Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the characters from Rise of the Guardians, the rights belong solely to Dreamworks studios and William Joyce. I only own Bethany, an OC of mine.
Two little bunnies.
The sun was harsh and bright as morning broke.
Springtime flowers were abloom as E. Aster Bunnymund galloped through the lush bushes, bouncing on all fours as he raced through the lush gardens of a rich family. His paws dug into the earth with each bound he made, his light blue/gray fur flowed back against the soft gusts of wind. The sunlight beamed down on his back and gave him this enriching and comforting warmth to accompany his yearly Easter Sunday run as he carried a big sack full of eggs that hung from around his back.
He had been giving out eggs, hiding a majority of them in certain places whilst most of them had journeyed to their destinations from tunnels in his Warren which was based in the underground of Bondi Australia and it had taken him ten minutes to get through each country and about an hour to finish with each continent.
He also had to make sure his eggs got to their places safely and without much trouble.
Bunnymund had just finished with handing out the eggs in the small region of Normandy France. It had been a quick and simple task, like all of his other missions and he was also a lone wolf and the last of his kind. When he was very young, his kind had been killed all thanks to these bunch of shadow creatures that viciously attacked everybody and even his parents were lost.
It was all thanks to an old enemy named Kozmotis Pitchiner, better known as Pitch Black or the Boogeyman.
Bunnymund could hardly recall much of his infancy before the massacre. He couldn't remember the faces of either his mother or his father and he had been orphaned at a very young age, yet he could vividly remember being happy and very much loved before he had been left a sole survivor. He had been glad about that, although he had frequent nightmares about what had happened and it left him feeling as though he had a hole deep in his heart.
After some years of growing into adulthood whilst living in an underground oasis below Australia and helping kids in need of cheering up the Man In The Moon chose him and made him the Guardian of Hope and without the sacrifices of his people he wouldn't have been the Guardian he was now, he even helped take down the one responsible for the death of his kind and that made him feel a bit better.
Pitch had been defeated and that was enough for him.
It was now his duty to carry all the dreams and hopes of children everywhere around the world and he was going to continue his duty as long as he kept breathing, that was his vow.
But little was the six-foot-tall Easter rabbit aware that his life was just about to change.
Bunny had just continued to run as fast as he was able, he was still down on all fours with his bag of eggs all empty and he even managed to bathe in warmth of the sunlight that shone down from above, and he grinned in contentment. Heck, even his waddling egg herd had seemed to waddle off in search of their new homes.
When he was about five metres away from the house and he entered a woodland which was nearby, didn't want to be seen. The big anthropomorphic bunny rabbit bounded with the grace and elegance of a great stag deer as he skirted around the big trees that made for very tight turns and crossroads in the forest.
It wasn't until he was about a good distance away from the house he'd just made his delivery to before he had decided to skid to an abrupt halt whilst he got to his two big feet. He was so tired; his exotic emerald green eyes were as heavy (or possibly even heavier) than North's sack full of Christmas presents, his long ears couldn't help but hang down behind his head floppily, every limb and muscle in his body hurt and ached like you wouldn't believe.
It made him stagger a little bit, actually, and it was because of this that he was just about ready to call it a year, he was finally done for this Easter.
Bunnymund panted heavily, the sweat seeping through his large ears, as he tried to cool himself down. It was quite a sweltering morning and the Easter bunny had a hard time trying to get his own body heat to calm down as to avoid getting heatstroke or something like that.
He knew that he had to get back to his warren and cool off so he could begin preparing for next Easter Sunday.
It was a scorcher of a morning and he couldn't stay and hang around, especially since he was in a forest where he could be attacked by one of the inhabitants of this place. He prepared to thump his big rabbit foot against the ground in order to summon a rabbit hole, to summon a tunnel home with his Easter powers, and he started to talk to himself with a slight tired moan puffing from his throat.
"The ankle-biter's will be up an' about soon, I better get movi-"
But that was when he suddenly heard something.
His foot hovered in midair, he found himself unable to move the muscles and ligaments to let his foot thump the ground so it could open a tunnel and he could return to his burrow.
He couldn't even move it a twitch.
His bunny rabbit instincts decided to kick in and his long ears started to go up and rotate around the area, swivelling around in the air to locate the direction of the source of the noise. He strained his ears to listen and when he did listen a bit closer he could have sworn that it was a voice; not just any voice, however, it was the voice of a female.
It was beautiful, despite being heard at a fairly far distance.
The Easter bunny finally found himself able to put his foot back down and he subconsciously became intrigued with the girl's voice. Something buried deep in his mind begun to stir, an old natural instinct ignited into a flame inside his heart. He had hardly been able to control himself and found that he was moving towards the direction of the voice before he could even control himself, yet he did somehow maintain the self control to unsheathe his two boomerangs from their holsters on his back.
Couldn't be too careful, ridiculous as the very notion was, since the source of the voice could have been dangerous...
Bunny cautiously headed straight towards the source of the voice and all he could hear was his heart thumping. It was as though his heart and instincts were leading him somewhere, but he couldn't help but feel a tad skeptical.
"Why would a sheila be out in the middle of nowhere?"
His head tilted to the side, his fluffy brows furrowed and his muzzle pulled into a confused frown. This was just dumb! This should have been none of his concern, he shouldn't have been so interested and yet he was somehow intrigued enough that he was letting his own instincts guide him while he was travelling through a near empty woodlands.
He eventually found himself stopping right at a clearing.
There were plenty of rose bushes around, there were a plethora of trees growing around the place and that meant that he could probably catch a little peak as to assure his anxious mind. He hadn't a clue as to why he was so shaken and why his instincts were driving him to be so uncharacteristically furtive.
The Easter bunny got back down on all fours and willed himself to turn right around and get away from here, there was a likelihood of him getting spotted and he didn't want to cause trouble for himself especially since he had to go and make preparations back at the Warren. Yet there was this nagging in the back of his head that he couldn't ignore. He couldn't even move anymore anyway since his two big feet were glued to the grass he stood upon.
He yanked on his own ears whilst he growled to himself in frustration.
"What's the matter with me? Why am I actin' like such a loon!?"
Bunny's eyes closed as he let out a sigh. He had to calm down, he couldn't solve this issue if he was ranting and raving like a hot-head now; he had come this far, he may as well just go along with it for awhile longer.
He cautiously came and slowly stepped forth, making sure that his footsteps were light while he was well hid behind one of the bushes and he gently peered over the foliage, to see who it was that was driving him so crazy. What he saw made both his tired eyes widen in shock and his jaw drop. He even had to blink several times to see if it were the light or even his exhaustion tricking him.
But it wasn't.
There, standing in this woodland clearing, was a Pooka rabbit just like him!
The female was just a tad shorter from the Aussie Easter rabbit himself, she looked about his own age. She had light pink fur that seemed to have been very neat and clean and even shiny in the sunlight. She had a white muzzle and she had a delicate aura about her. She had a diamond-card darker pink cape draped over her shoulders and a little silk top-hat sat on top of her head in between her long ears, and the rabbit's ears were longer in length with very fluffy tips. The fluffy fuzz on her chest was a tad more exaggerated than Bunnymund's own and her belly was just as fluffy.
Clasped in her left paw was a little stick, that kind of resembled a magic wand of some sorts.
Bunnymund could hardly believe it; there was another of his kind, a female, standing right there in front of his very eyes...! He had forgotten about his previous exhaustion and the pain in his limbs, his mind was now reeling with questions such as How on earth was she here? Are there more? and If so, where are they?
He just couldn't believe this was happening! This couldn't be happening yet it was. But Bunny also couldn't help but think of something else as he saw this new bunny. His thoughts became vocalised as he watched on with a large amount of interest.
"Wow, she's a beaut..."
Bunny was astonished with himself. Why did he think such a thing?! There should have been more on his mind other than her absolute beauty and he had only just discovered that she existed, he knew better than that and he shouldn't have been saying that about someone who he just met. His thoughts were now a frantic mess and he was scrambling to try and organise them and see how he should handle the situation.
He suddenly stood still. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and tried to calm down. He inhaled and exhaled...in and out...in and out...in and out...and then he slowly opened his eyes and thought to himself calmly.
'Calm down, bunny, mate...scramblin' around isn't going to solve nothing...'
Bunny rested a paw to his racing heart in an effort to slow himself down and seated himself on his haunches. This was a unique situation, of course, and he had to be calm and handle this all delicately since her discovering he existed might be an even bigger shock to her than anything. She might not even know about her own kind, their own kind. But what exactly did she know about their species, did she know more about their people than him?
He shook his head.
Maybe he was thinking about it too hard...
Bunnymund calmly took another breath and started to stand up. He had to meet her and introduce himself, besides it was the least he could do. She had a right to learn about him and vice versa because they might have been the last pair in existence. He let courage take hold and clenched his paws into tight fists.
He grinned and confidence overflowed through his body.
He could do this!
But alas the courage was sucked from him when he was quite abruptly shoved forth by some invisible force and he stumbled out of the nice shrubs and bushes which he had been hiding behind and was clumsily tripping all over the place as he'd been pushed right into the clearing.
Bunny's big feet were all over the place whilst he tried in constant vain to correct his stumbling and tripping, he hardly noticed who he had terrified by quite literally stumbling out on to the scene. Almost instantly, Bunny felt his head collide right into something hard and he was sent falling to the ground in a state of dizziness. He sat on his fluffy tail and tried to cradle his dizzy head in his right paw in an attempt to get his vision to stop spinning.
"Nnnnngh..." He groaned sorely.
But, through his dizziness, he heard someone else voice call out in stunned shock. The voice was like a choir of angels that were screaming in terror, and the voice had carried a heavy French accent that was quite rich but what should one expect when actually in France?
"S-S-Sacre bleu!"
Bunny's foggy vision finally cleared and he looked up and was pretty much face-to-face with that pink five-and-a-half-foot-tall bunny whom seemed to have actually been wearing magician attire now that he got a proper look at her.
Her big hazel brown eyes were like swirls of dark brown coffee chocolate, and she also had the most elegant of physiques that matched that of a graceful swan.
She was obviously in shock but that was to be expected...what was not expected, however, was the fact that upon seeing him she leapt into the air and slammed both her big rabbit feet right into his chest. She kicked him and Bunny was sent flying a few feet, he collided right into a tree trunk and the impact he made caused some small twig branches and leaves to fall down on top of him.
Even some little acorns came loose and toppled down on top of him.
"Fous-moi la paix!" She yelled with her shoulder muscles tightening due to hostility, her ears went back and they flattened against her head. Her blazing hazel eyes were huge and glossy with fear shimmering inside of them as she also narrowed them to try and intimidate him, her back was arched. Her paws gripping on tight to what appeared to be a magic wand, a fake and a prop all the same. What she was going to do with it, exactly, was a mystery and it baffled the Australian Easter bunny, and it even scared him. Yet her fearful scowl was almost instantly replaced with a look of curiosity and surprise and she calmed down.
All the tension in the atmosphere went away almost immediately.
The pink rabbit tilted her head with her ears perking up, her eyes lighting up as she studied the still-disoriented Bunnymund. She slowly bent down and sniffed curiously at his still form and Bunny, whom was even more weary than ever now, and he had his paw tight on his twin boomerangs just encase, let his nose do the same as he sniffed at her too. The pink Pooka rabbit stared at her male counterpart and Bunny stared right back at her.
The mood was totally awkward and there was an uncomfortable silence between them both, neither of the pair said anything.
The female glared skeptically at him as she observed his every move, watching as the Easter bunny picked himself up off the ground as he recovered from that bump he received to the back of his head and he blinked a few times to let his foggy eyesight clear up properly so he could properly see her and make out her form standing over him.
When he was finally back on his two feet, the two humanoid rabbits stood face-to-face; cool Emerald pools stared right into cautious and confused Hazel orbs.
Bunnymund quickly realised that he was only a bit taller than the lady was and he realised quickly how she seemed to notice how big he was compared to her too, prompting a paw to sneak behind his back so he could grip one of his boomerangs if it were needed. Yet he didn't want to frighten her more, so he tried to see if this girl could speak even a lick of English. He was able to speak other languages, he was, but he preferred to speak normally if it were at all possible.
"C-Can I ask...if ya could speak any English, Sheila?"
He couldn't help but ask that with a trembly tone of voice. He was glad that none of the other guardians were there to witness this because he'd never be able to hear the end of it if that were the case...
He only got a perplexed expression from the female in response to the inquiry.
Bunny was stunned when Bethany nodded, a proud and resolute expression forming on her face. She flicked her magician cape and made sure to adjust it as she tugged on the collar to tighten it a bit and the wind caused it to billow a bit in the draft it was caught in.
"Qui. I am perfectly capable of speaking English."
The male Pooka bunny tenderly rubbed the back of his injured head with his paw, looking off to the side with a his nose twitching out of nervousness and he tried to find a way to salvage this very awkward first meeting but he had not even a singular clue as to how to handle this situation, especially now that he still remembered that he had just discovered that he wasn't the last of his kind like he had always thought he was.
This was a girl and she might not have been able to speak much English...but he had to say something to her.
But she decided to speak first.
The pink-furred rabbit finally lightened up and smiled a bit. She tipped her little silk hat to Bunnymund in a polite manner, her bright and eccentric hazel brown eyes were aglow with fascination and she leaned towards him whilst her own nose twitched with curiosity for the Easter bunny. Her whole expression was almost as bright as a spark of light and she appeared a lot less tense in posture.
"Bonjour,"
The two bunnies were silent for several lengthy moments before the pink magician spoke again, sounding a bit bolder and less afraid with each word she spoke.
"My name iz Bethany, Bethany Roseheart. What iz your name?"
Bunny just stood there with an aghast expression. One second this lady was screaming at him and kicking him into a tree trunk, injuring him, and now she was being all friendly with him. Just what in the name of the Man in the moon was going on here? He could hardly comprehend the fact that he had discovered he was not the last of his kind, he didn't need much more confusion...but he supposed that he could try and be friendly.
"B-B-Bunnymund E. Aster —or Bunnymund Edam Aster, if ya want to get technical..."
The other bunny rabbit, apparently named Bethany, fidgeted on the spot and she rubbed her paws up against each other. Then she tried her best to grin even if it did completely give off a sheepish vibe; her hazel eyes were filled with embarrassment as her grin caused her lower eyelids to bunch up a little bit. When Bunnymund eyed Bethany skeptically, her long ears dropped down and her smirk fell a bit as she looked quite apologetic now.
"I am sorry for hurting you, monsieur Bunny, I waz just startled. I have never met anothair of my kind before..."
Bunny's cautious expression only eased.
He could understand since, as he originally thought, this came as much as a shock to her than it did to him. The French female magician bunny rabbit was probably just startled out of her wit and acted out of irrational fear...even if it did result in him receiving a rather nasty head wound in the process. He couldn't help but lift a paw towards his head when his poor head bump started to pulsate with pain.
"Ehh, don't worry 'bout it. You weren't the only one."
Bunny flinched when his paw simply touched the large bump, his right eye shutting tight in response. Seeing that seemed to make Bethany seem all the more guilt-ridden about kicking him in the head, Bunnymund mentally slapped himself. He was worrying her! He grinned reassuringly at her, trying to not hiss from the pain "Buck up, sheila, I'll be right."
Bethany just looked at him and corrected "Um...Bethany, non Sheila..."
Bunny guessed that Bethany didn't understand Austrailian slang, and he didn't bother to correct her since he saw that she still seemed pretty doubtful as she sadly gazed at him yet at the same time she also seemed very intrigued by him. Hazel eyes were big and sad and her ears remained droopy, yet they lifted up a little bit a minute later when she started to examine her doppelgänger a bit closer as she leaned towards him and her nose wiggled in keen interest. She obviously had lots of questions to ask and Bunny had a few inquiry's for her too.
There was only one thing to do:
They seated themselves down on the ground and talked.
Bethany told of anything she could consider interesting about herself. She spoke of how she was found all alone as a kit by an old and rather old-hat magician whom took her in and raised her, and then she explained how she was supposed to inherit the old man's magic tricks and everything he owned since she was the closest to family the man had. She didn't recall much of her childhood, like Bunny, and apparently was just a teeny newborn kit so she didn't have much of a clue about her kind and it seemed that she didn't have any special abilities like the Easter rabbit had.
So she was as in the dark in it as Bunny was.
In turn Bunnymund spoke of his past, although he probably came off as vague since he still could not remember much about being with his own kind, and he also talked of how he was a member in the Big four and was the Guardian of Hope. He told of how it was his job to bring Hope to the children of the world each and every Easter Sunday and he also explained about his friends such as North and the Tooth fairy and the Sand man...and also Jack Frost...he explained that last part rather begrudgingly, and he also told how their kind was wiped out by Pitch Black and Bethany seemed to hang on his every word.
It was only after Bunnymund finished saying his piece when Bethany let out a long breath of awe and disbelief. Her eyes were bigger than saucers, her breath was knocked out from her chest, her ears were slightly droopy as she sat on the fresh luscious green grass. The hat she wore on her head was rather crooked although she seemed too lost in her own little world to properly notice it.
Bunny was worried for a moment.
Did he blow her mind? Was she having trouble processing everything?
"Erm...Bethany? Beth?" He snapped his fingers, hoping the clicks would snap her from her trance. "You alright?"
A minute passed and Bethany finally snapped out of her daze and looked squarely at the Easter Bunny once again. She seemed somewhat out of it, but otherwise she appeared to be okay and well despite the fact that her mind was probably overloaded.
"Excusez-moi, monsieur Bunny...I waz...I waz just..."
Bunny smiled sympathetically, his exotic green eyes gleaming with kind-hearted goodwill. "Don't worry 'bout it, it's a lot to take in."
The female Pooka rabbit smiled in response, glad that Bunny had enough patience for her. She was shocked that the Easter rabbit seemed so cool-headed and calm despite only just finding out that he wasn't the last of his kind like he'd assumedly always thought. He was so calm and she couldn't help but admire that, in fact she noticed that there was a sudden heat on her furry cheeks.
Was she blushing? She didn't even know that rabbits could blush!
Bunny didn't seem to notice it, thank goodness, and he was quiet for a few seconds as he seemed to have been thinking about something yet he could hardly think over the loud thumping of his heart. He pondered his question for a few moments and then, when he thought of his question, he opened his mouth and started to say something.
"U-Um, uh, you want to go-"
But he never got the chance to finish his question since a very familiar yet extremely irritating voice coming from somewhere behind them had interrupted him with a very annoying song.
"Bunny's got a girlfriend, Bunny's got a girlfriend~"
Bunny's face couldn't help but sink into a glare most dark, he had thought that the air had gotten chillier yet he hardly even noticed.
Jack Frost was hovering from behind a few bushes, like those bushes he had been hiding behind awhile ago, and he was making kissy faces whilst he perched on top of the crook of his staff. He sang loud, this annoying chirp was visible in his tone and he seemed to love humiliating the poor bunny.
Bunnymund scowled darkly at the interruption, so angered in fact that smoke was actually blowing out of his ears. His fur bristled and his green eyes became twisted and enraged. He didn't want to be interrupted by this frosty upstart right now, especially not right in front of a lovely lady like Bethany.
He had wanted to get to know her more but he couldn't do that with a bratty young teen spirit being an irritating smart aleck.
Alas the giant 6-foot tall humanoid rabbit grinned evilly when an idea came to him and he decided to not waste a moment to put this idea into action; he thumped his foot on the ground and summoned a hole right beneath the mischievous winter spirit. Jack was caught off guard because when the hole appeared under his floating form it managed to come with some kind of vacuum that seemed to have been manufactured just for him.
The hole sucked him in before he could sing another verse and he was gone.
Bethany had been confused about the entire event. She couldn't wrap her head around what had happened, especially with her head about to explode from all that the Easter bunny had just told her.
But even she could see that the moment was now ruined.
Bunny sensed the same thing and started to get to his feet, his whole facial expression was frantic and bashful as he tapped his foot on the ground to get a second hole ready and prepared to get him back to the Warren. He was seething mad with that immature Frost bite right now and he was going to plot his revenge all while getting prepared for next year, and it would just be more awkward if he stayed a minute longer.
Bethany could see that Bunny was leaving and her ears fell sadly.
"B-Bunny, w-when am I going to see you again?"
Bunny quickly summoned a hole to open up in the ground and he frantically stumbled and stammered ineligible nonsense which was so jumbled that it was hardly comprehendible. Yet the truth was, with his busy schedule, he had no clue as to when he could see her again...it's not like he could just plan a date with her what with his profession. He was about to jump into the hole when Beth grabbed hold of his left paw and prevented him from hopping right in.
Bethany, eyes sad, repeated her question coolly. "Bunny...when can I see you again?"
Bunnymund only got lost in her eyes. He almost instantly calmed down when he saw how saddened she looked, it gnawed at his heart and it made it drop into his stomach. How could he properly answer that? But he knew that he had it see her again, "never" was just not an option for him or for her. A small gentle grin spread across to his muzzle when he dug deep and found his answer to her question.
"...How'd next year on April 16th sound?"
The female pink magician was aghast, that was on Easter...! That would be a long time until she saw him again but she supposed that it was how things had to be. He was the Easter bunny after all and while she still had so many questions to ask him, she knew that he had a duty and she had hers and they both had different lives to lead. Regardless, she was happy to at least get the chance to see him again.
Her sadness evaporated and a smile replaced her frown. She gave a nod of her head and she released Bunnymund's paw, the blue humanoid bunny rabbit spared a reassuring look to her and then gave her his own nod of the head as he made a move to dive into his awaiting transportation hole home, "I'm gonna prepare for next Easter and I'm gonna turn Jack into a melted slushie."
With that Bunny dived into his hole, his form a blue-gray blur as he bounced down into it and the ground swallowed him up. As he did so, he bid her a "Happy Easter" and he gave a few whoops which quickly disappeared the instant the tunnel closed up.
Bethany was all alone in the clearing again. For some reason her heart ached despite that promise Bunny made to see her again next Easter Sunday, it made her feel like there was a huge hole in her heart which she only assumed formed while she chatted with the Australian Easter Bunny and yet she had found these feelings foreign and confusing, she had never felt like this before. She only met the rabbit earlier and yet she was feeling so heartbroken right now.
The pink anthropomorphic 5 foot tall rabbit let out a long sigh.
She thought to herself forlornly as her head drooped from exhaustion and from depression.
I might as well head home...
She thought to herself.
But then she felt this urge to look back towards the clearing, she did and she saw something that seemed to have been placed in the back of it. Curiosity took over and she turned on her feet and ambled back to examine it as the odd object wasn't there before. She carefully approached the woodland clearing again and gasped when she saw something gleaming in the sunlight.
It was sitting on top of a nearby tree stump.
The object was an egg which had been painted a bright pink shade and the image of a red rose was painted on to it. The thing was obviously painted with such care and articulation, one would need a steady hand —or paw— to create such a work of art.
Bethany just couldn't keep the smile off of her face and her heart began to race a mile a minute. Her ears perked up immediately and her nose wouldn't stop twitching and wriggling, she felt lighter than air and she wanted to squeal out of pure happiness. She may not see Bunnymund again for awhile but she had something to remember him by in the meantime.
She couldn't wait to see him!
...She only hoped that Jack Frost wouldn't spoil things again.
A/N: Hi, I'm back with the long-promised story of how Bunny meets his future lover, Bethany, before "Bunnymund the Easter daddy" and "Guardians and legend of the Pooka".
Sorry I've been on leave for so long but some very complicated stuff happened with me and a certain fic of mine and stuff and I went on leave for awhile. Again, sorry about that. Anyways I decided to finally upload this and I hope you guys like this little one-shot. Soooooo sorry its three years too late and I hope I can make it up to you guys.
Anyways, I hope you like it and please review and/or fave.
-Chloemcg