(A/N) Hello and welcome to ANOTHER Zootopia high school AU from United Pizza! This time though, I'm focusing on the vastly underrated characters Jack and Skye! I never knew about these two characters until last year when I started reading fanfiction, and almost immediately fell in love with them (and with this ship). And I really wanted to write more about them besides that oneshot I wrote back in February. There isn't much canon information on them though, so I had to make a lot of stuff up.
Fair warning: there are a LOT of OCs in this story and while the main focus will be on Jack and Skye, I plan for a lot of the side characters to play significant roles too. Honestly it's kinda weird, because this is a fanfic starring two cut concept characters who never officially appeared in the movie, along with a massive side cast of OCs. It's pretty far outside of 'canon' at this point lol. I do plan to incorporate Jack and Skye's skill sets as much as I can, since their jobs are pretty much the only officially canon thing about them.
I'm also going to TRY and not focus too much attention on the school aspect of it. Though they're high school age and school will be relevant somewhat, I don't want to get too caught up in that element throughout the whole story especially since I'm also working on another Zootopia fanfic that heavily involves school.
I guess that's all. Let's see how this goes.
Jack Savage hurried to pack his suitcase with everything he thought he would need for the trip, so eager to leave that he had to busy himself with something to avoid going crazy. He was just about to check the clock again to see how much longer it would be, when he heard a voice from downstairs.
"Jack!" his mom called. "Your father's here! Make sure you're all packed and ready and come downstairs!"
Excitedly, Jack rushed to cram the last of his clothes into the suitcase, before closing it up and hurrying out of his room. He was running so fast that he nearly bumped into another rabbit, who was also carrying a suitcase.
"Jack!" the doe scolded; her fur was light brown, so light it was almost white, and her eyes were the same light blue as Jack's. "Can you at least try to watch where you're going?"
"Sorry, Natalie!" Jack replied as he continued down the stairs.
Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, he ran to the front door and rushed outside, the chilly October air hitting him all at once as he headed towards his father's car. As Jack approached the vehicle, his father climbed out and walked up to meet him. Like Jack himself, his father was a very light gray rabbit, almost white. He had the same striped pattern as his son, though his stripes were lighter and not nearly as pronounced.
"You're already all packed?" his father asked.
"Yeah," Jack replied. "I was so excited to go; I've been getting ready since this morning."
"Impressive," his father remarked. "You're sure you got everything you need?"
"I think so," Jack said. "I checked probably about a million times."
Jack's father laughed.
"You always did have amazing attention to detail," he said. "Do you know if any of your brothers and sisters are ready yet?"
"I saw Natalie on the way downstairs; I don't know about the others," Jack replied.
"Well," his father sighed, "I guess we'd better go inside and wait on them, then. You can go ahead and put your suitcase in the car if you want."
Jack opened the back of the car and set his suitcase down, closing it before following his dad back inside the house. Natalie was already downstairs with her own suitcase, talking to their mother in the living room.
"Are the kits all ready, Amy?" Jack's father asked.
"No, Ian and Xander are still packing," Jack's mom, Amy, replied with an exasperated sigh. "Thalia's probably still asleep. I honestly wasn't expecting you this early, Jacob."
"Ah, there wasn't as much traffic as I thought," Jacob, Jack's dad, said.
Amy didn't say anything but she gave a look that clearly said, "Sure. I believe you."
Jack briefly wondered whether or not his father's lack of planning skills had anything to do with the reason his parents had divorced. It didn't seem like a big enough issue on its own to cause this much tension between the two of them, but still…
"I'm all packed and ready," Natalie announced, walking towards Jack and Jacob. "No thanks to Jack, who tried to knock me over a few minutes ago."
"That was an accident!" Jack replied.
"Yeah, yeah, no hard feelings," Natalie said.
After a few minutes of waiting for his other siblings to get ready, Jack decided to head back outside and wait by the car. He already had his coat on, and the heat in the house was suffocating him.
"You sure you want to wait out there?" Jacob asked. "Your brothers and sister might not be ready for a while."
"It's alright; I like the cold," Jack answered.
Jacob smiled.
"You're going to love Winterhaven, then!" he said enthusiastically.
"If we ever get there," Jack muttered as he stepped back out into the cold.
The striped rabbit let out a sigh, his breath clearly visible in the frosty air. He walked back down the driveway to the car, full of anticipation for the trip. He had been hoping to go back to Winterhaven for years now, but his dad had always been too busy to keep any of the kits. This year, though, he'd agreed to let five of them come spend the winter, and none were more eager to go than Jack.
He waited for what felt like hours—though it was only several minutes—until the front door finally opened again and Jacob came outside with several of Jack's siblings following behind him. In addition to Natalie, there were two older bucks with white fur, as well as another doe who had the same light gray fur as Jack and their father, though without the stripes. She was dressed in all black and had her eyes glued to the cell phone in her paw, while the older two both looked to be in good moods and were laughing about something Jack couldn't quite hear.
"I think we're all set to go!" Jacob announced. "You kits put your suitcases in the back, and then we can head out."
"Whatever," replied Thalia, the doe who was still looking at her phone.
"You're sure in a good mood today, aren't you?" laughed Ian, the older of the two white-furred bucks, who was just slightly taller and bulkier than the other.
Xander, the thinner of the two, fist-bumped his brother. Thalia just rolled her eyes. All four of them headed around to the back of the car and loaded their suitcases in, while Jack climbed in to find his seat. He chose to sit in the back, by the suitcases, as the seat would offer him more space to think.
Finally, Jacob got in the driver's seat, and the other four kits all took their seats as well. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood, excepting Thalia. Jack suspected she was secretly looking forward to the trip, but for the last few years she had been going through a phase where she refused to express any kind of joy whatsoever.
Jacob pulled out of the driveway and started driving down the road, as Ian started playing some loud rock music.
"Not that loud!" Jacob said, quickly turning the volume up twice as high. "Ah. Much better!"
Ian and Xander laughed, while Thalia was silent. Knowing the kind of music she listened to, Jack figured she probably thought it still wasn't loud enough.
"You guys, I can actually feel the car vibrating from the bass!" Natalie shouted over the music; she sounded more intrigued than annoyed, though.
"That's the point!" Ian replied joyfully.
Even though he could only see the back of her head, Jack could picture Natalie laughing quietly and rolling her eyes.
As the drive went on, Jacob would occasionally ask the kits about their lives, and Ian and Natalie both conversed with him a lot. Xander would join in occasionally, but he usually let Ian tell the story if it involved both of them. Thalia barely acknowledged any of the others during the whole trip, except to throw in a few complaints when they were relevant.
As for Jack, he felt content listening to his siblings and father chat away as they drove. Being here with his father—who already seemed a lot more casual than his mother—as well as a small number of his siblings, rather than all one hundred and forty eight of them, gave this trip such a personal feeling compared to his busy life back home. He was already looking forward to this winter, and they hadn't even arrived yet.
"I wonder if anyone in Winterhaven remembers me," he thought, staring out the window at the autumn foliage as they drove through the countryside. "It's been so long since I was there last."
"Hey, Jack," Jacob said, after they'd been driving for about an hour and a half. "You've been pretty quiet back there for a while. Any interesting stories to share?"
"Not really, no," Jack replied. "School has been boring as always."
"Well, I have a feeling you'll have some stories to tell when you get back home from Winterhaven!" Jacob said.
"I hope so," Jack thought to himself.
Jacob soon got back to talking with Ian, and Jack turned to look out the window and watch as trees and fields passed out of sight behind them. No snow was falling yet, but if what he recalled about Winterhaven was correct, he had a very snow-filled winter to look forward to.
That moment, Jack made a promise to himself that he wasn't going to waste this trip. He had a perfect opportunity to reinvent himself, to start fresh in a new place, and he wouldn't let it slip by.
It was late afternoon when they arrived in Winterhaven. The driveway to Jacob's house was incredibly bumpy, and to Jack it felt like the car was getting thrown all over the place. Ian and Xander both seemed to enjoy it, which wasn't surprising.
They reached the end of the driveway and Jacob parked the car, and then everyone hurried out to get their suitcases. Jack was the last one out, as he had to crawl over Thalia's seat to get to the door.
Stepping outside, Jack was met with a blast of chilly air, and his excitement for the trip was renewed. It felt even colder up here than it had back home in Bunnyburrow.
Before heading to the back to get his suitcase, Jack took a moment to observe their surroundings. They were pretty high up on a hill, surrounded by trees on several sides. He remembered seeing some businesses and signs of civilization as they had come into town, but they were a good distance away from all of that up here.
"Calm down, Nat!" Ian said from nearby. "That was an accident—"
"Sure it was," Natalie replied. "You just wait, Ian."
"I didn't do anything!" Ian insisted, laughing.
Jack headed to the back of the car to retrieve his suitcase, just as Xander and Thalia were leaving. Ian and Natalie were leading the way up to the house, both laughing at whatever it was that had just happened.
"Ready to go inside, Jack?" Jacob asked. "Need some help with your suitcase or something?"
"No, I got it," Jack assured him, grabbing his suitcase and closing the back of the car.
"I saw you admiring the scenery," Jacob said, smiling. "You never were one to let even a little detail go unnoticed."
"Mom says that all the time, too," Jack replied. "I don't understand it much, myself."
Jacob laughed as the two followed the rest of the kits up to the porch. Jacob's house was a cabin, decently sized but definitely not meant for one hundred forty-nine bunny kits. Jack could see now why his father hadn't been able to bring more of his siblings along on the trip.
"Still…" Jack thought, "If Dad grew up here, wouldn't it be built for rabbits?"
Something wasn't adding up, but he didn't time to think about it because they soon reached the porch, where Ian and Natalie were still playfully going at it with each other.
"It was not my fault!" Ian laughed. "You forgot to zip up the suitcase—"
"We all know you knocked it over on purpose," Natalie said, smiling and shaking her head. "Keep making excuses all you want."
"How dare you insult my honor!" Ian said, in an obviously overdone dramatic voice.
Both Natalie and Xander laughed at this.
"You've really done it now," Xander said ominously.
Jacob shook his head as he pulled out the keys and started to unlock the front door.
"You kits are something else," he said, chuckling to himself.
He opened the door and stepped inside, the kits following after him. Jack was the last to enter, behind Thalia, so he closed the door.
"Whoa," Ian remarked. "Nice place."
The interior was warm and inviting, cozy yet spacious. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all wooden, though there was a rug on the living room floor and the furniture looked soft and comfortable. The house felt warmer than the frigid outdoors, but to Jack's liking, the heat wasn't nearly as high as it was in his mother's house. He guessed that his father, having grown up here in Winterhaven, was probably more accustomed to the cold. Either that or he was just cheap and didn't want to pay for more heating.
"Maybe my preference for cold weather comes from Dad?" Jack thought. "Is that even something that can be passed down, or am I analyzing this too far?"
"Thanks, Ian," Jacob said, smiling again. "There's plenty of bedrooms, so you can have whichever one you want. Just don't kill each other over a room; your mother made it clear she wants me to send you back alive."
Ian and Natalie glanced at each other for a split second, and then both went racing up the stairs. Xander hurried after them, while Jack and Thalia followed in the back. She was still looking at her phone, so he figured it wasn't worth trying to talk to her.
"I saw that one first!" Natalie's voice called from upstairs.
"Maybe so, but I touched the doorknob first, so it's mine!" Ian countered.
"You do realize both of them are mirror images of each other, right?" Xander pointed out.
Jack reached the landing beside Thalia just in time to see the other three kits examining two bedrooms at the end of the hall, one on the left and one on the right.
"Come on, Xander, you're ruining the fun!" Ian laughed.
"You're all having far too much fun," Thalia said resentfully.
The sullen doe ignored her siblings and walked past them to a door at the very end of the hallway, opening it and disappearing inside without another word.
"Fine, you and Xander can have those rooms then," Natalie said. "I'm going to find a better one."
Xander shrugged and entered the room on the right, while Natalie turned down another hall to look elsewhere.
"Well, I guess it's mine then," Ian said, going in the room on the left.
Left alone in the hall, Jack started searching for his own bedroom. He was just about to check down the hall where Natalie had gone, when he noticed something odd on the wall. It looked like a door frame, hiding behind a short bookshelf. Curious, Jack pushed the bookshelf a little to the side, and saw that there was indeed a doorknob behind it.
Now even more intrigued, he opened the door and was met with a draft of cold air. Behind the door was another staircase, so he eagerly entered and started climbing up. The stairs had a landing halfway up and then turned around, leading into a small but cozy looking bedroom. The ceiling was lower, and angled, so Jack assumed this was the attic. Judging from how dusty the room was, he figured it must not get much use. It was presumably not insulated as well as the rest of the house, either, as it was much colder up here than downstairs.
"That's it," Jack decided. "This is my room."
With renewed enthusiasm for the trip, he set his suitcase on the floor and flopped down on the bed, sighing contentedly.
"Jack?" Natalie called from downstairs. "Are you up there?"
"Yeah, it's me," Jack called back down.
He heard sounds of footsteps from the stairs nearby, and then Natalie came into view and entered the room. Her eyes widened a little as she examined the attic room, and then hugged herself as she seemed to be shivering from the cold.
"How did you find this?" she asked. "I didn't even see a door there."
"It was behind the bookshelf," Jack explained. "All I had to do was move it out of the way and I found this door. I wonder if Dad ever uses this room."
"Doesn't look like anyone's been in here in a long time," Natalie observed. "Are you sure you want to stay up here? It's kinda cold."
"Exactly!" Jack replied. "Isn't it perfect?"
Natalie rolled her eyes.
"I should have known," she said. "Well, have fun in your freezer. I'm going back downstairs before I get hypothermia."
She turned and headed back down the stairs, disappearing from sight.
A few hours later, Jack finally came downstairs and out of his secret room. The second floor hallway now felt much warmer after being in the cold attic for so long, but not enough that he particularly minded. It was kind of nice to warm up for a little while.
Hearing voices from downstairs, Jack headed down the stairs to the first floor. There, in the living room, he found his father, Ian, and Natalie, talking to two other white rabbits. One of them was older, probably about the same age as Jacob, and the younger one looked to be Jack's own age. He was wearing rectangular glasses, and looked oddly familiar…
"Wait," Jack realized. "Surely that can't be—"
"Jack Savage!" the younger rabbit exclaimed, jumping up from his seat and running over to Jack. "Wow, I haven't seen you in, like, forever, but I'd recognize you anywhere!"
"Timothy Snow?" Jack guessed.
"That's me!" the other bunny confirmed. "Though I usually just go by Tim these days. I heard from my dad you were coming to Winterhaven, but I told him I wouldn't believe it until I saw you with my own eyes! And here you are!"
"Here I am," Jack agreed. "I can hardly believe I'm here again, either."
"Well, I see you two kits remember each other!" Jacob said cheerfully, from his spot on the couch. "You two were friends from about the time you learned to walk! Good to see you're still getting along!"
Tim glanced back at the other rabbits, and then turned to Jack.
"You want to find a quieter place to catch up?" he asked.
"Yeah, good call," Jack agreed. "I know the perfect place; follow me!"
With that, he turned and ran back up the stairs, Tim following behind him. They reached the door to the attic and Jack opened it, continuing up the stairs.
"Wow!" Tim remarked. "I didn't know this was here. It's cold in here, too."
They reached the top of the stairs and Tim took a moment to observe the room before sitting down on the bed beside his friend. It was certainly much quieter up here, too; the attic was far enough away from the rest of the house that sounds from downstairs didn't intrude.
"So…" Tim said. "What have you been up to? Last I saw you, we were seven or eight years old or something."
"Yikes, it's been a long time," Jack agreed. "I've been wanting to come back for years now, but Dad was always too busy to keep us. I'm just glad I got to come; most of my brothers and sisters stayed at home."
"Yeah…this house couldn't really fit all of you now, could it?" Tim laughed.
For a moment, Jack wondered if the house had been part of the reason they'd moved. Jacob's house certainly didn't seem like it was designed for a whole family of rabbits. Maybe Jacob hadn't wanted to move, and that was why they'd gotten divorced? That didn't seem like a big enough reason to split up, though…
"Uh-oh," Tim said. "You're spacing out again. What are you thinking this time?"
"Nothing…" Jack replied. "It's fine; I was just thinking about the house. I don't remember it that well, but I know we lived here for a while when I was younger."
Just then, the door opened downstairs and a voice interrupted their talk.
"Tim!" Natalie called from below. "Your dad says he needs to go!"
"Alright, got it!" Tim called back. "Well, I guess we can catch up at school tomorrow."
"Oh, right," Jack said. "At least I'll know one mammal, then."
"Hey, you don't have to worry," Tim assured him. "You may not know a lot of mammals here, but pretty much everyone knows your dad. You'll be fine."
The two rabbits hurried downstairs after Natalie and back to the living room, where Jacob was just saying goodbye to Tim's father.
"It was good to see you again!" Jacob said, shaking paws with Tim's father. "You're welcome to come by and visit again sometime, if you'd like."
"I'm afraid I'm going to be rather busy for a while now, but I'll let you know," Mr. Snow replied. "Until then, we'd best be going. Timothy? Are you—?"
"Yes, I'm here," Tim said.
He followed his father to the front door and out into the cold, leaving Jack, Jacob, Natalie, and Ian alone in the room. Natalie went back to sit on the couch, while Jacob turned around and clapped his paws together excitedly.
"Are you kits ready for dinner?" he asked.
"Yes!" Ian exclaimed.
"Sure," Natalie agreed.
Jack nodded absentmindedly, focused on observing the interior of the cabin again. It was admittedly a little small for rabbits in terms of rooms, but the size of the rooms themselves as well as the furniture almost seemed slightly larger than a typical rabbit house would be. Of course, Jack supposed he might be reading too much into it; maybe houses in Winterhaven were just more spacious than those he was used to back in Bunnyburrow.
He followed his father and siblings into the kitchen, where they started setting the table for dinner. As they did so, he noticed the bowls had a very subtle striped pattern on them. It may have just been a coincidence, but he couldn't help but feel like it had some connection to his and his father's stripes, though he wasn't sure exactly how.
"Why is it we're the only ones in the family with that pattern?" Jack wondered, though it was certainly not the first time that thought had entered his head. "Why do we seem to be the only rabbits anywhere that look like this?"
"I'll go get Xander and Thalia," Ian volunteered. "They probably went to sleep right after we got here, knowing those two."
He hurried off, running back up the stairs, while Jack and Natalie helped their father fill the six bowls with hot carrot stew. The three then took their seats, just as Ian came thundering back down the stairs and into the room.
"They're coming," he reported brightly, sitting down. "Thalia wasn't too happy I interrupted her, but I'm sure she'll get over it."
A few seconds later, Xander and Thalia arrived and took the last two seats, Thalia still looking as sullen as ever.
"So," Jacob said, tasting a little bit of the hot stew, "how was your first day in Winterhaven, everyone? Everything you hoped for?"
"This place is awesome!" Ian said energetically. "Not to mention this stew; this is incredible!"
"Glad you like it," Jacob replied. "It's an old family recipe, though I've made a few adjustments to the original… So, how do the rest of you kits like the place?"
"Ian's right; you have a really nice house," Natalie agreed. "And it's in such a nice spot, too."
"Lot of space in the house for one mammal," Xander added. "Any reason you haven't gotten a smaller place? The heating cost year-round must be insane."
"True!" Jacob laughed heartily. "That's why I usually don't heat most of this place; I close off as many rooms as I can, but I started preparing for you kits visiting about a week ago."
"Is that why the attic was closed off?" Jack asked.
Everyone except Natalie looked at him confusedly. Then Jacob smiled, and started laughing again.
"I should have known you'd find that room," he chuckled. "Well, if you want to stay up there in the cold, by all means, go ahead! I haven't been in there in forever…"
"Where's an attic in this place?" Ian asked, still confused. "I don't remember seeing a—"
"Jack found a secret door," Natalie explained.
Ian burst out laughing.
"Really?" he said. "All those times spent looking for secret doors everywhere and you actually found one?"
"I guess so," Jack said, shrugging.
As dinner went on, the talkative ones—Jacob, Ian, and Natalie—dominated most of the conversation, while Jack listened and pondered all he knew about his father, the house, Winterhaven…all of it. He had always gotten the feeling that his father's past was a little unusual, but he was now starting to realize just how much he really didn't know. He knew he was from Winterhaven, but other than that?
Once dinner was over, Thalia immediately left for her room without another word, and Jack was soon to follow. It was getting late and he had a lot on his mind; not to mention tomorrow was bound to be a busy day.
Upon returning to the cold stairway that led to his new room, Jack was sure to close the door and keep the area sealed off. He didn't mind the cold, so it didn't bother him to stay in an unheated room. Besides, having a room far away from everyone else gave him plenty of space to think, something that his home in Bunnyburrow had been sorely lacking in.
He arrived back in his room and sat down on the bed, where he remained for hours trying to make sense of all his discoveries today. After sitting awake dwelling on these thoughts for quite some time, he finally decided it was time to get some sleep. It had been a tiring day, and tomorrow was sure to be just as exciting. He could hardly wait to see what the new school would be like, to catch up more with his friend Tim, to find out what life was like in Winterhaven…
After lying awake in bed for hours anticipating the next day, Jack Savage finally drifted off to sleep.
(A/N) Skye will show up in the next chapter!
I can't believe it's been so long since I wrote this! I've been waiting for months to post this and I'm looking forward to continuing it!
Also, the name 'Winterhaven' was something I used in this nonsensical story I wrote on my computer years ago, called 'The Importance of Fail.' I thought it was perfect for this setting, so I decided to repurpose it.
That's all! Goodbye for now!