"You know Aster," said Tooth, shifting restless on her cushioned perch. "You're going to have to tell them soon."

The Easter Bunny said nothing. He sipped tea from a delicate china cup, not lifting his eyes from the large stone egg he was painting as her Christmas present. This latest portrait of the fairy queen was coming along quite well, in his opinion, and all the better with a sitting in her natural setting.

His ears twitched from their conversation to the aqua-colored pool a stone's throw away, where his three kits – Jasmine, Coralberry, and Kaffir – played in the shallows alongside the small handful of fairies who could be spared for such games. In mid-December, the ever-seasonal warmth of Punjam Hy Loo was a treat, even if Kaffir would rather be at the Pole pranking North's Christmas preparations. He expressed this desire by lighting chilling water cupped in his front paws before dumping it over the heads of his sisters, drawing giggles from Coralberry and shrieks of indignation from Jasmine. Their antics brought a wiry grin onto Bunny's face.

"Aster." Tooth's voice was more firm this time, drawing both his ear and, momentarily, his eye. Her normally bright smile faded to a matronly line and her wings – which were supposed to remain still so he could get the color right – buzzed with hint of disapproval. "You need to tell them."

Bunnymund sighed, dabbing a fresh brush into his paints. "I know, Tooth. I know."

"They're more than old enough now, they deserve the full story. Jack would want them to have it, you know he would. And Kaffir –"

"Shush." Bunny froze, his ears swiveling back to the pond. Jasmine yelled at her brother, repeatedly kicking up waves with her hind legs that only served to send him laughing again as he bounded from rock to rock. There was no indication the children could hear. Still, he kept his voice low. "What about Kaff?"

Toothiana pursed her lips, drumming her fingers as her nerves swallowed up what willpower she'd devoted to staying still for the painting. She took a long moment to properly organize her thoughts before saying, "He's different. From you, from the girls. Everyone can see it. And I know –" She held up a placating hand to cut off his next protest. "- that you don't treat him like he's strange. But children can recognize this sort of thing, you don't know how much it could be bothering him. At the very least, don't you think he deserves to know why?"

Aster set his jaw. He swirled his brush around in the water jar and squeezed the excess liquid from the bristles with a bit of white cloth. "S'not like they haven't asked, Tooth."

"…And?"

Bunnymund sighed. "I tried, okay? I've tried a lot. More times than I care to count."

He'd tried answering their questions as they came and bringing it up on his own. He'd tried to make it a bedtime story, a history lesson, a plain old man-to-man talk. He tried every angle he could think of. Nothing changed. Every time, the pain welled up and closed his throat, keeping the story locked inside.

Bunny set the egg down and settled back in his own cushioned seat, rubbing his temples with one paw. "It never gets any easier. You'd think, after thirty years, I'd be able to spit it out, but…it just won't come. It still hurts too much."

Tooth's wings buzzed with nervous energy, lifting her off her perch. Aster could see in her worried eyes that she was thinking the same as him. It would be so much easier for her to tell the tale. She was the Guardian of Memories, after all, and she wasn't limited to what remained in children's teeth. She had tricks that could bring out her own memories and his and those of their fellow Guardians to show the kits their dam's story. But she wouldn't offer, and he wouldn't ask, because…

"They deserve to hear it from you," she said, gentle but firm.

Aster sighed again, "I know. And they will. After Christmas. That's when I'll tell them."

"Tell us what, Daddy?"

Both Bunny and Tooth jumped in surprise. Jasmine had snuck up on them, her light steps silenced by the dense ground and her own sodden state. She dripped with water, silver fur soaked through and ears so heavy that she couldn't lift them from her head. She stared up with her father's wide green eyes, her whiskers drooping in a sad pout.

Aster cleared his throat and crouched to meet his daughter's eye as Tooth refreshed their tea. "Nothing, Jazzy. Don't worry about it. What's wrong?"

Jasmine sniffed, pawing at her sodden ears. "Kaffie keeps splashing me. Make him stop."

Bunnymund chuckled. He straightened and raised his voice, calling to the pool. "Kaf. Lay off your sisters, it's not fun anymore."

"Aw…" Kaffir hunched over the rock he'd just scaled and pouted, but relented with a shrug. "Okay, Dad."

The young buck shook his head, water droplets freezing as they left his fur, only to melt in mid-flight due to the surrounding warmth. He bounded between from one rock to the next, climbing higher on the mural and leaving curls of frost wherever his paws touched until he crashed into the center of the pool. The wave created by the cannonball swept a giggling Coralberry and three mini-fairies all the way to shore.

Bunnymund nudged Jasmine back towards the pool and watched her return to her siblings with a fond smile. At just short of thirty years, his kits were of a comparable maturity to ten-year-old humans. Already he half-anticipated, half-dreaded the inevitable sibling squabbles to come, which were made no easier by Kaffir's lack of control with his ice and cold. He desperately needed focus, something to reign it under control. It would be so much easier if he had someone to teach him, but…

Well. He didn't. Obviously.

Aster turned to find Tooth still staring at him pointedly, as though reading his mind. He sighed. "I'll tell them. After New Year's."

"You said Christmas."

Bunny frowned. "Their birthday," he settled firmly. "In January. That's when I'll do it. I've got a plan, Tooth, I do. I just need to get something from North, something to…to break the ice."

Toothiana sighed and shook her head. "If you say so, Bunny." She buzzed around the table and leaned over his shoulder to press a quick kiss on his fuzzy cheek. "I should get back to work. You four stay as long as you like, okay?"

Bunny nodded and thanked her for the hospitality and the tea. As the Tooth Fairy returned to her job, his eyes wandered between the half-finished portrait and his children's game, thinking of the similar eggs they'd never seen with Jack's face and color in loving detail and wondering, yet again, how he could ever hope to do that beautiful life justice with a simple tale.

Christmas came and went, as did New Year's in its turn. Before Bunny knew it, they'd arrived in the middle of the wintery month and stumbled onto the kits' thirtieth birthday.

There would, of course, be parties and celebrations in the days to come. North would never pass up the chance to shower love and wonder on his self-proclaimed vnuchata, even so close after lavishing gifts on them at Christmas. But the first day, the day they'd come into the world, was a time for family and quiet and personal gifts, hand-chosen for each of them by their father.

For Jasmine – who had the greenest though of anyone he'd ever known – Aster procured a rare and finicky sapling from Punjam Hy Loo that would reward the keen caretaker with blossoms of magical properties. For Coralberry, he brought her own set of paint-making tools and a lovingly hand-crafted copy of his recipe book for pigments and dyes.

And Kaffir…Kaffir got something truly special, something that had rested many years in the safe vaults of the North Pole, something that Bunny knew would help him more in the coming years than any other gift he'd ever received. But when the young buck first laid eyes on it, he wilted like a daisy in a cold snap.

"It's a stick," he mumbled, trying and falling to hide his disappointment.

Aster chuckled, rolling the antique wood in his hands before holding it out. "Not just any stick, buck. Give it a whirl."

Kaffir eyed the crook uncertainly, scenting the air as though expecting a prank. He brushed the antique wood with two hesitant fingers. Frost crackled over its surface, glimmering blue and silver with power. Kaffir withdrew his paw with a gasp.

"That's it," Bunny urged, holding it out again. "Take it."

Kaffir, his chest practically vibrating with shallow breaths, reached out again. He took the staff. Ice spread up its length, curling and grasping like living vines. Kaffir's white fur, still so soft and young, stood on end all the way to the tips of his long ears.

He tapped the ground, prodded a nearby tree, and dragged the hook along the grass. Everywhere the wood touched, it spread ice like paint from the tip of a bush, coiling wild and unrestrained. Kaffir tried to run with it and tripped, unsure how to move so fat with his front paws full. He soon got the hang of it and sped across the field, laughing all the way.

Jasmine keened and hurried her new sapling away where it wouldn't be hurt by frost. Coarlberry giggled and clapped her hands, shouting encouragements to her brother. Kaffir grinned at her and showed off with the largest leap he could muster, only for an unexpected wind to catch him mid-jump and catapult him, yelping, straight into the River of Color. The crook met the surface first and, in an instant, the liquid dye froze solid beneath his paws, forming a platform of ice that spread all the way to the nearest bank. Kaffir stared at his own handiwork in amazement. Then he began to bounce along the ice and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Bunny chuckled, raising to his full height to call across the field. "Don't be doing that during the googies' bath-time, you hear?"

As though he'd only just remembered his father was there, Kaffir doubled back. He crossed the field in two wind-carried leaps and threw himself at Aster, hugging him with all his strength. "Best. Gift. Ever! Dad, this is amazing. Where did you get it?"

This was it then. Bunny took a deep breath and hugged Kaffir tight before settling onto his haunches, pulling the younger buck with him into the grass. He squeezed the kit's shoulders and sighed. "That stick, Kaf…That was your dam's."

Kaffir sobered immediately, nose twitching, eyes wide. Coralberry's interest piqued as well, her blue eyes widening as she rose onto her haunches, clutching her new recipe book close to her chest. "Mommy?"

A tiny smile tugged at Aster's lips. Jack would've protested that name like there was no tomorrow. Call him Papa, call him Pop, call him Da, Daddy, Dam, anything but…

"Yeah. Mommy." He sighed again, trying to get his thoughts in order and calm his pounding heart. "After all that's happened…I think he'd want you to have it."

"After all what that's happened?" Jasmine returned from securing her tree and hopped to join her siblings, ears eagerly popped in anticipation of a long-awaited story. "That's what you were planning to tell us, isn't it? About Dammy? Oh, please Daddy, please tell us. I wanna know where Dammy is."

Bunny suppressed a shudder. These days, 'Dammy' lay deep beneath the South Pole where the ice would never melt, his grave unmarked and undisturbed, with memorials to his life scattered among his family and friends. What an awful place to begin a story of life. He needed to get his head on straight. He closed his eyes.

That proved a mistake, because the darkness there caught his imagination and instantly reformed into Jack, thawed and lifeless, his face serene even in death. And oh, it hurt, like having his heart dragged from his chest by blunt Fearling claws.

He didn't even realize that he'd lost himself in bad memories until Coralberry's worried voice brought him back to reality, repeatedly calling, "Daddy? Daddy…" while tugging at his bandolier. He lifted his head to find two sets of blue and one set of green eyes staring up at him, their anticipation replaced by concern and fear.

Aster let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding. It came out a dry sob. He choked it back,

"Later," he said, though his throat threatened to close on him. "Today. I promise. Just…later." He cleared his throat and patted Coral's head before nudging her towards the other two and the open field beyond. "Go play. I'll be right here."

Three sets of long ears drooped in disappointment. Jasmine gave a pleading whine but padded away when it became clear that they'd been dismissed. Coralberry nuzzled her father before joining the other doe with her paint kit, leaving only Kaffir. The white buck stared up at Aster with those wide blue eyes and clutched the staff close, sending Bunny's mind back to a long-ago ruined Easter and the first time he'd inadvertently broken the heart of the spirit who would become his mate.

Heart still aching, Bunny couldn't bear to look at his own son. He patted the kit's shoulder and whispered, "Soon, buck. Soon. Go join your sisters," before hopping past him without looking back and losing himself in the herding of eggs while he tried to get his broken heart under control.

A/N: Vnuchata (plural of vnuk) Russian for "grand-children." North also calls himself dedulya ("grandpappy") when talking to the kits, and as a result they sometimes call him Deda or Deda North. Obviously, this was North's idea, not Bunny's. The Guardians are one big adorable unconventional family.