Bunny hadn´t realized how he felt for the frost spirit until after the whole mess with Pitch. Jack had always been nothing but a nuisance, messing up everything and not doing much good but create a nice icicle or two. Of course their little "disagreement" in ´68 was still fresh in his mind, but lately, other thoughts of the snow haired guardian had began to take up more of his thoughts.
Now, whenever the cold wind and the harsh snow blew in over the land, Bunny was always excited to see if it was accompanied by Jack. Whenever they met the other guardians at the North Pole, Bunny and Jack didn´t argue like they´d done in the past. Well Bunny didn´t, Jack on the other hand seemed just as mischievous as always. North and the others had obviously noticed the sudden change in Bunny´s behavior, but Jack still seemed oblivious.
It was a few days after Easter, Bunny was done for the year and could finally relax in his warren. It had been a hectic year, but now the eggs had been found and spring had arrived with both its warmth and hope. Bunny sat, leaning against one of the big sentinel eggs and let his eyes flutter close as the warm wind in the warren rocked him to a near sleep-like state.
The sounds of the wind, the rustling grass and the tittering of the spring was almost as a lullaby and Bunny had never felt so content. His mind drifted from the long nights of egg painting and planning, to the young snow haired guardian, like it had done quite frequently in the past few months. It had been little over a year since Pitch was defeated, a little over a year that Bunny had had these feelings. Of course North had been the one to confront him about it, but Bunny had always rejected his suspicions. But no matter how much Bunny tried to hide it or deny it, the truth was that he still had feelings for Jack. North, who continued to ignore Bunny´s ongoing explanations that he´d never have feelings for a snot-nosed little annoying brat like Jack, suggested that he´d confess.
Confess to Jack? Bunny would´ve rather let his ears freeze off in the arctic wind outside the pole. Sure, Bunny had thought about it, but imagining Jack laughing at him as he rejected him was too much to bear. All and all it made the Easter bunny quite miserable, but he had learned to tolerate it. But he could still feel his inside churn whenever he saw Tooth fly over to Jack for a quick hug. That was also part of the problem. Sure, Tooth and Jack weren´t exactly lovers or even something remotely close to that. But Bunny knew how much the fairy liked Jack, whether it was platonic or not, and the truth was, Jack and Tooth could probably end up together. Sure Jack was once a human and Tooth a fairy, but Bunny was a giant talking rabbit. He didn't think that even if Jack had had feelings for him (which he most definitely didn't) he wouldn´t be able to ignore the huge differences between them. So Bunny said nothing.
Suddenly the warm wind in the warren was replaced by a harsh chill.
"Speak of the devil…" Bunny muttered to himself and didn't even bother opening his eyes as the object if his denied affection landed on a patch of soft grass a few feet away.
"Hey Kangaroo! You awake?" Jack shouted across the warren with a wide grin on his pale face.
Bunny didn´t answer but waved one of his hind legs to signal that he wasn't asleep. Jack walked up to him and settled in the grass next to Bunny, gently brushing his leg against the Pooka´s. Bunny felt his heart racing. Had Jack done that on purpose? He was sitting awfully close to Bunny and didn´t seem bothered by it. Bunny still hadn´t opened his eyes, but he quickly took a small peek at the boy beside him. Jack was sitting, leaning against the same boulder as him, making little snowflakes in between his fingers. Suddenly Jack spoke.
"Can you believe it´s been over a year since I became a guardian?" he said, laughing a little and twirling the small flake of ice around his hand.
Of course Bunny could. He couldn´t remember a day that had gone by without him thinking about Jack. But he would never say that.
"Mhm…" He murmured instead, continuing his one man show of the half asleep rabbit.
Jack smiled gently and gazed out over the warren. It was a bit warm for his tastes really, he would´ve preferred being by the pole now or somewhere else equally cold. But here he was, sitting in Bunny´s warren.
"Must feel nice for you to see so many believers this Easter, huh?" Jack continued and let his eyes flutter close as well as he slid further down the stone egg.
"Yeah…" Bunny answered.
He would´ve rather comforted Jack over the fact that there still weren't that many children who believed in him, and then Jack would´ve been touched by Bunny´s concern and then Bunny would confess his feelings for him and then they´d live happily ever after. Not.
Jack smiled gently and slid even further down the egg, his thigh now against Bunny´s. The Easter bunny could hear the blood rushing in his long, soft ears. The coolness of Jack´s leg against his made him so ludicrously happy and nervous. Jack was sitting really close to him, perhaps this was a sign? Bunny sat up and opened his eyes.
"Frost- I mean Jack…" he began, the winter spirit next to him opening his eyes and turning towards him.
"What? So it´s Jack now?" Jack smiled, it wasn´t the devilish grin he usually flashed Bunny, accompanied by a snarky comment or a rude nickname, but a genuine smile.
This made the pooka ludicrously more nervous. He stumbled at his words and cursed at himself, he was a bloody 6ft tall guardian. How could one boy turn him into this? He felt his face heat up, he had never been more thankful that his face was covered with fur than now.
"I know it´s been a year, but I just…wanted to thank you, mate…" he began, so thankful that his voice was steady.
"I mean... if you hadn´t convinced Jamie that I was real…I probably wouldn't t be here…None of us would."
Jack looked at Bunny with a puzzled expression. He then chuckled and ran his hand though his snowy hair, obviously surprised by the Pooka's sudden kindness.
"You don´t need to thank me. I know firsthand what it´s like not to be believed in, and I wouldn´t wish that on anybody. Not even Pitch." He answered, suddenly very serious, it was so different compared to his usually thoughtless and careless behavior.
"Both he and I have been alone for such a long time it´s almost ridiculous." He chuckled bitterly.
"Not being seen by anyone or not being cared about… Being alone … that is the worst possible thing. I would never willingly put someone through that." His sharp blue eyes were absolutely beautiful in the soft light of the warren, and Bunny couldn´t stop the words escaping his mouth even if he wanted to.
"Jack, I care about you." He said bluntly, staring his green eyes into Jack´s.
Jack looked at him for a second and then dropped his head and laughed.
"Yeah yeah, kangaroo. I care about you to." He joked and didn't want to meet Bunny´s eyes.
But Bunny persisted, he had taken the first step. He was going all in.
"No mate, I really do. Ever since you…saved me, saved all of us, I haven´t been able to bloody think about anything or anyone else but you." Bunny continued, staring determinedly at Jack who looked at him, his eyes wide in shock.
"Whenever I see you I lose my mind, and whenever you look at me I can´t control myself. You´re turning me into a bloody wreck!" Bunny rambled, determined to get all off his feelings off his chest.
Then there was silence for a moment. And then Jack began to laugh.
"Hahaha! You really got me Kangaroo! Guess you´re not as much off a stick in the mud as I thought." Jack laughed and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye.
When Bunny didn´t answer, Jack´s smile faded.
"What…? You´re serious?" he asked aghast.
Jack didn't know what to say. Sure, he and Bunny got along better than before, but that Bunny had developed feelings for him was out of his mind.
He didn´t know what to say, he had never experienced this before. He suddenly felt unreasonably angry. Why would that lousy rabbit ever have feelings for him? Was he still just playing him? He did look serious, but Jack was still mad.
"What do you want from me? Do you think this is funny?" he said, glaring at the confused Pooka.
"What?!" Bunny asked, he had expected rejection, but anger? What the hell was going on?
"What are you trying to get out of this? You´ve treated me like an annoying child for all these years, and suddenly you have feelings for me?" Jack almost shouted, bits of snow beginning to fall.
Now Bunny was getting angry to.
"Well, you were acting like an annoying child, so what did you expect?! The only thing you do is run around acting selfish and spreading you´re bloody snow around where no one wants it!" Bunny retorted.
Jack furrowed his brow in anger and stood up.
"Oh, so now I´m selfish? What do you call messing up everything with you´re stupid feelings?!" he shouted and started walking away.
Bunny shot up and ran after him.
"You think I want to feel this way?" he said angrily and continued.
"Well I don´t. Do you think I like feeling jealous every time Tooth even remotely touches you? If I could choose not to care about you I would! But I can´t!" Bunny was furious now and when he almost walked into Jack as he stopped abruptly.
"Well you can keep your stupid feelings and your idiotic confession. I don´t know what you thought would happened, but for all I care you can go to hell!" Jack shouted and then flew away in a wisp of cold air.
Left on the ground was Bunnymund, feeling about as bad as you could possibly feel. He growled in anger and kicked a nearby rock so hard that it flew across the warren and into the rainbow colored spring. Why did this have to happen? Why did they always have to fight whenever they spoke? Maybe this was a sign that this was for the best? Maybe now would he finally be free from his obsession with that stupid, selfish frostbite.
Yeah right.