A/N Takes place after the movie, on the ride back to the pole.


Jack was very still and almost unnaturally quiet as he watched the world pass below them. It was so strange to see, since whenever Bunny encountered Jack, he was always the complete opposite. Loud, obnoxious, bright, happy, mischievous and always on the move. It had seemed to be a rather effortless state for the winter spirit and it was how Bunny always imagined him whenever the topic of Jack came up. But this quiet Jack that he could see now was also effortless... it wasn't like he was forcing himself to be on his best behavior for their sake... his silence was much more practiced then that.

But then... that made sense as Jack did not often have people to talk to... there were so many people in the world... and until today, Jack had never truly spoken to a single one of them.

And most of the spirits in their world had not taken kindly to a winter addition in their ranks. Jack's presence had been an unwelcome one and most beings, that Bunny knew at least, tended to avoid him for that fact alone.

There was, Bunny reflected sadly, a lot of time for silence in Jack's life.

It made him wonder how Jack could stand it, for in his brief but terrifying experience with being invisible all he wanted to do was scream and scream and scream until the children knew he was there again. He'd wanted to do anything and everything to regain that belief and for as long as he existed he didn't think he'd ever stop trying...

Bunny had made the decision to fight for his existence even as the lights flickered out and hope was lost and for a moment he felt incredibly proud that he had chosen to do so.

Looking at Jack though, who was so quiet and still, his eyes closed softly against the freezing wind in his face... it made him pause and Bunny lowered his eyes from the youngest guardian in a moment of personal shame.

Because fighting... that was something that had always frustrated him about Jack. In the past, he had never understood why Jack insistedontrying so hard to be seen... on doing everything he could to get anybody's attention... he never understood why Jack couldn't just let it go and accept that that was how it was. He wasn't believed in, he never would be believed in... and he just needed to get over it.

That had been his mentality. It was what Bunny had thought and it had been how he had judged.

He had been so blind.

Now he just wondered how Jack could stand the silence.

Because that's what he learned the world could be, just a few hours ago. It could be so painfully quiet and lonely when nothing was meant for you; when everyone else continued to live and exist and you... were nothing... less than even a shadow on the wall.

To be living and breathing but never being seen.

On Easter, every pair of dull, lifeless eyes that had swept over him, so filled with disappointment... never seeing... never realizing that he, the Easter Bunny, was right there in front of them, had left him feeling hollow and so wildly desperate for any kind of acknowledgement - it was torture, to be able to see people but never touch them, to look and to hear and smell everything around you but never being a part of it... it was enough to drive anyone mad.

He had been an emotional mess after just a couple of hours.

And Jack... Jack had to live like that for 300 years.

How could someone be that alone, that isolated and abused and still be a decent person? How could Jack still have the desire to protect and care about kids when none of them would ever acknowledge him?

Why wasn't Jack bitter and angry at the world? At them for their lack of interest and dismissal? Though Bunny supposed that the younger spirit probably was angry and simply hadn't had the time over the past few days to make that point clear - the kid really hadn't been eager to join up with them in the first place.

But still. How could he have been so strong as to endure it all for so long?

Bunny didn't understand it and under the same circumstances... he wasn't so sure he would have turned out as well as Jack had. He dreaded to think what a few more decades would have done to the kid. How easy would it have been for him to grow angry if they had left him alone for a few more decades - what push would he have needed to become their enemy?

How easy would it have been for him to hate them all?

It made him shiver to think of things that could have happened.

Bunnymund was a warrior. He was strong and he was fast and there was not much that really scared him... but he would be honest in saying to anyone who might have asked that no... he did not want to have Jack as his enemy and yes, he was glad to have him as a friend.

Because after the events on Easter, there was no doubt among any of them that Jack had power. He was strong - very strong - and completely capable of taking on Pitch, one of the most dangerous spirits in existence, who had been more powerful then he'd been in centuries.

And he won.

Twice.

Even Pitch had recognized Jack as a threat and as a capable ally and one that he had wanted on his side.

For a previous great war general who now recognized the majority of the spirit world as a bunch of pathetic idiots, that in itself said a lot. (1)

Not that Bunny cared about Pitch's opinion or anything.

But it was telling. And it was sad, he realized. He hadn't ever realized just how sad it really was.

He and the others were never really alone like Jack was. Sure, they sometimes went years without seeing each other, but they always had each other to worry about and be worried about by - Jack literally had no one.

No one to watch his back, no one to talk too, no one to even care about where he was or what he was doing... He was completely and utterly alone in the world.

And for the first time, Bunny understood that it had been a very long three hundred years.


(1) In the books, Pitch was a great war hero during the Golden Age before he became corrupted by Fearlings.