Author's note- Yup. Title is pretty self-explanatory.

Chapter Eight:

Cuddling

"And zat is how Manny chose me to be ze leader against Pitch back in the Dark Ages," North boasted before downing the rest of his beer. A yeti refilled his glass immediately as the last drop had fallen upon North's tongue and the glass had touched the table, as though he was a butler in waiting.

Bunnymund held back a yawn while rubbing one of his eyes in boredom. This had been probably the four hundredth time that North was bragging about all the fearlings he had killed throughout the years past when they first defeated Pitch. The Big Five were holding one of their monthly guardian meetings, and this month it was the toy maker's turn to host. Normally, Bunny enjoyed the meetings when they shared each others achievements and plans on future holidays and child inspiring events, but when it came to North's same tales being told over and over, the pooka would have to pinch himself more than once to keep himself awake.

Swishing the dregs in the base of his wine glass in a bored fashion he turned his head to the side to talk to Jack. To his surprise the snow spirit was fast asleep, her head resting in her hand.

"Hey, Snowflake," he whispered, nudging her with his elbow. When that didn't wake her he shook her shoulder gently and with a great amount of discretion.

"Wha? Is the meeting over?" Jack asked jarring awake. Bunny noticed for the first time the dark shadows under the sapphire eyes. She looked exhausted.

"Almost. Are ya alright? Ya look like you're gonna fall over any minute."

Jack laughed lightly and rubbed her eyes. "Yeah... just haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately."

The pooka wanted to question why, but for some reason he felt like she wouldn't give him a straightforward answer, that she would avoid the issue. More often than not he realised, that before he would say something to her, he would imagine what she would do, and it was becoming eerie. He brushed it off for now and slowly slid his wine glass over to her when North wasn't looking. "Try some. I can't drink that vodka shit of North's. Made this myself."

Jack raised her eyebrow in suspicion but picked up the glass nevertheless. She was just about to raise it to her lips when one of the toy maker's elves came out of nowhere and snatched it out of her hand. The little creature waddled over to the russian and obediently gave him the glass. North raised an eyebrow playfully at Jack and shot a disapproving glare at Bunny. The two youngest guardians immediately became very interested in looking at their plates of pig snout.

Jack screamed as she tumbled down through darkness, her body hitting cold stone over and over. Finally landing on solid ground, she sprang up and started running though the cave's dark tunnel. A voice suddenly started speaking.

"You're fear is that nobody will ever believe in you. And worst of all, you're afraid that you'll never know why. Why you? Why were you chosen?"

Jack ran until she met a wall. Her eyes roamed over it anxiously, trying to find a way over it. A man's shadow suddenly came over her, she turned around and pressed her back to the wall, holding her staff in front of her.

"Well, fear not. For the answer to that, is right here," a bony hand came out of the shadows and held out one of Tooth's golden memory containers. A picture of her with brown hair and brown eyes was on it. The snow spirit stared at it for a few moments before looking up slowly. Her eyes widened in fear as Pitch's face came into the light smirking.

"Do you want them Jaqueline? Your memories?" he asked her. His tone was gentle as if he was trying to soothe a young child.

She started to reach forward, but the scene suddenly changed. Blinking her eyes open, Jack shivered as cold seeped into her bare feet.

"Jack!"

Her heart almost stopped. Jane was standing a few feet away from her. The ice was slowly cracking under her skates.

"It's ok, it's ok! Don't look down, just look at me," she spoke as calmly as she could.

"Jack, I'm scared!"

"I know, I know," she stepped forward but immediately shifted her weight to her other foot as the ice cracked under her. "But, you're gonna be alright. You're not gonna fall in." She thought for a second, to think of something to take Jane's mind off of the ice. "You want to play a game? We'll play hopscotch! Like we play everyday."

The frightened look on her sister's face finally changed to a relieved smile.

"See? It's as easy as one," Jack took a step to her right. The ice cracked and she grimaced slightly. Before Jane could notice, she went up on one foot and pretended she was going to fall. Jane started laughing, her demeanor slowly turning more relaxed. "Two," Jack took another step. "Three!" she jumped lightly onto the stronger ice, closer to the edge of the pond. Keeping her eyes on Jane, she slowly bent down and picked up a long stick with a curved neck. "Alright, now it's your turn."

Jane's fear started to show on her face again, but the reassurance in her older sister's eyes seemed to calm her a little. She took a tiny step forward and gasped as the ice cracked more. "One, that's it! Two. Three!" Jack quickly reached forward and hooked the stick around Jane's middle. She flung her to the edge of the pond and took a few steps back to regain her balance. The two sisters looked at each other and started laughing lightly in relief. Jack stood up with a smile and took a step forward. There was a cracking noise and she fell through the ice with a scream.

"JAQUELINE!"

Cold water immediately started filling her nose and invading her lungs. Jack tried swimming upwards over and over in a panic, trying to get back to Jane, but her clothes started to weigh her down. The chill of the water began stabbing at her, causing immense pain with every motion she made. Her arms soon stopped and began to fall, as did she, slowly being dragged to the bottom of the pond and her eyes slowly closing. The last thing she saw before fading into the darkness, was the full moon.

The darkness filled her vision for what seemed like an eternity before she found the strength to open them once more. The light from the sun made her squeeze them shut again. Sitting up, she slowly opened her eyes and gasped at what she was seeing. She was sitting atop a grassy hill. Bunnymund's Warren stretched far and wide below. A warm spring breeze blew through her hair.

"It's even more beautiful than I remember," the snow spirit thought to herself. She leaned back on her hands and relaxed, watching two little colorful egglets scurry past her bare feet. She suddenly jumped and squeaked as a pair of strong arms wrapped around her torso from behind. Turning her head, Jack was surprised to see Bunnymund. His arms were loosely wrapped around her while he was sitting down, her back resting against his chest. His long legs were stretched out on either side of her and his small pink nose was gently pressed against her shoulder. His green eyes were closed and he looked very... relaxed. Jack had never seen him like this before.

The snow spirit opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Oddly enough, she found herself liking the calm atmosphere. She relaxed into the pooka's touch and leaned her head against his shoulder. She closed her eyes enjoying the warmth filling her from both the sun and Bunny's soft fur.

Sapphire eyes sprang open in panic and Jack sat up quickly. Tears were running down her face, soon forming frost as they fell onto the blanket. That nightmare. That same nightmare was the reason she couldn't sleep for three nights straight. She pressed her palms to her eyes and cried as quietly as she could. Ever since she had seen the memories of her past life, she couldn't get the image of Jane out of her head. Her horrified expression when the snow spirit had fallen through the ice.

"It's all your fault," the inner voice taunted. "You would still be alive and she would have been happy if you hadn't stepped onto the breaking ice. What kind of sister are you?"

Jack's hands fell softly into her lap. In her mind It was all of her self-imposed punishment circled around in her mind, all culminating to show that from the moment she was born she had made a mess of everything. She swallowed hard, new tears pricking her eyes as the worse one of all crossed her mind, it was that if she had been born as a son then, her father wouldn't have left...

As if she wasn't aware of what her body was doing, a sharp-edged piece of ice had suddenly formed in her hands. Stretching her other arm out, she rested the flat part of the blade against her wrist. She caught her reflection in the ice. White hair all tangled in a bed head mess, blue eyes with dark shadows underneath, and tear-stained cheeks already frozen over.

A thought suddenly occurred to her. For the past three nights, her nightmare had only consisted of Pitch giving her the memory container in his lair and saving Jane and falling through the ice. But tonight, Bunnymund hugging her in his Warren was a completely new addition. The warmth that she had felt in that part of the dream was gone now, but she could still remember the warm feeling it gave her vividly. The ice knife shattered on the rug and Jack subconsciously rubbed her arms. She needed that warmth back. She wanted to feel warm. Ironic right?

The snow spirit slid out of bed and pulled her hoodie over her pajama shirt. Quietly opening her bedroom door, she made her way down the hallway to North's office. The light from under the door and the sounds of a hammer against a nail told Jack that the toy maker was working late. She raised her hand and was about to knock when she hesitated. How was she supposed to explain to her "father" that the Kangaroo had been in her dream, and hugging her no less? To an average person that wouldn't sound too unreasonable, but to North, he would go overboard with the subject with every bit of strength he could muster. She moved away from the door and walked down the hallway slowly. North had offered the other guardians rooms for the night. Most likely to sleep off all the liquor they had drunk that night.

Jack finally came to a stop in front of Bunny's bedroom. She was nervous to her very core. Reaching for the doorknob, she slowly opened the door. Peeking her head inside, the snow spirit saw the pooka fast asleep. He slept on his back with his head turned toward the big glass windows on his left and his right paw resting on his chest. His quiet snores alerted Jack that he was fast asleep. After closing the door, she crept over quietly until she was a foot away from the bed. "Bunny?"

"What is it, Frostitute?"

Jack stifled a gasp of surprise. The Kangaroo was indeed similar to a ninja sometimes. "I...I had a nightmare."

Bunny's eyes opened at these words. They were full of exhaustion, but traces of concern soon filled them. "What was it about?"

The snow spirit looked down at her feet. Obviously she didn't want to talk about it.

"Do ya want me to go get some dreamsand from Sandy? He's probably back by now."

Jack shook her head. She raised her head and in an almost timid voice she whispered, "Can I sleep with you?"

The pooka was shocked. He almost took the instinctive approach and told her no, but then he looked into her eyes. She looked like a frightened little kid. An image of Sophie Bennet appeared in his mind and he sighed. "Sure, Snowflake." He pulled back the covers and scooted over to make a little room for her.

Jack looked surprised but she crawled in next to him. Bunnymund made a motion that he was going to roll over and go back to sleep. However, before he could move, he froze as Jack curled up against his chest and snuggled under his chin.

The pooka looked down at the snow spirit. He really didn't have any idea what to do. He could move away from her, but then he knew that he would feel awful for not comforting her while she was so scared. He knew all too well what nightmares can do to you, and how horrible they can be. Be they horrible situations that people create, or memories from the past. His own nightmares of the loss of his family would often come back to him, just when he felt as though he was free, they would always return.

He looked at Jack with sympathy. By the way she looked, the nightmare he often experienced must have been similar to hers, as he would look the same way. Giving a sigh, he let himself relax against the snow spirit. Jack moved closer and sighed contentedly in her sleep. Bunny gently wrapped his arms protectively around her and closed his eyes. He wouldn't wish that kind of nightmare on any one, and if Jack had one as painful, then she needed an arm around her to keep her feeling safe. That was something he never had, but was determined to make sure Jack did.

Post notes- Just wanted to give you guys a fluffy chapter. You like?

Next Chapter: Jack decides to help Bunny bring the next Easter :).