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"Ronan!" breathed Bunny. "You..." he started breathing heavily "you are a pooka... I knew your father."
"What?" she asked.
"We all were amazed when he came back to help after Pitch's invasion. We knew your mother was expecting you, but he said that Pitch needed to be stopped or you wouldn't be safe either." he looked into her eyes. "I'm sorry, love"
"How was he? Were you two friends?" she asked.
She wanted to know so many things about her father for centuries but both her mother and Gaia always refused to tell her. She now knew why. Had she known what Pitch did, Gretchen would have gone after him a long time ago.
"I didn't know him well, I was only a young adult and he was a respected elder, so we never spoke much. I know he was kind and I know first hand he was brave. I also know he must have loved your mother very much to leave everything behind the way he did and live in the forest with her." said Bunny. He was sorry that he couldn't tell her more.
"Do I... look like him" she knew it was a silly, childish question, but she really wanted to know if she had something of her father in her.
"Your fur... same brown and grey color" he smiled.
She smiled back. Her heart was full of emotion. She did look like him. She was finally getting some answers.
"I was really sorry that he didn't... I don't even know how I survived, really. I got hit and when I woke up..." Bunny closed his eyes to stop them from prickling.
He couldn't finish the sentence, but Gretchen guessed the rest: they were all dead, everything was destroyed. Pitch must've thought he was dead too. She felt murderous. She wanted to kill Pitch for killing her father and her people, for hurting Bunny, for taking Gaia.
"I went looking for you" he continued to her surprise.
Talking helped him fight back the tears, it gave him something to concentrate on. Life went on, and so did Bunny.
"I felt responsible for you, I felt that I owed him that" Bunny said, looking at her once more "your mother didn't let me see you, she said you were a fairy and she would raise you as one. She asked me to stay away so Pitch couldn't know who you were. It made perfect sense at the time, so I never tried to find you again."
"My mother... lied to you? Why?" Gretchen asked.
"Because had I known that you weren't a fairy I would've taken you away." he replied matter of factly.
"Why would you do that?!" she asked again.
"Because we pookas... we are pragmatic. We give less importance to feelings and more importance to logic. You were not a fairy, you couldn't be raised like a fairy, you wouldn't really fit in and looking so different would raise suspicion, putting you at risk. You would have been safer hidden in my warren. You would have been happier."
"Bunny, you are the opposite of pragmatic!" she said smiling.
"I wasn't always like this, love. Centuries ago North convinced me to have chocolate. It has strange effects on pookas, you know? I know that as a result I am short tempered and emotional, but I kinda like myself better now. I was alone, Gretchen. I was lonely. I was putting barriers between myself and everyone else. Now I can bond with others, make friends...fall in love." he said.
His eyes were shinning with emotion so bright, it was like staring at the sun and Gretchen was forced to close hers. Did he just say...? Did he mean...?
"Fall in love" she breathed without thinking.
A tornado swept her of her feet as Bunny held her tight and pressed his lips hard against hers. They melted in an urgent, passionate kiss, his hands snaking all over her body and hers holding on to his muscular back for dear life, her heart menacing to explode as her fingers buried themselves into his fur feeling his soft skin. They were biting, gasping, barely taking time to breath, leaning into each other as if every inch apart was unbearable, trying to pack four hundred years of unrealized lust and love into this one kiss, aware it could be their only chance.
Their tongues were dancing now. She tiptoed to tug at the fur on his scalp and run her fingers at the base of his ears, sending shivers up and down his spine. He smiled when he realized that her new position gave him better access to her hips. She gasped, but she didn't complaint at all. Gretchen had dreamt about this moment for centuries but even in her wildest dreams... she couldn't imagine this much passion was possible. Bunny was a blizzard, no, he was fire, he was fire ravaging her skin, melting her body, fusing it with his own.
To her dismay, after a few minutes that felt more like seconds, he slowed down the kiss, his lips gently caressing hers as his hands moved to either side of her face. She tried to protest, she tried to pull him closer again, but really she had lost control over her body the moment his lips had touched hers.
He pecked her lips a few times before breaking apart. He didn't want to let her go either, but they had work to do. He touched their foreheads together once more.
"When this is over, we'll finish what we started" he whispered.
She wanted to come back with something sexy, but her knees turned to butter and she fell on him in the most unattractive way. He held her up and chuckled, pressing her tight against him, her head laying on his shoulder as he planted a kiss on the back of her scalp.
After a lifetime he pulled apart again. 'No regrets' he thought, looking at the gorgeous woman standing next to him love radiating from her eyes. He held both her hands on his, taking a step back to take a better look at her.
"Gretchen, I..." he began.
A green blur trapped him, pushing him away from Gretchen and spinning him in the air.
"Bunny! You're OK! I was so scared!"
Gretchen was about to kill fucking Little Miss Sunshine. Doesn't she freaking have her own boyfriend? She stood there murderous, waiting for the nosy bitch to put Bunny down so she could kick her feather covered arse.
"Tooth, I..." said the Guardian of Hope flustered, looking at the Groundhog and getting increasingly worried about Toot's safety. "can you put me down, now?"
"Sure... Umm... sorry. I got carried away" she said, her cheeks turning pink.
"That's an understatement" laughed the pooka.
Once Bunny was on the ground, a furious Gretchen walked towards them ready to jump over the fairy. Jack landed between the girls, smiling widely. Unlike his hyper girlfriend, he did realize that Bunny and the Groundhog were having a moment before they interrupted.
"As much as Bunny and I would seriously enjoy this cat fight, I think it's better to avoid unnecessary injuries right now." the winter spirit chuckled.
Bunny went to stand next to Gretchen, wrapping his arm around her waist, both to let Tooth know what was going on and to hold back his girl in case she was still angry.
Tooth eyes widened.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she said, taking her hands to her mouth.
"It's alright, lo..." Bunny looked at Gretchen and decided not to push it "...Tooth!"
Jack was still chuckling. He pointed his staff to the sky, the blue light alerting Sandy and North of their location.
