Welcome to my fic. If you are from Our Favorite Guardians or Sickness, then welcome. It's good to see you. If you aren't, then I ask that you check those out, too.

This story is based off what was originally a one-shot that grew and others were hoping to see what would happen. So, I give you a full fic. There are NO pairings, too much work.

Please enjoy and review.

Believed In, Feared In

Jack had only known about the cold. Cold. He'd been cold for three hundred long years with no one there to give him warmth that he couldn't help but desire. He may have been a spirit of winter, but he craved for warmth just like anyone else, the only warmth that can comfort a person, one that only came from another person.

He stood at the edge of a cliff, the end of the continent Antarctica. He lifted his hand to his face, putting the object within his grasp into his line of sight. A golden canister with a face plastered at one end was what he held. It surprised Jack how it practically glowed around the dull white that Jack had come to know so well.

His throat ached from the sobs he'd been continuing to swallow. His eyes burned, rimmed with red from the tears he couldn't stop. He strangely felt hallow except for his heart that ached with every beat.

Why can't he do it? Why can't he just get rid of his toothbox, the thing that'd caused him so much trouble? Keeping it would cause only more trouble. Maybe he couldn't throw it way. Maybe it was a curse to always have it haunt him until he finally dies.

He was so tired of it- the pain that never stops. Why him? Why did everyone have someone when he had no one? Was he truly not worth it? But if so, why did the Moon drop him on this god forsaken earth? Why was he stuck if no one wanted him?

Why?

Nobody. There was nobody there for him from the beginning of his life. No one was there to hear him scream for someone to care. Nobody was there to see his tears. No one was there to hold him when he felt no hope. No one was ever there for him. Not even the guardians.

No, the guardians didn't care about him. They hated him. They saw him as trash. They saw him as a bug that they'd squish without a second thought. He wasn't anything to them. He was just a waste of space.

The same memory kept rewinding in his mind over and over so he'd never forget. It only made his eyes sting more.

./../\..\.

Flashback

It was Easter Sunday in Burgess. Grass covered the soft soil in lushes of greens. The trees had awakened from their winter slumber and reached for the sky. Their branches intertwined with neighboring trees, leaving rays of light to pass through the branches and fresh leaves. Spring was in the air.

Everything seemed perfect, except for the fact that the Easter Bunny hadn't arrived.

It was the day of the Easter Egg Hunt, and the Easter Bunny was to hide his colorful eggs in the forest for the children to find. But, why would the Easter Bunny be late? He had only one holiday each year. It couldn't have been that hard, could it?

Maybe, the Easter Bunny didn't actually exist. Maybe, it was just a big lie to get companies money for chocolate and other sweets they made like marshmallow puffs.

But, if the Easter Bunny wasn't real, did that mean that Santa Claus wasn't real, or the Tooth Fairy, or even Sandman?

Was it all a big lie told by their parents to get them to be good, to brush and floss their teeth, to go to bed for dreams?

These thought flew through each of the children's minds that day on Easter Sunday in Burgess. There were no eggs, so there mustn't be an Easter Bunny.

With sad and depressed faces, the children of Burgess made their way back to their homes, feeling melancholy.

What they didn't know was that the Easter Bunny was there. He was going to hide his eggs. But, he was too late. The children didn't see him as he stood in front of them offering them colorful eggs with abstract designs. Though they weren't his best, they were what he had left to offer since Pitch had destroyed the rest.

"There's no such thing as the Easter Bunny," a little girl mumbled to herself with the edges of lips tugged down.

A baffled Pooka gasped in shock. "What? No that's not true! What do you mean there's no such thing as-"

The Easter Bunny cut off as a cold, stomach churning, ghost feeling left his insides hallow. The little girl walked through him with no acknowledgement that he stood there and had caused him physical pain. He couldn't breathe or think as the children stepped through him as if he didn't exist.

Letting out short gasp, he sighed. "They don'e believe in me," he whispered.

Jack came from the bushes off to side of the clearing. Spotting the guardians watching desperately as the children turned away from them and trekked towards their homes, Jack realized the true damage of those moments with Pitch. While he was in Pitch's lair, every egg had been smashed and not one child found an egg in the world. All because of Jack, the children no longer believed in the Easter Bunny.

A large Russian man turned towards the teen who had just arrived. "Jack, where were you? The nightmares attacked the tunnels, they smashed every eggs, nothing made it to the surface, not one egg in one town."

Another voice called for Jack's attention. Tooth flew over to Jack's side, sighing in relief for the boy's safety, but as quick as her smile played on her lips, it faded. "Where did you get that?" She pointed to the tooth canister in his hand.

"I was...I..."

"Where's Baby Tooth? Oh Jack, what have you done?" Her hands covered her mouth in horror as realization hit her like a freight train.

"This is why you weren't here? You were with Pitch!" North accused.

"No, listen," Jack tried to reason. They needed to hear his side, to understand what truly happen. They thought of him as a traitor. No, Jack wouldn't do that, not when they had finally chosen to care for him when no one else had. "I was-"

"He has to go."

All eyes turned to the Pooka crouched over in pain.

"What?" Jack questioned.

Bunny stood and glared at the winter spirit, the cause of his trouble. The Pooka hopped closer to the teenager with a hand raised. "We should never have trusted you!" He shouted as his fist connect with the boy's left cheek before any of the others could react.

All seemed to slow. Everything happened in what felt like hours.

Jack's feet lifted beneath him before his body could even touch the ground the hit was so hard. Jack fell to the grass covered earth with a thud. His cheek throbbed unbearably and his brain racked within his skull. His ears rung and his eye refused to focus.

"Bunny!" Tooth scolded and moved to Jack's side.

The Pooka with his face filled with absolute shock simply stood their staring at the child he just hit.

A child.

The thing he was supposed to protect. He was a guardian for the children, yet he raised his hand to a child.

Shouts from North were suppressed as he questioned whether this truly happened. Disbelief never left his face. Did he just strike a child? A child? Bunny always gave hope to children with abusive parents, but he was now the bringer of a child's pain, the shatterer of hope.

Everything Bunny stood- a guardian, a bringer of hope, a protector of innocence and from the evils of the world- for dissolved in only seconds from one action. How could he ever call himself a guardian after this?

Tooth grabbed onto Jack's arm to help bring him to his feet, but he only swatted her away like an annoyance. He struggled to his feet, first lifting himself on his elbows, then balancing in the pads of his feet, and slowing rising to stand straight. Bruising already was visible on the pale boy's face.

With eyes brimmed with threatening tears to fall, Jack stared at the Pooka. No, he wouldn't give the creature that satisfaction of seeing him hurt.

Only hours before the two were getting along. It seemed like the things between them were turning around. But no, Bunny never cared for Jack. He was only a tool for their use to be thrown away once they got what they wanted. Jack just managed to make their betrayal to him quicker. At least this way they wouldn't have led him on to actually believe they cared for him.

They had 300 years to speak to him, to just acknowledge his existence other than scolding him for the blizzard in 1968. Jack felt so stupid to believe that they wanted him around. Their company was by force from the Man in the Moon. If it hadn't been for him, Jack would have continued to be alone, Pitch wouldn't have even looked at him.

They never knew how much Jack craved for their attention, to just have them look at him, to not see through him, to be touched instead of being stepped through. What was better: being unrecognized or hated by them? Both seemed too harsh, yet those were Jack's options. He was never given the chance to have a family. The Man in the Moon put him there and left him to wallow in his confusion, like a newborn baby left in the woods filled with wolves. He had no chance from the very beginning.

Maybe it was all a mistake? Maybe the Man in the Moon hadn't meant to bring Jack into the world. It seemed most logical, didn't it? No human could see him and the spirits ignored him intentionally.

With out a word passing between the two spirits, the Pooka and boy know for bringing snow, Jack allowed the wind to encase him in its embrace headed for the skies, going South.

"Wait!" Tooth and North cried in synchronization, both shouting frantically for the spirit of winter to turn back around.

The hummingbird hybrid turned to the Pooka with feathers ruffled, puffing in and out from her badly hidden anger. "How dare you! What were you thinking!? You just hit Jack! How could you! I though he was your friend!"

Tooth took for the skies as well and followed the fleeing boy.

North looked at the still wide-eyed and confused Easter Bunny. "There are now words to make this okay. What you did was wrong and now Jack is hurting, more than just from the punch." He turned away and pulled a snow globe from his pocket. Guessing, he whispered for the South Pole, Antarctica. Before stepping into the now swirling vortex, he half turned to the Pooka. "Think of what you'd done." He vanished into the portal and into Antarctica's tundra, leaving the Pooka alone in Burgess.

It all happened so quickly. Ever fiber in his body didn't think of stopping his raised hand until it was too late. Did that make him any better than Pitch, a bringer of pain and fear? Will Jack ever talk to him again? Why would he? Bunny just kicked a boy who was already on the ground.

He was worse than Pitch. In only one action, he shattered all hope.

End Of Flashback

./../\..\.

"It was a mistake," you said. But the cruel thing was, it felt like the mistake was mine, for trusting you."

―David Levithan, The Lover's Dictionary

./../\..\.

Give thanks to lovepuppy316 for coming up with the title. You go, girl!

Stay tuned for the next chapter. Please press that follow button and review. I just love reviews and they make me write faster. Tell me what you think will happen next, how you feel about the characters, anything.

Thank you, and I should have the next chapter posted on May 20th.