The feels~! I love them I love them I love them! I adore you all for taking the time to review the last couple of chapters. You have no idea how much it motivates me to get my hands back on a keyboard and power out the next chapter.

Note: I do not refer to the children's books for any of the information that I use in this fiction. It all comes from the slightly scary place I call my mind. So please don't judge me too badly if there's something different that you don't necessarily like.

Another note: Listen to Coldplay's Fix You. It's the inspiration for this fic and a heavy inspiration for this chapter.

Warning: There is a lot angst and hurt in this fic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Rise of the Guardians.

Summary: He had always been alone. Now he's struggling to find his place with the Guardians. Sequel to What's Left of Me.

o-o-o-o

There was a silence that fell between the two Guardians as the night went on, and eventually, Bunnymund just had to ask Jack the question that had been eating at him since he'd arrived.

"When did ya learn martial arts, Frostbite?" the Pooka hummed, running a paw though the teen's unruly hair.

Jack shifted and leaned back against Bunnymund's chest again, not replying to the Pooka's question for what seemed to be hours.

"It- when you disappeared." The Winter Spirit replied dully, leaning his head back to look at Bunnymund's expression. "I found a scroll and figured it would come in handy for something."

There was a pang in the Pooka's chest as he realized that Jack was still distant as he spoke. So obviously, there was more to this conversation than he was understanding.

"What aren't ya tellin' me, Frostbite?"

"I…might have used it against Pitch."

It wasn't hard to tell when the younger flinched at speaking the Nightmare King's name, and to be honest, Bunnymund couldn't blame him for doing so. He could still remember when his species had been murdered in their burrows. He could still taste the blood that had spattered his paws as he sprinted through the colony, his heart pounding against his chest as fear and pain raged through him. Even now, it still pained him to think of the event that had caused him to close off to the other spirits, and later Guardians who would enter his life.

"Ah ain't gonna blame ya for anythin', Jack. Promise." The Pooka murmured, resting his chin on the top of Jack's head as he looked over the quickly lightening valley that was splayed out below them. "Ah'm never gonna let anyone hurt you again."

o-o-o-o

"North…what did you do to Jack and Aster?"

"What make you think I did anything?" said man replied innocently, tinkering away with a chisel and hammer at the block of ice set before him. It would only need a couple of more taps here…and then a hard hit there…he could almost see the form of the giraffe that he was trying to bring to life within. But a moment later, there was a fluffed up Toothiana in his way, and she did not look amused at all with his nonchalant attitude.

"Nicholas St. North, you tell me what you did to them before I swear in the name of all crystal white molars I will do something I will regret." She hissed, feathers bristling dangerously as she jabbed a finger in his face.

North gulped. This was the side of Toothiana he thought he would never have to see again after she'd retired from her days in the field. This Toothiana was tough as nails, ruthless, and would probably end up destroying anything and everything in her way to get the answers that she wanted.

"I….may or may not have tried to get them to speak to each other." He finally admitted, holding his hands up in sheepish surrender. "It did not go well."

For a moment, it looked as though Tooth were about to lunge at him, but then she took in a deep breath and forced her feathers to lay flat before glaring at him with her vibrant eyes.

"And what, may I ask, happened?" she half growled.

"I told them to fix problem?" the Russian coughed out quickly.

"North!" Tooth hissed, feathers back to bristling. "We agreed that we would let them sort it out on their own! What you did probably just made things even worse- no, they did make things worse! How could you?"

The situation that North now found himself in made him want to run to the farthest point of the earth and dig himself a large hole that he wouldn't be able to climb out of at seeing Tooth's disappointed face. It made him feel like a scolded child, and it was something that everyone knew not to do with the Russian. But this wasn't the normal Tooth. The normal Tooth would immediately be apologizing and asking him to forgive her for her outrageous behavior- this was not her. This Tooth would continue to beat him to shreds verbally until she finally ran out of steam, and then, only then, would there be a possibility of the woman apologizing.

"I can't believe you would go behind our backs like this." She muttered to herself, flitting back and force with a hand pressed against her forehead. "What is Sandman going to say about this? You know what this is going to do to him? He's going to be furious! This goes against a direct agreement between all of us, North!"

With each word, Tooth was steadily growing more and more agitated, and she finally let out a shriek of frustration, turning and slamming her fist into the large metal globe that displayed all of the children's lights across its broad surface. Barely wincing, the fairy brought back her hand, her features wiped clean of any emotion, and gave North one final glare before she zipped off through the open door, which a few yeti had gathered around to see what was going on.

Needless to say, they now regretted eavesdropping.

o-o-o-o

"I'm tired."

"Then go ta sleep, Frostbite."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"The nightmares."

Bunnymund sighed. This was the third conversation in the last twenty minutes that had involved almost the exact same words, and at this point, the Pooka wanted nothing more than to actually be able to close his eyes and sleep. But he also knew what Jack was going through on some level, and as long as that thought was present, he would do his damned best to make sure that the Winter Spirit was safe.

At least this time he told me why he doesn't want to fall asleep. The Pooka thought to himself dryly.

"Jack…Ah don' know if ya know about what happened to me a ways back, but Ah'm gonna tell ya a story." The Pooka sighed, shifting so that he could get a firm hold on the teens waist. The sun was now beginning to peek over the mountains in the distance, and the light was both soothing and a right pain in the arse for the sleep deprived Pooka.

"Once upon a time…"

o-o-o-o

He wasn't quite sure how he'd managed to get into this predicament. One moment he'd been strolling along with several other of his fellows, and the next thing he knew, he was alone. He didn't know how he'd managed to be alone, but that was the way it was.

Startled and just a little wary, the Pooka crouched, paw going to his boomerang, ears flicking back and forth for any sign of a sound that didn't quite belong in this peaceful setting.

There was something at the farthest point to his left, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what was making the sound. In fact, he thought it sounded an awful like a Pooka in pain-

The burrows.

The burrows were in danger.

Instantly, before his mind could even register the fact that he was moving, his limbs were dragging him through the familiar pathways that he had been taught as a youngling. The foliage slapped against the sides of his face, but there was no pain. There was only the adrenaline and the panic surging through him, the sheer desperation that he would be able to stop whatever was happening.

But as he finally skidded into the main clearing, he felt something inside of him break as he looked over the lost battle. He hadn't been able to make it in time, to see what had done this to his family and his kin, but he knew that there was something extremely wrong about what he was seeing.

There was blood everywhere. Torn bodies and smog filled the ground, and he didn't need to look to know that there were no survivors.

None but him.

He felt his legs give way beneath him as the grief hit him like a tidal wave. It swept him through all of the names and the faces of those now lying dead. Babes, elderly, it didn't matter.

He was alone.

o-o-o-o

"What did you do?" Jack asked, his eyes wide. He couldn't believe that Bunnymund had gone through something like that, and all by himself…

The sudden light bulb flickered on over the Winter Spirit's head as he finally grasped what the Pooka was trying to tell him. He had gone through the same thing. He had had to deal with the sudden pressure and grief of realizing that he was alone and there was no one who could or would help him get through the loss of all of the family that he had ever known.

"Ah went through somethin' that Ah wouldn't wish on anyone, Frostbite." Bunnymund said softly, running his paws through the teen's hair gently. It was a gesture that he found he quite liked to do. It soothed Jack, but it also calmed his own frayed nerves.

Sure, the other Guardians knew the rough idea of what had occurred; genocide of the Pooka. But Jack was the first one that he had felt the utmost need to tell the entire story, short as it was, to. Perhaps it was emotion or cheesy pick-up lines talking, but it just felt right to share his history with the Winter Spirit.

"I'm sorry, Bunny. I didn't know."

"No one knows, mate. You're the first one to hear all of the detail. It's not some kind of war that Ah went through. It was cold blooded murder. And Ah can say that it took a long time before Ah managed to start livin' again." Bunnymund shook his head. "Ah can't imagine what they went through."

Jack was silent for a minute, processing what he had been told.

"What does that mean, then?" he queried cautiously.

"Ah ain't gonna tell the rest of them what ya went through unless ya physically tell me to, Frostbite." The Pooka promised. "Ah ain't gonna betray ya like that. Not now, not ever."

"Okay." The teen murmured, burrowing his way deeper into the makeshift seat that the Guardian of Hope had created for him out of his arms and chest. "Thanks, Aster."

Within moments, the Winter Spirit was sound asleep, and Bunnymund looked out over the valley, wondering what would happen next. Sure, now that the two of them admitted that they had feelings, it was all well and good, but there was still the matter of the others wanting to know everything that Jack had been through while they had all been in limbo. And that was something that even he wanted to know, but he wasn't stupid enough to just demand answers from Jack. When the youngest Guardian was ready to tell them what happened during their absence, he would, and even if it took a hundred more years for it to happen, Bunnymund knew that he would still be patiently waiting.

He owed that much to Jack for being able to save all of their lives, whether it had been intentional or not. Because by the looks things had been when the Winter Spirit had woken up to see him, it sure hadn't looked like he'd been relieved that some kind of master plan had worked out to bring him back. No, Bunnymund was sure that it had all been simply some kind of accident, a coincidence that had brought the Guardians back from wherever they had been.

And accidental it may be, Bunnymund would forever be grateful to the Winter Spirit for bringing him back so that he could see him again.