Bunnymund shrieked at Jamie's embrace.
"Why are you WET?" he cried.
Jack looked around and waved his arms at the half-melted snow covering the grass. Jamie laughed deviously at the giant squirming rabbit in her arms.
"Lemme go, lemme go, lemme go!"
"Aw, c'mon Bun-Bun. April showers and all that!" Jack cooed.
"Okay, for starters, don't ever call me that, mate," Bunnymund warned. "Second, you can't compare this… slurry! To real rain!"
"'Slurry,' huh?" Jack repeated, raising a brow.
"Yes, and it will ruin my chocolate!"
"That chocolate?"
Jack pointed Twinetender to a giant nest of woven grass overflowing with delicately wrapped sweets. Bunnymund sputtered again and rushed over to inspect them.
"They're good, by the way. I mean," Jack shrugged and said, "I think it's good. Not like I have anything to compare it to. What did you think, Goose?"
"Staaaaahp," Jamie laughed. "I'm not a goose!"
"You're totally a goose!" Jack said as Jamie snorted. "See, you even honk."
Jamie covered her face. "I do not!"
"Oi! Can you two focus a minute?" called Bunnymund.
Jack sighed and scooped the girl up. "Okay, okay, we're coming. Man, you're soaked! Hey, Bun, you should hold onto this before I turn her into a Jamie-sicle."
Bunnymund growled. "If I didn't owe you one, I'd deck ya. This all looks good, and we're about out of time. We gotta get to The Junction and get everything moved out. The eggs are already hiding themselves, but no basket's complete without chocolate, yeah?"
Bunnymund took Jamie from Jack, making sure to rub her arms to revive the heat in them. She shivered but giggled.
"Your fur tickles."
Bunnymund chuckled back and snapped his fingers. Several branches erupted from the woven nest and lifted it from the earth. They carried it away like spidery legs, walking towards the junction previously mentioned, Jamie assumed.
"Should I get lost?" asked Jack.
"I mean, you can, but you won't be invited to the after-party," Bunnymund said with a playful smirk.
"After-party?" Jamie asked through chattering teeth.
"Sonya's going to help me make a right Easter dinner," Bunnymund said. "Food's the best way to thank North, and it sounds like you two'd be interested."
Jack laughed. "I could eat! I'll, uh, I'll go help fill baskets, then."
"And I'll get Jamie back to Santoff Claussen to rest and be back for the main event. And Jack? Thanks. Seriously."
He shrugged and twirled his staff. "I told you. It's nice to be needed."
Bunnymund nodded with a tender smile. He draped a yawning Jamie over his own shoulders.
"Hold on, Goosey. You get to be my cape," he whispered.
Jamie quietly sang out, "Suuuper buuuun…"
"Oh, for the love of- Fine. Super Bun."
Jack laughed, and Jamie dug her fingers into the fur of Bunnymund's neck. He dug his toes into the dirt and took off into the dark tunnels of The Junction.
Jack stared just a moment, calming his chuckles and taking in the sheer size of the arches carved into a mountainside. Come to think of it, Toothiana's palace was massive, too, and the North Pole. He'd never actually seen Sandman's island, but he couldn't help wondering if it was also large, isolated, and lonely. Jack scoffed and turned his attention to the chocolate. He would die before he trapped himself in one empty place like the Guardians did. Wherever he ended up, he would always have the Wind, and that was fine by him. She was all he had for 300 years, and she would stay with him 300 more, no doubt. A breeze ruffled his hair as if the kindred spirit could hear his thoughts. He laughed as the current carried a few tiny leaves away.
His laughter stopped, and his ears twitched. Something followed the Wind, something painful that made his breath falter. A whimper echoed out from within the tunnels.
Jamie.
Without hesitating, Jack hurried into the dark cavern he'd seen Bunnymund take, the only one eggs weren't marching down. How far could they be? She sounded close, and they'd only just left The Warren. Would he be able to see them in the darkness, anyway?
His thoughts halted as his foot sank past where the ground had been. He shouted as he fell, the rough walls of a long hole passing his slender body back and forth like a hot potato until he hit dirt again.
He pushed himself up with a hiss. Ribs hurt, not for the first time; falling was part of flying, and he hadn't been graceful when he first woke up. He wrapped one hand around his waist and the other around his staff.
"What?" he gasped as he looked up.
Whatever hole had been there was gone now. He grit his teeth.
"Good job, Pitch," he said loudly, leaning on his staff. "You got me again. You should see the look on my face. Or are you too scared I'm gonna break yours?"
A dark laugh surrounded him. "Oh, I don't think it's me you'll be breaking today. Maybe another rib?"
Jack's jaw tightened further, but he shut his eyes and forced himself to be still. Smoke and mirrors, he told himself. It's always an illusion.
"Whatever you're planning," he snarled, "it won't work. I've learned your tricks."
"Oh, yes. It's fascinating watching you think, like watching a turtle trying to roll over."
Jack's grip on Twinetender tightened. Remember what Tooth told you, he thought. He's using your temper and impulsive nature against you. Wait for him to make-.
Jack screamed and contorted as pain ripped across the back of his shoulders. He swung Twinetender, sending a line of sharp icicles toward the shadows. A growl told him something hit, a sense confirmed when one of the ice daggers rushed past his cheek and shattered on the wall behind him. Jack trained his eyes on the spot it came from.
"Okay," he said softly. "Not pretending today, I see."
Pitch's voice dripped with poison as he said, "I never pretend."
Jack smirked. The pain in his shoulders and ribs felt like a dull throbbing, like nothing. He lowered his body slightly in preparation for the next inevitable attack.
"Please. You wouldn't know how to be blunt if-."
"Blunt is not always honest. I am an honest man, Jack, like you. I'm simply more charming about it."
"Right," Jack laughed shortly. "It takes a real gentleman to push someone out of a tree."
"If I recall, it was you who did the pushing. Speaking of, how is the little darling?" asked Pitch from the shadows.
"What do you care?"
A flash of darkness rushed from the shadows. Jack dropped and aimed Twinetender at the man's shins. It didn't connect.
"Oh, sh-"
A blow to his skull sent him face-first into the dust again. His ears rang as he pushed himself up again and scanned the tunnel for Pitch.
"Why do you… keep asking… about Jamie?" he panted.
Pitch hummed somewhere in the shadows. "Maybe she reminds me of someone. Maybe I'm trying to replace what I've lost. Maybe it just amuses me to see her so afraid. Not like you."
"Ha! Afraid isn't exactly… in my vocabulary," Jack agreed.
"And surrender isn't in mine, yet it exists. Come now, Jack, you expect me to believe you're not afraid of anything?"
"Nope."
"Then why are you trying so hard?"
Jack's grip tightened again. A numbness washed over him, as did the snaps and pops of cracking ice. Pitch's dark laugh echoed through the caves. Jack felt his head spin, and he hit his knees, dropping Twinetender to cover his ears.
"Admit it," Pitch said, his voice painfully clear through Jack's hands. "You're terrified. Of being forgotten, being alone. It's worse than being hated, isn't it?"
"Stop it. Stop it!"
"You've never been hated like me, though. I think you'll find it just awful. But at least you won't be alone."
"STOP IT!"
Jack slammed his hands into the dirt. Crystalline ice erupted from the earthen walls in waves. The sounds of crunching accompanied pastel confetti, making Jack's eyes widen. He looked down at his hands. Bits of egg shell stuck to his skin.
"No…," he breathed, gathering the pieces. "No, no, no, no, no…"
"What did you do?!"
Jack could only shake his head as Bunnymund grabbed him and screamed in his face.
"Do you have any idea what you just did? Easter is ruined!"
"I didn't… I…"
Bunnymund dropped him, growling, "Just go! You destroyed everything. Why did I ever trust you?"
Jack didn't even bother to look for his staff. He just ran until he found the Wind and kept running.