When the crystal reveals a figure hidden in an ornately decorated cloak, Bunnymund doesn't even pretend to hide the groan.
Jack Frost. Of ALL the spirits on the planet, Manny chooses him? The spirit who has made his primary goal to drive the Easter Bunny out of his mind?
Whenever the winter spirit showed up, Bunnymund could kiss that Easter goodbye. That last time in 68 had nearly destroyed the holiday on 2 continents. And the guy wasn't even sorry about it! Just fled to Antarctica or wherever he lived until Bunny stopped chasing him. Okay, maybe he hadn't all that polite when they'd first met, but holding a grudge for 300 years seemed a tad overkill.
Manny sure seemed to think so. It seemed every time the Man in the Moon bothered to speak to the Pooka, it was to lead him in the winter sprites direction. He'd even sent Sandy as his ambassador sometimes. Why their leader in the sky seemed so determined to get the two of them in the same area code so often, he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
His opinion of the spirit hadn't changed when they'd cornered him in the alley, or when he'd point blank refused to become a Guardian. Although when he'd been citing his reasons, Bunnymund had sworn the spirit had been glaring at him. Impressive considering you couldn't see Jack's eyes – but then he'd had centuries of practice.
Then Pitch had attacked the Tooth Palace, and they'd all gone collecting teeth. Jack had seemed torn, but Pitch and his speech about leaving nothing but fear had clearly affected him. When Tooth told him about the memories, Jack had jerked, and whispered something about 'hearing their voices again', and had joined right up.
Then...Sandy had fallen, and Easter had become their last hope. Everyone had gone to the warren, and they'd begun decorating eggs with a vengeance.
And with Jack Frost in the warren, Bunnymund was finally starting to spot the oddities in their newest recruit.
Everyone, even Sandy, who had been around longer than Bunny dared to contemplate, had never been able to navigate the warren easily. But Jack seemed to have a sixth sense about where to go.
And he never had problems getting to the levels. The place was designed for something who could jump several feet, and Bunny assumed he was using his staff...until he realised Jack wasn't holding it and the leaps were completely his own. Impressive, especially considering Jack's weird gait, and the sheer weight of that cloak – Bunny wouldn't have thought the guy could do much more than hobble without the staff.
But he moved with a warped sense of grace, interrupted by the odd cancelled movement and nervous twitch of the head. As if he'd been caught in the middle of doing something wrong and trying to make it look like he'd been doing something else all along.
It was confusing, and Bunny had had full intentions of looking into it once Easter was done.
And then, Easter hadn't come.
Jack wasn't there, Pitch attacked the tunnels, and when all was said and done, there was the winter spirit, holding up a container of teeth with the image of a young girl, and blustering apologies. Bunnymund hadn't wanted to listen, and the spirit was cast out.
But he'd come back hadn't he? And then there were believers, and he wasn't a little kit anymore and Sandy was back and everything, everything was good again.
Except...Jack was avoiding him.
North and Tooth seemed to think he was imagining it, but whenever Bunnymund met with either of them, they would mention the last, of many, visits Jack had given them. Sandy at least, had the decency to agree with him, and attempted to talk to Jack about it, but had never managed to get the spirit to stay put.
Bunnymund wondered if it was to do with their rivalry, and was starting to wonder if he was going to have to arrange a full on Guardian meeting to get the newest member in the same room with him.
Until about Halloween the year Jack became a Guardian, and got into a fight with an Autumn Spirit. Global Warming had warped Mother Nature's timetable and there were more than one or two spats turning ugly. Jack had come out of it the loser and found himself barely holding onto his staff. Thankfully, some of the Spring spirits who owed Bunnymund a favour or two caught wind of it, so when Jack did actually lose his grip and crash to the ground, he merely fell into Bunnymund's arms and straight into the warren.
The frost spirit groaned, vaguely aware he was being carried. Judging from the temperature and the fur he could just about feel through his clothing, he'd somehow ended up in the warren.
He cursed in his head. This was the last place he wanted to be.
"You okay there frostbite?"
Jack bit his lip, pretending to still be unconscious.
"Nice try mate, but you can't fool these ears."
Bunny stopped, and lowered Jack down on a grassy ledge. The winter spirit pulled himself up, wincing at the action. Yeah, that autumn spirit had good aim, his right leg and chest felt awful, plus he had a splitting headache.
He pried his eyes open, and relaxed when he spotted Bunny placing his staff against a rock a few feet away – he'd been worried he'd have to go hunting for that again.
"Thanks for the assist" Jack offered. "But I should probably head somewhere colder to recover."
Bunny shrugged. "I'll hook you up with a tunnel later, right now though I wanna patch your wounds. Won't get far in your condition, and I can take care of the worst of it here."
A handful of eggs were waddling up to the rabbit, some kind of first aid kit balanced on their heads. Bunnymund smirked, opening it and picking up an ice pack of all things.
"Oddly enough, Manny talked to Sandy and got all us Guardians to make sure we have ways of taking care of each other. I think I even have a dry ice container in here somewhere."
Although he knew it couldn't be seen, Jack rolled his eyes anyway.
"Now take off the cloak and let Doc. Rabbit fix you up."
"No."
Bunnymund blinked. "...No?"
Jack shook his head. "No. I'm fine. If you're worried, just give me the ice pack and I'll take care of it myself.
Bunnymund's eye roll was far more obvious. "Of all the stupid...kid, you are a mess right now. Suck it up and strip. Or I'll do it for you."
Jack tensed, and the Easter Bunny spotted his head twitching in the direction of his staff.
"Don't even think it frostbite...you're in no condition to-"
The winter spirit jumped, getting impressive length considering it was one legged, hand outreached for the staff. But Bunnymund had somewhat been expecting it, and was in far better shape.
Jack almost managed to brush against his staff when he felt furry arms clamp around his waist and throw him back. It aggravated the already painful chest injury and he yelped as a weight settled on his hips, bunny bracing his legs on both side as he pinned him down.
"Don't say I didn't warn you kid" Bunnymund said, pulling loose the buckles and ties that kept the hood and cloak in place. Underneath him Jack tried to buck, but was unable to do so with his hips pinned down and chest damaged.
"Bunny please – I don't want you to see!"
Bunnymund froze, fingers still on the fabric. "What?"
Jack looked away, unable to meet his gaze. "If you take it off...you'll hate me. I know we don't get along, but I don't know if I can take that. Not anymore."
His fingers loosened, but remained on the fabric. "Frostbite...I promise, short of hiding Pitch under there, there is nothing you could be hiding that could make me hate you. And even then I'd be hating him more."
"You say that now" Jack muttered. "Please just let me go and fix this on my own."
"Jack" Bunny replied. "Maybe I don't have a right to ask this, but please, trust me."
The figure underneath him tensed, and he could almost feel the boy breaking underneath him. Whatever he'd been hiding, it had been eating him up for a while.
The Pooka's hand pulled on the fabric, and when he didn't meet resistance, pulled the hood down.
He'd been expecting many things. Scars, shadow marks from Pitch's attacks, no actual face...the other Guardians had even theorised that Jack might actually be made of ice and snow.
What he had not seen coming, was that furry white face with long ears tied down his neck.
Bunnymunds mouth opened, but no sound came out. He gaped wordlessly.
Jack...Jack wasn't human he was...
"You...should probably breath bunny."
The Pooka sucked in air almost on request. Jack was-
"Pooka...you're a Pooka?"
Eyebrows narrowed. "What's a Pooka?"
What was a...oh god he didn't know?
Bunnymunds eyes wandered back down to the rope around Jack's neck, and slowly leaned in and bit it in two. Had he been is less of a state of shock he might have been proud Jack hadn't even flinched at the contact. Now free of their restraint, both ears perked up, and as Bunnymund stood, Jack, very hesitantly, unwrapped his scarf and let the cloak fall to the ground.
A Pooka. Pure white save the tips of his ears and paws, with a light sparkling of frost on his ear tips and forehead, and big blue eyes watching him warily. Skinny, far too so, with a dangerous looking burn mark on both his chest and right thigh, and still wearing...
"How are you even able to walk?" Bunnymund yelped, focusing on Jack's feet. The boots were clearly made for human feet – no wonder he walked with such a weird gait.
The younger Pooka – god because that's what he was wasn't he? – flinched, and winced his way out of the boots. "Yeah...they're not great, but I can't really be picky. I don't want to leave giant rabbit prints all over the snow."
'Why not' Bunnymunds head asked, but he shook it off for the more important question.
"Why...why didn't you tell me?"
He didn't mean to make it sound so broken, or like a betrayal, but judging from the way Jack crouched down, ears on his back, it cut like a dagger.
"I tried...when...before I was Jack Frost, I used to wait for you on Easter, but you'd always hear me coming and run away."
Bunnymunds heart clenched. So many kids tried to catch him – but he never allowed himself to be seen if he could help it. Made the few appearances all the more worth it. To think he'd been so close and-
"Then, well, you remember the first time we met."
He did. He'd been in a bad mood when the snow hadn't thawed, and then this uppity little frost sprite had shown up and...
Bunnymund crouched down and grabbed his head, longing for an egg sentinel to come by so he could smash his head against it. How many times was it possibly to screw over the same person?
Jack wasn't looking at him now. "I figured I'd leave you alone, you seemed like a jerk so if I caught you I'd prank you then bolt. Thats how the whole 68 mess got started."
"But why hide?" Bunnymund urged. "If you hadn't been wearing that stupid thing I never would have-"
"I know!" Jack yelled back. "It wasn't intentional, but I'd been wearing it almost as long as I can remember, so I didn't even think about it, and when I stopped wearing it? I scared a kid half to death. I'm not like you!"
Bunnymund's head jerked up at that.
"You can go around hiding eggs and kids are happy. Giant rabbit brings chocolate treats every year? great. Giant rabbit goes around causing snowstorms? Lock up your kids, it's a monster trying to devour us all! My family had to leave my village when someone found me out of disguise and tried to kill me."
"Your family" Bunnymund repeated, hope beginning to rise. "Where...what happened to them?"
The hope faded as Jack mentioned the Overland's, and realised that wherever Jacks parents had gone, they clearly hadn't left there alive. No Pooka would ever leave an infant alone in the snow, let alone their own.
He was brought back to reality by Jack's wince, and return to a seated position. Ice packs, right.
The Easter Bunny ground next to him, and began treating the wound. The fur and flesh reacted wonderfully to the cold, and to Bunnymunds relief, the injury began to heal.
"So you were raised by humans, that explains a lot."
Jack shrugged. "I was happy. My family were kind."
"You really don't remember anything about your Pooka parents?" Bunnymund urged, and Jack frowned.
"You keep using that word. Is that what we are?"
Part of Bunnymunds heart broke at that, and he gave a sad smile. "You got it mate. You could say we're not originally from here. And up until about ten minutes ago, I really thought I was the last one."
Jack's eyes widened, and then dimmed. "Oh."
"Yeah."
"I guess...I mean, I'm a spirit now so it's not like it would have even mattered if there was but, guess I always kind of hoped there was somewhere I could walk down the street and fit in."
The wound looked like it was sealing nicely, so Bunnymund moved to the leg. "I know. Don't get me wrong, I love the children of Earth, but I miss home so much sometimes. It's something Tooth and North don't quite get. Both of them were human once."
One of Jack's ears flicked. "What about Sandy?"
Bunny chuckled. "Honestly? I have no idea. Sandy's been around since before I was a kit."
The leg was going the same way as the chest, so with great reluctance, Bunnymund put the box away and stood, holding out a hand to Jack. He hesitated for just a moment before accepting, and found himself pulled into a tight hug, head tucked into the Easter Bunny's neck. He froze on instinct, and only when he felt a hand brush down the soft fur of his back did he allow himself to relax.
"You were alone. 300 years and I left you alone."
Jack's reply was muffled by Bunnymunds fur. "Hey, it's not all your fault. I could have tried harder."
Bunnymund held him tighter. "Manny tried to tell me. All those times he tried to get me into your neck of the woods over the years, trying to get me to talk to you. He must have felt as if he was banging his head against a brick wall."
Jack laughed. "Okay, guess we'll blame Manny then. Don't think he'll mind."
"Jack" Bunnymund began, pulling away with reluctance and staring the younger spirit in the eyes. "I will never leave you alone again, I promise."
Hope shone in the younger Pooka's eyes, but clouded by a heavy dose of doubt. "You really don't have to promise that Bunny."
"Yes I do" the Pooka snapped. "I should have found you when you were an infant. At worst I should have taken you in when you came to me. As it is, all I can do now is promise that."
Jack seemed to spend forever staring him down. Bunnymund just stared back, conviction clear. Finally Jack smiled, and his eyes lightened.
"Okay then, rabbit, I'll hold you to that."
Bunnymund laughed. "Oh kit, you really think that nickname's appropriate anymore?"
"Fine cotton-aw crud...guess I'll just have to stick with kangaroo then."
The elder Pooka smirked, but felt his heart clench as Jack picked up the cloak.
"You're leaving? Now?"
Jack cocked an eyebrow, pulling on the fabric with practised ease. "Whatever I was when I was alive, I'm a winter spirit now. I need cold, and the warren just can't cut it."
True...he didn't have to like it though.
"You'd better come back kit. The second you're feeling fit again."
He tapped the ground twice, opening the earlier promised hole, and Jack nodded, pulling up the hood and reaching for the boots-
Only to have Bunnymund grab his hands and pull them away.
"Not. Those."
"But-"
"Those things are torture, and doubt you'll need them where you're going. Leave them."
Jack sighed. "Great, ten minutes after finding we're just a little bit related and you're already controlling my wardrobe."
He jumped in, calling on the North Wind to pull him up, and yelling something about how old folk always thought they knew best.
Bunnymund just smiled. The kit didn't know the half of it – he was already working on contingency plans to great rid of that ridiculously heavy cloak – by the end of next year, he planned on the world knowing Jack Frost was a Pooka, including Jack himself.
He was looking forward to it.