but I thought it was only after…”
More hearts from Sandy.
Oh no.
“You think Bunny is in love?” North asked with a laugh. “With who? Since when?”
Jack’s heart was either about to fall out of his chest or shatter to pieces. Maybe both. Aster and him hadn’t talked about it. They’d both been too busy bickering to even bring up…
There were snowflakes joining the heart above Sandy’s head.
Did he know?! When? How? He hadn’t gotten the impression that Bunny told anyone about their fling a few decades back.
“Oh right! Remember the new year’s party?” Tooth added in. She leaned towards Jack to explain. “He got a bit too much to drink and started going on and on about someone he called ‘Snowdrop’.”
Oh no. Oh this was much worse. “I think I heard something about him seeing someone a while ago. But pretty sure they broke up,” Jack tried to play it off.
Sandy was making more snowflake shapes while giving North the most judgmental stare.
“And anyway why is this any of our business? If that’s what’s going on then we should probably all stay out of it, right?” Jack prompted, trying his best to cover the rush of panic at having to tell them about this. He didn’t know if Bunny being around would make it better or worse.
Now Sandy was giving him that stare. He changed the image to one of a rabbit clawing at the air.
“You think he’ll get worse? Like violent? That’s not Bunny. He’s…rough around the edges but he won’t hurt anyone,” Jack commented.
Sandy shook his head. Now the rabbit was clawing at the snowflake.
Was he trying to tell Jack that Bunny might hurt him in this state? Well he wasn’t planning on going back to the Warren anytime soon anyway after…
Well after what happened last time. Pitch might have been beaten nearly a year ago now but the memories of failing Bunny when it mattered most still haunted him a little. Besides he doubted he was welcome on a good day, let alone whatever was going on with this whole mating season thing.
It’d been decades since him and Bunny had broken up. Since he’d been held close.
It was better to just stay out of the way.
“Is settled!” North exclaimed. “We’ll have to find this person ourselves.”
“What?” Jack nearly squeaked out.
Sandy was giving them all the Disappointed Dad stare.
“Jack, can you talk to some winter spirits for us? Tooth and I are going to see what we can find in memory vaults.”
There were a hundred reasons why this was bad idea. Before he could voice any of them Sandy had started pull on his hoodie to drag him out of the meeting room.
More symbols flashed above his head. Too fast for Jack to make sense of what he was trying to tell them.
He waited until they were outside the Workshop.
“Look. I can’t…you’re speaking too fast,” Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. “Is this thing going to go away on its own?”
Sandy shook his head.
“Is it going to get worse?”
Sandy nodded.
“Is someone going to get hurt at this rate?”
Sandy paused before nodding again.
Damn it. Jack pulled his hood up as the wind whipped around them. Blocking their conversation from being heard. “Bunny’s gone into some kind of frenzy because he’s in love? Well it’s not with me, yeah we were a thing once but that was a long time ago. Whoever he’s…” he couldn’t bring himself to say it. “It’s not me.”
Rabbit, heart, snowflake.
“Maybe he found someone else before the whole Pitch thing?”
Sandy shook his head again.
“We weren’t even a real couple, we didn’t go on dates. He and I would…” he didn’t want to give those kinds of details to Sandy. “Stress relief. No strings attached. That was the whole point.”
Sandy was staring at him flatly.
“And I doubt he suddenly has feelings for me now. I mean…there’s a reason he didn’t tell the rest of you about it, right?”
Snowflake, heart, rabbit, question mark.
“I don’t know! I haven’t…look things are okay between us now and I’m not going to go screwing that up.”
The question mark vanished. The snowflake and rabbit danced around the heart.
Jack settled his feet onto the snow despite the wind protesting and attempting to keep him airborne. It had been refusing to let him touch the ground for the past three days. Feeling the snow helped keep him focused on what was happening.
Sandy’s eyes went wide as the ground trembled. He gave Jack two thumbs up before the ground opened beneath his feet and a dark tunnel swallowed him whole.
Jack didn’t have time to even yell before something collided with him fast enough to knock the air out of his lungs.
That someone was growling and covered in familiar grey fur.
“Bunny? Dude what the hell?” he demanded breathless and struggling to get out of the stone solid grip of paws.
“Caught you,” Bunny’s voice sounded rough and coarse. “Found you.”
“Great. Wonderful. Let go of me,” Jack complained as he tried to shove Bunny off.
“No. Not again.”
“Aster!” Jack yelled, hoping his real name would snap him out of whatever was going on. “Stop it!”
Bunny growled again, picking Jack up and cradling him with one arm. “Not. Again.”
He didn’t mind using his powers on people. Generally speaking. A snowflake or two that encouraged letting loose never really hurt anyone. This was not that. This was a sharp burst of frost to make Bunny drop him.
He doubted he’d hurt him and given the circumstances he’d think he’d be forgiven.
The tunnel was sealed where Jack had fallen in. He needed to get out of the ground and into the air. It wasn’t completely Bunny proof but it would give him room to breathe and plan.
The tackle came before he could get too far. This time landing him on his front while one paw pinned his shoulder and the other clutched his hoodie, pulling it down and exposing part of his collarbone.
“Gonna get you back,” Bunny growled above him. The voice coming from way too close to the exposed skin by his neck.
“Damn it Cottontail can we talk about this-”
Teeth. Sharper than Bunny usually had and digging in hard to Jack’s flesh. Searing hot pain poured into him from the wound. He couldn’t bleed anymore but that didn’t mean wounds didn’t hurt. Bunny was rumbling above him Jack’s fingers clawed uselessly at the dirt, leaving trails of frost and gashes in their wake.
It burned. Not just the bite but the area around it. Spreading out like fractals. No. It was like something was taking root in him.
“Never losing you again,” Bunny’s voice rang in his ears as darkness overtook his senses.
(*****)
When he woke, Jack was laying curled up in a large nest of pillows and blankets. Purple flowers bloomed around the walls and there was a lingering minty scent.
His hand flew to his collarbone. He couldn’t feel an injury there anymore but there was something pulsing with a warm energy that felt molten compared to his usual body temperature.
Bunny was curled in on himself in the other corner of the nest. Paws clutching onto his arms and fur and absolute mess.
Jack scrambled to his feet only tripping over the edge a bit. He recovered quickly but his back was to the wall of the room.
“What did you do to me?”
Bunny tensed even further somehow. “My mark, my Jack.”
Well, at least Bunny knew who he was talking to. That had to be a good sign, right?
“You seem aware of what’s going on. You gonna talk to me Furball?”
“Season got triggered. Won’t stop. Need you. Missed you.”
He remembered the snippets he’d caught from the others. “Mating season,” he commented. That had to be it. Just whatever hormones or something. Bunny didn’t miss… He needed to keep his cool. “What do you need me for?”
Bunny scoffed lifting his head just enough to look Jack in the eyes. “Just need you.” Those green eyes were burning with something he hadn’t seen in decades.
In any other situation, that might have come across as romantic. “Gonna need a bit more to work with here. I’m not doing anything unless you tell me what you need. With words.” If he was going to risk whatever relationship he had with Bunny now, he wanted to at least try and get permission.
“You. Here. In my arms. Under me. Didn’t want it like this. You were hiding from me.”
Not like this. Not that he didn’t want it at all. Was that supposed to mean something? “I figured you’d want a peaceful Easter, was trying to stay out of your way.”
Bunny growled, “Want you around. Always. Ever since…Wanted to apologize. Make it right. Get you back.”
Jack’s heart was about to start beating again at this rate. He wanted to believe that Bunny really felt this. And maybe he did a little. But he couldn’t trust much of what he was saying in this state.
“How can I help you?” Jack said instead of responding to Bunny’s statements.
“Be mine.”
Jack bit his lip and ran his hands through his hair. This was a terrible idea and no one else seemed to know what to do. It wasn’t ideal, but Bunny was lucid enough that maybe he’d forgive him for this.
“Promise me something?” Jack said as he took a step closer to the shaking bundle of fluff.
“Anything.”
“Don’t hate me after?”
(*****)
The first thing Jack was aware of was the scent of flowers. Familiar and comforting and reminding him of springs long passed.
The next was the paw on his face delicately moving a lock of hair out of the way.
“Aster?” Jack called softly. He was sore in places that he hadn’t thought much about in a long time. But his shoulder stung worse in a way that still felt new.
“Mornin’ Snowdrop,” Bunny was looking at him. He didn’t look mad but he also didn’t look crazed anymore. Back to his usual self then? Well usual except for the soft look on his face.
“You…feeling any better?” Jack reached for a sheet to wrap around himself. He didn’t feel cold but it was the best shield from the look on Bunny’s face.
“Yes. I’m…sorry you had to see that. It wasn’t…this is not how I wanted to tell you.”
Jack wasn’t sure he wanted to hear whatever Bunny was planning on telling him.
“Mating season’s only triggered by one thing. Exposure to someone you have strong feelings for. Good news is it shouldn’t come back around for another century or so. Hard to be sure exact Earth years sometimes.”
“Stop,” Jack said as he tried to sit up despite the soreness. He couldn’t let himself think about the flash of panic in Bunny’s eyes or the way they lingered on his shoulder.
“Wait Jack-”
“Stop,” he repeated when Bunny reached a paw towards him. “You broke it off, remember?” Jack reminded both of them. “So you don’t get to do this. Tell me now, after everything that you-” Jack ranted while struggling to pull his clothes on.
“I’m sorry. For what I said about you being a guardian. I should have had more trust in you.”
“Save it Fluff Face. We should go tell North that you’re better. Then we can all go back to-”
“No.”
Jack rarely stood completely still. But something about the paw gently wrapped around his forearm with a firm grip held him in place.
“Please. Can we…talk about this?”
He never thought he’d hear E. Aster Bunnymund, the Easter Bunny himself plead. He shrugged out of grasp and turned away. Instead of leaving out the door he leaned on the wall as far from Bunny as he could while still being in the room. “You get one minute.”
“I called it off because I could see how you felt about me,” Bunny said. “You’ve always been the prettiest thing in the winter skies.”
Jack scoffed at the flirt attempt.
“I shouldn’t have done it so close to Easter, I knew how the weather reacted to your emotions. That was on me.”
Jack rolled his eyes. Like he didn’t already know that part. Like they both didn’t know about that but Bunny still brought it up anyway.
“I wasn’t ignoring you after. I figured being around me would just make you feel worse.”
“Three hundred years and you’ve been the only one to ever give me anything more than…” he couldn’t help but think of himself holding the naughty list record. It had been what he expected but it still hurt. “Then you left.”
Seeing Bunny flinch was cathartic but did nothing to fill the empty spaces inside of Jack.
“I’m sorry.”
“A bit late for apologies, isn’t it?”
“Maybe. But you still deserve them,” Bunny said. Jack could see him thinking, panic still in his eyes and stance crouched. He looked like he was ready to either run from something or towards it. To chase if Jack tried anything. “I don’t…I know it’s too much to ask for you to take me back.”
“Oh good, something other than eggs and chocolate in there.”
“But I can’t accept things going back to the way they were. Pretending that I couldn’t stop myself from painting googs in winter colors because my mind kept drifting to you. Kept making snowflake shaped chocolate. All I ask is a chance Snowdrop. Let me court you. Properly this time. I won’t lay a paw on you unless you ask. Just…please. I lo-”
“Don’t,” Jack pointed a finger at Bunny, he wished he knew where his staff was. “Don’t you say that word right now.”
“Is it possible to earn the chance to say it?”
Jack wanted to tell him no. To walk away and pretend none of this ever happened. “I don’t know,” he admitted.
“That’s probably as fair as I deserve. I have something I’ve been trying to give you. Found it in January but…”
“I was avoiding you.”
“Yeah. It doesn’t…have to mean anything. If you don’t want it too. But you should still have it regardless.”
Jack was wary of anything. He probably should say no on principle after Bunny’s request to court him. But he’d never seen Bunny look at him like this. Look at anyone like this. Not even when his holiday was falling apart. “I’m not promising I’ll take it.”
“Fair,” Bunny stood up out of his nest and gestured for Jack to follow him.
Jack did so from a distance, arms crossed defensively. He missed his staff. That was probably back at the pole with Sandy. At least he’d take care of it.
“Some fairies were worried when they found something with a lot of power just sitting in a human museum. Took a bit of planning and a bucket of pixie dust but we swapped it for a harmless fake. Could tell it was yours by smell of the magic on it.”
“You know my magic from smell?”
“I know your handiwork anywhere. Then I remembered you mentioned loosing something during the depression.”
Jack’s breath froze in his lungs. Bunny couldn’t mean…
“I’ll be honest with you. It was in bad shape so I had to make a few repairs,” he opened a drawer in the living room. Jack could see the familiar brown leather already.
Then it was being held out to him. Bunny’s ears were red and twisted back.
His cloak. The one he’s worn when… “I thought I’d never see this again,” he said as he lifted it up to inspect it. There were several patches of blue snowflakes.
But it was still the same cloak. And Bunny was right, despite not having held it in decades he could still feel the touch of winter magic permeating it.
He could remember it now. His mother sewing the hide together, his father’s proud face after he’d help bring the deer in, the look on his sister’s face when he’d promised to take her skating.
He’d died in this cloak. Became Jack Frost in this cloak. Of course that would seep into every inch forever. He held it to his chest. Holding it like the lost friend it was.
“Thank you, Aster,” he said. He’d known it was important but only recently did he learn how much.
“Think nothing of it. It’s yours, after all.”
“Still. Look…I…you’re throwing a lot at me right now. I need some time to think.”
Bunny nodded, “I understand. I’ll wait as long as you need. Want me to talk to North for you?”
“We both should. I need to head that way anyway. Paws to yourself and we can head there together.”
The look of hope and the burst of joy Jack could feel was almost enough to make him say yes already. But he knew he needed to think about his next move carefully. Rushing had gotten him into enough trouble.
If they were going to do this, they were going to do it right.