A/N: In which Jack gets curious, Bunny has memories, and Jack does research.

.o.o.o.

Chapter 2: Grave

.o.o.o.

Despite Jack now having his own place to stay, he appeared in the Warren that summer, claiming the southern hemisphere wasn't cooling fast enough that year and he needed somewhere to hang around and oh hey, could he mess with the golems?

"Put the paintbrush down!" Bunnymund snapped at the sprite hovering near the Warren's ceiling, doodling stereotypical, cutesy bunnies on the rock.

"Don't you like it?" Jack asked. "I think they're cute."

"Give me the brush and the paint pot and you don't get hurt!" Bunny said, neatly aiming a boomerang and knocking Jack's staff from his hand. The kid fell like a rock until Bunny caught him a few feet above the ground. "Got it?"

Jack huffed and rolled out of Bunny's grip, snatching his staff back up. "Fine, fine, but come on, Easter was weeks ago! Don't you have some time off?"

"I did before I faced a home invasion," Bunny replied. "Some of us like to relax during time off."

Jack gave him a blank look and Bunny flopped down on the grass. "Come on, Frostbite, staying still for a few seconds might do you some good."

He smirked when he felt the imp try to settle down beside him. "Just breathe nice and slow, kid. Relax."

Jack lasted two minutes. "This is boring."

"Relaxing."

"Boring, Bunny."

"Then take a walk or something. Just don't mess up the joint," Bunny sighed, shutting his eyes.

Jack spring to his feet and wandered off immediately.

It took Bunny about fifteen minutes to realize he'd just turned Jack Frost loose in his Warren. "Damn it!"

.o.o.o.

Jack happily explored the large underground area, steering clear of the river for more interesting things like the color-shooting flowers or the vines that seemed to grow out of solid rock.

He had to admit—Bunny was one hell of a gardener. He headed further along one pseudo-path, careful not to tap any of the plants with his staff. They looked near-tropical, and he was not explaining dead flowers to Mr. Easter.

Jack frowned—the plants seemed to change as he went further down the path. There were these bunchy, rose-like purple and white flowers with spiraling leaves, and something about them made him think of waking up in the lake for some reason. Jack paused, before continuing forward.

The path now actually had stones on it, which was kind of weird for the Warren. Jack wondered what was down this way. He started to see flowers he recognized—poppies, some white tulips, and forget-me-nots.

Jack frowned down at the more delicate flowers, wondering where the huge, tropical things had gone. Oh well, Bunny was the florist, not him.

Jack continued along, the flowers slowly petering out until there were just rocks leading into one of Bunny's tunnels. The entrance was covered in ivy and what looked like heather…huh, Bunny didn't usually cover his tunnels.

Jack had to see what was inside.

.o.o.o.

Bunny cringed internally as he followed the path Jack had taken. Of all the places—Jack couldn't have ended up by the falls, or the sentinels, or any of the smaller gardens. Nope, Frostbite had to go and find this.

He ignored the flowers he'd planted staring back at him, storming along the path intending to give the spite a good talking-to about invading other's privacy. Then again, he was the one who told Jack to go wandering…nope, kid should have figured to turn back by now anyway. Why else would Bunny have put the freaking rhododendrons right at the start of this path?

He shoved aside the ivy curtain, only to walk right into Jack who had apparently stopped immediately inside the cavern.

"Ah! Bunny!" Jack said, looking freaked out. So now the kid found the atmosphere. "Uh…"

"Frostbite, what are you doing here?" Bunny sighed, making sure to keep his eyes on Jack and not the location.

"You're the one who said to go for a walk," Jack huffed. "Um…Kangaroo…what is this place?"

Jack's eyes darted around the dimly-lit cavern with its stone spires and lack of green.

"Graveyard," Bunny said flatly. "Come on, get."

"Why do you have a graveyard in your house?" Jack asked as Bunny shoved him back out onto the path.

"Because I do," Bunny said stiffly. "Move it."

Jack sighed as he was shooed. Clearly today was not a good day to be around Bunny.

.o.o.o.

Jack frowned as he directed the first bit of chill to head towards South America. He guessed the graveyard had something to do with Bunny being the last Pooka or something, but Jack hadn't known it was there!

And now he didn't even know how to apologize for messing with his only friend's head.

Jack sighed as he drifted lazily along the winds coasting through Sydney ahead of a rainstorm that was coming soon. He wanted to make it up to Bunny—or at least make things less awkward—but he wasn't sure what to do…

A sign caught his eye. A florist was doing consults on the meanings of flowers.

…Flowers had meanings?

Jack broke into a library that night, trying to find what the flowers had meant. Turned out those ones at the entrance had been rhododendrons—seriously, what was with that name?—and they meant "beware" or a warning.

Oops.

Jack flipped through the book he'd found, getting a little worried about Bunny's mental health.

Consolation, forgiveness, and remembrance… Bunny need to console himself about something? Bunny? Mr. Badass Easter Bunny? He wanted to be forgiven? For what, being the one still alive?

Heather…solitude. Jack frowned—now that he thought about it, did Bunny hang around anyone other than him and the eggs? He was a Guardian, but they didn't seem to meet up much…

Fidelity…he guessed it was a duty to the dead kind of deal…

Had he intruded or what? Jack groaned and banged his head on the table. No wonder Bunny had been mad…and upset…and stressed…man Jack had messed up…

The wind blew through the window and turned a few pages. Jack peered at it, before grinning. "Great idea!"

.o.o.o.

Bunny supposed he should try and find Jack. It had been almost a month, and the kid probably didn't even really get why Bunny had lost his cool like that.

He had to admit, Jack hadn't meant anything by it. It just hurt being in there.

Bunny paused when he got to his home.

There was a little ice sculpture outside. Bunny carefully picked it up.

A hyacinth. I'm sorry.

Bunny smiled and headed for his tunnels.

.o.o.o.

"Boo."

Jack yelped and almost fell off the building. "Ahh! Bunny!" He quickly got his balance back. "Do you know how hard it is to stay up here, Kangaroo?"

"Roof of the opera house…interesting choice," Bunny said.

"Good view, though," Jack said. "Almost as nice as Burgess…"

"So, why you staying down under if home's so great?" Bunny asked.

"Warm front. I'd have to hide in my little rabbit hole," Jack said. "Seriously, the humidity went through the roof…and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm fine, Jack. Was a long time ago."

Jack frowned, "You know, just because I'm younger than you doesn't mean that I'm not allowed to worry about you, too. I'm almost three-hundred, Roo."

"I'll put up with 'Kangaroo' but I draw the line at you making it all bloody cutesy," Bunny huffed.

"Could you please at least acknowledge what I said?" Jack sighed.

"…Thanks for worrying," Bunny said quietly.

"So…since you never told me what happened to the other Pooka…is that…"

"Yeah," Bunny said. "That's what happened."

"Sorry," Jack said, squeezing Bunny's paw.

"Right…so, where'd you find out about flower meanings?" Bunny asked dryly.

"Oh, I ended up in a library," Jack said. "Hey, did you know south of here there's some non-Antarctic glaciers that never melt?"

"Uh oh, sounds like I'm going to be seeing more of you," Bunny said.

"Like you don't like it."

"I swear, frost, you start messing with my downtime there will be-"

"Better than messing with Easter though, right?"

"Don't push your luck!"

"Oh, I'm pushing!" Jack laughed, hopping into the air and flicking a snowball at Bunny,

"Right, that's it: war," Bunny said, lunging after him into the night.

.o.o.o.

A/N: Flower meanings: Rhododendron—beware, poppy—consolation, white tulip—forgiveness, Forget-me-not—remembrance, heather—solitude, and ivy—fidelity. Finally: Hyacinth-I'm sorry.

There will be future elaboration on the graveyard in later chapters, but next time: Living Color (aka Jack gets to help with Easter)