A/N: In case it wasn't painfully obvious, this is a Jackrabbit three-shot. I find the pairing very likeable, and also the most feasible of the many pairings the movie has produced. Naturally, I don't own the film or its characters; this is just simply my take on their relationship. Thanks for reading!
With Spring, Hope Comes
Chapter 1 of 3
The fragrant sounds of the tweeting birds in the tree drifted through Bunny's ears as he peered at the children from behind the bush. He'd already finished planting them all around the green park for those little rascals to find, and while the job had been grueling, the moment of triumph was near at hand. All year he slaved in his warren for the expression of joy and hope that was about to light up the children's faces, and as the tiny insects crawled around his large feet, Bunny saw one such tyke nearing the first egg. He sniffed, making his nose flex involuntarily, and then it settled back down. Through the leaves of the flora he stared and itched with excitement as the little girl he watched creep ever slowly closer to the patch of flowers he'd hidden a golden egg in. His large ears were down, but they still drifted from side to side in anticipation. He felt his fingers beginning to get agitated, and his pupils dilated with exhilaration. There was nothing more he could do to maintain his eagerness, and in one blissful moment, the little girl squealed with elation as she waved her prize over her head and ran to her friends to show them.
The overly large rabbit smiled, exposing his large, bucked teeth. Ever the curios one, he peered over the top of the bush, careful not to be seen by the innocent troublemakers. Several meters away he saw the children staring enviously at the girl and her spectacular prize, and soon they dispersed to look for their own little wonders. Bunny backed down from the shrub and slunk away from the clearing. His ears returned to their naturally erect state, and his tail began to flicker and buzz. Like a canid, he was happy, jubilant even. The guardian had done his job, and by the looks of things he'd done it well. Easter had come, and the look of hope that he saw on those little kids' faces was well worth the effort that he put in over the last year. Satisfied, he tapped his foot determinately against the earthen soil, and a tunnel to his warren appeared like a sinkhole. Bunny stole a last look at the gleeful unsizeables, and then dove in to relay the good news.
Down his hole, he shot like some kind of maglev freight train. Bulleting through the dirt and soil, he plummeted further down into the ground. The dirt whizzed by him like flashes of light, and soon the air became amorous. Then the potent scent of flowers collided with his nostrils. He had arrived home.
Popping into his expansive warren, Bunny caught wind of some expectancy. He wasn't alone in his home, he could tell by the pulse of sound that carried over into his exceptionally large ears. He sniffed the air as bunnies do, and then he found that he was needed elsewhere in the warren. Propelling himself across the green expanses that made up his domain, he bounded like a deer over the flowers, creeks, and rocks. Past the egg monoliths he soared, and after crossing though the tunnel, he found himself hearing several voices echoing through the warren. They were the voices he'd heard before, and now they were drawing in. Normally, he would've readied his two dynamic boomerangs and prepped his throwing arm, which were both of them. But in this case, all he could do was roll his eyes as the sound of beating wings closed in, followed by merry belly laughter. The Easter Bunny turned around and fastened his composure, for before him approached three of his nearest, and only, companions: North, Guardian of Wonder; Tooth, Guardian of Memories; Sandman, or rather Sandy, Guardian of Dreams. North smiled heartily and was the first walk up to Bunny and give his a well-earned slap on the back.
"Ya know mate, that still hurts. No matter how many times ya do it." Bunny told his bearded friend, but the jolly old muscleman shrugged and bore his biceps for all their worth. He crossed his arms professionally as he responded.
"Eh, just means you aren't quite up to snuff." He meant no harm, but Bunny was still aggravated by North. Tooth was so jittery she could barely keep herself from stuttering as she hummed over to Bunny with a dazzling smile cemented onto her face.
"Oh, wow Bunny! My faeries told me all about it while they were out collecting the newest batch of teeth. It sounds like you did an amazing job, yet again! The kids are going to make so many memories from this!" Tooth happily flew in a circle as Sandy used his magical abilities to form two hands over his head and clap them, with no sound. Bunny grinned at his graded friend, and nodded.
"Thanks, mate. At least one of ya doesn't feel the need to play off my success." Sandy waggled his finger and formed over his head a batch of eggs, and then a child sleeping soundly. Bunny's grin faded into a ghastly frown, and then his ears drooped in exacerbation. "Spoke to soon, seems like."
"Nah," said North. "We really proud of you, Bunny. Truly, job well done. Not like we have much choice in matter."
"Oh, save ya breath ya gingerbread cookie." Bunny brushed North off of him and rounded backwards. He hopped up onto a nearby rock and placed himself over his peers. He sat down on his rump and let his ears ring. The good news needed to be delivered. "Well, as ya may 'ave guessed, Easter went smoothly this year. No interruptions or inconveniences of any kind. And no, Tooth, before ya ask, there was no sign of Pitch anywhere. I think it's safe to say e's out of our hair for good."
"Really, nothing Bunny?" asked North. "Not even small setback or mishap? Everything went smooth?" The rabbit nodded.
"Aye. I know. Even I think it's strange. Usually, I gotta worry 'bout that Frosty mucking the place up. 'E almost did last time." said Bunny. Tooth hovered over his head and tapped his nose like he was a house pet.
"Oh, that was a year ago. You should just let it go. Besides, he didn't do anything to you this year, right?"
"No, but that's just the issue." Bunny looked around curiously, and then his eyebrow muscle flexed.
"Jack has been a bit solitary lately." Inputted Tooth. Sandy waved his arms and got everyone's attention, and then he materialized a map over his head. He pointed to it and then shrugged his shoulder with a baffled look on his face. He golden sand hair stuck out on end, his mouth furrowed to the right. His facial expression was entirely mixed into his cheek, and everyone was just as baffled as he was.
"No, sorry mate," said the slightly saddened rabbit. "I'm 'fraid I don't know where e's gotten to."
"Nor do I." North added. "Is odd, though. If we know Jack, he'd never miss chance to pull prank on one of us. Makes me wonder."
"We'd better keep our guards up then. He could strike any moment," alleged the Guardian of Memories. North and the others laughed, but not Bunny.
At the mere mention of Jack's shenanigans he felt his cheeks begin to flush with color, and small rage ignited in his chest. Every single time that Bunny thought he had something going smoothly, Jack Frost, newly appointed Guardian of Fun, had to come in and turn it into some huge fiasco. Each one of Jack's childish pranks typically took days to clean up, and purely thinking of the last one sent waves of ire spiraling through Bunny's system. He ears stopped twitching, and his tail lost its bounce. There was once a pleasant scent drifting through the air in Bunny's warren, but as of right then, it had been fouled. He winched, and then hopped off the rock and started walking through the tunnel that led to the inner sanctum of the warren. He could hear the other guardians bustling about behind him, and then he heard the rustic voice of North echoing down the hall.
"Bunny! We were just kidding 'round."
"No, no mate. It's fine. I just, need some time, is all. I'll see ya at the pole later for some spirits." He called back. With that, he heard them quickly scramble from his home as he walked onwards towards his own personal quarters. He needed some time to work through his anger, and at the peak of his blaze he developed a small, yet irritating twitch between his ears.
Bunny scratched it vigorously as he slowly drudged on through his warren. His life had become quite the rodeo since Jack became a guardian the previous year. At first, Bunny, like all the other guardians, were very hesitant to welcome Jack into their midst. He didn't seem like guardian material, and then as if on cue, the event with Pitch Black, the dreaded Boogeyman, came to light and he tried to begin his own personal reign of terror. Bunny was grateful for the role that Jack had played in the defeat of the madman, but now he was concerned about where Jack's priorities were. He wanted an answer, hopefully one that didn't involve tormenting him as he prepped for the following year's Easter celebrations. That was the last thing that Bunny wanted; he hated the thought of having Jack appear in the warren at any time during the course of the year and acting all callously. If he knew Jack as well as he thought he did, it meant that one way or another, he was bound to start causing trouble of some kind.
As Bunny waddled into the fielding area of his warren, near where he made his personal quarters, he couldn't help but start thinking about the other circumstances surrounding Jack's initiative guardianship. He knew that Jack had once had a human sister, and that he'd saved her while reminding everyone in his town to have fun, but all the while, he wasn't sure that that he was justified to torment his newfound allies in what was essentially the greatest workplace any dreamer could've possibly asked for. Each one of them worked year round, for decades upon centuries, and then lo and behold the Guardian of Fun finally rears his head up and takes the entire dynamic of their existence, and then shakes it up like a snow globe. Bunny wanted to be angry; he wanted to have that burning within him flicker in all directions and start a wildfire within, but it just wasn't meant to be. He'd tried adding fuel to the fire, but the logs were far to damp. Bunny sighed and felt his anger leave him as his breath did, and with that came a much needed ease.
The echoes of his giant stone egg monoliths in the distance reverberated through Bunny's ears, and it made him entirely deaf to another sound creeping its way through his own personal paradise. Behind Bunny, out of his hearing range, came a small trickle of frost. Over the roots and past the stones in the earth it ran, slowing inching upon Bunny like worms to a fungus. It made small crackles as it went, and then it darted to the right and ducked out of the rabbit's hearing. Bunny wanted to admit that he saw it coming, that he had turned around busted his prankster in the act, but that would have been a cowardly lie. From under his large, rather overbearing feet, Bunny felt a very sharp chill stab his foot, and in moments he was slipping around and then tumbled over onto his chin. His ears flopped over and they dangled in front of him while his feet came over his head. His chest and stomach were completely exposed, and when he tried to stitch together his pride, he turned and heard a certain someone bust out laughing.
"Very funny, snowflake," announced the Guardian of Hope, "But I've a few trick of my own." Feeling more than a little degenerative, Bunny turned around and found the focal point of all his anxiety sitting idly on one of his rocks. He wasn't happy with Jack for his little stunt, but couldn't force him to make him leave either.
"Well, should I stay then?"
"Should ya what?" Inquired Bunny.
"Should I stay and make amends? Or, actually I have a feeling you're not that sort of guy." Jack Frost chuckled at his own joke and stood up from the rock on which he sat. He swung his staff around and floated up over Bunny's head and planted himself firmly on the grass in a small clearing behind them. Jack was never completely sure where all the light in Bunny's warren came from, but he was glad that it did. It made everything in his little rabbit's hole grow exceptionally, especially things like flowers and other beauteous flora. "Hey, Bunny. Where does all the light down here come from?"
Bunny huffed and placed one hand on his hip and hobbled over to Jack, still trying to piece his pride together. "From the surface, obviously."
"Really? I figured we were a bit further down than that."
"Shows how much a snowbird like yerself knows about springtime and all the plots that go into it. Anyone who's anyone that's got to do spring knows that natural light is the best kind to use in any sort of situation involving growing plants. My eggs, and the flowers which I use to paint them are no different." Jack sneered, and then he lay back in the grass and crossed his legs, left over right.
"Hm, interesting you should say that, Bunny. Curious to note, but I didn't know that eggs were actually plants." Bunny's eyes flared.
"Ya know what I meant, Jack!"
The guardian in the grass sat up and reached his hand up towards the light. He smiled softly as he slunk back down and cupped the back of his head with his hands. The warm glow of the sunlight coming in from the surface of the world made the warren feel very homey, and Jack was glad that Bunny was allowing him his indulgence for even just a moment. "That's different." Bunny was confused by Jack's statement, and came to his side and sat down with him as he asked,
"What's different? The light? It's always like that."
"No, it's not that Bunny. You called me Jack. Normally, you'd call me snowflake, or pest, or some other kind of unmentionable. I'm just not used to hearing you call me by my name." Both guardians sat among the unctuous grass, and took in the gentle, easy breeze that swept through the warren, carrying the sweetening aroma of pollination from other parts of the underground kingdom.
"Well, what can I say, snowflake? We're kinda stuck with each other. The Man in the Moon decided that ya had the guts to be one of us, and even though I'm still a bit on edge 'bout it, I must admit, ya can handle yerself in a bind. And to be frank, coming from the outback, that means a lot." Jack giggled.
"Thanks, Bunny. I appreciate it. Along that note, I've been doing well with not calling you a kangaroo or anything, right?"
"Relatively, but I'm sure ya just waiting to act naughty through some other means. Truth be told, I was waiting for ya to pull some kind of joke on me this whole time. It just seemed like the kinda thing to expect out of ya." Jack sat back up with surprise on his face. Bunny noticed it like he noticed a flower rising up to take a drink from the coming rainfall. It was something he always noticed, something that was impossible to miss, and having seen it on Jack's face stunned him for a paralyzing half second. "What? Ya pull pranks, that's ya thing. I just thought,"
"Bunny," Jack abruptly interrupted him. "This is spring you're talking about here, one of only two holidays that we're supposed to be managing as guardians. If anything were to happen to your supplies, Easter could be delayed, and I can assure you that it wouldn't be my fault. At least, not intentionally. I may be the Guardian of Fun Bunny, but as much as I like to play jokes, I'm not that self-destructive."
Bunny reached up his right arms and scratched himself behind his right ear. A very interesting face formed from his mouth and left cheek, and therein formed a new feeling. It wasn't rage, or anger, as he'd previously felt. This time, it was something new altogether. The feeling felt concentrated, like it was all lingering in a single spot within his being. He recognized it quickly.
"Well bugger," said Bunny with a defeated tone. "I think I'm actually starting to feel a little bit guilty for thinking that about ya, snowflake." Both guardians sat there in the grass, and while Bunny stared down at the ground, Jack was looking right at him with his head slightly tilted to the left. A smiled was on his face, and then he sighed and fell back down and looked up at the ceiling of the mighty warren.
"Don't be, I'd probably think the same thing about me." Replied the white-haired immortal. "Hey, Bunny," the tone in which Jack said this sound lonesome, but Bunny prepared himself for whatever was about to be said. "You didn't answer my question earlier."
"Which one?" asked the Easter Bunny.
"The one about me staying and making amends for tripping you." Bunny couldn't tell if Jack was being serious, but he had his own ideas in mind of what exactly could happen to, as Jack put it, make amends.
"Eh, stay, go, it doesn't matter. It's my warren, but I can't force ya to go if ya don't wanna." Bunny said this as he too lay back in the grass and stared upwards. He placed both his hands on his stomach and rested them there as warm breezes from the surface came down through the tunnels and washed over his fur. He wasn't sure what he could say to Jack, as it seemed like everything had been sorted. "Has it really been a year already?" He asked.
"Looks like," respond Jack. "One year since we beat Pitch's face in last spring. Feels kind of nice, actually. That, and we haven't really been fighting ourselves, you and I."
"We've really changed, 'aven't we, snowflake?" Both smiled, but neither looked at the other.
There was yet another spring wind that blew by, this time from the westernmost corner of the warren, and with it came the scent of something irreplaceably sweet. Jack was the first to smell it, and it came around to Bunny soon after. Jack sat up, interested to know where the smell had come from, and after scanning the area for a bit, several meters away near a section of the babbling brook that ran through Bunny's warren, there he saw growing a red, red rose. It just sat there, highly stalwart to the elements that combated it, and yet somehow it remained. It was a survivor, and Jack found its efforts admirable. Then like clockwork, Jack got an idea. With a wave of his staff, both he and Bunny heard ice crackling as it slithered towards the rose. Upon the flower it crept, and engulfed it like hurricanes engulfed the shoreline. Both saw that its petals had been gifted with an overcoat of gentle frosting, and it perfectly fused together every essence of both winter and spring. Jack swung his staff in a circular motion and created a tender wind, and the now sturdy flower came undone and flew towards them.
Bunny heard it snap from the frost the consumed it, and Jack's wind made it soar in the sky for a few brief moments. And then like magic, it drifted down into his hand and he caught it with his right index finger and thumb. He admired his handiwork for a moment, and then after smiling, he turned towards Bunny and extended his arm. He held the flower up and presented it to Bunny, and Bunny's ears fell down as his eyebrows rose. Neither was sure what to make of the gesture, but Bunny still reached out and grabbed it.
"What…what's this for?" asked the confused creature. Jack huffed and brushed his hair back with his left hand, then he hunched over and kicked his staff around between his feet.
"I don't know. Just a peace offering, I guess." Jack leaned back and threw up his staff and caught it, and then he stretched out in the grass next to Bunny. In a state of confusion, Bunny twirled the flower around in his hands and admired the craftsmanship that had gone into it. It was evident that Jack had spent years perfecting his frosting skills. He'd been good at that.
In a three-sixty motion the little artifact spun, and as Bunny looked at it, the more he started to feel his chest tighten. His dominating ears perked and they flushed with blood, and before he had time to consider the possibilities of what was happening, he realized that his cheeks had begun to flow with a revealing shade of pink. He didn't want to say it aloud, but he realized that by some means, this gift had caused him to blush. Bunny panicked. He checked to his left to make sure that Jack hadn't noticed, and then he violently huffed.
"I s'pose it's nice. Very fine work, Jack. But uh, I'm thinking it's unnecessary." Jack blinked in a bewildered manner, and then, without sitting up, turned his head towards Bunny and raised his eyebrow.
"It's a gift Bunny, technically just a flower I guess. If you don't want it, you can always throw it away." The unfortunate part of all this was that in Bunny's mind, he didn't want to throw it away. It had been a sweet little gesture, and as much as he didn't want to accept any sort of gift from Jack, there was something about this rose that made him feel odd, unusually odd. Bunny stood up and began to take small steps down the hill on which they laid, and as he did he sniffed the frozen rose. It was bitterly cold, but still retained its alluring scent. It was like there was an early morning frost in the air nipping at his nose, but yet the sunlight still shone on the nearby gardens in which it dwelled. "Bunny?" He heard Jack's voice break him out of his entranced state, and his ears collapsed like falling stars. His eyes widened, and then he scoffed.
"See here, snowflake…I'm not sure who ya take me for, but isn't this the kinda thing ya give to a sheila, or a bloke?" Jack felt a small tingling in his chest, and it irritated him like flies buzzing about by one's ear. He'd been disappointed, hurt even, but he couldn't seem to understand why. He'd given Bunny permission to be rid of it if he so desired, but he didn't actually expect Bunny to do so. After all, it was just a gift: a harmless one at that. But then again, what it really as insignificant as Jack led himself to believe?
The winter-touched guardian began to shift uncomfortably where he sat. He had had it fixated in his mind that the gesture was kind, and that Bunny had no reason to rebuff it, and yet there he was shooting him down like some kind of messenger pigeon. Jack was unsure of what to make of his predicament, as he'd been somewhat damaged by Bunny's claim, but he tried to remain steadfast, and instead faced Bunny head on. The Easter Bunny stared down Jack with a fierce glare, and his once gentle grip on the rose now looked malefic, as if he was going to crush the token in his hand.
"Uh, well," began Jack. "I guess, but it was just meant to be a nice gesture. I didn't think about it too much. I just figured,"
"What, huh? What did ya figure? That it was alright to casually hand me this and all of a sudden we'd be in the clear?" Bunny was confusing Jack, and even though neither was yelling, both got the intense feeling that their inner eruptions were starting to boil.
"Bunny, why are you making this so complicated? You're blowing this way out of proportion, and I'm still not even sure what exactly we're talking about here." Bunny's eyes narrowed as Jack finished, and even though Bunny wasn't trying to start a fight, it took him a second to realize that that was precisely what he'd been doing.
"I'm talking 'bout things like this!" and he held up the rose and pointed to the iced floor where Jack had tripped him. Both perceived it as harmless, despite Bunny having some mild outrage pent up. "Ya trip me, and then present me with this bugger, and now all of a sudden we're friends again? That's not how I work, snowflake. In the outbreak, old grudges die hard."
"What grudges?" said a baffled Jack. "I've pulled tons of pranks on you since becoming a guardian and you've never reacted like this. What's gotten into you, Bunny?" The feeling the air grew heavy, like a slowly thickening moisture heralding an oncoming rainfall. Bunny wanted an answer, and his heated tones were causing the two to burst like overflowing dams. Jack on the other hand was nearing his breaking point, and simply because he was speaking to Bunny, he'd arrived in half the time.
"Nothing's gotten into me, Jack. I'm trying to figure out…this…" as he finished his sentence, he held up the rose and placed his hand on his chest. Bunny's heartbeat had raced forward to lightning fast speed, and while Jack couldn't feel it for himself, he could certainly hear it from where he sat. "Why is this happening? Was it something ya did to this flower? Are ya trying to make me look like a late-bloomer?"
"What? No. Bunny," he was interrupted by the stressed rabbit.
"No, snowflake. I can't do this. I'm not going to fall into that trap. In the outback, blokes who falls into trap holes never get out, and I refuse to become croc bait. Take back ya flower, I've no need for the thing…" He extended his paw, and held out the beautiful, multi-seasonal treasure. It hovered in the air as it dangled in Bunny's paw, and it looked like it was crying out for help. To say that Jack was hurt as he watched Bunny practically strangle it before him would be quite the understatement. But before Jack had a real chance to respond, Bunny's incessant tapping of his foot irked Jack in a way that he hadn't known in quite some time. "Take it, Jack!"
"Fine then! If it's causing you that many problems, forget it!" This brief exchange was the first time either of them yelled. It wasn't a good feeling on both sides, and even though they regretted it, neither party confessed. Jack manhandled the rose from Bunny's hand, and Bunny watched analytically as his ears twitched with nerves. As fast as Bunny's heartbeat was, it became even faster as he watched Jack's expression turn from forlorn to belligerent.
"What's the problem?" Taunted Bunny. "If it's so precious to ya, give it to someone else!" He huffed and stomped his foot.
With that, Jack snorted like a rabid animal and stomped off down the hill on which they stood. As he reached the bottom he turned back around to Bunny and relished in the confusion that found its home on Bunny's face. In a last moment of harassment, Jack scoffed and then smirked, only to then turn around and fling the then solid flower in the air. Bunny's tail stopped flickering as he watched it rise into the springtime veil that surrounded them, and then in the blink of an eye, Jack flew up to meet it, and then spun around with his staff and shattered it into hordes of pieces. Bunny's heart dropped as he watched the many fragments of his thoughtful gift fly in all directions. To and fro they when and tore streaks of despondency through the once serene atmosphere. The sound it made was deafening, and Bunny's ears had never been so violated. Jack faced Bunny with anguish of his own.
"There," he said. "Hope you feel better." Jack's voice dripped with melancholy and rage, and his gait seemed off as he used his staff to soar up and out of the warren.
Bunny stopped tapping his foot, for he found that he had become too rattled. Sulking in misperception, Bunny moped all the way back to his own private corner of the warren; there he found his bed and personal space. It was the only area that had nothing to do with Easter, but now instead of hope, he'd brought in with him dejection. The feeling trigger by the flower that Jack had given him scared Bunny, and it caused him to unwittingly lash out. However, Bunny acknowledged that it was likely he'd been a bit too harsh. He then curled up onto his bed and silently whimpered as the season of hope encompassed the world, but had regrettably left him far behind.