Thirty Years Previous,

Early February

Deep beneath the earth, the Warren lay still as a grave. With winter on its way out, the immense chambers shoulder have been bustling. There were eggs to dye, chocolates to cook, flowers to grow. And yet, the air hung stagnant. Buds remained closed. Eggs continued their sleep beneath grass.

Bunnymund huddled in his nest, nose buried in blankets, sniffing desperately for his lover's scent. It did nothing to soothe his aching grief. The sheets were too warm, they smelled of water and earth, not frost and snow. It was so much, too much like the body defrosting in North's medical bay.

A sob wracked Aster's body, scraping his sore tonsils. His throat, eyes, and nose were all rubbed raw. His fur went un-groomed, matted with mud and twigs. His very center ached in a way it hadn't for millennia. Hopelessness settled over him like a putrid cloud, bringing with it guilt and pain.

With no sense of how long he'd lain there, an age could have passed before the distant call of a worried female broke the Warren's silence. Bunny's ears twitched instinctively towards the noise, but he made no move to answer. His body seemed so stiff that he was no longer certain he could move even if he wanted to.

The call grew louder, closer, soon echoed by the wordless tweeting and singing of a dozen similar yet smaller voices. One of them grew so close Bunny could feel the wing-beats on his ear. He cracked open an eye and peered listlessly up at the buzzing green form of a tiny Tooth Fairy.

The fairy buzzed around him worriedly, sending out a call to her distant mother. Shortly thereafter, Toothiana herself appeared and gasped at the Easter Bunny's current state. "Bunny! Oh…"

Her wings stilled as she landed on the edge of his nest, tucking her legs beneath her. She stroked his head and his ears, her small fingers gentle and soothing.

Aster closed his eyes and turned his head from her, pressing his nose further into the blankets. "What'cha doing here, Tooth?"

"I came looking for you, of course," she said, though even her softest whisper shattered the silence like a falling glass. "It's been three days."

Bunny closed his eyes. Three days. Was that all? Here he was, living thousands of years, able at the peak of his strength to hop back and forth through time without so much as a lickity-split, and yet these three days felt to him as long as all the time that came before.

When he didn't respond, Tooth's hands shifted to rub a spot just below his ears that usually felt so soothing in times of stress. "Bunny. Oh, Bunny. I know it's hard. You're in a lot of pain right now, but I need you to listen to me. You need to come back to the Pole."

The Pole! Surrounded by endless ice and barren cold, everything Jack had loved and embodied? Return there, where memories lurked behind every corner, where'd they'd shared so many firsts, where his body no doubt lay in state, melting and dead and too, too warm?

Bunnymund shoved away from the comforting hand, scrambling out of the nest and across the burrow as though he'd been burned. Rearing up on two legs like a man, he pressed his back against the dirt wall and gasped. "No. No way, I can't. I can't."

"Bunny," Toothiana took flight, buzzing near but keeping enough distance that Aster's flight instincts wouldn't take over. "Please…"

"I can't. Can't you see that? I – I –" Bunny's chest heaved with panic, his short pants unable to draw enough air for his words. "I can't. It's my fault."

"Bunny–"

"I killed him!" Bunny cried. "Jack is dead, he's gone for good, and it's all because of –"

Toothiana struck the rabbit hard across the face with the flat of her hand. Aster choked on his shock, the last sentence dying in his throat. The little Tooth Fairies hovering at the door gasped.

Tooth's violet eyes blazed with the cold fury that once sealed her reputation as the fierce and powerful Warrior Queen. "E. Aster Bunnymund," she spat through her gritted teeth. "You listen to me right now."

Boneless with shock, Aster slide down the wall and sank to the floor, his eyes locked on the Tooth Fairy Queen in all her righteous, indignant glory.

"Yes," she said. "Jack is dead. But it is not your fault, an no matter how much you punish yourself for it, nothing is going to bring him back. Heknew what would happen, he made his choice, and if you love him at all you'll respect him for that instead of wallowing down here feeling sorry for yourself."

She sniffled and lifted her head, maintaining a regal air of authority despite the trembling that overtook her body. "You're not the only one who lost him, Bunny. We all did."

For the first time, Aster noticed how red her eyes were beyond their irises' brilliant shade. Her feathers, from head to tail, were meticulously groomed in the way she only managed when she desperately needed something to occupy her mind. Her nails, meanwhile, had been gnawed to the quick.

"You are better than this," she told him firmly. "You are stronger than this. You've survived loss before and you will do it again. We need you. They –" Her voice broke. She choked down a sob. "Your children need you."

Children…

The kits.

Bunnymund jerked straight up, cold horror gripping his heart. He'd forgotten. How could he have forgotten? Brand-new, only a few days in the world, too tiny even to open their eyes…

"What's happened?"

Toothiana sagged with relief, regality giving way to raw concern. "The littlest one…"

"Coralberry?"

"Yes. We can't get her to eat. We've tried everything, but she won't take a single drop. If she doesn't eat something soon she may not…"

That was all Bunnymund needed to hear. Before Tooth could draw her next breath, he'd darted from the burrow to Warren, and from there to tunnels that lead to the Pole. There was no time for niceties, not a moment to lose. His kits needed their daddy.

In the makeshift nursery of a guest room, a worried yet rocked the frighteningly still bundle of gray fur close to her chest. While it was no substitute for their true parents, her two siblings responded well to the yeti's care, finding comfort in their thick fur and warmth. But no matter who held her, the wee runt of the little answered to no one.

North tested another bottle of formula against his arm. Over the last three days, they'd tried every temperature from nearly frozen to almost boiling, and still the little rabbit would not eat. As Sandy held a worried watch over her sleeping littermates, North approached the poke in the yeti's care and lowered the lukewarm bottle to her mouth.

"Come, little one," he whispered. "You must eat. You must. It is the only way you will grow strong."

He nudged her tiny, pink lips with the rubber nipple. The wee pooka made no move to take it, refusing even to lift her nose.

Her nanny made a pained noise, the sort that only came when a yeti child fell ill. North returned her pained expression and shifted the bottle. "Please, baby. For Jack's sake. Please."

"Give her here."

North jerked, turning to face the voice at the door. There stood Bunnymund, his fur ruined, his face streaked with tears, pain and determination warring in his green eyes.

Without hesitation, North surrendered the bottle. The yeti nanny passed the child into her father's arms. Aster cradled her against his ruff, rocked her, nuzzled her, and gently lowered the bottle to her mouth.

"C'mon Coral," he whispered, rubbing a spot on the back of her neck that he'd seen countless pooka mothers use to soothe their young. "Open up for Daddy. There's a girl."

For an agonizing minute, the gray kit lay still and silent as before. Then she gave a quiet squeak and opened her mouth, accepting the first few precious drops of formula from the nipple's edge.

All those assembled breathed a sigh of relief. Bunnymund held Coral steady and shared a grateful glance with each of them before settling on North. His ears drooped. "I'm sorry."

Old Saint Nick raised a fluffy white brow. "For?"

"For being such a drongo."

North nodded, closing his tired, red-rimmed eyes. He patted Aster's shoulder on his out the door, assuring the Easter Bunny without words that there was nothing to forgive. Sandy sprinkled extra sand over the sleeping kits before bobbing out with the nanny in tow. They would be back soon. There were arrangements that needed to be made, for the burial, and for Easter. But for now, the fledgling family needed their precious time alone.

Aster settled on the bed, holding Coralberry close until she'd drunk her fill. Once she finished, her burped her and lay her among her sleeping siblings in the bassinet. He lingered there for a long while, stroking each of their tiny ears in turn.

"I'm sorry," he told them, over and over. "I'm so sorry. But it's all gonna be all right now, you'll see. Daddy's here now.

"Daddy's here."